Overgeared

It was the sixth day since the Overgeared Kingdom’s troops were stationed in the evil eyes village.

“It is rumored that at least 500 million players belong to the empire,” Pon expressed concern over his colleagues’ optimistic attitude about preventing the invasion of the empire. “Won’t we be swept away if the empire issues quests to all the players?”

“...”

The atmosphere sharply cooled down. They imagined the scene of five million players flocking together continuously. How long could they hold out against the waves of enemies that kept coming? 

“...I never thought of the players.”

Coke and some of the Overgeared members paled and shivered. Fear dominated them before Lauel reassured them, “Quests must have rewards. In particular, the rewards for war quests are several times more than normal quest rewards. It is difficult for the empire to release quests to hundreds of millions of players, no matter how much money they have.”

“Umm... Is it a problem for a nation to have too many players?”

“I can’t say it is completely good since there are many players who joined to army or were knighted. It is easy to move soldiers and knights who have to respond to a ‘certain duty’ without giving many rewards.”

“Soldiers... Why the hell do they want to enlist in the army in a game?” Peak Sword complained. As a citizen of South Korea, he had experience with military service. He didn’t want to go to the army again, no matter how patriotic he was. It was hard for him to understand the psychology of the players who joined the army. However, the other Overgeared members understood it well. 

“Joining the army isn’t mandatory unless it is a special situation like South Korea. There are surprisingly many people who have fantasies about the army.”

“That’s right. They don’t want to join the army in reality, but they can at least do it in the game.”

“...Um.”

“That makes sense. Sometimes it is a disadvantage that so many of the Overgeared Kingdom’s players are Korean. They will never join the army even in the game.”

“Does it mean the Overgeared Kingdom’s ability to use the player forces is less than other countries?”

“Yes. This phenomenon will continue in the future unless Korea is quickly unified.”

“It is strange...”

To think the real world could affect the game this way...? The Overgeared members were very interested in it.

“Let’s go back to work.”

It was time for their shift. The Overgeared members scattered all over the evil eyes village.

***

It was the 10th day after the Overgeared members were stationed in the evil eyes village.

“This is boring.”

“I want to hunt. Why can’t the empire arrive faster if they are going to attack?”

Vantner and Peak Sword, famous for their lack of patience among the 10 meritorious retainers, finally reached their limit. The evil eyes village was a completely secluded place underground, and it destroyed the human spirit because it didn’t have any entertainment or hunting grounds. The two men had been guarding the gate for 10 days, and they were bored and anxious. 

“Everyone outside is probably hunting right now.”

“I guess. You will suffer if you don’t hunt during the National Competition’s buff period.”

“We aren’t hunting, so the damage...”

“If there was a hunting ground near here, I would’ve hunted after every shift but there is no hunting ground...” 

“Hah...”

“Sigh...”

Peak Sword and Vantner checked the time habitually as they wanted their shift to end quickly. They wanted to log out, sit in front of the TV, and have a beer.

“Huh?”

Peak Sword and Vantner, who were standing in front of the small castle where the evil eyes king lived, turned toward the entrance of an alley across the street. Three exceptionally short evil eyes were staring at them. The short evil eyes were less than one meter tall. Their faces were especially round, and there was a flush on the cheeks. One of them had a running nose with a long snot hanging from it.

“Little kids.”

“How cute.”

The evil eyes boasted cute doll-like appearances. Sometimes they had scars on their face and some were unusually ferocious, but they were still cute. People couldn’t help smiling at their appearance. Then what about the young evil eyes? Peak Sword and Vantner smiled like fathers and waved to the children. They were surprised by the shy nature of the evil eyes children hiding in the alley. Peak Sword and Vantner felt they were even cuter.

“It is really nice as long as they don’t open their mouths.”

“Yes, as long as they don’t open their mouths.” 

They recalled that first day when they arrived at the evil eyes village. Thanks to the Destiny Guardians confirming their identities, they had entered the village easily and had to face the enthusiasm of thousands of evil eyes. It had truly been hell. 1,000 people like Lauel had come up and talked to them. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say they had almost lost their minds.

It was fortunate they had prepared earplugs in advance or they might’ve fainted. The earplugs were developed to resist the curse. They hadn’t known that an item that was normally classified as a miscellaneous item would be so useful.

“The chuuni disease of the evil eyes king must be much greater. How much did God Grid suffer becoming friends with the king? God Grid is truly great. He isn’t a god for nothing. Ah, really... The first time I met God Grid...”

“...”

Today, Peak Sword’s cult worship of Grid began again. Vantner was taking out earplugs twisted from long use and stopped as he was going to put them in his ears. It was because the three evil eyes children were approaching.

“This point onwards is prohibited,” Vantner stated harshly despite the feelings in his heart. He couldn’t relax his vigilance no matter how cute the evil eyes children were.

“It will be dangerous if assassins from the empire come. Don’t hang around here and play elsewhere. In fact, don’t leave your house at all,” Vantner warned coldly. Still, the evil eyes children lingered. They exchanged looks a few times before extending their hands which they had kept hidden behind them. In their hands, there were many candies that looked like ferns.

“Eat. This is something that all three of us risked out limbs to obtain.”

“...Did you take candy that your mothers hid?”

“Kukukuk? What are you talking about? My mother can’t treat me badly. The power latent inside me is a violent guy who ignores the flesh of kin. Kukukuk.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about... In any case, thank you.”

These were the children’s snacks. Vantner and Peak Sword, who knew the evil eyes would be in great danger when obtaining goods from the outside world, only took one candy. Then they urged the children to return home. The children hesitated before bowing. “You are the first and last humans we have bowed to since we were born. You should be honored.”

“...?”

“...Thank you for protecting our great king.” As if embarrassed, the evil eyes children blushed and fled as soon as they gave thanks. Peak Sword and Vantner stared at the children’s backs in an upset manner.

“This is X.”

“...You planted a flag.”

Moreover, it was a death flag! This was a common development in manhwa and movies. The main character helped someone, then person who was normally cold suddenly thanked them... This was a line that signalled the time of death was approaching.

“Quickly contact Lauel... Kuek?!” Peak Sword urgently took the posture of drawing the sword. Two dark human figures appeared out of the air and blocked the children’s way. The startled children hesitated, and Peak Sword and Vantner flew toward the children.

However, the two enemies who appeared were assassins with great skill. The daggers thrown by the assassins obstructed Peak Sword and Vantner. While the two of them fended off the daggers, the assassins grabbed the necks of the evil eyes children. They intended to use the children as hostages, but their intentions weren’t easily achieved.

Peak Sword and Vantner were strong.

“Where are you going?”

“...!?” The assassins barely escaped from the sword that flew toward them. The reason they didn’t use the caught evil eyes children as a shield was that their mission was to capture the children. Peak Sword took the posture of Draw Sword and once again questioned, “What are you planning to do by catching these little kids?”

Of course, the assassins didn’t answer. They took out daggers with the ‘explosion’ option attached and threw them. Vantner raised his shield to block the daggers. Then a powerful explosion occurred. The assassins believed that Vantner would be blown up along with the shield and were about to leave.

“These guys are truly X. Huhu.”

Something spun among the thick dust. It was a circular shield. The assassins crossed their daggers and blocked the shield. However, the shield was so strong that they groaned involuntarily. The silent assassins let out sounds of pain, and Vantner laughed as the shield returned to him like a boomerang.

“It is good since I was bored. Put the children down and fight properly.”

“Che...!”

The assassins couldn’t fight properly. They were unlikely to win considering the power of the 1st ranked guardian knight Vantner and the 1st ranked quick draw swordsman Peak Sword. In any case, this place was full of enemies. The longer the battle, the more disadvantaged they would be.

The assassin cast a smoke screen. They intended to escape from the city while Peak Sword and Vantner were confused for a moment. It was at this moment that...

“Sob. Look,” the evil eyes kid with the runny nose asked as he was caught by the assassin, “Touching my body, do you want to die?”

“...!”

There was a reason why the ‘advance teams’ had decided to kidnap the children of the evil eyes species. They thought the power of the evil eyes would be lacking because they were young. This wasn’t the case. The little evil eyes took off his eyepatch, and the assassin holding him froze. 

“Uh... Uwaaaah...!” The terrified assassin tried to throw away the evil eyes boy, but it was useless. The power of the evil eye acted just by ‘seeing.’ It was the most irrational force in the world.

“This...!”

The other assassin was surprised by his now dead colleague and turned to the two evil eyes he had captured. The rope tying them together was so tight that they couldn’t move their fingers to take off their eyepatches.

‘You idiot, you should’ve captured him properly like me!’ The assassin cursed his dead colleague and sneered. He was going to leave here before the smoke was completely lifted. By the way...

“...?”

Did the stealth skill not activate? The smokescreen that blocked the enemy’s vision became thicker and started to disturb his view.

“...!” The flustered assassin looked like he had seen a ghost. The two evil eyes children who had been tied up just a moment ago were now standing in front of him.

‘When did they escape?’

The smokescreen thickened like a fog over a lake at dawn. The assassin stood alone in the middle of this, and his confusion was maximized. He heard the laugh of the evil eyes children who had disappeared from view.

“Die wandering this fog forever. Kuk... Kukukuk! Kuhahahaha!”

“Uwaaaah!”

It was useless to scream and struggle. The fog just became thicker.

“Wow...” Peak Sword couldn’t close his mouth as he moved through the smokescreen. At first glance, the two assassins were obviously of high ranking. One had been completely frozen to death while the other screamed along as he fell into a hallucination.

‘They even have the power to pull out the death flag...!’

The evil eyes species was absolutely amazing. They now completely understood why Grid and Lauel were obsessed with the evil eyes.

“The duration of the illusion isn’t eternal. I recommend taking them out in advance,” the evil eyes children said while pointing at the hallucinating assassin.

Peak Sword nodded before approaching the assassin and tying him up. They took off the assassin’s mask and revealed that he was an NPC. Even after finding out his identity, they could attack still him. In other words, these assassins weren’t affiliated with the empire. If they were imperial NPCs, it would’ve been impossible for them to be attacked due to the armistice agreement.

‘External groups were contracted.’

Peak Sword and Vantner examined the city. Fierce battles were taking place everywhere.

“Hrmm... What to do?”

“What can we do apart from staying here?”

Peak Sword and Vantner’s mission was very important. Guarding the gate was equivalent to protecting the evil eyes king.

“It is dangerous. Don’t go home and head into the castle.”

It happened as Peak Sword and Vantner sent the children into the castle. Dozens of people appeared out of thin air. The invasion of the ‘advance teams’ wasn’t over yet.

“We’ll take care of you first before protecting the evil eyes.”

Peak Sword and Vantner smiled as they faced the assassin group. Not a single bit of tension could be found in them.

“It’s going to be super fun from now on.”

“Yes. It’s more interesting because we were about to die of boredom.”

“...Crazy bastards!” The leader of the assassins frowned and gestured. The assassins struck the two people at once. Iyarugt roared.