Insanity

When Jack rewrote the script of this dream world last time, he made a few changes, including delaying the impending attack from the kingdom and postponing the death of Akarui, the samurai leader. However, his changes were not set in stone.

For example, Akarui doesn't die of old age, but he still dies if someone stabs him. The same was true about the attack of the northern kingdom; they didn't attack on their own, but when Jack handed over detailed military information about the empire's northern border, they changed their decision and attacked.

...

With the country in such a precarious situation, Jack and Kampaku were both very cautious with their every move.

The republic had already started interfering in the country's affairs in areas controlled by rebel forces. From the perspective of the republic, it's also acceptable to keep the peace and slowly assimilate the rebel areas into the republic. But for Jack, it was not acceptable. He must kill Kampaku; otherwise, the first task would not be completed, and the world wouldn't be promoted to rank 10.

However, the republic's president, Kashu, was not interested in a life-and-death war. He knew the next war with Kampaku wouldn't end with an agreement. So, he sold Jack weapons and arms while buying raw resources and food. Because most of the empire's land was controlled by Jack, he had access to most natural resources and food.

...

Standing at the top of a mountain, Jack watched workers dig the ground, building a deep well.

"Michael, call the village chief!" Jack said.

Michael, Jack's bodyguard, didn't go personally but ordered one of his subordinates to call the village chief.

...

"Hero-dono! I am ready to serve," the village chief came and bowed.

"I have doubts about what I should do next!" Jack said. He was using only the capacity of a normal human's brain.

Rachel restricted the use of brain power; she ordered everyone to preserve as much of it as possible to help her calculate her spells. Even though she had great success, she still wasn't close to being able to rival her other incarnations, most of whom lived far longer.

The task of reaching rank 15 is grand; it may even be impossible. The only reason she even tries is that she has access to the Gray realm.

She has been constructing massive worlds and even universes, filling them with computers. Her computer-building skills have been polished over the years.

What is the best computer? It may sound strange, but immortals are the best computers. A rank 10 immortal can calculate countless matters in a moment. They take very little resources and can live forever, having no consumption except for a little energy.

Immortals are the best and most efficient computers. She has been producing rank 10 immortals for years and restricting their use of their brains, using them as computers for her purposes.

She also didn't let go of her longtime supporters. Even though she didn't enslave them, she still gave each a quota of brain power they must provide. For that reason, brain power is in high demand nowadays.

In addition to brain power, dream worlds, liquid dreams, and dream Dao collections are monopolized by Rachel. Everyone who has it can only sell it to Rachel. No matter what concept or dao, Rachel would buy it at a good price; it can even be handed over in place of a brain power quota.

Jack has been making tons of money by lending his brainpower to Rachel; He isn't willing to spend a lot of brainpower on his dreamworld projects. Otherwise, solving this wouldn't have been a challenge at all.

The village chief said, "Hero-dono, this is the time to wait! The Republic sells us weapons, and we train our soldiers in the meantime, while Kampaku only loses money. The longer we wait, the higher our chances would be."

"But, village chief sama, waiting also has downsides. Without big cities and economic centers, we can only sell raw materials. Kampaku is suffering economically, and so are we. At the same time, I'm sure that Kampaku is looking for a foreign ally, too; Kampaku now is in a perilous situation, but he would surely think of a way to get out of his current state," Jack said with concern.

He has thought a lot, but couldn't decide; if he takes a wrong step, everything may fall apart again.

"Hero-dono, you can choose a middle ground; wait for two months. If spies report any possible foreign help for Kampaku, attack immediately before the foreign help materializes," said the village chief.

Jack nodded; it was his own thought.

"What is happening in the northern kingdom lately?" asked Jack.

His concerns were not all about Kampaku; foreign incidents also happened, which could have had a great impact on his plans. Jack, of course, knew what happened in the kingdom, but wanted to know the village chief's perspective.

The village chief said, "As Hero-dono knows, the kingdom was on the brink of collapse. In the last few months, the situation has gotten worse and worse. The king was assassinated, and the kingdom split into three factions. It can be said that they are so busy that we don't need to be worried about the north at all. The western border is also safe, so we only need to be wary of the southern and eastern seas."

He continued, "Fortunately, no country has enough resources to launch an invasion with enough troops on ships, so we are generally safe."

Jack asked, "Don't you think we're passing over the kingdom too quickly? They may try to take over the north if we start the war with Kampaku."

"I don't believe they dare to attack another country while fighting amongst themselves, especially Prince Nori, who controls the northern border on the kingdom's side have requested an alliance treaty with us, and negatively responded to similar propositions by Kampaku," said the village chief.

Jack nodded, "Thank you for the advice; now, go and call our analysts; I want to hear their opinions too."

...

After Jack consulted with the analytical teams, he finally decided.

...

Kampaku, sitting on his chair and opening letters, screamed wildly and burned the letter he just read; lately, he either tears them up or burns them; sometimes, he eats and swallows them. His mental state has been deteriorating as he lost more and more allies.

"Prince Nori rejected our alliance? Why are there so many ungrateful people around me? I lent him that much money for him only to fail to stop the kingdom's invasion. Now, he pretends he had nothing to do with me!" Kampaku screamed and hugged his head.

Prince Nori was the eldest son of the former king of the north kingdom, but he wasn't the crown prince because his mother was from a noble family, not the royal family.

Still, he was very talented and had many followers.

He was an enemy of the deceased crown prince; that incident prevented peace with the empire at that time, but as of now, many accuse the first prince, Prince Nori, second in line of succession, of killing the crown prince and blaming the empire for it.

The crown prince's mother was from the royal family and was a close relative of the king; they only had one son, the crown prince.

The kingdom's laws are unlike many surrounding countries. In the kingdom, the mother's family is as important as the father's family when it comes to inheriting the throne. Most kings marry their close relatives to preserve their blood.

In fact, a lot of previous kings married their half-sisters.

Each king usually has at least 40-50 children, all of whom live separately from each other, so in effect, brothers and sisters barely see each other at all. Still, even if they are, in effect, strangers, their genetics are close, which has caused problems including many deaths during pregnancies and, like the mother of the deceased crown prince, the death of the mother after giving birth; also, their facial features look very distinct.

Because of so many intermarriages, one can easily detect royal members from their 'irregular' looks.

The previous king was one of the rare kings who decided to inject some diversity into the genetics of the royal family; still, even he was forced to marry a royal close relative to produce a 'pure' successor to the throne.

After the crown prince's death, Prince Nori became the most senior male heir to the throne, as there was no other prince born from both royal parents. As it was, many ministers protested against him, as they didn't want to let the king's bloodline be 'diluted.' Still, it was in the middle of the war, so they kept silent.

After the war was done, however, all hell broke loose. Ministers opposed to Prince Nori investigated and found evidence of his involvement in the death of the crown prince. They quickly arranged for one of the king's half-sisters to marry him, to produce a proper, 'pure' royal successor.

At the same time, they arrested Prince Nori, planning for his execution.

It was at this time that the king suddenly died, without being able to produce another 'pure' successor. This event completely shocked the kingdom, even more so than the war with the empire.

According to the laws of the kingdom, only children of the king can inherit the throne, and among those, the most senior one. Furthermore, there was no ceremony; according to those rules, immediately after the previous king's death, the next successor immediately became king.

That meant Prince Nori, the 'impure' successor they suspected of killing the crown prince, suddenly became their king.

Many ministers also thought that Prince Nori killed the king; after all, it was in his interest. How can the ministers opposed to Nori allow such a person to remain king? They immediately met and planned on quickly killing Nori and giving the crown to the next in line.

However, the royal court also had many people on the side of Prince Nori. They managed to help him escape; as the true legitimate king, many military commanders joined him; in the end, the prince established his rule in the southern part of the kingdom, along the border with the empire.

The ministers in the capital expelled all the remaining supporters of Prince Nori and enthroned the third male son of the previous king. The new king, however, had very little legitimacy and power; as such, the 8th son of the previous king, son of one of the most powerful noble families in the kingdom, also declared himself to be the legitimate successor and established his rule on the western side of the kingdom.

In this way, the kingdom broke into three parts, all of whom considered themselves the legitimate rulers of the kingdom.

As someone who had previous deals with him, Kampaku sent letters to Nori to establish an alliance; if he could ally with Nori, he could pressure Jack on the northern border of the empire, which is controlled by Jack. Now, it seems Nori doesn't want to ally with him and may want to ally with Jack. It was a very painful letter to Kampaku, who had many dealings with Nori and gave lots of money to him.

"Damn you, Nori! Hey, minister of truth, send assassins! I want Nori dead! I want to see his head!" Kampaku screamed.

The minister bowed; he didn't dare even to sweat. These days, Kampaku is like dynamite; he may explode at any time.

"Damn you all! I'll destroy you all, crush you under my feet!" Kampaku shouted, then stood up and went to his bedroom; he had already ordered a few of his concubines to come. The bodyguards followed; they wouldn't leave him even when he was with his concubines. Kampaku is not ashamed of it; who knows, he may even enjoy having witnesses to his 'manly' acts.