"I'll handle everything else from here. Thanks for the help, Daz," Rose said with a genuinely appreciative tone in her voice as she and her brother stood outside of the dormitory.

Reaching over and rubbing her head affectionately, Daz smiled. "You're welcome. If you ever need my help again, don't hesitate to ask, 'kay? I can't imagine that looking after over 60 people will be easy, even with the help of the dormitory's androids."

Frowning as she closed her eyes in response to him petting her, Rose replied. "I'll manage."

"Okay, haha, I trust you. Anyway, I'll see you later. I have a feeling that I'm needed at the keep," Daz said.

"Yeah, you are," Rose stated as she stared at her laptop. "Greg's waiting for you with Crosius and Lyle. It seems that the loser general is ready for his first order and Lyle and Crosius have finished drafting up the new bank law as well as a taxation one."

"Ever the omniscient girl, huh? Thanks, Rose. Seeya later," Daz said in farewell.

"Later," Rose replied in kind.

----------------------------------------

As soon as he entered the throne room, Daz went straight to his throne and got himself comfortable on it.

He nodded briefly towards Greg then looked at the two men who were side-eyeing each other dangerously. 'They were arguing just seconds before I arrived, huh? I swear, these two... I already told them to stop their petty rivalry, but clearly, it isn't something that'll end in a day or two...'

Crosius saw the look in Daz's eyes and he coughed in embarrassment as a result. "Ahem, Your Majesty, Sir Middleton over here has finished writing up his draft in regards to the bank's savings account as well as for what shall be taxed in the future."

"I assume you don't agree with some of it?" Daz asked.

Crosius nodded as he stroked his beard. "Most of the draft is reasonable, but Sir Middleton wishes to allow any old person to have their potential tested in the keep so long as they pay a tax of 1,000 merit points on top of the normal 15,000 merit point fee! This is ridiculous! We simply do not have the time to have all of the advisors devote themselves to revealing people's potentials whenever they so choose!"

Daz raised an eyebrow in confusion. "That's actually a good idea. I've been meaning to have you test quite a few people for a while now, but I couldn't find the time for it. How does this sound, limit the number of times to five a day. That should only take up two and a half hours, right?"

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty, but if we do that, with the constantly rising number of citizens living in Fort Skip, it shan't be long before we're in over our heads with complaints and suggestions aplenty. We've yet to have any criminal occurrences, however, they are nothing but an inevitability, and those will only increase the burden on us even further..." Crosius' worries were very realistic and not simply petty gripes to justify an argument with Lyle, it would seem.

Daz held his chin in thought for a moment. "Okay, I'll upgrade the keep a little bit. How many spare bedrooms are there on the staff floor here, Crosius?"

"Ah, of course. There should be 42 open rooms suitable for members of the keep's staff to occupy, Your Majesty," Crosius replied immediately.

"I'll employ 35 more advisors, five more servants, and two more cooks. That should make up for any additional burden upon the advisors that opening the potential testing to the public would cause, right?" Daz asked.

Crosius nodded. "Certainly, however, while I use the throne room as a personal work-space for my documentation since you have allowed me to, Your Majesty, I don't think that it would be wise to use this room for the public potential testings as well, and the library isn't well suited for such rituals. Might I be so bold as to suggest you add an additional room to the keep? Another floor would be excessive, but if we have a room solely dedicated to the potential test, then we could even cut down the needed time to perform it..."

"That's fair. I'll have it done by the end of the day," Daz claimed, resulting in Crosius smiling happily. The reaper then glanced towards the draft in his hands and silently read its contents.

Daz frowned once he was done. "Lyle."

"Yes, My King?" the skinny man with two medieval-looking syringes hanging from his hip asked.

"This merit point tax percentage for completing quests, I'm going to slash it down to a single percentage. As for the forced minimum price of Bobby's meals, I'll be cutting that down to five merit points instead of your listed 20. Also, this 5% tax on anything purchased through the system, I'll be scrapping that. I see that you also decided to add a percentage tax to the teleportation station. Yeah, no. That'll be a fixed amount of 10,000 merit points. No more, no less. It would be unfair if I had to pay millions of merit points to go to Middletown when you, as an example, would have to pay only thousands," Daz stated coldly.

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Lyle politely bowed his head. "What I and Crosius had come up with, My King, was merely a list of suggestions. I am beyond pleased that you, however, have come up with a system that you feel to be fair simply after a single glance of our draft. I'm very relieved that it has served its purpose."

"I see... Well, as for the mandatory savings account deposits, I actually think that 5% is fairly reasonable, so I'll stick to that, however, once a person's savings account has at least 1,000,000 merit points in it, then they will no longer be forced to deposit any of their earnings. That sounds fair, no?" Daz asked.

Crosius smiled as he stroked his beard. "Beyond fair, Your Majesty."

"For once, I concur with Crosius," Lyle said respectfully.

"Good. Also, I'll be exempting myself from everything since there's no point in taxing me. After all, I'm the one who spends the taxes on my territories, and I may need all of my money at one point for an emergency, so throwing huge chunks of it into a base's or a city's funds - where I can't remove it - isn't the wisest of decisions," Daz declared.

Lyle smiled knowingly. "We expected you to say as such, and we both fully agree with you, My King."

"Great. Well, I'll implement these changes later today as well. Crosius, please, prepare an adequate answer for any voices that rise up in opposition to this. People are very quick to act entitled, so even if we're doing this for their sake, more or less, they will still be upset. If anyone proves to be too difficult to deal with, I give you the authority to arrest them and have them wait for me to judge them. These are not suggestions, after all, but laws, and I will have them be respected," Daz ordered.

"Of course, Your Majesty!" Crosius exclaimed as he performed an exaggerated bow. Clearly, he had been moved by the sheer will in Daz's tone.

"As for you, Lyle, I doubt that the sign in the centre of the residential area will suffice anymore as an explanation of my laws, so, please, I want you to write a pamphlet or book or guide, whatever it is, write something that we can hand out to every citizen. Not everyone is welcoming of the system, so I'm sure our older citizens would appreciate a more traditional way to learn about the new taxes and any laws that I may create in the future. It'll also be helpful for new citizens," Daz requested from the spindly man.

"Ah, so something that can not only concisely explain the rules and laws of your lands, but also something that can be updated regularly and retroactively while still being physical? I believe I can do that without using too many merit points, My King," Lyle responded confidently.

Were that not an answer to a direct command from their ruler, no doubt, Crosius would have snorted and questioned Lyle's ability to do as he had promised.

"Perfect. You're both dismissed now. Thanks again for your help with the draft," Daz said as he smiled faintly.

"It was my pleasure, Your Majesty!" Crosius happily replied then wandered over to his desk after giving Daz one more formal bow.

Lyle inclined his head politely then left the throne room.

'I'll need to think of a way to reward Lyle if he's going to have to spend merit points on that booklet idea... Hmm. Well, another time. For now...' Daz looked at Greg. "How many merit points do you have now, exactly?"

"506,492," Greg answered stoically.

Daz nodded. "It would probably be wise if you held onto all of those and let them grow until you have at least a few million to play around with. Do you currently have any quests?"

The former U.S Army general shrugged. "I have a main one to make up with Dorian. I've also got two side quests, one of which is to change my class or find-slash-buy a more suitable weapon, while the other is to regain the respect of the men and woman who were under my command prior to coming here."

"Hmm... Okay. Do you want to change your class? I happen to own a Class Reset Token, but if I give it to you, you will be spending a very long time making up for it. No doubt, many powerful people wish to get their hands on this token," Daz said.

Greg scoffed and shook his head. "I'll manage with a gun. My class lets me use any type of gun proficiently, though I get a bonus for using automatic ones. I doubt Dorian will see me in a better light if I rely solely on your charity."

"Good. I was hoping you'd say that," Daz replied with a smile. "Okay, I have your first two orders for you."

"Hmm? Go ahead and say 'em," Greg requested with a mild hint of worry lingering in the back of his mind.

He needed to complete five of Daz's orders to survive the third cycle of Earth's tests, so if Daz purposely made them difficult, then it would be like asking Greg to wait patiently for his death or to work himself to the bone.

"Firstly, acquire a weapon that has enough power to substantially injure me and that has an easily renewed ammo source - preferably, one that is infinite like a laser rifle or somesuch alien technology, though if a fantasy-esque or magical gun would serve you better, that would also be fine," Daz commanded.

Greg secretly breathed out a breath of pure relief. "And the other order?"

"Simple. Never let alcohol touch your lips ever again. You cannot handle your drink, quite clearly, and it will only ever serve to impede you. Do these two things for me as well as build up your merit points, then we shall move onto your next orders. You have a month to find a weapon you like in the system's shop," Daz declared.

Greg frowned, resulting in the reaper raising an eyebrow. "Unsatisfied somehow?"

"Well, no. I understand your orders and the reasoning behind them, but quite honestly, I don't think I can kick in my drinking habit. I've tried going cold turkey dozens of times before, but never with any success," Greg admitted.

Daz chuckled. "Simple. How about this, there are hundreds of towns and villages out there in California, so why don't you distract yourself by visiting all of them and start recruiting people to serve you as soldiers?"

"... Is that an order?" Greg asked.

"Does it have to be?" Daz challenged.

Greg was silent for a moment before he sighed. "No, it doesn't. You're right... again. That's probably for the best. I'll pack up my things and some supplies then leave right away."

"Great. Also, clear any dungeons that you come across out there. The more points you earn and the more items you can collect, the better," Daz suggested.

"Sure," Greg said a bit dismissively. He then walked out of the throne room since their conversation was done.

Daz smiled to himself as he unsummoned and resummoned Beta. "I'll leave him in your hands, Beta. When I'm not using you for something else then locate him and keep an eye on him."

"Of course, Original," Beta replied then quickly followed after the broken man.

Daz stood up and then stretched his back. "Looks like everything's going according to plan, huh?"

Reika floated down from his halo and held her arms across her bare chest. 'More base-building now?'

Daz nodded. "That's right, more base-building."