Volume 4, Chapter 33 – Fanster

As a hardcore player who owned an independent territory, Fanster was in an exceptionally good mood today.

In Subworld, it might look at a glance like there were tons of players with territories, but if you set that against the massive total number of players, those who actually owned a territory could basically be called an endangered species.

According to the official stats, out of every one million players, only a single player had their own territory.

However, even though players with territories looked glamorous on the surface, behind the scenes their situation was actually very tough.

Most players who owned territories had picked bad locations. Their territories ended up forcibly incorporated by the local NPC powers. Not only were their territories controlled by NPC armies, even the right to govern their land was held firmly in NPC hands.

Of course, there were also some Lord players who had immense capital and powerful connections in the real world. Although they too were forcibly absorbed by NPC powers, the treatment they received was on a completely different level compared to players with no background.

The NPC armies would fully cooperate with those players’ commands, and as for the territories under those players’ control, they could govern them however they liked. The NPC powers in charge above would not interfere at all.

But Fanster, as one of those one-in-a-million Lord players, was completely different from either of the two types above.

As a Lord player, Fanster had neither deep background nor abundant funds in the real world.

Even so, his territory had not been forcibly absorbed by any local NPC power. On the contrary, Fanster’s territory had become one of the very few truly independent territories in the entire game, holding absolute autonomy.

Yes, as a totally ordinary, bottom-tier loser of a player, Fanster was incredibly lucky.

As just another regular player, when he followed a walkthrough for the first time to solo a dungeon Boss on easy difficulty, he unexpectedly got a Lord Token drop.

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When he casually picked an unclaimed territory to found a city, the spot he chose just happened to be on the outer edge of a Stronghold’s sphere of influence.

Originally, shortly after he founded his territory, Fanster’s land was supposed to be forcibly incorporated by the Stronghold’s Beastmen from the start.

But something unexpected happened. While Fanster was still worrying about this, that Stronghold, one of the Eight Great Factions, actually declared war on the Ninth Faction Dawn, the faction that in the future would defeat the Stronghold and beat it into long-term decline.

Of course, the Stronghold going to war did not stop it from absorbing Fanster’s territory. The coincidence came the next day, when Fanster learned that inside the Stronghold, the half-beasts, that is, the races with beast-eared girls, had launched a mass uprising.

Because of the rebellion, the Stronghold, now too busy dealing with its own crisis, did not absorb Fanster’s territory. Not only that, Fanster took the chance and somehow ended up accepting several tens of thousands of half-beast NPCs.

NPCs began appearing across his once dead and silent territory. With the Stronghold’s eventual defeat, Fanster somehow became the strongest player Lord within the Stronghold’s sphere of influence.

Not only did some capable players choose to defect and join him, there were also many solo players who, after hearing the story of how Fanster had risen like some RNG god, came from far and wide, hoping to soak up a bit of his luck.

So just like that, Fanster’s territory kept growing larger. In the end, he even launched several wars against the Stronghold and successfully seized part of the Stronghold’s land.

As the territory grew bigger and bigger, Fanster’s ego swelled more and more, and of course, his mood also got better and better.

“One day, I’m going to be just like that upstart Ninth Faction Dawn, stepping up to the top over the corpses of the old powers.”

Along with the development of his territory, Fanster gradually grew that kind of ambition.

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Naturally, it was hard to deny that Fanster’s mentality would change. People’s pursuits shift with their environment, and human desire is something that can never be filled.

Once one desire is met, people do not stop there. A second desire follows right behind.

Fanster was exactly like that. As his desires swelled, he unconsciously lost sight of his original intent when he first started playing this game just to relax and have some fun.

“Lord, even though we’ve taken some more territory from the Stronghold this time, we can’t keep advancing in that direction from here on.”

Just as Fanster was in an extremely good mood, a sharp-minded subordinate came running over in a hurry.

Although this subordinate was also a player, he had a very good grasp of the bigger picture. Fanster, who considered himself pretty good at judging people, trusted this player quite a bit.

“Oh? What’s going on? Why can’t we keep pushing forward?”

Fanster was a little curious.

After all, within the Stronghold’s sphere of influence as it stood now, the forces under his command were already the strongest among the nearby player Lords.

The army of half-beast NPCs was only several tens of thousands strong, but the number of solo players who had joined him for his reputation was enormous.

Just the armies formed for raids already numbered in the millions. You could say that under the million-strong player army, the Stronghold’s Beastmen, who had declined to such a state, had no wish at all to clash head-on with him.

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With such tremendous hard power in his hands, Fanster really couldn’t imagine who could make his subordinate say that they could not keep advancing.

“Lord… it’s like this.”

Wiping nonexistent sweat from his forehead, the player looked extremely nervous.

“After we took this stretch of land from the Stronghold, we’re now bordering the Ninth Faction Dawn in that direction… so from here on, we should switch to expanding in another direction, which is why I came to report.”

“Dawn?”

Hearing his subordinate’s explanation, Fanster frowned.

“What about Dawn? We can stomp the Stronghold, why should we be afraid of them? Besides, they don’t have our endless legions of players who can revive.”

Right now, with his ego a bit overinflated, Fanster had become totally dismissive of everything.

“Our million-strong player army that can revive without limit is supposed to be afraid of a pile of data-made NPCs?”

“But… but they have Legendary-tier and Throne-tier…”

“Legendary-tier, Throne-tier, so what? Are they that scary?”

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Fanster had unshakable confidence in the million-strong player army under him.

“Do you know why you can only be my subordinate and not become a Lord like me?”

“W-Why?”

“Because you’re too cautious. People need a sense of adventure. Acting so timid like this, are you even a man? Besides, we players are the main characters of the game in the first place. So what if they’re Legendary-tier, so what if they’re Throne-tier? I refuse to believe that we, a million players, can’t clear these Boss-like existences.”

“But… but those Legendary-tier and Throne-tier ones really are insanely broken…”

The subordinate looked completely helpless.

“What are you afraid of? Nothing in this world is impossible if you’re determined enough. You don’t even understand that?”

Fanster had the full lecturing look on his face.

“When we face difficulties, we mustn’t be scared. We smile and face them head-on…”