The Nebula’s Civilization

Leonar lost his smile and quickly picked up the box. He opened it to check the gem and then let out a sigh of relief.

Seeing his reaction, Hwee-Kyung thought to herself, ‘That’s good. I guess it didn’t break.’

She probably had more than enough money to pay for the jewel in the box, but she did think it wouldn’t have been worth it to compensate them for the broken gem just because she wanted to show them she was angry.

Leonar dusted off the sand on the box and handed it over to another Elf merchant.

Leonar then said in a colder tone, “How much do you want?”

“I’m not sure…”

Hwee-Kyung trailed off while ripping off a hangnail on her finger. Leonar impatiently waited for her to continue. Hwee-Kyung looked down at the back of her hand, which was well taken care of, and then looked at Leonar.

“But do you want to go this far? If you bribe me like this, I don’t think you’ll really benefit from your trades in the end. And I’m the most powerful one in this region. I can always go back on my promise at any time. I know well that there aren’t any other Elves around here. It won’t matter if I take the gem and not honor the promise.”

Leonar regained the smile around his eyes.

“Well…it’s to build a good relationship with you. I can take that much of a loss if it’s for this relationship.”

“Is that so?”

Hwee-Kyung didn’t ask him the reason.

‘You want to have a good relationship with me? Because you want to continue trading? But there haven't been many cases where Elves visited Automation. Are things different now?’

Information hadn’t been exchanged between the northern coast and Automation, so there was a lot they didn't know about the other. Hwee-Kyung decided to withhold her information for now.

“Anyways, I’m not interested in shiny stones. I know I can resell it at a high price, but it’s hard to find a buyer. You get what I’m saying?”

“Hmm…Alright.”

“Until then, abide by the law. And don’t cross the line.”

“Okay.”

Hwee-Kyung was pleased to see Leonar become humble, and then something came to mind.

“Oh, also.”

“Yes?”

“If you want to do me a little goodwill, why don’t you buy this?”

Hwee-Kyung took something out of her bag. Leonar took the object with considerable doubt.

“What is this?”

“It’s a wooden statue made after the Blue Insect God’s guardian.”

“...Blue Insect God? …A guardian?”

“He’s the god I believe in. He trusts in us and protects us.”

Leonar nodded as if he now knew what it was.

“Oh, I’m sorry, but I have faith too.”

“Really?”

“The Dancing Shadow God.”

“Dancing Shadow God? Hm. If you believe in two gods, wouldn’t you receive twice the blessings? What do you think?”

Leonar showed disapproval at Hwee-Kyung’s words.

“I don’t think that’s true…”

“Then buy it even if you don’t believe in it. You can sell it to someone else.”

“That would be difficult. From what I know, gods are very jealous.”

“Really? It seemed that my God was very generous. He would think it’s okay for me to sell this anyway.”

This was purely Hwee-Kyung’s interpretation of the Blue Insect God’s will. Sung-Woon never considered himself generous. In the midst of their quarrel, Hwee-Kyung took out all the wooden figures in her bag and offered them at a cheap price as if she had lost the bargain. Leonar was forced to buy the wooden statues as they thought it was a waste to continue talking with Hwee-Kyung, and not because they thought the wooden figures were valuable or that the price was reasonable.

***

Sung-Woon immediately ended the call with Eldar and blocked them. He did get into a bad mood, but there was more of a strategic reason why he ended things this way. Sung-Woon was able to get a lot more information than he expected from his conversation with Eldar.

‘Just like how I don’t know much about them, they don’t know much about me either.’

Sung-Woon didn’t know about them because it wasn’t possible to scout the northern coast through Small Area: Insects. There were other solutions, of course. He could always enter the opponent’s area himself. However, that would essentially reveal that his area was unwatched, and it wasn’t possible to use Fast Move, which was similar to teleportation, in an opponent’s area. Gods were generally able to fly quickly when floating in the air, but that wasn’t a very useful way of transportation compared to Fast Move, with which they could instantly move to where their followers were.

‘And the same goes for Eldar. That said, Eldar never attempted to scout my Small Area.’

That meant that Eldar was also in the same situation as Sung-Woon. Either they weren’t able to do so with their Small Area at the moment, or their Small Area wasn’t of much help in scouting in the first place. Sung-Woon assumed the latter was correct due to the name Dancing Shadow God.

‘That’s probably why. They were more unlucky than I was at picking their Small Area. However, them being that confident also means there’s something else they’re relying on. They might have obtained a useful Small Area while playing in addition to the Major Small Area they received at the beginning of the game.’

Eldar had no other choice but to use the third method. It was to send the Elves, who believed in Eldar, to personally visit Automation, allowing Eldar to scout that way. That was why Leonar and the other Elf merchants had come to Automation.

Sung-Woon had thought it would be okay for him to take his mind off of the northern coast for a while as it was a large region where there would be other tribes, but again, an opponent just had to pick a fight with him. Sung-Woon judged that Eldar would make their first move soon because he had ended the call in response to Eldar’s request—which he believed was very reasonable. So Sung-Woon prepared for war.

Since he didn’t know much about his opponent, he decided not to underestimate Eldar as a fool like their avatar would suggest.

‘Firstly, there’s a high chance that Eldar had a hand in making Hegemonia and the Ears Cut Tribe flee from the north. And there’s likely a reason why they are so confident.’

Signs of war emerged during the rainy season. It started with a quarrel. A messenger arrived saying that the person who sent them wanted an apology from Hwee-Kyung, the lord of Automation, for persecuting Leonar. And the person who sent the message was The Great Chief Hasadian, the tribal chief of the Green Eye Tribe consisting of Elves.

Hwee-Kyung didn’t like the opponent’s fabrication. So she added an even bigger lie to the message that she was sending through the messenger, making sure to include insults about the Elves and tell the messenger to deliver the message in her exact wording. Hasadian later requested a meeting using lofty words through the next messenger, but Hwee-Kyung didn’t think there was a reason to agree to it. Hwee-Kyung then told the messenger to relay her message containing new Elf insults she had learned—some of them from Sairan. Then Hasadian didn’t send a third messenger.

It seemed Hasadian instead wanted to speak to Hwee-Kyung directly because as soon as the rainy season was over, Hasadian led their warriors and crossed the wilderness to Automation. After the rainy season was over, there was a short period where grass would grow thickly in the wilderness.

Sung-Woon was able to start his reconnaissance using his bugs before the Elves even stepped foot in his area. He was confident of victory before the war even began.

‘Just as I don’t know much about them, I’m sure they don’t know much about me.’

***

The Dancing Shadow God, Eldar, looked down at the Elves that believed in them.

‘This should be enough to take over Automation.’

There were three hundred warriors. That wouldn’t be a lot in a more developed civilization, but at this stage of the game, three hundred was nothing to sneeze at. Above all, all three hundred warriors were trained warriors. Eldar had succeeded in scouting Automation by sending Hasadian and the Elf merchants there. Three hundred warriors seemed more than enough to conquer Automation.

If there were any variables, it would be the big Lizardmen nomadic tribe which seemed to be nearby, but fortunately, they seemed to have gone down south because of the rainy season.

Eldar knew well that it was dangerous to have resident warriors travel a long distance in this stage of civilization. There would be a supply problem, and having that many people leaving the tribe meant there wouldn’t be anyone to protect it.

‘However, Automation is an Ancient Ruin and a Mystery. It’s also a big city with lots of residents. I have no other choice if I want to advance south.’

Hasadian, the tribal chief who believed in Eldar, also viewed this situation in an optimistic way. Hasadian was a bit bewildered when their own god gave them a prophecy that they would take their warriors to attack Automation, but became relieved when they found out Automation didn’t have as many combatants.

Automation had mysterious ancient mud soldiers. But other than the mud soldiers, there was only a group of barbaric Humans living there.

‘The rampart was said to be quite tall, but because it was made out of soil, Leonar said warriors who were good at climbing trees would be able to climb up the rampart without much difficulty. And there are only one hundred fifty soldiers at most. Leonar also said that the bows they used were crude.’

Hasadian proudly looked at his horn bow, which could easily hit a target over eighty steps away.

‘First, we’ll decrease their numbers by shooting the archers, who are said to barely even hit targets fifty steps away. Then our agile warriors will climb up the rampart and open the gate. Then it’s finished. I’ll finally be able to get the damn lord of Automation on her knees.’

Unfortunately, Hasadian didn’t see that happen. Before the Elf warriors could even get close to Automation, they met a group of Human soldiers. It was at a narrow gorge leading towards Automation. Hasadian was confused and ordered his warriors to check out who the men were, and a messenger ran back and forth between Hasadian and the warriors.

“They’re soldiers of Automation.”

“What? If they are soldiers of Automation, why are they outside of the castle?”

“Apparently they already knew we were coming.”

“But why are they out here? If they knew we were coming, shouldn’t they have quietly waited at the castle?”

“I’ll go ask again.”

However, the messenger didn’t make it back. That meant that the opponent had no intention to have a conversation. Hasadian was flustered, but they knew that their warriors outnumbered their opponent’s soldiers. Rather than bringing all their soldiers, the opponent brought only around seventy.

‘Did they think it would be advantageous for them to fight in a narrow path because it would force a one-on-one confrontation? That’s dumb. It seems the lord of Automation has no expertise for battle.’

Hasadian definitely would have fought inside the castle if they were in their opponent’s shoes. The only situation that would justify fighting outside the castle…

‘Right. It would only be when there were allies outside the castle.’

As soon as Hasadian had that thought, he got the feeling that something he hadn’t been aware of was happening, and as if in response, another messenger came running from the end of the army.

“Great chief!”

“What is it?”

“There’s an emergency! A big army is moving to block off our retreat route!”

“What? The Humans?”

“They’re Lizardmen!”

“What did you say?”

Hasadian turned around. Black-scaled Lizardmen were blocking the way the Elves had come from.

“Why are there Lizardmen…with Humans?”

Right then, Eldar, Hasadian’s God, saw a system message pop up.

[Clash of Civilizations!]

[Two different tribes have come into contact. Experience points (XP) are rising for both tribes.]

[Warning: The opposing species have Faith.]

Eldar had seen this system message not long ago. It was when the Elves entered Automation. But Eldar didn’t expect to see it again so soon. Flustered, Eldar hurriedly requested a Whisper Conversation with Nebula. Fortunately, the request went through.

“Are those Lizardmen…y-your allies? You have an alliance with a Lizardmen species?” asked Eldar.

“Stupid. You should’ve checked the Local Players list before requesting a Whisper Conversation,” replied Sung-Woon.

Eldar checked the Local Players list.

[Player List (1)]

[Nebula]

There were no other players around. That only meant one thing. Still, Eldar was confused, like it was hard for them to wrap their head around the situation.

“Oh, wait. W-Weren’t you the Humans’ God? I thought you would be…”

“I am the Humans’ God.”

Sung-Woon didn’t deny it.

“And I’m the Lizardmen’s God as well.”

Eldar’s roleplay came to an end.

“What? How are you already playing with two species?”