The Systemic Lands

Chapter 312: Day 682 (2) – A Plan

Chapter 312: Day 682 (2) – A Plan

I had two options. The first option was to attack the Empire and the Divine Empress by extension. To weaken it and drag it down. To become a rebel and fight every moment of every day, with my life on the line to find some way to kill her.

That route was one of hardship and suffering. There was only a small chance of winning, and even that chance sounded more like wish thinking. Trying to crush an evil empire sounded great in the movies, but in reality, it was daunting. If I was stronger or matched evenly to the Divine Empress, then it feel realistic.

But one thing those movies didn’t convey was the sense of hopelessness. I could grind with the best of them, but fighting this Empire was a task of a lifetime. The only way to win was to kill the Divine Empress, which was completely impossible.

I had ideas that might get around her absurd stats, but none of them were that useful or practical if she survived that golden light explosion.

And that was the flip side. If she was dead, now would be the time to act to shatter her Empire and ensure another Empress or Emperor did not rise up in her place. It was headache inducing, with no good options.

On the other hand I could completely ignore the situation with the Divine Empress. No matter how powerful she was, she was just a single woman. There was an exponential curve to stats. In 200 days, she would earn about 18 billion points, maybe more with new cities under her control.

I could earn about 400 million points. That was about 4,000 stat points for me and about 18,000 more stat points for her if she had 180,000 stat points. I winced at those numbers. Even with the cost increase, she would still be massively out pacing me.

That was just counting her passive income from her cities. The tribute that endlessly rolled into her Forbidden City according to Bao Wang. That was the third option, steal all her crystals and then run away.

The problem was that at a certain point stealing crystals was like stealing large amounts of any kind of physical currency. Moving it would be a nightmare. Bao Wang had described how the tribute was carted to the city under guard, inspected, counted, and recorded.

It was then transferred to a massive vault to await the Divine Empress’s return to the city where she would take in all the points at once. One of the few allowed rumors, or at least tacitly approved of, was talking about how powerful and amazing the Divine Empress was.

This in turn led to talk of the tribute and everyone imagining the Divine Empress’s mega-vault that was constantly being filled with crystals. It was also a process to get everything out for her every time she returned. A massive assembly line was made to transport the crystals to the plaza so she should just stand there with her hands on a store pillar, cashing in chest after chest. That was the main time anyone besides her personal guards or her inner council actually saw her.

It was frankly ludicrous how much wealth she was accumulating. Hei Long, or Black Dragon. It truly was a fitting name for her and her massive treasure horde she kept.

It was impractical unless I killed everyone in the Forbidden City and her palace. Otherwise, there would be no way for me to cash in the crystals. Even if I did kill everyone, I would need to get people to move them all and allow me to cash them in. To make an assembly line for me.

But she was the property owner and would get an alert the moment a building was damaged. I had no doubt she would arrive, very, very quickly. Just like I would when Purgatory had been poked. If I wrecked her crystals and stole from her, I would be on her radar.

If there were 100 days of crystals stored up, that would be about 9 billion points. That was about 50,000 stat points. That was ludicrous level in terms of stat points. I was kicking myself for not going her route and oppressing everyone as slaves and making them grind crystals for me.

It really paid quite a bit to be at the top of an evil empire. I couldn’t help but smile at imagining the salary Clarissa would demand for running the entire thing. I really could use her insight.

If the Divine Empress was dead, with the way she ran her Empire, there would be no one with the steel balls to even think about stealing from her. Even Bao Wang would rather die than go against her. It just showed how beaten down everyone was under her rule.

But in the end, there was no practical way to steal that many points or even move them the short distance from her vault to the pillars. Right now, she didn’t even know about me or consider me more than a dog. If I bit her, then I would get smacked again.

I rubbed my chest. I had felt that and still felt that. Like when I had lost my arm and feet, there was something off about chest.

I walked over and untied Bao Wang, breaking the chains I had tied him up with. I could see the surprise on his face with his wide eyes and slightly open mouth. He was getting a Naran pass. A guy who was stuck in a horrible situation with no other options.

Team City Leaders was back on track, since he used to be a Third Lord of the Empire. I sat back down while Bao Wang shook out his limbs.

“You are letting me go?” he asked with a bit of surprise. He had probably accepted his death if I had to guess.

“Yes, but you are welcome to join my team with Hope here. I have the beginnings of a plan if you want to stay,” I said. It was a daring and ballsy plan. But it was the best path forward that I could figure out.

Even now I had not forgotten about the letter the Astrologer had given me. Putting a bomb inside of me. Giving me until day 999 or day 1,000 I forgot which. If I was that close to the deadline, then I was doing something wrong to begin with.

“There is no way I can go back now, after being captured. The best result would be a quick death. But anyone would wish to capture me and bring me forward to gain favor. A betrayal or failure by a Lord is not tolerated.” That was one reason I had trusted him.

He was incredibly consistent and gave horrific details when pressed. Or he was a world class actor, and I didn’t recall him from any Chinese movies. Not that I watched many Chinese movies to start with. I just didn’t believe he could be faking it all after the questioning sessions we had.

“What’s the plan?” Hope asked, sitting down. I gave her a look. “We going to topple the evil empire?” Oh, Hope, you are living up to your name.

“The first step is to get you two enough stats so you can kill level 3 monsters and possibly some skills. Four days of grinding, and four million points each. That will get you about 1,200 stat points and some health insurance.” You couldn’t forget the health insurance. It saved my life.

“Then you can work on killing level 3 monsters. While I keep grinding level 4 monsters. You both need to get your combat ability up and I need more stats.” That was the one nice thing about the Divine Empress. She didn’t give any stats to her minions. It was all her.

I had no worries about the Envoy suddenly turning up a lot stronger than he was previously. With the increasing cost of stat points, there was no way she would be willing to invest in anyone else with diminishing returns.

The fact he was second in the Empire was mind boggling to me with how many crystals she had. She just had to give a single day’s worth of crystals and he would be juiced on stat points. But she didn’t and he didn’t go behind her back.

The main worry I had was the Divine Empress herself and any traps she might have. Then there was the fact that her Capital city was level 5. The only city above level 3 in her evil empire. I was permanently demoting it from the Empire or Dragon Empire, to the evil empire for how poorly it was run.

It didn’t even deserve caps. The Divine Empress did, since she was the real threat. Her mooks and minions were nothing against me unless they pulled a Ritualist and used a trap to target me. But creativity had been crushed. So the only real traps were probably going to come from the Master Fleshcrafter, Inquisitor, or Chief Diviner.

Those were the people I had to be careful of in case they had crazy attacks. “So, no standing up to this Divine Empress?” Hope asked.

“Well, no one can stand up to her. Her stat points have reached ludicrous levels. Instead, I will get you started with some stat points, then we grind up. Around day 800 or 850, we go into her Empire and steal her treasury,” I said. Bao Wang looked like he was having a seizure with how wide his eyes went.

He muttered something in Chinese which I didn’t understand. “Really? You want to sneak-“

“Not sneak. I will confirm her absence, then a direct assault. I will raise the Forbidden City to the ground.” Then after that I would run right to the tower the Astrologer was trapped in. The only place I envisioned escaping the Divine Empress. Since the real Astrologer was inside and trapped in one apparently.

“Also, we take the vault.” I had been robbed enough times, that my plan to kill the Divine Empress was to give her a stroke from pure rage. Blow a blood vessel and just keel over. I knew that would never happen, but it was amusing to think about.

“You might have beaten me. But I have almost no stats. Her Envoy alone-“

I cut Bao Wang off again. “I have already fought the Envoy. We are evenly matched.” His mouth hung open like a fish before he slowly closed it, and he looked contemplative.

There were good reasons I was going to power level Bao Wang and Hope up. For Bao Wang, I wanted someone who could speak the language and know the procedures, where to go inside the evil empire. I considered this a way to pay his debt for all the crimes he had committed.

For Hope, she had stuck around and saved my life. I didn’t want that debt hanging over me. So, I would at least get her enough stat points she could survive and hide on her own. It would be hard, but it wouldn’t be impossible.

The tower would be the perfect place to escape to and lay low after the heist and I needed to go to the real Astrologer anyways. If I had 50,000 or so more stat points when I paid him a visit, I would feel a lot more confident about surviving any shenanigans he might try to pull. And there were going to be shenanigans, I had no doubt about that.