The Day of the Final Battle

Finally, the day of the decisive battle had arrived.

Kim Hwang-je locked the door to the stairs leading up to the second floor.

He then entered the conference room and took his seat at the head of the massive mahogany table, which could comfortably seat forty people.

Of course, the only one actually sitting there was Kim Hwang-je himself.

“Huu… haa…”

It felt like he was lying on an operating table.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to ease the tension.

The second wave would begin soon.

He hoped the moonlight slipping through the window wouldn’t be the last he ever saw.

They had somehow managed to hold off the first wave thanks to the cement, but he had no idea how the second would go.

What would happen if the castle walls collapsed?

The skill said The Castle Becomes Me. If the castle fell apart, would his own body get torn to pieces too?

Just like how he had clutched a pile of gold coins and thought, I want to live, right now he desperately wanted to survive.

He had zero desire to become a grotesque corpse statue in this luxurious place.

He had to prepare thoroughly.

Using World Observation, he checked on the royal castle.

The king and the archmage had used a spell to cleanly remove their hangovers.

Yet for some reason, the archmage was once again on her knees with her hands raised, her nose bright red as she sniffled.

It seemed she had done something wrong and was being scolded by the king.

“Poyu, what’s going on with them?”

“Mmm… Dave is angry. He’s asking why she’s only telling him now… Gemini says she’s sorry… Gemini, don’t cry!”

When Gemini heard that voice, she flinched and tried to say something.

Dave looked startled, then let out a deep sigh. He said something to Gemini.

“Present time! Yay, Uncle’s gonna love this~”

A present?

Kim Hwang-je’s ears perked up.

Soon, Gemini and Dave pulled out a box and offered it as tribute.

“Huh? Why protect my seed?”

Kim Hwang-je felt a chill run down his spine for a moment, but he barely held it together and focused on the talisman.

If he slowly raised his Intelligence, he would eventually be able to use all its abilities.

Would his Intelligence go up if the people undergoing labor correction read books?

It’d be nice if someone attacked again. I could just lock them up and make them read all day. That’d be convenient.

While he was thinking that, another status window appeared.

The name sounded cool, but what the hell was this?

Kim Hwang-je tapped the Iron Fist skill.

The description read:

‘……’

Kim Hwang-je remained silent.

He pressed hard, but of course no delete button appeared.

Right. This wasn’t a game or an app.

“You son of a bitch, eunuch!”

He shouted loudly and swallowed two Tylenol.

The fact that something like this had appeared meant something unimaginable was about to happen.

Iron Fist?

If he punched his own stomach… monsters would die?

“Let’s see if I actually do this.”

After receiving all the tributes, the second wave finally began.

A microphone icon soon appeared in the status window. It looked exactly like a smartphone voice recorder app.

From what he could see with World Observation, a massive number of soldiers were lined up in formation below the castle walls, on the allied side.

Every single one of them was waiting for Kim Hwang-je’s next speech.

This was bad.

They wanted him to give a speech?

Sure, politicians gave speeches, but the only speech he knew was the one from The Lord of the Rings!

The scene from the third movie he had watched as a child flashed through his mind—the one where King Théoden reached the burning Gondor under attack by orcs and rallied the cavalry by banging his spear.

But Kim Hwang-je wasn’t ready to deliver a speech like that yet.

In the end, he did the best he could.

“Protect your families… and the castle. There is hope now. I will help you.”

What more could he possibly say?

Anything more would have been nothing but hypocrisy.

These people had already been through countless wars. The blood that would be shed today was theirs, and all the blood shed until now had been theirs too.

Continuous defeats. Hunger, abuse, pain, and death that grew like a snowball, along with an anger that had no outlet.

But the Emperor’s single sentence fell among them and twitched.

Then it burst into a flame no one could have imagined. An explosive cheer erupted.

“Long live His Imperial Majesty!”

“Follow the one who has given us hope!”

Hope. That was what they needed most.

In the past few days, the kingdom on the brink of destruction had witnessed miracles.

They had all grown exhausted in the face of inevitable death.

But the Emperor had given them food, weapons, and the magical tool called cement.

Now that a path to survival had appeared, how could they not cheer?

“Ooooooooh!”

That response was the enormous roar that made Kim Hwang-je feel like his heart would burst.

Horn blasts answered the roar from every corner of the royal castle.

Not just the castle, but even the slums.

The cheers swirled through every nook and cranny of the castle, making the entire fortress boil with fervor.

Poyu looked at the Emperor with flushed cheeks.

“Uncle… the people are shouting…! They say they can live now. Everyone…!”

Kim Hwang-je’s chest swelled with emotion as well.

What the hell was E anyway?

Kim Hwang-je felt uneasy but decided not to ask. Digging any deeper ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seemed legally dangerous.

Besides, his heart was pounding too hard to bother questioning it.

Thanks to that, the war began with great vigor.

The spears held high by the knights gleamed in the sunlight, and the fortress—imbued with the souls of those protecting their families—shone with a majestic pale gray light.

Rumble—!

From far away, storm clouds charged with lightning rolled in.

Cracks formed in the sky and shattered like black fragments.

Beneath the storm clouds, a colossal ‘legion’ appeared.

It was an army of ogres clad in armor.

A chill ran down his spine.

The weapons held by the thousands of fully armored ogres were…

Pickaxes.

“Those son of a bitch bastards…!”

His vision swam.

The ogres were planning to smash the castle walls like they were digging a tunnel!

If they lost this war, he would definitely die.

And everyone here, everyone he had been feeding and protecting, would die too. That absolutely could not happen.

In the distance, beyond the shattered crack, the figure of a giant three-headed ogre lord could be seen.

“What’s that guy’s name…?”

Kim Hwang-je memorized its appearance and opened the internet.

Three-headed ogre. Searching brought up information on the Terra Wiki.

“Triple-Head Ogre ‘Billy’ [Disaster] rank. Landed in Somalia. Determined impossible to eliminate with bombardment from UN Third Fleet. Considering the spread of contamination due to its special ability, hunter deployment is deemed impossible. Meets conditions for nuclear warhead usage… Eliminated by UN-led tactical nuclear strike. Loot lost.”

Crazy.

This was insane.

Looking at the date, it had happened several years ago.

It meant that even the hunters couldn’t handle it properly, so they had resorted to tactical nukes.

But what kind of special ability would force them to use something like a nuke in this day and age?

The special abilities were also listed on the Terra Wiki.

[Special Abilities]

Wide-Area Nullification – Suppresses magic.

Free Action – Cannot be hindered in movement.

While he was reading the wiki, the monster began walking forward, shaking the ground, and approached the castle. At that moment, an alert rang out.

A tower installation window appeared in the status window. The tower’s lower boundary was blurry, like a mirage floating among the clouds.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

But a catapult was clearly mounted on top of it.

Kim Hwang-je summoned Baekju and Sirius and placed them in the first tower. The children were preparing to carry arrows behind the castle walls.

“…What the hell is this this time?”

Sirius’s voice could be heard.

Oh, this was incredibly interesting.

Kim Hwang-je sat up straighter and eavesdropped on their conversation.

Baekju stood on the tower installed in the sky and glanced down below.

“Senior. We’re already dead. This is hell!”

“Hell? Look, if this isn’t blood then what is it?”

Sirius answered.

Fresh blood was still dripping from the arm where he had been whipped.

“You filthy beasts! Who told you to flap your jaws?”

The overseer appeared.

She cracked her whip against the ground.

A sharp crack rang out, and both Sirius and Baekju scrunched up their faces.

The overseer was a woman wearing leather tights. Spikes protruded from her mask and entire outfit.

“Speak! Who were you thinking about!”

“…We weren’t thinking about anyone.”

The overseer cracked her whip again.

“Aaaargh!”

It must have been excruciating. Sirius rolled on the floor with his eyes rolled back.

“Ugh, Your Majesty. I was thinking of Your Majesty! Long live the Emperor!”

The moment Baekju saw Sirius rolling on the ground, he immediately dropped to his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knees and shouted the cheer.

“You traitor!”

“Aigo, Senior. What pride do we have at a time like this! Hurry up and copy me!”

“Aaaaaaaaagh!”

The overseer whipped Sirius a few more times before speaking.

“Repeat after me! On one, shout ‘Your Majesty!’ and load! On two, shout ‘Long live!’ and pull the lever!”

Crack!

The whip struck the ground.

“Be rehabilitated! One!”

“Your Majesty!”

Baekju stepped forward and loaded a stone.

Sirius frowned but eventually shouted “Your Majesty!” and loaded a stone as well.

“Be rehabilitated! Two!”

“Long live!”

When they pulled the lever, a stone flew from the sky catapult and crashed among the charging ogres.

The massive boulder flew and turned the oncoming ogres into pulp.

There were so many enemies and they were so large that even random shots killed plenty of them.

Every time an ogre died, a portion of the money came to him!

Ah. So this was the true taste of labor correction.

On the long marble table where Kim Hwang-je sat, silver and copper coins rained down.

The silver and copper coins sparkled as they caught the moonlight pouring through the window.

“Haa…”

At the same time, an alarm notifying him that his stats were rising appeared.

This stat increase wasn’t limited to Kim Hwang-je alone.

Sirius and Baekju’s stats were rising too.

This was the whip and the carrot.

The text visible to Kim Hwang-je was invisible to them.

If they threw themselves into monster hunting while harboring thoughts of escape, they would eventually become completely brainwashed!

Sure enough, Baekju and Sirius were staring wide-eyed at their own status windows.

“Baekju…”

“Yes… Senior… This…”

If someone on Earth heard that stats could rise like this, they wouldn’t believe it.

As they received information that their stats were increasing, they gradually became confused about what was sincere and what wasn’t.

At this point, any desire to run away had completely vanished. They had realized that if they endured and grew stronger, they could escape whenever they wanted.

While being whipped, they shouted “Your Majesty! Long live!” even more vigorously.

“Hold the line!”

While they busily fired stones, King Dave stood atop the castle wall and watched the advancing ogre legion.

The legion’s footsteps shook the entire plain.

The containers Kim Hwang-je had provided were spread out across the plain in front of the walls like a fishing net.

It was an arrangement designed to restrict the ogres’ path of advance and disrupt their formation.

For some reason, most of them had been placed in front of the castle gate for reinforcement rather than along the walls. Not only that, they had been covered in cement and hardened.

It was an excessive amount of protective equipment.

Finally, the enemies crowded into the narrow path, and some began climbing on top of the containers.

Dave lowered his hand!

“Now! Fire! Do not spare the arrows today!”

The moment the ogres leaped onto the containers, the king gave the order.

The soldiers fired their arrows in unison.

They were arrows Kim Hwang-je had purchased.

Simple steel arrows mass-produced in an ordinary ironworks factory.

But when they fell into the hands of skilled archers, they danced like a master’s brush.

The dark steel arrows dyed the sky.

That rain pierced the ogres on the front line who had jumped onto the containers.

An alarm immediately exploded.

“Fire! Never stop! We have plenty of arrows! There is no need to hold back today! Shoot them all!”

Dave shouted loudly.

The charging ogres collapsed like falling dominoes and died one after another.

But the overflowing ogre legion trampled over the corpses and continued to swarm forward.

“Spearmen! Raise your weapons! Aim for the ogres’ foreheads!”

Finally, the ogres broke through the arrow rain and reached the castle walls.

They struck the walls with their pickaxes.

“Huuuurk!”

When the pickaxes dug into the wall, Kim Hwang-je felt a tearing pain in his guts.

The ogres had a different body structure, so their siege tactics were completely different from those of humans.

Humans would have used ladders to climb up.

But these ogres began climbing by striking the castle with pickaxes!

“Huuuurk—!”

Gasping for breath, Kim Hwang-je watched through the pain as Dave gave orders.

“Strike them down!”

“Yes!”

“Die, you ogre bastards!”

The soldiers on the wall used long steel spears to stab and push down the climbing ogres.

The king and the archmage watched the approaching [Billy] while issuing commands.

Yes. The real battle would begin when that giant reached the front of the castle.

“Kihihik!”

“This land!”

“Is ours!”

The ogre lord, who had closed the distance in the blink of an eye, swung its massive club and smashed the containers in front of the gate.

Boooom—!

A massive explosion occurred.

Like a water droplet creating a crown splash, a single strike shattered the cement and sent all the containers flying into the castle.

Soldiers were crushed to death by the falling containers.

The king and archmage unleashed their techniques at the giant standing atop those containers.

“Stop it from attacking the gate!”

“Khhht! It’s useless!”

Dave stepped forward with all his strength and confronted [Billy] head-on.

Gemini also fired powerful spells.

“Aah! Your Majesty! It’s not working! What should we do?!”

But Billy easily brushed off the magic.

It looked like Dave was pushing Billy back, but a massive dark magical power rising from Billy’s entire body formed into projectiles and struck the gate.

The smile on its face looked almost like it was mocking them…

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

Suddenly, Kim Hwang-je screamed so loudly that the entire hotel room seemed to shake.

He could usually endure most pain.

But.

But this pain!

This was a pain that Kim Hwang-je—no, every man—knew all too well.

It felt like his brain was saying, “Well, you didn’t cherish your precious little one. Shall we start the game now?”

Kim Hwang-je collapsed to his knees, slammed his face into the floor, and trembled violently.

Gemini… now I understand why you were being punished earlier…

“Uncle! Are you okay?!”

“Ugh, uuuuugh, uuu…”

Poyu flew over and asked if he was alright, but he couldn’t even respond. His facial muscles were completely out of control.

Good lord.

Did protecting his seed literally mean protecting his seed?

Dave must have known what he meant.

Linking his precious part to the castle gate!

His mind spun and he felt like throwing up.

As he lay on the floor convulsing, his rage grew uncontrollable.

They hit his precious part! You sons of bitches!

“Damn it, damn it!”

There was no other choice.

Kim Hwang-je got on his knees, straightened his back, and raised both fists high.

It was time to use Emperor’s Iron Fist.

“You ogre bastard!”

Thud!

With all his fury, he struck his lower abdomen like a gorilla.

An anomaly immediately occurred in World Observation.

Suddenly, with a thunderous rumble, the world in front of the castle gate shook violently.

A fist-shaped mass of energy could be seen falling from the sky.

Billy looked at the energy mass and opened its mouth.

“What the—!”

“That’s…!”

“A fist?”

All three heads chattered at once.

Kim Hwang-je answered that voice.

“Shut up!”

The iron fist crashed down and struck all three of Billy’s heads at the same time.

Immediately, blood and chunks of internal organs burst from Billy’s mouth.

“Kaaaaaaaack!”

Blood and guts splattered grotesquely across the castle wall.

“You fucking eunuch bastard!”

Kim Hwang-je cursed the eunuch and continued punching his own stomach.

The ogre was gradually approaching the gate while holding its club.

Booom!

Booom!

Kim Hwang-je’s eyes turned red as he pounded his stomach.

But the ogre stubbornly struck the gate with its club again.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

Kim Hwang-je leaped like a fish and struck his stomach even harder.

A golden fist fell from the sky and smashed the ogre’s head once more.

Craaaaaack!

This time, the Triple Head Ogre’s necks were driven inward, its spine folding completely.

He had killed it.

With his own hands…!

“Huu, uuuuuurgh!”

The pain turned into a gasping scream that lingered in his mouth.

It felt like he would bite his own tongue.

Cold sweat soaked his entire body.

The pain in his precious part slowly spread throughout his body.

His mind gradually grew hazy.

Gemini… just you wait…

His blurring vision swept across the status window one last time.

‘Fuck…’

Everything went black before his eyes.