Sure, that would have some severe downsides, but when given a choice between bad and worse, bad would win every time. Bending light around the planet to provide optical invisibility would essentially blind everyone on the planet, but it would be better than having humanity wiped out by hostile marauders. And that was just one of the countermeasures he had included in the complex shield.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
“Now that you mention it, I wonder how the empire is going to deal with retirement. It used to be that people could retire in their early sixties, then spend their twilight years gorging themselves on the fruits of their earlier labors. But now, with the average lifespan skyrocketing to two hundred years, and the time dilation in the simulation doubling that, can you imagine how people will react when they realize they have to work for hundreds of years before retirement age? Ha! People will absolutely revolt when that particular nugget of information hits home.” The comms officer shuddered as his whole body broke out in goosebumps.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
“This is not a fascist empire. Moving to the fortress cities will naturally separate the noncitizens from the populace, and that’s already in the works. There’s been too many instances of internment that hasn’t worked out for the governments involved, and we can’t afford that kind of backlash now. The empire is too young and our foundation is still settling,” Aron sighed.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
“Absolutely out of the question,” Aron interrupted. “I will not be responsible for massacring a significant portion of the human species.”
Sci-fi · Agent_047
He pulled a small box from his pocket, then opened it and continued, “Rina Ariel Rothschild, will you marry me?”
Sci-fi · Agent_047
The city was surrounded by a tall wall with four gates in it, each connected to its opposite gate by an eight-lane highway. There was a buffer layer of 25 kilometers between the wall and the first buildings rising from the ground in the distance, two-thirds of which was farmland, and the other third was virgin forest, left mostly untouched by human hands and surrounded by a tall fence, separating the wildlife in the forest from the humans outside of it.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
When the people logged in, they rushed to the new model city. As they approached it, unrelated people began fading from view, shifted into different instances of the simulation to reduce the overcrowding from the hundreds of millions of people swarming a city that was designed for dozens of millions, at best. If they stopped to consider for a moment, it would be odd that the groups who intended to tour the city together had remained together, none of them being shunted into different instances.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
{Imagine you’re in a cold room. If you light a fire in the fireplace, that’s the only heat source in the room so it’ll be very obvious to someone standing outside the room. However, if you turn on the central air conditioner, the whole room heats up, so the change is less easy to pinpoint. That’s the current situation—when the only mana source was the reactor beneath Avalon Island, it was very obvious, like a lighthouse on a dark night. But now the entire planet, and the solar system it’s part of, is filling with mana.} She showed them images from before and after the “great mana event” as seen from the Panopticon satellites. {That’s the difference, and why we aren’t worried about the increasing mana density in the solar system. But we think the reason they managed to discover us is because of the flashing signal given off by the mana converter on the fusion reactor. Hopefully, by the time they arrive, the mana density will be high enough that our awakeners will have a deterrent effect on any potential hostile actions on the part of the aliens. That would at least be something of a silver lining to the whole situation we find ourselves in, at least.}
Sci-fi · Agent_047
Meanwhile, Aron, having rushed his announcement to completion, had logged out of the simulation and headed to where his and Rina’s parents were. Herschel and Virginia, at least, deserved to know that Rina was safe, though she was undergoing her awakening and wouldn’t be present in the real world for a while. Sure, she could explain all that by meeting them in the simulation on her own, but they still deserved to be informed face to face and brought to the secure pod vault where they could stay beside her through the process.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
“I suggest we implement an empire-wide minimum wage focused on actually being a livable wage. A single person requires a minimum of 500 END to maintain a subsistence-level existence that covers all of their absolute necessities. So a 40 hour workweek should cover at least that much, plus some for luxuries and savings.”
Sci-fi · Agent_047
As we walked leisurely, my eyes wandered around the place. Beautiful paintings plastered on the wall, large windows that are wide enough to see the view outside, and polished wooden floors which are so bright due to their cleanliness that you could even see your face on them.
Fantasy · Ordki_Hozei
{Imagine you’re in a cold room. If you light a fire in the fireplace, that’s the only heat source in the room so it’ll be very obvious to someone standing outside the room. However, if you turn on the central air conditioner, the whole room heats up, so the change is less easy to pinpoint. That’s the current situation—when the only mana source was the reactor beneath Avalon Island, it was very obvious, like a lighthouse on a dark night. But now the entire planet, and the solar system it’s part of, is filling with mana.} She showed them images from before and after the “great mana event” as seen from the Panopticon satellites. {That’s the difference, and why we aren’t worried about the increasing mana density in the solar system. But we think the reason they managed to discover us is because of the flashing signal given off by the mana converter on the fusion reactor. Hopefully, by the time they arrive, the mana density will be high enough that our awakeners will have a deterrent effect on any potential hostile actions on the part of the aliens. That would at least be something of a silver lining to the whole situation we find ourselves in, at least.}
Sci-fi · Agent_047
The world was still in the recovery phase after the economic and financial crash. Thanks to an immense amount of stimulus and other aid payments on behalf of the government, companies had been hiring people in droves, driving down the global unemployment rate by quite a lot.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
Moments after realizing the difference between their reaction and others’, they both connected the dogs and realized that, whatever that hovering inscribed circle was, it had to be the doing of someone with a blessing.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
(Ed note: I can’t believe it, but Cliffs Notes aren’t really a thing anymore. They used to be condensed versions of the important bits of various books, kind of like if someone sat down and took a highlighter to a book in question. I guess they’ve been replaced by Wikipedia now, but they used to be essential resources for college students back in the day.)
Sci-fi · Agent_047
When he finally arrived at the end of the thread, he opened his eyes and looked at a nearby clock. Though he didn’t know where he was, exactly, or who he was inhabiting, the clock indicated that ten minutes had passed during his trip down the thread of belief. It seemed that time was somewhat subjective in the purple world, as it had felt like he’d been traveling for hours thanks to all the turbulence. Or perhaps he had crossed time zones, which was a far simpler—and thus likelier—explanation.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
The more questions arose, the wilder his speculation grew. And the wilder his speculation grew, the uglier his expression became. Because if his theories were true, he was up against a much bigger beast than he had originally thought.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
“Please release her and tell us your demands. With her alive, there’s a greater chance your demands will be met. But if she dies, that chance becomes zero, and the empire will come down on you with the weight of billions.”
Sci-fi · Agent_047
However, due to the disparity in education among the population of some former countries—either as a result of devastating wars or just plain bad leadership—some areas were still suffering. The economic growth seemed to have passed them by; after all, if they don’t know a program exists to help them, how can they be helped? Thus, they were only surviving on life support thanks to the Coeus Foundation donating funds and building free clinics and schools and such. But recovery in the worst areas would still remain slow until their education levels caught up to the global standard. And that, unfortunately, was a problem that only time could solve.
Sci-fi · Agent_047
Reguku
“No. I don’t, you don’t, our families don’t... all those closest to me are exempt from brain data monitoring and uploading. It’s too... I dunno. Not invasive invasive, but regular invasive.”
Getting a Technology System in Modern Day
Sci-fi · Agent_047