Alex continued rambling on and on for nearly an hour before realizing it was near the next dream switch.
He stood up and out of his room, intending to go to the library.
Right now, he couldn't do anything more; he could only wait for the ministers to do their jobs. Therefore, it's best to use the time efficiently and read books to increase knowledge.
There were four guards outside his room.
They bowed, and two went forward, and two went on the back. All were a few meters away.
It was Alex III's arrangement; he wasn't comfortable with guards being close; after all, he wouldn't be able to react if they were close and suddenly attacked.
But if they were far, even if they attacked, Alex III was confident in killing them without much effort.
After all, he is a king almost 100 years old who practiced the sword from a young age; he really is one of the best warriors anywhere.
However, if someone asks him, he would, without hesitation, say he is the best warrior anywhere in history.
At the library's door, there were also two more guards.
They nodded and cleared the way.
Alex III stroked his beard and went in.
...
Rob looked confused.
The life lessons by Alex III were right out of the devil's playbook!
Still, it did affect him a little.
Now, Rob feels very guilty about what happened to Rand, so a king saying it doesn't matter helped him a little.
Of course, not in a good way; if he goes down this road, one day, he becomes a ruthless, evil killer like Alex.
"Let's do the research first!" he went on the laptop and started researching.
Fortunately, he had a solar roof, so he wasn't worried about power.
Soon, an hour passed while Rob was researching.
...
Alex reviewed the new information about the leaders of Five Star and nodded.
The most powerful position was, of course, the prime minister.
Under the prime minister, there were government ministers.
The one whom Alex paid the most attention to was the minister of Defence.
She was an older woman who didn't look like someone who could be blackmailed.
Alex had plans to find their doppelgangers and use them as leverage, but that plan may not work for the defense minister.
As a king, Alex has good judgment about other people's personalities; at least, he believes this is the case.
He briefly looked at the military generals, intelligent personnel, etc.
It would be easier to try influencing the police and intelligence agencies under the president; after all, the president is the doppelganger of his most loyal servant, Sebastian IV.
In any case, he decided first to try negotiating and only use force if the negotiations failed.
Then, he looked around and picked a few books to read.
...
Like this, days went by.
On Alex's kingdom's side, they quickly gathered a lot of guards to protect the capital and set out procedures to stop soldiers from going mad and causing chaos.
For example, they brought a lot of death rows to the palace, which are now precious life-saving 'medicine,' and made sure all guards knew that they must kill one prisoner if their doppelganger on Five Star's side died.
According to experiments, when the doppelganger dies, they have one hour to kill someone to heal; if they don't, they might go crazy.
It's still possible to cure them even if they go crazy, but those crazies lose their minds, and with swords, they are dangerous.
Fortunately, nobody needs to sleep anymore.
Nobody felt tired even after staying awake for days.
...
On the fifth day, letters flowed from the top ten cities. Fortunately for Alex's kingdom, nine out of ten cities received the information, took precautions, and sent a letter back to the capital.
But, one city, the sixth-largest city named Seaside City, was temporarily lost.
According to reports, its governor died, and the ensuing chaos caused them to be unable to respond to the letter.
Alex III ordered one of the generals around the capital to get 1,000 soldiers and go to Seaside City to take back the city.
For the time being, that general will also serve as governor.
As for smaller cities, Alex III ordered the top ten governors to organize their cities first and then start thinking about other cities.
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The capital is the most important, so Alex III also ordered the governors to send resources to the capital.
He doesn't want any disruption in the capital.
Things started normalizing a bit with these orders.
...
On the Five Star kingdom's side, their government also discovered how it works.
One reason they discovered it so soon was the president, who was the doppelganger of Sebastian IV.
Alex III used Sebastian IV to communicate with the president and exchange information.
With the help of Alex III, the president quickly informed intelligence services and the police about the critical information about some people suddenly going crazy; he told them about the void chasing, etc. Anyone who said anything about the 'void' was ordered to be placed in jail.
In turn, the president promised Alex III to keep an eye on some people on Five Star's side.
Alex always wanted to rely on more than one source. What if one of his guards or minister's doppelgangers dies, and they don't tell him for some reason? Then, he would find out using the president's sources.
It's unlikely that they won't inform him, but even if it's a slight chance, he won't risk it.
The Five Star country is far more lawful than Alex kingdom.
It's not easy here to get rid of the void chasing; after all, the death penalty doesn't exist; the harshest punishment is life imprisonment.
So, if someone feels the Void is coming, there is no way to help them legally.
They can only imprison these people.
They now know what happens if those chased by Void will if they don't kill.
In the first hour, everything would be fine; they won't go crazy or anything; they just feel a need to kill.
The second through sixth, they get crazier and crazier; at this stage, if they are not tightly bound, they will kill themselves.
As for when exactly they get mad enough to kill themselves, it depends on the person.
Some remain sane even through the 5th hour, but nearly all go wild at the end of the 6th hour.
If they don't kill anyone in 24 hours, they will die out of fear; usually, their heart stops.
There have been a few cases where they survive for a little more, but 90% will not get past 24 hours.
Moreover, it was discovered that the void-chasing problem will not be fixed if they kill someone whose doppelganger is dead on the other side.
So, for example, if two people that void follow and don't have links on Alex's kingdom's side kill each other, the survivor will still have the void-chasing problem.
So, the plan of just letting them fight and kill themselves wouldn't be possible.
Five Star had no way of dealing with the problem, so they had no choice but to imprison those who were void chased and wait for them to die.
But, there are risks to this approach.
In Alex's kingdom, guards know that if the void chases them, Alex III and their commander will let them kill someone and be cured.
But here, some police and soldiers saw that they would be imprisoned and die miserably.
So, they have minimal incentive to let anyone know that their doppelganger on the Alex kingdom's side died.
Just in five days, there have been cases of good police and soldiers going mad, killing people, and running away.
Nobody is safe.
Not even the bodyguards of presidents and prime ministers can be trusted.
The higher-ups realized that the country would fall if it went like this.
Just in a few days, thousands of murderers appeared throughout the country; everywhere was unsafe, and the police couldn't take care of their own, let alone arrest other criminals.
So, the prime minister and president thought of a plan.
There are many life prisoners.
It's definitely unlawful to just kill them, but in this situation, they felt they had no other choice.
So, like Alex's kingdom, they brought prisoners to the prime minister's and presidential palaces to ensure the country's leadership would not fall.
At least, the guards at those two places would know they can be cured, and prisoners to kill are right there.
The cabinet also began planning the best ways to make sure soldiers and the police would retain as much of their functionality as possible:
1. The secret of what happens when the void feeling comes is a secret; a few police officers and bodyguards already know it, but it must be prevented from spreading further. Because the soldiers and the police would hide it if their doppelganger on Alex kingdom's side died if they knew they would be imprisoned and left to die.
2. They brought a few doctors and scientists and spread the news of a cure. "As long as you tell us, we can fix the void-chasing problem," the doctors said. Of course, it was a lie.
3. They began experimenting with finding a way to lengthen the time it takes for them to go mad. They already have some success. If they immediately give sleep drugs to those who feel the void chasing, the time they survive lengthens to 48 hours. A few hours are too short; it would be much better if they could make the time longer.
The cabinet continued to meet daily to find a solution to the problems that popped up.
The Five Star side collaborated with Alex's kingdom. As for collaborating with other countries on this side ...
Right now, everyone is helping themselves, so except for the exchange of information, no one can help.
No all-powerful federal government is waiting there to help; they are on their own.
...
Alex's kingdom side had it much easier.
Occasionally, one of the guards felt the void chasing, and with an abundance of death row inmates, there was no problem.
They just went to the palace's jail and killed one.
Still, they were burning through death rows, so they began capturing the homeless.
Alex III's palace was prepared, with many death rows stored there, ready for guards to kill.
Like this, a month passed.
...
Alex's kingdom regained control in Seaside City.
However, by now, most cities have run out of death rows.
It's because the doppelgangers on the Five Star side were dying at a breakneck speed.
Alex III negotiated with the president and prime minister many times, but they couldn't do anything.
On Five Star's side, the control was nearly completely lost, aside from some parts of the capital and some other big cities.
Even with all the precautions, they still failed to keep it together.
The army and military mostly ran away, aside from some elite groups. There was no police either.
As a result, the death rate was sky-high.
People were dying of hunger and thirst and being murdered by gangs, and in turn, their deaths caused Alex's kingdom to burn through death row prisoners.
Alex III's palace still had some prisoners, but soon, they, too, had to start killing the homeless.
Alex III started organizing the guards in another way.
By now, they knew the situation of guards on the Five Star side, so they put those in safer positions in safe ranks, used as guards for ministers, and those in dangerous situations were placed in less critical places.
For example, if the guard's doppelganger were in a safe house, they would be in the 'safe' camp, while if the doppelganger were on the street, they would be placed in a less critical place.
Every time the doppelganger on Five Star's side changes, they would be reevalued.
Also, anyone whose doppelganger could be useful was brought to the palace.
Still, things were pessimistic.
Eventually, the homeless would also die off; after all, it takes time for their numbers to recover.
The only relatively permanent solution is lowering the death rate on Five Star.
But, the problem is the government there already lost control.
Gangs and groups control most cities there.
So, Alex III ordered everyone to look throughout the kingdom to find people whose doppelgangers were gang leaders or at least high-ranking gang members.
After a month, they found a few.
Alex III and the gangs made deals.
It's in the interest of both sides to keep death rates low.
Alex's kingdom promised to protect high-ranking gang leaders' doppelgangers in return for them trying to keep the death rate low.
Some gangs refused to compromise.
In dealing with those, Alex's kingdom was ruthless.
They searched and found those who were doppelgangers of gang leaders and put them in prison.
Then, they started torturing them without killing them. Those gang leaders had nightmares each hour. Most surrendered, but some still persisted.
Alex III found high-level members of those gangs and tortured their doppelgangers, only stopping if they killed their leader who refused to compromise.
If even this didn't work, Alex's kingdom put them on the death list, planning to use other gangs to destroy them.
Like this, Alex's kingdom's influence on the Five Star world increased day by day.