It took around five hours to capture Penn. It was the midpoint, or exact middle point, of the four hours Hyeonu spoke about and the six hours the emperor thought about.

A five hour battle—at the end of it, there were only rankers left in Penn after a perfect battle without a single death. There weren’t even ants left.

[Captured Penn 1/1]

[Demonic creatures killed 50,293/???]

[Demons killed 39,384/???]

“Wonderful. You are well qualified to participate in the war.”

The emperor soon appeared on the city walls and started to speak. The emperor praised the battle of the players. The emperor continued to talk, regardless of whether he actually liked them or not. The position of emperor was like this. He had to do things differently from his real heart.

[You have cleared Proof of Qualifications.]

Then the same message window appeared in front of thousands of players. It was a message window indicating that the first step of the main scenario was cleared.

‘I gained a huge amount of experience.’

[Experience has been acquired.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power are restored.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power are restored.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power are restored.]

[You have leveled up.]

[All health and magic power are restored.]

Hyeonu quickly gained four levels. It was the result of receiving 10% of the compensation from thousands of players.

‘The imperial contribution is also huge.’

[179,239 imperial contributions have been acquired.]

[You have been acknowledged by the emperor.]

[You can continue with the main scenario.]

It wasn’t just the level. The other reward, the imperial contributions, also increased in huge quantities.

‘Everyone has no idea.’

The fact that Hyeonu, who only swung his sword once, received dozens or hundreds of times more rewards than the others. Hyeonu received more than 1/9th of the rewards received by more than 5,000 rankers. 10% was Hyeonu’s share for participating in the quest. Thus, it was a bit over 1/9th.

-Look at his smile. Something smells fishy.

-I am requesting the truth from Alley Leader. How can he show such a happy smile?

-How did he do the background work?

-Is he cheating other people’s labor power using political means?

Viewers didn’t miss Hyeonu’s smile. The moment he showed a meaningful smile, they rushed over like a wild dog and bit at Hyeonu.

-I am committed to the success of the quest. I have no great greed, so I can be grateful for something so small. Audience friends, don’t be greedy ^^

Hyeonu couldn’t speak openly in front of the emperor. Instead, he answered viewers’ questions by leaving a long message in the chat window. Of course, it was 100 percent false. Hyeonu never abandoned his greed, nor did he place great significance on the success of his quest. It was the overwhelming reward. He wanted it.

‘Otherwise, I wouldn’t have driven away Viscount Garcia.’

Viscount Garcia, the master of Penn—Hyeonu kicked him out and stole the ring symbolizing the master of Penn. He also tried to collect rings when completing the emperor’s quest. Everything started from his desire to get greater rewards than others. However, Hyeonu hid it perfectly. He never made it obvious.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t give you time to rest properly. We have started a war, so we have to deal the maximum damage before the enemies are prepared. Considering that you are adventurers, I will make sure you have a bit more time to travel this time.”

The emperor had no intention of staying in Penn for even a single day. He didn’t mean to reduce the speed of movement at all.

[A quest has been created.]

[Go to Tendmul]

[The emperor never stops. He wants to get the most results in the shortest time. It is because there isn’t much time given to him. Live up to the emperor’s expectations.

Rating: MS

Conditions: The fall of Tendmul 0/1

Rewards: Experience, imperial contribution, permit.]

‘Permit? What is this?’

“Permit...?” Hyeonu questioned one of the rewards in the rewards column. He was well aware of experience and imperial contribution. However, he didn’t know what the permit was. It wasn’t just Hyeonu. It was the first time that all the players gathered here, including Hyeonu, had seen it.

Just then, the emperor opened his mouth again. He explained what the permit was and shocked everyone at the same time. “If you capture the next city, you will be granted the permit according to the contribution of the adventurers guild who showed an active performance in the battle that day. Those who don’t have the permit can’t become a noble. Also, keep in mind that your permit is only up to a viscount.”

Those who didn’t have the permit couldn’t become nobles. Even if they did have the permit, the highest title they could rise to was a viscount. The meaning of this was simple.

Nobles with titles beyond a viscount were high ranking nobles, and one couldn’t ascend to such titles using imperial contributions. Moreover, the number of nobles would be very limited in the future.

‘There aren’t many nobles right now... nor can it be increased all the time.’

Hyeonu thought the emperor’s choice was natural. Imperial contributions were given out recklessly in the main scenario. Where could the rankers here use the imperial contributions they earned? Anyone would think the same thing.

A title of nobility—no matter what anyone said, the biggest reward for imperial contributions was to become a noble. Rather than ambiguous rewards, it was better to pour out an enormous amount of contributions and increase the number of nobles. If the number of nobles increased, then the number of territories that could be obtained would increase.

‘The amount of money that a territory makes is huge.’

It made a lot of income even if they didn’t act much. Hyeonu knew it better than anyone. The amount of gold that Phinis earned was huge.

-What? Then you can’t be a noble even if you contribute to the imperial family?

-Isn’t this impossible? In addition to the imperial contributions, we need the ‘permit.’

-I don’t understand. The number of NPC nobles is limited and it is the same with the number of cities in the West Continent, but the nobles can’t be recklessly increased.

-Then wouldn’t the price for it be incredibly high?

Viewers were watching from a distance. In fact, there were very few of them who had obtained the imperial contributions themselves. There was a big gap between rankers and others. The world of the rankers was the world that they lived in. This was why viewers were able to see the situation from a more objective perspective. They weren’t people who would gain or lose from it, so they truthfully expressed the thoughts in their minds.

Unlike the viewers who spoke casually, the rankers gathered here were showing complicated judgments on their faces.

“Should I like this?”

“It is easy to widen the gap with other guilds.”

There were roughly two main reactions. There were those who were satisfied that they could form a clear difference from the large guilds who didn’t participate in the main scenario.

“The pace isn’t stopping...”

“The rewards are all about clearing the next scenario satisfactorily...”

“We might get a little bit more or we might not get anything.”

Some were worried about others acting unreasonable in the next city siege due to being blinded by the permit. If this happened, they might not be able to obtain the permit. They might not even clear the quest. However, desire was an emotion that could dominate over reason.

‘This is an unexpected profit.’

Nevertheless, this was an irrelevant matter to Hyeonu. He didn’t care about who died or who killed many monsters. It was because 10% of the rewards they obtained would belong to Hyeonu anyway.

‘I can get a bit more if they run hard.’

It was as if the basic salary was fixed and he could also receive incentives according to the performance of the work.

‘I can use it well.’

The price would definitely be expensive if the permit was traded. However, Hyeonu would never sell it for money.

‘Why should I sell it?’

Many things could be obtained with one permit

“Leave right away. The direction of movement is north.”

The emperor ignored the noisy rankers and moved with Lebron. It was like asking people to follow. It was a decisive action.

Hyeonu quickly chased after the emperor. Even Hyeonu moved, so the rankers followed quickly. It was with different thoughts.

***

As Hyeonu was working on the main scenario, the work to recruit players to Crescent Moon was in progress. Jeong Byeongjin and Kang Ujong gathered information and spent several hours a day filtering out the candidates with Yoo Hyeonsu.

“What about this person?”

Kang Ujong placed an application letter in front of Yoo Hyeonsu.

“The rumors about him are bad. There are many rumors from everywhere that he does bad things. There is no smoke without a fire.”

Yoo Hyeonsu shook his head when he saw the name on the application.

Chae Junsu—he might be skilled, but there were too many rumors following him.

“That is true. If multiple people talk about him consistently, then there is a possibility of problems. We can’t 100% trust him. It is better to go safely than to take risks.”

Kang Ujong placed Chae Junsu’s application in the paper shredder.

“Isn’t there anyone good? I think I’ve seen 100 people, but there is no one who can be used.”

Kang Ujong sighed when he saw the yellow light. Once Yoo Hyeonsu joined, the scouting reports of Kang Ujong and Jeong Byeongjin became very concise. It was filtered out much more based on Yoo Hyeonsu’s information. They even looked at the applications of those who applied for the New Moon project. This was after it was already filtered out from Nike’s side.

‘I never imagined that so many people from everywhere would’ve applied.’

A ridiculous number of players had applied and Nike Management examined tens of thousands of applications. The applications weren’t simply pieces of paper. There were also videos of hunting and the arena attached. There were quite a few people who showed their skills in the videos.

There were 3,000 applications who were filtered out and passed to Crescent Moon. It was no wonder that Kang Ujong sighed as he looked at applications and shredded them all day long.

“Still, we got one person. We just need to fill it out at one person a week.”

“Yes, that is good news. It is also a magician.”

Of course, they didn’t just waste time.

They got in touch with one of the candidates on the scouting report.

“By the way, what is the name of the person we are meeting today?”

“Yeonghun, Cho Yeonghun.”

“Ah, that’s right. Cho Yeonghun. We should go quickly. It is time.”

Kang Ujong rose from his seat and grabbed a thick coat. It was still chilly.