Global Lords: Building the Strongest Civilization with SSS Rank Talent

The cascade of glitching pixels sparked to life right beside the Red's mannequin. The system struggled to render the missing variable within the perfect spatial geometry, resulting in a localized error.

A burst of static dissolved into a corrupted audio playback.

The sanctuary echoed with the ambient noise of a high school reunion. The clinking of glasses and overlapping chatter filled the digital space. Rubedo listened to his own voice from a decade ago.

"You have barely touched your drink," the recorded voice of the younger Rubedo said over the noise. "The music they chose for this event is terrible. We can leave early if you want."

A female voice replied with a clear, comfortable tone. "I actually like the music. It reminds me of that arcade we went to last month. Besides, you promised me we would stay for the entire night."

"I only promised we would show up so I could prove I actually exist to these people," the younger Rubedo countered with a hint of amusement. "You are the one who insisted on dressing up."

The girl laughed. The sound carried a genuine warmth. "You look good in a suit, Red. Even though it's old and worn out. Just relax and enjoy the free catering."

Rubedo narrowed his eyes and listened from his throne. The conversation flowed with familiarity. They clearly spent significant time together on Earth, sharing a mundane life filled with arcades and inside jokes. He had brought this mysterious entity to the party as a genuine companion.

The ambient noise of the recorded party suddenly distorted. A violent crack echoed through the audio feed as the Royal Mage initiated the summoning spell. Panic erupted in the background.

"What is happening to the floor?" the younger Rubedo yelled over the chaos. "Hold my hand!"

"Red, let go," the girl instructed calmly.

"I have you!"

"Let go," she repeated with absolute finality. "I am staying here."

The audio feed cut out with a harsh screech. The glitching pixels snapped together and consolidated into a faceless silhouette composed entirely of white static.

The anomaly abandoned the recorded sequence of the 2024 banquet hall. It turned its head and looked directly at Rubedo, shattering the limitations of the physical simulation.

The static figure stood completely still among the stone mannequins.

"It is too soon for us to meet," the girl's synthetic voice echoed directly into the sanctuary.

The simulation violently crashed. The simulated drywall, the banquet tables, and the stone mannequins evaporated into a blinding flash of corrupted code. The physical recreation of the room shattered completely, leaving Rubedo sitting in the center of his empty obsidian domain.

Sylara gripped the armrests of her wooden throne on the video feed. Gorr stared at the screen in complete disbelief.

Rubedo lowered his hands and stared at the empty space where the anomaly had just stood. The mascot had allowed him to be taken while purposefully remaining behind in Miami.

As Rubedo was sitting on his throne inside the orbital sanctuary. A massive system notification flashed across his crystal console. Project Civilization had just deployed a mandatory global update.

"Why is this only happening now?"

He opened the digital patch notes. The game engine had detected the total elimination of the natives and registered a massive void in server conflict.

To compensate for the Vanguard's victory, the system triggered an automated balancing event. The parameters dictated a continuous, worldwide cataclysm designed to keep the surviving factions occupied for a full decade.

"Oh… so this is an automated thing that happens after a new god takes over a continent ruled by another god."

Rubedo observed the timeline parameters and immediately calculated the time dilation. Ten in-game years equaled exactly one month of real-world time.

'I was just a casual gamer and only played single player games which were a few years old and on sale at cheap price. But I did play a few live-service games since they were free. Every update brought new events, and they also lasted about a month or forty days, so I guess this is it. For them it's one month, for us… it's a decade.'

That was a nice way to pass time while the Earthling teenagers took their final school exams in the year 2077.

Secondary screens flickered to life across his console. Video feeds from the mortal plane displayed the immediate ground-level effects of the update. Spatial tears randomly manifested across the Vanguard's conquered continents.

Peaceful open fields fractured into massive subterranean craters. Swarms of low-tier systemic anomalies crawled out of the newly formed rifts to test the Vanguard's defenses.

Rubedo recognized the creatures immediately as procedurally generated dungeon mobs.

He established a secure communication channel connecting his throne to both the divine rings and the Tarnstead palace. Gorr and Sylara appeared on the upper monitors. Down in the mortal plane, Syra and Gulag dropped to one knee in the Tarnstead receiving hall.

"The system has initiated a global balancing event," Rubedo announced. "The game engine expects this cataclysm to tie up our resources for ten years. We will dismantle the entire event in under a year."

Gorr rested her spectral pickaxe against her shoulder. "Will you initiate a descent to seal the rifts? It shouldn't take long."

"Absolutely no divine descents," Rubedo ordered. "Sylara, remain in your domains. The ground forces require this experience."

"I wasn't going to descend anyway," Sylara responded.

He shifted his gaze to the Tarnstead commanders. "Deploy the Vanguard armies across all affected regions. These rifts are a localized resource. Handle the outbreaks manually and use these dungeon monsters to level up your troops."

"Understood, Sovereign," Syra responded. She climbed to her feet and drew her weapon. "We will march on the craters immediately."

"There is also an issue of me triggering an anomaly if I descend into Krug again," Rubedo muttered to himself. "As long as I am a god, the game-engine can't affect me, but the moment I descend, it thinks of me as an NPC, and the game-engine can bind me. Or worse… might even delete me."

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