“Master, I will report.”

“Go on, Emily.”

“I just got contacted by Ceilron a moment back. He has successfully captured Lefron stronghold.”

“Is that so? Is this the end of the first war conquest?”

“Yes, it is. There are two Baron-level estates behind it, but they will be cleared in the next two days.”

“That should be done.”

If the Lotus Kingdom was the ruler in the eastern part of the Colonnare, then its power could be compared to the Titan Kingdom in the west.

The guild rankings too had powerful forces which were enough to overwhelm the first and second places. That was how strong the Titan Guild was.

In fact, two to three months ago, the Titan Guild was lagging behind compared to the Lotus.

However, recently, the Titan Guild suddenly grew stronger, and they overcame Lotus in terms of guild points.

How exactly did the lagging Titan Guild catch up with the fast-growing Lotus Guild?

The answer, environment.

The Location that the Titan Guild was located was much more favorable than that of the Lotus.

‘Taking a place in the Southwest was a great choice.’

In the Northeastern part of the Colonnare Continent were many kingdoms with great power under the influence of the Chalian.

Beginning with the Elrika Kingdom, where the Lotus Kingdom was having a full-on war with the kingdoms of Icaron and Lamaris in the east and west.

Each one of them was a powerful kingdom, comparable to Lotus and Titan.

On the other hand, in the southwest, which was relatively free from the quests of the Lich King, there were relatively few areas.

Thanks to that, the Titan Guild was able to wage a war conquest.

That content raised the highest guild points as it was a war conquest.

As the estate’s number increased by one, the guild score was bound to increase.

Shakran spoke to Emily,

“Emily, how far has the Lotus’s war conquest gone to?”

Emily immediately answered the question of Shakran,

Information gathering about the Lotus Kingdom had always been the top priority, so it was natural for her to know about the information like an encyclopedia.

“It is about halfway through the arithmetic ratio.”

“Arithmetic? What does that mean?”

“Yeah, out of the 88 provinces that make up the Elrika Kingdom, they have restored exactly nineteen.”

“Just say half then. Why bother using the word arithmetic?”

“That…”

Emily opened the map and pointed to one side of the map and spoke again,

“Here and here. There are a lot of fortifications that are difficult to pass through, such as the Elrika and the Rataphel.”

“Hm?”

“Specifically, the Rataphel Domain… it is more than just a marquis.”

“That is why the progress is less than half because the remaining territories have excellent defenses.”

“Yes, master. Rather than half, it isn’t just around 3%.”

“Hmm, that is good news.”

The stagnant growth of the Lotus Kingdom was more than just good news for the Titan Guild.

Other than lotus, there was no other entity that could be compared with the Titan Guild.

While the Lotus was suffering in stagnation, they had to urgently expand their forces and soon create enough conditions for the declaration of the ‘Empire’.

‘If we can take on the Empire content, the gap between the Lotus and us will widen.’

Shakran, who pulled out a jade item from his inventory, grinned while touching it.

The Lotus was the first to pre-empt the Kingdom content, but the first guild to be declared as the Empire was going to be Titan.

That was what the context of their conversation meant.

* * *

The splendid King’s room in the top of the Lotus.

And on the throne was a man sitting and nodding.

It was none other than Ian.

[The ‘Throne Power’ effect has been triggered.]

[Fatigue restored by 0.5.]

[Satisfaction restored by 0.2.]

(Syncopation)

[The ‘Throne Power’ effect has been triggered.]

[Fatigue…]

System messages that appeared at regular intervals filled the corner of Ian’s vision.

Ian often favored the feeling because the Throne Power was like a little privilege given only to the King.

‘To sleep and then recover from the fatigue feels great.’

In Kailan, fatigue affected the control’s ‘sensitivity’.

It was a similar concept to the reaction speed of the character that follows the movement of the user.

‘Forodo’ was a content that very slightly affected the gameplay, so most of the users didn’t even feel the existence of it, but for the rankers such as Ian, it was a different situation.

The slight difference in the reaction rate played a huge role in a rankers’ life and death, and it affected their hunting speed too.

Which was why the rankers always had good food and potions to recover from the fatigue even though they were all expensive to consume.

Therefore, the Throne Power which restores all the fatigue and satiety in about 10 minutes could surely be considered as a privilege that not much could claim.

But that wasn’t the reason why Ian was currently seated on the throne.

“Haham.”

Ian after yawning confirmed the time.

He was currently waiting for someone in that place.

“Hmm, it seems like the appointment time is getting close…”

At least in Kailan, Ian was quite punctual.

When Ian’s mumbling came to an end, the door opened then someone entered.

“Ho ho, thank God I wasn’t late.”

The one who entered the room was breathing ruggedly.

Ian shook his head and looked at the yellow hair of the one who came in thinking if it was dyed or not.

“Weren’t late? You’re late!”

“Uh? Wasn’t the time of our meeting at 2 o’clock?”

“So, you’re precisely 25 seconds late.”

“…”

Ian rose up from his seat.

In front of him was the person he had invited to come.

“Sit. Don’t be late next time.”

“Huh? Yeah…”

Lauren, the BJ, exclusive to Lotus, took a seat while cold sweat was dripping all over his body.

‘How can you call me suddenly and then say that I’m 25 seconds late?’

Lauren was mumbling inside, as he didn’t have the courage to show his resentment to Ian.

Of course, even if he said that out loud it wouldn’t really mean much to Ian.

Only the money Lauren would get would be reduced.

In order to maintain the exclusive BJ position of Lauren and Lotus, this kind of talk wasn’t a huge deal to face.

Lauren who had forgotten about it for a second said,

“Hyung, what are you going to do today?”

Since Ian called him personally, there could be hundreds of reasons for it.

For example, maybe a 1.5x increase in the channel subscribers good thing kind of act.

Ian waited for a moment and then spoke with a very subtle voice,

“Let’s make a deal, Oren-ah.”

“By deal… you mean?”

Lauren’s eyes went wide.

Ian wasn’t the person to use the words like ‘deal’ unless he had come up with a lot of content.

And the fact that Ian had brought up the word ‘deal’ with a very serious expression meant that he had an enormous content.

“Yeah, deal.”

“…!”

When Ian was done talking, he pulled out two sheets from his inventory.

[Opened the item ‘Kailan’s contract’.]

A legally valid contract notarized by LB.

Ian turned over the two contracts to Lauren. He then laughed and said,

“A. B. choose one of them and then stamp it.”

“…!”

Lauren, who took the contracts and studied it, began to tremble.

The contents of the contract were so simple that it was an instant-read.

Lauren whose eyes met with Ian asked for clarity,

“You didn’t put the 0 and the 1 wrongly, right?”

“No way. You don’t know how to calculate?”

“I know.”

“Exactly 50 million gold. Seven zeros in the back.”

“…!”

Lauren once again confirmed the contracts in hand.

A: Down Payment 50,000,000 gold/revenue distribution 0:100.

B: Down payment of 0 gold/revenue distribution 30:70

The contents of the two contracts were simple, yet it didn’t seem like it was simple.

Lauren’s head began to spin.

‘If it is 50 million gold, how much is it? The gold’s price is around 10 to 12,000 won.’

If he stamped on the A option, then he would be able to get 60 million won in cash.

If he thought about the 15 million that he had made so far on Ian, the contract deal was amazing.

On the other hand, in the case of the contract B, it was worse than the previous contract condition.

Lauren objected.

“Hyung, what is it with contract B?”

“What, what?”

“It’s 15% lower than the usual one?”

“It is.”

“And the condition for A, isn’t that a bit too much?”

However, Ian shook his head and responded,

“Nope, the content is much better than usual. Surely you can’t even see that.”

“Hmm…!”

To argue with the words of Ian was no good, and the content of contract A was a bit too much.

Ian wasn’t a philanthropist, even if the contents weren’t that good, he would be able to pay the 50 million gold that he needed to pay as a proceeding.

Lauren was in a lot of conflicts.

‘Even though the A doesn’t seem to be that safe… should I gamble on it?’

Lauren did all sorts of calculations in his head while his eyes were closed.

Ian closed his eyes and waited for his decision. Lauren then spoke after a moment,

“Hyung, can you give me something like a hint?”

“Hint for what?”

“Like… temporary titles that would appear on broadcasts…”

However, without opening his eyes, Ian shook his head.

“Huh? That’s no fun then.”

“…!”

“The moment you sign the contract is when you’ll be able to open and see its contents.”

After a while, Lauren stamped on the A contract with his eyes closed.

‘Hu, well, this is not really a gamble, Lauren. You were deceived by this hyung last time too.’

In fact, Lauren wasn’t the first to receive the two contracts.

But he was the first to receive an extreme kind of contract.

He did try gambling a few times and failed miserably, which was why this time he had chosen the 50 million gold.

‘This time, I won’t be falling for this hyung’s schemes! 50 million gold is awesome enough! Right?’

With trembling hands, Lauren handed the contract to Ian.

Ian, who accepted it, began to write the title of the content on top of the contract.

Swoosh-!

Ian was filling in the contract with a pen.

But Lauren’s eyes, which were turning dry because he wasn’t blinking, gradually widened.

[Till Elrika Castle’s 19 estates have been occupied, 24 hours cut.]