Lord: Sequence Master

In Rose Castle, Lady Stephanie awoke from her nightmare, drenched in sweat that clung uncomfortably to her skin.

Before she could gather her thoughts, her body was suddenly covered in countless wounds, as if inflicted by chainsaws. She watched helplessly as her head rolled off the bed, her body torn to pieces. As her consciousness faded, her soul and spiritual energy were absorbed by the virtual realm, leaving behind only blood and remains scattered across her bedroom.

Back in the mysterious study, Rosen closed the player interface and shut his eyes, sifting through young Rosen's memories.

Although Rosen had inherited young Rosen's memories, his understanding of them had always been surface-level, lacking detail. Fortunately, young Rosen's memories seemed to be stored within Rosen's soul through some unknown means, allowing him to examine them in depth whenever needed.

Cross-referencing Stephanie's confessions, Rosen realized that the situation in Redstone City was far from over.

Stephanie's betrayal of young Rosen had stemmed from jealousy and resentment.

She hadn't awakened her spiritual energy, nor did she have children, so taking young Rosen's hereditary title held no personal value for her. The true mastermind behind the plot to steal young Rosen's title wasn't Stephanie—it was her twin sister, Sani, who had married into the city lord's family. Stephanie had simply taken the blame.

Redstone City's Viscount had two sons, but only one could inherit the title.

Sani's husband, being the younger son, was born several months after his brother, meaning his spiritual awakening was delayed. As a result, he wouldn't inherit the title. To complicate matters, the two half-brothers despised each other, creating a tense family dynamic.

Once the elder brother inherited the title, Sani and her husband's future prospects would diminish considerably.

That's why Sani and her family had sought another noble title—but acquiring one wasn't easy.

To ascend to Sequence 6 and earn noble status was beyond their reach.

Thus, they set their sights on young Rosen's hereditary title. Of course, they cared about their reputation, so they arranged for Stephanie to take the fall. Young Rosen never even realized that the one he had been close to was Sani, not Stephanie.

Under pressure from the city lord's family and dependent on them for her wealth, Stephanie had no choice but to comply.

Over time, however, her resentment toward young Rosen grew, eventually leading her to sabotage his spiritual awakening ritual by replacing the core materials.

Now that young Rosen had disappeared, two groups were searching for him.

The first group was hired by Stephanie, consisting of people she personally employed to scour the city.

The second group was led by Bennett, a Sequence 9 hunter hired by Sani at a great cost. Sani had even secretly borrowed a Sequence 7 artifact from the Redstone Viscount's treasure vault—the Bloodline Compass. As long as the compass was in use, it would be impossible for Rosen to evade Bennett's pursuit.

"It seems I need to deal with that hunter first," Rosen concluded, organizing young Rosen's memories and forming a plan.

Even within Sequence 9, there could be vast differences in strength between individuals.

The hunter, Bennett, was no ordinary Sequence 9. He had once been a Sequence 8 criminal hunter, but his extraordinary essence had been damaged, causing his rank to fall to Sequence 9.

It was said that only a Sequence 3 could damage someone's extraordinary essence. The fact that Bennett, a mere Sequence 8, survived such an encounter was remarkable in itself. Whether or not the Duchy of Emberlight even had a Sequence 3 figure at the moment was uncertain.

Though Bennett's extraordinary essence was damaged, his spiritual energy hadn't fully regressed to Sequence 9.

This meant that, if pushed to his limit, Bennett could exert the combat power of a Sequence 8 for a short time.

How could Rosen, a Sequence 9 artist just beginning to rise in power, possibly defeat a combat specialist like Bennett?

The only solution Rosen could think of was to change his profession and join the Hunter Sequence.

The materials for a Sequence 9 potion weren't rare. The world government had already begun artificially cultivating ingredients at that level, making them easily obtainable—if one had the money. Rosen, however, had none, and after killing Stephanie, he hadn't looted her body.

Setting foot at Stephanie's death scene would leave traces he couldn't erase.

Bennett would quickly realize it was him. Until the virtual realm was fully materialized, Rosen wasn't willing to take such a risk. For now, he would have to stay in the mysterious study until the virtual realm became fully realized. Then, he could venture out to earn money without worry.

Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and Rosen had now been in this world for almost four months.

The mysterious study had remained anchored across from Rose Castle all this time.

Whenever Rosen was idle, he would glance out the window at the beautiful rose gardens across the street.

On this particular day, Rosen awoke early, knowing that the virtual realm was nearing materialization. After absorbing the spiritual energy of over 100,000 people for three months, the Saw 1 virtual realm reached the critical point of becoming real.

Rosen freshened up and treated himself to a luxurious meal—a bowl of beef noodles he had painted himself.

Only then did he sit in front of the Main God computer and open the entertainment program. He clicked on the Saw 1 movie icon to enter the player interface.

The interface had two modes: a normal movie player and a virtual realm display.

Switching to the virtual realm display, the movie played in the center, while both the left and right sides showed lists of avatars and names. On the left were the ordinary people who had received static image keys, while the right side displayed those who had been executed by Jigsaw.

As Rosen watched, the avatars and names on the left side began to fade one by one.

The static image keys had successfully drawn ordinary people into the virtual realm, but the spiritual energy contained within each key was minimal. The fact that they had lasted for three months was due to the virtual realm forcefully maintaining them.

Now that the realm was becoming real, the static image keys, created by the Main God computer, were disappearing.

Rosen's attention shifted to the play button on the virtual realm display, noticing a new extraction button beside it.

With a slight click of the mouse, golden lightning sparked from the computer, flowing through the cable and into Rosen's body. The lightning entered his spiritual flames, instantly boosting his spiritual energy from four points to five.

It had taken nearly four months of painstaking work, drawing spiritual artworks, to increase his spiritual energy by just one point. And that was only because the initial stages were easier to progress through. Now, with the materialization of the virtual realm, his spiritual energy had increased by an entire point in an instant. If Rosen could birth seven more virtual realms like Saw 1, his spiritual energy would reach the Sequence 9 cap of twelve points.

In addition to the spiritual energy boost, Rosen also gained knowledge about the changes that occurred after the virtual realm's materialization.

Since Saw 1 had become a real Spiritual Realm, Rosen's control over it had significantly decreased.

Re-entering the realm to manually set the story or interrogate Stephanie was no longer possible, even as its owner.

Now that the realm had become semi-real, it was no longer just a movie or a virtual dream world. People could physically enter it, and those in extraordinary Sequences could even extract resources from it.

Rosen now had two choices: merge the realm with the Spirit World or use it to further complete the Hunter X Hunter realm.

If he merged it with the Spirit World, the Saw 1 realm would automatically absorb spiritual energy from that realm.

As the owner, Rosen could decide whether to open the realm to the public. He would periodically receive extraordinary resources from it, including a unique resource called Confession Crystals, exclusive to the Saw realm.

If he chose to merge it with the Hunter X Hunter realm, he could activate part of that realm.

Because the Hunter X Hunter world map was so vast—with billions of humans alone, not to mention that the human world was just an island in a lake on the Dark Continent—the realm's scale far exceeded Rosen's current understanding.

Due to the manga's incomplete status, the realm had no ending.

And a realm without an ending couldn't reset, meaning it couldn't cycle back to the beginning for a new round.

To complete the Hunter X Hunter realm, Rosen would have to merge other realms to fill in the gaps. The size of the Saw 1 realm would only illuminate a small section—about the size of a town with 10,000 people.

The potential benefits of merging the realms would only become clear after the integration.

(Chapter End)