Chapter 281: Bureaucracy (Patreon)

“You there! What do you think you’re doing?” The voice of a man pierced through the renewed silence of the Underlayer once the sounds of combat faded. The man seemed to be the leader of a little group that had spectated as Coop fought. Coop watched them from his peripheral vision, still undecided on how to interact with their unusual posturing.

“This is a restricted area, and you are not a registered actor! Why was I not informed of this operation?” The man huffed, shadowed by what were clearly his loyal underlings.

Coop had no idea what this guy was talking about. Did they really not see what he was doing? They had been watching as Coop cleared the last control point of the fifth settlement since he passed beneath Iceland. It was the first to have any other people around, and they started off by saying some weird things.

A quick inspection of their auras when they first showed up revealed that they weren’t a threat to the Champion of Ghost Reef, so he had been happy to ignore them until his battle with the invaders was over. None of them had reached level 100, putting them far below the threshold necessary to contribute to the Underlayer Event, let alone challenge Coop for his kills, and yet the man spoke with far more authority than would be expected. They were certainly confident in their action of approaching Coop, despite the level difference surely weighing on their subconscious.

They had arrived while Coop was cleaning up the Primal Constructs that were protecting the control points beneath a place called Chee Dale. Somehow, a place that sounded even faker than Gwydir Forest had generated an allotment of 3,000,000 Elite Primal Constructs, 100 Field Bosses, and 3 Siege Bosses. The invasion force was approaching the size of Neon Park’s, which seemed crazy, but Coop’s expectations had been based on the early estimates using data from the relatively small Florida settlements. The number of invaders he expected to find might have been slightly off for the mid-sized territories.

He called them mid-sized, but he was considering all the settlements with a Challenge Assessment above x1 that weren’t in the top 10 or so to be in that category. Nearly half of the existing settlements fit in that segment, with populations between 2 and 6 million. There were almost 100 examples, revealing humanity’s ability to coalesce against common enemies.

Places that Coop had never heard of, like Chee Dale and Gwydir Forest were large enough to invite one or more Siege Bosses into the Underlayer Event, but none had previous experience dealing with them. As Coop saw it, protecting such places would be a valuable endeavor for the sake of humanity.

Without him, he could easily imagine a scenario where only the absolute largest settlements were able to win, and at great cost of life, while the rest slid toward their downfall, assuming they were all forced to contend with invasions on their own. A gradual reduction in settlements until only the largest and most secure were fighting for their survival was exactly how the assimilation was meant to go, but Coop was throwing a wrench into that progression.

The group of onlookers kept their distance until Coop was finished fighting, standing off to the side while clearly wanting to be noticed. He didn’t pay them any attention, preferring to keep his grind’s momentum while imagining all the Siege Bosses he was going to kill during his underground adventure.

When he did notice their body language, it felt like Coop had somehow slighted the local homeowner’s association, so he was already dreading the point when the last monster was defeated. He anticipated something annoying, like he would be scolded for some misbehavior. If he didn’t need to capture the control points, he would have mistjumped past what would clearly become a headache.

Instead, Coop sat down in the middle of the control point after dismissing his equipment, letting the strangers come to him while he rested. He leaned back on his hands, as if he was people-watching on the beach, waiting to see how they would proceed. From their perspective, he was obviously the one in the wrong, based on some structure he wasn’t aware of, but even if he knew it, that didn’t mean he felt the need to play along. It was the apocalypse, after all.

Surprisingly, they weren’t overly concerned with his aura, nor the feats of strength he had demonstrated while defeating the last 1,000,000 or so Elite Primal Constructs, despite having front row seats to witness his abilities. Unfortunately, the Siege Bosses were the first to go, so they didn’t get the chance to see them fall over, but somehow, he doubted the experience would have diminished the apparent bolstering effect of cultural or social authority. The system would need to work harder to force humans into its hierarchy because even with concrete examples demonstrating how dangerous he was, some people wouldn’t be swayed from speaking their mind if they believed they had a good enough reason.

“Did you hear me? Who authorized this activity?” The man continued as his group approached, raising his voice in case the muffling effect of the underground had stifled his questions.

Coop tilted his head slightly to the side as he held back from responding too aggressively. He wasn’t exactly trying to start fights with humans, but he planned on clearing the Primal Constructs with or without anyone’s permission.

The twelve people were dressed something like what Coop would describe as business-athletic. It felt like they should have been biking to their office jobs rather than stomping around in the Underlayer like surprise health inspectors. They each carried their own clipboards and wore lanyards that just seemed out of place in the assimilation.

Coop blew air out of his nose as he reassessed his company against his previous encounters. The trio of explorers from Iceland made more sense with all their climbing gear. Even the wild and theatrical characters of Neon Park felt more appropriate for an apocalypse. These people were clinging to a level of civilization that Coop believed was long gone.

The main man harrumphed as he put his fists on his hips, silently demanding that Coop explain himself like the man believed himself to be a school disciplinarian, stopping just shy of the control point. The others subtly glanced at each other while quietly supporting the leader, occasionally taking notes on who-knows-what. They actually made Coop feel like he was trespassing, though he supposed he kinda was.

“Is it safe to enter this mana zone?” The main guy asked, shifting his eyes to the reddish illumination as it slowly transitioned to blue.

He certainly behaved like he was some leader, but with his low level, Coop was bemused. The man’s question revealed that they hadn’t even seen the event’s objectives yet, despite over a week having passed since the start. Coop had to admit he was much more bought into the hierarchy of the system and levels than this group seemed to be, and he wasn’t sure if that was necessarily a good thing.

Coop looked askance at the group, feeling unimpressed. “I guess that depends if you’re friend or foe.” He responded. “Right now, I’m not so sure.” Coop warned.

While the gaggle of followers grumbled amongst themselves, one spoke up. “Sir! This is a restricted area designated for consolidation. Commissioner De Witte is only concerned for your safety!” One of the underlings chimed in, defending her leader righteously. She grabbed at the pen that had been secured behind her ear to furiously write a note.

Coop couldn’t help but crack a smile at what actually seemed like a sincere explanation despite the ridiculousness of worrying about his safety at this stage. “Well, I appreciate it, but as you can tell, it’s not necessary.” He tried waving them away.

“But you lack the proper certification, have none of the mandated support parties for a subjugation action, and have obviously abandoned your admin team!” Another underling added, clearly agitated for different reasons than the previous. “There is no first aid station! No courier tent! How are we supposed to interface if you lack the proper handlers?”

Coop stared blankly at the complainer, feeling like he was looking at an alien. “Certification? Handlers? Bro, what are you talking about? Who are you people?” He wondered, more confused than continuing to antagonize them.

It was like they were living in a completely different world than the one the assimilation had created. If he didn’t know any better, he would have suspected they were members of some faction that had come with its own structure, but none of them were Chosen, which in itself was peculiar, now that he thought about it.

“Show some professionalism! This is Commissioner De Witte!” The agitated underling declared, using his hands to present the main guy as if that answered all questions. “And who are you! I will be personally filing a formal complaint to your representative commissioner!”

Coop stood back up with a sigh, causing them all to take a step back as he resummoned his ethereal armor and let his spear manifest in his outstretched hand, leaning into his more threatening aura with the ghostly equipment. The extra wisps of abyssal mana magnified the effect.

“As the Champion of Ghost Reef and Founder of the Lighthouse, I will personally receive any of your complaints.” He smiled at the loudest of the complainers. “Aren’t you lucky? Why don’t you step up and let me hear it first?”

The man shied away in spite of being directly called out. The others huddled together to whisper amongst themselves and Commissioner De Witte raised an eyebrow. “Champion of Ghost Reef and Founder of the Lighthouse? That means you are Coop?”

“That’s right.” Coop agreed without a change in expression. He supposed lots of people presented with nothing but question marks when they were that low level, but they still seemed slow on the uptake.

Commissioner De Witte seemed contemplative before choosing his words. “I hope you will forgive me, Champion Coop. We had assumed Ghost Reef was in Australia, and never expected to meet so soon. We’ve been operating under the assumption that we are entirely on our own.”

“Who is we?” Coop prompted, happy with the change in tone, though the underlings continued to both whisper among themselves and furiously take notes.

“The European Emergency Community.” De Witte answered proudly.

“Okay.” Coop supposed having a name was one step toward being official. “Have you formed some kind of alliance then?” He wondered.

“All surviving settlements within Europe have been organized into a coordinated resistance to the alien invaders. None have been left behind, though it has been decided to further centralize power and consolidate our strength to maximize our rates of survival.” De Witte explained before asking his own question. “Why and how are you here?”

Coop raised his eyebrows at the definitive ‘all’ that the man used before responding to his question. “I’m following the tunnels and killing monsters.” Coop stated, gesturing toward the objectives. It was obvious wasn’t it? “If you don’t mind capturing these control points, I’d like to keep going.”

“Is Ghost Reef that way?” De Witte asked, pointing down the tunnel.

“You gotta hang a left at Iceland.” Coop responded, unworried about having the location of his settlement revealed these days. The Underlayer Event was becoming their coming out party, after all. “It’s an island in the Gulf of Mexico.”

“I see.” De Witte confirmed while his underlings took notes. “And you’re saying you will clear the invaders from our territory?” He continued.

“Unless you can stop me.” Coop answered with an expression that invited him to try.

“I’d rather not.” De Witte chuckled.

De Witte cautiously stepped into the control point, testing its safety, and nodded as nothing harmful happened to him. “Hold one moment, Champion.” He turned back to his little entourage. “Simon, Garret, Katrina, please go and stand in each of those other mana zones. I will take this one.” He directed them, including the one that had grown agitated, toward the illuminated rings representing the rest of Chee Dale.

He indicated to the woman that had defended him. “Ursula, please submit the appropriate support request forms on behalf of Champion Coop and have them backdated and expedited.”

“Yes, Commissioner.” Ursula agreed and turned to leave, revealing some agility based skills in her steps.

De Witte wasn’t done with his orders. “Charles and Sven, have subjugation requests fast tracked for each of the underground enemy militias, be sure that each one is submitted individually. Patrick, go to the reconnaissance corp and have them send a team through this tunnel. Make sure they don’t stop until they reach Ghost Reef and have a complete transcription prepared to be filed. The rest of you, please split up and report to the admin departments that Champion Coop of Ghost Reef will be operating throughout our territory and that I have personally requested his registration be streamlined and the appropriate support groups be dispatched.”

They each confirmed their directions and jogged off into the distance, one by one or in pairs, leaving De Witte alone with the Champion of Ghost Reef. A few of the underlings had abilities that made them quite a bit faster, but most of them would be jogging slow enough that Coop expected to overtake them shortly.

“You some kind of big shot? What are you doing out here anyway?” Coop wondered once they were alone.

“Oh, I’m not so important, merely a mid level bureaucrat, but I can definitely facilitate a more pleasant visit.” He smiled hospitably. “We all have ways to contribute.”

“Not gonna treat me like a trespasser anymore?” Coop questioned.

“The official policy of the EEC with regard to the individual known as Coop is to avoid antagonization. The same for any representative of Ghost Reef.”

“That’s a good policy.” Coop observed. “How many settlements are in this EEC?”

De Witte’s expression turned boastful as he answered. “25 settlements from Portugal to Poland, North Africa to Norway, and Ireland to Greece, though we plan to evacuate 8 settlements during this event as protecting the whole continent is proving difficult when the enemies appear throughout. Our first census counted almost 57,000,000 residents, but it has been some time since then and we have been having challenges.”

“That’s… a lot.” Coop was impressed. “And they only sent you and your interns over here?” Coop questioned, feeling like there must have been better candidates to patrol the tunnels.

“I took it upon myself to make sure anyone that wandered into the Underlayer knew to return to safety.” De Witte explained. “We were planning on setting up a checkpoint at the outer edge of our territory.”

“Huh.” Coop just grunted at the answer. It made enough sense, he supposed.

“What about Ghost Reef? We projected you to have a population approaching 10,000,000 after your performance in the Siege Event. Many wished to make contact, but we had assumed you were isolated in Oceania. In North America, we would have multiplied that amount by several times.”

Coop shrugged. “Your projections were way off.”

De Witte frowned. “Is that so?”

“That being said, we’ve got plenty of room.” Coop added. “I wonder if we could handle 57,000,000.” He mumbled to himself. They would need Charlie and Jones to work a bit faster on preparing the underground layers, but it might be possible.

Commissioner De Witte looked at Coop suspiciously. “Are you planning something?”

“Not me.” Coop denied. “Mana.”