Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 91: The Global Battlefield Summit

"Hello? Ethan, say something!" Emily practically shouted into the communicator the moment Ethan picked up.

"What’s up? Didn’t you say you were heading to Dunmire to finish your hero class-change quest? You’re done already? That was fast," Ethan asked, sounding skeptical.

"Of course not, I haven’t even left yet!" Emily shook her head, hesitating briefly before continuing. "Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you about."

"Go ahead. Come on, since when do you have trouble talking to me?" Ethan replied casually.

The closer you were, the more relaxed you could be. No need to hold back.

"I’m just worried it’ll put you in an awkward spot... Ah, whatever, I’ll just say it. Scarlet Queen asked Selene to reach out to me. She wants you to meet with them," Emily said.

"Them? Who exactly?" Ethan asked.

"The leaders of the top ten guilds, plus the head honchos from the military guilds. Basically, the biggest shots in North America," Emily explained.

Even as she said it, Emily felt a bit intimidated.

After all, she’d grown up as an ordinary nobody. Even though she’d suddenly skyrocketed to fame, it wasn’t easy to instantly adjust her mindset and worldview.

So naturally, when mentioning these legendary figures she’d heard about her whole life, it was impossible not to feel a bit nervous or overwhelmed.

"Nope, not interested."

But Ethan had already moved past that stage.

Meet them?

Just because they asked?

Sorry, he didn’t have time for that.

"Bro, you’re really not going?" Emily hesitated, clearly conflicted.

"First, I’m busy. Second, I’m not interested. And third, it’s completely unnecessary," Ethan shook his head calmly. "You should start shifting your mindset too. Scarlet Queen asked Selene to approach you—think about it. She didn’t even dare to contact you directly. What does that tell you?"

Emily wasn’t stupid. Ethan’s hint clicked immediately. "It means...in Scarlet Queen’s eyes, I’m already someone who can stand on equal footing with her?"

"Nope."

Ethan shook his head again. "Not equal footing—you’re already above her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be afraid of you, let alone hesitate to approach you herself."

Pausing briefly, Ethan chuckled. "And it’s not just her. Those guild leaders, those so-called big shots—they’re all the same."

Hearing this, even Emily, with her playful and carefree personality, felt a shiver run down her spine.

Her breathing quickened slightly.

"Ethan, are we...really at that level now?" Emily stammered, clearly struggling to believe it.

"Honestly, at first, it felt unreal to me too. But think about it carefully. Forget everything else—just the Tier 11 unicorn you have right now. Even Caesar, the so-called ’Overlord’ who’s ranked number one on the Monarch Leaderboard, do you think he could beat you?"

Before Emily could respond, Ethan continued, "Even if he could, I’d just send you a few more Tier 11 units, or even Tier 12 or Tier 13 troops. No matter how strong he is, no matter how many armies he commands, they’d all be trash compared to you!"

After a short pause, Ethan added, "And that’s just based on your current hero tier—a common white-tier hero. Once you finish your Tier 9 special hidden hero class-change quest, you’ll realize that those so-called Monarch Leaderboard elites, those top-tier players, they’re no different from ordinary players. They’re all just cannon fodder."

"Pfft—!"

Emily burst out laughing, genuinely amused by Ethan’s bold statement.

The Monarch Leaderboard elites were just cannon fodder?

Only her brother would dare say something like that...

"What are you laughing at? I’m not joking around here—everything I said is backed by solid logic and evidence," Ethan protested, feigning seriousness.

"Alright, alright, I get it. You’re amazing, you’re the best," Emily teased, still giggling. Then her tone shifted slightly. "But Ethan, actually... I kind of do want to meet with them."

Ethan paused, surprised. "Wait, are you thinking about starting your own guild and competing with them?"

The reason Ethan hadn’t already dominated the top guilds—or even the military guilds—was simple: laziness.

He had little interest in power struggles, especially among players. Compared to the massive native factions in the world of Glory Lords X, player guilds were just too small-scale. It felt like bullying kids, and he couldn’t be bothered to waste his time on that.

But if Emily was interested, he’d support her without hesitation.

"No, it’s not that I want to compete with them. Honestly, I’m just like you—I don’t really care about that stuff," Emily hesitated, her eyes thoughtful. "But... how do I put this?"

She paused, choosing her words carefully. "When Selene came to talk to me earlier, she mentioned a lot of things. That’s when I realized our situation here in North America isn’t exactly great. Especially after losing four Global Battlefield events in a row, things have gotten pretty rough for us."

"Global Battlefield?" Ethan repeated, momentarily confused.

To maintain stability and avoid panic, information about the Global Battlefield was usually kept among the top-tier players and guild leaders. Before Ethan had transmigrated into this body, the original Ethan had been too low-level to even hear about it. So naturally, this was the first time he’d heard of it.

"Hmm..." Emily nodded thoughtfully. "To avoid large-scale wars, governments around the world agreed to settle resource distribution—both in-game and real-world—through the Global Battlefield mode."

"Ever since the global launch of Glory Lords X, there have been six Global Battlefield events involving top-tier players from every region. North America did pretty well in the first two rounds, gaining a lot of resources. But after the third Global Battlefield collapsed, our performance has gotten worse each time. It’s become a vicious cycle—regions that perform poorly have to hand over resources as punishment!"

"Wait, losers have to give up resources both in-game and in real life? Damn, that’s just daylight robbery!" Ethan exclaimed, stunned.

Honestly, it was exactly that—robbery disguised with a bit of "artistic" flair, like slowly boiling a frog alive while giving people some ridiculous illusion of fairness.

But then again, that’s just how the world works, isn’t it?

The strong get stronger, the weak get weaker.

Survival of the fittest.

It’s always been this way.

Thinking about it like that, Ethan shook his head and sighed. "Alright, I get it. If you want to go, go ahead. But if anyone bullies you, just let me know. I’ll step in and teach them a lesson!"

"Really?" Emily’s eyes lit up instantly. "Then it’s settled! I’ll leave you to your stuff now. Bye-bye!"

Before Ethan could even respond, Emily had already hung up the call.

Ethan stood there, speechless, staring blankly at the disconnected screen. He felt an overwhelming urge to reach through the internet and flick her forehead a few times, just to teach that bratty little sister of his a lesson about brotherly love.

Shaking his head helplessly, Ethan logged off and headed straight to bed.

After grinding the game nonstop for several days, he was exhausted.

Besides, the final phase of the Infernal Outpost Battle wouldn’t start until tomorrow. He had nothing urgent to do, so catching up on sleep and recharging his batteries sounded like a perfect plan.

While Ethan was already fast asleep, another high-level meeting quietly began in the player district of Dunmire, the capital city of Unicorn Duchy.

Insiders called it the Global Battlefield Summit.

At the same time, Emily—representing Draconic Pact and effectively Ethan himself—arrived at the meeting accompanied by Scarlet Queen.

To everyone’s surprise, Emily was seated in the most prestigious position at the table!

Clearly, Ethan had been right.

In the eyes of the top guild leaders, military commanders, and government big shots, Draconic Pact had already surpassed them all. It had become a towering giant that none of them dared to offend.

Because of this, even though Ethan himself wasn’t present—just his younger sister Emily—they still treated her with the utmost respect, pulling out all the stops to show their sincerity and goodwill.

And although no one outside knew exactly what was discussed at the meeting, one thing was clear:

When the summit ended, everyone left smiling, excitement and satisfaction written all over their faces.

Meanwhile, a full day quietly slipped by.

After a long, restful sleep, Ethan logged back into the game refreshed and energized—just in time for the final phase of his S-rank storyline quest, "Infernal Outpost Battle," to officially begin!

"Player Valkarion, your S-rank storyline quest—Infernal Outpost Battle—has now entered its final phase! Defeat or repel enemy units and heroes. Failure to repel enemy heroes or meet the required kill count will result in mission failure!"

"Enemy Unit: Tier 8—Two-Horned Demon King. Total number: 500. Required kills: 100."

"Enemy Unit: Tier 9—Inferno Pit Fiend. Total number: 200. Required kills: 40."

"Enemy Unit: Tier 10—Inferno Pit Lord. Total number: 100. Required kills: 20."

"Note: There is no time limit for this mission."

"Tier 8 Two-Horned Demon Kings, Tier 9 Inferno Pit Fiends, and Tier 10 Inferno Pit Lords..." Ethan muttered, carefully reviewing the quest details. "Just as I thought—they’ve lumped the last three waves of Inferno troops together."

Normally, if these three waves had come separately, the difficulty would have been manageable. But now, with all three tiers attacking simultaneously, the difficulty had clearly spiked.

And to make matters worse, the Tier 10 Inferno Pit Lords had an especially nasty talent: they could resurrect all fallen allies from their faction as Tier 7 One-Horned Demons.

It was basically giving the enemy a second life.

"And on top of that..." Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on the quest panel, specifically the "required kills" section.

"The required kill count has doubled compared to before," Ethan murmured.

In the previous seven waves of the Infernal Legions invasion, the required kill count had always been one-tenth of the total enemy forces.

But now, it had jumped to one-fifth.

At first glance, it seemed like just a minor numerical tweak—nothing too alarming. But in reality, this seemingly small change had effectively doubled, or even tripled, the mission’s difficulty!

...