Child of Destiny

...…

System Regional Announcement: Congratulations to the Empyrean Talons Adventurer Team, Slayers Adventurer Team, and their other companions on completing the 'Empire Quest: The Promise of the Frozen Kingdom'!

They will all receive bountiful rewards for their bravery and might!

…

System Regional Announcement: With the efforts of the young heroes, the Advance Grade Region – Frozen Kingdom is now free from the curses and will be available to everyone once the 'Divine Wall of Sealing Ice' has melted.

Approximate time: 1 month (in-game time)

…

System Regional Announcement: The neighboring kingdoms around the Frozen Kingdom will start making their respective stances about this Sleeping Giant.

Investigative and Exploration Quests will be released from various Adventure Guilds branches of the said kingdoms. Rewards and other benefits can be received based on performance level.

…

These three announcements shook every player who was residing in the said regions as they stared at the notification panels flashing in front of their eyes. It was impossible to ignore such messages when they rang in their ears and notified time not just once or twice, but three times!

Some of the people who were currently in the middle of something could not help but stare blankly at those notifications due to how the system put a lot of importance on it by announcement with a volume much louder than ordinary news.

A lot of the players, who were in the middle of dungeon runs and in critical stages of their quest, were caught in accidents and almost failed due to the sudden notifications that they received. Those most unfortunate ones were even wiped up during the process, making them cry in both blood and tears.

The players wanted to curse whoever triggered such a notification, but when they looked closely at the notification screens and saw the two adventurer teams mentioned on it, they were forced to swallow their worlds despite knowing that those guys could not hear them.

Both of those Adventurer Teams were something that they could not be taken lightly. Most of their members were all celebrities in the virtual world and had a lot of fans everywhere. If they accidentally say something bad about those people and some crazy fans happened to hear them, then the outcome would have been something that they would not want to imagine.

Moreover, those two teams could even make the big guilds wary of them. Even the Powerhouse Guilds could not afford to provoke them.

After a brief moment of shock, the players started paying for the 'Frozen Kingdom' mentioned in the announcement. Given the importance that it had, it would definitely be something special, especially when the 'Empyrean Talons' and 'Slayers' had to team up just to clear the quest for unlocking it.

On the other hand, the players from the Saint Heaven Kingdom received more detailed news about it. Moreover, the series of big events and recent wars that took place in the kingdom was too coincidental.

It did not take long for the players to put two and two together, realizing that everything seemed to be all connected.

This aroused the interest of many people, especially the big guilds that quickly started investigating the matter.

But when the players were starting to recover from the shock, another series of system notifications bombarded them. And this time, the news that they got was much bigger than the ones that they recently received.

System World Announcement: An Advance Region has been successfully unlocked!

Legends about different Advance Regions are now available on the official website! Please look into it for more information.

…

System World Announcements: The Racial Major Regions are officially opened!

Location: (Second Continent) Awakened Continent

Players who are fearless and want to prove themselves, please talk to 'Mysterious Instructions' of their respective cities to see if you are qualified to enter this 'Lands of Legends'.

…

System World Announcements: Ascended Classes and Races have been discovered, please visit the official website for more information.

System World Announcement: The game has already reached its critical milestone, the 'World Metamorphosis' update will now take place.

Players are advised to settle or pause every business (Quest, Dungeon Runs, etc.) that they are doing within the game in the span of a day (in-game time). Severs will be undergoing week-long maintenance (real-world time) in preparation for the large-scale update.

Note: Every progress will be frozen during the time of maintenance.

Please visit the official website for more information.

…

Every player stared blankly at the notification panel in front of their eyes as they could not understand what was happening. Most of them could not understand the notifications sent by the system, especially the ones who just got online and were about to enjoy the game.

It did not take long for them to start opening another panel and search for the official website of the game to see what the developers were up to.

On the other hand, the players residing in the surrounding regions near the Frozen Kingdom, especially in the Saint Heaven Kingdom, were dumbfounded. They just received a regional announcement from the system when they got there. Even an idiot could easily connect the two and understood what was going on.

The Empyrean Talons and Slayers just did something crazy!

They not only unlocked a special region, but they also triggered a huge update that could change the flow of the game.

This was f*cking amazing!

Without further ado, these players quickly stopped what they were doing and immediately opened up the official website of the game to so what kind of update these legendary figures had triggered.

They were very excited to see the content of this new update. But after skimming through it later, they became even more shocked and could only stare blankly at their virtual screens.

"What kind of update is this!?"

********

While everyone was going crazy for the updated information on the official website, the guys who were responsible for everything were currently resting in the Frozen City, especially Shin, Arthur, and Leonard who already collapsed on the ground and breathing heavily.

It did not take long for the rest of the group to arrive at the scene and became dumbfounded yet also amazed at the current state of the place. Earlier, they were still a lot of frozen houses and other builds in here even though some of them collapsed due to their previous battle. But right now, the entire was almost flattened.

The frozen houses and buildings were reduced to a pile of rubble while the ground was full of deep pits and large craters. They could easily imagine how intense the battle that took place here even if they just stared at the current state of the place.

Earlier, they wanted to quickly head back and help the trio in the battle when they noticed that the Pandemonium Descendants did not appear despite waiting for a long time. For some unknown reason, none of them showed any movements or announced their presence.

After hesitating for a couple of moments, the group strategically retreated to the city while keeping their guards up and surveying the surroundings.

But when they arrived at the center of the city, they discovered that the place was currently sealed by a powerful barrier made of blood. Their attacks and any kind of advances were ineffective against it, so the group could only wait patiently for the battle to be over while also hoping for the best outcome.

Fortunately, the trio did not disappoint them and managed to emerge victorious in the hard-fought battle.

Shin, who was staring into the sky while lying on the ground, ignored the others and quickly opened the notification panel, and skimmed through everything. He just took a quick glance at the rewards before opening another panel to look for the updated information released by the World Gaming Organization.

He was more curious about the changes that the game would be undergoing after learning some of the secrets that he learned during the quest.

The first that attracted his attention was the 'Advance Regions'. And just like what he had thought, regions similar to Frozen Kingdom were starting to pop out of the game after this event.

On the official website, these 'regions' were comparable to the Major Racial Regions. Though, the unique quests and other special training and hunting grounds were only available to the second continent. Even though there were some differences, the benefits that the players would get from either map were pretty much similar to each other.

The only thing that the Major Racial Regions had would be the Advance Training Grounds that it had and the special environments that should be perfect for respective races.

Such news made everyone excited, especially the skilled and independent players that were already reaching the current peak threshold of the game. This included the major powers within the game.

Though, the information about the Advanced Regions was fairly limited. They were no different from being a clue for the Empire Quest that would the players from unlocking them. The required methods on how to unlock those regions or their exact locations were kept hidden by the sly developers.

It was as if those cunning foxes were saying – "There is a treasure somewhere here, but you have to look for it yourselves." –

Forget about looking for it – triggering the quest alone was already hard enough, much less clearing it. Only the naïve players would be tricked by such 'clues.'

It was practically a scam.

Shin could only pray for the poor souls who would be tricked by the hidden schemes of the game developers.

Regardless, there were a couple of regions that made him interested. They were the 'Forbidden Purgatory Desert', the 'Sea of the Endless Boundary', the Maze Forest of Forgetfulness, and the 'Forgotten Land of the Kings'.

Such names were very intriguing. Shin could not help but become a little curious about them after skimming through the background stories of each region. But it did not mean that he would be looking for those places. After the experiences in this Advanced Region, the Frozen Kingdom, he was very much unwilling to go on another adventure – at least for now.

Continuing on, Shin proceeded to the next set of information. The clues about the Major Racial Regions and the Awakened Continent.

Based on what was written on the official website, the Awakened Continent, which should be the second continent, was divided into different regions ruled by different races. They were the regions that were already mentioned previously.

Players had to pass certain series of tests conducted by the 'Mysterious Instructions' scattered in different regions of the first continents. These special NPCs could only be found in cities that were on Capital Rank and above.

But before everything else, the players needed to be on their Tier 3 Class before they could receive their respective evaluations.

The tests would determine the 'Potential' of players. And if they met a certain score, they would receive the qualification to enter the 'Lands of the Legends', the Awakened Continent.

This 'Potential' was a special stat that would be categorized into 'Novice', 'Intermediate', and 'Advanced' as basic levels, while the more advanced ones were called 'Expert', 'Master', and 'Ascended'.

There was not much information about these labels yet, but based on the names that they had, it should be related to the 'strength' and the 'apex' that the players could potentially get in the future.

After the players got their 'evaluations' from the 'Mysterious Instructions', they would be given a choice on whether they would be going to the second continent or staying for the time being and retaking the test once they became more confident at getting a much higher score.historical

It was mentioned that the players would not be able to take the test once again once they set foot on the second continent.

They could freely come traveled between the two continents back and forth once they got their qualifications, but they would not get another chance at promoting their 'Potential' stats if they chose to become content with their score, so the players were advised to make a thorough decision before making their choice.

Once they were in the Awakened Continent, everyone would have the same starting point. Everyone would have to start in the Divine Empire before proceeding to explore the other major regions and sacred lands.

…

Shin speculated that these 'Potential' stat would be somewhat related to how far they could improve their classes, especially when he saw the 'Ascended' rank at the end. He did not believe that it would just be a coincidence to have the same 'labels.'

He became even more sure about his suspicions when he saw the next information. It was about the Ascended Classes and Races.

Shin did not read through this set of information since he already heard about the earlier from Arthur and the others. Ascended Class was a path to becoming an Ascended Being, a race that was comparable to Transcendent Beings.

What made Shin interested was the information about the common classes. There was a rumor before that the Tier 3 Classes of the common classes could contend against the Transcendent Races, but it was never been confirmed.

But when Shin connected the 'Potential' Stat with those rumors, things became much clearer to him. Players could evolve their class on their own as long as they received a high evaluation from the 'Mysterious Instructions'.

This could mean that the fate of everyone was practically in their hands. If they work hard enough, then their efforts would be rewarded, and become more powerful despite not having a stroke of godly luck like 'certain' people. But if they chose to take an easy route and waste the chance given to them, then they could only blame themselves for not being motivated and wise enough.

Shin liked this approach very much as it would give everyone a fair chance. This would also give those skilled players but unfortunate enough to get a lucky encounter.

This would clearly divide the players into real and hardcore game experts and casual gamers.

Only the qualified and dedicated ones could enter the Awakened Continent and struggle against their fellow game enthusiasts. And that was where the real battles and adventures would start.

After skimming those sets of information, Shin now proceeded to the most important matter at hand, the so-called 'World Metamorphosis' Update.

...