[How do you conquer a System City?]
[A System City can be conquered via three methods: Commerce Victory, Culture Victory, or Military Victory.
[Commerce Victory requires controlling 60% of the flow of Coins in and out of a System City's economy. This method is usually accomplished with the help of Merchant Professions.
[Culture Victories are separated into two paths: Favorability Victories or Prestige Victories. Favorability Victories can be done through the use of Religion or Entertainment, while Prestige Victories can be done through winning the hearts of the people by accomplishing feats through the Parliamentary Noble System or the Military System.
[Military Victories are the simplest and most straightforward. Overwhelm the power of a System City, destroy their defenses, kill their City Lord, and conquer their City Stele.]
Sylas had never expected such a response. In fact, in the history of Earth, this was information that he wouldn't be surprised if no one was aware of. And even if some were aware, they might only be aware of one of these paths and certainly not all of them.
Sylas had never expected that such a thing would be possible. All this time, he believed that there was only one method of doing things , only to realize that the System Cities weren't just ticking time bombs waiting to be exploited... but they were treasure troves.
From his understanding of the ranking system of City Steles, System Cities were already classified as Grade 1 Rudimentary Cities. Although they were just of Common Grade, given how difficult it was to upgrade a city to this level, just how beneficial would it be to conquer one?
'This is huge. Even if all I do is publish this information, how much pressure would the System Cities start feeling? They have to follow their own rules, and though there would presumably be some loopholes that they could take advantage of, it can't possibly be many. 'The cream will always float to the top, and there will certainly be those that come close and even succeed in taking over these System Cities. Although this will also mean more competition, it might be better in the long run for our planet as a whole... the less outside interference we have to deal with, the better.'
Sylas' mind was still churning before he asked another question.
[How powerful are System Cities?]
This question seemed foolish, but Sylas didn't believe so. If he thought he would get a vague answer, he wouldn't have wasted the Genes. If he was correct, there was a universal standard across System Cities.
Until now, he had met two people that he suspected to be from System Cities, and both of them were exactly Level 15. While this could be a coincidence... Sylas had been running into too many of those recently to just take anything at face value anymore.
[The power of System Cities is set by a metric of the average strength of a Summon World. [The City Lord will be capped at 10 levels above the highest level on the Summoned World, their 10 Generals will be 2 levels beneath them. There will be exactly 10,000 soldiers and guards who have varied levels between the highest level of the world and 5 levels beneath.
[The strength that the City Lord can gather within the city is capped by the Grade of the world. A System City in a Bronze Potential world will be a Bronze Grade threat while within the System City.]
It was a lot of information, but Sylas saw through the crux of it in an instant. Wasn't the Arctic Emperor Cobra still in the process of evolving to become a Bronze Grade threat? But if Earth was a Bronze World, then did that mean that the City Lord was already not only far beyond the Arctic Emperor Cobra in level but also beyond it in talent and relative strength?
Sylas' next question was obviously what the potential of Earth was, and he once again received a solid answer.
[What is the Grade of Earth?]
[Earth is rated as a Grade 10 Bronze World.]
Sylas came to a stop and took a breath.
He couldn't defeat even a fake Bronze threat at Level 12. The City Lord of this System City would be at least Level 30, more than double the Level.
The Military option was simply not the path. He didn't have the patience for the Commerce option or the Favorability option. Was the only way the Military path?
Of course, this was a different military path than what was mentioned at first. This one would fall beneath the Culture Victory path and it would require him to join the System City's military rather than fight against it.
But this path seemed to be extremely difficult as well. If the City Lord was so powerful, then how could he possibly gain enough military achievements to rise? And wasn't a military filled with strict discipline and laws? If he joined, would he be stuck in the city? That was unacceptable to him.
If that was the case, it might be best to just hold off on finding a way to deal with them for
'I make 10,000 F Coins a day now. How much cash flow could a System City have? How much would putting my own weight behind it shift things...?'
In the end, Sylas ended up putting his plans to raid villages on hold for the moment as he continued to ask the Madness Key questions, wasting more Genes on it today than he maybe ever had in a single sitting before.
The more questions he asked, the brighter Sylas' gaze became. After a long while, he changed his direction and headed right to the System City.
It wasn't long before his feet were squishing around in the heavily watered soil of the Amazonian Wilds.
There was a long line to enter the city, and as disheveled as he looked, Sylas seemed to fit
But to the astonishment of everyone who had grown fully used to the strict, unbendable rules
Sylas actually broke one of them right away.