The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 7 The Story of Renault

Roland looked at Renault and sighed. He actually felt that Renault was a really pitiful person. He carried everything on his shoulders, but still couldn't stop the empire from falling, and even accelerated its demise...

The Lord of the Rings was originally an open-world game where any action by any player could potentially alter the main storyline, and Reno's story begins from there...

Initially, as a dispensable NPC, Renault arrived in the North with a warrant from the Lagrange Royal Guard Paladins to scout the movements of orcs, half-orcs, and other evil factions. His weakness at the time was noticed by player lords, instantly igniting their enthusiasm. A lone Lagrange Royal Guard Paladin! It meant they could cultivate his favor, they could recruit him! As a result, Renault's scouting mission was completed by a large number of fanatical lords. Influenced by the players, Renault, who should have returned to report, remained in the North. A large number of players hoping to recruit Lagrange Royal Guard Paladins trekked across the land and gathered in the North. Under the AI's algorithm, Renault began issuing quests… and thus, a new main storyline was created by the players! By the time the players realized what had happened, Renault had become the Governor of the North. Good heavens, forget recruiting, even getting an audience with superiors was a feat!

That's still relatively mild. The most outrageous part is that players completed a massive number of quests to boost their reputation with Reno, granting him an enormous amount of prestige. Do you know how terrifying Reno's prestige is? Imagine how much prestige hundreds of thousands of Northern players generated for him. Someone compared it to the previous highest prestige holder, Emperor Gary Cal of the Lagrange Empire, who had 3 million prestige points. Reno? 7 million… The emperor was so intimidated that he even offered him the title of King of the North. However, Reno didn't accept the crown of King of the North; instead, he took the position of Governor-General of the North, ruling over all affairs of the North. And that's when the tragedy began…

Renault, leading an army of millions of players, attacked the orc fortress of Gandalf, only to be besieged by various orc tribes and evil creatures in the Misty Mountains. The battle was fierce and lasted for half a month, ultimately ending in the defeat of the player alliance. Many armies of the northern lords were wiped out, leaving the north virtually undefended, except for a few hundred thousand NPC troops. This battle was officially named "The Twilight of the Empire" by the game developers and recorded in the game's chronicle. At its peak, the Lagrange Empire occupied almost all of Rune and most of Lovanian. Due to the impact of the Battle of the Twilight of the Empire, [the text abruptly ends here]. The counterattack by the evil forces in the Misty Mountains and the Northern Wastes led to the fall of Lovanian. The entire Lovanian region, except for the Elven Woodlands, the Dwarven Downhills, the human Valley and Laketown, and Streamstream, where the Governor-General of the North was located, fell. All communication between the Lagrange Empire and the outside world was severed. Rohan and Gondor in the south, and Arnor in the north, were unable to provide support. Caught between the evil forces of Mordor and the northern region of Floughridge, the Lagrange Empire was destroyed. Only the area north of the Rune Sea survived; the entire nation was utterly ravaged…

Renault didn't give up. He actively rallied an alliance of NPCs and players, and to the astonishment of the world, he stormed south. There, he encountered an orcish alliance in Greenleaf Forest (formerly the Dark Forest). Surprised, both sides immediately drew their weapons and exchanged friendly greetings. Unexpectedly, the number of participants surged, with not only human and NPC players joining the battle, but also elf, dwarf, and orc players! The entire Greenleaf Forest was engulfed in flames. Countless lords' territories were destroyed, and countless soldiers perished. Finally, the war ended with Renault's successful capture of Dorgul, marking a victory for the human alliance. Now, the Kingdom of Lagrang (no longer worthy of being called an empire, its size smaller than a single state) could finally reconnect with the human family. After all, constantly using teleportation arrays wasn't sustainable. Now, it directly bordered the Golden Forest and Gondor.

Logically, the matter should have been over, and now it was time to gather strength and reclaim territory. But! Is Raynor still Raynor if he doesn't stir up trouble? That's not Raynor's style! As a result, Raynor's glorious third war—the Battle of the Pass—began, a battle recorded in the game's chronicle. What happened? Well, after Raynor returned, he realized that constantly traveling south to contact other kingdoms wasn't a sustainable strategy. So he looked for a breakthrough in the west, and after some searching, hey! He actually found one! The Old Pass in the Misty Mountains! He sent people to contact Rivendell, gathered a large army, and launched a feigned attack south, while he and the elves attacked from both sides and captured the Old Pass. Everything was fine, right? But! Greenleaf Forest suffered again! Countless lords were ravaged, and the entire Greenleaf Forest was in chaos. Dwarves and orcs in the north, elves, humans, and orcs in the south, Lagrange knights in the east, elven rangers in the west… the entire Greenleaf Forest was in utter chaos!
After everyone finally calmed down and had a couple of peaceful days at home, Lei Ye got upset again. He took a look and exclaimed, "Wow! The orcs in the north are a bit empty!" He conspired with the Woodland Kingdom to bring in the dwarves of Lonely Mountain and the humans of the Valley Kingdom below, and another War of the Five Armies was waged, which was recorded in the annals of history and is known as the Second War of the Five Armies.

It's absolutely outrageous! Under Renault's leadership, the Lagrange Empire became a kingdom, the Golden Forest elves were severely weakened, the human player lords of Greenleaf Forest had their territories practically ravaged three times over, the evil faction in the Misty Mountains was driven to despair, and the orc kingdoms and orc players in the north were utterly defeated. Why? During the Second War of the Five Armies, Renault launched another sneak attack. He showed no sportsmanship; he actually raided the orcs' stronghold, Gangaba Fortress… and even conveniently borrowed the orc king's head, though he politely left his body behind—after all, you can't borrow too much. Following the principle of "a loan returned is a loan easily obtained again," Renault thoughtfully charged out from behind the orcs while everyone was engrossed in their battle—well… he led a knightly order of tens of thousands—and then casually "returned" the orc king's head back into the orc army's ranks. The orcs then fled in terror, and Renault led his army in pursuit…

Anyway, before Roland transmigrated, Lord Lei was still preparing for war, as if he was going to hold another big event. Now that Renault has also transmigrated, Roland just hopes that they won't hold another big event for him. He only has this many troops left and can't afford to cause any trouble. Back in the game, when Roland was still a viscount, he only had about two thousand men under his command. After a great battle in Green Leaf Forest... his territory was all taken away.

"Hopefully, tomorrow will be better." Roland sighed quietly as he looked at the sunset.

(End of this chapter)