"So, what do you guys want to do now?" Daz asked after he had returned to Fort Sky's central square.

Currently, only he and the family of scavengers were present. It would seem that Bruce had left to explore the city with Mu while Master Merit had some business to take care of in the Midechhe Travelling Bank.

Jesabelle looked between her son-in-law and the young girl - Sasha, before she said, "Our hometown was crushed by this here city of yers. No hard feelin's or nutin'. We'd rather 'ave lost our home than the whole state. Besides, Antoine has all of our valuables stored in a skill of his."

The woman pulled off her hat to reveal an almost entirely bald head. It was clear to see that her white hair had only recently started to grow in.

'It's scary how the system can cure something like cancer and reverse all side-effects of chemotherapy for only 50,000 merit points, but the info to fix Rose is restricted to only the top 100 people in the merit rankings... I wonder if you can even buy whatever'll fix her taste and her legs? I've got a feeling you can only buy the know-how, not the means... Regardless, I'll help her however I can when she reaches that point. It shouldn't be too long now since she has that V.R machine,' Daz thought as he watched Jesabelle scratch her head.

"We've decided to become ye'r citizens. The young Chinaman told us ye've got a school, right? I'll become a teacher," the elderly woman said.

Rebecca and Antoine either frowned or sighed, but for two very different reasons.

"Hey! Where's my say in this?" the young woman with dreadlocks complained. "Not that I'm against it, but I'm a part of this family too."

Antoine held his face in his hand. "Mom, how many times have I told you not to assume like that? He's Asian, call him that if you insist on not using his name unless you know he's actually Chinese. We had this conversation already, didn't we? Either way, it's still racially-insensitive."

The woman whacked him upside the head with her cane. "I ain't a racist! That's just what we called 'em in my day! If I was a racist, I wouldn't have ever let my Annie marry you before she died, ya dumbass!"

"I didn't call you a racist, Mom, I just said it's racially-insensitive..." Antoine said in defeat as he held his throbbing cranium.

Daz interjected here, "I have no issue with you becoming my citizens, in fact, I welcome it. Sally - the school's current principal, is in need of new teachers, and there are a bunch of kids about your age, Sasha, who also go to the school we've got set up. But yeah, try to not assume stuff like that, Jesabelle."

He wore a friendly smile as he added, "Mu is Chinese, and I doubt he'd even care if you insulted him to his face or called him whatever you like, but after the auction, we've gotten a lot of culturally diverse people living in Waterford now, and I don't know if someone will get offended if you incorrectly label them."

The reaper pointed at his own face. "You can probably see it on me too. I'm a quarter Korean, so yeah. It's against my laws to speak to other people in a knowingly harmful way, so even if you aren't trying to offend anyone, try not to address someone by their nationality or skin colour. We're all Earthians at the end of the day, after all, aren't we?"

Jesabelle slowly nodded her head. "Ya see, Antoine, this is how ya shoulda told me!" she yelled at her son before looking at Daz again. "I understand, Sonny. I'll be mindful of my language."

Antoine wanted to cry. 'I said literally the exact same thing, almost word for word, like, two-months ago when you were being disrespectful to our Mexican neighbours!'

Clearly, Daz's charisma and Reformer racial trait were both working their magic.

Sasha - still holding her candy bag which was now a little bit lighter - walked up to Daz and tugged on his shirt sleeve. "Hey, um, Mr Angel, are you gonna be the mayor of Las Vegas now?"

"I'm a reaper, not an angel," Daz replied with a smile then said, "No, not yet. I've got other things to do first. We'll come back for Vegas later. I'll bring you with me if you're a good girl and study at the school in Fort Skip, okay?"

He didn't bother asking for permission from Antoine, Rebecca, or Jesabelle. Why should he since they had only known Sasha for a little over two weeks? The more she experienced things, the quicker she'd mature in this new system-ruled world.

"Yeah! I'll be really good! I wanna see the pretty lights and signs again!" Sasha excitedly replied.

Daz's words had an infectious allure to them, so the scavengers didn't even protest his promise to the girl. This only further highlighted the value of the Charisma stat and the Legendary Gift of The Gab skill to him.

Without any further delays, Daz convinced GriD CrosS to bring them back to Waterford with ease, leaving a massive diamond crater with a huge hole in its centre right where the heart of the Great Basin once was.

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"Are you really just gonna let him fly off like that?" A short and somewhat rotund man in a striped suit with a thick polish accent asked.

He was currently looking at a holographic screen that was being relayed back to him by a camouflaged drone via magical means.

Displayed on the screen was Fort Sky leaving the mostly-diamond crater, and then very quickly disappearing to the south.

Taking a massive drag of her cigarette, on the other side of the dimly lit and lavishly decorated room, a drop-dead gorgeous woman with a long set of claw scars running down her face scoffed.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Holding the cigarette with her teeth, she said, "What do you want me to do, Alek? Can you beat that fuckin' monster? He took out my boys in less than five-seconds and killed Jeremy like it was fuckin' nothin'. I'm a cruel bitch, yeah, but I'm not stupid. I doubt even the mayor could beat him."

"We could always join hands and then accept the president's offer? He's got plenty of powerful folk under his thumb, espers included," the portly man suggested as he snapped his ringed fingers, resulting in the hologram shutting down.

He put his hands in his pockets and said, "The Legion of Hearts will always welcome you, Amanda, so think on the offer now that you've lost your three best men. Don't reject me again without thinking it through since this'll be the last time that I'm so generous to you." He then made for the door casually.

Amanda just stared at him as she smoked.

When he'd opened the door, loud music filled the room along with the sounds of laughing and dozens of conversations.

Alek turned around just as he was leaving to say, "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty happy that Vegas hasn't sunk underground. I'm off to go mine myself some diamonds, so, until next time."

Amanda spat her cigarette butt on the floor and grit her teeth as she muttered, "Cocksucking whore."

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"What happened here?" Bruce asked as he, Master Merit, the two groups of scavengers, Mu and Daz, all walked through the empty city of Waterford.

Daz replied, "Cycles one and two weren't very kind to Waterford. I decided it'd be best to tear down the whole city and just rebuild it from scratch."

Mu nodded. "Your clones and Rimmy were faster than I expected. It took them less than two days. Anyway, Daz, I shall be returning to my base. You four, come with me, please," he said to the first group of scavengers that Daz had recruited.

They all did as they were told as they looked at the distant Fort Skip, Camp Waterford, or the Teleportation Station.

Master Merit's eyes shined as he mumbled, "Less than two days? Such power to be able to level a city and clear out the rubble so quickly..."

The group of seven made small talk as they walked up the hill that led to Fort Skip. Before long, they were within the safety of the base's Walls of Retylon.

What everyone saw first was the massive thirty-foot-tall mostly-black and partially-cyan golem, Rimmy McShineston. He waved to Daz in excitement as a bunch of kids were climbing all over him. Of course, his core was supervising them to make sure none of them fell. Even with the help of their stats, Rimmy didn't want to be held responsible for a child breaking his or her arm by slipping off of his head or doing something akin to that.

'I wanna hang out with him, but I really need to talk to Ellie,' Daz thought as he smiled and waved back.

He turned to his new citizens and said, "I've got some business to attend to, so please, make yourselves comfortable." He waved his hand to resummon his newest clone, Gamma, then he added, "My clone'll show you around. You'll be living in the inner-layer's dungeon until you have a house built for you, but don't worry, the living conditions are pretty good. Let him know what kind of skills you have or what you want to develop, and he'll help you sign up for an appropriate job."

Daz then looked at his clone. "Make sure Sasha and Jesabelle know where the school is and have them ready to attend by tomorrow. Jesabelle as a teacher and Sasha as a student," he told it.

"Order received, Original," it replied emotionlessly.

"Well then, I'll see you all later. I'm actually a pretty busy guy," the reaper casually said then left the family of four and his third clone.

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As Daz was following his instincts to find Ellie, a notification filled his vision.

Congratulations! The host's clone [Beta] has successfully learned the skill [Basic Engineering]. Due to the host's clone [Beta] having learned this skill, it shall be given to the host free of cost or training upon the clone's dismissal.

"Huh. Engineering?" Daz muttered as he looked at the massive airship that was just lying in an open field with scaffolding surrounding it in the outer fort. "So my clones are there too? And that scaffolding allows you to earn the Basic Engineering skill? Sandy never fails to impress me... I'm guessing he's there too?"

His questions were answered as soon as he got close enough.

Sandy, Alpha, Beta, Vanessa, and Ellie, were all crowded around a part of the ship's port side - a particularly damaged part where wires and loose machinery were exposed. They were about 20-feet up on a part of the scaffolding.

Sandy noticed Daz first and grinned as he shouted, "Oi, Kiddo, ya here to help as well?"

Daz shook his head lightly. "I came to talk to Ellie, actually."

Daz's clones kept working on the ship, but Vanessa and Ellie spun around to look at Daz. The young German girl was surprised and happy to see him.

She waved and yelled, "Hi!"

Ellie remained silent as she put her tools down and started drinking some bottled tea. Seeing that, Daz responded to Vanessa with, "Hi. What're you doing here?"

The girl grinned and scratched her cheek bashfully. "Well, since I already bought that Basic Aviation-based Vehicle Skills skill, and since I didn't really have anything to do 'cause Rose is busy in her V.R machine, I figured I'd help Sandy fix the airship." She looked back up at the massive machine that had been invading Fort Skip only a few days ago, then said, "It's so cool! And it's surprisingly fun to work on it!"

Sandy rubbed his nose proudly. "Vanessa's a bright girl. She's got a good future ahead of her as a mechanic!"

Daz found himself being quite happy to see that the girl had found something to fill her time besides playing with Rose. As much as he loved Rose having a friend, it certainly wasn't healthy for Vanessa to do nothing but dote on the spoilt little brat that was his beloved sister.

"That's great. I didn't mean to stop you guys," Daz said with his raised voice. "Ellie, do you mind coming with me to have a quick chat?"

She shook her head as she finished her drink. "I don't mind."

Sandy scratched his beard. "It's already pretty late anyway. Vanessa, let's head to Bobby's and have some grub before hittin' the hay."

"O-Okay," she responded as she started to hastily pack up her things.

Sandy glanced down at Daz from up on the scaffolding and asked, "I trust these here clone's of yers are fine workin' through the night?"

Daz nodded. "Yeah. I don't need to sleep nor eat, so neither do they. By the way, before we go, how are the construction plans for Fort Skip and Waterford going?"

Sandy shrugged as he, Vanessa, and Ellie, made their way back down to the ground. "Me and my crew are about 70% done with the central-fort. I'd personally like to work on this new outer-fort now that you went and bought more walls, but since Waterford's been cleared, I can probably start rebuildin' it tomorrow afternoon. That's gonna be one helluva a job, so it'd be better startin' it sooner rather than later."

"I'll leave it to you," Daz replied with trust in his voice. "Well, Ellie and I will be off then. See you guys tomorrow probably."

Sandy grunted as he pulled out his pipe and lit it. Vanessa shyly responded, "Em, yeah. Bye, Daz, bye Ellie."

Just before the reaper left with Ellie to find a quiet place to talk with her, he yelled at his clones, "Feel free to stop and do something else if you guys want to, or just take a break!"

He knew that they weren't slaves, so he didn't want to force them to do something that they might be getting bored of doing.

Both Alpha and Beta nodded silently in response then got back to work.