Chapter 363
Chapter 363
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 363
Chapter Title: Netherworld (1)
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The strange thing was none other than the players.
An influx of other players? Well, that could happen.
They couldn't offer the same conveniences as they did for the Russian players, so they'd have to start by grinding reputation or favorability, but entry itself wasn't blocked outright.
The truly odd part, though, was the Russian players.
He spotted familiar faces among them.
Their skin had grown far paler, they gave off a fishy blood scent, and there was something sinister about them now.
It wasn't obvious at a glance, but Rokan could sense the difference clearly.
The line between white and pallid. And in this fantasy world, few had skin like that.
"Hey."
"Ah, Rokan-nim?"
Rokan's gear had changed a bit in the meantime, but not enough to be unrecognizable, so Cheryshev, who had been prepping for a hunt, hurried over.
[Cheryshev][Lv. 373]
His behavior wasn't much different from before. But Rokan's expression remained icy.
"You guys changed your race?"
Flinch.
Cheryshev's face twisted like someone caught red-handed, but after a moment's calculation, he answered honestly.
He figured lying to Rokan, who clearly already knew, might lead to some nasty fallout.
"Yes. As expected, you're sharp, Rokan-nim."
"Vampire?"
"Right. We're a bit weaker during the day, but we get advantages at night."
"Hmm."
Not a great choice.
Sure, like he said, there were benefits. Plenty of monsters grew stronger at night, spotting them was tough, and hunting got tricky—but becoming a vampire solved all that easily.
They could monopolize the fields during the nighttime hours when others couldn't hunt or had to hole up in dungeons, enabling faster growth. They could learn vampire-exclusive blood magic or boost their combat power with blood flow acceleration.
'But no matter how you slice it, this is self-sabotage...'
The problem was the fatal weaknesses they had to carry.
They were vulnerable to silver, mithril, holy water, and the like—so while potions were fine, holy water was off-limits. And they had to offer absolute obedience to higher bloodkin.
Absolute obedience.
A temporary vampirism from basic infection could be cured by dying once, but signing a contract and fully converting races created a rigid hierarchy.
They couldn't resist the superior bloodkin who turned them. If ordered to die, it wasn't a pretense—they'd have to actually die.
Methods existed to break it, of course, but they were tough. And their masters wouldn't just sit idly by.
'Well, none of my business anyway.'
If anything, werewolves might've been a better pick than vampires.
A bunch of retorts swirled in his mind, but Rokan held them back, including any pointed questions. No point if they were happy with it.
"Got it. Keep up the good work."
As Cheryshev walked away, others swarmed around him—it looked like most of the Russian players had gone through race conversion. Maybe it'd spread like a trend.
Even beyond just the Russians.
After all, becoming a vampire granted snow-white skin, tempting anyone chasing that Western beauty ideal.
Game or not, the instinct to look pretty was human nature.
'Wonder if it'll hit beauty potion sales?'
A way to look gorgeous without pricey beauty potions sparked a brief business worry, but race changes weren't easy for NPCs, unlike players.
Breaking the hierarchy was relatively harder for them too.
So it probably wouldn't dent beauty potion demand much. They were still spreading by word of mouth among NPCs only.
"Even if it takes a hit, the revenue's insane."
Rokan glanced at potion sales figures and made a slightly queasy face.
The profits were so massive even he felt it.
On top of that, the relay trade linking the Spirit Realm and Illusion Demon Realm was booming—no money worries ahead.
Same in reality. Born a dirt spoon and lived as one, but just selling the bitcoins from the American and Russian guilds would set him for life, right?
Bitcoin had once been a rollercoaster, but now it was stable—no sudden crash in sight.
Which meant he could dump every gold and coin from The Lord back into investments.
Like selling Heavenly Lord divine gear on the surface to extract Essences of Power, for instance.
[You have acquired an Essence of Power.]
Rokan squeezed several Essences of Power from monster hearts and spread rumors through his beauty potion sales network.
It kinda felt like hawking stamina boosters, but hey, it wasn't wrong. Getting stronger was getting stronger.
And thanks to that, Essences of Power started flying off the shelves too.
"Upper World must be chaos by now."
With revenue checks and reinvestments squared away, Rokan gathered intel on the Upper World and Demon Realm before heading back to the Spirit Realm.
He'd be operating around the expanded Upper World map anyway, so local news wasn't critical—but in a place where anything could pop off anytime, sizing up the situation was essential.
Sure enough, the flood of players into the Upper World had split them between Heavenly and Demon races, sparking all sorts of commotions.
"Still more internal chaos than outright clashes?"
The Upper World side was better off. The insufferably arrogant pure Heavenly Races were holding firm, so most were flat-out groveling.
Every player watched the pure Heavenly Races' eyes, dodging their ire or sucking up like parasites.
Demons, though? None of that. True to their might-makes-right world, fights were breaking out everywhere.
The issue was cases where certain nasty—no, ordinary(?)—demons pitted players against each other.
Quests themed around kin-slaying or betrayal were common, leaving players no choice but to fight and kill for growth.
Quests made it understandable, but no one was volunteering to die with a grin. Chaos and grudges followed naturally.
"Faction showdown's coming soon."
That was part of why Rokan's Demon Realm territory stayed popular.
With a pure human—not demon—as lord, even resident demons couldn't hand out that crap.
For players, it meant the safest, most straightforward growth path.
And you think the Heavenly and Demon Races would leave those powered-up players alone?
Fat chance. They were just nurturing them for utility.
Once players hit a certain level, quests targeting the Upper and Demon Realms would start dropping.
Rokan was an outlier—he'd grown freakishly and flipped both sides without any such quests.
Spotting it in a glance, Rokan tucked away a sly grin. He'd thought of a way to stir the pot even more, but the timing wasn't ripe.
He'd wait till player disputes—and war vibes—fully ripened.
Then he could reap bigger gains.
"Shall we head through for now?"
With that, he crossed back to the Spirit Realm. He'd already claimed massive quest-completion EXP, but one reward remained.
[You have received the Great Spirit's Blessing.]
[All elemental resistances increase by 30%.]
[All elemental attack powers increase by 30%.]
Great Spirit's Blessing!
It came from the Tree Great Spirit, but it wasn't limited to one attribute—every elemental resistance and attack power went up across the board.
His resistances already exceeded 100%, but 100% wasn't true immunity—the higher, the better.
"Any more tasks for me? Like fetching something, or attacking the Netherworld or Illusion Demon Realm...?"
"No. The incursions from the Illusion Demon Realm have been tapering off anyway, and the Netherworld... I know one or two people can't upend the natural order, no matter how much they buck it. Still, what you did this time will help a ton. No requests for now."
"Tch."
Rokan had hoped to boost his elemental skills while here and subtly fished for a quest from the Tree Great Spirit, but she shot it down flat.
It wasn't wariness toward him—just genuinely no need—so Rokan had nothing more to say and bailed.
'Might as well hit up the other attribute Great Spirits...?'
He lingered on the regret for a sec, then realized it was pointless. The Wind Great Spirit in her distant abode had said much the same—no quests.
"Damn, too filthy and cheap to bother."
In the end, Rokan scrapped any more quests in the Spirit Realm.
Kyuuu!
He'd have to stick around one more day thanks to Kai's pitiful, pleading cries for help.
The daily dates with Kai, promised to the spirits last time, were still going.
It had drawn big crowds before, but after hitting Lv. 400, it felt like every spirit in the realm had shown up.
He spent the day that way, reverse-summoned the wiped-out Kai, and Rokan set off on a fresh adventure.
"Hmm, where to?"
Time to head somewhere beyond the Illusion Demon Realm or Spirit Realm.
Two routes: cut through the Netherworld or skirt the Spirit Realm's outskirts. Rokan picked the Netherworld path.
He'd come this far—waste not to properly tour it, right?
Sure, he'd once looted a small village there, dominated its ghosts, and fought, but he hadn't gotten a real look or proper hunt.
'Undead always drop fat EXP.'
More precisely, he coveted their experience points.
Undead like ghosts were stingy with items but showered more EXP than equivalent monsters.
For Rokan, who couldn't care less about cash or loot, chasing max EXP was a no-brainer.
[You have entered the Netherworld.]
"Heh heh heh, time to suck some honey."
With light prep done, Rokan strode boldly into the Netherworld.
Truth be told, he didn't need much.
Standard play against incorporeal ghosts was stocking holy water or enchant spells since normal physical attacks bounced—but Grand Master Rokan could self-buff with enchants and blessings.
Plus, ghost monsters' signature mental attacks? His Unyielding Will title shut them down cold.
At this point, he was their natural predator, no question.
Evil spirit domination might block EXP gains, but beyond that, numbers or not, the Netherworld held no threats for him.
"Storm Incarnation!"
Layering in insights from his Storm battle kicked off the slaughter.
The Netherworld soon rang with the screams of resentful souls.