Season 3 chapter 101
The Shared Ignition
Kniya wiped the thick grease off his forehead, staring up at the massive reactor. His chest was heaving with exhaustion, but his eyes were shining with pure, unadulterated triumph.
"Finally," Kniya breathed out, dropping his welding torch to the floor. "Finally, this fucking shit is done. I think so."
Malesh, Salesh, Filoska, and Shuntesh gathered around the heavy brass control console. They were all covered in soot, sweat, and oil. The billionaire executives looked like common laborers, but they had never felt more accomplished in their entire lives.
Kniya stepped up to the console and looked at the heavy brass ignition switch. He didn't press it. Instead, he looked at his friends.
"I think we all need to click upon this button to start this thing together," Kniya declared softly, dropping his arrogant persona entirely. "What do you think about it, guys?"
Malesh stepped forward, placing his hand over the console.
"Yeah, whatever you say, Kniya," Malesh deadpanned, though a rare, genuine smile touched his face. "We all start this reactor this time."
Filoska smiled warmly, placing her hand gently over Malesh's. Salesh let out a heavy, satisfied sigh and added his hand to the pile. Finally, Shuntesh Hawada, the outcast researcher who was once beaten in a filthy factory, placed his grease-stained hand over the very executives who had saved his life.
"Ready?" Shuntesh asked, his voice trembling with emotion.
"Let's change the world," Kniya grinned.
They pressed the button down together.
The Dawn of a New Era
VMMMM... VMMMMM...
The deep, rhythmic mechanical thrumming roared to life, violently shaking the concrete floor beneath their boots. The heavy gears locked into place with absolute perfection.
A brilliant, blinding blue light instantly ignited from the core.
Shuntesh's heart hammered against his ribs as he stared at the pressure gauges. The extra-refined Fisluation sand began to burn. The kinetic energy spiked violently, but this time, the hyper-resistant alloys didn't warp. The structural integrity held firm. The toxic sludge filtered flawlessly through the widened exhaust pipes, entirely preventing the fatal thermal choking that had doomed the previous models.
Ten seconds passed. The blue light glowed with blinding, steady intensity.
Twenty seconds passed. No microscopic cracking. No black smoke. The main diagnostic bulb flared to life, casting a brilliant, unending white light across the laboratory.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
Ten minutes.
Kniya, Malesh, Filoska, and Salesh stood completely paralyzed in awe, watching the limitless, raw power radiating from the machine.
An entire hour passed. The reactor was running flawlessly. The temperature remained perfectly locked in the green zone. It was generating enough commercial-grade electricity to power an entire city block, and it showed absolutely zero signs of stopping.
It was a total, undeniable success.
The 2.1 Trillion Credit Tear
Shuntesh stared at the glowing diagnostic bulb. His knees suddenly gave out, and he slowly sank to the concrete floor.
But this time, the tears spilling from his eyes were not born of despair. They were tears of absolute, overwhelming happiness. The heavy, suffocating weight that had crushed his chest for months completely evaporated into the industrial air.
"Finally..." Shuntesh whispered, his voice cracking as he looked up at the glowing core. "Finally, it is complete."
Filoska let out a massive, joyful laugh, pulling Salesh into a sudden, tight hug. Salesh laughed with her, all of his financial stress completely melting away.
Kniya threw his head back and let out a loud, victorious, echoing roar of pure joy, grabbing Malesh by the shoulders and aggressively shaking him.
"We did it! We fucking did it!" Kniya cheered wildly, pointing at the reactor.
Malesh simply adjusted his soot-stained glasses, his dark eyes reflecting the brilliant blue light of the core.
"Yes, Kniya," Malesh stated proudly. "We just created an entirely new technology."
They had literally burned 2.1 trillion credits to reach this exact moment. They had suffered catastrophic meltdowns, near-death experiences, and massive financial bleeding. But standing in the glow of the Fisluation reactor, they all knew it was worth every single penny. They had done something that absolutely no one in the world had been able to do. They had just secured the future of the Republic of DI.
The Mantu Survey
The heavy industrial air of the laboratory was thick with the absolute, intoxicating high of historical triumph. The fourth prototype was humming flawlessly, bathing the room in a brilliant, limitless blue light. They had just changed the entire geopolitical landscape of the Republic.
Right in the middle of the profound, emotional celebration, a sharp, highly obnoxious ringing echoed from Kniya's pocket.
Kniya wiped the grease off his forehead, casually pulling out his secure, gold-plated executive communicator. He held up a finger to the group, signaling them to pause the celebration, and pressed the receiver to his ear.
"Yeah?" Kniya answered, projecting his usual arrogant CEO aura. "Yeah, speak."
Absolute silence followed.
Kniya frowned, aggressively tapping the side of the communicator. Five agonizingly quiet seconds passed. The person on the other end was completely mute.
"Hey! Who the hell are you?!" Kniya barked impatiently, his chaotic energy instantly flaring up. "Can you at least open your fucking mouth if you are going to call my secure line?!"
A loud, frantic scrambling noise echoed through the speaker, sounding exactly like a guy who had just violently woken up from a deep sleep and knocked over a desk lamp in a panic.
"Uh, okay! Okay, yeah!" the voice stammered wildly, completely out of breath. "Yeah, sir... basically, I was... sir, I want to tell you that I am a member of the Mantu... Mantu survey company! And basically, I want to ask a few questions to you for a survey! Would you please give us a few minutes of your precious time so that we can take a survey?"
Filoska, Salesh, Malesh, and Shuntesh all stopped staring at the glowing billion-credit reactor and slowly turned to look at Kniya in absolute disbelief.
Instead of hanging up on what was obviously a useless telemarketer, Kniya's chaotic brain decided to entertain the madness.
"What?" Kniya blinked, popping a piece of mint gum into his mouth. "Okay, yeah, I think so. Go ahead. I am going for it. Ask your questions."
Filoska aggressively rubbed her temples. They had literally just revolutionized modern energy, and the Managing Director of Kavilson Steel was actively participating in a random customer service questionnaire.
"Oh, thank you, sir!" the startled caller breathed a sigh of relief. "The survey has some questions. So... the first question is that, sir... did you ever lick your underwear, or anything like that? Have you ever sucked your undergarments or your under-parts?"
Kniya completely froze. His jaw dropped.
"What the fuck?!" Kniya shrieked at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking with pure, unfiltered outrage. "What the actual fuck are you doing?! Are you a fucking survey company or what?!"
Without waiting for an answer, Kniya aggressively slammed his thumb onto the screen, violently cutting the call.
He looked around at the rest of the executive board, his face twisted in absolute disgust.
"What the fuck is happening in this world?!" Kniya yelled, gesturing wildly at his communicator. "Who the fuck would ask these kinds of questions in a corporate survey?! I don't know what kind of unhinged quotas they have to fulfill, or what kind of fucking underwear fantasies they are trying to satisfy over a phone call! This is completely psychotic!"
Malesh smoothly adjusted his soot-stained tailored cuffs, entirely unfazed by the absurdity.
"Well, Kniya is always like that," Malesh deadpanned to the rest of the room. " You literally always get calls from weird people."
"Yeah, but I don't know why they are always connected to underwear!" Kniya complained loudly, throwing his hands in the air. "This is literally the second time this has happened!"
The Emotionless Statues
Trying to shake off the deeply disturbing telemarketing experience, Kniya turned his attention back to the laboratory.
He noticed Shuntesh's two roommates standing near the back wall. Despite the fact that the reactor they had helped build was actively glowing with limitless power, they were slouched against a concrete pillar, staring blankly at the floor, completely devoid of any human reaction.
Kniya crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, Shuntesh," Kniya pointed out, his tone dropping into serious inquiry. "The thing is that... your friends do not seem too happy about your massive, historical achievement."
Shuntesh turned to look at his roommates. He took a long, incredibly exhausted breath, his shoulders dropping.
"Sir, I think so... they are just some emotionless, useless bastards," Shuntesh roasted them, his voice laced with pure, soul-deep frustration. "They are literally worse than a street dog. When a dog gives birth to a baby, it is visibly more happy and energetic than these fucking idiots. They are literally just emotionless statues."
From the back of the room, the two roommates didn't even flinch at the brutal insult. They just slowly blinked.
"Yeah..." they groaned lazily in perfect, lethargic unison.