Season 3 chapter 95
The Relentless Forge
Days turned into nights, and entire weekends passed in a blur of heavy industrial noise. Inside the Northern East wing of Kavilson Steel, the atmosphere had completely shifted from devastation to an unstoppable, hyper-focused obsession.
Shuntesh Hawada had practically transformed into a machine. Over the course of the next two weeks, a massive time-lapse of pure, unadulterated engineering unfolded across the laboratory floor.
He was everywhere at once. Under the blinding blue sparks of the heavy welders, Shuntesh aggressively paced back and forth across the concrete, actively dictating precise thermal limits to the metallurgy teams. He was actively designing the new hyper-resistant composite alloy, violently erasing and redrawing massive chalk blueprints on the iron crates.
Day after day, the sun would rise and set outside the smog-covered windows, but Shuntesh completely ignored the passage of time. He was waking up incredibly early—if he even went to sleep at all. He was surviving on maybe two or three hours of rest, violently rejecting proper meals in favor of rapidly chewing dry rations while simultaneously calibrating heavy steam-valves. His lab coat was completely stained with oil and soot, and deep, heavy dark circles had formed under his sharp, manic eyes. He was giving absolute, one-hundred-percent of his soul to the reactor.
He was not going to fail them again.
The Shipping Container Office
Because Kniya and Malesh were intensely serious about monitoring the success of this multi-billion-credit project, they had completely abandoned their luxurious 86th-floor executive suite. Instead, they had ordered an industrial crane to drop a massive, heavy-duty shipping container directly into the corner of the R&D laboratory.
They had fully converted the inside of the steel container into a highly functional, portable corporate office. It had two mahogany desks, a brass radio-telephone, and large reinforced glass windows so they could coordinate their global monopolies while keeping a direct, watchful eye on the laboratory floor.
Inside the container, Kniya was aggressively pacing back and forth, clutching the heavy brass receiver of the radio-telephone. He was in the middle of an absolutely unhinged management call with one of his regional logistics supervisors.
"Yeah! Yeah, just relax!" Kniya shouted sarcastically into the receiver, waving his free hand in the air. "What can you even do, huh?! Just drink coffee and tea all day! That is your entire skill set!"
On the other end of the line, the regional supervisor let out a slow, incredibly lethargic, utterly bored groan. "Yeah, sir... I will listen to that, sir... yeah..."
"Why are you even here in this company?!" Kniya shrieked, his face turning red with frustration at the sheer lack of energy. "Why don't you just buy a fucking commercial coffee machine and permanently attach your mouth to the output pipe?! Just seal your lips around it so you never get deprived of this absolute shit! Just don't fucking work in the office! Because frankly, I haven't seen you inside the office once in my entire life!"
"Okay, sir... yeah..." the worker mumbled, sounding like he was actively falling asleep on his desk.
"What are you doing, you fucking idiot?!" Kniya roared, aggressively tapping the glass window of the container. "You are just drinking carbonated drinks all the time and enjoying yourself at the bar! And let me remind you of the basic federal laws! It is strictly illegal in our country to enjoy those specific drinks at unauthorized establishments! Even though you are just drinking cold drinks, well, it is okay, but if you are drinking any kind of illicit alcoholic substance, you are a literal criminal! You know it is illegal in our country!"
"Yeah, sir... whatever..." the worker sighed.
"Why are you here in the company just to drink coffee?!" Kniya yelled, completely fed up. "Obviously, what the fucking shit can you even do, you fucking idiot?!"
Kniya aggressively slammed the heavy brass receiver down onto the hook, violently terminating the call.
The Observation
Kniya stood by the desk, closing his eyes and taking a huge, deep breath to forcefully calm his spiking heart rate.
"Oh, I absolutely hate these guys," Kniya groaned, aggressively rubbing his temples. "They are literal idiots. Every single one of them."
Malesh, who was sitting perfectly still at his own desk, slowly looked up from his heavy leather corporate ledgers. He adjusted his tailored cuffs, his deadpan mask firmly in place.
"You know, sometimes I think they do not even respect you, Kniya," Malesh stated flatly, pointing a perfectly pragmatic finger at his best friend. "Even though you are the actual Managing Director of the entire company, they speak to you with the absolute minimum amount of operational energy."
Kniya let out a long, deeply exhausted sigh, leaning against the shipping container wall.
"I think so, Malesh. Everything is just weird going around my company," Kniya muttered, opening his eyes. He noticed Malesh staring at him with a highly calculated, intense expression. Kniya frowned, crossing his arms. "Well, you were watching me very seriously just now. Do you have anything specific to tell me?"
Malesh didn't answer immediately. Instead, he smoothly turned his head and looked through the reinforced glass window of their container office. His dark eyes locked onto Shuntesh Hawada, who was currently standing on top of a massive iron scaffold, aggressively shouting metallurgical ratios to a team of welders.
"Kniya, the thing is that I have been actively watching Shuntesh since the day this new phase began," Malesh explained, his voice dropping into a tone of genuine, deadpan respect. "And I need to tell you one thing for sure: he is a really fucking hardworking guy."
Kniya turned his head, looking out the window at their lead researcher.
"I was literally witnessing him for the past four or five days," Malesh detailed, analyzing the data points. "And he is literally not sleeping. He is sleeping very late at night, waking up really, really early, actively avoiding his proper meals, and completely neglecting his biological needs. He is really, really serious about this project."
Kniya's chaotic energy faded, replaced by a look of genuine corporate concern. He watched Shuntesh violently wipe a streak of black grease off his forehead, clearly exhausted but completely unwilling to stop.
"Yeah, I think so too," Kniya agreed, frowning slightly. "He is taking way too much stress to build this reactor. I know that it is highly important for him—and for us—to prove ourselves and solve our problems in different ways, but still. He should not be that much tensionized. It is not good for him."
Malesh smoothly adjusted his glasses, watching the bright blue sparks of the forge reflect off the glass window.
"It is his way of dealing with the things," Malesh deadpanned softly. "I don't know if we can do anything about that. He is driven by his own internal guilt from the previous meltdown. But well... we got a really good guy for our work, though. What do you think about it?"
"Yeah, whatever," Kniya sighed, tapping the glass. "But you know, I am highly concerned about his health. Doing this much extreme manual and mental work could permanently ruin his own body."
Malesh gave a slow, pragmatic nod.
"Yeah, I don't know what would happen to his vitals," Malesh agreed, his voice entirely flat but laced with undeniable approval. "And I don't know if, this time, we will actually be able to succeed in our plan or not. But yeah. Even though it is an incredibly hard task, he is actively giving all his one hundred percent to the company. And that is the specific thing that inspires me the most."
The Second Prototype
Over the course of the next several days, the Northern East wing of Kavilson Steel transformed into a blur of absolute, relentless manufacturing. The heavy hydraulic hammers slammed day and night, forging the brand-new, hyper-resistant composite alloy that Shuntesh had frantically designed.
Finally, the deafening noise of the factory floor ground to a halt.
Standing in the center of the massive, heavily shielded isolation chamber was the second prototype. It was vastly bulkier than the first, wrapped in thick, dark geometric plates of the new experimental alloy. Shuntesh Hawada stood before the control console, his face covered in grease and soot, but his eyes were shining with pure, undeniable confidence. He had double-checked every single mathematical variable. The thermal limits were locked.
He immediately dispatched a messenger to the shipping container office.
Less than a minute later, the heavy iron doors of the laboratory swung open. Kniya and Malesh practically sprinted into the room, abandoning all traces of their usual slow, intimidating corporate walk.
"The time has officially come, Malesh!" Kniya shouted at the top of his lungs, running toward the isolation chamber while throwing his hands in the air. "God has bestowed upon us His absolute powers! We are going to bring a literal revolution to democracy in the heavy industry! The world is going to completely change today!"
Malesh marched right beside him, his deadpan mask entirely replaced by a highly dramatic, cinematic intensity.
"Yes, Kniya!" Malesh agreed powerfully, his bespoke coat flaring out behind him. "We are standing on the precipice of a new era! The industrial monopoly is ours!".