Chapter 151: The Party

Ethan walked out his lab after another day with h barely any progress on the infinite energy orbs.The most stable he had achieved was the one used to test the simulation chamber, which, thanks to the system had fried up.

The rest just kept blowing up in his face, why? Well, because he couldn’t get that much energy being recycled over and over without it leaking and blowing the orb up.

Now, he could use TDI to perfect it but that would mean sacrificing a couple of credits from the system’s reward from achieving it.

But at this point, he was sure he’d just have to work with that.

Besides, he had accumulated enough SP so losing a few wouldn’t be that concerning.....though, considering the preparation he had to do, he was sure any but of SP would come in handy.

He took off his gloves and lab coat before walking to the bathroom to wash the burnt scent clinging to him, off.

A few minutes later, he walked out with wet hair and headed towards the couch before plopping down.

{The meeting with Caldwell Hospital has wrapped up,} Athena informed.owards him, he turned it on and scrolled through his contacts until he came upon the name: My little Midas.

Ethan opened a messaging app and sent a simple text, [Ethan: Well done.]

Her reply soon came and he sent a text or two more before putting the phone down. That was step one complete, a lot more steps to go.

But with the way things are going, he was sure he’d have completed most of the important steps before the year ended...or at least, that’s what he hoped.

"System, open the Library." With his words, his surrounding changed again and he was back in the void, where all the knowledge he had learnt were arranged on shelf like objects.

But there was a question that crossed his mind, the system wouldn’t call this a library if it only contained knowledge that he knew, only refined and holding more weight, it’d had called it an archive or something.

Which raised the question, was there other knowledge in the library that he could acquire?

"System," he called out.

[No,] it responded, [although there’re other knowledge in the library apart from the host’s acquired knowledge, it is restricted from you for now.]

"I see," he muttered, "then we’ll just sit here till the Krylins arrive and I’ll just hand you over.... I’m pretty sure they’ll have a way of extracting you from me."

[Is that a threat] the system asked.

"Not at all," Ethan said, "since you think it’s the best course of action to keep most things restricted even though we have so little time before they come for you."

"I’m sure you’ll find a way to escape again and find another host...after all, you are the god cube." He added.

To show how serious he was, Ethan proceeded to plop down the void-like floor.

[...]

"....."

[The host’s safety is prioritized,] the system finally said after a while, [Certain knowledge exceeds your current comprehension threshold.]

"Then why not just make them comprehensible as with the knowledge capsules?"

[Unlike with knowledge that deals with technology, the library holds knowledge that you shouldn’t have access to right now, else it’ll fry your brain.]

"...."

[Besides,] the system added, [there’s no way for me to be extracted from you without help from my origin, which will never happen, so it’s either you die and this shard of mine is lost forever or we stop them.]

Well, that convinced him.

"Right." He ran a hand through his damp hair, staring into the void a moment longer. "Fine. Keep your secrets."

Ethan stood up, wiping off the invisible duston his pants before finally walking towards the holographic section.

Open the TDI, let’s finish this orb.

****

A few days after

Lillian stepped into the backyard of the private villa of the Caldwell family with her team, they were led by a maid.

Stepping into the backyard, she immediately realized that her definition of small party was quite different from Gabriel’s.

"Looks more like a gala," Liam whispered, eyes wide as he took in the sight of elegantly dressed guests mingling and laughing. "Do rich people just... call everything small?"

"Apparently," Lillian murmured.

And he was right, the backyard was arranged in a way that a gala was the first thing that would come to mind.

Aria was the first to spot her from across the backyard, the moment they were a bit away from the door. "Lilly!" she called out cheerfully, waving her over before Gabriel could even turn.

Lillian smiled faintly and made her way toward them, leaving her team to interact. "Aria," she greeted with a small nod, then glanced at Gabriel. "Mr. Caldwell."

Gabriel chuckled softly, shaking his head. "Still that formal, huh? We’re not in a place of business, Lillian, you can just call me Gabriel tonight."

"I’ll try," she said, her tone was perfectly polite, though it was obvious she wouldn’t.

Aria looped her arm through Lillian’s with a grin. "You look stunning! I was beginning to think you’d show up in a suit since I wasn’t there to help."

"I considered it," Lillian replied with a small smirk. "But then I remembered you’d never let me hear the end of it."

"Damn right." Aria responded with a grin.

"I guess your definition of small is quite different from mine huh, Mr Caldwell." She turned back to Gabriel who awkwardly chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, I might’ve gone a bit overboard with the preparation," he said, letting out an awkward chuckle, Aria had warned that this was a bit too much, but he had been hoping to impress her...after all, she was Aria’s bestfriend.

"Anyway, welcome to the party."