Chapter 336: Episode 336_You Reap What You Sow (1)
1.
Kenji’s comeback stream video reached 1 billion views in a single week, and his 24/7 channel’s concurrent viewer count easily surpassed 1 million. Kenji’s channel was, without question, the hottest topic around.
The age of raids had arrived, and as countless hidden masters across the continent began to reveal themselves, people were starting to say it was getting hard to call Specialists the undisputed number one anymore. In this climate, the movements of Kenji’s guild became a major topic. Led by Dino, they were on such a smooth, upward trajectory that one could argue they hadn’t just challenged Specialists, but had outright surpassed them—especially since Specialists had been largely inactive lately.
Unlike Specialists, who operated as a small elite squad, Kenji Guild offered a lot more to watch.
—How the hell does one guild have more Unique-grade classes than Rare-grade ones?
—Kenji Guild doesn’t even accept you unless you’re Unique or higher.
—I see some Normal-grade classes in there though, what’s up with that?
—Those are the Fantastic World addicts. Even if you’re Normal, they’ll take you if you’re level 90 .
—Damn. I heard the benefits there are insane.
—I mean, it’s only been a few days and people are already saying parents are buying their kids capsules instead of cram school tuition and telling them to go grind. They figure, rather than competing with all the unemployed across the country, it’s way more profitable to get into Kenji Guild, where you can land a spot as long as you have money and perseverance—or just good luck.
—For real. And honestly, even if Kenji Guild goes under, Fantastic World isn’t going anywhere, so you can still find some way to make a living. I heard now that the borders of the Four Great Forbidden Areas have been opened up, they’re basically striking gold and reaping all the rewards.
—Fuck, when Fantastic World launched, I quit everything and followed an older guy I knew, bought a capsule, and started playing. I’m level 69 now, but even if I start power-leveling today, by the time I’m high enough to go to the Four Forbidden Areas, they’ll already be picked clean and stripped bare, right?
—If you’re a support class, they say you can get in at around level 80 minimum if you have the right connections.
Such conversations naturally evolved into talk about Fantastic World itself, and this kind of engagement was the lifeblood of the stream.
On top of that, the stream was packed with nonstop flashy action that made it hard to tear your eyes away even while chatting, so of course, it kept creating new fans.
—Honestly, at this point, it’s Kenji over Specialists.
—The craziest part is that Kenji still hasn’t shown his face even once.
—If you look at how Kenji spends money, Han Simin and Specialists don’t even come close. Up to now he’s just been treating it like a hobby, playing casually for pocket money, but now he’s not even showing up on screen. I’m already excited wondering how much he’s going to spec up before he comes back.
That fandom quickly turned into rivalry.
—What are you talking about, lol. Who cares how much he whales. Simin’s rocking full
15 Legendary items.
—Yeah, but his gear has a low level requirement. Kenji is probably already decked out in Legendary gear that matches his level cap.
—Get outta here, lolololol. Even Legendary items barely drop. Miners have been grinding for days and only pulled one so far. Where the hell is he getting a full Legendary set, lololololol.
Thus began the comparisons and instigation.
Normally, any other streamer would have stepped in to stop this kind of bickering in their chat.
From a broadcaster’s standpoint, such viewers are more of a hindrance than a help.
It’s a problem if you really are stronger than the person you’re being compared to, and it’s a problem if you’re not.
However, neither Dino’s side nor Han Simin’s side showed the slightest intention of stopping these viewer disputes.
In Han Simin’s case, he had never communicated with viewers to begin with; he even turned off his own chat while playing. He was the kind of bastard who would rather spend his time calculating the revenue the controversy would bring in.
As for Dino’s side, their aim was crystal clear.
“Specialists has simply ridden the advantage of his early lead and managed that effect well up to now. From here on out, we will show you that things are different. Our Guild Master will be returning soon.”
Promotion. Competition.
They were creating a spectacle for people to watch.
They were creating an issue.
And once they had boasted so loudly, once that much attention was focused on them, they would stomp their opponent in a flashy, spectacular fashion.
Then they would solidify their position.
Who the strongest on the continent really was.
Of course, that was only if they could actually turn their words into reality.
Despite the worries and concerns of countless viewers, the ever-confident Dino proved the source of his confidence.
By briefly revealing a recording of Kenji.
*
The place on screen was unmistakably Heaven.
A world where a pure white sky stretched overhead.
Like the continent, it was a world teeming with life and monsters, but its ruling race was not human, but angel.
Kenji stood in that place.
He was clad in pure white armor.
The armor did not blaze with a crimson radiance like Han Simin’s, but it shone with a brilliant white light that was no less impressive.
Anyone could tell at a glance that it was a top-tier Divine Object.
And wearing that armor, Kenji was leading an army, just as he had on the continent.
He was leading an army not of heavenly monsters, whose levels were impossible to guess, but of their apex predators: the angels themselves.
When he stepped forward, the angels arrayed behind him followed in perfect sync.
When he drew his sword, they drew their weapons in unison, and as he shifted into a battle stance, all manner of blessings wrapped around his body.
Then, as he charged in and trampled the monsters, he did so with effortless grace.
With each strike, divine power surged, and the monsters took visibly massive damage.
It was a short hunting clip.
No, it was a massacre, but it had more impact than any video that had surfaced recently.
It was even more impactful than the footage of Dino, awakened to his final stage as a Legendary-grade Archmage, raiding Dragonia with his guild members.
That was an unavoidable reality and an undeniable fact.
Everyone had already seen proof of this with the Demon World—they remembered what had happened there, how thrilling it had been, and the continental-scale consequences of Han Simin’s actions.
This was not just a promo reel or a brag video.
It was a preview.
“Heavenly King, I have hunted the monsters you mentioned.”
“It seems you are now ready to go to the continent.”
“...I am the one going?”
“Why would I need to go personally to eradicate the forces of evil?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
“As long as the Demon King rules the continent, there is no point in me going when I am under restrictions. The risk of crossing over to the continent is also considerable. That is why I brought you here. Receive my will, sweep away the darkness on the continent, and send the Demon King back to the Demon World. Once you do that, I will take care of what comes after.”
“Understood.”
“I grant you the right to wield the purest essence of my power, something no one in human history has ever possessed.”
[You have changed class to Legendary Legend Pope.]
[You complete your final Awakening.]
.......
It was what users had so desperately wanted but could not find, forcing them back to their daily grind: a new thread for the Main Quest had finally appeared.
And for users who knew how to read the flow of the game, it was something worth cheering for.
—Wait, wasn’t the Saintess a Legendary class?
—Yeah, what is this?
—Nah, guys, the history books clearly say one of the Five Legends was the Pope.
—Then what about the holy spells Hyegi’s been using?
—I don’t know about that, but if the Heavenly King gave it to him, it has to be the real deal, right?
—So that means the five Legendary classes are now split between the two factions?
—That’s insane.
—Who’s going to win?
All they had to do now was grab some popcorn and watch.
2.
In a game as polished as Fantastic World, the Main Quest carried enormous weight.
It wasn’t just "big"; it was big enough to make users ride emotional highs and lows the way they did with stocks.
No, if it stopped there, it would be a relief. In an era where, bluntly speaking, over a million people were making their living off Fantastic World, the direction of the Main Quest could literally decide the fates of hundreds of thousands of lives.
On top of that, Fantastic World had no patches.
It was a world that simply flowed as it flowed.
As users’ levels rose, new trends emerged, new item builds, and small shifts in preferred options. Even those minor changes made item prices swing wildly. And when the variable of a Main Quest was introduced?
Items that had been going for hundreds of thousands overnight could crash to rock bottom, while items no one would buy for a few thousand could suddenly be worth tens of millions, becoming so scarce you couldn’t get them even if you wanted to.
The Foggy Mountain Range was a prime example.
Back when Han Simin had been flailing to claw his way out of poverty, it had been his personal cash cow.
Even after he made his money, the Foggy Mountain Range remained the hunting ground for that level bracket for quite some time. In fact, even now, most Northern users still went there to hunt, so the massive impact of a Main Quest needed no further explanation.
In other words, there were no patches, but this was effectively a patch note.
The long-dormant Main Quest concerning the fate of Demon King Epia seemed to be stirring once more.
Right now, if you so much as mentioned her name, if you dared attach the word “Demon King” to the woman enshrined in the Great Temple, your gaming life would end that very day, so no one brought it up lightly. But users were thinking.
’When the next episode kicks off, how are we going to make money?’
No concrete clues had appeared yet, but prices on holy relics, items with Holy attributes, and gear that was good for hunting Warlocks and other dark mages began to skyrocket.
Not only that, but the prices of war supplies went up, and even completely unrelated consumables started to soar.
Prices kept climbing, and then climbed even higher.
Some people bought late, watching the climb. Others had sat on their hands, thinking, ’This will blow over’, but as prices kept going up and up, they started to think, ’At this rate, I really won’t be able to buy this later’, and jumped in.
It was proof that this was another world of its own.
All from a single video uploaded by just one user.
It affected not only users, but NPCs as well.
Some people complained about this phenomenon, while others mocked them.
Because it did look like a hasty judgment.
—This is how you get wrecked in stocks.
—Wow, they’re making their own bait before the devs even drop any, and gobbling it all up. Hope they all go bust.
They weren’t wrong.
As always, gambling was high risk, high return.
Like they said, the “patch note” that had dropped was nothing more than Kenji becoming something like the Heavenly King’s successor.
Users had simply interpreted that in the way they wanted, as Main Quest bait, and invested while looking toward the distant future.
If it didn’t pan out, the investors would be the ones to bear the full loss.
In a world like this, you couldn’t just turn around and resell war preparations.
But unfortunately for the skeptics, this time the investors were the winners.
The Imperial capital.
Kenji returned from the sky in a blaze of radiant light.
[The Truth of Darkness]
Grade: Main
Description: On the surface, the continent has regained hope. The Demon King has been slain, and the Warlocks have been purged. But in truth, that is not the case. Reveal the unseen darkness, the true darkness that grips the continent.
And the Main Quest, which had looked unsettlingly “complete,” quietly raised its head again.
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