The Last Defense

"The Last Defense, an action-packed base-building tower defense game that was released this year in beta. Featuring FPS mode, base-building survival and even piloting mechas in the game to fight against hordes of enemies. Subscribe now!"

That giant advertisement playing at Times Square? That is the most recent hit game in the world. Top ranking at all game publisher companies, the studio that created this masterpiece was previously unknown to everyone. Now Almight Studio is a top name in the industry.

TLD was jam-packed and full of features that suit every gamer no matter what your passions are. Be it lifestyle players, FPS players, Mechas players, and even base builders, not one is left out of the game.

For the non-combat players, their area of function in the game is looting around the open world for rare materials and blueprints that are useful for base builders to make their base. The base builders, need the combat players and lifestyle players to help them defend their base.

This type of subtle codependency made the game extremely famous. I am one of the 1,000,000,000 players who started during the launch stage. However, I am a lowly 9 to 6 office worker so most of the time I could not stay online and play the game.

Thus, I have selected and mastered the art of solo player in the game. I am one of the rare multiclass players who can do every thing in the game even though we may be lacking when compared to the specialized players.

But this does give me one advantage. I do not need to team up with others all the time in order to do certain things in the game. The system even rewards you for being a solo player due to the difficulty. However, very few players knew about the reward since it is only awarded if you played from the start til you succeeded in making a tier 3 base without teaming up with other players.

The rewards included a special class, The Omniscient, that has a lot of perks including being able to teleport to anywhere within your base, see everything in your base, and even immunity when inside your own base. This pretty much made me invincible as long as I stayed in my own base.

You see, base builders are typically squishy in the Constitution stat, allowing combat players to one-shot them even though within their own base. So they could only use the robot securities they made to help them fight against invaders. The Omniscient pretty much negated the side effect of being a base builder.

The Omniscient class also awarded multiple stats reallocation profiles that allow you to switch instantly, so while you may be using a lifestyle player profile when encountering combat, you can switch to combat stats. The only thing to take note of is that you need to switch, if not you will still die easily.

I died multiple times to ambushes by both NPC and player attacks. Since then, I have trained my Sixth Sense to the max and I will be sensitive to minute changes. However, even with all the stats and rewards of The Omniscient class, not a lot of players took that class. This is because by choosing that class, you pronounce yourself as a forever solo player.

Any moment you join a team or Clan, your stats and awards will be locked until you abolish the relationship. There is even a time restriction, if you refuse to leave within 24 hours, your class will be temporarily sealed for half a year.

With that kind of punishment, a lot of solo players refused The Omniscient class. As for me? It was the perfect class. It felt akin to custom-made for me. I can fight and defend. I can build and harvest. The whole game was available to me even though I lacked teammates.

Through the accumulation of my hard work and perks from The Omniscient, I reached tier 5 base in the game. Tier 5 base is the current game limit so no more advancement path. For a Tier 5 base, the walls are equipped with a plasma turret, and the walls are reinforced with a special metal alloy that even the rams from monsters do a tiny amount of damage.

That combined with its self-regeneration ability, the walls can outlast the enemy attacks. While ramming, the plasma turret will also melt them thus for the current stage of the game, the Tier 5 base is equivalent to an invincible city. 

The only way for the city to break is under siege by players and Clan attacks. After all, no player will stand still letting the plasma turret hit them. So, more often than not, most of the Tier 5 bases are owned or subsidiaries of large clans.

Small clans or solo players who own Tier 4 bases will be raided before they even reach the checkpoint to upgrade to Tier 5. The only reason I succeeded was that I was too lucky. I obtained a special blueprint for the walls. Other than self-regeneration, the unique ability included camouflage.

Other players can literally walk past my base and not even detect it. After all, only siege battle modules can break the camouflage. That includes where I put my base, no players have the chance to even touch the wall. 

At Tier 1 base, you could make a simple teleporter that connects your base to the main city, so I often traveled into and out of my base using the teleporter. Combined with additional storage space by my class, I could hide building materials in my bag and no one would suspect me of being a base builder.

"Congratulations of being one of the Tier 5 Base Owner. You are given a choice to announce your name in the World Codex or deny it. Please Select."

"Hmm, if I select yes, all the big clans will hunt for my blood. So the choice is easy, deny."

"You have denied the announcement. Your name is recorded in the World Codex as Anon 1. From now on, all achievements under you will be written as Anon 1."

DING

"Congratulations on achieving hidden quest: Glory to The Omniscient'

?

What is this hidden quest? I clicked on the quest logs to check the rewards.

"Hidden Quest: Glory to The Omniscient"

Achieve Tier 5 base and deny the announcement.

Reward: Upgrade of The Omniscient to The Omniscient EX

"The Omniscient EX"

Restrictions to the original class are removed by the EX status. Limit to teleportation: Unlimited. Limit to Stats Reallocation: Nullified. Limits to Relationship: Nullified.

"Congratulations on being the first Omniscient to reach Tier 5 base."

DINGDONG

New announcement! Live update will be implemented. Please find a safe spot to log off within 1 hour.

Instantly, all the channels for players were flooded with angry sentiments.

"What the heck! Who triggered the update? I am still raiding a dungeon!"

"Noice, it's been so long since the last update."

"Anyone know what the update is about?"

"The guy who triggered the update please share!"

Hundreds more comments were talking about the sudden live update. Even I who triggered the update had no idea what the update would be.

"System, log off."