“Pina Colada,” Scarlett demanded, holding out an empty cocktail glass. Lying on a lounger and wearing absolutely nothing, the androgynous redhead slowly raised her head and blinked numerous times to allow her eyes to focus on the situation. Before she could complain, Aclysia stepped up and took the glass. “You’re the best, Aclysia, anyone ever tell you that?”

“I’ve been presented with this or similar opinions before, yes,” the weaponized maid responded, as she took the glass over to the sizable minibar. “Does anyone else require a new drink?” she asked.

John took his hand off Undine’s head to wave around with the empty bottle of beer in front of him. His eyes did not leave the scene under the desk, however, as he was currently getting a blowjob by Nia and an abysstide elemental mimicking the blonde’s appearance. Having sex with twins was a fantasy at the best of times, this was a step above that.

They were tending to his dick, Salamander was tending to the grill, and the rest of the girls were busy either sunbathing or hanging around nearby. The sundeck of the Gamer’s yacht supplied ample room for activities. Despite a wealth of options, most of what John and the harem wanted could be summarized in three words: relaxing, fucking or drinking. Usually all three at once.

As a sign of blatant favouritism, John was handed his replacement beer before Aclysia had even started mixing the next cocktail for Scarlett. Interrupting the Technomancer’s grumbling, the Gamer pointed out, “You shouldn’t get smashed so early in the morning.”

“I wouldn’t need to if you just went ahead and did the thing already.”

“Can’t do it, island still hasn’t been completely cleared out.” In order to avoid any complications that could come from people still being on the island when John started moving Buildings around, he had issued a temporary travel restriction to the island yesterday. That took care of traffic, for as long as necessary, but a fair few people actually lived in Liberty Island’s residential area as well. Not nearly enough to fill all the houses, but a fair few regardless. Ferries had taken them off the Guild Hall in waves and John had been ready to start about twenty minutes ago, but apparently some workaholic dwarves were still in the Mine. Jack was currently dealing with that issue. “Not like you need to be here anyway,” he teased.

“Alright then, I will just swing my fat ass off the boat.” Scarlett’s response was as dry as desert sand. “Not like I’m here because I should give some structural input on the infrastructure that’s solely responsible for fifteen percent of Fusion’s entire GDP.”

“From when is that data?” John wondered. “Last quarter?”

“End of July, yes,” Scarlett responded. “Current calculations have it sinking to about nine percent in overall contribution. The more we develop other areas, not to mention the Amaca Coast binding into our economy properly, the less I expect the Guild Hall to dominate my pie charts.”

“Let’s see how this upgrade influences that,” John said, before groaning in lust and spilling a load in Nia’s throat. The climactic moans of the pariah carried him nicely through his own orgasm. Once he was done and Nia, reluctantly, let his cock slip out of her throat, he turned back to the conversation. “Maybe you should swing said bubble butt over here instead? I have a lot better use for it.”

“Whatever distracts me, I guess,” Scarlett mumbled, got up, and took her new cocktail from Aclysia while she strolled over. Nia and Undine backed off and allowed Scarlett to straddle over John on the bench. Sitting cowgirl was one of his more favourite positions. As she slid down his shaft, she picked up his bottle of beer. “Are you sure you should be lecturing me on drinking when… SHANDY?!”

Only once she looked at the label did Scarlett realize that John wasn’t drinking ‘real’ beer, but a 50/50 mixture of beer and lemonade. “Anything wrong with it?” he asked, personally finding it rather tasty.

“What the fuck is this heresy? How are you supposed to get drunk off that awful fucking thing?”

“You aren’t, really. That’s kind of the point.” Even as John explained, the Technomancer put the bottle to her lips and downed all of it in one go. Seeing her swallow the entire half-litre in less than three seconds had John oddly aroused. Perhaps because it reminded him of scenes where the bottle had been something more attached to him. Perhaps because he was already balls-deep inside her.

“If you don’t want to get drunk, just sip on some whiskey,” Scarlett asserted after she casually placed the bottle back on the table behind her. Her flat chest stretched enticingly in the process. John leaned forwards and gave the pink nipples a little bit of attention.

“That’s an approach that only works for an alcoholic,” he asserted while kissing his way from one boob to another. There may have been little in the way of squish, but John still got the main thing he was after: tiny moans from Scarlett. She may have been able to keep it together just sitting on his cock, but a little effort from John’s side and that composure began to melt away. Lips on her tits, hands on her ass, John was greatly enjoying the situation. The plum bottom of hers was just an absolute feast to dig into.

“Works for me,” Scarlett mumbled and John spared himself the easy retort. Instead, he rolled her left nipple between his teeth. Her pussy quivered around him, overflowing love juices began to wet his groin. “Anyway, you sssssshould,” it took her audible effort to remain coherent now, “should stay sober when building infrastructure.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“I was never that stupid.”

“If you say so,” John cheekily responded and turned the groping of her ass into him forcing her to raise those wide hips of hers off his cock. About halfway up, his instincts kicked in and he thrust upwards before his manhood could leave her any further. Scarlett let out a high-pitched scream.

The conversation came to a stop as John suddenly stood up and laid Scarlett on the table. Nailing her to it would have, perhaps, been a more accurate description, as he didn’t give her much of a choice in the matter. His hands were around her throat in a matter of seconds and he gave her a thorough pounding.

Once he came inside her, he sat back down on his seat and sipped on the new beer that Aclysia had brought him in the meantime. Twitching and moaning, Scarlett did not make for a good conversation partner at the moment. He looked around if anyone else was willing to take on the task instead, but most of the girls were, at this point, involved in a semi-heated debate between Nia and Siena. The one person who could have easily dispersed any disagreements, Rave, was still sunbathing. The next contender, Gnome, was still in the ‘confused as to what was going on’ stage of her analysis of the situation, looking back and forth between them.

John was considering getting in and doing his best to mediate the conflict himself. There were two things that kept him from doing this. His harem was, usually, getting along without him needing to play referee for every conflict and he preferred it if it stayed that way. Best not to cultivate bad habits. More importantly, one of them realized he was effectively alone and peeled out of the group.

“Look at you NOT having a hard-on for once,” Metra pointed out, while sitting down next to him. The light-brown berserker babe was as naked as she preferred to be. Before she could beat him to it, the Gamer put an arm around her shoulder. If he wasn’t proactive enough, Metra would show off exactly why they called her kind of woman a tomboy and take the position of the men herself in all things except for sex.

“I mean, I can change that,” John offered. Thanks to Source of Satisfaction making his balls bottomless, the only two limitations to the Gamer’s ability to have sex where his own mood and his state of nutrition. While he did cum a whole lot more than should have been possible, even he needed a drink sometime. He was sure that, if he measured what he took in against what was regenerated through HP and other mechanics, it would be rather skewed. That fit pretty well with video game logic, however, where eating a cheese wheel could somehow completely heal stab wounds.

“Maybe in a minute.” Metra smirked and snuggled against him in a surprisingly girly way. Muscly and easily angered as she was, this kind of behaviour wasn’t usual of her. Which only made John appreciate it all the more. “I overheard what Scarlett said about the economic contribution of the Guild Hall to Fusion – those are pretty good numbers.”

“You care about economic performance?” John wondered.

“In detail? Fuck no, keep your accounting to yourself,” Metra gave him a bemused response. “As long as the economy works well enough to finance the ongoing wars, I don’t care what’s going on in the markets. I did learn millennia ago, however, that kings that let too much financial power slip from their grip didn’t last long.”

“I don’t think that’s that much of an issue anymore,” John dared to assert.

“Maybe,” Metra shrugged, “but I don’t think it hurts if you have a good chunk of the economy in your hands. Gives you leverage when you most need it.”

With a groan, Scarlett slowly sat up. “You will love to hear… fucking Gaia my throat is sore…” She reached for her pina colada. One gulp later, the recovering Technomancer continued, “…I shouldn’t scream that much. Anyway, you will love to hear then that there is a massive disparity between the numbers on paper and John’s actual economic power.”

“Coming from where?” the First of Wrath asked.

“The fact that finished goods sell for a higher price than raw materials,” Scarlett responded and took another sip. “Most of what the Guild Hall produces is an effectively endless supply of ores, woods, herbs, oils and whatever else John can find in his menus. Those things stand at the very start of the economic chain. While the areas that refine those raw materials into something the average person wants create more economic output, they’re all reliant on the Guild Hall to actually do their business.”

“Which is more important as far as I’m concerned,” the Gamer noted at the end of the explanation. “The fact that the Guild Hall can guarantee a certain amount of materials for most fundamental industries means that we shouldn’t ever be able to be cornered by anyone who tries to drag us into a trade war. It makes Fusion incredibly difficult to control by outside actors.” He smirked at Metra. “You do have a good point though. Even if I’m not too worried about my personal status within the Federation, the fact that the Guild Hall is located here solidifies the Hudson Barrier’s importance. A capital that produces nothing but bureaucracy is a recipe for disaster. People don’t respect a nation like that.”

“I sure wouldn’t,” Metra agreed whole-heartedly. “Anyway, good to hear you’re staying on top of more than one lever of power.”

“Well, I can’t economically dominate, but I can dominate the economists,” John joked and gave Scarlett’s thigh a nice slap. She groaned, because of her masochism in smaller and because his joke was awful in larger part. “To the point, I may have created a system that allows people to do things without or in spite of me, but I still very much like being in charge of it. I need to have political capital, magical prowess and financial strength to keep just about everyone in line. As well as a huge dash of Charisma.” He leaned back and winked. “Currently, I’m well positioned on all these fronts. Mat, can you give me the beer?”

“Sure thing, Master,” she purred. Straying from the usual ‘my king’ title had the, likely intended, effect of having his dick slowly rise up again. Metra helped the process out by giving him a handjob. The lubrication left on his cock from previous engagements was ample to that end. Once he was hard, Metra attempted to do exactly as Scarlett had earlier. John instead bent her over the table and the redhead.

Halfway through the following threesome, Scarlett found her throat invaded by the descending member of John’s double. Jack had returned, which meant that, theoretically, everything was in order now.

John opened the map of his currently Guild Hall and tapped on all of the Buildings to see if there was still anyone inside.

‘Thank God I’m ambidextrous,’ John thought as he did both that and gave Metra’s firm behind a proper spanking. Whether real flesh or not, the sound of the repeated impacts was definitely genuine. As were the moans she let out. Although she still liked being on top a fair amount of the time, especially in the morning, she now had so much love and respect for him that she gleefully submitted herself to his desires.

He paid her back by changing his angle that little bit and hitting a particularly sensitive bit inside her. While the existence of the g-spot was scientifically unproven and highly unlikely, the fact was that there were certain ways to fuck a woman that they, individually, much preferred. While he distracted his body with the repeated movements, his mind turned to the last question that preceded the upgrade of his Guild Hall.

He had to pick where to put his Guild Perks. There were only two categories left, Patronage and Administration. When it came to what they enabled, neither was particularly urgent. Looking at them, however, John had an easy time making his choice.

He didn’t have anyone who could have become Collide or Fusion’s Patron God. Florida may have had Wendy and Fred, but John didn’t even care to ask for them to rise to the national level. He did not want the headaches associated with that. Nathalia could have been a contender, but she wasn’t there, and Thana was, well, Thana. Aside from those, he didn’t know anyone closely enough who fit the bill.

He could have asked the Horned Rat, but that sounded like an eternity of headaches and the god of future calamity was unlikely to accept anyway. What would happen would be that John made the offer and then got laughed at. A lot.

Administration at least had a number of things that were mildly useful. The Great Archive would help in catching organizations that tried to evade attention. How much it would aid depended entirely how much details came in with the name. Even without that addition, having more room for Core Members, people that could join Collide, meant that John could potentially help some more people to reach a higher level through the Training Hall, among other benefits. Magnus came to mind. The announcements were a general quality of life improvement. Only the Central Hall would likely be a tad useless.

‘Not like I need more space in my Palace,’ he thought and was presented with a new window, asking him if he wanted to upgrade the Guild Hall to Tier 4 now or later.