“Gooood morning Systemic Lands!” The voice rang out loudly through the airship. I smiled at the regular wake up call. It was a small comfort out here exploring the hell zones. Every morning at dawn, the broadcast went out. A great way to keep track of the days and time.

“This is your host ‘X’ ‘L’ ‘R’ ‘8’.” He said each syllable clearly and separately. That had been one of the requests he had when he was brought on board as the public broadcaster for the Purgatory Resonance Broadcast System, or PRBS.

“It is day 4,789 on the calendar in our glorious empire, with our even more glorious Emperor. The weather, lovely as always. We have a slight chance of a breeze and pleasant weather across all cities. No change on the horizon.” I smiled at this. It was a repetitive joke, but that was what made it so funny.

“The top secret code is as follows for those secret agents listening in. Seven. Two. Five. Eight. Cumber.” Captain Francis was checking the cipher against the day and the code. He gave me quick nod. No emergencies or other crisis had come up in the last day. I knew there were people trying to break it, but it was a complicated math transformation from the day, along with a random food item.

“Now onto our national news. The debate continues about new arrivals and the congested zones around cities. Level 2 zones are quite packed and there have been complaints that individuals can’t improve quickly enough to get to higher ranked zones.”

“Premium level 4 zones are in hot contention, and it appears only a question of if not when the Council of Governors codifies their use. Unfortunately, level 5 zones remain out of reach for all except our most glorious Imperial Government. When asked for comment, Supreme Governor Clarissa had this to say on the growing arrival crisis.” XLR8 switched over to a fake feminine voice that sounded nothing like Clarissa.

“’This crisis was known long ago. Emperor Michael and I both realize the huge pressure on cities and their populations. However, we can only gather a single resource, crystals. All people must do their part. If you want to live, then go out there. We are looking at a permit system for level 2 zones.’”

“’This falls in line with our localized group protection schema. In addition, the Imperial Government continues to support responsible summoners and teams to various level 4 zones so people can improve faster.’”

“Vagrancy inside cities will not be tolerated and the level 1 zones will be exclusive for new arrivals.”

The protection scheme was where a much higher stat team protected and ensured no issues with surrounding teams. They got a set of territory to manage. And were authorized to charge one percent for providing protection.

There had been issues with people fighting and it threatened to break out into conflict. One higher stat team per zone, situated at the center of two or more zones. So, a team that would normally be in a level 3 zone would be in a level 2. The same with a level 3 zone, having a combat level 4 team present. Boundaries were drawn up, with swamps being free zones. Where new arrivals were sent there to grind crystals.

The same for the stonelands. They were considered the worst of the level 3 zones, and were considered free zones. There were no rules or regulations but what people made. The death rates in swamps and the stonelands was quite high, but it helped address the population issue through attrition.

“’Finally, we are preparing for the upgrade to a level 6 city. The exact date has not been nailed down. But it is our hope that once a city reaches this auspicious height, we will have new options to deal with the growing arrival crisis.’”

That was the big hope of Clarissa and me. That the next city upgrade would allow us more options to combat the lack of low-level grinding locations. The upgrade was being held off, since a thousand level six monsters would not be fun fight. Still my strength and stats were quite large. I wanted to fight a level 7 monster first.

Unfortunately, the level 6 zones were the absolute worst. I refused to even think about them, with how bad they were. They were a living nightmare made manifest. Even with my 280,000 stat points, they made me cry in my soul. I still hadn’t faced a level 7 monster yet either.

Body-280,000 (+260,000); Mind-20,000 (+10,000); Spirit-20,000 (+10,000); Perception-20,000 (+15,000); Aura-20,000 (+18,000); Regeneration-20,000 (+10,000); Endurance-20,000 (+18,000); Absorption-20,000 (+18,000); Sense-20,000 (+18,000); Channel-20,000 (+18,000) for a total of 215,000 total stat upgrades over the last couple of years.

My team consisted of four other people. The people who I had invested a small portion of my tax revenue in. While it might not seem like it I had used up almost ten times the amount of points needed to get my stats than they did, but they had around a third of my stat count at 95,000 each.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Well, you heard it here first folks. Supreme Governor Clarissa has things well in hand and plans for the future. Now onto more local news.” I put the stone into the enchanted box to block out the noise. The local news was basically personal drama that was occurring and minor criminal cases.

One of the requirements for XLR8 was to list off the national news first, before getting into local topics for whatever city he and his entourage was currently residing in. I had heard enough local advertisements, drama, and other nonsense that I refused to listen to it and let my brain be filled up with garbage.

Since it was my airship, it was my rule. Otherwise, people could listen to such things in up on the upper deck and purchase a resonating radio stone themselves. Things were expensive to make, incredibly expensive. Since each new stone, meant that XLR8 needed more energy to channel into the master stone, to resonate with all the others.

Batteries, and other ways to offset the cost were looked into, and some things had produced improvements over the years. But the research was expensive, the batteries were expensive, and XLR8’s radio program was expensive.

One of the few businesses that was sponsored by the Imperial Government, but had become independent with oversight. Basically, XLR8 reported to the Director Gretchen of Social Responsibility and Director Mitchell of Intelligence.

Clarissa’s org chart scared me a bit. I just knew I was up at the top with my team and with her. That was the most important thing. Thankfully there had been no new challenges or threats.

“All clear based on the cipher tables,” Captain Francis said, and I nodded at that. “Thinking about going back?” he asked me.

“That is a complicated question. I wanted to be able to face a level 7,” I said with a sigh. We were in our tiny, cramped cabin that we both shared on the large Airship, the Crystal Vortex. I named it that after the stupid amount it cost and took to move about. Another thing I liked to ignore.

Killing monsters let us break even on the flight and operational costs. May the Almighty System have mercy on whomever poked it, dented it, or scratched it. I had never owned an expensive car, but the sheer cost of the Crystal Vortex would have let me add another teammate. In fact, it was a teammate. A needy, expensive teammate.

Which was why the airship was a she. I hadn’t found a significant other, even after following up on that one woman who had asked when my Empire was first founded. A shame that she disappeared, she had probably died in one the battles or out grinding. Now the airship was my new love, since I poured points into her voracious engines and energy tank.

“Thinking of trying again?” Captain Francis asked me. I knew why he asked that. I had been holding off really going deep in level 6 zones. They were made of pure hell, and it wasn’t the heat or the lava either. Footing was the biggest issue. There was nowhere to stand. It was a lot like the level 5 shatteredlands, we were currently hanging out in.

“Yes. We can have a rest day today. And make a go of it tomorrow,” I decided. I couldn’t keep hesitating. That was probably why I hadn’t earned a meta-point yet. “At least no night issues,” I said. I hated having to deal with monsters during the night.

“Well, I think we have it mostly figured out with our low attitude in the shatteredlands and clearing out anything nearby. Then not going out, no matter what, even with scouts.” I was seated on my bed, while Captain Francis was seated on the only chair in the cabin, next to a small table.

We had become close friends over the years, even more so living so close together. He liked to hum occasionally, and the fruit didn’t agree with his digestion. Especially oranges. He tended to have gas after having some of them.

I really wanted my own cabin, but fitting my team and my protection detail on the airship was no simple task. There was Captain Francis and myself, in one of the upgraded cabins, that had a chair, table, and two beds. The other upgraded cabin was given to Michelle and Doctor Katz. Joyo and the remaining nine soldiers had two cabins, five people each. That was a total of 14 people.

There were another 6 members of my protection detail at the Imperial Palace. They rotated in and out as needed. Captain Francis handled that for the most part. They often went on grinding expeditions to level 4 areas when not on my airship. A way for them to keep on their toes, and get points. They only had around 20,000 stat points each. A small amount, but necessary just to surrive the high levels of energy.

We had tested taking someone with no stats to a high level zone. They had gotten sick very quickly and even caught fire. I quickly kicked them off the side of the Crystal Vortex. Nothing damages her, absolutely nothing.

There were three shared showers, three shared toilets, two sinks, and a small, shared dining area, with no seats. It was rough living. But the protection detail was needed to control the various beam emplacements, prepare food, clean, and keep watch.

I had worked up to the large airship, since the medium one had been just a slightly bigger airboat. It could fit five people, but there was no room to store food or other supplies in a large amount. That was the airship size Clarissa used. A few enterprising people had purchased the small air boats.

What really set the size apart, was that the large airship had three decks. It was time to do my rounds. I liked to make sure everything was running smoothly myself. Since a lot of time was spent recovering and preparing before testing high level monsters.

There wasn’t that much for me to do. While I could have an increased tempo, the risks were too high. Better to have one engagement per day and then a break down of said engagement. Since I was in a team, gone were the days I could just rush everywhere by myself. Now, each move of the Crystal Vortex was an entire procedure to ensure we didn’t go crashing down in a massive explosion.