He raised his head toward the grey sky, trying to assess the situation with his analytical mind. In normal games, discovering a faster way to upgrade meant surpassing everyone else.
He immediately issued orders to the Shadow Soldiers to collect the remaining simple corpse fragments that the black energy hadn't absorbed yet. He watched the experience bar slowly rise, a faint blue light gradually turning to dark violet as the number of shredded bodies around the altar increased.
"It's working… damn, it's working!"
Then, without warning, the screen flashed.
[Warning: Exceeded the normal limit for experience acquisition.]
[Hidden feature activated — "Unstable Growth."]
[Village Center properties temporarily modified.]
He felt something moving in the soil beneath his feet. The stones of the Center pulsed with dark lines, and the wooden buildings trembled softly. Even the Shadow Soldiers suddenly raised their heads.
Shaun slowly retreated, watching the scene with wide eyes, then muttered: "This isn't… But if this is the price for upgrading—" He stopped, then finished with a twisted smile: "—So be it."
Moments later, everything settled down again, and a new notification appeared:
[Congratulations! Village Center is on track for an upgrade – Progress 73%.]
He was certain of only one thing. He had broken the rules, and survived.
…
After seven full hours, most players began to move past the initial panic stage, and confusion turned into noisy discussions filling the regional channel.
Shaun opened the interface, and successive lines of messages filled with surprise and excitement appeared before him.
[System, open the Regional Channel.]
As soon as it opened, the first thing he saw was:
[Guys! I discovered something amazing! After upgrading the Region to Level 2, the Lord also upgrades to Level 2 at the same time!]
[Huh?! Impossible! We never heard of this!]
[Is this part of the new update? Core Version 1.1 maybe?]
[If that's true… it means upgrading the Region also means upgrading the Lord's personal power?!]
[Are you serious? How did you figure this out?!]
[I tried it myself! As soon as I upgraded the Region, my level increased, and my magical energy increased by 100 points! Even my perception became much clearer!]
[Damn! That means we have to stop gathering food and focus on upgrading immediately!]
[Shit, I haven't even finished half the requirements for Level Two! I need hundreds of units of wood and stone!]
[Does anyone know if monsters count towards regional experience points? Because I have a mountain of them outside the walls!]
Shaun smiled lightly as he watched the comments pour in non-stop. 'This is the beautiful chaos I needed.'
The players were scrambling like children who had discovered a game secret, while he, with quiet intensity, had discovered a far more effective way to accelerate upgrading before all of them.
After his Level 1 and 2 Shadow Soldiers rested from the slaughter of the Evil Black Wolves, he ordered them to speed up the collection of wood and stone.
And now with the accumulated magical energy of +850?
[Village Center Upgrade Progress: 87%]
The sounds of evaporating debris and the smell of burnt iron made Shaun feel more satisfied than ever.
…
What he lacked now was not resources, nor energy, but Regional Experience. And after his amazing experience with the "Corpse Melter," how could he ever be satisfied with just farming some crops alongside "Leet" again?
Shaun smirked coldly as he looked at the map of the grassy region. There were dozens of large rocks scattered throughout the area, resembling the petrified bones of a sleeping giant. Furthermore, he already had +850 accumulated magical energy—more than enough to raise the Village Center two consecutive levels up to Level Four, with a surplus enough to summon a new battalion of Shadow Soldiers.
"Great… but I still only lack a little bit of Regional Experience points…" Shaun muttered, rubbing his chin in deep thought. His eyes slowly scanned the peaceful scenes outside the walls until a sinister gleam lit up the depths of his eyes.
Suddenly, he saw it. The way to gather both experience and resources.
Why settle for waiting? Seven days of active protection… that would be precisely enough. It would be foolish to waste that opportunity, and even more foolish to risk stepping outside the safety perimeter.
But—was there really a need to step out?
He looked up at the glass-like sky formed by the semi-spherical barrier surrounding his village. It was a transparent layer of energy encasing everything, like a protective shell between him and the outside world.
Then, his eyes lit up with an arcane glow.
"That's right… I can't leave the barrier due to my current weakness, but nothing is stopping me from making the monsters come to me!"
A short laugh escaped his lips. The idea was so simple.
As long as the barrier was active, no one could breach it from the outside. But the system didn't prevent monsters from attempting to do so. And what happens when monsters collide with the barrier? Their energy is converted into an energy rebound that the Village Center can analyze—thereby gaining a small amount of experience and magical energy with every failed attempt.
Normally, players wouldn't bother with such small details… But Shaun was not like them.
Not to mention that with over thirty Level 3 Shadow Soldiers now, that was real fighting power, and with a nearby Corruption Outbreak, he could harvest a few hundred Regional Experience points, just by using the "Corpse Melter"!
That was practically cheating!
He swiftly turned his body and issued his commands through the system.
[All Shadow Soldiers, prepare.]
[Special orders: Collect Black Wolf blood and create magical summoning circles with it on the edges of the barrier.]
These circles would act as "blood sigils" to provoke the surrounding monsters and make them lose their minds. When they rushed to attack the village, the barrier would fend them off—while he harvested free experience without losing anything.
"Protection period?" he whispered with a twisted smile. "Rather, it's harvest season."
Shaun stood on the small hill in front of the Village Center, his shadow stretching behind him like long, black thorns. In that moment, he was no longer just a player trying to survive…
This was how he would reach Village Center Level 10 in less than a day of arriving in this world.
The air froze for a moment, then the familiar chime rang in his ears.
[Congratulations, Governor! Your region has been upgraded from "Village" to "Small Town"]
The interface before him lit up with a golden glow interwoven with black threads of energy. The Village Center trembled beneath his feet, and the ground transformed from simple dirt to dark, polished stone, while the surrounding walls rose by almost a full meter.
The system messages flowed like continuous waves:
[New Feature Unlocked: "Citizen Summoning Portal"]
[Automatic Defense Feature Activated: "Shadow Towers"]
[Maximum Population Limit Increased to 300]
[External Trade Feature unlocked with neighboring regions of similar or lower level]
Shaun heard only silence behind all those notifications. Because in that moment, he felt something different… a pulse. The pulse of the town itself, beating in his chest as if his heart had merged with its own. Magical energy surged through his body, and black threads of it danced in the air, launching from his fingertips.
[Your Magical Energy has been increased to 1000!]
[Congratulations, you have awakened the Lord's Crown!]
[Current Lord's Crown Star Count: 1]
[First Star Effect: Increases overall combat power of troops by 25%, with a 1% chance for random Skill Stones to drop from troops or hostile creatures.]
…
Somewhere, in the International Monitoring Center of the game company in the US, alarms were blaring.
"Servers in Sector 7A are showing unauthorized activity!"