Roland’s bottom line?

  A monthly payment of one or two hundred gold coins, for a period of thirty to forty years.

  It was already incredible enough to earn two hundred gold coins per month for patent licenses.

  After all, it was a very delightful thing to just sit around and earn patent fees while doing nothing.

  But it didn’t occur to Roland that the Goddess of Magic didn’t seem to know the first thing about money.

  He even got twenty percent of the shares by offering his technology.

  They even signed a divine contract.

  He was truly in for a great treat.

  But it was quite understandable. None of the Mages who worshiped Mystra were great talents. They weren’t even good at magic, not to mention things about business.

  She didn’t have any knowledge in that aspect.

  Naturally, Roland wouldn’t admit it. It was one thing if other people guessed his thoughts, but if he admitted it, he would be too cocky.

  Holding back his laughter, he said solemnly, “My boundaries were exactly 80/20.”


  “Is that so?” Mystra wasn’t bothered but said with a smile, “Whatever your boundaries were, consider this a gesture of friendliness. Offer me the good spells you find in the future, and you will be rewarded.”


  “Okay.” Roland handed over the complete graph of the magic array. “We’re friends now.”


  “Okay.”


  Mystra accepted the graph and waved her hand, sending Roland away from her paradise. She seemed slightly impatient. After Roland was gone, the impatience on Mystra’s face was replaced by delight.

  It was true that Mystra wasn’t a winner from a business point of view. No sane leader of a corporation would’ve given twenty percent shares to Roland for nothing.

  But the problem was the gods were insane.

  Or rather, they shouldn’t be viewed as ordinary people.

  Mystra was speaking the truth. Money was useless to her. What she really pursued was interesting magic knowledge and novel magic theories.

  Even if she made a fortune, she would still devote her money to those.

  Essentially, she wasn’t a manager. She only needed to construct new teleportation arrays with divine power before the temples, which was easy for her. Operations and preaching were her believers’ responsibilities.

  was

  She didn’t have to do much at all.

  So, her boundaries were actually 50/50.

  Bargaining was merely a chance for Roland to demonstrate himself and feel that he was victorious.

  If he felt happy, it would be easier for them to get closer to each other.

  She had been wondering how she could establish a closer relationship with Roland, and this would be a great start.

  She had a feeling that Roland would give her even more surprises in the future.

  She sat down again and read the magic array with such a happy smile that her eyebrows curved.

  Roland’s consciousness returned from the paradise to the little church. He then clenched his fists in delight.

  He had offered the teleportation magic array to the Goddess of Magic. If anyone ever asked, he could claim that it was the goddess’s gift, and nobody would dare to interrogate him.

  After all…… Interrogating a Favored for the goddess’s gift and robbing him of it would be absolutely disrespectful and might trigger a war among the deities!

  Although Mystra wasn’t very famous among the civilians, the major forces all over the world had written records stating that this goddess was as good at fighting as the Life Goddess and the Goddess of Light.

  The major forces dared not touch Roland, and the minor forces couldn’t touch Roland.

  So, he could build the teleportation magic arrays confidently, knowing that he would be safe under the Goddess of Magic’s protection.

  Besides, he would be earning money every month in the future!

  He didn’t think he would ever be short of money.

  He felt so good that the pores all over his body were singing.

  Roland returned to his manor ecstatically and had a great time with Andonara. He didn’t teleport to the Realm of Devils until two days later.

  The fourth breeding city had been conquered, and more “meat men” were saved.

  This breeding city was quite large and had a population of more than three hundred thousand.

  Also, most of the population were children and teenagers.

  This breeding city was famous for its fresh meat.

  After seeing the miseries in the city, the players beheaded all the devils they found, including two succubi.

  Not all the succubi were neutral, just like not all human beings were good people.

  The two succubi participated in the child abuse too. They manipulated the teenagers to mate with their mental power and then forced the girls to give birth nonstop with the species feature of the succubi. They also shortened the period of pregnancy from ten to six months.

  It was even safe to say that they were the worst breeders in the city.

  When Roland came here, he found that many girls looked like middle-aged women or even old ladies because they had been too worn out by continual childbirth.

  Those things were livestreamed too.

  Many pictures had been clipped and spread on the Internet.

  In the eyes of many ordinary people, they were just regular movie scenes, although they were quite pitiful.

  But in the eyes of many sociologists and psychologists, the pictures were all inferred by AI and were great research materials.

  Then, they imposed pressure on the game company, hoping that it would release more virtual cabins so that they could conduct systematic research in the game. They found that it was too wasteful to use such a strong AI to play games.

  The best stuff should be used for the greatest purposes. It was right to let the scientists take over.

  The news immediately hit the headlines in all countries. Many other forces began to instigate trouble, hoping to force the game developers to submit the source code of the AI and simulation technology.

  But very soon, the game company made an announcement.

  It contained only a short sentence: “You’re not qualified to demand source code from us until you can understand this snippet.”


  The snippet consisted of Yin and Yang exclusively.

  Many programmers replaced Yin and Yang with o and 1, but they couldn’t understand it.

  Roland found it incomprehensible too at first, but after he stared at the code for a while, those Yins and Yangs began to blur and ended up as a painting where a handsome green-haired young man raised his middle finger at him.

  Hmm?

  An illusion?

  He was stunned!

  He shook his head, and the picture before his eyes turned back to Yin and Yang.

  What’s going on?

  Roland was greatly confused. He was more and more convinced that something was seriously wrong with the game devs.

  Although those incidents were quite huge on the Internet, the players in the game wasn’t affected.

  The “meat men” in the fourth breeding city were almost all rescued.

  But at this moment, the Realm of Devils’ counterattack finally arrived.

  After the last batch of meat men was rescued, a black line appeared on the red horizon. Then, the black line was pressing close at a high speed. The girls from the Phoenix Guild immediately summoned flying beasts to investigate. Then they received intelligence.

  An army of the Realm of Devils was marching on quickly and would probably engage them in two hours.

  An emergency meeting was convened in the vanguard conference room. “A hundred thousand devils are coming. How many people do we have?” asked Moogle from Fatter Cat anxiously.

  “Counting the logistics people, about forty thousand.” Solisa, who was responsible for statistics, frowned. “After all, not all the players are interested in the Realm of Devils Expedition. Also, many players’ levels are too low for them to participate in the game content that’s beyond them.”


  “Then how many of us will make it to this place in the end?” asked Roland. “No more than 150,000, by conservative estimation.” Solisa covered her forehead and said, “After all, the main plane is too large and consists of all kinds of elements. It’s much more fun than the Realm of Devils.”


  Solisa was speaking the truth.

  The human world was so fun that they could play in any way they wanted.

  They could go on adventures, fight, farm, or fall in love with someone.

  In comparison, nothing but fighting and rescuing could be done in the Realm of Devils. The game content was too limited.

  “150,000.” Roland was rather helpless. “I’m told that the Realm of Devils is fairly large and there are thirteen Demon Gods, whom we have seen none of yet. Also, what we’ve run into so far is just the unorganized soldiers. Now, an army is finally coming at us. It was probably sent by a Demon God to test us.”


  Everybody was rather helpless.

  The players were merely level eight on average, not even Masters. They were fighting the devils with their super high stats as players and their abundant experience in battles.

  Their advantages allowed them to win when they were outnumbered.

  However, when the number of enemies became astonishingly high, the advantages in stats wouldn’t be so obvious.

  “Should we return to the main plane through the portal and establish a stronghold there?” someone suggested.

  Solisa slapped the table heavily. “No. There are more than twenty thousand children we haven’t rescued yet. We must not fall back.”


  “Then should we fight a battle that we’ll surely lose?” A guild chairman was rather angry. “Our level is very high now, and we’ll lose a lot of EXP with each death, which is fine to me, but I have to be responsible for the members of my

  guild.”


  In fact, everybody knew that he didn’t really want to “die”. After all, some people were just tired of the rescue operations.

  It was just an excuse when he said that he would be responsible for his guild.

  After he said that, the previously high morale in the meeting room immediately dropped.

  Many people realized that it wasn’t easy to deal with a hundred thousand devils.

  If things went on like this, they would soon lose unity. Roland immediately patted the table and said, “I’ll stop them and try to buy more time for you. You rescue those kids faster.”


  After that, Roland left the meeting room.

  Then, Schuck, who had been watching the drama, followed him away. After they left the meeting room, Schuck caught up to Roland and said, “Brother, try to buy more time. I’ll go back to the Holy Realm. It’s time to launch a crusade.”


  After saying that, Schuck unfolded his wings and flew back, ready to return to the main plane. Roland, on the other hand, took a deep breath and activated Human Cannonball. The deafening sonic explosions didn’t spread out until he took off to the sky.

  The players who were rescuing the meat men in the city realized something when they saw that a dark spot was charging at the army of devils. They quickly sped up their rescue. In the meeting room, Solisa smiled when she heard the raging sonic explosions.

  “Look at that. Charging forward alone to combat a crisis. That’s what a man should do!”


  She glanced at the chairman who proposed to retreat with derision, making the man blush. “The Phoenix Guild will take the responsibility to buy more time too. You can make your own plans.” After saying that, she turned around and left the meeting room. After leaving the door, Solisa shouted, “Sisters, gather up! Right now, a hundred thousand devils are coming at us, but the rescue isn’t finished yet. So, it’s time to sacrifice. Let’s show those wusses that women can be strong too!” “Ohhhhhhh!”


  The beautiful Summoners that were gathered up all shouted and raised their fists high.

  At this moment, a deafening explosion came from far away.

  An enormous mushroom cloud arose. The earth here was shaking even though it was far away.

  Then, a hot wind came from the distance.

  Everybody looked over and saw that a black spot was quickly rising near the mushroom cloud and closely followed by a dark plume of smoke.

  It could easily be told that the dark plume of smoke was the devils’ flying troops.

  “Go up and take some pressure off Roland!”


  In the bright green magic circle, a white unicorn was summoned.

  Solisa jumped on it and charged forward. At the same time, more beasts were being summoned too.

  All the girls of the Phoenix Guild summoned their own mounts and followed their chairwoman.

  They were summoning more beasts too.

  Very soon, an army of Summoners was already lunging at the devils in the distance.

  Seeing that the girls had charged forward, the players who stayed and prepared to retreat were all stunned.

  Then, they looked at each other and almost roared at the same time, before they ran toward the army of devils crazily.

  When the ten thousand people ran at the same time, they let out the sound of a deafening tsunami.

  The one who was leading the charge was a half-naked brawny man.

  “Wula!”


  He was like a Berserker.

  He was actually a Lorewalker, but it didn’t stop him from being a Berserker too.

  Among the demons, Ryan looked at the rising mushroom cloud, and his tail which hadn’t fully recovered yet was vaguely aching.

  Then, he looked at the man who was controlling a whole flying troop with a sordid expression. He took out an octagram artifact that was completely made of black gems.

  He then threw it at the sky.

  The black octagram span and caused a strong wind.

  An enormous white hand that was no different from a human hand simply extended out of the black octagram.

  The hand snatched Roland’s right leg while he was still flying against the restrictions of time and space!