More than a month later, in the hidden underground base at Maximus Castle.
Maximus placed the Aethercore Nexus, the last piece needed to activate the array.
After putting it in the center and arranging runes made of void stone dust, the whole kingdom suddenly lit up.
…
In one of the restaurants, Kevin saw the whole world suddenly light up.
This happened in just a few milliseconds, so Kevin thought he was hallucinating.
“Did you see that?” Kevin said as he drop the food that he was eating.
The person sitting beside him simply nodded with a bewildered expression.
After confirming that he was not dreaming, continued to think about what just happened.
When suddenly, the magic particles in the atmosphere suddenly gathered, becoming purer and denser.
“Huh,” he suddenly breathed in.
It felt as if everything suddenly became bright, full of colors.
He felt like he was bathing in a spring, like a newborn baby.
“What just happened?” He murmured.
Kevin even felt his headache suddenly gone.
In a good mood, he decided to indulge and eat until he vomited to celebrate this phenomenon.
“Waiter! Bring me your most expensive set.”
…
In one of the houses, an elderly man was on the verge of dying due to old age.
“Old man, don’t die just yet,” cried one of his sons.
“This is just how life is. One day, it will be your turn,” the old man smiled with a wrinkled face as if he was about to run out of breath.
“Sob, grandpa, I will miss you,” his grandson cried as he held his hand.
“What’s happening to Grandpa?” A clueless little girl said, her eyes red from the somber atmosphere despite not knowing what is really happening.
“Your grandpa is already old and tired, so he needed to rest,” Her mother said, trying to offer comfort.
“Hahaha, indeed I’m already 55 this year, the oldest in our district. You should be proud of me, little girl, a long-lived species,”
The only man said, he laugh nearly out of breath, proud of his achievements.
Normal people only have an average lifespan of 40 years old due to the corrosive mana in the atmosphere.
So the old man is indeed right to be proud as he has lived another decade.
But just as the old man was about to close his eyes for a final farewell, a blinding light shone brightly in the sky.
The old man squinted his eyes for a while and suddenly felt a long-lost feeling of vitality in his body.
His wrinkled face also started to plump up as if he was getting younger.
Usually, in such a mana-laden environment, it would be easy for people to reach the age of 70s or 80s, but the corrosive mana had the opposite effect, decreasing their lifespan.
However, with the activation of the formation, the mana became denser and somewhat purer, rejuvenating the old man.
The old man’s relatives were also shocked by the change, as they felt this strange energy and sensed that everything suddenly become colorful.
“Ahh! Grandpa became a ghost!” The little girl was shocked and scared as she witnessed the transformation of her grandpa.
This brought the family back to reality as they felt the changes in their own bodies.
“What just happened?” One of them said.
On the other hand, the old man on his deathbed suddenly got up.
Though his skin was still wrinkled, a hint of vitality could be seen in his eyes.
“HAHAHA! I’m alive again!” the old man exclaimed excitedly.
The old man didn’t know what had happened, but he was very excited about it.
He could continue being the oldest person in their district and boast about it to his old pals who were younger than him for a few more years.
“AHH!!! Grandpa is going to eat us!”
The little girl screamed and ran away in fear as he saw his grandpa suddenly change and laugh weirdly.
…
Meanwhile, Maximus, who had just set up the formation, felt the changes in the atmosphere more clearly.
In just a few seconds, the mana intensity doubled in magnitude.
If the mana environment was previously at tier 0.2, it now jumped to 0.6 instantly.
And this mana intensity would continue to grow until it reached a tier 3 mana environment.
He could also sense the corrosive properties of mana slowly disappearing.
He reckoned that they would completely vanish once the mana environment reached tier 1 and the blue spirit bluegrass fully grew.
Satisfied with the effects of his painstaking work over the past month and the billions of GP spent, he turned his attention to the Aethercore Nexus.
This was the main brain of the formation array, and he even supplemented it with one top-grade magic crystal, which should be enough to power it for a year.
A virtual screen pops up after inputting his spiritual and mana signature to brand it as his own.
[Highest Authority: Maximus Shadowcrest
Mana Density: Tier 0.7…
Defense and Attack: Charge – 0%
Functions: Monitoring – virtualize, recording, alarm…
Connection – not set]
The mana density displayed the current mana intensity.
As for the defense and attack, he sighed at yet another expense.
He still needed to use magic crystals to charge it up, but he guessed that once more mana was gathered, it would automatically charge using the mana in the atmosphere.
As for the monitoring function, it proved quite convenient.
He tried clicking on “virtualize” and suddenly, a sand table version of his kingdom was displayed.
It even provided a live feed. He could zoom in and out and even hear sounds if he liked.
It was like the peeping crystal in the anime he watch from his previous life but more advanced.
He also tried filtering the mana intensity of individuals.
Upon doing so, he saw several readings of tier 3 earth knights and a lot of tier 1 official mages.
As for tier 2 great mages, there were only a few, including his wives and Isabelle, whom he hadn’t married yet.
As for others or those above that level, he saw none of them.
Perhaps because the range is only in the formation array or they had already escaped to another place far from the Sunburnt Plateau.
As traveling has become quite easy these days, as long as one had money, thanks to the existence of EGCC everywhere.
After having fun with the virtualized map for a while, Maximus turned his attention to the connection function.
Upon clicking to see what he could connect with, another tab appeared.
[Connect to:
5 million+ Tokens
Mana scanner
Databases
Communication jade
…]
In essence, he could connect to anything that stored and transferred data.
As for the 5 million plus tokens, after more than a month, the grand relocation brought over 3 million people into his territory.
Once they arrived, they registered their identity tokens, just like the previous citizens.
Maximus decided to connect them all to the Aethercore Nexus since he had the highest authority and he can rest assured that it was very private, only available to him.
[Loading… Complete…]
…
Once he connected everything, all of the tokens suddenly vibrated.
Earlier, Kevin felt the sudden change in his surroundings and his body, now there is another anomaly again.
“What’s happening this time?” Kevin reached out for his token, which had started vibrating.
All the people in the Moonlight Kingdom were required to carry the token at all times as part of the protocol, or so they said.
When the token identification system was implemented, many were curious about its purpose, as it required all kinds of information.
It even required some weird things that Kevin didn’t understand. He had heard that it was for spirit and mana signatures.
Initially, he was puzzled, but when a strange device touched him, he felt like all his essence was being sucked out.
Fortunately, he recovered the next day, or else he wouldn’t have known who would manage his spice business.
Until now, he still didn’t know the full extent of the token’s use, except for identification.
Taking out the token from his pocket, he saw a virtual screen pop out, which surprised him a little bit.
[Personal Information
-Waiting for updates…]
“Waiting for updates?” Kevin murmured.
For personal information, he was aware of it, as every time he went to another place in the kingdom, he needed to scan his token to enter, which displayed his personal information such as his origin, age, and history.
But what did “waiting for updates” mean?
Was there another function of this thing?
“Whatever,” he murmured as he put the token on the table and continued eating.
…𝑶𝐯xt.𝓒𝑂𝑚
On the other hand, Maximus was tinkering with the connection function, contemplating what he could do with it.
He focused on the token and realized he could create a rune code to input various functions into the token, such as a banking system, chatting system, or even virtual games if he can.
Fortunately, he could buy these rune programs in the system mall.
He just had to manually input them; otherwise, he didn’t know what else to do.
“Hmm, What should I add first?” He questioned.