Season 3 chapter 93
The Debt Empathy
Standing in the center of the laboratory, Kniya's bouncing, chaotic energy completely evaporated.
Hearing the word loan, a dark, heavy shadow fell over his mind. Everyone in this fucking world is conflicted with this fucking trap of a loan, Kniya thought to himself, a genuine spike of empathy cutting through his usual arrogance. Oh, fuck loans. I completely understand this guy.
Kniya cleared his throat, his tone dropping its theatrical flair for just a second. "Okay. How much loan do you have on yourself?"
The guy wiped his sweaty forehead, trembling. "Sir, it is around 50,000 credits."
Instantly, Kniya's super-charged energy exploded right back to life.
"Yeah, take it! Boom!" Kniya yelled enthusiastically. He reached into the inner pocket of his tailored coat, whipped out his executive checkbook, and aggressively scribbled a signature. He ripped the heavy parchment out and slapped it directly onto the technician's chest with massive, theatrical flair.
"Here is the 50,000!" Kniya announced loudly, throwing his hands in the air. "Just take it! It is really required for all of us to be happy in this miserable world! Do you hear me?! Happiness is mandatory! Now you don't have the loan! Work hard and do not steal from my lab again! Stealing is absolutely not a good job, okay?!"
The technician stared at the corporate check, his jaw practically hitting the concrete floor. He immediately dropped to his knees, sobbing. "Thank you, sir! Oh my god, thank you!"
Shuntesh's eyes bulged out of his head. He looked from the crying technician to the completely hyped-up Managing Director.
"Sir, you literally just repaid his entire loan?!" Shuntesh squawked, completely flabbergasted by the sheer lack of corporate discipline. "He was actively stealing our expensive alloys! I think we had to give him some kind of punishment!"
"Basically, Shuntesh, it is a really internal matter to me," Kniya replied softly, looking away.
Malesh immediately intervened, stepping smoothly between Shuntesh and Kniya. His wild, democratic energy completely faded, replaced instantly by a deeply profound, exhausted weight.
"Yeah, Shuntesh, it is really like that," Malesh deadpanned quietly, speaking in a highly classified, heavily coded language to completely hide their own sixty-trillion-credit nightmare. "We can basically get what he is going through right now from his statement. Extreme, life-ruining financial debt is... a really specific thing that we can entirely experience. And had experienced. So, just let it go."
The Final Judgment
Kniya tapped his chin, turning back to his best friend with absolute judicial seriousness.
"Yeah, so what should we give as the final judgment, Malesh?" Kniya asked, waving his hand toward the crying technician and the utterly exhausted head researcher. "You define the ruling."
Malesh slowly crossed his arms, looking at the scene with deadpan pragmatism. "Well, structurally speaking, both sides were entirely right in their respective places. Shuntesh caught a thief, which is good management. And the thief was stealing to pay off a life-ruining loan, which is highly understandable economics. Furthermore, you literally just compensated the accused with your own personal money. So the criminal ecosystem has been successfully balanced. Just leave this thing. The case is closed."
Shuntesh let out a deep, soul-crushing sigh. "Well... yeah. Fine. Whatever you say, sir."
The Underconfident Engineer
With the impromptu courtroom drama officially concluded, Kniya smoothly slipped his golden pistol back into his coat. He looked around the massive, spark-filled R&D laboratory, finally remembering their actual schedule.
"Yeah, so, Shuntesh, there is one critical thing that we need to ask," Kniya stated, dusting off his lapel.
Malesh nodded, stepping forward. "Exactly. Why did you actually call us down here? You called us out of nowhere on a Tuesday afternoon. What is the operational emergency?"
Shuntesh's annoyance over the thief completely vanished. It was instantly replaced by a wave of pure, suffocating underconfidence. He began to sweat profusely, his hands trembling as he looked toward the massive, heavily shielded isolation chamber at the back of the lab.
"Sir... the thing is that..." Shuntesh stammered, wiping his forehead. "The prototype reactor... it is officially complete. But—"
"But what?!" Kniya intervened immediately, throwing his hands up with chaotic excitement. "So what?! That is incredible news! Just start it! Let's test this fucking thing right now!"
"Sir, wait!" Shuntesh practically begged, his voice cracking with intense, overwhelming anxiety. "The thing is... I don't know if it will be a successful test or not! The thermal parameters are completely volatile! It could aggressively burst! It could melt down through the floor! Anything disastrous could happen!"
Malesh stared at him, entirely unmoved by the panic attack.
"Shuntesh, look at me," Malesh deadpanned, his voice flat and profoundly relaxed. "We are developing an entirely new, highly experimental technology. Failures are a fundamental part of this pipeline. Do not take so much tension regarding this thing. Are you taking too much dope in the breakroom? Relax your biological vitals. It is just a fucking normal reactor."
"Sir, it is a massive prototype!" Shuntesh squeaked.
"So just click the start button!" Malesh countered smoothly. "Don't get totally tensionized over it. Do not take your whole life for this single piece of machinery. Your reactions are completely disproportionate right now. I just had to say this."
"Yeah, definitely, Shuntesh!" Kniya chimed in, grinning ear to ear. "We invested so much money exactly because we wanted to develop a new, terrifying technology! And for new technology, we actively have to encounter massive failures! Just press the button and let the magic happen!"
The Mechanical Meltdown
Shuntesh swallowed a massive lump in his throat. He looked at the two executives, realizing they were absolutely not going to let him delay this. With highly hesitant, agonizingly slow steps, Shuntesh walked over to the reinforced control console.
His hand shook violently as he hovered his finger over the heavy brass ignition switch. Taking a deep, terrified breath, he clicked the button.
Instantly, a deep, rhythmic mechanical thrumming echoed through the laboratory. VMMMM... VMMMMM...
Inside the heavy isolation chamber, the massive iron reactor began to spool up. The heavy gears locked into place with terrifying force. A bright, blinding blue light emanated from the core, illuminating the entire facility. Hissing sounds erupted as high-pressure steam violently vented from the primary cooling pipes.
For exactly four seconds, it looked like a total triumph.
Then, a horrifying, high-pitched mechanical squeal pierced the air.
CLACK-CLACK-SCREEEEECH!
Thick, highly toxic black smoke violently erupted from the top vents of the machine. The blue light instantly flashed into an angry, unstable crimson red.
Right at that exact moment, the heavy doors to the lab violently burst open. Filoska and Salesh charged into the room just in time to witness the disaster.
BOOOOOOM!
A massive, deafening bursting sound shattered the silence. The reinforced iron casing of the reactor aggressively blew outward, sending a shockwave of heat and heavy smoke across the room. The absolute core of the machine instantly reached critical failure, melting down completely. Glowing, super-heated liquid slag poured out of the shattered chassis, pooling onto the concrete floor with a violent, hissing sizzle.
Shuntesh stood frozen behind the control console, violently rubbing his temples as his brain desperately tried to mathematically process what had just gone wrong. His vision blurred. He was completely, utterly distressed. The heavy smoke filled his lungs, but he couldn't even feel it over the absolute devastation crushing his chest.
Three silent tears spilled out of his eyes, cutting through the thick black soot on his face.
I ruined everything, Shuntesh's internal monologue screamed in pure despair. They are the guys who put all their trust in me. They invested billions of the company's liquid reserves into my specific blueprint. And I just led us to a massive, catastrophic failure. I completely burned the capital. It is all completely gone. I failed them.
The Billionaire Reaction
The thick black smoke slowly began to clear from the center of the room. Shuntesh continued to aggressively rub his temples, his breathing shallow as he braced himself. He fully expected the two Managing Directors to start screaming for his immediate termination.
Instead, Malesh casually waved the toxic smoke away from his face, entirely deadpan, as if he were just looking at a spilled cup of tea.
"Uh, Kniya," Malesh stated flatly, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at the glowing, melted crater. "I think the reactor burst out."
Kniya blinked, staring blankly at the bubbling pool of multi-billion-credit slag. "Yeah. I think so too."
And then, entirely out of nowhere, Kniya and Malesh looked at each other and just started laughing. It wasn't an angry laugh, and it wasn't a forced chuckle. It was a pure, unhinged, highly amused belly laugh that violently echoed over the hissing of the melted metal.
"Don't be depressed, Shuntesh!" Kniya yelled over his own laughter, waving his hand dismissively at the crying head researcher. "It was just a reactor! We can literally just make another one! Do not take too much tension!"
Malesh smoothly pulled a heavy leather-bound executive ledger and a brass fountain pen from his tailored coat, his face returning to its cold, pragmatic baseline. "Yeah, I am authorizing the treasury right now. How much amount is required to rebuild that exact thing, Shuntesh? Transfer five hundred billion credits to the R&D wing immediately."
"Yeah, I am transferring that exact amount to you right now!" Kniya agreed cheerfully, aggressively scribbling his signature on a fresh piece of heavy parchment. "Don't make it too much of a worry! Though, Malesh... look at that thing. It literally disassembled itself into pieces! What the fuck is that?!"
"Well, yeah, Kniya," Malesh deadpanned, watching the metal violently bubble against the concrete. "Sometimes you need to invest billions to make trillions. It is just the natural cycle of industrial progress."
Kniya immediately rolled his eyes, cutting his best friend off with an annoyed wave of his brass pen.
"Malesh, please, don't be a philosopher right now," Kniya complained, thoroughly rejecting the deep thought. "Don't teach me about this thing. Just save the heavy corporate lectures for the board meetings. Anyway, here is the absolute request from my side, Shuntesh: you can make a much better reactor next time! Just build it slightly less explosive!"