“Brother!” Henry shouted as he ran towards Aron, who had just stepped out of his car.
Aron caught Henry mid-air, embracing him like a basketball, before setting him down and giving him a warm hug.
After he entered the house, his mother greeted him with a warm welcome, saying “Welcome back!”
“Thank you. How have you been?” Aron asked, settling into a seat in the living room as he continued his conversation with his mother.
“Not much has changed since you left. So, how was your trip to Europe?” his mother inquired.
“It was quite good. I think you should go on a trip with father. I don’t recall seeing you two go on a vacation since my childhood,” Aron suggested, encouraging his mother to take some vacation.
“During your childhood, we couldn’t go because we couldn’t afford it,” his mother replied, her face reflecting the hardships of that period.
“But now there is no such problem,” Aron affirmed, determined to help his parents live their lives without any regrets and to encourage them to do what they truly desired.
“What about Henry?” his mother inquired, revealing her hesitation to go on a trip without him.
“You can simply ask for permission from his school, and if they don’t agree, I can take care of him for the two weeks you’ll be on vacation,” Aron suggested, offering a solution to his mother’s concern.
“I’ll talk to your father and let you know what we decide,” his mother replied with a smile on her face. She was pleased that her son had not forgotten about them and still wanted them to enjoy a good life, despite his newfound wealth.
“In that case, I’ll spend some time with Henry, as it’s been a while since we’ve played together,” Aron said, and after his mother nodded he got up and headed towards his room.
He was sure that Henry was there as his play station was still inside his mother’s room, as he was caught playing in the middle of the night once again.
Upon entering the room, Aron found Henry playing FIFA 2014. He quickly grabbed the second controller and sat beside him, saying, “Let’s see if you’ve improved while I was away.”
“What will I get if I win?” Henry asked, his face displaying confidence in his imminent victory.
“What do you want?” Aron replied with a grin.
“I want to go to Disneyland again,” Henry declared.
“But you have to win first,” Aron replied, turning his attention back to the screen and selecting his team as they restarted the game.
Henry wasted no time and selected his team, and they began the playoffs. He leaned forward, showing his intense concentration and determination.
Aron couldn’t help but smile as he watched his little brother’s focus. However, he quickly returned his attention to the screen, not wanting to get distracted from the game.
……
That night.
After playing games with Henry for over three hours and winning the shit out of it, Aron finally retreated to his basement, which also doubled as his workspace. Henry, who was upset over losing, ate his dinner silently, trying to act as if he didn’t want to talk to Aron.
He only managed to soothe Henry after he promised to take him to Disneyland, which caused Henry’s upset act to disappear like a mirage.
[If you were going to agree to take him anyway, why did you continue to win the game then?] Nova asked.
With a mischievous grin, Aron replied, “It’s more fun to play that way.” He chuckled as he recalled Henry’s expression during the game. “And what are siblings for if not to tease and have a little fun with?” he added, before breaking into laughter.
[What do you plan to do tonight?] Nova asked, realizing that Aron didn’t have any specific plans from her memory.
“I have to increase the speed of brain data collection, but I’m really tired of traveling across the world to do it myself.
So, I need to find someone to help me with this task, and I’m here to do the research and select the team for it.” Aron explained as he put on his virtual reality helmet and logged in.
Inside the Universal Simulation.
Aron greeted Nova and then immediately took a seat that she had materialized for him after he logged in.
[Are you officially starting to assemble your private forces?] Nova asked excitedly.
“Yeah, since the plan in Eden is already in its second phase, we have less than six months to complete the third phase once the second phase is done. That means I have less than ten months to assemble my forces and make them powerful enough to handle the upcoming tumultuous conditions,” Aron explained.
[The time frame is adequate to build a strong organization, but it would be more effective if we don’t start from scratch,]
“I know, that’s why I’m going for the people that no one would think of using,” Aron said with a smile that revealed he was planning something devious.
He immediately turned to Nova and said “List all of the American soldiers who were discharged from the military due to heavy injuries in the last 10 years?”
Nova followed Aron’s command and projected a holographic screen in front of him, displaying a list of all the American soldiers who had been discharged from the military due to severe injuries. The list contained over 50,000 people.
After a brief glance at the list, he said, “Remove all those who have no extensive combat experience.”
Nova quickly removed the names of those who had no combat experience, causing the list to shrink down to less than 20,000.
Following another short look he said, “remove those who have family members to take care of them.”
And just like that the list was narrowed down to about 4,000 people.
“Remove those who have not received special forces training”
The list fell down to 1,400 people.
“Remove those that are still loyal to the country”
This time, it took Nova a little longer as she had to comb through the remaining people’s entire digital history to determine whether they met Aron’s criteria.
After a thorough investigation, Nova narrowed down the list to a mere 380 individuals. These unfortunate individuals had suffered war injuries, had no one to care for them, and possessed special forces skills that they were unable to utilize due to their injuries.
However, the most significant common factor amongst them was their lack of loyalty toward their country.
They harbored resentments towards the Veterans Affairs and other government services for mistreatment, as well as towards their military leaders for giving foolish orders that resulted in their injuries and the shifting of blame to them, resulting in the loss of their rightful disability compensation.
“How many of them do you think will accept my offer and pledge their allegiance to me if I offer to treat their conditions and restore them to their peak?”
[More than seventy percent of them] Nova replied.
“Just that much? I thought it would be higher.” Aron asked in surprise.
[Quite a few of the individuals on the list are contemplating suicide and might take their own lives in the next three months if nothing changes for them.] Nova explained in a cold and detached tone.
To Nova, anything that was not related to her master or deemed important by her master was just a collection of data points or data sets in her database. She had no emotional attachment or significance to them.
“How many of them are in the state?” he asked, disregarding Nova’s unfeeling tone as he was familiar with her programming and understood why she behaved that way.
[Seventeen, Sir] Nova answered while displaying a holographic map of New York state that showed where the individuals in question resided.
“Oh, a few of them are located about 30 kilometers from here,” Aron said as he zoomed in on the map to locate the nearest individual.
After examining the satellite images of the location of the person closest to his own, Aron commented, “It seems like he’s living a very harsh life.”
Nova revealed, [He is one of the individuals I suspect may resort to suicide. Presently, he is barely holding on by using powerful painkillers to which he is addicted. However, it won’t be long before he runs out of money to purchase them, and that’s when he may take the fatal step.]
“Can’t he just beg for the medicines?” Aron said not connecting how will someone kill himself when he can just steal or beg for them?
[According to his records, it shows that he has a very high self-esteem and he can’t bring himself to ask for help despite his worsening situation,] Nova explained while presenting the report on the man.
“That will make it easier for me to persuade him using his self-esteem. All I have to do is promise to give him his previous body back and he will be loyal,” Aron replied after reviewing the man’s history.