About a year ago, the Swindlers Guild and Ottenmore kingdom had a conflict with one another.
Belial offered me resources, and in return, I would give him powerful NPCs to help build his guild manpower and bring them up in the leaderboards for GP (another word for Guild Power).
Having GP is important, the more you have, the higher the rewards are in quests, and you can also receive medals for reaching certain caps in GP.
The current medals are:
{Bronze = 1-50,000 GP
Silver = 50,000-200,000 GP
Gold = 200,000-500,000 GP
Platinum = 500,000-1,000,000+ GP}
Each guild member will have a medal next to their name or Personal Hub, allowing others to see how powerful their guild is.
To see someone's information, it simply pops up on the player's field of vision, next to their health bar. However, some players can hide their game avatar's info, so that other players won't know how strong they are, or what their gamer tag is.
You can hide spells, race class, player class, and magic class.
But besides that, the Swindlers guild became the strongest guild inside Isekai World Online at one point, and it happened from me being a greedy bastard.
Belial offered me powerful items, but not just any items… they were level infinity items, capable of doing the impossible just like the others.
In return, I must raise his guild's GP.
At this point in time, I only had a handful of level infinity items, but that is a lot, considering only 100 exist in the world.
I gave Belial God Grade NPCs that I summoned from the Ritual Port, raising his GP from silver to platinum in a matter of days.
He was high on power, he couldn't believe I actually accepted the offer, but I was also happy because I could obtain a powerful level infinity item with the price of throwing away a few God-Grade NPCs.
Sure it may seem like a waste, but a level infinity item is far more valuable.
Eventually, Belial fulfilled his part of the deal, giving me Nyarlathotep, the ring located on the pinky finger of my right hand.
It can create avatars of my choosing, having them fulfill my desires.
The avatars I create can range from female, male, dragonic, vampire, undead, and other race classes as well.
I hate to say it, but… I feel unstoppable.
I can create avatars who can become any race class with little to no effort.
You may be wondering why Belial didn't keep such a precious item, but that's simple.
It's because… he could already create something like this.
Yeah, that's right, he was a modder.
He downloaded certain mods in the game, breaking the system, which allows him to create level-infinity items on a whim.
I didn't find that out until later on when one of my subordinates overheard his conversation with other Swindler guild members.
I refused to believe it at first, but as a Great King, nothing goes unnoticed.
I watched Belial and his every move, through an avatar created by Nyarlathotep, to see if it was true
Little did I know, I was right.
That avatar joined the Swindlers Guild, her name was Dorothy.
I didn't summon her from the Ritual Port, no, I summoned her from Nyarlathotep.
She's connected to me, and considering everything was a game at the time, she only acted on my Will. She moved and operated like an NPC, just like any other avatar I created in the past before we were trapped here.
But now… that doesn't exist.
She is no longer an NPC, she's an actual living, and breathing organism, given life… and given a soul!
Her entire purpose was to give the swindlers guild trouble, and now that she's alive, she will become smarter, and more intelligent than before.
They won't see it coming, not from a mile away.
Dorothy, my own avatar, will become a monster.
"The hell's up with the long face?"
I could hear a voice echo through my castle…
Wait… I could hear a voice.
The only ones who can move in stopped time are the Great Kings, who the hell is talking-
"…Oh…" I looked up, and could see Crimson walking through the door, into the throne room, "I'm assuming Angelica is with you." I exclaimed.
"Yeah, she saw that the world was stopped in time and got confused, so she brought us together to come visit you, thinking it was an emergency." Said Crimson.
("Hmm, I almost forgot we can dispel others from stopped time… I have to keep that in mind.")
"Ah, I see, well… I suppose you can say that this is an emergency." I announced.
"Wait, seriously? What the hell is going on?" Crimson asked.
The other Phantom Mutiny made their way through the doors; Emerald, Lucienne, Christopher, and Kuma.
For some reason… I didn't see Angelica.
"Let your guard down!!"
Oh… she was behind me.
She threw a direct punch into my back, attempting to knock me forward, but I counterattacked through the Eyes of the Emperor.
I saw a few seconds in the future, disappearing from her attack, and appearing behind her, extending my hand forward, "You're impressive as always, I shouldn't be surprised."
With my hand extended to her face, she also had hers doing the same at me.
She was so fast.
The only reason I couldn't predict her action was from Angelica's speed surpassing my own, not allowing me to react in enough time.
My foresight was essentially useless.
"I've played with you long enough to know how to counter a couple of your moves, Emperor, You're not the strongest in the world you know?" Angelia snickered.
"I do wonder, who is the strongest between the Four Great Kings, perhaps we will find out one day, won't we?" I proclaimed.
"Hehe, no need, we're all strong in our own way," she gently lowered her hand, as I did the same for mine. Looks like we weren't gonna fire spells at one another, "Jokes aside, why did you freeze time? We usually do that when something bad happens."
I crossed my arms, giving an audible sigh, "The NPCs in Isekai World Online are sentient."
I was straight to the point.
"Oh?" Emerald lifted her brows, quite bewildered, "Define 'sentient' more clearly, brother."
"As in, they have souls. Actual souls, like humans, do. I don't know how this is possible, but the only logical explanation is God. He must've created every NPC in the game to have one, for whatever reason. This isn't good, on multiple occasions."
"Ah, and that is a problem how exactly?" Christopher asked confidently, "Considering we're stuck here inside the game, having NPCs act on their own morality is quite refreshing, no? Walking around with mindless robots would be tedious if I do say so myself."
"What? Are you just giving up on hope at this point?" Asked Lucienne, "You're talking like there's no way we can find access to our other world."
"From the circumstances present, no, there is no other way. We're stuck here, trapped inside our Game avatar's body, and now we must live like this for the rest of our lives." Proclaimed Christopher.
"Christopher's right, as much as I hate to say it… this is our new world, and we have to accept reality, Lucienne." Kuma hesitantly said.
"I feel quite heartbroken about it, I'm sure we all do. My family back in the present world must be suffering, and it pains me to imagine that." Emerald closed her eyes, pessimistic about their situation, "But there is no time to wallow and give up just yet, I'm sure we as a group will find a solution to break free and return home."
"That's the spirit Emerald!" Angelica winked at her, leaning up against my arm, "I don't know how I feel about being stuck in a girl avatars body, but I can make it work… unless," Angelica walked in front of me, getting into my face, "Hey, you're gonna have to let me borrow that Nyarlathotep item and let me create a male avatars body, Emperor!"
Ah… right… Some people are stuck in the body of their opposite gender, I forgot about that.
"It suits you, Angelica."
"Suits me? Wait a minute… are you saying that because-"
"Inflict Magic, Omni Warp."
Angelica suddenly vanished outside of Ottenmore kingdom, somewhere in the ocean outside of the West continent.
Omni Warp is a superior version of Spatial Warp that allows the player to appear wherever they want, or whenever they want. They could appear in physical places, as well as metaphysical places. They're able to teleport into dreams, consciousness, data, and other abstract worlds, even past or future.
Only users of Arcane Magic can use it…
But seriously I wasn't gonna let her just expose my secrets.
And like hell I'll tell any of you what they're!
"Anyways, the point is, we must value NPC lives like we value player lives. We can't afford to have anyone die, unless necessary. Emperor is a monster, I created him to be that way, but the orders I give out are from Haruto Akechi, rather than Emperor. We must keep our same morality, and not let our game avatar's morality overpower our own, understood?"
"Yes, understood." (All)
"But still… this is gonna be a pain in the ass, taking care of NPCs while also helping out players. Man, give me a break already!" Crimson shouted.