Chapter 1234 (1/2)

Mrs. Hamilton looked out the window and watched Donny in the clearing below rub his temples as he tried his best to suppress his growing headache. It had become quite the problem recently that forced him to spend a few hours each day sleeping. The combination of business, image training, and stress from political issues was slowly gnawing at his sanity.

But very quickly one of the laborers that was laying the foundations for the competition grounds walked over to Donny and he was forced to raise his head and reveal a smile. They spoke for several minutes, Donny solving whatever problem the laborer presented and sending him on his way.

Shaking her head, Mrs. Hamilton turned away from the window and walked back to her desk. Although he always knew that would be his role… to see things get to this point...

To be fair, they were all quite exhausted currently. Despite everyone’s boosted Vitality, the leaders of Donnyton had been working tirelessly for the past month to prepare for the twice a year Donnyton Trials. In the two years since they were instituted, the original four competitions, combat, tactics, knowledge, and production, had been expanded to seven. One of the new inclusions was a more formal split and expansion of the two original production competition: process and piece. Another was a formal performance and entertainment competition.

The final inclusion was the one that had given Donnyton’s leadership the communal headache. It was effectively an all-star competition that would occur on the last day, featuring the individuals with the top 32 point totals from the previous competitions. There would be five rounds of randomized events and making sure no particular competition winner would have an unfair advantage was a nightmare.

Mrs. Hamilton opened her eyes. Still, most of our work is done. Meanwhile, Donny…

Mrs. Hamilton sat down at her desk and picked up the pea-green porcelain teacup that Regina Northwind had given Mrs. Hamilton for her birthday last year. She took a sip and sighed in pleasure; truly, the coffee farms Southwest of Franksburg were really coming in nicely.

Yet just like Donny, as soon as she felt a shred of peace of mind, there was a knock at the door. After taking another sip of coffee, Mrs. Hamilton called out, “Come in.”

The door pivoted inward and revealed Daniel’s disheveled form. He walked briskly forward, carrying a thick clipboard. His fingers were stained with ink and he too looked rather the worse for wear. Mrs. Hamilton’s eyes narrowed slightly; there was something else at play here. Something was bothering Daniel.

As she predicted, Daniel didn’t immediately offer Mrs. Hamilton any information or ask a question. Instead, Daniel regarded Mrs. Hamilton nervously for several seconds before he opened his mouth. “Who did it? Was it one of ours?”

Really, it is about this? Some part of Mrs. Hamilton wanted to chide Daniel for how easily spooked he was, but she also knew that he was one of the people that functioned best when everyone around him ignored his flaws. So she held her tongue and steepled her fingers. “It was not us. If I’m not mistaken… it should have been Lucifer and his group from Franksburg that cleared the Danger Zone.”

Daniel’s face flushed, his face red and sweaty with worry. Mrs. Hamilton took another sip of the smoky coffee to channel her emotions in an ambiguous enough way that Daniel wouldn’t spend the rest of their meeting overwhelmed with anxiety. Then she set her pea-green teacup down on her desk and let her eyes close for a few moments.

At least I won’t need to give twenty speeches over the next week. Mrs. Hamilton consoled herself. Then she flexed her fingers and prepared herself to deal with Daniel.

As the face of Donnyton, Donny’s work had really only begun. And when she had looked out the window at Donny, he looked more zombie than human. Still, he was young. Mrs. Hamilton didn’t doubt that he would use the excitement and festivities as a means to rally himself.

“Is this okay? We’ve only cleared one Danger Zone ourselves.” Daniel spoke hesitantly. “If the perception of the Squads of Donnyton as the strongest on Earth starts to slip-”

“It won’t,” Mrs. Hamilton smiled sweetly at Daniel to placate him. “You have to remember Franksburg is our ally; this is a good thing. In addition, you saw the notification; Lucifer’s group chose to split the experience benefit with everyone. That’s another boost to Donnyton’s growth. Don’t worry needlessly.”

Mrs. Hamilton’s gaze fell back to the three reports on her desk. It was the second was the one that had Daniel all riled up, and in Mrs. Hamilton’s mind, it was the least important of the news that arrived today. It was a transcript of the notification that had appeared before everyone on Earth along with a few of Mrs. Hamilton’s thoughts on what it meant. Idly, Mrs. Hamilton looked over the notification once more.

Congratulations people of New Earth! The Danger Zone, “Acid Volcano” has been cleared! The clearer has elected to share the benefit with the entire world! All individuals of New Earth will experience a slight boost in gathering experience!

Congratulations! This is the third Danger Zone where the clearer selected the worldwide award! Clearing two more Danger Zones and selecting the worldwide reward before the arrival of the First Calamity will result in the New Earth receiving a special bonus.

The first Danger Zone cleared had been the Ogre Gorge. After that was the World Crater, and then Zone Seven’s Brass Dollhouse. Perhaps the real reason that Daniel was so nervous was that the details of the second Danger Zone remained mysterious to this day and the third Danger Zone was only accomplished after Zone Seven allied with several of Donnyton’s Squads to clear it.

But this fourth Danger Zone had not involved in Donnyton at all; Franksburg had done it all on its own. Which, in Mrs. Hamilton’s mind, only proved that Lucifer hadn’t been slacking off while avoiding any attention-grabbing activities in the past year.