SL: Chapter 746 – Day 6,515 – Current State

“Clarissa, good to see you,” I greeted her as we both descended from our respective airships.

“Michael, better looking Michael,” she greeted both of us.

“Ah, you wound me,” I replied while putting my hands over my heart.

“Looking good Clarissa. Nice airship,” Young Michael said, ignoring my antics. It was a large airship, bigger than ours. But that was fine, I didn’t need a large airship.

“Thanks. Keeping things mobile to help manage the situation in various cities. I can quickly move to hotspots and oversee things personally. You started on your tower grinding strategy?” she asked.

“Yes. It is working, but it will be a slog to get faster,” I replied and she nodded.

“I thought so. Nothing is ever easy in this place. Shall we go aboard, I have news,” she said. I nodded at this, and we followed her on board. We made our way to side room with maps and tokens placed on them. I looked over everything.

“The Systemic Lands is a mess,” I muttered. There were several different factions defaulting to Earth nations. “Any concern about the Chinese cities?” I asked.

“They are infighting, but they know of Purgatory and there is concern on both sides. While tensions haven’t gotten to the point of war, it won’t be long by my estimation. After your little show, Father John got much better at the military side of things,” she explained.

“Anyone I should be worried about?” I asked.

“A couple of people have gotten meta-points, but no one has requested a portable store or a growth weapon,” she explained.

“That is annoying,” I muttered.

“Unfortunately, it is up to chance if someone thinks that is a good idea. And we can’t tell people about meta-points, so it is all down to luck. No overly concerning skills and no one asked useful questions. No Avatar either,” she explained.

“Good. Anyone go for stat point increases?” I asked.

“No. Everyone went for some kind of super skill as far as we know. But someone could be hiding in the wilderness and avoided the detection of my agents. We can only cover so much and if someone is dedicated to concealing their meta-point, well it is impossible to know. We do keep an eye for people surging in strength and moving to take over leadership. From there it isn’t that hard to find out what skill they got,” she said and handed over a stack of paper.

“Laser eyes, garbage. Restoration, meh since it is store restoration. Fire control, super garbage.” I looked through the eleven reports on possible meta-points. They were all trash. “Are people stupid,” I complained and handed the papers back.

“Unfortunately, yes. Trust me, I would love to give you a portable store or growth weapon. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about mine being taken away. But people are useless despite my agents spreading rumors on what to wish for,” Clarissa explained.

“I don’t blame you. We had this problem before. No one gets anything actually useful, or knowledge that we want. No one would waste a wish on a question,” I replied with a heavy sigh. It was frustrating, but people went for what was flashy, not for what was practical. If I was suddenly surprised by a meta-point I might have made the same mistake myself. “Kill them.”

“What?” Clarissa asked.

“The number of people gaining meta-points is higher than during my time as Emperor. Once the knowledge spreads, less people will get meta-points. Assassinate the people who got meta-points that aren’t useful,” I replied.

“That seems a bit extreme,” Clarissa replied but I shook my head. Young Michael was looking over the maps while quietly listening in.

“It increases the chance of someone requesting something useful. And the chance of someone becoming annoying later on. If they can’t be converted to work for you, then eliminate them,” I replied.

“I will take it under consideration. And I am not saying that to say no. I really need to think about it. There is a big difference between assassination and information gathering. Finding these people in the wilderness isn’t easy,” Clarissa said.

“I understand. No need to risk anything. But if we can get rid of these people sooner rather than later, then we should get more.”

“There is the risk of offending the Almighty System,” Clarissa added.

“I respect the Almighty System, but my faith is a bit lacking at the moment after that nonsense with the voting. If it doesn’t want us to do something, it should say so. Destroying the stores is attacking the Almighty System, but targeting people with meta-points has never been a problem before,” I replied.

“True. Well, I will look into it, but I will probably have to handle such cases myself,” Clarissa said.

“For recruitment or removal?” I asked.

“Both. If they don’t submit, I will wipe them out. I can put their skills to work for me. Create an elite force,” she said.

“Just don’t get taken out by your own elite force,” I replied.

“Hmm. Don’t worry, after dealing with you, I am an expert in personnel management,” Clarissa replied, striking my ego again.

“So, why did you really call me? I know it has to be more than all this small time nonsense,” I asked.

“The Sword. There is a lead. Someone got the sword. I killed them and had people stationed throughout the nearby zones to watch which direction it went,” she said.

“That was risky,” I said.

“A bit, but I am not helpless. Especially since the person who got the sword was weak. It went Southeast, out over the Rift, towards level 8 zones that are down here,” she said while pointing at the map.

“Really southeast of New Kochi? That is a surprise,” I replied.

“It isn’t simple. It changed directions after getting a zone from where its owner had been killed, probably to throw off any pursuit. My people saw it moving across the sky up until the edge of the level 2 zone just South of New Kochi,” Clarissa explained.

“Urg. A level 8 zone, probably level 9 beyond it. That is a nightmare,” I muttered while looking at the map.

“Yes. But I haven’t forgotten to look for the sword. I know you were concerned about it. Well that is where it is hiding,” Clarissa said.

“I will need a lot more in my Regeneration stat to fight in a level 9 zone. Since there probably won’t be ground I can land on. Then I have to actually find it and fight it,” I muttered in complaint.

“Well I did my part, the rest is up to you,” Clarissa said.

“You will kill any users?” I asked.

“Of course and reconfirm the direction it heads in. I am not about to let it get out of control before youc an deal with it. Unless you want to target a wielder yourself?” she asked me.

“Hmm, that might better. Deliver one supersized annihilation attack in an alpha strike. Dump half of my energy into the initial attack and hopefully take it out. But even then, it probably won’t work,” I said. The sword was tricky. It could and would fly away to safety.

It was a really annoying opponent. Since it was just as shameless as me in running away. Why couldn’t all my enemies be like the Divine Empress, recklessly attacking without thinking too much about the situation? I didn’t know what that said about my previous opponents’ intelligence that a sword of all things was doing better than them.

The fact it wasn’t coming after me, but I had to go after it made the situation much more difficult. “You really think it would survive a full powered attack?” Young Michael asked me.

“Yes. It can think and has a certain degree of base cunning and survival instincts. Let me know when someone else grabs it. But that seems too far if it is showing up to people who are getting meta-points,” I replied.

“That is the question. I don’t have any idea how the sword figures out who gets a meta-point. It could also be heading towards a high-level zone and then looping back. If it flies high enough, it would be invisible. And monsters may not spawn,” Clarissa added.

“So, some hidden abilities as well. Nothing is ever easy. Well if it shows up again, I will try taking it out, but I am not hopeful. I need to get stronger, a lot stronger. Get enough energy to blow away an entire zone,” I replied.

“That means Spirit, not Regeneration,” Young Michael said.

“Just more stats overall. The sword doesn’t have stats. But if people feed it meta-points, I don’t think the Almighty System will stand by and do nothing,” I replied.

“You think it would intervene?” Clarissa asked me.

“Or it might give out less meta-points if they all go towards the sword. Maybe. I am not sure. It isn’t a good idea to count on the Almighty System, but I don’t think it wants to shove meta-point after meta-point into a weapon like that. That seems to go against the point of this place and bringing people here,” I replied.

“It did claim a tower,” Young Michael pointed out.

“True. I am just hoping the Almighty System will act, not counting on it. Or at least cap the number of meta-points it can get. Otherwise we will be in for a rough time.”

“Leave it to one person?” Clarissa asked. That would prevent it from gaining more meta-points, but that person would be incredibly difficult to deal with as they quickly became more powerful.

“No. Just kill them off. Even if it gets more meta-points, there is nothing we can do to stop that. Spread rumors about a cursed sword?” I asked.

“That would do more harm than good, but I can spread word about meta-points across the Indian cities, so they get less meta-points,” Clarissa said, and I nodded at that.

“Good thinking. Hopefully that will slow its rate of growth. Who knows, maybe it will come to me,” I said.

“You have Indian ancestry?” Clarissa asked me.

“No. But it would be a nice power boost. A shame that we can’t communicate with it properly,” I replied. Another enemy that enjoyed being difficult instead of having a dialogue to discuss where our conflict came from.

“If it were that easy, then this wouldn’t be the Systemic Lands,” Clarissa complained, and I chuckled at that. Despite our differences we shared similar thoughts on a lot of things. This place enjoyed making things difficult and it was practically a joke after the disaster of the vote.