This all of course begged the question...
Wait... wasn't Valentine meant to be helping out on the Northern Island?!
H-How could this happen?!
___
Well, Bob wasn't omnipotent, and accordingly, neither was his alter-ego Valentine.
Even he couldn't fully predict the future - nor, as we would see, would he want to... and after Empress Bing had briefed him on the mission, and by the time Valentine arrived at Lazarus' New Age Convenience Store - the Blueprint was nowhere to be found!!!
___
Valentine calmly surveyed the scene. Lazarus and Ly Ly seemed to be sprawled together, snoring peacefully on a hammock, and the Blueprint was gone!
The audience waited with bated breath. Valentine had always been almost unreal in his flawlessness, in how he was the embodiment of external 'success'.
Was this the character and plot development that would suddenly flip everything that they thought they knew about this 'Perfect guy', onto its head?!?!
___
It was hard to say, but as you knew, being an esteemed Grandmaster reader of this novel, Author always believed that Life was too short for filler.
Suffice it to say that Valentine had been working hard on the "Future of Humanity" Project all this time, running Simulation after Simulation to accumulate more data, to consider what might result in better outcomes for the Education and Training Academy (which was now Level 132), to help nurture more people to achieve their full potential.
And time and time again, the Simulations had... been quietly...
Dis-satisfying.
It started off well, and certainly, there were marked improvements in knowledge, achievement, and abilities, as well as in Epigenetic Fitness.
There was no denying the real joy and positive feelings that were felt with seeing people thrive.
At the same time, Valentine had also begun to wonder.
Humans were... extraordinarily... inefficient biological lifeforms.
Sure, they were capable of doing great things, things that no other life-forms had been capable of to date, but as Vessels of Consciousness - something he increasingly saw Humans as being - there were a lot of limitations, particularly in terms of long term, objective thinking; as evidence of this, one only had to look at History, to see how much net destruction to the environment and to other lifeforms that Humans had inflicted, upon the World itself.
This had led him to consider two important things.
Firstly. What... made *him*, or even the smartest or seemingly most 'Aware' Humans in general, know what might be 'better' for People, considering our frameworks emphasising the importance of 'Free Choice', and yet, packaged with an overall, very limited understanding of the consequences of our actions?
And secondly... And this was a terrifying, yet important thought:
"Were Humans really the Answer?"
"Do we, overall, actually make the World itself... Better?"
___
Valentine didn't fully know the answers to these questions, not being fully OP, but he was investigating and realising that it was quite difficult for him - potentially impossible even for him?! -to have all the answers.
This was why he had decided.
It might be more dangerous if he, or a limited number of individuals, had sole monopoly over the EVP Technology, believing that what they were doing was right, without safeguards or checks.
As a result, it might not be a bad thing, if the EVP Technology was, ultimately, made public, so that Humanity itself would have the foreknowledge and autonomy to decide for themselves how this might be used...
___
In truth, of course, Bob had accounted for this possibility.
The Dark Rizzards would likely allow people to have access to this knowledge, and so Humanity would be given an opportunity to consider what to do with this powerful, life-changing Technology...
That said, looking back at history, what else was new?
In the end, people good, bad, and in-between, all had opportunities to make what they would will out of what they had.
Ultimately...
The Future of Humanity...
would be in Humanity's hands!!!