“Come, let’s go some place else, to eat,” the Leader suggested. I nodded at this. The conference room was a bit of a mess. We all got up and made our way to another conference room, taking our seats again. I noted people taking the time to get cleaned off from the blood splatter while giving me nervous looks.

I was surprised they didn’t all start attacking. It would have given me an excuse to wipe them out, not that I needed one. One of the main reasons why I was giving this Leader space, and not just killing him and his top people was out of respect for Doctor Katz and his desire for peace. Hopefully, if there is a soul or something that he finds peace wherever he has gone.

Sitting down in the next room, food and water were served. Nothing impressive by my culinary standards. After all the development in my Empire, I knew one thing we would be exporting, finished food products.

That was another reason to have other nations out here and spare them. To ship out finished goods. While they had to ship back crystals. “How have you been dealing with the population problem?” I asked to break the tension.

That was the metric by which all cities and nations were judged. I think Clarissa and I had the best outcome so far. Pushing people out to grind, then subsidizing more people with food production, and now pushing people into a no man’s land.

“With great difficulty. Each person who kills monsters is allowed a home and however many may fit in it. They can work and do other jobs, but one home to one person killing monsters. If they die, then the people are kicked out and they must find shelter somewhere else or get invited into another home.”

I considered that strategy. It was certainly unique and interesting. But I had noted that the grinders were men and the women wore hijabs in the city. There were no female soldiers either. Women would have to beg to find housing, or die.

“What about competition for monsters?” I asked.

“A test. Only the best are allowed to go out and kill them. The top 5 from each arrival are selected. The rest are sent into a level 2 swamp. If they bring back 100 crystals, they will be put on the list of openings for people to kill monsters and allowed a house,” the Leader explained.

I nodded at this. It was an impressive method of disposing of extra people, while keeping his main clearers under control. Their homes and families they started would be under his thumb in the cities. If there were children, and I had seen a few, then that control was even stronger.

Women, when they showed up, were probably selected, with the one’s not being chosen sent out to die. Basically, slavery in all but name. Instead of giving people time to come to terms, he purged the males right away, and females were chosen to be wives.

The problem with his method of population control was the lack of pressure at the higher ranks. There was a slight churn, and he might have more policies to handle the higher ranked individuals, but my guess was that they weren’t even poking level 4 zones, unless the Leader was part of the group.

He was probably taking a fairly high percentage of the taxes as well. Since he would need to control three cities. If he got more cities there was a greater chance of a rebellion in my mind. He could probably get seven to ten cities before things started falling apart.

People would wonder if their loved ones had arrived. So, while it seemed like a pointless waste of resources for my Empire to restore everyone who arrived and let them get adjusted in the next 40 days, it also allowed people to follow up and see if anyone they knew or were related to had showed up. That was one of the more underrated parts of my Empire.

If people were constantly killed, then the people still around would wonder if they were next. We were pushing people into level 3 and level 4 zones as quickly as possible, but it was a struggle. People needed stats and skills for those zones. Getting one, two, or even ten high level grinders wasn’t hard. The problem came when you needed a thousand.

The level 3 to level 4 gap was brutal. But in the long term it was the most important thing to bring in more crystals. Unfortunately, on my side we were running out of time. That was why we were implementing the farming program by the late Doctor Katz and trying to find a place where excess people could go to.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Clarissa had mentioned that we could increase the tax rates while lowering the tax rates for the new area, or not having a tax. Create a clear incentive for people to migrate over. The people who would complain and cause trouble would self-select and remove themselves from my nation, while leaving the more steady and stable individuals behind to continue grinding.

The Leader’s Domain wasn’t that forward thinking. It was clearly a in the moment type of government. Giving benefits to the elite cadre that ran things. But as time went on there would be more and more pressure. I could sympathize slightly, since that was the issue, I had at the start. Not wanting to be in charge and not understanding how to set up a long-term government.

One couldn’t be a warlord and manage things day to day. That was the issue the Divine Empress faced and what dragged her down. She lost her Empire due to being out of the picture for so long. I could be gone for years and Clarissa would be able to manage things without a problem.

“What about you? You are here and not back with your Empire?” the Leader asked, and I smiled at that question. It was an understandable one to ask.

“My Supreme Governor and I have an understanding. I rarely get involved with the day to day running of things. My job is to explore and handle opponents beyond level 6,” I replied. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but not that much.

Clarissa had taken a lot of precautions to ensure that she was never defenseless against a high level threat ever again. I couldn’t even blame her paranoia. If someone like the Divine Empress showed up, then it would have been a death sentence in the past. Now, such a threat would be ground down.

It wouldn’t be a stretch even to make the argument that I was now the strongest human in the Systemic Lands. It wasn’t so much of a brag, but just a realization that people could not easily catch up to me in stats or combat experience. Even with meta-points, there would be a struggle.

The Sword of Ascalon was concerning, but it wasn’t a person. Same with the monster. Both were threats, but they weren’t that serious in my mind. I would figure out a way to defeat or contain them.

“Do you know where the sword is hiding?” I asked.

“No, we have looked. But nothing. I have gathered some information, but it flies off in a different direction from the three times we have observed it,” the Leader said. I frowned at this.

“Also, it is too fast to easily track,” Hasad added. He had been mostly quiet, since everyone seemed content to let the Leader and myself speak. I nodded at this.

“But fifty million to buy a small airship? That is quite a lot,” the Leader said.

“Medium,” I replied.

“What?” he asked.

“A medium sized airship. For fifty million. That is more than enough to cover the cost,” I replied. He winced at that but didn’t object. We wouldn’t all fit on an air boat, as I called them. A small airship was a nightmare in terms of size. I couldn’t wait to get back and get something bigger, to travel in comfort. It was annoying traveling across the zones or even over roads when I had been flying around for so long.

I guess I was a bit spoiled after years of traveling at speed and having an actual bed to sleep on during the downtime. I sipped my drink as the Leader and I kept having a stare off. I could tell he was frustrated with me, but he knew there was no chance. I half suspected he would try to poison me, but I wasn’t too worried.

There had been tests done with poisons, and people with more stats more easily resisted them. There had been minor experiments with energy type poisons to give curse damage, but they were easily spotted with the Sense stat.

“So, what is your explanation for this place? I think it is a test of Allah. To see those who are worthy or unworthy,” the Leader asked.

“No idea and I have slowly grown numb over the years. This place wears on the soul. It is alien, that is for sure. But an experiment, or something else I can’t say. The Almighty System is far too opaque in its reasoning to understand,” I replied.

“And the towers. Have you explored any of them?” he asked.

“I have, but they are just full of monsters and traps. Not something to enter lightly,” I countered is probe for information with nothing important. It was amusing in a way. He was looking for anything that could get him more knowledge, but I wasn’t about to show any weakness.

I noted my people weren’t talking much either. Everyone knew the importance of information control. Again, I wasn’t worried, but no need to make things easy for this man. Let him struggle and get frustrated with my intransigence.

“Hopefully one day we get free. To freedom,” the Leader toasted.

“To freedom,” we all toasted as well. With how he oppressed his people, the only freedom in his nation were for entrenched men. But I wasn’t going to say that out loud. A fight would be interesting but ultimately pointless. When the hordes of people coming from my Empire to this side of the Systemic Lands began, he would have his hands full regardless.

I don’t think he really understood the disaster that was about to befall him and all the other cities that existed. People would swarm like locusts and use summons to wage an unrelenting campaign against him and all the other people migrating over.

It was going to be a complete disaster for all of them.