Season 3 chapter 97
The Industrial Discovery
While Malesh was delivering his heavy, profoundly serious lecture about the absolute value of human life, Kniya had completely wandered off. Entirely ignoring the emotional weight of the moment, the Managing Director was casually poking around the smoking, completely melted ruins of the multi-billion-credit containment chamber with the tip of his expensive leather boot.
Suddenly, Kniya's eyes lit up with unhinged, chaotic curiosity.
"Hey, guys! Come here, see this!" Kniya called out loudly, waving his hand to interrupt Malesh's speech. "I have got something for you! Something really, really interesting!"
Malesh let out a long, deeply exhausted sigh, aggressively rubbing his temples as he walked over to the crater, with a still-shaken Shuntesh trailing slowly behind him.
Malesh looked down at the spot Kniya was pointing at. It was a massive, thick, bubbling puddle of viscous black liquid, pooling around the shattered primary cooling pipes.
"It is sludge, Kniya," Malesh deadpanned, staring at his best friend with pure exhaustion. "Why are you getting so excited about a puddle of toxic industrial waste? What is interesting about this? Although... I will admit, looking at the volumetric output, it is way too much sludge for a standard sub-thermal reaction. It is completely disproportionate."
At the exact sound of the word disproportionate, Shuntesh's tear-filled eyes locked onto the black puddle.
His brain, previously paralyzed by despair, violently snapped back into pure, high-speed engineering mode. His breath hitched as his eyes rapidly traced the path of the thick sludge, realizing it was heavily clogging the shattered ventilation valves.
"Sir!" Shuntesh gasped, practically dropping to his knees next to the puddle, his face lighting up with raw scientific clarity. "Sir, you have provided me with the biggest intel! Oh my god, I see it now!"
"See what?" Kniya asked, tilting his head.
"The sludge itself!" Shuntesh explained rapidly, his hands hovering over the toxic mess. "Do you realize why this massive amount of sludge was produced?! It was because the refinement process of the Fisluation sand was not complete! It was completely unable to reach the pure kinetic form where the energy could be cleanly extracted!"
Shuntesh stood up, his scientific passion completely overriding his previous panic attack.
"It is exactly like traditional crude oil!" Shuntesh lectured, gesturing wildly. "If you directly burn unrefined crude oil in an advanced engine, it is entirely inefficient, and it leaves behind heavy carbon deposits! But if you refine it into high-grade petroleum, it burns flawlessly! That is the exact same case with Fisluation! We didn't refine the sand enough! Because it was too raw, it produced a massive amount of internal sludge as a byproduct! That sludge violently choked the primary cooling pipes, creating a catastrophic pressure backup that caused the meltdown!"
Shuntesh wiped the soot from his eyes, looking at Kniya and Malesh with profound, absolute gratitude.
"We just have to refine the Fisluation even more so it burns cleanly and produces less sludge!" Shuntesh announced triumphantly. "Sir... thank you for the intel. It is always because of you guys. You literally always help me find the answer whenever I fail!"
The Executive Order
Malesh stared at the hyperactive researcher. Despite the massive breakthrough, Malesh could clearly see the severe, dangerous physical toll the past two weeks had taken on Shuntesh's body.
"For now, Shuntesh, I think you definitely need a massive break," Malesh stated flatly, his dark eyes locking onto the exhausted engineer. "You are working way too hard. You are pushing your body completely past its absolute limits, and because you are depriving yourself of basic biological needs, you cannot focus on anything else. Your mind is fracturing. You absolutely cannot continue working with this method."
Kniya immediately stepped forward, his chaotic energy completely aligning with Malesh's pragmatic concern.
"Yes, Shuntesh, Malesh is entirely right," Kniya agreed, his voice dropping into a firm, uncharacteristically serious tone. "First and foremost, the most important thing is your health. It is a really great habit of yours to be this dedicated, and you are a genuinely, exceptionally smart guy. You instantly grasped the problem with the alloys previously, and now you grasped the sludge problem just from a single puddle. But the thing is... your body desperately needs rest."
Kniya casually reached into his inner coat pocket, pulled out his secure executive datapad, and aggressively typed in a few commands.
"And do not worry about the funds," Kniya declared smoothly, waving the screen in the air. "You need another 500 billion credits for the third prototype, right? I am transferring that exact amount to your R&D account right now. Done. Do not stress about the capital. We literally have limitless funding for this."
Shuntesh swallowed hard, looking at the digital transfer confirmation. "Yeah, sir... I think you are right. Thank you. But I promise you, I will make absolutely sure that this time, the third reactor definitely works flawlessly."
Kniya pocketed the device and crossed his arms, staring Shuntesh down with absolute corporate authority.
"Just have some rest first," Kniya ordered strictly. "Now, you are going to go home, and you are going to sleep. You are absolutely not going to work right now. Do you understand me? This is a firm, executive corporate order that you have to obey. That is it."
Shuntesh nodded slowly, the adrenaline finally starting to fade, leaving him swaying slightly on his feet.
"You can develop the refining technology later," Kniya continued, his tone softening slightly, though he still hid behind his twisted capitalist humor. "First of all, your health is highly important. What you tried to do today with that pipe was a really, really dangerous act of yours. Well... you literally almost wasted my premium custom-machined metal pipe, which is a massive liability. But still, you are exceptionally smart to grasp the smallest amount of ideas and hints."
Kniya stepped closer, putting a firm hand on Shuntesh's shoulder.
"Make sure the next reactor is perfect," Kniya smiled. "And even if it isn't... it is not a big deal. We are actively working on a completely new, terrifying technology, and it might fail again. That is just industry. Do not give yourself so much stress that you literally die of a panic attack. We need your brain alive."
The Five-Month Mark
After the catastrophic meltdown of the second prototype and the terrifying intervention with the iron pipe, Shuntesh Hawada finally yielded to the absolute corporate mandate. He completely stepped away from the heavy machinery, taking three full days of absolute rest to reset his fractured mind. He slept for fourteen hours straight, ate proper, highly nutritious meals, and washed the thick layers of industrial soot off his skin.
But the exact second those three days of mandated rest were over, Shuntesh returned to the Northern East wing of Kavilson Steel with a terrifying, unyielding obsession.
It had now been exactly five months since the civil war ended, and the timeline was moving forward rapidly. Shuntesh was absolutely determined to achieve his dream, and he spent every waking moment of those five months grinding to make it a reality. He worked relentlessly day and night, turning the laboratory into his own personal sanctuary of innovation.
He spent hundreds of hours meticulously running the raw Fisluation sand through heavy chemical baths, repeatedly extra-refining the material to perfectly extract the toxic sludge and isolate its purest kinetic form. He personally oversaw the forging of the containment shell, standing dangerously close to the roaring furnaces to ensure the new alloys were exponentially more powerful. He was running on pure passion and adrenaline, aggressively calculating thermal limits at 3:00 AM while the rest of the city slept. He was giving his absolute soul to this third prototype.
The Degenerate Analytics
Inside the heavily reinforced shipping container office sitting in the corner of the lab, Kniya and Malesh were deeply engaged in a highly critical, top-tier executive meeting. Or at least, they were supposed to be.
Filoska and Salesh were sitting at the side table, frantically reviewing international export ledgers, while the two Managing Directors actively ignored them.
"Kniya, I have an analytical question for you," Malesh deadpanned, smoothly adjusting his tailored cuffs as he stared out the reinforced glass window at their lead researcher. "Do you think Shuntesh is the kind of guy who would be deeply interested in degenerate comics, trashy romance novels, or even highly questionable mangazines?"
Kniya leaned back in his leather chair, popping a piece of mint gum into his mouth and tapping his chin thoughtfully.
"I don't think so," Kniya analyzed, shaking his head. "From his behavior and the fact that he is a complete workaholic, I don't think he is that kind of guy at all."
"Yeah, my baseline calculation agrees," Malesh nodded flatly. "He entirely lacks the casual aura for it."
Kniya's unhinged, massive smirk suddenly spread across his face. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the mahogany desk.
"But, Malesh, there is one highly classified thing that I have to tell you," Kniya whispered conspiratorially, though he was entirely audible to the whole room. "Because of my absolute, mightiest power of all time—the power of the bribe—I managed to secure a highly reliable source on his personal life. And the intel states that Shuntesh currently has a massive crush on a girl."
Malesh raised a single, pragmatic eyebrow. "Fascinating. Can I ask who exactly the source of this data is?"
"Obviously, his lazy friends from the cardboard treehouse," Kniya chuckled obnoxiously, leaning forward to detail his flawless corporate espionage. "Let me explain the true power of the bribe to you in detail, Malesh. The absolute mastery of bribery is not just throwing massive amounts of liquid cash at people. It is about identifying the cheapest, most unmotivated people in a person's life. Those two roommates? They were really, really cheap. I have to say this for sure. I literally offered them twenty thousand credits and a pack of biscuits, and they instantly sold out Shuntesh's entire personal history! They didn't even hesitate for a single second! They told me everything!"
Malesh slowly folded his hands on the desk. His dark eyes glazed over with a deeply disturbing, highly specific thought process.
"If he has a crush," Malesh stated, his voice completely flat, clinical, and completely devoid of emotion. "Then Kniya, this means that Shuntesh could theoretically fulfill one of my greatest fantasies. When they eventually marry, he could have absolute, intense sweat sex with his crush. What kind of idea do you think that is?"