Six months later.A full half-year of intensive planning, negotiations, amendments, and rework inside the Conclave's VR, translating to over a decade’s worth of accelerated time, finally bore fruit. The final plan, after countless revisions and compromises, had been unanimously accepted by all participating civilizations. Every representative, regardless of their status or influence, walked away satisfied with the outcome, marking a rare moment of total consensus in Conclave history.Yet, during this time, the empire had not remained idle or overly focused on diplomacy alone. It had worked in parallel, quietly and efficiently, laying the groundwork for the implementation phase. By the time the final plan was ready, the empire had already amassed a massive stockpile of mana stones, enough to power the creation of the first round of wormholes across the Conclave. Alongside that, thousands of tower stations had been preassembled and were ready to deploy.More significantly, the empire ha

"I never signed up for this," thought the man, standing stiffly among a packed crowd inside a sterile, well-lit room.He had joined the pirate crew barely three months ago, hoping for a fresh start after giving up on finding peace on his home planet. Now, he found himself waiting in line, waiting for a torture session dedicated to victims he had never even met.He hadn’t done anything yet. When he joined, the pirates were in a quiet period between raids, gathering intelligence, waiting for vigilance to die down after their last attack. He had never participated in any crimes. Never killed. Never even boarded a ship.Yet none of that mattered now.As an enhanced interrogation specialist once said, the most painful part of torture wasn’t the torture itself, it was the waiting. The anxiety. The knowledge that pain was coming, but not knowing exactly when.He could feel it: the terror that made his muscles cramp, made his breath catch. His body tried to find a release, and he shook violen

“Within the last month, we have managed to reach 172 billion Conclave users, with over fifty billion being concurrent,” Sarah reported, addressing the Emperor, the heads of the three ministries, and the directors of the imperial agencies during a topic-specific Imperial Council meeting. This session had been called to review the progress made in the first month of the expansion campaign.The room remained quiet, but their expressions betrayed the storm of thoughts behind their composed façades. Although they had expected the Conclave to hold staggering numbers, no one had anticipated a figure of this magnitude, and worse, it wasn’t even ten percent of the entire Conclave population. They had only deployed VR towers and wormholes across roughly eight percent of the total territory during the first phase. And that figure didn’t even account for the people in already-covered zones who still hadn’t received their VR devices, either because the allotted free units had already been claimed

Nova, who had been silently observing Aron as he went through documents related to the empire for approval, couldn’t help but notice the persistent smile on his face. It had been there for quite some time and showed no signs of fading.“What is it?” Aron asked when he looked up and saw her standing there, just staring at him.{I was trying to deduce what made you smile,} she responded, her gaze unbroken, clearly indicating that another instance of her was continuing the deduction in parallel.“So, did you find it?” he asked as he signed the final document, finishing his empire-related workload for the day.{I’m down to the final few possibilities, but I’m leaning toward either the joint project with the Conclave going well or a developmental update from one of our little protagonists, Dreznor, specifically,} Nova replied, her tone confident as she added, {So, which one is it?}“You’re half right about the joint project,” Aron said, sliding the final folder aside. “But the reason isn’t

Although the invasion had initially sparked widespread panic and desperate escape attempts, the immobilized ships floating helplessly in orbit served as a grim warning: there was no way out. The message spread quickly, and no one else dared try to flee.Life under a near-feudal leadership had taught the populace to adapt quickly to shifts in power. So, when it became clear the invaders weren’t targeting civilians, the general panic began to fade. Still, the people remained wary, choosing to stay hidden. The invading forces had made their intentions clear by targeting only military and leadership structures, but that didn’t guarantee that the civilians wouldn’t be next once the bigger threats were dealt with.It had now been seven days since the fighting started, and the sounds of battle had nearly vanished. The once-frenzied skies were now calm. Yet, no declaration of victory had been made, no broadcasts, no announcements, not even rumors. The silence weighed heavily on everyone. No o