Three years passed in a blur of creation that reshaped the world.
R-Corp, with the limitless, clean energy of the Helios fusion reactors, became the most powerful entity in human history. The energy crisis ended. Economies boomed. Nations that had once fought over oil now competed for R-Corp's favor. The world saw 'Mr. R', the reclusive boy-genius behind it all, as a messianic figure, a benevolent architect of a new golden age. The trillion-dollar valuation wasn't just met; it was shattered.
Raj, now a young man of eighteen, spent these years in the sanctuary of his labs deep within the Aethelgard Tower. While Anya Sharma masterfully managed the global empire, Raj dedicated himself to invention. Guided by his Technological Intuition, he unlocked secrets that humanity was centuries away from discovering: stable anti-gravity, true sentient AI, and alloys forged from materials his daily check-ins provided—materials not found on Earth.
All of this frenetic progress was funneled into a single, secret project, hidden from even the prying eyes of the Meridian Council and their ancient power. Project Phoenix.
An eighteen-year-old Raj stood with Anya Sharma on an obsidian observation deck. He was taller now, his features sharpened from the soft lines of boyhood into the hard, confident angles of a young man who had bent the world to his will.
Below them, nestled in a cavernous hangar deep beneath the Aethelgard Tower, rested his creation. It was a starship. Sleek and seamless, its hull was forged from a shifting, matte-black alloy that seemed to drink the light. It was not a vessel of exploration; it was a blade designed to pierce the heavens. He had named it the Phoenix's Ascent.
"She's ready, Mr. R," Anya said, her voice filled with a familiar awe. "The perfected Helios core is reading 100% efficiency. The AI, which you've named 'Daedalus', is fully integrated. The crew, a handpicked team of our most loyal Titan veterans and Nexus scientists, are on standby. As far as the world and the Argus satellite network are concerned, we are launching a private orbital space station. No one knows her true FTL capabilities."
As Raj gazed at the culmination of his work, the System, which had been quietly rewarding him with exotic materials and galactic data for years, flashed in his vision.
[ Main Quest Objective Complete: Achieve a corporate valuation of $1 Trillion. ]
[ World-Tier Reward Unlocked: The 'Genesis Seed' ]
[ Item Note: The 'Genesis Seed' is a nanite-based terraforming device capable of transforming a barren planetoid into a habitable, Earth-like world over the course of one standard year. ]
A new quest immediately followed.
[ New Main Quest: The First Dominion. Objective: Establish a self-sustaining, permanent R-Corp outpost on a habitable world outside the Sol System. ]
The path forward was clear. He wasn't meant to be an explorer. He was a pioneer. A creator of worlds.
He turned to Anya. "There's been a change of plans. We are no longer just observing. We are building."
Hours later, Raj stood on the bridge of the Phoenix's Ascent. The viewscreen showed the hangar's massive ceiling silently retracting, revealing the deep blue of the evening sky over Mumbai. The bridge was quiet, run not by a bustling crew, but by the silent, omnipresent AI Daedalus, its soft blue light pulsing from the consoles. Anya stood by his side, having insisted on being present for the maiden voyage.
Raj settled into the commander's chair, a seat that felt more like a throne than any he had occupied on Earth. The planet below, with its politics, its history, and its petty squabbles, already felt like a memory. It was his cradle, but he had outgrown it.
He looked at Anya, the first person to believe in him, the general who had helped him conquer his first world. She looked back, her eyes reflecting the starlight from the open sky above.
Raj gave his first interstellar command, his voice calm and steady.
"Daedalus. Take us up."
With a whisper of displaced air and a silent surge of anti-gravity engines, the Phoenix's Ascent lifted from its cradle. It rose through the Aethelgard Tower, clearing the Mumbai skyline in seconds, and shot like a black arrow into the embrace of the stars, leaving the old world and its games far behind. The conquest had truly begun.