Chaotic Clusterfuck 8 (Patreon)

Chaotic Clusterfuck

Chapter 8

-VB-

Eventually, people took notice of me because it became too apparent that, even through the upset state of the city, I was the new big money in the city. Soon, I was getting invites left and right to social events like charities and gatherings from all sorts of people. This was obviously a way for these people to get a gauge of what kind of a person I was and whether or not I was merely using Brockton Bay as a stepping stone to reach higher places. 

I even had one from Max Anders to some event hosted by Medhall Pharmaceuticals. 

Did I have any reason to leave Brockton Bay? Not really.

Did anyone else know this? No. 

There was a strategy to employ here, because I would need to respond to all of these probings eventually. The business world was not so clear cut as people wanted it to be. If enough powers that be disliked my response, then they might gather enough allies to disrupt my operations, if not outright oust me from the city. Oh, they will employ all sorts of bureaucratic bullshit, because many of them will hold connections to the city hall and county offices to make future bureaucratic processes as draining and sloggish as possible.

Was that corruption? Yes.

Was it also standard practice? Also yes, especially in this cape-ridden world where law and order has stepped down from being the public’s priority; that place was now firmly owned by survival and prosperity. 

So what was my strategy going to be? Who was I going to look into? Who was going to be my ally? 

Well, if I wanted to answer those questions, then I needed to understand the city.

-VB-

Zoe hummed. “I suppose that I am somewhat qualified to answer those questions as a Brockton Bay native,” she replied. “But instead of me, there’s someone else you should talk to if you want that answer.”

Instead of being fucked til they fainted, she and her two daughters were being treated like queens by Alan and his clones. A warm swimming pool perfect for swimming in early fall breezes, all manner of exotic and simpler drinks for them to enjoy, and massages that hit the spot just right~. 

All the while the three of them were surrounded by muscular and oiled up bodies of their lovers doing all of that serving. 

Oh my~.

All of it was happening in a private mansion away from the hustle and bustle of the city that Alan purchased and furnished last month. 

Yeah, Zoe really did herself great by catching his interest even before he had himself up as a business tycoon. However, she was really just happy having a man who wasn’t married to his job and very happy to have her in turn.

The original Alan, the one she hitched with, was in the pool with her and her daughters, sipping his own … coffee. 

“Yes, because I’m starting to get invites,” he replied with a yawn. He and all of the oiled up clones all paused when they all heard a soft pop in the distance. One of them immediately dropped whatever they were doing and teleported away. “Gah, bloody pirates. They think that just because we’re away from the city that they can try to have a go at me.”

She sat up straight … and then loosened up. She saw and understood just how powerful Alan was. There was no need for her to feel even an iota of worry.

In fact, she was probably better protected here in a swimming pool out in the open away from the nominal protection of the Protectorate and the PRT.

Because Alan?

Alan had an army of his clones who were all invested in keeping her and her daughters safe not just because they were his lovers but also because of the babies they all carried. 

Yes, it’s been just over a month since Emma and Anne joined in, and they all had his babies now. 

She also knew about his other “operations,” the one involving the “four” capes who cut down so many of the racist dogs. And if only four of his capes had been enough to slaughter over a hundred people, then she was perhaps the safest women on the planet while being surrounded by over eighty such clones. 

This didn’t even include his advances in magecraft, one of the supernatural powers that people could have but one that was the least explored publicly. When he told her about the sort of stuff that it could get to… 

Yeah, she was safe behind a dozen magecraft bounded fields, many of which were rather hostile to anyone not keyed into it. 

Still, she wondered what that was about out there…

-VB-

Pirates, I decided, were a hassle. 

Pirates were a fact of life in this version of Earth Bet. Between the enlarged oceans, lucrative shipping lanes, and the proliferation of traumatized superpowered villains made piracy more common than it otherwise would have been. 

In the span of my stay in Brockton Bay, it’s been under assault from at least a dozen pirate attacks (pirates who weren’t using Brockton Bay as their base of operation as opposed to pirates who were). And now, I was under assault from a pirate crew with a decent spread of manpower and abilities. 

This did not matter because we were far away enough from Brockton Bay that I could assault them with the full breadth of my abilities.

Brockton Bay was surrounded by a forest, and my new vacation property was also surrounded by a forest. Their crew obviously had someone who directed them toward my direction since I was rather inland. 

(Probably Coil, the rat bastard.)

But.

I was not dumb. I knew that surveillance was a thing and someone catching me on video tape not only as cape but as hundreds of capes would be detrimental for my future plans. 

So what appeared before the capes was a single french maid in black dress with white trim, tights, white half-apron, a pair of raised heeled shoes, and a half-white and half-black domino mask.

This was one of my clones henged to look like a girl while wearing actual french maid outfit, so even if the outfit got damaged, the henge wouldn’t dissipate.

“Greetings, pirates,” I spoke up with a cutesy moe voice. “How can I help you today?”

The four obviously capes and their nine minions all tensed up while staring at me. 

Instead of answering, they immediately attacked me. 

I dodged and made shadow clones on the spot followed by more shadow clones made by my fellow clones who were in hiding. The entire forest was soon filled with one hundred or so shadow clones, and the pirates looked like they were about to shit their pants. The man who looked like their leader immediately activated some sort of invisibility, if his form blurring was any indication, but … it didn’t work.

“Sorry, boys,” I snarled. “But you’re in one of our bounded fields.”

And it was a very simple bounded field because it did what it was supposed to do by not working properly: the bounded field was supposed to stabilize mana in the air but failed and thus caused an instability that interfered with other mana usage, including none magecraft mana usage. 

Of course, this also fucked with my own ability to use mana and thus any mana-based Gamer class skills and spells. 

Chakra, however, wasn’t affected. 

My shadow clones and I all sped through a short handsign version and then breathed in.

One of the pirates realized what was about to happen. 

“Chakra!” she shouted.

But it was too late.

Because a hundred fireballs burst out from a hundred clones and roared across the forest and slammed into them.

It was an overkill, but an overkill was the best kind of kill.

-VB-

Coil looked at the result of pointing a small pirate group toward the new rich man in town, and he had to say that he was surprised by the forethought of the entrepreneur to hire capes so early and in such quality.

It also made him question if he wasn’t looking at someone like himself. It was obvious to him that this man was at least somewhat prepared for the troubles that Brockton Bay can throw at someone, and if he knew that, then why did he come here and not other cities where his businesses would have scored him a much more lucrative income?

… It would make more sense if profit was not the primary reason this Alan Marris came to Brockton Bay.

He would have to probe him more.