The Holy Emperor's Eighth Collision

World Collision — The Eighth — Holy Emperor

During the disaster phase, a biological catastrophe.

In ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the sixth collision, players focused on poison, disease, and curses to reduce the population.

In the seventh collision, a powerful military nation.

Having escaped the long stretch of humiliation and persecution, the former Rank 1 player, the Holy Emperor of Utopia, Terasion. He had won the seventh battle as well, expanded his world, and was now rapidly improving the entire realm by mobilizing the roughly eighty gods under his command.

Originally, Terasion had entered as a gamer, but gaming was merely his only hobby. His real profession was that of a manager and consultant. Managing countless subordinate gods beneath him and assigning talent to the right positions was his greatest strength.

“Please, let the eighth opponent be someone peaceful……”

An extreme cooperation-oriented player. Terasion believed there was nothing better than cooperation for advancing civilization and society.

He had always extended a hand of cooperation to every opponent he met. If they accepted, they grew together through cooperation. If not, he defeated them in battle, accepted their surrender, and absorbed capable enemies into his ranks to secure victory.

In truth, under the game rules, there was no disadvantage whatsoever to keeping gods alive.

If a subordinate god deliberately committed terrorism, the organizers would rewind time, erase the offending god, and continue the game. Betrayal itself was structurally impossible. Terasion trusted the game’s structure.

Honest competition. Though he couldn’t understand why luck played such an enormous role in this tournament……

He had one hypothesis about that part. It only held if the organizers were truly omnipotent and neutral.

Anyway, Terasion was actively trading and waiting to purchase a mythic-grade trait after the eighth collision when someone contacted him.

Terasion summoned Andanton into his world first. He claimed he wanted to verify whether Andanton was truly qualified to be called an “Emperor.” Before summoning him, Andanton had naturally provided a Truth Verified statement that he would never share information, would not attack even if unqualified, and would show his own world as well. Only then did Terasion bring him in.

“Wow. This really is a wonderful world.”

“Isn’t it? I quite like cooperation.”

“Ah. I see. Your messages gave off a rather gruff impression, so I was a bit surprised.”

“Oh, come on. Everyone’s just roleplaying in messages.”

“Haha.”

Andanton thoroughly inspected every corner of the world, then smiled brightly.

Then he left behind a single message and departed.

“?”

“???”

And then an army began pouring in like mad. Terasion stood there with his mouth agape, unable to process the situation for a moment.

“Ah, no. That. Uh.”

So, to summarize: the Deceiver of the World bastard had approached him with lies, extracted all information about his world, then broke the contract. A mythic-grade player possessing World Collision Controller had entered and was now engaged in one-sided plunder—actually, while the protection phase was still active, they were sharing resources in a 1:2 ratio.

If the “Eight Emperors” claim wasn’t a lie, it could even be 1:8.

“You rotten bastards!”

Terasion frantically reorganized his world. He too possessed a mythic-grade trait. Unlike their rule-breaking traits, his was one that could drastically raise the very scale of the world itself.

The name sounded incredibly cute, but in essence, when humans crafted tools with superior skill and physique, dogs could utilize their sense of smell and intelligence to conduct military operations, birds could fly for reconnaissance, and even roadside trees and forests could monitor enemies, share information with others, and attack foes. It was a terrifying trait.

Furthermore, the all-purpose resources Manna and Nectar were continuously produced so that intelligent beings would never devour one another.

Even the highest-intelligence race in the game (humans) received the Intelligence bonus, so it was essentially no different from doubling human intelligence.

A trait capable of pushing internal administration to the absolute extreme. Every living being in Terasion’s world was an intelligent entity and a member of the community that served him and contributed to the world.

“Those rotten bastards. Those cursed fiends! How did I end up with a poison-spreading toxin-sprayer, a warmonger, a swindler, and an invader in a row! Why does this only happen to me!”

Terasion’s true terror lay in the fact that even amid such unreasonable suffering, hardship, and torture, he always managed to find a path to victory and crush his opponents.

This was genuinely remarkable. Even while being unilaterally beaten by Itatarabon’s forces until the game’s normal protection phase ended, he endured. Then, during the actual collision window, he sent troops through the dimensional gate bit by bit to resist, eventually defeating the enemy world that could no longer receive support, counterattacking, and occupying it.

“I’ll accept your surrender, but Itatarabon, you really are a rotten bastard! You hear me!”

“It was strategy. Strategy…… We also planned to defeat the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠internal-administration specialist and accept their surrender, so please don’t get so worked up. (Truth Verified)”

Terasion felt like he was going to lose his mind, but since he had accepted the surrender, Itatarabon was now one of his own. After threatening that any lack of sincerity would result in immediate erasure, he went to purchase a new trait.

“……You’re saying someone already bought World Collision Controller?”

“Yes. It was reserved.”

“By whom?”

“I cannot disclose that.”

“No need to answer. It must be that swindler Andanton.”

Terasion purchased his second mythic-grade trait with the points he possessed. (The fact that he had the resources to do so was truly impressive.)

This was the trait he believed would be most helpful for internal administration. It allowed the creation of a space union capable of drawing upon the matter and mana of the Great Universe even in an ancient-to-medieval era.

“And!!! I will declare war on that cursed Andanton! There must be no more swindlers!”

“You cannot.”

“Why not, Angel-nim? I haven’t gone to his world, but I can still do it, right? Ah. Did that bastard already declare war on someone else?”

The angel’s answer was truly infuriating.

“There is currently no player named Andanton in the game.”

“……You mean he was eliminated?”

“Half right, half wrong. That player was eliminated during the third phase. And the Deceiver of the World who deceived you is not using that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nickname.”

In other words, the bastard had used Deceiver of the World to even falsify his own nickname while causing chaos.

If Biin had known, he might have obtained this trait first.

With this trait, one could truly use multi-consciousness splitting in the community. It was a trait that fundamentally violated the absolute game rule that “all trades between users are honest.”

“These rotten bastards……! Itatarabon! You were a member of the Eight Emperors, right? There really are eight of them?”

“There are. Eight players who possess mythic-grade traits. We don’t know the swindler’s real name either. And actually……”

“Actually?”

“……Their true name is the ‘Pan-Dimensional Pirates.’”

Terasion was at a loss for words.

Eight people had genuinely banded together with the sole intention of scamming and robbing others.

“Haa…… If I want to win this game for certain, they’re an opponent I must definitely crush. Surely there aren’t any worse bastards than these demons.”

Then, when Terasion opened the community, he saw posts from people calling themselves the “Mythic Alliance” desperately seeking allies, and warnings about four madmen in the “Meteors Cartel” who each possessed two mythic-grade traits after annihilating every opponent without a single subordinate god, urging everyone to be careful.

Terasion kept alternating between the key points—“no subordinate gods,” “ruthlessly annihilated every opponent,” “defeated the entire Mythic Alliance 1:1 four times,” “currently possesses two mythic-grade traits each”—while reading the long post and the call for allies……

Then, tormented by the fact that as a god he could neither faint nor lose consciousness, he howled in despair.

There were far too many rotten people in the world. Could he truly preserve his integrity and survive to the end to claim victory?

Factions had already formed. The top-ranked players had already gathered mythic-grade traits and were divided into “2-Mythic” and “1-Mythic” tiers.

In practice, if you failed to purchase a mythic-grade trait during each buying phase, you would be eliminated midway. Especially now, when mythic-grade players were attacking and plundering other mythic-grade players.

Current remaining players: 4,194,304.

At the time of the eighth collision, the number of players possessing two mythic-grade traits was exactly 1,632.

Even if all of them survived, after the 20th round only 1,024 would remain, meaning 508 of these absolute top-tier players would be eliminated before completing round 20.

Even for the middle and lower ranks, if there was any “chance of winning,” it meant they would soon be forced to exit.

And the probability of randomly encountering top-tier players was at most 0.039%.

Some entrusted everything to luck, while others sought out like-minded individuals to survive this phase.

“Meteors” that the world could not withstand increased proportionally with each round…… Before that happened, they would extract maximum profit and exit as quickly as possible.

That was how they achieved victory. It was the only salvation for players who could not win.