Chapter 1006 (1/2)

“What…?” Tatiana blinked in surprise, not even needing to fake her slightly bewildered surprise. Her mind danced around, touching all of the connecting threads. She forced her face not to shift from that shock as she rapidly calculated what such a move by the government that would mean. Based on Holloway’s phrasing, he seemed to indicate that the government would be the one funding this venture. And she didn’t think that he would lie to her face.

If they were offering something that would obviously benefit Erickson Steel, it meant that they were confident on getting a return on the investment. A lot of return. Which meant that they would ask for an assurance that-

“Of course… it’s a business deal. In exchange for such a partnership, Erickson Steel simply has to sell back its land to the government. We would enter into a lessor/lessee relationship and could begin the project immediately.” Suddenly, Lee Holloway’s gaze turned sympathetic. He spared the empty liquor bottle on Tatiana’s desk a glance. “I’m sure you’ve realized it… but Erickson Steel is in a somewhat precarious situation.

“Previous laws allowed the creation of special business districts as Zone 1 was developing in New Earth, under the discretion of designated officials vetted by Congress. But it is a rather murky issue of whether those special officials could sell the special business districts to third parties without leave of Congress. Honestly… it seems highly unlikely that such arrangements would stand up in court.”

Tatiana just looked at Lee Holloway. Her face continued to smile politely.

“...I’ll give you some time to think it over.” Lee stood and headed to the door with the abruptness and capriciousness of a prowling cat.

Of course, you will leave, you smug prick. Tatiana thought as she suppressed the urge to yawn. I haven’t looked into the way Randidly obtained the land rights here, so I’ll need time to realize whether your threat is a genuine one. At that point, I bet you expect me to panic for a while. No need to force the issue immediately.

But of course, Lee stopped at the door. This would be the looming blade above Erickson Steel’s back. But the threat about Helen’s interaction with the police didn’t emerge. Instead, Lee took an entirely different tack.

“Ah… there is one more thing. Since we will be moving into a more working relationship, I wanted to give you a heads up. Due to bureaucratic oversight that resulted from the rising threat of monsters in the South… some of our patrols in the area have been erratic. Forced to return early due casualties, forced to avoid growing Raid Bosses due to lack of supplies… suffice to say, the normal patrols have not occurred. Intelligence operatives predict that monsters are massing in the South around Lake Apollo.”

Tatiana’s face twitched. She carefully raised her hand and pretended to cough into it in order to cover her mouth.

Holloway’s smile was sharp. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if we will be able to rectify the situation in a short amount of time. Please, take some precautions to protect Erickson Steel’s interests.”

You won’t help until we sell out, you mean.

After Holloway left, Tatiana waited three seconds. During those stretched moments, Tatiana demonstrated a depth of character and Willpower that she hadn’t realized she possessed. Then she laughed, so loud and long she was holding her belly and gasping five minutes later.

I’m sure they would be extremely surprised to find that one bored spear-hellion eradicated your carefully cultivated threat in a single afternoon, Tatiana thought with amusement. Then she shook her head and wondered what she could get for Helen as a gift for taking away one more problem Tatiana had to deal with.

But very quickly, Tatiana’s focus shifted to what the government was after. Giving the government the land would obviously put Erickson Steel at their mercy, but it wouldn’t be a rapid death for the company. They could slowly charge higher and higher rent and tolls, but Tatiana doubted they would use such a roundabout approach if their goal was really to destroy or dominate Erickson Steel.

Tatiana thought for sure they would ask for a controlling interest. But instead, they targeted the land. What did it mean…?

Humming softly to herself, Tatiana leaned back in her chair and let her thoughts slowly sift through the information she possessed.

*****

Randidly shook his right hand, but the annoying numbness wouldn’t disperse. Since his trip to the center of the plateau and discussion with Chulroon four weeks ago, he had begun working to raise his Nether Resistance as much as possible before he returned to normal time. He didn’t truly dare to try and attack himself with that dangerous blue-black triangle, but unleashing the mythic rated Skill inflicted more than enough damage to push the Skill Level up to Level 53.

Now, with only one week remaining in his self-imposed time limit, Randidly was beginning to feel some extended wear from exposure to Nether. And this was just from utilizing it as a weapon, which proved how dangerous a substance it was. Randidly had considered staying here longer, but a few extra months wouldn’t matter much to Nether Resistance. Because of how the damage took an almost pre-System amount of time to heal, he would likely need another year in the Dungeon to show significant progress.

Yet Randidly still hesitated to isolate himself for that long. Part of it was keeping his mentality sharp, but part of it was beginning to actively develop Erickson Steel. He couldn’t avoid this tiresome task forever. Besides, his growth in all areas but Engraving was slowing to a crawl. It was time to stop avoiding the march of time.

“I hope this is fucking worth it…” Randidly frowned down at his hand. With his brand new metallic left arm, he flicked his right forearm repeatedly to restore some of the feeling back to it the unresponsive flesh.