"Well…" Olana hesitated, glancing at the sensor readouts. "It seems your little 'show of power' might have worked a bit too well. Their comms are a ss of panic. I think you've scared them into a stupor."
Hye's expression darkened. "If they reneged on their word or are simply stalling to wait for reinforcents, I won't mind bombarding this entire planet into radioactive dust and leaving it as a monunt to their indecision."
He paused, turning to Olana with cold eyes. "Send this ssage across every open channel, planetary and interstellar: If you want to waste my ti, I will waste your planet in return."
Olana felt a chill. She knew he wasn't bluffing. She relayed the ultimatum, and the effect was instantaneous. In less than five minutes, a single diplomatic shuttle detached from the planet's primary spaceport, burning its engines at maximum thrust to reach the flagship.
"They're here," Olana reported, her voice steadying as data flooded back in. "The threat worked. Not only are the owners of this world approaching, but the other worlds that expressed interest have confird their intent. They seem... remarkably eager to finalise the deals now. They probably want to sign before you decide to test your weapons on their atmosphere."
Hye didn't care about their fear or their motivations. As soon as the confirmations were locked in, he opened his private communication link to his inner circle.
[To: Karoline / Lucas / Generals] [ssage: Prepare at least one hundred large artificial planets imdiately. Clear the orbits and stabilise the atmospheres. Expect a massive influx of citizens. Prepare far more in the coming days...]
His plan was a masterstroke of consolidation. He wasn't going to leave these new territories scattered and vulnerable in the open universe where they could be picked off or used as leverage.
He would establish permanent portal links between these worlds and his core territory. Then, while his generals dispatched fleets to provide an iron-clad shell of protection around the physical planets, Karoline would oversee the grand mobilisation.
He was going to move entire civilisations. If they wanted the protection of his kingdom, they would live within his reach, on his terms, in the new artificial worlds he was constructing.
The diplomatic shuttle docked with a hiss of pressurised air. When the first delegation of world leaders stepped onto the bridge, they were t not with a feast, but with a stack of digital contracts. Hye didn't waste a second. He sent the terms directly to their handheld devices.
"You... you want to move us?" the lead representative stamred, his eyes bulging as he read the clause. "You want to relocate our entire population from our ancestral ho to a new, artificial planet in your territory?!!"
The shift in power was palpable. Hye stood on the bridge of the command ship, his silhouette frad against the viewport that looked down upon the dying planet. The silence that followed his declaration was heavy, thick with the realisation that the hierarchy they had imagined was a complete fabrication.
"That's my bottom line," Hye said, his voice dropping into a register that brooked no argunt.
He paused, letting the weight of his presence settle over the room before adding, "Do you think I acquired all this strength by being confined in a post-apocalypse world? My world is still young—it has been less than twenty-five years since the official end of the apocalypse."
The world leaders, seasoned politicians and hardened survivors of their own respective nations, looked at one another in sheer disbelief.
"This…" one began, his voice trembling.
"Does this an…" another trailed off, his eyes wide.
"Your world is still under the System's Newbie protection?!!"
The faces of the leaders drained of colour the mont the implication hit ho. They were relatively new to the galactic stage, and they hadn't bothered to research Hye's specific history or the list of his accomplishnts.
They had made a fatal assumption: they thought he represented a massive, multi-stellar conglorate, or that he was the scion of so ancient, high-tier race that had existed since the dawn of the universe.
To find out he was a product of a world younger than their own—that he was a "Newbie" who had sohow bypassed the natural progression of power to stand before them as a conqueror—was terrifying. It ant his growth rate was anomalous. It ant he was a monster among n.
"Now," Hye said, his gaze sweeping across the trembling assembly, "either you sign the contracts now, or you can leave this ship and die with everyone else down below. The choice is yours, and I am finished offering alternatives."
He gave them a mont—a fleeting, silent window to consider their futures. Despite the calm, almost bored tone of his voice, the threat was absolute.
He had spoken to them out of a lingering sense of courtesy, a nod to the fact that they would soon be administrators within his burgeoning kingdom. But if they had co here thinking this was a negotiation, they were sorely mistaken.
If they wasted another minute of his ti, he would personally ensure they faced the full brunt of his wrath back on the surface.
He had no intention of delaying his plans. There were other "hot zones" across the sector that required his attention, and he wasn't about to let his montum be stalled by local politics.
One by one, the leaders stepped forward. Their pens scratched against the glowing parchnt of the soul-binding contracts. The mont the final signature was etched into the digital interface, Hye's vision was flooded with a cascade of golden light.
[System Alert: The human 'Hye' has acquired a new Unique World!] [System Alert: The human 'Hye' has increased his Prestige by 1 point!]
[System Alert: Current Prestige Rank: Newbie!] [System Alert: 99 points required to unlock the next Prestige Rank!]
"Oh, now that's a welco sight," Hye muttered.
It had been years since he had seen a direct system notification. The last ti the interface had spoken to him with such clarity was the day his ho world's apocalypse officially transitioned into its new state.
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