They moved in one group through the city hall, exploring it and making mental maps of the structure. The second floor was a series of office cubicles, and the third floor seemed to be some sort of military planning room, and it was connected to the defense part of the Metropolis Core.
As Sam had made the city hall over where the Core had been, it now was situated in the center of the meeting room on the first floor, right where he could have access to it. There was an interactive map of the area that showed the positions of the factions members as blinking green dots. There were a few red dots as well that told Sam that there were a few monsters hiding in the woods around the city hall. None of that information was especially pertinent right now, but in the event of an invasion, which would likely be coming soon if the Engines of the End Times quest was to be believed, then it would be invaluable. This had been possibly the best purchase that Sam could have made.
As he looked around the room further, he saw something interesting. There was an arch of silvery metal, with a button next to it. There were words written on a plaque next to it, and Sam moved over to read them.
Emergency Portal
This device gains one charge per 24 hour period, up to a maximum of 3 charges. When used, one being will be teleported a random distance between 100 and 1000 miles, in a way that does not pose any risk to them.
Charges 0/3
It was basically an escape route for the most important people in the faction. Its very existence annoyed Sam, as it would mean that only three people could escape if the unthinkable happened and the compound was overrun. As the others filed over, they read the description too, and the faces of those who understood the implications fell.
“If that ever has to be used, you will have to be the first out, Sam. You are the most important person here, and without you this faction is meaningless,” Lao said, his face grave.
“No, that will not happen. I am the most powerful person here, by a long shot, and I should stay behind to defend the people here if we are invaded.”
Sam’s face was grim, and it was clear to the others that he would not brook any argument on the subject. Both Sam and his Dao were in agreement. Fleeing when one was in a position to help others was not a virtuous thing to do. The others grimaced, but they did not argue. Sam was the faction leader after all. His word around here was law. He could remove them from the faction at any time, not that he would, and that was the most effective deterrent of any misbehavior. All of them knew that Sam would never do that, unless there was a real reason for it, but it was best not to test him.
They left the war room, and walked down the stairs towards the exit. As they left the city hall, Sam looked back up at it. Seeing the new building, something that symbolized everything that they stood for, was quite inspiring. It was a testament to their resolve, and a monument to their enduring success. Sam briefly wondered what the other factions were getting up to as he took in the sight. He doubted that they were doing as well as he was.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
In the Grand Canyon
Over the last day, a small city had started to form on the base of the Grand Canyon. The Overlord had watched as his minions built the buildings out of the rock, saving all of their credits for himself.
He had forced everyone who had chosen to side with him to entrust their money to him, in exchange for his protection. In addition, each one of them had signed binding contracts that they would forfeit half of their future earnings to him. It did not make for a happy populace, but they were too afraid of the Overlord to protest. He had already made an example out of someone who had defied him. Watching a person die from aura pressure alone was not a pretty sight. The detritus had been ingrained into the walls of the canyon by the explosive demise of the unfortunate soul.
The Overlord had picked this site well, as there was nowhere to go for hundreds of miles in each direction, perhaps even more accounting for the expansion of the planet. The wastelands that surrounded the canyon were filled with hordes of monsters and even worse, no resources on which to live. The people were stuck between a rock and a hard place, or rather, the Overlord and their circumstances. It was better to remain in relative safety than to surrender to the hungry unknown. Nobody there, save for the weakest of mages, were even feeling any hunger, on account of their enhanced bodies.
As a result, the Overlord had tentatively agreed to set up a farming system, if only out of necessity. What he had splurged on was defenses for the compound. There were multiple layers of walls and weapons emplacements surrounding the city now. The small size of the compound made it so that the density of weaponry was far higher than it would have been normally.
In the ruins of New York
Rodney Kane had decided to go for size over defenses, and their faction headquarters filled up almost a quarter of the whole city. It had led to there being a low density of defenses, but there were few monsters within the ruins of New York, as opposed to other places.
Rodney had been demoralized by his failure within the tournament. He had expected that he would lose to the Overlord, but not to Sam. Sam had gained power far more quickly than he should have, and Rodney still fumed about that frequently.
Andrew Munro was still hanging around him, but more because of the fact that he did not possess a faction, than out of any loyalty. Andrew was now no more Rodney’s ally than he was Sam’s, or the Overlord’s ally. He was his own man, caught between sanity and the overtures of his AI controller.
The AI was not capable of conceptualizing the fact that it was not completely in control, and thus it did not do anything about it. As the rest of the people of Earth started to come back from stasis, Andrew would leave and set up his own kingdom. To hell with factions and the System, he would do it his own way.
Rodney was oblivious to this, and he was instead filling his time by playing around with the construction options of his settlement interface. Playing God comforted him, and thus far his credits had gone a long way. In the midst of the post-apocalyptic rubble of New York, a paradise was rising out of the dust, a city of hopes and dreams, and also of corruption and deceit. There were no laws in Kane City, save for that of the strong. The only commonality between the three burgeoning factions was that the looming threat of the next stage of the initialization hung over them like a shadow over the sun. The Engines of the End Times quest.