The Nebula’s Civilization

‘When Lakrak first discovered the hard iron, I thought it would make good armaments.’

However, when Sung-Woon checked the information on the hard iron pieces, he found out it would be difficult to do anything with it at the current stage of civilization. It wasn’t impossible, but it wouldn’t be efficient. So they either had to tell the truth about the iron and sell it at a lower price, or they could pretend it was a normal piece of iron and make fraudulent trades.

Lakrak was aware of both choices, but found another way to go about it.

‘The ancient people knew ways of making better iron. Why can’t we do that?’

Lakrak asked tribes with high technology levels if the iron pieces he had could be smelted. Automation was just one of the tribes he had consulted. Lakrak hadn’t expected much at first. However, Hwee-Kyung was a person with an innovative idea.

‘There are many people with ideas like mine. Even a beggar in the corner of the market may have an idea to help people produce more grain in a small plot of land, or a way to preserve food longer. But they don’t have as many assets as I do.’

Not only did Hwee-Kyung have an innovative idea, she also had a wealth of resources, and she was a person who could use those resources of hers to invest in her idea. All that coincided and resulted in a much greater achievement than those who were involved had expected.

[The construction of four waterwheels has been completed.]

[This structure is extraordinarily ahead of the average level of civilization development out of all the players. Numerous species are amazed by this structure.]

[Word of this structure has spread to other cities, and fame is rising.]

A famous structure would be an attraction that would benefit diplomatic relations. If a merchant of Automation left for a different land to make trades, they could easily gain trust by saying they’re from Automation compared to from the northern or western land. The Ancient Ruin of Automation was also considered an attraction itself, and its rise of fame meant that the range from which merchants came to buy and sell wares would also expand.

‘Next is…war preparation.’

***

Sung-Woon was able to learn more about the northern coast from the roleplayer, Eldar, the god of Elves. The term northern coast actually referred to the entire northern coastline of the third continent, so it was fairly wide. There were three players in total who Sung-Woon was keeping an eye on. The first was Eldar, whose territory was at the southern border. The second player was Solongos, who occupied quite a large chunk of land with a nomadic tribe. The second player had something Sung-Woon was interested in.

“Centaur?”

“That’s right.”

It was a rare species in the Lost World. Tribes of Centaurs were rare, and individual Centaurs were an uncommon sight in general, so it was hard to find them unless a player was really lucky when selecting their first tribe. Of course, all species had as many disadvantages as there were advantages, so players seeking high winning rates didn’t find it necessary to look for them.

‘A Centaur has the lower body of a horse, but the upper body and head of a Human. It seems as if they were riding themselves. However, it is difficult to increase their numbers, and they consume a lot of resources. They’re not a good fit for a first species.’

If Sung-Woon were to be honest, he wouldn’t have chosen them as his first species even if he had found a group of them.

‘However, this species is difficult to deal with when another player plays them.’

Since they were all essentially cavalrymen, it would be disadvantageous to fight them on a plain.

But the player that grabbed Sung-Woon’s attention the most was Lim Chun-Sik.

“What’s their player ID again?” asked Sung-Woon.

“Lim…Chun-Sik. Ahem.” replied Eldar.

Sung-Woon definitely saw Eldar coughing on purpose in order to hold back laughter.

‘I think this guy is Korean.’

But if Sung-Woon pointed that out, he would also be revealing his nationality, so he decided not to. The Lost World was a game with a high proportion of Korean players, so the nationality didn’t really matter. More importantly, Lim Chun-Sik had a loose alliance with Solongos and Eldar. In The Lost World, there were complex conditions that had to be met for an official alliance to form, so players usually made loose alliances and broke them easily as they weren’t supported by the game system.

‘No, rather than an alliance, does Lim Chun-Sik have the other two players as his subordinates?’

Hegemonia had to fight Lim Chun-Sik and the other two players as Hegemonia’s interests hadn’t aligned with theirs. However, Hegemonia was outnumbered, and even though Hegemonia had tried to develop their civilization while defending against their enemies, the northern coast wasn’t all that good a location for a civilization. Therefore, Hegemonia decided to run away. It would have been a hard decision to make if their tribe weren’t a nomadic one.

“Did Hegemonia directly clash with Lim Chun-Sik?”

“No. Hegemonia and Lim Chun-Sik never officially crossed each other's borders, and Hegemonia usually fought Solongos and I.”

“So that’s why Hegemonia was able to keep their army.”

By the looks of Eldar’s expressions, it seemed that their pride had been hurt, but they seemed unable to protest since their main army had been destroyed by Sung-Woon. But putting Eldar aside, Lim Chun-Sik was definitely a player to keep an eye out for.

“Ogres are hard to handle.”

“I am aware of that, but the god of the Ogres, Lim Chun-Sik, has overcome the limitations that came with the species.”

Ogres weren’t rare. However, they came with many disadvantages, so they were used as jokes or memes when The Lost World had been popular.

‘The characteristics of Ogres are simple. They are incredibly strong, but they're that much more stupid.’

The Lost World was a game of advancing civilization. Low intelligence was the worst factor in such development. If a player chose Ogres, the development of civilization would be dependent on looting. It was difficult to utilize them well, so they were rarely seen in ranked games, and they weren’t recommended even when playing against AIs. That was why playing and winning with Ogres were once popular among streamers.

‘I don’t think they’re the worst choice. If the player is lucky enough, they might become the best species to have.’

Ogre’s had bad intelligence. Then it just needed to be raised.

Sung-Woon had blessed the Lizardmen through Small Area: Insects. And because of the Blessing, the Lizardmen gained black scales, along with hard scales, great strength, and resistance towards toxic chemicals. And physical abilities were far from the only Blessings an area could grant.

Once Sung-Woon chose Humans as his second species, he granted them three Blessings.

The first Blessing was Sensitivity, which was derived from Small Area: Livestock. Providing the ability to quickly detect external physical threats, it was a popular Blessing which raised the survival rate of the whole tribe according to statistics.

The second Blessing was Vitality, which was derived from Small Area: Grass. This was the only physical Blessing related to physical improvement, and Humans with this Blessing would have overall improved athletic abilities.

The third Blessing was Prediction, which was derived from Small Area: Sea. The Blessing provided a sense for things that were too complicated to predict. There was a heated debate among the players about whether the Blessing was really useful. Sung-Woon was on the side claiming it was useful when they actually tried and used it.

Through Small Areas or by killing Fiends, players could bless individuals with skills they already had or obtained new ones. And out of these skills, there was one that raised intelligence.

“The average intelligence of the Ogre is 10…?”

“Yes. Other Ogres usually have an intelligence of 5 or lower, which doesn’t even show in the stats…”

Sung-Woon almost laughed while thinking about an Ogre with high intelligence, but it was no laughing matter. If their average intelligence was 10, there could be an Ogre with an intelligence of 15 or 20 depending on the variability between individuals.

“If that’s the case, there’s no reason they wouldn’t be the leader of a tribe and develop civilization. Diplomacy is also possible.’

Player Lim Chun-Sik had gambled on the Ogres and succeeded.

***

“So is that why you asked me to give you tributes out of the blue?”

“Yes.”

Eldar cleared their throat and continued to say, “Hmmm. Lim Chun-Sik has lost his trading partner after Hegemonia disappeared, and he is demanding tributes from Solongos and I. However, it was too difficult for me to meet the demand as I was surrounded by the northern coast above and the wilderness below me.”

“That’s two against one for you though. Why don’t you fight back?”

“The god of the Ogres, Lim Chun-Sik, is too powerful…and Solognos favors Lim Chun-Sik.”

Sung-Woon nodded. He seemed to know the reason.

“Lim Chun-Sik is nicer to Solongos, isn’t he?”

“Uh… Yes.”

“I think that’s because the Ogre tribe is a sedentary tribe, while Solongos’s Centaur tribe is nomadic.”

“How is that relevant?”

Sung-Woon explained, “Sedentary tribes need to control the nomadic tribes. The Centaur tribe won’t be the only nomadic tribe in that big chunk of land, right?”

“There are other nomadic NPC tribes.”

Sung-Woon was aware that large and small NPC tribes existed across the wilderness and in the northern coast.

“Nomadic tribes fight and are wary of each other right now, but there will be a day when nomadic tribes become unified. In that case, even though the Ogres are intelligent, they would be in danger.”

That danger already existed. Sung-Woon’s Black-Scaled Tribe was an example of a unified nomadic tribe. In general, nomadic tribes had cavalry, and they had a large proportion of warriors to handle and protect livestock. Moreover, they were usually experienced combatants since they had to loot resources they needed from smaller sedentary tribes. Therefore, it only made sense for nomadic tribes to be stronger than sedentary tribes.

“When Hegemonia was still around, the two large nomadic tribes would have been keeping each other in check, but after Hegemonia left, the god of the Ogres…Lim Chun-Sik, has no choice but to be kind to the Centaur’ God, Solongos.

“Then why am I…?”

The relationship between sedentary and nomadic tribes Sung-Woon was talking about had nothing to do with the player’s actual feelings, but rather explaining the relationship that would inevitably form because of their role. The relationship between sedentary tribes was also simple.

Sung-Woon scratched his nose from above his mask.

“Land is the measure of strength for sedentary tribes. That’s why sedentary tribes can’t help but have bad relationships with each other. They need to take more land to become stronger, but land is always limited. He’ll take your land someday anyways, so would there be a reason for him to be kind to you?”

“Oh, so that means…”

Sung-Woon played innocent and said, “You don’t get it? I can’t tell you when, but you’ll eventually be betrayed.”

“Hm.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t be a betrayal since you’ve been played this whole time.”

Eldar’s expression darkened. Sung-Woon secretly smiled. It was the reaction he had expected.

Sung-Woon continued to say, “However, if something like that happens, I’ll also be in trouble. I would have more places to be wary of should they gain more power in the north.”

“Really?”

“In my opinion, we could help each other out. What do you think?”

“But I don’t know how useful I would be when I just lost my main force and priest…”

Sung-Woon shook his head.

“I think your Small Area would be very useful.”

“My Small Area? I don’t think I’ve told you what it is yet.”

“Didn’t you say you’re the Dancing Shadow God?”

“Yes.”

“Then, perhaps your Small Area is…”