The Systemic Lands

Chapter 541: Day 5,003 (2) – A Meta-Point Question

“Ah, the points?” he asked, and I narrowed my eyes.

“Clarissa?” I turned to her.

“I have already sent the request to pull that much from the treasury and our emergency reserves. But I would insist on the answer first,” she said, and I nodded at this turning back to the man.

“The deal is done. We are moving the points. Now your part?” I asked.

“Points first,” he nervously said.

“Alright. While you have proven you might have a legitimate answer, you better repeat it exactly word for word that you got from the Almighty System. No changes. No assumptions,” I said sternly and he quickly nodded.

“Of course,” he replied. This cut into my schedule, but was far more important than anything else I might be doing. We all left the room togeather to have him cash in his 10 billion points right in the plaza. There were several looks, but no one said anything.

If he was lying, I would be pissed, and would give him to the Master Fleshcrafter to turn into a handbag or something. Ten billion points wasn’t back breaking like a trillion, but it was a sizable number of points to invest into this random person.

It would put him around 60 thousand stat points. That was a massive number for anyone besides myself, Clarissa, and possibly the governors. It took time for him to get all those points. It made me smile slightly thinking back to the theft from the Divine Empress’s treasury for a similar amount.

Perhaps this was the start of the legend of Charles. Or maybe he would grind some level 4 monsters now and retire somewhere, rich and powerful. That was always a possibility as well. It took all day for him to get his points, but I wasn’t letting him out of my sight until I got my answers.

We then made our way back inside the Imperial Palace to the same room and sat down again. “The answer?” I asked once more.

“I instantly knew she was alive and the day when she would arrive in Truth,” Charles said. “There was also the following statement.” I waited silently as he cleared his throat before speaking resisting the urge to tell him to hurry on with it.

“Recall From-“ I was ready for something like this.

Air Burst. I shot from my seated position, smashing through the table we were seated at, and my hand shot forward. My fingers went into his mouth as I grabbed onto his chin. He struggled to keep speaking as I shook his head. Not enough to break his neck, but enough to rattle his brain.

“Spike him,” I called out. Two of my personal guards rushed forward and slammed enchanted spikes through his shoulders. Thank you, Mister Copper, for coming up with such a horrible weapon. They would disrupt all skills involving a person and even their stats to some extent. He screamed and sobbed from my grip.

“You think you are the first one to try some idiot scheme like this?” I asked. Charles sobbed and tried to say something. “If you hadn’t taken the points, you would have just been executed. Now. Oh boy. Now we are going to make you wish you had killed yourself. No one steals from me and doesn’t live to regret it,” I said calmly. I maneuvered my fingers around his mouth. He didn’t have the Body stat to stop my hand.

I grabbed his tongue with my thumb and another finger. I then ripped it out with a single pull. “Just in case you thought you had any escape. That is never going to happen now.” I tossed the lump of flesh to the side as he sobbed, and blood poured out of his mouth. “The drill collar?”

“Already prepared,” Clarissa said as a soldier brought it forward. I let Charles collapse to the floor. The enchanted collar was carefully attached to his neck. Then eight screws were slowly tightened down to make sure it was in full contact with his body. The soldier applying it never let go of the collar, to ensure they had control of the enchantment on it and not Charles.

They then activated the collar. It merged with his neck using flesh type energy. Small compartments on the collar were opened with a key and null enchanted blocks were put into the collar. The spikes were pulled out and he was doused with life water and he was forced to swallow it.

“What?” he said while reaching up to touch the collar around his neck.

“A clever invention from one of our researchers. It is cursed onto you. Now you will explain your meta-point.”

“Recall From Here!” he called out and waved his hands. Nothing happened.

“I see your look of surprise. But skills work by calling on your energy signature. Right now you are so heavily cursed you will never use the system store again, and your skills no longer work. You may have the physical mind of Charles and his stats. By the System doesn’t recognize you as Charles,” I explained.

It was more than that. The null blocks were what was really doing it. A person could still use skills after being cursed. But the blocks of null material in the collar were acting like rods inside of him. Since the collar was now a part of him. Much worse than a living tumor.

It was amazing what one could come up with when they weren’t focused on furniture. Still, Charles was not going to have a good fate after what he had done. I am surprised he didn’t try to sell a bullshit story about the answer from the Almighty System. His nerves probably got to him. It would have been amusing at the very least.

“Recall from here. I am guessing a skill for escapes. You wanted to pull off a heist with it. Of course,” I said with a heavy sigh. “A useful skill. But the requirement to say it, and your low stats, lack of situational intelligence, and me getting robbed before ensuring this wouldn’t happen again.

“What a waste,” Clarissa muttered.

“Well, it is always the stupid people,” I replied.

“I am sorry, I will do whatever you say,” the man begged while sobbing.

“Don’t worry, you are going to be quite useful. Take him to Jacob Copper. Inform him that the prisoner is a meta-point holder, what it is, and that he is to be used for science. Don’t worry. You will contribute to our knowledge one way or the other.”

He was dragged away by the soldiers as he screamed and pleaded to be spared. “Well, we captured another meta-point holder,” I told Clarissa.

“For only ten billion points,” she muttered. “Cost of doing business. What an idiot. I sometimes can’t believe the stupidity of people out there who get meta-points.”

“Like I keep saying, the smart ones hide that they have them. But getting a reasonable person, that didn’t ask for something crazy, seems to be too much to ask for. Perhaps a requirement is megalomania?”

“Perhaps. If you ever get one and request something stupid, I will pull out my hair and quit,” Clarissa told me.

“Don’t worry, it is never going to happen. Thanks,” I told a soldier you handed me a cloth to wipe off my bloody and spit covered hand. At least I had kept my clothing clean.

“Ten billion points, I should have realized,” Clarissa berated herself once more.

“It was the cost of doing business and he might have been telling the truth. Getting the answer to the Systemic Lands would be quite useful. Or a portable store. I swear if I find anyone with such an item, I am stealing it,” I replied.

“You and me both. Well, we still have time for dinner, with this set of governors,” she said.

“Urg,” I said with a groan. I didn’t want to deal with that headache inducing mess. At least Clarissa would be there to handle most of the talking. But I had to actually pay attention and be responsive. While I knew the minutiae of the Imperial Government, it was exhausting to deal with all the politicking. I would rather face a level 7 monster.

“Unless you want me to do everything?” Clarissa asked.

“No. I need to show up or people will get offended, and questions will be asked. No need to spread around we got scammed out of ten billion points. I am sure there will be questions. I missed the finals of the monster battle arena for this nonsense. Handbag is too good of a fate. Outhouse is more deserving,” I muttered.

“Well at least we have the best,” Clarissa said. “I will be announcing there was a large scale scam, the person has been caught and tortured heavily.”

I nodded at this. “Best to deter people from attempting this nonsense. I leave it in your hands like always, but you can use my name for this.”

“Thanks. Ten billion points.” I felt you, Clarissa. It hurt my soul as well. That many points, wasted just like that. If he really had gotten away. I would have hunted him down with everything I had. I would have issued a 100-billion-point bounty. It would have become the greatest manhunt of all time.

The stupidity of people never ceased to amaze me. Did he really think he would get away with such nonsense? Well, one more meta-point holder would be no more. The evil doctor, as I thought of Jacob Copper, would be making him scream as he performed war crime level experiments on the man.

I wasn’t lying when I said death would have been kinder. It was rare to get people with high stats that became test subjects. Most of the stupidity got weeded out early on before people got powerful. The level 4 grinders were perfect examples of this.

Even bear man, I couldn’t bother to remember his name, was incredibly smart and togeather. If you were just going through the motions and said any stupid thought that entered your head, you would never make it that far. Social Darwinism at its finest.

The same with the governor system. It had its share of problems, like working out disputes, and the occasional poor management decision. But for the most part it did its job in creating differences between the cities to promote trade, jobs, research, and general competition.

Trade was alright. Jobs were fairly low still. Research was primarily in food. And city sponsored grinding teams were struggling with level 4 zones. They required a lot more investment than level 3 teams to do well. Also, it wasn’t just stats, but combat experience was needed as well to handle the unique variations of level 4 monsters.

Humanity as a whole didn’t have the instinctual knowledge to fight monsters. We had lost that from our hunter gatherer days. I was hoping the new generation of kids would overcome such hurdles. While there had been some older kids recovered from the Dragon Empire and the Free City of Hong Kong, there weren’t too many.

I was more interested in the batch of kids that were born here in Purgatory and heavily instilled with my values. Values and combat experience to fight head-to-head with monsters without fear. Teaching kids to take hits and receive them was critical if I ever wanted to get front line fighters one day. With no computers or phones, it was easy enough to keep them focused. With life energy infused water, it was easy to patch them up.