Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The world around him was obviously fake, but to Alex, it seemed as real as it could be. It was as if he was in the sky, looking down on a large landscape of rolling hills. A large forest grew on this land, dense in some regions, sparse in others.

Alex was connected to this place through the headband. He could tell that much.

“Do you like it?” the War God asked. “It’s a nice piece of treasure, is it not?”

“It’s… an illusion, isn’t it? Do we play the game here?” Alex asked.

“We do. We have two opposing armies that we use to fight each other. There, I’ve made 5,000 for each of us.”

Just as the War God said those words, Alex saw dark spots all around the forest below him. Without even thinking, he could tell there were exactly 5,000 people there. Not only that, he could tell each one of them was a mortal too.

It was a weird feeling to have this information without even having to think about it.

Alex looked for the other 5,000 people that would belong to the War God and frowned a little. “Where are your people, War God? I don’t see them.”

The War God smiled. “It wouldn’t be a fun game if you could see everything,” the man said. “How far can your men properly see?”

The answer immediately came to Alex. “About a kilometer under an unobstructed view. Any further and it becomes hard to tell.”

“Then you will see my army when yours is a kilometer close to mine,” the War God said. “For now, try controlling them. See how you can handle 5,000 people. It could be tough, but let me know. Don’t worry, you only have to control where they go. They will do what they have to themselves.”

Alex nodded and began controlling the people.

He found his attention split into nearly a hundred different groups, easily controlling each group of 50 people without much effort. He was used to making up to 10 different cauldrons full of unique pills, so this was nothing.

He was certain he would only start having trouble when he doubled the number. Even then, he had a feeling he could do it. Moving these men only needed commands, unlike pill ingredients which required him to actively control them.

The men scurried like ants, running dozens of times faster than they would in real life, most likely for the sake of speeding up the game.

“Incredible,” the War God complimented, leaning forward. “Do you see that patch of open space in the middle?”

Alex looked down and nodded.

“My army is gathered there. Send yours there and let them fight. You can see how things work that way.”

Alex willed all his men to go to that spot, and they ran immediately. Within less than a minute, Alex began noticing other spots of blackness in the patch of grassland where the War God’s army was gathered.

Upon seeing Alex’s army, the War God sent his army forward as well. They clashed, quite realistically, even with sounds of metal clinking and shouting. Two minutes later, all but a single one lived, belonging to Alex.

“That is what happens when you take away control and leave things to chance. Since both armies were equally strong, the matter of who wins comes down simply to luck. Who struck first.”

“But, as I called it, it is a Game of War. We will start over, and this time, I will try to win. Do what you can to fight back.”

Alex nodded and the world reverted to its original state with his 5,000 soldiers on the ground below him. The very next moment, Alex felt a solid jolt that the game of war was already underway.

Alex looked down at the map, trying to see what route the War God would take. The chances he would be standing in the center again would be low, so he needed to act fast.

He took three people from his group and sent them in three different directions, trying to scout for the army. As long as they were close by, he would see them. But with the forest in the middle, it would be difficult.

Not to mention, the hills went up and down too, so seeing anything properly would require him to quickly go on top of one of the hills. He found what he thought were three great locations on the battlefield to survey the map and sent all three scouts to those spots.

The moment they appeared on those spots, two of them died.

Alex was stunned by the suddenness of the entire thing. He had merely arrived at the hilltop when the enemy appeared from just beyond to kill him.

“Damn it!” Alex thought. The War God knew those would be the locations he would send his scouts to and sent people to kill. The last scout was alive, but he saw nothing.

Two of his men were dead, and the most information he had was there may be people in those two locations.

Alex thought of running at first, but he decided not to. He would face them head-on. He had a feeling that the War God might have separated his group to ambush them from two sides, so the best approach was to keep his people together and fight them off as a majority.

He ran in the direction of one of the hills where his scouts had died and tried to get the jump on the War God. On the way, he noticed a cluster of them just as he had expected.

He didn’t get a number in his head, but he could guess there were about 2,000 there. With his numbers, this would be an overwhelming victory. Those 2,000 wouldn’t be able to take 2,000 of his since this time, he would be fighting strategically.

Those 2,000 began running, but Alex followed them and soon caught up to them by the side of a large forest. The moment he was there and beginning to fight, Alex realized something was wrong.

These men shouldn’t have been caught so easily. They should be able to run at the same speed as his. Which meant…

“No, he wanted me here,” Alex thought. He tried to get the people to leave, but the remaining 3,000 men suddenly ran out of the forest, where they had remained hidden the whole time.

They caught Alex’s men from the rear and began attacking. Alex’s men were fighting men from two sides, who soon began encircling them.

The War God’s men did something weird. Because it took a couple of hits for them to die, each time they killed someone, they moved back, letting someone else take their place.

However, in Alex’s case, because they were surrounded and being pushed together, the ones at the center never got a chance to fight. They were smothered quickly, all of them dead.

And while they managed to kill off 1,500 or so men in the end, it wasn’t even enough to be a respectable loss. He was thoroughly destroyed.

“Do you understand the game now?” the War God asked.

Alex slowly nodded.

“Great!” the man said. “Then let us stop using these simple men for battle. Time to make the game a lot more dynamic.”