Chapter 30: Breaking SingSing(1)

Right after the school trip, I began building a guild.

Since I was a famous guild master, there was no shortage of applicants eager to join.

As time passed, other raid teams began clearing raids one by one.

The advantage of being the only raid-clear team in Deron gradually disappeared.

However, the title of being the first-clear raid leader remained.

The number of guild members steadily grew.

Eventually, we reached 120 out of the maximum capacity of 300.

This meant we had surpassed the minimum requirement of 100 members needed for guild battles.

But with so many members, a new problem emerged—raiding.

Currently, raids required a system of 40 players grouped into a single team.

This meant that with one character, I couldn’t manage all the other guild members.

Ideally, I could start a new raid team and delegate leadership to someone else, but that wasn’t an option yet.

The guild was still new.

I needed to solidify my position as the guild master.

If I told someone to pretend to die, they should at least act like it.

I had to run another raid team.

Ultimately, I decided to raise another character.

Fortunately, my account already had an additional character.

It was a character Ha Yeon had played before, with the nickname [YeoniPrincess].

I hesitated briefly, but what did the nickname matter?

There were far stranger nicknames in Deron during my time playing it in another world.

I diligently worked on leveling up YeoniPrincess whenever I had free time.

Eventually, I reached the maximum level and joined the character into the guild to run a new raid team.

Oddly, guild members seemed to prefer it when I logged in as YeoniPrincess rather than my main character.

Even though its equipment was lacking, and my gameplay skills were worse compared to the main character, what was so appealing about it?

[Client Update Notice]

Hello, adventurer.

The Deron Online update is scheduled for Wednesday, July 20th.

Items from the event [Traces of the Lost Sun God] will expire after this update.

 [New Content: Conquest Battles / Guild Raids]

[Conquest Battle Introduction]

Conquest battles, a guild-exclusive feature, have been added.

Guild masters can bid for challenge rights at the Guild Management NPCs located in each region.

During conquest battles, the guild war system will be temporarily disabled.

※ Guilds that already occupy a city will participate in a defense battle instead of a conquest battle.
※ 50% of the challenge bid goes into the defending guild’s funds.

[Conquest Battle Schedule]

Every Saturday and Sunday from 8 PM to 9 PM.

Guilds that win a conquest battle will unlock access to the guild hideout in the occupied city.

[Benefits for Conquering a City]

• Free use of warp portals in the area.
• 20% discount on item purchases in the region.
• 5% of transaction fees from trades in the region are added to guild funds.
• 10% increase in drop rates while hunting in the region.

[Participation Rewards for Conquest Battles]

All participants in a conquest battle will receive [Glory Box].
The victorious faction will receive [Glory Box] x2.

[Glory Box Item Drop Rates]

※ Click to view details.

[Conquest Points / Points Shop]

A point system and a dedicated shop NPC have been added, allowing participants in conquest battles to earn points.

You can earn basic points simply by participating in conquest battles, and additional points are granted for achieving high scores.

[Point Shop Item List]
※ Click to view details.

[Mercenary System]

A mercenary system has been added, allowing players not affiliated with any guild to participate in conquest battles.

You can apply to any faction, with a maximum of 20 applicants per faction.

However, mercenary participation requires approval from the guild currently occupying the region.

[Guild Raid Introduction]

[Underground Labyrinth]

The underground labyrinth, a guild-exclusive feature, is now open.

Each checkpoint features powerful boss monsters that respawn, and defeating these bosses offers a low chance to drop new items.

When entering this area, all non-guild members are treated as hostile, and there are no PvP penalties within this region.

[Underground Labyrinth Opening Time]
Every Monday at 8 PM.

[Drop Rates for Newly Added Items]
※ Click to view details.

With the guild content update, I could finally resume my halted conquest crusade.

The conquest battle and underground labyrinth features provided perfect opportunities to showcase the guild master’s charisma.

Upon logging into the game on the update day, I noticed guild members discussing the newly added content.

I shifted my attention to the guild funds.

Thanks to Sohee—no, Helena—who had been tossing in thousands of gold coins like a piggy bank whenever she thought of it, the guild funds had surpassed 20,000 gold.

While other guild members also contributed diligently, 70% of the guild’s current funds came from Helena alone.

Yeon-[Make sure to stock up on blessings. There’s no conquest battle on Saturday, so don’t waste your energy unnecessarily.]

After posting in the guild chat, I began organizing items.

Preparing for the conquest battle the next day required various items.

On the first week of conquest battles, Saturday is off-limits for player-driven battles.

Specifically, there are no player-versus-player conquest battles because no guilds are defending any castles.

This means that if you win the bid for a challenge, you are guaranteed to occupy the castle.

The real challenge starts after occupying it.

And that’s exactly what I planned to target.

As time passed, it was 7:40 PM.

A server-wide message popped up:

[The bidding for conquest battles has begun.]

I immediately opened the map to scan all regions.

During the bidding phase, the map allows players to monitor all active bids across every region at a glance.

As expected, the Lunaris capital was already experiencing a fierce contest.

In less than a minute, the bid had already reached 1,000 gold.

But I wasn’t interested in that.

My sole focus was on SingSing.

I needed to identify the region they intended to bid for.

Were they simply observing the situation?

So far, SingSing hadn’t shown any notable movement.

The bidding period lasted 10 minutes. If you failed to bid during that time or lost the bidding war, you couldn’t obtain the challenge rights.

At exactly 7:49 PM, the SingSing Guild placed a bid in the newly added Sakazan region.

Their bid was a total of 3,000 gold, far higher than the previously placed 1,000 gold.

I waited, keeping an eye on the timer, which I had set up beside me.

At precisely 7:49:55, I slammed down a bid of 6,000 gold in one go.

The SingSing Guild’s managers must have been monitoring the situation, but my bid was significantly higher than what they would have expected, leaving them no time to react.

As a result:

[“The Marshmallow Chewy Cow Guild has secured the challenge rights for the Frostbound Sakazan region!”]

The bid was successful.

I quickly scanned other regions.

However, the SingSing Guild name was nowhere to be seen.

After a successful bid, there’s a 10-minute preparation window during which you can organize elite members to prepare for the conquest battle.

For now, I accepted participants on a first-come, first-served basis since today was just about plundering an unoccupied castle, and no fighting was expected.

From 8 PM to 9 PM, over the course of an hour, the Marshmallow Chewy Cow Guild successfully captured the Frostbound Sakazan region.

Our guild’s emblem, a fierce-looking bull, was now proudly displayed on the map over the newly conquered territory.

I couldn’t be more satisfied.

The guild’s new headquarters was a massive castle.

Guild members flocked to explore the new base.

Meanwhile, I sat in the conference room, a space accessible only to the guild master and officers.

The chair reserved for the guild master was enormous—so big that sitting in it felt more like sinking into it.

There was much to do today.

I began gathering information about the guilds occupying other regions.

Sunday, the day of reckoning, dawned.

Guild members were excited, eager to participate in a proper conquest battle today.

I couldn’t bear to dampen their enthusiasm.

If the SingSing Guild decided to challenge us, we would have to engage in an actual fight.

But I knew better.

SingSing would choose to avoid conflict rather than face us.

The bidding war on Saturday had made that clear.

Even though SingSing had been caught off guard and outbid by us, they didn’t react at all.

Perhaps they were still haunted by the overnight ambushes from our guild sniper, Hwarang, which had plagued them in the past.

As time passed and 7:40 PM arrived, the bidding war began again.

Relaxed, I sat in the guild conference room, waiting.

When I opened the map, I noticed that SingSing was employing an aggressive bidding strategy—but not in our region.

They had set their sights on a snowy mountain range.

It seemed they were determined to claim it, having placed the same 3,000-gold bid as the day before.

A faint smile crossed my face as I began typing.

The snowy mountain range was currently occupied by the [Milky Way] Guild.

I decided to send a message to their guild leader.

Yeon-[Hello, this is Yeon, guild master of Marshmallow Chewy Cow. Do you have a moment to talk?]
Maple-[Oh, hello! Of course, I’m happy to chat anytime.]
Yeon-[Would you be interested in forming an alliance?]

Maple-[An alliance…?]

Yeon-[I’d like us to maintain a cooperative relationship where we can assist each other in upcoming guild content.]

Maple-[Oh… that’s an interesting idea.]

Yeon-[Let’s save the detailed discussion for after the conquest battle. For now, let’s handle the urgent matter first.]

Maple-[Urgent matter?]

Yeon-[Can you stop the SingSing Guild?]

Maple-[Hmm… To be honest, I don’t think we can manage that.]

Yeon-[We’ll protect your castle.]

Maple-[What? How?]

Yeon-[There’s no rule saying you can’t participate in the bidding war while holding a region, right?]

Maple-[Oh!]

Maple immediately understood my plan.

The strategy was simple: I would enter the bid war SingSing was participating in just before it ended.

Even if we won the challenge rights, our guild wouldn’t actually participate in the conquest battle.

Although this meant forfeiting the challenge rights, it didn’t matter because our guild only had 120 members—too few to handle both offense and defence simultaneously.

This way, I could achieve my goal while also forming an alliance with Maple’s guild.

Maple-[Is that really possible?]

Yeon-[It’s possible. I’ve already tested it.]

Maple-[Hmm… Even so, I’m worried you might still join the conquest battle.]

Yeon-[We have 120 members. We can’t manage both offense and defence. I’ll ensure all our members focus on defence, so don’t worry.]

Maple-[Alright then.]

Yeon-[I’ll take that as your agreement to the alliance. If any of my guild members enter the conquest battle, feel free to crush them. I don’t need members who don’t follow my orders.]

Maple-[Yikes… You’re much scarier than the rumours suggested.]

After finishing my conversation with Maple, the agreed-upon time of 7:49 PM arrived.

I set up the timer and prepared my bid amount.

Just as I was about to press the bid button, SingSing unexpectedly increased their bid by 1,000 gold, bringing their total to 4,000 gold.

It seemed they were nervous and raised the bid at the last moment.

However, I had already set my bid amount to 6,000 gold, just like yesterday.

[“The Marshmallow Chewy Cow Guild has secured the challenge rights for the Snowy Mountain Range region!”]

Yeon-[I’ve protected your bid. You’ll pay back 50% of the bid amount into your guild funds, right?]

Maple-[Thank you! I’ll send it to you by mail right away!]

As soon as our conversation ended, the gold was promptly sent to my mailbox.

If they hadn’t reimbursed the bid amount, I would have had no choice but to enter the conquest battle with my guild members.

There were a few guilds challenging us, but they were small-scale groups that would struggle to field even 50 members.

It seemed they were just joining for the basic participation rewards.

Yeon-[Everyone, only join the defense battle. Do not enter the conquest battle.]

In the end, SingSing was left with nothing to show for their efforts and could only sit idly by that day.

However, this wasn’t the end.

There was still the [Underground Labyrinth] raid scheduled for Monday.