"That covers the current staff situation on Greed Island."
As he spoke, Dwun poured Roy a cup of the tea he had brewed.
Roy accepted it and took a sip. A rich fragrance filled his mouth, leaving an endless aftertaste. He could even feel the Nen within his body stir faintly, as if it were cheering with delight, and he could not help but praise it.
"What excellent tea!"
"Heh heh heh, Ging gave me this. That bastard may be a lousy person, but he really does have a lot of good stuff." Whenever he got the chance, Dwun never held back when badmouthing Ging.
"Besides the five of us, our other companions are in charge of different jobs. For example, one companion handled the game console, the Memory Cards, the Greed Island Rings, the Binders, and the game's promotion.
"Three companions were responsible for building the island and constructing each city.
"And two companions worked together on the cards, their descriptions, and the functions of the Specified Slot Cards."
Roy nodded to show he understood.
"And then there's Ging." The moment Dwun brought up Ging, he slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "That guy's the worst, especially since he even changed my name! Though after he changed it, my luck did get a little better~~~ Anyway, Ging was responsible for laying the Nen framework over the entire game, as well as providing the funding and the island itself."
Greed Island was, after all, a real island that existed in reality. Without overwhelming authority and wealth, there was no way anyone could claim an island like that as their own.
Getting started was always the hardest part, and Ging had actually solved the most troublesome initial problems himself.
And yet, who could have imagined it? Probably not even the people who made Greed Island together with Ging had expected that his original purpose in creating this game was to train and temper his own son.
You could say that although Ging was a willful and unqualified father, he was still a father in the end, one who cared about his son.
He had laid plans for more than a decade and spent a staggering amount of money and manpower, all just to strengthen his son's Nen training. Roy had to admit that Ging's free-spirited way of living was something he truly admired.
Holding his teacup, Roy sighed with emotion. Then his expression shifted, and he asked, "Since there were ten creators in total, why are only five of you on the island now? Where are your other companions?"
The moment that was brought up, Dwun looked awkward. Beside him, List saw his expression, smiled, and shook his head before explaining:
"We stayed behind for some special reasons. There was no way ordinary outsiders could have managed this place.
"Eta and Elena stayed because Ging offered them the Witch's Rejuvenation Potion, along with some other things that were supposedly especially good for the skin.
"As for Razor, among the ten of us, his fighting strength is second only to Ging's. On top of that, he didn't want to return to the outside world anymore, so Ging left him here."
"And Dwun stayed because of Eta~ As for me..." List gave a self-mocking shake of the head.
"I drew lots with the rest of our companions to decide who would stay, and I was the one who got picked."
List spread his hands helplessly, while Dwun burst out laughing beside him.
"This guy's had good luck all his life. It's just that his luck failed him that one time, and then he got stuck here for over ten years.
"Haha, the way our group came together was all over the place. Some of us were death-row convicts that Ging caught. Some were drawn in by things Ging had. Some simply admired him. And some, like me, ended up here because we lost a bet to him."
Dwun spoke with a sigh, then pointed at himself.
"I'm the poor bastard who lost a bet to Ging. Back then, we drew poker cards and compared values. Ging drew a very small card first, and there was only one card left in the deck smaller than his. At the time, I thought I had the win in the bag. In the end, that very smallest card was the one I drew."
Dwun shrugged.
"That's how terrible my luck used to be before my name got changed."
"I see..." Roy said. "Then is Ging's Nen really that strong? Strong enough to support so many players using cards inside the game?"
This was the question Roy had been the most curious about.
Supporting so many players, along with the NPCs in every city and the strange creatures in every canyon, and keeping all of them functioning normally—just how vast would that amount of Nen have to be?
Roy already had a guess in his heart, but he still wanted to hear the truth from someone involved.
"Ging's Nen?" Dwun gave a scornful snort. "That bastard already thinks his own Nen isn't enough for himself. How could he possibly share it out to keep an entire island running? What keeps the island running is the players' Nen!"
"Just as I thought!"
A sharp gleam flashed through Roy's eyes.
A game this enormous, along with all of its absurdly overpowered card settings, would require a truly terrifying level of Nen. Cards like the Witch's Rejuvenation Potion and Angel's Breath could practically be called things that shattered the world's balance.
The strength of a Nen ability's effects depended on Restrictions and Vows. Set rules, obey rules—the harsher the conditions, the stronger the Nen ability. And Greed Island, in truth, was built on the Nen of all its players.
Ging and his friends established the rules of the game as their vows, then forced the players to obey them as restrictions. Under the binding force of those rules, the players collected cards, and through that process they themselves supplied the conditions needed to strengthen the cards' effects.
The Binder, the Memory Card, and the Greed Island Ring, the activation of Nen abilities, transportation, and even the fact that death in the game meant real death—those were all part of the conditions.
In other words, Ging and his friends set the conditions, then made a huge number of players fulfill them under layer upon layer of complex Restrictions and Vows. The accumulated Nen generated that way was terrifying. The more players there were, the more stable Greed Island became, and the stronger the cards became. That was why the cards could possess such outrageous abilities.
Then the cards were further restricted by their range of use, and beyond that by quantity limits, which was why only three cards could be brought back into the real world.
Which meant that Greed Island basically ran on players playing the game and collecting cards.
Ging had practically tricked a whole crowd of players into maintaining the game for free, saving an enormous amount of Nen and maintenance costs.
What a crafty bastard.
And from Dwun's explanation, it really was almost exactly as Roy had guessed.
(End of Chapter)
[200 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/Zukooo]
[Thanks for your support!]