Online Game: I Started with Max Charisma and Caught the Goddess's Eye

At this moment, another series of raindrops fell on his face.

Cornbark licked one of them. It had a bit of a metallic taste, and something about it felt off. What was that strange flavor?

Instinctively, he looked up, and his expression changed immediately. There, hovering in the sky, was a giant magical eagle that had somehow appeared without him noticing.

He quickly pushed the recent events out of his mind and shouted angrily to the soldiers behind him, "There’s a monster in the sky! Shoot it down!"

Some of the soldiers stationed at the rear raised their rifles in response and were about to fire at the magical eagle. But just as they were about to pull the trigger, they suddenly heard Cornbark call out, "Wait, something’s not right."

Furrowing his brow, he gazed at the slowly descending monster in the sky, vaguely seeing a few large words formed by what appeared to be ice crystal chains hanging beneath it.

"Don’t shoot! It’s one of us!" Cornbark read aloud, and the entire group froze in place, stunned and unable to process what had just been said. What was going on? Had monsters evolved to the point where they could speak human language? Stay updated through NovelBin.Côm

But soon, he snapped out of his confusion, and a smile spread across his face.

It was reinforcements!

However, his joy was short-lived. As he considered the situation, his smile quickly turned into a sigh.

Even if a few more Morning Star teams showed up, what difference would it make now?

By this time, the magical eagle had already arrived directly above him, drawing the attention of many soldiers. A number of them had already seen the words earlier, so they didn’t shoot.

Now, up close, many people were able to spot Luca and the others, and their faces lit up with surprise.

This was the first time they’d ever seen people who could control monsters.

It wasn’t just the soldiers who were surprised; even the monsters seemed confused. They watched the magical eagle fly calmly into the defensive line, unable to understand why no one had shot at it during its descent.

Whoosh, whoosh!

The magical eagle gently landed on the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust. Once it touched down, it settled quietly, crouching low.

Luca and his group dismounted from the eagle’s back. Drumph and a few others, who were more mentally composed, managed alright, though their legs were a little wobbly.

But Tuwnken, Timi, and Fuzzsir, the three of them, collapsed to the ground as soon as they stepped off the eagle’s back. Tuwnken’s face turned ashen, drained of color, and he lay on the ground, his gaze unfocused. Tears involuntarily slid down his cheeks.

Heaven knows the mental torment Cornbark endured in those brief minutes, watching the monsters in the sky and on the ground. Surviving it, he was so overwhelmed with emotion he almost wanted to burst into tears.

"I told you I’d need to pee…" Fuzzsir pointed to the wet spot on his leg, his face showing a smug expression, though it was unclear what exactly he was so proud of.

Pee? Cornbark was about to step forward to greet them when he heard Fuzzsir’s words. His expression froze, and his pupils suddenly contracted as a terrifying thought crossed his mind.

His face twitched as he struggled to ask, "W-When did you… pee?"

"Just now, didn’t you see it? It was like rain," Fuzzsir glanced at him, his tone odd. "But why would you care? You’re not a freak like me, are you?"

At this point, Cornbark didn’t know what to say. His chest was heaving, emotions swirling within him, exploding, and finally calming down again.

He took a deep breath and said flatly, "It’s nothing, just curiosity. Did you come here for something specific, or did Drumph send you with a message for me?"

"No, we’re just here to offer support," Quagmire and the others noticed that the Major seemed a bit off, but since it was their first time meeting him, they didn’t want to ask what was wrong.

Luca, whose mind tended to wander, considered a possible reason. After carefully observing Cornbark, his expression shifted to something strange, tinged with a hint of pity.

What a poor guy.

"In this kind of battlefield, your role is limited. Stay in the rear, don’t go to the front lines," Cornbark said expressionlessly before turning and walking away, disappearing quickly into a narrow alley.

Donlow frowned. "This guy’s got no manners. We came all the way here to support them, and he couldn’t even be bothered to greet us properly. He just tossed us aside like that."

Quagmire felt a bit dissatisfied as well. After all, they had come here risking their lives, and even though there were fewer of them, Cornbark shouldn’t have treated them like this.

"Maybe the pressure of the battlefield’s getting to him. We should understand," Luca said, unusually defending someone.

In his eyes, Cornbark was definitely a man with a good temperament. If it were him in Cornbark’s shoes, Luca couldn’t even imagine the kind of things he’d do under that kind of stress.

Though they were somewhat upset with Cornbark, the group’s purpose wasn’t to dwell on that. @@novelbin@@

They had already discussed their plan on the way here. The main goal was to help out—see if they could figure out a way to get more people out of here. The fewer lives lost, the better. So, they weren’t planning on going to the front lines.

Cornbark’s arrangement suited them perfectly, so Luca and the others didn’t say much more. They followed the soldier who led them to the farthest point of the front line, which had been temporarily designated as a safe zone.

Luca had originally planned to help the young girl find her family, but after a moment’s thought, he pushed the idea aside. Searching for people would be too time-consuming, and right now, what they needed most was time.

They hadn’t walked for long before they arrived.

This was an area that had only just begun construction, a foundation awaiting development, with steel and concrete scattered everywhere. The entire area was packed with people—men, women, and children. Looking out over the crowd, it was clear that there were no fewer than a hundred thousand.

Although Leaf City’s situation was dire and the front line was on the brink of collapse, one thing the Northern Territory Army had done well was gathering the civilians as quickly as possible. They had done everything they could to bring everyone together, ensuring that a portion of the population would survive. Thanks to this effort, despite the monster horde assault, there were still so many people left in Leaf City.

However, the large gathering of people had the opposite effect as well: it attracted the monsters. The horde grew even larger, and breaking the situation became harder by the minute.

As Luca and the others arrived, the expressions of the people varied, but the concern on their faces was nearly identical. They had all seen the changes on the battlefield with their own eyes.

A woman stepped forward, worry etched on her face. "Sir, my child and husband are still in the city. I don’t know if you can help me find them."

An elderly man nearby also asked, "My grandson went missing during the monster attack. We haven’t found him yet."

A young man, desperation in his voice, asked, "Sir, do we still have a chance of surviving and getting out of here?"

...

In response to each civilian’s questions, Quagmire and the others fell silent.

Whether it was about finding people or being able to lead them out, they had no certainty, and so they couldn’t make any promises.

Gradually, it seemed that the citizens began to sense something, and they stopped asking. Yet, the worry on their faces slowly morphed into despair. The light in their eyes began to fade.

"I can’t help with finding anyone, but I can promise you this: I will get every single one of you out of here safely." At that moment, Luca suddenly spoke up.

Immediately, all eyes were drawn to Luca, and Quagmire and the others stared at him in surprise.

"Is that true? Can you really get us out of here?" a middle-aged man asked, his voice filled with excitement.

It wasn’t just him—others began to gather around as well, each of them looking at Luca with hopeful eyes.

Their faces were filled with a deep, heartfelt excitement, the kind you get when you see a glimmer of hope. It was like seeing light in the darkness—though they couldn’t yet reach it, they could already feel a sense of peace, warmth, and strength.

Luca looked at them with firm determination. "Yes, I can assure you, I will get all of you out of here. But you have to cooperate with us."

His words carried such certainty that it wasn’t something put on for show—it was genuine. This gave the people present a sense of excitement. They quickly nodded in agreement, promising to cooperate.

As they finished with the civilians and headed back to the military camp, Quagmire couldn’t hold back and asked, "Do you really have a way to get them out?"

The others also looked at Luca with curiosity, eager to know what plan he had come up with.

However, to their surprise, Luca shook his head without hesitation. "I don’t have a plan."

"You don’t have a plan, yet you said all that to them?" Quagmire was confused.

Donlow, who understood Luca’s reasoning, spoke up. "It’s about hope. If you don’t give them hope, the civilians will start to panic."

"Even if there is a way to get them out later, it’ll be impossible if they’re all in chaos."

Donlow’s words struck a chord. Luca smiled and added, "Donlow’s right. When people are at their lowest, they need hope. Without hope, they won’t have the strength to overcome despair."

"More importantly, it keeps them obedient. If there’s a riot later, even if we don’t intervene, they’ll calm down on their own. That way, we can manage things more easily."

There were some things Luca didn’t say out loud—like the fact that he didn’t yet have a concrete plan to save everyone, but he had a vague idea forming.

But this idea required the cooperation of all the civilians. Without it, things could go wrong.

Not everyone understood that, though—after all, not everyone had experienced true despair.

It was Timi, of all people, who nodded in agreement. "Mr. Luca is right. When you’re at your lowest, you need hope to survive. If it weren’t for the encouragement I got from the hospital and the orphanage director when I was younger—telling me that my illness could be treated—I probably would have killed myself long ago. I wouldn’t have made it this far."

Quagmire sighed. "The problem is, hope is just hope. How do we turn hope into reality?"