The Central Control Room was deathly silent.
The piercing alarm had stopped, but the glaring red emergency lights were still spinning, casting shifting shadows across everyone's faces.
Everyone seemed nailed in place, staring motionlessly at the blank planet beyond the enormous bulletproof glass.
That once-beautiful, spinning blue planet—the cradle of human civilization—was now nothing but pure white.
Every trace left behind by human civilization—everything had vanished.
"Simulation time—twenty years and three months."
A young technician's voice shattered the frozen air. His voice trembled, as though forced through clenched teeth. "Surface civilization readings—completely gone."
No one spoke.
This result was more chilling than the global war.
Because war only brought destruction. It still left traces behind—
"Reset the parameters and begin a second simulation."
Kenneth's voice rang out. As he spoke, he walked to the control console and began adjusting the settings with his own authorization. "This time, reduce Archibald's social influence parameter by seventy percent. Cancel the release of all disruptive technologies, and restrict the research direction to pure theoretical physics and energy."
The machines let out another deep rumble, and the Arc Reactor's power readings began to climb again on the screen.
Data streams began flowing back into the white sphere. Chaotic colors spun and separated once more.
A new world was born.
This time, there was no war that swept across the globe.
Kenneth El-Melloi Archibald was merely a scholar at the peak of an ivory tower in this simulated world. Unlike before, he had not produced all manner of revolutionary theories and achievements.
Human civilization's progress had slowed, while magecraft and science maintained a fragile balance.
But thirty years later.
Without any warning.
That blue planet once again, before everyone's eyes, instantly lost every trace of color and returned to that despairing pure white.
"Still no good—what