The tales of adventurers returning from the mini-dungeon Balrak had created spread like wildfire across all of Laiter.
Before long, they even made it into the newspapers published by the Altria Empire.
And the first being to catch wind of this news was!
"H-H Sky Island!! A new dungeon!!! And adventure!"
None other than the pitiful state hero, captive to the Altria Empire's empress.
This man, who had made a grand name for himself as a hero during the Great War of the past,
was so oblivious that he hadn't noticed one of his party members was deeply, passionately in love with him.
Nor had he realized she was the empire's first princess.
As a result!
The moment the war ended, he was snapped up by the capable and meticulous current empress, and turned into her state hero!
Of course, the current empress of the Altria Empire was staggeringly beautiful.
She loved this former commoner state hero with fervent passion to this day.
And his achievements in the Great War were so monumental that within the empire, he was practically untouchable.
Thanks to that, this man had achieved the fairy-tale ending straight out of old storybooks: "The hero lived happily ever after with the princess~"
But palace life left him with absolutely nothing to do, making it unbearably boring!
And he was a hero by birth—kind-hearted, with an unbreakable spirit.
Unlike that wicked witch Dahgi, who had single-handedly ruined a massive nation out of her own selfish desires.
He was the sort who wanted to fall into depravity but simply couldn't!
So at present,
the state hero—recipient of the entire empire's great affection and the empress's intense, pure love—set down the newspaper for a moment and reflected on what he used to be.
A hero formed bonds with all sorts of beings,
helped those struggling through hardship,
and traveled every corner of the world.
But now...
The state hero turned his head slightly to the side.
His fearsome wife was gazing at his body with the excited eyes of a beast.
He had already heard that his juniors couldn't even clear the first floor of the dungeon, which had stirred his wanderlust and prompted an escape attempt from the palace—only to get caught by his wife.
As a result, the state hero had spent the entire past week in the bedroom with the empress.
Enduring some truly grueling "activities"!
But this time, he resolved himself!
To escape the palace once more!
'M-Me too! One more adventure!'
Skydiving!
Sky Island!
New encounters!
A brand-new dungeon!!
Yes! His romantic soul was surging into the abyss—he was hit with wanderlust again!
Thus, the state hero began plotting an even more meticulous escape route from the palace than before.
But as the saying goes, there's always someone flying above the one running.
The empress, caressing her utterly lovable husband's body at her side, saw right through his intentions.
And so, this couple—both advanced in years but possessing immense magical power that kept their bodies in their twenties—began their desperate tug-of-war.
The empress pondered: "If I catch my escaping husband this time, should we hole up in the bedroom for a full month? Or until I gift our children a little sibling—"
While the state hero steeled himself to escape this place for the sake of his romance.
Their battle ignited within the palace.
***************
Just as a certain couple in the palace had clashed upon hearing about the hot new dungeon,
the elf and dwarf investigation teams that had arrived in Laiter were in an uproar.
"I-Is this even possible?!"
"My god, nature regenerating at such speed..."
The dwarves, like technicians encountering lost technology, poked and prodded every inch of the Sky Island with bloodshot eyes.
The elves marveled at how the land showed not a single sign of soil depletion, despite adventurers ransacking the place.
As if some impossible infinite energy powered it—the two races exploring the Sky Islands were soon stunned by one particular auto-spawning entity.
"Spirits?!"
"No way!! This can't be!!!"
"Earth Mother God!!!"
It was the spirits, who had fled the mortal realm in the aftermath of the Great War, now appearing here!
Having witnessed one impossible event after another, the two races deemed this beyond their scale to handle and swiftly reported back to their homelands.
This sparked the arrival of other races—excluding humans—to put down roots in Laiter.
And watching them frolic about on the Sky Island was a certain being.
That being was!
"GNOMES and bearded dwarves!!!"
"Argh! My ears!!"
This game wasn't just humans and monsters!
No, this was the scale of a god-tier global hit game!
Yes! In a proper fantasy, alongside demon and orc monster races, there had to be human-friendly races like these for balance.
This was true fantasy RPG.
A god-tier hit game through and through!
And looking at those gnomes' faces and figures—even I had to admit they were quite attractive.
Which meant... this world was definitely made in the East.
Western devs from my past life always ruined character designs with their Yankee sensibilities and political correctness.
But here, with Korean as the base language and every character made drop-dead gorgeous?
Hell yeah, we can call this a game made in Hellban.
"Ugh! Countries dead serious about gaming dropping a god-tier hit like this..."
Like a flower blooming beautifully from the mud!
Tears of emotion were welling up.
"Ughhh... B-Balrak bro, what the heck's wrong with you?"
"Persatpi! Wanna see this for yourself?"
"What even happe— E-Elves and dwarves?! Races from way out in human territory, why are they here..."
"What do you think this means, Persatpi!!"
"Your dungeon... is a hit, bro?!"
"Bingo!"
"But from what I know, those races suffered wasteland-ified territories from some war. How'd they get here?"
"Proof they've recovered somewhat from that war's wounds."
Come to think of it, Grandpa once told me the world's largest tree burned down completely.
If Grandpa's tale was true, that massive tree was cliché-big like the gnomes' sacred one.
And like how the dwarves lost most of their ancestral tech in some past event,
their reactions made sense.
"Hmm... Gnomes without their big sacred tree and dwarves short on tech, huh?"
Hollow rice cakes, basically.
Anyway! My dungeon had become worth visiting even for players from distant races!
I could hear the global internet communities exploding!!!
● Title: New Content Added to That Dungeon in This Patch!!!
● Author: NoRiceTodayEither (257.257)
● That dungeon hailed as the top for skill grinding lately? Something wild popped up!
└ Huh? For real?
└ Exploring it now, full of romance. Making good money too.
└ Author) Lmao fr
└ Ah... so that's why no streamers were there.
└ Fml, I'm way out in bumfuck nowhere. Gotta head back?
└ Not again! I missed out again!!
● Title: Enjoy 100% Safe Extreme Sports.
● Author: ForumBugForFoolishMortals (789.756)
● Why risk real-life extreme sports? Just experience 'em in-game. (Video)
└ O.
└ O.
└ O.
└ Wow.
Yes!! This is it!!
This renewal wasn't just a success—it was a massive smash hit!
***************
Some time after other races started entering my dungeon, an unusually high number of gnomes flooded into the mini-dungeon.
These gnomes even looked like human kids around 15 or 16...
"Arghhh!!"
"Eekkk!!"
"W-Wait! Uwaaaah!!"
The adorable, cute but fiercely aggressive spirits had them reaching out defenselessly, and the kids were dying gruesome deaths one after another.
Surely scenes like this would fail game ratings? Is this okay?
No, this is a game world!
All possibilities must stay open!
Those young gnomes were probably players too.
For instance, inside that pretty, cute gnome girl could be a 40-year-old beer-bellied uncle—
Hold up.
Huh?
W-Wait, that means!!!
Every female character entering my dungeon!
"Arghhh!! Red potions!!!"
A 40-year-old uncle in a girl skin doing that female movement!!!
If you're born male, don't fall to the female side!!
'Persatpi! Stay calm! It's just going PC with current trends!'
But Giga Balrak!
Even embracing political correctness deep in your heart, that's too much!!
Giga Balrak turned to where I was pointing.
He spotted five gnome girls who looked like high schoolers giggling as they toured the Sky Island.
And—
'Arghhh!!!'
"Arghhh!!!"
The red-pill realization that they were all 30-40-year-old beer-bellied uncles hit us, and we clutched our heads and collapsed.
'Daaamn!! Get outta my head!!!'
"Ughhh! B-Blood from my eyes!!!"
My eyes were scorched by netkama pros' flawless female movements!!!
After witnessing the girl power and female swaying from those uncle heads, we were in such agony that
Giga Balrak briefly lost his form.
But he snapped out of it and spoke to me.
'B-Balrak! This world isn't just players, right!!'
Y-Yeah!! That's right!! It doesn't make sense for all those gnome girls to be 40-50-year-old uncles.
This world has human-like NPCs, like Persatpi chatting over there or the skeleton merchant!
Those gnome girls must be NPCs!!
Definitely!!
Which means even outdoor NPCs respawn outside like players when they die in the dungeon!
Haha!! Great intel! Awesome—
Hold up.
W-Wait, so among those gnome girls, some netkama uncle really is there?!
Damn!! Truth is always nearby, yet hidden in the darkest abyss!!!
'My eyeeeees!!!!!'
"Arghhh!!!"
And so, Giga Balrak and I screamed endlessly in the boss room, until we adapted to the infinite abyss and those gnome girls' red pills.