Logan woke up disoriented, like a monkey playing a drum inside his head. His vision was blurry, and he was barely able to discern what was in front of him. After a brief moment, his consciousness returned; an oh-so-familiar blue window appeared before him.
"Create your character...?" His jaw dropped, and multiple scenarios ran through his mind.
If I’m in a new world, does it mean Tartarus is finished? But that’s impossible; I have at least another four days to prepare for the next wave.
What is this graphics upgrade? It looked semi-realistic before, but now it’s almost like I’m living in the world itself.
"Why am I stressing out so hard? I’ll just log out and contact customer support," he chuckled, his hands running through the game window, scrolling all the way to the bottom.
"Where... where is the ’log out’ button?" He wildly scrolled around, checking every tab carefully to find the button that had seemingly disappeared into thin air.
"This must be some kind of sick joke..." He scratched his black hair frantically, slowly losing his grip.
His attention shifted back toward the character creation screen.
──────────────────────────────
[CHARACTER INITIALIZATION ]
[Account Status]: ???
──────────────────────────────
PLAYER PROFILE
• Name: Logan Winters
• Race: Human (Faction: Evergarden)
• Class: [TBD]
• Title: ???
• Level: 1 (EXP: 0/100)
──────────────────────────────
STATS
• HP: 100 / 100
• MP: 50 / 50
• STR [Strength]: 10
• AGI [Agility]: 10
• VIT [Vitality]: 10
• INT [Intelligence]: 12
──────────────────────────────
PERKS & SKILLS
• Perk 1: [LOCKED]
└─ System Note: Data is restricted until initialization completes. ──────────────────────────────
[Confirm Initialization and finalize data synchronization?]
[ YES ] / [ NO ]
(Warning: Declining will result in permanent termination.) ──────────────────────────────
"Nothing exceptional about my stats... well, it’s not that important anyway. Why can’t I see my account status? This must be some kind of bug." He shook his head in confusion.
Suddenly, a notification window appeared before him.
[Hello Challenger!]
"Finally, Mr. Support. Can you get me out of the game? For some reason, I can’t find the logout button." Logan let out a relieved breath. He began scanning the space, waiting for a person to show up.
[Thank you for accepting the challenge.]
"Wait, what challenge?"
[You will now be transported to Evergarden.]
"Pause, time out! Can I get some explanation first!?"
[We wish you the best of luck; you are Evergarden’s last hope.]
. . .
"Commander!" a low voice yelled out, though it was quickly drowned out by the sound of metal clashing against metal.
The next instant, Logan was in the middle of a bloody battlefield. As one of the top rankers in the game, he had been through countless wars and battles.
But this was something beyond his wildest imagination: the sight of steel meeting flesh, the metallic smell of blood, and the terrifying reality of total chaos unfolding before him.
He stood there like a deer in headlights. Suddenly, an arrow flew right past his face, grazing his right cheek.
Logan touched the cut with his right hand. Deep, viscous blood dripped down, soaking his palm. A stinging burn overwhelmed his senses, and everything around him suddenly began to move in slow motion; this was the exact moment reality set in.
He stared at his blood-soaked palm.
"This is real..." Logan uttered, his eyes locked onto the chaos unfolding before him. On top of the fortress were a handful of archers who held their bows like it was their first time touching a weapon.
A hundred-strong legion of abominations charged toward the fortress walls. A battalion of infantry was holding down the front, doing their very best to hold the line.
Although it appeared that the battalion was doing a good job keeping back the horde, reality was far from it.
The battalion consisted only of newbie soldiers armed with basic tools that barely passed as weapons: rusty swords, worn-down shields, and spears with chipped edges were all they had to work with.
The man who stood at the forefront of the battalion was an old soldier with gray hair and a long scar running from the bottom of his cheek. The situation was looking grim as the goblins closed in from all directions.
"Commander! What should we do?" the veteran yelled out again. Before he could catch his breath, a large hobgoblin wielding a giant mace swung at him, forcing him back a few steps.
Logan Winters was ranked number nine in the world in the game "The Last Bastion." Despite his relatively low ranking, many casual players revered him as the absolute best in the community in terms of strategy and execution. This was due to his renowned tactics that were able to turn the tide of seemingly unwinnable battles.
Logan quickly opened his inventory, scrolling through a large number of miscellaneous items until he set his sights on a specific one. A wide smile appeared on his face as he turned his gaze back toward the goblin horde overwhelming the battalion below the fortress gates.
"Everybody, retreat!" he yelled, signaling the army to fall back behind the fortress gates.
"But, sire, the civilians are still evacuating," the old soldier replied, questioning Logan’s order.
"If you don’t retreat now, there won’t be anybody left to protect those people," Logan immediately snapped back, trying his best to convince the old soldier.
The senior hesitated for a moment before commanding his troops to retreat behind the fortress gates. The horde of goblins did not slow down, continuing their charge forward with bloodshot fury.
"Everybody get into a crescent formation and surround the entrance!" Logan yelled out from the top of the fortress, guiding the worn-down battalion into their positions.
"Those who are wielding swords, take a few steps back and rest. Those who have shields, raise them up and create a blockade. Spears, raise them high and kill any goblins that try to climb over!" Logan directed. His voice was loud and clear, bringing a sense of order to the chaos unfolding below him.
"Archers, tie these herbs around your arrows and fire them toward any large group of goblins!" he ordered. The archers were confused, but they still quickly followed his command, launching the arrows toward the massive cluster of goblins in the distance.
Most of the arrows missed their targets, and the goblins ran right past them. But suddenly, the monsters stopped in their tracks. A few of them immediately ran back toward where the arrows had landed and wildly chomped on the herbs.
Immediately after, the goblins that ate the herbs began to act erratically, wildly swinging their broken, rusty weapons at their own allies. Thanks to dozens of goblins starting a civil war outside the fortress walls, the battalion bought some critical breathing room to hold back the main horde gathered at the gate.
Right when the situation began to look better, the hulking hobgoblin reappeared. Carrying its large mace, it swept the smaller goblins in front of it aside and charged directly at the old soldier.