“Father’s been asking why you’re just letting the Morgans control your actions when you could’ve asked him to stop it, or at least have it under control,” Rina asked Aron. They were together in one of his VR mansions, where they spent most nights.

“I’m setting the stage and giving them plenty of rope to hang themselves with, so there’s no need for any of that. But I will need your family’s help in a few weeks or months,” Aron explained.

“Oh, what do you need?” Rina excitedly asked. It had been a long time since Aron had needed her help for anything, but now he was finally asking for it again.

“Eden will be calling an emergency meeting in the UN, and I’ll need America’s vote,” he said.

“What’s it going to be about?” she asked.

She would need to know what the meeting would be called for in order to convince her father to go with his request.

“It’s about forming a united government on earth. We need to be united in case of foreign entities arriving,” he said, then remembered that, in his urgency to deal with things, he still hadn’t told her the news and added, “Let’s head to Lab City. I’ll be able to explain things in more detail there.”

Half an hour later.

“I’ll ask my father, but even if America agrees, China and Russia will likely use their veto. They’ll never relinquish the power they have at the moment,” Rina finally answered after taking a bit more than twenty minutes to calm herself after receiving the shock of her life from Aron and Nova. Finding out that they weren’t alone in the universe would be one thing, but who would ever be able to handle the news that, not only were they not alone, but their celestial “neighbors” were coming to pay a visit with any kind of equanimity?

“I know it might be a useless endeavor, but we need it to be done. I have to try every peaceful avenue of uniting the planet before using force. If I were to just skip straight to using force, there would always be people believing things could’ve been done peacefully and resisting the new government,” Aron explained.

“But why do you want America to vote for it and not use their veto?” she asked. She couldn’t imagine a scenario where Aron would want to peacefully join hands with the country that had treated him so shittily. He just wasn’t that kind of person.

“I want it that way so that, in the future, when they start doing their selfish, arrogant bullshit, we can use their vote to highlight their hypocrisy,” he said.

“But if father knows about the vote, he’ll almost surely be against it,” she said.

“Just don’t tell him what the vote is for. You can ask for forgiveness later instead of permission now,” Aron teased.

“I’ll try.” She hugged Aron to try and calm down again. Apparently, the shock of the revelation had yet to completely pass.

Aron said nothing, just hugged her back and rubbed her back as he gave a signal to Nova with his eyes to help calm her down.

…

“Yes, it’s true,” Aron sighed. He was in his parents’ living room in reality with his parents and Henry, who was running around and playing with his toys. The boy was certainly using his break from school very wisely.

“So… you’re telling me that what they’re saying about you being a trillionaire is true?” his father repeated, not knowing whether he should be proud of his son or scared that a human could have that much money.

“That’s their guess, based on the public data they have about my companies. The real number should be quite a bit higher, actually,” Aron respectfully corrected.

His parents were shocked into speechlessness at the thought of that many zeros in anyone’s bank statement, let alone their son’s.

“Wow, can you buy me a robot?” Henry was the only one in the room that could speak after Aron’s last response. His parents were still suffering a small mental shutdown.

Aron turned to his little brother and, with a smile on his face, said, “How about I give you one now?”

“Yes!” Henry jumped in excitement as he ran to his big brother.

“Put these on,” Aron said as he handed his parents and little brother, who had climbed onto his lap, individualized pairs of AR glasses.

“The rest will be easy to explain with those,” he added when he saw his parents giving the glasses in their hands weird looks.

After Aron’s reassurance, they put the glasses on and discovered a whole new world.

“Oh my god,” his mother exclaimed, echoed shortly by her husband as they came to the realization that they were in a completely new environment. Instead of a nicely appointed living room, they were now in front of a vast, beautiful flower garden with blooms of many colors scattered here and there. It looked like a field of wildflowers more than a cultivated, formal garden.

{Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Michael} Nova said as she appeared out of nowhere, looking like an angel in her beautiful white dress. But despite her looks, she still scared the shit out of Aron’s family with the sudden appearance; Henry even immediately hid behind his big brother.

“Don’t worry, Nova’s just one of the people responsible for overseeing this world,” Aron explained as he patted Henry, who was still behind him, on the head.

“This… world?” his father asked, tilting his head.

“Yes, this world. A digital counterpart of the real one.” He raised his hand, attracting their attention to it. “In here, everything is possible.” As he said that, his hand changed, first robotic, then a tree, then back to normal. A flower materialized in it, then shortly disappeared and was replaced by a model of Optimus Prime, which he placed on the ground as he said, “Whatever I want can happen here.” Moments later, the Optimus Prime model grew, then its eyes opened and it turned to Aron and bowed. Aron nodded to it, and it picked up Henry to go off and play.

Aron turned to his parents with a smile on his face. “This is what my company’s been working on.”