God Of Crafting

'That old fart…'

Cassie clenched her jaw as she put all of her focus on keeping her face still.

The clan's patriarch had already left the premises of the apartment she arranged as the command center of the operation… but pretty much everyone inside was still his retainer.

Or, in other and more direct words, even without her grandfather here, Cassie knew better than to let any feelings or thoughts appear on her face with so many eyes around, eager to find even the smallest and slightest fault that they could report up.

Some would love to see her fall from the patriarch's grace. Others simply had their own self-interest in mind. Some just wanted to watch the world burn, in hopes that being the one to start the fire would save them from being burned themselves.

Having all of that in her mind, Cassie could do nothing but watch her screens as her grandfather left the building with a phone by his ear.

'Fucking hypocrite,' she thought, once again exerting herself to keep her expression from revealing how she actually felt.

It was no one else but her grandfather who looked down on the technology. It was only with all of her influence and achievements that she managed to get his approval to bring in some of the basic innovations to the clan… and even then, those innovations were limited to the specific few who not only had the patriarch's absolute trust, but also both lacked access to vital knowledge of the clan and still had informational skills necessary to minimize their footprint on the civilian network.

Normally, this would be just an ordinary day in Cassie's life. Just another step of enduring the harsh conditions imposed upon her by the rules and traditions of the clan. A consequence of her assuming the role she put herself in with the combined efforts of all that she did ever since she realized what was the only path open for her to a better life.

But today was not a normal day.

Not because she was in charge of an operation that made the clan's forces dance on the line between legal, slightly illegal, and openly criminal. For people as high in the political spectrum as the higher-ups of her clan, it was just another day.

No.

Today was special, because no matter how Cassie looked at it, her grandfather had just sentenced his entire clan to oblivion, one that would be brought upon them not only by the clan elders, not only by the legal authorities of the modern world… but what was the worst of it, by the spiritual council delegated to manage their region.

'This might not be the best moment to put all my plans forward… But I don't think I will ever get another chance.'

Gathering her wits, Cassie took a shallow breath before stretching her legs out and then jumping off her seat.

"To hell with it," she exclaimed as she turned on the spot and grabbed the simple coat hanging off the back of her chair. "I don't believe we are out of options yet. Phone the patriarch and tell him I'm personally going in to oversee the operation."

Giving the clan retainers in the room no time to react, Cassie threw on her coat before hurrying toward the doors, past them and then straight to the building's elevator.

'Come on,' Cassie soon started to beg in her thoughts as she watched the numbers indicating the floor the lift was on slowly trickle down, from the topmost floor she organized her command center at all the way to the ground floor that her grandfather had just left.

'Hurry it up, girl, or it's going to be too late…'

Rushing past the building's main hall, Cassie fished out her private, secret phone that was by no way or form connected to the clan.

A possession that would easily earn her several months of isolation as a punishment if she were ever discovered with it.

But the risk of always carrying it on her person had finally paid off, giving her the opportunity to send through several messages she had prepared in advance, all directed to the various key members of the clan who, at least to the best of her knowledge, shared her beliefs and stances, even if they never dared to admit to it openly.

From the moment she sent the message only to then pull the SIM card out of the phone, break it into four pieces before smashing the phone itself and then stomping on it with all the fury only a soon-to-be traitor could possess, things started to move a lot quicker.

Free of the incriminating evidence, Cassie hurried up and approached one of the many clan cars parked in the lot.

"Get off," she ordered the driver as soon as she opened the door to the driver's seat, catching the man doing nothing but doomscrolling through the feed of the popular yet extremely obnoxious app.

"Excuse me?" the middle-aged man sitting behind the wheel raised his eyes to the girl… only for his face to instantly turn blank.

If Cassie was caught with a private, unregistered phone, she would suffer several months of isolation as a punishment.

But Cassie was the clan's golden child and the patriarch's favorite.

If a random driver hired by the clan was caught doing so by anyone who cared to report it, his fate was something Cassie didn't even want to think about.

"I didn't see you watching shorts on the phone, just like you forgot to close the car as you left to piss," Cassie stated, staring at the man with a blank look on her own face.

Thankfully, after merely a few breaths, the man caught on to the intention behind her words, simply hiding his phone in his pocket, leaving the keys to the car in the station before hurrying out and then as far away as he could.

'Now, let's hope no patrol will stop me for speeding,' Cassie thought, grinning at the very idea of it happening while perfectly aware that pretty much the entirety of the city police was currently scrambled and readying for the siege of the factory.

By now, several of the key members of the clan had received and likely read her message, setting the foundation of what was pretty much a coup de etat. By now, the clan's retainers back in the command center likely passed the message to her grandfather, urging him to hold his hand and give her one more chance to get proper results before he would unleash Hilbert upon the civilians and their infrastructure in a desperate bid to stop his rival from advancing and thus matching his cultivation level.

Wasting no time, Cassie turned the engine on before riding out of the lot and then speeding down the street in the direction of the nearest entrance of the ringway, hoping to save at least some time by taking the longer but wider route rather than letting the state of the street traffic decide her fate.

And as she rode toward the factory that was on everyone's mind today, she paid little to no attention to the speed limits or stop signs, daring not to stop or even slow down.

Because right now, the fate of her clan… No, the fate of this entire city if not the entire damned world rode with her. And whether she would arrive at the scene before the patriarch's patience would run out or not was certain to decide the future for more people than Cassie could ever hope to count…

Herself included.