Chapter 34 : Warrior Guild Civil War (2)

“I will now begin the Warrior Guild Civil War. Best of luck to everyone.”

A strange woman’s voice echoed.

She was the guild master—someone who had always been talked about in rumors.

Her true identity was still unknown.

Unfortunately, right before the guild master update, I was forcibly logged out of the game.

As I was lost in thought about useless things, my vision suddenly darkened, as if my eyes had been shut.

‘Just as I suspected, the system works exactly like Lios Fantasy.’

That game also just gathered players and, once the loading finished, threw them onto a different map.

In some ways, it was an accurate reenactment of reality.

How much time had passed?

When I opened my eyes again, as expected, I was in a completely different location.

A vast forest stretched before me, filled with densely packed trees.

“Hmm… First, I should find Arcia.”

Forming a party during the civil war was possible, but it wasn’t an officially supported feature.

As soon as the battle started, Arcia and I got separated.

To make matters worse, I had no idea where she was.

If I wasn’t careful, I might run into Elian before I could meet up with her.

“Well, I’ll worry about that later.”

Aiming for a calm and steady broadcast, I slowly made my way through the forest.

Just then, a notification sound rang from my device.

[skagks has given 1000G to Irene!]

[You’re surprisingly calm for your first time in a civil war.]

“Oh, well, I did a bit of scouting by watching Elian’s stream before coming here.”

As expected, thorough research is key, Irene kekeke

Since Luminal isn’t here, we officially worship Irene now

Irene is a god! Irene is a god!

Great Leader Irene

Even after watching so many streams, I’ve never seen someone so composed

LOL The fun of civil war broadcasts is watching people panic at the start

Ah, another major civil war season is upon us.

[Irene] – [LIVE STREAMING NOW!]

[Warrior Guild Civil War]

[Viewers: 1,128]

I hadn’t even realized this, but apparently, I could stream during the civil war.

That was why I had been talking to myself the whole time.

Thanks to that, I didn’t need to worry about finding things on my own.

After all, I had the collective intelligence of my viewers helping me in real time.

“Hmm… Everyone, just for today, I’ll become Gold-Crazy Irene.”

Gold-Crazy Irene declaration!

Hehehe, let’s corrupt her with gold!

Irene’s descent into gold madness begins…

As soon as I finished speaking, my device’s notification sound started ringing nonstop.

[zmfltmxk has given 100,000G to Irene!]

[Find Elian Attempt #1]

[zmfltmxk has given 100,000G to Irene!]

[Find Elian Attempt #2]

[zmfltmxk has given 100,000G to Irene!]

[Find Elian Attempt #3]

The reason I suddenly decided to accept donations?

Surprisingly, it had everything to do with the Warrior Guild Civil War.

“Oh, a scroll just dropped from the sky.”

It turns out that if I sync my bracelet with my device, I receive a special reward whenever I get a donation.

Honestly, this feature was the exact opposite of the fair-play ideals the Warrior Guild Civil War was supposed to uphold…

But what could I do?

That’s just how Lios Fantasy was designed.

It’d be ridiculous not to use it when the feature was right there.

Elian told me that because of this system, the Warrior Guild got heavily criticized for a while.

It made sense—only streamers could benefit from it.

Even though the guild was in a desperate situation, who the hell came up with such a thoughtless policy?

Turns out, it was Bertram.

Of course.

But thanks to it, at least my viewers were having fun.

Taking advantage of the moment, I displayed the list I had prepared yesterday on the broadcast screen.

[Irene’s Warrior Guild Civil War Perks]

[1,000G – Random potion drop] (Doesn’t affect me)

[10,000G – Firework sound effect]

[30,000G – 1-minute magic camouflage buff]

[50,000G – Random location teleport scroll]

[100,000G – Track any warrior’s location for 3 minutes]

[1,000,000G – Meteor strike on a chosen warrior’s location]

Other than the ability to track a hero’s location, nothing on the list actually benefited streamers.

So why display it anyway?

Of course, because of that exact tracking feature.

Technically, I could spread out my magic to locate people, like when hunting assassins.

But if I did that, every single hero in the civil war would come straight for me.

After all, I had the highest kill score.

“Thanks for the 100,000G donation! I know you gave it to me, but unfortunately, over 90% of it will be used for Luminal.”

Why are you so brutally honest? Kekekekeke

Then we just have to keep donating until you use it!

Haa… Should I just drop a million gold donation? Kekeke

Now that I think about it, is there even a reason to track Elian’s location?

True, Elian does his annual event around this time anyway.

“An annual event?”

Maybe because I had only watched the beginning of Elian’s civil war streams, but for some reason, I had no clue what they were talking about.

And the way they put it, it sounded like I wouldn’t even need a donation ritual to find Elian—as if he would just reveal his own location.

While I was thinking about that—

“Looks like someone’s already getting hit by a meteor.”

The sky turned red.

In the distance, a massive meteor began to fall.

Even though the guild master’s blessing kept people from dying during the civil war…

wasn’t this a bit much?

Just as I was having that thought, the chat was buzzing with excitement.

The annual event has begun! Kekekekekekeke

It’s already starting over there! Kekekekekeke

Kekekekekekekekeke

(Emoji of Elian running away) (Emoji of Elian running away)

Should we start too?

Good idea.

And it wasn’t just one meteor.

Not even ten seconds later, another one fell.

Then another. And another.

Meteors rained down one after another, until eventually, the entire sky was bathed in a deep red hue.

The first meteor finally hit the ground with an ear-splitting roar.

That’s when I realized what the annual event really was.

“Elian really has it rough, huh?”

These guys had been pooling their money together just to spam million-gold donations.

As a result, at least ten meteors were now crashing down toward Elian (presumably).

“Let’s head over there.”

Just as I thought this civil war was going to be an easy win—

[Irene1 has donated 1,000,000G to Irene!]

[Congratulations on your Warrior Guild Civil War performance!]

[The donation has been registered on your device.]

[A meteor has been summoned!]

A sinister notification.

A deeply ominous message.

Sure enough, a massive, burning fireball started falling directly toward my head.

“You won’t get a fun reaction out of me like you do with Elian. I’m not a streamer—I’m a villain.”

Not that anyone was listening.

Even as I desperately tried to reason with them, the high-value donations just kept rolling in.

[Meteor2 has donated 1,000,000G to Irene!]

[No reaction? Then we’ll keep going until we get one.]

[Meteor3 has donated 1,000,000G to Irene!]

[Irene, you always turn off big donations and cap daily donations at 100,000G. Time to pay the price, don’t you think?]

As if they were coordinating from some secret chatroom, users with blatantly malicious nicknames flooded the donation list.

And now, a ridiculous number of meteors were raining down toward me.

The battlefield wasn’t even that big, so in no time, the sky was filled with dozens of massive fireballs.

Half were aimed at Elian.

The other half, of course, were aimed at me.

“…R-Run for it!”

I sprinted through the forest at full speed.

Even for me, meteors were no joke.

It wasn’t that my magic shield would break—it was just that, according to Lios Fantasy’s system, meteors inflicted “10% of max HP as damage.”

Since this world was heavily influenced by game mechanics, there was no way getting hit by one would be a good thing.

But I wasn’t just running blindly.

I had a destination in mind.

Before long, the impact zones of the two meteor showers overlapped.

That meant I had reached Elian’s location.

“Stop! Aaaah! If this keeps up, I’m not joining the next Warrior Guild Civil War!!”

“I’m not joining next time!” (Said this, then joined for the fifth time)

(Emoji of Elian running) (Emoji of Elian running) (Emoji of Elian running)

Even after all this, Elian’s still happy since he made 15 million gold, big respect kekeke

(Emoji of an angry Elian)

Would you be happy with an astronomical amount of gold piling up in your account?

“You don’t even realize you’re soaked in meteors.”

“I summoned the meteor! That means I control Elian’s emotions!”

“Hey, El, want me to queue up another meteor?”

“You guys are so dead when this civil war is over!”

Elian kept running.

Ever since the war had started, there hadn’t been a single moment where he wasn’t running.

He had no choice.

If he stopped even for a second, a meteor would catch up to him.

And if he even thought about taking a break, another meteor would immediately drop.

How could he not keep running?

To make matters worse, the enormous meteors had essentially turned into Elian-tracking beacons.

Even after covering half of the battlefield, he had barely seen any other warriors.

Of course, barely didn’t mean none at all.

Even while running for his life, Elian had managed to take down five warriors.

“Haa… Haa….”

Has it been five minutes already?

Even the deep-pocketed Gold Mining Crew had their financial limits.

Eventually, Elian’s annual event came to an end.

But that didn’t mean he got off unscathed.

Aside from the warriors caught up in the meteor barrage, Elian himself had used up a huge amount of stamina just dodging meteors.

Given her plans, this was actually a pretty serious problem.

And there was something else bothering him.

“…Why are meteors falling over there too?”

Someone else, aside from him, was being targeted with million-gold donation spam.

And the meteors were getting closer—almost as if they were converging on his location.

Who else could possibly be a high-profile streamer on this level?

He thought about it for a moment, but there was only one conclusion.

“…Irene…!”

Unbelievably, she was coming this way, too.

That meant Elian’s next move was simple.

He had to prepare for battle.

Elian carefully drew his weapons.

He rummaged through his bag, downing several potions to restore as much health as possible.

How long had he been waiting?

A figure in a black robe appeared before him.

“…I figured it would be one of two people. But taking care of Elian first isn’t a problem, right?”

It wasn’t Irene.

Just hearing her voice sent a chill down Elian’s spine.

Her appearance was completely different from before—but her voice was unmistakable.

It was the voice from his nightmares.

Elian cautiously opened his mouth.

“…Mirror Queen. How are you even here?”

The Mirror Queen smiled as she answered.

“Unfortunately, I had to wear a disguise. But I was invited here from the very beginning.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled something out—an invitation.

[Warrior Guild Civil War Invitation]

[Dear Elian, You are invited to the Warrior Guild Civil War!]

It was Elian’s own invitation.

At first, he thought she had stolen it—but strangely, the invitation she held looked old and worn.

The Queen grinned.

“I’ll deal with you before Irene arrives.”