POV Rio
When we got up the day or so after Christmas Eve. More for me, as my sleep efficiency is terrible. But I at least didn't defenstrate anyone this time. In either case, we had presents to open. They were definitely strange as they were created by the very spirits of gift-giving. But regardless of their origin, we opened them and found all sorts of things that we needed or wanted for presents that year. Everyone had something that they were infinitely happy with.
My present was a bit odd. It was several things. A book on dating. A DVD collection, and lastly, and strangest of all, schematics. The schematics were strange, not because I couldn't understand them, but rather it was because I understood what they were for, that I didn't understand why someone would build something so strange.
'This is insanely inefficient for draining energy. And why is it a gun?'
The schematics were for a device that could drain energy from others, but it was very inefficient and seemed to be incredibly impractical. For example, it would be useless against basically anyone, as the amount of energy you could drain wouldn't even make up for the loss of just using the device. And that's assuming someone isn't just unaffected, as it has terrible piercing abilities. The present just confounded me massively, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why I would need this.
'I guess it's the thought that counts. At least the other presents are very useful.'
The dating book seemed to be well written and was about how to make someone feel special and what to avoid when dating. The DVD collection had some of my favorite movies from my first life. It saved me the time it would take to either find a mirror world with them or remake them myself. The second was something I could do as I had the skills and the Changelings to pull it off, but it was great not to have to do that.
'I suppose I could still do it, but for fun. Maybe I can get my friends to dress up.'
Shudder
Everyone near me suddenly shuddered and looked worried.
"What? Is it cold in here?" I ask.
Everyone looks at me and gives a nervous chuckle, but doesn't elaborate. I shake my head, and we focus on spending time with each other for this cold Christmas Day.
After christmas it was a very relaxed several weeks where we took time to just take a real break. There was no big crisis, no world-ending threat. We had everything we needed to exist, and any threats that did exist were either too far away to be a problem or were too small to be anything other than an annoyance. But eventually we had to get back to work. There was a lot of work to get Earth back on track again.
Which meant it was time to do experiments on terraforming with the Jewel of Life. Of course, I didn't intend to test it on our Earth. Nor would Equus work. Instead, I used the world of Cyberpunk. Their Earth had been thoroughly polluted and devastated, so I figured it could be a great learning point since both suffered from nuclear armageddon.
It was a good thing I tested it first, as I honestly had basically no idea how to use it effectively. The first thing I noted was that it didn't get rid of all pollution. It handled natural pollution like oil or even toxic spills as long as they were an organic compound. And further, if the pollution had some organic materials in it, but it was mostly synthetic, it could still cause the pollution to become inert by dissolving the organic elements of the compound. It also just straight up didn't affect radiation in any noticeable way, so I would have to clean up any radioactivity prior to use, but that was a non-issue for me.
The next biggest find was that the Jewel of Life creates life. As in new life. Lifeforms that are similar to Earth's natural species but fundamentally foreign. For one, the biological activity and strength of the plant life created was much stronger than Earth-based life. The trees were far more sturdy, which I wondered if it was because they originated from the Pokémon world. A fact that was instantly confirmed when an Oran tree was created. Which led me to a very problematic issue. I wasn't sure what effects introducing brand new life to Earth or Equus would cause.
'Then again, I suppose in both cases there isn't much life to interfere with.'
Earth and Equus had basically suffered a total extinction event. Earth had few surviving fauna and even fewer flora. Equus was even worse, with it only having some crops and sentient life. Pets or even wildlife had long since gone extinct on Equus, some for food, others from the endless blizzard. In either case, the change wouldn't bring much, if any issues, or at least it shouldn't be massive.
'Assuming this doesn't create fauna, which I don't think it will.'
With my extensive testing, I had ended up creating a small oasis in the badlands. I made sure to make it far from any major civilization in the Cyberpunk world. Not that there was much to speak of. Giffany had thoroughly broken this world. Though she wasn't happy about it. She had done extensive research through the massive archives that everyone has built into themselves. Brain cyberware or something that interfaced with it was very common, and as such, it was child's play to gain access to their memories, not to mention the nearly endless recording from the civilizations that exist.
Calling them civilizations seems disingenuous, as they are all a mess that creates an endless spiral of corruption and death. Giffany had found a depressing number of corrupted people.
Flashback...
"These numbers seem... Wrong. But I've checked the numbers and then rechecked them over and over again, but the result stays the same," Giffany says with a noticeable dampened mood.
"76% huh? I mean, that's not too surprising. Think about it. This world suffered a major war with a nuclear holocaust afterwards. That alone caused a breakdown of society. When the major governments fall or stop taking care of their people, the people don't suddenly become self-sufficient. Those resources have to come from somewhere. And rules don't keep you fed. Then you get a devastated climate and environment that makes life even harder. Some can't handle that and break," I reply.
"But 76%?! Isn't humanity supposed to be resilient? Shouldn't they be able to adapt?" Giffany complains.
"And who says this isn't them adapting. Is it healthy? No. But it keeps them alive. That and those who want to remain good are faced with a nearly hopeless situation. Megacorps control most facets of life, and they try to squeeze every penny they can out of the populace. Sure, you can work for them, but that comes at the cost of working yourself into the ground. There's no hope of upward mobility, and with massive wealth inequality, it leads to desperate people. Desperate people join gangs or make them to try to survive, usually at the cost of other poor people. Humans will do almost anything to survive; that is true. But that can lead to some nasty actions. Not to mention tribalism. You vs them mentality, and so on and so on," I reply.
"But why haven't they tried to fix things? Even your world was broken," Giffany asks.
"In my world, there was the fact that people had to survive the deadly creatures created through science and radiation. Then, arguably, the most important reason is that the big guys and little guys worked to ensure nobody could rise up. The little guys, or Raiders, whatever you want to call them, would let jealousy rule them, and they would tear down anyone who tried to rebuild or rise above them. The few that made it and became the big guys would become drunk on power and would be terrified of a small guy getting strong and rising up. So they suppress them. The same can be said for this world, I imagine. Not to mention the megacorps have the massive technological advantage. If this were the 1800s, then sure, they would be overthrown by the people, but that's just not possible anymore. They've been... broken. Bad people win when good people stop caring," I reply.
"Then what can be done?" Giffany asks.
"A wise man once said, for decay there is no cure; it must be eradicated by the flames of a cleansing fire. When corruption and decay have reached this part, only a drastic action can clear away the filth and save the people. You are free to do what you want. You have no obligation to help them. You can publish the info on the net and let society do its thing. Or ignore it and pretend you never said anything," I reply.
"But then I would be no better than those who have done the evil. Don't I have a responsibility to help those in need?" Giffany asks with genuine confusion.
"Some say that with great power comes great responsibility, and there is some truth to that. However, just because you have power doesn't mean you must save everyone, nor does it mean that you are required to help at all times. There is a balance to all things. If all you do is help someone because you think you have to rather than because you want to, you're not doing anyone a service. You should do the things that make you happy. Moreover, in this case, if you help, many will die. But conversely, if you don't, many will also die. Look deep inside yourself and ask yourself what do you want?" I ask.
Giffany looks lost for several seconds before her avatar glitches, and she looks determined.
"I want to help them. Not because I have to, but because I feel like it is the right thing to do and it would make me feel happy," Giffany says with absolute certainty.
"Then do it. If you need any help, just ask," I reply with a smile.
Flashback Ends...
Once Giffany decided, she immediately started trying various methods. She started with peaceful options. Trying to work within the system, but when that didn't work, she started to use more and more drastic means. Until eventually, she just started blowing people's brains out by using their cyberware to cause their brains to literally combust from overheated metal and circuitry.
At this point, the world had devolved into a sort of world war. But done in a way that makes it basically impossible to strike back. Humanity is crafty, I will give them that, but Giffany is on a completely different level than anyone in this universe. It's basically the coughing baby vs nuke comparison, but in this case its closer to a human adult and nuke. Theoretically, they could stop her, but she can travel through anything that can carry signals or electricity. And if they somehow defeated her, she would only become uncocious or if they trapped her, I could teleport her back to me instantly by using a portal. As for killing her impossible without her disc, which I have in my inventory. So humanity was skrelped. Or at least the bad apples in the bunch.
Humanity was trying to fight back, but what exactly can they do? She is basically everywhere and nowhere. Even I would be hard-pressed to stop her without something like my system. If I used my skills alone, I might be able to stop her. It would be very hard, but theoretically possible.
Regardless of how humanity responds, it wasn't my problem. At worst, they nuke themselves out of existence, but I doubted Giffany couldn't counter that. Most of those require digital codes and computers. So I would just let Giffany do her thing while focused on fixing Earth.
'Well, back to work, I guess.'
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Author's Note:
Cyberpunk won't be focused much on beyond this, as simply put, Giffany will absolutely destroy anything they could use to fight her with. They got any tech they needed from that world, and perhaps they might get some new citizens, but that would have to wait until they have more habitable space to live on. That and given the state of Cyberpunk 2077, I can't imagine the tech would be all that high quality. Megacorps are not interested in lasting products but cheap and easy-to-make products. Maybe they have some stuff that is meant to last, but how useful it would be is questionable since Rio has mastered galactic travel at this point, while Cyberpunk is still stuck in the early Space Age. Space Age, in this case, refers to easy access to the stars and eventually ends with the start of the Faster Than Light (FTL) age. Until next time, Ciao.