Chương 120: Chapter 125: I'm with you

A moment of silence was the prelude to a cacophony of sounds, people talking and shouting at me and each other, it was impressive how much noise a bunch of people could generate in an enclosed room. But the shock and chaos was exactly what I wanted, it was in my opinion the best way to convince them to agree. It took a couple of minutes, a man and a woman were still engaged in a shouting match metween each other when Cole approached them and made them separate, then in a louder voice shouted for everyone to hear.

"Everybody calm down! We don't even know what he really means by that, let him finish talking and then if you have something to ask, ask it in a sensible way, screaming won't be useful to anyone." I waited for a little more, until all quieted again, then I addressed the crowd again.

"I know that it sound extreme, but actually some of you may be tempted to change "race" even if there wasn't your freedom on the line." I told them. I looked at their faces, some were confused while others were attentive, "You see, in the shop there are many bloodline potions and items that will add or change part of your bloodline, that," I raised a hand to stop a guy from interrupting me.

"Is something that will add a trait or stats to you, while changing your appereance or physiology very sligtly, especially for the lesser versions."

"There must be risks! And I don't want to grow scales if I become a half men and half dragon!" Yea, because you'll have the points to buy a dragon bloodline, it's not even listed in the shop, the maximum I saw was a drake bloodline and it costed nearly thirty millions…

"Nothing of the sort, actually we identified some bloodlines that would mesh with us really well, like some kind of elves, those would give anyone at least an extra decade of life, make you immune to most disease, and increase your stats slightly, especially agility and dexterity. Elves are renoun for their beauty, so there might be some positive changes in that direction and is possible that your ears become slightly pointy."

I saw many faces take on a more pensive look now, while a couple of women were looking positively hungry after I said that last part.

"It doesn't sound so bad." Said one of the oldest people in the group.

"I won't mind to live a few years longer."

"But what about the cost? We can't buy it ourselves, we literally don't have anymore points, and the little we are managing to produce is getting taken by the aliens!"

"Don't worry about that, we found that the lesser bloodlines are not that expensive, you can repay that debt later on, when you're free. But take in consideration that you won't really change race, you would gain some traits from the chosen bloodline, but you'll remain mostly human, what we need is for your status to not list you as purely human, that's the thing we can use for freeing you all.

Not only, after everything, you can even revert back to a pure human if you want, but that is another matter we can discuss later, for now I need to know that you would go along with this, otherwise every effort put into freeing you would be moot."

"Is there no other way?" Asked a girl after the silence stretched for awhile. Chloe now took the reins of the conversation.

"Not that we found, and trust me, we scoured the contract clean and we consulted a dozen law books, the maneuver needed to free you is actually a stroke of genius if I can say so myself, this is your one and only chance to break free." She concluded, I don't know if the people would agree completely, but I had high hopes for it, after all with the prospect of slavery against becoming a tad more beautiful, or getting pointy ears, I know what I'd choose.

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"I refuse." Said an old man in the centre of the room.

"I don't know you, I don't trust you, and for sure I'm not going on and transform myself into someone I'm not! You come here like some kind of saviour, telling us that you have a way to making us free and all those bullshit, what do you stand to gain from helping us? At least with the aliens I know what they want, what you want?" Ah here we are, the sceptic. Not that I don't understand him, but still…

"What do I have to gain? Honestly? Nothing."

"More bullshit!"

"Don't get me wrong, I value the crafters abilities, and in the future you'll become even more of an asset than now, that's why the corporation wants you, but I personally have no use for you. Especially right now, when power is the only thing that matter; and I have that in spade already.

No, I don't need anything from you, but I won't stay still and watch as some aliens coerce my fellows into beurocratic slavery, because that's what it is, read the contract better if you don't believe me, there is no way you'll get out of it after the tutorial is done."

"And what do you plan to do when they'd come Earth and take it for yourself? Do you think that you'll manage to stop them, just you? Nah, I know how the world works boy, this is our best chance of survival, and you are trying to take it from us. I'm out, you people do yours, but don't bring me into this, you're going to kill us all." It was a long time that someone called me boy, I was thirty-five already, but maybe Rhea was right, and I started looking younger after using so much lifeforce.

In any case, the man turned around and followed by two more, went out of the common room.

"Anyone else with complotist theories and doubts?" I asked the people in the room. I could see many doubts, but no more people went out or shouted at me. The same girl who asked about another way spoke again.

"What about the aliens coming on Earth? How do you plan on solving that part?"

"Actually, we don't even know if that is true," I told her.

"Our only source of information are the aliens themselves, and while I won't discard the possibility of them saying the truth, maybe they twisted it to their own ends. That to me sound much more probable. In any case even if it was true, I would still choose to fight till the end. I won't lay down and let them take our home and enslave us all without a fight. Of that you can be certain."

"I'm with you." Said Alya loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I won't let them win without even a fight."

"Right!" Quinn appeared in the middle of the crowd, startling some people.

"We can nuke them if they dare to set foot on our planet! I want to see if they stop that!" Some actually started to nod at that. One by one the people in my group showed support and the mood shifted from defeatist to defiant.

"Better to die free than to live as a slave." Said Cole as he took a step forward.

"We made a mistake when we signed that contract, we were put into a terrible situation and we chose the only way that seemed had a chance of survival. Now that we have a different path in fron of us, I don't know you but I won't make the same mistake."

"Yea, I don't want to live under those aliens for all my life…"

"Actually I won't mind becoming an elf." Said a woman. The people started talking about the pros and cons of changing race, it was time to wrap this up, I accoplished what I had to, I couldn't do anything for those three men who left, and I didn't care honestly, my curse won't force me to help those who didn't want help at least in this situation. Actually I could use them for the more delicate part of the plan.

"People!" I shouted.

"If you agree to join us and wants to get free, you have time until the sunset to take one of the bloodline potions, Tom and Chloe can help you choose the right one for you, the choices are many but the process would take some hours to set in, it's imperative that you change race before tomorrow afternoon, after that we will enact our plan and free all of those who changed race, mind you, it need to be seen in your status screen that you are not just "human" anymore, otherwise you won't be able to break free from the contract.

If by any reason the potion don't work, speak to someone and we'll find a solution." The room was abuzz with questions and doubts, but a kind of energy was flowing around us, the air seemed electric as these people found hope again. Now for the last part, this was going to be tricky.