Chapter 39

When Tom sat down to face the council once more, their approach had changed. Before, it was Tiny taking point, and he had been clearly told to be moderately threatening. Something he had achieved by just being him while everyone else attempted to be…. Well, while not friendly, but at least non-adversarial. That pretence was gone.

Joline and the hunter leader had been put in charge.

“That was unprofessional,” the hunter said.

Tom sat down, concentrating on keeping his temper. “Interesting approach,” he commented while working on his phrasing. “I have two rebuttals. First, you were trying to steal my credits, second we’ve never been introduced. I know you were number six, but beyond that…” Tom shrugged.

The hunter smiled. “Counting, were you?”

Tom inclined his head in agreement. “Arriving first and all that. I was bored.”

Half of the council actively scowled at that blatant reminder.

“I’m Adofol. But whether we were being professional is nothing versus throwing a tantrum and threatening to flee.”

“We’re a community,” Tiny rumbled. “That threat went too far.”

“No. I won’t be guilt tripped.” Tom answered flatly. “The only issue with me leaving is you guys would have taken a few extra months to get out of here. Unless you were stupid, none of you would die. A week ago, it would have been different. I’ve already bought you your lives and given the amount you’re trying to steal from me. I don’t care if it costs you a year to escape.”

“Come on Tom,” Michael said tiredly. “Be the bigger man here.”

Tom looked at Tiny and then back at Michael in disbelief.

Michael smirked. “Metaphorically.”

“That I can do.” He sat down on the stool. “The crux of the issue is that I’ve been too busy saving us to have a talk about auction credits. On the back of my efforts,” he held up a hand as Seong went to speak, “And many others as a community we have created a large windfall of credits. From my perspective, there is myself and my team, which have done most of the killing. Then there are the gatherers and processers who have turned that slaughter into useful products and the final stakeholder is questionable, but I’ll include it for completeness and that’s the general community.” He leant back in his seat.

It squeaked, Tom remembered how delicate it was and stopped leaning. “Does that sound about right?”

There were nods around the table.

“Before we discuss numbers, let’s be very clear about this. When we get out of this bloody place, and you,” he was looking at Tiny. “Slay your first dragon do you really reckon it’s fair if the community takes all the loot and gives it to the people not taking any risk.”

“NO!”

“I agree. How about half?” Tom could see the wheels turning in the man’s head. The lure of Tom’s money now versus what he might lose in the future. “It’s too much,” Tom finished before Tiny could give into the seduction of immediate greed.

“I get your point.” Tiny rumbled agreement.

Tom nodded, relieved to be aligned with the bigger man. While he was not on Tom’s side yet, he was at least considering it. “In fact, anything above twenty percent is too much.”

Tiny was nodding along with the argument.

“No,” Adofol interrupted. “No hypotheticals, no whataboutisms we’re talking about now and we need more.”

“Wait forget about the teleporter. Think long term.” Tom implored. “How much of everyone’s production does the government really need? We’ll be a travelling tribe for some time. What’s the long-term tax rate? Not that much. Ten percent might even be excessive.”

“You offered twenty,” Adofol said hurriedly. “You can’t…”

“No, he has a point.” Seong interrupted. “None of us want a high taxing government.”

“The teleporter.”

“Yes,” Tom said. “I’m going to recommend we buy the teleporter. We’ll put a margin on its use. Let’s say fifty percent of the previous cost. Once the investors have doubled their credits, we’ll pass it to the community.” With those sorts of returns, investing in it was a simple decision. Tom caught Seong smiling.

“Who votes for a ten percent community tax?” Michael proposed quickly. Five hands raised immediately. “Passed.”

“The last point to raise is the split between fighters and gatherers. Realistically, the value added by the gatherers isn’t that much, or at least the skill they’ve needed is almost non-existent. We’re hardly talking about staff with years of technical training.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Seong protested.

“Am I right in saying that you represent most of the people who processed the stingers?”

Seong inclined her head in agreement.

“How about I take fifty? Twenty gets split between my team members.” That might sound generous, but without Harry’s, Everlyn’s and Michael’s support he would have died multiple times by now. “And gathers get twenty?”

“That seems extreme.” Seong said. “I don’t feel like that values our work sufficiently.”

“Twenty-five percent.”

She hesitated. “Agreed.”

Tom looked at Michael. “Can you work out how we split our sixty-five percent. Now as for the teleporter. I’ll be keeping a chunk of credits, the rest I’ll invest. Seong, can you confirm whether the crafters will invest?”

“A large chunk will probably be used immediately to get the necessary tools. After that I can probably convince them to invest the majority of ongoing income. I would also assume,” her eyes flickered over the council members. “That the tax will also go on the teleporter.”

Seven hands were raised.

Tom nodded to himself. He could live with this framework. Especially buying the teleporter. That would double his credits and more than cover the tax that the community was taking off him. “One last thing, I’m not paying off my own investment. That means that when we’re selling the wasps, it will go through the teleporter at cost.”

The council members all looked at each other. Joline looked pissed. She had been clearly hoping that he would not notice the loophole and that he would be stupid enough to pay for it all himself.

“Before you object, I’m playing ball here. Everything I buy I’ll pay the tax on. But if the on-sale of wasps is used to pay off the teleporter it’s possible that the full amount will be paid off purely with my money. I’m not doing that.”

He saw glances being exchanged between the bulk of the people unfriendly with him. Joline was almost giving Tiny hurry gestures.

The big man shifted in his seat and Tom was gratified to hear the chair complain. It was not just him who abused the chairs. “I don’t think so.”

“Stop.” Seong held up a hand to interrupt the coming wave of objects. “Everyone take two deep breaths. Rather than having an exception for wasps why don’t we generalise it. Everything that we sell to generate credits goes through at cost and then we tax purchases. One rule fits all. No special deals.”

“No,” Tom objected immediately. “That delays my payback too long.”

Joline almost rumbled in displeasure.

Tom ignored her. “Instead, sales are free for any individual who contributes over one percent to the purchase price.”

“That will just be you and,” Seong waved at Michael. “Your team.”

Tom understood where she was coming from. “How many parts does your twenty-five split into?”

Seong smiled at that question. “I’ve been tracking time and effort. A full share is 0.7.”

“I’m happy with that.”

“No,” Tiny thundered. “It’s not up to Useless to set the rules. It’s a council decision.”

“That’s not my name!”

There was a momentary silence.

“Its just a friendly nickname.” Joline said. “There’s no need to get offended.”

“I am not comfortable…”

She sniffed. “I don’t understand. Your friends–”

“Are my friends,” Tom interrupted suddenly angry. She was doing this deliberately.

Tiny stood. “I don’t care what we call Tom, this is about the teleporter. We, as a council, had an agreed plan. I’m not going to let someone come in and turn that all around.”

“Had a plan, Tiny,” Michael told him quietly. “Tom has the votes, now.”

“I don’t think that’s the case?” he grumbled.

Michael shook his head. “Show of hands whether we’ll support the teleporter plans that have been discussed to date.”

Bob’s hand went up immediately. Four other hands, including Michael followed. Rahmat waved happily having always been on his side. Bob’s vote had switched, but Tom wouldn’t be surprised based on Michael’s comment that Bob’s vote had already been guaranteed if Tom had given the concessions he had. The most surprising arm was Adofols.

“What?” the hunter said with a shrug. “I think it’s a fair deal.”

“You guys are weak.” Tiny stated. “We’ve given away too much.”

Tom saw knowing glances being exchanged between Michael and Seong. Michael’s head flicked toward Tiny.

Seong stood up in response and walked over to the giant of a man. “You’re right we could have driven a harder bargain.”

“Don’t think so.” Tom interrupted.

Seong ignored him. “And Tom probably would have agreed, but it would not have been fair. If we’re going to create a community, we cannot have everyone thinking the leadership is corrupt. Today it was Tom being victimised. Tomorrow it might be you or me. I don’t want to set that type of precedent.”

Everyone heard she had not bothered to keep the voice down.

“Do you understand?” Seong’s attention had switched from Tiny to Joline. She too had voted no.

Joline nodded. Not that Tom had expected elsewhere. You did not end up the CEO of a major company without knowing when to fold.

Tiny still looked primed for a fight, but Seong clearly didn’t care that she had failed to win over the big man. Given the way Tiny had expressed himself, Tom suspected there were greater depths to him than what the rest of the council was giving him credit.

Internally, Tom shrugged. Tiny had wanted to drive a hard bargain and had failed. It didn’t matter anymore.

“We’re done,” Tom declared, standing up. Everlyn followed immediately, and no one protested.

“Wait,” Seong said quickly. “I’m selling wasps. I would like to collect all available credits to ensure we can buy the teleporter at the first available moment.”

Tom hesitated.

“You said you were only spending a small amount.”

“Fine.” Tom grumbled and transferred forty thousand across.

Seong’s face went blank briefly as she checked her balance. “This is less that I expected?”

“I want flexibility in case there is something good.”

“But the sooner we get the teleporter…”

“No,” Tom interrupted.

Seong laughed. “Fine. Contributing this much to the teleporter is already impressive.”

“Great. Now I’m getting food.”

Everlyn and he left together while Tom mentally planned his actions. Tonight, he would check the auction house.

It was going to be fun to see how comprehensive it was.

He retired to his sleeping spot early. As always, it was outdoors. A roof to keep off rain and nothing else in the way of protection. A space set between the main shelter and the council one complete with lots of approach vectors for the wasps. From here, his enmity covered the entire camp and between the shelter’s defensive charges and how much they hated him it was unlikely that even a single wasp would penetrate either of the community structures.

He rubbed his hands in excitement.

It was time to go shopping. Since getting to Existentia, he had given himself no time for frivolities. And exploring the auction house had been an extravagance until now. Between protecting the community and the murder, he hadn’t hat the time. Now that he had credits to spend all of that changed.

Michael, Sven, Thor and Harry had pulled up into a defensive position nearby. They would stand watch while he was in the system room.

Everlyn tapped him on the shoulder. “Tom? Can I have two thousand credits?” She fluttered her eyes at him.

“Sure.” Immediately, he ducked into the system room and sent the credits across.

Everlyn smiled at him. “Now don’t disappear. This won’t take long.” Her eyes went blank, the life in her face vanishing but despite those significant changes she could still stand. Almost a minute passed, and she opened her eyes. “We were lucky there was still some left.”

“What?”

“Get comfortable,” she ordered before she settled down on their bedroll. It was thin, but better than what most people had. A thin rain tarp stretched over him.

“You bought something??”

“Yes.

“What?”

“Secret.”

“Okay. I will see you once we’re finished.” He went to close his eyes, but she grabbed him.

“Wait,” she requested. “Let me go first. I want two minutes, then you can follow.”

“Again?”

“Please.” She batted her eyelids.

“Fine. Just know you look stupid when you do that.”

Everlyn laughed at him, her hand on his chin. “You’re cute. I might even believe you if it wasn’t so effective.” Grinning, she shut her eyes and then life vanished from her face. Instantly she became an exquisite doll rather than a person. He ran his finger from her eye down her cheek, neck, and shoulder. In this state, she was no longer Everlyn. Part of her was clearly gone but her body features kept their innate beauty, but it did nothing for him, well nothing when compared to how he felt when she teased him or confided with him or even the moments of happiness that occasionally stole over her. Now she was a full-sized doll, with skin that responded as normal, internally heated but completely incapable of independent movement.

And she was here next to him by choice.

There was a feeling in his chest and he knew it was happiness.

Thoughts and concerns ran through him. This was a complication he had not wished for. The idea of a relationship sucking time away and preventing it from being dedicated to saving billions was alien to him.

All that mattered was dragging humanity into one of the top three positions in this competition.

How could he find joy if it might cost his family?

This time, he ran his finger down to her lips, just to see. He flicked the lip. There was a lot of give.

What was he doing? Satisfying his curiosity… but.

Then he shut his eyes for a moment to get control of himself and assessed the situation. Everlyn wouldn’t object to anything he had done if she had been awake. She would have let him do all those motions. The curiosity that had been… mostly… driving him. The desire to know if that absent look extended to the touch, and it did.

But she was unconscious, and that made a difference to the equations. He didn’t have explicit permission and acting without it was wrong. She would let him test but extract a price by teasing him.

She was fun to be around.

He smiled while he imagined a future with them together.

The two of them committed to each other.

Each stealing happy moments when the brutal life gathering ranking points would allow.

The concept, the dream, existed for a moment and caught in his throat. A life with hope. It was a strange emotion to overlay upon his future.

But a partnership?

How would it function?

At a high level, their goals were aligned. That was a bonus.

Yes, he would.

He was willing to take the risk in the hope of happiness. But what happened if there was a line between his girlfriend and a pot of ranking points. It wasn’t likely, but if it did then what would happen, if he had to make that type of, Choice?

A weight hit his shoulders.

Fear.

Forty years of forced bachelor status. It was not a pleasant legacy to remember, and there was no need to rush into anything. Forcefully, he forgot the future and concentrated on the present.

The gorgeous body, warm but not animated that lay beside him.

Why two minutes? Why two thousand credits? He couldn’t work out how to link them.

“That’s nice.” Her whisper made him jump. He had been absently caressing her face while he thought. Appreciating the smoothness, remembering its contours and valleys. Yes, he saw it all the time, but there was a difference.

His hand flinched away and then he stilled.

Her eyes were open, and she looked content and happy. Her face once more filled with life. Less exquisite porcelain doll and more the beautiful girl next door.

He went to kiss her, and she pulled back her finger intercepting his lips. “Not now. I’m going to go to my system room. You follow in ten seconds.”

Yes, the auction was exciting, but it still hurt. She must have seen what he intended. It sort of made sense that she didn’t want a relationship.

He counted the numbers down and when he got to ten, he stepped to enter his system room and did not make it.

Text flashed in front of his eyes.

Everlyn Louis Campbell has invited you to her personal system room.

If you accept, you can leave at any time.

Normal rules of system room access apply.

Do you wish to accept the invitation?

What?

How was this possible?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Reality changed, and he was captivated by the beauty in front of him. Everlyn dressed in a black cocktail dress with a hint of makeup that magnified her eyes and made cheeks slightly rosier.

“Wow.”

He swallowed. She was eleven out of ten and way beyond where he normally batted.

“You’re…” Words failed him.

“Welcome to my system room,” she waved her hand and for the first time he glanced around.

The contrast between his room and hers could not be starker.

Her room was filled out. There was a roaring fireplace. Massive sweeping windows that looked out and down onto a partially frozen lake. It was realistic and he could even see condensation in the corners.

There was a full-on tiger rug on the floor, two comfortable couches, a massive book shelf on the third wall with the final wall consisting of elegant wooded panelling, a reading chair, coffee table and lamp then finally conveniently placed near the bookcase a reading desk with a fancy computer chair waiting to be used. The type of chair that took comfort to a different level.

Everlyn laughed. “I was hoping to get a jaw dropping reaction but not because of the decor I installed.”

He looked at her and registered the hint of disappointment in her voice. “No,” his voice caught. “You look more than stunning. It’s just your system room is…“ He stopped talking. He could not pull his eyes from her figure that was normally hidden by armour. The dress was short to show off her legs and high heels.

He was acting creepy. He forced his eyes away to sweep over the room while his cheeks burned. “...Is unexpected.”

He looked back, concerned that she would be upset at him, but her warm smile greeted him.

“Why?” There was a genuine curiosity in her voice. “Did this?” she waved absently toward the fireplace. “Surprise you? It’s nothing special, just a mixture of elements available to everyone.”

Tom laughed. He could not help himself. “My system room has four unadorned walls. Yep, exactly like it was at the start.”

“You didn’t know you could customise?”

“Oh, I knew! I figured it was a trap. If I made my system room to be better than the real world, I would just end up living in here.” He studied the bookshelf and read the titles displayed.

• Attributes for dummies
• Choosing the perfect class
• The trap of expert classes
• Hidden Synergies

“Nice. You turned the system manuals into actual books.”

“Yes,” she waved her hand and an extra reading chair appeared.

“How’s this happening?” Tom asked suddenly. “How am I here? I didn’t think system rooms could be shared.”

“It’s a limited trait you can buy.”

“That’s incredible.” he reached out to embrace her in a hug and his hands went straight through her.

“And that’s the drawback.”

“Can’t touch?”

“Can’t physically interact.”

Tom snatched up a pillow off the couch and tossed it through her. Instinctively, she went to catch it and it flew through her arms.

She squealed in shock, stumbling backwards her eyes following the pillow as bounced on the wooden floorboards, its trajectory completely unaltered despite Everlyn’s body being technically in the way.

Tom grimaced. “Well, that happened. I thought I would test.”

Everlyn laughed. “I’m not here to be experimented on and it’s not like DEUS or the GODs can be circumvented that simply.”

“Nope, not at all.” Tom’s eyes searched the room. He noticed picture frames on the walls next to the fireplace.

Her family.

If he had decorated his system room, he would have done the same.

He was intensely curious about her. Almost subconsciously, he moved closer to the pictures to get a better view.

There was a prominent photo of Everlyn at a similar age to the woman across from him. She was hugging a man while both of them grinned at the camera.

He glanced back at Everlyn, comparing the two images. She was skinnier now and of course the eyes were totally different. In the photo, they were plain ordinary brown versus the exotic look that her practical modifications had created.

She had been gorgeous back on earth, too.

Once more, he studied the pictures. The man was repeated in multiple places across the wall. Including with the two of them surrounded with kids. “What?” he gasped, half in question and half in accusation. “That’s”

“Tom.” When he glanced at her, her face was crimson. “I’m sorry. I..”

When he turned back, that specific picture he had been studying was gone, along with a two other photos that had been her and him. He had known, but.

“He was your… Umm…” He studied his feet. Had he made a faux pas being so curious. She clearly hadn’t wanted him to see those pictures. It was a disaster. “I shouldn’t have looked… I…”

Everlyn looked distressed, and he wanted to hug her and bring her comfort but he held himself back, not sure about the best way to act.

“I’m not trying to hide anything from you.” She told him. “I didn’t expect, I didn’t think.” She stopped talking. “Doug was a long time ago.”

“You don’t have to tell me… um…”

He paused.

Everlyn looked like she wanted to cry and he was not sure why or what he had done wrong.

But silence wasn’t the answer. “Unless you want to tell me?”

Everlyn nodded. “I would love to.”