Strange strings of text, neither an Earth language nor human binary, flashed by in milliseconds before the system’s subroutine translated them into English.[CRITICAL WARNING: Automatic Defense Protocol Breached.][Source: External (Outside Terrestrial Radius).][Primary Encryption Locked: Preserving Host.][Cost of Maintaining Mental Security: Pain Scale 8.]“My God, Boss, you’re bleeding,” Caleb whispered, his face drained white as he took a step back, not knowing what to do, while Nikolai, seeing his employer bleeding and writhing in pain like that for the first time, could only stare in stunned confusion.Matthew wiped beneath his nose with the back of his hand. Fresh dark red blood trickled slowly from his right nostril. This was a price exacted by the system. He had unconsciously drawn too much power just to hold back the foreign signal.If his brain had not been protected by the ARC System, that high-density signal from deep in the solar system might already have turned his min

Night had not yet ended over New York City.On the rooftop of ARC Monolith, the helipad stood empty, battered by roaring winds. Matthew Thomas stood at the edge of the parapet, a long black coat whipping violently around him. The air was bitterly cold, but he paid it no mind.Beside him, Viviane stood tall, cradling Dominic, their one-month-old son sleeping peacefully inside a thick insulated jacket. The night sky was strikingly clear after the storm. Stars burned with sharp brilliance, like silver eyes watching from the distance.Then, a deafening chorus of alarms shattered the silence. The phone in Matthew’s coat pocket vibrated violently. At the same moment, the satellite communication device on his wrist lit up.And not just his. Across the world, from the Pentagon in Washington to Central Command in Moscow to Vincent Chen’s maritime bases in the Asia-Pacific, red alert sirens howled in unison.“That’s a global air defense warning signal,” Viviane said, her voice nearly swallowed

Two hours after the Tyrant’s Ultimatum, the War Room on the upper floor of ARC Monolith Tower was saturated with a tension sharp enough to cut with a knife.At the center of the circular chamber, a massive holographic table projected a slowly rotating map of Earth. Red points marking military and civilian crisis zones kept multiplying.Vincent Chen, the Asia-Pacific conglomerate magnate, looked haggard, repeatedly wiping sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. He sat beside Caleb Foster and Nikolai Sergeevich.On a vertical display, Veronica Wu’s face looked exhausted as she monitored logistics from Geneva.Then the steel doors opened. Matthew Thomas stepped inside, radiating an aura of absolute dominance that made the room seem to drop several degrees in temperature. No one dared speak before he took the central chair.“Report,” Matthew ordered.Vincent Chen cleared his throat roughly.“Mr. Thomas, as ordered, I’ve consolidated all logistics corporations across Asia, but the sei

The Main Control Chamber on the upper floor of the ARC Monolith had descended into chaos. Technicians rushed from one console to another, shouting emergency codes while the giant wall screens blazed with blood-red warnings.When the steel doors burst open, Matthew strode in with long, rapid steps. The force of his presence alone made several technicians stop panicking.“Caleb, report. Now!” Matthew shouted.Caleb Foster, hammering frantically at a virtual keyboard with sweat streaming down his face, turned at once.Something strange was happening. The probes, those detection devices that had done nothing but observe from the skies, were suddenly moving downward.“Mr. Thomas, thermal anomalies in the stratosphere have spiked ten thousand percent. Five thousand blue cylindrical probes that had remained stationary are breaking formation. They’re descending into the troposphere.”“Are they heading for major po

The Pacific Ocean above the Mariana Trench churned violently. Yet ten thousand meters beneath the surface, the world felt frozen in absolute silence.The Abyssal Leviathan, an experimental Archon-class submarine armored in zirconium-carbon plating, descended through the eternal darkness like a black needle piercing the heart of the Earth.The only light came from the instrument panels inside the cockpit and the external floodlights, which could barely penetrate the crushing blackness of these depths. The groaning of metal under millions of tons of seawater echoed constantly, like the roar of a dying beast.Inside the main cabin, Nikolai Sergeevich gripped his harness until his knuckles turned white.“I hate water, Boss,” Nikolai muttered, cold sweat streaming down his temples.“On land, if someone shoots at me, I can shoot back. Down here? If that ten-inch glass cracks by even a hair, we all get compressed to the size of