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nTranslator: HunterW

nEditor: RED

n-I’ll explain what you all need to do, so pay attention.

n-First, you must kill your opponents and steal their Sections. Do so, and I, the Judge, will decide who is the victor and the loser. The victor will come with me, and the loser will be promptly deleted from the system. That includes your so-called mortals that were left behind on your world. Those that show exemplary abilities here on the Judge’s Continent will be rewarded with bonuses that pale what you received before you first came here. So always do your best. Furthermore, I can decide who wins or loses today or tomorrow. In other words, don’t live for tomorrow. Do everything you can today.

nSecond, there is no resurrecting after dying here. Once you die, you’re dead for good. Well, I’m sure you all already knew that before coming here. There were even a few of you who decided to off themselves when monsters, or dungeons, or even your actual enemies appeared. Oh, and I even saw some of you kill your own comrades. It was quite fun to watch, actually.

nThird, if you’re still afraid of death, leave your side of the Continent and kill an enemy. If you do, you will be rewarded with a tremendous amount of EXP and golden rings, an amount you will never see a monster yield. What, you think there’s nothing to spend your golden rings on? Don’t worry. Once the center barrier disperses, you will be able to access the Stores you see around. You will all know soon enough just how precious golden rings will become.

nWell, that’s about it. Oh, that’s right. This always happens and it never fails to amuse me, but there are always some of you who decide to stock up on supplies from your World’s Stores. Gahahaha! From this moment on, all items you own are now bound to you. That includes your equips, your normal items and even all those Bread and Beverages you bought. Oh, but don’t worry. Stores here will sell Scrolls that delete bound items. But…Hehehe…well, I won’t get too into detail. You’ll figure it out on your own soon enough. Well, I wish you all good luck and look forward to a fun show. Hehehehe!-

nWhen the voice stopped talking, a message appeared in the sky.

n==The barrier sealing the center of the Judge’s Continent will now be removed.

nThe Judge’s Continent’s Stores are now open for use.==

n“And so it begins.”

nWe all saw the same message. But I did notice that there were some officers that looked like they had just swallowed a lemon, and I knew why. All of those items they had stocked up on were now bound to them. The so-called Judge did say that Stores would sell a way to get rid of those bound items, but from the way he was laughing, we could tell that it was not going to be cheap.

n“Ha… well, we’re off to a great start.”

n“Yes, but it seems some of us managed to make the right call.” From their expressions, it seemed that the Shire, Abu Dhabi, and Messenger Guilds, and the Werewolf Clan, had stocked up, while I, the Sunbin, Myth, and Ravi Guilds, and the Mercenary Corps, did not. To be honest, we could have told each other to not buy items like everyone else, but we kept silent for now. We didn’t want it to form a rift between us, now that the real game had finally started.

n——

nThirty minutes later…

nAfter lifting everyone’s spirits, I had the map taken out again. “It looks like the Americas on their side.” The Judge’s Continent was shaped as if you took the Americas, squashed them together a bit and placed them on their side. The Continent was also about 1.5x bigger than the Americas.

n“And we’re located here at Section 35.” We were on the west side of the Continent, Section 35 just a bit more inland from the westernmost side. In other words, we were a bit closer to the center.

n“Section 35 will soon be split into twenty Districts. But from what we gathered yesterday, the ten Districts closest to the middle of the Continent are being avoided like the plague.”

n“I doubt anyone is really willing to go there right now. We all have only one life in this land, and those Centers have the highest chance to meet the enemy.”

n“It would seem so.” It didn’t matter if the Judge said that cowards were going to incur heavy penalties for not fighting. Fearing absolute death was normal, especially this early in the stage.

n“I’m sure our enemy will be the same. Their lives are on the line, as well. Since they just completed their Otadolon stage, they should have just as much as experience as we do. Although they may outnumber us, I doubt any of them are quite willing to just charge at us blindly. Don’t you think so?” Ebonene asked Madun.

nMadun nodded. “He’s right. My scouts report that it’s been quiet at the center ever since the barrier disappeared.”

n“I believe the enemy will be slow to mobilize. They will still feel confident about the overwhelming numbers they have over us. They’ll most likely take this chance to hunt monsters to get stronger. That would be their best course of action,” Umaru added.

n“Then what should we do? Should we focus on hunting as well?”

n“No. We must take this chance and hurt them while we can. I understand many of us would prefer a much safer route but we, the Empire, must reveal our strength. You all heard what the Judge said. If you want to live, then fight. Fight like there is no tomorrow.”

n“…” The officers were quiet for awhile.

n“I have to agree. Getting as many points as possible while everyone else is busy trying to figure out the mechanics is the smart thing to do in any game,” Taniya said, finally breaking the silence. “Besides, what do we have to worry about? We have Lee Jiwon, our champion with the strength of a thousand men, and we have the Messenger Guild, capable of transporting our entire force at once,” she added, turning to me and Victor.

n“I like it,” Song Daechul said. It was good plan to get us into the upper rankings. We could definitely use the Messenger Guild’s specialized Warp Magic to help us cross this massive Continent in an instant.

n“If we can work with the other guilds’ warp magicians, I believe the Messenger Guild can set up Teleporter Zones in at least three Sections.”

n“We will need to set up a base on this side of Section 35. I’m sure there are some here who are not confident in their abilities, or are too afraid to fight the enemy this soon. They’ll need a place to safely grow stronger.”

n“Hmm… you raise a good point.”

nAfter a few more discussions, we finally came to a decision. We would set up our main base here at Section 35 and create a place where our weaker comrades could train. We were also going to connect Section 35 with three other Sections with the Messenger Guild’s Teleporters. We then decided that I and some ten thousand other strong devas would form a commando team to start attacking the enemy. Forming the commando team was the most important thing; the stronger we were, the safer everyone else would be.

n“Very well. We have one week! In exactly one week, we will form the commando team and set up the Teleporters before attacking the enemy.”

n“Understood.”

nThat ended our first meeting on the Continent. I did think about just going by myself to attack the enemy, but making sure we all worked together would be good for morale. There was a lot for the Empire to do from now on.

n——

nThat night, I and my family had a hearty dinner at our home that was built in Section 35’s Center D. Apparently, there were places to set up homes in each Section. Food and clothes weren’t provided, but they were sold in Stores. Thanks to my advice to instead sell whatever items we didn’t need, my clan had enough funds to provide for every member.

nAfter dinner, I retired to my room and took out the Rank 10 Random Item Chest I was given as a reward for my points. I hadn’t had the time to open it since I arrived at the Continent, with everything getting so busy. It would also be very rude to just open my presents while everyone else was trying to figure out what to do. Now that I finally had some time to myself, I slowly opened the Chest… to reveal a purple item inside! “Item Check.”

n==Fated Crossroads (Rank 10)

nThere once existed a person envied by all. That person was known as Kodomo. Kodomo had a very special ability that allowed him to spy on fate in a world of devas. This ability prevented Kodomo from ever knowing failure or despair ever again. When the end times came, Kodomo took a small part of his destiny and placed it inside the belt he had on at all times. This gave birth to the Fated Crossroads.

nIncrease all Stats by 1,000 points.

nIncrease CRIT rate by 3.5%, increase CRIT damage by 150%

nGrants the Fated Crossroads ability.

nUse this ability to foresee the outcome of a desired event. However, there is a 99% this vision could be true and a 1% chance it could be false.

nCooldown: 30-365 days. Cooldown will depend on the value of the vision; the greater the value, the longer the cooldown.

nDEF 100, MDEF 100==

n“…All sorts of items exist, don’t they?” I realized this when I got the Achilles Tendon Summon, but every time I thought there couldn’t be anything weirder, I was always proven wrong. “Still, it isn’t bad at all.”

nIt wasn’t that great an item in combat for a Rank 10 item, but it wasn’t like I didn’t need the extra CRIT rate and damage. The Stats increase was good enough too, but its value obviously came from its special ability. Just like its description said, it gave me the ability to see into the future. “But that probability though…” The 1% chance of getting a false vision didn’t sit well with me at all. It was only 1%, but I knew that it was high enough to screw me over.

n“Well, it’s fine. I’ll just use it as a reference. But with that, I guess all of my equips are at least Rank 8, including my accessories.” Most of my accessories were actually either Rank 9 or Rank 10, except for the Bracelet of Eternal Fire, which was Rank 8. But honestly, it could actually be my best item since it pretty much gave me a second life.

n“Well, it’s good enough for me.” I took the rest of the night off, as I summoned the Dungeon Mole and the Tendon for company.

n——

nThe next day…

nI decided to go around Section 35 without concealing my identity. It wasn’t that I wanted to parade myself. Instead, I believed that showing others that I was there to fight alongside them would give them strength and courage.

n“It’s Lee Jiwon!”

n“Alright! He’s here!”

nAs I expected, many were very welcoming and ecstatic when they saw me. Save for a few, that is….

n——

n“Ha…I think I’m about to lose it.”

n“Fuck! Fuck that Judge piece of **! It costs 500,000 golden rings to get rid of just one bound item!”

n“Giving someone a single piece of Bread costs 500,000! How the hell does this make any sense?”

n“Shit! I’m screwed. I’m royally screwed!”

n—

nIt cost 500,000 golden rings to unbind a single bound item. It didn’t matter if it was a piece of Bread that costs 1 golden ring to buy; the price was the same. Another problem was that Stores were selling the same Bread and Beverages and all of the same type of items people were so busy trying to stock up on. Basically, all those who stocked up on items were pretty much broke. I and many others just felt pity for them. No one could have known it would turn out this way. The Judge was right; golden rings were going to become very precious indeed.

nI weaved through the crowd of people panicking over the money they had lost and entered a Store. There was still some time to continue preparing before I had to fight the enemy.

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