GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 53: []The Golden Pedestal, Praise Kill of the Elites

Chapter 53: [53]The Golden Pedestal, Praise Kill of the Elites

Humanity had a remarkable talent for adapting to the apocalypse. But they had an even greater talent for political sabotage!

Three days had passed since Vahn Ryker forcefully conquered the mana well and the gold spire.

The White City was currently thriving. Hana had established a perfect rationing system. She used the infinite water supply to cultivate hydroponic gardens right inside the lobbies of the corporate skyscrapers.

Aria and her medical corps had completely wiped out the lingering abyssal sickness.

But as the physical survival of the refugees stabilized, the social dynamics rapidly deteriorated.

Vahn stood on the elevated balcony of the Sovereign Bank and leaned against the glass railing. He watched the central plaza below him.

A massive crowd had gathered in the area. They completely surrounded a makeshift stage constructed from wooden crates.

Standing right on the stage was Director Vance, the former commander of the Global Defense Coalition. He was flanked by several other displaced guild leaders.

They had dropped their weapons and surrendered their armor just as Vahn demanded. But they had not surrendered their ambition!

"Look at the bounty we have been given!" Director Vance shouted. His voice boomed across the plaza as he used a stolen megaphone.

He gestured dramatically toward the bank where Vahn stood.

"We owe our lives to the Divine Administrator! He is not just a player. He is a god walking among us! With a flick of his wrist, he shattered a Level 50 Enforcer. With a single thought, he pulled gold from the barren earth!"

The crowd immediately cheered. It was a wave of genuine and desperate adoration.

Vahn didn’t smile at all. His deep purple eyes tracked the subtle movements of Vance’s lackeys moving through the crowd. They were whispering to the civilians.

"They are praising you," Aria said. She stepped onto the balcony and handed Vahn a datapad containing the morning medical logs.

She looked down at the cheering crowd with a deep frown on her face. "So why does it feel like a trap?"

"Because it is a trap, Aria," Vahn replied softly. His voice had no anger and he merely stated a factual point. "It is a textbook political maneuver. It is called a Praise Kill."

Aria tilted her head in confusion. Her emerald eyes blinked. "I don’t understand. They are publicly validating your authority."

"They are publicly declaring me omnipotent," Vahn corrected her and turned to look at her face. He leaned his hip against the railing.

"If I am a god, then I am entirely responsible for every single hardship they face. If someone goes hungry, it is my fault because I can create food out of thin air. If someone gets hurt, it is my failure because I am invincible."

Vahn paused as he glanced at the politician below.

"They are building a golden pedestal so high that when I inevitably fail to meet an impossible expectation, the fall will shatter my authority completely."

Aria gasped as the wicked nature of the plot clicked in her mind. She looked back down at Director Vance. Her hands gripped the balcony railing until her knuckles turned white.

"They want the civilians to rebel against you! They want to incite a riot so they can step in as the reasonable alternative."

"Precisely," Vahn nodded his head. He was completely unbothered. "It is a highly inefficient strategy. It relies entirely on the assumption that I care about their political opinions."

Down in the plaza, Vance raised his hands and silenced the crowd.

"And because our Divine Administrator is so powerful, we should not have to toil in the hydroponic gardens! We should not have to ration our supplies! The God King can simply snap his fingers and provide feasts for us all! Why does he hide his miracles behind closed doors?!"

A murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd. The seeds of entitlement were taking root rapidly.

The refugees were traumatized and exhausted. They were eager to embrace a reality where they didn’t have to struggle anymore.

Before Vance could continue his speech, the localized alarms of the White City blared to life!

The harsh red light of the perimeter sensors bathed the marble streets in a warning glow.

"Commander," Sia Vance spoke over Vahn’s internal comms. "We have a massive hostile convergence at the northern boundary. A horde of Level 30 Ash Crawlers are attacking us. They are highly aggressive swarm anomalies. They are numbering in the thousands and are drawn by the density of the population."

"Understood, Sia. Hold your position." Vahn said quietly.

Down in the plaza, panic instantly replaced the entitlement. The civilians screamed out loud.

They looked toward the northern edge of the shimmering dome where a sea of horrific shadow monsters was actively throwing itself against the barrier. The hexagonal grid hissed and sparked under the sheer volume of the assault.

Director Vance immediately seized the moment. He pointed a dramatic finger up at Vahn on the balcony.

"Fear not, citizens! The Divine Administrator will protect us! He will step outside and annihilate the swarm with a single thought! Show us your divine power, Lord Ryker!"

The entire crowd looked up at Vahn. Their eyes were wide with desperate expectation. They waited for their god to descend and save them.

Vahn looked down at the politician. A cold and terrifying smile broke across his face.

He didn’t jump down. He didn’t draw his sword. He simply placed his hand against the glass railing and tapped into the architectural code of the Chronos Hourglass.

’System,’ Vahn commanded in his mind.

[System Command]

↳ Target: Northern Barrier Sector

↳ Action: Initiate localized permeability

↳ Target vector: The central plaza

[Ding! Modifying barrier parameters.]

The northern wall of the glowing dome flickered and vanished!

The horde of thousands of Ash Crawlers shrieked in absolute frenzy. They poured through the breach like a tidal wave of venom and rushed straight down the main avenue toward the gathered crowd.

"What is he doing?!" Vance screamed. His arrogant face shattered into pure terror as the monsters closed the distance. "He dropped the shield! He is killing us!"

Vahn’s voice boomed over the plaza. It was perfectly amplified by the localized engine and cut through the panic like a sharp blade.

"I am the System Administrator," Vahn declared. His deep purple eyes glowed with brilliant azure circuits. "I am not your babysitter. I secured this sanctuary so that humanity could rebuild, not so you could sit in the dirt and demand miracles. You want to survive the Convergence? Pick up a weapon."

The civilians scrambled backward in terror.

But the former elite soldiers who had spent the last three days complaining about rations suddenly found themselves standing on the frontline of an invasion.

"Fight them!" Vance shrieked loudly. He desperately grabbed a discarded iron pipe from the ground. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The former elites had no choice. They had no armor, no system cheats, and no escape routes. They were forced to fight the Ash Crawlers hand to hand.

They used the scrap metal and broken shields Vahn had purposely left scattered around the plaza. It was a brutal and highly disorganized skirmish.

Vahn watched from the balcony and took a sip of his coffee.

"You are entirely ruthless," Aria whispered. There was no condemnation in her voice. She watched as the elites were forced to bleed to protect the very civilians they had been trying to manipulate.

"I am teaching them a fundamental law of physics, Aria," Vahn replied softly. "Gravity applies to everyone equally. Even politicians."

It took twenty minutes, but the terrified efforts of the former soldiers eventually reduced the swarm to pixels. The elites collapsed to the marble floor. They gasped for air and were covered in cuts and bruises.

The civilians looked at the exhausted men and then looked up at Vahn.

The illusion of the golden pedestal was completely shattered. They realized that survival in the White City required collective effort and not blind worship.

Vahn snapped his fingers and resealed the northern barrier. He turned away from the balcony, leaving the broken elites to contemplate their new reality.

The Praise Kill had failed. The Architect remained absolute.