Everything will be my way!

Chapter 27

So many things happened in the 3rd sector that day!

A fat, meatball-like boy named XiaoBai chuckled, scanning the reports.

«…saved a slave named Kyon from vindictive wardens, drove off a mad servant. Good job, Mob. He deserves a promotion.»

…

It was the end of the working day.

Tired miners were gathering in the common hall.

Byron was upset because his friend had been badly injured in the unfortunate brawl. He went on stage, looked around the slaves, and gave the following instructions:

«Six wardens have been seriously hurt today, so I have to appoint the new wardens to replace them. The group that has lost a warden must choose one from the members of the group. You have five minutes.»

The most outstanding activists were nominated for the positions. They even tried to get Kyon in there, but he quickly refused the offer: the slaves of the 2nd rank were forbidden to take part in the auction.

Soon, six wardens stood on stage.

Kyon was surprised to see Borya among them, smiling from ear to ear.

Byron came down from the stage, looking gloomy and withdrawn. He gave Kyon a sign to join him in his room.

After a short conversation about today’s events, Kyon left Byron’s private room and paid a visit to Mike, who was sleeping in the bedroom. {You must finish what you start.} – He repeated to himself the words of his master.

Kyon did the same procedure. First, he checked Mike’s vitals: he was doing better with each day. Then he infused another portion of Synergy. At the very moment when Kyon took his hand from Mike’s forehead, Mike suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed him by the wrist.

{I’m getting used to it. It’s like having deja vu all over again.} – Kyon thought blankly.

Mike stared at him with glowing eyes, never letting go of his hand:

«I knew you were behind all this! You helped me to recover, didn’t you?»

«I did.» – Kyon nodded with a sincere, weary look.

«Why did you do that?»

«You remind me of an old friend of mine.» – Kyon lied after a pause.

Mike let go of his hand:

«Thank you, Kyon. I can’t give you anything in return, though. I am sorry…»

«It’s okay.» – Kyon shrugged and went to his bedroom.

Mike watched him go, amazed at what he had done for him. {There is good in the world…}

Kyon fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

*dream*

The bell rang, announcing the beginning of the second working day.

Kyon stretched and yawned. He focused on recalling his dream about his previous life.

Day after day, year after year. Synergy imprinted and sorted out his memories in the smallest details from his birth to the day when he was 22 years old. His last day in that world…

When Lovr, aka Kyon, was 16 years old, his Synergy reached the Doctor of Philosophy degree (5). The hopeful romantic, he lived life to the fullest, never skipping his regular training. Being a leading student of his generation, he was granted access to the portal cannon to get to any populated place in the galaxy, which had opened up thousands of opportunities for him. He could travel around the worlds, discovering different cultures and traditions, making friends and tons of unforgettable impressions…

It went on like this until he was 20 years old. He had an active social life, studied science and technology, created new things, traveled, faced tests and trials, played games…

One day, his former master visited him and offered to take a test of the new generation. The task was to steer life on a planet in the right direction. Lovr agreed, and the masters put him in the hypnotic phase, imprinting his consciousness in the projection of his Synergy.

Lovr found himself in the body of a 30-year-old man on a small planet named Earth in the year 2000.

The time in the real world was 500 times slower than in the projection. A year in reality was equal to 500 years spent in the simulation. Lovr didn’t age, and if his “body” accidentally died, he would be reborn again, at the beginning of the test.

He faced the challenge of populating 30 planets with Earthlings.

There were two restrictions. 1) He could not use Synergy. 2) He could not recreate the technologies. He had to wait until people created them on their own. However, it was not forbidden to “push” them to technological breakthrough.

Lovr made his first billion dollars in the financial markets the first year he lived in that world, joining the board of major players in 2001.

By 2004, Lovr had bought several major innovative technology companies and drew the attention of some big shots who tried to bring the newly minted “shark” under control.

It was an exciting game where finance and power ruled the world. Multiple attacks, schemes, tricks, traps, and deceptions happened at every turn… Lovr didn’t only face challenges, he had to live and breathe in that world for quite a while. Then an aggressive market takeover started. After a long and arduous fight, Lovr became the most influential man on the planet. In 2010 he was the owner of all giant innovative corporations. He had no rivals. Lovr had become the elite of the elite.

By 2012, he had rebooted the economy and erased the ruling figures: the higher families, oligarchs, billionaires, and the ruling elite. Those people were the cancer of the planet. Their interests often diverged. Their greed and, sometimes, the absence of common sense led to catastrophes, wars, genocides. The presidents were nothing but pawns in their hands. In a nutshell, it was the unacceptable face of capitalism.

It would be a stupid idea to unite them. Such people cooperated only in the face of a common enemy. In other cases, it was nothing but lies, profanity, and manipulation aimed at personal gain. Unfortunately, human beings had always been greedy for power and resources, and it was the main problem which could be solved in cruel, radical and often inhumane ways. Lovr had to take tough and resolute actions, destroying the cornered lunatics who could cause trouble. The beaten pawn must leave the board, not stab in the back.

By 2016, he had become the single ruler on Earth. However, he ruled behind the scenes. It was rather disappointing that he couldn’t have children. A pretty serious shortcoming! Anyway, he had never been interested in the girls created by his Synergy. His hand looked more real to him.

In 2020, a commonwealth financial network appeared based on Blockchain that made Forex look like a baby brother. It made it possible to create a single electronic currency. No transaction could be deleted from the system, and corruption cases were detected at once.

A little later, he conducted a massive campaign of implanting chips into human bodies. Even people who lived in third world countries got an implant. The disgruntled citizens were threatened with severe repressive counter-measures. Discontent persisted, but the result was worth it. The chip could not be easily taken out as it was attached to vital blood vessels. The carrier would die if the chip was removed by force. Eventually, all currencies in metal or paper had successfully exhausted themselves, and the new single currency had no competitors. Lovr was the only person who had absolute power over it. It was an ideal lever to control the world, financial flows, and development direction. He was omnipotent.

The capitalist system, well-suited for mass manipulation, had been completely destroyed, more precise, replaced by its hybrid, where people were given space to dominate and unleash their instincts, but with high levels of restrictions.

It was allowed to earn money, employ workers. It was also possible to gain some influence and power. But there was a glass ceiling no one could break. The empire didn’t let anyone rise above a certain level. The chips tracked everything… The fraud was detected at the planning stage by analyzing the sound signals, the movement of fingers on the keyboard… Bribery or illegal property transactions were impossible. The government had total power, and the will of the people meant nothing. Everybody knew that. The government had privatized all major niches, while people served as tiny but integral cogs and wheels in the well-established mechanism. Anyway, they were content with their role, as all their basic needs were fulfilled.

The lack of brilliant people was a real challenge, at first. However, cerebral sorting tackled the problem. Geniuses were identified at their teens. After that, they could express themselves in many different ways, depending on their talent.

The global goal of the elite to decrease the population and control its growth had run its course.

People didn’t breed like rabbits because the implanted chips delivered birth control. They activated a hormone that induced infertility if the person had already more than two children.

The fight against drug addiction did not take much time, but it took a lot of effort to put an end to smoking and alcoholism. The human body didn’t want to give up the poison it had grown so fond of. The Overton window helped, but the process dragged on for too long.

In the year 2030, the planet resources were used as effectively and efficiently as could be. Nature blossomed with new colors. Water sources were finally clean. The quality of air had improved. Human impact on the environment had been reduced to a minimum. Bad habits like smoking, alcohol, and drug abuse had been completely eradicated.

Science defied imagination. People achieved universal access to quantum computers, artificial intelligence, biorobots, and much more. Genius minds and Lovr’s competent planning led the Earth in the right direction.

However, his life wasn’t always smooth sailing. The programmers in the real world kept introducing special tests, like natural disasters, intelligent opponents, dangerous meteorites, and so on. Lovr had triumphed over all challenges, using humankind as his hands.

His goal was to populate 30 planets, and it required great technologies and a lot of time.

Lovr had accomplished his task only by 2978. Mission complete. He still looked 30 years old. He never died, never got stuck. He did it. Everything was like a dream, only a too realistic one. The time between then and now seemed to last a moment or, maybe, it dragged for eternity. The information he received didn’t turn him into a thousand-year-old sage. Lovr remained the same flirty loveable teenager.

When they asked him: «You have been in the simulation for about a thousand years, haven’t you? Wasn’t it long enough to sow some wild oats and start thinking with your head, not your penis? I can’t believe that a thousand-year-old sage would be as lecherous and amorous as you are…»

Lovr replied: «It was not me who had spent a thousand years in the simulation, but my consciousness copied with Synergy. My mental age has not changed. I just turned twenty-two years old, and I love sex with beautiful girls as befits a guy of my age. I prefer real ones, not the girls created by Synergy from Synergy… I don’t like fake people if you know what I mean.»

When the simulation was over, Lovr made a long-awaited breakthrough. The test had several purposes. Lovr had to prove his skills, confirm that he could apply his knowledge in practice, and ensure that his masters had made the right choice. Passing the test was the culmination of all his work and efforts. It gave him the unshakable confidence in his talents to overcome the bottleneck in Synergy cultivation. This way, his Synergy broke into the legendary Doctor of Science degree.

According to scientists, the sixth degree was penultimate. Anything beyond it was out of this world. Lovr had become a legend. But he didn’t think he had done anything special. Anyone with sufficient knowledge of economics, espionage, manipulation, and mass management could do it. Some of the tests required more sophisticated methods that didn’t drag for almost a thousand years, which made them trivial. And yet, the sixth degree of Synergy and universal respect gave Lovr confidence, perhaps, too much confidence, something that he could not always control.

{The lightning manifested Synergy of Doctor of Science degree… I could rebuild my body, control the micro-interactions of atoms up to quarks. I could change structures and matter, give consciousness, transmit information to people. I felt the entire universe but… Hadn’t I reached the Supreme mandate? Why are the last days kind of a blur? What happened then? What happened to me when I was 22?} – His irritation mixed with bitterness. “To know a lot while missing the point.”

Kyon finished with his memories and snickered. The Emperor of many planets was now just a slave in the mine. He had fallen so low.

Kyon went to get washed, leaving the stinging irony aside. Then he met his new warden. By a certain irony of fate, it was the constant witness to Kyon’s ordeals. After his promotion to the rank of a “boss,” Kyon took a look at his formation and found out that his name was Basil.

After that, Kyon came to the common hall, spotted his group and headed towards them. He joyfully winked to Basil, who had to swallow nervously, and got into line. As they passed the checkpoint, he saw grumpy Bob and happy Mob with a bandage around his hand.

Mob couldn’t hold back his smile. After yesterday’s events, Martha kissed him on the cheek and turned crimson. As for Mob, he had completely lost his mind. Love filled his heart like a blooming flower.

{How… cute. The man in his forties behaves like a teenager in love.} – Kyon chuckled quietly.

When he was passing Mob, the supervisor didn’t hesitate to shake his hand and gave him an almost friendly pat on the back. It was one of those jaw-dropping moments: was it really Mob who despised and hated slaves?

In the next two hours, Kyon did a good day’s work, which left the other miners stunned again, and was ready to leave.

The new warden was scared of the strange boy, and yet, he should stand firm in his authority:

«Wait! The… the working day is not over yet!»

«I’ve done my quota of work for the day. What else?» – Kyon snapped.

«It’s… It is not allowed to hang around the mine without a warden! It’s… It is punishable.» – The poor warden stuttered. Then he met Kyon’s narrowed glance and lost all his desire to “show who is the boss here.” Basil shuddered and made a couple of steps back, waving his hands as if taking his words back.

«I’ll be over there.»

Kyon walked around and turned into a dead-end hallway. He made himself comfortable on the more or less clean ground to practice the elements in peace. He gave mental orders to his soul, but nothing happened. Then he stimulated the motor neurons, and at some point, the keys started spinning. It would take an average person a month of practice to do that.

{Huh, it’s like moving a new body part, or more precisely, nine body parts!}

With each turn, the nine keys sucked in a little energy from the atmosphere and sent it through the channels to the soul. {That’s what it means to be neutrally-charged!}

Each sphere-key resembled a snowball with energy swirling around and gradually moving through the channels into the soul.

Kyon didn’t have to focus on the process. It happened by itself.

He experimented for 40 minutes and found out that the keys had a specific absorption rate, which could not be exceeded. Quick recovery required a high density of neutral energy of his grade. There was no other way. Kyon had read that spheres of crystallized energy were used as money in this world. With their help, he could speed up energy absorption to the maximum possible rate.

The 10th key worked quite differently. It didn’t swirl but released Synergy through sheer willpower.

At some point, Kyon had filled his soul with neutral energy to the top of his head. It felt like his soul was a balloon filled with air. It was his energy now, working to his advantage.

When he mastered the process of neutral energy absorption, Kyon went on to release it. He fiddled with the keys and found out that they released energy if rotated in the opposite direction.

Kyon turned the keys backward and felt something prickly, slimy, and, at the same time, steamlike flowing out of his soul.

It was a mesmerizing feeling of gradual soul depletion.