The Nebula's Civilization

Chapter 61: Brown Rat vs. Mantis

Thinking about it, Eldar couldn’t come up with a reason that they’d been maintaining their alliance with Sung-Woon.

‘...Maybe because he’s confident that he’ll win in the future?’

Eldar couldn’t figure out exactly how they felt. However, being with Sung-Woon wasn’t the absolute worst, and they could always ponder about their own reasoning later. There was something else they needed to consider at the moment.

“But…” said Eldar.

“What? What’s the matter?” replied Sung-Woon.

“Um…I don’t think the situation will change much just because I told them you were going to launch a preemptive strike like you asked me to.”

“Why do you think that?”

Eldar felt timid whenever Sung-Woon snapped back at him, but they were getting used to it. In fact, they didn’t really get upset now.

Eldar cleared their throat and said, “Hmm. From my narrow perspective…our opponents will probably pull back their troops a little in preparation for a preemptive attack. However, isn’t your plan to target the Renard tribe rather than the Satyrs?”

“That’s right.”

“But in that case, wouldn’t it be a problem if the Renard troop retreat and the Satyr troop rushes to attack Automation when it has no protection? And then if the Renard troop is to turn around and attack the Lizardmen, eventually there would be two battlefronts…”

Sung-Woon sighed, and Eldar was bewildered.

“Nebula, isn’t this theoretically correct?”

“No, you’re wrong.”

“...I’m sorry, but what part?”

Sung-Woon replied, “The Satyrs would pull back a few days' worth of travel, and I would attack the Renard troop a few days earlier. So I would win.”

“...Would you?”

“You’re helping me, aren’t you?”

“Me?” Eldar asked in wonder.

Eldar hadn’t deceived Crampus and Lunda about the Elves not having any army. Rather, he had deceived them when he said he would supply the Renard troop with a portion of what little resources he had left.

‘Is that also part of Nebula’s strategy?’

Sung-Woon continued to say, “Well, even if you don’t help me, I think there’s a higher chance of me winning. Anyways, you’ll know once the battlefront is redrawn.”

Sung-Woon brought up a map and marked where the troops were. Eldar nodded in realization.

“Oh.”

***

Marching across the wilderness were creatures with fluffy light brown fur and black tips on the ears and tail. They were the Renards.

Renard cavalry rode on big Weasels, and behind them were the infantry, followed by wagons pulled by big Weasels at the rear. They had to come to a halt when Hati, the Renard king in the middle of the army, got mad at some bad news.

Hati got off a big Weasel and asked, “The soldiers have stomach aches?”

“Yes…”

The Renard hundred-man commander reporting the news lowered his head.

“The food must have gone bad. Weren’t you in charge of the supplies?”

“...That is right.”

“Then you also would’ve known that you would be punished when reporting this.”

Hati pulled out his knife, but he was suddenly stopped by the thousand-man commander, Yubei.

“King Hati, please wait a moment.”

“What is it?”

Yubei was the most competent and courageous warrior among the Renards. Therefore, he became the leader of one hundred soldiers faster than anyone else. Then he followed Hati’s steps to become the leader of one thousand soldiers who commanded the entire army.

Hati had confidence in Yubei.

Yubei said, “There was no issue with the food yesterday. Isn’t that so?”

“Yes. That is for sure.”

“And this morning, the soldiers ate the food not brought by us.”

“Yes.” Hati realized what the issue was. “Elves! Are you saying there’s a problem with the supplies we got from the Elves?”

Yubei nodded and said, “That’s what I think. Isn’t that right, Quartermaster?”

“Yes. That is right. All soldiers who reported that they were sick had cooked and eaten food provided by the Elves, at least.”

Hati shook his head in disbelief.

“But yesterday I checked the supplies myself. There was no problem then, was there? Didn’t you also do the inspection with me? Nothing was spoiled.”

“Yes. That means…”

Yubei said, “The Elves have likely given us supplies with problems on purpose. On the outside, they don’t look spoiled but rather fresh, when in fact the Elves have poisoned it.”

Hati checked what the sick soldiers had eaten, and it was just as Yubei had said.

Sung-Woon had used Small Area: Insects to spread disease. He had discovered a food-borne and water-borne disease that wasn’t readily noticeable to the naked eyes, so there wouldn’t be any warning signs appearance-wise and smell-wise. However, since the disease was a weak bacteria with no noticeable signs, it would only cause stomachaches or diarrhea for a few days once consumed.

Still, Sung-Woon thought that was good enough. He had been reluctant to use a stronger disease in the first place since it wouldn’t be controllable.

When Hati found out they had been betrayed, he wiggled his triangular ears and shook his long beard in anger.

“Damn it. The fact that the Elves deceived us means…”

“...There’s a high chance that the information the Elves gave us is also wrong.”

The Elves who delivered the supplies had told them that the Lizardmen were getting ready at Automation to attack the Satyrs’ territory, and that they shouldn’t let the cavalry become too tired by scouting.

Hati believed them and had reduced the size of the scouting party by half.

Hati muttered as if he wanted to deny that they had been betrayed, “But the information that the Elves told us is the same as the Fruition God’s revelation.”

Yubei nodded.

A regular person would’ve panicked by now, and with their clouded judgment, rather than concluding that the Elves had betrayed them, they would’ve thought that the Elves who gave them the supplies hadn’t known there was a problem either.

However, Yubei had a unique ability—Distrust. It was normally considered a demerit among players, yet Lunda had raised someone with the ability like Yubei to one of the highest positions among the Renards. There was a reason for this.

“...What if God was wrong?”

“How disrespectful!”

“King Hati, don’t dismiss my words like that. There is clear evidence. It is true that the Elves have betrayed us, and since they are Elves that normally work with the Lizardmen, they were probably trying to set us up. We should double the scale and frequency of our scouting effort.”

Hati didn’t think for long. Yubei wasn’t faithful, but he was loyal. And even in Hati’s opinion, Yubei’s point seemed reasonable.

“Alright. Thousand-man commander, let’s do as you said.”

Yubei nodded and walked up to the reconnaissance commander. He had to immediately go back to Hati after hearing the information the scouting party had brought back.

“We have spotted the Lizardmen army.”

“...How many of them are there?”

“They said there were about one thousand and five hundred Lizardmen.”

The distance between the Lizardmen and the Renards was equivalent to half a day’s march. It was a distance that would take the enemy cavalry no time to launch an attack.

Hati had been briefed several times about the combat abilities of Black Scale. He judged that there was some exaggeration about the details, but he was certain the Lizardmen were strong.

‘If we fight that many of them, we will definitely lose.’

Renards would have been at a disadvantage even if they had the same number of soldiers due to their physiques. To make things worse, they were also short in numbers.

The reason why Hati had decided to attack Black Scale was because he was mindful that the Satyrs would be fighting at the same time, and because he believed there was no reason for the Renards to encounter the Lizardmen’s main force after receiving a divine revelation from God.

‘Even though God said they were going to help us, we can’t fight the enemy’s main force.’

In addition, two hundred Renard soldiers were suffering stomach aches.

‘That leaves us with nine hundred soldiers who can properly fight then?’

It was fortunate that none of the big Weasel cavalry had gotten sick, but they would lose even under the current circumstances. And the Satyrs wouldn’t have known yet that they were betrayed.

Hati eventually said, “Let’s turn back.”

Yubei, the thousand-man commander, nodded.

“That is the right choice.”

“Send an errand boy to the king of the Satyrs, Pav. Tell them we’ve encountered the Lizardmen’s main force and that we’re retreating.”

“Okay.”

“We’re going to go as far back as possible while the Satyrs attack Automation.”

Fortunately enough, it hadn’t been long since the Renard army entered the wilderness. A whole day’s march would take them back to the mountains and forests, allowing them to utilize their small build in guerilla warfare.

Though not as strong as the Lizardmen’s horn bows were rumored to be, the Renards’ bows were well known to be fairly strong with a long range, and they had more archers than any other country.

‘From there we would have a chance. If we buy time, Automation will fall due to the Satyrs’ attack, and if Pav continues to advance deeper into Automation and conquer the city proper, the Lizardmen will have to give up since they would be unable to get supplies.’

That would be their opportunity to fight back. At least, Hati had thought so.

He would’ve been right if a behemoth of a mantis hadn’t appeared once the Renard army turned around.

***

The god of the Renards, Lunda the Fruition God, screamed.

“What is that!?”

***

A gigantic, twenty meters tall figure rose from behind a low hill.

It was blue, stood upright with its thick legs, and had huge front feet; behind the front feet were grotesquely attached arms that were holding its shoulders. It was Sung-Woon’s creation, Sratis.

‘A three hour difference?’ Sung-Woon thought.?‘It’s not far at all if I buy some time with my creation.’

Sratis strode towards the Renard army.

-How dare you set foot in the territory of the faithful one…

Then Hati the Renard king yelled, “All soldiers, run away as fast as you can! Abandon the wagons!”

-Death is the rightful punishment for your sin…

Sratis hit the ground from far away. Stones the size of the Renards’ heads struck them. Ten were either killed or wounded in one fell swoop.

Yubei then said after deploying his soldiers, “King Hati! The next battle will be unmanageable if we abandon the wagons! We must fight that monster.”

“Yubei, you’re competent, but your problem is that you have weak faith in God.”

“What?”

“That’s not just any monster. It’s definitely the guardian of the evil Lizardmen!”

“...Oh.”

“We have a guardian too!” Hati said.

At that moment, a seventeen meter tall brown rat charged towards Sratis.

-...!

The Renards cheered when their guardian appeared, but they also began to run away from the fight.

***

Lunda clenched her teeth.

Lunda’s creation, Neji, resembled a brown rat. It fell far short when compared to Sratis, which was unfortunate since Lunda couldn’t meet the expectations of the Renards that believed in her.

‘What are those abilities? Did Nebula use all the Essence of fiends and abominations he killed? And superhuman strength is added on as a characteristic? That’s crazy.’

Lunda had thought things were going well until now. And fortunately, Crampus, who she had formed an alliance with, was a good player with decent skills.

‘I don’t think he’s skilled enough to win the game.’

But she still thought he would at least be one of the players to reach the end among those on the third continent. Once they got to that point, Lunda planned to ally herself with a player with better skills, but until then, she thought it wouldn’t be bad to stay with Crampus.

‘He has a better personality than the grim duo and that bad-tempered guy named Wisdom.’

And Lunda judged Crampus’ decision to be pretty by-the-book.

Everything was falling into place until she had to face the monster-like Nebula.

‘Wait, if we run away like this and that creation shows up again after killing Neji, this would be all for nothing.’

In addition, losing Neji would be very upsetting for Lunda. She hadn’t invested as much into Neji as Sung-Woon had into Sratis, but Neji was still a creation that she invested Essence into. If Neji died, her level would go down.

‘Okay. Let’s think the other way around. If I use Divine Control now and Neji kills Sratis, that would do some damage to Nebula.’

It would take three hours for the rest of the Lizardmen to get to the Renards. And thirty minutes if only the enemy’s cavalry came.

‘If I use Divine Control on Yubei and fight, I’ll be able to defeat Sratis within thirty minutes.’

Sratis was at level 11, and its Divinity level was 4.

Neji was at level 7, and its Divinity level was 3.

However, Lunda’s Divinity level was at 9.

‘It’s 4 against 12, an overpowering difference even if Sratis’s basic ability levels were included in the calculation.’

Everything would be okay if Sratis was killed before the others came.

Lunda used Divine Control on Yubei.

***

Hati, the king of the Renards, saw Yubei’s eyes turn green.

“Fruition God!”

“I will fight that monster. Withdraw the army.”

“I will do as you wish!”

Hati bowed and led the army away.

Lunda=Yubei turned around and leaped, charging towards Sratis.

Then Neji said.

-Master! You do not need to help me!

“Shut up! I can’t lose you!”

-Master!

Neji looked at Lunda=Yubei for a moment and charged again at Sratis. Sratis was about to stab a blade into Neji’s back, but suddenly stepped back after seeing Lunda=Yubei charge towards it.

-.....

“I see you’re a rather quiet creation. I guess your god doesn’t value you as much.”

-...That doesn’t matter.

“Oh, wow.”

-...I just fulfill the missions assigned to me.

Lunda=Yubei was surprised by Sratis’ rather subdued appearance. Usually, individual preferences would be reflected on the creations they made, but Nebula instead incorporated characteristics with strategic advantages.

‘I see he’s worth getting to know.’

It seemed like a good thing.

It would take thirty minutes for the enemy’s main force, at least their cavalry, to come.

‘Everything will be fine if we finish this battle before then.’

Lunda=Yubei rushed to the bridge as Sratis fought Neji. Sratis stomped on Lunda=Yubei, but even Sratis was helpless when facing a god’s power. Lunda=Yubei grabbed and lifted the foot stepping on her before yanking on it.

-...Darn it!

As Sratis’s leg split apart, Lunda=Yubei continued to charge and pull until the leg got torn off with a crunching sound. Despite the pain, Sratis landed an upper-hook on Neji’s chin.

-You damn insect!

-Insignificant creature, shouldn’t you think of the pain you go through for God…as a blessing?

“You’re crazy.”

Disgusted by Sratis, Lunda=Yubei drew her knife. She was going to carve out the eyes of that disgusting mantis.

Lunda had thought this would take less than thirty minutes. But there was something Lunda hadn’t included in her calculation.

What if Lakrak had come alone rather than the entire cavalry? What if he were to run there instead of riding his monstrous Cockatrice? And what if Sung-Woon had used Divine Control to enter Lakrak’s body?

“I’ll get there first,” said Lakrak=Sung-Woon.

Sung-Woon, whose Divinity level was 12, had used Divine Control to enter Lakrak’s body, and Lakrak got off the monstrous bird and began to run. He had an overpowering force which allowed him to jump tens of meters forward with a single step. With one step he flew over the low hill, and with the next he soared tens of meters high into the air.

‘I see them.’

In Sung-Woon=Lakrak’s eyes, he could see Sratis being defeated by the huge brown rat and a Renard. Sung-Woon=Lakrak landed and immediately jumped with both feet.

Thump, thump, thump!

The ground sank as Sung-Woon=Lakrak soared into the sky. It was a triple jump.

Sratis stepped back from Neji and Yubei’s concerted attack and looked up.

-Master…!

Sung-Woon=Lakrak stormed towards them with his spear.