Chapter 28: Sometimes, numbers matter. Ask those who count stars as their jobs!
It happened suddenly. Bozo opened his eyes wide, sweating profusely, as if he had experienced a deadly nightmare.
Not even a minute had passed in the real world when Grub, keeping a tight watch, noticed Bozo's awakening. However, he didn't approach, observing Bozo staring into the blank space.
"Dammit," Bozo muttered, angry at himself for failing yet again. He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth as the scenes replayed in his mind.
[The Ogre King and the Goblin King engage in a close battle.]
[The goblin king uses the skill Blood Puddle to slow Ogre King's movements. However, this simple idea doesn't fool the Ogre King.]
[The Ogre King jumps backward, creating distance before swinging his gigantic iron club. He employs his skill Wind Club, and as the club swings, a faint green light engulfs its expanded part. A strong burst of wind takes the form of the club's head, traveling straight toward the Goblin King.]
[Instead of dodging, the Goblin King uses Hideous Armour, manifesting a thick scaly armor on his clothing that acts as a shield, nullifying the attack.]
[You were focused on your battle more than anything else. Your team was strong, the strongest team of ogres ever assembled in the battle. However, it was not strong enough.]
[The Dark Wyvern was toying with you, and you didn't even realize. Only later, when the true massacre began, did you feel true horror manifesting.]
'Ha... I know my mistakes...' Bozo, with a lowered head, acknowledged the errors.
What exactly happened? How did they lose? How did the Ogre King die?
Bozo underestimated the goblins a little. He underestimated the influence of numbers. He underestimated their strategies.
'There were three reasons why the ogres lost...' Bozo thought to himself before continuing, 'One, because we weren't aggressive. Two, because we didn't have allies. Three, because we rested during the nighttime.'
The ogres didn't have huge numbers. Only warriors had left the villages with a few healers and Elders to reach the battlefield.
But even with everyone included, they would still be too few when compared to the goblin armies. Moreover, those sneaky goblins used the first few nights to plant traps in the battlefield.
Many ogres fell victim to the traps. Even if anticipated, the ogres thought too little of the built traps.
And finally, the Allies. The goblins had created such a massive alliance group that pushed the ogres ten steps back into defeat.
The Ogre King and the General lost their focus as the camp was attacked from behind by the Lizardmen, Orcs, and Trolls. Taking advantage of this lost focus, the Goblin King and the General gained an upper hand, dealing some damage.
The greater blow came when a group of humans, clad in armor, came on horses. They held long spears that seemingly pierced the skies but had heads of the Ogre families from the villages.
The blood dripping from them was fresh, and it seemed as if the humans had colluded with the goblins to slaughter the ogres in the villages not too long ago—nearly an hour at maximum, as the village was quite close.
Emotion drained everyone who witnessed this scene. The Ogre King, at the pinnacle of his focus, even failed as he stared at his parents' dead bodies that were now zombified.
Sadly, this uncontrolled emotion and rash judgment from the king ended up taking his life when the Goblin king used an artifact, invisible, and undetectable sword to slash off the Ogre King's neck.
The general followed, and so did Bozo's team, who couldn't withstand the Wyvern's attack.
Bozo learned, in the end, that the wyvern was toying with him and the team. He had spread his dark mana that had already consumed each and every one of them, entering their blood. Only after the king and the rest were dead did he bring out the poison effect, causing them to cough blood and die painfully.
Of course, Bozo, as Chilly, lasted the longest! His berserker skill didn't let him give up.
He turned into a mindless beast as he saw Laiya cry and shed tears as her eyes turned lifeless. Such cruelty brought a painful scar to his heart, shunning away his mind.
He went on a rampage to kill the wyvern; unfortunately, his neck was sliced by a zombie that wielded a thick knife.
As his head twirled in the air, Bozo, in the last few seconds of his consciousness, noticed the gigantic body of an ogre—his previous body: Billy.
He died, yet his body continued forward, swinging the club mindlessly, before slowly succumbing to the darkness and losing his life.
As Bozo now sat in the dark cave illuminated by a few glow stones, he noticed the aftermath. On the screen, a video played that showed how the zombies ate his body and everyone else's.
'I failed, didn't I?'
'All the ogres died, so there is no more simulation, correct?'
"I... I..." Bozo wanted to cry out loud, but even his voice didn't come out of his mouth.
He was annoyed, sad, depressed, and emotional at what had happened. A simple death would have been fine, but such a massacre where he had no chance to go back, to take revenge? That was the worst outcome.
The system didn't reply to him. Instead, it gave him the report that it had held back initially.
Ding!
[Report of simulation in Ogre401:]
[Progress: 62%] [Failed]
1. You failed to protect the Ogre King [Negative Impact: -100]
2. You failed to protect the Ogre General [Negative Impact: -80]
3. You wasted your time fooling around with your skill and resting needlessly [Negative Impact: -50]
4. You killed 298 goblins [Predation Rank C: +10]
5.You killed 29 hobgoblins [Predation rank C: +10]
[Final Points: -210] [Final Rank: E]
[Points from previous simulations will be added.]
[Final points, after 3 simulations: -223]
[Simulation result: You have attained an E rank rating.]
[System's advice:]
1. Stop wasting time.
2. Get to know your skills properly.
3. Know about your surroundings and implement new strategies.
4. Make allies.
5. Use the knowledge of the future!
Ding!
[For attaining an E rank rating, you can choose one skill from the set of five skills of Ogre401.]
[Please choose the skill you want to learn:]
1. Toughened Endurance (A)
2. Giant's Stride (C)
3. Limited Tactical Awareness (E)
Bozo was down, not ready to take a look at screen, but as the next words echoed in his head, a spark ignited his dormant flames!
Ding!
[Please choose the checkpoint to which you want to simulate again.]
'Huh?'
A/N: Join the discord: https://discord.gg/BSU2UZT4s2
Just a simple comment like 'TFTC'/'Thank you for the chapter'/'Thanks' will also help. It keeps me motivated! Do comment!