Chapter 152 Maxima Overdrive System

Dirty tactics aside, the Emperor successfully secured his spot on the presidential ticket. To secure the popular vote, he needed a monumental political stunt.

The universe quickly provided one.

Over in Sector R27 in East Asia, GUTS encountered a creature from sub-space: the Demon God Enomena.

This particular kaiju could emit a specialized purple electromagnetic wave from the horns on its shoulders. The radiation forced the human brain to overproduce fear hormones, driving people into a rabid frenzy where they completely lost their minds and violently attacked one another.

Worse, it could freely slip between reality and sub-space, essentially granting it the power to teleport and dodge incoming fire at will.

Enomena’s sole mission on Earth was to hunt down a tiny monster named Deban—the only creature capable of neutralizing the Demon God’s mind-breaking waves.

Deban belonged to an incredibly docile, non-violent species with zero offensive capabilities. Their only unique trait was the ability to emit a golden electromagnetic wave from their horns that perfectly canceled out Enomena’s fear-inducing radiation. Because of this, Enomena’s faction had ruthlessly slaughtered Deban’s entire race, leaving only a scattered handful of survivors hiding across different worlds.

When GUTS brought Deban back to TPC Headquarters, Dr. Tango, the head of biological sciences, immediately tried to lock the little guy up as a lab rat.

The moment the Emperor caught wind of this, he stepped in. He invited Deban’s traveling circus to one of his rallies and brought the little monster right up on stage with him.

“Look closely, my fellow citizens!” the Emperor boomed into the microphone. “Humanity is not the only victim of cosmic tyranny. Even this innocent, gentle little creature is being ruthlessly persecuted!”

“Mankind must unite—not just for our own survival, but to become a shield for the innocent souls of this galaxy!”

“Stand with me! Together, we will forge a beautiful universe where all righteous beings can thrive in peace!”

Right in the middle of his speech, Enomena crashed the rally. The Demon God unleashed its purple waves, sending the massive crowd into a violent panic.

Unable to watch the people suffer, little Deban bravely fired off his golden electromagnetic wave, washing over the crowd and neutralizing their terror.

Spotting its prey, Enomena immediately locked on, determined to wipe out the tiny threat once and for all. It unleashed a barrage of high-yield blue energy blasts from its head, carpeting the stage in a series of violent explosions.

“For humanity! For every innocent soul in the cosmos!” The Emperor roared heroically, diving across the stage to physically shield Deban.

Lurking in the shadows, Keigo Masaki seized his cue. He transformed into Ultraman Lux, throwing up an energy barrier to tank the Demon God’s barrage.

GUTS arrived on the scene seconds later, opening fire on the monster. Daigo took the opportunity to transform into Ultraman Tiga, teaming up with Lux to jump the Demon God.

Enomena didn’t stand a chance against a two-on-one Ultraman beatdown. The poor monster was battered so hard it started questioning its life choices. It couldn’t even manage to teleport back into sub-space before being completely obliterated.

“Witness the vile corruption that plagues our reality!” the Emperor shouted, carrying little Deban atop the smoking ruins of the podium as news cameras furiously flashed. “These monsters won’t even tolerate a harmless child!”

“If mankind does not stand up, who will defend this universe? Who will protect our hard-won peace?!”

“We must unite! For ourselves, and for every innocent life facing the cosmic slaughterhouse!”

It was an absolute PR masterclass. Not only did his existing base double down on their loyalty, but the moderate voters who were previously terrified of his radical Globalist agenda started flocking to his banner.

After that stunt, the Emperor’s poll numbers skyrocketed, leaving his rivals completely in the dust. If a harmless, sweet little monster could be hunted to extinction, who was to say humanity wouldn’t be next?

But the final nail in the coffin that secured the Emperor an undisputed victory was a scandal that set the entire planet’s blood boiling.

The sadistic Alien Muzan had turned Earth into their personal safari, using innocent refugees from other planets as live game. An alien couple, Rucia and Zara, had been dumped on Earth as prey while Muzan hunted them.

Vane personally led the newly minted Earth Defense Force to crush the Alien Muzan and rescue the couple. When the story broke and the traumatized alien lovers were presented to the public, absolute outrage consumed the globe.

It was a brutal wake-up call. The universe wasn’t a utopian garden; it was a dark, hyper-lethal hunting ground. If humanity didn’t arm itself, they were going to end up exactly like Deban or the hunted couple—slaughtered for sport.

Riding the tidal wave of public fury, the Emperor swept the election and became the President of the Earth Federation.

His very first executive order was formally establishing the Space Garrison and rapidly expanding the Earth Defense Force’s military capabilities. Massive funding was funneled into critical black-book projects. Even Dr. Yao’s experimental Maxima Overdrive System was greenlit as a top-priority initiative.

The Maxima Overdrive was essentially a proton-antiproton annihilation engine. By colliding matter and antimatter, it generated catastrophic amounts of energy, radiating it out as photons to produce absurd levels of thrust. It was the holy grail of propulsion. With this tech, humanity could rapidly transition into an interstellar civilization, easily colonizing the Moon and Mars.

Meanwhile, the second the Emperor was sworn in, Vane’s system chimed with a completion notification.

[Quest: Campaign Manager for the God-Emperor. (Completed)

Rewards: Storm’s Tooth Bolter x1, Skill Book: Shadow Clone, Godzilla (Earth Form) Template, +1500 EMC Points, Campaign Progress +1%, Morphing Wand x1, Storm Wand x1, Mana Wand x1, Title: Puppet Master of the Shadow Government.]

Vane skimmed the loot table, finding most of it fairly standard. The only thing that really caught his eye was the Morphing Wand.

It was a neat little toy ripped straight from the Eldritch Sorcery mod. Smack a mob with it, and it saves their form. Fire it off later, and you can forcibly transform other things into whatever you hit. A highly entertaining utility item.

—

Earth Federation Headquarters.

On literally the second day of the Emperor’s presidency, a crisis erupted.

While GUTS was running field tests on the new Maxima Overdrive System, a bizarre Mechanical Island suddenly warped into Earth’s orbit, immediately deploying a massive swarm of combat robots onto the planet.

Yazumi, the resident tech genius of GUTS, managed to rig a specialized comms unit to interface with the machines.

The robots coldly identified themselves as a galactic security failsafe. Their sole prime directive was to purge any civilization that successfully developed the Maxima Overdrive. According to their programming, the technology was classified as a “forbidden power” that posed a direct threat to the universe.

GUTS and the newly formed Earth Defense Force easily swatted the initial wave of drones. But things took a wild turn when the destroyed robots began bizarrely melting together, fusing into a single colossal super-mech that immediately launched a direct assault on TPC Headquarters.

When the Emperor got the briefing, he was completely over it. He immediately ordered Keigo Masaki to scramble the Space Garrison and launch a full-scale assault on the Mechanical Island.

—

OR