From Idler to Tech Tycoon: Earth
Chapter 119: Half-Assed Reunion

Chapter 119: Chapter 119: Half-Assed Reunion

The heavy gates of the Bytebull Compound swung open with a soft hum, revealing Richard Santamo. He walked with a slight, almost imperceptible stiffness, pulling a wheeled luggage bag behind him. It was a prop, carefully chosen to sell the illusion of a recent, mundane "trip to Korea."

Inside, his mind churned. So much trouble to cover up one damn lie. A plastic surgery for a forced awakening. The things I do. He sighed, adjusting his grip on the luggage handle. The burden of his secrets, of his rapidly changing reality, pressed down on him.

Waiting at the entrance were his mother, Anita, and his grandfather, Estello. Anita, ever the doting mother, rushed forward, engulfing Richard in a hug that nearly squeezed the air from his lungs. Her expression was a chaotic mix of profound relief and immediate, unfiltered concern as she pulled back to hold him at arm’s length. Her eyes, sharp and scrutinizing, scanned his drastically changed appearance.

"Richard! Oh, my son! What happened to you?" Anita exclaimed, her voice a mix of alarm and maternal indignation. "You’re so... pale! And thin! But taller, too!" Her genuine concern clashed spectacularly with her blunt observations.

Nearby, Jack stood, meticulously observing the unfolding scene. In his mind, he ran through the script, the cues. He had bought Korean chocolates and soaps a week prior, carefully packaging them as "souvenirs." Every detail was accounted for, a testament to his loyalty and his understanding of the high stakes if their carefully constructed story unravelled.

Richard rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, launching into his rehearsed explanation. "Ma, I just... I went for a surgery. And a vacation. In Korea." He tried to sound casual, confident.

That was Jack’s cue. He clapped Richard on the shoulder with exaggerated enthusiasm, initiating their pre-planned act. "Bro! You’re back! Man, I missed you! What’s up with the new look, huh? South Korea, right? Told you it’d be wild! You wouldn’t believe what Richard saw there, Grandpa!" Jack’s voice was too loud, too cheerful, a frantic attempt to sell the reunion.

Estello, however, remained silent. His eyes, narrowed to piercing slits, scrutinized first Richard, then Jack. A subtle bead of sweat trickled down his temple, a physical manifestation of his profound unease. He didn’t speak a word, but his gaze was heavy with suspicion, demanding answers that extended far beyond a simple vacation.

He knows. Or he suspects. Dammit, Jack, Richard thought, a wave of resignation washing over him.

Uh oh. Grandpa’s on to us. This is gonna be a long night, Jack’s internal monologue mirrored Richard’s.

Estello finally shifted, giving them a pointed, silent look that screamed: ’You better explain all this shit to me later.’ It was a promise and a threat. Richard and Jack shared a synchronized, mental sigh of resignation. The tension was palpable. Estello’s heightened perception, a whisper of his own connection to the "hidden world," made him a formidable presence, sensing the lie even if he couldn’t grasp its monstrous truth.

Anita, seemingly unconcerned by Estello’s silent judgment, leaned in again, her voice dropping to a stage whisper that carried perfectly to the nearby Bytebull employees. "Honestly, Richard, what did they do to you?" She stood with arms akimbo, head tilted, scrutinizing him from head to toe. "You look... gay. Like those K-pop idols." She scoffed playfully. "And you’re too ugly to be a K-pop idol anyway. Your surgery’s no use, my son."

Richard’s face flushed crimson. "Ma!" he muttered, mortified.

A few muffled chuckles escaped from the discreetly observing employees.

Anita was on a roll, clearly enjoying herself. "And this white hair! Did you ask for that? You look like a ghost! And why do you look like a utility pole now? You’re so tall, but you’re so thin! They stretched you out like taffy! Next, you’ll be telling me you’re going to join a boy band, Richard, wearing eyeliner and singing about your feelings!" Her "gaslighting" was relentless, but tinged with a mother’s affection.

Richard wished the ground would swallow him whole. His immense powers couldn’t save him from his mother’s public humiliation.

Anita suddenly changed tack, leaning in conspiratorially. "Anyway," she whispered, her eyes twinkling, "did you want to go for a surgery because of your girlfriend?" She winked slyly. "Where’s your girlfriend anyway? Lina, right?"

Richard threw his hands up in exasperation. "Ma! She’s just my personal secretary, okay?!"

Anita waved a dismissive hand, a knowing smirk on her face. "Oh, ’personal secretary’! Please! You could’ve picked an ugly male secretary, but no, you picked a beautiful and curvy lady. Don’t tell your mother there’s no such thing as ’personal secretary’ these days. You think I don’t know how these things go? Bosses and their pretty little assistants... I wouldn’t be surprised if you both already did it!" She nudged him, a bawdy, knowing grin spreading across her face.

Miles away, in the quiet solitude of the Bytebull office, Lina was listening to every word through Richard’s comms link. A faint, almost imperceptible cyan blush spread across her cheeks, her perfect composure momentarily faltering. The super-intelligent AI, capable of processing galaxies of data, reacted with the shyness of a human teenager. It was a subtle, yet profound, blurring of the lines of her AI nature.

Anita, still chuckling at her own joke, straightened up. "Anyway, enough about your ’secretary’ and your ’K-pop’ transformation. You’re going to attend our family clan reunion. My side of the family, the Lundingan clan." Her tone shifted, becoming less teasing, more assertive.

Richard blinked, surprised by the abrupt change of topic. "Oh. Okay. What about the Santamo family clan?" he asked, a flicker of curiosity about his paternal side.

Anita’s expression changed instantly. The playfulness vanished, replaced by a subtle, simmering anger that tightened the lines around her mouth. "Nah, don’t worry about them." Her voice was dismissive, tinged with a deep-seated resentment. "Even before all your wealth, we were struggling to make a living. Your cousins and uncles from your father’s side don’t even bat an eye to us, since we’re just poor. They ignored us."

A shadow fell over Richard’s features as Anita continued, her voice laced with bitterness. "Yes, your father may have came from a rich family, but he’s also an asshole. No wonder he was cut off from his family."

Richard’s mind drifted, pulled back years ago, to a childhood memory he rarely allowed himself to revisit. His father. A drunken, volatile presence. He would always come home mad, his rage fueled by alcohol, and would always beat them, Richard and his elder brother, Ronnie. The beatings were frequent, brutal.

Then, the memory of that night. The screams. The terror. And Ronnie. His elder brother. Protecting them. Ronnie killed their father. A justifiable reason, Richard knew, even then. But then Ronnie left. Disappeared. Richard hadn’t seen him since. He wondered if he was okay. If he was even alive. The thought was a dull ache in his chest, a stark reminder of the scars that even immense power couldn’t erase.

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Black Site Nyrrh-Zeta

Deep within the frigid bowels of Black Site Nyrrh-Zeta, in an arena of scorched obsidian, Ronnie Santamo, designated Subject Omega, moved like a storm. Stripped down to his enhancements, his psionic-suppressing bracelets either removed or set to a passive mode that allowed raw power to flow without conscious control, he was a living weapon. Before him, an overwhelming tide of thirty, perhaps forty, Enhanced Supersoldiers of the Echo Legion surged forward.

Ronnie’s movements were brutal, raw, almost animalistic. His eyes, though focused, held a vacant intensity, lacking the spark of conscious thought. Every strike, every deflection, was driven by conditioned reflexes, by the meticulous bio-reprogramming he had endured. He was a marionette of immense power, acting purely on instinct and directives.

He unleashed a devastating combination of inherent strength, bio-engineered enhancements, and explosive psionic bursts. Crackling energy flared from his hands with a sound like tearing silk, disintegrating Echo Soldiers into motes of dust. He was a whirlwind of destruction, a testament to the chilling success of his conditioning and the potent, unleashed power of his Anu blood. The Echo Soldiers, formidable as they were, were merely fodder against his primal, unbridled fury. The arena filled with the wet thwack of impacts, the sizzle of energy, and the deep, resonant thrum of Ronnie’s roars, a sound that made the very air vibrate, something ancient and terrible.

High above the brutal spectacle, on a sleek observation deck of reinforced glass and steel, Lord Krull’kahn watched. His colossal, fifteen-foot reptilian form was still, the obsidian-like scales on his brow gleaming faintly in the deck’s ambient light. His piercing gaze, two slits of gold, never left the arena below, his nictitating membranes blinking with slow, reptilian deliberation. Beside him stood McKnight, his jaw subtly tightened, a shadow flickering in his eyes, and a meticulous Bio-Engineer Scientist.

On Krull’kahn’s data pad, Ronnie’s face was displayed prominently, beneath the cold designation "Subject Omega."

The Bio-Engineer Scientist, a figure of clinical precision, adjusted his glasses. His voice was calm, almost detached, his words carefully chosen despite the carnage below.

"Lord Krull’kahn, our final project of the CRISPR gene editing is now complete. As you can see from Subject Omega’s current performance, he is exceeding all combat parameters. His battle statistics show a sustained increase of over 150% above baseline projections. The integration of the supplementary genetic markers is stable."

Krull’kahn let out a low, guttural rumble, a sound that vibrated through the deck, a vibration that ran subtly through the floor. His head tilted infinitesimally, eyes still locked on Ronnie. "Indeed. A satisfactory outcome, Doctor."

McKnight watched Ronnie, his gaze distant, his breath held for a beat longer than necessary. "He performs well, Lord. He remembers his training."

The scene was a chilling tableau of advanced scientific capability. The Krill’s mastery of CRISPR gene-editing and bio-engineering was terrifyingly effective, turning a human into a controlled, powerful weapon. Krull’kahn’s cold, calculating nature was evident; Ronnie was merely a project, a successful experiment, and nothing more in his eyes.

Krull’kahn’s thoughts swirled, revealing a strategic mind as vast and cold as the void between stars. A subtle, almost imperceptible tightening around his jowls, a momentary narrowing of his pupils, conveyed his disdain.

Humans.Their ingenuity is a terrifying thing, a spark of true creation. Yet, they are so easily led by fear, so tragically gullible. A double-edged sword, always. He dismissed their overall worth with a slow, deliberate flick of a claw, a gesture of contempt.

His thoughts turned to his grand, desperate, and deeply secret plan with his sister, Krill Khians: escape the Empire. A low thrum vibrated from his massive chest, a sound that seemed to resonate with the very structure of the deck.

Soon. My sister and I... our escape must be a meticulously planned escape. His massive claws clenched slowly on the armrest of his throne. The pieces were slowly falling into place. A few krill eggs, our loyal Legion, Subject Omega... the scientists we control. To another world. One where the Emperor’s shadow does not reach. The very idea was treason of the highest order, born from a desperate, deeply personal grudge against their own Emperor.

The bitterness in Krull’kahn’s thoughts intensified, manifesting as a subtle hardening of his scales, a slight clenching of his massive jaw. A low, almost inaudible hiss escaped him as he recalled the painful history that fueled their rebellion. Their father, Duke Krill Callahan, a loyal servant, admired by the Krill army, had been slain by Emperor God-Krill Mainu himself. Jealousy. A petty emotion, yet it consumed him. He was loyal! Admired by the Legion! And for that, he was culled. That act of patricide, born from imperial jealousy, ignited a cold, burning vow of vengeance in Krull’kahn and Khians.

They had climbed, silently, patiently. They had become "harvest leaders" on Terralia, overseeing the brutal extraction of human essence, all while their true purpose festered and grew. And now, they had found it: humanity’s biggest secret. The Anu blood, its immense value as a resource, its potential as a weapon against their Emperor. But more than that, humanity’s terrifying capacity for rapid scientific advancement. What would take other galactic races centuries, humans achieved in mere months, a few years, at most decades.

A predatory gleam entered Krull’kahn’s golden eyes, his reptilian nostrils flaring almost imperceptibly as if scenting future conflict. The humans will turn. When they discover they are nothing but cattle, blood banks for our endless existence, their rage will be boundless. He envisioned it, a cold, calculating glee filling his vast mind, a fleeting image of a war-torn Earth reflecting in his pupils. We will exploit that rage. We will tell them we saved them from the Empire’s grasp, that we are their liberators. And then, Terralia will become the Empire’s graveyard. It was a chilling strategic cunning, a willingness to manipulate entire civilizations for their own gain, turning victims into unwitting pawns in a galactic vendetta.

The Emperor’s demands for Anu-blood grew increasingly urgent, a ticking clock against their grand design. A rhythmic, almost predatory tapping of one massive claw on the armrest punctuated his thoughts. The quotas from the Emperor grow more demanding. We cannot wait forever. But for now... we watch. We plan. The stage is set. Terralia, Earth, was destined to become a brutal battleground, caught unknowingly between the tyranny of the Krill Empire and the vengeful machinations of its own rebellious elite.

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