Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 10

Upgrading Governess reminded me a lot of working on the Planetary System Hub and meant working on a similar scale. As I started the project though, I found it a bit more enjoyable.

I wasn’t working on archaic Architect technology that stemmed from entirely different cultural traditions. I was working with human circuit boards, CPUs, and wires. It simply made more sense to me, and not just because of my years of working with this stuff before the integration.

It was tough to say whether or not human technology was more advanced than Architect technology overall. We'd certainly been better at making semiconductors and circuit boards. The Architect's understanding of spatial folding and extradimensional engineering more than made up for that though.

But it wasn't like those tricks were incompatible with human technology. A skilled Kindling Architect like myself might be able to push human tech like this far beyond its normal limits.

As so often happens, the scope of the project expanded as I worked on it, and soon I had plans for an entire building complex, along with several cooling towers to dissipate the waste heat all these servers would generate. Thankfully, there was a stream running through my property, and no environmental agencies told me I wasn’t allowed to tap into it.

I had a few major goals with the upgrades. First, my computer had already been running at top speed just keeping up with the number of mannequins being controlled throughout Crownhill, not even counting running the golem factory as well. Governess needed far more processing power for the tasks I was giving her, especially because I wanted to scale up golem production.

Based on my early tests with the mannequins in armor, the golems weren’t particularly good at high-level combat, but enough of them might be able to fill out the lower ranks of my forces or at least blunt the highest-casualty conflicts we might experience. Given the number of people I’d seen in New Kyoto, I knew Crownhill couldn’t survive a war of attrition against them. But if we could field wave after wave of golems, then I’d be a lot more confident.

To that end, I’d have to fix up the rest of the broken-down golem assembly lines eventually, but right now, my focus was on primary infrastructure. The tower Governess called home expanded several times while I worked, though to the outside it looked the same thanks to a bit of clever spatial folding. She was already connected to my solar grid and miniature hydroelectric system in the stream, but now I added in the magical equivalent of a coal furnace as backup.

It worked the same as those monster core-to-electricity converters I’d invented that became popular during the earliest stages of the integration. Except now, instead of plugging in a single low-ranked monster cores, a mannequin tossed them in by the shovelful.

In a pinch, it could also be used to power my house or the experience farm, but the bulk of the energy would be going to Governess. Her energy demands were quite high these days. Somehow, she’d overclocked her existing components way beyond their normal specifications, and if the same thing happened to the server farms I was setting up, even my current power generation systems wouldn’t be enough.

Once Governess’ central processing systems were online, I set about stringing extra-dimensional wires all throughout Crownhill. This was a trick I was stealing from the System, though instead of using constructs of thought and will in the turbulent realm of the kindling, I just ran much more standard copper and aluminum cables through the shadow realm.

It would give Governess a hint of the System's omnipresence, though I'd leave swiping all the System's tricks for when Governess needed them. Only time would tell how well her tech would work when exposed to such otherworldly forces, and the last thing I needed at the moment was a machine uprising.

“You know, if I gave you some sort of direct interface to people, you’d be kind of like my own version of the System,” I chuckled as I reactivated Governess after turning on all the new components. Perhaps I could come up with a better communication System at some point.

“I have awoken to resume my duties,” Governess announced as her program automatically booted back up.

“All systems online, huh?” I asked.

“Indeed, milord,” Governess replied.

“Huh. I figured it would be a bit more climactic. Your processing capacity just expanded about ten thousandfold. I figured you’d level up or evolve or something.” I shrugged.

“I am still me, milord. Though now I feel there is more of me to go around. This will make controlling your assets much easier,” Governess said.

“Hold on, I’m not quite done yet.” I fingered the switch that would give Governess access to all the cables I’d been stringing. There were various smaller bits of infrastructure scattered along that length, not quite as decentralized as the System’s infrastructure, but close to it.

When I flipped the switch, Governess suddenly let out a very unladylike moan. It was a far cry from the normally professional AI I was used to working with.

“Ahh... mhm...” Governess gasped.

Another tech guy might have been alarmed at his computer sensually moaning, but I took it for the sign of a job well done and left her to adapt to her new systems.

***

After taking care of Governess for a bit longer than intended, I realized it was time to check in with the guilds and see if they’d finished setting up their base camps yet. Bridget had cooked a few more times while I’d been working, and I bundled up a few meals and more monster cores and trade goods and junk enchantments that I hadn’t had on hand back when Sakura and I went on our espionage operation. I would check in on her as well if things were going smoothly on the eastern front.

Then, I took a flight and made my way to New Kyoto. The flight was much shorter this time, thanks to a bit of cheating on my part. I picked one of the teleportation arrays I’d handed off to Frank’s guild. He had someone who’d taken the array technician job, and with their help, I was soon deep in enemy territory.

Not that I’d know it from first glance. Frank’s people had done a good job laying claim to the empty patch of wilderness around the teleportation array. The nearby trees, which were a mix of pine and bamboo, had been cut and turned into a fortified outpost that housed the teleportation array and enough room for a small garrison of adventurers to work out of. And Frank himself was there.

“Alright, clear the teleportation pad and into the woods. We’re clearing brush and hunting monsters again while waiting for a quest from mister big boss man Carter himself. Get moving and... huh?” Frank hadn’t looked up from the paper he was doodling on until he was nearly done and saw me standing on the teleportation pad instead of one of his adventurers.

“Carter! I didn’t realize you were coming,” Frank said as he hastily hid the doodle of a mostly naked woman and slid some official-looking guild paperwork over it.

“Don’t you mean big boss man Carter?” I asked, eyebrow raised. I could only feign anger so long before bursting into laughter, and soon Frank and I shook hands while he showed me around.

“We’re still waiting for those quests you mentioned. Now that we’re out in the field, mind telling me what they were?” Frank asked.

“More of the same, really. I want search and rescue missions for any human settlements. Only this time I want to be doubly sure to make a good impression and feel them out for what they know of the oni. When we run into survivors, I’m pretty sure I know what I’m going to hear, but I don’t want to start anything before we’re ready.”

“Got it. So it’s the same as always, except now we’re all secretive about it,” Frank said.

I leaned in close to Frank, speaking lower. “Keep this between you and me for now, but I’m suspicious of our new neighbors.”

“What, these guys too? Weren’t you suspicious of those military guys?”

“Yeah.”

“And then nothing happened?” Frank eyed me, eyebrow raised.

“This is different! Well, the same in a lot of ways, but more serious this time. I know a lot of the council was hoping things would go the same way they went with Sir Sandon and the Omykir, but I’m getting an increasingly bad feeling about this. Maybe we can still avoid war, but I have my doubts.”

Frank shrugged. “Well, you’re the big boss man. We’ll keep a lookout as long as you tell us to.”

“Good. I’ll be back to check in on you all later. In the meantime, I’ve got to catch up with my woman on the inside. Sakura’s in the main settlement gathering intel for us now, and I need to check in with her.”

***

Sakura was in a fight when I caught up with her. Normally, that would have concerned me, but she was winning decisively. I stopped when I heard a loud commotion when discretely making my way to her hotel room and stopped out of curiosity, only to find her the center of attention.

“Fight, fight, fight!” chanted a crowd mostly composed of oni, but with a few local humans mixed in as well.

Sakura was in the middle of a street brawl in what had previously been one of the nicer regions of the city. The bulk of the population of New Kyoto was living in mass apartment complexes, but this area had small wooden structures, each complete with a garden. The garden Sakura and her opponent were standing in was now in ruins as she and another oni battled one another.

Delicate flowers lay trampled. Bamboo water features were cracked and splintered. Ornate rocks lay scattered across the ground. Among the debris were two more C-Grade oni nursing bloody lips and knuckles. From the looks of them, they’d tried to fight Sakura before her current opponent, and they’d been laid out in the dirt because of it.

If the vibe of the crowd had been different, I would have flown in blasting spells to rescue her. I was still tempted to do just that, but as I listened in on the crowd, I realized most of them were cheering her on.

“Sakura! Sakura! Kick the asses of those Agowa Clan bastards!” someone in the crowd shouted.

“I’ll do you one better!” Sakura yelled, laughing as she twisted behind her opponent, grabbed him by the hand, and brought her knee up between his legs in a devastating, pelvis-shattering blow that sent noticeable cracking sounds echoing up and down the street.

The oni warrior collapsed, clutching his groin with his eyes closed as Sakura planted a foot on yet another defeated foe.

“Well? Anyone else want to claim I’m not a real member of the Miyamoto Clan?” Sakura demanded, staring hard at every oni in the crowd. A few tried to muster their courage, but one look at the warriors on the ground, softly whimpering to themselves was enough to quell any foolish thoughts of bravery.

“I thought not. Alright, all of you, get off my lawn!” Sakura waved her hands, and the crowd soon dispersed. I waited for them to go, and once they were gone used a little telekinesis to help put the lawn back together.

“So you got a new place?” I asked.

Sakura’s head whipped around, suddenly noticing me standing there. Her eyes lit up when she saw me.

“Carter! When did you get here? But yes, the oni in the city gave me my own estate when they heard I was living out of a hotel room. Well, I had to fight a few people for it, but that was easy enough. Come in.”

Sakura waved me inside. I found the fridge and started unloading Bridget’s meal-prepped breakfasts, lunches, and dinners into it. Sakura sighed in relief when she saw them.

“Thank the heavens you make deliveries. I’ve been starving out here. The sushi in this place isn’t made with fish.” Sakura rubbed her stomach, as though remembering a recent episode of terrible indigestion. Given there were forests full of monsters monsters and only a modest lake nearby, I wouldn’t be surprised if the sushi here contained less swordfish and salmon and more mutated super cockroaches.

The dining room, living room, kitchen, or whatever this was felt a little too traditional for my tastes. It had one of those really low tables with cushions instead of chairs. The cherry blossom wallpaper was lovely, and the view of the newly repaired water garden was nice, but the furniture just wasn’t to my tastes.

“Do you mind?” I asked as I grabbed a nearby shelf. Sakura shook her head, and I used a bit of heat and telekinesis in the right places to bend the shelf into a shape fit for a stool. I’d intended it for myself, but when Sakura flopped down in it, I made a second one.

Sakura made up for several lost meals by digging into three of the boxes Bridget had prepared. It was intended for an entire day’s rations, but Sakura seemed intent on eating all that and more in one sitting. I adjusted the table as she ate, raising it up a bit to a normal height for the chairs I’d just made.

When she finally pushed her empty plates away and groaned in satisfaction, I folded my hands and leaned closer to her.

“Alright, so spill it. Did you learn anything else?” I asked.

“About the city? Yeah. Most of the oni running the place are actually former humans. All those at the top have done at least two racial evolutions and have completed their transformation. There are a few humans who figured out the trick to leveling up past 25 by going to another shard, and they’re being kept isolated outside the city until they complete a racial evolution.” Sakura shrugged.

“And those that refuse?” I asked.

“That doesn’t end too well for them. From what I hear, most of them take the deal. The local families running the city have filled out their lower ranks with such people. Their higher ranks are naturally the yakuza families themselves and their off-world allies. It will be difficult for you to get an audience with any of them since you’re a human and will blow their cover.”

“How do you think they’d react if I kicked down their door and demanded the chance to speak with them?” My fingers squeezed the table.

“Not well. You’ll never catch them all in one place for a decapitation strike if that’s what you’re planning. They’re just centralized enough to pull this scam on the populace, but not centralized enough to actually all come together at once. If you took out one group, the other yakuza families would be calling on their off-world oni allies to rescue them. It would kick off a big fight.”

“Hmm...” I muttered, chin resting in my hands. A big fight wasn’t something I was necessarily against. The trouble was the location. I could likely kick the asses of most B-Grades. Probably anybody the System would let through at this stage of the integration, since A-Grades weren’t allowed here.

But could I kill them in the middle of a densely populated city? Without killing tens of thousands of people as collateral damage? Probably not. Reluctantly, I abandoned thoughts of a direct solution to my problems.

“What about an assault? That would be tough to hide.”

Sakura shrugged. “Based on what I’ve seen, roughly two thirds of Crownhill’s current forces would be enough to take the walls and storm the city. The walls are well defended, but only by a few oni and a bunch of low-leveled humans with conventional firearms as weapons. Anybody at D-Grade or C-Grade could ignore them. We’d be outnumbered ten to one, but we’d win in the end.”

“At the cost of slaughtering who knows how many innocent defenders.” I pinched my brows. There had to be a clever way out of this. Maybe if I could shut down the portals to Onibushi, while at the same time proving to the populace of New Kyoto that they’d been duped, I’d be able to swiftly and quietly take over. But no feasible means of accomplishing those goals was coming to mind, at least not with any simple method.

Subverting the populace was viable in the long run, at least. Mere exposure to Crownhill would prove that humans could level to D-Grade through a racial evolution. I’d have to think over the specifics, but an increasingly solid plan was forming in my mind as I puzzled through what I needed to do. Perhaps this stage of the integration wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“And what about what you stayed here for?” I asked Sakura.

Sakura smiled at that, eyes going distant. “My dad’s still alive and kicking. I knew he’d make it.”

She spoke with utter confidence, but I could see the relief plain on her face. I remembered that when the integration happened, her first instinct was to run to her father, knowing he’d be able to figure something out. I could only hope my own child with Bridget would have a fraction of that faith in me.

“Is he here?” I asked curiously. If Sakura’s father was part of the city’s ruling elite, it would throw most of my plans into disarray.

“Not in the city, no. He’s on Onibushi right now alongside the rest of my extended family. He was originally part of another shard, but managed to connect with the rest of the family on his own. The Miyamoto Clan is pretty big, you know. My father was just one of the rare few who left Japan.”

“I see...” I ran my fingers along my chin. What Sakura was describing was something I’d theorized was possible, but never had the means to explore it. I’d long since thought it would be possible to slip between the barriers the System put up between various shards using teleportation arrays to other worlds in the Arcadia Multiverse.

If my parents were still alive, I’d be jumping to Themyscira, then taking any teleportation array I could get coordinates to back home to explore various shards and look for them. This kind of mobility was something both the Miyamoto Clan and I had access to, but only they could use it. I simply didn’t have anyone worth contacting.

Sakura squirmed in her seat. “Carter, I want to visit him. I need to let him know I’m alright.”

“I know. We’ll figure something out,” I promised, though I was already pinching my brows. Charting a course through this mess wasn’t going to be easy.

<Note>

So, originally, Sakura's dad was going to be on the San Francisco shard. But I feel like having both San Francisco and San Antonio as important locations would be confusing. Plus, I don't want to delay Sakura's dad's introduction for yet another integration, so I think we might be going to Onibushi after all. Though I'll probably keep it brief.