Constantine was seated across from a very fluffy orange sloth, but his rather funny appearance was not to be taken lightly. Plutus, the head of the merchants guild, was a notable archmage and had immense influence over the Empire’s politics.
The sloth let out a long sigh, took the golden-rimmed spectacles off, and carefully placed them onto the large oak desk he was seated behind. “You looking younger, Sir Constantine,” Plutus said with an amused tone. “Did the Demon Lord of Necron butcher your clone?”
Constantine raised a brow. “I am surprised you know of our true nature…but I suppose it makes sense for one of the most powerful people in the Empire to know of the Hacker’s deeper secrets.” He then took a sip of the steaming cup of honey-flavored tea as the sloth let off a hearty chuckle.
“Money talks. Not all of your comrades are as tightlipped as you are, Sir Constantine.” The sloth had a strange smile. “I knew your patron deity would send you running to deal with the threats in Necron. Seems you got your ass beaten instead. How embarrassing for a senior Hacker to meet such a fate.”
A thin smile formed on Constantine’s younger face. Funny that he thinks Axon is a patron deity comparable to the spirits they believe in. Those spirits are simply the many egos of the World Cores that power this world. To compare Axon—a cosmic entity and destroyer of worlds—to some alter egos of a fledgling world is hilarious. He refrained from correcting the sloth’s small worldview. After all, that was what he and his comrades aimed to protect—the innocent ideologies of the world’s inhabitants. He had seen too many worlds full of life, joy, and laughter become wastelands of undead and misery over the years, and he didn’t want that to occur again.
Enough was enough, and it was time to change it. Ultimately, Axon’s endless conquest of misery would end. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day, it would. Constantine drummed his fingers as he thought, This world is surprisingly healthy and was given time to develop beyond normal, while Axon was focused on conquering the neighboring planets. Furthermore, it has the ambient mana generation to ward off an invasion via rifts. Hopefully, the church will be strong enough to deal with the occasional void creature that slips through and the corrupted even after us Hackers are gone.
Constantine’s hand paused, and he cleared his thought with a cough and drew the sloth’s attention. “Plutus, we need to put an end to Necron.”
The sloth grumbled as he opened a drawer to his side and retrieved a stack of papers. “Constantine, you know what type of man I am, and to come demanding such a thing is honestly ridiculous.” The documents levitated and plopped down in Constantine’s waiting hands. “Those documents contain detailed accounts of the current earnings from utilizing Necron toll roads and earnings forecasts for the next five years.” Plutus leaned back in his leather chair, and it creaked from his weight. “Sadly, my hands are tied. The nobles give me power and support because I bring in a lot of money for them. Not to mention I am head of the merchants guild. Not the army. If you want to take down Necron due to your confused sense of justice that I can’t understand, then bring it up with the relevant people. I work with a number, Constantine, a certain kind of number.”
“The number of gold coins in your pockets?” Constantine snapped.
Plutus grinned, showing his needle-like teeth. “And the coins in my clients’ and direct benefactors’ pockets as well. I never claimed to be a good man. I am simply a man of business and progress. If you move against Necron and disrupt my business…” The sloth’s eyes narrowed as a heavy pressure filled the room. “Then we are going to have a problem, Sir Constantine. Please understand my hands are tied. If you can present a solution to me and the high nobles to bypass Necron’s territory safely, then I am all ears, as I would like to earn that toll road money as well.”
Constantine gripped the documents, causing them to crumble. These short-sighted people didn’t understand. It’s not their fault. We tried to tell them in the past of the threat coming, and only the church really listened to us. All the nobles care about is money and political power.
He and the other Hackers had to live with the knowledge of the world’s fate while watching the locals parade around, worrying about insignificant issues such as petty politics.
“Plutus, there are things at stake that you don’t realize. You are blinded by monetary gain! Giving the corrupted a foothold in this world is a recipe for disaster. You tell me to go to the army, but who funds the army? Do you want me to go to the Delvers guild? Who pays for the requests?” Constantine looked out the window at the blue sky with a bubbling feeling of anger in his chest. “The nobles, they have the ruler classes. They have the money and abilities to rally the people and change this dying world.”
Plutus gestured to the documents. “If you read those reports and tell me with a straight face that I should persuade the nobles to turn down a thirty-two percent increase in GDP year-on-year because a Hacker threw a hissy fit in my office without any evidence or reason…then I will be thoroughly impressed in your stubbornness, Sir Constantine.”
Constantine grit his teeth. He knew Axon was planning to send in a Netherborne this year, and there was also a town of corrupted acting like humans? It was all rather suspicious, and the fact he got a quest from Axon regarding Necron sent alarm bells ringing in his head. Axon’s attempts at conquering this planet had always been disorganized and easy to crush. But a kingdom of corrupted? Trading with humans? This needs to be snipped in the bud before it’s allowed to grow out of control. But how?
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Constantine stood up with a grunt and walked over to the window to calm himself. It would be inconvenient if he was to lose his temper in front of Plutus—although Hackers were considered a vital part of the Empire and had a lot of privileges. However, there were still lines that couldn’t be crossed, and going directly against the nobles’ and the Empire’s best interests was a great way for him to damage his relationship with people in power. The World Cores came up with a great idea to spur development. The nobles in this world are granted a ruler class, which lets them bestow quests. These quests reward people with exp, something the World Cores can freely provide. For quests involving money, those are taken out of the noble’s pockets but can be verified and handled by the System.
There is a reason those nobles stay in power. The World Cores’ System simply wanted the denizens to become as strong as possible, and sadly, having a ruling class that caused wars and ordered the people around was the best way to achieve this. Constantine sighed as he watched the clouds lazily float by. How long until the sky becomes filled with smoke and screams? He had faith in this world. It had held on longer than any world before it. But once the wheel of destruction turned, there’s no stopping it.
Axon would come—its invasion was inevitable.
Suddenly, a wave of dread washed over him. It was not internal. No, it was as if the very essence of dread itself had manifested. The lazy clouds were vaporized by an unknown force, and the sky flickered red.
Constantine whirled around and looked at Plutus. The sloth was staring wide-eyed at the space in front of him—his hands trembled, and his mouth hung open in shock. “T-this…what?” the sloth mumbled, unable to string coherent words together.
Constantine was confused about what Plutus saw, but it also appeared in his vision.
[Demon Lord Has Arrived]
Then there was a blinding light that flashed across the horizon. Constantine’s heart raced as he stumbled back to the window and saw a red beam reaching for the stars in the distance. That should be southwest from here…a beacon for Necron.
“Demon Lord!” Plutus’s mana became turbulent as he became furious. “Fuck sake!”
It hadn’t happened for over a thousand years, but whenever a Demon Lord–level threat—often void creatures such as a Netherborne—appeared on the mortal plane, the world would not stand idle. The World Cores were brilliant and genius but were still living things that valued their own preservation over anything else.
Plutus stood up, and his chair went toppling behind him, but the sloth didn’t care. “I must inform the army, the Delvers…” The sloth was practically shaking. “A dungeon break is coming.”
The world had known peace for far too long. Unfortunately, not everyone would know what the appearance of a demon lord meant. Constantine had witnessed them all through his many long lives. The world knows that if the demon lord is left to its own devices…the entire continent will be destroyed. Therefore its logical solution is to rapidly increase the strength of the strongest fighters by spewing out monsters into the world, forcing the denizens to fight. It will then drive the few fighters that survive to defeat the demon lord through quests, and it doesn’t matter how many cities or people are killed. So long as the World Cores are protected, it doesn’t care.
He then braced himself as a surge of mana washed over him. It felt suffocating as he wasn’t part of the world’s System, but luckily his hacked version kicked in and helped him process the sudden abundant mana. Then seconds later, his System showed a prompt that appeared throughout the continent.
[World Event: Defeat the Demon Lord]
[Location has been marked with a beacon.]
[Abundant mana increased by 10 times.]
[Exp rewards from quests tripped.]
[A contribution counter has been enabled.]
Constantine couldn’t see it, but he knew that a counter would have appeared on everyone’s status page from past times this occurred. The World Cores aimed to turn everything into a game, making it seem fun and a no-brainer to fight against the demon lord. Anyone in their right mind would run to the guilds to retrieve these triple exp quests and compete with one another to up their contribution counter.
Then the System prompt that he was dreading popped up.
[Axon Second Quest: Assist {Demon Lord} with capturing the four remaining World Cores on the continent.]