826 A leap
It didn’t take Aron long to finish assimting the new knowledge he had purchased from the system shop. However, the cost had been steep—nearly twenty-five percent of the SP he had painstakingly hoarded for over a decade had suddenly vanished. Yet his expression remained calm andposed. He had always known the SP existed to be used when necessary, and feeling regretful or hesitant at a critical moment would have been counterproductive.
The urgency of the new revtions, which had reignited his drive, ensured that he felt no remorse for spending the SP. In fact, he was confident that the knowledge he had acquired was sufficient to solve the remaining obstacles in his research. With everything he now possessed, Aron was sure that unless unforeseen issues arose, he would have a functional production-ready product within the next few weeks.
Motivated and focused, he was ready to move forward, knowing the path ahead was clearer than ever.
“Let’s start getting to work,” Aron said after recollecting his thoughts. He had already used the newly assimted knowledge to chart a clear path for creating prototypes from each piece of information he had acquired.
The task ahead was delicate—he needed to fine-tune each of the technologies meticulously to ensure they operated on the same level of sophistication. If one was too advanced while anothergged behind, it could create an exploitable weakness, jeopardizing the entire project.
{Are we starting with towers, sir?} Nova asked, having already integrated the newly acquired knowledge into the Lab City''s shared database. With her abilities, she could easily anticipate the direction Aron would likely take.
“Yes,” Aron replied. “Although having something like a faith thread would’ve been ideal, it’s out of reach for now. Buying a simr technology at that level is impossible with my current SP reserves. So, we’ll have to make do with signal towers for the initial phase. They should allow even ordinary people to ess the system, provided they receive the necessary assistance for the initial connection.”
As he spoke, Aron began inputting detailed instructions into a system panel, outlining exactly what he needed to be created and how. The atomic printer, with its ability to ensure near-maximal production efficiency regardless ofplexity, allowed him to bypass the usual manufacturing calctions. This meant he could focus entirely on designing the most optimal system without being burdened by logistical and means of production constraints.
Nova silently observed as the process began, her algorithms already running simtions based on his input to anticipate potential bottlenecks and ensure a smooth implementation. The n was taking shape, and both of them were ready to see it through.
Slowly but surely, new equipment began to materialize with each additional instruction from Aron. Nova worked with precision, integrating theponents as though assembling a massive Lego structure. By the end of several hours, a colossal—but undeniably ugly—tower spanning kilometers in each direction had been constructed.
“We’ll worry about aestheticster, once we’re certain everything works,” Aron said, closing his eyes briefly. Despite the seriousness of the project, the absurdity of the monstrosity they had created brought a faint chuckle to his lips, momentarily lifting the weight on his shoulders.
{I concur,} Nova replied, unbothered by the tower’s appearance. Without wasting any time, she initiated the first round of tests after uploading the main operational algorithm.
Nova wasted no time and immediately created a new universal simtion instance, crafting a detailed recreation of a massive star system. She popted it with individuals representing every race whose brain data they had stored, ensuring diversity and variety in behavior and abilities. On one of the system''s moons, she ced the colossal, ugly tower—its imposing presence hard to miss, even from orbit.
To make the testprehensive, she seeded select individuals within the simtion with varying levels of knowledge about how to ess the tower''s systems. Some had only the bare basics, while others possessed advanced understanding. A significant portion of the poption, however, had no knowledge at all, particrly those who were "manaless" and incapable of essing mana without assistance.
She then stepped back and began observing, letting the simtion unfold naturally. The test served multiple purposes: to evaluate how effectively the tower’sponents functioned together in a live scenario, to analyze how knowledge of the tower’s purpose and capabilities spread among the poption—especially between those with ess to mana and those without—and to assess adaptability by observing whether individuals would innovate or create other ways to ess the system.
As both she and Aron monitored the unfolding tests, Nova broke the silence. {So, how do you n to spread these towers, and how are you going to convince the leaders of each civilization to allow them into the most intimate parts of their societies?}
Aron, deep in thought, responded, “I’m still refining my n, but the foundation is a Trojan horse strategy. I want to ensure they willingly bring these towers into the very heart of their civilizations.” He paused, his tone measured, showing the n was not fullyplete.
Nova chuckled softly, her amusement clear. {If they discover the truth, they’ll do everything in their power to remove the towers from their physical universe.}
Aron smirked, emphasizing the word, “If.” He continued with calm confidence, “As for spreading the towers across the Astral Conve, I’ll start with the leaders of each civilization. But if convincing them proves too challenging, there’s always the option of targeting other organizations. I could incentivize them by offering a share of the earnings generated by any tower they help spread. For as long as they protect the tower from harm, they’d receive a small percentage of its revenue. Greed is a powerful motivator.”
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Aron smirked, emphasizing the word, “If.” He continued with calm confidence, “As for spreading the towers across the Astral Conve, I’ll start with the leaders of each civilization. But if convincing them proves too challenging, there’s always the option of targeting other organizations. I could incentivize them by offering a share of the earnings generated by any tower they help spread. For as long as they protect the tower from harm, they’d receive a small percentage of its revenue. Greed is a powerful motivator.”
{Now that’s a good incentive,} Novamented, being one of the few people with ess to that knowledge she knew just how profitable the universal simtion was for the government, even when there were only two star systems currently in it. It was clear that any family or organization that took on the responsibility of cing and protecting the towers would be incredibly wealthy without needing to do much beyond that.
“Exactly,” Aron replied. “But this will onlye into y if the leaders of the civilizations choose not to take on the task of spreading and protecting the towers themselves. Having the towers under government protection ensures their security far more than under the control of an organization. While cing them under an organization would allow them to focus entirely on safeguarding the towers, it also opens the door for sabotage. Rival organizations would stop at nothing to take the towers down and try to rece them in order to put a new one and im the share of the profits.”
Aron paused, his expression growing more serious. “Punishing any organization that sabotages or attacks another''s tower—things like banning them from the universal simtion for life—would be the most effective way to deter such actions in the long term. But during the early years, before the full scale and importance of the technology is understood, such punishments will only be a weak deterrent. Even with all the overestimations, they won’t fully grasp just how significant these towers are until they see how important ess to the universal simtion bes for unimpeded life in the Conve.”