Chapter 69: Battle of Wits

When the existence of Vampires first became known and the attacks started, Shaiven thought she had rushed things too much.

‘I still need to expand my influence.’

Shaiven was clever enough to conquer the three fortresses that were said to be the most difficult to conquer with the first few subordinates she had turned. She did this before the gods noticed and when they didn’t even know about the existence of the Vampires. Shaiven and the other Vampires snuck into the fortresses as vagrant beggars, insignificant servants, or slaves who had lost their owners, and they killed whoever were in charge of the fortresses or made them their subordinates.

Since then, the Vampires had been hiding in the five countries that occupied the continent. But Shaiven was still anxious.

‘It’ll be dangerous if we’re under a full-scale attack.’

For the first three months, the Vampires had been increasing their forces quickly, but not enough for them to endure a joint attack of the five countries. Fortunately for Shaiven, the five countries had postponed their attacks. And they did that because the other species didn’t know where the main base of the Vampires was.

Things would be troublesome if they gathered troops to attack the Vampires and the Vampires later appeared from totally different places, or if each country’s important bases ended up conquered by the Vampires because they gathered to launch an attack. Therefore, the five countries had been placing some troops at the known Vampire fortresses to prevent the Vampires from attacking, all the while focusing more on sending the remaining troops to raid the groups of Vampires discovered in their territories.

That was all Wisdom’s idea. The thing he was most worried about was being stabbed in the back. Because of his tendency to avoid risky strategies, he told the others to surround the known Vampire fortresses with troops to defend themselves and had the remaining troops defend their own countries.

The idea seemed reasonable because Vampires didn’t consume food like normal species and rather lived off of other species. The players judged that the Vampires would lose vitality if they were kept in their fortresses. They believed that if they deployed their troops across their countries, they would be able to flatten the Vampires’ growing curve. And as the number of Vampires decreased, they would be able to take over the Vampire fortresses and kill the hidden priest to resolve the threat once and for all.

‘But that ‘s too cowardly. All it did was buy us some time.’

Wisdom’s idea was valid because Shaiven had actually hidden Vampire reinforcements in a place far from their fortresses. Their kind hid themselves by playing the roles of vagrants, community leaders, and hidden members of aristocracy, following what was very similar to a clandestine cell system.

Even if a player checked each individual one by one, it would be meaningless since they wouldn’t be able to find the Vampires faster than their rate of growth. And if Wisdom hadn't told his idea to the other players, the Renard country likely would have fallen first with the weakest army.

‘But that’s just a matter of time. I will eventually bring victory to the God of Blood and Rotten Meat.’

Each player ordered each of their priests to find the Vampires. They had two known weaknesses: the sun and silver. But these weaknesses only caused simple allergic reactions for the third generation Vampires and barely had any effect on the fourth generation Vampires. Shaiven was the only first generation Vampire, and there weren’t many in the second generation, so not a lot of Vampires could be found using the weaknesses. Therefore, it was difficult to week out the existing Vampires.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Eventually, in the sixth month, Shaiven was able to gather an army of 6,000 strong, which was the number demanded by the God of Blood and Rotten Meat. The Vampires were all scattered at different locations, but it wasn’t difficult to gather them all.

The Vampires followed a hierarchical system in which they served the generation right above them as their masters. Conversely, this meant that even if Shaiven gave orders to only one second generation Vampire, that second generation Vampire would give orders to ten third generation Vampires, and each third generation Vampire could mobilize ten fourth generation Vampires. So Shaiven could mobilize about 100 Vampires by giving orders to one second generation Vampire.

Shaiven selected six competent second generation Vampires and made them generals, assigning them each 1,000 Vampire soldiers. Out of the six, three generals waited in the rear for her call, and the other three led their Vampires to attack the main troops of the other countries surrounding their fortresses.

The fourth generation Vampires, whose abilities had decreased after their transformation, made up the majority of the Vampire army. Therefore, even though there were 3,000 of them, they wouldn’t be much of a threat as long as the other five countries joined forces.

In addition, this army was only made up of young Vampires with strong bodies, and there were some who had never even held a weapon before. On the other hand, the main troops of the five countries were all veterans who had lots of experience due to the frequent battles they had among themselves.

But the problem was that the five players had underestimated the seriousness of the situation. At the time, there were about 500 men circling the Vampire fortresses, and they knew that they would have to stop 1,000 Vampires. If the troops came together by giving up two fortresses or at least one, they would have defeated the whole army of 1,000 Vampires. However, the three fortresses were all located in different countries, so giving up on one fortress meant that one of the players would suffer losses.

A fierce battle of wits began between the players, and each had no intention of voluntarily undergoing losses. It was then Sung-Woon saw their situation from afar and wondered if it was time for him to give them some advice.

‘But wouldn’t they ask for my help only after they undergo some damage?’

Sung-Woon stayed silent, and Shaiven drove out the troops that surrounded the three fortresses before replacing the tired Vampire soldiers.

At the same time, Shaiven accepted the will of the God of Blood and Rotten Meat to raise armies of 1,000 Vampires each inside the country of the Trolls, Asbestos, and the country of the Renards, Red Fruit. Then she ordered her army of 3,000 Vampires and her army of 1,000 Vampires to attack the capital of Golden Eye, the Nix country, which she still held a grudge against. But it wasn’t an easy task.

There were 4,000 Vampires and only 1,300 soldiers in the Golden Eye army. But Golden Eye’s king had received God’s power, which greatly hindered the Vampires’ attack. And it was difficult to defeat the large guardian monster that guarded Golden Eye.

Hundreds of Vampire soldiers died by God’s power, which they had only heard rumors about. If Shaiven hadn’t played any tricks, all 4,000 Vampires would have been defeated. And fortunately, the God of Blood and Rotten Meat did not abandon Shaiven.

Just like the Invisible Source God dwelled in the king of Golden Eye, the God of Blood and Rotten Meat dwelled in Robain, one of the Vampire generals. Robain killed the king of Golden Eye with God’s power, which took a great toll on Golden Eye’s large guardian. The wounded guardian died to the attacks of the Vampire soldiers, and like that, Golden Eye lost its capital. And as a result, AR1026’s level, the player controlling the Nix, dropped to 4.

.

Shaiven ordered her subordinates to increase their number of soldiers and had the strong Nixes join her army.

Golden Eye didn’t surrender, but their main force of 1,300 soldiers had been defeated, and only around 200 soldiers were left across the provinces.

Unfortunately for the Vampires, they weren’t always victorious. The 1,000 Vampire soldiers attacking Asbestos had done some damage, but they were wiped out by the Trolls. The Trolls stalled the enemy with only 400 soldiers and defended their capital with the help of Danyum, the Satyr country. However, Golden Eye had overall suffered severe losses, and Asbestos, Red Fruit, and Danyum lost a substantial amount of troops.

On the contrary, the Vampires still had 4,000 soldiers. Shaiven then titled herself the Bloodsucking Queen and established her own country, White Tooth. After nine months, White Tooth emerged as a formidable conqueror of the continent under the rule of the Bloodsucking Queen, Shaiven. Shaiven then presented the future to the second, third, and fourth generation Vampires, who were his subordinates.

“We have suffered and wandered around without a place to call home. We will take revenge on our fellow species that abandoned us. And at the end, we will take revenge on the gods that abandoned us. We will create a new world on this land.”

Shaiven’s generals, the majority of the second generation Vampires, had been vagrants like Shaiven, so they understood where Shaiven was coming from and agreed with her.

Shaiven clearly defined the borders with the neighboring countries to cement her position, and at the same time, she divided her troops into armies of 1,000 soldiers each and sent them to pressure the neighboring countries. There was a chance that dividing the troops would be a bad idea, but White Tooth was right in the center of the continent and bordered all five other countries, and even if the countries mobilized their troops, most of them didn’t have 1,000 soldiers.

Just as Shaiven had expected, the other players didn’t want to face the Vampire soldiers even when they had divided their force into an army of 1,000 soldiers each. With irresistible force, White Tooth expanded their borders.

Wisdom and the other players decided to ask Sung-Woon for help. It was a bit late, but they hadn’t been completely defeated yet. There was no way for Shavien to know of the discussion between the players, but somehow, she felt a discrepancy of sorts.

Ten months had passed since Shaiven became a Vampire. She had been exchanging reports with each general, but soon, the four troops stopped reporting to her at a certain point. Each general had been making their own excuses, but to Shaiven, she doubted their validity.

‘...Why aren’t the generals acting on this?’

***

Sung-Woon said to the five players, “There are three weaknesses to Vampires.”

Crampus expressed his doubt and asked, “...Three? Not two?”

“Well, tell me the two first so that I can confirm you at least know that much.”

“...Everyone knows. It’s sunlight and silver.”

Sung-Woon nodded.

Then Crampus raised his hand and said, “Wait, hold on. I think I know the other weakness.”

“What do you think it is?”

“...The fact that they become weaker over generations?”

Sung-Woon shook his head.

“That’s both an advantage and a disadvantage.”

“...That’s true.”

The players had been dividing the Vampires into upper, middle, and lower classes. The upper class Vampires had excellent physical abilities, but were greatly affected by sunlight and silver, while the lower class Vampires had poor physical abilities, but weren’t affected by sunlight and silver too much. The upper, middle, and lower class Vampires were divided into those who bit and those who got bit, so it would seem natural that the first generation Vampire would be the strongest.

A few of the players had thought that one of the Vampire generals they already discovered was the first Vampire, but in Sung-Woon’s opinion, he didn’t think the first Vampire had revealed themselves yet.

Then Wisdom said, “Nebula. If you aren’t making fun of us, I don’t think there's a need to play games.”

“I apologize if I offended you.”

“...Sure you would. Why apologize now.”

Wisdom ignored Crampus’s mutter and said, “So, what do you mean by things have already started? I mean, I don’t doubt you can hide your activities since it's you, but…I haven’t seen much movement from Black Scale through my reconnaissance resources.”

“I didn’t mean that I’ve started something. I’m talking about White Tooth.”

“Nebula, you aren’t the Vampire player though.”

Sung-Woon shrugged.

“Vampires themselves have a weakness. And I think I’m the only one who recognized that third weakness.”

“What is it?”

“Well, let’s first look at the situation of the White Tooth army in recent days.”

Sung-Woon opened up the window he had prepared. On the maps arranged by the date, the location of the White Tooth army was marked down.

“What do you guys think?”

Lunda said, “Unless there’s something wrong with my eyes…they all look like the same map.”

“And what does that mean?”

“That they haven’t moved?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s their weakness? But couldn’t they have just stopped for recuperation and resupply?”

“All four troops at once?”

Sung-Woon shook his head.

He played around with the window he had opened. Sung-Woon’s video chat window became dozens of times larger, revealing the desolate view of an unknown mountain range he was standing on. And after that, he opened up dozens of other windows.

“As you can see, each window shows the routes the White Tooth army has taken. There weren’t many occasions where the army stopped for recuperation because they couldn't supply food or replenish their troops as they wished. They only stop every once in a while when they loot a village. And the four troops had made a pit stop to get food supplies recently, but they haven’t moved since.”

Then Crampus said, “Don’t you think there’s a reason that we don’t know of? You can’t guarantee that they stopped necessarily because of the reason you speculate.”

“That may be true, but to me, I think there’s a correlation.”

Wisdom asked, “And what would that be?”

“It’s simple. You treated the Vampires like Zombies at first, right? Your strategy would have been good enough for a Zombie epidemic, but there’s a decisive difference between Vampires and Zombies.”

Sung-Woon tapped on his mask.

“They have intelligence.”

“Intelligence.”

“Yes. Zombies are beings who follow orders, so there’s no difference between each individual. Vampires are different. They are from different species, and there’s also a difference in their classes. Most of them were even forced to become Vampires. It seems that the lower class Vampires obey the middle class ones, and the middle class Vampires obey the upper class ones, but less so compared to the lower class Vampires. What do you think that means?”

Wisdom said, “I see”

As Wisdom was the only one who understood, Lunda asked, “What do you mean? What do you see?”

“They lack the motivation.”

“Motivation?”

“Nebula, may I explain?”

“Be my guest.”

Wisdom said to the four other players, “The Vampires’ solidarity is solely rooted in embedded obedience. And that worked until now. They became Vampires, so they had to hurt others to survive at first. But now, White Tooth has become a big country. Even if they don’t hurt others, their survival is guaranteed. Therefore, they no longer have a reason to fight. All that is left is their instinct to obey. And that means that some of the Vampire generals have…”

Wisdom seemed to be choosing the right word to use. Then he nodded.

“...Suffered a loss. Yes. The Vampire generals wouldn’t want to lose more of their subordinates. Our army has suffered some damage, but we still have Divinity. We can still deal with an army of 1,000 men. And the generals know it. They’re thus waiting for another general to act first.”

Sung-Woon then added, “It never occurred to them when they were hungry, but now that they’re full, they start thinking about different things. The battle of wits has begun.”