The Secrets of Unclaimed Territories

The gist of the explanation regarding the expansion of Unclaimed Territories was simple.

“Unclaimed Territories are not empty spaces. Rather, they are spaces that contain something. Even if we call it Great Nature, swamps and deserts, mountains and plains are all different, yet they are all part of the same Great Nature.

You obtained your first Unclaimed Territory in the seventh collision, and from then on, a fixed amount of unclaimed land will be added to your world with each subsequent collision.”

I already knew that much.

“However, there is something important. Unclaimed Territories do not simply attach themselves to your world. You must obtain them through ‘exploration.’ By default, you have no idea what form the Unclaimed Territory takes. Even divinity cannot detect it. That is why you must send exploration teams from your civilization to survey the Unclaimed Territory.”

Huh? Oh. Well. Got it. For now.

“And of the Unclaimed Territories you explore, only the amount permitted by the game will remain attached to your world. The rest will be discarded. The more you explore, the more you can obtain.”

“Is it possible to encounter other players during exploration?”

“‘For now,’ it is impossible. Please look forward to future events.”

I see…

“Naturally, any Unclaimed Territory you did not choose during the expansion phase cannot be expanded later. This time, Ogolraeot also selected Great Nature just like you, so it makes no difference. But if he had expanded into a different Unclaimed Territory, expansion in that direction would have been impossible.”

“In other words, if Ogolraeot had expanded into Great Ocean, I wouldn’t be able to keep pushing beyond the sea—instead, I’d just end up with a random saltwater lake in my world?”

“Exactly.”

This could be a rather important point. The resources from Unclaimed Territories are nothing to scoff at.

“In that sense, the material-realm Great Ocean and the spirit-realm Great Firmament provide ‘width’ to your world.

The material-realm Great Underworld and the spirit-realm Great Boundary provide ‘depth’ to your world.

Therefore, exploration is intuitive.”

Sail out on ships, fly into the sky, dig into the ground, or enter the borders of the underworld.

Entering the borders of the underworld sounds a bit frightening, but from a magical perspective, it is not particularly difficult. In old tales, people cross into the underworld all the time.

“However, unlike these four Unclaimed Territories, Great Nature and Great Phantasm have peculiar characteristics. They do not expand widely across the world! In a sense, they fill the ‘inside’ of the world.”

“Then expansion is impossible?”

“No. Like the others, Great Nature and Great Phantasm are also shrouded in darkness that even a god cannot perceive. Exploring these two Unclaimed Territories means venturing into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that darkness and illuminating regions surrounded by the unknown.

The more you explore, the wider your world becomes, and you can consume as much divinity as you wish to claim the newly expanded regions… but…”

There was one contradiction in my angel’s words.

There was no darkness in my world at all. My world’s Great Nature had already been completely illuminated and fully expanded—every newly acquired region included.

“What’s going on here? Is this a bug?”

“Of course not. This is the influence of the mythic-grade trait Deity-World Oneness. Deity-World Oneness is a trait that assimilates you with your world. In other words, even the Unclaimed Territories that have entered your world are still part of it, so you have complete control over them.”

Ah, I understood now.

So even when playing the game, gods like Ogolraeot had to consciously expend divinity or expand their vision just to observe their own worlds.

If they had not, the opposing gods would have immediately expelled my Dessert Legion from within their worlds.

Thanks to Deity-World Oneness, however, I could see the entire map without needing to focus on it. I had thought it was only a minor advantage, but now I realized it also let me perceive Unclaimed Territories completely.

That meant there was no need to send exploration teams. I bore none of the risks that normally came with exploring Unclaimed Territories.

What this meant was absurd: since the territories were treated as already explored, I could freely evolve every lifeform within them and reshape the terrain at will.

I had been wondering how to conduct exploration with a Dessert Legion that refused to listen, but it turned out I did not need to explore at all. Deity-World Oneness granted clones, amplified divinity, and even absolute vision as bonuses—its true power lay here.

“Wait a second. Then how do I perform additional expansion?”

“Simply by willing it.”

“……Huh? Infinitely?”

“Ah. Not infinitely. After all, exceeding your limit still consumes divinity. But it is true that no effort is required for exploration. As long as you have surplus divinity, you may expand Unclaimed Territories as much as you like.”

“And even these newly expanded regions can be perceived as if they were in the palm of my hand, without any further exploration. Is that what you are saying?”

“Yes.”

Wow. Deity-World Oneness was even better than I thought.

So this angel had recommended a trait whose true value only manifested after round seven—back in round four.

“If you put it that way, you are correct. Honestly, I expected you to last until at least round seven. I simply did not expect you to do so without any civilization.”

That was true. In hindsight, it had been an excellent choice. The clones had proven useful, the divinity had proven useful, and now I could expand Unclaimed Territories at will.

So I decided to use my surplus divinity to expand my world.

The already magnificent Great Nature attached to my world began to grow on its own, continuously generating what could be called its native inhabitants—plants, animals, insects, mountains, hills, rivers, and more. It was truly a spectacular sight. Quite a few desert terrains also appeared, and even desert hills were now excellent resources to me.

“It is remarkable how indistinguishable this magnificent Great Nature is from the original Dessert Desert……”

“What do you mean indistinguishable? To the Dessert Legion, there has only ever been the Dessert Desert.”

The original divine fragment land I had received was 2,560 square kilometers. Adding the original Great Nature, the newly added Great Nature, and the Great Nature Ogolraeot had possessed brought the total—combined with the original land—to 5,120.

And now I was greedily drawing even more Great Nature into it.

“I have a question about these additionally expanded lands. You said divinity will continue to be consumed?”

“Yes. That consumption cannot be reduced under any circumstances. You also cannot abandon land during collisions. Even if your faith score drops in the next collision and your divinity production decreases, the consumption remains the same. If you run out of divinity and cannot pay the cost, your faith will begin to fall. And if your faith score reaches zero……”

“Does it start draining other resources from the world?”

“No. You will immediately lose the collision and your soul will be annihilated. There are no negatives.”

Ah. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠see……

But I had divinity to spare—more than enough to rot. I had originally been level 11, and now I was level 12. If the land grew larger, I would reach level 13, and the actual divinity I could wield would exceed ten million after the ×13 multiplier.

In that case, I could afford to expand the world quite excessively. I multiplied Great Nature by roughly six times. That gave me approximately 30,000 square kilometers.

“Can I still use World Shaping on these expanded areas?”

“Of course.”

Then, proportional to my current level-12 faith, that was a +120% increase.

I now possessed a landmass of roughly 66,000 square kilometers. This was truly absurd.

At this point, other players’ “land” measured 2,560—mine was twenty-six times larger. To put it in perspective, while other players fought over land slightly larger than Jeju Island, I was fighting with a territory the size of Chungcheong, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang combined.

Even if an opponent expanded into the material realm, the land-size difference would still be 13.2 times. It was my own land, yet it felt ridiculous.

Honestly, even Wahando’s “that long name” legion and Mihun’s dinosaur monks would not be able to cross this much territory. They would perish from supply depletion after crossing more than half the Dessert Desert.

“You had considered this strategy before, but the sheer scale is truly unbelievable. Moreover, since you are not building any nation and are instead embracing true wilderness, you require no additional cultivation and need not concern yourself with politics scores.”

Exactly. The anti-intellectualism build had no reason to invest in such troublesome matters.

Now all that remained was for the Dessert Legion to occupy this vast land entirely. Compared to the land size just before the seventh collision, my life score would increase by a factor of twelve! I would probably gain around six million life points.

“Hiiiiiiik.”

Well, that was just the theoretical calculation. In reality, it would not be that simple. There were powerful beings among the original lifeforms in the Unclaimed Territories, and it would take time to either incorporate them into the Dessert Legion or eliminate them one by one. In practice, I would probably only get about half of that.

“Still, even three million would be a monster that most worlds could not even hope to breach.”

Well, I would see when the time came. For now, I gathered as many of my remaining clones as possible and began rapid ecological consulting on my world.

Then I noticed something caught in the senses of Deity-World Oneness. It was an object I felt like I had seen before.

Something with dried bodily tissue and a mystical aura. Its form was largely alien, yet I already knew what it was.

“You are quite fortunate. Though, to be honest, obtaining at least one when expanding your world to this extent is only natural.”

“Hah.”

I had seen this when creating Yogur-tosoth. I stared at the newly appeared god fragment for a while, then decided it was a good thing.

At the same time, another thought occurred to me.

What exactly was this?

The “god fragments” that made up the game’s terrain were the discarded husks of Mihun, were they not?

Yet what I was looking at now was an “[Old] God Fragment.” Why was something like this in this game?

Perhaps it was simply referring to fragments of Mihun that had not formed terrain……

Suddenly, I realized there was a contradiction in something the angel had said earlier.

“Hey, Angel. I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“The hosts clearly said they started this game because they wanted to see the best strategies from civilizations, right?”

“That is correct.”

“Then what are these ‘traits’ doing here? Especially mythic-grade traits—why do they even exist? Mythic-grade traits are monsters capable of completely overhauling a civilization’s build. If something like that exists, what does ‘the best strategy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of a civilization’ even mean?”

The angel wore a somewhat troubled expression at the question I thought had struck the mark.

“Hmm. How should I explain this…… I can only say that it does not contradict the hosts’ claims. Any further answer would exceed my authority.”

……

A strange thought suddenly occurred to me.

In other words, it might just be a delusion……

But what if this “game” was not actually a “game”?

What if the hosts, possessing power beyond omnipotence, had simply thought in the spirit of an internet argument—“Let’s see what the best strategy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is in this fantasy world creator!”—and dragged people from every dimension just to prove the superior strategy in their own amusing little game?

……

At first, I had found the idea frightening, but perhaps that was actually preferable.

Knowing that this was merely an argument between gamers with absurd power was far more comforting than discovering some grand conspiracy involving the destruction of the universe or dimensional invaders trying to conquer all of reality.

Damn it. I had only asked just in case, and now I felt even more uneasy.

Still, the hosts would not lie. I chose to believe that and continued shaping my ecosystem.

Honestly, what did it matter if they were lying?

At worst, my soul would simply be annihilated.

That was nothing.