Chapter 395 - Days MDCCXCVII - MDCCCIII

It was a crazy week with multiple people passing through both barrier and the gate, multiple television stations doing coverage of the sudden appearance of the mysterious object, and even more mysterious people, us.

I expected a bit of conflict to emerge, but somehow Hatta, Jayadeva, and Will managed to keep things peaceful, although the army arrived, and set up a camp near the lake to have an eye on us since everybody learned that we do have some strange powers.

We were not allowed to leave and enter the territory of India before all of the necessary arrangements were made. Just as the regular people were not allowed near the gate, but that didn't stop the crowds gathering in front of barriers set up by the police and the army.  I didn't really know what exactly were those arrangements, but I didn't really feel like it was my business to know, since I had the barriers on my head.

My friends were handling that matter, and I trusted them fully.

We had no idea of how the whole world is reacting to this event. But from the often appearance of reporters with cameras, asking questions to me, which I mostly ignored, too busy with the process of overcharging mana, and others. They managed to get their hands on polaroid pictures of the city, device, and the hunters, but nothing much except that.

I heard colorful descriptions of the reporter who visited the city, talking to the camera right next to me, while I had my rare breaks to eat. They were also complaining about the fact that tye can not provide the viewers with actual footage of the place.

In the meantime, Hatta did his best to provide electrical lights in the hall. It was a complicated thing since you had to prepaid for the electricity in the device, and nobody really wanted to hunt with all the ruckus around.

It was kinda crazy.

Especially when the president of India appeared. He passed through the barriers and went to see the city by himself, followed by three dozens of soldiers. I was conveniently ignored by him. For an obvious reason. 

I became kinda like the part of the new landscape, mostly ignored, but if they had an occasion, they did their best to make me appear in the background.

And then I finally finished the mana supplying. The barriers were strong enough to withstand a heavy bombardment, so I decided its enough, and stepped through the gate, to go into the city and announce it.

There was a bunch of people in the hall. Hunters, Wuxia soldiers keeping the guard, and reporters, returning from the city. I passed by them, getting a bit of attention since they all got used to me standing like a pillar next to the barrier.

In India, it was getting dark, but in the city, it was the middle of the night already.

I walked my way to Hatta's office to let him know everything is set up and then went to buy some food - that was not in a can - from the device. I sat under a wall and filled my stomach looking at the stars.

After a moment Will joined me by sitting next to me. He was yawning, clearly just woken up.

- Hatta told me you finished.

- Yeah. It's done. How about here?

- Well... We made an unofficial deal with India to let them establish a military training camp here. It's still a work in progress on both sides, but with that, we shouldn't have problems with them.

- Other countries will want the same thing.

- We know... We did what had to be done, and will keep our hand on the pulse, so don't worry. I'm not gonna let them have a superhuman army and conquer the world.

The flashbacks with my conversations with The Great One passed through my mind. Will noticed that.

- I know what you thinking - he said. - That's also one of the reasons I proposed this.

- Did you tell the rest?

- About what the hell is going on, somewhere out there, who knows where? No. It's better for now. We should tell them eventually, though.

I sighed.

- Maybe you are right. This was a good decision, but... We need to be careful. I don't want to start the third world war because of this place.

- We will give others a piece of this cake too. Well... I was thinking more of having the cake for ourselves and giving them the crumbles.

- You want them to chase goblins, while we will hunt the big game?

- Yep - he said with a smile.

- That might work... Unless they will figure us out, and decide to flip the table.

- That will take some time. We will react accordingly to it too. Don't worry. For now, we need all the players to join our game. We need to get out of here, and see what is happening in other countries, make other deals.

- Who is gonna take care of that?

- And here we have a little problem...

He grabbed my full attention, as I looked him right in the eyes.

- What the hell happened?

- Well... We decided that me, Jayadeva, and Aisha should be the ones in charge of foreign affairs, then I also proposed Blue to join...

- Why? He just tried to do some shit behind everybody's back, again.

- And that's exactly why. He wanted to rule this place. That was his goal all along, but it changed when you slapped him in the face with the voting and the barrier.

- We all agreed to that so I didn't slap him - for some reason his words made me angry.

- I know, but he definitely felt like somebody slapped him, and that somebody was you, Peter. He wanted to rule, that's a fact. I don't really know what his problem is, but I went to talk to him and proposed a real truce.

- And?

- He went for it. It's a no-brainer that nobody can stand up to you here, so no matter what he will do, he can't win. If you can't win with them, join them. I still hate this guy, but getting rid of him now would only cause more problems. We can't kill the guy when the whole world is watching.

- We can't?

- Ok, we can, but that would be a wrong decision. Just let me handle this.

I sighed.

- I trust you, Will...

- Good. Now get some rest. You look like shit, not to mention your smell...

- Fuck you.

- Bath first, then we can have a sex talk - he said while standing up.

Then he left. I sat for a bit longer, before finally heading towards the bathhouse, and later to my room.

That period of time came to an end with 3 847 029 points remaining on my account, and 19 class points.