A Black Market LitRPG

Two days later…

The door to the conference room swung wide open, with Mornero and his secretary Kalian entering with a brisk stride. “Sit down, sit down.” Mornero motioned with his hand, prompting the entire cabinet of ministers, army generals and business leaders to sit.

The cabinet was made up of mostly Mornero supporters, already having been put in place years ago in preparation for this coup. None of them resented Mornero for taking over the position of Acting President, with the exception of a clearly missing seat that was for Dekar.

Mornero sat at the head of the large round table in the middle, glancing over the people attending the meeting. “So, it has been five days since I have assumed the role of Acting President till the next election.” Mornero began, his hands clasped as he leaned forward.

“I have not shifted most of the cabinet, save for the missing position of Minister Dekar, who is still at large. Despite this, we currently face two glaring issues that should have been solved days ago, yesterday even.” Mornero continued, his eyes locking onto the army generals. “Generals, can you please explain to the rest of us here what has happened so far?”

The trio of army generals looked at each other, all of them slightly afraid to speak out, as the conference remained in silence for a few seconds. “I did not expect the generals to be mere yes-men. Talk now, or I shall have to reconsider your current position.”

One of the generals steeled his heart, grabbing a piece of paper and standing up. “President Mornero, sir. As you are aware, the Yual Dominion has always been employing a policy of brinksmanship. Over the last fifteen years, more than fifty military exercises have been conducted near our borders.”

“I am well aware of that, yes.”

“However, of the fifty military exercises, only two of them have been a joint exercise between Count Leon and Count Rinas, who is in control of the adjacent county that also borders us. In both events, our diplomats were able to meet with the Counts’ representatives to diffuse the tensions.”

Mornero nodded, prompting the general to continue. “Two days ago, our initial estimates placed the upcoming military exercise meant to be conducted in three months to be of that same level.”

“And…?”

“Well, military observations conducted at a range of two kilometres with optical telescopes have spotted numerous signs of increased habitation at our border with Count Leon, which comes in the form of visible smoke plumes and indications of forestry being used to clear-“

“Please, speak in plain and simple terms for the benefit of the rest of us here.” Mornero interrupted. “In fact, I’ll like to talk to the observer who is the reason for this entire meeting. Is his handler here? Or is he here?”

“Yes, sir, that would be Sergeant Alison right here, sir.” The general motioned to another person at the table, who froze up as all the eyes landed on him.

“Good. Sergeant Alison, could you care to elaborate in plain terms as to what you saw?”

The sergeant stood up shakily, quickly defaulting to his instinct to salute the ministers and Mornero. Mornero gave a small smile: “Relax, sergeant. Take a deep breath, and try to speak in a clear voice for us.”

“Yes, sir. A-at dawn today, my team of observers and I have confirmed that a third Count is participating in the military exercises as well, making it the largest ever exercise to date.”

“How many men are we talking about?”

“Enough to rival that of the first revolutionary war. I counted at least two times the number of troops, maybe eight divisions and even more coming.”

“How much more?”

“I…” The sergeant was at a loss, but another army general quickly took over, reporting to Mornero.

“Combining our observations with that collected by our intelligence department, there are more signs of military growth in all three counties, with marked increases in steel and weapon production. Raktor itself has geared nearly fifty percent of all factories towards one of these two industries at the behest of their barons.” The army general spoke with confidence, getting straight to the point.

“Is this true?” Mornero motioned towards the intelligence agency’s director, who nodded.

“Recruitment for their armed forces has been steadily increasing in size. Count Leon has been purchasing and renting multiple light throwers for a publicity campaign advertising the military. We suspect he plans to utilise existing light throwers in the city to drum up support significantly in the future when he launches his war. Already anti-Versian sentiments are being spread in Raktor.”

Mornero turned back to the trio of generals. “What are our projections?”

“President Mornero, sir, we haven’t yet had time to make accurate battle simulations to judge clearly how the war would proceed. More observations and calculations would need to be done. If you give us four more days, we could – “

“Generals, I don’t think you seem to understand the gravity of what has just been said!” Mornero raised his voice significantly, glaring at the general as he rasped his fingers against the table. “Do you know why I called for the meeting in the first place? It was not to hear deflections or meandering talk from any of you!”

Mornero stood up and paced the room. “As former Vice-President and current Acting President, my job is to figure out the future of the nation and to chart its course. It is my duty to steer the boat, to navigate. However, you have instead elected to defer judgement on the path to take by four days. That’s four entire days in which we could have mobilised, organised, trained, produced and assembled everything necessary to stem the coming tide. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” The generals nodded meekly.

“Now, from the top, General. What are our current estimates? No matter how rough.”

“Sir, based on extremely rough estimates – the first strike begins earliest in two weeks, latest a month; the total capitulation of the Versian state in two months after that. Even with the activation of all reservists and conscription centres. Not even counting the numbers advantage that they have over us, in terms of equipment, they have us beat by a wide margin. If Count Leon manages to secure the services of the Duke’s mage, our loss will be faster.”

“What about our two mages?”

“They have been in isolation ever since the revolution, and will not exit till five years later.”

“Can we get them to help us?”

“Not a chance sir, we’ve tried on a few other occasions.”

The room fell into a subdued silence, with the ministers all having explicit expressions of fear and anxiety. Mornero himself took a deep breath, thinking carefully.

“Thank you very much, generals and dear Sergeant Alison. Please, sit down.”

Mornero looked to the other end of the table, where the business leaders were seated. “Harrison, please tell me you have something for us.”

The business leaders sat represented the top players of each major industry – agriculture, engineering, construction, mining and transportation. Every industry related to supporting the military in any way, shape or form was invited to this meeting.

They were the industrialists who were supporting Mornero from behind, with Harrison as the current leader of them all, representing the engineering industry. However, despite their rise to power and having a seat at the table, most of them were unhappy, all fully aware of what the war would do to their business. Only Harrison seemed perfectly calm, as though he had already half-expected this to happen. He cleared his throat, standing up to speak.

“President Mornero, the industries have been suffering multiple setbacks recently, with the biggest being the entire destruction of the power station in Tenar. Our research and development teams have been working hard at producing new cutting-edge technology, but without sufficient funds as well as samples from the Yual Dominion, the progress will be slow.”

“How slow?”

“About three months, give or take. The prototypes still face multiple issues and are not fit for mass production.”

“How much do you need to speed up the development?”

Harrison pulled out a few copies of a paper with the values calculated written on it. He passed it out across the table to the ministers, generals and Mornero. “That much.”

The ministers were shocked by the value asked, the most vocal being the finance minister. “This is outrageous. Are you planning on war profiteering?! There’s no way the government budget can handle this increase – we would have to raise taxes across the board!”

“And what is the issue with that?” Mornero turned to face the finance minister.

“Mornero, you know this is far too much. If we modify the government budget right now, it will damage the trust that the people have in us. For a president who had only taken office in the last five days, this would be a radical change. We should instead do a gradual shift, maybe slowing dialling back our spending over the next month or so. The people are already beginning to doubt us for no good reason, largely due to the Ghost of Tenar.”

“The Ghost of Tenar is the other glaring issue I have yet to address. Now, if I made you do it right now, how would you do it?”

“Are you serious?”

“Humour me.”

The finance minister sighed, glancing at the sheet of paper in front of him first. “The current government budget can theoretically allow for this expenditure, but we would need to cut wages across the board first within the government itself. Following that, we would have to immediately phase out all social services and start diverting job seekers to the military or related industries. We’re talking about governmental housing, homeless shelters, income subsidies, pensions and so on. Everything has to go.”

“Next, we would have to clamp down on things such as luxury goods and services. Tax everything that is wasteful. All of this hinges on the fact that the people do not try to flee the country to escape the war. It will be a war economy within two weeks if you rush everything, which would slowly ramp up to its full potential in a month.” The finance minister concluded.

“Can you handle that, minister?” Mornero pointed to the minister of communications.

“It’s doable. We can work with the intelligence agencies and the military to lock down the news outlets and restrict information. This would give us a good reason to stamp out the Ghost of Tenar rumour as well as any spread of the fake religion of Nona.”

“But President Mornero,” the finance minister interrupted, “if you implemented the plan immediately today or even within the next two days, you might spark outrage and riots across the city.” He was clearly incensed at the idea of tanking the economy, which went against his job’s very nature.

“That’s for me and the minister of communication to handle.” Mornero shrugged it off.

“I don’t think I’ve made myself clear. What I am suggesting is a gradual increase rather than a sudden shock to the economy. The general’s estimate of a first strike within two weeks at the earliest is still an estimate – the war might not even happen at all if we do this. If you ignore my suggestion, you will immediately erode everything we have worked for in a single week.”

“I understand.”

“Do you really?”

“DO YOU!?” Mornero roared back, shocking the minister into silence.

Mornero slammed the table: “We are at war, gentleman. This is it! This. Is. It. It is a matter of survival, no more, no less. Do you really think the Count is simply going to back down and let us scale up within two months after all the signs and observations the people in this room have told us?! There is no turning back!”

“Everything about trust, morals, beliefs and ideals can be thrown out the window. Save that for the propaganda. Because I can tell you right now, Count Leon’s troops certainly won’t care if we treated the people nicely or not. And in war, you always prepare for the worst estimate. What would you say to the people of Versia when you lose? Hmm?”

The entire cabinet fell into silence, fully comprehending the situation now. Even the finance minister could not find it in him to refute what Mornero said.

“I’ve promised the people of a stronger Versia, and that’s exactly what they are going to get whether they like or not. We shall do everything in our power to survive and win this war. Now here’s what we’re going to do next.”

“Harrison, you will have your funds. Begin hiring anyone and everyone. Every competent arctech designer should be in there. I’ll put you in charge of organising the supplying of the military. Every resource meant for luxury goods that was being sold to the consumer, reallocate it for the military. “

“General, I want those accurate predictions, but for now, expand the boot camps. Work with the construction industry – it does not have to be glorious; only make sure there is enough space to house and train the incoming recruits. If estimates of our manpower fall below what is required, get back to me, and I will consider dropping the age limit. Increase border patrols.”

“Immigration, restrict people from moving out of the country for whatever reason. Stall as long as you can, delay any approvals and increase rejections. Work with transportation to put delays in the system. Use the guise of martial law aimed at the Ghost of Tenar to lock down Tenar. I don’t want a mass exodus.”

“Finance, you will implement all the budget cuts and draft up the proposal by the end of today. All other ministers, prepare to slash services and wages.”

“Minister of Communications, work with the intelligence agency and the military. Increase recruitment across the board, and clamp down on any news of a potential invasion. Shut down any rumour immediately. This means I want a dedicated department aimed at making sure I know exactly where the information is flowing. Frame the budget cuts as cutting off wasteful spending for now.”

“Director, make sure none of this and every subsequent move we make is not leaked to the enemy. And I want that Ghost of Tenar in chains in front of me in two days. Work with the military to organise a raid – flush out the entire catacombs. I want a full sweep operation immediately. Use anything in your arsenal. And I mean everything.”

The weight of the situation was clear, everyone nodded in response to Mornero’s orders and steeling themselves for work.

“Anyone unclear?” Mornero finished, glancing around the room. “Good. We’ll meet back in a day or earlier to check up on progress. Get to work.”