As soon as Twila left on her airship, Simon eagerly began the process of looting Devin’s airship.

‘Wow, these guys were super rich!’

As he dug through the belongings of the crew members and of Devin, he could only grow more and more impressed.

‘Well, I suppose it does make sense… After all, the Radiant Lion Organization is actually quite influential, even in the grand scheme of things.’ he thought with a sigh.

From Devin, Simon had managed to gain a lot of information... Of what he had learned, two pieces of information are particularly useful to him at this point of time.

One, is that the Radiant Lion Organization is no joke!

The Radiant Lion Organization is in fact, one of the famed organizations with deep roots and unfathomable origins; as a gold tier organization, their influence spans from the Lowest Zone to even the High Zone, and they are undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with.

Thankfully, Devin - who he had killed, was a relatively unimportant figure in the Radiant Lion Organization; the retribution that he would receive for killing him would at most, be on par with what the Flamelight Organization could carry out. After all, the bulk of their power was in the higher zones, such as the lower, middle, or higher zones of Island Ascension Online.

Therefore, he had essentially already gotten away with killing him for now.

This was the truth of this world; those with power could do as they wished and wander about unimpeded, while weaklings were forced to endure until their deaths.

Simon, of course, was not unfamiliar with this set of truths in the slightest - that was why he so seamlessly adopted the mindset of the residents of this world.

The second useful piece of information which he had gained was that ruins were not as simple as they appeared! Well actually, Simon already knew that much… but the confirmation was still valuable.

Of course, the true difficulty of ruins were much higher than the public made it out to be. Even the weakest of F tier ruins were dangerous enough to kill even Advanced Mages, who were supposedly able to clear E tier ruins!

The origin of all this danger was precisely what Simon had gone against; the final boss of this ruin.

In fact, this was somewhat of an open secret.

It’s purpose? Of course, this was to lead new adventurers to their deaths!

When one “cleared a ruin”, it was almost always at a low completion grade such as D or E. The system was strict, after all; merely killing some wild beasts, surviving traps, and looting ruins would never result in a truly impressive grade from the system.

Only upon doing something as difficult as defeating the boss, would the infamously strict system finally be impressed, and grant a good grade.

That was why most people received low grades… After all, the boss was simply too hard to beat!

However, though the system was strict, it did not mistreat adventurers either.

As can be seen by Simon’s rewards for getting an A grade completion rate, the rewards for such a hard task was without question, extravagant. Only, it does have to be known that once a system knows of an adventurer’s prowess, replicating the feat of another A tier completion grade would be near impossible. The system was intelligent, after all.

This particular set of information cleared up many of Simon’s questions, and the occurrences in the ruin finally made sense to him...

As Simon organized his spoils, he broke into a wide grin.

After all, the total value of his spoils of war amounted to a whopping 130 golds!

Though it was incomparable to what he had just gained from the ruins, the benefits of these spoils could show their value immediately, whereas his gains from the ruins would only display their value as time went by.

As the saying went: Once ahead, always ahead.

With these new spoils which included golden tickets, essence crystals, and currency, he could immediately further the progression of his island and thus, stay a step ahead of his peers.

‘When I come back, the island will surely undergo a period of rapid progression!’

Simon was in a very good mood when he returned to his island with two airships in tow.

-----

The sun was gradually setting within these endless skies, and the skies themselves were painted with a myriad of colors, from red, to purple, to orange.

In this beautiful time of twilight in this world of the boundless void, two airships were docking on a particular island.

“Welcome back, Mayor!”

“This is our legendary Mayor? Wow, so cool!”

“Welcome back!”

The residents of Simon’s island, many of whom were new arrivals, excitedly greeted him as he neared the island.

“Thank you, thank you!” Simon grinned, waving a hand at the crowd.

‘Wow… That’s a lot more than last time!’ he couldn’t help but think, upon seeing the excited mass of people below him...

In the three or so days where he had been gone, the population of his island had easily doubled and the island had leveled up once. Not to mention, there was even an organized troop equipped with armor and crossbows, busy clearing a path for him through the crowd.

When he finally hopped off of the airship, he sent a nod of acknowledgement at Joe, who organized the troop, and walked down the cleared path. Meanwhile, the crowd cheered him on as he walked forwards.

To them, he was an unparalleled hero; a man who represented strength and stability. Moreover, he was also the man responsible for their livelihood, and held all of the authority for their island. Who would not wish to pander to him?

Simon chuckled inwardly at the reaction of the crowd. ‘Isn’t this a bit too dramatic? It’s not like I'm a king yet!’

Though outwardly, he merely smiled and waved at the crowd, as he made his way towards the Manor.

By now, Joe, Jake, and Jack were also following him, eager to learn about what Simon experienced in the outside world.

-----

Soon enough, in the meeting room of the Manor...

Simon and his crew were discussing matters pertaining to the island seriously. His experiences in the ruins were for the most part, long since revealed.

At this moment, Simon was finally revealing his island management plan to his crew. These plans were only a portion of what Simon had planned out earlier while absorbing mana.

He had painstakingly ruminated over his island development plans countless times, accounting for anything and everything that could possibly occur, and thus, he was fairly confident in his ideas.

“I am planning on implementing two departments to govern our island, with three subdivisions in both departments. These two departments shall be the Military and Department of Resource Management.” he stated solemnly.

“In the Military, the subdivisions will be for Homeland Security, Crisis Response, and Expeditioning!“

“In the Department of Resource Management, the subdivisions will be for Island Affairs, Commerce, and Future Development!”

“For the next few days, I shall be the head of both departments as a whole, as well as the Future Development subdivision permanently, and Joe will be responsible for Homeland Security.” Simon finished, before glancing at his makeshift crew. “What do you guys think?”

After contemplating for a moment, Jake suddenly spoke out. “Sir, the distribution of importance between Resource Management and the Military seems to be imbalanced. The Resource Management department has much more responsibilities than the Military, don’t you think?”

Simon nodded, satisfied with Jake’s response. Unfortunately, though his logic was sound, he was still wrong.

“Indeed, as of now, Resource Management is of more importance than the Military. In that, you are completely correct.”

He then chuckled lightly. “However, our strategy is not that of a merchant; our strategy is of a warrior!”

“As time goes on, the Military will increase in importance, while the Resource Management department will decrease in importance. Overall, they could be considered as equally important departments.” He finished.

Hearing this, the rest of his crew pondered for a short moment, before nodding.

“Makes sense!”

“I have nothing more to say. It seems thought out already!”

Indeed, his island plan was sound.

Warmongering islands were not necessarily common, but they most certainly were volatile. If one could succeed as a warmongering island, they could dominate the entire area around them!

But if one could not… well, then they would probably be completely wiped from the face of Island Ascension Online.

And as the island owner, and an incredibly capable one at that, his crewmates would not argue about the overall path of development.

After sweeping his gaze through the room and seeing that no one had anything further to say, Simon continued. “Before my next expedition, I will appoint members of our island to act as the heads of the subdivisions. With that being said, do any of you have recommendations for any potential presidents of these subdivisions?

At these words, Jack suddenly exchanged glances with Joe and Jack, before taking the initiative to speak up.

“A resident called Kathryn seems to be a good candidate for either the Commerce subdivision or the Island Management subdivision. In my opinion, she seems to be talented in the ways of Resource Management and diplomacy.” He then turned to Joe and Jake. “What do you guys think about this?”

Jake nodded in agreement. “I can definitely see her managing the resources of our island as well.”

“I second that.” Joe agreed as well.

“Oh? Well, do I know this Kathryn figure?” Simon asked with a raised brow. If they unanimously agreed on someone, that person was bound to be at least somewhat capable.

Jack chuckled. “You do! In fact, she’s the mother in the spy pair that you found earlier.”

“Interesting! Very well, I shall gauge her capabilities personally.” Simon nodded in acknowledgement.

“Well, are there any other talented figures on our island?”

This time, everyone shook their heads.

“Nope.”

“No one.”

At these words, Simon nodded once again. In any case, he was not exactly surprised.

To have two talents - Kathryn and Jack, out of a hundred refugees... was already considered to be pretty good! Even if one of them was originally a spy.

After all, if he maintained that level of luck, once there were thousands of residents, he would have dozens, if not hundreds of talents under him.

“Alright, have Kathryn come to the Manor. I’ll delegate some minor tasks to her and see how well she fares. Also, don’t forget to complete the preparations for the Island Core Upgrade!” Simon said before standing up, signaling the end of the meeting.

“Yes sir!”

“I’ll be reporting to my duties then.”

After the meeting, the rest of his crew members promptly left and continued fulfilling their duties.

…

By the time that Simon finished delegating tasks to Kathryn, the materials needed in order to upgrade the island core were already gathered in the manor. After all, the vast majority of the materials were long since prepared; only a few more things had to be done before the preparations were complete.

Now, all that was left was actually upgrading his island core!

Simon grinned as he checked the description of his island core.

-----

[Island Core](Lv. 3)

Age: ???

It has mysterious properties and an infinite potential to grow.

Upgrade Conditions: 15/15 Gold Coins, 2,500/2,500 Cubic Meters of Wood Planks, 12,500/12,500 Cubic Meters of Stone, 100/100 Cubic Meters of Glass, 10/10 Cubic Meters of Copper, 5/5 Cubic Meters of Iron, 300/300 Essence Crystals, 1/1 Monster Core, 100/100 Ancient Shards.

-----

A familiar system notification then rang in his head…

[Would you like to upgrade the island core?]

‘Haha, it’s finally time!’ Simon thought with excitement.

‘Upgrade it!’

Wooosh!

Simon’s vision suddenly darkened, and when his vision finally returned, he was greeted by both a barrage of system notifications and a shocking sight.