CHAPTER XXXV: RULES
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{09:40 LOCAL TIME 3RD JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
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FORT CHAVEZ
PRIME
Sugar, Clyde and Soto followed Buzbee out of the command building right to the hospital. Kuma was sitting lazily at the doorway when they arrived.
Clyde watched as Julia spun around on her bare heels, a tattoo on her left arm flashing crimson as she made a fist and punched out at the back wall. Colonel tried to stop her. He really did.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The building is...” He started.
BOOM
“...Platinum, your Tier is too low to damage it.” He finished with a wince.
Clyde made eye contact with Corporal Smith just as she saw the burnt husk of Julia fly back from the wall lifeless. She froze at the sight.
The Colonel immediately jumped into action, pulling items out of his Soul storage. “Corpsman, give this potion in an IV and monitor her. Heal what you can, but let the potion do its work. Yazmin help him out.” He said in quick succession. He then walked over to the stunned Corporal and team leader of Team Power Puff.
“Corporal Smith, I am Colonel Clyde Jacob,” He said to Smith, getting her attention. “This is Sergeant Major Soto and the lady of the fort, Captain Sugar. We kind of have a basic idea of what is going on, but you telling us your story should fill in some of the blanks. Hurry, though; we are all on a very short clock, and minutes matter more than ever before. Lives depend on it.”
He analyzed them
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Alanna Stone
LEVEL: 37
CASTE: Commoner PROFESSION: Mail Courier RACE: Human
POOLS:
HP 900/900 regen 175HP per day
MP 300/300 regen 230MP per hour
DR:10/10
Highest ATTRIBUTES:
Physical; Dexterity
Mental; LUCK
EFFECTS: Bewildered.}
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Julia Zord
LEVEL: 35
CASTE: Commoner PROFESSION: Messenger RACE: Human
POOLS:
HP 58/900 regen 160HP per day
MP 300/300 regen 210MP per hour
DR:0/10
Highest ATTRIBUTES:
Physical; Dexterity
Mental; LUCK
EFFECTS: Catastrophic body failure.}
_____________________________________________________________
< ANALYZE >
{PLAYER NAME: Corporal Valia Smith
LEVEL: 39
CASTE: Commoner PROFESSION: Personnel Trainer RACE: Human
POOLS:
HP 900/900 regen 190HP per day
MP 300/300 regen 270MP per hour
DR:10/10
Highest ATTRIBUTES:
Physical; Dexterity
Mental; Charisma
EFFECTS: Confusion, Worried.}
_____________________________________________________________
“Hurry up on that one; she only has fifty-eight hit points left.” Colonel pointed to Julia. “Smith, come with us.” Colonel spun and began to walk away.
“I am not leaving them,” Smith said.
“You’re not leaving them, sir...” Soto started, looking at Smith with all levity gone. He looked at Smith like an old NCO looked at a fresh-out-of-basic training soldier. “Respect the rank corporal. We worked very hard to earn it, and we still maintain it.”
“We will be just next door; nobody is leaving anybody, Corporal. Bring Alanna if you like, or leave her here with Julia, but make sure she doesn’t interfere with the Docs.” The colonel added, still walking away.
“She is right here.” Alanna said indignant.
“Sir!” Soto said to Alanna, taking a step in front of the Professional. “I believe you meant to say she is right here, sir, or Colonel... shit, I would accept, boss, but what you’re not going to do is speak to my Colonel any sort of way.” His face was stoic as he looked at the three ladies making a ruckus in his hospital.
Clyde put his hand on Soto’s shoulders, stopping him. “Alanna, I do prefer troops to go through the chain of command, which is why I do the same. I was talking to your leader because currently, she is the ranking enlisted of your party. I am now aware that that may be a foreign concept to you, but when it works, it is the best system, in my opinion. Either way, do as you wish for now. Just do not try to hurt anyone in my fort, or you will have to deal with my punishment, whether you are my subordinate or not.”
The Colonel continued back to the command side of the building ignoring the glares Alanna and Valia sent his way. They quickly looked at each other. After communicating through their Team Speak, they spoke out loud for everyone’s benefit.
“It’s okay. I’ll stay with her for now, if you don’t mind, Corporal?” Alanna asked nervously, looking at the broad back of the Colonel’s retreating form.
“Message me if you need help,” Smith said to let everyone know they were planning and moving together.
Alanna nodded.
Smith looked at Julia on a hospital bed with an IV in her arm, and the Docs working on her looked even more competent than the JTF medics and Doctors.
Sugar put a hand on her shoulder. “She will be fine. All of our medics are well trained and have a good amount of levels and Ranks on them. We have seen a lot of action in our short time in the Game. You will come to see that you were brought to a place where miracles happen because of that guy.” She pointed at Colonel’s back as Soto ran up to him and started talking to him.
The last two days for Sugar were eventful. Even when not counting her quests and power-ups, she had to learn all of the powers of every member of the fort, and she took meticulous notes. It was hard work, but she was very good at organizing things for maximum efficiency. She smiled, thinking about what they had.
While Colonel and Soto slept for almost a day and a half, she had only slept for half of that, so her relationship with everyone else was more personable. She saw how hard the hundred NPCs worked to advance the fort. And once it changed, she got an alert saying her Stronghold’s NPC had increased in power in some way.
“Is that the real Colonel Jacob?” Smith asked. Like the one from the TV, he looked different like he looks younger than before for sure.
“I believe so. He was much more down to earth before we left the Dungeon. He has been a little intense since he came back. But I like this focused version of him now. It makes me believe he is who I thought he was. Before, he was a little carefree.” Sugar added.
With one last look back at her teammates, Smith turned to Sugar. “Then he is the only one that can bring us back together; we have been waiting for him, I believe, at least according to leadership.”
“That, I can believe.” Sugar added, looking back at Clyde and Soto playing rock paper scissors.
The women walked back into the tactical room, where the map screens were moving in real-time. Smith looked at it all in awe. She had never seen anything like this since television before the Breaking. ”How?”
“A whole lot of Luck and surviving a fucking nightmare night,” Colonel said, chuckling. “But we can tell you our stories later. I need answers to two questions. Who is in charge of the JTF forces in LA? And how bad is the slaver problem?”
Smith visibly relaxed at the questions. “To answer your last question first, it’s bad, sir. Really bad out there. Intelligence puts the estimates in the millions.” She sighed. “We don’t believe they have that many collars yet, but in time, they will no doubt have them. Estimates on that are closer to three or four months until they make that number. In the meantime, they can force players to work in other ways. The few that have escaped said that whole families are being held hostages. They collar the leader of the family and have them control the rest.”
“That’s awful.” Sugar said, hand over her mouth.
“Millions...” Soto trailed off.
Clyde’s heart thudded. He felt cold, almost numb. “1525 to 1866,” The Legacy said under his breath.
“What?” Smith asked.
“I don’t know.” Sugar said slowly, looking at the two veteran soldier’s body language.
“That was how long the trans-Atlantic slave trade went on for, at least for our country. We were overachievers in all the wrong ways back then.” Soto said, looking at the maps on the wall. “What most people don’t know was less than half a million slaves made it to America. We didn’t need that many. The environment, climate, and weather weren’t as harsh as the rest of the new world. Our country was able to make a self-sustaining slave trade of our own. We weren’t the first to do slavery, but we sure did perfect it.” Soto looked at Smith. “In six months, they have enslaved more people than our country had taken from the motherland in over three hundred years.”
“Well, magic doesn’t help,” Smith said, angry.
“That is where you are wrong trooper.” The Colonel began. “Power has set us free, Corporal Smith. They are slavers. They only know how to use people to gain power. But Power is not gained that way, and if it was, the most powerful being in the cosmos would be a slaver. Magic wants us strong, but it wants us to Live Well.”
“Or Die Free.” Adia and Bour said from the corner. Smith hadn’t even noticed them. But now that she had seen them, her jaw hit the ground.
Sugar closed her mouth, nodding back to Colonel.
“Precisely. That isn’t just the motto of the GREAT GAME. It is how we are meant to be. No slave lives well.” Colonel continued.
Corporal Smith shook her head and smiled. “To answer your first question, who is the leader of the local JTF? It’s the same leader of the JTF troops everywhere.” She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
Colonel nodded knowingly.
“Who?” Sugar asked.
“He is.” Smith pointed at the Colonel. “Glad to have you back. We were told to look out for you, but I never thought you would be alive, let alone find us. I remember your retirement speech. It was the reason for me joining the JTF after leaving the Marines.”
“Damn, boss man, can I get my job back as well?” Soto mock asked.
“You are also still in our chain of command, Sergeant Major. I thought you both knew.” She looked around again. “What is this place? It feels like a magical version of a pre-breaking building more than the new ones made by our professionals. The Mana is higher in here; is that planned?” Smith asked, confused.
“Oh snap,” Soto said, “then I need my six-month back pay for carrying this officer the whole time.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Colonel ignored Soto. “How many are alive?”
“From the JTF, sir?” She shrugged. “I don’t know, I have been away for a few weeks, but before we left, we were about thirty thousand strong, but we had a ton of new recruits going through basic training. They should have graduated by now. That should have doubled the forces, and then the next batch should double that again. The city is over five million strong, and we have about 10% of them trying to join us every day. But most can’t make it through our Basic training, even with more stats, skills, and abilities.”
“That is kind of sad,” Soto said.
“We are the JTF; we only take the best the world has to offer, Sergeant Major. We were not going to lower our standards in our time of confusion. We should always do better when we can.” Corporal Smith used the words of Colonel’s final speech. “If your back, you lead sir, we’ll follow.” She saluted Colonel with pride.
He returned the salute. “I’m back.”
“Chill, MJ, you going to be rocking 45 next?” Soto joked, breaking the serious air that was in the building. As the senior ranking NCO, he was charged with the job of making sure these briefings don’t go off the rails, in either direction. He was good at his job. “So who are the forces at play? Are you part of the research battalion? What are the distances involved, and travel times? Everything on the map seems far apart.” He asked her after a second to keep her focused.
“Three main players with an outside chance of strong backers on two of them, that is just a guess.” Smith sat on a stool as a medic came in with some food from the Crafter’s hall dining room. It was breakfast time. Everyone took a plate. They were starving.
“Right, Yazzy had sent for food for all of us. Did you know that inside of here is self-cleaning? We had a few accidents while on shift, yet everyone reported that the room was cleaned by the end of their shift. The Treasurer had said something to you, Lady Sugar, correct?” Soto asked
Sugar was already throwing a piece of sausage at Kuma. “Right, I had to make a Treasurer. Can one of you get them, please? They should be in the dining hall. Just asked for the Treasurer.” She turned back to the room after giving the orders.
Colonel smiled at how she had eased into the leadership role in just a few days. He knew that part of it was the Job role and magic influencing her, and all of them to some extent, but that couldn’t make her something she wasn’t. This was what she was raised to do, and he could tell it felt right to her. He had made a great team choice.
“What did he say?” Soto asked.
“Right,” Sugar snapped her fingers. “They were partial servings of food in the bank. It can be withdrawn at any time, but there was a Mana interest rate on it or something. I had a lot going on he can explain when he gets here.”
“Good point,” Soto said, “Smith the forces?”
“The LA stronghold, the Westside gang that has recently been upgraded from gang to guild, we know that is bad. We just don’t know how bad it is yet and why we feel they have a backer now. The neutral Golden Bear Native American tribe. I believe this faction is run by the council of Chumash, Tongva, and Kizh Clergy. They are not to be messed with. They are powerful away from their lands, but on their lands, they are unbeatable. The LA stronghold had violated their neutrality pretty early on and paid for it in blood and resources. Truth be told, if it wasn’t for the JTF, the LA Stronghold would not be standing today. We train everyone, anyone that fails out of our training still has to serve the Stronghold in some capacity, mostly horde helpers. So the training still instills confidence in their skills and their abilities.”
“And ours,” Colonel said.
“And ours,” Smith confirmed.
“What is the West Side gang or guild? And what does it have to do with this Hamlet?” Soto said, pointing at the Hamlet to the South.
“That is about the new player. The Syndicate they are led by Nobles from Las Vegas who either sponsored or co-sponsored the push into LA. Nobles can make binding oaths based on the Mana and NPC EXP saved up in their Stronghold vault. While it isn’t impossible to escape, it isn’t easy to break Oaths without consequences. The people who have escaped have lower stats, and lacking specialization spells, only Skill trees can’t be lost by oaths, it is the main reason why NPCs are the first to be collared, they have nothing to lose by breaking an oath.” Smith began.
Sugar looked at the Hamlet on the map in disgust.
“That Hamlet was the latest in a string of Strongholds that have fallen secretly to the Syndicate forces who are mostly unknown. Either by invasion or corruption, they took control. We believe, and we have sent to higher, that these two forces will join together against us, and we can’t win as we are currently.
“The Hamlets and Villages around the LA stronghold provide the majority of its Common food and supplies, these are the most used materials in the Stronghold. With these smaller Stronghold being taken from our area of influence, Dungeons go undiscovered and the local area becomes more dangerous, worse yet is the impact inside the Stronghold. It would be slow at first Common items would get a little more expensive, then Uncommon and above items won’t even be sold. The high-level crafters would have to go out on their own to get their materials or at least provide compensation, but they aren’t combatants, so they take security with them, but the monsters are stronger now without the constant patrols. So the Stronghold dies a slow death as players leave instead of staying, or become weaker and starve, the options are all bleak sir.” Smith said.
“So both groups are slaver groups?” Colonel asked, rubbing his beard.
“Yes, we believe that West Side Guild’s main Stronghold is in Barstow; there was a JTF R&D unit there that had never checked in. We sent out scouts and found it full of Collared NPCs farming goods.”
“So, Barstow and Las Vegas,” Clyde said, getting two question marks on his map for both cities. “How far of a trek to the LA Stronghold?”
“At our top speed,” Smith pondered, looking at the map. I would say if we don’t run into any beast or monster encounters, it should take a little over 24 hours. I would say three days to be safe.”
“Tactical map. How long would it take to get to the LA Stronghold?” Clyde asked the Table. The map zoomed in on the local area and began to map out a route to LA. Anywhere on the route while within the AOI of the Fort the hostiles were highlighted in red. A timer popped on the route that changed as it passed the red dots. The base time was reading 26H:01M:10s
“So if you could run by most of them, it won’t affect the time much, but the opposite is true if you have to fight,” Soto stated.
“Yes, some creatures will chase you for days. Most are very territorial and don’t like to leave those territories at all.” Adia added.
“She is right. That is why were have survived, we run a lot.” Smith confirmed.
“Who is in charge of the LA Stronghold?” Sugar asked Smith.
“That is one of our missions. It was supposed to be Governor Birnbaum, but he and his raid party have been missing for two months now. But since his heirs haven’t received a death prompt, we know he is still alive we believe he is in a Dungeon still. The continuous horde was recently cleared, so we think he was the one to clear it.” Smith answered hopefully.
“Doubtful. That was us.” Soto pointed at the whole room. “We got some dope rewards for it too. But that doesn’t answer where he is.”
“I found him,” Clyde said, pointing at the Long Beach Airport. The fog of war cleared a little as the Colonel tapped on a question mark next to the event mark.
_____________________________________________________________
< QUEST UPDATED >
{Quest Name: STOP THE OUTBREAK V
Quest Type: Legacy (Legendary Chain)
Description: Something ominous has been unleashed on to your local area investigator for more updates. You have found and killed Feral ghouls, which means there is at least a lesser ghoul making the feral ones. Now that you have killed a lesser ghoul you are now aware that there must be a Greater ghoul controlling them. Also the homeless NPC are under attack from the ghouls protect them.
Requirements: Find the source of the undead.
Lisette has died. She was the source.
Objective 1: Leave the Dungeon so it can reset. (Complete)
Objective 2: Report your findings to the local Stronghold. (Marked on Map)
Objective 3: Get the homeless to safety.
Secret Objective: Save the Governor. (Location on map)
Time limit: 12D04H13M.
Rewards: EXPERIENCE, Legacy headband, and all of the accumulated loot from killing everything in the Dungeon.
Failure penalty: For not leaving Dungeon becoming a Ghoul.}
_____________________________________________________________
< STRONGHOLD EVENT UPDATED >
EVENT NAME: NPC help
DESCRIPTION: The NPCs of the CSU Chancellor Stronghold fear that the Chancellor has sold them out to The Syndicate or Westside Guild. Now that the Uncommon Horde has passed his noble guard has initiated martial law. The two Buddhist monks who were the prime Protectors of the NPCs have gone missing since the battle.
Objective: Stop the Chancellor from handing the NPCs over to the Slaver Strongholds. (Location on map Time frame 12D:14H:10M)
Objective: Find the Monks before they die. (Location on map Time frame 4H:10M)
Secret Objective: Escort the Governor back to safety.
Rewards: EXP, Stronghold leadership, Stronghold upgrade. 2 lesser Uncommon Mana Stones, a 1 Rare Mana stone, and possible New Strongholds added to your nation.
_____________________________________________________________
“Damn, Gina!” Soto exclaimed, reading the updated prompts. “Those rewards are awesome.” He put the Stronghold prompts up on the map board with a flex of mental strength. “Nice.” He smiled at his handy work.
Bour read it over and looked at Adia. “The local NPCs must be very scared if the world generated an Event like this. The rewards are paid with EXP from the collective extra EXP of every willing NPC. To get a Stronghold, these two groups must be doing some atrocious shit even for the GREAT GAME.” The dark-skinned dwarf grumbled, annoyed.
“While the GREAT GAME doesn’t actively support slavery, it absolutely actively opposes it with Events, mostly through NPCs,” Adia added. “Outside of the Imperium, there aren’t any major Multiversal Slaver conglomerates. The Game wants to make powerful players and slaves rarely break the mental shackles needed to rise to the top Tiers of the Multiverse conflict.”
“You know of the Imperium?” Clyde asked Adia incredulously.
“You know of the imperium?” Adia and Bour asked, matching the Colonel’s tone.
“A conversation for another day, y’all,” Soto said, trying to stay focused.
“Yes,” Adia said quickly, looking at Bour worried.
“I’m fine, las; we are far from them.”
“Uh... about that,” Clyde said nervously.
“Later, sir!” Soto said firmly, seeing the problem, “people to save, remember?”
“What is that cluster of yellow and red dots moving toward us?” Smith asked, looking at the tactical board.
“That is her problem,” Soto said, pointing at Sugar. Clicking the map and mapping out a route to the Airport the time that came up was three hours. That was cutting their quest close.
“Que?” Sugar asked.
“That is the professionals and their guards running from the Hamlet, I can tell you more if you come with me, she can tell you more if you stay here either way we got a move soon. Go back to your team, assess their situation, and figure out what you wanna do. You got about 10 minutes.”
“Before you go. Let me talk to you,” Soto walked with her to the door.
“Sugar, you will process, secure, and protect those people.” He watched a 5 player team of green dots moving towards the cluster. “Buzbee, those your scouts? Or a patrol?”
Buzbee looked at the map and then the tactical table. “That’s the Scouts, sir. They were out of comms range once they left the Stronghold AOC.” Just as he said that a microphone icon popped up over the scout team on both tactical map and wall map.
Soto walked back and touched the icon. “Red 1 Alpha this is Fort command, how do you copy over?”
Buzbee’s eyes widened, and then he smiled. “Oh, this will do just fine, sir.” He said with an emphasis on just, then he sent messages over his HUD. A runner entered, he handed him a piece of paper, and the runner left.
“Who you telling Buzz,” Rice said with a huge smile on his face as he reviewed the tactical map.
“Did you know that this could do this, sir?” Buzbee asked, looking at Colonel.
“Of course he did.” Soto lied.
“Of course I did.” Clyde cosigned.
‘There is no way you two could have known that. This isn’t possible at your tier in the Mortal realm at all.’ Adia whisper speak into their ears.
They both stiffened and tried to avoid eye contact with the Desert Elf.
“I can plot targets here and...” Rice started.
“Fort Command? I didn’t even know you existed over. Is this voice? I have to text everything while not in the AOC, so this is awesome. Over.” The tactical table answered.
“Work on their radio etiquette later, Buzbee,” Colonel said as the Sergeant was about to reply to the tactical table. “They are in the field in a new world. Cut them some slack for now.”
Buzbee nodded.
“Good copy Red 1 Alpha, someone will always be here with the light on for you, and keeping the coffee warm. Feel free to send updates through this channel. I’ll make it dedicated for you this for your mission.” Soto played with some settings, and a map legend appeared. Broken down into resources, points of interest, and unclaimed Dungeons.
“This is crazy. You have a seers table.” Bour said
“Not quite,” Adia said
“That's not a regular tactical table,” Bour said
“This isn’t our regular assignment.” Adia retorted
“Yeah, about you guys. Who are you?” Rice asked, echoing everybody else's thoughts in the room, but the Colonel and Sergeant Major.
"Oh yeah," Clyde started.
“Really, not the time,” Soto said. “Time to NPC event second Objective is coming fast.”
“Three hours if players don’t engage any roaming beast.” The tactical table answered out loud, much to everyone’s surprise.
“Do you have an estimate of the roaming beast travel paths?” Colonel asked, shrugging at Soto.
“Only the ones in the AOI of the fort Colonel.” The Tactical table answered.
“Johnny, your job is to organizing taking down those that are threatening to the Fort. Each section should have a representative check-in here every day. They must be a Job holder or noble to use the Tactical Table, understood?” Clyde ordered.
“Roger that, sir,” Johnny answered.
Colonel pulled out a piece of paper and placed it on the tactical table, getting a Prompt.
Judging the reactions of everyone in the room, he wasn't the only one to get a prompt.
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< UNITED GAIAN NATION RULES MORTAL REALM >
Nation Rules
*No free labor(Force or otherwise).
*No forced sexual labor.
*Players can move freely through charter city-states/nations during non-horde periods.
*All noble Classers must serve in the Military or Hunters at least 50 years(100 if they become officers), or until Tier 6(Tier 7 if they become an officers).
*All other Classers must serve at least 25 years(50 years if an Officer) or Tier 5(Tier 6 if an Officer)
*All Tier 5s and above can volunteer for service but must serve a minimum of 10 years at a time. (25 years for Officers)
< TAXES >
*50% base tax on all base profits on all transactions within the AOC and, to a limited extent, the AOI of the Stronghold. (Based on fair magical value calculated by the Game.) The percentage will drop by 10% for every continent conquered by the Leader of the Military all the way down to a minimum of 10%.
*25% of all military loot is spread out back across the nation equally.
*25% of all tax revenue funds go towards bettering life, and increasing opportunity for advancement of all citizens equally.
*25% of all tax revenue funds go to leadership who is responsible for maintaining the security of the city or nation-state through guards and the military.
*50% of tax funds will be sent higher.
*Healthcare and education will be paid for by the military loot and will be offered to every citizen as universal care.
< INDIVIDUAL >
*Oaths can not be sworn on a player’s life. Any such Oath can be broken by a noble Job holder.
*Oaths of service must have a maximum date of 10 years outside of the military and can be negotiated and updated every five years.
Personal healers must make a reasonable attempt to offer aid to any mortally wounded players while in AOC.
Murder/Rape/statutory rape against any citizens on lands controlled by the United Gaian Nation is punishable by Death or Exile (after a fair trial).
Assault/armed Robbery/hate crimes against citizens are punishable by Exile(after a fair trial).
All Dungeon rewards not bound to any diver over the Peak Rare Tier will be brought by the nation. (Based on fair magical value calculated by the Game.)}
< WAR >
*Never starve out civilians or noncombatants; if it can be done safely, offer food and shelter outside of the City being sieged.
*All refugees that swear Oaths on their progression will be given citizenship after an Uncommon period as long as they help out with hordes.
< NOTE >
{These rules will be magically enforced fully within the AOC, partially in the AOI, and not at all anywhere else. Enforcement still requires a player to execute arrest unless Golems are available in Stronghold.}
_____________________________________________________________
“These are going to be the new charter rules; over the next few years or so, we will be adding more, and they will affect the whole world one day. As long as every Stronghold follows these basic rules, they are welcome to govern themselves as they see fit. All we will be doing is uniting the world under one name and military leadership. If they want to use their house guard to fight each other as long as they follow the rules of war, I don’t even think we would care unless it involved a ton of civilians, of course.” Colonel said to the room.
“Wow, when did you come up with that?” Soto asked.
“I was on a foreign planet for a week, walking with no Internet and no television, but I got most of it done last night while building the turrets; I guess that was two nights ago. They are based on some of the old rules we came up with before.” Clyde answered.
“These rules seem fair outside of the taxes, those are outrageous. But with the military giving back twenty-five percent of the loot, I am going to guess that will be a massive number over the whole campaign if you plan on conquering the entire world. Plus, free health care that doesn't come out of the people's pockets is a wet dream for every politician.” Sugar said.
“Yes, at some point, the fifty percent in taxes will be surpassed by the twenty-five percent in loot return, but that won’t be for a while, I think,” Bour said, rubbing his beard and nodding wisely.
“But by the time that happened, the taxes would have been reduced quite a bit, that is smart,” Adia added
“We are one team anyway. Plus, once the earth is united, we have to head to the skies, and that will be full of its own challenges that we have to prepare for.” Clyde said.
“Why Tier 5, sir?” Johnny asked.
"What do you mean, skies?" Rice asked right after.
“Tier 5 is when a player can enter the Sky realm, the realm above the Mortal realm. The more that can go up there and survive, the better prepared we will be when we get there ourselves.” Colonel said.
“Also at Tier 5 players can go AWOL and head to the skies never to be seen again. It is more about enforcing rules on people that you can, once someone got to Tier 5 rules don’t matter nearly as much to them.” Adia added. “The Sky realm is one realm that a player can get lost in easily. There are countless roaming cultivators. and it expands constantly into the ever-expanding Domain of the Celestial. It isn't affected by the Mortal realm Events or Periods.
“Where is that Treasurer?” Soto asked, not liking the direction of the conversation. He didn't like failing Quest or Events if he could help it doubly so since it is real life now.
Jimmy walked back in. “We are ready, sir.”
Corporal Smith walked in behind him. “We are all going with you, sir; we have to get the Governor back to the LA Stronghold as soon as possible. The war is coming, and we can’t wait.”
“Good we leave in five, let me have the room with my staff sergeants and above please.” Colonel dismissed everyone else. The lower enlisted filed out.
After a few seconds, he continued.
“At some point, overwhelming power is going to be the only thing that truly scares people in this world. Before magic, and even more so now, these rules were meant to make sure each citizen could stand on their own two feet and rise as far as their gumption would take them. These rules are for everyone. All of you in this room will give the nation your Oath on your progression, and every Noble and Job holder will do the same moving forward, including myself. We bind out power to the nation that way. Of course, if the nation betrays you, the Oath is null and void. There are going to be amazing benefits to those who swear allegiance and all citizens of the UGN. But as the leadership we have to be able to police ourselves. Tying our Progression to the fate of the Nation means that none of us can do anything detrimental to the nation's progression.” He looked at everyone left in the room, his face hard.
“Did you really use the word gumption? How old are you, man?” Soto inquired, breaking the silence after Clyde’s soliloquy.
Clyde put his hand in his hand.