Nick and Aria talked about the incident a bit more before closing the topic.
The incident had happened, and that couldn't be changed.
The only thing they could do was to focus on the future.
Next, Nick contacted Samar.
Samar believed Nick was a human, but she also knew that he was the true leader of this operation.
He was their only link with the outside world.
Samar briefed Nick on their advancements, and when Nick heard about them, he was surprised.
They had already managed to generate Pure Energy?
They only generated a tiny fraction, but they had generated some.
It seemed like the researchers had become much more efficient at researching under Samar's leadership.
The Star Energy generator could now also be compressed to a size of about ten centimeters.
Samar estimated that they could produce enough Pure Energy to power one Seed in about 20 years.
It was finally time.
In 20 years, Nick could uncover the technology of the Enlightened Ones.
This would multiply the research speed by many times.
'We are getting close,' Nick thought. 'If we can learn about the technology of the Enlightened Ones, we can also start changing humanity as a whole.'
'We need to change humanity's genes to work with Pure Energy instead of Zephyx.'
'Zephyx gives us more power in this environment, but if the Sun gets destroyed, all the Zephyx will vanish, and all the Extractors will lose their power.'
'We need to create humans who grow more powerful after the Sun's demise so that we can fight the army that is bound to arrive at some point.'
'Most likely, Earth itself will be destroyed sometime after the Sun gets destroyed.'
'The Aliens will realize that dealing with us isn't easy, and they will obliterate Earth.'
'By then, humanity must be able to survive in space. Either in self-sustaining spaceships or in the void of space itself.'
'If we are scattered but individually powerful, we can't be struck by a single apocalyptic weapon, and we can use guerilla tactics to whittle down the aliens' power.'
'I am quite certain that this was how the aliens defeated the Ancient Ones.'
'The Ancient Ones had unfathomably powerful weapons, but every single shot cost an unreasonable amount of resources.'
'Firing one shot to kill an alien with the power of a Protector would be a huge waste, but not many other weapons are capable of stopping something like that.'
'It's like using a sniper rifle to kill a swarm of insects.'
'A sniper rifle can kill a gigantic animal in one shot, but it can't easily deal with ten flies.'
'Humanity must secretly spread across the stars and build a scattered empire.'
'Only when we are a force to be reckoned with will the aliens be willing to bargain for peace.'
Nick had created this plan many decades ago, but now, it was about time to actualize it.
'The key is the technology of the Enlightened Ones. They knew what they were dealing with, and since they attacked the Sun, they were confident that they could survive in a world filled with nothing but Star Energy.'
'If we can use that, we can do the same.'
'Sadly, all of this is still far in the future.'
'We need to create completely new humans, and then, those humans need to become level nine Extractors first.'
'This will take millennia.'
After reaffirming his plan, Nick went to the suppressed Adversary.
He reported humanity's progress, and it said that it was pleasantly surprised.
The Adversary decided to talk about more complex matters.
Since humanity was advancing so quickly, it was talking about things humanity didn't know yet.
Within the next years, humanity would advance enough that these new bits of knowledge would be perfect for them.
Nick listened to the Adversary for ten years while also focusing on his Zephyx Manipulation.
Then, he delivered the knowledge to Samar, who spread it amongst everybody.
While it would still take ten years for enough Pure Energy to be produced, they could already start the creation of an even more powerful generator with this new knowledge.
After delivering his knowledge, Nick didn't immediately return to the Adversary.
Instead, he secretly went to many different cities.
His mind-reading ability was much more powerful now, and he could even read the minds of Early Specialists.
They needed more people.
They didn't really need more researchers, but they needed more people in general.
They needed to create an entire underground society.
The humans on the surface were no help when it came to fighting the aliens.
As soon as the new human genome was created, it couldn't see the light of day.
The Sun would eventually find out about these new humans, and it would immediately grow suspicious of Nick.
It was his job to keep humanity's technology suppressed.
Because of that, the technology deep underground couldn't come into contact with the surface.
This meant that the underground society needed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people, and they all needed to reproduce.
Nick started to recruit people.
He recruited many Johns and Newbies who were not happy with the world as it was.
He recruited some struggling families with commendable ideals.
He captured tons of Hatchlings, Adolescents, and Adults.
He recruited idealistic government officials and guards.
Then, Nick created an entirely new underground base.
The current one was too close to the surface, and it was also too close to one of Aegis' strongholds.
For ten long years, Nick crafted the new underground base.
He created the materials by conjuring them with his Specter Zephyx.
It took so much Zephyx, but he managed to create a hull that only an Adversary could damage.
Finally, Nick finished the base.
It was around five kilometers wide and three kilometers high.
It was an intricate underground city that could house up to 50,000 people, theoretically.
Then, Nick moved everyone to the new base in groups.
The new base was almost 20 kilometers underground.
The temperatures down here would be horrendously hot, but the materials of the outer layer consumed stored Zephyx to keep the inside cool.
There were also animals and plants that could survive underground so that there was enough food for the great number of normal people.
And there was one last but extremely important addition, and it solved the biggest danger the underground civilization had.
Aegis had advanced a lot in technology, and the Technician generated a material that could perfectly isolate advanced Specter senses.
They had tested it extensively, and it worked perfectly.
If a normal human was inside a room made of this material, they could speak the Sentence…
And Nurse Alice would not appear.
Sadly, tests done by Aegis showed that it worked for Nurse Alice but not for the Null.
The entire underground city was made of this material.
Now, even if someone spoke the Sentence, they would not be found out.
Humanity had dealt with one more threat.
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