Ch.358Overseas Travel is Busiest Before You Go (6)

The farm’s troops were swept away along with the watchtower by Sasith’s Hades.

With a single strike, Sasith’s presence was firmly imprinted on those who had been forced into labor at the farm as he slaughtered the enemy.

“Everyone!!! Follow Sasith!!”

I faithfully performed my role as the bugler.

Clank-! Click-!

The other guerrillas immediately freed the Lesser Panda workers who had been forced into labor at the farm from their shackles.

“Everyone!! Take up weapons!! We must fight with our own strength to reclaim our planet!!”

I shouted loudly.

Clank-!

The farmers all picked up weapons from the soldiers’ corpses.

“Let’s go!!! Follow Sasith!!”

In desperate situations, shouting loudly created a strange euphoric feeling. That’s exactly what I was aiming for.

“Uoooooh!! Let’s go!!”

The farmers, weapons in hand, unanimously followed behind Sasith.

“Hehehe. This bastard is damn good at inciting people, I tell you.”

Taiga laughed as he patted my shoulder.

“Let’s go!!”

In the end, Sasith seized the opportunity I had created for him. He commanded with sword in hand.

“Uoooooh!!”

Countless Lesser Panda troops followed behind him. The Lesser Pandas’ levels were only around 10. Honestly, they weren’t much help… but I decided to let them fight anyway. It was important to create the impression that everyone had risen up together. That would intimidate the enemy.

Fwoosh-!

Kirtan brought up a portable terrain map. The landscape that had been marked with red fog was now revealed. As expected, it was a system where capturing transmission towers unlocked the map.

‘This… is such an outdated system…’

This intentional play-time extension isn’t good. Just let people see the map when they open it.

——–

Anyway, we immediately headed for the second farm.

“Alright!! Sasith!! Blow up the transmission tower!! I’ll protect you while you use your psycho-robo.”

I stood in front of Sasith with my sword drawn.

“Come forth!! Hades!!”

Sasith, now seemingly quite confident, immediately brought out Hades.

Swoooosh-!!

As Hades swung its blade, the transmission towers were all sliced apart at once.

“Damn it…!!”

“Over there!! Open fire!!”

But Pink Beard’s army lived up to its reputation as the strongest in the universe. Instead of cowering from our attack, they immediately began to counterattack.

Tatatatatata-!! Tatatatatata-!!!

They all started firing their guns at once.

At this point, I decided to try out my newly acquired special skill, “Master of Defense.”

Ting-! Tiding-! Ting-! Tiding-!

Deflecting projectiles became much easier than before. Thanks to the increased defense judgment, I could perfectly deflect projectiles just by bringing my sword to them with the right feeling.

The bonus was that I received rewards for perfect defenses even in the midst of defending.

Tiiiing-!!!

As red effects sparked from my sword, the bullets were cleanly deflected in a straight line.

Swoosh-! Thud-!

Enemies in front fell one by one as they were hit by the ricocheting bullets.

“Damn!! Fire magic!!”

Some soldiers who knew how to handle psycho-robos immediately brought them out.

Kwaaaang-!!!

Spears of lightning poured down toward me.

‘I have a special skill for this too.’

It was a technique to imbue weapons with attributes. A special skill I gained while fighting Yagyu Jurata. This was the perfect stage to test it.

Crackle-!!

As the lightning spears rushed straight toward me, I leaped high.

Crackle-!!!

And in mid-air, I swung my sword through the lightning spears as if giving them a high-five. As expected, lightning wrapped around my sword.

“Uryaaaah!!!!”

Immediately after, I landed and swung my sword with great force.

Crackle!!!!

Along with the damage from the sword strike itself, lightning mixed with the slash and flew forward.

Kwaaaang-!

The lightning tore apart all the soldiers in front.

“S-strong…. That’s the man-eating demon Shota….”

“So powerful…. With them, surely… Pink Beard…!”

The Lesser Pandas looked at us with eyes full of admiration.

“R-run away!!”

“Retreat!!”

The soldiers, having lost their will to fight in the face of overwhelming power, immediately turned tail and fled.

While the soldiers were fleeing, we liberated the workers at the farm.

In this way, we conquered the planet’s farms one by one.

“Ooh…. This is quite fun. There’s a certain satisfaction in revealing the map bit by bit.”

Kirtan seemed to have discovered the joy of open-world gameplay.

“That’s… only fun at first. It gets boring later.”

I said with nostalgic eyes.

I too used to stay up all night playing games with systems like this when I first encountered them. But you get tired of them quickly later on. Going to new, dark maps just makes you sigh deeply.

———-

We quickly liberated 5 of the 8 farms. Sasith would swipe at the enemies with Hades, and we would clean up the rest. That was all it took.

Ding-! Ding-!

Everyone’s levels, which had been stagnant for a while, started rising quickly. Not only did we gain experience from defeating enemies, but we also received an additional 20 percent experience bonus for each farm liberated. The experience gained was quite substantial.

But this wasn’t a game; it was reality. Naturally, the existence of a revolutionary army that suddenly appeared and began liberating farms reached the ears of the enemy.

The sixth farm presented a somewhat different situation.

“This is troublesome.”

I surveyed the farm briefly.

The characteristic scene of Lesser Pandas working diligently was the same. However, the soldiers were all aiming their guns at the farmers, ready to kill them at the slightest provocation.

“They plan to use them as hostages if we attack.”

Sasith seemed to have noticed this as well.

“If they take them hostage, that’s one thing. They might just kill them, thinking they’re potential rebels.”

Kirtan said.

“Ignoring hostages and killing them… is that too much?”

That left a bad taste in my mouth.

Of course, Sasith’s Hades was sealed off. Hades was quite large among psycho-robos. Once brought out, it would immediately catch attention.

Even if we gathered our companions and went, we would be easily detected.

In the end, I had to resolve this quietly and stealthily. Alone.

“Sasith. Leave this to me.”

I said to Sasith.

“Okay. Got it.”

Sasith coolly delegated full authority to me.

Rustle-!

I immediately went around to the back of the farm.

I could roughly sense presences through breathing. There were about 10 troops guarding the farm. The rest were on standby in the back. I needed to take out the ten guarding the farm first, secure the safety of the farmers, and then deal with the rest.

“Hey, why do you like non-human characters like monster girls or furries?”

“Why? Because they’re hot.”

“No, that’s what’s weird. They’re not human to begin with.”

“That’s what’s good about them. Half-human, half-animal is just right. It’s like… after always seeing familiar humans, discovering a new being gives you a sense of awe.”

“Sense of awe, my ass. Hehehe.”

“It’s like how it’s good to travel to unfamiliar places sometimes.”

The guards were having a completely unproductive chat while aiming their guns at the farmers. You guys are aliens too. You’re monster-types by our species’ standards. Anyway.

I closed the distance toward them, then immediately slashed one’s throat with my sword.

Swoosh-!

One soldier collapsed, blood gushing from his head, not knowing what had happened.

Before another could react, I pulled out my sword and thrust it into the underside of his jaw.

After quickly eliminating two of them, I rapidly checked for presences around me.

Someone in the transmission tower, which also functioned as a watchtower, had noticed his comrades’ deaths and was about to sound the alarm.

Whoosh-!

Seizing the opportunity, I picked up a nearby stone and threw it. As I threw, I enhanced my arm with the Stance of Scorching as an added measure.

Thwack-!!

The stone, flying with almost bullet-like force, cleanly shattered the head of the person standing in the watchtower and continued on.

In this way, I quietly and cleanly dealt with the enemies around the farm. I was practically Metal Gear Shota.

Afterward, I removed the shackles of those working at the farm with fluid movements.

After dealing with all the enemies, I immediately signaled to my companions.

“Everyone!! Charge!!!”

Recognizing my signal, Sasith immediately brought out Hades and shouted.

“Uoooooh!!!”

The guerrillas, including our party members, all began to charge at once.

“Uraaaah!!!!”

I too finally let out a war cry as I charged with my sword. Damn… I really held back for a long time!! Infiltration just wasn’t my style. My nature was more suited to charging forward with a war cry and tearing everything apart.

———

In less than an hour, we had liberated all areas of the planet.

We had succeeded in driving out all of Pink Beard’s forces from this planet.

‘Lesser Planet Liberation: Additional Experience 50%’

As expected, we received additional experience for completing the objective. With this, our party members’ levels approached the late 90s. At this rate, it would be possible for all party members to reach max level.

“Sasith!!! Hurrah!!!”

“Hurrah!!!!”

The Lesser Pandas cheered for Sasith with their arms wide open. Yes, the goal of spreading Sasith’s fame throughout the universe had been achieved.

“……….”

Sasith solemnly waved his hand. But the corners of his mouth were trembling at an incredible BPM. This guy… enjoying it, aren’t you?

———-

Afterward, we immediately left and began returning to Earth via spaceship. The non-combatant harem members seemed to have enjoyed their beach trip as well. It must have been because winter was approaching, and they missed swimming.

“Let’s conquer the planets around Earth in this way.”

With Kirtan sitting on my knee, I brought up a navigation chart and outlined our future plans.

“In other words, creating Earth’s sphere of influence.”

Sasith said.

“Yeah. We’ll make these planets form alliances with each other so they can somehow hold out against Pink Beard. Even just holding out will gradually create cracks in Pink Beard’s plans.”

From what I knew, Pink Beard had a short temper. He would also have a strong pride. He might make emotional mistakes out of anger at the increasing number of planets resisting. It was a long-term strategy to exploit that.

“What about the overseas trip?”

Tina, who had been silent, seemed concerned about that.

“Of course, as soon as winter break starts.”

I stroked Tina’s head to reassure her.

“Let’s devour about four planets before the break.”

I outlined the plan for before the break. That should be enough to prevent any major incidents during our overseas trip.