The group is quite happy to be back at their apartment, especially due to the fact that they're no longer all sharing the same small restroom that the gravity car has. They play a simple guessing game to determine who gets to use the showers first, and Sen ends up being the last one in.
Sen enjoys his shower that is heavenly compared to the terribly cramped, low water pressure one they'd had in the gravity car. He heads out, and asks the group what the plan is for today. They'd been hunting for a week, so at this point, it is probably time for a break.
The group enjoys a breakfast that Sen makes, crepes with lots of fruits, and then sits around reading on their tablets. Sen gets caught up on all the novels he's been putting off due to hunting, and the girls seem to be enjoying some sort of drama show that Lynna's tablet is streaming to the screen in the apartment.
Sen doesn't recognize the show, and they're speaking in the slightly so different language that the UFoH uses. The human population of the Allied Worlds also speaks the same language, as it had become the standard since even before Alpha had been colonized. While the language has evolved slightly differently on Alpha, it's still understandable aside from a few slang terms. Unlike the far past, language has become utterly standardized, leading to it not changing to the extent it used to.
Sen simply loses himself in the tales of text on his tablet, and by the time lunch rolls around, the girls have switched to a different drama. Alice seems to have somehow managed to integrate into the group, though the rest of the girls are still a bit wary of her. When she stands beside her chair, Sen's first instinct is to pull it out for her and help her in, but stops himself after a glare from Xue. Sen winces. Habits are apparently hard to break even in another life.
To mollify his girlfriend, he carefully pulls out her chair as well, and helps her down, which Lynna finds absolutely amusing. Sen has never heard of any sort of tradition where the man will get the chair for the woman in this life, but figures it can't hurt. Xue has always seemed to appreciate the gesture when he's done it before. As Sen enjoys the meal of spicy fried chicken, he muses on how odd it is to only have three meals in a day.
Once they've finished the meal, the group gets together to discuss their next move.
"So It'll probably take at least a month or two of hunting C ranks before we switch to a different hunting ground, should we just do weekly sessions like we have been? Or should we try for shorter ones? There is no way I'm up for hunting in longer sessions," Lynna starts the conversation.
"Sticking with our current hunting ground would be the most optimal choice. The only other C rank hunting grounds nearby all contain a good amount of high C rank monsters," Julie adds.
The group discusses how many break days they should be taking between their week long hunting sessions, eventually settling on two days, and spends the rest of the day just relaxing around the apartment.
The next day the girls go out shopping, Sen getting dragged along by Xue, Alice supporting the motion. The day passes relatively slowly for Sen, forced to judge a myriad of outfits by his girlfriend and Alice.
Sen is utterly exhausted by the end of it, though the girls seem to have even more energy than they'd had before the shopping trip. Sen perks up as they have some coffee, and they head back to the apartment,
When they get back, Sen gets a call on his tablet, the contact showing up as Jacob. Sen answers the call, not knowing who it is, but figuring that it won't hurt.
"Hey, it's Jake from Team Cloud."
"Hello, what are you calling about?"
"Have you checked the news from Alpha recently?"
"No, why?"
"A lot of groups have been putting pressure on Alpha. Apparently we haven't been paying proper 'protection fees'. The fact that my group fought off a group of bandits from Alliance only makes it worse for us."
Sen winces. This is why he'd made sure to kill everyone from the group that had threatened them.
"What do you mean putting pressure on Alpha?"
"They've been putting pressure on our families. Quite a few of our families have lost their jobs and been told that the only way they're getting them back is if we start to pay some protection fees. Not in such an overt way, but it's pretty clear."
Sen thanks Jake for the information, and says goodbye before instantly contacting his family. If they're targeting all of the hunters from Alpha, he's worried about his parents. He gets a hold of them with no problems, and soon finds out that what he's feared has come to pass.
His mother has lost her job at the hospital, and is being threatened with lawsuits. His father has multiple smear campaigns running against him, making it basically impossible for him to be elected next run of the election.
Sen bristles a bit at the fact that their parents hadn't told him anything, but soon realizes they don't want to bring trouble to him, and settles on feeling guilty. His parents are having trouble and they still want Lynna and him to not have any problems.
Sen's grandparents have all passed away due to a mixture of accidents and still incurable disease, and he doesn't have any other relatives, but Sen isn't sure what to do for now. Eventually, he decides to figure it out with the group. He knocks on each of their doors, and asks them to come to the living room.
He first informs Lynna about what has been going on, and then asks the rest of their group to contact their parents. Julie says she's not going to bother, and Sen is reminded of the fact that she seems to not get along with them very well.
All of the others are in the same situation that Sen's group is, being put under pressure by Alliance. Sen wonders how exactly they're supposed to help their family, as he doesn't even know what's with the protection fee he's supposedly supposed to be paying.
Pulling up his tablet, he opens an application he's never bothered with, his mailbox. Running through the myriad ads, he finally finds what he's looking for, a piece of mail from Alliance.
Opening it, he sees that they're supposed to give them another ten percent of any crystals that they acquire. Sen frowns. Is this common practice? Deciding to dig for information, he finds countless threads on the forum, almost all from people who have gotten into the fifth dimension through doing well in the game rather than through connections.
The situation is even worse than he'd thought though. Alliance will basically forcibly recruit anyone who they expect will make it to a high rank by pressuring their family. Considering those who get to the fifth dimension through the game tend to have rather mundane families who need to work to support themselves, they end up with no choice.
Apparently, the other group that is forcibly recruited is pretty girls. Sen can imagine what happens to them when they're recruited. As it turns out, the scum from Alliance that they'd run into before isn't an outlier from the group.
The rest of the group has read up on the same things, and they all look to each other.
"What the fuck do we do?" Lynna eventually asks.
The group simply stares at her blankly. With all the girls in the group, he'd be very surprised if none of them were "recruited", and that's not something he's willing to let happen. They can't even fight against them, as Alliance has a few thousand members in this city alone. Even if they gather all the hunters from Alpha and try to protest, they'd likely be shut down by the military presence in the city, or simply laughed at with nothing changing.
Alice seems to get a smug look on her face. "You could always defect."
The group looks to her.
"And where would we defect to?" Jennifer asks.
"The Allied Worlds. We have a city of our own only a few hours flight from this city. We tend to not get into conflicts aside from the higher ranked hunting areas.."
"What's the situation between the UFoH and the Allied worlds anyway?" Julie asks.
"We are ostensibly at war, though there have been no large conflicts in recent years. That may change soon however. Alpha has not been living under the propaganda umbrella most UFoH worlds have had for decades, so it may be worth fighting for."
"So you're saying our planet may spark a galactic war?"
Alice nods, and the rest of the group looks to each other. War is never kind, and they don't want to see it on their world. They won't have any say in it however.
"Shall you defect? Or shall you simply continue to worry about your family's safety?" Alice is looking at them, and Sen gets the feeling that she's the devil they may make a deal with.
"So how do we know our families won't be treated worse in the Allied Worlds?" Lynna asks.
Alice looks to Lynna. "Unlike the UFoH, our hunters are treated more as a mercenaries rather than as nobles. Very rich mercenaries, and it's common for their families to use the money to run some form of business, but mercenaries nonetheless. We espouse the belief that humans are equal, not placed on a pedestal for having gone to the fifth dimension. That's not to say that our political situation is perfect. There are numerous conflicts between hunters, but those that don't go to the fifth dimension live a far better life than those in the UFoH."
Everyone looks to each other with nervous expressions. They're all hesitating, but the first thing they need to do is contact their family, even if they're not going to defect. Everyone goes silent, and messages their families to come visit. At least in the fifth dimension they'll be able to protect their family a bit more.
Their families all agree, except for Julie, who doesn't even bother to contact her family. Sen is curious, but knows better than to ask. She is always cagey when it comes to her family, and Sen isn't going to pry.
They all sit there in silence, even through the dinner that Lynna cooks up. All of the other girls have tried learning to cook, but it is still usually left to Sen and Lynna. Dinner is a silent affair, each of the group having their own thoughts.
The next day, they don't go hunting as their families will be arriving. The group heads to the gate back to Alpha, and are soon waiting around. As Jiu and Tien step through the gate, the first thing that Sen notices is that they both look terribly exhausted.
He goes up with Lynna and they greet them with hugs. They talk for a bit about how they've been doing in the fifth dimension while waiting for Jennifer's and Xue's parents, and when they arrive they're also greeted with hugs. Kang is acting too aloof to hug his sister as he exits the gate.
They head back to their apartment for a while to talk with their family about their options. They stick to more mundane discussions on the way, not wanting to be overheard. Along the way, Alice decides to grab Sen's hand, leading to Xue grabbing his other hand and glaring at her. Sen can't even shake off her hand considering that she has higher stats. Let alone the fact that he's completely mentally unable to go against her in the first place.
Sen gets odd looks from all of the parents, and he does his best to hide his face as they go, the rest of the group simply ignoring the byplay. Xue's parents in particular are glaring daggers at him, and he realizes that there's going to be quite a few uncomfortable questions once they get to the apartment. Kang is looking at him in what seems to be jealousy, and Sen simply wants to tell him that it's not nearly so nice as it seems.
It doesn't take them very long to get there, and suprisingly, it's Sen's parents that decide to get some information on what's going on.
"What's with the two girls?" his mother asks.
Luckily, Sen is saved from explaining by his sister.
"So, Sen apparently knows her, and she found him in the fifth dimension. She and Xue are pretty much fighting over him." She tactfully avoids telling them about the fact that he's reincarnated, though she gives a look to Sen that says he should tell them.
Sen tries to hide his face again. It's bad enough that it's happening, hearing it out loud hurts.
"Sen is just letting this happen?" Xue's father asks in a harsh tone.
Lynna laughs a bit. "He seems to be literally unable to tell her no."
All of the parents look at him disapprovingly, Sen still flanked on each side by the girls.
"On a more serious topic," Sen tries to change the conversation. "We need to figure out what we're going to do about the pressure being put on us by Alliance."
"What can we do about what's happening? We seem to have basically no power with being a new addition to the UFoH," Jennifer's father says in a scathing tone.
The group turns to Alice.
"I'm afraid that's incorrect. The UFoH isn't the only power in this galaxy. I'm from the Allied worlds, and we would be glad to welcome new people." Sen's parents give him an odd look, and Sen realizes that him knowing someone from the Allied Worlds is a bit odd, but they don't press him whatsoever. He feels a bit guilty at that, but he's scared that he'll be treated differently if he tells them. Facing his parents with something like this is easily scarier than fighting.
"And what would the Allied Worlds be getting out of this?"
Alice smiles, and wraps her arms around Sen's arm. "I shall gain my valiant knight. My family is influential enough to get you set up there. More seriously, information about your planet could be a large boon." The way she said it however, her intentions were more leaned to the former.
Xue copies her clinginess with a glare, and the parents all give him disapproving looks. Sen withers a bit at the attention.
"Do we really want to go somewhere where we have nothing? Our lives are on Alpha." Says Xue's father.
"Our lives are already under attack," Tien says.
The rest of the parents look uncomfortable at that. "And what will we be able to do on another planet? We have no official training in the systems of another world." Xue's father seems to be against the idea.
"It shall be easy enough to find you jobs. My family owns quite a few businesses."
The parents look to each other. "We'll need to discuss this."
The group nods, and the parents file out, heading to the rooms they've rented for a measly few crystals. Kang gives a thumbs up to Sen as he leaves, and Sen just puts his head in his hands. Shouldn't Kang be supporting his sister?
The group looks to each other. They'll likely go with what their parents decide, as they're not willing to leave them behind on Alpha. Excluding Julie that is.
The group spends the rest of the day doing nothing of note, the girls watching yet another drama together while Sen reads. They go to bed, hoping that their parents can come to a consensus soon.