Chapter 43: Revelation and Trust

Jack paced back and forth, running both hands through his hair, his voice going up an octave.

"Bro, bro, BRO—"

"Do you realize what you've done?!"

"If people find out about this—no, WHEN people find out about this—this isn't just a big deal. This is an 'entire-world-collapses-into-chaos' kind of deal!"

He stopped and stared hard at Richard.

"Like… bro, this is 'governments-start-wars' level of bad."

"And you—you just casually built it. In our freaking basement. In our STUDIO. Like it's some weekend DIY project!"

Jack threw up his hands.

"HOW the hell are we supposed to cover this up?!"

Richard just grinned.

Then, he pointed down.

Jack blinked.

"…The floor?"

Richard's grin widened.

"We move it underground."

Just as he said that, the Echo-AMFS drone—still floating in the air—began humming softly.

Jack turned just in time to see a part of the basement wall start crumbling into dust.

Not breaking.

Not shattering.

Just—deatomizing.

Like it had never been solid in the first place.

A perfect, massive square disappeared into fine particles, only for the nanites to reassemble it into reinforced steel support beams.

Slowly. Methodically. The process was slow—but it was working.

Jack watched in stunned silence.

His lips parted.

He took a deep breath—

And then—

"OKAY, YOU KNOW WHAT? SURE. LET'S JUST CASUALLY DIG OUT A WHOLE UNDERGROUND BASE."

"YEP. TOTALLY NORMAL. NOTHING INSANE HAPPENING HERE."

He sighed, rubbing his temples.

"This is how supervillains are made, dude. This is literally an origin story for a comic book villain."

Richard just patted his shoulder.

"Relax. I'm not a villain."

Jack looked at him.

"That's exactly what a villain would say."

Jack hurriedly locked the studio door, his eyes darting to the curtained windows. He pulled one back slightly, checking outside as if expecting the entire military to come knocking.

Only when he was sure they were alone did he turn back to Richard, his expression dead serious.

"Bro, listen—""We're telling Grandpa about this."

Richard raised an eyebrow, grinning like he had just been caught sneaking cookies instead of, y'know, rewriting the laws of physics.

Jack pressed on.

"I don't know what insane thing you're gonna build next, but—"

Richard cut him off, his grin widening.

"A quantum server farm. For our lovely AIs." "Just a simple underground server farm. Nothing crazy."

Jack just stared.

Then for the next five minutes straight, he nagged.

Loudly.

Dramatically.

Hands flying, pacing back and forth, monologuing like a man on the verge of a breakdown.

"BRO, DO YOU EVEN HEAR YOURSELF?!""DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!""THIS ISN'T JUST 'COOL TECH'—THIS IS 'WORLD-ENDING SHIT'!""WE ARE—QUITE LITERALLY—TOO DANGEROUS TO EXIST!"

He pointed aggressively at the AMFS, which hummed ominously in the dim light.

"You don't just BUILD a machine that can TURN METAL INTO ANYTHING and NOT EXPECT CONSEQUENCES!"

Jack stopped pacing just long enough to run both hands through his hair, then continued his rant, voice borderline hysterical.

"OH! AND LET'S NOT FORGET THE DRONES!""DRONES, BRO. THEY'RE BUILDING A SECRET UNDERGROUND FACILITY RIGHT NOW!""THIS IS SOME SHADOW-GOVERNMENT-LEVEL, SUPER-VILLAIN SHIT!"

He stopped, whirled around, and pointed at Richard again.

"TELL ME YOU SEE THE PROBLEM HERE."

Richard casually leaned back, arms still crossed, and gave him a lazy grin.

"I see a lot of potential."

"OH MY GOD."

Jack groaned, dragging his hands down his face. He turned away, muttering incoherent things to himself, then turned back just as fast.

"RICHARD. DO YOU EVEN HAVE A BACKUP PLAN IF SOMEONE FINDS OUT?!"

Richard tilted his head thoughtfully.

"Well… I was thinking…"

Jack's eyes widened with cautious hope.

"Yes? YES? Finally, some logic??"

Richard's grin widened.

"…We could just build deeper."

Jack actually threw his hands into the air.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!"

------------

Jack only stopped when he got tired, flopping onto a chair and tossing the thin gold bar Richard had fabricated earlier.

He flipped it in the air a few times, catching it absentmindedly.

"Alright… so how does this work, anyway? The fabrication, I mean."

Richard watched as the Echo-AMFS drone slowly descended, continuing its methodical excavation.

The soil beneath the new area crumbled into nothing, atomized and restructured into reinforced steel beams.

"Every material gets transmuted into a dense atomic structure," Richard explained. "That's what makes the processors and chipboards so efficient. But it burns through metal like crazy."

Jack nodded slowly.

"Okay. Cool. So you need a crap ton of metal."

"Yup."

Jack squinted at the machine, rubbing his chin.

"What about power? This thing's gotta be sucking more juice than a small city."

Richard shrugged.

"I hooked it up to the mansion."

Jack froze mid-flip.

"…What."

Richard chuckled.

"Relax. The AMFS is flexible when it comes to power. It's running on low-power mode right now."

Jack stared at him, then sighed, tossing the gold bar onto the table.

"Look, dude. I don't know where the hell those nanites came from, and I won't ask anymore—"

He jabbed a finger at Richard.

"But PLEASE. At least warn me next time before you build something that could, oh, I don't know—completely shatter reality as we know it?"

"If someone walks in while you're doing this—game over, man."

Richard scoffed, leaning back with a smirk.

"No promises."

Jack side-eyed him.

"Dude."

Richard chuckled before shifting his gaze to the AMFS, the black monolithic machine humming softly in the dim light.

"Ever since our game's release, the unexpected happened. I knew the AI would freak people out, but…" he gestured vaguely. "I didn't expect the entire world to be this interested."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean, bro? It's AI. Of course they're gonna freak out."

Richard let out a deep sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I ran multiple scenarios in my head. I had a few ideas on how to handle the attention, but this... this is bigger than I predicted."

Jack leaned forward, eyes narrowing.

"How do you plan to solve it?"

Richard's lips curled into an enigmatic smile.

"You'll see."

Jack gave him a flat look.

"No. No more cryptic bullshit. You're literally rewriting reality, Rich."

Richard just grinned, refusing to elaborate.

Jack groaned, rubbing his temples before turning his attention to the deep pit that the Echo-AMFS drone had been digging. The sheer precision of its work was unsettling—it didn't look like dirt had been dug out at all. It looked erased.

He peered down into the darkness.

"…How deep is this, anyway?"

Richard glanced at the hovering display in his vision.

"Thirty feet."

Jack snorted.

"Dude. That's basically a bunker."

Richard nodded.

"Exactly."

Jack exhaled sharply, running a hand through his hair.

"…And doesn't that drone need power?"

Richard motioned toward the AMFS, specifically at the six circular slots near its base.

"It's running on a battery made out of compressed gravitonium—it can function for about four hours before it needs to recharge."

Jack's eyebrows shot up.

"Gravitonium?"

Richard nodded.

"Extremely dense, highly efficient. One unit of it is equivalent to about ten years' worth of nuclear energy."

Jack stared at him.

Then, very slowly, he muttered—

"…You're telling me that thing has the equivalent of a nuclear reactor inside it?"

Richard shrugged.

"Technically, yes. But on a much smaller scale."

Jack let out a dry, humorless laugh and shook his head.

"Bro. I still can't believe you built this."

Richard smirked.

"Not me."

He lifted his palm, and a swirling mass of microscopic nanites coalesced above his hand, hovering like a living, liquid shadow.

"Them."

Jack stiffened.

Even after seeing the nanites before, there was something deeply unsettling about them. The way they moved—like they had a will of their own—sent a shiver down his spine.

Jack's voice lowered.

"…Right. The nanites."

Richard nodded.

"I only give them the blueprint and the orders. They do the rest."

Jack narrowed his eyes.

"Like how you got the Vector Core knowledge?"

Richard's smirk faded slightly.

Jack leaned forward.

"…You said you got that from a dream."

Richard exhaled, his fingers tensing slightly before he made a decision.

He looked Jack straight in the eyes.

"I may have lied about that."

Jack froze.

Richard's voice was calm, but there was a weight behind it.

"I trust you, Jack. So I'm gonna tell you the truth."

Jack leaned in, his pulse picking up.

"Okay. I'm listening."

Richard took a deep breath.

"Before we moved from Laguna to Marawi… I accidentally ingested a self-replicating nanite."

Jack's face went blank.

"…Excuse me?"

Richard continued.

"It integrated into my brain. At first, I didn't realize what had happened, but then I started… seeing things."

Jack stared.

"Seeing what?"

Richard tapped his temple.

"A holographic panel—a system interface. It lets me access knowledge beyond anything we currently know. Imagine a universal empire, Jack. A civilization so advanced that what we consider 'impossible' is just basic engineering for them."

Jack's throat went dry.

"And… that's where you got the AI and the Vector Core knowledge?"

Richard nodded.

"Exactly. And this."

He flexed his fingers again, and the nanites swirled in a mesmerizing dance, shifting between liquid metal and black dust.

Jack instinctively leaned back.

"Bro, I've seen this movie before. The Day the Earth Stood Still. You do realize this is exactly how alien invasion plots start, right?"

Richard laughed.

"Relax, man. No aliens."

Jack wasn't convinced.

"Yeah? Then explain the 'knowledge beyond human understanding' part."

Richard just smirked.

Jack groaned, rubbing his face.

"…Okay. Fine. I'll bite. How do you get more knowledge?"

Richard's smirk grew wider.

"It's like a game."

Jack's eyes twitched.

"Oh, fantastic. You broke reality and turned it into a fucking RPG."

Richard chuckled.

"Basically. The system has a currency—SP. 'System Points.' Every time I build something, invent something, or contribute to humanity's technological advancement, I earn SP."

Jack pointed at him.

"Hold up. You mean to tell me that in order to unlock more god-tier knowledge, you have to… what? Level up?"

Richard grinned.

"Pretty much."

Jack dragged a hand down his face.

"…Richard. I don't know whether to be amazed, terrified, or both."

Richard laughed, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Why not all three?"

Jack groaned.