SL: Chapter 715 – Day 5,834 – Hold Up

“Michael wait,” Clarissa said as I turned to leave. She hesitated and then shook her head. “Stay and celebrate. It will just be us seven, but it will be good before you leave.” I hesitated, since I knew we had our disagreements.

“Alright,” I finally said. The dinner celebration was a bit of a rush, as Clarissa’s minions worked to get it put togeather, but thanks to the portable store, Clarissa had supplies available to make things easier. There was also stored food in the bunker that was impossible to replicate otherwise, like yeast for bread.

Well they were getting everything ready, I sat with Clarissa, enjoying a glass of fruit juice, with pulp. We didn’t need to say anything to each other as we sat there in silence. Any other time it would have been awkward, but there really was nothing to say.

“Dinner is ready,” one of her minions came in and told us. The dining room was cleaned up and everything laid out. I took a seat at one end of the table and Clarissa took the other. “To 5,834 days,” I said and raised my glass.

“5,834 days,” Clarissa and her people joined in the toast. They were all quiet, clearly not brave enough to say anything. I wish they had, it would have made things more interesting. I looked at Clarissa and then at her people. She gave a small shrug and a small smile.

Clearly she wasn’t going to try and liven things up and that was on me. “Do you think we will escape?” one of her minions asked.

“Escape?” I said while enjoying my mystery meat. “If only it were that simple. I have been doing some thinking,” I said.

“Dangerous, very dangerous,” Clarissa cut in teasing me. I smiled at that. I knew she was alluding to my reputation as a brute, when I had to think through about a lot of things. While I valued strength, I didn’t discard intelligence either. But the perception of other people was a different matter.

“Indeed it is dangerous. Everyone comes from the same day across the world. Narrowing the time down got a range of several hours. And no one remembered everyone else disappearing. Then we lost a bunch of time after leaving this place,” I said.

“You think it there is something with time happening?” Clarissa asked and I nodded. “But the difference isn’t enough compared to bringing in people for thousands of days,” she replied.

“Well, it isn’t like we got an expert on time stuff hanging around. But there are two different time-related issues when leaving the Systemic Lands. I don’t believe in coincidences,” I stated.

“I don’t have the brain power to work through it all right now. So, what are you saying?” Clarissa asked me.

“That this entire place is in some kind of time bubble, which is moving incredibly quickly, compared to everywhere else, including the rainbow dimension,” I stated.

“So, Earth is still there, around the time we left, and the Almighty System is grabbing people up?” she asked.

“Exactly. It is a small bit of evidence, but I expect that people being picked up will have slightly later times than before,” I replied.

“A shame that all that kind of research was in Purgatory and it is all vanished now,” she said.

“But you could reconstruct things?” I asked her.

“I could get new data from people arriving, but the people in the past, do you remember all the times they arrived at?” she asked, and I shook my head. “Then I have no clue how I am supposed to remember, all of that.”

“Well, we should consider long research studies for stuff like this,” I said.

“Let me just get on it, along with the hundreds of other things I need to sort out,” she said.

“Ah sorry,” I replied.

“No. It is a good idea. Just there is so much left to sort out. Even with people who survived, it is going to be a hassle,” she muttered.

“Well if you need me to melt a few idiots, you can always ask,” I said.

“I might. Everything is a complete mess and will be that way for a long time. We need to confirm the full scale of the reset. Can you check the outlaying cities?”

“West Madrid and East Bastion?” I asked.

“Yes, those are the two main cities. But if they survived, then check some closer, so we can get a better idea of the scale of this disaster.”

“If East Bastion survived, it would be a good place to base out of. But if West Madrid survived, we are going to have headaches,” I muttered.

“The Holy Kingdom,” Clarissa said and I nodded.

“It is going to be a nightmare to deal with. I might just have to wipe them out, so they don’t overrun everything. Otherwise we might be looking at a future Divine Empress,” I replied.

“Definitely don’t want another person like that. Just thinking about her makes me sick to my stomach. That was a nightmare. Having to live in the wilderness, learning all this bunker stuff, hoping she didn’t stumble across a person who knew our location. That really was a nightmare,” Clarissa said.

“I had to figure out how to beat her. It was more luck than anything else. I hate to admit it, but the Astrologer did all the work on that one. And also, the Divine Empress herself. Completely batshit insane. The only good thing she did was turning the Avatar into a human nugget,” I replied.

“She might be out there. While it is assumed she died and everything points towards that…”Clarissa trailed off. “Without a corpse or a head.”

“No. I refuse to believe that…I would call her a cunt, but that is too nice. That thing is still alive.”

“She was the Avatar of the Almighty System,” Clarissa countered.

“Then the Almighty System can keep the Avatar wherever it is. Her mind is so broken to what we did to her, that the only thing left is the Almighty System. Just let her be gone for all time,” I muttered.

“What, you don’t like dealing with a human nugget that wants to enrage you with cryptic advice?”

“Out of all the enemies I have killed off, the Avatar is the absolute worst. Why, you think she is alive?” I asked.

“Just speculating. Thinking of the sword and any other threats out there,” Clarissa said.

“Another headache to deal with. No matter what it can’t be allowed to control the vote, whatever the vote is for,” I said.

“Probably to plunge us all into hell,” Clarissa muttered.

“Is the juice spiked?” I asked.

“Ah, it is fermented a bit,” one of her minions said nervously. Ah, that made sense. Clarissa didn’t have to the stats to resist and probably didn’t care.

“It is fine. I haven’t lost my mind. Just thinking about things. Michelle needs to be located and your mother,” Clarissa said.

“You need to get an information network up and running,” I replied.

“It will take hundreds of days. Even with helpers, it isn’t simple. Or you can drop off a stack of points to speed things up,” she said.

“How much?” I asked. At that question she sat up.

“Really?” she asked, and I shrugged.

“I could get around 300 million a day before. How much do you need?” I asked.

“Urg, I would need to think on this. To get 10,000 stats, how much is that?”

“About 47.5 million,” I replied.

“So six people a day. When you come back, bring 3.6 billion,” she said. That was twelve days worth of solid work.

“You want to boost 72 people?” I asked.

“Yes. That gives me enough coverage to get around two per city. Recruiting the right people is going to be a massive hassle. But when you come back, bring that much and I can get things off the ground much more quickly,” she said.

“Alright, 12 days of work isn’t that much to get your information network up and running,” I replied. Clarissa nodded at this.

“Thanks, Michael,” she said.

While it was a lot to other people, it was nothing for me and made my life a lot easier. I didn’t want to have to recruit people or manage the transfer of information between cities. It would be a massive nightmare. She also didn’t have an airship, but I wasn’t about to point that out.

“If you do want me to ferry people, I can?” I asked her and she shook her head.

“No. We will figure things out on our own. Being in the west half of the Systemic Land isn’t ideal, but it is what it is. Since most places tend to be mono-cultural besides the US,” she said with a frown. Since the cities pulled by region on Earth, unless you recruited from that city, it was hard to get a spy of the right ethnicity that spoke the correct language.

“You don’t want to give up this base?” I asked.

“I don’t. Really, I might just need to take over a city, we might need to take over a city. It would simply things, quite a bit. But everywhere has an issue, either the location it pulls from on Earth or its location in the Systemic Lands,” she replied.

“Well let me know if you change your mind. A loop is going to take a while and I am going to be dealing with the towers. If you aren’t here, where should I find you?” I asked.

“New Kochi, we will hole up there. If we are forced to move. If we can’t make it there, then we will try for Purgatory,” she said.

“A long hike. Well you can handle a level 5 zone,” I replied.

“We should be able to. So, a hundred days?”

“I will need to spend about 20 days grinding for the points you need and for fuel. Another 40 days to travel all over. Another 40 to check the towers and clear them. Going to be annoying to try and scale them without an airship to throw away,” I muttered.

“With your stats, it will be simple,” Clarissa said with a smile, and I rolled my eyes at that.

“Scaling the outside of those things is a nightmare. Once the flying monsters start attacking in large groups, it is death,” I muttered.

“Well, you can always wait until we take a city,” Clarissa said.

“You make up your mind if you want to do that?” I asked.

“It is the easiest power base, but the most hassle. I am not doing that again. Just thinking out loud,” Clarissa said.