Chapter 18
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Gang Sweeping Operation (2)
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Staggering back into the village, Jinwoo reported everything to the sheriff.
"The Waterloo Gang is coming to attack. Their leader too."
"What? My God!"
The sheriff's face darkened instantly under the heavy burden of the village's fate.
Jinwoo's expression twisted in kind.
"Thanks for the warning..."
"Do you know why?"
The sheriff's face wavered for a moment.
"Th-that is..."
"I know. It's because of the gold mine nearby, right? I heard it was newly discovered."
"How did you...!"
"No way I wouldn't. The rumors have spread all over the area."
It was a lie. Jinwoo had simply recited the background story he already knew.
But with the sheriff and everyone else looking serious, it didn't matter.
A flash of pure annoyance and hassle crossed Jinwoo's mind.
'Damn it, just as I thought. It's the [Pioneer's Last Stand] scenario.'
The game [Rising West], made by Providencia Softworks, featured several infamous events known for grinding players down.
And the situation unfolding before his eyes was the most notoriously tedious early-game event among them.
Jinwoo explained in front of the villagers.
"Well, the truth is simple. The Trade Federation has their eyes on your gold mine, and they plan to drive you all out and take it over."
"What does that mean?"
Jinwoo wagged his finger in exasperation.
"It means they're heavily armed. Rifles as standard, and probably even a dwarf gatling gun. Got it?"
A heavy sigh echoed.
'The strategy is obvious, but it's a quest that takes a ton of effort. And of all things, it's mandatory.'
Jinwoo closed the system window in his head and turned to the sheriff with an emotionless face.
The question from his lips was ice-cold and dry.
"Anyway, how many in this village have ever fired a gun?"
"Huh? W-well... Everyone knows how to handle one to some extent..."
"Combat experience? People who've killed something."
"Including me, maybe five or six old hunters, that's it."
The sheriff's voice trailed off weakly.
Jinwoo's next question followed right away.
"Decent guns?"
"...Just our worn-out hunting rifles. What good weapons would a village like this have? Might not even be enough to arm everyone properly..."
"Barricades or trenches?"
"As you see, just rotten fences to keep out wild boars."
With each question, the sheriff's face grew ashen.
He was crumbling under his own words, spitting out the village's desperate reality.
Jinwoo asked no more.
He had all the info he needed.
He patted the slumped sheriff's shoulder and strode to the center.
All eyes turned to him.
"Listen up."
Jinwoo's voice sliced through the murmuring crowd like a blade, ringing clear in every ear.
"In the next 72 hours, this village either burns to ash or survives. One or the other."
Silence fell.
"If you don't want to die, grab everything you can and get outside now. Anyone who knows guns, up front. The rest, shovels, pickaxes, whatever. You have one minute."
His words carried an irresistible force.
It was a declaration of unavoidable reality.
The villagers, eyeing each other, watched as the old sheriff stood with resolve.
"Alright, everyone. Let's do this!"
As he sprang up, they began moving one by one, as if on cue.
At the end of despair, they had to grasp at any straw.
Thus began the full-scale defense preparations.
Command naturally fell to Jinwoo.
An outsider, yet thrust into the role amid a strange atmosphere.
Jinwoo's orders started with the worn map spread in the village square.
His pointing finger hit spots that defied villagers' common sense.
"You there. Tear down that stable on the east side of the village. Now."
"Huh? The stable? That's one of the sturdiest buildings in town..."
"That's why we're tearing it down. Move the materials to that open lot and build barricades. Height: enough that horses can't jump over easily."
The villagers exchanged incredulous looks.
Tearing down a good building to make obstacles in an empty field?
Jinwoo ignored their reactions and issued the next order.
"And you lot. Dig out the dry well in the village center, all the way to the bottom."
"Are you insane? Water's already scarce, and that's where it collects when it rains!"
Fierce objections erupted.
But Jinwoo's eyes didn't flinch.
He turned to the complaining villager.
"..."
His gaze held no emotion, yet the man shut his mouth instinctively.
The villagers grumbled but eventually picked up shovels and pickaxes.
It seemed like the orders of a madman, but they had no choice.
Jinwoo watched them coldly, complaints on their backs as they worked.
'No point explaining. They'll get it faster seeing for themselves.'
Jinwoo reviewed the strategy guide in his head, which the villagers couldn't comprehend.
'The enemy's first assault always starts from that east hill. Leading with cavalry.'
And the stable spot becomes their main cover.
Right in front, structurally bad for defense, but a headache for attackers as cover.
Better to demolish it and build separate bunkers or sniper nests.
'Stack barricades in the open lot for a first line to stop the cavalry charge. That prevents getting wiped in one go.'
Jinwoo's gaze shifted to the dry well.
Villagers were digging, muttering.
'Providencia's specialty. These defense events always hide secret pieces.'
By his knowledge, the well bottom held items stashed by old militia.
'Like a crate of dynamite?'
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a startled shout burst from the well diggers.
"Wh-what is this?!"
Breaking the ground revealed a secret space under rotten wooden planks, packed with waterproofed crates.
Pulling one up and checking inside, their faces filled with shock.
"Dynamite!"
Jinwoo's orders didn't stop there.
"Over there, dig under that tree."
"The three strongest guys in the village who claim they can lift the most—first come, first served! Good, follow me."
Despite doubts, they dug where Jinwoo said and lifted corner rocks.
What appeared exceeded imagination.
"Look at this! Rifles! How many are there?!"
"Ammo and powder too!"
A few shovelfuls unearthed enough weapons to arm the whole village.
"How did you know?"
To the old sheriff's question, Jinwoo shrugged it off casually.
"Just a hunch."
Hours after work began, the air of distrust and suspicion blanketing the village vanished like a lie.
The murmurs of doubt ceased.
In its place: awe toward the unknown figure.
Villagers' eyes turned as one to the outsider, still standing with an impassive face.
"What in the world is he...?"
The man they'd treated as a lunatic moments ago now seemed a prophet piercing the village's fate.
Under the 72-hour death sentence, Blackwater Village shed its former lethargy completely.
Villagers moved like mad under Jinwoo's command.
Dilapidated buildings were dismantled into materials for bizarre defensive lines around the outskirts.
The earth was gouged into traps and trenches to halt enemy charges.
Exhausted as they were, a new venom burned in their eyes.
The unearthed old weapons scattered throughout and Jinwoo's all-seeing presence reignited their fading will to survive.
And finally.
The promised time approached.
When defenses were about seventy percent done, a boy's urgent cry from the highest spot—the tavern roof—shattered the silence.
"Dust! East! Dust clouds from the east!"
"East?"
That word froze the entire village.
The sheriff and villagers instinctively looked to Jinwoo.
The very direction he'd had them tear down the stable and stack barricades.
At the end of their terrified gazes, a massive dust pillar rose beyond the horizon.
The faint roar of hundreds of hooves shaking the ground reached them.
As villagers panicked in shock and fear, Jinwoo was already gone.
He settled calmly at the sniper point he'd prepared near the demolished stable—as if it had always been his spot.
"Let's see."
Jinwoo switched to sniper mode and raised the scope.
Through the blue crystal lens, the enemy vanguard leader galloping at the dust cloud's front came into sharp focus.
A faint sneer crossed Jinwoo's lips.
'The tedious event begins.'
His finger slowly tightened on the trigger.