Roy happily inspected his build of classes.
However, the lead game designer hurriedly advised:
"Pops, this power level is a bit low."
"We've already brought the stats of all these special classes to their theoretical maximums. Going any higher would violate our design principles."
"How about we weaken some of the special mechanics and convert them into raw stats instead? That way, you'll still become the strongest."
Roy immediately said:
"No need to change it, keep it just like this."
"I'm not a player who chases after sheer power; I'm a person who pursues conceptual status."
"Besides, with these mechanics in place, as long as I use them properly, no one will be able to kill me at all."
That was just running away.
Which heavy spender chased after a build where nobody could hit anyone?
The lead game designer was left speechless.
Rich people really had strange hobbies.
Since you'd spent so much money, it would be a waste not to aim for clearing the server single-handedly.
He could only offer a single line:
"Pops, as long as you're happy."
"Just name whatever requests you have."
Roy smiled and replied:
"It's very simple. If the class power isn't enough, we can make up for it with divine items."
"Help me design exclusive divine items. These divine items must have massive restrictions so they don't surpass World Items, but when paired with my class, they'll become very strong."
"Understand?"
The lead game designer came to a sudden realization.
After all, if the class power was too unconventional, it would easily cause the game's logic to collapse.
Yet pairing it with exclusive divine items allowed them to cheat in a legitimate manner.
Their cheating had finesse and professionalism to it; they weren't just randomly adding a few zeros to the back. They played around sets and mechanics.
The lead game designer shouted on the spot:
"Pops, we understand!"
"We guarantee to make you satisfied."
With the classes finalized, they began the private customization of the divine items.
The first divine item was the [Incredible Treasure Basin].
This treasure basin could yield 10 billion gold coins daily. Operating in tandem with [Silver Bullets of Allure], it was the designated item granted for achieving the title of World's Richest Man.
If needed, it could also consume gold coins and convert them into other currencies.
Originally, the game company wanted to make it a World Item to further amplify its effects.
However, Roy refused.
"You guys need to have some backbone; you cannot surrender to money."
"There are originally designed to be 200 World Items, all completely unique. How could we change that temporarily?"
"How shameful!"
"The highest tier must maintain its prestige and must not be devalued!"
Roy's words caused the employees of the company behind Yggdrasil to break out in a cold sweat.
They hurriedly patted their chests in assurance, promising that they would follow Pops's instructions precisely and would never tamper with or blindly alter anything.
Only then did Roy wear a satisfied expression.
"Remember, customized items cannot exceed World Items."
"If I need World Items, I'll go buy them myself."
The game planners looked at each other in dismay.
He was clearly cheating, yet he refused to use the highest level of cheating.
After all, Roy worried that adding new World Items would disrupt the Dragon Emperor's plans.
Existing intelligence indicated that one had to log on during the server shutdown and possess a World Item to successfully cross over.
Therefore, any approach that altered World Items was forbidden.
If he failed to cross over successfully, wouldn't Roy instantly turn into a clown?
Should that happen, if he wanted to become strong, he would have to resort to mechanical ascension and nanotechnology.
The game could set a character to possess infinite power, obliterating a multiverse with a single move, even wearing away the Great Dao.
But whether the Dragon Emperor's Wild Magic could pull that across was the real question.
As long as Roy successfully cashed out, he could leave using a dimensional gate in the future, entirely bypassing the need to butt heads with the Bone King's world.
He couldn't be greedy when cashing out; he had to maintain a sense of proportion.
Roy wanted to be as insane as possible with his mechanics, but he could not grant himself a tier of power that surpassed World Items.
The original work had 200, so there must be 200-absolutely no more.
Because of this, Roy repeatedly emphasized to the lead designer every time:
"My requirement is that even private customizations must comply with your game world settings."
"Understood?"
The lead designer immediately replied:
"Pops, rest assured, we can apply directional nerfs."
"For instance, the [Incredible Treasure Basin] can only be used by someone who possesses both the World's Richest Man and World Merchant classes."
"That way, even if it's slightly strong, it won't violate the underlying logic."
Clever!
"Very well, I am quite satisfied."
"What about the second divine item?"
The lead designer, Matsuno Hideaki, hurriedly spoke up:
"The second divine item is called the [Incredible Flea Market]."
"As long as it's an item, weapon, material, or anything else put up for sale to the system by players."
"Except for World Items, Pops can trade for and purchase them by consuming [Gold Coins] or top-up [Saint Quartz]."
"However, the price will be slightly higher than the acquisition value."
"At the same time, only those who possess the World Merchant class can use this item."
What a flawless design!
He truly lived up to being the lead game designer, grasping Roy's needs in an instant.
Roy wanted to hack, but he couldn't do it blatantly.
A minor hack wasn't a hack.
If he demanded to replicate every item in the entire world, that would clearly be cheating-even World Items couldn't do that.
But buying items that players had put up for sale? That wasn't cheating.
It was just a trading market.
Though Roy harbored doubts about whether this [Incredible Flea Market] would still function once he reached the New World.
After all, the flea market relied on data and the various item records stored by the game system.
Roy pondered for a moment and said:
"In principle, I approve of the design for this divine item."
"However, it needs a catalog, which can be made into another divine item that records all the various items put up for sale by players."
"Remember, the data must be entirely recorded within the catalog itself; you cannot directly use an API, and it must be capable of updates."
"This..."
The lead game designer, Matsuno Hideaki, who had been calling him Pops all along, suddenly hesitated.
Roy mused:
"Can't it be done?"
Matsuno Hideaki quickly said:
"Pops, do you know the item grade classifications in Yggdrasil?"
"I know."
Roy answered decisively:
"Lowest (Levels 1-10), Lower (Levels 11-20), Middle (Levels 21-30), Upper (Levels 31-40), Highest (Levels 41-50), Relic (Levels 51-60), Holy Relic (Levels 61-70), Legend-class (Levels 71-80), Divine (Levels 81-90), Guild Weapon (Levels 91-100), and World-class, which surpasses all."
"Of course, Guild Weapon tier is generally excluded from the rankings because it requires players to craft them themselves, resulting in varying strengths; it's just said to ideally surpass Divine tier."
Matsuno Hideaki nodded and said:
"Pops is right."
"The distinction between these is actually a matter of data size."
"World Items contain the data of an entire world, which is why they stand above everything else."
"For the catalog Pops wants, we can create a divine item called the [Incredible Product Catalog] for Pops to purchase from to his heart's content."
"It's just that all this trading data is recorded on the game's own system; providing an API is all that's necessary."
"If we were to truly store all that data on the divine item itself, even a World Item might not be able to hold it all."
Data size was the internal logical design of the game.
According to the historical records of the Yggdrasil game, the entire world had developed from a single World Tree.
Every single leaf of the World Tree could develop into a world.
As a result of accidents, many leaves withered and transformed into World Items.
In other words, the power of your divine item might exceed a World Item.
Yet your conceptual status could never surpass a World Item.
This was one of Yggdrasil's most core settings.
Knowing this, Roy pondered and said:
"It's very simple. Categorize and store every single item that has ever appeared."
"Even if you have to forge a hundred divine items to form a complete encyclopedia, you're going to get this done for me."
That way, the [Incredible Flea Market] combined with the full Product Catalog...
Once he reached the New World, Roy could purchase whatever he wanted.
Wasn't that wonderful?
This was the most powerful skill of the World Merchant, used in conjunction with divine items.
Why do rich people have such strange hobbies?
Why duplicate the data storage when a single API could solve the issue? Wouldn't that just add a massive hunk of database to the game?
Matsuno Hideaki inwardly cursed his fate as he wiped the sweat from his forehead:
"Old Pops, just an API gives the exact same effect."
"Then about this year's top-up quota..."
Matsuno Hideaki patted his chest and shouted:
"Pops, rest assured, we are professionals."
"As long as it's an item that has been traded, we'll turn it into an encyclopedia."
Ah, now this was a good son.
Whenever Roy saw players on the forum complaining that the game company was inhuman, arrogant, and that the management only knew how to brush off their customers,
he would log into his main account and reply:
"I'm also one of the millions of players; how come I haven't felt that the game company's attitude is arrogant?"
"And the management isn't like what you guys claim; they always affectionately call me Pops."
This quote was subsequently collected into Famous Quotes of Lord Joshua Shocking the World.
Through such affectionate interactions, Roy secured important items.
As for whether they could be used in the New World, he would worry about that when the time came.
Having exercised his class traits and painstakingly managed to encompass the entire item system of Yggdrasil, Roy finally began to add a bit of power to himself.
"Son, with these items, I still need to increase my power a bit. Put together some equipment-based divine items for me."
"Understood, Old Pops!"
"We have designed a set of [Incredible Armor] specifically meant to pair with [Space Traveler]."
Roy grew interested and couldn't help asking:
"How does it pair?"
The lead game designer immediately replied:
"The Incredible Armor contains a tiny castle. The moment Pops is subjected to danger, it will trigger a space teleportation, sending you straight to the castle."
"That way, you can evade anything except spatial skills."
"At the same time, it will further shorten the teleportation cast time."
"If Pops combines this with the passive trait of [Space Traveler], the teleportation time can be shortened to 0.01 seconds."
"This is the limit of the system's refresh rate; the actual user experience might not quite reach that speed."
What a good son!
No wonder you're the lead designer; your brain really works well.
Wasn't this one of the most useful skills in Naruto-the Kamui Dimension?
This was precisely the kind of slippery bullshit he wanted!
Generally speaking, teleportation could be interrupted, sealed, restrained, and so on, and its activation time was very long.
For players who had just mastered teleportation magic, the process from initiation to effect took 5 seconds.
High-level players could learn [Quick Teleport] to cut five seconds down to three.
Players who specialized in combat knew they needed to unlock [Instant Spellcasting] to bring it down to one second.
If that still wasn't enough, cash-shop items could push it to the limit of 0.5 seconds.
Factoring in human reaction speed, that was already the limit.
A normal person's [complex reflex speed] was 0.37 seconds.
Roy had [Space Traveler], which gave his spatial teleportation an activation time of 0.5 seconds, but cash-shop items couldn't shorten it any further.
That made it a trash class.
A Magic Caster could learn [Quick Teleport], combine it with [Instant Spellcasting], and finally throw in a cash-shop item.
Their speed would match that of a [Space Traveler].
Yet [Space Traveler] wasted ten levels of their class build.
If that wasn't trash, what was?
Then his son came along to show Pops some love.
Divine artifact: Incredible Armor Effect 1: When the player is attacked, spatial teleportation activates, sending them into the Space Castle to avoid damage. Effect 2: While the player wears this equipment, all spatial teleportation times are reduced by 0.5 seconds. This effect cannot stack with cash-shop items. Effect 3: When worn by someone who is not a [Space Traveler], if their spatial teleportation time is less than one second, Effect 2 will not activate.
That was what you called custom-made.
An activation time of 0.5 seconds approached the limits of human ability in the game.
But in battles in the New World, it was as slow as a snail.
When true masters fought to the death, they had to cut that down to at least 0.1 seconds, if not less.
For example, how fast could Cocytus, the Great Tomb of Nazarick's level-100 NPC, fight?
The answer was Mach 5.
He could charge in from a hundred meters away and strike an enemy's vital point in just 0.05 seconds.
An ordinary Magic Caster on the battlefield would have no time to react at all.
Roy, however, had tailored a divine artifact to his own class.
Once he reached the New World, he could activate spatial teleportation instantly, making it impossible even to interrupt him.
Even the Dragon Emperor would curse if he saw it, demanding to know how anyone could cheat like that.
Without Roy's [Space Traveler] class traits, the [Incredible Armor] would have been pure trash.
It would merely save him a cash-shop item.
Yet combining those two pieces of trash made them terrifyingly powerful in reality.
Instant activation of any spatial magic.
Roy continued:
"What else?"
"Reporting to Pops, we've also prepared the [Incredible Ring of Destiny], the [Incredible Ring of Time], and more."
After receiving the task requirements, the lead designer had mobilized the brains of the entire company to satisfy Pops's demands.
Now Roy really could single-handedly steamroll the entire server.
It wasn't that the top players were weak. Their stats were still higher, and Roy's divine artifacts hadn't added any stats either.
The mechanics were simply so obnoxious that they could drive every player to quit.
Yet even after piling on all those mechanics, he still wasn't satisfied.
Because the guild was where the real cash-out would happen.
Everything before that had just been minor cheats. A little cheating didn't count.
Before you continue