But that was just the first step. The second step was teaching the shard to 'expand' and 'contract' the created metal, adding or removing parts from the desired side of the cable. As a result, the steel cable twisted, making the necessary movements. After that, with minimal effort, I learned to create golems of arbitrary size, which had a steel skeleton and were moved by the same 'cable' muscles.

As a result, I developed the ability to create an army of golems, connected to my 'main body' by cables. The cables didn't get tangled, and if one was cut, control would pass to another, or the cable would extend to reconnect with the 'orphaned' golem elsewhere.

Controlling such an army would be too complex for an ordinary person, but I had a neural network, plus a whole horde of replicators whose combined computing power was simply unimaginable. Essentially, I was now only limited by the amount of metal my shard could create. Currently, it was enough for barely a couple of dozen golems, but I planned to solve this problem by devouring other shards. If done outside of combat and in a calm environment, I could gain maximum benefit, collecting a set of necessary abilities.

I decided to make Oni Lee, who had long been rotting in my dungeons, the first victim. Slowly and thoughtfully absorbing his shard, I gained an entirely unexpected enhancement. The ability to teleport to a place I'd seen with my own eyes was expected. But the fact that the 'clones' I left behind could exist for hours, not seconds, was a pleasant surprise. Moreover, I could fully control the actions of these clones, and each had my metal-creating power. In other words, I gained an infinite number of 'shadow clones,' each capable of creating its own metal clones.

Thinking about it a bit more, I realized how else I could strengthen myself. For training, I used ordinary steel provided by the replicators. But they could also create Ancients alloys. The armor for the suits was an example, but even it wasn't the strongest material available to me. The matter was in special chemical elements that were not found on Earth. The Ancients simply synthesized them in special nuclear reactors. I could do that too. Though the cost of such metal would skyrocket. But I needed only a little—for one bracelet.

Thus, I managed to get a 'benchmark' metal, which was absolutely indestructible. It wasn't the hardest alloy of the Ancients, but it was the most resistant to plastic deformation and cracking. Under the heaviest load, it would spring back but then restore its shape. Golems made from it were swift, strong, and capable of tearing apart anything.

Finally, mastering my abilities, I donned an advanced suit of my own design and went to see how things were in my 'kingdom.' And things were going well, to say the least. Most of the workers from my enterprise had moved into new buildings, living surrounded by the very household appliances we assembled.

The crime rate in the city had dropped to absolute zero and even went into a deep negative. People began to help the city voluntarily, just because they wanted to do something useful. The overall standard of living was also rising, as money for the equipment was pouring in, and people couldn't even figure out what else to spend it on. Since we almost didn't buy anything from the 'outside world,' money was accumulating among the ordinary people.

It 'suddenly' turned out that working at my enterprises was much better paid because most of the profits went to salaries rather than into the pockets of overfed fat cats. Following public demand, the Docker Association began creating branches engaged in non-core activities like the restaurant business, sewing clothes, organizing kindergartens, and so on. In general, within just a couple of weeks, the city experienced complete 'saturation,' where every resident could buy everything they ever dreamed of, and even things they never dreamed of. Normally, this would mean that equipment manufacturers wouldn't be able to sell their products anymore and would lay off all employees, but in our case, we switched to producing other types of products, plus reduced the working day while raising wages.

In general, from the perspective of the world economy, something inexplicable was happening in Brockton Bay, causing people to get rich right before our eyes. This couldn't help but attract various fraudsters and traveling criminals, but after the first scam, these individuals met 'men in black,' who took them away for recycling.

Seeing that things were going better than ever, I remembered a couple of villains I had promised to pay a million dollars in compensation. Now I intended to visit them and find out what they were up to since there had been no news about Uber and Leet recently.

Arriving at the same secret hideout in the basement, I found the two villains working on a suspicious device with a large red button. But what bothered me most was the energy emanating from these two idiots. The fact was, they were not possessed by demons, but by angels. Don't tell me these two are heroes.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I ran to the basement entrance and pressed the doorbell. This time they heard me, but Leet didn't bother to distract himself from his work and used the gadget he wore on his head to communicate with me.

"Who is it?" - came the voice from the speakers next to the door. At the same time, I directly observed Leet's movements through my spatial awareness.

"Black Cloak" - I introduced myself. - "I've brought you the million dollars as promised."

"Keep it yourself" - Leet waved it off. - "I'm too busy, to distract myself with such trivial matters."

"And what are you busy with?" - I inquired. I didn't have much hope of getting an answer, but Leet unexpectedly displayed his 'best' qualities, starting to talk about his plans.

"We're preparing for a new show."

"Oh, that must be interesting" - I began to stoke his sense of self-importance and desire to boast. - "And what will it be?"

"It will be the greatest event in the universe, from which it all began."

"The Big Bang" - I guessed on the first try.

"Exactly!!! In the name of our Lord, we will blow up this planet, thus resolving the eternal dispute between Good and Evil."

Okay, it seems I wasn't wrong to rush here to give these morons money. It was a manifestation of my intuition.

"And when is the party expected to start?" - I clarified.

Uber tried to silence his overly talkative partner but failed.

"Soon. Very soon!" - Leet enthused, pushing his partner away.

I immediately tried to break down the door to storm the basement and finish off these newly minted 'saviors of the world,' but it turned out that the room was surrounded by some kind of force field that my metal couldn't penetrate. And I was wary of venturing in personally. And, of course, there wasn't a single bum around to test the effects of this field.

"Don't even try" - Leet laughed at my attempts. - "Nothing alive can pass through this barrier. And shard powers can't overcome it either."

Nothing alive? How about non-living?

I ordered the replicators to try to 'sneak' into the room through the ventilation. However, as soon as they passed through the force field, they immediately decomposed into basic chemical elements. The same thing happened to the rat I tried to 'push through' against its will. It seems this field is a manifestation of Uber's powers. Only a shard could give him such an illogical ability.

Well, if simple methods don't work, let's use even simpler ones. Since this field breaks materials down into basic chemical elements, that's what I needed to use. With the development of industry in the city, the replicators had started dealing with the chemical industry and creating various plastics. For these purposes, just today, a train arrived in the city with three tank cars of hydrofluoric acid. I ordered the replicators to deliver these tanks immediately and pour their contents into the basement. According to my calculations, this should be enough to fill the room to the brim.

Poisoning these two 'do-gooders' might have been an option, but I wasn't sure I could achieve the desired result right away. And knowing that I was determined to destroy them at any cost, these two might do something unpleasant. No, I prefer surprises I arrange myself.

Within just five minutes, three replicator helicopters delivered the tanks of acid to the site, and it began pouring into the basement in a wide stream.

"Hey! What are you doing? We didn't agree to this!" - Leet panicked.

Uber immediately understood what contact with the acid would mean and donned a gas mask, climbing onto the highest shelf. Leet, however, was equipped with some 'holographic gas mask' of unknown origin, protecting him from hydrofluoric acid vapors. But there was nothing to save his legs from the rapidly rising acid.

"No! I can do it! I will prevail! I will succeed!!!" - Leet screamed, quickly assembling the bomb he was working on. - "Maybe it won't be enough to blow up the entire Earth, but I will definitely blow up the city!"

Okay, I needed to do something. And then I remembered that while Leet's body was currently controlled by an angel, the soul of the original cape was still in the body and could resist. Possession never completely suppressed the soul of the real body owner, as only this soul allowed demons and angels to remain in the body.

When I 'trained' Leet to be a normal tinker, I used hypnotic subjugation techniques to induce 'altered states of consciousness.' And now I decided to use this technique, for which he already had a 'reflex.' My task was to 'awaken' Leet's soul and make him believe he could resist the angel.