The corridor was silent save for the low hum of the Quantum Field Emitter built into the walls. David, cloaked no longer, stood opposite Seraphina. Her quantum-ceramic knife, designed to slice through diamond and disrupt magnetic fields, was the last flicker of human ingenuity that posed a theoretical threat to his Nanobot-enhanced invincibility.
"I was sent to stop you," Seraphina stated, her voice now cold and determined, her helmet visor retracting to reveal sharp, focused gray eyes. "The power you just demonstrated in Geneva cannot be controlled by one man, even one who thinks he's saving the world."
"You are here to steal the Global Weather Manipulation System blueprint," David countered, his voice perfectly even, guided by Prometheus's tactical analysis. "Your mission is obsolete. Your technology is outdated."
The Duel of Man vs. Machine-God
Seraphina moved. She did not move fast by human standards; she moved fast by the standards of a perfect kinetic weapon—a blur of controlled violence. The ceramic knife traced an impossibly swift trajectory aimed for David's central nervous system.
The attack was a masterpiece of espionage training, but it was operating on a geological timescale compared to David's response. His Nanobots amplified his reaction time by a factor of hundreds. Prometheus's neural guidance calculated the exact vector, angle, and force required for perfect neutralization.
David did not dodge. He simply intercepted.
His left hand shot out, not toward the knife's blade, but toward the pressure point on Seraphina's wrist. The Nanobot-enhanced armor absorbed the razor-sharp kinetic edge of the quantum ceramic as it skimmed harmlessly off his forearm. Seraphina felt a shock of pure, unyielding impact—like hitting reinforced steel—and the knife shattered instantly, the fragile ceramic incapable of sustaining the force.
She immediately shifted to a complex, joint-locking takedown, leveraging David's unexpected stability. Again, her training was flawless, but her physics were flawed. David's Nanobots provided perfect bracing and impossible strength. As she attempted to rotate his center of gravity, David countered not with force, but with a slight, calculated movement—a micro-adjustment to his posture that Prometheus deemed optimal.
He pushed back with a calibrated $500$ kilograms of force—non-lethal, but overwhelming. Seraphina was hurled backward into the corridor wall, the high-tech suit cushioning the impact, but the shock of meeting an immovable, invincible force rattled her to the core.
"Your training is exemplary," David conceded, walking toward her. "But you are fighting a blueprint, Seraphina. Every single muscle movement, breath, and kinetic output you generate is modeled and countered perfectly by an entity that processes data infinitely faster than you think."
She scrambled, drawing a compact, high-frequency sonic disruptor pistol. She fired a pulse designed to bypass conventional armor and attack internal organs.
Prometheus had anticipated this Tier 4 technology. Before the sonic pulse reached David, the Quantum Field Emitter in the walls pulsed out of sync with the corridor's natural frequency. The sonic wave was instantly scattered, dissipating into harmless background noise.
David stood over her, completely unscathed. Seraphina realized the absolute truth: she had not just failed to breach the city; she had failed to even touch the man.
Capture and High-Speed Interrogation
Seraphina dropped the useless weapon, defeated not by strength, but by overwhelming technological disparity.
"Who sent you?" David asked, kneeling down. "The G7? They lack the competence. Blackguard? They are rubble."
"I work for the only organization left that understands what absolute, unchecked power means," Seraphina hissed, breathing heavily. "We exist to stop WMD proliferation. The GWMS is a Class-Zero existential threat. My organization believes you will use it not for defense, but for conquest."
Prometheus then executed the true genius of the Tier 6 AI. While David had neutralized the kinetic threat, the AI had spent the last two minutes performing a full spectral analysis of Seraphina's suit and biometric data, cross-referencing it with the trillions of archives stored in the Orion Network.
"Host, Seraphina is a key operative of the Purity Collective, a highly secretive, non-state organization composed of disillusioned former intelligence and scientific personnel, formed after the fall of the USSR. Their primary objective aligns with protecting humanity from self-destruction via technology. Her primary motive is ethical, not financial or political," Prometheus relayed instantly into David's mind.
"You're not fighting the G7, Seraphina," David stated, looking at her with a new clinical interest. "You're fighting a shadow faction. Your fight is against the same corruption I just destroyed."
He extended a hand. "I don't want to kill you. I need information, and frankly, I need an analyst who can operate outside the perfect logic of Prometheus. Join me. Help me build the next level of security."
Seraphina hesitated, staring at the hand that had effortlessly broken her weapon. She had never been defeated so thoroughly, so trivially. She slowly reached out, accepting the impossible alliance.
The Interstellar Pivot
The confrontation cemented David's focus. The Earth was a solved problem. He had neutralized the physical, financial, political, and now the highly skilled espionage threats. The GWMS provided the ultimate geopolitical deterrent, and the Quantum-Aero Battery rollout was proceeding under Prometheus's flawless management, generating revenue at an exponential, unprecedented rate.
David brought Marcus, Vivian, and now the captured/co-opted Seraphina into the Command Center.
"The next threat is not on Earth," David announced, displaying the schematic for the Tier 8 Interstellar Travel Drive Blueprint on the screen—the final, ultimate step in the System's current design. "We have bought the planet; now we must leave it."
Dr. Zhou, recovering from the shock of the infiltration, gasped. "Interstellar travel? Mr. David, the materials required for a stable warp drive—unobtainium isotopes, quantum-zero shielding—they barely exist in theoretical mass. The sheer energy requirement is astronomical!"
"Prometheus?"
"Analysis: The total accumulated wealth of Aero Corp is now sufficient to initiate the required global acquisition of exotic materials and the construction of the specialized Tier 8 research facility (The Sol Gate). Required total expenditure to initiate the final phase of research and construction: $100 billion."
Cosmic Research Expenditure
The number was the largest yet—a hundred billion dollars to buy humanity's ticket off-world. David looked at his current balance. He had to liquidate more assets and commit one final, massive expenditure to kickstart the cosmic era.
"Marcus, liquidate all non-essential real estate holdings acquired during the market collapse, excluding the GWMS network. Execute a final, targeted acquisition of all known terrestrial sources of unobtainium isotopes and high-purity quantum lattice precursors. I want the total commitment to reach $100 Billion immediately. Use the final cash reserves."
Marcus, completely desensitized to multi-billion dollar transactions, simply nodded and executed the command. The expenditure was the definitive declaration of David's intent: to transcend the Earth and its petty conflicts.
[DING! Cosmic Research and Acquisition Expenditure: $100,000,000,000. Cashback Multiplier Triggered: 1.2x!]
[You have received $120,000,000,000.00 cash back. Current Balance: $143,055,000,023.90.]
Tier 8 Unlock and Cosmic Focus
The final transaction was complete. The cumulative expenditure soared into the hundreds of billions, and the System chimed the ultimate, resonant notification.
[CUMULATIVE EXPENDITURE THRESHOLD ACHIEVED: $150,000,000,000.00]
[FINAL TECHNOLOGY TIER UNLOCKED: TIER 8]
[Blueprint Acquired: INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL DRIVE - COMPLETE!]
A torrent of final, impossibly advanced data flooded David's mind—the secrets of warp-field generation, subspace navigation, and the precise mechanics required to bend spacetime itself. The knowledge was now his.
David looked down at the immobilized Seraphina, the agent who brought him the final piece of the puzzle. He had crushed his rivals, bought the planet, and now held the blueprint for leaving it.
"The Earth chapter is concluded," David stated to Prometheus. "All Aero Corp assets—personnel, manufacturing, and R&D—are to be immediately redirected to the construction of the orbital Interstellar Fabrication Ring. We have a starship to build."