Chapter 564: Day 5,039 – The Leader

Chapter 564: Day 5,039 – The Leader

“Welcome to the city of New Mecca,” Hasad said as the city came into view. We had stopped for the night and in the morning, I saw grinders hard at work quickly clearing the monsters. They looked tired but had clean clothes that were colored gray. From the store clearly. No one would wear gray clothes otherwise.

Looking at the walls, there were towers and cannons. So, this city was clearly developed. There were lots of stares from both the grinders, and soldiers as we passed them. I wasn’t overly concerned. We entered the city, and they had an actual road leading to the center. No random path of craziness, which was nice.

Everyone was clean and there wasn’t a smell in the air. No trash on the streets either. That showed the government was actually in control, unlike Meech, which was a hellhole except for the inner city. Making our way through the city, we eventually arrived at a large building at the plaza. I noted New Mecca didn’t have an inner-city wall like Purgatory or Meech did. That was interesting. There was an airship tower and only a small air-boat docked, nothing bigger.

Perhaps I could buy an airboat so we could leave this place and travel above the roads. That would be a good option. The building we were led into was only four stories tall. We were escorted to a well furnished side room and left to wait. There were no traps as far as I could tell.

Water was brought to us, but the servant didn’t say anything. Eventually a servant came after half an hour, left some water, and that was it. No food or anything else the servant left and ignored all questions.

“A bit lacking,” Fiyaz said.

I could agree with that. “Maybe they want to see if we are doing anything. Or this Leader could be outside the city,” Captain Francis made another good point.

“Well, they clearly have an upgraded city and points, with all those cannons,” I pointed out. I took the water and poured my own cup. “I also didn’t see anyone run off or any type of communication that was used either,” I mentioned. That was something that had been bothering me as well.

“My guess is that whoever handles the communication is kept concealed,” Fiyaz suggested. I nodded at that.

“No summons, and no businesses. The entire plaza is just a line of carts purchasing supplies,” Michelle added. That was another aspect that was throwing me off.

“A military city, a military state,” I said as it clicked togeather. This really was North Korea but without North Koreans. Now I was even more curious what the Leader would be like.

We waited another two hours, which made me think it wasn’t intentional. They just didn’t have protocols for visiting heads of state. Or they were trying to get a trap into position. I didn’t sense any danger and didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.

The door finally opened and eight soldiers entered. Now these men had stats that matched up with my soldiers. High level 4, low level 5. Much more than Hasad. I noted Hasad walking to the left of a man in uniform, that was similar to his soldiers, except for the shoulder pads. His beard was a bit neater and had a touch of white. This was clearly the Leader.

I stood up and my team fell in around me. To the Leader’s right a man spoke up. “Announcing, the Leader. Defender of the Faithful. Chosen of Allah.”

I gave a look and a quick nod to Fiyaz, who spoke up. “Announcing Emperor Michael of the Empire of Purgatory. Champion of the Realm. Custodian of the Avatar. Slayer of the Divine Empress.” I could tell the man was sizing me up as well.

He had stats, but not as much as me. I would put him around 150,000 to 200,000. A sizable amount. Even enough to be a threat if he was a glass cannon. But I didn’t think that was the case. We eyed each other. He actually had a bit of height on me.

“Another nation. The Dragon Empire, that was defeated. She was quite evil, and I don’t use that word lightly. She liked to turn people into furniture and listen to their screams,” I said.

“Ah, that is quite...evil. Well we have our own evils and are trapped in our territory. The void is to the North, West, and South. To the East is death. We have had contact with the city states to the South, but we are cut off. The airship route is perilous, long, and expensive.” He seemed tired.

“The overflow population. How do you deal with it?” he finally asked.

“We are growing our own food, and that is offsetting the problem, and we are looking to invade another nation.” I could see everyone suddenly staring at me in surprise that I would say such a thing. But if there was going to be an initial fight, might as well get it over with.

“And you are planning to take cities into your Empire?” the Leader asked with a bit of hesitation and a slight touch of fear. I shook my head.

“Like the Wild West. I plan to unleash people, but they would fight and do what they want. Like a no-man’s land,” I said. He relaxed at that.

“The cursed cities. You plan to take unleash people there. I see it. It would be good for us as well,” he responded. “But that leaves the cursed sword and the devil monster,” he said with a lot of hatred. I nodded at this.

“I was hoping you would provide some more information,” I responded. He gave me a searching look.

“A treaty is like a fart in the wind. It does not matter. And with your stats, I can’t win. I want to keep my three cities, and the boarder to the East,” he said.

“It will be the Wild West. I won’t be organizing a response against you. There needs to be an outlet. Taking more cities, just increases the issues,” I responded.

“So, you will let me defend myself like the Indians against your settlers,” he replied with a frown, and I nodded.

“I think you are better organized than that, but yes. As long as no attack, including terrorism is done against my nation, then I won’t personally intervene against you,” I replied. Getting more cities might increase my income, but that was only short term. Long term, the population crisis would become worse and that would lead to rebellion and loss of income.

It was much better to create an outlet and send people out this way. As for this Leader and his Domain, I didn’t care too much. It would be the Wild West. An artificial Wild West, but one, nonetheless. People would die by the thousands, and some of that chaos would impact the board this Leader had.

But it didn’t matter to me. We had a huge string of void zones splitting the Systemic Lands and no plan to make a road. We would set up a portal building and use that to transport people in mass to a staging city, then unleash them. No transport back the other way, except with Clarissa’s or my permission.

It would be a war zone, with people constantly flooding in. It was cruel, unfair, and horrible, but it was the only option available. We would pack in people more and more. And I had no doubt a lucky few would get enough points and crystals to buy a pass back to retire. But it was the only long term option for stability I had.

If the sword and the monster couldn’t be cleared, then I would have to take one of the Leader’s three cities, and unleash people here. It was not my first choice, but it was a choice. Let the other nations to the far West, send people out into the warzone.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.