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Seeing her power increase and a new magical sword that could shoot light blue crescents out of its edge, the villagers were frightened, but soon wanted that same power. Human nature ensured that.
Matt was proud of them, as through trial and testing, they learned of the rift instances and the need to send in people after the fifteen-minute window. It took them longer still to learn how to deal with the enemies inside the rift without getting injured. After the first day, they discovered that if they delved the rift and killed the monsters inside its depths, they didn’t have rift breaks.
It took time, but they learned.
Abby was one of the first ten people on the planet to reach Tier 2, and the power difference was stark to anyone who knew her. Essence, even without the ten compressions Matt did between Tiers, and her not directing it consciously, was a force multiplier unlike any other.
She was strong enough to be a god to the Tier 0’s in the surrounding villages.
That same strength was also what attracted the attention of the local nobility.
The noble family had heard of the village’s changes and power and sought to suppress them. They called Abby to them under the guise of trying to fix the monsters but intended to surround and kill her.
Except, they weren’t ready for a woman armed with a Tier 5 sword that had enchanted skill, who could also shoot [Fireball]’s out of her hands.
It was a slaughter, and only a few of the smart ones were able to run away.
After that, Abby stood on a roof and shouted to everyone in the town who could hear her what she had learned about rifts and monsters.
It was then that Matt got two new events. One was for Abby and the other for the town.
The first one was about how the town would react to Abby’s information. It was an easy decision for Matt to spend the tiny amount of Genesis Energy to have them react in a favorable way.
He then set up a couple new rifts to spawn in the next few days, but that was second to Abby’s own choice.
It seemed that she was conflicted on what to do. Beyond her brave exterior, she was as confused and scared as anyone in her situation would be.
Still, she saw the way the world was heading, and had the choice on whether to go to her country’s capital, or whether to stay and protect the people around her.
Matt saw that neither option had a Genesis Energy cost and had to pause to reflect. Why would he be given the option to choose for her when it cost nothing. That wasn’t how any of the other events had worked after all.
He gamed out what each event would lead to, and eventually chose for her to remain behind. He didn’t see how the rulers of the county would take an actual cultivator telling them how to do things. If the woman was Tier 5, he wouldn’t worry, but at Tier 2, enough Tier 0s could kill her, and he was growing attached to the determined woman.
Matt felt responsible for her after interfering with her life.
To his surprise, she ended up writing a letter to the rulers of the country and sent it along with one of the local noble’s servants. Well, she had the letter written, as she was an illiterate peasant before the rift breaks, and a few days of monster killing hadn’t changed that.
Seeing that all was going well, he created a new Tier 2 rift with Horned Wolves and zoomed back out to watch the larger picture.
Over the first months of the simulation, the four of them were busy putting out and preventing metaphorical fires. Liz and Aster had it the hardest, as they had to corral the four superpowers to keep them from attacking each other, their vassals, or exploding from civil war.
Thankfully, the ever-expanding threat of rifts and rift monsters was enough to force them to focus on their own problems.
The first week turned into a month, then a year.
Heroes had risen, and they were the ones advancing the fastest. Abby was still among them, and as the planet was pushed to Tier 5, she was one of the five strongest people.
In the simulation, the planet didn’t take time to advance as they would in the real world. As soon as they spawned or upgraded ten or more rifts, the planet advanced to that Tier as well.
It was a good thing for the people, and it was how the strongest of people quickly rose to prominence. They were mostly people with some of the more noticeable Talents. Things like Innate [Fire Manipulation] or other immediately useful skills or abilities gave them enough of an advantage to shoot ahead of the pack.
Still, there were no super crazy Talents from a planet with barely 50 million people.
With their lacking technology, they were limited by their communication, but the news of strong new rifts appearing with monsters even more powerful than before spread, and those who led the pack in advancement were the first to arrive and pacify the situation.
They started to speed up the simulation as the first hour of real-time ended. Five minutes after that, they were through the first year, and the people in the simulation started to adapt and learn.
With their help, the planet advanced. There were problems and events, but with their guidance, the people of Simeyer adapted to their new world.
After the first decade, when they had advanced the planet to Tier 5 properly, things were mostly hands off. The population had stabilized, and rifts now followed the same rules they did in the outside world.
People started to learn about advancement and how to differentiate between a mage and a melee fighter. With that, they started to categorize and note rifts that dropped skills.
It took a little longer for the crafts to catch up, but eventually, as the general citizenry started to learn how to advance by being carried through rifts or cultivating ambient essence, they started to discover how to work higher Tier metals. That led to the discovery of how to enchant weapons and gear, which was a game changer for the planet as a whole.
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