Rich people really did have strange quirks.
All those NPC points, just to create every class and race.
Was he insane?
The lead designer's brain crashed on the spot.
Roy added:
"Give these NPCs the best AI. I'll cover all the maintenance costs."
"Pops, we've already thought this through."
The game's lead designer thumped his chest and said:
"Pops has the World Merchant class. This special class lets you trade anything, including guild base points."
"You can buy unused points from players in other guilds."
"World City's total cap is 300,000 points, the theoretical maximum in the design."
"Would that be satisfactory, Pops?"
Satisfactory. Very satisfactory.
Roy praised the lead designer again, but this time, a smile crept onto the designer's lips.
He had left a little setup in place.
Once Roy bought those points, other players would discover the missing points when they destroyed those guilds and took over their bases.
The transactions would come to light, eventually exposing the [King of the World] quest.
That, too, was part of his plan.
Matsuno Hideaki was determined to reveal his ultimate quest to the world.
Then he witnessed something that left him dumbstruck.
Roy's solution was extremely simple.
He negotiated with each guild, first spending 15 million yen to raise its guild base points by 300, then paying another 500,000 yen to buy those [NPC level points].
As for anyone who tried to scam Roy and run off with the money, they could look forward to the World Merchant's special effects.
The World Merchant possessed the special skill [God of Contracts], which allowed him to set commercial terms and sign a contract with both parties' consent.
If the other party broke the agreement, the God of Contracts would become the [Debt-Collecting Demon]. All related assets would be seized, with an account ban as the maximum penalty.
And it was not just an in-game account ban. Roy could pay to have them banned offline, too.
So no one dared take his money without doing the work.
Besides, every agreement was carried out by someone Roy designated, who joined the guild and personally handled the Gold purchases. He never gave the other guild a chance to make a mistake.
Many guilds got to know Roy through this and shamelessly sucked up to him:
"Lord Joshua, we can sell you a little more."
"No. This much is enough."
Since he was buying points with Gold, most players would not have paid to add those points even if the guild was conquered and sold. There was therefore no loss, and the guild effectively gained some base points for free.
Lead designer Matsuno Hideaki watched in utter disbelief.
Did you have so much money it was burning a hole in your pocket?
Why help other people upgrade their base points first when you could just buy them outright?
Because Roy did not want to affect the game's development and let an accident change the course of history.
That applied even to NPC points.
Interestingly, this actually brought Roy into contact with Bone King.
The members of the [Ainz Ooal Gown] guild were all discussing whether to make some money from it.
"Buying guild base points with Gold is way too expensive."
"Almost nobody would spend Gold on this. This Joshua guy has more money than sense. He's willing to upgrade our base first, then buy those 300 points. We lose absolutely nothing and get 500,000 yen for free."
Even for the adults in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, 500,000 yen was no small sum.
Suzuki Satoru's monthly salary was only 150,000 yen. That was more than three months of his wages.
Though split among forty-one players, it would not amount to much.
It would only be enough for some gacha pulls.
In the end, Bone King stepped in to persuade everyone:
"If we keep the points he pays for with Gold, we might be able to make a few more NPCs in the future."
"At least Tabula Smaragdina will have more room to put his talents to use."
Roy abandoned that transaction.
If they would not sell, plenty of others would.
Yggdrasil was in its heyday at the time, with over three thousand guilds. Buying 300 points from each meant he only needed nine hundred guilds.
And so, the game company discovered, to its astonishment, that Roy alone had bought up all the point upgrades with Gold.
He spent 12.5 billion yen buying 300 base points for each guild with Gold, then another 500 million yen purchasing them, for a total of 13 billion yen.
No wonder he was the ultimate cash cow.
If the game company had not needed to respect the game's underlying logic, it would have given him unlimited NPC points long ago.
All that lovely money, handed out to ordinary players.
What a waste!
And just like that, he assembled 300,000 NPC points.
If Roy made level-100 NPCs, he could create a full three thousand.
That did not even include personal NPCs, monsters summoned as mercenaries, and so on.
If he successfully brought them into reality, even without any combat power himself, Roy could rely on his level-100 NPCs to tell Bone King:
"Ainz, polish my shoes."
Roy simply would not do anything that boring.
He created NPCs not for combat strength, but for a comprehensive, varied collection of skills and to explore the possibility of bringing them into reality, laying groundwork for future development.
The lead designer could not help asking:
"Pops, how long will it take to design three thousand max-level NPCs?"
"Who said I'd be doing it?"
"You'll be making them, of course. I'll just review them and complete the final creation step."
Roy was no lore obsessive and had no interest in doing it himself. He simply paid professionals to polish all his NPC designs.
"Hire teams for me. Every NPC must be meticulously crafted."
"Study the class builds players have discovered and work them into the designs."
"And hire the best modeling teams to create every NPC's appearance."
"Finally, make only one thousand max-level NPCs. Use the remaining 200,000 NPC points to make nine thousand more, for ten thousand NPCs in total."
Lead designer Matsuno Hideaki sucked in a sharp breath.
Even a normal MMORPG would not have that many characters.
"Pops, this is a massive undertaking."
"Isn't that even better for you?"
"I'm paying for it all anyway."
Roy really was playing a completely different game.
Simply finalizing and confirming ten thousand NPCs took almost five years.
As the King of the World, Roy had to remember these NPCs' names and abilities and compile them into a corresponding reference book.
That reference book was also a divine artifact, one exclusive to Roy that helped him manage his NPCs.
With ten thousand original NPCs, even if Roy wanted a harem of three thousand beauties, it would be no problem.
At one a day, he would need almost eight years to get through them. Counting all the different variations, the possibilities approached infinity.
Ahem.
Of course, Roy had not made all those NPCs to satisfy his desire for a harem. He wanted to explore the limits.
He experimented with all kinds of NPCs.
Mathematicians, physicists, biologists, and so on, for example.
They accounted for a large portion of the total.
Even though this game had no physicist class, only related classes such as [Scholar] and [Alchemist].
But that did not matter.
That was exactly what Roy wanted, and he did not merely write vague descriptions calling them mathematical geniuses.
Instead, he described them like this.
Mathematics Queen Vera had proved the Riemann Hypothesis and solved all the mathematical problems of the century.
Physics Goddess Celia had solved the grand unified theory and uncovered the secrets of traveling through space and time.
Computer God Matilda had mastered true artificial intelligence and could design AI approaching omniscience and omnipotence.
Energy Empress Freya had mastered the construction of Dyson Spheres and all related energy technologies.
Raw stats were of little use across the myriad worlds. There was always someone stronger.
For example, Meruem in Hunter x Hunter had powerful stats, only to be taken out by a nuclear bomb.
If Meruem had possessed Four-Dimensional Space Teleportation, he could have hidden in another space and been fine.
Only powerful mechanics could guarantee long-term success.
Roy made ten thousand NPCs. Besides preserving every skill and racial configuration in the game, he deliberately assembled an all-star research team.
They could not only research every scientific field, but also investigate the fundamental nature of magic, alchemy, and more.
Even if the scientists were not powerful fighters, they could provide enormous value in any world.
Roy already could not wait to see the moment they became real.
He had plenty of other experiments along similar lines.
Roy intended to maximize the value of bringing NPCs into reality, pushing it to the absolute limit.
As for the game's lead designer, he desperately wanted to say:
Rich people really did have strange quirks!
Game companies liked tormenting players, while Roy liked tormenting game companies.
For five years, Roy used his position as the client to tear into their character designs every day, driving who knew how many corporate drones mad.
He carefully reviewed every one of the ten thousand NPCs and brought in the highest-end AI to check them repeatedly.
He left absolutely no room for loopholes.
Under such rigorous scrutiny, cutting corners or sneaking in personal touches was out of the question.
The corporate drones were under enormous pressure.
Among them was Tabula Smaragdina of the [Ainz Ooal Gown] guild, the creator of Albedo and others in the original story.
That was right. He was a character designer by profession and had been selected for his outstanding design talent.
He later quit the game because Roy had drained him dry at work.
Literally drained him dry. Whenever he logged in, Tabula Smaragdina looked as though he had nothing left to live for.
"Tabula Smaragdina, why have you been like this lately?"
"A demon. That man is the real demon!"
"He's the real Cthulhu! Kill him! We have to kill him!"
In truth, Tabula Smaragdina had no idea whom he was working for. Someone had simply hired them to develop game characters.
And every day, his designs were sent back for revisions.
The revisions put him through absolute agony.
But he kept working, because Roy simply paid too much.
Suzuki Satoru could not help saying:
"With your abilities, Tabula Smaragdina, you could definitely find another job."
"No, it's fine."
Tabula Smaragdina resolutely stood up:
"He pays a lot. Now we can finally unlock those 300 NPC level points."
"Fifteen million yen. What a generous payment!"
"Heh heh. I'm going to design three more new characters."
Tabula Smaragdina said this with drool running from his mouth.
Although Roy insulated the game from his influence and focused solely on private commissions.
He spent enormous amounts of money, inevitably producing some small changes in the world.
Who could have imagined that Tabula Smaragdina would make a fortune because of him and splurge on in-game purchases?
But Roy had no attention to spare for any of that.
Because while designing the game, he also had to overhaul the construction of the entire guild base.
Ten thousand original NPCs only qualified as a mid-tier cheat. The entire guild was the big one.
The cheat-making could not stop.
Before you continue