The Nebula's Civilization

The Lizardman, Beauer, had reigned over his tribe and wetlands for a long time. Having been a giant ever since he hatched from an egg, he had a talent for making other Lizardmen frightened and obedient due to his atrocious temper. His temper alone wouldn’t have made it easy for him to survive long in the tribe he called ‘Blue Skin,’ though, as only being fierce and rough was not the makings of the chief of a big tribe of 300 Lizardmen.

Beauer was good at arithmetics. For example, 300 Lizardmen could live just fine in a small wetland one could circle around in about half a day, but that wouldn’t be the case for 310 or 320 Lizardmen. The wetland would run out of resources little by little. It wouldn’t take long till all the root plants were dug up, the small animals all hunted, and even the tree bark peeled off and eaten. And so, Beauer routinely kicked out the weak, sick, and old Lizardmen from his tribe and land; at least 10 were driven out every time, and at most 30. This way, the remaining Lizardmen were able to have a little bit of a grace period.

Of course, the Lizardmen getting kicked out didn’t just comply and leave, so there was always a bloody battle, and in every battle, a drake named Manun was always there helping him. He was another of Beauer’s assets. Beauer had picked up a drake egg when he was younger and had been the first individual that Manun saw when he was born. Manun was vicious, but he followed Beauer who fed and raised him, willingly lending Beauer his back. This four-legged lizard grew so big that it could easily overcome a sabertooth tiger and was even able to move quickly with Beauer, who was a very big Lizardman, on his back.

Even before Beauer had decided to kick tribe members out, there had been many who attacked him. It was the only way the other Lizardmen could avoid and survive the results of his arithmetic. However, the huge, 5-meter long drake, Manun, always protected Beauer, and together, they killed the traitors.

Later on, Beauer successfully defended his small territory with Manun’s strength. He didn’t think about the Lizardmen who were kicked out into the wilderness. To this day, he had gathered and ostracized Lizardmen five times in his life, and so far, he hadn’t seen any of them again. Beauer looked to the remaining 300 Lizardmen. He thought his arithmetics were undeniably correct, but that thought changed not too long ago.

The wetland, which wasn’t abundant but also wasn’t barren, was attacked by a swarm of locusts. Even Beauer had never seen such a swarm of locusts in his long years of life. The swarm was large enough to make the sky of the marsh black and cover the sun. At first they thought a rare opportunity had come to fill their stomachs with meat, but the strange occurrence turned out to be threatening rather than propitious. The locusts gnawed at all the grass and trees in the marsh, making the plants dry, and killed the other animals that lived in harmony amongst the plants and trees. Some locusts even attacked the weak Lizardmen. It took less than two days for half the wetlands to disappear.

Beauer’s arithmetics no longer worked in that bizarre situation, and he knew that his Blue Skin Tribe had to leave in the opposite direction of where the locusts came from, towards the wilderness he had driven the other Lizardmen to.

***

Lakrak recognized Beauer easily as nothing about him had changed much from when Lakrak was kicked out of the tribe. Beauer was over two meters and fifty centimeters tall, and was big enough to make other Lizardmen look like children, but his big size wasn’t his only strength.

“The drake Manun…Did he get bigger?”

Beauer was riding on top of Manun. Although not comparable to a dragon, a drake was considered an ultimate being one couldn’t afford to antagonize in the wilderness. An average group of 30 or even 50 Lizardmen would find it difficult to defeat a drake.

“That lizard finally seems to have eaten through all the wetlands that belonged to the Blue Skin,” said Zaol in a worried voice.

“You don’t know that. Though it was bound to happen sooner or later.”

Lakrak had thought that Manun would eat too much food when he was still a part of the Blue Skin Tribe. Even though Manun hunted food for himself, there wasn’t much to eat in the wilderness, and without the drake, it was possible the tribe would have kept the weak rather than kicking them out. Beauer had kicked out the other Lizardmen because he wanted to have the drake with him.

“Even now, he’s the only one who gained weight. Greedy idiot.”

As time passed, Yur and his friends came running back, having accomplished the scouting mission they’d been sent to conduct before Beauer was spotted. Lakrak explained exactly what he saw. The fat and old Beauer, the drake Manun he was riding on top of, followed by 300 Lizardmen.

Beauer, who saw the sacred ground of the Nameless Beetle God, was approaching right away.

Zaol said anxiously, “If they come, the forest will soon be exhausted of all lives.”

“I know that.”

“Then are you gonna kick them out?”

“Do you want me to kick them out?”

“We have the power to do so. They’re great in numbers and have the drake Manun on their side, but I am confident we will triumph under the protection of the Nameless Beetle God.”

Lakrak nodded. He liked that answer, but it wasn’t the correct one.

“In my opinion, they must have been sent by God.”

“What? Why would God put us to the test?”

“We were abandoned, but got saved. Seeing the tribe move, it seemed the same fate had befallen them. There is no mistake that they were abandoned by the earth. We need to save them. Thus, we need to let more people know of the prestige of the Nameless Beetle God.”

“But how…?”

It was definitely more difficult to subjugate them than to drive them away. If the Blue Skin Tribe had no more men to fight, they would split up and run, but they had more men, and it would be difficult to subjugate everyone who ran.

“I dare not try to understand God’s will. I’ll just do what I can.”

***

Sung-Woon became interested while listening to Lakrak and Zaol’s conversation.

‘You already know what I want, don’t you?’

On the flip side, that also meant Sung-Woon was in complete control of Lakrak.

‘Other player’s didn’t really like individuals who had strong willpower.’

High willpower meant individuals could carry out their own actions. And unexpected actions would lead to trouble in a simulation game. Of course, willpower itself and the constant efforts made could result in good actions being carried out even if the individual’s behavior was out of control, but naturally, many players didn’t like characters that moved of their own will.

But Sung-Woon was different.

‘Having strong willpower doesn’t always mean one would act differently than what the player intends. If I can guide that willpower in the way that I want, it would be a more powerful and successful way than simply controlling everything.’

In the end, what Sung-Woon wanted was to combine both groups. Lakrak’s Clan got stronger due to the Blessings from Sung-Woon, but their technological abilities were low. Sung-Woon had checked and found out that the Blue Skin Tribe had some techniques he considered valuable, and those techniques were to be used to feed the entire tribes and develop civilization.

‘Lakrak’s Clan will eventually have to subjugate the Blue Skin Tribe without any harm done.’

As Sung-Woon watched from above, Lakrak was taking Zaol, his aide, and Yur and his friends towards Beauer. Beside Lakrak, they were all elite fighters in the clan.

Beauer stopped at the bottom of the hill and watched them come down. He dragged Manun forward and spoke to Lakrak. It seemed he had no idea that these black Lizardmen were from one of the groups he had kicked out in the past.

“Young Lizardman, do you live here?”

“Yes.”

“What is at the top of the hill?”

“Bushes, trees, and hunting game.”

Beauer thought that Lakrak had given the answer easily because he was frightened by the large tribe behind him.

“Great. We are hungry. If you leave this hill, we will not attack.”

“This is our land.”

“So? Does that mean you’re not going to leave?”

“We are warriors. We protect the land.”

“I don’t know how many more of you there are, but…You cannot win.”

“We can defend our land fine with just the men you see in front of you.”

Beauer chuckled at those words.

“You don’t know arithmetics.”

“And you don’t know God.” 𝓫𝓮𝒹𝓷ℴ𝓿ℯ𝓵.𝓬ℴ𝓶

Beauer asked, wondering at the remark, “God?”

“Get on your knees and obey me, now. Then I will take care of you according to God’s will.”

“You’re a lunatic. Die,” said Beauer as he kicked Manun’s back.

Manun’s eyes shone brightly and charged towards Lakrak. Lakrak twirled his spear before gripping it.

Sung-Woon didn’t find the ensuing battle urgent. Ever since becoming a god, the flow of time hadn’t felt imminent to him. Manun approaching Lakrak even seemed like slow motion in his eyes. If Lakrak had that much faith in him, though, Sung-Woon wanted to reward it properly.

A pop-up appeared.

[Clash of civilizations!]

[Two different tribes have come into contact. Experience points (XP) are rising for both tribes.]

Sung-Woon closed the window and checked his stats.

[Divinity level]

[4]

[Faith]

[482/500]

[Small Area: Insects]

[Lv. 3]

Sung-Woon had gathered a bit of Faith for this battle, and the small area of Insects had leveled up as a result of him controlling the swarm of locusts.

‘And…’

As the two Lizardman tribes came into contact with each other, a new ability appeared.

[You have been paying a lot of attention to one particular tribe until now. Now this tribe belongs to your territory.]

[Area: Lizardmen]

[Lv. 1]

In The Lost World, after obtaining the first small area at the start of the game, various additional areas could be obtained depending on the actions taken. It was a bit frustrating as this wasn’t marked until one actually acquired the area, but Sung-Woon knew from experience that it would be possible for him to associate the Lizardmen to his territory.

‘If I didn’t get this, I wouldn’t be able to win without harm.’

Tribal areas were different from small areas as tribal areas did not come with dramatic effects. For example, in the small area of Insects, insects could be created out of thin air, but obtaining the area of Lizardmen didn’t make it possible to spawn Lizardmen from the ground. Nevertheless, that was not to say tribal areas were useless. In The Lost World, early builds depended on how quickly players gained a small area of a species. Such an area was simple and strong.

‘That means…’

[You can now use the skill ‘Divine Control’.]

.

[Would you like to use it?]

[Yes / No]

Sung-Woon clicked ‘Yes.’