Chapter 460

The main control room of the mothership Mary.

Dr. Higgs, the former chief engineer of the top five galaxy megacorp Zenith, was frantically tapping on the hologram screen without even realizing that his nose was bleeding.

"Just a little more……! Increase the coolant pump output by 30%! The magic power fusion rate at the joint sections is dropping! Send in the priest unit to reapply blessing domains!"

Following his instructions, hundreds of scientists who had defected from Megacorp along with Higgs and the Dragon Tooth Soldier priest unit moved in perfect harmony.

The middle of the massive control room.

Under Higgs' control, the clockwork metals torn out whole were being cast into a new skeleton and neural network wrapping the main quantum core.

Jiiiiiing—!

Kwaaaaang!

The ultimate new material that withstood even the high heat capable of vaporizing a planet's surface.

The moment the over-technology substance that distantly transcended Megacorp's superalloy technology wrapped the computational center of the Mary.

Ppiiiiiiik————!

All the measuring instruments in the control room simultaneously spewed errors, and the needles spun past their limits.

"Doctor! The processing load figure of the main core…… has disappeared!"

A report bordering on a scream from the assistant.

Dr. Higgs looked up at the screen blankly.

The stress gauge of the quantum core, which had always suffered from over 80% overload from managing the traffic of 100 million residents and controlling the mothership's functions, dropped to 12% like a lie immediately after replacing the clockwork metal tubes and was displaying a stable green light.

"The hardware vessel…… has perfectly accommodated the growth of the soul."

Hot tears of joy streamed down from Dr. Higgs' hollow eyes.

As the vessel enlarged, the processing power of the software that surged past the constraints ran wildly.

Paaaaaaat—!

The hologram of the skeleton maid Mary wearing a red ribbon descended in the middle of the control room, spewing blinding light. The blue eye glints emitted from her empty pupils contained a depth on a different dimension than before.

[Main quantum core and hardware replacement complete.]

[Main AI system Mary has been updated to version 2.0.]

[The overall functions and processing power of the mothership break through the limits and are reconstructed.]

Mary elegantly lifted her skirt hem and bowed her head toward Dr. Higgs.

— [You have worked hard, Doctor. Under the grace of the great Lord, limits no longer exist for me.]

At the same time.

A suite in the 1st residential area of the mothership Mary.

"Keueo-eo. I truly played to my heart's content."

Official streamer Park Jihoon, returning after drinking and dancing all day long in the frenzy of the Grand Festival commemorating the Death Lord's ascension to a Higher God.

Dragging his tired body, he sprawled out spread-eagle on the plush goose-down bed.

"Sister Mary, I'm not going to wake up until tomorrow afternoon, so please turn off all alarms and boil some dried pollack soup for my hangover."

— [Command received. Disabling the alarm function and reserving the hangover menu setting.]

Mary's hologram floating in the empty air answered kindly as usual.

It was the split second Park Jihoon smiled and was about to close his eyes.

Ttiring—!

An all-announcement alarm loudly rang out on his personal hologram pad.

[Notice: Details of the Mothership Mary System Version 2.0 Massive Update Patch]

"Huh? An update?"

Rubbing his eyes and touching the panel, Park Jihoon's pupils widened as soon as he read the first line.

[1. Multi-Dimensional Expansion Limit Breakthrough — Residential Area Paid Upgrade Newly Opened]

? A new service has launched to expand and remodel all residents' private suites (basic 66 sqm) into 330 sqm private mansions (including personal pools and gardens) in real-time.

? Payment method: Faith points.

? Basic construction cost: 100,000 Faith points.

[※ Resident Park Jihoon's faith tier has been confirmed.]

[※ Faith tier: A-rank (Top 0.7%) — Applied discount rate 70%.]

[※ Final billed faith points: 30,000]

[Would you like to proceed with the expansion and remodeling immediately? (Y / N)]

"……Uh?"

Park Jihoon blankly read the panel a few more times.

Something was strange. Expanding a 66 sqm room to 330 sqm? And for all 100 million people?

"Sister Mary, wait a minute. Is there enough space? This doesn't make sense physically."

— [Yes, it is sufficient. As the processing limit of the main quantum core disappeared, Megacorp's multi-dimensional expansion technology is stably operating. In theory, even if all 100 million residents expand to a 330 sqm scale, not even 1% of the mothership's spatial capacity is used.]

"……Oh my god."

The corners of Park Jihoon's mouth crept up.

30,000 faith points.

It is somewhat burdensome, but still an amount he could pay.

On top of that, a whopping 70% discount rate?

"I have to do this right away! I'll do it! Call!"

Park Jihoon smacked the Y button without hesitation.

Uuuuung—!

The walls of his room made bizarre friction sounds and began to slide far back.

The ceiling soared dizzyingly, the marble floor widened endlessly, and outside the window, a blue private pool and a palm tree garden with blinding hologram sunshine pouring down unfolded in an instant.

"Heo…… my room became a playground?!"

While Park Jihoon jumped up from the bed and screamed, the next patch note perfectly struck his brain.

[2. 1:1 Exclusive Concierge System — Support for Hologram Avatar Physical Materialization]

? The hologram avatar of Mary previously provided to 100 million people can transition into an android (hard light) mode with physical substance by consuming faith points.

? Support for all physical skinship and perfect care such as massage, cooking, serving, and cleaning.

? ※ However, to cultivate residents' morality and maintain the great Lord's dignity, sexual acts are strictly prohibited. If caught, faith tier will be immediately demoted.

[※ Trial Special: 1-hour physical mode transition — 500 Faith points]

"……What? The hologram can be physically touched?"

Park Jihoon stared blankly at Mary's hologram floating before his eyes.

The previous Mary was merely a light that perfectly empathized and comforted him.

But now?

That hologram becomes a real physical maid that directly massages his shoulders with her hands and feeds him? And to 100 million people simultaneously?

"Right now! Pay right now!"

Park Jihoon frantically tapped the payment button on the hologram panel.

[500 Faith points have been deducted!]

[Your exclusive concierge 'Mary No. 778,412' transitions into hard light mode.]

Paaaaat—!

Fine particles began to combine like a storm around the form of the hologram Mary.

The transparency unique to holograms disappeared, and an android skeleton maid with perfect physical texture landed lightly before Park Jihoon's eyes.

Tak.

— [Thank you for your payment, Jihoon. Shall I loosen your stiff shoulders first before boiling the hangover soup?]

Mary approached and placed cool bone fingers on Park Jihoon's shoulders.

A real physical pressure and tactile sensation that was refreshing yet pressed perfectly on the tense muscles.

"Keueueu……."

An ecstatic groan burst from Park Jihoon's mouth.

It was the moment simultaneous physical servitude for 100 million people, which was impossible due to processing overload, became a reality.

"Kyaaaaah! Truly crazy! Loyalty to the Death Cult! I will bury my bones, Death Lord!"

The patch notes were not over yet.

[3. Full Dive Capsule Nirvana — Evolution to 100% Hyper-realistic Synchronization]

? With the explosion of Mary's quantum processing, the virtual reality inside the capsule supports sight, touch, taste, and smell 100% identical to the physical universe.

? Pain control during combat and perfect ego implementation of NPCs. The ultimate fantasy life indistinguishable from reality unfolds.

"Wow, the Orc hyung-nims will flip their eyes if they see this."

Even before, the capsule's sensory synchronization rate wasn't low.

However, a subtle sense of heterogeneity, as if covered by a film one layer thinner than reality, clearly existed.

Especially after the explosive increase of capsule room users, that dull sensation became even more prominent due to the server distribution load.

But that had been entirely breached.

Battle maniacs like Orcs and Fighters would recharge their dopamine inside the capsule engaging in bloody struggles with 100% realistic cosmic monsters, while ordinary people would suck up honey becoming aristocrats of a fantasy world in there.

The completion of a perfect utopia where capsule addicts shouting 'Is this reality or virtual!' would emerge one after another.

However, putting a period on the apex of this pleasure was the [VVIP Exclusive Future Update Schedule List] written in brilliant golden letters at the very bottom of the scroll.

[4. Brainwave Interlocking Molecular Reassembly Restaurant (100% implementation of nostalgic taste)]

? By scanning residents' brainwaves in real-time, perfectly synthesizes the food in their memories they miss the most at the molecular level even without a recipe.

[5. Infinite Diet & Sleep Efficiency 300% Maximization via Airborne Nanomachines]

? Without needing to enter a capsule, airborne nanomachines burn consumed calories in real-time and perfectly reset fatigue. (e.g. Provides the condition of 10 hours of deep sleep with 3 hours of sleep)

[6. 100 Million Individual Custom 'Micro Climate and Gravity Control']

? Individually calculates and implements the desired weather and gravity per room in real-time. (e.g. Zero-gravity living room, snowy bedroom with Alpine climate, etc.)

[7. 'Absolute Safety' System Twisting Causality]

? Preemptively calculates the movements and physical laws of 100 million people with infinite processing power. If you misstep, the floor turns into slime in 0.001 seconds, and falling objects are safely caught by hard light in the empty air.

[※ All the above items are scheduled to come to residents sequentially in the near future. Thank you for always loving the Death Cult.]

"……."

Park Jihoon stared blankly at the screen, forgetting even to breathe.

A restaurant that recreates the kimchi stew his deceased grandmother used to boil at the molecular level?

He wouldn't gain weight even if he shoved in 10 servings of steak, and he can manipulate the living room into zero-gravity space and the bedroom into a Maldives beach?

Even a miraculous accident-free system where he physically cannot get hurt even if he wants to?

However, at the bottom of that ecstatic update schedule list, quite high required faith points and faith tier cutlines were written.

Yet no one despaired.

As Park Jihoon looked out the window, crazed shouts were bursting out like a volcano from all over the residential area.

"Pray! Kneel right now and pray to the Death Lord!"

"I'm not sleeping starting today! I will offer praise worship 20 hours a day! I'm going to try sleeping in a snowy Alpine bedroom!"

"Grandma……. If I could just taste our grandmother's soybean paste stew one more time……. Long live the Death Lord!"

When perfect pleasure and rewards were waved before their eyes, the 100 million residents began to spew extreme faith. A perfect fanaticism combining endless desire for upward mobility welling up from deep inside their bones and capitalistic zeal.

That blind energy rode the mothership's system and was continuously sucked into Kim Minwoo's heart like a waterfall.

The main bridge of the mothership Mary.

"Mary. Your ride quality has become very much better? It used to have a bit of a bumpy flavor every time we dimension-warped."

— [Thank you for your praise, great Lord. As the processing load disappeared, it is the result of becoming able to predict and offset the ship's propulsion trajectory and dimensional friction coefficient in units of 0.0001 seconds.]

Thick pride emanated from the blue eye glints shining in Mary's eye sockets.

"Prediction. Then have combat maneuvers changed too?"

— [Of course. If my previous self was merely at the level of seeing an enemy's attack and blocking it by putting up a defensive shield, my current self can reverse-calculate the preheating angle and magic power condensation pattern of the enemy fleet's main gun barrels before they fire and evade that trajectory with a 100% probability.]

Kim Minwoo's eyebrow twitched.

"You're saying a 150km lump of iron performs evasive maneuvers as if grazing a beam cannon?"

— [I can demonstrate it for you. Fortuitously, excellent targets are approaching the front of the ship.]

Mary's hologram finger pointed at the screen.

The new space coordinates they entered after the dimensional leap ended.

The outer boundary of the northwest galaxy group.

Far away, a pitch-black swarm was approaching toward the mothership.