While Ryan was basking in triumph, a very different atmosphere had taken hold elsewhere—one of sheer panic.
"Damn it! What the hell is going on? Why are there so many tech advancements all of a sudden?"
The speaker was an old man with a snow-white beard, his voice thundering through a stark, sterile conference room. His face was grim, and the oppressive tension in the air made the dozens seated around the long table sit up straighter, their hearts beating faster.
"We're still investigating," a young man in a white lab coat replied calmly, adjusting his glasses with practiced precision. "But Prometheus transmitted sixteen separate tech advancements. And, for the record, these aren't the corrupted fakes we've received in the past. They've all been verified as genuine."
