Chapter 431 – Hunting sharks

Chapter 431 – Hunting sharks

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was the Enclave improved to liveable levels in 24-hours’ time. As a matter of fact, they didn’t even get that bathhouse John had suggested going. Not a real surprise, they were a bunch of people John just randomly elevated out of poverty yesterday. Most of them, without a doubt, were still half-stuck within depression. Thankfully, there was a minority that was taking this opportunity for what it was, motivating everyone else to at least try by proxy.

Despite the somewhat slow progress, the Enclave was doing quite well for itself. It currently had to rely on outside resources a lot, such as food, clothes and similar things, but that was just how the cookie crumbled.

The point was that John’s non-interventionist strategy seemed to pay off for the moment. Not that it had anything to say in the long run; the interesting part of the building effort would come once they were done building up and found themselves out of John’s money and in need to maintain themselves. Then again, there were some former business owners amongst the ranks of the Cornered Enclave.

“What’s that?” John asked when he next visited the barrier on Tuesday. The question came due to a metal frame put up around the tree he himself had put in place. Back then he had cut it down to use as firewood, but fresh branches were growing out of the crippled tree. They were still green and fairly weak, but they were there.

“I have this idea about using that tree to grow fruits to feed the community with,” he got a response from a woman, one of the people around Seth. “I am a very weak druid, so I will need a greenhouse to protect it from the cold.”

“I see, keep going then,” John approved and was then approached by Seth.

“Mr. Ne- John, I got a question,” the older man asked. “You told me to encourage people to buy stuff with the money you gave me, right?”

“Well, that’s what it boils down to, yes,” John answered.

“Wouldn’t that attract unwanted attention? I did tell you that most of us had debts in some way...”

“Yes, that’s exactly the point.”

That answer left Seth in a confused silence for a moment, then he just asked, “Could you please elaborate?”

“The idea is: I could either spend weeks searching for all of your individual creditors or I could put some blood in the water and wait for the sharks to come to us,” John told him, which caused Seth to go pale. “Don’t worry, it’s going to be fine, I am overpowered,” he joked.

The reason why he was so sure that it was going to be fine was that nobody had even attempted to remove Tilgun so far. In a city full of people out for a profit, he would be shocked if nobody who was capable of doing so was going to pass the opportunity to slay an elusive higher dragon and harvest his body for extremely valuable and unique materials.

With that in mind, it seemed to be the case that there was no person of John’s level, which was really the minimum to challenge something like the maw of souls, or, if there was, that that person did not partake in the whole money craze and thus was highly unlikely to be inside the loaning profession.

He could still be wrong, but he would be genuinely surprised if that were the case.

As if fate had just waited for this conversation to occur, a newcomer entered the barrier with the extremely pretentious sound of a, “WELL, WELL, WE-Aaaaah!” The suited man was suddenly ripped off his feet by a stone bench appearing from the ground beneath him and his two bodyguards, placing them firmly on their asses as John casually strolled over while Gnome added a table and a second bench to the set.

“You have no idea how much I prepared for this scene,” the Gamer said as he sat down with a smile. Aclysia pulled a porcelain pot from her inventory. “Tea? It is quite cold outside.”

The man in front of John looked beyond unsure what to do. His name was Glenn and, going by his description, he was quite the scumbag, but also the kind that had worked hard to get into his position of wealth. Being a mobster was not an easy job, then again, neither was being a farmer, and one of those two was infinitely more valuable for human society. Of course he was also not the leader of the organization he was representing, going out to press money out of debtors was a henchman’s job.

“Tea?” John asked a second time as he was presented with his own cup. Aclysia had stored it away at the perfect drinking temperature, so he began drinking straight away.

“How is that possible should be the better question,” John told her. “There is just a limit to how much paperwork someone can do without becoming the paper... wait a second...” His eyes widened and his hands stopped.

The former owners of the Thorne were well-known. The current cell structure had begun to take shape ten years ago. That was the info he gathered rather easily. Six years ago, after the death of Johana Thorne, the company began to change and heavily invest in biomechanics and robotics, three years ago, after the death of Ebenezer Thorne, it then rapidly expanded. Nobody knew who was leading the company now.

Thorne robotics were part of basically every business in the city at this point, as they had aggressively pushed every single competitor from the market.

Thorne did not want its leadership revealed.

“Whoever is leading them is a strong administrator but a weak fighter,” John mumbled a new theory. “One that doesn’t want his or her powers to be known, lest they reveal their weakness, and thus stays in the shadows. Someone who can work and communicate incredibly quickly, someone who would profit immensely from the spreading of their own robotics and who is building shops and spreading their influence in a tight network... a network...” He still didn’t knew what Thorne wanted, but he now was very aware about what power the person sitting at the top had. “...Jane, you entered one of those shops, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Where is your phone?”

Confused, she pulled it out of her pocket. She shouted in surprise, dropping the phone in the progress, when it began vibrating exactly at that time. “Spooky!” she complained, looking down at the upwards lying object on the carpet. “Uhm, John, my phone is unlocking itself.“ He had expected that and therefore just waited for the inevitable.

“I have to commend you,” a distorted voice rang out of the speakers. “Going by the rumours, I thought you were more kin to think with your dick than your brains.”

“John, what is happening?” Rave wanted to know.

“That’s the head of Thorne, a Technomancer, most likely an absurdly powerful one – within the profession.” John explained. “Someone who is growing their business as the second priority on their list while trying to create an information sphere with them at the centre and someone who can survey us 24 hours, seven days a week now that this phone entered the yacht.”

“Quite a disadvantage you find yourself in, isn’t it?” the distorted voice sounded incredibly amused. “Gotta say, you tickle my fancy, you and all of the ladies you are with. Fucking hot bodies, I am jealous.”

“I really hope for you that you are a woman,” John warned; he was already in a bad mood because he hated being spied on. “I like other men sounding jealous, but I don’t like them flirting with me nor being creepy.”

“Find out for yourself. I will leave a message in your phone with a time, date and place of a meeting between you and me.” With that the phone shut itself off. A moment later it was John’s that vibrated, giving him a notification spelling out all the things that were just mentioned.

“Like she,” John assumed the gender because he really wanted it to be true, “is going to show up herself.”

“I don’t get it, this phone is supposed to be technomancy proof,” Rave picked hers up and looked at it with distrust. “Aside from the ones that are allowed access, of course.”

“Any firewall can be torn down if you are good enough at what you are doing,” John responded; there wasn’t even any sense in trying to hide what they were saying. The whole ship was infected, there was no place where they could be sure to have privacy unless they shut down all electricity and locked all their mobile devices in a box somewhere. He sighed heavily, “Well, seems like we have a date on Friday, Jane. Tomorrow Magoi arrives, so at least there will be stuff to do.”

“Should you say that out loud?” Rave asked. “Considering?”

“If she can send me messages without displaying a number and activate my phone from who knows where, she can read my chat logs. Literally nothing I can hide from her at this point... including our nudes, I guess.”

Rave groaned, “Those were private!”