Inside a black van, three people were minding their own business. Esther was checking on her phone while Hakeem was grooving with his music and Jason staring out through the window. He was deep in thought as he remembered the conversation he had with Neil.
--
Inside an office room, Jason sat in front of Neil as both were staring at each other. A rather short silence between them yet it felt like ages went by. Neil’s eyes strayed away as he lost the unofficial staring match with a slight sigh escaping his lips.
“Have you read the report?” Neil asked as he stood up walking over to the other side of the office.
“No,” Jason said as he watched Neil opened a hidden fridge and pouring himself a drink.
Neil sat back down as he chugged everything down his throat. Again, this military official let out another sigh.
“We were wrong,” said Neil.
Jason didn’t say a word as he just watched the action of this man.
“We knew our intelligence has its loopholes but we didn’t think we would fuck up this bad,” said Neil.
Jason maintained his silence.
“Nonetheless, the soldiers that survived had all been awakened,” said Neil.
“Sixty-nine new Awakened in the military, it’s still not enough but we have to start somewhere,” said Neil as he flipped through the documents once more.
“But I’ve got to hand it to you, the upper bracket of new Awakened is all from your squad, especially this Amelia Tremblay,” said Neil as he took a quick glance at Jason.
“First thing first, I apologize. I didn’t know about the rescue mission, my men are investigating the Major as we speak,” said Neil.
Rather than saying something, Jason kept his lips sealed. He didn’t mind it much since he had been paid and seeing the major in big trouble seemed to be an icing to the cake. Jason’s gut feeling was wary about that Major.
Neil kept his eyes at Jason. He heard about the payment and thought this man would defend the Major yet Jason surprised him once more and acted as if everything was natural.
“and about Amelia, she told me everything. I’m rather impressed seeing how effective it was sending you with the squad, one mission alone and she’s already at level nine even beating out Miss Portsmouth. It’s a shame really if Staff Sergeant Dan is still alive, he would have been the aspiring top two along with Amelia,” said Neil as he poured another glass for himself and took another sip.
“But something concerns me, the last UC you fought,” said Neil as he one-shot his drink.
“Amelia told me it tried to communicate,” the gaze in Neil’s eyes changed drastically. “Is this true?”
So many things were circling inside Neil’s head as this new information was literally groundbreaking. If communication was possible then it opened up a whole new possibility in this disastrous situation.
“Does trying to kill me sounds like communicating to you?” Jason said.
“I heard you almost die,” said Neil as if it was a taunt.
“Almost,” Jason replied. “So much for a city with weak monsters,” said Jason as he gave Neil the eye.
“Let’s get back to the main topic here, did that humanoid UC really communicate with you?” Neil asked once more.
“He did. But like any foreign language out there, it sounds gibberish,” said Jason.
But the word used by Jason caught Neil’s interest.
“He?” Neil said.
“Trumbo Wanderfoot, a halfling classify as a named monster,” Jason answered.
Neil stared at Jason with his eyes wide open. He then shook his head side to side.
“A halfling?” Neil asked. “Like from Tolkien's work?”
“Hmm, if you ask me, Trumbo is like fifty percent of becoming Gollum. He’s definitely not like those friendly halflings from the movies,” said Jason with a straight face.
Neil shook his head again and again.
“Do you think we can establish communication?” Neil asked.
Jason’s eyes narrowed down.
“Is there a reason we should? Just to clear things up, you do know we’re being invaded,” said Jason.
A fact that both of them couldn’t refuse.
“You’re right,” said Neil as he took something out from his drawer and casually threw it on the desk.
“This is the new report about our current status,” said Neil.
Jason flipped through a couple of pages and the crease on his forehead turned tighter with each page. Most of it was maps of Canada and the highlighted color of most of it worried him.
“Are you sure?” Jason asked.
“We map out the area using our satellite and since these UC could only appear as a blur in our picture, we can easily map the affected area. At least their jamming capability did help us in a way,” said Neil as he gave a helpless laugh at the end.
The man poured another drink in his glass.
“Want to go easy on that? Aren’t you still working?” said Jason.
“Canada is losing almost 35% of our territory to the UC and we can’t do anything about it other than to flee,” Neil replied while ignoring Jason’s question. He took a sip and look out through the window of his office.
“We don’t have many options here Mr.Park, and if establishing communication is one way of delaying the inevitable, I’ll gladly do it until we find another way, or…” his voice trailed off as he turned to Jason.
“are you going to do something about it?”
--
“Jason, we’re here,” Esther’s voice brought Jason back to the present away from his muddle thoughts.
“See you later,” Esther said to Hakeem as she got off the van.
Jason was about to exit the van but Hakeem stopped him.
“Dude, you okay?” Hakeem asked.
“I’m fine,” said Jason.
“Ease up man, you did a pretty good job,” said Hakeem as he patted Jason’s shoulder a few times.
A smile crept up on Jason’s face.
“Thanks, man,” he said as he left the van and walked through the front yard.
The black van left and in front of him, his parents were hugging his sister tightly with tears falling down from his mother’s eyes. He stopped on his track as he soaked in this sight for a while.
The lives of those close to me…
The love that he felt to these people in front of him only intensified as he remembered the highlighted part of the map of Canada. His teary mother called out to him as Jason too joined in with the family hug.
Ignoring the annoying plea from Esther, he embraced this feeling once more as it reminded of him the reason for him to continue to fight on.
--
Lying down on his bed, Jason was staring at the ceiling. Both he and Esther got an earful of nagging from their mother as she didn’t expect their new work to be that long.
Rather than telling their mother, they were going for a camping trip that didn’t make any sense considering their current situation, both he and Esther told a white lie that they were working together with the military for a special project that involved innovating their current technology.
They were skeptical at first considering how they didn’t get why the military wanted Jason of all people but didn’t question about Esther at all. It pricked Jason’s heart a bit but he let it slide since they were his parents after all.
In the end, his parents were happy about him having a job here in their hometown and amid this invasion situation, their son did a pretty good job.
A light smile surfaced while thinking about his mother’s smile. Then Dan’s death resurfaced within his mind shooing away all those good thoughts. He couldn’t help but frown.
He knew he was the one at fault. If he didn’t underestimate the monsters roaming Thunder Bay City then Dan’s death could have been prevented. His fist was clenched tightly to the point of shivering, then he remembered something.
He jumped out of his bed and opened up the computer. He checked his bank account and saw the seven digits lining up. A number that didn’t make any sense to him but now was possible through that blackm- business deal he made with the young woman’s father.
Yet rather than being elated his expression was dead serious as he had something in mind. With nothing to lose, he changed his clothes and went out of his room.
While passing through the corridor he passed by Esther’s room. He stopped as he saw a slight gap on the door. He peeked through and saw his sister sleeping on the bed even when the sun was still up.
It made sense for her to sleep after going through such a rough night and a horrible morning. To be frank, Jason should have sleep considering how he didn’t sleep a wink throughout the night. But he couldn’t at the moment, not right now. Not when he had something in mind.
Jason went out as he took the pink MPV and drove away.
It was late in the evening and as the sun was about to set, he arrived at his destination. His eyes glanced at the nameplate of the building, Osborn Metalwork.
He got out and went inside the building as most people were coming out as they just finished their wor for the day but then he stumbled a familiar face.
“Hey, you’re that guy right?” a man called out to Jason.
Jason took a look at this guy and although he looked familiar, Jason still didn’t remember his name.
“It’s Mateo,” said Mateo. “I work at Gondor Smithy.” Mateo tried to make Jason remembered him but judging from Jason’s clueless expression it didn’t seem to work.
“Oh good, I’ve been wanting to ask you something,” said Jason as he dragged Mateo inside much to the latter reluctance.
“I just got off from wo-” Mateo couldn’t even finish his words as he was dragged back into his workplace.
He tried to resist but no matter what he did, he couldn’t move an inch away from Jason’s grip. Mateo himself was quite confident about his physical prowess considering how physically demanding that was involved in his work. To add things up, Mateo was even a bit bigger than Jason.
What came next, him seated across Jason. Mateo was having a confusing time as he stared at this Asian man who was looking around.
“Sir, the smithy is close. Whatever you had in mind can we-” Mateo turned silent as the sudden strong gaze from Jason caught him off guard.
Mateo suddenly felt intimidated by this man and without knowing, his body was already drenched in sweat. He cursed himself for having to work today of all day, he didn’t understand why of all people, he was the one to meet with such a weirdo. Then Jason smiled and the intimidation pressure went away. Mateo’s breath was ragged as he tried to catch his breath.
“You okay there?” Jason asked.
Mateo nodded vigorously and at this point onwards he noted to himself to mind his words to this strange Asian man.
“Mateo is it?” Jason asked Mateo his name once more.
Mateo nodded with both of his hands placed politely on his knees with his back straight.
“Yes sir,” Mateo answered.
“Do you know how to make a sword?” Jason asked.
“Eh?” Mateo stared at Jason as he couldn’t believe what he just heard.
“The axes I made were pretty good but I’m the kind of guy who likes sword better, so do you know how to make one?” that strong gaze returned once more as it was directed straight to Mateo.
The man was shivering in his boots and he didn’t know whether to say yes or not. Surprisingly he knew how to make a sword but answering ‘yes’ might not be the best option for him since he had prior experience with this man but saying ‘no’ probably wasn’t a good idea also since Mateo was getting a bad vibe from Jason.
Mateo was a sensitive guy, in a different kind of way. Sensitive in terms of detecting the supernatural and rather than seeing ghost lingering around Jason, he smelled a strong odor of blood coming from Jason.
“Hey, did you hear me?” Jason’s words snapped him back but not a word escaped his mouth as Mateo still didn’t know what to answer.
But as Mateo’s mind was blank, a sudden enlightenment hit him. In that instant, he answered the question.
“Yes! I can make a sword!”
Thanks! His best bet would be to take the smiths out to awaken them then have them start building weapons.
that does seem to be his plan. As to how it works out...well, he does have Contract.
He should buy the company first, before uplifting it to a magical weapon shop. Prime business opportunity and he would be the first to enter the market. (And he is in a unique position to contract his employees into not sharing their abilities outside of the company, so he doesn't need to worry about them leaving and starting up a competing shop once trained.)
Cornering the market IS something that he would have learned in business school... he is a business major right? Please tell me that he does something smart that is within what he is supposed to know. Please, please, please!
Seriously, with 45% of Canada taken over by monsters, just how long until the Canadian dollar crashes?! No, the new currency of the future is in cold weapons. Magic cold weapons, which Jason might acquire a monopoly on, is going to be more important than gold, diamonds, silver, paper money, etc.
He is in fact beginning to create magic cold weapons from REGULAR steel, soon. He was successful at Novice Blacksmith 4 (Level 14) to put MINOR armor piercing on a sword. Once he uses monster parts? Sky is the limit.
@Userunfriendly So, only accept mats useful for making cold weapons (those without mats can pay in non-fiat currency and other resources); rare metals-gems-bullion-silk-durable cloth-plastic and rubber sheeting, limestone, etc. are still useful for crafting, even ordinary metals unless he wants to craft using scavanged hunks of metal (less efficient).
Ideally, he's have done this earlier, but now that he has money...
With what he now knows (35% gone, though in Canada, that doesn't mean much, since ~87% of the population lives w/in the 14% of Canada nearest the U.S. border; 100 miles), he should also be looking at setting up a coastal stronghold (a place to go to when home is no longer a viable option; monsters or hostile people) and purchasing (preferably on credit) massive amounts of dry goods (especially small things he won't want to craft himself, like shoes and clothing, needles, buttons, zippers, cloth, nails, hand-tools, wax, casts and dies, baby formula and medicine for youngsters (they can't really get systems and are vulnerable until they do) & any dry food (especially veggies) and baking essentials, cornstarch, rice, flour, baking soda/powder, salt, sugar, and spices!!!; basically skim a prepper website and start ordering in bulk delivered via shipping container; then immediately reshipped to a more secure location nearby via flatbed (still in the container), by a single employee under system contract. He would likely find that a certain segment of the population has already started their acquisitions.
IMHO he should also move south ASAP and/or look into hardened vehicles and fuel storage. Equatorial climate is best (less heating and cooling issues, and more food) unless it looks like the monsters are more populous there, because winters are going to suuuuuck once oil fields and derricks can no longer be worked, crops are ravaged, and food and energy become scarce. Alternatively, become mobile (sailboat) Or, if the tundra looks like it is less dense with killer beasts, stay and become fast friends with indigenous peoples who aren't as reliant on modern systems and skilled craftpeoples.
Dafuq...the latest chapters on Patreon...no spoilers for this, as with HanNamja’s current release rate, you’ll read it for yourself in a month and a half.
Remember you asked if Jason is an idiot? No! Though plot armor is helpful.
@Userunfriendly Domestically there is no reason for the C$ to crash as long as the government is still somewhat functional. Fiat currency is by definition is trust in the government's ability to operate continuously and accept fiat money for taxes, and in a crisis locals are not going to care to much for International trade. Internationally for trade you are probably right, barter will become the new norm.
@pendragon That is provably false, based on history. Even where government continues to function, people can screw up the economy and flow of goods, or nature can create demands beyond what production and/or shipping can provide for impacted regions. Recent examples include the global COVID response, which proved that hoarding happens even with goods which aren't necessarily scarce, but that people fear MAY become scarce in a prolonged emergency (e.g. in early covid, there were shortages in stores of things like baby formula, toilet paper, bread, etc.). If a slightly more dangerous than usual respiratory illness (most of the population isn't high risk of dying from covid... the risk is transmission to the minority who are in danger) caused this, how do you think people would respond to unpreventable wormholes spewing out killer goblins or city-leveling dragons, in unpredictable locations around the globe that threatens any and all humans with sudden death, would make people act?!
In the story, if it is true to human sociodynamics, there would already be profiteering and hording of ammunition and firearms (even though they're of limited use, most people wouldn't know this) as well as the standard goods I note in my earlier post; the only way to prevent this is to "freeze prices" and/or ration purchase by issuing purchase vouchers as happened, more or less worldwide, during both the great depression and both world wars (which arguably, this is) and isn't uncommon during disasters (hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires) and even key goods needed during non-disaster conditions (electricity during heat waves or heating fuel during extremely cold winters) that disrupt or put unusual demands on the anticipated flow of goods and services.
Yes! The fact that Canadian dollars, along with all other currencies haven’t taken a nose dive, not to mention the Kaiju invasion of NEW YORK does break immersion a bit for me.
The fact that the entire world is fighting a war, and LOSING not affecting the global economy? Absurd. I expect all currency to go pffttt soon. Draconian measures must have been taken by the governments to maintain equity.