Chapter 105: Hiro’s Stronghold

Hiro chuckled, shaking his head and turning around in the direction of the former Valdmor Stronghold.

With a thought, he synchronized with the Arcana Lord and teleported over.

After the great reformation in the wake of the war, its name was due to change.

However, the residents of the Demon Tower were waiting for their new lord to bestow the stronghold with a new name.

After arriving above the stronghold that was comparable to the size of a large city from his previous life, Hiro didn't waste time and immediately arrived at the Demon Tower's base.

There weren't any restrictions to speak of, so Hiro followed Asmir's advice and arrived at the core of the stronghold situated under the Demon Tower.

"Is this a law fragment? It looks no different from the fragments I obtain through completing free games," Hiro made this discovery upon entering a silent, empty room.

It was empty of living presences, of course.

"Hm, it feels much weaker up close," Hiro commented after climbing the high platform.

After thinking about it, he figured that it also made sense because the fragments he obtained contained partially completed laws while this one was similar to a token of authority.

It didn't enlighten the owner of the illusion law, it only granted them the ability to manipulate the perception of falsehood inside the Demon Realm.

This made Hiro wonder if these law fragments were mere projections of the real ones. If so, it's impossible to destroy them, no matter what happened to the stronghold itself.

With that thought in mind, Hiro brought out the World Mirror and used it as a medium to increase his affinity for illusions.

With the mirror in hand, he poured his demonic essence into the artifact before channeling it over toward the law fragment.

…

The moment Hiro started resonating with the law fragment, the entire stronghold felt a tremor from the Demon Tower, and a shockwave spread to every district, stopping only when the shockwaves reached the great walls.

Of course, these walls were redundant without any protective barriers, serving as no more than symbolic constructs of energy.

Tens of millions of ordinary demons looked up to the sky, wondering who their new lord was and what he looked like.

Soon, their questions were answered as the silhouette of a young man with curved red horns, blazing crimson eyes, and a coat of hellfire appeared in the sky.

He was cradling the law fragment in his hands and looking down, through from the perspective of the demons, he was looking down on them.

"In my name as Demon Lord Sitri, I name you Babylon," his voice resounded in the skies of the stronghold like thunder.

Sitri!

Babylon!

Every demon, animal, and beast in the stronghold heard the two names in their minds, loud and clear.

The moment Hiro's silhouette disappeared, he heard a soft bell chime in his head as a notification popped up.

[Notice: Acquired new property; the Babylon Stronghold.]

[Notice: Hidden achievement, "A Crowned King", has been unlocked. Continue reading at m|v-l'e -NovelFire.net

Reward: 30 gems.]

…

Surprised, Hrio brought out the system's panel and browsed his different properties.

Myriad Evils Club, Sciatis Holdings Limited, Luxurious Mansion, Unfathomable Domain (pocket dimension and immaterial domain included), Babylon Stronghold.

…

Hiro didn't care for anything else, but he brought up the menu for the stronghold.

Rows of data appeared in front of him. The information included the current level of the defensive barrier, which was null due to the lack of a barrier; it included the approximate population of around 48 million residents; it separated ordinary demons, noble blood demons, and great demons into three categories.

There was also a shop that provided tools such as defensive and offensive barriers. seaʀᴄh thё NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Hiro browsed the shop for the defensive barriers and discovered that the levels of the barriers corresponded to the levels of magical treasures and skills.

However, the barriers started from Level 3, the equivalent of Tier-7 Paranormals.

Level 3 Barrier, 10,000 points…

Level 4 Barrier, 100,000 points…

Level 5 Barrier, 1,000,000 points…

Level 6 Barrier, 10,000,000 points…

Level 7 Barrier, 100,000,000 points…

Level 8 Barrier, 1,000,000,000 points…

Level 9 Barrier, 10,000,000,000 points…

…

Looking at the long string of zeros behind the maximum level barrier, Hiro thought back to his Nine Clones Secret Technique.

He realized that his ninth clone would also cost him ten billion achievement points.

Hiro began to sweat; where would he get so many points from?

"I planned to spend 14 million points on the mass enlightenment scroll…" Hiro felt pained.

The scroll could easily cover the stronghold's 14,000 square kilometers of landscape, and he would then be able to influence all the infants of the new generation into becoming his loyal followers.

Looking at the pitiful loyalty measure of 2% on the system's panel, Hiro wondered if she forego the barrier and obtain the hearts of the people.

After thinking about the system's concealment function, Hiro decided to bite the bullet and erect the barrier.

Even if it couldn't block overpowered opponents, it was never a bad choice to maintain secrecy and provide a modicum of protection to his people.

With that in mind, Hiro decisively spent 10 million achievement points on the Level 6 barrier, which was the equivalent of a Tier-4 Paranormal in terms of sturdiness.

Buzz!

The stronghold shook abruptly. From the Demon Tower, streaks of intricate lines raced on the ground, the buildings, and the sky.

The pure demonic essence churned out like a great flood, and with a thought, Hiro grasped the vague feeling that the river of faith energy in the universe hall was roiling.

Without much thought, Hiro understood that the system was siphoning some of his faith energy to imbue the barrier with divine energy.

He felt like he was cheated, especially since he already paid 10 million points.

While waiting for the barrier to be erected, Hiro summoned the system interface and decided to try his luck at the lottery box.

A colorful cube with mysterious question marks appeared, and without much thought, Hiro selected the 30 gems lottery draw.

The cube spun crazily, and a burst of colorful lights visible only to Hiro exploded as ten balls of light appeared.

Then, all of them exploded.

Other than the numerous compensation prizes of achievement points, Hiro got his hands on two 80% discount vouchers.

Hiro felt like vomiting blood in anger. If he knew this would happen, he wouldn't have purchased the barrier at a cost of 10 million points.

With the discount, he could have bought it for no more than 2 million points instead.

While feeling sour, Hiro remembered Asmir's advice for the positions of his generals.

Taking that into consideration, he had an idea of where to use his discount vouchers.

Hiro silently opened the servants' menu from the shop and filtered in his requirements for demons with high bloodline purity.

The higher, the better.

After Hiro witnessed the disparity between demons like Asmir and Dawnson when compared to other Stronghold Lords, Hiro was no longer satisfied with summoning tokens that cost 10,000 points.

He felt like those servants wouldn't cut it in the long run.

Hiro spent a long time browsing through the catalog of demons before he finally settled down on four candidates to become his demon generals.

Each of their summoning tokens costs 4 million achievement points, making for a total of 8 million achievement points for the four summoning tokens.

With the voucher, Hiro spent 1.6 million points and bought all four tokens, immediately transferring them to his inventory before he checked his current balance.

Achievement Points: 6,413,800.

The odd 13,800 points were Hiro's compensation from the lucky draw, so he didn't give them much thought.

After thinking for a while, Hiro purchased a Level 5 barrier enhancement from the stronghold's menu, which was used on the infrastructure of the stronghold.

The entire stronghold went dark for fifteen minutes before the barrier flashed, and everyone recovered from their stupor.

For a moment, the demons felt like they were trapped in a sandbox toy house, and an all-mighty God was looking down on them, playfully manipulating their reality.

When they snapped back to their senses, they discovered that the dilapidated buildings and poor residential zones, slum areas, and damaged structures were fixed.

It felt like a dream and a miracle at the same time.

After they snapped out from their daze, the demons who were left homeless in the wake of the war hurriedly rushed back to their former houses, only to find them as sturdy if not more than they remembered them to be.

Many of the demons dropped on their knees while those who weren't bipedal in nature or couldn't transform lay prone on their flat bellies, exhibiting signs of obedience.

Although they didn't speak, some of them were already generating faith energy, which the system gladly accepted on Hiro's behalf.

A blinking notification caught Hiro's eyes as he looked over, realizing that the loyalty measure had risen to 12% in the blink of an eye.

This indicated that over 10% of the current population had Hiro in their hearts at the moment, which wasn't a bad start.

Hiro nodded, but his attention quickly shifted to the four summoning tokens, a wide expectant smile on his face.