A Village Appeared on My Desktop

---

Chapter 84 – The Erosionists (4)

The knight with a masked face was merely a character in the game, feeling no pain at all. Therefore, anything could be done to them. They were just a character, after all.

Even if the game world was infused with realism, for the player controlling that character outside the screen, their character was just a doll made of data.

Exposed to the bone-chilling wind that froze flesh and bone, he was nothing more than someone sitting with a fan on, gripping his keyboard in reality.

“Ah, no..!”

But it was different for her. To Riena, who had no concept of game characters, his character was akin to his avatar.

Since the one controlling it was indeed him, it was hard to consider the character as nothing but a mere doll that indirectly revealed his psychological state.

Thus, when she saw him throw himself to protect her, Riena shouted in surprise. Although the game was different, he had saved her once like this in the past.

He had revived quickly that time too, but the very fact that someone threw themselves to protect her was still an unfamiliar feeling.

‘He seems to be very anxious.’

Watching his rapidly falling HP while absorbing the boss’s attack with his body, he spammed the potion shortcut key. At that moment, he saw Riena’s face on the screen, unable to hide her emotions, and chuckled softly.

Thinking that she seemed overly worried, he pondered how to reassure Riena and, like usual, used the emotional expression feature.

As his character stood there, blocking the icy wind, he raised his thumb towards her. That action appeared completely nonchalant.

“How dare you!!”

The problem was that this action could be perceived as an unimaginable humiliation by others.

The boss, who grinned using a skill that would surely deal heavy damage if it hit, was flipped out upon seeing someone block his attack barehanded while acting like it was nothing.

So, wielding his hammer emitting frigid air, he rushed in to deliver a blow that could not be endured.

‘Now it’s time for me to repay.’

Once the icy storm dissipated, Riena kicked off the ground and charged forward.

Though it wasn’t his intention, the actions he showed for her instilled a fierce belief in her, stronger than anything else.

Someone had thrown themselves to save her life; there was no reason not to believe. Her heart was already burning with determination.

“Th-the power of the Divine…!”

And that steadfast belief soon became the source of strength that she would truly nurture in this Dark Blood world. In a game set against the backdrop of a great battle between heaven and hell, she naturally learned to convert her faith into mana.

The boss, charging forward with rage, was stunned as the radiant light she emanated grew stronger despite not retreating.

The bugs that had intruded into the game to kill them had been revealed for their true power, and it was strong and pure enough to counter the divine.

The boss hurriedly lifted his hammer, but as Riena swung her glimmering sword with golden eyes, the severing slash split the frosty hammer into two and cleanly decapitated the boss’s upper body.

“Ugh.”

The blinding flash burst forth so brightly that he squinted through the screen.

This divine light was strong enough to melt the wicked frost that dominated the surrounding land in an instant.

“Ugh, grotesque.”

However, the enemy still wasn’t dead. As he watched the screen, horrified, there stood the enemy, staggering with part of its body, including its neck, severed. More realistic than any realistic graphic.

There were two enemies from the start. The demon had been purified by the divine light, but still, one enemy remained. Monsters that cared nothing for divinity.

‘It won’t matter. They’re probably not even living beings to begin with.’

To them, there was no morality or reason. They were merely programmed creatures moving for their own purpose. There was no way that the light of judgment would affect such beings.

“I will go!”

Clenching her teeth, Riena charged forward once more to deal with the wriggling parasite.

However, this time, the one controlling the character was with her as well. Watching them, the parasites controlling the boss as if they had been waiting twisted their black bodies, moving the corpse to throw punches at them.

‘If this were truly a game, there wouldn’t be attribute damage.’

Seeing that, he used a skill after some thought. Originally, different elemental magic was used in the game without restrictions based on attributes.

Using water or ice magic against a demon engulfed in fire wouldn’t deal extra damage.

But as the game morphed into reality, such aspects saw a shift.

“Lightning…”

Riena admired as the lightning bolt he shot hit the enemy.

The crackling bolt disrupted all actions moving by bioelectric signals. The corpse controlled by the bugs was no exception.

Thanks to that, Riena swiftly sliced through the enemy now in a sort of stunned state.

Though it struggled with fierce cold in a last-ditch effort, her sword steadily carved through its massive body.

“Where do you think you’re going.”

As the situation turned desperate, numerous black parasites controlling the boss’s body surged forth, extending their long forms to pour over her, but Riena, undeterred by their grotesque appearance, adjusted her grip on her sword and twisted her body to slash them down.

As the parasites fell, the once mangled boss’s body finally crashed to the ground. The fight was finally over.

‘What if these parasites also appeared in the village?’

As the creature wriggling on the ground attempted to climb her legs, she grimaced and crushed it underfoot.

It was also a moment to understand that the bugs were not simply brute force attackers.

*

‘Now the boss battle remains, but is today going to be too much?’

Normally, Chapter 3, consisting of action rather than lore and quests, would conclude with the battles inside the fortress. The problem was that with bugs occurring, everything couldn’t simply be assumed to flow as in the strategy videos.

Checking the time, I decided to wrap up my activities for today. After all, Chapter 3 would conclude by tomorrow.

‘Parasite-type bugs. They simply amplify the host’s power while being parasites. Individual combat strength seems lacking.’

After taking Riena, who was looking at me with even more sparkling eyes than before, to the village, I noted down on the bugs I encountered today, their behaviors, and appearances.

Not only to provide information to the latecomer Lee So-Yeon but also because I had learned that these things were infiltrating reality, I believed that someday, these notes would prove useful.

“—. –.”

“—?”

Balun was still working hard to win over R’tai, Garhan’s envoy. In fact, I could vouch that it was being successful.

R’tai, who had shifted from hostility to neutrality, was now completely marked as an ally. This meant I could now treat R’tai as one of our residents, picking him up with the mouse or deploying him in the game or viewing detailed status reports.

‘If diplomacy goes well, there’s no downside.’

After some consideration, I supported Balun’s thoughts.

Even though bugs were appearing in the game and things were becoming serious, it was still merely a game. I felt sorry for the residents in the game, but if I didn’t deploy them within it, that place would no longer be connected to us.

The most important thing was that desktop world. The place where the residents must live.

While confronting the unknown enemies, if we also had to wage war against local forces, it seemed there would be more drawbacks than benefits. Increasing the population could be resolved through normal exchanges without war if we could manage it.

If the bugs posed a threat not just to us but to others, then those others would hesitate to pose a threat towards us recklessly.

-Does it simply continue like this with just defense?

“Defense?”

-I get that we’re cultivating residents to fend off the bug monsters, but it feels like we’re just being pushed around too much.

That night, in a chat with Lee So-Yeon, she first expressed frustration over the current situation after hearing about the parasite-type bugs.

-According to the information gathered so far, they are attacking us in various ways. We have to fend them off without any warning signs or knowledge.

The bugs attacked us whenever they pleased, opening cracks or digging nests, all at their whim.

Our best strategy was to discover them and block them. Revenge or counterattack wasn’t possible, so the best we could do was wait prepared for whenever they would show up.

‘It does feel inefficient.’

I sympathized with her words. Just like that, I had worried about what would happen if bugs appeared and slaughtered the remaining residents while our main forces were out fighting.

If there was a chance, shouldn’t our allies be the first to hunt them down?

[Map program recommendation]

[Wallpaper folder recommendation]

“Uh?”

It seemed the Master Program sensed our conversation.

Suddenly, program recommendations popped up. I stared blankly at them.

-The map app and wallpaper replacement…? I didn’t think of those.

Interestingly, Lee So-Yeon, who was in the conversation with me, said she hadn’t received such recommendations. It wasn’t because her computer lacked those apps.

“That makes sense. The map app costs 10,000P and wallpaper replacement 5,000P. It seems it doesn’t recommend any if it’s not something you can acquire right away.”

I chuckled at the prices of the recommended programs.

With the increasing number of active games and residents, as well as their achievements, the points were coming in solidly.

I had planned to gather 60,000P to activate the firewall.

-Do you plan to give it a try?

“If using these could let us land the first hit on those crazy monsters, there’s no reason not to.”

The thrill of a counterattack we’d never managed to execute before was electrifying just to think about. Of course, it would be the residents fighting, but this was all intertwined with their lives.