Ignoring the sudden change in the attitude of the fairy, Liam first decided to focus on the after-effects of the war. There were no specific monetary rewards for winning the war, but there was a territory acquisition.
Liam did not know how this worked. In his past life, the guilds were too busy dying left and right to focus on these things, and if there were indeed any guild wars, he was in no position to pay attention to those.
<Ding>
He opened the guild system interface to take a look at exactly what territory they had acquired. Immediately, a map of China or, rather, most of Asia flashed in front of him.
On that map, surprisingly, there were no demarcations of the current countries. It was not even the boundary that defined the Asia continent.
It was a weird split somewhere in between, as if the Eurasia border had been moved a few units to the right, including only a part of Russia and not all of it.
Liam tried to observe it closely to see what countries had been included and excluded, but without a labelled world map in his hand, he was going nowhere.
He had barely stepped out of his district, let alone his country. His geography knowledge in school was also not that great. So he decided not to worry about the details.
His gaze glossed over the specifics and tried to look at the bigger picture. “Oh!” He noticed that there was an option on the side. “Does this magnify or extend the view?” He thought out loud as he clicked the marker.
Immediately, the map of the entire world flashed in front of him. However, it was not the world that he knew of!
Liam looked up at Tilia, stunned for a second, as this was the first time he was seeing something like this. The map of the world had completely changed!
Instead of the previous countries and continents, now there were 7 distinct chunks of landmasses, not just distinctly labelled but also physically separate. Liam’s geography knowledge was at least this much to notice these obvious changes.
The entirety of North America had drifted away from South America. In the same manner, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Greenland, all the land masses had now moved far from each other, with the vast expanse of oceanic waters splitting them apart.
And instead of the nomenclature typically used to demarcate these landmasses, they were now labelled as territories 1 to 7.
With territory 1 being North America, 2 being South America, 3 being Greenland, 4 being Europe with parts of Russia, 5 being Africa, 6 being the rest of Asia, and lastly, 7 being Australia.
Only these 7 landmasses now existed in the whole world, and the smaller islands were all now merged with these huge land masses. The entire landscape of the planet had changed.
“How is this possible?” Liam silently mumbled to himself.
“Mr Liam, there is no need to be surprised or shocked about this sort of occurrence. Since mana was introduced to the world only recently, it is common for these kinds of geographical adjustments to ensure equilibrium and balance.”
“Hmmm?” Liam was amused by the fairy’s helpful attitude. She was even explaining things on her own initiative. “Then are there worlds in which mana is already prevalent?” Liam asked, making use of this chance.
However, this time the fairy shook her head with a smile. “I am sorry, Mr Liam. I am afraid I am unable to answer that question.”
Liam expected as much, so he did not press the issue any further. He returned to focus on the map flashing on the system interface. He touched territory 6, which was currently the territory they were residing in.
The map once again zoomed in to magnify the landmass, but that was the extent of the details available. There were no other labels or anything. What was this even good for?
“Hmmm…” Liam frowned.
“Mr Liam, you can further magnify the map.” Tilia reminded him.
“Oh?” Only after she hinted, Liam observed the map more closely and scanned the thing from top to bottom. He finally saw the small dot that was very easy to miss otherwise.
In fact, there were two of these dots on the map.
And when he clicked one, it immediately became bigger and revealed the name ‘Crimson Abyss’.
So the other one was…
Liam clicked the second dot, which also became bigger but showed the name ‘Messengers of God’ instead.
<Ding. You are now able to access this zone>
<Ding. Do you wish to annex this with the current Crimson Abyss territory? Yes/No?>
Liam hummed as he looked at the fairy again, wondering if she had any more wise words to add, but Tilia simply smiled.
“Fine. Looks straightforward enough.”
Liam clicked ‘Yes’, and immediately the name of that small area changed to ‘Crimson Abyss’ as well.
“What the hell is this?”
“So, are we being encouraged to fight each other and expand our guild territories?”
Tilia blinked, flashing her long lashes.
“Isn’t that quite convenient?” Liam did not look amused. “Instead of focusing on the dangers around us and this new world, we should be fighting and killing each other and wasting our time?”
Tilia helplessly smiled again, but she did not say anything. It looked like this was another topic she wouldn’t be able to comment on.
“Well, whatever.” Liam sighed and closed the interface. Perhaps someone else would be interested in this sort of conquest feature, but he couldn’t care less about it.
In another two to three weeks’ time, everything was once again going to change. So worrying over these territories was a waste of time at the moment. Survival came first.
He was just about to close the guild interface and leave the shop when the fairy hesitantly spoke up. “Mr Liam, I apologize that I was not able to help you a lot today, but at this time, I would like to remind you of a special offer.”
“For another hundred million mana cores down payment, you will be able to set up a safe zone for your guild members.”
