Strategy game? Then I'll have to control you properly.

The soldiers screamed in terror, "Woo, woof..."

"What the hell is that thing in the sky?!"

Gale, who had just smashed the giant hammer aimed at him with brute force and was gritting his teeth, was speechless when he saw the words of light emerging from the murky clouds.

Despite being an evil sorcerer, excessively sacred golden characters appeared, and this sacred power was clearly not on their side.

While directing their soldiers, the Zhen Dan warriors repeatedly urged their opponents to surrender: "Surrender! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

The outcome was already half decided the moment the conflict broke out.

In fact, the Aurora Army did not turn its swords against those who laid down their weapons and surrendered.

They routed Gael's troops before they could regroup, and the Gael soldiers, without their commander, were unable to mount any effective resistance and crumbled.

Gale stared at Attila with bloodshot eyes at the corpses and surrendered soldiers scattered on the ground, gritting his teeth as he asked, "Who are you people? Where did you come from?"

Attila simply shook his head calmly and replied, "Everyone asks similar questions. But we are just like you, tribes of this grassland. It's just that we are weaker and have become the ones being plundered, rather than the plunderers."

Gale severed the thorny vines he had summoned from the ground with a single stroke, roaring angrily, "Nonsense! We would never use such bizarre sorcery!"

Attila remained calm as he looked at him, and again urged him to surrender: "Surrender as well. If you surrender, I will tell you the truth about us that you do not know."

Gail bared his teeth and resolutely refused: "We... are proud warriors, we would rather die than surrender to the likes of sorcerers!"

Before he finished speaking, Gael raised his sword and pushed off the ground, charging towards Attila in an instant.

Attila flinched, glancing sideways out of the corner of his eye.

Almost simultaneously, Gael, who was about to strike Attila, was stopped by a sudden flash of sword light.

The roar and impact of the clashing steel made Gale's eyes widen.

The one who blocked his sword strike, which was infused with all his magic, was a female warrior with a flowing ponytail.

Lillie's golden eyes suddenly shone brightly, her hair and skirt fluttered simultaneously, and she unleashed the skill [Cross Slash] with a dazzling flash.

Under the strike amplified by divine power, Gale's astonished body was instantly knocked back.

Lin Miao, on the other side of the screen, was oblivious to the passage of time. She didn't even go to the bathroom, her eyes glued to the live war footage on the screen.

A true real-time war keeps you glued to your screen for a second.

Lin Miao's only thought was that the most important thing was to cooperate with their actions, so she cautiously swung her hammer to provide support, suppress enemy soldiers, and assist in sniping the enemy leader.

However, while sniping the leader, Lin Miao also realized that the desktop destruction program needed to be upgraded, since the most basic hammer was already nearing its performance limit.

But this time it was enough. He provided assistance, and the villagers devised the right tactics and executed them perfectly, thus winning the war.

Although it cannot be said that victory is complete, with the tide of battle already completely turned, as long as those remaining soldiers who are still putting up fierce resistance are dealt with, victory will be theirs for the taking.

Lin Miao looked at the few soldiers clad in wolf skins who were still stubbornly resisting, and sighed softly.

These elite soldiers, including the enemy leader, seemed to prefer death to surrender.

Especially the leader named Gale, who, despite not being able to hear what he was saying, had a ferocious expression that made it instantly clear, and kept shouting.

However, Lillie, who was fighting Gale, maintained a calm and composed expression throughout, steadily suppressing him.

This is undoubtedly proof of her growth. The slightly emotional young female warrior of the past has disappeared, replaced by an excellent female knight who has grown rapidly through trials and tribulations.

Looking at the battle on the screen, Lin Miao thought to himself: We've already won.

Other enemies are being defeated one by one by elite warriors such as Rosie and Mista, so it seems there's no need to use that final, devastating hammer strike.

[Achievement Completed: 200 enemy members eliminated]

[Achievement Completed: 300 enemy members eliminated]

……

At the same time, the system also achieved several accomplishments through this war.

Lin Miao, who was still watching the game, quickly skipped over the achievements and only claimed the reward points.

During this time, the outcome was already decided.

Lillie's sword finally cut Gale's weapon in two. Under Lin Miao's enthusiastic gaze, she did not hesitate to swing her sword at the staggering Gale and behead him.

Although the battle ended in victory, things were not entirely over.

While Attila was suppressing the surrendered enemies, he also transferred some of his troops to other places.

Looking at the fleeing enemy soldiers on the screen, Lin Miao couldn't help but sigh. If only he could use a mouse, he could immediately catch those deserters and track down his own troops left behind.

However, in the enemy's view, he couldn't use the mouse to control the game, so he could only watch helplessly as his allies pursued them, praying that Attila's forces would capture them.

The fleeing enemy soldiers seemed to realize they were being pursued, and some of them did not rejoin their unit but instead fled in completely different directions.

The allied forces also seemed to have given up on pursuing those people and focused on controlling the remaining main enemy force.

Those enemy soldiers who were unaware of their defeat and the death of their chieftain panicked when their allies launched a surprise attack and ultimately chose to surrender.

◆◆◆

the other side.

Rewind a little, to the very moment when they launched a fierce attack on Gale's forces, who had fallen into a trap, Lillie spurred her horse and galloped away from the front lines to confront the enemy leader. Gale's main force was also engaged in fierce fighting there, while battles continued in other directions.

The giant hammer that fell from the sky kept smashing down on the Gaelic warriors who, after falling from their horses, were still putting up a stubborn resistance.

Some people managed to dodge thanks to their reflexes, but those who were not strong enough were smashed into a bloody pulp and died on the spot. Even Rose, who was about to launch a surprise attack, was stunned by the shockwave.

Luo Xie thought to herself: We can't delay.

She quickly regained her composure and continued her charge.

Because an enemy soldier, still full of fighting spirit after falling from his horse, was pulling a newly awakened recruit off his mount and raising his sword to strike him.

The enemy soldiers were caught off guard by her arrival, which was accompanied by a shadow of madness, and hesitated for a moment.

Luo Xie seized the opening and stomped the ground hard. With a flash of cold light from her short sword, she directly decapitated her much taller opponent.

Lillie now goes without saying, and even Rosie, who has been training continuously, is by no means an ordinary person. Perhaps because she has been used to using skills to fight from the beginning, she is even better than Lillie in terms of skill application.

The rescued recruit, still shaken, bowed deeply to her and thanked her, saying, "Th-thank you."

Luo Xie sheathed her sword and gave a brief piece of advice to the new warrior who was looking up at her: "Don't hesitate during battle. Immediately follow up with the next move so as not to reveal any openings."

The newcomer nodded unconsciously. In the village, Luo Xie was already regarded as a seasoned warrior who could stand alone, and it would not be an exaggeration to call him his senior.

At this moment, Bruno, riding his horse, walked up to her, his face slightly pale from exhaustion due to continuous spellcasting, and asked, "Are you alright?"

Roschel was puzzled by Bruno's presence, as he was supposed to be in the opposite formation, and asked him, "I don't care, but why are you here?"

Bruno chuckled and pointed around, saying, "The battle seems to be over."

Only then did they look around and see horribly mutilated corpses and signs of battle. The shouts and screams had subsided, leaving only the enemies who had abandoned their weapons and surrendered.

Rosie looked down at the short sword made of pure white bone that could efficiently absorb and release magic, and then saw the golden light bursting forth in front of her. In an instant, she understood Lillie's victory and thought to herself: It's over.

But at that moment, Mista urgently shouted to gather his soldiers, spurring his horse forward: "Those who still have the strength, mount up immediately! We must pursue those fleeing fellows!"

Bruno and Roche exchanged a glance as if by reflex, and simultaneously reached out to each other. They then rode together on a single horse, joining the other soldiers in pursuit of the fleeing enemy.

A scout rode up to Mista and reported loudly, "The enemy doesn't seem to intend to return to base, but rather to escape completely. Should we continue the pursuit?"

Mista watched the enemies fleeing in panic as they were pursued, and couldn't help but sigh, thinking to himself: The key lies in controlling their main force, where they have a stronghold...

Upon hearing that Bruno and Rochet had volunteered, Mista reluctantly assigned soldiers to his brothers Bruno and Rochet, repeatedly instructing them:

"Pursue them moderately. If they flee without looking back, retreat immediately. We just need to buy time to control their main force."

As Attila prayed to the gods for the safety of the children, he charged toward his original target, the enemy's main force.

Meanwhile, Rose and Bruno, along with other soldiers, were pursuing the last remaining enemies.

The enemy soldiers, who had long lost their will to fight, fled desperately without looking back. The pursuit continued until even the most enduring grassland horses were exhausted and staggering.

Bruno pulled on the reins and said, "Let's stop here. Going any further would be too deep."

Rosie reined in her horse, and although she showed a slight displeasure, since Bruno and the elders around her thought it was time to stop, she did not insist on objecting and replied, "A wise decision. We have done our duty."

They watched as the fleeing enemy remnants gradually disappeared at the edge of the plain, then, after catching their breath, turned their horses around.

On the other side, Gael's remaining soldiers finally realized that the pursuing forces of Cintaman had given up the chase and returned to their own lines. They stopped, panting, and looked around.

The highest-ranking man among them gritted his teeth and asked the person next to him, "Where is this?"

The soldier beside him replied in a trembling voice, "Ah, probably in the northwest. They were only focused on escaping, so..."

Enraged, the man slammed his fist into the tree trunk, cursing, "Damn it!"

To be honest, he wanted to surrender, but he couldn't.

The reason why these desperate fleeing people, including him, could not surrender to China was simple: their families had been taken hostage by Theodore.

This was a measure taken by Theodore to prevent the warriors of the conquered tribes from possibly rebelling, since no one knew whether these people were neutral, friendly, or hostile.

He suppressed his anger and ordered the remaining soldiers, "First, determine the direction and return to the chieftain. At least report to that guy what kind of evil and bizarre power the enemy used before we can have any chance of survival."

But in that instant, something strange happened in the grove where they were.

The first to hear the noise was a soldier in the back row. Immediately afterward, a piercing scream tore through the woods: "A monster! It's a monster!"

With the wriggling sound of its huge tentacles, a giant centipede burst through the bushes and emerged.

The monster, whose body was the size of a house, was covered in black armor and used its massive black jaws to bite the terrified soldiers and their horses in two.

The remaining soldiers were instantly terrified, spurring their horses into a frenzy of galloping horses, shouting, "Run! Run!!"

The leader was filled with terror. He could fight against ordinary magical beasts, but he sensed a ferocious aura from this giant black beast that was unlike any other magical beast.

Seeing them trying to escape on horseback, the centipede suddenly twisted its body and spewed out a thick, poisonous mist, the dark green gas instantly enveloping the surroundings.

The poisonous fog swept in with the wind, causing even warriors whose bodies had been tempered by magic to stagger backward, their faces contorted in pain as they struggled to stay upright.

He gritted his teeth and used all his magic to resist the poison gas, but when he saw that his sword could not only not cut through the monster's shell, but could not even cut through its tentacles, he finally knelt down in despair.

To deal with monsters of this level, one would need at least a mithril-grade weapon, but exhausted and poisoned, he was no longer able to fight them alone.

In the end, he was crushed and swallowed alive by the centipede. The last thing he saw in his dying vision was the back view of a few soldiers who had managed to escape.

He could never know that after he died, the monster with its waving tentacles turned and chased after the fleeing people.

◆◆◆

After the war ended, Lin Miao immediately used the spreadsheet program to check the tribal status table, where the number of casualties was clearly visible.

Thanks to this system, while Attila was still counting the prisoners, he had already completed the battle assessment on the screen, though his expression was quite grim.

Many of our soldiers were killed or wounded in battle. Although this was far fewer than the hundreds of casualties caused by the enemy trampling each other in the chaos, a loss is still a loss.

The feeling of "being happy to win at a small cost" was battling with the thought that "after all, someone has sacrificed themselves" in Lin Miao's mind, but he immediately shook his head with a wry smile and shook off the distracting thoughts.

This was originally a clearly unfavorable battle. The enemy, from a powerful force, not only had a large number of elite troops, but also outnumbered our forces several times over. If we were to fight them head-on, they would be the ones to be slaughtered.

The overwhelming victory achieved with such minimal losses was entirely due to the acquisition of power completely unknown to the enemy and its skillful use, which also demonstrates the profound significance of the calm and deliberate planning before the battle.

On the screen, Attila was still talking to the surrendered soldiers, and the prisoners' hostility was gradually turning into neutrality, and even friendliness.

This was precisely the task of persuading them to become companions, and things were developing in the direction Lin Miao had initially hoped for.

Although they were once the attacking enemy, now that the leader and other hardliners have been eliminated, if they can be appeased and absorbed, they can achieve another leap forward.

Moreover, the number of these new members will be more than double that of the original residents.

Lin Miao looked at Attila on the screen and thought to himself: Traitors are irrelevant. It's pointless anyway; I have my own ways of discerning who truly follows us. Just as it has been shown so far, Attila and his predecessors will use their abilities to naturally integrate the new immigrants into the community.

When Lin Miao saw Attila's troops escorting the enemy's main force back, Lin Miao finally released the mouse completely.

The battle is over. In terms of scale alone, this was definitely the biggest crisis to date, but thanks to proper handling and thorough preparation, the crisis was successfully overcome.

He scrolled through the list with interest, watching the new names appear one by one, wondering: How many people could there be? Although there were still many neutral individuals who couldn't judge the inclinations and talents of the newcomers, the large number of people meant that new talent could be continuously acquired.

The thought of waking them up and settling them in filled Lin Miao with anticipation.

This battle has fully demonstrated the effectiveness of the method; he just needs to continue as usual.

Lin Miao got up to prepare a meal. He hadn't eaten or slept properly for a long time because he was focused on this battle.

Although he is much stronger than before, he still needs to take care of himself. He ate a meal during a short break, and then took care of the backlog of housework while checking the computer.

In the village, Attila was facing the surrendered Gaelic soldiers, answering their questions with a light laugh.

One of the surrendered soldiers asked incredulously, "Are you telling the truth? You really won't treat us like slaves, but as one of your own kind?"

Attila nodded and responded gently, "Of course, because that would be pointless. Not only you, but also the family members who are about to join us."

The defeat of the defeated is an ironclad rule on the grasslands. Capable people like warriors and their families can still receive preferential treatment, but others are often reduced to slavery. This is the price that the weak must bear.

But Attila did not do that, and the wide-eyed surprise of the surrendered men was perfectly normal.

Attila continued, "The guardian deity will forgive and accept you; all you need to do is remain loyal to Him."

The surrendered soldiers were immediately thrown into an uproar. One of them asked in a trembling voice, "Guardian deity? What does that mean?"

When Attila told them about the existence of the guardian deity, the prisoners realized with horror that many of the factors that led to their defeat stemmed from this.

Attila, having subdued all the prisoners in one fell swoop, was pleased with his increasingly refined explanation skills, a faint smile appearing on his lips.

Absorbing rival tribes is something he's already very familiar with, and he will continue to do so in the future.

After an overwhelming victory, the existence of the gods is revealed, and followers are promised care and resources, not oppression.

Faced with such an explanation, the prisoners indeed had no reason to fiercely resist.

Attila nodded to Allen, who had dug the earth with all his might and made great contributions in this battle, and said, "Thanks to this, we were able to suppress and absorb the Gaelic tribe members who were trying to devour us."

Allen bowed in response, "I think so too. And once these people have fully adapted and our power has grown, we'll be able to do even more."

Attila's gaze fell on Lillie, who was surrounded by the surrendered warriors.

These surrendered soldiers had long since set aside their pride and were now sincerely seeking guidance from her, who was much younger than them but had defeated the formidable warrior Gale.

After all, they had lived under Gale's command and knew better than anyone how powerful Gale was.

Lillie calmly recounted the source of her power to the surrounding warriors: "Faith in that great one. Only by possessing this faith can one receive His grace and become a true knight."

Some soldiers were deeply moved after hearing her answer, and their eyes shone with longing.

Lin Miao, who was watching all this from the other side of the screen, also confirmed that their faith was becoming more and more steadfast and concrete.

Lin Miao scrolled the mouse with interest, watching the new names added to the management list. Those who had once been hostile or neutral had now turned in their hearts to the allies and registered in the system he had created.

The number of allies is increasing much faster than before. While there are certainly differences in circumstances, the more important factor is that the theories proposed by China regarding the conquered have become more comprehensive.

The unwavering faith in the guardian deity and the visible evidence prevented the prisoners from bowing down out of fear of retaliation, but rather from being moved from the depths of their hearts.

Looking at the soaring population figures, Lin Miao thought to himself: Of course, more resources are needed.

The talents displayed by the newcomers made him somewhat envious.

Lin Miao judged that with the population growth, he would have to adjust his strategy accordingly. He had just earned a considerable number of points through this war, and his immediate priority was to invest these points efficiently to support the expanding population.

He expanded the initially activated Minecraft game to Phase 5 for this purpose.

The number of deployable players has increased significantly, and the minutiae of resources needed to maintain the game have completely disappeared, but it is now impossible to upgrade further.

Lin Miao looked at the system panel and muttered to herself, "Is this the end?"

The limit of Minecraft is its current capacity of 50 players. While 50 players is not a small number, it is still insufficient to serve as a foundation for a nation that transcends villages and towns.

Based on his experience so far, he accurately grasped the reason: it was the limits of the program.

If you want to break through, you have to find a way outside of the game.

The system is not omnipotent. Even though it is a miraculous existence for the residents, it is ultimately just a simple game, and it is impossible to distribute this power infinitely.

Even if resources could be readily obtained through games, it wouldn't be enough to support tens or even hundreds of thousands of people.

However, it's not without options. While the resources acquired in the game are limited, it's entirely feasible to use these resources to create new resources in the real world.

Looking at the vibrant village on the screen, Lin Miao was excitedly planning how to settle the newly joined members and unleash their abilities.

Although there are so many people joining this time, it will take some time, but as usual, it should be done in a few days.

As Lin Miao was racking her brains for a plan to allocate the newly recruited talent, she suddenly burst out laughing.

The nascent system is operating smoothly, training warriors who acquire skills in the game, collecting special equipment, and so on. As long as no new threats emerge and it continues to grow step by step, dealing with those malfunctioning entities should not be a problem.