World Collision - The Ninth

The status window for my world floated before me, crisp and glowing with fresh updates.

Life = “(Insect) Great Proliferation: They breed in absurd numbers. Resource consumption required for reproduction has been drastically reduced.”“(Gum) Mystery Storage Organ Enhancement: Can store far more Mystery energy.”

Military = “Pincer Maneuver Mastery: Significantly better at executing operations from multiple angles.”

Industry = “Grand Construction: Allows the creation of one unique structure. Used to build [Bisyakheet’s Colony].”

Tech = I just took Sesaisa’s advice and picked whatever trait sounded like it would help manage the flow of power. I don’t even know the exact details.

Culture = “Funeral Rites: Properly honoring ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fallen Hero-grade or Epic-grade entities greatly increases the chance of birthing a new Hero.”

Politics = “(Sugar Lump) Blind Obedience: Subjects follow the leader’s words more readily. The leader’s authority is slightly strengthened.”“(Martial Sugar Lump) Military Hierarchy: The army’s political system operates with greater efficiency. Rewards and punishments are now strictly enforced.”“(Magic Sugar Lump) Yogur-tosoth Faith: They worship Yogur-tosoth as their god and obey his words with absolute devotion.”

Mystery = “Yogur-tosoth Efficiency Enhancement: Yogur-tosoth’s energy efficiency has improved dramatically. In addition, it can now enter rest phases to conserve even more energy.”

Even though the land area had ballooned to an insane degree, the growth rate was slower than I expected.

The culprit was magic power consumption. Just because the territory had expanded twelvefold didn’t mean every stat simply multiplied by twelve. In fact, when I looked at the overall picture, growth in every other category actually felt more sluggish.

The projected total score had been closer to six million, so we had still grown overall, but military efficiency had actually taken a hit…

“Still, by raw score alone you rank among the absolute top tier. Factoring in your Mythic traits, you’re even higher than that.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

This time, I had declared war on an opponent who actually had a decent reputation inside the game.

I hadn’t originally planned to declare war at all. I was just going to rob him blind. But when I sent the message “If you don’t want to die, hand over the mana stones,” the bastard shot back with “Try me,” acting all tough. So I had no choice but to fight. If someone’s begging to be killed, the least I can do is oblige.

On the bright side, if I win, every subordinate world under him will fall under the Meteor Cartel’s banner. Whether this counts as a successful shakedown or a tragic defeat remains to be seen.

I do consider the possibility of losing. I’m just not afraid of it. Judging by how aggressively the guy came at me, he doesn’t seem scared of losing either. Even though losing to me means having his soul completely erased.

Or maybe he’s just that confident. Having two Mythic traits gives him a massive advantage, enough to fight evenly against someone like me.

Well then. Let’s see just how strong he really is. A ninth opponent with a famous name can’t possibly be weak.

∞

Mitomok had won eight World Collisions.

That put him in the top 1/256 of all players — roughly 0.39%. Out of ten thousand people, only thirty-nine would qualify. It was an awkward number, but if we compared it to Earth, he was basically a “millionaire.” Someone sitting on about a million dollars in assets.

Extremely rare. Extremely rare, yes… but not quite at the level of the ultra-wealthy. In the United States there were tons of people like him, and even in South Korea, if you went to Gangnam — the richest neighborhood — you’d find them everywhere.

But that was among ten billion players, where he stood in the top 0.39%. When you looked at the entire active player pool in the current game, the picture changed. Mitomok was currently ranked inside the top 15,000 out of 4,194,304 participating players. In other words, even among millionaires, he was in the top 0.4%. You could say he was worth about five hundred million dollars.

At that level, you could buy land, build a mansion, hire servants, and live the rest of your life ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠without lifting a finger.

And this wasn’t inherited wealth. He had built it from nothing after starting the game. Going from zero to this level of riches in a single lifetime meant Mitomok’s abilities were genuinely outstanding.

He was the leader of a massive player group. The center of trade. He had over one hundred and fifty subordinate gods, each with their own specialty, all of whom understood civilization far better than he did.

The group’s strategy was to have members of similar strength collide with one another. This minimized unexpected variables like a world being destroyed mid-cycle, and aimed for long-term survival and high scores before eventually exiting the game. But because Mitomok himself was overwhelmingly powerful, there was simply no one who could match him directly.

So he had been planning to naturally collide with another world when the Meteor Cartel — that vicious criminal organization (honestly, calling them a criminal organization felt too generous; they were closer to psychotic murderers) — suddenly threatened him.

Surprisingly, Mitomok’s real-life job had been the CEO of a failed venture company. People might be shocked to hear it “failed,” but the truth was that jealous competitors had demanded he join their cartel. When he refused, they bribed the media, smeared him with false accusations, and drove his company into the ground. It wasn’t because of any business mistake on his part.

That was why Mitomok could never bow to someone threatening him.

“I already got screwed over by those damn extortionists while I was alive. You think I’m going to bend the knee to threats again? I’d rather die!”

He had dared them to kill him. His opponent was also top-tier and even possessed two Mythic traits, while he only had two Legendary ones. Still, he didn’t think he had zero chance of winning.

Anyway, from an outside perspective, Mitomok honestly didn’t know much about civilization.

He was a businessman. He had never studied history, the development of culture, or technological progress. He had never even been interested. In terms of Mystery, he was only slightly better than me.

But his creations were smart. If your employees are competent, all a manager needs to do is set the right direction.

In the first world he received, Mitomok gave his clever creations just enough support to win the first two rounds through cooperation and the next two by doubling his score through alliances and absorption. As the scale of his world grew, he began to understand how civilizations functioned, but he still delegated most tasks to his creations and the many talented subordinate gods he had acquired. He himself focused primarily on community activities.

In short, Mitomok was the sales department.

He operated his civilization by endlessly trading, exchanging, selling, and buying resources and information — both what his world produced and what it needed — squeezing every possible advantage out of commerce.

He possessed both the unyielding spirit that refused to submit to threats and the ruthless merchant mindset that could lick a customer’s feet if it meant closing a deal.

So if we looked at his civilization rather than the man himself, it was equally impressive.

Mitomok’s territory consisted of a well-balanced mix of grasslands, jungle, and mountainous regions. If I had to compare it to an Earth civilization, it most closely resembled those of Southeast Asia or Central America.

The dominant species were swamp-jungle apes that resembled orangutans. Their main industries were agriculture based on large rivers and jungles, along with fishing. Food was truly overflowing.

In fact, even when the Disaster Phase brought Famine and Abnormal Climate, Mitomok’s people had never once gone hungry.

The mountainous areas provided enough resources to forge bronze weapons, and the quarries supplied more than enough stone.

Natural barriers formed organically, reinforced by fortresses and moats at key locations. Vast rice paddies carved out of jungle and grassland, rivers and lakes, scattered islands, and a capital city built on a massive island located between two great rivers.

First of all, their basic resource production was overwhelming. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Even if an entire city were completely blockaded, they could survive indefinitely on fish alone.

And if you tried to lay siege, the terrain itself was pure insanity. The jungles of Southeast Asia had stopped the Mongol Empire cold, and even the modern U.S. military had failed to conquer them.

To make matters worse, the capital sat on an island in the middle of a river. It was the stuff of nightmares for any attacker — Tenochtitlan of the Aztec Empire came to mind.

At this point, to break into Mitomok’s main base by force, you would need at least a hundred thousand naval troops. It was obviously impossible at the Dimensional Gate stage, and even the Dimensional Passage stage ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was completely unfeasible…! Only after reaching the Dimensional Rift stage, devouring the surrounding terrain, building a fleet, and crossing the water could you even hope to set foot in the capital.

Mitomok’s army moved through jungle and rivers as easily as their own backyard. They knew the geography like the back of their hand and had properly trained a navy.

Any enemy would have to face guerrilla forces that climbed trees, dug tunnels, and moved freely across rivers and lakes in terrain crawling with venomous insects, wild beasts, and traps. Only then could they even begin to think about attacking.

With such an overwhelming defensive advantage, they could afford to pour resources into offense. Mitomok trusted his terrain completely.

And then came the first sortie.

His opponent opened a dimensional gate in midair and released several hundred bat-like birds.

“Scouting strategy. Since a god can share vision with their creations, those are obviously scouts.”

Mitomok’s civilization, however, was a genius at catching birds.

Did you know that in all of Earth’s history, the slingshot has never once been adopted as a military weapon? And it’s not because its destructive power or lethality was lacking.

The answer is ridiculously simple. The slingshot was invented later than the breech-loading metallic-cartridge rifle. Why? Because rubber bands weren’t invented until the 19th century. Rubber itself was only discovered in the 15th century.

But if you flip that logic, it means that if rubber bands had been invented earlier, the slingshot would have had more than enough potential to be used as a military weapon.

And Mitomok’s civilization had been widely using rubber — chemically treated rubber mixed with trace minerals — since their fifth collision.

Whether it was a “bow” or a “slingshot,” if it could kill a person, it was an excellent weapon.

Mitomok’s “longbowmen” could shoot down birds flying through the sky with slingshots, and their slingshot pellets could even pierce iron armor.

Tigers and crocodiles roaming the jungle could be taken down with slingshots.

The Gamchi that had crossed over as scouts were slaughtered in an instant by Mitomok’s slingshot-wielding guerrillas.

They might have managed a brief reconnaissance, but follow-up scouting would be nearly impossible. The slingshot troops simply picked up nearby stones as ammunition, giving them effectively infinite ammo.

And the advance party that crossed from Mitomok’s world into the enemy’s encountered dense jungle and concluded, “Ah, this guy’s world has jungle too.”

Unfortunately, the soldiers who crossed over were captured and killed by what appeared to be the native ape-people… but judging by the level of those apes, it seemed like a fight they could win.

Then the time came for the next dimensional gate to open. Since the loss of the advance party couldn’t be helped, Mitomok sent a larger force to establish a camp and prepare for the enemy’s counterattack.

When the enemy’s dimensional gate opened and the tribal mystics detected it, sending soldiers to investigate, Mitomok’s people were left utterly bewildered.

“Um… My lord? There’s nothing here.”

When they offered that prayer, Mitomok immediately relayed orders to the mystics. It was a limited form of long-distance communication.

【No. The location is definitely correct. Is there really nothing there?】

“There is nothing. This is a swamp where footprints don’t remain, but still… we see absolutely nothing.”

Mitomok was confused… A dimensional gate had opened, yet nothing came through? Was that even possible?

All sorts of thoughts raced through his mind. Plague? Poisonous seeds? Invisible enemies? Some kind of Space-Time Mystery camouflage?

He discussed it with his subordinate gods but no answer emerged. They searched all day, but all they confirmed was that out of the three gates that had opened that day, “nothing” had come through any of them.

Little did Mitomok know.

His people had no idea either.

That their opponent had simply tossed a few hundred tadpoles into the swamp and then ran away.

No matter how elite Mitomok’s soldiers were, telling them to distinguish whether a random tadpole swimming in the swamp was a new species they had never seen before was simply too much to ask.

At this point, it was questionable whether any soldier in his army could even tell apart the different kinds of tadpoles native to their own jungle.

After a few more dimensional gates opened, Mitomok eventually concluded that the enemy must have learned Space-Time magic and was using it to disrupt the gate locations.

Otherwise, it made no sense for gates to open and nothing to come through.

And then, twenty days later.

GOOOOOL!!! (The 180-decibel cry of a giant toad)

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! (The sound of barely-killed frogs exploding)

SPLUUUUURT! SPLUUUUUUUUURT! (The sound of a massive legless salamander spraying shit, piss, and mucus everywhere after being impaled by a spear)

“FUUUUUUCK!!! Somebody get this goddamn ass out of my face!!!” (A soldier who had tried to kill a toad, only to scream after seeing a hallucination of a muscular, hairy man seductively flexing at him)

“…….” (The final gasp of a soldier who touched a frog with his bare hand and died from the poison)

Mitomok’s people had been granted a front-row seat to hell itself.