I looked at the map in front of me. We had finished our meal and were gathered in the map room. “By the way, what is your name? I can’t keep calling you Leader,” I said and there was silence at that.

“You may call me Hamid,” the man said. I nodded at that, it was a common middle eastern name. I then turned my attention back to the map. There was a clear lack of anything to the Northwest. That was the first thing that caught my attention.

“Only level 4 and 5 zones?” I asked pointing to the boarder. Hamid nodded.

“There is nothing we have found in the Northwest. No cities and no one coming from there. It is too rough to take a small airship that way as well,” I nodded at this. Looking at the map I counted four separate city states with seven cities between them. Three of them with two cities each and then one city by itself.

“What are these red areas?” I asked.

“There is fighting in those zones. Control goes back and worth, up to the edge of the cities. While Gray Stone is only one city, they seek to conquer more zones. All the information comes from the Empire of the Nile to the South.” Hamid then pointed to the West.

“Then we have The One, Kingdom of Graystone, and then the Holy Kingdom of God,” he replied. It was a complete mess of tiny little city states.

“They have kept fighting this long?” I asked in surprise.

“Assassinations and trying to take more land is a massive headache. We have only had limited contact and the information is old,” he replied with a shake of his head. I then looked at all the cities that were unoccupied in the center of the Systemic Lands. A huge swath of territory everyone would want. It was perfect in my mind.

“There are no monsters or skills listed on this map,” Michelle said. I looked at Hamid and he shook his head.

“We don’t have that information. People know what is where. As for the dungeons we control them. I can have one of my men list things if you desire,” he said.

“Michelle, can you get that information,” I told her, and she nodded. Michelle and one of the soldiers with Hamid began speaking to each other about the various dungeons, skills, and monsters. Any way directly South from the Leader’s Domain was just void. At least three or four zones worth of gap. Too big to fly over.

“What about these other nations to the Southwest?” I asked.

“I have their names, know they are fighting, but that is it. There is a lot of back and forth, especially around Gray Stone. They prefer we leave them alone after the disaster that befell the Indian Sultanate,” he said, and I could understand that.

The loss of so many cities was immense. “This Empire of the Nile, isn’t fighting?” I asked.

“As far as I know, no. But this information is all second or third hand. The other nations haven’t reached out and I am content. Once you send people over, the single zone to the Ease of this city will be kept as a choke point,” he replied. I turned to look at Hamid.

“You aren’t going to try and expand?” I asked.

“And waste my best people? No. While others may not be happy with me bowing my head, it is the best choice,” he replied. He was clearly plotting something. My guess was that he was hoping I would die and make a move then. He was like the Protector. A stable leader, one who wouldn’t be an expansionist, but he was an opportunist.

Looking over the map, I would have to think over what city to use as a base to send settlers through. New Kochi to the far Southeast seemed like a good choice, due to how big of a gap in the void there was between that zone and the city of The Abyss in my Empire.

My team were now the only people who had knowledge of the entire map and all the cities. I looked at the number of towers. There were two towers near the Leader’s Domain, but only one in a level 3 zone in the old Indian Caliphate. No towers listed out by the lower nations.

Or Meech could be a target to set up a portal building and let settlers come through. Force the sword to engage. And then settlers would force pressure on the monster. Or the monster could go rouge. “Has the monster stuck to these boarders?” I asked.

“Yes. It has never changed. People will test it, but eventually they are killed. It is a matter of days,” Hamid said. I considered the issue and let out a heavy sigh. Tracking down the monster and killing it would be the hard part.

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The Avatar might just earn herself some parole if she could provide some help. Or, I could try and lure it out myself, but wasn’t sure how to do so. It was exceedingly careful and didn’t hesitate to retreat. It was also able to hide.

It would have been simpler if it was some giant rampaging lizard. I hated donkey type monsters that ran away and hid. It was something that made my blood boil in sheer frustration. Just thinking about what this monster could do was aggravating me. I needed a way to hunt it down and kill it, to force a battle.

Looking at the map, I considered how many people would flood over. There would be a lot, all going for the good grinding zones. Level 2 zones, or easy level 3 zones, would be a huge target. Probably level 2 zones, so people can get points and stats.

I paused and considered something. The Regional Map building may allow me to locate the monster. We hadn’t found the building before, since Michelle had been disabled, but was that because she was getting too close to finding it?

I could just purchase a new building outright. Use that building to locate the monster, and have information relayed to me by Michelle. I could then attack it and kill it. The more I thought about this plan, the more I liked it. I wouldn’t need to depend on anyone. Not the Avatar, or whomever was wielding the sword at the time.

The more I thought on this idea, the more I liked it. I had points to spare in my reserves, or health insurance as I liked to call it. I could buy the necessary building and use that to hunt down the monster. The sword was much trickier, but I could attack Meech and force it to reveal itself. Since it seemed died to the Indian Sultanate in some way.

Looking at the map, there were 17 total cities on the West half of the Systemic Lands and 19 in my Empire on the East half. That meant there were a total of 36 cities. Combined with the 40 towers, that meant a possible 76 possible total votes.

If I upgraded all the cities under my control to level 6, that would give me 21 votes out of a total of 59. I would just need to clear 9 more towers to finally get some answers. I would need to clear out the towers in the low leveled zones to the West here as well. A tower in a level 3 zone had a level 6 boss at the top.

I didn’t think I was ready to go beyond that at the moment with just myself. Getting the towers in the level 3 zones became even more critical. Something to consider after clearing out the most recent mess and a bastion to transport people to on the West portion of the Systemic Lands.

Then there were the areas to the Northwest and Southeast as possible places to explore. Perhaps isolated cities? There were 40 towers, but only 36 cities, which didn’t line up in my mind. We were missing 4 cities. Or they could not be related to each other.

It was hard to say exactly, since the Almighty System thought in weird ways. Also there could be no road connection between the West and the East. Those level 5 and level 4 zones would have to remain roadless for the foreseeable future.

We wanted to ship people out, not create a refugee crisis we had no chance of solving. The entire region would devolve into warlords and teams all fighting and robbing each other. Groups, or factions might form, but they would just compete even more. It would also be a proxy battle between governors, hoping to supplement their income, or add another city.

Heck, I could even see a governor or two resigning and trying to set up their own cities without any of the taxes that were imposed on them. Or more taxes to benefit themselves. The lack of any other nations currently occupying that territory, would give time for my people to spread out.

I smiled as I kept looking over the map. I had won. This was the point in any strategy game, where the rest of the game was just clean up. I felt a pressure lift off my shoulders that I hadn’t realized was there. Even if all these other city states teamed up to fight me, they couldn’t win.

They just didn’t have the manpower or the technological developments to counter my armies or myself. There were just messes and the slow grind to eventually come out on top. With a normal Empire, the biggest issues were communication and rebellion, which had historically stopped expansion in the past.

Here in the Systemic Lands, the distances weren’t that bad. And all wars were basically total wars. There was no difference between civilian and military. That meant there was no rebellion unless it was due to internal pressure, or terrorism taking out the grinders in the wilderness.

I honestly wanted to cry in relief. It was over. But I contained my jubilation. I had 19 cities paying me 10% tax. Which I considered at 19 units of tax. Another nation would need 4 cities with 50% of the tax going to one person, or 20 units just to match my passive improvement.

That didn’t exist from what I could tell. The Leader here was probably the strongest person on the West half of the Systemic Lands and he had just given up without a fight. He knew he couldn’t win. I could respect that, since it was what Naran had done, only with less drama.

For the first time in a long time, I felt hope. True hope for the future. No more Divine Empress or other such threats. I could accumulate power over time to eventually take out the higher-level monsters, without having to worry.

Even meta-point users wouldn’t be able to catch up. They would need two or three meta-points to even have a chance. “I have won,” I said quietly with a huge smile. I just couldn’t contain myself.

“What?” the Leader asked in surprise.

“I have won,” I said a bit more loudly. Everyone turned to look at me. “There is nothing else that can threaten the Empire of Purgatory. There isn’t enough unified income.” I could see Hamid get a pinched face at that, but I didn’t care.

With the knowledge of the map, and no Western Empire to match me, the great struggle in my mind was over. There would be clean up, which was annoying. But it took on an entirely new perspective. The only human force that could now threaten me was internal rebellion, but that would never happen. Clarissa had done too good a job.