Bring up all the knowledge weve bought a part of due to limited SP, Aron ordered, rubbing his hands together like a kid on Christmas morning. He had forgotten that he was now the emperor of an empire that had only been founded less than twenty hours ago. It was the most important moment of its existence, though it really didnt make much difference as he had a capable team of helpers and advisors that could keep things going for the time he would be absent.

[Yes, sir,] Nova excitedly said. She waved her hand, and a list of Arons partially acquired knowledges popped up on a virtual screen in front of him.

[Tractor and Repulsor Beams, tier 1

Used to maneuver objects to and from the power source. Particularly useful in places unsuited to humans, such as deep space or other hostile environments.

It was discovered as a matter of necessity by a member of a dragonoid race that has since been wiped out due to needing to move his lair after an enemy took over his territory. Upon discovering the convenience provided by the magical technique, it was later given to the dragonoids servants to develop a technological alternative for those incapable of using mana for use in the construction of the new lair.]

Well need this for capturing asteroids and other mining operations, Aron said as he brought up his system interface and purchased the remainder of the knowledge.

[Energy Weapons, tier 1]

[Psionic Shielding, tier 1

When the peaceful Xyronian system was invaded by the expansionist Zyraliths, they were forced to develop this defensive technology to protect themselves from the invaders psionic abilities and weaponry. Once the technology spread, the much larger Zyralith empire collapsed under the weight of rebellion as their mind-controlled and brainwashed slave races broke free of their shackles and rose up against their oppressors.]

Aron promptly moved it to the systems shopping cart and moved to the next knowledge he had been eyeing for quite some time.

[Spatial lock, tier 1

Creates localized temporal stasis fields, preventing spatial movement or changes to the environment within the field. As long as power is continuously provided to it, nothing will be allowed into, or out of, the locked space without spending more energy than is being provided to the stasis field.]

Just like that, nearly all of his sp disappeared.

And now, we wait. Aron looked at the remaining knowledges on his wishlist and winced at the price tags. He needed to hurry up the distribution and adoption of the technology he had in order to give his researchers time to familiarize themselves with the system purchases before the visitors arrived. Maturing the technology was important; just because he could use it as is after purchasing it didnt mean he would be considered an expert in it. Experience was important, after all.

Up until this point, the knowledge he had bought from the system had mostly been things that were already being worked on by humanity, like controlled nuclear fusion, or logical advances in already-existing technology, like atomic printers. But he had experienced for himself just how difficult it was to develop on those technologies. While fusion generators were relatively easy, given humanitys existing body of research and experiments with tokamak and stellarator reactors, iterating on the atomic printers had proven far more difficult. With the time dilation in Lab City set to 100:1, it had taken the equivalent of centuries just for the researchers to figure out how to build atomic printers in different shapes and sizes, and they had yet to even begin to improve on the tech itself.

It clearly showed how important it was to incorporate the knowledge Aron bought and make it their own. That was one of the main reasons he wasnt constantly buying newer, shinier knowledge to use and had instead focused on developing his own advancements based on human ingenuity.

Turning to Nova, he asked, Hows Research City coming?

Research City was a copy of Lab City that was intended for public usage. It had all of the facilities and capabilities of Lab City, but was in the public area of the simulation, thus limiting its time dilation to the 2:1 ratio.

[Most of the scientists and experts we invited were also among the first to adopt the long-stay VR Medpods. And nearly all of them accepted our offer. What researcher would turn down unlimited budgets? I expect the acceptance rate to be around 93%. There will be a few holdouts here and there, primarily due to ideological differences or conflicts with you personally or one of your companies,] she replied, bringing up a list of invitees sorted by those who had already accepted the offer, those who would likely accept the offer in the near future, and those who would likely decline.

Those who had already accepted the invitation to Research City had notes next to their names about what they were currently working on; most of their work so far had been carrying out experiments theyd always wanted to do in reality but had been unable to do, either for lack of time, budget, or material resources. There were a few, though, that had been actively running old, classified, experiments in an attempt to disprove what they saw as shameless boasting on Arons part about the simulation being true to reality.

But that didnt matter; Arons true research base was still and would forever be the original Lab City. Research City was meant as a front to explain where the new developments would come from. He had set aside all of the gold facilities that, in Lab City, were focused on mana and mana-related research to act as a skunkworks where most of the actual advancements would come out of. And though that was Research Citys primary purpose, if Aron were pressed, he would admit that it was also a slight compensation to the scientists and researchers he had recreated in Lab City for stealing the achievements that could have been theirs.

[Currently, Research City has 300,000 researchers across all fields, with levels ranging all over the academic spectrum. There are Nobel Prize laureates mixed with university freshmen, and theres even two high school students working there.]

I suddenly felt a bit of weight lift off my chest there, Nova, Aron said. His guilt over the wholesale academic theft had always been in his subconscious mind, and now that it had been alleviated, at least partially, he was feeling much more optimistic, though he had no idea why.

[Youve been feeling guilty, sir,] she explained. [By giving the experts free and unfettered access to Research City, youre partially repaying them for stealing their potential future achievements in the past. Even though most of those achievements wouldnt have been made possible in their lifetimes, there was still a price to pay. And now youve paid it, so of course youll feel better.]

Thanks, Aron said, feeling quite a bit better and more upbeat.