Lord: Sequence Master

The warm sunlight filtered through the bedroom windows, casting a soft glow over the rose-covered double bed.

Rosen awoke, gasping for air, as he pushed aside Stephanie, who had been smothering him with her overbearing assets. A card suddenly appeared in his hand—this was the Designated Card: Beauty Hot Spring, a reward for completing the task last night.

When activated, this card could summon a hot spring. Soaking in it for 30 minutes each day would make one's skin silky and smooth.

For women, this card was priceless.

However, for Rosen, it wasn't particularly useful. He couldn't exactly convert it into a supernatural item using his spiritual energy and then open a beauty spa in the Crimson Shadow Duchy. Sure, it would make money, but it wasn't exactly his style.

Still, selling it off felt like a waste, especially since a player could only complete the task once. Losing this card meant he could only get another one from other players in the future.

The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. To clear his mind, Rosen rolled over and began his morning exercises.

After half an hour, in a state of clarity brought on by post-exercise calm, his mind surged with wisdom.

Rosen realized that he had been too hasty. The entire Masadora was his playground, and he hadn't even fully explored or understood the town's potential value. How could he maximize its worth without first learning more about it?

"How much do you know about the town of Masadora?" Rosen asked, turning to Stephanie, who was still catching her breath.

Stephanie knew this was her chance to prove her value. From the day before, she had sensed that Rosen needed game currency. Beauty alone wouldn't hold a man's interest forever—showing her worth beyond that would keep her in his good graces.

"Let me think," Stephanie replied, resting her head lazily on Rosen's arm as she playfully stretched.

Within half an hour, Stephanie had shared everything she knew.

In truth, it wasn't much, but even with the little information she had, she offered various suggestions and ideas, some of which could help Rosen steadily earn game currency. However, these methods would take time to bear fruit.

Rosen, on the other hand, was in a hurry to leave Redstone City, which was part of his urgency.

Still, some of Stephanie's suggestions sparked a bright idea in Rosen's mind.

The Masadora Department Store sold various tool cards and spell cards. Spell cards helped players collect designated cards, while tool cards assisted players in earning money through labor.

From what Rosen knew about Greed Island, almost everything could be converted into cards.

Whether it was a stone on the side of the road, a weed, or even the Nen-beast NPCs, nearly everything could be turned into a corresponding card. Some of these cards were valuable and could be sold to NPCs, with the price depending on the card's worth.

Rosen tested this by trying to convert some Blazing Shadow Duchy gold coins into cards, but nothing happened.

Then, he picked up Stephanie's nearby clothing, and at his command, the clothes instantly transformed into a card. Even a torn piece of fabric could be turned into a card.

This meant only items native to Greed Island could be converted into game cards.

There was a Nen-beast NPC in Masadora who specialized in making clay sculptures and would even offer quests related to them. Depending on the quality of the sculptures, players could earn varying rewards, making it a way to get money in the game.

Masadora had no shortage of paper and pens, and as long as Rosen had these, he could create high-quality paintings.

If the NPCs recognized the value of his art, he could easily sell his work for a high price.

And Masadora had an NPC who would appreciate his talent.

Among the people Jigsaw had executed, there was a mad, impoverished artist that Rosen vaguely remembered. This artist had dreamed of creating a masterpiece, but without spiritual energy to awaken into the Artist Sequence, his mortal artwork could never surpass the limitations of ordinary art.

In his madness, the artist began to secretly create human-skin paintings, believing that since humans possessed spiritual energy, such works would have a true spiritual essence.

However, the artist lacked the skill to kill as easily as others, and he feared getting caught. Ultimately, in his desperation, he turned on his own family, but even then, he showed no remorse when Jigsaw forced him to play his deadly game, and he was eventually executed.

Now, this artist had become a real NPC in Masadora. Based on what Stephanie knew, this NPC might even have small quests to offer.

"Do you want to go into town?" Rosen asked casually.

"I can't leave Rose Castle," Stephanie replied, shaking her head.

"Alright, wait for me to come back for dinner," Rosen said, getting up to freshen up before leaving Rose Castle.

Masadora wasn't very large, and after an hour of searching, Rosen found the Skin Painter, Sander.

As it turned out, Sander had a small quest involving collecting artwork. He accepted any kind of painting, no matter how good or bad, even children's scribbles, and would offer small amounts of money in exchange. If the painting was of decent quality, Sander would pay more.

It was just a small quest meant to give players some spending money for daily expenses, with no rare cards as a reward.

Relying on this quest to earn massive amounts of game currency wasn't something an average artist could pull off.

Rosen found a nearby café, where he took out the free paper, pens, and paints he had received from Sander. Pouring his spiritual energy into the brush, Rosen began to meticulously paint the magical city of Masadora as he saw it.

Since it was called a magical city, naturally, some of its buildings seemed almost magical.

For example, there was a fountain that spewed candy. If players were lucky enough to find rare and valuable candies there, they could exchange them with nearby children for game currency. As long as players weren't lazy, earning enough for basic living expenses wasn't difficult.

However, buying spell cards at the department store would require showing some real skill.

Rosen painted from noon until evening, and by the time he was done, the Masadora in his painting seemed to come alive. Limited by his current spiritual energy, he couldn't fully materialize the entire city, but the candy fountain in the painting could produce real candy for a short time.

Satisfied with his work, Rosen packed up his materials and brought the painting to Sander, placing it on the easel.

Sander, upon seeing the spiritual painting, trembled. Though he had lost all memory of the supernatural sequences from Redstone City, his instincts told him that this was the masterpiece he had always dreamed of—something beyond the reach of mere mortals.

With trembling hands, Sander transformed the painting into a card, and the top-right corner was immediately marked with SSS-1.

SSS was the rarity rating, and 1 indicated that this card was unique in all of Greed Island.

The game had evaluated the painting as SSS-tier and granted it a unique status.

Sander pulled out a card adorned with the Jenny currency symbol, and the number on the card changed from ten thousand to one hundred billion. He handed this card, now worth a hundred billion Jenny, to Rosen.

While Rosen knew the currency in the Hunter x Hunter world wasn't particularly valuable, he was still surprised by the amount this painting was worth.

But after thinking about it, it made sense. A painting imbued with such real spiritual energy was a peerless treasure in the Hunter world. After all, there was no Artist Sequence or spiritual painting in the Hunter world.

At best, the finest artists could only infuse a bit of Nen into their work, but that was nothing compared to a spiritual painting.

In truth, taking this painting out of Greed Island could fetch several hundred billion Jenny at auction.

The game's appraisal of a hundred billion was quite a conservative estimate.

(End of Chapter)