The officer had a very high body stat. I would have to put it around 2,500 stat points into Body alone. Slightly out classing my 2,130 stat points that were currently invested into my Body stat. “Acid Shot,” x5. He retreated in time to dodge the acid.

I frowned a bit as he moved back in towards me. Air Burst. I closed in on him. “Acid Shot,” x10. He somehow altered his trajectory to move to the side very quickly. Even with the large spread of acid, he dodged them all.

Well, not all of them, his left leg wasn’t doing good. It had gotten hit with my acid and bits were melting rapidly. He clearly had nothing in his other stats, the damage he was taking was what I would see from a level 1 monster.

Air Burst! I moved in on him and he rushed at me. “Acid Shot,” x5. Air Burst. I went immediately up into the air. He had no way to dodge and was covered in acid. His melting corpse went tumbling along the road this fort was built on.

I looked around. That was it. I had defeated their ace or champion and there was no one left alive. He was nowhere close to being in my league. While his Body stat was impressive, he didn’t have anything else to back him up. No movement or attack skill. That was what allowed me to gain a decisive advantage.

If we had fought pure melee, then he would have probably won. His movements were impressive. Unfortunately for him, I had the ludicrous level of stats in comparison.

Everyone was wiped out. I had just rushed in, and it had been a massacre. Unless a person ran off into the mistlands, there was no one left. The buildings had been completely wrecked, melting away. This place would completely disappear most likely when we left. I hadn’t done any experiments on permanency with the carts and neither had Clarissa.

I looked for anything useful. No carts of crystals and only limited food supplies. It made sense. This place was a stopping point, or a staging point. It wasn’t the primary military base between West and East anymore. Esperanza had taken that title, or had that title before I went through that city the day before.

Pausing, I noticed a rod. I carefully picked it up, a hand fell off one end. The rest of the body had melted away. It was a Rod of Minor Calling. It could contact the city Rod of Control from the city it was purchased if that Rod of Control had the right upgrade.

It was more of a messaging device. Since a message would be left on the Rod of Control, which could also message any of the Rods of Minor Calling it was linked to. Messages could be saved, but this one had been wiped. Probably the communication officers last act.

What was really annoying, was that each message cost 10,000 points per symbol or character. The Chinese clearly had gotten a good deal with their ideographic type language. Using symbols to represent concepts that were then linked together. Also, Chinese was incorrect, it was most likely Mandarin that was used.

I considered if I wanted to send a message. It was tempting to stir the pot, but anything I sent would make it seem like I was heading towards the Forbidden City. I also wasn’t sure if it could be tracked. This wasn’t something Bao Wang would know about either. It was a Black Talon exclusive. The Lords weren’t trusted that much, more bureaucrats than loyal soldiers of the primary fighting force.

What I didn’t understand was why the Divine Empress didn’t appoint Black Talons to rule her cities? Then it hit me. She wanted to control their points and stats. A Lord had a huge chance of empowering themselves. While that happened a bit according to Bao Wang, it was difficult.

But if the Black Talons were given administrative authority, then it could easily lead to a military challenge. The Divine Empress wanted to give the other cities and people outside the Forbidden City weak and sending their crystals to her.

I brought my hand back to throw the Rod of Minor Calling away. I paused as a symbol came through the rod. It was not English. “Bao Wang!” I called out. He slowly made his way over with the pet rock pulling him along. “What does this symbol mean?” I asked him and handed the rod over.

He took it in his off hand, keeping the Rod of Taming in the other. “Zhuàng, means shape, form, or shaped. They are probably asking for a status update.”

“Would you know what to say?” I asked.

“No. This is Black Talon stuff. No one except them and the inner circle knows this stuff,” Bao Wang replied. I held out my hand and he passed back the Rod of Minor Calling. The erase function was all or nothing and the rod record messages sent as well.

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It was very limited compared to a smart phone. I looked at it with my Sense stat. It wasn’t giving off any energy and looked inert. That was the same with the other rods as well. However they functioned they operated on a much more complex principle than what I already knew about energy.

I tucked the rod into the spot the Rod of Taming would normally go in and set off once more. Thinking about the plan, we would go all the way West to the ‘T’ intersection and then keep going West. Once we got to a level 2 zone we would turn South.

We would go between the cities of Qingdao and New Beijing. From there we would make our way to the North road, which connected the Forbidden City and Qingdao, and follow it South to the Forbidden City. Once we reached the edge of the level 3 zone after we left this road, that is when I would change outfits.

That was also when the pet rock would make an appearance as the Divine Empress. I had a special slot built into my Edgelord armor to keep the Rod of Taming touching my body without having to hold it in a hand and out of sight.

These little details were key to pulling off the greatest con and heist the Systemic Lands had ever seen or probably ever would see. Ten billion points was a massive amount. But I couldn’t celebrate yet. When I was flying away with all those stats, then I could laugh my ass off and imagine the look the Divine Empress’s face.

I was still unsure about trying to do more. It would be very risky, but the fact that the Black Talons had been deployed out of the Forbidden City to fight Clarissa’s forces meant they would hopefully be understaffed.

The mistlands soon turned into stonelands. The road did what it did for the swamp terrain. There was just a solid slab of gray material under the road itself, to support it and keep it at the same height. Like someone just put a line done and drew it.

Well, that was what it was since roads were purchased from the Regional Map building. A person would just draw lines and pay points to make roads. The nice thing about them was that they made travel really easy. The bad thing was that they made travel easy.

We traveled through the night. I wouldn’t be sleeping or resting on the road. Bao Wang dozed on and off. But I wasn’t upset about that. I had chosen the path of conflict. I could only hope Clarissa was making the most of the opportunity I had given her.

It was early morning of day 766 when the road reached the next zone and we entered mistlands. It was really weird walking through a mist tunnel. The mist swirling at the boundary of the road and forming an arch overhead.

The fact that the road was clear, made it unlike anything I had ever experienced. While most of the Systemic Lands was fairly boring and repetitive in terms of scenery, this was the best so far.

While there were terrain features in each zone, they weren’t really that interesting. Just elevation changes in some way, large rocks, water feature, ruined buildings, or something that I had already seen before.

I had been hoping for giant monuments that would take the breath away. The towers didn’t count either. They were ugly, square, and just a large block sticking out of the landscape. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I had been hoping for some magical architecture with some color.

The swirling tunnel through the mistlands was the closest thing that had shown up so far that wasn’t horribly dangerous and made me feel a bit of wonder at this place once more.

I saw something up ahead. Probably the outpost tribute carts and travelers stopped at, where the intersection was located. It wasn’t a fort like the last place, which had walls and was a total military base.

This outpost was a location for tribute carts and soldiers to stop at while moving between Wuhan in the North and New Beijing. Also the road I was on that led East. I hadn’t run into any soldiers on the way here.

The commander I had faced at the end had probably killed the deserters or they had run into the mists and died to monsters. Maybe his rank was Commissar or something similar. It wouldn’t surprise me if that were the case. If any army would have officers to kill soldiers to enforce discipline, it was the army of the evil empire.

I approached the outpost, Bao Wang and the pet rock way in the back. I heard the sounds of fighting. That was surprising. People were fighting and they weren’t fighting me? I didn’t know if I should appreciate that, since the evil empire had a good chance at being one or both sides, or offended they weren’t taking my approach seriously.

I had wiped out a city and their Tung Chung Fort. Their fort was literally melted to the ground. There was no wall to the outpost. Just a large square of roads with three entrances where the roads led off into the mists.

“Die!” A man shouted in English and punched a soldier of the evil empire, killing him. I noticed several other soldiers that had been smashed and killed. There were several people that hadn’t showered in forever and their clothes were hanging off their thin frames.

There were several that were Asian, but I counted some other ethnicities. I quickly counted up 15 total including the man smashing people. He only had 1,200 in his Body stat or so and my Sense stat didn’t pick up anyone stronger than him.

If these were the rebels, they officially were pathetic. They were about done killing off the soldiers and had noticed me. They quickly fell back as a group while their main combatant came forward to place himself between me and them.

It was easy to look down on them for their weakness. But they had been fighting the evil empire for what appeared to be years. I had to respect that kind of grit and determination to keep going.

I also recalled how the Astrologer had mentioned that the Divine Empress might be pulling a Palpatine and keeping the rebels around on purpose. I couldn’t afford to give an inch or let them know anything about the heist. It was too risky. In fact, it wasn’t out of the question to kill them off to prevent complications. Their heads and corpses would make a good showing that it was the Divine Empress returning with trophies.