Chapter 196 The Darkness Of The World
When he appeared, Dante found himself in the Vitality Pool of his base on Earth. He didn't rush to get out immediately but simply lay within, contemplating what he wanted to do now that he was back.
Dante found it amusing. Many of his friends and peers had been talking about the difficulties they faced in finding a reason to push forward in today's challenging world, where every meaningful resource seemed to have been divided up, and all that remained was a slice of the shared cake that had to be acquired forcefully.
Back then, because he had always had a clear idea of the life and future he wanted, he had secretly scoffed at their struggles while outwardly consoling them. Now, karma had decided to teach him a lesson as he found himself experiencing the same confusion they had felt.
Well, first things first, it was time to catch up on the updates from the home universe while he had been away. Dante began by checking on the Solaris AI and asked for an update on the Zero Gate.
"Master Dante, there have been significant changes in the area since you left. As the time for the Zero Gate to open annually approaches, weaker species have been driven away from the area where the Zero Energy emanates, in favor of factions and races that have come together to share the benefits," Solaris AI revealed prudently.
Dante narrowed his eyes. He had wondered if the 'backward' home universe would even notice that the Zero Gate could be entered during that period, but it seemed like they too had their period of trial and error.
"Continue monitoring and let me know what happens in real-time. I will be here for a while, so you can forward reports to me directly and not the base AI," Dante instructed before focusing on the reports from his android clone.
These reports weren't verbal but were conveyed through snippets of updates like a diary. When Dante saw that they were mostly green at first, then slowly became yellow, then red, his eyes turned cold, and he immediately leapt out of the pool.
Dante realized immediately why he was feeling unsettled without having a reason for it. He had been going along just fine until now, and he suddenly felt melancholic and emotional, wanting to come back here to check on his parents.
Dante wondered whether it was some sixth sense brought about by his high SDI or some hidden passive ability from his quantum entanglement that allowed him to feel certain things across spacetime.
Whatever the case, Dante was glad he came back. He immediately instructed the base to create 10 androids of peak strength and power, along with some basic nuclear weaponry and mostly electromagnetic weapons.
Dante himself did not wait for them and teleported to his apartment in the luxurious district, standing before what was now a ruined and blackened patch of land. That's right, the place he had gone into debt to rent had been blasted to pieces!
Dante looked around at the other houses nearby that had some damage and were now uninhabited. Even the entire affluent estate that was closed off to the world was now truly sealed by red tape.
It was ironic, wasn't it? When Dante had created the three AIs back then, his goal was to further humanity so that they could enter the galactic playing field with him at the helm. He had even used a very gentle method to achieve this, giving the carrot first before bringing the stick later.
However, he had underestimated humanity, especially the elites. The moment Dante began to delve into truly lucrative and useful topics, they immediately descended upon him. His life changed overnight, and he became world-renowned.
Various papers and blogs like the NYT, WSA journal, Vice, etc., dug up his history, which had no real blemishes, and painted him as a rising genius who could change the world. The next Einstein, Newton, and so on, they said.
Any young man's head would swell to the brink. Of course, there were haters worldwide who nitpicked his history or his veracity, but they were drowned out by the masses who saw hope for the sci-fi dreams they had to come true.
After all, Dante covered things like curing cancer, immunizing against HIV, increasing the body's genetic value, controllable nuclear fusion, truly perfect Artificial Intelligence no different from in the movies, and, most importantly to the nerds, Virtual Reality akin to SAO.
The world had been buzzing these past few months, everyone bloodshot behind their screens waiting for the next announcement, hoping that it would be a release date and not just theories that were close to the mark.
However, they were destined to wait indefinitely as Dante was now being tested.
It was funny; Dante had thought that he was being benevolent by using the carrot before the stick method, as he could have easily become an autocratic ruler and eliminated any opposition on Earth.
Yet the factions that ruled the world in the shadows were also thinking the same. They allowed Dante, a young man, to be blessed with positive influence, fame, and even growing fortune. This would give him a taste of the sweet stuff and get him hooked.
Dante was allowed to attend high society events and come into contact with the true elites who ruled the world. They were initially surprised that Dante easily adapted to their various decorum and mannerisms, but how could they know that they were dealing with an android controlled by a quantum AI?
After a while, Dante was summoned to a super-secret offshore meeting on a yacht where the various powers laid down their cards. They offered him wealth, fame, and power to stop the actions he was taking and hand it over to them.
He would become a puppet, the face of the operation, while they were the true controllers. To show how effective this approach was, they mentioned many names that would not shock a modern 'conspiracy theorist' but then revealed other names that would floor even the most paranoid individual.
Dante's clone was already privy to all this and even knew about what was going to happen before it did. This was around the time it started to send yellow warning labels to him because it knew that conflict was inevitable given the rules Dante had outlined for it.
Of course, the android didn't immediately become hostile but instead looked a bit moved and scared. They also revealed their stick at this moment. They controlled the entirety of the worldwide media, so just as they had set it up for Dante to become a positive icon, they could also turn him into a person hated and despised by the world.
They pulled out their most successful example, and without even mentioning the name, anyone living in the modern world would know who that was. When Dante's android saw this, it showed the right amount of fear and worry and promised to consider it.
However, they pressed for an answer, trying to get it to break, but it navigated the danger with ease and left the yacht, making the elites feel satisfied that this kind would soon be another success story of theirs.
So what did Dante's android do when it got back? First, he got his parents and uncle to transfer all their assets to him and sent them out of America using a cloaked ship, something which shocked his family, but he promised to explain later.
Dante's android then released a huge amount of files on various sites and linked them to social media, using 'bots' to bombard various pages and new accounts. He even hacked popular TV networks and had them broadcast the video of his meeting with the elites, something that could not be turned off by the elites who? were panicking.
Even if BBC, for example, shut down power in the whole building or cut off the antenna, Dante did not need them to maintain the broadcast at the endpoint, which was the users' TV.
For an entire week, everyone in the world was forced to watch the video on rerun, so even those who were very skeptical and demanded evidence while refusing to watch were left speechless.
One of the biggest questions asked was that if all this was true, how could these elites slip up and let Dante record them? Obviously, the answer was that they had searched Dante thoroughly from head to toe, but how could they account for the fact that the android had a flesh-based mechanical brain that, through its eyes, was no different from a high-quality camera.
While many were furious and took to the streets after hearing the shocking list of names and how they were subdued, many more were hesitant and did not want the world to change even if it was not the best.
Many refuted the video and called it the product of AI. If Dante could craft virtual worlds that were so close to reality according to his theories, then he could fabricate such a video too.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢