Liam was greeted by his friends the moment he walked in. They were all gathered in the living area, faces bright with excitement. But among them, no one looked more animated than Matt, who was almost practically bouncing where he sat.

Elise couldn't resist teasing him.

"You're this excited when you're not even getting one," she said, grinning. "What would you be like if you were actually getting a Lucid? Would you lose your mind?"

Matt turned toward her, with a wide grin on his face.

"Lose my marbles? Hell yeah! You have no idea. I'd probably pass out before I even turned the thing on."

Laughter broke out around the room. Even Liam chuckled quietly as he took a seat on one of the couches. The atmosphere was light, comfortable, and full of anticipation. He could tell that the whole group had been waiting for this moment all day.

Kristopher leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"So," he said, smiling. "How'd your meeting go?"

Stacy and the others echoed the question almost at once, curious.

Liam leaned back, crossing one leg over the other.

"It went fine," he said casually. "Just a lot of boring talk and measuring."

Kristopher chuckled when he heard that.

"You'll get used to it," he said. "Boring talk, measuring, posturing—that's ninety percent of business meetings once you reach the big table."

Liam shook his head slowly, a small smile forming.

"I don't plan on getting used to it," he said. "I'd rather get to a level where schemes and plans are useless against me."

That made the group pause.

For a moment, no one spoke. His tone was calm and almost indifferent, but the weight behind his words lingered in the air.

To reach a point where schemes and plans meant nothing… such a thing sounded impossible. Even the most powerful people in the world—the heads of corporations, old dynasties, royal families—all schemed. They had to. It was how the world worked.

The only way a single person could truly stand above manipulation was if they possessed something greater than wealth, greater than influence—absolute power.

A level of strength so overwhelming that no one, no matter their connections or armies, could dare move against them.

The thought sent a faint chill through the group, even if they couldn't explain why.

They exchanged quiet glances, each silently wondering just what kind of background Liam came from. The way he spoke—calm, certain, almost detached—wasn't the tone of someone merely wealthy. It was something else entirely.

Matt, sensing the sudden heaviness in the air, cleared his throat and decided to change the subject.

"Alright," he said quickly, "enough with the mystery talk. Liam, you wanna watch the Lucid delivery streams with us? They're about to start. A hundred out of the nine hundred sixty people who got the device are streaming it live."

The energy in the room immediately shifted back to excitement. Screens flickered on. The air filled with chatter again.

"Man, I'm dying to see those drones in action again," he said with his eyes lit up bright with anticipation. "Lucid's impressive, sure, but that delivery system—it's insane. I've watched those clips like ten times and I still can't figure out how they're moving. No sign of propulsion, no rotors sight or even a sign of them, no noise, nothing. It like they just glide through the air. I swear, if someone told me that was alien tech, I'd believe them."

Kristy snorted, shaking her head.

"You're such a tech geek. You probably dream in binary," she muttered.

The group burst into laughter again, even Liam. Harper rolled his eyes but grinned, taking the teasing in stride.

But Stacy wasn't laughing. She looked thoughtful, with her arms crossed.

"Harper's not wrong," she said. "Nova Technologies isn't just changing things—they're rewriting the rules. Two technologies that no one even came close to—that's not luck. That's something else."

The others quieted slightly, listening. Stacy continued, her tone steady and analytical, "Every corporation on the planet — tech or not—is probably trying to get a piece of them right now. Same for governments. Nova Technologies is basically a treasure chest of world-changing inventions. They've developed a local self-processing AI—that alone puts them decades ahead. Then there's the neural tech—non-invasive, perfectly stable, integrated into a VR ecosystem so real it's like another dimension."

She paused for a moment before going on, "And now there's what people are calling infinite energy. The Lucid's power core doesn't deplete even after twelve hours of full use. That's unheard of. And somehow the device runs all that without overheating or failing."

She shook her head and continued, "And then there are the drones operating beyond all known aerodynamics. If anyone ever managed to reverse-engineer even a fragment of what Nova's built, the power shift would be catastrophic."

The room went quiet again until Kristopher let out a low whistle.

"You've really thought about this," he said, smiling faintly.

"It's hard not to," Stacy shrugged. "The company's keeping itself private, which is smart. If they'd gone public, governments and corporations would've torn them apart already."

Liam couldn't help but look at her with quiet admiration. The way she pieced everything together—precise, calm, and correct—impressed him deeply. He hasn't gotten to know her much and she was starting to interest him.

Kristopher nodded thoughtfully.

"You're right," he said. "And I just hope Nova's got the right people behind them—powerful ones. Because once the big players figure out who owns it, things are going to get messy fast."

Everyone agreed at once.

Liam's smile deepened slightly as he listened, though he said nothing. The irony of their words wasn't lost on him.

Then Alex spoke up, breaking the rhythm. "Actually," he said, "has anyone ever stopped to ask whether Nova's even a private company at all? What if it's not? What if it's a front—government, military, corporate — take your pick?"

That earned him a few raised brows. Kristy frowned. "What do you mean, a front?"

Alex leaned back, folding his arms. "Think about it," he said. "How could a company like that even exist without someone high up knowing about it? You can't just manufacture a thousand units of Lucids, or build fleets of drones that move like that, without materials, components, and international shipments. And you definitely can't move all that without raising red flags. Governments monitor everything related to dual-use tech—anything that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. There's no way something like Nova slips through without someone noticing."

The group fell silent again, this time for a different reason.

Alex pressed on, his tone more serious. "It's just like Bitcoin and Satoshi Nakamoto. You really think some anonymous nobody or group created a global financial revolution and no one's found them after more than a decade? No. Someone knew. Someone protected that identity because it served a bigger purpose. Maybe Nova's the same. Maybe they're not hiding because they're afraid. Maybe they're untouchable because they're backed by the kind of power that doesn't answer to anyone."

No one spoke for a while after that.

Harper's brow furrowed as he thought about it.

"That… actually makes sense," he admitted. "It would explain a lot. Maybe that's why no one's ever seen the company's executives or heard of its founder."

Matt exhaled slowly, rubbing his chin. "You know, I never thought about it that way," he said. "And that's kind of embarrassing, considering our backgrounds."

Elise nodded. "Same. It's weird that we didn't catch that earlier."

Kristy leaned back with a sigh. "So what you're saying is that this whole time, we've been watching a government science project pretending to be a tech company?"

Alex gave a noncommittal shrug. "Maybe. Or maybe it's something else entirely. Either way, no one outside their circle will ever really know unless the people behind Nova decide to talk—which, according to Stacy, is never happening."

Matt nodded slowly. "Exactly. And honestly, it doesn't even matter whether Nova's a real private company or a front. The fact is, they've already changed the world. Everyone's trying to catch up, and no one even knows who they're chasing. They are taking the whole planet for a ride—a long, long ride."

The group fell into thoughtful silence. The sound of the television filled the background as the first live deliveries began to stream. A couple drones descended from the sky like falling stars, sleek, silent, and surreal. It was a display of perfection that no one could explain.

Liam watched them all quietly. Their discussion had impressed him deeply. They weren't just smart—they were perceptive, analytical, and curious in the right ways. Each had approached the same mystery from a different angle and arrived at valid conclusions.

But even so, none of them were close to the truth.

He smiled faintly to himself. They had no idea who they were sitting beside—no idea that the man listening so quietly was the one they were analyzing, the one who held the keys to every mystery they just described.

He leaned back, stretching slightly, the corner of his mouth lifting into a relaxed, amused grin.

They had done well. But now, he thought, it was time to give them the biggest shock of their lives yet.

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