CHAPTER 205: STREAM

[Excuse me? Did I hear you correctly? You want to invade four Iron-ranked worlds, all of whom have backers, at once?]

Hearing the straining voice of Sunny, Elian could not help but laugh, "Yes. As we now have six Psychomancers, we can create four separate armies and keep two for defense."

[Elian, please don’t be so confident. If you do that, you will be making many enemies; once you reach the bronze rank, you will be swarmed again.]

"I know. And by then, I will be ready for them."

[You are serious, aren’t you?]

"Yes. And the moment the invasions leave, I will trigger the crucible for Earth."

[... You are quite... insane. I am having trouble wondering how to get you to stop.]

Elian looked around the devastated landscape around him. As well as the orderly army marching behind.

"They started it, Aunt-in-law. I need power. If we lacked the strength, any one of those invasions would have leveled the city and I would have lost Bianca forever."

[You are not wrong. But wouldn’t that leave you with almost nothing? Spreading your army into four separate invasions decreases the strength of everyone.]

That certainly was true. Objectively, if Elian still needed to worry about defending against both the Big Three and outer worlds, he wouldn’t be able to send four different invasions.

But connecting to the hive mind of the Weapons made him feel certain.

They are ready.

Like a toddler who struggled to walk, Elian showed the Weapons how to fight like him.

Today’s battle demonstrated the leaps and bounds his army had grown. In mere months, they could adapt, counter, and thrive against opponents with little to no supervision. The final part of that cycle was to take a step back.

If one keeps holding a toddler’s hand, the child will never be able to walk on its own.

Yes, just like training wheels on a bike, Elian has already taught his children enough. The next battles would be ones where he had to delegate trust to them and watch as they succeed.

After all, I am not doing this because I like war.

"It doesn’t matter. I fully believe in their abilities. Should they fail, Bianca and I will pick up the slack."

[Fufu, that is a lot of responsibility, Elian. You are shaping up to be far too diligent as a Tyrant. Most of us just send an expedition and abandon it. Few would risk actually invading without good reason. The risks are great, after all.]

"Why is that?"

[Well, think about it. Should you send an expedition, even if it fails, it ends there. An invasion, however, will allow the other side to use the same doorway. The three invasions right now have used the blitzkrieg perk; they must wait for the penalty before they can flee.]

That certainly was true. It had to be the reason why the expeditions to Earth turned into dungeons. A connection to the planets was not maintained, unlike an invasion. While the other worlds might have been around Earth’s axis at some point, they weren’t forced to stay there.

As the dungeons on Earth did not receive reinforcements, either Earth moved, or the invading planet did. Expeditions were far safer as the gates could no longer be opened after the force had entered.

Elian looked up and saw the large gates around Crestfall. These gates were still open and could be used by either Earth or the invading planet. Normally, one would run after a loss. Virexar intended to continue fighting, while the other three had no choice in the matter.

"I see. I have no intention of doing any of that, though."

[I feel like I am going to regret this, but what do you mean?]

The Tyrant candidate’s lips twisted into a savage grin as he responded.

"We will not send expeditions, only invasions. If they have the balls to come here, they should have the strength to kill us. If they don’t, we will take all they own."

[Sigh. I have way too many rebuttals to that, but this call has gone on far enough. Let us talk about it later.]

"Okay."

Elian ended the call and stored the phone in his magic bag. He was surprised to see that in the short time he spoke with Sunny, he was already within a few hundred meters of the Western wall.

Even from where he stood, he could see people—humans along the walls—waving in excitement.

"WOOOOOO!!! YOU GUYS ROCK!"

"THANK YOU FOR DEFENDING THE CITY!!"

"SIR ELIAN! PLEASE LET ME HAVE YOUR BABIES!"

"We are now seeing the triumphant victory parade of the Weapons of Valestra. Who in the..."

"You see that chat? Which alien bastards can mess with Earth with the Weapons on our side?"

"That guy ate a freaking hurricane. He should be called the Tyrant of Gluttony or something."

"Yes, Donnie, Elian Reed is at the western gate leading the Weapons. His majesty is off the charts!"

His sharp hearing revealed how the humans were losing their minds. Like always, the media and the influencers used him as material for their content. Although he didn’t like being the center of attention, as long as none of them bothered him, he didn’t mind.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I am still streaming, right? System, where is the camera?"

A floating ball then manifested in front of Elian. It was the size of an orange, was black in color, and had a large mechanical eyeball in it. Despite its size, Elian felt chills up his spine when it appeared right in front of him.

I didn’t even sense the thing. If the System wanted to hide a dagger or gun to kill me, I would be dead before I even knew what had happened.

Making a mental note, Elian cleared his throat and asked, "Please turn off the stream."

[Understood.]

At once, the eyeball closed and the camera vanished. But then the System shared things Elian would have never expected.

[Congratulations, your Celestial Crucible stream has entered the top 10! 230,715 participants have requested that you create a Streaming account.]

[You have earned 400 Crucible points from gifts! Crucible points (or CP) can be used in the Crucible Shop for perks and equipment.]

[Error, Elian Reed has yet to officially join the Crucible. Would you like to continue using a guest account? Guest accounts pay 1.5 times the original price and have greatly reduced means of earning CP.]

"..."

The system reminded Elian of social media. It rewarded certain behaviors to encourage a lifestyle that would bring attention to the platform. Elian just streamed how brutal and horrifying messing with him was. And over 230 thousand people found it entertaining.

"They really are encouraging wars for the sake of wars. System, does the crucible system have ways to incite wars between worlds as a third party?"

[Yes, there are several. Simple ones are just creating a request or job for various reasons. More complex ones are pressuring them into duels for rewards or penalties.]

"I see. Then is there a way to intervene in the wars of other worlds as a third party?"

[Yes. You may register as a mercenary group to be hired, or just do so of your own accord. The system does not intervene in such cases and allows the crucible races to interact in any manner they wish.]

The System didn’t explicitly say, but Elian could guess that inciting wars had more benefits than stopping them. While the creators of this messed-up system did, in fact, encourage bloodshed, it still had rules.

I wonder if it will answer my questions now if I ask who made the system?

Elian shook his head as he ended his current train of thought. He gained a lot of information on how to conduct himself in the crucible. But as there were more immediate problems, he pushed it to the back of his mind.

Walking on autopilot, the Tyrant soon found himself halfway through the city. The streets were clear, with only his army daring to walk on them. The humans, whose lives he had saved, were all excitedly screaming cheers and words of gratitude to his faction.

Everyone present knew of the dark horrors that would have happened if Elian and his army had not been present. Thus, they all cheered with all their might in a fervor completely opposite to the gloom that covered the city before the invasions occurred.

Elian scanned his surroundings. There was no face that looked troubled; everyone was smiling and shouting with joy. Although he didn’t care about these people, the fact that he had saved them was something he didn’t mind.

"KYAAA!!! BIG SIS BIANCA! PLEASE LOOK HERE!"

"GODDESS! THE GODDESS OF CRESTFALL!"

"WOAAHHH!!! PLEASE LET ME LICK YOUR TOES!"

Hearing the insane cheering from in front of him, Elian saw the other half of the army. It was Bianca leading the eastern forces. She had a stoic expression and neither answered the crowd nor smiled at them.

But the moment she saw Elian’s eyes on her, she made a blissful smile and raced forward. Like a speeding bullet, Bianca flew at full speed toward Elian.

And he stretched out his hands to catch her. Although the sting of Frigid Bianca was still there, at that moment, Elian allowed himself to be happy that Bianca was back to normal.

"Welcome home, Elian," the witch cooed in a voice oozing with affection.

"Yeah, I’m back, Bianca," he replied with a soft kiss.

Embracing ever tighter, the Tyrant and his Anchor forgot about the world and just relished the fact that they were alive and that they still had each other.