Chapter 72: Siege
Coop was waiting at the civilization shard, along with what seemed like most of the residents of Ghost Reef. The town circle had people scattered around, new faces along with more familiar ones. Word had spread through the settlement that something was starting, and for the last few days everyone was preparing as much as they could, even when they weren’t exactly sure what was coming.
The residents had made an effort to gather as many levels as possible and the phantoms had immersed themselves in their training. The crafters had worked hard to equip as many as they could and the services had all been working overtime to stockpile supplies, though the contracted residents were more relaxed than Coop and the rest of the humans had been.
The entire army of phantoms was on duty, occupying the walls all the way around the fort, manning the cannons on all three upper levels, and otherwise waiting in orderly rows near the entrance of the fortress under Gideon’s supervision. Kayla’s fleet was already sailing among the reefs, leaving no ships at the dock, not even the partially repaired, pirated sailboats.
Coop’s research in the library hadn’t yielded anything useful about what to expect. The records of past assimilations were surprisingly limited, and what was available only revealed how different each scenario was. The planetary sponsor’s disposition had a large influence on how events played out, and the system appeared to be extremely flexible, altering the script entirely, depending on the sponsor. Once again, Coop had the feeling that the system’s role was quite strange. It rarely seemed like the driving force behind anything that happened despite mana’s ubiquity.
Coop did learn that, while the factions were blind to what was happening on the planet themselves, the system actually provided some simple information to those on the outside. It was to the point that a popular recreational activity was observing and betting on system provided leaderboards. Coop thought it was similar to following professional sports through live text updates. They could see more than just the leaderboards that he could access; the disposition of settlements, faction strengths and population, territory control, and all sorts of other stats were also presented. The factions might not know what people did individually, but they could see the assimilation’s progress in other ways.
In the end, his visit to the library hadn’t offered him any last minute insights into what to expect. He was waiting along with everyone else. All they knew for sure was that the factions believed the settlement events would be abundant sources of experience. To Coop, experience meant monsters. Coop checked his own status, hoping to be able to compare it with his progress after the event.
[Status]
HP - 4350/4350
MP - 8100/8100
Class - Revenant (Level 51)
Profession - Basic Scavenging (Level 45)
Affinity - Spectral