Scott rubbed his face a little. Did he actually want to do this? From birth he had been ingrained with the need to be patriotic to the US. It was his homeland. It had its problems, but at the end of the day he did not want to be its enemy.

He stared at the message screen for a moment. Logically, all the current nations would fall. Giant empires would be impossible to maintain. Even local life was difficult to maintain. The end of the old world was coming.

In the end, it came down to a decision. Did he create a place that could allow people to be safe, but in the process become a traitor? Did he try to work within the system as it currently stood and only begin to expand aggressively after the nation falls?

Treason. Most people in his position, he was certain, would not have batted an eyelash. Given how the legal system had treated him, he even had reason to dislike the nation. Yet, it was not the US government he was concerned about. If he engaged in treason, he would be made an enemy of the nation. He would have to expand solely through annexation. The US would undoubtedly send soldiers if he advanced too fast. They would not receive a notification at the moment, but at some point word would reach the right ears and he would be forced to defend his new country against his former countrymen.

Soldiers. American soldiers might die under his hand.

“Might?” he asked himself with a snort. “No… I do this and every red-blooded American man in the country will be howling for my blood the moment it is found out.”

People whose only crime would be that they wanted to defend the integrity and structure of their homeland would die. There was no guarantee that he could terrify them all away, not with items like the one he retrieved from the colonel in his pocket. Once stats become available to the general populace, something he figured to be about to happen any time now, they would be able to come for him.

“Dammit…” It was a terrible decision. He could save some people, but it would be at the expense of others. No matter what he did, he could not save everyone.

The burden of leadership was upon him. Lives would be in his hand. The easiest thing to do would be to back out and try to buy a place somewhere. He could live within the system until he had the chance to be free of it.

If he did that, though, many innocent people who might have survived would die long before the nation fell on its own. In the end, it was a decision to either lance the infected wound now to save more of the afflicted, or let things run their course and be forced to amputate the diseased limb later.

Who lived? Who died? Did he even truly have the strength to lay claim to such decisions? On his own he was stronger than most, if not all, of the normal citizens of Earth. He was certain of it. Yet, when the end came there was a strong possibility that he would face armies of the status quo and the people who came after him would not be weak.

He had many great advantages, but he was not foolish enough to think himself invincible. He needed more than personal power and a handful of powerful friends.

“If I do this… I can expand as I see fit, but I will lack the resources to hold anything for long,” he mumbled.

There were many concerns. Ultimately, he set his eyes on the message screen that hovered before him. This was a chance to build something that might last. In the days to come there would be a lot of strife and turmoil. The local leadership, well-meaning and otherwise, could not protect the populace.

No matter the difficulties that would be faced, he had to move forward. The old world was like a headless serpent, it was dead but its body continued to writhe around in an imitation of life. Worse. The people who could have done something, the so-called gods, were trying to make a game out of the whole thing instead. At least, that was what his fragmented and intermittent memories told him in that moment. His mind was a fractured enigma, but he was certain of one thing. The world was going to fall into a chaotic mess within the year. Old loyalties and a lifetime of patriotic propaganda could not dictate what must happen.

Scott confirmed his decision and the message screen disappeared. A blaring siren erupted in the background even as the light of day dulled due to the sudden onset to a dark bloody red mist that beset the place. A startling blue message screen appeared in the crimson gloom.

Prepare for War!

You are attempting to lay claim to sovereign territory. Please indicate the entire region that you wish to claim. A defender of the land will arise, along with the army that shall defend it!

A map of the region appeared before him. Three dimensional with summarized details, it showed the entirety of the county. Next to it there was a number that represented the threat level. An attempt to claim the entire county would be deemed threat level four. A brief summary explained that several thousand enemy combatants would appear, and all would be equal or greater than his current level. Threat level was granted in accordance with his current force capacity. Since he would be facing an army of monsters solo, the threat levels were quite a bit higher.

While that admission said nothing about their stats and skills, the likelihood would be that they would be well armed at least. Scott did not have the power to claim the entire county, at least he could not claim it and hold it. Anyone could walk into his territory and try to claim it for themselves once it is declared. He would need to defend it, and frankly he would have to sleep some time or other.

In the end, he settled for a piece of land approximately three acres in diameter with the warehouse at the center. That was more land than the buildings sat on, and it was out of the way so few would bother it early on. He could always try to annex more property for his nation in the future.

Choice made; the threat level dropped to two. No more than a few hundred enemies would attack, and they would come in five waves.