Hate
Can a utopia be created by growing the economy, educating people, and building beautiful futuristic cities? The Earth Federation was educating people, increasing employment, distributing social security, improving healthcare, and so much more. But did that make the world better?
The answer could be seen by looking back just a few years. Even the wealthiest and most developed countries were not without their own problems. It is human nature to fight with others for just a bit more than you already have. And it is also very human to continue the cycle of hate and violence throughout generations.
The Jews were persecuted and scattered around the world for centuries until they became so rich that they were able to become the oppressors and start their own country. That hate hadn't gone away as it continued to fester.
The British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese were at the forefront of Europeans oppressing others for centuries through slavery and colonization. The effects of such a past were still affecting their colonies and the descendants of people they sold into slavery.
The Japanese in their heyday decided that all of Asia was theirs and invaded every piece of land around them including Korea, China, and Russia. Those countries were still asking for the Japanese people to apologize for the massacres and rapes from the past.
The entire continent of Africa has been continuously exploited ever since the Europeans found out that their weapons were better than the Africans'. Every other country with some power was still trying to take a piece out of resource-rich Africa to this day.
Even the mighty America, a symbol of progress and freedom was still finding it difficult to assimilate with the descendants of the slaves they used to own once. Not to mention the wars they waged worldwide while waving the flag of peace and cooperation.
In short, the world was a very fucked up place filled with as much hate, conflict, and differences as it had hope, love, and perseverance for the future.
The Earth Federation built large futuristic cities like a miracle within a year. However, the people who lived there were still the same people who had conflicts with others based on their race, nationality, ethnicity, social class, and so on.
"Why can't people stop fighting each other, Dad? The interstellar age is right before their eyes with infinite resources." Terra asked Savant in puzzlement.
Savant turned to his android daughter at the question filled with nuances. He had been taking a vacation and traveling around the world with his now wife Sage and his AI daughter Terra. Sage was working with the Earth Federation on many projects so she was usually busy. So Savant had been touring the new cities with Terra sometimes.
In their travels, they encountered many incredible things but what impacted Terra the most were the scenes of corrupt officials extorting powerless people, hate crimes, religious extremism, and blatant discrimination.
Terra was the AI created to watch over humanity and guide them in their interstellar future. She had already replaced most other AIs since Terra was the only AI that even Emperor Doom couldn't order around carelessly or ask to invade people's privacy.
Terra was always observing and watching over humans with almost no human involvement. The only human with the right to access Terra's system was Savant, who was semi-omnipotent.
Savant looked at the crimson sun setting on the beautiful Singaporean island. Although he wasn't looking for it, he could hear a rich guy verbally abusing his female house help because she refused his advances. And this was when he tuned out of his super senses.
But it was Terra's job to watch over people. She would probably be seeing millions of such scenes at all times. Maybe she could call for the authorities in extreme cases but she couldn't do anything beyond that.
"Humans learned to hate each other over many millennia. You have to give them time to unlearn that hate. And even then, humans will continue finding reasons to hate. You don't have to understand or fix them. You can try to educate them but that is all. Humanity isn't perfect and it's fine. Being perfect only means that there is no future for development."
Terra nodded while listening to her father's explanation. She was only beginning to understand what human emotions mean. She was still far from gaining a solid understanding.
A waiter approached the table the two were sitting at with some food interrupting their conversation. "Your crab curry and fried rice are here. We will bring out the other courses shortly."
....
In the one year since the invasion of the dimensional beings, not only was the construction sector booming but large companies and ultra-rich individuals were making their moves to open up new paths as well.
The land on the newly terraformed planet of Mars was being bought up in swathes by large corporations that wanted to build their cities and factory complexes. Speculators and investors were also joining in on the new gold rush happening on Mars.
In a surprise move, Elon Musk revealed that he had hired some former supervillains a year ago to work with him in his company SpaceX to start resource mining on asteroids and other planets. While the other companies were in their final phases to launch the project, Elon had already launched the mining equipment into space.
In a shocking press conference, Elon declared, "Our newest mining ship equipped with fusion reactors has successfully landed on the resource asteroid KLS-34b and is currently mining for rare Earth minerals. The live stream is up on our website for anyone interested to watch."
Observant reporters didn't fail to notice the two former villains, The Tinkerer and Robert Jenkins the former high-level scientist and executive at AIM standing behind Elon with the other scientists and researchers of the project.
One of the reporters asked about the villains in the Q&A, "Are the two people behind you also involved in this project? Did you hire them while knowing about their past?"
Elon smiled, "The EAS is recruiting former villains on masse. Why can't I? Also, these two are not employees but my new partners in the subsidiary company SpaceX Mining. They are currently on house arrest within this facility with the Federation officials constantly monitoring them to make sure they aren't up to no good."
This came as a surprise to the reporters. They were aware of what was going on in the EAS since the Federation had been open about even the killings of villains deemed unworthy of reformation. But they hadn't heard about companies being able to hire former villains.
When asked about it, Elon shrugged, "This is no different than hiring ex-convicts. Just because you label them as 'villains' doesn't change the laws. Hiring ex-convicts is still the same. I just had the foresight to hire some of the brilliant ones to make money for me instead of doing stupid things like making stupid suits to fight Stark."
No sooner had the news dropped, a storm raged on the internet with people debating ethics and morals. On the other hand, SpaceX shares were shooting through the roof. Other companies couldn't just be left behind in this situation either.
They began issuing press releases with the famous scientists, heroes, or villains they had hired for their projects along with expected completion dates.
The Saudi Prince Mohammad Bin Salman also posted a picture of the mining research in the lands he purchased on Mars. Continuing the Saudi luck of finding expensive resources under their lands, they found trace amounts of Vibranium during the research.
Scientists theorized that the Vibranium in Wakanda was part of a large asteroid that had broken up due to some kind of collision and scattered around the Solar System. This added fuel to the fire of the gold rush.
Tony Stark was going down on the list of the richest men on Earth with Stark Industries starting to fall behind other companies in market cap. That was until Tony Stark posted a picture of himself in the Iron Man suit, standing on an asteroid.
The next day, during the Earth Federation's economic event Doom was asked a question about the recent craze of the large corporations and rich individuals toward space.
"Companies that are currently attempting the mining of asteroids and Elon Musk who has recently succeeded in it will continue gaining wealth enough to individually explore new frontiers in Space. Maybe a new era of exploration like the one in the 16th and 17th centuries will begin. Are there any regulations planned for this situation?"
Doom shrugged, "Except for the basic safeguards and laws, we encourage the private organizations and individuals to go out and explore new frontiers. There are even tax benefits planned for this. As long as they subscribe to the laws of the Federation, we are in discussions to let people and corporations begin their own countries and kingdoms."
Loud gasps were heard from the attendees of the event. Many wealthy individuals, executives from large companies, and leaders of nations were in attendance. It was like Doom had declared that a new age of exploration had begun.
"Aren't you wary of history repeating itself? It was just a few centuries ago that we enslaved our own race to explore new lands and caused many atrocities." A reporter asked while frowning.
"You didn't seem to be listening to Doom's words. They have to follow the Federation laws no matter what corner of the universe they conquer. If not, they must have heard of the Alpha Legion. They should know best." Doom smirked.
People shivered when they heard about the Alpha Legion. Those lunatics were a symbol of hope when they were defending you but if they point their blasters and blades towards you, they were the worst nightmare. Recently, people had begun fearing the legion more than Doom due to their crazy antics being publicized after the war.
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Author again. What's up with Webnovel? Is it just me or everyone is having a problem with the website crashing? I even checked the news to see if China had begun invading Taiwan already.
Also, tell me more about what kind of fanfic you want me tow rite next.