Chapter 204: Blue Lantern [1]

Ethan leaned back with a proud smile on his face as Lillian sent her a couple of messages about a new ’friend’ she had just met this morning.Of course he knew who this friend was, Athena had reported their meeting from the moment Olivia approached, after all, she had been keeping them both under surveillance.

At first all he felt was anger, knowing she was now within arms reach made him only want to snuff the life out of her as she had done him the previous life.

He thought he really was in complete control of his emotions, but he guessed not, after all, that reaction just bubbled up from nowhere, but after a few seconds, rationality took over again.

Yes he could end her right now but that would achieve nothing, except maybe completely freeing himself of his past life.

But right now, she had so much use, after all, she was now connected to the collector.

"I guess she really is meant to work with my enemies in every single life," Ethan said with a chuckle.

First, it was Nathaniel and now, the collector. She really was destined to always work against him.

After Nathaniel’s death, he had just ensured that she couldn’t get a job from anywhere and maybe if she had stayed out of his way, he’d have let her live her life, but now?

Now, she willingly brought herself to him, making him realize his mistake.

The past will always haunt you, if you do not permanently rid yourself of it and that was exactly what he would do, make his past completely disappear.

But not now.

Right now, Olivia had a pretty important role to play in this game between Ethan and the collector.

She was a pawn that knew the position and identity of its king and he was going to get that information out of her.

According to Lillian, she was a bit suspicious about the approach and had Athena do a ’bit’ of research on this Olivia and on the surface, everything looked normal.

She was a woman out of job, searching for one, she moved from California to Atlanta for that reason since most companies refused to accept her due to the questionable reputation of her previous company.

Though, that was strange, since most other employees from the same company had gotten jobs elsewhere and were comfortably earning, so there was definitely someone else involved.

But Lillian had no idea who.

The thing was, Olivia seems to have no active social life but she did travel to China around the same time Lillian was kidnapped and had met up with someone Athena had nothing one...

Not even cctv footage from the places where they met, this person always seemed to be positioned in the blindspots of the cameras...or maybe he was creating those blindspots himself.

All they knew was that he had silver...or maybe white hair and was quite tall, nothing else.

This made Lillian suspect that Olivia was either working with Madam Xu or the person that was behind her kidnapping the previous night, the one that was helping Victor, and in other words, the collector.

Though she did ask him for permission to keep pretending naive to actually find out who Olivia was working for, hence the reason for his smile.

{Ethan: you can, just make sure you don’t put yourself in danger.}

{My little Midas: I won’t.}

With that, he put the phone down his smile still on his face before he called out, "system?"

[Yes host?] It replied, the holographic screen appearing before him.

"Open status," he muttered and the blue screen before him suddenly changed again, displaying his status.

[Displaying status....

Name: Ethan Carter

Age: 20

Title(s): Innovator of the Impossible, Architect of Realities.

Technology Level: Tier 4

System points: 9,587,698 SP

System version: V 2.0 (progress: 18.2%)

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{Skills}

Quantum Field Manipulation: (Locked.)

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{Knowledge and Proficiency} [Tier 4]

Artificial Intelligence (AI): 100% → Tier 4

Robotics & Automation: 68% → Tier 3

Cybersecurity & Hacking: 100% → Tier 4

Quantum Computing: 52% → Tier 4

Biotech & Genetic Engineering: 98% → Tier 4

Nanotechnology: 80% → Tier 3

Energy Systems & Fusion Tech: 75% → Tier 3

Weapons & Defense Systems: 80% → Tier 3

Software & Algorithm Design: 96% → Tier 4

Material Science & Fabrication: 30% → Tier 4

Mechanical Engineering: 100% → Tier 4

Electrical Engineering: 98% → Tier 4

Quantum Engineering: 50% → Tier 4 ]

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{Assets}

Companies: OmniTech Corp, Solterra.

Current savings: $100,000,000

Income source(s): OmniTech Corp.

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{Inventions}

Sentinel, A.T.H.E.N.A, O.N.I, Vitaband, Mimic, mind helmet, Adaptive liquid alloy, Zero point energy core, Simulation Chair.

Current Tech influence: Low (25.45%)

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{Missions}

Mission Title: The World Network

Objective: Expand OmniTech’s operational presence into at least five major global sectors within the next 12 months.

Progress: 3/5 territories established.

Reward: Unlock of TDI’s 4th Module — [REDACTED].

Bonus Reward: +20% global influence, +10% system version.

Failure Condition: If OmniTech loses majority operational control in any two sectors.

[Project Aegis]

Objective: Develop a global defense network capable of withstanding extraterrestrial or quantum-scale invasions.

Time Limit: 1.4 Earth Years.

Failure Penalty: [Extinction Event]]

NB: Due to the host gaining access to Quantum field manipulation, the reward for the TDI has been upgraded.]

In just a few days of Vitaband’s launch his tech influence had gone up to twenty five percent and although that was still a bit far from hundred, one had to realize that the world was a huge place and the majority of his operations was in the US.

Though, both Vitaband and Sentinel were now available in Switzerland and South Korea thanks to his facilities there and he was aiming to expand into Africa next, but not until he dealt the collector.

His SP had also gotten close to ten million which meant close to buying two cloning pods, if only the damn system would allow him to upgrade his tech Tier to level five already.

He could try to inject the knowledge directly into his brain again but the system assured that this time his brain would blow up.

It wasn’t even a higher percentage, just a 99.99% assurance that his brain would flow out his nose as liquid juice if he tried it.

So he probably wasn’t going to....

Anyway, to the reason why he opened the system’s interface, he went to his owned blueprint tab, recalling that he had a blueprint for the healing pod.

Lizzy and Liam had been getting bored, their excitement of releasing Vitaband had died down after just a few days and they had already started tinkering and scribbling all over the boards in the labs just to come up with something new.

So, to keep them busy, he was going to downgrade the blueprint for the healing pod and see if the siblings could perfect it.

That should keep them busy for a while.

Speaking of medical tech, he had finally sent María one of the Vitabands and Athena is specifically keeping tabs on the results of each scan.

Nothing showed up just yet, but the moment it did he would know. At least he’d be able to prevent her death, unlike his previous life.

After a few minutes of tinkering with the blueprints and making sure that they’d still have a starting spot, but not enough to create a complete product, he closed the the system’s interface, stood up and stretched.

The sunlight spilling into his apartment told him that it was already noon, which he hadn’t even realized it.

"No wonder I felt so light headed," he muttered to himself, referring to the fact that he hadn’t even gotten breakfast yet.

If Lillian or Maria found out, they’d kill him , but still, he was feeling lazy to cook, so he just picked up his phone about to order something before shaking his head, deciding to head out.

After a few minutes, he was out of his previous clothes and into a fresh set of comfortable white ones.

He picked up his keys and phone, stepping out of the apartment and down the elevator, towards the parking lot.

Entering his car, he drove out of the building and towards a restaurant that had pretty good reviews online.

Besides, it was also close to his old apartment and he had visited it quite a few times in his past life....well, whenever he could afford to ’splurge’ anyway.

He drove in silence towards the Blue lantern restaurant and thankfully, there was no traffic on the way, after all, it was a weekend.

A few minutes later, he was at the restaurant’s door and he was pretty surprised.

The place now looked rundown, with the sign even barely holding up, which was far from the state he left it just a few months back...

Did something happen?

He slowly walked in, pushing the door open, the bell above let out a ding as he stepped in.

"Please take a seat, we’ll be with you in a few seconds," a voice shouted from behind the counter as the person had their back to him.

Ethan looked around, only to realize that there were no other customers, besides him, which was strange.

This place had the best food around, so why?

"What would you like to—" the person, an old man approached his table and said, before pausing, "you look familiar, do I know you?"

Ethan looked at the old man, he was the same that ran this place months ago but definitely wasn’t the one who took orders.

"It me old man," he said as he stood up, "Ethan."