The Systemic Lands

Chapter 15: Day 25 (2) – Boss Carlos

I followed the young man back towards the plaza. He stopped in front of a building where a guard was standing outside, and I noted another in the window up top.

Most people would think that I shouldn’t go in there. The majority of the time they would be right. However, not going in there would mean I was afraid, and fear was weakness for these types of people, gangsters.

I kept a tight grip on my club and made my way forward. The guard stepped in front of me. “Easy there, hombre. You need to give that up to speak to Carlos.” He gestured at my club.

“Then Carlos can come out here and speak to me.” A minor power play. Nothing unexpected. Probably had to get through one or two more of these. Come on television knowledge, don’t fail me now. We stared at each other and waited.

“Let him up.” A voice called out after half a minute. Definite power play. I walked into the building, scanning the corners. I counted two more men, but no super brutes. I made my way to the second floor.

There was a man sitting on the windowsill with a thick mustache. A guard was leaning on the wall next to him. “Name’s Michael.” I introduced myself.

“Carlos.” The man smiled and stood up. “You seem to be a long-term resident of this place. I was hoping you, and I could have a discussion.” Not a native English speaker from his accent and phrasing, but decent enough for a conversation.

“No food or drink to offer a guest?” I countered with a power play of my own. Carlos frowned for a moment and then smiled.

“That was what I wanted to talk to you about. You seem to know where to get these points.”

“Just go out of the city,” I said with a smile, and he laughed.

“But no one returns. It makes it very hard to survive here.”

“Let’s say I tell you, what do I get besides your eternal gratitude for helping you out?”

“Saving a fellow human being? Not a philanthropist I see. We could get you a woman or a boy if that is what you prefer.” Attempting to appeal to my base desires. If I was an idiot who could be led around by my dick, then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

“I was thinking a non-aggression pact. See, if I help you know how to get points, then you will quickly take over this hell hole.” He gave me a nod to continue. “I am not interested in ruling or collecting taxes. What I am interested in is having a group to tell any other groups that are looking to bother me to go away and no taxes, fees of any kind for me.”

Carlos was fairly thin, and about middle age if a bit on the younger side. Might be good living as well. He wasn’t well muscled, and I saw no visible tattoos, though his guard to the side had several tattoos.

“That is quite a hefty proposition. We could probably squeeze your friend, what was her name, Evaline for information.” He was quite well informed as well. I stared at him and considered my options. I had stumbled into a much more dangerous conversation than I had initially realized. Like realizing you had pocket kings in poker but thinking your opponent might just be holding an ace.

“Go ahead. I just wanted her to keep me informed of what is going on around here. If she oversteps that is on her.” No leverage there.

“That group, with that Amber chick.” Another probe to search for weakness.

“Don’t care, go beat them up and chop off their heads. Doesn’t matter.” I called his threat. Still, I didn’t raise up my club and kept my gaze focused on him.

“Shit, man, you a stone-cold killer, aren’t you?” He let out a chuckle. I gave him my crazy grin.

“You asking for a demonstration?” I slowly turned my head to look at his guard who tensed up.

“Nah, no need to fight. I get it. You help my little group here get some points and we will leave you alone, no taxes, no headaches. Comprende?”

“Agreed.” We shook on it. I saw him wrinkle his nose as I got close enough to shake. “You all coming or just a couple?” I asked. Carlos took a moment to think on that.

“Are more people better?”

“It all depends. I will show you how to kill the monsters. You get crystals from the monsters. You turn those crystals in at the pillar for points. Bring as many as you want. I don’t promise any person’s safety.”

“Dangerous, hmm, makes sense. Otherwise, everyone would be running out for crystals. Who else knows?”

“Amber and her group.”

“You don’t mind if…” He drew a line across his throat. That was surprisingly ruthless.

“A tax would probably work better long term. A new group shows up every ten days. But it is up to you.” I offered information and a suggestion to reduce needless violence. But it was no longer in my hands. The moment I decided not to enforce what I wanted with violence, that was the moment my opinion was an opinion and not law.

“The upgrades, you must have quite a bit to be so confident.” I just gave him a smile and he laughed. “You don’t want a share, hmm? Working for me, we can run this place.”

“If you want me to do something, we can talk about it, and I will ask for a price. Like a mercenary. Otherwise, we stay out of each other’s business. I don’t tell you how to run things, if you bring something up, I might have an opinion.”

“Mercenary, I like that. So, you have been here a while then?”

“You are the third group. If there were groups before me, they didn’t make it. This place, disappears things if people aren’t around.”

“I noticed. Easy to get rid of a mess, but not much luxury. Alright, we will all go.” He began speaking Spanish to his guard. “No Spanish?” He turned to ask me. I gave him a grin before responding.

“Hmm, no. Probably should bring packs, fruit, and clubs. No need to save points now.” He smiled back at me. He had a total of six men including his errand boy and himself. Carlos and I walked in the lead as we made our way to the edge of the city. They were all geared up as well.

“Big city, wonder who was here before?”

“Probably no one.” He gave me a look. “All modern cities have straight roads. We were teleported and these buildings are a single piece of stone. But the roads are made by a child with a crayon. This entire place is fake.”

“Like the Matrix you think?”

“Maybe, I am not sure about that yet. Some details are missing, but it could be explained by how everything was set up. It doesn’t make a difference. Death is final from what I have seen.”

“Any clue who is behind this?”

“No. This place is a death trap. Think about it. Only people from the Americas are being teleported here. Right?” I gave him a look.

“Florida.”

“No Chinese, Indians, or other ethnic groups. With how many Chinese there are, if people were taken across Earth equally, then there should be more of them.”

“You think there might be other cities then, out there?”

“Maybe. Maybe the teleportation will change after a month. Maybe we are all teleported to similar but different planets. But the fact is they are not here, and we are. That is the main reason I am willing to work with you.”

“You want an army here.”

“At least skilled people who can fight and get points. The key is the shop upgrades, but once we start unlocking them, who knows what will happen. Could activate monsters or quests. No idea, but it is the main path forward that I have found.”

“The monsters, how bad are they?”

“What we will fight is easy but deadly, they are slimes. Blobs of acid that move slowly. As long as you don’t get their fluid on you, you will be fine. If you do, well you are dead or crippled. Other than that…” I trailed off and let out a sigh.

“In the dead biome past the forest, I saw something that was camouflaged, like a lizard that changes its skin. I couldn’t make out the shape, but something was out there. No one has come back from the other gates either.”

“So dangerous.”

“Yes, but no idea how. That is the troubling part. Do they use magic, mind attacks, or something else, I have no idea.”

“Not going to check them out?”

“When I feel I am strong enough to survive and escape. For now, I kill slimes and wait for the store to upgrade.” There was silence after that as we each digested what we had talked about.

The danger of another city or even aliens attacking us was not insignificant. While I had no doubt, I could eventually reach the peak in this city, there were benefits from having a greater organization. Did I think a gang leader like Carlos here was a good leader? Not really, but he was the best there was. He also approached me. For someone like this, I couldn’t approach them, otherwise the relationship would be unbalanced.

Could I lead people, yes, maybe, it all depended on the people. Did I want to do it? No, absolutely not. It wasn’t a distaste of politics or even talking to people that made me say no, it was the stress that came with the position. I liked to avoid stress, after having a stressful childhood.

That was why I was very sensitive to situations that caused me a lot of stress and avoided them as much as possible. That was a factor in my weight gain. That was the problem with being truthful with myself at all times. The truth hurt quite a bit and was unpleasant.

Now Carlos would be running things. The biggest challenge would be in how he managed the slime area. I didn’t think being in a gang meant someone was dumb, it just meant they had different priorities. I would even say some gang members are smarter than wage slaves work at McDonalds.

It all depended on the individual. At least there were no drugs to wreck people around here. But was food much better as something that was consumed? I patted my gut. It was hypocritical of me to throw others under my mental bus. Regardless people could get in line with Carlos or get killed. I had some ideas how I would run things, but with how I set my position up with him meant I got no say in what Carlos did unless he asked me.

If I tried to be some sort of shadow ruler, it would lead to resentment and betrayal. Taking on a more mercenary and aloof approach was far better long term. I guess that is why I could never be a leader, it was hard for me to trust people. If I misread someone, I had no doubt it would end in tears all around.

This meant Carlos was my buffer and civilization builder. All the first governments started as monarchies anyways, so this wasn’t that much different. I just had to be careful to remain a separate but supportive party to his rule.

My hope was that he realized having someone useful around who wasn’t a direct threat to him, would allow us to coexist. That was why not saying anything about what he did was important. I had to repeat that to myself multiple times to make sure it was engrained in my head.

We reached the gate to leave the city. “Alright, keep a look out, and I will walk you through things. Once we meet the first monster, I will take questions afterward. Remember even if you are talking, always keep a lookout.” I looked at Carlos.

“Anything else?”

“Don’t go crazy and attack the monsters like a band of wolves. Slimes are slow, but very dangerous. You get any of their acid on you, you are dead or crippled. That is why only one person to a slime. Let’s go.” I led the group out into the forest.

We finally found a single slime. “The key is glancing blows. If you hit it head on, your club will get ruined more quickly.” I hit it a couple of times, scraping off the outer membrane and it deflated.

“Don’t touch the liquid, it will mess you up. Once it is all dust, you get a crystal.” I held it up and they all looked at it. I then passed it to Carlos.

“Not that heavy. How many points?”

“Five.”

“Not that many then. Anything else?”

“There are more slimes the closer you get to the deadlands. Once you spot them, I suggest you don’t get any closer. The monster I saw is well hidden, no idea if it has abilities or how strong. Also, if you go too far North and South, there is a chance you can run into other forest biomes. That has never been an issue for me, but people haven’t come back from those gates.”

“Good, then you are leaving now?”

“Unless there is anything else. Stay safe and good luck.” Carlos wished me luck as well and I left to farm slimes on my own.