Bab 44: Two Players Finally Meet.
"I was truly baffled by the effort that Lucius put into his scheme, with it being far more intricate than what a normal player who would focus only on the military side of things like formations and ambushes could come up with."
"But that is something that people would learn about House Aurellion."
"Nothing they do is as it seems. Even the information you get from your spied could be manipulated by them."
"And if one is not careful, what can look like a victory for you."
"Could all be part of one of their long-term schemes."
"While some only last for a battle…."
"Some can last for generations."
Éric Gigot, the player behind Wurgoth and the orcish general who fights against Reginald.
….
"Yes, very impressive. The results speak for themselves. End this charade already."
Wurgoth said, grunting in pain as the adrenaline started to dissipate, making his wounds emit even more pain. It now occurred to the orc that death would not be so bad as at least it would be quick as they were on the battlefield and not an execution stand.
"So you accept your loss? How Impressive! But honestly, I expected a player like you to be interested in why you lost; if not, then this conversation will be much shorter and more boring than expected! See, I even managed to persuade my stubborn subordinates to allow me to meet you in person as a sort of honour thing so we could talk privately and now all you want is death."
"So ungrateful!"
"Aren't you wasting all the energy I put into setting up this meeting?"
Lucius said, a big grin spreading on his face as he continued to enjoy himself, no longer needing to be cold and serious as he had won the battle. The Chavarian general decided to relax and have some fun while giving a few pointers to his opponent and sat down opposite him, but far enough away not to be assassinated. The cunning player did not come all this way to die and lose it all now.
'What a nice person I am. Even willing to tell him where he went wrong! This will be my one good deed for the decade can't be evil or scheming all the time, or god really will smite me down.'
Lucius thought while Wurgoth no longer drowned in his own suspicions, managed to finally look at his opponent with some insight.
"You are a player?"
Wurgoth asked in surprise, his eyes widening slightly as he had not expected that his opponent was a player; he thought Lucius was just a very intelligent advanced AI like Bardornus and assumed that these Dynasty History Events would be single-player focused.
"Yes, you didn't know? Wow, I never thought that my roleplaying was that good! Though I suppose it is a roleplaying game after all!"
Lucius said, delighted that it was only now that Wurgoth found out as the orc player frowned a bit, bristling under the arrogance of his opponent.
"There were a few signs, such as my injury and the terrible outcome that I had against that orc captain in my first ambush; honestly, I nearly died there! Luckily, I had a loyal guardian looking over me who saved me in the nick of time; unfortunately, that spooked him, and now that guy follows me like he's my shadow."
"Even a strategically minded general would still be able to beat an orc captain in single combat! Did you not see me avoid combat at all costs since then, letting my subordinates take on all the big fights?"
"These were all small clues to my identity as a player. It's a shame you did not pick them up though I suppose playing and setting up a more intelligent strategic character made me seem much more in character, making it harder for you to find me out compared to you, who made it blatantly obvious."
Lucius said, letting him know of the small signs that he had let out of his true identity as a player, something that Lucius had used against Wurgoth to great effect; obviously, if Wurgoth could have spent more time with Lucius, the fact that he was a player would be much more apparent.
"Thirsty? Do you prefer alcohol or water?"
Lucius asked, bringing out two brown leather waterskins and holding them in front of the bleeding orc player in a casual manner as if Lucius was not the one who put him in his current position. Wurgoth licked his lips, deciding that he could gain some insights from this conversation and wanted to speed it up as he could feel his life force slowly ebb away from his body as a trickle of blood from the two arrows that were stuck in his body.
"Alcohol."
The orc player said succinctly and was surprised that Lucius, instead of giving him a sip Wurgoth was expecting, threw the entire waterskin over to him and was happy to sip on the waterskin filled with water, taking a long swig of it.
Seeing the surprise on the orc general's face, Lucius only smiled slightly, commenting.
"I have always preferred water over alcohol helps me stay on my feet, and if I get too close to you, then it is guaranteed you will receive an arrow in the head ending our very enjoyable conversation."
"They are that paranoid?"
"One is…."
"Overprotective bastard!"
Lucius scowled, a frustrated expression appearing on his face for a second before returning to his jovial and casual self, who seemed to have no worries or cares in the world.
"Anyway, let's go over the battle. You never even tried to hide the fact that you were a player or at least tried to hide it despite being playing a physically strong character and a master fighter at that. You did not act like it at all the only reason I get somewhat of a pass in that department is that my character currently is only an expert-level fighter there are even some captains under me at that level, so my absence on the battlefield could potentially be explained away."
"But you, not committing yourself to the battle or even leading your troops personally, especially during the night raid where a master-level fighter could be used to great effect, made me suspicious you were a player. Your reluctance to lead from the front in the big battle yesterday was only the confirmation I needed to confirm that you were a player, as no musclehead orc would do what you did."
"Next time, play your part better, okay? And maybe it will be me on my knees waiting to be killed, not you.
Lucius said, not being above rubbing salt in the wound of his opponent.
"Are you not afraid of me getting revenge? Do you really want to be making any more enemies?"
Wurgoth said viciously, vowing revenge against the person in front of him in his heart.
"After what you did? Nope, not afraid! If I can't beat you down in the game after doing so well in my Dynasty History Quests, I deserve to have everything taken away from me. Not like you will forgive me anyway. So come at me with all you got! At least it will make for some entertainment for me."
Lucius said as to him who would have an entire empire after his head. What was one more player?
"I never thought they would put me against a player in my first event, especially as the VRMMORPG has not been released yet, and we are only currently doing our character's backstory."
"It appears that even backstory is taken seriously in this game."
Wurgoth said slightly regretfully, as he would have been more suspicious of his enemy if he knew he was not playing against an AI.
"Neither did I, but we really need to expand our imaginations in our next event. I suppose this can be considered a large learning curve for playing the game; honestly, I feel sorry for those who join after the game's official release."
Lucius said, happy that he decided to get into the game early as this learning curve would make it harder for people to get into powerful positions in the game as it goes on.
"That Gerindin person was a spy, right? Didn't you beat his lord up or something? How did that lead to him becoming your agent."
Wurgoth asked as to him, it made zero sense why Lindorus was staying loyal to Lucius and the Chavarains, especially after Lucius beat him in front of the entire army, humiliating him. Hearing the question, the slight smile returned once again to a wide evil grin as Lucius laughed slightly, becoming enthusiastic as he answered.
"Ever heard of the battered body ruse?"
"The battered body ruse?"
The orc player asked quizzically, raising his eyebrows in interest at the answer.
"Did you not study or look into ancient history much or literature based on it?"
Lucius asked, sighing to himself, not surprised as many people these days do not look into history too much or the battles and tactics used as many are not helpful in a modern war where trench lines, tanks and firearms are used as opposed to sword and shield as most prefer to look into ones used in wars fought in the last 200 years or so.
"208-209 AD?"
"The Battle Of The Red Cliffs?"
"Maybe you know it as the Battle of Chibi?"
"None of those rings a bell for you? What about the three kingdoms period of China?"
"Maybe Romance of The Three Kingdoms? It's quite a popular novel and has even had games and TV series based on it and its history."
Lucius asked one question after another, sighing more and more as Wurgoth just looked at him with a dumb expression, clearly not getting the reaction he wanted, and once again lamented at how some people really need to look into ancient history especially Asian history as it is very interesting before lecturing the orc on his scheme and order of events.
"It's obvious that you don't know what I'm talking about, so ill tell you what happened to Lindorus and Gerindin, as it's rather chaotic."
"First off, the scheme I pulled was based on one that Zhou Yu and Huang Gai pulled off against Cao Cao, even if it only happened in the novel Romance of the three kingdoms. In this scheme, Zhou Yu beat up Huang Gai to build up a false resentment between them in Cao Cao's eyes and, combined with the ruthless warlord's large army and advantage over his enemies, assumed that when Huang Gai said they wanted to defect, it was true. The ships that were meant to defect were instead turned into fire ships burning Cao Caos navy, making him lose the battle and for it to gain fame."
"Unlike this example, however, the beating of Lindorus was real and was for disobedience and for being a prideful prick, but it was also then that I decided to try to set things up for a potential scheme if I felt that I could pull it off, suspecting that you were a player. After you didn't lead from the front, it helped push the decision forward more. Of course, it was not confirmed back then, but I laid the groundwork anyway."
"I also used the beating as a way to give him the motivation to betray me alongside his assumed disdain for me due to my commoner background and want to take over command of the army; of course, his disdain is true, but alongside being one of the most arrogant and insufferable families in Chavaria they are also one of the most loyal, and in this case, I persuaded them that if I pulled this off, they would get the glory for putting loyalty to the kingdom and the success of the greater cause over their pride. If I didn't persuade him, he may have really plotted against me, which would have been a pain in the ass."
"And I hate nothing more than pains in the ass…."
"Anyway, after this, I tormented him a bit in his tent at night part of it was to get revenge because he really is an arrogant stuck-up prick, and the other was to give him orders on the next move hitting two birds with one stone again the torment was to make it seem like we both hated each other meaning that everyone in camp would assume we were at each other's throats so even if you caught one of my men alive and tortured him for information all that would get out is what I wanted you to get out of the captive."
Lucius said as he started to lay out his scheme excitedly, explaining his schemes are one of the things he enjoyed doing the most, his eyes becoming starry and distracted while he continued his lecture.
"Amongst my instructions and to help build trust between you, the spy, and Lindorus. I intentionally told you when I was planning to raid at night and told you of the weaknesses in my army. I later exploited this trust alongside my letter and your less-than-ideal situation to drive a wedge between both you and Bardornus, leading to where we are now."
"That's right! You only got the information that I wanted you to get! I was in control of everything. Every move you made outside of the battles was plotted by me, when they would take place and how even the Plurians retreated was a design of mine to increase the suspicion between you and Bardornus though it appeared I missed adding his head to my collection to pull this off. But hey, I can't have everything, can I?"
Lucius said, raising his shoulders in resignation but was ecstatic at his first Dynasty history event in which he went above and beyond his objectives.
"Shame Zugbu escaped my clutches. Though it appears that shifty, sneaky little shit started to escape from our attack the moment it happened, being able to see the writing on the wall, a good brain that one has, shame you orcs are very much a strength-based society so he could not rise high enough during this battle to be able to have a massive role."
"At least I got two of Bardornus' vice generals and most of yours in this battle, so it can be considered a success."
"You do realise if you committed everything at the start of that massive battle we fought against each other, then you would most likely have won. I was terrified of that as I truly did not have the manpower to hold out for too long in that case and would have had to use my trump card far earlier than I would have wanted."
"I even made sure there was blood on Gerindin's armour when you met, and everything, even the smallest details, were taken care of in this scheme."
"Anyway, that's how we got to where we are now."
Lucius said, finishing his explanation and approaching the kneeling orc. Then took out a dagger from his back and stabbed Wurgoth twisting the blade into his heart. A look of confused pain appeared on Wurgoths face as he burned the noble sigil of his opponent into his mind vowing vengeance against Lucius' dynasty in the future if it survived through the dynasty history system, unlike his first dynasty, which fell here.
"Until we meet again. Oh, and make sure to make it as fun of a time as I had in this event, okay?"
Lucius said quietly in the orc player's ear as he stabbed him. The blood ran down the dagger onto Lucius as more gushed from the wound as the life left Wurgoths body and it fell to the ground.
With the death of the orc player, Lucius got a notification which made him grin as he headed back to his troops, ordering them to bury the dead and started to go back to camp so he could sort out the stream of system notifications that had appeared with one getting most of his attention.
[Congratulations to player Raising Pelican of Loyalty for completing their first Dynasty History Event, 'Rise of House Aurellion,' going far beyond your objectives and gaining bountiful rewards!]
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
LaziestDragon
LaziestDragon This weeks chapter hope you guys enjoy it.
As always the next chapter will be out next weekend.
I would like to apologize to readers who want more but for now, I'm trying to keep a regular update schedule and not burn out. The last thing I want to do is to drop or put this novel on hiatus because I am burnt out. For me, this is a long journey that I will take step by step. As we all know I am a slow writer and I chose my pen name for a reason so I apologize for that.
With that said thank you for your continued support comments, power stones, and reviews as they help to keep my motivation up to give more to you guys.
As long as everything proceeds well I am hoping to have an exciting announcement out for the end of the month.
Also, we have finally come to the end of the dynasty event
so the next few chapters will be about its lucrative rewards so look forward to it!
See you next weekend.
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