Two weeks earlier.

Pureum Co., Ltd.’s World Promotions Team ran into a wall.

That wall was the story.

Ayaka spun a ballpoint pen between her fingers and sank into thought.

We landed an incredible star for the preview.

Of course, that was Ayaka’s personal view.

It wasn’t public yet, but the moment people learned the user Hyunsoo was the preview’s main lead, the backlash would be global.

Not being a domestic player.

A Korean participating in a Korean game.

Hyunsoo being “first,” sure—but being selected over users with even higher names worldwide.

Things like that.

But if the preview came out great, that backlash would flip into cheers.

And for the complaints from the world rankers, the World Promotions Team had prepared a manual response:

Regrettably, we inform you that user XX does not match the image we pursue and has therefore been excluded from consideration for the server merge preview.

In plain terms, it meant:

You don’t have the face for it.

Facts.

Ayaka believed she’d secured a truly excellent star for the preview, and the biggest foundation for that belief was Hyunsoo’s looks.

Even if the most famous ranker in the world appeared, if they were ugly and short, it would be hard to make them the main lead.

On the other hand, Ayaka already knew Hyunsoo looked insane on camera.

Ayaka was the only one who’d seen the highlight reel footage.

It was perfect...

Anyway, even with the best possible material in hand, the story refused to come easily.

“How about a preview where Hyunsoo walks to the throne and millions of citizens cheer? You can become this, too!”

“Cliché.”

“Then how about Hyunsoo gathering a massive army and marching on China’s Sword Emperor?”

“Boring.”

“There’s this one, too. Hyunsoo falls in love with a princess, and in the last chapter becomes king—”

“Do you want to die?”

Ayaka fell deeper into anguish.

The first pitch—walking to the throne with millions cheering—is the safest, most hype-friendly one.

But then another thought hit.

Can this beat the first preview?

One of the immutable rules every director and viewer knows:

It’s hard for the second to surpass the first.

Sure, exceptions happen once in a while—but they’re rare.

Ayaka was grinding their teeth because Ayaka wanted this to be that rare exception.

That was when a team member spoke.

“Team Lead, I think you’re pushing yourself too hard.”

“...Am I?”

Ayaka realized Ayaka was being crushed under a heavy pressure.

I’ll make a second that beats the first.

That obsession was choking the scenario.

Ayaka. When you grab the pen thinking, “I’m going to write something amazing. I’m going to write something huge and /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ get recognized,” the writing gets heavy and unreadable.

Those were the words of a writer Ayaka knew—someone named Park Mingyu.

You’ve flopped back-to-back, haven’t you?

...Yeah. I flopped because I did exactly what I just said. Hah.

...?

...

Anyway, Ayaka felt the need to let go.

And then, suddenly—

“...Should I call Hyunsoo?”

Ayaka stood up.

Ayaka wasn’t expecting miracles.

Ayaka just knew Hyunsoo was one of the people walking the king’s road.

Ayaka wanted to hear it from that perspective.

After Ayaka left—

“We’ll probably go with the first one.”

“Yeah. Hyunsoo is just a cast member, anyway.”

“Team Lead Ayaka, seriously...”

Nobody put even a sliver of hope on it.

*****

Ayaka called Hyunsoo from the rooftop.

Ayaka told Hyunsoo the three concepts from today’s meeting.

—Cliché.

“Then how about—”

—Boring.

“Then the princess—”

—...Out of nowhere?

All three reactions matched Ayaka’s own.

—The first one sounds best. But I’m not an expert in that area, so what do I know.

Hyunsoo was modest.

—Still, I don’t know if it’ll help... but I’ll tell you how I ended up becoming a successor, so you can think of something new.

What followed was the story of Hyunsoo and Balladra—of kings.

From the first meeting to everything since.

...Hyunsoo is a king’s successor? That alone is shocking.

Ayaka hadn’t known that. And if Ayaka hadn’t, the world probably didn’t either.

And Balladra was even Hyunsoo’s close friend.

Stories flashed through Ayaka’s mind.

“Hyunsoo, thank you. This helped a lot.”

—...It did? There wasn’t anything special in it.

“Special? It was all special.”

Hyunsoo didn’t realize it because Hyunsoo was living it.

A story between Barad and Hyunsoo was something no other user could ever create.

“I think I can write a good scenario.”

Ayaka ran back to the conference room.

“Did the call go—”

The team members couldn’t finish.

Ayaka started hammering at the laptop like someone possessed.

An hour later— 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“Look.”

From the opening to the ending, Ayaka wrote it in one sprint.

The team members tilted their heads and read the story.

And then they all reacted at once.

Ayaka saw it.

The thumbs-up!

“This is fun.”

“It’s not cliché or boring—this is good!”

“And it even weaves in how the user–NPC relationship can intertwine until the user becomes the master of Ares!”

Once the story was decided, everything moved fast.

Ayaka and the team produced the preview at speed.

And two days before server merge—

Ayaka watched the finished video and couldn’t help admiring it.

Congratulations, Hyunsoo.

Hyunsoo wasn’t there, but Ayaka wanted to say it anyway.

You became the main character of a great video.

*****

[At 7 a.m., the Second Ares begins.]

[When the server merge opens, you can watch the preview.]

Every server of the VR game Ares closed at midnight.

The whole world was on fire.

— I’m going to sleep early and wake up early.

— Why?

— Because I have to watch the server merge preview.

Even the experts were saying it.

Reporters rushed articles out at full speed.

— Who is the preview’s main character?

— Pureum Co., Ltd. draws attention after reports they cast a real user.

— Ares users worldwide: anticipation for the preview cast skyrockets.

Community reactions were different.

— Yeah, no, I’m not getting my hopes up. Nothing beats the first.

— Honestly, if they still haven’t announced a single top world ranker as cast, they just grabbed some random nobody LOL. You know why? Because they know it’ll flop—seriously, did they have no confidence or what?

— mhm mhm.

— Not expecting anything.

— Then why aren’t you asleep yet?

— Can’t sleep.

— You’re excited, you bastard!

— LMAOOOOOOOO—“not expecting anything,” my ass.

— I-I’m not expecting it, but I’m still watching!

The truth was: even while claiming they weren’t expecting anything, the whole world had been counting down the days to server merge.

And then morning came.

— Finally...!

— Let’s go start the Second Ares!

— You deadbeat losers logging in at 7 a.m.—pathetic. I’LL log in first. I’ve been waiting in front of my capsule since ten minutes ago LOL

— That irony is crazy LOL

Just like that, people worldwide waited in front of their capsules.

And then, 7 a.m. arrived.

Countless people across the world stepped into their capsules.

HSSSSS—!

As always, they spoke their ID and password.

Everyone was visibly keyed up.

Then the black screen fell—and an alert sounded.

[Chapter One: Adventure. After that.]

A huge thrill ran through them.

Chapter One: Adventure.

Now they desperately wanted the next chapter.

[The preview begins.]

Every user’s vision was swallowed in black.

*****

The viewers’ vision brightened.

What appeared made them erupt.

A man every viewer in the world recognized.

Sword King Barad stood before his son’s grave.

— I have grown old.

As Barad turned, the white cloak emblazoned with the sword crest FLUTTERED—!

Barad’s voice rang like narration.

— The continent has connected, and many great powers circle Goyard with hungry eyes.

Wind swept in as Barad closed his eyes, scattering Barad’s hair.

— I need a successor to follow me.

— One who will build a Kingdom of Goyard that does not collapse.

— One who will forge a Goyard that does not shake.

Then an unknown man—framed so his face couldn’t be seen—appeared before Barad.

Barad looked at him and said:

“Will you walk it? The king’s road.”

Music swelled as Barad slowly closed his eyes.

FLASH!

The moment Barad opened his eyes, it snapped into a battle scene.

Barad bent a knee in the sky and exhaled, and the instant Barad triggered The sword’s cry—

CLRRRRANG—!

Hundreds of blue blades slammed into Spear Heaven.

Spear Heaven’s spear pierced straight through them in one sweep.

“Ghost Step.”

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLANG!

Blue sparks exploded from the Sword King’s blade; red sparks burst from Spear Heaven’s spear.

TWANG—!

The instant the Sword King batted away Spear Heaven’s spear—

The attacker changed.

— Many covet my seat, but I am losing the power to keep it.

Famous, ultra-high-profile NPCs from every server.

First: Emperor, King of the Dead.

“KWAAAHHAHAHAHA!”

The scene flashed past—Emperor summoning thousands of undead as Barad charged and carved through the monsters.

Then the enemies Barad faced kept changing as Barad ran.

CLAAANG—!

CLAAANG—!

CLAAANG—!

With each single exchange, Barad’s face visibly aged in a rapid-time演出.

And the background behind Barad whipped through spring, summer, autumn, winter—like eight seasons changing in a single second—showing Barad growing more exhausted.

Then the screen changed again.

A scene that looked like Barad twenty years later.

Barad stood there, dazed, as all the strong figures charged at once.

— Am I... going to be taken like this?

That was when—

“Accumulation.”

The viewers doubted their own ears.

Countless strong figures charging at Barad—

And the casting word that slipped between them was far too familiar.

A man stepped in front of the Sword King, yanked the Twin Dragon Sword far back behind him, and stared at the tightly packed swarm.

KRAAAANG—!

The moment his sword collided with countless weapons, a massive spark burst—and the screen cut.

A wide plain.

To Barad’s left stood Bella; to Barad’s right stood Lukburg, Valo, Constinu, and the heads of famed sword families.

Behind them stood tens of thousands of troops.

And in front of them—

— A worthless man who walked here slowly... now challenges me at the end of that road.

Even as the viewers realized it, they couldn’t look away from the man walking with his boots on the earth.

A brown coat draped over his shoulders.

In one hand, the greatsword Twin Dragon Sword.

And armed with a black artifact known as a calamity artifact, a man approached from the front.

At last, his face was revealed.

It was the user Hyunsoo.

“Have you finally arrived... at the end of this road?”

“Yes. Today.”

Behind the lone walker, countless summoning lights bloomed.

Nell at his side.

Hyun’s Forge behind him.

And behind that—blacksmiths filling the land, and a massive army column, beneath a crest of crossed hammer and sword.

Barad and Hyunsoo lowered their stances at the same time.

“Shall we begin?”

“Yes.”

They drew in the same instant.

And then—

KRAAAANG—!

Red sparks and black sparks filled the entire screen, and the image slowly darkened.

Through the fading darkness, the king and the challenger Hyunsoo collided at a speed too fast to see.

Then the screen went fully black, and silence fell.

In the silence, Barad’s voice sounded.

— Who will walk it.

— The king’s road.

— Anyone could walk it.

Only then did the viewers understand.

— Chapter One: Adventure ends.

— Chapter Two: The king’s road begins.

In the Second Ares, users would walk the king’s road.

[The preview ends.]

And it cranked the viewers’ raw anticipation straight upward.

Ares where a user becomes a king...?

It didn’t have to be them.

In the First Ares, the user couldn’t become the master of Ares.

But the Second Ares was implying users could become masters.

“Holy shit...”

It was the awe that burst out of the viewers.