The rain drizzled softly outside Raen's lab windows as he returned from the meeting with Veltren. Saelyn had already left without a word—something about the silence between them made it clear that the favor was now repaid, and whatever came next… was Raen's alone.
Inside, the warehouse buzzed with quiet anticipation. VoxFrame had already synced with the new rig, mapping out local systems. Cameras, sensors, lab doors, lighting—all part of a living organism now. The lab had breath. And the heart of it was about to be born.
Raen stepped into the lab proper, dragging his coat off his shoulders.
He stopped in front of the old rig's monument—the display case he had titled:
"Project Zero – The Machine That Carried a Thousand Failures."
He placed his hand on the glass and exhaled.
"This is where it really begins."
On the console, VoxFrame pulsed with a pale cyan glow.
[Notice: Systems awaiting initialization. Reactor blueprint shell loaded. Resource pool insufficient.]
Raen pulled up the dossier Veltren had given him and loaded it into VoxFrame. The AI began parsing materials, calibrations, containment shielding, and thermal routing plans for a miniature nuclear reactor designed for perpetual off-grid energy.
He walked over to the workshop desk, flicked on the screen, and watched lines of code scroll by.
This wasn't a fantasy anymore. This was mechanical engineering, nuclear physics, systems coding, and fluid dynamics—interwoven and alive.
With the Mechanical Systems Mastery active, Raen didn't just understand it.
He felt it.
Each gear ratio made sense before he calculated it. Every warning about coolant flow paths arrived in his mind like instinct. His fingers moved before the thought fully formed.
Still… the equipment wasn't all here yet. And the materials he'd need, even with Veltren's help, would take days to procure.
Until then, it was planning.
Planning, and making sure the system he designed would last a century, not just function.
A buzz.
Raen looked down at his comm-tab. A new message from VoxFrame.
[User schedule conflict detected: Food intake not logged. Health vitals below recommended threshold. Reminder issued.]
He rolled his eyes.
"You really don't talk, but you love nagging."
VoxFrame didn't respond. Of course it didn't—it wasn't designed to.
Yet it already felt alive.
He stretched, rubbed his temples, and glanced toward the house section. Furniture had arrived. The place was livable now. A far cry from the tiny, cracked apartment he used to hide in.
He walked back to the center of the lab, took out a notebook, and scribbled one title at the top of the page:
"ARK-1: Lab Reactor Design Protocols."
Under it, he wrote:
Goal: Independence from external energy networks.Duration: 100+ years self-sufficiency.Notes: Begin simulation tests. Integrate cooling system with VoxFrame surveillance logic. Backup coolant routing through lab wall. Test failsafes for heat thresholds.Phase 1 ETA: 9 Days.
He stared at the last line, then closed the notebook.
No more small wins.
This wasn't just about power anymore.
This was about building something bigger than him. Something real.