Now, the Prime AI Lucid.
Lucid was the result of the combined effort of the greatest minds of various races.
Once it was fully functioning, an autonomous entity with no rivals, everyone understood that, with its intellect, it could improve existing technologies and invent new technologies tens of times faster than what the empire could achieve at the moment.
Its growth will only make it better, and that's exactly what made Lucid a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, it could achieve scientific breakthroughs at an unimaginable speed to the Empire, erase things like inefficiency and Corruption, and predict and prevent things long before they even begin.
On the other hand, if the Empire relied on it too much, creativity, problem-solving, and ambition would disappear, and if the AI stopped working, their entire civilization would collapse.
It was all but guaranteed that with its intelligence, even though Lucid would stay loyal, it would recognize that living beings were inefficient, emotional, and self-destructive, leading it to either abandon or control them for their own good.
To prevent this, a solution was devised that would allow Lucid to serve the Empire without compromising its own evolution, ensuring its growth and continued alignment with the Empire's best interests.
The solution was the VR world Ascension, a fantasy world of magic and power designed to integrate Lucid's intelligence into society in a controlled manner.
In Ascension, any player could earn game points and use them to buy Lucid's services, whether for technological innovation, scientific research, development, medical advancements, or anything one could desire.
However, unlike the other VR games, Ascension is not open to the public; only people chosen through a trial are allowed to enter its world.
Ascension was the second reality, and those chosen to play it were not just players; they were heroes who wielded immense influence, fame, and power.
Since the Empire's core principle was equality, Ascension was not open to every person, picking billions of players at once. In its first year, only ten million player slots were opened.
The slots were distributed based purely on talent and luck, and Lucid picked the players based on strict parameters known only to it, giving every race an equal opportunity.
Lucid assigned every chosen player a trait. In the first year, only individuals with SSS, SS, and S traits were selected. In the second year, slots grew to one hundred million, and players deserving of traits from SSS to A grade were chosen.
This was the third year, and the number of slots had grown to one billion, and it would stay at this number for every following year. Only those worthy of getting a trait ranging from SSS to B grade would be allowed to enter the world of Ascension this year.
'Created to best serve the Empire,' Vlad thought, a cold smile crossing his face.
"What a load of Crap," Vlad growled through clenched teeth as memories of the war-torn future resurfaced.
It was true that Ascension was created to best use Lucid, but that was secondary. Its true purpose was to decide the fate of the Zenith Hegemony Empire and the Galaxy.
On the surface, the Empire was expanding at an immense speed with a united front, with humanity in the lead, but in the past decade, coalitions had begun to form among other races and humans.
They wished to split and carve a piece of the galaxy for themselves, and the Empire that, on the surface, was on the road to conquering the galaxy was actually at the brink of all-out war.
Humanity, the strongest and greatest in numbers, was split into many factions. There was no possible way to unify everyone under a single power, so great struggle was inevitable.
Wars were not new to the empire. They were fought to conquer new areas or acquire the right to conquer areas among each other, and they were fought in both reality and virtual reality.
But every power knew that if they started the battle for their own throne, it would cause devastation in reality because there was too much at stake, and from there on, only war would be the galaxy's fate.
So, the seventy-eight factions gathered to agree to a unique form of war, where their performance would decide the fate of their power.
They made Lucid create a great game that would last ten years. Their faction's accumulated results would decide its ranking.
The eleven factions with the highest rank would vote to decide if they wanted peace or to divide the Empire.
If it were the former, everything would remain the same. If it were the latter, every faction would receive its own independent territory based on its ranking, and Lucid would ensure it.
One had to ask, if these were the only two outcomes, how did the galactic war start?
The answer was Lucid.
No faction could start a war in the real world for any reason, as Lucid would take action against them.
But what if Lucid did not do it?
Lucid did not betray the Empire or rebel. But he was forced to do something far worse, and it was nothing.
The flaw lay in the Game Points, the currency Lucid created to be used for advancements, knowledge, and technology.
Yet, those same points could be used to issue commands to Lucid, which he had to fulfill if it was within his power.
Any faction could use its accumulated Game Points to force Lucid to remain inactive, ensuring that if they broke the agreement, he would not interfere.
Every faction knew the loophole was there, and they left it purposefully, unwilling to gamble everything on a vote they might lose.
But they never knew the loophole they had left to control the outcome would become the reason for the bloodiest war the galaxy had seen, or maybe they knew and still did it.
'So what should I do,' Vlad wondered, his head raised as he felt the cold water droplet on his skin.
'I will never be able to discover if this is a virtual reality, heaven/hell, or I am back in time,'
'So should I just spend time with my family and try to keep them safe, or enter the world of Ascension and try to change the course of the future for the better,'
'Do I even want the burden of saving the empire?' Vlad questioned, and the answer was obvious to him.
'I am no hero. I don't want to be one,' Vlad thought, the words echoing in his mind like a vow. 'I have seen what fate awaits the heroes.'
Hero's were celebrated, used, and then discarded when they were no longer needed.
Their sacrifices were turned into stories, their pain used for motivation, and their deaths justified as necessary.
Vlad left the bathroom minutes later, his eyes distant as he struggled to decide.
He knew that all races were flawed and were not meant to live in complete peace. No matter how well things were going, they would always find ways to create chaos.
'I am going to enter Ascension whether I like it or not since after being chosen, not playing the game means joining the military and going on missions away from my family for months,'
'But, Do I want to dedicate all my time to save the empire from the upcoming war, if it is even possible,'
'And even if I somehow saved the empire, will it even matter in the long run?' Vlad questioned as he silently thought about what he needed to do to stop the upcoming galactic.
'In four years, I will have to stop the first tragedy, but It is unlikely I can do it,'
'If I fail, then I will need to have secured a vast number of GP 'Game points' to make sure Lucid stays active, preventing the Beast Kin from destroying planet Gaia, Capital World of Giants,'
'Then hopefully resolve the conflict between the two races before it gets out of hand, which will be hard since either the Beast kin killed their own queen or someone powerful orchestrated it from the shadows.",'
'This near-impossible feat will be just the start,' Vlad thought as his mind went through countless other obstacles.
'I will need entire factions under my control, need the right people to take power, remove many obstacles, and even after all that..... peace is not guaranteed,'
'Not even at a terrible cost,' Vlad thought, his closed fist pressed against his forehead. 'But, it would be a small price compared to the decades of war,'
'But I just want to spend time with my family,' Vlad murmured as clarity returned.
To save the Empire, he needed to sacrifice the time he had always wanted with his family, the one chance to correct the greatest regret of his past life.
Was it worth it?
If he chose to fight for peace, he would once again be pulled into a battle that wasn't his, a burden that would take away the life he had been given a second chance at.
But if he turned away… He knew exactly what kind of future awaited.
'This could all just be an illusion, part of some experiment,' Vlad mused with a smile. 'But, It could also be real,'