"C'mon, kids, thank young Miss McArthur for showin' ya her sword skills," the elderly lady from Nevada, Jesabelle, said.

The group of 30 or so young girls and boys all aged between 5 and 12 replied, "Thank you, Miss McArthur!"

Jesabelle smiled under her cowboy hat. "Now don't go complainin' when I give y'all yer homework tonight, ya hear?"

"Yes, Miss Loderman!" the children answered.

"Good, now scram! Y'all've still got 20 or so minutes left of lunch, so go have some fun." In response, the kids all scampered of to go play in the massive schoolyard of the castle that was Fort Skip's school.

Madison beamed from ear-to-ear with her eyes as she watched the adorable children run about and play tag, hopscotch, or other such activities. She was trying very hard to hold herself back since every fibre of her being wanted to go join in.

"Thank ya fer doin' this, Missy," Jesabelle said.

Madison cocked her head to the side inquisitively in response. "Why? Play, kids, normal. Thanks, unneeded."

"Hahaha, ya talk like a freak, but ya've a heart ah gold," Jesabelle said without thinking.

Madison's eyes reflected her feelings fairly strongly, as usual. "Sorry..."

"Ah, God darn it..." Jesabelle sighed. "I didn't mean that, Missy. This here ancient mouth of mine likes to yap. Don't take me sayin' ya talk all funny-like as bein' an insult. If anything, it's a blessin'."

Madison looked confused.

Jesabelle grinned and said, "From what I've heard from the ol' grapevine, word is our king, lord, an' 'mighty saviour' Daz, well, he's a fan of how ya never talk in proper sentences an' pause every word, an' if he likes it an' it helps ground him, I see no reason to rightly tell ya to can it in."

Madison nodded. "Daz, like, good."

"Right, exactly. Now, why don't you go an' get, Missy. The twins and young Sasha are lookin' at ya all wistfully. Ya spoil 'em too much, so ya better go before they start hollering like it's high noon, ya hear?" Jesabelle said in a teasing tone.

Madison nodded a bit reluctantly. "Bye, again, tomorrow."

"Sure. Seeya then, Missy," Jesabelle said in farewell as she held one hand behind her back and waved politely with the other.

Madison left the school and wondered what she should do now. She held her chin in one hand and her elbow in the other as she thought. She wouldn't mind helping Sandy out with his construction efforts, but she had a feeling that she'd run into Idris.

The young African man had gotten rather close to Ellie recently, which Madison was more than happy with. Ideally, she'd like for the two of them to get together and for him to forget about her. She and Daz hardly needed the extra stress of an unknown man pursuing Madison fervently.

They'd already danced that dance in high school. While she had a lack of facial expressions and difficulties speaking, Madison was still beyond beautiful, so she had seen no small amount of romantic hopefuls and it honestly exhausted her.

Just then, one of the new teachers from the recent wave of new citizens approached her. "Ah, Miss McArthur. I was just going for lunch but you look a bit hungry. Would you care to join me? As cheap as Bobby's food is, please, consider it on me for playing with the kids."

Madison looked down at her perfectly flat and somewhat toned stomach and she rubbed it lightly as it rumbled in response. "Mmm, okay."

The middle-aged woman smiled. "Perfect."

Not even a few bites into her food which a new waiter had served her and Madison was starting to feel very sleepy.

The teacher eating with her noticed this and frowned in concern. "Are you feeling okay, Miss McArthur?"

"Tired..." Madison replied as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

"Guards!" Two of the town's soldiers approached them incredibly quickly. Almost too quickly, but Fort Skip was known for having a very loyal set of system-hired soldiers, so it wasn't a big leap in logic to think that there would be guards placed near Daz's girlfriend to keep an eye on her.

"Is something wrong?" one of them asked.

Nodding, the teacher said, "Miss McArthur here is feeling a bit drowsy. I suspect she had a bit too much fun showing off her sword skills to the children earlier at the school. Could you please take her back to the keep?"

Madison shook her head. "Am... fine... Can... Walk... Myself..."

The teacher shook her head. "That won't do, Miss McArthur. We can't have you falling asleep midway, now can we? Nobody will hear the end of it when King Daz learns we let you collapse. Just let the guards bring you back, okay?"

Madison looked at the friendly expressions of the guards who seemed eager to offer a helping hand. Reluctantly, she agreed. "Okay."

The teacher watched with a smile on her face as Madison left. As soon as she and the guards had rounded past a building, the teacher used a storage-based skill to quickly get rid of Madison's meal.

She then got up, paid for the food, then promptly left Fort Skip. It was an easy process since all that was required to leave was to show your personal ID medallion.

Once she was a mile west of Waterford, she immediately got on her knees and began carving runes into the paved road at her feet.

As soon as a magic circle was fully formed, she got up, took a step back, then closed her eyes and put her hand on the magical tome which was hanging off of her hip. "Oh Spás, concedimi la tua benedizione e permetti la nascita di questo cancello attraverso il tuo dominio."

The runic patterns and letter of the magical circle lit up with a bright blue hue before fading completely. Along with the magic disappearing, two figures appeared with one of them carrying a large sack over his shoulder.

Confirming that everything had gone as planned, the teacher reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone. Putting it up to her ear after dialling a certain number, she said four words, "Codename Sword successfully acquired," then promptly hung up.

Daz recalled his promise to bring Sasha with him when he returned to Las Vegas and he chuckled. 'I'm already bringing one brat, and bringing along another even younger one that actually acts like a kid is just asking for something to go wrong.'

Rose gave him a bit of side-eye. "Laughing at the fact that no matter what the people down there do," she said as she pointed out of the window towards the neon strips of Las Vegas beneath them, "they can't stop you from becoming the legitimate ruler of the city?" she finished.

Daz grinned. "Sure. Let's go with that."

Rose pouted. "You were thinking something rude about me."

"What?" Daz looked offended. "Me? Think something rude? About you? No, never. I love you too much."

"Yeah, yeah, you're full of it," Rose quipped back.

It wasn't long after that until their car had reached its destination; the Vynn and Encore complex, Las Vegas' largest casino and the command and operation centre of the largest gang here which belonged to the city's current king.

As soon as they landed, like in Tokyo, all of the everyday people just milling about or doing their normal daily activities stopped to stare at Daz and Rose as they exited their car.

"Hey, isn't he the one that stopped the sinkhole? Daz, right?"

"Yeah... Wow... I wonder why he's here?"

"I heard he took in Amanda Willow's left-hand man and her main muscle. He also killed her right-hand man."

"Fuck 'im. Jeremy was a fucking scumbag."

"Won't hear no complainin' from me. I wonder if they're here to make an alliance? I've been considerin' makin' the trip south to Waterford myself lately."

"Well, he did save the state. I've heard he treats everyone like equals too, unlike here..."

Daz was quite interested in that last comment there, but no one spoke more about it and just kept discussing Daz and the massive diamond mine that had recently 'opened up'.

'I need to do something about that. I didn't really expect people to start mining the diamonds. If they do that, soon enough, the sinkhole'll be right back. Hopefully, I can get them to cut it out when I claim this place, but chances are, that won't be a very peaceful affair...' Daz thought.

Regardless, he entered the massive casino that was easily eight or nine times larger than his keep back home.

"King Daz, Rose Hamilio, Mayor Rickley has been expecting you," an unbelievably gorgeous woman dressed in the casino's uniform greeted the two of them with a polite bow. "If you'd follow me, I'd be happy to bring you to him."

Daz nodded. "That makes things easier, for sure. Lead the way."

The moment Daz and Rose had arrived at a private VIP high-stakes blackjack room and had been directed to the table the mayor was at, the reaper said, "Not bad, but when compared to the casinos in the system's auction..."

"... It utterly pales in comparison, no?" a happy voice finished his sentence for him.

A portly man with a flashy white tuxedo and slicked-back grey hair got up from the table he was sat at and he offered his right hand to Daz. "It's a pleasure. Daz and Rose, I presume?"

"Yup. And you would be...?" Daz asked while he shook the man's hand. 'Powerful grip. He's strong.'

"Aston Rickley, mayor and ruler of this lovely city." The portly well-dressed man retracted his hand then relaxed back into his seat again before gesturing for Daz and Rose to get comfortable as well. "To what do I owe the pleasure of such a high-profile figure visiting my humble little corner of the world?"

Daz saw no point in beating around the bush, and he and Rose had already agreed that he would handle this meeting himself, so he spoke plainly. "I'm here to claim this city."

The table went deathly silent. "I beg your pardon?" Mayor Rickley said with a dangerous inflexion to his tone.

Daz sat there uncaringly as his emotionless eyes stared right back into the mayor's. "Las Vegas is mine now."

The tension only soared through the roof as Daz said those words.

Several seconds of harsh silence passed before the mayor's face dramatically changed. He wore a big smile on his lips. "You sure know how to joke, don't you? I was almost convinced that you were being serious for a moment there."

Daz noticed that several people had begun filtering into the room and were slowly surrounding the table.

Also, Rose looked noticeably worried. 'There were a million other ways to do this, you idiot!' she thought in regards to her brother's blunt actions. 'It's clear as day that he doesn't think you were joking! Damn it... Do I need to pull out some blackmail to salvage this situation? I hope you can dig us out of this hole, Daz. Your weapon's a shovel, after all, for Christ's sake.'

"Tell, me, Aston," Daz said, "What's your goal for this semester?"

Taking a long sip of his wine and relaxing his posture, the portly man answered, "Oh, it's nothing that you should concern yourself with. Someone as great as you would laugh if they heard what I've been tasked with doing. In fact, I plan to ignore my goal and just pay the 10,000,000 merit point fee instead."

At this point, over 20 men had created a circle around the table. Each one of them had a pistol holstered at their hip and an AR in their hands.

"I see," Daz said. "I'll tell you my goal then instead."

"Oh?" Aston was pleasantly surprised. "Please, do so. I'm very interested in what expectation the system would have for someone like you."

Daz smiled. "I need to become the ruler of four American states. Naturally, I've set my sights on my home, California. I have a subordinate ruling a city in Arizona, so that's a given choice. Now, I have this token to claim a city in Nevada, so logic only dictates that this place falls under my rule. Wouldn't you agree? I'm still undecided on the fourth state, though I'm leaning towards New Mexico."

Aston Rickley nodded. "Absolutely. There is, however, a problem."

Daz raised an eyebrow. "Oh? A problem?"

"Yes, a fairly big one," Aston said with a devious grin spread across his lips. "You most likely won't be leaving this room alive. I've seen your capabilities, but can you survive hundreds of tracking explosive armour-piercing rounds to the head?"

He stood up and his towering figure loomed over Daz and Rose. "I'm more than happy entering a trade deal with you out of respect for your strength, but please, you're 50-years too young to be threatening me, Boy."

Daz crossed his arms over his chest and frowned lightly.

'Hmm... Killing everyone here won't do me any favours, now will it? Not in the long-run at least...' An idea then struck the reaper's mind as he recalled a certain item of his. "Mayor Rickley, are you a gambling man?"