“Ready?” Clarissa asked me at breakfast. The preparations to go into lockdown and suspend operations of the Imperial Government were almost completed. Today was the day the city would be upgraded to level 6.

There were an expected 1,000 level 6 monsters that were expected to attack during the upgrade. Billions of points were invested to make sure it was a success. The primary city shield was upgraded to a level 5 shield and could run for 30 days. The walls of the city were level 6 null skill walls. Their material composition greatly resisting energy damage. Each gate house had an emergency level 5 city shield. All of them fully charged and ready to go. There would be no melting through like the level 5 super slimes. The biggest

There were 64 towers built around the city, with four cannon emplacements on each one. Each of them having a level 6 cannon, that could fire 10 shots each, that was 100 million per shot and 500 million per cannon. The total cost made me want to puke in mouth. It was 195 billion points for all the tower defenses and cannons alone.

It had been a massive investment by the Imperial Government. That was not counting all the soldiers, grinding teams, and anyone with a beam skill that had been recalled and would be manning the outer walls. The moment the upgrade started, the city shield would be activated, and I would be handling the monsters outside the walls, with skill beam support from the city.

The cannons were just there in the event of an emergency, if for some reason the shield ever went down. There was a large system communication stone at each of the towers, with people standing by at full alert from the command center where people would be monitoring the city map for any issues that might arise during the upgrade process.

That was the military command room. There was a secondary city map room, which was to solely monitor the people inside the city and observe for any suspicious. I knew Clarissa had guards rotate in and out of the monitoring position, so people didn’t complacent.

Just because a building was listed, didn’t mean we were limited to a single copy of said building. There was a lot of extra cost to have these additional buildings, but the cost was negligible. Everything was measured in the billions for expenses. Clarissa took the defense of Purgatory incredibly seriously.

Lesser versions of the city shield had been tested on various pieces of equipment. That was why we weren’t using our resonating stones that XLR8 made use of for his broadcast slash sermon. The activation of the city shield interfered with quite a bit and there had been a lot of research done into it over the years.

“I should be asking you if you are ready,” I told Clarissa. I had been working quite hard to resolve all the curse damage since my fight with the level 7 monster. It was finally resolved about twenty days ago. While I was ready, the upgrade was something that had to be scheduled and people warned away.

There was talk of having people around the city to stop any monsters from appearing, but that felt like poking the Almighty System in the eye. It was far more likely it would give out something worse, than something better or not send any monsters in a massive attack.

“Well, if we fail, then the government will probably collapse from the shock of such a major loss,” Clarissa said calmly while buttering her toast.

“Really?” I asked. If both of us didn’t die, we could rebuild.

“Yes. The amount I have spent and the back up plans is a considerable investment. If we lose here, we might as well give up or retire. At least I plan to if this goes poorly.”

“You can’t retire. Who would replace you that I trust?” I asked her.

“Samantha?” Clarissa asked me.

“She is decent as a personal assistant and running various tasks, but that is quite different from running this Empire with my complete trust. It isn’t a simple matter. Clarissa’s don’t grow on the side of the road,” I joked. She smiled and shook her head.

“Well, I am not rebuilding everything again. Not after all the work I have put in. You do it all next time,” she told me and waved her piece of toast at me. I chuckled at that, since I knew she was only partially joking about quitting.

“What do you think it will be?” I asked after a minute of enjoying our breakfast togeather.

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“What do you mean?” she asked, confused.

“The monster. We had flying worms. Then super slimes. I am thinking a Godzilla type monster. Just smash against the city walls. The upgrades have to be there for a reason,” I explained.

“Could be. Our one of those crazy cult skeleton cult monsters. I am thinking one of every kind, all rushing at the city,” she replied.

“That is horrible. But monsters haven’t really teamed up besides the tower, dungeons, or bosses. So, it is definitely something I would worry about. There are sure to be curveballs thrown out,” I muttered. Sports were on my mind, since some people wanted to start up sports leagues.

That just wouldn’t work with stats. Monster Battle Arena was a still a thing and quite entertaining. Even if no level 4 monsters were allowed after the disaster of the first time. Some cities had obstacle courses or training courses for people maneuvering monsters and best practices. Each city was trying to get an edge on the other to take over more grinding territory.

Level 3 zones were the wild west, and level 4 zones were still the frontier. That frontier was being pushed back across the level 4 zones. But the power gap was just painful to cross successfully. That was why there was a lot of hope that this upgrade would relieve the congestion issues.

It took a lot of planning to clear out the city for three days and the surrounding zone. Yesterday was the first day of clearing people out. And the next two would be enforced clearing out. Other cities were each handling a portion of our arrivals that came at the start of the deek. Everyone was warned away from being in the level 1 zone around the city and the maps were being checked.

Everyone who was supposed to leave had to leave by last night at the latest. The city was full military lockdown at the moment. It was a good thing I didn’t get stage fright, since the amount of preparations and focus on this upgrade were immense.

Unlike the level 7 monster which was just a story and impossible for a regular person to imagine the horror of, this attack would have lots of witnesses from the soldiers and selected observers on the walls. Clarissa had allowed the other eighteen cities in our Empire to volunteer a squad of their beam soldiers.

There was an unofficial competition that if they started using their skills, of which team would have the highest count. I expected there would be a lot of screaming and death. Upgrades and I had a rough history. Still, with Clarissa at the helm, I wasn’t too worried.

“Don’t die, no matter what. Everything is held togeather by you,” Clarissa said with a sigh. This had been a sore point she had been trying to correct for a long time, but it wasn’t a simple issue. It wasn’t a matter of finding someone with the right temperament to be Vice Emperor, they needed to have proven themselves by going out there and being mentally stable.

Both quantities needed to be Vice Emperor weren’t the first traits people normally had, and combined it was super rare. There were just not a lot of people who wanted to go off and face high level monsters for years on end. They were content to be sheep. But there could be only one Emperor. Urg, this was the exact reason I disliked this issue. Needing someone capable enough, but not enough to be a threat, and not die horribly in an accident.

I had hoped that the meta-point people would have satisfied the power requirement. But the people who got meta-points were all useless or insane. Perhaps it was a good thing I hadn’t gotten one yet?

“I won’t die Clarissa. Don’t worry about that. After everything, I think I can manage, even if I have to crawl my way out,” I said.

“Don’t keep pulling an Anakin,” she teased me about all the limbs I had lost over the years. Enough time had passed that, we were comfortable enough joking when it was just us two. There was zero sexual chemistry between us, possibly even a negative number. But we were incredibly good friends. You can’t trust someone as much as we did for each other and not become fast friends for life.

One joke I liked to tell was that Clarissa wore the pants in our government, since she arranged for the tax revenue to be securely brought in. Compared to what I earned in my explorations, the difference between our revenue streams was massive and hilarious.

While she did spent quite a bit on herself, she also spent a lot on the city and defenses. I wouldn’t begrudge her, her projects or revenue streams. Clarissa joked about not wanting to rebuild, but if everything got destroyed again, I might just become a permanent hermit.

Constantly rebuilding was mentally exhausting. And if we lost all the points and resources that had been put into the city so far, it would be a disaster. Beyond the loss of points, it would be a mental disaster as well. I finished up my mystery eggs and wiped my mouth with a napkin.

“Just watch, there will be a return to Earth option for one quintillion points in the store,” I told Clarissa who scoffed at that.

“Unlikely, but it would be interesting. Any last things before we part ways?” Clarissa asked me. I shook my head. I would leave the city on foot and wait outside the South gate. The Crystal Vortex had taken away key members of my personal staff, including Samantha and the children. It was packed, but they would be fine and it would be a memorable field trip and not an evacuation. Funded by the Emperor of course.

Michelle was with the airship and Captain Francis. Doctor Katz was at the city center ready to handle triage if there was a mass casualty event, which shouldn’t happen with all our preparations. Joyo was tucked away into a room, still trying to recover, but it was going poorly.

He had taken a severe mental blow. If he didn’t turn around by day 5,000, I was considering turning him into a hybrid for Michelle. He would serve even in death and make good use of all those points I had invested into him. No more attacks from his assailant, but I knew it was only a matter of time.

I shook myself to get my head in the game for the upcoming battle. This was going to be anything but simple.