The Endless Sand Pit
Just seeing the sand worksite at the end of the large server made me jump in surprise. Diggers, haulers, organizers—division of labor was crystal clear. This was humanity’s true victory. Not even ants or bees could beat human specialization.
“Whoa… what’s all this?”
“We need a ton of sand, so we have to keep going like this.”
“When’s the war starting?”
“We’ve got two wars lined up. One in three days, one in four.”
“Ooh! Got it. Leave it to me.”
I was going to give it everything—100% of my power. I’d show them just how terrifying I could be. I steeled myself again and again.
“Trust me. I’ll… ha. I’ll just show you the results.”
“S-sure, go ahead.”
“Understood!!”
“You’ll do it properly, right? If not, just say so.”
“Believe in me. When I say I’ll do something, I always follow through!! Moddeok, trust me. How many sand blocks should I mine?”
“A lot.”
A lot, huh… That’s a tough request. If she’d just say an exact number, it wouldn’t feel so overwhelming… Still.
“Is just sand enough?”
“No. We need plenty of other stuff too. Stones as well… Why?”
“I’ll get bored mining only sand, so I want to dig up other things too!!”
“Hmm… Hup…”
“Why?”
“Then should I give you a pickaxe too?”
“Ooh!! Sounds good. Hand it over.”
Moddeok grunted and tossed a pickaxe my way.
“Don’t lose this. It’s a good one… You get it?”
“Yep!! Trust me. So I just mine sand and stone, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then I’ll fill up on sand first, switch to stone, finish the stone, then go back to sand… I’ll cycle like that. Sound good?”
“Uh… yeah. Do whatever you want.”
“Yep!! Thanks.”
“I’m heading elsewhere. Whisper me if you need anything.”
I started massacring sand with my shovel. Three minutes of frenzied digging later… I was bored. Already bored.
“Phew…”
But I had to keep going, right? This much wouldn’t satisfy her. I dug even harder than before. After mining like crazy, my inventory filled up. Now what? Should I go home? No way. This worksite had perfect division of labor.
“Guys, who do I give this to?”
- Look it up
- Whisper
- Dunno
- Finally chatting now
- Let’s stop
“What do you mean stop? I’m in war-prep mode, everyone. I’ll ask Moddeok and come back.”
I could’ve whispered, but I deliberately didn’t. If I handled things efficiently through whispers, I’d just have to mine more sand. I needed a breather. Time to think, rest my hands… Yeah. Let’s go find Moddeok.
“I’ll look for Moddeok. I need to ask about this.”
I wandered around. The sand worksite ran nonstop, day and night. It was so organized they were even using machines that stacked pyramids and shot light into the sky. I searched hard for Moddeok but couldn’t find her, so I grabbed a nearby church member.
“Hello. Can you hear me?”
“Hello.”
“Are you a church member?”
“Yes, I am.”
A gruff-voiced Rootja.
“What’s your role here?”
“I make ammunition.”
“Ooh. I’m on sand duty. I don’t know where to put the sand. Do you know?”
“I’ll show you.”
I followed Rootja. He was a quiet guy—didn’t say a single word while guiding me. My mouth itched to talk. He didn’t recognize me, did he? I was this guild’s senior-most member and the Pope.
“Do you know me? Church member. Do you know who I am?”
- Crazy lol
- Ah
- So embarrassing
- Whoa
“Huh? Ah, I know you’re the guild leader.”
“I see… Did you feel reverence?”
“What?”
“Reverence. Did you feel it? The guild leader’s dignity… Didn’t you sense it?”
“Ah. I did.”
Of course. It had to be felt. I’m amazing. Mwahahaha!!
“Good.”
“Here it is. Just put it in that box and go mine more sand. I’ll be going.”
“Ah… Yep!!”
This was bad. Really bad. The box and the sand worksite were way too close. That meant infinite grinding was possible. It was basically human slavery. I ran to measure the distance. Ten seconds if I sprinted.
“No way, this really is slavery.”
Humans were terrifying creatures. So this was how they exploited people.
“Uh… No?”
Ah! Right. I was the guild leader. So this wasn’t human exploitation. It was happy labor everyone wanted. They all volunteered. I told them not to, but they grabbed my pants and begged to work. So I had no choice but to order them.
“Everyone’s doing this because they want to. I never forced anyone.”
This was getting complicated. I thought I was an outsider, but turns out I was included too?! Emergency!!
“I’m doing it too. Because I like it. Agree with me.”
- Yeah
- Get lost
- I can’t
- No thanks?
“Yep. Understood. I’ll do my best.”
Anyway, the grinding was for me and the church members. The Cheongja folks were just watching, so they didn’t count. I spent thirty minutes alternating between sand and stone while chatting. Then a random donation caught my eye.
“Strategy? What’s that?”
- Lol
- Nice
- Master Tactician Yoo Seon-a
- ?
“Ah. War strategy. I haven’t made one yet. Do I need to?”
I stared at the chat. Calls for strategy and calls saying it was overkill existed side by side. My heart leaned toward “I want to make one.” It sounded cool. I’d be the commander. When else would I get to play such a big shot? This was a once-in-a-lifetime position.
“How do I study strategy? Go on the wiki? What’s even on there?”
I followed instructions and searched the wiki for tactics. Walls of text I couldn’t understand flooded the screen. So this was what it took to become a commander…!! I read carefully, but I still had no idea what to do. So what was the winning method?
“Hmm… Is there anyone who can explain? I’ll study hard.”
I used the viewer cheat. “What’s Cheongya strategy? Scorched earth? Uh… yeah. Kill everything? Tough… Isn’t the Maginot Line that? Don’t let them break through!! I know that much!! Shooting tactics? I don’t have guns, how am I supposed to do shooting tactics? Sir?”
The more I read, the more complicated tactics the viewers threw at me.
“Using gravity to make apples fall… Ah. Yeah… Sword-drawing arts to slice everything… Disruption ops are important? What’s that? Assault teams matter… Oh. In medieval times horses were tanks. Oh. Really? Do I need to catch horses? Wait, hold on. Are you running aircraft carriers? Probably not? Ah, no. This is too hard.”
It really was hard. I didn’t understand a thing. At this point I was an uneducated high-school-graduate commander. No matter how I thought about it, “uneducated high-school-graduate commander” sounded ridiculous. I needed to create an operations staff position and hand over command authority. This wasn’t my level.
I just needed to hear “Commander, we won” or “Commander, we lost.” That was enough.
“Can’t do it today. I’ll call a deputy guild master meeting. I’ll give someone else the operations rights.”
- Lol
- <<< Too hard so dumping work
- Army vibes lol
- Total deadweight boss
“I’m not deadweight. I’m the smart-and-diligent type from the four officer archetypes.”
I had to love myself. Even if I looked dumb, I had to praise myself. Who else would do it? Only me. I ignored the entire chat and whispered Moddeok.
“We’re having a deputy guild master meeting today. I’ll gather everyone.”
I’d grown. If I’d said “Please gather the deputy guild masters!!” before, they would’ve gone “Ugh Seon-a, do it yourself.” But I’d watched enough chat to understand the flow now!!
“I’ll gather them myself. Does anyone know when the deputy guild masters are coming?”
- You said you’d gather them
- Why ask?
- ?
“Ah. Habitual question. I’ll do it.”
I barely dodged the situation, but this was unavoidable. I thought only I asked viewers tons of questions. Turns out it wasn’t just me. Plenty of streamers waited for viewer answers instead of looking things up themselves. Even Maru, Moddeok… even Raming. Honestly, it was super convenient. Just say it and answers came back. They even cross-checked if it was right or wrong. But this time I’d do it alone. Yeah. I couldn’t keep asking forever. I, Seon-a, wasn’t going to dump work anymore. I’d do it myself. Watch me. I’ll summon the deputy guild masters all by myself. I’m a grown-up Seon-a!!
Evening came, and I gathered every deputy guild master with my own power. Without anyone’s help—directly, by myself!! The executives I summoned sat around a round table whose completion date I didn’t even know.