Lord: Sequence Master

Rosen successfully refined the Noble's Vault  skill crystal, but activating this ability proved to be more difficult than expected.

The reason was that a divine domain wasn't based in the physical world—it had to be created within the Spirit Realm. Typically, one would use a spirit domain as the foundation, transforming an entire spirit realm into their divine domain tied to the Spirit Realm.

The strength of the spirit realm directly determined the early success of a divine domain's development.

Although Rosen had the Magical City of Masadora from Greed Island, it wasn't a complete spirit domain and wasn't suitable for transforming into a divine domain.

Moreover, at the moment, Rosen lacked the means to establish one. The Noble's Vault  was at best a seed for a future divine domain. Even if he had a spirit domain available, he might not yet be able to transform it into a fully functional Noble's Vault . In short, creating his own Noble's Vault Space was akin to being a cook without any ingredients.

"It seems I need to leave Redstone City as soon as possible," Rosen muttered, standing by the window and gazing outside. The whole city seemed to be under some form of silent lockdown.

It was clear that this was the work of Sani. First, Stephanie had died mysteriously, and now Bennett was dead without a trace. Sani had likely figured out who might be behind it all. Rosen's rapid growth would definitely cause her to feel anxious and fearful.

Though Sani and her husband held some status, their position largely depended on Viscount Redstone. With poor talent, neither of them had the qualifications to compete for the viscount's title—hence their plan to seize young Rosen's hereditary position. Now that Bennett, nearly a Sequence 8 figure, had died mysteriously, Sani and her Sequence 9 husband were undoubtedly terrified.

There's an old saying: You can't guard against a thief forever. Unless they found Rosen soon, Sani and her husband wouldn't sleep soundly.

Pulling the curtains shut, Rosen decided to ignore the turmoil in Redstone City for now. Sani's husband, being only the second son of the viscount, didn't have the power to enforce a citywide search for long. In the meantime, Rosen could focus on activating the Hunter x Hunter spirit domain and thoroughly exploring the value of the Magical City of Masadora.

Opening the Main God Computer, Rosen navigated to the Hunter x Hunter spirit domain interface.

A map of the Hunter x Hunter world appeared on his screen, but only Greed Island had a section lit up. Now, he needed to select a starting point in the world's timeline. Once the timeline began, the frozen world of the spirit domain would come to life.

Since Greed Island was created in 1987, the earliest time point available was that year.

Rosen briefly considered setting the timeline earlier, but this wasn't possible. The Hunter x Hunter domain was incomplete and couldn't form before the timeline's key characters existed. Before 1987, the protagonist hadn't even been born, so the spirit domain couldn't simulate that period.

Once he set the year to 1987, Masadora, which had been frozen in time, finally came alive.

The city was populated by thousands of humanoid Nen-beast NPCs who had been conjured through Nen abilities. These NPCs worked and lived in Masadora, maintaining the city's operations according to pre-programmed instructions.

However, after the Saw spirit realm had merged into Masadora, the city now housed over 1,500 real NPCs.

These real NPCs had mostly lost their memories of their former lives in Redstone City. What remained were basic life skills and entirely new personas suited to their roles in this new world.

All the real NPCs were convicts, signed off by Ging Freecss to help manage the operations of the Greed Island game.

For example, John the Drunkard was still a drunkard, but now he served as an NPC offering missions that would reward players with game cards.

Similarly, Stephanie remained the Rose Lady, now living in a small castle identical to her former Redstone City mansion on the outskirts of Masadora.

Lastly, Jigsaw still played his familiar role but now targeted Nen ability players entering Greed Island instead of the real NPCs who had already died once. In this new world, Jigsaw had become one of Masadora's hidden bosses.

As a beam of light descended, Rosen appeared on the outskirts of Masadora.

He chose to enter the game as a player. While real NPCs could gain certain privileges in Masadora, including access to game-related powers and items, they were also subject to the oversight of Greed Island's GMs, like Ging.

By contrast, as a player, Rosen could operate with far more freedom, though he'd have to start from scratch. Once he poured more spirit domains into the Hunter x Hunter realm, Greed Island would eventually come under his control. At that point, the game's final control would naturally fall into his hands.

Rosen examined the ring on his right index finger, a Game Ring unique to players.

This ring wasn't a Nen conjuration but a physical object infused with Nen abilities.

"Book!" Rosen murmured the activation word, and a book materialized before him.

The book wasn't made of his Nen; it was part of Greed Island's game, conjured into reality by the game mechanics.

Opening the card collection book, Rosen found it completely empty.

The first half of the book held 100 slots for designated cards, the game's key collectibles.

The second half had 45 free slots, capable of holding any card.

The objective of the game was to collect all 100 designated cards, but without powerful Nen abilities and a lot of luck, completing this collection was nearly impossible—so much so that, ten years later, no one had successfully cleared the game.

Moreover, the game didn't forbid players from killing each other; in fact, the game rules subtly encouraged it.

Greed Island was built on a real island, complete with Nen-beast NPCs cultivating crops, raising livestock, running shops to provide food, and working in factories to produce necessities. The island was self-sustaining and could meet all the players' living needs.

To facilitate this, the game even had its currency. Only money converted into cards could be used for transactions on the island.

Masadora's department store sold a wide variety of spell cards, but these could only be bought with card money.

Both spell cards and designated cards were crucial resources for Rosen.

He could spend the spiritual energy he had stored to exchange for anything within Masadora, including these game cards. These would serve as the unique extraordinary resources exclusive to the spirit domain.

"It looks like it's time to visit the Rose Lady again," Rosen mused, tucking away his card collection book as he made his way toward Rose Castle.

Whether in his previous life or this one, Stephanie had always been a wealthy woman. Without wealth, she wouldn't have been able to maintain a castle filled with blooming roses. In this game, she was undoubtedly the wealthiest NPC in Masadora.

To get the card money he needed to purchase spell cards, Stephanie was the first person Rosen thought of.

If the spell cards could function outside of the game, Rosen might not even need to rely on trains to reach other cities. And even if he had to continue taking trains, with the spell cards at his disposal, he'd always have a way to escape if cornered.

(End of Chapter)