Director Kaelen's face flushed and paled in rapid succession.
He genuinely wanted the floor to swallow him whole.
Whitecliffe Harbor was the final auction destination for Project Zero-Transit. If The Sterling Sovereign walked out now, they wouldn't just lose their wealthiest client.
It meant the entire Merchant's Quarter would drastically reevaluate the worth and safety of this batch of living assets.
Especially since The Sterling Sovereign had just witnessed Specimen Seven's breakdown firsthand...
The man wasn't just a buyer; he was Project Zero-Transit's primary source of global funding.
The moment he decided the organization had lost control of their assets, the upcoming auction would collapse entirely.
Their reputation in The Merchant's Quarter would be decimated.
Kaelen could never bear the responsibility of that failure.
His expression entirely aloof, Nicholas stepped around the director, moving toward the exit.
Outwardly, he appeared to be acting solely in his own financial interest.
In reality, every word he spoke was systematically pushing Kaelen into a corner.
If the director refused to grant The Panacea clearance, it proved the organization was incompetent.
But if he gave her the clearance...
Director Kaelen gritted his teeth so hard he nearly cracked his molars.
"Capacity at seventy-one percent!"
The technician's knees practically gave out. "Director, it's getting worse! The chip's response frequency is still spiking! If this keeps up, it's highly likely... it's going to..."
He didn't need to finish the sentence; the director knew ex
what was coming.
Raking a trembling hand through his hair, Kaelen looked wildly between Serena and Nicholas.
Neither showed a flicker of emotion, their expressionless stares boring straight through him.
The silent, suffocating pressure they exerted was infinitely more terrifying than a direct threat.
Finally, locking eyes with his head technician for two agonizing seconds, the director gritted his teeth. "Grant her temporary Core-Data Clearance."
The technician swallowed hard and instantly scrambled to obey. "Yes, sir."
Still paranoid, Kaelen delivered a grim, heavily accented order. "Restrict the clearance tier to the absolute minimum required. Furthermore, every single technician in this room is monitor her like a hawk. Every keystroke The Panacea makes must be logged inreal-time. Do not allow her to access anything unrelated to stabilizing Specimen Seven."
Serena didn't even bother looking up. She simply let out a cold scoff. "Relax. I'm only here for the paycheck. As for the rest... I couldn't care less."
Based on his brief but agonizing experience with her, Kaelen knew she never had anything nice to say when annoyed.
Sure enough, Serena cast a sideways, mocking glance at him, her lips curling with pure disdain. "After all, I have absolutely zero interest in hoarding your
organization's pathetic garbage."
Director Kaelen was left speechless.
The woman's tongue was lethal.
However, given the horrific state of Specimen Seven, he had no energy left to argue with her.
Several technicians immediately swarmed the main console.
After bypassing layer after layer of security firewalls.
The primary display in front of Serena finally unlocked, revealing the full command reading interface.
[Temporary Core-Data Clearance granted.]
[Full access to Specimen Seven's chip command logs unlocked.]
[Real-time anomaly monitoring of the preview system online.]
[Clearance Duration: 15 minutes.]
By then, Kaelen had marshaled a squad of elite technicians
specifically assigned to get
Seven. They dragged their own. monitoring equipment to the main Console thing upon a defensive wall behind her, their eyes glued to her screen as if terrified she was going to plant a virus right under their noses.
Serena glanced at the timer, then at the nervous technicians, scoffing softly but saying nothing else.
Raising her hands over the
advanced terminal, she drawled,
"Watch all you want. But a quick heads up from this moment an, you take order's strictly from me. Otherwise... whatever goes wrong is entirely on you."