^^ Wyatt Sr. ^^

— Earth, New York City, Anitra —

Wyatt stared at the screen for a few minutes, frowning severely, before shaking his head. "Ferkacte scamma's, not lettin up a second... ignore it, Emma, don't even botha with 'em!"

"But what if it's-"

"Don't botha, I said! Don't even think about it! You know how she is, she woulda said somethin' by now if she was still around, alright? We already had the funeral and everythin'!"

"Well, that's too bad, funerals are expensive! Anyways, long story short I kinda got kidnapped? But I'm alright, I'm adjusting to the new state of things. If ya wants some proof, Wyatt, I'll tell Emma stories about how you pissed yaself when I wore the Krampus Costume and jumped out the closet at ya, when you was eight."

He paused in his grumpy muttering, turning to look at the screen again, and then flinched and fell backwards out of his chair when I turned on the Skype, showing him my face. "Fuckin'-god-shit!!! DAMMIT LAURA!!!"

I smirked, examining my nails innocently. "Who, me? What'd little old me do? Why, I'm just entirely out of the loop!!!"

Still struggling to stand back up, he bellowed at the screen, shaking his fist at me. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN YOU IRRITATING SHMUCK?!?"

"Funny story, like I said, I sorta got kidnapped accidentally on purpose? Anyway, it's not really important, justice is done mostly, everything is settled or getting there on my side, and now I have a stable, secure connection to talk to you guys! How's the kids?"

Wyatt sighed, slumping down into the chair he'd finally righted, covering his face to hide his watering eyes. "... ah, you know kids... they're fine after a few days of moping... but Junior has been in a fuckin' tizzy the whole time, kept saying he saw you get took by some golden light... I told him he just fell asleep while he was working."

"Funny story... Little Wyatt was right? That's exactly what happened. Long story short, Magic is Real and I'm a Wizard."

He sighed slowly, massaging his temples. "Okay... I'm going to let this play out, because I know you're weird and you like playing with people."

"No, that's it. That's the story. I got kidnapped by a Wizard, turned out to be a mistaken identity thing, so he gave me a grimoire as an apology, and now I'm a whole-ass Wizard. Want me to prove it?"

"... sure. Go ahead."

I grinned and ordered the 3D Printer to create a small bobble head in my image, laser-etching a set of Golem Enchantments into it so I could control it directly. Once it was complete, I controlled it, jumping it off the Printer and crawling it up his leg like a haunted poltergeist, laughing evilly as he screamed like a little girl and kicked it away. "Mwahahahahahaha, Nyah, I'll get you, He-Man, Nyah!!!"

He paused in his screaming, staring at the little golem bobble head that was flipping him off, and sat down slowly. "Wait, hold up... you're serious?"

The golem flipped him double birds, laughing again like Chucky. "Serious as a bullet wound, dork! How you like me now?!? I'm a Wizard before you, little bro, as is right!"

Wyatt groaned long-sufferingly, palming his face in irritation. "You little shit... okay, let's say I believe you-"

"Don't be sore, little bro, I'm the eldest, I get to be a Wizard first, that's totally fair!!!"

"Don't make me call Ma and ask her opinion on it, considering you called me before her!" He grinned viciously as I silenced myself, frowning at him. "Anyway, say I believe you, why aren't you coming back?"

"Ah... yeah, little hiccup... so, how should I put this... well, fuck it: I died. And now I'm on a different planet named 'Nonith'. Also, Truck-Kun is real, and Isekai is legitimately true. It apparently happens like twice a year, too. The mage that killed me on accident/purpose was the god of Magic, because they thought I was already a mage, and this world was supposed to never have Magic on it, so they thought I was ruining their Experiment."

Emma frowned slowly, leaning down and looking at the golem closely. "So... you're a ghost?"

"No, I'm just not Laura anymore; now I'm apparently a twelve-year-old girl named Anitra, in Nonith. Anyway, the reason I'm able to call now is because I've managed to create a way for you guys to come see me... sorta. Essentially, I'm making a fake 'VR Game', and having people Astrally Project themselves to Nonith as part of a Fantasy Game. When they get here, they'll be given the ability to make a new body for themselves, and drive it around like a golem. On Earth, the Company I just made, Nonith Entertainment, will be selling the headsets and memberships to the 'Game'. I intended it to support you guys and make sure the store didn't go under, but you did a damned good job keeping it afloat!"

"Wait, no, hold up... you mean you're actually dead?"

"Legally? Yes. Technically? ... Meh?"

"But you're still... you?"

"Still here, still cooler than you."

He scoffed, shaking his head and turning to the computer and beginning to alter his schedule for the week. "Yeah, that's her alright... asshole... alright, so this new company, I assume you handled everything... Ah, yep, you used our company name to get a loan, without asking of course... bought a building... behind us? Okay... and now you've submitted a new building plan, and it's been accepted... as always, acting without asking anyone else what they think first..."

"Ha! I may be dead on Earth, but it's still my company that I built from the ground up to support our family and pursue my own passions. I could've been a CEO of a Fortune 500 company when I came home from Harvard, but I didn't, because I wouldn't have been able to leave behind anything for my Nieces and Nephews, if I did. I appreciate all the hard work you've done without me, but don't think for a second that I'm not in charge anymore just because I have to work remotely, dork."

"I know, you tell us every time we complain about anything you do, yes, you sacrificed everything for us, thanks for the reminder, it's not guilt-tripping at all."

"It's the truth, though; my life was designed around making sure you all never went hungry, like me and Ma did. Now, I've come up with another, better way. The company selling this Game will be booming soon, but you won't have to do a thing except keep the store going. Don't worry about a thing, Wyatt."

He sighed, examining the loan paperwork and closing the tab. "Alright, fine, it seems well-structured, doesn't seem to need anything from us... and how will the profits be used?"

"To buy more Electronic Scrap to make more headsets, and then the Net Profit will be used to pay off the shop's debts, then pay back your savings and buy our house, and ensure our whole family is comfortable. I've been busy on this side making a company to support myself so I don't get ganked, it's kinda a long story, but now we're ready to rumble, so, any questions? Oh, and you can't tell anyone about Magic or that I'm alive, because Muradin is very touchy about there being no Magic on Earth, very important, as in '5 Billion Year-Long Experiment Utterly Ruined' kinda big deal."

"Hold it, you expect us to not tell anyone in the family that you're alive?!?"

"But I'm not? I died. They mourned me. No reason to reopen wounds for no reason, you know? What would they get out of knowing I'm alive? Questions you can't answer because you can't tell them about Magic? You're smarter than that, Em, and you too, Wyatt."

They both sat back, frowning at my little bobble-head golem and then my raised eyebrow on the screen. They knew I was right, but neither of them had ever been very good at admitting it.

"Exactly. So, with that in mind, you'll sign an NDA, and so will Wyatt Junior after you tell him he isn't crazy, just for his own mental health. Et Voilá!" A Geas Contract appeared in front of them, made of golden parchment and composed entirely of Prana, and very costly, too, I realized; making Contracts across the Planes was expensive.

They read the terms and conditions properly, as I'd taught them, but eventually nodded and signed with a simple fingerprint, making the Contract flash out of existence. "Wonderful! Now like I was asking, how's the kids? All good? Andi's in highschool this year, yeah?"

"Yeah, she's already on the baseball team, doing well, might be a Starter in their JV Team, but we'll know more next week."

"Baseball? They're letting girls on the baseball teams now? Cool!"

Em nodded. "Yeah, I guess if there's one good thing about all these social justice warriors and the wild hairs they get, they've managed to integrate non-professional Sports, so that's interesting... That happened like a year and a half ago, but you wouldn't have noticed, holed up in your office like you were... you're getting a proper amount of sunlight, now, though, yeah?"

"Yeah, traveling around, doing my own thing, building my company it's pretty nice. I miss painting my cards, but I've got a few hobbies I can pursue here so it's not a total loss! Anywho, it was nice talkin to youse punks, but I'm gonna finalize a few more things to make sure my plans work out without any kinks, 'Kay? I love ya, even the dorky parts of ya, and I'll be in touch, kids." The bobble head stopped moving, and I waved as the call ended, leaving me to observe as they broke down and began crying, the little softies.

Turning away from the private scene, I focused on earth, and the Prana I could feel all around. 'Now how do I gather all of you...' a quick Internet search for licenses and registration showed that my company could technically have satellites in orbit, so long as NASA knew about them, but I wasn't allowed to send my own rockets up; reading this, I grinned viciously, my plan cooking with gas already. 'Oooh... shiny...'

The Drone started eating up more of the scrap electronics from the leftover computers and crap from the office building, and soon I had 144 small 'solar-powered' satellites, each the size of a basketball and entirely hollow, but enchanted with Fly, Arcane Eye, Shield, and Energy Drain, to gather up the Prana of the world below before it left the atmosphere to wherever it was going. Designing their Composite Golem AI to keep twelve rings of twelve satellites around earth at all times, one every 30°, their speed would be just enough to remain in orbit, avoiding all the other satellites, and the solar panels would literally only charge the little LED's on them to make them look like they had something electronic going on inside. They looked not unlike Sputnik, to be honest, with a few extra golden solar panels on the back, which I found quite amusing. Finally, I decided to use them to monitor and track the Helmets and Drones through an empowered Locate Object spell, targeted to my equipment only. This would allow me to use them as an excuse for how my Helmets connected people all over the world without an Internet Connection, and also to ensure the safety of everyone using the helmets. Finished, my little satellites flew through the sky, temporarily invisible, towards their destinations in the veritable asteroid field of metal in low orbit, and NASA was informed simply that I'd delivered my little guys via magnetic Slingshot according to current law, and they were for Connectivity purposes only and did not possess cameras or weapon systems, so they weren't considered 'Imaging Satellites', which required different licensing.

Phase Five of 'Operation: Midas' (or Prometheus, maybe?) was to create Automatons to work in the main building, so that there were no actual employees of the company, and the automatons were controlled by way of my Simulacrum, which I created in my lab and set to controlling the robots; these actually looked like robots, and were made of what was left of my Equipment, correctly designed so that they actually worked properly even if I wasn't puppetting them. (Just in case they ever got stolen or investigated.) Now the entire building was automated, and once I got the ceiling and walls covered in solar panels, it would be totally disconnected from outside power grids and water mains. (No employees with bladders meant only one working bathroom was required, and a single internal water tank and pump was enough for that, with a rain catcher and filtration system to make clean water to refill it.)

"Now that I think about it, I can Salvage for metal, can't I? That's legal? According to New York Law and Federal Law, I can used salvaged material for goods so long as they comply with FDA and BBB Requirements... very nice..." I commissioned a few dozen more drones, sending ten of my twelve from the Office out into the city to find scrap electronic salvage and bring it back, bit by bit, to fill the order and the Printers so they could start kicking out inventory.

Around three hours later, I received a reply on the company email I'd set up for Nonith Entertainment, from an electronics megastore warehouse that would be open to distributing my game consoles to stores within its web, and only needed a few more questions answered. 'Rating... R-18, definitely... Open Field, Total Freedom... Crafting, yes... Fantasy, yes... blood/gore, yes, but with an optional Censor... security measures for the User during Play, including security recording features and automated alerts for local authorities in the event of danger...' sending the reply immediately, I opened another email, similarly worded, so I just forwarded my reply to all of the people I'd emailed a few hours ago, to prevent any more responses asking for clarification.

Within two more hours, I had orders for six Major Chains, two of which were international exporters who would send 50 Thousand Units overseas per week. The total request was for 400k Units, so I decided to expand my production floor down all four floors of the office that were supposed to be warehouse floors, increasing the number of Fabricators to 250 and my Weekly Crafting at 420K. The office floors were pointless, so I reworked them into more production floors, currently making more drones to gather more materials from the city, cleaning up metallic trash and even going into the river and grabbing stuff from there, to continuously clean up our fine, but filthy city.

That set to automation with my Simulacrum at the helm, I turned to the world of Nonith, blinking my eyes as they began working again and I was no longer looking through the eyes of a Golem Drone; still rubbing them to get them to stop being blurry and itchy, I stepped out of my Secret Lab and into the Tower, where my room was. "Ahh, Magic eye drops, next on my list of inventions..." I grumbled to myself, looking for some simple oils I could use to substitute for them.

"Oh, they exist. Now: what are you doing, Anitra?" A bottle of Eye Drops appeared in my hands, made of ceramic it would seem, with a simple rubber dropper as the cork.

I turned to Muradin's Avatar, using the drops carefully, then addressed them as my eyes finally stopped itching.  "Your wife let go of your ear? Or are you just a Simulacrum?"

"She isn't my-... sigh... You're deflecting, Anitra."

"No, just curious. As for what I'm doing, I'm doing what we agreed; I'm not introducing Mana to Earth, but I'm getting more Supplicants for myself and therefore you."

"And the Prana Net around the Planet?"

I shrugged. "Taxes."

Despite having no face, they covered theirs, digging their knuckles into their temples slowly. "Taxes..."

"Yup. Taxes. I'm creating a game that costs Prana to work, and they're paying money? How does that make sense? No, they'll pay Money for the device and the membership in order to keep my family afloat, but the Prana is the important bit. In fact, I'm thinking of making the money they pay me into a Game Economy where they can win money for certain Titles and Achievements? Maybe you give them Missions, and if they succeed, they get money on Earth? That should be a sufficient reward for their efforts, considering they can't take their XP or Gold back to Earth."

They sighed slowly, removing their hands from their face. "You... irritate me... with your thriftiness... do you know that?"

"Yes. And I don't care." I shrugged again.

They sat down on one of my chairs, opposite my vanity, and rested their chin on a hand contemplatively. "Yes, yes, I'm aware, my opinion doesn't matter to you, you're not one of my Devout, despite being my Champion... still, I can't think of a reason why that isn't acceptable, besides capitalism being added to my System."

"Isn't it already integral? People have to work to survive, the strong rule the weak and hoard resources, people try to endlessly grow their gains without any care for the damage it does to the world around them... sounds like you've already got anarcho-capitalism in your System's Base Code. Hell, 'Brutal Merchant' is a Class!"

They shook their head slowly. "The Classes are holdovers from the USS for integration purposes... and it's Society that does all those things."

"Your system demands people kill for survival, and you're still hung up on capitalism? I mean, I agree that it's destructive and dangerous if unchecked, but honestly... your System is, too."

"... I suppose. I'll do as you ask, and connect my system to your Company's Accounts, to send the appropriate rewards based on difficulty and rarity, as well as your remaining Coffers."

"Just leave it to a Simulacrum of mine to manage, she's already managing everything else, and she'll have help soon in the form of a few hundred AI to ensure players are behaving. Anyway, if that's everything? I have another couple Dungeons to capture. How many more do I need to make Arcata Fly, by the way?"

They paused, making a few calculations appear in the air around them, then nodded. "Nine more Tier Twos."

"So Three Tier Threes or one Tier Four?"

"Yes, that would work? But a Tier Four is a bit beyond you, currently? Unless it's massively advantageous to you?"

"Yes, I imagine you're right; Three Tier Threes coming up!" I waved and sent myself back to my Vardo, setting myself down into my chair and groaning as the sense of power that being in my Demiplane gifted me drained away. "Fffffuck I'm tired..."

"Hey, she's back! Look alive, everyone, Dungeon Team swap out of Guard Duty and ready up for the Dive!!!"

I opened my eyes slowly, sighing heavily at Heron's voice echoing out from the door of the Vardo, and slowly stood up to get back to work while grumbling grumpily at her grinning face.