Chapter 91

Finally, the steel fortress that was once Chrome’s capital city Zhima came into view.

Kreeeeakkkk! Crrrk!

The massive ice castle instantly transformed into one made of metal. Not only did its structure change dramatically, but every component—from the castle walls to the floors and buildings—underwent a radical metamorphosis. The complete overhaul of the city’s design left onlookers questioning if what they were witnessing was real. It was understandable given how the medieval-style city rapidly evolved into something futuristic.

Crrrrrk!

The feudal lord’s castle shot up toward the sky. To be precise, it expanded rapidly like a growing bamboo stalk.

“W-what is this?”

“The buildings! The buildings are growing! They’re…the city is alive!”

Screams erupted from all around as the castle rapidly expanded by several hundred meters within moments. The soldiers of the Ming Empire watched in terror, feeling like they were facing an insurmountable giant.

Let’s see…the Gigas Experience Hall isn’t urgent for now…but I need at least one machine gun turret. First, I should purchase defensive turrets and… Oh my god. Additional services cost 20 million won for 50 million won? Haaah…

Muttering to himself, he manipulated the system UI, and the changes took effect instantly.

Krrrk!

Over a thousand machine guns and eight turrets appeared on top of the castle walls.

Oops.

The turrets weren’t an issue, but the machine guns required operators. In the end, jae-yeon controlled only the turrets while ignoring the machine guns.

Clank!

The city had expanded so much that its boundaries were hard to discern, with enormous castle walls resembling cliffs guarding the edges.

Then…the turrets, which were prominent even on top of the castle wall, simultaneously turned towards the interior of the city.

“What? What is happening?”

“Turrets! Giant turrets are aiming at us!”

The proud Sword and Spear Guild members along with their one million strong army became frightened and started to panic. Those near the castle gates slowly retreated outside the city, while those unable to flee clustered together or tried to hide inside buildings, but it wasn’t easy.

“W-Why isn’t this opening?”

“What?! This house is so sturdy!”

They lost their rationality, kicking doors and windows, yet they didn’t break. Meanwhile, some monsters took another approach:

“That thing! If we capture that, everything will be resolved!”

“Don’t run away! The cowards shall face execution for their crimes!”

The warriors of the Sword and Spear Guild, who had clearly trained their inner force, gathered around me with curses. They thought they found a breakthrough point but it wasn’t a good choice.

“Bang.”

As I spoke, I manipulated the system UI to designate coordinates.

Boom!

A tremendous explosion hit my eardrums. The enemies nearby, as well as the elite soldiers approaching to protect me, covered their ears in pain.

“Ah, the buildings are collapsing…” I clicked my tongue at the sight of the crumbling structures. As a mythical castle, it had an automatic repair function, but like all revenge elements, it wasn’t free. Diamonds were needed to recharge [Restoration Points], so firing internally should be avoided.

“What is this? What is happening!”

“Ewck! Uweeck!”

“Help me! I can’t hear anything! My legs won’t move!”

The large turrets of Darwin-8 turned hundreds of soldiers into mincemeat with their bombardment. Even among them were automatons capable of manipulating mana, but they stood no chance against artillery unless they were sword masters.

Darwin-8’s cooldown period for firing is around thirty minutes now. It decreases as I reinforce it.

While this was quite a significant drawback, it wasn’t much of an issue since there were still seven more Darwin-8 units available.

Above all else…I have that 50 million won option remaining.

[Giga Call has been activated!]

Drrrrr!

A roulette wheel appeared before my eyes alongside the text. Six names were inscribed on the spinning wheel, which eventually came to a stop.

[Great Success!]

[Golden Knight Regiment (Humanoid) has been summoned!]

Stomp! Stomp-stomp!

Ten shining golden giants appeared. Despite costing 50 million won at the insane price, they could only be summoned for 30 minutes with a cooldown period of 24 hours. Their purpose was obvious:

‘Siege Warfare.’

In the siege warfare of mythical castles, Players possessed legendary classes, equipment, gatekeepers, and pets. How much power would be needed to tip the scales on a battlefield involving dozens or even hundreds of such individuals? There was no definitive answer, but it certainly wasn’t within the capabilities of Land of Midgard.

“You bastard! How dare you, golem!” A warrior dressed in splendid clothes charged towards Giga with a faintly glowing sword.

Crack!

”…What?”

The warrior held his broken sword, looking bewildered as the golden gigas flicked its middle finger like snapping a twig.

Whack!

“G-General?!”

“How could…the general defeated with one blow…?”

As I observed the shocked soldiers, Stonestone approached me and nodded. We had been together for twenty years now. Sensing my intention, Stonestone took a deep breath and bellowed:

“Everyone, lay down your weapons and surrender! Those who surrender will be spared!”

“Bullshit! Raise your swords high! His Imperial Majesty has no mercy for cowards…”

Tak.

The gigas descended silently on its feet. The face of the nobleman, likely their leader, turned pale while the eyes of the giant glowed red.

Hwoooom!

The head of the gigas swiftly spun around, and beams shooting from its eyes swept across the surrounding soldiers.

Fwssshhh!

Rrrrumble!

The noble and hundreds of soldiers following him were instantly cut down. It happened in the blink of an eye.

“Wow… ruthless.”

Even I couldn’t help but grimace at the sight of blood and flesh splattering everywhere. But that wasn’t the only issue.

‘Each one seems stronger than me, or even surpassing…the Ice Queen.’

Although I had secured victory against the Ice Queen relatively easily, it was hardly a fair fight with my 90% cold resistance advantage. And that’s not all; I fought her from the air using Kasim with Ruler of the Sky (Legendary), unleashed Divine Roars right off the bat, yet still nearly met my demise. Yet here we have ten gigases, each more powerful than the Ice Queen—a testament to the might expected of mythical-level beings.

“Aieeee! Aieeeeee!”

“I-I’m dead. One hit and I’m—…”

“Surrender! We surrender!”

“You traitor! How dare you—?”

Thud.

A Giga leaped down behind the enraged soldier of the Ming Empire who was berating his comrade for giving up.

“Y-you monster…!”

The soldier unsheathed his sword without hesitation.

Vwoom!

Before he could do anything, though, he was struck by a beam of light.

“Aaargh!”

“My l-leg! My leg is…”

“M-mercy! Please spare me!”

“I-I will follow His Imperial Majesty!”

With the drastically altered terrain, cannons trained on them, and gigas wielding mythical power, only lunatics would continue resisting. And it wasn’t as if those who fought back lost after a prolonged battle; they were slaughtered in the blink of an eye.

“Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty’s orders!” People cried out desperately from all around. However, Hwonwonchang couldn’t properly respond to their pleas.

“How…how…how could this happen…” He just stood there with a blank expression on his face. It was pathetic but ironically, that was why he remained alive.

Once our momentum was broken, it became easy for us.

“Surrender! Throw your weapons aside!”

We disarmed the soldiers and bound their hands and feet using ropes made from their shirts before lining them up in the square. The city had become even larger after my castle was upgraded to mythical grade, so accommodating prisoners wasn’t a problem.

“Your Majesty! The road is incredibly wide! I think four horse-drawn carriages can travel side by side!”

“Aah…this is called a four-lane road. Four cars can travel on it.”

“The bottom is black! Where…mmf! The taste is a bit strange but strangely soft!”

“Ah…that’s called asphalt. It has strong elasticity and excellent shock absorption,” I replied roughly to Haze’s excited words. This middle-aged woman had regressed from the future, and her attitude was becoming increasingly difficult.

‘Is it due to adapting to appearances or showing her true nature?’

As various thoughts crossed my mind, I saw Flower scolding her.

“Haze-ssi. You are being too disrespectful towards His Majesty the Emperor.”

“Oh…sorry. I’ll be careful in front of others.”

“It isn’t me you should apologize to.”

“My apologies, Your Majesty.” Haze bowed apologetically, making me smile.

“It’s fine now, so go manage our prisoners. Even though we won, there aren’t many people who can handle that Martial Arts Alliance guy properly.”

“Oh… You’re right. Despite being called the Sword King, he must be handled with care. Although he doesn’t seem like someone who would deny defeat, issues could still arise.”

I was taken aback by an unexpected term. ”…Sword King?”

“Ah, it’s a nickname given to him later on. Right now, he’s just a youngster.”

Haze’s words gave me pause.

Sword King.

It was a familiar name, associated with the swordsman hero class. In other words, if I assigned the Sword King class to someone like Haze, they might instantly become a swordmaster. However…

There’s no reason to do so.

Just as I carefully considered granting abilities to my subordinates, there was no need to empower this former enemy.

“In any case, manage them properly. We’re all busy, so don’t cause any disturbances.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Haze pouted slightly but obediently headed towards the square.

I turned to Flower standing beside me and said, “I’m going inside the castle. Once you finish your work here, clean up and report back.”

“The castle… Oh! You mean the tower?”

Her words made me glance at the 30-story building situated in the city center. Indeed, from the perspective of Ardenians, it would undoubtedly appear as a tower.

“Yes, exactly. First, I’ll make arrangements for the guild members to access it.”

We headed towards the guild castle. The building, with its steel skeleton covered by glass and reinforced plastic, shimmered brightly reflecting the evening sunset.

[Guild Master Han Jae-yeon. Verified.]

As we approached the main entrance, it automatically opened with a female voice. Inside, the building appeared empty, which was expected since adding various facilities or rooms required diamonds.

Ding.

I entered an elevator located centrally within a space larger than most auditoriums.

“My study.”

[Guild Master Han Jae-yeon. Verified. Moving to the top floor.]

There was a slight pressure on my body as the numbers displayed before me reached the 32nd floor.

Ding.

The elevator opened and we entered the study room.

”…Wow.” The admiration came out spontaneously. All the outer walls were made of glass, allowing us to see the entire Giga Land from the top floor. Of course, I had seen better views on Earth. During my school trip, I went to Moon City on the moon. However, there was a fundamental difference between those places and this city. This city belonged to me.

“It is amazing.”

I stood at the window, looking down at the city below. The scale of the mythical castle was truly huge. Originally, there was only one square located in the center of the city but now it consisted of four squares: East Square, West Square, South Square, and North Square, connected by wide roads. The size of the city had become too large for convenient movement on foot.

As the castle lord, I could use diamonds to install unmanned buses or trams but naturally, it wasn’t my first choice.

“Ah, this is crazy…” I inadvertently swore while checking the castle menu.

There were these words written:

[Gigas Manufacturing Factory (Legendary)]

• 100,000 best quality iron ingots

• 100,000 best quality gemstones

• 100,000 best quality wood

• 100,000 best quality leather

• 100,000 best quality stone

• 1 billion gold

• 5,000,000 diamonds.

It was outrageous, making me laugh bitterly.

“No, with such insane materials required… and additionally, it costs 500 million won?”

Of course, I had speculated about this. After all, upgrading from a legendary castle to a mythical castle supposedly only cost around 200 million won.

But why wouldn’t one of the established giant guilds upgrade to a mythical castle if it only cost two hundred million won and they could access all its features? The reason was that without purchasing defensive structures and additional functionalities, their castles would be easily taken over during sieges. In fact, there might have been instances where guilds had already lost their upgraded castles due to this vulnerability, leading them to reset their progress.

“Oh… Ohhhhhh…” jae-yeon sighed deeply.

“When will I ever make enough money…?”

No matter how much he worked or earned, it never seemed sufficient in this game called Revenge.

“I knew something wasn’t right about such a cheap price for a castle…”

It sent chills down his spine—literally.