God-Tier Enhancement Chapter 304: Episode 304Wipe Them All Out (6)

Chapter 304: Episode 304_Wipe Them All Out (6)

9.

The serious conversation went on late into the night.

At the end of the day, it was nothing more than a discussion about events in a video ga and a debate over future strategy.

Of course, the countless people who made their living off of 『Fantastic World』 might have bristled to hear it put that way, but considering who was gathered in that room, the situation was undeniably absurd.

A pair of second-generation chaebol heirs, a tycoon who had the world in his grip, and a man who’d recently struck it rich were sitting in a suite that cost nearly ten thousand dollars a night, talking about a ga until the early hours of the morning.

The people involved, however, didn’t see it that way for even a mont.

If anything, they were more serious than they ever were in the ga.

They were more focused than when they listened to their fathers discuss the future of their conglorates, more focused than Kenji had been while negotiating bridge deals with the United States.

And that level of focus naturally produced results.

It might have looked like a bunch of gars talking shop, but there were sixty million dollars riding on this deal.

Han Simin did his absolute best, and Kenji was satisfied.

All that effort worked up an appetite.

“Can we order room service?”

“As much as you like.”

As the conversation wound down, Han Simin’s expression brightened noticeably.

It was as if he had returned to his usual self.

Even for him, it had been impossible not to feel so pressure.

It was sixty million dollars, after all.

He had made a lot of money, but this deal had a fortune on the line.

Uncharacteristically, he had shed his usual ntality of holding the upper hand. Like soone in the service industry, he had patiently answered every one of Kenji’s questions and catered to his every need, ensuring not the slightest inconvenience.

All that remained was the paynt.

He wasn’t worried.

The real estate he had received from Kenji in their previous deal had never been used or put on the market, so it hadn’t turned into cash yet, but he had no doubt it would be very useful later when he decided to kick back and live off his assets.

This ti would be the sa.

If Kenji was the kind of man whose bank accounts were overflowing, a man who could toss around sixty million like an emperor, then he would never try to skim a little off the top.

That thought alone brought a smile to Simin’s face.

“This, and this, and this, and this. That one, and this one, and that one. And bring wine and liquor, too. If it’s not enough, I’ll order more.”

A good mood made him crave a drink.

He casually ordered from the hotel’s “special” room service nu until the bill passed two thousand dollars, picking only the most expensive alcohol.

He didn’t bother to act self-conscious about it.

“With that much money, of course you’re a big spender.”

Simin didn’t respond.

It was a perfect display of how the wealthy could be the most audacious.

Still, the fact remained that in this room, Han Simin was the poorest of them all, so Kenji didn’t comnt.

It wasn’t an amount that actually burdened him anyway.

It was just that—how to put it—there was sothing a little irritating about the way Simin, even in these trivial matters, unconsciously revealed that he had Kenji pegged as a perfect mark.

“Please, eat as much as you like.”

Kenji didn’t let it bother him.

Compared to the humiliation he had endured in the ga, this was nothing.

Besides, today he had felt it clearly.

Han Simin was soone worthy of recognition.

He didn’t move steadily and systematically, but he was what you would call a raw talent.

By simply following his instincts, he had the power to throw even people like Kenji off balance.

He had been especially shocked when he saw the preliminary sketches of the “big picture” Simin was painting.

For a mont, he had been tempted to throw away all the pride he had guarded until now and beg, pathetically, to be allowed into Specialist.

That impulse had been sincere.

He had no regrets about his own play so far, and even if he could go back in ti, he would still choose the sa path.

And yet, this looked genuinely fun.

Unlike Kenji, who sliced every minute into seconds, calculating and moving in order to beco the best, Simin played purely for money, by money, and for the sake of money.

And yet, there was a story there.

Of course, Specialist also pursued a small, elite style of play sowhat similar to his, but with Han Simin in the mix, they were enjoying the ga in such a unique and eccentric way that even Kenji felt a pang of jealousy.

Wasn’t that exactly what was happening right now?

They were toying with the entire continent.

On the surface, Simin pretended to hate the Demons and Warlocks, cozying up to the Great Temple and even placing the Saintess among his own people. Yet instead of trying to maintain that position and milk it, he secretly made contact with the Warlocks—his guildmates’ allies—and proposed sches even more diabolical than anything the Warlocks themselves had devised.

He let both Users and NPCs run wild as they pleased, then crushed them with overwhelming force to display his majesty.

It felt like he was using both sides, good and evil alike.

It was a precarious tightrope walk, but if you could pull it off without getting caught, like Han Simin, there was no more effective way to profit.

People only stood at the crossroads of good and evil and chose one path because they believed they couldn’t have both. But if you could have your cake and eat it too, then taking both was obviously the best choice.

Still, Kenji couldn’t bring himself to say the words that had risen to his throat.

It might have been his last shred of pride.

For the first ti, he envied Han Simin and the Specialists, but he managed to endure it.

It was only a passing emotion.

He believed that, as ti went by, a day would co when he could prove to himself that the path he had walked so far was not wrong.

He believed that.

“Alright. Cheers!”

The deep night was only just beginning.

*

After sleeping in until lunchti, Han Simin and the rest of Specialist shook off Kang Yeseul’s attempts to tempt them into staying one more day and headed back to their respective capsules.

Kenji, having achieved his goal, also boarded his private jet and returned ho without any further delay.

It was a rare break for the four of them.

It had been so long since any of them had gone more than twelve hours without logging into the ga that they could barely rember the last ti.

It felt like they had just returned from a short but long vacation, and at the sa ti, their minds felt clearer.

Sure, they always slept in a light-sleep state inside their capsules, but that was different from getting real, deep rest.

Which was why Han Simin was buzzing with energy.

“Let’s go!”

Of course, that energy didn’t co solely from the sense of fullness that ca with ntal rest.

The indefinite future.

The picture he had been painting to create money had been sold, and he had even been promised an advance paynt.

How could the mood of a painter whose work had been recognized and sold at a high price possibly be the sa as the day before?

In the process, he had agreed to add a few brushstrokes in the direction the buyer wanted, but he didn’t feel the slightest displeasure. On the contrary, he had gladly and actively stepped up to set the desired direction, make plans, and fine-tune the details.

He was now on his way to paint that picture.

Behind him, countless Imperial troops were marching.

10.

The seed of the plan lay in the posts that had begun to pop up on the community boards.

"What the heck? Is this a quest that only shows up for Priests? It looks like the Main Quest, but it’s showing up as a Sub Quest?"

"Saving the Heavenly King? What is this? I got it too. I’m a Priest, though."

"I guess this isn’t just a notification like the Main Quest? It says we have to actually rescue him ourselves."

As the Main Quest progressed and events unfolded, a Sub Quest had appeared for the Priests.

Or rather, it was more of a Class Quest.

A quest given to all Users whose classes were tied to the Priesthood and the Great Temple had been posted a few days before Simin t Kenji, and it was now the talk of the town.

Naturally so.

Unlike the Main Quest, which had given experience points simply for informing NPCs and making them realize the seriousness of the current situation, this quest required them to actually rescue the Heavenly King and pull the continent back from the brink.

The implications were huge.

Users who played the ga purely for fun might just shrug and follow the story, but for those who spent all day dissecting the philosophical aning embedded in 『Fantastic World』, it was obvious that this was bait BetaGo was throwing to the Users.

’It’s the key to progressing the Main Quest.’

No matter how you looked at it, the current Main Quest, Act 4-1, had more than a few strange points.

There was no concrete, absolute objective; it just vaguely told them to “spread the word.”

Of course, the ultimate goal was to persuade the Emperor and the Pope and save the continent from crisis, but the Users’ current level was far too low to reach that point.

So kind of drastic asure was needed.

Strictly speaking, it didn’t really matter if nothing changed.

Most Users were treating it as an opportunity to slowly level up.

Later on, they would rack their brains over how they were supposed to clear it and complain, but for now, there were no major grievances.

However, for that future “later,” a counterasure had been prepared.

The content of the Class Quest was, likewise, sothing that was practically impossible to clear right now.

In fact, it was even harder than the Main Quest.

With the Main Quest, you could at least sohow manage to et the Emperor or the Pope and deliver a ssage, but this one required concrete action.

To put it in real-world terms, it was like this:

If the Main Quest was about using a candlelight rally to inform people of injustice, then the Class Quest was about picking up a sword and shield and charging in yourself.

The latter was more effective.

If it succeeded, you wouldn’t need to invest a long ti and effort.

But the risk was enormous.

Failure would an the failure of all quests.

The mont they openly defied the Emperor and the Pope—the leaders of the NPCs—instead of persuading them, every User involved would be branded a traitor. No one would believe anything they said, no matter what the truth was.

So the quest had flared up briefly as a hot topic, then started to die down.

People were shelving it for later, thinking they would make good use of it when the ti ca.

Then Kenji picked it back up.

Right after his eting with Han Simin.

Even though he knew that the Users currently leading the protests, and even the kingdoms themselves, were all just waiting for the Empire’s iron hamr to fall.

Boldly!

Confidently!

He stepped forward himself and proclaid it in the na of his king.

“We have found a way to complete the Main Quest and protect the continent. Of course, the odds are very slim. There are two things we must do. If we fail at even one of them, everything will co to nothing, and the continent may truly fall into the hands of the Demon King and her followers. But for now, that is the only way, and it is also our greatest hope. I am recruiting Adventurers who will stand with us and masters of the continent who will join our cause.”

It was a declaration of war.

A statent that he would not bow his head to the Empire.

Or perhaps it was a do-or-die move, thrown down because he already knew there was no way to avoid the coming clash.

That was how the Users saw it.

Yet they all agreed on one thing.

Passion.

Even after gaining a kingdom, instead of thinking about generating stable profits, he was using it as a springboard to attempt a quest that was nearly impossible, acting with the pure heart of a User!

That was not sothing ordinary Users could easily bring themselves to do.

Naturally, more and more Users began to follow him.

Not only newbies but also top-rankers started to gather in the Kenji Kingdom one by one.

They wanted to take on the challenge.

A challenge that had a chance.

Even if that chance was in the single digits, wasn’t it a User’s nature to try?

“We will hunt the Holy Dragon Hatchling that lives in the Forest of Hallucination in the west and deliver its Heart to the Heavenly King imprisoned in the dungeon beneath the Great Temple.”

The odds might not even be in the single digits; they might be less than one percent.

Perhaps that was why people were even more fired up.

In that wave of hope, no one asked where the information about the Holy Dragon had co from—a creature that lived in the Forest of Hallucination, one of the Four Great Forbidden Areas and the most dangerous place of all, a land that rejected human footsteps.

*