The Meteor Cartel made it through the 8th collision, employing a strategy that seemed irrational at first glance and involved annihilating all opposing players.
A game with only 30 rounds, and they were already more than a quarter of the way through. While others were carrying dozens of lower-ranking gods, they was alone. However, their strategy of annihilating every opposing player yielded unique results.
The Meteor Cartel is a literal extinction meteor that fell into the game.
Other players can survive by simply joining the opponent's subordinates even if they lose the game.
And surviving this far is a testament to their competence. Even if it's just a matter of getting along with someone you are enemies with, it's still beneficial. This isn't a game where betrayal is allowed.
But that strategy is blocked against the Meteor Cartel.
In short, it is a defeat.
The risks have become insanely high.
And that's not all. Even if they win, there is no gain. The lands of the four Meteors are so heavily dependent on their individual mythical traits that there's no way to utilize them, whether they annihilate them or accept their surrender.
Even the Dessert Army is like that. He can't surrender in the first place!
Even if he surrenders, the Dessert Army will still slaughter the enemy world.
How can he surrender when he has no control over his creations?
That's why the four of us put incredible pressure on all players.
Any player who can challenge us would quickly find a different opponent, and in the process of finding them quickly, they would inevitably be inefficient.
If they're late, it's our challenge. If they were challenged, they'll have to throw out all the points they have and force themselves to accept our consultation. If we don't even provide consulting, there might be those who will say, "Let's just fight it out". And then, absolute peace negotiations.
With that, our Meteor Cartel makes the most of the fact that we can put pressure on all the other players and have our own leisurely choices.
Then the angel opened his mouth.
"Mr. Vein, I have three announcements."
"What is it?"
Every time the angel said there was an announcement, I would feel anxious, but at the same time excited. It was a contradictory feeling.
The first announcement was one that I couldn't tell if it was good news or bad news.
"As of just now, the shop phase has ended and all Mythical traits in the game have been depleted."
"Hmm?"
"There are a total of 4,096 Mythical traits in the game. However, 1,632 players have acquired two each, and the remaining 834 players have each taken one. There are no more Mythic traits that can be acquired from the store."
Wait a minute, that means…
"From now on, to get a third mythical trait, you need to fight those in the top tier like you did this time."
"Is there no choice other than to kill and rob them?"
"You're thinking of plunder right away… But you're right. For your information, there are 8,192 legendary traits, and these have also been exhausted, and there are 16,384 epic 'unique' traits, and those have all been taken as well. Aside from that, epic and heroic traits are unique, but not 'unique,' so there are no restrictions at all."
I see.
Mythical traits often have strong personalities, so sometimes combining them can produce adverse synergy.
In short, it has the characteristics like『Fairy Tale Land』which I think is a trap trait.
It may seem like a good thing if all living things become intelligent, but conversely, this means that all living things become capable of political expression.
Unless your
Of course, if the
But... it is a very difficult and tricky trait to deal with.
Resources to feed the children are provided automatically, but before their species can truly believe in God, their politics would be a mess, making it difficult for their faith to grow. This is a fairy tale country, after all. It's a ruthless, multi-ethnic squabble.
As expected, intelligent beings are trash.
"Why did you come to that conclusion when you were thinking about 『Fairy Tale Land』? The player who owns 『Fairy Tale Land』 is running their civilizations quite well."
That's right. It must be a mythical civilization. I don't know what kind of person it is, though.
Anyway, while there are always good traits among the mythical traits, there are also traits that simply don't fit with a specific build. For me,『Fairy Tale Land』is one of them.
There are definitely some universal and generally good mythical traits, but I might have to look down on the next trait level of legendary traits.
Anyway, hearing it, it's a bit absurd. 1,632 players have acquired a second mythical trait?
They're practically the favorites to win. Considering there were 180 people with higher scores than me, I'm actually quite happy about that. Ranking 181st out of 1,632 favorites is pretty high.
And if the number drops below 1,632… after round 20. In other words, rounds 8 through 19 won't be very tense. Just grab the lower ranks and threaten them, and if that doesn't work, steal their points and move on.
Honestly, it wouldn't be very fun.
"That's why!"
"Oh my god. This is surprising. What is this?"
"This is the second announcement. It's about that 'tension.' The organizers are aware that, starting from the eighth round, the top ranks have lost all sense of tension, and even those in the mid ranks are trembling with tension."
"Wait a minute, you're not going to do a leveling patch that penalizes the ones in the lead and give an advantage to the runners behind, right?"
I'm feeling a surge of anxiety. It would be so unfair if I got beat up just because I'm doing well. Then no one would want to take the lead. It would always advantageous to be in second or third place.
"Oh. No. We're going to pick the last one standing anyway, so we don't balance it that way."
"That's a good thing."
The angel's explanation continued as if to deny my thoughts.
"From now on, the community functions will be expanded. It is not just 1:1 trading and stall setting.
Beyond just doing business, you can form groups and inform the community about the group's policies, strategies, etc., and form groups."
"It's so small considering the grand announcement?"
"It's the little things that make a big difference. That would be pretty cool if you could, so to speak, create a mini-bulletin board within the community. Then, instead of being a lesser god, you could be the master of a huge group that rules over the 'lower world'."
This is pretty interesting.
I checked with the community, and it seemed like you could reveal all the members, hide them, hide the number of members, and even set conditions for accepting members so that only the lower or middle ranks would stick together. That's the structure.
Then, let's start by creating a bulletin board for the Meteor Cartel.
As I was thinking about it, the well known among the four of us, Wahwando, sent me a message.
「Player [Wahwando] has invited you to the [Absolute Invincible Strongest Legendary Meteor Cartel] meeting」
「Refusal」
「Player [Wahwando] has invited you to the [Absolute Invincible Meteor Cartel] meeting」
「Refusal」
「Player [Wahwando] has invited you to a [Meteor Cartel] meeting」
「Consent」
So I agreed to the meeting, and it was just me and Wahwando. When both Wahwando and I called Seisaisa and Mihun, those two finally came.
"Sigh! Is it really true that our group's name was decided to be such a vulgar name?"
"I think a short and powerful name would be good for this great one, but I guess there's nothing I can do."
"No, it should be longer. Why is there a word limit?"
"What do you know? If you were to decide it, you should have a higher total score than me."
When the angels confirmed that we had all entered, my angel spoke on behalf of the others.
"If you create a meeting room like this, a separate 'clone' will always be dispatched to the meeting."
"Oh. Are you talking about a clone like Vein's?"
"Yes, that's right. From now on, you don't have to worry about conversations between groups. They are just clones who can't directly participate in community activities, and can only communicate with other group members."
In that case, the Meteor Cartel's policy was instantly determined through the clone that appeared in the meeting room.
There is no specific leader, and the structure is such that the four of us are at the top, and we each consult with and interact with those we consult with, make a non-aggression pact, and collect their points.
Since there were quite a few people who had received consulting from us and had made it to this round, we simply sent a message saying, 'Either challenge us or crawl under us,' and we ended up with a subordinate organization of about 350 people.
"Now, I'm consulting with them and getting points in return to fund the next mythical trait."
"And we might be able to force our stuff."
"Wouldn't it be possible to call it a breakwater if it were a little more powerful? Vein. You're the one who should use it. Since there are many clones available, post a message and gather as many members as possible within the public chatroom."
"Our staff is limited in providing consulting services. It's not enough to simply provide inviolable services.
It would be good to collect a bribe by making treaties."
The lowest-ranking member of the organization simply signed a non-aggression pact, the higher-ranking members receive consulting directly, and the highest-ranking member receives consulting from all four people and consistently pays points and money, etc, but if there is a bastard who attacks this one of our's, we will do whatever it takes to coerce or threaten the attacker's forces into backing down from their declaration of war.
So, it's not a bad condition for our lower-level employees either.
The game's economy consists of two parts.
First, the class that buys points = characteristics by selling resources or knowledge.
Second, a class that sells points to purchase resources or knowledge to increase their weight class.
We're all on the first strategy, but the second strategy is also quite good. Mythical traits tend to make stronger players even stronger, but lower-tier traits often directly grant a lot of bonuses. Even legendary traits can be tailored to unique builds.
So, if your goal isn't to win, but to go thin and long and disembark at the right time, it's better to join a championship-winning organization like ours, give up points, and move up a weight class.
Our cartel is not a group that openly robs people, and it is clearly an organization with excellent consulting capabilities that raise the level of the world itself.
It seems like we became an openly criminal organization. Thinking about it makes my conscience prickle a little.
"Mr. Vein? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Your Majesty's angel. Be quiet."
"We are all thinking the same thing."
"Just go quietly and you'll get halfway there. Go to sleep. Calm down."
Enough with the angels' nonsense. Anyway, this is how the Meteor Cartel was formed.
Other organizations have sprung up like mushrooms, dividing the game into top, upper, middle, and lower tiers, and the game has become more like a team battle, but I think this is an inevitable change in a game with a community.
Well, that's enough. Let's leave the cartel management to my group's clone over there. It's my consciousness, so I'm sure he'll figure it out.
——And my consciousness moved to the angel in my dessert desert.
"Okay. I heard both announcements. What's the third announcement?"
"If the previously mentioned notice is about the changed environment of the game, this notice is about the current environment of the game.
It's simple. After the seventh conflict, we acquired {Great Nature} and {Untamed Land}, and this conflict expanded it. However, the world player [Ogolaot] had was also {Great Nature}. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to explain more about the expansion of {Great Nature}."
"Ah. I see. Okay. I was curious."
I decided to listen to the explanation calmly.
— — — — —