Chapter 59: Decision and progress

"I say, we fight."

Contrary to his usual, calm demeanour, Pavlo seemed to be extremely energetic today. Going even as far as smalling his fist against the table, he made me worried whether he was actually mature enough to do business with me.

"But in an open fight, they could just squish us dry. We might be somewhat influential, but its Sarate family that we are talking about here."

Shaking his head, the patriarch of the Baskar family pointed out before adding.

"They are too rich for us to handle."

As much as I wanted to refute those words, there was no denying the truth. What could a provincial gang do against a family holding entire conglomerate in their hands?

"I'm telling you. They also suffered from the incident. And from what I could see on the spot, quite a substantial loss that was."

Instead of trying to argue with the man on his own line, I switched the focus of the discussion to a closely related topic that I was more comfortable with defending.

"I'm not saying to declare a full-scale war against them. Just nibbling at their resources here and there to keep them occupied will be enough."

When this meeting started, I imagined that there would be no way for anyone to oppose my plan. But seeing how even mentioning it fell on the dry ground, I had no option but to change my agenda a bit.

Looking at the atmosphere at the table, it seemed that those huge concessions didn't seem to be enough for the Baskars. And as much as it pained me, I couldn't do anything without their approval and support yet.

"Sir…"

Seeing that someone was ready to attempt changing my mind, I calmly stopped him with my raised hand. Standing up from the table, I rested my hands against it as I leaned forward, taking a moment to think about stuff.

"If that's the case, then let's forget it. It's not like we need to anything right away…"

As soon as those words left my mouth, the atmosphere in the room quickly cleared. But not everyone from the family was content with that outcome.

"But why? If they can directly attack us and get away scot-free with it…"

Clenching his fists as hard as he gnashed his teeth, Pavlo started trembling at the notion of giving up - even if only temporary - on revenge.

"I know what you are thinking. If we don't show a proper reaction, people will think we grew weak. Something like that, am I right?"

Stopping Pavlo from bursting out any further I once again regained the control over the conversation. Releasing a deep sigh aimed at signalling how hard it was for me to concede, before lowering my head in defeat.

"For now, we need to take the hit. If that's your belief, then let's just move to the next topic. We will swallow our shame and play the victims of their bullying while letting them do whatever they want. And least make sure to bank on it through social media."

Before the apocalypse, the easiest way to get follows, subs or likes was always to create a drama. This was one of the reasons why as the audience matured, it moved from the drama channels to something more creative and useful. Something that was always bound to remain in the shadow of the exploding popularity of dramas.

And right now, the situation only escalated. If I wanted to quickly garner publicity willing to listen to my words, all I had to do was to stir up some drama. The fact that it would be bad blood caused by literal murder instead of some uncareful words said over the internet, would only make the debate and emotions more heated, creating a fertile ground for even further growth of my popularity.

After all, my current plan took fame as one of the main weapons in my arsenal!

"Sir… I didn't expect you to agree on this point with such ease…"

With the head of the entire Baskar family making this comment, the main focal point of today's discussion was now over. After all, there could be only so many topics of such great importance during a single meeting. Not because we couldn't handle to discuss more important topics during a single sitting. It was caused by a simple fact that events of huge meaning rarely happened one after another.

"Well, I don't want to appear as if I'm skipping on my work, but I still have a lot of work in the crypt. If that won't be a problem…"

In the end, with the matter of how to deal with Sarate's family attacks now settled, there was hardly any point in me sitting and wasting my time in here. Ever since I started making my moves in the apocalypse world, the charm of reclaiming lost land and digging its treasures was getting to my head.

What's more, right before I stepped into the hall where the meeting was taking place, the news of all my orders finally getting fulfilled reached my ears. And that meant that as soon as I would find the tools that I wanted to bring to Ayda, I would be free to come right back to her arms with my shoulders burdened by nearly endless sacks of goods from the earth for her!

Just the thought of the expression that this girl would make once graced with the earthy wealth was enough to keep me going. Not even realising when did I manage to excuse myself from the council and move all the way to the basement, I simply shrugged at the situation before picking up some of the leftover tools from the basement before stepping back into the apocalypse world.

Even though the wish to return to Ayda's loving embrace was currently my most powerful fuel, I couldn't do so emptyhanded. As great of a present the stuff from earth would be, it didn't even come close to how actually use the tools from this apocalypse world would be to her.

And this single thought alone was enough to get me going for the next three hours, over which I finally managed to turn the pointless airlock from before into an actual thing connected to the main dome of my camp. Although for now, it would only shorten the time required for me to clean the equipment from the antimagic dust by a small margin it also marked an important stepping stone in my efforts to reclaim this place.

Picking up the same status clock that I wore ever since I found about it, I brought it to the airlock before spending yet another hour on just cleaning it. Only once I was satisfied with the result did I set the airing program for the machinery within the room before going back to earth and picking the groceries I ordered.

The thing that pained me the most, was the fact that I could work in a single world at a time. That meant, while I was on earth, I was losing my chance to further my progress both in the apocalypse and Ayda's world.

But now, that changed. For the next few hours, the equipment I left in the apocalypse would continue to clean both the airlock and the main part of the compound from the dust, turning the space inside completely sterile. And while it would take at least a few hours to finish, once I would return to the apocalypse, I could save myself the time required to repeat this process for every future part of the compound, just because the place where I would construct it would keep all that pesky dust away!

Yet, as great as it was to reach the point where work could be furthered in two or more worlds simultaneously, now that I picked up the bags with presents for Ayda, only a single thing was left in my mind.

The curiosity of what kind of expression would she make while opening her presents!