Godlike Player in a Game-Like World

''Where are Dan and the others? Call them all. '' Raydon scanned the group and inquired when he realized that not everyone was there.

"Dan and the others are currently training in another location," Karan said, and after getting confirmation from Raydon, he went to gather the others.

In spite of the fact that the group prioritized Raydon's requests and spent the majority of their time in the neighborhood of his home, they still made it a point to keep up with their training and chose a different location for it because they didn't want to cause a disturbance in the neighborhood.

—

''Do not become impatient, and do not let fear control you.  Every ache and pain you go through now will serve to fortify you in the days to come, and maybe... No, I do not doubt that you will one day awaken as an item holder if you continue with this training. ''

Dan remarked as he took in the audience of eighty individuals in front of him. These eighty individuals were all fresh additions to the group; all of them were drenched and appeared to be in a terrible state of exhaustion due to the pallor of their complexions and the dark circles that surrounded their eyes.

These people, like Dan and others, used to be a part of another group that suffered under Herman's tyrannical rule. They had spent their entire lives in the slums, where they witnessed the daily execution of friends, family members, and acquaintances in the name of incomprehensible experiments and forms of torture.

They had no freedom outside of the rat holes in which they hid, and they lived in constant fear for years. However, one day, a ray of hope shone through their hopeless eyes in the form of unbelievable news.

They heard that Herman and his entire gang, who had persecuted them up until this point and made their lives a living hell, had been destroyed by a group living not far from their location, with a mysterious item holder leading them.

They were initially skeptical of the information and suspected that it was an elaborate hoax; however, they eventually worked up the courage to investigate the matter and were taken aback by what they discovered when they visited Herman's headquarters.

Neither the abandoned village nor the abandoned factory that Herman had been using as his base of operations were there any longer. There was nothing to see but a vast expanse of land in every direction. Just like the rumors they had heard, it looked like they had all been wiped off the face of the earth.

On that day, hundreds of people gathered close to Herman's former home, which is now his tomb, to commemorate their liberation from oppression.

As they stood in front of this cemetery, a range of emotions overtook the group. Some spat on the sacred ground and cursed it, while others bowed their heads and offered prayers for their departed ancestors. And then there were those who wept uncontrollably, mourning not only the loss of their loved ones but also the peace that had finally come after enduring years of unimaginable hardship.

Although everyone responded in their own unique way to this occurrence, everyone shared a similar thought. They were to seek out and express gratitude to whoever freed them from this persecution.

But before they could find the people who had saved them, Dan and his team had already approached them and made them an offer.

Dan and his team, who were already a gang, made the decision to further expand their authority in this region with their newly acquired power. As a result, they began to add all of the people living around them to their gang in the entire region in an effort to bring a new order to the entire slum.

''B-Boss… I-I mean, first captain. Is it really guaranteed that this training will lead to our awakening? ''

Dan was questioned with skepticism by one of the young people who had just lifted his tired body off the ground. When he looked at Dan, he did so with a profound sense of reverence and respect, but at the same time, he was skeptical about the efficacy of the training they were receiving at the moment.

Dan turned to face the person who had asked the question and smiled as he thought. 'How naive were we back then? '

When Raydon first started training them, he too had reservations about how successful they would be. How could they have possibly benefited from participating in a training that appears to have been both pointless and ineffective?

At that very moment, Dan and the others were in a position where they had no other choice but to believe in Raydon's training. As a result, they obeyed every order that was issued to them without raising any questions. And it took them a while to acknowledge how limited their perspective of the world was.

A seemingly mundane and pointless but also challenging training program was all it took to break them out of their fragile shells and reveal the immense potential that lay dormant within.

''How do you think I managed to become an item holder, I ask you? '' Dan removed his glove and displayed the tattoo with the number 6 on it on the back of his hand to inspire the young people in front of him.

Raydon was the one who initially taught Dan and the other members of his gang the technique, and Dan wanted the new members of his gang to learn it so that they can become as strong as he is.

Dan didn't believe that Raydon would say anything unfavorable about him teaching this technique to others because, in his eyes, Raydon was already a divine being with incredible powers, and he believed that this technique, which had incredible wonders for them, was unimportant to Raydon.

Additionally, the main reason he taught the technique he had learned to others was not for his own selfish reasons anyway.