The morning at the Southern Imperial Ministry did not start with the sound of the old bronze bells. Instead the three hundred minor clerks and regional revenue collectors heard a rhythmic clicking sound coming from twenty-four transmission pylons around the central fountain. These pylons were made of star-iron and wrapped in fine silver wires and they were sending the Vanguard Syndicates pricing index directly into the air bypassing the ministrys old display boards. Maren Vance stood at the edge of the ledger deck wearing her grey wool coat closed against the damp morning air. She was moving her fingers slowly across a rectangular charcoal slate looking at the numbers that showed how grain and construction timber were moving across the regional transit gates. The local lords had been trying to control the supply of food hiding their rice in mountain vaults to make the price go up. The lords have hidden eighty-four thousand tons of food in the mountain silos Maren reported, not lookin

The notification on the floor of the directory pavilion was still. It was like a calm lake. The golden light from it made a reflection on the black walls. The white network arrays had been working perfectly for a while. They did not. Get damaged. Instead they started working in a way. They began to follow the instructions from the main developer.Orin Clay was standing behind his wooden desk. His eyes were wide open and not moving. He was watching as the northern manufacturing assets were being changed. The core inside him was working fast. It was like a powerful computer.. It was not following his instructions. It was following the instructions from the developer.The central monitoring console was showing the instructions on the floor. It said that the master system override was active. It said that all the capital was locked and that the taxation system was frozen. The system was working at one hundred percent. Its goal was to synchronize all the ledgers with the main account.Sila

The computer rooms primary refinery vault did not get back to normal after a problem happened. The shiny gold data paths that controlled the master developer override sequence lost their color. Turned grey like the surrounding mountain bedrock. Orin Clays internal computer core inside his body went into a mode trying to prevent the space-time around him from collapsing.Orin stood at the edge of the steel walkway his silver eyes fixed on Founder Clays darkening body. His internal computer systems were trying to find a way to connect with a command from the Zero Tier Heavens. The methods that had helped the syndicate take control of the creator lineages did not work against a deletion code that targeted the basic laws of existence.A terminal on the floor showed a countdown:LOGISTICAL LOCKOUT MONITORINGSystem status: Deletion script active. Total capital reserves being erased: four trillion units. System efficiency: zero percent. Objective: Preserve the directory baseline.Silas Wrig

The black text on the floor was not moving. The main computer was trying to understand what was happening. The whole system was slowing down. This was causing problems for the network.The Level 9 Transcendental Restructurer Core inside Orin Clay was working hard. It was trying to keep everything running smoothly.. It was not easy. The system was coming to a stop.Orin Clay was standing behind his desk. He was looking at the text on the floor. It was changing the way the system worked. The information that he used to get was not coming in anymore.The computer on the wall was showing what was happening. The system was not working like it should. The money from all the worlds was being put into one place. The system was not able to do its job.The goal now was to find out who was in charge.Silas Wright was standing next to Orin Clay. He was not moving. His special glasses were not working right. The air in the room was getting thinner.The ships outside were not responding. They were

The external processing pavilion was changing from a testing terminal to a sorting center under the Vanguard options standard. This was happening at a pace that was not normal. Orin Clay was standing still watching the data on the screens. His eyes were on the data needles as they mapped the asset folders of the universal clusters. The developer keys he had added to his system were running checks to make sure everything was correct. They were taking away the security masks from the sovereign networks.The floor beneath Orin Clays cloak was not shining anymore. It had become a grey color that did not reflect any light. The spheres that were floating in the air were not working. They were frozen by the taxation nodes. The monitoring panel above the rosewood desk was showing the status of the acquisition in text.System status matrix update: consolidation protocol entering phase three under Owner Orin Clay. Total multiversal asset pools currently managed within the central options ledger