With his phone to his ear, Daz attentively listened to his sister's words.

"So, obviously, Grandmother is a descendant of Korea's most powerful living esper bloodline, the Ho bloodline. That family has been around even longer than the Hamilio one but I don't have any specifics since while, yes, espers have been recording their history for thousands and thousands of years - long before the concept of recording history was even founded by Herodotus who I suspect to have been an esper himself. Anyway, got off topic there, the esper families squirrel their own knowledge away like hoarders," Rose said.

Daz nodded as he stayed silent and continued to listen.

"If you want more knowledge of the Ho bloodline you'll have to get it from the ancestral home, wherever the fuck that is. Old world internet only had so much info on espers and the system has even less, oddly enough," Rose claimed.

"Language. We may be continents apart, little lady but it would take me less than 5-minutes to go to Guishan Island and teleport back home to flick your forehead," Daz warned.

"Fucking try me," Rose snapped before Daz heard her whispering into her phone's microphone. "I've been with Vanessa for over an hour and it's driving me mad. Put up with me a little bit, would you?"

Daz sighed. "You should really just confess. Even if she rejects you, so long as you work against it things won't get awkward and you'll have planted the idea of romance in her mind. Who knows? Maybe the gods smile on you and she's a lesbian too? For all you know she might just say yes and ask you to wait a few years for you both to grow up a bit."

"You're an idiot, both you and Maddy. Anyway, Grandmother, yes?" Rose asked impatiently, clearly keen to switch topics.

'You're the one who brought it up...' Daz shook his head. "Yes, Grandmother. Do you know anything about her strength or her motives? How did you convince her to try to ally with me when possible and should I be on high alert when I meet her?"

"First question, her weapon was originally a pen since she was doing paperwork when the apocalypse struck but she has since acquired and used a class change token - I don't know how. Her weapon is now a Jang Chang which is pretty much just a long spear. As for her motives, I don't know if she has hidden ones but she's likely motivated by the desire to keep me happy so I don't screw her over," Rose explained.

"Second question, I revealed to her that our grandfather, Lorenzo Hamilio is still alive despite her presumed successful assassination of him. She tried to kill him 21-years-ago and he apparently went along with it. I only know he's still kicking thanks to some very deep digging through the old military networks I could get my hands on with a bit of help from my guessing skill and the system," Rose said.

"Final question, yes, be cautious. She claims to hate the Hamilios just like you do but as far as I know that hatred could extend to both you and me. Use her, don't trust her," Rose said a bit too coldly for Daz's liking.

'Is that what I sound like most of the time? It certainly is unsettling,' Daz thought as he nodded. "Thanks, Rose. I really appreciate you helping me like this despite it being so late over there."

Daz could practically hear the shrug coming from a lack of care through the phone as Rose replied, "Eh, it's fine. By the way, what kind of agreement did you reach with the local champions? Also, any interesting champions? I never did get enough time or resources to investigate them too deeply."

"Eh, champion of bows here, champion of bubblegum there, nothing too strange or powerful. All champions of lesser gods. I had a meeting with them last night at around seven o'clock. I asked them to work under me and help me unify Taiwan under my kingdom. I put it more eloquently and I'm sure my skills made it sound more convincing but regardless, four of the six champions agreed, the other two don't seem to be fans of democracy ironically enough and challenged me to combat to prove my worth. Smart, honestly, since they were painfully aware that they wouldn't be able to gain control any other way," Daz detailed.

Rose hmmed loud enough for Daz to picture the girl tapping her chin in thought. "Smart but dumb. It would take an army of champions to defeat you realistically assuming you weren't pulling your punches."

"What's this I hear? Could it be... No, that's impossible. A compliment from the one and only Rose of New Earth? My ears must be malfunctioning," Daz said in a particularly dry and sarcastic tone.

"Ha-ah... You can be insufferable at the best of times, Daz," Rose claimed. "Anyway, did you really just wait, what, 19-hours to call me?"

"Yes, I did. It was five in the morning for you when I was done so I instead spent the day training my internal energy," Daz stated.

"Oh? How's that going?" Rose asked curiously.

Daz smiled faintly, happy to have his sister's interest. "I don't know. I need to talk to you and Maddy in depth when I get back to determine if I'm doing well, okay or poorly. For now though progress feels good."

"Okay, well, I should probably go. Uh, t-thanks for calling me..." Rose stuttered.

Daz could sense the cheeks of his precious little sister turning red and that made him happy. "You're welcome, Rose. Talk to you soon."

A second later the call had been disconnected. "Well, training overview then the conquest of southern Taiwan, I think," Daz decided as he pulled up his internal energy tracker.

Daz's Internal Energy Amount 0.31/0.53 [+0.06]

"It really is confusing... Is gaining a hundredth of a point in 2-hours of training good?" Daz asked himself.

Regardless, he moved away from that topic mentally since thinking on it any further would be a waste of time right now. Summoning the Yaoguai and using it to travel a bit further down Taiwan's eastern coast, he found himself in Hualien City.

"System, are there any survivors here and does this city have an owner?" Daz asked.

Confirmed. [Hualien City] is host to 603 surviving [Earthians]. It currently has no official owner.

"Lovely. And how many merit points would it cost for me to buy this heap of rubble?" Daz questioned.

Confirmed. As [Hualien City] is an [F-rank Small] city, it would cost the host 100,000 merit points to become its owner.

Daz nodded. "Buy it and yes, I confirm the purchase."

Confirmed. The total merit balance of the host is now: 420,176,261 [-100,000].

"Lovely, now, let's find my new citizens and tell them about me and New Earth, shall I?" Daz asked himself rhetorically.

Confirmed. The ownership of Taichung City has successfully been transferred to [Daz].

"Thank you, Mister Lin," Daz said in a genuine tone. "I know it can't have been easy to give away your city like that to a strange foreigner."

The slightly overweight man with a little boy by his side and his smiling wife in his arms laughed. "Please, a foreigner? It's like you said, we're all from Earth. Honestly, with how you phrased it, the 100,000 merit point incentive and the promise to help us all clear our semester goals... It wasn't a choice at all."

"I really do hope you didn't feel pressured into making a decision to join my kingdom due to my personal strength," Daz said.

"No, of course not. The thought had crossed my mind but you seem like a stand-up young gentleman. You speak the local language, you showed me and my family respect and you listened to my thoughts and opinions. Hell, you even offered for me to be the mayor here again once Taiwan has had time to rebuild and heal. It'd be pretty rude of me to spit in the face of such sincerity," Mister Lin happily replied.

His wife nodded. "You being as strong as you are is only a benefit to us, isn't it? This system is a terrifying thing so we need younger folk like yourself to protect us common people, now don't we?"

Daz smiled. "And I'll do just that. Some of my soldiers will be coming by tomorrow to escort you to Yilan City and log your personal information to officialise your New Earthian citizenship. There aren't any immediate threats here, are there? Like groups of monstrous beasts or maybe... what's the best word... bandits?"

Mister Lin shook his head. "Oh, no. A few rogue monsters, yes, but we can handle them. We didn't make it this far on luck and leeching alone, haha."

Daz nodded. "I doubt very many have. Well, until we next meet, Mister Lin, Misses Lin," he leaned down and rubbed their child's head, "Young Master Lin."

The boy giggled and looked proud to be called a young master. With that done, Daz looked at the stars creeping into view overhead.

He made one last farewell to the family of three and then returned to the Yaoguai. "Bring me back to Yilan City."

"No problem," the beast answered as it allowed him to sit on its head.

'Such an impressive monster, this Yaoguai. We've been running all over the country at about 100mph but it isn't tired at all... Is it more physically capable as well as more intelligent than your usual leader-class monster?' Daz wondered as he said, "System, show me what I own in Taiwan, please."

Confirmed. Displaying desired information. [King Daz]'s owned land in the country of [Taiwan]

Percentage of local citizens ruled by the host: 37%

Owned Cities

Yilan City Number of Citizens: 57 Hualien City Number of Citizens: 603 Taitung City Number of Citizens: 523 Kaohsiung City Number of Citizens: 76 Tainan City Number of Citizens: 309 Chiayi City Number of Citizens: 244 Douliu City Number of Citizens: 98 Nantou City Number of Citizens: 580 Taichung City Number of Citizens: 1,038

'57 in Yilan City? I know me and my people don't count so that means my men have been doing as ordered... They managed to find 57 in the surrounding county so far... Such a low number. It's clear to see what kind of impact the Yaoguai had on the survivors there before I arrived...' Daz thought as he stroked his chin in thought.

'37% isn't the majority? I was kind of hoping it would be enough to trigger the dispute stage... It would be easier if all of the other wannabe-rulers came to me instead of me coming to them... Oh well, at least no one was controlling Taiwan when I first came here,' Daz thanked no one in particular for that internally.

'What are my merit points looking like if you wouldn't mind showing me, system?' he requested.

Confirmed. The total merit balance of the host is now: 418,676,261 [-1,500,000].

He nodded. 'Checks out. 5 F-ranked small cities at 100,000 and 2 F-ranked below average cities at 500,000 each. These instincts warning me are annoying. The me in the vision seemed fine with the massive fine, fee, or whatever the hell else that was. I haven't altered the future yet so if they could be a bit more perceptive and realise that I've changed nothing, that would be ideal,' Daz complained internally followed by exhaling an annoyed sigh.

He tapped his fingers against his knee for a few seconds as he thought, 'Only 3,528 people make up 37% of Taiwan's remaining population... Less than 10,000 people total... How... unfortunate.'

He cracked his neck and stretched his back. "Well, I should see about gaining control of the counties instead of just the cities and stabilising that control before I expand to the northern cities," Daz decided verbally.

he then closed his eyes and began meditating on the Ember of Majesty since he could see that being of great help with his diplomatic annexation efforts.