Chapter 578 – Things to go about

Chapter 578 – Things to go about

Leaving Gnome and Undine to keep a watch on Eliza, John and Aclysia left the apartment within John’s palace and went for the staircase. The replacement sphere flew just a metre ahead of him, but the Gamer concentrated on seeing through the two lenses in his eyes. It functioned relatively well, as long as he had his hands on something.

The progress was pretty tangible at this point. Sometimes he would get into the correct state of mind, the correct way to guide the Possession, that allowed him to keep both fields of vision synchronized. Then it would slip again. Each time, there was a minor increase in the duration, each time he had to think about it less. Basically, he had the procedure figured out, now it was just a question of repeating it ad nauseam until it was a background process like walking.

It was still good that he was careful about these things, as he lost his accurate perception on the staircase. Hitting his foot on one step, he first threatened to fall forwards, then over-compensated to the point that his hand slipped off the railing. With Aclysia behind him, nothing bad happened, as she simply caught him and they continued on after he got himself together.

They emerged under the socket of Lady Liberty. He could have ascended further, into the statue, but they instead went to the door that led to the outside. There was a basic green area up there. Lots of space to walk around contemplating existence and all that. Boring, however, as it was just that: a green area.

‘Maybe I should place some trees up here,’ John thought as he headed for the sole difference in surroundings around. The Transport Station was sitting there in all its usual pavilion-like glory. Four side platforms opened from the large central one like arms made from circular segments. The blue glow in the floor intensified when they got lower, the building sensing its creator by whatever machinations the Guild Hall functioned.

He and Aclysia both stepped on. One second they looked at Lady Liberty, the next at a wall in Scarlett’s tower. As was typical, the wall rolled open, well-greased machinery parting and unveiling the large, mostly empty office of the redhead Technomancer.

“There you are,” Scarlett announced, toasting them with a glass of some clear liquid. In a relaxed pose, she was lying back in her chair, feet resting on the edge of her table. Although she didn’t look like it whatsoever, she was working. On the opposite side of the room, mechanical tendrils and robotic arms went through a series of motions. “I suppose it’s time for our new strategy meeting?”

“What is that beverage you are drinking?” Aclysia wanted to know before anything else happened. Her bet with the Technomancer was still on: Scarlett had to go one month without any drugs of any description. It had mostly been about cigarettes, but alcohol was included in that list. In the meanwhile, John looked some more at the tools the bloodstained Technocrat was guiding. They seemed a bit different than usual.

“Water,” Scarlett answered, first taking a sip and then sliding the glass over the table to let Aclysia check. “Do you have any idea how much work I had the past week?”

“Judging by the question, a fuckton,” John dared to guess.

“A metric fuckton,” Scarlett agreed, calmly raising her legs and getting on her feet. “I spent the last three days upgrading my tools. Which was a pain in my sides.” So, it hadn’t just been John’s imagination.

The Gamer looked doubly closely at the mecha-tendrils and then realized what was off: parts of them had been replaced with shimmering bronze metal. “Baelementium?” he asked.

“With the amount of the stuff you supply, I figured I might as well treat myself on your cost,” Scarlett stated, causing John to raise an eyebrow. “I took it from the guild account.”

“Hey, I was stocking up on that!” John protested, but not particularly strongly.

Rolling her eyes, the redhead responded, “And I had a use for it immediately. You wouldn’t have given me access without knowing I would take what I need.” She was right on that front. “Anything else you want to waste our time with before we get going?” Reaching out to Aclysia, she got her glass of water back and emptied it in one go.

“Don’t act like you don’t enjoy the banter,” the Gamer snickered. “It’s about half of what defines having a relationship with me. The other half being mind-blowing sex, of course.”

“I am 90% in it for your power and wealth,” Scarlett denied, but a smirk of her own showed that to be a lie or, more likely, an overstatement. “The rest is just being tolerated.”

As she spoke, the room dimmed and the massive screen was lowered from the ceiling. Like their last meeting, Scarlett evidently wanted to give them a visual. Something that John appreciated, since their now extended borders meant they had to deal with some forces he barely knew about.

“Since you’ll go and properly integrate the Small Lake Pact into our territory and because I have already made arrangements for Fusion to go out and claim the formerly untaken areas,” Scarlett explained as the map appeared, “our current situation looks like this.”

“Do we even have the resources to take control of those?” John asked. It wasn’t a question of military power, Fusion’s current shortcoming, since the only few engagements to be had in the area were between special operatives and on the information front, areas his guild excelled in. Rather, it was a problem of actually claiming them.

To hold land in a proper sense, it needed to be governed by the state, whatever shape that took, that claimed it. Doing so meant that police stations, courts and other government buildings were all needed to establish presence, together with the people manning them. Since those areas, after years of conflict, were basically bereft of even a population to rule over, they needed to be taken from scratch.

“I am hiring some mercenaries to create preliminary fortresses. Once that is settled, we’re going to create some government sponsored program where moving gets encouraged,” Scarlett played with the glass in her hand, turning in circles. “Basically, we are going to throw money at the problem until it disappears.”

“We could also just keep extracting their wealth. Whatever happens, we win.”

As far as John was concerned, this was basically the best way to go about these things. A bit dirty, sure, but way less dirty than murdering soldiers and civilians. It was a completely bloodless takeover and the only people that were economically hurt by it, at least if all ran smoothly, were the people currently calling the shots over there.

If the leaders of Amacat had half a brain, it would take way less than five years for them to agree to joining Fusion, if they weren’t going to suggest it themselves. There was enough pressure to make it happen. Most of Amacat’s borders lay with John’s guild, now that the Small Lake Pact was theoretically part of it. Once they realized how Fusion was slowly taking over their entire economy, they would have basically no other choice.

Not like it would be bad for them either. As a trading guild, Amacat could basically take the place of the NTC within Fusion. At the very least, they would profit from John’s relationships with Lydia and other leaders in Europe. If he forgave them all debt upon joining, Amacat would experience an economic boom from all the advantages and fresh capital that would be given to them.

“Alright,” the Gamer nodded, having approved of this. “I’ll leave you to it... even if I might have to break up your monopoly eventually.”

“Bah,” Scarlett spat out. “Can’t have any fun on this market place with your antitrust laws and everything. Fucking communists.”

“I’d make the argument that monopolies are inherently anti-capitalistic because they centralize economy, just around a small group of oligarchs instead of the government,” John immediately countered.

“...That’s a good argument,” Scarlett had to concede. “I demand compensation, should you ever do that though.”

“Don’t you worry, I will choke you out nice and firmly, while I remove your chokehold on my economy,” John promised, earning himself a bit lip and a ‘fuck me’ glance of her red eyes. “We aren’t even close to done yet though. What about the western situation? Anything of note there?”

“Not really, if I am being honest,” Scarlett shrugged. “We can’t expand west for the moment, as we lack the manpower for as long as we need to guard the border and are occupied on the coast.” They both directed their eyes towards the uncreatively named Resistance.

The last rebels from the Little Maryland had all gathered in a single province and put an alliance together with some of the small fry in the area. Whether that had happened organically or if the Lake Alliance had their fingers in the happenings wasn’t clear, just that it was a thorn in their sides. “Is there a way to utilize them as controlled opposition?” John asked.

Scarlett shook her head. “We don’t have people on the inside and no idea about their exact resources. Best crush them while they’re still small.”

“Mhm, I’ll keep Metra in the area then. Do you still need Beatrice in the Amacat?”

“For the moment...” Scarlett’s fingers drummed on the table as she thought for a few seconds. “Since you’re already going north, you could go to their headquarters for a few days after you’re done around the lake. Further our goals, look nice for the camera, et cetera. If things go well enough, you can take Beatrice back home with you and send some standard diplomat that only focuses on maintaining our relationship.”

“Sounds good,” John wondered when he would actually be home the next time, since he couldn’t see those things take less than two weeks. “What about the rest?”

“What ABOUT the rest?” Scarlett sneered and quickly gave him the list. “New Libraria has been in diplomatic neutrality forever, the Gestalt countries haven’t recovered since the Death Zone appeared a decade ago and Florida is full of raving lunatics.”

“So, you’re saying Jane would like it there?” John joked.

“She unironically would, because your girlfriend also has a few screws loose,” the redhead responded in a serious tone.

Now John was pretty curious, but he couldn’t justify checking for himself. The one thing that pulled him in that direction was that the last thing he had heard about Nia was her heading south. “By the way, is that a literal Death Zone or a guild name?”

“The former,” Scarlett told him. “Abyssals that try to live there just up and vanish. Not that anyone tried recently.”

So many things going on in this world and John was messing with a fairly large chunk of them. “Well, I guess we’ll solve that mystery at some point,” he dared to say, but they were largely done with the strategy meeting now. “Once I am back, we will think about how we go on about the south.”

“Alright,” Scarlett nodded, with all the moving parts they had little influence over, making plans that extended beyond that would have been fairly useless. “When are you leaving?”

“On Monday,” John answered after putting in order what he wanted to do before going. There doubtlessly was a bunch of paperwork stacked up, since neither him, Rave nor Beatrice was working on it. Much of the apparatus worked without his necessary input at this point, but he still had to sign some things before they had any official power.