Chapter 85: Day 211 – Strength of Convictions

“I am putting the victims in a nearby building,” Ruth had come up to the top floor, with Tom following her.

“Not my problem. If they are attacked and killed or eaten, not stepping in.” There was silence as the two stared at me.

“Why are you being like this,” Ruth asked.

“Because I want you to learn a lesson. Also, you have until mid-day 213 and then I am leaving. Also, no using my crystals or my food reserves in any way.”

“What lesson is that?” Ruth spat out.

“That you are not my partner or boss. You have zero authority over me and cannot compel me to do anything. I had a solution, but you didn’t like that solution. That is fine. Now let me see the strength of your convictions. I stood on my own two feet against countless odds. All you have done is leech off of me.”

She was silent at that. “That was harsh,” Tom spoke up.

“You have even less right to speak up. The fact that you are helping her in this, reduces my respect for Ruth’s decision by about 90%, making it clear she lacks the resolve and fortitude to carry through on her decisions and requires help. Now get out of my sight.” They didn’t say anything and left. Naran just quietly sat there, an observer of the drama going on. At least he wasn’t grinning, that would have made it very tempting to punch him in the face.

I noted she began putting the victims of this city in the buildings around mine. Naran and I just watched and didn’t say anything. I noted many people giving him angry looks.

“There seems to be a lot of hatred for you,” I said.

“Yes. They suffered while I was technically in charge. I am responsible for their misery to some degree. Mind if I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead, nothing else to do. Lay it on me.”

“Why not leave right now?”

“Reasons. Not something I want to talk about.” I was silent for about a minute before speaking up again. “I need to make a decision I keep putting off. I suspect this will push to finally decide. I was just hoping…I don’t know what I was hoping for really.”

“Must be a big decision with how decisive you seem to be.”

“It is. It is,” I whispered quietly. There was a lot of sitting there in silence. I dozed quite a bit, letting my eyes and mind rest. I had noted my need for sleep and been less than before. A stat most likely. Either Endurance or Body. I really needed to get more exact information on them somehow.

I noted that Ruth and Tom were using their crystals to help the people they had gathered. I mentally sighed at that. That was just putting a band-aid on a gaping wound squirting out blood.

It was late that evening, and I hadn’t seen Ruth and Tom for a while when the skill users hiding in Truth made their move. I heard screams come from a nearby building and people began to flee everywhere. I let out a sigh but didn’t move from my spot on the second-floor windowsill.

Naran kept up his vigil with me, not saying anything. “There,” I looked to where he was pointing and there was a man staring at us from quite a distance down the street. “That is one of them.”

“I am sure he is waiting for me to chase after him,” I said.

“I just wanted to point him out.”

“Don’t even think about anything. If I move from this spot, I am killing your first. Thank you for pointing him out. Not as if that stare and glare wasn’t obvious enough. Keep pointing them out if you see them. Curious to know how many rats crawl out of their holes.” The man cut down a fleeing older man and then proceeded to brutalize him on the street as the old man let out pitiful cries.

The cries were quite disturbing, but I still didn’t move. “Incoming!” I heard a shout and the assailant, quickly retreated, leaving his victim to bleed out on the ground. He was in good shape and quick on his feet. An Air Burst might close the distance, but I couldn’t keep using that skill to chase due to the energy cost.

It was good for a single rapid high-speed movement in a fight, but it wasn’t capable of pursuing someone. Also, a trap of some kind was guaranteed. This was exactly the reason I wanted to leave and bring people here to help sort things out. Half a minute went by and that was when Ruth and Tom came running up.

They looked at me and the people who had been killed. They didn’t say anything and went to help the survivors. The night dragged on after that with the occasional shout or scream in the distance. Ruth and Tom arrived late at night and slept downstairs. I heard them shuffling about, but I was going to sit here until it was time to leave.

The next day the same thing happened again. This time a person tried to run into my building to escape. “Acid Shot.” I melted them. Naran gave me a look but kept his mouth shut. I was waiting for him to try something, but he seemed quite relaxed and amused if anything.

The asshole was probably laughing inside as other people were stuck with this steaming pile of turds. Well, just about a day more and then I would depart. Tom and Ruth came back and saw the melted the person in front of the doorway.

They both came up to the second floor. I just kept sitting there, quietly waiting. “You are originally from the US?”

Naran looked up at me since he had been dozing. “Um, what?”

“You come from the US originally, before all of this?”

“Yes. Why?” I let out a long sigh. Well, that confirmed another thing about the Systemic Lands that I didn’t want to deal with. In fact, this one piece of news confirmed a level of death and depravity that had never before been seen in human history. The implications of that answer were just depressing.

“Other people?” I asked.

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“I think one was from Canada, but I never really checked or asked around.” That just confirmed it even more.

“People are being teleported geographically from Earth into the Systemic Lands. At least we can talk to each other.”

“Oh. If there are other cities and people come from other countries…”

“I would need a census to get a geographic distribution of people, and then compare that to the total population values of Earth. Then that would extrapolate how many cities there are. This is going to be devastating.”

“I can see the language barrier being an issue, but there should be people who can translate, and English is pretty widespread.”

“You probably didn’t study history or watch the news much, not an insult, just an observation.”

“Yes. What is it?”

“A lot of countries that are close together have long histories of animosity. Also, by grouping up people geographically, it also brings the countries from Earth over here to the Systemic Lands. But that is small potatoes to the real problem. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” I began gently banging the back of my head lightly against the wall behind me. Of course the Systemic Lands would be horrible, oh Almighty System why do you have to be so cruel.

“There will be violence.”

“Violence is simple enough to figure out. No. When cities and people require more and more crystals for upgrades, people are going to do what they normally do, turn to people similar to them and call others outsiders. Crystal demand, skill points, or some other resource that hasn’t been found but is in short supply will lead to war. Then the housing crisis that will occur. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”

“Well, I can tell you one thing. I don’t have a solution to any of that.” No one had a solution, and I was the only one who realized the sheer scale of the problem heading our way. It was at times like this, I wished with all my heart there was a person or organization I could dump this on so it wouldn’t be my problem to figure out.

“You think anyone does? Stupid store.” Naran gave me a questioning look. “We are tethered to the stores in the cities as the only source of food and healing. I can’t just leave and ignore all this political bullshit and the future political bullshit that is about to come down the pipeline. Sorry for the language.”

“No, no you are fine. I know politics can get heated.”

“Heated is an understatement. I like to follow it as a soap opera. Highly amusing as a reoccurring cast of characters bumble about.” That included me now. I was a political figure, the political figure in Purgatory. One thing most people didn’t realize, was that being in charge, meant being in charge. I had to deal with problems. There were no perfect solutions to political problems, current situation a prime example, which was why I wanted to avoid all of it. If only that was possible.

“But that is also why, I don’t like to talk about things like that, there are no winners, only degrees of how frustrated you leave a conversation. This entire place is stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” Somewhere along the way, strength became political. I guess when you reference yourself to being a nuclear deterrent, that doesn’t help the situation. I could only blame myself. I also couldn’t let go of control, otherwise an epidemic of stupidity might strike. One look at Truth confirmed stupidity was epidemic.

“I don’t disagree with you. I am betting aliens put us here. This is all one big test on how well humans adapt. Like rats on a sinking ship.”

“A super weapon gone rouge.”

“Super weapon?” I raised both my hands above me and shook them slightly.

“The Almighty System that controls this place. Praise be to its ever vigilance and observation. Things disappear and monsters spawn. But never when anyone is watching. That means the Almighty System that controls this place knows what everyone is looking at all the time. Coupled with the store and skills, it knows what we are thinking all the time.”

“Oh, never really thought of that. It is disturbing. But a weapon?”

“No one reads enough, I swear. A System is the most legendary, most powerful, most potent weapon platform you can imagine. Nukes, pffft. Mass driver, weak sauce. Dr. Device, only a planet killer. No a System like this is the equivalent of God and there is nothing more powerful that I can think of other than another System. Almighty. Hence, I named it the Almighty System.”

“And the handshake?”

“An amusing habit. With how famous I am, kind of curious if it catches on. Anyone who copies me, I know who is trying to suck up to me somehow.” Also, there was just a touch of honest reverence for the power of this place. God might allow free will, but here, well the Almighty System might just decide to smite a person.

“I am not even going to try and follow all of that. So, what is going to happen to me?” I could tell Naran was metaphorically dying to ask that question.

“Well, if you manage not to do anything between now and when I leave, then you are coming to Purgatory. Elected Representative Ken, Boss Tyrese, and myself will have a discussion to decide your fate. Don’t worry, you will get to make your case. I recommend you keep it straight forward as possible.”

“Got it. Thanks. Any idea after that what might happen?”

“Well on one end is death. On the other end is just letting you go. I don’t have much of an idea of what to put in between those two options. That is why I plan to bring you back.” I also didn’t want to have to explain this entire situation myself. This entire trip was a disaster. All wars are a disaster, but this situation was trying to get an achievement or something with how horrible it was.

It was probably because I was right in the middle of everything and there was the issue with Ruth I still needed to resolve. I was more than happy to spend 95% of my time grinding, 4% enjoying a nice meal, and 1% shopping and talking with people around Purgatory.

Instead, I felt my life was 50% grinding, 40% massive political headaches, 5% thinking how this place was run, and 5% life threatening terror. After this mess, I was going to keep exploring and find a spot to grind a long time away from all the headaches. It would be a working vacation.

The more I thought on the idea, the more I liked it.

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