Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

Chapter 1160: The Cosmic Zoning Violation

The holographic screen displaying the shivering, half-naked human army vanished as Rudy dismissed the feed with a casual wave of his hand. Alice was still giggling, leaning comfortably against his shoulder while the custom-made sun bathed the courtyard in perfect, golden warmth.

Before Rudy could pour her another glass of orange juice, the vibrant blue sky above the Orcelona Keep abruptly shifted. It did not turn black with apocalyptic dread or red with hellish fury. Instead, the sky transformed into a dull, monotonous shade of corporate beige.

A perfectly rectangular dimensional portal slid open with the quiet, depressing sound of a filing cabinet drawer.

Three impossibly tall, thin entities drifted out of the beige rift. They possessed slate-grey skin and wore identical, meticulously pressed grey suits. Each entity carried a thick, glowing clipboard.

They completely ignored the terrified human soldiers scattered across the driveway and floated straight through the magical blue dome as if it were a minor inconvenience.

The lead entity reached into his suit jacket, pulled out a literal roll of glowing red tape, and slapped a strip onto the shimmering barrier. The magical dome immediately dimmed, temporarily suppressed by the conceptual weight of the tape.

Rudy sighed and rubbed his temples. ”I swear, if this is another group of cosmic pests trying to conquer the earth, I am going to lose my mind.”

The lead entity floated directly up to the picnic blanket, hovering a few inches above the freshly cut grass to avoid staining his polished black shoes. He adjusted a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and looked down his nose at the Overlord.

”Rudy,,” the entity droned in a voice completely devoid of emotion. ”I am Inspector Thaddeus of the Multiversal Zoning Commission. You are hereby served with a Class-4 Cosmic Code Violation.”

He tapped his glowing clipboard with a silver pen. ”You are in direct violation of Multiversal Ordinance 402, Paragraph B. You have illegally forged a Class-A stellar body—a sun, without filing an Environmental Impact Study. Furthermore, you flattened an endangered dimensional entity into a 2D canvas without the proper permits, and you are operating a celestial being as a janitor without submitting the required labor union tax forms.”

Rudy stared at the grey bureaucrat with a mix of absolute disbelief and profound annoyance.

”I literally own this universe,” Rudy stated, resting his hands on his knees. ”I do not need a permit to redecorate.”

”Ownership does not exempt you from zoning laws,” Thaddeus countered flatly. ”Due to the severity of these infractions, we are seizing this solar system. Your assets will be liquidated, and your universe will be placed into administrative lockdown.”

The two inspectors flanking Thaddeus stepped forward, unrolling massive spools of glowing red tape to physically bind the fabric of reality around the castle.

Rudy’s dark eyes flashed with lethal crimson power. He extended his right hand and unleashed a concentrated wave of god-tier spatial erasure, fully intending to wipe the grey suits from existence.

The apocalyptic wave of magic slammed into the inspectors, and... did absolutely nothing. The glowing red tape absorbed the attack instantly, neutralizing the god-tier power with depressing efficiency.

”Hmm~ Interesting,” Rudy rubbed his chin. ’Are they my creations or have they always existed? If they are my creation and I gave them this power then no wonder they are immune to my power. But if they always existed, then I guess, there is still very little to what I know about the universe.’

”Hostile actions are irrelevant,” Thaddeus stated, adjusting his glasses. ”Our authority is conceptual. You cannot punch bureaucracy. The red tape is indestructible.”

’They are immune to physical and magical damage because they represent concentrated annoyance,’ Rudy thought, actually somewhat impressed by the sheer absurdity of their existence. ’If I cannot punch the bureaucracy, I will simply outspend it.’

Rudy stood up from the picnic blanket and dusted off his tailored trousers. He smiled with genuine, predatory amusement.

”Inspector Thaddeus,” Rudy said smoothly, tapping into his Spatio-Temporal abilities in a completely different way. ”What is the total market capitalization of the Multiversal Zoning Commission?”

Thaddeus paused, his pen hovering over the clipboard. ”The Commission is an infinite regulatory body. Our conceptual value is immeasurable.”

”Nothing is immeasurable,” Rudy corrected him.

He raised his hand toward the sky, linking his magical core directly to the infinite, burning divine mana of his newly forged sun, the annexed Divine Citadel, and the compressed souls powering his castle grid.

He wove reality itself into a massive, glowing golden contract that hovered in the air above the courtyard.

”Since you operate as a corporate entity, you are subject to cosmic commerce laws,” Rudy declared, his voice echoing with absolute authority. ”I am leveraging the infinite divine capital of my newly acquired assets to initiate a hostile takeover of the Multiversal Zoning Commission.”

Thaddeus’s slate-grey eyes widened in genuine panic. ”Wait, you cannot—”

”I just did,” Rudy interrupted. He summoned a massive, glowing golden pen into his hand and signed the bottom of the floating contract.

A blinding flash of golden light washed over the courtyard. The beige sky shattered instantly, returning the brilliant blue atmosphere to the kingdom. The glowing red tape binding the magical dome immediately dissolved into harmless confetti.

Rudy stepped right up to the trembling inspector and plucked the glowing clipboard from his rigid hands.

”As the new majority shareholder and CEO of the Multiversal Zoning Commission,” Rudy smiled, pulling a rubber stamp from the ether. He aggressively stamped a massive, red APPROVED directly over his own code violations. ”I find my permits to be perfectly in order. Furthermore, your department is vastly overstaffed.”

Thaddeus swallowed hard, his bureaucratic immunity completely shattered by the corporate buyout. ”Sir?”

”You are fired,” Rudy stated.

He snapped his fingers. The three inspectors instantly collapsed into piles of mundane, grey paperwork. A gentle afternoon breeze swept through the courtyard, scattering the loose tax forms and zoning regulations harmlessly across the lawn.

Rudy tossed the clipboard aside and sat back down on the checkered blanket next to Alice.

”Bureaucrats,” Rudy sighed, picking up his glass of orange juice. ”They always make things so needlessly complicated.”