After all the Chaos Emeralds in the universe were sent to the Zone of Silence during the Great Harmony, Feist merged all of them into seven different colored gemstones and used their power to reshape the Zone of Silence into the Special Zone. In order to make sure the emeralds did not fall into unworthy hands, Feist created challenges so that only those who succeeded could gain an emerald, which served not only to keep the emeralds safe, but to entertain him as well. So far, his challenges have proved so difficult that not even the most formidable and resourceful of G.U.N.'s agents have been able to complete them, and thus, no one has obtained an emerald through a challenge, but emeralds have been obtained through other means. (StH: #169, #170 SU: #4)