3.

Han Simin was impressed.

“Damn! That looks sick as hell.”

He didn’t have any particular thoughts beyond that.

He knew the odds of getting anything good from following the Heavenly King into Heaven were astronomically low. The fact that Kenji had beaten those odds to obtain such an enviable class was, in the end, a testament to his own effort.

Being jealous wouldn’t change anything.

Besides, while the skills shown in the video were undeniably flashy and cool, there was, as always, no such thing as a purely broken class.

’Okay, this is definitely OP,’ you might think, but if a single class could do absolutely everything, that wouldn’t be a user anymore; it would be a shortcut to becoming a god.

Of course, after seeing the Legendary Buffer in action—a class that, depending on how you used it, looked like it had no real downsides—Han Simin’s thinking had shifted a bit. Even so, watching Kenji obtain the Legendary Pope didn’t make him particularly jealous or give him any sense of crisis.

That was composure.

The composure born of everything he had achieved so far.

The certainty that, no matter what kind of rival appeared, he would be able to hold on to his position.

Above all, there was the relief of now having a support class in his party that, when used in conjunction with him, could produce several times, even dozens of times, more efficiency.

He had not yet experienced firsthand just how broken the Pope class was, but from his perspective, when compared to a Buffer, there didn’t seem to be a huge gap.

No, by his standards, the Buffer was still top tier.

And this was coming from Han Simin, who prided himself on having the best eye for games in the world.

“If Ms. Seolah had gotten the Legendary Buffer, she would probably be solo-raiding dragons by now.”

Even Jeong Seolah—who not only had the best eye for games but also the best actual control in the world—nodded at that.

Her current class was by no means bad, but aside from the experience penalty, the class grade was effectively the ceiling on growth potential, which made her situation a bit frustrating.

At that point, users had two choices.

Complain that the game’s balance was trash.

Or change classes.

And Simin was saying that the Pope was at least in the same tier as the Buffer he rated so highly, even if that evaluation was based solely on what he’d seen in a video.

“The world really is unfair. Rich bastards get to have more fun in games too.”

Regardless, he didn’t pay much attention to Kenji’s return to the continent or the reappearance of the Main Quest alongside it.

“It’ll just be a boring back-and-forth of arguments.”

In the end, Kenji’s newfound strength didn’t matter much in the current situation.

Unless Kenji planned to take on the entire continent by brute force, he would have to do what they’d done before: provide evidence that Epia—currently revered as the Heavenly King under continental law—was, in fact, the Demon King.

That process would be anything but easy.

Or so Han Simin mistakenly believed.

*

The Heavenly King stayed in Heaven and sent only Kenji.

In the video, the stated reason was that this way the Heavenly King did not have to take risks, and at the same time, it was part of his plan to conquer both Heaven and the Demon World. In reality, however, a much deeper picture was being drawn.

A picture Han Simin had not thought of.

No, one he had chosen not to think about.

There had been no need to.

That situation had ended long ago, and even if the issue resurfaced, he believed he had already squeezed every last drop of profit from it.

Besides, everything he had done through Epia had only ever been a secondary source of income.

Rather than worrying about revenue streams that had already peaked and passed, he had plenty to do in the present.

So he didn’t respond.

He didn’t even have time to respond.

Because the moment Kenji arrived at the Great Temple, an oracle descended.

—The one who dwells there is the Demon King. Do not let yourselves be toyed with by the hand of darkness any longer; accept my apostle.

The Heavenly King and the Demon King.

The reason the Pope had not been able to easily discern the truth when both existed was that, with both of them having lost their power, there had been no way for either to prove themselves.

In that situation, Epia had used a trick to manifest divine power.

It had been clumsy as hell, but in that moment, it was the simplest and most straightforward move.

But things were different now that the Heavenly King had regained his divine power.

An oracle.

A message that only the Pope could receive from the Heavenly King.

The Heavenly King had sent it.

Until now, the Pope had aligned himself with the Emperor, Han Simin, and the Saintess because, in his judgment, that had been the correct course of action.

The Pope was the one who carried out the will of the Heavenly King, who represented God. For such a man, a direct message from on high had arrived—one that required no thought, only obedience.

There was no reason for the Pope to hesitate or agonize.

Even when distinguishing between the Heavenly King and the Demon King, he had always remained neutral.

He had acted according to what the evidence showed, and now an absolute answer had arrived that needed no evidence.

Ask someone’s permission? Trade opinions with others and carefully gauge the situation?

There was no way that was going to happen.

The Pope rose to his feet on the spot.

“In the name of God, I will execute the Demon King who has plunged the continent into chaos, and all her cohorts.”

This had always been bound to happen sooner or later.

Han Simin was not some once-in-a-century mastermind who had spent years meticulously planning for this day. He was just a genius of petty scheming who had, on impulse and for profit, used his position and power to deceive the continent, deceive the Emperor, and even deceive the Pope. Things were simply returning to their original state.

If it weren’t for the fact that 『Fantastic World』 was a game with such a high degree of freedom, he would have been cursed out by the player base as a world-class bastard for ruining the game.

A world where evil runs rampant.

If Han Simin weren’t the protagonist, this would be the final stage of poetic justice, where evil finally meets its downfall.

Of course, the fact that he was the protagonist didn’t change that.

At least within 『Fantastic World』, the apostles of justice weren’t bumbling fools; they moved decisively to punish evil.

Kenji, in particular, was so perfect he might as well have been the real protagonist, and he was spending an absurd amount of money to see it done.

The fire had finally reached Han Simin’s feet.

4.

Kenji was in no rush.

The moment the Pope drew the Holy Sword, Epia had vanished on her own, taking the Saintess with her. Now, countless believers and priests—people willing to stake their lives on the name of God—were spreading the truth about the continent’s current state.

With every passing day, hour, and minute, the story of Kenji’s unjust treatment and the shocking ordeal the Heavenly King had suffered would become known. As always, people wouldn’t hesitate for a moment before switching sides, whether out of genuine belief or simply to follow the new tide.

The Imperial Family, too, could no longer exclusively side with Han Simin, especially not in a chaotic situation involving the Heavenly King and Demon King, the Celestial Realm and the Demon World.

The current Empire, in particular, lacked the unshakable charisma it once commanded.

In the process of ousting the Demon King and Heavenly King, it might have looked as if the Empire had solidified the hierarchy between itself and the other kingdoms, but in truth, it had been nothing more than a show to increase its number of allies. Very few kingdoms truly pledged loyalty to the Empire.

It wasn’t that those kingdoms had forgotten the Empire’s majesty from just a few decades ago and were now entertaining insolent fantasies.

It was simply that the times had changed.

The advent of Adventurers.

Their growth.

Now, there were individuals powerful enough to etch their names into the continent’s history, and among them had even appeared an Adventurer who acted as the agent of the Heavenly King’s oracle.

The real reason the Empire had once been able to rule the continent was because the Emperor himself could have been called a god.

But that was no longer the case.

God was God, and the Heavenly King was the Heavenly King.

If the Emperor’s will differed from that of the Pope—the continent’s other emperor—then he could never stand against the entire continent, especially if his choice would lead it into peril.

So, he had no choice but to watch and wait.

The Imperial Princess would trust Han Simin to the very end, but the Emperor could not allow his name to go down in history as a traitor who had plunged the continent into darkness.

Kenji’s calculations were precise. He leisurely moved on to the next stage.

Eliminate the most likely rival.

That’s what everyone expected, but they were wrong.

“We are recruiting guild members. We will purchase every Legendary item that exists on the continent. And we will show you a raid so dazzling, so overwhelming, so unrivaled that you have never seen its like before and will never see it again until 『Fantastic World』 shuts down its servers. I will not waste time on petty guild wars or skirmishes. What is wrong will naturally be set right.”

Confidence.

The sheer confidence of a man with money made Kenji even more famous.

*

With a single oracle, the world changed.

Han Simin, the hero who had saved the continent, became its traitor and was all but driven out. The sight of Epia and Squeaker fleeing the Great Temple spread far and wide as irrefutable proof.

The Imperial Princess couldn’t sleep at night, but the Imperial Family remained silent. Seizing the opportunity, not only the nobles of the Empire but the kings of every kingdom on the continent raised their voices, all coveting Han Simin’s territory.

The atmosphere was so heated that it wouldn’t have been surprising if they had marched to attack that very instant.

“A territory for the traitor of the continent? There could be black magicians hiding inside! We must trample that land until no one can live there and exterminate every last one of their filthy ilk!”

“Why does the Empire still grant a noble title to a man who colluded with the Demon King?!”

“This must be corrected at once!”

Yet the Emperor remained silent, taking no direct action, even under pressure from countless nobles and kingdoms that represented practically the entire continent.

His dignity and authority had not diminished.

“Then you may file for a Territory War and correct it yourselves. The Empire and the Imperial Family are still deliberating.”

The nobles fell silent.

In this climate, it wouldn’t have been strange for someone to sneer and call him a coward, to point fingers at him.

But no one dared.

They had come to seize a golden opportunity, not to forget their place and throw their lives away.

Besides, the Emperor had a point.

If they could have, they would have already filed for a Territory War.

However, it was painfully obvious what would happen if they were the first to step forward: they wouldn’t even be able to breach the infamous Rich Territory. They would only exhaust their strength and soften it up for whoever came next.

It was a fight that required a sacrifice.

Entirely for the sake of others.

No one was going to volunteer for that.

Even Kenji was holding back for the moment.

Of course, this cautious waiting couldn’t last forever.

For them, this was a race to see who would get the first bite.

Several kingdoms—kingdoms whose names anyone would recognize—formed a massive coalition across several realms and marched their armies toward the Rich Territory.

That was the beginning.

The beginning of a war fever that burned hotter and spread wider than when black magicians had once run rampant across the continent.

And it was another beginning.

The beginning of hardship for Han Simin, who had been enjoying the good life for a while.

Upon hearing that an army of two million was marching toward the Rich Territory and the casino, Han Simin stopped in the middle of enhancing a ring and turned on his heel.

“Fuck. Why are they doing this to me?”