“Erase my existence?!” I accidentally exclaimed aloud, drawing the attention of the current Players in my section.

And calling me out, a man on a lower row shouted “Oi, mate! You know our team’s strategy? ‘Cause I don’t believe I’ve seen you talking to the others down below—wait, are you even from the same Guide as us?”

“Uhhh…13’s, right?” Now questioning if I went to the right section.

Walking up on top of the rows of seats, a blonde human man in his late 20s approached me, and said “That’s right, but you didn’t pick a side yet, did you?” He was dressed in a long fur coat, and appeared to carry two staves on his back—one with a red crystal, and the other a blue crystal.

“Unfortunately, I already did.” Thinking “But I didn’t have a choice.”

“Well, what’d you pick?” The man asked, curiously.

“Attackers…” I reluctantly answered.

“Ooof, almost everyone from our team is planning to pick Defenders ‘cause we might have walls to defend with if it really is a ‘siege’, so you might be fucked, mate.” Adding, “And if this note in the message is true and there are uneven numbers for the teams, you're double fucked.”

“We’ll see about that—but if you and your friends are planning to win, I suggest you pick the same side as me.” I advised him, knowing I had to win no matter what.

“Oh? Why’s that?” Questioning my advice.

“Let’s just say I have a strong feeling it’s gonna be a one-sided massacre for whichever side I’m on, regardless of how many there are of you against me. So if you and your friends don’t wanna die, I’m telling you to side with me before it’s too late.” Warning him ahead of time.

“Is that a threat? ‘Cause I’d have to warn you that you’ll be ending up against at least 80 of us.” He stated, gesturing to the large group of Players currently arriving in our section.

“No, that wasn’t a threat, just a courteous warning.” Declaring, “Because I’m not losing—be it 1 vs 80, or 1 vs 99.”

The man burst out into laughter, “Hahaha...you’re serious? You’ve either got balls of steel, or you’ve gone proper mental!”

“Think whatever you want, but at least now I can relieve my conscience a little knowing I warned the Players ahead of time.” Waving him off and saying, “So you better go back and tell everyone else what I said, I don't wanna feel even more guilty than I already will for killing you all.”

“Haha, sure thing, mate.” He smilingly laughed at my seriousness, “I might even pick your side just for the fun of it.” waving me goodbye and returning to the large group on the lower rows.

“I hope at least some of you do...” I whispered to myself, depressingly sighing and laying myself along the row. Then as I heard the large group burst out into laughter after being told what I said, I starting thinking “Their only hope now is if this ‘Siege Event’ is like the Combat Tutorial and there’s some type of respawn system, ‘cause the Failure for this Quest makes it sound like it's them or me.”

Failure: Losing the Siege Event will result in ‘Annihilation’ consuming and erasing you from all existence instead.

After the 3 minute Time Limit passed, Nulla loudly clapped and grabbed everyone’s attention again. “Alright, now that all the Players have been placed on either the Attackers or the Defenders side of the siege, I think it’s about time I share with you the exact details of the Event!” Nulla then gestured his hand to us again and caused all the Players to be surprised with a new Quest.

Event Quest

Attackers Of The Three Sieges:

Being a small and elite group of soldiers, you and your Allies have been secretly tasked by your chosen Kingdom to conquer a pivotal stronghold that will greatly benefit your chosen Kingdom's position during the start of the Second Trinity War of Novus, while at the same time heavily impacting both Enemy Kingdoms’ positions during the War.

You and your Allies must find a way to breach the stronghold’s defenses in a single night, swiftly eliminating all the elite soldiers stationed within the walls, and all before the arrival of more soldiers the next morning.

Rewards: Add a Victory to your Event Rankings, gain a Unique Event Title, and receive Double Rewards for the upcoming Overall Rankings Results. Failure: Add a Defeat to your Event Rankings, and receive Normal Rewards for the upcoming Overall Ranking Results. Time Limit: 12 Hours

While we were all still wrapping our heads around new Quest, Nulla continued to speak, “However as some you may have already rightfully guessed, the Attackers are in quite the disadvantage for this particular Event, and as such, they will now be allowed to vote for their desired Setting for the Siege Event.” Once again causing another message to appear.

Siege Event Settings

Remaining Votes: 9 Time Limit: 2 Minutes, 59 Seconds Dwarven Kingdom Stronghold (0 Votes): [Vote] Human Kingdom Stronghold (0 Votes): [Vote] Elven Kingdom Stronghold (0 Votes): [Vote]

Location- Ice Ridge Keep Atop A Snowy Mountain

Attackers’ Race- Elves

Attackers’ Difficulty- Hardcore

Attackers’ Bonus- 2 x Event Contribution

Defenders’ Race- Dwarves

Defenders’ Difficulty- Normal

Defenders’ Bonus- 1 x Event Contribution

Location- Sanctuary Fortress Amidst A Barren Desert

Attackers’ Race- Dwarves

Attackers’ Difficulty- Very Hard

Attackers’ Bonus- 1.5 x Event Contribution

Defenders’ Race- Humans

Defenders’ Difficulty- Hard

Defenders’ Bonus- 1.25 x Event Contribution

Location- Bog Encampment Dispersed In A Muddled Swamp

Attackers’ Race- Humans

Attackers’ Difficulty- Normal

Attackers’ Bonus- 1 x Event Contribution

Defenders’ Race- Elves

Defenders’ Difficulty- Hardcore

Defenders’ Bonus- 2 x Event Contribution

“Urghhh…” I groaned to myself, seeing only 8 other people able to vote on my team; thinking “If I need to win anyway, I might as well vote for the one with the best bonus for the Attackers.” Voting for the Dwarven Kingdom Stronghold.

“Oi, mate!” The same man called to me again, “You’ve gone and truly fucked us now!” approaching me with 2 people following behind him this time.

“Huh? What did I do?” I asked, continuing to lay down and relax until the start of Event.

“Nothing, it’s our fault for being stupid enough to listen to Cullen wanting to have fun.” A Dark Elf woman said, punching the man in the shoulder.

“Ouch!” The man yelped, cowering and rubbing his shoulder.

“Yup, and now we just went from definitely winning, to definitely losing.” A tanned dwarven man added, kicking the same man in the shin.

“Ouch!” The man yelped again, rubbing his shin this time, “Abuse! You’re seeing this, right? I’m being abused by my own friend!” but his friends simply scoffed and ignored him.

Shaking my head at the man still pretending to be in pain, I took notice of the elven woman dressed in light plate armour with fur linings, a shield on her back, and mace hanging from her waist; as well the dwarven man dressed in hardened leather and fur armour, with dual hand-axes hanging from his waist. I guessed they were either a Healer and a Fighter Class, or they were just both Fighter Classes.

Sitting herself in the row below and turning around to face me, the woman asked “So what’s the plan?”

“Yeah, I know it’s probably impossible for us to win, but I’m not ready to give up yet either.” The dwarven man stated, sitting himself next to the woman.

“Neither am I.” The man included himself, sitting between his friends.

“Well first...I want you to vote for the Dwarven Stronghold Setting.” I told them, adding “And if you know the others on our side, go and convince them to do the same before they vote for the wrong ones. I’ll tell you the rest after the vote.” as I then waved them away. Hesitantly listening to me, they all went off to go talk to the others on our side, and I was happy to see that they actually were able to convince them—confirmed by the message received by our whole section.

The Attackers have concluded the voting of the Siege Event Setting, and the majority have chosen the ‘Dwarven Kingdom Stronghold’ Setting to be applied to your Siege Event.

The Players in the lower rows cluelessly cheered, believing that a dwarven stronghold would be the best place for the Defenders to win with, all the while not knowing that even if they did win, they wouldn’t be getting a bonus to Event Contributions. Then soon after, the Players I sent off returned, bringing along with them the 5 other Players on our side, but I was already irked to see that they were a few of the same people chanting ‘Siege!’ earlier. Though luckily for me, before I was forced to interact with any of them, Nulla began to speak again.

“And…that should do it! All the Attackers have now concluded voting for their desired Settings for the Siege Ev—” Interrupting him, 100 consecutive explosions unexpectedly exploded all along the top of each section, completely scaring and catching everybody off guard. When the commotion settled down a little, we all immediately took notice of the grand double wooden doors appearing at the top of each section—the same doors that first brought us to the Waiting Hub.

“Well, that was startling, wasn’t it?” Nulla half-heartedly joked. “Though it would seem the Guides have finished their preparations far faster than I expected, so alas, it is already time for us to say goodbye again.” Gracefully bowing to us, “My job as the Administrator is done for now, so I’ll leave the rest of the details for your Guides to explain.” Then simultaneously slamming wide open, the grand double doors suddenly began pulling each and everyone of us to them. “I look forward to seeing the results of the Siege Event, Players! Until next time!” And unable to resist to strong pulling force, every single Player was eventually sucked up straight into each of our respective doors.

Forcefully crashing directly into each other, the 9 of us groaned in pain, piling over top the freezing cold stone ground. Untangling our bodies, we found ourselves placed inside a small dark cave, with a barely lit campfire in the middle, and an extremely narrow cave entrance leading outside to what seemed to be a current blizzard going on.

“What the fuck?! What happened to my armour!?” An unfamiliar elven exclaimed, frantically looking over his body.

“Wait, Xander, is that you?” Another unfamiliar elven man questioned, “What happened to your face?”

“Orange? What happened to yours?” He questioned back, not recognizing each other—causing the rest of them to question what happened.

“Hey, meatheads! You guys can’t be that dumb, can you?” The same dark elf woman from earlier got their attention, “Didn’t you read the Attackers’ Race was Elven? That’s clearly why all of you non-elves changed to look like that.”

“Obviously.” A different elven man concluded, carrying the same two staves the blonde man from before carried.

“You know, I guess being tall isn’t so bad.” The elven man walking around mentioned.

Though not that surprised by any of this, I simply crouched down by the fire and warmed myself up while I briefly observed our group. The five now pretty indistinguishable Wood Elf men were: Lv.30 Xander who carried a sword and shield, Lv.29 Orange Uglad who carried a glowing wooden staff, Lv.27 Tubby Willis who carried a long spear, Lv.27 Garett Greatness who carried a greatsword, and Lv.27 Pocket who carried dual daggers; while the three I met first were Lv.28 Cullen—now a High Elf, Lv.28 Penelope—still a Dark Elf, and Lv.28 Razi—now a really tanned Wood Elf.

I also keenly noticed we were all dressed in a full uniform set of white and silver medium armour, with matching thick gloves and boots, a warm hooded white cloak, and all lined with white fur linings to keep us warm. Then curiously checking the armour in the Menu, I learned that not only did it look really cool, but it also gave us pretty good bonuses and effects.

Elven Winter Infiltration Armour Set

Epic

Neither ice nor snow can hinder or stop the handpicked archers of the Elven Kingdom's Dreaded Dragonslayer.

+30% Total Physical Damage Reduction

+30 to All Stats

Cloak Effect: Reduce the chance of being noticed while in snow by 30%.

Set Bonus: Enchanted to keep the wearer warm, the armour negates 30 degrees of cold, and reduces the chance of being affected by the ‘Freezing’ Status by 30%.

Requirement: Any Elven Race

Cannot be unequipped until the Event ends or the item is destroyed.

“Not bad.” I thought to myself, as the small campfire suddenly erupted into a tall blaze, causing me to fall backwards in surprise.

“Ah, looks like there aren’t very many of you.” 13 smilingly noted, appearing in person from the fiery blaze. “Sorry about that, my wings couldn’t fit through the entrance, so I thought I might as well enter with style.” Helping back up to my feet.

“13! Our Queen!” The 5 indistinguishable elves openly bowed to her, “What can we do for you?”

Penelope shook her head at the men, “Oh, brother.”

“Simps.” Razi whispered to us.

“I mean, who can blame them?” Cullen asked rhetorically, gesturing to the unbelievable beauty that was 13.

“I’ve been told the Administrator has left us Guides to finish explaining the details, correct?” 13 asked, with all of us nodding yes to her. “Then allow me to explain.” Pausing before she began, “Now as you may have already realized, as per your voted Setting, you have all been temporarily Polymorphed into an Elven Race, if you were not already one previously, losing all Racial Passives that are not associated to your current Elven Race.” A few of the men groaned in dislike but continued to intently listen to 13, “All of you have also been fully equipped with armour that was used in this particular historic battle, to assist the Players unprepared for this environment, and to ensure a more immersive re-enactment of Novus’ History—although your Classes, Skills, Weapons, and Inventory have remained unchanged to avoid unnecessary confusion.”

“Re-enactment? This was actually a siege from Novus’ History? And if so, who won? The Dwarves, or the Elves?” I wondered to myself curiously, listening to 13 continue.

“With that being said, I’m sure some of you have been wondering what happens to the Players who die during this Event, right?” We all nodded again, “Well I’m here to assure you that all who die will simply be teleported and resurrected to the observation platform with me, leaving the ‘Dead Players’ only able to helplessly watch the remainder of the Event—meaning there’s no need for any of you to hold back against killing another Player, as they will truthfully be fine and safely watching alongside myself.”

“You heard our Queen, boys! No mercy!” Xander cheered, causing the rest of his men to cheer too.

“We’re so fucked aren’t we?” Cullen smilingly asked the others.

“Uh-huh.” Razi agreed.

“I hate your decisions so much sometimes, Cullen.” Penelope smilingly shook her head at the situation she found herself in.

“It’s not my fault he was so convincingly serious.” Cullen pointed to me, “But hey, mate. Why aren’t you more worried about this? We even voted for the hardest difficulty because you told us to, but you’ve been unusually relaxed this whole entire time, why? Do you have some genius plan or something?”

“Nope, I have no plan whatsoever." I told them truthfully. "But if you saw the monsters I was fighting before I got here, you wouldn’t be worried about a bunch of low level Players either—especially since there’s only 91 of them.” Though before they could question me further, 13 continued speaking.

“Anyway, in a few moments, both sides will have 10 minutes to prepare for the official start of the Siege Event, allowing you time to familiarize yourselves with the environment, and time to alter any strategies you may have thought would work here.” She then raised her finger and mentioned one last detail, “However, before I start, I must tell you both sides of this historic siege were led by great leaders, and as a result, I need both the Attackers and the Defenders to name their ‘Leader’ who can lead them to victory.” With 13 advising us, “I highly recommend choosing the strongest Player amongst you, for the Leader will be equipped with greater armour and receive a Buff to increase their overall abilities, assuredly assisting your side in overcoming the daunting task you find ahead of yourselves.”

“We already know that’s me, 13, so why don’t we just skip the voting and name me the Leader, alright everyone?” Xander openly suggested, with his men already agreeing and backing him up his idea.

“Hah! You might be a little higher level than us, Xander, but I can take you on any day.” Razi confidently stated.

“Don’t make me laugh, Razi, you wouldn’t stand a chance against me!” Xander claimed, with his men cheering him on.

“Oh, shut up, you no-name extras.” Penelope interjected, annoyed by the men's excessive cheering, “We all know Zealot would’ve kicked you guys out of The Guided a long time ago if it wasn't for Xander's incessant need to be praised by brainless idiots to fill his already inflated ego.”

“Fuck you, bitch!” Orange spitefully shouted, with Garrett and Tubby cursing her too.

“You Elseworld elitists always think you're so much better than us, so why don’t you come here and find who’s the real extras in our Factions.” Pocket threateningly drew his dual daggers and pointed them at Penelope, reactively causing her to also draw her mace and shield.

“What do you say, Razi, wanna fight me 1-on-1 and find who’s really the strongest?” Xander grinned widely, drawing his sword and shield from his back.

“Why the hell not?” Razi shrugged, taking hold of his dual hand-axes, “Just don’t go making excuses when I win and beat your ass.”

“Hahaha…” Cullen suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter, distracting everyone from the increasing tension within the cave.

“What the hell are you laughing at, Cullen?” Xander questioned, “Don’t tell me you think you’re the strongest?”

But Cullen simply continued to laugh to himself, “Ahahaha…”

“Man, what are you laughing at?” Razi asked, slightly losing interest in fighting now.

“Ignore him.” Penelope said, rolling her eyes, “He probably just went crazy thinking of the impossible situation he dragged us into.”

“On the contrary,” Cullen abruptly stopped laughing, “I think I’m the second most sane one here!”

“The second?” Penelope repeated, “I better be the first one then.”

“Nope, you're definitely at least the ninth." Cullen teasingly replied, "But forget that—humour my question for a moment, will you?" strangely pacing around the cave in a circle now, "Who do you guys think the strongest Player in every given Guide is?”

“The one with the highest level!” Garrett blurted out confidently.

“Well the strongest Players do tend to be the highest levels, but we’ve all heard the Player Killer rumours of that fact not being necessarily true.” Then asking, “Anyone else know the answer?”

“Penelope’s right, I think you really have gone crazy.” Razi noddingly concluded.

“Oooh, oooh, oooh! Pick me, pick me!” Tubby raised his hand in excitement.

“Yes, Tubby, who do you think the strongest Player in each Guide is?” Cullen reiterated to him.

“Um, the strongest Players are the ones with the Guide’s Gift, right?” Tubby nervously answered.

“That’s absolutely right, Tubby! Good job! High five!” And Cullen and Tubby gave each other an exuberant high five, baffling everyone as to what was going on right now.

“Everyone knows that, what’s your point, Cullen?” Xander asked, gesturing to his men to put their weapons down.

“My point is, Xander, if you, Razi, and Crystal don’t have 13’s Gift, who does?” Cullen shared the point with everybody, and I saw 13 secretly smirking at me while she continued to silently enjoy our group question something she and I already knew the answer to.

“You’re right, we know almost everyone under our Guide thanks to all the time we spent in the Waiting Hub, so someone must be secretly hiding it from us, but who?” Xander openly questioned, wondering about my identity like everyone else in the cave.

Smiling, Cullen told them “There’s no need for us to wonder anymore, because that unknown person just so happens to be in this very same cave with us.” as he then gestured directly at me trying to mind my own business by the campfire, “I give you the strongest Player under our Guide!”