The Systemic Lands

Chapter 338: Day 768 (2) – High Speed Travel

Chapter 338: Day 768 (2) – High Speed Travel

I checked everything over once more including Abs clothing to make sure there was nothing hidden. I had its rod placed into the slot of my armor at the base of my spine, touching my skin. I could imagine a pet master, having rods all over their body.

“The mask and cloak, wear them.” I handed her a plain white mask. She put it on and secured it. “I won’t be able to speak once we are with other people. Any last questions or concerns?” I asked.

“Maybe later, and we need to practice to get signals down,” Fuyuka said and I nodded.

“Agreed. What is your Spirit stat?” I asked her.

“About 100, why?” I let out a sigh.

“Really?”

“We don’t use skills. My Body stat is at 1,200 right now. Why?” she asked.

“Not even for void zones?” I asked.

“Spirit helps with them?” she asked back and I let out a sigh. These rebels were clearly lacking in every way.

“Yes. Well, you can handle a bit of exposure. Do the tribes go near them?” I asked.

“They try not to, but they go where the monsters are. Only a level 3 zone would be safe from prying eyes,” Fuyuka explained to me.

“Then we will loop around to the zone you and your companions were using but on the West side. Practice there for a full day, rest up. Then go for the Forbidden City by way of the North Road from Qingdao,” I explained.

“Got it,” Fuyuka said. She was already much better than Bao Wang, not constantly complaining. I guess when you are the Butcher of Beijing serving up people patties to save a couple points, you are also not a nice person in general. It wasn’t unexpected for a person’s job to bleed over into their personality. Rather it was the exception when that wasn’t the case, at least from my experience.

But I wasn’t a people person. Another reason I didn’t want to do the speaking. “Well, at least your Body stat is high enough for this travel method. Come here,” I told her and she walked over to me. “Turn around, I am going to lift you up by your back.”

She listened to me, and I easily lifted her up with one hand. I had Abs come in close to me. “Acid Shot,” x40. I melted the cart and everything left behind. If there was some kind of tracker it could disappeared with everything else. I lifted Abs up with my other hand.

“This won’t work,” Fuyuka said and I agreed. I set them both back down and had Abs turn into a chair with hand holds on the back. I had Fuyuka sit down on Abs and picked up the stone chair. It was more that I had the human shaped body bend like it was already sitting down and the legs folded up under the rear, since I wasn’t going to take off Abs’s clothes it was wearing as a disguise.

I took off slowly at first, then quickly picking up speed once I got the hang of the new weight distribution. Fuyuka’s head was just below mine so we could talk loudly to each other while moving, but for the first part I wanted silence to watch out for other people.

We reached a section of the wall between the West and South gate. I used Air Burst to go up and over. Making sure to make the changes in acceleration as gentle as possible. I hadn’t forgotten about what happened when Naran had carried Fethee.

Naran was going to be avenged, but I hoped Fethee and Heba were okay. I didn’t really forget to ask, I just didn’t want to know. Losing Naran hurt a lot and while the other people didn’t matter as much, I didn’t want to know if they were still alive or dead.

If they showed up, then I would be happy and greet them, but for now I just needed distance. Like the distance I was rapidly putting between myself and the city. I could see people moving about killing the monsters, but I just rushed past as one big black blob.

I kept running and running towards the West. Eventually I noted the energy pushing out towards me and could feel the pressure. It was a void zone. I immediately turned South. I passed by a crack in the landscape to my right as I ran.

It was evening as we reached the next zone to the Southwest of Wuhan. It was next to a level 3 zone, so no pressure from the void and soul corrosion. The nice thing about having people kill all the monsters in the zone, meant no hassle travel.

I paused at one point so I could drink and eat something. Fuyuka stretched her legs a bit, but then I went back to running. Dawn came as we crossed into another zone, and I turned hard East. Eventually we came to a swamp and rushed through the water, lifting Abs and Fuyuka up above my head.

There were large green frogs that belched poison gas. I was able to hold Abs with one hand and kill them if I needed to. I just couldn’t run or move quickly while doing that. Things slowed down a bit, but I kept going through the swamp. Eventually we reached the mistlands. The rebel based had been to the Southeast, but we weren’t going back there.

I killed off some spotted frog monsters that took a few seconds to die and we had our new campsite. I set Abs down along with Fuyuka. I pulled off my helmet and began adjusting Abs’ clothing.

“That…that was something,” she replied.

“Hopefully that should make it impossible for anyone to follow us. I kept checking just to be sure, but we should have lost them. Rest or practice?” I asked her.

“Sleep,” she said.

“Alright, you first, then I will wake you up in 8 hours and get some sleep while you keep watch. After that we can practice, get more sleep, practice again, and then after one final rest we can head for the Forbidden City,” I replied.

“If someone is tracking us, that will give them time to catch up,” Fuyuka said.

“Maybe, but one of us will be awake at all times.” She gave me a nod and lay down on the ground and was quickly asleep. I guess being a rebel you learned to sleep wherever and whenever you could.

I sat down on the ground and had Abs sit across from me. I began carefully working on the face. Everything needed to look as perfect as possible. The biggest issue was the lack of reflection in the eyes, they were dead.

Also, the lack of facial movement. That would be another big problem. Even if people were terrified of the Divine Empress, they would look for facial movement. I had the Divine Empress alternate from look annoyed with a slight frown to looking pissed.

The facial movements weren’t working at all. That was a big problem since I needed it to look realistic. I couldn’t even move the eyes or anything. She was just stone faced. Well, that was what she really was. Like a block that had been masterfully painted. Anything you would expect from a person’s face just wasn’t there.

While the Almighty System allowed a lot of power with stats, it didn’t give people perfect control over their bodies. They could use more or less force on an object, and have time slowed down with a high Mind stat, but one didn’t suddenly have very precise control. That was why Abs looked completely unnatural.

I kept experimenting, trying to transition between facial states, but the rock shifting wasn’t like human muscle. It was like the golems from the tower. After an hour of frustration, I gave up. I went back to perfecting the face, ears, hair, and everything else.

The face and clothing combined were decent, but they weren’t good. If it was me, I would know something was wrong. The wound helped sell it. I had seen enough blood and dried blood to get the coloration and scabbing correct.

Once I felt I couldn’t do anymore, I had Abs stand up and I removed its outer layer of clothing. I then had it move about. Working and varying its gait. The hands were something I hadn’t done yet, so I brought out the rock stubs and carefully got to work, focusing through the rod to make them as perfect as possible.

I had almost made the sleeves longer, but I didn’t want to risk altering the outfit in any way. Once I got the hands and wrists done. I had Abs move them about. The main thing would be having it put the hands on top of the store pillar.

I practiced the motion of moving the hands from behind and putting them on an imaginary pillar or pointing at something. That would be the sign to kill that person horribly with melting. I would be telling myself, or Fuyuka would clue me in, but that would be the Divine Empress’s way of signaling to kill a person.

It would require come more practice, but the movements were coming along nicely when Fuyuka woke up. The fact that everything changing shape was hidden beneath clothing was the key. I had to make the Divine Empress’s hand match what I needed when I removed them from the sleeves behind her back. I wouldn’t be able to do any adjustments while they were in front of her.

“It still looks…questionable?” Fuyuka said and looked at me.

“It is flat and doesn’t look alive. That is as good as it is going to get,” I replied and I had Abs gesture. Put its hands behind its back and do another gesture. I then had it move about. “What do you think?”

“It would only fool an idiot or coward. Hopefully neither are in short supply,” Fuyuka said.

“That is why we need to have a kill message. You think someone is about to cause an issue, say something about them and I will have the Divine Empress point, then I will kill them. Just murder our way through people until they stop asking questions.”

“If this works, I am never believing in human intelligence ever again,” Fuyuka muttered. “Fine. We can try it that way. Let’s go through the phrases I want to use. I gave it a lot of thought on the run over.”

She began listing off phrases. I noted they were different than what Bao Wang had used and brought this up.

“There are different ways to say things just like in English. Those sayings may have worked for him, but these are the ones and phrases I am comfortable using, and understanding their social implications. Also I have heard them used in the Empire before, so I wouldn’t worry too much.” I nodded at this.

Like English, there were many words for the same thing in Chinese, but the context and general use of these words mattered. That was why I went with what Fuyuka felt comfortable with and not what Bao Wang would be using.

It was a headache relearning things but we had the time now and the heist was right around the corner. I insisted that she make her phrases separate and clear as a stand-alone thing she would say. Otherwise, there was too big a risk I would misunderstand or not pick them up.

Everything was slowly coming together despite the countless setbacks.