Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 292: Recruitment

Finding people who would take part in a global conspiracy, willing to work to alter the entire world, was hard.

Finding people who should take part was a hell of a lot harder.

Suitable personality.

Sufficient usefulness.

And the ability to look at the world as a whole, and help it over supporting one’s country of origin.

The last one especially was a sticking point. That worked just fine with the current roster, even Habicht, who was literally the head of a federal law enforcement agency, largely focussed on the big picture.

Initially, the plan had been to give Professor Kim the second to last slot as she’d already figured out a lot and been told the rest, had the right mindset, and was both politically and personally powerful. And being able to borrow [Skills] meant she could use [Blessing of Innovation] on either herself or Han, without Isaac having to make the trip.

But she’d turned down the slot, citing that Han could just be given the once-a-week copy whenever the “Isaac-copy” in the [Round Table] came off cooldown. It would be a bit more work for Arthur, but it would let Han keep his usual trump card and allow for access to the research ability.

Which left them with two slots to fill.

Of course, there was no reason they absolutely had to be filled right that instant, but still, getting the maximum amount of help at some point would be helpful.

Ideally, they’d pick members in the world’s current most troubled spots, but there was a distinctive lack of viable candidates.

Central Africa was, sadly, still in the grips of political turmoil after all these years. Throwing superpowers at an already unstable situation certainly hadn’t improved matters.

Close to a hundred potential S-Rankers had risen over the last six years, but out of them, only three remained. The power to obliterate any given single foe with ease tended to be insufficient when faced with a hundred opponents.

Of those three, two were brutal warlords, and the last, while acting largely to shield the civilian population striving for a better future, was too focused on local problems. Not that there was anything wrong with that, Isaac certainly wouldn’t be able to impassively look at the big picture while everything around him was on fire. But it did mean she was ill-suited for the [Round Table].

There were other candidates suffering from similar issues. Right temperament, too focused on local issues.

Or focussed on the big picture but not bringing the right degree of, well, capacity to be useful.

In the end, one of the choices was made far easier for Isaac when one of the candidates contacted him. After a brief flash of suspicion, and some admittedly overly thorough checking later, he agreed to the meeting.

Checking out every single person on planet Earth was impossible, creepily invasive, and unproductive. You wouldn’t check any given person to a sufficient degree to divine real problems, and anyone with actual skeletons in the closet would be hiding them.

But with the resources Isaac had at his fingertips when a specific person was vetted, there was no way on the gods’ green Earth that they’d be able to hide a deep, dark, devastating secret. So yes, this invitation was on the up and up.

In many ways, Japinder Singh Anuja was India’s equivalent of Isaac, a powerful individual who spent a significant amount of time ensuring that the people around him rose alongside him.

He made his money in a similar method to how Isaac’s company worked, altering which monsters he went after based on what materials were needed, and then trading those materials for the things he needed, be that gear, summoning help, or money.

He led by example to try and ensure that people, well, didn’t act like total idiots when monsters were involved. He even had the [Class] for it, being an [Exemplar].

Normally, that word was an addition in [Class]-names like “True”, meaning a [Class] that transcended certain limits, or “Paragon”, which meant its bearer was the finest holder of this [Class] or [Class]-type, with “Exemplar” being ranked just below “Paragon”.

But [Exemplar] on its own was one of the finest ability sets Isaac had encountered, and it did exactly what it said on the tin. It was a [Class] that belonged to someone who was a shining example of, well, something. In this case, how to grow in a smart and sustainable way.

Isaac hadn’t been offered any [Exemplar]-type [Classes] despite doing his best to show people how to improve safely, but then again, that was more of a “do as I say, not as I do” situation.

Most S-Rankers reached their power via a series of risky and occasionally outright reckless fights towards the top. Anuja hadn’t. He’d advanced slowly, cautiously, and been rewarded for helping others stay on the “safe” path.

And he’d contacted Isaac to see if they could bounce ideas off each other. Well, it had been phrased more politely than that, but the gist of it had been the same. Anuja saw the problem about how society was changing through Levels, and while he didn’t go into excruciating detail on it, Isaac could tell it was the same problem he was already seeing.

For the most part, Anuja had been focused on local issues, but if Isaac was reading the message correctly, he was looking towards global solutions.

But even if it was just about two people trading information and bouncing ideas off each other, it would still be perfectly useful.

As for deciding where to meet, Isaac decided to just come to him. They both had access to portals and were in single-portal range of each other. One person would zap over to the other using their own mage, then be sent back by the host’s portal mage and where they met would make no practical difference.

And Isaac had never been to Amritsar before.

***

After spending a couple of hours wandering around the city, exploring, Isaac headed towards the meeting spot. It was a cafe, likely not one Isaac would have found by looking for good spots on the internet, but the kind that would only be known to locals.

Taking a deep breath to savor the smells of the cafe, Isaac entered. He couldn’t fully unleash his senses here as he was still on the street, but even just his standard sense of smell was enough. German cafes weren’t bad per se, but they just smelled of coffee and couldn’t possibly compete with the intoxicating combination of countless teas, spices, baking, and more.

Anuja arrived almost simultaneously. He was a tall, Indian man with a full beard, wearing a turban, as well as a simple kurta and pants, clearly designed to be wearable to physical activities like, well, fighting monsters.

However, much like Isaac’s own basic polo shirt and jeans, they were masterfully made from materials that cost as much as the cafe they were going to be meeting in.

“Sat Sri Akal,” Isaac used the traditional Sikh greeting, bringing his palms together in front of his chest, and bowing his head slightly.

… At the same time, Anuja stuck out his hand and, in perfect German, said “Good afternoon, Dr. Thoma, thank you for coming.”

They looked at each other for a brief second, each having tried to greet the other the way they expected in their homes, then Isaac shook Anuja’s proffered hand.

“Thank you for learning the traditional greeting,” Anjua added.

“Thank you for learning my language,” Isaac replied, only realizing after the fact that he’d said that in Punjabi. He’d spent the last several hours using the language and had been preparing himself to conduct the entire meeting in that language, if Anuja so wished.

“So did you,” Anuja noted.

Of course, they were both fully aware that nowadays, learning a new language was an effort of hours, not years, but it was still a nice gesture. In fact, Isaac learned any language for which he could get his hands on sufficient teaching materials, and knew several thousand, though he’d actually used only a hundred or so.

In the end, Isaac asked to just stick to Punjabi as that was the language for the discussion.

The conversation drifted here or there as they discussed general ideas about safe summoning not just when high-Level people were involved to what degree of supporting others was appropriate to ensure safety but avoid stifling growth. The usual shop-talk between professionals trying to learn from each other.

It was useful, but not the meat of the matter.

“Do you know what ‘langar’ is?” Anuja asked.

Isaac nodded. It was the traditional meal offered for free in Sikh places of worship, made by volunteers, for people to eat together regardless of religious belief or social circumstances.

“I try to volunteer to help at least once a week, and over the last few years, I’ve seen a worrying trend. The longer this [System] had been affecting things, the more people showed up utterly destitute.

“At first, it was the odd jobs that were drying up, where shop owners might offer a random person a thousand Rupees to clean up the shop floor or the like. Those stopped after a couple of months, as people got [Skills] to make them superfluous.

“Then, the unskilled but permanent positions dried up because they could either be done by a single person once a weak by vaguely waving their hand at the problem.

“But things keep getting worse. Langar has become literally the only meal many people eat and that is not a sustainable situation. We can make sure they’re fed, but people need more than just food.”

Isaac nodded slowly. It was the same problem that Isaac had seen slowly develop over the years, though he’d known about it in a more abstract sense. Anuja, meanwhile, had seen the problem develop week to week, getting worse with every passing moment.

“We’ve been working on trying to figure out a way to compensate for so many jobs suddenly falling away,” Isaac nodded, “Trying to create something that works with the real world’s limitations has been … difficult.”

“I know,” Anuja nodded, “I’m guessing you’ve noticed the same problem?”

“People can get very uncharitable if they feel like other people are allowed to be ‘lazy’ while completely ignoring the fact that there are literally no jobs they could be taking,” Isaac said.

“Unfortunately,” Anjua agreed, “But even if either of us manages to fix the problem where we are, this isn’t limited to Germany and India. As you’re so fond of saying, global problems require global solutions.”

“But not one-size-fits-all solutions,” Isaac added.

“Obviously.”

“Do you have anyone we should bring in on this discussion?” Isaac asked. It was a question of if he’d be bringing one person into the [Round Table], a whole network, or even someone who Anuja was working for. As far as he knew, Anuja was the one in charge of his efforts, but it didn’t hurt to check.

“I have people who work with me, but no one who needs to be in on the conversation right now,” Anuja shook his head.

“I see,” Isaac said, “Actually, there’s someone I’d like you to meet …”

***

One quick call and a five-minute wait later, Arthur showed up and the conversation headed towards the [Round Table] after a few minutes while both Isaac and Japinder cast their respective privacy [Skills]. They’d switched to first names less than a minute after Arthur had joined them.

“My question is this: where do you draw the line?” Japinder asked, “You work in the shadows, but that can mean anything from simply not being public to outright forming a shadow government.”

“We coordinate without others seeing, and are allied without people immediately assuming the only reason we’re agreeing is because we’re coworkers,” Isaac said, “No false-flag attacks, no letting tragedies strike to get our point across, no random murders for the sake of expediency.”

“That’s a relief.”

“In essence, what we’re offering is the chance to help prevent the world from sliding down a slippery slope into dystopia or extinction,” Arthur said, “But even if you decide not to join, that doesn’t mean we’ll refuse to work with you, we’d love to support someone who’s already achieved, well, what you have.”

“What are your current priorities?” Japinder asked.

“Getting other S-Rankers on board with not, at some point, deciding they’re above the rules, chipping away at the current social stigmas against ‘charity’ so that eventual solutions won’t run into an iron wall of stubbornness, finding the remnants of the cult,” Arthur said.

Japinder grinned, “That sounds like a worthy cause. Where do I sign?”

***

One more slot open. One final person to pick.

The thing that decided it was the question of where they needed influence the most.

And the Flying Dutchman just so happened to have become spaceworthy.

Things went fairly well with the recruitment, though there was a small hiccup with traveling to the ship. The Flying Dutchman had a “survivability envelope” around the ship, inside which people could freely survive even if the vessel was underwater or in outer space.

Opening a portal into this envelope was simple, and one could step right into the place where only magic allowed you to breathe from the regular atmosphere with zero issues. Small problem, though, air could do that trick too. So even though Arthur and Isaac could walk onto the deck easily, they brought a fair amount of atmosphere and a not-insignificant amount of paper with them.

Beyond that, though things went well, and Davy Jones became the thirteenth and final member of the [Round Table], though much to his displeasure, the table listed him under his legal name, Johnathan Frye.

But together, they could keep working to help the transition stay stable.