The chain of events had occurred in but an instant for the four CPUs.

First was the second great crash in 21XX: the gaming industry had reached its peak.

There were an abundance of games being released for each of the four CPUs consoles. However, due to having to pay for online connectivity across all four consoles - something that Vert had initially introduced and Noire, Blanc and later Neptune had followed, and the increasing volume of games with both downloadable content and microtransactions. This meant the large player bases that the CPUs had amassed in their nations were rapidly dwindling and moving to the neighboring PC Continent.

Even then, the PC Continent was experiencing the same volume of payment-heavy AAA games, causing most of the people that moved over to the PC Continent to move back to Gamindistri within a week or two of living there.

The main four were only able to hold on by the skin of their teeth, thanks to the remaining support they possessed, along with the excess shares they had at the time.

Second, was the usurping of the CPUs. While they were all at their weakest. The CPUs were discredited and blamed for everything that happened during the second great crash. News spread of an idea that would revolutionize Gamindustri: one singular leader, along with an idea known as Democracy.

No one had ever heard of such a system before, and while the masses were skeptical, in a time where the CPUs were being blamed for the second great crash, Gamindustri was willing to try.

The final, and possibly most disastrous event was Chaos Energy. Chaos Energy - an unexpected energy force that slowly had begun to emerge within Gamindustri. It was stronger than any of the CPU's shares would ever be, and the masses had slowly learned that they could harness this new energy as well. But, as the name implies, Chaos Energy was not for the common mortal, and those that could not bear its dreadful power were often driven insane by its very nature. Fearing the effects, the populace turned away from direct usage of the energy, and instead to other methods of use.

And all that leads us to now. Years later, in 23XX, Gamindustri, which is now under a democracy. Neptune (long since aged to her 'real' age due to a constant lack of divine power) was taking a 'stroll' through Virtua Forest. Her objective? Find a so called 'Share Crystal'. Being constantly surrounded by Chaos Energy in the air was intoxicating, and her minimal amount of shares was getting on her nerves too, so when she heard of a possibility of a Share Crystal, she jumped at the chance to find one.

Share Crystals, as they were hastily dubbed, came into existence at the same time as Chaos Energy. According to what few scholars cared, it was a super condensed form of Share Energy, formed by whatever lingering hope few remaining citizens had in the CPUs.

There were already fewer citizens that still fully believed in the CPUs - part of the reason why Neptune was still here - but for Neptune to hear that there were even more that were hoping for the CPUs to make a grand return, well, that made her happy, but also sad. Happy that, despite how she acted and did her job as a CPU, Planeptune still wanted her back, but sad at the same time, because even these Share Crystals wouldn't even be enough to let her transform into HDD, let alone start a revolution.

Neptune hadn't even gone past the starting area when she had found what seemed to be a medium sized crystal of sorts. It resembled her own Sharicite Crystal when she still had access to it. A crystal like shape with a power button in the middle, except this was way smaller and was silver in appearance.

"So this is that Share Crystal everyone keeps talking about on the internet…" she mumbled to herself, handling it gently within her palm, before it glowed bright and shattered into what seemed like a million pieces. In a whirlwind of light, the pieces danced around her, before surging into her. Neptune felt a little revitalized, but it wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough to get really excited about, and she still didn't have enough share energy to let her transform into HDD.

"Hmm… I guess I'll try and grab a few for both Nep Jr. and I, I guess…" Neptune sighed. This wasn't exactly what she was looking for, but it was better than having little to no shares.

So what exactly does Neptune do now for a living now, since she's no longer a CPU, and thus doesn't have infinite funds to live off of? Surprisingly enough, she runs a small games store. She's successful enough to where she can pay for the cost of running her business, and is able to provide shelter and provide food for her and her sister. She's had to teach herself cooking and even does the chores too now, considering that she can't laze about and make Nepgear do everything for her.

Histoire would probably be proud of her now, amusingly enough.

Speaking of Nepgear…

We jump forward a couple of minutes, as the triumphant Neptune returns home.

"Nep Jr., I'm back. Anyone drop by today?" called out Neptune as she entered her game shop. Expecting no response the ex-CPU sighed and walked up to the counter, where there was a little note reading,

"No one came while you were gone. Why are you taking so long anyways? I'll be in my room, drop off lunch just outside my room as usual."

Neptune groaned, "Of course she does this… and at a time like this too…" Walking past the counter, and into the entrance to the back, towards where they currently lived, Neptune could hear mechanical tools being used and the telltale sounds of Nepgear getting increasingly irritated, "Oh come on! Why won't this work?!"

Neptune shook her head, "You used to face problems logically. Now you face them head on without looking at the bigger picture… What happened to you, Nep Jr.?"

It had been a miracle that Neptune had found a building like this, (and for relatively cheap too!) for what it was. It was a building that could accommodate a small business like Neptune's games shop, and also doubled as an actual house for two. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, one bathroom to share and a living room.

Nepgear had specifically requested that it be a two person house as well, despite Neptune's strong stance that a bigger, single-person house was cheaper and provided just as much space as a smaller, two-person house, Nepgear had insisted on a two-person house and had then accused her of wanting to keep sleeping with her on the existing bunk bed they had. That was true, but that had been because they could an existing bed they already had and it would have saved space.

Neptune made the two of them lunch and placed Nepgear's in front of her room, just as she requested. She also snuck in a handful of share crystals she had found earlier in Virtua Forest. After the first few, she had quickly figured out how to safely store the crystals, and had pocketed quite a few.

She also left a small note for Nepgear, "Those rumours about share crystals are true, Nep Jr. Just hold it in your hand for a few seconds and it'll break instantly. It's not enough to really give us a huge boost in energy, but some shares is better than very little right? I hope whatever you're working on in there goes well. -Neptune"

There wasn't really any real communication between the two Nep sisters anymore. Her behaviour had changed drastically and she became more impatient and switched 'styles', in a sense.

Typically she would settle things peacefully, thinking logically and not really wanting to fight. Nepgear now chose the immediate solution, often muscling through problems, rather than solving them.

She was still very smart, this was Nepgear after all. She still knew a lot more than Neptune ever would, especially towards machines, but her ideas had become more grounded (as in not trying to make the Neptower a mech), and most importantly, they had actual use, instead of whatever she had made in the past.

Neptune retreated to her room and went to nap, "Same stuff, different day", she murmured. Nothing eventful happening as usual. Maybe something might happen tomorrow.

Probably not.