My daily routine retty much the same as always. When I woke up I would do some quick Chakra exercises, and then I would go for a jog and work my muscles with my gym gear. I would then do around three or four hours of debugging and g (and sometimes a little bit of work for Shiro as a ge of pace) and then there was more Chakra and physical exercises. This tinued for a couple of days. By the m of the third day after my training my body was quite full of the prig heat of aether. It was definitely building up faster, and I could feel it pooling in three distinct pow.

  I’m guessing those are the base Chakra, sacral Chakra and sor plexus Chakra if I go by the most prehensive guide I’ve mao find…

  I probably tained enough aether to re-ehe Boundary, but that could wait until tonight. At least with all my training, I had mao shorteime it took to accumute aether from five days to three, even if what I accumuted was barely a third of what Exposition-san had provided that first time. Still, with my Ether Spires w arovidiher, I should have mao summon a stack of degraded weaselkin, so I could start a rger hunt to accelerate my ether gain and maybe think about adding more facilities rading some to Rank 2. The RTS gamer in me was salivating at the thought of what I could potentially do to grow my Territory and secure more resources.

  “But before that…” I said, stretg. “’t he other things I have to do.” I did my m physical workout, using slightly heavier weights and more repetitions thaerday. I was definitely seeing gains.

  Taking a drink from the fridge, I wiped sweat from my brow. I had to give jogging a miss today as it was raining, but it was still warm. It would be summer break for the schools at the end of the week, and no doubt the temperature would really spike up by then, as usual. Looking up some quick data online about some usual gym routines, I could see I was already doing above the average, even if my focus was a little different, on the more bat-oriented muscles.

  “I wonder… maybe I should try some spear training here ierial?” I did a quick few searches online for suitable practice spears, and there were indeed some avaible, but they were… pricey, to say the least.

  “Damn, I know I’ll be earning with the project for Hayato-san, but what with my spending already on the gym gear…” That reminded me of something. One of the key ways to grow my Territory was to gain ownership of the nd itself ierial. Another quick seard I had seen the average prices of a block of apartments of simir size to the one I was in, and I nearly passed out from the shock.

  “So many zeroes…” I muttered. There was just no way I could ever hope to earn such a sum of money with my freence wages. Even if I had a top job at a gaming pany or some troubleshooting firm it would still be well outside of my grasp.

  “But I do so want to make my Territory as good as it be… and having it affect the Material world as well, that would be awesome…” My abilities had all gone up, which had massively increased my work rate, but it didn’t increase my earning potential by nearly enough if that was my goal. If all I wanted was to live normally, then yes, I could do it well, but I dreamed bigger dreams…

  “I guess I’ll have to put some more thought into how I leverage my talents aory to make some serious money. Oh well, in any case, it’s time to earn mohe old-fashioned way.”

  With that I began to work on my debugging, putting aside thoughts of being a multi-billionaire. By the time I was do was early evening. Something had been b me, something intangible but irritating, as though a thorn was digging into my skin somewhere. I wasn’t sure what it was, but something was definitely bugging me.

  To shake off the feeling I decided to have a few cold beers. The weather is good, what could it hurt? Out on his baly Hashimoto-san was already there, smoking one cigarrete after another. His face ale, and his eyes were dark with exhaustion and fatigue. When he saw me he nodded iing. “Oshiro-san. Good evening.”

  “And a good evening to you, Hashimoto-san. I i you in a cold beer?”

  “I suppose I be persuaded.” he agreed quickly. I walked over and snapped a out of the ring-pull and ha to him. Opening my own I took a refreshing swig of the icy-cold beer and sighed in te.

  “Man, that hits the spot after a hard day of work.” I muttered. “So, you finished work for the day too?”

  Hashimoto-san nodded. “Yes, we had an early finish today, the boss had to go out. So for once I’m home early.” He sighed, somewhat mencholy, taking a sip of beer. “Not that there is mue home to. But enough of my moaning, I’m sure a young man like you doesn’t o listen to an old man like me going on about his problems.”

  “Pay it no mind.” I said politely. “So, how’d the visit with your daughter go?”

  “It could have been worse, I suppose. I took her out to di a niough pce, but she spent most of the time on her phoapping away. I barely mao get more than a few sentences out of her about how school was going. And she never asked me anything…” he took another, longer swig. ”Not that I bme her. I’m just a deadbeat dad in a dead-end job living in a tiny apartment in a block full of people without much to look forward to…” he trailed off. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” I ughed. “I admit this pce is hardly a pace, but I’m not pnning on staying here forever.”

  “Well, you are still young.” Hashimoto-san allowed. “Speaking of not having much to look forward to, did you hear that Tanaka-san has bee go? He had to clear his desk yesterday. He’s pretty cut up about it all.”

  “I imagine.” I answered. “He’s getting on in years, it’ll be tough for him to get a job at his age. I hope he’ll be okay.”

  “It is this damn slow ey.” Hashimoto-san pined, finishing his . Wordlessly I handed him another. “And it isn’t just the ey either, I was ing back from the statioher day and there was a group of youths l about, unemployed and causing trouble. Some of the nguage they use… they were shouting at some other poor old man. Luckily a poli came by and they left, but what is this try ing to…?”

  As Hashimoto-san tio vent and the beer tio flow, that feeling of irritation within me tio grow. It was hard to describe, but it was definitely unfortable. Still, I put it aside and tio enjoy myself. It wasn’t often that I let loose, not since I graduated uy and our friend group went their separate ways, so I thought I might as well make the best of it.

  The sky darkened and the streetlights lit up, illuminating the surrounding buildings. Just think, in another world, all these belong to me. No-one knows, no-one may ever know, but I’m an Astral property mogul! If I owhem all ierial then I would see huge bes, but the cost would be iill, maybe I could work something out…

  A sudden painful prig spread through my body, starting at the area around my base Chakra, and spreading rapidly, until my entire body was hurting, painful surges especially prevalent around my forehead and skull. As I went pale from the sudden jolt, Hashimoto-san looked at me with some .

  “Are you all right?” he asked, but I waved him away.

  “It’s fine. Maybe I had ooo many drinks a bit too quickly. I’m going to go inside now and take a break. You finish up that beer and rex.”

  Hashimoto-san nodded and turned his face back to the sky as I went bato my room. I was sweating, cold liquid running down my skin, and my eyes were ag. Just what the hell is going on?

  Closing my eyes I began to work on my Chakra nodes, figuring it may have something to do with them, especially as the feeling started down at my base Chakra. Energy flowed into me slowly, but this only intensified the feeling of disfort, my head ag fiercely.

  “Well, this firms my hypothesis.” I muttered, voice thick. My vision was starting to blur, silver spots crossing my vision. It was almost as if… Hmm, this seems a bit like when words enter my vision in the Boundary. Making up my mind I began to trate oering the Boundary once more. It was difficult to think through the painful fog in my head, but as I pulled in more ether and verted it to the needed aether my sciousness began to blur, and within a few moments my mind shifted…

  Opening my eyes inside my Territory iral I was greeted with a bze ht letters ay vision.

  Your Territory is utack. Immediate response is reehe strength of the defensive barrier is currently at forty-six pert. If the barrier is breached, then enemies will be able to enter your Territory and deal damage to the Buildings within. Buildings damaged in this way may be repaired with Ether, but fully destroyed Buildings will require restru.

  All degraded forces are engaged in automatic defence. A rallying call has automatically been issued to your troops.

  This was serious! If I lost my Territory after all the effort I had taken to establish it, I would be extremely annoyed. Grabbing my spear from beside me I noticed another series of messages scrolling ay vision, expining the gains and losses of my ether…

  An additional degraded weaselkin has been spaw the cost of 30 Ether.

  Your Defensive Empt has unleashed a bolt of defeher at the cost of 40 Ether.

  Your Territory has drawher aher from the attackers and replenished 31 Ether.

  Your defensive barrier has been damaged and is now at forty-four pert.

  Your…

  In addition, when I checked the actual amount of ether I had in the Silo, it was ging regurly as well, dropping up and down. There was still more than I had expected, but I didn’t have enough to feel pt.

  Wow, how unfair. My Territory be attacked even when I’m not here. That makes things difficult.

  The first thing I o do was to get a handle ouation. If the defensive barrier was holding, it would meatle should be taking pewhere outside of this warehouse-like room, as the barrier was tred on my Territory Anchor and spread towards my borders. Steeling myself, I rushed towards the door and flung it open, stepping out into what could only be described as… pandemonium!