2024-03-02 19:37:13
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Getting a Technology System in Modern Day Neutron Soup, But Not Much
Aron’s eyes flashed gold as he looked at the unconscious cultists in the crater. He noticed a purple worm wriggling its way out of the eye of one of the awakeners and attempting to flee. But since his shield blocked all mana from passing through in both directions, the purple worm could only bang against it like a fly on a windowpane.He stepped off the rim of the crater and slid down the steep side. “Why did everything disintegrate when I absorbed all of the mana?” he asked Nova.{Have you heard of the saying that all matter is mostly emptiness, sir?} she replied.“Refresh my memory.”{Atoms are over 99.9% empty space. If they were blown up to the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be the size of a marble in the center, and the electrons would be microscopic specks of dust orbiting around the outside of the stadium in the parking lot. {So when mana is injected into matter, it fills that empty space up, like turning the entire stadium into a huge swimming pool, or perhaps
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day Contingency Plans
‘I wonder how skilled this guy is with his affinity,’ Aron thought as he broke past Mach eight. He was still tracking the little purple worm as he flew, even though it hadn’t stopped accelerating yet. ‘I can’t afford to be mind controlled. The empire can’t afford it....’Mind control was a truly problematic ability, one that Aron’s currently structured shield rune wouldn’t be able to fully protect him against until he took the time to adjust it and train with the new runic structure. Habit was both good and bad, and in the heat of battle, he really didn’t want to be using new runes that he hadn’t practiced with.The same could be said for the mind control tech that was on him, as there was a slight possibility that it would fail, and no matter how low the possibility is, it is not a good idea.Besides, he didn’t have time to modify it now regardless; the worm he was tracking was still speeding up.Everything would depend on whether or not the mana had taught Aron’s target. He certainl
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day Emergency Measures
Amarillo, Texas.In the Oakdale neighborhood of Amarillo was a shabby, dilapidated one-bedroom house. Its windows were boarded up and the outside was covered in graffiti, and the front lawn had overgrown with weeds until it spilled out over the curb and onto the street. Inside, a young man was sleeping on a pile of old U-Haul moving blankets.He opened his eyes, a purple glint flashing through them, and sat up. He pulled an old flip phone out of his pocket and called the imperial police agency’s non-emergency number, then reported that a homeless person was squatting in the house he was in, then sat back to wait for the police to arrive.A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. The young man opened the door and, as he had expected, two men in neat imperial police uniforms were standing on the porch.The taller of the two officers gave a friendly smile and said, “Hello, sir. I’m Officer St. Pierre, and this is my partner, Officer Mendoza. We received a report that someone he
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day Downfall (part 1)
“Nova,” Aron called out.{Yes, sir?}“Can you reprogram the surveillance nanites to search for any explosive devices and disarm them?” he asked.{Yes. They’ve already spread through the entire city, so detection will be easy. But they’ll have to gather to disarm, won’t that mean we don’t have real-time eyes on all of the targets?} Nova said.“It depends on how many there are. If there’s just a few of them, we can call the bomb squad for disposal. If there are a lot, we’ll have to use the nanites.”{Understood, sir. I’ve reprogrammed them to search for explosive devices, the new scan will take a little over four minutes.}Aron nodded and turned over on his back, gazing up at the sky above him. It was daytime, so he couldn’t see the stars, but Nova helpfully overlaid them on his vision, knowing his habits as she did.The next few minutes passed in silence, then Nova said, {The scan is complete. The nanites found four explosives—one on the I-40/I-27 interchange, one at the airport, one a
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day Downfall (part 2)
“What’s the problem, Nova?” Aron asked.{Our Henry’s Eye sensors detected a very large surge of mana headed west from your location. It stopped in a local store a few miles away,} she replied.“Possibility of a false positive?”{Low, sir.}“I’ll check it out,” Aron said, then rose into the air and rocketed away in the direction of the mana surge.......Outskirts of Amarillo, Texas.Greg Bauer hummed as he paced up and down the aisles in the Tractor Supply Co. in Amarillo. He was a farmer, but today, he was buying things that no farmer needed. Or rather, things that no farmer needed in the amount he was buying them in.Every now and then as he came across something, his eyes would flash purple and, without thinking, he would dump it in his cart. He had already filled three carts and parked them at the front of the store for later checkout. It was to the point now that the employees had started giving him weird looks when they passed him while doing their routine tasks.Suddenly, he gr
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Program
Katrina Markov was sitting at a desk in a small, windowless room that had been used as a janitor’s closet before. To her left was a door and on the wall in front of her was a cork board filled with pictures, sticky notes, and small pieces of crumpled paper, napkins, and discarded cups. All of the items pinned to the board were connected by red strings; it looked like a conspiracy theorist’s dream.She’d had a bad feeling all day and needed to calm down. Looking at her “evidence board” was the way she took her mind off of problems and bad feelings, so she’d been in the room ever since Rick had retreated to his office with strict orders to leave him undisturbed.‘Who... who did it?’ she thought. She’d been investigating the murderer of her husband and child for four years, and had uncovered what she believed to be the tip of a conspiracy iceberg. Whether or not it actually was a conspiracy was debatable, to say the least, but at least she believed it to be one. What still eluded her, h
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day Aftermath and Investigation
Aron turned and looked around the parking lot. He had thought they were alone, but now he realized that, other than him and the pile of dust that used to be a cult leader, there were others who had witnessed the events.A short distance away, people who had been loading supplies in their cars and trucks were pointing at him. Thankfully, things had happened so fast that none of them had had time to pull out their phones and start recording before everything was over. And people further away had been too absorbed in their own errands to pay attention to a distant argument.Only a very small portion of the population was awakened and could actually see anything happening. To everyone else, it just sounded like a normal argument, if they could even hear it at all. And not everyone—especially not the kind of people (read: farmers) that shop at Tractor Supply Co.—were constantly recording everything in hopes of catching a major event that would give them a boost in visibility on the interne
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day A Basket of Panic
As could easily be expected, people panicked and immediately started coming up with “explanations” of just what the hell was happening.Crazy theories were thrown out like they were free, and people were blaming it on the aftereffects of using medical pods, a targeted mass assassination by the empire—which was an especially popular theory, as most of the deaths occurred among non-imperial citizens—a blessing gone rogue, and the side effects of the increase in “strange particle” density causing people to fail to adapt to it. Those were just the most popular among the many, many theories being spread by panicking people or those abusing it to gain fame.@Blackdawn: [The empire is finally moving on us! Beware of those with overly solicitous behavior, because they all have ulterior motives! #masskilling #thesnap #thevanishing]@Tervantas: [I don’t think it’s the empire doing this @Blackdawn. It’s more likely to be some blessed losing control over their superpower, or maybe just failure to
Latest Chapter
Decisions
After gathering every last body from the wreckage and laying them in the hangar, Dreznor finally broke the silence.“Do you have any way we can cover them for burial?”{I can print them for you if you want,} Little Protagonist replied gently.“Please do so,” he said, his voice subdued as he turned back to kneel before the body of his son, small, still, and cold, with a gaping hole in his chest where the energy round had ended his young life. Dreznor lowered his head and placed a cloth over his son's face with shaking hands.“Rest in peace. I’ll join you after I’m done with all of them,” he whispered.He moved to his wife next, then to his mother, repeating the same words, the same gesture, each time slower than the last. Each time it felt harder to let go.Half an hour later, the 3D printer beeped softly, indicating that the burial cloths were ready. One by one, he wrapped the bodies in the printed covers, each fold done with reverence and care. The process was slow, painful, six hour
Watering the Seed
“I understand your reluctance, but my proposal doesn’t violate the restrictions placed on you,” Minister Youssef replied calmly, the confidence in his tone making it clear they had already considered such limitations. “Our side won’t receive any wormhole technology, we’ll simply provide mana stones for their operation. Your side would handle all technical aspects. We’d share the profits as business partners.”He leaned slightly forward. “Think of it as us being shareholders. You manage the operations; we invest and receive dividends. That way, we maintain full compliance, we never come into direct contact with the technology.”“If that’s the case,” the representative said after a pause, “and the wormhole use is restricted within our own territories, then yes, it might be possible. But I’ll still need to report this back home before anything can move forward.”His tone remained neutral, but the subtle shift in his expression was enough; he was already hopeful and leaning toward agreeme
Lacing it With Temptations
The fleets of the Astral Conclave civilizations, carrying the exchanged mana stones, departed a day after the trade was completed. This time, the process was far smoother than before, as the exchange had taken place inside the Trade Hub itself. Their representatives, along with their close entourages, remained behind, unsure when their negotiations with the Empire would conclude, but aware that the importance of the talks warranted their continued presence.While discussions around the VR network had stalled, pending approval from their respective governments. During this period, the empire requested individual meetings with each representative to discuss separate matters.Now that VR access was granted, those who accepted the invitation found themselves summoned to private virtual meeting rooms, far from the watchful eyes of other representatives. This allowed each nation to negotiate without the risk of backlash from the top ten civilizations, who might otherwise view one-on-one mee
Our Conditions
“Should we accept your requests, what are the conditions?” the Elara representative asked, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the room. The air was thick with contemplation as each delegate weighed the enormous implications of the offer before them.They all knew this wasn’t the meeting where a decision would be made. The stakes were far too high. Instead, they were here to gather the full list of demands, terms, and potential benefits, enough to return to their respective governments and present a comprehensive proposal for final judgment.Masimbi gave a slight nod, then replied steadily, “There are only a few conditions, but each exists for good reason. They’re not just to protect our interests, but to ensure that the system cannot be corrupted or weaponized to the detriment of the entire network.”He raised one finger.“First, we require that the VR network be protected from hostile interference. This protection must be formally enshrined within Conclave law. Any indi
Resumption
The meeting that had initially been postponed for just one day ended up being delayed by an additional four days at the request of the representatives. They needed more time to inform their governments, allow them to fully digest the implications of the technology, and formulate a new approach before presenting their decisions.Though five days might have seemed excessive at first, the time passed in what felt like the blink of an eye. When they reconvened in the same meeting room, the atmosphere had shifted. Gone were the strategies and agendas of the original meeting, replaced now by entirely new plans shaped by the earth-shattering potential of what they had witnessed."Our government is inquiring about the possibility of purchasing the technology," Carvath said as soon as the floor was opened. "They’re ready to hear your terms in exchange for it."Over the course of nearly five days of rigorous analysis, the top fifteen civilizations formed a covert pact to collaborate in investig
Nyx's First Action
“Looks like this is what he was talking about,” the Trinarian prince murmured as he removed the VR device from his head. The thin, metallic trusses, designed to automatically and comfortably adjust to any head size or shape, felt strangely underwhelming in his hands, considering the sheer magnitude of what they were capable of.He stared at it, already dreading the thought of going back to a life without this technology. Now that he knew it existed, how could he? More importantly, he knew the government would feel the same once they learned the full extent of its capabilities.“Any updates on our request for a meeting with the emperor, or are they still delaying?” the prince asked, not bothering to look up.“We haven’t checked yet, sir,” his assistant replied. “We were awaiting your directive. With this new information, you may want to reconsider your approach, perhaps adjust what we’re willing to offer after consulting with the king and hearing his input.”The prince smirked slightly
I Need a Moment of Peace
One Hour Later“Then we will take an hour-long break for him to update you on his findings,” Masimbi announced, pausing the meeting just as Cravath logged out. Without hesitation, he and the other human representatives stood up and left the room, granting the others privacy to discuss without fear of prying eyes.The moment the doors closed behind them, Cravath wasted no time.Without a word, he pulled every representative into his mental network, no warning, no request for permission.Yet, not a single one resisted.They all understood the urgency. Whatever he had discovered was significant enough that he deemed it necessary to share immediately and without interference.Curiosity and unease filled the air as they waited for his findings.………….“The two hours I spent there told me everything I needed to know about it. And if anything, they’re underrepresenting what this technology can do,” Cravath said the moment everyone took a seat at the rudimentary round table he had constructed.
The Zelvora Scapegoat
“Would you like to test it?” Masimbia asked, his tone calm and measured. There was no point in further explanations, he knew their minds were already racing with doubt. Instead of arguing over the validity of the technology, he would let the results speak for themselves.Silence.None of them answered immediately. Their hesitation was obvious, their expressions guarded. Trust between them and the Empire was at its lowest, this was nothing more than a transactional relationship, devoid of any real goodwill.And with what they knew of the Zelvora’s capabilities, both in offense and defense, some from firsthand experience, how could they be sure this wasn’t a trap?What if, the moment they put on the devices, the Empire activated them?Trapping them in an illusion. Brainwashing them. Shattering their minds. Or, worst of all, extracting their memories, laying bare their governments’ secrets, their personal vulnerabilities, handing the Empire an undeniable edge.The risk was too great.
Dreznor II
For hours, Dreznor spoke, recounting every memory that surfaced. His voice wavered at times, thick with emotion, but he pressed on. He told Little Protagonist about his past, the life he once had, and the chains that had bound him ever since he was fifteen.His civilization had lost a brutal war against a neighboring power, and the terms of surrender had been merciless. Anyone who had played a role in the war—whether as a soldier, a medic, a logistics officer, or even a mere clerk in the government—was stripped of their freedom. Families of these individuals were not spared either. Some were forced into indentured servitude, while others, like Dreznor and his mother, were outright sold as slaves. His father, being a valiant General who had fought to the very end and perished on the battlefield, sealed their fate. Yet fortune intervened, as Dreznor and his mother found themselves purchased together by a single owner.For thirty years, Dreznor had known nothing but servitude. He had gro
