Season 4: Chapter 153. Hidden Class (3)

Most players didn’t play

Survival Craft

in its original form. Entire teams ran custom servers and reshaped the world to make it more fun, chaotic, or profitable. This was the essence of a sandbox game, like kids building and smashing sand castles, changing things however they liked.

However, high-level server making was expensive. To sustain the costs, the servers had to generate revenue. Naturally, that meant drawing in streamers. Servers designed for such were known as streamer servers.

Cheese Village was one of these servers with essential donation-linked mechanics, endless content, total freedom, and a twenty-four-hour management staff. The most important element was something else entirely: fair rewards. Not money, but recognition inside the system.

When a streamer invested serious effort with something bold and different, the game needed to reflect that. Viewers wouldn’t accept it if someone abandoned farming to explore every corner of the massive crafted world, only to come back and be labeled a worthless drifter.

Those who had watched the journey and valued the efforts would revolt if the system dismissed it. It had happened before. The Cheese Village devs had carefully designed around this to avoid such a problem. For acts requiring real courage, they had prepared equally monumental rewards.

“Cheese will eventually fall to Paprika. They’ll make it their colony, demanding food. Resistance won’t be possible. Paprika is far too strong.”

“Then, it’s permanent colonization?”

“No. Inevitably, a resistance will rise.”

“But you just said it’s impossible.”

“Even so. Heroes will emerge. Like freedom fighters.”

“Ah...”

“They will be people of immense courage. And their reward must be absolute.”

On paper, Paprika’s strength greatly dwarfed Cheese’s. To stand up against the oppressors would be insane and suicidal. In a game, courage like that couldn’t go unrewarded.

“So... we prepared this.” One of the developers pointed at the screen. “The Guardian.”

***

KRRAAAASH!!!

[Runway of the Vermilion Bird]

A crimson bird swept across the battlefield, leaving nothing but flames.

Whooosh!!

— Holy shit

— What is this? lol

— Completely broken hahaha

— Game over

‘No way...’

Even Almond felt shocked. He had only chosen the bird because he could fire it with a bow. He hadn’t expected this kind of devastation.

“

Ghhhaaaaaahhh!!

”

The path of the arrow became a furnace as it scorched everything in its wake.

“Wh-What the...

Ghhk!

” Parsley, who had been tearing through the Knights like a storm, burned alive before she could even swing back. “

Uaaaaaaghh!!

”

The flames were overwhelming.

— Wow hahaha

— ???

— This game is so broken now

— What the hell?

— Surely allies died too??

The sheer damage, speed, and area should have logically consumed friend and foe alike.

“

Hhuff... hhhuuuff...

” ForeverAlone collapsed back and trembled at the sight.

“W-What... is this?” Meringue, of the lackey squad, and others looked around in shock.

They remained untouched. This was the Guardian’s greatest privilege, and its constraint.

[Cheese Village residents are unaffected.]

The skill did not harm any Cheese villagers, which perfectly suited the Guardian.

‘What the...?’

Radish Servant finally noticed that the Knights survived. Only Paprika burned.

‘W-Wait, this is... bad!’

For him, this was even more alarming.

‘It would’ve been better if we’d all burned!’

Right before their eyes, the Paprika invaders were being scorched black in real time.

“

Ghhhaaaaaahhh!!

”

“F-Fire! Fire!!”

The Paprika invaders collapsed one after another as the earth beneath them turned to ashes. For the Knights, this was the worst possible outcome, especially if Maid Black Tea or Lackey ForeverAlone caught sight of the aftermath.

‘That can’t happen.’

Radish Servant had to stop it here.

“Knights! Fall back to Radish House!”

Everyone was already shaken after witnessing the Vermilion Bird turn the field into an inferno.

‘Retreat?’

‘Retreat now?’

In chaos, people latched onto the loudest voice.

“Retreat!”

“Retreat, they said!”

The order spread quickly. They turned and ran, smoke choking their lungs, and confusion in the air. No one noticed the blackened soil beneath the corpses. Even if they had, they would’ve just taken it for charred earth.

Radish Servant seized the moment to call for Potato Servant. “Go, Potato Servant!”

“Yes, sir!”

The two needed no words. Potato Servant was already sprinting into the flames with a pickaxe in hand.

“I’ll lead them to Radish House! You know what to do!”

“Yes! Leave it to me!”

— Corpse cleanup crew, let’s go

— Potato Servant always gets the hard jobs...

— LMAO Potato Servant

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Potato Servant kicked aside bodies, dug into the soil beneath, and shoveled Fertile Soil into his inventory.

All while shouting over his shoulder, “Fall back~ fall back~”

Like a work song, his retreat call rang out as he swung his pickaxe in the opposite direction.

Thunk! Thunk!

***

Inside Radish House, the Knights regrouped.

“

Huff... huff...

What was that?” Maid Black Tea was still rattled from the Vermilion Bird’s strike.

From their perspective, it wasn’t clear who had launched it. Even Almond himself hadn’t known until he fired it.

Radish Servant had seen Almond’s position and knew for certain. “It was the Lord.”

“!”

Every Knight’s eyes widened.

“We fell back because AoE skills like that normally hit allies too.”

“Then... that was the Guardian class?” Maid Black Tea asked in shock.

Rumors had already spread through Cheese Village that Almond had unlocked the path to Guardian. Too many had witnessed the NPCs swarming him for it to stay secret.

“Yes. Check the logs.”

[Almond has advanced to the legendary Guardian class!]

Their eyes nearly popped out.

“Holy... damn.”

“Guardian?”

“Unreal.”

The newcomers all thought the same.

‘Thank god.’

‘If he were our enemy, we’d be dead.’

‘Joining the Knights was the best choice ever.’

The battle had already given them donations, exposure, and viewership. Now, their leader was the only Guardian in existence. All eyes would stay fixed on the Knights. Their loyalty soared. Some even begged viewers to immortalize them.

“Please add this to Wikipedia. Say that I, LackLackey the blacksmith, was in the Knights...”

— LMAO the chaos

— The Knights’ blacksmith LackLackey...

— At least he did make the bow lol

— That’s something

Others scrambled for their own glory.

“When Almond was born, a great light split the heavens into four continents... Asia, America, Europe, and Africa...”

— WTF hahaha

— Nuttilion creation myth incoming

— Cult of Almond is real lol

Someone wanted to redesign the Knights’ flag. Another even claimed his birthday had changed to the day he joined and was reborn. All their boasts shriveled when the front door burst open.

Thud.

A bloody figure crawled in.

“For... Lackey ForeverAlone?!” Radish Servant rushed to catch him.

“Lack... Lackey ForeverAlone... mission complete. Orders... carried out...”

Finally, he collapsed.

[Death]

He even spent his last breath on duty.

— Holy crap lol

— The timing hahaha

— So dramatic

— ForeverAlone...

The room went silent. Every new Knight, who had been bragging, stopped cold.

‘So unfair. He actually died.’

‘Ruthless bastard.’

‘Of course, the lackey squad is built differently.’

Radish Servant gently closed Lackey ForeverAlone’s eyes and ordered, “Maid Black Tea, collect his belongings and put them in the shared chest.”

“Yes! You there, peasant, move!”

Smack!

She booted a random recruit in the rear, keeping with Knight tradition.

“A-Ah! Yes, ma’am!”

— Even their speech patterns are cursed lol

— Why do they all talk like that? hahaha

— Poor Meringue...

— Meringue lmao

***

Meanwhile, Almond and Potato Servant worked side by side in the battlefield ruins.

Thud! Thud!

Their pickaxes rose and fell, clearing the scorched field and harvesting Fertile Soil. Obsidian gear lay scattered, but that was better left for lower ranks to collect. That way, no one could accuse them of looting early.

“Almost done~”

Potato Servant jogged over suddenly, trembling as he held something. “M-My lord...! Isn’t this the first time we’ve seen an option like this?”

In his hand was a block of fertile earth. It looked the same as any other.

“An option?”

Fertile Soil had different properties depending on its source, human or monster remains, and even whether a dragon’s breath had caused the death. What about humans killed by the Vermillion Bird’s flames?

“Oh...” Almond read the stats, and a smile tugged at his lips. “This... this makes protecting the village worth it!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

”

“

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

”

They laughed together in the middle of the battlefield littered with corpses and ashes.

— They look like total villains lol

— This is the Guardian...?

— Pure evil vibes hahaha

— Potato Servant laughing along is kinda cute tho

— The characters are too funny lmao