Chapter 225: Incomplete Game

Sung-Woon stood at the top of the pantheon, which was on top of the triangular altar. Apart from Sung-Woon, no one else was there. Sung-Woon waited while briefly looking at the stars above.

Then in front of Sung-Woon, a World Message appeared.

[The player 'Nebula' has acquired Large Area: Sky.]

[Now, the sky above everyone's head...belongs to the player 'Nebula'.]

Unlike other high-ranked players, Sung-Woon knew precisely which Large Area he would challenge and when. But the important part was how he would seize that Large Area when the time came without getting disturbed.

'Of course, it's all a means to defeat Hegemonia...'

But Hegemonia, despite their many clashes, was so formidable that Sung-Woon couldn’t give a decisive blow. Therefore, Sung-Woon needed to use every means available during the play of The Lost World, and a Large Area was one of those means.

'That's why what I had been preparing for wasn't the generator patent, but the Large Area.'

Sung-Woon expected interference when acquiring the Large Area, so he had to find the shortest route to overcome this interference. That was when the invention of the generator occurred, and Owen appeared.

Sung-Woon had predicted the emergence of electricity but hadn't predicted that it would be now. The use of electricity and the invention of the generator were mere coincidences.

Eventually, he also managed to find Owen, who had been hiding and showed up beside the inventor in Pollivia, and Owen provided the spark for all of Sung-Woon's ideas.

'From the beginning, I could think of at least ten ways to defeat Hegemonia.'

The momentum of the current revolution and the spreading of secularists couldn't be broken by the Union Kingdom.

It would be tough to overthrow them now, but if Sung-Woon strategically targeted their vulnerabilities, he could defeat them in the long run. And the same was true for the Unseen War.

For example, while the naval blockade made it difficult for the Empire to directly support Pollivia, the revolutionary factions within the Union Kingdom had sufficiently established their political system, allowing them to support the Itimo family of Pollivia.

And while the gods of the Ronante-Oroban Alliance didn’t seem to know yet, seeds of division had already been planted. To address the leakage issue, wanderers like Owen, who followed the will of the Pantheon but stepped outside of it, were fighting lonely battles without the help of the gods.

In terms of the game of Go, the power struggle continued where moves had already been played.

‘...Though I'm not sure where that part went wrong.’

Sung-Woon thought it was concerning that there were many uncontrolled individuals.

‘Is it because of Lakrak’s stance in the beginning?’

Regardless, they were assisting Sung-Woon and the Pantheon.

However, Sung-Woon didn't feel the need to invest more resources in Pollivia than necessary. There was no need to unnecessarily show their cards to Hegemonia, or Hegemonia’s allies, Male Chicken, and Vladimir—especially since Owen alone could accomplish Sung-Woon's goals.

Sung-Woon's goal was to lose in the battle of the Contradicting Prophecy with Hegemonia. Of course, purposely losing and getting caught would be problematic, so Sung-Woon acted as best as he could, but kept some cards hidden.

Sung-Woon's act also had other purposes.

‘In order to challenge a Large Area, I had to raise the level of my Small Areas after all. It's better to use it for this act than for pointless XP farming.’

As expected, Sung-Woon was defeated. Though he lost the patent rights, the Pallet family who took them probably couldn't utilize the patent properly, and most traders would prevent the Pallet family from rising. There was also the council of Pollivia. If Pollivia stabilized, the Pallet family would bear all responsibilities.

When Hegemonia realized that Sung-Woon had been challenging the Large Area, they went as far as they could to succeed in the Contradicting Prophecy.

‘Then the patent might come back. Or Simo, the one Owen protected, might create an improved generator.’

Either way, despite the defeat in the system's Contradicting Prophecy, Sung-Woon didn't really lose in the Unseen War among mortals.

‘After all, the person who creates the patent is more important than the patent itself.’

Then someone approached Sung-Woon from behind. It was Wisdom.

"Nebula, I brought it."

Saying so, Wisdom gave Sung-Woon the item he had in his hand.

Sung-Woon briefly looked at it and replied, "Great work."

"Hmm, it doesn't seem like we did much in this matter."

"Just a courteous statement."

"I was just being humble too."

Both of them laughed awkwardly.

Then Wisdom said he would wait downstairs and left, and Sung-Woon accepted the incoming video call.

Sung-Woon expected loud yelling, but that wasn’t the case.

"Nebula."

Hegemonia came up on the screen.

Hegemonia didn’t even look at Sung-Woon; their head was lowered.

"...Explain to me what happened."

But the flames inside Hegemonia’s helmet, which signified their emotions to Sung-Woon, were burning brighter than ever.

Sung-Woon calmly said, "About what?"

Hegemonia raised their head. "How did you lose the Contradicting Prophecy and still acquire the Large Area?"

Sung-Woon thought he heard Hegemonia grinding their teeth.

When Sung-Woon didn’t give an answer, Hegemonia continued to say, "If you lost the Contradicting Prophecy, you would have lost your Faith resources and XP points. If my calculations were right, I thought your level might even drop. How did you manage to fill up to a million Faith points in such circumstances? It's impossible, isn't it?"

Sung-Woon calmly replied, "You know this game isn't perfect, right?"

Hegemonia asked, "...It isn’t perfect?"

"I mean...we're using this game system well, but it wasn't made by a perfect being, so there are flaws. I'm not just talking about an imbalance between game elements, but there are gaps in the system itself."

"For example?"

"Your cross-continent play might be one."

If it were the real world, the early civilization of the Union Kingdom would be deemed ridiculous. Hegemonia had moved their tribe continuously westward, crossing two continents. And in addition to the third continent, in the past, there were lands of the Union Kingdom on the first continent, so in reality, the Union Kingdom had once claimed all four continents as its territory.

But this cross-continent play wasn't Hegemonia's unique strategy. In The Lost World, when encountering a species a player had never encountered before, an event called Clash of Civilizations would occur, granting them a significant amount of XP points. Therefore, taking the risk of crossing continents early in the game to interact with multiple players could give a player an advantage over others.

It might be a loss for mortals, but in the game system, it was a gain. Of course, such cross-continent play wasn’t always recommended, and it disrupted the power balance of other players, making it a very risky gamble.

Hegemonia was confident, having successfully executed the cross-continent play.

"So? Are you saying you did something similar?"

"Yes. I exploited a loophole in the Contradicting Prophecy that I've been bothered by for a long time."

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Explain."

Of course, Sung-Woon didn't necessarily have to explain to Hegemonia, but he wouldn’t suffer any loss by doing it.

‘I have to think about the future.’

Then Sung-Woon lifted up the item he had received from Wisdom and said, “This is a hint.”

Hegemonia immediately recognized it.

"...It's a vassal statue, isn't it?"

"Yes."

When a player died, they were transformed into an item called a vassal statue.

Sung-Woon received a vassal statue from Wisdom that he hadn't possessed before.

"Whose is that... Wait. Right. Understood. Shit. Why didn't I think of that? So it was a Layered Prophecy?"

Sung-Woon looked down at the vassal statue of Jang-Wan that he was holding. It wasn't surprising that Hegemonia hadn't thought of it.

The play known as the Layered Prophecy was already known in The Lost World from the start. It involved making another Contradicting Prophecy about an existing Contradicting Prophecy for benefits.

First, Sung-Woon and Hegemonia made a Contradicting Prophecy. The prophecy was about who would take the patent rights. At that time, Jang-Wan, playing the sacrifice role, came out from the Pantheon. Then, as planned, Jang-Wan made Contradicting Prophecies with each player of the Pantheon, excluding Sung-Woon.

The second Contradicting Prophecy was about whether Nebula or Hegemonia would win the Contradicting Prophecy duel. At this point, the sacrificial Jang-Wan bet on Nebula's victory, while each individual in the Pantheon bet on Hegemonia's victory.

‘It was possible to bet on the side that I would win and I would actually do so, but there was no need to waste unnecessary resources for the showdown since excess Faith points were meaningless.’

In the end, Sung-Woon lost, and with Hegemonia's victory, Sung-Woon lost nearly 200,000 Faith points. Additionally, Jang-Wan also lost close to 150,000 Faith points from her loss against the eight Pantheon players.

Even with the loss of 200,000 Faith points, Sung-Woon still had enough to fill the limit of one million based on his Faith level. It was also the amount of Faith points needed to acquire a Large Area.

‘Some players said the Layered Prophecy was a game error since a player can't hold the amount of resources that appeared out of nowhere. But it's not. The resources lost by the loser of a Contradicting Prophecy and the resources gained by the winner might seem equal, but the resources of the loser don't transfer to the winner.’

In reality, the total amount Jang-Wan withdrew from the Pantheon was only about 70,000. Due to the eight losses, Jang-Wan's XP points decreased, and her level dropped from level 24 to below level 1, so she turned into a vassal. Jang-Wan's statue naturally entered the Pantheon, and Wisdom handed it back to Sung-Woon.

This was a play that wasn’t possible in rank matches. If an alliance was formed, players would have to stay together; no one would play the sacrificial role as it was uncertain whether unfamiliar players would keep a promise to free one from becoming a vassal. The process to release a vassal was complex and required significant resources, so even if a promise was made, it was hard to fulfill.

Such Layered Prophecies were called entertainment play and were occasionally used among streamers or players who played with a specific concept in mind, with no regard for loss or victory, but even that trend faded and was forgotten.

Rankers constantly adapted to the changing meta, so they didn't pay attention to outdated entertainment plays.

‘And when intoxicated with victory, one's perspective tends to narrow.’

Hegemonia's flames had noticeably weakened.

"It was a…Layered Prophecy...? How did they accept the role of being the sacrificial lamb? Did you threaten them?"

"No, it was a request."

"No…No one would accept such a request."

"That would be the case if we didn’t know each other."

"What do you mean by that?"

It seemed Hegemonia didn't understand Sung-Woon's words.

Sung-Woon placed the vassal statue in his inventory.

'Hating me means they know me just as much to do so.'

But Sung-Woon thought there was no need to say that much.

There was another way for Sung-Woon. He could have won the Contradicting Prophecy. He could have brought wanderers like Owen to Pollivia or broken the naval blockade with force. After all, the two-sided war was just an extension of what the Empire had been doing all along.

He could have contacted Owen to somehow rescue Simo as Owen certainly had the capability to do so.

There were also ideas suggested by Wisdom and Lim Chun-Sik. However, none of those ideas were sufficient to obtain the Large Area directly, so Sung-Woon chose the Layered Prophecy.

***

Hegemonia was devastated. The defeat at the moment they believed they had won, especially knowing they had been tricked by a strategy they were already aware of, left them dizzy.

'If it comes to this...'

Hegemonia quickly grasped the situation.

They had managed to fend off the Empire's offense and the boiling civil war within the Union Kingdom, but now that wasn’t possible.

Large Areas had many advantages, but in terms of battle, it allowed for the easy use of natural disasters that previously required immense Faith points to cause. Having a Large Area meant having the capacity to interfere with causality.

'...But it's not over yet.'

Hegemonia sorted out their thoughts, and after enduring numerous defeats throughout this game, they clearly acknowledged one major mistake they made this time.

‘It was stupid. I should've played to my strengths from the start, but I got caught up in a playstyle that didn’t suit me because of Nebula.’

And they became stronger.

‘I've seen victory when I was in an even more inferior situation. There's always a way to turn things around.’

They knew the odds were lower, but Hegemonia was a gambler at heart, and they knew it. Hegemonia was in second place because they had bet on those low odds and won games.

Hegemonia threw off their horned helmet. As their long hair fluttered, Hegemonia brushed it aside.

"You surely don't think it's over, do you?"

For the first time, Sung-Woon saw the face inside Hegemonia's helmet. It was a woman. Her eyes were deep, and her gaze was fierce. She bared her teeth as if she would bite someone right then and there, then bit her lower lip.

"The real war hasn't even started."

Seeing Hegemonia's face, Sung-Woon was silent for a moment, but he soon replied, "Bring it on."