Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: The Perfect Fortress City
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After that, the process proceeded without any hitches.
I cleared the dungeon that spawned at landing point A-1 and completed the siege battle. Then I built an advanced-grade castle right there. Honestly, even the 500,000 won I spent on it felt like a waste, but I endured it, thinking of it as an investment in the future.
‘Still, this is perfect positioning.’
What was A-1 on the go board coordinates? It was the bottom-left corner—the very edge of the board, one of its four corners.
In other words, the lowest level.
It was the tutorial area you arrived at if you picked dwarf when starting Revenge for the first time.
‘And it even drops food ingredients.’
I installed a large fountain in the center of the advanced-grade castle and had the refugees from the Holy Empire settle there.
It was an advanced-grade fortress—not even rare-grade, let alone hero-grade—so it was too small for a million refugees, but that didn’t matter.
‘Most of them will stay in Ignition anyway.’
Even though the Flame Demon King had built it to raise sacrifices, it was impossible for all those over a million people, who had lived there for over a year, to abandon such a fine city all at once.
Most of the city bordered the desert, but it had a fairly large oasis in the center, enough to sustain them for a while.
Of course, it couldn’t last forever.
‘The mine slaves who supplied hellhound meat are gone now.’
For a million people to keep surviving, food would eventually become the bottleneck.
[Upgrading Crude Brick Castle (Advanced) to Fine Fortress (Rare)!]
[Upgrading Fine Fortress (Rare) to Perfect Fortress City (Hero)!]
Rumble rumble rumble!
The walls of Blazing Castle rose to 40 meters. They thickened enough for a bus to drive atop them, and magic circles imbued with anti-magic properties etched across the entire surface. Watchtowers and mana turrets sprouted between sections of the wall, along with an auto-repair function that consumed stockpiled resources.
But even seeing all that, my heart wasn’t at ease.
‘Ah, I want to build a legendary castle.’
But I couldn’t.
[Upgrade this castle?]
[Yes (300,000 diamonds), No.]
‘Hah, shit.’
30 million won. Unlike the old days when I had billions in diamonds, I just didn’t have the spare cash now.
“This is, really, nothing short of…….”
While I sighed, Harmony groaned in awe at the growing walls.
“A miracle from the gods. To create a castle this grand with a mere gesture.”
“Well, this much. It’s just a shack compared to Iron Castle.”
It had stopped at hero-grade for now, but ultimately, this place would become [Gigas Land] too. In Ardania right now, raw power was the most important thing, no matter what anyone said.
Amusement park types packed with entertainment, succubus city types for meeting alluring opposites, office center types for efficient business, vast forest types for encountering spirits and nature—they all had lower efficiency in Ardania.
Every player in Ardania was free-to-play anyway.
Buildings for farming diamonds were nothing but luxuries.
“Well, still…… gotta spend where it counts.”
I spent diamonds to build one structure.
[Beginning construction of 2,000-seat Semicircular Theater (Advanced)!]
A stage rose from an empty lot on one side of Blazing Castle. Harmony, who had been so composed until now, lit up with excitement.
“Oh my god! I’ve never seen such a pristine stage! And the instruments too!”
She practically flew onto the stage. It was equipped with keyboards, electric guitars, drums, and all sorts of instruments.
Ting~ ting! Ting!
Harmony pressed the keyboard keys. She tested them one by one.
Ding~♬ Di di ding~~♪
She improvised a whole piece on the spot. A pretty pleasant melody spread out.
“Not bad. What’s it called?”
“I just made it up, so no title yet. But the pitch is so clean! Just pressing the keys produces sound like this—I’ve never seen instruments like these!”
As if her prior calm had been a lie, Harmony bounced around excitedly, leaving me tilting my head in confusion.
“You just played it, so how is this the first time you’ve seen instruments like these……?”
Whether I was puzzled or not, the other actors gathered around.
“Wow, check out the floor material! You could fall and not get hurt!”
“Listen to the acoustics!”
“The backstage area is huge and spotless!”
“Oh my god! There’s a separate shower room! No, a massive mirror!”
I’d worried they might be disappointed by the small stage, but fortunately, they all seemed satisfied.
‘Well, their enthusiasm is a good sign.’
Honestly, I didn’t know much about music. Just as Ardania’s literature wasn’t popular on Earth, music might not catch on there either.
‘But at least…… it sounded pretty good to me.’
And if so, I had to nurture them. Art was the one thing from Ardania that could be exported to Earth, so expanding from literature to the arts wasn’t a bad strategy.
I handed a booklet to Edward, leaving the actors and orchestra from Great Hall behind.
“Memorize this.”
“……What’s this? Wait, what is it?”
“Ninety-Nine Light Sword Forms. A martial art that, at mastery, lets you manifest ninety-nine swords of light.”
They called it myth-confirmed, but I couldn’t raise him as a priest. It’d be too risky to let him advance on the priest tech tree and encounter the outer god he’d originally made contact with.
Honestly, I didn’t know if he had talent for swordsmanship, magic, or spirit arts.
What I did know for sure.
He had already awakened aura, and it was light-attribute.
“Is it okay to give me something like this? Or not?”
“I gave it because it is. Memorize it first. I’ll teach you the parts you don’t get once you’re done.”
“……Yes, sir.”
After sending him off, I sat on the jade throne and opened the [Book of Light].
‘The last treasure-grade book.’
It wasn’t the original. The Holy Empire had made 100 handwritten copies to spread the word of god.
‘It’ll be fine.’
A bit disappointing, but wasn’t I making copies myself?
The result was a copy anyway, so whether the source was original or not didn’t matter. Most of the works I’d sponsored were items from libraries anyway.
‘The issue is…… even after copying, there’s no immediate income.’
For some inexplicable reason, the island where [Survival Island] was ongoing remained isolated.
No playing the online game Revenge, no outside communication.
Even if I finished copying, I couldn’t get sponsorships, so my limited spending power would just dwindle. Until Earth’s Five Dragons killed all the transcendent-grade monsters, there wasn’t much I could do properly.
“Log out.”
On Earth—precisely, in Green Dragon Flower’s flower carriage—I continued the copying. I couldn’t serialize yet, but saving the documents meant I could upload them all at once later.
“Log in.”
Time kept passing as I worked.
The flag regiment that left Iron Castle safely arrived at World Tree Castle and Storm Castle, beginning their defense.
What was surprising was the scale.
“30,000 people?”
I had connected the underground paths and surface routes using landworms, and seeing thousands of wagons, 10,000 players, and 20,000 civilians moving underground left my jaw dropping.
Players’ families, merchants, laborer soldiers, etc.
It went beyond just defending the castles—they could form a small city.
“Yes, Your Majesty. We had to thin out the volunteers—they were too many.”
“Why so many? It’s far away, and not perfectly safe.”
Hero-grade castles with apartment-complex-level walls looked impregnable, but high-level or flying monsters could breach them anytime. No need to go far—the wyverns that attacked Iron Castle recently were a case in point.
“Yes, it’s dangerous. But it’s also a land of opportunity.”
“A land of opportunity…….”
I looked at the man speaking in a calm voice.
“So that’s why you came personally, bringing your knights.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Shockingly, Hundred had arrived at Storm Castle with his Silver Cross Knights. For someone of his stature in the Human Empire to come to the frontier!
We’d only exchanged a few words, but I grasped the situation instantly.
“Drop items are the issue.”
“Exactly.”
Just two years ago in Ardania, meat was a food for special occasions only. Starvation was daily life—no exaggeration.
When I fed the refugees whole-leg barbecue and meat stew, their tears of delight weren’t acted.
‘But things are different now.’
These days, the least popular ingredient in the Human Empire was wild boar meat. Especially roasted boar legs—some gagged at the smell alone.
‘They’re sick of it.’
Even favorite foods get tiresome if eaten three times a day, 365 days a year. Wild boar meat’s value had plummeted, cheaper than the same volume of potatoes or corn.
Rare items are valuable; common ones are trash, even if same utility.
Bone longswords, boar hides—overproduced item prices had tanked. Goblin items from starting areas were the same, and even drops from Ice Queen’s Paradise Dungeon were slowly dropping in price.
‘Not that I chased them out forcibly, but people scattering to empty landing points for the same reason.’
And flocking to the two newly ‘conquered’ dragon veins? Same deal.
‘Not bad.’
They came to run dungeons, not defend castles, but that still boosted the castles’ forces. I was glad players chased their own desires.
“Don’t monopolize dungeons or abuse authority.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
“Good. It’s nice seeing you all work hard.”
Back at Blazing Castle, I checked city populations via Flower. Light Castle, directly connected to Iron Castle, already had over 150,000 residents.
That wasn’t all.
“Birth registrations this year: 870,000…….”
The Human Empire’s total population barely topped 6 million—that was insane. It meant the people, having overcome the crisis somewhat and able to eat, were starting families.
Even accounting for the elderly dying off in the monster crisis, lowering average age, the population boom was astonishing.
‘Yes. As monsters grow stronger…… we humans grow and prosper too.’
Not just population—now players increased without me handing out class cards. Players earning massive gold paid the 1 million gold guild creation fee, then used honor coins from attendance and achievements to buy low-grade class summons.
“How many guilds exist now…….”
I opened the guild window. Checking active guilds was easy.
One Guild (1/418)
“It’s accelerating…… It’ll hit 500 soon.”
The seeds of players I’d steadily sown with 24/7 part-time grinding were sprouting into a forest.
In a few more years like this, maybe everyone in the Human Empire would be a player.
“Log out.”
Back on Earth, I finished copying the Book of Light. Skimming it, I thought.
‘As expected…… it’s plagiarized from the Bible?’
I’d never read the Bible, but familiar passages dotted the Book of Light.
Verses often quoted in games and movies.
But not exactly the same.
Instead of Jesus or Yahweh, it spoke of the Five Gods: Heavenly God, Demon God, God of Civilization, God of Nature, and Goddess of Fate.
“Ah, but it’s not straight copy-paste…… What’s the sponsorship policy on plagiarism?”
Whatever the policy, I couldn’t tell now without serializing.
“Log in.”
I tidied the documents roughly and returned to Ardania. Having spent plenty of time in the flower carriage, I planned to sleep soundly then head into battle.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”
The moment I decided my next move, someone burst through the lord’s castle doors. Looking down from the throne, I saw Edward charging toward me with a gleaming sword.
Anyone seeing him would mistake him for an assassin.
“What? I’m going to bed.”
“Look at this!”
Whoooong!
Light surged from the sword he held.
It was tangible inner energy, the mark of a peak master.
Sword aura.
“This is the light sword I mentioned before!!! I just need 98 more, right?”
I stared in disbelief at the beaming blond kid.
‘No way…… is this guy nuts?’
Edward had become a sword master.