“How was I supposed to know he had robots?” Old Dog muttered, despair clear in his voice.Still, pints gave way to desperate bor as they hurried to unload the helicopter's cargo. Once everything was cleared, the six began transp the materials into Mansion No. 13, guided and supervised by the spiders. Each item ced meticulously into its designated area, no mistakes allowed.

  In the basement, the six couldn’t help but notice the transformation taking pce. Rows of cells were being structed—cold, fined spaces that left no doubt about their purpose. “These aren’t rooms… they’re cages,” one of them whispered, a chill running down their spine.

  Before they could make a move to escape, they turned and saw one of the meical spiders silently blog the exit. Its glowing eyes were locked onto them. "Pick a cell," Zack said ftly, walking in. He g the six inplete cells, calg how much lo would take for the meical Ants to finish. "You’ll each have one ihan half an hour."

  "Wait! Sir!" one of them cried, dropping to their knees. "We’re loyal to you! We’ll do anything for you! Please, don’t lock us up!" One by ohey groveled, their pride long abahese were people who had once worked under Dr. Samson, kidnapping survivors and dug cruel experiments. They knew better than anyone how monstrous those as were. Their pleas were desperate, but Zack remained unmoved.

  “Enough,” Zack said, his voice cold and firm. “This is the best you hope for.”With a wave of his hand, the spiders sprang into a. Despite the cells still being unfihey herded the six into their assigned spaces, sharp legs glinting uhe dim lights.

  “Watch them.” Zastructed the spider to guard the six captives before leaving Mansion No. 13. It was getting te, and the boratory renovations still hadn’t been pleted. Naturally, Zack wasn’t going to waste time waiting around. With the situation under trol, he po focus on what came —starting the development of the Superhuman Serum the following day.

  Back at Mansion No. 9, Zack headed straight to the basement and approached his workbench. “Ego, pull up the files on the Air Fortress and the Air Defense System,” he anded.

  As soon as he spoke, two folders materialized on the massive s before him. One tained detailed blueprints for the Air Fortress, and the other held schematics for an Advanced Air Defense System. Zack leaned forward, his fingers gliding over the s to open the Air Fortress files. “Pstic gold?” he muttered, raising a brow as he sed the material specifications. “Never heard of it. Ego, search for alternative lightweight, durable materials with high thermal resistance.”

  Ego responded promptly, a list of materials on the s. Zack selected titanium-aluminum alloys for their high strength-to-weight ratio and carbon nanotube posites for added durability. “Perfect. These will withstand high-altitude ditions and reduce overall weight.”

  His attention shifted to the power system. “Fuel-powered engines? Are we still stu the st tury?” He shook his head. “Nope, we’re upgrading this to a fusioor.”

  Zack tapped the s, pulling up a design for a pact cold fusioor, a energy source that uses superheated psma to fuse hydrogen atoms and release immense amounts of energy. “We’ll use deuterium and tritium isotopes as fuel,” he expio himself, adjusting the fuel iion system. “They’re retively abundant and effit for sustained fusion.”

  He paused, sidering the cooling system. “A reactor like this would need a way to hahe extreme heat. Ego, overy liquid helium cooling els around the magic coils.” A schematic updated iime, showing a work of pipes snaking around the reactor. “This should keep the superdug mags stable and prevent a meltdown.”

  Zack frowned as he studied the thruster figuration. “If we’re going with fusion, the propulsion system needs an overhaul too. Ego, let’s swita-based thrusters. They’ll work perfectly with the reactor’s energy output.”

  He adjusted the exhaust design, ensuring it could expel ionized gas at high velocities without creating unnecessary drag. “Psma thrusters will give it the versatility to operate both in atmospheriditions and in space. Ground-level propulsion will need auxiliary fans, though.”

  , his focus turo the fortress’s defensive capabilities. “This ser interceptor... What a waste if it’s only good for she.” He selected the targeting system aes range by iing adaptive optipensate for atmospheriterference. “Let’s add a predictive targeting algorithm. It’ll trad ralize threats before they get close.”

  As the design came together, Zack yered in modur on systems. “We’ll need railguns for le strikes, anti-missile ser arrays, and EMP uo disable enemy eleics. Make them easy to repce rade.”

  Finally, Zahahe fortress’s structural iy. “A titanium-carbon frame reinforced with nano-ceramic pting will keep it light but strong enough to handle direct impacts.” He added shock absorption systems to the nding gear and ehe airlock seals could withstareme pressure differences.

  One adjustmeo another, and the workload kept piling up. Zack moved between ss, his fingers a blur as he fiuned every po. “If the fusioor is our power source, we’ll need redundant energy ste in case of a reactor shutdown.” He designed high-capacity graphene supercapacitors to store surplus energy and provide emergency backup.

  By the time the clock struck two in the m, Zack leaned ba his chair, exhaustion giving way to satisfa. The Air Fortress now featured state-of-the-art propulsion, defenses, and materials, all grounded in advanced but pusible sce. He grinned as he reviewed the final blueprint, murmuring to himself, “Dohis thing’s a beast.”

  Despite the long hours, Zack felt surprisingly eic. His mental state was sharp, as though he could keep going for hours. “Ego, upload the updated schematics to the Meical Ants. I want them to start manufacturing first thing tomorrow,” he said.

  “Uood, Sir. The data has been uploaded,” Ego responded promptly.

  Feeling a wave of relief, Zack grabbed a gss of chlorophyll juice delivered by a robotic arm. After taking a sip, he wiped his mouth on his sleeve and headed upstairs. “Wake me at six,” he said over his shoulder.

  At 5:59 a.m., Zack woke up naturally, beating Ego’s arm by a minute, as usual. He ran a quick self-s, and the results made him smile. His physical fitness had improved by roughly 3% sihe previous day. “Almost 1.8 times that of an average person now,” he murmured, g his fist and feeling the strength c through his body. “But it’s still not enough.”

  After a quick wash, Zack was about to head to the basement when something in the garden caught his eye. Through the window, he saw a red-haired figure throwing punches in the air. Curious, he opehe door and stepped outside. “Didn’t expect you to be so disciplined,” Zack said, leaning casually against the doorframe.

  “Of course!” Erza replied, perf a set of precise military-style punches. Her movements were sharp and well-practiced, a clear sign of her training.

  Zack smirked. “You know you’re a mage, right?”