"Okay no problem, I'll take it from here, you can go" the man said as he focused on the report in his hand.
However no matter how he looked at the case, something bothered him that it was more than meets the eye and at the center it all was the guy that had supposedly not interacted with the Mayaki in any way before this.
Staring at the report in his hand, he could already feel a headache forming. He didn't need to read further to know that cases like these were always far more trouble than they seemed.
"but he's too clean though, seems like the front for something… What would you be, a spy or just a mortal criminal?" The man noted as he dropped the report.
On the screen of the desktop beside him was a complaint form. Such things never graced his desk unless they were made by someone of status and looking at the seal at the bottom, it was obvious.
It had been submitted by someone by the name of Alhaji Jelani Adegoke. The person was unassuming but the name the person bore held enough weight foe the complaint to be here.
"Did the Adegoke boy finally get himself killed?" the man asked himself as he dropped the report on his desk.
It was the least important thing in his pile of work but it was the one that brought him the most headache as of now since he was placed in charge of investigations.
Tring Tring
His mobile phone rang, drawing his attention from the desktop that he had just focused on, seeing the caller, he immediately readied his mind and he answered the call.
"Good afternoon sir," he greeted
"Ehen, Farouk, how are you?" the voice replied
"I'm fine sir...." Faruk answered as a wide smile appeared on his face.
As soon as the conversation began, Farouk immediately knew that more work would be coming his way, however, the smile on his face never faded as this was the kind of work he liked.
….
A few days passed as David returned to his carefully scheduled life. The Minister had yet to contact him again after that, however the approval of his purchase was already done.
Now all he needed was the various permits to begin construction on the mountain. However that wasn't the only improvement in terms of construction, the meeting with the FCT Minister had yielded results on two fronts for him.
One, was the mountain and its construction but the other was the construction of the Nous Studios headquarters. The permits for its constructions were approved very quickly.
This meant that construction was currently going on the newly purchased land and at the moment, David was standing as he watched the marvel that only government grade contractors could replicate.
It had only been about two days since construction began but he could already see the foundation of the massive campus forming already.
"Wow, progress is surprisingly faster than I expected" David noted as he walked around the site with the head engineer leading him around
He was just here to see them at work and nothing else, neither he nor Nous had any input.. They already gave the blueprint and all so he was just here just because he wanted to.
"Ehn sir, I forgot to ask you about that blueprint… There was this part that was troubling me a bit" the site manager said as they walked away from the construction area
Seeing where it was headed, David immediately left the conversation as he knew nothing about it, rather he served as Nous's mouthpiece as the problem was settled fairly quickly.
With the campus coming along fine, David had nothing else to worry about as he immediately entered the car to return home. Today was a bit more special for him.
It was the second of September meaning that after tonight, it would be an entire month since he became the Editor. This meant that he would have another edit after tonight but he couldn't make up his mind hence spent most of his time just wandering from place to place.
Scrolling through his phone, David looked through all the past suggestions and new ones that people had added as time passed. They all had their merits but thinking about it now, he wondered how things would have been if he had followed their suggestions.
Nearly all of them were about improving personal power, and assuming he had blindly done that from the beginning, he would have been strong but utterly clueless about how things actually were. He wouldn't have known about the hidden martial world because of the heavenly law or would at least still remain confused about it.
He would have probably defeated the cultivator that attacked him if he had followed their suggestions but that would have only just made him outlier in this world. He would have been using a strange power in a world that seemed to work in some form of Wuxia logic.
"Well power is the obvious choice for now though" David noted as he stared out the window.
He had information through Nous and a host of other capabilities so this was the best time to also boost his personal power but he had to be careful not to overdo it. A carefully curated power is better than being generically overpowered.
It wasn't long before the car arrived back at the Airbnb as David came down and almost immediately matched into the study in the building. The room was filled with all sorts of books, many authorless as they had been written by Nous and papers filled with scribbling were everywhere.
Looking at the mess it was obvious that the study was constantly in use and David habitually ignored all of the mess as he found his way to the desk. Picking up the journal that was still had followed him for so long as he immediately began to look through it.
"That's true, Nous, you once mentioned an additional server for public facing activities, does that still stand" David asked
[That suggestion was a gross understatement of my ability sir, rather focus on yourself as anything that can improve your personal power at the moment would be more suitable at the moment] Nous replied
"You think so too, huh" David said as he stared at the shelf before him, lost in thought.
He was back to square one again with the issue that he was initially facing, he had too many ideas that none of them seemed viable for the position of best option. As many of the comments online had suggested, he could just edit a pill to grant him powers.
Or he could edit water into a serum that would make him into a Kryptonian or whatever he wanted or a pill into some sort of once in a thousand year elixir that boosted talent and granted a thousand years of cultivation.
These were all options but the flaws were also very obvious. Most made him non-human which was already out of the window. The others would be impossible to control, where does he start to control a thousand, not even a hundred years of cultivation when he barely even had a year's worth.
Giving himself powers too were great but then it pushes him into a position where the world is essentially cardboard… true power isn't just having power, it's in knowing how well to use that power.
Like in the same way he knew that any one of the above edits would probably kill him directly. His life span was still limited after all, [Lifebringer] was an ability that refilled vitality, it did not grant endless vitality.
"Wait, what about just creating a pendent that makes me invulnerable to attacks… it solves all my problems"
[Sir, they could still starve you to death or go after your loved one… the means to kill you are endless] Nous immediately countered
"Its a stupid idea huh" David noted as he returned back to the drawing board in his mind
David spent the next few hours pondering before finding himself doomscrolling on social media as his brain got tired of the brain storming. He didn't know if it was because he was the founder of nous studios or because he was using a company account to scroll.
He found his entire feed full of things related to Renovatio, from developers who were constantly talking about how much revolutionary technology was involved in the game to gaming influencers who had already found their niche content within the game.
There were gamers who were still trying to speed run the game but Nous only confirmed that they were barely 50% through and David gladly informed them of so because he enjoyed seeing the speedrunner nearly break down when told that the game they had spent weeks one still had way more content for them to run through.
On another side were the 'did you know' content creators who went on and on about how detailed the game was. This also spawned him into a new set of players who were doing their best to piece together the lore of the game. This was the most expansive group he found as they dragged him out of Tiktok to reddit to even discord. People were piecing together histories to these alternate nations.
However the greatest effect he saw was its effect on people's life, a tiktoker had tagged the account on a video of how her posts on fashion designing using the game had actually drawn the attention of a fashion house. Another person said that they dug at a particular depth in a specific place and found it in game, so did the same thing in real life and found the same ancient thing.
The last part nearly gave him a heat attack but Nous confirmed it to be a coincidence. The community around the game was expanding dramatically and in a good way because he saw more people purchase the game despite the fact that he offered a free version though with lesser content than the original.