"Go on. Absorb it. Once you do, you'll be complete," Lucius said calmly.
"Hoopa~" Hoopa gulped nervously, floating toward the fallen giant who now lay motionless after a single devastating blow.
The giant's body dissolved into a swirl of bluish-purple mist, which surged into Hoopa's body. Almost immediately, Hoopa's expression contorted in pain.
Waves of violet-blue light rippled around him as his small frame rapidly expanded, transforming into his true colossal form.
At that moment, Lucius's system interface lit up with a flurry of notifications:
[Congratulations! Due to achieving 100% control over this world, the title Planetary Ruler has been automatically activated.]
[Congratulations! As you have now activated a second Planetary Ruler title, the system has automatically merged them into the higher-tier title Planetary Overlord, in accordance with system protocols.]
[Congratulations! With the activation of the Planetary Overlord title, you have now joined the Celestial Council.]
...
Welcome, Planetary Overlord. You are now a member of the Celestial Council, an alliance formed by the rulers of many universes to ensure mutual benefit and cooperation.
Within this council, origin, race, and world of birth do not matter. All who abide by the Charter and uphold order are welcome to participate in our systems.
But above all, your own power is paramount.
We hope you will soon reach the pinnacle of eternity.
—The Celestial Council
...
[In accordance with Council regulations, initializing world data digitization…]
[1%, 2%…]
[99%, 100%. Digitization complete.]
[Please confirm:]
[Do you wish to open this world to the Celestial Council?]
[Yes / No]
The flood of information left Lucius momentarily overwhelmed.
"Open the world?" he murmured, skipping over the other details and zeroing in on the final question. Last time, he'd hesitated too long, and the system had made a decision on his behalf. Had he accepted the "Parallel World Convergence" mission earlier, he might already have three Tier-2 planetary territories by now.
The system responded immediately:
[Opening the world allows beings from other planets or dimensions to enter, subject to certain rules. In turn, natives of your world may access others through approved means. External lifeforms will be restricted by this world's governing laws.]
[Choosing not to open the world means no outsider can enter without smuggling or being summoned by other high-level powers. Similarly, any being below the level of True Deity within your world cannot freely leave.]
So that's what it meant.
It really was a choice between isolationism and open borders.
And truth be told, isolation isn't always a bad thing, it depends on context. But for Lucius right now, opening the world held tangible benefits.
"System," he asked, "can I choose to open just one planet instead of the entire world?"
[Yes. Planetary Overlords may decide how many planets to open.]
"Good. Then open the Leviathan Federation Planet."
[Uploading Leviathan Federation Planet data…]
[1%, 2%…]
[99%, 100%. Upload complete. The Leviathan Federation Planet is now an Open Planet.]
As the system notifications rolled out, Lucius could sense the shift immediately.
It wasn't a change in the planet's natural environment. Rather, the space itself felt looser, as if unseen forces had started to reshape the very laws of reality. Rule-based energies had begun to subtly shift.
When he looked at the planet now, in addition to its base classification as a Tier-2 world, a host of new data markers appeared on everything, things he'd never seen before.
He glanced at the Prison Bottle in his hand. A faint new label shimmered into view:
...
Prison Bottle
Type: B-Class Sealing Artifact
Effect: A-Class seal effect against Ghost-type beings and psychic energy.
...
So this was what they meant by "datafication."
Even this artifact, forged from Arceus's power, was only rated B-Class?
Returning his consciousness to his mental realm, Lucius was surprised to find that the once vast Hive Mind had seemingly shrunk.
The massive gene archive, once filled with genetic data from hundreds of billions of infected lifeforms, had been drastically consolidated.
Previously, each individual infected being occupied a unique slot. For instance, 3 billion humans meant 3 billion separate entries; hundreds of billions of Pokémon, likewise.
Now, thanks to data integration, duplicates had been merged into archetypes.
Take Dragonite, for example. Lucius had infected thousands, each had its own slot before. Now there was just one, containing all infected Dragonite genomes, as well as a composite, optimized genetic blueprint representing the "best possible" Dragonite strain.
Of course, Lucius retained full access to manipulate and experiment within any slot, tweaking, mutating, or creating entirely new forms at will.
Such was the privilege of being a World Will.
Even after data compression, the Hive still contained nearly ten million distinct species.
Roughly 7–8 million came from the Imperial and Federation planets, plus a few parallel future worlds. Over a million were hybrid creations, new lifeforms Lucius had engineered by splicing viral strains into existing species.
Naturally, he hadn't manifested all of them in the real world. Many were far too disruptive to Pokémon ecosystem balance.
He turned his focus toward the grid slots. Wherever he focused, the system now overlaid detailed data.
One slot showed a Victreebel, and the info popped up instantly:
...
Toxic Vine Victreebel
A fusion of the Pokémon world's Victreebel with a Progenitor Virus strain from the Resident Evil dimension.
Type: Grass + Poison + Virus
Boasts regenerative capability and toxicity far beyond standard Victreebel.
Weakness: Fire
Rating: D-Class
...
The system was impressively adaptive, adjusting its presentation based on Lucius's cognitive framework, using ABCD ratings for clarity and familiarity.
He then shifted his attention to the high-end combatants of the world: the mythical Pokémon.
...
Ho-Oh
Species: Ho-Oh (Pokémon World)
Type: Fire + Flying
A Legendary Pokémon born of primordial world energy.
Rating: A-Class
...
Then he pulled up one of the infected, mutated variants.
...
Black Ho-Oh
A fusion of Ho-Oh with the Leviathan Virus from the Virus System.
Type: Fire + Flying + Virus
Its once-holy essence has turned to corruption. Power has greatly increased.
Rating: A+
...
So the Leviathan Virus had actually upgraded Ho-Oh's overall rating.
Lucius scanned the other mythicals. Only Kyurem in its primal form and Eternatus naturally rated as A+. Others, like Rayquaza, Kyogre, Zamazenta, and even Hoopa, were baseline A-Class.
And Arceus?
...
Arceus
Species Rating: S-Class
...
Among the nearly ten million species in Lucius's Hive, only Arceus and one other randomly-generated lifeform held S-Class status.
And that was enough to remind Lucius why the divine gene was so coveted.
-------
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my Patreon ——— patreon(.)com/Madbot635 [remove the parentheses ( )]