Poll World [LitRPG][Reader Polls]

(Paid vote chapter)

Rosalina's eyes widened as she looked at the football stadium-sized UFO directly above her. All around her, people were noticing the same thing and starting to yell in panic. Her mind tried to process the reversal of going from the successful destruction of the trawler to having the UFO above them in an instant. Had it teleported? Her eyes narrowed, and she saw the UFO pulse with red lightning and move supernaturally fast as it dodged a rocket from a quick-thinking protagonist.

Carlos, to her side, reached the same conclusion, "It's super speed and based on the lightning effect, it might be the same event item that the armored special iguana had before its disappearance…"

Rosalina nodded and raised her voice, "Stop panicking! You all know what to do! Mech-riders suit up and activate the air defense!"

Rosalina wasn't a strategy expert, LEO expert, event expert, poll expert, or combat expert. She wasn't even an expert on running a bar, so the first thing she did was start collecting people who were. The think-tank of strategy planners had done a thorough analysis of all known remaining antagonists as well as their event items and abilities.

The glaring conclusion was that the UFO was the culmination of polls from multiple actors, and it was the only real hope the antagonists had of crawling their way back into the event. As a result, all the points that weren't invested into the mech factory were being poured into anti-air defensive upgrades for all remaining headquarters. Not only that, but the tech experts and those with tinkerer abilities were being given every opportunity to upgrade the defenses even further. The now fallen zones 35 and 45 had been overwhelmed by the unexpected influx of kaijus and hadn't gotten a chance to demonstrate those weapons, but this time would be different.

A loud thrumming filled the air as their pinnacle weapons started to fire. The turrets looked like Gatling guns at first, but the projectiles weren't normal bullets. Instead, they were tiny bullet-shaped mechanical wasps. The foremost threat of the UFO was its ability to generate lightning gremlins whenever it dodged attacks, and the wasp-bullets were the determined solution. When they initially missed their target, they would unfurl their wings and continue the pursuit indefinitely, albeit at a much slower speed. The end result was that they never truly "missed" and, in a prolonged battle, would blanket the sky in an endless swarm, limiting the UFO's flight path.

Predictably, the UFO began dodging the wasp-bullets at superspeed, but Rosalina grinned in satisfaction as the swarm started building up immediately. Each headquarters had ten of the wasp-turrets, and the mech-factory had twenty, making it the most fortified location left in the event.

Carlos and she stepped out of the command tent, and she watched as the hundreds of mechs in the area started roaring to life. With the revolution of low-level actors complete, she honestly believed that this was the most coordinated protagonist force in zombie-event history. Normally, high-levels monopolized resources and hyper-focused on increasing their own event-contribution rather than trying to actually win. For low-levels, however, the rewards for winning the event usually outpaced those for individual contribution by a high margin, so everyone was doing everything in their power to come together and win.

The UFO wasn't dead yet, though, and she watched as hatches opened from its base and giant purple crystals started dropping directly toward the mech factory.

Carlos didn't need to be told what to do as he immediately radioed the mechs to target the bombs. They'd been holding fire until that point to avoid summoning lightning gremlins, but as a unit they unloaded thousands of bullets at the fast-dropping crystals. About half of the bombs were destroyed in mid-air, creating purple blasts of lightning, but the rest made contact with thunderous explosions.

Arcs of purple lightning flew in all directions, and secondary explosions went off, generating even more arcs. Those unfortunate enough to be hit immediately started to transform into fusioncrack zombies. Rosalina squinted. She'd seen more than enough fusioncrack zombies to recognize these ones were different… They were bedazzled!

Not stopping to question what that meant mechs started to unload bullets on the zombies as they rose, and Rosalina realized they were far more resilient than the non-sparkly versions. Still, they were outnumbered and were being cleaned up gradually by the combined efforts of all the available mechs.

A brilliant laser flashed from above, and multiple mechs exploded as Solomon entered the battlefield. He was descending from the UFO's tractor beam with hundreds of antagonists alongside him. Mechs tried to shoot them out of the sky, but the UFO zipped around at dizzying speeds, dragging the antagonists in the tractor beam with it.

By all rights, the chaotic movements should've generated enough g-forces to kill all the descending enemies, but in typical LEO fashion, the tractor beam entirely negated the effect. Breaking away from the tractor beam, the pink flamingo also made its appearance as it started to rain gnomes down at the mech factory.

Rosalina already had the status page open to check how much damage the fusioncrack bombs had done, and noted with concern as a new status indicator appeared.

Factory health 97%

Plastification 1%

The mech factory's defenses had been upgraded dozens of times in the hopes of avoiding sabotage, but it also made it highly resistant to bombs. Black blood seeped from the UFO as wasp-bullets gradually made contact and began swarming its hull. She was confident that head-to-head, the wasp-turrets would destroy the UFO before the factory fell.

But… the plastification presented a new issue. The analysts didn't know the full scope of the flamingo's abilities, but the plastification was thoroughly reported, and it apparently could turn anything into plastic, even magic and energy. The armorered mech-factory would be easy pickings if they allowed the gnomes to keep making contact.

Yelling a series of orders, she said, "Activate the downsizer on Solomon and release the thralls! I need that bird dead!"

The level 5 downsizer would remove every single one of Solomon's abilities, effectively reducing him to just his equipment and removing the antagonists' only remaining high-level threat.

Abilities and bullets flew at the flamingo in a continuous stream, but its high-speed and illogically defensive feathers allowed it to weather the storm. Rosalina watched as it swooped past Solomon, and her eyes widened as two additional level 5 antagonists appeared.

To her side, Carlos was frowning as he read the new names, "Trank and Daryl are both Solomon's known associates. The only upside of the failed UFO assault was that they were both eliminated in the ensuing battle." His eyes locked onto the flamingo, "The flamingo may be an even greater threat than we anticipated. Knowing LEO, it may have a phoenix upgrade or something similar that allows it to resurrect eliminated antagonists."

Rosalina frowned. Nobody knew what the hell the flamingo was. She'd read a detailed report that had implied it initially was believed to be on the protagonist's side, having eliminated multiple antagonists, but abruptly it had started assisting antagonists instead and begun to gradually transform from a standard lawn decoration to its current monstrous, fluffy form.

The working theory was that it had actually been some sort of highly difficult hidden event quest, and Solomon had managed to clear the conditions and earn himself the demented animal companion.

Frankly, she didn't care about its background at all as she yelled, "Where are the thralls!?"

The thralls, as they'd taken to calling them, were the remaining protagonists that weren't trusted enough to be welcomed into their ranks and remained under the control of the walkie-talkies. They'd been using the less useful ones as lich bait, but the powerful ones that hadn't died to the kaijus were kept in reserve for an emergency just like this.

In the distance, she saw them make their appearance as five level 4s and two level 3s were released from their containment room and started rushing toward the flamingo. Their faces were contorted into rage, but for such a simple command, they were powerless to stop themselves from dutifully trying to eliminate their target.

One of them shot a barrage of chainsaws at the flamingo while another threw a conjured flaming spear. The flamingo seemed to sense the incoming threat as it ducked low and hid behind the mech factory cutting line of sight for just a moment.

The thralls dashed after it, and Rosalina momentarily ignored them as she looked back to the newly appeared antagonists. Solomon looked annoyed after being successfully targeted by the downsizer and having his laser vision negated, but his two friends were picking up the slack.

Daryl was breathing out clouds of acid gas in between chugging cans of beer. The gas clouds seemed under his control as they drifted directly towards his enemies and caused mech after mech to corrode away in seconds.

Trank was fifteen feet tall, and all of the bullets were somehow being sucked towards him instead of their intended targets. To make matters worse, he kept reversing the momentum of projectiles and shooting them straight back from where they came from.

The two of them had formed a beachhead with hundreds of antagonists making landfall behind them as they cemented their position. They apparently had noticed the threat the wasp-turrets posed as they started trying to fight their way to the closest one.

The sparkly fusioncrack zombies that had almost been eliminated were slowly growing in numbers as more and more bombs were dropped, but the thralls demonstrated their worth as they cut through them in quick order while pursuing the flamingo.

Rosalina held her breath. If they could just kill the flamgino, then she could order them to attack Solomon's friends and wrap up the battle. Internally, she cursed the absence of the sniper and artillery mechs. They had gone all in eliminating the trawler, which hadn't been a waste, but it left their more specialized mechs out of position for the sudden attack.

A giant explosion spread out as one of the wasp-turrets turned into a smoking crater. Rosalina cursed as she saw the other antagonist threat that she had forgotten about. The woman with the overpowered boots was cackling after plummeting a thousand feet. Morna was also heavily featured in the reports, being a cross between a critical threat and an annoyance. Her boots allowed her to launch devastating attacks after plummeting from high altitude, but the time between attacks was slow enough that they could usually be dodged with forewarning. The wasp-turrets, however, were stationary and perfect targets for the crater-inducing attacks. Rosalina wasn't sure if she was lucky or unlucky that Morna was targeting the turrets instead of the mech factory directly…

Her train of thought was cut off as abruptly as the flamingo circled around the mech factory, still firing gnomes wildly and unexpectedly rocketed straight toward their group. The thralls were chasing behind it, and she caught gleeful expressions on their faces as they launched a barrage of attacks directly at the flamingo, only for it to dodge out of the way and the projectiles to fly straight at Rosalina instead.

She cursed again, even as Carlos yelled next to her, "Instant bunker!"

Sandbags materialized on all sides, and they were immediately enveloped in a bunker blocking the attacks. Yelling into her radio, she commanded, "Switch targets! Kill Solomon, Daryl, and Trank!"

The thralls looked disappointed as the command took control and they abruptly reversed direction, running to their new targets. The brief crisis once again proved that mind-control was not a reliable form of leadership and that the thralls would kill her the second they found a gap in their orders…

The flamingo was staring right at her as it momentarily paused and opened its beak, speaking for the first time.

"Nice radio… Does it let you mind-control people? And if so, judging by the giant skull and spooky atmosphere, does it also happen to control a certain lich?"

Switching perspective~...

***

Gen broke out of the daze of finally meeting the mysterious Rosalina as a flying chainsaw threatened to bisect her. Zooming to the side, she managed to dodge a whole slew of additional attacks from the pack of high-level protagonists chasing her like rabid dogs.

The projectiles flew straight at Carlos and Rosalina, and Gen almost laughed at how uncoordinated the protagonists were when she noticed something strange…

Carlos had predictably summoned his instant bunker, and Gen hid behind it, but the protagonists kept shooting at the bunker as if they preferred carving through their allies instead of just walking around…

From inside the bunker, she heard Rosalina yell, "Switch targets! Kill Solomon, Daryl, and Trank!"

Abruptly, the attacks stopped, and Gen flew just a little higher and saw the pack of protagonists robotically running away while casting hateful glances back their way. Peeking into the bunker, she saw Rosalina holding a jet black radio covered in chains with a giant skull on it.

Making a connection, she couldn't help but say, "Nice radio… Does it let you mind-control people? And if so, judging by the giant skull and spooky atmosphere, does it also happen to control a certain lich?"

Carlos and Rosalina didn't reply, and instead, Carlos had the nerve to pull a shotgun out of his inventory and shoot her.

With a squawk and a few more lost feathers, she resumed firing gnomes at the pair. She wanted to get back to turning the factory into plastic, but her gut told her that everything that had gone wrong in the event was Rosalina's fault, and if she could take her out now…

Her ambitions were immediately thwarted as Carlos began ripping open sandbags from his bunker and tossing the sand around like a madman. Gen was incredibly confused as she saw her gnomes all start prematurely detonating and turning the small cloud of sand into plastic pieces of abstract art.

Halting her gnomes, she just stared at the two of them at a loss for words. Had her only weapon really been negated by fistfuls of sand?? She knew the lack of penetrating power was a weakness, but still, this was ridiculous!

Racking her brain, she mentally searched her inventory for something that could help her and came up empty. She had plenty of guns in there and even quite a few swords, but lacking opposable thumbs or even fingers, she couldn't actually hold or use any weapons.

A giant explosion was heard in the distance, and she turned to see that Morna had destroyed a second one of the giant turrets. She was a little relieved until she took in the rest of the battlefield. Daryl and Trank were both missing, and she abruptly realized five minutes had already elapsed.

Panicked, she looked up at the UFO, who was flying it, if Hon had already disappeared!?

Switching perspective~...

***

Meat Sack Guy watched as people flooded out of the UFO, and he watched from the side, feeling despondent. Terry's betrayal hadn't been entirely unexpected. The man was well-known for being a fraudster, but… Meat sighed again. Procreation tickets weren't usually sold on the open market, and when they were, they were far out of his price range. He'd been trying to get one for years so his wife and he could start a family, but nothing had panned out. This incident with Terry was just another occasion where he'd let his hopes get up only for them to be dashed again.

As a result, he was ruminating, and his heart wasn't really in the event. Regardless of Terry's promises, he'd aided in creating over a hundred special zombies, and he'd thought he'd have a big contribution in the event and maybe even earn a procreation ticket directly, but after the lich's attack and theft of all his hard work, he suspected the whole event was a bust. Why the deathknight had ignored him, he had no idea, but after using the escape pod, he'd wandered around in a daze until he stumbled upon a group of retreating antagonists, and they'd led him to a teleportation gate that'd brought him to the UFO.

Since then, he'd kept to himself and ignored the proceedings. He wasn't alone, as many other actors on board weren't combat specialists or too afraid to go outside just to die to the mech swarms. For the hundredth time, he wondered if he should just hurry up and go earn a handful more points before getting himself killed…

The only thing that made him pause was the UFO's transformation. It had turned to meat for some reason… His name was the result of an attempt to increase his marketability after having a brief period of fame following his first zombie event, but it also reflected the apparent meat theme that LEO had given his abilities.

He could summon sacks of meat, tenderize meat, spread the scent of blood to increase his own perception, and even meld flesh. The last one he'd tried to leverage into a plastic surgery clinic, but he quickly found out that while his ability technically supported the idea, his artistic ability did not…

Wandering the UFO, he enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by wall after wall of meat. It was slightly ruined by the fact that the meat had been tainted by the zombie virus, but it was still a fun experience. In his house, he'd created a meat room before, but after combining his unit with his wife's, she'd disagreed with the aesthetic of a solid wall of marbled steak…

His wandering took him to the bridge quickly enough, and he found himself looking at a frantic man sitting in the pilot chair. The man's name read Hon - Level 1.

"Typical Gen plan! Hon, fly the ship! I'll be back in five minutes! Yeah right! I'm about to disappear, and of course, she's not back! LEO should upgrade her with a built-in watch!"

Meat coughed awkwardly from the side, and Hon's eyes widened as he saw him. Pointing a finger, he exclaimed, "You're meat sack guy!"

Meat couldn't help but chuckle. His time in the limelight had been short-lived, but he occasionally still ran into fans.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"You a fan? I could give you a signature if you want, just don't go selling it… I'm still saving up for a belated honeymoon by selling them myself."

Hon shook his head, "Nope!" He looked somewhat abashed as he corrected himself, "Well, uhhh, I don't dislike you or anything, but I didn't know who you were until my friend Morna kept going on about you! I'll take the signature, though she'll love that!"

Hom looked at his phone and grimaced, "Could you do it quick? I only have thirty seconds… also, do you want to fly a UFO? I might look relaxed, but I'm actually using my ability to fly this thing and uhhh there's a lot of things being shot at us and a swarm of angry mechanical wasps… if you drive around fast enough, most of them get splatted but they keep coming back! Also, hit the button here to drop bombs! There's a lot more with the ability upgrades too, but umm, no offense, you'll probably get blown up before you have time to read them…"

Meat's eyebrows knit together as he tried to take it all in.

"You only have thirty seconds until what?"

Hon glanced at his phone again, "Well, twenty seconds now, but it's until I disappear. I'm an event item, or rather I'm a person, but an event item brought me back, and we'll umm, I'm about to go poof, so unless you could use your meat powers to combine my brain with the ship, you're about to be all by yourself."

Meat hesitated for a second before smiling. His ability might have failed him for his plastic surgery career, but he'd always wanted to try being a brain surgeon!

***

Ten seconds later, Meat was regretting his decisions. Going outside and dying definitely would've been the better choice…

"ORGANIC MATERIAL REQUIRED. SUPPLY MEAT OR BE CONSUMED! GWAARRR"

The garbled voice from above vaguely sounded like the man Hon, whose brain he'd melded to the ship, but it was also crossed with that of a machine and maybe a zombie…

Meat's plan of using flesh meld to combine Hon's brain with the ship had unexpectedly excited Hon instead of freaking him out, the result, however… Meat was sure that whatever was piloting the ship now wasn't the Hon he'd briefly met.

After the combination, the flesh of the ship had started growing and expanding. Meat had heard screaming from elsewhere in the UFO as all the remaining antagonists who hadn't joined the battle below were consumed one by one.

As for himself, he'd been wrapped in tentacles of flesh, and whatever intelligence was now piloting the ship started demanding he summon an endless amount of meat sacks.

Meat sighed as he summoned another bag of random meat. He had no idea what was happening, but it was still better than working for Terry.

Switching perspective~...

***

Gen felt panicked as she watched the antagonist's line of defense start to collapse. Solomon apparently had been hit with the downsizer and was mostly useless, and without his two pals and the mind-controlled protagonists were giving their lives to try and finish him off. The mechs had been off-kilter at the start of the battle, but were now boxing in the dwindling army of attackers, leaving the battle with only one inevitable conclusion.

Desperate for some sort of solution, Gen focused on her receipt paper and summoned two names.

Pali! Aubrey!

Maybe because Carlos was here, she decided to get the band from the original UFO heist back together!

The two looked momentarily confused as they materialized, but quickly oriented themselves. Either Francine or someone else must have prepared them for the possibility that they might randomly be summoned.

Aubrey made a finger gun with her hand and pointed at Carlos, but before she could say the activation word, Carlos's shotgun exploded, killing her instantly. Pali flinched back from the grisly sight and looked bewildered before turning on Gen, "What did you want me to do here!? Crack a joke?"

Before she could respond, Carlos shot again, and Pali also fell dead next to Aubrey.

Rosalina and Carlos both stared at her as if they were expecting her to summon more people, and Gen seriously considered flying away in shame.

Ding!~

Her poll resolved, and she frantically read the description, hoping for some way to reverse the situation.

Wallet Warrior: In a tough fight? Outplayed? Outsmarted? Are you terrible at the game, but want to feel the satisfaction of winning once in your life? Here's the reward for you! Spending 50,000 contribution points greatly empowers your next attack!

Gen cringed at the description, but wasn't about to say no to more options. She had 350,000 contribution points currently, so she could use it seven times before going bankrupt from microtransactions.

Not wanting to waste it on gnome-attack only to be thwarted by sand again, she decided to lean into the "warrior" aspect of the ability name and rocketed herself straight at Rosalina. Spending the contribution points, she felt her whole body swell with power, and she shot like an unstoppable missile as she crashed straight through the bunker and was about to eviscerate Rosalina when Carlos jumped forward, pushing her out of the way.

Carlos instead took the attack directly, and her empowered beak tore through him like butter as she shot straight through him, leaving a giant hole where his stomach used to be. His eyes looked glazed over, and he wobbled before strangely producing a white flag and waving it.

With a swish of the flag, both he and Rosalina disappeared, leaving her alone in the half-destroyed bunker.

Whirling around with her rocket boots, she tried to figure out where they had gone and came up empty. Cursing, she refocused as she tried to decide if she should target the mech factory again or go save Solomon before deciding on saving the cranky old man. This wasn't the final battle yet, and if all her allies died, then she'd never destroy the nine additional zones needed for an antagonist victory.

Rocketing toward him, she fired gnomes one after another, turning mechs into giant action figures and even taking out the chainsaw summoning protagonist with a particularly sneaky gnome. The situation was incredibly grim, however, as there were still almost a hundred mechs remaining, and the antagonists were boxed in like lambs to the slaughter as they tried to use shields and abilities to last just a few seconds longer.

Trying to take in the whole situation and plan how best to use her remaining contribution points, she realized a horrifying fact. The UFO was gone! It had disappeared from above at some point using its superspeed, and they'd all been left for dead! The only logical conclusion was that after Hon's timer had expired, someone had hijacked her UFO! The irony of having the same thing happen to her that she had once done to Solomon wasn't lost on her, but she was in no mood to appreciate it as she desperately tried to reevaluate the situation.

They were outnumbered and outgunned, and as cool as her new ability was, it could only be used a handful of times. She needed something big, some sort of game-changing explosive ability that could reverse the situation.

Her eyes drifted to one of the few remaining bedazzled fusioncrack zombies, and she knew what she had to do. Rushing toward it, she retrieved her infection blowgun from her inventory and gripped it in her beak. Slapping it against the zombie, she sampled it, causing one more switch to appear on the overloaded weapon.

Immediately, she could tell her instincts had been right about the item's limit as the glitchy thing started to heat up and vibrate in her mouth. Rushing into the sky, she flew above the mech factory and used Wallet Warrior four times in quick succession. Losing 200,000 contribution points was painful, but she didn't regret it as three gnomes the size of cars shot out one after another and crashed into the factory, turning the whole ceiling into plastic. For the final usage, she targeted the blowgun itself, causing its meltdown to intensify exponentially.

Fearing for her life, she dropped the blowgun straight down to the factory. Arcs of purple lightning shot out in all directions as it fell, and she rocketed higher and higher, determined to escape the blast radius. The nuclear reaction continued to grow, and it honestly hurt her plastic eyes to even look at it. The chaotic battlefield paused as all eyes turned to behold the lightshow just in time for the entire thing to implode.

Lightning, energy, the howls of the damned, a symphony of chaos enveloped not only the mech factory, but a huge radius around it as everything was directly consumed and distorted. She was reminded of the glitchy zones outside of the city where LEO didn't bother to maintain reality, and she knew in her gut that if she kept looking at it for much longer, she would go insane.

Then, just as quickly, it was like someone had cut away the entire scene from existence and replaced it with a giant crater and ten thousand zombies. She wanted to call them fusioncrack zombies, but they seemed even more deadly. For one, they were bedazzled, and for two, they seemed to contain a hint of the chaotic unreality she'd glimpsed from the dimensional tear she'd inadvertently created.

She cursed immediately as she realized shooting the giant plastic gnomes had likely wasted 150,000 contribution points. The explosion had been far more massive and deadly than she could have predicted, and absolutely nothing remained of the mech factory, as well as everyone else in the area.

Between the mech factory destruction, killing so many protagonists, her contribution points had shot up to over 500,000, even after factoring in accidentally killing several hundred allies, including Solomon. Her receipt item whirred in overdrive as hundreds more names were added to the list.

Predictably, LEO's voice rang out in her mind, "Do I really need to even say anything? Once again, you are alive… and all those arguably nicer people down there are dead. Congratulations are in order, though, for the magnitude of this potential fiasco though as your little stunt could've impacted a section of my reality bigger than the Spotlight city itself and killed every single person in the city. Best case, another AI might have swooped in and imprisoned you all, but most likely your souls would've been lost to the void for all eternity! Lucky for you, I know exactly what type of spunky little troublemaker you are, and I have been giving you a special level of attention ever since you created that little pipe bomb of yours… Anyway, I'll let you know that as a result of your leadership, including your own disastrous self, only four antagonists are left in the event, and… let me see here, it looks like there's 170,000 protagonists left… so good luck with that! Here's your reward!"

Gen sighed while she watched the fusioncrack zombie below start to disperse. She really wanted to blame the fact that things kept going sideways on the fact that she was newly generated, but she had a feeling people wouldn't be so understanding.

"Gen! Since when did you have such a kick ass bomb!?"

Gen sqawked as she about jumped out of her skin and lost a dozen feathers as she turned to see Morna hovering behind her with an excited expression.

Relieved, Gen said, "You're alive? I thought I got everybody killed!"

"Pfff! As if Gen! It would be anticlimactic if I died from something like that! I was high in the sky, prepping for another crater smash!"

"Why would it being anticlimatic matter… Everybody who died down there probably was hoping for a different conclusion as well."

Morna laughed, "It's because I'm the main character, obviously! LEO can't let me die or my viewers would be devastated!"

Before Gen could respond, Morna continued, "Enough about that! Did you tear a hole in reality!??? I've heard about those! Apparently, the void is out there, and you'll go insane just looking at it! The hole was small, so I couldn't see much, but it definitely tickled my brain! Can you do it again!?"

Gen laughed despite the situation, "I can't do it again, and it didn't feel like a tickle to me… Tell me more about the void later, but for now, help me figure out where the hell the UFO went and how we're supposed to fight almost 200,000 protagonists with only you, me, and two other mystery antagonists. With only four hours left in the event..."

Switching perspective~...

***

Rosalina cursed as Carlos died next to her. With a giant hole in his stomach, there really wasn't any other outcome, but it still hurt to see. Collecting herself, she looked around and saw she was in another smaller headquarters that was close to the mech factory's location. Around her, several actors were speaking excitedly and trying to ask her questions.

Carlos had explained his ability to her previously, so she understood the situation. He could teleport away from any area and appear at the closest safe allied location along with any adjacent allies. He'd used it once before to escape the failed initial UFO attack, and she'd hoped he wouldn't have to use it again.

"Take care of his body, treat it respectfully. Someone get me in contact with the mech factory. I need updates on the situation!"

As actors scrambled to follow orders, she climbed a staircase up to the wall and looked into the distance to where the mech factory was. She couldn't sense much from this distance other than occasional flashes of light against the cloud line and the distant echoes of explosions.

That all changed as the entire area on the horizon collapsed in on itself, and her eyes locked wide open as a tear in space itself was carved open, and she felt something staring back at her. An instant later, it was gone, and she shuddered, feeling ill. She wasn't alone as dozens of actors along the wall vomited and let out panicked screams.

She had no idea what had just happened, but obviously, the mech factory was at the epicenter, and whatever it was was bad news. Collecting herself, she started issuing orders, "Everyone, stay calm! There are four hours left in the event, and we still have 28 living zones! I want every headquarters on high alert and mechs at the ready! Wherever the antagonists target, we must hold our ground at all costs! I want every base to know that every minute they buy us is a minute the antagonists cannot afford to lose!"

The pale protagonists seemed to collect themselves at those words, and a cheer went up as Rosalina pulled out her phone and started sending messages to reconnect the chain of command. Whatever had happened to the mech factory was outside her expectations, but she had planned ahead for something catastrophic.

Aside from Carlos and herself, the rest of the command structure and her think tank were dispersed as much as possible throughout the remaining zones. Her goal wasn't to get contribution points directly, but by effectively leading the protagonists to victory. With her plans, even if she were to be assassinated, she should still get credit for the winning situation she left behind.

There were 28 remaining zones that each had roughly six headquarters, with each one having a bunker of NPCs beneath it. Defending them, she had evenly divided one thousand protagonists and one hundred P-series mechs to each one. They had fewer S and A series mechs, but she prioritized routing them evenly between the defense points now that the trawler was taken care of.

They just had to hold tight and lose less than two zones per hour, and they'd win this! With an afterthought, she made the grim decision to start asking for volunteers to distract the lich.

They'd lost the ability to make reconnaissance mechs as well as all their thralls, so the lich distraction plan was in jeopardy. They'd have to sacrifice some people, but it was worth it to prevent screwing up at the last minute.

Ding~!

LEO's voice entered her mind, and she immediately focused on it.

"Rosalina, have I ever told you how much I appreciate your sensible attitude? I deal with a lot of… let's say mentally unhinged individuals, and so it's refreshing to work with someone who just tries to do things the obvious way for once! Anyway! Here's your reward!"

Switching perspective~...

***

Nissa watched as her deathknight and his giant iguana friends munched on the undead food she had summoned. The zombie iguanas at least still had tongues so she could understand how they were eating, but her deathknight was literally a skeleton! The food fell straight out of his ribcage after every bite, and he was positively covered in the mess!

Regardless, he somehow seemed able to taste it as his voice was full of pleasure as he savored the flavor. "Undead cooking is truly a marvel. It's similar to fermentation, but paradoxically more alive…"

The giant iguanas around him nodded in agreement as they tore into their own piles, and Jasper took another bite while Nissa was growing impatient to the side.

"I've given you the food now, tell me your plan before the geas distracts me again!"

Jasper was holding her grimoire on the table, idly flipping pages as he took another bite. Turning to look at her, he said, "If you want to lead, you'll first need to learn to follow."

The energy in her eye sockets flared with annoyance, but she saw he was pointing a skeletal finger at one spell in the book in particular.

Entrust Soul: Give your soul to another sapient being.

Nissa hissed, "You expect me to give you my soul!? I am not fool enough to put myself at your mercy."

Jasper took another bite and trimmed his fingers on the table, "Before rejecting my proposal, let me ask you, where is your soul currently located?"

Nissa was caught off guard and tried to read through her character background as she didn't remember that particular detail being listed…

Before she could recall, Jasper flipped back to the front of the book and said, "In this very interesting tome, it has an introduction to liches and a brief summary of how they derive their power. I took the liberty of reading this in detail, and it insists that as a lich, you should possess a phylactery that houses your soul. This separation makes you vulnerable, but also gives you power. As you do not actually possess the phylactery, then the only conclusion is that it is in possession of your summoner, this Rosalina…"

Nissa internally cursed as she realized she'd overlooked such a critical detail. She'd been so focused on trying to find useful spells that she hadn't even read the introduction section… if Rosalina had her soul already, then she could be killed at any time without knowing what happened…

"If she has my soul, then how could I entrust it to you?"

Jasper gave a wicked smile, "Well, the book indicates liches are masters of soul manipulation, especially their own. Normally, this is limited to close proximity, but with the spell of entrusting, the distance is irrelevant as long as the soul isn't locked in place by the necessary binding runes. Now there's no saying that Rosalina hasn't done this, but I suspect she has neither the skill nor knowledge necessary for the task."

Nissa started to feel excited as everything clicked together. She hadn't questioned how Rosalina was enforcing the geas on her and assumed it was just some arbitrary rule created by LEO, but if the woman had her "soul" for the purposes of this scenario, then…

She inspected her deathknight. He was dangerously clever and close to overshadowing her presence with this plan. Magically taking the grimoire from him, she double checked everything he said, and it appeared accurate. The workaround was obvious, if she entrusted her soul to him, then it would bring it into range, and then she could directly snatch it back!

Killing him in the process was poor thanks for his ingenuity, but she was roleplaying as an evil lich, and it would be a suitable punishment for his insolence.

Not giving him time to react, she immediately enacted the entrustment spell and felt her soul fly across a hundred miles in a second before settling in Jasper's chest. In the same moment, the geas on her collapsed, freeing her from its compulsion.

Once it was in range, she could physically feel its presence and mentally directed it to return to her before Jasper could issue any orders.

Her soul crashed into his ribcage and failed to exit as the deathknight's bones flared, revealing a complex network of runes drawn from the messy bits of food he had dribbled all over himself.

Sensing the danger, Nissa gathered her magic and tried to cut off his undead life, but she felt her magic collapse as he held up a hand and said, "Now, Nissa… Why don't you pause a moment and listen? As I told you, learning to follow another's lead is essential to becoming a good teammate and growing to lead yourself."

Nissa edged back, trying to resist even as she felt a new geas starting to settle onto her.

Stammering, she demanded, "How did you do this!?"

Jasper picked up the grimoire that had fallen on the ground and neatly closed it before placing it back on the table.

"As I said, the soul cannot be contained unless the proper binding runes are inscribed. Rosalina doubtlessly had no access to learn the proper ritual, but this book you so helpfully provided was quite detailed in the process."

She had no response, and Jasper turned to his brethren and said, "Now that things here are in their proper order, we have work to do. Gen has been left to her own devices for almost a whole day, and I shudder to think what sort of unsalvageable situation she has created."