Child of Destiny

Chapter 2262: A Different Path.

......

Swoosh!

Shin appeared within the teleportation hall of the Holy City.

The moment he opened his eyes, he was immediately greeted by a bustling scene.

The teleportation hall was as lively as ever, filled with countless players constantly appearing from and disappearing into the magic circles and teleportation chambers.

However, the teleportation hall itself was far larger than Shin remembered.

It was so massive that despite the seemingly endless flow of players, there was barely any congestion within the enormous hall.

"Tsk! This is almost comparable to the teleportation halls in Divinity City of the Divine Empire." Shin couldn’t help but mutter as he watched the continuous stream of players moving through the hall.

In some aspects, however, the Holy City’s teleportation hall was even livelier than the ones he had seen in Divinity City.

After all, only a limited number of players were currently qualified to enter the Awakened Continent.

Only those who had successfully completed their Tier 3 Promotion Class and passed the tests prepared by the Mysterious Instructors stationed throughout the Aurora Continent were qualified to advance to the second continent.

Shin followed the flow of players toward the entrance of the hall.

That was when another sight caught him completely off guard.

The Holy City that he remembered had undergone a complete transformation.

"Worthy of being promoted to a Royal City." He mumbled as a faint smile appeared beneath his mask while he gazed at the magnificent city before him.

The Holy City had already been promoted to Royal City Rank while he was still operating in the Aurora Continent.

However, at that time, the city had still been undergoing its evolution.

Now, the true transformation of the Holy City was finally being laid before his eyes.

The first thing Shin noticed was the skyline.

The buildings surrounding the central plaza had grown considerably taller than he remembered.

What had once been mostly modest structures had now been replaced by towering buildings made from stone, enchanted metals, and magical materials, with glowing runes embedded into their walls.

Some of them rose several stories into the sky while others had elaborate magical mechanisms rotating around their upper floors.

It was almost as if the entire city had been rebuilt to accommodate its rapidly growing population.

The streets were even busier.

Players of different races and appearances constantly moved through the wide roads, some wearing equipment covered in the traces of their recent adventures while others carried large bags filled with materials and monster parts.

The sounds of merchants shouting their wares mixed with the conversations of adventurers discussing their latest expeditions.

Even the transportation system had undergone a noticeable change.

Shin spotted several magical carriages moving through the streets.

They were far more advanced than the ones he remembered.

Instead of being pulled by ordinary mounts, some of them floated slightly above the ground, propelled by magic formations engraved beneath their frames.

Others moved through the streets with barely any sound, their wheels surrounded by faint magical runes that allowed them to glide smoothly across the road.

"Tsk..." Shin couldn’t help but stare for a moment. "The development speed is pretty impressive."

He continued walking through the bustling streets, observing the changes around him.

The greatest difference, however, could be seen around the central plaza.

The enormous open space surrounding the teleportation hall was packed with players.

Numerous temporary stalls had been set up throughout the plaza, with adventurers displaying the spoils they had gathered during their expeditions.

There were monster materials, rare herbs, ores, magic crystals, unidentified items, beast cores, and various other resources that Shin could not immediately recognize.

Some players were loudly advertising their harvests.

"Fresh materials from the Ashen Wasteland!"

"High-grade monster cores! Just harvested today!"

"Rare medicinal herbs! Bargain prices for bulk purchases!"

The plaza had essentially transformed into a massive marketplace.

Adventurers who had just returned from the wilderness could immediately sell their harvests without needing to travel through the city looking for individual merchants.

At the same time, players preparing for their next expedition could easily purchase whatever supplies they needed.

It was an incredibly efficient system.

Shin slowed his pace slightly as he took everything in.

The Holy City was no longer simply a major settlement for players.

It had become a genuine hub for adventurers.

The number of players moving through the streets, the quality of the buildings, the advanced transportation system, and even the bustling marketplace surrounding the teleportation hall all showed the same thing.

The city was flourishing.

Shin couldn’t help but smile beneath his mask. "So this is what a Royal City looks like after it has fully evolved..."

The Holy City was certainly impressive.

But Shin knew that there was still a considerable gap between it and Divinity City.

Divinity City was an Imperial City—the highest grade of city that Shin had encountered so far.

Its scale, magical infrastructure, defensive capabilities, and overall development were on an entirely different level.

Even the people walking through its streets were vastly different.

Divinity City was home to countless powerful NPCs, including experts whose strength far surpassed the majority of players currently active in the game.

The Holy City could not possibly compare to that.

Not yet, at the very least.

However, there was one thing that made the Holy City far livelier.

Its streets were filled with players.

Unlike Divinity City, where powerful NPCs made up the majority of the city’s population, the Holy City had become a genuine gathering place for adventurers.

Players were everywhere.

They were buying and selling materials, forming parties, discussing quests, recruiting members for expeditions, and preparing for their next adventures.

Even the central plaza had essentially become a massive marketplace because of them.

Shin couldn’t help but smile beneath his mask.

"It’s still far from Divinity City..." He glanced toward the bustling streets. "...but the number of players here is already far greater."

The difference was obvious.

Divinity City represented the pinnacle of civilization within the game, particularly the most powerful Human NPCs since the Divine Empire was the major region for Humans.

The Holy City, on the other hand, represented the rapid growth of the players themselves.

And as more and more players became qualified to enter the Awakened Continent, Shin did not doubt that the gap between the two cities would gradually become smaller.

The Holy City might not be able to compete with an Imperial City yet.

But its potential was something that even Divinity City could not simply ignore.

Shin couldn’t help but feel a faint sense of pride as he looked at the bustling streets.

The Holy City had changed considerably since the last time he had seen it.

And judging from everything before him... it was only getting started.

Shin’s gaze swept across the bustling central plaza once again.

Then, almost on instinct, he activated his True Sight, making a faint glimmer flash beneath his mask as his vision changed.

The players surrounding him immediately revealed their information.

"Level 163..."

"Level 157..."

"Level 169..."

"Level 152..."

Shin quietly observed the players passing through the plaza.

Most of them were hovering around Level 150 to Level 170.

"That is pretty decent." He couldn’t help but nod slightly.

Considering the current stage of the game, reaching Level 150 was already a respectable achievement for an ordinary player.

However, Shin quickly noticed another pattern.

The players around Level 150 seemed to make up a considerable portion of the population.

He immediately understood why. "Tier 3 Promotion Quest..."

Players who reached Level 150 would be unable to advance any further until they completed their Tier 3 Promotion Class.

That meant many of the Level 150 players currently gathered in the Holy City were most likely preparing for their promotion quests.

Some were probably gathering the necessary materials while others were forming parties or looking for suitable places to train to complete their individual trials later.

There were even players who had likely already completed their Tier 3 Promotion Class but had yet to advance further.

Shin’s gaze continued moving through the crowd.

He soon noticed another group--those whose levels surpassed the Level 150 threshold.

These players had already passed their Tier 3 Promotion Class, yet they were still lingering around the Aurora Continent.

"Those should be the ones preparing for the Mysterious Instructors’ tests." Shin narrowed his eyes slightly.

The players who had successfully completed their Tier 3 Promotion Class still needed to pass the tests prepared by the Mysterious Instructors before they could enter the Awakened Continent.

Some of them were probably preparing for their first attempt.

Others...

"Or they already failed once." Shin couldn’t help but chuckle beneath his mask.

The tests weren’t something that could simply be brute-forced through by reaching the required level.

The Mysterious Instructors were testing whether a player was truly qualified to enter the Awakened Continent.

Failing meant remaining behind and preparing for another attempt.

That explained why there were so many high-level players still wandering around the Holy City.

They weren’t necessarily lacking in strength. They were simply waiting for their opportunity to advance.

However, the Mysterious Instructors’ tests were not originally designed to be nothing more than an entrance examination for the Awakened Continent.

They were also meant to help players prepare for their respective Tier 3 Promotion Quests.

The intended progression was for players to first seek out the Mysterious Instructors after reaching the required level.

The instructors would then guide each player toward a special combat state that best suited their individual talents and fighting style.

Once they discovered their suitable combat state, the players could use it to tackle their Tier 3 Promotion Quests.

After completing their Promotion Quests, they would return to the Mysterious Instructors and undergo their final tests.

Only those who successfully passed the tests would be qualified to enter the Awakened Continent.

It was a carefully designed progression.

Unfortunately, the players had quickly found ways to circumvent it.

Rather than relying on the Mysterious Instructors to discover their special combat states, many players began searching for more powerful equipment and special tools that could help them overcome their Promotion Quests through other means.

The situation became even simpler after several higher-level neutral regions were opened.

Players began exploring these areas in search of rare items, powerful equipment, and special tools specifically because they could use them to compensate for the difficulties of their Promotion Quests.

As a result, the intended sequence gradually became reversed.

Instead of seeking the guidance of the Mysterious Instructors first, many players were now trying to solve their Promotion Quests through external means before returning to deal with the instructors.

And that created another problem.

The Mysterious Instructors’ tests were designed around players who had undergone their guidance and discovered their own special combat states.

Players who skipped that process and relied heavily on equipment or special tools often found themselves struggling during the tests.

In other words, the players had found a way to bypass the intended progression.

But by doing so, they had made the Mysterious Instructors’ tests even more difficult for themselves.

Shin couldn’t help but shake his head after realizing what had happened.

He himself had only discovered the true purpose behind the Mysterious Instructors’ tests after finding his own combat state ahead of time.

Fortunately, Professor Henry’s clue in the real world had allowed him to uncover that secret much earlier than most players.

Once he understood the connection between the instructors, the special combat states, and the Tier 3 Promotion Quests, he naturally shared the information with his friends, especially Shiella, who then handed it to the members of Hand of Midas and Deicide under their command.

The top experts from the major guilds had most likely figured it out as well.

After all, those people were neither weaker nor less talented than Shin and the others. They had reached the top through their own abilities and accomplishments, so it was only natural that they would eventually uncover the same truth.

With their experience and the information available to them, Shin had little doubt that the leading experts of the major guilds had already realized the true purpose behind the Mysterious Instructors.

The real problem was the independent players.

Unlike the major guilds, they had no reliable source of information regarding the true purpose of the Mysterious Instructors.

Most of them could only rely on their own discoveries, experimentation, and whatever information they could gather from other players.

As a result, many of them had unknowingly taken a completely different route.

"Still..." Shin’s gaze swept across the bustling plaza once again.

He couldn’t help but smile beneath his mask. "It’s pretty impressive that they’ve managed to advance this far."

Even without understanding the intended progression, countless players had already reached Level 150 and above.

Some had even completed their Tier 3 Promotion Classes and were now challenging the Mysterious Instructors’ tests.

They had relied on their own methods, gathered whatever resources they could find, and gradually pushed themselves forward despite having incomplete information.

They might have taken a more difficult path than intended, but they had still made it this far.

And that alone was worthy of recognition.

Shin couldn’t help but wonder how far these players would advance once the truth about the Mysterious Instructors finally became widespread.

The current generation of players was already developing at an astonishing pace.

Shin’s eyes briefly swept across the plaza once again.

Compared to the players he had encountered after entering the Awakened Continent, these people were still relatively weak.

Most players on the second continent were already around Level 180 or higher.

And the true experts had long since surpassed that threshold.

As for Shin himself, he had already entered a completely different realm compared to the average player.

The difference between Level 150 and the peak experts was enormous, but Shin didn’t look down on these players.

On the contrary, seeing the sheer number of them made him feel somewhat impressed.

There were simply too many.

The Holy City had become a massive gathering point for players who were approaching the next major threshold of the game.

Thousands upon thousands of players were preparing themselves for their Tier 3 Promotion Quests or the trials of the Mysterious Instructors.

And once they succeeded, they would all eventually flood into the Awakened Continent.

Shin couldn’t help but smile. "The player population is growing much faster than I expected."

The Holy City might still be far behind Divinity City in terms of overall development and the strength of its inhabitants.

But when it came to players, the city was already becoming one of the most important hubs in the entire virtual world.

......