"Fifty-two years have passed in the Game World! That’s five years, if you’re counting by Blue Star time."

"I wonder when the Chief will break through to the Mythical Realm."

Somewhere in the Star Realm, within a Divine Kingdom.

Six Deities were gathered within, and right now, these very Deities were sitting around a table, eating hotpot.

One table, six Deities. One of them was even dressed in a t-shirt and flip-flops.

A scene like this was truly one of a kind on the Oakland Continent.

"After all, the Chief’s fusion body is an Ancient Species of the Dragon Race. According to the True Game, the further these Ancient Species progress, the harder it is for them to break through."

"Well, generally speaking, it’s not so much that breaking through is harder, but that their growth cycle is just very long. After all, from what the True Game says, it seems like Ancient Species don’t have growth bottlenecks,"

said Player Little Sweetie to the others around the table, picking up a piece of beef to eat.

"Having no growth bottleneck is its own kind of bottleneck. The growth cycle is just too long. I used my permissions to ask about it earlier. According to the True Game, as an Ancient Species, the Chief will become increasingly lethargic. It’s basically like he’s absorbing energy through Meditation—the better he sleeps, the faster he grows!" Logical Genius added.

"Heh, in that case, the Chief’s sleep quality must be excellent. I bet he’ll start sleeping for hundreds or even thousands of years at a time. In Blue Star time, that’s probably long enough for a few generations of people to come and go," Can’t See the Bright Moon teased with a smile.

"Who cares? We’re Deities now. The one thing we have plenty of is time."

"As long as Brother Night Owl keeps getting stronger and stronger, our good life is set."

Brother Cheng Takes Off had previously used War Points to restore his physical body and had even achieved Ascension to Divinity, so he had been in a perpetually good mood.

So, he wasn’t really bothered by the fact that Lince was hibernating.

"That may be true, but don’t forget Oakland is still facing the risk of the Black Flame."

"The twenty-odd native Deities who were revived are on edge. They haven’t had a moment’s rest since they were brought back, and they’ve been constantly gathered together, researching powers similar to spatial Barriers,"

said Player Little Ordinary Person, his expression a little grave.

"They’d be better off spending their time searching for new worlds instead of researching that stuff."

"After all, you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. In our current situation, we can’t always rely on the Power of the True Game to conquer new frontiers, can we?"

"If we can’t win on quality, we’ll boost our numbers. Besides, even though we can’t get the Power of the Dragon Race for ourselves right now, we can at least count on the Chief to create some more Divine Tier dragons."

"And to do that, we first need to have enough worlds with sufficient Magic Environments. Only then can we raise a large number of Divine Tier dragons."

"Furthermore, the Dragon Race doesn’t use up the Mana Will’s slots for Deities. That makes it a win-win for us and the Deities from the other two worlds," Logical Genius said, offering a serious analysis as he took a sip of his drink.

"That’s definitely a viable path for development, but exploring the Star Realm isn’t something that can be accomplished overnight."

"Without the True Game’s help, it’s hard to say if we could even establish a successful path to a world in an unknown Star Realm in a thousand, or even ten thousand, years."

"Don’t forget, Green Saturn opening the Blue Star Road was largely a coincidence in the first place."

"That was a Star Road the Insect Deities spent millennia exploring, and they only pinpointed it with the help of the Prophetic System’s Laws. With our current level of Power, if we rashly barge into Subspace to explore... let’s not even talk about the risk of getting lost. I’m more afraid we’ll ’open a blind box’ and run into a high-level civilization, sparking another Black Flame crisis. If that happens, we’re totally screwed," Player Little Ordinary Person said, stretching languidly as he kicked his feet up and leaned back.

"No one can predict something like that. Besides, even if we don’t take the initiative, the True Game says that in the future, the rules of conflict between civilizations across the Cosmos will only get more and more intense."

"Who knows, a ’wild’ Star Road could suddenly tear open into our world one day. In any case, let’s just wait for the Chief to wake up before we do anything."

"The Chief holds high-level administrative permissions. Without his go-ahead, all we can do is stare blankly at the icon for ’Developable New Maps’."

"...."

The group sat around the hotpot table, chatting idly. It was an incredibly pleasant scene.

And given the current situation, they had certainly earned the right to relax.

They had, after all, managed to endure the toughest times during the early campaigns.

After all, even though Players could revive, the sheer agony of dying in all sorts of different ways each time was not something the average person could withstand.

According to post-war statistics, the average Player’s Spirit could only handle dying three to five times before breaking.

The tougher ones might last a dozen or so deaths, but even they would verge on mental collapse.

What’s more, the Insect People were aware of this weakness. So, to minimize the trouble caused by Players, they would viciously torture any they captured. This was also a way to scare many Players away from ever setting foot on the battlefield again.

After all they’d been through in the Green Saturn campaign, which one of the five of them present—including Brother Cheng Takes Off—hadn’t died dozens of times?

Brother Cheng Takes Off’s willpower went without saying.

Don’t be fooled by his usual devil-may-care attitude; he had suffered a great deal after becoming a Skeleton.

After entering the battlefield, and especially upon learning that points could be used to restore his body in the real world, he became consumed with a single-minded drive.

That’s why, no matter how he died, he kept coming back, again and again.

The Players of the Chosen Group were also constantly encouraging each other and keeping their spirits up.

And so, they had managed to persevere through it all.