The Systemic Lands

Chapter 530: Day 4,910 – The Old And The Young

Clarissa

I watched the plaza for when people would arrive shortly from Earth during the arrival. Normally the age of the arrivals range was restricted with a lower and upper bound based on the level of the city. Now that we had reached max level, it was time to see the age range of the people arriving.

The age of majority was 16 years old. But teens 14 years and older could request emancipation. Michael had brought that up as a point of why Qi Ji Long couldn’t be locked up forever. I thought putting him in a hole would be fine, but Michael was content to let him go and cause trouble first. I held off sending anyone to follow him as well at Michael’s request.

He had made the point that any spy would be discovered and increase his resentment. He called it, ‘practically foretold’ and insisted we do nothing to hinder or help him. I could see his point about the issue. Michael had gone out of his way to protect the kid for the longest time. Paying for everything. It might have made him spoiled, but he would get a reality check very quickly.

Making a living here wasn’t easy. Back on Earth or at least the US, one could get a low paying job anywhere. Here, there were limited number of jobs in total, which was the problem. Not so much the population. While we called it a population crisis it was more an overemployment crisis.

The overemployment rate stood at 0.12% currently. While it was small, it would only get worse in time. Food production was just busy work for the most part. While there was a long term night positive, that was only in terms of crystals. In terms of labor, it would struggle to break even. It was government subsidized busy work.

The difference between the middle class and the lower class was expanding, which was something that would lead to more issues ass well. Slavery and feudalism would become more popular. Already, many of the governors had lavish palaces. While slavery was outlawed, the difference between a wage slave and a non-wage slave was not much.

But there was nothing that could be done, besides a war. I know Michael pushed it off out of respect for Doctor Katz, but it was still going to occur. We would send hordes of people grinding level 2 and 3 zones to whatever meat grinder was created. I was still working out if we wanted to do a warlord system. Let people round up groups themselves, at unleash them onto the enemy nations.

The Imperial Government would claim one city, but the rest could be up for grabs. They would have to submit to the Imperial Government, but it would be a gold rush. The Imperial Government would keep a light touch over there, allowing things to sink into rebellion and chaos. As long as we controlled the way back to our main territory, then there was no risk of that chaos spreading.

A messy war would be better than a quick and clean war or a unilateral surrender. Just have people constantly killing each other. Perhaps, sending people after their arrival and rotation in the level 1 zone around the city, they would be shipped out of the Empire.

That would stabilize things long term. The loss of life and human suffering would be immense, but out of sight, out of mind. By the time anyone got strong enough to even have a chance at complaining, they would be too weak compared to Michael and other top people. That seemed like a good plan and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I would have to speak with General Abdullah, about how such a system would be set up. We secure a beachhead, but then leave the rest to the forces of chaos to reduce the number of people long term.

After managing things for a decade, I felt mentally tired at times, but health wise, I was still going incredibly strong. It was a frustrating trade off, being stuck here in exchange for no health problems and immortality.

The people suddenly arrived. I let out a long sigh of frustration. There were two five babies that I could see right away and several geriatric people. They appeared on the ground in a stable position. At least the Almighty System didn’t let the babies fall in an awkward position. That would have been bad. The children would be cared for in the Imperial Orphanage, while the old people would be given a restoration and go through the process with the rest of the arrivals.

The biggest concern were individuals with mental issues. The store fixed everything but the mind. Well that was what rotations were for. If people weren’t useful, then they would be reallocated for human experimentation. It wasn’t pretty, or something anyone smiled about. But it was necessary.

With the amount of able-bodied people we had, and not enough work, we couldn’t provide social services to those with handicaps. It was the sad reality of this place. Their sacrifices would go to helping us understand energy better. But I agreed with Michael, no messing around with children. There were several children, and not teens.

Just supporting them was going to be a drain on resources but it was doable. We had set educational standards across the Empire. Reading, writing, arithmetic, martial arts, Earth history, and Systemic Land knowledge. A total of six subjects were required and each city was required to reach the same standards.

I knew slavery might slip through the cracks with adults and certain crimes, but children would be protected. It was going to be a rough period of time as they had to adjust to a new environment. Already, several pedophiles had been tortured to death publicly. Still, they were similar to the Karens that that liked to bother Michael, never ending and springing up constantly like weeds. They had been several kidnappings in other cities and questionable practices.

Now all children had to be registered with the Imperial Government. One of the many safety precautions that had been put into place. One governor had already been executed for allowing excessive kidnappings to happen under his watch. That was the nice thing about being an absolute dictator, I could get rid of the trash of society without issue. It was one of Michael’s few redeeming qualities, and I was not about to let him go on a rampage. That was anything with children was nipped in the bud before it could take root.

Children younger than six would be assigned up to four with a den mother. Many women who had children early on, took to this position. Once they were six, they would be transitioned to a group home of up to 24 children per group home which had 6 caretakers. Many of them carried through from being a den mother.

The group homes were clustered togeather with onsite schooling, soldiers, and medical care. At that age they would be required to go to school until they were 14 years old. Then they could get an apprenticeship for two years, or request emancipation.

It was coming up to the time period when the first children born in Purgatory would have to make a decision on their future. That was also the age we allowed them to get restorations for the first time as well. It would do no one any good for a child to revert to being a child with a restoration.

That was why there were medical services provided to children. The Master Fleshcrafter had brought this up years ago, but it made sense that he knew with all the horrible things he had done. The amount of knowledge Jacob Copper had trickled out over the years was immense.

I had an audit done on his contributions and they were massive. I had been annoyed with Michael at first, due to the political implications, but the idea had grown on me. I had questioned him about how he escaped the Dragon Empire. He had an airship which was wrecked and a one use weapon, which he used to killing the flying monsters after him. From there he built up a legend in East Bastion before coming to the capital once the Divine Empress was finished.

The Master Fleshcrafter was a monster and a war criminal of the highest order. Unfortunately, he was too useful to get rid of. It pained me to say that but keeping him leashed was the better option. There were two auditors assigned to him, instead of one. Also, several elite soldiers due to the prisoner he had in custody. They had all been briefed, scanned beforehand, and pass phrases set up. There would be no suborning of the people assigned.

With the increase in labor and food supply, it was time to move the more dangerous research out of the capital. Construction on a deep and long underground tunnel was in progress. We had hit the bedrock, and it was completely flat. From there we would go towards the edge of the grasslands and a research facility built a several miles out.

The air automatically refreshed. A candle placed under a glass cup would not go out. That meant the main limitation was food and waste, which could be shipped in and out. Building the walls out of carts, would ensure that things would not reset. Passive enchantments and carved out building materials would be brought in. Time was something we had a lot of, so there was no need to rush things and have an accident.

Looking at the children, many of them crying, being escorted to their new homes showed we had too much time in some regards. We were 22 or 23 years in since the first arrival, from what I could gather. We were looking at millennia to get everyone here from Earth. Earth politicians had it easy, they just had to last until the next election cycle.

I had to ensure the stability of government for eons. Unless there was an escape, and then there would be the nightmare of a migration. Michael would be defeating level 10 monsters, while teams were grinding away on level 5 or 6 monsters.

Turning away from the plaza, I made my way back into the Imperial Palace. There was nothing for me to do with the arrival. Other people would handle things. I had just wanted to observe and confirm we were getting the full range of people now.

What most people didn’t realize, was that the higher up one went in the corporate ladder, the less decisions they made. The top tier executives would make one, maybe two decisions a day. But these decisions were the most important things possible.

Michael kind of understood this philosophy, by offloading things onto me. I had done the same with my many assistants and directors. One wrong decision by me and everyone could die horribly, or the Empire collapse into chaos. I had worked too hard to let that happen.

Making one decision a day meant I needed to have the best information possible. Some things, like the arrival, I preferred to see firsthand. Also, it was a good excuse to get up and moving. I didn’t want to start gaining weight by sitting at a desk all day, reading reports.