Chapter 133

Thanks to the great success of Satisfy, the S.A. Group became the world’s best group. They had two billion loyal customers and hundreds of affiliated companies, so there was no group with more influence and wealth in history.

And South Korea was very dependent on the S.A. Group. South Korea had a small land mass and limited natural resources, so the jobs that the S.A. Group created and the numerous charitable projects were like a ray of light.

Just yesterday, South Korea’s government brought a new request to the S.A. Group. It was to invite Satisfy’s rankers to South Korea, where a national competition would be hosted.

"The opinion of the government is as follows. Users of the top 100 ranking will be invited to South Korea in teams for each country, where a competition consisting of raids, pet marathons and other contests will be held. It will be organized by the Korean government, and they hope that the planning, public relations and sponsorships will be handled by the S.A. Group.”

A meeting room in S.A. Group’s headquarters in Seoul.

Some people showed negative reactions.

“I don’t know if we can continue to do favors for the Korean government. Are we a charity? I don’t like their attitude of always asking us for things.”

“A Satisfy competition can be hosted by companies and broadcasting stations in various countries. Why should we invest our money and manpower?”

"And why should we invite rankers to South Korea when it can be done online? What do they think the top 100 rankers are? The rankers are too busy raising their level and won’t move for a small amount of money. Hundreds of billions of won would be needed to bring 100 people here.”

Yoon Sangmin was watching the executives giving negative comments and finally opened his mouth.

“You should note that it will be a national competition. Competitions that pit countries against each other such as the Olympics and World Cup have always gained popularity around the world. More than one-third of the world’s population is interested in Satisfy, so the popularity of various sports has fallen, yet the ratings for the Olympics and World Cup are still high. A national contest involving Satisfy... It is content that can become a global issue.”

Kim Jiyoung, the branch manager of the South Korean branch, also gave a positive opinion.

"It’s a good idea to invite rankers offline. If there are events such as stage greetings or an awards ceremony at Seoul Olympic Stadium in front of many spectators, it will give interest to the middle-aged people who think that Satisfy is just a game, and give them a real feeling of immersion.”

President Lee Hoonyi was smiling.

“The rankers are stars and will attract crowds, so we don’t need to worry about selling tickets. If they can see many famous rankers in one place, many tourists will come from all over the world. We can also sell the broadcasting rights to each country at a high price, so the profit will be good. This is the aim of the South Korean government.”

Lim Cheolho was proud.

"If we compete by ranking each country, the people of each country will support their rankings and inspire patriotism. It’s very desirable to build patriotism through Satisfy.”

The expressions of the executives giving negative opinions changed. The decision seemed to have been made.

Kim Jiyoung drove in the wedge.

"Starting this year, we should hold a Satisfy national competition every year. We can think of unique events that can only be carried out within Satisfy and gradually expand the number of participants, so that the Satisfy national competition will someday become a prestigious event like the Olympics and the World Cup.”

Lee Hoonyi clapped.

“Good, good. We won’t receive any damages, no matter how much money we invest.”

Now everyone's attention focused on Lim Cheolho, the top decision maker. Lim Cheolho nodded.

"Tell the South Korean government that we will approve their request.”

At that moment, Yoon Nahee, the head of the operations team, quietly raised a hand. She didn’t shrink back under the gazes of all the executives and expressed concern.

"We need some improvements because we approved the government’s request.”

Yoon Nahee was Yoon Sangmin’s younger sister. Yoon Sangmin knew how meticulous and competent she was, so he listened to her words.

“Tell us.”

Yoon Nahee explained, "First of all, if we divide the top 100 rankers by country, it won’t be balanced. For example, there are 23 Americans in the top 100 ranking and only 2 Koreans. Since it’s a national competition, the number of participating players must be raised, but the gap between countries is too big.”

"What if we limit the participants to the top 30 instead of the top 100?”

“It is an extreme situation that will reduce the number of participating countries. Then it will be too small to be a competition that the world will enjoy.”

The executives were agitated.

"I don’t want the competition to be limited to rankers. Rather, those who stand out in each event should be selected, just like sports...”

"Then there’s too much we need to do. Won’t it take a long time to divide the two billion users into countries and examine their competence in each field before making a selection?”

"In addition, inviting the rankers to the first competition will help it succeed. Who will be interested if the representatives of each country are people they haven’t heard of?”

In the midst of this confusion, Yoon Nahee brought up another problem.

“In addition, yesterday at 23:55, Yura reached level 280.”

“Hah...”

Wasn’t the level up speed of the top rankers really amazing? The executives were thrilled and made a fuss.

“Great. Then the top five in the unified rankings have gone above level 280?”

“It is rewarding. Yura’s achievement will be good news for Koreans who have been struggling in games recently.”

"That's right. When I was young, various gaming competitions were held and the Korean teams mostly won...”

"It isn’t pleasing. Isn’t the level up of rankers too fast?”

"That's right. The prediction of Supercomputer Morpheus has once again missed the mark. Check the reference materials in front of you. Morpheus was expecting the appearance of a level 280 user in the next two months.”

“Really. This is serious...”

Level 210, 240 and 270.

The levels were called the ‘hell sections’ by users because the amount of experience required to level up increased exponentially. Nevertheless, it was surprisingly that this didn’t limit the level up speed of the top rankers.

“Since Satisfy began, a number of Morpheus’ predictions have been wrong. Is it a virus?”

"It seems like a major overhaul is needed.”

Yoon Nahee shook her head while the executives were feeling concerned.

“There is nothing wrong with Morpheus. It is just that the abilities of the top rankers is higher than expected. If we take this into account and reset the error range, Morpheus’ predictions won’t be wrong in the future.”

“Haha... How terrific are the rankers?”

"They far transcend the general public. In particular, the abilities of the users in the top 30 are excellent. Their understanding of skills and battle comprehension are different from ordinary people. They hunt close to impossible monsters relatively easily and level up efficiently. Even the user called ‘Regas’ has a fast level up speed and is in the top 30, despite the fact that he doesn’t use weapons and is hunting with his bare hands.”

Yoon Sangmin frowned.

“Taekwon Master Regas? Is he still doing that?”

The class of martial artist was less dependent on weapons than other classes. By default, their skills had a high attack power and passive skills that could penetrate the defense of the target. In the first place, the weapons that martial artists could wear were limited to knuckles. Knuckle-type weapons had the lowest attack power among all weapons.

In general, martial artists were rarely obsessed with weapons compared to other combat classes. But no matter what, wearing knuckles was a few times better than fighting with bare hands. Regas had a record of not using weapons since starting Satisfy. Therefore, he was observed for a while and the executives knew about him.

"He is Taekwondo obsessed...”

Regas’ real name was Roald Hoffmann. He was born in London, England. He had a special history as an Olympic Taekwondo gold medalist and was so obsessed with Taekwondo that he combined skills with Taekwondo in Satisfy.

"He doesn’t use weapons because he thinks that the user of weapons violates the spirit of Taekwondo... Stupid. It is a type of psychosis.”

"But why are you suddenly talking about Regas?”

"He was mentioned after stating that Yura reached level 280...”

"Ah, that's right. Why did you suddenly talk about Yura’s level?”

The executives looked questioning. Yoon Nahee explained to them.

"If the level up speed of the top five ranked users is maintained as they are, they will reach level 300 in the next three months and achieve the third advancement.”

The users just reached the second advanced five months ago. In other words, out of the two billion users, there weren’t even 100 users who were above level 200. At that time, the level of users within the top 5 of the unified rankings was only 230.

Now there were over 1,000 users who reached the second advancement and the users in the top 5 were almost at level 300. This would lead to a major disruption in the national competition.

“If we accept that South Korea will be the host country, it will take at least three months for the preparation and publicity period.”

The executives finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

“Hrmm, I see. If the competition is held after the third advancement users have appeared..."

“It won’t work. The gap between the second advancement and third advancement users is so big that the games will be easier to predict and less fun to watch.”

"The skills of the third advancement class are far superior to the skills of the second advancement class... Um...”

The difference between the first advancement and second advancement classes was like the difference between the sky and earth. If a level 99 user was compared to a level 100 user, it seemed like there were just a difference of one level. But the actual difference was 50 levels.

And the difference between the second advancement and third advancement was more than that. The third advancement classes had a skill tree that was comparable to a few hidden classes. The third advancement classes were deliberately set up to be stronger, in order to minimize the sense of deprivation for regular users who didn’t have hidden classes.

Yoon Sangmin asked, “Can’t we accelerate the timeline of the contest? Do we have to hold it in three months?”

"If we invest more money and hire more manpower, we can shorten the preparation period. But there must be a minimum of three months publicity period in order to sufficiently promote it to the world...”

Yoon Nahee spoke awkwardly, then Branch Manager Kim Jiyoung offered an opinion.

"How about creating quests within Satisfy? It’s difficult to confine the number of participants in the national contest to only rankers, so I would rather give quests to all two billion users.”

Branch Manager Kim Jiyoung’s opinion was as followed:

Through quests, the users would be informed about the national competition. This would naturally cause a publicity effect. They would encourage users to participate in the events of the national competition through the quests. The progress of the users’ quests would be monitored and they would select competent people suitable to be representatives for each event.

“This will shorten the promotional period and take care of the selection of participants. It is also suitable for raising the interest of users and making the national competition a big deal...”

There wasn’t one person who disagreed. All of them were in favor of Kim Jiyoung’s suggestion.

***

The Dominion Church’s sanctum. A priest approached the head of the church, who was praying.

"Leader, there is someone requesting a blessing from God Dominion.”

“At this time? One of our followers?”

“That... No.”

“...?”

The leader, Rhonda, was confused. The blessing of a god was a sacred thing that couldn’t be given to anyone. It was a sacred ritual that could only be given to select people. He would select from one of the followers to receive the god’s blessing once a year, but now a third party was asking for the blessing? The person had no concept of shame.

The priest added an explanation since Rhona was making an unpleasant expression.

"He is accompanied by the first paladin of the Judar Church. In addition, he has a letter of recommendation from one of Rebecca’s Daughter, Isabel.”

“Hrmm...”

The best paladins of the Rebecca Church and Judar Church? The religious leader was interested and rose from his spot. Then he met the man who came to see him.

He was an ordinary man with black hair. His mouth and eyes seemed stubborn, so he didn’t give off a good impression. But there was something vaguely likable about this eyes. In addition, there seemed to be a halo of light around him.

‘It is a strange impression.’

Rhona was stunned for a moment.

Then the first paladin of the Judar Church came forward.

“Leader, this is Mister Grid. He is one of the great heroes who defeated the Sixth Servant of Yatan, Malacus and the agent of the goddess who killed Pope Drevigo, who was corrupting the Rebecca Church.”

“Hah...”

The religious leader realized the origin of the halo around Grid. He was a great person who had already received Goddess Rebecca’s blessing.

"It is an honor to meet you, Mister Grid.”

The leader of the Dominion Church bowed to Grid.

Toban was amazed as he saw the scene.

‘I introduced him as Grid said, but for him to be treated like this?’

The authority of the pope and leaders of the churches transcended imagination. Each of them had tens of millions of believers and were even respected by the kings of various nations. But this existence was bowing down to one user?

As Toban was stunned, Grid asked the religious leader.

"I hope that you can bestow the blessing of God Dominion on something.”

“I’ll willingly do it.”

After that, Leader Rhonda did the ceremony. While dozens of believers were praying, he blessed the two golden discs. Then a notification window flashed in front of Grid.

[God Dominion’s blessing has fallen on the pavranium.]

[The attack power of the pavranium has been strengthened.]

Grid appraised the golden discs.

[Golden Discs Made of Pavranium]

Durability: Infinite

Golden discs made of pavranium, the strongest mineral produced by the collaboration between the legendary blacksmith Pagma and the legendary great magician Braham.

By default, they revolve around and protect their owner. But they will also take other actions when given commands from their owner.

* They have obtained healing skills due to Goddess Rebecca’s blessing. They will increase their owner’s health recovery speed by 300%.

* They have obtained an attack buff skill due to God Dominion’s blessing. The owner’s attack power will increase by 15%.

Weight: 3

“Kuk...”

Grid was thrilled.

He had suffered so much to receive the blessing of Goddess Rebecca, so he was worried about what type of hardships he would have to go through to receive God Dominion’s blessing. But unlike his worries, it was easy to clear the quest and he acquired an excellent buff effect.

“Okay. Next is the Judar Church.”

Toban freaked out at Grid’s shocking statement.

“J-Judar Church?”

Toban was the first paladin of the Judar Church! He was on a quest for the leader of the Judar Church. He originally had to take away the Holy Light set from Grid. He had to return to the church with Grid without achieving his purpose? It was clear that the leader would be angry. He didn’t know what to do.

“Excuse me, Grid... I don’t think I can accompany you to the Judar Church. That's because..."

Toban started to explain. He told the situation in detail so that Grid could understand. Grid listened for a while before finally opening his mouth, "I don’t care about your reasons. What does it have to do with me? You are my slave, so just follow my commands. Follow me.”

“G-Grid...”

Grid had no mercy. But Toban couldn’t express his complaints. In the first place, he was the one who did something wrong and he was now seeking forgiveness, so he had to follow Grid unconditionally.

However, tears couldn’t help flowing down.