[ Chapter 39: Panic ]
**Day 1,186.**
**Location: The Moon (Dark Side) – The Tungsten Spire.**
**Current Status: Atlas.**
**Mood: Mildly Irritated.**
There is a specific kind of silence that follows a miracle.
It isn't peaceful. It is the silence of a billion brains simultaneously attempting to reboot their understanding of physics.
I stood on the balcony of the Spire. My hands were raised, palms flat against the vacuum, pressing against an invisible wall that spanned a diameter of five hundred thousand kilometers.
Above me, the Zorgon Armada was a chaotic swarm of jagged shapes against the stars. Their blue ion cannons were still firing, pouring enough energy to vaporize a continent into the golden barrier I had erected.
The barrier rippled. It drank the energy. It tasted like static and ozone.
"Consumption," I whispered.
**[Passive Skill Activated: Mana Absorption.]**
**[Incoming Energy Converted to Shield Integrity.]**
The Zorgon were feeding the very wall they were trying to break.
I lowered my hands. The shield didn't fall; I locked it into a self-sustaining loop, tethered to my own bio-reactor. It was a drain, certainly—like holding a ten-pound weight at arm's length—but for a being whose strength compounded daily, "heavy" was a relative term.
I turned around.
The interior of the Spire was silent. The obsidian floor was cracked where I had unleashed my aura.
Damon was sitting on the ground, his massive greatsword lying uselessly beside him. He was staring at me. His helmet was off, revealing a face that had seen wars, monsters, and death, but currently looked like a child who had just watched the sun explode.
Ren was standing, but he was leaning heavily against a pillar. His daggers were sheathed. He was trembling—not from fear, but from the residual pressure of standing next to a god who had just taken the safety off.
And then there was the Mimic.
The spy who had worn my face. He was pinned to the far wall by a gravity well I had left running. He looked like a crushed insect, his digital form glitching between my *Null* avatar and a featureless black mannequin.
"You..." the Mimic wheezed, his voice distorted. "You caught a Stellar Bombardment. With your hands."
I walked over to him. My footsteps didn't make a sound. I was floating an inch off the ground, a subconscious flex of power I couldn't quite turn off yet.
"I didn't catch it," I corrected him calmly. "I denied it."
I looked at the glitching spy.
"The Zorgon are logical creatures, aren't they? Mathematical. They see the universe as an equation."
"They will solve you," the Mimic spat, though the bravado was thin. "They are calculating a counter-frequency right now. You cannot hold the sky forever."
"I don't need forever," I said. "I just need until the humans wake up."
I turned to Zero.
"Report on the surface. What is the status of the player base?"
Zero materialized next to me. His avatar usually looked professional, but even he seemed to be vibrating with the excess mana I was leaking.
**[Status: Total Collapse.]**
"Elaborate."
**[The sky turned gold. The stars disappeared, replaced by alien dreadnoughts. Then, a shockwave hit the atmosphere. Windows shattered in every major city. The internet is currently a singular scream of terror.]**
Zero waved his hand, and a holographic screen expanded in the air.
It showed the feed from Earth.
***
**The View from Below**
It was chaos.
The screen cycled through news feeds. New York. Tokyo. London. Mumbai.
In Times Square, the digital billboards were flashing emergency warnings, but no one was reading them. The streets were a stampede. People were abandoning their cars, running nowhere, screaming at the sky.
The sky itself was the source of the terror. The golden dome I had created was translucent. Through it, the people of Earth could see the Zorgon ships. They looked like sharks circling a fishbowl.
**CNN:** *"—reports of mass suicides in Seoul. The religious sects are claiming this is the Rapture. The governments are silent. The White House is in lockdown."*
**BBC:** *"—markets have halted trading. The concept of value has evaporated. Gold dropped to zero. Crypto is gone. People are looting supermarkets for water and batteries. Civilization is eating itself."*
I watched a clip from a streamer in Los Angeles. He was filming out his apartment window. Smoke was rising from the downtown area.
*"They're here!"* the streamer was screaming, his camera shaking. *"The System was a trap! It was a fattening pen! We're all gonna die!"*
Damon stood up and walked to the screen. He watched a mob in Paris tear down a statue of a historic general, searching for shelter beneath the plinth.
"They're breaking," Damon rumbled. "We saved them from the monsters in the dungeons, but we can't save them from this fear. They think it's over."
"It is over," the Mimic laughed from the wall. "This is the purpose of the Zorgon arrival. Fear is the first weapon. By the time the bombardment starts, humanity will have already destroyed its own infrastructure. You are guarding a madhouse, Architect."
I looked at the screen. I saw the looting. I saw the despair.
I saw the fragility of the society I had been trying to evolve.
"Zero," I said. "Show me the stock market."
A graph appeared. A vertical red line plunging into the abyss.
**[Global Economic Index: -90%.]**
**[Fiat Currency: Failed.]**
**[Trade Status: Reverted to Barter.]**
"Money is dead," Ren noted, his voice hollow. "The old world just ended in ten minutes."
"Good," I said.
Ren and Damon looked at me, shocked.
"Good?" Ren asked. "Shigu, people are trampling each other for canned beans."
"The old world was a crutch," I said, turning away from the screen. "They relied on governments that couldn't protect them and money that has no intrinsic value. They need to understand that the only currency left is *Power*."
I walked to the Tungsten Throne. I didn't sit. I stood before it.
"The panic is natural. They are prey animals realizing there are wolves at the door. But I didn't give them the System to remain prey."
I looked at Zero.
"Open a channel."
**[Scope?]**
"Global," I said. "Override every frequency. Television, radio, internet, the System HUDs. Even the emergency broadcast speakers on the street corners. I want every human ear on this planet to hear me."
**[Channel Open in 3... 2... 1.]**
**[You are Live, Architect.]**
***
**The Broadcast**
I didn't project my face. My face doesn't matter.
Instead, I projected the *Symbol*. The insignia of the Order of Truth—a golden eye within a triangle of silver circuitry.
It appeared on every screen on Earth. It overrode the news anchors. It hijacked the cell phones of five billion people.
Static cleared.
I spoke.
**"Citizens of Earth."**
My voice wasn't shouted. I used the System to modulate it. It was calm, deep, and resonated in the chest cavity of everyone listening. It sounded like the hum of a massive engine.
**"You are panicking. You are running. You are looking at the sky and seeing death."**
I paused.
**"Stop."**
On the moon, I channeled a pulse of *Calm Mind* through the connection. It was a high-tier mental magic spell, usually single-target. I amplified it through the planetary shield.
A wave of golden energy washed over the Earth.
In the streets of New York, the screaming dampened. In Tokyo, the stampede slowed. It wasn't mind control—it was a chemical stabilizer. I flooded their brains with dopamine and serotonin, forcefully countering the adrenaline spike.
**"The shield above you is mine,"** I continued. **"The fleet above you is merely a complication."**
I let a hint of amusement enter my voice.
**"You call this the apocalypse. I call it... Content."**
I gestured to Zero.
**"Update 4.0 is now live."**
***
**The Gamification of Fear**
Across the world, billions of blue System boxes materialized in front of people's eyes.
**[WORLD EVENT TRIGGERED: THE SKY FALL.]**
**[Enemy Type: Zorgon Mechanoids.]**
**[Victory Condition: Survival.]**
**[Failure Condition: Extinction.]**
**"The Zorgon Empire has come to format your hard drive,"** I said, my voice hardening. **"They do not want your land. They want to erase your existence because you are an anomaly. You are 'glitches' in their perfect universe."**
I let that sink in.
**"But I do not see glitches. I see Players."**
**"The old economy is dead. Your dollars are paper. Your stocks are imaginary numbers."**
**"From this moment forward, the Global Currency is Mana Credits."**
**[System Update: Economic Overhaul.]**
**[All Bank Accounts Converted to Credits (Exchange Rate: 0.00).]**
**[All Monster Kills/Quest Completions Award Credits.]**
**[New Shop Items Available: Planetary Defense Tier.]**
I watched the feed. The looting had stopped. People were staring at their HUDs. They were seeing weapons, armor, food, and medicine listed for *Credits*.
**"Do not loot your neighbor,"** I warned. **"Looting grants zero XP. Killing a Zorgon drone... grants ten thousand."**
I shifted my tone to something inviting.
**"The fleet outside cannot penetrate the barrier yet. But they will send drop-pods. They will try to breach the surface. This is an invasion."**
**"I cannot fight every battle for you. I am holding the roof up. You must hold the floor."**
**"Prepare. Form parties. Fortify your cities. The System has released the limiters on Class advancement."**
**[Global Buff Activated: Desperate Measures.]**
**[Effect: +50% XP Gain for 30 Days.]**
**[Effect: +20% Mana Regeneration.]**
**[Effect: Death Penalty Reduced.]**
**"Rewards will be generous,"** I promised. **"For every alien ship you down, you will be given power. For every city you defend, you will be given territory. If you survive this..."**
I smiled, and though they couldn't see it, they could hear the grin in my voice.
**"You will not be a Level 0 civilization anymore. You will be galactic contenders."**
**"The panic ends now. The grind begins."**
**[Broadcast Ends.]**
***
**The Moon Base**
The silence returned to the Spire. But on the screens, the atmosphere had changed.
The screaming had stopped. The running had stopped.
In London, I saw a group of people who had been looting a tech store stop. One of them, a young man, looked at his HUD. He looked at a crowbar in his hand.
Then, he dropped the crowbar and pulled out a System-issue sword from his inventory. He started shouting orders, organizing the mob into a militia.
"You weaponized their greed," Ren said, staring at the screen in disbelief. "You turned the end of the world into a Quest."
"Greed is predictable," I said, stepping down from the dais. "Fear is chaotic. I can work with greed."
I looked at my hands. They were trembling slightly. The strain of the shield was immense.
"How long?" Damon asked, his voice serious. "How long can you hold that bubble?"
"The Zorgon are recalculating," I said. "They won't fire the main cannons again until they solve the frequency of my shield. That gives us... maybe twenty-four hours. Maybe forty-eight."
"And then?"
"Then they will try to board," I said. "They will send drop-ships through the shield using phase-shifters. They will put boots on the ground."
I looked at the Mimic, who was still pinned to the wall.
"Which brings us to you."
The Mimic looked at me. The arrogance was gone. He had just watched me hijack the consciousness of a planet.
"You are insane," the Mimic whispered. "You think you can fight the Empire with... with *gamers*?"
"I think I can fight them with anything I have," I said.
I walked up to him. I placed my hand on his chest.
"Guest_01 sent you. He is watching, isn't he?"
"He sees everything," the Mimic said. "He knows you are trapped here holding the shield. You are immobile. A stationary target."
"Good," I said.
**[Skill: Data Extraction.]**
I didn't ask for permission. I shoved my mana into the Mimic's core.
He screamed. It was a digital, tearing sound.
I wasn't just killing him. I was reading his source code. I was tracing the connection he had used to bypass my security. I was downloading his map of the Zorgon fleet deployment.
**[Data Acquired: Zorgon Flagship Location.]**
**[Data Acquired: Encryption Keys.]**
**[Data Acquired: Guest_01 Signature Fragment.]**
The Mimic dissolved into grey dust.
I shook the residue off my hand.
"Zero," I commanded. "Take the encryption keys we just ripped from his head. Update the planetary defense grid. If they try to hack my guns again, fry their systems."
**[Acknowledged. Counter-measures deploying.]**
I turned to Ren and Damon.
"You two need to go back down."
Damon frowned. "Leave you here? Alone? With the entire alien fleet staring at you?"
"I am the lightning rod," I said. "As long as I hold this shield, the Zorgon will focus on me. They will throw everything at the Moon to break my concentration."
I walked over to a weapon rack that Zero had materialized.
I picked up two items.
The first was a pair of daggers. They were made of absolute blackness. Light bent around them.
"Ren," I said, tossing them to him. "**[Void Fangs]**. Crafted from the hull of the Aetherian cruiser I destroyed. They ignore armor. They cut through energy shields. Use them to hunt the officers."
Ren caught them. He shivered as the power of the weapons synced with his Void Class.
"And for the big guy," I said.
I pointed to the floor.
A massive slab of metal rose up. It was a shield. Not a magical one, a physical one. It was made of the same Tungsten alloy as my throne, infused with the gravity core of the Mimic.
"**[The Aegis of the Moon]**," I said. "If you plant that in the ground, nothing short of a nuke moves you. Protect the cities, Damon. Be the wall I can't be down there."
Damon grabbed the shield. He grinned. "I can work with this."
"Go," I said. "The teleporter is one-way for now. I can send you down, but I can't bring you back up until the siege is broken."
Ren hesitated. "Shigu. What if Guest_01 comes here personally? While you're holding the sky?"
I looked at the empty spot where the Mimic had been.
"If Guest_01 comes here," I said, my eyes glowing with a dangerous, infinite light. "Then he enters the boss room."
I motioned to the portal.
"Go. The event starts in one hour. Make sure humanity is ready to grind."
Ren and Damon stepped onto the platform. They gave me one last nod—a salute from mortals to a god—and vanished in a flash of blue light.
I was alone again.
Just me, the silence, and a few thousand warships wanting me dead.
I walked back to the balcony. I looked at the Zorgon fleet.
"You have math," I whispered to the void.
I clenched my fist, feeling the 20% growth from today settle into my bones, waiting for tomorrow's compound interest to hit.
"But I have potential."
I sat down on the floor of the balcony, crossed my legs, and closed my eyes.
I began to meditate.
And as I did, the golden shield around the Earth brightened, turning the night into a glorious, defiant dawn.
**[Day 1,186 Ends.]**
**[Global Panic: Stabilized.]**
**[War Status: Imminent.]**
**[Current Objective: Hold the Line.]**
**[Chapter 39 Ends.]**