Chapter 316: 316

Ibro looked at this player who was a typical example of free players. Ibro knew the deep reality of any game. Although the most famous were always the guild leaders, the majority of players are the free players. 

Adventurers like this player who held no responsibility towards no one except himself. This was the big whale Ibro aimed for. He didn't want those arrogant players who were used to being masters to serve his empire. 

He wanted those free mind players who would put their life on the line to protect his empire in the future.

"May I ask how many do you have?"

The player looked around him as he yelled with his highest voice:

"Who wanted to join the players' resistance against those nasty monsters?"

Suddenly, the whole city trembled from very loud cheers. Maya leaned over Ibro as she whispered:

"They have around one million players here."

Ibro smiled, then he replied to this player:

"I welcome any free player to join my crusade. What is your name?"

"My name is Avada."

"Listen well Avada, this war isn't as simple as you might think. I want to issue an important task."

Avada looked seriously towards Ibro who added:

"I want you to gather as many free players as you can. This city will be the base camp for free players. I will leave lord Gorsag here to help all of you to get stronger. Level up faster, as we have a lot of monsters to kill."

Avada replied with obvious happiness:

"I'm happy that you agreed on our offer, we won't disappoint you."

Ibro knew the reason behind his happiness. Free players had a shadow existence in any game. It's very rare to find some group of them that could rival big guilds. 

They usually were dealt with as the lowest grade of players. Now, Ibro had given them a whole city, appointed a powerful lord to their help, and wanted to make them stronger. 

This was a different kind of treatment towards them. It was my first, and Ibro aimed at this point specifically. Ibro then didn't wait here as he left for real this time with the company of Maya. 

Gorsag knew what to do, as this went according to Ibro's plans. The players from different guilds went back to their real masters and carried what happened exactly to them. 

Gorsag didn't delay as he posted the recorded videos of what happened on the forums. That made quite a storm there. Free players felt appreciation towards Ibro. 

No guild accepted to guard them, and no city was secure enough for them. That despair changed miraculously with just one video. The Flood of players started to appear in the city without showing any signs of stopping. 

Gorsag had sent a cultivator to bring more stones from the village. He was speechless, as Ibro had predicted correctly the course of events.

"So, you didn't want to accept those sects-like players as they would stir trouble at the empire, right?"

Ibro replied to Maya's question as they both were fighting in another city.

"Yes, free players have no master, so it will be easier for them to follow me. I understand their mindset perfectly. 

Those guild players are arrogant. They won't accept my rule easily, especially in the presence of their past masters in the picture. They will cause real complicated internal problems that I have no mind for."

Once they left the Gortan city, Maya kept asking about what happened there. Ibro began to explain everything as simple as he could. He tried to take examples from the cultivation world to make her understand better. 

This time, he attacked 75 cities before his energy got depleted. He rested with Maya while he kept on the updated reports sent from Gorsag and Erond. The Gorsag side was doing great. 

So far, nearly 100 million free players had successfully joined his empire. That number might seem high, but this was very low in Ibro's estimate. Any world had at least 10 billion citizens, so he hoped for 1 to 2 billion to join him. 

Gorsag asked for further instructions as that number was way bigger than the city capacity by far. There were no attacks on the Gortan city now, so Gorsag asked for permission to send some players to take part in city defensive battles. 

Ibro instructed him to send patches of players towards the cities he had already freed them from the demon seeds. The pressure there was lesser. 

Ibro had never stopped using the stones in all his battles, so he needed to resupply. Rinobak had sent more storage rings which were full of beta stones every time he rested. 

Ibro thought for a while not to use these stones on everyone he freed, as he wasn't sure all of them would survive and return to the city gates again. But he decided to keep using this strategy. 

If he let the players or NPCs choose freely, then he would lose most of them. His beta stones were his only guarantee to make sure they would move to his cities. 

As for Erond reports, they showed some stabilization finally. Till now, Ibro lost close to 200 cities to date. The reports also gave him an overall view of the whole war situation. 

As forums stated, most cities had been subjected to heavy losses, and many of them were destroyed by these demons. The forums were filled by many reports about people gone missing from the real world. 

There were calls for abandoning the game, as they claimed the real world was the safe haven for them. Others warned about such a move as this invasion wouldn't stop at the game world and it would invade the real world as well. 

Ibro suspected those who argued against retreat from the game war were working for the highest authorities at these players' real world. Ibro didn't care, though, as this chaos wasn't related to his war. 

He wanted to free his territories from all attacks and focus on moving forward to start his true plans. After he rested for an hour, he moved again to relieve the pressure over a new round of cities. 

This time, he had managed to visit 100 cities before he felt a weakness again. This became his routine for the next couple of days. His territory already was very huge, so he had over 2000 cities in different ranks under his control. 

What made him take longer than expected was the appearance of demon armies again at previously freed cities. He nearly took two rounds around his empire. 

As his empire was full of players now, the forums were filled with videos about his battles. Most of these videos were real-time live broadcast videos, so they had made quite a sensational reaction to everyone. 

After two days of the start of the war, Ibro finally had time to return to his village. This time, he was sure that the most demons he attacked in the past days were mainly from outside this world. 

He had freed over 10 billion players and NPCs. Although only 500 million of them managed to survive and reach his cities, he wasn't sad. He had a role for all those alien players and NPCs. 

But, he needed to arrange things first. Dealing with this challenge was never a one-man job. So, he gathered all his 7 pillars coupled with all the commanders under his control.