The defence of Westfields became a legend around which Seth’s blooming faction blossomed. Seth was the main character of the retelling, rallying a fighting force and maintaining the bulwark which protected those not yet ready to step into the System within the shopping centre. Once the horde had been successfully repelled, Seth’s quest completed and literal walls of protection arose from nowhere. It certainly struck a poignant image.
It was a flowery story at this point, which ignored the blood and lives which it cost to let them write it. Nolan’s own place was as a single line in the epic, something he was grateful for. If he had the energy to be grateful, that is.
The eight weeks or so since the Battle of Westfields passed in a blur that Nolan barely felt himself surface from. There was rarely a moment of relaxation to be found, always a new danger to defeat or decision to take care of. Nolan felt stretched like an overinflated balloon from it all. The core of his new life was the safety of his girls. To the members of their new community, Nolan was an unyielding font of stamina and strength because he simply never stopped.
One of the first challenges for the new town was turning the current architecture into one that fit their purposes. The town was mostly made up of office spaces and other non-residential areas to begin with. Luckily, a general calm settled over their tentative sanctuary quite quickly once the initial wave of monsters was dealt with. After surviving a few battles themselves, some of the others gained levels and were able to help speed up the process of defending the area and clearing monsters away. Once all was said and done, despite the tragic loss of life, there were still thousands of survivors. Which meant thousands of mouths to feed.
Most people were pulling their weight in one way or another, and thanks to Seth’s recent upgrade to Londimin, the resource problem was slowly fading into memory. Either through quest rewards, which seemed entirely arbitrary to Nolan, or System credits in the form of gold coins, Seth as the leader of Londimin could purchase buildings for the city. The System stores had allowed them to go from a wild, feral existence to one which resembled the old world massively.
His own family were placed in one of the few actual residential homes in the area, a flat above a shop. The five rooms, including kitchen and bathroom, were extravagant compared to the living situation for most. They even had actual beds, paid for by Nolan through the stores with his own credits. Things were reaching some kind of normalcy for his family, but Nolan didn’t want to even think how dire it was outside the city.
Land in Londimin was still at a premium due to the walls which now limited their growth. Seth’s reward for defeating the horde was the chance to establish a safe area, complete with physical walls. It seemed that monsters didn’t like to come too close in any case, a more invisible barrier slightly further out which allowed them to farm outside the walls a little. Even with that, it was still tight.
Everyone was packed in and feeling the claustrophobia of it all. Fights weren’t uncommon and it was truly impossible to stop the robbery and abuse which existed at the bottom line of their small society. With the system just randomly granting items, wealth or even magic to people at random, the economy was one of pure desire and speculation. When you mix those two emotions, you more often than not end up with disappointment.
At least the System stores were slowly alleviating that problem. People still preferred to deal with a human face rather than what was essentially an omnipotent computer system, so the trading profession was going nowhere. You couldn’t haggle with the System, after all.
“Daddy, I’m booooored!” Nolan’s body and thoughts froze. He was halfway out of the door when Sarah’s beleaguered voice carried down the hall of their apartment. That his daughter was bored was a blessing. If that remained the only issue she faced on a daily basis, Nolan would remain a happy man. However, he could not ignore her plight. He had always been putty in his daughter’s pudgy hands, after all. The same was true for her older sister, but that relationship was straining by the day. “I’m sorry, baby, did you finish your book?”
“For the tenth time,” Sarah answered, looking him dead in the eye with such severity even Nolan found himself taking the issue more seriously. “There’s nothing to do while you’re working. Can I come with you?”
Nolan smiled and gently brushed his daughter's dark blonde hair. She began to pout, knowing his answer before he even said it. “My work isn’t safe for little girls, you know that.” Nolan wanted to break the System to pieces as he saw his little girl flinch, anger at himself for being careless. Sarah saw a lot of death in those first days. He was pretty sure that his stats were helping him keep his own sanity, but his daughter wasn’t exactly gathering levels.
At least, one of his daughters wasn’t.
“I’ll make sure Lucy comes back to play with you, I just have to find her first.” Sarah’s lip quivered a little and she turned away from Nolan. He felt like a failure when it came to his girl’s emotions, but what could he do? The world wasn’t exactly throwing psychiatrists into his lap. He dropped the hand he wanted to place on Sarah’s shoulder and stood instead. With a firm set of his Jaw, Nolan realigned his emotions on the subject.
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He needed to have some words with Lucy.
Sarah had been quiet, well behaved and even helpful in the two months since the System descended. Lucy, not so much. It was all Nolan could do to keep track of her, especially now she had an Aspect. It wasn’t fair for Nolan to try and hide her from the world, but at the same time, the thought of his little girl fighting in this new world filled him with more fear than he thought possible. He barely had room for anything else, even Sarah.
While she was still young, that was Lucy’s fault and something Nolan would remedy right now.
People moved out of his way in the crowded roads of the city. He still didn’t like the name, but he didn’t mind the respect he was given as one of the “founders'' of Londimin. Seth had been allowed to name their small slice of Western London and decided to stay with the general theme. Londimin wasn’t quite thriving, but it survived the first wave of devastation visited upon the world. That was probably better than most could say.
Nolan was true to his word, following Seth now as his firmest defender. The kid was trying. Seth made the wise decision to make Nolan the sheriff of their town, and Nolan’s prior experience helped him cultivate and maintain a semblance of lawfulness. The rules in Londimin were fairly simple. Don’t steal. Don’t kill each other. Actually, don’t assault each other in any way. Don’t leave Londimin. Don’t blow through rations, stuff like that. Seeing a few monsters was enough for most people in their lifetime to follow any rule.
Most people.
“Have you seen Lucy today?” Nolan asked the first of his guards that he saw. The group of eight he had run through Westfields with on the first and second days were all still alive, now acting as lieutenants for Nolan. The guard on shift shook their head and shrugged, the gesture both apologetic and empathetic. Everyone knew what Lucy was like, it seemed. It didn’t surprise Nolan, but he knew there would be no point searching further.
Their small encampment wasn’t large enough for someone to disappear for a day without being spotted by pretty much everyone. Lucy was outside the walls, a bad habit she had gotten into. While Nolan wouldn’t have wanted her to join Trevor’s scouts, there were better ways to do what she was trying. Nolan wanted to find Maisie just as badly as Lucy did.
He just needed to make sure Sarah was safe first. Londimin was becoming safe. If you ignored the magic people were now casually wielding, that is. Nolan’s own Aspect of Justice fueled the mana inside him, granting him skills mostly based on defence and retaliation. It also had the strange quirk of letting him somehow know whether someone was telling the truth or not. It wasn’t something Nolan had shared, nor did he rely on it, but the sense hadn’t been wrong yet.
“Fucking Aspects,” Nolan sighed. They were the centre of all of Nolan’s current issues. The magic crystals which let people become more than they had been. Lucy had gotten ahold of one and now she was incorrigible.
Aspects were a way to secure massive loyalty. As the strongest, Seth had been able to find these wondrous items safely, giving them to others to speed up the creation of Londimin initially. Slowly, people loyal to Seth were being allowed their own magical gems, and gaining their own level of control over life in this new world. Nolan didn’t like limiting people but he also didn’t trust most people to run around with superpowers. Seth was strong, but if someone else rose to his level of power then the balance they had crafted would fall apart.
Not that such a thing was likely. Seth was probably the strongest person on the planet right now, with the headstart he had received and the additional rolling benefits that came with it. The System itself recognised him as a Baron and increased his strength again. He must have received some other percentage benefits or something because Nolan had reached the maximum level of thirty alongside him a week ago. He guessed that it was probably mathematically impossible for people to catch up with Seth at this point.
Nolan obviously worried about such strength in one person’s hands. When there were monsters around, Seth would deal with them almost by accident. A single swing of his magical sword was enough to end most monsters, and his shield was always in the right place to protect him. He waded into danger with boredom on his face recently. Nolan was troubled. Things felt wrong, but what could he do about it? The only thing he could really focus on was keeping Lucy and Sarah safe, everything else was secondary.
A growing army of insidious sycophants and twisted individuals were attaching themselves to the leader of the town, whispering in his ear. The kid was strong, but easily manipulated. Nolan rushed into his office, the final place he could check in vain for his daughter before accepting the fact she was out in the wilds. When she was, predictably, nowhere to be found, he had to resist the urge to destroy his desk. Anything.
Nolan stepped out of the police station, an actual one. He had chosen the Hammersmith Police Station as his base. The building had a stately appearance that lent itself to maintaining order. That was what Nolan had told himself, at least.
“Stupid bitch!” Whipping his head around, Nolan was just in time to see the blow which snapped the woman’s head back. He was also quick enough to stop the next one, a kick aimed for her head. He barrelled into the man, sending him flying metres down the road. Instead of crumpling, the man bounced once before landing on his feet with a smirk.
“HOW DARE YOU?” He roared, seeing red. Nolan threw a punch at the man, who scoffed and dodged. Luckily for the woman, and a shame for Nolan, the man had clearly specialised in speed.
“Whoa there big man,” the rat faced man said with his hands up. “I’m not trying to fight. My woman there wasted food.” He pointed to a box of egg fried rice strewn about the floor. “Dumb skank knocked it out of my hands for no fucking reason. You know the rules, no one’s allowed to waste food.”
The woman stood up, apologising. Nolan’s heart turned to ice, and his lip curled. “See? She’s sorry, I’m sorry, we’re all good here, Officer Nolan.” With a grin, the man turned away, pulling the woman with him. Nolan’s feet were planted, not knowing what to do. Every fibre of his being wanted him to draw the glaive from his inventory and demolish the man for what he did, but what then?
What would happen to his girls if he tried to fight the festering rot of this establishment?