[Greetings from fanfic author Eleya Belle - Hello everyone! I have been posting more chapters per week regularly of late and I would like to know how people feel about this change. I will only be posting the one chapter this week since it's long and quite a doozy. This chapter fairly heavily connects into my writing outside of fan fiction, but it's mostly inspiration. This fan fiction is not connected to the actual story of my outside writing in any way (no influence from the fanfic on my outside project). If anyone has anything against this being part of the fan fiction, please let me know in a message! Just because I am introducing this to the story, does not mean it's extending how long I will make the story overall. Over the next couple of chapters following this one, there will be more of this content inspired by my outside writing. The rest of the fan fiction will have these elements accordingly incorporated to the rest of its story. I also use this message as a means to inform those reading - this fan fiction will be ending potentially in an unsatisfying way. If you want more, please send me words of encouragement to work on my outside project so I can push development on it in order to start releasing it. Sorry about taking up so much space at the beginning of the chapter, but please enjoy the read and let me know what you think through review or message!]
"How are you feeling? Remember anything from in there?"
Ela's voice felt like Kazu hadn't missed even a moment. She looked into her peripheral vision and saw her AR feedback tell her an hour had passed in reality. She was still shut in the medicuboid in the back of Ela's vehicle, but it strangely felt comforting. Less eyes on her.
"I feel like I napped for an hour and forgot to dream. How is everything going on in Underworld?"
Ela sighed.
"Turns out you became a little like me as a teacher. You got really aggressive with a noble brat when he was breaking your rules. It was quite intense. I'm fairly sure the reaction is going well. You've really broken these people out of their norms with your personality."
Kazu sighed in response.
"I didn't know I could be like that there. Then again...I did kill a teacher of mine there before. And that dark mage. I'm not exactly proud of those moments..."
Ela nodded.
"It's really good for what we're trying to do, giving the students room to break free and think for themselves against the taboo index. But it's also been made clear your thought patterns in there are focusing on self preservation now. Surrounding yourself with strength and walls and barriers to protect yourself from being attacked. It's quite interesting how you've protected yourself so much, only to be knocked unconscious right at the end by Vector attacking your mind directly..."
She stared wide eyed at the monitor connecting them and blinked in disbelief.
"How?! And why do you have Kikuoka-san attacking me in there still?"
"I didn't have him go in there. I'm about to go and ask him why he did that. Think you're able to join me?"
Kazu nodded.
"Yeah, I want to know why Kirim was attacked again..."
Ela smiled.
"At least we're keeping you and Kirim apart now."
Kazu nodded. She was a little sad that she couldn't retain those memories anymore, but she knew it was for her own good. The medicuboid moved out from the back of the vehicle and opened up to let her out. She rolled out smoothly and she felt thankful that her sense of movement wasn't disoriented like before. It was relieving.
"Oh, how much time passed in there?"
"Just short of two months. Fifty seven days precisely. Your school is finished being built, you have plenty students. I think you might have too many students, but you've been handling it pretty well until the day I pulled you out on."
Kazu frowned. She didn't think she was capable of inviting more than her ability to handle, but Kirim surprised her. Perhaps there was a part of her more capable of handling social interaction. She was certainly capable of social interaction, but she was still socially anxious to a fairly debilitating extent. It was surprising how easily she was interacting with others in Underworld. Perhaps there was some gap between her social anxiety and that of Kirim. She hadn't interacted a lot with others in Underworld as Kirim before they were separated, so she didn't have a lot to base it off of. She did feel anxious around the people of Rulid for a while, at least. Especially when everyone was outside and mingling. She could only imagine it being worse for Kirim if they shared anxiety inside and out with the school being filled.
"Does Kirim have social anxiety without me? Or can you tell through observing her?"
Ela nodded.
"Yes, she still has social anxiety. She does well at hiding it, but part of her violent outburst at the end is because of the anxiety piling up. I noticed a large release of tension when she threw that brat against the back wall."
Kazu cringed in reaction to Ela's description. Knowing Kirim's strength, throwing anyone not ready to protect themselves from physical impact of that magnitude would die if they collided without protecting themselves. Thankfully it sounded as if the student didn't die.
"Just to assure me...Kirim didn't kill that student she threw, right?"
Ela nodded again. She gave Kazu a smile and a head pat before continuing.
"Don't worry, she made the walls safely repel him so that it wasn't lethal, and he wasn't thrown in such a way that he could have sustained lethal damage. She might have socially murdered him though with how she continued to drag him through the ringer as far as priding so much on his nobility. Kirim has a good sense against nobility. They bred to be strong, yet they hire commoners to work for them. It's rather disappointing that people programmed to be strong don't take advantage of it. Happened often in reality, happened in Underworld because reality is consistent. The strong grow complacent when they aren't faced with a constant present threat they have to fight every day. The nobility in underworld can be like that because of the integrity knights existing and protecting the light lands. But that won't last forever. We can't let it last forever."
Kazu sighed in disappointment.
"Why do people grow complacent like that...? Honestly, nobility always suck. There are very few exceptions."
Just about in the STL wing's main room, Ela pulled Kazu to the side where they wouldn't be heard and said the heaviest thing Kazu had heard from her.
"It's not only nobility. Most governments in the world are complacent or abusing the system they set in place. They put down anyone who tries to change it and force them to go along with the status quo they set. It's disgusting, and part of my plans will completely dismantle governing systems. I'll also be tackling the currency systems, and the housing problem through most of the world. I would really appreciate you to keep this confidential between us. If you want in, send me a direct message when you're somewhere private."
Kazu shivered. The atmosphere between them was intimidating. Ela had been serious with her a few times before, but that might have been the most serious she had been. That was her real intent with changing the world. She could change everything with AR, and she definitely intended it.
Kazu wondered if she approved of it. Forcing change on such a massive scale. And how would she do it? Would it be humane? Would it be a good transition from where the world currently was to her intended change? There were too many variables to consider. Too many questions to ask before fully being on board with Ela's plans for the future.
Kazu was feeling more nervous than ever about the future. What did Ela's future look like compared to the one she herself envisioned?
Ela returned to the STL wing's main room and Kazu followed behind out of instinct, but she was itching to get out of there. She wanted to get home and relax, think about what Ela said. Hear her explain more. Leaving her on the hanger that she intended to change the world in several major ways without telling her what she would change them to, was the biggest cliff she could imagine to hang on. It was mental agony trying to guess what Ela's specific designs on the future would be.
"Not much time passed this time, but much progress has been made on the project. Great job in there Kirigaya-kun!"
Higa was the one to speak that time, Kikuoka was looking over something intensely. Kazu nodded and gave Higa a smile.
"Thank you for the reassurance. I was worried that having another level of disconnection would damage things, but it wasn't so damaging in the end apparently. I do wish I knew more, but at least I'm functioning normally out here."
Higa nodded happily. He was in a much better mood.
"We managed to clean it up a lot as well from our end. Ela has made it easier and easier to clean up. I'm just worried it's too clean now. This all does make me excited to go out to the new location though. Hopefully my motion sickness doesn't kick in out there..."
Kazu gave a tilt of the head in confusion, but Higa just shook his head, realizing what he said was still classified.
"You'll see next time you come in to work."
Kazu shrugged, then stretched herself out since she realized then she was still stiff from her time in the medicuboid.
Kikuoka peeled himself from what he was doing, still obviously thinking about what he was looking at before peeling away.
"Welcome back, Ela-san. It ended up being a fairly productive day."
Ela frowned at him in response. She sighed and began asking her question.
"Care to enlighten us on why you attacked her at the end?"
He scratched the back of his head.
"I was trying to give her another push, but then you pulled her back out immediately. Why must we let the process continue at its current pace? Can we not speed it up? A little attack like that wouldn't-"
"That "little attack" was enough to put the body known as Kirim into a coma. It'll be near miracle level for any of her students to resuscitate her. That's why I pulled her out. I already told you that attacking her further was forbidden until she was ready. Really ready. In the middle of teaching a class full of students was not the time or place for her being "ready"."
"Please just let me do something!"
"Your job is to supervise! I was given direction management over the project by your higher ups because of how many mistakes you've made. They don't want to risk losing Kazu, and they want the project to be a clean success following my designated methods. Any further interference without my guidance is going to result in another possible supervisor being assigned. Please cease using Vector. In fact, I'm locking Vector from being able to be logged into. Apparently you don't understand the weight of the situation we're in, every time you do something rash and impulsive. You could have effected Kazu outside again. Thankfully it didn't come to that, but next I put her in there, she might be stuck in a coma on that side. Think again about your methods, please..."
Ela's rant made Kikuoka seethe.
"This was my project in the first-"
"WAS! Was...it was your project and currently still is. Witness your partnership with me resulting in developing enough AI to change the world in coordination with the augmented network. That's all you need to do. Operate Vector only when requested, and make notes so you can report to your higher ups. Those are your jobs besides just watching and witnessing. It's not that difficult. Can't you accept that it's an easy job?"
He sighed.
"I feel I need to be more involved. I should be doing more."
"No, you shouldn't. Unless you want to risk yourself in there as another of her students as a lost, you can't join her in there and that would defeat the purpose of supervising. If you so desperately want to do more, go in as one of the light lands' god accounts."
He grimaced in response.
"The light land god accounts are all female. I'd rather not-"
"Why is that an issue? I have the issue with gender dysphoria here considering my previous body, yet you play a feminine elf in ALO and you play a female avatar in the game we originally met in. Besides, it's not like you'll be spending a lot of time in those avatars. You just need to restrain yourself to be more impressing as a Goddess. We might have to have a woman take control of one of those characters at some point after all, and it wouldn't do for them to immediately suspect two different people could control the same body."
He sighed again.
"How about making a new, male god account for the light lands? I could always just tell them that I was left out of the religious texts because I wasn't as active in the past or because I was a troublemaker."
Ela shrugged.
"If you're so determined to keep going in there that's the only option left. But run by me every time you go in so I can keep track of everything. And you can't be spending a lot of time in there because of your other duties."
He nodded in response, happy to have finally gotten a good response to his desire to be more involved with the project.
"Then, I was running a designing script with your avatar designer for Underworld. Could you let me know if it would work as my light lander god avatar's body?"
She shook her head.
"As just a little information like this? No. I can make the necessary adjustments. When we get back to this next week it will be ready."
Ela turned around, and Kazu went along with her.
"Kirigaya-kun! I'm sorry for attacking you again! I didn't think it would hurt you so badly!"
He shouted it since her and Ela were walking briskly as they left. The two left without another word to the others, their minds already focused on the next thing. Argo waved at them when they passed her desk again. When they returned to Ela's vehicle, Asuna had woken up and Yui was snuggled up with her while they were watching the entrance door of the building. They waved as they saw the return of Kazu and Ela.
Kazu sent Kikuoka a message, telling him that she would accept his apology when he proved he could restrain himself from committing further foolish actions. She left with Asuna, Yui and Ela. Shii might have been hidden somewhere or in Ela's home network. Kazu had a two hour nap and a movie of nearly two months of progress as result of that nap. She watched it sped up at immense speed while Ela drove them home. They earned a lot of stares since Ela for some reason decided to drive along the roads with others. Seeing a vehicle clearly floating a solid foot above the ground was something that even the people of Japan weren't accustomed to.
It took them a while to return to Kazu's home, and when they did, Yuuki was there to greet them.
"Good, you came home about on time. I guess Ela-sensei kept her promise...come on, I made some scones while you were working."
She turned around, but looked back.
"My oneechan came back home, right? Not the project?"
Kazu smiled and nodded.
"Mhm, Kirigaya Kazu has returned home. I'm not Kirim this time."
Yuuki turned back and hurried inside. She had a happy expression on her face and tears rolling down her face. She was setting the table with the scones she made for a gathering over the snack.
"I have some tea ready to go as well. You really were right on time. Oh right, and I have some coffee for Ela-sensei."
Ela smiled.
"The thought counts. I can't consume it with this body. Save it for your papa, alright?"
Ela was kind about it. Yuuki shrugged and put the mug into the microwave to keep it fairly warm for later.
"What do you mean by 'this body'?"
Ela smirked and rubbed at her wrist a little, gently popping the joint so she could show inside without damaging anything. The totally mechanical construct inside made Yuuki stumble backward and fall on her butt when she saw.
"You're a robot?!"
Ela laughed heartily, which caught everyone off guard.
"Not quite. This is a bio-mechanical body which can operate off a much less complex method of building for more durability compared to the advanced robots the governments have been producing. This is about...fifty years worth of advancement ahead of the world currently. This won't be my last body either. I just needed something for interacting with the real world since my previous body was at the end of its life."
Yuuki blinked in her complete confusion.
"You died?"
"Yup, was quite an embarrassing state for my previous body too. Completely melted in the medicuboid from the old model I was using. It's a good thing I made all the preparations for yours so the same didn't happen to you and other patients~ I'm only joking though. The body didn't entirely melt. It was horribly thin and deprived of nourishment so it didn't survive long with the specific fluid I was using. The fluid was to activate the energy in my body to keep up with the medicuboid. It drained what was left while uploading my consciousness to my personal server. My mind right now is just the continuation of what I had before my previous body passed. No time was lost for me."
Nobody who heard the explanation before could get over it. Ela treated her previous body like an object she owned rather than what she needed to carefully maintain in order to keep living. But it was fairly obvious that it was just a stepping stone for her in the end and something that caused her endless grief, now a source of humour she could poke at. She was no longer human, in the end.
"The reality with my previous body was that it had a lot of issues from the get-go and it only got worse as time bled on. I was suffering constantly from more and more issues cropping up making it more and more difficult to function like a normal person and my body ended up rejecting a lot of treatment or just not benefiting from treatment or medicine. A body that won't listen and a mind which knows it can keep living, there was no other option for me. So I continued with this life now within this body until it needs to be replaced. I'll keep doing this until either my mind and soul wear out and want to sleep forever, or until I make the world an entirely different place."
It went from kindness, to a joke, to serious and then more frighteningly serious. Ela was unpredictable and she made the atmosphere change with nearly every word.
"Well, as much as I was joking before I want to make a very real and serious statement today. I plan on starting a huge project of my own which will do just what my last statement was. Change the world. Please accept the invite to my private server you're getting right now as AR window invites. Please also be aware that I have other people in there waiting."
Her words had a forbidding air to them, but everyone accepted the invite regardless as soon as they were sitting down and she joined them at the end. The space was different than most VR environments they'd all been in. It was a lush colourful meadow in a green forest which was mostly normal...but then had spiralling trees all converging into a single massive tree, a white glowing crystal held at their intersecting point and pointing below to a shrine house. The bark of the trees was smooth and pure white, while the leaves up above were the softest light pink colour they had ever seen. They wondered if it was based off of an area in Japan. Specifically where they ported into, they were on a large stage made of the selfsame substance the tree bark was or perhaps the trees themselves, and they had to keep looking at the trees to understand the significance, the massive scale of them.
"Please take a seat on the stage cushions, those who are still standing. I will begin once you all appear ready. Thank you for waiting, those who have been here for a while."
Ela stayed where she stood in the very middle of the stage and looked around her, watching as everyone took their seats. As soon as everyone was seated, she nodded.
"Now, for those who have been waiting, ask any questions you have regarding this space specifically. I will get to the more pressing circumstances when curiosity of this server is satisfied."
"Is this place based on a real area?"
The first question came from a man in his forties. He spoke in North American English, so translation was going out to those who didn't understand. The space was translating words actively for the ears of those present.
"Yes, this place is based on a real area. The forest meadow is specifically my original base of operations before I was immobilized in my previous body due to health concerns."
Everyone looked to the shrine under the tree and figured that was what she meant.
"Yes, it's under the shrine. Next."
An elder woman spoke up next, and she spoke in a European accent, but still English. Her accent designated her from Britain.
"Is the tree in this virtual space significant to your project? Or just an aesthetic touch to remind this it isn't reality?"
Ela smiled.
"It is significant to the project. I will speak on it more when I get to that point in the explanation of the project."
Only one other person spoke up from the group who arrived there before Kazu's group from Japan. A Chinese man probably in his forties.
"Is the project some sort of peace effort? Seeing as how you brought in people from several different parts of the world, and people in positions of power, no less."
Kazu noticed that there was a Japanese government official there as well. It took her by surprise.
"At least peace came to mind. Not directly, no this project isn't a peace effort. It is world changing though and peace will be a side effect."
He nodded in understanding and settled back in where he was sitting. The Japanese government official finally spoke up even though he arrived at the same time as Kazu and her group.
"This space feels like a part of Japan, did you not say you originally lived in Canada?"
Ela nodded.
"This is in Canada. I built the shrine on top of my workshop about seven years ago. I've always had a fondness for this eastern shrine type of architecture. As far as the tree, the petals resembling sakura blossoms are intentional but not to have a significance."
She looked around once more.
"If there are no more questions about the appearance of this area, I will begin."
She waited about ten seconds before continuing, nobody speaking up.
"Well then, I call this the Ygg project. This project will spread the augmented reality network to cover the entire world and allow for the augmented network to make real physical changes to the world. Including steering our world out of destructive forces well ahead of time for them to cause any damage to the world, such as space debris collisions, or the apocalyptic possibility of growing nearer to the sun. Even negating the damages caused by global warming. These are only a few examples of the things the project can do. Imagine being able to regulate the world's every move, and prevent the most catastrophic disasters. And these are only major examples."
She took a breath, gauged the absolutely stunned or disbelieving expressions on their faces and smiled before continuing.
"With this, the need for translation devices would be null. Every person in the world need only wear an AR device and they would be able to understand everything said to them. Communication is absolutely required for peace and understanding one another. This will also make advancing in technology easier, since everyone would be using the same coding languages. There will be no need to compete over making something better than a competitor. There will always be benefit in competing with your rivals in the same field, but it wouldn't be as necessary. This also brings in the next change the project will make. Universal labour law adjustment. The labour laws for work have needed change for a long time. Connected to this, the abolishing of the currency system. With adjusting labour laws to people only needing work 6 hours a day to afford a simple life, nothing more, their work would all be measured equal. Corporations and massive businesses won't get special treatment anymore."
A few of the government representatives seemed to be trying to speak up, but it were as if they had been muted so Ela's voice would be heard.
"Finally, the most important points will be made. I would create a massive city in each country constructed around trees such as the white barked Ygg above the shrine in this virtual space. These trees would be immensely larger than the one here, which may currently be unfathomable, but the canopy of leaves would be large enough to more than cover the entire top of the cities. These cities will be constructed in layers, with two underground and eight above ground layers per. Each city would be large enough to contain more than ten times the current population of their respective countries, aside China who has the largest population present. A mere three times your current massive population would be able to fit. I will press to encourage you have all your citizens move in, since I will also need to warn you an effect of the trees aside allowing me to keep the world safe perpetually. They would keep areas under their canopies safe, but outside of the cities, they will be making more drastic change."
She took a breath, observing everyone's attentiveness toward her speech.
"The world is starving of energy, ripped of its resources for so long. Most here may not believe it, but the concept of real magic is entirely possible. The problem always has been a lack of ambient energy. Kazu and Alice who have been working on an AI development program with the Japanese government and myself would be able to explain how it has been working within that project, as it would equate to real life. The abundance of ambient energy created by the trees will make us as humans evolve, potentially to have some traits seen in animals, depending on the climate lived in. It will also make wild life evolve. Life outside of the cities would become highly dangerous, and predatory. This is for the sake of keeping the world at a balance. To keep people from fighting internally against each other, the threats outside of the cities would always be ready to keep us inside of our cities. Travel from one city to another, transportation of goods, this can be left to a gate system I've been working on you would consider teleportation. As for agriculture and animal farming for meat produce, I'll be designating layers to each city which will have farms of each kind."
Her mind shifted from the change of work life balance to how the cities would function.
"People will always have some kind of work in that sense, and infrastructure changes can be permitted at any time to make the interior of the cities change to the culture of the area of the world they are in. Roads, land, everything within the cities will be completely natural. The need for solar light for growing vegetation will be supplied by synthesis from the tree's leaves to the layers below, the ceiling of each layer providing the very same effect of sun or moon light outside. For the underground layers, they would always be on a night cycle, as the underground layers would be for people who function better at night hours, so they can function at the same hours of the day as everyone else, or to never feel out of place when they are awake. Essentially, all of these changes would need some sort of guardian force to keep everyone in check, so I'll have my family keeping track over the guardian forces who will replace police forces. Any guardians who fail in their role by hurting those they are meant to protect, would immediately lose their job and receive demerit to themselves as people, needing to work it off with a little more time per day in labour jobs until they are able to find other work. Labour work will always be available. Network work will always be available. Even work on virtual and augmented services would always be available. People could live any life they want, so long as they aren't fighting each other outside of gaming environments."
She paused once again, for a while. She looked over the expressions of the world leadership representatives in her presence and sighed. Some had been trying to scream their opinions of her changes she would make, while others were simply dumbfounded that she was planning to change that much. She would literally change everything about how society and the human world functioned to them. Work, government, business, currency, even where people lived.
"Do not think this is negotiable or stoppable. I will be making these changes and I only brought you all here so you would be able to help your countries prepare and spread the word around the world. I am not going to allow for any more infighting among the human race. I have been disgusted by the history of this world long enough. It needs to stop, and since I have become able to, I will be the one who will stop it. Humans will no longer be the strongest race in the world. No longer controlling everything. Just another species with its own parts of the world. Travelling to other worlds will not be a subject outside of the scientific communities, and none of you may ever see the day humanity leaves orbit again, depending on how long you live. We are not ready to go to other worlds, not given the current state of humanity. We must work together, grow strong together, and move forward. Together."
She finished talking, took a deep breath and sighed, she had been trembling the whole time. She had told Kazu and her friends that she had crippling social anxiety, so even with her robotic body it must have been immensely straining on her to deliver that speech. Everyone besides China's representative was speechless. Ela took notice of him and gave him permission to talk.
"Go ahead, speak."
"We in China won't allow you to make this change to the world! We will control the world, not some Canadian robot!"
Ela blinked at him and he crumbled to the stage in an instant. She walked up to him and lifted his chin to look him in the eyes.
"China has been a thorn in history for a very long time. Do not think I'm ignorant of how you have manipulated what was written in the history books of other countries for decades. Do not think I am ignorant of how you have been working to get closer and closer to starting another world war. Your country has been sending spies all over the world to instigate your desired changes, riots and other infighting that is absolutely unacceptable. It is over. As of this meeting, I'm crippling China in the most base way. I'm simply going to create China's Ygg ahead of schedule. China doesn't deserve the time to prepare for the side effects of having immense ambient energy. You have one minute to convince me China deserves equal treatment in the respect of preparing for the Ygg project."
A timer appeared above their heads in the middle of the stage signifying the countdown started as soon as she finished speaking.
"As soon as this meeting is over, we're likely nuking Japan since that's where you currently are..."
"You won't be able, I've just shut down all electricity in your country. Here's the proof. Oh, and I did make safety measures so none of your people died in the shut down"
Several screens appeared around the countdown showing several Chinese cities completely devoid of signs of electricity working there. She truly did shut them down. There was no smoke rising from fires or explosions or anything of the sort either. If she had that kind of power...
"Also, don't think you're exempt either. I know you're itching to join the power battle here, American representative. I've got an off switch for your country too. Twenty seconds to convince me of peacefully accepting equal treatment under the Ygg project."
The timer had dropped below, but it went back up to 20 seconds and continued counting down after she finished talking again.
"You're probably just showing us a bunch of virtual environments."
She shook her head and another screen showed up of the Chinese world leaders all in different locations shouting and in a panic, a few in a room trying to understand what was happening.
"Let's scratch the timer. Let it sink in. Your country refused to cooperate with the AR network, because it would disregard all of the communication laws China has set in place to suppress their people and keep out outsiders who don't benefit the Chinese government. They currently have no method of communicating with each other, other than in person. So they're being rushed to each other by government aides. This is China's fault. Not mine. Not yours specifically. Your job right now would be to be helping the officials get together to understand what's going on, but I have you here because you were to deliver my news to them and that they have no choice but to cooperate. Your fault here is being a slave to the Chinese government's ideals and regular activity. It's the fault of the Chinese government as a whole. Don't talk back. You know damn well your government is one of the worst in the world in how it treats its people. Don't even think of bringing up another country's name. You may think I'm just some Canadian robot, but I've got some news for you. With my burst technology, I've mentally existed more than a hundred times everyone sitting here combined. I know everything there is to know about the current world. I brought everyone here to kindly inform all of you of the Ygg project and when to have your populations ready for the construction of the Yggs and their cities."
Britain's representative spoke up.
"Not to interrupt your scathing lecture on our Chinese representative, but I would like to know one thing about this project. How long would it take for these Ygg trees and their cities to be built? From the sheer scale of everything, I assume it would normally take hundreds of years for such a tree to even grow."
Ela shook her head.
"Thank you for continuing this in another direction...the time frame of this won't take long at all. Since we'll be dealing with abundant ambient energy and the fact I've been saving this energy up for the last twenty five years, I'll be creating each city one after the other. It'll only take me a week to set up the cities all over the world."
Everyone's mouths hung open.
"O-only a week?!"
"I won't start next week. I'm giving everyone three months to prepare after all since there are so many people to move. Once everyone has been given enough time to move, I'll start construction. My threat to China was not giving enough time, and thus there could be severe levels of injury sustained with the Ygg being created and the city replacing an existing city. I wouldn't kill anyone with it, but they might be moved around a lot which could be dangerous considering it's an entire massive city being built. It's a dangerous thing. I don't intend to kill a single person. Any deaths from this are on you world leaders who will only be city representatives in the future."
Ela was perfectly serene as she said it. The menacing tone from talking about China went away when she was talking about how long it would take for her to make her project happen.
Kazu was ready to curl up and cry thinking about how immensely behind Ela she was.
"Are you okay over there Kazu-chan? You have part in this as well."
Kazu shrank back in her nervousness. She didn't have the confidence to stand next to Ela anymore. Ela was talking down to world leadership representatives, telling everyone she was changing the world and how she was going to do it and how it was going to change absolutely everything about the world as it currently was. Kazu had been learning from her for some special reason, but the confidence to stand in front of others and command that kind of authority was not hers at all.
"Sorry if this is too much pressure. I'll explain your role so just try and relax. Shii, can you help regulate Kazu?"
Shii appeared next to Kazu and got to work immediately. The sudden appearance of her startled the world leaders and some from Kazu's group, but Kazu and Alice were used to the popping in and out of existence Ela and her AI children were capable of.
"After I create the cities and the Ygg trees, I'll need some time to recuperate. For this reason, Kazu will be keeping me in the loop while taking over with overseeing duty. I have been teaching her everything she needs to know about the project without spoiling these details of the project directly for months. She has in fact had more than months worth of time as well to understand her part in this. It won't be for long, so she may end up living a mostly normal life, but she is the only person I have found capable of filling in for me during my need for rest. Do not mistake that this time of recuperation will be a time of weakness for me at all. Nor is Kazu weak in the slightest."
The Russian representative who hadn't made himself known yet to the gathering shrugged.
"You've been awfully quiet. Your stance for Russia?"
"Nothing needs to be said. You have made your absolute authority very apparent here and there is nothing I can contribute to stop you just like our Chinese representative. I will deliver your message to my country's leadership, but do not expect him to fully listen to me. I told you before that I didn't have much in the matter of ability to move things along in Russia. I'm merely the only government representative close to him you could pull into this meeting. Russia may be the only country represented here to suffer because of our leadership's overconfidence in themselves. You have omnipotent magic. We have explosive technology you can instantly render useless. Your point is clear to me, I just hope I can get it across to those who need to hear it."
Everyone looked at Russia's representative in surprise. He spoke nothing but the truth. Ela could shut down China, which meant she could shut down any other county in an instant. Even Russia didn't have measures which could stop her. There was some kind of expectation of Russia to somehow be able to shrug off almost anything, but they were as vulnerable to her as anyone else.
"Then I suppose we're just about done here. Does anyone have any finishing questions?"
Another representative spoke up who hadn't yet.
"You speak of changing the world in all these magnificent ways without killing a single person, only minor injuries. You told me not to bring religion here, but you must be ready for the chance people could revere you as a God. Many in my country would revere you in such a way. Going from over worked and suffering from a lack of infrastructure support to everyone easily being able to have a decent home, that kind of change would save countless lives here. We in Africa fully give you our support."
Ela nodded, giving him a kind smile.
"Anyone else?"
No further comments made her proceed.
"Now the exact purpose of the tree. Firstly, the trees themselves are untouchable. Literally. They channel energy through the air around them and generate a barrier strong enough to repel all physical and non physical contact. The bark is the same as the tree underneath. The entirety of the tree including the crystal, function as a fount for energy. The trees serve as points to pour energy back into the world which was lost over time and humans abusing it, as well they pour that energy into the air around them. The barrier of the trees will extend to protect the land and outer edges of the cities, so even if someone were to become insanely powerful for some reason, they wouldn't be able to do much damage to the land itself. There will be enough dirt and sand and such to cushion against serious impacts, but further than that will result in a reflection, likely turning whoever did use that much force to turn into a living pinball for a few bounces. The tree's barrier is what will keep wild life, out. And what will keep humans, in. There will be an exception for people who wish to map and explore the world. Exploration will finally be a worthy job again since wild life could potentially Terra-form the world in natural ways. Mapping and exploration jobs will be handled by people who full dive, like now, and explore the world as a virtual body. The line between virtual and real will be thinned with this especially. Perhaps some hunts will also be viable for such who use virtual avatars to leave the cities. After all, the virtual avatars are able to interact with reality. These avatars would be considered dangerous, so they would be monitored by the AI system being currently produced in Japan. The avatars are not regulated by the tree barriers, able to freely enter and exit. Finally, the trees will give off a cleansing to odor in the air, so people and structure with any stench will be fine to leave their homes without needing to worry about putting others off with foul odour."
She stopped and looked around everyone was just paying attention as if they were in a class at that point, no longer treating it like there was anything out of the ordinary happening.
"That about wraps up this meeting. I won't take any further questions in person. Oh, and representative of the United States, could you please come up with some explanation to your population I'm not some reincarnation of one of their religious figures? I've known some of your people to be a lot more than fanatical."
He nodded his head in understanding, and everyone logged out besides Kazu and Asuna, Asuna comforting Kazu. Kazu was still in shock over the whole thing. Ela was literally going to change the world in three months. And she was going to be involved. She didn't find any faults in Ela's designs for the future still, everything a little too perfectly laid out during the meeting. She wondered what the point was with all her struggling in the past. Everything was going to change. Magic would become real. She could be a real woman, potentially even give birth to children of her own in the future. That possibility made something deep inside her ache, to want it. A future with endless possibilities, everything would change. Hopefully everything would be for the better.
