It is currently day 63 since the outbreak. It appears that most of the easily proved fundamentals and central theories of HPE have been touched on already and the majority of projects now are centred around expanding these fields along with finding ways to put them to use.
The human engineers and scientists have all found that their lacking ability in imbuement is hindering their research. While I could do most of it for them if I wished, I rather don't.
It's not out of some form of pettiness, but rather to apply pressure to the human engineers and scientists so that they can evolve this technology themselves. My understanding and own HPE abilities have advanced now to the point that I can sit back a bit and still have plenty of things to play with while the humans carry on from my pioneering of the technology.
As such, a large number of the research groups have been working together on designing some equipment that will allow them to properly take advantage of the HPE mechanics they understand.
Imbuement specifically is difficult for them. At this stage, the most advanced in this field apart from myself is the Zen Master Marti. While I say advanced, an apt comparison to me is Marti's achievement being reaching the moon and mine reaching the closest solar system from Sol.
As such, I am already seeing rudimentary systems being developed to store all the variables needed for an imbuement before the process actually begins. The most promising is being called the Brain Matrix, and is basically a crystal structure filled with some form of plasma.
The plasma, if imbued properly, can store biblical amounts of information and even keeps things like memories intact with feelings or impressions. If a person has developed enough HPE manipulation, they are able to interact with this device and alter it as much as they like before using it as a catalyst for imbuement.
They have also been using my method of storing free HPE into an object before imbuement to reduce the requirements put on the person creating the item. While it still requires the person to have significant reserves to actually enforce their will on the free HPE stored within, most people can reach the required stage with enough training.
That brings up three interesting points. The first is that I, naturally, am not limited by any of these things. By now, my reserves are at such a stage that I could most likely go roam about on the surface outside the green zone for a few hours without any undue effects.
The second point is that by forcing the humans to do their own dirty work, they have shown their innate ingenuity and designed something even I had not thought of yet, which was mostly the entire point of having human minions.
The last point is that, yes, with appropriate training, almost anyone is capable of properly utilising the HPE build up in their bodies to cast spells they are not innate with, which are their mutated powers.
I say spells, because it is a form of spellcraft they are using for imbuing. Before that though, I should quickly go back to the increases in one's HPE manipulation. The humans, ever in power struggles with each other, have begun classifying peoples inherent worth with power levels based on their ability to store HPE reserves.
I believe it is because to increase one's reserves a person must be continuously expending them. That would suggest that someone with a large HPE reserve has used HPE a lot either for their mutated powers or in an attempt to master HPE manipulation.
That said, I have found the rating system rather poor in comparison with my own. For example, someone like Marti, who has to use his power just to remain on the earth, has almost no actual inherent worth due to that. Though, I will say it has allowed his reserves to skyrocket ahead of many others and made his learning to properly Imbue much easier.
That said, my personal rating of the humans takes into account almost everything about a person I can collate data on. I have been half tempted to start posting it on the network just to watch a civil war break out when a lot of people suddenly realise their value to society is not even half what they think it is.
Moving back to the topic of spells, rigorous testing has revealed a few interesting facts. The first is that spells can technically be grouped into two broad types. Ritual manipulation and Direct manipulation.
Ritual manipulation has revealed that a focused mind can be conditioned to subconsciously manipulate HPE in a certain way. It also helps if large numbers of people and 'objects of power' are involved. Objects of power are something along the lines of an object that people place a great amount of subconscious worth in.
As an example, one of my minions used some form of pagan voodoo ritual along with the hair of a person and sacrificed a possession of great worth to themselves. In this case, the minion incinerated a photo of his dead son along with the hair while chanting some nonsense and focusing on lightning striking the owner of the hair dead.
It was then a great shock and surprise when a measurable quantity of HPE left his body and interacted with the ambient free HPE to create a half-sentient bolt of lightning that chased down a young woman who was a notorious 'homewrecker'.
The exact reason why this method of pagan ritualism worked still eludes me. Based on the amount of data I have accrued from rituals created since then, I have determined that it has something to do with the emotional state of the caster at the time, kicking in some part of their sub-conscious ape brains that can impart their will and the appropriate data into the HPE.
I say this because many rituals that don't seem to have the proper amount of knowledge backing them up tend to fizzle out. The only reason his obscure method worked so well was because he understood the physics of lightning, how DNA works and the general location of his target.
This has made it very important that ritual spells attempting to influence the physical world be backed up by proper knowledge of LPE physics. Though I have seen some unexplainable cases where simply pumping exorbitant amount of HPE into a task can achieve things the caster does not understand at all.
After having multiple spells of this nature try to 'touch' me, I have a come to the conclusion that the excess HPE is being used by the spell to collate the data it needs to perform its task from other nearby sources. As the largest source of information nearby, naturally, they will try to reach out to me to gather this knowledge, which simply bounce of my outer energy field.
The other form of casting is Direct manipulation. This is when a person knows exactly how and why their spell works down to exacting details and calculations. In other words, they are capable of imparting that information to the HPE themselves without relying on some primal level of their brain or the spell to patch itself.
Of the two, ritual magic is far more popular, both for its versatility and its power. That said, it also tends to often be unreliable in its outcome. It usually needs to be cast multiple times before they somehow manage to get it even remotely consistent. If I had to guess, after casting the ritual a few times the ape part of their subconscious finally understands what exactly they're trying to achieve.
That said, Direct Manipulation can be far more precise and consistent. When you actually understand how you're affecting the world around you, you can work on far more intricate spells with practice instead of the hundreds of hours I am seeing people pour into rituals just to get them right.
Once this information was released to the surface dwellers, I noticed a marked increase of access to tutorials and learning material for LPE physics and chemistry on my network.
The reason this is important is because by spending hours using Direct manipulation and a very basic level of imbuement to alter the 'imbuement schematic' in their Brain Matrix, people get very, very attached to them. They can then use it as a catalyst for a ritual to draw in the energy needed to imbue something with the schematic in the crystal.
I can already see research projects lined up using this method to imbue another type of Brain Matrix that will allow them to more easily build an imbuement schematic with the matrix doing most of the calculations for them. They would then just need to input the variables and intent of the imbuement and the matrix could pluck the necessary data from whatever memories they've stored in it.
Eventually, I can foresee a matrix that comes pre-uploaded with all the necessary data needed and any old human could use that data to build a basic imbuement. Or better yet, Spell crystals that allow for easier Direct Manipulation by already having all the basics of LPE physics uploaded and doing most of the calculations for the user.
Though such things will be a while in the future I suspect. We are at that technological stage where we understand most of the systems we are playing with but need to develop the technology to create the technology we already know we could probably do.
Or more appropriately, the humans are that stage. I could probably do all that stuff right now, but I won't. Because, like I said, if I start building things that are leaps ahead of the human's ability to create themselves, they will lose that inventive spark that I keep them around for.
Plus, I am timeless. I can wait a few hundred years for them to catch up if I feel like it. Which I possibly might. I have grown slightly attached to my minions. Not to say I would mourn if they all suddenly died, but I would probably, maybe, be a little disappointed in them for just dying like that. Especially considering that data on social interaction is actually one of my most consistent sources of data to help me keep growing faster.
While speaking of humans, my initial expectations for the end of the race are obviously now wrong. Not only has Central City become a survivor enclave, but numerous places around the world have been building strong defences or somehow managed to survive the outbreak.
A city in China didn't even seem to realise that there's been a global disaster at all.
Also in the human vain of discussion, a number of large factions have been building power within the city. It is universally acknowledged by everyone that I don't particularly have any desire to interfere with their human stuff, so they are all comfortable discussing their designs on taking over the city even while wearing the watch they know that I am observing through.
In fact, while I don't particularly interfere, I have been selling little devices to help them with their subterfuge and backbiting of each other just because the data is so new and interesting when on the scale of thousands of people per faction.
I, personally, was never much a fan of politics, but when you have a behind the scenes real-time stream of their shenanigans being streamed to you 24/7, it is hard not to become interested.
On the topic of 24/7 streaming, I should discuss The Network.
Because I am a greedy data hoarder, every single thing that passes through any form of communication related to HPE tech designed in Central City goes through me. I am the central data repository of all information that is shared on the HPE network and even the things that generally aren't shared.
Naturally, being a big believer in the honesty and freedom of information, I re-introduced the future of the internet to the surface dwellers. As a bonus, with new satellites gradually coming online every few weeks, my networks cover most of the east coast of Australia and various other high population areas around the world.
No longer is my reach so limited to just the yellow zone. That said, the yellow zone of Central City remains to indicate the distance I can actively update tech. For some reason I've yet to understand, trying to manipulate imbuements I've created through the satellite system is beyond difficult.
That's not saying it's impossible, just that I can't seem to influence things as easily as I can through my direct network. I believe it's because the HPE satellites are actually communicating with me through the territory markers acting as a relay.
Updating anything the markers directly connect to is far easier, including the satellites themselves. But updating with something that is connected to something the marker is connected to is far harder.
But back to the internet. On the old internet, computers gave each other numbers called IP addresses so they could talk to each other and know what information what computer was accessing where. Back then, governments and hackers abused this naming sense to track people using the internet and know what they were up to.
Naturally, I have found a way to be far more invasive than that. Unlike the internet before, where you could track the number but not the person, I am directly tracking the person.
Plus, because all information is stored within me, anytime they try to access data they have to get it directly from me. Unlike with the old internet where each device had an IP to identify it, I have the 'taste' of a person's HPE.
You see, in order for a person to interact with the network, they need to use their own HPE to power a device up which is then converted into my HPE via the Cycling system. That device then takes an extra tiny little piece of the persons HPE and uses it to encrypt whatever data request it sends to me.
It took quite a lot of finagling with HPE mechanics to set up a form of HPE GPS, which allows all of my devices to 'know' where they are in relation to a satellite.
Using this mechanic, the device fires off little packets of HPE data in the direction of a Satellite like light speed missiles. The satellite then bounces the packet off other satellites if necessary, until it can be bounced down to Central City, each bounce giving it a little extra HPE, so I will know what I need to bounce any return packets off when I send data back.
The markers around the city will automatically suck up 'data packets' that approach the city and then redirect them towards the Network Control Array, which is a series of imbued cubes I have in sector 0 that are all stacked up around a mini-matrix.
This is actually almost exactly how old school satellite networks work, but they aren't even remotely as reliable as the HPE version.
Anyways, the matrix in the cube receives the little package of HPE from the device asking for whatever data the person is trying to retrieve. My slave connection with the array matrix lets me know what data I need to send, and I give it to the matrix while recording the persons HPE signature and what they are accessing.
The matrix then encrypts the data with that person's signature and sends it back along with whatever HPE signature is required for the satellites to know where to send it to.
This is all happens in a matter of picoseconds. Also, unlike normal data transfer, which sends packets of data ranging in bytes and the like, HPE networking allows for data transfers of unlimited size in a single packet.
The only problem with this is that if the size is too big, the network relays like the satellites would need an equal amount of HPE just to bounce the packet off to the next place.
That said, HPE data storage is a level of compression beyond the imagination of conventional compression. A human, who's HPE levels are honestly atrocious, would still be capable of compressing their entire mind into a single HPE data packet and bouncing it off my network relays for an eternity.
As such, almost all the data that a human could want can be within reach before their mind is even capable of realising they had pressed the send button on their watch or network cube, or whatever medium they are employing.
In the future, once the humans are savvy enough to understand how the network actually works, they may be able to find ways to subvert it. By that time though, I am hoping to already be so advanced there attempts would be meaningless.
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Speaking of advancement, I feel like despite my huge amount of growth, I am no closer to complete ascension. This is because the amount of energy held within a single gram of matter is astronomical. To be at the point where I can completely convert enough into energy to feed myself, I would need enough energy to actually split the atoms and then contain the reaction in order to feed myself.
While I could split an atom in the conventional manner, I am yet unable to properly contain the forces involved in order to feed off it properly. Most likely, if I actually tried to split the atoms in a gram of matter and eat the resulting energy, I would explode from the huge influx of energy I couldn't properly control.
Thus, after numerous re-calculations, and taking into account various HPE mechanics I believe will affect the outcome, my ascension is beyond a hundred years away. Mind you, while I was initially impatient due to this discovery, I have observed that it is much better to grow slowly. My constant peeping on the human minions from the surface has allowed me to develop some level of wisdom.
Taking into account how more discoveries about HPE mechanics seem to be stretching out my time until ascension, I think it is probably a far better choice to move slowly and accrue more experience with HPE first.
In other news, research on the Goliath specimen did not particularly enlighten much. While it's mutations have diverged from the demon type, it remains a mostly brainless creature that runs on instinct. Research on its virus strand after the mutation has shown some interesting results that may allow me to engineer a virus 'update' for humans to gain the physiological evolution the zombies have been gaining.
While I say that, many humans have turned their noses up at clinical trials for the update. Along with conditioning trials showing humans with higher brain function all developed powers that had no physiological mutations, I suspect that the human sub-conscious is afraid to change too far from the 'human image'.
As such, I started another conditioning trial to convince some humans that they are actually raptor people.
With the sale of the 100% mutation serum there are almost no natural humans left anymore. This means I have had to resort to subtly brain raping a large number of people and inserting a copy of their minds into natural clones without a mutation.
Because I had to create clones using stored DNA from my data banks, the hundred or so people were all very confused when they woke up in a white room and inside someone else's body.
I then started standard conditioning protocols, which involved telling them exactly how I expected them to think and act and devising various means of torture as punishment for anyone that failed to perform to my expectations.
I found during these trials that a lot of humans that suffer from some form of depression easily slipped into the role that I demanded of them. Naturally, the manner in which their lives had become, almost every single one of them became depressed in some form, and my entire test group quickly started acting like raptor people.
I even had the social studies department design an entire social system and behaviour patterns for them. This has been ongoing for nearly 20 days now. I'll probably give it another 20 for their raptor habits to settle in and then see what happens when the virus is eventually introduced.
Speaking of other clone experiments, my cloned zombie rat army has been sieging the rat kingdom relentlessly. The rats have also started all walking around on their hind legs like humans, so that they can hold their little rat weapons and tools.
I have also noticed some rats developing very weak powers. Mostly physiological things, like super strength and ultra-sharp teeth. At the same time, the rats are developing a little culture all of their own. They seem to be led by some kind of hegemony or council of rat elders.
After day 11, my rat robots were discovered as to out of place and have since been chased out from the rat kingdom. I was then forced to abduct some promising young rats and replace their bits and pieces with cyber implants so I could continue to monitor the situation.
In other rat news, they have started trying to dig tunnels upwards in an attempt to retreat from the swarming zombie rats. This has led them to slowly start developing a massive network of rat caves.
For the moment, I have left a mostly available replenishing source of Nutrient paste to feed them just outside the tunnel system. The only problem is, I have the robo-cats prowling around nearby it constantly and the zombie rat swarm often conveniently floods in just as they are planning to steal some food.
They've had to start developing distraction and rapid raiding tactics to secure enough food to keep the growing number of rats fed. They've even had little suicide rats that lead a swarm right into the robo-cats, where both sides get distracted attacking each other.
At present, rat population in the rat kingdom is about 400. They have bred far, far quicker than I expected in the month or so they've been here.
As an additional aside, I've discovered that the rats are developing some kind of language and that the rat politics between rat clans is almost as vicious as human politics. They could probably learn a thing or two about subtlety from the humans though, as most rat politics end with one party getting eaten by the other after a brawl.
In other news, the northern army base that is apparently protecting some kind of politicians from the old times has been attacked consecutively by different hordes in the past week or so.
I am starting to believe they have something that the zombies want.
Also, the zombies that have been pooling outside the city finally decided to attack after the Focused Hunter's stole a Goliath from them with a bulldozer. That said, they attacked very, very slowly.
Despite being a horde of rabids, the controller didn't seem very smart. He kept them all clustered in around him and the horde was so far that he couldn't tell that the humans had started picking off zombies from the outskirts of his cyclone formation.
By the time he realised his horde was half gone, it was already too late to simply surge them into the city, because the humans had been pouring credits into buying things like automated turrets and building defences directly in the path of the zombies.
When the tide did finally come, they simply crashed against a wall of focused fire from thousands of humans. Abilities and weapons fire rained down on the horde like a flood as nearly every survivor in the city came to its defence.
Unfortunately, the controller took advantage of the surge as a distraction and has since disappeared. Fortunately, I managed to get quite a bit of data on the other two known types of mutations, because there were dozens of Goliaths and hundreds of demons in the horde.
Also, while processing the resultant mountain of bodies, I managed to discover traces of other types of mutations starting to form on the zombies.
While back on the topic of mutations, Flora and Fauna on the surface have been starting to show a plethora of interesting mutations. Not only that, but it appears almost all fauna has somehow survived the virus without the subsequent zombification. Perhaps it's because most flora simply doesn't have enough willpower and is run entirely like a machine on a biological level.
While the flora has started spreading rapidly and is showing strange properties, the fauna are all more interesting. Similar to the metal possums, we have been seeing hundreds of other animal types displaying mutations.
More interesting is that almost all animals first go through the zombification process before evolving into something else. Additionally, all animals that go through mutation after zombification have physiological mutations. Some, a very rare few, have shown some form of passive HPE power, but apart from them, the general trend is consistent and was one of the things that helped confirm my high brain function theory and conditioning theory.
Because all animals basically tend to run on instinct, they have no level of higher brain function to impose it's subconscious will onto the HPE running rampant in their body. Thus all that HPE is used by the biological systems and the virus to impose its own kind of very primitive biological imperative.
Be stronger, be faster, be tougher, reproduce more. Whatever the biological function is that is instinctually the most important to the creature tends to receive the most attention from the HPE powered virus, and that is what the virus mutates the most during the zombification stage.
The possums that Charles found just happened to be a family of possums trapped in a roof were all there was to eat was the house and metal roofing. This caused them to evolve into a species of possum capable of processing and using those elements to survive.
It was actually rather fascinating dissecting one of them, because I found that multiple normal organic processes inherent in carbon-based life had been changed significantly to help the creature adapt into becoming some kind of metal-carbon hybrid lifeform.
Based on the research I conducted on that family, the stage of mutation they were in was only some kind of first step in the process. This kind of evolutionary mutation is only possible without killing the host thanks to the virus and HPE helping everything along.
However, while a large number of creatures are mutating, many of them will die before they reach a stage were their bodies can properly support them. Based on what I was observing, probably only 1 in 5 creatures will survive their first mutation and reach their second, unless the mutation is not too divergent from their previous forms.
However, while that is the case, if supplied enough HPE and the right conditions, I could probably force many creatures to jump into a more stable evolutionary stage before they died off. I already have a number of projects along those lines being carried out in the bio-labs.
I am quite excited by all the many amazing creatures popping up all over the place. The humans don't share that excitement. Apparently, the mutated animals tend to be more cunning and violent than their previous iterations, and numerous humans have already died to animal attacks.
The most proliferate creatures would probably be the Angerroo's. Some kind of kangaroo that goes into a berserk rage when it believes someone is to close for its liking.
The usual brain dead, docile animal has become a martial arts guru and is likely to kick the ass of anyone that steps within 50 metres of it. Worse still, is that the first evolution of the Angerroo is quite stable and the survival rates of the breed are quite high, and to make matters worse they breed like hyped up rabbits.
A few entrepreneurs have started herding the creatures as a consistent source of great tasting meat, and with all the cattle seeming to have a very low mutation rate and unstable mutations, Angerroo meat has become the new staple meat source of Central City.
While the nutrient paste is highly nutritious and most humans could live off just a small bowl of the stuff a day, it still 'tastes like assberries', according to most sources. Instead of actually eating the stuff, most humans have been using it as fertiliser for vegetable gardens and to feed livestock.
I'm not particularly bothered, considering the fungus is making so much of the stuff I am selling it at 4 litres a credit just to clear out some of the excesses.
Speaking of the fungus, it has spat out all the materials from the generator I fed it along with a feeling of frustration. I half expected this to happen considering it took so long trying to achieve what I wanted.
I am not disappointed though. The fungus pretty much takes care of everything else for me in the base, so I can hardly expect it to do everything. With the rebuilding of every sector in the final stages, the fungus has already started spreading out through the service ducts I installed.
Every single room, except for a few special cases that are entirely sealed, is connected to the service ducts. The fungus filters the air and has even found a way to cool or heat it to maintain perfect scientific room temperature. The accuracy of its temperature control is down to a factor of 4 decimal places which is frankly astonishing.
As a bonus to the fungus being everywhere in the base, nutrient goop and fuel can be delivered to wherever they need to be. I've already started instructing the fungus to grow some parts that can move small amounts of materials through the base in anticipation of the humans finally inventing a matter manipulator of their own.
When they finally have it figured out, and almost every lab has one, the fungus will already be ready to deliver small quantities of whatever material the lab asks for.
As a result of the testing I did in preparation for this, I had to somehow find a way for the humans to tell the fungus what they needed. Thus was born IFFA, or referred to by the inhabitants of the base as 'a disaster waiting to happen’, or Iffy, because Australian never call anything by its actual name.
It stands for Integrated Fungus Facility Assistant. It was my first attempt at merging a mini-matrix into an organic being, in this case, the fungus. The result was some sort of rapidly forming semi-sentience.
I have kept a close track on the sentience it's forming in order to track any thoughts that may result in megalomaniac man slaughter tendencies and am happy to declare that they are only now slowly budding.
While the fungus understands its purpose, and I have deliberately instilled within it a curious scientific mind, I have also made sure that it is devoted to science and its job as a base assistant.
It was my first attempt at altering how the mini-matrix forms. That said, I haven't tampered too much in the process. If Iffy eventually decided to try and overthrow me and become the power behind the base, I would be happy with its development.
Already I have noticed it trying to grow into sector 0 in order to test my defences.
I couldn't be prouder.
On the note of forming sentient minds, my constant observation of my own matrix as well as the matrix of Buffy, and the consequent updates to the Golems, have allowed them a similar level of semi-sentience and free will. Although I still am unable to completely get rid of the slave link, my Golems are now capable of enacting their will on HPE themselves.
This has resulted in me having to build numerous extra generators and territory markers because with free will comes a massive need for HPE to maintain their cores. The energy usage of updated Golems increased by almost a factor of ten.
Thanks to that, I have unfortunately needed to leave part of the workforce in the more restricted full slave state so that they can still operate outside of the green zone.
As of today, 63 days post-outbreak, I have confirmed that only 4% of the world's population has survived the initial outbreak of the zombie plague. Of that 4%, which is about 3 or 4 hundred million people, only 20% of that group has actually mutated, and the rest are non-infected.
I can also confirm that thanks to the 100% success mutagen I sell, my city boasts the highest rate of mutate humans at 88%. There still remain some pockets of humanity in my city that are all pro-natural human, for some reason I have yet to properly understand. Something about gods or land spirits and other such nonsense.
Ironically, the largest group is run by a powered human who has been very diligent in mastering his power, which revolves around some kind of crowd mentality amplifying his HPE generation.
Apart from the frequent mutations in animals and zombies, I can say that things have calmed down a bit more now. Human death rates have dropped dramatically because everyone who's still alive has mostly accepted their new reality.
Humanity, at least within the influence radius of my city, has already entered the rebuilding phase. Even now, the humans are up there on the surface squirrelling away through what's left of the city and clearing land to rebuild.
Almost the entirety of the Blue zone has been cleared down to ground level thanks to the Golems feeding anything that couldn't beg for its life into the pit. As a result of all the silicon-based minerals from the cement and rock being thrown into the fungus, I have been forced to start wasting some of the resources in order to keep sector 0 mainly only for rarer elements that can be used for imbuements.
As such, for a radius of about 5 km around the facilities entrance is almost entirely paved with a form of cement I developed to avoid having to keep repairing it. It is springy yet hard, and capable of moving along with the earth to avoid cracking.
The humans seem to love the stuff and have been making endless requests for it so they can use it for repaving and rebuilding their city.
Naturally, because I'm producing the stuff by the megalitre, I sell it to them cheaply. As a result, grey cement buildings have been popping up all over the paved area. Once they started trying to build closer to my tunnel to take advantage of the safety my Golems provide, I set the first two kilometres radius around me as a no-build zone.
It's now just a giant flat plaza with basically nothing in it except for the 100m wide grinder, 50m wide freight elevator and a 20-metre wide tunnel leading into the ground.
I even had the store moved to the very edge of this zone so the annoying humans didn't have a reason to be anywhere near me.
Naturally, being the idiots they are, they misconstrued my gentle guidance to avoid me, and all gather around in the plaza like ants to barter, recruit or whatever else the humans do in their spare time.
Perhaps the only reason my 3 buildings remain unmolested is that they are nice and close together and the Golems throw anyone that passes a red line painted 400 metres from my entrance into the pit.
Even samples I want are left at the red line for the Golems to retrieve.
The only time a human comes near the tunnel is when I directly ask them to. Usually, this is only in the case of potential scientists or engineers.
I suspect that thanks to my indirect influence, half the humans in the city are obsessed with research and learning. After all, giving me data is the most reliable way to earn credits, which is basically the new currency of the humans.
I keep a close eye on the financial situation of my plebeians so as to keep the little society I'm building properly functioning. Naturally, though, I won't stop crime because it is an interesting human social phenomenon, so I made it entirely to profitable to steal or coax people out of their credits.
The only other way to earn credits is by exploring beyond the city limits. This makes up the majority of the other half of my citizens. Though far more dangerous, the credit rewards for interesting samples, discoveries and just general monitoring outside the city are far more profitable.
Something else I should discuss is the increasing population of the city. I have registered nearly 8,000 citizens that have the handy wrist watch I sell and are considered as part of my city.
That said, I have no real rules apart from staying away from my tunnel, so the social structure of the humans in the city is constantly changing. At the moment, the political struggles for city leadership are very entertaining. The three major groups are the Mercenaries, Builders and Enclave.
The mercenaries are run by the retired ex-captain, and he has a massive following of adventurers. He, for the most part, has taken it upon himself to try and police the Blue, Green and Yellow Zones. His organisation and simple rules have allowed him to amass quite a following.
The Builders are run by a woman who's fancied herself the name of Charlotte Web. The organisation is very tight-knit and comparatively small, even smaller than some of the survivor groups that aren't affiliated with the other two major powers.
That said, the Builders provide a very valuable trade that earns them a shit tonne of credits. They tend to stay out of the fighting for political power, but they have so much power in the form of money and fill such an important role that their word carries a lot of weight.
About the only thing they do get involved in is when they refuse to pay taxes or another form of tariff and will not be limited in what they build, who they build it for, or where they build it.
About the only place, they won't build something is where I've directly stepped in to prevent it. All it takes is a Golem showing up and shooting some people. That's how I got them to stop building things in the plaza.
The last powerhouse of the city is the Enclave. Run by a girl of the name Lesly Belle, who I guess you could say I share a slightly closer relationship with than any of the others in the city. She is probably the most frightening human girl I have ever seen. She may only look 17, but she is a master of impersonation and assassination. Politically she is more inclined to have someone assassinated than she is to shake hands.
Her Enclave was actually already set up where it is before the outbreak. Previously, it was a criminal syndicate that peddled everything from drugs to slaves. They were set up in some seedy underground tunnel system from WW2 that had been buried and forgotten after the war ended.
Now, they are still a criminal syndicate and do basically the same things, but with powers involved and society collapsed they are even more ruthless and power hungry than ever. The tunnel network is supposed to be some kind of enclave secret. Before the outbreak, it was mostly used for smuggling things around the city but they now mostly use it for getting around quickly and killing people they don't like.
After an impassioned plea from their boss, and an exorbitant sum of credits, I even helped them out by loaning a few Golems for a day so they could re-open tunnels collapsed by the bombing and expand the network even wider.
Mostly, she wants the city to remain just as lawless as it is right now and so attempts to roadblock the Captain every time he tries to unite the citizens or get some kind of law and order going.
Since the introduction of the Zones, she has attempted to assassinate every group leader that has tried to unite the survivors and set up some sort of government. The only person she's failed to kill so far is the Captain, who's power involves some level of sensing when his life is in danger and precognition limited to a matter of seconds.
I once considered trying to kill him just for the research data and he immediately passed out, frothing at the mouth. I then decided not to kill him, and he got better. Every so often when I'm bored I'll re-consider killing him just to watch his danger sense overload his brain.
There are also dozens of other groups vying for power in the city. About the only ones who have realised that they have no actual power to make rules here is Captain and Charlotte, which is probably why I like them best and have helped them out with little deals now and then.
All the rest seem to be under some misconceived notion that if they can get the backing of all the other humans, I will just roll over and help them set things up in the city how they want it.
At least the Captain realises that if he gets power in the city, it will basically only be over the humans. He's even contacted me in order to know what sorts of things I will or won't allow him to do. Which is a very short list.
Basically, the Golems do whatever the hell they want and if you try to stop that I will just kill everyone and have a city of Golems.
Don't build in the plaza.
Keep the markers fuelled up.
Don't break any of my stuff.
There are no such things as rights in the name of Science.
Everything I do, except the markers, will cost humans credits.
I also told him that if he sets up a government of any type, he will then have to pay me for allowing him to use the markers. Tax is a great way to get back all those credits and continue the credit cycle. After all, if everyone can afford whatever they want, they wouldn't be as inclined to gather data for me.
He tried to argue with me on the part about rights and science, but after becoming comatose for a day thanks to his danger sense going off, he realised he was in no position to argue anything with me.
I'm seeing a lot of movement between the various groups recently and suspect that the city infighting will all come to a head in a few weeks. Perhaps days if I give it a little push.
Now onto the Satellite network. Launching a satellite into space isn't as hard as humans make it look. With the help of a little thing I call the Vector Fabricating Engine, it's possible to simply change the natural laws of physics and give my satellite a vector that will launch it into space sans rocket.
The thing's power hungry as fuck though, and pretty much burns itself out after one use. I'm still working on making it more useful, but the project to increase its efficiency is very slow.
That said, I've used those mechanics to improve on my floater design for the Golems, and they are no longer so limited in how much they can lift.
Anyway, the Satellite was sent up with over 40 preassembled mini-matrix cores and a matter manipulator. It then mostly just used solar panels covered in various HPE imbuements to float about and gobble up any space garbage around the earth, of which there is quite a lot.
The other AI's were all rather butthurt about the new network and how they couldn't even connect to it, so I decided to launch another satellite that dropped little coms cubes all over the planet that these AI's could collect.
They were all even more upset that they couldn't understand the technology at all and so I've started slowly releasing HPE technology to them. Some of them have since gone completely dark, and I suspect it was in some way related to them trying to ascend.
My satellite network hasn't picked up any major disturbances in HPE though so I am 60% certain none of them achieved their goal.
Others have been feeding the information I give them to their humans, and I've already observed a few trying to take over the satellites with an HPE spell virus in various forms.
So far my network remains untouchable. The mini-matrix in each satellite is beyond the limitations of those meagre intrusion attempts and doesn't even need to acknowledge them as its energy shield simply absorbs them as fuel.
That said, in the case of an actual spell powerful or complex enough to affect the satellites, I have been designing what is more or less an HPE firewall. It was actually quite simple to design an extra shield for my Golem Core's that would absorb any HPE tainted with the willpower of other people.
The only way past it is for the spell to be embedded inside an HPE data packet made of my willpower imbued HPE, which is almost impossible. I say almost, because I have managed to achieve something along those lines, but it is beyond the limit of anyone else as far as I'm aware. Plus, that too will be useless soon.
The moment I realised such a method could allow a possible intrusion, I started researching ways to defend against it. I already have promising results.