Dark Fate, Chapter 188 (Patreon)

Chapter 188 – Stories

“Well, given my track record, I can’t exactly complain that people would suspect me of wanting to seduce any attractive woman that came across my path. But the truth is I am a bit more selective than that. Especially with high-profile individuals.”

Leader Oh smirked in that ‘just humoring you’ kind of way. “Oh, how so?”

“Well, my actions in the early days of the Apocalypse were all about securing my position, and getting a solid base to build off of, but even then I was mostly just picking up opportunities that fell in my lap. I won one of my party members and the core of my household staff from another Slave Master who foolishly challenged me, since I had someone that he wanted. Another accepted being mine in return for being released from where the goblins had bound her, and were preparing to breed her.”

“Ugh. The only good thing about those little green menaces is that they have been a good source of levels for our troops, and they usually have supplies that can be raided from the dungeons that house them. Makes it easier to keep everyone well-fed, at least.”

“Yes, dungeon goblins are certainly good for that. They may be stronger and smarter than their ‘wild’ brethren, but they’re more useful, and less dangerous, overall.”

“Less dangerous? I know you heavily ‘suggested’ we wipe out all wild goblin tribes in the area, but you never mentioned why.”

I chuckled. “Because wild goblins have a nasty little quirk in their biology, which they lose once they become part of a dungeon, in favor of that increased power. You see, wild goblins are almost always born male. Without a dungeon to manage their numbers, they seek out any breedable hole, and proceed to make use of it. Unfortunately, this not only impregnates the poor woman, but, if she isn’t a higher tier than they are, infects her with what is effectively a curse or magical STD, that changes her into a goblin and binds her to the tribe.”

Leader Oh spat out a word that could only be some form of curse, and said, “Can this change be stopped, or reversed?”

“Healers above a certain level can manage it, if they get to the woman in time. However, past a certain point, it is best to just kill the girl, rather than letting her go through the rest of the change. Much like how, in the movies, someone bitten by a zombie would have a friend shoot them in the head before they could turn.”

“Well, that is something, at least. Still, I will have to increase patrols through the mountains, just in case. Don’t want any of those beasts getting too strong a foothold.”

“Quite,” I nodded. It was the only rational response to hearing what wild goblins were capable of, after all. “Turning the conversation to more pleasant things, you mentioned you were an attack helicopter pilot before the System came online. How does one go from flying to becoming the new leader? I’ll admit I was a little busy with my own affairs, at the time, so by the time I was paying attention to foreign nations, you were already in charge.”

Oh laughed, clearly glad to get off that topic. “Well, I was distantly related to the old Leader. Third cousin, on his mother’s side, to be specific. Close enough that I could still get some influence, but not so close that I was a threat to anyone. It at least allowed me to be in command of my squadron, before the System. Never would have gone past that, if things hadn’t changed.”

“What happened?”

“Most of the higher-ups outside the military died,” she said, simply. “Even in the military, there were a bunch of deaths as people who were too important to listen to what enlisted soldiers said wound up getting killed by monsters, or ‘fell down the stairs and landed on their knife fifteen times’ when they started issuing stupid orders. A lot of the bloat at the top was wiped away by their own incompetence. Not unlike how the Americans got new leadership due to people’s stupidity resolving itself for everyone else’s benefit.”

“True, that seemed to be a running theme, everywhere you looked. Stupid people became object lessons on why this new world needed to be treated with respect, or it would absolutely kill you.”

“Exactly. At any rate, as the senior surviving commander for the capital, I was in charge of the defense when monsters started attacking. And the soldiers under my command pushed them out and kept them out. Since I was also the senior surviving member of the old leader’s family, the bureaucrats that still lived put me in, hoping I’d be a figurehead.”

“I’m sure that they were less than pleased with how you decided not to be their puppet on a string.”

The Leader just shrugged. “Those officials who had ‘accidents’ recently weren’t the first to find themselves suddenly in harm’s way. I did what I had to do to keep control. Just like you did here.”

I smiled back at her. “Do the deed yourself on any of them?”

She smirked. “A couple. They didn’t think they had anything to fear from a woman, after all. Let their guards down. Went with poison in the drinks for most. They were still low level, so it went quick. Unless you have specialized skills, it is a lot harder to get a clean kill with the System in place. Balances out in that it is harder for someone to put you on the receiving end. The one time I had to do knife work, it was a bit disturbing how long it took them to die, even with their throat slit.”

“Ah, yes. Without special skills, the best you could have done to them in one hit would be for the knife to give them a few stacking debuffs. Where before they would have at least lost consciousness due to blood loss fairly quickly, and dead soon after, you need to make more than one attack to ensure they die before any natural regeneration or emergency skills can save them. Or just someone coming by and casting a healing spell.”

“Sounds like you did some personal killing, too, other than just fighting monsters in dungeons or out in the world, like your official bio states.”

“First night after the Apocalypse, that fellow Slave Master I mentioned? He thought that his being a Rogue, with some assassin skills, meant he could take a ‘spellcaster’ like me, especially since I was wearing my human face at the time. But, even back then, I was tougher than I looked, and all his blades did was ruin my shirt.”

I took a breath, and then said, “Let the little punk take a few more swings, just to show him how powerless he was, before I got behind him, and slashed his throat. Did it proper, too. Stab in from the side and rip forward, to make sure you get the arteries and the airway. Then I slit his belly and dropped his intestines on the floor, just to be sure. I was only level 5 at the time, so I didn’t have quite the overpowered abilities I do now.”

“But still overpowered enough that you were level 5 before the first day was over with.”

I shrugged. “Knowing the immediate future meant that I knew where some of the danger spots were. More importantly, I didn’t have to spend time learning how my new abilities worked, and could, instead, move straight to fighting. Which helped me in taking down a dungeon that day.”

“And from there, you found a way to build up all of this. An impressive achievement, even with knowing what would happen before it did. Though your interviews said that in a past world you’d been a warlord. Why not try the same thing, and take over the US?”

“Because that would have required me to spill oceans of blood to pull off. Without the pirates destabilizing everything, I couldn’t just take over without killing enough people myself to topple governments. And, up until I became a Demon King, I was just really good at withstanding damage, not invulnerable to those below my Tier. If I moved too quickly, then I’d be dodging more bullets than I could safely handle. Even if I was more powerful, quantity has a quality all its own.”

“So, why Ceres, instead of the Moon, or Mars?”

“The Moon was far too close, and yet far enough that people could try and retaliate against me without too much backlash. Some idiot would have considered whether they could launch ICBMs at a lunar base, and take the whole thing out. Putting myself in the Asteroid belt made any counterattack much harder to pull off, as evidenced by how the assassins from people upset with my actions in the Middle East have constantly failed to do more than provide me with entertainment.”

I paused, and then said, “As for Mars? Well, in the previous timeline, I’d been too concerned with things on Earth to find out anything about what was going on up on the red planet. So, I had no advance knowledge, except for the fact that magic is influenced by people’s beliefs, which is why so many of the monsters in the post-Apocalypse world look like something out of various cultures’ mythology and fables.”

“Ah. And the very tamest books about Mars, excluding science fiction stories that tried to be realistic, like the Martian, are all about alien civilizations that may or may not be hostile.”

“Yeah. If it was something like half-naked women and green monsters, like the John Carter books, then that’d be fine. Hell, the walkers of War of the Worlds would probably give good XP for my pilots. But I really, really, really did not want to find out what happened if someone accidentally brought the Doom games to life. Especially since I know first-hand that demons are real.”

Oh blinked, and then nodded slowly. “Yes, I can see why demonic invasions from portals into hell itself might be problematic, and why you would take special care not to set off such things. Do you think this is something that others will need to worry about, moving forward?”

“I hope not, but we won’t actually know about that until someone actually goes and puts bases on Mars. However, by the time someone gets around to doing that, I fully intend to have enough ships and weapons to take care of the problem myself, if needs be. Even if it means we need to add a second asteroid belt where Mars currently sits.”

“With most people, I’d be saying they were either lying, or engaging in hyperbole. Your record suggests that you’re telling the truth.”

“Rule 40 on the Evil Overlord List: I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.” I snickered at the thought of some of the other things on that list. “Not everything on that list applies directly, any more, like padding the size of files that are crucially important to 1.45 megabytes, which was just too much for a 3.5” floppy disk to hold, but most of it is nice, general advice, and, like the general advice in the Art of War, can be used as the basis for proper planning even today.”

“So, was it the Art of War that got you the reputation for seducing diplomats?”

“No, I earned that the fun way. Well, I seduced the Japanese Ambassador before she was even named the Japanese Ambassador to Ceres. It was part of the reason they gave her the job, actually. Easier to maintain friendly relations when you have ‘friendly relations’ already.”

“And the others?”

“The Chinese Ambassador was ordered by her government to try and honeytrap me. A stupid idea, born out of older and ‘wiser’ types thinking that political blackmail could play the same here on Ceres as it does on Earth. The only way there would be a ‘sex scandal’ in my regime is if someone took a free person against their will. And they gave up any claim to that when they tried spiking my drink with aphrodisiacs.

“Those were the big two, but there have been others, naturally. Minor functionaries who tried to use seduction to try and get their voices heard a bit more clearly. I played along with most of them, and the uncut videos which found their way online only served to heighten my popularity with the people of Ceres, since the type of people who came here aren’t typically the types who approve of the political games back on Earth. They want the simpler, wilder life here in space.”

“I see. Then, I guess we ought to move on to the next topic. Ambassador Hwang said that you were amenable to arms sales, within certain limits. Being a pilot, myself, I have to know whether there is any chance that North Korea could get some of those ‘Hunters’? Your Renegades also look like they could fill the role of an attack helicopter, as well.”