Chapter fourteen(14)

"Paris, open up," James said as he approached a briefcase resting quietly in the corner of the room. 

[Mana Signature Determined] 

A feminine voice echoed from nowhere as the briefcase slowly opened, its top folding into the bottom.

Peering inside, one would see nothing but endless darkness. However, James didn't hesitate.

He stepped onto the darkness boldly and, as if in an elevator, began descending. The moment his head passed through, the top cover unfolded and sealed itself shut. 

Meanwhile, James found himself standing before a brightly shining door. Without a second thought, he walked through it, his expression devoid of curiosity.

On the other side lay what could only be described as paradise. 

It was as if the door was a portal to an alien planet—lush, vibrant, and teeming with life. Exotic trees, seemingly not of Earth, towered above, some with water flowing from their trunks to form serene streams.

Strange butterfly-like creatures flitted about, alongside both small and large beasts playing in the landscape. 

James paid no mind to any of this, making his way toward a sleek, futuristic building a few meters away. 

[Welcome back. How was school today?] the same female voice asked as he entered. 

"You already know, Paris. You follow me everywhere," James sighed. 

Paris was an artificial intelligence he had designed specifically to help his family manage their company.

Initially, she was hosted on his laptop and connected to accessories worn by his family members, allowing her to monitor and assist them. But eventually, James transferred her here—after he decided to, in simple terms, play God. 

James had created an entire dimension and made it his personal laboratory. This led to the birth of the briefcase, crafted from a material called Void Stone. He had discovered it while testing the limits of the exotic resources in his dimension. 

Void Stone had a unique ability—it warped space and time around itself, making it impossible to touch. Even a small chunk of it existed within its own independent space pocket.

When James realized its potential, he was ecstatic. The idea of a suit made from this material was mind-blowing. It would render the wearer invulnerable, enable instant teleportation, time travel, and even boost speed and strength.

After all, if you were encased in a pocket dimension, every punch would carry the weight of an entire reality. 

His imagination ran wild with possibilities, but reality soon set in. The Void Stone's very nature made it impossible to shape or forge.

Still, James refused to give up. He searched for knowledge in his Resource Dimension and eventually found a solution—Void Stone could only be worked with Void Stone. 

It was the dumbest yet most brilliant weakness he had ever seen. The only way to defeat someone using Void Stone was with more Void Stone.

No one could beat you except yourself. Using this knowledge, James got to work. With his expertise in runes, he created a soundproof environment and began crafting. 

Months later, the briefcase was complete. However, the space inside wasn't what he expected—it was an empty void, stretching endlessly.

He had assumed there would at least be solid ground. But instead of being discouraged, James saw an opportunity. He decided to create an entire solar system. 

Since this was his private dimension, he assumed the Living Tribunal wouldn't care. Even Mephisto was omnipotent in his own realm, after all.

To make it happen, James donned armor made of Tenth Metal, granting him an unknown level of reality-warping abilities. The sheer power was intoxicating, but with practice, he remained rational enough to complete his task and remove the armor. 

He crafted a massive sun, millions of times larger than Sol (Earth's sun), and five enormous planets, each the size of Sol, orbiting at equal distances.

Every planet had its own moons and one thing in common: they were all colossal quantum computers. 

James saw no reason to limit himself. If he had the ability to warp reality on an extreme scale, why not push it further? Inspired by the Progenitors, he took their work and magnified it.

Every molecule of these planets—except for their eternally burning cores, which served as power sources—was a 100,000,000-qubit quantum computer. 

With reality-warping, the impossible became trivial, and James fully exploited this. The result? A computational network so vast and powerful that it could solve nearly anything in an instant.

Quantum communication allowed each molecule to exchange data with its neighbors, creating a cascading effect—every rock was connected, every planet synchronized. 

He had built something beyond even the most advanced supercomputers on Earth. And this was just the beginning.