Chapter 1061: Shining Examples

Chapter 1061: Shining Examples

“Hey, big boss guy!” I heard a voice calling out to me as I was walking the halls of Olympus, preparing to head out for another training excursion. Turning my head, I saw the Terra twins standing perfectly straight in the hallway, wearing matching light blue dresses.

“I swear if you ask me to go play with you...” I said with a twitching eye, the two girls tilting their heads to look at me in confusion.

“The girl upstairs said that we needed to tell you something!” The one on the left started, the other nodding her head and continuing.

“They’re coming.”

“...That’s not ominous at all. Who’s coming? What’s coming? When are they coming?” I couldn’t quite make sense of what the two were talking about, but the twins smiled in unison. Of course, their next few words were certainly nothing to smile about.

“The memetic monsters. They’re coming. A lot of them.”

My eyes widened, and I turned to fully face them, a serious look on my face. “Explain.”

“Big girl upstairs says they’re hungry. And when a predator is hungry, they go to where the food is. It’s not just Earth... any inhabited world, anywhere with civilization, culture, conscious minds... they’re coming.”

“We just came from solving a security breach in Earth’s deep space observatory. One of them cut in line. Infected a researcher doing a deep space scan, and made him bash his head into the wall to draw a blood eye. Once enough people had been infected, it manifested in the base.”Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com

I brought my hand up to massage my temples. “How many are there, and how long do we have?”

“For Earth?” The twins looked at each other. “Eight... nine, right?” One asked, the other nodding her head.

I let out a sigh of relief. “That’s not too bad--”

“Million?” The other added, making me choke on my words.

“Excuse me?” I opened my eyes wide. “Eight or nine million memetic beasts are approaching Earth?”

“Yeah!” One of the twins nodded her head. “They’re coming from all over the stars. Only the ones that feed on information are being drawn to Earth, though, so there are a lot more out there that eat other stuff.”

The other one smiled. “Oh yeah, it’s enough to really mess with general sensors. As for when they’ll get here... big girl thinks that the Hyperlane wall should slow them down, but she’s not sure how long. At their current speed, they’ll reach the wall in about two weeks.”

I took a deep breath when I heard that, closing my eyes. Dana... whatever project you are working on, put it on hold. I have something infinitely more urgent that I need you on, immediately.

There was only a brief moment before my shadow stretched out, Dana rising up from it. She turned, seeing the Terra twins, and blinked. “And me without a tricycle. So, what’s up, boss?” She asked, turning to look at me.

“Within two weeks, we need unmanned orbital defenses around every inhabited star system, capable of fighting against millions of memetic monsters.”

When I said that, Dana blinked. She lifted a hand, and then lowered it, opened her mouth, paused, and then just stared at me. “You need a miracle, so you call the only member of your staff that isn’t an actual deity?!”

Aerial: Yeah, not much going on on my end.

EarthForceOne: All of you should know about void monsters and memetic effects. Thanks to my last invasion, I’ve got swarms of monsters spawning in distant star systems. They’re local monsters, so they’re not from the void itself, but they have memetic properties.

EverLasting: Ohhh, I see where this is going.

OldBeard: You do?

EverLasting: Lemme guess, they’re swarming towards civilization?

EarthForceOne: I’m guessing you’ve dealt with this sort of thing before?

EverLasting: Yeah. It was the inspiration behind the Hyperlane Network that I put in Fragments of Acidia. Of course, to protect my personal security, I drastically reduced the effectiveness of the network in that game.

EarthForceOne: Which means that you probably don’t have the full thing listed on the market?

EverLasting: Afraid not.

EarthForceOne: Well, at the current rate things are going, the monsters will be here in about two weeks’ time. I’ve got my best person working on a countermeasure, but I was curious if there was any sort of system or device that would increase the odds.

Oldbeard: The only one I would think of is Restricted Zones. It’s a basic game system, and when you buy it you can designate zones, and what monsters are allowed within those zones. It works for a more controlled form of monster spawning, too. Unless you’re dealing with a rare monster, others won’t be able to enter a zone they’re not designated for.

EverLasting: Yeah, that’s a good one. Though, it only really works if you use it from the beginning of a world. Otherwise, but the time you set it up, there are so many random monsters running around, all in different level ranges, that it would take you years to get it running, even with help.

Aerial: I suppose mass smiting them isn’t an option?

EarthForceOne: There’s no guarantee that this is the only wave.

EverLasting: If it’s like what I had to deal with, then yeah, they’ll just keep coming so long as their spawn conditions don’t change. You said that you’ve got two weeks, right?

EarthForceOne: Local time, so... about twelve Standard days? If my math is right, at least.

EverLasting: Got it. Well, after five Standard days, let me know if you’ve got a working solution. If it doesn’t look like yours will make it in time, I’ll let you bring some of your best researchers over to study the full network barrier. That should give them enough time to add the critical components by the time you get back.

EarthForceOne: Thanks, I may need to take you up on that offer.

After finishing that conversation, I closed my eyes, sending a message to Sienna. In five Standard Days, let me know if your plan can be implemented in time. Otherwise, Sarah has offered to let us study the improved version of the Hyperlane Network that is built to repel monsters like that. It would be best if we can do it with our own methods, but let me know if that is not an option.

There was a brief delay as Sienna transferred the message to Dana, and then relayed the reply. That’s fine. There is the chance that the upgrade won’t be easily applied with the difference in magic systems, so she wants to settle this with our own methods, if she can.