Do we truly fear them that much How strong are they Randidly asked his eyebrows rising
Tykes immediately chuckled and Tatiana just looked at him with wide eyes After cracking his knuckles Tykes seated himself in one of the two wide leather couches along the wall
Randidly with all due respect Tatiana said slowly She spread her hands wide ItÆs not about strength Or at least it’s not about fighting strength This is our government If we take an antagonistic stance there are a thousand ways they could harass us and make our lives difficult They have the ability to make laws In addition military bases are a significant portion of our sales they buy some of our specialty drones in bulk Without them it will be difficult to make enough of a profit to pay the tariffs
So we donÆt pay the tariffs IsnÆt that what I said Randidly cracked his neck in irritation Of course as soon as he left Donnyton with a bitter heart he would encounter a pointless situation like this While he was away it seemed that the threat of Randidly Ghosthound meant less and less in Zone 1
If they think IÆll remain passive because I did in the past they are fools Neither of my images will allow this disrespect to go unpunished Randidly barred his teeth at his hands It wasnÆt ideal but Randidly felt like there was no point in being civil if Zone 1 was willing to rely on the heavyweight of contracts and societal pressure to bind him
Hell even if Tatiana had sold the soul of the company to the devil I would just head to hell and kill him to take it back Randidly thought darkly I acted previously to stabilize society because thatÆs what I thought I needed But now I know we need to stop playing these games and work on growing stronger If Zone 1 refuses to take the hint
IÆm not sure if you understand Tatiana tried again but Randidly waved her silent
Randidly did understand He understood that his disrespect for the rule of law on Earth was dangerous and subversive On the one hand he might be able to get away with it due to his status as the Ghosthound But if other organizations became aware of it they would wonder whether breaking those bonds of decency would be worth it
That could lead to more infighting and weakening the Earth even further What Randidly was considering now was extremely risky And yet
In his heart the heavy image of the Grim Chimera stirred just slightly Immediately Randidly released a breath and forced that part of him to relax After seeing the collapse of Tellus Randidly had no hope that he could completely maintain the stability of Earth in the face of the Calamities
Better to risk it and protect the valuable portions And to him and to the forgers of Earth Erickson Steel was extremely valuable
This is going to be hard for you to understand I actually believed your method was the better one until not long ago But now Randidly looked down at his hands once more Although Randidly was very careful not to allow his images to stir again his arms still warped into the wicked weapons of the Grim Chimera before his very eyes The air smelled like ashes and dried blood We donÆt have to play nice We are going to refuse to pay their taxes and ignore their agents
Plus if they force the issue we can always leave Randidly finished
The other two people in the room just looked at him for several seconds Finally Tykes flexed his hands with a grin plastered on his face Thank god IÆm so tired of just letting these slugs crawl all over us without doing anything about it
Sighing Tatiana asked Where will we get raw materials then Our process will grind to a halt without a constant stream of materials
Randidly sent Helen a message to keep an eye out for any sort of ore veins And if she couldnÆt get any results in a short amount of time he could just move himself to search IÆll handle it When it comes to locating things within the ground I have a fair amount of confidence Is there anything else Any other way they are messing with us
ItÆs not so much messing with us Tykes said as his lip curled upward But most of our workers get rather constant headhunter calls Most need to leave their cell phones in their locker so that they donÆt get distracted while working
Certainly Zone 1 is much closer to the way Earth used to be Randidly thought to himself Spam callers and cellphones
Then he shook his head to dislodge his idle wonderings about the dangers of technology and instead focused on the issue at hand What did he actually want to accomplish If he would only spoil the image of Earth with his interference then his focus on helping Earth could either shift into general instruction or by providing powerful materials However when Randidly saw his Paths that would enable him to instruct individuals earlier he hadnÆt felt any sort of desire
Instead Randidly found himself smiling much more widely as he imagined stealing away this entire factory and becoming an independent provider
If he didnÆt have to remain close to civilization it was better to maintain some space Randidly had absolutely no interest in creating some sort of super martial artist school to help teach the people of this world how to fight Even if all Randidly attempted to do was raise the strength of some teachers it would still be incredibly time consuming in the short term And a hassle to improve the power of these teachers without relying on images
No it was better if he could use images freely And the only way that would be safe was to isolate RandidlyÆs base of operations from the other emerging images If he ran away from taxes and tariffs at the same time well that was just a happy coincidence
I already planned on calling over some friends to apply some pressure IÆll get them to stop the calls But also How easy would it be to simply move Randidly asked
Impossible came TatianaÆs immediate answer That debt you seemed so dismissive of earlier was spent reinforcing the ground in the surrounding area so we could expand in the future It was an investment In addition weÆve done a lot of groundwork here to ensure that Erickson Steel can accomplish everything on sight Without the ability to simply lift up the land and carry it away with us Erickson Steel will lose a lot by moving
Something like that Randidly tapped his cheek There was a thing layer of stubble there he noticed He should shave soon
Randidly could forcefully pick up and move the facilities it with Mana but it would become a constant drain on his attributes Still he thought it would be rather interesting if he could manage to turn Erickson Steel into a mobile business Although Randidly didnÆt want to casually use the Skill maybe spending some time refining a Soulseed for that purpose would be for the best
Again Randidly shook his head Leave the details for later What about the employees How many people work here How willing would they be to leave Zone 1
If you got us out of here donÆt be surprised if some of the people praise you like a god Tykes muttered There would be a holiday named after you
ItÆs dramatic but Tatiana rolled her eyes and walked to the cupboard From it she removed three crystal glasses and a full bottle of liquor A finger of amber liquid was poured into each glass and then Tatiana offered one of the glasses each to Randidly and Tykes Without even thanking her Tykes took the liquid and threw back the shot
Tykes smacked his lips as he lowered his glass onto the desk with an audible clink Ahh I never get tired of that Did you get another shipment from Donnyton
Tatiana nodded and offered it to Randidly who took it curiously He held the liquid up to the light and studied the color Strangely it lightened almost to the point of appearing luminous when put beneath lights It was less amber and more a brilliant butter color
It reminded Randidly of the receptionist’s eyes
As Randidly considered the liquid Tatiana continued to speak A rough way to put it but Tykes isnÆt wrong A lot of our workers opted to switch to Erickson Steel because the government sponsored industrial complexes are poorly managed hell holes It seems that they mistakenly believed that since the System prevented illnesses there was no real need to develop sufficient sanitation facilities