Chapter 189: § Retail Market Ω Out of Control §
֍ 7th July 2008 ֍
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"Truly… different and nothing I ever expect to see for Egypt…
The motherland has changed… for the better."
"You say that now Ptah, without the others around to fight the rule of the new King."
"Come Horus… the others won't be able to fight his existence without losing the vitality he's brought to Ancient Egypt.
Who knows… some might see it as an opportunity to rise back to the supreme throne of the Pantheon, but I don't see it happening."
Ptah happily communicated with his dear friend who was freed from the glowing coffin after Ancient Egypt finally gained some life again.
After being released from the coffin that kept him barely alive, Horus freaked out by the massive change brought out to his motherland.
Endless sand and heat didn't influence the land anymore as it did in the past with nature taking back the earth to create extravagant flora to bring back life.
This included creatures and animals that were friendly to the common people of the land, though the Space Ark supplied plenty of controllable beasts that wouldn't run wild.
Empyran the Divine Guardian Spirit helped the formation of mortals to fill the vast empty lands through manipulating the dense energy of the atmosphere.
Once enough people were made, Empyran brought them over to the Spatial Ark Star World to have their Genetic Code recognised so use the Summoning Square to increase the population numbers faster.
Instead, some of the mortals wished to spend their time within the Spatial Ark Star World instead since it offered them greater forms of development.
They contained the soul of the Atlaesus Empire and the Space Ark, meaning they relied on the essence of the two lands.
Ancient Egypt wasn't up to their liking even if it was their true birth land, it meant nothing to them if it didn't have the right facilities and equipment around.
The Celestial A.I Egos worked hard over the course of 40 hours to develop majority of the land under the control of Esmond's throne.
One of the main engineering problems they faced was the vastness of each building if it would house the Gods.
Ptah explained it was possible for them to reduce their body size because it would be ridiculous to create overly large buildings, but most Gods enjoyed ghastly sized structures as long as it fuelled their ego.
Knowing this, the Celestial A.I Egos decided to ensure the buildings of the kingdom would trump anything related to their Gods, especially so if they tried to step past their means and attack Esmond to make themselves the supreme leader.
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Esmond hadn't returned to Waset after taking over Amun-Ra's Throne of power as his focus started to spread across the Spatial Ark Star World and planets within the Solar System, excluding Earth.
It was the only planet that was fine because of the immense attention it always on it from all of the Celestial A.I Egos and even the improved Sentient Intelligence that gained an AEON Matrix.
The upgrade might not seem like much to most people, but Zenobia saw a drastic change in her processing and thoughts make-up now that the matrix functioned as a complex virtual brain organ.
If Zenobia wanted, she could easily rewrite the entire financial system of Earth in a heartbeat, but it wasn't anything she would do.
On the side she would see through cold cases and asking for Scarlett's thoughts on the problem before sending through the supposed solution to the police.
It helped her pass some free time while she worked on creating a business of her own on Earth to function as a hobby on the side.
Some of it was basic materials and resources being sold off, but stable IT companies eventually appeared that offered the strongest firewall, anti-virus program to customers.
Nobody was overly aware of her business just yet, but it was growing steadily without her needing to release some advance piece of technology or software.
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When Esmond finally reappeared at the Cabin Manor, his mother took the time out to sit him down and talk about his small disappearance from the family.
"Where you have you been child?
Your brothers and sisters wouldn't tell me anything, even though they said you were within the Space Ark."
"Sorry Mum, I actually disappeared to a certain place…
A place I've long forgotten to explore but is necessarily apart of the Spatial Ark Star World's power.
Let me show you the gifts I've brought while I explain…" Esmond waved his hand as a pile of wrapped gifts suddenly dropped onto the kitchen benchtop.
Ruby's heightened senses told her the gifts were far from ordinary in any shape or form, so she asked some of the Android helpers of the Manor to take the gifts to the lounge.
Sitting down across from her son, Ruby listened closely as Esmond explained another part of the Spatial Ark Star World and his abilities.
"The place is called 'Retail Market' but I feel that's the most basic version of itself.
Anyway, you could think of it like a shopping mall with all sorts of stores but the people that can partake in these 'malls' require a special skill… which I have, and it allows me to access this extravagant world."
"Okay, continue." Intrigued by the concept and picture of an entire world of stores, Ruby focused in on what Esmond had to say.
"Well… Maverick is the one who handles the Retail Market and the position of the Space Ark, but it appeared his actions caught the attention of many different parties who hoped to gain something from our efforts."
Esmond explained how parts of the Retail Market worked and his access meant also controlling a void state that allowed him to create small Pocket Space worlds.
Within them, Esmond instructed Maverick to create them into paradises that could house the new citizens of the Pocket Space.
Ruby was startled to learn the Retail Market took over a world and left its original inhabitants to fend for themselves.
Of course, she felt proud of her son to save them by recruiting them to his Pocket Space world, but that's where things turned problematic.
"Someone found out Maverick was recruiting away the indigenous, causing a lack of workers and staff to help out their businesses for next to nothing… right?"
"Pretty much, Mum.
Several different groups have tried to intimidate Maverick and our staff to hand themselves over to their corporations, but nobodies budged until now.
Maverick removed the staff to be replaced with Androids for now since he can ensure they won't be hacked through some virus, but this has just made them more brazen.
They attacked several stores and factories of ours, leading to a challenge from a large competitor who thought they could swallow us whole within a heartbeat.
I was dealing with that issue for the last two days…"
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֍ Two Days Earlier ֍
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Just after Esmond left Zenobia, Maverick found him and asked for his immediate help within the Retail World.
"Jesus!!
How many Pocket Spaces have you registered with the damn Market?"
"Not… many.
Just a couple… hundred." Maverick sheepishly said, turning his face to the side as he felt embarrassed to meet Esmond's line of sight.
"HUNDRED?!" Esmond couldn't believe what he heard from his younger sibling, as each Pocket Space meant a world roughly the size of 31 million square kilometres, which was roughly the same size as the entirety of Asia.
Thinking of the countless resources each Pocket Space contained, Esmond felt a little pained because a hundred Spatial Cores needed to be used to create all hundred-Pocket Space worlds.
Each would require countless amounts of resources if they weren't linked to the Spatial Ark Star World but to not do so would be stupid, which meant every Pocket Space had a giant pool of its own resources.
Practically Maverick had registered a hundred branch hidden worlds of the Spatial Ark Star World, but each one largely stored the original inhabitants of the Retail Market World.
"*Sigh* I'm not going to even ask… just take me wherever I need to go, Maverick."
"Ahh, sure, bro…" Maverick quickly led Esmond to one of the greater Pocket Spaces that controlled the rest.
Once Esmond entered the main Pocket Space related to the Retail Market System, it was flourishing much like a futuristic city out of Blade Runner, but the darker undertones from the film didn't translate into the Pocket Space World.
The indigenous humanoid species of the Retail Market World littered across all the available land as they continued to work to improve their new home.
Esmond expanded his senses to look out across the Pocket Space to find other species than the human like indigenous of the Retail Market World, but they weren't too far off from a humanoid appearance and features.
Some people have one eye while others contained a vertical eye in-between their forehead, but a little close to the ridge of the nose.
"You noticed the other species…"
"Yeah…
I thought we were only going to take in the indigenous species only, right?"
"That was the plan brother, but… I got ahead of myself and helped more than just the Heiramli.
They've weren't the only race being supressed by the Retail Market Mainframe System, and since we have more funds than we can spend, I decided to save some species before they became nothing more than slaves."
Maverick tried to make himself sound as innocently as possible, but Esmond knew the prick behaved freely until his actions caught up to him, and possibly in a bad way.
"Is this the reason why I was called here, Maverick?"
"… Yes…"
"Ugh…" Esmond felt a little disgusted that he felt into some trap, but he understood that he barely paid any attention to the Retail Market, so it also happened to work out in some weird sense of fate.
The two landed at a castle manor that Maverick set up as the Lord's home.
He thought about touring Esmond around the castle to occupy his mind for as long as possible, but Maverick understood he needed to be upfront and honest.
Which led to a difficult talk, nonetheless.
"So… let me get this straight.
You've been buying mountains of waste from the Mainframe System, only to buy up more land on the vast Retail Market World, where you built stores to sell products of the Dwarves, Elves, Alchemists, and others from the Space Ark."
"… Yes."
"This attracted some attention but not enough for the corporations to come chasing you, so you became a little excited and started to recruit more aggressively as the property under our account started to grow further.
During this time, you bought species and certain races along with slaves from the Retail Market while reselling recycled waste.
Which has also gone through a unique process where it's brought to the Spatial ark Star World for recycling and processing and at times sent to Earth for Primal Waste Management to handle.
You somehow covered this up with Eddie's help, so the waste looks like it come from Earth, but honestly it came from the Space Ark, right?"
"… Yes."
"Around this time, you decided to increase the resale of materials to the Retail Market Mainframe System while also using the stores and businesses you opened to help sell off the resources.
That's when you started increasing your purchases, right?
You had plenty of credits to play around with so you thought, what could go wrong?
*Sigh* What the hell were you thinking, Ricky?"
"… Ohh, I also invested in a Mech League and created a safer option for fighters and customers… Sorry…"
Esmond felt another headache coming as he processed Maverick's showboating lifestyle that caught up with him.
"*Sigh* Who have you annoyed, Ricky?"
"Several dozen financial groups that control a portion of the Retail Market World, but not completely with the Mainframe System watching over them, partially.
I tried to infiltrate their closed off networks, but it didn't work out since they've bought protection from the Retail Market System.
All I've gathered through intelligence gathering is that they all wish to take over the Mech League I've created but more importantly, they wish to seize the Ark and Astrum Banks."
A visibly stunned Esmond continued to listen on as Maverick explain Eddie's efforts to enter the Retail Market World.
"The two financial institutions have brought out decent loan options while offering affordable resources to enquiring parties.
In a couple of months, both banks have caused other institutions to revise their strategy if they wanted to retain customers.
Eddie even brought in 10 corporations of the Retail Market World who've decided to do business with the banks, and in turn supplying us jobs and requests of various sorts.
His sudden and abrupt entrance into the Retail Market has caused most people to wonder the backing behind the financial institutions, causing most people to see if their aggressive attack and nature of cooperation might bring about some idea about who the owner is."
"Am I a show pony to you, Ricky?!"
"… Yes, now neigh my pretty pony."
"Fuck off, asshole…"
Esmond was ready to back hand a bitch, as Maverick laughed hysterically after pissing his elder brother off just at the right time.
But there were some serious issues they needed to handle immediately in the Retail Market World, otherwise it would be near impossible to operate in such a place anymore.
"I'll deal with Eddie later, for now, can we focus on a problem that can be fixed now?"
"A Tournament of Champions, Battle Royale.
You will fight against other System Users in a battle to see who is the strongest.
I've never sent anyone to participate in the battles on our behalf, so it'll cause quite the uproar when you join.
Of course, you'll need to hide your appearance and wear some equipment that promotes our businesses."
'Yep… I'm a fucking show pony…' Esmond cursed in his heart as Maverick prepared him for his first tournament in the Retail Market World.
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Roughly the same time in Los Angeles, a couple aged directors were seated together as they discussed some new changes in the industry that came to light.
Especially one particular case that attracted James Cameron's attention.
"You must be joking?
Is this because of the new management over at 20th Century Fox?"
"Probably, but it isn't something to be frowning over.
The extra 150 million dollars will bring the budget up to a nice 350, James.
Not only that, but we were also sent through some test footage they've complied together based on everything that's been shot and added some final finishes to envision your goal for the film.
Just have a look." George Lucas said while holding back his own emotions after witnessing the video footage earlier.
He was joined by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, who also gave their input on the matter after seeing the video before the meeting started with a late James Cameron.
Forced to sit down and watch the 15-minute video with his colleagues and friends, James wasn't overly fascinated by the video, but his mind quickly flipped around after seeing the high detail and imaging that made it a phenomenal piece of cinematography.
"… Wow…" James had no other words to describe what he just witnessed, but he knew for sure, everything he ever wanted for his film could be achieved through the ground-breaking technology.
"My people have said the company behind the video are the new owners of Fox and Disney, but nobody knows for sure.
All I can say with certainty is that they wish 'Avatar' is made to be the best version of itself." Steven Spielberg said with a bright smile as he replayed the video once again, with his eyes drawn to the mountains and luscious background flora that made everything seem real.
"… You know… the only film recently that's caught my eye for its visual effects has to be Ironman with Robert Downey Junior." George Lucas noticed faint similarities between the design and structure aspect of the 3D background imagery.
Just the quality of the CGI was ahead of others in the same market, which would obviously draw more work but seeing as they came forth themselves and hoped to work with James made the group of directors feel it was the perfect time to take advantage of the technology.
"I remember seeing the superhero film…
It caught my attention for the artwork of the CGI and its clean adaption into the film reel without affecting the viewing experience.
James, accept the deal and their work, while completing your own vision for the film.
We can then view both pieces before you make the final decision and edits." Peter's suggestion easily made everyone agree on the matter, even if James had reserved thoughts about the whole deal of extended cooperation.
"Fine… but if it turns out terrible, you need to include me in the next Lord of the Rings film you make."
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