The Count's Youngest Son is a Player - Chapter 322

308th Episode

“It seems like we won’t have to worry about the population of the settlements anymore.”

Raul nodded at Bernard’s report.

500 million Earthlings joined Connect.

Half of them chose the First Autonomous Region.

In a way, it was an expected result.

It’s been six years since Connect launched its service.

Raul had always shown a friendly attitude towards players through the First Guild.

He provided more support than anyone else and created the Purple Society to protect players from the tyranny of other lords.

In addition, the rankers of the Purple Guild constantly promoted the First Guild on their personal broadcasts and continued to publicize the First Guild’s activities through their own channels.

Thanks to this, not only the players of Connect, but also the general viewers had a strong image of the First Guild.

The strongest force in a single force.

The force that is most friendly to players.

It was also the most financially abundant and had the largest amount of land secured.

And above all, the system of governance of the autonomous region that Raul put forward was also pleasing to the Earthlings.

Raul guaranteed that he would not be directly involved in the governance of each settlement, which was divided into hundreds.

Instead, each settlement had to elect one representative, and the council composed of those representatives would decide on various matters of the autonomous region.

The residents of the settlement could decide entirely how to elect representatives and operate the territory.

Of course, there were limits.

Raul, the owner of all the territories, had all the authority over diplomacy and defense.

In addition, each settlement had to pay a certain amount of taxes to the First Earl’s House every quarter.

Simply put, it meant that the internal affairs would be taken care of on their own, and the First Earl’s House would represent external affairs.

‘But in reality, it’s almost like being dependent.’

In any case, the resources and funds necessary for development had to rely on the support of the Earl’s House.

And in order to trade with the kingdom, they had to go through the First Earl’s Territory, so it was difficult to be economically independent.

Of course, a system that could sustain itself would be established someday, but it was unknown how long it would take.

“Help the supporters grow by attaching guild members to them, and manage the other residents so that they have no difficulty finding jobs.”

“Yes, I will take good care of them so that they are not uncomfortable.”

Anyway, most of the jobs were focused on farming and construction.

Since there were many people who had been doing clerical work, they might have difficulty adapting.

‘It can’t be helped. Now, they have no choice but to get used to life here.’

Fortunately, the new bodies they received here were far better than their physical bodies on Earth.

Not only could they feel mana, but if they leveled up even a little with the help of the system, physical labor wouldn’t be that difficult.

The best thing would be to become a combatant who hunts animals or monsters like existing players….

‘It’s no wonder there aren’t as many supporters as I thought.’

Now that there is no such thing as the power of resurrection or beginner protection, it would be difficult to easily take up arms.

However, in order to survive in Connect, it was most important to be armed.

The immigrants will soon realize that fact.

Anyway, with the new players settling in, the development of the restricted area was accelerating.

Once the settlement is fully developed, it will now become a place that is no less than any other kingdom.

They had to work hard not only for Raul, but also for themselves.

* * *

“Is there any other news?”

“So far, they say there’s nothing unusual.”

If Bernard was concerned about the settlement of the immigrants, Kane was busy with another problem.

“That’s strange. There should definitely be some movement.”

Raul muttered with a slightly nervous face.

The reason was the system window that appeared only to him.

The system message that appeared at the same time as the official service of Connect was clearly referring to the final scenario.

[Individual Notice]

-[Final Scenario: Adjuster – Exploration] has begun.

-Candidates selected as finalists must face the powerful enemies that will appear in the future.

-The candidate who performs the most outstandingly in the process will inherit the authority of the [Adjuster].

-The first task is to identify the location and identity of the enemy.

– We ask that you use all of your available power to delay or prevent the enemy’s appearance.

– Remaining time: 150 days

– Note: The difficulty of the next scenario may change depending on your performance during the exploration process.

– Note: While competition between candidates is important, please keep in mind that your top priority is to defeat the enemy. If you fail to stop the enemy within the allotted time, Connect will face a catastrophic end.

While other players were presented with the scenario [Settlement], Raul was additionally given the final scenario.

And as promised, Raul was also given additional clues.

– An additional clue will be given as a reward for the highest score.

– Keywords: Empire, Gate, Demon Realm

– Location: A sparsely populated area. A gate that has not yet been discovered.

– P.S.: The final candidates are not limited to players.

In fact, he had guessed as much.

‘In some ways, it seems too obvious.’

The Empire started moving as soon as the gates first appeared.

Then, as the ancient seal connecting to the Demon Realm was broken, the erosion of the gates accelerated.

The problem was that the gate connected to the Demon Realm disappeared somewhere as the seal was broken.

Even though several years had passed, it had not shown itself, but that certainly did not mean it had been destroyed.

In the end, it meant that the Empire was plotting something through the gate connected to the Demon Realm.

‘But where the hell is it hiding?’

If the gate had been opened within the Empire’s territory, there would be no answer for now, but somehow it didn’t seem like that was the case.

‘There’s definitely some kind of connection between the Empire and the Demons. But it’s too ambiguous to say they’re on the same side.’

It felt like both the Demons and the Empire were trying to use each other.

But creating a passage to the Demon Realm within their own territory?

It was doubtful that the Empire would take such a risk.

Anyway, the important thing was that it had not yet been discovered.

That meant it had to exist somewhere.

For the past month, Raul had mobilized as many guild members and players as possible to search sparsely populated areas.

But in reality, searching like this was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The continent of Connect was not usually large.

Even if you just left the vicinity of a town or city or the main road, it wasn’t difficult to find a small mountain inhabited by small animals and monsters.

So he had been paying attention to the movements of the Imperial army, but there still seemed to be no particular change.

‘Other than the fact that it’s hard to find superhumans or horsemen.’

However, he couldn’t just provoke the Imperial army. For now, the priority was for the Earth immigrants to settle down stably.

There was also one more thing on his mind.

‘The final candidates are not limited to players.’

Perhaps it was a reference to Raul, who was both a player and a resident, but Raul somehow didn’t think so.

To be honest, there was no one among the players who could compare to Raul.

Especially after Purple Guild rankers, including Ilwoo, chose Earth.

“Have you heard of the ‘Adjuster Candidates’?”

Those were the words of Ilwoo, who had come to see him after the Forbidden Scenario ended.

In other words, Ilwoo was also one of the final candidates mentioned in the scenario.

In a way, it was only natural.

Other than Raul, the strongest, most powerful, and most accomplished player was Ilwoo.

However, once Ilwoo learned that Raul was also one of the candidates, he made a decision right away.

“I don’t know what the final scenario is, but I’ll give up competing for the candidate. This position is something you helped me get in the first place, so how can I fight you? That’s ridiculous.”

Even though Raul told him he didn’t have to do that, Ilwoo just chuckled.

“Honestly, do you think it’ll be a competition? Do I look so free that I’d waste my time on a result that’s already been decided? It’s much more reasonable to give up and help you.”

And that wasn’t just Ilwoo’s idea.

As many as four of the Purple Guild members had been selected as final candidates.

They all came to Raul and told him the same thing.

So excluding the Purple Guild and allied guild rankers, there were probably only two players who could be candidates.

Inthatcase,therewouldbeonlyoneortwopossiblecandidatesexcludingthePurpleGuildandthecollaboratingguildrankers.

That’s why Raul had to solve the final scenario mission alone.

But then he heard the words ‘candidates other than players’.

‘That makes sense.’

The Adjuster.

It was obvious that it was a very important position related to Connect.

However, it didn’t seem appropriate to select such an important position from among the players, excluding the residents of Connect.

Then the question remained as to who the final candidate would be.

Knock, knock.

“My Lord, someone from the temple has come to see you.”

“The temple?”

In an instant, Raul’s mind flashed.

* * *

“Then I ask for your cooperation.”

“Of course. We must cooperate in the face of the continent’s crisis.”

“Thank you. If only all the nobles were like you, my Lord. It’s regrettable that there are so many who care only for themselves, even in these dark times.”

With a sigh of concern, the old official left the office.

‘So that’s how it is.’

It seemed that the temple was delivering information to those who could not use the Connect system.

Under the name of an oracle.

Of course, it didn’t mention any specific information or rewards like the Connect system.

It only warned of the imminent crisis and gave advice on how to proceed.

‘Well, that’s enough.’

Rather, it might be better for the judges not to know about the rewards or purpose.

At least, it would be possible to check their humanity and sense of responsibility with certainty.

‘The problem is that it’s not easy to guess the other candidates even with this.’

According to the information Kane had brought, there were at least a hundred people who had sent messengers to the temple in person.

Among them were high-ranking nobles, those with great military power, and of course, the royal families.

‘Anyway, since it’s come to this, it’s better not to worry about it.’

Thinking about it, there was no need to find out the identity of his competitors.

Anyway, if there was only one place, he would just have to do better than anyone else.

* * *

“We found it!”

“Where is it? Tell me as we go.”

Four more months had passed.

Now, there was only about a month left for both scenarios.

Raul and the royal families and influential families who had promised to cooperate had searched the continent thoroughly, but they still had not found the suspicious gate.

But now that it had finally shown up, it was natural for Raul to move quickly.

“We’ve been tricked. It’s not that it hasn’t been discovered, but that it hasn’t changed yet.”

The gate they found had a faint gray color.

The gates they had found so far were black gates, or S-class gates.

Since no higher gates had ever appeared, they had focused their search on the highest-rated gates.

The problem was that the original color of the gate they had found was not gray.

“According to the person who found it, it was a normal orange gate just a month ago. But a few days ago, he felt that the color was changing a bit, so he thought it was strange, but when he visited it for the third time today, it had turned gray.”

“If that’s true, then we have a headache.”

Gate grade mutation.

It was something that didn’t happen very often, and the grade change was usually only one or two steps.

However, the fact that the orange (E-class) gate had turned gray (???-class) meant that they might have to monitor all the gates of all grades.

In other words, it meant that it was almost impossible to find them unless they were lucky.

‘I didn’t think it would be that easy to find anyway.’

For now, the top priority was to identify and deal with the gate that had been found.

Raul’s steps quickened as he headed towards the gate.

(To be continued in the next episode)