Chapter 129: The Backrooms
Silence hung in the small, dimly lit backroom as Faust held Diego’s gaze. The shelves of food and cans rattled around them faintly; they were underneath the stairs, and lots of people were moving.
In truth, Faust didn’t care much about planning against Jason—there was no way the other party was plotting against him.
But he didn’t trust Diego to go through with this.
Old Dog would pity the boy and expect some lines not to be crossed. Holding back in a fight because you think there are rules is the fastest way to lose.
Diego faltered under his gaze and looked away. "We aren’t planning a hit or anything crazy. But we can all see what’s happening. The digital ’gods’ the system generated are on his side. Even the system itself supports him."
Faust leaned back in his seat and shrugged. "So you’re scared of him?"
"I think we should at least make sure he can’t just do whatever the fuck he wants."
"We?" Nirvana repeated, her eyebrows raised.
Faust patted her shoulders. "Calm down. She’s not wrong, though. I’ve been... willing to help you because of the fifth wave. But what makes you think I don’t think Jason would be better in charge?"
Kit coughed. "Strange. I always thought you’d want to be in charge."
"You don’t know him very well," Nirvana muttered as she snapped up a slider.
Faust nodded. "I can see this Novice village stuff becoming a whole city-building game soon. I never enjoyed COC as much as CR. Even when they made everything pay-to-win."
Diego had no idea what he was talking about and just ignored it. "The reason I came to you was because I know you wouldn’t like Jason in charge either."
That was true. Jason was a small person; he would make things hard for Faust, and he would lead the village toward destruction sooner or later.
"The other reason I came to you was because I think you might be able to contest that Schema of his," Diego added.
Now that Faust had used the Iron King Schema, he wasn’t as keen on it as he was before. Its limitation of weakening you against enemies stronger than you wasn’t as good as its ability to make weaker enemies utterly impotent.
But Faust had always preferred challenging people stronger than him.
Diego took a sip of his wine before he continued. "So what do you want in exchange for your help?"
Plotting against Jason was already good enough, but money would be nice too. He took out a sheet of paper he had been saving in his spatial bag and began to write down some things. Once he was done, he passed it to Diego.
Kit leaned over to look at the paper and flinched. "That’s a... lot."
Most of it was just preferential treatment when it came to some items. Things that the town might get from completing special quests.
Diego folded the paper and put it into his pocket, his jaws clenched tightly. "Okay."
"I’m not done," Faust said, raising a hand. He ignored the pale looks on their faces and said, "First, I want to know how far you’re willing to take this."
Diego relaxed a little, misreading Faust’s words. "Like I said, we don’t want to hurt him, but we want to make sure he can’t just do what—"
"You misunderstand me. I’m asking if you’re ready to hurt him. Personally, if he comes for me, I’ll kill him. But I wonder if you’re ready to do the same."
Diego’s eyes widened. "H-he’s just a kid. We can’t..."
"You think Jason will think like that too? If he even gets a hint of what we’re trying to do, he’ll dedicate everything he has to seeing us dead. With Gamebreaker, it’s submit or die."
The silence in the room thickened once again. Nirvana leaned into her seat, casually sipping on her drink. He had never told her this, but she was definitely willing to kill Jason.
Kit looked stuck between sadness and horror. They both knew what he was saying had some merit.
"We can try to come to a middle ground," Kit said finally. "We don’t have to be friends, but he’s just a kid. He’ll grow up and see things differently."
Diego nodded. "Exactly. All we have to do is bring him in and let him make more decisions. I was considering an election of sorts. We can actually modify how the town hall works—split its defense, resources, and penalty system up. Create an executive, senate, and judiciary of sorts."
"I originally thought of bringing Jason in as a deputy town leader. But now that you’ve explained more, I don’t mind stepping down and moving to a senate position where we still control resources and he defends the town."
Faust cringed. "This sounds incredibly stupid. You’re bowing your head just because he has a little more power than you. That will just embolden him to take more power."
"Just because someone can punch really good doesn’t mean he should be in charge," Nirvana added. "We aren’t cavemen."
"But this at least gives him the illusion of control," Kit said. "We’ll split up the legions, too. He’ll have full control of the Iron Legion, but we’ll have other dedicated forces."
"You’re even using his dumb naming conventions?" Faust muttered, though he had to admit secretly he liked the Iron Legion name. "What if his army is far stronger than yours?"
"We’ll find a way to split the armies in different directions. We can argue that all that strength in one place is a waste," Kit reassured.
This was all a lot of hopeful thinking. But Faust could see it working. No matter how loyal people were to Jason, if moved to another legion they would become more loyal to the people they fight beside.
Nirvana looked a bit confused. "I don’t know much about this stuff, but you’re still leaving the big decisions in his hands."
"The senate can overrule him," Diego said calmly. "We’ll just refuse to support him with resources. Besides, we’ll flood him with decisions that he has to focus on. If he can’t come to a good decision, then we’ll vote."
"You’re saying ’we’ too much," Faust grumbled. "I’m not going to be freely around for you to use. I have my own things to worry about."
"We were hoping you’d be in the senate." Kit’s eyebrow furrowed. "He fears you so—"
"No, bad idea." Faust waved his hand. "He’ll see what we’re doing... but, you can add Thalia to the senate. She’s pretty smart for politics nonsense."
He was also starting to feel bad for what happened upstairs.
Diego nodded. "It’ll come down to a vote. If you aren’t supporting her, she’ll at least have support from her three friends in the top ten."
"I won’t even be around the Novice village when this happens just in case," Faust said. "Warn me before it starts."
They both nodded, looking more and more sure of their plans.
