When I returned home, my first order of business was to deploy those bribes that I had finally found targets for.
Raven had been able to gather portal coordinates in Niger, so it only took me a few hours to pop over there and pay a runner to deliver a message to the land minister.
It honestly shocked me how easily I was able to get him to part with a square kilometre of barren land. Yes, it did take a massive chunk out of my bank balance, but I still hadn't offloaded any more gold. For just two hundred thousand dollars (including various bribes), I now legally owned a rather large chunk of land.
Sure, it would take a few days for all the paperwork to be put through, but given that I was employing two hundred people over the next couple of months to build my compound. It kind of pained me when I realised that I could get away with paying a workforce of this size fairly little.
Still, I tried to be fair. In addition to an eight dollar a day wage for each of the workers, I also agreed to provide them guaranteed housing in the residential parts of the complex once they were built, which would include free electrical utilities.
I also gave them options on the hydroponics bays I was building, mainly right of first refusal and reductions on the percentage of the produce that would be used to pay rent on the modules.
With everything in place, the compound was being built quite quickly.
Not the fastest, but the construction equipment being shipped in from Nigeria would be arriving next week along with the instructors necessary to teach my workforce how to use the damn things, which should greatly speed up the process.
My funds were starting to deplete quite a bit at this point, so I was reaching out to my contacts to sell yet more gold. About three times as much as I had sold last time, now that the news of my initial sale had spread enough to attract more goldsmiths.
The sales of the gold would be taking place this weekend, so I didn't have to worry too much about my money depleting.
What would be much more troublesome would be purchasing the equipment to build the damn fusion reactor.
It was only this one that posed a serious problem, once it was built, the rest would likely be funded by the various governments of the countries I would be building in, at least partially and acquiring the materials to build the things would be much easier with a government that was more credible than that of Niger.
Still, I suppose it did help that Africa was so corrupt.
With enough money to splash around, I was able to make contact with various mines to begin the process of buying various materials.
Really, all that I was missing was the skilled workers necessary to build the components.
That would be more troublesome.
The design I was lifting from Angela's home was one of the first fusion plants ever put into production. A complex, over-engineered thing that was more expensive to build than the designs that came later, complex enough that even I could see optimizations.
Still, it was rough enough that the design could be passed off as the product of some isolated think tank, even if I wasn't going to openly be describing it as such.
It was looking more and more like I was going to have to poach a few engineers from various companies to properly construct the fusion plant. That promised to be expensive.
And this wasn't even getting into the people I would need to hire for the space-based operations. Still, I supposed that I was moving very quickly indeed considering that it hadn't even been two weeks since this whole situation started up.
So I supposed that I could take things a bit more easily.
If nothing else, I already had enough money put away, for now, to see the next few months of my operations running smoothly. Especially once the sales went through this weekend.
I would still have to spend a lot of time headhunting the engineers I needed, but in between that I should have more time going into next week than I thought I would.
In fact, other than overseeing the construction efforts, I had nothing to do this weekend.
Hmm…
I wonder if I can get that analysis spell working. Knocking out a sensor array for me to use to start with should be relatively simple and I should be able to use it to more quickly check construction quality, especially at range.
I pause and grab my iPad, sketching out the formulas for the magical spell.
Hmm… I might be able to get away with a ritual format, especially once the main reactor chamber in the centre of the compound is complete. Then I can get away with central pulses that would speed up things even faster.
Actually, couldn't I get away with using this in my normal regalia?
Some of the journals Gwen has been forwarding to me cover some frankly fantastical technology. I didn't really understand it yet, but it was starting to make more sense now that I had gone over Gwen's textbooks.
The helm that I was planning on making to host the neural interface for the revised Grimoire would be the perfect place for a set of sensors I could use to augment my senses.
Though, if I was going to do that, I would have to acclimate myself.
Going over my calculations, I make a few modifications, pushing it one way and then another.
The first revision of the spell was far shorter-lived, in the hopes that it wouldn't strain the focus too much. I'd need to adapt it heavily while I put the focus together properly, but this design would do for a base.
The other design was more of an enchantment.
I'd managed to pick up the basics of the art from Levi's notes. It had been a particular focus for the techno-alchemist in his earlier works, and I sort of understood why.
Enchantment was a very… repeatable magic.
Assuming you had the same bits, you generally got the same output, something that Levi as a scientist definitely preferred.
I enjoyed it because it was painfully easy to make use of different power sources than simply the reserves of the enchanter. With the right prep, you could maintain the spell using a fairly mundane power source… even if it took a little finagling.
Much more convenient than having to enact a minor blood sacrifice simply to cast basic spells.
At least I'm past that point now. I've been using magic frequently enough that I can cast some minor spells without having to bleed all over whatever focus I'm using.
It's made designing prototypes easier since they don't all have to be waterproof.
It makes it much easier to train.
Well, that and the supplements I've been taking based on Danner's research.
I've been very careful not to fuck up the work that Angela and the others made to my body, but after the disastrous date with Ahri, the remaining girls had admitted that they would like to see me bulk up a little.
Not too much, but paired with the research I've been doing into super-soldier serums and even a little genetic modification (magic smooths over a lot of difficulties there) I could make a lot of progress towards upgrading my body.
I had already been making a lot of progress. According to Hinata, my physically aspected energy was almost up to part with what a journeyman ninja from her world would have, which would help a lot if we couldn't manage to cultivate a chakra tree.
We would have to find out more about that tomorrow.
Hinata's return had been pushed up the timeline after we had witnessed the shitshow that was Ahri's return to her world. Elizabeth had needed to take a day to get over the headache from finding Ahri's world.
Still, if Hinata was able to properly de-escalate things we should be able to begin operations in that world. Not much, but pretty much everyone was sure that Danzo had to go. And if sacrificing him to Nagato meant that he might be willing to consider a more peaceful path to peace, then I would be more than happy to do that.
Hell, even short term access to the Gedo Mazo would be enough to massively aid in my progress. It was technically the God Tree, just in a different form.
Still, any plan involving insane people was, basically by default, not a great plan. Communicating with Nagato would also be likely to catch the attention of Obito. Thankfully Madara is out of the picture at the moment (and would damn well stay that way if I had anything to say about that) so it boils down to making sure that asshole isn't able to interfere with our plans.
I hope that we can avoid the massive shinobi war though. I have no doubts that it had a lot of collateral damage.
That… that reminds me.
Technically, the reason that Nagato is so off the wall is that the third member of their crew… Yahiko was it? is dead. We know, though Maadra's resurrection that combining the Rinnegan's resurrection abilities with the Edo-Tensei allows proper resurrection regardless of the timeframe.
That information alone would be able to massively sway him to our side.
Paired with handing over Danzo, it could reasonably be used to turn Nagato and Konan away from Obito.
Would that work?
I'd have to bring it up with the others.