The Gamer Chapter 1079 – Final Grind of the Year 9 – Control and Setup (Patreon)

“Why haven’t you fired this Decker guy yet?” Momo asked.

Decker was Fusion’s current minister for administrative affairs. Essentially, he was in charge of the office that checked on the other offices. They made sure they communicated with each other using the proper channels, archived the minutes from council meetings, and looked at claims of misdemeanours or corruption.

Which, in turn, made it the first place anyone corrupt wanted to work in, especially if they were civil servants. Because they were in charge of archiving things relating to offices, they were also, in traditional governments, number one when it came to mysteriously losing files that probably would have made them look bad.

Fusion, as a new government, had the advantage of not yet being burdened by thousands of little loopholes that people discovered or created. Archiving was done in one strict, highly efficient way and because this was a modern administration, they had everything saved in at least two different ways, as physical print and as a file. Both ways were then duplicated too, one print remaining in the office that had produced it and one going to the administrative affairs. For the files, they were saved not only in the two offices, but also in a central Fusion server that nobody but the ministers had access to and from which deleting things was impossible if one’s last name wasn’t Thorne.

Finally, everything the administrative affairs themselves did was also sent to the chancellor’s office. Because that position was always picked by John, he hoped that the oversight was either threatening or effective enough to prevent any widespread corruption. Under Aclysia, it had definitely been the former. Even if she hadn’t been cut out for the job at large, when it came to routing out people that would stain her Master’s nation building project, she had been incredibly effective. Her reputation did the rest. Under Momo, he expected it to be more of the latter, which was the generally preferable method. There was a place for fear in deterrence, but that fear should be of the punishment itself, not of the person bringing it.

Momo, starting to familiarize herself with the internal workings of Fusion and her job specifically, was currently reading through those shared files on one of the laptops John had brought into the barrier. Specifically, she was reading the minutes of the previous meetings. Even from the summary, she must have gotten the sense of the minister’s duplicity and minor incompetence.

“Because he is working well enough,” John responded, only to sigh and give the honest answer when Momo stared at him, “because I haven’t found a good reason to fire him yet.”

“Have you tried: ‘You suck, get out’?”

“I did that for the last three ministers I fired and the press had a field day by the end of it,” John explained to her. “’John Newman unable to tolerate pushback in his cabinet,’ they said.” Groaning, with his head lying on Undine’s incredibly comfortable slime-thighs, he added, “Of course they would have written about the incompetence of my ministers instead, had I let things stand. Doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t. Damn smear merchants.”

“Boo-hoo, people are always looking for ineffective elements in my governance, pressuring me to correct them.” Momo made a mocking crying sound. Suddenly, she dropped the act and leaned back. “That’s you.”

“We’ll see how much of that attitude you retain after they snapped at your heels for several months.”

“I’ll just not care. Isn’t the whole beauty of your system that you and I can just do our job, and if the press finds something that’s actually a problem, the people will vote in enough people to actually pressure us?”

“I like to be a bit closer to the pulse of the nation…”

“I think you like it if you ARE the pulse of the nation.”

John let out a long sigh. She wasn’t necessarily wrong, but it also wasn’t what he wanted to hear. ‘Which is why it’s so great to have her around,’ he reminded himself and then tossed back some good-willed banter. “Didn’t realize I had invited one of the smear merchants into my house.”

“I’d much rather keep chronicling the dead than the living,” Momo said and scrolled further down the document. “My opinion on current affairs in general is that the truth will take at least 10 years to be fully revealed. Anyway, if you aren’t balls enough to do it, can I fire him?”

“That is within your invested powers, yes.” John’s response was relaxed. Undine had started playing with his short hair. While there was currently nobody working his dick, that sensation was almost as nice. “Just be aware that the press isn’t the only thing that will bother you if you switch out cabinet members too much. You might find that nobody wants to work for you.”

“Uh-huh…” Momo stopped scrolling down the laptop for a moment to ponder. “I’ll deal with that one way or another. We don’t have to appoint politicians, so I may be able to grab some competent folks off Scarlett’s shareholder meetings.” She hunched over forwards again, looking at the laptop on the low table between the arms of the couch and armchair formation that mimicked the Harem Couch at home. After about a minute of peaceful quiet, she remarked, “Can you put some words over my office door, by the way?”

“Depends on the words,” the Gamer hummed, eyes closed and scalp getting massaged by the tender, lukewarm hands of the slime girl. “If you want it to say ‘My boss is a giant perverted asshole and he should die’, I wouldn’t allow that. The optics would cause too much confusion.”

“Almost.” Momo’s response was as dry as the back and forth of their banter was quick. “I was thinking, ‘If the truth shall kill them, let them die’.”

“Immanuel Kant,” John recognized the quote.

“You like that one a lot, don’t you?” the fairy support asked.

“Difficult to say. I like his maxims as an idea on how to live, but I haven’t read enough of his entire body of work to make a definitive statement on whether or not I like his philosophical body of work.”

“You’re such a nerd,” she told him. That made John raise his head from its comfy resting place and give the newly appointed chancellor a judgemental stare. “Yes,” she continued quicker than he could fire back, “it is very comfortable in my glass house.”

“Well, as long as we are clear on that,” John hummed and put his head back down. “Do you want to add anything, Undine?” Accompanying that question was the return of the gentle massaging of his scalp.

The slime girl hummed, a melodic sound that preceded the singing vibrations of her answer, “I love you two.”

That was so simple and honest that John was at a loss for words. All he knew to do was smile, tap his heels on the couch in joy and reach up to caress Undine’s face. Elsewhere in the room, Momo was hiding hers behind her hands. Most likely, she was blushing furiously. After about thirty seconds, normalcy returned to the room and with it came a comfortable quiet.

There was random music in the background. A country song, part of the harem’s gathered playlist of songs. It was dominated by techno, because Rave was more motivated to keep track of the thing than most others, but the other girls and John still threw stuff in there. As the order was always randomized, any given day had a mix of various genres.

Undine hummed along that song and Momo made notes on the laptop. By using Fusion’s communication software, she could access them again on whatever other device that had the application installed and access to the internet. Technology made life more convenient in many small and large ways.

John considered whether he wanted to try and start another conversation, just enjoy the calm while he had it, or break the quiet entirely by fucking Undine. Before he could come to a definitive resolution on any of that, he felt something all around him click. As if someone had suddenly switched out the levels of humidity to something else, just on a magical level, all around was the same but subtly different. It was a sensation he was distantly familiar with, but didn’t experience too often. Neither Momo nor Undine had felt it, they lacked the necessary proficiency, and they quizzically hummed when he got up.

“Lee just handed control of the barrier over to Magoi,” John explained, out loud to the two women present and mentally to everyone else. While the three of them got ready, the sounds of battle outside ceased.

Soon, they headed out. The entire harem gathered around John as he walked over to the tower Magoi and his family used as their base of operations. The High Fateweaver and his daughter were already waiting for them about halfway. Magoi was in his usual get-up, raptor skull and all, while Lee stood slumped, head slightly tilted and eyelids partly closed.

“You feel the changes?” Magoi asked, when John was close enough.

“You say that like they are still going on,” the Gamer scratched the back of his head, “in which case: no, I’m not. I did feel the passing of control though.”

“Interesting.” Magoi rubbed the chin of his mask, his metallically distorted voice sounding upbeat as he continued, “I’m preparing the intermediary barriers. It’s a bit involved to create them in a barrier that wasn’t originally made with them in mind. Give me about thirty minutes.”

“Is the time dilation already changed?” John asked, while heading towards Lee, and the High Fateweaver nodded. “Fantastic, three minutes lost aren’t that bad.” He put an arm around the dark-haired woman and softly whispered to her, “Let’s tuck you in, you seem exhausted.”

“Mentally drained is more accurate,” Lee mumbled, her voice almost missing any sort of intonation.

John looked to Magoi, who turned away with an approving nod, “You got a handle on things. I’ll set everything up.”

“Alright.” the Gamer nodded with a smile. It was a nice feeling, to care for one of his girls, but it was even better to do it while having the approval of a friend and father. Magoi trusted him with the wellbeing of his daughter. John was not about to fail him.

Directing Lee towards the house was a fairly easy task. Her body was in prime shape, some minor soreness from the martial arts training put aside. It was her mana circuits that had been pushed to the brink of collapse from constant use, her mind was a secondary victim of this – as was often the case with any kind of exhausting activity.

Once they were back indoors, John moved Lee towards the bed. “Want me to stay until you fall asleep?” he asked, while helping her undress.

“Yes,” Lee responded, and he laid down next to her. It was warm enough that they didn’t need more than a thin blanket, existing more for the comfort of habit than heat regulation. Hugging her from behind, John held her until her breathing turned slow and relaxed. Once he was certain she was in the land of dreams, he kissed her hair and slowly wiggled his way out.

The rest of the harem was waiting for him outside.

“Fair warning, she is probably going to be really horny when she wakes up,” the Gamer told them, after he had closed the apartment door behind himself. For reasons of concentration, Lee had been part of less and less of the sexual engagements as the days continued, not having partaken in any today. For a regular person, a day without sex wouldn’t have been a big deal (it was completely normal, realistically speaking). In the harem, it meant that she was going to be needy. Unless someone simply felt like it or they were asked to put on a show, there was no reason for any one of them to deal with that by themselves.

“I will satisfy her and my own urges,” Nathalia essentially called dibs. It was virtually guaranteed that any sex would evolve into a larger orgy though, provided enough harem members were around. John and his familiars were about to leave, but Rave, Scarlet, Eliana, Metra, Nathalia and Nia would stay alongside Lee. Plus, they would come back a couple of times to take breaks between Assaults.

“I’m sure you will,” John just answered and went through the series of kisses and hugs that was the regular goodbye when it came to his loves. He took everyone that would accompany him during the grinding session further out in the field, while those that could not partake went back to training, work or relaxation.

Because John wanted to start this grinding session by going through a several day long Assault, not even Nia, who was close enough in level to partake in a Raid without causing a malus, could join him.

“What is our strategy, Master?” Aclysia asked.

The Gamer wasn’t convinced she actually needed the reminder. Commonly, Aclysia asked him about topics just to hear him talk about something. Because he liked to explain things to her and because he had nothing else to do with his mouth, he obliged anyway. “Like always when it comes to Assaults, we have six different choices: City Elementals, Ferals, Forest Elementals, Ogres, Orcs, and Undead. They should be about the same in difficulty, but there is no way to balance things perfectly while still mixing things up enough to make them different. If we’re going to be in there for several days, any minor bit of safety and efficiency we can extract from the setting will have intense rippling effects. So, we’re doing an hour Assault of each of those six, to check out basic enemies, bosses, other enemies, and whatever special mechanics the Assault may have. Afterwards, we pick the one we fared the best in and I take the Court Dust.”

“And I get to test these new powers out in proper practice,” Momo added.