Chương 46: Stop Philosophizing

Two weeks after the Skyfall scenario, Luca sat in the Analysis Division's room in Palazzo Valperga and listened to his team argue with each other. Ermilio was leaning on his chair, gesturing with both hands, passionate about something that had more to do with how the loot was divided than with any rational system model. Lorena, sitting on the other side of the table, kept interrupting to point out the gaps in his logic, which only made him double down. Ivan wasn't talking.

He was staring at his desk with a stack of notes in front of him, all his hand-drawn maps and spawn charts from the last few days, trying to find an order that made sense to him even as the System's monsters came out more organized every time. Giulia was the only one typing. She was gathering public reaction data from the forums and the police scanners, listening to what the city was saying after the latest scenario had run its course. A pattern was emerging. They all saw it. But there wasn't an agreement yet.

There had only been one global scenario, one city-wide scenario, three district scenarios, and the occasional individual scenario alert in the months since the world had changed. The rest were small events, and most of them, at least for Turin, were clustered. They weren't spreading the way you'd expect a simulation to do, like chaos diffusing outward.

Instead, they were happening over the same areas multiple times, increasing in frequency, as if the System had certain nodes it was interested in stressing more than others. The question was what those nodes were and what it meant for Turin as a whole. Luca leaned forward in his seat and spoke over the growing argument, calm enough to cut through.

"Ermilio, the drop rates are not fixed percentages. Lorena, don't keep quoting him forum stats like they're law. It's time-dependent, zone-specific, and based on how quickly the portals were cleared." Ermilio stopped mid-gesture and frowned.

"Yeah, we know that. I'm saying the variability isn't random. The System's putting rarer drops in locations where more portals stayed open longer." Lorena shook her head.

"That's not causal. You're confusing correlation. It could be the portal's endurance was the byproduct of the encounter design, not the cause of the drops."

"Why can't both be true?" Giulia asked without looking up. Her fingers kept moving over the keyboard.

"The System likes efficiency."

"Because it's redundant," Ivan muttered from his corner, his voice so low it was almost a sigh.

"Why reward the players twice for the same thing?"

"Who says it's a reward?" Ermilio shot back, turning in his chair.

"We don't know what the System's intentions are."

"Who says there are intentions?" Giulia said, but now she wasn't typing.

"What if it's just a system? Emergent logic. No motivation." That made Luca feel better about his own thoughts on the issue, which he hadn't voiced yet. The origin and motive of the System was the great unknown that even the best forums were just guessing at. And if you got attached to a theory of intent, you'd be blind to contradictions in the data.

"We need to focus on the numbers we can confirm," Luca said, reaching across the table to tap one of Ermilio's spreadsheets on his screen.

"And this right here isn't a confirmed trend. We have sixteen data points. That's nothing. We're in the noise margin. If we assume the System has a reason before we have evidence, we'll be blind when it actually changes its behavior." Ermilio groaned.

"I'm not saying I know for sure, I just... feel it." Luca stared at him, then looked around the room to see if anyone was taking the sentiment seriously. He liked Ermilio, but he'd been a game designer. The habit of narrative-thinking was hard for him to break.

"Don't go by feeling," he said, but quietly, trying not to embarrass his friend in front of the others. Ermilio seemed to recognize the problem. He slouched back in his seat, letting the argument go for the moment, and the room settled into a temporary truce. They sat in silence for a while, the only sounds the hum of computers and the occasional click of keys. Luca wanted a cigarette. He'd given up smoking two years ago.

He didn't know if the System would let him pick up bad habits again now that his body was governed by new rules. He didn't feel like testing it yet. There was still a tightness in his chest, a stress from the last two scenarios he hadn't figured out how to release. He knew Iris was worried. They'd barely talked this week. He didn't want her to see how deep he was in this work, how much he wasn't the person he'd been before. Because he wasn't sure if it would make her proud or scared.

And he was scared to know which it was. The door opened, and he felt her before he saw her. Cecilia Leonelli walked in, followed by Bianca, who was now her perpetual shadow, her voice in his earpiece. Luca sat straighter without deciding to, the same way he did every time she came into a room. He saw the rest of his team mirror him. She wore her usual look: a black suit tailored to her small frame, her hair cut precisely, her face showing nothing but calm. Her presence took up space without demanding it.

She just filled it, like gravity bent around her a little more than it should. Bianca was also someone he'd started to study carefully. Quiet, observant, dangerous in ways he had to watch to believe. But she stayed close to Cecilia like it was obvious who held her loyalty, and that made her less unnerving than she might have been otherwise. The two of them made a matched set, a picture that screamed dangerous in the kind of quiet way that didn't give you time to look away.

Cecilia's eyes passed over each of them, a quick assessment, then stopped on Luca.

"I need your best estimates," she said, cutting directly to the point.

"When is the next district scenario coming, and what do you expect it to do to Turin?" He sat forward, clearing his throat before he could talk around the dryness in it.

"Within the next seven days. Based on the interval pattern, there's an increase in frequency now that the smaller scenarios are on repeat. And the system is releasing new monster types in each district that hasn't cleared enough portals yet. So the damage potential is rising." He glanced at Ivan, who gave him a nod of confirmation, then looked back at Cecilia, who was waiting for the rest.

"We're guessing it'll focus on the industrial zones this time. Mirafiori is still unstable, and that's Fiat territory. There's a lot of economic pressure there. It's going to ripple into supply chains across the city if those factories get torn open."

"Which means what for us?" Cecilia asked, folding her arms, her head tilted in the way that said she already had her own thoughts on the answer and was just checking how close he'd get. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Luca took a breath, buying the moment he needed to make sure he was right. He wanted to impress her. He also wanted not to be wrong.

"The people in those zones will be more willing to sign up for any protection they can get. The businesses will be vulnerable to takeover offers or extortion. The resources available for salvage will be more valuable." Bianca didn't blink. Cecilia did, once, slowly.

"And what do you predict for the civilian population?" The question was a step ahead, as usual. It made his stomach clench, because this wasn't just a game mechanic to her. It was a real city full of people, and she was going to profit from their desperation. He glanced at Ermilio and Lorena, who were both avoiding eye contact, then back to her.

"They're scared. They're still looking to the police and the army for help, even though most of those forces are underpowered. If we move in first with real protection deals, they'll sign on. They might resist if it looks like a takeover, but if it's survival..." Cecilia nodded.

"Keep an eye on the social forums. Track the public sentiment toward organized groups. Dario will be pushing hard in those areas. I want to know who our competitors are, and when the public starts looking for alternatives to government response."

"Already on it," Giulia said quietly. She had her headphones in one ear and was listening to a police scanner on the other. Luca shifted, his gaze dropping to Cecilia's hand, which was resting lightly on the back of a chair. She wore rings on three fingers, subtle but heavy, the same way she chose to carry power without showing it as threat.

"Do you have any other projections we need to know about?" He swallowed, aware of Ivan and the others watching him, not envying the weight of the question.

"There will be Player groups forming faster now. The forums show an increase in alliances. They're learning that solo isn't sustainable, especially since getting guns is harder every day. The best items are being passed around in tighter circles."

"Do they pose a threat to us?"

"It depends." He didn't look away.

"If they organize fast, yes. We have less than a hundred Players in the Family. There are probably close to half a million Players in the region. The ones who are actively leveling are still small, but they'll catch on." Cecilia stared at him in the way she had, and then she straightened, unfolding her arms, taking a step back toward the door.

"Good work. Keep refining those estimates. And keep tracking those new Player groups. When you have a name, let me know." He nodded, feeling the nervous energy in his limbs as she turned to leave. Bianca gave him a last look that he couldn't read, and they were gone, shutting the door behind them. For a long moment, the room was quiet. Ermilio let out a sharp breath.

"Damn."

"She's something," Giulia said, almost too soft to hear.

"Femme fatale with a business plan."

"Don't talk about her like that," Lorena said, but not harshly, more like she was reminding them of the obvious.

"We're working for the Mafia. The fantasy thing isn't just a story now." Luca wanted to agree. He knew they were working for criminals, and yet his mind kept trying to reconcile Cecilia with every antagonist from every fantasy story he'd ever consumed, like she'd been designed to test whether he'd stay on her side when he saw who was pulling the strings. But that wasn't the truth of it. Not for him. It was worse. She fit the narrative role. She made sense as the one who got the power and decided how to use it.

He understood that more than he understood the part where they were now part of something that trafficked in flesh and violence like it was another market sector. And maybe that made him complicit, or corrupt, or whatever name you put on it, but the System was destroying any version of the world where people like him got to act clean.

"Stop philosophizing," he said to his own thoughts, out loud. Ermilio gave him an odd look, and Luca waved it off.

"Just work. She wants updates tomorrow. Let's give them what we've got." Cecilia was in her office when Ruggiero came to find her. She had the radio on low, listening to Bianca's updates through the floor speakers while she marked points on the city map with pins, placing them by hand even though she could have used her System interface. Something about the physical act of marking the territory they controlled helped her think about it as something finite and real, not just numbers glowing in the air.

Ruggiero closed the door quietly and leaned against it. He filled the space more than Dario did, broader, more grounded, even when he was trying to be inconspicuous. That was how they all were, really: versions of her that made the same decision in different bodies.

"How'd it go?" she asked, not looking up. He'd just come from a meeting she couldn't attend.

"Fine. The city council's new proposal is a mess. They want more power sharing. More oversight on 'private security services' in Turin's most critical districts." She nodded, because it was exactly what she'd expected.

"Tell Matteo to stall. Send Nadia to visit some of the weaker council members, make sure they understand how grateful we are for their reasonable approach, and how disappointing it would be if they sided with the hardliners."

"Done." Ruggiero shifted, not impatient exactly, but clearly on to something else.

"The northern crews asked to send more scouts up through Barriera di Milano. They think there's a pocket of military assets the System's hitting that the army isn't responding to fast enough."

"No." She said it immediately, and he knew what she meant. The military was a sleeping beast, one that could bite hard when it woke up. Letting her people play like they were part of the armed resistance wasn't something she could afford until she was sure she could dictate the terms of any partnership. Ruggiero sighed.

"I figured. I'll have them back off the patrols and hold what we've got." Cecilia finally looked up from the map. Ruggiero was frowning at the door, thinking about something that was bothering him.

"What is it?"

"The other thing," he said, looking at her now.

"We're getting more requests to let civilians sign on permanently. Non-combat jobs. Kitchen staff, mechanics, people who just want to be under our protection. Dario thinks it's a waste of resources."

"He thinks most things that aren't making money or making corpses are a waste."

"Yeah." Ruggiero folded his arms, more comfortable now that he was talking tactics.

"We're not just muscle anymore. If we start bringing in everyone, they'll slow us down. But we do need more people we can trust to keep things running when we're busy." He was waiting for the answer. She gave it to him because it wasn't complicated. It was just math.

"Let Dario set the cap. Keep the non-Player civilians as support. Let him complain if they're not useful. Do a thorough background check on any Player who wants a position in our organization, even if they're not combat." She pinned another point on the map, closer to the city center.

"And Ruggiero... tell Dario to take Iris with him on some of the recruitment visits. Let her see who comes in, how the contracts go down." Ruggiero blinked, caught by surprise.

"Luca's sister? Why?"

"Because she's sharp enough to handle it, and it keeps her engaged. Luca's too deep in his work to keep her out. So bring her in." She had noticed how Iris was watching the business, the way she lingered in the corners, too interested to be polite about it. If you left curious people to sit around too long, they found trouble on their own. It was smarter to put that kind of mind to use early and control what it saw.

"Alright." Ruggiero pushed himself off the door.

"I'll tell Dario." She returned her attention to the map. There were still so many neighborhoods that weren't under any kind of control, but they'd get to them. One district at a time, as the need grew, as the opportunities rose. Ruggiero reached the door, then turned back.

"One more thing." She waited. There was usually one more thing.

"Bianca told me you're going to the next district meeting. The one with the Mayor's staff, about disaster relief." There was no judgment in his voice. She respected him enough to let the question hang.

"Yes." He watched her.

"If you want one of us there..."

"It's my job," she said.

"And Matteo will be in the next room." She could see it in his expression: the urge to tell her it was dangerous, unnecessary, not the best use of her time. But she trusted that if he'd thought any of those arguments were good enough to use, he'd have spoken before telling her Bianca had mentioned her plans. He nodded.

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure." He let the conversation die, accepting it, because this was how they worked. She gave orders that felt like risks, and he made sure they weren't. There had to be a line where she didn't cross into his domain, or she wouldn't keep his trust. He knew where that line was. Most of the time.

When the door clicked shut behind him, she looked back at her map and thought about Luca and his team, and about the fact that the next big surge of Player competition could come from anywhere, even the next neighborhood over. She wasn't afraid of it. The Leonelli family had weathered wars before, just not like this.