Eight hours remained until the Awakening Ceremony that would determine the class destiny of The Grand Dominion.
At 2:00 AM, inside the underground geek sanctum of the Shaw family estate, the temperature was precisely controlled at twenty degrees Celsius by the thermostat system. Rows of heavy, military-grade servers emitted a low, monotonous hum, like a steel behemoth slumbering in the dark.
Leo Shaw sat in the center of a spectral blue screen formed by holographic projections. The collar of his shirt was slightly open, his tie casually loosened. The lazy, careless mask of the "slacker genius" he usually wore was completely torn away, replaced by a chilling, absolute rationality belonging to an apex predator and master manipulator.
Hovering before his eyes were three independent data pa
