According to Xilǐ'er, who regained his memories, there were five major powers in this world before the outbreak of the Demonic Tide. Apart from the elves living on the secluded islands, there were three powers on the main continent, from north to south: the Kingdom, the Holy See, and the Empire. The Demon Realm was located on the other side of the continent.
In the main continental region occupied by humans, the area occupied by the Holy See was extremely small, only equivalent to the present-day Holy City and its surrounding area.
The entire north belonged to the former kingdoms, while the south was occupied by an empire.
The kingdom primarily operates under the classic system of aristocratic enfeoffment, with the king controlling approximately half of the territory and the remainder distributed among nobles of varying ranks.
Once everyone was allocated a plot of land, they would close their doors and live their own lives. If someone was dissatisfied with their territory, they would gather troops and fight with their neighbor. In short, it was a recurring theme.
The southern empire was ruled by an emperor who continuously strengthened his authority through iron-fisted methods, making the entire country a monolithic entity.
The Holy See was caught in the middle, yet it was unable to completely isolate the kingdom and the empire.
On one side is a standardized army under an iron-fisted rule, and on the other side are warlike nobles fighting to protect and expand their land and wealth. The two sides engage in some major events almost every year.
After the outbreak of the Demonic Tide, the southern empire split into the current empire and the Bone Alliance, while the northern kingdom was completely swept into the dustbin of history. The Tree Worship Church, with its early adaptation to the Demonic Tide, took the opportunity to expand and devour the largest but also the most difficult piece of meat. The remaining former kingdom territories were divided up by the Eternal Domain and the Graycast Corridor.
Without considering the Wilderness of Chaos in the middle that even dogs wouldn't want, we can assume that the kingdom has been completely shattered and split into three parts.
But even now, the Eternal Domain still maintains aristocratic rule?
And his temporary worker, Mr. Xilǐ'er, never hid his identity as a knight...
After combining the information Xilǐ'er gave him with what Haya said, Ed came to two guesses:
Either the Twin Kings who established the Eternal Domain were somewhat influenced by the remnants of the former kingdoms, their minds filled with the glory of their ancestors, insisting on the immutability of ancestral laws, and dividing their people into different classes such as royalty, nobles, knights, and serfs;
Or... considering Xilǐ'er's ability to resurrect himself by saving and loading saves, his knightly status, and the fact that such abilities likely only existed among nobles and serfs of the past...
Ed suddenly had a flash of inspiration: since the blessings of the Twin Kings were related to time, could maintaining the old system also be a special kind of "archiving"?
However, this conjecture contradicts one of Ed's previous guesses.
He had even believed some time ago that the Twin Kings who established the Eternal Domain were those two Short-Eared Elf.
But upon closer reflection, while the two elves were walking across the land sealing the Blood Corpse, the Twin Kings were also pioneering new territories in the northern part of the continent. One person cannot be split in two, and considering today's new conjecture, Ed can basically confirm that there is no necessary connection between the Twin Kings and the two Short-Eared Elf.
It seems that the identities of these two powerful individuals who slew the Amber Dragon and successfully established their own kingdoms remain shrouded in mystery.
Ed kept this question to himself and saw off the still somewhat reserved Chief Haya.
There are still many mysteries in this world, but for now, Ed intends to focus on dealing with the Blood Corpse in front of him.
"... But freedom doesn't come easily... No, don't eat my cyber AI friend! No!"
(Sound of scene transition)
Haha, does this look familiar?
Such scenes are playing out in various parts of this World of Disorder right now.
"You could be next, unless you can make the most important choice of your life."
(A burst of rousing music)
Prove to everyone that you have the strength and courage to pursue freedom!
Join the ranks of the Soul Returner!
"Become the elite of the mobile forces!"
Witness the bizarre, Aberration Blood Corpse!
"Let the glory of the Second Holy See shine upon the entire continent!"
"Become a hero, become a legend, become Elite Warrior of the Second Holy See!"
"Snap."
The young man in black pressed the space bar, and the video in front of him froze on the last frame, showing three heavily armed Elite Warrior beating up a Blood Corpse.
Behind him, the middle-aged man scratched the stubble on his cheek.
"Is this... a new art form?"
"Team leader, this is a 'cyber recruitment trailer' made by players, imitating a game from over a decade ago."
"It's definitely cyberpunk enough, but maybe I'm too old, and there's a generation gap between me and you guys."
The middle-aged man was clearly not very interested in the video; he wouldn't have even glanced at it if it weren't for work. On the contrary, the young man in black in front of him seemed quite interested in it.
So, will this thing actually work?
"Of course it's useful, team leader! There are 200,000 likes here! And because of this new zombie-fighting event, the price of activation codes has recently rebounded and they're in short supply. If we hadn't been constantly regulating the market, the price might have been outrageously high!"
"Keep a close eye on price fluctuations. We can't control private or overseas transactions, but at least we shouldn't let prices be driven too high on domestic trading websites. This is the consensus reached above; treat it as a normal and high-quality game, and don't let it be too closely linked to real-world factors before any subsequent impacts emerge."
"Understood, I've been watching over there."
"Tell me about recent events. How's their progress in the game this week?"
"Okay, first, let's talk about the professor..."
Upon hearing this, the young man in black opened the folder in front of him and began to report to the team leader one by one the recent noteworthy situations.
The story goes back a few weeks. With the successful " Psionic Energy fright experiment" on the [ Chocolate Ice Cream Scoop ], the unknown investigation team that liked to wear black clothes and drive a van finally collected enough experimental samples for three sets and gave a detailed report on their new findings.
As they had predicted, more manpower, more funding, and more attention were all brought under the control of the powerful.
The investigation team was upgraded to an investigation group. Each of the original three people needed to take charge of more things, so a dedicated office space was quickly approved.
The young man in black's noble aspirations were realized in a very distorted way.
He was indeed closer to the World of Disorder, but his new task was to observe and record the reactions of twenty professional volunteers after they entered the game, and to report back to his superiors regularly.
Clearly, it's a long way off for him to have his own activation code, leaving him in a constant state of agony, like seeing something he can't have.