“You want to fight your way through the Forbidden City?” Bao Wang slowly said and was clearly turning that thought over in his mind. “If you can fight the Envoy on even ground, then it should be possible. But the hardest part will be locating the Divine Empress and making sure she doesn’t return.”

I nodded at that. “That is the biggest problem. Everything else can be solved with force. Would the people rise up?” I asked.

“The people? There are only slaves and soldiers. The slaves will not be able to do anything. The soldiers will fight. You will have to kill them all. The elite guards of the Empress. The Black Talons. Each with 1,000 to 3,000 stat points it is said and skills,” Bao Wang explained. That meant I could defeat them as easily as the Divine Empress defeated me with a few thousand more stats.

“The outer wall is well defended. There are cannons on the wall, though I have never seen them used. Soldiers patrol everywhere constantly. Also, there is a single airship that is in the city to quickly move troops and attack from above.” I listened intently about what I would have to fight my way through.

“Assuming you manage to fight your way past the wall. There are two layers with a wall made from buildings and then a wall of flesh.” Similar to Purgatory in that regard. “The slaves that service the soldiers live in the outer ring. The middle ring houses the soldiers. The inner ring contains the palace, city buildings, and what bureaucracy the Empire has,” Bao Wang said.

“The treasury is contained in a five-story building isolated from all the other buildings. There is only a single entrance, and the bottom floor is the processing area for the tribute.”

“What about the airship?” I asked. “Could it be stolen?”

“Maybe? I have no idea how one works. There are only two airships. The flagship of the Divine Empress. And the reserve one inside the Forbidden City to respond to threats.” Stealing the Empress’s airship would be the cherry on top of what I wanted to accomplish.

“Could we sneak into the inner ring?” I asked.

“Impossible. The soldiers know if there is any incident they will be the ones fleshcrafted it has happened many times before,” Bao Wang answered.

“How many of these Black Talons are there?” I asked.

“There are one thousand. They guard the inner ring only. The rest are regular soldiers like you have already faced.” I imagined facing a thousand Narans. I would need a lot more in my Body stat. That would be very annoying. They would force me to use my energy and wear me down.

I had a level 4 processing rod and somehow the annihilation bomb the good doctor and Clarissa had developed for me. Even the headlamp had survived on my utility belt, despite being yeeted into the sky and the multi-zone crawl. I had made sure all my gear was snug on my belt when I had gotten the utility belt and had gone through a couple to get one, I wanted.

That small number of points was nothing to me. “Why not ask for help?” Hope brought up.

“Hope, high level combat is do or die. Who is going to help me?” I shook my head. “No, we grind, and then make a move on the treasury. I am thinking we sneak in past the outer wall. I should be able to get us over that easily no problem.”

“The inner walls, especially the fresh one concerns me. But we go as far as we can. The hard part is capturing the airship and taking the treasury. I can do one, but not both,” I visualized everything and shook my head. I was thinking too much in terms of theft not combat.

“Breach the inner wall and then fight. During that time, I will draw everyone out while another group would take the Airship and load up the crystals for escape,” I said. I would be tossing bombs everywhere. Since I had a bomb design, I could make more with the right type of crystals.

I would need lots of bombs. A lot. I would need resupply most likely as well. So crafting crystals and more stats. The plan needed a lot of work.

“Insanity, but for someone who called the Divine Empress an old hag to her face, I would expect nothing less,” Bao Wang said. Well hopefully I would never see her again.

“Well, that is all long term. The first thing that needs to happen is to get you both some stats. That means reaching a level 4 zone and grinding there. I will clear the surrounding area in the level 3 zone and you will have to wait there for four days. After that we can sneak back into Neo Brasilia and get you both some stat points. We should have time right?” I asked Bao Wang.

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“It will be close. But the regular soldiers are disposable for the most part. The Empress hasn’t deployed the Black Talons outside of her city. If there are excessive losses then they would be deployed.”

“What about the Lord General, where is he?” I asked.

“That is hard to say. After taking that one city, he pushed further East with the main army to smash any opposition and wipe people before they could flee. Wanted to push right through the heart of this territory. There were rumors the Divine Empress was going on ahead to clear the way and scout out things personally.”

I could only hope Clarissa got away and that army got caught up in that golden blast. “The city North of here, what was the plan?”

“A follow up force. The city you took me from is supposed to be the staging ground.” Esperanza. Well hopefully freeing the people there would cause chaos and disrupt things. There weren’t any real supply lines to cut unfortunately, except the route for tribute back to the Forbidden City.

“Alright, both of you get in the cart again.” They would be doing the pulling after the stat upgrades. “Stay in the cart, no matter what,” I added as they got in.

After that I began pulling the cart into the mistlands. “I can’t see anything,” Hope said.

“This is a level 3 zone, we aren’t supposed to be here,” Bao Wang replied.

“I can’t believe anyone could be so horrible,” Hope said.

“Acid Shot.” I killed white armor that was advancing out of the mist. It was slow, but I made my way South. Hope and Bao Wang had grown quiet when the giant white crows showed up. I had to kill them before they took out the people in my cart when they came in from an angle.

Eventually we made to the edge of the mistlands. I cleared the area around the cart and set off into the darklands by myself to grind out the Bulwark Shields. They were easy enough to kill with all the upgrades I had gotten.

When night began to close in, I quickly made my way back to the cart. I used the staking system the Astrologer had taught me. It was a good way to know the boundary you had cleared around your cart.

“I have been thinking a lot,” Bao Wang spoke up as we had a quiet dinner. The mist swirling around us. He paused and wave his hand. “This mist is annoying. I can’t see anything.”

There was a clear bubble around me. But it was clear the mist was impacting his mind as well since there was no mist in front of his face.

“It is only four days of this, right?” Hope asked.

“With stats after that, you should be fine. The hard part is going to be grinding in this type of terrain.” Unless I went to another level 4 zone to grind. The Bulwark Shields were too perfect unfortunately. Any other zone would be a struggle for me. It was better for me if I maximized my grinding and not these two.

The frostlands, my old level 3 grinding spot, by the tower to the Northeast might be good. But then they would be on their own.

“How quickly will the tribes get set up in level 2 zones?” I asked.

“Not for a while. The hardest part will be the language difference. That was why I was selected to be a Lord, or at least a good portion of it. Eventually soldiers will be drawn from the arrivals, but the Divine Empress ordered Yankees to be purged no matter what. They would turn into death cities, similar to what happened to Freedom,” Bao Wang explained.

“Freedom?” I asked.

“Well, it is technically called City Number Eight. But the original names have stuck around and people use them. Far to the Southwest. Constant fighting and rebels. Every new arrival is made a slave and soldiers are brought in from other cities.”

“Where does it pull from?” I asked.

“Australia and Japan. It is quite amazing they have held on so long killing several Lords.” Bao Wang truly was a font of useful information. “Try and find these rebels for your attack?” he asked.

“No. It would be better if they are creating distractions elsewhere. The East will not be easy to hold for the Divine Empress. The more territory she has, the harder it will be to keep everyone in line and groups from forming,” I said.

“Perhaps. But as long as she lives, no one at the upper levels will go against her,” Bao Wang said.

“You have,” I pointed out.

“With enough stats, I would be able to kill myself before being captured. Whatever happens, don’t allow yourself to be taken alive or surrender,” he said and shuddered.

“I need to use the bathroom,” Hope said. I helped her out of the cart and held onto the back of her shirt.

“Are you looking away?” she asked me and I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, I am.”

“I don’t see why you need to keep an eye on me like this,” she muttered. I had already explained that with the mist messing her and Bao Wang up that they would die if they wandered off. There was no other option unfortunately.

“I can’t go,” she said. Almighty System, how did this woman ever save my life? Whatever luck skill or meta-point she had earned, I wanted it. I didn’t say anything and just kept waiting and waiting. If this woman hadn’t saved my life, I would let her wander off and die.

“I have a shy bladder.” I counted in my head, not saying anything. It wouldn’t help. After a couple of minutes I heard a tinkle. I didn’t move or make a noise, in case she stopped mid-stream and I had to wait even longer.

I heard clothing shuffling around. “All done,” she said. I lead her back to the cart. Bao Wang was still alive, but he was moving his hand in front of his face trying to see it.

“Coming back,” I said so as to not scare him. He jumped a little bit.

“I was getting worried,” he said.

“Don’t. Everything is fine.” I helped Hope back into the cart. I couldn’t wait for these four days of hell to be over and my debt to Hope paid off. I really didn’t know what to do with her. It would be a pain to take her with me and she clearly wasn’t quick on the uptake.

I was suspecting she had some kind of mental damage the Almighty System hadn’t fixed. Or it could just be her personality and I was wrong to blame mental damage. Still, the end result was the same. Someone very passive.

They made for a great follower, but a poor teammate. She was the kind of person I hated and looked down on. The people who had no drive to push forward. They were the people who just lay down and die with no one telling them what to do. Well, I wouldn’t abandon her or put her in a bad spot. She deserved that much at least.