The thick cigar smoke exhaled by Arthur, the President Commissioner of the company, seemed to fill the air in the boardroom."You have truly gone insane, Shane. A giant protective dome project worth hundreds of trillions? Buying up an entire district in the company's name and hoarding food supplies for ten years?" Arthur slammed the mahogany table in front of him. His elderly face was flushed with anger. "Do you think you’re playing a survival game?! You’re trying to raid the company treasury!"At the end of the table, Shane Hilgord sat leaning back. His long, slender fingers spun an expensive pen with a slow rhythm. The bespoke black suit enveloping his athletic frame made him look like a predator observing a group of noisy herbivores."The land acquisition was completed last month, Arthur. The tungsten steel materials and the underground reactor core have already been installed. The project is 90 percent complete," Shane’s voice flowed flatly. "I called you here today not to ask for

Sloane took a long breath, ignoring the stinging pain in her chest from a mutant’s claw slash a few minutes ago. She spun the cylinder of her tactical revolver. Only two bullets remained. Hardly enough to face the horde crawling out from behind the overturned tanker truck.The elevated toll road had turned into a mass grave. Black smoke billowed from the wrecks of intercity buses and crumpled luxury cars, creating a confusing labyrinth of metal.Sloane ran with agility; she was a former Blackfire operative, a mercenary military unit accustomed to surviving in the most extreme battlefields in the world.From behind a pile of containers, a creature two meters tall leaped out. Its skin was a dull gray, covered in bone spikes protruding along its spine. Its hungry yellow eyes locked onto Sloane.Sloane did not stop her stride. She accelerated. As the mutant lunged with claws capable of tearing through iron, Sloane slid low, moving across the hot, rough asphalt. She fired one bullet precis

Vada Nathasea stared at the array of advanced medical instruments in awe. Before her, Shane Hilgord stood silently, his back to Vada, gazing at the view of the dead city beyond the giant glass screen."Chief Medical Officer—that is the position I am granting you, Vada. But the condition is simple. I need an answer that conventional science cannot provide."Shane pulled up a metal chair and sliced his fingertip with a silver scalpel. A drop of thick, pitch-black liquid, dark as the ink of night, dripped into a petri dish."Analyze this. Do not ask how I obtained it. Just tell me... what is happening with my genetics?"Vada swallowed hard. Her fear faded, replaced by the passion of a scientist discovering the greatest mystery of all time. She immediately got to work, inserting the sample into the Quantum Spectrometer. The monitor screen began processing data at a speed that made the server system groan.For ten minutes, the laboratory was filled with the sounds of busy machinery. Vada w

Nyx sat curled on a steel chair, her left hand clutching her right shoulder, which was wrapped in dull cloth soaked in black pus. The stench of rotting flesh caused by the Arcane radiation seeped slowly through the scent of ozone and the sterile air of the air conditioning.Shane stood staring out at the blue energy dome continually battered by the storm outside, his back turned to Nyx."Stage-three radiation burn. Arcane crystallization has already spread to the blood vessels in your right clavicle. Thirty-six hours. That's all the time you have left before your lungs turn to stone."Nyx hissed, tightening her grip on the black flash drive in her jacket pocket. "I hold the entire blueprint for Project Genesis. One flick of a finger on this console, and every encryption code for Eden's shield spreads across public frequencies. We go down together, Hilgord."Shane turned around slowly. He stopped right in front of Nyx, leaning down slightly until their eyes were level."You bypassed my