I stood in the middle of the plaza. The governor brought out crystals to pay for the upgrade to level 4 which cost a million. Then there was a donation to the Emperor Michael self-improvement fund, of another ten million.

That was how much I planned to charge for an upgrade a city to level 4. Clarissa and I had discussed the price, but that was what it had come to. I had brought a letter from her to the Governor confirming everything, since Clarissa had already let him know to start saving up crystals for a push into the Avatar’s territory. While he would be paying me for the upgrade, the Imperial Government would be paying for the roads.

That was the compromise that had been arranged, and it would make his city a key link to the Avatar’s two cities out towards the West. That meant Qingdao would have more traffic, which in turn meant people wanting to stay at inns. The taxes that were sent to the Capital were one such source of traffic and the soldiers coming to suppress the territory would be another.

In time other good would hopefully move through as cities started to specialize. It would also free his city from the Forbidden City’s road structure, since a new road would be built to the East where there was that ‘T’ intersection. It would become a ‘+’ intersection instead.

This had long term ramifications and would greatly enhance the power of the governor. But the road layout was the purview of the Imperial Government. And while it would normally be paid for my the city itself after it had received approval, there was also the issue of requiring an upgrade.

Cheating the Emperor out of a pay day would not be good, since my star was in ascendence. So the Governor paid me and the Imperial Government, Clarissa, paid for the road construction and the necessary city upgrades to make it happen.

It was estimated to cost around a hundred million points to build the road. It wasn’t going to be cheap, that was for sure. The Regional Map building needed to be upgraded quite extensively and then roads purchased.

The building and the people tracker had been purchased in Purgatory, but we didn’t have the name of the Astrologer and very few people knew about Ruth. She wasn’t a priority. I hadn’t even been thinking about her at all or that she would ever return. So, we couldn’t find him easily and went with a trap instead.

That was also how tracking down people in the city had gone so quickly after the initial round of traps. Anyone remaining would be found and hunted down. People in the shelters would be tested. It was a big city, but with the right upgrades, it was impossible to truly hide.

Trying to find him and target him in the city, would have made it much harder to maneuver a large number of soldiers around his position like we had in the plaza which was open, and we had the high ground from the surroundings buildings along with cover.

Right now, I needed to do the upgrade, then I would poke the jungle to see how bad it was. We also weren’t sure how bad a road would be in a level 4 zone. Would it be safe and prevent environmental effects? It did for the mist, of the mistlands, but level 4 monsters were no joke. Would they attack people on the road?

What about the boss monster in the zone, a level 5, would it attack the people on the road. While we had a some knowledge about what was beyond the level 4 zone, the two cities, the exact layout of the zones and the placement of the cities weren’t clear.

Part of my job was to explore and gain an understanding of how the zones were laid out for the planned construction of the road. After that I would sweep up North to make sure First Seoul was firmly in our possession. In case the Avatar’s minions made a play on the city.

I wasn’t too concerned about them, but it was important to nip things in the bud. Also, with me leading the assault, casualties would be reduced among our forces. Already troops were amassing in Wuhan up North, waiting for my arrival after handling this issue.

It would take a couple of days to poke around the Avatar’s Fifth Caliphate and then I would be back and go North. After that, I was going to deal with the curse damage and Astrologer tumors. While I did divert my focus onto them, I really needed a long stretch of time to make sure they were fully stamped out once and for all.

The main thing was to end the threat the Avatar’s nation posed before it got out of hand. That was why I was acting in my personal capacity right away. After that it would give General Abdullah something to do and give a final opportunity for some people to be named governor, or get some accolades from a war.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The Dragon Empire was crushed with only a few bands of insurgents left. I didn’t even know what happened to the Rising Sun rebels that Fuyuka had come from. They would probably just end up as another grinding group.

There was no way to resist my empire anymore. Total hegemony over all known cities in the Systemic Lands was about to occur, hopefully before day 1,000. There was a celebration planned then, nationwide. There was no one left that could challenge me.

So, while there might be some lingering resistance, I was the strongest person left alive with the biggest empire. All other hurdles and issues were either resolved or would soon be resolved. As I watched the sky worms swoop in, I smiled at them.

It had been so long since the first fight during the upgrade, but the fact it was routine now, showed how far I had come. Even compared to the upgrade I had done for Neo Brasilia, this was incredibly easy with all the upgrades and stats I had.

Leaping into the air, I began darting around with Air Burst and killing the monsters with Acid Shot. Level 4 monsters no longer were a challenge for me in such small numbers. Just like that the battle was over and the city would upgrade without any issues.

Once I was healed up and my skills fixed to be more cost effective, I would need to upgrade Purgatory to level 5. Get that city shield up and running and then give an advanced warning to all the other cities and nearby zones. Then a long day of fighting outside the city, but it shouldn’t be that bad once the cost of Acid Shot was brought down.

Now the real question I still needed to answer, how tough were level 5 boss monsters in their terrain and what kind of skills could I expect from them. The other important reason to upgrade the city was to get a fifth skill slot.

The key thing was synergy or something incredibly useful. Astral Projection was high up on my list. I just needed to find it. But I was honestly tempted to go with two beam attacks of opposing energy types for a long range annihilation attack.

Keep Acid Shot, find Force Shot, keep Aqua Sphere, drop Force Wave, and get two beam attacks. Force Wave could easily be replaced with Force Shot. I just needed to find that skill. There was a huge advantage in getting a skill from a level 1 zone around a city. Since the base cost would start much lower.

I wanted beam attacks, since I hated getting up close and personal in all my fights. Better to just blow away a target at a safe distance. It wasn’t sporting or fair, but a ranged annihilation attack would give me a lot more confidence in facing higher level monsters.

That was needed for exploration purposes and clearing out the towers. That was another thing that had been put on my long-term to-do list. Find the towers in the level 3 zones. Clear all of them I could, then face a level 7 boss monster in a level 6 zone. After that start clearing the towers in the level 4 zones.

While the idea of a vote sounded stupid and annoying, the fact was it would be a vote enforced by the Almighty System and from what had been told to be by very untrustworthy people, it could be a vote to end this place in some way.

There were 40 towers and 21 votes needed to be claimed to have a quorum. My empire controlled half to a third of the Systemic Lands, which meant that I should have at least a quarter of the votes at a minimum.

Someone else out there had claimed a tower before me, which meant there was competition. There were three other known towers in level 3 zones. I suspected there might be a fourth around one of the Avatar’s cities, which I wanted to find. I knew of one tower in a level 4 zone, but I wasn’t going to count that for now.

In my mind, once I fixed my cursed damage and my skills, I could easily secure three more towers and votes. That would give a tenth of the total voting power and double that for when a quorum was achieved.

I couldn’t lose that sense of urgency like I had in the past. I would not allow anyone else to vote to decide my fate. I absolutely refused to allow such a thing to happen. The more I thought about the votes, the more I was sure they were the key to this place. Either to escape or for understanding about the Almighty System.

Thinking about it logically, if there were 5 towers in level 3 zones and this part of the Systemic Lands that I controlled was a third. That meant there were 15 total towers in level 3 zones. That meant there were 25 towers in higher level zones. With at least 6 of them needing to be claimed for there to be a quorum.

That most likely meant the highest zone a tower could be in was a level 7 zone. Since that would mean a level 10 monster at the top. Which seemed to be the limit based on the progression of point crystals. That meant there were probably 10 towers in level 4 zones. And around 5 towers in level 5, 6, and 7 zones.

This was all guesswork. For all I knew the distribution could be skewed one way or the other. There was no way of telling for sure without a complete map of the zones. That was another long-term project I would need to do. While I was getting skill points from level 4 zones, I would need to confirm the monster types and if there was a tower or not.

Then do the same for level 5 zones. It was critically important that a larger understanding of the Systemic Lands map was developed. While it had been brought up that the rest of the Systemic Lands was to the West across a gap of void zones, it was important to verify that claim. If it was true, then cities like The Abyss would need to be ready and on guard for anyone coming from that direction.