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The moment Ethan stepped through his front door, the System spoke.
*[Level 2 Mall loading complete. Product list updated. Host, please make your selection.]*
The voice was different.
Not dramatically different. Still cold. Still precise. Still the voice of an intelligence that viewed human emotion as a data category rather than an experience. But it had shifted from the genderless monotone of the Level 1 Mall to something distinctly feminine. Cool. Elegant. The vocal equivalent of a woman in a tailored suit who would answer your questions efficiently and judge you silently for asking.
Ethan approved.
It seemed the System understood customer retention. After half a million Prestige points in transactions, a service upgrade was appropriate.
He opened the interface.
-----
*[Prestige: 348,390]*
*[Items: None]*
*[Level 2 Mall] (Spend 2,000,000 to unlock the next level; current spending: 0/2,000,000)*
-----
*MARVEL SERIES*
- Artificial Intelligence Technology — Larval Stage *[J.A.R.V.I.S.] (Marvel Universe, Iron Man series)* — 100,000 Prestige
- Battle Armor Mark V Manufacturing Technology (Suitcase-style suit; relatively poor defense but highly portable) — 100,000 Prestige
- Battle Armor Mark VI Manufacturing Technology (New energy suit; utilizes an advanced nuclear reactor with enhanced performance) — 150,000 Prestige
- Battle Armor Mark VII Manufacturing Technology (Flight pod armor; rapid deployment system; combat suit with extensive weapon hardpoints) — 200,000 Prestige
- Stark Element Synthesis Technology (New element discovered by Tony Stark; reduces reactor pollution while enhancing performance; applicable underwater) — 200,000 Prestige
- Vibranium Element Synthesis Technology (One of the hardest metals in Marvel; possesses sound-absorbing and shock-absorbing properties) — 500,000 Prestige
-----
Ethan's throat went dry.
Vibranium. The metal that was so rare in the Marvel universe it was basically a myth. The material Captain America's shield was made from. Near-invulnerable hardness. Perfect energy absorption. Sound-dampening. Shock-dampening.
And the System could synthesize it.
Not mine it. Not import it from a fictional African nation. Synthesize it. Which meant mass production. Which meant an entire suit of armor built from Vibranium.
If that armor existed, today's battle would have been a joke. Forget eighty 20mm machine guns. Forget medium-weight missiles. A Vibranium suit could tank all of it and ask for seconds.
But 500,000 Prestige. He had 348,390. Not enough. Not yet.
He kept scrolling.
Below the Marvel series, a new category had appeared.
-----
*TRANSFORMERS SERIES*
- Bumblebee Manufacturing Technology (Standard warrior-class Transformer) — 200,000 Prestige
- One-Time AllSpark (Required to give life to a Transformer; one AllSpark awakens one unit) — 100,000 Prestige
- Megatron Manufacturing Technology — [price that made Ethan's blood pressure spike]
- Optimus Prime Manufacturing Technology — [price that made Ethan stop looking]
-----
Ethan closed the lower price listings before his cardiovascular system lodged a formal complaint.
Transformers. Living machines. Autonomous combat platforms with their own intelligence, their own initiative, their own ability to fight without a human pilot. In the movies, Bumblebee alone had been a one-unit army. And the System was offering the manufacturing technology plus the spark of life that would make it real.
If Ethan could build even one Transformer, it would be an invisible bodyguard that never slept, never ate, and could fight with the tactical intelligence of a living being.
Incidents like Frank's kidnapping would become impossible.
Then he saw the bottom of the interface.
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*LIMITED TIME SALE*
To celebrate the opening of the Level 2 Mall:
Bumblebee Manufacturing Technology + One-Time AllSpark + A.I. Technology [J.A.R.V.I.S.] Larval Stage
Original price: 400,000 Prestige
*SALE PRICE: 348,000 Prestige*
-----
Ethan stared at the number.
348,000.
His balance was 348,390.
The System wasn't offering a discount. The System was emptying his wallet.
Where did the cold, authoritative systems from stories go? The ones that spoke in cryptic riddles and dispensed power with mysterious indifference?
How did I end up with a System that runs anniversary sales and prices bundles to the exact cent of my balance?
Just say you want all my money and be done with it.
This was the first time in his life that Ethan felt his balance was too high. He was certain that if he'd had 250,000, the bundle would have been priced at 249,990.
But after thinking it through — genuinely thinking, not just reacting to the absurdity — the bundle was the right choice.
He already had battle armor. The Level 2 suits were upgrades, but they were incremental. Better reactors, better deployment systems, more weapons. Important, but not transformative. He could build toward them.
A Transformer was different. A Transformer was a force multiplier that didn't require Ethan to be present. An autonomous protector. A bodyguard that could watch over Frank and Linda while Ethan was on the other side of the world.
And J.A.R.V.I.S. — even in its larval stage — was an artificial intelligence. The foundation for every future armor system, every automated process, every piece of technology that needed a mind behind it.
Also, if he didn't take advantage of a deal, he'd be miserable about it for weeks.
He bought the bundle.
*[Redemption confirmed. Transferring knowledge…]*
The data flood was unlike anything he'd experienced before. The Level 1 downloads — reactor, armor, serum — had been substantial. This was an ocean. The manufacturing specifications for a Transformer were orders of magnitude more complex than a suit of armor, because a Transformer wasn't just hardware. It was a civilization's worth of engineering condensed into a single unit.
The AllSpark knowledge was stranger still. In the Earth-Prime memories, the Transformers weren't invented. They were born. The AllSpark was the source of Cybertronian life, a cosmic artifact that turned dead metal into living beings. But the System had modified the concept, stripping the mystical elements and reframing it as technology. Reproducible. Controllable. The biological intelligence was reduced, which meant Ethan wouldn't have to worry about his creation developing its own agenda.
That was important. Against a species of intelligent machines, you had to be practical about loyalty. He'd link J.A.R.V.I.S. to monitor them once the A.I. was operational.
The download completed. Ethan sat on his bed, rubbing his temples, organizing the new knowledge into compartments that his mind could access without drowning.
*[Prestige: 390]*
From nearly 500,000 to 390. The System had cleaned him out.
He fell asleep with a head full of Cybertronian engineering and a balance that wouldn't buy a single item in the Level 1 Mall.
-----
Early the next morning, his phone rang.
Ethan saw the caller — Frank — and did what any rational person would do after saving the world: he hung up and went back to sleep.
Five minutes later, his front door opened.
Frank Holloway had a key. Frank Holloway had no patience. Frank Holloway was a former soldier who considered sleeping past dawn a moral failing.
He marched into Ethan's bedroom and yanked the covers off in one motion.
"YOU BRAT!"
"You dare hang up on me?"
Ethan sat up with his eyes still closed, wearing the expression of a man who could bench-press a helicopter but could not win an argument with his uncle.
Frank, seeing the lazy posture, did what he'd been doing since Ethan was five years old: he rapped him sharply on the head.
In the old days, this would have stung enough to wake Ethan instantly. But the serum had restructured every tissue in his body, including his scalp. Frank's knuckles connected with what was effectively a skull wrapped in biological armor.
The impact produced a dull thock. Frank's hand went slightly numb. Ethan didn't react.
Frank was preparing to escalate when Ethan scrambled out of bed with a grin.
"What's up, Uncle Frank? It's so early, I haven't had enough sleep."
"Ever since you dropped out, you've gotten lazier by the day. The sun is practically overhead and you're still in bed!"
Ethan, head bowed in the standard receiving-lecture position, glanced sideways at the alarm clock and then at the window.
The sky wasn't even light yet.
Overhead? The sun doesn't even have a shadow right now, old man.
But talking back to Frank Holloway during a lecture was a survival decision, not a debate tactic. Ethan chose survival.
"Here."
Frank shoved a stack of documents into Ethan's hands.
"Enrollment papers. Starting today, you're attending Ninth Middle School."
"You will go to class. You will sit at a desk. You will learn things that are not related to fusion reactors or battle armor."
Ethan's head swelled to twice its normal size.
He had a Transformer to build. An A.I. to develop. A suit of Vibranium armor to plan. The most important engineering projects in human history were sitting in his brain waiting to be born, and his uncle wanted him to attend high school.
But Frank Holloway's jaw was set in the specific configuration that meant "this is not a discussion," and Ethan, who had stared down the Defense Secretary of the Aurelian Republic without flinching, recognized a fight he couldn't win.
He took the papers.
"Yes, Uncle Frank."