“Wait, are you saying you traded with the fourth continent?”
Sung-Woon replied concisely, “Yes.”
The continent the player referred to as the fourth continent was generally known as the southern continent.
Sung-Woon said, “It is pretty far. But it’s still closer than the second or third continent. More importantly, there are enough islands that it’s possible for trade routes to be established even at the current technology level.” .𝘤𝘰
“That’s not what I’m talking about. The fourth continent is occupied by…”
“The Deep Ones.”
Crampus kept hesitantly opening his mouth to say something like he found Sung-Woon’s explanation lacking.
Sung-Woon understood what Crampus was getting at.
“Are you going to point out that player Sha-Cha is an evil god?”
Player Sha-Cha’s ID was ‘?щ????’. The Cyrillic alphabet in the name was pronounced ‘sha,’ and the korean letter that followed was pronounced ‘cha.’ Therefore, the players of the third continent called them Sha-Cha. Sha-Cha had terrorized the southern part of the third continent through piracy with their Deep Ones, and the players came together to fight off the Deep Ones, which triggered the whole war.
Crampus said, “…How can you trade with them?”
Sung-Woon responded with a question of his own, “That’s what I want to ask. Why do you think it isn’t possible?”
Sung-Woon’s reasoning was simple. Deep Ones knew how to talk, and they had intelligence. Although Deep Ones relied on looting as the foundation of their economy, that was likely because of the environment they were put in. Since they had been expelled from continent to continent under the banner of Yaboon’s Pirates, they could only support themselves with bad deeds to survive at sea.
‘And on a continent with a stable supply of resources, there’s a high chance that a proper civilization would be established.’
Although they appeared wicked, there was no reason to believe they couldn’t be otherwise.
Under Sung-Woon’s guidance, Black Scale was able to trade with the fourth continent, and when Vasen Lak Orazen was waging war against Danyum, Black Scale made contact with the Deep Ones.
Of course, Sung-Woon knew that the player behind the Deep Ones wasn’t a regular player, and the god controlling the species was the important matter to consider rather than the species itself.
Excluding the 27 players of the third continent who seemed to have joined the game the normal way, there were additional players with scrambled IDs, and they were called evil gods. So far, there had been three such players. One on the first continent. Then there were Jeol Woo-Bi of the third continent and Sha-Cha of the fourth continent.
Specific information about these players remained unknown, and so did their goals.
‘Of course, when considering Jeol Woo-Bi’s case, they seem to be after us with inexplicable hatred…but that isn’t necessarily the case.’
Sung-Woon’s thoughts weren’t baseless. Jeol Woo-Bi had plunged the third continent into chaos, but that was only because the other players on the third continent hadn’t made the best response at the time, while strategically Jeol Woo-Bi had made the correct decision. If the players had enough time, they would have strengthened their internal defenses, identified the Vampires inside their countries, and succeeded in establishing a line of defense.
‘Jeol Woo-Bi simply carried out a logical strategy with the Vampires. Although the true nature of the evil gods is unknown, it’d be irrational to avoid trading with us even if their ultimate goal is to defeat us.’
And Sung-Woon was right. The Deep Ones were confused about the outsiders, but they were a different group of Deep Ones than Yaboon’s Pirates, whom Black Scale and the alliance had defeated together. These Deep Ones accepted the goodwill shown by Black Scale’s merchants and carried out proper trades.
And there was something else that surprised Sung-Woon.
[Player, ?щ????, has requested s Whisper Conversation. Would you like to answer?]
.
Sung-Woon accepted the request after some thought, and the video chat was immediately connected.
As soon as Sung-Woon saw Sha-Cha, he thought to himself, ‘A kid?’
Sha-Cha was wearing a white featureless mask, which gave them an eerie aura. From the proportions of their body, though, they seemed like a Human child or a young one from a Human-like species.
Even though Sha-Cha had initiated the call, they stayed silent, and Sung-Woon had to initiate the conversation.
“I’m Nebula, but I’m not sure what to call you.”
“…..”
“Did you like the trade? I think they’ll bring even better goods next time.”
“…..”
“Um, you didn’t accidentally request a conversation or something, did you?”
Sha-Cha said, “…Why?”
A strange voice projected from beneath the mask.
Sung-Woon thought about what Sha-Cha could be asking about.
“Why did I make them trade?”
“…..”
Sha-Cha didn’t say anything, but Sung-Woon interpreted the silence as affirmative.
“Because trades can be beneficial for both sides.”
Sha-Cha said, “I…will…”
“…Will what?”
Sung-Woon waited patiently. And then he heard a response that wasn’t worth waiting for.
“Kill you all.”
Sung-Woon bitterly smiled behind his mask. It seemed that Sha-Cha wasn’t very different from Jeol Woo-Bi.
“But probably not right away.”
“…..”
“The continents are too far apart. If you put together a large fleet, they could get caught in a storm, and their technological level is not high enough to carry out an operation on land. Besides, aren’t you not confident that you’ll win?”
“…..”
However, Sung-Woon was facing the same issues. Until the whole continent is conquered, or at least until the war with the alliance settles down, it would be difficult for him to conquer the fourth continent.
“I’m not sure who will be able to get ready first, but until then, let’s just stay as good trading partners. Don’t you think we’ll be of help to each other?”
“…..”
Sha-Cha didn’t say anything. They just stared at Sung-Woon before ending the conversation.
Sung-Woon then checked to see if there were any attackers following Black Scale’s merchant ships, but there was none.
‘So is that a silent agreement?’
After a successful first trade, Sung-Woon actively prepared to trade for the items he needed, which were potassium nitrate and niter. Sung-Woon’s main concern was whether the southern continent actually had any niter mines, but fortunately, his concerns turned out to be unfounded. While the continent was slightly farther than Mangul, they sold niter at a lower price since they hadn’t developed any gunpowder weapon yet.
Sha-Cha didn’t initiate any further conversations, but as if a commitment had been made, the Deep Ones reciprocated and actively engaged in trade with Black Scale. 𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ
Black Scale took the initiative to improve their gunpowder weapons with the high-purity potassium nitrate. And by that point, Sung-Woon was the one who was getting suspicious.
‘Why have there been no attacks along this trade route?’
Sung-Woon had of course taken precautions to ensure that the trade route would lead to the eastern side of Black Scale, making it difficult to discover, and he had also paid lots of attention to other aspects of the trade route as well. But these efforts were mostly in the form of measures taken to delay the discovery of the trade routes, as he believed that they would be discovered at some point.
‘No, wait. Let’s think again.’
Sung-Woon considered the situation where Wisdom and his other allies hadn’t discovered or even considered the possibility of a trading route.
‘Then what would they think I was planning?’
The answer was simple. If it weren’t possible for him to produce potassium nitrate for gunpowder weapons at the moment, then he could just take resources that belonged to someone else. And the greatest source of potassium nitrate on the third continent was Mangul’s Alkoom, which could be more easily attacked from the sea.
‘Does Wisdom think I’m going to attack Alkoom?’
It wasn’t an impossible scenario. If the fourth continent hadn’t existed, Sung-Woon might have actually attacked Alkoom.
‘But if I were to do so, I wouldn’t have stopped advancing after attacking Crampus’s Danyum.’
Since additional merchant ships were needed anyway, Sung-Woon had built warships and observed what would happen. And as he did so, the defense in Alkoom began to strengthen.
So Sung-Woon judged that his speculation had been correct.
‘That’s a good thing.’
Currently, Lunda and Eldar were focused on small-scale battles happening at their own borders. They were helping so that resources could be preserved for Black Scale’s next battle rather than being wasted. And in Sung-Woon’s opinion, it seemed possible to make the enemy suffer such waste.
‘If both sides build more warships, it’ll be the opponent who suffers losses.’
In reality, Sung-Woon had prepared his fleet with less than half of the gunpowder weapons and combatants he had before assuming control over them so that Black Scale’s fleet would reach the shore of Alkoom. And as he did, Wisdom and his allies fell for the pretense and wasted resources on the unnecessary sea battle.
Meanwhile, Black Scale’s main forces armed themselves with improved cannons to break down the walls of Asbestos’s main fortresses, as well as handheld cannons that the infantry could use for single shots during battle.
Having wasted resources necessary for battles, the alliance fell behind and couldn’t catch up with Black Scale’s fast moves. Instead, they mistakenly assumed that the quality of Black Scale’s gunpowder would have decreased and underestimate them, which in turn brought about their defeat.
Sung-Woon pretended he couldn’t hear Crampus cursing.
Then Crampus said, “Tell me, Nebula. What went wrong this time?”
“What went wrong? If predicting the opponent’s actions is considered a puzzle, I don’t think your puzzle matching skills are bad.”
“Then what?”
“You just didn’t understand the rules of the game properly.”
“Rules of the game?”
Sung-Woon replied, “If you want to put puzzles together, shouldn’t you first check to see if you have all the pieces?”
According to Sung-Woon’s personal evaluation, the alliance had too narrow a perspective; in other words, they lacked imagination. They all knew the fourth continent existed, but never considered that Black Scale would trade with the Deep Ones there.
‘They also assumed that Sha-Cha, just like Jeol Woo-Bi, weren’t someone they could converse with.’
They shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions without any confirmation.
“Your confidence is excessive, Nebula.”
Sung-Woon turned around since Crampus wasn’t the one speaking this time. Wisdom’s head appeared next to Crampus.
Wisdom said, “The battle isn’t over yet.”
The walls of the Asien Fortress collapsed before the people of New Danyum could even establish their country.
A huge shadow then rose from behind the fortress walls.
Sung-Woon quickly moved his hands beneath the video chat window.
“I know.”
Lightning struck again from behind Black Scale’s army. And with the crackling sound came the soldiers’ cheers.
Amid the cacophony of thunder and lightning, Lakrak appeared on Anakse’s back.
Lakrak flew toward Black Scale’s army and shouted, “Who dares stand up against the power of Night Sky!”
Among the soldiers of New Danyum on top of the fortress walls, there were already some who threw their weapons aside and ran away.
Knowing that the sight would only further bolster Lakrak’s influence, Crampus’s expression hardened.
Wisdom thought to himself—
‘It won’t be the same this time, Nebula.’
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