Two weeks had passed since the launch of the VayneCom, and the Empire had changed more in fourteen days than it had in fourteen centuries.
It was an addiction.
In the tea parlors of the capital, noblewomen no longer gossiped behind fans; they stared at their black glass slabs, scrolling through the latest updates from the Royal Court. In the market squares, merchants didn't shout prices; they checked the global commodities ticker, buying grain from the South before the farmers even harvested it.
The "Information Age" had hit a medieval society like a runaway steam train.
I sat in my office in Vayne City, watching the world turn blue.
A massive holographic map hovered over my desk. Every blue dot represented an active VayneCom user. The capital was a solid cluster of light. The trade routes were glowing arteries. Even the remote northern forts were blinking online.
"Coverage is at 94%," I noted, sipping my coffee. "Revenue is exceeding projections by 300%."
Seraphina didn't smile. She stood by the window, her arms crossed, looking at a specific sector of the map that wasn't blue.
"We have a blind spot, Boss," she said, her voice tight. "The signal dies the moment it hits the coastline. And we've lost contact with Port Royal."
I zoomed in on the map.
The entire western coast—the Empire's primary naval hub—was a jagged line where the blue lights stopped dead. Beyond it, the ocean wasn't just dark; it was a static-filled void that distorted the hologram.
"Interference?" I asked.
"No," Seraphina said grimly. "Something is eating the signal."
Sector: Port Royal (Imperial Naval Base) Source: Vayne Corp Security Drone #44-Alpha
I took manual control of a surveillance drone stationed at the docks. The feed flickered onto my main screen.
Port Royal was silent. The usual bustle of sailors and cargo cranes was gone. A thick, unnatural fog hung over the water, smelling of brine and ozone.
Emerging from the fog, drifting silently without sails or steam, was a massive ship.
The Iron Leviathan. The pride of the Imperial Navy. A dreadnought built to hunt krakens.
"It's running dark," I muttered, piloting the drone closer. "No engines. No mana signature."
As the drone buzzed over the deck, the high-definition camera adjusted its focus.
I recoiled slightly. Seraphina covered her mouth.
The ship wasn't empty. The crew was there.
But they weren't manning the stations. They were the stations.
Hundreds of sailors were fused to the steel hull. Their skin had turned into grey, calcified coral that merged seamlessly with the metal deck. Their mouths were open in silent screams, but their eyes were gone, replaced by glowing clusters of blue barnacles.
It was a masterpiece of body horror.
"Are they... dead?" Seraphina whispered.
"No," I said, pointing to a thermal reading. "Their hearts are still beating. The ship is using them as biological batteries."
The drone microphone picked up a sound. It wasn't the wind. It was a low, rhythmic thrumming vibration coming from the ship's hull.
Thrum... Thrum... Thrum...
I recognized the frequency instantly. It was the VayneCom Carrier Wave. But it was distorted, slowed down, and twisted into something that sounded like a heartbeat.
I flew the drone into the wheelhouse.
The Captain was there. He was fused to the helm, his hands melted into the wood, his spine merged with the chair.
He lifted his head. His face was half-covered in wet, black moss.
He looked directly at the drone lens.
"The noise..." the Captain rasped. His voice sounded wet, like his lungs were full of seawater.
"The noise... it travels through the water... it wakes the deep..."
The Captain's head twitched violently.
"It hurts Him... He is coming... to silence the land."
BOOM.
The water in the harbor exploded.
A tentacle the size of a skyscraper—made not of flesh, but of translucent, solidified void-water—rose from the depths. It slammed down on the Iron Leviathan.
Metal screamed. The fused sailors wailed in unison.
The massive dreadnought was crushed like a tin can and dragged beneath the surface in seconds.
The drone feed turned to static as a wave of psychic feedback shrieked through the network.
[ System Warning: Third Calamity Aggro +100%. ]
[ Global Connectivity Penalty: Awakened Early. ]
Location: Vayne City Penthouse
I cut the feed before the feedback could fry my console.
The office was silent. The holographic map flickered, the black void at the coastline seeming to grow a few inches inland.
"The diagnosis is simple," I said, leaning back in my chair. "The VayneCom signal waves penetrate water. We effectively just turned on a megaphone in a sleeping god's bedroom."
I looked at the System Alert that was still blinking in my peripheral vision.
[ Entity: The Leviathan of the Deep (3rd Calamity) ]
[ Status: Awake and Irritated. ]
"It hates the frequency," Seraphina realized. "The connectivity... it's physically painful to creatures of the Void."
She looked at me, panic flaring in her eyes.
"Lucas, we have to shut it down. If we turn off the network, the noise stops. Maybe it will go back to sleep."
I looked at the revenue ticker on the wall. It was counting gold by the second.
"Shut down the network?" I repeated. "And lose 40% of our quarterly revenue? Disrupt the supply chains? Look weak in front of the Emperor?"
I shook my head slowly.
"No. We don't turn off the noise."
I stood up and walked to the window, looking out at my glowing, industrial city.
"If the neighbor complains about the music," I said coldly, "we don't turn down the volume."
I turned back to her, my eyes glowing with the power of the Void Heart.
"We kill the neighbor."
[ System Notification: Quest Started. ]
[ Quest: The War for the Sea. ]
[ Objective: Slay the Leviathan of the Deep. ]
[ Reward: Aquatic Dominion (Control over the Oceans). ]
"Prepare the fleet, Seraphina," I ordered. "And tell Brok to load the depth charges. We're going fishing."
Seraphina stared at the static map, the glowing blue lights reflecting in her eyes like dying stars. Her voice was barely a whisper.
"We built the future," she said softly. "And it answered back."