"Interesting," Daz said after hearing what Avulaway had to say. "So, you think I should just spend everything on increasing Grid's size, and, as a result, more of the city's original land will return?"

Avulaway swallowed her saliva nervously. This was where things usually fell apart with the previous rulers that she and her people had served under.

"Indeed, My King. Admittedly, this will initially do nothing, but with time, should the Gravitation Distortio-"

"GriD CrosS!" the gem in question yelled in indignation.

"... Gravitation Distortion Control Sphere reach certain size milestones, then it will be able to move Fort Sky at its current max speed - and even faster - for far longer than its current limit of only 3-minutes, and additional features will get added to the city like the ability to traverse through space, the power to hide itself in a secret dimension, gaining its own gravitational field, and many, many more features," she explained as calmly and as simply as she could while also trying her best to make it sound like a profitable endeavour.

Daz nodded slowly as he looked around at the many buildings that surrounded the open plaza. "Is that why there are no special structures here? There's the park on the east side and the bank and town hall that I added, but apart from that? Did none of your previous rulers buy any buildings?"

"No, they did not. They all agreed to my proposal and helped Fort Sky grow to the size that it is today," Avulaway said without even a shred of hesitance in her voice.

Daz put his focus back on her and his eyes narrowed. "That's a lie."

"W-Wha-"

"I'm an Archreaper evolved from a Justice Reaper. I can detect lies," Daz said very calmly. "Avulaway, tell me the truth, or I will never do as you asked."

GriD CrosS kept his mouth shut as he struggled to not tremble with excitement. 'Master is so cool! That's right! You tell her! She keeps ignoring my preferred name! But... wait... if you can detect lies... then...' The poor crystal began panicking internally after thinking that particular thought.

"I... I did not wish to worry you... All of the buildings that the previous owners of Fort Sky have purchased were sold by me when they died or traded the city back to the system. When we are not owned, I am allowed to work to earn merit points which I can solely use to increase the crystal's size... I sell the buildings bought by rulers since they are never necessary," Avulaway admitted.

Daz stroked his chin. "That makes sense. I don't know why you chose to lie to me to cover that up, of all things. I'd sell the buildings were I wearing your shoes as well."

"Thank you," Avulaway said with a genuine tone in her voice for once. "I... I did not expect you to understand."

"It's fine. If making Grid bigger will let Fort Sky do the things that you said, then I'm willing to help make that happen. System, use all of Fort Sky's taxes on restoring Grid Cross, please," Daz requested with his usual polite attitude towards the system.

Confirmed. The total merit balance of [Fort Sky] is now 230 [-2,000,000]. The total city balance of [Fort Sky] is now: 480,000 [-20,000].

'Huh. It's a bit worrying that barely any of the city points got spent, but I suppose that'll change after giving the avianoids some time to build up taxable merit points in the bank,' Daz thought. A few moments later, another notification filled his vision.

The being known as [GriD CrosS] has gained [5] kilogrammes of mass.

Daz frowned. "That was a very small amount of growth for a fairly large amount of merit points comparatively. No wonder no other ruler saw this as a good choice..."

"M-My King! I beg you, please, give it a chance! I am sure that once the crystal reaches its next milestone then you won't be dissap-"

Lifting his hand to stop the silver-winged woman mid-beg, Daz said, "My instincts seem to think it's a good idea, so calm down. I will continue to invest in Grid, but you will be the ones paying for it. I assume you do this normally anyway, yes? Hold onto your merit points so they can be taxed more and funnelled into the city's funds?"

"Y-Yes... I personally spend almost all of my points on restoring the crystal when I am the sole owner of the city, My King," Avulaway claimed. "But if it will help, I will hold onto what points I have and allow them to collect taxable interest in the new bank."

Daz nodded. "Okay, well, keep up the good work. I have other business to attend to. And Grid, don't let me down, 'kay? I'm looking forward to you being able to move super fast for longer periods of time."

"Hmpf. Like I need your expectations. I'll smash them and blow you away!" the massive purple pillar shouted.

Daz smiled in response as he got in his car and flew away. Avulaway didn't move as she watched him leave. "What an interesting king... To think he'd so easily accept my proposal... And with the help of his bank, building up merit points will be easy... He may just be the perfect ruler to restore my homeworld..."

After returning to Fort Skip, Daz immediately went to the keep's library floor and he grabbed a map of the state of California which Lyle had prepared for him. With that in hand, he headed to the new esper dormitory.

Once there, he quickly found Rose who was now with Vanessa. "Hey, do you have a minute, Rose?" Daz asked as he gestured to the map that was rolled up in his hands.

The two girls were in the middle of helping organise the livings arrangements of the new esper citizens but seeing the serious look on Daz's face, Rose leaked out a sigh and cracked her neck.

"Urg, sure. We needed a break anyway. The robots can probably handle it from here. Vanessa, you wanna keep helping, or do you wanna join us? We're pretty much done moving everyone in at this point anyway," Rose said as she stretched her arms and yawned out of mental exhaustion more so than physical exhaustion.

Vanessa tapped her chin a few times and tilted her head. "Okay. I was getting a bit hungry anyway, so can we have an early dinner while we're at it? Um, if that's not a bother."

"I don't mind at all," Daz replied.

Rose willed her chair to move and said, "To the kitchen then. I can't be bothered moving much further than this building for now. Not until I know everyone's settled, at least."

'She really cares about these people... It's good to see her showing some empathy for once, though I'm hardly one to talk,' Daz thought as he followed his sister and the German teen through the dormitory's spacious hallways.

"Hmm... Yeah, I think it'd be best to dedicate two whole months to getting all of California firmly under your thumb. Even if you conquer it, you need to build up loyalty, respect, and trust for any new citizens," Rose said as she tapped the map that was on the desk in front of her, Vanessa, and Daz.

Vanessa scrunched up her face as she nibbled away at her sandwich. "California is huge though. It's the same size as all of Germany, more or less. Won't it need way longer than just two-months? I don't know much about all of this political stuff, but it can't be easy."

Daz nodded. "It will definitely take longer, but I don't need full control nor absolute loyalty of everyone living here. All I need to do is get four states under my rule, regardless of how flimsy that rule is."

Rose rolled her eyes. "You're not wrong, strictly speaking, but a strong foundation makes a healthy house."

She traced her finger across the map and pointed to Los Angeles. "You need to focus on San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, and most importantly, L.A. Everything under that isn't worth the time. Those four places still have tens of thousands of survivors each. Waterford got really unlucky on the first day. Plus, most of those cities are ruled by the state's governor."

"You're telling me," Daz said with a sigh in response to the comment about Waterford. "Less than a thousand survivors despite being bigger than both San Francisco and San Jose..." He furrowed his brow and frowned. "Well, I guess I should try to persuade the current rulers of those cities to fall under me, and when that fails, would you suggest intimidation or bribery? I'm leaning towards intimidation considering how lawless the world is now."

Rose nodded. "Yeah. First though, like you said, use persuasion. Abuse your Crystal Digger's Master Identification and its special ability. It'll help you a ton, I'm sure."

Vanessa cocked her head to the side as she polished off her sandwich then held her chin. "What about the other three states? And didn't you have a bonus goal to get a foreign state as well?"

"Yeah. I'm thinking Arizona and Nevada. I already have a foothold in Arizona with Rocky's Gem Kingdom being there and I have a free pass from the system to claim a city in Nevada, which I'll use on Vegas, as for the fourth state... Probably New Mexico," the reaper cleaned off his plate and took a sip of his drink to clear his throat before he continued speaking.

"I want to border Texas since Larry is in control of that state's largest cities, and he seemed like someone that I could convince to join me. If our fight during the auction was anything to go off of, then he's an honest man that cares about the safety of his people." Daz stroked his jawline thoughtfully. "As for a foreign state, I was thinking Taiwan. I already have a teleportation channel to Guishan Island thanks to Han, so that could be the start of our expansion into the east."

Rose agreed. "That sounds good. If anything comes up that'll make any of those bad choices, I'll let you know, but for now, I'll get in contact with Ben and Adam and let them know so they can prepare to take over Arizona. As for Nevada, I'll tell Mu to clean up and unify its smaller cities and towns if you don't mind. He's not very busy anyway and if we need to hold onto his baggage, we may as well get some use out of him."

"And New Mexico if I choose that over Texas?" Daz asked.

Rose shook her head. "There's a dangerous champion there. I'd rather wait until you're done uniting California before we step on his toes."

Daz raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Interesting."

"Very. Anyway, you have enough citizens to found a kingdom now, don't you, Daz? You're already technically a king, but you should found a proper system-sanctioned kingdom. It'd be a great help. Doing that opens a bunch of useful doors," Rose claimed.

"Sure. I can do that. Would now be a good time, or do we need to prepare stuff first? I haven't looked into it much yet," Daz confessed.

"Well, it'll need a name, duh. A flag too as well as an official army and government. You're already raising Greg to be a general again, and you have the men at the barracks, but you need to establish a proper government type under the system and choose a name. As for the flag... I guess you could hold a contest or something," the wheelchair-bound girl said with a shrug. "By the way, a name is all you need to make it a provisionally-founded kingdom. Then you get a 60-day grace period to sort out the rest of the details. The kingdom basically acts like a real kingdom in the system's eyes during that time, which is nice."

"Hmm..." Daz held his chin in thought. "I'll look into those things, then. Maddy recently took an interest in painting, so we could maybe get her to design the flag if a contest doesn't appeal to everyone."

"No, do a contest. There are plenty of creative people here, and with a little bit of dexterity, anyone can draw decently... even you," Rose said mockingly.

Daz reached over and tussled her hair roughly. "If you say so, you little smartass."

Vanessa smiled awkwardly as she watched this interaction between the brother and sister.

Rose grunted as she endured Daz's affection and said, "Remember to use your Abandoned City Reclaim token too. That'll populate a city with system slaves. Well, most cities."

"Sure," Daz said as he pulled his hand back. "Any suggestions? You know California way better than I do."

Rose looked down to her laptop that was on the table and she then tapped away at its keyboard for a few seconds. After doing that, she gave Daz her attention again. "This may sound a bit random, but do you believe in fairy tales and myths?"

Daz wore a confused expression. "I mean, sure. Espers are real and so is the system, so why not myths, legends, and fairy tales?"

"Good. Well, Atlantis is real, and it's about halfway between here and Japan at the bottom of the ocean. Don't ask me why it isn't the Atlantic Ocean. I don't care so I never looked into it. Waste of time. Anyway, if you're feeling adventurous, use your token there. It's one of the most expensive mythical cities on Earth, and, well, the ocean's currently free real estate," Rose said with a sneaky grin on her face.

"Wait, 'one of'? Care to tell me about the other ones? This sounds like something that I should be invested into," Daz said.

Vanessa nodded. "Are mermen real?! Does Poseidon live down there?! What about magical tridents?! This is so cool!"

Rose rolled her eyes at her friend's behaviour. "As naive as ever, I see. Not that I mind. Sure, I can give you guys a rundown on Atlantis and the other mythical cities that existed during t-" Her words were cut off forcefully by the system.

"Damn. Looks like your access level is too low, Vanessa, but I can still tell you about Atlantis," Rose explained.

Vanessa didn't quite understand, but she still nodded her head in excitement once again.