Lord Shadow

That is the Grand Researcher.

Someone who has a pure intention toward knowledge and truth. It is like someone who read simply because they like the act of reading itself and not for the content of the book.

There are not many people like this in the world.

But they do exist.

People like her. People like Void. People like Rosulka that did not do things according to accepted norm of logical behavior.

'How the world has changed' she said to herself as she sighed. She closes her eyes and think of what had happened years ago

Her people traded very important thing to Pandemonium to get a spot during the World Distribution event thus propelling a small organization of like-minded researchers into one of the global power.

In the past it is a secret organization, a secret society that could only be joined by invitation.

Nowadays, it is not like that anymore.

But most of those who sat on the top is still her compatriot in seeking the knowledge of this world.

She had also received the news of Death Monarch sudden departure.

But unlike the other world power that had to raise their level of alertness because of Death Monarch departure, the Order of Thinkers did not do much other than the usual.

Order of Thinkers did not have many enemies. And they also did not have many internal enemies.

Antarctica after all is not a place that is teeming with native in the first place.

She did not have to fight the established forces in the area because there are no established forces in the area.

Those scientists that was stationed in Antarctica for research purposes before the Fall, most of them die as monsters and beast that appeared during the Fall kills them

So, when she and her people came here, they occupied an empty land. And she did not have to worry about external attack from forces like the Crime Alliance.

Because she still maintains contact with some of her acquaintances in the Crime Alliance. Of course, such thing could not be said openly.

She headed a legitimate world power and not some small faction in the dark. If she acts too openly and being too welcoming to the Crime Alliance, she would attract the attention of those great powers.

She herself is forced by circumstances.

She would like to live a life of simply researching all kinds of knowledge. But research requires resources

Resources that she doesn't have

And there were many things she could not do as one of the world powers. There were many treaties that she had signed. One of them is related to human experimentation.

While the article in the treaty is a bit vague, one thing is very clear about human experimentation.

It is frowned upon.

And while voluntary testing could be conducted, such thing must be presented to the World Council. This is to prevent the world power from abusing the people of the world

There is also restriction in creating artificial intelligence.

While certain level of artificial intelligence in the design of a technology is allowed, there are certain parameter of an AI that is not allowed.

Any attempt of trying to go past that approved parameter of an AI ability must be approved by the entire World Council.

This is to prevent the uprising of machinery lifeforms. Humanity is already plagued by invaders from the stars.

They need not fight another war with their own machine.

It might look like some kind of paranoid thinking influenced by movies like Terminator, but it is actually a relevant and reasonable fear.

Order of Thinkers and the World Government had gain many knowledge from the Orvanians expedition when they stay at Earth

There was a world that was overtaken by their own creation.

AI technology reaches to the peak that it controls and treated those living beings as battery and inspiration as these robots didn't seem to have that kind of spark in their brain the way certain intelligent living beings has

This AI civilization finally was destroyed by the Orvanians because this AI civilization began wanting to conquer other star system to force those living beings become their battery

If that is the only thing they wanted to do, maybe the Orvanians would close one eye to the behavior of those AI.

After all, wars between intergalactic empire is common, at least it was not something that deserves the Orvanian attention

It wasn't until the AI Civilization created a weapon that could shoot people through time and space, tore upon multiversal barrier and could even cut space and affected time in a scale that has never been seen after the demise of the Savi'krian race.

And when it affected the Multiverse, that is when Orvanians become involved.

Of course this is the simplification of the struggle of that universe. It did not change however that artificial intelligence could be a threat for humanity

The Grand Researcher could only accept all of those restriction with smiling face. She had never wanted to compete with those great powers.

But because she did not compete, she did not have any say. If the things she wanted to do is something that Pandemonium did, she wonders whether the other world powers would burden Pandemonium with all kinds of restriction and treaties?

They would not. She found out that her thoughts were too simple. But the moment she realized this, it was already too late

By the time of the rise of the Great Powers, even if the Order of Thinkers wanted to compete, they no longer are qualified to compete.

The Order of Thinkers already had the problem of dwindling population and they also been restricted by many of the world power treaties.

The Grand Researcher knew that for a small power with lack of population, lack of rare resources, the hope of her organization was technology and knowledge.

But, it is not like her thought is something secret to the other world powers. As such, there is all of those treaties to restrict her.

They were afraid that she would create things that is dangerous to the world. Azief brought them to the center stage so that everyone could look at them and restrict them.

It took her some time to realize the sinister intention of Death Monarch. And they even happily jump into that trap.

No one knows how cunning that person who sat on that black throne in Pandemonium more than her.

IT is no wonder then that she had to make the difficult choice of sometimes cooperating with the Crime Alliance.

She sighed thinking all of this matter of the past as she opens back her eyes and look at the land in front of her.

Everything look so small and tiny when she looks at it from her height.

Standing on the balcony she could see hundreds of houses being built with terrifying efficiency.

But there is no people in it. Tens of thousands of houses yet there is no people

The lack of population. That is the problem of the Order of thinkers.

While she could supply the security forces of the order of Thinkers with robotic soldiers, she began to see the limitation of such superficial means.

Antarctica before the expansion of the world was not that big

Most of it is hard to travel but it is not a size of continent that is hard to monitor.

Its distance and the lack of reputation of the Order of Thinkers makes Antarctica an unappealing place for normal people

Most people would rather serve under the banner of a powerful world power.

As such, most people would rather sail toward Europe to join the Republic, to North America to join the World Government or sails the stormy seas of the pandemonium Seas to reach Pandemonium

And those who did not agree with the ideological or types of government of those three great world powers could always choose the other four world powers.

But even then, the Order of Thinker ranks the last in attractiveness of persuading people to come to Antarctica to become the citizen of the world power of the Order of Thinkers.

The high standard of the Order of Thinkers that emphasizes knowledge and the general misunderstanding that the common people have of the Order of Thinkers created the situation where Order of Thinkers having many high technology devices yet lack the human capital.

If this is the world before the Fall, the lack of people compared to the industrialization of advanced technology is something that would not be a minus for the Order of Thinkers.

But as the order of Thinkers had realized, there is a reason why the Three Great powers remains the three great power.

Order of Thinkers technology sometimes even surpasses Pandemonium level of technology.

But why is it that Pandemonium is the number one world power? Why is it after almost a decade, no one had been able to shake Pandemonium position?

It is simply because in Pandemonium, they had a lot of people who are on Disk Formation leveler.

Death Monarch would not even have to move his ass from his throne to destroy Order of Thinker.