Global Lords: My Territory Heart Is a World Tree

Chapter 354: Chapter 1: Changes in the Territory

Even the less capable individuals actively enrolled in schools during the territory’s novice protection period, studying hard to catch up with its cultural standards.

A few geniuses even emerged from this group, completing their secondary education in just a year or two before entering the Spiritual Power and Comprehensive Science College. In the future, they were certain to join various research centers and conduct scientific research.

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Besides its increased size, the territory underwent another extremely significant change: one of its rules was altered.

In the past, due to the authority of the Natural Sovereign, all plants and animals automatically belonged to the territory.

Initially, to increase the territory’s military strength, Lin Yu decreed that no animals belonging to the territory could attack one another. This rule didn’t just cover birds and beasts, but even flying insects and fish.

Later, the territory gained a legendary-grade building—the "Beast’s Nest." Birds and beasts became the second type of recruitable subject after the sprites. With the addition of the territory’s "Yao" attribute, the potential of these creatures soared, so the rule remained unchanged.

The first stage of the competition was very short, so Lin Yu didn’t notice anything amiss. He actually felt his decision was perfectly sound; otherwise, the final monster siege would have been a much harder fight.

After the eight years of the second stage, Lin Yu noticed something was slightly off in the territory. However, he simply attributed it to the carnivores being forced to eat plants. The second stage was incredibly busy, and the territory was vast and sparsely populated, so he didn’t give it much thought.

However, during this four-year period of recuperation, Lin Yu’s clone remained in a state of deep fusion with the World Tree, allowing him to constantly observe the entire territory. By watching its development, he discovered several sources of disharmony.

Since the inhabitants of the territory were forbidden from attacking one another, herbivores could eat and reproduce without restraint. Combined with the excellent living conditions, the infant mortality rate for animals plummeted.

The populations of these herbivores—creatures that were at the bottom of the food chain and typically relied on high birth rates to sustain their numbers—began to grow at an incredible rate.

Carnivores, on the other hand, could only sate their hunger with the Meat Fruits from the territory’s resource tree—the Hundred Flavor Meat Fruit Tree. They occasionally even had to resort to eating grass and leaves. Their survival depended entirely on the territory’s provisions. And while their basic needs were met, their reproduction rate was far outpaced by that of the herbivores.

(Regardless, carnivores were not willing to eat grass by choice. That eight-year, grass-eating phase had already become a legendary tale, widely circulated among the territory’s predators. They all knew of this difficult period in their history and the perseverance of the older generation of carnivores who endured it.)

Previously, the territory had abundant Spiritual Energy, allowing plants to grow at an extremely fast rate, so the burgeoning herbivore population wasn’t a concern.

But this time, by the end of the second stage and before Lin Yu’s return to Cuiwei Star, the territory’s Spiritual Energy was nearly depleted. Lacking this energy, the growth rate of the local plants slowed to a crawl.

Yet, the herbivores (including various plant-eating insects) continued to consume vegetation without restraint, causing the inner circle of the territory to be stripped so bare it nearly became a desert.

A territory with the World Tree at its core had nearly turned into a desert. If word got out, it would be a complete joke.

Thus, Lin Yu took the rare step of using his clone to meet with the territory’s high-level administrators. They held a meeting to discuss countermeasures.

After that meeting, the policy forbidding mutual attacks and the rule allowing herbivores to eat freely were both changed.

First, the entire inner circle (the area within the innermost defensive perimeter) was designated an absolute safe zone. All subjects were forbidden from harming territorial assets or other subjects. This meant the plants in the inner circle could be looked at, but not eaten.

The plants in the inner circle would be managed by the Landscape Planning Bureau, which was under the Urban Construction Planning Bureau. The plant-folk could no longer take root and rest wherever they pleased within the inner circle; they had to go to designated gardens.

If herbivores wanted to eat plants, they had three options: leave the inner circle and find food for themselves in the middle circle (between the middle and outer defensive lines) or the outer circle (outside the outer defensive line); use Spirit Coins issued by the territory to purchase food; or manage their consumption and rationally portion the food resources allotted to them by the territory instead of gorging themselves.

(Spirit Coin: A currency created by the territory using man-made, low-grade Spiritual Crystals.)

The inner circle also gained an entry requirement. No subjects were allowed inside except for permitted groups, such as students attending schools, staff required for work, heroes, researchers, scholars, and soldiers.

The secondary circle (between the middle and inner defensive lines) was designated a relatively safe area. It contained the settlements for every race (with the Insect Race being divided by major classifications). As long as individuals remained within their own race’s settlement, they were protected from harm by other races. There were also public recreational areas that were designated safe zones.

Anyone who entered the settlement of another race would no longer be under the territory’s protection, and injury from conflict would be inevitable.

However, territorial law still applied in this area, and police stations were established in every settlement. Harming another subject without just cause would still be met with punishment from the territory.

A multi-racial society was thus constructed in the secondary circle.

(Similar to Zootopia.)

The middle circle (between the middle and outer defensive lines) was designated a limited-competition zone. It was partitioned into countless regions of varying sizes.

Within each of these regions, under normal circumstances, herbivores were allowed to forage freely, and carnivores were permitted to hunt (but only enough to fill their stomachs).

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