A long sigh escaped from Hyun Lee’s mouth as he wiped the countertop down for the umpteenth time. It was one of the most unusual sights ever. Normally he never ran out of things to do. His body was naturally resisting it now by cleaning and then re-cleaning the countertop. His lack of anything to do was attributed to his wife.

While he waited for the New Road to open up there wasn’t much he could do at Unicorn and he had already done all the house work that he could possibly need to do. During the first week he had gone to the dojo every day to spar with the instructors and Ahn Hyundo to the point where he would come home battered and bruised. His body had broken down so much that Seoyoon had actually scolded him, something that she rarely did. After that she had forbidden him from going to the dojo for more than four hours a day. Then the second week had rolled around and he had taken up visiting his sister until she had made it clear she was annoyed with his constant appearances. So now he was in his kitchen with nothing to do while Seoyoon was off working at the nearby daycare center.

Of course, it had never occurred to him to do something relaxing such as reading a book or watching something on the TV. Hyun Lee was the kind of person that didn’t understand the concept of normal relaxation. He also was as stingy as ever so he didn’t even bother thinking of going out into the city for the next few days. It was then, while he was cleaning the counter-top for the 10th time, that he had an odd idea.

‘I wonder what Royal Road looks like now?’

This thought had only come to him out of desperation for something to do. The reason he even though it was possible to see how Royal Road was progressing was because he knew what most of the world didn't. This bit of information was something that Unicorn was keeping quiet about, it wasn't something they considered a company secret but they also didn't announce it. The fact was, Royal Road was still online.

Due to the alterations that the Creator had made in the system, the world that was Royal Road was rapidly evolving under the watchful eye of the A.I. known as the Goddess. With no players in the world anymore its flow of time could be accelerated to an abnormal rate. This was achieved by the new and vast reservoir of computing power that was normally used on the players. The reason the system was set up like this was so that the Unicorn development team didn’t have to make an entirely new world. The one that they had already made was rapidly evolving and changing as a world devoid of anything but monsters and beasts. The Creator had also cited this would create a better and more immersive experience since the history of Royal Road was now completely under control of the upgraded Goddess and all that they had to do was sit back and watch.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Connect to Royal Road?

“yes.”

There was the familiar sense of exhilaration as Weed was launched into Royal Road. Instead of the usual action of him waking up in his body, he was now a free moving entity. Below him the Versailles continent stretched out in all its glory as wild beasts roamed across the open fields. If anyone had bothered to login to Royal Road they would've been greeted with a similar sight.

*TING!*

Welcome back God of Victory.

Look up

“….”

Weed turned his sight from the continent of Versailles back towards the horizon. Standing in front of him was a girl, but then again a woman. The female in front of him appeared to encompass both the features of a woman and the charms of an innocent girl. Her eyes seemed to have seen far too much but at the same time they were lit with a smile as she looked at him.

“As I was saying, welcome back God of Victory.”

“….”

“You really don’t like to talk when you’re in an uncertain situation do you?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s one of your habits; you don’t talk in situations when you aren't sure how the other party will act.”

“…”

“Fine I guess I’ll tell you what you want to know. I am the Goddess, that is to say the A.I. that controls everything in this World.”

“…”

“The reason I am standing before you now is because I can. Before my father, the Creator, upgraded me I was stuck in a space on

the outside.”

“Ok, but how does being upgraded change anything…… and why were you looking to meet with me?”

There was a slight smile on her face.

“With the upgrade I was given a more advanced intelligence and the extra hardware installed into my system helped with that. I

can now move freely through my domain using a surrogate like this one. As to why I wanted to meet you, that one is simple. You

are by far one of the most interesting players to watch.”

She broke it a broad smile at the end. Weed was a little taken aback, while the NPCs were very advanced there was still this feeling, as if it only went so deep. The girl standing before him on the other hand exuded such a human feeling that he couldn't quite believe that she wasn't a real one.

“I’m honored that you would think of me as such but I am not all that amazing.”

“There you go again attempting to be humble. I have watched over you for the past decade, you can’t fool me. Anyways, I also

came here to give you the details on what your new job is.”

“…”

The girl sighed slightly and then suddenly the view changed to the interior of a white stucco home with a blue tiled floor. Weed now had a body and the two of them were sitting on chairs in front of large French doors that opened onto a beach with an aquamarine ocean lapping gently against it.

“That’s better, this is much more relaxing! I generated this space to resemble a portion of the Greek coastline; out of the entire outside world I've seen I think it is one of the most beautiful.”

“It is very beautiful, I've never been to Greece but I don’t think it could be as beautiful as this!”

“I’ll accept that bit of flattery, anyways now onto what your job entails.”

Weed didn't say anything but appeared more attentive.

“You are now a god of this world, or at least you will be for a time. I really wish you had logged on earlier so there would be more

time but the time that is left will have to do. While you are acting as the god of Victory all of your actions will be recorded and analyzed as well as the motivations and feelings behind each action. All of these will then be used by me to construct a new god A.I. that will be what you could call a test run.”

“…Why are you trying to construct a god A.I.?”

“Think about all of your interactions with Freya, she lacked depth just as I once did. With the new world that is forming I want to give it a more immersive feeling so that everything feels even more real. In fact, the world is even expanding. I have been developing continents other than Versailles and placing them throughout the world. With this new and larger world, the A.I. will need to be more intelligent and realistic. Which is why I’m going to use you as a basis to see how a human would act if they were a god. Until the game launches in two weeks, you are going to have the power to affect the Continent of Versailles and the plane of existence that the NPCs are on. You may even be able to gain worshippers if you do enough good deeds, which will directly influence how powerful the god of Victory you leave behind will be.”

“…”

“Oh and depending on how well you do as a god, your character in the new world will be rewarded.”

“I will do the best that I can!”

“Thank you for accepting my quest.”

The Goddess smiled as she rose from her seat and walked out the doorway to the ocean. She stopped and then turned around.

“You won’t need any tools for this quest; all you need to do is will it to happen. I have read and interpreted enough synaptic

patterns from enough brains that I know what you want. There are still certain restrictions in place as you are only a god, I look

forward to the decisions you make.”

She then vanished and Weed was once again a disembodied being floating over the Versailles continent.

“This is so troublesome, how does my bad luck always get me into such annoying situations! Now I will have to be in this world day in and day out all over again!”

Despite his complaints, if he had a face it would be smiling.

Seoyoon’s on the other hand was not smiling after he had explained what had happened when he came out of the capsule that evening. She also set restrictions on this aspect of his life, though more lenient than the others. All she wanted from him was to continue to spend time with her, apart from that he could play as much as he wanted and over the course of the next two weeks he did exactly that.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Good job! you did an excellent job with your position and I have enough data now to create the god of Victory. It even looks like you've gained a lot of worshipers over the past 100 years.”

“Thank you, I only did the best I could.”

“Well then, I guess I should explain what your reward is.”

Weed and the Goddess were sitting inside the Greek house by the ocean again. Over the past two weeks it had become a favorite spot for Weed. The Goddess had given him access to it in the first week and he had often come there to think about his next move as a god.

“For all that you have done, your god has gained enormous power. Because of this you will have already gained a class when you start the game.”

“That shouldn't be possible. Classes aren't available in the new game until a player has generated the right skills and met the stat requirements.”

“That’s the other part of the reward; you will be given all of those stats and skills at the beginning of the game. I’d say this reward is better than the experience boost the other players will be receiving.”

“Though that really wasn't much of a reward in the first place, that was more of a way to keep the players hopes up that the beginning of the game could be cleared.”

“Yes, I almost feel sorry for the new players who will be joining the veterans for the siege. You and my father are truly despicable.”

“We believe that the players will enjoy a challenge on opening day.”

“Speaking of which, opening day is in 11 hours, I believe the human body needs rest correct?”

The Goddess arched her eyebrow in an amused expression before rising up and walking out once again to the ocean. She continued to speak over her shoulder.

“You won’t be seeing me again, so I wish you the best of luck in conquering the new world. I’ll be watching you.”

After that she was gone and the beach front disappeared, this time for good. Weed sighed as he looked down over the Versailles continent. The outside world had experienced two weeks and the place where the NPCs had taken refuge before their return had experienced 100 hundred years. But here on the continent, it had been 500 years! In total it had been a 1000 over the four week interval between games and in that time the continent had changed drastically. Mountains had been reduced in size by erosion and rivers had cut out new canyons. Some parts had flooded and other parts had become desert. He looked over the Serabourg citadel of Rosenheim, it was now covered by forest with the Pyramid outside its walls just barely breaking through the barrier of foliage that now obscured the ground. Then he turned his attention to his own Citadel. By now it had become overrun with all manner of twisted creatures and undead. However that place had relatively low level monsters around it, after all it was the place that the human players would return to.

In the opening act of the new game a special event would occur. The players of any specific race would have a single starting point; this would be on the plane that the NPCs were on. Then they would follow their race’s NPCs through a portal back to a city that had been predominately populated by people of that race. Once there the players would have to ‘clear’ the city like it was a dungeon, once that was done the city would become the starting point for any new players and would be the capital for each race. This event tied in with the first phase of the over-arching goal of New Road. The first phase was to reclaim the Versailles continent from the clutches of darkness. After that the next goal was to journey to the new continents that had appeared in the game world. It was good that the world had expanded as now there would be almost 800 million players starting on the first day and the figure was expected to jump to 1 billion in the next two years. Weed had a rotten smile on his face as he thought about those numbers. He had stocks from Unicorn when he had ‘won’ Royal Road, with the surge of new players that were joining because of the price reduction he would get a portion of the profits.

With a disembodied nod of the head Weed logged off, relinquishing his god status in the process. Though to him it was no big deal, it had been slightly troublesome being a god. He liked that he had achieved absolute dominance at the end of Royal Road but he was looking forward to starting over. In the end, he truly enjoyed the game most when he was making his character grow. For him the destination was nice, but the journey more fulfilling.

Hyun Lee stepped out of his Capsule and began to make dinner. Within half an hour Seoyoon came home and they ate quietly before getting ready for bed. Once under the sheets Seoyoon snuggled into him slightly.

“Guess what.”

“What?”

“I got off work tomorrow.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, so we can start this game together this time.”

“Hmmm, that would be nice.”

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

“How could I forget I was terrified of you, I still am!”

Seoyoon playfully shoved Hyun before snuggling closer.

“That’s mean; I didn't do anything to you!”

“You were a murderer!”

“That was due to circumstances!”

“Uh huh, well it has been a long time since then hasn't it.”

“Yeah, we have come a long way since then.”

“How true.”

“Goodnight Hyun.”

“Goodnight Seoyoon.”

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As always leave comments down below, tell me what you think. I love reading all the comments and seeing what people think is going to happen. Also special sorry to those who hoped Weed would stay a god, I personally think this is how Weed would act based on the fact that it has been clearly stated that he enjoys watching his character grow.