164 My Unexpected Counter Move
We didn’t even have such a strong system inside our ranks before the apocalypse started. At the time every single race was competing to assign a new paragon and take control over this new world, we humans were struggling to survive!
This couldn’t continue! I had to do something about that!
For a moment there I was tempted to use the second heroic calling to send a message to all survivors. But what would I say to them?
I lacked the simplest strategy or even a plan to tell them about. In addition to that, there was no other way to contact other humans after I used that heroic calling!
Those races seemed to have their own network of communication. Such a thing was a must in the apocalypse. But I never heard about this before.
Even in my time when there were three kingdoms and three mighty kings and queens, there was no such a thing.
So the first thing I must seek for was to establish such a net. Without it, any plan would fail no matter how perfect it was.
But how could I establish such a thing? For a second there I turned towards the direction of Wryly. I thought about asking him, or even the paragon behind him about this.
Yet I didn’t. I stopped myself from turning into a clown here. Who would be in his right mind to give such a secret to his rival in this apocalypse?
We might be considered allies, on the same page temporarily. But later on things would turn uglier.
For example take Fang who has been working with me all the way since the fight at Jersey city… That dude never mentioned to me anything about this.
Didn’t he have a chance to do so? Of course he had! In fact I started to doubt the source of humans he brought onto the table for the mega gate deal.
He wouldn’t have enough cities under his flag yet. So how come he agreed to give me five camps for each mega gate? He must have thought about the same thing the paragon behind Wryly did.
But unlike Fang, Wryly was pure hearted enough to tell me everything about the source of humans. He could simply have lied to me, just like what Fang did.
Yet I wasn’t that made from Fang. We weren’t real buddies at all. We were just enemies who happened to share the same goals for this period of time.
And just like Fang lied to me and hid such valuable intel from me, I’d repay his kindness and focus more with the Berserkers.
That mega gate was going to fall in the hands of Wryly and his paragon. And if Fang became dissatisfied, he could find himself a sturdy rock and slam his head over it.
[Who told you about that?]
Just as I made up my mind and controlled my ragged emotions, that lady finally made up her mind as well and returned my message with that question.
[Surprised?] It seemed like she didn’t tell me before about this on purpose. Of course she thought highly of the bones I had. Telling me that her impact was dealing with humans was something risky enough to jeopardise our deals.
But who said I wouldn’t find a solution even for such a cancerous problem?
On one side, the jumper was still cursing, swearing on his honour that he would go and slay all the races in all the cities he had. And on the other side, that lady answered with small words unlike her nature. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
[Indeed. Who told you?]
[What? Is it a secret I shouldn’t know about?]
[It’s just surprising]
[Drop the act then] I went directly to the real deal, [I want to strike a deal with you]
[Human trading deal I guess?]
[Wrong!] Despite what she guessed was really flashing in mind when I contacted her, I now had a totally different point of view. [Do you know the races who are buying my humans?]
[Sure, but I need to warn you that I can’t break my relations with them!]
Of course a money beggar like your impacts wouldn’t risk losing such a profit. [I don’t want that, I only wanted to buy their races]
[Buy what?!!]
[As they turned my human race into such a trade business, it’s only fair to turn theirs into such a trade as well. Can you do it?]
[This…] she paused for long minutes, [How much are we talking about here?]
[You know the currency I use] I turned around as my warriors brought over the last batch of elites from the last battle, [Those races must be sharing in ongoing apocalypses just like here]
[But…]
I didn’t even read her message as I instantly sent another one:
[Don’t fool with me. The universe is so vast and I know there are dozens of ongoing apocalypses all over the universe. Those races will be somewhere fighting like my race. Like they did, I also want to set up a bounty quest over their heads. Bring me their race as slaves and I’ll pay in return with my bones]
This idea just popped up in my mind when I revised what Wryly told me before. He didn’t say one or couple of impacts, but many impacts were working in this trade.
Thinking that I’d be able to shut down such trade depending on myself or even the Bringold impact was an illusion. The only way to do it was to have a massive organisation expanding to each corner of the world.
Other than this, what else could I do? Of course taking revenge!
If they asked for such a war with my race, then I’d simply answer it in such an unexpected , brutal and also fair way.
[May I ask what you need them for?]
[The same purposes those races are acquiring my people for] I sent such a vague answer which was in fact a lie.
[How many do you need then?] After a long ten minutes of waiting, she finally conceded.