Overgeared

Lord was a hero from his birth. His body, brain, senses, intuition, and all fields were extraordinary to begin with. The heir of a prestigious bloodline in Eternal was conceived with the seeds of a legend. It would be mysterious if the child had been ordinary.

'I saw something really amazing... Ah, this... I can't remember it. Father told me to forget, so I have to forget.'

Lord had a lot of teachers. They were the best teachers in each field. He naturally had a high vision. It was rare for him to feel anything even when seeing something quite good. This was what happened while he was adventuring and following his father's footsteps.

Lord wasn't very excited when seeing characters, events, and phenomena that were called great. He just deliberately built new relationships. Yet today was a series of shocks. His teacher, Damian, and Zednos, Laella, Isabel, Bland, Beniyaru, etcetera—the talents of the Overgeared Kingdom whom Lord admired were crushed by Zeratul.

It was a new level of power. For the first time in his life, Lord was crushed by helplessness. He felt great fear that was incomparable to the crisis he experienced at the Vatican as a child. He even felt despair. He felt sorry to his parents because he thought he would die without achieving anything.

It was a strange and terrible experience. It was an experience that awakened some instinct sealed deep inside Lord. It wasn't anything special. It was simply a survival instinct. It was an instinct Lord had never felt because he had been too brilliant.

The moment it awakened, Lord was greeted with a drastic change. His desire to not die was directly linked to the idea of living. This expanded Lord's thinking in a way that never existed before.

At that time, Hayate appeared and even defeated Zeratul. In the state where his body and mind were awakening, Lord accepted the inspiration and grew rapidly. He saw the scenery he had always seen from a different perspective and gained new learning and ideas from the people and situations he often encountered. All these changes melted into his mind and body, making them better.

'Wow, what is this?'

The Overgeared Knights were fighting against the followers of the martial god. The knights were largely divided into 12 divisions and scattered throughout the Overgeared Kingdom. Among them, Coke belonged to Lord's company.

Lord had hundreds of guards, but Coke escorted Lord in case something happened. Here, Coke was astonished. It was because the skills of Lord and the royal guards had increased dramatically. In particular, the change in Lord was dazzling. He seemed to have become a different person in just a few days. The standard wasn't low in Coke's eyes, who just reached level 400 last week.

'He hasn't reached level 300 yet, right?'

What was this? It was too cool!

A bright smile appeared on Coke's face as he watched the view of Lord's back as Lord cut at the enemy. He had felt that the players' power seemed too weak compared to the enemy and was very happy that Lord had become a new possibility.

"Uh, uh? W-Why are you suddenly hugging me?"

"Huh? It is because you are so pretty, Your Highness~"

"Uwah! Don't do this! I'm an adult now!"

"You are still 16! You are a child in my eyes! I'm going to hug you more!"

"S-Someone stop Lord Coke!" Lord screamed, but the royal guards didn't do anything.

Coke was trusted by Grid and the 10 meritorious retainers. There was a noble title and an authority that was stronger than the noble title. The royal guards lacked the capability to restrain him. They would've turned a blind eye even if they had the capabilities. It was nice to see Coke rubbing his cheeks against Lord's cheeks with Lord in his arms.

In this way, in the midst of the uproar, the remnants of the martial god followers were quickly cleaned up. Most of the followers had only learned one or two secret techniques and were no match for the Overgeared Knights who were on a rampage.

The level of the knights and Lord was too great. In particular, Mercedes' swordsmanship contained 'destructive power' and the sight of it sweeping away the followers was amazing. Even the followers who learned 10 secret techniques fell to her sword and died. It was a devastating appearance that was never seen before. It was thanks to the fact that the Matchless Swordsmanship, a symbol of a previous generation Sword Saint, was directly passed on to her by Biban and she wrote a new chivalric code too.

Zeratul's contribution was also great.

***

The great human and demon war was fierce.

At the very least, the battles at the Behen Archipelago and the Abyss remained tense without tilting to either side. There were the 10 meritorious retainers and Ares at the Behen Archipelago, while the troops at the Abyss were properly centered around Braham and Kyle. Several crises occurred along the way, but every time, reinforcements arrived with exquisite timing and added strength to the allied forces.

"Where are you going?!"

Ever since the arrival of reinforcements led by Chris, Peak Sword retreated to the rear and had a wider view. Every time the demons with the characteristic of 'assassination' broke into their camp, he acted and protected the commanders. Peak Sword felt like a cog in something huge. He marveled at the new role that was given at any time and in any situation, and that every time he played a new role, he helped his allies.

Most of the players in the allied forces active in various parts of the continent felt similar. At present, the allied forces were acting as giant organisms. Thousands or hundreds of millions of people played different roles in their respective positions and spread positive influence to each other. There was a sense of unity beyond nations, species, forces, religions, ideas, places, and time.

Even the players acting alone on the outskirts realized that some of their actions helped in the war and felt it was very rewarding. They felt possessed by something.

People were gradually more immersed in the war. It was the contribution of the strategists behind the scenes. The excellent strategists of the allied forces, including Lauel and Sima Qian, were coordinating the war. All the roles and duties they gave to the players and troops in the alliance were closely related and helpful to each other.

The more such a phenomenon was repeated and overlapped, the more the enemy's camp collapsed. There were ingenious schemes. The exquisite tactics were added and people felt it even more. The presence of the strategists. People paid homage to them.

Meanwhile, Lauel felt he was going to die. He was always in the meeting room and making plans during the access time. When he was logged out, he communicated with the strategists who were connected and moved troops... There was no time to rest. The war was only two days old.

'It will be dangerous if this continues. It will become harder as time passes. We need something to change the flow.'

***

Youngwoo logged out and poured all the side dishes on the table into a bowl. Then he sat in front of the TV and ate. He found channels broadcasting the Abyss and Behen Archipelago. Several screens were displayed at the same time as he roughly ate the mixed food. There wasn't much time to eat, but he had to take care of his meals. It was for health management.

'The players are at a disadvantage.'

Players had fundamental limitations. There was the access restriction penalty. Players could connect to Satisfy for up to 16 hours per day. If this time limit was filled, they couldn't connect for the remaining eight hours. This meant that they would be away from Satisfy one day out of three. If the log out time of rankers overlapped, humanity would have no choice but to suck its fingers and watch the collapse.

Therefore, Lauel coordinated the time of the rankers so it didn't overlap. He also distributed a guide to leave two hours of connection time instead of using up all the connection time. He prevented the blank log out time of rankers from overlapping as much as possible while setting up a five minute standby group to be able to organically respond to certain crisis situations.

The target naturally included Youngwoo. Of course, Lauel didn't want to intervene in Youngwoo's schedule. It was Lauel's honest desire to let Youngwoo focus on his blacksmithing work until the access time limit. However, Youngwoo was the best power among the players. The loss to the human race would be huge if Youngwoo was unable to respond to certain situations.

Youngwoo understood it well. He was willing to cooperate with Lauel, who explained the situation with a pained face.

"...Crazy."

Six out of the dozens of channels broadcasting the Behen Archipelago and the Abyss—Youngwoo, who was watching the channels that showed different compositions, became mesmerized and forgot to eat. He was attracted by Braham. He thought Braham had become stronger after hearing Braham had regained his power as a direct descendant, but it was completely different from what he expected. This was a different dimension beyond the level of strength.

"Haha... I'm glad."

Youngwoo's nose wrinkled. He had to know that Braham often looked bitter as he watched Grid alone growing stronger.

"It was really fortunate."

It was Braham who had a hard time for hundreds of years. Youngwoo had suffered for 20 years, so he was able to guess a bit of the pain that Braham had suffered. He was extremely happy when he saw Braham finally achieving his long-cherished wish.

"Um...?" He thought he should drink a cup of coffee in advance. Youngwoo got up after eating, only to cock his head. It was because the goods being unloaded from the cargo truck in front of the building were unusual.

"Capsule?"

There were also two of them. What? Toon came out to pick them up. Were Toon's friends coming to visit from Italy? Was he buying new capsules to stay with them in the future?

Youngwoo immediately ran out.

***

In conclusion, Youngwoo didn't make any new Italian friends. The owners of the capsules were surprisingly Youngwoo's parents.

"Your father was extremely worried. How can we turn a blind eye when people are in crisis?"

"Hum hum, it wasn't to the point of extremely..."

"...So you are going to start Satisfy?"

"Yes, I've always wanted to see the faces of my daughter-in-law and grandchild~"

"Ah, watch your mouth! Why are you looking for your daughter-in-law and grandchild in cyberspace instead of reality?"

"Isn't Satisfy another reality? It is too harsh to call it cyberspace."

"Honey, correct it quickly."

"No... I just want to have a real daughter-in-law..."

"It just happened first in Satisfy. It is good to have it in both reality and Satisfy."

"Satisfy is real as well?"

Overall, it was a confusing conversation. Just seven years ago, such conversations would've been criticized. They would be treated like a crazy family or appeared on a TV show after becoming a hot topic. It was even possible that it would've been both. However, the world had changed. From the perspective these days, there was no problem with the conversation in Youngwoo's family. There weren't just one or two married people in Satisfy.

"By the way, do you know how to make an account?"

"Last night, I went to the capsule room with Jishuka to create an account and understand the basic system."

"......"

Had Jishuka kept in constant contact with his parents? Sure enough, there were still some lingering regrets. Of course, such an ending would be hard to understand. It was necessary to settle it. It should be done in the direction she wanted. That was his wish as well. For the right ending of their relationship, he would consider immigrating to the Middle East...

'Gasp?' Youngwoo was shocked at the freely flowing stream of thoughts. He was surprised by his own understanding and acceptance of Jishuka's feelings. Something had changed...

He easily understood and accepted the hearts of others. The same was true in Satisfy and in reality. It had been like this recently.

'What is this?'

It wasn't a special change. It wasn't a manhwa-like development where he suddenly gained supernatural powers. Youngwoo just had a lot of experience in Satisfy and developed cognitive skills based on these experiences. It was so high that it couldn't be compared to ordinary people. As a result, he easily came up with a solution to a situation or relationship that he had felt was difficult until now. He was also quick to recognize and accept these changes.

'Um.... I've met a lot of people.'

"Jishuka sends me an emoticon every day that says 'Fighting'? It has already been for a few years. How is she so consistent? Haha, how happy would people be to have a beautiful, cute, and faithful daughter-in-law like Jishuka?"

"Youngwoo, your mom likes Yura. Jishuka is a foreigner. No, she is Korean now, but... in any case, she came from a foreign country and has slightly different sentiments..."

"Uhuh! How can there be racial discrimination when the global community is united by Satisfy?!"

"How is this racial discrimination? Did you lose your mind after wielding a knife yesterday?"

"Cough, I-I'm sorry. I went too far."

"Youngwoo, aren't you busy? We are busy as well, so go upstairs and rest. Hoho, I am excited to see my daughter-in-law and grandson in person."

"......"

Youngwoo didn't want to think too deeply and quietly returned home. He vowed to make good items for his parents.

In any case, the great human and demon war caused a worldwide Satisfy boom. Many people were stimulated by humanity fighting against the invasion of demons that was constantly broadcasted. Like Youngwoo's parents, the number of people who belatedly started Satisfy in order to help humanity was in the millions in just two days.

At this point, it was comparable to the inflow rate when the game first opened. A new wind was blowing. There were many talented people among the new users and several organizations, including the Overgeared Guild, actively helped them. It felt like borrowing a child's hand, but there was a desire to cultivate them for the future.

The players unknowingly became one.