October 21, 2022
Day 1
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"You've heard the rhetoric in Delhi against Muslims. Our people were already scared, and with all this integration business, they are terrified. That's why they came here, to find safety in numbers."
Zoya shot back.
"What rhetoric! What you are talking about are just the loudest noises. Those blabbermouths don't represent the majority, they don't speak for the people."
Shahid, her brother, shook his head.
"You and your university are in a liberal bubble. Get out of it and see the atrocities happening against Muslims across the city. We need to stick together."
Zoya chuckled.
"Am I hearing Imran's talking points? How many times have I told you to stay away from him."
Shahid clenched his teeth, infuriated as much by Zoya's mocking laughter as her words.
"I'm your elder brother. You don't tell me who I should and who I shouldn't hang out with."
Zoya raised her hands in a placating gesture.
"But this was all his idea, wasn't it?"
Shahid calmed down and replied reluctantly.
"Yeah, it was. The moment we had claimed all the bastions in our immediate vicinity, he sent runners to all the nearby Mohallas and spread the word about building an enclave for Muslims here in Jafrabad. By the time the stewards appeared, representatives of hundreds of bastions were already here, and the stewards helped them pledge their bastions to the Jafrabad settlement and place their castles here."
Zoya nodded and pointed southwest.
"That is the only other large cluster of castles. It's around the Parliament, in Lutyen's Delhi area. Both the central government of India and the state government of Delhi must be entrenched there, along with as much of the bureaucracy, police, and army that they could reach within a day."
Shahid smiled as he leaned against the roof battlements and looked where her sister was pointing.
"Yeah, we noticed. That one is probably bigger, but ours was the first settlement in this region to get the barony rank with a hundred pledged bastions. I can see a permanent bonus for that achievement in the settlement details panel, and Imran told me he got a personal title on account of being the settlement representative. There is also a quest chain to further upgrade the settlement to a county rank to allow up to 10,000 bastions to be associated with it. As of now, the 370 pledged bastions had to be divided into four settlements. Of course, all four are part of the united Muslim haven of Jafrabad, and have swore fealty to Imran who has control over the collective resources."
Zoya didn't reflect Shahid's excitement as he finished speaking.
"That is what I'm afraid of."
She motioned with her hands and the siblings looked at their surroundings. Much of Delhi was visible from their castle.
"None of the nearby settlements is a tenth as big as ours, and in this is a Muslim-majority locality, the small Hindu minority settlements are bound to feel threatened. All this will only serve to worsen the polarization."
Shahid's smile faded too, and he didn't feel inclined to argue with his sister.
"But what else could we have done? We may be a majority in this locality, but Hindus vastly outnumber us in Delhi. If there is trouble, we need to be in a position to defend ourselves."
Zoya sighed despondently.
"The entire world has changed, yet it feels like nothing has. We are still arguing about the things that we were a week back."
Shahid just hugged his sister. They weren't always on the same page, and they were always arguing, but at their core, the siblings knew they agreed on the things that mattered.
After a while, Zoya broke free from the embrace and spoke.
"I'll have to get back to college before Neha wakes up. I'll say my goodbyes to Mom and Dad before I head out. It's a long walk and I won't be able to come here every night. Promise me you won't let Imran have free reign over the settlement, and keep Mom and Dad safe."
Shahid smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry Zoya, I'll keep everyone safe."
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Zoya got back to the settlement at the break of dawn and found Neha sitting upright in her room, waiting for her. She opened her mouth to apologize, but Neha spoke first.
"No time for apologies. I need to pee! Now!"
Zoya immediately picked Neha up and carried her to the castle's toilets.
When they got back to the room, she spoke.
"I'm sorry for bailing on you at night. I was concerned for my parent's safety all day yesterday and knew that worry would keep gnawing at me until I went and saw them. But you didn't need to wait for me, you could have shouted for someone else."
Neha narrowed her eyes as she replied.
"You of all people should know how much I hate getting carried. I would sooner crawl to the bathroom than have a stranger lug me there."
Zoya protested.
"I know that! But this is a completely different world. You'll have to rely on people. You don't have your wheelchair anymore. Things won't be as easy as they used to be."
Neha smiled sadly.
"They never were easy. It was a struggle before, and it will be a struggle now. At least I've got you."
I just wish Rahul was here too.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Neha didn't say that part out loud.
"Of course, you've got me. Always."
Zoya replied, and noticing Neha's melancholy mood made an exaggerated gesture of wiping tears.
"Who's cutting the bloody onions here."
Neha chuckled. She could always count on Zoya to make her laugh, and for a second, her worries were forgotten.
Then Zoya's face turned serious and she relayed the events of the last few hours, her worries about rising tension between Hindus and Muslims, and how they were getting segregated into different bastions and settlements.
Finally, Neha spoke.
"Your father is well respected in the community. He won't let Imran do as he pleases."
Zoya shook her head.
"He's respected among the elderly. Imran and his gang of hooligans are young, only a few years older than us, and listen to no one. I'm pinning my hopes on my brother for this."
Neha seemed confused.
"Shahid? I recall you telling me that he's rather conservative and that you two don't agree on anything. I got the same impression when I met him last year."
Zoya nodded.
"He's certainly conservative, but he's not an extremist. That's not something I can say about Imran, who is running the show there. My brother abhors violence. And violence is what I'm worried about."
Neha nodded.
"Things will be alright."
Zoya couldn't help but smile at Neha's optimism. But when she spoke, it was the brutal reality.
"I'm afraid they won't. From what the stewards told us last night, violence is the way of this new world. Things will get out of hand sooner or later. And when that happens, we need to be prepared for it. I need your help."
Neha nodded and listened sincerely to all that Zoya said.
But she couldn't help but wonder why two young college girls were worrying about such matters. Zoya's father was important, and Zoya herself was quite concerned about peace between the communities, but in reality, these things had little to do with the two girls who had just turned twenty.
We were teenagers only a few months ago, for fuck's sake!
Neha thought to herself and smiled sheepishly as she noticed Zoya's manner of speaking had rubbed off on her.
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October 22, 2022
Day 2
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On the second day of the integration, settlements all across the earth had their first one-hour interaction with their stewards and got a chance to know more about the tutorial and the multiverse integration.
As one may expect, no two conversations were identical, but some were noticeably different than the others.
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The administration and senior-most staff and faculty sat in the dining area of a castle with all eight stewards of their settlement as the director spoke.
"There aren't really that many animals on campus, so I don't understand where all these wildlife bastions are coming from. My prompt tells me there are 2 Avian, 8 Mammalian, and 3 Reptilian bastions!"
One of the stewards replied.
"You're missing the point, Dr. Gupta. Wildlife bastions are getting created for the tutorial, whether or not wildlife exists near your settlement is irrelevant. If there were enough animals around, the bastions would be populated by those natural inhabitants. Since there aren't enough animals within your erstwhile college campus, the system has grabbed the animals from a location with an excess of wildlife bastions and planted them here. Also, the animals would be mutated, but I'll get to that later. What's more important to know now is many of the smaller animal species on your planet breed rather rapidly, and can eventually overwhelm your defenses by their sheer number alone, if they are given free rein."
Another steward interrupted.
"What Nathaniel is trying to say is that you should not wait for the system to trigger events. Take initiative and wipe out all the hostile bastions within your settlement domain within a few days."
A third spoke up.
"I agree with that course of action. Some may argue that letting your prey grow in number and levels would lead to more cumulative experience later on, but such a decision is rarely worth the risk. What's more likely in such a case is that you'll end up having to purchase sentries to defend the castle against their endless numbers. It's not that expensive, but those sentries become irrelevant the moment your opponents get above level 20."
The director interrupted the conversation before a fourth steward could speak.
"Okay, I don't need any more convincing, as you all seem to be on the same page regarding this. Say we agree to eliminate these enemy bastions. What would that involve? Will we have to fight using swords and stuff and kill animals? Will the students be required to participate as well? Is there any risk of injury?"
All the eight stewards shared a look.
Oh my sweet summer child.
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Imran pulled Marcus away from the council for a private conversation. The discussion between the newly elected Jafrabad RWA and the 370 gathered stewards was not the place for what he had in mind.
"Can I be candid with you?"
Imran said to Marcus, foregoing any formality.
Marcus nodded, and Imran prefaced the conversation with a warning.
"If you speak of this to anyone, I'll deny everything and ensure you are never summoned again."
The steward looked bemused but said nothing.
"Your suggestions to replace the divided council with a single decisive leader struck a chord with my own ambitions, as did your insistence that we annex nearby human bastions and complete the quest chain for upgrading our settlement to a province. I want to seize firm control of this settlement and quickly annex all the nearby bastions to start with. But those old fools in the RWA will never let it happen."
Marcus spoke.
"An excellent plan. I'll be delighted to throw in my lot with you, but I have a condition."
Imran raised an eyebrow.
"The moment you wrest control of the settlement, nominate me as its primary steward. As the coordinator, you can do it already, but all the other stewards will unite and make a big fuss about it. They are not fools. I'm certain my audience with you has already been noted and will be the subject of much speculation. But make me the primary steward once you have established yourself as a leader, and every other steward will be forced to report to me and do our bidding. Is that acceptable?"
Imran readily agreed, but couldn't help but ask a question.
"What makes you certain I'll honor my commitment when the time comes?"
Marcus replied.
"By the time we are done here, there will be too many skeletons in our closets for either of us to betray the other."
Imran smiled savagely.
"I made a good decision, picking you out of the crowd. I think we will get along splendidly."
Marcus grinned.
"We can't take too long here, let's get on to business. Which among the bickering retirees leads the pack that opposes you? Neutralize the glue that holds the opposition together and everyone else will fall like a house of cards."
Imran shook his head, disappointed at the simplistic solution. Had he given the steward too much credit?
"There is no leader as such, but it's Aadil Khan that everyone listens to. Killing him will not solve the problem. On the contrary, it'll unite the peace-loving senior citizens and make things harder for us."
Marcus replied, unperturbed by the visible disappointment on his benefactor's face.
"Not if we do it right. Are you familiar with false flag operations?"
Imran's eyes lit up again, and as Marcus walked the settlement representative through his plan, he had only one thought.
Win or lose, this integration is gonna be a blast!
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"What happens to our trade? Won't healing potions render it useless?"
Sam the steward thought for a second.
"You're half right. The organs are going to be pretty much useless, not just because of the healing potions though. With all the technology gone, it'll be some time before doctors can do organ transplants safely again."
Mrs. Bensen looked dejected.
"Don't look so glum. The demand for organs may be gone, but the demand for humans isn't. After all, every living being with levels is a basket of experience."
Mrs. Bensen looked relieved, but her husband wasn't impressed.
"So what if one can get experience by killing humans? They can get it just as easily by killing animals. Heck, they can just kill rats for the same experience. You told us that a level 1 rat and a level 1 tiger give the same XP!"
Sam replied.
"I did, but I guess I forgot to tell you that there is a 10x experience bonus on killing sapient species. A level 1 human is worth 100 XP, and a level 10 human is worth 1000. That's equivalent to a level 100 beast. Level 100 is E grade. And that's without counting an additional multiplier between 1x to 10x depending on whether the individual has a presence, has any titles, is representative of a large settlement, etc. A level 20 human can be worth up to 20,000 experience. "
Mr. Bensen whistled.
His wife spoke to him.
"Call in the boys, will you dear? They'll have to work real hard and level up real fast if we wanna keep the family business going. High-level grown-ups aren't going to be anywhere as cooperative as their tiny tots."
As seven burly boys streamed into the castle room, Sam sighed and thought about the mess he'd gotten himself into.
If I had to facilitate the morally reprehensible, I'd rather do it for a ruthless dictator than small-time criminals. The scourge of society excels at the start of the integration, but lawbreakers rarely make it to D-grade. I doubt this couple will be an exception.