The midnight air of Builder City was unlike the desert; it was cold, electric, and smelled of ozone. High above the streets, in a luxury hotel suite that overlooked the neon-lit grid, the WORLD CHAMPIONS were preparing for rest. Faizan, Saad, and Nehal had already succumbed to the exhaustion of a 100-hour day, but Lam remained standing.
He leaned against the floor-to-ceiling glass, his reflection staring back at him. His eyes, usually a calm but piercing shade, were now a deep, predatory red. This was the mark of his Demon bloodline—a visual warning that his internal "Raw Power" was shifting into a higher gear.
The city below was a labyrinth of light, but in the dark alleyway three hundred meters down, something was wrong. Lam's "Genius" perception picked up a disturbance in the 100-second minute. A group of shadowy figures had cornered a young teenager. The boy was small, holding a satchel close to his chest as if it contained the secret to his life. The attackers weren't just common thugs; they moved with a coordinated, mechanical precision.
Lam didn't reach for the door. He didn't even move his feet.
VROOP.
The air in the hotel room folded. Using his newly awakened Teleportation ability—a gift from his Enderian heritage—Lam vanished in a flicker of red and black particles.
In the alleyway, the lead attacker raised a jagged metal pipe, ready to crush the boy's skull. "Hand over the blueprints, kid! A nobody like you doesn't deserve a dream this heavy!"
Suddenly, the temperature in the alley dropped.
VROOP.
Lam appeared directly between the boy and the pipe. He didn't use a weapon. He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets. He simply caught the metal pipe with his Endermite-plated hand. The sound of the impact was like a cannon firing—a Thouro-level collision that sent a shockwave through the brick walls.
The thugs froze. They looked into Lam's red eyes and felt a primal fear they couldn't name.
"You're interrupting my rest," Lam said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "And more importantly, you're trying to steal a dream. In my world, that's a capital offense."
With a flick of his wrist, Lam shattered the pipe into dust. He moved with a cinematic speed that the attackers couldn't follow. Within 10 WC seconds, the four thugs were pinned against the walls, neutralized by the sheer pressure of Lam's Combine Force.
Lam turned to the boy, who was shivering on the ground. The teen looked up, his eyes wide with a mix of terror and awe.
"Are you okay?" Lam asked, the red glow of his eyes slowly fading back to a neutral tone.
The teenager scrambled to his feet, clutching his satchel. "I... I'm fine. Thank you. You saved me... and my work. I didn't think anyone in this city cared about a 'Dreamer' like me."
CLIFFHANGER: Lam looked at the boy's satchel, sensing a familiar frequency of "Brilliance" radiating from it. "Don't thank me yet," Lam said, his voice cool. "What's your name, kid?"
The boy wiped the dirt from his face. "I'm... I'm a builder. But nobody believes in my designs."