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The main trailer, which was mostly shot in the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom, was a huge hit. The result was not that unexpected. First, the advertisement’s movie-like production had made people that did not play Athenae think, ‘Shall I try it?’. Second, the numerous promotional activities that the members of the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom added to the result, providing a tremendous boost to the reach of the trailer and allowed them to record higher views.
The total profit that Beyond the Heavens received amounted to 400 billion won. If they added the profits that each of the members had gained from their individual activities and personal broadcasts, the total profit that they gained was around 440 billion won.
“It'd be good for us to donate 20% of the profits that we have gained to the poor and the terminally ill, especially to those afflicted with cancer and leukemia,” Minhyuk said during a meeting with all of the guild members. Everyone was shocked to hear that Minhyuk had decided to donate around 90 billion won. Minhyuk just continued calmly, “If we donate such a large sum of money, our Beyond the Heavens Kingdom will create an image that money otherwise can’t buy us. Besides, that amount is insignificant when compared to the number of immigrants that will come to us. I can guarantee that we can easily earn back more than 80 billion in profits with that alone.”
After everyone accepted Minhyuk’s proposal, Genie began her report and explained the upcoming updates, “Everyone must have already realized it based on the content of the scenario, but I’ll say it again. After the continents’ integration, the key to surviving is to protect the continent from Nerva Sephiroth.”
That was right. The video that they made was actually based on the events that would happen in the near future. Of course, some of the scenes from the trailer were just made up but this was Joy Co. Ltd.’s way of informing everyone of the direction that the future episodes would take. Well, some of the information was given to the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom a few weeks earlier than the other players.
“From this point on, many kingdoms will be built by players.”
Various guilds from America, China and other countries were already gearing up to build their own kingdoms. All of them would try to build their power and military strength to fight against the Ruvian Empire. In a way, the Ruvian Empire had become the target and direction of the players.
Once the continents integrate, the Stars’ Path would open and the Ruvian Empire would appear to devour the surrounding kingdoms and empires, while seeking to extend their power and influence throughout the continents.
“Of course, most of these new kingdoms will try to take over ours.”
Because of that, the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom were expecting countless invasion attempts. Minhyuk nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. The worst is yet to come.”
In the first place, the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom was already in a precarious situation under the threat of the NPCs. But now, every kingdom in the world would also pose a danger to them. Even the kingdoms newly created by players would try to attack them to keep them in check.
“Everyone will be busy once the servers have consolidated. But before that…” Minhyuk said, looking at the guild members around him. Since they had around 300 billion won, the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom would have a generous amount of funds and would have some leeway to rest and prepare before the continents’ integration.
“…I want to fight someone.”
“Minhyuk, going in alone would be…”
“No. We can’t just move everyone that recklessly. I’ll move alone on behalf of Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.”
Then, Ares raised his hand and said, “I believe in you. However, you are our kingdom’s king as well as the person that represents everyone. If it’s going to be dangerous then at the very least I want you to at least let me be the vanguard and fight first.”
Minhyuk smiled after hearing Ares’ words. He thought, ‘Ares’ Country Diaries has become a huge hit and attracted plenty of immigrants which helped the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom a lot.’
Minhyuk could see the genuine concern and worry in Ares, especially since he had already completely integrated himself and considered himself as a member of Beyond the Heavens Kingdom.
“No, I’ll do it.”
“According to our investigations, Akhan is currently hiding in the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild, the most notorious guild in the Chinese Server. It won’t be easy.”
Theft is never good, try looking at [ pawread dot com ].
Minhyuk nodded. That was right. The one that Minhyuk wanted to fight was none other than Akhan. Akhan was the one that fed false information to the dragons all the while inducing the Lumae Kingdom to push back and devour the Baroque Kingdom and the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom. It was also during that time when Minhyuk’s most cherished and beloved vassal, Ghost Spear Ben, had died. Of course, Minhyuk never doubted Ben, he knew that he would come back to him one day but…
Grit—
Minhyuk gritted his teeth. And everyone who saw that knew…
‘Akhan touched someone he shouldn’t have.’
‘Minhyuk might always be all smiles but he’s scarier than anyone else when he gets angry.’
‘Akhan, you’re f**cked!’
“When will you depart?”
Minhyuk answered Ares’ question, “I’m leaving today. Ah, don’t worry too much. I said that I’m the only one that will go on behalf of Beyond the Heavens Kingdom, of course that does not mean that I will go by myself. Someone is coming with me.”
“Who will that be?”
At that moment, the door burst open, allowing entry to a man. The man’s hand held the Death God’s Ruler’s Staff, an item that Akhan originally owned.
“Hi guys!”
The man was none other than Death, king of the Kingdom of Death.
***
Many people had watched the battle between Beyond the Heavens Kingdom and Akhan. That was why a lot of them were also looking forward to what would happen next, after they watched Minhyuk grab Akhan by the collar back then and declare war against him.
‘Whether it’s ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, or ten thousand times, I will chase you until the end of the world and hunt you.’
The confrontation between the worst player in existence, who dreamt of the downfall and collapse of Athenae, and the player admired by everyone in Athenae had aroused great curiosity from people all over the world.
But what did the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom do?
[The Food God had practically declared war against Akhan. But a long time has passed now, what is the Food God doing? He appeared in the main advertisement and ate a lot in his mukbang.]
[He’s probably still eating. Hahahahahahaha!]
[But guys, Akhan is currently depending on the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild. Even if it’s the Beyond the Heavens Kingdom, they would not be able to break that guild apart.]
[Isn’t this proof that Beyond the Heavens Kingdom, a kingdom, can’t do anything against a single guild because they’re scared? As expected, us Chinese are the greatest.]
[You’re saying that they’re great even after knowing what the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild has done and are still doing…? There must be something wrong with your head.]
In comparison with South Korea’s population, which barely reached 50 million, China’s population that exceeded 1.4 billion was around 24 times more than Korea’s population. This meant that the number of players playing Athenae from China was ridiculously large; even the number of high rankers that were in each of their guilds was enormous. Among these guilds was the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild, a guild that boasted the highest number of members. It was a murderer guild that was created by PK criminals, bandits, and looters.
There was no guild, kingdom, or even empire in the entire Chinese Server that could do anything reckless against the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild. This was because the scale of which they were operating had already grown too large for anyone to willingly deal with them and bear the brunt of the damage. Even ordinary players would join them to use and benefit from the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild’s wide influence, connections, controlled dungeons and hunting grounds.
In fact, the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild was the guild that everyone had named to be the one most likely to build a kingdom in the world. But why did they not become a kingdom? The reason was simple…
‘The funds needed to run a kingdom.’
In the first place, the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild was a guild that took pleasure in plundering and looting other people’s money and belongings, but the people expected them to build and run a kingdom and pay instead? Ridiculous. It was better for them to just take over and plunder a territory instead. As proof, the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild opted to take over plenty of territories, dividing their guild into factions, and creating various branches to take control of these territories.
Most of the territories that they took control over were not part of other kingdoms or empires. They only took the land of different races or those that have been abandoned and left to ruin by the kingdoms and empires of the continent. As they continued to do so, the size of all of their territories combined was enough to be on par, perhaps even larger, with a single kingdom’s size.
With that, the tyranny and viciousness of the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild continued to grow. The person that led this guild was none other than Zhang Mumu.
Zhang Mumu cackled, his hand grabbing his belly with how hard he was laughing. Actually, Akhan was sitting right in front of him, the two of them having a meeting inside Zhang Mumu’s house.
“The Beyond the Heavens King, the Food God is so cute, don’cha think? Ah, I want to glomp him! Hahaha!!!”
Just a few days ago, Food God Minhyuk had sent a letter to Zhang Mumu asking him to hand Akhan over. So, what did Zhang Mumu do? He published the letter and his answer to the world while guffawing at the Food God’s naivety.
[Beyond the Heavens’ King, if you get on your knees and bark like a dog then I’ll think about it?]
Zhang Mumu’s response created a huge racket. However, the Food God had been silent since then.
“How dare that Food God try to declare a war against Akhan? So frustrating! He even did that knowing that you’re under our protection!”
Akhan might have suffered a defeat from Beyond the Heavens Kingdom, but it was all because Minhyuk had skillfully used the dragons and their power. He might also have lost the Death God’s Ruler’s Staff, but no one could recklessly move against him, especially since he was one of the strongest players in the game.
‘He’s hiding right now but he’s definitely going to be useful to us.’
After the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild embraced and protected Akhan, plenty of his followers followed him and joined the guild.
Not long after, the expressionless Akhan began to laugh like crazy, “Fufufu, fuhahahaha, keuhahahahahaha! Ahihihihi!”
Zhang Mumu was so shocked that he stopped laughing after seeing Akhan act like a madman. Akhan laughed for a very long time. When his laughter died down, he said, “In the first place, the Food God is just someone insignificant.”
Akhan was sure of that. He might be hiding here to recover, but he was confident that he would be able to resume his activities soon. He would definitely have the power to make Athenae fall into ruin in a lot of different ways.
And during that process…
“After the servers have integrated, let’s tear Beyond the Heavens Kingdom apart and split their wealth cleanly.”
“I’m always grateful for your generosity.”
That was right. Akhan might be hiding right now but he was very confident in himself.
‘A player will surpass me? Me? Athenae’s early developer? You even asked them to hand me over? Ridiculous. What kind of bullshit do you think you’re spouting?’
Then, the door burst open as a man rushed inside while shouting, “GM! The Food God has posted a brief response on his SNS!”
“Ho? Really, now? What did he post? No, I’ll look at it myself,” Zhang Mumu said as he pulled his smartphone out and searched through SNS. Then, he saw the brief post that the Food God shared.
[Then, I’ll take the bastard by force.]
“Pfft. Fuhahahahahahahahaha!”
Zhang Mumu and Akhan laughed loudly. Then, Akhan said, “It seems like he’s going to take some action now. I assume that you can solve it well on your own.”
“Yes. Don’t worry. Hmm…” Zhang Mumu, who was still laughing, continued to scroll through the Food God’s SNS. However, the more he scrolled, the weirder his expression became.
“What’s the matter?” Akhan asked. Zhang Mumu’s expression clearly told him that he saw something unusual on his feed.
Zhang Mumu gulped first before opening his mouth and said in shock, “My god, his SNS is filled with 30,000 photos of food alone.”
“…”
“…”
***
Somewhere on the outskirts of Cairon Continent.
Clip, clop— clip, clop—
Three people were riding on a wagon headed towards Venaud Territory, a territory that was taken over by the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild just three months prior. One of the men, Lu Bai, looked like he was about to cry.
‘I was tricked…!’
Lu Bai was one of China’s unofficial rankers with a special, legendary class: ‘Savior’. It was not a Saint or a Paladin, but a good man that lived for the sake of others. He actually received a Class Transfer Quest while investigating the evil misdeeds of the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild. The quest name was actually ‘Savior’, just like his class name. It was a quest where he had to fight for the sake of the people that were suffering and have been robbed of their territories and return what was rightfully theirs.
The problem was that the opponent was the ‘Slaughterer’s Eye’ guild. Still, Lu Bai could not ignore those that were suffering from the atrocious deeds of the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild, so he did not abandon the quest and tried to find ways.
At the same time, in the open chat ‘The Ones Harmed by Slaughterer’s Eye Guild’, Lu Bai, as always, was talking and asking if there was a way to save people from the misdeeds of the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild. Then, a man suddenly popped up in the chat room.
[PlayingDead: How about letting them hear about the method that we thought about lately?]
[Hungry: It’s really simple. All you have to do is take away the territories, the dungeons and the hunting grounds that the Slaughterer’s Eye Guild have monopolized.]
It sounded difficult, but it was actually the most plausible and effective method. Lu Bai was thrilled to see this message in the chat room.
‘How strong are they to answer with such confidence?!’
Lu Bai did not feel any sort of pretentiousness from their message. Their wordings were oozing confidence. He immediately contacted them, really wanting to meet-up with them. Eventually, he did, but…
The man, with the unique nickname PlayingDead, was wearing a smiling clown mask while lazily stretched out in the middle of the wagon. He even scratched his left leg with his right foot in a lazy manner.
“This… What in the world are you doing?!”
“I’m playing dead.”
“…”
Lu Bai was choked to silence when he heard the man say that he was playing dead. As for the man with the nickname Hungry, Lu Bai had not seen him before. Perhaps he was an unofficial ranker? But…
“Stop! Wagon uncle, stooooooop!”
“What, what?! Is there an ambush?! Are there people hiding?! Are the bastards waiting for us?! Oh my god, you actually noticed that?! You’re really an unofficial rank…”
“There are mushrooms growing over there! You can’t just pass by mushrooms growing on the side of the road without harvesting them!”
The man nicknamed Hungry suddenly jumped out of the wagon to harvest mushrooms and eat them on the spot. Lu Bai was very shocked, he shouted, “Heok! Those are poisonous mushrooms…!”
The mushroom that the man picked were ‘Ampaer Mushrooms’, the most toxic and poisonous mushroom in the Cairon Continent. People were even known to die immediately after consuming this mushroom.
“Keok?!”
The man, who was eating the mushrooms hurriedly, suddenly grabbed his neck with both hands before falling down. Lu Bai, with worry plastered on his face, ran hurriedly to where the man fell down. The man grabbed Lu Bai’s wrists and hacked, “Heok, heok… the, the poisonous mushroom…”
“No, no way! Are you going to be forced to log out?! How, how can this be…!”
Was this strange man going to be forced to log out after eating poisonous mushrooms as soon as they met him?!
Then, the man continued to chew on the mushroom in his mouth before whispering, “…is, is very delicious.”
“…”
Lu Bai flung the man far away, as he looked up at the skies with tears in his eyes.
‘God, please…’
Lu Bai wondered if he should just run away and leave these crazy people behind.
‘Maybe I should really do it?!’