Within the Artica realm, Axios was smiling softly as he played with the piece of divine ore in his hand. For reasons unknown to those at his level, a name had not been decided for the ore, and no one was allowed to name it either. Even nicknames weren’t allowed, so for now it was simply being addressed as the divine ore, which was not really a name - it was just what it was.

The unusual situation from the name aside, the existence of this ore had caused a massive upheaval across the universe, and Axios had been in the perfect place to take advantage of it.

It did not take long for him to establish various alliances centered around the trade of this ore, bolstering his own position within his race and creating strong allies for himself. Life was very much a game of transactions, and sometimes helping others was the best way to help oneself.

All the deals he made seemed to favor the natives of the Artica race, but that was only because no one knew what he stood to gain from it. The good will of the races, an increased diplomatic standing, and steadfast allies were all things that would give him long-term returns compared to something like immediate wealth benefit.

What no one knew was that even those were merely add-on bonuses for Axios. What he really wanted by creating more allies for himself were the Go pieces they would provide.

He had to admit, he severely underestimated his opponent this time when he challenged that human. Not only had he become cognizant of the Go board much quicker than anyone else he had ever encountered, he had learned the basic rules fairly quickly as well.

His counter attacks, while somewhat basic, were also swift and lethal, and put Axios in a temporarily disadvantaged position. But the thing about this Go board was that it was more complex than simply gaining a piece every time one advanced oneself.

Axios turned his attention to his system interface. More specifically, he looked at the title of his system at the very top of the interface panel. It read: Game of Life System. The game they were playing looked like Go, but the pieces materialised whenever one advanced in any way in life.

That advancement could be in the form of personal strength, alliances, connections, networks, influence, etc.

Essentially, the board did not take into account any such advantages the players had at the time of the initiation of the game, only personal advancements made after the game began. What was especially important was that only personal advancements mattered, not any advancement to any associated organization or power - not unless one openly owned that organization or power.

Axios’ opponent was winning a lot in life, and with a frequency that was completely abnormal. Axios even suspected that he had left the Artica realm and moved to another realm with a faster flow of time. But that was only a temporary advantage. After all, this game was not a quick one.

In a competition between the two of them making advancements in life, they also had to strategically use those advancements to counter one another. The Go board directly pitted their lives against one another, so this was entirely possible. At the same time, a higher level of gameplay was to attract enemies for one another.

When Axios figured that his opponent might be in another realm, he tried using one of his special, system-given, one time use pieces to attract an enemy for his opponent. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined how effective that would be.

Instead of new pieces for Axios being placed on the board, many places within the board became trap locations visible only to Axios. As long as his human opponent placed a bead on one of those trap locations, he would further intertwine his life with threats directly targeting him.

Such a trap was especially effective against his opponent who had recently begun to place a lot of beads on the board.

In the meantime, Axios was biding his time, gathering up his own beads, gearing up for one, massive counterattack. After all, the Game of Life was not a pointless one, and Axios could vouch for that.

The winner would reap all the benefits that the loser had accumulated across their life, instantly providing them with a windfall.

It was only through constantly defeating opponents that Axios had arrived at this position today. He had started out as nothing more than an abandoned child, living in the wild, barely scraping by. Once he got his system, though, he defeated one opponent after another, gaining their strengths, their skills, their wealth, their connections, rising all the way to his current position.

Now he had a feeling that after beating this current opponent, he’d be set for all the way to the peak of the Immortal realm.

The more formidable he was, the greater Axios’ gain would be. Likewise, because he was so formidable, Axios could not take things lightly. Although he had an advantage now, he couldn’t be complacent. After all, each obstacle also served as an opportunity, and one could turn a disaster into a massive windfall if they placed their pieces correctly.

Although right now it seemed like his opponent was digging a bigger and bigger hole for himself to jump into, he had proven that he could overcome obstacles, so what Axios had to do now was ensure he jumped into that hole.

He flipped the piece of ore in the air, thinking about his next move. It had to be just right, and it had to come at a critical time. Until then, Axios would only gather more and more pieces, waiting for the time to counterattack. Since only he could see which positions deepened the trap for his opponent, he began to plan out the positions for his own pieces that would force his opponent to enter deeper and deeper into the trap, attracting more and more troubles for himself.

He flipped the ore once more.