Lin Mu checked his current balance and was greeted by a pleasant surprise. Over the eight months of history that had played out within the Azure Shield Array while he slept, the Karma Points had accumulated steadily.
[Current Karma Points: 510]
As the hybrids gained intelligence and organized their rudimentary society, their contribution to the "civilization" metric grew. Lin Mu realized that his investment in temporal acceleration was already paying for itself. Wisdom was the currency of the universe.
"I think this is it.," Lin Mu thought while he navigated the System Store and purchased the [Astral Projection Rune] for 50 Karma Points.
This rune, when integrated with the Soul Palace and the genetic templates in the Codon Records, acted as a bridge, allowing a consciousness to be projected into a physical vessel within the yard. To house the interface, he bought a sleek, modern-looking headset from the store for a mere 2 points. It looked like high-end gaming gear, but once Lin Mu placed the rune upon it, the plastic and glass hummed with a spectral, violet light.
"Atlas, I'm leaving the logistics to you," Lin Mu commanded. "Create an untraceable website. Design it as a beta-test landing page for a 100% immersive VR game. We need someone who will broadcast this to the world. I want a streamer with a good following—someone whose audience will provide the collective intelligence we need."
To ensure the delivery and future monitoring went smoothly, Lin Mu purchased six more Patrol Robots for 60 points. Ten silent mechanical drones now stood ready, to complete their first mission.
"Understood, User. I am deploying the web-crawlers and secondary scout units now," Atlas replied, its spherical body pulsing with data processing.
Meanwhile, in a cramped, neon-lit apartment in a bustling city on Bluestar, a young man named Wei Tian—known to his fans as Viper—was leaning back in his ergonomic chair, sighing at his screen.
It was the year 2032. While VR technology had made leaps, most "immersive" games were still clunky, requiring heavy haptic suits and offering visuals that were clearly digital.
"Chat, there's nothing new," Viper muttered to his camera, his eyes scanning a list of indie releases. "Everything is just another shooter or a low-budget fantasy sim. Where's the innovation? Where's the soul?"
Suddenly, a pop-up appeared on his center monitor. It was minimalist—a dark background with a glowing, double-helix logo that seemed to pulse with an almost hypnotic rhythm.
[EVOLUTION: GENESIS — 100% REALITY IMMERSION]
Status: Beta Testing Now Open.
Promotion: First Applicant Receives Hardware for Free.
Viper scoffed loudly, and the chat box on his left scrolled at light speed.
"LMAO 100%? Scammed."
"The marketing team is bold today."
"Viper, don't click that, your PC will explode."
"100% reality immersion?" Viper laughed, clicking the link out of sheer boredom. "In 2032? Maybe in another fifty years. Let's see what this 'hardware' looks like."
He filled out the delivery details, half-expecting a virus alert. Instead, the page simply turned white with a single message being displayed: [Selection Confirmed. Your kit is on its way.]
"Whatever," Viper said, turning back to his original game, his face bathed in the blue light of his monitor. Though at the moment in his heart he was wishing this helmet to be true but his rational mind told him that most likely it was not.
He forgot about it within minutes, returning to his usual routine. Little did he know, a few blocks away, a silent mechanical dragonfly was already tracking his heat signature from the sky, and a package that didn't exist in any official postal database was being prepared in a yard miles away.