CHAPTER 124: WHY THEY NEED MORE DEFENSE

[3rd floor, 12th city: ]

The final preparations were coming to an end in the city.

The towering walls were ornamented with weapons of war: magical torrents that would rain elemental spells on the enemies, ballistas that rained heavy boulders, giant automatic crossbows...

The walls were fortified with magic scrolls and sturdy spines laced with dangerous poison that further enhanced the protection.

The magic on this floor wasn’t as good as what one might find on the higher floors, but it was still beyond the reach of the new players.

With the natives in the center, the players had helped natives create a series of traps in the vicinity of the city walls, traps that would prove fatal against the monsters.

The magic and items weren’t the only things that the players worked with during the preparation for the Red Night.

They shared their own resources, weapons, and knowledge about various things that helped the natives.

The knowledge of explosives, hand-held weapons like guns, and much more.

The interaction of the two civilisations was something that was happening for the first time, but thanks to the various efforts of the association, things went on pretty well.

Now, the final battle of the floor on the horizon, everything was coming to a close slowly...

People moved through the streets in hushed flurries, like birds fleeing a coming storm.

Vendors had long since closed their stalls, their signs tucked away, their goods buried or donated to the militia. The children weren’t running or laughing... they were quiet, eyes wide, clutching handmade charms and hiding behind the folds of their parents’ coats.

The city had become a machine of survival. And it was almost ready as well.

There was no competition here — no rank, no glory.

Just a city trying to survive the night to come.

Inside the walls, the streets had turned to staging grounds. Warehouses had been converted into armories. Taverns became barracks, and every public square was now filled with people making final adjustments — hammering, testing, enchanting, praying. Smoke curled from every forge, and even the apprentices looked tired, their hands blackened with soot, their eyes red from sleepless nights.

And yet, in the midst of all this movement, the fear hung heavy.

It was in the way people avoided eye contact.

In the way mothers kept their children close and whispered instructions over and over again, like repetition would keep them safe.

In the way soldiers checked the same blade three, four, or five times.

In the way, even the veterans stood in silence when they looked toward the sky.

Because everyone knew what tomorrow meant.

The Red Night — a curse baked into the bones of this floor. A night when the creatures that usually slithered in caves and hunted alone would gather in maddened hordes, pulled by some ancient compulsion. A night when the walls would be tested not just by monsters, but by the will of the people behind them.

The last time the Red Night fell here, the city lost almost one-third of its population.

And this time, the omens were worse.

The animals had already begun to flee. Mana storms had flickered in the distance, wild and unstable. One of the outposts had gone dark yesterday... no warnings, and no signal.

The morning before the Red Night was supposed to be calm.

But a young player stationed at the eastern defense post looked out over the distant plains and felt no calm.

"Check the northern side again. There was a fluctuation in the mana field an hour ago."

"Got it. I’ll send a team."

"Move the spare bolts up to the western tower. Reinforcements might come from there."

"Did anyone test the alchemical bombs in storage block C?"

"We don’t have time to test them again. Just pray they work."

He gripped his weapon tightly.

He was only Level 17.

He shouldn’t be here.

And yet here he was, standing among people who had chosen to stay not out of loyalty to the city, but out of fear of the end of their world.

Their contribution meant something here. They weren’t merely soldiers like the rest of them. They were players.

They were players who had the duty to protect, the calling to fight against these floors, and the quest to keep the people and their world alive.

They needed to be here. Even if it meant little, even if they must stand against the countless enemies, they must stand tall.

They must fight back with everything they had, and only after they succeeded, only after the floor was cleared, would they breathe a sigh of joy.

Some of the older players who were proficient and had climbed the tower’s higher floors even trained the city guards in formation tactics. They taught the younger ones how to reload without jamming, how to move through obstacles, and how to endure.

From traps to communication systems, the city had evolved under the guidance of the players and the guardian Captains.

The natives worked alongside them tirelessly, some out of duty, others out of desperation.

They shared what little they had, from ingredients to sacred items, watching the sky with quiet, hollow eyes.

"I’m afraid, Father."

"And so am I, son. However, we must stand here and protect the children."

"...must we?"

"Do not question your divine calling, brave one. You will do well, believe in yourself!"

With each passing hour, the air itself felt heavy, as if saturated with something unspeakable.

A pressure. A presence. The trees far beyond the walls had grown quiet. Animals had long since retreated into hiding.

Even the monsters, usually a constant background threat, had disappeared entirely... A silence that was more terrifying than any roar was now covering the city.

The citizens had fortified their homes, and the militia guarded the gates with eyes sunken from sleepless nights.

Food, potions, charms, whatever could be spared, were sorted and distributed in bulk.

The churches, once symbols of comfort, now hosted sheltering families and whispered prayer rituals meant to bless the coming battle.

And at the top of the wall, KiRA watched the horizon with his partners.

The forest beyond looked calm. Too calm.

Every leaf swayed gently in the wind, every shadow cast its usual line... but none of it felt real.

The knowledge that every peaceful-looking creature out there would soon turn monstrous under the red moonlight lingered in KiRA’s chest like a weight he couldn’t shake off.

The adorable rabbits would turn into bloodthirsty beasts, and the wolves he adored would become creatures with mutated limbs.

The already powerful creatures would gain a new boost in their strengths, and the world that they were seeing right now would turn into something worse than hell.

"The witch cast this curse on the floor not to punish the people of this floor, as a matter of fact, she used to be someone from this very floor, from the 30th city.

She climbed the tower and gained new powers, and then she came back here, saw something that shouldn’t have been here, and in the process of protecting the masses, she committed a crime that she regretted till her last days."

KiRA spoke as if he had known the witch that cast the curse on this floor, and as a matter of fact, he did know that witch.

Izzy knew her as well, and she knew how miserable she was. But unlike KiRA, who sympathised with her, she could not bring herself to look positively at someone who had put an innocent life through years of suffering.

"Haaa..." The past was something that had already passed and would only be remembered by the historians who studied the floors and the (Events) that happened on these various floors.

He was no historian in round and he was no critic. He was a player who wanted to save as many lives as he could while making a substantial profit in the process, and he was going to do just that.

"We will need more defences, captain." He spoke in his usual tone, looking at the distant forest movements that one cannot understand or notice with the naked eye.

It almost seemed like he was peering into the future at the moment, looking at things that the rest of them could not fathom, things that they would never be able to understand.

"Do you think we will be able to dig a boundary around the city in the remaining time?" KiRA knew the request was difficult with everyone already having entered the final phase.

But he simply could not shake the uneasy feeling he had right now.

According to his {Precise calculation} the defences they had right now would be barely enough for the forces that would approach this side of the forest.

Due to some changes, the forces that were supposed to go northwest had moved to this side as well, increasing the load their city was going to experience by a few percent.

It wasn’t too far from the original predicted numbers, but it was still not something he could overlook.

His {Wise eyes} helped him determine the consequences of ignoring this small change. Even if he ignored the obviously increased number of enemies, he would not be able to change the weapons on the walls or the traps around the cities.

There was only one thing they could do right now, and that was to add another layer of traps around the city walls, and a deep artificial crevice would be perfect to deal with the smaller ones that would have greater agility.

"It’s possible, but we will need materials and some help." Captain Lucas was worried about this new request, but he somewhat understood the gravity of the situation.

He also had an uneasy feeling right now, as if something was going to go horribly wrong. He could not ignore his gut feelings at a time like this, not when the person he currently trusted the most right now was also feeling uneasy.

"Then let’s do it." He replied without hesitation.

It was calm, for now.

But everyone... native or player, child or warrior, could feel it coming.

One more day.

Just one.

And then... the night would bleed.