"Don't underestimate this thing." Makiya held up the Arc Reactor, the azure light illuminating his face. "Its output can reach 4 billion joules per second. Do you know what that means? This thing in my hand is enough to power a small city."
Stark had hand-built a reactor in a cave with missile scraps that output 3 billion joules per second, but Tony's design was the latest version, an optimized model upgraded multiple times by Stark Industries. The blueprints Makiya got from the Vankos were the original version; 4 billion joules per second was already the theoretical limit.
Iris swallowed hard and said somewhat incoherently, "Master, let's go into the energy industry! Why make games when we have this? We could make a fortune in the energy sector!"
With technology's current development, society had long since become inseparable from energy. The application of electricity reached every corner of life. The Arc Reactor was tiny and portable with a massive power output. If it could be applied on a large scale, it would surely replace traditional fossil fuels, rendering the fuel properties of oil and coal obsolete.
"You're trying to get me to go on a killing spree," Makiya smiled and patted Iris's head. "While I'm not afraid of those corporate conglomerates, making money isn't my goal. For now, let's focus on finishing the virtual reality game."
Iris was obedient to Makiya and immediately nodded. "Yes, Master."
"Hiss, watch your teeth!"
In the underground server room, Makiya lay on a bed and placed a special light-gray helmet on his head, connecting the power and flipping the switch.
This helmet was the device used for a user's full immersion into the virtual world, a successor to the NERvGear from the Sword Art Online world, though Makiya had given it several supernatural modifications.
Having shared the data capabilities of the NPC version of himself, he didn't actually need a helmet to connect to the network. Right now, he was simply testing the helmet's functionality.
Within the virtual world, a golden seed was growing vigorously.
It was also a product of the Sword Art Online world called 'The Seed.' After the first stage of the original story ended, the entire game transformed into a virtual world seed. Whoever obtained it could use it as a foundation to develop their own virtual world.
NPC Makiya had copied a version when he left the game world. Being a data life form himself, such a feat was as simple as breathing for his enhanced self.
Makiya copied the data from his memories directly into the server. After gaining administrative control, he stopped interfering. 'The Seed' grew freely, its own data expanding continuously under the supply of ample computing power. Unsurprisingly, it grew into the game world of SAO.
Makiya floated in the sky, looking at the colossal floating continent in the distance: Aincrad. He silently pulled up the console.
Aincrad looked like a floating city with a total of one hundred floors. Each floor was an entirely new world; defeating the floor boss allowed players to ascend to the next level.
The original setting was a Western fantasy world, but Makiya used the console to constantly modify it, overturning all the skills and cultivation systems inside to replace them with what he wanted.
After Units 1 through 5 received their inheritances, they had all practiced diligently. Through Makiya's observations and the feedback from the contracts, he discovered that the internal power systems of traditional martial arts were the most suitable for widespread cultivation. Once the base number of practitioners grew large enough, the power fed back to him would definitely be substantial.
Therefore, the most widespread and basic supernatural power in the virtual world was set to the Wuxia cultivation system—the kind available just by signing the basic player agreement (contract). Completing tasks from the starter village elders could even grant upgraded versions of the manuals. The ceiling wasn't high, but it was certainly far beyond that of ordinary humans.
Furthermore, internal power could be transferred through certain techniques, effectively turning supernatural power into a tradable commodity. Makiya could rely on the contracts to take a processing fee from these transactions, as long as he managed the scale properly.
Next was the DNF Mistress class practiced by Unit 4. A power that cultivated by absorbing human original sin flourished in this environment; it was harder not to grow stronger. A simple stroll outside resulted in a full harvest, feeding back a massive amount of demonic energy to Makiya.
Unit 4 had now become a celebrity in Hell's Kitchen. Because of her ruthless methods and provocative attire, her fame had surpassed that of the veteran superhero Daredevil in an instant, making her the top star of Hell's Kitchen. A swarm of reporters hovered like vultures, lurking in every alley and corner of Hell's Kitchen just to snap a single beautiful photo of Unit 4.
However, the ceiling for the Mistress was a bit high, as she could eventually grow into a six-winged angel. Makiya had to be cautious with the release of this class, setting it as a hidden class and only releasing one for a small group.
Other DNF classes were also excellent and served well as hidden classes in the virtual game. Makiya set them up as random encounter points, hidden within various dungeons to wait for the destined. Once obtained, signing an advanced player agreement (contract) would allow cultivation.
The Ninjutsu practiced by Unit 2 was also very suitable. From the perspective of destructive power and physical attributes, the Chakra system could serve as an upgrade to the internal power system, to be opened after players cleared the first few floors of the world.
The Soul Reaper spiritual pressure system practiced by Unit 3 progressed the slowest. Theoretically, she had infinite time to cultivate slowly, but Makiya obviously couldn't wait for such a sluggish pace, so he didn't consider it for now.
Makiya also didn't plan to spread the Taimanin magic system practiced by Unit 1. This system was simply too broken; because everyone's physical constitution differed, they could likely awaken strange and bizarre innate abilities, such as time-based or rule-based powers. The risk of this system was too high. Even the God of Demons in the original work had met with disaster; Makiya's current strength couldn't compare to the God of Demons, so he couldn't afford to be too reckless.
Having made up his mind, Makiya began remodeling the world of Aincrad according to his ideas. The speed of his thought-driven operations was incredibly fast. Even though the workload was massive, Makiya divided his consciousness into a hundred parts, and in less than a week, he had finished modifying the first thirty floors.
Next was finding beta testers. Thanks to the ubiquitous network of modern society, Makiya sent special pop-up windows to all sorts of people across various social classes.
Students, blue and white-collar workers, executives, the elderly, children... many people using their phones, computers, or watching TV suddenly had their attention drawn by a pop-up:
"'Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to... truly live?'"
Clicking either YES or OR would default to obtaining testing eligibility. For the few sweethearts who clicked OR, Makiya would even send out a mysterious gift in the game.
The first batch of slots was limited to three thousand. Before they achieved success in their cultivation, Makiya didn't intend to promote his game yet. However, there were no restrictions in the contract against revealing game content. Given the boastful nature of Americans, it would spread within a few days. He would then assess the situation to guide public opinion and coordinate with promotional releases.
In Hell's Kitchen, night fell.
After a busy day, Lawyer Murdock dragged his exhausted body back to his home. During the day, he had fought a battle of words in court, but the opposing legal team had been extremely professional and exploited a loophole, resulting in the perpetrator being released without charge. This made Matt extremely frustrated.
It was precisely because of this that he chose to become Daredevil, using his own methods in the darkness to punish the scum who escaped legal sanctions.
After returning home and hastily finishing dinner, Matt intended to change into his uniform and head out to work when he suddenly noticed a powerful aura rapidly approaching.
'Have I been exposed?' Matt quickly stripped off his Daredevil suit, changed back into ordinary loungewear, and pretended to be a truly blind man, sipping tea from a cup in his home.
"Tsk, you're putting on quite a show." A pleasant female voice came from outside the window. A second later, Matt 'saw' a charming and sexy woman appear in the room.
The woman had exquisite and sexy features, wearing a black backless long dress that looked somewhat like an evening gown. Her long legs in black stockings were enough to make anyone want to steal a kiss, but the massive wide-bladed scythe strapped to her back looked like a weapon of the Grim Reaper, inspiring awe and dread.
The woman's face was completely uncovered, openly displaying her true appearance. However, even after countless media outlets dug deep, they hadn't been able to find this woman's specific origins; it was as if she had appeared out of thin air.
Matt recognized her; he knew the woman before him was the newly famous superhero in Hell's Kitchen.
"Please, who are you? Why are you in my house?" Matt put on a look of panic, just like a truly blind man, nervously reaching out to find the blind cane beside him.
"Enough, the Oscars owe you a golden trophy." Unit 4 rolled her eyes, took off the game helmet from her back, and tossed it into Matt's arms. "You probably haven't thrown away the activation code yet, right? This helmet doesn't need charging. Just put it on after turning it on. My advice is to find a comfortable position to lie down before playing, otherwise, you'll feel pretty sore after logging off."
Having finished, Unit 4 walked to the window, stepped onto the sill with her long legs, and said with a smile, "I've delivered my Master's message. Whether you play or not is up to you. Farewell."
Before her voice had finished echoing in the room, her figure had already disappeared into the night.
Matt sat quietly for a moment. After confirming she had left, he relaxed his tense body slightly and carefully inspected the helmet, only to find he couldn't understand a thing.
It made sense that he couldn't; after Makiya had produced this helmet using the machine production line from the Machine Emperor, he had further modified it using weapon-refining techniques combined with alchemy. It would be a miracle if anyone could understand it.
'A game... oh, it's that man who calls himself the founder of Future Technology.' Matt recalled Makiya's figure. In his 'vision,' Makiya looked like an ordinary person no matter how he looked at him. Furthermore, the chairman of Future Technology wasn't him, but a woman named Iris.
But Makiya's behavior was completely unrelated to that of an ordinary person. The title used by that new superhero just now made Matt even more concerned; the word 'Master' was far from normal.
This whole matter reeked of strangeness. After thinking it over, Matt decided to take the risk and enter this virtual reality game to see exactly what was going on.
Siberia.
The Vanko father and son finally waited for the technical handover personnel Makiya had mentioned. After watching the two sign the documents, Iris handed two helmets to them.
In the Middle East, Afghanistan, the desert near the Gulmira region.
Because of the victory of 'freedom and democracy,' the people here had driven out the dictator, only to usher in long-term chaos and war.
Resources near the desert were scarce, and gangs of all sizes ruled as local warlords, with the Ten Rings holding a dominant advantage over most of the territory.
A small branch of the Ten Rings was entrenched near the desert, their base established in a cave.
One day, the middle-aged, balding doctor kidnapped by the gang, Ho Yinsen, suddenly noticed that something was wrong with the bulky television in front of him. The program that had been broadcasting disappeared, and the screen was filled with static.
A medical doctor couldn't fix TV signal issues. He reached out and slapped the side of the television. The signal seemed to return to normal, and a line of text appeared on the screen:
"'Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to... truly live?'"