Colonel James didn’t bother listening to Shabes’ speech. As soon as he realized Squeams’ VPN was transmitting something, and quickly scrolled through the contents, his orders were to bring down the tower.

To hell with Another World! He couldn’t allow for the Towers’ backbone optic fiber to transmit a single other patch of downloadable content!

Even if it was at the cost of loosing the Another World tech, he could NOT allow for such info to reach the hands of the masses!

How many people would choose to abandon their lives on earth, just because there was a maniac telling them to kill themselves?

Shabe was the charismatic ruler of the masses. If he kept his business still for a few more decades, he would be able to die in piece, loved and respected by all.

But his fat body was charging a heavy price, so he launched Another World prematurely.

His fame and popularity were at an all-time high. His “game” being a true “other world” would certainly drag people in like a siphon!

Colonel James soon received confirmation of the orders he had just given. His superiors, and his superiors’ superiors, all agreed with him.

What’s the use of getting a golden egg, if the hen is killed in the process?

Another World was almost useless for those who lived on earth. Even if it could be used as means of diversion and business, it wouldn’t get people a gun to shot someone else and then take his land.

And then, if there were no corporate slaves to work that land, what would the landowner do? Work it with his own hands? He better kill himself and go to that world of magic and swords instead!

Two worlds like this. To try and take one, the other had to be gambled on.

Governments relied on gambling safe. The wouldn’t do such a wild thing as gambling all to, maybe, gain nothing in return.

Of course, on the “righteous” minds of such rulers, what they decided to do was to “preserve the people from the menace” of an “suicide-inducing” game.

***

Samanta finished sending the last message his lover had left to the world. With it, many manuals and tech information teaching people how to remove the safety wires from the neurosets, and even how to build a “essentials only” version of it. Rising from her table, she quickly immersed herself on the goo-tube nearby.

Once someone killed himself while using the neuroset, it wouldn’t be usable by others anymore. Shabes’ would be forever useless now.

As soon as she gave the command to close the tubes’ lid, she also set the bombs on the floor to go out. 10 seconds would be enough for her conscience to be transferred to Another World.

Looking one last time to her beheaded lover, her eyes full of tears and confidence, she slipped into Another World - while the tower around her was ignited in powerful flames.

In the end, the towers’ last floor closing off wouldn’t be able to stop the military to bombard and bring it down.

The rest of the tower had a simple reinforced steel frame, after all.

But it could, and did, hold the power of the many tons of explosives inside the building.

A big supply of oxygen filled the entire of the towers’ last floor, while exhaustion valves appeared on the terrace.

Bombs began to fire, one after the other, redirecting and reinforcing the explosions’ power.

The valves set off only when the pressure was so high it threatened to burst open the tungsten alloy shielding of the floor.

A big column of poisonous smoke ventilated from the topmost floor, while air exhausting vents from the underground blew it high up.

The whole tower cracked and sizzled under the power of the explosion, driving the building a few centimeters into the ground. As for the reinforced steel floors next to the top most one, around eight of them caved in, not destroying the building only because the top floor itself compressed and laid on top of these, now partialy melted, floors.

The whole structure and steel frame bended and bounced. As for the last floor, the heat had been so much it managed to melt the sides of some of the tungsten valves.

Nothing, not even a shred of metal, remained inside what used to be Shabes’ office. If not for such amazing engineering the building managed to hold itself even after virtually collapsing, no one would be able to recognize it anymore.