Life Reset: Conquest recap

Oren returns to Neo determined to rescue its trapped players and builds GreenPiece into a portal-linked regional power. He clears Ogre Fort, infiltrates and takes Akzar, and defeats Sir Lanceington's larger army at Woodhaven. Ragnar is captured, changed into a low-level monster, and forced into GreenPiece's respawn system before becoming a guarded, unreliable collaborator. His translation of a Celestial tablet points to a divine cord that may connect Neo to the high beings' realm. GreenPiece then captures White Banner and Storg, while Goblin's Gorge reaches level 5 and Oren becomes the Shadow Lord. The victories do not provide enough troops to assault Everence. After David Tenenbaum is identified inside the city's hidden prison, Everence bans monsters and strengthens its defenses. Oren evacuates Raystia's Mob Squad but stays in the hostile capital alone, intending to free David and pursue the divine cord.

Previously: Oren led GreenPiece's monster forces through a widening campaign. He seized a kobold clan that held human prisoners, defeated an Outrider, stopped a demonic plague plan connected to Akzar, and expanded his territory. GreenPiece's status as a military capital means each captured settlement adds to its strength, turning conquest into the basis for further growth. The clan's army ended the previous campaign holding Novenguard and waiting for Oren to return. His companion Vic, also known as Virial, was restored to service in a golem body. The victory came with a permanent loss: Ragnar, the player called the Agent of Light, destroyed Bob's soul. Oren also remains bound to the dark deity Nihilator, whose faith powers GreenPiece but imposes dangerous obligations. His continuing task is larger than territorial expansion: human players remain trapped in Neo, and the outside authorities cannot simply identify or remove every threat to them in time.

Oren is medically cleared to re-enter Neo under continued observation. He returns to Novenguard, accepts that Guy's prophecy may make him necessary to rescue the trapped players, and sets Everence as GreenPiece's long-term objective. The army first needs a secure route, more food, and additional settlements. Oren develops Goblin's Gorge, recruits new officers and mages, and creates portal points at Nihilator's altars. The deity activates them only after taking years of life from the assembled believers, aging Tika and many others, while Lirian appears unaffected. The first link connects Goblin's Gorge and Novenguard. Meanwhile, Raystia's impoverished Mob Squad performs degrading municipal work in hopes of gaining permission to establish a temple. At Ogre Fort, Oren clears an infernal scorpion nest and kills its queen, gaining a Race Change scroll that Shiva prevents him from deleting. He can now settle the fort, but scouts report a much larger human force approaching GreenPiece's territory. Oren responds by preparing a covert seizure of Akzar for its soldiers and viridium.

With an invasion only days away, Oren sends eight upgraded kobold assassins through Akzar's wards using a portal granted by Nihilator. The price is a binding demand that all eight be sacrificed within four days. Lirian secretly follows them into the city, forcing Oren to keep her inside the operation. He uses an arena challenge as cover while his shadow clone directs attacks on Akzar's commanders. The plan nearly fails, but the commanders, head shaman, and mayor are killed. Oren chooses control instead of destruction, making Akzar a GreenPiece vassal and gaining its troops, resources, and elite fighters, including Broncar and Bonecruncher. Before the Woodhaven battle, Kuzai kills the eight kobolds to fulfill the demanded sacrifice. Oren prevents Nihilator from taking their souls and binds them into Swarm, an unstable viridium golem whose fused minds agree to fight for him. Akzar's three commander rings combine into an overlord ring. GreenPiece enters the coming battle reinforced, but the human army led by Sir Lanceington still has the numerical advantage.

Oren entrusts Akzar's completed overlord ring to Saval before Sir Lanceington attacks Woodhaven with nearly six thousand troops and support from Ragnar. Oren destroys the enemy catapults, imposes Eternal Night over the settlement, and opens a portal behind the invaders so GreenPiece can attack from both sides. The enemy breaches the defenses, and Bonecruncher is killed fighting its knights, but Swarm, Broncar, Aidanriel, Lirian, and GreenPiece's other forces reverse the assault. Lanceington escapes with his lieutenants while the remaining invasion force is destroyed. Ragnar is captured alive. When he refuses cooperation, Oren uses the Race Change scroll to turn him from a dwarf into a low-level monster and binds him to GreenPiece's resurrection system. The victory costs the clan roughly half its army, and Oren authorizes an expensive mass resurrection. Outside Neo, his accelerated experience and response to trauma concern the company monitoring him. In Everence, Raystia's Mob Squad completes its Nihilator church, then faces arrest because the permit does not allow an evil cult. Raystia finds a rule requiring recognition at two hundred believers and races to meet that threshold before the guards return.

Ragnar discovers that his new monster body excludes him from human society. Hildiel, the God of Light who once supported him, refuses to restore him and drives him from her temple. After White Banner's civilians kill him, he respawns under GreenPiece's control. Oren offers guarded coexistence and receives Ragnar's translation of a Celestial tablet. It describes a hidden divine cord between Neo and the high beings' realm and says an enlightened traveler may be able to locate it. Oren sees this as a possible route to breaking the VIs' hold, with Lirian somehow important to the problem. GreenPiece rebuilds and prepares a paired operation: Sullivan's army will attack Storg while Oren's small party infiltrates White Banner. They find White Banner devastated by Nihilator, its leaders gone and its temple corrupted. Oren ends the surviving priest Quentin's torment by sacrificing him, converts the temple, and clears the lethal fog. Ragnar then kills a civilian during Oren's attempt to calm the population, and Oren takes White Banner by force. The town becomes a vassal.

Oren admits the two freed players to GreenPiece and sends them to Goblin's Gorge. There he removes a murderous senior priest from authority, promotes Beck to oversee the cathedral, raises Goblin's Gorge to level 5, and becomes the tier-4 Shadow Lord. At Storg, magical elementals have stopped Sullivan's army. Oren infiltrates the town and destroys the ritual sustaining them, but its high magus nearly kills him. Lirian disobeys his safety order, saves him, and helps him escape. With the elementals gone, GreenPiece takes Storg and secures southern Everence, although it still lacks the army needed to assault the capital. Oren orders consolidation of portals, trade, weapons, food, and troops. He then learns that David Tenenbaum, the first player trapped in Neo, is held in Everence's hidden prison and may be able to locate the divine cord. Everence reacts to GreenPiece's victories by banning monsters and strengthening patrols and interrogations. Oren evacuates Raystia, Riley, Fox, and Misa to Goblin's Gorge, but remains alone inside the hostile city as the Shadow Lord. David is still imprisoned, Ragnar remains unstable, Lirian's nature is unresolved, and Oren's dangerous real-world neural readings continue under observation.

GreenPiece ends the campaign in control of Akzar, White Banner, Storg, and the southern approaches to Everence. Goblin's Gorge is a level-5 city, Oren is the tier-4 Shadow Lord, and Sullivan recommends consolidating portals, trade, food, and troop strength before attacking the capital. Raystia, Riley, Fox, and Misa have established a Nihilator congregation inside Everence, but Oren evacuates them to Goblin's Gorge after the city bans monsters and intensifies its searches. He remains behind alone despite the danger and his continuing unsafe brainwave episodes outside Neo. David Tenenbaum, the first trapped player, is still held in Everence's hidden prison and can observe remotely and levitate. Oren now intends to free him, hoping David can help locate the divine cord and advance the larger rescue. Ragnar remains a volatile, monitored GreenPiece member after Hildiel's rejection. Lirian's nature and Fate Stealer remain unexplained, while Nihilator's costly demands and vast conversion goal continue to shape GreenPiece's future.