The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

I looked out at the city before me. Purgatory was in ruins. I had gotten the recall order and quickly returned to the city. Instead of thriving city, it was a wreck. Clarissa was waiting for me at the airship port as I got off.

"What happened?" I demanded and she let out a sigh.

"Jacob has been compromised. Combined with me stressing the government by hiring a lot of new people, it created a mass vulnerability," she explained. I processed what she said.

"How? The sphere?" I asked.

"No. A meta-point of some kind. There is also a more delicate matter," she said.

"Jacob was at the center of several research projects. He was just appointed as Director of Research just under you. What could be more delicate than that? Doctor Katz, the Avatar?" I asked and Clarissa shook her head. I waited while growing more tense. She never had trouble bringing up anything before.

"Your mother has been kidnapped," she finally said. I blinked a couple of times as I tried to process that.

"What do you mean? This is the Systemic Lands, not Earth," I replied.

"She arrived and was secured in the Imperial Palace. There was an attack on the palace and she was kidnapped and her personal guard detail was killed by Jacob," she replied. There was silence at this as my brain tried to process all of that.

"My mother was here. No one told me. And now, she has been kidnapped by some person who has compromised Jacob, who is doing key research at the moment regarding the sphere," I slowly said, making sure I didn't get anything wrong.

"Yes," Clarissa said, and I felt an immense amount of rage. I clenched my hands into fists and turned away from her, walking to the side of the tower. I was more tempted than I had ever been to kill her for this massive screw up.

My mother was here. I had family still alive. I had hope, but I had never let it take root. And now she was captured and whomever had done all this was going to use her as leverage. It is what I would do. Keep her alive, possibly use her as bait, or to force me to back off.

I stood at the edge of the tower, taking deep breaths while I looked out over the city. How was this my life? I hated hostage situations. My knee jerk response was to just kill the hostage and the hostage taker. That way no one would take a hostage. But that was why it was so perfect to kidnap a family member. The timing was perfect, too perfect in many ways. It had the Avatar written all over it.

But there would be no proof. That was what I got for allowing her to go free from the paperwork. I could just sense it. Blaming her now, wouldn't help resolve things either. I kept looking out at the city as the minutes went by, no one dared to bother me or make any noise. They were right not to. I wanted someone to blame.

I finally walked back over to Clarissa. "Who?" I asked.

"No idea. We are investigating who is behind everything, but it could be anyone," she replied.

"Any demands?" I asked.

"None so far. They could have been waiting until you return or wanting to be sure they aren't backtracked," Clarissa answered.

"And how did they infiltrate the government to such an extent. Director of Research doesn't mean Jacob would be in charge of hiring?" I demanded.

"He compromised people mentally. Whomever targeted him, picked an individual who could be leveraged to impact many more. He has many brainwashing techniques and there is a chance he was using them even before as a contingency. Only now, all of them were triggered," Clarissa explained.

"Don't we check for that kind of thing?" I demanded.

"We do, but no system is perfect," she countered.

"Not perfect, it is a mess. I left all this in your hands. When you asked for a rebellion to be put down, I didn't make a fuss. What is my one demand?" I asked her.

"That you don't have to get directly involved. That you want to be able to trust me to handle things," Clarissa replied, and I nodded at this.

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"And now I am compromised!" I roared at her. "I could accept terrorism, and people making attempts. But this is the Imperial Palace. People invaded here? Took a family member of mine?" She stoically stood there and took the criticisms. All the soldiers and other people who were nearby kept their distance and were silent. "Give me one good reason, I shouldn't melt you and find someone else? Just one."

"Because, there is no one else and you trust me," she replied.

"Trust? You let something happen that should not have happened. I…I want to say that I should trade you away, but that is stupid. Why weren't there any protections or anything on the Imperial Palace. We have summoners?"

"The enemy force employed summoners and counter measures. Also, it was too hard to tell friend from foe. I only recently got back, I wasn't even in the city. I was managing the other cities, so you didn't have to," Clarissa said.

"Do I look like I care about other cities?!"

"You need to! Things are barely holding together as it is. If you want to run off and grind, well I need to run to the cities to stabilize things so you don't have to. Unless you want to run things like the Dragon Empire?" Clarissa asked me.

"And you don't have people?" I demanded.

"It isn't easy! This isn't Earth. There aren't multiple candidates for every job post. I scout for competent people, but I get more people who have worked at McDonalds than I do people who can run a government like this properly. The loss of all those cities has put a tremendous amount of pressure on this Empire. It is barely holding togeather," Clarissa yelled at me back.

"And so what! Let them rebel and just kill them all. But this is my home. And you failed."

"It happens! If you are so strong and think someone else can do better get rid of me. I won't live with a threat hanging over my head."

My voice grew deathly quiet. "I think your are forgetting your place."

"No, I am not Michael. Without me, this place is nothing but a hell hole. And you would have to constantly put down rebellions. Don't you dare look down on me. I might not be grinding out there and I won't say what I do is more difficult, but it isn't easy. Constantly managing people. And while you think a threat and melting some people will work, it doesn't create stability. Who else is there?"

"There are other people. There are always other people."

"Before, maybe, when things were smaller. Now, we are like a massive corporation. You can't just change directions without massive consequences. Like the tax revenue or the soldiers. Every little bit has been set up."

"And it clearly failed," I countered.

"Then let me just predict a super sphere monster that wiped out several cities and let me not forget a meta-point which compromised Jacob instead of me. I can prepare, but not for the unknown," she countered while we glared at each other.

"Keeping the Imperial Palace safe is important enough. This is my home. And people invaded it and kidnapped my mother," I hissed at her.

"You want me to cut out an eye?" she glared right back at me.

"No. You think there won't be consequences. I won't kill you or threaten you. Instead I am going to change things. The following changes are going to be made. All public projects I have been funding, now come out of your budget. I will be taking everything you personally own as well." She was silent. "Yeah, all your side projects that have been giving you points. The food research, restaurants, and all of that, I will own now."

"You can't do this. You push someone into a corner, they will react," she replied.

"Then react. I am standing right here. Right now. But now I will have to deal with this mess. I can forgive you for things outside your control. The sphere, Jacobs betrayal, are things I can't and won't blame you for. But this place, my home? Unless the city is destroyed, you let people invade," I countered.

"And you never failed? Against the Divine Empress? Against the sphere? I can't predict everything. You would throw things into chaos."

"Well those extra projects are clearly distracting you."

"Then I quit. Kill me," she replied calling my bluff. "I need my budget and it is stretched."

"You don't think I won't?" I was going beyond enraged.

"I think you will and regret it. Running this place is a nightmare. I wish I could retire. I have been trying to for years now. But I can't. I literally can't quit Michael. Because there is no one else. You would kill my replacement in a week and it would become a cycle." I knew she was right, but that didn't stop how angry I was right now.

"Only one person in this Empire cannot be replaced. Me. While other people are critical, they are not irreplaceable. You are retired then. I won't kill you or threaten you. But you are done Clarissa."

"And who is replacing me. Wait, you are?" she asked.

"We will be moving to a full military government. There will no longer be a civilian government with a military. Just a single military government. I will be backing changes. Changes that are needed with how you have been running things."

"And the economy? And countless other issues?" she asked.

"I will handle them. The failures will be on me. That's what you wanted, right? I was going to use those funds taken from you to protect the Imperial Palace going forward and kick your government out. But you just wanted more power. Not giving up an inch," I told her off and she let out a scoff.

"And when things don't go your way, you will kill people?" she asked.

"Military government with mandatory grinding for all people in the government. No long term bureaucrats," I countered.

"That might work for non-technical posts and sound nice, but there are a lot of things that sound nice, that won't work on a practical level. Trend tracking, polling, the judicial system, all of it requires experts who do their job day in and day out. Your military government will work for a while but will struggle. The economy will also struggle."

All the stress points in our relationship were bubbling up right now. The anger on both sides was very real. Clarissa had failed me in a way that hurt deeply. A trust in her abilities had been broken for the first time.