Chapter 451 – Plans and Time 1 – Ticking by

Chapter 451 – Plans and Time 1 – Ticking by

“Ya know, this feels all kind of wrong,” Rave commented out of her turning swivel chair as John pulled the blue pin that represented their own influence out of yet another of their previously conquered positions.

“Think Scarlett will betray us after all?” her boyfriend asked as he threw the pin into one of the colour-coded plastic dishes.

“Nah, ya know me, I am the trusting type,” Rave told him, still turning, “but she ain’t the only one that could attack us in their loose alliance, so I don’t get why we are ceding so much ground in the first place.”

“Because of the Spanish Civil War of the 20th century,” that answer got him a very judgemental look, and Rave put her foot down to stop the rotation.

“Yeah, go ahead, Johnny, see where showing off gets ya with your not particularly informed girlfriend,” she told him drily, crossing her arms.

“You sound genuinely annoyed,” John stated while blinking rapidly. That was not a state he often got his girlfriend into and he was sure he did not like it.

“Ya have been a bit too in love with your own brain recently,” Rave told him, “dial it down or no more hugs and kisses.”

“But I like those!” John whined overdramatically and stumbled towards her with outstretched arms.

Rave raised a leg up high, stopping him by pushing the sole of her foot against his lower stomach as he gestured towards her like a love starved zombie. “Ja, ya do, sohowabout ya don’t be a smartass,” she smiled again, slurring her words a bit. “So we both don’t have to live through those terrible times?”

“I will try my best,” he swore, and the leg pulled backwards until she lowered it and tugged it between them as they kissed. A pleasant shiver spread from his lips touching her glossy, soft ones over his body; their tongues whirled for a second as she gently slid a hand on his neck.

Then the kiss ended and she gave him a headbutt. It wasn’t terrible, but the impact definitely hurt. “There, now ya stop treating your – admittedly not the brightest – best girl like an arrogant prick and we can hug later,” she smirked. “Watch some more Fullmetal Alchemist.”

“That show is actually good,” John smirked, rubbing his forehead and going back to the map to pull out one last pin.

He wasn’t mad about being berated; when Rave, the person in this world he loved the most, told him that he was getting obnoxious, he wanted to hear it. Better to be corrected early than annoy her for weeks and not knowing it.

“Anyway, the explanation is quite easy: Opportunistic alliances that think they have almost won start in-fighting, given enough time. The great thing is, even if we are pushed into just this little corner,” he tapped on the central pin on the Hudson that was the Guild Hall and the place they were currently residing in. “We are remarkably safe. Thorne has the biggest navy around these parts, which is abysmal, so even if they tried to land here in earnest, we could beat them back quite easily.”

“Unless they bought Sigmund or someone like him to crush us,” Rave pointed out.



She was, without a doubt, getting stronger, quickly as well. Nobody had any idea what kind of training she went through when she just upped and disappeared for hours on end.

“I trust her enough to go along with this,” John said, “but don’t worry, I took care of escape routes if we should get turned on. We will relocate further down the coast, probably somewhere in Florida, and try again there.”

“And bash her fucking brains in if she thinks she could get away with that,” Eliza commented, still being fed honeydew. The pure yellow stood out immensely in the otherwise changed world.

“Pretty much,” John said. “My revenge shall be swift and involve her bent over this table... well, I wouldn’t rape her, but spanking is in the program.”

“I wouldn’t mind being spanked,” a new passive voice joined the conversation. Beatrice entered the room and pulled the blue pin out of the position of the Ikea she had been tasked with defending in a robotic movement. “Reminder: I asked for my Libido to be raised to 25, but I have yet to make use of that in any way.”

“We can fix that in a minute, but first, did you make sure to lose convincingly?” John asked. Just ceding territory wouldn’t have been authentic, the enemy needed to feel like they were pushing against resistance to not call shenanigans. Therefore Aclysia, Rave and Beatrice had been going around losing fights on purpose. Nia had tried once to play the act, but she was trained exclusively in winning fights and not at all a good actor so she just beat them back, unable to pull her punches.

In a way, that was good, as never losing against people that were in one of the most high-profile engagements on the world stage was just as big a red flag as never fighting was. A few victories here and there were necessary to keep the appearance of an actual war up.

John had yet to face anyone himself, something that was about to change.

“Affirmative,” Beatrice answered, “I held the ground as Aclysia escorted everyone who wanted out through the teleporter.” That was another thing they currently did, the people that fled willingly to John’s side, despite it looking like he was losing, were most likely to be those who agreed with him and his actions on principle, not just because it looked like he was the new strongman in town. He could use those people in his administration. “I then stayed a little longer, making sure I looked defeated, before pulling back.”

“Good...” John checked his building menu. The Transport Station was still at 2/2 Outposts, but it also said 1 Damaged Outpost underneath, with a note explaining he would need to repair it to use it again. When the enemy had found they couldn’t follow, it seemed they had thought it best to just smash the thing.

With that barrier lost, Collide’s minimal presence on the east side of the Hudson was completely eradicated. On the west side, they still held a ring of bases centred around the Enclave. That was the point where John was supposed to appear and lose. Him doing so would make room for phase 3 of the plan.

The coalition had stayed away from that because it was the Gamer’s landing point; they were convinced that he concentrated his ‘remaining’ power there so they would need to amass their own assault crew.

Wonderous how all of that could happen in just a few days. It was literally yesterday that Beatrice had failed in her initial fighting trials. It had taken ten days to build what he got and four days for it to fall. Then again, it was all railroaded.

“Anyway, now we wait for them to attack us... and I will go ahead and fulfil Beatrice’s request!” John announced, acting like he was doing something for someone else. “How do you want to lose your virginity?” that felt like a weird thing to ask.

Beatrice thought about that for a second. “I don’t have strong preferences on the matter. However, in the interest of serving you to a maximum of your pleasure, Master, I suggest two options. A: threesome with Aclysia, B: orgy.”