MMORPG: Crowd Control

Tang Qiaolian was in a private room as she logged out, and her vision blurred for a few moments. When her eyes reopened, she saw the familiar ceiling of Lei Zhen's apartment.

Although the apartment wasn't grand or fancy, she found a sense of familiarity with it.

She was smiling for a moment before feeling bitter since she knew these kinds of days would not last long. Sooner or later, she'll have to leave his apartment and return to her house.

Shaking her head to not think about the future, Tang Qiaolian hopped off the MagnoPod. She was not starving but was still craving the food cooked by Lei Zhen. The unique flavor of his cooking was simply next-level.

"Lei Zhen is still in the MagnoPod and it seems like I have been playing for quite a while." Tang Qiaolian muttered, seeing the date and time on her cellphone.

While scrolling through her phone, Tang Qiaolian walked near the fridge and saw a post-it note attached to the fridge door.

If you are hungry, there are some portions that just need to be reheated and you can eat them.

Those were the words that were written on the notes and she knew it was Lei Zhen's handwriting.

Though it couldn't be more obvious since this apartment was occupied by only the two of them.

It would be scarier if the notes were written by someone else.

As Tang Qiaolian started to reheat the food, she scanned through her phone and realized other changes that had been going on at Yors Castle.

"Holy smokes, I thought it was just the two princes fighting, but now the princess came out as well?" Tang Qiaolian nearly spit out her water when she read the news.

According to recent news, it seemed that the true mastermind behind Princess Kate's ambush and disappearance was not because of the scheming Prince Leon, but it was the honorable Prince Carter.

Prince Carter, the self-proclaimed righteous prince accused Prince Leon of harming Princess Kate and used this as leverage to gain public support and morale was actually the main culprit.

As Tang Qiaolian read more and more, Princess Kate's popularity instantly soared to a new height and numerous players are flogging into her faction.

"My goodness, even the famous live streamer and ranker, Griselda is joining in to assist Princess Kate?" Tang Qiaolian was astonished by this event. She didn't expect a beginner-intermediate city to receive such furor.

Subconsciously, she glanced at Lei Zhen, who was in his MagnoPod.

'Will he survive going alone to Yors Castle?' She wondered silently. She was starting to regret not teaming up with him for a while longer.

Alas, there was too little for regret and she could only wait until he came out of his MagnoPod to express her apology.

While she waited patiently for her food to finish reheating, back in Magnolia, Lei Zhen was overwhelmed by the surprising popularity of Princess Kate.

"Ahh, I forgot Kate's facial appearance was that of a top-tier beauty, so I underestimated her recruiting power. Look at all these horny men registering themselves into the army."

Lei Zhen smirked, glancing through all the players' information that was piled up neatly in documentation form by the imperial guards.

Normally, this kind of information is classified as confidential and no other players should be able to view it.

However, his status and position currently allowed him to see all the players' names, classes, and backgrounds as well. This was akin to a Wikipedia cheat sheet and he could memorize all those for the future.

'Look at all these level 70s and above players.' Lei Zhen thought. Suddenly, one of the names here caught his eye.

A player by the name 'Han Shuai' with Shuai meaning cool rings a bell to Lei Zhen. This Han Shuai was a knight class with full body armor-clad in white color, someone that he had seen before.

"Could this Han Shuai player be the same one that I encountered during my retreat from the horde of Goblin Mobs?" Lei Zhen wondered aloud.

The coincidence of a person matching a name and resembling the gear was too much. Besides, he had heard someone yelling "Brother Han" when he was running past them.

In addition, they were at Lux Forest, which is extremely close to Yors Castle so it would have made sense that they'll be interested in joining the war.

"Since he's a knight, I'll have Kate assign him to the extreme frontline to tank and defend the backline." Lei Zhen decided to give him a 'very good' position.

It was definitely not because of pettiness at which he received zero assistance from them before.

Sometime later, Lei Zhen finished assigning each of the new recruits to their respective strength and position aside from Han Shuai.

"You finished arranging them?" Kate came in just at the right time when Lei Zhen finished organizing the army.

Lei Zhen nodded his head, "Yes, here's the new attack formation integrated with the new recruits."

"Thanks for your help, Lei Zhen… really. Without you, I don't even know how to fare in this war." Kate smiled briefly and held the paper tightly.

On the surface, she must remain strong for the soldiers. It was a facade needed to give the soldiers confidence that they will definitely win.

However, once she's alone with Lei Zhen, she doesn't need to wear such a facade because she would be seen right through by him either way.

"Don't mention it. I'm doing this for my own selfish reason as well." Lei Zhen shook his head, not daring to claim any credits.

He wasn't lying when he said it was for his selfish reason since he would be forever cursed if the Ferold's Ring is not extracted.

Just when Lei Zhen was ready to take a break and log out to rest, Kate halted him by saying someone was hoping to become the commanding officer.

Commanding Officer, a position that was still vacant since there were no qualified people available that could lead an entire army batch.

So far, all army deployment was done by Lei Zhen, but even he had a limit and could only do so much.

"Who's the person that requested to be one?" Lei Zhen asked casually, seemingly not paying much attention.

"It was a woman that I met when I was pretending to be injured. She was called Griselda of some sort."