Evolving My Undead Legion In A Game-Like World

Chapter 1200: Jester

Fortunately, it hadn't touched Galactic yet, since that would mean he went from someone that powerful individuals within a realm might take interest in, to an esteemed figure known across many realms.

Whether that would be a good thing or not was not something Michael wanted to find out.

After his last advancement task, this was the first one where Michael felt that doing what he could achieve was good enough. There was no need to be hell-bent on surpassing all limits.

The Origin Will indeed knew what it meant when it said it would only give him the highest task it could. But the good part was that it would also give him the highest rewards it could. Of course, the bad part was that failure would be just as costly.

In any case, thanks to a certain announcement, his other most difficult task outside of creating a Domain had just gotten harder.

[Own an entity on the level of your Personal Influence. Not less than three levels below]

Before today, this was the second requirement stuck at zero percent.

After three months since the task appeared, Michael had a few ideas of what it could mean. One of his best bets was that making one of his undead just as famous as him would work, and among all his undead, only Jester was suitable.

In the current Aurora, Michael might not have had the most followers, but he was undoubtedly the one teenager in the whole realm that people recognized as the greatest representation of the supernatural world.

This had all started with his college exams, when his performance drew initial attention. Then Jester and his sister, thanks to streaming, went further in making sure he stayed relevant even without doing anything.

Much of this had to do with Jester, who, with his appearance mirroring Michael's, drew great attention, especially from the opposite gender.

Michael couldn't count the amount of thirst traps he had seen of himself. It didn't matter that the actual subject was Jester with his younger appearance; that was still his face.

Jester's frequent appearances had helped keep Michael in the public consciousness even while Michael himself spent most of his time away from ordinary society.

Then three months ago, everything changed.

Brightgate City.

The incident had been impossible to hide. Too many people had seen what happened. And even more surprising, too many had recorded it.

Putting aside why people had their phones out in a time of danger, it didn't matter whether Michael himself was seen clearly or not. Everyone knew he was the one who had saved the city.

At first, most videos focused on the immediate disaster. But as public interest grew, people began digging deeper. Old footage resurfaced. Videos recorded back in Woodstone City after the demonic supernatural attack began circulating again. Some showed Michael's undead moving through ruined streets.

Michael wasn't even the strongest supernatural involved in the attacks happening across Aurora during that period. Other cities had experienced incidents involving far more supernaturals. Some battles had even involved individuals vastly stronger than Michael was at the time.

Yet strangely enough, Michael benefited the most from the public attention.

The reason wasn't particularly complicated. The Federation had begun gradually exposing ordinary citizens to the existence of the supernatural world, but there were still limits to how much information they could safely release.

Most truly powerful supernaturals remained hidden. Their identities weren't public, and their battles weren't livestreamed. Their organizations weren't something ordinary citizens could simply search online.

Michael was different. He was visible. Young. And more importantly, spectacular. A teenager commanding undead creatures was almost perfectly designed to capture public attention.

To ordinary people who had spent their entire lives imagining what powerful supernaturals might look like, Michael was probably the closest thing available to the image they already carried in their minds.

Cool. Dangerous. Mysterious. Powerful. And just familiar enough to feel real.

And the effect wasn't limited to him. His family had been dragged into it as well. His sister had accumulated a surprisingly large following online. Aunt Mia had one too.

Thankfully, the situation hadn't become unbearable. Jester remained near them frequently, and both the Academy and Federation had quietly stationed additional personnel around the family. It was enough that anyone stupid enough to approach them with malicious intentions would have an extremely unpleasant day without affecting their daily life.

Michael had initially worried his growing fame would completely destroy their ordinary lives.

Fortunately, that hadn't happened. At least not totally.

Aside from Lily, whose childhood could never be the same, Aunt Mia had even benefited from it.

Her restaurant had become famous.

People travelled from other cities simply because they heard it belonged to Michael's aunt. Aunt Mia had since expanded, now possessing restaurants in multiple cities, something Michael still found slightly amusing whenever he thought about it.

Life really was strange.

However, even with all this change, the progress of this requirement remained unchanged.

Fortunately, three months of failure had given Michael time to develop several theories.

The first was simple. Jester might actually qualify in terms of popularity, but the Origin Will might not recognize him because almost nobody knew he belonged to Michael.

Ordinary people knew Jester existed. They knew he resembled Michael. Some even suspected there was a blood connection between them, but very few knew the truth. Jester was Michael's undead. To the public, he was simply another person closely associated with Michael.

If the requirement specifically demanded that Michael "own" the entity, perhaps that relationship needed to be recognized by others. Influence was fundamentally social. If nobody knew something belonged to him, then perhaps its influence couldn't properly be counted as part of his own foundation.

It would be like secretly owning a powerful company while the entire universe believed it belonged to someone else. Technically, it was his. But publicly, its influence had no connection to him.

If that interpretation was correct, then Michael might simply need to reveal Jester's identity as one of his undead.