The first piece of news was the sudden appearance of high-level users in the game's public domain.
[Users who have reached level 99 of The Lord appear!]
[The Lord 3rd city, is it finally released?]
[A game with a high degree of freedom of occupation, what does the Lord's 3rd job look like?]
The article stated that the person concerned was reluctant to reveal their identity, making it impossible to disclose exact information. However, Lokan (who was currently logged out in the real world as Young-min) was sure who they were: the 'Ragnarok' team. Just like in his previous life, they were the first to hit this benchmark.
Now that users had reached level 99, it was inevitable that they would complete the level 100 quest within the next few days. Within a few more days, they would find a path to the tertiary city and advance.
'And they'll get their first title,'Lokan thought.
Unfortunately for him, the Ragnarok team and Lokan were destined for different regional starting points. Lokan was the first to advance to the Crossroads, but they were going to claim the first titles in other regions.
If their regions were the same, Lokan would have easily devoured and blocked the first titles they should have won, but that opportunity wouldn't arise until much later in the game.
"I need to hurry up."
The Ragnarok team was fast, but not yet overwhelmingly powerful. The other top-tier players must have been growing at about the same rate, and this published article would only make them even more hasty. This also meant that other users could soon enter the Crossroads.
Of course, they would have to start with the time-consuming Reputation Grinding and spend resources to create useful combination skills, but the gap Lokan had painstakingly widened could still be closed quickly. Lokan once again began to mentally organize his following steps and priorities.
The second piece of news was a highly negative issue for The Lord:
[Very realistic virtual reality game, The Lord. Is it good like this?]
[A 20-something who fell into The Lord, arrested for assaulting another user in real life.]
[Isn't there a way to regulate virtual reality games that spread to real problems such as assault and fraud?]
Although The Lord was an 18+ rated game, its extreme realism meant that six or seven out of every ten players enjoyed it so much that it was causing real-world problems. The confusion between reality and the game was a common issue. However, the larger concern was players investing everything in The Lord until they had no real-world cost of living, leading to collapse from hunger or serious 'hyeonpi' (real-life damage/violence).
For this reason, some civic groups were holding protests and press conferences in front of the building of the developer and operator, Falcon. The government and the National Assembly gave a rather vague answer, saying, "We'll think about it."
"Yeah, I figured," Lokan murmured.
The media was dealing with many negative issues now, but Lokan knew that this story would soon disappear. To be precise, the political backlash would grow once, bringing up stories that the brutality rating should be reconfirmed and that the game itself needed consideration for service restrictions, but it would quickly calm down after hitting a powerful headwind.
Politicians immediately lowered their demands in response to the public reaction, which was more intense than expected. After all, an 18+ game meant that all users were voters. In particular, as the few members of the National Assembly who spoke out first experienced all kinds of cyber-terrorism and suffered falling approval ratings, everyone quickly learned the truth: The Lord was no longer just a game.
Knowing this, Lokan didn't react much to the news. He briefly saw that the MP Guild's Guild Master Pyria had disappeared from the news feed, which was relevant since the MP Guild was a B+ level organization he would need to deal with later.
"Hmm, then let's start slowly."
Lokan glanced at the game's public bulletin board and created a new ID. This new ID was solely for the purpose of information disturbance. While The Lord strictly enforced one account per person, Korean gamers often bypassed this using methods they learned from youth: leveraging their parents' social security numbers. Authentication was required to create an account, but that wasn't a problem for Lokan, who still had access to digital certificates for his elderly parents from when he handled their banking.
Lokan, having created a new ID so easily, immediately began to spread fragmented, misleading information on the bulletin board. The first target was the quest information for the 3rd job change. Since the quest—hunting level 100 monsters—was common to all professions, there was no need to worry about revealing his region. A single, well-placed piece of information was sufficient.
He posted the following:
Upon reaching level 99, you will receive a quest for the 3rd job change.
After completing the former quest, level up to level 1 for free and become level 100.
The content of the former quest is common to all occupations: hunting level 100 monsters.
Up to this point, everything was the absolute truth. Since only those who achieved level 99 could know the content, the post would immediately gain high credibility.
However, Lokan then mixed in a very small amount of fabricated information:
At this time, it is meaningless to hunt any random level 100 monster.
You can get additional rewards by hunting much more powerful level 100 named monsters.
The additional reward may be a title or a hidden class.
In short, it was plausible bullshit. The problem was its plausibility. In reality, a few players had already achieved hidden classes by meeting special, secretive conditions. Since most of these were so-called 'push' users supported by top guilds, this fabricated information would be highly concerning to high-ranking users, making them even more anxious once they reached level 99.
"Keuk, let's see you get excited about breaking this apart."
He was careful not to reveal all the information at once. He first drew attention by posting a mix of one or two pieces of information, and only finally posted the complete message. If he disclosed everything from the very beginning, the post might be dismissed as suspicious or simply buried.
This strategic misdirection might also go unnoticed, but if it worked, it would significantly delay his competitors' advancement into the 3rd city.
"I'll have to prepare the rest in advance."
Lokan prepared the next batch of full information, a combination of truth and lies about how to get to the 3rd city, ensuring that any team following his advice would fail miserably. Since attention was already drawn to the notable masters, teams, and guilds, he just needed to wait for the right moment to post.
After preparing for the information war, Lokan stretched out and went to sleep. When he got up, he had to run again. This was the beginning of the real The Lord.
"Then shall we begin?"
After the time limit had expired, Lokan, who reconnected to The Lord, ignored everything else. New items were waiting in the shop, and new, powerful monsters that gave a lot of experience were waiting outside the town, but he knew that hunting was meaningless until he had secured the crucial Recognition Quest.
If he had to do it, it would be much better to destroy the entire quest line in one, decisive go.
"For now, shall I become a Dwarf ally?"
Excluding Humans, there were three other races in the Golden Lion Union: Half-Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves. While he would eventually need approval from everyone, Lokan chose the Dwarf first, based on his knowledge of probability and potential ease of completion.
"Hmm, I'm not sure if you can, but if you can, try it."
Receiving the quest itself was not difficult. All he had to do was go into the racial buildings one by one at the Crossroads and declare that he wanted to be recognized. In the base [Neutral] reputation state, NPCs were hostile, but because Lokan had the [Friendly] reputation from his title, the Dwarves grunted like a Tsundere and reluctantly gave him the quest.
'Children, I'll kindly give it to you since you can't solve it anyway,' was their clear attitude.
The quests received for recognition were always the major troubles of each race. They would assign the problem they themselves couldn't solve, pretending it wasn't a big deal: 'If you do this, we'll admit you're worthy.'
[Special Mining Expedition] [Quest]
Get the recognition of the Dwarves by mining special minerals that are only produced in the Oronamun Mine. Currently, Oronamun Mine is occupied by Kobolds, and mineral extraction is temporarily suspended. We need your help to meet this month's supply.
-Completion condition: Blue mineral 0/50
-Completion reward: Dwarf recognition
-Additional rewards according to the achievement rate
What the Dwarves wanted was to mine a special blue-colored mineral. The main issue was that the Dwarf warriors were unable to recover the mine immediately. Fortunately, with Dwarf technology, they could properly extract ingots by simply bringing in a lump of the raw mineral.
At this point, most users would roll their heads, thinking, Wouldn't it be easier and faster to mine the minerals by taking a secondary job as a Miner and learning mining techniques?
'You're going to get hooked while you use your head,'Lokan thought, knowing the trap.
Once a player mastered the mining technique, it would take far more time, as they would acquire not only the quest item 'blue mineral' but also dozens of miscellaneous ores, slowing the process significantly.
Knowing this, Lokan headed straight to the Oronamun Mine. He had already added the local map to his magic map, so he didn't even need to memorize the location.
"I'm going to get some rest in a little while," he muttered to himself.
Standing in front of the Oronamun Mine, Lokan raised the Berserker's Battle Axe he had obtained as a quest item, instead of a Dwarf Pickaxe. Mining wasn't the only way to obtain blue minerals.
"Throwing."
The battle axe, thrown lightly, lodged right in the back of a Kobold that was sneaking around the entrance. But the Kobold didn't fall as easily as the monsters in the previous city. These monsters were strong enough to exceed level 100, and the Kobold merely turned around with the axe stuck in its back.
[Mine Kobold] [Lv 110]
Its name was familiar, but its fighting power was unlike any Lokan had ever experienced. The difference in base abilities was huge, and it was primarily because the Kobolds possessed a combination skill. Of course, not all monsters had complex combination skills; most had only one, and it wasn't difficult to attack because most of them had a common skill unless they were a boss. Nevertheless, users who couldn't adapt to the changed difficulty often couldn't withstand even a single Kobold and sometimes died on the very first hunt.
That, however, was a story that had nothing to do with Lokan.
"Because it's small and annoying!"
Whoosh!
Contrary to his words, Lokan's axe now cut right through the Kobold's head. Though the creature was only half the size of a human, Lokan was not sloppy enough to miss a critical move.
[You have acquired a blue mineral.]
"What, it's nothing; I thought I struggled quite a bit before."
This was the sheer power of his current stats, title effects, and incomparable critical hit probability, all of which dwarfed his past self when he first arrived at the Crossroads. Lokan knew this, which was why he chose hunting over tedious mining, but he wore a sour look, not expecting it to have been this easy.
The fight was won even before he needed to use one of his new combination skills.
"Then let's get started."
Lokan's goal wasn't just to collect fifty bluish minerals. He was looking ahead to a quest that would appear later: 'Extermination of Mining Kobolds'. He could have received the quest now, but he already knew the hidden steps. Knowing that a 'special gift' would be given if his performance exceeded their expectations, Lokan decided to clear the entire mine.