I didn't know if I should laugh or cry, "Don't be ridiculous! Even if I repeated that moment a hundred times, I would still kill all of them! They are traitors! Engrave that deeply in your head, major, a traitor is someone either to be killed or be bound by a contract on the system honour."
My words showered mercilessly over his head. That major mistake here. Did he think there was a chance for some of them to return back from that dark path?
C'mon man, be a little realistic here please!
"Tell me the good news," as my mood turned, I turned to Karoline and demanded in a firm tone.
And finally she complied.
"Out of over a hundred US defence companies, we got the recognition and promise for help from four of them… But…"
"But what?"
"The angels are already targeting them as we speak," she gave another piece of bad news even now, "out of their grand factories and warehouses, only the ones located at their headquarters still stand intact. As for the rest…"
"I don't need that much anyway," I didn't care about the size of their losses, I only needed their superb minds.
Even if they could only provide fifty engineers at this point, I wouldn't see that as a loss in any possible way.
"Do they have their military engineers at these headquarters?" I asked before adding, "how far are these bases from here? Are they under attack at the moment? What about the military forces? How much did we get?"
I showered her with many questions and she could only blink in front of my impatience.
"Well, I don't know anything about their engineers," she said in an honest surprised tone, "all I asked was their cooperation and the readiness to move out their arsenal…"
She paused as if she got what I wanted wrongly this time, "Did you want their military gear or their engineers?"
"Both," I instantly answered, "but if I have to choose, then those brilliant minds come first."
"Don't be ridiculous," the mayor seemed to still be trapped in that useless circle of thoughts, "These are the top four defensive companies not only in the entire nation but in the whole world! Take the Reston company… They are the ones who make M1A1, M1A2, and the recently added M1A3 mighty Abram's tanks!"
"Not to mention Raytheon technology company, the one who is making great engines and many kinds of missiles… The Northrop Grumman corp which makes a lot of our rocket launchers, armoured cars and tanks…"
"And the biggest fish of all of them," the major seemed to forget the chaotic times we were living and was lost in his old days thoughts, "Lockheed Martin… They are giants! A real beast in the military industry worldwide! Not only they are vastly diverse in making literally everything, their recent stealth bombers are pieces of art!"
"C'mon folks, wake up," I had to knock some sense into their thick heated heads, not only by my words but also by using my knuckles and knocking over their heads, "we are at the time of the apocalypse! That's not going to work."
"The recently developed stealth bomber…" the major tried to resist my logic, but I poured tons of cold water over his head, with the hope for him to chill out.
"Any plane going to the higher atmosphere will fall," I said with a firm tone, "the apocalypse diffuses a large force field to isolate our world from outer space. Nothing outside that gigantic dome would survive, least your proudful stealth bombers."
"..."
"..."
The two looked at me in silence. I knew the major wasn't that easy to knock off his old useless military pride at this era. But for Karoline, she now had the reason she looked for what caused her family to perish.
"What do you want me to do?" after taking a deep breath, and seemingly controlling her emotions and anger, she asked in a decisive way.
"Go back and get the info about their engineers," I said, "tell them to not move out, we are the ones coming for them. They only needed to gather anything useful, all the materials needed, all the gears and their grand arsenals in one single location. Fortify and only defend, that's their mission. They have to use the help of the system, other survivors to ensure they will secure their places. Where are they located anyway?"
They said weird names that I couldn't even recall! Luckily I got that hot military headed major next to answer.
"Three of them are located in Virginia state," he said before adding, "all around Washington D.C."
"How far is this state from here?"
I wasn't a citizen of the US, so I didn't get to know the answer for that.
"It's not a small distance," Karoline said with a deep sigh, "by a car, we can luckily arrive there in five hours if the road isn't crowded."
"Roads are empty, we are at the times of a disaster," I reminded her again before adding, "and using a car won't work! We can only travel on foot for now."
"Foot!" The two of them looked at me as if they were seeing a crazy man.
"Guys, wake up," again I knocked their heads with my knuckles, "we have our systems and stats! Why do you think we have the speed stat then? Right now I dare to say having fully equipped one hundred points in speed stat is faster than a car!"
"This…" Karoline was shocked to speak and I could only shake my head.
"Then three are in Washington, what's the fourth one? And where?" I prayed it wouldn't be on the other coast or something far away than that.
"It's Raytheon tech corp," Karoline said, "it's located in the north, at Massachusetts state."
"This…" once I heard that name, I couldn't help but recall another thing, "isn't there the famous MIT?"
"It's located in the same state, yes," Karoline nodded in agreement.
"That's great then!" MIT was one of the brightest technology universities in the entire world, if not the best! "Make them dispatch a force there, save all they could and bring back every single student with them if possible."
"This…" Karoline frowned before the major interfered and explained:
"The two are literally located near each other," he said before adding, "the MIT university is located in a city called Cambridge city. The Raytheon corp is located at Waltham city; the two are just this close from Boston city."
I didn't know the former two, but the latter Boston city was a very famed one for many things. Many human heroes came from there, hopefully I'd have the chance to meet and recruit a few of them.
"It's settled then," I said, "make them either move to the MIT campus and fortify it, or move the MIT survivors back to their base, whatever works for them."
I now closed the file of the defensive military firms. I also gained access to MIT genius kids. Hopefully many survived so far, and I prayed most would still be alive until I arrived there.
Now all that remained was the army matters.
"How did we do with the loyal army leaders?" I asked while giving the major a warning glance. I didn't like stupidity, I always felt it was quite contagious and got on my nerves.
"It's not that great either," Karoline sighed in a tired way, "we managed to get only ten percent of the former army forces approval. And most of them are far away from here."
"Ten percent?" It was still higher than what I expected. "How many are near us?"
"Only two percent," the major spoke again, not able to resist himself, "they are situated around Virginia state. They can come here if we want."
"No," I firmly denied this, "let them be ready to move when we arrive."
"Move?" Karoline asked with doubt, "are we going somewhere after Virginia?"
Anyone coming from that era would think about the capital of the US 'former country, Washington D.C. I knew this wouldn't look logical, but I couldn't stay there for many reasons.
First of all, that city was filled with many politicians, wealthy people, and famous influencers and names from all over the US. Without the need to even think about it, I was sure that the city was in the hands of the angels and their loyal dogs; traitors.
Going there would be suicidal, not to me but to many forces I gathered with much difficulty.
"We are going to move to the north," I said before adding, "to Massachusetts state."
"To MIT?" Karoline asked.
"To the Raytheon tech base?" the major asked.
"Whatever they agreed upon, the base where they gather will be our main base from now on."
They might not know what I knew, but I didn't explain to them anything. In my eyes, that place in the north was like a gold mine, something I couldn't and wouldn't lose under any circumstances.
"Go back now," I said, "we have limited time here. I'll move out in less than two hours, so make sure you get everything wrapped."
"Going to Virginia?" The mayor was still thinking about going to the capital.
"To Jersey city first," first things first, "later on we will move to Virginia."
"What about my boys?" the major asked again, "will we take them with us? Leave them here?"
That man… he thought highly of himself and his prideful boys. "You all will remain here," I said before adding, "there are many castles scattered around the city. You'll arrange your troops to be stationed inside these castles."
"That's it?" he asked with a dejected tone.
"Yeah, that's it for now," and I poured more icy cold water buckets on his head. C'mon man, if not for me around, you and your boys would have been killed.
"What about me?" Karoline asked in obvious fear.
"You'll come with me for sure," it was obvious that I wouldn't leave you behind. Don't give me that scared face girl, nothing could harm you as long as you were on my side.
As the two vanished again inside the fort base, I started my final arrangements to leave this city.
The first I contacted was the jumper. He was almost finished scouting the last area of the city, Bronx. That would leave only one place untouched so far, Staten island.
As for Isabella and the spearhead, the two were on the spree of taking out the castles in Brooklyn. I simply gave them the order to cross the bridge and reach Staten Island once finished. And I urged them to do that faster.
They were doing a great job for now. Yet that was all thanks to my warriors. Once I left, their speed and efficiency to take castles with minimal losses would drastically change.
I estimated to have only two hours left here. According to the jumper, the number of monsters in the Bronx area wasn't that much to worry about.
I planned to wait until they captured Staten Island then leave. As for Bronx, they could take control of it smoothly before the next quest arrived.
As I finished doing so, I sent for all my top fighters to assemble in two hours. Angelica, Alex, Isabella, the spearhead, and the jumper were notified by this. Adding Karoline to the mix, I was sure my line up was realy formidable.
I only lacked a big army to support all of us. Hopefully the gods will be ready before I leave. I expected great things from them to be honest.
As I finished doing all that, I checked over the auction and didn't hesitate anymore. I bought that staff with its buyout price, stored it for now inside my inventory.
Once seeing the inventory filled with useless items, I didn't hesitate to put all of these things on sale. The monster cores and materials would lose their value by the beginning of the second quest.
If I waited, then I'd sell them with a loss.. I estimated to gain almost fifteen million coins from them, just enough to sustain the needs of my two bottomless pits for now.
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