Lionheart University's History Department—upon entering the first-floor lobby of the teaching building, one was greeted by a teleportation gate.
Although it was the History Department, many of the ancient subjects it researched carried inherent danger.
As such, the building itself was mostly for appearances. The true department grounds and student dormitories were located within the Spirit Realm.
Since Parius wasn't a student of the History Department, he needed to register and apply before entering the Spirit Realm.
However, it was nothing more than a formality. Throughout Lionheart University—even among descendants of the royal family—no one held a higher status than Parius.
After all, there were many royal descendants, but only one heir to the Duke of Golden Oak.
So, the professor responsible for the review process granted him access rights as swiftly as possible.
After entering the Spirit Realm, Rosen first saw the villa district for professors and students. Beyond the residential area stretched an endless wilderness. Scattered across this wilderness were countless isolated sectors, each marked by a number and containing miniature city models.
The godlike perspective of the Omniscient Magic Eye and its All-Knowing Appraisal were restricted under the rules of the King's Game within the Golden Lion Kingdom.
However, its visual enhancements were unaffected. Nor was the virtual scanning of the Illusory Realm Eye Art. In no time, the virtual realm had scanned and replicated everything Rosen saw—even elements involving supernatural forces.
As the virtual steward began organizing the data, Rosen arrived at Professor Allen's villa to pay a visit.
Fortunately, Professor Allen was home, and the one who answered the door seemed to be his daughter.
After entering the living room, Rosen noticed a family photo hanging on the wall, confirming her identity.
Professor Allen descended from the second floor after hearing the commotion. He was visibly surprised by Rosen's unexpected visit.
"Tali, we have a guest. Go to your mother and fetch something for me."
Professor Allen casually gave the order to his daughter.
"What should I bring?" Tali asked, puzzled.
"The historical document I left in the left drawer of the study."
Just as Tali was about to put on her shoes and leave, Rosen placed his hand on her shoulder.
"How did you figure it out?" Rosen asked curiously.
His soul symbiosis and flesh symbiosis abilities were so flawless that even a Great True God would have trouble detecting them. Yet this Professor Allen had sensed something was wrong the moment they met and had found an excuse to send his daughter away.
It was just that his acting was a little poor. Rosen had seen through the lie at a glance.
Rosen was never good at acting. But when he had ascended to become a Great True God and fused with all things, he had lived through hundreds of thousands of different lives.
Although each life had been brief, collectively they gave him the ability to expertly play any role.
He had thought his portrayal of Parius was seamless—only to be instantly seen through by a mere Sequence 3.
"Let my daughter go. I'll do anything you ask," Professor Allen whispered in a pleading tone.
"Did I ask you that?" Rosen frowned.
"Because of this," Allen replied, taking off his glasses and levitating them toward Rosen with spiritual power.
The moment Rosen took the glasses, they released a surge of powerful spatial force, trying to engulf and expel him.
The smile that had just appeared on Allen's face froze in the next instant.
The intruder who should have been forcefully teleported out of the Spirit Realm had instead dispelled the spatial transmission on the spot.
"Seems I was worrying for nothing," Rosen said, shaking his head. In the next moment, he released the Shackles of the Ancient Gods and bound Professor Allen.
Allen's ability to sense something wrong so quickly had made Rosen wonder if the man was actually some hidden powerhouse.
After all, strength didn't always come with good acting skills.
But unexpectedly, Allen wasn't pretending to be weak. The spatial expulsion hidden in the glasses, though a Sequence 0 level technique, was like showing off in front of a master artisan when compared to Rosen, who mastered the laws of time and space. Such a feeble trick... I really overestimated him.
Rosen activated the Origin Sequence and immediately simulated the Psychologist sequence, using his psychological analysis skill to probe into Allen's memory.
To his surprise, Allen had noticed something was wrong purely based on intuition.
No matter how he checked, Rosen found no abnormalities.
Only then did he realize he hadn't been overthinking. Professor Allen truly wasn't ordinary. Though there were no apparent anomalies, the fact that he could sense something wrong purely by instinct indicated that he harbored an enormous secret.
He locked onto the Mysterious Study Room and opened a dimensional gateway. His true body had already dispatched another Sequence 3 Eternal Clone.
The Eternal Clone locked onto Professor Allen and activated soul symbiosis and flesh symbiosis. Just as it was about to completely replace him, Rosen suddenly sensed countless lifeforms of identical origin. In the next moment, the Eternal Clone was obliterated by a terrifying force.
Although the contact lasted only an instant, Rosen had already uncovered a sliver of the King's Game's hidden truth.
The entire King's Game was likely born from an undying god-demon who possessed the Ancient God Sequence.
More than half the humans in the Golden Lion Kingdom were possibly created from a single lifeform that had become all things.
Professor Allen's instinctive sense that something was wrong with him might have been due to the repulsion between beings of the same ancient god sequence.
However, that immortal god-demon seemed to have a flaw. Otherwise, considering Professor Allen was merely one of countless insignificant individuals formed from the divinized source of that being, even if Rosen replaced him through symbiosis, he shouldn't have triggered a resonance with the other individuals.
Having grown accustomed to traveling via the inter-realm gates, one could easily overlook the scenery along the way.
Had he arrived at Lionheart University through normal means, and if he hadn't deliberately avoided the other faculty and students, he might have already noticed that half the population of the Golden Lion Kingdom had something wrong with them. Fortunately, it wasn't too late to discover this now.
Although Rosen had failed to replace Professor Allen, he had successfully obtained Allen's memories.
And it hadn't disappointed him. As expected of the most renowned scholar of historical studies in the Golden Lion Kingdom, Professor Allen's knowledge was profound.
The miniature city models within the History Department's Spirit Realm were in fact simulations of various historical periods. However, most only covered the past 23,000 years. Any history preceding that was inaccessible to ordinary students.
In truth, even professors of the History Department weren't supposed to know anything before 23,000 years ago.
Because the history before that point was forbidden—prohibited by all kingdoms and empires.
Anyone who attempted to study history from that time would become a Fallen Scholar.
On the King Continent, scholars were a type of support-class sequence. They researched history and literature—anything related to knowledge. The more they knew and understood, the higher their sequence level, and the more powerful their support for other extraordinary sequences.
However, there was always a red line that scholars were not allowed to cross regarding the knowledge they acquired.
For example, studying history before 23,000 years ago, or researching techniques for cooking human flesh, or developing spells to slaughter large numbers of civilians—any knowledge harmful to humanity was a red line. Delving into such topics would inevitably turn one into a Fallen Scholar.
Throughout history, every Fallen Scholar had brought immense destruction.
Professor Allen wasn't a Fallen Scholar yet, but he had already begun touching upon the forbidden history from before 23,000 years ago.
Rosen quietly left Lionheart University and grabbed a random being along the roadside—one formed from the same mysterious immortal god-demon.
He succeeded in both soul symbiosis and flesh symbiosis, without suffering the same backlash he experienced with Professor Allen.
It seems the backlash from forcibly merging with Professor Allen—whose intuition far surpassed the norm—wasn't due to an issue with the mysterious immortal god-demon's divinized multiplicity, but rather because Allen was on the verge of becoming a Fallen Scholar.
Realizing this, Rosen sighed in relief and soon arrived at a basement beneath a two-story building on the outskirts of the royal capital.
As for what forbidden knowledge Professor Allen had uncovered, Rosen hadn't seen it in his memories.
That portion of his memory had already become a chaotic, tangled mess.
However, Rosen had mimicked the tracking skills of a Crime Hunter. Since it was impossible for Allen to have conducted such forbidden research inside Lionheart University, it wasn't hard to track down the places he had recently visited in the capital.
Rosen didn't open the basement door. He noticed a special seal on it.
Instead, he entered directly through the inter-realm gate and found himself inside the basement. There were five eternal gas lamps burning brightly, emitting a continuous flow of divine radiance.
At the center of the divine glow stood a box crafted from a crystalized divine source.
Rosen didn't open the box immediately. Instead, he transferred everything into the True Realm of the Ancient Gods.
Only after securing the items did he open the box—and saw a withered human head lying inside.
"A Fallen Scholar's head?"
Rosen infused it with a trace of divine power.
The head, which had appeared lifeless, suddenly came alive and began spitting out chaotic, frenzied howls.
Rosen recorded every syllable and soon realized—the head was reciting forbidden history.
However, the content was fragmented, disordered, and incoherent. Piecing it together would require careful analysis and study.
So that's why Professor Allen hadn't yet become a Fallen Scholar—because the forbidden knowledge he acquired was incomplete and chaotic.
Rosen assigned the task of sorting through the head's forbidden history to Wendy.
He himself prepared to pay a visit to the Star Coin True God, hoping to gain some insight from them.
At this time, the Starcoin Kingdom's royal capital had mostly been rebuilt.
The Star Coin True God was personally mining—within the kingdom's only Sequence 0-level resource zone. Without a Sequence 0 miner, it was nearly impossible to excavate, so the god had no choice but to do it personally. Having fallen behind the others, they could only try their best to catch up, or risk being the first to be eliminated.
Just as the god finished digging up a piece of ore and prepared to take a breath, they noticed Rosen standing not far away.
They had no idea when he had arrived. Rosen's concealment abilities were too terrifying.
But that wasn't surprising. By sharing the fantasy armament of the Little Dragon Maiden, Rosen had enhanced the stealth effect of the Wolf Totem to Sequence 0. On top of that, his Origin Sequence simultaneously simulated multiple passive stealth-enhancing abilities. With dozens of layered effects from the Void Shadow Realm, his movements had become virtually undetectable.
"Tell me the truth about the King's Game, or I'll go all out and kill you first—whatever it takes."
That one sentence nearly made the Star Coin True God break down.
The three of them had dared to initiate the King's Game because they believed they could deal with Rosen together.
But being able to deal with him together didn't mean any one of them could handle him alone.
The King Continent didn't have the Main God Network, and even though the Apocalypse Eye could see certain things, Rosen theoretically shouldn't have been able to cross the entire continent to reach the Starcoin Kingdom at this point in time. And yet, here he was.
"I can't say it directly," the Star Coin True God said helplessly, lowering their head.
"Then say it indirectly," Rosen pressed on.
"Sign a ten-year truce in the name of the kingdom," The Star Coin True God firmly stated His condition.
He didn't mind selling out part of the secret. After all, if He didn't, He alone couldn't handle Rosen. But what worried Him more was that spilling the secret might cost Him His life. So unless Rosen guaranteed His safety, He wouldn't reveal a thing.
Rosen nodded and brought out the Royal Authority Holy Sword along with the Star Coin True God.
Using the laws of royal authority, they forged a truce treaty. The treaty would only take effect if both sides got what they wanted.
Several hours later, Rosen returned to the Holy Grail Castle, looking grim.
Although the Star Coin True God didn't say anything directly, He offered indirect hints that allowed Rosen to piece things together.
After hours of conversation, Rosen had figured out what kind of backup the Star Coin True God and His allies had.
Just looking at the Star Coin True God alone, He actually carried a Sequence 1 troop nest with Him.
He had even used a special game item He got from the King's Game long ago to successfully convert the troop nest into something recognized by the King's Game. Although it wasn't yet as strong as Rosen's Dark Sun Slimes, the troop-level advantage Rosen had once held had vanished.
Troop nests recognized by the King's Game could evolve and level up with monster kills.
If even the Star Coin True God had such a trump card, then the Wands and the Swords must have trump cards just as strong, if not stronger.
Aside from the troop nests, the Star Coin True God and His companions also held tokens from kingdoms and empires. With these tokens, even if they couldn't get support from those forces, at the very least, they wouldn't be hunted down by them.
And then there was their ultimate trump card, but that was too well-kept—so secretive that even indirect hints gave almost nothing away.
None of this was enough to truly make Rosen wary. What really concerned him was the King Continent.
The kings of those kingdoms had already been confirmed to be Great True Gods. While the emperors of the empires weren't undying gods or demons, without exception, they were top-tier powerhouses among the Great True Gods. Most of the kingdoms and empires were in hostile relationships with the Four Great Kingdoms.
If not for the restrictions of the King's Game, the power of the Great True Gods would've already shaken the world awake.
Even if Rosen had the confidence to kill one or two Great True Gods, he had no confidence in facing several at once. Until the King's Game lifted the restriction on Great True Gods, the Holy Grail Kingdom had to develop enough strength to survive anything.
Ever since becoming a True God, Rosen had looked down somewhat on the likes of the Star Coin True God.
He had already slain Great True Gods—what trouble could a few mere True Gods bring?
But now, Rosen could no longer afford to lie flat. Once again, he felt the looming threat posed by the King's Game.
So he couldn't afford to slack off anymore. As long as he grew stronger, he feared no one.
The first thing Rosen did was begin weaving the Main God Network. Under normal circumstances, the network cables of the Main God Computer couldn't integrate with the laws of royal authority. This was because the royal laws of the King Continent were intertwined with the game's rules. However, since Rosen had control over the Eternal Game's origin, as long as he was willing to burn that origin, the integration wasn't difficult.
Next, he had to expand his troop numbers. He couldn't rely entirely on the Dark Sun Slimes.
Looking up at the sun in the sky, Rosen flew toward the King Continent's sun, preparing to plant a Root Source Demon Seed.
He also contracted the Undead Empress as a pet and ordered her to produce Undead Zerg.
After leaving the Holy Grail Kingdom, the Undead Empress began searching for monsters to plant eggs in. Using parasitic tactics on game monsters, she leveraged their bodies to produce Undead Zerg. Then, empowered by the King's Game's upgrade system, they slaughtered wild game monsters to gain levels in the unclaimed wilderness.
Rosen also started deploying avatars across the world, constantly searching for Void Realms and Void Altars to bind.
Just like that, a few years passed in the blink of an eye. The Holy Grail Kingdom underwent massive changes every day.
Now, the capital alone held a population of eighty million. The number of extraordinary half-gods numbered in the tens of thousands. Even those who ascended to godhood through monster-killing numbered in the thousands—and that was just the resurrected citizens of unknown origin summoned through the Holy Grail Altar. This count didn't include the troops produced by the Dark Sun Slimes or the Undead Empress.
Though everyone was leveling up through monster hunting, Rosen discovered that leveling up through the King's Game paled in comparison to leveling up through the Player Sequence.
Because upgrades based on the Eternal Game's origin were just like real game characters—you could level up fast, but your stats could be reset instantly through game data modification.
So power gained through monster-killing wasn't truly your own.
The Player Sequence was different. Its core lay in compatibility, plunder, and evolution. Plunder meant permanently stealing a target's power, compatibility meant perfectly integrating that power, and evolution accelerated one's own growth. The strength gained through the Player Sequence was at least authentic and unshakable.
Even if he abandoned the virtual godhood fused with the Player Sequence, he would only lose part of his power.
Because of that, Rosen loaded the Player Sequence into every resurrected citizen, every slime, and every Undead Zerg unit.
As a result, the respawn rate of game monsters grew slower and slower.
Eventually, the Undead Zerg passed through interdimensional gates and descended near the kingdoms of the Star Coin True God and His two allies. Using the Player Sequence, they completely drained the Eternal Game origin within the local monsters. Those three now had to compete with neighboring kingdoms just to find monsters to kill and level up.
So, in just a few short years, the development of the four kingdoms had diverged drastically.
Aside from the population boom and the growth of extraordinary individuals, the Holy Grail Kingdom's infrastructure wasn't lagging behind either.
At first, Rosen only planned to develop the capital. But then he noticed that the Star Coin True God and His allies were rebuilding their satellite cities. The number of cities matched the ruined ones exactly—no more, no less. So Rosen went along and built twenty-eight satellite cities as well.
And that's when he realized—he had unknowingly mastered the King Sequence.
The King Sequence was far more extreme than the Noble Sequence. The life and death of all citizens were subject to the king's whim. The king could easily access and control every citizen's extraordinary sequence. After a few years, the blessing the Holy Grail Kingdom provided to its king had already reached the level of a True God who controlled three laws.
This was an additional blessing, on top of Rosen's existing power.
If he could previously solo two Great True Gods, now he could take on three or four at once with ease.
No wonder the King of the Golden Lion Kingdom had the power of a Great True God.
Rosen no longer intended to hold back. He was preparing to strike first against the Golden Lion Kingdom.
The Golden Lion Kingdom already knew that the nearby Holy Grail Kingdom had reawakened and was coordinating with nearby kingdoms to surround and destroy it. The advantage of defending was reduced casualties through terrain advantage. The advantage of attacking was war feeding war.
Rosen didn't like being cornered and forced to take hits. So he chose to go on the offensive—declaring war on all enemy nations of the King Continent.
(End of chapter)