"Whatever." Rika shrugged and picked Adepta Templar, while Kamadeva confirmed Arcane Meagus.
[Job Selection Complete. Please select your town since you two have already created your names.]
[Based on your parameters, please select a hometown in the Constellation Kingdom.]
A massive 3D map unfolded in front of them, stars shifting and folding into constellations that shaped the borders of the Constellation Kingdom. Tens of cities lit up across the glowing display, each one a starting hub, each one filled with possibilities and pitfalls.
The launch of Terra Blue Star had gone global, a simultaneous opening day unlike anything before. The promotion had been insane — ads plastered on skyscrapers, streamers building hype, guilds forming months in advance. When servers opened, hundreds of millions of players poured in at once, flooding this vast digital world.
To hold them all, the devs built Terra Blue Star on a ridiculous scale: a map ten times the size of Earth, kingdoms sprawling like continents, cities larger than most countries. But there was a catch. A player's real-life location determined their starting nation. No matter how vast the map was, you couldn't just pick anywhere. For Kamadeva and Rika, that meant one choice: the Constellation Kingdom.
'I hope this works,' Kamadeva thought as his eyes scanned the glowing cities. Like any MMORPG, there were bugs, exploits, loopholes — pieces of broken code waiting for someone clever enough to abuse them. In the old timeline, Terra Blue Star had a record twenty major exploits across thirty years of play. Every one of them eventually patched, but until then? They were game-changers.
And the very first exploit… was tied to a city.
He smirked.
Golddown City.
[Selected Starting City: Golddown City.]
It was the same place he had started in the previous timeline. Back then, it had become his stomping ground, the city he knew inside and out — every alleyway, quest chain, and hidden farming loop memorized. Out of all starting zones, Golddown was the most familiar to him, and familiarity was power.
Ranked third among the Constellation Kingdom's cities, Golddown wasn't some backwater starter town. It sprawled across thousands of kilometers, rooted deep in the north where mountains stabbed into the sky, their peaks over 15,000 meters tall — the fifth-highest range in the world. The surrounding lands were rich: forests thick with beasts, rivers that glittered with fish and mana currents, lakes brimming with secrets, and mountains bursting with mines and dungeons.
But the truth was simple: not all starting zones were equal. Some players got trapped in barren dead zones, struggling for scraps. Others spawned into guild-controlled choke points, forced to pay "taxes" or get farmed endlessly. Golddown sat in a sweet spot — important enough to matter, but not the frontlines of guild wars. It had resources, breathing room, and just enough chaos to let clever players thrive. In the old timeline, more than one Workshop had risen from Golddown, quietly building power while the titans fought elsewhere.
Kamadeva's grin widened. Perfect. The exploit starts here.
"Hey yo." He dropped his voice into a cheesy Scott Hall impression, stepping forward toward the angel NPC that had been floating patiently nearby. Her wings spread wide, eyes glowing with soft divinity. "Angel babe. We're followers of the Heavenly Creation Buddha, the Auditio, the Olympians, and the great Goddess and God of Ether. And we wanna show our gratitude — our respect — to the pantheon. So please, bless my favorite badass—"
"Don't you dare—" Rika's voice cut in sharp and fast, but she got no further.
Kamadeva clapped a hand over her mouth, moving faster than her reflexes. Lightning-quick. He wasn't about to let her ruin this.
"That's future Deva's problem," he muttered under his breath before flashing his most winning smile back at the angel. "—and her more handsome and talented partner, who also humbly requests… a baptism."
[Baptism Request Received.]
Kamadeva's heart skipped a beat. He knew exactly what this meant.
Baptism — one of the rarest rituals in Terra Blue Star. A ceremony where a player's body was submerged in Life Water, their stats reforged, their very race pushed to new limits. A regular human who underwent baptism would come out ten times stronger than their peers. A High Human? The effect multiplied. Strength, vitality, growth potential — all supercharged.
And if the rumors from the old forums had been true… the right location, the right words, the right hustle could even evolve you into a hybrid race. Or something rarer.
Kamadeva clenched his fist. This is it. This is the first real step.
There were many races in Terra Blue Star. Some common, some rare, some so broken they had been the stuff of legend in the old timeline. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Beastfolk — the classics. But deeper still were Draconic bloodlines, Oni clans, and even stranger hybrids hidden behind quests, rituals, and impossible conditions.
And baptism… was one of the keys to unlocking them.
...
The Holy Sanctuary of the Sunar Empire was unlike anything Rika had ever seen. A city carved into the bones of a mountain, its walls gleamed with radiant murals of suns and dragons, while golden bells rang every hour to announce the sacred rites. It wasn't just beautiful — it was intimidating, a place built for worship and judgment alike.
Just how of cheat is this exploit? Thank fuck my bosses were Asian stuck ups. I would have never thought all those exploit research would come this handy.
Kamadeva processed this when walking through the streets of the Holy Sanctuary. They have 24 hours to do what they and are teleported to their starting destination.
I guess they are things such as free lunch.
There's a reason he also chose the holy sanctuary, not because of the class change, but also because of another exploit that another player did when they reach the city, and I can only be done once.
The Merchant of the Shadow Broker.
Well—one of his top agents, at least.
The Shadow Broker was an enigmatic figure at the head of a vast, decentralized organization that dealt exclusively in information. Secrets, identities, routes, bloodlines, financial leverage—everything had a price, and the Broker sold to the highest bidder without exception. Mortality, morality, alignment, faction loyalty—none of it mattered. The Shadow Broker operated like Switzerland incarnate, neutral to all, loyal to none.
As befitted such an influential and well-funded criminal entity, the organization maintained a private army. These weren't street thugs or random mercenaries, but disciplined operatives deployed whenever persuasion alone wasn't enough. Enforcement, extraction, elimination—force was simply another line item on the balance sheet.
The man Kamadeva was dealing with today was Barlow Munro.
Barlow was an imp–human hybrid, a rarity even in Terra Blue Star. He worked as a financial adviser and high-tier merchant, running a discreet office in the Financial District of the Holy Sanctuary. On the surface, he appeared legitimate—polite, professional, immaculately dressed—but beneath that polish, he specialized in moving massive sums of capital without leaving a paper trail.
This game was disturbingly realistic about certain things. Money was one of them.
Moving large amounts of capital was nearly impossible without a registered bank account or a personal banker. And opening an account was a nightmare. Background verification, faction alignment checks, reputation thresholds, proof-of-income quests—the requirements were so tedious that most causal players simply didn't bother. Many veterans outright avoided creating alternate official player accounts unless it was absolutely unavoidable.
Kamadeva remembered how much of a hassle it had been in the old timeline. He remembered people losing fortunes because they didn't want to jump through bureaucratic hoops or have their money stolen because it was not in the bank. And he remembered who ran the system behind the system.
The imps.
Imps controlled the Unionized Bank Clans, effectively the world bank of Terra Blue Star. Physically weak compared to most races, they had evolved in a different direction. Trade. Finance. Information. Influence. Their power wasn't measured in strength or magic, but in ledgers, contracts, and debt.
They operated through numerous clans, each functioning like a financial empire. Massive accounts, holding corporations, manufacturing cartels—each clan maintained its own "branch," its own sphere of influence. Public dealings masked secret ones, and leadership within the banking clans was notoriously complex, layered with visible figureheads and hidden decision-makers pulling strings from the shadows.
Barlow Munro was one of the few imps who didn't want to simply serve within that system.
He wanted to build his own clan from the ground up.
Not just another branch. Not a subsidiary. A full-fledged banking power—one that could challenge the existing hierarchy and place him at the top of the Imp food chain. That ambition made him dangerous. It also made him useful.
Kamadeva smiled to himself.
Ambitious men were always willing to bend the rules—especially for the right price.
"Hellow, stranger."
The voice slid out smooth and amused, carrying just enough curiosity to feel predatory. Kamadeva looked up to see Barlow Munro leaning back in his chair, fingers steepled, yellow eyes gleaming beneath the low glow of the office's rune-lamps. The imp–human hybrid was dressed impeccably: tailored coat, gold-threaded cuffs, sigil rings that quietly screamed money. Not power. Not strength. Capital.
Kamadeva grinned like he'd just walked into a casino he already owned.
"Yo, my guy. Up. Down. Tango… pause. Up. Up. Moneyrags."
The air shifted.
Not visibly. Not magically. But something clicked into place.
[System Notice: You have activated the Unlimited Buyer Cheat.]
[Duration: 30 minutes.]
[You may freely spend organizational funds belonging to the affiliated NPC entity.]
Rika's eyes widened as the translucent notification materialized in front of her vision.
"…What the hell?"
Her gaze snapped toward Kamadeva, disbelief written all over her face. How did he know that? That wasn't something a normal player stumbled into. Maybe—just maybe—she really should have paid more attention whenever he went on one of his nerd rants instead of tuning him out or looking down at his pants.
"Fucking A!" Kamadeva shouted, fist pumping hard enough to make the desk rattle.
In the old timeline, the player who discovered this cheat had used it on a low-tier herbal merchant. Bought out entire inventories. Flipped rare herbs. Made obscene amounts of money before the exploit was quietly patched out. A one-time-only miracle, buried so deep most players never even realized it existed.
But Kamadeva wasn't that idiot.
He didn't trigger it on some nobody NPC.
He triggered it on an Imp.
Worse—an imp tied directly to the Shadow Broker Organization and his old scumbag family bank.
If Kamadeva's reputation was high enough, this office was normally how players gained access to the black market. Information, bloodline samples, illegal class catalysts—everything had a price, and everything left a trail.
Except now?
Now there was no trail.
For the next thirty minutes, Kamadeva wasn't spending his own money.
He was spending the Shadow Broker's.
Kamadeva cracked his knuckles.
"So first thing first."
He flicked his wrist, and the merchant interface exploded outward.
Not a shop menu.
A corporate backend.
Ledgers unfolded in layered holograms. Asset trees branched infinitely. Vaults. Deeds. Contracts. Holdings. Entire kingdoms worth of data scrolled past his vision at machine speed.
Rika sucked in a sharp breath. "Kama… what the fuck did you just unlock?"
He didn't answer. He was already working.
[Purchased: Max Expanded Inventory Space x1,000,000]
[Purchased: Dimensional Storage License — Tier IV x999]
[Purchased: Weapon Arsenal Blueprint — Military Grade]
[Purchased: Advanced Firearm Manufacturing Blueprint]
[Purchased: Heavy Melee Weapon Forge Blueprint][Purchased: Runic Ammunition Assembly Line]
[Purchased: Alchemy Lab Blueprint][Purchased: High-Tier Potion Synthesis Module][Purchased: Bloodline Reagent Stabilizers]
[Purchased: Research Lab Blueprint][Purchased: Arcane Analysis Wing][Purchased: Divine Artifact Study Permit]
[Purchased: Distributed Storage Nodes x500][Purchased: Cross-Region Inventory Sync Module][Purchased: Guild Command Hall Blueprint][Purchased: Strategic Map Room Module][Purchased: War Planning Interface (Restricted)]
[Purchased: Barracks Blueprint — Modular][Purchased: Training Grounds Blueprint — Adaptive][Purchased: Combat Simulation Arena]
[Purchased: Guild Buff Totem Framework][Purchased: Faith Alignment Amplifier][Purchased: Morale & Cohesion Aura Node]
[Purchased: Supply Chain Automation System][Purchased: Crafting Queue Optimizer][Purchased: Resource Refinement Accelerators][Purchased: Guild Stable]
[Purchased: Mercenary Contract Authority][Purchased: NPC Militia Draft Rights]
[Purchased: Airpad]
That was where Rika mentally checked out.
She leaned back in the chair, arms crossed tight over her chest, eyes unfocused, staring straight through the layered holograms as if dissociating. She never thought she'd feel bad for an NPC or a game in her entire damn life, but holy fuck did Kamadeva know how to ruin that belief fast.
This wasn't looting.
This wasn't grinding.
This wasn't even exploiting.
This was industrial-scale robbery carried out with a smile and a checklist, and the worst part was how clean it all looked.
"That's… fucked up," she muttered, more to herself than him.
Kamadeva didn't look at her. He was still scrolling, still buying, still dismantling systems people weren't even supposed to see yet.
Still fun to see. Rika does wonder when he hurry the fuck up.
"Now it's time for the final purchases, babe."
[Purchased: Red Oni Blood Vial][Purchased: Blue Oni Blood Vial][Purchased: Dragon Blood Vial][Purchased: Phoenix Ash Blood Vial]
[Purchased: Lycan Blood Vial][Purchased: Elven Blood Vial][Purchased: Orge Blood Vial[Purchased: Crocodile Blood Vial]
[Purchased: High Blood Vial][Purchased: Anicent Blood Vial][Purchased: Primordial Blood Vial]
[Available for Purchase: Barlow Munro — Financial Services Contract]— Includes: Personal Banking— Asset Laundering— Black Ledger Management— Cross-Faction Capital Shielding
He hit Confirm.
[System Notice: NPC Contract Established.]
[Barlow Munro is now bound as Financial Adviser and Banking Executor for Deva and BreakerMoore]
A final window opened.
[Create Joint Account?][Account Type: Private / Untraceable / Cross-Kingdom]
Kamadeva selected YES.
[Joint Account Created: Deva & BreakerMoore]
Rika froze.
"…Why do I suddenly have a balance with more zeroes than my entire bloodline deserves?"
Kamadeva leaned back as the timer continued its merciless countdown.
28:4128:4028:39
"Because," he said calmly, "all that money is gonna take a very expensive fuckin' bath."
Kamadeva grumbled under his breath as the numbers kept rolling. He'd already burned through nearly half of the Shadow Broker's fortune, snapping up everything that could be bought outright without hard locks. A disgusting amount of capital vanished in seconds, funneled straight into infrastructure, blueprints, services, and systems that most players wouldn't even see for months.
And the worst part? It was still overpriced as hell.
His reputation was trash. Rock bottom. A nobody. Worse—most of it came through black market channels. That meant inflated costs, predatory pricing, and "risk premiums" stacked on top of "fuck you" fees. The system wasn't stupid. It knew exactly what he was doing, and it was charging him for the audacity.
Granted, he couldn't even unlock half the shit he just bought yet.
Guild-exclusive features. Noble-only permissions. Kingdom-level authorities. All locked behind reputation walls, titles, and bureaucratic bullshit. To actually use most of this, he'd need to formally establish a guild, raise its standing, earn noble recognition, and start playing politics like everyone else.
Which meant time.
Which meant patience.
Which meant suffering through things he hated.
Kamadeva clicked his tongue.
Still worth it.
The other half of the money? That was the real reason he hadn't flinched.
It was going straight into baptism services.
High-end. Restricted. The kind of services that didn't show up in normal menus, weren't advertised, and sure as hell weren't meant for first-day players. He hadn't even known they existed in the old timeline. Either they were added later… or no one ever survived long enough at the start to talk about them.
Because of the cheat, he could see the prices of the stupid services.
And holy shit.
The numbers alone explained everything.
Over four billion gold.
Not spread out over time. Not locked behind installments. Up front. Immediate. The kind of price tag that didn't just gate content—it erased it from consideration entirely. Entire guild coalitions wouldn't see that kind of money until late game, and even then it would be pooled, argued over, and half-stolen before anyone dared spend it.
No wonder nobody talked about this shit.
It wasn't a secret because it was hidden. It was a secret because it was unreachable. The kind of feature that might as well not exist for ninety-nine point nine percent of the player base. Anyone who stumbled into baptism early without this kind of backing didn't get a miracle—they got roulette. And roulette didn't favor the poor.
"Well might as well start now."
[xxx]
The NPCs stationed along the outer ring of the Baptismal Grounds were met with a strange sight.
A mage and a priest shuffled forward like the living dead.
Their steps were uneven. Slow. Heavy. Like every movement required conscious effort. Rika's shoulders were hunched, jaw clenched so tight her teeth audibly ground together. Kamadeva wasn't much better—his posture stiff, eyes unfocused, breath shallow, like he was already fighting something inside his own body.
They weren't injured.
They were loaded.
The bloodline essences were already working, burning through veins, rewriting internal structures ahead of schedule. Muscles spasmed beneath skin in sharp, involuntary jerks. Mana leaked out of them in thin, uncontrolled wisps, curling off their bodies like heat haze. Their auras flickered wrong—too dense, too unstable—like machines pushed far past safe limits with no cooling system left to fail.
Rika let out a low, feral groan as another wave of pain slammed into her, fingers curling into claws, nails biting into her palms hard enough to draw blood.
"Kama," she rasped, voice tight and ugly, barely holding together, "if this kills me, I'm hauntin' your ass."
Kamadeva didn't laugh. He couldn't spare the oxygen. "You'll live," he said, though it came out more like a growl. "You're too stubborn to die."
"Shut the fuck up—"
Kamadeva lunged half a step forward and clamped a hand over her mouth just in time.
She gagged violently, her whole body convulsing as bile surged up her throat. Kamadeva felt it through his palm—the heat, the tremor, the sheer wrongness of what was happening inside her. He held her steady anyway, teeth clenched, ignoring the way his own vision swam as something twisted behind his eyes.
"Swallow," he growled, low and harsh. "Don't you dare puke that shit out. You throw it up now and your body's gonna rip itself apart trying to rebalance."
Her response was a strangled noise somewhere between a curse and a sob, but she forced it down, shoulders shaking as the nausea passed in violent waves. Kamadeva didn't let go until her breathing steadied—ragged, uneven, but still there.
He had no idea taking the raw blood would be this much bullshit.
In the old timeline, he'd never dealt with any of this. He played human. Plain. Boring. Reliable. Not because he wanted to—but because every single race-change item, bloodline upgrade, or evolution catalyst had always been sold out the moment they appeared. Whales snapped them up. Guilds hoarded them. Kingdoms locked them behind titles he never bothered chasing.
So he adapted.
Human meant consistency. Predictable growth. No spontaneous organ failure. No mana feedback loops trying to cook his nervous system from the inside. He min-maxed skills, abused mechanics, and made it work because that was all he had access to.
This?
This was a completely different level of suffering.
What Kamadeva and Rika had done was shove incompatible bloodlines into two fresh bodies and tell the system to figure it the fuck out.
Dragon blood tried to dominate everything, heavy and ancient, forcing structure where none existed yet. Oni blood answered with brute force, tearing muscle fibers apart just to rebuild them thicker. Phoenix essence burned damage away only to invite more, cycling destruction and recovery like a sick joke. And beneath all of it, the High Human physiology tried desperately to keep up, accelerating growth curves that were already going off the charts.
Kamadeva's own body wasn't faring any better.
Lightning crawled along his nerves in erratic bursts, misfiring reflexes and overloading sensory input. Water affinity pulled mana inward too fast, threatening to drown his internal circulation. Shadow clung where it shouldn't, stretching space just enough to make his balance unreliable. And the dragon blood—always the dragon blood—sat at the center of it all, forcing cohesion through sheer authority.
Every step toward the Baptismal Pool felt like walking against gravity.
Before long, the duo reached the Baptismal Altar—a grand, colosseum-like structure carved directly into the living mountain. Massive concentric rings of white-gold stone descended toward the center, each tier etched with sun sigils, draconic scripture, and rites so old the language itself felt heavy just looking at it. Pillars rose like the ribs of some buried god, their surfaces glowing faintly as divine circuits activated in response to the approaching players.
The air changed the moment they crossed the threshold.
It thickened. Pressurized. Not hostile, but absolute—like stepping into a place that didn't care who you were, only whether you were worthy to remain standing. Heat rolled across their skin in slow waves, carrying the scent of incense, ozone, and something metallic beneath it all.
Blood.
Holy bells rang once, deep and resonant, vibrating through bone and marrow.
NPCs lined the upper rings of the colosseum—priests, attendants, guardians—each frozen in rigid attention. Some clasped their hands in prayer. Others stared openly, brows furrowed, eyes sharp. A few subtly stepped back, instincts screaming that what was walking toward the altar was already wrong.
At the center of it all lay the Baptismal Pool.
A vast basin of crystal-clear Life Water, perfectly still, its surface reflecting the sky above like polished glass. Light didn't just bounce off it—it sank in, refracted, twisted, as if the water itself was alive and watching. Runes drifted beneath the surface in slow, deliberate patterns, rearranging themselves as Kamadeva and Rika drew closer.
Rika's boots scraped against the stone as her legs threatened to give out again. Her breath came in short, sharp pulls, sweat pouring down her temples, braid sticking to her neck. "This place," she muttered hoarsely, "feels like it's judgin' me."
Kamadeva swallowed hard. His vision pulsed, edges blurring as mana pressure surged and retreated in violent tides. "It is," he said. "It's just not sayin' what the grade is."
They reached the final ring.
The moment they stepped onto the altar platform, the world seemed to lock into place.
Runes flared to life all at once. The stone beneath their feet grew warm—then hot. Invisible forces pressed down from above, pinning them in place without touching them. Not restraint. Assessment.
A towering NPC emerged from the far side of the altar, robes flowing as if underwater, skin radiant with contained power.
The Paladin. His presence alone made Kamadeva's instincts scream retreat, every survival reflex begging him to bow, kneel, or crawl.
Rika felt it too. Her knees buckled for a split second before she forced herself upright, teeth bared in defiance.
The Paladin's gaze passed over them slowly.
Too slowly.
"Yo, my guy," he said, voice rough but steady, leaning just enough into swagger to keep from collapsing. "My girl and I are here to take the Tower Baptism."
Rika shot him a sideways look that promised violence later, but she didn't contradict him.
The Paladin's brow creased slightly. And today he thought it would be boring as usual.