The first time was during the [Swordsman] advancement quest, which required serious study of ten works on swordsmanship schools. / The second was the [Archaeologist] unlock quest. ...

Adrian thought in silence.

His current strength was far beyond that of ordinary players.

And his day-to-day activities were nothing ordinary players could take part in.

Only when he needed a particular kind of cannon fodder did Adrian remember his player tools, like he had back on Ohara.

Then he discarded them once he was done...

"Hopefully players will matter a little more after the version update."

"These Undying Drifters have nothing but an endless appetite for grinding. They ought to be the perfect crop of experience points to harvest, so why do they barely register?"

"Wait, can players and NPCs get caught in the same rat race?"

"That's ridiculous!"

Adrian opened the panel and logged into his official forum account.

After browsing for a while, he found no useful information about the version update.

Stranger still, hardly any players seemed to have noticed that an update was coming.

Even a forum search turned up only a version report posted by a newbie who had just entered the game, and that post was already a week old.

"That makes no sense. Even if the players haven't reacted, surely the official—"

"I almost forgot. This game doesn't seem to have a reliable company behind it!"

"Even the earlier promotional trailer looked like it had been cut together from player-made recordings."

"What kind of company is this?"

"Is this game even playable?"

After venting, Adrian gave up on finding help through the forum.

With a game version update approaching, there was one more thing worth considering: its name.

When the public beta first opened, the panel had clearly displayed: [Welcome to "Pirate King" Version 1.0—The Opening of the Great Age of Navigation!]

If there was a 1.0, there would naturally be a 2.0.

Just as 1024 was followed by 2048.

And once