Standing there with dirt under my fingernails and the satisfaction of a job well done warming my chest, I felt genuinely proud of what we had accomplished. The transformation of the park had been exactly the kind of hands-on environmental work that reminded me of my early days in construction, back when problems had clear solutions and success was measured by tangible improvements you could see and touch.
The physical exertion should have left me exhausted. After all, I had been coordinating dozens of workers while personally operating heavy machinery for nearly twelve hours straight which would normally require significant recovery time. But I felt completely energized, with no trace of the fatigue that should have accompanied such intensive labor. My skills like Superior Endurance combined with the efficiency bonuses from my Lumberjack skills and Construction Worker skills, had made the entire project feel more like an engaging puzzle than grueling work.
"Boss!" It was Anthony's voice that easily cut through the crowd as he and Evelyn made their way toward me. I could see the mixture of shock and pride on his face as he took in the completely transformed park and the gathered crowd of impressed onlookers.
"Boss, that was absolutely amazing," Anthony said, giving me an enthusiastic pat on the back that would probably have sent a normal person stumbling forward. "I've seen a lot of impressive things in my career, but watching you coordinate that entire restoration project was something else entirely."
In any other professional context, Anthony's casual familiarity with someone he was supposed to be protecting would probably result in immediate termination. But with him, that kind of behavior was not only expected but somehow reassuring. His genuine enthusiasm and informal approach to hierarchical relationships had become one of his defining characteristics.
Evelyn approached more quietly, her skills were probably allowing her to process the crowd's reactions and ambient conversations in ways that gave her a detailed understanding of what had occurred despite not being able to see the visual transformation directly.
"From the sounds of celebration and the energy in the crowd, I take it the project was successful?" she said with a smile that suggested she was pleased but not entirely surprised by the outcome.
"More than successful," I said, though something about her expression made me pause and look more carefully.
It was weird. For someone who had worked with Evelyn for a long time now, reading her emotional state and facial expressions had become almost automatic. I rarely had to use anything more than Psychological Insight to figure her out. But looking at her now, I found myself struggling to interpret her demeanor with my usual accuracy. Her smile seemed genuine, her posture suggested satisfaction and pride, but there were subtle micro-expressions that I couldn't quite decipher.
I found myself unconsciously activating Psychological Insight, Observation and Deduction at higher intensity levels, trying to parse what seemed like deliberately controlled emotional responses. But while I could somewhat read her now, I was still definitely struggling with it. Which made no sense to me at all in the slightest. I only had a single plausible explanation. Was Evelyn practicing maintaining neutral expressions? The possibility was intriguing – if she was working on masking her reactions more effectively, it suggested she was preparing for situations where readable expressions might be a liability. Which was a reasonable worry. After all, with all these political meetings, we're more than likely to meet another evaluator or an individual with a skill dedicated to reading people's emotions.
Regardless of whatever emotional control exercises she might be practicing, what I could clearly observe was the amazement of everyone else in the immediate area. The crowd of gathered onlookers was continuing to grow, with people taking pictures and videos while expressing obvious appreciation for the park transformation. Some were even starting to chant my name which is something g I never thought that I would get used to. Either way I could already tell that this was going to be trending on social media soon. More importantly, President Santos was looking at me with the kind of impressed satisfaction that suggested the demonstration had achieved exactly the kind of confidence-building I had hoped for.
This was perfect for our larger diplomatic objectives. Demonstrating concrete problem-solving capabilities in a visible, public way would make it much easier to secure Brazilian support for our coalition against the World President. If I could show that our partnership would result in real improvements to their environmental situation, political alignment would follow naturally. Not to mention that I already have a massive amount of public support. There's isn't a case scenario where I solve their problem and they still refuse.
"President Santos," I said, turning my attention back to the Brazilian leader, "will the environmental problems we're addressing tomorrow be solved as straightforwardly as this one was?"
"After what I've witnessed today," Santos said with obvious enthusiasm, "I don't think you'll struggle with what's coming. This was beyond impressive – it was genuinely remarkable. If you can apply these same skills and coordination abilities to our larger environmental challenges, we could see transformations that seemed impossible just yesterday."
The confidence in her voice was exactly what I had hoped to hear. All that remained was to attend tomorrow's conference meeting, apply my environmental management skills to whatever larger problems they needed addressed, and secure Brazilian support for our international coalition. What had initially seemed like a complex diplomatic mission was shaping up to be a relatively straightforward application of the right skills to the right problems. This is great for once we have a project that isn't impossibly difficult. Maybe after I finish recruiting them, I can actually go and enjoy what the country has to offer.
"I'm looking forward to getting started on the real work," I said, already thinking about how Forest Stewardship and Environmental Awareness could be applied to challenges of greater scope and complexity than urban park restoration.
The conference room was exactly what I had expected for high-level environmental policy discussions – a large oval table surrounded by comfortable chairs, walls lined with maps and charts showing various ecological data, and the kind of serious atmosphere that accompanied important governmental decision-making.
What I hadn't expected was the look of barely contained panic on the faces of several Brazilian environmental officials as they prepared to brief me on the specific challenges I would be addressing.
"So," I said, settling into my chair and opening the briefing materials they had provided, "what's the scope of the restoration project we're looking at?"
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as several officials exchanged glances that suggested they were trying to figure out the most diplomatic way to deliver potentially overwhelming information. It seemed like whatever President Santos had told me was massively underselling the scope of the project.
"Well," one of the senior environmental ministers began carefully, "we're hoping you can apply your demonstrated restoration skills to one of our most significant conservation areas."
"Excellent," I said, still feeling confident after the previous day's success. "What kind of area are we talking about?"
"Cristalino State Park," another official said, consulting what appeared to be a detailed geographical survey. "It's one of our most important ecological preservation sites, but it's been severely impacted by deforestation, illegal logging, and disrupted ecosystem management. We would like you to take a look at it and hopefully fix it in ways similarly to the park you fixed yesterday." Content orıginally comes from 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝘯𝘦𝘵
"I can do that. That sounds exactly like the kind of challenge these skills were designed to address," I said, thinking about how Forest Stewardship would apply to this conservation park. "How big is our project going to be?"
The officials exchanged another round of uncomfortable glances before the senior minister cleared his throat and consulted his notes. This was starting to become more worrisome than I would have liked. In no universe should these senators be this nervous talk about something .
"The Cristalino State Park," he said slowly, as if he were trying to soften the impact of the information he was about to deliver, "covers an area of approximately 184,900 hectares."
I nodded, though I wasn't immediately familiar with hectare measurements for context. Which I wasn't going to tell them. The last thing I would want is for them to think I'm inept in things like these. But that's not really on me, my only experience in things are my time as a construction worker and back then at most we were making buildings. The biggest thing we helped make was the Hudson Bridge but even then it was a specific section of the bridge. Though, this project seemed somewhat bigger than what I was expecting after yesterday's conversation, but I'm sure it isn't that bad. I mean I doubt would President Santos would undersell a project by that much-
"To put that in perspective," the minister continued as he cut off my train of thought, "the park is more than double the size of New York City."
…This is last time I'm trusting Santos' opinion in things .