Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1022  Back End

”… We do business across hundreds of galaxies and our clients are numbers in the trillions. We probably have millions of different business hubs, but it would be impossible to trust that many different managers. Even if we did manage to do that, and they were trustworthy, just the process of auditing mistakes, or the accumulated mistakes themselves, would be a nightmare to deal with.”

”So your solution is… to put it all in the hands of fewer people?”

Sylasʼ skepticism was well within his tone. Delegating tasks well was something that any decent leader had to learn how to do. But the Golden Grove actually went in the opposite direction, and that was very odd.

It was against every common note of wisdom he had ever seen. It was more than a little bit odd.

”Youʼll have to use the UniForge before you can understand why that is.”

”And what? Die?”

Megean blinked, seemingly not having expected this answer. She had already pegged Sylas as arrogant, so the thought that he would try to use this as leverage for some sort of other power play had already been thrown to the back of her mind.

”What do you mean by that?”

”Right now Iʼm a prisoner. Iʼm still in chains. And Iʼve been told to not become too ʼcockyʼ according to you. Now, before my trial, Iʼm supposed to jump into a death trap… why? Because you say so?”

Megean was speechless. What was happening here, exactly?

”I… this is an opportunity for you.”

”You could have fooled me. I didnʼt hear anything about an opportunity, all you said was that I could die.”

Megean didnʼt even know how to reply to all of this. She was truly struck into silence, and her own mind short-circuited for a bit.

”… What do you want, exactly?”

”Me? Iʼm not in a position to ask for anything. Iʼm also not sure of how your rules and regulations work, or if slave labor is something that—.”

”We do not use slaves!” Megean immediately refuted.

”Well, if you donʼt use slaves, then Iʼll have to reject your offer of entering this death trap.”

At that moment, the oddity of the situation seemed to finally set in for her.

Megean didnʼt even know what to say. She just stood there in silence, half-expecting Sylas to just walk off, until she remembered he was chained and she was holding onto the other end of it.

At that moment, the oddity of the situation seemed to finally set in for her.

”… Alright. Forget it,” she waved the chain and pulled. ”Enter the UniForge and we can write off your crimes.”

”Do you have the authority to do that?”

”Your galaxy is under my jurisdiction. Whether a report gets filed or not is up to me.”

”Thatʼs not an answer.”

Megeanʼs lip twitched. Wasnʼt this guy supposed to be falling all over himself to please her? Wasnʼt he supposed to be arrogantly proclaiming that this wouldnʼt be much of an effect on his life?

Lorienʼs eyes bounced back and forth between the two of them and then sighed inwardly. This Megean girl might be a genius, but she was just a 20-something-year-old.

Clearly, Lorien had no idea that Sylas had only just had his 27th birthday not long ago. Not that he noticed, given all the time dilations he was constantly suffering under. Keeping track of dates, especially for something so insignificant, wasnʼt something he had the time or bandwidth to bother with.

Either way, she was starting to feel bad for Megean.

”I do have the authority, okay?!”

Sylas gave her a look and then nodded, walking past her toward the cockpit.

The girl gave a little snort, feeling dissatisfied, but knowing that there wasnʼt much to pick at with Sylasʼ performance. He hadnʼt done anything wrong, but maybe that was even more annoying than if he had.

She felt Lorienʼs gaze on her and turned, but Lorien had already looked away.

Megean shook her head. This was technically a top-secret location, but she had been so lost in her own head that she had brought an unknown third party here. Her grandpa would definitely berate her for this if he ever found out.

Wait… if she was right, he would definitely find out.

She pouted and gave Sylas another glare, only to be surprised instantly.

Was he dead… already?

Sylas just sat there in the awkwardly shaped chair, his spine having been pierced through by the bumps. There was no movement, no whirring lights, no shuddering Runes.

There was just nothingness.

…

Sylas didnʼt know what was going on in the outside world. He felt like he was falling through an abyss, moving faster and faster as though the world itself was rapidly changing around him and out of his control.

But then he landed.

The world stabilized around him and he seemed to have reached an anchor point.

ʼWhat is this?ʼ

Though Sylas asked the question, he wasnʼt being literal. That was because he had felt something similar before…

A Nexus.

Was he in a Nexus right now?

ʼNo… not a Nexus, but the hubs connecting one? Is this a place that connects all the hubs of the Golden Grove?ʼ

A highway of speed information suddenly began to form. Like fiber optics cables rapidly signaling light in all directions, there was a new mess of wires formed around Sylas, but this time the mess came and went, fading in and then fading out.

Sylas reached out and touched one, but then he hurriedly pulled back, his eyes opening wide.

He honestly… couldnʼt believe it.

That girl… that Unitaur… she wouldnʼt be so stupid as to give him access to such a thing, right?

The swirling mass of lights continued to accelerate around Sylas as the reality of the situation he was in began to settle in properly.

He was right… this really was the hub of the Nexus, a foundation for all of the Golden Groveʼs transactions.

If Sylas wanted, he could tweak one number here and crash their stock market.

Or he could shift one lane there and suddenly make himself the richest man in this galaxy cluster.

And because he was in the back end… there was no one at all to track him.

If Megean had known this was possible, she definitely wouldnʼt have allowed it. So how could she possibly know either?

What the hell was she thinking?