God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 270: Episode _Legend of the Demon World (3)

3.

In the end, Han Simin didn’t get a wink of sleep.

“Goggle really did make one hell of a capsule.”

He’d felt that way many times before. Compared to some of his past marathon sessions, a week without sleep was hardly an all-nighter. Even so, every time he pushed his body and mind to their limits, he couldn’t help but be impressed.

The light-sleep state.

Without that feature, playing the game like this would have been impossible. He might have logged out of the game only to log out of life itself.

Of course, playing like this wasn’t good for him. If there were truly no strain on the body, everyone would abandon their real lives and spend all twenty-four hours a day in virtual reality, doing whatever it took to get ahead.

Take students preparing for exams, for example. Goggle didn’t recommend it, but for the sake of their future, many were trying to do the same thing as Han Simin or Specialist—spending most of their day inside a capsule, cutting their sleep time to the absolute minimum.

Beyond gaming, capsules were fundamentally changing human biorhythms and lifestyles.

“I wish they’d release an even better capsule. One where you don’t get tired at all, even if you never sleep.”

Still, human greed knows no bounds.

Goggle had already officially announced that, with current technology, they had developed a way to eliminate the need for sleep within the game. They chose not to implement it for one reason: you never know. There was always the risk that people would truly abandon their real lives to live only inside the game. That incredible realism, including the desire for sleep, existed precisely to ensure people didn’t forget about actual reality.

Enduring sleep deprivation was up to the user.

In exchange, while your body suffered in reality, in the game, the only toll was on your mind.

It was a small but absolute benefit, and Han Simin, who had no desire to enjoy it to the fullest, sighed as he watched the demons bring in the final batch of materials.

It wasn’t as if he enjoyed the mental fog or the torture of his body’s endless demand for rest. His life’s goal was simple: make easy money and live an easy, idle life.

But what could he do? The road to get there was this hard.

Still, he decided to be satisfied with having shut Aria up, shaken her values, and guided her a little more smoothly down the path to becoming family, rather than using his short break to sleep.

Sleep could wait.

“You sleep forever when you’re dead, anyway.”

Wasn’t it better to work until the day you died and live comfortably until you were old and drooling in a nursing home, rather than lazing around and starving to death?

Han Simin gripped his hammer.

He took a deep breath.

+14.

All the materials that would serve as sacrifices were assembled.

All that was left was to check.

“I should have leveled up more beforehand.”

His total magic stat.

It wasn’t low by any means. For a user who had mainly invested in physical stats, a magic stat of 95—or around 130 with all his buffs—meant he had invested the equivalent of over twenty-five levels’ worth of points. Considering most top rankers barely broke 50, even with item effects, it was a lot.

But that was only by the standards of other rankers.

Han Simin wasn’t in their league.

What he was trying to enhance was a level 200 Epic Legendary-grade weapon. To even touch such an item was an honor for any enhancer, yet his base magic stat was only 95.

Getting to +13 had been a close call, but he had somehow managed. He already suspected +14 wouldn’t work, but he had to check, just in case.

“Give me some magic support.”

Epia was right behind him.

She nodded.

Dark magic poured into his body. It was at least ten times more than what he possessed. It felt like she was just scooping up seawater and flinging it at him, yet the sheer volume was immense.

’So this is the power of the Demon World’s final boss.’

Feeling her overwhelming strength, he raised his hammer.

It felt like it might just work. With this much magic, there was no way he would fail for lack of power, even if he were trying for +15.

He welcomed the dark magic flowing into his body and began to circulate it.

Then he moved.

[You are being exposed to dense dark magic.]

[Your HP is decreasing.]

[Your Defense is decreasing.]

[Your Resistances are decreasing.]

[Your movements are slowing.]

[The chance of being exposed to curses or plagues is increasing.]

He froze.

The hammer, once brimming with confidence, froze before the ritual could even begin.

“Hey. Hey! Stop. Stop.”

The flood of dark magic pouring into him was cut off.

“So it doesn’t work.”

He had a special relationship with the Demon King; he was the successor to her former lover. Couldn’t she spare him a bit of dark magic?

“Seriously? You can’t spare a little?!”

Apparently not.

Han Simin’s face twisted into a deep scowl. He hesitated for a long moment before finally spitting out the word.

“Hunting.”

Damn it.

He was about to do the one thing in this world—no, in 『Fantastic World』—that he absolutely never wanted to do.

And he was being forced into it.

*

A party was formed.

A party composed of the Demon King and her top-tier demons.

A party created for the sole purpose of power-leveling Han Simin.

They headed straight for an area of the Demon World inhabited by demonic beasts that even demons normally avoided.

Of course, power-leveling wasn’t easy, not even with a party this absurdly strong.

As was already known, for a user to receive the full experience from an NPC’s kills, one of two conditions had to be met: either they had to be in the same party, or the user had to be fully affiliated with the NPC’s territory.

The first method was impossible. He couldn’t invite demons whose levels were more than 100 higher than his into a party.

“Hey, could you maybe become a knight of my territory for a bit?”

“Don’t delude yourself. You’re still on probation.”

“...Right.”

The second method wasn’t even worth mentioning. She had already been burned once by a contract, thanks to that bastard former Enhancer. And although he had progressed far enough in the story quest for her to treat him generously, she was still a witch and a Demon King. The line she drew—a line she’d maintained ever since the former Enhancer turned her from an innocent girl into a true demon—made even Han Simin give up quickly.

People like her were actually more thorough. If you didn’t cross the line, you couldn’t get what you wanted.

So, they just went.

He would have to force-feed himself experience with the third and final method.

Leeching.

The demons and Epia would beat the monsters to within an inch of their lives, and then he would land the last hit or contribute just enough to get credit.

Of the three methods, it was the least efficient—so inefficient that he might as well just go hunt monsters his own level instead.

But what choice did he have? He could only pin his hopes on the fact that the monsters they were killing were incredibly high-level, and that his own level was so low. The one saving grace was that 『Fantastic World』 didn’t scale experience gain based on level differences.

“Ah, damn it. At this rate, how long is this going to take?” he despaired, looking at the experience bar that barely twitched after several kills.

It was definitely a lot of experience. But these were monsters being killed by top-tier demons and the Demon King herself. He would need to kill dozens of them just to gain a single level, and where was he supposed to find the time for that?

On top of that, this wasn’t a problem he could solve by gaining just a few levels.

He needed magic.

A lot of it.

At least twice as much as he had now.

Another deep sigh escaped him.

’So in the end, I have to use that method.’ 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The hunt didn’t last long. It wasn’t because Han Simin, who had given up on hunting for nearly a year and a half, had grown bored of it.

The efficiency was just absolute garbage.

If it were merely garbage, that would have been one thing. But the countless buff rings he wore only amplified his frustration. They had started this hunt for his sake, but it felt like only the demons were getting stronger.

He decided to pull out his trump card.

The thing he had set aside when he gave up hunting, planning to use it only if he ever hit a wall.

The thing he had never once used until now, and had no intention of using unless he truly, desperately needed it.

“I guess the timing is right,” Han Simin whispered to Epia.

4.

Kenji’s guild gained even more momentum.

Riding the wave of public opinion, Kenji, who already solved everything with money, began pouring cash into expanding his territory in earnest. He had contributed to the war and received his rewards. At the same time, Dino—now considered his right-hand man—had progressed through his story quest and completed his first Awakening, just as Han Simin had.

His fire magic had become scorchingly powerful.

The various buffs to his fire-element spells and new utility skills, combined with his genius-level control, created tremendous synergy. Regardless of the situation, just by using fire magic, his damage output was more than 1.5 times higher than usual.

There was even a heated debate over what might have happened if the skill book Kang Yeseul had acquired had ended up in Dino’s hands instead. Some went so far as to claim that no matter how overpowered Han Simin was, he wouldn’t have been able to beat Dino.

Of course, it was all hypothetical.

There had only ever been one copy of that skill book in 『Fantastic World』, and Kang Yeseul had already learned it. Unless some technology appeared that could revert it back into a skill book, that future was impossible.

Dino didn’t brood or regret it; he simply moved forward in silence.

It wasn’t that he felt no regret at all, but he had realized something. Even without Penta Casting and No-Chant, if he continued to progress through his story quest, he could reach the pinnacle of his Legendary-grade class and make up for that disadvantage.

If he could do that, he could overcome the missing skill book with his control alone.

With that in mind, he pushed himself even harder.

He captured warlocks, coolly assessed their strengths, and methodically conquered any territory he knew he could win.

An endless series of wars.

No one else on the continent fought so relentlessly. This held true even for those with superior military strength. The fact that Adventurers could resurrect didn’t change the equation.

Ultimately, war was a matter of money.

It couldn’t be waged with Users alone. Every war resulted in the deaths of countless NPCs and required a massive war chest. Even seizing a territory afterward rarely offset the initial losses.

And yet, backed by a massive war chest, Kenji launched one territory war after another. He didn’t care whether he profited or lost. This was no time to be frugal.

While Han Simin was away, while he still held the Emperor’s trust, and while all eyes were on him, Kenji intended to expand his power and seize everything within his grasp. He ignored the critics who pointed fingers, questioning why he would waste so much money on a game.

They simply didn’t understand.

The territories he had already acquired, along with the future profits they would generate, more or less offset the losses he had incurred so far.

Fantastic World had become that kind of game.

Soon, more and more clever people would start pouring their lives into the game to get a taste of this honey.

A blue ocean.

It wouldn’t take long for it to turn red.

A mad dash. Who would get there first and stake their claim?

In that war, Kenji held an extremely advantageous position. He was one of the few who held the Han Simin card.

Of course, that connection was tenuous, and others could just as easily approach Simin. Since he couldn’t prevent that, Kenji was always researching other ways to secure more profit than anyone else.

“That’s it.”

And now, the perfect offering for such a transaction had appeared on the auction house.

*