Episode 157-Opticx!

Hanging up my PCD I stretched myself.

An apostle will be my perfect get out of jail card.

As I began walking out I felt an intrusion towards my brain. It wasn't a deep intrusion more like someone was attempting to make a connection to establish contact with me.

I let the connection through.

"Which mamma is talking to this boy?" I asked in my mind as I walked towards my restaurant.

"Do you want to make a deal with me your highness?" Linda's face appeared in my mind along with her voice.

"Ho, gave up already? Here I thought you guys would never give up." I smirked as I replied in my mind.

"Unfortunately for you, we don't give up on you that easily." She smirked.

"Oh, then to what do I owe you the pleasure?" I asked her.

"How about giving us the apostle of the Almighty one?"

"Bloody hell woman. Just how many people are you planning to piss off?" I asked as I reached the restaurant from the research department.

"Most likely not as much as you. So how about it?" She enquired.

'So, their group has a spy inside the Almighty One's church as well, and that too amongst the council members. If not how would she know about the deal I made with the pope and contact me a few seconds after I had hung up on them?'

"What is in it for me?" I saw the smile on her face widen.

"Anything you want, ask away. As long as it balances the request we asked off you, it can be done."

'Oh, interesting!'

"What balances out betraying an apostle?" I asked myself.

"The whole empire, curing your condition, getting an award or wishing for your friend's release…" Before I could even think a mental image of Zel appeared in my mind shackled with magical constructs around him.

"Yo, care to free me?" Zel asked pitifully.

"…"

"You are absolutely useless. How the hell did you manage to get captured?" I asked him.

"She caught me off-guard. I am now a cow that is being milked of divine energy here. Get me out of here." He pleaded.

I looked at Linda in mind who was smirking. "So?" She asked me.

"Get me every information about memorial stones and the 3rd form of power from him and I will do what you need when 'I am ready'." I didn't even need to think about what I needed.

"You bastard! Get me out of here!" Zel shouted at me but I smirked at him mentally while outside I just calmly walked on.

"Zel in the end you have to understand this is business.

Saving you has no use for me as you would have to leave me.

This way I could benefit from understanding more about the memorial stone and the 3rd form of power and might even have a chance of acquiring it. Then I could come and save you.

See the win-win situation." I pointed out the advantage.

"Win-win my ass. You plan to completely abandon me after getting the information. You will be too lazy to even bother to help me you jackass." Well, he was correct.

It would be suicidal to go into the midst of a group who wants to kill me but at the same time managed to capture an angel somehow.

"I am hurt by your lack of faith in me," I said with a hurt expression as I looked at Linda in my mind.

"So?" I asked her to which she nodded.

"Deal. Tell Metilda your previous palace maid when you are ready. It was nice doing business with you, your highness." She said before her voice and the mental image disappeared from my mind. I ignored the fact that my previous maid was also a spy for them.

Betraying close friends felt good.

Meh, I will go release him after 25 years after I recover my divine energy and if he is still hanging around.

I waited around in the kitchen to see Ellis and Luke coming in.

Nearly a week had passed since my advancement as a rank 1 award user. Needless to say, Luke had already advanced to be a rank 1 award user just yesterday.

"Your highness." Ellis and Luke bowed.

"You ranked up?" I guessed seeing the excitement in Ellis' face.

"Yes." He nodded as he described his powers. It was pretty simple power of just adding a 2nd battery. Simple but effective.

While for Luke he changed his powers to generating electricity from his whole body instead of just his hands.

'Time for Particle Heist phase 2.' I smiled as I thought.

*Ping* An alert appeared in my PCD.

Looking down I noticed the analysis on the possible chosen ones were complete.

'Match found between all 4 users.

Linking factor is the trace of divine energy in all of them.' I read the last lines.

'Interesting so all the chosen ones had divine energy in them.' But that is only natural since the deities were created by God to maintain this world. It was bound to have some of them being able to access a small amount of divine energy.

"Guys I will be busy today," I told them as I quickly walked back to my lab.

'Who knows just how many chosen ones there are in this world? So it is better to track down all of them, be aware of them and start controlling the,.' I entered my lab.

Taking a chip out of my pocket I placed it on my temple. I began imagining the device I wanted to create which was being picked up by the chip.

I went inside the tunnel and came out to see my secret lab.

The nanobots were already in the process of finishing the construct I had imagined in my mind which was transported to them via the chip.

I looked at the 5-meter wide black sphere. "Remember the shape and form." I gave an order as the nanobots collapsed and began travelling to the pipes inside the lab.

10 minutes later I got visual feedback from the nanobots 50 km away from the empire in an abandoned area.

"Activate shielding." The nanobots turned invisible along with escaping any sort of detection. This was the epitome of shielding tech. It was something that would take the world forever to build unless the whole world focused on perfecting tech.

"Launch." I gave the simple order, and the satellite took off without a sound and entered orbit 10 minutes later.

'Presence detected half an orbit away.' My UI was updated with a message.

"Scan it," I ordered.

I got back a hologram of a battleship. "Motherfucker!" I cursed seeing how large the battleship was.

'Are they planning to wipe out the empire or something?' I asked myself. The battleship was enough to cover the entirety of the capital.

"Intrude into their system and get everything on them," I ordered my satellite who began the infiltration process.

However, I soon received another message back.

'Language on the system is unknown. However, some words have been detected that is in the system database.' The user interface reported back to me very quickly.

"Show me the words that have been in the database." Soon few words popped up.

"Krif, Qen, Sti… hmm." I thought back to where I had seen this message and remembered instantly.

"Alister Bright's communication device said the same words before he was teleported out of the interrogation room that day." I mused to myself. I was wise enough to record these words down in the U.I's language database.

"So, this was where you techno freaks were hiding. No wonder!" I smiled to myself.

'Begin learning the language?' The U.I. asked me back.

"Begin," I ordered.

10 minutes later both my system and I had learned this foreign language while my satellite's system began its intrusion.

"Set them as priority 2, while begin scanning for people with similar data set as that of the chosen one's analysis. Set that as priority 1." I ordered my satellite which began its operation.

Knowledge really made one omnipotent. I felt really glad and proud of myself for learning and mastering everything from the most advanced and perfect civilisation of every single field.

I walked out after finalising everything.

"Time to take a break." I stretched as I began walking towards my bedroom.

*Ping* I looked at the PCD to see an alert from the satellite.

'Initial analysis of Priority 2- Beings inside the ship not of this planet or galaxy.'

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[Inside the battleship- 3rd person PoV]

A commander stood in front of 2 people. "You will be deployed to find out everything about Prince John.

Unlike Alpha last time make sure you are able to successfully complete the mission." The assistant beside the commander ordered.

"Yes, mam!" Both the people shouted.

"You are free to use any and all means. But it is vital for you to find out how Prince John had got his hands on techs that shouldn't exist for their time.

If possible find out how he is able to process beast ingredients as well." The woman ordered to which both of them shouted back.

"Yes, mam!"

"Dismissed." Both soldiers saluted before leaving through the door.

"Well done, Iris." The commander nodded at his assistant who sighed in relief.

"Any message from home?" Iris asked her commander.

"Not a trace of Opticx anywhere." The commander shook his head in frustration.

"There have been countless reports of suspicious behaviour from several planets in different constellations, similar to the one we see in Ash Life Empire. The rapid boom in the advancement of technology." The commander told Iris.

"And?" Iris asked in excitement.

"Tracking down we were able to confirm Opticx was behind all of it... or better to say his servants. Unfortunately, we weren't able to gather anything from his servants. Hopefully, we can get something from prince John this time." Iris nodded at that information in slight worry.

"15 more years before the beginning of a war." Iris counted down.

"Do you think we can stop Opticx before that?" Iris asked with hope.

The commander didn't reply as he didn't hold too much hope. He had learned that having too much hope only to see it disappear in front of your eyes was much worse than dying.