[“Number of settlements that have accomplished the Ten-Species Compet.i.tion quest: 65,927. Basic headcount received: 6,592,700.”]

“More than sixty thousand settlements!

“Only one-ninth of all the settlements from Earth won this round?”

Sensing the content of the first piece of information, Ji Ye was more or less surprised.

Considering the phase of development of the alien civilizations that the Twin Dragon Mount fort had encountered, the human civilization from Earth wasn't exactly at the top end, but it still should've been more developed than half of the settlements.

It must be noted that the aliens such as the Forest Monsters, the Sludge Monsters, and the Mirage Monsters seemed to have just been able to speak and didn't have a writing system yet.

It meant that from a sociological point of view, they were as developed as human beings thousands of years earlier.

Although several thousand years might not be too long for a civilization that could live millions of years, the knowledge that human beings grasped during the several thousand years, or in particular, the recent two hundred years, was more than what they learned in the million years earlier.

Under such circ.u.mstances, Ji Ye believed that the Earth settlements' odds of success should be higher than average.

Also, it should be much higher than average.

If he remembered correctly, there were about five hundred thousand settlements that welcomed beta testers and therefore were qualified to summon heroes at the beginning of the second round!

Plus the last two days of “buffer” time after the notification, altogether six hundred thousand settlements had received the qualification thanks to the joint efforts of the Confederation Offices in all countries!

But only about one-ninth of the Earth settlements won the Ten-Species Compet.i.tion.

It was a lot lower than what he antic.i.p.ated!

“Huh… Right, I forgot something.

“The notification only specifies the number of settlements that have accomplished the Ten-Species Compet.i.tion quest. Those which haven't are not necessarily beaten by aliens…”

Ji Ye instantly realized that he made a mistake.

Although the time for the Ten-Species Compet.i.tion was up, not all the battles among settlements could be over yet.

After all, it was hard to conquer certain alien tribes whose settlements were in tricky environments. As a result, human beings couldn't finish the battle even if they had advantages.

However, since Ten-Species Compet.i.tion was the “main quest” in this round, it was doubtless that only the settlements that accomplished the quest could increase “player headcount” for their species and civilization.

Besides, not only had every “advanced” settlement provided a one-hundred headcount, but there were also “bonuses” if the settlement core's level was high!

[“Number of settlements that have reached Extraordinary Rank-6: 30,340. Headcount added: 3,034,000.”]

[“Number of settlements that have reached Extraordinary Rank-7: 2,159. Headcount added: 431,800.”]

[“Number of settlements that have reached Extraordinary Rank-8: 99. Headcount added: 39,600.”]

[“Number of settlements that have reached Extraordinary Rank-9: 1. Headcount added: 800.”]

Four pieces of information appeared in the head of every Earth player again.

“Altogether 10,098,900 people… More than ten million?”

In just a few seconds, Ji Ye got the total number through mental arithmetic.

The total of ten million people was ten times greater than the headcount of the beta testers, which was a million.

However, it was still a tiny proportion of the total population of Earth, which was ten billion (Author's note: this is a parallel universe). After all, it only took up one-thousandth.

It was not hard to imagine that many people who craved to enter the Land of Inheritance in the third round would be disappointed again.

It seemed that the Land of Inheritance, as a game, was never really going to be publicly released. Although the headcount had been increased each time, it was because the Earth settlements had advantages on the Land of Inheritance.

Considering the general situation, the number of settlements of each civilization was dwindling after each compet.i.tion.

If all the Earth settlements on Earth were destroyed someday, they would all lose the qualification to play the game!

However, it was unlikely to happen.

That was because things were looking good for the Earth settlements on the Land of Inheritance.

Almost half of the settlements had reached Extraordinary Rank-6, a four-digit number of them reached Extraordinary Rank-7, and a three-digit number of Extraordinary Rank-8…

And the only Extraordinary Rank-9 settlement!

On the Land of Inheritance, there were only two ways to upgrade a settlement core.

The first way was to increase the settlement's capabilities (including the levels of players in it, their rating, and the number of resources).

The second way was to absorb the aliens' core and resources!

Under normal circ.u.mstances, a settlement would be able to reach between Extraordinary Rank-5 and Extraordinary Rank-6 after accomplis.h.i.+ng the Ten-Species Compet.i.tion quest.

Its final level depended on the earliness of the time when the quest was accomplished and the intensity of the compet.i.tion.

Take the Twin Dragon Mount fort for example.

From the beginning to the end, the Eagle Men had been their only compet.i.tor.

So, both parties had tacitly decided to attack the weak aliens before they had a final battle. Therefore, their compet.i.tion wasn't really fierce.

The merit of such a situation was that the loss of power of providence would be small.

Also, both settlements had won the first round on the Battlefield of Providence and looted some power of providence.

So, when they entered the City of Humans for the first time, the Twin Dragon Mount fort's settlement core had already reached Extraordinary Rank-6!

If it were another settlement that was in fierce compet.i.tion, for example, one in an environment where a couple of settlements leveled up to Extraordinary Rank-2 at the same time, then all the settlements would have to spend their power of providence to transform equipment, summon heroes, and generate resources. Their victory would be costly even if they accomplished the quest, and their settlement core might only just surpa.s.s Extraordinary Rank-5!

On the other hand, if a settlement didn't defeat its last rival before the deadline, it might still be stuck in Extraordinary because it hadn't digested the enemy's core of providence yet.

Judging from the notification, there were as many Rank-5 settlements as Rank-6 ones.

However, the number of Extraordinary Rank-7 settlements plummeted.

Clearly, the only way to raise the settlement core to Extraordinary Rank-7 in the current phase was to enter the Battlefield of Providence and loot power of providence from other human settlements!

Also, their performance on the battlefield must be good enough.

It was even safe to say that the two thousand Extraordinary Rank-7 settlements could largely be called “Excellent” settlements of human beings on the Land of Inheritance.

Of course, where there were Excellent settlements, there were bound to be Superior ones.

It was not hard to imagine that the hundred Extraordinary Rank-8 settlements had the most distinguished performance in this round of Battlefields of Providence. The rewards they received would make them seed settlements that had the greatest potential…

As for the only Extraordinary Rank-9 settlement…

To be honest, it was slightly beyond Ji Ye's antic.i.p.ation.

After all, Earth had hundreds of thousands of settlements on the Land of Inheritance, with a wide spectrum of backgrounds including novels, history, myths, games, etc.

While the Twin Dragon Mount fort was remarkably powerful, it would be outrageous to call it “one of a kind”.

After all, other players might have talents that were as good as “Fusion”, and their settlement might be developing as fast as the Twin Dragon Mount fort.

However, on second thought, the result was rather reasonable.

Although other top Earth settlements might be as good as the Twin Dragon Mount fort, the Twin Dragon Mount fort's performance on the Battlefield of Providence this time was simply too splendid.

It wasn't exactly perfect, but it was barely possible for other settlements to surpa.s.s the settlement!

“However, this is not necessarily a good thing.

“In such a case, whatever the Twin Dragon Mount fort does next will attract a lot of people's attention.

“People may criticize us for something trivial that we do…”

Ji Ye slightly frowned.

He was not fretting at all; it was quite likely to happen.

For example, when the incident where he asked Yang Zhi to suppress the new players with Battle Will was spread on Earth, he might be judged as a dictator and a bully.

Also, for forcing the players who played dirty tricks to go to the battlefield during the battle against the Eagle Men, he might be decried as a person who disregarded the unity of humankind and sought every chance to expel the dissidents!