Chapter 199

Yes, I finally faced it too.

The same revenue power that Merlin had found…

“Oh, my share is less than 0.1 percent.”

Come to think of it, that was almost an exact figure. Currently, Nemesis Soft had approximately 23.92 million shares outstanding, so my 20,000 shares were slightly less than 0.1 percent.

I have 8,771 available points. If these points were applied to the total… then Revenge’s overall revenue power would be around 877,000, I suppose.

However, I didn’t know if this was a high or low number. It would be nice if I could compare it to Dark Star with Merlin or Blade & Magic with Munggeon, but alas, I didn’t know their figures.

I suddenly glanced at the watch on my left wrist, as if struck by a sudden thought.

When you add up the gains and losses, it equals zero.

I’d obtained this Transcendent Weapon from the Game God, Overlooked Odds, some time ago. Even when I took a break from my decade-long grind in Ardenia, I never put it to proper use. My progress had plateaued ever since upgrading Event Adjustment to Level 2.

Nevertheless, separate from that…

I had been relentlessly stockpiling items all this time.

Drop Adjustment [Level 3]

Stored Heroes: 700

Stored Legends: 311

Stored Mythical: 1

“Hmph.”

I was bursting at the seams just by looking. Why else would I waste my time climbing all the way to the Temple of Death on top of the mountain, battling those overrated myth-ranked fodder monsters with such low efficiency? It was all for these stoks.

And I consider myself lucky to have gathered them. I hadn’t even reached 100,000 kills before stumbling upon those myth-ranked ones.

The loot tables for ordinary myth-ranked monsters typically included items like Elder Skeleton’s Upper Arm Bone (Legendary), Elder Skeleton’s Vertebral Column (Legendary), or Elder Skeleton’s Core (Mythical). Though users often complained about the lack of variety, it was crucial that both legendary and mythical ranks were accessible.

In any case, having trained these beasts and built up this stockpile… I’d be guaranteed at least one myth item per encounter with a myth monster from now on.

On top of that, there’s the event.

Stored Medium-sized Events: 2

I had saved up various events that often occurred when I was busy working.

I hadn’t used them yet, but… at least one of them should involve meeting a tangle-haired Malin.

“Okay, I’ll think about it later.”

After organizing my thoughts, I settled deeply into the seat of the Landworm and gazed at the rock layer beyond the transparent forehead scale of the Landworm.

“The Hell Tower patch… No, that’s not it.”

Then I spoke:

“Update.”

Boom!

In an instant, the earth rippled like waves spreading out. The holes that the Landworm had previously dug collapsed.

8,771 → 4,112

Its popularity was waning. Although it was a World Dungeon, updating just one dungeon resulted in substantial attrition.

Nevertheless, even so…

The immense significance lay in this dungeon being located at ‘this place.’

Leftbank Center was a vast artificial lake, so immense one could gaze at the horizon from its shores.

Landworm, excavate a channel to the lake.

The reason for this confidence: The Hell Tower, located a mere 500 meters underground, adjoined the lake directly.

Krrrrm…!

As the Landworm, its weight equivalent to a skyscraper, burrowed through the earth, a savage roar echoed as water poured into the depths below.

“The Hell Tower is quite expansive,” I noted. “It’ll take ages for the water to fill it completely. There are five subterranean levels alone.”

Each level was roughly the size of a city, so there was no immediate need to descend.

If they get desperate, they’ll surely ascend.

Returning once more to the Wato castle, I issued commands for the Hell Tower and activated Gigas along with other defense systems. With these measures in place, it was highly unlikely that any attacker could breach our defenses.

The worst-case scenario. Even if the myth-ranked monsters in the depths of the 4th to 5th underground floors of the Hell Tower erupted… I could probably buy enough time for myself to escape from the Guild Tower.

That… no, more importantly.

I return to the Guild Tower.

Selling power, I mean.

Revenge, the world’s highest-grossing game, and Nemesis, the company that developed it, might be shining in sales, but their market capitalization was strangely low.

Strange? More like… abnormally low.

There’s no strict correlation between high revenues and market capitalization, but Nemesis’ was unusually low.

There were several reasons for this.

Primarily… it’s aimed at domestic markets.

A company’s stock price isn’t solely determined by its current revenues. Its vision and future prospects, scalability, and influence are all crucial factors.

In that respect, games like Blade & Magic and Great War were immensely popular throughout the entire macrocosm, not just Earth-34. Achieving high rankings in these virtual reality simulators could garner attention from corporations eager to recruit top talent.

On the other hand, what about Revenge? It was a game where players on Earth-34 could simply spend money to unlock content. From the outset, this pay-to-win model wasn’t appealing enough for it to expand beyond our planet. There was no compelling reason for other civilizations to embrace such an outrageous monetization scheme!

Perfect virtual reality? That wouldn’t be that impressive in other civilizations either.

In the whole universe, only a handful of worlds, like Earth-34, had civilizations where over 99% of humans possessed psychic abilities. For most intelligent beings, virtual reality that engaged their senses of sight, hearing, and touch was sufficient. Thus, Nemesis’s vaunted “perfect virtual reality” technology would inevitably lose much of its allure among other advanced lifeforms.

One might ask, “Aren’t they suitable for telekinetic training?”

‘Training can still be effective even if not entirely grounded in reality.’

In fact, I myself practiced chakra training on a simulator that was partly virtual reality.

“Hrmm.”

Irapped my fingers on the Guild Office desk, organizing my thoughts.

My current ownership stake is 0.1 percent. In other words, I can only use an extremely small portion of Revenge’s total box office revenue.

To increase my stake here…

“I’d either have to buy a ton of stocks and become a major shareholder… or have Revenge become a game recognized throughout the galaxy.”

It goes without saying that the latter is not something I can control. Love, with its reinvestment of over 90 percent, isn’t an area where individual effort makes much difference, is it?

In that case, buying stocks should be my first step.

“It’s actually good that the total market value is low. Companies like Blade&Magic or Real Stage… If it were games like The Great War, it would be much harder right now.”

For example, while Revenge led in revenue, Sky Soft’s total market value was eight times higher than Nemesis’s. Games like The Great War, where the imperial family of the Leonhardt Empire, which ruled over hundreds of planets and galaxies, was directly involved, made it impossible to even purchase stocks. So, I should consider myself lucky that Nemesis only had one game, Revenge, running.

On top of that, I didn’t think it was a bad thing that the stocks were falling.

Right. Since I have to buy stocks indefinitely anyway… It’s better if they’re falling.

The immediate loss stung, but I had merely bought the stock I intended to purchase anyway.

A company doesn’t collapse just because its stock hits rock bottom.

Of course, there’s the risk that other big players might swoop in and buy shares if the price falls too low. This could be seen as a red flag for management, but… if I continued to quietly gather shares like Nemesis, who was considered a friend of the company, there wouldn’t be any issue.

The problem, however, was that this approach meant giving up on making money through stock appreciation.

“Well, I should make money through work anyway.”

As for myself, there was nothing else to buy in-game. My collection was nearly complete, and I had already applied most of the high-value content.

With my purchasing power now surplus, it seemed wise to focus on buying stocks for a while.

“Logout.”

Upon returning to Earth, I discussed with Eddusuni and organized my schedule. Fortunately, filming had ended, and since the variety shows were guest-based rather than fixed roles, there wouldn’t be any major issues.

“Hello everyone!”

As I arrived at the Mercenary Command Center’s mission standby room and greeted them, the seniors inspecting their equipment happily discovered my presence.

“Oh! The youngest is here!”

“Ah, so that’s why there are so few people for this mission - what a surprise!”

“Can we finally see the skills you’ve been rumored to possess?”

A total of five mercenaries were assigned to this mission.

Naganaga Katsu (118 years old) was responsible for vanguard duties.

Tom Holiday (135 years old) took on sniping and reconnaissance.

Shin Jiyoon (127 years old) handled healing and buffs.

Hanseo, in charge of maintaining the barrier (Age 121)

And me (Age 26)

Whoa. The age difference…

No wonder they call it the ‘Galactic Mercenaries’ crewed solely by elders; the average age is insanely high.

Is this truly a human party? Not an elf party, is it?

Despite their advanced years, showing no signs of strain whatsoever, each member appeared to be at the peak of their life.

“All right! Inspection complete! It’s getting late, so let’s depart soon!” At Seokdu’s words, everyone stood up.

Still unclear about the exact process, I trailed behind them.

We entered a massive room filled with countless forms of magic spells.

“By the way, is this okay?”

Haku stood in the center of the room and asked. Despite being 118 years old, his well-trained body made him look like he was in his late 30s, defying his actual age.

“Ah. Sir. What do you mean?”

“We don’t have any Gigas. We’re going to be fighting in space…”

The mercenaries of the Mercenary Command Center were all 100% Gigas pilots. Well, how could anyone work without their Gigas when space was our primary field of operations? The Gigas was far too powerful a weapon.

No matter what one’s physical training or fighting spirit was, using a Gigas was always the correct answer. In modern warfare, not using a Gigas would have been like not using a gun during WW2, in fact.

If I weren’t a Transcendent, my mercenary activities would have been severely limited due to not having a Gigas.

“Ah, there’s no need to worry. I often visit space you see.”

“What? Do you have your own personal Gigas or spaceship?” Kaatsu asked incredulously.

I smiled at his question. “I can leap and break through the atmosphere myself.”

My words left all four elders agape.

“Wow, you can break through the atmosphere with just a jump?”

“Hmm, that’s insane!”

“Transcendents are truly beyond imagination.”

“Well, I guess they don’t call him a god for nothing.”

As we continued our casual conversation:

Twirrrrr…

A mysterious melody filled the air. I glanced over to see mages operating complex machinery, their hands visibly trembling.

A public announcement began broadcasting.

As the announcement played, the magic circle on the ground began to shimmer. I followed the elders and moved to its center.

And then, in a blink of an eye…

Whoosh!

The background changed in an instant, just like when I logged in or out.

Before I knew it, our group had moved into the interior of an upscale train.

“Ah, we’ve finally arrived here…”

“Heh-heh. Our Transcendent rookie is acting like a true newbie now. Once you continue your mercenary life, you’ll get sick of coming here.”

“Come on! Stop loitering and go sit down in your seats!”

“Ao, I’m gonna get some sleep…”

As the elders went to their respective seats and lay down, I approached the transparent window.

I could see the vast universe.

“Remarkable…”

The universe was vast.

The problem wasn’t just that it was vast. It was unimaginably vast and boundless.

In this vast universe, there exist hundreds of billions of galaxies. Traveling from just one galaxy to another can take anywhere from 100,000 to millions of years, even at the speed of light.

This limitation applies not only to mortal civilizations but also to deities. Even for gods, traversing the cosmos requires immense sacrifice and investment.

And that’s where star gates and astral drives come into play.

Among these, star gates require an emperor-class magic user for both creation and maintenance. That means only great sorcerers of the tenth class can handle them, making star gates impractical for widespread use. As a result, astral drives have become the popular choice for travel between worlds.

Astral Drive.

This is a collaboration of some sort between super-science and magic, the result of candle adults from the four civilizations waiting to reach their end. It’s a way to escape the shackles of the law of physics, constrained by the speed of light—some kind of “limit that a physical law makes nearly impossible to overcome.”

In order for matter to travel faster than light, it would require infinite energy. But what if the target isn’t matter?

The Astral Drive transfers the spaceship into the astral world so it can be accelerated to a great speed. Once the speed reaches a certain threshold, the laws of physics will no longer affect it because a great body like a star will not halt the speedy vessel due to resistance, unlike in the material world.

Upon activating the Astral Drive, the starship will initially accelerate at an extremely slow rate.

The ship was propelled not by a warp engine but a mere flight engine, resulting in an extremely slow initial speed. However, as acceleration compounded over time, the velocity gradually increased. This process could continue for weeks, half a month, a month, or even years, with the speed accumulating all along.

As this acceleration persisted, the spacecraft would eventually surpass the incredible speed of light—a threshold that, in the physical world, could only be reached by consuming an enormous amount of energy.

Finally, the ship’s velocity would multiply, achieving tens, hundreds, or even thousands of times the speed of light.

In theory, through this method of compounding acceleration, one could infinitely increase speed. Of course, such a feat would require an equally immense amount of energy, but it would make traversing tens of galaxies without the aid of star gates a possibility.

‘Of course, there are still limits to consider.’

The Astral Drive’s stacked acceleration can theoretically reach hundreds of times the speed of light once it gets going, but the problem is that it takes time to achieve that acceleration.

If it takes months just to get up to speed, who would wait that long?

However, advancements in technology have produced a solution that overcomes these limitations, and the Game Master uses their power to popularize this innovation.

Technically and ability-wise, a lengthy explanation is necessary, but the principle itself is simple.

An already accelerated [train] exists within the astral realm.

Passengers warp onto this already accelerated train.

This is the Astral Regular Operation System that gives 34-Earth its incredible influence throughout the entire macrocosm.

It’s commonly known as the “Galactic Railroad”.