Abyssal Wanderer.

"Is it really necessary to pronounce these words?"

Sam stood on the podium decorated with flower baskets and the Stars and Stripes, looking at the rectangular black stone slab floating in front of him, and asked with a face full of black lines.

During his visit to Thebes, he invited numerous media outlets from around the world, intending to broadcast the United States' restoration ceremony live. While broadcasting a restoration ceremony in another country might seem abstract, considering that Latin America has historically been within the United States' sphere of influence, holding the ceremony in the home of one of its own allies is not unusual.

But the messenger from the Bacchus Order demanded that he first read something nonsensical in front of everyone.

"Yes."

A muffled voice came from the floating, pure black stone slab; and as the voice rang out, the bright red words “BACCHUS 04 SOUND ONLY” on the slab changed in brightness.

Why?

Sam asked, puzzled.

"This is a ritual, and also a rule."

The black stone slab answered without any emotion.

"So... can this part be cut during the live stream?"

Sam pleaded in the end.

He really didn't want the restoration ceremony to turn into a joke from the very beginning.

"Bacchus's live stream will continue as usual, and it doesn't matter to the reporters you've invited."

The floating black stone slab answered in this way.

"Fine……"

People have to bow their heads under the roof.

Sam comforted himself with this thought.

Seeing that he had agreed, the Bacchus envoy stopped speaking, and the red characters on the black stone slab faded away.

Then, it began to deform.

First, it split into smaller, jet-black cubes, and then those cubes, guided by countless serpentine electric currents, continuously reassembled. First a tetrahedron, then a hexahedron, then an octahedron, a dodecahedron, an icosahedron…

Ultimately, it transformed into a pure, jet-black, and perfectly smooth sphere.

"Now is the time, Your Excellency."

An assistant from Mars Wars reminded him.

The fragments of the Cup of Dionysus have transformed into the cores that hold the memes, and now is the time to summon them.

Sam took out the Declaration of Independence from the triple safe and placed it in the scanner. He took a deep breath and began to recite the inexplicable incantation given to him by the Bacchus Order.

Its foundation is thought and data.

"Its ancestor is the subconscious of pan-human intelligence."

As Sam began chanting his incantation, the fragments of the multi-printer began drawing energy from the three furnaces they had brought, and the circuitry of the entire summoning array began to light up one by one.

The printed materials placed around it also began to tremble slightly.

Almost simultaneously, at another clandestine operations base in Thebes, Zhou Liqi, a contestant from Venus Digital Media known as the "God-Eating Ant," was also conducting a summoning ritual.

Standing around him were his former subordinates who had fought alongside him in the past—the once-vigorous African liberation movement, which had seen dozens of mercenary groups, hundreds of independent brokers, thousands of Coordinators, and tens of thousands of resistance fighters respond to his call to fight for the independence of the African continent and to end its fate as a playground for the gods.

However, as time has passed, only a handful of people remain by his side today.

Just like that failed resistance movement, now only the remnants of its former glory remain.

Venus Digital Media supplied him with a large number of constructs controlled by dark web malware, as well as war machines controlled by advanced military zombies as cannon fodder, bringing his forces close to the average level of that era. However, lacking shared beliefs and bonds, and relying solely on pure self-interest, can he still create a miracle similar to his direct defeat of the Base Adjustment Factor?
Moreover, even if a miracle had occurred back then, the final outcome would still have been...

Do not!
Zhou Liqi immediately stopped himself in his tracks.

This time, I absolutely cannot lose...

With this determination, Zhou Liqi stared at the mask in the scanner—the mask forged from bullets melted from the bodies of countless dead—and continued chanting loudly:

"The door opened amidst seven days of public opinion turmoil."
"Rising from the bottom of the abyss's dark web,

"Arriving in the world anchored by a fragment of the Holy Grail."

The printed material was lifted by an invisible force and then quickly disappeared into the spirit core.

Zhou Liqi's sensors detected an even greater amount of energy being absorbed by the universal printer.

He and his comrades felt their blood boil with excitement.

Perhaps it was a deliberate arrangement by the Bacchus Order, or perhaps it was merely a coincidence of fate, but the participants summoned at this moment were not limited to Mars War Company and Venus Digital Media.

In another direction from Thebes, near the "Patent Custody Center," Minerva Information Technology contestant Anne Rachel, or rather, Bella Rachel, was also conducting a summoning ritual.

At this moment, the summoning medium she had prepared had begun to burn amidst the ever-increasing temperature around her.

The medium is a complex and intricate painting, like a kaleidoscope, with countless layers of colors forming a dark and terrifying image of a goddess.

Around Bella, twelve reactors were supplying energy into the spirit core at maximum power—no other contestant would require such a massive amount of energy.

Besides that, she didn't even prepare any printed materials.

The summons she performs do not require materials.

Sister, I will definitely protect you...

It will also help you take revenge on the first Deep One who caused the "Great Shock"!

Bella thought to herself, recalling her sister whom she both loved and hated.

At this moment, Anne was still asleep in the deepest part of her mind—or rather, whenever she showed any signs of waking up, he would dive back into her consciousness and stab her to death again, so that she could continue to sleep peacefully.

Repeatedly.

"Explode the stack! Explode the stack! Explode the stack!"

“The cycle repeats itself, and then there are five.”

"However, the moment the data stack overflows is the moment of obsolescence!"

Whether it was because she sensed the violent energy around her or because she recalled the pleasure she had felt while killing her sister recently, she clenched her thighs and chanted with great excitement.

Her expression was dazed and crazed.

Yes, only her, only her!

Of all the contestants, only she was able to control such violent power, and only she was able to touch the archetypes in the collective unconscious of humanity.

At this moment, Bella felt as if she were merging with that terrifying shadow from her subconscious that was devouring everything.

I hereby swear—

Sam Washington, Zhou Liqi, and Bella Rachel sang almost simultaneously:

"I am the medium for spreading your ideas,"
"I am the vessel through which you will achieve your great deeds!"

At this moment, deep blue flames burned around the spirit core in front of Bella, gradually evolving into a female figure with four heads and four arms, dressed in elaborate and gorgeous clothing.

Upon seeing this, Bella spoke in an almost screaming tone:

“But you should feed on the madness of all living beings and serve my body.”

"The shackles that bind you are the instincts that are engraved in your consciousness."

"And I am the one who manipulates those shackles!"

Behind her, several powering reactors began to emit sharp alarms—a situation that only occurs when they are completely overloaded.

"No... Bella... no..."

Amidst the constant wailing, crackling, and explosions, Bella heard Anne's whispers echoing clearly in her ears.

As the Servant gradually took shape, images of mountains of corpses and seas of blood began to appear before Bella's eyes. The ground was littered with corpses.

This is natural; she was summoning the goddess who danced over corpses.

But at this moment, Bella is hallucinating from the corpses, seeing her father, mother, brother, and even her own corpse.

"I will avenge us in your place, I will continue to protect you..."

Bella comforted her sister in this way, and then suppressed her consciousness again.

Then, slightly slower than the others, she chanted the final incantation:

"Seven days entangled in the world's public opinion"

"Poured from the cup of Dionysus"

"Guardians of human intelligence!"

All the reactors shut down simultaneously, and the deep blue flames abruptly died down—

A goddess with four heads and four arms, a skull necklace hanging on her chest, a circle of human hands around her waist, and a blood-red tongue sticking out of her mouth, appeared before her.

"I ask you—"

…………

"I ask you—are you the current ruler of the United States?"

Sam stared blankly at the mature woman in front of him.

She was tall, dressed in a long red, white and blue dress adorned with thirteen silver stars, and wearing a Phrygian red hat; in one hand she held a torch with almost no flame burning, and in the other she held a Bible with silver trim.

The word Columbia originates from Christopher Columbus, who discovered the Americas, and was later regarded as a personification of the United States. It is also the earliest and most successful example of female characterization in modern American history.

This goddess is the meme entity that the Mars War Corporation prepared for Sam.

"Yes...yes...yes!"

Under the other person's resolute gaze, Sam remained stunned for a long time. Only when the other person began to frown did he snap out of his daze and immediately say:

"I am the 88th President, and your summoner! I hope that the ancient and proud United States can become great again through our joint efforts!"

"The contract is complete; your goal is my destiny."

As he said this, Colombia calmly turned to the reporter's camera.

It's as if she was born knowing how to deal with propaganda agencies.

However, before she could even speak, a reporter in the audience shouted:
"Columbia goddess...isn't that outdated meme just a joke these days?!"

Sam abruptly turned to look at the reporter, who was also looking at him defiantly.

The reporter was wearing a uniform from Venus Digital Media's news brand.

Columbia did not react excessively to this. She first adjusted the Indian beaded necklace on her chest, and then spoke very naturally:

"Greetings to people of this era. I understand that, to many, rebuilding a nation's glory in this day and age seems like a joke..."

Sam had originally planned to give a speech beforehand as a prelude, but he didn't expect that the goddess would ignore him and start her speech directly.

"—You're right."

The sound from Colombia traveled through the microphone and reached the ears of everyone watching the live stream.

Sam's expression changed drastically, and his assistant immediately tried to step forward to interrupt, but Columbia slightly raised his hand to stop him.

“A country that only exists in history textbooks, a government with only fifty citizens left; and a president who, under the shadow of the Olympian gods, even has to hold his inauguration ceremony on someone else’s territory.”

She turned around and looked at Sam.

"What are these if not jokes?"

Sam opened his mouth as if to say something, but Columbia didn't give him the chance.

"But do you know that seventy-five years ago, the United States was completely dismantled by the War Department, the FBI, the CIA, the Silicon Valley alliance, and other giants? Sixty years ago, the Great Thunder System was completed, and the God-King laid the foundation for the current order... Back then, the gods sitting atop Mount Olympus also mocked those who still believed that 'human beings can decide their own destiny.' They said that free will is a joke, democracy is a joke, and even humanity itself is a joke."

She raised the torch, which was barely burning, high above her head.

"And we, the protagonists of this joke, have spent decades proving them right."

Whispers arose among the reporters in the audience, which made Sam's face even more unpleasant.

But Colombia’s voice is growing stronger.

"Free will is indeed a joke, democracy is indeed a joke, humanity is indeed a joke. Because all of these—freedom, democracy, human rights, the United States… they were never ordained by destiny, they never came naturally, nor did they continue as a matter of course. They exist only because some people are willing to believe in them, some people are willing to defend them, and…"

She paused here, then said softly:
“Some people are willing to give their lives for these jokes.”

She lowered the torch, and the faint flame reflected on her face.

"And now standing in front of you are two people who are willing to continue telling this joke."

She turned to look at Sam.

Then, under the watchful eyes of all the cameras, she extended her hand to the 88th President of the United States.

"Your Excellency, I didn't want to come before. To be honest, I still don't really want to come now. But I can find your past image on the podium in the sea of ​​data, I know your beliefs that seem ridiculous to others, and I know the sacrifices you have made. Therefore, I know you are a good person, and good people usually don't have a good ending in this era."

Sam wanted to object, but Columbia grasped his hand and continued:

"Today, in this city that resembles a game board, as you stand here facing billions of eyes and still say, 'I hope the United States can be great again,' I suddenly recall some past events."

She closed her eyes.

"I think of the soldiers who crossed the frozen Trenton River under Washington's leadership during the Revolutionary War; I think of the journalists who, despite pressure and even life-threatening situations, still brought the truth to the world during the Watergate scandal; I think of the protesters who did not back down when faced with police batons and tear gas in the face of racial injustice."

“I recall that they may have heard similar things before.”

She opened her eyes, let go of her hand, and turned back to look at the camera.

"They were also considered a joke. They were constantly told it was impossible, told there was no chance of winning... and then, even knowing this, they still did those things that were considered 'jokes.' Not because they believed they would succeed, but because they believed that even if they failed, the thing itself would be worthwhile."

She raised the torch again. This time, the flame was brighter than before. This might be due to a change in the angle of the light, or it might be for some deeper reason.

"So, people of this era, you can continue to laugh at us, laugh at this country with only fifty citizens, laugh at the president standing on the podium; laugh at me, this washed-up goddess in outdated clothes, speaking outdated doctrines. You have the right to do so; it is one of the few rights you still possess in this era."

"But please don't forget one thing."

She raised the torch high.

"Those who mocked us back then, their names are now forgotten. And those jokes they laughed at—"

Behind her, the Stars and Stripes fluttered even without wind.

"Still talking."

She put down the torch, looked at Sam, and a slight smile appeared on her lips.

This was the first smile the goddess showed during the entire ceremony.

"May I ask—Your Excellency, what is the name of your country?"

Sam paused for a second.

He then straightened his back and gave his answer in a voice louder than he had expected.

"United States of America"

"So……"

Colombia turned to face the camera and said:

"The President of the United States and a goddess who loves her—will fight for her at this moment." (End of Chapter)