[Short: Pyer Executed by Eleutherian Prier Horrendous Gangnam Style Dance]

  —LMAOOO

  —Most warranted execution I’ve ever seen

  —How is it even possible to do it that badly lol

  └ Nvm I uand now

  —What a terrible day to have eyes

  —Attempting to assassinate prince = okay, dang poorly = death

  └ Lol pretty much

  └ Sounds abht XD

  └ Prince is based

  —NOTICE: King Lemonade is recruiting pyers to fight with the pri Novus Town (top left of Eleutheria Kingdom)

  └ om omw

  └ NOOO MY TP IS ON COOLDOWN

  └ To the previous enter: L

  └ I’m ing, my king!

  —Okay but why is nobody talking about the 270m/s arrow? Isn’t that pretty terrifying??

  └ Doesn’t affect damage, so it’s actually pretty useless imo

  └ He loses it as soon as he misses lol

  └ YOU GUYS HAVEN’T SEEN GUN’S STREAM – YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT HE’S CAPABLE OF

  └ Lol that guy has stans already

  └ Since he’s an archer he’ll be ‘capable of’ hiding behind the prince for prote

  └ Fr lol, archer css is so trash

  ...

  Max logged ba after having gone for lunch with Lina and Raymond. Even on horseback it had taken several hours of travel to reaovus – so long that it was now almost midday in real life. This passage of time was especially pronounced in the game world, where nearly aire night cycle had passed.

  eg to the game server, he appeared in a rge military camp, packed full of pyers and NPC soldiers. This temporary camp had beeed far north of where he’d fought in Novus Forest previously and was about a kilometre out from the orpound they’d e to attack. It had been necessary to climb aire mountain to reach this pce, and although there wasn’t a particurly steep ine here at the top, the terrain was that of a barren tundra, devoid of trees and with little-to-no natural cover.

  ...Max observed the enemy pound in the dista had a rge wood-walled perimeter, lined with small dots across its length which he knew were orcish archers. Orcs made surprisingly good bowmen on at of their great strength and muscur endurance, and were capable of wielding huge, powerful bows which almost looked like ballistae. Their only drawback was their dexterity – sihey had quite rge, indelicate hands, their accuracy with bows was quite terrible.

  Although inferior accuracy might sound like a fatal fw for an archer to have, Max had personally lead armies against or Hero of Liberation and khat this was not the case. In rge-scale warfare, archers would typically shoot arrows into enemy lines hundreds of metres away, so precise aim was unhese le arrow barrages were extremely brutal and had the capability to inflict catastrophic damage to soldiers in dense formations.

  Max frowhere were plenty of ways to ter orcish archers; he wasn’t too worried about that. What truly ed him was the fact that they built a wall. Orcs didn’t usually build walls. They didn’t usually take the high grouher – they were too stupid to have that level of fht. The fact that they had done so anyway indicated that they were being led by a more intelligent lifeform, such as a high orc or a demon. Max hoped it was a high orc. Although he had never entered a high orc prior to this game, his enter with Azrog indicated that they were weaker and less intelligent than the demons in the prequel game.

  ‘Okay, enough daydreaming.’

  Max resumed his livestream ao find Lemonade for clout.

  ‘There really are a lot of pyers here now...’

  Several thousand pyers filled the area, chatting amongst each other and reading the forums while waiting for the battle to begin. Max was once again reminded of how popur Lemonade was, having been able to assemble this many people with just a few social media posts.

  Looking around, he saw a rge tent in the tre of the camp, where several NPC soldiers stood guard to keep pyers from entering.

  ‘a. Virtus and Stewart will probably be in there, but maybe Lemooo.’

  Stewart, an NPax had met prior to logging off, was a casteln from a neighb fiefdom. He’d brought a rge number of trained soldiers – approximately ~4,600, from his castle town to defeat the ord dismaheir pound.

  Approag the tent, one of the soldiers reised Max and waved him in. Max eo find Virtus, Stewart, and a few other officers engaged in a military discussion. Meanwhile, Lemo in a fold-up chair by the entraaring ily at a small ring.

  “Lemon!” Max greeted Lemonade, causing him to jump in fright. “Whatcha doin’?”

  “Hey, don’t scare me like that!” Lemonade pined. “I nearly dropped my ring. Do you have any idea how much gold is in this?”

  Max recalled he got the ring from Virtus’s sister, Sophia. “No, how much?”

  “A huhousand.”

  Max’s eyes widened. “Woah. You could buy a whole suit of pte armour with that!”

  “Eh, armour is that expensive?” Lemoook a gold from the ring and juggled it in his hand. “I thought it would be way cheaper.”

  “Nope. Ba medieval times, full pte ore than a year’s wages for most people.” Max watched the . “An average person couldn’t- Wait, you just took that out from the ring, didn’t you?”

  “Hm? Yeah.”

  “How long to take it out? Is it faster than the iory?”

  “It’s instant, actually.”

  “Instant?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is there a cooldown?”

  Lemoook two more s from the ring in quick succession. “Nope.”

  “No way... Hey, do you mind trying something for me?” Max took two arrows from his quiver. “The thing you did just then, you try it with these arrows?”

  “Uh, sure.” Lemonade wasn’t sure what the significe of this was, but he took the arrows and threw them into the ste ring before taking them back out a half-sed apart.

  ‘Wait.’ Lemonade realised what Max was thinking. ‘Oh no.’

  “Lemonade, my good- my great friend. You won’t be needing that ring during the battle, will you?” Max tapped his index fiogether and made a slight pleading face. “If not... maybe I possibly, perhaps, borrow it?”

  Lemonade gave him a friendly gre before seeking outside sultation. “What do you think chat, he borrow the ring?”

  —Oh, I see, because there’s a 2-sec dey on iory transfers but not with the ring

  —Wait, isn’t this like having an infinite quiver?

  —ABSOLUTELY NOT

  —YES YES 100% YES

  —yessssss

  —NO

  —Why is this guy just a walking bug collector

  —Even when he begs he’s so hot omg omg

  Lemonade squinted into his chat panel. “Hmm, it’s nearly an even split, but the tie was broken by a rare appearance of woman-simps. gratutions, Gun. Seems like you’re popur with the dies.”

  —NOOOO WHYY

  —This is why we don’t let them have voting rights

  Lemonade sent a one-way trade offer, transferring ownership of the ring so Max could use it.

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Max accepted. “What’s a woman-simp, though?”

  “Uh-”

  “No siege ons?!” Virtus suddenly yelled loudly across the tent. “Not a single one?!”

  Max and Lemonade’s attention shifted at the suddeo a man with his hands raised, who was attempting to pcate the prince. “N-no, we have two battering rams, Yhness. What I meant to say is that we have ned siege ons.”

  “Ned siege, why?”

  “Ease up on him, it was my decision,” a middle-aged man interjected. Max reised him as the casteln, Stewart. “The reports you sent us didn’t give aion of battlements above the palisades. We believed the rams would be enough for that sort of sario.”

  “Well, yes, but why would you to simply bring everything? Now we stand at a disadvantage.”

  “You wanted us here quickly and heavy ons like those take time to move. We don’t have aire jewellery shop of ste rings at our disposal like the royal family does,” Stewart answered bluntly.

  “Tch. Sorry, it wasn’t my iion to y bme, I’m just frustrated... Could we have some trebuchets brought from the Novus monolith?”

  “We could, but it would take some time. I’m not sure how many heroes will disperse by then.”

  “Never mind then, it shouldn’t be necessary. I’m fairly certain the heroes gathered here already double or triple outhe enemy.”

  [Final Notice: An update will en 1 minute. Estimated downtime is 2 minutes]

  ‘Oh? An update?’

  A system notice piqued Max’s curiosity. He hadn’t been ohe st time there date, but he’d read on the forums that nearly everything in the game world would freeze while an update was being applied, with only a few minor exceptions.

  “Indeed, we have a great number of heroes with us,” Stewart tialking. “My men have procured a rge number of siege dders, so the heroes use those to unch a frontal assault.”

  “Yes, I cur, that would be the best way to minimise army casualties.” Virtus nodded. “In additio us entrust otering ram to the heroes, in order to gauge their capability.”

  Stewart made a sceptical face. “...I doubt they would succeed in ramming the gate, given that very few of them have shields. However, if that is your request, we afford an attempt. Since we are doing that, I will arrange my men at the rear. Should the heroes start to lose trol, I’ll give the order to move in with the sed ram.”

  “That sounds like a good pn. As expected of the casteln.”

  “Ha. Your praise is unnecessary – a strategy like this is extremely basic.”

  “No doubt, you would say that. Well, I believe we’ve discussed everything, so I will go now to rally the heroes. Instruen to hand out those siege dders.”

  “Of course, it will be done.”

  Virtus rose from his chair and moved to leave the tent, addressing Max and Lemonade, “You two, with me.”

  Leading them outside, he went to aed part of the camp where he could be seen more easily. “Alright, I’m going to make a brief speech. e staher side of me.”

  With a glow from one of his rings, he took out a straem. It looked simir to an ice-cream e, but with a straice sphere h mystically above it in the air. Without warning, he started speaking loudly into it: “Attention, heroes. I thank you all fatherioday in defence of lorious-”

  [Update will now ence. Estimated downtime is 2 minutes. We thank you for your patience]

  ‘Oh. Well, that’s some poor timing.’

  Max felt a bit bad for Virtus, who was id-sentence. Although he was about to warn him to wait a moment, the guy had already started talking... Wasn’t it normal to pause for a moment and think about what yoing to say before speaking to a crowd of thousands?

  ‘Well anyways, where the heck is this?’

  Standing on a polished marble floor, Max checked his surroundings. He was in a spacious room with a rge, wall-mouV aric firepce, as well as some couches and an expensive-looking pool table. Instead of walls, two t windows stretched from floor to ceiling on opposite sides, one of which opened up to a glistening swimming pool.

  ‘Is this a luxury vil?’

  Max was impressed. Looking further into the building, there were some other rooms, as well as a set of walled signs. “Bowling alley... home ema... wow.”

  With this sort of setup, the pyers might actually ask for the updates to take longer.

  Notig an interface with patotes, Max wavered for a moment before deg to spend his two minutes reading through them.

  Patotes (Se #1):

  We sincerely apologise to the 700,000 pyers affected by registration lockout at the game’s unch, in which users could not ge their avatar, settings or userer registering. To remedy this, affected users will be grahe following:

  A choice between [Avatar ge Token] or [5% EXP Booster (1 week)]A choice between [Username ge Token] or [5% EXP Booster (1 week)][10% EXP Booster (1 week)]This sele will be avaible in the user’s mail inbox, with chosen items beio iory upon pleting the choi. Once more, we at Virtek apologise for any invenience caused by the error.

  Patotes (Se #2):

  In respoo aremely rge volume of support requests regarding the archer css test, our personnel have ducted a review and deemed it necessary to implement a signifit difficulty redu. Additionally, we are aware that most pyers sider the css’s strength to be g, thus we have decided to boost its effects. The following ges will be made:

  Archer css test thresholds will be reduced by 20% (Passing distance is now 20m)Archer css test attempts per target will be increased from 1 to 3 attemptsExisting archers will be granted a temporary 40% increase (e.g. 50% -> 70%) to their css bonuses due to pleting a more difficult archer css test. This increase will persist until the user’s subsequent css promotionArcher css bonuses have been permaly doubled for all brackets

  Other: An additional patch will be released tomorrow m with further ges. We thank you for your patiend ask that you treat our support staff with kindness and respect.

  "...!!!!!"