Another Stupid Isekai

I woke up, put down the barriers, and went to grab some food. It was going to be a busy day, and I also needed to put some things in my mind in order with the tenth day slowly approaching.

While still eating I started heading towards the first gate, to clear the monsters. Upgrading the device in this world had some positive aspects, but also negative ones, as the new monsters were possibly also going to invade the city if somebody didn't go out there, and cleared them. Without me, there was nobody who could do it. I needed to solve that problem.

Wich was directly tied with a hard decision I had to make. I needed to invest in a person that would take the baton from my hands, and protect people here. I had two candidates in mind, but none of them was perfect.

The first choice was Slaven, who already proven to have the capabilities of a leader. He was stronger than anybody, except me obviously. The problem was that he allowed slavery before. You could argue that was a way to help those who couldn't help themselves, and apparently, it was voluntary, but the idea still didn't work for me.

I was simply afraid that he will bring back the previous order as soon as I left.

The second candidate was Alexandra. She could take care of herself, was pretty brave and resourceful, but she wasn't a hunter, and I had no idea if she would be able to lead people. I was supposed to fix this place, and putting her in charge could doom it.

I really didn't know what to do. The more I thought about one of them, the better the other one looked, and when I focused on that person, everything repeated itself. Eventually, my head started to hurt, so I just gave up, on that.

I reached the gate, and started clearing monsters, then summoned shadows, and went back, just to meet with all the people more or less halfway to the city center.

- Morning - I welcomed them.

- Morning - replied a bunch of people.

- You promised us something yesterday - reminded Slaven.

- Oh, yeah...

And I started a long monologue about every monster I encountered yesterday, bringing up their strong and weak points. People were asking many questions, but with every minute their faces looked more and more gloomy.

- Why did you do that? Why did you upgrade that thing, if you knew this is going to happen? - asked somebody from the newcomers' group.

- Well... Mine works a little bit different, so I didn't exactly know this might happen. Besides, you need more crystals and better equipment. Look, it's not like you won't be able to deal with those skeletons. You can do that. There is just a lot of them. Build some traps and barriers. Even if you kill all of them, and zombies will come the next night, you still can run from them, since they are slow.

- We need to sleep - Su pointed out.

His sister nodded. I, on the other hand, sighed.

- You will figure it out, guys. I'm not the only person with a brain here, aren't I?

- But you brought this on us, shouldn't you take responsibility? - asked Cloe.

She was a blonde, wearing clothes that used to be very nice, expensive, I thought. She was maybe a little bit above average in terms of beauty, but the most outstanding feature was her nose, very pointy, and thin.

Never before I had paid so much attention to her, which was a good idea considering the attitude she was showing right now.

- Shut up, bitch - said Alexandra. - This guy literally saved most of our asses, and you want to demand more from him? Know your place. Besides, we still have a few days, so we can get stronger, don't we?

Call me biased, but the girl just won herself a leadership pass as far as I was concerned.

Cloe shut up, but not because of Alexandra's words. The reason was grunts of agreement among quite a number of others.

- I have few ideas - said Slaven. - If we can all get stronger we should be able to deal with those monsters, at least to the degree of not dying by their claws and teeth.

- By the way, there is a possibility of more people being bulled by the device today, so some of you should look for them.

- That's actually not good news - said Slaven. - More people means fewer crystals per person, and more mouths to feed.

- On the bright side there are two sources of stones now, so that shouldn't be that big of a deal, shouldn't it? - I pointed out.

- Depends on the number of people.

- Shouldn't be that big. Anyway, you wasted enough of my time. I need to clear the other side. Come pick up the crystals later.

He nodded, and we parted ways. I needed to have a conversation with both of them. I needed them to cooperate if this place was to survive. Normally I probably wouldn't care so much, and this thought actually surprised me a bit, but my friends' fives were on the line.

The thing that was so surprising, that I always thought of myself as a compassionate person. All the changes I started to slowly discover about myself, and the realization of them was just stunning. That's because it all might have already been in me. The ability to kill, or hurt other human beings. The indifference about the death of those I didn't care about. Back on earth, I would never suspect myself of such things.

It was kinda ironic. I was discovering my own shadow, as a big part of my powers had also to do with darkness, emptiness, and shadows.

Thinking about that stuff, I made my way to the commentary, and in the span of maybe an hour or two, cleared it, and piled up the crystals. There were still a lot of things to do, so I pushed the pedal to the metal.

Then I made my shadows start transporting the goods to the city center. Just as I reached my destination, the rest of the population also finished their part and found few new people. They clearly were explaining to them how everything worked. Those people were overwhelmed and scared for the most part, as their faces indicated to me.

I rounded up people and told them to help me bring the rest of the stones. I really wanted to have a talk with Alexandra and Slaven, but I just couldn't let the others work alone, as that would be too big of an opportunity to steal and hide the crystals. So the talk was delayed until we were done. Then I took both of them to the side, so others couldn't hear us, and we would still be able to see the score.

- When I'm gone one of you two will need to be in charge - I went straight to business.

Alexandra was surprised by my words, but she nodded.

- I already practically ran this place before you came - Slaven pointed out. - But I guess you have a problem with me at the top, so that's why she is here. I'm also here because you don't want me to cause problems.

- I'll be honest. I didn't like your slavery idea.

- I saved those people.

- Well, maybe. The thing is, stuff has to change. For my own peace of mind, and because this place has to function. It really does. If you stop getting stronger, some weird shit might happen. It did where I came from.

- What do you mean by that? - asked Alexandra.

- We fought among ourselves, and one day a whole army of monsters invaded us, and almost killed everybody. So yeah... That's my warning to you. You figure your own shit for yourself. If you think you can go to what it was before, then you are wrong. People will oppose now when they actually have some power in themselves. Anyway... I'm calling it a day - and I left them, to buy myself dinner.

I ate, and then went back to the building I occupied, put barriers around for a good measure, and went to sleep. I kept wondering if I did a good thing telling them about invasion. That asshole could be watching... I just didn't know how I was supposed to convince them in another way.

Beat Slaven up? Break his bones, so he would remember, and obey? That was not gonna work with that guy. I scared the shit out of everybody else, but he was still standing his ground.

I wrestled with those thoughts for hours, before I finally drifted away.

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