"Nice place," Daz commented as he landed the Ridomochi Final Model and got out while holding Rose.

"It's very colourful," Mu commented as he sealed his Cloud of Tartarus in its bottle.

They had all just arrived at Los Angeles' city hall which was now covered almost head-to-toe in graffiti.

Rose squirmed about in her brother's arms and only opened her mouth when he had placed her in her wheelchair. "Timothy gave the building to the gangs as a peace offering so they'd stop raiding his military. The tactic worked, but it was a shaky alliance at best. They never respected him, and he never trusted them."

"Good. That gives us more ground to work with if they weren't loyal," Daz said as he twisted his car key in the air, returning his Ridomochi to its private subspace inside of the magical object.

Jim looked nervous as he followed the two siblings and the odd Asian man into the building. Seeing the massive peridot, as well as Daz's shovel floating behind them gave him some courage, but pretty much everyone that they passed were staring at them menacingly and they all had a firearm or a dangerous-looking blade in their hands or at their waist.

"Feel free to steal their luck," Daz suddenly said as the four of them made their way towards the central chamber of the building where they'd been asked to meet with the gang leaders.

Jim turned to look at the young reaper in confusion. "I-Is that okay?"

Daz shrugged. "They aren't looking at me with respect even though I just cut a building in half and killed their old official leader before my massive flying city showed up, so yeah, I hardly care if you deprive them of their luck or not. Besides, everyone here has a pretty lengthy criminal record."

Jim's eyes lit up. Nothing pleased him more than absorbing the luck of others. In fact, it was almost like a drug to him at this point, so he didn't question Daz any further and got to work.

Before long, the four of them were in the city hall's council chamber. Daz was more interested in the people sitting around and what weapons they had, but Rose's eyes were drawn to the flags and tags plastered all over the walls.

"Artistic," she said. Whether that was a compliment or not was difficult to tell due to her tone.

Mu's eyes were practically glued to the gun made of fire that was being loosely held by the dark-skinned man in charge of New Bloods. His eyes, however, soon found something else to stare at.

The young and gorgeous Asian woman wearing a revealing Chinese dress had a strange glowing necklace hanging from her neck. She winked at Mu when she noticed his gaze, but he didn't regard her coy action.

Why would he look at her face when there was such a beautiful bauble to gawk at just below it instead?

The light-skinned man seated in the room's central chair got up and smiled. "King Daz, it's nice to finally meet you."

"I wish I could say the same, but then I'd be lying just like you are," Daz coldly stated.

A laugh came from the leader of New Bloods while a few of the other gang members either smiled in amusement or frowned.

"Well, you'll have to forgive me considering your reputation. Would you like me to be entirely honest with you instead?" the leader of Armenian Power, Anastas, asked.

Daz nodded as he controlled the ancient peridot to float just behind his thighs. He then sat on it casually. "Yes. I assume you have terms for me to accept before you'll all fall under my rule?"

"Hey, hey, hey, ain't no one said nutin' about bein' ruled by you, King Whitey," the leader of Reformed Crips said as he got up and swaggered over towards Daz. "If you is gunna says different, then we about to have a problem, Brother. I ain't outta the box, and I don't plan to get out anytime soon."

Daz slowly locked eyes with the man and asked, "Is that your final say on the matter?"

Anastas got a bad feeling about what was about to happen next, so he quickly moved to prevent any bloodshed. "Alfredo, back off."

"I don't do what you say, Big Man. This kid is frontin' on our turf! He thinks that just 'cuz he went and snuffed out that fool of a governor that he can take control of what's ours!" the leader of Reformed Crips yelled as he drew his poison-soaked dagger menacingly.

"Picture that," the leader of New Bloods snorted as he cocked his head back mockingly.

"You say sum'in, Buster?" Alfredo remarked pointedly.

"Ha, if anyone in this room is a buster, it's you, Niggah. Sitcho ass down. I'm finna cap it before he does. You makin' us all look like clowns," the red bandana man claimed. Every other gang leader then said similar things to Alfredo, forcing him to withdraw.

"Interesting inner-politics you have going on here," Daz said to Anastas, clearly in a mocking tone.

He smiled kindly. "We're just one big disjointed family."

"I see. Anyway, your terms? Lay them out so I can reject them and tell you what is actually going to happen," Daz said very domineeringly, earning disapproval from each of the present gang leaders.

Anastas was still smiling as he replied, "Let us continue our under-the-board activities. You don't need to support us, but don't interfere either. Do that, and we'll fight for you. We won't extend our reach outside of California either, and, of course, we'll leave Waterford alone."

"Rejected," Daz immediately said. "Give me an offer that makes sense or I'll just kill everyone in this room then kill every single gang member in the city. I have a zero-tolerance on criminal activity in my territories."

"That certainly complicates things..." Anastas, as well as everyone else in the room, felt the pressure from Daz's words, but they also felt like there was room to wiggle. After all, he hadn't killed them all already, so that was a good sign, now wasn't it?

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"W-Was that really okay?" Jim asked as Daz's group headed towards their next destination - the main base of operations for what was left of Governor Marglow's forces.

The reaper being questioned shrugged. "They signed the system contracts. They'll get used to living cleanly. They themselves know better than anyone else how harmful their old way of living was for everyone, themselves included."

"Huh... I just didn't expect them to sign. I was thinking I'd have to duck for cover and try to avoid any bullets that came my way. That Alfredo guy, in particular, seemed like he'd rather die than serve you," Jim said.

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Rose cackled a bit as she typed away on her laptop. "That insecure brat? He was lucky to land the position he's in right now. All of that posturing towards Daz? Just a peacock trying to show off its feathers. All presentation, no real weight."

"I-I see..." Jim was a man who came from a lifestyle where a lack of common sense was normal, but every second that he was spending with this odd set of siblings was making him wonder if perhaps even a lack of common sense was putting it a bit too kindly for the two of them.

Mu just whistled in disinterest. He was a bit sad that he wasn't able to acquire the flaming gun or the dazzling necklace. He was personally hoping that everything would descend into a shootout, but fortune wasn't on his side today.

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"I'm glad that we could come to an arrangement!" a suit-wearing woman said as she happily shook Daz's hand. "With that, all of the governo- ah, all of the former governer's citizens should now be directly under your rule, King Daz."

Suffice to say, the meeting with the bureaucrats had gone far more swimmingly and smoothly than the one with the gangsters had. There were no racial tensions, for one.

"Great. I'll be leaving L.A. in your hands until I can designate a more suitable local ruler for the place, but if you prove to be a great candidate, I won't replace you down the line, Miss Jones," Daz said to the former U.S congresswoman.

Congratulations! The host has successfully become the sole ruler of 65% of [California]'s citizens, making the host the majority ruler. In the next 24-hours, all remaining rulers in [California] shall be given the chance to dispute your greater rule. Disputes can be handled either with political or military means. Once all disputes are resolved or if the 24-hour time-period expires, then the host shall become the uncontested ruler of all of [California]. Dispute list: Empty

'Oh? That's interesting... That certainly makes it easier... If that's the case, I can probably leave getting the other states under my rule to my clones, right? They just need to persuade the biggest rulers to join me or kill them then go through this dispute process,' Daz thought rather loosely. He'd have to circle back to that idea and flesh it out before acting on it.

"I will do my utmost to serve you as faithfully as I once served the former governor, King Daz!" the 50-something-year-old woman enthusiastically replied.

Not long after that encounter, Daz left Jim in Mu's care while Rose was brought up to Fort Sky. She apparently wanted to discuss some things with Lyle.

Daz had to go meet up with Beta at Project Lockbox to collect Madison since he'd sent the clone to scout out the area, so he was fine with leaving his sister in Grid's very capable hands. Well, metaphorical hands. As far as the reaper was aware, the massive purple crystal didn't have limbs.

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"I see you've been busy," Daz said after stepping out of his Ridomochi and onto Hamson.

Beneath him was a large rectangle which had pierced the ocean. This rectangle was made of crystal and was mostly hollow.

Beta had turned his boots into crystal and he quickly controlled them to fly up to Daz. "I finished as you arrived, Original," the clone plainly stated.

Daz glanced down at the dark chasm his clone had created and asked, "Does it lead all the way down to Project Lockbox?"

Beta nodded.

"Great work. I'm glad I caught you in time," Daz admitted. "I was a bit worried I'd get dragged into a battle with the gangs. Even massacres take time, after all."

"Indeed. Madison would certainly prefer to see you over us clones," Beta answered passively.

"She is a little bit creeped out by you guys, after all. Anyway, thanks for the help," Daz thanked before he began his descent into the dark abyss of Beta's creation.

Beta watched Daz silently for a moment before he pulled out a small phone-like device from his pocket. Glancing down at it, a red arrow on the thing's screen was pointing almost straight eastward.

"I shall return to monitoring Crusher and her criminals, then," the clone said to himself before he sped away as he controlled his boots with ease.

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"Mmmmm..." With a powerful stretch and a slight yawn, Madison woke up.

She was a bit confused for a moment when she felt the hard metal wrapped in her embrace, but she quickly remembered that she had, indeed, bought a nuclear warhead.

Surprisingly, you had to meet very specific requirements to buy a nuke. Madison didn't really care what those requirements were so she hadn't inquired with the system since she apparently met them all, so the system had sold her the thing that was roughly the same size as her own body.

Only she could activate it, oddly enough. Madison wasn't sure how that worked since in her mind, enough blunt trauma would trigger the nuclear explosion but she wasn't exactly an expert on the subject, so, again, she chose not to question it.

She let go of the warhead and stumbled out of her bed. She slipping into her socks and then her boots before she rubbed her eyes. Pouting with slightly upset eyes, she muttered, "Still, not, here?"

As if by magic, at that very moment, one of the walls to her cell slid inwards then it moved to the side, revealing a doorway. Stood in that doorway was a very familiar face.

"Daz!" All of her sleepiness disappeared in an instant. Like a coin to a magnet, she stuck herself to the man as her arms wrapped around his neck.

"Haha, I missed you... too... Maddy," Daz's tone had quickly shifted from pleasant joy to worried disbelief.

"Mmm?" She pulled away from his nape for a moment to kiss him, making him smile again, but his concerned expression soon returned without fail.

"Maddy, is that a bomb in your bed?" Daz asked very seriously.

"Ah." Madison had an internal panic attack briefly before she explained, "Not, cheating! Round, so, easy, sleep. Never, another, person! Promise."

Daz hung his head, resulting in his brow resting on hers. He sighed then smiled before kissing her nose. "You can be pretty dumb sometimes, huh? Unbelievably cute, yes, but also rather silly... Well, at least only you can use that thing... If not, it'd be a disaster waiting to happen. You don't have a storage skill yet, so I'll hold onto it for you for now."

Madison was relieved that Daz wasn't upset with her. "Everything, okay?"

"More or less. Like any road, there're potholes, but I'm filling them in as I pass them," Daz answered. "Anyway, here," he said as he recalled Madison's sword from his Industrial Item Box.

"Family!" Madison's eyes lit up as she held the weapon in one hand and made sure not to let go of her boyfriend with the other. She still hadn't collected enough Daz energy yet, after all. Whatever Daz energy was, only she knew.

Smiling warmly, Daz skillfully manoeuvred Madison's free hand into one of his so they could move properly. 'I'm glad she's safe... It was wise of me to stay calm even despite this place looking like a sci-fi mental hospital or something... Project Lockbox, huh? If I wasn't growing so rapidly, then the planned volcano rooms in this place would have been completed in time and they might have kidnapped me, huh?'

Most of the rooms in the facility were like Madison's. They stood as separate entities that were isolated deep underwater. Any average person would die from the pressure if they ever tried to escape, and the only way out was via a hallway that stretched out from the central hub building.

However, a small handful of the solitary cells hadn't been completed yet. They were intended to be surrounded entirely in lava and were to be labelled as the volcano rooms. Even Daz wouldn't survive escaping such a place were he made a prisoner and forced to live in a cell encapsulated in molten rock.

'Well, at least I've got one hell of a high-risk prisoner facility now, huh?' Thankfully, the reaper could see the silver lining.

His mind wandered away from the topic of Project Lockbox when he and Madison had returned to his Ridomochi and were now speeding back to Waterford.

'If all I need to conquer a state is a majority of its citizens being under my rule, well, that makes things a million times easier. I can leave conquering the states to Alpha and Beta, really. Now, the question is, what do I do instead of focusing on my goal personally?' Daz asked himself.

'I could always get Rose's help to track down powerful independent survivors like Mu. It'd be a great help to find people like him and get them to become loyal to me,' Daz thought.

However, oddly enough, he felt that wasn't the correct answer. He was thinking about things in the wrong way, or so he felt his instincts were telling him.

His thoughts drifted from idea to idea for a short while before something finally clicked.

'I need to ask Rose about more mythical cities, don't I? Atlantis has a lot of potential as a research centre when it's fixed up, but there was also the matter of the artefacts. I got Mofolo's soul, that now-traded Overgiant head, and the massive sword... If I'm lucky, I can claim a few more places like that while my clones fulfil my semester goal's state quota, hell, maybe they can even surpass it...' Daz thought as Madison snuggled into his arm.

She was trying her best to not fall into the trap that was the Ridomochi Final Model's comfort. Avoiding falling asleep was proving to quite the challenge for the girl.