Chapter 215: Day 505 – What Is Power? What Is Friendship?

Chapter 215: Day 505 – What Is Power? What Is Friendship?

“Champion Michael, I was told you wanted to speak to me?” Clarissa asked. I had been doing a lot of thinking during the night and very early this morning.

“Yes,” I said, and she took her seat to my right in the conference room. The fact she didn’t choose to sit across from me was a good sign. “I would like to hear what you have to say first.” I didn’t even tell her what I wanted to talk about or the direction I planned to take things. It had taken a while for me to work through my thoughts and feelings on the assassination attempt and Clarissa’s failure to properly monitor Elliot and Tim.

Clarissa looked directly at me. “I take responsibility for the lapse in oversight. Research and crafting fall under my authority.” I nodded at that.

“I don’t blame you in the slightest,” I said. Her cool façade cracked a bit when I said that. “The simple fact is, that accidents happen. Mistakes happen. You know of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, OSHA?” I asked Clarissa.

“Yes,” she said clearly confused where I was going with this.

“They have rules upon rules. The joke is, that each rule, no matter how stupid, came about because someone died or there was an accident. That kind of mentality is fine for industry and boring but repeatable processes,” I said, explaining my thought process that I had gone through to sort out what to do.

“What happened, wasn’t a failure of the system, it was a failure of leadership. That is what assassination attempts represent. I am a terrible leader. But I accept that. That also means I need to accept assassination attempts like that one are going to be a fact of life,” I said. She already knew that the failure to monitor the researchers was her fault.

“I thought you were going to melt me at one point there, to be honest,” Clarissa said. I slowly shook my head at that.

“I considered it. But the simple fact is, you are too important. From managing the city, record keeping, auditing, and giving me information in an easy to digest manner. You could go out there and murder people and I wouldn’t say anything,” I answered. Replacing her would just mean a lot more headaches I didn’t want to deal with.

“Until I create more trouble than I am worth,” Clarissa said clearly understanding the situation and dynamic between us.

“Yes, but your worth is higher than it has ever been. Your fast resolution to the assassination attempt proves that. Sure, it isn’t rocket science to go to Elliot, break him, and then get to Tim, but you had enough control of the situation to know where the leak of materials had to come from and act on it,” I replied.

“That’s it? Really?” Clarissa probably couldn’t believe what I had decided. I smirked a bit. If I was going to kill her, I wouldn’t even give her a chance to speak. I would just kill her and be done with it. She was the type of person that would be dangerous if given a chance to plot or activate contingency plans.

“Yes, that is it. I consider the matter closed. The simple fact is, no one can replace you. Just like no one can replace me. And I trust you to know where my hard lines are,” I replied.

“I thought I did. Regardless, thank you for clarifying things Michael. I appreciate it,” Clarissa said. I nodded at that.

“Because if you really wanted to try and kill me, there were much better methods to go about it. I know you have probably thought about trying to get rid of me, don’t object or deny that. I would do the same in your position. I have thought about replacing you as well, but competence and ambition go hand in hand,” I said.

“I will admit it has crossed my mind. But with each spectacular failure, I have no doubt you would survive, and I would be dead,” Clarissa said. There was that ruthless pragmatism I had seen in her initially when she had cut her eye, shining through.

I wanted there to be no illusions between us. Our relationship was transactional in nature. She took on the cloak of my power, while I enjoyed the stability and comfort she created here in Purgatory. If she got excessive points from the city, then I wanted my cut. We were work colleagues. I was the only real check on her power, but the counter to that, was how little I was around.

Removing me might give her peace of mind, but in the end, it would only hurt her, and she knew it. I was the lightning rod. I had no doubt she would say to people complaining, that she was only following my orders. Pass the blame onto me.

That was why I liked the public speech. It let me gauge how the population viewed me. So, while she might be throwing me under the bus, it wasn’t that bad. My absence probably helped in that regard.

If she did kill me, then everyone would scramble to be top dog of this place. The chance she would survive while staying in power was quite low. Either she would be assassinated or be forced to run away and build up a power base somewhere else.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

“I always did. We can’t afford to keep pushing off the store upgrade any longer. Especially with all the city buildings being purchased already. The remaining upgrades are not as important as getting more options in the store,” Clarissa said.

I knew she meant food options. But that didn’t mean other possibilities wouldn’t open up. We might finally get some kind of airship production. Zipping about the sky would be the way to travel.

“Shall we?” I asked and stood up. Clarissa stood up as well. I followed her outside the building. Naran joined us as well. We exchanged nods. Clarissa had ten guards with her this time. I noted the plaza was cleared of random people and filled with soldiers and multiple Union teams as the bell continued to ring. I noted several people on roof tops along with summons. They normally weren’t allowed inside the city.

“Champion Michael, Chief Administrator Clarissa, everything has been prepared,” General Smith said.

“Champion Michael will be making the upgrade purchase. All gates are alerted?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes. At least 100 soldiers at each gate. We have summons deployed in arcs in front of the city gates and lines of communication set up. All supplies have been made ready as well,” General Smith reported.

“What is the plan if a level 4 shows up, or multiple level 4 monsters?” I asked. Wanting to know the planned response for when I took action.

“Seek to contain and possibly overwhelm them while you kill them,” the General said. “We will also activate the city shield if a level 4 breaches the city.”

“No. Wait for the monsters to arrive at the plaza. They might retreat or wait outside the city if the shield is activated prematurely. We don’t have the reserves for multiple activations,” I said and looked at Clarissa who nodded to confirm what I said. One million points for only a day’s worth of defense, wasn’t that long and was insanely expensive.

“Very well. Shall we?” General Smith asked. I nodded and began cashing in the points from the chests that were brought out. My points went over the one million mark, and nothing happened. I was testing that out since this was the best time to test things like this.

I had 1.95 million points when I went to purchase the store upgrade option. I purchased the level 4 upgrade. Interesting how I thought of it in level now and not tier. Perhaps it was the fact that everything was being slotted into levels. I was instantly confronted with a timer of 100 minutes while the upgrade was processed. There was that 100 minute limit again, similar to Regeneration and crafting.

I removed my hands from the pillar, and everyone was looking at me. “Prepare for an attack. There is a 100 minute timer,” I said. I could still purchase stuff from the store. The upgrade didn’t pause everything at least, that was good news in case I needed a regeneration. It gave me more confidence to be more aggressive with the battle that was about to happen.

“Send message, remain full alert, 100 minutes, imminent attack,” the General said, and a runner raced off to where they were keeping the communication stones to alert the outer city defenses. There was nothing else to do but wait while everyone was on edge. The bells continued to ring, sounding out over the city.

I looked up at the Airship Dock. Stop toying with my emotions Almighty System. I was getting my airship. I blinked as I speck high up in the sky. I let out a long sigh. Of course the attack would come from the sky. Why did this place even have walls if they were so useless?

“Attack from the sky, order people to spread out and take cover,” I said. The General glanced at me and then at the sky.

“Sky attack, disperse, archers at the ready! Aerial summons!” he shouted, and the order was quickly conveyed to the soldiers. I ignored them. I also ignored telling Clarissa, ‘I told you so.’ But I was one hundred percent right this was a bad idea.

“What do you think Naran? I count ten.”

“I think so. High up and closing face. Half a minute until they the level of the Airship Port,” he said.

“We talked about aerial combat, but never really practiced that much,” I said.

“A level 4 aerial battle will be difficult, with no way to maneuver in the air,” Naran said. I had it better than him with Air Burst. One of the reasons I liked the skill. But it was costly in terms of energy at 50 per use. I had the energy reserves to attempt aerial combat.