The Systemic Lands - Chapter 632: Day 5,160 – Return To Purgatory

I was lying down on the bridge of the airship as it flew towards Purgatory. The city had taken down the shield, but there were a lot of remaining problems to sort through. Thankfully the vast majority of people survived. The bad news was that the city was submerged, partially underground.

There had been some debate about if I should go back and if it should remain the capital. I had made an executive decision, that both were going to happen. It was a symbol of perseverance at this point. After fighting for so long I wasn’t about to retreat or give up ground.

In other good news the monsters had been reappearing and the cities that had been destroyed were resetting themselves. Clarissa had dispatched large contingents of soldiers to bring the cities back under control and grinders were moving back East. We had also reestablished contact with the East Bastion, which almost went independent but quickly reversed course once they got word that I was alive.

That was what my presence meant. The threat of internal rebellion was nearly non-existent. Martial law had ended as well, which made people happy, and the obvious threat was no longer present. “Rebuilding is going to be a nightmare,” Clarissa muttered as we got closer to our destination.

“You mean, since the city has sunk into the ground?” I asked.

“It is a mess. But you just need to focus on getting better,” Clarissa said while staring at me. I nodded and got back to focusing on my stats. I needed to get my health issues fixed as soon as possible.

“There, you can see the depression. The surrounding roads have reset, but now there is a giant hole,” Clarissa pointed out.

“At least the store is working,” I said.

“Small mercies, but beyond that, it is a mess. Shipping in taxes and having people move through is going to be a nightmare. As well as security. Going to need to build a road around the city, since the terrain just goes straight up outside the walls,” Clarissa said.

“Well, the outside towers, seem to almost reach up to ground level,” I said while looking out over the city.

“There is no store option to increase their height. We will need to build airship ports around the outside and then drawbridges most likely. Cranes can be set up above the towers to lower in crystals and other people who don’t want to make the walk. But there is a reason people don’t build vertical cities,” Clarissa said.

“It adds character,” I replied, and she turned to glare at me. I gave her a cheeky grin and she rolled her eyes.

“It does add character. Too much character and the headache to go along with it. We are actually going to have to construct stuff now. The worst part is defense. We are completely exposed at this lower elevation,” Clarissa said.

“About ten stories?” I asked.

“Yes. That’s about how far down the city has sunk. If we want buildings that high, we are looking at around 10.1 billion points per building.” That came from the increasing cost per floor. The sixth floor was only 25 million points. The seventh floor was a billion, and the price scaled up a billion per floor after that. That meant that building the tenth floor, cost 4 billion points.

“Trillions,” I replied, and Clarissa nodded.

“A couple trillion for the inner city. For everything, we are talking quadrillions of points. So, it just isn’t feasible to build everything up to ground level. Airship ports are cheaper options, since they are just towers with pre-built elevators. Saves a lot of expense,” she explained.

“So very long term,” I said.

“Yes. And even then, it will probably become a status thing in the future. People will build upwards. With the center of the city being the tallest. Good news, is that getting things to six floors tall, is nowhere near as bad as paying for floors beyond that,” Clarissa said.

As the airship descended we both looked out over the city. It was a giant pit. Instead of Purgatory, it could be Pitgatory. I didn’t like the angle the edge of the cliffs would have on the inner city. We would need to build upwards quite a bit with the buildings being used as an interior wall.

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“The interior wall is a priority?” I asked.

“That kind of long-range attack? Not simple. Airships already have high ground and soldiers will be patrolling. It would be easier to have an airship for any kind of attack,” Clarissa said and I considered that. It would be easier to attack via airship. And attacking places wasn’t useful. It was about attacking the strongest individuals or the administration.

While the administration would be kind of vulnerable, I had no doubt that Clarissa would have her command staff in a bunker under the city. Making it even harder to take out compared to the tops of the buildings. Also, no security was worthwhile without intelligence backing it up. At the end of the day, my presence was more than enough security for the entire capital.

Even if there was a crazy person who threatened things, they would never reach my heights. The sphere might have had some intelligence, but it was in a class of its own. I wasn’t sure what class to put it in. Jacob had been investigating into what is was doing, but he had yet to produce any results or a plan of action. Things also seemed to be recovering from the sphere’s wave of energy as well.

“How are the people?” I asked. It wasn’t my priority, but the fact they had lived at all was impressive and heartwarming. I had saved lives for once. It made the sacrifices I had suffered a bit more bearable.

“Tired, afraid, but alive. No arrivals while the shield was up, and the populace has had things quite rough. The loss of the camps, friends, and other cities is the hardest part. But people are a bit numb after losing Earth,” Clarissa said.

“The suicide rate will spike?” I asked. That was one of the metrics Clarissa used to track public health. How many people publicly killed themselves. Since corpses disappeared, it was hard to say they killed themselves unless they did it publicly. Even getting a death rate was fairly difficult and that had shot through the roof with recent events.

But that data would be recorded and saved. There would be a spike, but it would be left in the data. There would be no coverups in my Empire. It was hard enough to keep track of what was happening without making things up.

“Maybe, but I don’t expect it to go up much. Most people stabilize with the introductory program or wash out there.” Clarissa said. There was separate tracking for new arrivals. I was more concerned about the people who had been here much longer.

“That’s good. And the children?” I asked.

“All fine. Thinking about lowering the age they can go out?” Clarissa asked me and I shook my head.

“Fourteen years old is pushing it, in both directions. We can’t have useless people doing nothing for a long period of time enjoying government charity. But any younger and there would be maturity concerns. Also, the social risk as well,” I said. While slavery was outlawed, where there was any kind of social structure with finite there was inequality.

The airship circled around the inner city so we got a good look at the surroundings. “The outer dirt walls. They are holding up?” I asked.

“Remarkably well. But, we will be building roads and cutting out pieces of building to shore them up. The problem is that the shield curves like a bubble. It isn’t straight up and down. If we build up and activate the shield, there could be gaps created by building vertically,” Clarissa said.

“With the tests we have run?” I asked.

“It is possible. Not saying it is likely to happen, but it is possible. It is one way, but if there is a large summon in place, and something moves through on the inside,” Clarissa suggested. That was disgusting, but it was a way to break a shield.

“Wouldn’t a summon be disrupted?” I asked.

“They are interfered with, but the end result isn’t perfect,” Clarissa replied. I really needed to stay on top of the research more, since I was clearly missing things. “It is a minor thing, but now that the city is a pit, something we have to consider.”

“Well, you have my full authority to take charge however you need to. I am guessing I need to put in an appearance?” I asked.

“A roof seat is more than enough to be seen and people know you are alive. Even if you were injured, it shouldn’t hurt your image,” Clarissa replied. I waved my left hand at that.

“It doesn’t matter. Well, it does, but better to try and not hide that I took a beating like we discussed. We can’t have people mistrusting what we do. Rather endure a bit of hassle now and get people to go along with martial law and stuff like that later on,” I replied, thinking through the situation.

This place was miserable enough without me making it worse for people. I wouldn’t sugar coat things, but I wouldn’t outright lie either. At least the city hadn’t burned down under the shield. “Did XLR8 keep things togeather?” I asked.

“Both him and Commander Carlson who I left in charge. They managed things decently enough. What about your church. I notice you have dropped the Almighty from the Almighty System,” she said.

“I don’t know. If there are multiple stages of grief are there multiple stages of religion?” I asked.

“Maybe? Going to have a schism now?” she asked. I shook my head.

“No. But, I am annoyed. But that is the concept of fairness. For all we know the System is fighting some supernatural war or something. But it has issues. That much has been revealed.” I was quite unhappy with everything, but it was like screaming against the sky hoping to change the weather. It was futile, but it made a person feel a bit better.

I was kind of hoping the System would show up and explain or smite me, or anything really. Instead it seemed to be going back to normal based on all the reports I had seen so far. But the veil had been lifted from my eyes now.