Roland soon learned what had happened and hurried back to Nevis City, arriving at the Mage Tower.
"How is it going?"
The staff member said, "Sir Roland, everything is proceeding as expected. Gallo's mental fluctuations have completely vanished from the outside world. We're all but certain that every intelligent entity has been successfully captured!"
"So all his avatars are here now?"
Roland pondered briefly and nodded to himself.
In fact, it did not matter even if they had not captured every last one. Once the proportion reached a certain threshold, the "Gallo" within the entire network would become increasingly inclined to "live and multiply" within the controlled "Gallo's World."
In nature, all manner of things had an instinct to follow the "shortest path."
This was, in essence, a law of natural selection.
After all, negentropy work consumed energy.
And consuming energy meant an increased risk of death for a living organism or a meme, depriving it of the chance to pass itself on.
Thus, barring unforeseen circumstances, they would not take a roundabout route when a direct one was available.
Gallo's avatars could not transcend this law either. Or rather, nothing that obeyed the mass-energy conservation law could transcend it.
"In that case, we can carry out the next step of the plan.
Destroy him completely, right here in this laboratory!"
According to the original plan, if any of Gallo's avatars remained outside, stimulating those within the network might draw them in as well.
This was an aggregation effect, and also one of the instincts of colony life.
Roland immediately dismissed everyone, sealed the room, and began carrying out the plan to eliminate Gallo.
Compared to a "plan," which implied greater personal initiative, "procedure" might have been a more accurate description of what he was doing.
Everything had been set