A weird map appeared in Akhenamen’s mind, he saw dozens of glowing green planets all over the universe. Yes this was an actual map of the universe or at least the map of the universe according to the Protheans. The green planets all seemed to house a civilisation, some similar to Earth’s current technology, some below but wielding magical or cultivation related powers like he had once read about when he was young. There were a few red planets too.

  

  [What you see is the dozen of planets deemed adequate to be used as Project Rebirth’s player base.]

  “What about the red ones?”

  

  [They are the civilisations judged inadequate to being given access to Project Rebirth, too young, too advanced, too violent. The reason vary.]

  “Alright…so you wanna turn Zenthia into some sort of video game. Why? What is the goal of putting billions of people on Zenthia?”

  Another vision started to appear in Akhenamen’s mind. He saw himself as a young child of an unknown race. Looking down at a seemingly infinite amount of ant hills in his garden. He got interested in a few of them, watching how they acted differently yet still, in the end, similar to every other anthill. But some ants were more pretty, some more entertaining.

  Then he got an idea… he wouldn’t just watch them, he’d play with them. At first it was nothing bad. Just giving some food here, trying to look inside the anthill there. For some others he mistakenly tried to reach inside with his arm, breaking the anthill. What a shame. But oh well, there existed billions of them in his garden.

  And yet …at one point…he had an idea. One any child his age would have. What would happen… if he made one colony join another? Pushing the two ant hills together and seeing what would happen! Maybe they’d fight to the death? Or end up working together!

  The vision slowly receded. Leaving Akhenamen alone with his thoughts. He had understood what the vision meant.

  “So you believe that a being from outside our universe will…”

  

  [Yes. It is the most likely probability. They will fuse or make Zenthia or maybe even this whole universe crash into another one to satiate their hunger for entertainement.]

  “But that is just one possibility, it’s not guaranteed.”

  

  [And yet even this possibility is too much for us to take any risks.]

  “Do you truly believe that to be possible?”

  

  [Do you believe it is impossible? We must be ready and strong enough to fight back if the other “anthill” proves to be too violent.]

  

  [The players could become invaluable, beings that do not fear death for they believe it is just a video game. Beings that can respawn and will help us eliminate any threat to our continent in exchange for rewards.]

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  Akhenamen was processing all this information. In a way, he had to admit he had some admiration for the System. It was planning for all possibilities, making sure its world would survive against any and all possible events.

  “So are you responsible for Vermillion Corp on Earth? And whatever other company or organisation you are using in those other planets?”

  

  [Yes. When Project Rebirth is released, most people on Earth will be granted a free VR-Headset to send their mind into an avatar that will be created with the help of the gods.]

  “Is that why you seem to favor the survival of Sapphyra and the Felinids?”

  

  [Yes we saw “cat people” are amongst the most popular races in VR-MMORPGs. So their survival would be optimal to the “game’s popularity”. But we must stay fair, and blatantly prioritizing Sapphyra’s well being would be seen badly by the other gods.]

  “So you use a proxy, me. But isn’t that the same problem though? Instead of directly helping Sapphyra, you’re directly helping me. A Cygilite, one of the gods enemies.”

  

  [You overestimate the gods' hate toward your people, Akhenamen. It is true that if we did not exist some might have already killed you. But they are a very small minority, most would prefer an alliance between the Cygilites and their children.]

  

  [The gods too are aware of why we are doing all this and they will benefit greatly in helping us. So have you, did you not?]

  “I guess that’s true.… So you wish to use the concept of VR-MMORPGs in many civilizations all over our universe to allow all kinds of races to incarnate an avatar of Zenthia in case our universe is invaded.”

  Something still bothered Akhenamen.

  “But what about the fact that billions upon billions of beings will appear on Zenthia all with different cultures, history and languages?”

  

  [We have already planned everything. No matter what kind of civilisation the Players come from, they will all be subjected to rules and restrictions that force them to remain… in a role. To preserve the world’s “authenticity” to other players.]

  

  [But you’re correct that Zenthia is too small. For now.]

  “You’re gonna increase the continent’s size?!”

  

  [Is it really that surprising considering what you know of the Forgotten War? The gods can easily accomplish that. But for the language, well… every mind going through us will have their language filtered and granted knowledge of this world's Common language.]

  Akhenamen now understood why before the System every race seemed so different. In the end it was the System’s manipulation that granted the world a common language to all races, a money that could be used everywhere. It was all to facilitate players' lives.

  “What about the inhabitants of Zenthia? How do you think they’ll react to billions of people appearing on the continent? And what would stop them from using Players to wage war. Or for players to start slaughtering Zenthia’s people? If you know about Earth you must know how deranged some people are.”

  

  [Once again, the gods will help us manipulate their children's minds to make them believe Zenthia had always been like this. Only Transcendents will be granted the benefit of knowing the truth.]

  

  [And if they use them to wage war? Well that will be their choice and responsibility. We are only here to make sure Zenthia gets stronger and becomes powerful enough to resist any possible merging event.]

  

  [As for crimes committed by Players, they will be naturally punished very harshly.]

  Akhenamen stared around him for a bit, everything seemed frozen, Sofya stuck in her proud knuckles on hips position, the robots, everything, even the gnomes walking in the city, was frozen. The System’s doing no doubt.

  “And how do you intend to keep players interested in your game for more than a few years?”

  

  [You ask us a good question. Some civilisations will naturally stay. The civilisations based around cultivation in peculiar as it allows them to pass the time while they pass years in seclusion for their breakthrough.]

  

  [For Earth, we are still adapting our strategy but the short term strategy will be to create “Extensions” for our future player base.]

  “You mean like… Typical MMORPGs extensions?”

  

  [Correct. We have planned quite a few events that will soon strike Zenthia.]

  “So you really planned this. To be honest I still doubt it’s not gonna explode in your face.”

  

  [We must admit there is one thing we, until humans showed it to us in their games, had not planned for : interesting characters.]

  Immediately it clicked within Akhenamen’s mind.

  “The Fate’s Choosen…”

  

  [Correct. They shall be our “main characters” , those that players will grow alongside. It is why we have used Humanity’s many stories to create Fate’s chosen all over Zenthia. And that is why… we help you, Akhenamen.]

  

  [The king of a betrayed, tragic and mysterious race coming out of a deep sleep to bring back his slaughtered people, those that fought the gods to a standstill. To let them rise once again to their previous power. So much potential don’t you think?]