“Chicken delivery!”

“Yes, you accept card, right?”

“Yes. Enjoy your meal!”

“Thank you.”

After receiving the delivered chicken, Yoohyun called Jinsung, who was diligently watching the TV while lying on the bed.

“Yo, dude, come here. Let’s eat first.”

“One second, I’m telling you, it’s important right now.”

As Jinsung, who was usually crazy about chicken, didn’t move an inch, Yoohyun checked the television screen before shaking his head.

This was because, surely enough, the Kailan broadcast was on the screen which Jinsung’s eyes were glued to.

“Yo, the territory war relays haven’t even started. Let’s quickly eat before then.”

At Yoohyun’s persuasion, Jinsung, who finally tottered down from his bed, grabbed a drumstick.

However, his eyes were still on the television.

“Yo, focus right now and watch the TV for a moment. There’s still some time until the relays, but they said a reporter is going to organize stuff like the territory war rules.”

At those words, Yoohyun’s attention also turned to the television again.

Truthfully, the reason why Yoohyun came to Jinsung’s rented room today was to watch the territory war relays while eating chicken together.

This was because today was the exact day that the base protections of the guilds who obtained their bases first were released.

In three days, the Lotus Guild’s Domain would also lose their base protection, so they needed to study about the territory wars beforehand.

The two people’s attentions were fixated on the TV to the point it seemed like they would be sucked in.

“Hello, this is YTBC reporter Lucia.”

“Nice to meet you, everyone, reporter Hines here.”

Lucia and Hines, who could be considered the billboard reporters of YTBC, were proceeding with the broadcast as skillfully as usual on the TV.

“Yes, Hines. Do you think you could briefly explain where we are right now?”

With a smooth tone, Hines looked around as he kept the broadcast going.

“Of course, Lucia.”

And his attention moved towards the viewers that were on the outside of the screen.

“The place where we currently are is called the ‘Valiant Battleground’. As many of you viewers know, it is the place that guild wars are held.”

After taking a breath, Hines’ words continued.

“Today! Finally, because the first ‘Territory War’ will be held in this place, we have come here for the first time in a while.”

And next to him, Lucia made an additional explanation.

“An additional explanation for the viewers that don’t really know about the Valiant Battleground, this Valiant Battleground is an imaginary space that cannot be found anywhere on the Kailan map. It’s a method where whenever and wherever a guild war is invoked, a number of people that will be participating in the guild war will be warped to the Valiant Battleground. Users that aren’t related to the guilds can also enter the Valiant Battleground after paying a slight fee and watch the battle.”

“That’s right. Lucia has explained it well.”

As Hines gave a thumbs-up and smiled, Lucia’s eyes crinkled as her words continued.

“Alright, then, before we relay the territory war of the number 1 ranking guild in the Korean server, the DarkRuna Guild, and the number 4 ranking guild, the Oaklan Guild, shall we find out about the territory war rules first?”

Hines received Lucia’s words and continued the broadcast.

“Yes, starting now, I will explain the regulations of the ‘Territory War’, which will be new content to most of you viewers.”

And Hines’ incredibly clean explanation was continued.

Yoohyun turned his attention towards Jinsung.

“Yo, Jinsung. Do you not have something like a memo?”

At those words, Jinsung, who suddenly came back to his senses, quickly went to his desk and grabbed his research notebook before returning.

Jinsung began to organize Hines’ explanation into his notebook without any exceptions.

• Territory War Regulations

One was a field match in the ‘Valiant Battleground’ that was the same as a normal guild war,

While the other was a ‘Siege Warfare’ method of battle, where the defending guild defended the Domain and the attacking guild must seize it.

The Siege Warfare took place in a map called the ‘Battleground of Protection’, and because this Battleground of Protection was an imaginary map that took the exact topography of the real related Domain, the topography changed every territory war.

In all territory wars, if all the users on one side of the two were annihilated, or if the given battle time of 1 hour was all up, the war was over, and the side with the most number of survivors won.

In the case of the Battleground of Protection, along with the start of the battle, a Crystal of Protection formed inside the Domain of the defending side, and if that was also destroyed, the battle ended.

It was a method where once the attacking guild won 3 times in the Valiant Battleground, then the map changed to the Battleground of Protection, and they must win in this Battleground of Protection in order to take the Domain.

On the other hand, if the defending guild just won a total of 3 times in either the Valiant Battleground or the Battleground of Protection, they would succeed in defending.

The rules of the territory wars could look complicated at first glance, but after organizing everything, Jinsung thought the developers’ efforts to balance the game out could be felt.

While reading down the content that Jinsung had organized, Yoohyun spoke, almost mumbling.

“Wow, this, it’s way more complicated than just guild wars.”

Jinsung nodded his head as he answered.

“They didn’t have much of a choice. There’s nothing else besides losing some Fame in normal guild wars even if you lost. You just drop one or two ranks and that’s it. The weight of a territory war is completely different.”

“True.”

Hines did explain the rules very well for easy understanding, but thanks to Jinsung organizing it well, the two people were quickly able to grasp the rules of the territory war.

Yoohyun opened his mouth again.

“So, let’s say, for example.”

“Go on.”

“If, let’s say, I was an attacking guild and you were a defending guild, I need to win 4 times in a row in order to take over the Domain in the shortest amount of time, right?”

“That’s right.”

“On the other hand, you just need to win 3 times in a row and you’ll succeed in defending.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Yoohyun, who thought about it for a moment, continued his words.

“Then in the case I win 3 times in a row in the Valiant Battleground, and we went to the Battleground of Protection. And I lose for the first time in the Battleground of Protection. Then where is the fifth territory war held?”

Jinsung replied without hesitation.

“That’s definitely the Valiant Battleground. Firstly, if the attacking guild wins 3 times in the Valiant Battleground, from then on, it will continuously be a siege warfare.”

“I see…”

Yoohyun nodded his head as if he understood.

“It’s definitely a rule that’s advantageous to the defending guild.”

“It only makes sense. Since it’s a battle where the defending guild has more to lose than in comparison to the attacking guild. For the attacking guild, similar to a normal guild war, they’re just losing Guild Fame, right? Even if they were to lose a little of that, there are a lot of ways to restore it, but once you lose your guild Domain, the damage is seriously huge.”

Moreover, an interesting point of territory wars was the part that one user couldn’t participate in the same territory war more than three times.

In order to win the territory wars, the division of the players was incredibly important every battle.

While reading this part, Ian mumbled.

“I think the part where 30 is the number restriction of players that can participate in the battle is the same as normal guild wars, and the rule where one person cannot participate in more than three matches is an installation they made so that one strong person can never carry the territory war alone.”

“I think so, too. Even if we assumed that there was a person strong enough to carry the territory war to victory every time no matter what, the number of wins that they could bring alone is a maximum of 2… In the case of the attacking guild, they have 2 more matches, while the defending guild has 1 more, where they have to bring the win with the strength of the remaining users.”

The two that approximately finished organizing, began to hurriedly rip through the chicken.

Soon, the territory war of the two guilds that were at the top of the Korean server, the DarkRuna Guild and the Oaklan Guild, would begin.

The defending guild was the Oaklan Guild, while the attacking guild was the DarkRuna Guild.

With an excited expression, Yoohyun asked Jinsung.

“Yo, who do you think will win?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure.”

“By the looks of it, I think that the DarkRuna Guild has a slight higher chance of winning. Their fighting power is so overwhelming.”

“That is true, but Oaklan recruited Remir recently. That’s why, truthfully, I don’t really know how it will go.”

Yoohyun wore a slightly surprised expression.

“Red Flame Magician Remir? The number 1 ranking Magician?”

“Yeah, that’s right. It popped up in the community yesterday or so.”

“Kyah, then again, it’s unknown. If Remir’s AoE attack is dealt properly just even once, everything will seriously melt. Somehow, I feel like Magicians will be the ultimate card in a siege warfare… Plus, the defending side is at an advantage.”

The two people began to focus even more on the TV while they ripped through the chicken.

The territory war of the two giant guilds was about to begin now.

While looking at the levels of the users, Jinsung mumbled inwardly.

‘I can soon catch up to them as well now!’

The levels of the rankers that looked distant after he reset now looked close enough that he felt he could reach them if he extended his arm out far enough.

The highest-level user amongst the users whose levels were revealed on the screen was around the late 120s.

‘The top 10 users will probably be around their early 130s now.’

Ian’s level was now 111.

He had now greatly closed the gap to about a 20-level difference.

In some ways, it could be thought of a distant difference, but if it was Ian’s current leveling up speed, he felt he could catch up to them sooner or later.

Ian ignited his fighting spirit even more.

* * *

The territory war of the two giant guilds ended with a score of 3:3.

The score was the same, but the winner was the Oaklan Guild.

In the end, they had succeeded in defending.

At the fighting power of the DarkRuna Guild, who had easily won two battles in the Valiant Battleground at first, people predicted DarkRuna Guild’s win.

However, the DarkRuna Guild, who had invested their main fighting power in a full force attack for the first and second match, lost by a whisker in the third battle.

As predicted, Red Flame Magician Remir showed incredible strength on the defending side.

And Ian, who had watched that battle from the beginning to the end without missing anything, realized something.

‘The abilities of the guild members are important as well, but in a territory war, the NPCs are truly important.’

Especially since the NPCs were able to continuously participate as long as they didn’t die, they became an important part when planning a tactic.

‘In the broadcast, they weren’t properly noted, but rather than the Oaklan Guild winning thanks to Remir, I think it’s the victory of the tactic…’

The Oaklan Guild used the first two matches as cards they were discarding.

They hardly invested any of the NPCs that could not be revived once dead in the first two matches, and the most important rankers were all excluded as well.

Red Flame Magician Remir, who was their strongest card, was revealed twice on the defending side and brought 2 definite wins, and with the remaining fighting power all invested, they had brought back 1 win during the field match.

‘Although it could be more of how you interpret it…’

After Yoohyun returned, Ian, who had logged onto Kailan, felt that he should hurry and register the subordinate NPCs that he had been pushing off.

Ian, who had the Baron title, could register a total of 20 NPCs as his subordinates.

However, as Ian’s Fame would decrease by 100 thousand Fame if he was to remove a registered NPC, he was cautious up until now.

And there was another reason.

‘The reason why I was hesitant until the end was because I didn’t know what kind of penalty there would be if a subordinate NPC was to die during battle, but since I found out the fact that an NPC that was registered as a subordinate of a user revived after a week, there’s no reason to hesitate anymore now.’

It was information that wasn’t released in the community yet as there weren’t many users that had the Baron title, but it was information that was revealed through the territory war this time as many NPCs appointed as personal subordinates died.

Ian quickly moved to the ‘Summoner Guild’ in the Domain.

The NPC that Ian had his eye on from a few days ago to appoint as his subordinate was there.