SL: Chapter 742 – Day 6,398 – Surprise Attack

“Attack! Attack!” I heard screams and shouts coming from the West as I rested on my airship right before dawn. Getting up from my chair, I looked out in the direction of the commotion.

The Mexicans were attacking. Well it was really the cartel people from Esperanza from the West. They were launching a decapitation strike while I was in the city while I was here. The stupidity of people was impressive. It wasn’t like my airship was hidden or anything.

Maybe they thought Purgatory bought one and they were planning to steal it. Young Michael hadn’t returned yet. But I wasn’t worried about him. His stats were so high, there were very people who could threaten him. Even more so when I was nearby.

“Rally to me!” I looked at Father John rushing out as his guards rushed towards him. His white robes made him a visible target. Well time to show off a bit. Air Burst. Air Burst. I shot up into the sky zipping over the grey block buildings. It was easy to spot the enemy forces rushing through the streets killing anyone they found.

They were in teams of four to seven and had good teamwork. The cartel members might have been criminals on Earth, but they had a strong mentality when facing death. I counted around 100 attackers. An impressive amount, but they had probably committed everything to this decapitation strike, which was the correct choice, except for one fact. That I was here.

I focused on used a good chunk of energy to manipulate the air nearby. Time to show off and make a point to the locals about my overwhelming power. “EMPEROR’S JUDGEMENT!”

In the span of five seconds, I unleashed over 40 annihilation beam attacks. White bursts of energy erupted across a small part of the West road leading to the plaza of Purgatory. I wiped out two thirds of the attacks. They weren’t spread out that much, since they were heading towards the plaza. That was how I could spot most of them. Some of them I didn’t have a good angle on, but that was fine.

Air Burst. Air Burst.

I zipped around and unleashed another 40 annihilation beam attacks. Some had hid in the nearby buildings and I stopped attacking. I landed in the center of the devastation and looked around.

“There you are.” I waved my hand and an entire building exploded killing two more of the attackers in a flash of blinding white light. That was my power, just a wave of my hand and a thought and it was simple to kill these people.

“And there you are.” I killed a another person hiding a building. Their stats were high enough, they weren’t some weak bystander. Looking around, that appeared to be everyone. Air Burst. I flew back to my airship and landed on the deck.

A few seconds later Young Michael showed up. “What was all that commotion?” he asked.

“Just some troublemakers I wiped out. Sorry to wake you up,” I replied.

“I thought you had come to wake me up for a moment,” he said and I chuckled. I could only imagine him having a nice night, and then having me show up in the morning to shout at him.

If I was Young Michael, I would have probably panicked quite a bit. I could only imagine him rolling out of bed, naked, tangled up in sheets, in a panic, thinking I was standing over him. I just smiled and went to sit down. “We should get going.”

“Alright, alright. You don’t want to deal with the aftermath?” he asked me.

“No. I killed the attackers and showed off. Let the people here think on what I did. I have no doubt that Father John arranged everything. Quite clever of him,” I replied.

“He arranged things?” Young Michael asked as our airship took off, flying towards the North.

“Yes. I only rarely show up, but he could have a good idea about my arrival time after our last grinding session. Then he would just have to have a spy convince the attackers to attack around a certain time. The spy would act as a double agent, going into Purgatory to confirm that I was present, but would tell the attackers that their was only a portion of their grinders or frontliners in the city,” I explained.

“That seems complicated.”

“Don’t underestimate the cunning of humans. There are no coincidences. I have to respect Father John for taking such a risk. Oh, it was Clarissa,” I replied.

“Wait, what does she have to do with this?” Young Michael asked. Ah, to be young and ignorant.

“She probably made suggestions and had her people watch the skies and report in when we returned. Then she would stir things up with the cartel people, making Father John think it was his idea that came from a subordinate, when in reality it was Clarissa pulling the strings all along.”

“That seems even more complicated.”

“It is the only explanation that makes sense. A large group wouldn’t just wait around in the wilderness to attack. They would have to depart from their city. They needed a longer period of time until they were notified. Perhaps Clarissa is tracking our location through the communication sphere. Some kind of resonance compass. Hmm, that makes more sense than people watching the sky. Less human variables to worry about,” I said.

“And you don’t mind?”

“No. I don’t mind. It is quite interesting to see through the ploys other people are making around me. But ultimately it is a minor concern. Their schemes can’t do anything to me. If I had to fight myself, it is impossible. How would you try to beat me?” I asked.

“A sneak attack or a very large bomb. Like a super bomb of some kind. But even that isn’t guaranteed to work. With your stats, skills, and ability to react it isn’t worth the investment. You aren’t targeting anyone. I would work around you instead,” Young Michael explained, and I nodded at this.

“I am no Divine Empress going around murdering people and turning them into furniture. That’s how you build up resentment and create problems that are incredibly annoying to deal with. That’s also why I am only getting involved in a limited manner.”

“Well they certainly won’t forget, I know I won’t,” Young Michael said.

Clarissa really quite sly arranging everything, but in a way it was comforting. Knowing that her reach extended everywhere and all the cities and leaders were dancing to her tune. I had no doubt that the grinders from Esperanza that were her low agents, had all survived. They would submit or team up with Purgatory to resist the overwhelming number of Chinese and Indian people flooding into the Systemic Lands across multiple cities.

We both didn’t care about Earth politics, but with the resistance of language and culture, it was easier to team up with people who you were familiar with. While my Empire had integrated the cities of the Divine Empress, the Chinese people who arrived struggled in the strictly American culture. That was one reason the bastard son of the Divine Empress got away with everything he did.

There might not be direct sabotage or attacks, but they would turn a blind eye. Forgetting the horrors she had unleashed on her people. A subtle boost to a terrorist, but one I wasn’t going to tangle with again. I was above such petty politics and concerns. I was the ultimate power of the Systemic Lands, with only the Almighty System being above me.

The memory of what had happened would only grow in rumors and legend. Being a distant figure would elevate me far more. The moment one got involved in politics, their popularity would drop. It was easier to be a symbol than make any hard decisions regarding people’s lives.

I know I had made many hard decisions and many people unhappy over the years. I didn’t want to get caught up in all that again. It was exhausting. While I had spent a lot of time grinding, I was still involved. Now I was only showing up when I wanted to. Clarissa made things easy for me by timing events with my arrival. But it played into her plans as well.

That was why we could get along. Ultimately our goals didn’t conflict with each other and we each brought one half of the equation to the table. She brought the knowledge and organization and I brought the power and ultimate authority to enforce my vision.

Young Michael didn’t have the experience of Earth politics and the depths of cunning people could sink to. That was his main disadvantage. He didn’t understand the intricacies of human nature and didn’t realize there were rarely any coincidences on a large scale. It was one thing to tell him, but experiencing these events would give me more education than fighting monsters or classroom learning ever could.

You could tell someone these things over and over, but unless they internalized them and were aware of the plots that could happen, then they would be easily manipulated. The Avatar and Astrologer had done such things in the past. Trying to manipulate my actions in a way that hurt me. Clarissa was more neutral to helpful. That was why I didn’t mind.

If I didn’t realize, that was my fault and she would gain a bit of leverage over me. I wouldn’t bring what happened up. Let her wonder how much I knew, and keep her guessing. A small game we could play. She would try and use me for certain things and I wouldn’t say anything. Let her guess how much I knew.

While we weren’t enemies, we weren’t on the same team anymore. At best we could be called allies and close friends, but we weren’t family once the Empire broke apart. I knew she would plan contingencies to target me. The fact that nothing had come up about the sword so far was concerning. If it continued, then she was clearly slacking at her most important task or hoping to have something that could counter me.

Time would tell, but eventually the sword would reveal itself and it would be interesting to learn how long it had been around. If it was clear that Clarissa was concealing that information, then we would have a problem. But for now I trusted her enough not to second guess her. That was the danger with allies, betrayal was highly unlikely, but still a possibility.

If Clarissa didn’t want to be found, I would never find her ever again either. I knew that much. That was the point of having an airship, so she could move about and remain hidden. Trying to get to her would be impossible going forward. She couldn’t hurt me, but I couldn’t find her if I wanted to. Not that I had any plans for targeting her.

It was just that the latest event made me think through all this again. She clearly had a lot of free time. But that was fine. She could play her games. Ultimately, the only thing that mattered was combat power. That was why I would keep grinding as many points as possible. Once my grinding speed plateaued off, I could invest into the ranking list and investigate more dangerous areas. Like taking an airship to the edge of this place. Not the upper or lower limit, but the sides. Were we truly in a box? Were there other lands out there across the void? How high did zones go? There were lots of questions that still needed to be answered.