Chapter 157

”…”

I stood there blankly for a moment. In such situations, my mind usually went numb.

“Your Majesty?”

The voice of Flower calling me brought me back to reality, and I turned around. Despite being in a daze, my extraordinary perception allowed me to instantly assess her posture, eye angle, and hand positioning.

It dawned on me immediately.

‘Has time…stopped in Ardenia?’

As soon as I confirmed this, I spoke:

“Log out.”

Upon returning to Earth, I checked the time and was taken aback.

”…Time hasn’t moved here either?”

Ardenia operates on its own independent timeline, with me serving as the pivotal point. When I enter Ardenia, its time accelerates almost infinitely. Conversely, when I leave for Earth, time in Ardenia comes to a halt.

However, when I was pulled into Merlin’s Dark Star from Ardenia, time stopped again in Ardenia.

‘Wait, hold on.’

In reality, only one second had passed despite living for 20 years in Ardenia. It wasn’t that real-world time stopped; it was because Ardenia’s time accelerated infinitely. Then how could events from ‘another timeline’ intrude upon this infinitely accelerated time?

‘Doesn’t this create a contradiction? It doesn’t make sense?’

I became momentarily confused as there was no way to explain the timeline. Without some subjective standard… …

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, sorry. I have something to think about for a moment. Please tidy up here while I’m gone. I’ll be back by dinner.”

“Take care on your journey.”

“Yes. Come forth, Kasim.”

Pop!

As soon as Kasim appeared in mid-air, I climbed onto his back, and he soared towards the sky. Heading northeast, I recalled the world where I met Merlin.

“Well, it was indeed a unique world.”

I only had a brief glimpse, but it wasn’t difficult to guess what kind of world it was. It was a place where card games determined everything.

“What kind of police arrest people through a card game…?”

Even mages like Merlin seemed bound by this rule, suggesting other methods were prohibited.

It was similar to how my charging power became negative when I bluffed with diamonds.

“In many ways, he is unlucky.”

When Merlin was designated as one of ‘her’ apostles, he lost his mana perception ability but solved it himself by evening. Considering that four great mages spent enormous resources and a week just to treat me, it showed how incredibly powerful Merlin’s magic was.

“Still, I didn’t expect him to suffer like this.”

Out of the 12 players designated as her apostles, nine had died, leaving only three of us remaining. Many more people died than those who adapted after being dragged into the game!

What did this imply?

‘Dying means actual death.’

In games, dying and respawning was common. Take Revenge, for instance; it was possible to die dozens of times per day. And what about package games? In roguelike or Souls-like games, death is inherent to gameplay progression. If mana were forbidden in such games, players would inevitably perish.

But how about Merlin?

“He probably relished the challenge.”

With his abilities, he could have crushed any game thrown at him. Even if the premise revolved around facing death, he had the skills to overcome it with ease while smiling.

However, the game he entered was a card-based one.

One could argue that he got what he deserved for creating such a game, but who would design something with the intention of entering it themselves?

“On the other hand, the guy squashed by the hammer is quite lucky.”

In AOS games, players can die countless times, but if they persist and avoid death, they can endure indefinitely.

Yes, it’s simple: Just stay at your base.

Of course, in a five-versus-five match, holding back like this essentially leaves the team down one member, increasing their chances of defeat. But is victory more important than survival?

“It might have been better if their games had switched… Not that it matters now.”

Muttering these words, I looked up quickly at the Wild Boar City approaching rapidly. The city seemed to stir as if they had spotted Kasim’s form. However, more important than that was the mountain of meat piled near the dungeon entrance.

“Good, it is well gathered.”

Stomp!

As Kasim landed on the ground, soldiers standing next to the meat pile saluted him.

“To the great and mighty Emperor -! Salute!”

“Hail!”

“Yes.”

I casually waved my hand and approached the mountain of meat. To be exact, it wasn’t just meat; there were boar tusks for sale in shops and goblin stamps from the nearby city visible among them. I stretched out my left arm towards those items.

The only item that could be brought from Earth to Ardenia—the transcendent weapon Zerosum emitted its light.

Wooong!

In an instant, the mountain of ordinary grade items became blurry and started crumbling. Then…

[Wild][boar][meat][wild][boar][m][e][a][t][…]

The intact material scattered and changed into text. The fragmented texts were swept away like dust in the wind.

Papapot!

As the text began to get sucked into Zerosum, the pile of items diminished rapidly.

[0.4][0.5][0.6][0.7][0.8]…

With each ordinary-grade item absorbed, my points increased by 0.1. Although it was a meager increment, I didn’t mind.

Unlike equipment destroyed by reinforcement or wild boar hides consumed through combination, the wild boar meat had accumulated because it was just for eating and couldn’t be used up. There was no need to mention items like wild boar tusks and goblin clan seals meant for store sales. Without a shop, where could I sell these miscellaneous items?

Papapot!

In an instant, most of the mountain-like pile of items disappeared. Then at one moment…

Wooom!

With a short resonance sound, Zerosum emitted a faint light. I confirmed its information:

[Zerosum (zero-sum)]

The sum of gains and losses is zero.

[Drop Adjustment Stage 2: When acquiring legendary or higher items, instead of obtaining them directly, their probability will be stored.]

Stored probabilities can be activated at any desired time.

10,000 points needed to increase by three stages.

[Event Adjustment Lv. 1]

[1 million points required for Open.]

“Good, it has grown.”

However, I didn’t stop absorbing. There was no reason to stop since there were still many remaining ordinary items.

“This way.”

After absorbing all the meat, I moved to the inventory and absorbed all the items stacked up for sale in the store. Then…

”…Good. Stage 3.”

The drop adjustment became stage 3, allowing me to store drops of Hero rated items. To reach stage 4, I needed 100,000 points. In other words, it required one million ordinary items.

‘One million items.’

No matter how many ordinary items were available, it wasn’t easy to collect such a large number. However, there was one method.

Ping!

[1]

Feeding high-grade items gave me 1 point.

[11]

Feeding rare grade items gave me 10 points.

“It increases by tenfold.”

In other words, feeding hero grade items would give me 100 points but I wasn’t crazy enough to do that. The efficiency increased tenfold each time my rating rose, but the value of Revenge’s items weren’t just ten times greater for each level.

Boom!

“Kuaaang-!”

Kasim flew up into the sky. Leaving behind the distant Wild Boar Castle, I opened the inventory.

“However… how about this?” I took out one of the 18 legend cards obtained from Dark Messiah. Since it was a legendary item, theoretically, it should add 1,000 points. However, as soon as I invested the legendary card into Event Adjustment Stage 1…

Vwoom!

Immediately, Zerosum resonated. I confirmed the updated item information:

[Zerosum (zero-sum)]

The sum of gains and losses equals zero.

[Drop Adjustment Stage 3] When acquiring items equal to or above Hero grade, negate their occurrence and store the probability instead.

Stored probabilities can be activated at any desired time.

Need 99,988 points for Stage 4 advancement.

[Event Adjustment Stage 1]

At large events, it can negate them and store the probability instead.

10 million points needed to increase by two stages.

[Variable Adjustment Lv.1]

[10 million points required for Open.]

”…As expected.”

One million points were resolved instantly. It was incredibly efficient, about 1,000 times more so. This meant items existing in reality carried significantly more points compared to simple game items.

“Well, if I want to bring Ardenian items into reality, charging power is necessary, but these items have been possible from the beginning.”

In other words, items dropped by real-world monsters possess the ability to exist within reality, indicating they already contain similar charging power.

Vroom!

Immediately, I exchanged another 10 legendary cards. Now there were seven legendary cards left.

‘Frankly, I want to keep them all for exchanging with Merlin but…’

However, it was necessary to raise the event adjustment to stage two first. It wasn’t clear if the other game’s events would be ‘large’. In any case, once the event adjustment reached stage two, I could interfere with medium-sized events.

“Well, this is enough.”

I opened the cash shop while feeling the wind blowing against me. There was no plan for advertising, but the amount of money obtained as a result was so enormous that it matched what I earned through royalties and infrastructure over time.

‘No, maybe even more than that. Who would’ve thought I’d be eating like this every day?’

The advance payment alone was 100 billion won. Much of it was spent on upgrading Earth City to Mythical and constructing its annex building, but there was still quite a bit left. Of course, considering I needed to build annex buildings for other castles, it wasn’t completely comfortable. However, after filming the advertisement, another 200 billion won would be added.

‘This is really…I never thought I would so easily talk about billions.’

Naturally, with such huge amounts of money earned, my task was clear. It was monetization.

“Finally…the time has come.”

In Revenge, there were extremely inefficient ways to charge. They required enormous amounts of money while providing minimal benefits, leading ordinary players to avoid these services altogether. These were commonly known as ‘whale payments’.

Profession proficiency, class awakening, equipment engraving, and reputation unlocking—all different types of microtransactions with the same effect.

‘They don’t directly increase stats. Of course, for equipment engraving, it can enhance critical hit chance or accuracy rates. One might even aim for luck bonuses, but since these effects apply only to the gear, they offer no real-world benefits.’

Regardless, the reason behind these inefficient transactions is clear: Players aimed to surpass their stat limits by heavily investing through microtransactions! Thanks to this excessive spending, gamers could unlock transcendent stats exceeding 900 points.

‘If reaching 800 strength already drives one insane, I wonder what achieving 900 would be like?’

In the game, obtaining transcendent stats was relatively straightforward, but in reality, Transcendents rarely achieved 900 stats. Despite multiple transcendences, there were inherent limitations to a living being’s physical capabilities.

For example, even dragons don’t have 900 strength stats. They might possess 900 magic power stats, but not strength.

“However, it doesn’t necessarily need to be achieved through stats first.”

There was another choice available: Skills. For instance, if I could upgrade my legendary skill Sword Force to the mythical level of Sword Just, my combat power would dramatically increase. It is said that with Sword Force alone, anyone can wield a sword like a master, yet without this ‘masterful sword technique,’ I’ve narrowly escaped death multiple times at the hands of Hyperion, the Sword Demon King.

“Oh, we’re here.”

While lost in thought, we arrived at Earth City.

Pop!

I dismissed Kasim and descended onto the tower of the Earth City Guild.

“Wow!”

“My goodness, such a beautiful city…”

“Dad, are we really going to live here?”

Looking down, I saw numerous people emerging through the underground passages. The writers whom I had summoned with soldiers and knights were starting to arrive one by one.

“The cultural rebels are gathering.”

With a smile spreading across my face, I entered the guild tower through the rooftop door. Flower, who was seated at her desk typing on a pad, stood up upon seeing me.

“Welcome back, sir. Have you eaten?”

“Yes, prepare it for me.”

“Certainly, Your Majesty.”

I entered the study and sat down. There were only a few pages left of manuscripts on the table.

“Do I need to push these further? Or should I use some from those eliminated in the preliminary round?”

However, there’s a reason why they didn’t make it past the preliminaries. Most entries in the competition serve better as kindling; even if revising them could improve efficiency, many are simply too time-consuming to salvage effectively.

The situation was different for treasure-grade books. For sponsored treasure-grade works, it didn’t matter if they had just one view, but this wasn’t true for ordinary works.

“Indeed, these few cases are exceptional.”

I looked at Emperor Knight Never and Dawn, which I had set aside separately. All three were five volumes long, written sequentially. Among them, I picked up Dawn. It had the least amount of content so I decided to finish it first.

“Log out.”

Dudududu!

I started the frenzy writing mode. Dawn was divided into three parts. The story of a young noblewoman who loved literature. Growing up as the eldest daughter of an aristocratic family, relying on people, and being disappointed by them. A story about escaping from the magic beasts targeting her as her family declined.

The final part tells of building a family and battling reality with a knight from humble origins who remained steadfastly by her side throughout it all.

It’s essentially an autobiography.

Although the protagonist lacked exceptional beauty or scholarly knowledge, she was wise and composed, navigating through life’s harsh realities. It becomes evident while reading that this story is set against the backdrop of real-life events.

[…Vanilla chattered incessantly about the north. She spoke of a stranger, a mercenary knight known as the Wolf, who had risen to become a Lord…]

“I’m just a minor character.”

On Earth, readers might dismiss these passages as insignificant anecdotes, but anyone from Ardenia would instantly recognize them, chuckling as they continued transcribing.

However, midway through…

It paused.

”…Vanilla spoke with a pale face. ‘Zhima was occupied by monsters! Many people died…!’

“Now now, Vanilla. Slowly. Huh…Haa…”

“Huh…Haa…”

“Yes. Calm down and tell me. Are you talking about magic beasts?”

“No! Monsters emitting coldness…”

‘Dawn’ was undeniably a masterpiece when it debuted. Even if I worked tirelessly every day, it would be impossible to create something on par with her work. The problem was that this novel was autobiographical—it was based on real events.

”…”

Yes, it was indeed based on true events. In Ardenia, gates suddenly opened, leading to the mass extinction of humanity—a tragic reality.

”…Is this really true?”

I couldn’t continue reading in frenzy anymore. Fear gripped me at what might lie ahead.

“Ah, wait just a moment. No, this can’t be happening. If this trend continues…”

My body trembled with dread.

A nearly completed masterpiece…

And now threatened by gates…?