Three months passed...

‘If I connect Link with Kill, it will help increase the attack power.’

Damian, whose identity changed from the Rebecca Church’s pope to Overgeared God Church’s pope, had grown tremendously over the course of three months. He had already created the two fusion sword dances and he could sense that his fighting power had risen dramatically.

“Ick.”

Pierce with Kill and dig into the gaps with Link.

Damian, who was pressing the field boss with a fusion sword dance also used by Grid, hurriedly set up his shield. The boss’ fist, that had a steel-like wood tied to it like a gauntlet, crushed Damian’s shield. Damian lost his balance due to his bent knees being unable to stand the pressure and literally rolled forward.

Vantner clapped and laughed when he saw Damian crawling under the boss’ crotch. “Haha! It is really unsightly!”

“He just wants to live. What’s wrong with that?” Jishuka scolded Vantner before pulling the bowstring and aiming at the back of the boss’ head. No matter how hard, wood was wood.The wood attribute boss couldn’t withstand the arrows of the Bow Saint filled with the breath of the red phoenix. The boss roared and writhed as it attacked blindly. Damian avoided their blind attacks, hid behind Vantner, and recovered his breath.

‘It’s difficult because I can’t move while the motion of Link is maintained.’

Link was an attack that swung the sword dozens of times in one second. During that one second, the user’s legs must be grounded and stuck to the earth. In order to effectively utilize Link, it was necessary to show such overwhelming attack power that the target couldn’t think of counterattacking, or to have enough defense to ignore the target’s counterattack. It was just like Grid.

Damian had changed classes and his overall stats weakened, so it was difficult for him to properly use Link. He would be in danger if he was hit by the opponent while using Link. In short, it meant he would lose if he was hit. Of course, this was a story when fighting bosses with relatively high specifications. Unfortunately, all bosses of a similar level had higher specifications than Damian.

“This isn’t going to work. I will quit before the next boss.” Damian determined that he was currently unfit to take part in a raid.

It was the laughing Vantner who grabbed Damian, who was leaving the party in order to not cause any inconvenience. “Don’t be like that. Let’s do it together.”

It was the privilege of those skilled in each field to join the raid team. Raid team members exclusively hunted some bosses that respawned across the entire territory of the Overgeared Kingdom. They devoted a certain amount of the items to the guild and received money distributed to them in return. It was a pretty excellent source of income. It allowed them to accumulate money while preventing unique items from leaking outside.

“You are now an Overgeared Guild member. We should make money together.” Vantner persuaded Damian. The other Overgeared members nodded in agreement.

However, Damian refused. “I don’t want to collect the distributed gold without doing anything. I appreciate your kindness.”

It was a matter of pride. It was unacceptable for Damian, who was a famous ranker since the early days, who took part in every National Competition and he served as the leader of a mega-power called the Rebecca Church, to become a so-called ‘distribution freeloader.’

“Tut. You can join at any time. I’ll wait for you.”

Vantner read Damian’s heart and gave up on persuading him. He just wanted Damian to recover quickly and regain his confidence. Damian replied with a smile before returning to Reinhardt.

‘Money... I need money.’

Damian grasped the most intrinsic problem of the Overgeared God Church paladin. It was that the protection of the Overgeared God didn’t directly increase stats but rather increased the effect of items. For those with very powerful items, the protection of the Overgeared God was more helpful than the protection of any other god. However, this wasn’t the case for a vast majority of people.

Ordinary people still called rare items ‘graduation items.’ Unless there was considerable financial support, it was impossible to obtain a unique item that matched their level every time. Therefore, most people were satisfied with rare items and it was difficult for rare items to have a dramatic increase in effect when receiving the Overgeared God’s Protection. This was the realistic suffering of those without.

Damian was desperately experiencing a pain that was difficult for rankers, especially those of the Overgeared Guild, to feel.

‘I have to hurry and pay off my debt...’

Damian’s withdrawal from the Rebecca Church proceeded without any problems. From the moment the pope was killed by Rebecca’s angels, the Rebecca Church distrusted Damian. There was no reason to stop him when he said he wanted to leave on his own.

Yes, Damian left. He put down the crown symbolizing the pope, the cloak of blessing, and the holy sword that symbolized he was the greatest pope in history. He returned everything he owned as pope and left empty-handed.

However, the Rebecca Church demanded more from him. They warned that everything he could enjoy, and everything he could become, due to being the pope, should be handed in. They said, ‘It can’t be helped. We have always been grateful to you and respect you, but it has nothing to do with this incident. You are the one who did the wrong thing. Taking away what you own instead of executing you for betraying the goddess is the last courtesy for you.’

Those damn guys confiscated all of Damian’s assets and placed a negative number at the bottom of his inventory.

-159,885,103 gold.

It was a debt. It was a huge 160 million debt. In yen, it was 20 billion. This didn’t mean that the profit gained from serving as pope was so great. Damian had never abused his position for his selfish desires. The reason for his debt was the three Rebecca’s Daughters, including Isabel. The Rebecca’s Daughters whom Damian took away with him had an astronomical value to the Rebecca Church.

Damian was angry, but... it was bravado. In any case, he became a debtor.

‘I’m glad I could keep the items I received from Grid, but...’

They were old.

Apart from his shield, the rest were items purchased a few years ago, so higher level items were needed.

“Hah...”

It was customary to provide the materials and a small fee when asking Grid to make an item. Recently, Grid was refusing the rewards, but Lauel accepted them separately and placed them in the treasury. It was based on the theory that the closer they were, the more accurate the calculations should be. Damian and the Overgeared members agreed. In the first place, there was no problem with the procedure because the Overgeared Kingdom’s treasury was like Grid’s personal safe.

‘I can grind and get the materials for the item, but I need to pay off the debt first if I want to be able to afford the production fee...’

Every time he killed a monster or sold an item, the gold was automatically sent to the Rebecca Church. It meant he couldn’t even touch his money until he dealt with the minus balance.

“Hah...” He could only sigh. He couldn’t brag about having a negative balance in his inventory and he felt frustrated with the hardships that he couldn’t tell to anyone.

‘If I participate in the National Competition in this state, it will be hard to win a medal... It can’t be helped. Let’s sell my house first.’

He regretted that he bought a house that was too big while living alone. Life in a luxurious mansion was often lonely. He should remember his original intentions. Go back to the days when he played games in a small room.

“...Huh?” Damian was calming his heart when he hesitated because he couldn’t enter the temple. Thousands of people were gathered in front of the temple. There were so many people that it reminded him of the time when the Overgeared God Church was first established. Recently, the number of visitors was greatly reduced due to the recognition that the Overgeared God Church was a ‘religion for the rich,’ so what was going on?

“Ah...” Damian was feeling confused when he identified the cause. The statue of Blacksmith Khan, that was said to be ordered by Grid a few months ago, stood proudly at the entrance to the temple. The statue of Khan smiled kindly like he did in his life and it was larger and more prominent than the statue of Grid, the master of the temple. It was a glimpse at Grid’s heart.

“Khan...” Damian’s heart was moved. He recalled the way Khan treated him kindly and missed him deeply.

‘Please be happy in Heaven.’

“Damian?”

"......?!”

Damian was praying at Khan’s statue when he looked back at the voice calling his name. It was a familiar face. It was the program PD for a famous Japanese broadcasting station. He was the only who insisted that Damian was a traitor and Grid’s puppet by subtly editing in only the scenes where Damian praised Grid.

“Aren’t you happy to be able to serve Grid in a dignified way now?”

The PD smiled and approached Damian, who was frowning. It felt unlucky every time he saw this PD’s face. Damian asked without changing his expression, “Why are you here?”

“I heard rumors that a statue of Khan was built at Grid’s temple so I came to cover it. Doesn’t this seem right, but is actually wrong? Does Grid want Khan to become a god? Haha.”

"What is so funny?”

“It is funny. It was funny to hold a press conference to get revenge when an NPC died, but now to even deify one... at this point, it might be a type of mental illness. Oh. Don’t make such a scary expression. I’m not scolding you for dating an NPC. I’m just laughing. Why are you so angry?”

“Just stop it.”

Damian held back the words he wanted to spit out. Damian was about to turn around when the PD asked him, “Do you know a program called Player 55?”

Player 55—a survival audition program that selected 55 potential or already famous rankers to be watched, cheered on, and be sponsored by the broadcasting station and viewers. The top three players who received the most sponsorship from viewers could have broadcasting stations and various companies behind them as a sponsor.

The program was done with the intent of making the best player in Japan and boasted a tremendous audience rating.

“I don’t know it.”

“Aish, how can you not know the program that the media is talking about every day? Seeing that you are pretending not to know it, you must know it is a program that I made.”

“I really don’t know...”

“You know, yesterday the final winner was decided as Zelos.”

“Oh, I don’t know...”

“This fact hasn’t been revealed yet, but Zelos is going to participate in the National Competition as Japan’s representative.”

“......”

“Additionally, a new program called ‘Legendary Player’ will air just in time for the opening ceremony of the National Competition. The purpose of the program is simple. We want to keep track of how many medals the proud Japanese player, Zelos, the winner of Player 55, will obtain in this year’s National Competition.”

“So?”

“Look forward to it. The moment Zelos surpasses your gold medal record, the record you left will remain in history as ‘the shameful record left by the traitor.’ I will make it that way.”

“......”

“I... I hated it so much that I shuddered every time I saw you talking about Grid. I’ve always loathed you. In the first place, it was wrong that you were the representative of Japan.”

From this year, the correct history would be written. Damian’s fists trembled as he looked at the back of the PD who departed after this declaration.