Chapitre 22: City Lord Chain of Command

Greire City!

The City Lord was a Stage 7 Mystic Human, donning his Celestial Armour as he stood on the rooftop of a building near the centre of the city.

Currently, the city was relying upon his Tower of Purification to produce enough Nacre for the needs of everyone.

Greire City was one of the smallest cities in this world, codenamed the Aberrant World by the PADS. The current three worlds being helped by Pads were the first world, codenamed the Undead World, followed by the second world codenamed the Green Sludge World.

The way their society functioned was somewhat capitalistic style. After all, there was a limit to how hard they worked just through a sense of duty alone.

Maybe for one loop, it might work. But from the second loop onwards, they needed something more tangible. And hence, a certain concept was introduced—benefits and responsibilities.

Basically, a Mystic Human at Stage 7 and above would obtain the qualifications to gain control over a city in the apocalypse. They would gain complete sovereignty of this place, only having to follow orders from the top brass of PADS—three Saints.

The first condition to be eligible for this was the possession of the External Item of the Tower of Purification.

And the range covered by their Tower of Purification was their territory and where they had authority.

These Mystic Humans were dubbed City Lords and officially recognised by PADS as the lord of their respective cities.

The work of the City Lord detailed maintaining and developing their respective city. Their goal would be to strengthen these cities as much as possible for future invasions.

And this was where the benefits came. The first of them was the fact that these Lords can start their families in the cities.

And, it wasn't using Mystic Humans, but through Horned Humans. Basically, they could marry Horned Humans to start a family and govern the city better, from one generation to another.

As all the City Lords were those that remembered their entire past, they had a wealth of experience surpassing thousand years. So, they had considerable patience and would develop their respective cities for centuries without sparing any effort.

And during this time, their respective Family would grow strong enough to take control of most of the sectors functioning in their city.

Who wouldn't love their bloodline to wield power and authority?

After all, the people from PADS too were humans with human desires. So, they risked their lives fighting the Apocalypse just for the chance to become a City Lord in the future.

The benefits didn't just end here though.

If the child borne between the City Lord and their married partner attained certain qualifications, they would be invited to PADS and turned into a Mystic Human. This meant attaining status as an immortal.

Therefore, the City Lords had something to look forward to other than just wealth and authority alone. And this didn't just stop at their children but also extended to their descendants.

It created a tight network of control that was exerted upon the native world by the PADS. But, to avoid oppressing the natives and creating a sense of conflict between the Horned Humans and the Mystic Humans, the condition all City Lords had to abide by were two things…

A City Lord can only have one marriage partner that bears their children. The second condition was that only a Horned Human can be their marriage partner.

This way, the natives and PADS were integrated into a collective network. There was a problem with the Horned Humans' lifespan, as they weren't immortal like the Mystic Humans.

But, it was part of the parcel. If not, it would only result in a Mystic Human hegemony, and that was something Rhizen didn't wish to make a reality.

His goal was to eradicate the troubles originating from the apocalypse and stabilise such worlds, bringing them back to fully functioning societies.

It was impossible to create perfect worlds. He was aware of that. And hence, he tried his best to make schemes that were as good as possible.

As for the other Mystic Humans part of the city, those at Stage 6 could establish themselves as nobility, setting up as powers of the city. Each of such nobility could assume authority over various industries, creating a complex network.

This would ensure that the City Lord wouldn't become a dictator. It wasn't a perfect setup, but it was how things could be done while considering a balance between both internal and external stability.

And the nobility too would follow the same rule as the City Lord's family in that a Mystic Human could only start a family with a Horned Human.

Mystic Humans that didn't like such an arrangement could simply choose to return to their home world. All options were open to them.

Through such a chain of command, the PADS hoped that in the likelihood of an invasion by Apocalypse, these cities would be able to defend on their own until reinforcement from PADS arrived.

After all, it wasn't a guarantee that Apocalypse wouldn't invade a cleaned-up world. It personally wouldn't be able to do so thanks to the world producing Nacre, a power that's capable of injuring it.

But that didn't mean it couldn't open a portal to this world from a world that it had already fully taken over. This was completely possible.

Hence, the City Lord mechanic was established.

There was a limit to the number of Mystic Humans in Rhizen's home world. After all, the population from one world wasn't sufficient to go against multiple apocalyptic worlds.

Therefore, only when the native population of these worlds join their power structure would they be able to raise an intergalactic army capable of invading other apocalyptic worlds in the future.

And the greater the number of worlds under its control, the stronger the power wielded by PADS, allowing it to one day reach a level on par with Apocalypse.

But, it was something that would happen a long way in the future.

The Greire City Lord sighed, staring at the conditions of his city, muttering in response, "There's not many strong in our city."

"We're situated on the other side of the planet from Yonka city." A lady appeared behind him, sporting a large belly, "As the Corruption here has been weak from the start, there's not much for us to do."

"But nothing is permanent." The Greire City Lord sighed in response, "Anything can happen. At least, if we're closer to Yonka City, it'll be easier for reinforcements to arrive, especially those at Stage 8 or even the Saint himself."

"Can't you attempt to reach Stage 8 yourself?" The lady asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"It's not as easy as you make it sound." The Greire City Lord sighed, gently patting her belly as he smiled. It was his child that was growing in there.

He originally had a wife in his home world. But once he recalled his past lives, his family fractured. After all, when a problem arose, his wife abandoned him to save herself. And this happened dozens of times, making him regret loving her in every loop.

So naturally, he divorced her after the establishment of PADS, having arrived in this world. He had also been a participant in the Green Sludge World, but as he was only at Stage 6 back then, he didn't have the opportunity to become a City Lord.

From Stage 5 itself, every breakthrough became more and more dangerous, leading to more deaths than success.

After all, their breakthrough was a sheer test of will. To reach Stage 6 from Stage 5, the Mystic Human's body would be torn in five directions brutally by their five Mutated Beasts. And, this would loop for five times before their breakthrough would succeed.

But, it was hard to tolerate such pain, that too repeatedly. So, failure chances were higher. Moreover, even in the case they succeed, their minds would be broken due to the sheer pain.

And hence, for breakthroughs from Stage 5 onwards, they attempted it only a month before their world resets. This way, they would recover their minds.

Or in the case of their death due to a breakthrough failure, they would revive. This way, they could maintain their respective tasks and accumulate as much experience as possible.

At the end of their twenty-years of stay in the Green Sludge World, he had attempted a breakthrough and succeeded in reaching Stage 7. After that, he passed the test set up by Straxia, one of their three Saints, and managed to swap out of his original External Item to get the External Item of Tower of Purification, truly becoming one of the elites of the PADS.

His breakthrough from Stage 6 to Stage 7 was nightmarish as he was ripped in six directions by his Mutated Beasts. And the process looped six times, making him regret attempting the breakthrough multiple times.

But somehow, he managed to succeed and attained Stage 7.

And it was here that he felt it…he wouldn't be able to reach Stage 8. Maybe he might need to prepare for decades to strengthen his mind and attempt multiple times before reaching Stage 8. Or maybe he might never attain that despite countless decades of preparation.

Sighing, the Greire City Lord said, "Unlike Horned Humans, it becomes progressively harder for Mystic Humans to grow stronger. This is also why the payoff is vastly higher in comparison to the Horned Humans."

"That's true." The Horned Human lady nodded, "Even though I've reached Stage 5, I don't have the confidence in winning against even a Stage 4 Mystic Human. It's especially since you can also harness the power of your External Item, not to mention the various Mutated Beasts you can transform into."

"Yeah…" The Greire City Lord had just nodded in response when suddenly, he felt alarmed, gazing at the river that flowed through their city. Despite being protected by the safety zone, the water suddenly began to emit corruption.

Gurgle!

Corruption bubbled, unleashing toxic mists surpassing the rate at which his Tower of Purification could purify.