As the founding of the European Union was finally recognized by the system, the world around everyone suddenly turned blank.
The grand parliament halls, the balconies, the endless speeches, and even the sound of breathing vanished in an instant.
Every soul connected to the newly reestablished nation felt itself gently pulled away before consciousness faded entirely.
The system had placed them into a form of temporal stasis while waiting for the rest of humanity to complete their own national recognition.
Unsurprisingly, however, the process did not go smoothly for the rest of the world.
To save time, the system had copied the already existing legal structures of every nation directly into the founding process.
All governments needed to do was confirm their laws, sign the documents, and officially establish themselves under the system.
Simple in theory. Absolutely disastrous in practice.
The moment politicians realized they were effectively rewriting the foundations of their nations in the eyes of the entire population, greed immediately appeared.
Arin's earlier suspicion about coups had not been wrong at all.
Many people had considered taking power for themselves during the confusion surrounding the founding ceremonies.
Violence, however, was quickly dismissed as suicidal.
Too many people were watching.
Too many factions existed already.
And perhaps most importantly, nobody wanted to discover how the system itself would react to open rebellion during an official founding ceremony.
So instead of force, ambitious politicians turned toward something far safer. Words.
After all, if the laws were already open for revision…
Then surely a few "small adjustments" for the good of the people could not hurt, right?
That was the excuse nearly all of them used as they attempted to quietly secure more authority for themselves.
And unfortunately for them, the system apparently had an excellent sense of humor.
Because while the system allowed modifications, it also made every discussion publicly visible to the citizens of the nation involved.
Which meant millions of people were forced to watch their politicians use increasingly ridiculous and flowery language to justify granting themselves "temporary emergency authority," "national stabilization powers," or "expanded executive flexibility."
The worst part was the expressions on their faces.
It was incredibly difficult to sound noble and selfless while suppressing a greedy smile.
As a result, nearly half the nations on Earth became trapped in endless legal arguments during their founding process.
Some governments delayed themselves for days because politicians kept trying to sneak additional privileges into the system-approved laws.
The citizens watching from home were not amused.
Honestly, the entire spectacle became almost comedic.
Every nation seemed to discover in real time just how shameless parts of their leadership truly were.
Some politicians managed to secure more influence for themselves.
Others completely destroyed their careers before their nations had even officially formed.
Whether those people would still possess seats of power after humanity returned to Earth remained highly questionable.
The system itself did not seem particularly interested in morality so long as humanity followed the rules.
But citizens were another matter entirely.
And angry citizens tended to remember things.
The religious factions around the world experienced even greater difficulties.
Unlike normal nations, many major religions suddenly realized they lacked the official structure required to establish themselves as countries under the system.
Only a few existing theocracies could satisfy the requirements needed for nation recognition.
Among the most notable examples were Iran and the Vatican.
Both nations were already internationally recognized states and fulfilled enough system conditions to qualify as countries.
That gave them enormous advantages during the restructuring process.
But those advantages immediately created entirely new political disasters afterward.
Especially regarding citizenship.
The Vatican became a particularly massive headache.
Technically, many of its citizens originated from entirely different countries.
Which meant governments around the world suddenly discovered that parts of their population now legally belonged to another recognized nation entirely.
Needless to say, most countries were not thrilled by that revelation.
Meanwhile, the larger world religions that failed to qualify as countries were forced to adapt rapidly.
Instead of becoming nations, they had to register themselves as religious factions under the system.
That process came with far fewer benefits but also avoided many of the political complications tied to statehood.
Even so, countless religious leaders spent the founding ceremonies arguing endlessly over doctrine, authority, and leadership.
By the time the chaos finally settled, nearly every government on Earth had experienced some form of political struggle.
Some ended in compromise.
Some ended in victory for certain factions.
And others simply resulted in bitter stalemates that everyone silently agreed to revisit later.
Eventually, however, the process finally concluded.
The nations were established.
The factions were registered.
And one by one, every human soul on Earth lost consciousness within the system's stasis chambers.
Then humanity returned home.
Bodies and souls alike were transported back to Earth simultaneously.
Billions of people awakened across the globe expecting to find the exact same world they had left eleven months earlier.
After all, the system had explicitly stated that the true planetary expansion would not begin for another month.
Technically speaking… that statement had been true.
But humanity quickly discovered that "nothing changing" was apparently a matter of interpretation.
Because while the world itself had not expanded yet, Earth had still undergone dramatic transformation during humanity's absence.
The system had spent nearly the entire trial period preparing the planet for what was to come.
Mana pathways had been opened across the globe.
Natural energy flows had been restored and strengthened everywhere.
And the result was breathtaking.
If someone viewed Earth from space now, the planet no longer looked like the same blue marble humanity remembered.
It somehow appeared… healthier.
More vibrant.
More alive.
The oceans shimmered with unnatural clarity.
The forests stretched wider and greener than before.
Even the atmosphere itself carried a strange brilliance that made the planet seem almost luminous.
It was subtle, yet impossible to ignore once noticed.
Human structures, surprisingly, remained perfectly intact.
Cities, roads, satellites, vehicles, and homes had not suffered any visible damage despite being abandoned for nearly a full year.
In fact, many objects looked oddly preserved, almost as if time itself had protected them from decay.
Which, in a way, was exactly what had happened.
Human civilization had unconsciously shielded its creations through cultural energy.
The billions of lingering traces humanity left behind had prevented mana from tearing modern structures apart during the planet's preparation phase.
Without that protection, much of humanity's technology likely would have already collapsed before anyone returned.
Mother Gaia had clearly been careful with her children's creations.
But the greatest change by far involved pollution.
Humanity had spent centuries poisoning the planet with chemicals, plastics, toxic waste, and industrial runoff.
While technology had eventually solved major threats like global warming, many lesser environmental problems remained unresolved simply because fixing them was inconvenient or unprofitable.
Humanity had learned to tolerate filth so long as civilization continued functioning.
Mother Gaia, however, did not share that tolerance.
Once mana flooded the planet freely again, the Earth System simply began breaking down pollutants on a global scale.
Plastics crumbled apart.
Chemical contaminants dissolved harmlessly into base components.
Toxic smog vanished from the skies.
Because unlike naturally formed materials, most human pollutants relied heavily on artificially stabilized structures.
And mana excelled at destroying unstable bonds lacking proper cultural protection.
The result was almost miraculous.
The planet itself had effectively cleansed its own wounds.
The world could breathe again.
Mana flowed across mountains, rivers, forests, and oceans like invisible currents finally freed after centuries of obstruction.
Many famous natural landmarks began to awaken under the renewed concentrations of energy.
Ancient rivers shimmered faintly beneath moonlight.
Mountains developed absurdly dense mana pools deep within their cores.
Of course, cities still possessed the highest overall mana concentrations on Earth.
That was unavoidable.
Mana naturally gathered around cultural energy, and nowhere produced more of it than massive population centers filled with human civilization.
Billions of emotions, dreams, fears, ambitions, and memories acted like magnets.
But there was a catch.
While cities contained enormous amounts of mana overall, they also contained enormous numbers of people competing for it.
The amount available per individual was therefore surprisingly limited despite the dense concentration.
Natural treasures, meanwhile, operated very differently.
Places like the Crimson Forest possessed far smaller populations but abundant environmental mana.
The Crimson Forest itself became an excellent example of that balance.
Fewer than two hundred people lived within its territory, yet the surrounding mana density far exceeded that of ordinary wilderness.
The forest naturally generated energy through its environment while also drawing in civilization-based mana through the Sonneberg family's presence.
The result created ideal training conditions.
In comparison, nearby cities possessed vastly greater total mana reserves but distributed across millions of people simultaneously.
There was more power overall, yet far less freedom to absorb it peacefully.
Every cultivator, fighter, craftsman, and faction member competed endlessly for resources in urban areas.
Meanwhile, treasured lands became priceless strategic assets.
Naturally, factions moved quickly to secure such territories.
Ancient forests, sacred rivers, hidden valleys, mountain ranges, and historic locations all skyrocketed in value almost overnight, even more than they already had.
These places would become the future training grounds of humanity's elites.
And everyone understood that immediately.
But none of that mattered in the first moments after humanity returned.
Because when the billions of human souls awakened once more upon Earth…
Mother Gaia felt complete again.
Civilization had returned to her surface.
Humanity was home.
The moment cultural energy began flowing across the planet once more, the Earth itself seemed to sigh in relief.
And somewhere deep beneath the surface of reality, the sleeping consciousness of the world smiled warmly at its children.
A feeling every human on Earth somehow sensed instinctively.
It was not a voice.
Nor was it words.
Just a gentle warmth spreading through the soul.
A quiet feeling of belonging.
Welcome home.
And in return, humanity smiled back.