The Lucky Box Event
They never even had a chance to check who the admin was.
They simply could not wrap their heads around the update unfolding in real time before their eyes.
By and large, the users seemed satisfied with the changes sweeping through the community.
Of course, plenty of users did have complaints. Had being the operative word.
They simply vanished!
In any case, buoyed by the positive sentiment that had survived his dazzling display of muting and banning, Karlstein ascended to the administrator's seat without so much as a blush.
It was then that a post from the administrator appeared. The author's handle sported a bright orange tag, and users could tell at a glance who it was just from the font size, the color, and the flashy text effects.
All eyes converged on the appearance of an administrator such as none of them had ever seen before.
> Bypassing authentication...
> Injecting administrator credentials...
> Seizing control of interface...
> HACK SUCCESSFUL
The community went utterly berserk over the post by this so-called "UniverseEmperor" of an administrator.
An interdimensional matter transmission system?
For a moment, people wondered whether their eyes were deceiving them. If such a system truly existed, didn't that mean they could send and receive actual objects—no longer limited to scrawling posts at each other across the void?
"There are over a few thousand comments already."
Even someone as idle as Karlstein found it impossible to check them all—the comments were pouring in by the second, after all.
The community was awash with skepticism.
And well it should have been. How many transcendent beings had passed through this community over the long years of its existence? Among them, naturally, there had been those suspicious of the enigmatic Interdimensional Integrated Community who threw themselves into analyzing and researching it.
But those hopes were trampled thoroughly into the dirt. No one ever managed to uncover anything definitive about the Interdimensional Integrated Community.
Every one of them shook their head and demurred. They could sense the unknown energy linked to the community, but nothing beyond that. Of course, there had been one being who came close—a human, or rather, a Demon King.
The conclusion was: impossible. The Demon King of Wisdom had once managed to induce a temporary error in the community, but that was the extent of it—a pathetic return for the half of his lifespan he had offered up as tribute just to cause that one glitch.
And so, across the long years, the community's existence came to be regarded as no more remarkable than the sun rising in the sky—a phenomenon of nature, plain and simple.
Still, Karlstein's words found skeptics and believers alike.
Yet skeptics and believers alike shared one thing in common.
If only it were true.
Would that not amount to a truly staggering change? Even those who pushed back, calling it a lie, calling it empty bluster, had allowed themselves a fleeting moment of hope.
Perhaps the reason they resisted so fiercely was simply that they could not bear to be disappointed again.
"Everyone's in an uproar."
Karlstein grinned as he watched the community blaze like a wildfire. The feeling washing over him was, somehow, one he hadn't experienced in a very long time.
"Aria, what happened to the transmission system test we scheduled last time?"
Coordinate lock cannot be stabilized, Human, making transmission to a precise target impossible. Accordingly, the first phase will employ randomized transmission in order to collect data.
"So we're scattering it at random, then?"
Yes, precisely, Human.
"Then here's what we'll do."
In high spirits, Karlstein uploaded a post.
Naturally, the community didn't just catch fire—it came within a hair's breadth of exploding.
Karlstein gazed fondly upon the community, now several times livelier than before. This was exactly what he had hoped for.
Lich King Raymond.
The being posting under the handle LichGonnaLich was sovereign of all liches and the absolute ruler of the Veriano Continent.
I have devoted my entire existence to the study of dimensional magic. I gathered every grimoire and arcane record the continent possessed, devoured every treatise on magic the community had to offer, and completed my theoretical verification down to the last axiom. And it is I, of all beings, who declares it impossible—
Thud.
Raymond's monologue cut off at the unfamiliar sound from somewhere behind him.
"…"
The Lich King's cervical vertebrae creaked as his skull rotated, slowly, toward the noise.
"!!"
A short while later, the Lich King's third rib was uploaded to the community as a verification shot.