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Chapter 537: Chronos and Salvation

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He felt it a challenge.

Perhaps it was mere coincidence, but Chronos felt it as a challenge. Perhaps Mitra was aware of their little project. Perhaps they were a group of people who wanted to challenge the World Government.

Chronos felt it wasn’t impossible. After all, in the current generation, things deemed impossible 100 years ago was now a common occurrence.

Life on earth had greatly changed in just a mere span of 200 years and now, it will change again as humanity will step forth into that realm known only by book, faith, and fantasy stories…

…the realm of the [Gods], as defined by humanity.

In 1964, Nicolai Kardashev classified civilizations by the total energy available to them. He defined it to a Leveled System which assesses a civilization’s capacity to harness energy and use it to develop their technology to move forward as a civilization.

There are at least seven known classifications and at the lowest level, Type-0, is where the current Planet Earth is situated.

Type-0 — a civilization harnessing the energy of its own planet “but not to its full potential” for use

Type-1 — a civilization capable of harnessing the energy of its entire planet

Type-2 — interstellar civilization, capable of using the energy of its star

Type-3 — an intergalactic civilization, capable of harnessing and using the energy of a galaxy

Type-4 — Universe-level civilization

Type-5 — Multi-verse culture (metaphysics era), a civilization capable of altering reality and creating worlds upon worlds, controlling civilization, just like a God that could crush a Blackhole in his fingers

Type-6 — a civilization capable of creating multiple universes with a snap of a finger, and destroying them just as easily; an indestructible civilization; a civilization of Gods and Immortals that can only be threatened by a civilization of the same scale.

As Chronos interpreted this notion, humanity was still a way’s to go before actually reaching the apex of the Type-1 civilization, but they were already in there... and because the world recognized that the energy resources available to them was dwindling as they developed new technologies which needs more higher-grade and bountiful [energy], the 3rd World War erupted.

For them, then survivors of that war, although they had lessened the burden of the world consuming the now dwindling local energy resources, they’ve decided to search for energy beyond Planet Earth.

Their first stop was the Moon but they’ve all soon realized that mining the moon resources isn’t really a good idea because if they take more than 10% of the Moon Resources, it’ll fundamentally affect Earth, birthing world-scale calamities that may lead to disasters worse than the damages of the WW3.

And 10% of the Moon Resources was just barely enough to sustain Earth’s energy needs.

So, they went beyond the Moon and eventually to other planetoids and “large free objects” beyond Earth… but they also soon found a hurdle there.

Balance.

Removing one 100,000km diameter sized asteroid for mining purposes from the cluster belt will ruin the exiting gravitational balance within the belt as it may even will lead to scrambling the nine planets, leading to a catastrophe that upsets the balance of the solar system eventually leading to either global devastation by Earth’s weather conditions, or one of those sci-fi planetary collisions which still ends to humanity’s extinction nonetheless.

And so, although they can still take out smaller bits in the asteroid belt, it was limited only to planetoids and sizes not more than 20,000km, while looking beyond the Asteroid Belt, eventually reaching that massive orange ball of gaseous-metallic resources untouched throughout millions of years…

….Jupiter.

As [Cold Fusion Science] is already possible, the He3 (Helium 3) fuel which is 314% more abundant in Jupiter than on the moon’s surface, then began to be humanity’s answer to its energy needs.

But finding Jupiter and actually mining the ample resources of the big planet was another matter.

How can they see the future of humanity then if they aren’t alive to see it happen?

….... and so they, the ones who wanted to see the world beyond their current lives, had their clocks ticking and had no time to wait for the technology that could bring them to the next phase of their civilization to be developed by others. They were running out of time so they had to accelerate the world to suit their whims.

Here’s the question: how do you see the future?

The answer: by looking at it yourself.

Yet actually answering the “how” of this question is the difficult part that ideas were gathered and so compiled, analyzed, and calculated, landing them to the solution of accelerating the development of all their current technologies to meet the demands of their needs. But how do they do that? Men are the ones capable of thinking, not machine. Man is the core of every invention and not any calculating machine and more so no amount of any advanced computer AIs.

Even then, what pushes “innovation” into mankind is actually not [peace] but war.

War pushes man to his limits and when pressure is evident, evolution is assured.

And that’s a bit of a problem since you see, Earth, right now, is only 85% habitable as the last 15% is still contaminated by radioactive remains from the Third World War. And so, they faced another huge problem: they unanimously agreed that war is very much necessary for their plan but how do they do a world-scaled war without actually killing anybody, or even as much as hurting a frog?

No matter how much calculation data and resource material they inject into a machine, the machine will not be able to properly give the answer they’re all searching for. So… they thought of an idea. Why not do it somewhere where they can control time itself, and also even simulate war without anybody actually dying? How do you do that?

While thinking of the answer to this question, in the last phases of recovery after WW3, a particular event shocked the world again: in Hapon-Country, 10,000 people were used to as guinea pigs for an experiment of a mad scientist.

Trapped in a Virtual World, they experienced the life of 10 years in mere two years’ time, in a game of death and survival.

After the event, only a meager 1000 survived and came back to reality… but the lives they all lived in that virtual world forever changed their perception of reality. It changed their perception of life and it also changed the way they look at everybody and everything else on earth.

Some survivors even quoted similar lines that can be explained simply as: earth is too mundane.

The fantasy-based survival world they lived inside that simulated reality molded these individuals into both monsters and ungilded heroes. Some ended up becoming brilliant criminal masterminds; some silent geniuses; and some, albeit living completely normal lives after their experience, began to share to the world the skills and abilities they gained on a fantasy death-game.

But, more than anything else, every single one of these survivors displayed remarkable abilities in terms of sports (after rehabilitation, of course), in math, in logic, and also in crime-solving, as well as technologically-based innovation ideas.

In short, their experience made them geniuses of different fields —regardless of their corrupted or ethical conducts inside.

Chronos knew then that this was it, his gold in the end of the fucking rainbow.

With his dream becoming an obsession, even if there are a hundred goblins and leprechauns that stand in his way, he will still decimate them all just to get his hands on this treasure.

As such, he pulled some strings and acquired the technology. But he wasn’t the only one wanting to get their hands in the technology so in the end, it became a public-domain technology they called at the time —and until today— simple as the “seed”.

The big names hidden in the world’s view began to pull out their resources and conduct their own closed-door experiments. He knew the limits of his family and he knew that this obsession of his was not something even with his family’s technology could develop on their own. And so he had to get help from someone who he knew would share the same ideology and dream as him…. Goldwyn.

Together, they established the foundations for the now close to completion [Project Salvation].

They now got the “time”….

They also got the blueprint to create a “place”…

And, after a series of processes, the two then also got their hands on the “people”, as well as “test subjects”….

At the end of their struggle, four years ago, they got their hands on their “prototype”…

Now, after some adjustments, Project Salvation is complete and they were just waiting for the end of their research as well as the ripening of their many years of thorough planning and cultivation.

Seeing Rex Kingsley provoking him with a smile as broad as the one he saw made Chronos grip the handle of his cane and smile mysteriously.

Ah, humans….. are nothing but mortal creatures.

Gods are created by men and when men dream or believe in God then it also meant that God exists amongst themselves. They access this [God] thru prayers, convincing themselves, relying in nothing but “faith” which is a word denoting a sophisticated science and math of relativity between many kinds and laws and aspects surrounding one person. In a sarcastic note, “faith” can be symbolized simply as “one leaving his fate to luck” as you cannot truly know when “God” will grant your wishes as all you can only do is “wait” for “God’s Blessing” to come.

For Chronos, who was amongst the few people at the top of humanity overlooking it like an Overgod of some sort, knew more than anyone the feeling of this thing called “omnipotence” among mortals.

Yes, in the world of mortals, with but a word, he could do almost anything. On earth, his word can be said to be god-like as a person’s death will be decided by just a word from his mouth.

Taking this notion a bit further… why can’t they, as Mortal Gods, see the future of their planet?

Why not lead humanity to the distant stars and live through all of the possible challenges and think of the way through it themselves?

Why not cancel the restriction of time?

Why can’t they be real Gods themselves?

A simple thought of wanting to see the future, the possibilities of making it happen now opened a lot more potentials for themselves———

—or so Chronos thought back.

Only he and Goldwyn knew that this man was the Rex Kingsley who survived that freak accident.

Although Pegasus moving against his family wasn’t part of the plan, Rex being the “seed” was still part of it so putting on pressure and accelerating Rex’s growth was beneficial to the plan so they let it be.

His growth provides data. His development as the [Prototype] was their trophy and prize.

Now… now that “seed” was right beneath his feet and he had just smiled tauntingly at him!

He, Chronos, was being challenged by the very lamb they got on the chopping board that had not an idea that his entire life was theirs to take.

“Bahahahahaha….”

Chronos’ laughter shocked the entire crowd that surrounded him.

“Marvelous. Truly funny. Truly…. fascinating! I am starting to like this person more and more.”

Chronos found this funny because even if Rex do challenge him now, the plan, his only purpose for existing, is already set. The result is already visible and only the manifestation of it all is the last thing they needed to wait.

The [Prototype] smiling at him, taunting him… that grin which basically told him “what now?” was just too amusing to him that he couldn’t help laughing.

What would Rex’s expression be the moment he found out that everything he thought he knew has were something that could be taken away by just a single word from him?

Mitra?

Whoever they are, if Chronos really wanted to find them, they can definitely be found.

The world revolves around computers and there are no computer-related actions in this world that does not leave “traces” into their systems.

Finding these traces may be challenging but with Goldwyn and his “database” helping him, Chronos was invincible. Besides, Goldwyn wouldn’t betray him since, well, if he did, then his entire estate in the undergrounds of Metro Manila—and the entire city itself— will be erased when facing his wrath.

Goldwyn placed too much emphasis to his family and his estate that he named after himself, so he wouldn’t be the idiot-type that will risk it all by pulling the wool off to his face and betraying him.

“Perhaps a meeting could be arranged between us and them, don’t you think so Marian?”

Called through her true name along with the short laughter just now, made Queen Brynhild XIV feel a shudder creep over her spine. The hand which he used to hold the glass trembled as the completely unexpected suggestion shook her entirely.

“I-Is that really necessary, Family Head? They are nothing but juniors… no need for a glorified man such as you to actually meet unimportant people like them.” she tried to convince him.

“Nonsense!” the old man cheerfully denied, “If you really plan to marry your successor to such a man, then I wouldn’t want to miss this chance to get to know him personally. After all, your Christiana is a vassal of my Abraxas Family so technically, he’s going to be my vassal as well. Won’t meeting him now be any different than meeting him later?”

The contents of his words were simple but had so deep a meaning that many people —especially the four Duke Houses of Christiana Monarchy— were sweating underneath their lousy smiles and silken dress coats.

Aye, Christiana Monarchy, as a country, is indeed a World Noble —a top-level World Noble— but in the world of Kings and Emperors, they are nothing more than minister-level individuals at best.

This is a real World Emperor speaking right now.

His words sounded simple but they carried weight so heavy that they could potentially end a country if they don’t trek on it carefully.

Queen Brynhild was now suddenly backed on the corner and even Goldwyn himself found this old man’s suggestion a little particularly odd. After all, Chronos did just contradict his ‘efforts’ of trying to pull Rex away from their project. Knowing him, he might have seen something in Rex that picked his interest and as much as he wanted to say to NOT do something impulsive otherwise, he knew that it would be useless as it seems that he’s already set his eyes on the young man.

“Will you bring him for a meeting?” Chronos said in a requesting tone.

This only made the Queen feel the pressure more and so, left with no choice, he could only appease with a slight helpless nod, “I shall try doing so.”

In the end, she bowed and said her reply. The old man was all smiles as he returned to face the old men of the Five Great Clans to discuss a few matter but all of them, especially Goldwyn, felt that the old man had already lost interest in their talks as it was obvious by the way he inserted topics of Mitra and the his crew, especially the latest events which starred the very man he invited to meet him.

Goldwyn had no plans to meet Rex Kingsley this early but he knew that, with the “thing” he had in his possession, their meeting wouldn’t be filled in smiles as it may even be filled with blood and lots of shouting.

Knowing “Siva” as he was, this was all likely.

* * * * *

Though the crowd from the other end to the next, Rex and Amanda passed through them bathed in splendor, glory, stared of curiosity, and inquiring “mobs” of both nobles and commoner geniuses.

Every one of them were either asking his name or wanting to be friends with her.

But with his guidance, Amanda learned how to be polite when she denied them all and with Rex’s own experience and posture, he half-intimidated and half-befriended those who wanted to connect with them and use them to elevate their statuses in the entire ball.

In essence, many amongst them were either sons or daughters of World Nobles. Many were even celebrities themselves as they were shown often on TVs and News as young geniuses and gossip topics because of various this and thats.

—well, it’s thankfully because of Cortana’s active scanning and facial recognition that he was able to learn of these things.

In the end, this is nothing more than just another simple form of politics.

“May I trouble you for a short few moments?” a sweet and lovely voice drifted into their ears from Rex’s side and he and Amanda turned to see four gorgeously beautiful ladies parting the crowd like a Moses to a river with their bewitching smiles and catwalk gaits.

For some odd reason, from the moment they came in this place, Alice has always been quiet. It was as if she was uncomfortable wearing a mask and being surrounded by lots of people. Rex then recalled what Amanda said that Alice was a gamer and she wasn’t used to crowds like this.

As such, Alice has already gone ahead of them as she chose to mingle with the Asgardians than to spend more time being drowned by the eyes that targeted the pair.

Rex had to stop just then as Cortana searched the web on the identity of the person.

But to his surprise… there was actually none.

This was unusual. His spider sense kicked in. She was either trouble or she’s a source of a trouble.

[Sir, the people above us said that her name was Amy and that she’s one of the heirs to the Family Head position of the Thornberry name.]

Ah, thank you, Cortana. Rex thought gratefully.

Being able to spy on those VIPs above them was a blessing, especially to the current situation.

[Oh, boss, it seems that that person called Chronos just asked Queen Brynhild for a meeting with you and she seem to have no choice but to agree, calling him Family Head.]

‘Family Head... so these Five Great Clans are real in the underground world…’

[I’ve conducted a search in the NET and there are scarcely available data about them. Also, they were spoken in a way that it was secretive and covertly mentioned as if the info is taboo. According to my analysis, the said power of the Five Great Clans is something to be feared of entirely… comparable to how the Terran Alliance held sway over matters that could affect the Terran Civilization.]

The thought link made Rex pause. Deep. He was a bit surprised. Why would that “Chronos” being a “Family Head” of one of the Five Great Clans want to meet him this time?

—Cortana, did my provocation went too far and triggered his ire?

[Doesn’t seem to be the case sir. He was laughing and his laughter doesn’t have any signs of anger and was instead of genuine happiness.]

—how do I interpret that?

As Rex was thinking, a hand was stretched before him as Amy reached out for his. “My name is Amy from the Thornberry Family. May I ask for your name mister—”

Rex, just as he was thinking of how to answer her, another sweet-sounding voice rung from behind the gathered crowd, from behind him.

This time, however, the voice carried a “different” kind of ‘sexy’ —something that can melt anyone’s bones and actually render any man to drool and go crazy from listening to it blindfolded.

“His name is Stay,” the voice said. “Isn’t that right, sweetie?”

—THIS VOICE?!!

Rex felt his body jolt and shiver and he unwittingly grip Amanda’s hand and had the thought to run as far away from this place as possible.

—YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME?!!

And yet, or should it be “alas”(?), the voice that came from behind him had already reached him and a hand along with two soft mounds found its way octopus-ing around his left arm.

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Is this newcomer a saviour or a disaster?

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