The final selection process went pretty well. Out of the 47 total slots for the hero program, 4 were already taken by Chris, Riley, Juan, and Lucas. After the meeting started and everyone explained their thoughts on the past two years, only 56 people were left. Sim explained that they would still be able to keep their current progress even if they dropped out of the program, so quite a few people did. They liked the extra power but didn’t want to be called upon all the time to save people.

The last two years had been rough. At first, no one was powerful enough to handle even one of the monsters alone, especially the ones with negation mana. Many of the candidates had resorted to typical firearms. The candidates in the United States combined their magical abilities with hundreds of rounds of ammo just to take down one of the beasts. The military was able to help with some, but many of the monsters had high enough physical attributes that even a .50 caliber rifle couldn’t penetrate the outer layer of their skin. A few mutations were even able to outpace a .223 round. The fast ones could only be stopped by magical abilities.

One group of candidates had to enlist the help of their government to drop bombs on a small island in the Bahamas. King Charles III didn’t want to destroy an entire island at first but changed his mind when video footage of the type of beasts inhabiting the island was shown in his parliament meeting. This particular island had been overrun with flying lizard-type monsters that were getting larger with each animal they ate. The candidates were afraid that they would keep growing and eventually be as big as dragons, so they felt they needed help. The final detail that sealed the decision was a nest that was found after killing a 15-foot flying iguana with ice powers. There were over 300 eggs, and they were so resilient that all attempts at crushing them were fruitless. This is when the government finally decided to bomb the entire island. They ultimately used a group of incinerator bombs that even melted the rock on the island.

Only 13 of the remaining 56 people wouldn’t be able to participate in the program after the withdrawals. Sim had chosen most of the people she knew Mike wanted in the role and informed them on the spot. As soon as they agreed, Sim teleported them directly to the facility and started the process. There were now only 20 people left. Seven would be chosen, and 13 could continue their current path without the initial upgrade.

Two of the candidates were told to wait aside. They didn’t understand and both felt an unwavering sadness. The feeling of defeat as they weren’t included in the next conversation was combined with confusion. They both knew they had done their best and really wanted to be a part of helping people. Having been pulled aside without explanation seemed harsh. Instead of interrupting, they both just waited patiently to find out what they had done wrong and where they would go from here.

As an extra incentive to narrow them down, Sim offered some very high-tier items as well as enough spirit coins to buy personal compounds for their families as soon as the integration was complete for anyone who was willing to drop out. This narrowed it down to nine. Every one of the remaining candidates wanted the opportunity and they all had proven themselves. This was an ideal outcome because the remaining two were going to be offered different roles, and that left the perfect amount for the program.

Up until now, Sim had been communicating with the candidates but did not show her avatar. With the few remaining people all being accepted, she decided to actually make an appearance. The two candidates she pulled aside had the perfect mentality for leadership positions, so as she appeared, she created a sound barrier from the final seven and spoke with the two directly.

“I know you want to continue with the program. But I actually have another role for you both. This will be equally, if not more, important than the hero role.” This brought a spark back to their faces. They thought they were being disqualified for some reason, but now that they knew differently, the excitement was visible on their faces. “I need a couple of Sub-Admins. What this means is that you will be given a certain amount of authority to manipulate the system. As the need arises and things need to be altered, Mike, the main admin, will not always be able to be there. Nor does he want to be. You will be able to generate quests, alter rewards and stats, as well as help improve the system as new information is gathered.”

Both candidates looked at each other with shocked expressions. As they looked back at Sim's avatar, all they could do was nod their heads in absolute delight. They were just offered roles that granted them more responsibility and more power than they had ever thought possible. Neither of them thought of abusing the system; it was not in their nature. They both instantly started thinking of all the good they could do. This was why Sim had chosen them. Sim monitored all the candidates' states of mind and whether they were prone to selfishness or if they thought of others first.

“The system needs good people to help keep it balanced, not people who would use it for personal gain or as a means of control,” she told them. “This is why I chose you. You’ve both proven that you have the desire to help more than you desire things for selfish reasons. You think logically as well as empathetically, and that’s exactly the type of people we want helping through earth's transition. There will be many rules put in place, and we are not to just help people when things get hard, but we can adjust things to give people the opportunity to grow and help themselves.”

Sim contemplated exactly how to handle their integration. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision that Mike had approved just before she made the offer.

“I’m going to send you both home for a little bit. I’ll get the remaining seven started at the facility and then I will bring you back in a couple of days so you can both undergo convergence. This shouldn’t have any adverse side effects since you already have decent mana pathways, but it may be uncomfortable momentarily.”

Both candidates looked at each other and with huge grins on their faces they both said in unison, “That’s fine.” Sim just smiled back and they were gone.

Sim dropped the privacy shield and addressed the remaining seven. “Alright, I’m sending you guys over right now to get started. Integration begins in exactly 30 days.”

….

In the hero facility, Jeff was currently monitoring the process of hooking each of the larger PIC lines into the correct place on every candidate. Sim had already mapped out exactly how to achieve a 100% success rate, and the capsules would automatically align the smaller injection points. With Jeff’s bloodline ability, he was able to fine-tune the process, ensuring that many of the candidates would end up more powerful than originally estimated.

Jeff was also in charge of bloodline prep. His bloodline allowed him to not only help with mana channels but also to see potential bloodline possibilities before they activated. Sim and Jeff had worked out a plan to alter the candidates' DNA upon integration to grant bloodlines to as many as possible. Initially, only three candidates would have had bloodlines available without any alterations to their DNA. After Jeff spent the better part of three weeks fine-tuning the injection points, 36 people would end up with bloodlines activating. This included Chris and Riley. Riley’s bloodline would have a bit of blue, peach, pink, and white mana. Sim said that with this combination, she should develop into a wide-range healer as well as having a mental shield. She would be the ultimate behind-the-scenes teammate. Some features were unknown even to Sim because bloodlines altered based on each person's true self and desires. Although Sim had developed a personality of her own and had come to understand human-like emotions, how they altered bloodlines and capabilities was still a mystery to her.

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Chris was absolutely ecstatic about this. He didn’t want Riley to be a front-line fighter. He had developed quite a few skills leaning towards attack and didn’t want her in as much danger as they had both faced over the past years. She had helped every time someone was hurt, and Sim said her actions altered her brain chemistry to allow for this type of bloodline.

Jeff told Chris he was going to try something with his alterations and couldn’t tell him what his bloodline would end up as because he wasn’t sure. Jeff’s plan was to push multiple types of mana into his core at the exact moment of formation. Peaches had helped by converting and concentrating some of her mana into liquid mana. They had seven types of mana on standby for Chris’s bloodline. Peaches said she couldn’t convert her divine, void, or negation mana because they were too advanced and would kill Chris. Jeff was hopeful but doubted they would be able to include all of the mana types.

After all the candidates were in their pods, only Chris and Riley were left. They had worked faster than they expected thanks to Jeff’s help, so they were going to go in early. This was the point that Sim sent a quick message saying it was time.

Back on the moon, I was testing Peaches' ability to create organic structures and creatures. We had been training non-stop with our divine, blue, and peach mana. When we utilized all three types, we could create new creatures with varying intellect levels. This also gave us the ability to alter their physical and mental capabilities. Peaches had been working on creating a fox. She said she tried to find her friend for a long time but never did, so she wanted to make him.

“Daddy, I think I got it this time. Can I add more power, though? Only one tail isn’t very nice. I have 13 tails now and I’m beautiful. If I only give my new friend one tail, they’ll be sad.” As she said the last part, she made her eyes big and puffy as she blinked over and over.

I squinted my eyes and glared at her. “I hate that Mia taught you that. You can’t just do that anytime you want me to agree to something.”

As she made her eyes bigger and bigger, I couldn’t help it; I busted up laughing. Between snorts, I finally explained what she did, “Peaches… your eyes are bigger than your head now.” I started crying. I was laughing so hard I could barely speak. “You can’t make your eyes that big.” For a solid minute, I kept laughing. Peaches shot lightning out of her now watermelon-sized eyes and hit me right in the butt. As I felt the shock run through my legs and smelled my clothes burning, I started to laugh even harder. Peaches jumped on me with her front paws over and over while yelling at me. “It’s… not… funny… daddy… just… be… nice…”

As she pounded me into the dirt with each word, I noticed that she was doing this as a distraction. I hurried and shot up to a standing position as she came down where I was a moment before. I glanced behind her and saw a 4ft tall fox. As I looked at the fox, it tilted its head to the side. Its ears were at least 18 inches tall, and the creature could move them independently. As I was getting ready to speak, Peaches teleported in front of it and made herself bigger to block it. She got a huge grin across her face before she spoke.

“Just a normal fox, daddy, nothing weird about this fox. Totally normal. I did not make it too powerful by accident. I promise. It only has one tail and not six. Just one. It can’t make other foxes be its minions either. I don’t know why you think I would do that, and who said he could shoot a mana beam from its mouth? They’re lying; I wouldn’t do that. Nope. I would never do that. Even if it was an accident, I wouldn’t just make it stronger to control the power, I swear.”

As I stood there staring at her, she kept explaining everything she had done without me even saying a word. There were definitely some advantages to her having such a child-like mentality. After about a minute, I finally stopped her and let out a little chuckle.

“Peaches, it’s fine, what’s your friend’s name?”

Immediately after I asked, the fox poked its head out from behind Peaches. “Helllloooo,” he said in a nervous yet somehow British aristocrat-sounding voice. "My name is Baron Foxy McFox Face.” I slapped my hand to my head. “Peaches, what did you do?”

Peaches put on my shocked expression. I don’t just mean a surprised face for a dog; she literally changed her face to my exact face and acted like she was offended by my insinuation that she had done something wrong. I started laughing again before catching myself. “Stop it!” I told her. “Why is your friend’s name Baron Foxy McFoxface?” I asked while trying to keep my composure.

“That’s what I thought of when I made him,” she said in her sweetest little girl voice.

At this point, the fox walked out in front of her. This was when I saw the tails. I looked with divine sight and saw that she had created a multicore with three types of mana. His mana channels were only at mid-tier, but I saw the capabilities. As soon as the shield went down and the mana saturation skyrocketed, this creature would end up just as powerful as the heroes, if not more powerful. “Oh my god, Peaches, why did you make him so powerful?”

“I didn’t mean to,” she said in her sweetest voice. “I just wanted him to have more tails. I didn’t know foxes' tails are tied to their power.” I stood there shaking my head. Peaches got lucky, and this was right when Sim interrupted us and said that Chris and Riley were the last ones to go into their pods and they were ready.

“Fox, you better follow all the same rules I have for Peaches or you’ll be...” I paused for a second before I decided on a word. I wanted to be very stern but also sympathetic because Peaches was still just a little girl at heart. “Uncreated!”

As soon as I said it, he hurriedly jumped back behind Peaches. “Peaches, I have to go, but as long as your friend behaves, he can stay.” I waited a few more seconds so her excitement could grow before I said one final thing.

“I’m proud of you, Peaches. When you were creating him, you even made his channels ready for expansion. Good job, wiggle butt!” I winked at her and then teleported down to the hero facility.

…

When I arrived at the facility, I made sure that I was undetectable. I used the divine stealth skill and muted not only my steps and sounds but also made sure I was completely invisible. Chris and Riley were talking to Jeff. As Chris lay down in his pod and Jeff closed the door, I appeared just outside the glass with my face squished against it. “Hey,” I said and watched him jolt while in the tube. “I forgot to tell you that I’m adding a little something to your DNA while you’re being integrated. You’re gonna be able to fly because if I say a keyword, you’ll turn into a butterfly. A pretty pink one.” I then winked at him, and as his eyes got big, I activated the pod so he would go unconscious.

As Riley and Jeff shook their heads at me, I busted out laughing again. “You know, Mike,” Riley said, “someday you’re gonna have to stop screwing with him like that.”

“Whaaaaat?” I said in mock surprise. “I don’t screw with him. I would never do that.”

Riley just shook her head as she lay down in her pod. “You can turn me into a butterfly if you want. I think it’d be cool.”

Both Jeff and I laughed as we activated her pod.

Once everyone was in their pods and it was just Jeff left with me, I decided to finally ask a few questions. I had checked with Sim about this, but she didn’t have all the info either.

“Do you know what the yellow and pink mana actually do?”

At this point, Sim’s avatar appeared. She interjected before Jeff could start speaking. “The info I’ve been able to ascertain is that the pink mana is a healing mana. Its main function is to repair organic material and revert it back to its base DNA structure. I am able to do this, but my ability is due to origin mana, not pink mana. In a scenario without origin mana, it looks like pink will repair in its place.”

Jeff thought about it for a minute while I started talking. “When I was gone, the pink mana kept fixing all my cores when they were damaged. So does that mean that my cores are organic, or is there something Sim is missing?”

Jeff looked at us with a contemplative expression for a moment before explaining. “From what I can tell, the pink not only repairs organic material but anything you need repaired. It could probably reverse mental and emotional damage too if used in the proper way. I won’t be able to know for sure until someone activates a bloodline with pink mana as the main component. You have a pink core, but I can never get a good read on yours. All your other cores confuse me when I try to examine your channels.”

“What about the yellow?” I asked Jeff.

“Yellow is a complete mess,” he said. “It looks like it’s just absolute chaos. One minute it looks like it will have a stat-boosting ability, and the next it looks like it can convert matter into different forms. I have no idea what’s going on with that. What about you, Sim?”

“The information I obtained about yellow mana is that it is completely chaotic. Literally chaos mana. Most people who have a core that produces this type end up dead. The info pack I got didn’t have a single example of a long-term benefit of chaos mana.”

“Great, that’s just what I need. I’ll try to cast a spell or something and have my arm turn into a chicken.”

Both Sim and Jeff looked at me and then at each other. They both started laughing before Sim spoke. “I totally want to see that now.”

I just shook my head and teleported back to the moon.