Then Don't Blame Me

For Ron, the passage of time had been completely diluted.

Ever since he had become a formal wizard, he had been running all over places with different rates of time flow, and sometimes he really felt as if his sense of time had gone out of order.

Just as he was thinking this, Antico's communication request interrupted his thoughts.

"Professor Ralph, I'm contacting you today to inform you of something in advance."

Antico's voice was solemn.

"The countdown to the Great Reckoning has entered its final stage."

Ron put down the observation notes in his hand.

"Thank you for letting me know."

"You may not fully know the rules of the final stage, the 'Final Open Period.'"

Antico's projection reached out and tapped a few times, and a document appeared between them.

"During the final stretch before the Great Reckoning, the restrictions on participants introducing new species will be greatly relaxed."

"Originally, each Archwizard could only introduce one core race and a small number of auxiliary species, but during the Final Open Period, that upper limit will be removed."

"In other words..."

Ron had already understood what he meant. "Everyone can dump their 'stockpiles' inside."

"Precisely. Everyone can stop playing by the rules."

Antico shook his head with a bitter smile, looking rather like a cleaner faced with a floor full of filth.

"In past Great Reckonings, the Final Open Period before the reckoning was always the bloodiest and most chaotic stage."

He reminded him, "The Little Chessboard has been operating for so many years, and the usual pattern is peace first, then chaotic war."

"Before the reckoning, everyone will do everything they can to raise their species' reproduction rate and territorial coverage, and then... in the final stretch, destroy more than half of everything the others have accumulated."

Antico