The moment the system's assimilation was completed, the pod rang with a musical buzzing noise. The rhythm of Aron's heartbeat was disrupted, but immediately mended by the runes, resulting in it beating with more vigor than before. Then, the billions of runes that had been active through the process dimmed and reduced the rate at which they had been absorbing mana, prompting Nova to reduce the amount of mana that was being fed into the pod.With the continual dimming of the runes and the reduction in mana intake, it soon stabilized, and the frantic absorption of mana was over.That told Nova that whatever the system had been doing was over and she released the excess computing power to continue whatever it had been tasked with before, resuming the two universal simulation instances that she'd suspended and the rest of the tasks that were still ongoing.That didn't mean that her abrupt termination of all of the tasks hadn't been resumed without any problems, as Aron had lost more than s
It took Nova slightly longer to log Aron in, since she needed to upgrade the sequence to fit his newly restructured brain before she could log him in."Arghhhh...." Aron woke up feeling as if he had slept for more than a year. His body felt very heavy as he placed his hand on his forehead and sat up.Nova had refrained from making him feel refreshed, since she didn't have the complete upgraded brain data and doing something without it would be like firing an arrow as a blind person—even if the blind person hit the target, there was no guarantee they would do so on the first shot. Thus, the moment Aron fully opened his eyes and put his hands on his head, Nova wasted no time and attempted to access his brain data.The moment she received access, she analyzed the new data, and after a few seconds, she had completely finished the check and wasted no time in making him feel refreshed. That resulted in him feeling better, but the moment he did, it was like a dam
A week later.A week had passed since the negotiations began, and today marked their end. To announce the successful conclusion, as well as what conditions had been agreed to after the surrender, a press conference was being held at the Esparian presidential palace. Due to the end of the war, the reporters that'd left had all returned, and there were a few hundred of them present. Thus, the press conference had to be held on the lawn, instead of the conference room."Today marks the end of the negotiations between Eden and Esparia, as well as the war caused by the Esparians that had been corrupted by money and the pursuit of benefits." Alexander began his speech with the confidence of a person who was sure nothing was going to happen to him no matter what he said. But despite that, he still didn't put the blame on the citizens of the country. Instead, he only blamed the politicians who were behind the decision."A few minutes ago, we signed Emanuel's Surrender A
"Isn't execution barbaric?" asked a CNN reporter, trying to highlight the moral aspect of it while showing how uncivilized a country that came with that condition was.Alexander wasted no time with his answer. "For a country that etched into its constitution the equality of every person, doesn't that also mean that a life is equal to a life? So what should the punishment of a person responsible for the death of more than five thousand people when it wasn't warranted or justified be?" he asked, instead of giving an answer."It's inherently immoral and reduces society to the level of the criminal," the reporter replied, still believing that she was right and had the moral high ground.Alexander just smiled and said, "That might be true for you, or even your country, but our constitution explicitly states that the equality of man means that a life is equal to a life. If you take one without justification, the country has the responsibility to take yours in exchange." Throughout his answe
Aubrey Morgan, his son, and his assistant were in a secure room. "Ares, who are they? Find out everything about them, especially who their owner is," Aubrey said in the room, without even looking at the others.The assistant immediately nodded and headed out the door to relay the order."They seem to be the most likely beneficiaries of this conflict, and are either the ones behind our defeat, or at least connected to them. We'd never heard of them before they became Eden's contractors. At first, that didn't seem important to anyone and we all thought it was just a cost cutting measure, but now they're going to take over Esparia, too. That means they'll be the military overlord every PMC dreams of becoming and can be considered a legitimate military force, with military-grade weapons. They may even be the ones producing them," George said, slightly jealous that, despite their power, they couldn't legitimately have such a massive force under them. Instead, they were forced to break thei
The intelligence department immediately got to work. They soon came up with a plan to return Vladimir to his country with a story that would make his disappearance understandable, while still allowing him to return to his position without any suspicion.As for Aron, he had already logged out and went to meet his family and friends. After all, he had spent more than 210 days in that hellish training compound without any access to the outside world.After spending a week with his family and friends, he finally returned to work and had his first meeting with his CEOs and friends, Felix and Sarah, who seemed to have an idea of what the meeting might be about."Long time no see," Aron joked, as they had met last week during his pseudovacation, though he had spent most of it being grilled about his absence by his family. "How've you been?""I've been good. We didn't have much work to do, thanks to you," Felix answered."It seems like you already have an idea of what the meeting's about, so
The following weeks went as planned; Aron didn't get hit with any unexpected stumbling blocks.The soldiers that had been captured as prisoners of war during the Eden-Esparia war, as well as the first skirmish, were the first to be sent to Avalon Island to start their training. The ARES members stationed in Esparia were documenting the now out-of-work soldiers that wished to continue serving as part of the new Esparian military force.Although many people liked the idea that their country was going to be protected by the powerful army that had overwhelmingly defeated them, there were still some that hated everything it brought with it. They thought Esparia shouldn't even have surrendered without putting up a desperate struggle in the first place, and having their 'enemies' train their new soldiers was... unpalatable, to say the least. It wasn't really surprising that many of the people in that group were among those who'd voted against surrendering and had chosen to continue the war,
With the announcement of the parade, the military movements in the country increased even further as groups of soldiers began arriving in the city to start preparing the location the parade would be held, while others were being sent to Avalon Island.What was weird was that none of them were practicing marching drills at all, making people wonder if it was being done in secret or if the soldiers were just going to be walking out of sync with each other. Maybe it was a result of the government rushing the parade, wanting it to happen while people were still relishing in their victory. That would naturally result in some neglect, but many had come to expect huge things from their government—especially when it came to the military—after the two consecutive victories they had pulled out of the jaws of anticipated defeat.That assumption was amplified even further when an article talking about what kinds of weapons might show up during the parade. One of them was a very modern-looking, in