Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: The Core of the Reset is the Increase in Simultaneous Users and Awakeners
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“Haah, the sanctuary...”
The reaction came first from Baylor, who had been outside.
Geon-woo’s gaze naturally turned toward him.
“What is it?”
“They say it’s been taken over.”
Baylor looked at Geon-woo with a puzzled expression, clearly not understanding himself.
“Why would...”
Geon-woo turned around to look at the sanctuary.
He spotted the elite jiangshi still lingering inside, having followed behind.
“They must’ve judged that those guys occupied the sanctuary? Isn’t this actually for the best?”
Paeng pointed at the elite guard jiangshi as he spoke.
Geon-woo chuckled at that and called the elite guard jiangshi to his side.
The elite guard jiangshi promptly emerged from inside.
“Let’s go in.”
Once all the jiangshi were out, Geon-woo called to Paeng.
“Come in with us?”
“They’re checking species, right? So it should be fine if we go in together.”
“True enough. Heh heh.”
“What kind of laugh is that?”
“No, nothing. Let’s go in.”
Ignoring Geon-woo’s jab, Paeng grabbed his arm with a pleased grin and pulled him along.
Geon-woo and Paeng reentered the sanctuary like that.
This time, they had sent all the jiangshi outside.
The jiangshi who had exited naturally blocked the sanctuary entrance.
“Hmm.”
“Baylor Executive, the obelisk is glowing again...”
“Reset...”
As Geon-woo and Paeng entered the now-empty sanctuary and approached the obelisk, it emitted a pure white light.
Geon-woo placed his palm on the obelisk, and at the same moment, its white light shifted to green.
“It’s done.”
Baylor muttered with a dejected expression upon seeing it.
He had realized in that instant that Geon-woo had become the obelisk’s owner.
But he quickly composed himself and nodded.
“As Executive Kang said, this might actually be better. No one else can access that obelisk now.”
“Is that really okay?”
The Commander asked with a worried look.
“Until now, there were too many people involved. It’d be better if Executive Kang Geon-woo and Paeng managed it.”
In the meantime, Paeng also placed his hand on the obelisk.
“True, there were way too many people with authority to operate the obelisk.”
“That’s why we couldn’t even properly use its functions. We barely got some soulstones out of it.”
“You mean there are other functions besides that?”
“Honestly, I don’t know much either. It’s said that the Prophet’s obelisk gains more functions based on the total soulstones acquired by users.”
“Why didn’t you check that?”
The Commander asked with a confused expression.
“Unanimous consent.”
“Pardon?”
“To unlock new functions, everyone with authority has to agree—and it never happened even once. They all hid behind anonymity and did whatever they wanted.”
Baylor shook his head with a weary look.
“Listening to this, it really does seem like Executive Baylor is right—this might’ve been for the best.”
The Commander glanced toward Geon-woo and Paeng in the sanctuary plaza.
“Yeah.”
“Honestly, having dictators or heads of massive shadowy organizations mixed in when selecting humanity’s representatives was way over the line.”
“Well, they were picked based on influence in the world. And the system chose them—what can you do?”
“Anyway, I approve of resetting this obelisk. Executive Kang Geon-woo or Paeng would keep things fair.”
As Baylor openly voiced his distrust of those so-called humanity representatives, the Guardians began showing positive reactions to the obelisk reset.
In the midst of that, the elite guard jiangshi blocking the sanctuary entrance entered.
Geon-woo had finished taking over the obelisk and called them inside.
“Executive Baylor, you come in too, Executive. Everyone else as well.”
At that moment, Paeng called out to Baylor and the Guardians.
“Looks like it’s over.”
Baylor approached Geon-woo’s side with the Guardians and spoke right away.
“This time, I set it so only Paeng and I can access the obelisk.”
Geon-woo replied.
“Good job. But did anything new pop up, like taxes on soulstones brought to Earth or collecting them—besides what already existed?”
Baylor asked curiously.
“Oh, I left the soulstone tax rate as is for now. 1% isn’t that much.”
“You left it unchanged?”
Baylor’s eyes widened at Geon-woo’s words.
“You’re using that for Neuron Age’s various operations, right? I checked the obelisk, and there doesn’t seem to be any personal embezzlement. Well, anything siphoned off outside the system’s execution, I wouldn’t know.”
Soulstones collected like taxes via the obelisk piled up in Neuron Age’s public pool.
It was like a publicly visible account.
Those accumulated soulstones were then executed as Neuron Age’s public funds.
So, in the basic flow of soulstones coming in and out, there was no room for corruption.
Geon-woo confirmed that and decided not to touch the soulstone tax.
Messing with it would disrupt Neuron Age’s operations.
“And you asked if anything changed? The big one is Awakener management.”
“Awakener management?”
Baylor echoed back, as if it was news to him.
“Tch.”
Geon-woo clicked his tongue at the sight.
“Seriously, even when you hand it to them on a platter...”
“Exactly. The 400 million Awakeners and 1 million Guardians weren’t the end of it.”
Paeng followed up, snapping at Baylor.
“Sorry.”
Baylor bowed his head.
“Paeng, it’s not Baylor’s fault.”
“No, when something goes wrong, the leader takes responsibility.”
“There were situations even Baylor couldn’t control. Anyway, as more soulstones came to Earth, there’s now some slack in the Awakener slots.”
“Awakener slots? What’s that?”
Baylor asked with a blank look.
“Simply put, it means we can sustain more Awakeners now.”
Paeng answered.
Baylor and the Guardians’ eyes widened at Paeng’s explanation.
“Awakeners can exceed 400 million?”
“I thought that number was fixed for sure. But it can go higher?”
“It can, but those assholes with their bullshit kept us from using the obelisk properly.”
“Seriously, such useless... Oh, not you, Executive Baylor.”
Intense reactions poured out among the Guardians again.
“For now, OnVroad’s 400 million simultaneous connection limit is lifted to 1 billion. That’s 1 billion simultaneous connections. And now, anyone with an Ark Capsule can reconnect to OnVroad. If it exceeds 1 billion simultaneous, they’ll have to wait in queue.”
Geon-woo tossed another bombshell at the Guardians.
“You lifted the connection limit?”
“What happens then? Do all Ark Capsule users become Awakeners?”
“No, that doesn’t make sense. 1 billion simultaneous means pretty much everyone with an Ark Capsule can log into OnVroad. All those people becoming Awakeners?”
“Yeah, that seems off.”
“No way. If that many became Awakeners, Executive Kang Geon-woo wouldn’t call it just ‘some slack.’”
“Right. If most of Earth’s population awakened, it wouldn’t be ‘a little.’ No chance.”
The Guardians looked at Geon-woo with eyes demanding explanation.
“Exactly. Logging into OnVroad doesn’t make everyone an Awakener. But in OnVroad, you can use your avatar’s abilities as is. So in OnVroad, anyone is basically an Awakener.”
“Well, that’s how it’s always been, so isn’t that obvious?”
“Yeah.”
“No. You’re all missing something. After the 400 million connection limit on OnVroad, average logins often didn’t even hit 100 million. Now the limit is 1 billion.”
“Oh, right. Not everyone with an Ark Capsule logs in at once, so even at 1 billion, it won’t fill up easily.”
“Still, simultaneous users will skyrocket. All those people twiddling their thumbs will flood in.”
“That’ll massively boost OnVroad’s overall strength, right?”
“Non-Awakeners’ average power is lower, but time will fix that.”
“Hey, hey, quiet down. We were asking about Awakener slots. Let’s hear it.”
One of the chattering Guardians finally cut in.
The Guardians’ attention refocused on Geon-woo.
“In short, this time it’s truly random awakening.”
Geon-woo gave them a concise explanation.
“What’s random awakening?”
“Dude, didn’t you hear? It means Awakeners are randomly selected from Ark Capsule users.”
“Oh?”
“That’s it. No corruption or interference—just the Prophet’s obelisk selecting them.”
“No selection criteria?”
“Really random?”
Jumper and Guard asked for confirmation.
“Paeng and I chose random for the obelisk’s awakening settings. If there’s any criterion, it’d be the obelisk’s will, not ours.”
Geon-woo lightly tapped the obelisk’s surface with his palm.
He couldn’t even guess this obelisk’s inner workings, so that was the only answer he could give.
“Either way, more Awakeners will emerge going forward.”
At that point, Baylor, who had been listening, spoke up with a bright expression.
“Way too late. We needed balance against the invading Demon Race, but those so-called representatives fucked it up and couldn’t even eat what was handed to them.”
“Yeah. Soulstones piled up on Earth ages ago, enough to increase slots way back, but they didn’t even know. Sigh.”
Paeng sighed regretfully too.
Baylor could only flush red and bow his head deeper.
Even as vice president, he was Neuron Age’s top executive—hard not to feel ashamed.
“Anyway, with this measure, Awakeners and users will increase, making it easier to defend against the Demon Race’s dimensional invasions. Especially OnVroad—user strength surges, so victory odds rise.”
Geon-woo deliberately ignored the bowed Baylor and began explaining what more users would mean.
“That makes sense for OnVroad. But Earth’s different.”
Unlike Geon-woo, Paeng wore a worried expression.
“What do you mean? Different on Earth?”
Baylor looked at Paeng quizzically.
“In OnVroad, users are direct combat power, but not on Earth. To help with dimensional invasions on Earth, you need to awaken—and the odds of a user awakening on Earth are only about 15%.”
“So what happens? Say there are 1.5 billion Ark Capsules—15% of that is a bit over 200 million new Awakeners?”
“No. The 400 million are already Awakeners, so subtract them: 1.1 billion capsules left, 15% is just over 150 million. And that’ll happen gradually, not all at once like before.”
Geon-woo corrected Baylor’s miscalculation.
“Earth’s always so complicated.”
In the end, Paeng vented his frustration with those words.