''Seems like the Enlightened Ones truly had humanity at heart,'' Nick thought as the image of the old Emperor vanished.
The message was short and concise. It simply told Nick that he could do whatever he wanted with the technology.
A moment later, the image of the woman reappeared. "I am at your service. Do you wish to designate yourself as the Emperor? If you are not the leader of humanity, please name the current leader Emperor."
"Designate me as Emperor," Nick said.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
The woman''s eyes shone a bit.
"Welcome, Emperor. I am at your service," she said.
"What are you?" Nick asked.
"I am a limited artificial intelligence. I only have limited power in learning new knowledge, but I can assist you with all of the knowledge I have," she said.
"You are now designated as Assistant," Nick said.
"Assistant is at your service," she said.
Naturally, Nick knew of the concept of artificial intelligence. Aegis was currently experimenting with that concept.
It seemed human, but Nick knew that it was even less human than a Specter.
It was just a complex machine.
"Assistant, how do I access the machinery in this base?" Nick asked.
"I only have limited knowledge about the layout of specific bases, but I can provide general knowledge on how bases are built and operated," she said.
"Tell me," Nick ordered.
Assistant told Nick about how the Enlightened Ones made their bases, and he moved downward.
He searched through several places and even had to destroy several gates.
Luckily, Nick''s power was high enough that he could destroy the walls and gates.
One would think that it would be stupid to create such a weak base while also keeping a Peak Adversary in it, but that was on purpose.
The Peak Adversary was supposed to be secret, and if the base were built like a fortress, someone might think that the base had something to hide.
After a while,Nick arrived in a huge room deep underground.
There were several machines in there.
One of them was almost five meters high and round.
"Is this the central generator?" Nick asked.
"This is a fifth-generation Pure Energy generator," Assistant said. "It is currently out of energy and needs to be refilled."
"Does it need Pure Energy to work?" Nick asked.
"Yes," Assistant answered.
"Is there a way to procure Pure Energy without needing Pure Energy?"
"Every base has an emergency starter," Assistant answered.
Nick listened to Assistant''s explanation, and he quickly found the emergency starter.
Nick went to the big Pure Energy generator he had left in the huge hall and disconnected all the individual Star Energy generators.
Over the next hours, he rewired them and created a tube that fit the emergency starter.
Finally, Nick activated the individual generators.
"Emergency starter operational," Assistant said.
"How do I interact with it?" Nick asked.
"The Seed acts as an intelligent interface for every machine," Assistant said.
"That means I tell you what to do, and you will send the order to the machine?"
"Correct, Emperor," Assistant said.
"Start it and feed the energy to the fifth-generation Pure Energy generator," Nick said.
"Affirmative, Emperor," she answered.
The next moment, the emergency starter gave off a loud whirring noise.
The noise became louder and louder until.
The emergency starter shook and became silent again.
''Did it work?'' Nick thought.
The huge machine in the center of the room started to shine.
Then, it became even louder than the emergency starter.
30 seconds later, the lights started to turn on.
"Deactivate all lights," Nick ordered.
The lights immediately turned off.
"All lights are shut off."
"Is it working?" Nick asked.
"Rising Star Base is operational," Assistant said. "There are 6,789 error messages. Do you wish to view them?"
"Categorize them and give me a summary," Nick said.
Assistant categorized the error messages.
Some of them were designated as very urgent, but most of them were just informational.
"Analyze Rising Star Base''s capabilities," Nick ordered.
A moment later, he received a report with everything this base could do.
When Nick saw the base''s capabilities, his eyes widened.
"Show me the surroundings," Nick ordered.
The next moment, a grid appeared in front of him.
The grid showed the entire island on which Crimson City was.
Nick could zoom in and out of the grid, and he could even see the people walking around in their homes.
It even showed all of the Specters on the island!
''This is even more detailed than my perception,'' Nick thought.
''The Enlightened Ones had the entire world at their fingers. No kind of Specter can hide from them.''
''Keeping the entire island Specter free should not have been an issue.''
Now that Nick had access to the Enlightened Ones'' power, he could truly see the difference between them and the current era.
In the Enlightened Ones'' era, they were the ones in control, not the Specters.
They had all of Earth in their hands.
Yet, they still couldn''t fight against the aliens.
"How powerful are the drones?" Nick asked.
"There is one Prime Drone," Assistant answered. "It can kill and suppress level seven Specters. There are five Secondary Drones. They have the capability to suppress level five Specters. There are 60 Tertiary Drones with the power to suppress level three Specters."
Nick pointed at a certain spot on the grid.
Apparently, the island had a hidden Fallen.
According to the Grid, it was an Early Fallen.
"Does the Prime Drone have the capabilities to retrieve this Specter?" Nick asked.
"Chances of suppression are 95%. Chances of termination are 4%. Chances of failure are 1%," Assistant said.
"What if the Specter were a Peak level seven?" Nick asked.
"Chances of suppression are 30%.Chances of termination are 65%. Chances of failure are 5%," Assistant answered.
Nick took a deep breath.
''It might not be able to suppress a Peak Fallen, but it has a high chance of killing it.''
''Even more, the weaker Drones can essentially capture all the other Specters on the island.''
"If we use the base''s full capabilities, how long will it take to capture every level three and stronger Specter on the island?"
"Estimated time to completion is three hours and 42 minutes," Assistant answered.
Nick took a deep breath.