Chapter 84: Day 210 (3) – Do It Yourself

Chapter 84: Day 210 (3) – Do It Yourself

“So, why is he coming with us?” Tom asked as we left the city of Truth.

“A prisoner of war and I am not going to have the patience to explain what is happening with that city to people. It is...stupid.” I had given in and listened to the experiments the previous Lords had done. They were cruel, over the top, and didn’t produce results. It thoroughly soured me on wanting to do anything with Truth.

“He wasn’t in charge?” Ruth asked.

“That is the question that is stupid to answer, better get in your practice explaining,” I gestured at Naran. He launched into an explanation of how the city was run and his role as the Lord before I took him prisoner.

“Can’t you just kill everyone causing trouble or control the pillars?” Ruth looked at me.

“That wouldn’t work,” Naran said. “It would be a war of attrition. One of my predecessors tried that and the mob attacked at night, on and off constantly. They have bows and arrows and would attack from a distance and use skills to keep up the pressure. Your Champion might win, but it wouldn’t be easy or pleasant.”

“Michael?” Ruth asked.

“There are four to five people left that need to be killed, but it really would be me against the entire city. I would have to hold the pillars and force them to starve to death. At least five days of non-stop fighting, most likely ten with the supplies they have stored up. I couldn’t retreat either.” There were other things they could do if they really got desperate that I didn’t want to talk about. New people would be arriving, which would just drag things on even more.

“Each person that appeared, I would have to hunt down and kill. They could threaten people to act as proxies. Then if I went after them, they could rush the store, dungeons, set up an ambush, or a lot of other issues. The advantage in combat lies with attacking a city. The person who controls the store is the defender.” I did not want to be in the position of defender. I preferred to act, not react.

“So, the brilliant decision was made to bring me back and explain all of this to the other leaders of Purgatory,” Naran said with a grin. I wanted to slap it off his face. I could tell he was happy to just leave and not have to deal with the mess.

“You are scum,” Ruth said, and I completely agreed with her on that. The problem was, Naran was like an abused puppy who bit back since he didn’t know what else to do, and then rolled over instantly when a bigger dog showed up.

“Maybe, but you are welcome to try and do better. Go on, just waltz on in and name yourself Lord and take charge. You will have to kill one or two people, but after that people will let you be until you try and change things. Then you will be stabbed to death in the night, ambushed, or killed in some other way. So go on.”

Ruth was silent at that. “It sounds messed up,” Tom said and killed a flower. Naran was on cart duty.

“It is. I am glad to get out of there.” If Bob of the resell store in Purgatory was a used cars salesman, Naran was the Wolf of Wallstreet with how slick he came across. It was aggravating, but besides killing him there was nothing I could do to him. I also didn’t want to kill him and be forced to explain the situation in the city of Truth over and over again. Just listening to what had happened made me want to bleach my brain, and I melted people. I would let him do the explaining.

Torture wouldn’t do anything either. He explained everything without hesitation and wasn’t shy in sharing his opinion. He also obeyed any order I gave him. Torture would just be for torture’s sake. There wasn’t any leverage I had on him to force him to clean up Truth, when it was the one thing he adamantly refused to do anymore. It was just so damn annoying.

I had no doubt he would somehow survive and possibly thrive against Tyrese and Ken. Still those two men were no idiots. But I was done with this mess. I would let them try and think of a better solution besides bringing a large group to hold the store in the city of Truth.

That reminded me of a question I wanted to ask. “Why the name Truth?”

“Ah, well I looked into that myself. Lots of conflicting stories, but the name has stuck and while my predecessors tried to change the name, the changes never stuck. I personally preferred Sin City, a bit on the nose, but at least the veneer of respectability would be stripped away.”

“What respectability? You have women being raped right out in the open? Couldn’t even bother to go into a building. A bit too far?” Ruth spat out.

“Again, I can’t stop them. My ability to force people was quite limited. I kill someone, they have friends, who kill my friends. Their friends assassinate me. Repeat over and over. Still, you have my sincerest apologies. Kill me or not. You can take charge. I give up and surrender unconditionally.” So, aggravating.

“Let it go, unless you want to go back to the city,” I said. Ruth stared at me.

“You have mentioned about wiping out a city before. Now when it comes down to it, you back off?” Let me explain things then in detail then, since you clearly don’t understand.

“I estimate I would need twenty people to hold the store long enough to starve out all the rats hiding. It would take at least ten days, probably twenty once they resort to cannibalism and they will if anything I heard from Naran is even remotely true. So, no. I really don’t want to do all of that. I fixed one city. I don’t have the energy to fix a second.”

“Or you just don’t care.” You really want to go there Ruth? You really want to stir the pot up now? I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

“Careful, Ruth. I let you have a lot of leeway, but don’t push it. That place is the equivalent of Somalia. Wait, that is an insult to Somalia, Truth is far worse than even that place. Even if the leaders are removed, it doesn’t make a difference to the situation. The only way to fix things is a complete purge or having enough forces to control the situation, which we don’t have.”

”If Naran and a group of his people were causing problems, I could kill them. Instead, all the people that need killing are ready for guerrilla warfare and the kind of tactics I would have used. That, back there, is just a flaming pile of shit with no good solution besides killing everyone. Then the victims would be killed as well, since that would be what it would take. You can’t do half measures when purging a city. I am not doing that.”

“You could have tried. I have stuck with you for this long. You could try.” My aggravation level over the situation hit critical levels at this.

“Stop.” I said and everyone came to a halt. “Alright. Then give me a solution.”

“Kill everyone around the plaza. Hide out and repeat,” Ruth suggested.

“I would have to kill the people being raped or tortured. I can’t sort the people out. People would point fingers, but people lie. But let’s say I do that. Then?”

“Then we fortify a building, kill anyone who attacks, and then you do a purge every day. Keep it up until the next arrival. Then show those people what to do. The survivors should be too weak to cause problems,” Ruth said.

That sounded like a big headache. A very big headache. Still, it was doable, and I had come this far. It was just incredibly distasteful. A campaign of total warfare would work, but it made me cringe. I couldn’t let the people I needed to kill have food sources or proxies to use against me. It had to be all or nothing unless I got a lot more help to deal with the situation.

A minute passed by in silence and wisely everyone was silent to let me think. “What about him?” I pointed at Naran.

“But you can make a difference here,” Tom said. Tom, don’t push it. You want to be a hero, then leave me out of it.

“Tom. Why am I responsible for those people and they are not responsible for themselves? If you say my power and position, I had to fight to get those. I can’t stand a victim mentality.”

“But these people were unprepared for when they arrived. They didn’t stand a chance.”

“They could have run. I doubt all 250 people would be chased down. From there they could fight. But they didn’t because they don’t have the mentality to survive no matter what.”

“That is unfair to them.”

“Life is unfair, this place even more so. I keep order in Purgatory for reasons beyond the people there. They are the least of my concern. If you want to be a hero, well I can hold this building easily enough and you can go help Ruth. Look at human misery up close and personal and come to your own decision. Try to sort out the victims from the culprits.” It would all end in tears and be a complete mess.

“I...I need to think.” Tom got up and I just waved my hand shooing him away. Naran pointed at himself and then the windowsill. I let out a sigh. Why not let the last idiot rail on me as well. Not like my mood could get much worse at the moment.

“Fine, you can sit. What do you have to say?” He took a seat across from me, where Tom had been sitting.

“Only that I agree with you. Those two are too soft.”

“But they have killed people and have come this far. Not that soft. But something like this, it will either break a person or change their outlook.”

“So, you have seen something like this before?”

“Not personally, but I can imagine what it is like. Benefit of reading a lot. I feel for the people here, which is why I don’t want to get involved and wanted to get help. But their kind of help will just prolong the suffering.” We sat in silence for a bit listening to the screaming in the distance.

“So Purgatory, what is it like?”

“It has a frontier town sort of vibe. You ever rape a person?” I asked and stared intently at Naran watching for any facial queues.

“No, but some of my companions did and I didn’t stop them. I have killed people in cold blood and in fights as well. Tortured a couple people even to make a point.”

“You really aren’t holding anything back.” Dammit, I wanted an excuse to get rid of him. He just rubbed me the wrong way, like an itch I could scratch. Is this what a good person looked like in hell?

“There is no point. I am not a good person, but I tried my best in the situation. It was honestly shocking how much things have devolved here.” Well time to talk about something else, get my mind off this mess. The truth was that Truth was completely depressing in every single way imaginable.

“What did you do before, back on Earth?”

“That...don’t hold it against me.”

“It is more curiosity than anything else.”

“I was a dancer. Think Las Vegas type of shows or the Super Bowl.” I thought about the background dancing people. Oh, I knew what I wanted to ask.

“Were you one of the shark people from Tyler Swift’s appearance at the Super Bowl?”

“No, but I knew one of them.” Huh, small world.

“I won’t ask for a performance. Still, it is nothing to be embarrassed about.” He just smiled slightly and shook his head.

“What did you do?”

“What is your best guess? I am curious what you think before I tell you.”

“I would say police officer or politician. You speak quite eloquently and have a firm sense of justice and how to handle complicated situations. So maybe a lawyer?”

“Ouch.” I placed my hands over my heart. “I was a fat person in front of a computer hitting buttons. I have lost quite a lot of weight since coming here.”

“Wow, okay. I would never have guessed that. Congrats on the weight loss.”

“Thank you. It was painfully hard. Now, it seems so long ago.”

“How long have you been here? Before you ask, I have been here about 100 days.”

“Today is day 210.”

“That long, huh, so you are an old timer.”

“Yes.” I could only hope I was an old timer and there were no old monsters running around. I wasn’t thinking of the Almighty System spawned monsters either.