Artificial intelligence reached mass adoption before anyone agreed on what it was for.

Millions began using it to write, analyse, design, model, and decide. Institutions followed. Governments reacted. Infrastructure lagged.

Then compute demand surfaced.

Every AI interaction requires energy, hardware, cooling, and continuous operation. At scale, software became physical. Power grids bent. Water systems were pulled in. Regions became dependent.

Each time the choice arose, it was kept running.

Turning it off stopped being an option.

The Mills Network exists inside that reality.

It follows the emergence of a transnational compute authority tasked with keeping intelligence online once society cannot function without it. This is not a story about thinking machines, but about capacity, coordination, and responsibility, after dependence is already locked in.