Chapter 90: The Right Choice? (1)

"Come on, everyone, we've just got this one gap left and we're done!"

Patrick endured his parched throat and the blazing sun beating down on his head, encouraging his Territory's residents as he hauled stones alongside them.

Patrick had just been an ordinary, slightly overweight white guy from a small, peaceful country back on the Blue Star. The last thing he remembered before arriving here was that he'd been deep in an argument with someone online after they'd insulted his favorite 2D character. His fingers had been frantically tapping away at the keyboard when a strange message suddenly appeared on his computer screen, and before he'd had any chance to react, he was pulled away.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in this world. Patrick went through several stages — shock, disbelief, then finally accepting reality and trying to adapt. The rest of the story was familiar territory.

Even though he'd been unlucky, landing on a barren patch of land and getting an F-tier, practically useless Regional Talent, Patrick was an inherently optimistic person, and he'd quickly come to terms with reality and worked hard.

His hard work bore fruit — he managed to upgrade his Lord's Crown to Black Iron tier two days before Novice Protection ended. Then the Beast Tide hit.

They'd faced over thirty Common-rank beasts, but the real damage had come from two Rare-rank beasts they hadn't been able to stop in time, and the walls had been breached from several directions. Had it not been for the many soldiers who sacrificed their lives to hold back the tide, Patrick wouldn't be standing here today hauling stones.

That was exactly why he hadn't crumbled under the weight of the bad news that had been piling up since morning. He couldn't afford to break down and give up — otherwise his soldiers' sacrifice would have been for nothing. Yes, Patrick was an emotional young man.

"S... sir... look!"

While Patrick was lost in his own thoughts, convincing himself things would get better, the sound of one of his soldiers' shouts jolted him out of his daze. He looked over and saw the man pointing a trembling finger outward. Patrick turned toward where he was pointing, and all the color drained from his face. A few hundred meters away, the silhouettes of a group of dozens of people, armed to the teeth, appeared, advancing straight toward his Territory!

But what terrified Patrick so badly he could barely breathe was the fearsome beast crawling out in front of the group. Even from a distance, its massive body sent a wave of shock through him.

As the uninvited guests drew closer, Patrick realized they were human, not some other alien race. As hard as it was to believe, he still trusted his own eyes.

The group's pace didn't slow down at all. Amid the cries of shock, panic, and despair from his Territory's residents, the armed group soon drew close enough for him to hear their footsteps and the clatter of their armor. Had the defensive archer towers been intact, they would have already opened fire by now — but unfortunately, they'd been destroyed in yesterday's brutal battle.

In truth, even if they had been intact, Patrick doubted they'd have made much of a difference anyway.

On the other side, Kaiden climbed down off Ibla's back, and the Emerging Heroes, clad in full-body mithril armor, spread out to his left and right, forming an offensive formation. Their movements were fast and smooth, without a single wasted motion, as though they were machines.

Kaiden pulled a round fruit from his storage to soothe his throat, dry from the journey's dust, and looked at the figures watching them warily from behind a pile of stones stacked up to waist height. His gaze settled on the sweating, chubby young man.

Kaiden showed no concern for the tense atmosphere, and calmly began peeling the orange-like fruit, leaning his shoulder against Ibla's massive body.

Patrick and his forces felt a crushing pressure under the terrifying beast's aura, unable to utter even a single word. Patrick felt that if he spoke, the beast would pounce on him and swallow him whole. His mind had gone completely blank. In truth, much of his current mental state, and that of his forces, was the result of the intimidation effect from Kaiden's "Novice Lord Vanquisher" title.

Unlike him, Kaiden wasn't in the mood to let the heavy silence drag on, so he was the first to break it.

"Hey, fatty, I'll say it straight, no beating around the bush: you've got two options — surrender and live, resist and die. Choose quickly."

Kaiden looked at Patrick and spoke directly, loud enough to make sure he was heard. In truth, he was still worried about his oil field — if he didn't secure it fully, he'd keep feeling anxious.

Especially since they'd taken a roundabout path to avoid the goblins' eyes and ears, which had made the trip longer, taking them two full hours of hard walking to get here. So Kaiden was already running short on patience.

On the other side, from behind the pile of stones, right after Kaiden's words, a red system alert appeared in Patrick's field of view:

[System Alert: The Lord of the Fertile Lands Territory demands your surrender. Please note that if you agree, you will immediately lose all system authority and access, and your fate, along with that of your subjects, will become entirely bound to the other party's will.]

Seeing the notification's contents, Patrick's face went pale. The system was telling him bluntly that if he agreed to surrender, his life and his soldiers' lives would be completely in the other party's hands.

"Cat got your tongue? Answer me, kid! What's your choice?"

At that moment, Patrick heard the young man's voice pressing him, the impatience clear in his tone.

He sensed instinctively that if he didn't respond quickly, the result would be catastrophic.

"B-brother... we're all human, all from the Blue Star... instead of attacking and bullying each other, shouldn't we be standing together and helping one another?"

Patrick tried to put on the friendliest smile he could manage, but what appeared on his face looked more like he was about to cry.

He looked at the young lord hopefully, waiting for his answer, but the moment he finished speaking, the lord in front of him burst out laughing.

"HAHAHA!"

Patrick's forced smile froze in place. He hadn't expected this reaction. He looked on awkwardly at the lord before him, who was laughing and patting the massive beast with his hand, as though he'd just heard the best joke of his life.

"You're funny, you know that?" Kaiden said, recovering his composure with a sigh, and pointed at himself. "Me, bullying you? Did a donkey kick you in the head?!"