* * *

Cale quietly looked at the mirror.

‘Blonde hair and blue eyes isn’t bad.’

He smiled like the crown prince.

“Human, who are you planning on scamming?”

The smile disappeared from Cale’s face.

“He’s copying the crown prince, nya!”

Hong shouted.

“No matter what it is, being your own self is the most important, nya. It is difficult to copy the crown prince’s smile, nya.”

On seriously advised him.

Cale paid attention to On’s advice.

“That’s right, human! That is your pretending to be nice smile! The crown prince’s elegance does not suit you! Human, you, you, mm, how should I describe it?!”

On calmly answered while Raon couldn’t continue.

“I thought he was a bad person but he was actually a good person? That kind of smile is what suits you, nya.”

“That’s right. That’s it! Our human looks really mean when his face is stoic but when he smiles nicely just once, that decreases anybody’s vigilance significantly!”

“Haaaaaaa.”

Cale sighed and put the baby carrier back on.

Clack.

Eden Miru’s recovery rate was now at 65%.

“Hey Eden Miru, did you sleep well?”

Clack. Clack.

The egg twitched.

“Yeah. You slept well? I slept well too!”

Raon smiled brightly.

Clack.

Cale stared at the twitching egg.

Last night, Eden Miru (state: egg) was hugged by Raon and Raon slept very well while hugging Eden Miru.

‘I wonder if Eden Miru actually slept well?’

When Cale woke up, he saw that Eden Miru (state: egg) who was tightly hugged by Cale, was covered in Raon’s drool.

“…Good luck.”

Cale looked down at the egg and subconsciously gave some consoling words.

Cla-

The egg started and then suddenly stopped twitching.

Cale, who felt like he could understand what the egg was feeling, patted the egg that was wrapped in the flower-patterned cloth and left the room.

He then headed to the restaurant on the first floor.

– Oh, human! There are a lot of people!

The restaurant was almost completely full despite it being morning time.

“I heard the Temple of the Sun God got attacked last night!”

“It was so chaotic until early this morning because of that! Did they say they found the culprits?”

The NPCs were chatting.

“Any of you know a priest of the Sun God?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to even get close to the Temple of the Sun God right now. I thought I might be able to get a quest, but it seems difficult.”

The users chatting in groups of three to five.

Of course, the users seemed wary of the nearby NPCs as they were chatting quietly.

‘Cale. The users try their best to make it so that the NPCs cannot tell that they are foreigners.

The NPCs instinctively knew who the foreigners were and treated the users that way, but…

The users tried their best not to use words from outside the game or reveal that this was a game in front of the NPCs.

‘It’s because the way the NPCs treat the foreigners in the game is slowly turning hostile.’

Cale recalled the information Alberu gave him and headed toward an empty seat.

The little girl from yesterday, the subordinate of the Sixth Evil, came over to Cale and received his order.

“Didn’t you eat already?”

“I’m going to eat again.”

Cale had ordered breakfast to the room and this was naturally eaten by the children averaging ten-years-old.

Cale had come downstairs to get some food for himself.

“…….”

The little girl, the subordinate of the Sixth Evil in charge of the information organization, quietly observed Cale before speaking again as if nothing happened.

“Apparently something major happened at the Temple of the Sun God last night.”

“Hooooo. Is that so?”

Cale looked down at the little girl’s feet.

There had been no shadow but it was slowly starting to appear.

The Evil Spirit of the Sixth Evil. It was that guy.

The girl calmly asked again.

“Do you know anything about it?”

Cale smiled.

“I’m not sure about that. What would someone like me know?”

“Meeow!”

On used gentle movements and landed on Cale’s knees at that moment.

Cale petted On’s fur as he continued to speak.

“Ah right. Was it chaos? I heard it was a group associated with the God of Chaos?”

“…….”

The little girl went silent.

The girl and the Sixth Evil were well-aware that Cale, as a subordinate of the Seventh Evil in their minds, had no relation to the God of Chaos.

Cale had said to her that he was going to go to the Temple of the Sun God to capture the damn rats trying to destroy this world.

“!”

“……!”

But some people reacted to Cale’s comments.

It was the users nearby.

They knew that Cale was an NPC.

There were talks of chaos all over the Breeze-Anne community board, so Cale was just releasing another piece of information.

“Mm. What was it again?”

The people were talking while paying attention to Cale.

“Did they say there was a group that serves the God of Chaos?”

‘Jackpot.’

He heard someone mumbling.

Cale looked toward the person. His instincts were telling him something.

This guy was a user.

“!”

He made eye contact with Cale and tried to look away but Cale just smiled.

He then nonchalantly commented.

“I am a wanderer. So there are some things that I have heard along the way.”

The user who made eye contact with Cale, ‘King Fist Kang Seung Koo,’ gave up avoiding Cale’s gaze and looked at the NPC with two kittens.

The stories that NPCs told while claiming they heard about it-

‘There’s something here!’

Most of them ended up the starting point of major incidents.

King Fist Kang Seung Koo wasn’t a total veteran, but he was a decently experienced user, so he slowly tilted toward Cale.

‘No.’

He got up from his seat.

There were other users here as well.

‘You need to monopolize information!

No, the quests!’

This wanderer may end up giving out a quest.

‘He’s a new NPC who just appeared for the first time!’

Furthermore, this NPC was a weirdo with kittens and an egg.

An extremely weird NPC who covered up an egg in a flower-patterned cloth and carried it around in a baby carrier!

But look at his face!

‘I’m certain this guy is going to play an important role in this story!’

Blonde hair and blue eyes.

He called himself a wanderer but he was even more handsome than the Archduke who was known to be the most handsome in the Breeze Empire.

To describe it better-

‘He looks like the bad kind of handsome!’

The gentle morning sunlight-like feeling that his blonde hair gave off was pushed aside by the features of his ears, eyes, mouth, and nose, making it feel like gold that was shining in a dangerous place.

The tired but relaxed vibe he was giving off…

Furthermore, the way he was smiling made him look like an adventurer with lots of experience.

‘But he looks like a good guy!’

There were all sorts of NPCs in New World.

Evil, Neutral, Good. The dispositions were split into these three, but there were some who had good disposition but were bad and some whose dispositions were bad but were good.

Sometimes an NPC’s individual disposition was different from their associated disposition.

‘And-’

The stereotypical thing with these handsome wanderers-

‘They look bad because they are weak and mischievous, but… If you get to know them, they are good people who often sacrifice themselves for the greater good!’

King Fist Kang Seung Koo trusted his instincts and approached Cale’s table.

“Ahem. Could you please explain in detail?”

“Hooooo. For free?”

King Fist Kang Seung Koo addressed the little girl.

“This sir’s meal is on me.”

“Haha. Thank you very much!”

Cale smiled brightly.

“My name is King Fist.”

“Ah, you are a foreigner. I am a nameless wanderer.”

Cale chatted with the user while stealthily giving the little girl a glance.

“…….”

The silently staring girl smiled at Cale.

Cale then addressed King Fist again.

“Free information is useless. In that aspect, Mr. King Fist, you are a wise man.”

He was actually talking to the little girl.

No, to be more accurate, he was warning the shadow fluctuating by the little girl’s feet.

The shadow was shaking as if he was trying to hold back because there were a lot of people here.

The Sixth Evil was quite annoyed with Cale right now.

That was the reason Cale said this.

‘Nothing is free.’

If you want something, bring something of equal value.

The little girl opened her mouth.

“…Your requested order, I will prepare it quickly.”

It seemed improper of a response for a food order, but Cale was satisfied.

It was the answer he had wanted.

“Ahem. Ahem.”

King Fist let out a fake cough.

He was visibly anxious.

‘What the hell? Is he a noob?’

Cale had that thought while looking at King Fist but ignored it.

There was a reason he had looked at King Fist.

‘He was by himself.’

Everybody was in groups but King Fist had been alone.

He didn’t know whether this guy was doing solo play or if he had some sort of reason for it, but…

‘He also looked a bit awkward.’

The users nearby looked like they knew about King Fist so he didn’t seem like a complete nobody.

‘He’s suitable for my needs in many ways.’

This user was a suitable person for Cale to test something.

– Human, are you finally testing if you can give quests as well?

It was as Raon had described.

This was Cale’s first test to see if he could give a ‘quest’ to a ‘user.’

Cale had a question until now.

‘How are the Hunters able to lead the RPOG New World as they wish?

Was it possible because the Transparent Bloods were the owners of the Virtual Reality game company?’

That made no sense.

There were billions of users playing this game.

A couple company employees were able to handle all of those variables?

‘It’s impossible.’

That was impossible.

‘And one more thing.’

The system believed that the way the Transparent © was running the game was problematic. It believed that the rule-breaking variables they had created were resulting in situations throughout the game that it could not figure out.

Basically, it was unable to figure out how this world was flowing.

‘Of course, such a gap allowed the system to create the AI, One.’

Mutant NPCs were appearing throughout the game and that led to the situation where it could support Cale, but…

‘Although the first focus is the Transparent Bloods…

I also need to know how the World of the Gods, the Demon World, and even the Hunters are able to create situations in RPOG that suit their needs.’

The most important condition for that…

‘Quest.’

Quests were one of the biggest things that got users to move in the game.

‘If the Hunters and the bastards from the World of the Gods are able to give them to the users…’

They would be able to increase their influence in the game while hiding their identities.

Cale recalled what the Heinous Dark Bear had said.

‘Mm. Are you talking about quests, my liege?’

‘I guess you could say that we have a duty? We have a conviction.’

A conviction or duty that started when they began existing as NPCs or monsters…

‘We follow that to give quests.’

RPOG was popular because of the variety of quests.

As long as it didn’t go against the big picture, NPCs could give all sorts of quests to users.

“Ahem.”

Cale slowly started to address King Fist who was letting out fake coughs while cautiously looking at Cale.

“Do you happen to know about the underworld here?”

Ding.

An alarm went off in Cale’s mind.

[Will you create a quest?]

“The underworld?”

King Fist flinched at the unexpected topic.

“Yes. This is something I heard while wandering around. Apparently someone is claiming to be a member of a secret organization named ‘Arm’ and is trying to take control of the different underworlds.”

“!”

King Fist’s eyes opened wide.

Everybody else around them tried their best to listen in.

However, Cale and King Fist’s voices were quiet.

“Those guys, Arm-”

“Apparently their outfits are similar to the ones worn by the group who attacked the Temple of the Sun God last night.”

“!”

King Fist’s eyes opened wide.

‘This is really big!’

Has the underworld or the back alleys ever been a part of the mainstream?

‘Never!’

Of course, there were intermittent quests regarding the underworld when you went to the Land of Mercenaries, but… Most of those quests revolved taking care of petty thugs or the black market. IT had never involved a large group or the Sun God like this.

Thump, thump.

King Fist Kang Seung Koo realized that his gaming life had arrived at a major crossroad.

“And that ‘Arm’ seems to be a group that serves the God of Chaos.”

The handsome NPC in front of King Fist was continuing to say things that made his heart thump loudly.

“The problem is that that is not the only thing I have heard.”

– Human, human!

Raon quickly cut Cale off.

– But human, none of those things you just said are true?

That was right.

Cale was creating a rumor right now.

Of course, it was going to happen in the near future.

He was starting that future with a quest first.

“Mr. King Fist. Do you happen to know about the Kingdom of Darkness?”

“Excuse me?”

There was no such kingdom in New World.

Of course, Cale would create it now.

Only verbally of course.

It would be an illusion with no real backing.

However-

[Is the core topic of the quest the ‘Kingdom of Darkness?’]

Couldn’t he turn an illusion like that into reality through a quest?

“I, is there such a kingdom?”

“Well, you see.”

Cale’s voice became a bit louder.

I heard that if a major force appears to try to destroy the underworlds of New World, a guardian will appear to protect the underworld.”

“!”

The guardian of the underworld.

King Fist Kang Seung Koo instantly figured out the context behind it.

Experience did not just disappear.

“Is that Kingdom of Darkness the guardian-?”

Cale quietly nodded his head.

“’With the existence of light, shadows are bound to exist. Defeating the terrible evils in the shadows, protecting the people who can only live in the shadows, and guarding the shadows itself… The Kingdom of Darkness is a place made by those people.’ I have heard of such a legend that exists.”

“Ho. A legend-”

King Fist Kang Seung Koo got chills.

‘Such a major quest exists?! I heard there were many hidden things with this update!

This is fucking crazy!’

His post would reach the top if he shared even just this much information with the community.

Boom boom. His heart was beating wildly.

The handsome NPC continued.

“Arm, the group trying to take over all of the underworlds of New World and the Kingdom of Darkness. I’ve heard that there has been a major conflict between the two sides.”

Cale was actually behind both Arm and the Kingdom of Darkness.

So technically, the two sides were allies.

But that was something only Cale’s side knew about.

But Cale was making it right now.

He was making a variable that the Hunters and all of the enemies did not know about.

“…But you see.”

King Fist suddenly asked with a serious look on his face.

“…What is your name?”

As someone with experience, King Fist found this wanderer in front of him to be weird.

‘Yeah. There is no way such an oddly handsome NPC is just a regular wanderer!

Plus, he looks handsome like a bad guy!

But he actually seems to be a good guy!

If it is an NPC with such a role!’

“…Based on what you said, Arm seems to want to bring chaos and war to the underworld while the Kingdom of Darkness wants to protect and guard, but…”

This tamer NPC in front of him…

King Fist trusted his sharp instincts and asked.

“Which side are you on?”

The handsome NPC smiled.

“Who knows.”

Cale gave a dubious smile and looked at the screen that only he could see.

[Creating a quest.]

[Main theme: The War between Arm and the Kingdom of Darkness]

[*Determining the grade of the quest.]

King Fist’s eyes then went to a half-transparent window that only he could see.

Cale spoke from behind the window.

“I am just a wanderer leaning into the darkness.”

Ding!

A quest window appeared in front of King Fist.

Cale’s voice reached his ears.

“However, I am someone who also knows that the darkness is sometimes the warmer place.”

[You are the first to discover a main quest.]

[Main quest: Chaos and Darkness]

“!”

King Fist felt a thrill throughout his whole body.

[You have found a clue about the Kingdom of Darkness.]

[Will you approach the true nature of Darkness?]

‘Ah.’

King Fist clenched his fists under the table.

The great first step.

After the update, the users who could not participate in creating a kingdom had ended up as bystanders.

But one of those bystanders had just discovered a different main quest that he could participate in.

Cale quietly looked at the quest window that he had created.

[Main quest: Chaos and Darkness]

[Details currently being created.]

[‘War, politics, religion, establishing a nation.’ The quest can be split into these four paths.]

‘Hooo.’

Cale’s smile became thicker.

‘I finally know how those Hunter bastards turned RPOG into their playing field.’

The enemies were hiding themselves as NPCs, mid-level NPCs, and game users.

‘I’m sure they will pop out if a completely unexpected content appears.’

Cale made up his mind.

He decided he would be the one to lead this battlefield.

He was tired of being dragged around.

– Human, but isn’t this making the playing field way too big?

That was the exact reason he was doing this.

The wandering shadow, the mid-level NPC Cale, smiled.

===================

< Urgent! New main theme appears in Breeze-Anne! >

First ever main theme regarding the underworld!

There is also a hidden kingdom! It is one we did not know about! Holy shit, what a jackpot!

– What is he saying?

– The Breeze-Anne users are going crazy looking for the wandering tamer.

– Hey. You are Weak Fist Kang Seung Koo, right?

– What? Weak fist?

– Ah, sorry about the Weak Fist. What I mean is, hey you motherfucking Cotton Fist, tell us more!

– What, cotton??

– Holy shit, I’m going to Breeze today.

===================

—

Translator’s Comments

Weak fist, King Fist, will we see more of this side character?

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