The Systemic Lands

Chapter 66: Day 156 (2) – A Bad Joke

The plaza was filled with starving people all sitting around uselessly. Several people glanced over our way. I looked at the pillars and there was a cleared space around them with ten guards, a table, and two people sitting at the table talking with each other.

There was a stink in the air. The entire plaza was a slum, how utterly useless. “The Council is at the table, right?”

“Two of the members, the other three are off killing butterflies.” Another unintended piece of information. They had butterflies in the other areas and not slimes. We were attracting more and more attention.

“Follow behind, all of you.” I advanced through the open lane that led to the pillars. By now the two council members sitting there stood up and their useless looking guards had come forward. No combat line or organization of any kind. Only three shields between the ten of them and five swords. It was a joke, a bad joke at that.

I stopped in front of them. “I am Champion Michael of the city of Purgatory. I have placed under my custody two of your members for their crimes and demand compensation for their release.”

“I am Council Member Lucas and this is Council Member Marcos. Why have you arrested two of our people and where are the rest?”

“Two were killed while challenging me. One was given mercy at the request of her companion. The two remaining are under my custody as prisoners until war is declared or an understanding is reached.” There were a lot of murmurs at that from the people nearby.

“And what gives you the right to do such a thing?” Lucas asked loudly. I could see anger on his face and Marcos’ face.

“Power. Power to kill every single person inside this city and turn it into a blood bath. You might think quantity has a quality of its own. But at a certain point, quality cannot be surpassed. I have reached that point and you and your people clearly have not. Now shall I kill you all to make a point or will you discuss compensation.”

“Is this true Estevo?”

“Speak freely,” I said and waved my hand.

“He cut through us like nothing. His companions just watched. It was indicated that he was playing with us and that if it came down to it, he would melt everyone here.” There were more murmurs at that, and the council members stared at me.

“What form of compensation were you asking for?”

“Since this place is clearly dirt poor, I won’t ask for points. I would normally ask for crystals worth 25,000 points at a minimum, each. Instead, three questions answered honestly and unrestricted access to the store.” They looked at each other and Marcos gave a small nod.

“Ask your questions,” Lucas said.

“How many people arrive in the city and at what interval?”

“Every 10 days 250 people arrive.” The same as Purgatory.

“Are all people here from Brazil, or are there any from other countries?”

“All from Brazil as far as we know.” That was all I honestly wanted to ask without giving anything away. Well time for a curiosity question.

“Why are you running your city like this?” I waved my hand at the people staring.

“I don’t understand,” Lucas said.

“I am curious, why are you giving charity to anyone? These people would die unless you take the effort to feed them, why bother?” I asked.

“That is easy to answer. One must give compassion if one is to expect it in return.” Look where that got you. A slum of depressed, barely alive people. The situation would only grow worse as more people kept being teleported into the city.

“Wait…you were serious. That is going to amuse me for days on end. Now the store.”

“I have some questions of my own,” Lucas said.

“Five thousand points per question, might be more depending on the question. Crystals up front, no credit or loans offered.”

“That is outrageous, you expect to be able to barge in here and do whatever you want?” Lucas shouted at me.

“Not at all and you should watch your tone unless you are issuing a challenge. I expect the stupidity of people to be boundless and that I would have to kill everyone here. Estevo, since they answered questions, you are free to go.” I drew my sword and walked over to Eloa. “But I will have to execute her, since the Council is going back on their word about letting me use the store.”

He looked at her, me, and then the crowd. “Set her free please. I will stay instead.” What a giga-chad power move. He wasn’t really offering himself to me just trying to score points with the starving people listening in. Time to call his bluff. Rule one with me, I hate bluffing and love calling bluffs. That is why I am terrible at poker.

“Very well, I can respect that since you were polite. Go you are free.” The woman glared at me before running off into the crowd. Estevo walked over.

“If you hurt him, you will have to deal with everyone here,” Lucas said.

“Will you allow access to the store, yes or no?” I brought up my blade. Marcos and Lucas looked at me and then got into a heated debate whispering between each other.

“You know I won’t hesitate to kill you?” I asked.

“Yes, but I owed her. It was my path.” Maybe not a giga-chad power move then. Not like I was going to trust a random person on their word, so no difference really.

“I can respect that, even though I think it was utterly stupid. I suspect your council members will be condemning you and so many people to death shortly.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I would offer to bet, but your life is already on the line.”

“I know something interesting. A pit in the ground.” Now that was interesting, a dungeon. Perhaps it was a giga-chad power move to get close to me and directly bargain. Now this situation had gone from sad and depressing to interesting.

“That is quite valuable. I don’t steal and won’t undervalue the information. If you somehow survive, we can talk your price as a guide.”

“I was thinking about asking to go with you.”

“Really? Why should I trust you?”

“Since your point about useless people was right. So much goes to feed everyone here. If people protest, well they are mobbed.” The grinders should have stocked up on food and hidden outside the city until the masses starved. But they probably felt bad, were afraid, and weren’t willing to condemn people to death.

“You can’t stock up on food?”

“The Council stops that.” Of course the Council did that, they wanted to maintain control.

“How quaint. Oh, looks like they decided.”

“You will be granted access and then asked to leave and never return.” That was stupid.

“You are a free man, Estevo.” I made sure not to agree to anything. I whispered the next part. “Meet me at the city entrance we came in tomorrow morning at dawn.” I gave him a light shove and he walked away. “Also, if you are thinking about a double cross, don’t. That would mean I would have to purge everyone here and that would be quite annoying.”

“We aren’t thinking anything like that, hurry up,” Lucas said. I advanced forward and they cleared a path. No one tried anything surprisingly. I checked the store. The points carried over from Purgatory. They were stuck on tier 2 so no tier 3 options. I quickly scanned the options available. Nothing different.

There were no points from killing other people from other cities. That was a very important thing for me to confirm.

It was tempting to buy some property, but it wasn’t worth the headache or the points. I purchased a restoration for 271 points. I then pulled out the two level 3 crystals and checked them. They were worth 450 points each. Less than I expected, something to think about later. I cashed them both.

Tom had rolled up with the cart. I took a pack I had prepared last night and gave it to him. He cashed in 10 50-point crystals in the pack for 500 points and purchased a restoration. I got a pack and cashed in 956 50-point crystals, bringing my point total to 66,978.

There was no Absorption stat upgrade, since the tier of the store wasn’t high enough. Good to know, more stats were only available at a higher tier store. Other than that, it was exactly the same, just at a lower tier. I purchased 20 torches for 10,000 points and put them in the cart.

I then spent 50,950 points on 20 upgrades. I put them all into Perception. Hopefully I would get better dungeon vision. That left me with 6,928 points in the bank. I watched Ruth while she got a restoration and cashed in her paltry number of crystals.

“Done?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she replied, and I nodded.

“Very well. Before I leave let us conclude diplomatic talks.”

“What?” Lucas said.

“I am Champion Michael, not Michael. I have full plenary authority. That means I have the authority to speak on behalf of my government and authority to negotiate in all external affairs. If you wish to open diplomatic relations, you have to go through me. Perhaps we will meet again in the future.”

“We won’t forget this,” Lucas said. I stopped and turned to look at him.

“I hope you don’t. That is the point. Let us depart.” I began walking away with Tom and Ruth behind me. That was when an older woman stepped out in front of me. Please don’t be a Karen, but I wasn’t optimistic.

“Yes?” I asked.

“You aren’t going to try and help anyone here?” I smiled at her with my Joker grin. I hadn’t used that in a long time.

“Absolutely not. Let the weak perish. Honestly you should just slit your throat old hag for how useless you are right now.” People began to mutter more loudly as they watched.

“What do you know?! I bet you are just some man child who got a bit lucky. And before you threaten me, I am not afraid of you!”

“Death is easy, your leg melting and being permanently crippled to die slowly is so much worse. Acid Shot.” I targeted her foot, and she didn’t have any idea she was supposed to be dodging and running.

She fell to the ground screaming as her foot melted away. Everyone around us recoiled in panic. “Pathetic.” I walked forward and kicked the old woman out of the way as she let out some more screams. I wanted to make a point that stuck with these people. Also, long term, it would make negotiations much easier. I had some vague idea about their dungeons, but hadn’t completely thought through the whole issue yet. “Anyone else?”

“You…YOU!” A man shouted.

“Acid Shot.” I hit his head, but the splatter hit several people near him who also began to scream as their flesh melted. Time to give these people a wakeup call.

“Anyone else?” I asked loudly.

“Screw you!” Someone shouted from the back of the crowd.

“Acid Shot.” One person melted and more fell down screaming. “I can do this all day. Anyone else?” This time no one shouted back. Several people had thrown up and there was small panic occurring. Most people had already run away screaming. A few were trying to help the wounded people away from the battle area. “Let us depart.” We left the way we had come.

I walked at the back of our group and noticed there were ten people following us. I shook my head. After walking for another fifteen minutes, I ducked into a building while the cart went ahead. As the group trailing behind us passed the building, I walked out behind them.

“Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Acid Shot.” I killed six and four ran off into the city. I caught up with Tom and Ruth, since I couldn’t be bothered to chase them.

“Get them?” Ruth asked.

“Six out of the ten. Completely useless. Well, their loss will be our gain. Still, the level of uselessness is surprising, any ideas why?”

“I…I honestly don’t know. I was expecting a warlord like figure, but a council and a large starving group, it was not what I was expecting,” Ruth said. “So how much for the large crystal?”

“I should charge you.”

“I helped, so share the information at least.”

“Only 450 each.”

“I thought you said 500.”

“I can be wrong with my guesses. But the math is easy enough to work out.” I did some mental math, 450*10=4,500. 450*2=900. 450*8=(4,500-900)=3,600. “Level four is probably worth 3,600 points.”

“How do you figure?”

“A factor of 10, then 9, so multiply 450 by 8.”

“That…makes sense.” I could tell she was doing the mental math and working it out.

“It also means that level 10 is the top level if that scaling is consistent. Have to double check my math when we stop.” I let out a sigh I had been holding in.

“Why sigh?”

“It is scaling down, not up. Hard to gauge monster difficulty, but I doubt it will be scaling down like that. Think on it a bit and you will realize the troubling implications.”

“Are we staying in the city?” Tom spoke up.

“Yes. Since we are meeting someone tomorrow morning.”

“A dungeon, those torches. Estevo I am guessing?” Ruth was certainly quick on the uptake.

“Yes, meeting at dawn at the West entrance to Neo Brasilia.”

“Surprised you are using their name.”

“Their city, their name.”

“So, you own Purgatory?”

“I own the naming rights. Also, for Neo Brasilia, no, just no.” One city was enough of a headache to deal with.