Chapter 459

“So you want a lot of your people to come through?” Inosu asked once they had exited the building.

Arthur had a pretty good sense of direction, and the town itself wasn’t very large so orienting himself to head in the right direction – with the escort of orang asli around him – was simple enough. He kept his eyes open, but was mostly relaxed, knowing that his safety was assured for the most part in the Town.

Well, if he managed to survive the first attack, at least.

“That’s the plan,” Arthur said. “Make Kuching one of our major stopping points.”

“You going to buy a place outside then?” Inosu said. “A guild house?”

“Probably.” Arthur rubbed his chin. “I got to admit, I didn’t think of that; but probably.” He sighed, realising that he was going to have to finance a building at each Tower, if this kept going. Probably could rent one, in the short-term but buying probably made sense.

Problem was, land was overall expensive; especially near Towers. It was a weird dichotomy that while land was expensive, unemployment was high. No one had the money to buy land, except Climbers or those who had inherited it beforehand.

Or the corporations who owned almost everything and mostly traded houses between each other. Some countries – Singapore being one of them – had gotten ahead of the trend, made sure to block corporations from purchasing.

The Clans and Guilds were beginning to crack their monopoly, and in so doing, giving some of the more hapless government’s a wedge to get back at them. There were some fascinating changes happening – just not in Malaysia.

“No worries. We can hook you up,” Inosu said.

“For how much?”

“Cheap.” A pause. “-ish.”

Arthur snorted, but found himself cracking a grin at the unrepentant grin Inosu returned. He liked the older man, especially since the other was willing to just be entirely brazen about taking advantage of him.  He might be an old rascal, but he was an honest one at least.

“Keep that in mind.” It didn’t take them long to get to the building and Arthur stared up at the multiple storey building, curious if it was bigger because of the Tower having more options, because of a characteristic of the Tower itself or because his Clan standing itself had improved. Hard to say, and while someone else might have the answer, no one was telling him. However, rather than walking in, he looked at Inosu. “Why are you helping me?”

Inosu grinned. "We heard about you from the Lotuses." 

"Good things, I assume."

"Bad, mostly, actually." Inosu chuckled. "The one who told us, she always complains though. Maybe you're bad, maybe not. But better to be friends with a bad man, than enemies, no?"

"Some people might argue that you should always be enemies with some types of bad," Arthur said.

"Those people, they got power, no?" Inosu shrugged. "We know better. Sometimes, all you can do is survive."

"Is that all you're doing?" Arthur looked over to the group around him, eyes drifting over the way they held themselves, how strong they were, how well balanced. 

"Maybe. Maybe not." Now Inosu ducked his head. "Maybe we want you to help us too, no? Find a place to stay, help us pass the KL Tower." 

"You don't have a place to stay?"

"Sponsored apartments, 'cause we're bumiputera but, not nice ones." He shrugged. "My people, we can stay; we don't mind. Better use of money, you know; but if you grow fast..."

Now Arthur recalled, the Borneo Clan had at least a decade on him. It made no sense that they hadn't expanded faster, unless... "You're playing it safe."

"Only got one Clan. We want a second seal but, no luck so far." He raised a hand, rubbed fingers together. "Ones on sale, really expensive lah."

“Yeah, I know.” Arthur shuddered, recalling what he had seen when he looked it up. The numbers being talked about was enough to have put him, his family and any friends he wanted up for life even living semi-extravagantly. He wouldn’t say extra extravagantly – no private planes for all of them, but still, more than enough. And that was for a chance to make a Clan, just like the Lotuses had a chance – and failed. Nevermind people dying on the way through the first Tower and the difficulty in growing it.

The chance, even a small one, to become a massive organisation was worth a lot of money for some people.

“Right, so you want to set-up with me early; hope you can ride with us to other Towers and help grow your people.” He nodded slowly. “Maybe help you all inside the Tower, become allies?”

“You don’t have any, no? Turned down the government and the gangs.”

“You’re part of the bumi program though.”

“Are we?” Inosu stared flatly at Arthur until he found himself ducking his head in acknowledgment. He understood it – the bumiputera program was designed and meant for the use of the Malays, to give them a leg-up. A way to cheat forward. To ‘sell’ it to the masses, they included all the orang asli, but the natives were a tiny percentage of the population and didn’t cost the program much, relatively speaking. At the same time, while they received some of the automatic advantages, it was almost guaranteed that they were not going to be supported socially by the others.

They were the outsiders in the program, in a program meant to give outsiders a leg-up. Which probably made it feel even more alienating.

“Well, I can live with that.” Arthur nodded. “We can talk more, but we can work together. See what we can do to help you.” He gestured at the building, smiling. “But first, let me get situated, eh?”

He noted not far away his friends coming, Mel and Yao Jing leading the way. It seemed that had arrived before the rest, which was all for the best. He knew they likely had received a notification about the Clan building and details upon arrival, though he’d have to ask them some questions.

In the meantime, bidding goodbye to Inosu he wandered up to the Clan building and put a hand to it, triggering it’s opening.

Politics aside, there were a lot of things to do, up to and including cultivating some energy back into his stores, going out hunting and completing this floor’s quest to pass onto the next floor. There might only be eight floors, but they were nasty ones.