Not everyone was happy with the recent advancements. There was one group in particular that took a page from the 19th-century Luddite movement in England and actively opposed the empires VR technology. They preached that the simulation was actually nothing more than a temptation that was connected to hell and that Aron was the devil himself. Thus, in order to avoid having to interact with it, they grouped together and lived in communes with each other, referring to themselves as neo-Luddites and ostensibly seeking nothing more than to live sustainably without persecution from the empire.

But the relatively small neo-Luddite movement, along with others who held beliefs along the same lines, didnt even dent the number of people rushing to enter the simulation. By the time martial law had been lifted, the ratio was clear: nearly seven and a half billion people had adopted the VR hardware, or at least AR glasses, leaving only a hundred million or so that still refused to pick it up for various reasons.

Those who chose to opt out wrote letters to the government, waiving their citizenship and all of the rights and responsibilities that came with it, so Gaia merely canceled their subsidies and flagged them for low-priority monitoring by other means. If they truly rejected the empires technological advances, that would be fine. But if they had other thoughts in their minds and more sinister goals, they would need to be plucked as soon as possible. Still, she would give them a chance.

Either way, the empire officially declared the hardware distribution a success, marking it as the most successful product launch in the history of mankind.

Aron was in his favorite mansion in the real simulation having a small celebratory gathering of his inner circle as they watched the last few VR pods being delivered to their new owners.

[Your Majesty, its time to prepare to issue your first imperial orders once the last few pods are delivered...] Gaia began as she turned to Aron, but then trailed off as she saw that he seemed to have completely frozen in place.

Nova, who was monitoring his condition in the real world, immediately understood what was happening and used her authority over the simulation to teleport everyone else out of the room they were in. Once only the two of them remained, she activated the mana transformer and brought the two extra fusion reactors connected to his pod to full power output.

The electricity generated by the reactors ran through the overvoltage cable to the mana transformer and was converted to pure mana, which then flooded into his VR pod. It would send a signal beacon to the incoming visitorsas well as anyone else who happened to be looking in their directionbut it couldnt be helped.

The mana entering the pod was immediately sucked into Arons body like it was falling into a black hole before it could even condense into a mist, let alone a liquid form.

Before Aron had frozen, Nova heard the chiming of a bell and saw a single prompt from his system before the connection she had to his continuously updated brain data was severed by a much, much higher power.

[Ding! Second requirement has been met!]

......

The moment the last willing person received and logged into VR.

[Ding!]

[You have become the sole leader of your species and sold a product to more than 90% of them. Second evolution requirement fulfilled!]

[User is deemed to be in a safe location. Undergoing second evolution in 3... 2... 1.]

[Evolution beginning.]

Those were the last things Aron saw before the system forcefully put him into a coma. Once it had determined he was in a safe location, the runic inscriptions on his heart came to life and emitted a brilliant gold light that penetrated his pod, the room it was in, and every other obstacle in its way, announcing to all who could see it that a mage was undergoing an evolution to a higher state of being.

A few miles away, Arons family was having dinner in their home on Avalon Island when Henry suddenly looked up from his plate and turned his head in the direction of the Cube. His eyes flashed gold and he smiled happily, having quite correctly guessed that something good must be happening to his big brother.

Rose noticed Henrys distraction and said, Henry, your foods getting cold. It was a gentle reminder for the boy to focus on eating.

Yes, mom, he replied and the gold hue faded from his eyes as he turned back to his meal.

Back in the secure pod vault in the Cube, Nova calmly observed Arons situation. Through her mana sensors, she saw an enormous mana vortex forming above the building and relaxed. What must come would come, and worrying would do nothing but cause problems; she had learned her lesson after letting Rina be attacked after Arons previous evolution and wouldnt make the same mistake twice.

Fuck me with a rusty wooden telephone pole, Staff Sergeant Enrico Iglesia couldnt help but curse. He was formerly a member of the Second Ranger Battalion out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State, which was one of the test beds of all the Army and Air Forces new toys. But nothing hed ever seen there had even remotely prepared him for what was in the armory in front of him now.

Thank god they showed us mercy, he said when he recovered from his shock. Judging by the hardware in front of him, he had realized that during The Last War, ARES had actually pulled their punches.

A former Navy SEAL gave a low whistle beside him. Damn, imagine if we had this during the bin Laden raid, he said. As a sniper himself, he had practically wet himself when he saw the pulse rifle in front of him. Judging by the info attached to it, the range was yes.

And this is just the chump gear, Enrico added. I wonder what the reapers use.

His friend turned to him with a smile and asked, Are you thinking what Im thinking?

Yeah, Im wondering how they select their specfor. I want to be one... after all, I might as well aim for the top.

Competitions gonna be fierce, the SEAL replied, looking at the hundreds of thousands of campaign tents in the encampment in front of him. I bet at least ten million of those guys are thinking exactly the same thing.

You miss all the shots you dont take, my friend. Enrico was determined to make his name as an ARES Reaper.