"Mom, Dad, I have a few more people to introduce you to," Aron said.
A tall, upright woman dressed in an ARES
uniform appeared. "This is Athena, the woman who manages ARES and trains them."
Athena bowed and said, {Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Michael.}
A burly, handsome man wearing thick denim pants, boots, and a leather apron appeared. "This is Hephaestus, who helps me with manufacturing all the things made in the automated factories," Aron said.
Hephaestus nodded at the Michaels.
A petite, slender figure that seemed cloaked in shadows was the next to appear. "This is Nyx, she's the one that helps us investigate things and defends us from most of the underhanded things other people try."
Nyx beamed a smile and said, {Mr. and Mrs. Michael, I'm so happy to meet you finally!}
"And these are Plutus, Asclepius, Hermes, Icarus, Helios, Coeus, and Hygienia. They all help with the companies named after them—well, all except Hygienia. She helps Asclepius and Helios, but her main duty is waste management."
Plutus was a fat, bald man with long earlobes dressed in gaudy robes and enough "bling" that it should be measured by weight, rather than numbers. {Hello,} he said with a smile and a friendly wave.
Asclepius was a tall, thin middle-aged man wearing a white robe and stethoscope draped around his neck. He nodded toward the Michaels with a grave face.
"Don't mind him. He's just a very serious person," Aron chuckled.
Hermes was a teenager, wearing a sturdy pair of pants, a t-shirt with the Dave Matthews Band logo on it, and a pair of sandals. He hopped from foot to foot as he gave Aron's parents a friendly smile and said, {Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Michaels. We've all been looking forward to meeting you!}
Icarus was a young man in his twenties, dressed in an old-fashioned toga. He smiled and said, {Hi, I'm Icarus. We've sort of met already, on your flight here from America and some of your flights around the world. But it's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face.}
Helios looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties and was tall, well built, and handsome. He was dressed in a shining suit of gilded armor and gave Aron's parents a brilliant smile as he shook their hands. {Hello! I'm so happy to meet you as well!}
"There are still a few more," Aron said to his still-speechless parents. "There's Panoptes, Aeolus, and Poseidon, but they're a bit shy, so they weren't willing to come out and see you. Panoptes helps out with Pangea and my satellite network, the Panopticon. ??????????????~?~??. Aeolus and Poseidon are in charge of the Air Force and Navy, respectively. I'm sure you'll eventually meet them someday."
A few minutes passed with Aron's Al family awkwardly standing behind him and his real family speechlessly staring at the group. Finally, his father recovered and said, "Uhhh... nice... nice to meet you all? I'm sorry, this is just a bit of a shock. My wife and I were thinking that Aron had a bit of a lacking social life, but we, well... we didn't know he had so many, uhh, friends."
{Don't worry, Mr. Michael, we all love Aron just as much as you do. You can consider us your grandchildren, actually,} Nova said to ease the tension a little.
"G-grandchildren!?" Aron's mother, Rose, spluttered.
{Oh!} Nova blushed. {Yes, we're all Aron's children. You see, he created us—well, me, really, then I created my brothers and sisters. We're artificial intelligences, and we've been looking forward to finally meeting you in person for as long as we've been alive.}
Aron's parents froze again, and minutes passed. Then an hour passed, and Aron turned to Nova with a look of confusion on his face and asked, "Did we break them, or did we break the simulation?"
{IL.. I'm not sure,} Nova replied. It was the first time she had encountered this issue and she didn't know how to proceed.
…
Once Aron's parents recovered, he took his family on a tour of the sim. They visited Lab City, various nebulae in space, and even had the wondrous experience of standing far above the galaxy, where they could gaze down and see the "milk" of the Milky Way. From there, they wouldn't have been able to see Earth, except for the fact that Nova generously highlighted it, making it much more obvious against the background of space when surrounded by bright stars. The only thing he held back was the incoming "visitors"—he didn't feel the need to have them worrying and stressing out on his behalf. He also refrained from mentioning anything about his system, mana, or magic in general.
After finishing his introduction to and tour of the VR world, Aron left his parents in one of his mansions and gave them almost unfettered access, second only to his own and on par with the lead researchers in Lab City, then Nova teleported him to a restricted area.
{Congratulations, sir,} she said with a knowing smile on her face.
"Yeah, thanks for that. Keep an eye on them so they don't get injured.”
{Don't worry, they're in safe hands. It's almost time for your next meeting,} she said.
…
"We have finished sorting the evidence of our incoming guests and creating a presentation. Now we're just waiting for your other preparations to be done before we call for an emergency session of the UN Security Council," Ambassador Foster, Eden's representative on the UN General Assembly, announced to Aron and the rest of the people in the meeting room.
"Then call for it in two weeks. Our preparations are nearly finished, and we already know what the result is going to be. The emergency session is just a formality and a justification in the future. It'll be a footnote in the history books, or at most a chapter," Aron said, raising goosebumps for a few people in the room over how nonchalantly he was discussing the possibility of kicking off World War III.
"Then we'll deliver the request for an emergency session right away," Ambassador Foster responded.
They continued their discussions, revisiting the evidence that would be shown to the UNSC during the meeting and how they would make it known to the world. The news would be released on Pangea before the UNSC session, allowing them to put on a front like they were doing their best.
…
A week after the congressional oversight committee hearing, the Department of Justice announced that they were opening an investigation into Aron for human rights violations, unlawful use of intellectual property, violating sanctions imposed by the US by doing business in Cuba, Syria, North Korea, and Iran, and more. lіghtnоvеl?аvе~?~?m. If they took it all the way to trial and he was found guilty, he would receive fines in excess of a hundred billion dollars as well as five hundred years or more in prison sentences.
Not only that, it was in addition to the investigation being directed by the House oversight committee in Congress regarding GAIA's monopoly and all the other accusations levied against him as a result of his testimony before the committee.
Together with those announcements, the Morgans continued trying to destroy his reputation by paying people to post fabricated "evidence" against him on social media. What was laughable was that they were also having it posted on Pangea, with the idea that if he attempted to block it, it would simply justify their accusations and prove them all to be true.
But contrary to their expectations, Aron didn't bother blocking any of it. The posts were all performing very well on Pangea, or so they thought, as they had no idea that all of the interactions were only with one entity: Panoptes. Panoptes had dedicated a full 3% of his allotted processing power to tricking the Morgans into thinking their plan was going very smoothly.
As for the situation on other social media apps, nobody could be bothered to care about those, as everyone in the know knew that all of the hubbub would be forgotten in a week or so.
