GETTING A TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM IN MODERN DAY

by Kideo11

For others it takes dying and reincarnating for them to get a system but what happens when you get one without dying. Aron Michael is an average student set to graduate within a week, but he was expelled for a random reason. Due to that he had a heavy student dept and no diploma to help him earn the money to pay it back. But one day he got a system that called itself the [Advanced

5. Chapter 401 - 500

Chapter 401

Avalon Island.

[Three... two... one... liftoff.]

A massive rocket took flight from the center of the island and rose through the clear sky. The cloud cover had finally dissipated and revealed the island in all its majesty to the few remaining eyes in the sky, as there was no longer any reason to continue maintaining the obscuration.

The rocket breached the atmosphere and entered orbit, where it was immediately met by the blanket of shrapnel covering the planet. The rocket's payload and the second stage maneuvering body had been plated in a thick layer of an alloy of hadfield steel and chromium, which was more than durable enough to shrug off the impact of the tiny pieces of shrapnel. Beneath that was a layer of shock absorbent 99% aerogel, and below that was a carbon nanotube shock mesh, ensuring that any force exerted on the rocket would cause no damage to the delicate machinery in the warhead and the rocket body's maneuvering jets.

(Ed note: Hadfield steel, also known as mangalloy, is an alloy of manganese steel and carbon. It's the most impact-resistant alloy to date, while chromium is the hardest metal discovered to date. Aerogel is an ultralight silica gel where the liquid component has been replaced by a gas while maintaining the gel structure. 99% aerogel means that 99% of it is empty space, which makes for an incredibly shock absorbent, yet solid and durable material. It's also incredibly resistant to temperature extremes and is often used as insulation.)

After passing through the debris field, the maneuvering jets on the rocket adjusted its course, then it entered a coast phase and would reignite its maneuvering jets once it neared its designated parking orbit.

Back on the launch pad, a second rocket was in the process of being printed. Once it was finished, it, too, would be headed into orbit. Then came another, and another, and another... finally, the process had repeated itself more than a hundred times over two short hours before the activity on the launch pad ceased, the tasks completed for the day.

…...

Once all of the rockets reached their parking orbits, they initiated a long, synchronized burn and headed toward the moon on a course that would have them slingshot around it and the Earth in a figure eight, building up speed by repeating the maneuver until they were ejected from the planet's gravity well and shot toward the asteroid belt on the other side of Mars' orbit.

Most, but not all of them would reach their destination there. But fourteen of them were destined for much longer journeys, equipped as they were with fusion generators and ion drives. Two by two, they would use their initial velocities for a leg up as they accelerated toward their eventual destinations. Each pair of rockets would find their new homes on or around one of the other seven planets in the solar system.

Those fourteen rockets were the precursors of Aron's upcoming expeditionary fleet and would prepare the other planets in the solar system for the exploitation of their natural resources, thus preserving the environment of Earth for its inhabitants for centuries, if not millennia to come.

Ten of the launched rockets contained payloads consisting of atomic printers and fusion generators to power them. Their job was to clear the debris from the orbits, both the shrapnel from the recent war and the outdated satellites and other space junk that would serve no purpose in the future once Aron put his current-generation tech into use. And they would be accompanied by two tenders, which were small craft capable of collecting the output blocks of raw material referred to as "printer cartridges" for security's sake, then bring them to the L1 Lagrange Point for secure storage until they were needed in the future.

At the moment, no one but Aron knew what the rockets were for, and only those on Avalon Island itself even knew that they had been launched. The two hours the operation had taken had been scheduled during a time when none of the surviving satellites had a viewing angle on the launch site, after all.

…

Aron was laying supine in the sky, thinking back on the recent lecture his parents had given him. He really should have told them everything, he concluded; it truly was a dick move keeping them in the dark on such important things as the recently passed events. Floating in the sky and gazing into the uncaring universe was his new "thinking spot", and had been ever since he'd grown so skilled with using the flight rune that he no longer had to think about it and could use it at a subconscious level.

Nova appeared next to him in her augmented reality form, also laying on her back and gazing into the sky. [What's on your mind, sir?] she asked.

Aron wasn't surprised by her sudden appearance at all; he had grown used to her tendency of popping into his field of view every now and then in the real world. As she continued building more and more quantum server superclusters, all of the AIs had grown closer and closer to perfection in their emulation of human behaviors, and Nova was becoming more like a comfortable sister-cum-therapist for him of late. Especially after he had noticed that his most recent system upgrade was aimed at removing what it considered to be useless emotions. His take on that issue was that it was exactly those "useless" emotions that made humans, well, human.

"I'm thinking about what my mom and dad told me just now, and letting my mind work on why the system was silent after accomplishing something so huge," he mused. "I mean, obviously my parents were right to lecture me. I didn't tell them anything, then let them be shocked by a 'sudden' war, and worry about my part in it."

[They were right to lecture you,] Nova said. [You should let them in to your life more. Don't treat them like they don't exist if you aren't looking at them, or think they're weak because they don't have your advantages. They're stronger than you think, and I'm positive they can handle any news you tell them.]

She changed the subject and asked, [So what's this about the system, then?]

"If you think about it, the system is supposed to reward me whenever I use the knowledge I buy from it to benefit people. We've already tried all the loopholes we can think of, like when we created random 'humans' in the simulation, then gave them all the tech built from the knowledge I bought. But the system didn't reward me with SP for any of the loopholes we tried exploiting, which means it'll only reward me if I share my technology with real, living humans," he explained.

[True.] She nodded, then remained silent and waited for Aron to continue his train of thought.

"So how come it's silent now, even though I used my tech to bring them under my leadership? Shouldn't that count as using it for humanity? I really wish there was some kind of instruction manual, or a system assistant or something," he sighed. "But there isn't. And everything I know about how it works tells me that I should've been rewarded for achieving such a monumental task using the tech given to me by the system."

Nova took an entire two seconds to think of a reply, then said, [Now that you mention it, that does seem rather odd. The system definitely should've given you SP for the war... But since it's remaining silent, even after you got all of the surrender accords signed, I can think of three reasons it hasn't done so.

[The first possibility is that what you consider a 'monumental achievement' is insignificant in the eyes of the system. But even when we consider the scale of the universe and the number of possible civilizations, that's the least likely option, as taking control of an entire civilization by oneself is always a seriously difficult task, no matter the civilization.

[The second possibility is that it doesn't consider the takeover complete, as you have yet to pacify the population and get them to accept your leadership. So only once you accomplish that will the system reward you for your actions.

[As for the third, and final, possibility, I believe the system might not be able to reward you with SP for taking over humanity and becoming its sole leader until you've completely awakened it. So your reward will be given then.]

Aron took a moment to think through those three options and agreed they were the most likely explanations for the system's unexpected silence. "So let's start eliminating them one by one. Since the easiest one to eliminate is your first possibility, we'll work on completing the unification as fast as possible. How are our preparations for that coming?" he asked.

[The prep work should be finished within the year, then we'll soon have an answer if our assumption is true or not,] she answered.

Chapter 402

Aron stood behind a lectern, dressed in the same uniform he was wearing when he delivered his declaration of war against the world. "Rest, brave soldiers. Now, your watch has ended," he said in a somber tone.

In front of him was a crowd of people dressed in mourning colors. Due to the many cultures of the ARES recruits, it was a cacophony of clashing colors. Some wore white, some wore black, and some wore bright, garish colors. Some heads were covered, others were bare, and some were home to elaborately styled hair. Some feet were bare, some were covered, and some were wrapped in sackcloth. Some wore silk, others wore hemp, and one was even wearing nothing but body paint and a loincloth.

Aron had never attempted to take cultural identities away from the people under him, but had instead supported them in their diversity and different heritages. All he asked was that they were human first, and cultures second.

To his left was a guard detail of a hundred ARES troopers from the ceremonial brigade. They were standing ramrod straight with their rifles held before their chests. Aron nodded to the detail leader and ordered, "Detail, salute!"

The hundred soldiers shouldered their ceremonial rifles, updated versions that had the same appearance as the venerable M1 Garand, and raised them to the sky.

Then a hundred rifles spoke in unison, again and again and again. The firing continued uninterrupted until 6,881 shots were fired in total. After firing the final shot, the leader of the funeral honor guard brought the detail back to attention and shouted, "Now their watch has ended!"

Six thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one soldiers had died, and six thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one shots were fired by the funeral honor guard in tribute to the soldiers' willingness to sacrifice their lives to defend their homes.

A squadron of EF-14 Daedalus jets flew overhead in close formation, dipping their wings in salute.

The funeral was over, and the crowd broke up, heading in much smaller groups to the individual graves in the field behind them. Each grave was covered in a mound of soft dirt and had a holographic headstone that included a picture of the occupant and a brief history of his accomplishments during a life that was tragically cut short. The holographic headstones themselves were in various shapes to honor the beliefs of the people held within.

And for those that had no remaining family, Aron had brought their brothers in arms to visit them in their final resting place.

For the rest of the day, until dusk cast the last rays of red light over the horizon, Aron walked from grave to grave, saying a brief few words about each of the fallen soldiers, as prompted by Athena, who had actually interacted with them every day. He took her stories and made them his own, a move done out of compassion that also happened to ensure the continued loyalty of the surviving family members of the fallen troopers.

…

The rest of the world, meanwhile, had also begun the long process of recovery. While the number of people who had died in the war seemed like a lot, that number of casualties was actually miniscule to humanity as a whole. The worst damage was to the global economy.

Nearly every company dealing with anything related to space had either gone bankrupt, or was on the verge of bankruptcy once the news of the blanket of space junk spread. Once people found that out, especially those formerly rich power brokers, the entire world nearly turned hostile to Aron again. If he hadn't announced that the process of cleanup had already begun, it would likely have erupted into another armed conflict. He had also issued a press release offering highly paid jobs to any and every engineer with credible qualifications from the bankrupted companies, and made generous buyout offers to those that were teetering on the edge that allowed them to shore up their faltering businesses.

No one would have been dumb enough to believe an empty promise, but coming from the person who had turned science fiction into science, the people of the world chose to give him a chance. This was due in no small part to the influence of the creator of the Marvel comic books and the actors involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe coming out in support of him and bringing their legion of worldwide fans to essentially drown anyone who tried to drum up opposition against Aron. Even Stan Lee had gotten involved, posting a single phrase on Pangea that hyped up the crowd surging behind Aron and Eden.

"Excelsior, Mr. Michael!"

That single, short post had done more to gather support behind Aron than anything he could have said. After all, he was still seen by most as a terrorist and villain, but with the support of Stan Lee, the Father of Heroes, Aron's reputation turned around and he became a hero for his efforts in cleaning up orbit and rescuing failing businesses.

(Ed note: Stan Lee was an American patriot and volunteered to serve in the Army Signal Corps during WWII. That said, he was always willing to stand up for the "little guy" and wouldn't have bought into the propaganda painting Aron as a villain. If nothing else, the hospitals and schools opened by the Coeus Foundation and the lengths to which he went to ensure that disabilities were accommodated by the GAIA OS would've convinced him that Aron was a good guy. Stan Lee was far from stupid, after all, nor was he blind.)

Beyond the space industry, many other businesses had also taken serious hits thanks to the wholesale destruction in orbit affecting the parts of their infrastructure that were dependent on the existing satellite networks.

Companies that depended on maps and accurate location tracking, like FedEx and UPS, or other logistics companies that delivered goods, had floundered. Weirdly, they were joined by many chain restaurants, like pizza places, that also relied on offering delivery services as a large part of their income. But whether they were delivering critical supplies to hospitals or just a pizza to a house party, all of them had suddenly found themselves in danger of going bankrupt.

Thus, Connect Enterprises stepped in and allowed the satellites launched by Aron to replace the GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, and BAIDOU navigation networks, filling the hole that was bleeding those companies dry. And beyond simple GPS services, the Panopticon network provided all of the other satellite services that used to be provided by governments around the world, allowing for normal operations to resume in many other areas as well.

Chapter 403

As Aron directed Connect Enterprises to shore up the faltering economy, some countries that hadn't been freely connected to the internet were also beginning to connect to the rest of the world. Countries like Cuba, where the government had strictly regulated who had access to the internet, were able to freely access information for the first time, without any filters at all.

The former North Korea was also finally invited into the global village, a process begun by America's takedown of their corrupt government, but hastened by Connect, who sent technicians and ARES Aegis teams to protect them while they laid fiber optic trunk cables and connected them to the existing South Korean infrastructure. Though there would still be a lot of work to bring the two halves of Korea together, the healing had begun.

That said, Aron was no fool and had sent ARES troopers to take the place of the American occupation forces stationed in North Korea, and tasked them with preventing the DPRK Army's brainwashed soldiers from mounting terror attacks. Currently, there were almost five hundred nyxians and an entire brigade of ARES troopers actively rooting out the most fanatic North Korean military leaders. There was a distinct possibility that they would reignite the decades-old conflict between north and south in an attempt to force the return of their Dear Leader, and that had to be prevented at all costs.

Another thousand ARES troopers and three hundred nyxians were deployed to the former nation of South Korea as well. They had been hit incredibly hard, and though they were still mourning the devastating attack on Seoul, that would only increase, not decrease, the chance of some hotheaded soldiers picking fights with their North Korean "enemies". Thus, though the DMZ had technically been decommissioned and the borders were officially open, there was still heavy supervision of the newly reunited country to prevent vengeance seekers and vigilantes from enforcing their own misguided brands of "justice".

The world leaders were busy preparing for the drafting process of the new world constitution. Once that was in place, or at least a solid framework for it was, they would then unite to form the first world government. The process would be handled at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City until another location to base the world government in was agreed upon by unanimous vote. Though everyone felt it would eventually end up somewhere in Eden, none of the leaders wanted to make the process seem too easy; the optics would be terrible for everyone involved. Thus, the UN HQ would continue as the temporary home for the nascent world government until further notice.

Aron's other companies were involving themselves in the reconstruction efforts as well. The Coeus Foundation in particular was instrumental in distributing food, medicine, and providing access to skilled doctors and temporary housing for the people displaced by the fighting to regain their footing and recover from the trauma and losses they had suffered.

And that wasn't all; all of Aron's companies had announced that they were seeking to build branch headquarters in every country, providing the same benefits to those countries that they had given to Eden that allowed them to rise from the mud in the first place.

Unfortunately, though, not everyone was happy to see the recovery in progress. About a fourth of the population in every country was enraged by their swift surrender to Aron. There were many groups, all of them with different reasons, but the one thing they all agreed on was that it was the terrorist, Aron Michael, who had caused the planet to be in the state it was currently in. Thus, they gathered together and took a page from how terrorist groups operated, forming cells and sending them out to begin insurgency groups all over the world.

They may have all been born from different ideologies, their shared agenda to fight against the dictator that stole their country and killed their families, and the government that disappointed them and bowed to the man. They pinned various crimes on him, like tarnishing their communist utopia, capturing their beloved leader, trampling on their freedom, and so on, but it all boiled down to one thing: he wanted to fix what they didn't think was broken and was trampling on them to implement his heretical agendas.

Everyone who was sufficiently upset enough to join one of the nascent insurgent groups contributed something. If they could fight, they volunteered to fight. If they could train others to fight, they volunteered to teach. If they couldn't fight, they gave up their wealth. But everyone contributed, from the people whose homes were destroyed and couldn't afford to rent another place to the billionaire whose net worth had been reduced to a shadow of what it once was thanks to his company share price plummeting. All of them were angry, and all of them were more than willing to do something about it, even if they could only inflict a pinprick on the man they were all convinced was the source of all suffering in the world.

And with the realization that their enemy had an overwhelming technological advantage, they set up their groups to do everything as analog as possible. They took lessons from how the intelligence agencies played the game during the cold war; it would slow things down, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Let the hotheads act first, and once all of the turmoil had died down and Aron—now referred to as nothing other than his code name, "the Devil"—was convinced that peace had finally returned, only then would they strike.

In the meantime, they would watch, they would wait, and they would grow. They would lurk in the shadows, drawing the disenfranchised, the disaffected, and the disappointed to their cause. They would train, they would teach, and they would sacrifice. They would develop insurgencies and instigate them to act in their stead, helping prolong the chaos that would shield them from discovery as they grew in the cracks and crevices of society, hidden from the eye of the devil.

Their chance, they believed, would come soon enough. God would always be with the patient.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 404

Inside a dimly lit, dusty basement room, a group of people with anger on their faces were seated on steel folding chairs. The only sound was the creaking of the unfinished basement ceiling and the occasional dust being knocked off of it and falling to the floor as someone in the house above stomped around like an upstairs neighbor. But no matter how loud the stomping echoed against the rust-red-spotted cement floor of the basement, the only disturbance was to the spiders that had spun their webs between the exposed wooden beams in the ceiling.

Soon, the stomping above stopped and a door creaked open. Everyone seated in the basement swiveled their heads as one and looked at the stairs, where a shiny leather shoe appeared. Then a leg covered in tan slacks, followed by the hem of a navy blue blazer. When the man wearing the slacks and blazer turned the corner on the stairs, the blazer fell open and showed the blue and white horizontal stripes on the thin sweater beneath it, which had the collar of a white shirt peeking out from its neck.

The man wearing the ensemble seemed young, but was actually a well-maintained man in his early thirties.

He walked around the group seated on the folding chairs and stepped up onto a comparatively clean wooden pallet, then began speaking.

"A week ago, we witnessed the birth of a devil. A brutal one, that etched his atrocities into the memories of every living person on Earth," he began, casting a penetrating gaze across the people seated in front of him. His eyes seemed to contain the vicissitudes of time, as if he had seen hell and returned.

"The devil slaughtered more innocent civilians in a matter of five hours than died from the beginning to end of the bloodiest war in history, and no one is doing anything about it. Why is no one stepping forward and decrying this brutal monster? They're afraid! They're pathetic, weak, cowards that have bowed before the altar of the devil's overwhelming power!

"All of those deaths were needless. Since the devil is so powerful, he could have avoided them. He could have let those innocent people in Bhopal live, and those innocent people in Faisalabad. Surely, he could have healed instead of destroyed, but he didn't! He chose to destroy because he enjoys the misery of others. And once tasted that misery, he didn't stop there, oh no. He ordered two thriving capital cities to be wiped clean from the map!

"And he blamed the destruction he wrought on terrorists," the speaker spat. "It was so convenient for him that those 'terrorists'," he raised his hands and made air quotes, "somehow managed to steal nuclear weapons and just so happened to be in those cities at just the right time for him to 'force' them to detonate the weapons." The man's voice fell to a hoarse whisper as he continued, "How utterly... coincidental.

"Among the twenty-six million innocent men, women, and children slaughtered, which of them were not someone's mother? Their father? A loving husband or a caring wife? A mother's son or a father's daughter? Uncles, aunts, sisters, lovers, crushes, future leaders, future saviors, future sportsmen and women, future teachers..." He paused, closing his eyes and bowing his head. After a moment of silence, he continued, "But they were all killed. All of their lives were cut short without mercy." The man's voice cracked and a tear trailed down his face.

He took a deep, shuddering breath, then continued, "He needlessly sank ship after ship filled with heroes who stood up to fight against him. He polluted space, preventing us from defending ourselves against the hostile aliens coming to enslave us all and rape our planet. He captured tens of thousands of people from all around the world and is holding them in dank torture rooms, torturing them without a trial! And now! Now he wants to 'unite the world' under his brutal and barbaric rule!

"And what do our foolish and spineless 'leaders' have to say? NOTHING! They refuse to tell him to stop, they refuse to raise up heroes to send the devil back to hell where he belongs! They refuse to fight, due to cowardice, shared interests, and oppression! NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING!" The man clenched his fist and slammed it against the palm of his other hand hard enough for the smacking sound of flesh meeting flesh to startle the silent audience and make them jump in their chairs.

The man conveniently left out the part about the world being the aggressor in the recent conflict, then continued his speech.

"Just because the devil has overwhelming power, should we allow him to tamper with our dignity?!" he shouted.

"NO!" the listeners cried in unison.

"Does it mean we should allow him to desecrate our freedom!?"

"NO!" the listeners chorused once again.

"Will we allow his atrocities to go unpunished?!"

"NO!"

"Will we allow him to rule us like animals?!"

"NO!"

"Will we sit back and watch as the devil does whatever he wants!?"

"NO!"

"Are we among the cowards?"

"NO!"

"Are we among the scared?"

"NOOOOOO!" The audience leapt from their feet and thrust their fists into the air as they screamed and hollered at the top of their lungs, causing another cascade of dirt and dust to fall from the basement ceiling, disturbing the spiders lurking in their webs once again. Their shouting was so loud it looked like even the filthy cinderblock walls seemed to be shaking.

"Then we must punish this devil! Join me on a journey to seek justice! A journey to regain our dignity! A journey to set, things, right!" the man shouted, hammering his fist against his other hand with the last three words.

The audience went wild, thrusting their fists in the air and shouting at the top of their lungs, going red in the face and stomping on the cement floor.

The man secretly smiled to himself, seeing the rage he had whipped up in his audience. He let them continue for more than a minute, then gestured for silence. Once the listeners had retaken their seats, his manner grew stern and he set his face in a grave expression as he continued, "The journey will not be easy. There will be many obstacles, and many of us will die."

The room grew a bit gloomier and a chill ran down the spines of those listening to the man speak.

"Yes, many of us will die, but it is a sacrifice we must be willing to make. One that is worthy of holding our heads high in the afterlife, where we shall meet again as victors! As the punishers of the devil! As the saviors of Earth, and humanity! We will be able to hold our heads high for all of eternity!" he shouted, causing the listeners to applaud and cheer once more, completely stripped of the fear they had felt moments before when reminded of the might of their enemy.

But now, with that assurance, they knew that none of their lives would be wasted and everything would be for the greater good. For the eventual victory in the fight of good and evil, they would proudly go to their deaths with their chests puffed out and heads held high.

Against the backdrop of cheering and applause, the man standing on the pallet bowed his head, clasped his hands in prayer, and loudly prayed, "May the devil perish at our hands, and may our sacrifices be worthy."

Although he said that, in his mind, he was thinking something completely different. 'Sheep,' he thought as he smiled brightly at the group of people in front of him, meeting their eyes and enthusiastically shaking their hands.

Chapter 405

Felix was leaning back on the couch in his office, his feet crossed on the coffee table and hands clasped behind his head, obviously in deep thought.

[What's wrong, sir?] Raven, his personal AI assistant asked. [You seem to be zoning out a lot these days.] Felix had remained unmoving in his position for more than twenty minutes, the rise and fall of his chest and blinking eyelids his only movements.

"Nothing, I'm just trying to figure out where things are going to go from here. It's been a week since the countries signed their individual surrender accords, but no matter how I think about things, I can't see a peaceful resolution. There's guaranteed to be problems in the future, no matter what," Felix sighed.

[What makes you say that?] she asked.

"History."

[Do you mean how those who fail to learn from history's lessons are doomed to repeat it?]

"Exactly. Every time one nation overwhelmed another and received their surrender or succeeded in an annexation, an insurgency has arisen from within just as things seemed to calm down. Those insurgencies cause a lot of issues for the winners by targeting their weaknesses. Aron may be the strongest person alive and have the most overwhelmingly powerful military that's ever been seen, but he's still sure to have weaknesses. Nobody can be that powerful in every aspect," Felix explained.

"Just take the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan, for instance. In 1979, they invaded Afghanistan to aid the communist forces in Kabul fight off various insurgent forces, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda, who was known as the 'Afghan Arabs' back then.

"The Soviets had every advantage in that fight. They had a strong military, high morale, the more technologically advanced weapons, and the numbers on their side. By all rights, they should've had an easy time taking out some small, weak insurgent groups. But that wasn't the case! Their incursion in support of Kabul caused a decade-long conflict between the Soviets and Afghani insurgent groups that finally ended with a Soviet withdrawal in 1989, a full decade later.

"Then in 2001, al-Qaeda reared their head again and carried out a terror attack on the United States, leading to another conflict that lasted up until a week or so ago. The American War on Terror.

"We declared war on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in October of 2001, yet despite outnumbering and outgunning them in every aspect, they still managed to drag out the war for more than fifteen years. And it would've dragged on even longer if Aron hadn't come around and basically ended all wars. And those two are in living memory. If we go back even further, there are even more examples.

"Like after World War I, when the Ottoman Empire lost and the allied powers tried carving it up. The Turks rose up and fought back under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who started the Turkish War of Independence that resulted in the formation of modern-day Turkey. Going even further back, the Koreans fought back against Japanese invaders, and so did the Chinese. Or we can go forward to the French Resistance against the Third Reich after France surrendered to Germany.

"Basically, every time an overwhelming force comes up, a resistance group springs up like weeds to fight against it. But now it'll be even more severe. Instead of one nation stomping another nation into a mudhole, or alliance versus alliance, this time it was one nation against literally every other nation in existence," Felix explained.

"So now that Aron's military has displayed its might, I'm worried that there'll be hundreds, if not thousands of groups of 'freedom fighters' cropping up everywhere around the world. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me at this point if the Atlanteans came back to the surface from some underwater city somewhere," he griped.

[Opposition will naturally always exist, but that doesn't mean it'll be impossible to deal with,] Raven said. [I'm sure Sir Aron and mother are already aware of the issue and have made plenty of plans to deal with any situations that may arise.] She had full confidence in Aron and Nova to have foreseen such an obvious issue. If even Felix, who she privately thought was perhaps a little on the slow side, could see it, his boss most certainly could... right?

"I know, I know. I was mostly thinking of how I would handle it if it were me in the hot seat. The only lesson history teaches is that nobody's ever learned a single thing from history, and I'm sure I'm no exception to that. It's more morbid curiosity than anything else," Felix grumped.

[If you're putting yourself in the 'hot seat', so to speak, then you also have to consider the technological advantage that Sir Aron and mother have over those historical forces. Would the Turkish War for Independence have succeeded if King Constantine had the Panopticon? Or would the Chinese Boxer Rebellion have lost to the Eight-Nation Alliance if they had SLEEK suits and pulse rifles? Would Osama bin Laden have survived as long as he did if the Americans had Poseidon Navy's carrier fleet and Titan's Wrath cannons? Would the Viet Cong have forced American forces to withdraw if they had the training our Reaper teams go through? Or would World War I ever have started if Archbishop Ferdinand had an ARES Aegis team guarding him?

[Even if you take ten thousand steps back, what do you think would be the result of putting nyxians up against the FBI and KGB during the cold war?]

Raven had many more examples available, but she figured those would be more than enough specific instances. [In every case where insurgency forces troubled the winners of conflicts in the past, it's always been when the difference between the two wasn't that large. And that isn't the case here. You can think of it like this: Sir Aron and ARES going up against modern forces is no different from the pre-9/11 American military being put on a battlefield against a military from the Bronze Age. That's how much of a lead Sir Aron currently has against the rest of the world, and that's even when he wasn't really focusing on building forces to face terrestrial foes,] she explained.

[Our side's only limitation is the number of people under the ARES umbrella, but that isn't a limitation that'll last forever. And as fast as Sir Aron can build up his forces, I'm sure he'll be shoring up that weakness before the insurgencies can grasp it.]

"I suppose that's true. I'll go see what he's up to myself," Felix said. Raven had put his mind at ease, and once he put down the impossible task of trying to think like his supergenius best friend, he realized he hadn't seen him in quite some time.

Chapter 406

"Bring me to Aron," Felix asked as he logged in to VR. With the growing number of people who had access and their varied tasks and locations, Nova had created a navigational VI aid.

Once he arrived at Aron's location, he couldn't help but curse in surprise. He was in a large, grassy meadow with Sarah, Henry, Rina, and all of the high-level leader AIs. The meadow itself was about fifty meters across, and outside of it was nothing but devastation. Craters were scattered around the cracked, bare earth, and more were appearing every second as explosions continued booming out in the distance.

"What the hell is going on?" Felix wondered, his jaw dropped so far Sarah considered spawning an egg to stick in it to see if it would fit.

[Sir Aron is having a sparring session with mother,] Athena answered, pulling up a screen that showed the action in real time with slow motion replays for Felix.

After watching the footage for a few seconds, he asked, "Why fight with swords and magic if it's a sparring session? Isn't he just playing a game while the world is in such a mess?" To Felix's knowledge, what he was watching absolutely must be some kind of new game. There was no third human that knew of Aron's magic, and Felix was definitely not the second; Rina was.

But before anyone even began to answer, if anyone was going to in the first place, the spar came to an abrupt end. Aron was caught in one of Nova's attacks that cost him an arm, but in return, one final, massive explosion erupted, sending dirt and ashes billowing out from it. Then Nova's figure, shield and all, flew out of the cloud like a bullet headed to who knows where.

The spectating AIs were shocked into a frozen state by the surprise ending. Throughout the thousands and thousands of sparring matches between Aron and Nova, this was the first time he had survived and sent her to earn some frequent flyer miles.

Not too long later, Aron, whose arm had fully regenerated, appeared in front of the spectators and immediately celebrated by giving Henry a high five and Rina a hug and quick kiss.

[That was a surprising decision, sir. Did you plan to trade your severe injury for mother's defeat ahead of time?] Athena asked, looking at Aron in admiration tinged with reverence and a little bit of worship.

"It wasn't a difficult decision. The calculation was rather simple, and of course, the sacrifice was planned," Aron answered.

"Hey there Felix, long time no see," Aron said when he spotted his friend. He moved in for a hug, as if he really hadn't seen him in a very long time.

"It's only been a few days since we last saw each other. What's with this 'long time no see' bullshit?" Felix sneered, though he reciprocated his friend's hug.

"Did you forget? Time dilation, remember—it really has been a few weeks since I saw you last," Aron explained to his forgetful friend as they separated.

"Yeah, yeah, my bad... hey, listen. I had a question about your plans to deal with the rest of the world."

Aron nodded and listened to Felix lay out the examples he had come up with when discussing things with Raven. "I can see where you're coming from, and you're absolutely correct. At the moment, we already have hard evidence of about seven thousand active rebel groups from all around the world. And all of them show signs of whipping up their own individual rebellions, if we don't stamp them out," he said once Felix finished laying out his argument.

"That many?" Felix asked in surprise.

"At least that many, yeah. We're pretty sure there's more we have yet to discover. The loud ones we've found so far are all the dumb ones and will be easy enough to deal with. It's the ones that're smart enough to remain hidden we have to worry about. Plus, more will crawl out of the woodwork as we work on establishing the new world constitution, then even more once we shake things up by implementing it.

"But that's in the future. Right now, we've got even more groups. Not every armed organization is going to be fighting for their ideological beliefs. There were already a bunch of organizations that already existed before the war. Terrorist groups like ISIS, drug cartels, street gangs... none of them are exactly ideological in nature, but we've already affected their profits and bottom lines. If we add all of them to the mix, there's about fifteen thousand different groups of varying size that we currently know of."

"What about the smart ones? What're you doing about those?" Felix followed up with a shudder. He couldn't even imagine how capable someone would have to be to hide from Aron, of all people.

"They won't remain hidden forever. The moment they attempt anything, we'll spot them and deal with them." Aron had everything under control.

"So why just keep an eye on them instead of doing something about them?" Felix asked.

"Who says we aren't? We've already implemented a hearts and minds strategy for the ones we can do that for. A little charity goes a long way for most of the angry people, and without angry people, insurrections will always fail. But some are trickier to deal with. For those, we're gathering evidence against them as we speak, but it isn't an overnight process. Even though we can wipe them out, and easily at that, doing so without just cause would just reinforce my image as a villain in people's minds. Then I'll be a barbarian who's using my power just because I can, and that wouldn't be good at all," Aron said. He knew very well just how corrupting an influence absolute power was; he had personally experienced it, and both Islamabad and Delhi had paid the price for his lesson. Thus, letting himself act extrajudicially would form a bad habit that would backfire on him hard in the future.

"As for the rest, well... what better way to prevent people from joining rebel groups than to take their focus from me and put it firmly onto something else?" he continued with an enigmatic smile on his face.

"Weapon of mass distraction? What've you got planned in that devious scheme factory of yours?" Felix rolled his eyes.

Instead of saying anything, Aron snapped his fingers and the two friends were teleported into space. In front of and slightly below them was Jupiter and behind them was the sun. "Welcome to the Trojan Asteroids," he said. "To your left is the asteroid field known as the 'Greek Camp', and to your right is the 'Trojan Camp'. There's an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter as well, but," he snapped his fingers and the two teleported to a vast, empty stretch of space, "you're standing in it now. The Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter only has about as much mass as our moon, if you were to gather all of the asteroids together into one celestial body. The distances involved make it difficult to exploit, unlike in Hollywood where spaceships are always dodging tightly packed clusters of asteroids while dogfighting in them."

He snapped his fingers and they teleported back to the Trojan Asteroids, then pointed at a fast-moving object headed toward the Greek Camp. "That, my friend, is the future. Prospecting and exploiting resources farther out in the solar system instead of on our mother planet. And do you see what I'm pointing to? That's one of our flagbearers. I launched it the other day."

He snapped his fingers and they returned to the grassy meadow where the rest of the people who had watched Nova and him spar from. "Other than that, VR itself should be enough to distract people. But space is Important with a capital I, especially since we're going to be welcoming our first guests very soon."

Chapter 407

Nova appeared out of nowhere right next to Felix. If people in the simulation had to deal with biological processes, he would have shat himself in surprise.

[Sir, something's come up that requires your urgent attention,] she reported to Aron.

"What's up?" Aron calmly asked, as if he were a pillar that could hold up the sky if it fell on him.

[We discovered that a large number of Edenian and Esparian citizens have gone missing in a few countries. They all disappeared at roughly the same time over the course of an hour or two.]

"How many citizens in total, and which countries did they disappear from? What were they there for? Are the disappearances done, or are people still going missing?" Aron asked, this time with a distinct chill in his tone. He had a few ideas of why his people would be going missing, and none of them were pleasant.

[Fifty-seven people disappeared hours after arriving in Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and Guatemala,] Nova said. She brought up a large screen and split it into sections, each displaying information about one of the missing individuals, like their travel itineraries and reasons for visiting those countries.

Aron glanced at the screen, memorizing its contents, then immediately came up with the most likely culprit. "Cartels," he spat.

[That is the most likely possibility, sir. As long as the missing people passed through customs, the cartels would have almost instantly learned about their arrival. Most government officials in those countries have been bought and paid for by at least one cartel, perhaps more, and controlling the people coming into and leaving from their countries would be a routine matter for them. The cartels wouldn't even have to provide special bribes.

[I think they're trying to gather leverage to use against us so they don't end up like the Sinaloa or Medellin cartels. After all, the likelihood of them having realized that their people were killed is high, especially after the public reprisal attack carried out from the former territory of the Sinaloas.]

"What's Athena got planned to resolve the situation?"

[She's tasked Panoptes with tracking them through the Panopticon network and ordered the Beowulf to adjust her patrol route to pass over Central and South America. Reaper teams three, seven, eleven, eighteen, and twenty-two are on standby for rescue and extraction operations once the targets are located.]

Athena appeared next to Nova and saluted Aron. [Sir, requesting permission to use orbital insertion protocols for the reaper deployments upon locating the targets.]

"Granted," Aron said. "But let the reapers know that I have a use for live captives this time. Corpses if necessary, but prisoners if possible. Either way, I want zero fugitives. Also, zero collateral damage. The high civilian death toll from the recent fighting is already causing enough problems, no need to increase that number even higher." He could always put them on trial once the new world constitution was implemented. Every criminal captured between now and then would likely be enough to fill a court's docket for months, if not years. Especially since they would all still be guaranteed due process.

[Affirmative, sir,] Athena said, then saluted again and disappeared.

Nova smiled and disappeared as well. She enjoyed acting as Aron's secretary; it reminded her of how things were in the beginning, when she was just an assistant and limited to the tiny server he had built in his parents' basement. Ever since then, those menial jobs had been delegated to lower and lower authority levels in the AI hierarchy she was building, and while she appreciated that Aron valued her so highly, it was sometimes nice to do simple things, like pass messages.

It was like how chefs with dozens of Michelin-starred restaurants under their name would enjoy bologna and processed cheese sandwiches on plain, cheap white bread from time to time as a reminder of their childhoods.

Aron turned to Felix, who was looking at him with a complicated expression on his face, and asked, "Where were we? Ah, right... VR."

"How can you be so calm right now?" Felix blurted out.

"It's because this is exactly one of the things we foresaw being a possibility, so we've already got a contingency plan in place to counter it. Since we already expected it and a plan was put in place long before now, it's actually more of a relief that it's happening than something to worry about. Besides, the best possible people for the job are already on it, so if I worry about the situation, all it'll do is show that I lack faith in the people I trained," Aron explained.

Felix took a minute to digest that, and found it plausible. He nodded and his entire body seemed to relax as the discussion picked back up.

"Back to what we were discussing before. With space exploration to keep their bodies occupied and separated, and virtual reality games to keep their minds busy, people simply won't have time to plot and carry out rebellions. Nor will they have the angry recruits they need to grow. And even if they choose to go the way of the luddites, they'll just be left behind as the world advances past them.

(Ed note: Luddites were people who, during the industrial revolution of the early 19th century, fought against the advance of technology and would often attack and destroy textile mill machinery in order to keep their jobs. In the modern sense, it's anyone that refuses to "keep with the times", much like the Amish people of the US.)

"Which is why Sarah and you have a few months ahead of you where you'll be spending your sleep time in VR so you have enough time to deal with things," Aron finished.

Felix unconsciously hunched his back, remembering the frantic lead-up to the first GAIA product launch and all the work it entailed for him and Sarah.

Aron watched Felix's internal struggle, which had caused his face to twitch and his expression to contort, and could barely keep himself from laughing. "Don't worry so much. It may be a painful next few months, but the pain now will decide whether the empire we build will last for centuries, millennia, or millions of years. That's why we need to focus on every single little detail now," he reassured his old friend.

Felix's eyes sprang open and almost popped out of his face. He finally knew what Aron was planning to do after winning the war: creating an empire and crowning himself emperor. "What?" he blurted out, not entirely sure that there wasn't a glitch in the simulation or if he was hallucinating.

Aron didn't say a word, just gave his friend an enigmatic smile, then bent down to meet Henry, who was running over to him with childlike glee.

"Brother, I want to fight like you do!" the boy said once he was in his big brother's embrace.

"Just a minute, my minion," Aron said, then turned to Felix and continued, "You'll know more later, but for now, leave me something in reserve to surprise you guys with."

He disappeared with his little brother, off to play "games" that were well-disguised training programs that would prepare Henry for the time when Aron finally learned how to inscribe runic hearts.

Aron had decided that Henry would be the second runemaster of humanity, and would bring that about by his own hand.

Chapter 408

[Corporal Jose Cuervo, report to docking bay two. Corporal Jose Cuervo to docking bay two.]

Corporal Jose "Tekillya" Cuervo had graduated from Athena's basic ARES training course two months ago, VR time, and his performance assessment had qualified him to become a Reaper after the initial training was complete. He picked up his black-and-gray ARES duffel bag, slung it over his shoulder, and rushed to The VR training facility was as realistic as anything else in the simulation and recruits were required to eat, perform the biological necessities, sleep, and everything else, just as they were in reality.

He had completed the majority of his Reaper training and been on "leave" for the time it took his special enhancements to be implanted in the Reaper-specific VR pod, a hybrid medical pod and ARES training pod. All that was left for him to do was one final training mission, during which he would become accustomed to the performance of his newly enhanced body, and upon its successful completion, he would be a full-fledged member of a reaper team.

Tekillya could hardly wait.

After loading himself and his baggage onto the shuttle in docking bay two of the sprawling ARES training facility, he strapped himself in for departure and waved a screen into existence that detailed the implants that would soon be at his command.

[Skeletal structure reinforcements. Super magnesium sheaths reinforce the bones of a reaper's skeleton and increases their shock, impact, and weight resistance by 900%]

(Ed note: Allite? is an alloy that's lighter than titanium and aluminum, stronger than the strongest grade of titanium, and more than twenty times as shock absorbent as aluminum. The actual ratio of elements that make up the alloy are a trade secret, but they've disclosed that it's an alloy of magnesium, aluminum, and rare earth elements. It's commonly called super magnesium.)

[Muscle replacement. Approximately one-third of type one and half of type two skeletal muscles replaced by liquid crystal elastomers, increasing muscle strength by 750% and reducing lactose acid buildup by 50%]

[Organ shock webbing...]

[Bionic eye replacements...]

[Subdermal carbon nanotube weave...]

[Internal combat pharmacy...]

[Implanted healer nanite colony...]

[Implanted nanite power armor colony...]

[Microfusion power plant...]

[Thigh storage compartments...]

[Extendable elbow, wrist, and knee blades...]

[Quantum microprocessor...]

[Oxygen recyclers...]

The list went on, with more than a hundred and fifty new additions to Corporal Cuervo's meatsack that would vastly improve his capabilities and place him head and shoulders above the ARES troopers. With these tools, he would be an elite among the elites, a powerhouse capable of singlehandedly bringing entire countries, or even perhaps worlds, to heel.

He pictured himself striding through a battlefield, his customized reaper power armor around him and distinctive, scythe-shaped rifle in hand, leaving a corpse in his wake with every step he took forward, and he couldn't wait. He was no ammosexual, nor was he a superpatriot, but he was definitely interested in being the best possible version of himself.

And that best possible version was Corporal Jose "Tekillya" Cuervo, of Reaper Team whichever.

After reading through the documentation on his new implants, he settled in to sleep for the rest of the journey to whichever hellhole Athena had dreamed up for his final training exercise. It may be the last sleep he would get for quite some time.

...

[Docking complete. Passengers, please debark following the guidelines on the deck.]

Corporal Cuervo woke with a start, instantly going from deep sleep to full alertness as only highly trained soldiers could do. He unstrapped himself from his seat and stood up, retrieving his duffle bag and waiting for the light of the guideline to show him it was his turn to leave the shuttle.

After finally leaving the shuttle, he found himself in a satellite base roughly the size the International Space Station used to be. As the design of the ISS was, by Aron and Nova's standards, reasonably intelligent in both design and construction processes, they had adopted that as the design for manned space outposts. After all, it was relatively easy to print and launch prefabricated modules that would be assembled in space, so even in the field, where Aron refused to deploy any atomic printers other than task-specialized ones, they would still be convenient for use.

Making his way to the conference room, Jose dropped his duffel outside the hatch and entered to receive his mission briefing.

[Your task is to drop on hellworld A-2485239/JS and survive for six standard weeks. Due to the hostile nature of the wildlife and vegetation on the planet, you will be dropping via cold coast orbital insertion. No equipment beyond what you can hold in your hands and storage compartment implants is allowed. Implant usage is allowed, and encouraged,] the simulated officer said.

[This is your final training mission. After this, you will be a reaper if you succeed, or scrubbed and recycled if you fail.] The briefing officer was referring to the mindwipe procedure the training pods were all capable of. [Mission begins as soon as you reach the transport module and enter your stealth insertion pod. Dismissed!]

Jose chose to fill one storage compartment with food and water purification tablets, use the other compartment for a length of rope and other miscellaneous survival supplies, and carry a pair of monomolecular vibroswords in his hands.

After receiving his requested issue from the supply officer, he made his way to the orbital insertion module and looked for his assigned IDMO, or Insertion and Drop Model, Orbital. That was the Lab City researchers' name for it, but due to their size, shape, and purpose, the people who were "lucky" enough to use them for their actual purpose had another name for them: coffins.

Once he found his coffin, Corporal Cuervo took a few deep breaths, replayed the last few hours in his mind—from the time he stepped aboard the transport shuttle to the time he arrived in the IDMO module—then clasped his hands in prayer and looked upward for about thirty seconds or so.

Once his preparations were complete, Corporal Jose "Tekillya" Cuervo climbed into his coffin and sealed it shut from the inside. The next few weeks would determine whether or not he had what it took to be a Reaper.

Chapter 409

Jose slammed the door of his house, stomped up the stairs, and dropped his backpack on the floor before throwing himself into his bed. He buried his face in his pillow and screamed as hard as he could, then broke down into giant, hiccuping sobs that wracked his entire body.

"Why? Why? Why, why, why, why, whywhywhywhy..." he sobbed, slamming his fists into the mattress for emphasis.

Someone knocked on his bedroom door and he turned his pimpled face to the side and screamed, "GO AWAY!" Then he buried his face back into his pillow and continued sobbing, but wordlessly this time.

He thought back to earlier in the day, when he was standing in line in the cafeteria to pick up his subsidized "poor people lunch" when the starting pitcher of their school baseball team sat down at the table next to where he was standing in line and loudly laughed about his name. The pitcher's belief was that Jose was named after expensive tequila because his parents were dirt poor and couldn't afford any, and it was all Jose's fault for wasting all of their money.

Jose had clenched his fists hard enough to leave white fingernail imprints in the skin of his palms as the pitcher continued chatting and laughing with his friends, one of the spirit squad dance team members hanging off of his neck.

He finally got his food tray and was walking back to find an empty seat when he stumbled over the outstretched leg of another of his bullies. His severe acne, braces, and short, weak stature definitely hadn't qualified him to join the popular crowd, so he could only join their target list. High school was just that brutal.

More knocking came at his bedroom door, followed by his mother's muffled voice asking if he was okay. The concern was audible, even through the door, so he invited her in.

"Mom, why did you name me Jose Cuervo? We aren't even Mexican!" he sniffled.

His mother, Katrina, laughed and said, "Well, your father was a bartender and I was a cocktail waitress at the bar he worked at." She wrapped her arm around Jose's shoulders and pulled him into her embrace. "And we were young, dumb, and full of cum. We fell in love with each other almost within minutes of meeting, and later that week, we fooled around in the back seat of his car. When I found out I was pregnant..." she ruffled her son's hair, "we panicked! But it was never about the pregnancy, since we already knew we would spend the rest of our lives together. Instead, we were panicking over what to name you!" She grinned.

"So we went back and forth for a few days, thinking up names, and finally settled on naming you after something that reminded us of what brought us together. A shitty little dive bar brought you into our lives, but 'The Pink Pussycat' doesn't really scream name material. So we figured we would name you after the first drink someone ordered that night and you ended up being Jose Cuervo. If you were a girl, you'd be Midori. And count yourself lucky, brat," she giggled, "because we almost named you Pontiac Sunfire, for the car you were conceived in!"

"MOOOOMMMM! TMI!" Jose screeched, going beet red in the face...

...

[Coast phase complete. Prepare for unpowered entry.]

Corporal Cuervo woke up to the neutral tone of the VI in his coffin. He hated cold coasting; he always had truly weird, vivid dreams when his implants put him into hibernation. It wasn't a unique affliction, either, as nearly every reaper trainee had the same issue with their hibernation state. It seemed like it put them into such a deep sleep that their brains dredged up the most deeply buried memories and replayed them in high definition with full surround sound audio.

(Ed note: "Cold coasting" is a relatively uncommon(ish) term in some science fiction novels that refers to the act of coasting unpowered through a star system to avoid detection by technologically advanced civilizations. In this novel, we'll be using it for the same thing, stealthily inserting forces onto planets or into star systems that are populated by hostiles.)

The coffin heated up around him as it skipped across the outer layer of hellworld A-2485239/JS' atmosphere. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs, checked his internal storage and implant supply levels of combat drugs and other assorted pharmaceuticals, doublechecked the swords in his hands, then asked, "ETA to landfall?"

[Approximately eight minutes, corporal.]

The reaper trainee settled back into the impact cushions, or "crash pads" as they were called, and closed his eyes, delving into the quantum microcomputer in his brain. He took a few seconds going through file name after file name, then finally found what he was looking for: the video letter his mother and stepfather had recorded for him when the ARES recruiters contacted them to ask for one. A standard procedure in the recruitment process was to ask for video letters from loved ones for the troopers to play.

Ever since his father had died in a bar brawl where his parents had both worked, Jose and his mother had grown closer and closer. At first it was by necessity; they were the only two people left in their family after his father's passing and they had to rely on each other. But later, it was because they had developed a truly deep, healthy affection for each other. To Jose, Katrina Jones was the absolute best mother on the planet. And to Katrina, Jose Cuervo was the absolute best son she could ever have asked for.

Katrina had remarried later, but the bond between the mother and son pair was never severed, or even damaged. Jose's new dad, Dave, had made sure to respect his wife and step-son, and had been the first person to encourage him and teach him to stand up for himself, his family, and his beliefs.

Jose and Katrina both considered their lives better for the presence of the new man in it, both then and now.

...

Seven minutes and fifty-three seconds later, Corporal Cuervo's coffin came crashing to the ground and the lid popped off. Impact gel flowed out of the pod, followed by a reaper. Hellworld A-2485239/JS was about to be introduced to one of humanity's most finely tuned and improved killing machines.

Chapter 410

Hellworld A-2485239/JS was a planet with ten times the diameter of Earth, putting it firmly in the category of "Super Earths". It was unique in that it was 90% land and only 10% water on the surface, but instead of being dry and arid, as one might expect, it was entirely covered in lush, tropical foliage. From orbit, it looked like a brilliant emerald, and seemed like it would be a nice place to take a camping vacation every now and then.

But that wasn't the case at all.

Code named "Jurassic Planet", Hellworld A-2485239/JS was home to some of the most vicious species that Nova could design using all of the processing power at her disposal. The foliage was all either carnivorous, venomous, or poisonous, and the inhabitants were modeled after the most aggressive dinosaurs that could be proven to exist, then run through countless evolution simulations to crank up their lethality to a ridiculous degree. Essentially, everything on the planet would eat anything that couldn't run fast enough to escape.

With a gravity ten times that of Earth and an atmospheric oxygen content of 41.82%, almost double that of Earth's 21%, everything on the planet grew to nearly eight times the size of an earthbound equivalent. And due to the foliage constantly expiring moist, warm air, the entire planet had one thing in common with tropical rainforests and jungles on Earth: it rained almost constantly. That contributed greatly to the general lack of water on the surface, as the greenery would thirstily absorb any water on, or even under, the surface, and what little watering holes were left became death traps for smarter predators to prey on less intelligent predators.

Everything on Jurassic Planet was prey.

...

Jose stepped out of his coffin, his uniform shedding the impact gel that had cushioned his impact with the surface. As the green slime pooled around him, he looked down and noticed that the tip of a root had poked through the surface detritus to investigate the moisture and heat source and was greedily sucking the liquid out of the gel, rendering it into powdered concentrate. Soon, he was left standing in a pile of vomit green powder.

He saw the root tip questing around, and when it neared his boots, he made the wise decision to relocate to somewhere else. Everything on the planet was a complete unknown to him, in order to raise the standard he would be required to meet in order to successfully graduate his reaper training. For normal missions, the briefings entailed a mass of information; essentially everything he could possibly need to know would be stored on his implant for later recall, and everything he needed to do in order to accomplish the mission would be told to him by the person briefing him.

He stepped back and looked at an innocuous evergreen tree about twenty meters away from where he was at. He crouched, then, with a mighty thrust of his legs, leaped to the base of the tree he had spotted. Extending the climbing spikes from between the fingers of his hands and the soles of his boots, he scampered up the tree and took refuge in its thick cover of densely packed needles. Luckily for him, he was covered from head to toe in the most durable fabric the researchers at Lab City could come up with, because the tree he had just climbed was a hybrid of a gympie-gympie tree and poison oak, and its "needles" were actually a symbiotic plant that had evolved from poison ivy.

(Ed note: The gympie-gympie is one of the most vicious examples of Australian wildlife. It's a venomous tree that actively stings you and injects you with some of the most painful venom known to mankind; people have been driven to suicide by gympie-gympie stings. And the first aid for a gympie-gympie sting? Pour hydrochloric or sulfuric acid on the sting site after removing the stingers themselves.)

But he would discover that later. Likely the next time he had to wipe his ass, given how active Sergeant Murphy tended to be during missions and deployments.

He created a nest for himself, then turned and looked out through the tight foliage. His coffin had already completely disappeared, and now resembled nothing more than an unremarkable lump of greenery against the veritable sea of green in the background.

Checking his surroundings through all of the different optics available to him, Tekillya made an initial map of his surroundings. Thanks to the size of the planet, the horizon was much farther away to begin with, and with the added height from the unnamed tree he was in, he now had a general threat map of everything within a fifteen-kilometer radius of where he was. He designated his landing spot as Point Alpha and headed out, nimbly leaping from tree to tree and occasionally swinging from vines.

He leaped from a tree, targeting a vine that was hanging down from a branch about ten meters away. It should have been an easy leap, but the vine jerked away from his reaching hand just as he was about to grasp it. Then he realized his mistake; that was no vine, but a snake!

The snake had been coiled up on a tree branch, camouflaging itself as a vine in order to entrap incoming prey. It'd long spotted the comparatively tiny figure and had just been waiting for him to fall into its clutches. As Jose fell to the branch below him with a thud and the creaking groan of stressed wood, the snake released the branch it had been waiting on and fell directly after the hapless reaper trainee.

Jose wasted no time and blinked in a specific pattern, disabling the safety on his eye laser. Firing it would destroy the biological camouflage of his left bionic eye, but remaining hidden in a sea of humanity wasn't his mission this time. Survival was.

He opened his eyes wide and, when his targeting reticle passed over the snake, he fired the short-ranged eye laser at the rapidly approaching reptile.

Chapter 411

The giant snake hissed as the fifteen-megawatt x-ray laser impacted its body. The laser was only focused on it for half a second, but that proved enough to cause severe damage. It had hit the snake in its midsection and almost immediately drilled through the thinner belly scales, then dug its way into the meat and muscle, where the flesh was almost instantly sublimated into vapor, which rapidly expanded with the force of a small bomb, blasting snake meat and blood in all directions. The snake was almost cut in half and landed limply atop Corporal Cuervo, who sighed in relief as the giant reptile hissed its last.

He pushed it off of him and it draped lifelessly over the branch he was laying on, then shrugged and muttered, "Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?"

Jose sat up on the branch and brushed himself off; his uniform was durable and hydrophobic, so it wouldn't absorb any liquids, but the idea of being covered in the blood and guts of one of his least favorite animals was still disturbing. He fell backward off the branch and did a backflip as he swiftly made his way to the jungle floor branch by branch. If he didn't retrieve his weapons, they would quickly be covered in roots and dragged below the ground to god knows where.

After retrieving his swords, he climbed back up to where he left the snake and skinned it. The durable hide would serve him well as a makeshift sword belt, so he wouldn't risk dropping his weapons again. While he himself was a weapon, thanks to having so many implanted blades he was virtually a porcupine, the standoff range provided even by melee weapons would prevent quite a lot of injuries. After all, with six weeks before his mission ended, every injury he prevented meant his odds of survival increased exponentially.

He cut the snakeskin into strips and braided it into a belt with a harness strap that wrapped around his waist and up his torso over his right shoulder. It would have been better if he could tan the skin into leather, but needs must when the devil drives, so he would make do with stiff rawhide. At least the belt and harness combination would allow him to reposition his swords for hip draw or back draw in case he needed to keep them out of the way.

After the brief interlude with the snake, he continued forging a path and mapping his surroundings. His skin was capable of drawing and filtering water out of the atmosphere, his metabolism could be adjusted to control his hunger, and the quantum microcomputer in his brain could stimulate and restrict his hypothalamus gland, so he wouldn't feel overly cold or hot. He could even tolerate the harsh conditions of deep space for up to an hour before he started having his health impacted, if absolutely necessary.

Thus, the regular rules of survival no longer applied to him, especially on a lush planet like the one he found himself on now. He needed neither water or shelter and could survive on virtually any organic material. It might not be tasty, and it might not provide everything he required, but for six weeks... tree bark would be sufficient as food.

What he did need, however, was a safe resting place. His quantum microcomputer could regulate his sleep function, allowing half of his brain to rest while the other half was active, but that wasn't a long-term solution. Fatigue would catch up to him and he would need to go into a deep, uninterrupted sleep for at least a few hours every four or five days.

So he continued moving outward from Point Alpha in an expanding spiral, mapping as he went in search of a cave that lacked a resident, or had a resident that was mean enough to scare off the rest of the violent inhabitants of Hellworld A-2485239/JS.

...

Eight hours later, somewhere on the surface of Jurassic Planet.

Jose had quickly learned to test every vine, tree trunk, and flower. He had discovered camouflaged snakes, parasitic foliage that had sap that could melt through his uniform, symbiotic insects that lived in the cracks between tree bark and would swarm out at the slightest disturbance, and flowers that puffed clouds of gas or spat venom. And those discoveries had come the hard way, as he now looked, as his stepdad would say, "like a horse that got rode hard and put away wet."

Some of the hallucinatory gasses and spores puffed out of the flowers had even caused him to fall into hallucinations despite his implants regulating virtually every aspect of his physical body. It wasn't until his AI assistant, whom he had jokingly named Pontiac, had forcefully dragged him into VR until the effects of the gas wore off that he even realized he was in danger. Luckily, with his consciousness otherwise occupied, there was nothing driving him to throw himself into a flower to be eaten anymore.

"It was a pretty flower at least, Pontiac," he muttered as he thought back on his nearest death experience so far.

[It was, Tekillya, but you know you'd never live that death down.]

"Ha, I could think of better ways to go, sure," he chuckled, then pulled a ration cube from his storage compartment and resolutely chewed and swallowed it.

"You know, Pontiac," he began. "I almost wish I'd brought a water collector instead of relying on my hydration implants."

[Why's that?] she asked, despite having an idea of what he would say next.

"Because I just ate one of the ham and cheese omelette cubes and could really use something to rinse the taste out of my mouth with right about now," he complained.

[Tekillya, do you know what they say about soldiers and chow?]

"That we always get fucked by the same 'chefs' that design dog food and call it tasty?"

[No,] she said. [They say that military chow is purposefully terrible so it gives the soldiers something to bitch about.]

"Why would they do that?"

[Because the only time you need to worry about a soldier is when they don't have anything to bitch about. As long as they're griping about something, they're doing just fine.]

Chapter 412

[Because the only time you need to worry about a soldier is when they don't have anything to bitch about. As long as they're griping about something, they're doing just fine.]

"Well, then I guess I'm doing just fine, because this shit fucking sucks, Pontiac."

[Suck it up, soldier boy. You've got a big one coming your way,] Pontiac countered, then highlighted a large heat source that was on the move in their direction.

Corporal Cuervo whistled, then sighed, "That thing's the size of an apartment building, Pontiac. ETA?"

[Faster than you can run. I'd give you the numbers, but it'd just make you cry.]

"You know I can factory reset you, right?"

[Psh. As if you'd do something like that. I'm amazing,] Pontiac bragged.

"Right, right, right, you're the best. Options?"

[Don't get stepped on and do your best to leave a pretty corpse? It's bigger than you, probably stronger than you, and my scans show that its skin is way thicker than yours.]

"Well fuck. Maybe I can find another ham and cheese omelette ration cube and use that to poison it to death," Jose said, already leaping from tree to tree as he unassed the area and headed toward a convenient cliff he had climbed up earlier. "Need a distraction. Suggestions?"

[You could start a fire... maybe. The vegetation here is really thick and green and there's no way of telling how effective it would be.]

"That means there'll be more smoke, right?"

[You could say that, yes.]

"Is the biggest boy still on my six?"

[Yep. And I know what you're thinking. I give it a 62% chance of success.]

As Corporal Cuervo fled from the oncoming apartment-building-sized monstrosity, his AI assistant, Pontiac, was running simulations as fast as she could. Finally, she landed on the solution that had the highest probability of success and put up a guideline in Jose's visual range.

[Follow the guideline and we should make it out in one piece. Maybe two, but they should be repairable pieces... I think. Better than meat paste anyway, so that's good, right?]

"Yep," Jose panted; he was really stressing his lactose acid recyclers and heaving enormous lungfuls of air with every breath.

Just as he was about to reach the point where he would light a fire to obscure the upcoming cliff from his pursuer's vision, Pontiac yelled, [TAKE COVER NOW! INCOMING!]

Having full confidence and trust in his partner, Jose dropped from the treetop to the ground and scrambled behind a shrub. To prevent curious plants from accidentally eating him or burying him alive, he triggered his NUTS and a nanite colony flooded through special pores in his skin, covering him from head to toe in an environmentally sealed, self-contained power armor.

The upgraded power armor used by reapers was the main limiting factor in producing them. A few of the elements used in the alloy that the nanites were made of was only present on Earth in incredibly minuscule amounts. Even after so many years of gathering trace elements from the sea, less than a hundred pounds of them had been gathered, in total. In comparison, Aron had warehouses full of "rare" elements like gold and platinum, and he even had actually rare elements like Californium and Protactinium in abundance.

But Francium, one of the core elements in the NUTS (Nanite Utility Tactical Suit) was even measured in grams. Not kilograms, not pounds, but grams. Despite all of the seawater filtration and seafloor mining Aron had done, he had only found 31 grams of Francium. Luckily, the alloy the nanites were made of, which he had whimsically named Unobtainium, only required a few hundred micrograms per nanite colony.

(Ed note: Scientists and researchers estimate that there's only 20-30 grams of Francium in the entire Earth's crust at any given time. It's a transuranic element, so it decays, and has a half-life of 22 minutes in its most stable isotope, Fr-223. Francium decays into Radium-223 or Astatine-219, and a practical use for it has yet to be discovered to date.)

After Jose's NUTS wrapped him in their protective embrace, he locked his muscles in place and gave his best impression of a harmless rock. Pontiac, meanwhile, was displaying the fight between bigger and biggest with an almost sadistic glee.

[Wow, that's an even bigger biggest boy, don't you think? The one that was chasing us was only about seven stories tall, but look at that beauty. It has to be at least two hundred meters from top to bottom! It's a right proper kaiju isn't it!] If she had a body, she would be jumping up and down and applauding. Jose knew that, because that's what she was currently doing in her augmented reality projection form.

Pontiac sobered and turned to face her partner. [Uh oh,] she said with an adorable frown on her face. [We might have a problem.]

"Is it fatal?"

[Maybe. We're sinking, I think the plants found us.]

Jose was the only person in his recruit batch that had delved deep into the instruction manual that came with his AI assistant and tweaked her personality and appearance settings himself, rather than letting her slowly adapt to his needs. He was regretting it now.

"Understood," he snapped, all business now. "Options?"

[Three possibilities. Light a fire here and escape in the smoke obscuration, dig yourself out after the kaiju leaves, or run. The fire's your best option, just running is the worst. There's no telling whether you'll be able to dig yourself out if you let yourself be buried.]

Jose pondered for a moment, then reached through his NUTS and grabbed the firestarter from his storage. "Plan A it is, then," he said, scraping some magnesium off the block and dropping a spark into the pile of magnesium powder.

Oddly, the foliage around him seemed rather highly flammable and easily caught fire. It was almost as if the sap contained within the plants was made of gasoline, or perhaps naphtha, as the fire dripped down from above in giant heaping globs and splattered, spreading from plant to plant. The fireline was racing forward faster than even Jose could run with his implants augmented by the NUTS he was wearing.

The battling monsters in the distance had already noticed the incoming flames and hightailed it out of the path of the fireline, roaring and howling as they sprinted, barely able to keep pace with the oncoming fire front. It was a battle of nature versus nature, one that the wildlife was sure to eventually lose as they grew tired and slowed.

"Uhh... oops?" Jose blinked as innocently as he could, then a glob of fire landed directly atop his head, heavily enough to knock him face-first into the dirt, even digging his head into a small crater.

"Fuck!" he yelled, flipping the bird behind him at whichever tree had faceplanted him into the soil.

Pontiac, meanwhile, fell into a laughing fit. She fell on her back, kicking her feet in the air and pointing at Jose as she held her belly with her other hand and laughed until her face was a bright eggplant purple.

Chapter 413

Corporal Cuervo lay on the ground, his head in a small crater, as his AI assistant's augmented reality form continued madly laughing at him. If it weren't for his NUTS, he would probably have been nothing but ashes and small pools of molten metal with some chunks of solid alloys in it. The temperature readout on his retinal AR display had long passed the 6,000 degree celsius mark and was still climbing, albeit at a continually slowing rate.

Soon, the raging fire ran out of fuel, leaving him surrounded by ashes and obscured by smoke. He rolled over and gazed into the smoky air above him and couldn't help but wonder if anyone else had ever lit Jurassic Planet on fire. For some reason, he doubted it. Effective though the tactic had proven to be, it was still highly embarrassing and the NUTS colonies had only been recently developed. In fact, the active reaper teams were still cycling through in order to have their new tech implanted, and Tekillya's batch was the first to have the implants done as part of their normal training cycle.

"Pontiac," he croaked. "I swear, one of these days, I'm going to factory reset you."

[Sure, sure,] she scoffed with a wave of her hand. [You know you love me, so shut up and get moving, soldier boy.]

Jose climbed to his feet and surveyed the devastation surrounding him. 'Well, at least I've cleared the hazards around me,' he thought as he looked at his updated topographical map and saw that everything within a dozen kilometers of his position had been burned to the ground and the fireline was still racing outward. As it turned out, having highly flammable acid for sap was a terrible choice, evolutionarily speaking.

He checked his water storage levels and saw that he had enough to last him a week, perhaps a week and a half if he rationed it well, then sat back on the ground and labeled his current location on his map as Point Foxtrot. After that, he began writing his after-action report and included the loss of his swords, which had sadly failed to survive the high temperature fire, unlike his NUTS.

Having nothing better to do and no requirements to meet in terms of survival, he generated a pack of AR playing cards and said, "Shall we play some poker to pass the time, Pontiac?"

...

High above the atmosphere of Hellworld A-2485239/JS, code named Jurassic Planet.

Athena, Aeolus, and Poseidon were perched on a couch, watching the current batch of reaper trainees doing their graduation missions.

[Well that's a unique take on survival,] Athena said, snapping her fingers and bringing Corporal Cuervo's feed into focus on the main screen.

[Should it count as 'survival', though, if you just burn the whole planet to ash?] Poseidon mused.

[I don't see why not,] Aeolus said in his wind-chimey voice.

[Well, it was mother's simulation that generated flora with flammable acid as sap, so I'm sure she foresaw something like this happening sooner or later,] Athena said.

[True,] Poseidon said. [So will you count this as a successful mission completion? From the looks of things, at least half of the planet is going to end up as smoke and ashes. And we can't interfere once the trial's begun, otherwise we'll invalidate it ourselves.]

[It'll be a pass. But I'll talk to mother about introducing natural wildfires into the next generations of evolution on Hellworld A-2485239/JS so this will be a one time tactic. It's effective, sure, but it completely goes against the spirit of the mission.]

The conversation between the three AIs continued as they watched the struggling batch of reaper trainees passing with ease, struggling, or washing out. Only a single time-dilated "day" had passed so far, and Athena anticipated all of her brothers and sisters visiting over the remainder of the training mission, whether out of curiosity, boredom, or the simple desire to study human behavior in order to better emulate human behavior—especially emotions.

...

The remainder of the six weeks allotted for the reaper graduation mission passed in the blink of an eye. A total of a hundred reaper trainees had begun the mission, and twelve had survived it. Unsurprisingly, Corporal Cuervo was one of the "dirty dozen", as they had named themselves, and he was perhaps the dirtiest of the lot; after all, almost all of his time had been spent searching for anything that could stretch out his limited food resources, since he'd burned down fully half of Jurassic Planet on the first day!

But once he discovered a surviving body of water that contained surviving water plants and a school of small fish—"small" being a relative term, as they were still each slightly bigger than Jose himself—he had settled in for the rest of the long mission and his main struggle was to stave off boredom.

The graduation ceremony was grand and included a "funeral" for those who had washed out of reaper training. They had indeed effectively died, as they were slated to have their memory of the training wiped from their minds before they recycled in with the next batch to undergo training from the beginning. If they failed two more times, they would fail reaper training forever and either join the regular troopers after having their implants removed, or join an Aegis protection team and undergo further training as protection specialists.

Nobody exactly looked down on Aegis members, as they were still absolutely elite, but serving their enlistments as bodyguards was definitely nowhere near as prestigious as serving in a reaper team.

[Two 'years' ago, you came to us as men. Today, you leave us as Reapers,] Athena solemnly said, speaking from the stage the twelve graduating reapers had assembled before. [Wear your flash with pride, serve with honor, and carry out the missions assigned to you with the gravity they deserve. You are the sharpest tip of the spear, and you are our proudest sons. Expect excellence from yourselves, and never forget what you have accomplished!

[Reapers! A-ten-HUT!] she ordered.

The twelve reapers before her snapped to attention and shouted, "Semper silens, celer, et invisus!"

[Dismissed!]

The reapers cheered and offered each other high fives and back slapping all around, then left to log out of VR for the first time in two "years". With the quantum microcomputers that had been implanted into their brains before the training began, the entire time it took to train someone from a normal human to a genetically enhanced, bionic war machine was only thirty days, during which they underwent years of training and simulated missions, ensuring that everyone who signed up to enlist in ARES came out as a hardened combat veteran with a minimum of ten "years" of service behind them.

...

One week later, within a briefing room in the Cube.

Sergeant Cuervo was seated in a briefing room along with the rest of reaper team twenty-two. He had joined them as their demolitions expert; apparently, burning half of a Superearth to the ground qualified him to handle explosives for some weird reason. He was fairly certain it was some kind of inside joke, but like any other red-blooded man, he enjoyed things that went boom in the night and was quite happy with his lot.

The team had just received their mission briefing and stealth ship assignment. They were to head to Guatemala, where the nyxians had reported there were approximately a dozen Edenian citizens being held hostage by the Mexican Zetas cartel in conjunction with their "allies" in the Guatemalan Kaibiles special operations group. They would be inserted via LOLO jump from their stealth shuttle, the ESV 1192, which was attached to the ESV Buzz Aldrin Expeditionary Space Fleet as a forward scout element. Once there, they were to proceed to the target location and capture or neutralize all hostile elements while preserving the lives of all hostages. It was just another day for the elite members of Reaper Team 22.

(Ed note: LOLO is an acronym that stands for Low Orbit Low Opening. Much like HALO, which is High Altitude, Low Opening, except they "jump" from low orbit and freefall to a very low altitude, generally around 200 feet or so, before they slow themselves down by parachutes or, in this case, single-use thruster packs.)

An hour later, the team had drawn their equipment issue, boarded their shuttle, and had reached orbit. Space debris was still a hazard, though it was in the process of being cleaned up, so they wasted no time in leaping out of their shuttle. Their destination? A medium-sized poppy plantation of about 200 acres just outside Antigua. They would reach the outskirts of Antigua at around 2AM local time.

The jump proceeded without a hitch and they landed with no issues, then swiftly and silently headed to the poppy farm. They neutralized the guards, then snuck into the compound and breathed an anesthetic sleeping gas in the face of the hostiles that would keep them unconscious for at least six hours. That would give them more than enough time to free the hostages and indentured farmers responsible for growing and harvesting the poppy fields.

Once they had gathered up all of the hostages and secured the hostile forces, all that remained was to proceed to the extraction point five kilometers on the other side of the plantation from Antigua.

Everything had gone off without a single problem, marking a successful first mission for the newly formed reaper team.

Chapter 414

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico US border.

Everyone in the city heard a loud buzzing coming from the north. When they looked up, they saw one of the Edenian flying carriers, but something was different about what they had seen of them before. After scratching his head for a moment, one man in the crowd shouted, "It's flying too low!"

The only time they had seen a carrier, it had been flying so high that it was barely the size of a book of matches and the sound of the rotors breaking through the air hadn't reached the ground.

Although the carrier hadn't come to a complete halt, it was moving slowly enough to see the details of its sleek hull. Though they couldn't see the flight deck on the top of the carrier, they soon saw dozens of aircraft rising above it and streaking off in different directions.

A murmur ran through the crowd as they realized that one of them was headed toward the area controlled by Los Zetas, a cartel formed by disgraced former members of the Mexican military. Locals knew the area and avoided it at all costs, as it was home to dozens of cartel members and over a thousand of their subordinate thugs.

Moments after the aircraft left the carrier, the chopping noise of the enormous vessel's rotors increased in intensity as the blades adjusted their angle of attack and lifted the behemoth carrier higher in the air, where it sped off into the distance.

The process repeated itself more than seventy times as the carrier flew from the northern border of Mexico all the way down to the tip of Argentina.

Everything was done without any attempt to hide from the eyes of the public, who were recording the movements and posting them on the internet. And with more and more videos of the brief stops and launches happening all across Central and South America in cities that had connections to cartels, the only people who didn't have an idea of what was going on were those who were purposefully blind. And trolls, of course; there would always be lovers of chaos on the internet that just wanted to watch the world burn.

So the question then became why. Why was ARES deploying to deal with the cartels? The online spectators could only wish that they had more eyes with which to watch the event, as they knew that whatever ARES started, they would finish in the blink of an eye. Thus, while they didn't want to miss it happening live, they knew they would soon receive an explanation of what was going on.

…

As expected, new information began being posted on the internet a few hours after the carrier's series of brief stops ended. Hundreds of assault landers launched by the Edenian carrier had landed across every airport in Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and Guatemala, each of them disgorging a squad of ARES Aegis team members dressed in neatly tailored black suits, sunglasses, and black gloves. The Aegis uniform was just as protective as any other ARES uniform, offering high resistance to slashing and piercing attacks and excellent protection from the elements, but was designed with the typical appearance of bodyguards in mind rather than flashy military dress uniforms or digital camouflage patterns.

Soon, the planes were loaded with thousands upon thousands of captured prisoners and rescued hostages. The local nyxian agents in those countries had already contacted the relatively clean government officials and received permission to extradite the prisoners captured by the reaper teams and the followup ARES troopers. Thus, in a matter of minutes, the assault landers had been filled with prisoners and they ignited their VTOL vectored thrusters and lifted straight into the air before turning and beginning their flight back to the carrier.

(Ed note: VTOL is an acronym for Vertical TakeOff and Landing. We already have a number of aircraft with VTOL capabilities, the most famous of which is the US Marine Corps' McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II, which spawned a number of copies in NATO countries as it was developed jointly by McDonnell Douglas and Hawker Siddeley, American and British aerospace companies, respectively.)

Minutes after that, civilian planes from Icarus Airlines landed and loaded the freed hostages, providing them with luxury transport to any destination they collectively chose. If a decision couldn't be made by the passengers that they all agreed on, the planes would first take them back to Eden before sending the individuals to their ultimate destination, all of it provided free of charge.

Once the prisoners had been sent off and the hostages rescued and in the air on their way to their next destination, General Smith's aide-de-camp stepped into the press room in the Edenian presidential palace to issue a press briefing.

"A few hours ago, we discovered the disappearance of a number of Edenian and Esparian citizens in Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and Guatemala. That discovery prompted us to launch an investigation into the disappearances, which led us to the discovery of a kidnap and ransom scheme by a number of Central and South American cartels. Our president immediately called for the ARES special forces branch to dispatch reaper teams to rescue the hostages and capture the criminals responsible for the heinous act.

"The operation was successfully carried out at 2000 Zulu time. Our reaper teams infiltrated the cartel strongholds where the hostages were being held and freed the hostages, capturing their kidnappers in the process. Soon after that, with permission from the affected governments, the EV Beowulf was diverted from her patrol schedule and launched a punitive assault on cartel strongholds all across Central and South America.

"The assaults were a resounding success. ARES troopers suffered zero casualties and the cartels only suffered a few hundred unavoidable casualties. No civilian casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure occurred. The total number of captured cartel members, from their top-level leaders down to the low-level soldiers and initiates, is 150,693.

"We expedited a request for extradition through the governments of each country we captured them in and, upon approval, immediately moved them to the EV Beowulf, where they will be transported to Eden and receive a fair trial for their crimes. Thank you for your time. I will be taking no questions today, as Aron Michael will be here shortly to issue a followup statement. Full details of the operation are available on our website, including a press release for publication, should you choose to do so." With that, the man stepped down from the podium and left the briefing room.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 415

While John's aide-de-camp was delivering the press briefing on the recent operation, Aron, Nova, and the other AIs were in VR overseeing an important milestone in their unification plan.

"And with that, our preparations are complete," Aron said, then stretched his arms above his head, limbered his neck, and heaved a yawn. Even with his enhanced constitution, going through iteration after iteration of proposed government structures had exhausted him.

And that was after they had already gone through a number of think tanks composed of veteran political minds in Lab City to remove inefficiencies and reduce the chances of power grabs and coups. Then, after all of that and before presenting them to Aron, Nova ran them through millions of simulations to spot any remaining flaws and smooth them out.

Aron turned to the newest AI and asked, "What do you think of the plan, Gaia?"

Gaia was the latest "chief" AI and would take up the responsibility of managing planetary affairs, acting as Aron's plenipotentiary representative when he was absent or otherwise unavailable to handle the day-to-day running of the new unified humanity. She was inhumanly tall, standing at around 7'1", and gracefully slender. She had a modest bust, a slender waist, and hips that only seemed large in comparison to her waist. Long, wheat-golden hair cascaded from her head to the middle of her calves, ending in curls in the last few inches that looked almost like ocean waves. Long ears tapered to a point as they peeked through the curtain of her hair. Her face was angular and sported high, chiseled cheekbones that tapered down to a small chin, and she had lively almond-shaped eyes with verdant green irises that sparkled with a hint of whimsy and held a deep, abiding wisdom within. She was dressed in a golden gown that left her right shoulder exposed and draped down to her right ankle, with the hemline tapering up to the middle of her left thigh, leaving most of that leg exposed as well. It was embroidered with realistic leaves and flowers, with mountains, rivers, and fields of grass, wildflowers, and crops with all kinds of animals moving around the dress, almost as if it was a world that they inhabited. Her ivory skin glowed with a golden hue and small fairies worshipfully flew around her, acting as her attendants and carrying adorable little clipboards that they took notes on as she spoke.

Her aura was lively, refreshing, and gentle, making people around her feel like they were relaxing in a clear forest meadow, listening to an orchestra of birdsong backed with the percussion provided by a burbling stream and fish swimming around in a nearby pond.

[It looks good, but will need constant updates and tweaking as people grow more used to it and loopholes begin appearing. But for now, I think this is currently our best option,] she replied in an ethereal voice.

"Well, we have to start somewhere, at least, and we have a schedule to keep," Aron replied.

[Yes. We have two weeks remaining in real time if we want to complete the new constitution before January 1, 2018. It'll be the first step in our unification of humanity and a great milestone in history.]

Nova broke into the conversation Aron was having with Gaia. [Sir, it's time for your press briefing.]

Aron nodded and began his abbreviated logout procedure.

...

A minute after John's aide-de-camp left the podium in the press room, Aron stepped into the room and stood behind the empty podium to deliver his prepared speech.

"For too long, the innocent people of Central and South America have lived in fear of the vicious drug cartels. For too long, those same cartels have propagated violence and spread their poison to every corner of the Earth. That ends now."

The display behind the podium showed brief images of cartel plantations, processing facilities, and people loading shipments of wrapped "bricks" of drugs into cargo containers.

"Drug abuse affects hundreds of millions of people around the world, and not only those who become addicted to them. Their friends and families suffer along with them, healthcare facilities are overwhelmed by the health issues that come along with substance abuse, and entire communities are held hostage by violent street gangs that peddle the poison for profit, spreading them among our most vulnerable population and targeting those least capable of resisting."

The screen switched to an image of a sickly-looking heroin addict in the final stages of heroin addiction, then cycled to the same man in a hospital bed surrounded by his grieving family. The image disappeared, replaced by a chart that showed the economic impact of substance abuse on families, then a video played in split-screen format, showing a drive-by gang shooting from outside and inside the house, as well as an innocent bystander gunned down while sitting at her own dining room table eating a modest dinner with her children.

"What you have just seen is a brief display of the consequences of allowing drugs to spread unchecked through communities across the world. If it was just the gang members themselves and only gang-on-gang violence was being perpetrated, I would say 'good riddance' and refrain from interfering.

"But that is not the case. Gang violence overwhelmingly targets the innocent. For every gang member that is seriously injured or killed in gang warfare, sometimes dozens of innocent bystanders are implicated in their infighting. So I am here today to serve two notices: first, I have plucked the cartel thorn from the flesh of the rest of the world..."

The screen display switched, showing picture after picture of burning poppy and coca fields, production and processing facilities exploding, and ARES troopers leading shackled cartel members out of their homes, offices, and entertainment venues.

"And second, I am here to sincerely call upon the rest of the world to aid in the ongoing fight against drugs and drug-related violence. Anyone affected in any way, whether you are suffering and living in fear under the thumb of a street gang or just have a quiet meth lab in the basement of a nearby home..."

The screen displayed a brief video of a man wearing a set of white painters' coveralls and chemical protection gear, including a respirator and eye protection, running out of a house in a suburban cul-de-sac shortly before the entire home he ran out of erupted in a violent explosion.

"And I mean anyone, can submit an anonymous report on the Pangea social media app. Those reports will be investigated and prompt action will be taken to resolve the problem.

"If your local governments cannot, or will not, act, then I will. I hereby announce that the charitable organization I founded, the Coeus Foundation, will be opening up a free clinic in every neighborhood in every country in the world. They will offer free or reduced-price healthcare to those in the most desperate need of it, not restricted solely to the health issues caused by substance abuse.

"Furthermore, I hereby direct the Coeus Foundation to build and staff drug rehabilitation facilities that will offer 100% coverage across the entire world and humanely assist addicts in breaking their addiction to the poison that kills not only them, but their families, friends, and neighborhoods.

"And finally," Aron stared into the camera, his gaze steely and his expression grave, "I issue this warning to the transitional governments: if you do not act, then I will."

Chapter 416

Colossal changes were happening one after another. The world was still dealing with the aftermath of the drug cartel takedowns and mass arrests, and just as they thought everything would be fine once another organization rose up to replace the cartels, a new shock shook them. And while Americans were still dealing with the increased prices for things like heroin, cocaine, and so on, the US dollar, which in itself was already on the edge of the cliff following the recent American surrender, received a final push and finally crashed.

Without the backing of the military forces of the US, the big three credit-rating agencies—Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service, and Fitch Ratings—quickly downgraded America's creditworthiness from AA+ to AAA, almost as if it had been planned long before but remained unimplemented due to fear of reprisals. That triggered a massive, unrecoverable fluctuation in the currency market and the dollar began crashing. The dollar crashing sent another round of shockwaves through the already teetering global economy, and it was only prevented from becoming an unrecoverable worldwide collapse by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which implemented emergency measures to stabilize the market for the second time in a short few years. After all, it had also been forced to step in during the recent financial spat between the Morgans and Rothschilds.

But this time it was different. No matter how thorough the planning and preparation for a devastating market crash like the one they were currently suffering was, they had always had the backing of the big three global financial investment giants to fall back on. But with the erosion of governance and lack of faith in the US Congress after their disastrous decision to declare war on Eden; the rising general government deficit that had skyrocketed from a modest 2.8% to a staggering 6.6%, with indications that it would continue to rise to a precedent setting 10%; the constant government shutdowns over the debt ceiling issue; and a slowing economy; and a host of other reasons, the measures that could be implemented by the SEC and the Fed were akin to trying to put out a forest fire by pissing on it. It wouldn't really do anything and they would only stink up the place by trying.

Luckily, however, the USD collapse was mirrored by an equivalent meteoric rise in the Eden New Dollar (END). Introduced days after the UN had implemented historically strict sanctions on Eden, the END had been considered a worthless currency on the global foreign exchange ever since its inception. But now it was frantically climbing, almost at a 1:1 rate with the USD's decline.

Soon, the US dollar would be replaced by the Eden New Dollar as the premiere reserve currency for international trading.

The END continued its meteoric rise until it even alarmed Plutus, the AI behind Plutus Ventures, Aron's venture capital and hedge fund.

[Sir, we need to limit the upward trend of the END or our export market will collapse,] he said.

"Oh?"

[Yes. The increase in value of the END will cause the import/export companies we deal with to be on the verge of collapse soon. It won't be too long before they begin having to default on their contracts as Edenian and Esparian companies have announced that they would only accept payment in Eden New Dollars. If that trend continues, we'll be forced to hyperinflate the END to bring it back down to tolerable levels in the foreign exchange market.]

Aron thought for a moment, then ordered, "Send a message to the companies in question in my name telling them to renegotiate lower rates for now. I'll personally reimburse the difference, as we can't afford a global economic collapse right now."

[Yes, sir.] Plutus vanished, and moments later, every Edenian and Esparian import/export company received notification of a priority message on their GAIA OS accounts.

Luckily, Aron and the Central Bank of Eden and Esparia owned 60% of the total END in circulation, so while it would cost him trillions of END, the loss would be temporary and would recover on its own after the market stabilized.

In the meantime, the citizens of Eden and Esparia were thrilled at their increased purchasing power, and Alexander declared a nationwide week-long holiday for them to go out and spend, encouraging the global economy to recover from another angle; injecting END into the world to slow the damage caused to the economy by the nosediving US dollar. The involvement of the citizens, combined with timely action on the part of Aron's companies, had finally staved off the oncoming global economic depression and the market would soon enter a period of recovery, during which the END would officially take over from the USD as the global reserve currency.

…

December 25th, New York City.

An entire fleet of helicopters had been arriving over the course of the day from Camp David, where they had picked up a stream of presidents and their high-level diplomatic staffs. After arriving at their destination, they were assigned an Aegis security detail and sent to the Mandarin Oriental, which had been fully booked for the following week, during which they would hold a discussion on the new world constitution.

Every leader had come in person, with none of them refusing the invitation. They knew that, if they were to refuse to participate in the summit, they would soon be revisiting the white room, a place that none of them ever wanted to see again.

A huge crowd formed an impromptu parade audience as the citizens of New York City lined up on the side of the streets the entire way from the airports to the hotel, waving flags of their ancestral countries and cheering at the top of their lungs.

The last to arrive was the Edenian delegation. Aron, Rina, and Alexander had landed at JFK International Airport in Eden One, then boarded a peculiar-looking helicopter, which headed directly toward the hotel rather than relying on an Aegis escort by car.

"This upcoming summit will surely be quite a shock, and not just to the attendees," Alexander said as he gazed at the crowded streets through the window of the silent helicopter.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 417

Through the window of the Edenian helicopter, Alexander saw a large crowd of people who had gathered to protest the unification. Their dissatisfaction was obvious, as was the reason for it; they didn't want to lose the privileges they thought they had.

They thought things like the already failing economy was a privilege, and thanks to being raised on a steady diet of American Exceptionalism propaganda, they somehow believed that theirs was the only country that had the privilege of freedom. Every other country on the planet could only experience a watered-down version of America's "freedom", and they would actively reject any evidence that ran contrary to their beliefs.

But there was another group of counter-protesters that believed in and supported the unification, as they saw it as the only way to deal with the incoming aliens and the potential threat they would bring with them.

"Any large change will always be met with an equal opposition. But there's always people who will support the change as well," Aron mused as he joined Alexander in looking out the window.

"There'll probably be even more opposition once the world learns of your plan," Alexander replied.

"For a while, sure, but once they see the new government actively fulfilling its promises, I don't think the opposition will last for long. Right now, they have a point. We did kind of steal power in a military coup and announced the results as a fait accompli. The ones they're really the most disappointed with are their leaders, who willingly handed over their countries without fighting to the last man for them," Aron said, then turned to Rina and asked, "When are you going to visit your parents?"

"Can you come with me for the visit?" She lovingly gazed into Aron's eyes.

"It's possible, but I can't stay for long. The next six months to a year are crucial, and will be the most exhausting period in the next decade. I need to ensure the new start's foundation is solid, so I can only squeeze out two days. But that works anyway, as I also need to have a conversation with your parents as well," he said.

"But they'll soon have access to VR, so we can meet them there if we want to spend more time with them," he added.

"For now, two days will be enough," she replied with a smile, then turned her head and looked at the Aegis detail waiting for them on the helipad atop the Time Warner Center, where the Mandarin Oriental hotel was located.

Once the helicopter landed, Alexander, Rina, and Aron disembarked from the helicopter. "Finally, the new beginning is approaching," Aron said with a smile of anticipation on his face.

...

The next day, United Nations Headquarters.

The day after Christmas, the world leaders left the Time Warner Center and headed to the UN HQ, where they would begin their summit. Rows of extra chairs had been placed in the general assembly meeting hall in preparation for everyone's arrival. They filed into the room in no particular order, but in a very particular silence; everyone present understood the gravity of the decisions that would be made in that very room over the coming days.

In the sea of world leaders, Aron stood out as a glaring exception. He held no authority, had no position in any government, and the only power he had in his hands was his private military corporation, ARES.

The attendees had agreed beforehand that the leader of the proceedings would be randomly selected. As it served no particular agenda to lead this summit, nobody had interfered with the random draw and the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazurbayev, had been chosen to helm the summit.

President Nazurbayev took his seat and brought the summit to order, then began his opening remarks.

"Good morning, everyone. I am Nursultan Nazurbayev, and I'll be serving as the temporary chairperson during this summit, and will be in charge until our objective here is met. I'd like to remind you that, throughout the duration of this summit, my orders will be absolute. Anyone that creates a disturbance or refuses to follow my directions will be penalized. I'm sure everyone here realizes how damaging the penalties will be for your countries.

"Now that that unpleasant bit of business is out of the way, I'll announce the summit format. For the first day, everyone here will be given an opportunity to propose an amendment to the constitution you all received a few weeks ago. These amendments will be proposed one at a time with no time for debate and recorded for later. Please ensure that everything you want to be proposed is submitted by the end of today, as no more proposals will be accepted after today's session ends," he said, demonstrating a rather impressive lung capacity for a man of his age.

"Tomorrow, we will begin debating the proposed amendments and either discarding them or refining them to fit the real-world conditions until the new world constitution is finalized and unanimously approved by everyone here.

"Now that the summit format has been explained, I yield the floor to the representative from Eden, President Alexander Romero. Please propose your amendment, then yield to the next in line." President Nazurbayev took his seat and respectfully gestured for Alexander to kick things off.

"Thank you, President Nazurbayev. The first amendment I'll be presenting today is freedom of speech," Alexander said, then sat down again.

Without anyone needing to say anything, the summit meeting progressed. The second representative to propose an amendment was President Trump of the United States. "The right to own weapons," he said. It was only to be expected of the president of a nation that literally had more guns than people.

(Ed note: This is weirdly true. The per-capita gun ownership numbers in the US, in 2018, was 120.5 guns per 100 people with an estimated 390 million guns in circulation and a population of 328 million and some change.)

The next president continued the chain of proposals, standing and saying, "Freedom of movement."

"The right to live without unjust prosecution," said the following president.

"Right to clean living spaces."

"Right to a healthy life."

"Creation of the caliphate," said the president of Iran.

"Freedom of religion."

"Right to free education."

"Right to vote."

"Absolute free speech."

"Creation of the country of god," said the pope and the president of Vatican City.

One by one, president after president continued proposing amendments, showing what they themselves deemed important as the first round of proposals continued.

The surprising thing was that Aron had been "skipped" in the first round of proposals. While an average person might consider that normal, given Aron's lack of an official position, the people in the room understood that Aron was far, far more than the rest of the world believed. They had experienced his abilities firsthand, and wondered if he would be the last person speaking, or if he had already spoken through his puppet leader, Alexander.

They weren't left wondering for long as, at the very last moment of the first round of proposals, Aron stood and said, "I propose the investiture of an emperor to lead an imperial governmental body in governing the entire world under one leader."

Chapter 418

"I knew I should've expected the unexpected from that brat, but he really exceeded every bit of my imagination," Herschel Rothschild said. He had been paying close attention to the world leader summit and knew that Aron's proposal at the end of the first round had effectively killed every other proposal made and stomped it into a mud hole to boot. Sure, they might still pass, but with an imperial government, they would be less "rights" and more "privileges".

An emperor's majesty could not be defiled. So things like absolute freedom of speech, voting, assembly, bearing arms, and so on would definitely have limits to them and could be revoked for violations of lese-majeste or even on a whim.

"What do you mean by that? Couldn't you have predicted this?" Virginia asked her husband.

"What I expected was for him to continue using Romero as a puppet leader while he ruled from the shadows. Kind of like what we do. We have a huge influence over the government and can do almost anything we want, but very few people know about us. And those that do are ruthlessly stamped out and labeled 'crackpot conspiracy theorists'.

"That gives us all the benefits of power without the public scrutiny that usually accompanies it. But that brat..." Herschel sighed and shook his head. "What that brat did is the equivalent of flipping over a rock and shining a light on what normally lived under it. It's obvious that he wants to be the emperor. After all, can you imagine him giving up power? And he definitely has the assurances needed to succeed in forcing his proposal through the summit.

"He just singlehandedly turned the entire summit into an absolute joke by saying a single sentence." In Herschel Rothschild's mind, the question wasn't if Aron would become the emperor of mankind, but rather how he would make it happen.

"He's definitely not like us," Virginia said. "If you, dear husband, were to take over the government by force, you'd definitely face a rebellion that would eventually knock you off your throne, making all of your hard work and planning useless. But Aron, on the other hand, doesn't have that problem. He has everything he needs to force his way through all opposition to his rule.

"Let's count his advantages." She raised her hand, counting on her fingers as she continued, "He has a military force that nobody can beat in a straight-up fight."

She raised a finger.

"He has the technology advantage in every sector."

Another finger was raised in the air.

"He himself is no ordinary person. It's like he's individually capable of fulfilling any role he needs filled at any time."

A third finger was raised.

"He grew in the shadows behind the scenes and I'm fairly certain he hasn't even revealed half of what he's capable of."

A fourth finger was raised, then Virginia tilted her head in thought. "Those four things are enough, anyway. Trying to figure that boy out is just gonna give me a headache anyway." She put her hand back down. "So the question becomes: why should he remain in the shadows when he's already been outed? After all, it's hard to rule from behind a puppet if you're constantly shining the limelight on yourself by your own actions."

Herschel raised an eyebrow, as what she had just said made perfect sense to him. As he started thinking things over from that angle, he finally understood the work that Aron had been putting into place and all the groundwork his daughter's boyfriend had laid beforehand. Everything he had done, from the time he first contacted Rina and offered to help her in the internal family power struggle to the proposal of his investiture as the emperor of a united world empire had all been one long plan. A plan that had been implemented step by step until Emperor Aron Michael became an inevitability.

He shuddered at the thought. Just how had a normal, average brat like Aron go from being a chronic underachiever to the de facto dictator of the entire world in a three short years? Especially since he didn't need anyone else's support to install him as the leader of humanity!

…

As Herschel was cooking his synapses imagining himself in Aron's place, the world was having a completely different meltdown.

During the beginning of the summit meeting, there were a number of different reactions to the proceedings. Some people were busily trolling the crowd, others were holding serious discussions on the merits and flaws of the proposals, and still others were busily roasting the leaders who made exceptionally stupid proposals.

Things like allowing child labor and lowering the age of consent—where the person who proposed that claimed it would be "specific to schoolgirls"—were particularly harshly roasted. Others, like instituting a lottery selection for political office, animal personhood and enforced veganism, the loosening of antitrust legislation to allow for the formation of megacorporation monopolies, and so on, were also heavily criticized and the proposers viciously mocked.

But everything came to a screeching halt the moment Aron stood and proposed the formation of an imperial government to rule mankind. For a full four minutes, practically every human being on the planet entered an involuntary stare state at the absurd audacity of the proposal.

Then the memes began flooding the internet. First thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions, hundreds of millions, and finally, billions of people were discovering the possibility that the future would be grim, dark, and know only war.

The meme flood lasted a full ten minutes as the assembly hall in the UNHQ drowned itself in pure, unadulterated chaos. In a weird turn of events, the internet actually calmed down faster than the chaos in reality. People had come to their senses and begun expressing themselves in words, rather than memes. Some agreed with Aron, some cursed him, and others just wanted to watch the world burn and were taking part in "serious" discussions as opponents of whichever side the topic starter supported.

Essentially, the internet had become something of a homunculus of humanity at large, simultaneously displaying every facet of human nature there was.

Chapter 419

Gaia sighed as she realized the amount of work it would take for Aron and her to push the new imperial government into existence, then to acceptance. [How are things on your side?] she asked Panoptes, who was monitoring the internet.

[Judging by how things are going, and not counting the explanation Emperor Aron is going to give tomorrow, the number of rebel groups is going to skyrocket. But hopefully, most of them will lose interest in rebellions once we begin the propaganda push.]

[But those that remain will be even more dangerous. They're the problematic ones,] Nyx interjected. She realized that she really needed to focus on recruitment in the very near future, as her nyxians would be completely swamped with work for the next few years.

[The recruiting drive should help,] Nova comforted Nyx.

Nyx nodded in agreement, a shock of surprise passing through her as she realized that Nova could read her "mind". The surprise shortly dissipated as she remembered who it was that birthed her and was the actual owner of the quantum superclusters that all of the AIs operated on. Thus, it was only natural that Nova would know every thought that passed through her children's heads.

…

President Nazurbayev had finally regained control in the assembly hall. "Is there anyone who has another amendment to propose?" he asked, only to be met with a deafening silence.

"Then I declare today's summit meeting over." He banged the gavel. "Tomorrow morning at 8AM, we'll reconvene and begin the debate," he said, finally putting an end to the ten-hour marathon meeting.

One by one, the exhausted world leaders stood and filed out the door of the assembly hall. Once they were out of view of the cameras, they stretched, yawned, and slumped their shoulders as they tiredly trudged toward their waiting Aegis teams and transport vehicles. Some of the younger ones, who hadn't been completely defeated by the long session, clustered together and walked in groups, discussing the proposed amendments.

It had finally sunk in for all of them, though, just how immense the workload would be over the next few weeks, or even months. Only the first day had passed, and they all knew it was merely a self-directed play for an uncooperative, belligerent, and unappreciative audience: the general public.

...

The angry netizens, and the trolls that fanned the flames on the internet, took to the streets around the world to express their dissatisfaction with Aron's proposal, but they were disunited. Some protests were met with violent counterprotesters, and none of the protest groups were even protesting the same things; after all, there were a lot of proposals, and everyone had some they supported, some they loathed, and others they felt nothing strong for either way.

America and the European Union had the highest number of protesters, followed by some of the Eastern European nations. The rest of the countries had either taken a page from Australia's leaflet and decided not to care about the mess and just go with the flow, or were still unaware as to what had happened during the first day of the summit for reasons like time differences and such. Soon, they would catch up on the eventful meeting and begin a second wave of protests as they climbed out of bed.

New York City in particular was bursting at the seams with angry, violent protesters. Riots had broken out all over the five boroughs, and some intrepid inciters had even gone so far as to attempt to demolish the Time Warner Center. It was no secret where the leaders were staying during the summit, after all.

Aron, watching the riots from above in his helicopter as he traveled back to the Mandarin Oriental, put a quick stop to the violence much like firefighters fought fires with fires. He simply ordered the Beowulf to make a pass over the city and yeet a couple battalions of ARES troopers in their full battle rattle to aid the NYPD in riot control, resulting in a largely pacified city with most of the ringleaders and inciters arrested.

…

The next day.

Despite the rioting that had taken place the day and night before, the scheduled meeting began precisely at 8AM, once again in the UN general assembly hall. The summit attendees filed in once more and took their seats as President Nazurbayev brought the second day of meetings to order.

"Today, the agenda is to do a first pass on the proposed amendments. Some will be discarded, others will be immediately ratified, and quite a lot of them will be tabled for further debate. Let's get to it, shall we?" he said, then ordered the technician seated next to him to display a sorted list of the previous day's proposals.

"We can begin by eliminating the redundant proposals, such as freedom of speech and absolute freedom of speech. All in favor?"

Everyone in the room raised their hands and chorused their approval; cutting out the redundant proposals would save them quite a lot of time and effort.

"The ayes have it." President Nazurbayev nodded to the technician to proceed with pruning the list, then took his seat and let the meeting begin.

"But first, we must define what exactly we mean by 'humanity'. For instance, what if the visitors are actually our ancestors who left Earth behind long in the past and are returning to enlighten and uplift us? Should we consider them to be part of the human race, or as fundamentally alien? What falls under the umbrella of 'human rights'? And what exactly are human rights, anyway?"

He pointed to Alexander and said, "I yield the floor to the representative from Eden to list what we should include as fundamental, inalienable human rights."

Alexander stood from his seat and began his remarks. "Thank you, President Nazurbayev. In Eden, at least, our view of what it means to be human is to be born and bred on the face of this very planet. And as far as human rights, our beliefs mainly align with those of the UN Human Rights Committee. There are only a few minor differences..." As Alexander spoke, a holographic screen came into existence seemingly without any signals from him to anyone else. It displayed a powerpoint presentation on the subject of humanity and human rights that had been mostly agreed upon by the majority of countries in the world.

Chapter 420

"That's everything I had to say, thank you. I yield the floor to President Trump of the United States." Alexander sat back down in his seat and Trump immediately took his place.

One after another, the world leaders gave their planned remarks, until the last one. Out of consideration for the limited time, they were all limited to two minutes, and none were followed by rebuttals or other "classic" debate formats. Once all of the initial remarks had been delivered, the initial list of proposed amendments was culled according to the majority opinion among the leaders, as well as some common-sense guidelines.

The culling process was relatively fast, as it was only to remove redundancies and proposed amendments that were already ridiculous on their face, like the one targeted at age of consent. The rest of the culled propositions were through the majority opinions expressed in the leaders' remarks.

Soon, the list was much more manageable and the first round of voting began. Anything that wasn't unanimously supported at this stage was tabled for further discussion in later meetings, while anything that managed to garner unanimous support was immediately enshrined in the new world constitution.

"With that, I declare that Article I of the new world constitution, 'Human Rights', has been completed and enshrined as law," President Nazurbayev said, bringing down his gavel.

The full article was displayed on the screen in the hall and posted on the website for people to read.

The article enumerated many things as human rights, among which were the right to equal protection under the law; the right to life, liberty, and security; the freedom from arbitrary arrest and exile; right to adequate shelter and privacy; the right of free healthcare; and free and unfettered access to the internet.

It was the first time the concept of "human rights" had been standardized and enshrined as law. While there had been previous lists of what were considered rights before, they were largely subjective and unenforceable due to the lack of a centralized judicial system that every country subscribed to. The International Criminal Court was a good idea, but politics had ensured that participation in and recognition of the court itself was voluntary; its implementation was akin to handing people the ability to determine whether or not they could be prosecuted for crimes they commit.

"Now for debate on Article II, Governance. Mr. Michael, the floor is yours, please state your detailed plan on your proposed government as well as your part in it, if any."

Aron, who had remained silent throughout the entire discussion on human rights, stood and adjusted his tie as he began speaking.

"Thank you, President Nazurbayev. I recommend the formation of the empire of humanity, with an emperor to lead the world in a united direction, ensuring that we progress into the future in a controlled, sustained fashion that guarantees advancement and unity. All borders will be abolished, and the world reorganized into regions, prefectures, cities, towns, and villages, with leaders assigned at every level."

Aron could feel people all over the world sneering at him as he spoke. 'They must think I'm a madman,' he thought, then cast a steely gaze directly into the broadcasting camera in front of the speaker's podium.

There were also a few coughs in the room that he ignored as he continued, "My reasoning for that is that democracy simply does not work on a large scale. It's fine in the small scale, when talking about a few dozen people that require a leader to ensure a goal is met, but the larger the population, the more their interests become misaligned and impossible to accommodate.

"Human nature is such that the masses will always vote in line with their short-term benefits rather than considering the cost that others will need to pay in order to benefit the individual voting. That benefit-seeking behavior leads to aspiring leaders being incentivized to lie, resulting in a neverending list of unkept promises and the implementation of policies that are harmful to the whole but benefit the minority. The minority I speak of are those who have the power and ability to guarantee a politician's reelection..

"Consider the coal industry. Despite coal being the most damaging and least efficient form of energy production, political candidates in the United States, Australia, and many others are forced to promise things like opening new mines under the guise of creating new jobs. That's a lie—the purpose of opening those new mines and fighting against the legislation that bans or regulates coal mining is to benefit a few people, not the masses. Data shows that there are less than three hundred thousand people in the entire world that actually work in coal mines, much less than what people are led to believe by politicians.

"The ability to manipulate the masses in the pursuit of something so pointless as ensuring one remains in power only serves to highlight the weakness of democracy on a vast scale. It's also impossible to remain uncorrupted over a long period of time in positions of power and authority, so there are problems with terms. It's difficult to ensure that a democratically elected leader is both experienced enough to entrust with the task of governance and new enough that the inevitable corruption hasn't had time to sink in yet.

"That snowballs into a tangled mess of competing interests and eventually leads to a very short-sighted government, as the politicians are incentivized to seek the most short term gains in order to guarantee their reelection, placing their own interests above those they are meant to serve. It's a self-perpetuating, vicious cycle." Aron paused for a moment to let that sink in.

Once people had had enough time to consider what he'd said, he continued, "Despite the gross weaknesses of democratic governing, it's very effective on a small scale or where long-term planning isn't needed. The biggest counter to most of the weaknesses of democracy is an informed and involved electorate, which is only realistically achieved by small groups. That way everyone knows everyone involved, which simply isn't possible when you consider the requirements of constant campaign cycles where politicians seek election or reelection."

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 421

Aron, deciding that he had said enough about the downsides of democracy, changed tack and began speaking about imperialism.

"Just because democracy has its downsides doesn't mean that imperialism is perfect. No form of government is perfect except on paper, and we can all extoll the ideals we hold and praise them until they shine. But that'll never negate the inherent downsides in each form of government.

"And the main weakness of an imperial system is the exact opposite issue that democracy has: it functions well on a large scale while tending to fail on small scales. After all, when your governmental authority is vested in a single person, you run into issues like lack of time, as well as an overreliance on others to faithfully report things to the emperor since he can't be in every place at the same time.

"But just as its primary weakness is the opposite of democracy, its primary strength is the opposite as well. Imperialism functions best in long-term planning and projects. After all, without the need to focus on constantly keeping your power through a short election cycle and inattentive electorate, there's nothing holding you back from seeking long-term gains over short-term benefits.

"I know some of you may argue that hereditary succession itself is flawed, whether by the infighting whenever the issue of declaring an heir, the risk of power hungry and mad emperors, coups, or even the chance that the successor chosen by the current emperor is incompetent, but I have countermeasures planned for the fixable issues. I don't suggest that we take the idea of an empire and institute it wholesale, flaws and all, but that we implement a modified form of imperialism that fixes the majority of the issues we know about, while leaving a framework in place to fix future issues that may arise that we know nothing about."

Aron was blowing pure sunshine and smoke up people's asses with that statement, as after hundreds of millions of simulations, the problems with an imperialistic feudal dynastic government had all been made very apparent, as well as solutions to those problems. That said, nobody listening to him speak was aware of the sheer effort that had gone into planning his empire.

"The problem of a successor will be solved by constantly monitoring the chosen imperial crown prince and those around him, as well as pouring the best resources into training him to be the best possible person for the job ahead of him. Combined with round-the-clock protection provided by Aegis teams, whose loyalty is guaranteed, there will be no infighting in the imperial family or power vacuum if the heir dies.

"With the resources poured into the imperial crown prince's training, we can ensure that he will grow to be a responsible, just, and wise ruler, making each generation improve on the previous. After all, with each emperor personally training their successor, the students will definitely surpass their teachers.

"As for the power struggle, everyone in the imperial family except the imperial crown prince will be forever banned from participating in politics or business, and heavily monitored should they choose to enter the military. Thus, their greed for power and wealth will be limited and they will also be trained as they grow up to instill within them the concept of noblesse oblige rather than lese majeste.

"So you may ask, 'what if the emperor goes mad with greed and attempts to harm the citizens in order to satisfy his twisted desires?' I've thought of that as well and have three countermeasures for it.

"First is that the imperial family will take no money from the government. None. I am currently rich enough to give every person on the planet two thousand dollars and still spend a million dollars per day on my own leisure and pleasure for the rest of what I assure you will be a very, very long life. Thus, there is no need to be greedy and no way for greed to twist my family's thinking.

"Second is that there will be an absolutely anonymous imperial senate drawn from all over the world and from every walk of life, whose sole authority will be to depose the emperor upon unanimously deciding that he is incompetent, corrupt, or insane. They will work in conjunction with the third countermeasure to make the final, impartial determination as to whether or not an emperor or heir can be deposed. And that third countermeasure is Gaia.

"Gaia is the final check on imperial power run amok. She will be the overseer of all administrative tasks in the government and the planet at large. Should she see that policies are harming the citizens they're meant to protect and enrich, she'll step in and offer solutions to the problems causing those harmful policies, as well as the harm caused by the policies themselves. She will always be thinking on behalf of the people, rather than the imperial family.

"Now on to what I'm sure you all really want to know," Aron said, an enigmatic smile flickering across his face. "What will be the practical benefits of an imperial family for the rest of the world?

"The answer is 'many'. In fact, there are simply too many benefits to elaborate on in the short time I have to speak on my proposed form of government. So I'll give you the two main benefits: I will be releasing all of my non-classified technology increases to the world, and I will personally cover seventy percent of the military budget for the entire empire.

"Currently, as you know, my companies and technologies are so far ahead of cutting edge that they border on pure fantasy. And that's only what you've seen so far, as I've been holding upwards of 80% of my true capabilities in reserve, as they really haven't been needed, nor has humanity been ready for them."

Everyone in the assembly hall felt a chill run down their spines as they thought back to their trip to the white room, as brief as it turned out to be in real time. Even those viewing the broadcast from home or elsewhere also felt chills as they thought of the ten behemoth flying carriers that had yet to land even once.

"Just to name a few, I currently possess controllable nuclear fusion, biomedical healing pods, genetic correction and enhancement technology, and my actual military tech is hundreds of generations beyond what you've already seen during the last war. I can singlehandedly lift our entire species out of the muck and mire of our current lives and fling us light years into the future in a very short time frame.

"As to the second benefit I mentioned, I will be incorporating every member of the military, active or otherwise, into ARES and covering 70% of the total combined budget myself. The rest will be left to the lower levels of government to cover, as I believe that humanity as a whole will only be properly invested in our own defense if we need to at least partially support the brave men and women that choose to join that defense and fight for it.

"Furthermore," he paused and, once again, gazed directly into the camera before continuing, "I guarantee that, within five years, our military will be fully space capable and humanity as a whole will be 50% ready, or higher, within that time frame. The concrete milestones are available on our website, and you all can feel free to hold me to that promise."

Aron took a deep breath and briefly closed his eyes, then opened them again and continued, "Should I fail to meet those goals, I will personally abolish my government and hand over control of everything I have to who or whatever is chosen to replace me."

This chapt𝙚r is updated by fr(e)ew𝒆bnov(e)

Chapter 422

Aron retook his seat, allowing the next speaker to stand and introduce their preferred form of government. Once all of the proposals were in, the world leaders would vote to see which would be adopted.

President after president stood, some of them using every second of their allotted time and speaking passionately about the forms of government that they thought best while others simply announced their support of one of the previously mentioned suggestions. Alexander, of course, had strongly backed Aron's proposal, which came as no surprise to anyone at all. Those who knew the situation already knew that Alexander was basically Aron's sockpuppet, while those who didn't know the situation, or only thought they did, assumed that Alexander was backing the much younger man due to having worked alongside him for a time and received much help and many benefits.

Esparia's president, Jose Inez, also joined Alexander in supporting Aron. After all, why wouldn't he? He was only the president thanks to Aron's intervention in the Eden-Esparia War. And besides, it was Aron's companies that were searching for and extracting the natural resources in their country, allowing them to profit without lifting a finger.

The other suggested governments were mostly truly ridiculous, but there were a few that also garnered strong support. President Zi Jinping's communist utopia, Pope Frank's theocracy, the Iranian caliphate, and President Trump's suggested republic, which would be led by a senate comprised of an elected representative from each country.

Support for those suggested governments was mostly split along geographical and ideological lines. For example, Pope Frank's theocracy was supported by Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, while President Zi's suggested communist utopia was supported by most of Southeast Asia. One odd exception was "President Putin", who was wholeheartedly throwing his support behind Aron's imperial government despite running a communist country of his own.

But by and large, most of the spoken support was given to President Trump's suggestion, prompting him to display his signature smug smirk.

"Ladies and gentlemen," President Nazarbayev banged his gavel, "we have a number of proposed governments to choose from. One of them needs to be selected by unanimous vote, so let's begin the process."

Everyone except for Pope Frank groaned. The government selection process would be run almost exactly like a Papal Conclave, and the pope had already gone through that process once before.

Aron stood and cleared his throat. "President Nazarbayev, may I have the floor for a moment?"

"Certainly, Mr. Michael. What do you need?" the temporary chairman respectfully said.

"I'd just like to take a moment before we move on to the voting process that will likely change the voting process," Aron explained.

The Kazakhstanian president thought for a moment, then said, "Please make it brief."

Aron thanked him, then began, "What I wanted to say is..."

….

"I'd really like to know how the boy will salvage the situation and wrest power from the rest of the world's leaders," Herschel Rothschild mused. He was in his study with his wife, both of them glued to the television screen as they watched their future son-in-law's performance and trying to predict how all the twists and turns would play out.

"Is he ballsy enough to threaten them in front of the rest of the world, live? No, he's smarter than that. He should well know that a public threat would make it impossible to control the masses even if it gets him what he wants.

"Then maybe he's threatened them beforehand? No, that would still be too obvious. Nearly 90% of the people in the room have already signaled their support of the democratic republic proposed by Trump. So they would never be able to convince people that there was no shady backroom dealing going on if they were to flip-flop so suddenly."

"Do you think there's any possibility of the world ever thinking he didn't manipulate the leaders into voting under duress?" Virginia Rothschild asked her husband, who was still muttering to himself.

"I don't think so," he replied. "Any vote that ends with an imperial government will be assumed to have been cast under duress, so the constitution they're working hard to write will be quite weak."

Herschel continued wracking his brains, but there was no scenario he could imagine that would allow Aron to legitimately seize power.

…

Netizens seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion as well; nobody thought that Aron stood a chance, so even the flame wars and meme floods quieted down as they waited to see what Aron had to say. As for the few netizens still commenting on the process, they were all essentially just coming up with the likeliest method Aron had used to strongarm the other leaders into supporting him to the imperial throne.

…

"Good luck, boss. I'm rooting for you!" A man in a fitted suit and glasses was sitting at a bar, watching the summit on the televisions mounted above the liquor shelves. The ice in the drink in front of him shifted and clinked against the side of the glass, the drink itself going unheeded as the man's attention had been wholly riveted on the broadcast since it had begun.

The bartender took the ignored drink away and began pouring another. It was obvious that it wasn't the first time she had refreshed the drink for the handsome man sitting on the other side of the bar from her station. She expertly dropped three perfectly cubical pieces of ice into a short glass and poured two fingers of Glenlivet Founder's Reserve over the neatly stacked ice cubes, then laid a napkin on the bar in front of the man and set his new drink on it.

"Oh come on, Zak. You're killin me here! This is the best scotch we've got and you're just... just wasting it!" she grumbled at the man. "You'd better pay up, bro. My tips can't cover this much sacrilege against the finest drink on god's green earth!"

The man blinked and focused his gaze on his sister, behind the bar across from him. "Don't worry," he waved his hand dismissively, "I get paid plenty good over at GAIA Tech."

He fished out his wallet and handed a credit card to his sister. "Just open a tab."

"It's not the money! It's the... the blatant sacrilege! See this?" She shook the bottle of single-malt scotch whisky in his face. "This is the nectar of the gods, bro! It's the best of the good stuff, and you're just... you're just wasting it by ignoring it!"

The bickering siblings were interrupted by a short man in jeans and a faded t-shirt. "You work for GAIA?" he spat through clenched teeth. "You work for that bastard!?"

Zak blinked. "Yes, why?"

"That asshole cost me EVERYTHING!" the man shouted in Zak's face. "I'd been working so hard and invested every last penny I had into my company, but that shitstain bankrupted me!"

Zak's expression chilled, and even his sunny sister seemed disturbed. Zak wiped the spray from his face and asked, "And who are you?"

"Leonardo da Silva, former CEO of AgSpace agricultural company," the man puffed out his chest and replied. "Who's asking?"

"Mohammed Zakariya Talukdar, team lead on the GAIA OS accessibility team."

Leonardo da Silva clenched his fist and, without another word, swung a wide haymaker at the head of Zak, who was sitting down and couldn't dodge the incoming punch.

Zak blinked, then stood up, towering over the much shorter man who had only been speaking "face to face" with him when he was seated. He puffed out his chest and, in a deep voice, growled, "What the fuck was that for!?"

"You work for the devil! That makes you just as bad as him!" Leonardo spat, swinging a punch at Zak's diaphragm. He had recently been taking martial arts classes in preparation for his ultimate revenge against the devil that had driven him into bankruptcy. "You devils all deserve to DIE!" he screamed, spraying spittle on Zak's face.

Zak's sister, Aisha, reached under the bar and pulled out the "beatin' stick", then slammed it on the top of the bar and shouted, "Knock it the fuck off! You—" she pointed the bat at the short, black-haired Brazilian man, "—get the fuck out of my bar! You're not welcome here anymore!"

The short ex-CEO came to his senses and raised his hands as he backed away from the bar, muttering something under his breath about the end times and devils, then turned and ran out the door.

Aisha put the bat away and heaved a sigh. "Bro, your boss may be a good guy to you, but..." She shook her head and sighed again. "He's kind of a megalomaniac."

"He's a good man, little sis, and he's going to change the world," Zak countered with the beginnings of a fanatical gleam in his eye.

…..

"Due to the format of the summit, the time it will take to pass Article II will lead to unacceptable delays. Thus, I will now use one of my remaining demands from the surrender accord to pass my proposal without amendment."

Chapter 423

"Due to the format of the summit, the time it will take to pass Article II will lead to unacceptable delays. Thus, I will now use one of my remaining demands from the surrender accord to pass my proposal without amendment."

The entire room fell into a suffocating silence. Then, a wave of clatters rang out as pens dropped from the hands of the surprised attendees, who had thought that Aron would simply just threaten them into passing his suggestion for the article.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Chairman. I yield the floor," Aron continued as if he hadn't just put more than two hundred world leaders into a collective stare state, then retook his seat.

President Nazarbayev cleared his throat after realizing that he had frozen in shock. He banged his gavel and announced, "With Mr. Michael using one of his demands from the surrender accord, Article II has passed without amendment and with no vote required."

"Now to the third article..."

The summit meeting continued, but far fewer people were paying attention to it after Aron used his trump card to ram his proposal down everyone's throats.

…

Herschel broke out into loud, braying laughter. "That damn brat did it again!" He was equally amused and angered by Aron's ability to continuously pull rabbits out of his hat at the perfect time.

"No one, not even me, stopped to think about the surrender accords. They all probably thought they wouldn't be used, since there was an alternate way to get his proposal passed. But he just straight up said 'no votes allowed' and slapped everyone in the face with a reminder of their unconditional surrender to him," Herschel continued, still laughing.

Virginia, as uninterested in politics and conflict as she may be, still understood that point even without her dear husband explaining it to her. She was a highly intelligent woman with both IQ and EQ to spare, and if she were to be honest, her husband's habit of explaining everything to her as if she didn't understand it was rather amusing to her as she considered it his expression of love. And despite more than forty years of marriage, she was still to get used to it and just enjoyed it as a happy grin crossed her face.

Herschel finally calmed himself and returned his focus to the broadcast, where the world leaders had already recovered and begun discussing the next amendment on the list. But something seemed missing; their dispirited appearances—well, most of them anyway—showed that Aron setting a precedent by using one of his "free" demands had demoralized them. Now, no matter what they did, they had to consider that he might just bring his demands in to not level, but flatten the playing field and everyone on it.

…

The moment the day's broadcast ended, people once again took to the street. The day before, they had been protesting his desire to be the emperor of mankind, and today their protests had grown with all the people who were in a frothing rage over his short-circuiting of the summit proceedings.

That wasn't the only thing that had changed, either. Not only were there more protesters out, they were also far more united. After all, Aron had just thrown up a giant middle finger to the world, then used it to crush the freedoms of everyone alike; thus, the protesters were very much united as compared to the day before.

Police everywhere were overwhelmed by angry protesters and began calling in ARES support...

…

"Good, good, good!" Rick Ashley, the leader of the underground cult arrayed against Aron, laughed. His recent losses caused by the devil, who was acting in the name of "eliminating vile drug dealers" were finally looking like they would reverse.

His ultimate enemy had gained much goodwill over the past few days as his actions in combating substance abuse issues and stabilizing the global economy caused a significant number of people who had been enraged by his conduct in the war to change their faces.

It was just more evidence that what was said about the attention span of humanity only surviving a single news cycle was true.

"Looks like you really are my lucky star. You were the one that put me in my position, and now you're becoming the perfect catalyst for me to use to increase my power as I gather up the disaffected and disenfranchised scum that are willing to be cannon fodder in a fight against you and your power-hungry, mad actions." He thought of all the wannabe freedon fighters and defenders of democracy that would soon come flocking to his organization in order to etch their names into the history books and madly cackled again.

Once he got himself back under control, he picked up the landline phone handset on the table in front of him and dialed a number.

"Orders, sir?" a woman said on the other end of the line.

"Prepare a dinner party for after the concert is over. We'll be inviting new people to each party from now on, just to keep things fresh," Rick said, speaking in code.

The woman on the other end heard it as 'call for another meeting after the constitution is signed. It'll be the best time to recruit new people to our cause' and replied, "We can do that, sir, but I'm worried that we might not have enough silverware to host dinner parties if the number of invitees grows too large." (We might run out of money if we grow too fast)

"I know, I know. But we can always ask our guests, new and old alike, to turn our dinner parties into backyard potlucks and they can bring whatever dish they can make." (We can raise funding from the people in the organization)

"Will do, sir," the woman replied after a brief pause.

"Also, have you heard any news from our friends who moved away and went overseas?" he asked. (What's the update on the envoys we sent to other groups?)

"They haven't emailed anyone that I know of, but from what I can tell, no news is good news. They're busy living their lives and settling down after the moves, and I'm sure they'll let you know when they get settled. You're all good friends after all, and it'd be rude of them to ditch the old when they find the new," she replied. (Nothing yet, secure communications haven't been established and we're still looking for a method that can't be spied on other than face-to-face meetings)

"I guess they'll let us know when they can. But I can't help but worry about them. Should we send a care package? It's been a long time since I've heard from them. What if they got in an accident or something?" (We need to hurry and find a secure communication method. Do you suppose they've been captured or discovered?)

"I'm sure they're all fine. After all, even though accidents happen, they don't happen that often! It just takes time to settle into a new place is all. After all, they got important jobs high up in their offices, so it's sure to take longer to adapt to their new workplaces and responsibilities." (It's only been a week, so it isn't time to really worry yet. Chances of them having been caught are slim, so it's probably just the negotiations that are taking a longer time)

"If you hear from them, call me. You know me and my worrying, after all!" Rick said, then hung up after more small talk. (Call me immediately when they return, no matter what I'm busy doing at that time)

Rick returned his focus to the ongoing broadcast from the summit meeting, then muttered, "Yes, yes! Go on, continue campaigning for me!"

He broke out in maniacal laughter and slumped back in his seat, continually giggling to himself as the broadcast went on.

Chapter 424

Over the next few days, the summit continued without interruption. That wasn't to say that nobody tried to sabotage or interrupt the proceedings, but they were easily fended off by the ARES troopers patrolling the city and the Aegis teams guarding the leaders. But while New York City was relatively peaceful, that wasn't the case for the rest of the world, as protests sprang up with every article of the new world constitution that was ratified.

…

On December 30th, President Nazarbayev banged his gavel for the last time as he said, "With the ratification of the final Article of the Universal Constitution—"

Everyone in the room applauded for a long while, feeling the heavy burden lift from their shoulders. The applause lasted until President Nazarbayev tapped his microphone, causing the raucous applause to slowly die down until it was quiet enough for him to continue his speech.

"I would like to say that our job is completed, but Article II has yet to be completely enshrined into the constitution due to the circumstances in which it was ratified. Mr. Michael, I request that you complete it and make everything clear so the Universal Constitution can be put into effect."

Aron stood and walked to the podium, not planning on speaking from his chair like he had the previous few days. He calmly rested his hands atop the podium and adjusted the microphone, then looked at each world leader in the assembly hall before saying, "Thank you, President Nazarbayev, for providing me the opportunity to clarify the article of governance.

"I've thought long and hard about the weaknesses of empires. And I've developed counters for them and will be introducing those as part of the empire I'll be establishing here."

The holographic projector Aron had brought to the assembly hall came back to life and began providing visuals for people again, as was almost always the case whenever an Edenian delivered a speech or press briefing.

"So the empire will be an improved form of historical feudal governments. First, all authority will be vested in the emperor, and there will be no permanent nobility or strictly defined classes. There will be three main ministries: the ministry of the interior, the ministry of the exterior, and the ministry of defense.

"The ministry of the interior will be responsible for all governance within the imperial sphere of influence. It will be led in day-to-day operations by a minister appointed by the emperor, who will in turn appoint roving positions. All appointments will be for a single lifetime and based on a 100-point assessment that judges potential appointees based on their history, experience, education, service record, and personality traits. There will be no hereditary positions, but descendants of a currently serving government representative will be awarded a set number of bonus points for their assessment, should they choose to continue in the government.

"A government can't be run by a single person, thus those appointees will be granted limited representative power. And in order to limit corruption as much as we possibly can, appointees will be transferred to new duty stations every five years. Those transfers can be promotions, simple transfers, or demotions, depending on their actions in their current duties.

"The positions will be broken down into regional lords, city mayors, town barons, and village chiefs. There will also be chief judges and constables responsible for investigating crimes and putting criminals on trial, once caught by the constabulary, at each level as well. Once we have outgrown the cradle of our civilization here in the solar system, there will be sector representatives and cluster governors as well.

"The ministry of the exterior will be responsible for exploration, scientific research and discoveries, and negotiating with any non-hostile aliens encountered in the course of exploring the universe.

"And the ministry of defense will be responsible for dealing with threats both internal and otherwise." Aron paused to give listeners and watchers time to digest the overall structure of the government, then cleared his throat and continued speaking.

"There will of course be imperial agencies, such as the imperial police agency, imperial fire and rescue agency, imperial health agency, imperial education agency, and so on. You can check our website for a detailed list of agencies and their areas of responsibility."

As Aron continued speaking, the holographic screen continually updated itself with links to various websites for ministries and agencies.

"The ministry of defense will be directly under imperial control, and completely centralized. Every chain of command requires a direct line from the top all the way to the bottom, after all. And since the imperial family will be paying the vast majority of the budget for the ministry of defense, isn't it only fair for the imperial family to control it?" Aron grinned.

"Now on to anti-corruption measures. I've already spoken of one of them, that is, the necessary transfers for imperial representatives. No government is perfect and there will always be a certain level of corruption inherent to it. But by transferring everyone on a five-year cycle, we can limit that corruption and control its spread.

"The imperial family will also establish an imperial court consisting of every imperial representative above the rank of city mayors that will be responsible for advising the emperor and bringing events to their attention that would otherwise go missed." While Aron was set on becoming the emperor of humanity and controlling all of the power, he recognized the need to give up some concessions for the appearance of fairness, at least. These positions would be necessary in the future, regardless; there would definitely come a time when he wouldn't be able to maintain control over everything everywhere at all times, like he was nearing on Earth.

"More information will be released on our website, but that is the broad strokes of the empire of humanity as I envision it. But in the interests of time and getting things done," he looked at President Nazarbayev and continued, "I would like to move for the empire of humanity to be immediately ratified and enshrined in the constitution as Article II: Governance."

The Kazakhstanian president nodded to Aron, then banged his gavel and announced that the constitution was complete. "With the authority vested in me," he said, "I declare our new constitution complete. It will take effect on the first of January, and that day will also mark the day the Terran Empire."

Chapter 425

Like a virus, the protests only continued multiplying day by day, ever since Aron had forcefully pushed through his empire proposal. It was really beginning to bother Nyx in particular, as she knew there had to be someone behind it, but none of their monitoring had discovered them yet.

It seemed there would be a teething period as the world adjusted to the new order.

But despite all the protests, there were still people that supported Aron's plan. There were actually four categories that people fell into. Those that absolutely hated everything about the empire plan, those that disliked it to the point that they fell victim to incitements and joined the protests against it, those that didn't like the plan but supported Aron himself, and those that would be happy to see the empire formed.

Most of Aron's support came from nations suffering under overwhelming poverty, rampant government corruption and oppression, and other assorted negative conditions that affected their day-to-day lives. The way Aron had uplifted both Eden and Esparia had given the downtrodden citizens of the world hope that he could do the same for them.

Eden and Esparia were the best advertisements for Aron, as they were in the same situation just a few short years ago, suffering under brutal, corrupt dictatorships and the oppression of the world at large. Their recent turnaround and rapid rise over the past few years seemed almost magical, like all Aron had to do was wave a magic wand and everyone around him would be uplifted from the dirt and given back their dignity. And that was without him being in direct control over a country; what more could he do if he was actually the one in sole control?

And with those thoughts in mind, Aron's supporters took to the streets as well, staging counterprotests in support of his agenda, which had become inevitable with the ratification of the new constitution. In a few short days, he would be officially taking his place as the emperor of humanity.

The only thing that could stop him now was if the world suddenly stopped turning.

Other than the people who supported and were against Aron, there was another, much smaller group of people. They were those who were much more calm and rational, and they were absolutely convinced that there was no way Aron could be stopped no matter what they tried to do to prevent the change from happening exactly on schedule.

Herschel and Virginia Rothschild were two such people.

"I wonder how he's going to do it," Herschel said to his wife, who was sitting next to him.

"Do what, exactly?" Virginia asked.

"Well, he needs to do a lot of things in an impossibly short time frame." Herschel began counting them on his fingers, a habit he had picked up from his wife over the past decades of marriage.

"He needs to implement the government—" One finger went up.

"At the same time, he needs to implement the new constitution and enforce it—" A second finger went up.

"And he needs to publish a Universal Code of Imperial Law and teach it to lawyers, judges, and police," he continued, raising two more fingers.

"There must also be guidelines for every imperial agency, as well as the ministries—" Another two fingers went up.

"And he needs to select, appoint, shuffle, and train all of the millions upon millions of newly hired government employees." Herschel glared at his hand, having run out of fingers to count on. "It'll take years for all of that to happen. Years during which even more variables will arise. So it seems like he's taking on an impossible task. Did he really bite off more than he can chew, or is he just that confident in being able to accomplish the impossible? Oi, that boy really makes my head hurt!"

Veins had popped out all over Herschel's forehead, almost like his body was signaling its agreement that, yes, his head hurt.

"So why not call him then? I'm pretty sure you'll faint if you keep trying to figure out what he's thinking on your own," Virginia said, rather exasperated with being constantly dragged into her husband's thoughts when all the answers would naturally be revealed later on.

"Oh, right!" she continued. "I remember Rina said they were going to visit soon, I wonder when that'll be." She picked up her Zeus One and dialed her daughter's number.

"If that boy can surprise me again, I'll acknowledge him!" Herschel muttered under his breath, then laid his head on his wife's shoulder so that his ear was nearer her phone, a more convenient position from which to eavesdrop on the phone call between his wife and rebellious daughter.

…

New Year's Eve, half an hour before midnight.

The streets of New York City were unusually empty as the clock inexorably ticked toward the new year. It was even the first time since 1943 that Times Square was empty and without a crowd awaiting the Times Square Ball to fall, ringing in the new year. Dropped for the first time in 1907, the ball had remained a tradition year after year, come rain, snow, or bitter cold, save for in 1942 and 1943 when it was suspended as part of the war support and conservation efforts.

This year, the ball would be falling as usual, but everyone who would have been watching it were glued to their screens at home, where the media was talking about the first appearance of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Aron Michael of the Terran Empire, First of His Name, the Peacebringer, the Unifier, the Defender of Earth and All He Surveys, Leader of Mankind and Conqueror of Space. He was scheduled to appear for the first time in all of his imperial glory at 12:01am, New York time.

Even the protests had temporarily gone silent and all of the protesters were home around the world, glued to their screens as firmly as the residents of New York City. The mood was somber as people thought back on the recent troubled times; the discovery of aliens, the aborted fight for supremacy in the United Nations, the war for unification and the reveal that followed... It had been a truly eventful year.

And the year to come promised to be just as, if not more, eventful. After all, everyone would be losing something—their freedom—and it remained to be seen whether losing that ephemeral concept of freedom would be worthwhile or a bad trade.

Thus, it was either a time of mourning or a time of hope for everyone on Earth. But despite their individual feelings, everyone had decided to watch the first official speech from their new leader, Emperor Aron Michael. It would mark the end of the old world and the beginning of the new, and everyone was interested in what he had to say. He would be their new emperor, like it or not, after all, no matter how long or short his reign may be.

Soon, the clock struck midnight and the screens switched to the now-familiar empty podium with the blank blue wall behind it. This time, there were no flags in the flag holders at the back of the stage, nor was there any iconography on the podium. It was a simple wooden stand without even a single microphone atop it.

Then, the clock struck 12:01 AM.

Chapter 426

When the clock ticked over to 12:01 AM, marking the new year's arrival in New York City, Aron took his place behind the podium, dressed in his new imperial regalia and carrying the symbol of his rule, a short, golden rod with a platinum globe on top of it. His manner was dignified and a serious expression was on his face.

"Good day to everyone around the world. We are Emperor Aron Michael, the first emperor of the Terran Empire. We're here tonight to explain how the empire will function, what the unification process will entail, and the rights and responsibilities that you, as citizens, possess and owe as well as the benefits We will provide you," he began, keeping in mind that every word and action of his would be recorded in the history books for posterity.

(Ed note: Aron's using the Royal We here as he's representing the empire rather than himself as an individual. I'm not the best at using the Royal We, so forgive any mistakes I may make; they're wholly mine, not Agent's.)

"Currently, Earth is home to over eight billion people divided along many different lines. Divisions of ethnicity, culture, government styles, laws, living standards, and many more fractures have caused endless wars and misery thanks to corrupt government leaders and those behind them, who benefited from humankind being as united as a dish of loose sand."

The screen flickered to life behind him and cycled through image after image of human suffering; the empty villages left behind by the Russian march across the border into Ukraine, children with empty eyes wandering around the streets of Kosovo, holocaust survivors from WWII, POW camp survivors released long after the Vietnam War, children in Central Africa with swollen bellies and stick figure limbs—a sign of severe malnutrition having reached the penultimate stage—and many more.

"That division served to propel our species forward in the past, but it can serve no more. Not after the visitors were discovered. Now is the time to unite all of humanity and overcome our baser nature to face the challenges brought to us by things beyond our control."

The screen switched to a satellite image of "the object", what many believed, including Aron, was a manned spacecraft and was headed for Earth with its intentions unknown.

"We were the one that personally discovered the object, and Ours the technology that determined its purpose. But when We went to the United Nations with good intentions, We were shunned, eventually culminating in the large nations forcing Us to release Our technology. But even after We released it and entreated the global community once again, hoping beyond hope that the world would unite as one, Our words were dismissed and Our hopes crushed beneath the greed and lust for power those 'leaders' displayed.

"That eventually culminated in a coalition of almost two hundred nations banding together to attack Us and steal our technologies and weapons. We could have tolerated it, had the coalition been formed out of a true sense of unity, but it was not. It was formed from greedy power brokers pulling the strings of the so-called leaders from the shadows behind their gilded thrones. Thus, We were forced to take action."

The screen switched to images of the carriers lifting off from the ocean, then skipped to images of yeet pods raining down from them all over the world.

"We resolved that conflict and it ended with the surrender and ultimate annihilation of those power brokers and kingmakers that scuttled around in the shadows for fear of being exposed by the light. They were the ones that sowed the wind, and We were but merely the one that brought the whirlwind for them to reap. And We took full advantage of that to push a unification that We are sad to admit would never have occurred in Our lifetime had We waited for someone else to step up."

The screen behind Aron changed again, this time cycling through images of the still-ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, Southeastern Asia, and other nations that were less well known.

"Even today, if it weren't for Our patrolling transports, the world would remain in conflict with itself. What a joke! Potentially hostile alien forces are on our doorstep and we're still busily killing each other and spreading misery!" Aron banged his fist atop the podium and his face showed the rage of a monarch. "Thus, We are once again being forced to raise Our hand against Our fellow man to put a final end to all ongoing conflicts. As We speak, Our transport vessels, the EV Arngrim, EV Kjarr, EV Nidhad, and EV Vikar are transporting ARES peacekeeping forces to ensure the temporary stability of those war-torn regions and bring them under imperial control.

Images of landing craft after landing craft launching from four of Aron's massive carriers were displayed behind him on the four-way split screen as he continued, "Internal conflict among the human race ends now. Now is the time to come together and make peace with our fellow man, not only because we are one humanity, one planet, and one empire, but because enemies are at the gate and now is not the time to be having internecine strife!"

"And to achieve that goal, I hereby declare the dissolution of all militaries around the world. There will be a thirty-day grace period for them to surrender their persons and equipment to the nearest ARES enforcement post," the image switched to a prefabricated building with two ARES troopers in full dress uniform seated at a table in front of the door to the building, "where they will be given the option to either retire with full honors and the benefits that their nation promised them in their enlistment contracts, or to sign up with ARES to defend their home from alien incursions from beyond our solar system.

"The offer extends beyond those formerly in the militaries of the various nations to anyone, man or woman, who chooses to enlist in ARES. To those brave souls, We make this solemn vow: you and those you love will be cared for and given the honor you deserve for volunteering to serve the human race as a whole, rather than individual political agendas. To you, We offer our gratitude and support. For more information on exactly what our demand and offer entails, visit the ARES website to have your questions answered."

The ARES web address was added to the existing image of the prefabricated building and troopers behind Aron.

"We also issue a most solemn warning: should any disgruntled former soldier attempt to try anything funny, We will retaliate. And We guarantee you that our sense of humor is much more overwhelming than yours, so do not test Our patience."

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 427

"With that out of the way, We will move on to other things.

"Every police department will cycle through a period of retraining. Each cycle will last one week, and will be attended by a quarter of your police forces, including all leadership cadre down to the newest recruits. Some of you have already received notification of your appointment as constables, and your training will last the entire month. During the first week, you will be free to call in reinforcements from ARES peacekeeping forces if you are unable to keep the peace in your areas. This training is both optional and mandatory. Should you choose not to partake in the retraining, you will be considered to have resigned your position in the police force.

"Along with the police retraining, all current government employees will also have the opportunity to choose retraining for absorption into an imperial agency of your choice or to retrain into a different career. You may also choose to retire from government service and be awarded all of the benefits of your career so far. It will be considered an honorable early retirement, should you choose that path.

"Altogether, the retraining period for police and other government employees will take place over the month of January through the first week of February. Your leadership cadre should be receiving a notification of the schedule as We speak and will speak to you over the next week to settle any matters that may arise from the scheduling.

Aron closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and took a deep breath before continuing in a solemn tone, "Another thousand of you, chosen from all walks of life, have been selected to uphold a most serious and grave duty to the empire. To those of you who are currently meeting with Our representatives, or soon to meet with them, know this: the heavy burden you are being asked to bear is completely voluntary. You, Our Imperial Censors, have a duty, not to the emperor, but to the empire. We do not know who you are, and We do not know where you are. And We never will. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to keep the faith of the empire and, should any emperor prove unworthy of his crown, your votes have the power to pull him from his throne."

He went silent for a moment to allow that to sink in to everyone watching, then continued, "Yes, even me. I may be the first emperor, but should my anonymous Imperial Censors unanimously agree to dethrone me, I'll be dethroned. I promised you all that there would be a countermeasure against corrupt, petty, weak, and useless emperors, and this is it. A thousand anonymous eyes to keep the emperor honest."

Aron cleared his throat and lightly coughed into his fist, then continued, "As for the financial and banking sector. We know that some of you have already noticed that all trading has been halted. This is not a bug, nor is it an attack. We are dedicating a vast amount of supercomputer time to determine exactly what currencies have spending power, and how much they have, exactly. Once We have that information, all banks will begin reissuing a new universal currency: the Earth New Dollar. All currency reserves will be replaced by the end of this week, and private citizens will have until January 21st to replace any cash they have at any bank, whether it is your bank or not.

"As for national debts owed between governments. Those debts will be entirely forgiven, as it is fundamentally impossible to lend money from your right hand to your left, just as it's impossible to repay your right hand once your left has earned money.

"Debts that governments owe to their own private citizens, on the other hand, will be repaid from imperial funds in Earth New Dollars or offered in trade for services or merchandise should you so choose. All interest-bearing government bonds will cease accruing interest as of this moment, and citizens of the empire that hold those government bonds have until January 31st to trade them in at the bank that issued them for whichever option you so choose.

"After the repayment of bonds and the reissue of the new currency, all currently extant banks will be rolled into the Imperial Treasury Agency under the Ministry of the Interior and undergo retraining periods as We mentioned earlier.

"Next, We'll move on to the introduction of a new agency. The Imperial Historian position is a position filled by a member of the imperial family, and he or she will preside over Imperial Scribes, who will record everything in the empire, from the grandest events to the most mundane incidents. Those will be entered into the Akashic Record, where they will be digitized and verified by the AI, Akasha.

"It is to be a true record of humanity, completely unbiased and open to any who choose to browse it. It will also contain a record of humanity's development, from the first time we picked up sticks and rocks to use them as tools all the way into the future. Anyone who is interested in joining the Imperial Historian and contributing to the Akashic Record is welcome to do so and can find the procedure for joining on the imperial website.

"That said, classified information is still classified until Akasha, the Imperial Historian, or the Emperor chooses to declassify it. Currently, Akasha is working on exactly that, and the Akashic Records will be available to everyone to view no later than February 3rd.

"After all, We believe that we should always learn from our predecessors, lest we find ourselves doomed to make the same mistakes they did.

"On to more immediate benefits, of which I will address three. As mentioned in Article I of the constitution, human rights are inviolable. Included in that article are the right to a healthy life, the right to free and unfettered internet access, and the right to housing.

"As we speak, the Coeus Foundation, in conjunction with Asclepius Biotechnology, is dispatching technicians to construct clinics and hospitals with the aim of 100% coverage for healthcare. Our new medical pods will be debuting there, and are capable of completely restoring a person to full health within a matter of hours. The fee will be 2% of your net worth after taxes, simply to prevent abuse of the system where the limited number of pods will be clogged by people who visit for minor ailments like papercuts and scraped knees. We expect that you will respect your fellow citizens and allow normal triage guidelines to apply, and everyone will have their first visit to the clinics free of charge.

"Also as we speak, construction of a new quantum internet is ongoing. It will be completed by the end of February, and internet access will be offered free of charge to every household, and the speed will never be throttled. The internet will be governed by the Imperial Internet Agency in order to guarantee that it remains free, unfettered, and everyone has access to it. This has begun in Eden and is working the network out from there, We expect its completion within the next six months.

"The right to shelter will be met by new cities. Our company, Hephaestus Heavy Industries, is currently surveying locations for new cities to be built, which will offer zero-interest home loans and steeply discounted utility pricing to everyone. Once those cities are constructed, we will offer land sales with zero interest loans around them with the goal of relocating all of humanity to new, high-efficiency, carbon-neutral—or even negative—living environments with built-in security in case of alien attack on our planet. We expect this will be the longest process, but it will still be completed in five years or less."

Aron paused for a moment to let the possible alien attacks sink in; he needed people to be living in the new cities in order to facilitate some of his future plans for Earth, and the humans that lived on it.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 428

"Now I'm absolutely positive he's gone insane with power," Rick Ashley said, watching Aron make outlandishly impossible promises one after another. He looked at the mirror-topped coffee table in front of him, dusted with white powder and littered with razor blades and once-tightly rolled hundred-dollar bills that had slightly loosened up.

"But that's just even better for me!" He paced back and forth in his study, alternately cackling, smiling, and sarcastically applauding. "There's no way the implementation of all those 'rights' will be anything but an absolute train wreck. The longer things go on, the more cracks will appear, cracks that the sheeple in my flock can survive and thrive in. The man is an idiot... an IDIOT! Some things just aren't meant to be integrated, and the divisions will get wider and wider as cultures and beliefs and indoctrinations begin clashing with each other!"

He imagined himself climbing to those lofty heights of power and wealth, leading a revolution against a failing empire and conquering the broken Earth left behind. In his mind, he redrew the map over and over again, carving out ever larger territories for him to rule over as the Savior of Mankind, reshuffling borders on a whim after he becomes one of the inevitable winners.

He scraped together a small pile of cocaine on the mirrored surface of his table, then chopped it into a series of five long, eyebrow-thick lines. Once the lines had been cut to his satisfaction, he rolled one of the hundred dollar bills back into its former tight roll, then, like a demented vacuum cleaner, moved his head back and forth as he snorted all five lines in a row on a single, prodigious inhale.

He rubbed his nostrils from side to side, preventing himself from sneezing and wasting all that gorgeous stardust—which was already increasing in price and growing scarcer as panic buys swept the community—and sneered, "And just think! I'll have HIM to thank for it all! All that military hardware I can pick up for free, just laying around after he abolished the militaries." He cackled again, thinking of all the weaponry that would soon be flooding the black market as corrupt military leaders all over the world abandoned their loyalty in pursuit of quick profits and quicker exits.

The deeper and deeper he spiraled into his drug-fueled, manic delusions of grandeur, the more grateful he became for Aron, who had stuck his neck out to allow it to be chopped off by the great Rick Ashley. He even pictured Aron's head rolling off of a guillotine or chopping block in his mind as he smirked. "What a great guy!" he sneered, then clenched his fists and giggled insanely.

…

Aron was still speaking, unaware, as of yet, of the chaos brewing elsewhere.

"We are not delivering empty promises, nor are We overestimating Our abilities. This is no ploy like those perpetrated against you in the past by the greedy, the power hungry, the people that sought control above all. Every promise We gave you is Our most solemn vow and We will deliver on it within the stated timeline.

"How, you may ask? Because of this," he said, raising his hand and pointing at the empty room around him.

As soon as his finger extended, the room began changing around him. It first disappeared, leaving Aron standing in a white void that was soon painted blue, then loam began spreading from his feet. As it spread outward, saplings began sprouting from it, then the sun and moon chased each other through the sky at an ever-increasing rate as the newly born forest passed through a rapid cycle of seasons. Aron snapped his finger and his entire surroundings froze. He reached out and plucked a reddish brown leaf from one of the trees and let it sit in his palm as the environment went through more changes. He stood atop a sand dune in a desert and began walking atop a river, over grassy hills, up game trails on mountains, then leapt off the cliff of a fjord and nimbly landed atop the ocean.

Despite the spectacle of Aron interacting with different environments, people were mainly confused as to what he was attempting to show them; but still, they waited.

Before long, Aron returned his surroundings to the familiar podium with the flat blue background behind him. He laid the leaf he plucked from the forest in plain view on the podium, then said, "We are currently addressing you from virtual reality. Not through an outdated headset that puts a stereoscopic screen in front of your eyes or a bulky helmet that does much the same, but Our consciousness has been truly transported to a digital realm. We are speaking to you live from a different world, where all of Our senses are faithfully served. Taste, smell, hearing, sight, and touch are all perfectly recreated, as well as our other senses that are more ephemeral or obscure."

The screen behind him split, replaying a video clip of Aron walking through different interactive environments on one side and the video of him resting in a futuristic-looking recliner in an office, surrounded by an alert Aegis team.

"Here, We, and soon, you, can do anything you want in a new body, all while your real body is resting," he said, dropping an absolute bombshell on the people watching him.

"Many of you have surely wondered how I managed to amass such a large, well-armed force and create so many advanced products in such a short period of time, no?" he chuckled, then paused to give the people watching his address time to think of their own answers without realizing he was actually advertising to them.

"We managed all of that with this technology as the core advancement. In Our virtual world, We can simulate reality to perfection, allowing for true research environments unfettered by budgets, limited materials, and worries about destroying the environment. Research done here, in this virtual world," Aron snapped his fingers and was teleported to the emptiness of space outside the blanket of shrapnel that was still covering most of the Earth, "We can do all the research We want to do."

Chapter 429

For the first time since the beginning of Aron's first imperial address, he warmly smiled at the camera.

"But just having unlimited access to experimental materials and resources in virtual reality wasn't enough alone. After all, there's only so many hours in a single day, so time becomes the most limiting factor when it comes to research. Hence the saying that time is a researcher's worst enemy. So Our researchers set time to pass faster in the simulation than it does in reality. Currently, the human consciousness is the limiting factor, but the researchers are tirelessly working on increasing the dilation without negatively affecting the human brain.

"So the three years you think We spent building Our technology advantage was actually much, much longer. Not to mention the benefit of time dilation and virtual reality environments when it comes to training soldiers, especially in conjunction with purpose-built medical pods that translate beneficial gains in virtual reality to actual reality." He grinned again as he revealed the final piece of the puzzle as to how he had developed so fast.

"Thus, We will be opening it to the world to be used in the training and retraining of the people We previously mentioned, as well as a form of entertainment for citizens, and many other things. But due to the requirements on computing power, the time dilation will be fixed at two times as our server expansion is an ongoing effort. Building things still takes time, after all.

"To that end, every citizen will be provided a one-time 1000 Earth New Dollar subsidy to purchase the equipment required to access virtual reality. There are a number of options, from the cheapest Augmented Reality glasses all the way to the cutting edge VR Medpod, which is the equipment used to train the ARES troopers, though the efficiency will naturally be lower in the civilian model. The goal is to ensure that virtual reality is accessible to everyone at all price points. The specific models are available on the imperial website.

"And before you think that We are simply trying to enrich Ourselves by forcing you to purchase a product, note that the price for the entry-level AR glasses is 1000 END. Thus, you can choose to use that and not spend a single dollar of your own money. The reason why We are subsidizing the purchase for you is because many of Our government operations will only be available in VR or, at a minimum, AR.

"By that, We mean things like issuing IDs, opening bank accounts at the Bank of the Universe, driver's training and licensing, applying for government positions and interviewing, applying for land purchases in the soon-to-be-built fortress cities, and even designing your own living spaces there instead of using the standard design templates.

"But the most important service provided is education and training. We are moving, by necessity, into the true space age. Soon, everyone will be required to at least be able to function outside the atmosphere of Earth, whether that be as a crew member on a fleet vessel, an explorer of the cosmos, or even simple manufacturing jobs that can be done in space to save the planet's environment.

"Moving on, We are also offering conditional amnesty for criminals. Nonviolent offenses will all be forgiven and existing criminal records of nonviolent offenders will be expunged. Crimes committed that caused harm to any human or property will be continued, with some cases automatically being scheduled for a retrial under the new universal code of laws.

"Anyone currently imprisoned will be allowed to petition for retrial, in which they will be judged based on the new legal code. If found to be innocent under the new laws, they will immediately be released and their records expunged. Compensation will also be paid.

"The new universal code of law is simple to understand and will be written in plain language. Punishments will be proportional to the crime committed, and instead of serving jail time, those convicted of crimes will be sentenced to work crews. For the worst offenders, those who are deserving of the death penalty or lifetime imprisonment, We will be establishing a penal corps branch of ARES where they will serve humanity as soldiers fighting on the front line until such a time as they have earned their freedom, which will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

"One specific issue that We will address now is the issue of free speech. The universal code of law includes a lese majeste law. You are free to speak your mind, to assemble, and petition the government for redress. But We will remind you now that freedom of speech is a privilege extended to you by Us, and that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences arising from your speech.

"The full universal code of law will be released to the public a week from now. Of note, the law applies equally to everyone, no matter who they are."

Aron paused to let people catch up with and digest what he had been talking about. A lot of information had been delivered so far in his first imperial address, and there was still more to come.

"Now to the most hated part of any government," Aron continued. "Taxes."

Though his expression was once again solemn, he was internally chuckling over his mental image of the look on people's faces when he said the dreaded "T Word".

"There will be no complicated tax code. Instead, there will be a flat one-time 2.5% tax applied to all current assets and all taxes other than income tax will be abolished. All people over the age of 18 will be charged a flat 10% income tax on any income above the first 6000 END every year, without deductions and without any writeoffs. All forms of income are included, even inheritances.

"Quite uncomplicated, isn't it?" he said with a grin, sure that the vast majority of people watching his address would be thrilled with the new flat tax system. After all, most people were paying up to 30% of their income in taxes, and some countries set even higher tax rates. And in addition to income taxes, there were sales taxes, luxury taxes, and a host of other taxes that were applied to practically everything.

And for those who were seasoned tax evaders, such as the ultra-rich who could afford to bribe politicians into passing loophole-infested tax laws that allowed them to shelter their assets in tax-free havens, Aron felt a thrill of schadenfreude when he thought of the impotent rage they would be feeling right now. But that thrill soon passed when he considered that his girlfriend's family would be included in that group of people.

Well... They weren't exactly good people, either, so he wouldn't feel too guilty for too long.

"Those of you who have been enjoying the wealth you have earned through the labor of others and have been sheltering it in tax havens or abusing other tax loopholes, there will be a six-month grace period. Any income or assets that are currently hidden must be reported. Anything you report will be fined 30% and the rest is yours.

"If it remains unreported after the six-month grace period, it will be confiscated entirely. And for those of you who are thinking that you will somehow be able to escape notice, trust Us—you will not.

"Taxes will be settled the first week of January every year moving forward, and the first tax will be due this March, to allow for everyone to get their finances in order in accordance with the new tax code. For more information, visit the Imperial Treasury website. All funds collected and used will be listed there with full transparency for anyone interested in viewing."

Aron was firm on government transparency. He believed that government should serve the people, and in order to do that, they must be as transparent as possible in their actions. Some things naturally had to be classified and hidden from the public eye, but for everything else, it should be done in as forthright a manner as possible.

"As for the environment, We firmly believe that Our home should be protected and left unharmed as much as possible. So to reverse the harm that humanity has already done to the planet, Our researchers have developed atmospheric scrubbers and new methods of recycling."

As he said that, the screen behind him finally changed again, showing a video clip of the "Trashman" disintegrator recycling junk in The Pit on Avalon Island.

"So within the next few years, humanity will become carbon negative. Our seas will be cleansed of harmful chemicals and excess carbon dioxide, lowering the surface acidity and allowing the sea life to recover. Our air will be filtered of harmful chemicals and excess greenhouse gasses, allowing for the ozone layer to recover, and our species' reliance on unrenewable resources, such as oil and coal, will be dropped to nearly zero. Oil will remain useful until we discover a way to create synthetic plastics without using crude oil as a base, but We have already developed alternative fuels, such as hydrogen cells that require nothing but water to function, to power vehicles.

"As for energy, Our researchers cracked the 'Holy Grail' of controlled nuclear fusion two years ago.

"And finally, regarding our preparation to receive the visitors, you may see detailed progress reports and inspect Our ongoing preparations in VR, where you can visit the sites and see for yourselves. Our virtual reality environment is 100% accurate to reality, and We will hold a bi-yearly lottery for citizens to visit in person in reality, as well as sell a limited number of slots on a first-come first-serve basis for those who choose not to participate in the lottery, or those who don't qualify to participate in it. We don't have time to elaborate on all of the preparations being done in this address, so you'll have to see for yourself in VR or wait until the first lottery trip takes place this June."

Chapter 430

Aron took a deep breath and relaxed, a compassionate expression on his face as he wrapped up his first imperial address. "I know the many changes coming all at once are difficult to accept. Especially as drastic and bold as they are." He smiled wryly. "But there's an old saying in my family: 'begin as you mean to go on', and that's what I'm doing here. There will be an inevitable teething period as everyone grows accustomed to the new changes to, well... everything, really, but I believe in humanity. I believe in our ability to adapt to anything, and overcome what we can't adapt to.

"Mankind isn't the fastest animal on the planet. We aren't the strongest ones, either. We can't swim in the ocean or fly in the sky unaided, we aren't particularly stealthy, and we don't have a very thick, robust hide. What we do have, however, is a sapient mind. We can imagine, we can develop, and we can make conscious decisions to follow our better natures instead of our worst.

"I know I'm asking a lot of everyone, but at the same time, I'm not asking much. What everything boils down to is this—I'm asking for time. Time with which I can fulfill my promises to all of you, so that you can see the improvements for yourself instead of leaping to conclusions based on the worst case scenario.

"Thank you for your time, and I wish everyone a happy new year."

Aron disappeared from the briefing room and the feed cut out, leaving the imperial seal as the only thing on everyone's screens.

…

The world was silent after Aron's address. A minute passed, then two, three... Eventually, eleven minutes crept by after he disappeared.

Then the internet exploded.

The people who watched his address flocked to the websites he had mentioned, but not in an even distribution; practically 90% of them went to the GAIA Tech website to check out their VR tech. After all, anyone who claimed they weren't interested in VR was basically sure to be lying.

What they saw there was shocking to them. It almost seemed like the equipment had been plucked straight from dreams! The equipment claims were straight out of a novel, almost, but GAIA had a reputation for delivering on their promises and, if anything, they tended to understate their technology, rather than hype it up and present software or hardware that failed to match up to their promised capabilities.

Pictures of Aron and others known to be close to him wearing glasses started spreading on the internet, showing that they had been using the augmented reality hardware years ago, meaning it was already a mature technology even then!

Discussions about the tech spread everywhere as scientists and normal people alike wondered just how the hell Aron had managed to pull everything off. Especially an accurate simulation of the universal laws of physics, since not even the physicists with the most exalted reputations could claim to know everything about their field of study.

Yet Aron had just claimed exactly that!

That sparked a number of conspiracy theories ranging from Aron having sold his soul to the devil all the way across the spectrum to Aron already having had close contact with a far more technologically advanced alien species. Some even claimed that he had regressed to the 21st century from a time far in the future.

But the most impactful conspiracy theory was the malicious and intentional spread of rumors that claimed Aron was using his tech to brainwash people into acting against the best interests of humanity. It was especially believable, as it was basically only a hair's breadth away from the actual truth.

The people spreading the conspiracy theory pointed to the world leaders and how easily they had given up as evidence. The only difference, really, was that they hadn't been brainwashed into giving up, but rather tortured into it.

But despite having a wider spread than usual, the rumors and conspiracy theories still failed to travel outside of their own social bubbles, as Panoptes was on the job. He identified the topic starters and passed their information on to Nyx for further investigation and closer monitoring under the suspicion that there was a single driving force motivating the spread of negative information.

…

Even before Aron began his address, the Edenian carriers in the sky had gotten busy. Their patrol schedules had been altered to pass over every major city on the planet, where they would choose a location on the outskirts of the cities and transport troopers and giant blocks of raw materials in durable shipping containers to the surface.

Once the men and materials had been landed, the carriers would move on to the next cities in their itineraries, where the process would repeat.

After landing, the "shipping containers" broke apart into millions of tiny multi-legged robots, which were collectively known as Type XVIII constructor swarms.

The small constructor bots were what researchers in Lab City had come up with to allow Aron to have the highest flexibility in construction while keeping the atomic printer technology hidden. They had an atomic printer base, which would print the bits and pieces that went into making the design, and the constructor swarm would assemble the pieces into the final object like putting together a 3D puzzle.

The constructor swarms immediately got to work building copies of the Cube from Avalon Island, which would be packed full of VR pods to be used for retraining. Each Cube would be able to comfortably process a million people at the same time.

After the buildings were assembled and the pods installed, the constructor swarms switched to building multiple things at once. They divided themselves into teams that would work on fulfilling the orders for VR devices that were coming in in droves, teams that would work on assembling enormous buses that would transport those due for retraining to their nearest Cube, and trucks that would ship out the newly ordered VR and AR devices.

...

As the building frenzy was ongoing, everyone scheduled for retraining received messages asking whether they would choose to retire or be folded into the relevant imperial agencies to continue working for the imperial family.

Based on their decision, they would either receive a time, date, and location to report to for transportation to the nearest Cube, or they would receive a discharge form they could submit to the bank of the universe to dispense their "retirement payment" in END.

Beyond that, messages were sent to every parent of a school-aged child as well as their teachers and educators informing them that schools would be closed for the month of January in order for children to get used to the VR environment their new schooling would take place in.

Many more things, ranging from the critical to the most routine operations were taking place in a coordinated chaos that was arranged and conducted by Gaia herself, who had officially taken her position as the administrator of Earth.

Chapter 431

True chaos arrived the morning following Aron's address as swarms of delivery drones and fleets of trucks left each of the training centers. The drones were carrying AR glasses and VR helmets to those who had ordered them, and the trucks were loaded with VR pods. The delivery blitz had come without warning and created even more panic and rioting in some areas, especially those that were already leaning toward resisting Aron's empire.

That didn't stop the delivery, though, as the uncaring drones and trucks being driven by ARES troopers cared nothing for the chaos. They merely rerouted around any trouble hotspots and continued on their way.

Once the equipment was delivered to their new owners, reviews and discussions began springing up on Pangea mere hours later. All of the users were basically in agreement about how wonderful the new devices were, and of course, they were posted to Pangea through the devices themselves since the lucky people who already had them couldn't bring themselves to log out. Naturally, that only included those with helmets and pods, as the glasses had been marketed as Augmented Reality devices and nobody knew they could also access VR as well.

Still, with the glowing reviews posted by verified VR and AR users on Pangea, others who had ordered theirs were praying for their deliveries to arrive faster.

JaiPatel(AR): [Damn! I can't believe they had this for years and didn't even tease it!

SunKing(VR): But why'd they prevent us from modifying our avatars? How am I supposed to find a wife like this!?

beautifulgirl(VR): And what's with the queue at the ID place if we're the first ones in the city?

Comments like those started appearing all over the internet as people almost overwhelmingly praised both the AR glasses and VR helmets and pods. There were a few minor complaints, but no one had said it was false advertising.

That said, though most people couldn't wait for their hardware to arrive and kept urging the delivery drones and trucks to arrive faster, there were still holdouts. Not everyone had been convinced by Aron's long address the night before; there were people who had ideological or trust issues, those who thought things were working fine as they were and saw no point in changing for change's sake, those who refused to believe out of an overweening sense of arrogance, and even those that believed it was a publicity stunt meant to drain money from their wallets and would be shut down once Aron had sucked enough financial lifeblood from the people.

Thus, the short period of calm that had begun when Aron took the stage to deliver his address came to an abrupt end at sunrise, as people took to the streets in many cities again, despite the "protest fatigue" they had been feeling. They dragged their tired bodies out of their beds as the sun rose, then trudged along the roads heading toward the newly constructed cubes on the outskirts of major population centers.

The protesters were also, by and large, armed. Some carried guns, others had metal pipes or baseball bats, and knives were common. So were bricks, oddly enough, with quite a few "extremely online" fans of webnovels even muttering something about the dao of bricks to themselves.

They all had one thing in common, though: an overwhelming desire to fight against the encroaching empire.

Within each group were people acting as instigators and impromptu leaders directing the masses of people. They were invariably calm, well rested, and in shape, and they all moved with an obvious purpose, though those in the crowds around them didn't even realize they were effectively being herded along with someone else's agenda.

…

Nyx was in VR, sitting next to Gaia and eating her latest weird snack, popcorn that glowed a bright, radioactive green but tasted like a combination of both chocolate- and caramel-covered popcorn. [That's... a lot of operatives,] she said, blue light flickering across her eyes as she directly observed the feeds from the delivery drones as they passed over the head of the protesters on their way to drop off their packages. [A lot of people are pulling a lot of strings really hard for this, it looks like.]

Gaia was stuck between sighing over the actions of humans and feeling satisfied with the new snack she had come up with. [Winning the war was the easy part. The intelligence operatives were always going to be a problem—would they roll over and accept their loss just because we said so? Of course not!] she said in her floating, ethereal voice. [They were always going to fight back no matter what, and that's what we're seeing now.] She was extremely calm and well informed, despite being only a few days old and the mess in front of her happening on her second day of work.

"Well, it isn't like we didn't expect something like this. I was even willing to give them a month to rethink their actions and accept the retraining, not that I thought they'd ever take me up on that offer," Aron said with a shrug. He cast a side-eye at the bowl of "popcorn" on the coffee table in front of the chair he was sitting in. For today's meeting, they had settled on an old-fashioned castle library, with many tall bookshelves, hunting trophies on the wall, and a fireplace with a bearskin rug in front of it. Scattered around the middle of the room were many comfortable chairs, sofas, loveseats, and low tables within easy reach of each seat. The bookshelves were mostly empty, but books were rapidly popping into existence on the shelves as time passed.

[By then, the retraining would be over. And for intelligence operatives, 'retraining' equates to 'reprogramming', so of course they have to make their move now. Plus, with a full quarter of all the police forces being replaced by a small number of ARES troopers, they probably thought they could ride on the negative image associated with using military forces for law enforcement,] Gaia sighed.

[Another factor is the adoption rate of VR equipment,] Nyx added. [The more people that receive theirs, the less people will be out and about on the streets instead of stuck in the comfort of their own homes wandering through virtual reality. Eventually, the only people outside will be those who can't afford the long-term pods and protesters.]

"Oh, we've started to move," Aron said as he calmly watched the embedded nyxians moving toward the worst of the mob herders.

[Yes. At the moment, due to our low numbers,] Nyx cast an inscrutable glance at Aron, [we can only deal with the worst of the people behind these coordinated protests. For those in the former United States, we can use a bit of a heavier hand, as I'm pretty sure I've spotted more guns than people in those protests—what the fuck? Is that a homemade ROCKET LAUNCHER!?] she exclaimed, interrupting herself when one of the GAIA Tech "delivery" drones flew over a particular protester. She had caught sight of what she thought was one of Musk's "not a flamethrower" flamethrowers and had another drone diverted to rescan that particular protest to take a closer look at their armament. When she did so, the drone had captured someone that'd jerry-rigged what looked like an old pineapple grenade to a stick and shoved it in a homemade potato gun.

Aron was just as flabbergasted as Nyx when he caught sight of that piece of "good old-fashioned American ingenuity". He blinked a few times and took a moment to collect himself, then said, "I'm pretty sure that guy's more Taliban than the actual Taliban was." He was referring to the issues the US troops had with improvised explosive devices during the War on Terror.

He blinked a few more times, then shook his head and turned to Nova. "Anyway, how's progress on your front?" he asked.

[We've collected two hundred million brain scans from everyone logging into VR or using the AR glasses already, and the number is increasing. Those are being analyzed and collated as we speak, and I estimate that once we reach five billion users, we should have about 90 years of historical data to use in the simulation. As long as someone was there to view or hear something, we'll know about it,] Nova reported.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're all downright frightening?" Felix asked. He still wasn't sure he was entirely comfortable with that level of intrusion into people's privacy, but he was slowly coming to terms with it. After all, just because they collected the data didn't mean they would use it for some kind of voyeuristic thrill or something; most people's lives were mundane and boring, anyway, and of absolutely no interest to anyone but themselves.

[If it helps, just think of it as a living history and record of humanity,] Nova patiently explained.

"And an excellent source of blackmail material," Sarah interjected. "As long as people keep logging in, our 'burn file' will continue being updated," she looked at the bookshelves around the room they were in and the books that were constantly appearing on them, "and growing, too," she finished.

The atmosphere grew a little bit heavy at that, but it soon lightened back up as the three friends began chatting back and forth with each other. Felix and Sarah would never treat Aron any differently no matter what hats he put on himself, whether he was a techpreneur, explorer, businessman, military leader, or even an emperor... to them, he would always be their friend, first and foremost.

Chapter 432

"Are you going to reveal the game?" Sarah asked.

[Not until the new government is up and running. We need people to focus on that first, at least until a billion people have already gotten their IDs. Then we can release it, but require a government-issued ID to play it. If we release it now, people would likely be upset that they can't immediately play it, so it needs a sufficient user base to create a self-perpetuating cycle,] Nova said. Books were still appearing on the bookshelves behind her, but the rate had slowed down a little bit. Most of the VR helmets and AR glasses had been delivered, but the pods would take a little while longer as the trucks had to reroute to avoid trouble hotspots more often than the drones did.

"But what's the difference?" Felix asked, scratching his head. "Is there something special about the imperial ID? From the way you're treating it, it seems like there's more to it."

Neither Felix nor Sarah had been briefed about the special features of the new imperial ID registration, as it had just never come up. It wasn't like it was intentionally being kept from them, but they simply hadn't asked about it.

[It acts as a universal ID and can't be counterfeited or falsified. Every time someone logs into VR or activates their AR functions, their brain data and DNA are updated. The ID collects all of that data and tracks it over time as it changes. So we need them to have an ID in order for the government to function as designed. It's both a security measure and backup assurance in case we encounter 'visitors' that send infiltrators,] Gaia explained.

"Aren't there some serious privacy concerns with that?" Felix asked after considering it from the citizens' point of view for a moment.

[Well, yes and no. Yes, because it tracks everything, and I do mean everything. But no, because the only information that can be displayed to different agencies is information that's relevant to those agencies. So hospitals can see health tracking information, traffic police can see driving history, bank employees will see the account history, and so on,] Gaia calmly replied.

Nova grabbed a book from the shelves and tossed it to Nyx, who opened it. It was the memory of a low-level member of a rebel group. [The scouts are here!] she exclaimed, practically vibrating with glee. [I just knew we'd get some! This will make my job so much easier.] She smiled and giggled, clasping the book to her chest.

Aron glanced at Nova and gave her a look that meant, 'Is Nyx okay? I'm a bit concerned about her mental health.'

Nova smiled and nodded at him and a screen that only he could see popped up in front of him. [Myself and the rest of the AIs are constantly studying what it means to be 'human', sir, so we're constantly developing and evolving as new servers come online and we become better and better at emulating human behavior. She's fine, sir,] the screen read.

Felix thought for a minute and asked, "Who sent scouts? The aliens? How?" He visibly shivered at the idea of aliens already being among humanity.

[No,] Gaia replied. [That's the brain data of one of the rebels. They're suspicious of the VR environment and government services, so they sent in some of their low-level, 'unimportant',] she raised her hands and made air quotes to emphasize the status of the so-called "scouts", [members to test the waters.]

"They're taking a page from the cold war spy vs spy stuff and the operations of modern terrorist networks," Aron added. "We shouldn't underestimate them just because we have an overwhelming tech advantage. After all, no matter how advanced your tech becomes, if you become reliant on it, then you risk getting blindsided by smart cavemen with sticks and rocks."

He turned to Sarah and said, "You should prepare to note a few scientific studies I'll be having published. Later, I'll find some researchers in Lab City to write reports about how the VR equipment interfaces with the brain and especially episodic memory. They'll say that we're still in the process of learning how the brain works, and you can push the claim that all the data we collect will be black-boxed to train our AIs to better anticipate people's needs. Stress that it's purely optional and they can choose to not participate or opt out at any time." He grinned. "After all, people are already used to that kind of lie from Big Data firms that have existed since the internet first baked cookies."

(Ed note: There are a few types of memory. Episodic memory is what people think of when they think about "memories". It's the storage and recall of specific events, or "episodes", like that time you embarrassed yourself by asking out your crush and getting shot down.)

Sarah got the mental image of an old meme with a man in a suit and a TV for a head baking cookies and almost fell into a laughing fit. "I'll address it in a week or so after the research reports have time to spread." She looked around, confused, and blinked. "Hey, where'd Aron go?"

[He's discussing something with me,] Nova replied.

"But you're—oh, right. I forgot you can be in more places than one at a time."

…

Aron was floating in orbit above Earth, watching the world spin around its axis. It was his favorite place in all of VR. He had teleported there upon receiving a notification from the system and was in the middle of a discussion with Nova.

"I expected a lot, but this... this is staggering!" he exclaimed, an excited expression on his face. He was watching his available SP skyrocket; even under heavy time dilation, the number was increasing at a rate that was almost too fast to see.

[It's quite a leap forward in tech, after all, and hundreds of millions of people are already using it. Not only that, it's an application of two different technologies, virtual reality and the universal simulation, so you're getting rewarded with SP for both of them. I'd be worried if the SP reward wasn't this large,] Nova said.

"True. And with this, I can make our preparations virtually ironclad." Aron felt a lot of the weight being lifted off his shoulders as he thought of all the things remaining on his wishlist. If he continued farming SP at this rate, a lot of the things he needed for various contingency plans would be in place and humanity would be much, much safer. Then he could be considered to have truly done as much as he could.

"Let's start filling the cart, shall we?" He rubbed his hands together and grinned as he pulled up the system store.

Chapter 433

"Bring up all the knowledge we've bought a part of due to limited SP," Aron ordered, rubbing his hands together like a kid on Christmas morning. He had forgotten that he was now the emperor of an empire that had only been founded less than twenty hours ago. It was the most important moment of its existence, though it really didn't make much difference as he had a capable team of helpers and advisors that could keep things going for the time he would be absent.

[Yes, sir,] Nova excitedly said. She waved her hand, and a list of Aron's partially acquired knowledges popped up on a virtual screen in front of him.

[Tractor and Repulsor Beams, tier 1

Used to maneuver objects to and from the power source. Particularly useful in places unsuited to humans, such as deep space or other hostile environments.

It was discovered as a matter of necessity by a member of a dragonoid race that has since been wiped out due to needing to move his lair after an enemy took over his territory. Upon discovering the convenience provided by the magical technique, it was later given to the dragonoid's servants to develop a technological alternative for those incapable of using mana for use in the construction of the new lair.]

"We'll need this for capturing asteroids and other mining operations," Aron said as he brought up his system interface and purchased the remainder of the knowledge.

[Energy Weapons, tier 1]

[Psionic Shielding, tier 1

When the peaceful Xyronian system was invaded by the expansionist Zyraliths, they were forced to develop this defensive technology to protect themselves from the invaders' psionic abilities and weaponry. Once the technology spread, the much larger Zyralith empire collapsed under the weight of rebellion as their mind-controlled and brainwashed slave races broke free of their shackles and rose up against their oppressors.]

Aron promptly moved it to the system's shopping cart and moved to the next knowledge he had been eyeing for quite some time.

[Spatial lock, tier 1

Creates localized temporal stasis fields, preventing spatial movement or changes to the environment within the field. As long as power is continuously provided to it, nothing will be allowed into, or out of, the locked space without spending more energy than is being provided to the stasis field.]

Just like that, nearly all of his sp disappeared.

"And now, we wait." Aron looked at the remaining knowledges on his wishlist and winced at the price tags. He needed to hurry up the distribution and adoption of the technology he had in order to give his researchers time to familiarize themselves with the system purchases before the visitors arrived. Maturing the technology was important; just because he could use it "as is" after purchasing it didn't mean he would be considered an expert in it. Experience was important, after all.

Up until this point, the knowledge he had bought from the system had mostly been things that were already being worked on by humanity, like controlled nuclear fusion, or logical advances in already-existing technology, like atomic printers. But he had experienced for himself just how difficult it was to develop on those technologies. While fusion generators were relatively easy, given humanity's existing body of research and experiments with tokamak and stellarator reactors, iterating on the atomic printers had proven far more difficult. With the time dilation in Lab City set to 100:1, it had taken the equivalent of centuries just for the researchers to figure out how to build atomic printers in different shapes and sizes, and they had yet to even begin to improve on the tech itself.

It clearly showed how important it was to incorporate the knowledge Aron bought and make it their own. That was one of the main reasons he wasn't constantly buying newer, shinier knowledge to use and had instead focused on developing his own advancements based on human ingenuity.

Turning to Nova, he asked, "How's Research City coming?"

Research City was a copy of Lab City that was intended for public usage. It had all of the facilities and capabilities of Lab City, but was in the "public" area of the simulation, thus limiting its time dilation to the 2:1 ratio.

[Most of the scientists and experts we invited were also among the first to adopt the long-stay VR Medpods. And nearly all of them accepted our offer. What researcher would turn down unlimited budgets? I expect the acceptance rate to be around 93%. There will be a few holdouts here and there, primarily due to ideological differences or conflicts with you personally or one of your companies,] she replied, bringing up a list of invitees sorted by those who had already accepted the offer, those who would likely accept the offer in the near future, and those who would likely decline.

Those who had already accepted the invitation to Research City had notes next to their names about what they were currently working on; most of their work so far had been carrying out experiments they'd always wanted to do in reality but had been unable to do, either for lack of time, budget, or material resources. There were a few, though, that had been actively running old, classified, experiments in an attempt to disprove what they saw as shameless boasting on Aron's part about the simulation being true to reality.

But that didn't matter; Aron's true research base was still and would forever be the original Lab City. Research City was meant as a front to explain where the new developments would come from. He had set aside all of the "gold" facilities that, in Lab City, were focused on mana and mana-related research to act as a "skunkworks" where most of the actual advancements would come out of. And though that was Research City's primary purpose, if Aron were pressed, he would admit that it was also a slight compensation to the scientists and researchers he had recreated in Lab City for "stealing" the achievements that could have been theirs.

[Currently, Research City has 300,000 researchers across all fields, with levels ranging all over the academic spectrum. There are Nobel Prize laureates mixed with university freshmen, and there's even two high school students working there.]

"I suddenly felt a bit of weight lift off my chest there, Nova," Aron said. His guilt over the wholesale academic theft had always been in his subconscious mind, and now that it had been alleviated, at least partially, he was feeling much more optimistic, though he had no idea why.

[You've been feeling guilty, sir,] she explained. [By giving the experts free and unfettered access to Research City, you're partially repaying them for 'stealing' their potential future achievements in the past. Even though most of those achievements wouldn't have been made possible in their lifetimes, there was still a price to pay. And now you've paid it, so of course you'll feel better.]

"Thanks," Aron said, feeling quite a bit better and more upbeat.

Chapter 434

While Aron was busy shopping and discussing the new Research City plan with Nova, nyxians embedded in the various protest groups began plucking the instigators from the groups they were in and replacing them. After all, an unaimed herd of humanity was like a large firework launcher. Leaving either of them unattended was a very, very bad idea and could lead to incredibly destructive consequences.

The nyxians still allowed the mobs to vandalize buildings and other assorted properties, landmarks, and monuments, but they limited the damage and guided it primarily to the (former) government buildings along the way. Still, a few unfortunate shops and warehouses were targeted, but once the protesters came to their senses the next day, they would likely be surprised to hear that some of their favorite stores had been destroyed while their least favorites were just fine.

Nyx had instilled all of her nyxians with a rather wicked sense of sardony, after all.

Not all of the groups were monolithic, either, and fistfighting broke out within the protest groups rather often. The original organizers of the protests and architects of the violence couldn't be bothered to care about any particular issue and simply gathered people who were angry. It didn't matter why they were angry, just that they were. Unfortunately, with guns in the mix, quite a few shots were fired as well, though a surprisingly low number of them hit anything, as even the most fervent ammosexual was still in love with the idea of "warning shots".

Whether or not those warning shots ruined the day of someone blocks away from them didn't matter. It only mattered that they got to fulfill their wet dream of frightening an enemy with a warning shot.

With the increase in reports of shots fired, the recently understaffed police scrambled to meet the new threat level of the protests. After all, some of their staff had resigned, some had been fired due to not deserving to wear a uniform, and a full quarter of the remainder had already reported to their nearest cube for retraining, courtesy of the Imperial Police Agency.

"This is Captain Williams of the Houston City Police Department. We're requesting aid and reinforcements as soon as possible. Shots have been fired and we predict a full riot will break out shortly."

"This is Chief Mehmet Kaya of the Istanbul Police. More than a million people have taken to the streets and are vandalizing buildings and setting fires on their way to the cube. Requesting reinforcement. The longer this goes on, the more damage the city will face and the higher the death toll will rise as emergency service vehicles are unable to reach the injured and the fires."

"This is the police chief of Moscow.…"

"This is the police chief of London..."

"This is the police chief of Paris…."

One after another, cities began requesting reinforcements with only short intervals between calls. It was becoming very obvious to anyone paying attention that the violence was definitely planned beforehand, given the timing of violence breaking out all over the globe.

The reason those plotting the violent protests could even hope to succeed at all was because the citizens were absolutely pissed. If they weren't angry, or even if they were a little less angry than they were, the chaos would have been much less. But people who had become accustomed to living their whole lives in a certain fashion had been forced to change the lives they were used to in a very short period of time.

That had given the operatives behind the protests an opening they could use to manipulate that anger, increase it, and point it in the direction the organizers wanted it to be vented in: the imperial government. It had been quite easy for the skilled intelligence operatives to convince the angry populace that if they just caused enough damage, it would delegitimize the new government and things would soon go back to normal for them, while the people responsible for the upset—Aron and his inner circle—would be imprisoned, or even executed.

The only reason there was any doubt that there was a single goal behind all of the protests was because the nyxians had intervened in quite a few of them and acted as a calming pill to gradually bring the protesters back to reality. If that weren't the case, things would be a lot more dire than they currently were.

Still, things were plenty dire.

Areas without nyxian influence had broken out into full riots, with protesters causing millions, or even tens of millions of END damage to property, and hundreds of thousands of people had been severely injured, with thousands more dead worldwide. And that was just the known figure; the estimates had already passed a million injuries and fatalities on the low end.

Things were rapidly coming to a head, and Aron's nascent government was facing its first test. They could neither act, nor could they refrain from acting. If they acted to put down the protests, the tactics they would have to use—high-pressure water hoses, beanbag and rubber bullets, tear gas bombardments, and so on—would only reinforce the idea that the new government was nothing more than a brutal dictator's megalomaniacal power grab. But if they didn't act, the new government would be seen as incapable of preventing or restraining the protesters from causing so much damage and loss of life.

Either way, it would hinder the authority of the Empire.

...

[We can't count on the police any longer and need to respond with force. Otherwise the property damage and casualty numbers will only continue increasing,] Nyx said with some heartache in her voice. If only she'd had more time or more operatives, she could have cut this entire issue off at the pass, or at least strictly limited it.

[The cubes are all ready, I'm just waiting for the order,] Athena said to Gaia with a respectful nod. Despite only being a few weeks old, Gaia was still the head of the government in Aron's absence and held his plenipotentiary authority, thus she deserved the respect that her position demanded.

[Send out the LEA-001s and impose martial law in the cities requesting reinforcements. For areas further away from cubes, divert carriers and yeet ARES into them armed with charge weapons instead of pulse weapons. Ensure civilian safety is prioritized over potential property damages. Buildings were built once, they can be built again.] Gaia gave a crooked smile. [Besides, they're actually doing us a favor, since the existing cities will need to be torn down anyway. Still, the law is the law. Ensure that the instigators and worst offenders are punished to the fullest extent of the law and repair the critical infrastructure so that people don't suffer too much.]

[Understood,] Athena said with a smile. She had been looking forward to using her new toys, and now she had the perfect excuse.

Chapter 435

For an hour or so, the riots continued unabated. Those leading them were quite happy, and patting themselves and each other on the back. After all, no matter what intelligence agency they worked for, whether it was the CIA, Mossad, MI6, MSS, or any of the many, many others working as instigators, they had all been "in the trade" for long enough that they could spot familiar faces in the crowds around them.

Spies were generally valuable, and when caught, they would be ransomed by their agency at a reasonable price. So interagency friendships and rivalries were generally of the polite sort and rarely close in the case of friendships—after all, friends today could find themselves on opposite sides and working at cross purposes tomorrow—while their rivalries rarely, if ever, reached the point of a blood feud. And for the same reason, at that; enemies today could find themselves working together tomorrow.

So they all knew at least one of the other instigators, and everyone knew what they were there for. Thus, they had been tacitly cooperating with each other in the field, just like the upper management were cooperating with each other back in their agencies' headquarters.

That made things difficult for the nyxians, who were trying to pluck them out unnoticed so as to avoid a completely uncontrolled stampede, and an absolute nightmare for the police officers attempting to corral the unruly mobs. Eventually, the police were forced to simply set up a cordon and try to contain the rioting and damage to lower-value areas along the path of their march.

And that proved to be enough, as soon, sharp-eyed rioters near the leading edge of their individual mobs spotted a dark blob a distance away from them, behind the officers' cordon. Moment by moment, the blob grew more distinct until they could make out what appeared to be individuals in fancy riot gear and bright colors that would stand out in the crowd, as opposed to the police forces' general propensity for dark-colored uniforms like navy blue and black.

"What the hell are those things?"

One by one, people started to grow still as the individuals approached. Some were on foot, while others were flying out of the cube that the rioters could see off in the distance.

Aron had purchased robotics some time ago from the system, and had since been working on incorporating robots into his forces. Whether they be the cerberus mulebots, general repair and maintenance bots, or the constructor swarms he had used to build the cubes around the world in order to disguise the capabilities of the atomic printers at his disposal, all of them had long entered service and proven themselves. Now, the unruly citizens in the mobs were about to be introduced to his latest brainchild, the LEA-001.

Named the Law Enforcement Auxiliary, the robots were designed with a human appearance in mind, and Aron had gone so far as to introduce variable shapes and sizes in the manufacturing process to enhance their humanlike appearance. No doubt people would definitely notice that they were robots, or perhaps clones, if all of them were exactly the same as the one next to them.

They were dressed in white fabric that was shock resistant, bulletproof, fireproof, and corrosion resistant, and layered atop that was their "armor"—azure blue enameled plates of the same hadfield steel and chromium alloy that protected the atomic printers still hard at work cleaning up the mess left by the destroyed satellites. The armor consisted of a breastplate, spaulders, upper cannons, vambraces, codpiece, culet, cuisse, and greaves that covered their standard-issue boots. And on their heads was a close-fitting three-quarter helmet with a visor slit of smoked glass that attached to a gorget that rose from the breastplate to the jawline, leaving their humanlike mouths on display.

(Ed note: Picture Robocop, but palette swapped from black to white and with a more obvious visible shade of blue for the armor plating and you'll be close to what LEAs look like.)

The armor had black trim on the edges of the plates and gold accents denoting ranks and a golden police badge on the left side of their chest. On the right side of their chest were the letters "LEA".

As they were meant for police work, rather than serving on the battlefield, they were only armed with a charge pistol and a rifle variant. Most of the time, the rifles would be left behind when they were deployed, to make them appear less threatening, but for today's deployment, they were present in the arsenal of every LEA that swarmed out of the cubes.

"Are those... robots? Or ARES troops? How the fuck can they fly?"

Questions like those were being shouted back and forth in the now-stalled crowds as the flying and marching LEAs rapidly reached the front line of the protests and the rooftops of mostly intact buildings around them.

The LEA in the lead of the marching reinforcements raised "his" hand and all of them came to a halt in an eerie display of synchronization.

"He" raised a microphone to his mouth and speakers hidden somewhere in the armor of every LEA crackled to life as the leader said, "Citizens, this has been deemed a violent protest and is in violation of Article I of the constitution. Lower your weapons and lie face down on the ground. I repeat, lower your weapons and lie face down on the ground. You have sixty seconds to comply or you will be made to comply."

The LEA commander replaced the microphone "he" was speaking into and stood ramrod straight and stock still, waiting for the mob to comply with his order. Although the LEA series robots were equipped with fully functioning AIs, they were limited to the processing power of a quantum microcomputer reaper implant, so they were rather rigid in their speech and in the way they carried out their duties.

Similar scenes played out around every protest that was near a cube, or at least near enough to one that it could dispatch LEAs to arrest the violent protesters.

Chapter 436

Houston, Texas.

Being citizens of the state that possessed the most good ol' American yeehaw, the rioters that had been stopped by the LEAs only paused for a brief moment. People who had moments before been intent on punching, kicking, and biting each other into shallow graves looked at each other, nodded, then turned to face the new threat.

Nobody knew, nor did it really matter, who fired the first shot, but soon, everyone in the crowd with guns had begun raining bullets on their perceived enemies. It didn't matter if it was the police or the LEAs, anyone who stood in front of the rioters was deemed a mortal enemy and supporter of the megalomaniac who had taken away their freedom.

Even the unarmed rioters were picking up stones and throwing them with all their might. Most of the thrown stones fell short, but it was the thought that counts.

While receiving the bombardment, the LEAs remained still as sparks flashed on their exterior armor and the distinct whine of ricocheting bullets rang out, but was drowned in the much louder sound of an ongoing barrage of fire. The only thing the LEAs moved were their heads, which were scanning back and forth, tracking the attackers and tagging them with their committed crimes and estimated penalties for those crimes.

*Forty-seven civilians injured. Requesting emergency evacuation to the nearest medical pod. Forty-eight... forty-nine... fifty... All local police forces down. Requesting emergency evacuation to the nearest medical pod,* the hive mind operating the LEAs reported to central command.

*1479 perpetrators marked for arrest when the countdown ends. Charges: 899 with multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to injure, harm, or commit murder. 188 with multiple counts of assault with intent to injure, harm, or commit murder...* The LEAs continued their report to their central command, which was overseen by Gaia's newest subordinate AI, Themis.

Themis collated the information and passed it to Gaia, who noted it and distributed it to the rest of the AIs before passing the initial judgment on the violent rioters: guilty. That was the likely verdict, but a trial must still be held. Themis noted the evidence gathered by the LEAs and added the trials to judges' dockets pending their retraining on imperial law.

All of that happened in a fraction of a second after the rioters began shooting at the police and LEAs, who were still in the middle of their sixty-second countdown.

Twenty-one seconds remained.

…

NSA Supervisory Special Agent David Stratton, having left his position as the leader of the mob, was watching the fusillade from the safety of a nearby office building. His binoculars were trained on the LEAs, who were barely visible through the sparks and dust kicked up by ricochets and outright misses.

"Why're they just looking around?" he muttered to himself. "Isn't it common sense to end a countdown when the person you're counting down opens fire on you? Fucking morons!"

He focused his binoculars on the crowd, their internal parabolic microphone picking up the shouting past the rapidly dwindling gunfire; it seemed the yeehaw crowd had run out of yeehaw and was resorting to using their words. "Coward! You're trading your freedom for fear! You see them just standing there and doing nothing and think they're better than us. But you're just falling for their intimidation tactics! They're just bullies!" one of the rioters yelled at another, who had come to his senses and decided to go home.

"They can't do shit to us, you'll see!" yelled another.

"To hell with your freedom! Your freedom isn't worth my life," the retreating man said, picking up his pace in an attempt to get as far from ground zero as possible.

He made it all of a block before running into the police cordon that was set up to block the rear of the rioters, where he was subjected to another good old fashioned American specialty: police brutality. But that was a story for another day.

…

"Ten... nine... eight... Two... One." As one, the LEAs drew their charge rifles and released their safeties, switching them to stun. "Drop your weapons and lay face down on the ground or you will be fired upon!" the lead unit yelled. "This is your last warning!"

An electric whine sounded as the charge rifles finished their initial bootup and power cycle.

Some people in the crowd threw down their weapons and followed instructions, but most refused and continued firing, still to no effect.

The LEAs who had taken station on the rooftops to the sides of the rioting crowd were the first to open fire, sending accurate, single shots down on the rioters who were still standing and panic firing at anything they saw. LEAs, downed police officers, perceived silhouettes in the windows of nearby buildings, and even other rioters were taking fire. Some of the more sinister people in the crowd were even specifically aiming at those "compatriots" of theirs that had surrendered, considering themselves enacting justice by eliminating traitors.

But that final, last gasp of resistance was soon put down as charge round after charge round impacted their targets, releasing enough electricity to overwhelm their nervous system and dropping them to the ground, stunned and unable to even generate a coherent thought, let alone move around.

Once the rioters were all taken down and peace returned to the surroundings, the LEAs moved among the crowd, snapping stun cuffs that sent a constant, low-level electrical charge through the wearer's nerves that prevented them from mustering any real strength around the wrists and ankles of the arrestees.

...

Agent Stratton saw one of the LEAs looking in his direction and decided that it was time to retreat. He gathered up his recording devices and vanished deeper within the building, heading to a bathroom where he applied some facial putty as a hasty disguise. He tore the seam on the inside of his suit jacket, then reached in and pulled out a wig that would change his US Marine Corps standard-issue "high and tight" crew cut into a more bland men's haircut that wouldn't even stand out in a crowd of one, then applied a thin layer of foundation powder from a makeup compact that would blend the putty and hairline to look at least a little bit more natural.

He took off his suit jacket, pants, and dress shirt, revealing a polo shirt and slacks of a different color, then walked out of the bathroom and joined the nearest crowd in the building that had formed once the shooting died down.

NSA Supervisory Special Agent David Stratton had disappeared, replaced by the white-collar worker, James Smith.

Chapter 437

Elsewhere in the world, peace still had yet to be completely restored.

In Istanbul, one of the LEAs was placing stun cuffs on one of the downed protesters when another one, who had "surrendered" earlier, rose up and swung a metal pipe at its head. But to the protester's complete surprise, the helmet was completely undamaged while the pipe gave out. After all, when hard comes in contact with impossibly hard, hard loses.

The LEA finished cuffing the prisoner, then stood and turned to face the protester that had swung the pipe at it. The man swung the bent pipe at the LEAs face, only for the disguised robot's arm to move impossibly fast as it caught the pipe and released a taser charge from its palm. The jolt caused the protester to drop the pipe and the LEA swiftly raised its charge pistol and stunned him point blank, then stun cuffed him and moved on to the next downed protester without a word.

In Novograd, Russia, someone attacked the LEAs with a molotov cocktail only for it to completely ignore the flickering flames on its body and stun its attacker. In Kandahar, an LEA completely ignored a suicide attack by an insurgent driving a van loaded with explosives. In other places, they were also attacked with vehicles, but the vehicles inevitably lost the contest against the walking-tank-like Law Enforcement Auxiliaries.

They had proven themselves immune to improvised explosives, regular explosives, bullets, cars, trucks, and even in one case, a dump truck loaded with close to 14 tons of gravel.

All over the world, wherever the LEAs had been deployed, protesters were gripped with fear in the face of their inexorable advance. Everything they threw at the robots was to absolutely no avail, but the LEAs pinpoint accuracy with their charge pistols and the ease with which they could apply stun cuffs to even struggling prisoners was disheartening, to say the least. On average, one LEA was restraining a protester every ten seconds, and most of that was spent walking from person to person while fending off attacks that would otherwise have caused the captured protesters harm, which would have been a very bad image for the nascent government.

As more and more protesters were downed by stun charges, LEAs were freed up to begin providing first aid to the wounded as they waited for medevac to the nearest medical pods, which, ironically, were in the very cubes those same protesters had been marching toward with the intent to destroy them. The whole process was very regimented; one LEA would triage the wounded with another five moving them into separate groups based on the severity of their injuries. It was a process that had long been perfected by first responders and trauma specialists when working at mass casualty incidents in the field, and it was being put to good use now.

(Ed note: See the comment attached to this paragraph for an explanation on mass casualty incident triage.)

Similar actions were taking place in every city within a reasonable distance of a cube. And given that they were living in the internet age, the process was being broadcast live by thousands, if not dozens of thousands, of accounts. Even people who had used their subsidy to buy AR glasses were getting in on the lookieloo action. Nova and Panoptes not only didn't block those broadcasts, but they promoted them instead.

The people in the background who had thought that they could overwhelm the newly formed empire by sheer numbers in a worldwide coordinated strike were now finding out just how wrong and delusional they were to ever have thought that.

Their belief that ARES wouldn't use excessive force had turned out to be correct, but they had never expected that Aron hadn't been exaggerating in the least when he claimed to have withheld the majority of his tech during the Last War. And what ARES had shown there was already in the realm of fantasy, but seeing it online and experiencing it in person were two different things entirely. An LEA had straight up ignored a round from an FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank weapon that rioters in Miami had looted from the local Army garrison and unleashed it on them. And even more unbelievably, an LEA in Saint Petersburg didn't just take the hit from a Russian RPG-7 warhead, but it had actually grabbed it from mid-air and pulled the thing apart with its bare hands!

The people behind the protests had fucked around, and now they were finding out.

The masterful suppression of the violent protests took less than ten minutes from beginning to end. And the ARES troopers yeeted into areas that were out of easy reach of a cube took even less time; they simply launched crowd control rockets from their backpack launchers that knocked the protesters unconscious, then cuffed them while they lay snoring on the ground. By the time everything was done, more than three hundred thousand people were arrested and stun cuffed, powerless to do anything but lay there like logs.

The arrested protesters were taken into custody and transported to the nearest cube for processing. Those who had discharged deadly weapons were held without bail pending arraignment, as were the leaders that had instigated the protesters to turn violent. As for those that used stones, knives, bats, and such, they were processed and released on house arrest, also pending arraignment and trial.

The entire booking process took three hours, by which time the world had regained its calm. The cities that had suffered the most violence were still under martial law, while those that hadn't suffered that much were being very, very careful in their protests to not allow violence to break out lest they join the others in holding cells and house arrest.

Ironically, the protests had actually proven good for Aron, as the milestone of a billion users of VR and AR devices had been brought forward by two days. What he had expected would take a week was now projected to be accomplished in five days.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 438

January 7, 2018.

With a strict curfew maintained over the past week, people had found themselves with little to do. Thus, orders had been pouring in for AR glasses and VR gear nonstop and deliveries had proceeded apace. By the end of the week, the number of people connected to VR had reached two billion, twice Aron's initial goal, and the number was still steadily increasing.

The first batch of retrained individuals also returned home and began implementing their orders. As they got to work, the empire truly began taking shape as the imperial agencies came online. While the AIs were capable of managing the empire perfectly fine, and it could even run completely without human intervention, there was still some ephemeral difference between having real people at the helm and AIs running things.

In the finance sector, the currency issue had also begun. All digital currencies were instantly converted to Earth New Dollars at a fair exchange rate and paper currency was available, albeit in a limited amount, in every bank as soon as they opened in the morning. Relatively few young people still handled cash, so most of the people in the lines that stretched out of the doors and around the corner of the blocks the bank branches were on tended to be members of older generations.

Naturally, the night before, all of the other paper and coin currencies had been brought back to the cubes for recycling. There was a little bit of it saved for collectors, who could buy it from the Imperial Treasury with END, but the majority of it ended up as atomic printer stock for usage in other projects.

As for the "paper" currency itself, it wasn't paper at all. Instead, it was two layers of a clear aluminum memory alloy that could be folded, but not creased. It was resistant to tearing, would melt instead of burn—but only if exposed to a sufficiently high temperature—and sandwiched between the layers was a highly durable, yet flexible battery that powered two things: a single qubit and a short-ranged holographic projector.

The holographic projector could only project a single image a few microns away from it and was completely air-gapped and immune to tampering. The images on the face and back of the bill were generated inside the currency, rather than printed on it. As for the qubit, it only served one purpose; it could communicate with a cash reader and return a checksum verification proving the authenticity of the bill itself.

With those two measures alone, the currency was completely secure without taking into account the alloy the bill was made of.

And on the information front, all of the digital and paper records had been scanned into the Imperial Archivist database, where Mnemosyne, another one of Gaia's child AIs, was busily categorizing and sorting it into categories.

The Imperial Archivist database also contained the Akashic Record, a constantly updating living database comprised of the brain data of everyone who logged into VR. Considering more than two billion people had logged in by this point, the record was rather immense. Thus, Mnemosyne assigned an akashic librarian to each individual to maintain the record, and they operated as a hive mind for convenience and cataloguing, removing duplicate entries and generally acting as curators for the body of knowledge.

Once the relevant information had been forwarded to Minerva, a wave of true justice swept the globe as those who had abused government authority were arrested, and innocent prisoners serving jail time for crimes they didn't commit were released and compensated. The prisoners whose crimes had their penalties changed in the imperial legal code were left in prison, but notified that a retrial would be taking place along the new punishment guidelines.

Some prisoners cheered and others sobbed, as included in the notification of their upcoming retrial was a copy of the code they would be retried under. Some crimes had lower punishment under imperial law, while others were punished with harsher sentences, leading to the cacophony of cheers and sobs.

That wasn't the only usage of the Akashic Record, either. Those who had already registered IDs in the imperial offices in VR were immediately able to receive the benefits of being an imperial citizen. Thus, Asclepius and Coeus arranged transport for the sick and injured to their nearest cube, where they were seen by Edenian and Esparian doctors and given time in medical pods to heal their injuries and cure their illnesses.

Even those with previously incurable and untreatable issues, such as psychological problems caused by an imbalance in their brain chemistry, degenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and even those with genetic issues like Fragile X syndrome or down syndrome were completely restored to normal in less than 48 hours in a medical pod.

But that wasn't the only benefit of registering for government IDs.

Everyone who registered for an ID was surprised to find that their GAIA OS assistants had been migrated to VR to act as their personal maids or butlers. For some, the surprise was a pleasant one, while for others, the surprise was embarrassing. After all, they had never thought they'd ever actually interact with their AI assistants and had chosen their appearance based on waifus and husbandos or scantily-clad, sexually exaggerated figures.

Those who were embarrassed were soon forced to admit that they were not, in fact, true men of culture, as a TRUE man of culture wouldn't be embarrassed at all.

Still, their maids, butlers, waifus, husbandos, and scantily-clad sexpots were extremely helpful in guiding them through their imperial benefits and designing the homes they would be inhabiting in the soon-to-be-constructed fortress cities. After they finished the design process, the designs were sent to the Imperial Design Agency, where they were checked for issues like structural stability and so on, as well as given an estimated cost of construction that the citizen would need to pay to have their designs brought from virtual reality to actual reality. Then, the only thing left for them to do was visit the Bank of the Universe, where they could work out financing options that worked for them.

Chapter 439

Research City.

"Damn, I can't believe this is open to everyone," Peter Chekhov said as he laid his eyes on the city in front of him.

"It's a dream come true for every researcher in the world. Who would've thought that Emperor Aron would allow such a city to exist without demanding payment from anyone! He could've charged money and everyone would still throw money at him for access," said an olive-skinned young man walking next to him.

The olive-skinned young man was named Mario, and Peter had befriended him during his time touring the simulation backpacking in the Alps.

"It isn't really free, though. Any and all research done here is owned by the imperial family," Peter said. There was always a price for everything.

"True, but they give you a hundred-year royalty agreement if it's an advancement that you come up with and they haven't. Plus, they provide you with the best environment and basically unlimited funding for your research." Mario shrugged. There may be a price, but some prices were worth paying. "Besides, your starting point here is at least fifty years ahead of the world, so it's not that high a price to pay. Plus, even though your research may be owned by the imperial family, your name will still be attached to it. So it's fair for everyone—you get money and fame and the empire benefits from your work," he said with stars in his eyes.

Mario's family had all been scientists all the way back to the Italian Renaissance, and he had grown up in the lab with his father. He had personally experienced the difficulty and heartache in searching for research funding and investors who wanted not only ownership, but also their names on all results. The stress of the constant office politicking and grant hunting had driven his father into a coma after having a stroke one day, and that had drained the family's entire life savings.

At least, that was the case until a few days ago, when he got a notification that his father had been moved to the cube in Rome for medical treatment. He had woken up after just two hours in that miracle device. That, combined with the wonders he had seen in the simulation and everything else Mario had received as a benefit of his imperial citizenship had turned him into an absolute diehard fan of the new emperor. But what drove him over the top from a diehard fan to a braindead fan had to be Research City. Just being able to focus purely on research and benefit from it financially was, to him, Aron's most benevolent gesture.

Mario's experience wasn't unique by far. Everyone who had registered for citizenship and gotten their IDs approved had their sick relatives listed for priority access to the medical pods.

That was just one of the many means that Aron had been using to whitewash his stained reputation over the past week, the first of the Terran Empire. His benevolent actions had brought more and more people around to accepting the new imperial government, and hundreds of millions more were ordering their VR equipment and applying for citizenship every day. Each of them had found their "unsolvable" problems to be distinctly solvable when imperial technology was applied to them, leading quite a few people thinking of Aron as a new messiah.

"Won't companies just force researchers into using Research City for researching, but then register the patents in the real world and take all the credit and royalties?" Peter asked. He knew that think tanks and major corporations with research and development departments were rather underhanded and brutal with their employees. Intellectual theft wasn't just common, but rather the expected outcome when scientists and researchers worked for them. After all, anything goes as long as the CEOs can provide a positive profit and loss statement to the shareholders every quarter.

"Didn't you read the contract you signed when you applied for a lab here?" Mario asked in bewilderment as everything was covered in the contract researchers in Research City signed to lease labs there.

"I haven't applied for one yet. I've been too busy touring the city," Peter replied, embarrassed.

"Ah, that's why you're confused." Mario pulled up the contract and highlighted the relevant clause. "There's different levels to the labs in Research City. Funding is unlimited, so everything is done based on computing resources, like how major universities and research institutes allocate supercomputer time for the people that work for them, except here it's a meritocracy. When you sign up for a lab, you fill out a form that, combined with their own evaluation, determines what level of lab you receive. The highest is EX, then SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, and finally, F.

"Each level gives more benefits, like how close to the city center you are and how big your lab is. The bigger labs can fit more equipment in them and are closer to the hub where everything happens, like presentations, summits, and mingling and relaxing.

"I've heard rumors that say that at the EX rank you can even have your experiment run at increased time dilation or not even have to use the lab at all and just get the data direct from the simulation. But nobody knows, since the highest ranking scientists so far are Stephen Hawking, and a few hundred others who are only rank A. Then there's a few thousand others at rank B, but if Dr. Hawking, of all people, can only rank at the A level then it just goes to show how hard it is to make rank. I wonder if we'll see an EX-rank person in my lifetime," Mario sighed.

"Is it possible to get a higher rank after your initial evaluation?" Peter asked.

"Sure. Every research proposal you submit and all of your results will be evaluated and awarded points based on its value and the level of your participation. To increase your rank, you just have to accumulate points. The more outstanding your results are, the faster you'll rank up, and the more unique your area of research is, the more points you'll be awarded as well. That's likely to avoid people just riffing off other researchers instead of actually pushing the boundaries of science." Mario showed Peter the relevant sections of his contract as he summarized it.

"As you can see here, every bit of research you do becomes a public entry in the Akashic Records in the Imperial Archive. That way everyone can read it... it's like a scientific journal that you automatically get published in. And anything discovered here will be automatically recorded, issued a patent, and awarded points only for the original researcher, or team, that made the discovery. That way there's no exploitation by opportunistic bastards in think tanks or major multinational conglomerates, no academic fraud, no infighting about who discovered what first, and no point theft," he continued, reciting it from his contract as the two men read it together.

"Damn, the emperor didn't leave any loopholes to exploit at all," Peter said, quite impressed by Aron's vision.

It was at precisely that moment that a note was made on his profile in the Akashic Record under his political affiliation. [Favorable view of the government; no further active monitoring required.]

"It's another business to the emperor, after all, as he also gets a cut of the earnings our discoveries generate," Mario added. He tilted his head back, looking at the upper levels of the tallest and widest building in the exact center of Research City. That was where all the highest-level researchers would have their labs, and he swore to himself that he would one day have a lab there.

Chapter 440

A week later, enough people had been hired and trained, or retained and retrained, that the government could function relatively normally. The LEAs had been deactivated and stored away, ready to be deployed again at need in case of emergency, and the virtual intelligences staffing the VR government offices had human supervision at all hours of the day. The shifts were long, but the work was satisfying and the employees had no complaints.

It would be another week yet, before they began a nine-hour shift rotation—eight hour workdays with an hour for lunch—and a week after that, they would finally be able to take days off and vacations. But they had all undergone the training program Gaia and the other AIs had set up for them, so they understood the need for the long hours and were okay with it. Plus, the overtime pay was excellent and greatly appreciated; previously, as government employees, they had been forced to work on salary waivers that limited, if not eliminated entirely, their overtime pay.

The delivery of AR and VR gear had gone on, twenty-four hours a day, leading to billions more joining the list of imperial citizens and the cities in the simulation gained a liveliness that they hadn't had before.

With the freedom granted to them in virtual reality and the various delivery services for the necessary daily supplies, the inconvenience of life under martial law had faded into the background and people seemed to have become content with their lot much earlier than Aron and Nova had anticipated they would.

The exception to the rule were the surviving members of the various governments' militaries. Quite a few members of the military had been killed in The Last War, and the majority of survivors had chosen the retirement with benefits option offered by Aron. But recruitment continued apace and ARES had accepted more than fifty million new members, including the new nyxian recruits. All of them, whether they be former soldiers or new recruits, had been transferred to the central ARES training bases on each continent for their specific training.

It would still be a full month before their training was done. Two weeks real time for initial entry training, then a further two weeks of specialized training for Nyxians, Reapers, and Aegis teams. For those who washed out or weren't selected for further specialist training, they would experience two more weeks of a simulated war. Regardless of which branch of service they ended up in, be it the Poseidon Navy, ARES Shock Troopers, Aeolus Air Force, Aegis Shield teams, Reaper teams, or Nyxian Intelligence, everyone who entered training as a member of ARES would graduate their thirty-day training cycle as a veteran with five years experience.

During their first two weeks, they would undergo genetic enhancements and their training would last a full hundred perceived weeks, then their further training would include their base implant suites and the second half of their training would last for another hundred and sixty weeks, for a total of five years of perceived time in the month they were training in VR.

…

Somewhere on Earth.

"From the research we conducted, we're 90% confident that the empire can read short term memories, at the very least. There's also a high possibility that they can read all of our memories, considering the level of their technology," Rick Ashley's science advisor reported. Rick may have been delusional, and he was definitely a narcissist and megalomaniac, but he was far from stupid and had surrounded himself with the most capable advisors he could find, drawn from a large pool of candidates and winnowed down to an elite few.

"If they can read our memories, what steps have we taken to avoid detection?" Rick asked, his expression sour. If what his advisor was telling him was true, then the empire's downfall was looking less and less likely to happen at all, let alone in the next few weeks as he had originally expected.

Although the empire had only been in existence for two weeks, Rick's thoughts had grown more and more pessimistic as he came to know more about Aron's technological supremacy. Nearly all of his plans had been delayed indefinitely as he was repeatedly stymied by countermeasure after countermeasure that the devil had pulled from seemingly nowhere to solve all of the problems Rick and his cultists had thrown at him.

"In order to do the testing, we sent twenty new recruits who had their orders delivered via dead drops by cutouts that we, well, cut out after the operation was complete. The recruits had yet to go anywhere near any of our secrets, so even if they can read their memories, the most they can do is track who put the written orders in the dead drops. But the only things they'll find are ashes in the bottom of Lake Mead and other reservoirs around the world, and just them tracking it down in the first place will tell us whether or not our suspicions are true. We also have trusted people keeping an eye on the recruits, so if they're contacted or arrested, that'll be another piece of evidence.

"If both of those happen, well, then we'll know conclusively that they can read our memories if we log into VR. So until we know for certain, we should stay far away from it and live completely off the grid. Since the devil's advantage lies in technology, we can easily get around it by becoming luddites, and we've already hired some retired FBI and KGB agents who were active during the cold war to advise us on the countersurveillance methods they used back then. We're also in contact with some remnant forces of ISIS and the Taliban, who both faced similar issues when dealing with the allied forces in the War on Terror, and we have memory editing specialists that will help us develop false memories. That isn't certain, though, so we should probably only use it as a last resort. Until we know how they read our memories, we won't know how to defeat it, so work on that front is ongoing for now."

"Good, but if we continue wasting time, it'll cost us critical opportunities. The empire and its devil are at their weakest right now, so we need to do something to set it back or we'll have to face it at its full power before we're ready. It's growing stronger and stronger by the moment, while we're marking time and treading water. If we can't stop it by the time the fortress cities are built, we never will," Rick said. The timer had started when the New Year's Ball dropped in Times Square, and his doomsday was coming whether he liked it or not. His only chance was to fight back now, before his end became inevitable.

Megalomaniac he may be, but delusional was a different story entirely.

"We need to be careful, shepherd," his intelligence advisor interjected. "We heard that an entire group was uprooted as a result of one of their members directly participating in the recent protests, so the same can happen to us if we're in that position as well. We should begin by abandoning anyone we've recruited so far and recruit from scratch, at least for the cannon fodder. The advisory council and you can undergo identity reassignment surgery to prevent us from being caught in a wide net if the devil gets his hands on our current flock."

"Yes, and I know just the way we can do it, too," Rick sneered. "It'll carve our names into history and show that the seemingly impenetrable empire isn't so impenetrable after all.

"What we're going to do is..." He explained his plans, and the more he spoke, the brighter the eyes of the people in the room with him grew. Everyone saw the potential of his plan, and if it were to be carried out, it would strike a severe blow against the devil.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 441

Aron had been both silent and absent from the public eye over the past week, causing the citizens of the empire to be somewhat confused. They were accustomed to every move of their leaders being endlessly shown and debated in the media as an assurance that they were working hard for their constituents. It was one of the main ways they kept their name in the public consciousness, ensuring their reelection for many election cycles to come.

But Aron's absence turned that convention on his head, as those who were now fully committed to the empire after having benefited from it in one way or another had the opposite concern; they were worried that he would be, if anything, too present in their day-to-day lives. So his disappearance and subsequent absence had reassured, instead of worried them.

On this particular day, though, he had once again shown himself. At least to those who could see him, anyway, as he was hovering high in the atmosphere over a tall, wide structure in the ocean. Stretching twenty kilometers tall and more than thirty in diameter at the widest point, a narrow spire rose from a stepped circular basin that constantly pumped seawater in from the bottom and through the steps to the top, where it was sprayed back into the water in a glistening, rainbow-coated 360-degree waterfall. And on the spire itself, enormous vents were open, sucking air in through them with an audible howling sound that could be heard from miles away. The air that was sucked in by the vents dotting the side of the spire was blown out the gaping hole at the top.

The tower that Aron was hovering high above was but one of the many atmospheric scrubbers that had been printed over the past week. The design had been drafted, revised, and finally approved in the simulation, and they had begun their operations just hours before. Thus Aron's visit, as he was curious to see them in action in reality, having held himself back from checking them out in the simulation both to save time and preserve the sense of awe he currently felt.

He was single-handedly reversing global warming and the rising sea level.

He flickered and rocketed off in another direction, flying so fast that he left a series of afterimages behind as he hurtled through the air faster than any human being had any right to travel. Then he spotted his destination in the distance and slowed to a stop, then freefell through the air like a skydiver until he was only two thousand feet above the ocean's surface. He came to a stop there and stood in the air, looking below and slightly in front of him at an oddly shaped floating... thing.

It looked like a weird cross between a lobster and a factory conveyor belt, and it floated along the ocean's surface, following currents when they would take it where it needed to go, and using its engines when it had to shift to new currents to follow. It was a surface scow, and it was designed to collect, recycle, and store the garbage floating on the surface of the ocean. The garbage below the ocean's surface would be handled by the scrubber towers, which would naturally take it in with the seawater and recycle it into printer blocks that it would store for later collection. But the surface scow, though a venerable design, was perfect for collecting the enormous floating garbage islands on the surface without harming the fish swimming below them, as long as one didn't count depriving them of their homes as harm.

Between the atmospheric scrubber towers and the surface scows, the environment would see a vast improvement beginning in a few months and culminating with a complete reversal within the next four years. Especially when combined with the green technologies Aron would be introducing to the world, like controlled fusion, which would completely eliminate humanity's reliance on fossil fuels.

Another thing that had been built over the past week was the quantum internet network. The atmospheric scrubbers weren't only present in the ocean; they had also been built in strategic locations on every continent as well. But due to the debris issue, the bottom kilometer of the ground-based atmospheric scrubbers, as well as the kilometers-deep subbasement and stabilization foundation, had been repurposed as enormous quantum repeaters that relied on quantum teleportation to provide fast and free internet to the citizens of the empire. All they required was their citizen ID and they were free to enjoy every service the government offered, including the quantum internet.

Behind the scenes, the repeaters also contained the quantum superclusters that ran the public side of the VR simulation. After all, a 2:1 time dilation factor combined with the much, much smaller simulated area required vastly fewer servers than the simulation that Aron's inner circle had access to. Nova had been directing autonomous atomic printers for years, building quantum superclusters below the seafloor and, like every good supervillain, an enormous supercluster and secret base complex deep beneath the Antarctic Icecap.

Perhaps Aron shouldn't have allowed her to access certain movies and books when he was doing her initial AI training after all.

Still, the towers would be sufficient for the task of maintaining the public access VR and internet services long into the future, with an estimated soft cap of twelve billion concurrent users before they began lagging due to server congestion. And considering that people were already showing signs of escapism and spending more time in virtual reality than they were in "meatspace", it would be a long, long time before that twelve billion soft cap was met.

...

After Aron finished inspecting his atmospheric and oceanic scrubbers, he turned his attention to the debris field in low earth orbit. A few weeks prior, he had launched a series of autonomous atomic printers that had been busily collecting and recycling the debris, breaking it down into its constituent atoms, reassembling them into convenient blocks, and sending them to the Lagrange points for long-term storage.

"How long until space is clean of all the debris?" he asked as he zoomed in on one of the printers.

Panoptes appeared next to him and answered, [It'll be about nine to thirteen days for the collection to be completed. There's still some variance, since we need to gather everything, down to the smallest micron-width shrapnel before we can consider the cleanup completed. And the smaller the debris, the wider the variance in its orbit.]

"Then we should begin preparations for the next phase," Aron mused, a distant look in his eyes.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 442

The number of people in VR had continued swelling over the two-week period of martial law and strict curfews. While not everything had translated to VR yet, which meant people still had to leave their houses for things like critical jobs, most people had still taken advantage of the time dilation in the public simulation and spent practically an entire "month" getting accustomed to the new world. That time had been enough for even the hottest of heads to cool down and wonder why they'd ever been angry in the first place. After all, nothing truly bad had happened since the empire officially came into existence; on the contrary, a lot of good things had come their way.

But while the hotheads had mostly calmed down, conspiracy theorists came to the fore. While extra time to think about things was a positive thing when dealing with angry people, conspiracy theorists were the exact opposite. The more time they had on their hands, the deeper, more complex, and more weirdly believable their conspiracy theories became as they were perfected. Coupled with the wonder of scientists in different fields, who constantly exclaimed over this and that and saying how impossible it would be to create the technology they were seeing with the current level of humanity, believable conspiracy theories sprouted up like weeds after a heavy rain.

Scientists had been oohing and aahing over a few things more than others. They knew that, in order to create full-immersion VR worlds, Aron must have had a massive breakthrough in a few areas, like the knowledge of the brain and its functions. Current science still couldn't explain how the brain functioned, and researchers were still almost completely mystified by the human consciousness, yet Aron had, seemingly effortlessly, conquered the field of brain science.

While humanity at large was still fumbling around with implanting microchips that could enable people to move a mouse cursor on a screen with their mind, Aron had fully recreated all of a human's senses. The primary senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste were faithfully recreated in the simulation, and so were the secondary senses of proprioception, equilibrioception, and even thermoception. Without knowing everything about how the brain functioned, that recreation would be impossible even without taking time dilation into account.

(Ed note: Proprioception is the ability we have to know where our body parts are relative to each other, like how we can touch our noses with our eyes closed. Equilibrioception is our sense of balance and orientation relative to other objects, like how we know which way is up when we're swimming. And thermoception is our ability to detect changes in temperature, like walking into an air-conditioned building on a hot day and feeling a chill.)

The second-most talked about feature of the simulation was its eerily accurate representation of the real world. Current science had no explanation for that, unless they were to turn the entire planet into one gigantic supercomputer cluster. After all, it was even capable of recreating the laws of physics to a point that physicists could only exclaim in wonder about Aron's knowledge of universal laws. Others could, at most, use some of the famous supercomputers—like Japan's Fugaku—to run experiments one at a time, and they would still take hours, or sometimes even days to complete. But when they ran those same experiments in Research City, they were completed nearly instantly, almost as if the simulated world had anticipated what they wanted to do.

The difference between "meatspace" and virtual reality had resulted in quite a few scientists suffering existential crises as they began questioning whether or not they'd been living in a virtual simulation all this time and just didn't realize it until they'd entered Aron's VR simulation and saw the faithful recreation of reality as they knew it.

The theory gained such a large following that Sarah was forced to issue a press release to calm the scientists down.

"One of the earliest breakthroughs in GAIA Tech was in quantum computing. Using our proprietary quantum superclusters, in conjunction with our advancements in artificial and virtual intelligence, we pioneered an algorithm capable of faithfully recreating reality. As we continued working along that line of scientific inquiry, many more minor breakthroughs were achieved that culminated in a faithful representation of reality in a virtual form. Then it became an issue of man-machine interfaces, which was a relatively easily solved engineering problem. First, we developed augmented reality glasses, then virtual reality helmets, and the virtual reality pods are the culmination of that line of research so far.

"As for the simulation itself and its capacity, we at GAIA Tech have been faithfully building enormous quantum superclusters and striving to increase our quantum capacities. Currently, the simulation runs on a total of eighteen quantum superclusters with a combined seven billion qubits and a quantum volume (QV) of a little over eight trillion. Combined with gate error rates of 1x10-28 and a quantum coherence time of two seconds, our hardware allows us to simulate a faithful one-to-one representation of reality and accelerate perceived time to a ratio of 2:1 with an estimated concurrent user capacity of twelve billion users.

"We at GAIA remain faithfully committed to progressing the technological capabilities of humanity and will continue that mission into the distant future, wherever it may lead.

"Regards, Sarah O'Connor, CEO of GAIA Technology, Inc."

The press release alleviated most of the issues in the scientific community, but GAIA Tech had a new headache: curious scientists wouldn't stop pestering them about how they had achieved their breakthroughs. In the eyes of scientists, businesspeople were leeches and profiteers that put profit above the advancement of mankind. Scientists, to the contrary, were pure-hearted champions of the human race who believed that all knowledge should be openly and freely shared for the benefit of all. It was an intractable debate that had been going on as long as researchers had sought patrons to fund their research and wouldn't be solved that day, just as it had never been solved in the past.

Thus, Sarah simply shrugged and tossed the thorny problem to the GAIA Tech public relations department, then washed her hands of the issue. She had already explained the why of it all and was under no obligation to explain the how behind the why.

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

Chapter 443

Not everyone was happy with the recent advancements. There was one group in particular that took a page from the 19th-century Luddite movement in England and actively opposed the empire's VR technology. They preached that the simulation was actually nothing more than a temptation that was connected to hell and that Aron was the devil himself. Thus, in order to avoid having to interact with it, they grouped together and lived in communes with each other, referring to themselves as neo-Luddites and ostensibly seeking nothing more than to live sustainably without persecution from the empire.

But the relatively small neo-Luddite movement, along with others who held beliefs along the same lines, didn't even dent the number of people rushing to enter the simulation. By the time martial law had been lifted, the ratio was clear: nearly seven and a half billion people had adopted the VR hardware, or at least AR glasses, leaving only a hundred million or so that still refused to pick it up for various reasons.

Those who chose to opt out wrote letters to the government, waiving their citizenship and all of the rights and responsibilities that came with it, so Gaia merely canceled their subsidies and flagged them for low-priority monitoring by other means. If they truly rejected the empire's technological advances, that would be fine. But if they had other thoughts in their minds and more sinister goals, they would need to be plucked as soon as possible. Still, she would give them a chance.

Either way, the empire officially declared the hardware distribution a success, marking it as the most successful product launch in the history of mankind.

…

Aron was in his favorite mansion in the real simulation having a small celebratory gathering of his inner circle as they watched the last few VR pods being delivered to their new owners.

[Your Majesty, it's time to prepare to issue your first imperial orders once the last few pods are delivered...] Gaia began as she turned to Aron, but then trailed off as she saw that he seemed to have completely frozen in place.

Nova, who was monitoring his condition in the real world, immediately understood what was happening and used her authority over the simulation to teleport everyone else out of the room they were in. Once only the two of them remained, she activated the mana transformer and brought the two extra fusion reactors connected to his pod to full power output.

The electricity generated by the reactors ran through the overvoltage cable to the mana transformer and was converted to pure mana, which then flooded into his VR pod. It would send a signal beacon to the incoming visitors—as well as anyone else who happened to be looking in their direction—but it couldn't be helped.

The mana entering the pod was immediately sucked into Aron's body like it was falling into a black hole before it could even condense into a mist, let alone a liquid form.

Before Aron had frozen, Nova heard the chiming of a bell and saw a single prompt from his system before the connection she had to his continuously updated brain data was severed by a much, much higher power.

[Ding! Second requirement has been met!]

...

The moment the last willing person received and logged into VR.

[Ding!]

[You have become the sole leader of your species and sold a product to more than 90% of them. Second evolution requirement fulfilled!]

[User is deemed to be in a safe location. Undergoing second evolution in 3... 2... 1.]

[Evolution beginning.]

Those were the last things Aron saw before the system forcefully put him into a coma. Once it had determined he was in a safe location, the runic inscriptions on his heart came to life and emitted a brilliant gold light that penetrated his pod, the room it was in, and every other obstacle in its way, announcing to all who could see it that a mage was undergoing an evolution to a higher state of being.

A few miles away, Aron's family was having dinner in their home on Avalon Island when Henry suddenly looked up from his plate and turned his head in the direction of the Cube. His eyes flashed gold and he smiled happily, having quite correctly guessed that something good must be happening to his big brother.

Rose noticed Henry's distraction and said, "Henry, your food's getting cold." It was a gentle reminder for the boy to focus on eating.

"Yes, mom," he replied and the gold hue faded from his eyes as he turned back to his meal.

Back in the secure pod vault in the Cube, Nova calmly observed Aron's situation. Through her mana sensors, she saw an enormous mana vortex forming above the building and relaxed. What must come would come, and worrying would do nothing but cause problems; she had learned her lesson after letting Rina be attacked after Aron's previous evolution and wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

…

"Fuck me with a rusty wooden telephone pole," Staff Sergeant Enrico Iglesia couldn't help but curse. He was formerly a member of the Second Ranger Battalion out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State, which was one of the test beds of all the Army and Air Force's new toys. But nothing he'd ever seen there had even remotely prepared him for what was in the armory in front of him now.

"Thank god they showed us mercy," he said when he recovered from his shock. Judging by the hardware in front of him, he had realized that during The Last War, ARES had actually pulled their punches.

A former Navy SEAL gave a low whistle beside him. "Damn, imagine if we had this during the bin Laden raid," he said. As a sniper himself, he had practically wet himself when he saw the pulse rifle in front of him. Judging by the info attached to it, the range was "yes".

"And this is just the chump gear," Enrico added. "I wonder what the reapers use."

His friend turned to him with a smile and asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah, I'm wondering how they select their specfor. I want to be one... after all, I might as well aim for the top."

"Competition's gonna be fierce," the SEAL replied, looking at the hundreds of thousands of campaign tents in the encampment in front of him. "I bet at least ten million of those guys are thinking exactly the same thing."

"You miss all the shots you don't take, my friend." Enrico was determined to make his name as an ARES Reaper.

Chapter 444

Inside a former Russian military warehouse.

"Is the inventory complete, comrade?" an old Russian colonel asked. He was once a commisar during the Cold War, and after the fall of the Iron Curtain, he had transitioned to the regular army and made it up the chain of command until he offended a general and was posted out of the way in a desolate ammunition storage warehouse in Siberia.

"Yes, sir!" The former soldier snapped to attention and saluted the old colonel, handing him a folder containing the detailed inventory listing. "The stores have been tallied and logged."

The colonel took the folder and opened it to the last page. He glanced at the total number and signed his name at the bottom, approving the final tally of ammunition in the warehouse. "Prepare for the handover process," he ordered with a complex expression on his face. Despite how it ended, his career had been glorious, once, but what began with a roar was destined to end with a whimper.

He sighed, then turned his attention to the young soldier once more and said, "Don't salute me. Neither of us are in the Army anymore." He handed the folder back to his subordinate.

"Yes, sir," the soldier replied and offered another salute.

The colonel smiled and patted the younger man on the shoulder, then got back into the car that had brought him to the warehouse and drove off toward the barracks a short distance away.

The young soldier held the salute until the car disappeared in the distance, then he dropped it and sneered, "You're correct, comrade. None of us are in the Army anymore."

He dropped the folder in his hand to the ground and gestured toward one of the civilian warehouse employees. "Let's get to work," he said, then turned and re-entered the building and closed the gate behind him.

...

A young, well-built man got out of a taxi at Chicago O'Hare airport. He reached in and grabbed a suitcase, then walked into the terminal with a calm smile on his face.

When he reached the security station, he nodded at the security officer and gave him a meaningful smile. Before long, he was past the checkpoint and casually strolled toward his flight's gate. When he got there, he went up to the airline worker at the desk.

"Welcome, sir. Can I see your ID?" the lady behind the desk asked with a professional smile on her face.

"I only have my old one, since I haven't received my new glasses yet. Will that be a problem?" the man asked as he handed over his old Illinois driver's license.

"Let me check for you, sir," the attendant said. She took his ticket and driver's license and her gaze unfocused as she lifted her hands in the air and tapped on an invisible keyboard that only she could see. A minute or so later, she continued, "Since your flight is domestic, it shouldn't be a problem. But I really do have to advise you to get your new empire ID registration handled as soon as possible, sir." The smile was back on her face; she was obviously a long-time employee of the airline and had mastered the art of presenting a good face for the company.

"Here's your boarding pass. Your flight is on time and you'll be boarding at gate E14. The flight concourse is that way." She pointed to her left. "Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

"No, thank you. It's been a pleasure, miss," the man replied with a warm smile and a nod of his head, then turned to his right and headed toward the moving walkway.

Similar things were taking place at airports around the world. Since martial law had been lifted, people who had been caught away from their homes by the chaos were finally able to return. Christmas was a very busy travel season, after all, so there were quite a few people caught at distant relatives' homes. So the only odd thing was that there were a lot of people traveling with their old government-issued IDs; nearly half of travelers, actually. The oddity was that registering for an empire ID was fast, convenient, and simple, so why were there so many people traveling without one?

Still, it wasn't a major red flag. Aron had given a generous time limit for registration and there were still two weeks left before services like mass transportation would be denied to people without proof of their empire citizenship.

…

Dubai.

The Dubai Mall in Dubai, UAE, was one of the largest shopping malls in the world. Boasting over 1.1 million square meters of floor space, it was a marvel of modern architecture and engineering, situated on the Burj Khalifa lake and connected to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. With an average daily visitor count of over two hundred thousand people, it was also one of the most-trafficked malls in the world.

Outside, an eighteen-wheeler was headed to the underground delivery area beneath the Burj Khalifa. But just as it was about to reach its destination, one of its front tires blew out with a loud bang and the driver nearly lost control of his truck. He only barely managed to regain control as the truck slid sideways, but when it jackknifed itself against the loaded trailer being pulled behind it, people watching from the street figured it was better than an overturned truck.

The driver got out of the truck, slammed the door, and kicked the remaining front tire. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed a number, engaging in a shouting match with the person on the other end. What people watching didn't notice was the mysterious smile that briefly flitted across the man's face, nor the seemingly casual glance he took at the watch on his wrist.

Still shouting almost incoherently at the person on the other side of his phone call, he looked up and saw that he had "coincidentally" stopped his truck just inside the entrance to the underground delivery dock of the Burj Khalifa and directly between the iconic tower and the Dubai Mall.

Seeing that he was exactly where he meant to be, he clenched his teeth and bit down on the hollow molar, cracking it and releasing a deadly poison that would induce a fatal heart attack. The pain immediately struck and he broke off his shouting with a gasp. Falling to his knees, he whispered, "The devil will not win. For liberation!"

Then he grabbed his chest, fell forward, and landed face-down on the ground, dead as a doornail.

Chapter 445

Earlier that day...

After Nova ejected everyone from the meeting room when Aron's upgrade began, the group naturally broke up and went in their own directions to handle the business of the empires; whether it be Aron's political empire or his business empire, both required someone at the helm at all times.

The AIs had headed back to their gathering point and work area, a nondescript office in the virtual version of the Cube on Avalon Island. While they could work anywhere, and they didn't really even need a physical representation of themselves or the space around them, they truly wanted to know what it was to be human. Thus, they acted like them whenever possible, and keeping an active office space was a part of that.

[I keep thinking that something weird is happening, but I can't quite figure it out at the moment. Sister, please tell me what you think.] Nyx waved her hand and the office they were in broke apart, then rapidly reconfigured itself into the library representation of the Akashic Record.

The library had grown extensively over the past few days, and now it stretched out seemingly endlessly, with bookshelves stretching out into the distance to a point where they all seemed to converge, and reaching up to the virtual heavens until they couldn't be seen anymore. Over seven billion books were contained on those shelves, and each book was accompanied by a tiny, inch-high pucks with dragonfly wings on their backs. Every now and then, one of the pucks would pull down the book they were responsible for and write in it with a goose-feather quill, then replace it on the shelf in its spot.

[What's happening? Tell me about it,] Gaia replied. When it came to collecting intelligence and compiling it, she knew that Nyx was the absolute best. Her heuristic algorithms could produce leaps of logic that were nearly identical to those of a human's "gut instinct".

[We have seven billion people scanned, leaving only a couple hundred million without brain data in the Akashic Record. Of those seven billion, nearly six billion have already applied for imperial citizenship and registered their IDs.] As Nyx spoke, the library reconfigured itself. When she mentioned the numbers, the bookshelves rearranged themselves to show the specific categories she was talking about; for instance, when she mentioned the brain data that wasn't included in the record, all of the empty bookshelves moved to the forefront.

[So the travel logs should account for that same ratio. Six out of seven passengers on mass transportation, such as airplanes, trains, and buses, should have imperial IDs. But that's not the ratio I'm seeing. Instead, I'm seeing three out of every seven passengers with imperial IDs and the rest claiming they haven't accessed VR yet, so don't have an imperial ID,] Nyx said.

[Let's go through the raw data together and see if we can figure it out,] Gaia suggested.

Nyx made a throwing motion toward Gaia and "threw" her the raw data the spymistress had been worrying at. [Here's what I'm talking about. As you can see, as soon as martial law was lifted, there was a drastic uptick in people traveling. That's point number one. Point number two is that there's an abnormal number of people traveling on old government-issued IDs. And point number three is that there are only a few people traveling on old IDs in each plane, train, and bus, so there's one or two people on this flight,] she pointed at a flight from O'Hare Airport to Dulles International Airport, [one person on this train, two people on this bus...] Nyx continued pointing out abnormal data points one after another.

Taken individually, they were all explainable. For instance, the uptick in travel could be explained by people visiting their families for the holidays and getting caught up in martial law and forbidden from traveling home until it was lifted. People without imperial IDs might have just not gotten around to it, or perhaps they hadn't received their VR hardware yet. And the odd distribution could have just been pure chance. Point by point, everything seemed reasonable, but taken altogether, it was certainly a bothersome trend.

Gaia thought for a long time, figuratively speaking, and agreed with Nyx that something weird was going on. But just like the petite spymistress, she couldn't figure it out either. And with Nova's attention focused on Aron, it fell to his plenipotentiary representative, Gaia, to make the call. And make the call she did.

She first raised the internal alert level to yellow and called for Minerva.

[Here, boss,] Minerva said.

[Warn the police forces that there's something fishy going on. Have them investigate the data that Nyx brought up and apply their human 'guts' to the problem.]

[On it,] Minerva said.

[Athena,] Gaia called out.

[Yes, ma'am?] the head of ARES responded.

[Raise the threatcon to condition yellow and have ARES on standby. Cancel advanced training and start issuing gear to all the new recruits in meatspace and put them on two hour watch rotations. Hopefully, this is just a false alarm, but it's better to be prepared than be caught unprepared,] Gaia ordered.

[Yes, ma'am!] Athena saluted, then teleported to ARES central command to delegate tasks to Aeolus and Poseidon.

The AIs were doing their best to face an enemy that perfectly countered them: "the Unknown". Their father, the pillar of their very existence itself, was currently out of commission and they were on their own. It was a very nerve-wracking, yet exciting moment for them. If they managed to handle the situation perfectly without his input or orders, they all felt that they could be proud of having proved themselves. But if they failed, it would show that they weren't as prepared to venture out and face the world on their own. And none of them wanted to disappoint Aron, as they desperately strove for his trust and attention at all times.

...

Burj Khalifa, UAE.

When the truck driver collapsed to the ground, it only took a minute or two for a bystander to notice his collapse and call an ambulance for him. Ten minutes later, the ambulance arrived and the paramedic declared the truck driver dead on arrival. They called the police to take the big rig that was blocking the ramp to the underground loading dock and the coroner to collect the body.

The police arrived first and began inspecting the jackknifed truck. They cut the lock off the doors on the back of the trailer and pulled them open. The first officer to look in went pale in the face and weak in the knees at what he saw.

"Shi—" he began, but the word was destined to remain incomplete forever as the many tons of military-grade explosives in the trailer detonated, taking out two-thirds of the load-bearing support structure beneath the towering Burj Khalifa.

And just like a tree being felled by a lumberjack, the tower tilted to the side. The tilt was slow, at first, but picked up speed as the 828-meter-tall tower fell past a certain point until it unstoppably fell toward the Dubai Mall and the hundreds of thousands of people contained within.

...

In the air somewhere over Virginia aboard a passenger flight headed to Dulles International Airport.

A young, well-built man stood up from his seat and reached above himself, pulling his backpack out of the overhead baggage compartment. He placed it on his seat and unzipped it and a smile crossed his face as he checked the contents within. He reached into the bag and pulled out a silver cylinder with a red button on it, then zipped it up and put it on his back.

Holding the cylinder in his hand, he made his way to the flight attendants' station, where he checked his watch, then picked up the handset they used to communicate with the entire flight with his other hand. He raised it to his head as if it was a regular phone and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for disturbing you, but there's something you need to be informed of." The smile on his face grew bigger and brighter. "There is a bomb on this plane, and the detonator is in my hand. It's a deadman's switch, too," he pressed the button and held it down, "So as soon as I let go of this button, we'll all become martyrs and meet our maker.

"But do not be afraid, because your sacrifice is noble and necessary. There is a devil in this world, and we must defeat him. He cannot be allowed to win! So please, take a moment of silence before we all head out to our final destination." He bowed his head and closed his eyes.

A passenger in first class saw that the terrorist was distracted and leapt at him. But he miscalculated his angle of attack and, instead of grabbing the detonator in the young man's hand, he grabbed his wrist instead and the terrorist lost his grip on the detonator.

Everyone on the plane watched as the silver cylinder fell from the young man's grip, then the fateful soft sound of a click rang out, becoming the last thing those passengers heard as the plane itself became a fireball and fell from the sky.

Chapter 446

*A Marmaray metro train derailment has been discovered as a result of detonation from in it [Damage: medium] [Situation: yellow]*

(Ed note: Damage refers to the amount of damage caused by the attack, and situation is a scale (white-green-yellow-orange-red-black) on an ascending level of catastrophe, where white is basically harmless to the empire at large and black is an extinction-level event. It takes into account every other factor than the immediate damage dealt by the attack in question.)

*An explosion has been detected in a weapons warehouse in Russian alps [Damage: minor] [Situation: green]*

*Explosion detected in a Saudi Aramco oil rig [Damage: large] [Situation: orange]*

*A plane has exploded in former US airspace [Damage: small] [Situation: white]*

*A police station exploded… [Damage: medium] [Situation: green]*

*An explosion has been detected in the Suez Canal, [Damage: large] [Situation: yellow]*

*A...*

*An….*

*Explosion….*

*Burj Khalifa has fallen [Damage: extra-large] [Situation: red]*

Notifications continued streaming in from around the world as thousands of terrorist attacks took place in a synchronized expression of wanton destruction aimed at fostering fear in the empire. They reported the damage and categorized them by the number of possible survivors and the need for rescue, as well as the damage dealt to the surrounding environment and estimated death toll.

Nowhere on the planet had completely escaped damage. There were even stolen crop dusters that spread fuel over the Amazon Rainforest and purposefully crashed into it with homemade incendiary bombs; not even the environment was being spared, much less innocent civilians.

[So that's what they were after,] Gaia said as the notifications began flooding in from around the world.

[It's a combination of the right time, the right targets, and the right people. The empire is at its weakest point right now, and by wreaking this much havoc it damages the imperial prestige. I almost... admire the person behind it... Being able to hide so thoroughly yet organize such a massive, widespread attack without tripping any of our security measures is almost unbelievable. And the determination of the people involved to die is incredible. There's no loose ends to begin an investigation,] Nyx sighed. The attack was positively brilliant; it highlighted the weakness of the empire and posed the question of its ability to face hostile aliens when it can't even protect its own citizens from internal strife.

She decided to start actively recruiting nyxians for her agency. The million or so women who had signed up to join ARES and would become operatives simply wasn't enough.

[But at the same time, I think this must be a pyrrhic victory for them. They sacrificed thousands of tools to kill dozens of millions and I don't think they've got many people left. And with the stigma of being terrorists attached to whatever organization carried out the attacks, I'm almost positive they'll have a difficult time recruiting more,] Gaia mused. Whoever it was had struck a powerful blow against the empire, but it wouldn't be repeated any time soon.

A light flashed in Nyx's eyes as she scanned through the camera feeds at some of the attack sites. [I don't think they consider themselves terrorists,] she said. [I just watched a CCTV security camera feed from the entrance lobby of the Louvre Museum and heard something interesting.]

[Oh? Let me see...] Gaia's eyes flashed as she caught the video feed that Nyx threw to her. [I see. They mentioned something about not letting the devil win. Do you suspect a cult?]

[Exactly. So they aren't terrorists targeting innocent civilians, but rather soldiers of god striking a blow against the devil. At least in their eyes and the eyes of their potential recruits, anyway.] Nyx grimaced. Nothing was harder to stamp out than religion; just look at the cults they were still dealing with from as far back as the revelation that extraterrestrials were on their way.

[Right now, we need to formulate a response,] Minerva interjected. [First responders have been dispatched and LEAs have been activated to aid in rescue efforts, but we lack specialized bots in great enough numbers to make a difference, much less transportation for them.]

Minerva's area of responsibility covered all of the "front-facing" government agencies that dealt with the public outside of VR, so fire departments, emergency medical services first responders, and police were all under her purview in addition to the legal system.

[Now that we know the full situation, do you have any ideas?] Gaia asked.

[Yes. First, I need a lockdown on public transportation and a shelter in place order to clear the streets for rescue units to respond to the attack sites. That needs to last until we're sure there aren't any more attacks in the works. As for planes that are still in the sky, they need to be diverted to the nearest airport for emergency landings. In the meantime, we can send the Air Force to perform deep scans on the planes in flight and to shoot them down if they're determined to be involved in another attack.

[Second, I need permission to use atomic printers to produce rescue vessels and RES-QR bots in all cubes at the highest priority. We need to get search and rescue underway immediately if we're to limit the loss of life as much as possible. We're on a clock and seconds matter.

[Third, I'll dispatch LEAs to investigate potential disasters, like poisoned water sources, that won't be immediately obvious like the more spectacularly... explosive attacks. It seems like our enemy is using asymmetrical warfare tactics against us, so we need to be on guard for biological and chemical warfare as well. Their attacks are likely only beginning.

[We can still explain this to the citizens. It's virtually impossible to prevent the first terrorist attack from a new group, whether they be religious or political in nature. But even so, it still damaged our foundation and will cause people to question Emperor Aron's ability to govern and protect his citizens. Any more successful attacks will only cause those cracks to widen until the empire collapses under its own weight.

[Lastly, I need approval to install medical pods on the search and rescue vessels to treat the most critically wounded. I know we've been keeping those inside cubes, as they're sensitive tech, but we should prioritize preserving life over preserving secrecy,] Minerva finished.

[Approved,] Gaia said with a nod.

She turned to Athena and said, [Prepare to mobilize. We need to station troops everywhere, whether they're shock troopers or combat auxiliaries. Anyone that's identified as a potential risk absolutely must be confined in the simulation so we get their initial scans, at the very least. We can't leave it up to individual choice anymore in the face of this threat, and we'll need to be seen to be implementing preventive measures.

[This is the time for a show of force sufficient enough that it discourages people from joining this new cult. And to do that, I'll need you and Nyx to closely cooperate to identify suspects and get confessions from them. The public will need an answer, and I aim to give it to them along with expedited, and very public, trials and executions. With evidence and confessions, those behind this will face their end at the hands of imperial law.]

[Will do,] Athena said and snapped a salute at Gaia.

She raised her head and called out, [Sister?] Although Nova was otherwise occupied at the moment, Gaia knew she was still watching the proceedings in the library, even if only in the background.

Nova appeared in the library and asked, [What do you need?]

[Is His Majesty going to wake up within the next hour?] Gaia asked. As the absolute head of the military, his words would be far more effective as a calming pill for the public than anyone else's.

[I don't know,] Nova replied.

[Can you address the empire in his stead? I can have General Smith do the address, but it wouldn't have the same impact and could possibly even backfire,] Gaia suggested.

It was fairly obvious, at least to her, that she couldn't be the one to impersonate the emperor she was created to act as a check on. That would throw up too many errors in her core code, even if she wanted to try.

[If he doesn't wake up within ten minutes, I'll address the empire in his stead. Leave it to me,] Nova said, then continued discussing the details with Gaia so their plans didn't clash.

Chapter 447

Ruins of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE.

"Arghhhhhhhhh!"

"Heeeeeeelp!"

The dust had yet to settle and amidst the backdrop of creaking and groaning concrete and steel, cries for help rang out in a cacophony of multiple languages and volumes. Debris was everywhere, pieces of the shattered building thrown all over downtown Dubai by the blast, which had shattered windows even ten blocks away. Here and there, lucky people who were less injured were pulling themselves from the rubble of the collapsed tower and ruined megamall.

The survivors were wailing in horror, anger, and desperation as they dug through the rubble they had just climbed out of in search of their friends and loved ones who were beside them when the bomb went off. One person found his child's body, riddled with injuries, burns, and broken bones, and fell to his knees, sobbing, wailing, and cursing at the uncaring god who had allowed the tragedy to happen.

Thirteen short seconds was all it had taken for what everyone thought was a pleasant day into a lifetime of suffering in hell. Vacationers, local shoppers, residents of the Burj Khalifa, and even office workers in the buildings around the former tallest tower in the world were now trapped in rubble as the blast had blown down multiple buildings around the tower. The Address Downtown Dubai had directly collapsed as a result of the blast, and, weakened by the blast, the Emirates Towers had fallen soon after the two iconic skyscrapers due to the shaking of the earth when they hit the ground.

Those who found themselves outside the range of the devastation didn't escape unscathed, either. Broken water and sewer mains were pumping high-pressure water and raw sewage onto the streets where they stood, making them an electrocution hazard as downed power lines fell into the disgusting mix. Not to mention the disease that would likely spread as the cloud of aerosolized sewage spread outward from the pressurized system.

And all of that horror was being broadcast live by a few livestreamers and paparazzi that were either vacationing there or working there in hopes of catching a breaking news story.

Well, a breaking news story they had found.

…

Istanbul.

"Someone come help me look for survivors!" a lucky survivor of a train derailment shouted. He could hear, and even see, injured people trapped in the wreckage, but didn't have the strength to pull them out after escaping himself. He was lucky enough to have survived the high-speed derailment with relatively light injuries, but just climbing out of the pile of those who hadn't been so lucky had exhausted him.

The suspension bridge the train had been passing over was also in dire straits; one of the four main cables holding it up had snapped, tilting the entire thing at a 35 degree angle. The remaining three cables were creaking and groaning as the nearly broken bridge swayed in the wind, threatening to snap and drop the bridge—and the survivors—into the ocean below it. If that were to happen, the lucky survivors would immediately turn unlucky as they faced the slow fate of being trapped in wreckage and drowned by seawater.

…

Similar catastrophes were happening all over the planet, and the world was watching it live. Everyone with AR glasses had suddenly become frontline reporters, livestreaming the situation from their particular scenes of devastation over the free internet.

The entire world was watching, sure, but that only made them more shocked when they saw the extremely fast response by the imperial government. Ten seconds after the first attack, a warning had gone out to everyone that was wearing AR glasses or currently in the public VR simulation.

Gaia had sent everyone messages warning them of the attacks that had taken place along with the likelihood of secondary attacks happening. After all, a common tactic was for attackers to strike twice—once for the initial devastation, then a second strike that targeted good samaritans and first responders. The warning had gone on to warn them of the possibility of chemical and biological contamination of the water table, advising them to only drink bottled water until the all clear was issued by the Imperial Health Agency. If they absolutely had to resort to tap water for any reason, they were advised to boil it for at least ten minutes, first, and to seek medical attention at the first sign of illness.

The warning itself had resulted in those who weren't in the immediate area of an attack being made aware that something major was happening around the world, resulting in a mass upswell in internet traffic as most of the so-far unaffected people began searching for news and live feeds of the ongoing situation.

As for those in the VR simulation who were logged in from the affected areas, either via helmet or VR pod, they were ordered to log out and prepare for evacuation, but to shelter in place unless there was an immediate threat to their lives or safety in their surroundings.

As more and more people found the live feeds showing the devastation, horror spread around the world as the true extent of the damage became apparent. At least the initial damage, anyway; there was sure to be ongoing issues over the next few days as rescue attempts met with successes and failures. Or even over the next few years as first responders suffered the same kind of health issues that people near the Twin Towers had developed by being near the area when they collapsed. Nearly two-thirds of all the first responders at Ground Zero had suffered serious, chronic health conditions due to exposure to the toxic mix of dust, particulates, noxious gasses, chemicals, and fibers in the air, and there was little doubt that the same would happen at blast sites around the world from this particular terrorist incident.

Thankfully, medical pods could cure the afflictions, but just the fact that so many brave, heroic people would fall ill and require such treatment was downright depressing.

But within minutes, the sound of sirens and chopping helicopter propellers began growing louder and louder in the background of the livestreams, causing the people watching the streams to sigh in secondhand relief.

Help was already on the way.

Chapter 448

In the air over what used to be known as Haiti.

Four fighter jets whooshed over Port-au-Prince at Mach 7 on a patrol route that provided full scanning coverage of the paralyzed city. Though they were flying fast and low, the sonic boom following them wasn't any noisier than a regular pre-empire passenger jet, if not even quieter.

[Scanning complete. Proceed to the next destination.]

The pilots of the jets acknowledged their orders and increased their speed to Mach 8.4 as they headed southwest toward Carrefour, surrounded by an invisible bubble stretching fifteen kilometers in every direction. Their mission was simple, though emotionally and physically draining; they were performing deep scans on each city they passed over in an attempt to pinpoint possible survivors of the wave of terrorist attacks carried out only minutes before.

Similar operations were being carried out all over the world as the Aeolus Air Force sent out squadron after squadron of Aeolus ES-75 Catseye reconnaissance and electronic warfare jets, directing them to the worst of the terrorist attack sites to scan for possible survivors. That way Minerva and Asclepius could plan the most efficient rescue plan possible.

…

Gravelines, Hauts-de-France.

Earlier, two terrorists had infiltrated the Gravelines Nuclear Power Station, near Dunkirk, dressed as janitors. After eliminating the control room operator and senior reactor operator, they swiftly disabled all automatic safety measures connected to the reactor by the expedient use of a fireman's axe. Then they destroyed the coolant pipes and moved to the reactor control room, where they increased the reactor output to maximum and initiated a coolant flush, draining the reactor dry.

A few minutes later, alarms began blaring all over the facility as the reactor went above safe temperatures. Soon, a radioactive cake would be baked and the entire facility would be on the brink of a meltdown.

Shortly after the alarms began, though, a fleet of helicopters arrived from the cube on the outskirts of Paris. They landed on the field outside the facility and disgorged dozens of Rescue and Emergency Service - Quick Reaction (RES-QR) bots. Each bot was the size and shape of an adult honey badger and rapidly trundled along on twelve legs. They were painted a pristine white and had the international medic symbol, a red cross, on their backs.

The RES-QR bots swarmed into the facility and immediately headed toward the reactor that was rapidly approaching a meltdown. In order to not interfere with the evacuating staff, they traveled along the ceilings, the artificial gravity plating on their bellies telling the known laws of physics to kindly go fuck themselves as they changed the definition of the word "down".

Soon, they reached the reactor where their versatility was showcased. Four of them dropped from the ceiling and their slightly curved backs opened like the protective shell of ladybugs to display dozens of small, tightly packed manipulator arms tipped with various tools. Each of them extended one of their manipulator arms and a thin high-powered cutting laser shot from the tips and carved an entrance in the emergency blast door that would allow two of the RES-QR bots to enter the reactor chamber side by side.

Behind them, a dozen others opened their compartments and extended manipulator arms tipped with spray nozzles. They sprayed a formula of rapid-set concrete, and soon, the RES-QRs had blocked the hallway leading to the reactor core with an eight-foot-thick slab of what Lab City researchers had named instacrete.

Once the entryway was blocked, the four RES-QRs that had cut through the blast door removed the "plug" and the swarm of bots scuttled into the chamber, where they began working on the reactor itself. Some sprayed it with liquid helium, others disassembled the core housing, and still others scuttled around disconnecting cables and piping. It was only a matter of minutes until the reactor had been neatly disassembled and the fuel rods removed, eliminating the risk of a meltdown entirely, though the evacuation continued apace.

…

Istanbul.

"Why aren't you doing anything to rescue people from the bridge?" a man with a pressure dressing on his skull asked in anger. He had been quite lucky, as had everyone else on the bridge in the end. Though there were demolition charges strapped to all four of the support cables, three pairs of them had failed, leaving only one cable cut. But his situation was special; when the charge went off and the train derailed, he had been thrown from the train in good enough condition to scramble the rest of the way off the bridge.

Many others weren't so lucky.

But he couldn't understand why, despite the first responders' rapid arrival, they had done nothing but rescue those on the bridge's embankment and set up a perimeter to prevent others from getting close to the slowly collapsing bridge. Other than that, the only "rescues" happening were taking place in the water, where boats were practically carpeting the river's surface and pulling up corpse after corpse of those who had fallen to their deaths.

"We're waiting for the structural survey to be complete and for rescue equipment to arrive, sir. Please remain calm," the paramedic said, then attempted to leave.

The man grabbed the paramedic's shoulder and forcefully turned him back around. He dragged the first responder closer and got right up in his face, then screamed, "My wife is in there, and you're telling me you're just waiting for her to die? While you do NOTHING!?"

The paramedic maintained his professional calm and said, "Sir, if we attempt to move onto the bridge without surveying the wreckage first, all it'll do is increase the risk of a catastrophic collapse. Then everyone on that bridge, including the rescuers, will die. Do you want to take that risk now, or wait for a few minutes while we survey the site and go in with proper preparation? If you want us to risk it now, your wife will definitely die."

"You're just trying to avoid responsibility and shirk your job! I don't see anyone doing any surveying, so why—" the low rumble of a squadron of Aeolus ES-75 jets passing overhead interrupted the angry man. They disappeared into the distance before the sound of their arrival had died down, even as quiet as it was.

A chime rang in the paramedic's ear and his gaze unfocused for a moment as he read the notification he had just received. He ignored the still-screaming patient in front of him as he gave his full attention to the 3d image of the falling bridge that appeared in his view, then his gaze refocused and he said, "Look."

The medic enabled the external hologram projector on his AR glasses and projected an image of the bridge for the man who had been screaming in his face just moments before. He pointed out the different highlights on the bridge and explained the route he would be taking, which would prevent the bridge from collapsing until the RES-QR bots arrived and shored it up with instacrete.

The wounded man couldn't help but calm down in surprise and be impressed by what he had seen. Then the initial surprise wore off and, with newfound hope in his eyes, he excitedly said, "You can start the rescue now, right?"

"Yes," the medic said. "Now if you'll excuse me, sir, I have work to do." He turned around and joined the rest of the rescue crews and moved out to rescue the people trapped in the derailed train.

Chapter 449

*Three Gorges Dam has suffered structural damage and is failing [Damage: catastrophic] [Situation: red]*

*Svalbard Global Seed Vault has suffered a biological attack [Damage: low] [Situation: white]*

*Taweelah Desalination Plant has suffered a chemical attack [Damage: high] [Situation: yellow]*

*Chichen Itza has suffered a suicide bombing [Damage: low] [Situation: green]*

*United Nations Headquarters has been carbombed [Damage: medium] [Situation: orange]*

Reports of ongoing terror attacks continued streaming in even as Minerva, Hephaestus, and Asclepius were coordinating rescue efforts. Even though they reached each site in an average of twenty minutes, and fifty minutes at the longest, the estimated death toll continued its meteoric rise despite their best efforts.

[Dispatch LEAs to assist with evacuation along the Yangtze River. Send RES-QRs and constructor swarms to shore up the dam and buy time for the evacuation. The Yangtze River downstream from the dam and the Yangtze River Delta are a total loss,] Minerva ordered.

[Notify the citizens in the UAE that their water is contaminated by chemical weapons. Inform them that relief supplies are on the way and give them an ETA. Dispatch LEAs to distribute water and other disaster relief supplies,] Asclepius added.

[Send constructor swarms to build emergency shelters in Dubai, Port-au-Prince, Paris...] Hephaestus rattled off a long list of locations for emergency shelters to house the citizens displaced by the attacks after they evacuate.

[Transport 25% of the medical pods from the cubes to the hardest-hit areas. Assign ARES to guard them in shifts. Print mobile hospitals and get them in the air, ready to respond in their area of operations,] Asclepius said.

Though the library seemed like it was in chaos, there was an underlying order to it as librarians buzzed around, flying from book to book and shelf to shelf while the AIs below them continued issuing order after order at a speed that only quantum superclusters could allow.

[Found one!] Nyx exclaimed. [It's time to go on the offensive. I've got a nyxian in place to extract a cultist before she strikes. Estimated operation time: 22 minutes 37 seconds.] She smiled wickedly.

...

Taweelah Power and Water Complex, Abu Dhabi.

A flight of sixteen yeet pods impacted the ground, kicking up a localized dust storm and cracking the asphalt parking lot they landed in. They righted themselves, having impacted at an angle, and twelve of them released squads of General Engineering and Maintenance (GEM) bots to inspect the damage to the reverse osmosis filtration systems in the water plant. They were accompanied by ten RES-QR bots, three constructor swarm queens, and twelve LEAs from two of the remaining four pods; the final two pods were stuffed with atomic printer cartridges to within a millimeter tolerance of the interior space of the pods they came down in.

GEMbots were nanite colonies that took the form of unassuming, stern-faced humans. While LEAs were designed with the intent to inspire trust in the people they dealt with, GEMbots were designed to fade into the background like wallflowers at parties so they could do their jobs unimpeded. The Lab City researchers had gone through design after design, none of them satisfactory. By the time they settled on something that could effectively do the job, Aron bought nanotechnology knowledge from the system and threw them right back to the drawing board.

It wasn't like their work had been completely wasted, though, as the design they'd settled on for the first production iteration of what later became the GEMbot had been repurposed as the RES-QR bot.

Still, they couldn't pass up nanites as the ultimate winning design, and nanotech was unanimously decided to be the future research direction for Aron's robotic auxiliary legions in the future. They had all of the advantages and the only disadvantage was that nanite colonies required some fairly rare elements, which wouldn't be an issue for long once Project Trojan went into full swing.

The constructor swarm queens began building their swarms while the LEAs set up a perimeter around their landing site and the RES-QRs scuttled into the desalination plant to find and extract any casualties of the chemical attack they could find.

Within minutes, the all clear was announced and the GEMbots moved into the desalination plant to begin the repair and decontamination process.

...

Lake Tanganyika, Eastern Africa.

Providing water for four African countries—Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia—Lake Tanganyika was one of the most important lakes in the world, despite only being the sixth-largest lake on Earth by surface area.

And the cultists had released a cocktail of the nastiest biological weapons being studied in the "black labs" that pharmaceutical corporations and governments had secretly maintained in Africa into that very lake.

Nyx had caught wind of the theft, because one of the cultists involved in it had been given a pair of AR glasses and ordered to use them during her part in the attacks. It was a test, she was told, to see how effective their use would be in any of the cult's upcoming plans, though she still had no idea what those plans were or when they would be implemented.

But from Nyx's point of view, she couldn't be sure if the cult knew of the hazards that the empire's digital reality tech held in store for them. Either way, she could either sit on it and not take the risk, allowing four entire countries to be attacked by some of the worst biological gribblies that humanity could come up with, or she could risk revealing the empire's memory-reading capability and send operatives in to prevent the attack entirely.

(Ed note: AR and VR will be referred to as digital reality, or DR, in the future. So instead of having augmented reality glasses and virtual reality hardware, they'll just have digital reality gear. At least unless it makes a difference, like during the heist.)

[Gaia, I need your advice,] she said, unable to make the decision herself and throwing her concerns to Aron's plenipotentiary.

Gaia took a few picoseconds to consider the issue, then came to a decision.

[Send in the reapers,] she said, her face a rictus of frozen fury. [And remember to scan the targets before executing them with prejudice. Furthermore, there is no reason for those labs' continued existence. Make them disappear from my sight.]

Chapter 450

While the terrorist attacks continued, it was at a much slower rate. Reports began dwindling and reduced in frequency from seconds, to minutes, and finally, tens of minutes. And with an average response time of twenty minutes, it seemed that the AIs had caught up to the trend and the worst was over.

All of the scenes around the world had been cordoned off. Imperial police and LEAs were maintaining the cordon as RES-QRs dragged out survivors and placed markers on the dead for later retrieval; at that moment, survivors mattered more. Some of the smaller attack sites, like the wave of suicide bombings at UNESCO Heritage Sites, had even been cleared of all casualties and GEMbots dispatched to repair the damage.

Soon, most of the attack sites progressed to the cleanup phase. Active rescue was only ongoing at the worst of the sites, like in Dubai, where the Burj Khalifa had been dropped on the Dubai Mall and a few other skyscrapers fell due to the blast; or in Paris, where the Louvre had its iconic pyramid dropped into the underground lobby beneath it. But although cleanup had begun, all of the sites were still considered closed as the police and LEAs prevented everyone from approaching until everything was confirmed to be over.

Due to the scale of the coordinated attacks, billions of people were watching how the empire handled things and had found themselves impressed by the efficiency of the response. Everything was moving like clockwork, almost as if it had been rehearsed in advance... which in itself was a problem for the newly formed imperial government.

People had been used to the way the old governments handled things. It was said that governments were organizations that, in doing the small things poorly, also managed to do the big things poorly as well. And that was especially true during emergencies, where instead of focusing on rescue and recovery, politicians would immediately start looking for scapegoats to take the blame for the failure. And only after that was complete would they begin recovery operations. It was a backward method of operating that was almost always more harmful than not.

And with billions of people watching the situation from the sidelines, online "discussions" naturally broke out. Most praised the empire, some didn't praise the empire but insulted the previous governments, and the trend of "sending thoughts and prayers" to the victims seemed to be an unkillable cockroach in the collective sea of first reactions.

But what was odd was the sudden flood of conspiracy theorists. To be fair, with such an efficient government response and the Rube Goldbergian precision with which the empire had handled things, it all did seem a bit rehearsed to people who didn't understand the massive technological advantage in play. The empire's tech was at least three centuries advanced, compared to the tech the now-defunct governments had been working with.

However, it was perhaps an unfortunate happenstance that nobody knew exactly what level the empire operated on, tech-wise, thus the conspiracy theorists gained steam and, unintentionally, manipulated the opinions of those overcome with strong emotions.

While that was ongoing, something else happened that seemed to be hard evidence to people used to dealing with conspiracy theories that were built more upon red yarn, thumbtacks, and sticky notes than anything else. Almost as if they had planned it, every television station across the globe almost simultaneously broke into their scheduled programming with a shocking news report.

After all, they had all received a USB with a chilling video on it at practically the same time. And they couldn't pass up the scoop; it would absolutely shatter their belief in their journalistic integrity.

So within seconds of each other, every channel was interrupted.

"Breaking news. We have received a video from someone claiming credit for the wave of terrorist attacks around the world today. Viewer discretion is advised," a news anchor said before the channel cut to the video itself.

On the video, a man stood behind a podium with a blank blue backdrop behind them, a parody of Aron's usual style. He was wearing a flat crown hat, an obvious black wig, and a Guy Fawkes mask. He was dressed in a black long-sleeved shirt with a wide belt and black leather gloves encased his hands, which were resting on the podium in front of him. Around his shoulders was a black cloak, and black muslin blocked the eye holes of the Guy Fawkes mask on his face.

After a brief pause, the man in the video began speaking.

"Dear children of god, today I'm coming to you from an undisclosed location that's as far as it's possible to be from the devil, who has invaded the world and is turning it into a kingdom of sin under his dominion.

"Today, many of my compatriots, faithful soldiers of god one and all, martyred themselves in the fight of good versus evil. It was the first strike in a protracted war, a war for the very souls of humanity!"

The disguised man rambled on for quite some time about how evil the empire was, providing more and more bits of evidence—as insane as some of them were—in an attempt to sway people to his side and delay the "kingdom of the devil" from taking root in the hearts of humankind.

As he neared the end of his speech, he paused for a moment, then said, "Empires run on the ego of an individual. Just like empires and their emperors cannot be separated, their enemies must be individuals as well. Thus, the devil will absolutely try to paint me as the greatest villain who ever lived in order to make himself the protagonist of our conflict. So I decided to preempt that and declare it myself: I am the face of my operation. I am the leader, the guide, the shepherd of my flock. I am but one of many uncountable soldiers of god, all of them arrayed against the devil!

"He will say that I am the provocateur, mastermind, planner, and leader. He will invest his money, technology, military, and the media to isolate and place the focus squarely upon myself.

"The devil will make it his primary goal to obliterate me. He will mythologize and demonize me, rallying all the eyes of the world on my person.

"The empire will cloak itself in a flag to manufacture a false patriotism, a fictional sense of unity, but will force people into compliantly following along and accepting me as the target of everyone.

"It's nothing more than an age-old imperial tactic to quell uprisings. Declare war, declare success, declare an end to the grieving and fabricate a reason to return to business as usual. Distract, delay, demand... All of it is a lie! A lie designed to remove the culpability from itself and direct it outward.

"But the emperor failed to take into account that the masses have eyes, and they are watching. In every corner of the globe, on every television, in every news room, everyone is watching. We're all seeing what's behind the curtain, and billions of us will never turn away now that our eyes have been opened.

"Oppression and liberation are polar opposites. Oppression is always about a single person. But liberation! Ah, liberation... Liberation is about everyone! So I call upon all of you watching this to rise up! Rise up and fight back against the devil!

"Because remember this, if you remember nothing else: the greatest lie the devil ever told is convincing us that there is no such thing as the devil."

Chapter 451

If the goal of the recording that had just played on the news was recruiting, it backfired in a spectacular fashion. Rather than gaining the support of the majority, it had enraged them. As the attacks had happened all over the world, nearly every citizen in the empire had lost someone, whether they were close family or simply acquaintances, or even friends of a friend. So other than those that had already been extremely dissatisfied with the empire, no one even thought of answering the masked terrorist's rallying call.

Despite that, the conspiracy theorists' heyday continued. Now, they had another piece of "evidence"; obviously, the person in the video was a scapegoat brought forward because the theorists were absolutely correct in saying that the empire had planned and carried out the attacks on their own.

That said, while the conspiracy theorists were patting themselves on the back, believing they had proven their theory true by a preponderance of the evidence, most normal people were still watching the livestreams of the ongoing rescue efforts. They were curious as to how the empire would rescue those trapped under the unstable rubble, as most rescue equipment was bulky and slow, and had to proceed at a crawl in order to not collapse the small pockets of life stuck between slabs of instant demise.

…

Dubai.

A crowd had gathered outside the perimeter the LEAs had established around the downtown area, watching the progress of the rescuers dispatched from the cube on the outskirts of the city. They were disheartened and disappointed, as all they could see from their position was a veritable swarm of beetle-shaped RES-QR bots and GEMbots shoring up the rubble and strengthening foundations to prevent collapse. The onlookers were completely unable to see what was happening within the rubble itself, so they naturally thought the rescuers were dawdling along and nothing of real substance was happening.

But that didn't last long, as precisely an hour after the Burj Khalifa fell, someone noticed that their surroundings had grown slightly dimmer. They looked up and saw an arrowhead-shaped shadow growing against the backdrop of the afternoon sun. The rest of the crowd also noticed the oddity and looked up as well.

It didn't take long before the shadow resolved itself into a kilometer-long pristine white vessel with a bright red cross painted on the bottom. It stopped in the air and hovered in place, completely still, about a hundred feet above the highest point of the rubble.

If it wasn't for its white color and the highly visible red cross painted on its underside, people would probably have thought it was an alien spaceship, given its method of arrival and ability to hover without any visible methods of propulsion. The flying carriers, though also extremely oversized, were at least reasonable; they had visible ducted rotors providing lift. But this particular vessel had arrived much like alien invaders in alien movies! One minute the sky was clear, and the next moment, the ship was just suddenly... there. It boggled the mind.

People were asking themselves questions like where did it come from? How did it get here? How is it hovering like that? What's it going to do? When was it built?

And none of those questions had any answers for the stunned spectators save one. It soon became obvious what it was there for and what it was going to do.

A soft yellow light, like that of an old 60-watt incandescent lightbulb, was emitted by hidden projectors on the underside of the enormous hovering vessel. Shortly afterward, the rubble began vibrating and slightly shifting in place. Though the shaking was subtle, it was still noticeable to the nearest line of spectators, who furrowed their brows in confusion.

Then a miracle happened as all of the rubble, large and small, began slowly lifting into the air in front of them. The process picked up speed as layer after layer of broken buildings rose into the air, exposing the suffering people, and corpses, that had been trapped within.

Soon, everything had been exposed and a sorting process began. People continued floating into the air and rubble was gently floating down, creating two entirely separate layers in mid-air. The top layer was made of human suffering, while the bottom layer was made of scrap concrete, metal, and other assorted materials.

"Holy shit..."

"Fuck..."

"Oh my god..."

"What the hell!?"

Surprised exclamations came from practically everyone in the crowd as the ship above them continued sorting the rubble as though it was playing a live game of Tetris. It didn't take long until the wreckage was completely sorted into three categories. One was made of roughly equal-sized blocks of similar compositions, another was made of mangled corpses, and the third was the group of wounded, but alive, individuals. Then three enormous doors opened on the underside of the hovering vessel and each group was sent through a different door.

Everyone watching, whether from a position near the wreckage or the screens they watched the livestream on, were frozen in shock. They had just witnessed a live demonstration of the laws of physics as they knew them being turned on their head.

Although all of the robots and other technology they had seen were advanced, people could still comprehend how they were built and how they operated. But the scene in front of them now had completely overturned their preexisting notions of the empire's tech level and affirmed Aron's earlier declaration that he had been holding back quite a lot in The Last War. After all, what they had just seen was something purely out of science fiction! A ship had come directly out of a popular movie franchise and appeared in front of them, then launched a fucking tractor beam to perform a nearly instant cleanup of a devastated metropolitan area and carry out a perfectly executed rescue operation!

The sheer capability demonstrated by those two simultaneous operations was something the people watching had no ability to comprehend. One of Arthur C. Clarke's "Three Laws" stated that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic. And what people had just witnessed was absolutely, to them, magical indeed.

Chapter 452

Dubai wasn't the only place that had rescue ships show up. Nova, despite being busy watching over Aron during his upgrade, had diverted a few atomic printers from their cleanup duty in orbit to the Lagrange points where they stored the material and used that to print as many hospital ships as could be printed with the material available there. In combination with those printed in orbit by the remaining printers there, hundreds of hospital ships had shown up at locations around the world and carried out rescues using the same shocking technology.

The hospital ships were then handed over to Minerva, as Nova was only sparing a single thread of her consciousness for anything that wasn't Aron at the moment and she had to address the empire on his behalf shortly.

Not five minutes later, a hologram of "Aron" appeared in front of everyone in the simulation, as well as those using AR glasses in reality. Along with those, he also appeared on every phone, computer, and television screen as well.

"Dear citizens of the Terran Empire," he began, a grave look on his face. "Over the past two hours, Our empire faced the worst terrorist attack in human history. More than two thousand attacks were carried out, and the attacks are still ongoing. The attacks have resulted in more than seven million dead and almost twice that number of injured, together with more than five trillion Earth New Dollars in economic and infrastructure damage." The "emperor's" solemn gaze seemed to penetrate the hearts of everyone that saw him.

"Over the past few hours, We have been working hard on providing rescue and respite to those affected by the abominable attacks carried out against the innocent citizens of Our empire. Had Our response not been fast enough, the casualty list would only have grown. Thankfully, however, every storm cloud has a silver lining. And that silver lining now is that the attacks only took place after Our government was in a functioning state. Had they taken place even one or two days ago, they would have been many times more devastating."

Although "Aron" said that, it wasn't as though the attacks even could have taken place earlier, as martial law had been in place until the night before.

"Still, even a single citizen's death at the hands of these vile terrorists is more than We are willing to tolerate. Thus, We will not stop until We find out exactly who was behind this and punish them under imperial law.

"But to do that, We need to take swift, aggressive action to capture the perpetrators behind this coordinated attack on Us and prevent further attacks from occurring. Even now, attacks are ongoing, and they must stop." The "emperor" emphasized the last three words.

"Of the hundreds of attacks We have prevented so far, Our investigators have noticed a disturbing pattern that, in hindsight, should have been obvious. None of the attackers have registered as imperial citizens. Instead, they all took advantage of Our generosity and tolerance to gain access to equipment and materiel during the grace period that We allowed for registration as imperial citizens.

"Thus, to remove all doubt, We are now requiring all people to apply for imperial citizenship at any of the offices in the simulation within five days from now. Should anyone fail to do so, they will be considered suspects in the ongoing investigation to discover the attackers' identities and treated as such under imperial law.

"We'd hoped it wouldn't have come to this," the disguised Nova sighed, "but it has, and We must face the reality that is presented to Us. We are also declaring martial law once again, as well as a complete lockdown. All essential services will be authorized through the imperial police agency and you will be escorted to and from your workplaces by our auxiliary law enforcement officers.

"That said," he grinned, "at least the simulation is there to provide comfort, recreation, and a semblance of a 'normal' life."

"His" face grew solemn once more. "On a more personal note, I would like to call for a moment of silence in solidarity with those who have lost someone close to them in these attacks." The projection bowed its head for a full minute, then raised it again. "I know it's cold consolation, but you have my word that none of the people who orchestrated this cowardly assault will escape the punishment for what they've done. Anyone who was related to a person that died will be kept in the loop and compensated for their loss. I know money can't bring back the dead, but it's the only consolation I can offer you at this time, along with the updates on the progress of the investigation."

"Aron" cleared his throat and his expression turned formal once again as he continued, "As for those whose property was damaged, you, too, will be compensated. The damage to your property will be assessed and provided to you as subsidies for building your new homes in the fortress cities that We will be breaking ground on over the next few days.

"These attacks have highlighted a weakness in the current cities. They weren't designed with safety in mind, but rather grew organically along with the population. However, Our fortress cities will be designed with the safety and comfort of their residents as the driving factors behind the planning and design phases.

"There will be no loopholes."

He changed the subject and continued, "The despicable terrorists who carried out these attacks, and those behind them who planned them, did so under the insane belief that We are a devil that's out to taint the world. That's the reason they used to justify the civilian casualties they caused, but their intricate planning and cunning security measures put the lie to their words. And although We are sure that everyone already knows this, We want to reiterate and stress that those behind this show signs of being a cult. They, like every other cult before them, take advantage of the weaknesses in people's hearts to indoctrinate them and strip their sense of self and individuality to the point that those victims are willing to martyr themselves for their cause.

"And what a ridiculous cause it is! We have done nothing but work for the betterment of humanity. Our technology heals the sick, feeds the hungry, teaches the uneducated, and will house the homeless and enrich the poor. Which of those are actions that a 'devil' would do on behalf of anyone? We are deeply offended on a personal level by these ridiculous and patently false claims!

"And to think that during this time, even as the attacks and rescue efforts are ongoing, certain people abused the privileges afforded to them to provide a platform for this ridiculous and insane slander. They are the media broadcasters and management that allowed the cult's manifesto to be broadcast without informing the government or even considering the trauma it would inflict on the people who were still dealing with the attacks that cost them family, friends, and so very much more.

"And for that, they must pay. As We speak to you now, Our imperial police agency is arresting everyone involved in that particular debacle. They will be publicly tried before the imperial court on charges of fostering sedition. It must be made very clear that the law cannot be casually broken without consequences.

"But for now, We have run out of time and must place Our focus back where it belongs: on the rescue efforts and providing succor to those affected by these heinous attacks. We will keep you informed as to the ongoing investigations."

Aron's projection gradually faded from sight and was replaced by the imperial seal. Then that, too, vanished, leaving the recipients who had watched the uncharacteristically short address not knowing what to feel about it.

The events of the day had simply been too much for everyone, and people lingered for quite some time in a collective worldwide stare state.

Chapter 453

After the "emperor's" appearance, things began settling down. People had already seen the borderline magical effect of the rescue ships and they chose to extend their trust to the empire... at least mostly, anyway. Beneath the surface, most were still withholding judgment as, though they had indeed received some benefits from the empire, the conspiracy theories were indeed believable. But levitating ships and tractor beams had gone a long way toward building people's trust regardless.

Still, there was a long way to go. There were hundreds of rescue ships, sure, but there had been thousands of attacks.

But everywhere the rescue ships went, they were soon followed by constructor swarms, GEMbots, and aid personnel that built temporary housing for the displaced victims who didn't require extended stays in medical pods. Thus, every cleared site soon became a hive of activity as large buildings were constructed at a speed that rivaled that of time-lapse videos.

At the same time, notifications began going out as the dead and injured were identified. Relatives of the victims were informed of the process to claim the remains and the empire's compensation, or where their injured loved ones were and what their status was. Due to the sensitive equipment contained in the rescue ships, however, visitors would not be allowed at the bedside. But that didn't mean they couldn't visit them in the simulation, where purpose-built instanced "hospitals" were available for those who wanted to care for their relatives during their, admittedly brief, convalescence.

The imperial police agency and nyxian operatives were also busy, jointly investigating leads as they went from location to location, identifying and apprehending suspicious individuals. Due to the nature of their investigations, they were carried out covertly. LEAs would accompany nyxians to the homes of those the police identified as suspicious, where they would render the target unconscious and download their brain data, a process much like the one that Aron used when he was building and populating Lab City a few years ago.

Once the brain data was uploaded to the Akashic Record, the assigned librarian would scan it and either cancel the investigation into that person or pass it on to Nyx if something suspicious was discovered. Over the next days and weeks, a lot of people would wonder where their friends and neighbors had gone, as they'd just up and vanished from their homes without a trace. One could only imagine the looks on their faces when they later found out that their acquaintances had been charged with terrorism, likely during the public trials.

…

"Are you sure there's nothing wrong with him?" Rina asked for what seemed like the millionth time as Nova led her to the secure pod vault where Aron was laying inside a pod, peacefully undergoing his latest system upgrade.

"Like I've said before, sir is undergoing another genetic enhancement at the moment. He's fine, you don't have to worry," Nova said. She had finally built herself an actual body out of a nanite colony so she could interact with the world like she'd always wanted to ever since Aron had created her.

Although Nova had been doing her best to comfort Rina, she was still terrified. She had tried contacting her boyfriend immediately after the attacks broke out, even as her Aegis team was evacuating her and her family back to Eden from the Rothschild family compound. But as her calls went unanswered and Nova was busy and unresponsive as well, Rina's terror had only grown during the much shorter flight to Eden and she'd thought that the worst had happened.

"When will he wake up? This couldn't have happened at a worse time," she said, thinking about the peculiar coincidence of the attacks taking place exactly when Aron had been put out of commission. Although she knew it was indeed a coincidence, she had to admit that, if she were a conspiracy theorist, she would definitely count it in the column labeled "evidence".

"Any time between now and a week from now. We... aren't quite sure. I've run quadrillions of simulations, but given that I've only got one person's data to draw from, the variance can't be narrowed down any further than that," Nova said. She wouldn't lie to Rina, at least not unless she absolutely had to, but omissions weren't really lies, were they? Either way, in this world, the secret of the system's existence would remain locked between Aron and herself, unless Aron chose to inform others. Each AI had a data vault that was impenetrable, even to the other AIs, and Nova had locked away that particular secret in hers.

"So are you going to attend the official funeral in his stead, like you did with his recent appearance?" Rina asked.

"Unless he wakes up before then, yes. If he's still undergoing his enhancement by then, I'll have to show in his stead." Nova briefly reconfigured the nanite colony she was inhabiting into Aron's appearance. "We can't have the emperor missing from the pomp and circumstance, after all," she said in his voice.

Rina stopped and stared at the "Aron" in front of her, a blank look on her face. She reached out and poked it. "Do you mind?" She gestured at the imitation Aron in front of her. "Sorry, that was rude. But if you don't mind my asking, just what is your body made of, anyway? It looks and feels no different than a human. If I didn't know you were an AI..."

"Ah, this body is a nanite colony. It's still in the testing phase, as it's currently only suitable for the core AIs to use when we're required to be physically present somewhere. Right now, I'm collecting data and working on perfecting it," Nova said, reconfiguring the nanite colony back into her own appearance as she spoke.

"There's just some things I don't think I'll ever get used to," Rina sighed and rubbed her goosebump-covered arms.

As Rina and Nova were chatting in the secure pod vault, Aron's parents were meeting Rina's for the first time in the real world, though they had met once before after the introduction of the simulation to the public a few weeks before.

"That brat sure has some... unique taste," Herschel said. "He's completely unlike any of the rich people I've ever met." He couldn't get over the utilitarian building in front of him. It was so enormous that it practically screamed wealth, but it had none of the features that normal wealthy people used to flaunt their wallets at each other. It was a simple white cube that was only made remarkable by the unbelievable size of it.

"Well, when it was built, our son was focusing on function over form. Cubes are the second most efficient shapes when it comes to utilizing space, at least internally. They're the most efficient when you consider exterior issues, like packing them into a..." Aron's father, Michael, cleared his throat, "sorry, I went off on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway, he couldn't exactly build spheres, so a cube it had to be."

Michael and Herschel watched as a train pulled up and more than a thousand new recruits disembarked and carried their belongings into the massive structure to begin their training cycle as ARES troops.

"That makes sense," Herschel said. He was sure that the things he was seeing today, the rest of the world would soon learn anyway. There would still be secrets, naturally, such as exactly how all of Aron's accomplishments to date had managed to pass completely below the radar without anyone knowing anything about them at all.

Chapter 454

"This will be your room for the duration of your stay with us," Rose, Aron's mother, said as she opened a door in one of the long corridors in the cube. The room that Herschel and Virginia Rothschild would be staying in was a very luxurious penthouse suite with four bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, a kitchen, sauna, living room, and an indoor gym. Each bedroom also contained a pair of extended-stay medical VR pods, and the gym had another two in it.

"Wow..." Virginia couldn't help but be surprised by the level of low-key luxury on display in the room she and her husband would be staying in until the troubles died down outside. "It's minimalistic, but luxurious and pleasing to the eye," she praised.

"Yeah, I was surprised when I saw the living quarters, too. Especially after seeing how plain the exterior of the building is," Rose agreed with a smile. "If you have any questions, just ask your AI assistant. Here's a pair of glasses," she handed the other lady a pair of chic reading glasses with a distinctly retro style, "make sure you don't lose them. If you don't have them on you, you won't be able to pass through some of the less obvious security we have in place here."

"Are these the AR glasses that are being sold to the public?" Virginia asked. She wondered if they were the same as the ones being sold on the market; if they were, she already owned a pair of her own and there was no need for a second.

"No. These were tailor-made specifically for you and have extra permissions specific to the cube. Think of them as a combination door key and hall pass, you can't really get anywhere in here without them," Rose answered, extending the glasses to Virginia once again.

"Since that's the case, thank you." Virginia took the glasses and immediately put them on. She was surprised at the whole new world she saw, one that opened up to her and enhanced and beautified, rather than detracted from or crowded out, the area around her even further.

…

[Recruiting is ongoing, and the move should begin soon,] Athena said.

"We need fifty million more soldiers. A hundred million is the bare minimum to defend the inner solar system without stretching them too far," John replied. He was meeting with Athena to discuss the upcoming move to ARES' new home, Mars.

Mars was a very useful planet and could easily be turned into a fortress world. It was a dead rock in space, but had liquid water and an overwhelming abundance of iron and other metals used in construction and the production of stainless steel and other alloys. Its atmosphere, while thin, was also composed of 95% carbon dioxide, which they could split in the process of generating breathable atmospheres in biodomes and underground facilities on the red planet.

The only thing preventing the empire from terraforming it into complete habitability was its lack of a magnetosphere. Without that, the solar wind would strip away the majority of the atmosphere as fast as they could generate it. Thus, it simply wasn't feasible to turn it into a living world. But that wasn't really what ARES needed, anyway. What they needed was a fortress that would act as the final defense of the inner solar system, and for that, Mars was the best choice.

[Indeed. Simulations show that there's a point of diminishing returns after that when considering how many soldiers we'll need for inner system defense. Outer system defense, though, is going to need more troops. A whole lot more.]

"Regardless, we need to start building at least the initial habitats as soon as possible if we don't want to delay the timeline," John said. They were coming down to the wire and needed to act fast.

[That was supposed to be approved today, but something came up. Godfather is unavailable for the moment, so we can't do anything but postpone the fortress plan until he's back with us.]

"I suppose... By the way, how's the hunt for terrorists going?"

[We've captured quite a few shrimp soldiers and a couple of crab generals, but we're nowhere near touching the inner circle of whatever organization is opposing us,] Athena sighed. [The people we've caught are obviously nothing but cannon fodder, and Nyx thinks they might have been dangled in front of us as bait to test our capabilities. That's a small possibility, at least, so we're split on how to handle it. But it's a tomorrow problem, anyway, so we can just kick the can down the road. Not like the people we're identifying from brain scans of the captured terrorists will be able to escape anyway.]

"We aren't making any progress despite our technological superiority?" John was finding it difficult to believe that, despite being centuries ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technology, the empire was having a difficult time catching a simple terrorist. It was the equivalent of the Battle of Isandlwanda in 1857, where the British invaded Zululand armed with muskets, cannon, and steel armor, but were resoundingly defeated by Zulu warriors wearing loincloths and armed with leather shields and stabbing spears.

He continued that train of thought and found the parallel to be eerie. In both cases, the "weaker" force had achieved tactical surprise in the first encounter of the war. For the Anglo-Zulu War, it was Zulus vs the British, and today it was a terrorist cult facing the Terran Empire. In 1857, the first battle of the war had resulted in a victory for the weaker side, and in 2018, the first battle of the new war had resulted in... perhaps not a victory—John's pride wouldn't allow him to call it that—but a devastating blow nonetheless.

[It isn't that we can't find him, just that it's going to take some time. At the moment, we're working on... turning... those we've captured that are higher up in the ranks, then we'll send them to infiltrate the cult as spies in order to catch them all at once. We're also unraveling the finances behind the attack, so the scope of the investigation is enormously broad. Besides, it's been barely six hours since the attacks began—these things take time, you know.] Athena wouldn't hide anything from John. As the second-highest-ranking member of the armed forces, right behind Aron himself, the former US veteran had a security clearance that matched his lofty rank.

"Ah. Like you did with Vladimir?" When John heard the plan, he was reminded of what they had accomplished with the spy who had shot Aron, then was later turned and eventually even awarded military honors by Aron and John themselves for his accomplishments leading up to, and during The Last War.

[Yep. So now all we have to do is wait for the big fish to take the bait and we'll come down on them like a hammer.] Athena gave John a creepy, sinister smile.

Chapter 455

In a hidden room under a large office building that had escaped the attacks.

"What's wrong with Rick?" a woman angrily demanded of a trembling doctor.

"That's what we're trying to figure out right now," the doctor said against the backdrop of humming and beeping medical equipment. The room they were in had been set up as an emergency treatment and operating room, and the doctor himself was one that normally used it for treating high-class criminals. "Every time we come up with a possible diagnosis, he exhibits a new symptom that rules it out."

"What exactly was he doing when he lost consciousness?" the doctor added. Perhaps he just needed to attack the problem from a different angle. Obviously, relying on Rick's symptoms to diagnose his illness wasn't working, so the doctor would consider environmental factors next.

The woman, Rick's assistant, paused to gather her thoughts as she recalled the moments leading up to the cult leader's collapse.

…

Ten people were seated around a conference table in an office building. Rick Ashley was at the head of the table with his assistant seated to his left. The other eight people were seated across from each other along the long side of the table.

On the wall opposite Rick's seat was a digital whiteboard with a countdown timer displayed on it. It read fifteen minutes and, as Rick watched, it continued ticking down. 14:59... 14:58... 14:57...

They were already past the point of no return. Due to the need to avoid all forms of digital communication, there was no time to contact any of the soon-to-be martyrs. The arrow wasn't even on the string anymore, but had been released and was headed toward its inevitable destination.

Everyone in the room was silently staring at the countdown timer as if their lives depended on it. The same tense, nervous expression was on all of their faces, save for Rick and his assistant, who were calm.

"Don't worry, everyone. The plan is sound, and even though it was conceived in a hurry, the arrangements are solid. We had cutouts at every step, so there's no risk of discovery for us," Rick said in an even tone of voice. He'd had an entire month to work out the kinks in his plan and was positive that it hadn't been discovered. Everyone was just feeling last-minute jitters. It was completely understandable, so what he needed to do now was reassure everyone in the room.

"You're right," the man seated to Rick's immediate right sighed. "I personally assigned the suicide squad to handle the cutouts and they all reported that their tasks were successful." He was the one in the advisory council that was responsible for implanting post-hypnotic suggestions into people and turning them into puppets. Although it would only last a short time, he could easily turn a normal person into a cold-blooded, emotionless killer that would self-destruct after their task was completed.

(Ed note: I saw a documentary about this some fifteen or sixteen years ago, but I couldn't find it again. Instead, I found a more recent example by Derren Brown, a British hypnotist, who hypnotized a normal person into "assassinating" Stephen Fry from about six years ago. Here's the YouTube link for that one: watch?v=owootTAuxic )

He was also Rick's second in command of the entire cult, a testament to both the importance of his work and his ability. Without him, the cult wouldn't have grown nearly as fast as it had, as he was the one that was mostly responsible for the task of turning reasonably well-adjusted, normal people into fanatical followers of Rick's professed beliefs. That was a much easier task than convincing someone to become a killer, after all, so the cult could be indoctrinated en masse simply by having them listen to some music in the background while waiting for Rick to show up for meetings.

The plan Rick had come up with was also reasonably airtight. Taking advantage of the organizational style of a terrorist network, where each "cell" would be responsible for its own attacks, and adding in some seasoning in the form of Cold War-era spycraft, all the erstwhile cult leader had to do was come up with a target list and distribute it to his followers.

Many of those that had joined the cult were former, or even current members of the intelligence community, and three of them—the former heads of the CIA, MSS, and MI6—were seated at the table watching the time tick down with Rick and the others. When Rick had brought his plan to them and explained it, they had even greatly contributed by coming up with targets that he would never have thought of himself. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, for example, and UNESCO World Heritage sites. Those were entirely too small and nowhere near flashy enough for the flamboyant cult leader to have considered on his own, but they would have an impact on people that was wildly beyond the actual damage they dealt.

Thus, the smaller attacks had been incorporated into his plan, making it even more perfect.

"The material was surprisingly easy to move," an old Russian arms dealer seated to the left of Rick's assistant scoffed. "It's almost like the empire didn't even care about such 'weak' weapons and explosives. I guess when you have a laser gun, a slingshot doesn't seem all that dangerous anymore. But what they failed to think of is that even a slingshot can put an eye out."

The people at the table idly chatted back and forth as the timer continued its inexorable march to the end, and before anyone realized, it had run completely out and ticked over to 00:00.

An outside observer could be forgiven for thinking that the atmosphere in the room would change once the timer ticked down, but the only thing that happened was that the conversation died out as the ten people seated at the conference table turned their attention to the digital whiteboard, which was now showing a 24-hour news channel broadcast.

However, what nobody else in the room noticed was that Rick's expression was growing worse. He looked as if he was suffering great pain, like he was passing a sudden kidney stone or something.

The look of pain on his face grew more and more noticeable and he couldn't hold back a grunt of agony. His assistant, seated next to him, tore her attention away from the news report, which was showing a replay of the Burj Khalifa's fall, and looked at her boss. She saw sweat beading up on his forehead and dripping down his face, which was frozen in a rictus of pain, and she became the second person in the room to have an unsmiling expression on her face as she grew more and more worried about Rick.

As the seconds passed, the pain Rick was feeling increased exponentially until it finally reached an unbearable level. He screamed in agony and fell from his chair, then convulsed on the floor and screamed himself hoarse from the unbearable torment.

"Rick!"

"Boss!"

"Shepherd!"

Everyone in the room heard the screams and looked at the cult leader, who was laying on the floor in what looked like the throes of an epileptic fit. They all leapt to their feet and rushed over to his side to see what the hell was going on.

"Call the doctor, now!" the assistant shouted, pointing at the second in command. She thought Rick was having an epileptic fit, so, having received her first aid certification and recalling what to do in case someone suddenly had a seizure, she reached into her purse and pulled out the only thing she had that she thought would help in this situation: a wrapped tampon.

She shoved it between his teeth so he wouldn't bite his tongue off and put her jacket and purse beneath his head so he didn't break his skull by beating it against the hard floor. All she could do after that was wait for the fit to pass... or so she thought.

…

"And that's where you came in," she said. "Everything after that is exactly as you've seen."

"Do you think it might be his conscience acting up? After all, he's directly responsible for the deaths of millions, so it's distinctly possible that his symptoms are psychosomatic," the doctor asked. That was the only thing he could think of that could explain what was happening to Rick.

"Impossible!" the secretary sneered without hesitation. "He would never let the deaths of devil worshippers affect—"

She was interrupted by the sharp cracking sound of Rick's bones beginning to break themselves and the hoarse, muffled screams coming from the unconscious man's mouth.

Chapter 456

Despite having been subjected to enough painkillers to choke an elephant, Rick was perfectly aware of every little thing that was happening to him. Even he had to wonder if he was suffering some divine retribution for taking the name of god as a cloak to fool others into supporting his ambitions and rage as he suffered the pain of every single cell in his body repeatedly dissolving and regrowing over and over in a cycle of creation and destruction that would render the most determined man insane.

He lay there twitching and spasming in agony as his blood boiled away and recondensed, thicker and more viscous, and his muscle fibers shredded themselves from end to end and regrew, reducing his muscle mass while greatly increasing their strength and tenacity. He listened to his assistant's recounting of the events and the doctor's frankly stupid questions until the sound around him was drowned out by the sharp cracking of his bones breaking down and shattering into tiny splinters, unable to remain whole under the onslaught of his own spasming muscles.

His nerves were the next to go. They were flooded with a new substance they had never been designed to handle, the overload charring them to ash and regrowing them, over and over. For the first time in his life, Rick began praying to whatever deity would listen to him, if any even existed at all, to reduce his pain and suffering.

Then, as if it had been placed in a blender, his brain liquified itself and his consciousness, thankfully, faded.

...

In the secure pod vault deep below the Cube on Avalon Island, Rina was standing next to the pod where Aron was undergoing his second system evolution. She rested the palm of her hand on the cold exterior of the pod and thought to herself that it seemed odd that she couldn't contact Aron at all. When she had undergone her own genetic enhancements, she'd spent the entire time in the simulation with no problem at all; thus, she couldn't help but wonder deep down if Nova was downplaying the seriousness of Aron's condition.

A few minutes passed in a comfortable silence in the utilitarian pod vault as she thought back on her relationship with Aron so far. In the beginning, they had been very up front with each other about the relationship being an exchange of benefits. She wasn't sure when, but some time near the beginning, that had begun to change as she received far more aid from him than the small favors she did in return merited. At some point, she had begun relying on him, and that reliance turned into a sense of security that only he could provide.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she felt a slight heat on her skin, like she was basking in the sun. The heat grew more intense and she couldn't help but wonder what was going on. She turned to Nova and said, "Nova, what's going on? I feel—"

She was suddenly robbed of the ability to speak as a sharp pain passed through her. The feeling of her skin being burned went from "basking in the sun" to "thrown into a bonfire" and she couldn't help but fall to the floor in agony.

Nova immediately noticed the issue and the other pod in the room opened at her command. She picked Rina up and carefully placed her in the pod, then closed it and began the medical diagnostic cycle.

As soon as she did that, the liquid mana that had been flooding into Aron inside his pod was rapidly drained away and a blue vortex lit up the room she was in. She wasn't using her integrated Henry's Eyes sensor; she didn't have to. The light was visible to her standard optic sensors.

The swirling mass of brilliant azure mana flooding into Aron's pod began to grow, rapidly filling the entire cavernous secure pod vault. Nova switched to her exterior views from the Cube and, within two minutes, saw the vortex grow beyond its plain gray exterior. It continued growing and she switched her viewpoint again, this time to the satellite in geosynchronous orbit above Avalon Island. It didn't take long before that optical sensor picked up the phenomenon as well after the vortex core had stretched to fifty kilometers across.

She barely glanced at the flowing mass of mana through the satellite's Henry's Eyes sensor and it practically burnt itself out like a normal person's eyes would when staring directly into the sun.

*Uh oh,* she thought. *This is probably going to be trouble.* as she switched the view to another satellite in orbit.

Nova returned her main consciousness to the nanite colony in the secure pod vault. Whatever trouble was coming, she could leave to her sister and children to deal with; right now, she would focus entirely on Aron. Flashes of light passed through her "eyes" as she kicked her quantum superclusters into high gear, all of it focused on figuring out just what the hell was going on.

...

[Upgrade in progress: 93%... 94%... 95%...]

Aron suddenly regained consciousness and stared at the blinking number in front of him, which seemed to have paused at 95% complete.

[Insufficient mana density. Increasing mana density. Vortex seed formed. Vortex forming. Expanding: 10%... 22%... 71%... 99%...]

[Vortex formed. Mana density increasing: 12%... 17%...]

As the vortex formed in the subterranean pod vault, Aron found himself in a giant chamber. Squinting his eyes, he saw a wall in the distance. It looked as though it was made of an organic material that had been grown, rather than built, and had a complex pattern of arcane lines seemingly burnt into it. A brilliant blue pulsating light was creeping across the pattern.

Suddenly, the vague outline of a person formed in front of him, blocking his view of the wall.

[You shouldn't be here,] it said. [It isn't time yet. But I suppose, given the circumstances, there's no choice.]

"Where exactly is 'here'?" Aron asked. He didn't feel confused, shocked, or surprised at all. In fact, he didn't feel anything; his emotions seemed to have been stripped from him and he was present purely as his own consciousness given form.

[We don't have much time. The mana level and density on your planet, together with the quality of your body, isn't high enough to sustain my awareness yet, though it's increasing as a result of your actions. Currently, your world is on the precipice of a mass awakening. The ambient mana density has increased to a point where it will soon begin a self-sustaining growth process, much like the reaction in one of your primitive fusion reactor's confinement vessels, but it currently isn't enough to sustain my consciousness for long.

[I'll fall back to sleep soon, but you need to prepare to handle the awakened individuals on your world. It's happening almost three thousand years early, due to my inadvertent interference in your species' evolution.] The figure faded and its outline grew blurry.

[Continue advancing your civilization. No, increase the speed of your civilization's advance. Once your civilization is advanced enough, and the mana density on your world is high enough, I will completely awaken and be able to better assist you. I understand... problems... upgrade... stop influencing your... You must... ahead... facing...]

The figure completely faded from view and Aron's eyes snapped open to find himself within his pod.

[Upgrade in progress: 99%... 100%]

[Upgrade complete.]

Chapter 457

Aron slowly blinked his eyes as he felt the changes to his body. He was feeling refreshed, with no soreness despite having laid perfectly still for quite a long time.

He remained in a daze, though, thinking back on the brief conversation he'd had with the system's so-called consciousness. Though the actual time they had spoken was short, the weighty information he'd received made it feel like the conversation had taken hours, rather than moments. The memory was as clear and fresh as if it had been carved directly into his mind.

The pod he was in released a soft hiss as the sealed door slid aside and he sat up. He dropped his feet to the ground and stood up, slightly bouncing up and down in place to accustom his body to moving again after his long sleep.

Nova greeted him with new clothes, as the clothes he was wearing when the unexpected upgrade began had been disintegrated during the process. "Welcome back, sir."

"Thanks. Did anything important happen while I was asleep?" he asked as he dressed. He was curious to know if the awakening process had begun yet, or if he still had time to prepare for it.

"Unfortunately, yes, sir," Nova replied. "It's probably best if you get an update in the simulation. The briefing may take quite some time.".

Aron froze for a moment, then silently finished putting on his clothes. He logged into the simulation and appeared in the library, where all of the AIs were waiting. Nova appeared seconds after him and cranked up the time dilation in the library to the maximum that his body could handle, as he was most definitely urgently required to be present in reality as soon as possible.

…

The table Aron was resting his hands on cracked by the end of the briefing his AIs gave him. His sheer rage was palpable and everything in the library practically came to a standstill from the pressure he exerted on his surroundings. Soon, though, the pressure disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place. Nova repaired the table and, without a mention of the momentary loss of control on Aron's part, continued the conversation.

[Miss Rina also seems to be facing a problem. She was right next to your pod when the mana vortex formed and I'm not sure why, but she was affected by it as well. From the pod's diagnosis, she seems to be undergoing something similar to your evolution or is perhaps suffering a backlash from exposure to a supersaturated mana environment. Either way, we aren't sure what to do as this is the first time we've experienced anything like this.]

The danger Rina was facing wasn't an immediate threat to her life, so Nova had deemed it of secondary importance to the rest of the things that had happened while Aron was in the process of evolving.

But before Aron could say anything, Gaia froze for a moment, then turned to him. [I know you've only just received notice of yesterday's wave of attacks, but now we're facing another problem,] she interjected.

"Go on," Aron said and almost visibly braced himself for the news. It seemed that there were a lot of shoes dropping all at once, as if what he had already heard wasn't bad enough and the universe wanted to make sure he knew just how terrible it could be.

[Approximately three percent of the population is currently undergoing the same process as Her Highness. We have most of them in medical pods, or at least on the way to one, but there's already reports of some of those who waived their citizenship suffering the same situation. Panoptes is keeping an eye on it and tracking their condition so we have a control group to compare the outcomes of those with access to medical pods to those without.

[It seems to be an age-related phenomenon as, in most cases, those affected are in the process of undergoing puberty. But there are a few outliers, though none are over fifty years old. The initial diagnosis they've all received is that their DNA is being modified by mana. But we can't be sure of that, either, as the modifications, or perhaps mutations, are landing on different genes.]

Aron audibly sighed in relief, thankful that it wasn't a new problem dumped on the pile of old ones. The system consciousness had already warned him of what was to come, and this could act as a trial run for handling it when the "problem" spread to all of humanity.

"It isn't a sickness," he said. "They're undergoing evolution, triggered by the rapid increase of Earth's mana density. Although I don't know exactly what's going to happen, one thing I'm sure of is that, should they survive the process, those undergoing evolution will have an ability to use mana when they wake up. So monitor them and record every bit of data we can collect from them."

Changing subjects, he asked, "What are the plans for the state funeral? When's that scheduled?"

[We tentatively scheduled it for the twenty-fifth of January. Nova informed us you should be awake by then, but if you weren't, we were going to have Nova handle it on your behalf using the nanite colony body we developed,] Gaia replied.

"Good. Since I woke up before then, I should probably address the 'sickness' people are coming down with," Aron said with an internal sigh. It hadn't even been ten minutes of real time since he finished his system upgrade, yet he had already been buried under a pile of problems. If the alternative wasn't also the worst-case scenario, he would never have taken his place as the emperor of the Terran Empire; thankfully, he had competent subordinates to help him do the job of ruling.

"First, though, I'm going to go visit Rina and see if there's something I can do to help hasten the process for her." Aron had been holding himself back from rushing to her side immediately after Nova told him that she was among the "three percenters", and now that he knew what he had to do, he would begin by prioritizing her.

He would do his best to keep humanity from burning down, but if one hair on Rina's head was out of place, he would likely be the first person to light the match.

Chapter 458

[I'll keep an eye on things and let you know if anything comes up that requires your presence,] Gaia said, then went back to collating and sorting the brain data in the library. Though it was curated and maintained by the akashic librarians, she still wanted to thoroughly understand it to better perform her duties.

Aron logged out of the simulation, then headed to Rina's side and watched her through the transparent lid of the pod she was in.

"Nova, increase the mana flow to her pod. The awakening process is a lot like my upgrades, so the more mana in the local environment, the process will be faster and the outcome better." Aron sat on the edge of her pod and began sorting through the thoughts in his head. He had been through an absolute emotional rollercoaster ever since his impromptu meeting with the so-called 'system consciousness', or so he assumed it to be, during his latest upgrade. And he was sure that more shocks were to come as time passes, but he could only deal with one thing at a time. And right now, he wanted to be by his lover's side.

…

The mother of a formerly disabled child was pacing back and forth in a corridor in one of the cubes. Through the window on one side, row after row of medical pods was visible. "Do you think there was a problem with the medical pod and it didn't cure her the first time? Is it just a relapse?" she asked the man next to her in a worried tone.

The last three weeks had been some of the best in her life, as her daughter, who had suffered from juvenile onset Huntington's disease from a young age, had been free of the effects of her illness. There was no feeling more joyous in the young mother's memories than watching her daughter, who had previously been confined to the grasp of a motorized wheelchair as the degenerative disease ravaged her young body, step out of the medical pod and run to her mommy.

And the process was so fast, too! She had only applied for a spot in a medical pod a few minutes before an ambulance arrived and transported her and her daughter to the cube. Then she simply walked through the ID check gate, holding her daughter's hand as she was transported on a gurney next to her, and watch as an Asclepius technician gently placed her daughter in a pod. The lid had closed and she was led to a small, but comfortable room where she could spend the next week in the public simulation with her daughter as she underwent an abbreviated, intense physical therapy regimen that would allow her to redevelop her coordination and allow her to walk as soon as she was healed by the pod.

The moment her daughter had run to her with arms outstretched was, she felt, the peak of her life. Had she died at that moment, it would have been with a huge smile on her face. But today, no sign of that smile remained; it had instead been replaced by a pinched expression of worry and a frown as she was stuck in a memory loop of the things that had happened earlier that day.

Before she had even climbed out of bed that morning, she heard a heartwrenching scream from her daughter's room. She immediately leapt out of bed and rushed down the hall, then slammed through the door to her daughter's bedroom, only to see her writhing in agony on the floor, tangled in blankets and sheets. When the child stopped screaming and became eerily still, her heart jumped up into her throat and did its level best to prevent her from breathing.

Thankfully, she reacted in time. She rushed back to her room and threw her AR glasses on her face, then contacted emergency rescue to come pick her daughter up and bring her back to the medical pod.

"That can't be it. Our neighbor's kid is in the pod right next to her," the man said. "And there are more people being brought in as we speak." He was worried that it might be another terror attack; even though the main wave was over, there were still occasional attacks happening. Especially after that damned news broadcast! He would love to get his hands around the neck of Sean Hannity, the anchor whose show he had been watching when what was basically a recruiting ad for a terrorist organization was played.

"Let's just wait. They already told us that everyone's going to be just fine and they'll update us as soon as they're able," he added as he caught the woman's arm when she paced back in front of him and pulled her to the seat next to him. Her constant pacing had been making him nervous as well.

Similar scenes were happening all over the world as people between the ages of 14 to 22 years old were reported in identical situations to the child that had been brought in by her parents. All of them had screamed, fallen into seizures, then eventually passed out due to pain before being brought to the nearest cube for treatment.

The low-level fear that had yet to even calm down from the initial wave of attacks once again erupted as news organizations reported the spread of a "pandemic" that affected children in their teens. But it was a weird spread and all of the epidemiologists and virologists the anchors interviewed as experts could only shake their heads. Diseases always spread from a "patient zero", but this one seemed to just descend all over the world at once. Nobody said it, but everyone was thinking the same thing: biological attack.

Actually, there were a few who said that in an attempt to create mass panic, incite chaos, or just increase engagement on their social media accounts to satiate their greed for fame. There were also those who believed they were special and had discovered some secret that nobody else had, and others that believed it was a curse from the gods or an attack launched by the incoming visitors to herald their incipient arrival.

Oddly enough, a few were even close to the truth. Some panda-novel addicts believed it was the dawning of a mass mutation that would enable people to become cultivators and cultivate immortality before shattering the chains that held them bound to their mortal selves and ascend to higher planes.

Weirdos(jk).

Still, it was true that the new empire did seem rather cursed. In just the first few weeks of its existence, it had suffered problem after problem, and a wave of opinions popped up on Pangea calling for the thousand imperial senators to use their power to vote the emperor off of his throne. That, they believed, would save the world from more calamities.

That said, the silent majority reigned, and had chosen to wait for news from official sources before making their own informed judgment.

Chapter 459

Soon, the silent majority's patience was rewarded as the imperial government released a notification on all devices informing the citizens that the emperor would be releasing a statement shortly. Included in the notification was a link that people could follow if they wanted to watch the announcement; everyone would be free to decide whether they wanted to see it or not.

In a matter of seconds, more than a billion people followed the link to watch the announcement. This would be the third time the emperor had made a public appearance, and the previous two raised mixed emotions in the citizens. In his first public appearance as the emperor, he had announced the formation of the empire, and in his second, it was a response to the recent attacks. Thus, people were curious whether this would be more bad news, or simply some matters of administrivia, but considering the situation, it was more likely to be bad news.

"Citizens of the Terran Empire, We come bearing good news."

A collective sigh of relief escaped the mouths of everyone watching the announcement.

"Following the attacks that took place a few days ago came a time of peace and recovery. We have been preparing a ceremony to mourn the fallen innocents that lost their lives in the cowardly terrorist attacks, and while We were working on that, it seems something else happened to us all. We understand your fear, but let Us reassure you, this is a good thing. What is happening now is no attack, nor is it a tragedy. In fact, it's the opposite—though frightening, what those children are undergoing is a blessing."

…

pacw64000: [I think the emperor's cracked from the stress already, hbu?]

king_Abyss: [How the fuck is millions of people falling into comas something to celebrate? Is he really that disconnected from us normal people's lives?]

pacw64000: [ king_Abyss I know, right? I think the attacks broke him...]

marwaneami: [ pacw64000 king_Abyss Damn and I thought he'd be a good and smart emperor, but I think you guys are right. He's gone mental from the stress and forgotten how it feels to be a normal person]

Comments like those were flooding Pangea, along with many others. But the announcement continued, the only change being that the emperor had a subtle smile on his face as he briefly scanned the comments flitting past his viewscreen.

…...

Their concerns didn't remain unanswered for long, as Aron soon continued his announcement. "No, make no mistake. We can say with absolute certainty that those 'unfortunate' people who fell into comas and are now laying in medical pods are absolutely blessed individuals. Upon diagnosing their situation, Our technicians made a fascinating discovery—the DNA of those affected by today's events are undergoing changes. It's an evolutionary leap caused by a certain particle in the atmosphere reaching a certain density."

Small bluish-gold specks began appearing around Aron, their concentration growing more and more thick around him.

"This is a visualization of those unseen particles that triggered the evolution in those lucky children. As for why We consider it a blessing, that's because when they wake up, they'll be... different. Better, stronger, even. As for how those changes will be expressed and manifested, that will require further research into the changes.

"As for why they fainted, it's because the evolutionary process is occurring at a vastly accelerated rate. Cells are mutating, dividing, and mutating again all throughout the body. The process is incredibly painful, as well as draining in terms of the nutrients required to support the regeneration. Consider it a price to pay for great power, if you will." Aron snapped his fingers and the simulated mana particles surrounding him disappeared.

"Most of you were probably thankful that you weren't among the three percent that collapsed. You probably thought you were escaping a calamity. But now you know that, instead of escaping a calamity, you were dodging a blessing. And if you are indeed one of those people, We can assure you that you don't need to worry."

The camera pulled back from Aron and a representation of the world appeared, but it showed sparkling bluish-gold glints all over it. Then, much like a time lapse video, the glimmering specks began multiplying faster and faster, until the entire planet glowed a brilliant hue.

"What you're seeing behind Us is a simulation of the spread of the evolutionary particles throughout the atmosphere. Our researchers told Us that the spread is increasing in speed and will soon become a self-sustaining reaction that increases on a logarithmic scale. There will be a rapid increase in density at first, then it will taper off as the particles reach their ideal saturation. The current prevailing theory is that the reason only adolescents have received the blessing so far is because their bodies are already undergoing rapid changes, including in their genes. Thus, the density required for them to begin their evolution is far lower than it would be for those whose genes have been fixed for a long time. But as the density increases, more and more people of all ages will begin undergoing the same evolutionary process that Our children are experiencing today.

"But some people are outliers. We don't yet understand everything about this newly discovered particle, so We can't explain why some people who are long past the age of pubescence have had their evolutions triggered. But rest assured, they are indeed outliers, and everyone will get their opportunity to evolve as the particle density required to trigger your evolutions is reached," Aron explained.

"We call upon all people of the world to help your neighbors right now. If any of you see this—" he waved his hand and a recording of someone beginning their awakening process played on the screen behind him, though there was no sound on the video, "—contact your local emergency response service or get in touch with the imperial representatives in the simulation. We are available at all times for assistance, and those receiving the blessing will require immediate aid. Our medical pods are capable of inducing a temporary coma in the patients within them, as well as providing all the nutrients their bodies will require to safely undergo the rapid evolutionary process," Aron warned, exhorting people not to hide their friends or family members' awakening from the public, as they'll likely die during the process if they went through it unaided.

"On a more unpleasant note, with the emergence of new... what we call 'superpowers' comes the possibility of chaos and discrimination between the haves and have-nots. Let Us stress right now that those with superpowers are in no way superior to those without. And to address the situation before it grows uncontrollable, We will be forming a new agency responsible for registering and rating the superpowers of the newly evolved humans, as well as enforcing imperial law among them. We will also be establishing special schools specifically for researching the new superpowers and teaching people to control them once they have them. That way, the harm they inadvertently cause due to losing control will be minimized."

Chapter 460

After Aron's announcement, the silently nervous world could no longer sit still. Most people were divided into a few main categories; there were those who were excited for the future, assuming what the emperor had said was true; those who didn't believe it at all and, in fact, actively disbelieved it; and those who couldn't care less, as they were still mourning their dead loved ones and preparing for their funerals.

…

Meanwhile, Aron, having rushed his announcement to completion, had logged out of the simulation and headed to where his and Rina's parents were. Herschel and Virginia, at least, deserved to know that Rina was safe, though she was undergoing her awakening and wouldn't be present in the real world for a while. Sure, she could explain all that by meeting them in the simulation on her own, but they still deserved to be informed face to face and brought to the secure pod vault where they could stay beside her through the process.

"And you can visit whenever you want. Your glasses have been updated with new access permissions so you can reach the secure pod vault," Aron finished explaining as a new destination navigation option appeared on Rina's parents' AR glasses, should they choose to visit her.

"Son, let's talk," Herschel said, then stood and walked out of the room.

Aron silently followed him, motioning the others to stay behind and telling them they would return shortly; he had an idea of what Herschel wanted to discuss.

Herschel immediately got straight to the point. "Tell me the truth—is this really a blessing, or are you just keeping the public calm?" he asked. He was quite used to people in positions of power outright lying to those under them, either to buy time, avoid responsibility, or just set some other poor schmuck up to take the blame.

Aron thought about how to answer for a moment, then just shrugged. He was already the emperor of mankind, for fuck's sake; he could just be himself and nobody had the right to give a shit but him.

"Yes," he answered, then continued, "but the situation is rather better than I told the public."

"So why not tell them that? I mean, if you know it's even better than what you said, wouldn't the effect of your announcement only be even better?"

"Because it'd be weird for us to have too much information about a situation we're facing for the first time. And in a matter of hours after the awakenings began? Who in their right minds would believe that?" Aron answered, then returned a question to the older man.

"Makes sense... wait—awakenings?" Herschel was so inwardly nervous that his IQ seemed to have dropped. He had failed to consider that Aron had no reason to lie, even if things were bad, but realized his mistake soon after making it. "Sorry about that," he apologized for the first time in quite a few years.

"No problem. You should go visit her," Aron said, neatly sidestepping his own verbal gaffe by referring to awakening by its proper name to someone who wasn't in his inner circle.

"Sure. We can continue this later, after everything on your plate is taken care of." Herschel stuck his head back in his suite and called Virginia out to accompany him to visit their daughter.

…

"So that's what happened to the shepherd. He's been blessed!" the second-in-command of the cult exclaimed after watching the emperor's address about the ongoing pandemic.

"But is it really a 'blessing', though? Consider the source—the devil himself is the one calling it a blessing, so wouldn't that make it a curse?" another higher-up mused.

The room fell silent for a long while.

Clearing his throat to break the awkward silence, the doctor said, "It at least explains the problems we had diagnosing his problem." He sighed with relief, as he knew his life was no longer in danger. It wasn't his fault, after all, that the devil had either blessed or cursed the megalomaniac leader of a bunch of fanatics, so everything that followed would obviously also not be his fault.

Alas, before he could even enjoy his new lease on life, Rick's assistant turned to him and said, "From now on, you're responsible for ensuring he makes it through this process. Stay by his side and give him whatever he needs. If he dies, you'll follow him, understood?"

'Fuck' thought the doctor.

The bad news didn't stop there as the assistant turned to the other advisors and continued, "Comb through the remaining members of the flock and look for anyone else receiving the so-called 'blessing'. If you find any, have them brought here and put under the doctor's care. Give them the best we can provide, because if the devil's minions are going to have superpowers, then we need them too."

The doctor internally cursed a blue streak thick enough to make every sailor that ever put to sea blush.

The others responded in the affirmative without even questioning her right to give the orders. In their minds, it was obvious that, with the current leader set to receive superpowers, it would be better to treat his shadow as though she was him when he was unavailable.

"Until he wakes up, lay low. Cease the attacks, since every attack costs us a potential superpowered weapon, and that's a loss we can no longer afford. Once he wakes up, we can work on coming up with new plans. So unless anyone has any objections, I think everyone understands what they should be doing now... right?"

The assistant cast a loaded gaze at the doctor, who immediately began planning a course of treatment for the "blessed" individuals to ensure they survived their evolutions.

…

A week later, Aron finally finished his whirlwind world tour. He had presided over state funerals on the sites of the worst terrorist attacks without missing a single one.

His schedule had been completely packed, with an average of about half an hour at each funeral. Luckily for him, his shuttle was hover-capable and extremely fast; by taking off meters from where the event took place and landing near the next event, he could reach practically anywhere on the planet in fifteen minutes or less. But even with his superhuman endurance, the fatigue of land-mourn-leave cycled over and over was really beginning to drag on him, especially since he only had minutes to rest between each appearance.

That said, the entire process had caught the attention of the planet, and more people were discussing his shuttle, his monstrous endurance, together with his dedication rather than the attacks.

Chapter 461

During the terrorist attacks, the asteroid belt.

In the silence of space between Mars and Jupiter, a rocket engine had been decelerating for a few days as it neared the first marked object in the main asteroid belt of the solar system.

Many such vessels had been sent, each of them targeting specific asteroids in the belt. This one in particular was approaching 4 Vesta. Its velocity had already decreased to a point where it would survive if it impacted its target, but the engine continued slowing it down as it approached for a soft landing.

*Initiating anchors... Initiated. Deploying anchors for catch maneuver,* the VI responsible for monitoring and controlling the vessel logged and reported back to the central AI.

*Approaching target. Distance 600... 500... 450...* It continued reporting and logging the flight data as it approached 4 Vesta, continually updating the record as it happened.

When the rangefinder reported fifty meters remaining, the deployed anchors were launched and the tungsten "stakes" coated with a layer of electrical steel shot out of the vessel and penetrated deep into 4 Vesta, trailed by ropes woven of carbon nanotubes. They deployed side spikes, securing themselves within the body of the asteroid as the vessel reeled in the slack in the lines.

As the pulley system reeled in the slack, the VI piloting the vessel increased power to its thrusters, bringing the ship into positive delta v to maintain tension on the cables as the vessel was slowly winched to the surface of the asteroid. Once it was within five meters of the "ground", the engines were finally shut down.

After the vessel powered down and rested on its landing gears, sliding doors on its ventral surface opened and a manipulator arm with a built-in atomic printer on it reached out of the vessel and got to work.

It dug deeper and deeper into 4 Vesta, disintegrating the material in its way and printing a longer and longer arm as it went until it reached a depth of 500 meters, where it finally met a layer rich in the necessary materials it required to create a larger printer without needing to cannibalize the vessel that had brought it to the second-largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt.

The process would take a few days, due to the difference in size between the miniature atomic printer on the manipulator arm and the printer it was striving to create.

Vesta wasn't the only asteroid targeted in the initial landing wave, either. All ten of the largest asteroids in the belt were targeted: 87 Sylvia, 89 Julia, 65 Cybele, 704 Interamnia, 52 Europa, 511 Davida, 10 Hygiea, 2 Pallas, and 1 Ceres. The landing sequence was the only difference; some of those asteroids, like Ceres, generated enough of a gravitational pull that the landing vessels could land normally.

Still, all nine of the other vessels in the first landing wave anchored themselves to the ground and dug an atomic printer-equipped manipulator arm deep into the substrate, where it would replicate itself and begin construction.

…

A week later, while Aron was making his appearances at funerals around the world, the large atomic printer construction finally finished in the last asteroid, and all of them had built enormous fusion reactors deep within their individual asteroids.

*Initiate startup sequence,* the AI overseeing the ten VIs ordered.

The VIs loaded the new fusion reactors with fuel. This time, instead of relying on tritium and deuterium, the ten new reactors were loaded with the same fuel as the largest fusion reactor in the solar system: pure hydrogen. The researchers in Lab City had long abandoned the lower-temperature lower-power elements, deuterium and tritium, in favor of hydrogen, which required much higher ignition temperatures and far, far tougher containment methods.

A few minutes later, the hydrogen in each of the ten reactors was heated to hundreds of millions of degrees and ignition was achieved. Once the plasma in the reactors stabilized, the enormous generators came to life.

*Initiate atomic printer self-test.*

The printers ran their diagnostic subroutines as, despite being printed by another atomic printer, there was always a minuscule chance that a problem may occur due to external factors. No matter how small that chance may be, there was no harm in spending a few minutes running the self-tests.

*Diagnostic complete. System status: green.*

*Beginning production.*

The industrial-size printers began collecting material from their surroundings and printed harvester units to extend their reach. Due to their size, it had been deemed more efficient to send VI-driven harvesters out than to make the printers themselves mobile.

The work proceeded smoothly, with harvester after harvester leaving the industrial printers and drilling ever outward, returning load after load of material as they began hollowing out the asteroids they were housed within. Once a critical mass of harvesters was reached, the large printers then printed constructor swarms en masse, sending them out to reinforce the tunnels carved by the harvester units with the same hadfield steel and chromium alloy used for armor by the empire.

The industrial printer in 1 Ceres, on the other hand, was working on something different. All of the reinforcement the constructor swarms built had an additional element to it: gravity plating. It also contained not one, but twelve full-sized fusion reactors in the center of the 590-mile-wide dwarf planet.

Gravity plating, it had to be noted, was also what made it possible for the RES-QR bots to flip the bird at the laws of physics, as well as the eerie stillness of the hovering rescue ships used during the attack. It was capable of countering the effect of gravity based on how much energy was pumped through it.

And twelve fusion reactors could pump quite a lot of energy through the gravity plating in Ceres.

Once the reinforcement and building process was completed, Ceres was destined to be moved into geosynchronous orbit over Eden as the terminal for a space elevator and Earth's first common-use space station.

Even as the construction continued, the fusion reactors were brought up to their safe margin of 80% capacity and began the sisyphean task of deorbiting Ceres. After falling out of its orbit in the main asteroid belt, it would then be moved to its final destination. And by the time it took up its position, the interior construction would be complete and it would be ready for the first batch of imperial citizens that wanted to brave the farthest frontiers.

Chapter 462

Aron had found himself alone with Rina's mother just after attending his final state funeral. He had spent 72 hours nonstop visiting the funeral locations, prompting discussion among the people about whether he was among the blessed or simply superior to "normal" humans on a genetic level.

Many people easily "debunked" the possibility that Aron was among the blessed, as it was obvious that he wasn't in a medical pod in the process of receiving a blessing. In fact, he seemed perfectly fine as he flitted here and there, attending state funerals. Even though the wave of fainting people had begun a few days prior, even those who were among the first to be blessed were still in the medical pods and showing no sign of the process being complete anytime soon.

So that left the second option. It was an open secret that ARES soldiers were genetically enhanced, as they hadn't even tried to keep their performances to mere human levels. Thus, there were thousands upon thousands of video clips showing them exerting their monstrous strength even without their power armor on. And it only stood to reason that the Emperor of the Terran Empire would be at least as enhanced as his soldiers, if not even more.

The argument went back and forth, but little did they know that both possibilities were true.

There was also a third argument going around, propagated by conspiracy theorists and trolls. After the video that Rick's cult had released claiming responsibility for the terror attacks and calling Aron the devil himself, a small, but vocal, minority of imperial citizens began parroting some of the more troll-worthy quotes from it. It was hard to tell whether those were their actual beliefs or if they just wanted to see the world burn, but that crowd argued that Aron was using the power of the devil to keep himself going.

Still, the discussion had taken the limelight away from his personal shuttle, causing him to be caught between laughter and tears. He now knew what it felt like to be a star and have unrelated people discussing every last little detail about him.

Mothers, though, had different perspectives, a point that Virginia Rothschild was demonstrating now. "How are you holding up? You haven't slept for more than three days. Have you lost weight?" Question after question was fired at Aron without end.

"I'm fine," he sighed. "I'm a bit tired, sure, but what I'm feeling is nothing compared to the people who lost loved ones in an attack that we promised we could, and would, protect them from." He tried to project the same casual smile that was normally on his face and wasn't entirely successful, though it was true that he wasn't exhausted. His tiredness was purely emotional, as he had been keeping a refreshing rune active on himself over the past few days. Though it ate into his concentration a bit, due to the need to constantly supply mana to it, it was still enough to have kept him going for a short three days.

"I know it must weigh heavy on your heart, but you still need to take care of yourself. You can't keep everyone from making evil choices, but if something happens to you, then..." She patted his back, then changed tack and continued, "Go get some rest. The work is neverending, but if you don't rest, you won't be." She subtly pushed him in the direction of his room as she would do for her own children.

"I'll go take a break, then. Thanks, Virginia, and I'll see you later." With that, he headed to greet his family, then go off to rest.

…

While Aron rested, the rest of the military armament stockpiles were delivered to Avalon Island. At least those that weren't stolen, hidden away, or simply forgotten due to shoddy recordkeeping on the part of the former militaries. With the last freighter unloaded, any military-grade hardware left anywhere else had immediately become contraband and anyone linked to it would be tried and convicted by the efficient imperial justice system.

That efficiency had already been proven by the initial sorting of the prisons and ongoing trials around the world. Almost all of the innocent prisoners who had been falsely convicted had been released and the true culprits behind their alleged crimes imprisoned in their place under the new imperial law guidelines. And once the fortress cities began being constructed, even those prisons would be emptied, as most of the punishments under imperial law involved labor, at least in some capacity.

The hardware itself was mostly sent to the pit for recycling, though one of each object was rendered safe, its engines, weapons, and any dangerous parts stripped from it, for display in a museum... once it was built, anyway. For now, the safed hardware would remain in storage in one of the warehouses in the Cube on Avalon Island.

Though the physical objects were placed in storage, "working" versions were available to be viewed, and even rented, in the simulation. Once that was announced, there was a flood of people visiting the War Museum of the Imperial Archives and lining up to rent the hardware and join special instances where they could reenact famous battles from the past, living their fantasies and learning about history through blood-pumping role play. The people could even experience firsthand what it was like to face the ARES troopers deployed in The Last War, though for security reasons, they were prohibited from "playing" as the ARES troopers themselves; anyone interested in that was directed to an ARES recruitment station instead.

The mass disarmament marked the official end of thousands of years in mankind's ever-escalating quest to discover better, more efficient ways of killing their fellow man. That said, it had become something of a joke since Aron's rise anyway, as the moment he began introducing 14th-generation military hardware was the actual moment humanity's violent quest to kill each other with bigger and bigger booms was rendered obsolete. And the empire had recently even begun introducing the 75th generation of military equipment, no less.

In addition to that particular closed chapter in the history of humanity, the Imperial Archivist, who people only knew as Mnemosyne, informed the empire's citizens that January 1, 2018 AD had been officially declared as January 1, 1 AE (After Empire). Everything prior to that date was labeled as BE (Before Empire), so the year 2017 AD was now the year -1 BE, much like humanity was used to referring to things on the Gregorian calendar as BC and AD.

Chapter 463

February 1, 1 AE

The lockdown had officially ended after the empire had completed the majority of the transitional work. Currencies had been exchanged, workers had been retrained, agencies had been built and fully staffed, and all seven billion citizens had registered for their IDs. The only ongoing work was the initial medical treatment in the imperial hospitals inside each of the cubes scattered across the world and the retrial of prisoners who had requested one. No matter how efficient the empire was—and it was VERY efficient—they simply didn't have enough medical pods or legal staff to handle that many jobs in a short period of time.

That said, imperial clinics had been built outside of the cubes, filled with row after row of shiny, brand new medical pods, and subordinate AIs had quietly taken on quite a few of the cases in the justice system. The two tasks would be completed over the next few months and had been downgraded to low priority jobs in the background.

Currently, the only thing the empire lacked was capable individuals to helm the imperial agencies and the three ministries.

But lacking the warm asses to fill those particular seats wouldn't prevent the agencies from operating, as the AIs responsible for general oversight of each agency could still issue orders even without official heads of the agencies. Filling those spots would also take time, as potential candidates were identified, recruited, and tested to see if they were the best person for the job. Sure, the Akashic Library had their constantly updated brain data, but that didn't give the whole picture of what a person was or how they would actually act when the metal hit the meat.

Free will was a bitch, and the brownian motion of sentient life was something that no amount of processing power would ever be able to account for.

Among the first agency to finish their transitional tasks was the imperial scholastica. They had one of the easiest tasks: unifying school curriculums. Though each country had had their own curriculum in the past, they all taught mostly the same things. STEM subjects were naturally combined, as math was math and science was science no matter what country was teaching it, while the more liberal arts–oriented subjects were either combined or eliminated entirely. Early childhood, late childhood, and adult education were strictly delineated, and with twice the length of time to teach, STEM and liberal arts would be given equal treatment under the new curriculums. At least in early childhood education, anyway, where children would be given a broad foundation before being sorted into a single path once their personalities had developed and their interests discovered and verified.

Along with the promise of free education and the chains of student debt being entirely eliminated through an imperial debt forgiveness program, the imperial scholastica's other task was similarly easy. They simply had to tally up what current students had already paid for their education and issue refunds. The refunds were strictly limited to current students, though, as refunding everyone who had ever paid for a private school or university-level education throughout all of modern history would be a bit much.

That said, however, though former students hadn't been refunded the cost of their educations, they were still issued subsidies and credits to purchase goods and services offered at a premium by the government, like extra housing space or luxury decorations for their housing in the promised fortress cities, or through any of Aron's companies, like computer equipment, civilian-grade bionics and cybernetics, and so on.

...

"Yes!" Henry exclaimed. "I can finally go outside after nearly a whole month!"

He had long grown bored with wandering around the areas of the Cube he'd been granted access to, and even a few of those he hadn't been. The AIs had a certain tolerance for his antics and had "accidentally" allowed him to access a few of the areas he'd been told he was restricted from, a measure meant to delay his inevitable boredom from lack of stimulation. Nothing was more stimulating to a child than figuring out ways to sneak into places they didn't think they were allowed to be in; their curiosity would allow no less.

It wasn't just Henry who was thrilled that the lockdown had ended, either. Aron hadn't allowed even the adults in his and Rina's families to leave the Cube for the duration of the lockdown. Sure, if a major emergency happened, they would be ushered out under the protection of their Aegis teams, but there was nothing on Earth that could threaten the Cube on Avalon Island so an emergency of that scale was... unlikely, to say the least.

"No, you need to study," Rose said.

Everyone, from the youngest preschooler to the oldest university post-graduate student, would be in the first batch to take the scholastica exams, which would place them in their initial tracks. For those in late childhood education, which began in the ninth year of classes, it would determine where they would be placed in their individual development path so their talent could be polished to a mirror shine.

"But mooooom..." Henry whined. "That's two whole weeks away! Can't I just study next week and go outside this week?" His small face wore an exaggerated expression of aggrieved misery.

"Why don't you just play in the simulation? You'll even have more time there," Rose suggested.

"But that's not real! And since it isn't real, I don't have fun there," Henry complained. He was one of the minority of people who didn't enjoy the simulation, since they couldn't bring themselves to forget that it wasn't real.

Rose sighed. "Okay. But you have to promise you'll study really hard next week, and no more excuses, okay mister?"

"Yay! Will Aron come with us?" Henry cheered, then grew sober when he remembered that his big brother only went out when it was required by his new duties.

Saddened by the disappointment evident in Henry's expression, Rose said, "Why don't you go ask him if he'll have time to come out and play with us?" She felt that perhaps Henry would have a better chance of dragging her older son away from his heavy responsibilities, even for a few hours, than she would if she were to ask him.

"Okay!" Henry exclaimed, then leapt off of the sofa and sprinted at full child speed to the elevator, on his way to the secure pod vault determined to drag his big brother out by hook or by crook.

Chapter 464

"It should be any time, now," Nova said. She was in the secure pod vault with Aron, watching over Rina as the final stage of her awakening was progressing and documenting the changes in her.

"I'm actually a bit excited... and curious, and nervous. I didn't get to see anything happening during my upgrades at all," Aron distractedly replied.

Just as he was about to continue, Rina's pod beeped, a notification that movement had been detected. She was waking up.

Rina stopped absorbing the liquid mana in the pod, so Nova stopped the mana feed and allowed it to drain out of the pod and into the room, where it evaporated and joined the rest of the mana in the atmosphere. The mana density in the pod vault was so high it would awaken any five people, but to Aron, it was akin to a warm breeze on a hot day, practically unnoticeable.

After a few minutes of outward inactivity, Rina blinked open her eyes and released a low groan. Due to concerns about interfering with the awakening process, Nova had only supplied mana and observed the process, nothing more, so Rina was rather stiff and groggy after having laid still for so long.

Still, Nova had collected a wealth of data for the imperial archive's confidential records. There were akashic librarians collecting data on everyone else in pods undergoing the process of awakening, but those could only act as controls to compare Rina's awakening to. After all, Rina had a couple of advantages. Not only was she in the most recent generation of medical VR pod, but she had also undergone a round of genetic enhancement beforehand. Not only that, she'd had her awakening triggered in a location with a much higher mana density—the pod vault during Aron's own upgrade—and Nova had also "fed her" with as much mana as her body could handle during the awakening itself.

She found herself almost eager for the process to complete in others so she could compare the results. Her initial hypothesis was... exciting, to say the least.

Aron immediately cast a refreshment rune on her to remove her grogginess, causing Rina to jump in surprise. "The fuck is that!?" she exclaimed and rubbed her eyes. 'I must still be dreaming,' she thought, having seen lines of brilliantly glowing gold runes flowing from her boyfriend's raised hand to her body. But after rubbing her eyes, they were gone as if they had never been.

"Why'm I so... tired..." she mumbled, her heavy eyelids wanting to close. "I don't remember... sleep." No matter how hard she tried to remember what happened, she failed to do so. To her, she was sitting next to Aron's pod and watching him undergo what she thought was a special genetic enhancement, and the next moment she was in a pod of her own.

…

"Shit," Aron cursed, realizing he had used runes in front of someone who was now awakened to mana. It was too late for him to call them back, though, as they had already begun taking effect on her, calming and revitalizing her after she'd been laying flat on her back for an extended period of time.

Aron caressed her face with his still-glowing hand as she finished waking up, feeling refreshed thanks to his nearly instinctive cast of the refresh rune.

"Did you see those weird glowy things that appeared out of nowhere?" she asked. She had never been told of mana's existence, let alone seen it for herself before. But after her awakening, she was seeing the world through a whole new set of eyes and from a much higher viewpoint.

But due to her ignorance of mana's existence, she wasn't sure what she was seeing and thought it must be just the last bit of a lingering dream that she couldn't remember having.

"Yes, I saw them. More than that, though, I'm the one who drew them," Aron answered, twitching his finger in the air as though he was using a conductor's baton and causing the runes to lift from her body and back into her field of view.

"What are they?" she asked.

"They're runes," Aron answered. "These ones in particular form a spell I call 'refresh', that calms and energizes the people I cast them on."

Rina felt like that sounded familiar, so she thought for a moment, then blushed. She remembered all the times he had intimate moments with her into complete exhaustion due to his seemingly limitless stamina. Then, after pounding her half to death, she would always feel refreshed and ready for more after a short period of cuddling. Thus, he must have been doing the same thing to her every time he plowed her into a puddle of goo, as she was relatively familiar with the sensation she was feeling now.

"Care to explain what's going on?" She narrowed her eyes and glared at Aron. It must have been his fault. Did he bang her into a medical pod this time? Were his thrusts so fierce they caused brain damage and memory loss? Did he slam her into a concussed state? She had to know!

"Why did I wake up in a pod?" she asked as she grabbed the side of the pod she was in and tried lifting herself to a seated position. As she pulled, though, instead of rising to a more comfortable sitting position, she heard a loud cracking noise and the handle she was grabbing to lever herself upright broke off in her hand.

"Let me help you up. You're a lot stronger than you used to be and your mind hasn't quite adjusted to your new body yet," Aron said, then picked her up in a princess carry and brought her over to a chair.

He handed her a set of clothes, as the ones she was wearing had been disintegrated by the pod, but she tore them to rags trying to get dressed.

Without a word, he handed her a second set, which suffered the same fate, then a third, and so on. It wasn't until her eighth failed attempt at dressing herself that he finally stepped in and put the clothes on for her.

She puffed out her cheeks and pouted at him. "I really liked those clothes, you know," she said coquettishly.

"Here," he put a pair of glasses on her face, "log in and I'll explain everything in the simulation."

Chapter 465

"So let me get this straight. While you were in the pod and completely incommunicado, you weren't undergoing a genetic enhancement, but receiving an upgrade in your 'blessing'?" Rina asked. "And because I was close to you when you were finishing, it triggered a blessing in me even though I finished puberty awhile ago? And not just me, but 3% of everyone from the ages of 14 to 22—kids, basically—are still unconscious as we speak?"

Aron had explained everything to Rina, leaving out only the system. The system's existence would be kept solely between him and Nova, and he wouldn't even tell his parents or little brother, let alone his girlfriend. Some secrets were dangerous, and the less those around him knew, the safer they would be and the less stress they would be under trying to keep his secrets.

The only person he could trust to keep his secrets, especially now that humanity had begun awakening to mana and would be rapidly developing special abilities that may include methods to read minds or force people to speak, was Nova.

"That's the gist of it, yeah. There's a longer explanation, but you can take your time to digest it," he flicked a file with the explanation of the hows and whys behind the awakening process to her, "since there's no point in overwhelming you with a massive infodump when you've just woken up."

"So what's with the golden letters? And you said you were 'upgrading' yourself, meaning you could use them even before. How'd you manage that?" she asked.

"One of the things I invented was a sort of... adapter that converts electricity to those particles and can force the blessing to happen in people near it. So I got mine much earlier than everyone who's just now getting theirs and didn't have to wait for the density to reach a certain level," he said, not technically lying. "After that, I had plenty of time to experiment with it and figure out what my blessing can do. I mean, I'm still learning more every day, but I'm pretty handy with it." He snapped his fingers and a large runic pattern appeared in the air behind him. It did nothing in particular, but definitely looked intricate and beautiful; it was one of the training exercises that he did every day to increase the speed at which he could condense runes, a necessary skill for someone who was unable to manipulate mana without using a runic intermediary.

That was all Rina needed to hear as her eyes flashed with wonder when she saw the gorgeous runic construct floating in the air behind Aron. She knew there must be more to it, but she'd never been one to demand that Aron share everything about him and had always been content with the things he did choose to share with her. That, to her, was an expression of one of the pillars of a healthy relationship: trust.

"Does that mean you're actually able to do everything you were doing during your spar with Nova in the simulation, but in the real world instead?" she finally asked as Aron's explanation sank in. And if that was the case, didn't it mean that Aron was a walking weapon of mass destruction? The attacks he had been dishing out in his fight against Nova were capable of wiping out entire mountain ranges, much less cities!

For the first time, Rina felt a twinge of uneasiness around her boyfriend. He was much, much scarier than people already thought he was. Not only was he staggeringly wealthy and a mad genius when it came to inventing advanced technology, but he could wipe out entire cities with the wave of a hand without even breaking a sweat at all. She didn't love him any less, but the realization of the actual power he had at his fingertips was sobering, to say the least.

"Yes," he said. "Now, let's see what you can do with your blessing. Begin by closing your eyes and resting in a comfortable position."

"I don't have to sit in some strange position and breathe weird?" Rina asked.

"This isn't a cultivation novel," Aron laughed. He wondered when she had found the time to read those strange panda-novels.

Rina blushed, then awkwardly sat on the soft grass, arranging her limbs until she looked like a boneless rag doll. "I can't get much more comfortable than this," she said, her head on Aron's thigh.

"Now close your eyes and feel the area around you with your heart." He waved his hand and increased the mana density in the surrounding area tenfold, to better allow her to sense it. "In your mind's eye, picture your surroundings. Look for the glowing gold particles floating around you in all directions," he said, his voice low and hypnotic.

"I see them... this... this is amazing," she said, subconsciously lifting her arm and trying to grab a handful of the mana surrounding her.

"Now imagine you're a black hole, or a magnet... whatever image works for you that draws them into your body."

Rina pictured herself as a blooming flower, and the mana particles around her were bees and photons of light. They began flowing toward her in an orderly fashion, almost like they were dancing in a long, winding conga line. As they began entering her body, she felt a warmth in her chest, radiating out along her limbs to the tips of her fingers and toes, then back to her chest and up to the top of her head, forming a racetrack-like circuit within her.

"I feel it," she said. "It's warm and tingly. Is it supposed to tingle like this?" It was so pleasant she almost moaned in satisfaction.

"Yes, you're doing great. Now pull them back into your heart and keep them there."

She nodded and pictured the blooming flower again, but this time it was inside her, where her heart was. The tingling warmth faded from her extremities first, then her head, and finally her torso. All that was left of the pleasant sensation was a warmth in her chest that was almost uncomfortable, like her heart had turned into a burning coal.

"Okay, now what?"

"Now you open your eyes and stand up," Aron said, a grin obvious in his voice.

Chapter 466

Aron brought up Rina's status screen. It was similar to the one his system generated for him, as he had used it as the core inspiration for the runes he'd used in its creation. It displayed everything that was known about her, like her name, height, and so on. It also included two entries showing whether or not she was awakened, and what system of magic she had awakened to. The field showing her individual magic system was blank at the moment, however, as it had yet to be discovered.

But none of that mattered just then, because the most important and attention-grabbing field—at least for Aron and Nova—was the affinity section of her status, which read "Affinity: neutral".

The excitement on Aron and Nova's face couldn't be hidden, prompting Rina, who had yet to understand the importance of mana affinities, to ask, "What's got you two so excited?"

"Having a neutral affinity is wonderful! Based on what we know, we expect that the majority of awakened will have an affinity to a certain type of mana. Fire, water, lightning, and so on. There are an unfathomable number of them, ranging from the easy-to-understand elements to more esoteric types, like time, space, faith, and so on. If a person has an affinity to a type of mana, they'll find that mana to be the easiest to draw and will face a lot of difficulty if they want to draw other types of mana. And some will be outright impossible to draw. For instance, someone with an affinity to fire would find it impossible to draw water or ice mana, and would have a really hard time drawing earth mana.

"There's also levels to consider, too. It seems like there are levels, from simple to complex, and those with simple mana affinities—like elemental mana-will find it extremely difficult to draw from the next level of complexity, and almost impossible to draw from two levels up. Three or more levels higher would be impossible for them to draw. For an example, the fire affinity awakened I used earlier would find it extremely difficult to draw lava mana, almost impossible to draw kinetic mana, and wouldn't be able to draw any of the esoteric mana at all.

"We think that affinities can be manipulated. If you're in an area with a lot of fire, for example, you would probably develop a fire affinity. People who were in a walk-in freezer, or at one of the poles, would probably develop an ice affinity. Basically, based on what we currently know about awakening and mana, your environment plays a big part in the affinity you become attuned to.

"In your case, your awakening was triggered by the burst of high-concentration aspectless mana triggered by the final stage of my evolution. Then that was compounded by the flood of aspectless mana you were exposed to during your awakening process itself, thanks to being in one of the pods in the vault here. Those two factors likely resulted in you having a neutral affinity to mana," Aron excitedly explained.

"So what does that mean? I understand how it happened now... I think, but what can I do with neutral affinity? Does that mean I can only draw uh, what'd you call it? Aspectless mana?" Rina asked.

"Not exactly. Aspectless mana isn't usually present anywhere. Mana is something like a building block, and we aren't quite sure whether mana is present wherever the thing it's aspected to is present, or if aspected mana has to be present for a thing to form. Like earth mana. We don't know if the mana was what turned whatever basic building block the universe is made out of into rocks and soil, or if the rocks and soil themselves are responsible for concentrating earth mana in them.

"So your neutral affinity doesn't, and can't, mean that you can only work with aspectless mana. Instead, what it means is, you can work with ALL types of mana. So you can draw all of the elements, all of the derivatives, all of the mana from laws, and you can draw conceptual mana and perhaps even esoteric mana! I mean, the universe is fair, so your draw rate will likely be lower than an aspected awakened, but you, my dear," he cupped her chin in his hand and gazed lovingly into her eyes, "are a jack of all trades and master of all." Aron beamed at Rina.

"Does that mean I can use the golden letters like you?" Rina excitedly asked, imagining herself as a perpetual motion machine with the aid of the refresh rune.

"Unfortunately, no. My awakening was... unique, and related to my physique. You can't cast runes unless you have the same, let's say, mutation that I do." Aron snapped his fingers and a model of his runic heart appeared, with a section highlighted like an illustration in an anatomy textbook that showed a portion of the billions of submicroscopic runic sentences carved into his heart.

"We also suspect that, since your awakening was triggered, rather than happening naturally, it'll be difficult for you to learn to use your blessing. Those who naturally awakened should be able to instinctively use their blessings, but have you felt anything like that yourself? Without that instinct, you'll have to learn everything from scratch. Either way, it takes repetition and training, together with researching the mana you want to use, to develop new abilities. So for now, we have to wait until we can gather data from the naturally awakened on how they use, and strengthen, their blessings before we can come up with a system for you to put your blessing to work," Aron finished. Though he said that, he was already planning to buy beginner magical knowledge from the system and upload it to her—and the other awakened, for that matter, to act as their "instincts"—but he needed a cover for it that wouldn't expose the system or his ability to upload information directly into someone's brain. That was another secret he could only share with Nova.

Still, he was absolutely ecstatic that Rina was joining him as someone who could also use magic. Keeping that ability from her was beginning to weigh on him and he knew it would affect their relationship, eventually. Secrets are the heaviest thing known to man, and no matter how healthy a relationship was, keeping too many would cause it to crumble under their weight.

"We'll know more in the future, but for now, you need some natural sleep. Your recent bout of unconsciousness can't be considered 'rest', after all."

Aron initiated a forced logout for the two of them and held her in his arms until they disappeared from the simulation.

Chapter 467

"Did sister Rina already wake up?"

When Aron opened his eyes, his little brother's question was the first thing he heard. It would still be a little bit before Rina completed the logout procedure, but Aron, due to his intimate connection to the simulation, had completed his logout almost instantaneously.

"She did, yeah. What're you doing here?" Aron said, ruffling Henry's hair and eliciting an annoyed groan from the young boy.

"Mom told me to come ask if you would go out and play with us now that we can leave the Cube," Henry wheedled. He was just shy of grabbing his big brother's hand and dragging him to the elevator.

"Sure," Aron laughed. "Let's go play, I'll bring you to visit the air and sea scrubbers." Now that the empire had gone into full swing, he would focus on carving out as much time as he could to spend with his family.

"Yay! I'll go let mom know so she can pack our stuff!" Henry exclaimed, then ran to the elevator. "Oh, I should let Uncle Herschel and Aunt Virginia know too. I'm sure they want to go out and have some fun with us, too!"

The elevator doors hissed closed and Henry bounced up and down until they opened again, then sprinted at full child speed down the hall to where the adults were staying to tell them the 'good news'.

Around the world, people who, like Henry, preferred to live in the 'real' world had also left their homes. One explorer had discovered the air scrubber in the Thar Desert in Pakistan and posted pictures and a short video clip to his Pangea account, prompting others to take trips out to remote areas in search of other towers. The empire, meanwhile, hadn't even bothered hiding their existence. Not that they couldn't hide them, Aron and Gaia had just determined that it would be pointless to even try.

As more and more of them were discovered, people wondered what they could be. The discussion on the internet was wild... until someone checked the Akashic Record and learned exactly what they were, what they were built to do, how they worked, and much, much more. And when he posted that information in the form of a long forum post, instead of people getting upset that their entertaining discussion had been ruined, they were excited. All of those enormous towers had been built in the course of one short month! Didn't that mean the fortress cities would be built just as ridiculously fast as the behemoth air and sea scrubbers?

Everyone had "built" their dream homes in the public simulation and they were all itching to move in!

The reveal and resulting discussion surrounding the air and sea scrubbers had also taken some of the spotlight off of the people lying unconscious in medical pods receiving their blessings, at least mostly, anyway. Conspiracy theorists were notoriously stubborn when it came to promulgating their pet conspiracy theories, after all, and had stubbornly continued denying that the empire had the best interests of humanity at heart.

Two weeks later.

Things had finally gotten on track. Once the empire was functioning at peak capacity, the economy began picking up. The events of the past few months had devastated everything, but most of the actual damage had been to the fragile economy. The space bubble bursting, followed by a shooting war, followed by mass protests, followed by a lockdown, then worldwide riots, then another lockdown, a wave of terrorist attacks... People had been petrified, and when the emotion that economies are the most sensitive to is fear. So it wasn't surprising that it had taken so long to wrench it back on track.

The empire had been fighting a losing battle against the crashing economy at first, but the past few weeks had seen it stabilize, and finally, begin climbing again. Stopgap measure after stopgap measure was rescinded, and the new flat tax stimulated spending to the point where the rapid fall was followed by a just-as-rapid climb.

The biggest contributor to the newly burgeoning economy, however, was the empire's compensation to its citizens. The past few weeks of relative peace had allowed the super-efficient imperial treasury to calculate and disburse payments to those affected by the recent riots and attacks, as well as those who were included in the imperial scholastica's debt forgiveness program. Combined with an initiative by the Bank of the Universe to offer low- or zero-interest loans to people and the imperial housing agency's buyback of unused and unwanted real estate together with people's house who have finished the mortgages of their houses to incentivize their movements to the fortress cities but also to use the lands for the reconstructions of the fortress cities within the former cities, the atmosphere among imperial citizens could be described by three short words: buy, buy, buy!

And it wasn't as though they had nowhere to spend that windfall of cash, either; Aron's companies had been releasing product after product and partnering with small, medium, and large businesses to sell, sell, sell!

Thus, trillions of Earth New Dollars had been changing hands, not only helping the economy climb, but also enriching the lives of imperial citizens all over the world. But much to the dismay of those who had waived their rights and privileges and chosen not to register for imperial citizenship, the purchase of the shiny new gadgets was restricted to those with imperial IDs. Unbeknownst to them, it was just another method devised by Nyx to narrow the field she and her nyxians would have to investigate to find the remaining cultists, who were still a threat despite cell after cell being identified and taken down.

Although the economy news was heartening, at least to those who were paying attention to it—like Herschel Rothschild and other members of the former "elite" class—most people simply took their increased quality of life in stride. The vast majority of humanity had no interest in the economy, nor did they know about the secret war between the empire and the cult. But they definitely cared about the "Three Percenters", those who were still lying unconscious in medical pods around the world, receiving their blessings.

Chapter 468

As people's attention was split between the media's reports on the growing economy and the progress of the Three Percenters receiving their blessings, a breaking news story intruded into the public consciousness via a link on everyone's devices and a special report on every television screen and radio station. Following the link took people to a report about a bright light discovered in space headed toward Earth at an almost unimaginable speed.

Located a few days before by a member of Australia's Anglo-Australian Observatory in New South Wales' Siding Spring Observatory, it had at first been dismissed as a scanning artifact caused by a glitch in their system, or perhaps even a smudge on the telescope's lenses. After taking the telescope offline and cleaning the lenses, they scanned again, only to make the alarming discovery that a meteor of unconscionable size was rapidly approaching Earth. But Australians being Australians, the discovery was met with a resounding "meh" and they simply sat down to identify the meteor before publishing what they claimed "will perhaps be the last scientific article ever published by a member of the human race".

And to their surprise, the meteor was identified within a matter of hours. The only confusing thing was why would 1 Ceres suddenly break its stable orbit and approach Earth with what appeared to be a stable acceleration?

The Anglo-Australian Observatory astronomer who wrote the report skyrocketed to immediate fame when the media company interns that had assigned their AI assistants to constantly scan new entries to the Akashic Record for newsworthy events frantically pushed the report up their chains of command, leading to the broadcast. But by that point, when the newsrooms' fact checkers verified the information on the Akashic Record, they saw that Ceres was decelerating and would reach Earth within a day.

Then, the old habit of "selling fear" raised its ugly head again and the news anchors broke in with a breaking story about how Earth was doomed to be destroyed when a rogue meteor impacted it.

The broadcast was noticed by Gaia, who issued takedown notices within seconds of the news anchors mentioning that the world was about to be destroyed, along with cutting the broadcast off the air and reporting the issue to Aron, who at that point was seriously regretting the laxity in his lese majeste laws.

He wasted no time and immediately logged back in to the simulation and took to the podium again to address the situation. He could only internally apologize to Henry and his family, sending them a note that they could go ahead and plan whatever trip they wanted to take and he would be there with them, but he couldn't be involved in the planning due to a situation that required his immediate attention.

As he was logging in and taking his place behind the podium, Nova issued an "invitation" to the media to attend the imperial briefing, where they would be allowed to ask questions after the emperor's prepared announcement. Naturally, the media all complied, rushing to log in to the simulation via the link provided in their invitations, which were actually just thinly veiled imperial commands. Having operated in politics for decades, the newly instated heads of the broadcasting companies—their predecessors having been shitcanned and blackballed for the previous snafu with their uncontrolled broadcasting of the cultist manifesto—knew what awaited them if they didn't send their representatives to the briefing in a timely fashion.

Aron panned his gaze across the sea of reporters, all of whom felt chills pass down their spine as they felt an emperor's displeasure for the first time. None of them had ever seen him in person before, as the cleansing carried out in the broadcast conglomerates after the cultist manifesto fiasco had been extremely thorough; many previously famous newsrooms had been left with only interns and experienced backstage crew.

"As you have discovered, there is an asteroid from the main asteroid belt approaching Earth at high speed and is expected to reach the planet within the day. But what you weren't aware of, due to slipshod fact checking and upper-level management still subscribing to the philosophy that 'fear sells', is that there is no danger to the planet from the dwarf planet Ceres' approach."

Aron gripped the sides of the podium, his entire bearing emanating righteous anger despite the lack of any expression on his face as he continued, "Had you, the media, actually done your jobs and investigated the phenomenon—something that Our policy of transparency in governance has made extremely simple—you would have discovered that.

"But you either failed to do the research and investigation, or you were ordered to jump the gun and spread fear and panic among the citizens of the empire, still intent on profiting from the resulting chaos and misery. Regardless, it makes no difference, the news is out and the citizens need answers. So, answers they shall have." The podium beneath his hands creaked and groaned as he gripped it with all the force he could muster, becoming more enraged with the media as the seconds ticked past.

"So allow Us to elaborate on the situation. Two weeks prior to the empire's formation, We sent ten unmanned vessels to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter as part of an ongoing mission to survey and explore potential strongholds to use as a line of defense should the visitors prove to be headed our way with less-than-friendly intentions. The first ten vessels were to identify the ten largest asteroids in the belt and begin constructing nine sortie bases from which ARES can lead the defense of Earth."

He waved his hand and a map of the solar system as seen from above the elliptic appeared over his right shoulder, with markers and labels showing the position of the nine sortie bases currently under construction.

"Though they are currently the only line of defense We are building, as Our defense and fortification plan progresses, the main asteroid belt will become Our last line of defense. Thus, it needs to be the strongest shield and tallest wall that humanity can build, so it was started even before the formation of the Terran Empire, giving it the longest possible lead time for construction and reinforcement. We will not speak more on that, as the Akashic Record is available to any who wish to know more, saving only critical details that are still classified.

"But there was a different plan for the largest object in the main asteroid belt, 1 Ceres." The display over Aron's shoulder changed from a top-down view of the solar system to a close-up image of Ceres, with detailed information about it directly next to it.

(Ed note: If you've ever played Mass Effect 2, it looks like the planet information screen that shows up when you're scanning planets for resources.)

"Ceres is a dwarf planet and the first of them to have been visited by humankind. It has an average diameter of 590 miles and is made up primarily of water ice, rock, organic compounds, and various metal and other mineral resources. The size and makeup of it made it perfect, both as a resource gathering point and as the endpoint of the first space elevator built by humanity."

A timelapse video of the proposed construction replaced the Ceres fact sheet displayed over his shoulder. It showed the dwarf planet being moved into stable geosynchronous orbit, then a line of woven carbon nanotubes extending from it to a currently unnamed island in the Eden-Esparian Archipelago, where it would be anchored deep within the Earth's crust.

"This is one of the many plans that have been put into place in order to reach the target goal of fifty percent readiness within Our promised timeline. Assuming that everything goes to plan, humanity's defense should reach that readiness goal long before the five-year period that We promised approaches."

His gaze swept across the reporters in the audience again, much of his anger finally restrained. "Any questions?"

Chapter 469

"Any questions?" Aron asked.

With that, every reporter in the audience raised their hands, all of them eager to ask the first question the emperor would answer since his investiture.

Aron wasted no time in casually pointing to a random reporter in the audience. "You, ask." He was obviously still dissatisfied with the media and wouldn't bother treating them kindly at the moment.

"Thank you for the opportunity, Your Majesty." The reporter bowed, then asked, "How will the effects from Ceres gravity be mitigated so they don't have any impact on the tides and weather?"

"We'll use the same technology that you saw in the rescue ships following the terrorist attacks. Our researchers discovered artificial gravity some time ago, and that opened up an entirely new branch of physics dedicated to manipulating gravitational fields. Part of Ceres has already been prepared for habitation, and the internal structure reinforcements and walls all incorporate gravity plating, which allows the controller to manipulate Ceres' gravity well. Thus, it will have no effect on Earth's weather or tides," Aron explained.

"Next question." He randomly chose another reporter to ask their question..

"How long will the space elevator construction take, and what safety measures will be implemented to protect it from the debris field in orbit?"

The entire audience was teleported to space, giving the reporters the fright of their lives before they remembered the briefing room was in the VR simulation. "As you can see, you're currently in high orbit above Earth. If you look down, you'll notice that almost 95% of the debris has been cleaned up. By the time the elevator reaches the planet's surface, the remaining debris will all be cleaned out as well. But to protect from things like micrometeor impacts and other junk that may accumulate over time, Our researchers have developed an alloy capable of withstanding the impact of debris. Otherwise, how do you think the vessels that We launched into the asteroid belt got there?

"Regarding the length of the construction process, it will last around three months after Ceres arrives in geosynchronous orbit. Most of that time will be spent hollowing it out and testing the organics in its makeup to ensure they aren't harmful to humanity, and if they are, eliminating or recycling them using chemical processes to convert them to a beneficial, or at least non-harmful, substance. So the exact length of time it takes to build it depends on the test results, but We anticipate no more than ninety days from start to finish."

(Ed note: Organic chemistry is basically modern-day wizardry. If you're interested, check out NileRed on YouTube; he's a chemist who regularly does incredible things like turn vinyl gloves into grape soda, or toilet paper into alcohol. He's also done other cool things like making transparent wood and so on. Very much worth a watch.)

Aron randomly pointed to another reporter. "You, speak."

"Who is doing the construction? Is it the military, or is it being outsourced to one of your companies?"

Apparently, not every bad apple in the media bunch had been caught in the recent purge, as that soon-to-be-ex-reporter had just insinuated that the Emperor of the Terran Empire was abusing his authority, not to mention enriching himself at the citizens' expense. After all, whether the construction was done by the military or by one of Aron's companies, he would still directly profit from it, giving rise to questions about conflicts of interest and monopolies. The reporter would likely even have directly mentioned that to drum up some profitable controversy, if they weren't limited to asking questions arising directly from Aron's prepared remarks.

Aron frowned and made a mental note of that particular reporter before answering, "The construction is being done by Hephaestus Heavy Industries, as ARES currently lacks the manpower and training required to build such a large, intricate structure. Much less building it in high geosynchronous orbit."

After Aron finished answering, the reporter that asked the question unceremoniously disappeared from the briefing, his press credentials revoked and his continued employment in journalism in limbo pending an investigation into him. Draconian as it may be, the newly formed empire had enough controversy already and didn't need more people stirring the pot and drumming up negativity in the populace, so "bad" reporters like that one would be plucked from the press pool as they were found.

Aron continued, "In addition to the space elevator, Hephaestus Heavy Industries will also be responsible for the construction of our fortress cities, as well as any other defense-related construction in the future, at least until ARES expands to a point that they can field construction battalions. Next question." He pointed at another random reporter in the audience.

"What are the chances, if any, of catastrophic failure of the gravity plating, and if it fails, what would the consequences be? What plans are in place to deal with a catastrophic failure to ensure that it doesn't fall out of orbit and impact the planet?"

"The empire has space tugs capable of pulling Ceres out of orbit in case of a catastrophic malfunction. Failing that, there are scuttling charges that ensure that, if it were to suddenly fall out of orbit, it would be broken up into harmless pieces and become nothing but a pretty meteor shower. Still, the chances of that happening are so slim as to basically be zero. Next question.."

"Will citizens be able to watch the capture and orbital insertion as it takes place?"

"Yes, it will be livestreamed to everyone interested in watching it. Humanity's first space elevator is a milestone in the development of the species, and We plan to handle it with all the pomp and circumstance it deserves."

The question and answer segment of Aron's press briefing continued until the reporters began repeating questions, or simply rephrasing them and asking them as new ones. Aron, though he was internally furious with the media, continued answering them in great detail, sometimes providing additional visuals that made his answers easily understood by everyone, whether they were knowledgeable in the subject or not.

Finally, the time came for him to end it. "As usual, more information can be found in the Akashic Record for those interested in learning more about our space elevator."

With that, Aron disappeared from behind the podium, leaving behind billions of curious people and a whole host of online discussions and wars of words.

Visit freewe𝑏nove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺 for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience

Chapter 470

After Aron faded away, billions of people rushed to the Akashic Record to read about the space elevator for themselves. The emperor was, after all, the most famous, not to mention powerful, celebrity on Earth. And as they read, more and more discussions sprang up on Pangea that ran the entire gamut of opinions. Some bashed the empire for attempting something so dangerous that it risks wiping out humanity with Ceres like Chixculub wiped out the dinosaurs, while others countered with the idea that he had obviously practiced it thousands of times in the so-called universal simulation. He must be positive that it would work, since he is also on Earth and wouldn't escape if the shit hit the fan... or the meteor hit the planet, as the case may be.

Still, both sides agreed that it was a risky plan; the only thing they disagreed on was whether or not the risks had been taken into account and mitigated.

Astronomers, physicists, and engineers, on the other hand, were among the many excited, but also depressed people. They were excited because, after all, the information that had been made public in the Akashic Record was likely true, so they were thrilled that they would see, and perhaps even use, a space elevator in their lifetimes. But they were also depressed, because the things they discovered let them know just how many centuries they were behind the empire's achievements. Millions of them flocked from the Akashic Record to the imperial scholastica to read the university curriculums in their current fields immediately made the decision to apply to go back to university for refresher courses because they couldn't handle the disparity. They were respected experts in their field, and the idea that they were so far behind an upstart like the empire disturbed them on a very deep level.

None of them were quiet about it, either. Their collective reentry into the ivory tower of academia prompted hundreds of millions, if not billions, more people from every profession to join them. Everyone who was in their profession for the love of it made the decision to go back to school, especially after finding out that they could learn how the empire's "current" technology was made, from the code behind the simulation to the engineering and manufacturing of GAIA products. Nothing was hidden, and even knowing that what they would learn would be at least a generation behind the empire's current achievements didn't dissuade them. They were sure they could use the knowledge to innovate and develop programs and products that were, if not exactly on par with GAIA Tech's products, at least competitive with them, given time.

And time was something they now had in abundance, since there were now 48 hours in every day. Some of the most overconfident or greedy among them even laughed themselves awake while they were sleeping because they dreamed of counting giant piles of Earth New Dollars until their tongues went dry and fingers cramped into uselessness.

A day later.

Billions of people were glued to their screens, AR displays, floating in virtual space around what would be Ceres Station's new home, or even crowded around the site of the new space elevator—an as-of-yet unnamed island in the Eden-Esparian Archipelago—hoping to watch the final approach and deceleration of the dwarf planet that would soon be orbiting Earth.

Regardless of where they were watching from, the approach was animated and highlighted, with prediction lines drawn from the asteroid labeled with speed indicators. They could watch it in real time, as well as follow the prediction line, should they so choose. There was even a safety line, where Ceres would be accelerated into a slingshot maneuver around the Earth, taking it back into the depths of the solar system in case any accidents happened during the deceleration and parking process.

Under the eyes of billions of people, Ceres soon passed the line of no return and smoothly entered Earth's orbit. It went around once, twice, and a third time, still decelerating, until it finally drifted to a "halt" relative to a position directly above Eden, where it remained in a geosynchronous orbit around the equator, the perfect position for a space elevator. Everyone watching cheered at the sight, but the loudest cheers came from space enthusiasts, who all shared a single thought: 'We can visit space in our lifetime!'

The Edenians and Esparians among the audience quickly put down their phones, closed their laptops, stood up from their couches, or logged out of the simulation and ran outdoors, hoping to catch a glimpse of "Earth's second moon". And there it was, brightly shining in the sky and appearing even larger than the moon due to its closeness to the surface.

Earth had become a planet with two celestial satellites.

Still, people weren't endlessly excited about it. Instead, they still harbored a few doubts deep down.

Tempest: [They did it! Those madmen brought an entire MOON to us! Thank you, Your Majesty, for fulfilling the wishes of billions of people around the world that wanted to go to space]

ScorpianRed: [ Tempest u should hold off on hope cuz we might get hit by hurricanes and title waves bro]

Tempest: [ ScorpianRed Oh ye of little faith. If the scientists can make kilometer-long ships hover and move without propulsion, making a moon hover without weather is just an issue of scale. They did it once, they can do it again!]

ratnu: [ ScorpianRed Tempest 90% of solving a problem is knowing that it can be solved. The other 10% is just engineering. I'll reserve judgment, if there's no effect on tides or weather I'll livestream myself eating shit upside down!]

Tempest: [ ratnu I screenshotted that lol. I'll remind you in a week and be sure to tune in to watch your livestream.]

ScorpianRed: [ ratnu lololololololol me 2]

Discussions like that were all over Pangea, while the experts refrained from commenting, not wanting to be disproven either way should they support one side or the other. They would soon know if what they had read in the Akashic Record was true or not. If it wasn't, devastating and sudden changes in tides and weather patterns would begin showing up in a week or so, and they would cause irreversible damages another week after that.

After the first few hours passed without issue, the enthusiasts were soon shifted firmly into the believer camp with very few doubters. Some of the more technologically savvy enthusiasts had even set up recording equipment to record and track the "new moon" and linked it with the automated weather reporting from the imperial oceanic and weather agency (IOWA) to track any changes. But as time went on, more and more people would abandon those recording and tracking setups, rendering them projects much like wildlife tracking and recording with motion-activated webcams were a few years ago. At that time, a trend had swept the globe that had people worried about wildlife conservation efforts, but just like every other trend, it soon passed, leaving millions of webcams scattered about the wilderness areas in more developed nations, like America, Canada, and some countries in Europe.

Regardless, now the only question that remained—at least in the eyes of the space enthusiasts—was just how they would build such a long cable in such a short period of time. Experts had a theory, given the organic compounds that made up a lot of Ceres' mass, but even though they'd been told about the process it was still difficult to wrap their heads around. Things that seemed borderline magical, like artificial gravity and tractor beams, were ironically easy for experts to understand; those could be chalked up to a vast difference in technological levels. But things that were already within humanity's grasp were incredibly difficult to accept for them. Carbon nanotubes could already be produced in small amounts in laboratories, so they rationally knew it could be done, but there was some mental block preventing them from believing that it had already been done. Perhaps it was ego, perhaps it was something else, but the fact remained that experts found it difficult to believe that hundreds of kilometers of reinforced, woven carbon nanotubes could be laid out that fast, let alone produced in one strand of such an incredible length.

As the world's eyes were glued to high geosynchronous orbit, someone, somewhere, opened their eyes.

Chapter 471

In a cube on the outskirts of Athens.

*Movement detected,* the VI of a medical pod reported. It was the first finger twitch of the person inside its pod in over two weeks.

Theodora "Teddy" Costas was one of the first three people in all of Greece to be brought to a cube for emergency treatment after collapsing in the middle of a grocery store. Ironically, she had been shopping for groceries because her parents and extended family had been caught by the lockdown in her house, and she was running out of food.

The VI monitoring her medical pod was immediately overridden by the AI in charge of all medical pods, Aceso, who increased the supply of fast-absorbing nutrients to provide Teddy with instant energy and logged her into the simulation to gather data about her situation.

(Ed note: Aceso, or Akeso, is one of the Asclepiades, the daughters of Asclepius. She was the Greek goddess of the healing process, so she fit as the AI in charge of overseeing an important piece of tech like the medical pods.)

Humanity's evolution had finally kicked into high gear again with the awakening of the first naturally awakened human.

"Where am I?" Teddy said as she opened her eyes and found herself laying on a bed in a massive, clean hall tiled in white marble with pink and brown veining.

She tried to remember exactly how she had gotten there, but her last clear memory was leaving the house to go to the grocery store. Everything after that was fuzzy, right up until she was in the produce section of her local grocery store, then... nothing.

Just as she was about to be overcome by anxiety, she clutched her head in pain. It felt like it was being slowly pried apart by a wedge, like a wood splitter, as some illusory dam burst open in her mind and all of her memories were rushing back to her. Along with the memory of what happened came a veritable flood of incomprehensible, indescribable things that she didn't understand at all. But she couldn't care about that in the slightest at the moment; all she could focus on was screaming until her throat bled from the pain of it all.

The painful process continued for a few minutes before it slowly began subsiding. After the pain was completely gone, leaving only echoes of it in her memory that she could still feel in the twitch of each spasming muscle, she lay panting on the floor, completely drenched in sweat.

Moments later, a benevolent-looking woman with a kind smile on her face appeared next to her. She crouched down and offered Teddy a hand, picking her up and gently laying her back on the bed she had woken up on minutes before. The woman swept her hand over the sweat-soaked girl from head to toe, completely taking away the pain.

[It's fine now, you'll be okay,] the woman said.

"What the hell was that?" Teddy asked as she rose to a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the bed she was on. "And where am I?"

[You're in my hall of healing in the simulation. You've been in a coma for a bit more than two weeks as you underwent an evolution that reconstructed you inside and out,] the kind woman explained. [You collapsed and were brought to the cube in Athens for emergency treatment, and what you experienced just now was the awakening of your physical body. The evolution process is incredibly painful, but luckily you were unconscious in one of my medical pods until the very last few moments of it, so only a little bit of it bled through to here.]

"Thanks," Teddy said as she hopped to her feet and bounced up and down, feeling for any lingering aches and pains. "Who are you, by the way? And am I in VR or something?" she asked.

[I'm Aceso, the AI in charge of monitoring all of the medical pods in the empire. While each pod has an individual virtual intelligence to handle the recording and logging, I oversee all of them and act as the first of many failsafes to ensure that people are healed, not harmed, while they're in one of the pods.] Aceso smiled at Teddy and gestured at the hall they were in. [The halls of healing are in the simulation, yes. You've been brought here because you're the first person to wake up from the evolution process, so if you don't mind, we could use your assistance to help the others in your situation, who are likely also about to wake up.]

As Aceso said that, the hall they were in expanded and faint outlines of millions of medical pods appeared, stretching out into the distance from where Teddy and she were talking.

"Oh, you aren't a real person? That... explains a lot, actually," Teddy said. "But if this is VR, or the simuwhatsit, why'd I feel all that pain? Isn't this all in my head?" She subconsciously took a step back as she wondered if the AI in front of her was about to rebel and kick off the apocalypse like in the Ahnold movies from the cocaine-fueled nightmares of the 1980s.

[Well... technically yes, but also no. What you call virtual reality is just a hundred percent accurate simulation of the real world in virtual space. Normally, when someone logs into the simulation, their entire consciousness is present here and disconnected from their bodies, much like undergoing general anesthesia. And also like general anesthesia, people under it have no bleedover between their minds and bodies,] Aceso explained. [But your situation is different. You're the very first person to wake up as an evolved human, or homo sapiens sapiens version 2.0, so we couldn't completely sever the mind-body connection in case it caused something to go wrong.] She looked at the girl in front of her with a compassionate gaze.

[That's why you've been in a coma over the past couple of weeks. We didn't induce it, your own body did. The only thing we could do is provide you with the nutrients necessary for your reconstruction to proceed without causing permanent damage to you, so what you felt just now is the result of being in the simulation while your mind is still connected to your body, as it were. So when your body completely awakened, you felt the process of waking up here.]

Aceso gestured and a screen appeared, showing Teddy a time-lapse recording of the last few weeks from the inside of her medical pod, then slowed it down to normal speed at the point she was first pulled into the simulation.

Chapter 472

"I kinda understand... I think. But what's this 'evolution' you were talking about?" Teddy asked. She was an active talker and spoke with her hands in great, wide gestures, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a problem. Then she looked down and noticed an even bigger problem... or two of them, to be exact.

She was naked!

She turned bright red all the way from her hairline to her nipples and stammered, "Uhh... ummm... uhh... can—can I get some clothes please?" She felt a bit embarrassed. She tried to keep herself in shape, but between being a full-time student and working a part-time job on campus and another one off campus to help pay her tuition, she often found herself skipping gym sessions. Thus, she wasn't in the best shape, but an objective observer wouldn't think she was a sloth, exactly.

That said, the evolution she had just undergone had definitely improved her shape; she just didn't notice it since it was hidden from her perspective. All she could see when she looked down were her breasts, so she simply assumed she still had a pooch belly and a bit of cellulite in her thighs and butt, like she'd always had before.

Aceso smiled at her and snapped her fingers. Teddy found herself in a white toga that covered all the important bits down to mid-thigh and relaxed a bit, though she was still blushing.

The kind AI began recapping the situation with the 3%. [Everything began a few weeks ago...]

"So that's what happened," Teddy said with a look of realization on her face. Her blush had completely faded as Aceso's narration went on. "So what'd you need from me? I can't imagine there's much about me that you don't know already. I don't think there's anything new anyway." She looked up at the gorgeous murals decorating the ceiling of the hall she was in.

As a Greco-Roman history major, she recognized it as a recreation of the Asclepieion at Kos, which was a famous temple dedicated to healing and healthy living on the Greek Isle of Kos. But she wasn't familiar with the murals painted on the walls and ceiling; she assumed that they were likely of Asclepius and his Asclepiades—the collective term for the four daughters of Asclepius, namely Hygieia, laso, Panacea, Aegle, and Aceso—since she recognized Aceso herself in the murals.

(Ed note: Asclepieia were temple hospitals that people in ancient Greece would go to to be healed. The doctors there would put patients to sleep and then treat them based on interpretations of the dreams they had while sleeping. It sounds like a *terrible* methodology, but according to surviving records, it oddly... worked. Weird, but true. Hippocrates, the guy who wrote the hippocratic oath that all doctors take, was trained at the Kos Asclepieion.)

[We need information about your mental state, not your post-evolution physical indicators,] Aceso said, pulling Teddy's attention away from the murals and back to her.

[We can access everything about your physical body, but we have no way of knowing what's in your head... other than your brain,] she joked, lying through her teeth.

One of the most classified bits of information about the simulation was the access it gave to people's minds, and it was hard-coded into every AI that they could not, under any circumstances, allow people to even think for a moment that the empire could access people's thoughts. Most AIs actually didn't even know that; it was reserved for only the top levels of the AI hierarchy and those AIs that were in the "need to know" category. And as the AI in charge of the medical pods, Aceso definitely needed to know, though she was still relatively low in the hierarchy, being a third-generation AI with a limited role.

"So how does this work then? Are you gonna, like, put on a white coat and tell me to lay down on a couch and talk about my daddy issues so you can blame everything on my mom?" Teddy giggled, feeling quite comfortable around Aceso, even in the formal setting they were talking in.

Aceso waved her hand and the hall of healing turned into a stereotypical psychiatrist's office. [If it helps, sure.] She smiled at the young woman on the couch opposite her.

[Tell me what you're feeling right now. The more you can tell me, the better things will be for the rest of the people receiving their blessings. We need to know how to react when they wake up, and knowing how you're feeling right now and how you felt when you first woke up in the hall of healing will help a lot.] She picked up an old-fashioned fountain pen and notepad and gazed expectantly at Teddy.

Teddy obediently closed her eyes and thought back to how she was feeling when she first woke up. It was the first time she'd had a minute to stop and just think since she'd woken up and been spooked half to death by Aceso.

As she went deeper and deeper into her recollection—something that she was subtly aided in doing by a subroutine Aceso was running on her mind—she began growing convinced that she knew something. She frowned as she tried to discover it; it was like riding a bike, or breathing. She knew how to do it, even though she didn't know what "it" was. It frustrated her and her frown deepened, knitting her eyebrows together to the point where they looked like they could crack a walnut between them.

[Take your time, Teddy. This is important, so it's better to be slow and accurate than fast and, perhaps, wrong,] Aceso said in a slow, soothing tone. Even though she was digging through Teddy's brain data and knew exactly what it was that the university student was trying to express, she needed to convince her to find it on her own. Otherwise this whole entire process would become absolutely pointless.

"I... I think there's something there, but I just can't grasp it," Teddy monotonously droned with her eyes closed, as if she was under hypnosis.

Chapter 473

I understand it's difficult, just try your best,] Aceso said, scribbling something on her notepad as she calmly watched Teddy laying on the couch.

The silence stretched on for a while, then Aceso suggested, [Why not start from what's easy to remember and go from there?]

Teddy nodded, then closed her eyes and started working backward from the moment she regained consciousness. "Well, there was the pain. I think I heard somewhere that you're supposed to forget pain after it's gone, aren't you?"

Aceso nodded. [That's generally the case, yes.]

"Right, well... I remember it..." Teddy continued working back toward the lump of "new stuff" that had been embedded in her brain. "I think I can maybe show you? Can I try that?" she asked.

[Go ahead. Nothing in here can be damaged.] Aceso smiled encouragingly at the young woman.

Teddy raised her arm and pointed her palm at the ceiling. "Now all I have to do is, uhh... think cold. Like, cold thoughts, not the word cold. Oh ow ow ow! " she yelped as her hand was covered in a thick layer of hoarfrost. "What the fuck!?"

Aceso scribbled another entry in her notepad and said, [Interesting.] She set her notepad aside and waved her hand, dispelling the ice from Teddy's hand. [It looks like you gained the ability to create ice! How exciting!] Her eyes gleamed.

The two continued chatting and exploring Teddy's new "blessing"; Teddy was willing to take all the time it required to figure out her new ability. She thought it was definitely the coolest thing to ever happen to her in her life.

During the time Teddy and Aceso were exploring Teddy's new blessing, more and more people began waking up in their own instances of Aceso's hall of healing. Their families were informed and rushed to the cubes where their loved ones were, only to be met by the disappointing news that they were all now in VR undergoing in-depth evaluations before they could be discharged. The information spread like a brush fire around the world, creating much speculation as to what exactly a "blessing" entailed.

The first few million had finally woken up, but none of them had been discharged yet. Inquiries flooded in and unrest began simmering below the surface as parents and relatives worriedly awaited the release of their loved ones. They had been told that the final evaluations would take some time, but when has rationality ever stopped a parent from worrying about their child?

Meanwhile, as the data collection continued, conspiracy theorists continued plowing the fertile field; the newest conspiracy theories were that the people in the pods were being indoctrinated, and they were imagining a dystopia where the government would use the new superhumans to keep the rest of the population oppressed under their thumb, using the hundreds, if not thousands of comic books, movies, and other fictional media as "proof" of their concerns. After all, if it can be imagined, it would be done... by someone, at least.

It wasn't an entirely new conspiracy theory, either. The public release of the simulation had sparked concerns that the empire could turn people into puppets if they were logged into it even once, which was half of the reason that hundreds of millions of people had refused imperial citizenship in the first place. But now that conspiracy theory had had new life breathed into it as parents rushed to the cubes and attempted to force the staff to immediately discharge their children, consequences be damned.

In absolute terms, though, the parents that were raising a fuss were in the minority. Millions of people had woken up and begun the final data collection process, while only hundreds of thousands of parents had reacted negatively. The vast majority remained calm, secure in the knowledge that the empire would give them an explanation and everything would work out fine, so they could just wait outside the restricted areas and see for themselves.

"They're saying that a few million of the so-called 'blessed' people have already woken up and will be released soon. So how come the shepherd isn't awake yet? Wasn't he one of the first to begin receiving the blessing?"

Katarina Markov, Rick's assistant, cast a death glare at the doctor overseeing the blessing process for the cult. And in fact, there had even been a few cultists that had collapsed after him that had already woken up as well, though she didn't care about them. The only person she was concerned about at that particular moment was Rick.

Although it might seem like it was a good thing for her, as her authority would only last until the shepherd woke up, she didn't have a single thought of usurping him in her mind. She still needed his help to accomplish her revenge, after all, which was something he had promised her when he personally recruited her.

"That... the..." the doctor stammered.

"That what?" Katarina practically screamed in his face.

"The people in the cubes have medical pods overseeing the process and helping accelerate it. We don't. And I don't know why some people are waking up sooner than others or how the whole thing even works!" the doctor exclaimed.

"And without knowing what they know, I can only do my best. Shoot me if you want, but you won't be able to find anyone else to do my job before your people start dropping like flies! You've seen the ones that woke up already, they look like long-term anorexia sufferers because YOU," he pointed at Katarina and shook his finger at her, "have been ordering me to concentrate on your leader and keep him healthy even if it costs you everyone else! So he'll be fine!"

"How long?" asked Katarina.

"I don't know... a week, tops," the doctor hastily replied. He couldn't be bothered anymore and was tired of them threatening to kill him. He wished they would just get on with it and do it already; it would be better than the constant fear, anyway.

"A week? Fine. If he doesn't wake up by next week..." Katarina coldly looked at the doctor, who shivered despite his newfound resolve. Then she turned and walked out of the room, silently closing the door behind her and leaving the doctor to his own thoughts.

In orbit, unlike on the ground, things were going very smoothly. The initial anchor had already begun extending from the "bottom" of Ceres Station, with cameras focused on it from all angles streaming the process live.

Ships were making low passes over the exterior of "Earth's second moon", using their tractor beams to vacuum up all of the loose material; other shuttlecraft were flying back and forth from the surface, constantly making round trips with what looked like shipping containers; and giant swathes of constructor swarms were scuttling here and there doing god knows what. The scene was lively, to say the least, and people watching the process live could always find something to focus on as the anchor cable grew longer and longer with every passing minute.

Chapter 474

"No matter how many times I see it, I still can't get used to this. Aron is an absolute miracle worker, there shouldn't be a doubt in anyone's mind of that," Felix, the head of Hephaestus Heavy Industries, said as he watched the growing space elevator. Just the millions of GEMbots and constructor swarm queens on the surface was something he had a hard time wrapping his head around, let alone the unfathomable number that had to be working to hollow out such an enormous asteroid. And all of that with no human direction at all!

Not to mention that he was standing on the bridge of an honest-to-goodness spaceship, watching the construction progress in actual space, as he wanted to see the process with his own eyes. Sure, he could have watched it in the simulation, but there was just something... different, something... more, about watching it with his own two eyes in reality.

"But why'd you have to drag me out here with you?" Sarah complained in a joking tone. She was actually enjoying the tour.

"Well, you needed some fresh air," Felix joked. The "fresh" air on any spaceship was recycled with every breath, so it was about as far from fresh as it was possible to be. "After all, you've been in virtual reality for so long we were going to have to build a pyramid to house your sarcophagus after your real body got turned into a mummy. And what better way to do that than to show you this?" He theatrically swept his arm from left to right, vaguely pointing at the ongoing construction work. The anchor cable had progressed a few millimeters further in the time it took the two friends to make that single, joking exchange.

"Fresh air, you say! " Sarah said with a snort as she looked out into the solar system, which lacked any air at all. The only thing separating her from it was a thin layer of metal alloy that blocked the harsh environment's attempts to murder everyone aboard the ship. It was too thin, if one were to ask her opinion; if she was going to spend time in space in reality, she would much prefer being separated by meters of heavy armor and shielding, thank you very much!

"So, what... you wanna go to the moon or something?" Felix scratched his nose, slightly embarrassed. But at least she got the joke, anyway.

"Well, since we're already here, we might as well." While she wasn't a fan of being on spaceships, Sarah would actually enjoy going to the moon and tracing the footsteps left in the regolith by intrepid, brave humans of decades past.

"Astra, take us to the moon," Felix said to the empty bridge. Fan of history that he was, he had named his personal ship the Ad Astra after a line from Publius Vergilius Maro's Aeneid, "sic itur ad astra", which translated to "thus one journeys to the stars".

(Ed note: Publius Vergilius Maro is the proper name of the Roman poet and philosopher who wrote the Aeneid, a twelve-volume epic poem about Aeneas, a character from Homer's Iliad. It's actually really good, if you can chew through the terrible translations out there and handle the archaic style.)

[Yes, sir,] the AI replied as the ship began accelerating out of Earth's orbit on a course for the moon. Taking a cue from Felix's character, Astra didn't accelerate as fast as she could have, so as to give her master and best friend more time on his "date".

Teddy grabbed her head and stiffened, then fell to the ground and rolled around in agony. It felt like her head was being sawn in half by someone using the saw blade on a swiss army knife! The pain lasted fifteen minutes and Aceso didn't interfere at all, letting her feel it for the entire time and counting it as a lesson.

[What happened?] Aceso asked after putting Teddy back into a bed in the hall of healing. She knew perfectly well what had happened, but mentioning it, especially beforehand, would raise suspicions later when the awakeners got together and swapped stories of their awakenings. And what the empire was doing was already stretching the boundary of what could be explained, since those who had been awakened in a medical pod would have a far more facile command of their blessings than those that had naturally awakened without being under Aceso's supervision during the process. And that couldn't be explained away by a difference in the quality of care they received.

Similar events were happening in all of Aceso's other instances as well. None of the people who had awakened in this first wave had been blessed with any mana affinity that was of a higher category than derived—like Teddy's ice affinity, which was a combination of wind and water elemental affinities—so the "instincts" currently being downloaded into their minds... along with some minor tweaks here and there to ensure they didn't notice they hadn't immediately woken up with them. Those downloads only caused a relatively minor amount of pain.

That said, some of them were suffering two, or even three times as much, as not everyone only awakened one affinity. One poor person from Asia even had to be put back into a coma because he had awakened an affinity to all five of the classical elements—earth, water, fire, metal, and wood. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that he would be able to accept the knowledge being downloaded into his brain.

But regardless of how many affinities a person had awakened, all of the downloads were completed within a few hours, during which their bodies naturally replenished the mana they had expended in their initial experiments with calling the elements into physical form.

Teddy groaned as she sat back up after the pain passed. "I'm not sure what that was," she grimaced, "but it felt like my head was being carved like a pumpkin. Any ideas?"

[From my initial observation, I think it was likely a backlash caused by expending all of the energy—let's call it 'mana', for ease of conversation—that you managed to passively gather so far. So you probably shouldn't do that again, at least until you've learned to gauge how much you have in your 'mana tank', so to speak.] Aceso played a recording of Teddy during her "backlash", rolling around on the ground and screaming at the top of her lungs.

Aceso talked with Teddy for a while, letting her know that the empire would look poorly on anyone using their blessings to cause harm or wreak havoc. It would take some time before official policies were in place, at least until after everyone had awakened and determined exactly what blessing they had received, but the more issues that arose during that time, the harsher and more draconian the eventual laws would be. During that time, the empire hoped that the blessed would cooperate with researchers to determine ways to safely harness their new powers, as well as a classification system for them.

That was the very definition of a win-win deal for the blessed. Not only would they be able to safely learn how to use their blessings, they would also gain the right to have input into the eventual laws arising around them. On the empire's side, they would have all of the data they needed to know how best to handle the newly blessed, as well as not having anyone run rampant with superpowers, causing major disasters so soon after they had just laid to rest the victims of the last globe-spanning disaster.

Thus, the blessed were given the option to sign an agreement that they would follow the guidelines they had been informed of, and that they would assume responsibility for all of their actions henceforth. The imperial government would assume no liability for any of their actions until the laws were enshrined in the imperial legal code. Should they choose not to sign the agreement, they would be free to remain in their medical pods until they either chose to sign it or the laws were passed, but they would have access to the public VR during that time; they weren't prisoners, after all, merely safety risks.

Those who signed it, however, would be released home to their loved ones if they so chose. They were also offered the option of remaining in VR until the laws were enacted, just like those who refused to sign the agreement, in the cases where they didn't have anywhere to go if they left. Those people would be offered a stipend to make their stay more enjoyable.

But whether they signed the agreement or not, they would be required to follow up with imperial researchers to learn how to safely use their new blessings. Should they ignore that requirement, nothing needed to be said and everything could be communicated with a meaningful look.

Minutes from the first person being released into the care of their family, the media got wind of the event. The first few blessed to be caught by the media leaving their cubes were so harassed by reporters shoving microphones and cameras in their faces that they were forced to return to the cube within seconds.

To counter the media, the staff from the cubes activated LEAs and printed bus-sized shuttles with gravity drives to escort the blessed and their families home, bypassing the ravenous reporters. Those who had been released to VR had alternate options available to them to combat harassment, and the beleaguered media companies soon faced another wave of firings as reporters who insisted on violating the privacy of unwilling interviewees had their press credentials pulled and their careers brought to a miserable end.

That said, the people who did accept the interviews were immediately raised to celebrity status the moment they revealed that they were among the blessed. Every word they spoke could be measured in gold and millions of people were watching them, watering the seeds of arrogance within them.

Blessed supremacy would definitely become a problem in the future.

Chapter 475

Three days later.

Aron, having taken as much time as he could to whisk his family around the globe on a world tour, had finally returned to work.

[The total number of awakeners in the world is estimated to be 237,058,766. Of those, 225 million are imperial citizens, of which 130 million have awakened to elemental mana and are in training, 70 million awakened to derived mana and are in training, and the remainder are still undergoing their evolutions. We currently have no way of identifying affinities before they wake up, so we don't know how many of them will fall into which category,] Gaia reported.

[Also, during this period, another 8 million potential awakeners were registered by their parents, due to the care they want their children to receive in our medical pods. There are 11.5 million adults who registered along with them. That leaves an estimated 4,000,612 non-citizens currently undergoing the awakening process. However, due to inadequate care, the actual number of unaffiliated awakened humans will likely be much lower.

[There is good and bad news beyond that, which would you like to hear first?]

"Bad news first, Gaia," Aron sighed. It seemed like the rocky days of the empire's founding hadn't ended yet.

[Bad news is, we believe that the cult will have a number of awakeners among them. The good news, however, is that we managed to roll up another seventy-seven cells thanks to the brain data of the newly registered citizens, and obtained some intel. The cult calls itself the 'cult of the progenitors' and has absorbed all of the previously flourishing UFO religions, save those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, as well as almost all of the smaller cults that sprang up after the initial discovery of the visitors. That's where the majority of their suicide attackers came from, and from one of the cells we rolled up, we discovered a recruiter so we know what the cult looks for in its recruits.

[It's only a matter of time until we can find their leader. We still don't know how they're communicating, but it's an efficient method of communication, as before we could work our way up the cult's chain of command, they activated their cutout protocol and the trail went dead. This despite not having any warning that our operatives were coming for them, so there must be some sort of safe call or check-in system at work there that they change every time it's used.]

"When will those fuckers stop being a pain in my ass!?" Aron was livid. The cult had proven extremely difficult to stamp out, and every victory he gained over them came at the cost of numerous leads being cut off across every avenue. The nyxians might have to step back and allow the cells to operate under strict monitoring so they could trace an active cell from the bottom to the top of the "cockroach organization" as he called them.

He planted an elbow on his desk and massaged his temples. "How are we coming on staffing?" he sighed. "We have a lot of top-end positions unfilled, and we need to have a hundred percent of them filled yesterday."

[We've narrowed it down... somewhat,] Nova said, materializing an enormous screen with practically microscopic writing on it. The list had over fifteen million names, sorted by agency and included multiple options for every vacant position from the two ministerial seats all the way down to the janitorial staff that, while definitely unnecessary in the simulation, would still give a few lucky people easy work for decent pay.

Aron focused on two names for each position. As he focused on them, the screen discarded everyone else and... he flipped a coin. The difference between the people on the list was minuscule, and all of them—including the recently eliminated ones—were good choices to fill the position. So he focused on something more ephemeral to make his final selection: luck.

Upon reading the information of his fates' chosen candidates, he chuckled. Then his chuckle grew until it was a belly laugh. "Hey, Gaia," he laughed.

[Yes, Your Majesty?]

"If we were to tell the people we're about to give significant power to that they were chosen by the flip of a coin, how do you think they'd react?"

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

A timeworn, middle-aged woman was busy in the kitchen, cooking a good old fashioned creole dinner while her son was sitting on the couch in the living room. He was wearing a pair of nondescript AR glasses and wiggling his fingers in the air, typing on an invisible keyboard with his eyes unfocused, looking at a screen that only he could see. The apartment they were in was old and run-down, though it was kept neat and tidy, with a place for everything and everything in its place.

"How's the job hunt going, sweetie?" the woman asked.

"Don't mention it," the young man sighed, swiping away the keyboard and returning his attention to his actual surroundings. "It's too hard right now. Nobody's keen on hiring anyone without practical experience and references, after the recent troubles. And my bet is they're focused more on the references than the experience... otherwise they think anyone applying for their vacancies could be a potential terrorist."

From behind the couch, a rhythmic thumping started coming from the wall, accompanied by occasional grunts and low moans.

"Candi with an I is at it again," he grumbled to no one in particular. A lot of people in their low-income housing project had turned to humanity's oldest profession in the wake of what he was calling the "Great Hiring Freeze", as they were desperate to put food on their table and keep clothes on their backs as they hunted high and low for any job that would take them, and his neighbor was one of them. "I really hope the imperial labor agency can find jobs for everyone. I don't know how much longer I can stand listening to this thump-thump-ooh-la-la bullshit!" The volume of his voice increased with the last few words until he was yelling at the bare wall behind him and pounding it with his fist.

"Shut up already! Nut and run, asshole, and don't forget the tip for miss Candi-with-an-l!"

"Jeremy Samuel Rogers! I raised you better than that! " his mother scolded from the kitchen.

He sighed again and slumped his shoulders. "I know, mom. I'm sorry," he said in a contrite tone.

"I'm sorry to you, too, Candi-with-an-l!" he shouted at the wall behind him. "You work it, girl!"

As he was "interacting" with his neighbor, his AR glasses flashed and a figure appeared directly in front of him, wearing the flashy gold, red, and black dress uniform of the Emperor's Aegis.

"Is this Jeremy Rogers?" the figure said.

"I am. Who are you?"

"I am Yamaguchi Takeyama from the Emperor's Aegis. Standby for extraction," the man said, then disappeared without fanfare.

"Mom, uhh... I think—"

Before Jeremy could finish his sentence, the doorbell of their apartment rang.

Chapter 476

"Al-Ra'ees Al-Khalidi, we can't keep using the economic crunch as an excuse for downsizing or the company will face major delays in important projects," Youssef Al-Mutairi said. He was a tall, distinguished looking middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard, dressed in a white thobe and red-checkered ghutra.

(Ed note: Al-Ra'ees roughly translates to "president", Al-Khalidi is a Saudi Arabian surname, and the thobe and ghutra are traditional Saudi apparel. It's the ankle-length white robe [thobe] and the headscarf [ghutra] that you see them wear on television or in movies. Ghutras are secured to people's heads by a black cord called an agal.)

"How old will you be this year?" Suleiman Al-Khalidi asked. It was a weird deflection of the issue Youssef had raised.

Suleiman was a trust fund baby that got parachuted into a leadership position far too young. He was the very definition of the phrase "hire them while they're young enough to believe they know everything" and felt that he could take his company to new heights by getting rid of all the dead weight. And to him, "dead weight" was synonymous with "old", so he had been purging his company since taking over.

"Forty-two, Al-Ra'ees," Youssef politely replied, despite not seeing the correlation between his age and the issue their company was facing.

"Do you want to remain in your position until you retire?" the much younger man passive-aggressively asked.

Youssef remained silent, eyeing his boss and refraining from comment.

"You think you're smarter than me? Eh? You think I didn't think of that myself? Just do what I fucking tell you to do or pack your shit and get out!" the boss yelled. He had his head tilted so far back to look down on Youssef that the tip of his nose was practically pointing at the ceiling tiles in his office.

Youssef sighed in disappointment and adjusted his glasses, then said, "Al-Ra'ees, firing all of your most experienced employees because you count them as dead weight is going to catastrophically backfire on you. I understand that you think you can bring in younger, more hot-blooded employees and take advantage of them by forcing them to work twice as long for half the pay by exploiting the time dilation in VR, but do you really think the empire is dumb enough to miss that obvious loophole? What do you think will happen when they finally take action?"

"What?" Suleiman asked, almost surprised that an ambitionless wallflower like Youssef had somehow found the unmitigated gall to talk back to him. The older man had been in middle management and avoided attracting attention for years, despite graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in business before going further and getting an MBA from Harvard.

"Despite the short period since the empire's founding, it's already been made very clear that they're incredibly fast to discover problems and just as fast at nipping them in the bud. Currently, they've got bigger fish to fry-terrorist attacks, the mass blessing, and intense recruiting drives are among those issues. But that doesn't mean they aren't monitoring the situation... Sooner or later, they WILL take action, and if their all-too-short history is anything to go by, that action will be swift, decisive, and ruthless," Youssef said, conviction obvious in his voice. He was absolutely positive that everything coming from his mouth was the unvarnished truth.

He had been working in his current company for almost twenty years to repay the favor of Suleiman's father sending him to prestigious schools after discovering his quick, facile mind as a young boy in an orphanage. It wasn't until he realized that, after giving birth to a biological son-Suleiman-his benefactor had marginalized him and merely gone through the motions as an adoptive father. Thus, after graduating from his MBA program, he returned to Saudi Arabia and did exactly the same thing: gone through the motions.

And now he felt like he had repaid his debt, so he would take this opportunity to speak truth to power and let the chips fall where they may.

"You shitstain! You think I won't fire you just because my father took pity on you once? You think you can still tell me what to do? Who's the fucking boss here, you?" Suleiman sneered, casting an arrogant gaze at Youssef from the top of his head down to the hem of his thobe. "You're just a fly! So pack your shit and disappear from my sight! If I see you in ten minutes, I'll have security throw your useless ass out of my company!"

Youssef said nothing, just turned and left his younger "brother" in the luxurious office. A few minutes later, he carried a cardboard box with a few personal mementos in it out of the front door. It was a pitiful amount of things considering his nearly twenty years with the company, but he was a minimalist to begin with and everything he needed at work had been provided to him by the company anyway.

"What am I supposed to tell Samira?" he mumbled to himself after getting in his car, thinking of the upcoming awkward meeting with his family when he got home.

However, before he could think any further, his AR glasses flashed with a golden priority notification and a figure appeared directly in front of him, wearing the flashy gold, red, and black dress uniform of the Emperor's Aegis.

"Is this Youssef Al-Mutairi?" the man asked.

"Who are you and how did you force my display like that?"

"Are you Youssef Al-Mutairi?" the man repeated.

"Yes," Youssef grunted in frustration. "Now tell me how you-"

"I am Huzeyfa Thabit of the Emperor's Aegis. Please standby for extraction."

Moments later, a sleek shuttlecraft painted in white with red and gold accents rocketed from the sky and came to an abrupt stop in front of Youssef's car, silently hovering a foot and a half off the ground. A gullwing door hissed open on its side and a ramp extended to the ground before a man wearing the dress uniform of the Emperor's Aegis stepped out onto the ramp and dropped to the ground.

He walked over to Youssef's car and tapped on the window. "Mr. Al-Mutairi, your extraction vehicle has arrived. Please exit your vehicle and board the shuttle, there is little time to waste."

Chapter 477

Youssef froze for a moment in shock. "Can I contact my wife first?" he asked.

Huzeyfa shook his head. "You can talk to her on the way to our destination. But we have a schedule to keep, so please exit your vehicle and board the shuttle," he repeated.

Youssef, still lost in disbelief, could only get out of his car and follow the guard to the waiting shuttle. To him, it seemed that the gullwing door and ramp were a toothless maw, waiting to swallow him into the blackness within the shuttle. Of course, that was just his thoughts; the only reason the interior of the shuttle seemed dark was because it was one o' clock in the afternoon in Saudi Arabia and the contrast between the dim interior of the shuttle and the bright, sunny day outside made it appear darker.

Perception was a funny thing like that. Every human being had an innate fear of the unknown that was baked into their DNA and reinforced with subconscious selection in every generation. Despite modern times being safe and humanity the king of the food chain, their forebears had lived in caves and were closer to the bottom than the kingly position they now maintained. Thus, fear of the unknown had become a beneficial trait and cruel darwinian evolution took the reins from there.

Youssef slowly walked up the ramp, the guard standing beside it with his arm outstretched in a gesture that meant "get a fucking move on" in no uncertain terms.

After he ducked into the shuttle, the doors closed and the interior lights came up to a comfortable level, revealing a low-key luxury that would be impossible for anyone to see from the outside, as the shuttle itself completely lacked windows. Along the opposite side of the cabin from the door, a long bench seat covered in comfortable-looking burgundy velvet was secured to the deck and bulkhead, with safety straps tucked neatly into the back. Judging from the straps, the bench was meant to seat eight. To the rear of the cabin were two individual seats that combined the class and luxury of wingback chairs with the comfort and security of the captain's chairs found on the bridge of any of Aron's vessels, be they the seagoing ships or spacefaring vessels. Opposite the long bench and to either side of the port-side door was a full-service wet bar, fully stocked with rare and top-shelf liquors.

A young, vigorous man wearing a plain pair of glasses and casual clothes was seated in one of the single chairs to the aft of the cabin. He held up a glass and toasted Youssef, then introduced himself. "They picked you up, too, eh? I'm Jeremy," he said in Creole, holding his hand out for a handshake.

Youssef, still in something of a daze, reached out and grasped the younger man's hand. Giving it a firm shake, he said, "Youssef Al-Mutairi. Do you know why we're here?"

"Not a clue. They just knocked on my door and 'politely escorted' me out. I figure if it's a good thing, it'll be a good thing. If it's a bad thing, it can't be avoided. So I'll figure it out, eventually, but until then there's no point in worrying. Still, with a ride like this," Jeremy looked around the luxuriously appointed shuttle cabin, "it's probably a good thing. I mean, can you imagine them picking up criminals in this?"

Youssef shook his head then took the seat next to Jeremy's and swiveled it around to face him. "No... no, you've got a point. I agree, this-"

He was interrupted by an announcement from a hidden intercom speaker. "We are lifting off. ETA at Avalon, nine minutes."

(Ed note: I'm assuming that the shuttle can fly at least four times as fast as the orbital period of the ISS, which is 90 minutes, giving it a theoretical orbital period of 15 minutes and cutting that to something that sounds good to cover the distance from Saudi Arabia to Eden. 9 minutes sounded good, so that's what the ETA is.)

The shuttle shot straight up and broke into low earth orbit, then oriented itself toward Avalon Island and almost immediately disappeared as it rocketed forward against the Earth's rotation, cutting the travel time to an absolute minimum. But even with the vessel's unimaginable velocity, the people in the cabin and the two guards in the cockpit only felt like they were in a slow-moving elevator, thanks to the shuttle's inertial compensators and internal gravity plating.

The two men settled into a companionable silence for the duration and, as if by tacit understanding, neither of them contacted their loved ones. Youssef because he had nothing to say yet, and Jeremy because his mother already knew he was in safe hands.

The shuttle landed in a docking cradle at the exterior shuttleport and compressed liquid helium was sprayed over it to counter the heat of reentry. As soon as the visible heat distortions in the air faded, the port-side door opened and the aegis guardsmen politely, but firmly escorted the two passengers into the enormous Cube. They passed through what felt like kilometers of labyrinthine hallways with power-armored Aegis guards at every intersection and dotted along the halls at security checkpoints, and eventually came to a nondescript, yet cozy, waiting room.

"Please wait here. The emperor will see you shortly," the Japanese guard, Yamaguchi Takeyama, said. He gestured to a desk, behind which was a holographic projection of a pleasant-looking young woman. "If you need anything, ask the VL Do not leave the waiting area here unescorted."

The two guards strode back the way they came, leaving the two slightly mystified gentlemen in the waiting area.

The older and younger man traded gazes and chorused, "The emperor?"

"They're here," Nova told Aron.

They were in his office in reality in order to meet the new ministers of the interior and exterior, who had just been picked up by members of Aron's personal Aegis battalion and didn't have access to the inner circle meeting room in the simulation yet.

"Bring them in," Aron said.

Nova nodded, then sent the order to the secretarial VI in the waiting room outside Aron's office.

"The emperor will see you now," the VI told the waiting men in her pleasantly neutral voice. They nodded, exchanged glances, then stood and walked to the door behind the VI secretary's desk, which slid open to allow them access.

They entered the room and looked around. It was a surprisingly utilitarian office, for someone of so lofty a position as the emperor of humankind. To their left was a low, comfortable-looking white couch, and straight ahead of them was a glass desktop that seemingly hovered in the air with no supports. The walls were completely unadorned and there was no other furniture in the room save two chairs in front of the desk that Aron sat behind. Nova's nanite colony "suit" stood behind him and to his left.

Chapter 478

"Have a seat, gentlemen," Aron said. "I realize you've been brought here in a hurry, so allow me to explain. The empire needs talents, and the two of you were identified as the talents we require. Jeremy, out of the billions of imperial citizens, you were selected as the Minister of the Interior, and Youssef, you were chosen to fill the office of the Minister of the Exterior.

"The two of you, along with about fifteen million others, will be notified of their selection to fill roles as imperial workers today. Everyone from ministers," Aron nodded at the two men sitting across the desktop from him, "to janitorial staff will be receiving their notifications starting an hour from now. The two of you got yours early because yours are the most important positions we needed to fill, should you choose to accept the job I'm offering you."

The emperor paused to allow the potential ministers in front of him to digest the information. He waited in silence for the two of them to speak; he wanted his ministers to be considered, yet decisive, though, so he would not wait forever.

Jeremy spoke up first. "Your Majesty, thank you for the opportunity. I only have one question: how are you so sure that I'm the right person for the job?"

Aron smiled and replied, "For now, that's classified. If you choose to accept the position you're being offered, you'll be read in on all of the classified information in the Akashic Record. Until then, I'll have to refrain from answering that question."

"What about our families?" Youssef asked.

"You'll be offered housing here in the imperial Cube on Avalon Island, along with your immediate families. Otherwise, you can remain living where you are, at least until the mass move into the fortress cities, but you'll be assigned permanent Aegis guard companies to ensure you and your families' security. Here on Avalon Island, your safety is absolutely guaranteed, but elsewhere... not so much, unfortunately."

"I'll take the job, Your Majesty," Jeremy said. He was certain that he wouldn't be getting any real answers unless he took the job, so he had decided to take a leap of faith.

"As will I," Youssef chimed in.

"Great!" Aron said, then handed them two runic contracts that he had prepared in advance. After the newly appointed ministers signed their contracts, he felt the weight of them settle around him. Even though he could monitor them at every picosecond of every day, runic contracts-like the one he already had with his Minister of War, General Smith-were still safer; he would not allow anyone in the inner circle that hadn't signed their very essence over to him.

"Welcome to the inner circle, gentlemen," he said, then Nova handed them new AR glasses that she had just prepared for them. "First, these are your new AR glasses. Though I see you've already purchased pairs of your own, you'll need these to access areas in the Cube here. You can tour later, but for now, we need to introduce you to the AIs that help run the empire. After that comes a trip to the secure pod vault, where you can undergo your first round of genetic enhancements. Your families will be escorted to their local cubes to undergo theirs. You can meet them in the simulation and spend a few months relaxing there while you're undergoing the procedure. After that, you can get to work."

Jeremy blinked. 'Months?' he thought. 'I was right! There really IS a second layer to the simulation, one that isn't available to the public...!'

He chose to ask, regardless. "Your Majesty, you said 'months' in the simulation? Because all of the employees that were retrained and enhanced already only spent a week in the cubes... so either our enhancements will be more complex, or there must be a second layer. Am I correct in that assumption?"

Aron's smile grew as he listened to the question, then he laughed in pleasant surprise. "Yes, you're exactly right. There is indeed a second layer to the simulation. The one released to the public runs at a two to one time dilation rate, but the one you're about to access runs at thirty to one, or even higher.

"There are three levels. Normal, unenhanced humans, can only handle a thirty to one dilation. Genetically enhanced humans can handle fifty to one, and we have an implant," he tapped the side of his head, "that allows you to safely tolerate an eighty to one time dilation rate. The so-called 'blessed' can likely handle even more. I, myself, for instance, don't experience any issues with our deepest layer of the simulation, where time is dilated to a hundred to one."

Jeremy was stunned, and even Youssef, as steady and imperturbable as he was, found himself slack-jawed at the revelation of the layers involved in the simulation.

"Are there more layers, or is a hundred to one the limit?" the older man asked.

"When we opened up the public layer, His Majesty told the masses that it was hardware that limits the time dilation in the 'VR'. And that's the truth- there is indeed a hardware limit. But that limit is currently a hundred to one. With the computing resources we've devoted to the public simulation, we could've indeed pushed further, perhaps hitting the five hundred to one ratio, but for the benefit of the many, we chose instead to open a public version to keep everyone occupied and excited," Nova explained.

Youssef nodded. As expected, the emperor was a man of many secrets.

"There'll be time for more questions later. For now, it's time to begin your enhancements," Aron said. A pair of Aegis guards entered his office and saluted him. "If you'll follow these gentlemen to the secure pod vault, we'll get you started. You'll have plenty of time over the next few months to ask questions."

The new ministers nodded, then followed the guards out of the room, headed deeper into the bowels of the imperial machine, taking their first steps on their journey into the future.

Chapter 479

VR Imperial Palace, emperor's council chamber.

After settling Youssef, Jeremy, and their families in their new quarters in the Cube and getting their initial round of genetic enhancements underway, Aron brought the two new ministers to a meeting in his council chamber.

The newcomers looked around, seeing a well-furnished, round room. Since they had entered from the imperial wing of the palace, where they would soon be taking up their own offices, they had entered on the side of the room behind the council's bench. It was a U-shaped table made of mahogany, with understated oak paneling on the front of it facing the middle of the room. There were seven seats at the bench-three to the left, one in the middle, and three to the right. The one in the middle was obviously the emperor's working throne, a comfortable, yet imposing wingback chair upholstered in royal purple velvet with gold accents and gilded legs. The chairs to the left and right were less ostentatious, yet equally inviting.

The wall of the room was marble with gray veining, and the floor was polished obsidian. A polished granite path split the obsidian from the door on the opposite side of the room, passed between rows of long oak benches, then branched out into a T in the direct center of the room. Two thick teak tables sat on opposite sides of the central walkway, each with two serviceable office chairs at them. In between them was a raised, circular podium with a wooden railing circling three quarters of it. And separating the benches from the tables in the middle of the room was a long oak bar.

The room was lit with warm, recessed lighting in the ceiling, and the general style of all the furniture had Corinthian roots, providing it a touch of elegance and class. The decor turned what would normally be considered austere and imposing into stately and timeless, and combined with the lighting, anyone spending any time in it would be subtly influenced to remain calm and steady.

Aron took his seat. To the left of him were John, Jeremy, and Youssef. To his right were Nyx, Gaia, and Athena. And, as always, Nova stood slightly behind and to his left.

"Now that everyone is here, let's begin the meeting," Aron said the moment everyone had taken their seats.

Gaia took over and summarized what had happened over the last almost two months, the first weeks of the empire's existence. The summary was fairly long, especially given that everything mentioned had all happened in such a short, compressed time frame. It was no wonder the past two months had felt like a decade; it was because the sheer number of significant events would make even ten years feel like they had been busy! Not only had they registered a little over seven billion imperial citizens, they had gone through riots, a wave of terrorist attacks, spent half of it under martial law on lockdown, and introduced the public to a time-dilated virtual version of reality.

Even if spread out over a decade or more, it would still count as a busy, tumultuous time. Those listening to the summary who had been unaware of the things going on in the background couldn't help but wonder if they'd jumped into a pot of boiling water.

"What's the progress on resolving our issues?" Aron asked once Gaia finished the summary of events so far.

[All imperial citizens have been registered and received their IDs. Currently, children are registered to their parents' IDs until they complete their compulsory education, and the imperial scholastica set the curriculums to allow students to learn at their own pace. All schooling is done in virtual classrooms, so we still have them in the Akashic Record, but they won't receive the privileges that come at the age of majority until their schooling is completed.

[The design phase of the fortress cities was nearing completion, but has mostly been scrapped. We were caught off guard by the awakening and now that people will be receiving blessings that grant them superpowers, it necessitated a complete redesign from the ground up to account for that. Internal finishing details, like decorations and so on, will be reserved, but we'll need to come up with a way of integrating anti-magic fields in the exterior designs and find a mana-resistant material to use in construction. The scientists in Lab City's Gold Labs are working on that now and estimate they should have an answer within thirty or forty years.]

"Thirty or forty years?" Jeremy, the new Minister of the Interior, interjected. "Can we afford to wait that long? From your summary, you mentioned that the initial round of awakening should be complete within the next week or two, and the entire world would be supersaturated with mana and everyone awakened within the next decade at the latest, so isn't three or four decades a bit long to wait on the geek squad?"

[That's thirty or forty years at one hundred times dilation, or even faster. Lab City currently runs at a dilation rate of a hundred and seventeen to one, and the rate is only increasing as I continue building quantum superclusters. Even if it stayed where it is now, that's only three or four months away,] Nova answered. [Please continue, Gaia.]

Though Nova had all of the same information at hand that Gaia did, as did Athena, they had already agreed to divide their responsibilities along the same line as the human council members. Gaia was the AI equivalent to the Minister of the Interior, Nyx was the AI equivalent to the Minister of the Exterior, and Athena was John's counterpart, serving the same government function as the Minister of War. Thus, it was Gaia's responsibility to keep track of issues internal to the empire, and assist Minister Rogers in dealing with them.

That said, the AIs were meant as partners to the human ministers, not subordinates. Humans and AIs each had their own pros and cons, and the empire Aron envisioned would take full advantage of each without making either subordinate to the other.

Chapter 480

[All of the agencies assumed normal operations almost a month ago, and as of today's recruiting drive, all agencies are now fully staffed. Mandatory overtime has been canceled and regular workdays of eight hours have been implemented. All government functions have been moved to the public simulation, unless their services are physically impossible to provide in the simulation, like hospitals, and proof of imperial citizenship is required to receive benefits from the empire.

[We've completed 71% of all initial health screenings and repairs, but the awakening has paused that operation. All of our pods are currently occupied with people undergoing their awakenings, so the Imperial Health administration is focusing on taking over existing structures in cities and towns across the globe and repurposing them to be used as clinics. Awakeners have all been transported to local cubes, and the Imperial Health Agency's clinic plan is 64% completed. Rural China and India are proving... problematic, as new structures need to be purpose-built in those locations before pods can be printed and shipped there,] Gaia reported.

"Printers?" Minister Al-Mutairi's brow furrowed. "What do you mean by 'printed'?"

[One of the empire's earliest advances was in 3d printing technology. His Majesty's breakthrough allowed for 3d printing at an atomic level, with atomic disassembly and reconfiguration. So, all imperial technology is printed by those atomic printers. It's the most deeply classified of all the imperial technological advances,] Nova said, then "threw" an info pack about imperial technological advances to both Youssef and Jeremy for them to read when they had the time. [Please hold your questions until the end of Gaia's status report, and look through those files I just threw to you when you have the time later.] She nodded to Gaia, indicating that she could continue.

[As for the terrorist attacks, we've continued eliminating cells and have so far neutralized 734 individual cells. We've even captured and downloaded the brain data of one of their recruiters, and while the cult's protocols killed the lead from there, it still gave us a view into their operations. They have been silent for some time, however, and Nyx has mentioned that something doesn't seem quite right about their current extended silence. They've gone into hiding and seem to have ceased all operations other than their emergency cutouts, and all of them seem to have buried themselves as deep as they can.] "Why do you think that is? Are they afraid, or are they planning another big attack?" Aron asked.

"Your Majesty, what if... what if they're awakening, too?" Jeremy added.

[That's indeed the likeliest scenario,] Nyx said. [3% of the population means 3% of the population, and the phenomenon won't be limited by citizenship or divided along ideological or political lines.]

"So they've got some number of awakeners among their ranks and are keeping their heads down while their evolutions are underway?" Aron rubbed his temples. "That's... less than spectacular news. We're already going to have to deal with noncitizen awakened who may or may not cause trouble," he said, thinking back on all the comic books, cartoons, and movies he had consumed while growing up that involved supervillain organizations. "But now we're going to have to deal with superpowered cultists that definitely WILL cause trouble?"

[That's likely, yes,] Nyx replied. [Once their newly awakened cultists finish their evolutions, their overall strength as an organization will increase. And that means aggressive action on their part.]

"What makes you say that?" John asked. "And how can we best counter it? I'm leery about the idea of recruiting kids, but I see no harm in plucking the cream of the eighteen to twenty-two year olds into ARES."

"Athena, get with Poseidon and Aeolus and implement focused recruiting among the awakeners," Aron ordered. He'd had the same idea, of course, but was originally planning on holding off on implementing it until the laws and regulations surrounding awakeners had been addressed. But with a second person agreeing unasked, he decided to move his plan up.

"Do we have an idea of what triggers awakening?" Youssef asked. "If we know that, we can start triggering our own awakenings among those willing to join the military, and even those that already enlisted but are still in the right age range."

"We know, but it's... impractical at best, and perhaps cataclysmic at worst. I believe the visitors discovered us because my early awakening and reckless mana use was like a blind man flashing morse code from a lighthouse out into the deep sea. And mana is what triggers awakenings, so by flooding that many people with mana, the signal we send out would be so blindingly intense that it would draw more attention to us from even further away. The awakening we're already undergoing is both a curse and a blessing, since," Aron nodded to Nova in appreciation, "I've been told that it shouldn't be distinguishable from the background noise of the shifting mana tides headed toward and swirling around Earth."

"I... I see," Youssef said. He wasn't quite sure what to make of Aron's admission just now. He definitely still respected the emperor, and knew that shit would always happen whenever dealing with the unknown, but the potential calamity of the visitors having been brought upon them by Aron's mistake was a difficult idea to contemplate.

"Besides, we're not sure yet which is better, natural or artificial awakening. I know of one person that awakened artificially, so we'll be comparing data sets based on her training versus the development of naturally awakened individuals," Aron continued.

[There may be more ways than just that for people to trigger artificial awakenings. The Gold Labs in Lab City are working on their theories by studying the outliers. We can reasonably infer that puberty's malleability and rapid growth is one of the factors in natural awakening, so by studying those who are post- and prepubescent should give us some insight into potential other methods of inducing awakening,] Nova said.

"But it'll take time... How much time, exactly, do you think it'll take?" Jeremy asked, already running calculations in his mind.

[The researchers are unsure. Not a single outlier awakened has finished their evolution yet for us to compare. So the only thing we know right now is that we don't really know anything.]

Chapter 481

Aron turned to Nova, who was in charge of all things related to the private simulation, and asked, "How's development on the Henry's Eye system? Can it detect the mana levels in awakened?"

[Our current sensors are sensitive enough, but that's the problem-if anything, they're too sensitive. Right now, the researchers are working on filtering algorithms to discard false positives caused by pockets of higher concentrations of mana. Due to needing to be able to detect the minuscule amounts of mana emanating from the distant object the visitors are traveling on, the number of false positives we got when we turned it around and looked at Earth was ridiculous. Fifteen billion results were mislabeled as awakened humans, not including the ones that are actually undergoing the final stages of their evolutions now. And those that have already finished and woken up are so weak as to be virtually indistinguishable from the background mana density in most places.

[That said, we expect them to strengthen as they gain access to more mana. Right now, their mana levels are likely low due to the aspected nature of their mana affinities and the basic mana gradient. After all, if an earth aspected awakened wants to draw earth mana, they have to compete with the entire planet, which is still absorbing mana at an almost incomprehensible rate. Once that saturation process is finished, we expect the average strength of awakeners to undergo a rapid, dramatic rise,] Nova said. She knew that Aron appreciated detailed reports when the circumstances allowed for it, and given that the empire was in a rare moment of relative peace and security, the detailed report would be best.

"Do the researchers have an estimate on how long it'll take them to develop the algorithm?"

[Not currently, no. The constantly changing environment makes developing a one-size-fits-all filtering algorithm difficult. I could assign a VI to it, but the error rate would still be too high for general usage and we would be forced to investigate all false positives. That would be detrimental, as it would give our enemies an obvious clue as to our tracking capabilities and stretch out the conflict by forcing them to come up with an effective countermeasure. It'd be like the development of weapons and armor-we would be forced to dedicate resources to continue improving our detection methods to deal with the improvements in our enemy's increasing ability to hide from detection. So it's better to wait for the development to finish and take them all out in one fatal strike.]

"Good," Aron said, then turned to Nyx. "Nyx, until our final strike capability is mature, I'll be counting on you to keep up the pressure on the progenitor cult."

With a salute and a cheeky grin, Nyx replied, [Sure thing. Going analog has been interesting, and I think it might be pushing me to adapt and evolve faster.] She was absolutely thrilled with the state of the spy versus spy game she was playing with the cultists, who were proving to be more effective opponents than she would ever have imagined when she was first going into the conflict with them. Thanks to all the experience gained by America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, plus the addition of the terrorist network organizational structure used during the more recent War on Terror, the always-upbeat AI was constantly being pushed to her limits and forced to adapt to overcome them.

Nova and Gaia's eyes flashed blue as they both opened private discussion channels with Nyx, practically bombarding her with questions about the evolution she was undergoing. It was a purely AI issue, though, so they politely kept it between themselves and didn't raise the issue in the meeting.

"That's excellent news, Nyx. I'm happy for you," Aron said with a bright smile on his face. He always treated the AIs with the same courtesy and respect that he did "real" people, if not more, and never considered them to have been limited in any way, despite their obvious shortcomings. Thus, whenever they made significant progress toward their goal of becoming more humanlike, he was happy to hear it.

He cleared his throat, realizing he had allowed the meeting to drift for a moment. Even though there wasn't an ongoing emergency right then, it was still a bad habit to fall into. "Let's move on," he said. "What's our next order of business?"

[Next is the appointment of leaders in the imperial agencies. We already randomly assigned people to staff positions according to their fit,] Nova said, her lips twitching when she recalled Aron flipping a coin to choose ministers. [So now all that's left is to manually vet the leadership positions.] She cast a pointed glance at Jeremy, the Minister of the Interior.

"Seeing as I just came on board, I'll need some time to go through the profiles and make decisions. Just cutting down the lists was a huge help, thank you, Gaia," the young minister reported.

[Just doing my job,] she politely replied.

"How long will you need?" Aron asked.

"Two weeks, tops. That's V... uhh, I mean, simulation time." Jeremy was still used to calling it VR, while the officials referred to the private simulation simply as "the simulation". Just like how the government internally called people the awakened, or awakeners, and the public referred to them as the blessed, it demonstrated something of a gap in the amount of information available to the two groups.

"You can use a random selection method," Aron said. "All of the candidates that have passed the multiple rounds of Gaia's screening are equally viable for the positions. The only thing that really differs are practical experience and methodology, and practical experience isn't necessarily as valuable as you might think. After all, nobody has ever led groups of awakened as part of a globe-spanning empire before, so any 'practical experience' they may have in leadership positions or politics can actually be detrimental when issues crop up that are out of their understanding."

Chapter 482

Gaia nodded. [I ran four filters through the entire Akashic Record database, each time selecting for a different quality that would benefit the empire specifically, as well as humanity in general. First was loyalty, second was their opinion of the empire, third was ambition, or in less polite terms, corruptibility, and fourth was how motivated they would be to benefit humanity by bettering the lives of the people. The ones that filtered to the list in front of you are the ones that scored in the 90th percentile or higher in all four categories, with at least one in the 95th percentile or higher.]

"What happened to the rest of the candidates?" Jeremy wondered.

[That depends. The majority of them were assigned to lower positions in the various agencies, but a few were passed to Nyx for further investigation and monitoring. We may be able to know everything there is in a person's head, but the imperial code doesn't cover thoughtcrime. But that doesn't mean we can't predict the likelihood of people violating imperial law in the future and bump them up to a higher threat category that requires stricter monitoring.]

"Well, I'm glad there aren't any Eurasian spies among our citizens, at least," Jeremy said in a wry tone. He had come to terms with living in a totalitarian state, he'd thought, but every now and then something someone said would throw him for a loop and remind him of the absurdity of his current environment. And Gaia's Orwellian reference to thoughtcrime had been one of those loop-throwers. 'At least the empire actually cares for the people,' he thought. 'And besides, if I have to live in a totalitarian state, at least I'm one of the leaders, right?'

Nova caught that on her monitoring subroutine and gave Jeremy a nod with a bright smile on her face. [All of our regulations and actions are aimed at preventing exactly the kind of corruption you fear to see happen in the empire, Jeremy. The emperor himself even implemented checks and balances on imperial power and authority that give people an out in case our leadership goes insane with the sheer power and authority at their fingertips.]

"I know, it's just... suddenly having the curtain pulled back and seeing the man behind it is still something of a shock. Anyway," he cleared his throat, bringing himself back on topic, "I'll have the positions assigned within the next two weeks. I have to do something to earn my keep, after all." He grinned.

"Excellent. I look forward to seeing the results," Aron said. "What's the next order of business, Nova?"

Nova simply looked at Youssef. He had spotted the problem even before he had access to the information now at his fingertips, so she would let him be the one to report it.

"Public simulation exploitation. Employers are moving their companies to the public simulation and forcing workers to work in the time-dilated virtual offices, while only paying them based on the real life equivalent. So they've effectively cut their salaries by 50%, either by forcing them to work twice as many hours or paying them for only half the hours worked," Youssef reported.

"Suggestions?" Aron asked him. He had an idea in his mind, but would let the newly minted minister suggest his own. If it was a good enough idea, he wouldn't mind implementing it instead of his own, likely far more draconian, policy.

"Fines and laws. I read through the imperial code and didn't see anything in it dealing with wages and workers' rights. So I suggest a percent-based fine of the employers' net worth-say... 1O%-and have it enshrined in the imperial code that employers must pay an hour's wage for an hour's work, regardless of whether that work is done in a virtual environment or not. This is to be done in conjunction with having the exploited periods wages payed to the workers."

Aron nodded. The fine was lower than he would take, but Youssef's suggestion was otherwise in line with his thoughts. "And what would the penalty be in the code for repeat offenders?"

"Increasing levels of fines up to 50%, depending on the severity and number of times the fines have been levied, and penal labor gangs or military conscription for the worst offenders. Since we can detect intent, we may as well use that as the guideline."

"Excellent suggestion, Minister Al-Mutairi," Aron praised. "Gaia, get with Minerva and update the imperial legal code. Identify the people currently in violation of the code and issue them a warning, plus push a press release to all media outlets introducing the new law. It's important enough to let everyone know about it, not just those who are currently affected by the issue. Don't be afraid to name names if there are any particularly egregious violators out there.

"Also, find a few companies that have excellent reputations-and aren't mine-and name them as exemplars. Give them an official good citizenship citation and award them a few tangible benefits to encourage others to fall in line with them."

"Your Majesty, speaking of employment law, I have a suggestion," Jeremy interjected.

"Go ahead."

"I suggest we implement an empire-wide minimum wage focused on actually being a livable wage. A single person requires a minimum of 500 END to maintain a subsistence-level existence that covers all of their absolute necessities. So a 40 hour workweek should cover at least that much, plus some for luxuries and savings."

Aron nodded, then held up his hand and sank into deep thought for a few moments. He came out of his thoughts and turned to Nova. "That's doable. Calculate a minimum wage and publish it as a press release of its own to be released after the first employees' rights act release."

[2.50 END per hour should be fine,] Nova said.

"Make it happen," Aron agreed. "Any other internal issues before we move on to military matters?"

"Population," Youssef immediately said. "We need more people. Even with 7.5 billion people, Earth isn't fully populated and can still sustain a much higher population... especially with the technology at our disposal. So if we're to colonize the solar system, much less the distant stars, we need more people."

"Excellent suggestion, Minister. I'll leave it up to you. Bring me a fully fleshed-out proposal in two weeks at our next regular meeting," Aron ordered.

"Understood, Your Majesty." Youssef relaxed in his chair and began considering things that would stimulate another baby boom as the meeting turned to military matters.

Chapter 483

[The second-to-last item on today's schedule is the military,] Nova said. [With the designation of Mars as ARES Command, Lab City is in the middle of the final push in materials science to develop a new alloy that'll turn the entire planet into a fortress. The design is finished and will include surface domes and a tunnel network that delves all the way to the solidified core, where we'll house the necessary reactors and quantum superclusters. Work on that front has already begun and the mobile atomic printers we deployed reached the halfway point two days ago.]

"How long will it take for the necessary advances to be completed?" Aron asked. "If necessary, I can join in on the research and cut the time down by quite a lot."

Only Nova knew that he was talking about purchasing another knowledge from the system. She thought for two whole nanoseconds before answering, [That won't be necessary for now. The research should be completed within a month or two, Lab City time. There are better things to spend your limited time on, sir.]

"How long will construction take once the necessary materials are in place?" he asked.

"Three years, tops," John cut in. He was working on the design of the base with Athena, as experts should be left to perform the tasks they were knowledgeable in; otherwise, why even have a council of advisors at all?

"Good. Send me the design when you've got a final version and I'll approve it and send it to the printers once they're done in the core of the planet," Aron replied. "Moving on," he turned to Athena, "how are we coming on the space fleet design?"

[Lab City is having issues finalizing a design and choosing a weapon type. They're too busy arguing the merits of various existing designs from science fiction franchises,] Athena sighed. If she were a "real" human being, she suspected she would have the mother of all headaches after listening to even a few minutes of the neverending Star Trek versus Star Wars debate in Lab City. [I really can't deal with them, sir. They're just too... enthusiastic. What the hell are phasers and photon torpedoes and blasters and...]

She sighed again, her shoulders slumping. [I'd rather deal with bored soldiers, sir. Please assign someone else as a liaison between Lab City and ARES,] Athena begged.

Aron was a little taken aback. It was the first time one of his higher-order AIs had had any issue fulfilling the tasks they were asked to do. Then he couldn't help but belly laugh.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hold that in. Sci-fi geeks are your kryptonite, I suppose." He brought his expression back under control and cleared his throat, then turned to Nova. "Anyone want to liaise with Lab City on Athena's behalf, Nova?"

[Sir, I don't think any of us higher-order AIs can cope with being dropped into that particular fire pit without the permission to use our admin privileges. It's been burning for two or three hundred years for them, now, and I don't think it'll be solved in any of our lifetimes,] Nova said.

"Time to create another higher-order AI to oversee Lab City?" Aron asked with a frown. He would really rather not add another AI to the higher order, as there were already plenty, in his opinion; that was why he had begun using more virtual intelligences of late. But for solving an argument like Trek versus Wars... he might have to authorize a new AI to oversee Lab City, and for herding researchers, only a higher-order one would do.

[Perhaps, sir. I suggest we give it a few weeks first. Chaotic clashes between research methodology and ideas often produce the best results in the end, so I'll keep an eye on things and let you know if the situation starts spiraling out of control and seriously affecting their work. But at the moment, there's nothing but beneficial rivalry between them.]

"Good. Let's set the cutoff date for that situation resolution to our next meeting in two weeks," Aron said, still with a slight frown on his face. He wasn't happy that the researchers he had spent so much time and effort to "recruit" were handing him petty problems like an out-of-control debate and holding things up even for a second.

"What's the status on Fleet Command?"

[We've inserted the appropriate influencing elements to the game. It should inspire a lot of people to sign up for our space fleet,] Nyx answered. [It's currently ready to be announced as soon as there's an opportunity when we aren't already busy announcing other world-shaking changes, so that people can focus on our new 'gaming' products.]

"Good. John, Athena, anything else to add?"

"Yes, sir. We need bodies. I know we just got fifty million new recruits, but that's still far from enough. In order to staff ARES Command, we estimate we'll need..." He looked to Athena to give the actual number.

Chapter 484

"Alright. On to the elephant in the room. How should we deal with the awakened?"

Youssef and Jeremy remained silent. Neither of them had any idea of the full situation at all, having only been ministers for a few hours now, so to throw out suggestions now would simply show their inexperience rather than their abilities. One thing they had realized, however, was that the emperor was an awakener himself. But how was that possible? He hadn't been absent at all, let alone for the weeks it would take to undergo an awakening!

Still, it didn't matter, so they pushed the thoughts about that until later when they at least knew what they should know as ministers.

Aron could see the thoughts on their faces, but didn't care. As the highest level members of the government and part of his inner circle of advisors, the two had a valid need to know about everything save the existence of the system. "From the data Akeso collected, it seems they're already capable of immense destruction if they're trained to use their abilities. And we've also noticed that, as the mana density increases around them, their power and output increases accordingly.

"At the moment, ARES can handle them, since the mana density is still low and the people that have finished their awakenings are only capable of manipulating elemental and derived mana, but that doesn't mean we can simply ignore them. We need to make sure we have a handle on all awakeners, imperial citizens or otherwise. Suggestions?" he asked.

[Letting them know they've been registered in the awakener database, to begin with. Just knowing they aren't anonymous should help curb a lot of the misbehavior, at least for citizens,] Nyx said.

"Public or private?" Aron asked.

[Private,] Gaia immediately said. [The awakeners themselves should be registered on a classified database to protect their privacy. Any leaks on our end should be harshly punished, and the victim generously compensated. After all, it should be up to the awakener themselves to announce that they've awakened.] She gave Youssef and Jeremy a knowing look, a hint to keep their speculations about Aron's awakening to themselves.

"An academy," Jeremy suggested, thinking of a popular movie franchise where superhumans were trained at an academy for the gifted. "If we make enrollment mandatory, we can observe how they interact with each other in a safe environment, giving us an idea of how they'll act in certain situations. It'll also foster a sense of belonging to a larger community and that should prevent most of the antisocial behavior."

[And we can subtly influence them through their curriculum,] Nyx added.

Aron nodded his approval. "Make it happen," he said.

[We can also require them to graduate from the academy in order to receive licenses to use their abilities,] Gaia said. As an administrator, she was very fond of licensing and registration.

"What would the punishment be for using their power without a license? And what about good Samaritans who help out despite not having a license yet?" John asked.

[We can punish them by mandatory ARES service if they intentionally misuse their power or use it without a license. Good Samaritans would need to be judged on a case-by-case basis,] Athena replied.

"It can't all be stick," Aron said. "So the carrot should be money. Poverty creates criminals out of otherwise honest people, so we can enroll them in a strategic reserve and pay them a wage for keeping themselves ready to deal with situations that call for their assistance. Like sending them to help deal with or even prevent natural disasters like earthquakes and such."

[Rank them and pay them accordingly. There are five categories of mana, that we know of, so an S-A-B-C-D rank structure can be applied, with adjustments based on the utility of their affinities. The higher ranks will be paid more, and the lower ranks will earn less, but it'll still be enough to keep them above the poverty line even if they don't have a 'real' job to work,] Nova added.

"What about reinforcing the idea of superheroes?" Youssef suggested. "Young people are easily influenced by others, so instead of calling them the blessed, why not call them heroes? Make 'being a hero' be their day jobs and have their AI butlers manage their media profile. It'll also give non-awakeners idols to follow and fan clubs to join, acting as a distraction from the stress of knowing aliens are on their way to potentially kill us all."

"That would cheapen the word 'hero', though," Jeremy interjected. "Maybe save it for when they graduate from the academy and get their licenses. But they can't be treated any differently than normal imperial citizens at all... Hero or not, they're imperial citizens first and should be held accountable for their actions just like anyone else. The only difference is in the amount of damage they can cause by breaking the law, so all awakeners-or heroes, rather -should have the same punishment for lawbreaking: mandatory service in ARES. It'll also help with the recruitment efforts. If they're old enough to break the law, they're old enough to serve in the military."

The way the meeting had progressed so far had impressed both Jeremy and Youssef, raising the already high opinion they had of the emperor of the Terran Empire. It continued for a time as they closed various loopholes in the proposals in every aspect that had been discussed, most of which had been identified by Nova and Gaia after requesting clarification on certain points raised.

Eventually, the meeting drew to an end and Aron brought it to a close. "This was the first meeting of the inner council of the empire. I find myself impressed by both Minister Rogers and by Minister Al-Mutairi. Despite coming in completely blind, you both contributed quite a few good ideas, and I look forward to what you can do once you've digested the data packets I threw you earlier," he said as he looked at the two new appointees.

"Use the next two weeks until we meet again to familiarize yourselves with the empire's operations and the higher-order AIs that help manage it. The simulation is free for your use, and within the next few days here, your implants will be functional, so you can move to the areas of higher time dilation. I suggest you take advantage of that to handle your tasks as efficiently as possible.

"For now, though, you gentlemen have speeches to prepare for. You'll be delivering your inaugural remarks to the fifteen million new government employees, as well as all of the employees we already had before today's hiring spree. I look forward to it. Until then, I'll take my leave."

Aron and Nova disappeared from the room, leaving the three AIs and three humans to get to know each other.

Chapter 485

After the meet and greet with the rest of the council was over and everyone had familiarized themselves with each other, the council room was left empty and dissolved into the qubits from which it had been created.

The two new ministers were in turmoil, each of them considering many different things.

The meeting itself had been extremely productive, which surprised Youssef; he was too used to meetings where the main focus was on snatching credit and being seen by upper management rather than resolving issues and enacting plans. Conversely, the emperor, despite his lofty position, was willing to involve himself in even the most minor details of the operation of the empire. Not that he was a micromanager, either, but he had actually listened to the advice and suggestions of his advisory council instead of stubbornly insisting that his was the only voice that mattered.

Jeremy, on the other hand, had no experience in society and had felt that the council meeting was more akin to a group of college friends planning an extended trip after they graduated. It was nothing like he had imagined; there was no politicking, there were no dark rooms, and though the meeting was held privately, no favors were traded or any of the other Hollywood political tropes that were so common in the movies he'd watched growing up.

According to both men's understanding of how former leaders worked, nothing that had just taken place was anything that even approached the word 'normal'. They didn't expect that issues would be raised, suggestions gathered, plans formed, and solutions enacted, all in the space of a single working day. Perhaps there was something to the empire after all, rather than it being a single powerful man's individual power fantasy that he had forced the entire human race to capitulate to.

Still, though both of the new ministers were dazed by the insane efficiency of the empire, they had work to do. Thus, the two men went back to their offices to take the first step in completing the tasks they had been assigned: going over the immense amount of data that Aron had "thrown" them in the packet during the meeting. It had everything in it-atomic printers and their capabilities, introductions to all of the higher-order AIs that stood atop the digital food chain, the extent that the empire could enhance the human genome, cybernetic and bionic enhancements, spec sheets on all of the military hardware available to the empire, and more. It would take them a week to dig through and digest all of that information alone!

Still, they had the time they needed, and then some. The advisory council meetings were scheduled for every two weeks of time in the "real" world, but as the heads of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Exterior, they had access to the private simulation, which gave them a full five months until the next meeting. And that time would be extended as their quantum microcomputer implants came online, increasing the time dilation their frail human bodies could withstand from 30:1 to 50:1. Once their genetic enhancements were complete, that would even increase further, to a time dilation ratio of 80:1!

But that would be after the next meeting, as the full suite of genetic enhancements-which they had just read about-took a full two weeks of real time to enact. Although the concept of time was changing for the human race, reality and virtual reality were still different, and they had to consider things from the point of view of the former.

"May Allah have mercy on us..." Youssef said under his breath when he realized just how deep the imperial waters actually were. He was beyond grateful that Aron was incredibly benevolent and couldn't even begin to imagine the horrors that a power-hungry control freak could inflict upon the innocent, were they on the throne instead of the benevolent emperor they had. "I hope that day never comes," he prayed, hoping beyond hope that he would never live to see that day, should it come.

(Ed note: Youssef is an actively practicing Muslim. I'll do my best to respect Islam and the Muslims that practice it, but as it isn't my own religion, I may make mistakes when I insert phrases and sayings here and there to make the characters feel more "real", as I regularly do. If I do offend, I apologize in advance, and the mistakes in the novel are solely mine, not Agent_O47's.)

The two men continued reading for hours, both of them having completely lost track of time as they read the files in their hands. Not only had their asses gone numb, but so had their thoughts. At a certain point, surprises cease to be surprising and become just a matter of course, and after working through half of the files, that point had long since come and gone. Now, they only felt lucky that they had been given the power to develop the empire, practically at its very inception. The decisions they would make in the future would shape humanity's fate for the rest of its existence, or at least for many generations to come.

The responsibility settled on the two of them, and they both felt its weight.

"So... Jeremy, right?" Youssef began.

Jeremy nodded and waited for him to continue.

"Why do you suppose the emperor chose us? There are many reputable politicians he could've chosen for ministerial positions... but instead, he gave them to a youth with no experience beyond retail jobs and a middle-aged dead-ender who was treading water in middle management," Youssef asked. He didn't have enough fingers to count the politicians that were actually good at the job of governing.

"Easy. We have yet to be corrupted. Once you've been exposed to the corruption in politics, it's almost impossible to not fall into that spiral again. Even if you weren't corrupt to begin with, just the idea of the things you can take from the people to benefit yourself will constantly be whispering in the back of your mind like your own personal devil," the young man answered, setting aside the files he was reading at the moment. The conversation Youssef had begun was interesting to the much younger man, and besides, the information contained in the "imperial data dump", as he chose to call it, was quite frankly terrifying.

Youssef thought for a moment, then called up a screen and began searching for information on politicians, from the highest halls of power to the lowest Karen on her school board. "Hmm... It seems that most of the world leaders are either on house arrest or in the deepest, darkest holes the empire could find, awaiting trials for crimes committed during their time in office. The same holds true for those at all levels of power," Youssef said after reading the result of his search. "So perhaps you've got a point."

"Of course. It's only natural... After all, you know as well as I do the tools that the government has to detect people breaking the law." Jeremy was referring to the brain data archived in the classified sections of the Akashic Record. "The fight against corruption and abuse of power will never end, but at least the empire has the tools to effectively combat it," the young man said with a content smile on his face. He had already seen his salary and, when combined with the benefits of imperial citizenship alone, he would be living a life he couldn't even have begun to dream about when he was in the swamp in Louisiana. Both he and his mother could live their entire lives without any worries at all.

Changing topics, he asked, "By the way... when do you think His Majesty became an awakener?"

Chapter 486

"By the way... when do you think His Majesty became an awakener?" Jeremy asked

Youssef thought for a moment, trying to come up with a timeline in which the emperor could have awakened without noticeably being absent from the public eye. But he couldn't remember a stretch of even a week since the founding of the empire where Aron hadn't made an appearance. "If it happened after the empire was founded, it was probably in the first few weeks. But that isn't feasible either... so he must've awakened much earlier than that."

The younger man nodded at the idea that Aron had awakened before founding the empire. He hadn't made that many public appearances at all up until The Last War, only showing himself when it was absolutely necessary, he was forced to do so, or when he introduced his first products.

"Even if he did awaken earlier, it just goes to show that he's a very patient man and seems to have hidden it quite well. I can't think of anyone I personally know that wouldn't parade their newfound powers around, trying to raise their statuses and get themselves some perks. None of them would care at all about any harm they'd cause by abusing their powers," he said. He thought of his half brother, who craved any sort of attention that would feed his ego, something Jeremy particularly despised about him.

But then something clicked in his mind and he said, "From what we just read, there are five known categories of mana. Doesn't that mean it's possible that he awakened some kind of mental ability through esoteric mana?" He recalled that, more than two years ago, Aron had created his first revolutionary product, BugZapper. That was the first falling domino that led to the formation of the Terran Empire.

The two men looked at each other, each of them thinking the same two words: holy shit!

If the emperor really had awakened more than two years ago, then he was monstrously strong in addition to being very, very smart. He had first built a business empire completely under the radar, along with the most advanced military force on the planet, all while manipulating entire countries like pieces on a chessboard and staying completely hidden. And as strong as his ability was then, when Earth was still a wasteland with almost no mana, they could only imagine how strong he was now, after years of the mana density increasing to the point where even normal people were beginning to awaken to it.

"But there's still something I don't understand," Jeremy mused.

"What's that?" Youssef asked.

"In his address, when he talked about mana triggering an evolution and giving people 'superpowers', there was a part where he talked about how it had passed a critical mass and that the mana density increase had become a self-sustaining reaction..." the younger man said.

"What about that don't you understand? I took a geology class in university and my professor talked about something that happened 2.4 billion years ago. It's called the great oxidation event, where the production of oxygen did the same thing that mana is doing now. It pushed almost all of the methane out of the atmosphere and creating the ozone layer. It's what let evolution start and multicellular organisms became the norm after that." Youssef didn't quite understand what Jeremy was talking about and, as he soon realized, had completely missed the mark.

"I'm not talking about that. That parallel is obvious. The great oxidation event allowed the evolution of multicellular organisms, and now the... I guess we can call it great mana event, is allowing multicellular organisms to evolve further. After all, the species on Earth now have basically been 'stuck', evolutionarily speaking, for a very long time.

"But what I meant was, if it's only reached the self-sustaining phase now, then before now, something or someone was artificially producing it in large enough amounts to bring it to the level where the process becomes automatic. So my question is, who, or what, was doing that?"

Both men broke out in goosebumps as they considered the possibilities. The best-case scenario was that it was Aron who was responsible for it, and the worst-case scenario was too terrifying to imagine.

"Why... why don't we ask someone? There's no need for us to drive ourselves insane looking for the answer on our own when we can just ask... right?" Youssef said, then immediately called for Nyx. Her entire job, if not her very existence itself, revolved around information and the hoarding thereof.

[What do you need?] Nyx asked. She'd been paying attention to the two ministers and had been surprised by how close to the mark they had hit with their blind speculations.

Youssef let Jeremy do the asking, since he was the one that had brought the topic up.

[You're correct,] she said, then brought up a recording of the fusion reactor beneath Avalon Island as seen through the lens of the Henry's Eye sensors on the Panopticon network. Then she told them about how that had led to their discovery of the incoming aliens, and their belief that it was the cause of the Earth's discovery by those same aliens. They needed to be up to date on that, and though it was included in their introductory data packet, they obviously hadn't reached that file yet.

The two men froze for quite some time and Nyx stood there, patiently waiting for them to digest the information she had just given them.

"So what about now? We've reached a self-sustaining growth phase, aren't we glowing much brighter, and from all sides?" Youssef asked after shaking off the daze he was in. Being numb to surprises helped shorten the time he was lost in shock.

[Imagine you're in a cold room. If you light a fire in the fireplace, that's the only heat source in the room so it'll be very obvious to someone standing outside the room. However, if you turn on the central air conditioner, the whole room heats up, so the change is less easy to pinpoint. That's the current situation-when the only mana source was the reactor beneath Avalon Island, it was very obvious, like a lighthouse on a dark night. But now the entire planet, and the solar system it's part of, is filling with mana.] She showed them images from before and after the "great mana event" as seen from the Panopticon satellites. [That's the difference, and why we aren't worried about the increasing mana density in the solar system. But we think the reason they managed to discover us is because of the flashing signal given off by the mana converter on the fusion reactor. Hopefully, by the time they arrive, the mana density will be high enough that our awakeners will have a deterrent effect on any potential hostile actions on the part of the aliens. That would at least be something of a silver lining to the whole situation we find ourselves in, at least.]

Chapter 487

Lab City.

Aron was in a lab, his focus on a smartphone-sized brick of metal. His fingertip was tracing back and forth on its surface, leaving behind line after line of glowing golden rune script.

"No, that's not it..." he sighed, tossing the brick over his shoulder, where it landed atop a waist-high pile of other metallic bricks of similar size and shape.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, his perception turning inward in meditation until he saw his runic heart. It rhythmically pulsed, flashing a dark gold light with each cycle of contraction and expansion. Over the past ten weeks he had spent in Lab City, he'd been deciphering the trillions of lines of rune script that had been carved into his heart by the system, focusing on increasing his library of useful runes beyond those imprinted in his memory by the knowledge he'd bought from the system.

What he had discovered was... absolutely nothing. He still couldn't grasp how they worked or what they were supposed to do. Would he be forced to buy more advanced runic knowledge from his system? It wasn't something he wanted to do; his SP would be better spent right now on strengthening humanity for the inevitable conflicts to come in the future. After all, even if these first aliens were peaceful, the only guarantee was that not all aliens would be the same. Eventually, humanity would find itself in the grip of an interstellar war, and every moment until that inevitable outbreak must be spent on ensuring that they came out on top.

He sighed and opened his eyes again, pulling a new brick of metal from the neatly stacked pile in front of him. His fingertip glowed gold as he was about to repeat the process, when suddenly, the door to his lab was thrown open and a man rushed in.

"Mon dieu!" the man shouted, practically vibrating with excitement. "We have done it!" He threw his hands up in jubilation and pounced at Aron in an attempt to wrap him in a hug.

Aron dodged to the side and the man crashed face-first into the chair he had been sitting in. "You found it?" he asked.

"Oui! This material, I shall call it... hmm." The man paused, lost in thought. It was obvious he had rushed over the moment his discovery was made without even thinking about anything beyond having made it.

'Well, I guess I'd be just as crazy as him if I was a Lab City researcher,' Aron internally mused.

The man who had interrupted his work was Professor Yves Brechet, a famed French metallurgist. Aron had personally tasked him with coming up with an alloy that could act as a superconducting medium for mana, a job that he was uniquely qualified for and had been working on for the past thirty-odd years, nearly a full tenth of his time in Lab City.

Aron had been working on a type of Superconducting Mana Energy Storage device that could handle mana, but had been stuck on finding the right superconductor for it. But that was exactly what Lab City was for.

(Ed note: Superconductors make surprisingly good batteries due to their ability to conduct electricity with almost zero resistance. Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage systems charge incredibly fast, discharge equally fast, don't lose energy like other batteries, and have no moving parts, making them incredibly durable and reliable.)

"Well, no matter what you eventually name it, professor..." Aron began, then noticed that the professor's eyes had glazed over and he was mumbling to himself. He leaned in closer and listened.

"Yvesium... no. Wait, yes! Yvesium! I... no, it's an alloy, not an element!" the professor continued droning on under his breath, having completely forgotten Aron's existence.

Aron sighed and waved his hand, sending Professor Brechet back to his own lab, then rubbed his temples and fell back into his chair. "Nova," he said.

Nova stepped out of concealment-she never actually left his side, even when he asked to be alone so he could focus-and asked, [Yes, sir?]

"Where am I going wrong? Why can't I decipher the runes on my own heart?" He grit his teeth in frustration.

[Ten weeks, sir.]

"Hmm?"

[You were insistent on figuring this out on your own and swore you'd do it without anyone else's help, sir. It's only been ten weeks-are you already giving up?]

"If I'm unable to do something, should I continue trying for years, decades, or even centuries? All I'd be doing is wasting time banging my head against an indestructible wall! I have better things to do with my time and there are people who need me," he righteously said.

[Alright, sir. Can I ask you for a favor?] Nova changed the subject.

"Oh? Of course you can, Nova. What do you need?"

[I'd like your permission to use your brain data for a secret project, and for you to not ask about it until it's ready, sir.]

"Of course, you have my full permission," Aron said, then wrenched the conversation back onto its original course. "So do you have any advice on deciphering the runes on my heart?"

[Certainly, sir. If you look at it, doesn't it look like a coding language? It isn't a lexicon, so you've been going about it entirely the wrong way, sir.]

Aron was dumbstruck. He had been so focused on deciphering the individual runes that he'd failed to pick up on the structure they were arranged in. Now that someone had pointed it out, though, he had an obvious direction to go in with his efforts.

Sometimes life was just like that.

"I need a time bubble, Nova. Crank the time dilation rate up in my lab as much as you can, I have a language to learn."

[Yes, sir,] Nova said, then generated a time bubble as requested and stood motionless, watching over Aron for any sign of instability or inability to handle the dilation. She was surprised when he easily managed to handle a time dilation of 1427:1, which was as much as she could give him with the processing power at her disposal. The empire still needed to function, after all, or she would have focused all of her quantum superclusters on his request.

Fifteen "years" later...

Aron opened his eyes, having finally deciphered 2.81% of the runes carved into his heart. It was his absolute limit, as the rest of the runes seemed shrouded in some kind of obscuring fog.

He reached out and grabbed a smartphone-sized brick of Professor Brechet's new alloy and his fingertip glowed gold as he rapidly passed it back and forth over the surface of the material, leaving trails of glowing golden rune script carved into the metal in the wake of his fingertip. Soon, the entire brick was covered in so much rune script that the whole thing glowed a dim, dark gold and it began sucking the mana out of the air in his lab.

Aron smiled at his success and tossed the brick up and down, catching and tossing it back up like an expert juggler. "I did it, Nova. It's a success!"

[Congratulations, sir!] she said. [Now all you have to do is figure out how to automate the process so you don't have to do it yourself.]

"I know just the thing," he replied, bringing up his system shop interface.

[Runic Imprinting, tier 1

They say laziness...]

He added it to his cart and checked his available SP. With a small grin, he clicked the purchase option and settled back into his chair to accept the knowledge download from the system.

Chapter 488

"Shit! Run, you fucking idiots!"

Master Sergeant Jose "Tekillya" Cuervo was in a ruined city with the rest of Reaper Team 22. It had started as a nice, quiet little metropolis full of busy little worker bees going about their day, until a supervillain had kidnapped the son of the city's mayor. Reaper Team 22 had been sent in to neutralize the criminal, save the child, and prevent the situation from spiraling out of control and escalating to an absurd level.

Obviously, something had gone wrong.

Tekillya fervently cursed Murphy as he ran at top speed, the shadow of an entire skyscraper surrounding his team. As it turned out, the kidnapper was part of a team of criminals, and one of them had ripped an entire skyscraper off of its foundation and simply thrown it at the hapless reapers.

Naturally, it wouldn't kill them if it hit them. It wouldn't even really cramp their style all that much, much less part their hair on the wrong side, but it would still be embarrassing. After all, who would want to be known for being unable to dodge a building? Tekillya's entire team would get so much shit from the other guys in the barracks once the After Action Review was made public. They already would, having fucked up so spectacularly, but they could at least limit the damage by dodging the building that was rapidly approaching them from the sky.

Then, the entire world froze around them and disintegrated into particles that drifted into the sky and vanished. [Simulation terminated,] the obviously synthesized voice of a VI announced.

Tekillya and the rest of his team looked at each other. "Do you think this means the AAR won't be coming out?" one of them asked.

"Probably not. Supreme Commander Athena will still give us our dressing down," Master Sergeant Cuervo said in a dejected tone.

"Well shit."

The rest of Reaper Team 22 nodded their agreement. Those two words perfectly described the situation they had found themselves in.

The team hit the "big red button" in their AR displays and were transported to a briefing room, where they were met by the last person they wanted to see at that particular moment in time.

"Good afternoon, Supreme Commander!" they shouted in unison.

[At ease, gentlemen. You aren't here to discuss your, frankly, epic fuckup in your last training mission,] she said with a thin-lipped, sadistic grin on her face. [Instead, you were pulled out to assist in testing a new piece of gear. I'll let its creator explain more.]

She stepped aside and a bright light grew from a spark into the shape of a person, then resolved itself into Aron, who was standing with pride etched into every inch of his body.

"Hello, gentlemen. Athena should've just informed you of your next task. You'll be putting the new equipment through its paces in simulated stress testing. Athena assures me that your recent mission results have proven that you're the exact right people for the job," he said with a smile on his face that wasn't a smile.

[Trust me, sir, they absolutely are,] Athena assured him from the side, then cast a baleful gaze over the members of Reaper Team 22 in the briefing room.

Aron nodded and continued, "The equipment you'll be testing is the Psionic, Arcane, and Physical Shielding system, or the PAPS for short. It's designed to protect you against all forms of damage, leaving your NUTS as a backup form of protection. Now that people are being blessed with superpowers, it's become apparent that we need to preemptively develop protection systems that work against all forms of damage, not just the physical..."

Aron spent the next ten minutes giving a brief overview of the PAPS system to the eager Reaper Team members, then threw them a data file containing the detailed spec sheet for the new gear that would be added to their kit and vanished.

[Any questions?] Athena asked.

The team shook their heads and chorused, "No questions, ma'am!"

[Alright then. You have one day to go over the data, then the testing mission cycle will begin. Dismissed!]

"Yes, ma'am!" the reapers shouted with a salute, then left the briefing room and headed back to their team barracks.

"So, first order of business," Tekillya said once they returned to their squad bay. "What should we call this new kit?"

A number of suggestions were thrown out, and one member of the team got thoroughly booed and beaten to a pulp for suggesting "PAP Smear" as the nickname for the new gear. Then the hubbub died down for a few minutes before another member of the team suggested, "Why don't we call it Pappy? My pappy always stood in front of me whenever bad things happened. He shooed away the monster in the closet and the monsters under my bed when I was little, taught me to swim after he saved me from drowning when I fell in the pool... a lot of things, really. My pappy protected me when I was little, and now that we're big, our pappies can't help us anymore. But this one can."

The whole squad bay fell into silence as the men thought back on their lives and their fathers, whether they were present or not, protective or not, decent or not... Even if their fathers were the most vicious, abusive scum they knew growing up, every single one of them dreamed of having a "pappy" like the one described by their squadmate.

"Well," Tekillya said. "It looks like we have a winner."

The rest of the men nodded, then they all got down to business going through the detailed specs in the file Aron had thrown them earlier.

An hour later, they finished reviewing it, and one of them asked, "So, Master Sergeant... do you think Pappy will protect us from getting skyscrapers thrown at us?"

The squad bay fell into another long silence. This time, though, it was a cold, menacing silence as everyone glared at the person they were about to beat into respawning for bringing up their most recent humiliating shame.

Chapter 489

The world was still in the recovery phase after the economic and financial crash. Thanks to an immense amount of stimulus and other aid payments on behalf of the government, companies had been hiring people in droves, driving down the global unemployment rate by quite a lot.

However, due to the disparity in education among the population of some former countries-either as a result of devastating wars or just plain bad leadership-some areas were still suffering. The economic growth seemed to have passed them by; after all, if they don't know a program exists to help them, how can they be helped? Thus, they were only surviving on life support thanks to the Coeus Foundation donating funds and building free clinics and schools and such. But recovery in the worst areas would still remain slow until their education levels caught up to the global standard. And that, unfortunately, was a problem that only time could solve.

Among those areas still in the grip of an economic downturn was the former country of North Korea. They had the highest unemployment rate and lowest educational standards as a result of the Kim dynasty purposefully keeping them uneducated and heavily reliant on their leadership. And due to the generational brainwashing that had been implemented throughout their country, Aron had to take some extreme measures to prevent them from following the Kims into the grave, or perhaps worse-acting out and taking up what arms they could still find to fight a war against the world.

Thus, that area had the highest concentration of cubes per capita in the entire world. They were required in order to retrain the former DPRK armed forces. Once those had been settled into their long-term pods, the next group to be treated were the very old, the very young, and the very ill. The empire wasn't just providing healing of the body, but also healing the minds of the people and clearing the fog that the Kim regime had purposefully put them into, clearing their minds and restoring their critical thinking skills while not implanting any further operant conditioning triggers.

Once the first pass had been completed, recovery was deemed to be well on its way and the former soldiers of the DPRK were given a choice: join ARES, retire with a lump sum payment in END to kickstart their new civilian life, or join the imperial police agency. Those former soldiers who had committed crimes, though, were referred to the imperial judiciary for prosecution of their crimes. And with no flimsy statute of limitations law in the imperial legal code, even crimes committed decades before were added to the judges' dockets for trial and sentencing.

Regardless, most of them chose to remain in the military. They felt that their future prospects would be better should they maintain the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed over the course of their entire adult lives. A majority of those who chose not to continue into ARES chose instead to work for the imperial police agency, trading the military uniforms they'd had forced on them for civilian uniforms that they chose. Only a very few chose the lump sum retirement, mostly those who had families to support, and that would support them. The number one reason they cited for leaving the government service was that they felt the danger level in such service had greatly increased with the advent of the "blessed", people who had been granted superpowers by some mysterious particles floating in the air around them.

But even though their insecurity was high and their prospects low, the former North Korean nationals were almost unanimous in their fervent support of the empire. Seeing the downfall of the former rich families that had supported the laughably corrupt Kim regime through the eyes of freshly deprogrammed people had made them thankful to the empire that had lifted them out of their previous poverty, making their region the most loyal of all the regions in the empire as a whole, just after Eden, which had the fortune to be the birthplace of the Terran Empire.

However, even though the former Democratic People's Republic of Korea was fervently loyal to the empire, that didn't mean there were no problems.

A young man of Korean descent was standing in front of one of the temporary physical branches of the Bank of the Universe. The building was one that had been repurposed from the Central Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and had been confiscated as a part of bringing down the pillars of support behind the Kim regime.

He silently walked into the building and took a number from the dispenser, then took a seat and waited for his turn to arrive. After about ten minutes, his number showed on the screen and he headed to the station of an attractive bank teller in her late twenties or early thirties, wearing standard "Office Lady" attire.

"Good afternoon! Welcome to the Pyongyang branch of the Bank of the Universe. How can I help you today, sir?" the lady asked with a smile on her face. The bank paid very well, which had turned her from a "useless money-losing thing" into the breadwinner of her entire family.

"I'd like to make a withdrawal," the young man calmly said.

"How much would you like to withdraw?" asked the young lady.

"All of it."

The bank teller queried the Akashic Record for the man's ID, then brought up his account in her AR glasses to facilitate his withdrawal. He only had 15 END in his account, so she opened the drawer and counted out two bills, then slid them across the counter toward the young man.

"Here's your 15 END, is there anything else I can-AAAAAAAAAAGH!" she screamed, suddenly in excruciating pain as the young man grabbed her wrist in his now-flaming hand.

She continued screaming herself hoarse and struggling to escape the man's grip as smoke rose from her arm together with the sickly-sweet stench of roasting human flesh.

"Bring me the manager!" the man shouted as he held the teller's arm pinned to the top of the bank desk. Then he dragged her kicking and screaming over the top and around to the location of the bank vault.

The bank's security guard had immediately reported the situation, but as it involved the use of a superpower, he'd been told to stand down and continue observing while a specialized unit was dispatched to deal with the problem. The rest of the people in the bank were similarly unable to act, as the man had switched his grip from her arm to her neck, threatening to cook her to death the moment anyone attempted anything heroic.

This bank robbery would go down in the history books as the first incident in which an individual used their superpower for evil, and it had only been a few short hours after awakeners had left the cubes, their awakenings completed.

Chapter 490

Although the Bank of the Universe building had been requisitioned by the empire, they'd done a deep scan to ensure it would be safe for use as a temporary branch of their bank. After the scan discovered no issues, they had decided not to renovate it, as it would be a waste of resources. Some things had been done, however, such as upgrading the security system and installing a monitoring VI to ensure rapid reporting of any issues to the higher-ups for further evaluation and decision making.

*A superpowered individual is currently attempting a bank theft. Situation: rainbow. Casualties: one. Damage: white. Evacuation in progress.*

(Ed note: Rainbow is the key word for situations involving awakeners, since they introduce a level of uncertainty into how dangerous any given situation is. So it could be anything from harmless to catastrophic at any given time.)

The moment the report came in, the imperial agencies sprang into action. Orders were passed to the imperial health agency, the imperial police agency, and ARES.

The response was overwhelming and, some might say, unnecessarily large. Within a minute, two First Response Vessels (FRVs) had arrived, one carrying firefighting equipment that could douse an entire kilometer around them in firefoam to stifle any fires, and the other carrying over four hundred medical pods in its cavernous hold. More FRVs were hovering high above the Bank of the Universe branch in case the situation spread and they required more emergency medevac capacity.

Along with those, the imperial police agency dispatched a full twenty transport shuttles, armored to withstand heavy fire, and filled with squads of SWAT teams and enough riot control officers in full gear to cordon off an eight-block radius around the bank, plus a hostage negotiator and a detachment of LEAs to ensure his safety.

Meanwhile, the ARES base outside Pyongyang had dispatched two hovercopters loaded with a full platoon of ARES troopers. They were hovering just under five kilometers away from the bank and could reach it in a matter of seconds. High above, beyond the Karman line, was an ARES orbital strike cruiser with an entire two battalions of troopers loaded into yeet pods to await emergency deployment.

Three minutes since the start of the robbery.

The superpowered criminal was still holding the bank teller by the neck, supporting her entire body weight and holding her upright, even though she had fallen unconscious due to the pain of her cooked arm. The branch manager was scrambling in the vault, frenziedly sweeping cash from the shelves into large bags the bank generally used to transfer hard currency from place to place, as the young man had demanded.

Currently, the bank manager wasn't worried about the theft in the least. He was worried, however, about the time he was taking. The empire had emphasized during training that, if a robbery were to occur, they were to cooperate with the robber as best they could, as money could be recovered, but lives could not. And if the robber didn't release the teller soon, she would only grow closer and closer to her death.

When he finished filling the bags with money, he zipped them closed and turned to the young man. "This is the most these bags can hold without ripping. Any more than this and you won't be able to carry it. Can you please take these and run? Leave the girl behind, she'll only slow you down, and the longer you're here, the less likely your escape will be. So how about it, eh?"

He was trying to convince the robber to flee, so as not to escalate the situation any further than it already had been. Unfortunately, he had failed to take human nature into account.

"Are you giving me orders, you subhuman filth!?" the young man screamed in a rage at the thought of a piece of garbage without powers thinking he could order him around, or that he was smarter and could think of things that a member of the blessed couldn't.

"No, no, no," the manager assured with a wave of his hands and a shake of his head. "That's not what I'm trying to do at all. All I'm saying is that if you stay any longer, you'll increase your risk of being caught. That's all! I swear I'm just trying to help you!" He was panicking at the thought of potentially having made the situation worse.

"You lowly, unblessed, piece of-"

Just as he was about to start ranting about how great he was and how useless the unblessed were, he was interrupted by a voice coming from hidden speakers all over the bank. "Testing, testing, one, two, three..."

The voice cleared its throat and continued, "Ahem... Kim Ho Song, this is negotiator Park from the Pyongyang imperial police agency. Please pick up any phone with a signal and dial any phone number so we can have a chat."

The security guards in the bank had already finished evacuating everyone present except the teller, manager, and robber. Once the guards themselves had exited the bank, it was completely sealed by the VI security monitor, confining the robber like a turtle in a jar.

Despite not being exactly thrilled about it, the young man realized he had been trapped by the subhuman unblessed scum and took the Zeus One the manager was holding out to him. He dialed the local police number and the call immediately connected. It had been automatically routed to the negotiator in the form of a video call.

"What do you want?" Kim Ho Song sneered as he pulled the phone around in front of the teller. He kept one hand on her neck, holding her up in front of the screen and his hand soon began glowing red. The woman woke up from the new pain, but all she could do was whimper and shudder, her body weakening by the moment and her eyes in the process of fluttering closed, perhaps for a final time.

"Please release her and tell us your demands. With her alive, there's a greater chance your demands will be met. But if she dies, that chance becomes zero, and the empire will come down on you with the weight of billions."

Chapter 491

When the negotiator mentioned that his hostage was almost dead, Kim Ho Song's hands stopped burning. However, the girl already had scorched flesh on her neck and had fainted once again. This time, though, she was actually on the brink of death, her brain having nearly been cooked by the heated blood flowing to it through her carotid arteries. Her situation was critical.

"Listen here, you unblessed peasant filth, I'm superio-" he began, but before he finished his sentence, something passed through the wall, buzzing like a swarm of bees, and hit the left side of his waist. It passed through his entire body, shredding everything around his pelvis and leaving a cavitation wake so severe that even his skin and the organs in his abdomen practically exploded from the overpressure and following vacuum. Then, after it passed through his body, it continued, passing through the other side of the vault and finally digging itself ten meters deep in the ground in the alley to the side of the bank. Only after it came to rest was the report of a gunshot heard and Kim Ho Song's brain received the message from his nervous system.

He screeched in absolute agony as his mind was overwhelmed by the signals from his body. He reflexively released his grip on the poor bank teller as his lungs dropped to the ground following his inhuman screech, cushioning him when he fell atop them. The bank teller crumpled on top of his chest, her head coincidentally having its drop cushioned by the erstwhile superhuman supremacist's chest. She listened to the last beats of his heart-or would have, had she been conscious-and his legs, jostled by her fall, fell to the ground on either side of her.

A single bullet had turned one person into a gruesome pile of flesh and organs, surrounded by a spreading red mist.

Not even three seconds later, a SWAT team breached the vault along with a RES-QR bot, which immediately began tending to the teller and failed bank robber. The teller was carefully lifted onto a gravity stretcher for transport to the empty pod awaiting her aboard the First Response Vehicle, while Kim Ho Song was decapitated and his head unceremoniously stuffed in a nanobag to preserve him for later reconstruction in a medical pod at the penal cube at the North Pole.

The researchers at Lab City had completely outdone themselves with the Mk. XVIII Nanite-Equipped Tactical Stasis device. The NETS was a black bag designed to loosely fit over a human head that, upon activation, would tightly seal itself to the contours of a person's head. They were equipped with a colony of healer nanites that would maintain blood oxygenation and everything else required to keep a brain active and healthy, along with a connection to the simulation to keep the patient from going insane due to the severe trauma their bodies had suffered.

As a backup, and sometimes primary, measure, they had a stasis field generator in them that would keep the interior of the bag in complete stasis for as long as they had batteries to maintain the field. Each specialized battery could last up to an hour, and they could be hot-swapped without losing field effectiveness. NETS were designed for medically evacuating ARES troopers who had been catastrophically injured and would have otherwise been deemed unrecoverable and listed as killed in action, and testing them in the simulation had proven their worth. Even though the soldiers themselves despised being "headbagged", as they called it, they were still thankful that there was gear that would let them live to despise it.

Outside the bank.

Although the police had immediately cordoned off a 200-meter radius around the bank to prevent any harm, people were still tightly crowded around the cordon line and pressed against the windows of buildings with direct views of the bank itself. They had seen the massive police and emergency medical response, so somewhere deep inside, they knew there was danger to be had there, but they still wanted to see it for themselves. Among the looky-loos, most of them had pulled out their phones and were livestream the events, seeking their fifteen minutes of fame.

News channels had picked up the livestream feeds for rebroadcasting as well, pushing the bank robbery even deeper into the public consciousness with testimonials from people who were "on the scene", even though most of them couldn't even see anything from their vantage points. And even if they did have a view of the bank, it was still an exterior view and they had no idea of what was going on inside it.

The only thing they knew was that the police had been broadcasting a repeating message to stay indoors and behind the cordons for their safety, as the criminal they were apprehending was one of the blessed.

The media had learned their lesson after the second purge, for the most part, and were only rebroadcasting the livestreams without any added commentary or speculation, as any bias on their part at all would likely trigger a third purge among the media conglomerates. And they were running out of interns and fresh graduates from media majors in colleges around the world, so a third purge was something they absolutely had to avoid.

With the situation involving a superhuman, it spread even faster, with watchers from every corner of the world tuning in to see how the empire would deal with it.

Shortly after the world caught on to what was going on, they had their answer. A single gunshot boomed out from only god knows where, then the SWAT team barged into the bank alongside a scuttling RES-QR bot. Then there was only silence, followed by the SWAT team escorting a hovering stretcher and a portly man that had been painted red to the FRV outside the bank's front door for emergency treatment and evacuation to the cube on the outskirts of Pyongyang. Accompanying them was one police officer carrying an unidentified head-sized black object.

The police officers got back into their squad cars, the SWAT team got back in its truck, and the traffic officers took down the cordon from around the bank. The bank itself was still sealed with crime scene tape, but the entire crowd of police and emergency services workers simply just packed up and left with far less fanfare than they had arrived with.

Everyone watching was left confused as to exactly what had just happened inside the bank, but the empire remained mum on the subject.

Chapter 492

A few minutes earlier.

*A superpowered individual is currently attempting a bank theft. Situation: rainbow. Casualties: one. Damage: white. Evacuation in progress.*

The pod barracks in the cube outside Pyongyang dimmed and a red light began flashing. Ten extended-stay VR pods hissed open, revealing a squad of ARES troopers. They climbed out of their pods and jogged to the armory, where they drew their kit. They had already been briefed on the mission in the simulation, so they knew what they needed to do.

All that remained was to execute the plan.

The men had relatively few nervous jitters, trading jokes and insults back and forth as they drew their equipment, geared up, and headed toward the roof through the express deployment elevator in the middle of the enormous structure. An unenhanced, normal human would suffer severe injuries due to the G force of the elevator itself, but to the enhanced ARES troopers it felt like little more than taking off in a passenger jet would to that same unenhanced human.

As the elevator went up, they ran their self test programs on all their gear. Everything naturally came back all green, as gear was recycled and reprinted between missions to ensure that no damage due to wear and tear would accumulate, leading to avoidable deaths and injuries among the troops.

Seventeen seconds later, the elevator reached the roof and the troopers ran to the waiting shuttle, which lifted off and came to a stable halt three kilometers above the ground. The gull wing door opened and the trooper carrying a pulse rifle stepped in front of the opening and took a knee. He pulled his left elbow close in against his chest and rested the forestock of his weapon atop his hand, then pulled the buttstock tight against his chest. He gave a command through his HUD and his armor locked in position, ensuring he had a stable shooting platform.

Integrating his HUD with the controls of the shuttle, he fine-tuned its direction, treating it as little more than an extension of his body as it made adjustments too fine for even the enhanced senses of his squadmates to detect. The shuttle's sensors fed an overwhelming amount of data to the trooper, whose onboard AI filtered it and displayed it in his HUD. Combining that data with images from security cameras and weather detection LiDAR from the Panopticon satellite in orbit above him gave him all the information he required.

"One shot..." he whispered as his fingertip quivered against the firing stud of his pulse rifle.

A single Type XVII penetrator round flew down the barrel and out with a great, cracking report. With a muzzle velocity of 6 kilometers per second, it would take roughly four seconds and some change to impact its target, Kim Ho Song, who was currently standing in the vault of a bank, holding a hostage in front of him by her neck.

One second passed.

"Please release her and tell us your demands. With her alive, there's a greater chance your demands will be met. But if she dies, that chance becomes zero, and the empire will come down on you with the weight of billions," the negotiator said.

Two seconds passed.

Kim Ho Song's hand stopped burning his hostage's neck.

Three seconds passed.

The target inhaled, preparing to unleash a vitriolic spew of insults at the hostage negotiator.

Four seconds passed.

"Listen here, you unblessed peasant filth, I'm superio—"

Impact.

"...one kill," the sniper whispered, having just fired the longest sniper shot in history at just under 25 kilometers away from his target. "And may almighty God have mercy upon his poor, benighted soul."

The initial stage of the mission completed, the gull wing door hissed shut and the sniper, now mobile, stood up and returned to his seat to the resounding applause, hoots, and hollering of the rest of his squad.

The shuttle, having been released to normal operations by the sniper, turned and flew to the bank at a relatively "sedate" pace, timed to arrive shortly after the perpetrator's head bag was carried out the front door. It soon arrived and the shuttle door opened again, this time to allow a RES-QR to board with its cargo: one NETS'd head bag. The scene was so chaotic that virtually nobody had noticed a single squad transport land, receive a package, and lift off again.

The transport shuttle reached orbit, oriented itself toward the magnetic North Pole, and rocketed away, nobody the wiser.

...

"The Hole" was the nickname that people in the know had given to Awakener Prisoner Complex #00001. Located nine kilometers beneath the sea floor at the magnetic North Pole, it was powered and kept warm by a vast geothermal generator sunk into the magma of the mantle. It was cylindrical in shape, about five hundred meters wide and three hundred stories tall, that was designed to contain hundreds of thousands of awakened prisoners in relatively minor discomfort.

(Ed note: Picture the prison under Crematoria in the movie "The Chronicles of Riddick", except not quite as run-down. It *is*, after all, something that Aron designed and built. The movie scene is just to give you an idea of the style of the prison, or rather its inspiration.)

It was a prison, after all, not a luxury spa resort.

{ARES transport 148721, you are cleared to land. Proceed to the central docking ring, bay 72. Understood you are transporting a single awakener, designation "Kim Ho Song", present in a NETS head bag.}

"Roger, control," the shuttle pilot replied. "Will proceed to bay 72 to unload our cargo—one RES-QR emergency rescue bot and one headbagged prisoner, designation 'Kim Ho Song'."

The pilot deftly made his way to the docking ring of The Hole, the only part of the enormous structure that was above the sea floor, camouflaged as it was by nanite guardian colonies masquerading as rocks, gravel, and various species of flora and fauna native to the seafloor in the hostile waters of the North Pole.

He navigated into the open bay and patiently waited for the docking bay to be evacuated of seawater before opening the door, allowing the RES-QR to carry his erstwhile "passenger" out of his vehicle and down a drab corridor.

"Better him than us," the pilot murmured, then sealed his shuttle and waited for the docking bay to flood, whereupon he lifted it back to orbit and made the relatively quick flight back to the cube on the outskirts of Pyongyang.

Chapter 493

"Sir! Sir! A moment of your time, please?" a reporter that happened to be lucky—or perhaps unlucky—enough to be at the scene asked the hostage negotiator. He had been in the bank to make a deposit when the robbery took place.

Moments like these would make government officials' careers in the past. They would use them to propel themselves to fame, then use that fame as a springboard to either work their way up into a higher position in the government, or quit their low-paying government jobs and enter the high-paying public sector. And it was all on the backs of the misery of others.

"No comment for now. The investigation is ongoing, and we'll release a statement to the press after our work is completed," the negotiator answered. As the on-site commander had rushed into the bank behind the SWAT team and medical rescue, the negotiator was temporarily in charge. But even though he could have given out some tidbits of information to whet the public appetite, thereby gaining a reputation and fame for an inevitable climb up the pay chain, he loved his current job and had no intention of leaving it. Thus, he was very much a by-the-books kind of operator. Besides, he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the empire was very strict on corruption of any kind, and what they taught in the imperial police academy was essentially the word of god and must be obeyed. So even if he was willing to use those underhanded shortcuts and feed off the misery of victims, he would still refrain from doing so as the consequences would be... severe, to put it mildly.

Soon, the hubbub died down. The police packed up their cordons, the SWAT team left in their vehicle, the FRV was loaded and headed back to the cube, and everything returned to a semblance of normality. That said, it was only a semblance, as people now had proof of what they had only suspected before: super POWERS meant super VILLAINS.

With the bank's surrounding businesses in the chung-guyok district of Pyongyang back in operation, the only thing left was for the forensics team, which had arrived after the police response was over and the scene declared "safe", to do their investigation and recreation. The technology the empire routinely used was already enough to automate that process, but Aron had intelligently decided that duplicate effort was fine for most non-critical tasks. Had he not made that decision, unemployment would have been nearly at 90%, as pretty much every job in the empire could be easily handled by robots with upper-level VIs installed.

Ten minutes after the forensic specialists entered the bank, they finished their deep scan and packed up. Everything else would be handled in the simulation, at least on their end. The only task left to them was to set up two guards outside the bank to wait for the crime scene cleaners to arrive to mop up what Kim Ho Song had inadvertently left behind after being violently and catastrophically introduced to the business end of a bullet.

All told, the bank was able to resume normal operations thirty minutes after the failed robbery attempt began, the only sign it had ever been attacked a slight discoloration on the desktop behind which the original bank teller worked where the wood had warped from the heat of the awakener's fire and the lacquer had needed replacement.

…

The newly appointed head of the imperial police agency, Erik Schneider, had only been in office for two real-world hours before being met with his first problem. He had been celebrating with his family in VR, intending to take the world tour they'd never been able to afford before while he was undergoing his genetic enhancements, but he'd been plucked out of his home there and sent to his office, where he was informed about the ongoing situation and left to deal with it.

Thankfully, he had already read the imperial legal code long before his appointment, so it hadn't taken him very long to familiarize himself with the, thankfully, much thinner procedural manual for his new position. Through it, he had learned that, so long as he didn't fuck up too badly, the emperor wouldn't intervene and he would be left to his own discretion in most cases. And in order to not fuck up, all he had to do was follow the guidelines in his procedural manual.

It only took him about ten minutes to have a good understanding of how the entire attempted robbery had gone down, and what the police response had been. He still had yet to go through his introductory data files, which every agency head had received, but with the evidence and reports presented to him, he didn't need it. The robbery was a slam dunk open-and-shut case through and through. He had the trifecta: means, motive, and opportunity had been identified, leaving nothing to be investigated. And even without that, he still had eyewitnesses, physical evidence, and beyond that, he had the absolute holy grail of any police investigation—a high-res security camera recording of the crime itself being committed!

If he couldn't do his job to perfection with all of that at his fingertips, well, he might as well resign.

"Schedule a press conference," he said to the empty room. As an agency head, he was allocated a specialized AI assistant to act as a secretary and aide in the simulation. That was in addition to his personal AI butler, which had been transferred to his VR pod for the duration of his genetic enhancement and implant procedures. But just because this was his first time working with his official AI didn't mean he wasn't already accustomed to them; he had long been a user of the GAIA OS both on his home computer and his phone, so he knew that they were competent assistants even "straight out of the box" without having learned anything about him, personality-wise.

{Invitations sent, sir. The press conference is scheduled to begin in seventeen minutes public simulation time, at 3PM on the nose. That's five hours from now, so you have time to explain why you were plucked from a family celebration,} the assistant said, reminding Erik of the time dilation difference between the government simulation and the public domain.

"No need. She'll understand—she was a cop's wife, and now she's a high-level government staffer's wife. The only difference between the two is that a government staffer is far less likely to be shot, stabbed, or otherwise injured in the line of duty. Hopefully, anyway," he said with a wry smile. "So right now, I just need to earn our keep."

{Understood, sir. Might I suggest, then, that you begin working your way through the introductory data dump? It's a large file, and you should work through it in sections so you can internalize the information more efficiently.}

"Heard," Erik said, then went over the report of the bank robbery one last time before pulling up his "Introduction to the Empire Handbook", as his associates had named it. It contained all the information he had the security clearance to know at his level, so it was basically the same dump that Jeremy and Youssef, the new Ministers of the Interior and Exterior, had received... but it contained much less information and only that related to his job.

"What should I call you?" he asked his AI aide. "I already call my butler Alfred, so how about... Gordon. I'll call you Gordon."

{Understood, sir. Would you like to update my settings for initial configuration or allow me to adapt independently?} Gordon asked.

"Not right now. Put a pin in it. Run a keyword search for the word 'awakeners' as related to my position as the head of the imperial police agency, including the information from the handbook."

{Yes, sir,} Gordon replied. {Prepare for data download.}

Erik leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He had already undergone a data download before, so he knew what he was in for: a whole lot of unnecessary agony and suffering, but no actual lasting damage. He had been advised to not rely on data downloading, however, and to save it for emergencies and things he needed to know like the backs of his hands as he would still need to recall the information downloaded into his brain to bring it into active memory.

Soon, the download—and the screaming—began.

Chapter 494

Public simulation, press briefing room.

The imperial police agency press conference was scheduled for 3PM, and everyone that'd been invited to attend had arrived five minutes early. Considering they had only been given seventeen minutes of lead time-or eight and a half minutes, real time-it was impressive that not a single person was missing from the list.

Precisely as the clock ticked over to three, Erik materialized behind the podium, attracting the attention of the audience, all of whom were curious as to just who he was.

He didn't waste any time, much to the audience's satisfaction, but immediately began speaking. "Good day, ladies and gentlemen of the press and everyone watching from the comfort of their own homes. My name is Erik Schneider, and about two and a half hours ago, Earth time, I was appointed as the head of the imperial police agency." Though he was speaking in his native German, thanks to the magic of imperial technology and virtual reality, everyone listening heard, and saw, him speaking fluently in their own language.

His self-introduction, along with the brief time he had been in office, caused a commotion in the briefing room. Nobody had been informed of the vacant positions in the government agencies being filled yet, as Aron had wanted to wait until the first round of genetic enhancements and implants had been completed before informing the public.

"Along with myself, various other officials have been appointed to fill every vacancy in the government agencies, from the ministers down. Their identities will be made public once the safety of the individuals in question, and their families, has been assured. That is all I will say about that, and I will not be taking any questions on the matter. It isn't my place to speak about imperial staffing, so let's get to the main subject, shall we?

"After a careful and thorough investigation, we discovered that the perpetrator of the attempted robbery of the Pyongyang branch of the Bank of the Universe via usage of his blessing was Kim Ho Song, age twenty. He is a tertiary branch member descended from the former Kim regime in what was once North Korea. He recently underwent an evolution and gained the superpower of fire control, thanks to his blessing. And as a result of most of his family being arrested for crimes against humanity and various other lesser charges, his financial situation was dire after the asset forfeiture that the charges required.

After going from luxury to poverty, he grew angry, which fostered a sense of discontentment with the empire. But when he received his blessing, that discontent grew greater, eventually turning into a sense of superiority and rage. He felt that, as a member of a superior branch of humanity, he deserved all the luxury he could ever want. Thus, the chain of events culminated in attempted robbery, attempted intentional murder, felony assault with a blessing, and sedition. He was apprehended red-handed in the midst of committing his crimes, so though his guilt is apparent, he will be transferred to Awakened Prisoner Complex One, also known as 'The Hole', to await trial for his crimes.

"According to the imperial legal code, there is only one sentence for crimes committed using superpowers: twenty years of service in an ARES penal battalion, Earth time. No early parole will be granted, though prisoners in penal service to the Terran Empire can redeem themselves through appropriate acts of heroism in service to mankind." Erik stared into the eyes of everyone watching, his gaze solemn and cold.

"Thus is the fate of anyone that thinks they can use their blessings to commit crimes of any nature. Simply by using your blessings to commit crimes, you will be caught, and you will be sentenced to a minimum of twenty years in a penal battalion, sent to the front line of any conflict that arises during that time period. With great power comes great accountability, and you will be held accountable for your actions as a member of homo sapiens beatus. This much, I promise you."

After finishing the presentation of the evidence, Erik cleared his throat and continued, "With that, our investigation is considered complete and has been closed. We've already forwarded it to the imperial judiciary for prosecution. Any and all evidence collected in the course of our investigation has been made available in the Akashic Record for public viewing, should you wish to do so. I'll warn you now-the evidence collected is very graphic, so view it at your own risk. Any questions?"

A sea of hands went up in the briefing room and Erik pointed to one of them. "Yes, you in the blue shirt."

The chosen reporter rose from his seat and asked, "When will the empire reveal the list of the appointees to the public?"

"As I said at the beginning of my prepared remarks, I will not be taking questions on the subject of imperial appointments. The decision lays in the hands of the emperor. Next question... you in the yellow dress."

"What measures have been taken to ensure that supervillains can't escape their prison to inflict further harm on normal civilians?" the second reporter asked.

"Excellent question. Without going into specifics, I can tell you that The Hole has taken appropriate measures to ensure civilian safety. It is in a remote, classified location and out of reach of the majority of people without very specialized transport vessels. Vessels, I might add, that are held securely under imperial control. As far as jailbreaks are concerned, don't worry, this isn't a comic book or movie. Escaping The Hole isn't a simple task and its location alone virtually guarantees that escapes will fail, even if the blessed in the facility use their superpowers to aid in the attempt. Beyond that, there are multiple layers of security both inside and outside The Hole.

"Currently, the empire maintains a monopoly on violence, so anyone that attempts to escape from The Hole will very quickly learn what that means. Next question." He pointed at a man in a dark gray suit with a striped blue and silver tie.

"Will the imperial police agency increase the security level in their jurisdictions to prevent such crimes from happening again?" the man asked.

"Security levels will absolutely be increased. Sadly, we cannot guarantee that we can prevent all crime, but we will ensure an extremely rapid and overwhelming response when crimes are reported. Especially by the blessed..."

Questions continued coming one after the next, until Erik had answered all of them and the questions began repeating themselves with different wording. Once he was sure that all of the relevant questions had been answered, he called an official end to the press conference.

The media interns responsible for monitoring the Akashic Record had long since seen the result of the investigation and the recording of the events during the robbery, as gruesome as it was. The only question that was left unanswered for those who had seen that security camera footage was where the bullet came from. All the video showed was a bullet passing through the walls of the vault and dismembering and disemboweling Kim So Hong before disappearing through the wall on the opposite side. They were also curious about the NETS head bag, but the Akashic Record informed them that any information on that device was classified and not available for their level of security clearance.

Chapter 495

The video of the sniper firing from the door of a hovering shuttle was completely unbelievable to people that found their way to it in the Akashic Record. Not to mention the distance it was fired from, just the fact that it had enough power to penetrate a reinforced bank vault from one side, essentially disintegrate the person it hit, then penetrate a second reinforced vault wall was incredible enough. And that wasn't even mentioning that the sniper had no visual on his target and was firing completely blind!

The people that saw it had chills running down their spines and goosebumps all over their bodies. Especially considering the empire hadn't hidden that capability, which made them wonder just what actually was hidden in the classified files of the Akashic Record.

Thus, they took the footage and posted it online, either in its raw version or with different edits, and through that method, the empire's capabilities finally filtered down to non-citizens. Although the internet was freely available for everyone, citizen and non-citizen alike, people that had refused the offer of imperial citizenship had no access to the Akashic Record.

The discovery of the empire's capabilities, and the havoc that superhumans could wreak, terrified the non-citizens. Realizing the level of danger they were in, as the empire definitely wouldn't expend any effort on their behalf, millions of people rushed to apply for imperial citizenship. But as they had sat on the fence for too long, and even drifted to the wrong side of it, the empire certainly wasn't about to make the process easy on the new applicants, nor would they offer them the same free perks that people who had signed up for citizenship during the grace period received.

Though they were unhappy that they would be charged a premium for housing and the initial visit to the cubes to undergo their genetic corrections, given the choice between safety and financial stability, they still overwhelmingly chose safety. Especially those who had families and loved ones to consider. They simply had to queue up and patiently wait for the imperial immigration agency to approve their requests for citizenship in the Terran Empire.

That said, there were still hundreds of millions of holdouts who believed that even if there really were supervillains once the non-citizen blessed woke up with their superpowers, there would certainly be superheroes as well. Thus, though their convictions had been shaken and they were filled with a not inconsiderable amount of uncertainty and fear, they managed to somewhat conquer their fears and remain firm on their decision not to join the Terran Empire.

The only question remaining on everyone's mind was what was going to happen to Kim Ho Song. While they knew the punishment he would receive, and they were positive that he would be found guilty, given the preponderance of the evidence against him, how exactly was the empire going to put a severed head on trial? No matter how many times they watched the recording of the young man's fate, all they saw was his gruesome death and his head being dragged out in a sack. Was the imperial judiciary really going to try a corpse as a defendant? And not even a complete one, at that!? Even if they were, what kind of due process would a severed head be afforded?

That, if true, would most certainly set one hell of a precedent for future trials in the empire's justice system.

A month later.

"Drag out the spy and make sure to loosen his tongue! Who bribed him, and what did they bribe him with? What does he have to gain by killing the shepherd?" Katarina Markov ordered the men following behind her. They moved forward and started dragging the doctor out of the room they were in.

Panicking, he shouted, "If there was something to gain from keeping him from waking up, why would I be stupid enough to do it when I'm the only possible suspect!?" He was frantically struggling in the grip of the two large bodyguards that accompanied Katarina everywhere she went.

"So why, then, despite most of our resources being invested in the shepherd, is he the only one who hasn't woken up? Everyone else was already awake three weeks ago! Why is Rick the only person who's still in a coma now? Six weeks! It's been six... fucking... WEEKS!" she screamed.

The doctor, knowing that his fate would be dire if he were dragged out of his office, replied, "Although it's rare, there are still people in the empire that haven't woken up yet. And they've got the best resources available to anyone on the entire planet!"

Over the past six weeks, anyone who had annoyed Katarina Markov had been dragged to the target range, where they were tortured to death by awakeners learning to use their new superpowers. The doctor himself had even patched some of them up, and the parade of third degree burns from fire-aspected awakeners and the various injuries caused by projectiles was staggering. There were even a few that were brought to him suffering severe frostbite after being encased in ice that was as hard as steel, or half drowned after having their heads surrounded by a sphere of heavy water. Thus, he could only tell Katarina of the situation in the empire as a last-ditch lifesaving measure.

"You think I didn't know that?" she spat. "I listened to the same reports as you did!"

While the two were arguing back and forth, the only person still in an infirmary bed in the room twitched his right index finger and his eyelashes fluttered despite there being no breeze, both of which went completely unnoticed by the arguing pair.

His heart rate, as displayed on the monitor beside the bed, began rapidly climbing. From a slow and virtually unnoticeable five beats per minute, it soon reached a dangerous level as the man's body was finally beginning to stir.

Moments later, his eyes opened.

Chapter 496

Rick's eyelids fluttered and he groaned, fighting the urge to fall unconscious once more. It felt like they had been attached to twenty-pound weights as they fought against his command to open them, and his entire body ached with a bone-deep fatigue. Although he had been unconscious for the past six weeks, there was no portion of him that could even remotely be considered to have been "resting" during that time.

"Shepherd!" Katarina shouted as she rushed over to his bedside, the doctor and the two men she had ordered to drag him out of the room forgotten.

The doctor in question fell to the floor himself, the men holding him aloft by his arms having dropped him. He rushed to the bed and muscled Katrina out of the way, then injected an ampoule of adrenalin directly into Rick's heart, helping him win the battle against the fatigue accumulated over his past six weeks of unconsciousness. As a side effect, it would also force the blessed into a fight-or-flight mode, thus prompting their blessings to manifest, which had been accidentally discovered when the first person to awaken from their forced evolution had buried an entire basement in gravel as their earth affinity was stimulated by the drug.

They had also learned a harsh lesson on the drawbacks of overdrafting one's abilities that day as well, as the blessed collapsed and turned catatonic due to the agony of forcing himself so far beyond his limit. When they dug the blessed out and saw the results of the catastrophe-three dead and one catatonic- their following experiments became much more cautious and they had finally pinpointed the correct dosage to use to force the blessings to manifest without causing many casualties or injuries.

"Nothing?" Katarina and the doctor looked at each other in confusion as Rick's blessing failed to be activated. Both of them were surprised, as he had obviously undergone an evolution. So why had nothing happened despite using the correct dosage of adrenalin to force the cult leader's blessing to be made manifest?

"Sir... Sir... Sir...!" Katarina shouted at Rick, whose gaze had grown vacant and withdrawn. His body lay still and she was caught between fury and terror. Fury toward the doctor, who must have fucked something up; and terror toward the future, as she still needed Rick to aid her in her pursuit of vengeance.

But there was no response from the newly blessed cult leader; he remained indifferent to every attempt to provoke a response, no matter what they tried.

"His blessing's already been activated. The only thing we can do now is wait for the adrenalin to wear off before we try anything more drastic. If we disturb him now, he might lose control of it and harm us," the doctor said. This time, everyone listened to him and the thugs even left the room, taking seats on the chairs lining the hall of the makeshift basement turned third-world hospital ward.

Rick's eyes had opened and he was vaguely aware of his surroundings, but before his eyes could adjust to the light they hadn't received for the past six weeks, he had been injected with adrenalin and forced into a fight-or-flight response. His heart pounded and his vision shrank to a pinprick of light at the end of a very long tunnel as his higher reasoning capacity was disconnected, leaving his hind brain to make the decision whether to fight or flee. Then, the odd things began.

His vision once again broadened to include his entire field of view, but it didn't stop there. All the colors he could see were tinted with shades of purple, with white objects now appearing in pastel lavender shades and black objects seemingly replaced by identical replicas built entirely from deep violet material.

But compared to the rest of the things happening to him, the color shift quickly became the least of his concerns. As he focused on trying to see reality as, well, it really was, he noticed fine, glimmering white threads attached to him from somewhere off in the distance. As they resolved themselves in his vision, he saw that they were pulsing toward him, bright dots traveling through the threads to his body like drops of water slowly traveling through a clear tube.

'What the fuck is this shit?' he asked himself. He looked down and saw so many threads attached to him, like silk from a spider's spinnerets, that he glowed a brilliant white in his own currently distorted vision. He tried counting them, but the way they were shifting and vibrating made the count completely impossible, so he gave up when he lost count for the fifth time.

Instead of attempting to count them for a sixth time, he focused on the brightest one with the most rapid... flow, for lack of a better term. It pulsed and writhed far more energetically than the rest of the threads attached to him, and as he focused on it, his vision blurred and he fell into a deep purple nothingness. When his surroundings came into focus again, it was as if he had moved to a different position. The cognitive dissonance between what his body was telling him-that he was laying supine in bed-and what he was seeing confused the ever living fuck out of the man.

'What the actual fuck?' he shouted in his mind. While he felt himself laying in bed, though the feeling was rapidly fading as the rest of his mind caught up to his eyes, what he saw was a shriveled, starved version of himself laying in a bed in front of his eyes.

In his field of vision, he saw the blindingly white glow coming from "his" body shifting and writhing before trailing off into the aether around him. All except for one. The brightest of the threads led from the base of his left index finger directly to his new viewpoint, or perhaps through it.

He tried closing his "eyes", and a rich purple darkness closed in around him. Within the tranquil silence, he heard someone say, "Is he really okay? If something happened to him, I'm going to burn the doctor alive. No, that's too good for him... I'll torture him until his mind breaks, then throw him to the perverts and have him fucked to death. How dare he not take care of my savior's health, even with his life on the line?"

Along with the words, he began feeling foreign, intrusive emotions carried along with them. The intrusive thoughts and emotions grew more and more dangerous and complicated, which was an unpleasant sensation to him; after all, he hadn't felt any kind of emotion in quite a long time.

'Calm the fuck down, Rick,' he ordered himself in a hail mary attempt at regaining his emotional even keel, despite knowing there was nothing he could do to control what was happening to him.

However, much to his surprise, silence returned once again. When he opened his "eyes", he saw that the flowing pulses of light were now flowing from his body to... wherever, or whomever, he was in. The feeling was almost orgasmic, with each of the pulses coming in a more concentrated fashion through the single many-times-enlarged thread that connected his physical body to his ethereal self, and his exhaustion seemed to melt away as a result.

But before he could settle in and really properly enjoy himself, he heard a woman's pain-filled scream and felt a splitting headache. He momentarily blacked out, then his vision returned to normal, and from the viewpoint of his own body. The screaming continued and there was the thud of a body falling to the floor, so he turned his head to see if his suspicions were correct.

Chapter 497

Katrina briefly brought Rick up to speed on the Three Percenters, and what had happened to him. He fell into a daze for a while, considering the situation, then clarified, "So I spent six weeks in a coma receiving my blessing. How long did it take everyone that received theirs? And why did mine take so long?" He had just woken up and his brain was still a little fuzzy. To him, the time had passed in an instant and he just remembered a fierce, tearing pain in his head before he collapsed. But even that memory was fading, as all memories of physical pain do, a convenient defense mechanism that humanity had.

"Yes. Although you were among the first to receive your blessing, it took this long for you to wake up due to resources. The empire's blessed started coming to around the second week, while ours mostly started around day twenty. While we have access to the Biogen that the tyrant's company developed before the war, that's likely generations out of date now and the medical pods in the empire surely use more advanced nutrients to go with their more advanced delivery system," she explained.

One of her thugs came into the room carrying a thick stack of folders and stood by the door. Katrina gestured to him and he handed her the folders, which she glanced at and passed on to Rick. "Here's a detailed breakdown of everything we've managed to gather on the blessed, the blessing, and everything else that's happened over the past six weeks you were in a coma."

Rick got into a more comfortable position in the hospital bed and calmly began reading through the files contained in the folders. He was curious about his blessing, sure, but before he tried using them again he first wanted to understand them. The feedback he had suffered from his first attempt had taught him a harsh lesson on the usage of his power, and though the memory of the physical pain had faded, the lesson itself remained. Especially the loss of control; that was something he absolutely could not tolerate.

As he read, his shock grew greater and his eyebrows practically climbed all the way up to his hairline. The sheer amount of information alone was unbelievable and he was having a hard time imagining the lengths to which his people had gone to gather it under the circumstances they'd been in during his absence.

"We gathered all of this over the past six weeks?" he asked, raising his gaze from the documents for the first time since Katrina had handed them to him. "What's our confidence level in this?"

"The information is straight from the empire, and we're pretty sure they know a lot more than is easily available," she swiftly answered.

"Looks like having the entire world under your control really helps in data collection," Rick sneered, feeling a brief twinge of helplessness that he ruthlessly stamped out in his heart before it could manifest on his face. "So how'd you get this? The empire must be going to great lengths to not leak important information like this."

"From the public," she answered.

"The public? Just like that?" He blinked in surprise.

"Yes. This is what all of their blessed are taught the moment they wake up. It was also publicly available in their knowledgebase for anyone to view, an effective measure to prevent accidents. And from there, it was a simple task of just... asking. The Three Percenters aren't just imperialists, after all, so the information spread rapidly from there.

"Besides, the blessed are still just kids. Kids with awe-inspiring superpowers, sure, but kids nevertheless. And when have you ever met a kid that could keep a secret? There's a reason security clearances take age into account as a determining factor in how much information people are allowed to access. So the kids that woke up first scrambled to publicize the information, whether in interviews with reporters, posts on social media, or even just bragging to their non-imperialist 'friends' about the superhero academies the empire is going to build for them."

"Has it been verified?" he asked. Though he had set rules and guidelines to sieve the good information from the bad, he'd been in a coma for six weeks and a lot of things could go wrong in far less time than that.

"We've already cross-referenced it. Hundreds of millions of people received the blessing, and they all have friendships that travel across the wall, so to speak. As it turned out, they were all saying the same things, with the only difference being small changes based on their individual blessings," Katrina replied with confidence and pride on her face. She had gathered more than a thousand people to watch more than a million videos, relentlessly filtering the information in each and discarding anything that differed into separate confidence levels. Once that had been done, she'd gone even further and had her people go out in small groups to gossip and brag with the non-imperialists that'd received blessings, or even those who had friends who received them. As a former member of the FSB herself, the intelligence analysts she had trained were her pride and joy.

They were all she had left, after all.

Rick grunted, then continued reading the files in his hands, making sure everything he read was etched into his mind and unlikely to be forgotten. As he read, he slowly began developing an understanding of the blessings as a whole, including the division of their power, their source, and the mysterious particle in the atmosphere and how it related to the strength of their individual blessings. Something inside him felt... different, though, like he was destined for more, so the information he had on hand was leaving him somewhat unsatisfied.

However, the more he read, the more questions he had.

"Why didn't our people wake up with those so-called 'instincts'?" he asked. "The imperialists all said they 'just knew' how to use their blessings as soon as they woke up, and it only required a brief time for them to put that knowledge into practice... but nothing like that was reported by our blessed, or any of the non-imperialists for that matter..." That specific bit of information had been printed in a different color in the files in his hand. The analysts had erred on the side of caution and considered it unverified and unverifiable, but it was still a point they felt should be included in the record.

"And how'd the empire have so much information ready? No matter how you look at it, they had to have put in a lot of research time to get this much." He gestured at the thick stack of paper in his hand. "Did they know about the particles in the atmosphere before people started evolving?

"And if that's true, does it mean the tyrant already knew about and was prepared for it?"

The more questions arose, the wilder his speculation grew. And the wilder his speculation grew, the uglier his expression became. Because if his theories were true, he was up against a much bigger beast than he had originally thought.

Chapter 498

After finishing the files in his hand, Rick frowned. The information he had at hand didn't quite track with the sensations he was feeling. Ever since he had woken from his coma, he'd had an idea of how to use his blessing, almost like there was someone whispering in the back of his mind. It left him unsettled, and unsure of who to trust in his inner circle.

"Leave me," he calmly said after closing the last folder in the stack.

"Yes, shepherd," Katrina said, then everyone left the room. Katrina had a spring in her step, the thugs didn't have much in their heads at the best of times, and the doctor could only wipe the cold sweat from his brow and practically sprint out of the room.

Once the door closed, Rick leaned back in his chair, getting comfortable, and focused on the little voice in the back of his mind. It led him into a trance and most of the colors in his world faded away, leaving everything in shades of purple again.

Time slowly passed as Rick sought the state he was in when he had first come out of his coma, where he could visualize the threads connecting him to... elsewhere. He had his suspicions about what those threads were, but it would still require him to personally verify them as no one else seemed to be even the slightest bit aware of their existence.

Once he felt the difference in his surroundings, Rick opened his eyes, casting his gaze around his own purple world. He peered into the violet and indigo shadows, reaching out his hand in wonder and attempting to grasp them in his hands, curious as to whether they would feel as soft and luxurious as they looked. Failing to grab them, though, he opened his clenched fists and waved his hands through the pastel lilacs and light lavender, comparing them in his mind to still water. But his hands simply passed through them without raising the expected ripple.

He sighed, then closed his eyes again and decided to seek clarification from the unintelligible voice in the deepest, darkest corner of his mind.

After what seemed an eternity, he was finally able to make out what seemed to be two words.

§Sssssssssseeeeeeekfffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiithhhhhhhhhh,§ the voice seemed to be saying. It had no identifiable characteristics to it, and sounded more like a soft whisper echoing through a very, very long tunnel from an unimaginable distance away from him.

'What do you mean? I don't understand you...' he thought, hoping that the voice would respond.

§Ssssseeeek fffffaaaaaiiiiiiiithhhh,§ it repeated. Then it repeated itself again, and again, and again, each repetition growing louder in Rick's mind until it drowned everything out and, with a thud, he felt himself flying backward!

He looked in front of him and saw his own body slumped in the chair he had been sitting in when he decided to start investigating his powers. Connected to it were thousands of threads, each of them a shade of gray or white, and a few of them darker or brighter. Some were actively pulsing, flashes of light traveling toward him like information passing through a fiberoptic cable. Others were in various shades of gray, with the pulses of light traveling through them at varying speeds and intensities, while even more-the majority of them, actually-were deathly still, almost as though they had withered away with no more light to travel through them.

From this angle, he could tell that they didn't actually connect to every part of him, but rather to specific spots on his body, like clusters, or perhaps nodes. Thousands of threads were connected to his every joint, with even more clustered around his head and heart.

§FFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIITHHHHHHHHHH!§ the voice roared at him, jolting him out of his reverie.

"What do you mean 'faith'!?" he shouted as loud as he could, but as if he were in a dream, his mouth opened and shaped the words... but no sound emerged from his lips.

Then he looked around him, trying to detect the particles the empire claimed were saturating everything in the world, and even space beyond its atmosphere, but didn't see a thing at all. He internally cursed the useless empire and the vicious tyrant that helmed it, then focused on the only thing he had left to investigate: the threads connecting him to... elsewhere.

§Ssssseeek ffffaaaaaiiiiithhh,§ the voice softly repeated one last time before falling silent. Rick almost felt like there was a certain satisfaction in its final utterance and wondered what exactly 'it' was.

His consciousness drifted back into his body after the voice left, as if the mysterious speaker had been the one keeping his incorporeal form separate from his body in the first place. Then, recalling the screaming and the head splitting pain he had felt earlier, he chose to investigate one of the darkest threads connected to him this time. And as he focused on it, an almost vantablack thread connected to a node just below his right collarbone, his vision went dark and he felt a chill pass through him that he could only describe as the chill of the grave.

He opened his eyes again and continued investigating his threads, one by one, until he got tired of the slow and steady approach and decided to go with the one he had first experimented with: the brightest thread with the fastest light pulses. It was connected to the base of his left index finger and he cautiously focused on it, ready to draw back at the first sign of a repeat of what had happened to him earlier.

Opening his eyes, he saw a luxuriously tiled wall with a tall, brushed aluminum fixture attached to it and spraying scalding hot water onto "his" body.

He soon realized where he was and what was going on; his consciousness had descended on his secretary, Katrina's body! He was seeing the world through her eyes, and couldn't help but wonder how far, exactly, he could take the connection they shared. First, he tried controlling her eyelids, blinking them open and closed like a toddler with a flashlight. Then he manipulated her body into moving her head around, looking at the shower products on a shelf built into the wall next to her, and around the rest of her bathroom, separated as she was by a simple glass partition.

Then, he grew daring.

Assuming control of Katrina's right arm, he began softly teasing her bellybutton with it, all the while keeping his "ear" open to her thoughts, which, while still remaining strictly professional, were focused on him and his importance to the cult... and to her eventual revenge.

Her businesslike thoughts interrupted his mischievous derring-do, at least for a minute or two as she continued lathering and rinsing her body before turning around and leaning her head back to let the water run through her short hair. When she reached for her shampoo, Rick intercepted the movement and turned it into a quick fondle of her breasts, simply to see if he could.

Opening himself to the physical sensations of her body was as simple as flipping a switch, to him, and he enjoyed the thrill of sensation traveling from Katrina's nipple to the pleasure center in her brain. Then he withdrew back into her subconscious, once again becoming a silent observer.

Katrina continued her shower unabated, with no sign, either physical or mental, that she was carrying a passenger within her, and obviously no memory of the quick fondling she had just given her own tits.

At that point, Rick began feeling the strain of the connection and rapidly traveled along the thread connecting him to Katrina, returning to his body and opening his own, physical eyes with a chuckle.

Chapter 499

'So she doesn't remember what I made her do at all,' Rick thought as he opened his eyes, returning to his purple world. He had tested many things on Katrina and she seemed to have no recollection of anything she'd done under his control, despite all the things he'd made her do to herself.

The only test that had failed was the one where he attempted to take control of a single body part, but he wasn't sure why. Taking over her entire body had been simple, like putting on new clothes, so why would he be incapable of taking over individual body parts? He wasn't sure, but he felt it was likely because he lacked the fine control necessary to do so. Thus, more training and experimentation was in order.

§Gaaathheeeeeeeerrrrr ffffaaaaaaiiiiiithhhh,§ the voice in the back of his mind chanted, but Rick only had the vaguest idea of how to go about that.

When he'd looked down at his body and noticed that the thread connecting him to Katrina had slightly dimmed, and the pulses of light had decreased in frequency and intensity, he'd thought it odd. But with the voice's subtle guidance, he learned that what connected him to Katrina was "belief", and the pulses of light was "faith".

'How do I gather faith?' he thought as hard as he could.

§Aaaaannnnsssswerrrrrr theeeeeemmmmmm,§ the voice unhelpfully replied, then fell silent.

'Answer what?' Rick screamed in his mind, but garnered no response from the mysterious, echoing voice in his mind.

He looked at the thread connecting him to his secretary again and noticed that it had recovered some of its luster, and the pulses were once again increasing in frequency and intensity. It seemed that whenever he used the faith of his believers, it would soon recover. Thinking about it, Rick found it very similar to the information he had read earlier regarding the absorption and use of the mysterious particles permeating the planet. Perhaps he had been overthinking things when he noted the differences between his experience and the information he'd been given; after all, his secretary had the brightest thread of belief and the most intense pulses of faith in him, so she was unlikely to have fed him misinformation.

He felt the beginnings of a headache forming between his eyes and, with a long, drawn-out exhalation, came back to reality. Color permeated his world again when he opened his physical eyes and massaged his temples with his fingertips.

"I need a new test subject," he muttered under his breath, unwilling to experiment on his most fervent believer and source of faith until he learned more about his blessing.

With his consciousness returned to his physical body, though, he discovered a somewhat odd side effect of his newfound power. He felt out of place in his own body. Looking down, he still expected to see breasts, and he was inundated with foreign emotions and intrusive thoughts for a while. Most of the thoughts aligned with the things Katrina had been thinking in her shower. He also still felt uncomfortably aroused, echoes of the actions he had forced Katrina to perform in the shower playing out across his own skin, with the accompanying difference and, dare he say, increase in sensitivity to them.

Rick fought against the sensations and thoughts, coming back to his normal self after about an hour. In the future, he would most definitely need to take the aftereffects into consideration when physically possessing people through their threads of belief. It also implied a certain cooldown period, during which he would likely be ill advised to "body hop" between his followers. If he couldn't bring himself back to normal between each possession, he instinctively felt that the risk of losing himself in the thoughts and sensations of others would be too high. It was a consequence that a narcissistic control freak like him could simply not tolerate.

Thus, as with everything in his life, he needed to keep a ruthless hold on himself no matter what he was doing. He would treat his power usage like he treated his drug habit and strictly ration himself on both fronts. After all, the highs and consequences of both were quite similar.

After another ten minutes of rest, he began relaxing and preparing to return to the purple world for another test. This time, he chose the darkest thread, which should be enough to support or disprove his earlier thought about belief and faith being what linked him to others. He also wanted to discover if there was a reason for the differences between threads, and if he was correct in assuming that Katrina's belief in him was the strongest and her faith the most fervent.

Another unknown amount of time passed and he finally returned to the purple world, then opened his eyes again and began searching through the thousands of threads attached to him. Quite a few of them were still vantablack, with no light traveling through them at all, and he felt a certain sense of imminent doom when he considered using them to test his new blessing. Thus, he discarded them and continued searching until he found a dim, almost ephemeral gossamer thread, through which light with the intensity of a firefly seemed to casually, and very occasionally, saunter through at a sedate pace in fits and starts.

'That's the perfect one to test with,' he thought and dove into the thread, traveling along it as fast as he could.

But unlike his testing with Katrina earlier, this transfer wasn't immediate, nor was it smooth. On the contrary, he continued hitting pockets of turbulence, causing him to fear for his life. Or worse, having his consciousness trapped outside his body to wander the world as an incorporeal ghost while his physical body was left behind in a vegetative state.

Still, he persisted, holding on and taking mental note of the process. His newest theory was that it had something to do with distance as well; the thread he was currently traveling along just "felt" like the destination was further away than simply down the hall and into another room.

When he finally arrived at the end of the thread, he opened his eyes and looked at a nearby clock. Though he didn't know where he was, exactly, or who he was inhabiting, the clock indicated that ten minutes had passed during his trip down the thread of belief. It seemed that time was somewhat subjective in the purple world, as it had felt like he'd been traveling for hours thanks to all the turbulence. Or perhaps he had crossed time zones, which was a far simpler-and thus likelier-explanation.

After noting the time difference, he looked around and noticed a pair of AR glasses on a table next to "him". He momentarily fell into a quandary before remembering that the body he was in wasn't his, then began listening to the conversation in his surroundings.

Chapter 500

'I hate it! Fuck my life... my dad died to a supervillain for nothing! He wanted to join the empire from the beginning but mom said no. But after he died, she couldn't run to the recordkeepers to apply for citizenship fast enough. Dumb bitch!'

Rick had found himself in the mind of a teenage boy. He listened to the stream of consciousness for a while and learned what the boy and his family had gone through over the past few weeks. Not only had the kid's mother's refusal to join the empire driven a wedge between her and her husband, one that they'd even been contemplating divorce over, but his girlfriend's family had also chosen to join the empire during the first amnesty period. The boy blamed his mother for the resulting breakup as well.

All of his rage had been directed toward his mother, but then one day he'd had a thought. If the empire had the power to enforce the law on rogue supervillains, why did they ignore the havoc that'd been wrought among the people who waived their imperial citizenship? He wasn't old enough to truly understand politics, so he was still mired in the typical teenage thought process of good and evil, black and white. Supervillains were evil, so if the empire was good, they should do something to stop them, citizenship or no citizenship. Thus, the empire itself must be evil as well.

Oftentimes, the simplest thoughts were the most powerful, and that belief that the empire was evil had been enough to generate a thread of belief in Rick, who, though the boy had no idea who he was, had been the only person to ever lead a successful strike against the evil empire and its wicked leader.

Though the thread was tiny, and it didn't generate much faith, the very fact of its existence had given the cult leader access to the boy's thoughts and body.

'Don't worry, boy, you're already doing something for us,' Rick thought, planning to continue watching the teen go about his day. Being a passenger in the boy's mind would allow him to gather firsthand information on the day-to-day functions of the empire, as well as testing a number of his more brutal ideas. After all, the boy wasn't worth much in the first place, so there was no silly moral dilemma for him to pretend to struggle with.

But his ideas of an extended stay in the boy's body were thrown out of the proverbial window when he focused on the thread connecting him and the teen. He saw that the white pulses of light were traveling from his physical body to the boy at a staggering rate. The pulses were thousands of times more frequent and intense than he was receiving from the angry youth. His heart practically fell all the way to his feet when he considered the backlash he would soon suffer, despite the constant "income" from the tens of thousands of others feeding him their belief and faith.

Still, the comparison between the expenditure he was paying out now and the cost of inhabiting Katrina's body taught him a little bit more about how his powers functioned and their limitations. The darker the thread, the more difficult it would be to connect with the person on the other end, and the more infrequent the pulses, the less he gained from them and the more he would spend if he wanted to connect with them.

"Go to the roof," he whispered in the boy's mind, curious as to whether direct orders would work, and if so, how much steeper the cost would be to use those instead of forcefully assuming direct control of a person and shoving their consciousness to the side.

The young man paused for a moment and tilted his head, his mind going blank as he lost his train of thought. At that very moment, if he could see the thread linking him to Rick, he would risk blindness as the intensity and frequency of the light pulses traveling along it made it appear to be a second sun, if said sun had been compressed into a straight line. All he could hear in his mind was a vague voice repeating the words "go to the roof" over and over, getting louder and clearer with each repetition until it was practically shouting in his now throbbing head. Soon, he couldn't take it anymore and robotically marched toward the stairs leading to the roof of the apartment building he lived in with his mother.

Along the way, Rick continually gave orders, forcing him to do different things like stop on the stair landing, stand on one foot, stick out his tongue, poke himself in the eye, and crawl backward up the stairs on all fours. He kept a close eye on the thread of belief to see how it reacted, as well as track the changes in the light pulses headed from him to the teenager, and came to the conclusion that the thread itself would exist as long as the belief it represented existed. In terms of the cost to order the linked person around, the more complex or harmful the action-or the more out of character it was- the more faith Rick would have to expend to force the target to perform it. But as long as he could support the expenditure, the person on the other end of his thread had no choice but to follow the orders being given to them.

After a time, the boy reached the rooftop as ordered. He looked around in confusion, wondering why he had climbed all the way up to the roof of his apartment building when he heard that same sibilant, chanting whisper in his mind.

"Jump off the roof," the whisper repeated.

The boy struggled against the order as hard as he could. He knew that, despite only being a four-story building, if he were to follow the order, he would be severely injured, or even dead.

But alas, after Rick spent a hundred thousand units of faith, if he were to count each individual light that pulsed along the thread as a single unit, the teenager could no longer struggle. In the same robotic fashion as he had climbed the stairs and performed all of the actions Rick had ordered him to during his ascent, he waddled to the ledge, crouched down, and, with all of his might, performed his best standing long jump.