CHAPTER 113: What Invader?

Adam lowered himself into his chair in a slow, imperious way. The last week had been his worst since the invasions occurred and he wanted to regain control of their progress, his people, and most especially himself. Even without his full forces they had made gains since the failed raid, gaining the Leputi and Bobomon bases, as well as the large number of Carthraga to train for their own uses. Most of all, they now had a source of information about the [System] and the rules they needed to play within.

He had been quite pleased when he was told that the reinforcements that had been sent to find Lamar and Nick had indeed found them, and just in the nick of time too. Those forces were now controlled by the two from his group to scout the possibilities of rescuing the humans they had found, while reinforcements from the base were preparing for the full raid. The base sounded a bit stronger than the ones they had faced before now.

Adam wasn’t blind to the looks that he got as he had entered the room and circled the table. Pretending they weren’t there, he had taken his time entering to let everyone have their own thoughts before he broached the upcoming subject. Adam just hoped they were more receptive to it than he expected. This would be a difficult conversation.

Once seated, Adam looked around the room. He found the usual people and they had different expressions than normal. Some looked disgusted, some curious, while others had outright fear on their faces. A few, like Colonel Davian and Detective Ron Baker, had put on wooden blank faces so different from their usual looks that they expressed their discomfort and confusion quite directly.

After several minutes of silence, where no one wanted to be the first to speak, Colonel Davian took it upon himself.

“Adam, why is there an invader in the room?” he asked quietly. Lashtam didn’t even react as he stood tall right next to Adam’s seat.

“What invader?” asked Adam as he looked around the room, almost confused.

“Right next to you,” said Ron. “The one with rabbit looking ears.”

“Bunny ears,” emphasized Tom, drawing confused eyes to him.

“Pardon?” asked Ron, taken by surprise from the response.

“I keep correcting people. They are bunnies, not rabbits,” answered Tom. No one found an answer there.

“We are Leputi,” said Lashtam. “Not bunnies or rabbits. Those are small animals from your world. We are neither.”

“Nah, you’re bunnies,” Tom told him with a nod, causing Lashtam’s nose to twitch in confusion.

“Do you think that just because you say it then it becomes so, Lord Tom?” asked Lashtam.

“Of course not. It takes the boss saying something for the [System] to change it. Ain’t that right, boss. Go ahead and tell it they’re bunnies,” pushed Tom.

“Is that really necessary?” asked Adam.

“Of course it is!” insisted Tom.

“Why?” asked Brandon. Tom glared at him.

“Because bunnies are the sexiest. Casinos, movies, magazines, imported video games, even cosplayers all know it. Whereas rabbits are just starter monsters in Japanese games and require a horn to even be menacing.”

“He’s not wrong,” said Brandon, feeling dirty even admitting it.

“None of that matters!” snapped Ron. “Why is there an invader bunny here?”

Once more Adam looked around, reaching for his knife with an angry expression. “Where is there an invader?” His killing intent rose dramatically.

“He means Lashtam, boss,” said Tom. “That guy ain’t no invader.”

“He certainly isn’t human,” said Davian.

“Because he isn’t human then he’s automatically an invader?” chided Adam. “I didn’t peg you for a racist, Ron.”

Ron let out a huge sigh.

“Don’t give me that glare, Adam. No one is more prejudiced against invaders than you. You want to kill them all. You talk about it quite often and openly. Then please explain why you showed up with one.”

“He isn’t an invader anymore. All his tribe signed an employee contract with us. They’re part of the Sentinel Army now,” explained Adam.

“That’s where you lost us, son,” said Adam’s father.

“Dad, I’ll be honest,” Adam addressed him. “I don’t want to sound like a jerk. I’ll let Tom explain it.”

“Thanks, boss. [Baffle], [Seek the Truth],” said Tom, activating some of the persuasion skills related to his [Persuasive Sword] class.

“Did you just use mind manipulation skills on us?” asked Davian, dumbfounded.

“Of course. Are they working?” asked Tom.

“That’s not something you should do to allies,” said Mr. Rhodes, Tom’s father.

“I know, right? I’d hate it if someone did that to me. Other than the boss, of course,” agreed Tom. Using his skills to reduce the push back people might have, he proceeded to explain about the agreement with the Leputi and the [System] contracts.

“Are you sure we can trust them?” asked one of the army leaders.

“Yes!” Tom said emphatically. “At least until they put in their two-week notice.”

Several people facepalmed at using typical pre-[System] employment terms for a potentially hostile alien race.

“Don’t worry,” reassured Tom, having some effect thanks to his skills meant to confuse people. “I had my dad review the contracts and they were made [System] contracts so they should be tight enough.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It’s true,” added Lashtam. “I have never seen such complex and thought-out contracts. Most races would spend years to figure out if or how there are ways to get around all the requirements. It was also most generous terms for us. Especially if our compensation bears fruit.”

“Compensation? We’re paying them?” asked one of the intel staff.

“Of course. Wouldn’t be right otherwise. Are you suggesting we start enslaving people?” Tom glared at the man dubiously.

“Er, no. Of course not,” stammered the man. “I was just curious what the payment would be.”

“Oh, that’s no big deal. Easy for us to pay. They want to mate with us,” said Tom proudly. Eyes once more turned to Adam.

“Adam, is he being serious?” gasped Mrs. Clemens.

“Yes, mom,” said Adam sheepishly. The reaction from a lifetime of obeying parents on display. “The colonel had said we needed more activities for the people to take their mind off things. The Leputi want more offspring to grow their tribe. It seems like a win-win.”

Mrs. Clemens turned her glare on the colonel, who was hiding his face behind his hands.

“Don’t worry, boss’s mom,” reassured Tom, confused how she was resisting his skills so strongly. “It isn’t like anyone will force them. Their stats are higher than their level shows, so they’ll be able to fend off any aggressive ne’er-do-wells. Besides, I negotiated two to join my family.”

“Tom!” snapped his father.

“Don’t worry, dad. The boss got one first.”

“Adam!” snapped Adam’s mom.

“Tom!” snapped Adam, angry Tom had brought the focus back to him.

“To raise a strong future chief,” said Lashtam, smiling wistfully. His happiness took Mrs. Clemens aback, managing to de-charge the issue a bit.

“All that aside, how many of them are there?” asked Adam’s dad, trying to focus the meeting.

“His highness rescued almost 600 of my tribe,” answered Lashtam. “He promised us living locations within the fortified Rift base to protect us from our enemies.”

“Enemies?!” someone from the intel group squawked. “We’ll have to deal with your enemies too?!”

“All the invaders are our enemies, idiot. We’ll have to deal with them at some point,” growled Lucas, getting a lot of nods around the table.

“We’re out of space within the Rift,” said the city planner, looking at maps. “How are we supposed to fit 600 more?”

“Jordan, this is you,” ordered Tom to the man.

Eyes snapped to Jordan Lane, quite a few looking accusingly. He scratched his head.

“The issue isn’t really space,” said the man who treated the Rift as his personal city building game level. “We could always make a few buildings taller and shift people around. The real issue is we’ve been out of resources. There isn’t enough left to use for building without bankrupting ourselves for other necessary projects.”

Jordan pulled up a large map of the Rift territory as well as the surrounding cities. Most of the group was well familiar with it so didn’t really look, but Lashtam checked with Adam who gave him a nod. Then the Leputi chief went to the table and walked around it while inspecting the map. Many in the room tensed up when the former invader walked past them.

“Why is your base territory so small?” asked Lashtam with confusion.

“It’s larger than any other base we’ve been to,” said Randall, almost offended by the question.

“My apologizes, warrior. I mean, why have you not expanded the territory?”

Everyone went quiet and stared from him to Adam. Adam shrugged in response.

“Is that possible?” asked Adam.

“Not to most, but my understanding was that you owned multiple dimensional convergence rifts in your territory that you had not merged with the planetary reality. In that form, you can share the energy between them. It reduces the size of the secondary Rifts and allows their energy to be used to expand the primary. Usually only the stronger forces are able to capture additional Rifts before the merge with the planetary reality. We didn’t know that natives could return them to dimensional convergence rifts,” explained Lashtam.

He spent another moment considering the map.

“If my understanding is correct, you gained two Rifts, one from the Leputi and one from the Bobomon that my daughter said you conquered. In addition, I believe you had three others from before the [System] opened us up to attack. If you reduce the internal size of those to the minimum for an outpost, you can expand this base to about this large.”

Lashtam walked around the table pointing out an outline with his fingers. Jordan Lane marked it on the map so everyone had a visual idea of how much larger the base would become. Ron whistled at that.

“That is why we hired them,” announced Adam. Quite a few people nodded to him while looking at the map.

“We didn’t know we could expand it, but that might answer a lot of out issues,” said Jordan thoughtfully. “Lashtam, if that’s how far we can expand with five extra Rifts, how far could we expand with 13?”

“I mean no disrespect to your question, however that number is unlikely to be achieved. To conquer that many more will take many more campaigns and your enemies will grow stronger as quickly, or more quickly, than your own warriors. However, as more bases are added to the network, the power creation is increased which allows faster expansion.”

“Bunny man, we already have 14 bases,” said Joseph.

“Mighty warrior, how could that be possible?” asked Lashtam in confusion, then looked to Adam who nodded.

“We have 14 now but there are even more than will come to us soon,” said Adam.

“But your Excellency, that many…I mean, even the Scyrric couldn’t…are you sure that is the number?”

Lashtam’s furry face scrunched up as he fought to reject reality. Adam used the Rift menu to display a window with all 14 bases.

“For you to have conquered so many, your Excellency, it is more than my mind can comprehend,” Lashtam said with some awe in his voice. “Even the strongest races would be unable to do that this early in the invasions without simply purchasing them. The [System] would never allow that number of bases for a single force to be so close together.”

“How much territory can we get out of it?” asked Joseph, as if someone owed him money.

“More than this map displays,” nodded Lashtam.

“That’s great!” exclaimed Jordan. “We can expand and build more places for the people to live.”

He was practically salivating at the idea of going back to his city building using the Rift Menu. He’d be able to deconstruct all the existing buildings and then design and place way more interesting ones.

“No!” shouted Adam.

“No?” asked the city planner, already hard at work making notes and plotting spaces.

“Why not, Adam?” asked his mom, frowning. “The people could benefit a lot from the improvements we can bring them.”

“If we were to expand the base without a way to close it off or protect the people, then it’s a bad move. The other invaders would know that they could hit us and do damage while we would be forced to turtle behind the obsidian walls,” said Adam.

A lot of people thought about it but then the colonel spoke up.

“Unfortunately, that does make sense defensively. We still have insufficient water and fortifications for the bulk of our people. Announcing that we could make them more comfortable won’t incentivize them to adjust to our current situation.”

“Then what do you want us to do, Adam?” asked Jordan.

“Expanding is fine, though not to the fullest. Don’t rebuilding anything that’s out there. Try to absorb resources from areas that no one will notice. That should give us at least enough to expand our buildings for the Leputi. Any other moves should be discussed before we make changes,” answered Adam. “I have plans to get us the water we need before we repair the plumbing to the rest of the city.”

Jordan grimaced at being constrained from his game. “Fine, Adam.”

“If I may, your Excellency. Might we request you build down for us instead of up. Our people do not like being as high up in the air,” said Lashtam hesitantly. Jordan’s jaw dropped.

“Why didn’t I think of that?! I could have been designing down.” Then with excitement Jordan continued, “I can make an underground city. There can be storage, bunkers, escape tunnels, living areas, a shopping mall, a labyrinth, bowling alley…” he trailed off in his mumbling.

“Good. Lashtam, work with Jordan to design what you want and to teach him what all the Rift Menu can do that we haven’t discovered yet,” commanded Adam.

“As you wish, your Excellency,” said Lashtam with a small smile.

“Everyone, make sure you give your suggestions to Jordan and the city planner so our next round of design has the things we need. For now, let’s move on to the next part of today. It’s something we sorely need and will make taking in the Leptui worth everything we go through,” Adam said, drawing everyone’s attention. “If Lashtam is ready, it’s time for the lesson, ‘Introduction to [System] 101’.”