Ch.55[Episode 55] The Congressional Hearing Raid

Hime and the butler arrived at the Black Group headquarters.

“Thank you, Princess. Thanks to you, we were able to make it on time.”

The butler had been the one running while Hime was merely carried on his back, but feeling nauseated from the speed, she simply nodded and looked for a bathroom.

She felt like something was coming up from her stomach.

“Are you the people the President mentioned?”

Someone approached the butler and Hime standing in the headquarters lobby.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Don Michaelo, president of Black Bio.”

He resembled Don Castello but looked more experienced and directly weathered by time as he extended his hand.

“From now on, this data will be delivered to all broadcasting stations in Gachaland.”

Don Michaelo reached out with his plump right hand to receive the items the butler had brought.

“It’s not absolutely necessary, but it’s something we must do to minimize the aftermath.”

The butler nodded.

Similar words were written in the orders he had received.

It was about necessary pruning for a better Gachaland.

“Well then—”

“Excuse me, may I ask one thing?”

Hime asked Don Michaelo in her self-styled ninja speech pattern.

“Where is the bathroom?”

Hime was still struggling with motion sickness, suppressing the urge to vomit.

The butler’s running was fast, but stability was terrible.

…

Trom was relishing the power surging through his body.

He could feel his specs growing stronger by the moment.

His equipment continuously evolved and changed, becoming covered with increasingly powerful effects, and suddenly a powerful-looking dragon emerged from behind him, waiting for Trom’s commands.

Truly invincible! A confidence that he could defeat anything!

Trom thought he was no different from a god.

No, he believed he had surpassed the gods.

“Tremble before my strength, weaklings!”

Trom swung his ornate greatsword.

Brilliant effects followed the sword’s trajectory, drawing a beautiful arc.

One of the people in the greatsword’s path blocked it by raising their own blade.

When the swords collided, dazzling effects exploded, momentarily obscuring vision.

But why?

Despite the flashy effects and equipment, Trom looked extremely uncool.

But Trom didn’t care about that.

In Gachaland, strength was power. And it was only natural that he, as the powerful one, was the strongest.

Whether his effects or equipment looked cool didn’t matter. Only performance mattered.

“Overwhelming. It’s overwhelming! Is this not the power of a god!”

Trom laughed loudly and swung his greatsword again.

For some reason, advertisement windows that popped up and blocked his view after every few swings were annoying, but he only needed to wait 5 seconds to skip them, so it was just a minor inconvenience.

Before overwhelming strength, a little discomfort was trivial.

However, regardless of Trom’s strength, others were actually looking at him with pity.

“Ah, should I mark this as PVP or PVE raid…”

The Operations Team Leader scratched his head as he began writing a report to send to System Industries.

Since Trom had become hostile toward the senators, Gachaland’s system had begun treating him as a boss monster.

However, since he was still half human, the classification was ambiguous.

“Whatever. I’ll just write PVP Boss Raid and if they ask why, I’ll just write an explanation letter.”

The Operations Team Leader leisurely wrote “PVP Boss Raid” in the miscellaneous section of the report.

He nervously scratched his crown with his pen.

There was still too much to write.

The Operations Team Leader wasn’t the only one who was relaxed.

The senators had already considered Trom, intoxicated by the power of Mountain Bridge Marsh, as an enemy and were changing their equipment accordingly.

“Do we need PVP settings or raid settings for this?”

“Well, looking at previous precedents—”

Rookie senators asked veteran senators for strategies, while the veterans had already completed their equipment setups and were waiting to see when Trom would make his move.

Indeed.

Not a single person in the hearing room was intimidated by Trom’s power.

“Operations Team Leader Johnson Lee? Would Black Group be allowed to open a shop inside the stage?”

Morgana Black had already classified this situation as a raid in her mind and was acting accordingly.

When raids open, potions and equipment repair fees bring in quite a tidy profit.

“Do as you please. I still have thirteen more pages to fill out.”

The Operations Team Leader was now filling in the thirty-sixth page of the report.

There were many unnecessarily detailed forms, but such inefficient administrative processing was routine given System Industries’ nature.

“How dare, how dare you! To ignore someone as powerful as me! I can only imagine how much you’ve disrespected me all along!”

“We’ve all seen how you were treated normally.”

Muscleman countered Trom’s words. Trom was so dumbfounded he could only stammer.

“Yes, you’ve always looked down on me from your high position as a tank—”

“By the way, Sir Dominic. Is there something you’d like to ask?”

Trom was trying his hardest to provoke Muscleman out of anger, but Muscleman was explaining the current situation to Sir Dominic.

This was because Sir Dominic had a completely confused expression, not understanding what was happening.

Looking at Trom who had started rampaging in complete fury, Sir Dominic said:

“He has indeed become stronger, but somehow he feels weaker than before.”

Sir Dominic thought this contradictory sensation made no sense, but Muscleman nodded as if he understood.

“That’s only natural. It’s because of Gachaland’s characteristics.”

“Characteristics?”

“Value, I mean.”

Muscleman looked at the pitiful Trom who had now completely transformed into a boss bound to the stage.

“The power received from Mountain Bridge Marsh does make one stronger in the short term, but it’s just an increase in visible stats. Of course, in Gachaland, performance is part of value too.”

Muscleman glanced at the Operations Team Leader.

The Operations Team Leader had just finished writing his report and was discussing with Morgana Black about what items should be allowed in the shop.

“But what if there’s nothing to compare that performance to, no matter how excellent it is? What if no one wants it despite its good performance? Performance exists to serve value, not to undermine it.”

Trom forgot that fact. Poor thing, Muscleman clicked his tongue.

In Gachaland, value was more important than life itself. After all, life was infinite as long as one could prove their value.

“Above all, Gachaland’s central system acknowledges diversity in status windows. However, Mountain Bridge Marsh’s system is not authorized by the central system. Why do you think that is?”

Muscleman looked into Sir Dominic’s eyes with interest, as if waiting for his answer.

Sir Dominic was overwhelmed by the sudden flood of information but tried to organize his thoughts to say something.

“That—”

“My attack power is 23 quintillion 3800 trillion! My strength is 2.2 billion and my dexterity is 1.7 billion! No one can defeat me!”

But Trom spoke first. He was boasting about how strong he was by shouting incredible numbers.

Hearing Trom’s words, Muscleman sighed as if the answer had been revealed.

“Who would find value in numbers that only children use when creating their original characters? It’s just laughable. The system knows this too, which is why it judges Mountain Bridge Marsh’s system as valueless. It determines that the system’s own value would be damaged.”

That’s why they’re trying to increase the market share of their illegal system through mass production. Until they replace the existing system.

Muscleman said this with a pitying expression at Trom’s shouting.

Sir Dominic didn’t know how large the numbers Trom was shouting were, but considering his own stats that he had just seen for the first time, he could tell they were overwhelming figures.

Intoxicated with power, Trom had killed all the surrounding senators once. Fortunately, since life in Gachaland continued as long as one had value, the senators immediately reappeared through instant resurrection.

His plan to kill everyone had gone awry from the start, but Trom thought he would kill them again and again until they couldn’t resurrect anymore—until everyone’s value completely disappeared from too many defeats.

It was an impossible plan, but with his brain no longer functioning properly due to intoxication with Mountain Bridge Marsh’s power, Trom praised himself for this supposedly amazing and genius plan.

Then, Trom spotted Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic was conversing with Muscleman.

It’s all his fault. That’s what Trom thought.

Tremendous killing intent ran up Trom’s spine.

They say tanks are overpowered, but now he was strong enough to kill Sir Dominic in one hit.

With that thought, Trom began charging toward Sir Dominic.

Responding to Trom’s killing intent, the “power to become server number one with just a little spending” that he had obtained began to emit an incredible aura.

“Of course, even an illegal system can deceive the central system temporarily. That’s why Senator Trom can rampage now. However—”

Trom reached right in front of Sir Dominic. Then with all his might, he brought down his greatsword decorated with gold, platinum, and true silver onto Sir Dominic’s crown.

Sir Dominic was startled and raised his shield.

The overwhelming blade collided with Sir Dominic’s shield.

Tick.

A deflating sound reached Sir Dominic’s ears.

A sound so small and insignificant that he wondered if he had actually heard it.