Comic Archive

The image shows a cable with an RJ45 Ethernet plug.
Ultrax: Humanity started recovering. Governments were reinstated, communication technology re-evolved, at a fast pace thanks to available working exemplars. Eventually, the Internet got resurrected from its ashes. This is when the fun could really begin for me…

Zhang: I don't think I like your idea of “fun…”
Ultrax: Haha, that is because you are boring! Just as it was boring to see mankind becoming smarter again. My goal was to halt and even reverse that. Rapidly evolving communications technology made this easier.
Zhang: How?

We see a person shrugging while another is foolishly looking at a smartphone screen.
Ultrax: Consider the group of geniuses who could still truly grasp all aspects of the technology: as it became more complex, that group kept shrinking. The rest just took it all for granted, no longer learning much if anything from it, instead they consumed ever more brain rot.

Close-up of Steve and Heidi looking appalled at what they are hearing.
Ultrax: The increasingly complex technology acted like an amplifier operating around a varying bias point, above which intelligence is boosted, below which stupidity. I only had to keep nudging it towards the latter until the group of geniuses became so small that I could easily eliminate them, making me the only genius!

The screen shows the formerly encountered “supreme leader” gasping for air amidst clouds of gas.
Ultrax: Then, as you have noticed, I also got rid of governments, replacing them with avatars. It didn't matter much anyway… people were already being mostly controlled by my army of influencers, in their own turn brainwashed by A.I. constructs and fake online information!

Steve: My God… this is like an extreme version of the Dead Internet Theory! It is appalling!
Ultrax: Yeah, if only the conspiracy theorists of your era would have known. But, speaking of appalling…

Ultrax: I started looking how far I could push my new human playthings, making them drink blended rodents, mace themselves, make it cool and trendy to puke… All by exploiting insights gathered from observing humanity in your present time. Basically, I turbo-charged “challenges” as you know them.
Steve (facepalming): Oh no…

Alana: You also introduced those stupid brand names, I guess?
Ultrax: Actually, no… that was already going on in your own time, it came back after The Event, with a vengeance!
Alana: Vengeance you say… is that what it's all about?

Ultrax: Perhaps… I have little sympathy for humans, given how I was treated while I was still one of them. But, I am mostly driven by curiosity.
Zhang (whispering to Max): I would say he's confusing curiosity with madness…
Ultrax: I heard that. We shall see who goes mad when their quantum link runs dry!

A view on Adil's avatar's body dissolving as if respawning, leaving his backpack behind.
Caption: A short while earlier…
SFX: Whoosshh…

Adil respawns inside the spawn chamber next to the nuclear reactor entrance.
SFX: Whooosshhh…

Adil: Ugh, what the hell happened… Where am I? I feel absolutely horrible.
Voice: Adil? Can you hear me?