The hall went dead silent.
VOXFRAME – R.N. – 99.1Top Score Confirmed
Raen's name shined at the top of the leaderboard.He didn't smile. Didn't move.Just watched as the notification appeared:
+100,000 Lux credited.
A soft tap on the shoulder broke his trance.
"Raen Nox?" a calm voice said behind him.An assistant in a charcoal blazer gestured politely."The judges would like a word."
Conference Room – 7th Floor
The room was cool and dimly lit.
Three figures sat across a glass table — two women, one man. Sleek suits, unreadable expressions, and an unmistakable air of authority.
The woman on the left spoke first, her voice refined and clear.
"We're not part of the public judges panel. We review the top percentile entries—ones with… market potential."
The man in the center slid a black tablet toward Raen.
"VoxFrame isn't a typical submission," he said. "It's an architecture. A modular foundation for scalable adaptive intelligence."
The second woman, her tone more amused, cut in.
"With funding, it could become the standard for next-gen city AI. So let's skip to the offer."
She tapped her tablet.
Current Bid: 50,000 Lux
Raen blinked.
Then the number rose.
75,000 Lux110,000 Lux160,000 Lux250,000 Lux500,000 Lux – FINAL BID
Silence fell.
Raen's jaw tensed.
"...Half a million Lux?" he muttered, almost to himself.
The playful woman leaned in, smirking.
"All yours. One-time transfer. All project rights included."
Raen's lips parted.
Then, slowly, he leaned forward, voice low:
"It's not even finished."
The room went still.
All three judges blinked — visibly thrown.
The man furrowed his brow. "Excuse me?"
Raen raised an eyebrow.
"You're bidding on a prototype. A foundational model. It runs… but that's all. The adaptive learning protocol is only halfway integrated."
The woman in the middle blinked again, stunned.
"You submitted an incomplete framework… and still ranked first?"
Raen nodded. Calmly.
"And I encrypted the entire thing. Triple-redundant lock. If anyone tries to tamper with it, the framework corrupts itself."
He stared directly at them now.
"If you buy it, you're buying a shell. I'm the only one who can build the rest. Without me, it's useless."
The room was quiet.
Then, the man exhaled slowly, almost impressed.
The playful woman broke the silence first — and broke character too.
Her expression shifted to something genuine.
"…Then can I invest in you instead?"
Raen looked at her, startled.
"What?"
She smiled, tone soft.
"I'll give you the same amount—500,000 Lux. You keep VoxFrame. The deal is simple: when I need something solved, you show up. You still get paid for the work. This is just to secure the right to call on you."
Raen stared.
His mind spun.Half a million Lux.For him.
"I… I can't guarantee anything," he said. "I'm not some genius who never fails. You could lose your investment."
She didn't blink.
"You can keep it."
Raen felt the weight of it. Not just the number—but the freedom.
A future.
Still stunned, he looked down at the offer. Then back up.
His eyes gleamed.
This wasn't just survival anymore. It was power.