CHAPTER 678

【 ONLY HALF A DAY 】

“We’ve won! The victory is ours!”

On the players’ airship, “The Goddess” Demacia stood beside the crystal-glass window of the gondola, looking down at the smoke rising from the city through his binoculars, his expression full of excitement.

Then he turned his head and gave Dōngdōng a thumbs up.

“That was incredible. Sister Dōngdōng, how did you even think of convincing Sophia to draft that proclamation? The effect is unbelievable. Look at that, the entire city is in open revolt!”

Dōngdōng puffed out her cheeks with pride before letting out a light laugh.

“This is what you call a peoples uprising.”

A moment later, her expression softened as she exhaled.

“Even so, I did not expect the result to end up like this. We already knew during our reconnaissance that the Church of Dusk and Twilight treated the townsfolk even worse than the Empire, but I never imagined things were so dire that a single call from us would push the entire population into action.”

“Well, they follow an evil god. How many evil gods actually care about their believers? They only exploit them. If they did something like this on earth, the civilians would have already revolted long ago if not for the fact that they cannot fight back.”

Demacia spoke in a mocking tone.

After a moment, he tilted his head and asked with interest,

“By the way, was it your idea to claim we had two hundred thousand troops?”

Dongdong let out a small snort.

“Exaggerating your numbers is standard practice in war, isn’t it? Or were you planning to be as honest as you were during that orc campaign and report the exact number of troops?”

Demacia chuckled.

“You are devious. I like it.”

“Not bad yourself. You even managed to get a mana ore cannon from the humans.”

“Heh, business opportunities are everywhere for us. On the black market, money fixes anything.”

She eyed him narrowly.

“And smuggling the Goddess statue all the way here, then bribing an NPC to activate it for your own use, was that also solved with money?”

“Ahem, let us keep that a secret, all right? This bug is exclusive to me and I don’t want it patched like the Divine Judgement Bomb.”

Seeing how smoothly the battle was progressing, the two kept praising each other with increasing exaggeration, which made Little Salty Cat, who was piloting the airship, roll her eyes.

“Hey, both of you, stop taking all the credit. The mana ore cannon was funded by the Moe Moe Committee, and we are also the ones who prepared those mana stone bombs.”

“Well it can’t be helped. We still cannot compare to you and your guild, Sister Cat. The mines near Mountpeak City should be starting operations soon, right? How about selling our Amway Trading Company a mining zone when the time comes?”

Demacia said with a cheeky smile.

“Dream on! We barely have enough for ourselves. Sure, aerial bombing cities like this was fun, but it cost too much.”

Little Salty Cat rejected him immediately.

“What a pity.”

Demacia sighed.

The players chatted idly as they watched the battle unfold below, their moods bright and relaxed now that the most dangerous part was over.

None of them planned to join the ground fighting since there was no need at this point. As part of the group assigned to the airship, they had already carried out their role by dropping magic stone bombs and firing the mana ore cannon earlier in the assault. ＲÅΝộ฿Ěs̩

With the aid of various magic skills, tossing magic stone bombs still granted a steady trickle of EXP. Although the system imposed penalties for relying on external tools, but repeating the action dozens of times made the gains add up quickly.

The mana ore cannon, however, was purely an external tool. Thus it provided no experience or contribution points at all.

Therefore, after eliminating all the giant crossbows and mana ore cannons that could threaten the airborne players, they stopped using the expensive high grade magic stones required to operate the cannon and switched entirely to throwing bombs.

Though their accuracy was not as accurate as the cannon, but at least the bombs still offered experience and contribution points. Besides, watching the explosions bloom across the battlefield had its own appeal.

The entire bombing operation lasted about twenty minutes in total. By the time they were finished, every player who had taken part had gained at least a full level.

As for war contribution points, that bombing alone accumulated an enormous amount.

With no immediate danger left for the airship, the dozens of players aboard began to relax and watched the battle comfortably.

The atmosphere on the airship remained cheerful, but on the ground in Augsburg City, the melee combat had only just begun.

Once the players descended and moved into the streets, fierce clashes broke out almost immediately.

Fort Forzel had already been reduced to rubble by the earlier bombardment, with most of its defenders either dead or incapacitated, so the toughest obstacles were gone.

The players pressed forward without hesitation. Every team pushed deeper into the city, cutting down any enemy they encountered.

Of course, their primary targets were the devout believers of the Evil God, as well as the soldiers of the Red Maple Kingdom.

After all, killing civilians granted no experience or contribution points at all, and could even trigger penalties for anyone with priest related quests. So almost no one wanted that kind of unnecessary punishment.

With their experience in the Demirealm of Ouros, the players had already learned that oppressed and miserable commoners made excellent future converts. With even a bit of patience and a show of sincerity (not brainwashing, absolutely not), people in desperate situations became remarkably easy to influence.

In other words, this was an excellent opportunity to raise their priest subclass. That, however, would have to wait until after the battle.

More than five thousand players descended upon the city, and every one of them was at least at peak Iron-rank. In the Red Maple Kingdom’s army, that level of strength would already qualify as an elite unit.

At this point, however, the kingdom’s true elites had already marched north with King Otto as he confronted the Empire. This left most of Augsburg City’s defenders as nothing more than hastily trained conscripts with limited discipline and even less combat experience.

Thus, when they were confronted by fearless players and weighed down by shattered morale after the bombardment, most of the city’s defenders collapsed almost in an instant.

To make things worse, the proclamation circulating through the streets ignited a civilian uprising. Enraged residents took up whatever weapons they could find and joined the players in sweeping through the city. Together, they hunted down the remaining Red Maple soldiers, turning the scattered resistance into a complete rout.

From above, one would see players dropping from the sky and quickly regrouping into organized parties. Following behind them were crowds of civilians armed with farm tools, kitchen knives, and whatever improvised weapons they could find. Together, this mixed force pushed toward the hilltop where Forzel Fortress once stood.

Bright banners rose among the players, fluttering in the wind.

These were their war banner, or more accurately, they were the sacred banner which represent the entire Elven Faction.

Unlike the banners used by various guilds, these banners used red as the primary color with a single golden scepter at the center. It was said that Dōngdōng designed it, but no one believed she created it without a playful sense of mischief.

From above, Augsburg City looked like a vast sea of people with waves of red flags sweeping through the streets.

Shouts rose in every direction as smoke drifted across rooftops and alleyways.

Led by the elven forces, the furious citizens surged toward Forzel Fortress. The structure was still shrouded in smoke due to the earlier bombardment, and within moments it was surrounded by the enraged citizens.

After less than twenty minutes of resistance, the fortress gate, which was already weakened by the bombardment, was finally destroyed through coordinated attacks from silver-rank players who had dropped directly into the fortress and other players and civilians attacking from outside.

Only slightly less than half of the surviving defenders chose to surrender. Above the captured walls, bright red banners were soon raised high for all to see, signifying that Forzel Fortress, once praised as an unbreakable stronghold, had fallen.

More than an hour later, the gates of Augsburg City slowly opened. Outside the gate, the elven army marched in neat formation and entered the city whilst curious civilians looked on.

With this, the entire city finally fell under the complete control of the players.

From the initial aerial bombing by the airship to the final entrance of the main army, the entire campaign only took half a day.

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