After Tom exited the spaceship fully equipped. He saw how there were already hundreds of people making their way through the empty fields toward the different biomes. There was also a constantly increasing stream of people going toward the traders.

Tom was glad that he had headed toward the traders right away, as he wouldn't have wanted to push through these crowds while carrying all those stones. But to his astonishment, he realized that people were constantly walking past him into Sandy's ship, yet once he looked back inside it, there was no one there just an empty store.

He stared at it for a moment and decided to inquire about it the next time he needed to sell something.

Tom started walking towards the obelisk. Because he had the whole town to explore.

The closer he got to the obelisk, the more he saw people appearing out of nowhere. The area right next to the obelisk was already really crowded, so people had started appearing further and further from it.

Once Tom managed to push through the mass of people, who were trying to go in the opposite direction, he placed his hand on the obelisk.

___________________

Main Starting city 1

Population: 10 000

Buildings: None

Teleporters active: None

Governor: City AI

______________________

Missions:

Become a governor:

Earn a sufficient amount of city merit points by contributing to its advancement.

Then govern the city uncontested for a week. Or achieve a majority vote in a city-wide election.

You can earn merit points by building infrastructure or completing tasks for the city, like activating teleporters.

Help is allowed. However, the transfer of merit points has to be done by one's free will. Buying them is allowed.

_____________________

Tom could see how the competition to achieve the city governor position would be advantageous for the city's development. However, he could also see how this place would become a political battleground in no time. And he had no intention of getting sucked into a mess like that.

There were still countless screens in front of him. All of them were about all things part of city planning, like zoning plans and how there wasn't a functional sewer system. Tom also saw options to purchase land, the cheapest ones started from one credit, but the prices quickly climbed to over a thousand credits as they got nearer to the obelisk.

Apparently, all of the city management details were public, as the AI was the acting governor, and it didn't care to hide any of the details.

Tom quickly found the button he had been looking for and selected to enter the Training town.

Tom found himself in the same spot where he had been originally teleported to. Now that he could see around, without everything being framed by blue rocks, he saw how the town was compact and full of wooden buildings of medieval architecture. There were only a handful of other people around, which Tom found confusing until he remembered how he had been alone in the store, and reasoned that something similar must be happening here.

He started walking through the town. He noticed that each building had signs on them, telling what you could find inside. There was training available for all kinds of professions and skills, from cooking to mana manipulation.

Tom made his way to a house with a sign "How to form a core" written on it, so he walked in. He found himself in a completely different environment, all the noises had disappeared, and he was in a modern lab that had extremely detailed diagrams of human anatomy hanging on the walls.

"Hello?" Tom said warily. The next moment a female doctor materialized in front of him.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Welcome, I am the Secverses training AI. Here you can learn how to form a core. However, you don't seem to have enough credits."

"How much would it cost?" Tom asked curiously.

"Well, hmmm. You are a complicated case. You have an awakened mind and body. So that brings the price down quite a bit as you won't need much help. And Of course, I am thankful for the data you have provided me within your 'experiments' into the human physique. So let's say three credits. How does that sound?"

Tom stared at the AI and slowly asked. "awakened body?"

"Oh, why do you think your body suddenly got much better? Haven't you checked your status?"

Tom stared at it again, this time much longer until he said, "status."

____________________

Name Tom Palmer

Awakened mind 1

Awakened body 0

_____________________

Tom wanted to cry. The command hadn't been useless from the start. No, the useless one had been him. He had been so far under the Empire's standards that his meager strength hadn't even deserved an honorable mention position in the status window.

He also realized that his mind had a one after it instead of the zero that his body had, which must mean that he had advanced it without even realizing it, right?

Tom pulled himself together and asked, "What does the number behind the awakened mind stand for?"

"Well, I guess that I can give you this much for free... It means your advancement through the ranks once you reach ten, you will have to breakthrough to the next stage."

Tom tentatively asked, "And how might I advance through the ranks?."

"That information will cost you one credit." The AI clearly was clearly done giving charity to Tom, as he tried a couple of other questions, only to be faced by the same paywall.

"Well thanks anyway. I will probably come back once I have the three credits." And Tom started walking towards the door. He was clearly too poor to get anything else out of this training town, so he needed to make more money as fast as possible. Because he was sure that he had to be one of the most advanced humans, and he didn't wish to lose his lead.

Just as Tom was about exit the door, the AI spoke again, but there was something different about its voice. " Remember the pieces of advice you have gotten, and sometimes a broader approach to topics might be more beneficial" Tom was going to turn around and thank the AI again, but he wound himself outside. And as he turned his head to the side, he saw how two strange-looking people walked inside a store together. Tom walked a bit forward to read the store's sign, which had "Cultivations basics." written on it.

Tom shrugged and walked inside it, and almost immediately rushed out. It cost a full ten credits, and it contained only information, no actual training, nor any help on creating the core or on awakening the mind.

But somehow, the AI's last words still rang in his head.

Tom quickly centered himself. "No reason to worry about it now. I don't even have half a credit to my name, so might as well make this decision later."

Tom walked out of the training town with a new goal in his mind.

Once he exited the peaceful environment of the training town, he was immediately met with a sea of people. And apparently, he hadn't been the only one who had read the information the obelisk was offering, as there were already people recruiting others to their folds, trying to achieve the governor position.

But these groups weren't some bands of like-minded people who decided that it would be fun to play together. No, they were international companies and countries.

Tom started making his way toward the mountainous area. He wanted to get far away from here before he got dragged into the clash of titans that would surely happen in this soon-to-be city. Tom understood enough of human nature, no faction would be willing to just give up on this opportunity. He was sure that the tensions would soon be ridiculously high anywhere near the city, so to him, the most logical choice was to leave before it happened.

After five minutes of slowly following the masses out from near the obelisk, the crowds started to broaden out, so Tom could finally start walking a bit faster, rather than just following the masses at a snail's pace.

Tom checked that all of his gear was secure and still there, apparently, he had gotten lucky, as no slippery fingers had found their way to his gear. Then when he was just about to continue his journey, he heard. "Hey, you look like you know what you are doing. Would you like to join the European union's faction?" A man in his thirties said to Tom.

Tom was quite impressed if the European Union had genuinely managed to band together during the last week, and every country wasn't just focusing on their own agenda.

But he quickly said."No thanks."

And started running towards the mountainous zone, passing multiple groups who had clearly just exited the traders, as they were wearing brand-new gear that shone in the sunlight.

A while later, just as Tom was about to enter the mountainous area. Every single creature on this planet inside the Secverse got a notification.

________________________________

War for the world.

Whichever side controls over 70 % of the control points on this tier 3 planet for two months, or controls more of the planet after five years, gets to keep this planet. The loser will be transported to a tier 1 planet.

Good luck.

________________________________

"Well, things are bound to get complicated and interesting," Tom thought as he looked behind. Most people seemed to be extremely excited, and who wouldn't like it when the game had an event nicely planned out for the start of the game, just waiting for you to start playing.

Tom also doubted that more than a few people truly grasped the importance of the Secverse, as he was sure that he would have before he awakened his mind and actually sold something and earned a decent amount of credits by doing it. And as for the price, it sounded good, but nobody truly knew what it meant. As they say, ignorance is bliss.