Read Novel Full Chapter 442: The Real World [1/2]
Chapter 442: The Real World [1/2]
Back in the clearing several distance away from the eastern camp.
"I want to recruit you into ChaosKnight," IceQueen finished, her tone confident and direct, arms still folded as she waited for a response from the armored player. "I’ll give you priority access to guild resources, gear support, and fast leveling teams. You won’t be stuck grinding alone, and I don’t waste time on weak players. Think about it."
VV stood there quietly, sword resting on their shoulder, helmet still angled toward her. Several seconds passed, then more.
IceQueen clicked her tongue softly. "You don’t need to act mysterious. It’s a simple offer. You join, you grow faster. That’s it."
VV finally moved, lowering the sword slightly as they spoke. "I’ll think about it."
IceQueen raised a brow, clearly not pleased with that reply. "Think about it? I don’t usually give people time to think. I came to you myself. That alone should tell you how valuable you are. It’s better you make the decision now."
VV didn’t respond right away. The silence dragged again, the clearing quiet except for distant forest sounds.
IceQueen’s eyes narrowed as she tapped her foot lightly on the ground, growing more impatient.
The next second, something shocking happened. VV’s body flickered.
And then they vanished.
No reply. No confirmation. Just a logout.
IceQueen stared at the empty space for several seconds, jaw tightening as realization hit. Her fingers curled slowly, nails digging into her palm.
"You’ve got to be kidding me," she muttered, staring at where VV had been standing. Being ignored was bad enough. Being logged out on mid conversation was worse.
She stood there for another moment, then opened her menu and logged out as well.
Her vision shifted, and she woke up in her real world bed, phone already vibrating beside her. IceQueen pushed herself upright, hair messy, eyes sharp despite the sudden return to reality, and she immediately grabbed the phone and dialed.
"Get everyone," she said the moment the call connected. "I want everything on this player called VV. Login history, movement routes, combat clips, anything. I don’t care how small it is. Find them."
She ended the call without waiting for a response, sitting on the edge of her bed as her jaw clenched. Her fist tightened slowly as the image of that fight replayed in her head, the clean steps, the timing, the way the sword moved without hesitation, and her ego burned hotter the more she thought about it.
Then at that moment, a strange thought crossed her mind.
That movement was too smooth.
The only person she knew that could move like that was her brother, Jayden.
She suddenly jumped up from the bed when that thought entered her head. "I need to find him. Did he finally change his mind and join the game?"
...
Although it had not even been six months since the game launched, Realm of Ascendency had quickly become a household name known by literally everyone, including children and even newborns, cough, that was an exaggeration, but you get the point.
It had quickly become the main source of entertainment for gamers and non gamers who watched highlights as casual viewers.
Because of this, the entertainment industry was in shambles, so the shares of many movie production companies dropped on the stock market while that of Realm of Ascendency skyrocketed right through the charts.
At first, the entertainment companies thought it was because they were not producing enough movies, so they increased production, releasing several titles. However, even with their insane output there was no difference on the charts, and their gross income continued to plummet further and further.
This made the entire entertainment industry enter panic mode. In the past there had been game companies with fantastic visuals, but never once had they made the entertainment industry panic this much, which made them wonder what kind of artificial intelligence the developers of Realm of Ascendency had used to build such a system.
Rival gaming companies tried to pay employees and even top developers working for Realm of Ascendency for any useful information about the AI, but they were met with two cases.
Either the employees genuinely did not know, or they refused to talk.
To make matters worse, the company was grossing insane revenue and their employees were paid better than most tech companies, making them loyal and difficult to poach.
Due to how their stocks had been doing poorly, both the entertainment industry, the sports industry, and rival gaming companies attempted to pressure Realm of Ascendency from every angle, filing complaints, pushing for audits, lobbying regulators, and spreading rumors online, but none of it slowed the growth even a little.
Instead it only drew more attention to the game, which made more people download it, more people stream it, and more people talk about it in public spaces, offices, schools, and even inside buses where random strangers would argue about builds and boss fights while watching clips on their phones.
Within weeks the stock market turned into a battlefield as entertainment companies dumped money into emergency projects while rival gaming companies tried to pump their own titles with paid influencers and fake reviews, but nothing worked, because Realm of Ascendency kept pulling numbers that made analysts shake their heads, and every report showed the same results.
Movie ticket sales were down. Streaming platforms were losing subscribers. Meanwhile Realm of Ascendency kept climbing higher with every update and every livestreamed raid.
Entertainment executives met behind closed doors almost daily, arguing over charts projected on large screens, blaming marketing teams, blaming writers, blaming actors, and blaming each other, while financial advisors pointed at red lines dropping straight down and warned them that if this continued for another quarter, several mid sized studios would collapse completely.
Even big names like Dicbross, Manamount Pictures, and Cony were already bleeding, because people were no longer waiting for the next blockbuster. They were waiting for the next Realm of Ascendency boss fight.
News channels stopped opening with celebrity scandals and started opening with game highlights instead, showing slow motion kills, rare item drops, and leaderboard changes.
Rival gaming companies were not any calmer, because they had poured millions into development over the years and suddenly found themselves ignored. Some tried to copy Realm of Ascendency’s systems, some rushed out unfinished patches, some fired teams and hired new ones, and some even tried to quietly buy small studios that had anything remotely similar, but the problem was simple.
They did not have what Realm of Ascendency had.
And that was not just the game.
It was the face of the game.
Broken Heaven.
Sir Broken.
Every major screen now carried him.
His striking red hair and electric blue eyes were everywhere, on giant billboards in city centers, on LED walls inside malls, on bus stops, and across every major TV channel, where clips of his fights looped nonstop, showing him tearing through bosses, wiping out elite mobs, and standing calm in the middle of chaos while enemies dropped around him.
People who had never touched a gamepod before could recognize him instantly, because his image had become tied to the game itself, and talk shows invited analysts to explain how a non player character had become a global icon.
Kids copied his hairstyle. Teenagers argued over his builds. Adults debated his strategies during lunch breaks.
And investors started asking one dangerous question.
How much was Broken Heaven worth.