《The Monster App》Chapter 53 – Risk vs Reward – Part 2
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Admiral Radford decided to visit the vault where Selvaria tended to the Royal egg. While on his way, he reflected on Selvaria's character. According to him, she is highly ambitious with her goals and stubborn in her views. She even claimed to hold the rank of Admiral despite looking like a twenty-year-old, which is unheard of.
Selvaria explained during the debrief that the nanites in her body halted the aging process and that her actual age is around thirty, which was still a bit young for an Admiral. But her battle record in Texas indicated there were more to her than meets the eye. She claimed to have implants in her head that gave her access to memories from parallel worlds. This alone was enough to get his attention, as Darius the bastard's memories proved they existed and were part of Fluffal's plans.
That didn't mean the Admiral could trust everything she said, so he wanted to test her abilities by setting an impossible goal with a twenty-four-time limit. To his surprise, Selvaria reduced it by half with arrogant confidence, which annoyed him. Nevertheless, he wished to be the first to see the results of her effort to hatch and tame the Queen within the self-imposed time frame despite her chances of clearing it being close to none.
If hatching and controlling an Icebug Queen was that easy, it would open a new chapter in the war against the monsters. The Admiral is aware of her abilities, but in his mind, they wouldn't help her in this kind of situation. So the only reason he partially approved her request of claiming the Queen for herself was to see if she could perform a miracle with the technology in her body.
The nations of Earth had banned the same technology as it had led to a cold war that had destroyed many countries in Central Asia and Pacific Islands. It also brought down the status of the US from the only superpower to one of the five great powers.
The race for creating nanomachines, true AI, and Mechs built for combat had plunged the world into a technological arms race. Because of these weapons, the wars that followed devastated the world economy's central pillars. This led to global food scarcity, violent riots, and community-wide massacres over essential resources like toilet paper, especially in the western world.
After ten years of indiscriminate cyberattacks that crippled economic infrastructures, social media subterfuge, proxy wars, and territorial expansions, the five great powers became regional hegemonic rulers. They agreed to cease the hostilities and aimed to restore the world by deactivating their Mech armies, shutting down the research labs that designed new weapons, and rolling back their arsenal to those used before the Cold War.
Mechs were limited to simple construction work, Artificial Intelligence was limited to Butlers on ultra smartphones, and research into new weapons was banned. Finally, all the surviving nations adopted the abolition of nuclear weapons, and the world entered a new era. The great powers kept to themselves and only aided the countries that fell under their regional influence.
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Not everyone was happy with this new world order and laws. Scientists who contributed to the Technological Arms race gathered together and formed a group known as Vector. They sought to continue the research their governments were unable or willing to fund anymore since public sentiment was against them as they were held responsible for fueling the cold war. This meant there wasn't anywhere on Earth to research in peace without breaking the new draconian laws against research into fields that could be used for warfare.
This prompted Vector to mobilize all their resources to launch a mass exodus to the moon and establish mega colonies. No laws prevented them from pushing the limits of human technological advancement on that rock. Unfortunately, the nations of Earth were too busy trying to recover their economies from bothering stopping them. They felt Vector's colonies would fail and be forced to return in a few years.
The five great powers happily funded this exodus, hoping that these people would peacefully live out their remaining years on the moon. But to their surprise, the colonies thrived and grew in size from five thousand to accommodate nearly twenty thousand souls. The population boom was further aided by new arrivals from Earth. The Five Great Powers created laws that made it costly for their citizens to travel or migrate to Vector.
It was not long before Vector started producing tech that caught the attention of the wealthy individuals and families on Earth. But unfortunately, the ban was still in place, which prevented them from transferring it to Earth, so they were forced to travel to the moon, where luxury domed colonies meant for Earth tourists were created to accommodate them.
A decade later, Vector was rolling in enough cash to allow them to create new space fleets that would help transport the wealthy tourists on Earth to travel to the moon or come back in a few hours. But unfortunately, they also outfitted these ships with illegal weapons that made the great powers hesitate to provoke them by sanctioning their lucrative business.
Another decade later, the nations of Earth learned that Vector had declared itself independent of Earth Nations. They even paid back all the investments made to support the first exodus and the aids that were given later to keep the colony alive until it became self-sufficient. All this money came from the commerce generated by the wealthy tourists of Earth, which then ceased as they no longer needed Earth currency.
The five great powers wanted to launch a joint offensive to bring Vector back under Earth's influence, but they could not convince their populations to give a damn about what Vector did on the moon. So over time, the public just ignored their existence since the people on the moon hardly ever made any official contact.
That was not the same case for the military officials of the great powers. It was their job to monitor Vector's activities and treat them as a hostile rogue nation that could use their space fleet to launch surprise attacks on their capitols. They believed that
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Vector wouldn't be content to live on the moon forever and would eventually return to Earth to create a new world order in their image.
When the Monster App appeared, the great powers all assumed it was the work of hackers from Vector. Unfortunately, at the time, there wasn't any other suspect capable of installing an app that couldn't be deleted on phones with the highest grade of security.
Furthermore, the cryptic message about an apocalypse led many to believe an invasion from space was imminent. So they mobilized their armed forces in preparation for an attack of Combat Mechs and Space battleships.
The military officials of the Great powers forbade their troops from using the app and punished those caught using it. There was evidence that monsters that came out of the app were too realistic to be holograms, but these reports were thrown in the trash as they felt it was just a gimmick to lower their guard.
Though the events of D-Day revealed that Vector had nothing to do with the Monster App, there was still a fear among the senior leadership of Vector using this monster invasion to carry out their plans of conquering Earth. Until Selvaria walked into his office last night and explained how she ended up in the stadium with the survivors. If Vector was willing to allow an Admiral of their space fleet to infiltrate Earth to collect pet bunnies, they really had no intention of attacking.
At that moment, the Admiral decided it was time to build bridges with Vector and see if they could help the UGP fight back against the monsters. That was why he was willing to let Selvaria have her piece of land and allow her to build whatever she wished there.
The laws made by those after the cold war were irrelevant. The threat humanity faces now could lead to an extinction-level event if they limited themselves to pre-cold war weapons. For example, the 'Rods of God,' a relic of that war, destroyed an entire city without the monster being able to defend against it or see it coming.
The Admiral didn't want to say this out loud, but he had known the Tamer Battalion needed more time to gain combat experience, develop their skills and evolve to their highest potential. They would only become the tip of the spear against the monsters, the Pillar Guardians, and whatever lay within the world they came from. He considered lifting the ban on the regular troops using the monster app to boost the number of Tamers but then he shook his head.
When people gain access to godly powers, their egos inflate and do stupid things. The Divine Tamer Order that popped up last evening was a significant headache that he had to deal with sooner or later. He had an entire folder made by the intelligence wing that listed every civilian tamer that opposed the UGP and sought to undermine its authority.
Turning the UGP's regular forces into tamers would not have the happy ending he expected. Sure, he would allow trustworthy individuals to become Tamers, but the majority of the troops had to abandon that idea unless they quit. Managing a thousand tamers and their abilities was already a challenge that was overwhelming him. If Selvaria could solve this problem by helping the regular forces access tech that could reduce their reliance on Tamers, he would take it even if he had to give her more land or privileges.
Finally, Admiral Radford ordered the men outside the vault door to open it. Once he entered the room, he found Selvaria and her monster Galatea playing with a Red Larvae the size of a human baby that must be the Chimera Queen.
Admiral. "You... did it?"
Selvaria. "She hatched over an hour ago. I think I will call her Alicia."
The Red Larvae climbed her way up to Selvaria's shoulder, pushed the bunny from its seat, and rubbed its slimy body against her face.
Admiral. "You tamed her? How?"
Selvaria. "She has grown quite attached to my Mana. The nanites are inside her body now, so we are connected."
The Admiral had to walk to the wall to support himself from the shock of this development.
Selvaria. "Are you alright?"
Admiral. "Can you do this on other monsters?"
Selvaria. "As long as they are infants, it's possible."
Admiral. "Is she now a monster partner like your Galatea?"
Selvaria. "No, she is still a regular monster, but one that treats me like a parent or elder."
Admiral. "Do you plan to take her with you to the islands?"
Selvaria. "Yes, of course."
The Admiral watched as Alicia played around with Galatea and Selvaria for half an hour. There was no sign of aggression from the monster from what he observed.
Admiral. "I have been thinking about it a bit, and I feel it is not right to let you go there on your own."
Selvaria. "Are you breaking the deal?"
Admiral. "No! I will assign a team of Tamers to serve under you."
Selvaria. "Why?"
Admiral. "Many reasons, one of them being that you are an Admiral without any subordinates. I also plan to assign you on missions in the future, and from what I hear, your mana collection method is quite the pain. Having a team of Tamers who can share their Mana with you will make you formidable and provide you the help you need for building your base."
Selvaria. "Is there anything you want from me in return for them"
Admiral. "Go to the Blacksmith tamers and see if you can help them create weapons and armor that incorporate your technology. I want the regular forces to use whatever you can offer them as soon as possible."
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