Roy staying holed up in World City did not mean he was not ruling the world.
Take the Imperial Jade Seal, a World Item, for example. The more of the world he ruled, the stronger it became.
How could he not put effort into managing humanity's nations?
Although he had yet to deal with the Space Dragon, he had to start preparing to rule humanity.
"Eve, how many Automated Soldiers has World City deployed so far?"
"So far, we have deployed 500 Automated Guards, scattered throughout the Re-Estize Kingdom, the Empire, the Slane Theocracy, the Holy Kingdom, the Draconic Kingdom, and other regions to infiltrate them."
"Ten percent have been configured as members of the Dragon Worship Cult, and another ten percent as members of the Dragon Slaying Cult."
"The relevant slogans, organizational contact methods, and so forth have all been designed."
"I expect the Great Tomb of Nazarick to begin by gathering intelligence."
"Luke is already dead. Under his programmed restrictions, he automatically died and disappeared after his information was inspected three times and he provided the relevant information about the Dragon Worship Cult."
"If Your Majesty lifts the restrictions, we can increase the number of infiltrating Automated Soldiers to ten thousand within the next year."
"Ten thousand Automated Soldiers would be enough to control the foundations of every nation."
Yes, neither Roy nor Eve considered ruling the world difficult.
World City simply had far too many cards to play.
It had 600,000 Automated Guards alone. These were all intelligent beings, nothing like undead such as Death Knights or skeleton knights.
Eve could micromanage every Automaton and every Automated Guards.
What a terrifying ability.
The Blood Emperor was looking for talented people. That was excellent.
Every Automated Soldiers was talented, with even the weakest at level 18.
Fully equipped, they were equivalent to Mithril-class adventurers, levels 21-23.
How many people of that caliber did humanity have altogether?
Once they infiltrated the Empire's Knights, it would take only a few days to strip the throne of its authority.
At a single command from Roy, the Empire would launch a military coup and end the Blood Emperor's rule.
One nation taken without spilling a drop of blood.
The same applied to the Re-Estize Kingdom.
As long as Roy had enough followers, and they were loyal enough.
Whether it was the Blood Emperor or Rambasa III, their decrees would never make it beyond the Royal Capital.
If I have enough completely loyal Automated Soldiers, why would I bother matching wits or strength with you?
All those nobles can go to hell.
There was no need for any battle of wits in a situation like this.
Did Roy want to rule the northwestern corner of the continent?
Apart from the Slane Theocracy, it was merely a matter of deciding to do so.
Roy could not help asking quietly:
"Would ten thousand be enough to rule the human kingdoms?"
Eve answered confidently:
"Absolutely."
"Spread out, ten thousand could build a core organization of at least a hundred thousand."
"With the capabilities of the Automated Guards, combined with my management abilities."
"We could control the human nations from the grassroots level within a year."
For now, Roy still wanted to watch the Space Dragon and the Great Tomb of Nazarick clash, so naturally he would not step into the open.
He would merely remain in the shadows, influencing the course of events.
But that did not mean he would not control the human nations.
Send out a few hundred Automated Soldiers each day, and after a hundred days, humanity's factions would be under his control.
Whether governing nations or strengthening humanity, everything could proceed naturally.
When the time came, Roy could simply appear and ascend the throne.
Roy nodded:
"This plan is workable, but there is one thing you haven't prepared for, Eve."
"We need a greater sense of urgency."
Eve immediately understood:
"Supreme One, are you worried that the war will cause severe damage to the world?"
Roy nodded with a smile:
"That's right. We also need to prepare a gene bank for the various species."
"As we expand our efforts to control the world, and the Great Tomb of Nazarick confronts the Space Dragon, accidents are bound to happen."
"If the Space Dragon drops a meteor onto Earth, humanity will suffer devastating losses, and everything we have now could be destroyed in an instant."
The meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs had been only ten kilometers in diameter.
That Space Dragon was thirty kilometers long. Throwing down a meteor of that size would pose no difficulty whatsoever.
Demiurge's Tenth-Tier Magic, [Falling Meteor], only blew up a city wall. How embarrassing.
The Space Dragon, on the other hand, clearly possessed destructive power capable of affecting an entire continent.
Eve promptly added:
"Rest assured, Supreme One. I already have contingency plans. The Automated Guards we deployed have orders to collect exceptional talents and protect them."
"However, establishing the gene bank has not been going smoothly."
Roy asked:
"Not smoothly?"
Roy had assembled a lavish Research Team. Although they were only scholars, he had added a great many details to their descriptions.
After turning them into reality, Roy had also asked about their progress.
Eve had said they were recovering and reorganizing their records.
But she had never come to report, which was why Roy was checking now.
Eve looked ashamed:
"Supreme One, this world's rules are very strange. One could even call them unscientific."
"The oceans contain freshwater, not saltwater."
"Supersonic flight does not produce sonic booms."
"The chemical formulas for ordinary explosives cannot be used to make bombs."
"Moreover, they obey neither the second law of thermodynamics nor the conservation of matter. It is a complete mess."
"For example, people in the New World can use low-tier magic to create paper, spices, and other things out of thin air."
"I once ordered the Research Team to manufacture a special explosive."
"Explosives essentially use chemical reactions to cause a rapid expansion in the volume of matter."
"So after conventional black powder failed to detonate properly, I ordered the Research Team to undertake a particular study."
"They identified every substance capable of undergoing a chemical reaction and expanding rapidly."
"The experimental results were unexpected. The first trial was a tremendous success."
"But when we attempted to replicate it, we could not reproduce the result."
Now Roy was a little surprised. He immediately asked:
"Are you certain?"
Eve nodded:
"I had intended to conduct multiple trials before reporting to you, Supreme One."
"Based on this experiment, the Research Team suspects that an invisible hand is adjusting the world."
This world really was troublesome.
Roy remembered that the author, Maruyama, had specifically emphasized this world's unscientific nature to keep it interesting.
It was as though someone had deliberately restricted scientific development, constructing the world around magic and idealism.
It did not even obey the conservation of energy. Perpetual motion machines genuinely existed.
Then where did those perpetual motion machines come from?
The novels had not explained it, but a concept introduced in [the corresponding mobile game] seemed capable of doing so.
That was the [Sea of Possibility].
It contained every possibility and possessed wish-granting power surpassing the [Eternal Serpent Ring].
Although it was the source of monsters and villains in the mobile game's story, its lore came from the original author, so the two could share the same worldbuilding.
If it existed, Roy would have to conquer the [Sea of Possibility] to fully understand this world's secrets.
By comparison, everything else was small fry.
It simply did not appear to possess divine-domain authority.
If it did, that would be a whole different matter.
The [Sea of Possibility] ranked above World Items.
In the mobile game's story, the Nine Luminaries World Devourer crossed into the New World, merged with the [Sea of Possibility], and shattered the Great Tomb of Nazarick with a single blow.
An alternate story route ended with the Great Tomb of Nazarick's complete annihilation.
Part of Roy's initial caution had also stemmed from wanting to observe the Sea of Possibility.
The [Nine Luminaries World Devourer] had not been this powerful in the game.
The natural explanation was that the New World's [Sea of Possibility] had suddenly amplified the World Boss's power, granting him divine-domain authority.
The Great Tomb of Nazarick was active and showed no signs of having been shattered.
Roy could infer that, at least, the [Nine Luminaries World Devourer] had not crossed over.
Now Eve's scientific experiments had demonstrated the existence of an invisible hand.
It intervened directly. Never mind why-it simply prevented you from successfully inventing explosives.
Chemical reactions still existed; they just could not be used to make explosives.
Roy could therefore reach one conclusion: at the very least, something governed by idealism was interfering with this world.
Based on the mobile game's contents, he suspected it was the [Sea of Possibility], rather than a deity.
After finishing her explanation, Eve apologized:
"Therefore, Supreme One, we are deeply sorry that we cannot rapidly produce scientific products."
"If you do not require a gene bank in the strict sense, we can preserve some valuable living flesh and blood."
"That would allow us to perform resurrection when necessary."
What science could not solve, magic could replace.
Just as the New World had [Preservation] magic to prevent potions from deteriorating.
Eve quickly offered an alternative: temporarily preserve the finest genetic material of each species as a foundation.
Once they acquired biotechnology later, they could preserve the genes of all humanity.
Roy immediately nodded:
"No problem. Then let's start with superior genetic material."
"As for the criteria for superior genes, we'll provisionally use Natural Espers."
"Compile a dossier of Natural Espers for me."
"As for the scope, start with E-Rantel in the Re-Estize Kingdom, in case the coming war causes unnatural human deaths in that region."
"Then invite one or two of them over first."
"I want to conduct an experiment."
Roy knew his own powers well. The mention of Natural Espers reminded him of his plan before crossing over.
One of his reasons for helping the Six Great Gods had been humanity's Innate Talent.
Every genius among humanity was his target.
"Your will is our mission."
Before you continue