The terrifying World Tree Sapling: which World Item was truly the strongest? (4,200-word chapter)

The final seven days before the world's destruction.

Roy cradled the hope of the New World in his hands.

It had originally been a romantic gesture the game's lead designer had left for the players.

When a player discovered the World Tree Sapling, a server-wide announcement would go out, and they would receive an invitation to the New World.

That was why Qin Shi Huang had tried to travel to the New World.

Unfortunately, Roy had ordered that feature deleted.

He had no desire to see every player on the server come flocking back online for one last party.

All he wanted was the World Tree Sapling.

If the [Eternal Serpent Ring] was reputed to be the game's strongest World Item, then the [World Tree Sapling] was also a contender for that title.

Because its effect was terrifying.

[World Item: World Tree Sapling]

[Effect 1: The World Tree Sapling can be planted in a guild base. Once every ten years, it can unleash its ultimate power-Rollback!]

[Effect 2: If the World Tree Sapling is forced to activate its power before enough time has accumulated, it will wither and die, then grow again in another corner of the world.]

That was right.

It was the game operators' ultimate trump card. If a bug appeared or they made an operational mistake, they could rewind the entire world.

Just like a save point.

The World Tree Sapling possessed power of the highest order, capable of recording an entire world.

Unfortunately, the game company was incredibly sneaky.

It was willing to offer that power, but only during the final seven days.

If the players found it, they could have one last wild celebration. If not, that was that.

Ordinary players would have to cultivate the World Tree Sapling for ten years, allowing it to accumulate enough power before it could activate its strongest ability, Rollback.

The World Tree Sapling's standing was exceptionally high.

Other single-use World Items disappeared after use.

But the World Tree still left a glimmer of hope: as long as that ability was used only once every ten years, the sapling could be kept.

The lead designer had set it up that way because he did not want players using that ability recklessly.

Ideally, they would never use it and simply keep it in World City.

As it happened, Roy had no intention of using it, either.

The World Tree Sapling could be cultivated. Its standing was extraordinarily high, and it could slowly be nurtured into a true World Tree.

Would he still lack World Items then?

It would be a supreme treasure in any setting.

Even if this world was not particularly large. The original author, Maruyama, had once said that Yggdrasil was divided into nine worlds, each roughly two to three times the size of Tokyo in the real world.

Yet it contained resurrection, spatial teleportation, alterations to the world's laws, Time Stop, and more.

Those were incredibly powerful abilities in any world, yet people here could master them with relatively low stats.

That alone was enough to make powerful figures everywhere fight over it.

Just look at the Dragon Emperor. He had coveted the laws here and tried to use them to transcend the origin, only for things to go wrong.

Acquiring these World Items had left Roy utterly satisfied.

He even had a firm feeling that once this tree was planted in his guild, they would definitely be able to cross into another world.

Even if it damaged his own essence, the Dragon Emperor would drag World City into the New World.

Because being able to roll back meant recording the world's origin and controlling everything within it.

Compared with a wish-granting item like the [Eternal Serpent Ring], this was the true strongest World Item.

As for the world's will, a One-Punch Man capable of increasing its stats infinitely within a given span of time, Roy felt nothing in particular about it.

He was not going to make an enemy of the world anyway.

After collecting those treasures, Roy opened a Gate on the spot and brought them back to World City.

Once the World Tree Sapling had been properly planted, Roy felt an enchanting vitality radiating throughout World City.

He did not know whether that was merely an in-game visual effect.

In short, he was extremely pleased with it.

There were now six and a half days left until the servers shut down. In that half day, he had acquired six World Items. Including his original [World Crown], he now owned seven.

That left ninety-three he had yet to obtain. He needed to pick up the pace.

The next items were difficult to acquire as well, but their difficulty was not as high as the first few.

Roy was working his way from the hardest to the easiest.

After all, even if someone started those extremely difficult quests now, they could never complete them without cheats.

That was why he tackled them in order of difficulty.

If someone really managed to complete one of the easier quests and obtain a World Item within these seven days, then they deserved it.

With map coordinates and complete walkthroughs at his disposal, Roy soon began finding World Items one after another.

The eighth was the [Book of Final Judgment].

[Effect: After killing a player, different death penalties can be imposed based on that player's good and evil deeds.]

The name sounded intimidating, but the effect was actually fairly ordinary.

It did not judge players by their assigned karma values, but by their actual behavior in the game.

For instance, if someone frequently engaged in player killing and was hated by the player community, the AI would record their actual red-name score.

Under those circumstances, the item's effect would activate when Roy killed a red-named player.

They might lose ten levels from a single death, for example, or drop two pieces of equipment.

Its sole advantage was that, while he possessed this World Item, an enemy's items for reducing death penalties would not work.

In plain terms, it was a tool for players to punish red-named players.

If Roy used it against the Bone King, especially after one of his massacres, he could wreck his level in a single kill, even if he resurrected.

The ninth was [Heaven's Gate].

[Effect: When facing evil forces, Heaven's Gate can be opened to summon vast numbers of angels until the evil forces are purified or seventy-two hours have elapsed.]

That was rather similar to an item already known to the public, which could summon [Demons] to overrun the entire world.

It was just much weaker.

It was a single-use consumable that could open Heaven's Gate once, summoning countless angels to destroy a designated guild.

That made it a one-use item, and it did not even guarantee complete destruction.

If the guild held out for seventy-two hours, the angels would disappear.

Compared with demons, they really had no sense of responsibility.

The tenth was [Fallen Angel Wings].

[Effect 1: When used by a highest-tier Seraphim, the user can become a fallen angel and acquire the special class "Satan."]

[Effect 2: When used by a non-angel, the user can obtain a fallen form.]

There it was: the Satan class, comparable to the God class.

That sort of class could only be acquired through a World Item.

Only the highest-tier angels could fall to become Satans, kings who ruled over hell.

Was it strong? Certainly. It was a truly rare class.

But using an entire World Item just to change classes seemed a little wasteful.

Roy did not particularly mind. Not every World Item could be outrageously powerful.

Besides, none of his NPCs actually had the Satan class.

After all, many classes had special restrictions, just as he did not have anyone with the [World Champion] class.

Some things could not be forced.

The eleventh was [Hades' Imprisonment].

[Effect 1: After killing a player, the user can enslave them, obtaining a weakened soul servant.]

[Effect 2: If the soul servant is killed, the enslavement ends.]

[Effect 3: If the player carrying this item is killed, the item disappears.]

Good grief. It was the ultimate grudge-maker.

This World Item was not actually that strong. After killing an enemy, it merely created a servant duplicate with little combat strength.

But that servant could grovel.

Imagine a player discovering that their duplicate was shouting:

"Oh, great master, I salute you."

"I am so-and-so's dog."

That player would bankrupt themselves if that was what it took to kill the other person.

In the New World, however, it might allow him to kill someone, turn them into a servant, and prevent their resurrection.

Good stuff!

The twelfth was the [Core of the Tower of Babel].

[Effect: Magic Casters make errors in their incantations, their casting time doubles, and their spells become easier to interrupt.]

This World Item did not look powerful, but in the New World, it could prevent mages from chanting smoothly. It was practically a mage killer.

A little stronger, and it could become an anti-magic field.

How were you supposed to fight mages without an anti-magic field?

The thirteenth was the [Yata Mirror].

[Effect 1: Once per day, reflects attacks of Super-Tier Magic level or below.]

[Effect 2: Reflects one attack from a World Item, then disappears.]

Roy picked up the treasure from Japanese mythology. All he could say was that it was fairly average.

Reflecting one World Item attack was nice, though. It was perfect for countering the Holy-Slaying Spear's [Account Deletion].

The fourteenth was [Ame-no-Murakumo].

[Effect 1: Severs the bonds of various contracts, then disappears.]

What a useless thing.

Generally speaking, players could use it to sever the mental control of [Hades' Imprisonment] or [Downfall of Castle and Country].

But among World Items, that meager effect could only earn it a seat in the back row.

The fifteenth was [Yasakani no Magatama].

[Effect: Breaks one world-class seal, then disappears.]

Its effect was fairly ordinary, specifically targeting various forms of imprisonment and sealing.

It did have some uses, but it still belonged in the back row.

Not every World Item could be powerful. These three treasures associated with Japanese mythology, for instance, were hardly impressive. At most, they had some practical value.

The sixteenth was the [Veil of Divine Concealment].

[Effect: The holder cannot be detected by any living being and will not reveal any information, provided they do not use any skills or get struck by anyone.]

Not bad. Roy could have a ninja NPC carry it around to gather intelligence, ensuring that no one would discover them.

Its power was just a little underwhelming. It could sit at the same table as Ame-no-Murakumo.

The seventeenth was the [Fair Arena].

[Effect: Enter a private arena with a selected player. Both sides' stats are completely averaged, making all their attributes identical.]

This thing was truly strange.

If Roy used it against a foot soldier, he would only be making trouble for himself.

But if he used it against One-Punch Man, he wondered whether it could average out their stats.

If it could, it would be a divine treasure!

Because it only balanced both sides' attribute values, without changing their equipment attributes.

In other words, the Fair Arena was not actually fair.

The eighteenth was [Raziel's Mysterious Key].

[Effect: Opens any treasure chest in the world without triggering any traps, while increasing the quality of the treasures obtained.]

It had little destructive power, but it was very valuable.

Roy quite liked interesting-looking treasures like this and simply kept it as a collectible.

The nineteenth was [Buddha's Bodhi Tree].

[Effect 1: Monks of the highest tier can acquire the special class Buddha.]

[Effect 2: Other classes can use this to change into high-tier monks.]

Its effects were very similar to those of [Fallen Angel Wings]. Both granted exceptionally special classes within the game.

Roy liked things like this. Like [World's Richest Man] and [World Champion], they were extremely rare special classes.

In the future, he could have his NPCs change classes, or try to master that power himself.

It was simply a perfect day.

Roy had never played the game so seriously since its launch.

Because he had discovered that most of the game's most brilliantly designed and intriguing storylines were tied to World Items.

It was utterly ridiculous.

A perfectly good online game had hidden its finest content where only a single player could enjoy it.

These game designers were real freaks.

Play if you like it. If not, get lost.

Ordinary players got nothing out of it. Even if Roy had not stopped spending money, the game would still have been due to die.

Grumbling, Roy gathered the items and put them in the treasury.

Then he prepared to visit a famous café in the game for a cup of bitter coffee to perk himself up before heading to the next location to acquire another World Item.

Yet at the café, he unexpectedly ran into someone he knew.

"Lord Joshua!"

"I finally found you."

The man calling out wore a robe, a hood, and iron boots, and carried a great scythe. He looked like a grim reaper.

He was also one of Roy's few acquaintances in the game: Surshana, a player who would eventually cross over to the New World.

Surshana would cross over to the New World when the game's servers shut down.

However, he would arrive six hundred years before Ainz, the protagonist of the original story.

Once the man became history, then legend, Surshana would become the [Death God], one of the Six Great Gods worshipped by the Slane Theocracy.

That was because he protected enslaved humans, liberated them, and founded a human nation.

From humanity's perspective, Surshana was undoubtedly a good man.

That was also why Roy had gotten to know him, eventually learning a particular piece of information.

Surshana was a member of the Resistance in the real world.

That explained it.

In the real world, he fought against the megacorporations, so it made perfect sense that he would strive to protect humanity in the New World and ultimately die for his cause.

The café was quiet. Perhaps because the game was nearing its end, the two of them were the only customers.

Roy gave him a gentle smile:

"Shana, what is it?"

Surshana looked sheepish:

"Lord Joshua, I knew you'd come to the café for this bitter coffee."

Under computer law, Yggdrasil had actually disabled the sense of taste.

But there were exceptions to everything. One café had exploited a system loophole to create a bitter flavor.

Since it was only bitterness, the developers had left it alone.

Roy occasionally came here to sample that bitterness.

After all, there was nothing bitter about his life.

Surshana had gotten to know him well, so naturally, he knew some of his habits.

Roy nodded and said:

"Get to the point."

Surshana said sheepishly:

"Lord Joshua, I was wondering whether you'd seen the private message I sent you."

Roy shook his head:

"I haven't."

That was a lie, of course, meant to keep the other man from thinking he was too arrogant.

Surshana hurriedly said:

"The thing is, our Cat Re-Estize Kingdom has a World Item called Downfall of Castle and Country."

"It can be used to control monsters below world-class level."

"Even though the game's about to shut down, you can still experience what a World Item can do."

"For just a hundred thousand yen."

"Would you be interested, Lord Joshua?"

Roy sighed at that:

"Shana, let's go to your guild and discuss it."

Surshana was overjoyed:

"You're always welcome at our guild, Lord Joshua."

"Mm. But let me make this clear first: I'm not buying it."

"Huh?"