Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!

It started as a whisper.

Deep beneath the earth, in the hidden chambers where Parker had secured the Prime Cores, something fundamental shifted. The cores began to pulse—not with the steady rhythm they'd maintained since installation, but with something alive. Something that breathed.

Parker felt it first, the sensation hitting him like a cosmic tuning fork striking his soul. He was mid-sentence, explaining something to Helena about wedding, when every nerve in his body suddenly sang with harmonic resonance.

"Oh," he breathed, eyes widening as understanding flooded through him. "Oh shit."

The connection between him and the forty-two cores flared to life with brilliant intensity. Through that link, he could feel each one like a beating heart, pumping something far more vital than blood through the arteries of the planet.

Genesis Energy— lower rank to Omni Energy. Raw, untainted, transformative power that would reshape humanity itself.

Zhang Ruoyun's head snapped up from her morning tea, her cosmic awareness immediately latching onto the same frequency. "The cores," she whispered, her composed mask cracking slightly. "They're... breathing."

Around the palace, the reactions were immediate and varied. Maya gasped, her hand flying to her chest as she felt something fundamental in the air change. Nyxavere's omniscient consciousness expanded involuntarily, showing her flashes of what was coming—humanity awakening, reality reshaping, the world as they knew it ending.

Elena straightened with Battlemaid precision, her battlemaid instincts recognizing the prelude to cosmic warfare. Naomi's lunar connection began to glow faintly, responding to energies they'd never encountered before. Bella's life magic practically hummed with excitement, sensing new forces that could heal or transform on scales she'd never imagined.

But Cassidy just blinked, looking around confused. "Why does everyone look like they've seen a ghost?"a

Atalanta frowned, clearly feeling something but unable to identify what. The weaker members of this extended family shifted uncomfortably, aware that something monumental was happening but unable to perceive its true scope.

"You can't feel it," Parker realized, his voice carrying a note of wonder. "The Genesis Energy—it's... selective in it's weak state."

*

In London, beneath the financial district where one of the cores hummed with purpose, every psychic in a five-mile radius suddenly screamed. The energy wasn't just leaking—it was searching, probing, testing the boundaries of human consciousness.

In Tokyo, the core hidden beneath the city's ancient shrines began to sing in frequencies that made the nearby temples resonate like massive bells. Monks who had meditated for decades suddenly found themselves experiencing enlightenment that bordered on madness.

In Cairo, the core nestled near the pyramids pulsed with such force that the ancient stones themselves began to glow faintly, remembering powers they'd channeled millennia ago.

In Sydney, marine life in the harbor started exhibiting impossible behaviors—

In New York, where Parker had secured the first core, the energy erupted upward through the city's rebuilt foundations. Every person with even a trace of supernatural sensitivity felt it as raw Genesis power washed over them in waves.

All across the planet, the forty-two cores pulsed in perfect synchronization, breathing life into a transformation that would remake the human species.

*

Olympus

High above the mortal realm, in halls of gold and crystalline perfection, the gods felt it too.

Zeus's wine goblet shattered in his suddenly nerveless fingers. "The Genesis Wave," he breathed, his ancient eyes wide with recognition. "He's begun the first phase."

Hera's face hardened like carved marble. "This is only the beginning. Without his next preparations as we heard him say, this energy will take a thousand years to properly affect humans."

Athena stood so quickly her throne toppled backward, strategic mind racing through implications. "But if he completes his plans—if he accelerates the process—"

"Humans will reach a level to oppose us," Ares finished, his scarred hands clenching into fists. "They'll gain power and immediately think they can challenge gods."

Apollo's golden light flickered with unease. "Mortals with cosmic abilities... they won't understand the natural order. They'll try to overthrow divine authority."

The great doors of Olympus burst open as representatives from other pantheons materialized in the throne room. Odin, his ravens perched on ancient shoulders, surveyed the assembled Greek gods with one calculating eye. Amaterasu's radiance filled the chamber with competing light. Ra's solar crown blazed with urgency.

"You felt it too," Zeus said grimly.

"Every pantheon has," Odin replied, his voice carrying the weight of prophecy. "The mortal realm trembles with potential that shouldn't exist."

Amaterasu's voice rang like temple bells. "If humans gain true power, they will not remain content as worshippers. They will seek to become equals."

Ra's voice crackled with solar fury. "Or worse—they will seek to replace us entirely."

Thoth, god of wisdom, materialized with scrolls that seemed to write themselves. "I have calculated the timelines. At current pace, the Genesis Energy will require approximately one thousand years to meaningfully alter human biology. But if the Prince of Existence implements his acceleration protocols..."

"How long?" Zeus demanded.

"Months. Perhaps less."

The assembled deities exchanged looks of dawning horror. Gods from Norse, Egyptian, Japanese, Hindu, and countless other pantheons all reaching the same terrible conclusion.

Hera stood with regal authority. "Then we stop him before he can complete his preparations. The Genesis Energy in its current state is manageable—a thousand-year timeline gives us room to work."

"But if he activates the next phase..." Ares let the threat hang in the air.

Odin's ravens cawed ominously. "The Cosmic Council will convene soon. They will investigate these energy signatures."

"All the more reason to act quickly," Zeus declared. "Before the Council realizes what's happening, before the Prince can accelerate his timeline, we end this threat."

Amaterasu's light pulsed with deadly intent. "The champions who refused to march against him—"

"Are irrelevant," Hera cut her off. "We have enough willing heroes across all pantheons. Norse einherjar, Japanese kami-blessed, Egyptian god-kings... This isn't just Olympus's fight anymore."

Ra's solar crown blazed brighter. "Every pantheon has a stake in maintaining divine supremacy. If humans can challenge gods, what becomes of worship? Of faith? Of our very existence?"

Thoth consulted his ever-writing scrolls. "The mathematics are clear. Divine authority requires mortal dependence. If humans achieve cosmic-level consciousness even a fraction of it in the upcoming awakening..."

"They won't need us anymore," Apollo finished quietly.

The great chamber fell silent except for the distant rumble of cosmic forces reshaping reality far below.

Zeus rose from his throne, lightning crackling around his form. "Then we do what we should have done from the beginning. We don't send champions. We don't rely on heroes."

His voice carried the authority of thunder itself.

"We go ourselves."

The assembled gods—Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Japanese, Hindu, and others—nodded in grim agreement. This was no longer about past grievances or territorial disputes.

This was about survival.

"The Prince of Existence wants to uplift humanity?" Zeus's smile was sharp as lightning. "Let him try to do it while fighting every god in existence."

*

Far below, the Genesis Energy continued its slow, inexorable spread, and forty-two cores pulsed like the heartbeat of a world being reborn.

But the gods had felt that pulse too.

And they would not go quietly into obsolescence.

Back in the cosmic throne room, Parker stood motionless, his consciousness spread across forty-two points of blazing power. Through the cores, he could feel every pulse of Genesis Energy as it seeped into Earth's atmosphere, into its water, into the very air that seven billion humans breathed.

"It's starting," he said, voice carrying harmonic undertones that made reality itself listen. "The Awakening Era. It will start spreading."

Zhang Ruoyun moved to stand beside him, her own awareness tracking the energy flows across continents. "The balance is shifting. Humanity's baseline is about to change permanently."

"How long?" Maya asked, her voice tight with concern for the species she'd helped Parker protect across lifetimes.

Parker's eyes remained closed, his perception stretched across the globe. "If me and Zhang Ruoyun finish the last phase? Then probably hours. Maybe less. The energy will then start building exponentially. Right now only a few can feel it not even Cassidy here can at the moment."

"And you can control it?" Nyxavere asked, her omniscience showing her fragments of possible futures—some beautiful, some terrifying, all irreversible.

Parker opened his eyes, and for a moment they blazed with the same light as the cores themselves. "Zhang Ruoyun and I are the only thing holding it back. The cores are ready to flood the world with Genesis Energy right now. Our delay is tempering it. Slowing it down so it doesn't overwhelm everyone instantly. So our delay is to let it build up slowly and fill the world before exponential amount of it pours so much in."

The weight of that statement settled over the room like a cosmic blanket. Two beings, standing between humanity and a transformation that could either elevate them to cosmic consciousness or burn them all to ash.

"So what now?" Bella asked quietly.

Parker's smile carried the weight of infinite responsibility and absolute power. "Now? We go to a wedding. And while we're there, we decide whether humanity is ready to evolve."

He looked around the room at his family—some who could feel the cosmic forces reshaping reality, others who could only trust in powers beyond their comprehension.

"Because in about six hours, with or without us, the Genesis Wave is going to wash over this planet and change everything forever."

Outside, across the globe, forty-two cores pulsed like cosmic hearts, breathing new life into a world that had no idea it was about to be reborn.