Vol 1 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Volume 1 Chapter 4: There’s no way I’m doing everything right?

France, Paris, Palais des Tuileries

“Just motley crowd with a few guns and yet I had to waste so much effort.”

Tu was in the main hall of the Palais and was very infuriated at the big show he had to put up in front of those people who were most likely NPCs, as well as the depletion of his national treasury to reward the troops who had helped him quell the uprising.

Though the troops and officers who had received what was equivalent to years of wages had all declared that they wished to continue fighting for him, Tu did not actually want to see them again. He couldn’t believe the extent to which the previous king had wasted the national wealth to the point where there was barely any left now…

— Just who were the “rebels” huh?

“Eh, now then…”

Tu opened his skills tab. One game design issue that was supposedly part of the designers’ intent to create a realistic experience was that players had a limited time to check out their skill details in the skills tab. After the first login, they only had 3 days to confirm and check the details of their skills.

— But this wasn’t the sort of game where you could level up so whatever I see will probably be the same as that in the closed beta.

“What the heck is this?!”

Tu who had opened his skills tab had found a new category called “King’s Privilege”. He hadn’t seen this before in the closed beta, could this be one of the rumoured closed beta benefits?

“The king’s majesty?”

— This skill name, why does it sound so… Maa, it’s still within acceptable limits.

“Let me see, you can forcefully summon all forces under your command to your position, limited to 2 uses per battle.”

— Tu nearly spat out.

“What the f.u.c.k, isn’t this a cheat? … With this skill, can’t I just swim across the English Channel, make my way to Buckingham Palace and just occupy the place?”

But Tu’s flight of fantasy was stopped short by his own rationality. After all what could one do with just a few thousand men? Even if he did occupy Buckingham Palace, he would only be met with the eventual fate of capture or death.

This skill felt like the ‘flying general’ in Chinese Chess.

(TL: In Chinese Chess, there is a rule that when moving your pieces, your ‘General’ piece (equivalent to the king piece in International Chess) cannot face the other side’s ‘General’ piece in the same file without any piece in between. This is a rule to enforce checkmate.)

“At least this is actually useful…”

But looking at this, Tu finally understood the nature of the so-called closed beta player benefits. The benefits were actually special skills, which explains why there is an absence of information on them on the net. This was, after all, the equivalent of a national secret as it could potentially turn the tide of war if used appropriately.

Each nation in this world probably had a different skill since each nation had their own specialty. England had naval superiority while Prussia was known for its infantry…

This information, however, could be easily found online so strategies and counter-strategies revolving around the strengths and weaknesses of each nation were commonplace amongst conflicts in the closed beta.

Of course, this world did not just involve raw armed conflict. Each player had access to a diverse talent tree which players could choose to train in and advance down branches that would further lead to smaller branches etc, with skills such as swordsmans.h.i.+p, marksmans.h.i.+p etc.

But this only raised the combat capability of the player. As for the strategies employed and commanding the army during battle… It all came down the player himself.

And training a skill in this world only led to effects which weren’t too different from the real world. For example, training swordsmans.h.i.+p wouldn’t lead to any weird blade techniques or skills.

The only thing that was different was the time taken to reach a high level of proficiency. Tu had taken only a year in closed beta to master archery.

— This had raised quite the commotion during closed beta. Who would train their skill in an outdated weapon such as the bow in a game which was set in the era of guns and cannons?

Maa, it was a game after all. Tu had felt as though his strength had increased immensely in the real world after playing in the closed beta but he dismissed this as mistaken perception.

Tu continued browsing through his personal information.

“Army limit: 5,000 (This is also the upper limit that one can transport using “King’s Privilege”)”

Army limit was the upper limit for how many troops a player could command at any one time. Normally, this limit was set to 3,000 but 5,000 was probably yet another small benefit for closed beta players.

Because every player had a limit to how many troops he could command, each battle requires one to gather multiple players to create a formidable army. Of course, if you were good enough, you could try to lead your few thousand against an enemy that could number in the hundreds of thousands, but n.o.body would do that after all.

— This is similar to reality I guess. You need enough officers to properly command a large and powerful army after all. Layers and layers of command just like the pyramid.

Death here was of course not actual death but if you died in combat, you were locked up in a small black room for 24 hours. If you were captured, not only did it mean a great loss of face, the other side might make absurd demands.

But this was only hearsay, as Tu had never actually died nor was he ever captured in battle. He had never heard of anyone who had died in combat either. There were a few players who gave up though, probably those who couldn’t accept humiliating conditions for release after they were captured.

— Hai, or perhaps those people were too mentally weak.

“Your majesty!”

An officer with brown, short hair stood before Tu, who was closely observing the man’s looks as he kept getting the feeling that he had seen his likeness in a portrait before.

“Michel Ney?”

Though he had asked this question to test out his hypothesis, Tu kept a serious expression on.

“Yes, your esteemed majesty!” He said as he bowed slightly in respect. Ney’s reply gave Tu a complicated feeling.

— Do players like using historical names? First Murat, now Ney… Looks like there are quite a lot of history buffs like myself huh.

— Or could it be that my judgement is wrong? But that can be tested,

“No need for all these c.u.mbersome formalities from today forth, France needs you.”