Chapter 156: Grabbing Attention

"What the hell am I looking at?" a pedestrian muttered, slack-jawed, as the car rolled past him.The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet Imperium wasn’t just a car. For him, it was more like a vision that didn’t belong to the world he knew.

The onyx-black body shimmered with platinum microflakes that seemed to drink in the sun, its elongated form gliding silently over the road like a predator.

Heads turned instantly, conversations were cut short and coffee cups froze halfway to lips. A delivery cyclist nearly toppled over when his handlebars veered at the sight. Phones flew into hands as if by instinct, their cameras struggling to capture the impossible angles and surreal sheen of the car.

"Is that... a Maybach?" another man whispered, staring as though naming it aloud would summon disbelief. "No... that’s not anything Maybach has ever released."

The car drive down the street with grace, its presence parting traffic like a ghost ship on the ocean. Even the roar of engines around it seemed muted, insignificant, swallowed by its aura.

Inside, Liam leaned back in the seat, perfectly calm. Mason sat tense in the passenger seat, stealing glances every few seconds, while Nick gripped the wheel with a professionalism that was only skin-deep.

Liam noticed the way his knuckles whitened, the faint tremor he fought to hide. Even for someone who might had chauffeured luxury cars his whole career, this was beyond comprehension.

They turned onto Wilshire Boulevard, and chaos followed.

Pedestrians crowded the sidewalks, with phones raised. Some sprinted across intersections just to catch another glimpse. A

"Yo, what is that?" a teenager shouted, chasing after the car with his friends. "That’s not even out yet, bro! That’s like— that’s like 2050 level!"

"Shut up and record!" one of his friends barked, already live-streaming. Within seconds, the comments on his feed exploded.
. Within minutes, hashtags lit up across platforms:

#UnknownCar

#WhatIsThis

#FutureMaybach

#GodOnWheels

Speculation went wild. Some insisted it was a secret Applē car, while thers swore it had to be Elon Musk’s next project. A few conspiracy theorists were convinced it was military tech disguised as a luxury vehicle.

But no one guessed the truth.

For more than an hour, the Imperium crept toward LAX, leaving a trail of chaos in its wake. Traffic bated his fangs for blocks and police dispatch radios crackled with reports of "an unidentified luxury vehicle causing gridlock."

And through it all, Liam sat in perfect calm, one hand resting lightly on the armrest. He saw the drones above, but his expression never changed.

For him, the world could watch. They can speculate all they want, as none of it mattered.

Finally, the sprawl of LAX appeared on the horizon. Glass terminals gleamed in the afternoon sun, planes roared overhead, and the chaos of travelers filled the air.

But even here, even among the steady stream of luxury cars like Bentleys and Rolls Royces gliding toward private hangars, the Imperium drew every eye.

Security guards at the terminal gates froze as the car approached. Their radios crackled urgently. One guard raised his phone before his superior barked at him to put it away.

Thankfully he didn’t get fired that day.

Nick guided the car smoothly to Imperial Terminal’s south side. Hangar 14 loomed ahead, a massive structure of steel and glass.

The gates parted silently, and the Imperium glided forward, slipping away from the chaos outside and into the cool shadow of the hangar.

Too bad for the drones still hovering a few kilometres from the airport. They couldn’t help but wish that the no-fly zone didn’t exist, but they also knew when to stop. Besides, the drones that flew into the airport’s airspace were scrambled, jammed or even forcibly landed by the airport’s drone defense system.

As the doors shut behind them, the noise of the city dulled, replaced by silence. Mason opened the rear door, stepping aside as Liam emerged.

The moment Liam’s shoes touched the hangar floor, his eyes lifted — and he froze.

Before him stood a monster.

It dwarfed even the cavernous space of the hangar, gleaming beneath the industrial lights like a sleeping titan. Wings stretched wide, their span swallowing shadows.

And beside it were a group of people in professional attires. One of them, a man in a pilot uniform, walked towards Liam and greeted him.

"Good morning, Mr Scott. I’m Captain Adler," the man said, as he shook Liam’s hand.