In the earliest days of Ares,

there had been a user famous all across the world.

With extraordinary skill and unmatched physical ability, he had become an idol to countless people.

He seized opportunities faster than anyone else,

and became the man closest to Legend.

And yet, that man had suddenly abandoned his place of his own accord and fully migrated to the American server.

But genius did not disappear wherever it went.

He acquired a new class,

and continued to grow relentlessly as an unofficial ranker.

There were those who did not know.

But among the few who did, some had quietly said this:

that perhaps he might become the first king among users faster than anyone else.

That was the sort of thing high-rankers whispered,

and they had more than enough reason to.

Because the position he had reached in just a single year was so absurd, so shocking, that even people who themselves bore the name of high-ranker found it unbelievable.

And now, there he was.

Tall, handsome, in his late twenties—

and before him stood an army of over a hundred thousand.

It was proof of everything people had said.

And on the American server, he was someone an astonishing number of NPCs wanted to get close to.

A whisper from China’s top ranker reached him.

[Fond: Help me, please!! You remember I helped you before, right!?]

“...”

The man silently checked the whisper.

[Fond: Hyun’s trying to swallow the User Kingdom Union right now. You said you wanted to become the first king, didn’t you!? And you still can!!]

It was only a matter of time. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

In no more than a single year, the man had thrown away the glory he once had and climbed this far toward a new glory.

The first king.

It was a name that suited him more than anyone.

[Fond: Bring every person you can pull in right now and come to Atlas. Sweep everything away. Then you can become the king of the User Kingdom Union instead.]

Fond’s urgency came through clearly.

[Fond: Where else would you ever get a chance this easy!? You know better than anyone that if you show up now, wipe out Hyun, and become the center of the Union, you can become king with ridiculous ease!]

The man murmured,

“...Certainly.”

A faint smile touched his lips.

“I’ve received a kindness, haven’t I?”

He looked over his army.

The troops who had been in disarray until a moment ago instantly fell into rank and file the moment he prepared to issue an order.

“...We march.”

The man had not forgotten the favor he had received.

*****

As he looked at the User Kingdom Union, Hyunsoo found himself thinking this.

What is it that users dream of?

Becoming high level?

Hunting a monster they had never been able to kill before?

No.

He already knew of a dream far more valuable, material, and permanent than that.

That dream was Unique and Legendary artifacts.

Becoming high level is something anyone can achieve if they invest enough time and effort.

And killing a monster they couldn’t defeat before is, in the end, still a one-time thing.

There was something that stood in contrast to that.

Unique artifacts and Legendary artifacts aren’t consumable—they’re permanent. They rapidly raise a user’s hunting efficiency and create the effect of bringing them closer to high levels. And if it’s a Legendary artifact, that goes without saying.

Everything users wanted was ultimately tied to artifacts.

If they had one good artifact, they could achieve all sorts of things they wanted.

But for users, that was a dream too fleeting to grasp.

The reason was simple.

Hyunsoo had looked up the numbers.

On average, only one out of every hundred users possesses a Unique.

And as for a Legendary, it’s more like maybe one user out of a million.

That was the era they lived in.

No matter how much the value of Legendary and Unique artifacts had dropped,

no matter how much more supply had entered circulation,

they were still dreams to users.

And so this had been part of Hyunsoo’s plan from the very beginning.

Create four absolute knights.

They were proof.

Proof of just how strong those who take advantage of the strengths of the place that will become the nation of Hyun can become.

And in reality, it had been proven perfectly.

—Did you all just see that?

—What Bella, Borne, Luxiu, and Akao showed in the early stage was real. Each of them slaughtered over a thousand users. But in the end, they were forced back.

—That was because they were NPCs, and their lives were finite.

—But the moment they equipped the artifacts Hyun gave them, they became twice as strong. No—three times as strong.

—I still can’t believe that in a single territory, four artifact sets capable of reaching Legend were created.

—And on top of that, they were forged by Hyun’s disciples...!

That was right.

The power of Hyun alone had limits.

And because of that, he had shown them.

That Atlas had grown.

The ones who directly witnessed it and felt it were the members of the User Kingdom Union.

[Deputy Commander Vera has died.]

[Deputy Commander Liu has died.]

[Deputy Commander....]

[Deputy Commander....]

The strongest rankers of their nations.

The very pillars of the User Kingdom Union had scattered into handfuls of ash.

What shocked them even more was—

They couldn’t even really put up a fight?

That Twin Dragon Sword is insane. It breaks enemy artifacts every time it attacks?

Is that guy actually a Demon King? How is he healing infinitely?

They’re enemies, but I’ve never seen a knight handle Hydra that easily or cavalry charge without ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ fear like that.

Pirate King Akao? That scythe is unbelievable. I don’t think even most Legendary NPCs could fight like that.

The flow had changed.

And Hyunsoo had deliberately shown them his Give Me Your Loyalty title.

Of course, it would not activate.

It was only a suggestion.

A sign that the road to Atlas was always open.

And Hyunsoo’s chest swelled.

He sat on the throne pretending to be arrogant, pretending to be great, projecting dignity—

but inside, his heart was pumping wildly.

Hyunsoo understood the power artifacts held,

and yet he did not.

Because he could not see into users’ minds and know what they were thinking.

But he needed it.

The minimum requirement to establish a kingdom: three million....

Because he had so many Legends worth a hundred thousand each, Hyunsoo had already filled 1.5 million.

But he was still thirsty.

Still lacking.

How much power does the Atlas I built actually possess by now?

And then something happened that even Hyunsoo had not expected.

He had only thought the members of the User Kingdom Union might submit migration applications.

But instead—

THWACK—!

One user, imitating the way Hyunsoo had extended his hand for a handshake, reached out toward him on the wall.

That was the beginning.

Then, one after another, User Kingdom Union members who had been watching each other cautiously began reaching their hands out too.

Watching them, Hyunsoo could not estimate it by sight alone, and he felt confused.

How many is that? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand?

Twenty thousand.

Even that would be meaningful.

Those people were the enemy.

And they were people who clearly had risks to bear if they betrayed their own side.

Hyunsoo wondered if maybe he had expected too much.

No, maybe five thousand...

The moment he thought of those risks, he felt just how difficult a choice this really was.

And yet....

[Nell: Hyunsoo, Hyunsoo...! Hurry and look. At what you created.]

“...?”

Hyunsoo realized he had lowered his head without even noticing.

Snapping out of it at Nell’s whisper, he lifted his head—

and his fist clenched.

“Please accept our migration.”

“Can I also receive a Unique artifact?”

“I heard there are quests in Atlas that give Epic and Unique artifacts. Is that true!?”

Hyunsoo slowly nodded.

“WAAAAAH!”

“No fucking way...!”

“There are quests that give Unique artifacts!?”

Countless users within the User Kingdom Union, too many to count, were stretching their hands toward Hyunsoo.

[48,317 users submit migration applications.]

Hyunsoo’s eyes shook.

[Nell: You’re incredible, Hyunsoo. Do you remember? When you said you would build Atlas and raise auto-production blacksmiths into handcraft blacksmiths, the whole world laughed at you.]

That was true.

The communities all over the world had mocked Hyunsoo.

But now it was proven.

And then Roun, the one who had forged Transcendence, stepped forward as a representative and took his place beside Hyunsoo.

Roun was filled to the brim with emotion, and he wanted to say something to Hyunsoo.

Master....

[Hyunsoo: Calling me Master is embarrassing, isn’t it? There’s only a ten-year age gap between us....]

“...Hyunsoo.”

“....”

Hyunsoo pretended not to hear.

“I regretted it hundreds of times.”

“...Isn’t this normally the part where you say you never regretted it even once?”

—...True enough.

—That really doesn’t fit the context, does it?

Even the members of the User Kingdom Union looked on with puzzled expressions.

But in the middle of all those eyes fixed on them, Roun spoke.

“But after forging Transcendence, I realized something. For all of two years, all I had really done was learn the basics you taught me. And yet those basics are what made me who I am today.”

“....”

Hyunsoo looked into Roun’s eyes.

He was sincere.

And it was startling.

The world and the User Kingdom Union felt the same.

“Then who the hell is that?”

“That’s Black Anvil, Roun. He was once Korea’s number-one ranker.”

“...He’s got tens of millions of subscribers.”

“What did he even do?”

“Someone anonymous became the world’s fourth Transcendent crafter not long ago, remember? Looks like that was Roun.”

“...Then how many monsters are there in that place?”

Just like that, Roun’s words created an even bigger ripple.

[Migration applications are revised.]

[63,190 users submit migration applications.]

Hyunsoo’s expression turned to shock.

At that moment, something he had doubted, wondered about, and asked himself if it might really be possible—

became certainty.

And human greed knew no end.

More. More, more. More....

For those who had originally served the User Kingdom Union to begin praising him—

it felt like a sweet holy grail.

But then—

“...The closer Hyun gets to becoming king, the more people will come after him.”

“You idiots, get a grip!”

“You think you’ll survive after migrating!? You’ll die the second you do!”

“....”

Other members of the User Kingdom Union brought them back to their senses.

Hyunsoo could not deny it.

Half the people who had extended their arms lowered them again.

That was it.

From their point of view, Hyunsoo did not seem to possess the power to protect them from hundreds of kingdoms—and even empires.

Then one user broke into loud laughter.

“Kahahah!”

It was Fond.

That bastard’s still not dead?

Hyunsoo looked at Fond, who had somehow managed to survive alone.

Fond had quickly slipped out from Bella’s range and pulled back under the protection of the User Kingdom Union.

“...Migration? Get your heads screwed on straight. The Barbarian King is coming here right now.”

“...?”

“...!?”

“...!?”

“With reinforcements from the forces stationed in America.”

“The Barbarian King? That unofficial ranker?”

“...He’s never revealed his identity, though.”

“I heard one of his titles has something like ‘Request Allies’ in it.”

The battlefield suddenly erupted into noise.

And the same was true inside Atlas.

But Hyunsoo, after hearing it, merely wore a cautious expression.

Was Fond lying from within the crowd?

No, that was impossible.

No idiot would tell a lie like that in front of tens of millions of viewers.

Soon enough, a sound rang out that proved it was no bluff.

RRRRRRUMBLE—!!!

The sound of an army marching swallowed the entire battlefield.

“Huh?”

“It’s real?”

“Holy shit... Fond had this much pull?”

“See? Hyun’s Forge has too many enemies. No matter how many good artifacts they make, they don’t have the power to protect us!”

Those who had raised their hands lowered them.

And the world rapidly briefed those who did not know who the Barbarian King was.

—The Barbarian King. A man who abandoned his original Legendary class and leapt into a new Legendary class, becoming the strongest unofficially active ranker on the American server.

—In only one year, the Barbarian King has climbed to a place ordinary users can never reach and is becoming a legend. Hyun is a visible legend, but he is called the Barbarian King because he is becoming a king in the shadows.

Following him, the footsteps of tens of thousands filled all of Atlas.

“Fifty thousand? A hundred thousand??”

Then—

[300,000 reinforcements arrive.]

“...!?”

The members of the User Kingdom Union had no choice but to withdraw the hands they had extended to Hyunsoo.

[Migration applications are revised.]

[3,203 users submit migration applications.]

A powerful army appeared amid the rising dust.

And at the head of it stood the Barbarian King, revealing himself to the world for the first time.

Even his nickname was concealed.

And he said:

“...I came to repay a kindness.”

At those words, the entire world was thrown into shock.

—The Barbarian King? A kindness?

—You’re saying that Barbarian King received a favor from someone!?

—That’s impossible to believe!

—Don’t tell me he means he owes Fond!?

Soon the Barbarian King looked over the army he had brought and said,

“Show proper respect.”

And with that, the army of 300,000 showed proper respect.

The people who saw where that respect was directed froze in shock.

It was not Fond.

The 300,000 troops were saluting Hyunsoo.

“LOYALTY!!!!!”

Everyone there went rigid.

The Barbarian King removed the helmet he had been wearing, winked at Hyunsoo,

and his identity was revealed.

The Barbarian King.

It was Lord, the former Heir to the Sword King.

[Lord: I did not forget the advice you gave me. Hyunsoo. Today, I’ll repay that kindness.]

Hyunsoo’s eyes trembled as he faced him.

And Hyunsoo understood why Lord had made such a dazzling entrance and staged things this way.

Just a moment ago, seventy thousand troops had been raising their hands, only to lower them again at the appearance of a powerful army.

But now—

[273,031 users submit migration applications.]

An overwhelming number of users were stretching their hands toward Hyunsoo.

And Lord said:

“Become king, Hyunsoo.”