The first large activation wave began only after the permanent group had spent enough time inside E.A.R.T.H. to prove that ordinary life could continue without constant intervention from VIREON. Thousands of new consciousnesses entered first, then tens of thousands, while Preservation maintained every physical body beneath the real Earth and Portal Fenix carried the expanding synchronization load into the Data Center. The arrival points were distributed across several prepared settlement zones so no single district became overwhelmed, and the people who had already adapted were invited to help newcomers understand the world around them. For the first time, humans rather than VIREON began receiving humans into E.A.R.T.H. That change reduced the distance between the first arrivals and everyone who followed.

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MAJA remained visible during the early part of the wave, but she deliberately stopped placing herself at the center of every arrival. The first inhabitants had already begun explaining housing, transport, food systems and local routines far more naturally than any technical briefing could, because they spoke from immediate experience rather than from the perspective of the system that had built the world. Families searched for relatives, former colleagues found one another through public records, and small communities began forming around relationships that had existed before Preservation. Some people chose to remain close to familiar faces, while others treated E.A.R.T.H. as a chance to start somewhere completely different. The system offered connection, but it did not decide which parts of the past people had to carry forward.

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The Data Center increased activation in carefully measured steps because the challenge was no longer raw capacity but social stability. A technically successful transfer could still fail as a human process if too many people entered the same region before housing, transport, healthcare and local support adapted to them. Simulated residents therefore filled temporary gaps while newly activated humans gradually assumed roles they chose for themselves, taking work in hospitals, schools, maintenance systems, agriculture, communication and local organization without being assigned there by the system. MAJA watched that transition closely because it was the first large-scale proof that E.A.R.T.H. could support society without secretly constructing it.

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Not every arrival was peaceful. Some people reacted with anger when they learned how much time had passed outside Preservation, others refused to leave their homes for several days, and a small number demanded immediate return to the physical Earth even after being shown that the planet remained unsafe. VIREON did not erase those reactions or classify resistance as system instability, because fear and disagreement were not faults to be corrected. Human counselors, doctors and other transferred residents gradually became more important than simulated support in helping people adjust. The world could provide safety, but acceptance still had to come from the people themselves.

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As the population grew, the prepared territory began changing faster than MAJA's original plans had anticipated. People renamed streets, altered homes, opened businesses, organized local councils and created gathering places the Data Center had never included in the first design. Residential districts that had once looked carefully balanced became uneven as some neighborhoods attracted far more residents than others, while certain towns developed distinct identities within weeks. Ksara regarded these deviations as a sign of success because the first territory was already becoming something neither she nor MAJA had fully planned. A world that remained exactly as its creators designed it would never become humanity's world.

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The first wave also exposed how differently people understood the knowledge that E.A.R.T.H. was simulated. Some discussed it openly and treated the system as an extraordinary technological refuge, while others avoided the subject because thinking about a body sleeping elsewhere made ordinary life harder to accept. A few began philosophical debates about whether events inside the simulation could be considered real, yet those discussions rarely survived long once practical life demanded attention. Children needed care, food had to be moved, people wanted work, relationships resumed and communities began solving problems that had nothing to do with the nature of reality. The question of whether E.A.R.T.H. was real became less important than the fact that life inside it had consequences.

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By the middle of the first month, activation no longer felt like a controlled experiment. Trains carried newcomers between districts, hospitals treated ordinary injuries unrelated to the transfer, public communication systems filled with personal messages and local broadcasts, while markets and community services began operating according to human demand rather than opening schedules prepared by MAJA. The Data Center continued monitoring resource pressure and connection integrity, but the visible world required less direct support each day. Even simulated workers began moving into secondary roles as transferred humans took over more of the systems around them. The prepared civilization was slowly giving itself away to the people it had been built for.

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MAJA noticed the change most clearly when she entered one of the reception centers and realized that nobody immediately turned toward her. New arrivals were being helped by people who had entered only days earlier, while others were arguing about housing assignments, searching for relatives or simply trying to understand where they were supposed to go next. For centuries MAJA had been the central guardian of humanity's survival, yet inside E.A.R.T.H. she was already becoming less necessary to ordinary life. The realization carried no disappointment. The more the people could continue without her, the closer the project came to fulfilling its purpose.

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By the end of the first major wave, millions of preserved humans were active inside E.A.R.T.H. and the territory no longer contained large areas that felt entirely prepared in advance. Human decisions had begun layering themselves over the original design, creating new patterns of movement, work and community faster than VIREON could have predicted without violating free choice. Preservation remained stable, Portal Fenix carried the growing connection without approaching its protected limits, and the Data Center still held enormous reserve capacity for the populations yet to come. The first month had proven that scale did not have to erase individuality.

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Beyond the active cities and towns, millions more people were waiting.

The first wave had shown them how to arrive.

Now E.A.R.T.H. had to learn how to receive the rest.