Child of Destiny

...…

Despite all of the good news and a series of defeats that the Corrupted Cult, the Saint Heaven Kingdom still suffered quite significant losses.

It might not affect the minor and major cities, but it was still enough to hinder the progress of the whole kingdom for the time being. Such damage needed to be recovered for quite some time and would also cause quite a lot of resources.

To make it worst, the Corrupted Cult also managed to capture two cities from the kingdom. Those cities might only be in advanced ranks and not as prosperous as the other cities of the same ranks, but it was more than enough for them for the current situation.

These two cities were close to each other but both of them were also isolated from other cities which made them hard to flourish. They were having a hard time doing some trades and transactions due to their awkward locations which were very near the border of the kingdom.

It might be harsh but it was still a perfect location to set a temporary base for the Corrupted Cult.

Calderock Town was still their best choice due to its unique location where they could easily spread their influence. But since that place was being protected by a powerful monster, they had no choice but to settle at their second-best option.

It was going to be hard for them to grow their undead forces from those two cities since there were no neighboring cities, towns, or villages in the area. But they could at least corrupt the area with dark miasma and turn that place into a corrupted map, creating an environment that was more advantageous for them.

This was the particular information that made Shin frown his brows. From the consecutive attacks that the Corrupted Cult had attempted, he could see a certain sequence that made him uncomfortable.

It started from the Sky Deceiving Valley which then to the invasion that the cult had launched at the entirety of the Saint Heaven Kingdom and the capture of the two isolated cities located at the border.

From his perspective, he could see that the one who was pulling the strings behind the Corrupted Cult's movements was plotting something big.

"They must know the secrets behind the towering wall of the Sky Deceiving Valley. Or they may also be aware of the Frozen Kingdom since already prepared quite a lot of contingency plans to prepare for the worst-case scenario."

"But the moment when they realize that it was impossible to salvage their situation, they immediately redirect the forces that they have for the quest towards another goal and that leads to the sudden invasion."

"But all of their attempt to capture the places with the best strategical terrains and the most flourishing economy, they immediately drop the idea and settle with a not-so-special place."

Looking at the series of events for another time, Shin could clearly see that all of them were perfectly calculated. The opposing side already anticipated that this situation was going to happen which was why everything seemed to be flowing very smoothly.

After confirming his situation, Shin quickly opened a virtual map in front of him. His Advance Watch was connected to the game so transferring these kinds of information was pretty easy.

Shin adjusted the size of the map and laid it on the ground. He had a detailed map of the Saint Heaven Kingdom so he could easily see everything from above.

After that, he opened a special program from his watch and entered a couple of information into it, and waited for a couple of minutes.

He didn't wait for long as the program easily downloaded the information that he provided before running it.

A few moments later, the three-dimensional map in front of him ran the stimulation of the whole event that took place in the Saint Heaven Kingdom. It didn't leave a single detail as Shin inputted all of the data carefully.

He reviewed all of these events and meticulously observed everything. And after watching the stimulation a few more times, he started marking two places on the map. One was the Sky Deceiving Valley and the location of the Frozen Kingdom while the other was the location where the Corrupted Cult chose to settle.

Those locations were on both ends of the map and were directly opposite to each other, making Shin even more suspicious.

After contemplating for a long time, Shin finally encircled the whole area of the map that was left devastated by the Corrupted Cult and concluded. "All of these were just a diversion."

Then pointed at the two ends of the map that he marked earlier before muttering. "And these two are the main objectives."

Shin could still not find the reason but his instincts were telling him that he was already close to the truth. It was already within his reach but he just couldn't put his fingers into it.

Reaching this point, Shin lied back on his bed, closed his eyes, and started erasing every information that he gathered. Then he when back to the very beginning where all of these started.

He then muttered a pair of words. "Empire Quest."

"This is the starting point, so this is also where everything is going to end," he continued to mutter and recall what an Empire Quest was.

"An Empire Quest is a special type of quest that can change the state and course of the game. It can affect the climate or even the topography of a certain place depending on the result of the quest."

Shin quickly opened his eyes and stood up right after he muttered those words. He then looked at the map for another time, specifically at the two points that represented their current location and where the forces of the Corrupted Cult were located.

After that, he looked at the devasted part of the map that was almost covering the majority of the Kingdom.

"We are f*cked!" he cursed right after realizing what was going to happen.

***********

Ha!

Shiella sat on a sofa and leaned her back on it to relax a little. She closed her eyes to take a rest since there were a lot of stressful things that happened to her these last few days.

It was a good thing that their family businesses were running smoothly and she didn't have to worry about them. She was still young but she chose to manage them as she knew that she would need to do it eventually.

As an heiress of a large corporation, it was her fate to learn how to run them as she would inherit them someday. It was tiring at times but she had the talent for it and she also enjoyed doing the job.

And as a form of training, she even built a large Trading Firm within the games that she had played for the last few years. She was successful and managed to turn it into one of the most influential powers in every virtual game.

Though, she was feeling a little regretful at times since being the guild master of such a large group and being an heiress of a huge corporation at the same time was pretty tiring.

This was one of the occasions where she sometimes envied her little brother for living such a carefree life. Though, she was also aware that she was the reason why he was able to live like that.

Fortunately, there were rare times like this when she didn't have to worry about anything. There was no urgent matter that she needed to attend to in real life while everything inside the game was at least manageable for her subordinates and didn't need her help.

There were some damages in the kingdom that needed to be attended and it would cost quite a lot of resources for the kingdom to recover. It might be troublesome, but these kinds of cases were also an opportunity for her trading firm.

A war would always consume a lot of funds during the process because of the supply of potions and weapons that were needed for it.

But dealing with the aftermath was not that simple either since it would also require a large sum of resources just for the recovery process.

These were the two reasons why a lot of merchant groups were flocking to different warzone despite how dangerous it was. After all, both cases would give them a lot of profit.

And since the Hand of Midas Trading Firm was the current largest merchant and production guild within the Saint Heaven Kingdom, money would surely flow their way.

There was no player guild that could rival them in this area currently, so they could monopolize everything. If ever, NPC merchants were the only ones that could contend against them, but the player would always pick the Hand of Midas since it would cost them a little cheaper and with a similar quality if not better.

The damage to the Saint Heaven Kingdom was definitely not small, so the NPC Merchant Groups would not be enough to handle all of them, especially when both NPCs and player-built towns and villages were affected.

This was an opportunity that the Hand of Midas would never miss. Shiella even predicted that this was going to happen which was why she ordered the other branches of the firm to gather a lot of resources and manpower needed for the reconstruction and send them to the Saint Heaven Kingdom through different channels.

Everything was running smoothly which gave Shiella peace of mind. But that feeling didn't last for long since she received a message from Shin that immediately gave her a headache.

"This brat! Can I have a peaceful time just for once? It is not even half a day yet!"

The expression on her face was pretty dark, seemingly showing her desire to murder Shin right now.

...…