Crossing the World
XXXV - Earth (Karen)

The next day I again sent an email to Palapa Inc and asked for a re-meeting. I also filed a complaint regarding the commotion that occurred in the restaurant and asked them to change their meeting place.

This time I was the one who fully determined where we would meet. Therefore, I chose a place that greatly benefited me. Yep! Pulauuku himself! The artificial island was finally completed after repeated adjustments.

It is about two hundred kilometers from the South coast of Java Island. The waves there are quite violent, but the device that complements the island can also suck up and accumulate sand when an abrasion occurs. We also added some breakwater concrete around the beach so that the waves that reach the beach will not be too damaging to the surface of the island.

I was sure that the place where my island stood would not be easy to find, but given the existence of space stations, planes, and the possibility of ships sailing near the island by accident, he said, AI prepares a wide variety of camouflage devices ranging from anti-radar, network breaking wire, to mini drones that will be active and create the illusion of a three-dimensional holographic display created following the observer's point of view.

All of those fixtures were actually run manually and setting them up was quite troublesome. But I don't have to worry about all that. This is where the real Aura comes in.

The database or core device of the Aura that was previously embedded in my car is now being moved into the main room of the island. Various kinds of supporting devices and components of the latest generation that are on the island support the Aura with extraordinary. Now he is able to observe all CCTV cameras all over the place in realtime and still be able to sustain the virtual world previously taken care of by AI.

My condition on earth is really solid now. With just Aura and myself, we can control over two million cyborg units and rule the world without any problems!

Well~ I wouldn't do something as horrible as that.

All right, the matter on earth is over. Now just take care of something in the shelter that I have postponed due to the transfer of artificial islands that turned out to take a few days.

"You don't have to get out of the Shelter. The test this time is only to find out whether the network formed by mimicking the earth's internet network can work without problems or not."

AI told me about the details of the mission I'm going to do now. He just kept rambling as I linked my consciousness to a quantum supercomputer.

It has been some time since AI began planting prmancar on the ground around the bunker and expanding it continuously without rest. Power sources taken through solar panels also seem to be able to slightly support activities inside the Shelter. Therefore, other previously unthinkable projects began to be realized on land.

The first new project is a fresh water generator, a giant installation that works to drop water and create artificial rain. The details I still don't really understand, but AI was able to explain them in general.

Ogre - the annoying red mutant monster - turns out to have a unique respiration system. Instead of just absorbing the remnants of radiation as its main food, these creatures inhale a mixture of nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrous oxide, and sand molecules blown by the wind, then release oxygen as a exhaust gas. Utilizing them to restore air content on the surface is the most appropriate step. This is why AI is beginning to catch ogres coming close to the bunker, lock them in a tight cage, give them the compounds they need to breathe, and harvest the oxygen they produce.

The Fiend Wolf himself had a somewhat different respiratory system as well. He inhaled nitrogen trifluoride, ammonia, and also pure nitrogen. Respiratory products are fluorine and hydrogen. Pure fluorine is indeed dangerous if it comes into direct contact, but after the AI processes it into fluoride and mixes it with hydrogen and oxygen obtained from the respiration of the ogres and fiend wolf, which is the result of the, the result is water that is good enough to raise the moisture content of the air around the bunker.

The other good news is that both produce good ammonium for plants and soil. Aren't the two of them more amazing than I've ever imagined? If AI makes more efficient use of them, the planet will recover in just a few years.

Well, let's leave such complicated things to the AI.

Through the comfort of a sofa in the recreation room, I controlled five cyborgs to explore the surface around the bunker. A few snacks and avocado juice were neatly arranged on the table in front of me, ready to be eaten when I grew tired of looking around.

The surface of the soil around the bunker is not hard dry soil as before, but loose wet soil and overgrown with small grasses. Some metal poles stand more than twenty meters high, supporting giant solar panels to leave only a small amount of sunlight that is stinging enough to sustain the plants around the bunker.

"Some plants now live on less carbon dioxide and oxygen than the earth. They can survive extreme conditions as long as the required life support molecules are released into the air periodically and artificial rain is lowered at least once in two days."

The AI began its explanation when the five cyborgs I controlled were busy noticing a much different atmosphere than before. As soon as I heard what he said, my forehead shriveled.

"Wait first. Why do plants need oxygen? Don't they absorb carbon dioxide and will produce oxygen instead?"

"I've researched the different types of plants you bring here and concluded that they also breathe. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen as part of the process of fontosynthesis, but when they breathe, plants breathe in oxygen and produce carbon dioxide."

Well, I just found out that plants breathe, too. Whatever, it's not that important to me that I have to learn it anyway. Let's leave the plants for later.

"I'll start the test now."

After informing the AI that the trials were about to begin, I immediately activated the booster jets of each cyborg and started moving them away from each other.

The solar panel masts and transmitters have now disappeared, replaced with dry, dusty plains like before. The more I keep the cyborgs away, the more the land around the cyborgs gets worse. Now there is no more humid air and oxygen levels fall significantly, making the originally quite clean view turn slightly brownish red. Yes, it is the content of harmful gases that are the main pollutant of the planet, nitrogen dioxide.

I personally will not die just from breathing the air around cyborgs, but it is different if the one who breathes it is earthlings. Prolonged inhalation will cause lung irritation, respiratory infections, and even death in humans.

Nitrogen dioxide itself is a major pollutant also on earth. Well, it is not strange because the earth itself still uses fuel oil as the main energy source for their machines. Although the level of nitrogen dioxide contained in vehicle fumes is only ten percent, but the amount of smoke produced per day is extraordinary.

Then, why are humans on earth okay with such severe pollution levels?

The answer is simple, because they breathe it along with oxygen. Of course they're not really okay even though they're inhaling it along with oxygen. Prolonged inhalation of nitrogen dioxide will still cause problems in the future.

The case will be different on my planet. If they came to my planet and breathed this brownish red air - where the oxygen level was much lower than on earth - they would die in less than a year.

"What about this distance?"

I asked the AI while eating a snack on the table after flying the cyborgs for about thirty minutes.

"The fifth distance is now 120 kilometers. Are you still able to move them well?"

The test this time is to see if the network formed through the internet system can support my parallel consciousness or not. This idea came about because when on earth, I could even control cyborgs from hundreds of kilometers away. Therefore, we conclude that the internet itself allows it to be used to expand the scope of my parallel consciousness. This is why we decided to build the same wireless network.

"Yes, there's no problem. I can control them well."

It seems that this experiment worked well. If it continues like this, soon I will be able to explore the entire surface of the planet from behind the comfort of the recreation room.

"This time the experiment was a success. I'm going to take over all five cyborgs now. You are free to do anything."

"Yes, thank you."

My connection was cut off in an instant, making the five gazes I had previously seen just disappear. It still feels quite strange when such a forced termination occurs. How should I say it, it was like falling free from the sky for a split second and then waking up in my own true body.

Well, let's leave aside such unimportant details. Now I just stay relaxed until the day the meeting we agreed between myself and the staff of Palapa Inc came.

Let us pray for the success of our meeting.