Chapter 57: Chapter 56 – Lone Man

"What the hell am I going to use this for?"

"You're welcome. And it's a collar. When you put it onto a monster, you can give the command it'll begin writing the script into them, binding them with a contract. After that, you can take it off and use it on another monster."

"...That sounds impossible. How can a metal collar write a script? Better yet, how would I even put it onto a monster?"

"Like this."

Dream pushed a button and pulled the collar open. When it opened all the way, it clicked, locking itself in that form.

"It'll be open like this, and all you need to do is place it onto a neck or an arm or leg, and then pull this lever."

*Ching*

Dream pulled it and the collar slammed closed. 

"Then, all you need to do is fill it with your mana. It'll write the script using your mana supply as the power. The contract that it writes will restrict the monster from doing anything of hostile intent."

"...I have a hard time believing you, but let's say it works. How would I transfer the ownership to another person for them to control the monster?"

"Like you would for your other contracts. Imprint their mana onto the symbol that the collar will write. It'll be the same symbol as yours since it is my gift to you after all."

Dream handed John the collar, who inspected it and played with the closing mechanism.

*Ching*

"..."

John pulled the lever and the collar slammed shut. He had many questions, but didn't ask. Would this really work?

"It's a very simple device. Clamp it on a monster, infuse your mana, and when you give the command it'll write the script. It'll write the script rather quickly, and you can load it with your mana anytime in preparation. It will not work with anything except monsters."

"..."

"Anyway, thanks for teaching me a bit. It helped a lot."

"...Oh, sure. What did you say your name was?"

"Dream."

"Dream... Well, I'll try testing the collar next time I have a monster. Though I still have a hard time believing that this can do anything."

"The sooner you believe it, the better. This tool will save you immense amounts of time and effort."

"Again, sounds impossible. Either way, if you have a monster you want to tame, or you just want to look for one here, I'm happy to be of service."

"Thanks. Though I could always make another one of those for myself, so I probably won't need it."

"...Oh, right. Well, I should get back to work."

"Sure. I'll show myself out."

"Alright. Good day kid."

"Likewise."

Dream turned and walked out of the room, passing through the hallway and exiting the shop. John turned back to the collar in his hand, playing with it some more.

"...Wait, didn't he say that he didn't know taming? How did he know about imprinting..."

...............

.........

Dream walked down the street after exiting the shop. It was only past noon, but he had already done quite a bit today.

'Quite the productive day, don't you think?'

[It was. We now know how to enchant and tame. Those books saved us massive amounts of time and experimenting.'

'I expected it to take a week or so, but 7 hours later and we've got one less thing off our list. Now we just need to see about gathering materials and work on that project. How is that coming, by the way?'

[It's basically complete. All we need to do is find the spot to carry it out. Along with the mana of everyone and our new skills, we'll be able to set it all up at once. I've also been running simulations on how things might go different compared to Earth, but there's nothing major so far that will affect our plans. In fact, it could be better here than on Earth.]

'Good. This will open up many possibilities and keep us much safer in the future. So any problems need to be taken care of.'

[On another note, I was thinking about the possibility of enchanting your current items. The biggest being your suit. Want to try?]

'Oh! I didn't even think of that. What were you planning?'

[Well first, mobility. Second, reinforcement. We'll have to do many small enchantments since the armor is in a million different pieces, but it should be fine.]

'How long will it take?'

[If we do it without draining your mana to 0, then 51 hours.]

'That's a lot longer than expected, but alright.'

[I'll begin now.]

After she said that, Dream felt his mana streaming outside his body. Though the drain wasn't faster than his regeneration speed, so his mana pool remained topped off.

All this while, Dream kept walking down the streets. He eventually made it to the commercial areas and decided to just keep strolling through. Maybe he would see something interesting.

He lifted his head, looking off towards the distance where the entrance to the mountain was.

'Let's send some drones out tonight so they could look for a good spot for our project.'

[No problem.]

He nodded and kept walking. As he walked, he looked at all the vendor stands, all the shops, the people walking down the streets, everything.

Children ran through between the people, adults had conversations about their day, people trading their goods, carriages rolling down the roads with their rough wood wheels, the boots and shoes of everyone stomping and skidding across the floor, the doors of buildings opening and closing while bells rang to signify the presence of a customer. 

The feelings of happiness, anger, frustration, joy, excitement, loneliness, boredom, confusion, amazement, optimism. He could feel it flowing among the people. He could sense their heartbeats and breathing, even the blood flow among their veins.

And then, he stopped walking. Standing in the road. People subconsciously walked passed him, whether they knew he was there or not was a mystery. 

Dream's mana unknowingly affected the surroundings. And with it, his skills came and carried out his 'will'. Tons of information poured into his mind and he attained unbelievable situational awareness. The immediate space around him was changed to become optimal for his safety and comfort. The temperature, moisture, dust, the mana saturation, anything that may be inconvenient was altered or removed.

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Why was it happening? Dream felt it was natural, like second nature. Why was he standing in the road? He wasn't sure. Waiting for something maybe?

He stayed like that for 30 whole minutes. The entire time, his skills did as they wished almost as if they had a mind of their own, but never going out of control for even a second.

Dream turned his head to a rooftop about 300 meters away, where a lone man was standing. They looked at each other and stared for who knows how long. Neither visibly acknowledged the other, but both knew what they were seeing. Then, the man turned and disappeared. No warning, no process. One second he was there, the next he wasn't, as if he were never there in the first place.

Dream also turned away, facing the front. He began walking once more, in the direction of home.

............

.........

.....

The next day, Dream was in his room. Sophia was giving him a rundown on the situation of Earth.

[People are beginning to make major strides in power. Much faster than anticipated. This is because of three reasons. One, monsters are being created at an insane rate across the globe. This leads to more attacks and people leveling. Second, the first set of conflicts between groups have begun. If we count the individuals who have entered combat with each other due to their new powers, it numbers upwards of over 700 million. This number is constantly rising. Third, the mana saturation on the planet has sharply risen. This is the biggest cause of the increased power among the populous.]

'...And we don't know why the mana is rising so much. How many deaths?'

[100 million with a margin of error around 8 million.]

'*sigh* That's a lot.'

[But not as much as initially thought. The effects you've had are cataclysmic. People aren't focusing on fighting each other, but instead on who you are and how their new powers work. Just like you wanted, their focus is being brought elsewhere. That death count could be many times worse.]

'I know but still. Speaking of, how's the forum?'

[Everyones using it. Literally. Although this has caused several companies to shut down.]

'Oh, nice.'

[There have been several people who have risen to fame. Whether its fighting monsters, doing magic experiments, or giving everyone a look at their skills, they've attracted a huge fan base.]

'Expected. Now how are the governments and corporations?'

[Some like you, a lot hate you. The governments especially hate you. The reason is that we've gained access to extremely sensitive data, and they know it. Basically we have dirt on every political office holder in the world. At least the ones that have any dirt on them. The ones that don't aren't afraid of you. We also have dirt on all the huge companies. Honestly, the data I've gathered is some deep, dark stuff. Have a look.]

Images and data began running through Dream's mind. Terrorist incidents, huge political collusions, drug trades, arms trades, human trafficking, back door dealings, assassinations, military black operations, money transfers, and lots more. All of it run and carried out by the leaders of the world. For a second, Dream felt a bit threatened to know the information. This was dangerous stuff! Until he remembered he was on another planet. He smiled.

'That all looks fun. But in the interest of not causing a worldwide upheaval, I'm not planning on releasing that sensitive information.'

[I agree. It's enough to cause rebellion in every major country. But there are some things that I think you should take action on.]

'What might that be?'

[Basically every government and company that has sizeable influence have begun experiments with magic. And you can guess what the subjects are.]

'They're using people?'

[Yup. Several thousands of people have disappeared and were sent to various secrets facilities to have live experiments done on them.]

All the information Sophia had was given to Dream. He saw all the people and what they did to them. Needless to say, it wasn't pretty. It was mainly using the people as guinea pigs to test the effects of magic and skills. The luckier ones only had to endure several hours of pain as they took on various magics. The unluckier ones were kept alive for days while being torn apart and dissected with various tools and magic in an attempt to find out how mana was controlled and where it came from.

Dream was a bit pissed, but he understood why they did it. The world was changing and if they couldn't get ahead of the rest then they would perish. But that didn't mean it was right.

[How do you want to handle it?]

Dream thought for a bit before answering.

'...Warn the highest executives involved in these experiments. We will show the evidence we have and tell them that they must cease all operations within 2 days. Do that now under our name 'Seeker'. If they refuse to acknowledge or respond within 12 hours, then we will take it as a sign of refusal to cooperate. And the consequences will not be light.'

[Sending the message.]

'The second thing we can do is recruit teams of people to destroy these facilities. There will definitely be some who refuse, thinking we have no power. So, we need to contact the right people who are in combat and give them a quest. Let them know exactly what's going on. Get them weapons, gear, transportation, anything they will need. I'll leave the number of people and who you recruit up to you. But at least make sure that there is as little risk to them as possible. And obviously, this needs to stay secret.'

[I understand. I already have several people in mind. I also have the means to attain gear and such. When should we assemble them?]

'Notify them now. Give them time to process what it is and who it's coming from. They'll also need incentives... Will money work?'

[It should. The economy has taken hits but nobody is willing to abandon monetary systems. We can also give them things other than money. Some of these people need a house or a car or other things, so I can set that up.]

'Sure. I'll leave the rest to you then. Our third and final option is to notify the public. But that's a last resort.'

[It won't come to that, don't worry.]

'Thanks. You know what, maybe you should throw in a quest system. Like an online guild. People can post things on it and ask for help like they do here.'

[I'll get it set up. You really are spoiling them with all these programs.]

'Just trying to make it easier on everyone. Plus, I can. So why not.'

Dream smiled as he said that. It was hard to believe that he had so much influence over the Earth. And he wasn't even there! 

He lay on his bed, thinking about everything that must be going on. Did he want to be there? Kind of. But at the same time, he had much more room to grow here. He knew that, but couldn't help but feel left out. All the people he knew were over there living a fantasy, and he was stuck in a foreign world in god knows what galaxy. Though he's also living a fantasy, it would be very different on Earth.

Over the few weeks that Dream was preparing to fight the dungeon king, he had kept tabs on everyone close to him. His best friends, his family, and even some others who he was on good terms with. Overall, everyone was doing good. His family kept leveling up, his best friends also began to level as he had Sophia give them some help. 

He did his best to make sure that they wouldn't be in critical danger. Even going so far as to use satellites to image the country for monsters. Or even devices like phones and security cameras. Anything he could use to get much-needed intelligence.

Another thing he did was have Sophia gain control of weapons systems like robotic soldiers and combat drones, even missiles and aircraft. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he had control over some serious firepower. If things really got crazy, he would use those. But things hadn't gotten to that point. Yet.

Although it seemed extreme and excessive, it was because he could never have the assurance of being there to protect them. He wouldn't be able to protect against any robberies, monster attacks, nothing. All he could do is get some contingencies and intelligence and hope for the best. And he didn't like only being able to hope.

Dream closed his eyes, calming his mind and focusing on happy thoughts.

'Hey, Sophia.'

[Yes?]

'Thank you.'

[...You're very welcome.]

 

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