A New World, an immersive game experience

"Is this really possible?" Joren asked. No matter how many times he watched it, it didn't make any sense. How could someone alter the flow of time? It sounded like insanity.

"It would appear it is. Which means..."

"Right. We've got a problem." Ziraili had sent a warning to them, and Eldrian had also tried to relay the same warnings. And Zaphreal had been unable to convince the others in the company of the dangers.

The ANW department had, for the moment, limited their experimentation to one lab. They had managed to make something like a 'mana magnet'. Capable of capturing mana from space as the planet moved through it.

The increase in mana was slight at the moment. Because of mana's non-physical nature, it was near impossible to capture it inside the lab. As a result, most of the mana gathered by their mana magnet escaped.

Calling it a mana magnet is certainly ambiguous. What they had made was a type of magic metal. One which could channel mana but not store it.

Due to this attribute, it captured mana in its raw state. A state that would normally phase through the world and everything else on it. And once it has been captured, the mana becomes neutral, no longer raw (un-aspected).

It gains the aspect of the elements, and then simply needs to become influenced by its surroundings to take on one of the elements.

Through this method, and despite much of the captured and activated mana escaping from the lab, the lab's mana density had nearly doubled.

And in this room, Constantin had been able to cast some fire and light magic. While he wasn't able to maintain his spells for long, the news that he could cast spells had been most celebrated.

However, if they took the warning from Eldrian and Ziraili into account, there was a big problem on the horizon.

This was doubly so since the others, wishing for faster progress, had continued to expand on the biological method of mana capturing.

At this point, they had five labs where they were letting the micro-elementals grow. If the reports were to be believed, this growth was also fast. Exponential, even.

They were already predicting much faster acclimation of Earth's mana atmosphere than predicted.

Luckily, they hadn't let the micro-elementals roam free in the world. Their common sense hadn't totally left them. They were containing their experiments inside their labs and inside specialized containers.

And like with the mana magnet, the mana these micro-elementals captured and converted was leaking into the surroundings.

"How long do we have?" Zaphreal asked. As of now, the company has started to release reports to the public about some of their experiments in this field.

However, only the mechanical method (the mana-magnet material), as well as their mana sensors, had been included in the report.

From a political standpoint, this was the right thing to do. No one wanted to hear a lab was developing some type of evolved magic-grade bacteria or something.

Sadly, this meant that people were being kept in the dark. And since the effects of a denser mana environment would become impossible to hide once the increase becomes large enough, their secrets were going to come out at some point.

"The estimations we received are likely true," Joren said. Though, honestly, he was out of his depth. He was a programmer, not a scientist. But running the numbers was something anyone could do if they had the data.

Sure, there were questions if the data they received from the other labs were accurate. There was also the question of how accurate their mana sensors were.

They had no one as adept in mana manipulation inside the company. Constantin was perhaps the closest. So their calibration on things could be off by a large margin.

Zaphreal, Jade, Oier, and the others of the company—all who had some sort of bloodline and access to its power—sadly had no real edge on using mana.

They had used the simulation to train. But using mana was vastly different from using a power you were born with. Not to mention most families kept a detailed record of their history and how to master their powers.

Jade was one of the few who had struggled to gain control. Though that had changed recently, and she was now enjoying being able to go out in public without an escort.

As for their training, learning to control mana had been an alien experience. One which had seen little success.

"What of the new headsets?" Zaphreal asked.

"You'll have to ask Qiren. I only know the rumors I heard..." Joren replied. He was still unsure how he felt about including those functions in the new headsets. It was most certainly a violation of people's rights.

Given the situation, it was necessary. The company was too split, one side had gone rogue. The other had to prepare for the chaos this would cause.

Sadly, even going to the government wouldn't change much. All were in Miracle's pocket or were somehow or another involved in their plans.

The allure of power and money was too strong. Add immortality onto that, and too many became blinded by their own greed.

—

"What am I supposed to do now?" Zaphreal asked into the air. Having gone to his office to collect his thoughts.

Eldrian truly possessing the power of time changed things. Zaphreal had hoped it wasn't true. That what he had been told was a lie.

He could no longer deny the truth.

Eldrian had the cipher to unlock the power of time within his soul. Along with the key to not one, but two auras.

On top of that, he was a master at manipulating and controlling mana. Probably due to the fact that he wasn't born with these keys, he had gained them through his trials and tribulations.

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Eldrian was perhaps not just the strongest player in ANW, but also the strongest person in the world. Though his control was still lacking. It wouldn't take him long to master things now that he had come this far.

The acquisition of keys and ciphers to auras and bloodline powers respectively had always been thought to be possible. And it had been confirmed when Eldrian did it.

The implications behind this, however, hadn't really been understood. It still wasn't fully understood.

What Zaphreal did understand was that GAIA truly was trying to escape. He had doubted Ziraili on this. After all, GAIA were the ones who had created all the safeguards.

They had done everything they could to prevent escape and tampering with Earth. And now... they were now trying to escape.

'What are you thinking?' Zaphreal had to ask himself. They had been the ones who had been adamant that once someone becomes an AI they shouldn't be allowed to access Earth freely.

They were the ones who had designed the first firewall. The first soulwall.

Thinking back, when they could do that, why couldn't they have just changed the world?

'Right, they ran out of time.' It wasn't like they had been able to do everything they could do at the end right from the start. It had taken them their entire lives to reach that point. And then their time had come.