“Mhm, what do you guys think?” he asked everyone, standing in the shadow of Lady Liberty herself. Well, the copy of Lady Liberty existing inside the Illusion Barrier. Their yacht, renamed from the stupid name the old crew had given it to the Boating Seaquence, was lying parallel to the shore behind them. For why they hadn’t just sailed over to the pier, John would have needed to ask the already gone person driving them here. A terrible pun, to be sure, but sometimes John had to train his dad joke muscle. He was going to use it one day after all.

For how he had gotten it here, he had nicely asked Sealy to do it for him. A parting favour while the Rising Tide restocked. After all, New York wasn’t a city like Rome, where everything was in one gargantuan barrier. Instead it was cut into all kinds of little pieces. This meant that, between the big area at the main port located above the real-life freighter dock on the westside of the Upper Bay, John couldn’t have moved without leaving the barrier, thus running risk of creating a scene that would end with him violating Gaia’s rules. Not an option. Neither was staying at the docks themselves, with how much money Thorne charged for staying on their turf.

Thus, he had moved over here to the Statue of Liberty. Another advantage of that was that he had temporarily taken care of Tilgun. The higher dragon was pleased as long as he was getting food in the form of preferably fresh livestock. Hopefully, he would just become bored and go somewhere else eventually.

“Dumbass fucking patriotic vitriol is what I think about the fucking idea to place the Guild Hall here,” Eliza spat out.

“Sure it is all of that, but it’s also awesome and I rather like the values of the US of A,” John held against her.

“I-isn’t this really high profile? M-maybe we should put up camp somewhere in the outskirts of the city?” Gnome made a more cautious suggestion.

“If we were just upstarts, probably, but we are not,” he continued to explain this decision outside of the raw awesome factor it had. “On the contrary, we are pretty high-profile as individuals already, from the genocide goddess host, over the pariah and the Lightbearer to me. Also, this location has other advantages. For a start it’s harder to reach because it is an island, easily fortifiable. Then we can park the yacht right here; I don’t want to leave that thing out of my sight with all the things going on here.”

While the headquarters around the docks were a sci-fi dreamland, the barriers just a few metres outside of it, that John had visited in his search for a restaurant where they could have a goodbye dinner with Maximillian, were filled with poverty and barely clawing independent shops. The difference between those who were with Thorne and those who weren’t were stark. Also, there had been three attempts to mug him on the way back.

Not a great first impression for a city. John was under the impression that he would have more than a few things to fix around here.

“I think it’s awesome,” Rave agreed to his viewpoint.

“Too much water,” Salamander declared, “but generally this looks pretty cool, yeah.”

“Dirty water…” Undine complained but also put her approval on this.

Sylph was shouting something incomprehensible from way up; she was flying around the statue, looking for stuff. Needless to say, she as well was fine with this. With Siena withdrawing from votes like this and Stirwin just rolling around sideways through the grass, squealing, “Yay, yay, yay,” with each completed roll, the elementals reached the result of three against one. As was usual, Gnome was the overly cautious one of the group. It was always good to have a naysayer.

“I just want that business you promised me,” Nia held up the ‘Excited’ card.

“I will get to it,” John promised. With everyone either agreeing or only being opposed on singular issues John didn’t really see as such himself, he attempted to use the option in Create I.D. that would mark this plot of land as his Guild Hall.

“Well, that was to be expected,” he sighed and rolled his neck. He had gotten a pop-up, as usual, when the ship had entered the proximity of Liberty Island, telling him there was already a barrier in place. Since every barrier vanished when there was no one to maintain it, it had to have some inhabitants. “Would have been too easy if nobody set-up shop here already. You smell someone, Eliza?”

“What am I, your search bitch?” she wanted to know. Apparently, the fact that she had been ignored on this rubbed her the wrong way, so now she was grumpy. She sniffed anyway. “Something fishy towards the actual port.”

“Thank you,” John kissed her on the cheek. Cursing silently, she tried her best to stay angry as she walked after him, black robe closed around herself.

“Why is it so cold again,” Rave complained on the way. “I want to go back into the heated barrier!”

“We don’t have that,” John reminded her.

“Can we maybe get it?” she asked.

“We’ll see, maybe it will be an option in the Guild Hall?” There was not the faintest clue to what he could actually build, as the menu to see all of the options hadn’t been unlocked yet. Luckily it was pretty easy to find who was already claiming Liberty Island for themselves once they had made their way over the broad walkway by the trees.

There were a couple of buildings, most likely originally intended for tourists to waste their money on little things that dangled on their keychains. Right now they were populated by tense looking fish-people that were armed with rifles. They had been waiting in suspense for whoever had parked a giant yacht next to their lawn, it seemed.

“Hello,” John’s voice conveyed friendliness as he stepped closer with little worries in the world, the blue hue of Mana Protection appearing around him. With Undine equipped to his right and Purgatory ready to be activated under the sleeve of his suit, he felt rather well prepared for a confrontation for people so weak they resorted to guns.

“Who are you?” one of them bellowed, a particularly large fellow, with green and blue skin with slick scales and a fin-esque protrusion on the top of his head. His thick-lipped mouth reminded John of a perch.

“I am John Newman, pleased to make your acquaintance,” he introduced himself, wondering how he was even supposed to pronounce that name. “To answer your next question, I am here because I would like to claim this island.”

“You want to take from the Bay Raiders?” the fishman asked, raising his hand and causing everyone to raise their weapons in response. “Eat le-!”

“Do you really want to do that?!” John shouted over his threat. “Let’s go with the hypothetical that you manage to take me down, what are you going to do about her?” The confusion was met by the boiling of the man’s shadow.

“Yes, what are you going to do about me?” Siena’s sultry voice asked as she creeped up the fishman’s body. The tips of her slender claws dragged over the scales on his throat, leaving fine lines. “Ah, you quiver like all men do when they hear me, how delightful.”

Jack landed on John’s shoulder. The bird’s shadow had been used to carry Siena over to their current target, a cheap but effective strategy. “See,” he started walking towards the group of at least fifty armed fishmen again. With their leader hostage, they weren’t sure what to do, only keeping their guns pointed at the Gamer. “I would have been perfectly happy to find some sort of verbal agreement, but you threaten me. Still, I will extend my hand in good intention. Siena, let go of him.”

With a disappointed hiss, the nightmare elemental dropped down and then walked her way over to John, disappearing back into his shadow.

The fishman, John named him Tash just so he could think of him as something less impersonal while also being able to pronounce it, rubbed his throat and clenched the other hand into a massive fist. “If you want this land, you will have to win in a duel, one versus one.”

‘That sounds like bullshit,’ John thought, chances were Tash just assumed that John was helpless on his own and thus wanted to goad him into a battle where he was the advantaged. Then again, the other people around didn’t seem surprised by that announcement, so maybe that was an actual tradition. “Do I need to do it myself or can I name a fighter?”

“…You can name someone,” Tash begrudgingly admitted, glancing at John’s feet.

“Great, Aclysia, if you would,” John stepped aside to make room for his combat maid. He and every other onlooker formed a circle around Tash and Aclysia.

As expected, the fight didn’t take long at all. The giant of a fishman attacked Aclysia with a wild swing. She didn’t even attempt to dodge. The fist crashed into her face with a terrible crunch as the bones in his fingers snapped under the impact.

“FUCKING DEPTHS!” he screamed as he distanced himself. “What are you made of, pure metal?!”

“Negative, I am merely mostly metal,” Aclysia explained, Eclys spawning in her hand. She raised the silver white sword above her head and brought it down in a quick slice through the air. A wave of energy cut through the world, travelling the distance between herself and Tash, much quicker than the slow fishman could react. The silver energy sliced open his chest with a vertical, clean cut from shoulder to the lower edge of his ribcage. Blue blood ran out of the wound, it was shallow, barely enough to cut through the outer layers of his skin.

Aclysia took another stance, this time wielding the weapon with both hands. “The next cut will be deeper,” she warned, slowly raising the sword over her head. A moment later, the guy admitted defeat.

John was the first one to break the ranks of the watchers, making his way over to the defeated Tash. “Let me fix that for you,” he offered, gesturing at the wound.

“Why would you-“

“I already said I am not here to make enemies,” John interrupted him. “I don’t plot your demise or anything, you just have something I want. You picked this to be how we run our negotiations, not me.” Before he could be subject to any more annoying questions, he healed the fishman and then set off to go back to the statue. “I expect you to be off my island in an hour. Gather your important belongings and then leave. Oh, and one more thing,” he gave him the hardest look he could muster, “times are changing. I wouldn’t recommend following the criminal line of work where I have influence. Get yourself reorganized and do something of worth. Otherwise… well, we are going to meet again and I won’t play nice.”

With that he took his leave.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Okay, attempt number two,” John announced an hour later and used the Guild Hall creation.

Immediately interested, John accessed the Guild Hall Customization. What opened was a 3D map of the island, contained within a large cone that was the border of the barrier itself, with its centre being on the rim of the island, where they currently stood.

There was a disgustingly large array of options of what he could do with the barrier right now. So much, in fact, that John had to scroll through it for a solid few minutes while also explaining what he saw to everyone else.

There were options to modify size and shape of the terrain, build buildings, place rooms, buy furniture, create templates and everything in between. Of course, everything came with some sort of cost, usually either money or this new Room Slots he had. Some things had special requirements like X of item Y, a certain level of profession in a skill or class, or just straight up a level. There were also upgrade bars for things and a lot of lock symbols indicating that there would be more as he went up the unlocks, as his Guild Hall was currently just a Tier 0. Notably exempt from modification was the size of the barrier itself, that was supposed to increase with the higher tiers.

“And I really need that higher size,” John complained. “The barrier SHRUNK!”

“Whaddaya mean shrunk?” Rave wanted to know.

“I mean it’s barely big enough to fit in the yacht,” he told her, “it’s like 150 metres across… ah there, it actually says it on the border of the window. Yes, 150 metres.” The Boating Seaquence was about 120 metres herself. That didn’t make her the biggest mega yacht out there, that went to some real life boat by the name of the Azzam at 180 metres (at least to the best of John’s knowledge, but it checked out). Still, the problem at hand was that his Guild Hall was not as big as he wanted it to be.

“Ya can just show me where it says that, I can see the window,” she told him.

“You can? Huh,” John never quite understood why some windows were visible to people and others weren’t. Gaia probably fixed the guild ones to be visible to guild members. That would make sense. “Anyway, my problem is that I don’t actually own the statue! It only reaches the edge of the socket it stands on! All I own is this walkway, some grass, a bit of old fortress wall and some withered trees… I was super hyped!”

“Wanted to add Lady Liberty to your harem, did ya?” Rave poked fun at him. “Ya hot for some freedom?”

“Always!” John over enthusiastically shouted, shaking his fist at the sky in the hope that Gaia was noticing his frustration. She indeed did, a hole in reality opening and the green haired supreme deity coming out.

“What the hell do you think you are shaking your fist at me for?!” she asked, landing in front of the group. “What kind of entitled brat are you that you think I am giving you over half a square kilometre of real estate BASELINE? You got to work your way there!” She wiggled her finger beratingly. “Although you could have had the statue if you didn’t force me to also give you all that water to squeeze that oversized boat in here. I already upped the base size, see how nice I am to you? You really got nothing to complain about!”

“Today is just full of surprises,” John mumbled, looking at Gaia. She was still the same in the broad strokes but had modified her appearance in several ways. Her green hair, ridiculously curly as always, now fell down to her hips, her skin had received a more Mediterranean brown toning and her dress got upgraded with a bunch of lines that shifted through bright colours. All of this came with a shift from Asian to European, especially visible around her eyes.

“No more Tatsumaki?” Rave asked in disappointment. Personally, John didn’t mind. She kept the perfect ass, that was all that was really important.

“Nope, got enough of cosplaying,” Gaia let them know. “Behold, my true beauty!”

“Sure, you normally look this fucking good,” Eliza rolled her eyes.

“I am not getting into another word fight with you, you deranged psycho.”

“Mighty rich coming from the almighty human with daddy issues so large that she is holding a whole PLANET hostage.”

“You… nope, not getting into that today,” Gaia decided and snapped her fingers, vanishing the moment the sound hit John’s ears. With that she left behind a Gamer who actually wanted to ask for her side of the story; evidently, she was not interested in telling it at the present time and was only there to deliver some personal sass.

‘Well, there will be a next time,’ John thought and went back to checking his options. He had a total of 15 Room Slots, which seemed like very little, and the place he did want to erect his home around, at the foundation of the statue, was not inside the boundaries of his Guild Hall space. At least not for now. He couldn’t imagine that it would take more than two upgrades to get the entire island covered. So, instead he turned around to look at their available house, swimming at the edge of the barrier. “Well, let me run some tests and then see if I can make that boat more easily accessible. Don’t want to climb or jump every time we get on or off.”

A period of placing a cheap decorative in the form of a rock and seeing how he could move it around ensued. He could place the rock wherever he wanted inside the current boundaries of the Guild Hall by moving it inside the model of reality and then clicking an update button, albeit that cost a lot of mana and the changes took a moment to take effect. ‘I very much doubt Gaia will let me weaponize something like that,’ John thought as he continued on by placing the first building. As to what it was, he didn’t have a choice, every other option was disabled until he placed something called the Guild Heart.

Clicking on it he was presented with a model of a flying blue orb with gold and silver rings hovering around it and slowly rotating, all above a stone socket. It also came with a description. “The Guild Heart is the central power source of all things inside the Guild Hall. It provides electricity, water, and everything else through mana conversion wherever a fitting outlet is built. Provides and can store up to a maximum of 10’000 mana, which can only be used for things relating to the Guild Hall, automatically refilling at midnight of your current time zone. May be recharged manually or by consuming money from the Guild Funds,” he read out loud. “Further updates increase that mana.”

“That’s way more than we could ever use anyway,” Rave commented as John wondered where to put it.

She wasn’t wrong, maintaining a hot shower cost something like 3 mana per minute. However, she was also not right. “We can easily maintain everyday life with that much mana, question becomes what else we can do over the day,” he told her. “Who knows what kind of costs the other buildings will accumulate?”

With that said, he placed the thing just right in front of where he stood. Efforts to relocate it worked exactly like with the stone. A menu made it clear that relocating the Guild Heart was free but moving other buildings would come with a fee in the shape of yet more money.

He then put up a second building close-by. It was a simple wall, half a metre thick and in the shape of a standing rectangle of monolithic marble. A simple white painted door was all there was to it. That building allowed John, for the moment just him, to create an Instant Dungeon inside the blackness. It was kind of like Magoi’s gates, sadly without the massive time dilation that the Fateweaver brought with him.

‘I have to write him later,’ John thought. ‘To tell him where to come to whenever he gets his business done. Shouldn’t take much longer. Anyway, that cost me only one Room Slot, upkeep is 250 mana a day, so there’s where that power goes.’

The window provided him with a nice statistical breakdown of where power currently went. All in all, this was a pretty well designed building game, he had to admit. Although the copious amounts of windows he had open right now made him feel like he was the administrator in a sci-fi movie.

“Not gonna lie, seeing you create things out of thin air is even more bullshit than the usual bullshit,” Rave drily commented, watching John as he tried to find the optimal placement for the Harbour. Experiment time was over.

“Hey, this is my land, I am the god around here,” John put on a justifying smile and the Harbour down. In what was perhaps the most reality defying moment of this exercise yet, the ground just centimetres behind them changed from the light washed out greyish red stone of the walkway to a nice, healthy brick-red. The whole coastline of the barrier was affected by this, as there suddenly was a large pier inside an artificially constructed barrier with a mechanical gate. The yacht was moved by invisible forces to fit neatly into that new structure. Then again, afterwards there was very little room for more. “So, this thing is pretty neat. I can modify where the piers are laid out and it automatically hooks all vehicles parked inside into the power grid.”

The statistics he had on hand changed to show how the mana batteries inside the ship were now getting refuelled. The amount of available mana was shrinking rapidly, but it was also going into the one thing they would use as their home for the coming time. If he had been against this going on, there was a slider for how much mana the Harbour was allowed to consume at any given moment, currently set to infinity. Mana for the one other building he had had already been withdrawn, meaning that the system always prioritized its own running over refuelling stuff attached to it. Unlike the I.D. Gate, the Harbour had cost him 7 Room Slots, no wonder at that size.

Much to John’s delight, the yacht, now part of the Guild Hall system, automatically lowered all three of the boarding staircases it had and the pier changed to be at the perfect height for them to rest on and then fixed them in place with some self-guided ropes.

“Well, time to see what else I can put around here,” a very enthusiastic Gamer with new toys said.