Formulating a Plan

I stood there silently thinking about these mysterious words of mine. Did these words refer to being alone in this game?

Or was there a hidden meaning about them? I didn't know. Although she was the future I but I didn't know what she had experienced to say such words.

I only thought of previous me trying to advise me to recruit players to my team. Although it was feasible for me to recruit players at this moment, I needed a lot of players.

Ten or twenty or even a hundred more players wouldn't make a difference. War wasn't only about numbers.

There were multiple factors that were much important like their level, their equipment, their skills, their war experience, their tacit understanding between themselves.

When I recalled my experience in dealing with those 50 players I lost my confidence. There were four players with great skills that made me unable to even touch their bodies.

What if there were ten thousand of them? That would be scary! I felt like I was doomed whatever I did.

What Shin just told me wasn't a history story but a scary one. What should I do to avoid such a dark destiny? I looked at Shin seriously and asked:

"You told me you experienced this life innumerable times. Do you get yourself familiar with that big army?"

"Do you mean their levels, skills, strengths, and weaknesses?"

"Yup. Tell me all the data you got."

"They are all at level 9. They are from this layer of the game. They have some players at level 10 who are their leaders.

Their number isn't big, not exceeding 100 players. But these 100 all have unique skills and massive battle experience. You met four of them.

These 100 are like these four. The rest of the army is like those 46 players that we faced before. They don't have any war experience but they are getting massive training from these 100 players.

Their equipment isn't that high. Most of them have trash equipment with poor stats. Those 100 players are like you and me, they have copper level equipment."

So it turned out to be a war between generals. Except for those 100 players, I was confident about killing all of their players.

The only problem lay in those 100 players. I experienced the might of only four of them. They were really a hard nut to crack.

Except for me and Shin, no one could ever face them directly. If I couldn't face them directly and war tactics were useless to such experienced players, then I would flood them with a huge army they couldn't resist.

I would use these game rules to my advantage. I would force them to use their skills without stopping to turn all of these skills into CD.

At this time I would harvest their dirty souls one by one. Although I wasn't an assassin but right now I needed to be one.

I set my mind hard on this and deepened my resolve. I would not be like a sheep waiting for slaughter. If they wanted me dead they better be up to the task then.

I would use all my power to do this. I looked at Shin. This poor cool swordsman was living in silent hell alone. But there was an important issue I didn't get.

"Why did you choose my death scheme as your turning point in the past?"

He seemed to be ready for my question as he replied at once:

"Your incident was a small neglected thing in my life. I faced many disasters later. The biggest and worst of all was the destruction of my empire and slaughter of my people.

When I thought back really hard about what happened and tried to reach the root of everything, I found your small incident.

When I checked it many times I knew for sure that your death was the beginning of the end. I don't know why you were that important to our enemy, but your death was a cornerstone in their big conspiracy."

"Actually I don't understand anything from your words."

He smiled gently like a different Shin and replied:

"No problem. I also didn't understand your importance at the beginning. That was my regret in my whole life. So I decided to challenge destiny and save you. Saving you will save my empire and my people."

He was talking like a mature emperor speaking about his people. He reminded me of my father. My father was always like this. He always spoke words like these.

I really admire my father, so it was normal for me to admire this little emperor. But he wasn't the crown prince. So did this mean that the crown prince would be assassinated?

Why didn't he choose to help that Respon instead of me? Was there a deep history between both of them? When I thought of this point I figured out that he didn't tell me yet the reason behind these aristocratic families' hunt.

Was there a deep hatred between him and Respon? I was Respon fiancée and he knew it already. Why was he helping his enemy fiancée? I wasn't in love with Respon and didn't like him either.

Did he know this too? Was he in love with me? I felt my head was about to explode. Although I wanted to know the real reasons behind his problems with Respon and different aristocratic families, I decided to ignore that for now.

After I escape safely from this dark future, I wouldn't let him escape with any excuse.

"I have a plan in my mind, but first I wanted to know a summary of your previous trials in saving me."

He didn't look amazed when I said I had a plan. It seemed this wasn't the first time I set up a plan. All my previous plans failed. That wasn't a good start at all.

"I tried to first escape with you but we failed. We tried to escape even to other layers. Everything we did was in vain. So I decided to face this disaster head-on.

I tried to make you stronger with all possible means. I made you reach level 10 fast to reach the town. They followed you to the town and killed you.

That trial earned you nearly five more days but it was in vain. I tried to make you have high-grade equipment but we failed. You even once had one piece of gold grade equipment.

We tried to hide in the village but they also killed you with their strongest assassins. We tried to set ambushes to their strongest players but it was in vain.

I once found a scroll of gold grade and used it. It was an AOE scroll. We managed to kill half of their army but in the end, they killed you.

I once tried to use equipment to change your looks and data but they found you back then. Every tactic we used in battle ended in failure.

We once used terrain advantage and set up a stronghold on the top of a mountain near this village. They managed to kill us in the end after a long defensive tiring battle.

You squeezed your brain every time and put plans based on your battle experience. But this all had no gain."

"So, in brief, I shouldn't set plans based on my battle tactics."

"From my previous failed trials I can say with surety that every tactic you use they had a counter to it."

Shin was expecting to see me in despair but he was surprised to see my wide smile. His words didn't disappoint me but they made me more confident about my plan. He asked in confusion:

"Why do I feel you are happy and not sad?"

"You felt right. I'm happy, really happy. My plan this time will turn the tables on them."

"Really?"

"Yup. Trust me. I know you have experienced enough failures to be disappointed but this time I can say for sure that they won't be able to kill us easily.

We even have a high survival chance. But I need you to do a lot of work in the next few days. By the way, how many days do I have before this battle?"

I saw a Shin look that was deprived of any faith in me. I didn't get angry at him as I knew well his feelings. It wasn't easy for someone like Shin to face failure after failure.

I remembered my father. When our kingdom faced defeat after defeat against the coalition army of our enemies, he was very depressed and pessimistic. Only my birth had changed all of this.

I knew what it meant for a commander to taste multiple defeats on the hands of the same enemy. He must be in deep despair. He only kept living because he couldn't die!

"I will do anything you ask from me. We have around 10 days only. They usually hit you before you reach level 9. That gives us nearly 10 days more or less."

"10 days are enough to make a difference."

He looked at me in doubt as my confidence was radiating sharply from me. He asked:

"Are you really confident about this plan of yours?"

"Sure. We will succeed. We will survive."

Although he didn't believe me, he said very seriously:

"Do whatever you feel right. But I want only one thing from you."

"What is this?"

"I want you to promise me if I ever told you to stick to my side you must do as I say."

I smiled and replied to his funny serious tone:

"I promise you."

"I want you to take an oath."