Child of Destiny

…

Shin and the rest of the group spent the entire month in a relatively relaxed manner. They spent the day training and attending classes, while the night was spent continuing to continue playing the game.

The Empyrean Talons had made quite a lot of progress in their respective missions and tasks within the game. They had discovered a great deal during the entire process, which also significantly enhanced their strength.

Shin was still trapped within the secret land. However, he was still able to explore a large portion of the region.

He had already marked quite a lot of grinding places, which were perfect for grinding levels and training their combat techniques. There were also farming regions that contained a wealth of rare treasures, including herbs, ores, and other minerals and materials used in production classes.

However, the places that he had explored were the outer layers of the secret land, which meant that there was still a lot left to explore.

Unfortunately, he could not explore those places yet because he was too weak for the monsters living there. He had to at least reach the level 190 mark as the minimum threshold before he would dare to explore those places.

Because he was still trapped in this secret land, Shin was unable to give any response to the invitation that Laurent had extended for the Empyrean Talons.

The month-long deadline had already been reached, so they needed to give Laurent a clear answer from the commission that he was offering to the group.

Fortunately, Leonard and Arthur agreed to it, especially when they were quite curious about the operation the Heavenly Resto-Bar was planning to do.

Moreover, Laurent and the organization behind him had also offered a significant prize that the Empyrean Talons could not refuse.

It was a clear clue about the inheritance gem that the Empyrean Talons had gotten from winning the United Cup, alongside a few more pieces of information that concerned a few important quests related to their respective Transcendent Races.

Among these clues was a quest related to Ancient Dragons, which piqued Arthur’s interest, especially when one of his ongoing quests was pointing in the same direction.

There was also another clue leading to the Legendary Behemoth, which Leonard was looking for. This monster was one of the World Bosses that he needed to hunt to gain the rare material needed for his Divine Armor.

The two agreed to help Laurent and the people from the Heavenly Resto-Bar while bringing Huahua alone.

It was a good opportunity for the girl to gain considerable experience. It was a high-level exploration quest, which involved an elite group of players who could rank quite high in their respective professions.

This was a good training opportunity for Huahua, experiencing how a highly elite group operated and how difficult the missions that the pinnacle experts of the game usually face.

Since the Heavenly Resto-Bar focused more on the trusted people who could help them, they did not think about how Leonard and Arthur had brought Huahua with them. After all, these two monsters alone were more than enough for them.

…

While the top experts of the game were busy dealing with their respective businesses, those new players who just joined the game were also causing quite a lot of commotion.

There was a huge influx of players joining the game due to the burst of popularity that it had gained after the United Cup.

There were also those experts from the real world joining the game. These people were at the Void Manifestation Stage, Ruler’s Realm, and Swordmaster Realm of the three major disciplines of the modern era.

They were either joining the game for fun and wanting to prove themselves, or had been sent by the huge organization behind them to look for the clues that had been left by Adam and Evangeline within the game.

The huge organizations launched big operations within the game, taking control of certain regions that had yet to be seized by the large guilds within the game.

Chaos immediately broke out due to the repeated clashes of these newly emerging forces and the old-timers of the game.

Aside from the regions that had been in tight control of the Powerhouse Guilds and powerful organizations within the game, most of the kingdoms and empires were thrown into absolute chaos.

The underground arenas were bursting in business due to the huge influx of experts appearing everywhere.

This place was the perfect place to grind some levels or wealth due to the special betting system that they had.

The Winner-takes-it-all format was the most famous one among all the experts since it would take everything from the losers before transferring it to the victors. This included the money, the items, the skills, and even the quest progression of the losers. All their assets will be taken away from them.

This was the same method that David had used when he just joined the game, letting him catch up to the mainstream players and even reach the level of the leading experts in the game.

This method had become famous, making the experts, who just joined the game, take the same path.

However, because of the huge number of experts flooding into the underground arenas, the system was forced to step in and place a series of conditions before they could join the battles.

The first requirement was the level requirement. Players below level 50 could no longer join the all-in battles or winner-takes-it-all bets.

They first needed to explore the game to a certain degree before they could even enter the underground arenas. There was even a series of quests that they needed to clear before they could even step into those arenas.

Even the players, who were running these underground arenas, were forced to comply with the new rules set by the Almighty System, making the real-world profits that they could earn from the combatants drop considerably.

However, the battles between the preceding combatants had become more intense because all the players joining them had become more experienced with the mechanics of the game.

Due to these new players being true experts in the real world, their adjustment period was a lot less than that of the casual players, making them catch up to the mainstream players a bit faster.

Even though they could still not use the hidden mechanics and special states that the top players of the game used, real-world experts were still able to build their strong and solid fighting style that would not lose to Godlike Players and Maverick Gods.

A lot of stars were also appearing one after another, giving the Mystery Pavilion, which was responsible for ranking the top Gods of the game, some pressure.

Most of the lists that they had released had become somewhat ’unreliable’ due to the constant appearances of powerful individuals regardless of their age.

Even the players from Production Profession could not escape the ’invasion’ due to a series of production experts appearing one after another.

Everyone knew that most of these lists needed to be updated as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for these newly joined experts, there was still a huge gap between them and the top experts of the game, who were mostly exploring the highest level of quests and regions that were still unavailable to them.

If they wanted to prove themselves, then they still had to pass all the trials before them, such as the Mysterious Instructor’s test and the Tier 3 Promotion Quest.

After all, what was inside the game was still different from what was in the real world.

However, these experts of Void Manifestation Stage, Ruler’s Realm, and Swordmaster Realm still had a better edge compared to most of the players within the game due to their deeper understanding of ’strength’ from their respective disciplines, just like how a weapon specialist understood their weapons better than the others.

The impact of these newly added experts in the game would still be huge, especially for those top guilds and other organizations within the game.

After all, these experts would have a better standing than most of the elders of these forces just by the difference in their strength alone.

Among the most powerful and most influential forces within the game, the one that had undergone a massive change was the Wing’s Alliance.

Due to its fame and overwhelming status as one of the Powerhouse Guilds within the game, its influence within the game was quite huge. They could even tilt the power balance of certain battles due to their influence alone.

No one knew who leaked the information first, but it was said that the Wing’s Alliance had changed hands due to the most recent power struggle.

The previous Alliance Leader was said to have been overthrown due to the involvement of a third party supporting the Supreme Elder of the guild, but there was no definite evidence to support this claim.

However, it was true that the leader of this super guild had changed, which was specifically leaked by a few leaders within the game.

It was also said that some of the remnant forces under the direct command of the previous leader were being pursued by the forces under the Supreme Elder.

There was even a video clip of S.Tigris and his team fighting against a Golden Feather, one of the most elite forces under the Wing’s Alliance.

S.Tigris and Black Hand were among the more famous members of the Wing’s Alliance due to their battle achievements. The latter was even listed in the Strategist List revealed to the public, proving that he was one of the brightest minds within the game.

With these two famous players being pursued by the Wing’s Alliance’s Golden Feather, the rumor surrounding the guild was immediately proven.

With the fans of the previous Alliance Leader causing a ruckus, the guild was suddenly thrown into an awkward position, especially after being scrutinized due to how ruthless the takeover was.

However, the higher echelons of the guild ignored everything and just focused on the process of taking over.

In their eyes, everything else was irrelevant so long as they properly seize the entire Wing’s Alliance.

…