Chapter 377: Reset
The United Federation of Kingdoms and States, known as UFKS, is a country with a population exceeding 10 billion. Its landmass covers the entire world, making it the only existing nation.
However, it hasn’t always been this way. In ancient times, the world was divided into many different kingdoms and states. As technology advanced, these countries gradually united to form UFKS. Like many alliances, UFKS slowly gained power. Ten years ago, a worldwide referendum was held, officially transforming UFKS from an alliance into a sovereign country.
The key difference between a country and an alliance lies in sovereignty: countries are sovereign, while alliances are not. Before the referendum, member states and kingdoms could have left the alliance or even passed laws contradicting those of UFKS. They held theoretical power and obeyed the alliance voluntarily.
As a result of the referendum, sovereignty shifted from the states and kingdoms to the UFKS. Since then, all UFKS laws have had to be respected by the member states and kingdoms. There was only one true sovereign: UFKS.
The referendum held ten years ago divided power among three branches: judiciary, legislative, and executive. The constitution of the newly formed country includes extensive protections, such as the right to housing, freedom of speech, food, a healthy environment, and even more unusual rights, like the right to relaxation.
Of course, as in almost every country across the universe, rights in the constitution mean nothing if there is not enough money to achieve them; despite not being perfect, the people have relatively good lives, with nearly nobody dying of hunger.
There are issues, of course. For example, even though the Constitution "protects" free speech, so many conditions are attached to this protection that it becomes nearly meaningless. The UFKS police chief is famous for saying, "You're free to speak, and we're free to arrest."
But most ordinary people, who go about their lives without engaging in political expression, don’t worry about these issues. As long as economic conditions remain favorable, they accept a few restrictions.
The capital of the country is called Mooncity. Many legends surround this city, including supernatural TV series about the "City of Demons." Legend has it that over 1,000 years ago, the Demoness of the Moon resided there. Few believe this, except for some hardcore conspiracy theorists.
But that was before a massive, human-like figure appeared on the skyline!
...
"Mr. President, it stopped moving! What are your orders?" a man in a military uniform asked the woman before him.
The woman, around 60 years old with slightly darker skin and golden-colored pupils that reflected her resolve, was the elected president of UFKS.
"Hit it with nukes!" she declared. As president, it’s her responsibility to decide what’s best for the country as a whole. The nuclear fallout will likely affect surrounding cities, including the capital, but if she allows the massive humanoid to regain consciousness, the entire world could be in danger.
How would a country react to the sudden emergence of a massive, over 10-kilometer-tall human figure? It depends on many factors, especially the country's past experiences and the personality of its leaders.
UFKS’s president, Hellen, came from the far south, where states had been locked in deadly conflicts just a few decades ago. As a woman who survived those horrific events, she learned valuable lessons, such as never taking risks with the unpredictable.
The massive humanoid is motionless now, but who knows? It could start moving any second. With its enormous size, destroying cities would be easy. If she hesitates, it may regain consciousness and begin a reign of destruction. Now that it’s motionless, this is her chance to destroy it. She understands the power of nuclear bombs; if one doesn’t work, she’ll order the deployment of 10, 100—whatever it takes. No amount of nuclear fallout is worse than allowing a monster that appeared out of nowhere to live and destroy everything.
The man in the military uniform nodded with a grave expression and left to deliver the orders.
...
"What is this missile? I shouldn’t feel such danger, even if it’s a nuke!" Mike thought, disbelief washing over him. Even with a 120% Lone Wolf bloodline, his fighting power far surpassed something as simple as a nuke.
"It’s this oppressive force! It’s suppressing all of my magical energy; it’s turned me into a glass statue. If the nuke hits me, I’ll shatter into countless pieces!" Mike suddenly understood the danger he was in.
"Maybe this tyrannical and oppressive force was what caused the original big demon in the legends to be defeated by a single nuke!" He realized why the big demon, despite its power, had been defeated.
"This force… it must be the will of the world; it’s repelling me, making me vulnerable!" He wasn’t dumb; it was clear that only the world itself could suppress someone as strong as him.
"There’s no more time; I have to do something!" He desperately considered every possibility, even those with the slightest chance of success.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a solution; the world’s suppression was far too strong. The nuke hit his body and shattered him like a fragile piece of glass, breaking him into countless pieces.
Strangely, even though he technically died, he retained his ability to think and even move around, like a ghost that nobody noticed.
The world was once again polluted by huge amounts of demonic bloodline; soon, the bloodline seeped into magic crystals and began giving birth to demons.
Initially, only ordinary demons appeared, and UFKS struggled to contain them.
Ten years later, the first demon king appeared. Mike watched all this with great interest, as if watching a very realistic movie. Despite being in such a desperate condition, he was strangely calm; perhaps losing his body had also stripped him of his ability to feel anxiety.
The first demon king’s powers far surpassed those of other demons; it easily destroyed UFKS’s entire army and obliterated human city after human city, killing over a billion people in a single year.
Faced with such an unprecedented crisis, human society collapsed. Without a central government, the kingdoms and states regained their power and tried to fight the demons, but they soon failed and fell apart.
Three years after the first demon king’s emergence, nearly all forms of government had failed. Each city and community did everything they could to stay hidden from the demons and fought for resources.
Fifty years later, the second demon king was born, which was a blessing for humans; the two demon kings were opposed to each other, forcing them to stop paying as much attention to humans and start fighting each other.
Time went on like this; humans failed to establish any large country. The demons were too frequent, and humans had no effective way to fight them.
Seventy years later, some humans were born with demonic characteristics.
Humans hated demons so much that most demon-born children were killed at birth, but a few lucky ones survived.
One hundred years after the birth of the first demon king, the first magician appeared. He was powerful, fighting demons and protecting humans. Despite his heroic actions, he had a pair of horns on his head, which caused mixed feelings among many.
By the year 200, most human settlements had stopped killing demon-born babies and instead trained them as magicians. Despite this, nearly all humans hated demon-borns and saw them as evil; they only tolerated them because they wanted to use them as weapons in the future.
By the year 300, most human settlements had magicians, along with magical defense walls to fend off demons. By this point, a few ordinary demons were no longer a threat to most human cities.
In the 400th year since the first demon king’s birth, a man named Max appeared. He was a hero of heroes, mighty and unyielding. He destroyed a demonic city and founded Human Civilization, with extremely powerful walls to protect it from demons.
Mike had mostly watched all this in a daze, but once Max appeared, he regained his full awareness. After carefully observing Max for a long time, he concluded one thing:
"The world’s will has made Max its pawn."
Over the centuries, Mike began to understand what was happening in this world.
"The big demon invaded the world an unknown number of years ago; the world was unable to repel the invasion and could only delay its own inevitable destruction. It split the invader into many pieces in hopes of sealing it entirely but failed. Every time, the broken pieces came back together, and every time, the world will desperately reset history and broke the invader again. But the invader grew stronger each time; this time, I could barely move my body, even under the full force of the world's will. Maybe next time, I’ll be able to completely resist the world’s tyrannical force," Mike thought.
The system was clearly made by the big demon to help him quickly gather all the pieces.
"But why did the will of the world support Max?" Mike pondered this unsolved mystery.
He thought for a while and couldn’t find an answer; perhaps he would discover the reason with more observation.
"I thought the big demon was planning to devour me; I didn’t expect that the big demon was actually me!"
Since being reborn into this world, he had always complained about not having a reliable cheat. It turned out his original cheat was so strong that the world was forced to suppress it.
After observing the world for hundreds of years, he was almost certain he was the big demon.