Roy found himself inside a grand conference room. Massive pillars of gold held the ceilings high, and at the very center of this construct was a stretched-out conference table. Sitting proudly at the head was a stunning lady.
She sat elegantly, coated in skin-tight crimson robes, pink locks flowing down her shoulders, a pair of emerald green pupils locking gazes with him, carrying a curious sheen.
There was no doubt about it — this was definitely the Lord. Roy went ahead to take a seat at the parallel end, his expression betraying nothing, eyes cold and hands clasped together. He went straight to the point.
"Before we begin, I would like to make the fact clear that I am disappointed by your petty tricks so far. The only reason you still find me sitting before you, even after this, is because I want the information you have."
After his greeting speech, the lady's smile froze, eyes glinting as she began to realize the type of man sitting before her. It seemed the term sugar coating was foreign to him. Regardless, she had to accept that she was in the wrong.
A playful smile graced her lips as she spoke, her voice as pleasing as her looks. "Oh my, what shall I do to appease you then?" As she spoke, she leaned forward, tucking her arms beneath her ample breasts. They bulged through her gown, the hem strings tightening.
Seductress! Roy quickly identified. Compared to the delicate, bashful beauty of Ashley, the lady before him had a mature allure. Her every action carried a certain charm, provoking suggestive thoughts to the mind. Adding her top-notch beauty and perfectly sculpted figure to the mix, even Roy gulped hard, struggling with all his might to restrain his eyes from straying too far.
Seeing his reaction, she chuckled, her pose loosening as she introduced herself. "I am deeply sorry for the rude misconceptions. Forgive my subordinates, as they couldn't help but look down on you as a newcomer. I am Lord Vera, and welcome to my territory."
Roy was curious. Newcomer? Wait, don't tell me they have been here before our ascent. I thought the system said it would protect us from otherworlders for a year?
Even with questions brewing in his mind, he still introduced himself in kind. "I am Lord Roy…"
He paused but still spoke before she could continue, voicing his question. "Pardon me, but I thought I heard you use the term newcomer?"
Vera looked stunned at this ask, but her expression quickly melted into understanding as she nodded. "It makes sense you wouldn't know…"
Roy frowned, his eyes squinting. "Know what?"
She smiled casually as she revealed, "About us early comers..."
Roy remained silent, his gaze intense, but the turmoil in his mind was in stormy waves. Shit! Don't tell me some people got early access… isn't that cheating? No wonder I felt that shadow guy's level was too high to be achieved in a single day. Roy suddenly felt a suffocating intensity of despair when he imagined how far ahead these early comers already were.
Vera's pause seemed deliberate, allowing his mind to run wild before she continued, arresting his focus back in a beat. "Tell me, Roy, don't you find this realm too familiar? The system? Beast cores? Territories? Hunters? Heck, even the whole ascension event feels like an overly familiar trope."
Thinking it through, he couldn't help but nod. Indeed, Arcana was too similar to games, novels, and the like. His eyes widened as he was suddenly hit with a realization. "Don't tell me…"
"Yes, it is as you thought. These are all the handiwork of us early comers." She affirmed his bold thought, her figure relaxing backwards, her elbows on the armrest and her delicate fists on her chin as she began narrating.
"You see, long before even me or you were born, humans had long come into contact with Arcana and Orders. Some had even been selected as Lords and Hunters. But you see, then Arcana — the ether plane for Earth — had yet to be completed.
Things like beasts were scarce, special locations like dungeons and sacred grounds were unavailable, even features like territory upgrades were locked, leaving these early comers with almost nothing to do but prepare humanity as a whole for the future ascension. According to a source, it is said that these people had the means to traverse back and forth through the physical realm and the ether plane."
"And so they spent their lives prepping humanity for this looming apocalypse as much as possible. Obviously, they couldn't come out directly to the public, so they used more… subtle means. Inventing video games carrying similar traits, animes, mangas, webnovels — you name them. All these were created not just to prepare humans but to endow them with the MC Mindset."
Roy's brows furrowed at this point as he repeated in a question, "The MC Mindset?"
Vera nodded solemnly. "Obviously, creating these things wasn't enough to boost humanity's survival until they started focusing on pushing the MC mindset, mostly through reincarnation and transmigration novels, movies, and manga."
She paused, her enchanting gaze sizing him up as she asked him, "Like you, how many times have you wished to reincarnate or even transmigrate into another realm? How many times have you daydreamed about being the special savior of a world or even the strongest dominator?"
Roy's gaze trembled, a chill creeping up his spine. Indeed, everything was all too convenient, to the point that even after ascending, he barely had repulsion towards this realm at all. To think he had been programmed that way under the working of an elaborate scheme all along.
He had to give it to those guys. Their intentions might have been good, but they were peak manipulators — brainwashing a whole planet without them realizing.
Meanwhile, Vera continued, "The MC mindset proved most effective. As more early comers entered Arcana, the death rate decreased continuously through generations until it fell from 96.7% to a whopping 43.8%."
Indeed, that's a huge improvement! Roy nodded subconsciously. He had to admit this MC mindset Vera spoke of was really effective. In these modern times, which human who finds himself in another plane wouldn't automatically assume that he is an MC or a chosen hero of some kind?
"So that's to say, before the arrival of humanity as a whole, some got a head start and arrived first?" Roy got the crux of the matter, his hands rubbing his forehead.
Vera nodded. "Indeed. And I am one of these early comers. But you have to know, not all of us arrived at the same time. Like me, I only reached Arcana four months before the ascension… of course, there are others who have been here for far longer."
Roy's mood worsened. She had just been here for four months, and look how organized and grand her territory already was. And she was saying there were others who had been here for far longer… how much had they advanced?
Vera seemed oblivious to his depressing thoughts as she continued, "Of course, among all early comers, there are the Nine Supremes. Those were the first to step into this plane, and yes, they were the ones behind the whole MC mindset."
"But of all of them, only one resides in our region." Her finger tapped the table lightly as a broad map of the surrounding regions came into full display. Though some parts were blurred out, these were obviously territories. He even saw his, but what caught his breath was the massive landscape — one that sat above the clouds.
"This is the territory of someone whose name you might find familiar… Lord Alexander the Great III."