Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan

Become Overpowered CEO of Hero Clan – 198

Attack, Defense, and Development (2)

The southern part of the eastern continent of Terraria.

The newly encountered realm, where the Celestial Canopy had been forcibly removed and the cruel law of survival of the fittest applied in this Tier 2 world, was unified into a single nation due to universal circumstances.

The name of the country was the Ethereal Kingdom.

The main constituents of its citizens were ascetics and ascended beings who had hastily gathered in the small world following the revelation from the celestial realm.

Those who suddenly found themselves with ranks of soldiers, squad leaders, or even commanders of hundreds or thousands, found it difficult to accept that this sort of role-playing was truly a clash of the century with the fate of heaven at stake. However, the celestial deities they so revered had actually descended before their eyes.

Moreover, wasn’t a massive Rift polluting the Terraria region? As long as the bondage of Rift persisted, it was only natural for the common people caught up in it to absolutely obey the orders from above.

[Grand General]

Mua Seonin, a high-ranking official of the Great Alliance of Ten Thousand Beasts, a multi-racial coalition formed by various beast races, pondered carefully.

He was unsure whether to address that stone monkey lying down and scratching his thigh as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, or by his newly assigned rank.

It was still hard to believe.

Who would have thought that a mythical being, only mentioned in scriptures, would descend to the mortal realm and display such an uncouth appearance?

“What’s with ‘Grand General’! Grand General, my foot. How degrading!”

“…Gulp.”

Mua Seonin, who had been exercising caution, barely managed to swallow the title ‘Grand General’ that had risen to the tip of his tongue at the rebuke of the Gambling Buddha worshipped by the Great Alliance of Ten Thousand Beasts.

Indeed, the continental common language meaning [Grand General] was hovering above Sun Wukong’s head.

While it might seem like an impressive rank, it appeared to be an insult to Sun Wukong himself, who had apparently strutted around in the heavenly realm.

Swish.

As the idol of the ascetics dreaming of ascending to the celestial realm expressed his dissatisfaction, Mua Seonin’s gaze, which had been on Sun Wukong’s head, shifted to above his own crown.

[Commander of Hundred]

The rank bestowed upon Mua Seonin, who was at the late stage of 7-star, was Commander of Hundred. It was floating conspicuously above his head.

How could the mortals of the lower realm refuse the rank indicators that even the celestial ascetics couldn’t avoid?

At least his juniors who had reached 6-star could receive the rank of squad leader, but below that, one couldn’t avoid being treated as a mere soldier.

In this militaristic system where individual grades were more clearly distinguished than ever before, Mua Seonin was reminded of the futility of free will.

[Today’s policy is ‘Development’.]

[It’s a prosperous day.]

‘With a leader like that, what use is the struggle of those below?’

What good were intelligent ministers? In the face of the trolling of a king who claimed to be chosen by heaven, it was like selling salt in the desert.

Neither drought nor flood, but the incompetence of a ruler – truly the worst of calamities.

Like the various civilizations of the Eight Wastelands that had disappeared into the annals of history, an ominous feeling that this hastily established Ethereal Kingdom would walk a similar path unpleasantly dampened Mua Seonin’s spirits.

“Great Sage Equal to Heaven, how do you view the enemy’s movements?”

He had heard the terrifying story that they had tasted the humiliation of defeat against the ‘king’ acknowledged by Rift.

Setting aside the bleak future, as the Beast Spirit Leader who had to look after the beast races of the multi-racial coalition, Great Alliance of Ten Thousand Beasts, Mua Seonin had to be faithful to his mission of soothing the temper of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who was likely furious.

“What’s there to see? They’ll soon invade, and we’ll all die.”

Satanael, the leader of the Legion.

The relatively young Sun Wukong hadn’t seen him directly, but he knew well from what the heavenly lords had told him. Satanael’s terror came not from his power, but from his mind.

His transcendence ‘Pollution’ could corrupt everything and turn them into monsters, but the reason the ancient civilization Terra suffered a great defeat back then was due to Satanael’s astonishing number game.

“I heard that the bio-weapons made from Eldrich Stone, extracted from the sealed Gaganuph, were actually designed for large-scale monsterization. There’s no way luck would work against such a being.”

Mua Seonin, who had been determined to respond with admiration to whatever Sun Wukong said, unwittingly made the mistake of tilting his head in confusion.

What on earth were Gaganuph and Eldrich Stone? His curiosity was piqued as examples of things that only celestial deities would know were presented.

“My learning is shallow, and I couldn’t understand your words, great teacher. Are you saying that the enemy king is a strategist that even the celestial beings couldn’t handle?”

“Ah, you don’t know. It’s a story from over a billion years ago. Our ancestral civilization secretly stole the first monster created by Satanael, and made various bio-weapons as byproducts of it. But it turned out to be all part of the devil’s scheme. Using something called Eldrich Stone implanted in the bio-weapons, he activated the transcendence ‘Pollution’, and that incident turned more than sixty percent of the ancestral civilization into monsters, I hear.”

“Ah…! So there was such a secret history in ancient times. I’m grateful for your teachings. I’m in awe, once again, of your keen insight, Great Sage Equal to Heaven.”

Mua Seonin bowed deeply as if in reverence, though he didn’t understand a word. The stone monkey before him seemed to lack the basic ability to gauge the background knowledge or level of his conversation partner.

After all, it was the first time he had learned that there was a civilization that the celestial deities would refer to as ‘ancestral’.

‘But isn’t he embarrassed?’

Mua Seonin, who had once dreamed of ascending to the celestial realm and becoming an immortal like Sun Wukong, was on the verge of losing his vague admiration for his senior, the stone-headed monkey who kept picking his nose or vigorously scratching his thigh.

Pwooooooo―

Boom. Boom!

Suddenly, the resounding sound of war trumpets filled the sky.

It seemed the time had come to pay the price for serving an incompetent king.

Whoooooosh―

Millions of troops rose into the sky following the signal. They were all ascetics or ascended beings of 5-star or higher, capable of operating flying mounts and the like.

Boom. Boom boom. Booom!

The sound of drums and janggu breaking the quiet dawn stirred their souls.

Fans and spears, easily tens of meters long, crackled with lightning and fierce winds. Ascetics, adorned with swords, spears, hidden weapons, and daggers, flew in groups of hundreds.

Each group seemed to be a special unit employing unique techniques.

“Let’s go too!”

“We shall follow you!”

As Sun Wukong, with the Ruyi Jingu Bang slung over his shoulder, summoned the Somersault Cloud, the soldiers of the Great Alliance of Ten Thousand Beasts under the stone monkey’s command erupted in thunderous cheers.

War was indeed the perfect timing for the Gambling Buddha to showcase his specialty. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who was no different from the incarnation of battle itself, soon shot to the frontlines of the battlefield and flashed a mischievous smile.

‘Indeed, it is Sun Wukong!’

That silhouette was enough to readjust the image of the ill-tempered direct superior. The admiration and respect for the immortal senior were instantly restored.

[Soon, the barrier will disappear.]

[It is the moment of war.]

On the other side of the small world, the land of monsters. The dark red world that could also be seen as the realm of the underworld and the legion, and the Ethereal Kingdom were separated by a blue barrier that cut through space and time.

‘This side is also incredible, but…’

Mua Seonin, standing at the forefront with Sun Wukong, swept his gaze from left to right.

The elite troops of the Heavenly Lord, said to be the sky above the sky, and the Queen Mother of the West, who was no different from the mother of immortals, were densely packed, and the fairies led by the Nine Heavenly Fairies made one realize the old saying that even in times of war, children are born.

They were all incredibly beautiful, to say the least. Moreover, this was just the left side; on the right were the ascended beings armed with sacred armor and led by the Archangel Gabriel, along with the avatars of Raziel and Zaphkiel, who were said to be no less powerful, descended upon eight-foot-tall giants.

‘The other side is no less formidable.’

Beyond the translucent blue barrier. The leaders of the monster army visible several kilometers away were mostly underworld demons who had descended upon dragon demons who had completed their second awakening and were in the late stage of 8-star.

King Yama and the Chaos Demon King, representing the underworld. Hot on their heels were the Celestial Demon Emperor and even the Shadow Emperor who was said to preside over life and death.

They all seemed to have spent quite a bit on naming. Doesn’t just recalling these names make one’s fighting spirit waver?

Moreover, this was just a glimpse of the left side of the enemy camp. On the right side, there was a hellish lineup formed by Malacrae, the Fallen Angel of Despair, Abysion, the Guardian of the Abyss, Nephiroa, the Corrupted Watcher, and Draconel, the Distorted Echo.

What an absurd reality to be face to face, separated by a single barrier, with the rulers of the underworld who were only mentioned in scary stories heard from grandmothers in childhood.

Even those leaders on the other side had ridiculous titles like [Grand General] or [Grand Marshal of the World] hovering above their heads.

‘This truly is a war of the great celestial world.’

In the midst of the battlefield where inspecting the allied forces filled one’s chest with warmth and confidence, while looking beyond the barrier made one’s shoulders shrink and consider desertion, the moment of fate finally arrived.

[The barrier disappears.]

[May fortune be with you in battle.]

“Waaaaaah!”

“Graaaaaaah!”

Black and white. Heaven and hell. Ethereal and monster.

Millions of elite troops from both sides, carefully selected, drew their swords and spears against each other.

The war of the century, where soldiers who had accumulated thousands of years of training might lose their lives in vain, had truly begun.

Mua Seonin, gripping his true name treasure, the Clear Wind Bright Moon Sword, immediately summoned his spiritual power throughout his body and prepared for battle, but.

“Waaaa…?”

“Graaaa…?”

As the vanguards of both the celestial realm and the legion, who had been charging fiercely, approached the border of the territory, an unexpected event occurred.

‘Huh?’

The enemy’s momentum softened considerably. One might think they were intimidated by the might of the Ethereal soldiers led by Sun Wukong, but that wasn’t it.

The allied forces were also equally relaxing their stance.

“Come at us, demons!”

“You come here!”

The words spat out by Sun Wukong and the Celestial Demon Emperor, who had suddenly become the vanguard leaders of both sides, were petty provocations saying, “We have no intention to fight, so you come at us.”

‘Why?’

For Mua Seonin, who had not been able to attend the secret meeting of the celestial deities, all of this seemed eccentric.

To think that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, renowned for his bravery, would hesitate in battle. Was the great senior also a master of survival who had prolonged his life by being cautious?

“How dare these lowly beings from the underworld come here!”

“How noble do they think they are? If you’re confident, come in and try!”

As the vanguard leaders continued their dissing battle, an untimely war of nerves broke out among the soldiers holding their weapons.

They were engaged in a war of words across the clearly drawn national border.

“Grooowl!”

Crash!

Soon, an oversized, mindless monster, unable to hold back any longer, forced its way across the border, but it was immediately executed by Sun Wukong’s Ruyi Jingu Bang.

It was around this time that Mua Seonin understood the implicit rule of ‘only attack those who cross the border’.

‘Ah, so they’ve grasped the laws of Rift.’

The ranks like Commander of Hundred or Grand General suddenly bestowed upon everyone. And the three policies that the king could choose from.

The deities of both sides, rich in experience and wise, seemed to prioritize the effects of the policies above all else.

The pitiful gaze of the Celestial Demon Emperor, as if begging for just one madman to be sent to their side, was evidence of this.

An extreme game of chicken unfolded due to not knowing the opponent’s policy.

Observing this situation, Gabriel, the actual war commander of the Ethereal side, realized that the leaders of the monster side were worried about similar aspects as this side.

‘They’re thinking the same thing. The standard for applying the correction is probably that border.’

Defense and attack.

These two concepts literally adjust the combat power when defending and attacking.

Gabriel, gripping his holy sword, recalled the secret royal order from Isaac, the bearer of the mark given right after the mind-boggling policy was chosen.

—If the standoff seems likely to continue, absolutely do not cross over to the enemy camp, and try to induce fighting on our territory as much as possible.

This was a countermeasure that could discern the enemy camp’s policy. If it was an attack policy, enemy forces would flood in like a tidal wave, so there would be nothing more to see, but defense and development were different stories.

—If they hesitate, it’s already our gain.

In a lukewarm standoff situation, there were only two possibilities: defense and development. There was no reason to fight those under the protection of a defense policy, and a development policy was mutually beneficial, so the actual gain or loss was essentially zero.

—No. If both sides chose the development policy, we have a slight advantage.

However, despite the seemingly rational analysis of the celestial deities, the king came up with a different interpretation.

—Since the total military strength is likely to favor the legion, if the weak and the strong both gain the same benefit, it’s a strategic victory for the weak.

It’s a common rule of war that in an all-out battle, the side with greater numbers or better equipment wins.

According to the king’s interpretation, the legion had failed to seize the opportunity when they had the advantage.

Swoosh.

In the battlefield where only non-physical clashes of magic and dark energy were taking place, Gabriel sensed that the king of their allied camp knew how to use his head quite well.

‘His policy worked.’

Gabriel partly agreed with the judgment of the stubborn and incommunicado royal family, who claimed they had already won the nerve-wracking game of rock-paper-scissors.

After all, it was true that they had gained the maximum benefit in an unfavorable situation.

“Is this right?”

“I thought this was supposed to be a war…”

The battle maniacs, whose blood was boiling at the laughable self-preservation of the monster bastards who they thought would charge in a “you die, I die” manner at any moment, were dumbfounded.

They wanted to cross the border alone and rack up an unrivaled kill count, but they didn’t want to face an opponent who might receive a defensive combat power boost.

Wasn’t that figure as high as 100%?

“Truly a prosperous day indeed.”

Even the Queen Mother of the West, who had been charging magic in her palm, murmured candidly.

She had inwardly acknowledged it. That a re-evaluation of the human species who had ascended to the throne was urgently needed.