Chapter 45
Every story has a beginning and an end.
By now, the 'Two Heroes' series had long since passed 100 chapters and risen to become the flagship title of the Empire Daily, and it too would one day come to an end.
But there was someone, more precisely a dwarf, who believed that day was not today.
That was Bolin Blackrock, the imperial master builder who had turned Caesar's circumvallation line into reality overnight just days earlier.
Contrary to the world's prejudice that dwarves were naturally crude and ignorant, he loved novels.
Which was why he had eagerly taken the lead in bringing Caesar's Architecture 101 to life.
Naturally.
Author Ulysses's 'Two Heroes' series also struck a chord deep in his heart, and
“Behold the brilliant gleam of my Azure Dragon Crescent Blade!”
“Ooh...!”
Guan Yu, the dwarf martial god, had stirred such a surge of dwarven pride in his chest that it made him want to pick up his forge hammer again after leaving it untouched for so long.
“But isn't Guan Yu human?”
“What are you talking about! Guan Yu is a dwarf! His beard proves it!”
If a man growing a 'beautiful beard' wasn't a dwarf, then what race was he? Obviously a dwarf! Zhang Fei is a dwarf too! As for Liu Bei, he's not an elf—just a human with slightly big ears!
He loved the 'Two Heroes' story enough to offer his own unique character interpretations. More precisely, he loved 'The Royal Bloodline Is Hidden.'
And because he was that kind of man,
[Two Heroes: The Royal Bloodline Is Hidden concludes Part 1 here. We'll see you again in Part 2.]
“Wh... what did you sayyyy...!”
He suffered such intense despair that his beard trembled like a poodle's.
Part 1 complete?!
Isn't that just another way of saying it got canceled?!
Just as Bolin had interpreted it.
At the very least, in the serial-novel industry, the phrase 'Part 1 complete' was used interchangeably with 'the author ran off in the middle of the night' or 'the work flopped so badly it got axed.'
But Two Heroes was clearly a novel that was still maintaining its popularity.
Could the author really have run away...!
No way, my Ulysses would never do that!
There was still so much story left to tell.
Even though I had skimmed it because I didn't like the protagonist, in 'The Villain Hides His Ambition' he had already accomplished the feat of conquering the entire northern continent.
Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei had taken refuge with their relative Liu Biao again and gradually built up their strength, hadn't they?
And just recently, hadn't it even devoted a full two chapters to recruiting the strongest strategist of all?
Of course, the praise was a little too forced—almost enough to make you wonder if the author was indulging their own original character—but still, bringing in new talent like that and then springing a major twist in the story was the standard progression.
And yet here it was... Part 1 complete...!
Swallowing not only his rising fury but even his despair, Bolin turned the page while clutching at a thread of hope.
And there it was.
[After racing breathlessly all the way here, meet the stories of the heroes we couldn't fully capture in the 'Heroes Assemble' card game!]
A merchandise ad that seemed to carry the message, 'If you don't buy it, there won't be a sequel,' filled the entire page.
.
.
.
- Empire Daily, awaken!
- Serialize Two Heroes!
- Ulysses, come back!
- Update three times a day!
As Bolin roamed the streets, he could see an angry crowd gathered in front of the Empire Daily building.
But instead of joining that barbaric procession, he chose the dwarf's brand of capitalist revenge.
He headed straight to the card game's sales location listed in the paper.
“Get lost! Board game salons rule here!”
“Cut the bullshit!”
“Boo, boo, boo!”
“Card packs! Bring us more card packs!”
He pushed through the bizarre bunch who couldn't resist any new game and bought the 'Liu Bei' basic set and several card packs that people were desperate to get.
Then he went home and opened the basic set first.
He had no real intention of actually playing, so he tossed the rulebook aside without a care.
“Ohh...”
He fanned the cards out and let out an impressed breath.
The strangely flowing mana on the backs from the pointy-eared folk was a little off-putting, but the lively illustrations caught his eye first.
When he lightly tapped the part listing the in-game effects he wasn't all that curious about,
[Guan Yu (Youth)]
[He was from Xie County in Hedong Commandery, and after killing a salt merchant who was trying to make exorbitant profits, he was driven out by the authorities...]
A story about a character not described in the original novel unfurled before him in a flourish.
Just this alone made it feel as though his purchase had been duly rewarded.
And so, as if bewitched, he savored the text on the characters included in the 'Liu Bei' basic set, along with event cards like 'Five Passes, Slaying Six Generals' and weapon cards like 'Twin Swords.'
He tore open one of the card packs he had bought with a rip.
The moment he did,
golden, dazzling light burst forth from his hands.
“Oh, ooh?”
At the same instant as his exclamation, the five cards sleeping inside the pack floated into the air, and
『Hihi Card!』
Suppressing the surprise he'd had earlier when that bizarre voice had intermittently drifted over from the card-game stall,
he reached out and grabbed the golden card from among the ones floating in midair.
And then.
With slightly trembling hands, he checked the front of the card.
[3 Cost] [SR Cao Hong Wearing a Golden Helmet]
[Unique Effect: Despair is what makes a man grow stronger!]
[If your lord is Cao Cao and this card is deployed to the battlefield, the opponent cannot attack your lord, and Cao Hong takes 1 less damage.]
“...Who?”
Unfortunately, by then Bolin had already forgotten that, during Dong Zhuo's forced relocation of the capital, Cao Cao had chased after him only to get soundly crushed by Xu Rong and flee in disgrace.
Even as he checked the remaining junk cards, he couldn't help but swallow his disappointment.
Then he picked up and read the single sheet of paper left inside the opened pack before he even realized it.
[This card pack contains the following cards.]
[SSR Liu Bei Driving Off Lü Bu]
[SSR Guan Yu Who Beheaded Hua Xiong]
[SSR Cao Cao Who Placed Emperor Xian on the Throne]
[……]
[R Jian Yong]
[R Sun Qian]
[R Mi Fang]
The keyword 'Guan Yu Who Beheaded Hua Xiong' flew straight into his heart and lodged there.
He tore open all the remaining card packs to check their contents,
“Bring me the card packs! All of them! Anyone who has an SSR Guan Yu Who Beheaded Hua Xiong card, sell it to me!”
Even as he ran to the sales booth and lined up like the other fiends, Bolin loudly made his intention to buy known.
Of course, no one would sell him one.
.
.
.
Under the policy that allowed a maximum of five packs per purchase, only after endlessly lining up and being disappointed again and again from noon until night
“Ooooh...! O noble dwarf! Our pride! The glory built with hundreds of gold in investment!”
he was finally able to receive the real, physical SSR 'Guan Yu Who Beheaded Hua Xiong' that he had wanted so badly.
The glittering image of Guan Yu astride a horse and gripping his Azure Dragon Crescent Blade filled his eyes and brought tears to them.
* * *
'Heroes Assemble' gradually began to set the imperial capital ablaze.
“Huh...? This is kind of fun...?”
“The rules are more intricate than I expected. There's a satisfying feel to using tactic cards too.”
“Ghh, you used the married Mrs. Chu card there of all things! You bastard, did you bring a counter card just because I'm on a Cao Cao deck right now?!”
“It's strategy. Who told you to play a Cao Cao deck?”
The tavern hero had been turned into a faction leader,
minions into generals or soldiers,
spells into strategies or incidents,
and locations into battlefields.
Thanks to borrowing magic to make it easy to play offline as well, it was nothing less than a copyright raid that transcended time and place.
Historie's scheme, which had absorbed Blizzard's game design wholesale, had properly smacked board-game enthusiasts upside the head.
And just as the vile economic criminal Kim Yul had originally intended,
“Daaad! I want SSR cards too! I'm so jealous of James next door!”
“Sigh... I don't have one either.”
“Waaah!”
“What the hell are you two, the kid and the father, doing?!”
Thanks to its design and setup, which were enough to stimulate the urge to collect even in people who didn't actually play games,
it successfully collected children’s pocket change
and adults’ nosebleed money at the same time.
The advantage of cards is that they're easy to carry around.
And if you add just a little more to that sentence,
it becomes that they're easy to carry around and show off...!
“Don't your place have this sort of thing?”
“I do! I do!”
Even kids.
“Hmm... I originally wanted to pull Liu Bei driving off Lü Bu, but strangely enough, just once! I opened a card pack and got Cao Cao who placed Emperor Xian on the throne right away. Whew... I don't really like Cao Cao...”
“This bastard?”
Adults too.
Their eyes rolled.
Madness began to surge through them.
.
.
.
And so.
By the time word had quietly spread, just as it had in the imperial capital, and the cities around the capital were also being swallowed by the frenzy for 'Heroes Assemble,'
a single advertisement poster began going up at every shop that held exclusive sales rights for the card packs.
[A World Dreamed Through Novels, Novelpia Publication Notice]
[The Empire Daily is beginning an unprecedented new challenge to bring you better novels, and more of them. A newspaper devoted solely to novels. Novelpia is...]
- What does the Yellow One like? Hmm... there's that dog-like taste of chewing gold ingots whole, sob... and beyond that, novels? Seems like he just reads whatever gets published.
Duke Schnaisen's political savvy had now reached SSR rank, to the point that there was no rival for it anywhere in the empire.
Naturally, they were fully prepared to start shamelessly flattering the Great Gold Dragon's beloved hobby.
Because of that,
the fawning project Duke Schnaisen had bankrolled by emptying out the family treasury began to make its presence known in the world in earnest.
It had even swollen by gobbling up heavyweight authors who serialized in the Imperial Daily, as if using a Great Absorption Technique, enough to draw the attention of novel lovers.
And there was a decisive bait, too.
Something appealing even to people who didn't go out of their way to seek out and enjoy novels.
[In the inaugural issue special edition, a limited-edition card from the card game 'Heroes Assemble' (randomly one of ten types) will be included as a bonus insert.]
“...!”
“Excuse me! Are you taking reservations too?”
“I'll reserve ten copies!”
“Bring more! No, bring all of it! Sweep up every local copy!”
“Sorry, preorders aren't possible, and if hoarding is discovered, the card-pack sales license is immediately confiscated...”
One week remained until Novelpia's inaugural issue was published.
Thanks to its perfectly timed bundle-selling strategy,
- The limited-edition card? If you want it, I'll give it to you... Find it if you can! I left the whole world there!
The world had entered the age of grand novels.
And then.
Part 2 of the 'Two Heroes' series.
The sequel to 'The Royal Bloodline Is Hidden.'
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Genius Who Doesn't Hide His Loyalty.
The sequel to 'The Villain Hides His Ambition.'
The Empire's Second-in-Command Hides His Lust for Power Well.
Those two works were also ready to take off as the flagship titles of the new magazine.