The Nebula’s Civilization

“Excuse me, Prince Kyle, but you haven’t mentioned what you just said to anyone else, have you…”

“No, I haven't told anyone else.”

“...Good. You should be very careful about that.”

“I know, teacher Ravwin.”

Kyle looked at Ravwin with a displeased expression.

“So what is your answer to my question?”

Ravwin awkwardly smiled. He was respected by others as the third prince’s teacher, and he was a scholar who basically lived in the third library. However, just because he was respected didn’t mean he had a high status.

The first prince, Vasen Lak Orazen, had already been chosen as the crown prince, so Kyle would have to take the title from Vasen. And depending on the interpretation, simply mentioning it could be considered an act of treason.

‘If I say something even slightly wrong, I’ll be smelling incense from my afterlife.’

But strangely enough, Ravwin realized he wasn’t upset about the idea despite it making him fearful.

So Ravwin said, “Well, you know that’s a difficult question, don’t you?”

“I know. So I wondered many times if I should ask the question or not.”

“...Do you want to become king?”

Kyle’s gaze shifted back to the courtyard.

“Do I want to? I’m not too sure about that.”

“Then why are you asking such a thing?”

“I thought that perhaps it would be better for me to become king.”

“What?” Ravwin asked.

Not being sure if he wanted to be king didn’t exactly line up with believing it would be better for him to be king. However, Ravwin realized that Kyle hadn’t specified the subject of his statement.

Ravwin asked, “Who are you saying it would be good for?”

Kyle didn’t blink once when he replied, “For the people.”

***

On top of a mountain covered with white snow seemingly untouched for a long time.

A woman wearing an off the shoulder dress looked down at the land below. It was the god of the Renards, Lunda.

Lunda said through the video chat, “...This is the overall report. You can see the details in the shared information.”

“Alright.”

“But Nebula.”

“What?”

“May I ask you a favor?”

“Maybe. What is it?”

“...Can you move back one step?”

Sung-Woon dramatically removed a white stone from the go board like it was no problem at all.

For the past hundred years, Sung-Woon had discovered many Ancient Ruins, killed abominations and fiends, and obtained several Small Areas. And among the Small Areas he obtained was Small Area: Trees and Small Area: Gravel.

It was easy to make a go board with a Miracle. And because Lunda had done the same over the years, she had obtained Small Area: Gems, and though her board shone with rubies and blue sapphires, it was still a go board.

They were playing a long-distance game of go while looking at each other's board through video chat.

Sung-Woon was sitting on dry land where the sun was shining in the middle of the wilderness. There was nothing that could be considered still life behind him, and all that could be seen was the bony skull of a buffalo that had died a long time ago. It was facing up towards the sky.

Lunda said while moving a black stone, “Is there nothing interesting going on these days?”

“Wow, are you now trying to dig up information from my end too?”

“Will you stop connecting everything to the game? I’m just making small talk. It’s like an extension of a greeting.”

Whenever Sung-Woon realized that not everyone was as serious about the game as he was, he felt a little sad, but once again he moved on as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“It is something you’ll end up finding out about anyways.”

“What is it?”

“There might be a change.”

“Finally?”

Lunda’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t help but look forward to the ‘change.’

The last hundred years had been a period of stagnation. As they entered what players called the middle ages, the borders between the countries changed little from there on out. Even when minor battles broke out, they didn’t turn into big wars.

Stagnations like this were inevitable in The Lost World. Depending on the builds, there was a way to continue the momentum of expansion from the early stages and somehow end the game, but with a typical build, the focus would be on strengthening internal management once the borders were all set to some extent. For example, in addition to the main species used in the early stage of expansion, various appeasement policies were needed so that a player could turn the other species in their country into their followers.

A multi-species nation would constantly face problems. Even in Sung-Woon’s case, he had already prevented six revolts despite the events not being clearly recorded in history. The threat had come from the inside rather than the outside. If necessary, it wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the dynasty with more competent characters, but Sung-Woon believed in Lakrak and Zaol’s DNA.

‘Not always does a competent child come from a competent father and mother. Heredity isn’t that simple.’

The fight between the players continued, but it was a war without armies being involved.

‘Four of the six rebellion attempts in Black Scale seemed to be caused by other players,’

Of course Sung-Woon had also induced various internal conflicts in other countries, and the results could somewhat be called a success. The kings of Danyum, the country of the Satyrs, Golden Eye, the country of the Nixes, and half their nobles were on Black Scale’s side. It was because the two countries had received direct help from Lakrak in the past.

The God of Blood and Rotten Meat was known to the whole third continent as ‘the evil god.’ And Shaiven, the puppet of the evil god, remained known as ‘the demon queen.’ It was all because the influence of Lakrak, who had killed the evil god, still existed. In addition, everyone who had personally witnessed Lakrak killing the evil god ended up naturalized as Black Scale’s citizens, and that gave strength to his influence.

It was obvious for the Vampires’ slaves that Lakrak had saved to do so, but even the Vampires themselves caught and killed Shaiven when she tried to run away and offered her to the Lizardmen. The Lizardmen thus accepted the Vampires’ surrender.

However, living together with Vampires was impossible for all other species because Vampires needed to drink other people’s blood to survive. The lowest class Vampires, known as the fourth generation Vampires, could survive on animal blood, but that wasn’t the case for second and third generation Vampires.

The Vampires made a surprising choice. They chose to starve to death in accordance with the will of Lakrak and Night Sky, saying that they couldn’t survive off the suffering of others. As a result, as many as 1,000 Vampires dug and went into their own stone caves near the mountain fortress of the Lizardmen.

The Lizardmen and other species watched to make sure if they really meant what they said. Some Vampires resisted and ran away, and some couldn’t suppress their urges. However, around 600 Vampires endured their pain of thirst and died in their spots in the end. And the Lziardmen belatedly confirmed their sincerity.

Zaol’s prayer to Night Sky in the valley was passed down to the future generations.

“Dear Blue Insect God, they understand their sins and know they will be punished. Please show them mercy and forgive them.”

And as Zaol prayed, a blue butterfly fluttered around her.

Zaol then bowed and said, “God has already forgiven them.”

Since then, it became known to lots of people, even non-Lizardmen, that if they repented and accepted their punishments after sinning, Night Sky would embrace them.

The area where the Vampires died was called ‘Sage Valley,’ and it became one of the sacred places of Night Sky.

And due to all that, the Satyrs, whose territory sat right next to the sacred place, and Nixes, who had barely succeeded in recovering their land after being totally defeated by the Vampires, couldn’t help but regard the Lizardmen highly.

However, the influence the Vampires had left wasn’t so great in Mangul, the country of the Kobolds, and Asbestos, the country of the Trolls. They believed that they could protect themselves with their own strength, so Black Scale couldn't gain influence over them.

‘And the country of the Renards, Red Fruit…’

Sung-Woon broke out of his reverie and looked up when Lunda called out to him.

“Can you hear me?”

“What did you say again?”

“I told you to tell me in detail what kind of changes will be made.”

Sung-Woon met her eyes.

“I’m not going to do that.”

“...Oh, okay. Then tell me if I win this round.”

“I told you I’m not telling you. And what would you put on the table in return?”

“That means you have some intentions to tell me. Hm, what would be good…”

“Do me a favor.”

Lunda hesitated at those words, but she soon nodded confidently.

“Okay.”

***

30 minutes later, Lunda flipped the go board.

“Hey, let’s quit this. Let’s play Alkkagi[1] instead. You come here. No, should I go to you?”

“Lunda, you need to accept the results.”

The one who said this wasn’t Sung-Woon, but Eldar. Eldar had been sitting in a place where they wouldn’t be seen in the video chat, but they poked their head in from the side to get a good look when Lunda flipped her board over.

For the past hundred years, the three had pretty much become loose allies, and in Lunda’s case, she became a spy against Crampus.

“What? Why are you there?”

“Just because. You’re not the only one who’s feeling bored.”

And as Eldar said so, they lifted the chessboard in front of them and Sung-Woon. Lunda had noticed Sung-Woon’s other hand moving, but she never would have guessed that he was playing another game simultaneously.

“What? Nebula, were you playing me and Eldar at the same time?”

Both Sung-Woon and Eldar nodded.

“Ugh, that hurts my pride. I’m not gonna play anymore.”

“Are you leaving?”

“Hmph.”

Lunda slightly stuck out her tongue and raised her middle finger before ending the call.

Then Eldar said, “But Nebula, I’m also a bit curious.”

“About the sign of a change?”

“Yes.”

Sung-Woon’s eyes naturally shifted to the chessboard. Eldar sighed and toppled over their king.

“I think I won the chess game too, didn’t I?” asked Sung-Woon.

Eldar glanced at the sky with their big eyes.

“But we didn’t make a bet.”

Sung-Woon slowly nodded.

Eldar and Lunda were in different circumstances. In Sung-Woon’s view, Lunda was more of a double agent, so he focused on only receiving information from her. On the other hand, Eldar’s Elves were now pretty much a part of Black Scale.

The Elves in the northern coast now had enough territory, but because they were tied down by the various contracts they had made with Hwee-Kyung over the past hundred years or so, it was hard for them to grow without Black Scale’s help. For this reason, the Elves accepted that the hardships they suffered because of the Lizardmen were all hardships intended by their God. And Eldar had already given up on changing that part.

But above all, some of Eldar’s Elves were already working as servants and left ministers at the palace of Black Scale, and in the doctrines that Eldar’s high priest had formulated, the priest came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be wrong for them to also believe in Night Sky,

Sung-Woon had finally begun to consider making a real alliance with Eldar, but Eldar had already been thinking of Sung-Woon as their ally and planned to stick with him to the end.

After Sung-Woon became confident it would be okay to share his plan with Eldar, he said, “Okay, I’ll show you.”

Sung-Woon opened a window that showed the palace of Orazen.

Eldar looked at the window.

“This is the sign of change.”

Where Sung-Woon was pointing at was a young Lizardman sitting somewhere in the palace. He was 15 years old, and he was a character Eldar had seen before—the third son of King of Serenity, the current ruler of Black Scale. Eldar wondered what was so special about him; they hadn’t paid much attention to the young prince since he was the third son.

“What’s so special about this individual…?”

Sung-Woon smirked at those words.

“Have you ever checked his abilities?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Well, there’s nothing really special about his skills. It’s just that…”

Sung-Woon opened up Kyle’s status window. And Eldar’s eyes grew big.

[Kyle Lak Orazen(Lv.0)

Strength 14

Intelligence 107

Sociability 32]

It was a number that should be impossible for someone at level 0.

“He just has really high Intelligence.”

1. A game played on a go board. Each player lines up a few go stones on their side and moves their stones by flicking them, trying to push the opponent’s stones off the go board. ☜