<

/the>

* * *

“I knew these were tastier than candied fruits!”

Crunch crunch. Raon’s wings fluttered as he spoke excitedly while eating cookies. He seemed quite excited but the look on Cale’s face did not look good.

Cale had immediately teleported with only Raon as soon as he heard about Ahn Roh Man from the crown prince.

Thanks to that, he was currently in the crown prince’s office.

“But human, the crown prince seems to be so busy! When will he come?”

Of course, it was just Cale and Raon without Alberu.

Click.

“Huut!”

Someone gasped.

Cale raised his head to see someone’s whose face looked completely frozen as they fidgeted and moved back.

“…Shield……!”

That person became shocked at what he subconsciously said after the two of them made eye contact and closed his mouth.

“Haaaaa.”

He could see a sighing Alberu as well.

“I’ll organize the rest of these and send a report.”

“Yes, yes sir! Yes, your highness!”

Alberu closed the door and entered the office alone.

“Is that your new aide, your highness?”

“Yeah. I picked a lot of people this time.”

Alberu sat on the couch opposite Cale and stared at him. Cale started speaking after seeing the gaze.

“Your highness, I clearly reported that I would be visiting your office before I came?”

“That’s right.”

When Alberu had explained about Ahn Roh Man, Cale said that he would explain once he got there and that he would teleport over right away.

Alberu replied that he had something to do and would not be in his office but for Cale to come.

That was why Cale was confused as to why Alberu was looking at him in such a fishy way.

Alberu opened his mouth as if to explain.

“I guess people will find out that you’ve revealed yourself again?”

“I guess so? It’s not as if I was hiding my movements, your highness.”

Alberu smirked at Cale, who answered as if he still did not understand what the issue might be.

“It’s going to get quite rowdy after people hear that Young Master Silver Shield, the hero of our Kingdom, has returned to the Royal Palace.

Cale started to frown. Alberu didn’t care and continued to speak.

“A lot of people are going to be looking for you.”

“?”

“Because of the mines.”

“!”

Cale suddenly felt scared.

He felt as if he was standing at the edge of a cliff.

The mines.

The high quality mines he received as a reward from Xiaolen for taking care of the Black Bloods.

There were all sorts of mines including ones for jewels and magic stones.

Alberu and Cale had discussed about the mines and he was stealthily dividing them up in a way that would benefit Cale and the Roan Kingdom.

Of course, Alberu had done all of this as quietly as possible, but information always found ways to leak.

“I think only I have been too busy until now.”

Cale avoided Alberu’s gaze after hearing Alberu comment in a low voice.

“My little dongsaeng, your face looks much brighter.”

Cale had returned to his original appearance after leaving the Central Plains and returning to Roan.

Honestly speaking, the only physically taxing thing he did in the Central Plains was when he had to use his water power. In fact, he actually ate a lot of elixirs that are good for the body.

It made him look better than before.

He gained some weight as well.

“…Your highness, you truly, you truly-”

Cale opened his mouth but could not say anything.

Raon ate a cookie and answered instead.

“Hey crown prince! You look so tired! Why are you becoming more and more like our human?”

Cale avoided the crown prince’s staring gaze.

“Haaaaa.”

Alberu sighed before leaning back on the couch.

“I guess you’ve suffered more than I have.”

He meant it.

He was doing tasks for the Roan Kingdom while Cale was traveling through worlds to save planets.

Just the weight of those two tasks made it clear that Cale was suffering more.

Cale slowly started speaking.

“But shouldn’t it be okay because you hired a lot of people this time, your highness?”

“There’s not really anybody I like. I need to teach them a lot of things so I can’t really use them right away.”

Alberu shook his head as if that was disappointing before nonchalantly commenting.

“Did you manage to see Basen Henituse?”

“Excuse me?”

Cale felt a mysterious sense of crisis at that moment.

‘No way?’

Cale’s gaze turned sharp. When he subconsciously looked at Alberu with that gaze, it was Alberu’s turn to avoid his gaze.

“I heard that your little brother has gained a lot of administrative experience since he was young. There is a lot to do with the Count’s House of Henituse growing into the Duke’s House of Henituse. I heard that he has taken the initiative to get things done and that his skills are at the level where even experts have to admit that he is good?”

“Why are you curious about that, your highness?”

Cale subconsciously spoke in a disrespectful tone.

Alberu smiled elegantly.

“Well, Basen is your little brother, so he’s basically mine as well. I just wanted to have a chat with him.”

“…….”

“I also heard that your youngest sister is young but quite skilled with the greatsword? Not only that, she is working hard to learn military science and tactics?”

Cale was feeling more and more iffy as Alberu continued.

Basen and Lily…

The two of them were Cale’s family and the final bastions for his dream of being a slacker.

They were outstanding children whose dreams were to develop and protect the Henituse territory!

“Hey crown prince, the human’s pupils are shaking! ‘What is up with him?’”

“I’m not sure, Raon-nim.”

Alberu was smiling brightly.

“Hey crown prince, your face suddenly looks much better! Are you just happy to see us?”

“Hahaha! That seems to be the case, Raon-nim.”

‘This despicable little crown prince.

He dares to dream of dragging my siblings into the Royal Palace?’

Cale seriously started to think.

“I really can’t put my guard down, your highness.”

“Hahaha!”

The crown prince simply laughed out loud.

Cale decided to meet up with Lily and Basen soon.

He needed to see if their dreams were still the same.

Of course, if the two of their dreams had moved beyond the Henituse territory to the entire Roan Kingdom, Cale would happily cheer them up.

‘…But I still have no intentions of becoming the territory lord.’

He would just have to find a way.

What Cale was worried about was that neither Lily nor Basen actually desired to work in the Royal Palace. He didn’t want them to be fooled by the glib tongue of this crown prince to where they were basically dragged to the Royal Palace and had to work overtime all the time.

‘I need to stop that!

It is my duty as his hyung and her oppa! Isn’t it?’

But why was he feeling so anxious?

“I also heard that your youngest sister has transferred into the Royal Academy and will be at the opening ceremony to start the school year?”

‘As I expected.’ There was a reason for him to feel so anxious.

“I guess I should go give a speech or something. Hahaha!”

Cale made up his mind.

If this guy was planning on going to Lily’s opening ceremony for school to lure Lily to the Royal Palace…

‘I will stop him.’

Of course, he would chat with Lily prior, and if Lily was dreaming of a bigger world…

‘I would have to tell her this.’

He would cheer her up if her dream was to work for the Roan Kingdom, but if she simply wanted to see the bigger world, he would tell her that the world is truly vast and there are a lot of things she could do. She should slowly think things through.

“Hey crown prince, our human’s face looks so solemn! ‘What is up with him?’”

“Hahahaha!”

Cale ignored the conversation between the Dragon and the quarter Dark Elf and deeply firmed his resolve.

Alberu suddenly asked him a question at that moment.

“What is F2F PvP?”

‘Ah, right. There’s that issue.’

Cale’s face started looking like a withered cabbage.

Alberu’s face turned serious.

“The Ahn Roh Man I have dealt with until now seemed like an extremely thorough person. You said that Bluey is the Blood Demon? So the Blood Demon put Ahn Roh Man in some sort of crisis?”

Cale recalled what Alberu had told him.

‘This is what Ahn Roh Man said. Bluey that punk was supposed to come out for F2F PvP and never showed. That punk almost made his dark history be revealed or something. He said Bluey was someone who put him in quite a lot of danger or something? Mm. What is F2F PvP and what is a dark history?’

Cale slowly opened his mouth.

“Well, let me explain, your highness. F2F PvP is short for face to face PK-”

He continued to explain in a dull voice. Alberu and Raon heard his explanation but did not seem to understand because of some unfamiliar terms, but they eventually nodded their heads.

Alberu responded with a serious look on his face.

“Hmm. That must have been quite the complicated situation. Ahn Roh Man is quite brave.”

“…Excuse me?”

“I don’t know if Ahn Roh Man was president when he went through that issue, but he seems to have been in an important position based on the way he is talking about it. If such a person truly immersed himself into this thing called a gain to the point that he tried to connect it to reality, doesn’t it mean that he made an extremely big determination? It was to the point that it created a dark history?”

“…Uhh-”

“According to what you said, a dark history is something that follows you forever, something that remains dormant in a part of your mind but reveals itself over and over. You said it makes people recall terrible things about themselves or times they were stupid, leading to them feeling embarrassed?”

“Uhh… Mm… yes?”

“Hmm. Ahn Roh Man must have been quite dedicated to that game world.”

“… Probably?”

“And the Transparent Bloods who created this world called a game that is so immersive that it got a three-term president to dedicate quite a bit of time to it must be very dangerous.”

“…I guess so?”

Cale nodded his head as everything Alberu said seemed to sound correct. Alberu looked at him and continued to speak.

“You currently have the device that the Blood Demon used during her youth, which would allow you to go into that game world. You are trying to access it but are having trouble?”

“Yes, your highness.”

Originally, Cale had tried to use the Blood Demon’s remaining arm to access it.

< Raising my very own precious omnipotent god! > seemed to use fingerprints to grant access.

“There were two levels of security checks. First was a fingerprint but the second was a pupil.”

He did not expect pupil verification to appear as well.

Cale was stuck at that verification phase and could not access the game.

“Mm. I guess it would be good to speak directly with Ahn Roh Man first.”

“Will that be possible, your highness?”

“Yeah.”

Alberu’s Unbreakable Spear…

The gift that the sun god gave to him while saying that he was ‘meant to be’ contained the AI, Taerang.

“I ordered Taerang to create a system that would allow us to connect via voice or screen.”

He looked at Cale and added on.

“Of course, the way to do that is to access the system and input a code, but Ahn Roh Man told me what to do. He seemed quite knowledgeable about systems or mechanical things like this.”

“I see.”

Alberu brought Taerang over. It had been a while since Cale saw this completely flawless white spear.

He suddenly recalled when the crown prince used this white spear to fight against the large Lion Dragon. He also recalled Alberu using this weapon when it was in the shape of a gun.

“Hold on.”

Alberu modified Taerang a few times. He gave some orders to Taerang as well, making some changes occur to the spear.

Click. Click.

A gap opened at the center of the spear. It grew in size before it created a square-shaped opening.

Alberu stood the spear up.

A light flashed out of that hole and filled one side of the office’s walls.

Cale looked at this and thought of a beam projector.

“Oh.”

The screen appeared as Cale gasped in shock.

Chhhhh- chhhhhh–

The quality was bad like a broken TV.

However, the screen slowly started taking shape.

“Your highness, it’ll be your first time seeing Ahn Roh Man’s face as well, right?”

“That’s right.”

He had only spoken with him through Taerang until now.

The two of them sat side by side on the couch and waited for the call to connect with Ahn Roh Man.

“Ah, by the way, Cale-”

“Yes, your highness.”

“There was something else Ahn Roh Man said to me last time.”

Alberu recalled the many things Ahn Roh Man had said.

One of them had been…

‘How entertaining. So, Alberu Crossman, current owner of Taerang… You are the crown prince and you need to save the world from the Lion Dragon?’

‘You will be a power player not just in the Roan Kingdom, but throughout the whole world, if you can take care of all of this. Alright, listen carefully to what I have to tell you. You won’t regret it.’

‘…But it is quite interesting. You seem very similar to me. Are you of an impure bloodline as well?’

“He called himself an impure bloodline.”

‘Impure bloodline?’

An odd expression formed on Cale’s face. He saw a similar look on Alberu’s face and started speaking.

“Something feels fishy.”

“I agree. Let’s just keep that in mind for now.”

It was at that moment.

– Coordinates confirmed.

– Commencing connection to Earth 3’s Ahn Roh Man.

Taerang’s voice appeared and the screen turned black.

< Connection complete. >

Those words appeared before the screen lit up.

A person’s face appeared.

Cale could not pay any attention to the extremely antiquated yet quite modern background that seemed to be the president’s office.

“Huh?”

The invisible Raon subconsciously spoke out loud.

“…Huh?”

Cale looked away from the screen to look next to him.

Forward once, to the side once…

He repeated that two or three times before he looked at the silent Ahn Roh Man and Alberu Crossman before subconsciously commenting.

“You guys look like siblings.”

The two of them looked extremely similar.

Ahn Roh Man made Cale think of Alberu Crossman in his quarter Dark Elf appearance.

Brown skin and brown hair…

Brown eyes…

Of course, Ahn Roh Man had lighter brown skin and slightly brighter brown hair, but they looked quite similar.

Furthermore, Ahn Roh Man was wearing glasses and looked a bit older.

Well, he still looked to be in his thirties.

‘The vibe they give off is different though.’

Alberu Crossman felt more outgoing as if he would do a lot of external activities while Ahn Roh Man gave off a cold, administrative, and standoff-ish vibe.

– Human! I’m so amazed right now!

Cale listened to Raon’s voice and looked back and forth before realizing something.

‘…So that guy is ranked first in the game?

This guy who looks like a studious version of Alberu?

The three-term president who almost did a F2F PvP?’

The shock disappeared from Cale’s face.

“Seeing you like this is new.”

– It is. You must be Alberu Crossman?

“That’s right. You are Ahn Roh Man?”

– Yeah.

Cale nonchalantly watched the two of them chat with odd expressions on their faces before staring at Ahn Roh Man.

Ahn Roh Man looked toward Cale as well.

– Sir, are you the Cale Henituse that Alberu Crossman has mentioned?

He spoke respectfully to Cale.

“Yes sir.”

Cale lighthearted said yes before trying to say more things.

However, Ahn Roh Man quickly spoke coldly as if he was disappointed.

– You are not Bluey.

“Excuse me?”

– Bluey that punk said that her hair was blue. It happened a long time ago when I was fifteen years old, but I clearly remember the information about that punk. This is very disappointing for me, sir.

15 years old.

Eighth Grade.

Cale’s face became extremely relaxed.

He suddenly felt really relaxed around Ahn Roh Man.

That was why he asked.

“Mr. Ahn Roh Man, do you know about the Transparent Corporation?”

He got right to the point.

Maybe it was because this guy looked similar to Alberu, but…

He felt as if this guy would prefer him being blunt like this.

Ahn Roh Man seemed used to conversations like this as he answered without any issues.

– It is a transcendent corporation.

“A transcendent corporation?”

– Our world… You called it Earth 3, right sir? In our world, the Transparent Corporation is a corporation that has significant wealth and power beyond that of the different nations. I am from the family that owns that corporation-

‘Hmm?’

Cale flinched.

‘What did I just hear?’

He turned his head and looked at Alberu.

Alberu was looking at Cale as well.

The two of them looked at each other before looking back at Ahn Roh Man.

Cale started to speak.

“Are you a Hunter?”

He immediately heard a response.

– What is that, sir?

Ahn Roh Man asked his question looking extremely innocent.

“…No, you mentioned being a part of that family-”

– Ah, my father was originally the President of a small game company. My uncle was the Vice President and he married the daughter of the Transparent Corporation.

Ahn Roh Man spoke calmly.

– My uncle cheated my father and took the game company to the Transparent Corporation with my aunt.

He then smiled.

– The reason I am explaining all of this to you, sir, is because I heard that you wished to speak to me regarding the game. I am telling you in advance as it is bound to come up while explaining about the game.

Cale slowly opened his mouth.

“…The game that your father was developing……?”

– Raising my very own precious omnipotent god. The original form and core world of that game was created by my father and mother as the key developers and planners.

A small smile appeared on Ahn Roh Man’s cold face.

However, cold rage was visible within it as well.

– The world’s first Virtual Reality game. My father is the one who created that world that people couldn’t tell whether it was Virtual Reality or the real world. The game they created after messing with that world is that wannabe omnipotent god game.

A Virtual Reality game.

Ahn Roh Man spoke as if it was no big deal as those words reached Cale’s mind.

– And I am the top ranker of that world. It was not the world that my parents dreamt of, but it is the world created from the blood and sweat of my parents. Shouldn’t I at least be the top ranker of that world?

Cale blankly nodded his head.

—

Translator’s Comments

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