A Black Market LitRPG

The next day…

Not all the council members and sergeants of the military were executed, instead hauled in secret to the council building, awaiting trial under the new rulers of Desham.

“Why are we keeping them alive?” One of the newly-appointed leaders under Diya remarked with a tinge of frustration, earning a few nods from the gathered followers who eyed the former council members with clear hatred.

“It is a matter of survival. Imagine what the government would do when they eventually find out the council had been rebelled against.” Diya pointed out, sparking a short discussion among the leaders.

They had entered the communication blackout for nearly more than a day now – they would need to ensure that Desham looked fine from the outside.

“We’ll use the council members as a façade for now. The sergeants will also handle the military’s probes if there are any.”

The captured council members were extremely receptive to the idea, much preferring this position compared to having their heads lobbed off in front of a ravenous crowd. Furthermore, their families were held hostage by Diya’s followers ensuring their compliance.

“Our next steps are to establish proper governance and fix up the city. There are still rogue elements contesting areas of the town.” Diya began planning out the restoration of Desham. She naturally did not want to rule over a ruined town – lest the dissatisfied dwellers would suddenly turn on her. If she wanted to hold her position and establish her legitimacy, she had to do right by the people and uphold her promises.

Diya coordinated with Makoa, the latter flushing out the entrenched deserters and looters, while she had her new leadership take control of the various aspects of running the town. However, due to their lack of education, they hardly had the qualifications nor the aptitude to hold the reins of the previous system.

It was for this major reason that Diya and Kyle planned to keep the council members. Using them as a façade was just a small motive: the real reason was to retain the expertise that they had accumulated over the years.

“All coups that succeeded have three major failure points - legitimacy, corruption and incompetence,” Kyle explained to Diya. Revolutions were inherently damaging, as the power was abruptly handed to people who did not know what to do. Kyle had seen this play out countless times in the Galactic Era, and it was simple to stop it from happening here with him around.

However, the bulk of his task was done – what was left was simply to advise Diya and fuel the demands of the town, which was now primarily food. The locals may now be satisfied with the abundance of meat from mammoth hogs that Kyle had been ferrying from the Keru Forest, but it would take more than that to ensure complete sufficiency.

Following that order, they used the momentum to seize land from the businessmen and the landowners who had been executed publicly, transferring them under control of the control of Desham.

“We will need to re-do the farm field and uproot the Desham Tuffs in order to achieve self-sustenance and reduce reliance on external food imports,” Diya explained to the followers.

None of the followers disagreed, accepting the orders and beginning to hire labourers from the town to do the work.

“If you still want mammoth hog meat, you’ll have to work for it! The state now has openings for jobs at the farms! Do your part to ensure self-sufficiency!”

It wasn’t the only job available, with Diya using the meat as a sort of living wage to direct the efforts of the people. Jobs were created to fix up the walls and the collapsed gates again, while others were sent to build temporary housing with much more sanitary systems quickly.

Kyle partially assisted, drawing up the town planning quickly. It wasn’t his first rodeo setting up a town from scratch, so he could easily prepare a few extremely basic concepts for the followers to implement easily. Everything was designed to be manual, with an option to upgrade to an arctech-powered option later.

The work would not be done in a single day, with Kyle estimating that the town’s reconstruction and consolidation would take more than two weeks. He had a few mineral ants come in to help dig out sewage canals, expanding them to account for future population increases while linking them up.

He also had workers under Diya demolish parts of the slum, clearing space for the construction of his new factory. It was exactly this that he was aiming for – to have a stable base for manufacturing free of government and military intervention.

The underground tunnel base in the Keru Forest was not going to be abandoned, as it was still necessary for hunting the mammoth hogs and serving as a fallback base. Kyle had already learnt his lesson from the encounter with Nest, not placing all of his eggs into a single basket.

Drafting a similar concept to the steel and weapon factories in Raktor, he had Feldon take charge of the construction project. The new factory was to be built out of wood and scrap metal instead, Kyle not having access to any steel foundries or manufacturers nearby.

And yet again, I am lacking in crude iron and coking coal. Kyle sighed but remained optimistic. The Keru forest was a five hundred kilometre wide forest area: with the mineral ants now scouting for the iron ore, he was bound to find it eventually. The backup solution would be to return to the dungeon.

On top of that, Kyle knew that the current hunting was not sustainable in the long term, even with the population significantly reduced after the revolution and general unrest. The only permanent solution he could think of was the genetically modified seeds that Orisa, the A.I. he had found in the Culdao Peaks, was used to alleviate the famine of the goblins.

I will need to make some cross-border deliveries again. Previously, he managed to have the leader of Clouds, Sir Tian, serve as his supplier, but now he only had a small controlled portion of Nest to rely on. It looks like they will have to do for now.

***

The forestry factories of Tenar Logging chugged away in a continuous din of heavy arctech machines stripping away the branches of thick ancient trees, piling them into a storage area. Hundreds of workers scurried around in a hectic work pace, manning the machines and manually carving the small branches into more usable parts that would compromise a new rifle, fuelling the war economy.

It was here where Nox and his men were stationed, still scouring the Keru Forest for traces of the missing villagers. Nox stood silent, examining a map intently as the manager of the area sighed loudly. “Why do we care about some no-name villagers? I, for one, am happy that they are gone!”

“They might have ties or relations to the rebels, and more importantly, the whereabouts of Kris Greyborn.”

“Bah, they must be dead by now. The mineral ants might have eaten their bodies for all we know!”

“Until I see the remains of their bodies for myself, I will continue to search.” Nox stared at the map of the Keru forest, marking out the areas that they had swept through over the last week.

They had been following a trail, but it ended abruptly, leading Nox to believe that he had been diverted off the true path. He was now doing a sectional sweep, square by square, of the Keru Forest.

There was another hidden reason why he needed to find the villagers. Our transcendent leader has not responded ever since he last stated he was going to the Keru Forest. Where is he?

With so many events occurring in the forest, Nox was far more inclined to believe that Kris Greyborn was here. He knew for a fact that Kris Greyborn was transcendent, which was why he reported the incident immediately to the transcendent leader in charge of the Versian branch.

Did the leader lose against Kris Greyborn? Nox knew that was impossible – he had personally witnessed the strength of the leader up close. Kris Greyborn was nowhere capable of achieving such a victory.

It does not matter, I will continue to search.

Suddenly, one of his men knocked on the door, requesting permission to enter. “Sir, a report from the town of Desham.”

“Show it to me.” Desham… a town that borders the Keru Forest.

Nox grabbed the enveloped handed to him, unfurling the paper and reading rapidly. His eyes narrowed in suspicion as he read. Revolt by the slum dwellers suppressed by the local military? Town in shambles? Council currently weakened…

He did not know what to think about the report. By all accounts, he should have no qualms about it. With the Versian government switching to a war economy and shutting down all forms of welfare and social benefits, it was only natural that dissent among the poor on the outer towns would began to emerge slowly. This was to be expected.

Then why do I feel like there is something amiss? Nox did not want to follow his intuition too much – Desham was not the only town that bordered the Keru Forest; there was no reason to believe that Kris Greyborn was near there, especially when the military was able to suppress the revolt easily. If Kris Greyborn was there, the revolt would be unstoppable, and he would…

Nox’s eyes widened in realization but quickly calmed himself down. It was irrational to divert all of his forces to check Desham suddenly. “Have five men sent over to the Nest branch in Desham. Check the branch leader for any signs of engraving loss.”

He recalled that Kris Greyborn was able to remove the engraving from Lady Yona, evidenced by the lack of burnt remains. He might have subverted our hitmen and agents stationed there already, but until I know more, I won’t move just yet.

For all he knew, the revolt in Desham might have been a completely natural thing, resulting in him wasting resources if he focused his attention there. Yet he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that Kris Greyborn was both there and also not there. Feels like I’m playing whack-a-goblin.

Either way, the happenings in Keru Forest were far too coincidental for Nox to let go of the area. “On top of the previous order, have a hundred more men come here and bolster the towns surrounding the Keru Forest. I want to hear anything and everything that goes in or out of the area.”

“Yes, sir. Right away.”

But before the hitman could execute the order, another hitman entered the room hastily. “Sir, President Mornero is on the line!”

“I’ll take it in my office.” Nox walked briskly, shutting the door behind him as he sat into a personal office chair, turning on the arctech radio.

[How goes the search?]

“Nothing as of yet. I believe I am about to catch onto the trail of Kris Greyborn, but he is still at large. If you give me a week or two, I am sure I will be able to capture him.”

[Forget him. I’m ordering you to pull back all men to the capital. You will form a special force under the military and act as a separate unit following my direct command.]

“This is too sudden – my men are still out on the field in the Keru Forest.”

[Listen to this.]

The arctech radio began to play the national anthem of Versia, confusing Nox slightly.

[“Dogs of the Yual Dominion, hear this! We of Versia no longer tolerate your arrogance! As penance for your sins, we shall now execute General Xan – Hero of your so-called glorious genocide of the Versian People!”]