Shovels In Spades

As soon as Daz and Madison returned to Waterford they immediately went to check up on the injured citizens at Mave's clinic.

Thankfully, Rimmy's Restorative Aura had worked its magic. Everyone had been completely healed.

The emotional and mental trauma still remained, but no one had died and everyone was healthy again, which was obviously what mattered the most.

Without much hesitation, Daz dragged the man responsible for teleporting the explosive robots to Fort Skip out to the central fort's main town square.

Immediately, people began gathering around and formed a crowd when they saw their ruler and his girlfriend standing atop the stage used for announcements and performances.

"Who's that?"

"I don't recognise him... Is he a new citizen that broke a law or something?"

"If only. That bastard's the one that Sandy stopped."

"The terrorist?"

Blood began to boil. Pretty much everyone that lived in Fort Skip treated each other like family since they'd all worked together to build the place.

That feeling was only multiplied when it came to Sandy, the man that was arguably the most respected. Even more so than Daz himself, though the peculiar reaper was slowly but steadily earning the true loyalty and respect of his people with each passing day.

"Kill him!"

"So he's the one... My son almost died from that explosion! He doesn't deserve mercy!"

"I just got out of the clinic... That bastard... He didn't even scream when the king's clone was showing him some 'hospitality'. He's not human..."

"To be fair, a lot of people aren't humans anymore... King Daz is a reaper and Miss Madison is an angel..."

Regardless of that pedantic spectator, the unanimous opinion of the crowd was to kill the man.

He had infiltrated Fort Skip with the intent to murder people. Had Sandy not caught wind of his plan, he could have potentially caused the worst terrorist attack in all of California's history.

If Timothy Marglow's plan had been followed to the letter, then this man here would have become the triggerman for the second deadliest terrorist attack in all of America's history, only paling in comparison to the tragedy of the twin towers.

It was hard for the people to view something like that on the same level as when the system tests started the apocalypse, which, in essence, wiped out a majority of all humans.

People were dying left and right, but that seemed like a natural disaster more so than a targetted event.

This... this though, it brought back horrible memories for the older citizens and lit fires of rage and fear in the younger members of the crowd.

Daz could feel the anger. He could feel the terror. He could feel the disgust. Very few people present wished for any kind of compassion to be granted to the man, of that, Daz was certain, yet still, he couldn't simply kill him. Doing so would be a foolish waste.

"The man you all see before you is Alan Welles. Before the apocalypse, he was just your average clerk cashier working night shifts. His weapon? A phone." The man in question shook a bit as he stared at the floor of the stage in shame.

Daz had a hand on the man's shoulder so he could feel the man's agitation, but he ignored his movements. "He proved himself to be incredibly resourceful during the first few weeks of the tests. He'd never had a taste for crime, so, instead of joining one of the new and powerful gangs of L.A., he instead chose to serve the state by working under the now-deceased governor of California, Timothy Marglow."

"He... He's dead?" Alan's eyes trembled. 'I... I saw the message that I was now one of Daz's citizens, but he killed the governor? So quickly? He isn't even injured! W-What happened in L.A.?'

"From the way I see things, he's a victim of circumstance." Daz got a lot of unhappy glares for saying that and even a handful of jeers came his way. He'd expected that though, and, regardless, he didn't care. Everything was going smoothly.

Daz smiled sadly and said, "He was simply a resourceful man who had happened to invest merit points into learning teleportation magic. From my perspective, Timothy Marglow took advantage of that and manipulated not only him but all of his people into plotting against us."

He then went on to explain how Madison had been kidnapped right from under their noses. He detailed how Rose had discovered Timothy was the one behind the suicidal robot attack and how he had gone to confront the man.

People were shocked to learn that the state's former-governor had tried to use the very same explosive robots that caused them so much distress and pain to kill Daz, ending his own life in the process.

Daz briefly went over his interaction with the gang leaders and how he'd set them on a path of reformation before telling them that he had, obviously, rescued Madison unharmed.

"While Alan here is most definitely a victim of circumstance, he still made a colossal and almost life-threatening mistake. He will be punished for that, but not with execution. We are better than that. Such severity should be saved for those with malicious intent." The crowd nodded in agreement.

Daz's charm, Gift of The Gab skill, and his wise words had calmed everyone down and let them realise that the true enemy in this flash-war wasn't the man before them, but the recently departed Timothy Marglow.

"I can't believe he did something like this... I voted for him in the last election..."

"Damned politicians... Post or pre-apocalypse, they're still all rotten to the core..."

"At least Daz is good to us. Sure, he's taxing things now and he's really hard to talk to, but the rates are low and we can see the improvements to the city every day, plus, he's a reasonable guy if you look at his decisions during his court sessions."

"King Daz isn't a politician, he's a leader. There's a difference."

"How will Alan be punished? I can't forgive him for almost killing me! If it wasn't for the Guardian's healing, I'd have lost my leg!"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Again, the focus of the crowd returned to the kneeling man, Alan Welles, which was good in Daz's opinion. He'd rather not have his political prowess put into question even if the citizens saw him in a positive light.

"Alan Welles, I will be sentencing you to 20-years of community service. You will do no one any good if you are simply locked away somewhere. I shall be buying a prison to house you and any future criminals, make no mistake, however, you won't be tortured or treated like you're less than a human," Daz announced.

Alan's face fell upon hearing the sentencing length, but he still had hope. 'This place has quests, so if I can properly fulfil them and earn enough merit points, I can probably escape sooner or later, right?'

"Additionally, as you are the first serious criminal that Waterford has had, and in consideration of you potentially not being the last, I will use my authority as king to purchase an upgrade that will apply to all of my territories. This upgrade will make spending merit points impossible for criminals without permission from the system which will have a white-list of purchasable items." This made sense to a lot of people. The system was simply too powerful and versatile, after all, so restricting one's access to it and its boons seemed logical given the circumstances.

"I'll also buy another upgrade that will prevent you from using your skills entirely as well as items above a certain rank. Stats I will allow, but that may change depending on your behaviour. Am I understood?" Daz asked a bit coldly, though the crowd hardly minded since he was talking like that to a terrorist, not to them.

Alan didn't really have a choice in the matter and he knew it, so he hung his head in resignation and mumbled, "Yes, I understand."

Not wasting any time, Daz immediately purchased the mentioned upgrades and checked them for secrets.

He'd looked into doing this way back when Waterford's ex-mayor, Robert Mathers - now Bob the senior miner - had tried to steal Ger's gun and needed to be punished for it, but at the time, the prices for a quality prison as well as decent upgrades didn't seem worthwhile when he had his Reformer racial trait to rely on.

Now that he had the money, it seemed like a wise choice to invest a bit more heavily into correctional and punishment systems.