Near the Holy Grail Royal City, a resource site had been quickly excavated by several miners.
The miners, relying on their Miner Sequence abilities, began constructing a mining facility. They dug tunnels, laid down tracks, and started mining ore with frenzied energy. However, something strange occurred—no matter how much they dug, the mine always remained one hundred meters deep and one thousand meters long.
As pickaxes struck the walls of the mine, chunks of Sequence 3 Rainbow Jade were quickly extracted.
But just moments after they cleared one section and moved to another, new Rainbow Jade had already appeared out of thin air on the previously mined walls.
The ore veins at this resource site were renewable, and the regeneration speed was frighteningly fast.
All the Rainbow Jade transported to the mining facility ended up in the belly of a Sequence 1 slime.
Rosen had contracted the Devouring Slimes produced by the Dark Sun Slime as secondary pets, and shared a portion of his own power with them. Although the sharing wasn't a full 100% like with regular pets, even a small portion was enough to cause a qualitative transformation in the Devouring Slimes.
The Devouring Slime stationed at this mine had mainly been granted abilities from the Original Apothecary: gathering, dismantling, refining, synthesis, and origin tracing. The Rainbow Jade, originally Sequence 3 in quality, was forcibly elevated to Sequence 1 through tracing its origin.
Meanwhile, as more resource points were uncovered, each mining facility came equipped with a Devouring Slime pet.
Renewable resource points weren't rare—Rosen's drawn spiritual realms could also regenerate their internal mineral resources.
But compared to the resource points in the Holy Grail Kingdom, the regeneration speed was worlds apart.
Rosen's divine consciousness had descended into one of his Eternal Clones. He used the Omniscient Magic Eye to closely examine the Rainbow Jade vein.
The Omniscient Magic Eye revealed nothing at first, but when Rosen used Eternal Plunder Origin to forcibly seize the mine's essence, he discovered a newly found Eternal Origin being stripped from the vein.
"Eternal Game Origin?"
Rosen carefully examined this Eternal Origin.
By the time he finished, he let out a small breath of relief.
It wasn't one of the Plunder or Evolution Eternal Origins that came from true Eternal beings. Instead, like the Eternal Omniscience Origin, it was merely a derivative. While it had reached the Eternal level, it was still vastly inferior to the real thing.
Could the entity behind the King's Game be on par with Apocalypse?
It's very possible it's just like Apocalypse—an existence that has advanced terrifyingly far along the path of Immortal Gods and Demons.
Rosen attempted to take control of the Eternal Game Origin and integrate it into his Eternal Root.
The process went smoother than expected. The Eternal Game Origin offered no resistance.
Through the Eternal Game Origin, Rosen clearly sensed the mysterious power that blanketed every corner of the Holy Grail Kingdom.
When his divine sense came into contact with this mysterious power, he discovered it contained miraculous energy.
It was very similar to the Miracle Ember and belonged to the category of special miracle laws.
After obtaining the Eternal Miracle Origin, Rosen had realized that the Miracle Ember was connected to it.
Now that I think about it, the miracle laws behind the King's Game and the Eternal Game Origin likely come from the Eternal Miracle Origin.
The reason I can so easily plunder the Eternal Game Origin from these veins must be because I already control the Eternal Miracle Origin.
Over several days of study, Rosen discovered he could permanently consume the Eternal Game Origin to alter the rules of the game.
For example, in his drawn spiritual realm paintings—those containing mineral veins but no living creatures—he could modify the veins to match those in the Holy Grail Kingdom. They now possessed powerful regenerative properties, turning the entire mineral system into something that functioned like a game, capable of rapid respawn and regeneration.
If I can gather all the Eternal Game Origin from these resource points, then no matter whether I win or lose the King's Game, I've already profited immensely.
The Player Sequence was the most suitable candidate for fusion with the Eternal Game Origin. It would allow Players to treat reality as a true game in every sense.
I can't even imagine how powerful the Player Sequence will become in the future.
Half a month later, Rosen destroyed the final resource point in the Holy Grail Kingdom.
He gained a staggering amount of Eternal Game Origin. Most of it was fused into his drawn spiritual realm paintings focused on resources, effectively consolidating all the previously scattered resource points across the Holy Grail Kingdom into one centralized system.
As more resources were harvested, the Source Holy Grail converted them into greater and greater quantities of Immortal Origin.
Rosen discovered that he had a significant advantage when it came to acquiring Immortal Origin.
Because only he possessed the miracle trait of the Source Holy Grail, something the other three King cards of the True Gods—Star Coin, Scepter, and Sword—did not have.
The Star Coin True God could forge various resources into star coins, and then use those star coins at the Star Coin Altar to resurrect citizens out of thin air.
The Scepter True God couldn't mint currency, but could directly convert resources into various puppet lifeforms.
Although he couldn't resurrect citizens for the time being, his territory development was actually the fastest among the three True Gods.
As for the Sword True God, he didn't even bother mining resources.
Instead, he directly consumed Immortal Origin to resurrect a large number of Sword Knights. Leading over ten thousand of them, he launched expeditions outside his territory. In the past few days, they had repeatedly wiped out all sorts of game monsters that kept respawning around the kingdom's borders.
Each King had their own unique methods and was doing everything they could to develop their respective kingdoms.
However, as time passed, the one developing the fastest was still Rosen's Holy Grail Kingdom.
He could draw more miners, create extraordinary farmers to cultivate wasteland, and paint construction workers to clear city ruins and rebuild the Holy Grail Royal City. Although the Scepter King's puppets were powerful, it was extremely difficult for them to obtain Immortal Origin to resurrect citizens.
Rosen, on the other hand, kept painting and resurrecting. The population of the Holy Grail Royal City was expanding every day.
Once he felt the population had reached a sufficient level, Rosen began storing Immortal Origin to repair more auxiliary structures of the Holy Grail Castle.
The vast majority of auxiliary buildings—such as kitchens and rooms—gained unique game properties once fully restored. For example, food produced in the kitchen could grant special effects, and rooms could even provide daily experience boosts.
However, while these basic auxiliary structures were special, they didn't hold much value for Rosen.
Until he spent ten thousand Immortal Origin to repair the Void Altar—that was when he was surprised once again.
The Void Altar could split off sub-altars, each of which could form a stable and continuous spatial teleportation portal.
But that was just its basic ability. The true strength of the Void Altar lay in its power to bind with Void Realms. Once bound, all entry and exit points of a Void Realm would be transferred to the Void Altar, and every resource within could be taken at will.
Eventually, all Void Realms bound to the Void Altar would gradually merge into the kingdom's territory over time.
As for what exactly a Void Realm was, Rosen discovered that the spiritual realm paintings he had created were in fact Void Realms.
Without hesitation, Rosen bound his painted spiritual realm artworks to the Void Altar. He dismantled the resource points within the kingdom and merged them into the spiritual realm paintings. Now, with the help of the Void Altar, he destroyed the spiritual realm paintings and fused everything within them into the kingdom's territory.
It might have seemed redundant, but in reality, this was how the Void Altar expanded the territory of the kingdom.
Over these past few days, Rosen had more or less figured out how the King's Game was played.
The King reigned supreme, possessing absolute control over everything within their kingdom's territory.
At the same time, the more citizens one had, the higher the morale. The larger the territory, the stronger the national power. And the King's strength would receive terrifying enhancements accordingly. Unless something unexpected happened, after a certain amount of development time, the four kingdoms scattered across the world would inevitably break out into war.
The better the development, the greater the war potential, and the easier it would be to become the final victor.
Since Rosen had to fight one against three, if his development lagged, he would undoubtedly fall into a disadvantage.
Especially now that the Genie of the Lamp had gone far out exploring and discovered traces of civilization millions of miles away from the Holy Grail Kingdom—there was another kingdom there, and it was many times larger than the Holy Grail Kingdom, having developed over many years.
Even more terrifying, after some investigation, Rosen found that he wasn't unfamiliar with this kingdom.
Because this kingdom had once appeared in the history of the New World, and its current king had even led a crusade against the True Gods.
As for those monarchs in history who had mastered the laws of royal authority, imperial law, and sovereign rule, their fates were a matter of speculation. Some said their kingdoms were exterminated by the gods, some claimed they turned on each other and were destroyed, while others believed they simply vanished mysteriously.
Rosen tried using the Omniscient Magic Eye to peer into this kingdom, but it was blocked.
The power of the Eternal Game Origin enveloped the entire kingdom, suppressing the Omniscient Magic Eye.
Fortunately, the Genie of the Lamp, who had already infiltrated the area, brought back plenty of intelligence on the kingdom.
The Golden Lion Kingdom spanned a diameter of five hundred thousand miles.
Its population was only in the tens of billions. Due to everyone being extraordinary, it was difficult for the population to increase further.
The only reason this population could be sustained was because of the rapidly regenerating resources.
The Golden Lion Kingdom had existed for thirty-five thousand years. After the mysterious disappearance of the New World, it had continued to thrive here for over twenty thousand more. However, the Lionheart King had remained asleep all this time, with no sign of waking up.
So, the true rulers of the Golden Lion Kingdom were several princes, each possessing the power of a True God.That was rather alarming—after all, in history, even the Lionheart King had only managed to defeat a True God by rallying the entire nation's strength. Now, in this "King's Game" world after more than twenty thousand years, even the princes had become True Gods.Didn't that mean the sleeping Lionheart King himself had the power of a Great True God?
And this was only the Golden Lion Kingdom. Above it, there were even more powerful empires.
If the past iterations of the King's Game were the same, it was hard to imagine how the Star Coin True God and the others had even survived.
Clearly, this iteration of the King's Game was extraordinary. Perhaps the previous versions only involved minor regions or shallow maps, but this time, they had truly entered the ultimate map of the real King's Game.
To learn the true nature of this game world, the best way was to understand it through the Golden Lion Kingdom.
Looking at the godhood origin that had recovered slightly, Rosen used the Eternal Doppelgänger Technique to create an Eternal Doppelgänger at Sequence 1.
His main body remained stationed in the Holy Grail Royal City, while his divine consciousness inhabited the doppelgänger, preparing to infiltrate the Golden Lion Kingdom.
…
Lionheart City. Lionheart University was the top academic institution in the Golden Lion Kingdom.
Only the legitimate heirs of nobility were qualified to attend Lionheart University.
Holding the list uncovered by the Genie of the Lamp, Rosen immediately chose the identity of the firstborn son of Duke Golden Oak.
As the legitimate eldest son of the Golden Duke, Parius Oak had his own private villa at Lionheart University.
When Rosen infiltrated the place, Parius was refining his Golden Battle Aura within a magic circle.
Not even thirty years old, yet Parius had already reached the peak of Demigod.
When Rosen saw that information, even he was in disbelief—he himself hadn't even been a Demigod at thirty.
But after learning more about the Golden Lion Kingdom's transcendental system, he instantly understood.
To his surprise, the Golden Lion Kingdom also used the potion-based sequence system.
Among production-type sequences like miners and farmers, the Golden Lion Kingdom was even more advanced than the World Government.
The Golden Lion Kingdom even had Sequence 0 miners, while the World Government had barely any Demigod miners.
There were many types of production-type Beyonder sequences, but only five combat-related sequences:
King, Noble, Bloodline Knight, Arcanist, and Priest.
No one knew what the King sequence was like. The Noble sequence was completely different from the World Government's nobles—it didn't require gradual promotion from Sequence 9. In the Golden Lion Kingdom, dukes were naturally bestowed with divine-level power, even if the current duke had originally been an ordinary person.
Bloodline Knights and Arcanists had to ascend from Sequence 9, but in this game world, they could kill monsters to level up.
Priests were even more special—kings could directly appoint them to divine roles to boost their strength.
Rosen himself could appoint divine roles. His Sequence 2 Noble trait "Crown-Given Authority of Divine Appointment" allowed him to bestow godly roles.
Now, many members of his Church of the True Creator already carried divine titles.
His radiant kingdom's clergy were no different from the Golden Lion Kingdom's priests.
Monster-killing and leveling—no wonder Parius had reached peak Demigod before thirty.
However, there was a tradeoff. Demigods in the Golden Lion Kingdom only lived up to 200 years. Gods lived up to 1,000 years. Only True Gods had no lifespan limits and could exist eternally.
The "Golden" prefix in Duke Golden Oak's title meant that one of his ancestors had become a True God.
Like a ghost, Rosen appeared before Parius. The Shackles of the Ancient Gods manifested from thin air and bound Parius.
Before he could resist the ambush, Parius's divine consciousness was already dragged into a dream.
Through soul symbiosis and flesh symbiosis, Rosen quickly replaced Parius.
After becoming familiar with Parius's memories, Rosen secretly visited Professor Allen Reynolds of the History Department that very day.
Although Allen was a professor and a respected scholar of the Golden Lion Kingdom, he was only a Sequence 3 Arcanist. Not everyone was willing to leave the kingdom to hunt monsters and level up day after day—researching history was Allen's true dream.
Even at Lionheart University, the history department only had about a dozen members.
Rosen wasn't sure whether he'd be able to obtain the historical records he sought from Allen.
Actually, from Parius's memories, he had already come to understand most of the Golden Lion Kingdom's current state.
After all, he was the eldest son of the current Duke Golden Oak and had been trained since childhood as the future heir.
The Golden Lion Kingdom called this world the "Continent of Kings." On this continent, there were 108 kingdoms and 9 empires.
These nations had been at war for over 23,000 years, and not a single one had been destroyed.
That was because all the kings and emperors had fallen into a prolonged slumber.
With only princes and nobles leading their countries, none had the strength to completely destroy another.
So despite the constant warfare, every country's national strength had continued to grow.
Because if they weren't at risk of annihilation, and were blockaded at home with no way to expand, they couldn't acquire additional resources or hunt monsters to level up. Under that external pressure, the Golden Lion Kingdom had continued to develop and flourish.
(End of Chapter)