The discussion had gone on in circles for an hour. I was feeling quite bored, but sat there listening in. It reminded of a car crash in slow motion. Horrible, but you couldn’t help but keep watching intently to see every little detail.
The first conclusion was that the Council of Captains was divided into three factions. The biggest faction, was the neutral faction, keep their heads down, or the Boss Carlos faction. Underboss Roger was also part of this faction, hence he preferred to defer to Boss Carlos on matter of policy.
The second faction was Tyrese’s faction, but I wasn’t sure if he was the leader. I was calling them the integration faction. He wanted to form a larger group and I suspected he was being backed by the Guild. He wasn’t advocating for them per se but the solutions he advocated for weren’t against them.
The third faction, I decided to call the power faction. They wanted a consolidation of power at the top tiers of the Red Dawn.
The thing was, Carlos had to avoid another revolt, hence he had to take the integration faction seriously. But on the other hand, he didn’t want to give up control and power he had managed to grab onto, hence he tended to favor the power faction.
It was the political process at work. One good thing about this place, no dia, twitter, or anything like that. I thought back on history and the founding of Arica. I think Benjamin Franklin and a couple others had printing presses.
They definitely published quite a bit, maybe, I think. I rember the Federalist Papers from high school. Arguing for the US as a form of governnt and other things. It had been a very long ti since high school. While I liked history, I was more a fan of quick You-Tube videos rather than finding original sources.
Now I was sitting at the birth of a new governnt. At least I got the na of the city in. It was hard to fight the grin that wanted to co up on my face. Imagine, being able to na New York, sothing else? Crazy to think about, but I could imagine, people wondering years from now how this place got its na.
It was an accomplishnt that wasn’t based in blood or fighting. I would take it as a huge win. Oh, they were finally getting sowhere, and this sounded like sothing I should pay attention to.
“The proposal is to form an integrated team of six people. Four from the Red Dawn and two from other groups. Our people will get a skill first. Then we will look at a recruiting process. This team is expected to go out into unexplored areas and report back. They will be responsible for their own funding but will not be taxed. All in favor raise your hands,” Carlos finished speaking.
Everyone raised their hand and then looked at . “Oh, I get a vote?” I rubbed the back of head and there were so chuckles. Good job , for lightening the mood.
“Yes, the most powerful person of the city will have a seat at this Council and a vote,” Carlos said. “You missed the vote for that.”
“Ah, thanks. I vote yes for what you said. Can I let you vote on my behalf when I am not here?” I asked.
Carlos paused to consider that for a mont. No one else spoke up, I guess they were all too scared of . “You might not like my vote.” I looked over at Carlos and he shrugged a bit.
“I think I can trust you not to cause trouble. You are managing things well enough, and it hasn’t turned into a complete ss.” There were so light smiles at that.
“Very well, any objections for taking on Michael’s vote as proxy if he isn’t here?” There were no objections, and I did what I wanted to do. Make it all Carlos’ problem. By giving him my vote, I was saying that I trusted him implicitly and didn’t care about the politics.
It may seem silly that I had to keep making that point clear over and over, but I had no doubt I would be roped into trouble if I started getting invested into voting and power plays. Also it forced Carlos to protect my no tax status while taxing others for the store upgrade, which was what I really wanted. It was interesting and a nice change of pace from being in the wilderness, but it had a fakeness to it. Like the building options, it wasn’t true power.
True power ca at the end of a gun, or sword here in Purgatory. Or would that be magic? Anyways, spending ti on the politics wasn’t worthwhile to . It was worthwhile to get a sense of what was going on and keeping the ship of governnt pointed in sowhat the direction I wanted.
I wasn’t sure what kind of governnt we had? Possibly a dictatorship with hints of an oligarchy. One powerful person in charge, with the richest forming the voting class. Well, that was a question for the historians to argue over.
They had started talking about the first person to get a skill. Now it was mind numbingly boring. No one wanted to go out into the unknown and Carlos was getting annoyed at his captains.
“Well, soone give a recomndation from soone in Red Dawn and bring them here,” Carlos finally demanded and looked at his captains. The silence began to stretch on, many of them looking away.
“I will volunteer.” It was a Captain I didn’t know.
"Captain Frank, I comnd you,” Carlos said and there were several sighs of relief in the room. “Your job will be to recruit five other people for your team, three of them from the Red Dawn. Michael, will you take him on a dungeon clear?”
“You have ten Mind at least, right?”
“Um, I put it all into Body,” Captain Frank said. I could tell Carlos wanted to slam his head onto the table.
“I can protect him. But he has to carry a torch, and I won’t be here in ten days, so he will have to watch carefully for the next person. Five thousand, if you want to carry him.” Carlos looked over at Captain Frank.
“Well Captain Frank. Do you need the assistance?” Carlos asked. The man looked a lot more nervous and then looked at with a pleading expression.
“I wouldn’t feel confident succeeding on my own,” he finally said.
“We don’t have that kind of crystal reserve at the mont,” Carlos said and turned to face .
“That has to be the inco from two to three days at most?”
“More like four days. That is with not spending crystals on anything else.” At least he wasn’t bringing up paying earlier. That was for information, this was for direct help. Two completely separate matters. Still, there were probably a lot of unhappy people with how much I got off Carlos already.
“Two thousand by the end of the day today.” Carlos looked at his accountant who was sitting in the room next to a wall.
“Not with the free day for training up new people,” the accountant said. Carlos turned back towards .
I let out a frustrated sigh. “Five thousand when I return then and you supply six torches for the dungeon. That price will also include information on anything else out there that I find, since I am planning a much longer trip.” That should hopefully take the edge off the cost a bit.
“Going to find another city?” Carlos asked.
“I will find what I find. If it is another city, I will take a look first and check out the situation. No killing everyone there.”
“Good, good. You planning to stay for the arrival?” Carlos asked.
“No, we should get going. I want to make tracks before it gets dark,” I said.
“Alright. Also disburse Captain Frank 600 crystals for torches,” Carlos said. The accountant gave an affirmative and I stood up. Captain Frank followed out of the building after picking up a pack of crystals.
“So, what made you volunteer?” I asked the man as I picked up my cart.
“Decided that I was going to do sothing and not let fate control ,” Frank said.
“Hah, that is how I feel. Good luck with that.” We reached the pillars, and he began buying the torches he needed. I cashed in my remaining 110 crystals, bring up to 1,853 points in reserve.
“Can I use your cart?” he asked.
“Only if you pull it.” He gave an affirmative and we quickly began to make our way out of Purgatory.
“So, a couple of things so you don’t die. Hang back and keep a torch lit. This shouldn’t take that long.” With how static everything was, a big risk would be sothing changing on . It wasn’t a huge concern, but I was aware of the possible issue and refused to beco complacent.
“Anything else?”
“Not really. You do have to co into the boss chamber with .”
He was silent for a while as we walked through Purgatory before speaking up. “How do you do it?”
“My good looks, have to thank my parents for that.” It was a flippant answer, but I did miss them. I took a deep breath to help center my mind.
“I ant going out there and surviving.” Hmmm, that was slightly different than people had asked in the past. It wasn’t about the fear, but about my uncanny luck. I liked to think of it as my ga sense.
“What did you do before this?” I asked.
“High school principal.”
“Really? Would never have guessed. Well, the best explanation is ga sense.”
“Ga sense?”
“Ga sense,” I replied. “This entire place runs on ga logic. Praise be to the Almighty System in its eternal glory.” I could sense him giving a look. “Not a believer, that is fine. This place has rules, unfair rules. Stupid rules. Rules that will probably be broken, but it has rules. To sense the patterns of these rules, you need ga sense.”
“What rules?”
“That monsters have set attack patterns. While that might not hold true with the sa monster in a different area, for here it is the rule. Sa monster, sa area, sa type of attack. If a monster would have a different attack, it would appear different than the original. Bigger is always more dangerous, unless it is super cute.”
“Ga sense, what kind of gas? I have played so Minecraft and I played Zelda back when I was a kid.” Where were all the other gars? Probably hiding in fear or dead. That left these middle manager type people who hung back and kept surviving after other people had cleared the way for them.
“Zelda is a good benchmark for this place, but not great. What version, the original?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Hmmm, that is a good comparison to this place. The environnt is a bit more random. The monster composition is different. But the mindset is there. But that is 2D. This is real. My advice, always look up and check for routes that might angle in behind you.”
“There are monsters on the ceiling?”
“Yes, but the slis aren’t that bad. The key thing is to always check, always check no matter what. Like if you pass a pillar, make sure there isn’t a tunnel behind said pillar as well. This place doesn’t take or remove anything where a person can see. So, monsters shouldn’t appear nearby you unless they have an ability.”
“Teleportation?”
“Short range teleportation is called blink, and I would think that it is likely. A lot of knowing when to attack and when to run should co from experience. I will admit a certain degree of luck starting off. Also, don’t slack in the upgrades.”
“Got it.”
“Well, that is about it from . Any ideas who you plan to recruit?” I asked, more to pass the ti than having a need to know.
“Not really, any suggestions?”
“You see people with ?” I shook my head. “I am the wrong person to ask. I had two pack carriers and both of them gave up due to the stress. It is stressful, but I have a life philosophy that helps with situations like this.”
“That is?”
“The worst outco is that I die horribly screaming. I am choosing to ignore that possibility, since if it happens, I will be dead, and it won’t matter. That is the best way to overco your fear, embrace it.”
“That is…what did you do before?”
“I sat at a desk and did reports. But I also read way too much. The amount of reading I have done is astronomical. If soone has read more than , that is truly impressive.”
“Fantasy, I am guessing?”
“Fantasy, science fiction, and a lot of fanfictions. It helps keep the brain fresh in understanding the exploits and looking at situations in hindsight. What could be done differently? Were there better options? One could say my hobby is to go back and reflect on so nuances.” Also regrets, but the past was the past. All I could do was try sothing different.
“That is…surprising.”
“If you think about death all the ti, you will die. Your mindset impacts your reality. Doesn’t always work, but I prefer to focus on what I can do, rather than what I can’t. So, Principal, that must have been exciting.”
“It is more a supervisory role than anything. Sure, I see the kids, but mostly it is making sure none of the teachers go off the rails.”
“Hmm, well no kids here, so good thing you found a new job as monster hunter.”
“What do you an no kids? The brothel isn’t exactly quiet and there isn’t protection.”
“Is anyone pregnant? Because I thought that would be huge news if it was the case?” I asked. Originally, I had just been thinking of the demographics of people transferred to this place.
“I haven’t heard anything, but…well, I am sure it will co up.” That was going to be drama. How would restorations work then if a woman was pregnant? If won could even beco pregnant was the System pro-life or pro-choice. I almost laughed and cried at the sa ti at the absurdity of such a thing here in the Systemic Lands.
Oh, Almighty System, please save from that discussion. It was such a huge can of worms, that I wouldn’t want to touch it with a ten-foot pole. Nope, nope, and more nope. If I was glad to leave before and that was a 10/10, my relief now was 10^10/10.
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