Chapter 60

Death, Taxes, and Bureaucracy (I)

Rick stared pensively at the clock on his monitor, sighing right after and taking a sip of whiskey. He felt a headache incoming, yet could do little to evade it. The world has changed beyond recognition, yet in many ways it has remained largely the same – greed, power struggles, undercutting competition… at the highest level, the cards were still played the same. For a change, however, he now held all the cards.

What confused him, however, was that the world kept on trekking all the same even with the Towers. Though millions had poured into the L.A. since August, it was nowhere as bad as he had expected. Schools had already resumed their work, as did a vast majority of service-related jobs, and even L.A. was beginning to shape itself back into a relatively normal city, only with the added aspect of the Tower being present. Though it was a process, and the integration was somewhat slow, the Towers are being integrated into the daily lives.

Even he had jumped onto the opportunity, organizing tours inside the Towers now that the number of people entering daily wasn’t overly absurd. Items kept pouring in and, as per Cain’s advice, he largely hoarded them for the time being even if they weren’t anything special in the grand scheme of things. Cain had mentioned that they’d be inside for at least 4-5 months, likely half a year and up, and so he had no plans on selling anything until then.

As the clock on his computer monitor ticked 10:00 AM, he sighed once again and, before he could even lift his head, saw the call flashing on his screen. Tsk, the bastards are really impatient, aren’t they?

Grumbling to himself, he accepted the call and waited for a few moments before the window opened up, connecting him to a conference call holding fifteen people, he included, in total. The call was comprised of some government big shots, including the President himself as well as the Secretary of Defense, and the conglomerate of too-rich-to-know-how-rich-they-are folk who had been on his head ever since they learned he'd bought out virtually all the land around the Tower.

The atmosphere was rather heavy as everyone remained silent, staring at the cameras with hardened expressions. The first one to break it was the Secretary of Defense, a balding, elderly man strapped into a casual suit.

"I suppose I should open up the call with some reports," he said as the sound of the ruffling papers broke through his mic. "The number of people entering the Tower has dropped down considerably over the past three weeks. We have recorded a total of 36,534 over the past 24 hours, 1/4th of them being returnees. The number of bodies that were extracted from the Tower over the past 24 hours is 9,334, though we have not yet ascertained when they were killed. We have also managed to Classify a good portion of our forces, standing at 50,000 strong right now, though a great deal had already deserted the Army. We are trying to figure out ways to lessen that number. The distribution of Classes continues to be uneven, with a vast majority belonging to the Blademasters, Assassins, and Paladins. The lowest percentage are Bards, followed by Bulwarks and then Elementalists. Our efforts to map out the Tower further have paid off as we have a complete map of roughly 40 square miles around the entrance. We have also managed to procure 2,449 items of varying quality that are being used to arm the Conquerors Squad as they continue to move deeper into the Tower.

“We have also built 8 relay stations thus far, maintaining the 8 miles distance. None of our experiments with modern technology have yielded any results as we are still incapable of using it inside the Tower. Our researches believe it is either due to the interference of electromagnetic waves inside the Tower, or just the Mana itself that is blocking it. Further analysis is required, however.

"As for our inquiry into the other Towers, the framework appears to be similar to our own, even if the setting itself varies considerably. Each Tower holds 6 classes, for a total of 42, though we are still in the process of confirming them. Furthermore, there appears to be no discrepancy in terms of leveling speed or item drops, and all fall within the predicted model based on our own experiences. It does appear, however, that our Tower is among the more balanced in terms of Class distribution, similar to Siberia's, with Rio's being on the deep-end of things due to there being five confirmed supportive classes and just one offensive.

“The biggest issue now appears to be the closed borders – as the nations without Towers have begun demanding that those with one begin opening their borders. I know we have already raised this issue before, but it would be a detriment to keep delaying it any further. Any proposals?"

“Wouldn’t it clog our capacity further?” the President asked, frowning. “If there is a sudden influx of potentially millions of people, wouldn’t we just go back to the chaos of when the Towers first fell?”

“We can limit it,” the Secretary of State suggested. “Draw a specific capacity on a monthly basis, and impose heavy taxes on whatever they take out of the Tower.”

“Monthly? It would be difficult to balance that,” the Secretary of Treasury argued. “It would be better if we went weekly, or at least bi-weekly. We would also have to have everyone sign a waiver before entering, not to mention swaying the public opinion on our side.”

"Furthermore," the Secretary of Defense joined in again. "What nations do we open our borders to? If we just open them up to the select few allies, it may spark further unrest, and if we open them up globally… I can't imagine the swarm of bureaucracy we'd have to weed through every week. The screening process, too, will have to be extensive, which would delay everything even further."

“All I’m hearing are ifs and no hows,” the President said, sighing. “The problem is not only this, but how Germany, Australia, Japan, Russia, India, and Brazil react to this as well. Brazil has already been swarmed by the surrounding nations due to the slow reaction, and tensions on India’s borders are virtually palpable by now. Germany has gated itself completely for a time being, and due to the locations of Towers in Japan, Australia, and Russia, and the nations themselves basically turning into white noise, it’s getting harder and harder to estimate what they might do… Ricky, what do you think? You’re the only one here who’s been in the Tower and experienced it all.”

"... I don't know," Rick sighed and shrugged his shoulders at being called out. "But I don't think opening the borders just yet is the right decision. As you've already stated, it would clog the already pathetically-slow machine, and cause us more headaches. Just make some generic PR statements about how we plan to open the borders soon after we assess the level of national threat or something. Buy us some time to organize properly."

“You mean for you to get your hands on even more items that you can then sell at hell-inflated prices?” Ah, just go retire, man… Rick glanced at the corner of his screen where an old-looking man, well into his eighties, was glaring at the camera.

“I am also interested in this,” another one of the ‘too-rich-to-care’ joined in. “Shouldn’t the land round the Tower now be considered Federal Land due to the nature of it all?”

“Ah, shut yer’ yaps you envious pigs,” Rick barely stiffened a chuckle as he heard a familiar voice in his ears. “Young Ricky had a hunch, and boy, did it fuckin’ pay off. Like any of ya’ asses would be clamoring ‘bout this if you got yer’ hands on it first. This ‘hole thing is still too fresh, and you wanna bring foreign interests in it? Come on. Forget everything else, you know that the number of deaths would fuckin’ spike…”

“You do realize you’re on the same conference call with the President?” an angry voice called out. “Have some dignity!”

“Oh, what bitch-ass said that?! Was it you, Lam? Fuckin’ fat-ass! Come at me! Are you still angry I snubbed you for that stock bid? Buhahaha, get angry and start dying already, old fart!”

“Enough!” an angry voice of the Secretary of Defense forcibly calmed down the hectic call. “Stop bickering like children, or you’ll be cut out!”

“...” the call fell silent right after, though a few off-hand flip-offs were visible for a moment longer.

"Rick is right," the man continued. "We'll make a public statement that we'll open our borders in six months at most after we've further assessed the potential for the national threat. To butter the statement further, I suggest we open the application process immediately and slowly weed through everything, sorting people into waves, so to say. It's likely that others will then choose to follow our time frame, but we live with it. We've already made some contacts and inquiries of potentially sending some of our guys over to get other Classes, but the negotiations are still in their infancy. Unless anyone has anything of value to add, this ought to be enough for the weekly report. We’ll stay in contact, naturally.”

“...” the call fell silent once again as nobody appeared to have any more questions, prompting Rick to silently sigh in relief. The last week’s call dragged out for nearly three hours… in comparison, this really was a blitz.

“Very well. Until next time.” one by one, the government officials began signing off, Rick quickly joining them, not wanting to potentially get dragged into yet another discussion. Just as he was about to log out and go and have a cup of coffee, he saw that he was being called again. As it was a call from the President’s account, he couldn’t exactly reject, so, with a sigh, he accepted the call and found himself back in the conference call -- with the sole difference being that it was only comprised of him and the government officials. Ah, crap… he smiled bitterly, somewhat regretting he wasn’t in the Tower with Cain, battling through the claws of death. Oh well…

“Now,” the Secretary of Defense spoke out. “With the others out of the way, I believe we can be more honest with each other, no?”

“... yes…”