Drrrk -!

In a large meeting room.

With a large U-shaped table in the center of it, and all the people sitting around it were in unison.

“Mr. Chairman is coming in.”

A middle-aged man dressed in a black suit came into the room after the door was opened by the doormen and walked in the direction of the chairman.

Was he around forty?

Although he looked young and sophisticated to be considered as middle-aged, the wrinkles around the man’s eyes were deep.

He was ‘Nam Taehoon’, the chairman of the planning team, which was responsible for the overall planning of Kailan’s huge gaming industry.

He entered the gaming market when he was in his early twenties and became a founding member of the LB company and now had a profound influence on the development of Kailan.

Even though he was in his forties, he still had a great sense of game planning and that was the reason why he was still a respected person.

Thud-!

As he was sitting down in his chair, he placed the paperwork that he brought with him onto the table and the people who stood as he arrived sat down.

The situation in the conference room was rather serious and nerve-wracking.

The reason why the whole gaming company was giving out serious vibes was because the meeting for today had a very important cause.

Seven executives, general managers and three executives from each of the seven planning teams.

This meeting that was being held today along with the marketing team was an important meeting that was held only twice every year.

It would be no exaggeration to say that this meeting would determine Kailan’s planning direction for the coming second half of the year.

Nam Taehoon looked around the room and said after much thought.

“It isn’t just one or two things that I want to talk about… but for now, I’ll start with the most pressing and concerning issue.”

The same moment his words ended, the screen behind him was turned on showing everyone in the room a presentation.

On the screen, were ten beautifully arranged pictures.

Nam Taehoon’s gaze moved towards the man who was sitting in the far right.

“Yu Hwan. You can start.”

“Sure Mr. Chairman.”

He was the head of Team 3 and the youngest team leader of the planning department.

Yu Hwan spoke with a strong voice and got up from his chair and approached the screen.

As he reached his hand out to the screen, the image selected by him was magnified.

The enlarged image directly produced an image.

“Currently, you’re seeing the guild of the two countries. As you can see on the right-hand side of the screen, it is very similar to what we have predicted at the beginning of the year.”

The contents reproduced by the image were the largely divided 3 continents of Kailan.

The images of the guilds that were in the continent were in 3D which were very attractive to one’s eyes.

Nam Taehoon nodded and said.

“So, the one in red is Titan and the territory of Lotus is in blue.”

At which Hwan answered immediately.

“Yes, Mr. Chairman. As you can see, everything is properly balanced.”

“Hmm… it was an excellent choice, it was indeed necessary to set the number of the Manors that a guild can possess.”

“Right. If we didn’t put up limits, then almost all of the basses would’ve been owned by either the Lotus or the Titan Guild. The balance of the guilds would’ve crumbled too.”

If one could look at the displayed map on the screen, both the territory of the Lotus and Titan weren’t so overwhelmingly huge.

There were around 20 to 30 guilds that had a territory with the same size.

However, the power of Lotus and Titan was evil. The map was different in contrast to the mighty power of the two guilds.

This was the structure that was originally intended by the planning team.

It was planned in advance because they were worried about the guild eco-system that could get destroyed.

Unless one declared a Kingdom, they had to set up a system which would no longer increase the growth of their territories.

If that was so, then the two guilds with overwhelming power would think that being a Kingdom was a task that needn’t to be done right away.

However, it wasn’t so easy.

It doesn’t matter if the guild was still in the empire until the dukedom, the moment one went to the Kingdom, they would get out of the Empire.

Once they leave the fenced protection of the Empire, no one would know when they would be attacked by either the Kaimon or the Luspel. No matter how powerful the forces of Titan and Lotus were, they weren’t comparable to the ones in the Empire.

It was a safety measure which they installed as a means to prevent the collapse of balance.

It was the planning team’s decision to hold onto the legs of these two fast-growing guilds and gave them time to rebuild their roots of being a guild.

The intentions of the developers might seem too unfair for Lotus and Titan, but that wasn’t the case.

As long as the guild eco-system was being maintained properly, the value of the existing high-leveled guilds would keep increasing.

Kailan was a virtual reality game.

A virtual reality game that pursued as much reality as possible.

However, since it was a game, there was a clear need to limit the reality in it.

It was important to invest more time and game rewards to the top rankers and the top guilds, but it was equally important to give new user’s a fighting chance as well

It was the planning team’s mission to maintain the equality and balance of the two.

Nam Taehoo, who listened to Kim Yu-Hwan’s briefing, said.

“Nice. It certainly seems like the balance is right. But the bigger the guilds, the more fights there will be I assume?”

“Yes. Now in the case of Lotus and Titan guild, both have grown to the maximum expansion ‘Empire’, but if we weren’t able to create an environment where one could create a Kingdom, the lack of guild content will increase complaints.”

Nam Taehoon nodded.

“Okay. Let’s open a new episode next week then.”

“…!”

The team leaders of the other planning teams who were discussing it through stopped midway.

They were not expecting what Nam Taehoon just said.

“Next week?”

“Isn’t that a bit too sudden?”

“Yes. The forces of the Lotus Guild and the Titan Guild are still getting stronger… I think we should give the other guilds enough time to grow.”

However, Nam Taehoon shook his head.

“No, No. the time given for the other guild to come up was enough. Can’t you see the screen? There are 20 guilds of that sort in the continents, we have given them enough time.”

The most senior among all the team leaders—the team leader of team 1, Woo Min-chol—spoke with an anxious expression.

“But once the empire wars break out… the Titan and Lotus will instantly grow out. We will need an alternative.”

Nam Taehoon smiled and nodded.

“Team Leader Woo is right. An alternative is surely needed.”

Nam Taehoon rose from his seat while Kim Yee-hwan sat down.

A second video then began to emerge.

Nam Taehoon smiled and spoke again.

“Here, there is a clear alternative.”

* * *

Ding Dong-!

A ringing sound was heard.

Jinsung who was lying on the sofa was startled by the sound.

“Who is it?”

The sound made Jinsung’s gaze turn away from the screen and shift towards the porch with a reflexive question.

There were a few welcoming faces out there.

“What do you mean by who? Idiot! Open the door now! It’s so hot in here that I feel like I’m dying!”

Jinsung laughed a little at how irritated Yoo Hyun was and opened the door.

Keeuk-!

He saw Yoo Hyun and a few others standing there.

“Hey! Park Jinsung! You’ve got a very nice place huh?”

“That is so my word. Here is a poverty-stricken university student, and the other is a game crazy student buying houses.”

“Keu, Jinsung the great. I still don’t understand the full extent of what you do.”

“Full extent?! No student can own an apartment worth a billion won. An apartment worth a billion won, seriously?”

With a pleased smile, Jinsung gestured to them with his hands to enter inside.

“Come inside you jerks. Hyung you too come inside. The air conditioner is on. It’s a waste of electricity to keep the door open. ”

Among them was someone who was a year older—Sewon. He then said.

“Uhuh, you little. Coming in coming in.”

Just a few days ago.

Jinsung moved out from his 2 bedroom apartment and moved into a 30 square-meter luxury apartment.

It was a high-priced apartment costing more than a billion won, but he still bought it since he had enough money.

Today was the day he decided to call his friends to come and visit his place.

“Wow, but what is that smell?”

“Are you making something? Maybe Harin is cooking something.”

Minnie who was sitting on the sofa was sniffing and Sewon was the one who asked the question.

Harin came out of the kitchen to greet them.

“Ding dong dang! Gentlemen welcome to the house of Jinsung and Harin!”

Sewon then asked with a dumbfounded expression.

“What was that? Why is this place called Jinsung and Harin’s house? This is Jinsung’s house.”

Harin laughed at that and responded.

“Why, will it not become my house as well? I’m going to be living here moving forward.”

“…!”

Both Yoo Hyun and Minnie were shocked.

“Ugh? As in, living together?!”

“What? You’re living together now?”

Harin was the one who responded to them.

“Yeah, yeah. I also had rights to this house!”

Jinsung who was changing the channel on the TV just laughed nervously.

“We decided to do this. Harin was uncomfortable living in her cousin’s house, so she moved into a much spacious one…”

Yoo Hyun who had conservative thoughts once again felt the need to ask a question.

“OMG… living together…! That means Jinsung and Harin won’t have a problem since both their parents are far away…”

Minnie—Yoo Hyun’s girlfriend—looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“Well, it is a bit embarrassing in some ways…”

Jinsung said to ease the intense atmosphere.

They were a little nervous thinking about the issue of living together, but when Harin brought out the food, everyone became quiet.

They were all eating food while watching TV.

Sewon was laughing while looking at the TV’s huge screen.

“I guess there was a reason why you decided to call us over for housewarming at this specific date.”

“I told you, hyung. Today is Kailan server’s maintenance day, that’s why you called us, right?”

Jinsung responded with a gentle look.

“Well, detective, isn’t this good? You are also users of Kailan.”

The channel that they were currently watching was the Game Broadcast.

A massive update was being patched today after having no updates for quite some time. It was the day when LB announced it would release major contents.

This upcoming update wasn’t just a simple release.

According to the announced schedule on Kailan’s website, high-quality videos were going to be broadcasted non-stop for 6 hours.

It was easy to say that all the users had watched the six-hour long broadcast to get as much information as they could about the new updates.

Only LB would be able to drift away from common logic when putting content into their game.

LB’s software offered a lot of fun for their users who were currently waiting for such large scale update.

The users praised the developers endlessly, and the whole world admired Kailan.

“Uh, It’s starting!”

At the same time, everyone’s gaze turned towards the TV.

Though they all teased Jinsung as a game lover, they all undeniably love Kailan as well.

* * *

Muran, the capital of Luspel Empire.

At the center of Muran City, a spectacular image of the Luspel empire had come up.

The screen soon shined.

Starting with the appearance of the emperor of the Luspel Empire sitting near the table and dozens of large people seated on both sides.

The knight of the imperial family—Helliem—was facing Serius with a knee bent on the ground.

Serius, the emperor of the Luspel Empire spoke with a stern look.

“Okay, Helliem. Did you find anything more?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“Then go on.”

Chuk-!

He slowly spoke after seeing Serius’ hand.

“The Emperor of the Kaimon Empire, Juan Lucas. So, it is true that he already died.”

“…!”

The Emperor’s deep golden eyes shined brightly.

The many scholars who were in the area were all shocked by the news.

Serius then spoke.

“This is… an opportunity.”

“Yes, your majesty. The God of War, Mares has taken the inviolable oracle without handing it back.”

The war between the two empires had taken place simultaneously with the opening of the Central Continent.

The Luspel Empire suffered a great loss at that time, and it was considerably weaker than the Kaimon Empire when it came to military might.

If the war continued, Luspel wouldn’t have managed to turn the tables over.

It was very fortunate since the Devildom opened up at that very moment, so the God of War, Mares had to trust the two countries.

The oracle was then placed to prevent the war from ever happening.

But not long ago, it was true that the oracle of trust was taken away. It was decided that the war would eventually take place.

If there was a chance that a war was going to happen, Kaimon would indeed have the upper hand.

A situation no one would have ever thought of.

The Emperor of the Kaimon Empire—Lucas—died, and opportunity had come for the Luspel Empire.

“Guards listen…!”

“Yes, your majesty.”

The emperor stood up from his seat.

He pulled out his golden sword which was dangling down his waist and raised it to the sky.

“A week from now.”

Serius gave them a moment and looked around them.

His golden eyes were shining brightly.

“Victory will come to us by itself!”

It was the prelude to the war.