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Emmanuel Crossford, or simply Manny, is probably the richest man alive in Last Bastion.

It is his genius that allowed him to discover how to use Mana Crystals in conjunction with modern technology to increase their performance. Through his work, many technological breakthroughs occurred, increasing Humanity\'s quality of life.

His inventions had brought him so much money that he has enough to last for lifetimes. Yet, he\'s still far from satisfied.

There is much left to be desired in the current era\'s technology. And he believed that the first step to making everything possible is by figuring out how to make them work outside of the Last Bastion first.

That being said, doing that proved much harder than anybody could\'ve guessed. Even Manny couldn\'t figure out what exactly is that\'s preventing them from crossing this threshold.

The constant stress and repeated failure are what truly got to him. This caused his relationship to fail and him to descend into the depths of madness.

He felt even more pressured when he caught the news that the current state of the world was escalating to a dangerous level. He felt a sense of urgency and it caused him to lock himself up in his lab, refusing to come out unless he discovers a way for a possible breakthrough.

He was so consumed by the need to be successful that he stopped paying attention to the things that mattered the most. His wife left him, and his company was still there but it\'s nothing worse than a cold machine factory at this point.

He was alone, he doesn\'t even have a kid. He\'s been reduced to a sad, sad existence that most people wouldn\'t even recognize at this point. And deep down, Manny\'s aware of this.

He isn\'t stupid, he knows the sin he committed, and he\'s not really hoping for any kind of salvation or forgiveness. The reason why he still goes on with what he does was that is the only thing he knows how to do at this point. It\'s the only thing he\'s good at.

That\'s why...imagine his surprise when his ex-wife practically crashed his place. Suddenly appearing uninvited and forcing her way in, not minding how much damage she caused.

And to make things weird, he could feel that she still hates him to the core just from a single glance. She practically dismissed his wretched appearance and told him that someone wants to meet him and possibly work with him on a project that nobody has ever created before."

His ex-wife didn\'t even try to sugarcoat her words. She didn\'t ask him to come, she demanded him to do so, threatening that if he didn\'t, then the next thing to be destroyed was the entire lab itself.

Manny knew better than to ignore the naked threat of that woman since he knows she will do it if he dared to disobey. Especially after he already gave his promise, she will hold into that until the end of time.

And thus, begrudgingly if he might add, he had no choice other than to emerge from his lab and learn how to be a human once more.

\'This better is something important or else...\' Manny grumpily thought to himself as he scrubbed his filthy body, while silently wondering to himself about the last time he took a bath...

"...good, at least you still know how to dress properly. This means you still have some sanity left intact. Good for you." Felicia snorted in disdain upon seeing him come out of the house.

"Who am I meeting anyways? Is that person so important that they sent you of all people?"

"Don\'t ask silly questions like that, you might be a hateful gremlin but you are far from stupid." Felicia replied stoically, "Besides, do you truly think that there are other people who could peel you off of that lab of yours aside from me? None, right? So how about you stop scowling there and bring out your car, drive us to the HQ."

Manny grumbled deeply but didn\'t do much to protest. He silently threw a device on the ground which then turned into a flying car in mere seconds.

Felicia didn\'t bother with semantics and directly stepped inside the car as if she owned it. Manny sighed in defeat and took a seat inside as well. Once inside, he tapped his watch in a specific pattern, and then, the car suddenly started flying.

As good as this car might be, it\'s useless outside. At the end of the day, this is just for luxury and nothing more.

The flying car was already programmed to arrive at the federation. It doesn\'t need Manny driving since it\'s fully automatic. The interior was spacious yet due to the strained relationship between the two passengers, it was extremely cold and silent inside.

Manny kept looking at Felicia, debating whether he should talk or not. He\'s been out of touch for so long that he doesn\'t even know what to do right now.

And Felicia...well, she had nothing to say to him right now. To be completely honest, she doesn\'t even want to see this man at all. If it weren\'t for Ashton needing the old man\'s assistance, best believe that she wouldn\'t even bother herself with him.

She doesn\'t want to get hurt again...

Eventually, they arrived at the HQ. Felicia felt stuffed inside the car so the moment it parked itself, she immediately went out to de-compress. Manny followed suit.

After keeping the car back in its miniature version, Felicia told him to follow her, and follow is what he did.

Upon entering the building, Manny was somewhat surprised by what he saw.

Many people were extremely busy and focused on their work. He could practically feel the enthusiasm and sheer activeness of this place that it was making him dizzy.

In his eyes, they seem to be working incredibly fast, yet after looking closely, that wasn\'t the case. It was super weird.

On her way, Felicia was greeted by the employees. Some even handed her some free coffee which she happily took, hell she even felt generous enough to give him one as well.

And to his surprise, the coffee wasn\'t bad at all. He could himself drink more of this if it was available nearby.

They passed through several security gates until finally, they arrived at the office where the meeting will take place. Felicia left them there and told him to wait until someone arrived.

​ Well, what else can he do then?

The room he was in was neat and clean. It wasn\'t that big nor does it have many decorations either. It\'s plain but nice enough for the eyes.

There is a small shelf with books on the side, an office table up front, and chairs. There\'s also a sofa and a wider work table at the very center of the room. It\'s painted white with red linings at the top and bottom.

It\'s been a while since he found himself in a room that is not his lab. The lack of clutter was somewhat bugging him, making him unable to sit still. Plue, that coffee seems to be kicking in now so he found his thoughts relatively active.

In his curiosity, he started walking around the room. Checking things out here and there...

That\'s when he saw the neat stacks of papers on the office desk and a rolled piece of a blueprint.

Looking around him, Manny couldn\'t help but be curious. Eventually, his curiosity got the best of him so he carefully took a piece of paper from the stash and read its contents.

To his surprise, it seems to fall in line with technology as well, his expertise, yet he didn\'t have the full context since he only saw the last page.

Knowing this, there\'s simply no way for him to hold back his curiosity now, could he? So of course, he expectantly took the stash of papers on the office table and started browsing through them.

The more of its contents he read, the more he felt his mouth going dry and his hands trembled.

"This...this is...!"

A very ambitious project is what that is. In those papers, information about a huge and labor-intensive project was recorded.

Every piece of information written in there sent his mind spiraling. He couldn\'t believe what he was reading. Furthermore, he couldn\'t believe that majority of the procedures written here were methods he never knew existed, and that\'s saying a lot as he\'s \'The Tech-guy\' in this place.

And although the procedures he read were completely foreign to him, as an inventor, he couldn\'t possibly ignore the merit behind them. Even from a single glance, he knew that all that was written in here were possible. Which was even more ridiculous!

Then, his eyes landed on the rolled-up blueprint he left out.

With trembling hands, he gently unfurled it as if scared he was defiling it.

What greeted him was a detailed map of the entire project. Every single corner was filled with so much information that it was maddening.

Amidst his heavy breathing and sheer greed to learn more about what\'s written here, he failed to notice that somebody has been watching his movements.

Just as he was about to sit down, he heard a voice from behind saying:

"I assume that you are Mr. Crossford."

Manny looked back and saw Ashton — a guy he had never seen nor heard of before, looking at him with a friendly expression.

"Hello, my name is Ashton West. Thank you for coming here despite your tight schedule."