Genius Blacksmith's Game

There was something Hyun couldn’t understand.

He’d already filled his blessing rate to 100% and met the quest conditions for Give me your blessing.

But the notification never came for the longest time—and now, the reason finally surfaced.

[You have achieved far too many tremendous achievements in a short period of time.]

[By annihilating a total force of 6,000 with 4,000 troops, you have solidified your standing as a candidate for the Virtuous King.]

[Also, one of your guild members defeated a multitude with unrivaled power.]

Looking back, defeating a combined total of 6,000—Rebels and Chinese users—was bizarre and incredible in its own right.

And so was recruiting Bahala and using them to block the users pushing in alone.

[Atlas’s territory shop is more special.]

[Compared to existing territories, it was a difficult place to acquire territory contribution.]

[Even in that situation, you succeeded in viewing the Royal Shop.]

Everything was cumulative.

Hyun shaking hands with others through Give me your blessing—a quest bestowed by the Virtuous King. Hyun defeating the enemy.

Only now did he understand.

Atlas contribution is harder to raise than anywhere else.

Hyun had earned an unrivaled 150,000 contribution.

[After long deliberation, the Virtuous King has concluded that you are worthy to obtain it.]

[One Who Bears Stories will be viewed when you use the final 1 remaining ‘Give me your blessing’.]

In other words, a reward had to be given—but the question of whether it was appropriate to give it now had dragged on.

Because everything has timing.

So the reward you were supposed to get when you hit blessing rate 100% was One Who Bears Stories.

[You acquire the title ‘Give me, your loyalty’.]

Give me, your loyalty.

Shortened, it was “Give me, your loyalty.”

He checked it.

(Give me, your loyalty)

Unique Title

Grade: SS

Special Abilities:

·When someone with strength recognized by the system swears loyalty to you, or wishes to join your guild, you can receive a blessing.

·However, the blessing you gain is 50% of ‘Give me your blessing’.

·If you are the one who first suggests that someone become your vassal, then depending on that person’s story and various other factors, you may be able to make them become your vassal by stirring stronger feelings such as respect and loyalty toward you.

·If someone who might swear loyalty is nearby, it may react.

·However, it must be /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ someone with strength recognized by the system.

Hyun nearly screamed.

The notifications had already explained it.

The Virtuous King was a king who embraced the strongest people on the continent.

The vassals who followed him were countless—and every one of them was exceptional.

This was power that proved it and put it on display.

I can even be the one to invite them—and depending on their current circumstances, I might be able to make them hold loyalty the way The Lord’s Grace does....

The Lord’s Grace was, in the end, a probabilistic activation.

And it didn’t require Hyun to propose first.

And here was why this was a ridiculous scam.

Even if this only gives 50% of the blessing from Give me your blessing, this and that are fundamentally different.

That fundamental difference was the number of times.

Just as a consumable artifact, no matter how extraordinary, can’t beat a permanent one—

This is permanent.

In two years. Five years. Ten years.

Even then, if someone recognized by the system became his guild member—or his vassal—he could receive a blessing.

And this single title was also implying the path of the Virtuous King.

I will command the strongest, and the most, on this continent.

Endless tremors swallowed him.

He couldn’t apply it to anyone right now.

But the more it activated—the more people swore loyalty—

Weak Atlas disappears, and a gigantic Atlas is born.

The Virtuous King. And the ancient Territory Atlas would reveal its true power.

Still trembling, Hyun forced himself to face reality.

“First, we have to survive this crisis....”

Bahala would hold the choke point until the Luxiu hunt.

But everyone would eventually arrive at Atlas.

Soon as a month—at the longest, two.

And as the notifications had said, Atlas’s Royal Territory Shop was more special than a normal territory shop.

There’ll be things that exist only in Atlas’s Royal Shop.

Hyun clicked the Royal Shop.

[You currently possess 150,318 contribution.]

What he could buy with that contribution—

Most of it was the same as the regular shop.

Then Hyun’s expression hardened as he confirmed the “special” part.

[Awaken Soldier. Required contribution: 1,000.]

[Awaken Knight. Required contribution: 30,000.]

[Awaken Talent. Required contribution: 500,000.]

Atlas’s assets were asleep.

He couldn’t buy soldiers—but he could awaken the ones sleeping within it.

The problem was, it was absurdly expensive.

1,000 contribution to awaken a single ordinary soldier... even if I spend everything I have, I can only awaken 150. Knights? Five, at best.

And then: Awaken Talent.

Talent means people like Commander Bon.

It required a whopping 500,000 contribution.

But compared to soldiers and knights, “Talent” didn’t even feel overpriced.

Bon was an NPC with a level approaching legendary-tier.

The real problem was whether awakening them this way would earn their loyalty.

Back then, even Bon had only planted the vague expectation that they might swear loyalty to Hyun.

And Hyun didn’t have 500,000 contribution anyway.

Saving up 500,000 contribution just to awaken Talent is a waste.

Because as Hyun walked the path of the Virtuous King, he’d be able to awaken them naturally.

Everything else was the same as the regular territory shop.

Thankfully, those items were extremely cheap.

Even just slathering down 150,000 contribution, I can build a foundation that’ll hold for a while.

But it was only a foundation—there was no way this alone would let him endure.

Then something else stood out.

[Talent Check. Required contribution: 200,000.]

Talent Check was an item that let him learn what kinds of talents had lived in Atlas.

A single realization hit, and goosebumps crawled up his skin.

“...I had talents nearby?”

Today, Hyun had obtained Give me, your loyalty.

So he asked himself:

Do the talents awakened from Atlas swear loyalty to Hyun?

No.

Bon in the 480s hadn’t—and these unknown talents would also likely wake up without swearing loyalty.

But even if they didn’t swear loyalty, they would remain in Atlas by nature.

The weakness of Give me, your loyalty was that a link had to form with an outstanding talent.

And those outstanding talents were limited.

If I awaken them and win them over, I can apply Give me, your loyalty?

Hyun decided that someday, he would buy Talent Check and see who was there.

It was a privilege that let him decide who to awaken first.

He kept scanning, hoping there were other special options.

“Please... there has to be. There has to be.”

So far, the Royal Shop showed no method to stop the world rankers.

Hyun searched, barely breathing—and discovered something strange.

[Another Atlas. Required contribution: 150,000.]

Hyun opened the detailed description.

*****

Representative Lee Sejin.

He was watching the red dots on the screen displayed by the supercomputer Ares.

As mentioned, the red dots were those aiming for Hyun and Atlas.

And in a single day, the number of red dots had nearly doubled.

“...A user’s excellence exposes him to danger.”

The Dagger of Desire he’d made.

It would wield enormous power in the future—but it wasn’t an artifact that could save Hyun right now.

The Royal Shop Hyun was looking at—

Representative Lee Sejin knew its contents.

“Even the Royal Shop has no way to save Atlas as it stands.”

Then Sejin’s expression turned puzzled.

User Hyun was reading the detailed description of an item called “Another Atlas.”

Sejin opened the details as well.

[You can create and apply a fake Atlas. This fake Atlas is identical in all ways to the currently developed Atlas, and even if the troops, knights, and talents that the current Atlas possesses die in the fake Atlas, they do not actually die. The fake Atlas will be maintained for 3 days.]

“Another Atlas is useful for hiding Atlas’s current location.”

Because it could create a fake Atlas.

People would believe it was the real Atlas.

“User Hyun could use that fake Atlas as if it were his real territory, draw people in, and hide the real Atlas for a short time.”

This was Sejin’s point.

“Only for a short time.”

Users weren’t idiots.

They’d quickly realize there was a real Atlas, not the fake one.

Meaning it was nothing but a stopgap that delayed things by one or two weeks at most.

It would be exposed too easily and couldn’t solve the fundamental problem.

“The core issue is that people covet user Hyun and intend to lure him or force him into submission to extract his artifacts.”

And yet, Hyun kept staring at it, thinking.

Then—

—With this, I can make the people targeting me stop targeting me.

Sejin tilted his head.

User Hyun seemed to have realized he could briefly hide the location with a fake Atlas.

But did he not understand it couldn’t solve the fundamental issue?

—The location-hiding function is useless.

He knows it’s useless?

Then he’d found another way.

He can make the people targeting him stop targeting him... with a fake Atlas? 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Maybe user Hyun had seen a usage of Another Atlas that Sejin himself hadn’t noticed.

Sejin was a genius scientist—and yet he looked visibly energized as he stared at him.

What was that plan?

What could he possibly do with nothing but a fake Atlas?

*****

“...This is supposed to make people stop targeting Atlas?”

Nell checked Another Atlas and let out a sigh.

“This only hides the territory.”

They were trying to force him to face reality.

But Hyun said,

“Why do we need to hide the real Atlas?”

“Huh?”

Nell didn’t understand.

The whole point of it was hiding.

A fake Atlas modeled after the real one—lasting three days before vanishing like a mirage.

“Listen, Nell. The moment we buy this, if our troops go to the fake Atlas, they won’t die.”

Of course Nell knew that.

“In other words—no matter how many of our guild members and our entire force die, actual death won’t be applied.”

Nell only nodded.

They knew it already, and they still didn’t know what Hyun was getting at.

“I’m going to post a notice soon.”

“...A notice?”

“Yes. And in that notice, I’ll write this.”

Nell focused on him.

“I’ll fight every last one of the people who want me.”

“...?”

For a moment, Nell’s mind froze—then something flashed through them.

“...You’re saying the people targeting Hyun will ally up like the Continental War, and we’ll use the fake Atlas to fight them in a ‘large-scale territory war’? That’s possib—”

Then Nell realized.

It was feasible.

“The reason they want to meet me is to get a good artifact. So I’ll tell them this: Come at me all at once. If you win, I’ll craft artifacts for you.”

Nell finished it.

“And if you lose, never come to Atlas again...?”

This could work.

Because—

“It will become proof, in front of the entire world watching, that they agreed to it, too.”

Nell thought Hyun’s idea was astonishing. Put together, it was this:

Not long ago, the world had experienced an unprecedented event called the “Continental War.”

Everyone across the world was waiting again.

When would the next world-shaking event happen?

But this time, the host wasn’t Pureum Co., Ltd.

“An event. The Atlas War.”

It was Hyun—the user.

Hyun was breaking another frame and creating a new kind of “special” inside the world called Ares.

An event the whole world would go wild for.

The curtain rose on the Great Atlas War.