Miss Player, please don't cast spells on me.

At that moment, Noon realized that simply reasoning and discussing the distribution of benefits would not be enough to persuade the leader of the Black Sword Knights, or the other core members of the order.

And then… None Hiyomi bit her lip lightly, a lump forming in her throat…

She knew that talking about interests was useless now, but if she revealed her true reason, it would be too naive to say that she didn't want the sleeping Shanor people here to be harmed.

Logically speaking, a rational adult shouldn't act so childish in front of strangers. However, the members of the Black Sword Knights were not strangers, but friends she had known for three years, so they could understand her thoughts.

"What if I said I was begging you as a friend not to harm the Shanor people here?"

When Noon Hitomi posted this message in the team chat, the Black Sword Knights group, which had been engaged in heated discussion just moments before, paused for a moment.

I... I'm begging you! The weight of that word "begging" was far too heavy! So heavy that not a single knight in the Order dared to accept it.

"Please! I don't want to see this maze destroyed in the end! So please forgive my unreasonable and willful behavior this time!"

"So I implore everyone, let's end this dungeon exploration here!! Can we all go back to 'Sacred Stars' and start exploring the new version? Let's stop wasting time on this boring game."

The reason given by Noon Hitomiya is that she "doesn't want to hurt the NPCs in the game".

To the Black Sword Knights, who had long since slaughtered countless NPCs and never cared about their lives, this was utterly ridiculous and absurd.

The answer she expected still rang in her ears.

"No."

This time, the leader of the Mikage group answered very decisively, which made None Hiyomiya open her eyes wide and then ask in confusion.

"Why? Is it because of the penalty for breach of contract and the impact on reputation? If it's because of financial losses, then I can compensate the guild no matter how much money they lose! Fifty million yen, seventy million yen, one hundred million yen! One billion yen! No matter how much money they lose, I can pay for it!"

"It's not a matter of loss of money or profits!"

As Mikage looked at his goddess, his princess, who had suddenly become so humble, his heart was bleeding.

Why are you looking like this! I did all this for you! My princess! All so I could get a little closer to you!

Unfortunately, Mikage couldn't reveal his true thoughts to Yoshimiya Noon, but Hio, as the vice-captain, chose to expose the cruel truth.

"What do you mean by saying it's not for profit? Captain Mikage-chan has already begged us like this, let's just tell her the truth."

"Yoko-chan, let me be frank. The reason we're unwilling to retreat is simply for the money. I originally planned to tell everyone after we finished the game, but I'll take this opportunity to make it clear to everyone now."

"The reward we received after defeating the final boss, the Lord of the End of the Labyrinth, in this game was a share of the profits from the operators of 'Dream City'."

"Although the shares are not many, it is still one of the top companies in the country. The dividends that the entire team of 100 people can receive each quarter are at least one million to two million yen."

"Listen up! It's every quarter! I know none of you here are short of money, but once we defeat the final boss, the Lord of the Labyrinth of the End, we'll receive about one million yen in 'pocket money' every quarter from now on!"

"And if you quit, it means you're giving up this reward, so any members who want to quit and take a break can come and report to me!"

Silence... After Vice Commander Hiyori finished explaining the rewards for completing this mission, the entire Black Sword Knights fell into an extremely eerie silence.

One million yen isn't a lot of money for most members of the Black Sword Knights these days; their accumulated income over the years would be considered middle class.

But the key point is that this is 'pocket money'! It's income that falls from the sky and you can just lie there and get it!

This temptation is undoubtedly far greater than the insignificant lives of those NPCs called the Shanor.

"Your Highness, if you truly don't want a bad ending, you can go back and rest first. We will do our best to complete the mission and then return to *Sacred Stars* as quickly as possible to help you with your exploration!"

'Yeah, yeah! This trash game doesn't need to bother you so much. Sister Yang, you should go and rest. Leave the rest to us!'

The members of the Black Sword Knights all wanted to comfort None Hitomi.

And that's why they comforted None Hiyomi so casually.

It was because they did not take what Her Highness valued, namely the lives of the so-called Shanor, to heart.

Actually, None could afford to give him that allowance; she also had shares in several record companies under her name, which would generate dividends. All she needed to do was transfer those shares to the members of the Black Sword Knights, so…

Noon Hitomi did not give up and continued to explain seriously to the Black Sword Knights why she was unwilling to conquer the last floor of the dungeon.

For example, she didn't want to see the plot involving the destruction of Shanor's life-saving pod.

No matter how hard she tried to explain, all she got in return was a simple sentence from Captain Mikage and confused replies from the other members.

"Dear Yang Gong, it's really unfair to make us abandon the commission just because of a bad reason set up in the game's plot..."

"Your Highness, if you care so much about that NPC named Shanor, then we can buy a new copy of 'Dungeon Sanctuary 2' and play the peaceful ending together!"

"Yeah, after we finish this guide, we can just aim for a new good ending, right?"

"This isn't a problem that can be solved by playing the new ending!" When Yokomiya None said this in the group, the replies that followed made her feel like she was falling into an abyss.

"This... can't we just start a new game? Sister Yang Gong, isn't your goal to see the perfect ending where all the Shanor in Shanor Village survive? I checked the walkthrough online, and it turns out we've killed too many monsters in the dungeon in this game, so we can't get the perfect ending anymore."

"So, if you want to see a perfect ending, Sister Yanggong, you'll have to start a new game."

I guess I'll just have to start a new game. Since I can start a new game anyway, why should I care about the fate of Shanor and the others in this playthrough?

This is the shared thought of everyone in the Black Sword Knights.

So the answer is that there's no way to convince them, right?

Indeed… the reason that ‘if we conquer the depths of the labyrinth, all of Shanor, who is sleeping here, will die’.

In the eyes of the Black Sword Knights, this was utterly unreasonable!

They, like Noon Hitomiya, didn't care about the game's plot at all! Nor did they care about Shanor's life or death.

Therefore, they couldn't understand what was troubling Hitomi no Oto...

This feeling is like when you're angry that your child has ruined your most cherished and painstakingly made figurines, but the parents simply can't appreciate how important those figurines are.

Saying things like, "It's just a little toy, you're an adult, give way to the child," is enough to send your blood pressure soaring.

Yes, at this moment, Noon Hitomiya is separated from the members of the Black Sword Knights by this insurmountable generation gap.

This is something she can't explain to them no matter what reason she gives, just like parents simply don't understand how important a 'little toy' is.

So... perhaps at this point, the method she had always believed to be the most effective was actually the one that worked.

That is to rely on one's own absolute strength and power...

She's so powerful that when faced with a situation like today, she no longer needs to beg others for help. Instead, she uses her absolute strength and status to command the Black Sword Knights: "Don't do anything I don't want you to do!"

Pain and exhaustion overwhelmed Noon Hiyomi at that moment, but suddenly she heard a voice.

"Sister Yanggong, are you crying?"

That was Shanor's voice. After switching interfaces, Hitomi Naon realized that the red-eyed Shanor in the game screen had been by her side all along.

"No, I'm just tired."

Noon wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes. Yes, she had to become stronger, and she didn't have time to cry anymore. She had to suppress her emotions.

“Sister Yang Gong, you don’t need to hide these things from me. I’ve said it before… I’ve seen you at your most disheveled, ugliest, and most self-conscious. I’ve seen you at your worst,” Xia Nuoer said.

"So what?" Noon Hiyomi still didn't like Shanor's teasing.

"No matter what happens to Sister Yang Gong, I will accept it all. Whether it's your inferiority complex, your anger, your vulnerability, or your ugliness... I see it all."

"So, Sister Yanggong, could you please stop pretending to be strong in front of me? You can rely on me all you want," Xia Nuoer said, blinking her scarlet eyes again.

However, upon hearing Shanor's words, Yoshimiya Noon suddenly chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Relying on you, Shanor, you're just a game character... What can you do with me?"

She was mocking herself, laughing at how she had been hurt, and seriously hurt, in real-life guild relationships, and had ended up being comforted by a game character.

"Well, the only thing I know I can do right now is to give you, Sister Yang Gong... the power to make everyone in the Black Sword Knights submit to you and obey your commands!"

Suddenly, Shanor grasped the hands of the character Noon Hitomi and whispered what Noon Hitomi wanted most right now.

"Make the entire Black Sword Knights submit to my power? That's impossible... You must be kidding..."

Before Hiyomi no Oto could finish saying, "You must be joking,"

Suddenly, she saw her character's level begin to increase dramatically, while the level of the red-eyed Shanor in front of her suddenly began to decrease at an extremely fast speed.

'Child of Reincarnation, Shanor, Level: 120' Then this number of one hundred and twenty began to drop rapidly: one hundred, seventy, thirty, ten, one.

Correspondingly, None Hitomi's character level rose at an extremely fast speed: level 90, level 100, level 130, level 150, and finally level 170 before stopping!

In the end, Noon Hitomi discovered that the names of her characters had all changed... becoming...

'The Lord of the Final Labyrinth, Noto Himemiya, Level: 170, Description: The final boss of the Labyrinth Sanctuary.'

"What...did you do?" she asked, stunned on the spot.

"Of course, I'm giving you all of my power."

Shanor whispered in the ear of the character, Yoshimiya Noon.

"Sister Yang Gong, my princess, please become the final master of the labyrinth and wreak havoc to your heart's content."

P.S.: I made a small change to the character's motivation in this chapter. Also, with this update, it's now three chapters totaling 10,000 words. I was mainly worried that if I stopped updating in the first two chapters, the reading experience wouldn't be great. But it's really not good to update too much during the new book period, so today's update is an overload. I'll be updating only once every two days for the next two days. _(:з」∠)_

Chapter 58 Granting You Endless Death

The Black Sword Knights' exploration of the fifth floor went surprisingly smoothly.

The main reason is that Miss Fox is accumulating power to prepare for the final battle, so the monsters on the fifth floor are only some autonomous combat machines left over from the ancient times of the maze.

"So, Takigami-senpai, you still had a backup plan?"

Kiyono Hai sat in the movie theater, watching the Fox God who was already at full power.

Rena Takigami's color scheme as a little fox is black and white, making her a cow-fox...

When this cow-fox was at her peak, it had painted a large number of extremely strange-looking runes all over Takigami Rena's face and body, and her whole body was shrouded in an extremely ominous black mist.

"The vessel you have chosen can indeed hold more of my power, but are you sure you want to place all your bets on that woman?"

In her prime, even the tone of her voice changed, suggesting that she had regained some of her past personality traits.

If this Fox God were to fight those players with all his might in his true form, Kiyono Ash couldn't say exactly how strong he was.

However, as a vessel for divine power, with the combined strengths of a master pianist and a top-tier player, the Fox God could easily push her character's level to 200 in one go if she wanted to.

Although this would also cause great strain on the Fox Spirit Goddess, judging from her appearance, she still couldn't completely trust this player and thus held back a few tricks.

"No... what I meant was, if you still have the energy left, instead of using it to fight the Black Sword Knights with your own body in the second stage, you should use it to find outside help."

Kiyono Hai's words instantly snapped Takigami Rena out of her chuunibyou (delusional) state as the goddess Miketsukami.

"Looking for outside help? You mean looking for support from other players? Kiyono-kun... that would turn it into a contest of faith power reserves and resources with that God of Slaughter. With my current reserves, I'm probably far inferior to that God of Slaughter who has the support of the gods of 'Dream City' behind the scenes."