They moved towards the teleporters and through them were brought to the third level of the tower. Once more, indents gave the room the shape of a cogwheel. The purpose of every one of those rooms seemed to be the same as before. Between them stood the tables they had sat on one level below, with the feasts removed but their drinks still intact. Just as the servants eventually followed them so were the chairs brought up from the lower level.

In the middle of the room was a golden, hollow circle. The continuous band of metal bordered the very tip of the indents and was covered in various runes. When Romulus stepped onto that thick outline, the engraved, magical symbols flared to life like a regular lamp that had been hooked up to a nuclear powerplant. John was genuinely worried the entire construction might explode from the overabundance of energy, but all that happened was that a vast illusion suddenly flickered to life.

Where clean, stone floor had been, they were now presented with a map of a world. It wasn’t earth, the continents they were presented with didn’t resemble those of this planet in any way. It was all green and fertile, interrupted only by mountains, oceans, rivers and the many hues of farmland. At the centres of these farmlands stood cities and villages. Some seemed poorly organized and small, others vast and rich. None seemed destitute. In a world of such lushness, starving seemed difficult.

“I’ve prepared a stage for you,” Romulus explained, as he stepped into the illusion. Light flickered around his legs in the arcane colours of blue and light purple, where his movements interrupted fields and mountain ranges. “A game for us all to enjoy. I am sure some of you will find this more to your liking than others,” the Apex looked towards John, who smirked back until Lydia jabbed him in ribs to get him to behave himself, “but I would like all of those who govern land in this world to play along.”

“May I ask about the rules?” the Gamer spoke up. If he had to play a game, then he at least wanted to know what he was working with.

“Certainly.” Romulus nodded firmly. The giant of a man had just waited for someone to ask. “Each of you will take hold of one of the settlements across this world – Danner.” Through a wide gesture, he caused each of the cities and villages to be surrounded by a golden circle, making them easier to spot. “Depending on your settlement, you have different starting resources and problems. Each of you will be face to face with your own illusion to interact with to solve them. Beyond that, you will be presented with random events.”

John raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know illusions could do random number generation,” he put out there. The circle seemed complicated enough that it could hold and update limited information, for a dozen players even an early 2000s computer could have calculated the necessary variables. The great thing about an illusion should have been the graphics, not the processing power. Although picking random events was far from impressive from a PC standpoint, the Gamer had never heard about enchantments being able to do anything like that. Even the most powerful illusions, such as the crystal used to copy him and other contestants during the tournament, were quite deterministic.

“They can’t,” Romulus responded. “I will be assisted in this endeavour by my lights.” Sol and Luna shifted back into the general awareness. Taking position at opposite ends of the circle, they pulled out smartphones from dimensional pockets. Their summoner continued with the explanation. “They will circle the field and visit you in order. Each time, they will choose one of three random events that the phone presents them with. They will then reward or punish you for your choices.”

‘So, it’s a mixture of a grand strategy game and pen and paper,’ John thought. ‘Sounds interesting enough. Let’s hope the event-handlers are not too biased.’

“My emperor,” Knightlord Eduardo chimed into the explanation, “may I ask how this game is won and what the reward is?”

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“Those whose civilizations remain under their control until the end of the game are granted the right to ascend further, along with their staff or harems. Everyone else is to return to the base floor,” Romulus answered. “We will continue to play until only five of you remain. Of course, Lydia moving on is guaranteed, but she should still be involved.”

“As you wish, my emperor,” the queen diligently responded and then turned to the man at her side. “Under these circumstances, I ask that we treat each other as bitter enemies until the game has passed, my love. It would be uncompetitive were we to ally.”

“That would certainly make things rather easy,” John responded with a smug smile. That he was good at strategy games was beyond any doubt and Lydia had her own talents. Supporting each other would have led to simple domination. He was that certain of himself.

It would have also been smart, given that Lydia moving on was guaranteed, but he had to win for the entire harem to tag along. The queen’s present staff consisted only of Konrad, her bodyguard. Nobody else was present and he didn’t feel like twisting words so they could say he and the girls were all Lydia’s harem. That went against his pride, reality and his principles. He would much rather win.

“That’s how we will do things then, my enemy,” Lydia joked and attempted to distance herself from his arm.

Before she could step away completely, John grabbed her and pulled her back for a quick kiss. She reacted lovingly, the two of them sharing a moment where they forget the surroundings over the sensation of their lips meeting. Taste, texture, warmth and tenderness were all so much more rewarding than this game of the court. When they separated, John whispered, “I will conquer you again, my love.”

“You may try.” Lydia stared back, the competitive spirit now igniting in her eyes. With a rough movement, she freed herself from his grip and marched away. John couldn’t help but swoon a little bit, while staring at her ass. That his women were often willing to submit to his designs was only valuable because he knew the strength of character they truly possessed.

‘Aren’t I a blessed man?’ he thought, smiling to himself, while his attention was drawn to a different scene. A few metres removed from him, Ria was trying to shove Maximillian towards the circle. “I don’t hold land, I shouldn’t participate,” the currently-not king complained while he pushed back. Between him being a mage and his bad leg, his mechanic of a sister actually succeeded in pushing him along.

“Nobody here cares! I’m just doing your job until you’re done with your vacation!” Ria responded. “Like there’s anybody here who doesn’t know. Now go and play that stupid game, I have blueprints to think about.”

She was right in that nobody cared which one of the two Habsburgs played. In the end, Maximillian relented, partly because he noted a lack of comment from Romulus, and stepped into the illusion. As did the other power holders and electors present. They scattered above the map and each sought out one of the highlighted settlements.

With no knowledge what the pro and cons of each were, John looked around for geography. There were two he immediately considered. One was on an island and had the appearance of wealthy but corrupt hive, with high spires and little shags beyond the walls. The other was a little village in a semi-isolated valley. The former was safer than the latter, albeit both had fairly secure positions. Before he had familiarized himself with the details of the resources, he didn’t want to be anywhere he could be assaulted.

While still thinking, he noticed Suel approaching. The man immediately stopped when John looked at him. “Feel no hurry, I will take whichever of the two you don’t,” the red-eyed Lord of Pontis assured John.

“Don’t you think that’s rather risky?” John wanted to know.

“I have my ways of making myself valuable,” Suel assured with a wide smile, showing off his canines. “It will not be your damage, I assure you.”

Before John could decide anything, he needed to ask a question that was burning in his mind. “Are you a vampire?” He didn’t care if that came out of nowhere, the Gamer just wanted to know.

“Do I have a hypnotic gaze, am undead and sustain myself on the blood of other people? No,” Suel answered with a shrug. “Albeit, it is helpful if people wonder if I might be after all.”

John raised an eyebrow in an amused fashion. “I believe that,” he said and stepped onto the village in the valley. Once he was inside the golden circle, a confirmation window popped up. It had a golden rim and a grandiose font on a black background. Fundamentally more impressive than John’s simple blue windows, but if he had to look at that design all the time, he would have preferred the blue. Black text on a simple background got the point across quicker.

As announced, Suel claimed the island city. If John expanded to the coast, the two of them would essentially be neighbours. It wasn’t a large stretch either.

With his city selected, John finally got to see the menu. There were five main resources: food, manpower, money, production and science. There were also some special resources, such as wood, metal and stone, that seemed to limit what sort of bonuses he could buy. Clicking around, it all reminded him quite a bit of Civilization, just that things happened in real time, rather than turn based. There were also decisions he could take, such as probing the mountains for metals worth mining.

Finding a diplomatic tab, he realized he could send other players resources. There was no way to attach a message, though, which meant that intentions either had to be guessed or publicly shared. Knowing that, John looked down at the map. The area his village controlled was outlined with a dark blue border. It only extended to the very edge of the valley.

‘If I get some more money, I can afford some upgrades to my economy and then…’ he started making his plans, only to see a sizable wad of cash suddenly being gifted to him. Looking up, he glanced at the origin.

“A sign of the friendship between our rising nations,” Suel explained with a fluid bow that clashed with his bony built. “Let us prosper together, President Newman.”

“I suppose we can.” John smiled in response. Even if he didn’t trust what this was about yet, answering with outright hostility didn’t garner him anything at this stage. Instead, he took the money and directly invested it into his army. Building up his economy had been to the end of getting a bigger army. Unlike Civilization, it appeared there was no penalty for expanding. In other words, developing his lands may have been good, but it was better to control as much of it as he could before concentrating on it. After all, the majority of the map was, for now, nothing but uncontrolled areas.

John tapped the recruitment button and watched the money disappear. A bar appeared, counting down the seconds until the consumed resource combined with manpower to give him a standing army regiment. That army regiment would need more money to be kept up and take up manpower to replenish losses. Very simple systems that continued to overlap to create a complicated whole.

Just as John resolved what kind of justification to use to attack the village between himself and the sea, a window suddenly opened. It had a silver border and a thirty second timer at the top of it made it clear that he had to make a quick decision. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Luna standing on the rim of the map closest to him. It appeared she was manipulating the illusion to send him that popup.

John quickly read over the message. It was an event offering him a chance to use a recently revealed masterful spy in his village. He could send the person out to Suel’s village to cause mischief, keep the spy at home and catch potential miscreants or keep the spy at home and use him to raise public opinion of the Gamer’s rule. John chose the latter and new manpower flowed into his pool just before he sent his men out to die for land acquisition.

As the tiny representation of people poured out of their illusionary village, John looked up to check more of his global situation. There were two electors and Africanus nearby, sharing a peninsula and the nearby mountain range with the Gamer. On the other side of the ocean, situated at the tip of a cape, Maximillian had situated himself. A couple more electors and Eduardo separated him from Lydia, who was at the relative equator of this world, whereas John was more situated to the south.

Since he didn’t even have access to a dockyard yet, he doubted he would be able to muster any considerable naval force anytime soon. John decided to concentrate on getting an elite land army at first, best in the world if he could, and unify the peninsula. From there, he would see if he could expand eastwards and gather most of the continent and then choke out whoever he wanted by just burying them under his resources.

Sol approached, presenting him with a new event. A religious ceremony, and he was supposed to choose whether they were going to sacrifice some food and, if yes, to which deity. War or fertility, those were his choices. One boosted army performance and production of new armies, while the other increased manpower regeneration and food production. Following his current plan, he picked the army performance.