Dark Fate, Chapter 214

Chapter 214 – Administration

With my ascension to Tier 3 complete, it was time to return to business. While I would have liked to get the opportunity to go find some monsters to fight, so I could test myself, and learn the nuances of my new skills, I didn’t have time for that. Ironic, considering my new profession as a Timestruck Demon Lord. But irony didn’t keep an empire running, which is why I was walking into the Ceres Civil Administration building, which was in charge of the general bureaucracy for the Kingdom of Ceres and had just expanded to cover the Ceresan Empire.

“Your Majesty! We have—” Slave-Administrator General Sun Zihao’s words cut off as he turned to look at me in shock. Not terribly surprising, actually. I was walking around in my true form, getting used to the changes I’d undergone. I’d gained thousands of points of attributes in an instant, and while my form was mostly unchanged, from the looks of it, my horns and hooved feet now were alight with reddish-black Abyssal Flame, and shadowy smoke fell from my wings whenever they were outspread. I was also several inches taller, coming to a commanding 2.5 meters in height, or just over 8 feet.

Officially, Ceres used the metric system. It was just easier, given how many people from different countries were in the Empire, now, and it made conversions with the System easier. However, I, like many other former Americans in the Empire, was still working on training myself to think in metric, rather than Imperial measurements. It was a pain, but a necessary one that would make future interactions easier.

I smiled at Sun, and said, “Yes, I know. New look, and all that. Operation Slaughterhouse is continuing apace, it seems, which has driven me to Tier 3.”

“Tier 3!” Sun gasped. “So quickly?”

“Yes, indeed. Not that I’m particularly giddy with this kind of leveling speed. There are issues with advancing too quickly, you know.”

“Really, Master? I would have thought more levels, more quickly, would be a boon.”

“Not entirely. Yes, there are benefits to having more levels, since that generally makes you harder to kill, but being power-leveled, which is essentially what is happening here, has drawbacks. Because the levels come so quickly, you keep having to relearn how to interact with the world. Strength isn’t even my strongest attribute, and I have to constantly work to keep myself from crushing objects just by picking them up. That is something that any high-leveled individual has to deal with, of course, but not having time to adjust gradually as you go up in levels makes it more taxing, until I get used to it.”

Sun nodded slowly. “I see. Like how Superman from the American comics has to hold back to ensure he does not hurt normal people when walking around, then? I had not considered that, but it makes sense. If I may ask, Master, what did you Tier up into?”

I chuckled, and said, “I’ll keep my new class and profession a secret, for now, except to say that my Demon King profession advanced into a Tier 3 version. As for my race, you may tell your ‘friends’ at the Chinese Embassy that I am a Greater Apocalypse Incubus, now. While still a Tier 3 race, it is a bit of an upgrade to the normal Greater Incubus. The unlock conditions were having the Genocider title, and dealing with at least three threats of either planetary threat, or involving creatures of a higher Tier than myself. Along with being in the Incubus line, of course.”

“To be honest, Master, I’m not sure how I feel about knowing that this System offers rewards for committing war crimes.”

I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “If it helps, consider that the System is more akin to a new force of nature than anything else. The hurricane does not care who or what is in its path. The earthquake does not seek out people to ruin. Gravity does not care about your feelings. The System is what it is. The ‘rewards’, as you put them, for my actions in the Middle East were not the System choosing to reward me for my actions, but a simple record of what was, like placing a weight on the scale. The scale makes no judgements of the weight placed upon it.

“I will lose no sleep over the people who die on the cattle worlds. They were dead already, from the moment they were born. The fleet’s actions are simply giving them a quick, and relatively painless, end, rather than letting them be eaten alive to fuel the Incux war machine. I ordered tens of billions to die, so that trillions would live. I can live with that decision.

“As for the Middle East, sometimes you need a monster to show people the consequences of monstrous deeds. To show people that there is a price to be paid for being the first to play with atrocities. As I said to the UN, Ceres does not fight for honor and glory. We fight to end the conflict as swiftly and ruthlessly as possible, because that is the greatest mercy that we can give ourselves, and our people. Better to bloody our hands eliminating the enemy, rather than bogging down in a quagmire that does nothing but drain away our blood and money, leaving the area worse than it was before, all because no one had the will to do what had to be done to end things.”

Sun took a breath, and said, “I see. It is slightly annoying that I cannot find any fault in that logic. But I guess that is the me of the world before the System talking.”

“As a bit of consolation, I can tell you that, in a previous timeline, when it came time to make the hard decisions, you did not shy away from doing what had to be done. Your successes in reclaiming China from the invaders after Beijing was wiped off the map and establishing yourself as Emperor of China were so great that I heard about them in the US, even while we were fighting to push the aliens out of Georgia.”

Sun looked stunned. “Emperor of China? And Beijing was lost? Truly?”

I nodded. “Like I said, by the time I was forced back into the past, only thirty percent of the human race was left. It should be no surprise that the country with almost eighteen percent of the population took heavy losses in all of that. When it came time for someone to ‘put up or shut up’, you stood, and you led. Which is why I accepted you, amongst the obvious spies being sent to Ceres. Because I knew that, in the end, you would do what needed to be done. You might not like it. You might hate everything about it. But you would do it, because it had to be done.”

Sun took a deep breath, and I saw his shoulders straighten slightly. “Well then, I suppose we should get to business. First, integrating Columbia and Costa Rica to go along with Panama is proceeding at the projected pace. As requested, regional teleport networks like the one planned for Panama are being planned out. Expenses are rising, but still manageable, especially since most of the costs of the portal network are front-loaded, and will pay themselves off once tourism and trade start moving.”

“Any trouble spots I should be aware of?”

“We may face some trouble with the cartels in Columbia, depending on which way things go. What is your desire for the drug trade?”

“Legalize it, but put in a requirement that cash crops like the cocaine can only be grown when the food needs of the people in the area are met. Imperial law is paramount, but after that, I don’t care how the local rulers run their territories, so long as people are free to come and go as they please. There are dungeons all through the country, as well as monsters. Even without crafters making and selling wares, that should bring in meat, or coin that can be spent at the System Shop to get extra food, if people need it. No one starves in the Ceresan Empire, and it is the responsibility of the local leaders to ensure that is so.”

“Bold, Master. Bold, indeed. But will it work? People have tried to do the ‘no one goes hungry’ thing before.”

“And it failed because people in charge were paid by businessmen to ensure that systems designed to help the poor failed, because desperate people who feel trapped in a job they can’t leave without risking starvation, or lack of medical insurance, can be exploited more than those who have a guarantee of basic food, shelter, and medical care. I have no doubt that the Empire will do a better job of things, in part because the people who do the work will be signing System Contracts with some very pointed consequences if they take bribes. Consequences that will make any amount of money paid as a bribe inconsequential, because the first order after they are automatically enslaved by the contract is to send all their possessions to their new master, and report to them explaining exactly what they did and for whom. That order is also written into the contract, so it applies automatically.”

Sun grimaced as he rubbed the back of his neck, where the [Slave Brand] was. “Yes, I am familiar with how effective those clauses can be. Nasty piece of work, since the System applies it, even if the breach of contract wasn’t noticed.”

“I was betrayed before. I promised myself that, in order for anyone to betray me again, they would have to make sure they put in the work to arrange things in such a way that not even the System, going off their own intent, would catch it. At that point, I would have to tip my hat to them. Before I destroyed them, of course.”

“Of course. Can’t have people figuring out how to beat the system, or the System, and thinking they can get away with it. That would throw everything into chaos.”

I took a breath, and said, “So, since the cartels were already basically ruling the country in everything but name before we came in, we’ll establish it, with the cartel leaders being the regional leaders for their territories, with a governor appointed by me as the overall head. The legalization of their fields will see their need for personal armies and spending large sums on bribes for different officials and judges disappear. They will need to provide basic food and shelter for those in their areas, but that and the requirement that people be allowed to leave their territory if they wish will be the only dictates on how they run their lands.”

“Why the importance of allowing people to move around freely, Master?”

“For the same reasons I have the Black Zones. Some people want to be bastards. Some people want to live under a strong person who provides security by force of arms, because that means they don’t have to think about things. So long as any free person in those areas is there by choice, that’s on them. I’m not going to protect them from their own bad decisions. And most people understand, or even agree with that concept, at least to a point. If someone is trapped there, however, that’s another story.

“That creates an underclass of people who are desperate. Desperate people are easily radicalized. Radicals can be used by outside interests to undermine a society from within. Even if their sabotage or spying doesn’t result in the victory and freedom they’re wanting, or have been promised, a revolt, whether ‘organic’ or seeded by outside forces, that hits at just the wrong time and place can cripple things at a desperate time, like causing an explosion to take down the defenses just as an enemy invades.

“So, this is simply a means of denying resistance movements fertile ground to grow in. When people are fed, when they have a roof over their head, when their children are healed of any illnesses? They are happier and less prone to radicalization. Which means they are less likely to side with anyone who threatens to upset the system. Bread and circuses, Sun. It still works in the time after the System.”