Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player

—

Kieran's restless emotions settled down a few minutes after he learned of his title's effects.

Although the title was beneficial, he couldn't maximize its worth until he obtained additional people to work for him.

At some point, he considered accepting a Profession like Alchemist or Forger to help produce income, but he didn't know if such a path suited him. Because of his elitist mindset, Kieran desired most if not all of the Main Quests available inside Aeredale.

However, accepting those quests meant he would have little time to focus on a Profession. Not unless he found a way to divide the hassle of completing those quests or slowed down his timeline to accommodate a Profession.

After all, it wasn't uncommon for Lifestyle Players to become lost in the production process and spend countless hours honing their Profession.

And, considering he already unlocked the Focus attribute, the odds of him entering such a state was higher than other players who had yet to obtain the attribute.

Thus, Kieran opted for a more reasonable alternative.

"Aatrox, forgive me, but I must mobilize some of the city's guards to help move this Gold to the secure reserve vault beneath the city. I won't trouble you with such a trivial task. You're welcome to stay here as long as you like if you want."

Mayor Lowe stood up behind his desk and approached the door.

Kieran glanced in Mayor Lowe's direction with a slight nod. "I'll take you up on that offer for the time being."

While Mayor Lowe left to gather several city guards, Kieran sat down and browsed through two platforms. The first thing he visited was Zenith Online's official forum to check for any unusual posts regarding Lifestyle Players.

Kieran sifted through thousands of posts at a speed that defied common sense. However, Kieran applied a trick while rapidly scrolling through the ocean of forum posts. Kieran's eyes were affixed to specific keywords and nothing else.

Such an ability was the benefit of the curse known as the Hyper-Cognitive Overload Sickness. When in control, he far outstripped any average human in processing information.

Eventually, out of thousands of posts that mentioned Alchemist, Forger, and other Professions, Kieran narrowed them down to less than 50 useful ones. Kieran then compared the usernames to names with even the slightest bit of fame within his memories.

That number, which was initially close to 50, dropped to less than 10. Currently, Kieran's sole priority was amassing people who could serve as Chiefs of their respective trade. There was ample time to pick up lesser talents at a later date.

After acquiring their names, Kieran sent a private message to all of them and closed the forum. The message wasn't detailed but conveyed his intention to meet with them.

Next, he checked the notice he sent on his streaming page to see if anyone had replied to his request. It had been a few days since he made the announcement, so it should have attracted at least one person.

However, Kieran underestimated the impact of fame and skyrocketing stardom. His jaw dropped after seeing the number of private messages on his streaming profile.

While most of the messages came from nameless teams and several other guilds attempting to get in contact, a substantial number of lifestyle players were willing to honor his request.

Two names, in particular, stuck out in Kieran's eyes—Sorcia and Hamon. Right now, these two were unknown, but Kieran knew them very well.

In Kieran's original time, Sorcia held a second title: The Alchemic Maiden. Her skills as an Alchemist triumphed over her original class as a Priest, which inevitably led to her devoting every waking moment to perfecting her craft.

On the other hand, Hamon was known as the Godhand Hammer. He was one of the only players to reach the Famed level without the backing of a guild. His exceptionally honed skill made him so valuable that no one dared trouble him.

Several guilds would move on his behalf if he so much as offered to craft a few items for them. Hamon became an untouchable entity without ever joining a guild through the relationships fostered by his forging skill.

However, although Kieran managed to attract the attention of these two, getting them to join him was a different challenge altogether. Neither of these individuals agreed to join a guild in his past despite the abundance of offers they received.

This led Kieran to suspect they either possessed a backing that didn't require additional financial support or cherished their freedom above all else.

And if these two reasons didn't apply, they were simply incredibly patient and confident in their skill.

Nevertheless, Kieran felt it wouldn't hurt to try.

After all, Sorcia and Hamon were from kingdoms under the Xesian Empire's jurisdiction. Kieran specified in his announcement that any interested in his offer would need to be within the Xesian Empire for convenience.

However, that was all a ruse to ensure they were close and easily accessible for him to win them over.

After replying to Hamon and Sorcia's message, Kieran received a few alerts.

〈System: You are receiving a video call from Altair. Would you like to answer? [ Y | N ]〉

After answering the call, Kieran was met with a familiar face and a familiar face. Altair wasn't alone; seven other people accompanied him. They were naturally Bastion and the others.

Before diving into his training with Scar, Kieran delivered everyone's respective flight or transportation information. Because Kieran paid for everything and put it in their names, they received everything after providing proof of identity.

"Dude… what the hell is this place?" Altair remarked. Although he was rarely astonished, the facility before their eyes was truly state of the art.

Kieran laughed at Altair's expression before correcting his possible misconception.

"It's not mine if that's what you're thinking. I had some… issues I needed to correct. So I've taken shelter here for the time being. It's convenient, so it's where we'll train for now."

"I'll log off now, give me a moment," Kieran said. He had maybe one or two hours before the event started, so he could at least log off, tend to everyone's needs, and get them situated before logging back in.

Kieran terminated the video call and initiated the log-out sequence to receive everyone.

…

The VR Helmet covering Kieran's head let out a low hissing sound as he took it off, only to find Dr. Riley staring directly at him with a deadly glare.

"Yes…?" Kieran didn't know why Dr. Riley looked at him this way, but it didn't take a genius to understand that she was irritated.

When she heard Kieran's remark, it was like an emotional dam broke. Kieran was immediately given an earful.

"Didn't I tell you to be careful and watch what you do inside that unusual game?! I don't know what you did over these past three days… but look!" Dr. Riley pointed at the bed Kieran sat on.

Part of it seemed burnt while another part was mutilated to the point it seemed like it was a wild animal's doing. However, this wasn't the result of an animal.

At some point in Kieran's training, it had become so intense that it bled into reality once more. While in a semi-comatose state, Kieran's body released a berserk wave of energy almost as dreadful as the one produced before his death.

This energy frightened Dr. Riley, ultimately leading to her distancing herself from Kieran's body until the power settled down. However, when it settled, the medical bed was in terrible condition.

Kieran examined the bed he sat upon and realized an extremely familiar sensation. 'Isn't this… the energy of the Dread Circlet? Why is it here?'

Although it was possible to replicate physical attacks and perform mental attacks with mental energy, replicating an S Rank Skill fueled by Mana should be virtually impossible. Why? Because Earth didn't possess Mana!

Furthermore, if one tried to recreate a high-level skill without reaching a sufficient superhuman level, it could potentially fry their brain.

'Is this somehow related to me manually learning Dread Culling? Could it have accelerated something within me? Or is it an effect of my rebirth? So many questions….'

Kieran inevitably sighed and looked at Dr. Riley with a weak smile. "I'll handle the cost, Lillian. Order a new one. Actually, I think you should order several. There's no telling if this phenomenon will occur regularly."

Dr. Riley scoffed but listened to his suggestion nonetheless. "Of course, you're footing the bill! You broke the damned thing! Also, go ahead and receive your friends."

Kieran slid off the medical bed and walked through the facility until he reached the front door.

Under normal circumstances, one would have to go through several security measures to enter, but Dr. Riley disabled them after recalling Kieran's mention of future guests.

The facility's large metal doors opened, revealing everyone with packed bags. Aside from Alice and Cygnus, everyone else traveled light.

Contrary to Kieran's expectations, a warm welcome never came. Instead, the faces of the three girls reddened while looking at the feast before their eyes.

"What is this?! Are you trying to seduce me? Put on a damned shirt you fitness model!" Nemean barged past Kieran while scoffing and shaking his head.

"Well, hello to you too, Nemean."

Kieran gestured for everyone to follow him as the facility's large doors slammed shut.