~~~~~~Day Later, Venus~~~~~~
A nail-snapped construct entered the thick atmosphere of Venus. Rapidly, it turned into a meteorite as it slammed into the boiling ground of the planet.
Like a nail, it slammed into the surface of the planet. It proceeded to bury itself in the ground. Before long, it was underground, the sharp end of the nail opened up, and Aurora bots started to utilise Alchemy to change the ground into construction material.
Even if the planet doesn't have magic, the Aurora bots have batteries and M.T.M reactors. Even if those run out, they arrived with a Diamond Core.
The bots can quickly recharge.
Sure enough, even with M.T.M reactors, they rapidly lose energy as the planet is simply too hot.
But the AI and Marcus predicted all this, so they came prepared. Working in endless rotation, they rapidly started to build up their base.
One of the first things they need to build is an automated Assembly line and maintenance depo. Increase their numbers, build another core and then more assembly lines, more maintenance depo, rinse and repeat the actions until they have enough numbers to begin establishing contact with Technocracy and begin terraforming works of the planet.
Venus is the most difficult of the planets in the Solar system to work with, as the planet's rotation is extremely slow.
A single day on Venus is almost as long as the whole year on Earth.
In simpler words, Venus Day is longer than a Venus Year.
That is one of the things which Marcus will need to change if he wants to have a tropical home in this world.
~~~~~~Meanwhile, the Indian Ocean, Entrance to the Red Sea at the Strait of Bab El-Mandeb~~~~~~
Airship 11, one of the airships based at Underworld, is doing routine trade protection after Technocracy bombed the American economy after frying most of the electronics on the East Coast and losing one of the carrier strike forces.
The nation diverted most of its funding to rebuild. That means no more patrolling missions, and most importantly, they are funding the COMG. One could say they are abandoning 'World Policing'.
That is where Technocracy decided to chip in. They have nine spare airships. Seven of them were diverted to protect the trade routes, while the remaining two were protecting Ars Almadel Salomonis. But now it's back to full capacity, it could protect airships instead of needing protection.
While Marcus doesn't quite care about trade in the world, it's a foreign concept to someone who makes everything himself. But, It's an excellent opportunity to gather battle data and observe human behaviour patterns.
Not that he needs his airships somewhere else. So why not gather positive PR and protect the economy from inflation and raising prices?
"Captain. A Singaporian-owned container ship has sent a distress signal at the horn of Africa." Second in command said to the captain.
"Already? We only just arrived. Well, whatever. Put the ship to condition red and prepare to launch the red wing." The captain girl issued her commands with a serious tone.
Sure enough, alarms started to blare throughout the vessel as the airship turned around and proceeded to fly at top speed to intercept the pirates who were planning to capture a container vessel.
Less than ten minutes later, the airship passed several large ships and noticed the container ship which sent the distress call.
What they found were small boats circling a massive boat. The container ship was using water sprays to remove pirates who tried to board the vessel.
It was quite a silly method in the eyes of technocracy.
"Aim the turrets at the small boats. Destroy them."
The captain issued the command, and the gunners started to target.
The turrets under the airship targeted the boats and proceeded to shoot.
With automated assisting systems, the turrets quickly figured out speed and moving patterns. With a casual burst of compressed gravity, the boats and the water underneath the boats were incinerated by the graviton turrets or, more like, deatomised to nothing.
"Captain, some pirates boarded the ship as we speak."
Aurora showed them a live broadcast from the side of the container ship. There is one of those small boats there.
And some Somali pirates have boarded the ship. They had AK-47 assault rifles and short swords, the machete.
"Send out the Assault Knights! To think that they didn't run away after seeing the might of our Technocracy and Supreme Commander!"
"Understood! Sending orders!"
~~~
Aboard the container ship, a small group of Somali pirates were holding hostages, the majority of the crew. At the same time, other pirates were searching the vessel for more sailors.
Even though they nearly pissed their pants seeing the floating spaceship. Yes, they think it's a spaceship. Technically, it can be considered a one.
But Marcus hasn't classified it yet as it lacks faster-than-light travelling capability, so he still treats these as airships.
"Agh-Agh! Look at me. I am the captain now!" Thin, bald and scrawny pirate dressed in slippers, shorts and a cheap t-shirt pointed his fingers at the captain and then at himself. Declaring that he was the captain now.
"Y-You think you can get away with this? That airship won't let this go." The captain said with a frown as the pirates tied his hands with a rope.
"It doesn't matter. We have you as hostage. They won't shoot." The pirate leader said in English with a very thick accent.
But the guy jinxed himself as the next minute, one of the pirates, with a terrified look, dashed inside the bridge.
"Boss! Boss! The big spaceship released smaller spaceships which were flying towards us!" The pirate said in his language at rapid speed.
"Fuck! Take the defensive position! We can't allow them to land! Take Musa and his boys and rain hell on those things!"
"...Are you sure?" The second in command of the pirates was not that sure. Will their guns even work on those space guys?
"Yeah! Now go!" But the leader sent them away anyway.
With a nod, the guy rushed to collect the other boys and their guns.
As he rushed to one side at that moment, the captain saw the look on the leader's face.
He was terrified to the core.
*Snort*
"So much for a 'captain'." The captain of the container ship snorted and commented sarcastically.
"Isn't that corridor leading to the storage area?" One of the sailors commented with a confused tone.
"Yes. He is going to hide."
As the tied-up sailors commented, the last remaining pirate looked at his running away boss nervously. What about him!? He is to guard all the sailors!? What about Technocracy!?
…
…
…
Outside, airship 11 launched three gunships, which proceeded to fly at the container ship, which at this moment was floating without direction.
The gunship side doors opened mid flight as Assault Knights jumped out and ignited their jet packs.
Mandalorian Bounty Hunters inspire their design. They have variable rifles which can switch between assault rifles, shotguns, and a Sniper rifle; that's the primary weapon. But that is not all.
They have weapons attached to their wristbands, like the steel wire or the darts. Then their armours are legitimate 'gravity well'. It makes them immune to damage to a certain point.
For example, regular bullets won't touch them as the gravity well they have makes them move around them.
Only large projectiles bypass the graviton armours they have.
That's, of course, the outer layer. The armour is very durable even if the projectile passes through the gravity well protection.
Regardless, the moment the pirates saw three squads of flying people approaching, they opened fire and started to shoot at them.
Not that it did anything.
"...Huh… what the fuck!?" The pirates, who used up an entire magazine of bullets, realised that not a single bullet touched those freaks!
Before he can complain, one of the Assault knights points its left wrist and shoots a steel wire.
The wire wrapped around the feet of the pirate. With a casual pull, the pirate got yanked out from the ship. Before he can fly into the water, the knight shoots the other side of the wire at the handrails, making the pirate hang upside down.
The pirates serve another purpose for the Technocracy. They simply can't kill them just yet.
So, other knights did a similar type of offence. They either knocked the pirates out or disarmed them and then knocked them out.
The more terrified pirates tried to fight with machetes, but the knights used their armoured hands to grab the short swords and break them.
"...N-No way!!! Fuck you, freaks! Imma out of here!"
The pirate who saw his machete get broken apart threw it away and began to run towards the handrails to jump out of the ship.
But the knight pointed his wrist and shot the steel wire, catching the pirate by his legs.
Another one ended up hanging upside down.
"Secure the ship. Look for more pirates."
"Roger."
The leading Assault Knight instructed the subordinates. As they spread out, the leader knight contacted the airship. It was time to ask for instructions.
[Bring the pirates to the airship 11; we shall await the Supreme Commander's instructions.]
"Orders understood."
At that moment, the gunships finally arrived, and the remaining knights proceeded to take the terrified pirates into the transport vessels.
"N-No! Let go of me! I want to be arrested by Americans!" The pirate had no freaking what would happen to him! What kind of set of rules do these freaks follow!? He is pretty sure they told to UN and Geneva Treaties 'fuck you'.
Not that their struggles meant anything, as the Assault knights used more steel wires to coil them like cocoons.
As the group were dealing with pirates on the top deck, the rest walked inside.
"D-Don't move! I will blast this one's head if you do!" The only remaining pirate guarding the sailors pointed his AK-47 at the captain's head.
There was no reaction from the knights as they looked at the group.
However, their HUD was scanning the area and looking for solutions.
Then, the next second, their left hands moved at absurd speed and shot the steel wires at the pirate. The guy didn't even realise what was going on!
"W-What?" His hands and legs ended up tied up.
"Captain, any more of these on the ship?" One of the knights asked as the other was already pulling the pirate outside.
"Assuming your group has dealt with the ones outside. There is one who went to hide in the lower container deck."
"Understood. Downloading schematics of this ship model."
"Downloading?"
The captain was confused. He didn't understand that their helmets were not some simple head protectors.
"Schematics understood. I shall let you all free."
The knight walked over and casually ripped out all the ropes from the crew members! The sailors looked dumbfounded by how casual it was. They quickly inspected the ropes. They saw that they had burned away!
They had no idea what happened, but this was the power of a gravity well.
The concept of this was similar to how asteroids burn away when they enter Earth's atmosphere.
That was no different; the only difference was that Earth moved and made the asteroid burn away. It was the other way around how it usually is.
"I am going to lower decks. You all can return to your duties."
The knight proceeded to walk towards the corridor, which leads to lower decks.
The sailors dumbly nodded as they slowly started to walk around.
…
…
…
The leader of the pirates was snivelling in the lowest decks, bidding in a corner, trying to look as small as he could.
'No-no-no, this can't be happening! We attacked the ship when we knew the airship was hundreds of miles away! How did they arrive in less than five minutes!?'
The bald pirate was having an existential crisis while reconsidering his life choices.
But that moment, he turned stiff as he heard a sound!
It was someone walking with metal shoes!
The pirate paled as he was thinking what to do. The closer the sound was, the more skittish he was!
But then it stopped.
"...H-He left?"
The pirate heard nothing. Slowly, hope returned to him as he slowly moved from his position.
He poked his head as he looked around. There was some light entering the lower decks as the calling was open.
But then he felt someone grab his head and slam into a container.
"My gratitude for revealing yourself."
The last thing he heard was an emotionless thank you.
~~~~~~Back in Marcus Place, Underground Garage~~~~~~
Sirin smiled as she took an orb-like object. This thing was a portable camera she designed herself! It was similar to a floating eye with an antenna.
She can use this to record for her blog. Or more like a YouTube channel?
Blog creation looks tiresome. So, making videos for YouTube looks much more accessible, and the interface seems more newbie-friendly.
That is why she created her account with Google and inspected what YouTube is all about.
It turns out it's similar to what Kiana Kaslana used to check cat videos.
From the looks of it looks fine to share her misery on this web page.
That is right! Even as a Herrscher, she has a limit to how much she can 'suffer' living in this madness!
So why not share it? Let them all feel what it means to live with a crazy scientist who dreams of the world— Reality domination!
After inspecting the orb, she turned it on and made it fly. Using technomancy of M.T.M and Graviton tech, the orb can fly for as long as she wants.
On top of that, she can access the orb with her Psionic interface.
Making it fly and pointing the lens at her, she started to record it.
The red light of the recording was on!
"Hello, everyone. My name is Sirin, and from today onwards, I shall record my life with my creator and the man who brought me over from another reality.
Yes, you heard it right. I am not originally from this place. Upon my death in another reality, a much darker one than this one, I crossed over to this place.
Somehow, Marcus Goldman knew this, and somehow, he created an identical body for my soul to inhabit.
Crazy, I know, but this is just the beginning. I never expected to live with a legitimate inventor—
Anyway, I want to show you his garage~ since he is grounded, he can't be here~"
With a teasing voice, the golden-orange-eyed girl made the camera spin around and showed Marcus' place. She showed the tuned car and the Gundam suits behind a glass wall.
Then, the gun's shooting range, the living room and the kitchen.
"The technology utilised in these things is strange. It is some sort of atom manipulation. I have no clue how it works, but the microwave gives hot dishes, and the fridge can be used to create and store raw materials.
For example."
She made the camera float over and show the touch screen on the fridge. The girl showed before that the refrigerator was empty, and now she proceeded to create a bowl of strawberries.
After a few seconds, he opened the fridge and took her strawberries.
"As you can see, the fridge created strawberries for me~" The girl showed the bowl full of strawberries.
"Anyway, there are more places I can show, but for now, it will be enough for the first video."
With the video done, she proceeded to edit it with Aurora's help. Artificial intelligence quickly uploaded it to YouTube.
Sirin proceeded to laze around in the living room in the underground garage. She watched how the views started to increase.
At first, the pace was moderate until it exploded.
The video went viral.
It only took a few minutes for her email inbox to get flooded by messages. These were government ones!
"...*Sigh* I have no interest in those. All I want is to share the madness of my life."
After finishing her strawberries, she cleaned the bowl and put it away.
She then proceeded to get back to the surface.
~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~
Sirin has no idea what kind of chaos she has unleashed. What she just did is the closest one could get to Marcus Goldman's private life!
In fact, it is his private life. Sirin is his creation by all means and purposes.
It's like a wife is sharing her life as a married couple! Something like that! Her video became the fastest-growing video in history so far.
Of course, some companies and governments want to talk to her about certain things.
Sadly, Sirin is not interested in 'popularity'. All she wants is to spread chaos. She is a Herrscher, after all. One doesn't simply change one's core. She is a creature who destroys. In this situation, she destroys common sense.
"Holy shit! To think that this is how Marcus Goldman lives!" One of the first comments popped up in the comments section.
People who saw the video all over the world were jealous. They are jealous that he is making girls! Others were terrified because they understood the deeper ramifications of such an ability.
Capitalists are petrified after seeing his atom manipulation in action.
Of course, others don't believe what they see in the video.
They still want to see Marcus being filmed by this girl. Maybe after that, they will believe that she is with him.
When Sirin was in her room, she summoned her interface and checked the comment section.
She saw a lot of exclamation marks. However, she didn't have a smirk. She thought she would get people petrified. But all she saw was entertained people!
[Whoa, look at her eyes! Her pupils are shaped like rhombus!]
[That hoodie is so cute! Can I learn where you bought it?]
[Damn, I never thought seeing a cute girl eating strawberries would have such a profound effect on me]
[Do you know where I can buy one of those guns? They look sick!]
[Geez! That BMW looks so cool! To think that Marcus Goldman is a gamer!]
[Those gundams! Are they for sale!?]
The more she read, the more she was annoyed!
'Stupid humans! Don't you realise that your doom is close!?'
Sirin complained to herself. The girl can't believe how they are treating this video!
But then she saw the comment, which made her snap.
[This is fake. I didn't see Marcus Goldman anywhere. This channel is 'Daily Life with Marcus Goldman', but I don't see him anywhere in this 15-minute video.]
'Oh yeah!? Let me break your world apart, asshole!'
Her orange-golden eyes narrowed as she decided to post another video.
With a casual look, she turned on her floating camera and proceeded to record.
"Hey, I am back with another video. This time, let me show you my room~" Sirin made the camera float around. The room is plain. But the room's 'magic' allows the walls and the ceiling to be anything she wants.
"As you can see, the room looks plain as I only moved in recently. But there is a catch with this room~
The walls are tinted with crystalline substance, which allows them to do this." The girl summoned her holographic console commands and started to shift between landscapes.
"The technology behind this interferes with the colour spectrum. Quite neat, but I don't understand half of it." She shrugged before walking to the wardrobe.
"This wardrobe here is the one responsible for making the hoodie the one you guys mentioned. People of technocracy don't buy things. With the whole atom manipulation thing going on, Marcus created furniture, which makes creating things extremely easy." Sirin filmed the touch screen panel and showed her cat ear hoodie collection.
Internally, she is very smug because Kiana would be jealous of her!
"Anyway, there is a funny story related to these wardrobes." Sirin moved the camera and filmed her face while explaining to everyone.
"Since Marcus got grounded, he could not access his stuff. So he hacked his wardrobe! It's hilarious. Let me show you~."
The Herrscher proceeded to walk out of her room. The camera filmed the surroundings: the corridor and all of the sounds.
The girl acted as if she was sneaking around.
She passed several doors, arriving at a specific one.
It had a radioactive sign hanging on it.
The sign is 'Marcus room', and underneath it is another with 'do not enter' words.
After filming that, the girl then moved the camera to face her once more.
She had a smug look on her face.
"Let's go."
Her hand went on the handle and pushed it down. The moment the doors opened, music assaulted her ears.
"Mark~" Sirin walked in. She used his nickname to capture his reaction to that nickname.
"Hmm? What is it?" Marcus, who was drawing something on his drawing board, moved his head and looked at her. He was lazing on his bed while drawing.
On the ground, a golden lion was playing with a ball and trying to bite it. The ball is unique, as with Nemean lion teeth. It could easily chew through steel.
"I am making a video about my daily life in your household. I thought it would be an interesting experience."
Her words made Marcus stop whatever he was doing and look at her with a curious look.
Never in his life had he thought that Sirin, the Void Queen, the Herrscher of the Void, the 'Honkai God' as she used to call herself, would start making videos!
"Well, Well, this is amusing, so what can I do for the viewers?" Marcus immediately decided to join the fun.
"Nothing major. I just want to know what you are designing in your room." She looked around. The room's walls were painted blue this time around, and her eyes eventually ended up on the shelf where her statue was.
But then her eyes widened as there was another statue!
She swiftly walked over there.
Sirin picked up the statue and inspected it. The statue was of her, or more precisely Kiana, with a big red sword and a long cape, and her hairstyle was a ponytail.
Herrscher had never seen such a style of Kiana before!
'Is this form achieved after I died?'
A cold feeling washed her over. Does Marcus know what will happen after she is gone!?
Her eyes snapped at him as he looked at her. There was a knowing smile on his lips. He knows what she was thinking!
"To answer your question, I am designing spaceships." The inventor ignored her look and instead explained her original question.
The girl frowned as she understood that he was doing this on purpose.
'So that's your plan. No worries, I have seen how easily you cave in. All I need is a specific moment.'
As Sirin thought about that, she placed the statue back in its place and instead proceeded to return to her filming.
She focused on the drawing he was showing to her.
"Inspired by Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer in shape, the ships will be around a kilometre long and over three hundred metres tall at the highest point.
Unlike the Star Destroyers, it won't have those big sticking-out bridges. The bridges will be part of the superstructure. As the Realitus tech, we won't need a bridge." He showed the warship in a 3d format.
"It would seem the engines are still missing. Are you planning something new for those?" Sirin decided to add more fuel to the fire. She knows that Marcus loves talking about his creations.
So why not allow him to talk about literal 'Star Destroyers'!?
She wants all the viewers to feel despair.
"Yep. The OG thrusters I created in my early days when I created my Starscream squads and Daedalus airships.
Right, for the viewers, the Starscreams are my jet fighters, which are Transformers as well.
Sirin, you can ask Aurora to add some footage. We do have databases for those." Marcus casually allowed Sirin to share never-before-seen footage of his warships and jet fighters.
"Great! I will add those!" Herrscher decided not to edit any of these parts. Instead, she will just add on the top!
She will make that guy eat his words!
"Anyway, for thrusters, I think something related to magnetism or Ion. A regular propellant is not that great for long-distance flight, so I am thinking something which goes beyond the norm to abuse the graviton tech I have."
"Then why not graviton-based thrusters?" The white-haired girl randomly asked as she ended up sitting on his chair and spinning around.
"Graviton is already in use with the projectors. If there is another force so close to already existing, it could cause gravitational friction. Possibly creating a black hole after a failure." He explained with a thoughtful but indifferent tone.
"I see."
Sirin grinned, hearing that she was enjoying Marcus 'cooking'. If he were a regular guy, such conversation would be just random weeb chatting, but this was the inventor who designed time travel in maths class.
She will show the world how effortlessly this guy destroys her common sense. A Herrscher like her, who is used to causing chaos effortlessly, is questioning her life choices.
It's simple for this guy to come up with different types of world endings while lazing in his bed, eating chocolate cookies, and petting his lion pet.
"Anything else?"
"Oh, right. It's a good time to advertise, so I will." Marcus swiftly saved the design and opened another one.
"This is an Entertainment Dome; I will open one in my town. In this place, one can self-insert into various scenarios, like a survival game in the Jurassic Era. Or some medieval scenarios. Most importantly, I will release one particular game where I will invest a lot of time. So I suggest turning up for it when I will be released." The inventor showed a floating ball above ground with escalators going into it.
It was a strange building even for Sirin.
"Great. I will want to see it, too." The Herrscher agreed as she picked up the lion and decided to film the little monster.
Internally, she was smirking. She won't be revealing supernatural. Not yet. The girl is letting people think that this is a mutated lion of some sort. She will reveal the real identity of this little monster at a random time.
For now, let them get head over heels for this little thing.
After filming the Nemean Lion cub, she stopped the recording and proceeded to speak. Her curiosity cannot be contained anymore! She wants answers!
"So! What is that form of Kiana Kaslana!?" Sirin asked in an inquisitive tone. She was trying to play it down. To make him feel that she is not THAT interested.
"Oh? Why would I tell you? You don't like Kiana, so you do not need to dig deeper into things like that."
Marcus, of course, knew her angle and proceeded to play it down.
"I thought you would tell everything to your Queen?" Sirin started to guilt trip him now.
"Yes, well, you are, but you don't appreciate my affection, so I am on a fence when it comes to this now."
The golden-orange-eyed girl frowned. It turns out Marcus is quite slippery. It's their third 'duel', and she is losing again.
"Hmm. I could appreciate your affection, but I don't know if you have hidden motives with that affection." She was almost out of straws to reply! Even her current counter is shaky at best!
"Of course, I have hidden motives. I brought you to this world and gave you powers. Of course, I plan to take them away at the very last moment!" Marcus replied with heavy sarcasm, which made Sirin blush, and even her ears turned red. She was embarrassed!
"I get it! Sheesh! Just tell meee!" She huffed and then puffed, acting like a little girl when things don't go her way!
"What for? If you want me to do this favour to you, I need compensation." The inventor placed his 'foot down'.
"Geez! Fine! But first, let's go on a date! No more holed up in this room!" She stood up from the chair and offered her hand. The girl wants him to come with her outside.
"...Fine." Marcus is not the outside person, but since Sirin wants to, he will come out with her.
As he got up from the bed, he placed all his stuff on the table and turned the music off. He then walked to the wardrobe.
'Oh, crap! I forgot to film this thing in action!'
~~~
As the pair are preparing for their date, the second video was soon uploaded to YouTube after Aurora did some editing. She added extra videos on airships and the Starscream fighter jets.
It quickly exploded in viewers as Sirin's channel rapidly gained millions of subscribers. The Ai, of course, took some minor liberties in editing the channel to make it look better. Based on all the previous changes to the interface menus on Sirin's console.
[Wow, this was quick! That's the second video in less than an hour! That's some insane processing power!]
[Nah, it can't be.]
Though people wanted to argue, they could not, as Sirin replied to the question of the hoodie and even went to speak with Marcus!
She did that because she saw the comments!
Others who just want to be entertained commented about the lion.
[Damn! This guy even has a lion for a pet! Geez! No doubt he doesn't ask for permission.]
[Yeah, right. And risk being nuked? Who would bother with such a guy? I mean, he is discussing building spaceships in his bed.]
All sorts of people flooded the comment section. In a way, they were giving ideas to Sirin about what to film next.
Without even knowing, Sirin would become the most famous YouTuber.
~~~
For advanced chapters (+9 chapters, 45k words) my pat: pat reon.com/DragonsFics
~~~
P.S.: I do weekly voting on Patreon if you want more chapters for this fic (or other fics ) vote there.