Jules stared at his mobile screen, viewing the video of Vince, the storyteller.
[After Vince's introduction, the camera zoomed on the rough drawn map on the whiteboard. Vince smiled at the camera. "Look, I know this map looks familiar to most of you. But let's break it down. We have two empires, right? And these portals—they've been around forever, even before players like us showed up.
I know it's hard to believe, but I saw multiple historical records present around the planet that tell that even before players, there were NPCs who got the role of rulers and changed the world. With that clear, now focus on both empires."
Jules paused the video and took out the map given by teacher Ron. He frowned, as even with a rough sketch in the video, there was an enormous difference in land rule by empires in both maps.
'Did something happen in the last round?' He shook his head and played back the video.
Four unique buildings appeared on the screen. All of them were massive and full of luxury.
Vince continued, "There are two royal institutes, one in each empire. The second institute is in the control of the Magic Tower and Adventure Association in the central empire.
On the other side, forest guards protect the second institute in the eastern empire."
Jules nodded, as he knew that sometimes many of these organizations could become as powerful as kingdoms.
The biggest example he remembered was the organization that deals with faith. In his last life, one time he was on this planet where everything revolved around different temples and churches. Even with low manpower, these churches decided the course of action for other kingdoms under them.
The good thing was that so far he did not see any of those stuff on planet Nex.
On the screen, the camera zoomed out and showed Vince's face. "You need to understand these institutes are only possible because of these powerhouses. You know what happens to the area with portals but no powerhouse?"
Jules smiled, as he knew the result, and sure enough, Vince pointed to the screen, and multiple broken buildings appeared.
"From my research, all these abandoned buildings used to protect the violet portals. Those without strength either have to hide their portals or use them fast."
Vince clapped his hands, and this time, three other institute buildings appeared. "These are the known violet portal buildings outside the empire. If you look at them, they are either in isolated areas like on a small island in the 6th, or an area surrounded by volcanoes in southern regions.
Or they are in between both empires, like in the northern region portal that is almost between both enormous giants. This makes it harder for any of empire to attack it."
Vince clicked his fingers, and all the pictures disappeared from the screen. "Now let's move to where the other 8 to 3 violet portals on the planet might be."
After such a long introduction, he was finally at the juicy part. Even though he already knew most of the said stuff still it was better to listen to this guy to understand the inner dynamic of the empires.
Once again, the camera focused on the Planet Nex map.
"Well, even though I am not sure about the location, one thing I could say for sure is that Planet Nex has a maximum of 15 portals. I will gamble first in the west region."
Jules nodded, as he thought the same. There was no way such an extensive region to not have any Violet portals.
A massive desert appeared on the screen. "Well, to get the hidden portal location, we have to look through a few things. The important ones are the low density of humanoid creatures and the high density of monsters.
This parameter completely fits the western region. It is uninhabitable for humanoid creatures, but this region is full of massive monsters.
Their presence is sufficient for violet portals to appear. I am even sure that some of the nomadic tribes already know about these portals, but they just hiding them.
After all, if they leaked the news, the central kingdom would be the first to attack them.
With such a large monster density in that region, I could say there is a chance for 2 or even 3 portals in this region."
Jules rubbed his chin and tapped on the table. He was not sure if he could believe Vince's claim on this or not.
The desert disappeared from the screen, and Vince looked at the camera while rubbing his chin. "If I have to tell you a few regions that can't have portals, those would be central, eastern, and southern regions."
Jules frowned at this. This was the opposite of what he knew. 'Is this guy spreading misinformation?' He did not skip the video and just waited for the explanation.
Vince stared at the camera with wide eyes. "I know many of you would be confused, but let me explain. The thing is, the population density in these regions is super high..."
Vince explained how, if a portal appeared in these areas, many of the NPCs would notice it, and that would start infighting among the royal families and nobles.
Vince also said this interesting thing about how common NPCs treat portals in these regions as dark magic that would bring destruction to their land.
All of this made sense, but he still did not rule out a hidden organization capable of masking portals by killing people or erasing their memory.
He experienced these kinds of things on apocalyptic planets. Well, he also understood Vince's point of view. It must be that this guy had little experience on other types of planets.
He decided not to stop the video and continued looking through it. From his past life, he knew that for players; it was necessary to avoid all those creators who were lying or spreading misinformation.
These guys could influence your choices even if you do not believe them. So far, he did not find any obvious lie in Vince's video, which was a good sign for his future reference.
Vince pointed to the southern region. "As for the southern region, the problem is not a higher population but a cluster population. On the south side, some areas were over-packed with creatures. Then there were areas where no creature could survive, as it was full of active volcanoes."
Jules understood this logic, as the south would have the same issues if a portal appeared, as no portal could appear on lava land with no history. By this logic, it hit him that the second region with more portals could be north.
Sure enough, Vince continued predicting 2 to 3 extra portals in the northern region with one portal inside the ocean for marine folks and others in the 6th region hidden in some islands.