The First Major Update

The week-long update had finally ended, and the game was about to go live.

Midnight.

I checked the time and logged into Hero.

"Whoa…"

A cinematic played on the first loading screen: what looked like thousands of soldiers locked in battle across an open plain.

"Huh?"

Among the fighters, I spotted a familiar face.

Captain Grape…

The camera swept onward, and there in the rear, directing the war, was Kses.

"What the hell? This is something that's going to happen, isn't it?"

The last time I'd logged out, the Second Succession War hadn't even begun.

The video pressed on, indifferent to my impatience. Before long, our side began to fall back. Kses's army gave chase, whittling down the allied ranks with every stride. And then they had Rion Castle surrounded. The cinematic ended on Kses's forces preparing for a siege.

"What is this?"

The alert had fired the instant I entered the game.

So I'm already on Ryan's side.

There didn't seem to be a choice. I sprinted for the northern wall of Rion Castle.

The Green Grape Mercenary Corps was already assembled there, Seolhwa among them.

"So the Team 3 leader's here. The war's almost upon us. Green Grape Mercenary Corps — do not let your guard down."

Captain Grape finished his address and stepped down from the rampart.

Dum. Dum. Dum.

The war drums from Kses's camp began to quicken, and my heartbeat rose to match them.

"Seolhwa. Survival comes first — you know that, right?"

"Yeah…"

Dum-dum. Dum-dum. Dum-dum. Dum-dum.

The drums hit a fever pitch, and Kses's army charged the castle.

"WAAAAH!!!"

"Kill the traitor Ryan!!!"

The moment they came into range, the walls answered with a storm of arrows.

"Damn… archers are nice."

On defense, the archer class was a dream. You could kill from a position of safety — and in Hero, where death meant character deletion, that was worth more than gold.

Boom. Boom.

The battering ram they'd hauled up began pounding the gate. At the same time, dozens of siege ladders hooked over the battlements.

"Hold them!"

"Don't let them onto the wall!"

Garrison commanders bellowed themselves hoarse as they paced the ramparts. I planted myself in front of one ladder and waited for the first man to climb.

"WAAAAAH!"

An enemy soldier clung to the ladder with one hand and slashed at me with the other.

Clang!

I caught the blow on my shield and drove a Shield Bash into his torso.

"GAAAAH!"

The soldier locked up and dropped off the wall.

"Not bad."

Cain was a shield-first character. Survival had always been the priority, which meant my damage paled next to Seolhwa's. But a fight on the ramparts was a different animal — as efficient as hers, maybe more. All I had to do was bash them off. From this height, a Regular Soldier who fell wasn't getting back up.

Clang!

"GAAAAAH!"

Clang!

"GAAAAAH!"

Clang!

"GAAAAAH!"

Every time a soldier crested the ladder, I put the shield into him and sent him down.

Clang!

"Huh!?"

This one ate the Shield Bash and still hauled himself onto the wall — a muscle-bound warrior gripping a massive double-bladed axe.

Clang! Clang!

My HP plunged by ten percent in a heartbeat. The axe's raw destructive power was more than a shield could fully absorb.

"So the Saraon Mercenary Corps threw in with the traitor…"

Captain Grape was suddenly there, putting himself between me and the axe warrior.

"Cain, go help the others. I'll handle this one."

Crash! Crash! Crash!

The two captains collided, and I left them to it. Grape was right — that duel was far beyond anything I could influence. I turned to the Regular Soldiers who had made the wall. They were a fight I could win, and they paid well in experience.

Clang!

"GAAAAAH!"

Clang!

"GAAAAAH!"

"We're losing this, aren't we?"

The number of enemies reaching the ramparts kept swelling. The situation was turning ugly. I knocked another soldier off the wall and scanned for Seolhwa.

"Seolhwa!"

"Cain!"

She was hemmed in, fighting several at once. I used the momentum of a sprint to shove two of her attackers clean off the edge.

Clang! Clang!

"GAAAAH!"

"GAAAAH—!"

"Seolhwa, this is going bad."

"Yeah…"

Before I knew it, there were more enemies on the northern wall of Rion Castle than there were of us.

And then—

"The south gate has fallen!"

"WAAAAAH!!!"

The enemy roared that they'd taken the south gate, and they weren't lying. The banner hanging there came down, and another went up in its place.

"Seolhwa. We're falling back."

"Huh?"

I carved a path off the wall. Linger any longer and we'd be surrounded — and after that, there was only death. If we were going to run, this was the last chance we'd get. I broke trail in front; Seolhwa covered the rear.

That was when a dozen men in high-grade weapons and armor stepped into our way.

"Ah…"

Gear like that put them at knight-tier. Ten knights. Cain and Seolhwa together couldn't take even one.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Huh?"

They were more manageable than I'd expected. Their attacks couldn't punch through my shield to deal real damage, while every one of Seolhwa's strikes carved a visible chunk out of their health.

"Wait! I know that face."

The man blocking us pulled off his helmet as he spoke. The moment it came away, his ID appeared — which meant we'd exchanged names before. He was the one who'd bought game currency from me for eighty-two million won.

"We meet under unfortunate circumstances."

A trading partner not long ago. An enemy now. I didn't have the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠luxury of being considerate — we were out of time.

Clang!

"Kh… give me a moment."

Caught in Stiffness from a shield charge, he still managed to talk. He pulled a pouch of silver coins from his inventory.

"I'll give you this. How about we simply let each other pass?"

"Killing you and taking your gear would pay better, don't you think?"

"Haha… Facing all ten of us would take time. Time I doubt you can afford."

He wasn't wrong. Kses's army was moments from overrunning the northern wall.

"Deal."

He tossed me the pouch of silver.

"Don't even think about double-crossing us. Even if death means character deletion, we'll just level up again and come for revenge."

They were the kind of people who could make that threat stick. They'd dropped eighty million won on game currency at launch, and they'd almost certainly bought more since — one look at their equipment told me that. They could rebuild a character from scratch whenever they wanted, and they had the means to gear it to this level all over again.

"Understood."

I pocketed the pouch and walked past them. I had no interest in making enemies of these people. The Blood Alliance they were going to found would become one of the top player-made guilds in the game.

We came down off the wall and headed for the inner keep, where the lord resided. Escaping through the gates would have been ideal, but with the castle surrounded on all sides, that was a fantasy. The one thing I could still count on was Viscount Rion's surrender. If he yielded, they wouldn't bother executing hired mercenaries.

All I had to do was stay alive. That was the nature of Hero — survive enough crises, and you came out stronger. Even this fight on the wall had paid out experience that made goblin sweeps look like a joke.

The inner keep had already sensed defeat; it was in chaos. Servants clustered in anxious knots, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with no idea what to do. I pushed past them and went deeper, looking for the most secluded place I could find to wait out the viscount's surrender.

But in the heart of the keep, I ran into someone I hadn't expected.

The viscountess — and her son, the current Viscount Rion.

"Cain? How did you end up here…?"

The viscountess stared at me, startled. For a moment I had nothing to say, and no answer came.

"I've heard that Captain Grape has fallen. Since you've made it this far, please escort Viscount Rion to safety."

I chose the first option. This wasn't a moment for hesitation. If there was a secret passage, this was our way out together. And the fierce stare of the knight standing beside the viscountess was not something I wanted to ignore.

A long, grinding creak — and a passage opened ahead of us.

We followed Viscount Rion and his escort knights into the dark.

"Mother!"

"You must survive."

After that brief exchange between mother and son, we moved fast. The passage connected Rion Castle to a remote house well outside the walls.

"My lord, enemy forces are patrolling outside. We'll move once night falls."

We waited in the safehouse for the sun to die, then slipped out into the dark.

"My lord, we'll travel through the Deep Forest."

The knight who seemed to be in command took the lead.

"Cain, will we be okay?"

The Deep Forest. The highest-difficulty hunting ground in Rion Territory — packs of wolves, bears, and other serious monsters.

Even so.

"We'll be fine. They're knights…"

The Deep Forest was dangerous for players like us. For knights, it was a commute. No monster that spawned in there could withstand Aura.

We ran the night roads, picking our way through high brush and dense stands of trees. For all that care, a patrol still found us.

"The enemy's fleeing!"

"Catch them!!!"

Cavalry closed the distance in a rush.

Slash. Slash.

They died on a knight's blade almost as fast as they'd arrived. The problem was the shouting — it pulled every nearby eye toward us.

"My lord, take a horse and retreat ahead of us."

"Sir Ruyan, there are enough horses! We should all go together!"

The young viscount cried out as another knight pulled him into the saddle. He was right — there were horses enough for everyone. But someone had to buy time, and Sir Ruyan, the knight-commander, claimed that duty for himself.

Clop-clop-clop.

The enemies who cut Sir Ruyan down took up the chase again, and the knight who'd assumed temporary command dropped back to hold the rear. A brutal running fight followed, and in the end only one knight, Viscount Rion, Seolhwa, and I managed to escape into the Deep Forest.

"That way… Head that way!"

The viscount pointed, and we went. There, along the river, was a small hollow you could only enter through the water. We slapped the horses on the rump and sent them running, then slipped into the riverside niche.

Clop. Clop. Clop.

We'd barely hidden ourselves before a mass of cavalry thundered past.

"This place is safe. Let's rest here a moment before we move on."

Once the hoofbeats had faded, Viscount Rion spoke in a low voice. The last time I'd pulled him out of the Deep Forest, he'd been caked in mud — this must have been where he'd hidden.

"Thank you all for protecting me to the very end."

"Think nothing of it, my lord. I am a knight sworn to House Rion."

The knight dropped to one knee as he answered the viscount's gratitude.

"Thank you… And Cain — to you and your fellow mercenary, I promise a handsome reward."

Viscount Rion's maternal family was House Sharan, whose lands lay to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠southeast of Rion Territory. Just as his older brother had drawn troops from his own maternal house, Pirion, Ryan intended to seek aid from his.

"My ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lord, we need to move again. If we delay, the enemy will surround the Deep Forest and we'll be trapped in here."

"Understood. Let's go."

Another long trek began. The one mercy was the minimap — at least we wouldn't lose our way.

"If there aren't any players among the pursuers, we've got the advantage."

Moving through the Deep Forest on a dark night was no small thing. The monsters were a problem, but finding a path was worse. We, on the other hand, could drive a straight line toward Sharan Territory with the minimap as our guide.

Fortunately, we punched through the Deep Forest ahead of the enemy, and not long after, we crossed into Sharan Territory.

"From here on, this is Sharan Territory. We'll buy horses in the village and continue from there."