The Systemic Lands (Dark Progressive LITRPG)

I sat brooding in the situation room where Clarissa worked to try and salvage the situation. While I had a seat at the central table, with Clarissa opposite me, I wasn't saying anything. Since everyone who had met the woman who was likely my mother was dead, there was a wish that the woman wasn't my mother. There was no way to confirm one way or the other.

There was nothing to do but brood and wait until there was a lead for me to respond to. I saw people glancing at me waiting for me to blow up but no one said anything. I had no stomach to want to go out and grind or try to get more upgrades to my skills.

"Michael," I looked at Clarissa as she mentioned my name. "There have been several terrorist attacks, bombings, both in cities and targeted at grinding teams."

"And?" I asked, annoyed that she was bothering me about such an issue. That was a her problem, not a me problem.

"We are looking at implementing martial law everywhere," she replied. I let out a scoff. Now we were going right into a military dictatorship, only with more steps.

"Do what you want to. Set it on fire, martial law, there is nothing for me to do," I countered. If she wanted to be in charge, then she could be in charge. I wasn't going to micro-manage Clarissa over every decision. I wanted results. That was the only thing that mattered right now. If the Empire began struggling, it would be easy to reclaim cities and take things back over.

"Your portion of the tax revenue, would go a long way to helping with the situation," Clarissa said. I just looked at her as everyone quickly became quiet. I let the uncomfortable silence stretch out before responding.

"No. There will be no touching my tax revenue anymore. Ten percent. No exceptions," I said clearly to make sure the point was clearly conveyed. I was not going to let my tax revenue be touched any more to help out the Empire. That had been a mistake. I wasn't going to let anyone take what was rightfully mine any longer. "Why don't you use your income from your businesses to help out the government?" I asked.

"That is being considered," Clarissa said and then began quietly talking with one of the nearby soldiers about the recent terrorist attacks. I noted a map on a nearby table with more and more markers being laid out.

I really hated terrorism. It was just impossible to deal with. When I wasn't the government, it was easy to blame the people in charge when terrorists attacked. Now that I was in charge, it was incredibly frustrating. Terrorism was a cancer. Anyone even indirectly related to terrorism going forward was going to be tortured to death publicly to make a point.

Even if they were brain washed, or there were skills in play, it wouldn't matter. It was too easy to make bombs, since materials to make bombs, crystals, were also the currency of the Systemic Lands. If terrorism became a daily facet of life, that was fine. People would adapt and eventually the perpetrators would make mistakes and be caught.

At the end of the day, the only way to win was to kill me. I was the government. Sure there could be cracks and without Clarissa it would be a terrible government, but there would still be a government. The recent rebellion showed that there was no chance for anyone to resist my power.

It would be annoying, but eventually the survivors would realize they had to get with the program or be killed. Perhaps that was the plan, annoy me to death and deal emotional damage. I didn't think it would work, but there was always a small chance. I expected to get pieces of my mother any day now. Her head in a box would be a message.

Or they would strap her to a lot of bombs and use her as a trap. That wouldn't work. With everything I had survived so far, it would need to be an incredibly massive or powerful bomb. I had survived so many previous attempts on my life that I wasn't going to take the situation lightly, but I wasn't panicking about the threat posed to me either.

The gap was just too big. Still there was a concern that Jacob could use the sphere in some way. That was a threat, but I was the only person who would survive its ambient energy. Everyone else might die, but I would still be around and as strong as ever.

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At the end of the day terrorism could only cause so much damage to things I actually cared about. Each bomb was just a mosquito biting me. I might lose some blood and be annoyed, it wouldn't kill me. The metaphor broke down when you looked at diseases, but the power gap was just too big between a bug and a human.

I didn't know how to kill me. If I didn't know how to accomplish that, then no one else would. There could be meta-points with unique and crazy skills, but it wouldn't be enough. Why else would Jacob be targeted instead of me? If I could be controlled, then it would be an instant win condition for whatever enemy was out there.

Whatever kind of leverage was being held over him was clearly something he couldn't fight. While I doubted many things about him, the man was a rat. He would cling to the last piece of debris on a sinking ship before going into the water. I didn't doubt his intelligence or his will to survive. He would leave the Systemic Lands if he thought he could survive. Or he would have taken me out an alpha attack with multiple fall back attempts.

While I was emotionally compromised, unless I jumped into the void of my own will, there was no way for him to actually take me out. And I was the biggest threat to his life. Stirring up trouble and killing people, kidnapping my mother, they were not the actions of someone who wanted to live comfortably. They were the actions of someone who wanted to hurt me.

That's why even with the reports about his actions not being entirely sure if there was another figure behind the scenes, I was. He was too much of a self-serving toady for anything else to be the case.

He was still going to die horribly. I knew I had to mentally commit to this course of action now. I could just imagine cornering the piece of human trash and he would plead for mercy and pull out some reasonable sounding explanation in order to spare him. I could imagine him claiming he was the only one who would be able to counter the sphere or something like that.

That's why decisions had to be made ahead of time and stuck with. I wouldn't even let him speak if I could help it. Or I might. I didn't want to lose out on information. He could trade out information for a quick death instead of torture, but I would pretend to offer him his life instead to squeeze out what little worth he had left.

As for the person behind the plot, they were dying for sure. I had to be extra careful since they clearly had a meta-point if Jacob went over to them like he had. Nothing else made sense. Unless there was a secret organization out there with more power or knowledge, but that was highly doubtful.

No, this was someone who got too big a head and had a grudge against me or my government. Then they lucked into a meta-point and managed to make a mess of things. Or there could be an outside influence. One or the other. But saying aliens, was not the right approach until other options had been ruled out. There had been several meta-points but only one sphere, so probability still leaned in favor of meta-points.

Looking over at the map, there were several more markers and updates being added. Whomever was behind all of this really was going all out. Clarissa looked stressed, but I wasn't going to micromanage her. She wanted freedom, she was going to get it. I would make my decision on if she should still be alive depending on how the situation turned out.

The only thing holding me back was the entire tax system and getting higher level grinders to pay up. If the government collapsed, it would be a nightmare to get people to manage all of that. Everything else was a lesser priority. The more I thought about the situation, the more I realized I had been too free with my share of the tax revenue.

I would need to hire my own auditors independent of Clarissa. "Captain Francis," I said out loud and he quickly came to my side. "How closely are we monitoring the taxes?"

"There was a small staff, but they are dead along with Samantha. Someone would need to be appointed to her position first," he explained. I hadn't paid attention to her death since it was trivial in my mind.

"You are promoted. I want my people watching and auditing the flow of taxes going forward," I said.

"And your personal guard? Who will be in charge?" he asked.

"You appoint people who you think are acceptable. They need to be loyal to me first, not anyone else. Look for people for my personal guard. I want the numbers brought up to a hundred. Personality and trust are the most important factors, stats can come later," I replied.

"That is double the size we currently maintain. That will increase expenses," Captain Francis said.

"It is important. Long term we are going to be separating my portion of the government completely from Clarissa's portion. The Imperial Palace should be my home, not the administrative nexus of the government. I want us to have a clear line of separating my portion of the government from Clarissa's."

"That will raise tensions," Captain Francis said and I nodded.

"I will not be held hostage by anyone. Clarissa is capable, but I want my staff separate from hers. Even if it raises costs." I wasn't sure what I would be doing in the future, or if she would be sticking around, but I was going to take a more active role in governance how I wanted to.

That meant focusing on the taxes. The Divine Empress was right again. That was the most important thing, everything else was just noise. While she might not be the best role model, she was the most valid source of comparison in my opinion in the Systemic Lands.