Agent047

862 -Mental Evaluation IV (Is He Just Making Things Out?)

For a full minute, Researcher Zhao simply stood there, staring at the small brain in front of him, his mind racing to process the implications.

Then, snapping back to reality, he issued his next command.

“Continue supplying mana. And can we create a containment box filled with liquid mana for storage?” he instructed the fleet AI monitoring the situation.

The moment he saw the brain-like structure, he knew he had to treat it as an actual brain. If it had mimicked his own,...

861 - Mental Evaluation III (Unexpected Results)

Aron took a deep breath, momentarily pausing to process what he had just read. The revelation that mere physical contact had led to the discovery of an entirely unknown form of intelligent life was nothing short of astonishing.

Rather than rushing ahead, he allowed himself a moment to think. What kind of lifeform could remain undetected until direct contact was made? Based on what he knew, the most plausible explanation was a lifeform without a conventional physical body, one that could...

860 - Mental Evaluation II (Discovery)

Mobile Lab – That Day

Zhao Ming froze mid-step as he heard shouting behind him. From the direction of the sound, it was clear the commotion wasn’t directed at him. His curiosity piqued, he quickly slipped his headgear back on—he had taken it off just moments ago—before making his way toward the experiment box, where the mysterious material was being studied.

“What’s going on?” he asked in a low voice as he approached. There was no need to raise his volume; the intern...

859 - Mental Evaluation

“What is your name and rank?”

Inside a sparse room containing only a table and two chairs, a man in a suit posed the question to the individual seated across from him.

“I am Specialist First Class Amir Riza,” Amir responded, clad in his TSF exploration uniform, its insignia and decorations reflecting his rank, despite the fact that this interaction was taking place within a virtual reality.

“How are you feeling?”

“Excited to finally be back home, grateful...

858 - TSF TRAPPIST-1

Mars, CENTCOM – System and Monitoring Control Center

If there was a place that could be called the eyes and ears of the empire, it was here. Every sensor, every probe, and every surveillance array deployed across imperial space fed its data into this room, constructing a live picture of the empire’s territories—a real-time pulse of its vast dominion.

A tall, rugged-looking man strode into the room, clad in a full ARES dress uniform. His secretary followed closely, carrying a...

857 - CONNECT Board Meeting III

{Robert Watson of Icarus Airlines, please proceed,}

Their industry closely mirrored Hermes, with the key difference being that they transported people instead of cargo. However, their expansion potential was more limited—no matter how many ships or planes they added to their fleet, the number of travelers remained relatively consistent each year. Unlike Hermes, they also faced competition, as any company with ships meeting safety standards and proper permits could enter the passenger ...

856 - CONNECT Board Meeting II

Sarah began her report by presenting the financial performance of GAIA Technologies over the last fiscal year. As expected, revenues continued to grow, though at a slower pace compared to the early years following the empire's formation. The initial surge in demand had been followed by a second resurgence when the Proximians were integrated into the empire, but even that had now reached a saturation point.

This was an anticipated trend—GAIA Technologies' products were so widely adopte...

855 - CONNECT Board meeting

[A/N:  I encountered some immigration issues, which made it difficult to write during that period. My apologies for the delay.]

A few days later…

The board meeting of Connect Enterprise, the parent company overseeing eight powerful subsidiaries, was about to commence. The subsidiaries presidents of —GAIA Technologies, Inc.; Helios Energy & Utility, Inc.; Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing, Inc.; Hermes, Inc.; Plutus Ventures, Inc.; Icarus Airlines, Inc.; Asclepiu...

854 - Gathering of Friends

“It’s been a while since we had a real outing instead of a virtual one,” Felix remarked, taking a sip from a plain, unbranded can that looked like it had just come off the assembly line.

“If not for the countermeasures put in place, you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference,” Sarah replied, mirroring his actions as she drank from an identical can. She glanced toward Aron, who was seated with them, his eyes fixed on the ceiling of the small open-roofed resting hut, los...

853 - Trade Hub

Near Pluto’s orbit, a massive space station was in the final stages of construction. Only the finishing touches and full-scale testing remained before it could officially open for use and visitation by imperial citizens.

Spanning nearly a thousand kilometers in diameter—about a third of the Moon’s size—the station looked nothing like a natural satellite. Its sleek, glossy exterior was adorned with enormous glass panels, each manufactured in space. These panels stretched for kilo...

852 - STARGATE Dressing Rehearsal

Aron sat before a stack of papers containing the final experiment data. Though he was in the universal simulation, he liked to switch up how he processed information, avoiding fatigue from relying on a single medium—especially since he spent what amounted to centuries conducting experiments in accelerated simulation time.

{From the tests, it works as expected,} Nova, his ever-present assistant, stated once she was sure he had finished reviewing the data.

"I know, but let’s do ...

851 - Discussion and Finalizations

It took Nyx several hours to sift through the vast amount of data collected before she was ready to deliver her findings.

“Using the asteroid field as a natural cosmic phenomenon to mask the wormhole’s opening worked in our favor. As far as we can tell, no one in the vicinity detected it,} Nyx stated as she began her report.

A scientist in the room frowned. "There were people where we opened the wormhole? What are the odds of that?"

Nyx responded immediately.

“Wh...

850 - Tempting Fate

Crack!

Had there been air to carry the sound, that would have been the noise echoing through space. Instead, there was only silence as the fabric of space fractured—a jagged crack forming for the briefest of moments.

A small, round object emerged, slipping through the gap before it sealed itself shut, leaving no trace of its existence. The only evidence that anything had occurred was the lone sphere, now drifting amid the vastness of space.

Roughly the size of a football, ...

849 - The Test II

Yaloria’s gaze shifted to the battery status display. Despite the intensity of the fight so far, only about one percent of the mana battery’s energy had been expended—and even that was already nearly replenished.

It was a stark contrast to the mechas she once piloted.

The Yrall Coalition mechas were directly powered by their reactors, like plugging a device straight into a wall socket—efficient until something went wrong. If the reactor failed or was damaged, the mecha wou...

848 - The Test I

A few minutes before the fight began, an alarm blared across the testing grounds, and all personnel in the vicinity received an immediate evacuation order. Given the low number of individuals present, the process was completed in under a minute.

Once the area was cleared, a massive shield dome began forming, expanding to cover a thirty-kilometer diameter and reaching a height of five kilometers. This barrier ensured that nothing occurring inside would escape—critical for a semi-live f...

847 - Yaloria

BAM!! A heavy thud echoed as a box was set down, the sound hinting at its weight.

“We have tractor-beam technology at our disposal, so why are we hauling these things by hand? Isn’t this a waste of both resources and our valuable time?” Charlie, a soldier in an Imperial army uniform, grumbled as he straightened his back and headed toward the remaining boxes they needed to move.

Despite his complaints, there was no hesitation in his movements, creating a stark contrast betwee...

846 - Monthly Report

John lifted his head from the piles of documents in front of him, his expression calm but carrying the weight of responsibility.

"How is the progress of our preparations?"

At this moment, few individuals in the empire were busier than him. As the overseer of the entire imperial military, he was tasked with preparing for the massive military restructuring, ensuring every division was ready for the upcoming changes. His monthly progress reports to the emperor demanded at least an in...

845 - A Journey Into the Unknown

While the emperor remained engrossed in his work, Mars—still concealed from all external sensors—was undergoing significant modifications. The planetary shield, which doubled as a stealth veil, was in the process of receiving a major upgrade.

When the emperor had first deployed the shield, he had also integrated it with a rune-computer interface, allowing the shield’s runes to be controlled and adjusted through computational input rather than manual intervention. Now, this interfa...

844 - Migration

Three days later.

With only six hours remaining until the scheduled update of the quantum communication network protocol, the deployment process had finally begun in full force. Ships carrying the newly manufactured Quantum Communication Satellites launched from multiple locations and bases, dispersing throughout the solar system. Production of these satellites had not been centralized in a single facility but instead took place across various massive industrial hubs spread throughout t...

843 - Communication Network Upgrade

A few days later.

Aron had returned from another short period of rest after spending three months in rigorous research. In real-time, it had only been ninety days, but within the accelerated VR environment, those months had translated into nearly twenty years of non-stop work, where he had meticulously studied, refined, and perfected the technology he had been developing.

Now back in his lab, he stood in front of an augmented projection displaying what appeared to be a quantum com...

842 - #LDWHT263847

Aron’s laughter lasted for quite some time, echoing through the simulation. He felt it deep within him—the climb was nearly over. He had been struggling up an impossible mountain, but now, at last, the summit was within reach. All that remained was the slide down, far easier than the ascent.

His exhilaration gradually settled into focus.

“Time to put in the work,” he muttered, his voice filled with determination.

The simulation around him shifted, morphing into the f...

841 - The Final Piece of the Puzzle

With the System’s efficiency, the knowledge assimilation process was completed in no time.

Nova wasted no time either. The moment the process finished, she requested access to Aron’s brain data to extract the newly assimilated knowledge. Without hesitation, he granted her permission.

“How long will the implementation take?” Aron asked, already shifting his focus toward execution.

{Considering the requirements for building a specialized device to utilize the Mana Decr...

840 - Stagnation

Two weeks later.

Aron, now fully reinvigorated after his semi-forced break, finally logged back into the universal simulation.

{Welcome back, sir,} Nova greeted him the moment his body materialized inside his lab.

“Can’t say I didn’t miss this,” Aron replied as he moved to sit down—despite there being no chair beneath him. Before he could reach the ground, a chair materialized under him, seamlessly supporting his weight.

“Any good news on cracking the Trina...

839 - Picnic

"Oh, this is quite delicious. Did Nova prepare this?" Aron asked with a smirk as he tasted the food. He was sitting in an open field that looked more like a picnic spot than a meeting ground.

Before he could even swallow, he had to tilt his head to the side to dodge a fireball flying straight at him.

"Don’t you know you shouldn’t even disturb a dog while it’s eating?" he said with a laugh, glancing at his wife, who had just attempted to give him an impromptu facial makeover....

838 - Assimilation

{Sir, the decryption is complete,} Nova informed Aron a few hours after receiving the decryption keys.

“That was fast,” Aron remarked, surprised by the speed. Previously, when processing the unencrypted information it had taken considerably longer.

{The groundwork was already laid when I accessed the unencrypted knowledge,} Nova explained. {This time, all I had to do was decrypt it and run it through the algorithm, which handled the rest.}

“Mhhhhh.” Aron nodded in ac...

837 - Decryption Keys

With the mana stones exchanged, only the meeting remained. The endurance of those present allowed discussions to continue for over sixteen hours, wrapping things up sooner than expected. This early finish meant the individual meetings about increasing their mana stone quotas could start and wrap up ahead of schedule.

During the individual meetings between the empire and the representatives, those who had shared their knowledge in encrypted form eventually handed over the decryption keys...

836 - Exchange

"There is nothing in the contract that says if our ship carrying mana stones is attacked, we are going to be punished, as that falls under circumstances beyond our control," Kalron said, subtly hinting at how they could proceed. The mana oath and mana contract were intentionally vague in certain areas, particularly regarding what constituted a breach. This vagueness allowed loopholes like this to exist, and if they executed their plan perfectly, they could avoid any repercussions.

"Alri...

835 - Behind the Doors IV (Solution)

“F*ck.” That single word ran through the minds of the majority of the individuals present in the meeting room—especially those who had jumped at the chance to insult the Trinarian representative, believing he was merely holding the agreement hostage for personal gain and political leverage.

Silence fell over the room like a heavy fog. No one dared to speak. A few of them internally wished the ground beneath them would open up and swallow them whole, though they knew such a miracle...

834 - Behind the Doors III (The Trinarian's reason)

“Are you trying to use this agreement as a hostage to secure more benefits for yourself?” the Valthorin representative interjected before the Trinarian representative could respond to Kalron’s question. His tone was sharp, laced with frustration and suspicion.

From his perspective, this agreement was a golden opportunity, one that could allow all of them to reap significant rewards. As the Valthorin representative, he was certain that if the agreement was finalized, his standing w...

833 - Behind the Doors II

“By setting up guardrails and limiting the ways the empire can easily access this information once they send their initial fleets to the Astral Conclave's territory and attempt to initiate trade and other dealings. Even at their fastest, it’ll take them several years to reach the populated areas of the Conclave, so we should have enough time to create measures that make it as difficult as possible for them to get hold of the information.

Since we control the inter-civilization commu...