“Emperor Michael,” Samantha said, and I paused. She was my personal assistant and handled a lot of minor issues on my behalf while I wasn’t around.
“What is it, Samantha?” I asked and paused. I was on my way to the airship port to fly away and start taking on the towers.
“The approval of the squire policy is going into effect five days from now. I wanted to know if you would want to be present?” she asked. I paused to consider the question. It was a novel concept, an...
2023-12-05 00:13:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Congratulations on your recovery,” Clarissa said.
“Thanks. But it isn’t complete yet,” I replied as we shared breakfast togeather before my departure.
“Another issue has come up,” Clarissa said, and I paused to look at her.
“Not another pointless rebellion?” I asked.
“Minor things, but I wanted to get your input before your departure,” she answered. I frowned slightly as I sipped my juice. If they were minor, why was she asking me? “It appears ...
2023-12-04 00:02:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
“How does it feel?” Doctor Katz asked me. I moved my right arm and articulated my fingers. Jacob was here as well poking my arm. I could feel surges of energy with each poke as he inspected it.
“It feels fine,” I replied. “No issues with movement.”
“Bend this,” Jacob handed me a maganite bar. It took a bit of effort to bend with my stats. “Pain?”
“Just minor aches around my chest area, not my arm. It does feel a bit harder to leverage my stats with my r...
2023-12-03 00:15:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
“It is over?” Clarissa asked me over breakfast. I had returned late, the night before.
“The city was purged and the level 1 zone around the city of all hostile forces. There might be a few grinding groups hiding out, but the message has been sent. I want word to spread since doing this should not be a regular occurrence,” I replied while having a blueberry muffin.
“I know you didn’t want to do such a thing, but I am grateful anyways,” she said. I shook my head.
2023-12-02 00:02:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
I sipped my water while focusing on my stats once more. The recent fight had been a nice way to take my mind off my stats while using them in combat. It was hard work and painful, but I was going to keep focusing on them constantly to push them back into the correct position.
“Movement the East,” one of my guards said. I opened one eye and looked in that direction. There was some movement. “Intercept?” he asked me.
“No. Let them attack or whatever,” I replied and sippe...
2023-12-01 00:00:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
The airboat docked at the airship port or tower in the East Bastion. There was a crowd in the plaza that was shouting various things, soldiers everywhere, but no reception committee at the top of the tower.
I stepped off along with two of my personal guard. While I was far stronger than them, it was a matter of appearances that I had soldiers with me. At least to keep the riff raff away. Did they think there would be no response. I walked off slowly. “Lift off and hover. Only come bac...
2023-11-28 00:26:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
“As you can see from the included packet, you can expect an overall increase of 4% credits over the course of a conflict, while denying your opponent those resources based on historical trends,” I presented to the representative from the Yellow Sapling faction.
“And why don’t we just do this ourselves?” the female representative asked. I smiled at that question, since I was ready for it.
“The same reason you would purchase anything outside of your faction. The ease wit...
2023-11-26 23:44:44 +0000 UTC
View Post
I looked out over the crowd that had gathered in the plaza. It was nice to be home. Purgatory was my home, not the Forbidden City. While I lived on my airship, it was nice to some place with more permanence. As much as anything could be permanent in this place.
I smiled as I noticed my namesake in the crowd with the rest of the kids. I was glad they had survived. A society should be judged by how well it treated its people, not by how the strongest or richest lived. While I might not li...
2023-11-25 20:16:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
I was lying down on the bridge of the airship as it flew towards Purgatory. The city had taken down the shield, but there were a lot of remaining problems to sort through. Thankfully the vast majority of people survived. The bad news was that the city was submerged, partially underground.
There had been some debate about if I should go back and if it should remain the capital. I had made an executive decision, that both were going to happen. It was a symbol of perseverance at this point...
2023-11-24 21:33:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jacob Copper
I looked at the container I had. “Sphere energy is at safe levels,” I said as we flew towards the site of the battle. I could tell with just a glance, with how much I had been studying the effects of sphere energy versus system energy. Countless people had been sacrificed in order to understand the exact impact of the energy. Like putting diesel into a gasoline powered vehicle. It just clogged up everything.
“What about the lower layer?” I ask...
2023-11-23 17:18:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
I was laying on a couch, on a balcony, overlooking the plaza of the Forbidden City. I wanted to be outside, rather than cooped up in some closet as I kept working on pushing against the curse damage that was crippling me.
“What’s the verdict?” I asked Jacob and he let out a heavy sigh while shaking his head. I was able to manage my breathing a bit better, but it was still incredibly difficult.
“Weeks, at best. By day 5,200 you will have made the best progress possible. Any...
2023-11-22 16:09:43 +0000 UTC
View Post
As Jacob and Doctor Katz fussed over me I thought back to when I had explained that Jacob was the Master Fleshcrafter to Doctor Katz and the rest of my team.
“Michael, the knowledge Jacob has is too much,” Doctor Katz said. I nodded at this. “I get he is smart, but there are several things he has developed that require research. You asked me to watch his research.” We were traveling to another zone after having stopped at Purgatory to pick up supplies and make sure things we...
2023-11-21 23:14:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
I felt like I was choking. I couldn’t breathe. “Michael calm down,” Doctor Katz said as he looked over me. My breathing grew a bit easier and my panic went down.
“Can’t. Breathe,” I gasped out.
“You took a heavy injury. Your stats were impacted. You need to focus on correcting them,” Doctor Katz said. I tried to focus on them, but I got a splitting headache.
“Can’t. Headache. Bad,” I gasped out.
“Subconscious interference and possible damage,”...
2023-11-21 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Junior greets Qiang You. Junior greets senior,” I said and bowed to the man before me. Unlike most cultivators I had seen, he was not wearing a martial robe of some kind, but a large overcoat with lots of pockets. His thick glasses made him seem even more eccentric.
He walked up to me and put a hand on my head. I felt a wave of energy pass through me and then he released his hand. “You don’t ask for anything simple brat,” the eccentric man said. The fact he could call Qiang Y...
2023-11-20 15:53:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Doctor Katz
We set down at the edge of the swamp and the block terrain. Looking back, there was just inky blackness. Michelle didn’t have the energy to keep going, so we had landed. Captain Francis was placed in charge of carrying Michael, and Jacob carried the Avatar. He had done something to knock her out thankfully.
The good news was that the hostile energy was gone. Jacob said there was a bit still lingering, but we shouldn’t be overly concerned. Still kee...
2023-11-19 22:41:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
Doctor Katz
The golems suddenly stopped firing at us. There was silence with some explosions in the distance still. “There is ambient energy coming back,” Jacob said.
“We need to move, Michelle?” Clarissa asked. The platform we were cowering under broke apart and reformed to the side. We quickly got on and it lifted off. Michelle was sending out more summons in a supporting envelope around us. I had thought we would have died there at the end, leaping off ...
2023-11-19 22:40:58 +0000 UTC
View Post
Two bright multi-colored beams cut through the air. The right mix of energies to deal maximum damage and create an annihilation effect according to Jacob. Captain Francis and Michelle had lined things up perfectly. Both beams struck the surface of the structure I had already attacked.
I could feel the waves of energy being released from the attack. I heard the airship breaking apart from the attacks and the counter force of the super weapon. The beams dug through the structure and then ...
2023-11-17 23:55:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
“The bracelets are holding up,” Jacob said while checking over his. He had been checking them regularly. None of us could sleep. We were all on the bridge as the Crystal Vortex continued to fly towards our destination. It was just after dawn as we continued to drift through the sky.
The engines were disabled, so we only had a limited way to adjust our course and speed with our ballistic trajectory. “That’s good. Otherwise, we would be dead,” Clarissa replied with some...
2023-11-17 23:55:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
“New face, come sit,” a middle-aged woman waved me over. The TripleX faction like others, had a gathering place for members of their faction. There was nothing else for me to do and I felt getting to understand the faction better would be useful.
What could be called a club slash bar existed that members could visit and relax at for no cost. The risk of betrayal was huge, which was why factions went out of their way for official members to reduce the chance of any resentment buildin...
2023-11-17 23:54:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
“They isn’t good for her condition,” Doctor Katz said while looking at me. I just stared right back at him and he let out a sigh. “Alright, I will get her strapped up.” It was always the plan to use the Avatar as a ballistic missile. The gurney with her was wheeled across the open deck of the airship. There were two huge cannons lined up facing forward as well.
Doctor Katz had suggested putting her on a bed instead of strapping her to the front of the airship like a figurehead...
2023-11-16 00:17:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You may enter now,” the servant said, and I got up. I had been waiting for quite a while to meet with an official representative of the TripleX faction. It hadn’t cost anything surprisingly. I had done enough business with them, that they were willing to meet with me without an upfront payment. I was on level -3.
I didn’t often go to the negative levels. It was more a preference thing between Bones and myself wanting to be higher up, rather than lower down. While the outside en...
2023-11-15 23:55:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
The TripleX faction came through once again for a chunk of my remaining credits, directing me towards an individual who specialized in organ trafficking. I needed something to handle my body core when I broke through.
It was amusing how many problems I had to keep overcoming for my cultivation, but I didn’t mind. I had come to accept that my cultivation would continue to have problems over the centuries. As long as I could keep moving forward that was the most important thing.
O...
2023-11-15 00:20:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
Michelle
“We are probably going to die,” I said quietly while sipping the alcohol Clarissa had provided in her office. She had invited me here after the meeting.
“You are more likely to survive than me,” Clarissa replied and raised her glass. “I am curious, are you and Michael a couple?”
“What?! No,” I quickly replied, and Clarissa laughed. “Why are you laughing?” I didn’t want to be insulted.
“I am not making fun of you. It is ...
2023-11-15 00:17:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
I sat on the bridge of the Crystal Vortex drinking from a large jug of fruit juice, as I looked out over the Forbidden City. That was a pretentious name, but it seemed like this place was just as pivotal as Purgatory, perhaps even more so. Perhaps how pretentious the name was, translated to how important the city was in terms of events.
There was movement behind me, but I wasn’t worried. Jacob came around and looked slightly surprised to see me. “Emperor Michael,” he gree...
2023-11-13 23:59:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
“It won’t work,” Jacob said with a shake of his head. It was an emergency meeting regarding our planned assault on the sphere. “I can’t upscale a portal enough to go through the lower layer. Which means, we have to go directly, and see if anything is happening with the sphere and the lower layer on site.”
“Is it a cost issue?” I asked and Jacob shook his head.
“Quadratic. I figured the energy costs would be exponential, but this is far beyond that. No good measur...
2023-11-12 23:59:57 +0000 UTC
View Post
The airboat began to ascend towards the light source in the gooified terrain. Everyone was getting ready, but I would take the time to look into the height limit and see if anything was up here. While there was risk, if a super monster showed up, I would just run towards the sphere.
Also, the airboat’s engine was disabled. Otherwise, it would break down during the ascent from the sphere’s energy, possibly explode. Jacob had already run several tests and recommended this course of ac...
2023-11-12 23:59:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
Chests were off loaded with the 5.4 billion points. I had really pushed myself the last 30 days or so to get everything that I could grind out from the two level 7 zones. I wasn’t ready to try a level 8 zone. I could take on the boss monsters one at a time, but in a horde, I would be done for. I had only cleared the other level 7 zone’s boss arena, upgrading power of Force Shot. I could now make very powerful explosions.
I had tested them out on level 7 monsters and easily blew them...
2023-11-11 00:05:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Rhiza?” I called out and the figure paused. I had spent enough time with her in the past, that I could pick up the small details that set her apart from other cloaked figures.
“Yuan?” she turned to look at me.
“Yes, it is good to see you,” I replied and went over to her and we both removed the hoods on our cloaks.
“You as well. It is rare to see someone after you part ways. But if anything, the Pit Stop from Hell is a good meeting place,” she said.
“...
2023-11-11 00:01:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thankfully I didn’t have to go far to reach a level 7 zone, and there were two of them next together between The Abyss and New Kochi. I had just finished clearing an entire zone and was looking at the cube that had appeared and the open doors on the side that led into darkness.
It was frustrating to be caught in this position. I was used to fighting the Swirling Ice Spikes of Illusion, but I had no doubt the boss monster would be much more difficult. If I kept waiting, then I would ps...
2023-11-10 00:35:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
I carefully moved up the outside of the tower. There were chunks missing. Larger chunks the further I got up. The spatial turbulence and the clouds of yellow death also increased as I went up the tower to where the broker resided. I checked my improved compass, confirming which level I was at.
Past floor 100,000 the inside of the tower quickly became a mess, and there were a lot more questionable characters. That was why I went outside to climb up instead. Experience I had picked up fro...
2023-11-08 23:57:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
