Agent047
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🕑 Added 2025-05-02 14:59:56 +0000 UTCNova, who had been silently observing Aron as he went through documents related to the empire for approval, couldn’t help but notice the persistent smile on his face. It had been there for quite some time and showed no signs of fading.
“What is it?” Aron asked when he looked up and saw her standing there, just staring at him.
{I was trying to deduce what made you smile,} she responded, her gaze unbroken, clearly indicating that another instance of her was continuing the deduction in parallel.
“So, did you find it?” he asked as he signed the final document, finishing his empire-related workload for the day.
{I’m down to the final few possibilities, but I’m leaning toward either the joint project with the Conclave going well or a developmental update from one of our little protagonists, Dreznor, specifically,} Nova replied, her tone confident as she added, {So, which one is it?}
“You’re half right about the joint project,” Aron said, sliding the final folder aside. “But the reason isn’t that it’s going well, it’s the byproducts of it going well.”
{Ah, system points,} Nova said immediately, connecting the dots.
In order to farm the maximum amount of SP, the Empire had gone to great lengths, even accepting some financial and material losses, losses that the massive gains in SP could easily offset. The wormholes, for instance, didn’t actually require stabilizers, but the Empire added them anyway under the pretext of acting as a final line of protection and mana feeders. In truth, it was a method to farm more SP, since every individual who used a wormhole for the first time granted SP. The amount decreased with each subsequent use, eventually becoming negligible.
The same logic applied to providing VR devices for free. While the stated reason was to accelerate public adoption of the VR system, a reason that was technically true, the primary motivation was to front-load SP gains. The SP he earned from having created the full product was significantly higher than if he had only contributed parts. After this initial batch, the Empire would only supply the core components of the technology, while the Conclave civilizations would manufacture the rest, a compromise intended to avoid appearing overly greedy.
Thanks to all these efforts, he now had an unfathomable number of SP, an amount that dwarfed the total he had ever accumulated throughout the entire existence of the system.
{Are you planning to spend it now, or will you wait until more people join before you start using them?} Nova asked.
“For now, I don’t plan on using it to buy new technologies. I want to wait and analyze the information we’re collecting from the Conclave, through the VR and the wormholes, before deciding what to purchase to best benefit us,” he replied. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t be spending anything. I plan to purchase the perfect version of every technology we already own, to eliminate any lingering weaknesses.”
With that, he opened the system interface, the smile on his face widening as he saw the ever-increasing SP total displayed at the bottom, ticking upward in real-time.
After granting Nova permission to access his live brain data and view the system interface, he immediately launched into an upgrading spree. One by one, he brought all existing technologies up to the perfect version of Tier 1, spending nearly 5 trillion SP in the process.
However, instead of immediately beginning assimilation, he chose to delay it. Something on his schedule was coming up that he didn’t want to miss watching live, as assimilating all that knowledge would take at least a week.
“What time is Dreznor planning to launch the attack?” Aron asked once he was done with the purchases.
{In three hours. He plans to first attempt a takeover without the use of force. A peaceful transition would allow him more time to consolidate his military strength before any serious retaliation is mobilized against him. If he’s forced to act violently, that consolidation window will be drastically reduced,} Nova explained, presenting the details from the report sent by the little protagonist.
As Aron reviewed the plan, Nova asked, {But aren’t you going to have a conversation with him?}
“Not now. There's neither a need nor a benefit to it,” Aron replied without lifting his eyes from the document in his hand, clearly having thought it through already. “I’ll only speak to him once he’s strong enough to disrupt Conclave operations, either when he’s close to achieving his dream or right after he's fulfilled it. That’s when our agreement will need to come to an end, with both sides having gained what they needed.”
Three hours later.
A new, larger ship carrying Dreznor descended upon his newly claimed homeworld. Unlike before, he bypassed the usual arrival queue and flew directly to the exclusive landing pad reserved for the planet’s leader and their family. This access had been pre-authorized, officially justified by the delivery of a second batch of mana canisters.
There was no ceremonial reception. As soon as the ship landed and underwent a standard weapons inspection, a shuttle whisked Dreznor away to the leader’s residence.
Upon entering the leader’s office, Dreznor bowed deeply. “I greet His Excellency.”
“Welcome,” the leader said, eyes still fixed on the paperwork in front of him. “I’m glad the second batch of deliveries came sooner than expected. But… was there really any need for us to meet in person?”
His tone carried irritation, clearly displeased that Dreznor had requested a meeting when their arrangement only involved the mana exchange and certain privileges, like Dreznor’s luxurious lifestyle. A direct meeting hadn't been part of the deal.
“This is an important matter,” Dreznor said, still slightly bowing. “I wanted to offer you a choice, so we don’t have to take a roundabout path.”
“Let’s hear it,” the leader replied, reclining casually in his chair. “I’ll decide if it’s worth my time, or if you’ll be punished for wasting it.”
Only then did Dreznor raise his head and straighten his posture. He spoke clearly and without hesitation:
“I wanted to give you the opportunity to surrender… before I’m forced to use violence.”
Comments
Sol_Invictus(Hail the Terran Empire)
We'll find out as soon as the wormhole ships reach other systems. There were also two with nuclear winter.
Katherine
Hopefully that T1 purchase includes terraforming. :D
Sol_Invictus(Hail the Terran Empire)
TYFTC!! More more!! So coool
