Chapter 470: By Me
Sylas took a moment to recalibrate himself. The beasts around him were still in a slight state of confusion, many not having completely woken up from the suggestion of the Clypsians.
His breathing slowly settled down and he stopped his thoughts from racing.
Trying to control every variable when he wasn't even aware of how many there were to begin with was foolish. He wanted to be the King of the chess board when he didn't even know how many pawns there were, or if he was a pawn himself.
As much as it seemed like things going awry weren't his fault, Sylas didn't believe it. In fact, even if every variable was out of his control, he would still self-reflect like this.
All of this started only because he chose to try to press the issue and deal with Orciulius City as quickly as possible. However, he should have known that opening up such a gate would lead to trouble. Now, he was facing off against a high-ranked General with the backing of a government, and the variable he had hoped to rely on to turn the tides had just vanished.
He should have waited for a better opportunity, or maybe he could have set up a Planar Convergence Gate somewhere else so he could check the situation on the other side first before making a decision.
The reason he didn't was because he was too greedy. He knew that he would need to use at least two of his three attempts to set one up in the middle of the city. If he also used one to check the situation on the other side, he would be all out of attempts.
But in a world like this one, could he afford to save up his trump cards like this? Now, because he had entered this situation blind, he was stuck.
Should he return to the city, take control, and then hope for a points victory? Should he turn back and try to kill his way to General Song and at least save the Basilisk King should he fail?
Not even an hour had passed through the ten-day limit, but for some reason, he felt like he had hit a dead end.
Sylas closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.
<Maddened Enlightenment> circulated and his mind reached an unprecedented state of focus.
This was the line he was looking for.
When it came to his body, he always chose to save or bet on future potential. He chose the Dual Class Constitution over having an immediate Legendary Path Class; he chose Gene Crystals when he could have had a boost to his Gene State; he chose an upgradeable Title when he could have gotten an immediate one...
Every step of the way, he was biding his time for the future, knowing that unless he could reach a Level where even the Clypsians and Dogons were like ants before him, then he would just end up in the same exact situation as they had...
A loser who was under the control of another.
However, this time, he had gone too far.
Betting on the future for his body was fine. But if he was going into a dangerous situation like this one while holding back, it would come back to bite him exactly like this.
He would never do this again.
Sylas looked back through the sea of beasts and soldiers, meeting the Basilisk King's eyes. The two didn't exchange any words, and they were too far apart for their minds to connect, but nothing needed to be said.
With a leap, Sylas continued forward, plowing a path to the wall and making it to the portal before vanishing inside.
...
One would have expected Sylas to come back to weapons drawn, only to be surrounded once again. After all, he had been exposed as the third party hidden in the shadows.
However, this wasn't the case.
That was because once City Lord Orciulius died, the army of Orciulius City no longer had a Leader and as such, they had no connection remaining to the Quicktime Event. That meant that until a new leader of the System City was appointed, they wouldn't be able to point Sylas out.
Sylas had guessed this would happen, which was why he made the effort to return like he did... Thanks to the Quicktime Event and the death of Rolland, he had gathered all the Hero Points he needed to be promoted right to Duke. And that was precisely what he needed right now. He made his way through the battlefield and directly left to the encampment.
[Hero Points: 2,621,327]
The point system for the Quicktime Event was directly translated to Hero Points. This wasn't much of a surprise considering the title of the Event. After all, it was a fight for control over the System City, and there was nothing more important than Hero Points.
Sylas had originally planned on dealing with everything in one go, but he suppressed his ego and realized that as fun as it was to bulldoze his way through everything and make off-the- cuff plans, that sort of approach in the long term would get him killed.
He had three days before the system's suppression on the Sylphs and their allies was lifted, and there were still two other System Cities in this Territory.
He had to take a much slower and steadier approach.
First, he used 500,000 Hero Points to upgrade to Marquis, then another million to reach the status of Duke.
Once this was finished, he left. As for his destination, it was none other than the City Lord's mansion.
When he entered, he could already hear the sound of discussion. As with every other System City, there were three Dukes, and with the death of the City Lord confirmed, they were all vying for this position themselves.
Sylas' entry unsurprisingly caused many gazes to land on him.
"The City Lord position will be taken over by me."