[https://i.imgur.com/MmrQRo1.png]

JohnWillStab stood opposite ♕ in the small town, the houses were made from white stone and colourful roof tiles, the town looked pretty fancy, upper-class even, a thick silence filled the chat as both parties tried to justify their presence, and in John's case, his nakedness.

"JohnWillStab: ...I know this looks bad... but there is a good reason for this..."

"♕ : I never took you for an exhibitionist... I always imagined you as more of a masochist..."

JohnWillStab re-equipped his armour except for the mask which would obscure his name.

"JohnWillStab: What are you doing out here?! We thought you got teleported out by the JGuardians!"

"♕ : No - I specifically said I had to leave before they got me, besides why the hell did you guys decide to storm their f#@king base?!"

JohnWillStab was stunned by the question, he just went with what the party was doing, as he always did.

"♕ : Look - I was going to abuse a bug in the dungeon and make you guys have to work for me in return for saving your a#$es..."

"JohnWillStab: What?! Damn! I knew I should have been more suspicious!"

"♕ : Yeah! So I guess you can tell that bony-whatshisname he fell for my trap. :/"

"♕ : Anyway - that's all I had to say."

"JohnWillStab: Might be a bad moment to say this... but foxly and Bonifacius were arrested by the JGuardians."

"♕ : ..."

"♕ : What?"

"JohnWillStab: Yep, we were off to "rescue you" and some stuff happened... long story short they're arrested."

"♕ : ..."

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT! - I WAS HOPING TO PLAY IT OFF COOL BUT THOSE FUCKERS ACTUALLY GOT ARRESTED!"

"♕ : Meh - whatever..."

"JohnWillStab: I guess that means you won't help?"

"♕ : ..."

"♕ : Don't fu#!ing tell me you're going on another "rescue mission"?"

"JohnWillStab: That's exactly what I'm doing!" John announced proudly.

"♕ : Now - I'm not planning to help you guys out, but even if I did we'd get slaughtered..."

"JohnWillStab: Fear not! For I happen to know someone well acquainted with a certain anti-JGuardian army..."

"♕ : ?"

JohnWillStab equips the mask - to everyone except him - his name was now shown as "???".

"♕ : ...cringe..."

"JohnWillStab: ..."

JohnWillStab opened the private chat windows, the target of his private message - Atwoz, the blue-haired human who attacked the JGuardians base minutes before.

"JohnWillStab: Are you there?"

"Atwoz: Who is this?"

"JohnWillStab: We have met before on the battlefield - I wish to discuss further attempts to lay siege upon the JGuardian's base."

"Atwoz: ...are you some roleplayer?"

"JohnWillStab: Tis not of importance - Meet with me in the town nearest the JGuardian's base - I shall provide further information then."

Back in the normal chat...

"♕ : ..."

"JohnWillStab: Were you looking in on my private chat?"

"♕ : Huh? Oh, no - I just thought you look stupid."

"JohnWillStab: Oh... T_T"

A moment of silence passed...

"♕ : So, who's Atwoz?"

"JohnWillStab: Son of a b!#ch!"

"♕ : Sorry, sorry - old habits die hard!"

"JohnWillStab: Whatever - he'll probably be here soon!"

Before JohnWillStab was finished typing ♕ disappeared.

"JohnWillStab: ..."

"JohnWillStab: well f#!k you too..."

About fifteen minutes later the blue-haired man walked into the town, he made no effort to disguise himself from the collective three people in the town.

JohnWillStab approached the man,

"JohnWillStab: I see you have come."

"Atwoz: Well - it's not always that you run into someone like yourself - you lead an army of men to their deaths..."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"JohnWillStab: Those were not my intentions - I'm afraid those players died due to poor planning."

"Atwoz: The hell do you mean by that?!"

Atwoz drew his weapons.

"JohnWillStab: I don't wish to fight, despite the accident earlier, we now share a common goal."

Atwoz took a second to compose himself, before completely shifting his manner of speech in the chat, as if sensing an opportunity to do business.

"Atwoz: I see, you wish to discuss another siege on the citadel?"

"JohnWillStab: Yes, I wish to speak to whoever is the leader of the players in your army."

"Atwoz: That's a difficult request, it's more of a loose pack of players."

"JohnWillStab: So there is no organiser?"

"Atwoz: I guess that would be me."

"JohnWillStab: I see, how many players can you get to attack the citadel within 20 minutes?"

"Atwoz: Most of the players were arrested! And those that weren't arrested are most likely afraid to risk their characters again!"

"JohnWillStab: How many?"

"Atwoz: ...no more than 20."

"JohnWillStab: That's enough. If you think they'll doubt your leadership, tell them that I wish to atone for my mistake and that I have a plan."

"Atwoz: ..."

"JohnWillStab: ?"

"Atwoz: Stupid - you lack the qualities of a leader, you cannot make me follow you by keeping up that masquerade."

"Atwoz: It's a basic principle of diplomacy, diplomacy can only take place between equals, and with that facade, you put up - I cannot gauge your standing."

"JohnWillStab: ...well s#!t - I didn't realise I was dealing with a politician..."

"Atwoz: heh"

"JohnWillStab: I want to rescue my friends, but I lack the firepower, I have a good bit of experience with strategy."

"Atwoz: You say that... but we hardly have time to prove that claim, and I won't throw away the lives of my army, even if they're just pixels on our screens, it's bad luck, y'know."

"JohnWillStab: I have played strategy games before."

"Atwoz: So have I... and yet."

JohnWillStab sat in front of his computer thinking in silence for a bit, "Should I bring it up? ...Nah... I shouldn't forget why it is I'm playing an MMO after all..."

"Good o'l escapism!"

He glanced over to his shelf with five trophies for various strategy game tournaments, some were metal others plastic.

"JohnWillStab: I'm sure you have a reason to attack the JGuardians, so do I, we don't achieve anything by being distrustful."

"Atwoz: ...You are persistent... fine, 20 players and not one more."

"JohnWillStab: Thank you, I will not forget this favour."

Atwoz summoned a horse mount and left, returning twenty minutes later with twenty men including himself.

"Atwoz: We're here, 20 players as promised."

JohnWillStab looked at the crowd, specifically at their weapons, half of them looked like melee fighters, three were magicians and the rest were bow or gun users.

"JohnWillStab: Great, I am sure Atwoz has already informed you of the situation, we shall once more lay siege to the JGuardian base, but this time we shall crush them!"

"Like we did last time!" one player complained.

"Let's just get it over with... T_T"

"I'M GOING TO JAIL!"

Atwoz let out a sigh in real life, he leaned back in his chair - "Yep - that's the optimism I expected..."

"JohnWillStab: Well, I mean you really showed them what you're made of last time..."

The jokes and pessimism changed to complaints and insults as the players started to complain.

"JohnWillStab: I bet your corpses kept them warm... so think about that! You're great alternatives to coal!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING!?" Atwoz thought confused, that's when he received a message from JohnWillStab,

"JohnWillStab: I need you to get the players on your side, point out to them how I'm the one who screwed them over."

In normal chat...

"Atwoz: Hold on - aren't you the one who charged out first?"

"Yeah!"

"Exactly!"

The players' attitude shifted drastically simply because they now had clearly cut sides to pick, "abusing the herd mentality..."

"JohnWillStab: It's not like you could have done it anyway..."

"Atwoz: If you didn't interrupt us we would have managed!

The players echoed the same sentiment,"

"JohnWillStab: Nevermind, I have not interested in a crowd like you, you can go burn to death for all I care."

JohnWillStab used the /laugh command.

"Atwoz: ..."

"Atwoz: We'll prove you wrong, you sabotaged us before! But this time we'll crush their entire army!"

Some of the players cheered and others remained silent.

"JohnWillStab: Go ahead, I'll go and watch you get slaughtered :)"

"Atwoz: We'll see about that! Let's go! We must prepare!"

In a private chat...

"Atwoz: ..."

"Atwoz: What kind of strategy was that!?"

"JohnWillStab: You saw them, they were all convinced they were going to die - now they're pumped up!"

"Atwoz: Deception..."

"JohnWillStab: The word is "strategy", in any case, I'll tell you the plan, all I need is for you to put it into action!"

"Atwoz: ...alright..."

Twenty minutes later...

The large army is standing in the woods, it was divided up into groups.

Group A: 3 swordsmen, 1 archer

Group B: 3 swordsmen, 2 mages

Group B2: 4 swordsmen,

Group C: 6 archers, 1 mage

First group A was told to charge head-on, as expected the gates lowered but the cannons were not used, JohnWillStab foresaw this, the cannons were pretty pricy to use in real life, he could only assume they were just as pricy in-game, three cavalrymen were sent out, in a single hit the four players fall to the ground.

Group B charged out next, they defeated the cavalry, the JGuardians retaliated by sending out the riflemen, much to their surprise they were all killed by Group A, they weren't actually dead, the used the /crawl emote to appear dead and trampled whilst Group B took all of the cavalry's attention.

By the time the cannons were released, group C, as well as the mages from Group B and the archer from Group A, took them out quickly.

Groups A, B and C formed group A1 composed of 10 warriors which moved into the base, meanwhile, group C advanced to the drawbridge merging with the archer and 2 mages to from Group C1

"Atwoz: I can't believe we made it inside! And with only 20 players!"

"JohnWillStab: Don't get excited yet..."

Inside Group A1 was met with a larger force of melee warriors, at least 20.

"Atwoz: Alright guys! Activate your defence spells!"

Depending on their class, each warrior used every possible ability that could to boost their health or defence.

As the enemy troops advanced Group A1 retreated slightly.

"Atwoz: We're getting pushed back!"

"JohnWillStab: It's part of the plan..."

"Atwoz: What do you mean!?"

"JohnWillStab: Look at them, Group A1 is going to block the drawbridge."

"Atwoz: So?"

"JohnWillStab: And who's on the drawbridge?"

"Atwoz: ?"

Atwoz looked over and saw Group C1, the mini-army of ranged units.

"JohnWillStab: Now!"

Atwoz struggled to type in the command fast enough.

"Atwoz: C1 attack!"

A volley of arrows and shells rained down on the 20 warriors slowly attacking 10 warriors in Group A1,

"JohnWillStab: Now get C1 to advance and spread out into groups of 1, A1 should retreat to the drawbridge."

"Atwoz: You're sending the ranged units unprotected?"

"JohnWillStab: The enemy will most likely send in either ranged units or a larger opponent, either way, it's harder for them to pick off 10 spread-out players than it is for us to collectively strike for their location."

As predicted a group of ranged units, crossbows and bows marched out, they were walking single-file and their progress was almost stopped completely by the archers, they were pilling up so fast their bodies blocked the doors.

"JohnWillStab: Now, don't give them a chance to retaliate! Two groups of 5 warriors and 1 mage head inside and kill everyone, use as much AOE as possible."

"Atwoz: And the archers?"

"JohnWillStab: Keep them outside."

"Atwoz: There seems to be a problem in one of the sections of the building!"

From outside of a doorway flew out body parts and blood, out walked Oblivionion, covered in blood and guts, within a few seconds he killed 6 players.

"JohnWillStab: Alright - now shoot!"

All the ranged weapon users fired at once, arrows and bullets, he dodged the first one but the other bullets did land and by the end of the barrage he fell to his knees, dead.

"JohnWillStab: Keep shooting at the corpse..."

"Atwoz: ?"

"JohnWillStab: He could be playing dead..."

"JohnWillStab: Keep on clearing the inside with the remaining 5 - leave 3 ranged weapon users and move the rest to help the 6 indoors."

"Atwoz: Alright - what now?"

"JohnWillStab: Now we go inside too..."