GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

He had also made liberal use of the stamina and focus pills to train. This has increased his proficiency and boost from mana to a substantial level. Now he can produce power of 12.1 with Dash.

It is a 48% increase in speed since he first got the skill and triple his speed without skills. But it is still nowhere enough what he can achieve when he maximizes his proficiency for Tier o.

He said to himself, "I should be able to finish a D-rank mission now. But first, I want to have a normal sleep."

He returned to his room and logged out. This returned his consciousness to the real world. However, he had to question if he was still in the game or not because he could still feel his core engine in his chest.

"Where am I?"

He looked around and realized that he was still in his maintenance pod. He had bought one to take care of his bodily needs now that he would be spending all of his time in God's Domain.

The presence of the maintenance pod indicated that he was back on it. But he still wasn't sure of that.

He opened the maintenance pod to reveal his bedroom beyond it. Everything looked like what he should encounter in the real world, but the unnatural lump in his chest was making him doubt reality.

"This can't be real, right?"

He tried to activate a skill but it failed. He couldn't even focus on any of the skills. He can tell that he has three skills within his core engine, but he can't tell them apart or activate them like he used to do in God's Domain.

He swallowed nervously and said, "Maybe I am just hallucinating. Or it is just a harmless vestigial feeling from all the time I've spent in the game."

He would like to believe the latter, so he stopped thinking about his core engine. Ignoring the hallucination is also a solution if the former is true. So he was killing two birds with one

stone.

He ignored the lump in his chest and came out of the pod to relax. He doesn't need to eat or have his bath since the maintenance pod has taken care of them. He doesn't even need to exercise to keep his muscles from atrophying. But he wants to do something normal for once.

The first thing he did was to go through his messages. The ones that made him scoff were the ones asking for his identity in God's Domain.

These messages are from the government and other organizations. They are offering benefits such as discounts for purchases and free stuff like free training and gym membership.

He doesn't know why they are interested in that information, but he had already decided not to reveal his identity in the game if possible. After all, he has done something in God's Domain that he doesn't want others to know in real life, and he intends to do more of such things in the future.

Other messages and notifications revealed why many people wanted to know his identity. It turned out that he wasn't the only one to hallucinate their core engine. Every person in God's Domain who acquired it in the game can feel it in real life too.

He couldn't believe it at first. But then he rationalize it with a plausible explanation. "Maybe the game tampered with our brain somehow. It would explain why we are having the weird feeling."

It might be a fluke if it was just him that could feel his core engine. It might be a coincidence if there were two or three who could feel it. But it has to be something more if everyone can feel it. So he had to believe it.

Then he said, "The alternative is that it is somehow related to the promise of the Heavenly Corporation that we can bring our power out. But it obviously doesn't work. I can't activate any skills. So it is probably just a feeling."

He read more to find out what others concluded about the situation.

People were rightfully concerned. They thought something had gone wrong and the game had botched their minds. They went for checks, which revealed nothing.

This made them more scared, so they complained to the heavenly cooperation. The heavenly cooperation replied to their concerns.

The heavenly cooperation claimed that the feeling was not a hallucination. They claimed that what they were feeling was a deeper connection to God's Domain.

They claimed that the connection can allow some of their power to leak into this world as long as they have met the right requirements.

It sounded unbelievable. A year ago, no one in their right minds would believe this. But now, many people believed the Heavenly Corperation's claims. Even those who didn't believe them were open minded about the possibility that it might be true. They just didn't want to believe them because they didn't want it to be true.

Regardless of their belief, the Heavenly Corporation said that everyone who reaches Tier 1 will be able to bring their power to the real world. This gave people a goal to look forward to. Besides that, the Heavenly Corperation also revealed that the in-game currency needed to purchase their products was called divine crystals.

The Heavenly Corperation promised them, "Regardless of your power in the game or standing in real life, you will be able to purchase our products of healing elixir, longevity elixir, immunity elixir, and many more with divine crystals. So work hard to get divine crystals."

This announcement riled up people more than usual. Many people were unhappy with the unpermitted modifications to their bodies. They called it evil and inhumane. Many governments also spoke up against it. Then they offered everyone in possession of the core engine or spirit anchor free medical services. They promised to do everything in their capability to take care of them and ensure thrir safety.