Chapter 570 - 541: The Castle for Mom

"The Atlas Group is a marvel. Throughout the entire history of human development, it is hard to find another company that developed so rapidly—"

It had been less than two years since Lille had awakened from a coma and started moving with the help of some local, old-fashioned workers and dropouts.

Atlas had officially registered and began its operations just over six months ago.

When the footage began to play, showing the starting point, that small Bloom Company—where the boss had to go out and promote it himself, doubling as a technician, and even doubling as head of security, racing through the streets to escape from a serial killer...

Everyone genuinely felt respect, especially everyone present here today—

Every person here was seen as a successful individual, wealthy and upper-class.

Chrysler, General Motors, Siemens, General Electric, Johnson, Novartis, all were well-known companies with vast civilian enterprises, but most were slightly dizzy from the impact of this revolutionary wave, especially Chrysler, which had nearly nothing left to eat.

But here, in New York City’s New Future District, they saw the future—

Just like in the nineteenth century, when people in cities filled with horse manure and dust watched George Stevenson’s steam locomotives speeding along the rails, some laughed: what could a carriage without horses do?

But others saw reduced costs, improved efficiency, the ability for goods to arrive smoothly as planned to farther destinations, and they saw the future.

"...New Future District has a total of 1.5 million residents, and this number is still rising."

"The city entirely uses the ctOS system as its urban control system, and anyone implanted with Atlas’s standard brain-machine interface can directly use the city’s facilities."

"Public transportation routes, weather forecasts, online transactions, daily information access, security information, public charging stations..."

"Everything in the city can be directly experienced by you."

They saw residents moving orderly in the three-dimensional streets, operating interfaces invisible to these bumpkins, efficiently and quickly grabbing items from sales windows, then seamlessly entering public transportation, the entire passage process as if the city had personalized plans for each individual, with no discord in sight.

Wishing to walk, stop, or interact with others would not affect the smooth flow of traffic.

Compared to the baffling killer machines that Stark Industries came up with, if there was something distinctly futuristic in New Future District, it likely was the brain-machine interfaces on the original residents and the various engineering prosthetics.

But other things, such as better power transmission technology, better Internet of Things technology, better surveillance networks, better healthcare systems, better vehicle power systems...

Are they beyond imagination? Not necessarily, even many felt their companies were just a bit shy of achieving these, as they often saw the finished products on PowerPoint presentations.

Sometimes others are just slightly better than you, but a combined effort can create a completely different country, making these people acutely aware of the gap between them and those creators of marvels.

They are all managers, all operators of companies, but they are not at the same level.

The future lies in the hands of the youth—especially the youth before us now.

Rocksen seems to be vigorously rolling out brain-machine interface technologies, but sometimes people choose not just the technology; they choose the person and the future.

Maya followed at Lille’s side, enjoying everything in the city, having already seen the entire view of New Future District when Atlas Building was completed.

Her feelings were the same as those who had been with Lille from the beginning:

The city transformed from dim and chaotic to bright and ordered; where their former lives felt like being gagged in the dark, now, they thoroughly enjoyed freedom and the future under the sun.

Honestly, sometimes she even felt like crying, coming from that desolate place in Latovia where people had no rights, to New York as the lowest class of migrant laborers working hard, surviving in the cracks between gangs, and finally finding true love in a difficult marriage, no matter how tough the days, seeing Lille, she always felt she and her husband could keep going.

Then, tragedy struck with their son’s issues, and her husband died from overwork...

Through several major upsets in life, Maya’s emotional resilience had actually become stronger than many others.

But now, looking at everything before her, looking at her son standing before her, looking at this city...

Sometimes life was so good it scared her, especially for her as every joy that came after being touched and steadfast seemed to be crushed by more surprises.

Unconsciously, Maya clasped Lille’s arm, as if she feared her son would disappear the next second.

"Mom, do you feel like your dreams have come true?" Lille smiled, "I remember you saying Grandpa used to say that everyone in New York has a big castle?"

A castle?

Maya touched the tears at the corner of her eyes and said with a smile, "But you don’t know how I answered your grandpa back then. I told him I didn’t want that kind of castle, the castles in Latovia seem to scream every day."

"If I were to give Mom a gift, it would definitely be the kind of castle from a fairy tale."

The Atlas Building, standing 400 meters tall with a maximum width of over a hundred meters, spans more than 20,000 square meters, with office spaces exceeding 120,000 square meters, numerous times this in aerial gardens and ground greenery, and comes complete with a gym, rest areas, cafes, as well as service robots coated in suits and solar-powered cleaning drones fluttering between floors, taking care of the building.

The 360-degree panoramic New York City view from the observation lounge was today’s main banquet location, and the numerous modern art installations inside and out showcased that this was not a company merely pursuing efficiency and profits.

This was a castle, a super-modern castle, and most importantly, everyone within this castle was very happy.

Feeling his mother’s emotions, Lille was relieved, at least this time he didn’t leave behind a regret similar to his past life.

The elevator door opened, everyone’s eyes turned towards them.

Lille was a truly honest person—

This was a strange impression, but it indeed appeared in the minds of most guests.

As a young man who had soared to great heights immediately after recovering from illness, he never had models or beauties from around the world by his side, neither any handsome men.

This thought came so naturally mainly because the previous similar genius, Tony Stark, had an enviable pace at his age.

But unlike Tony, Lille was surrounded only by tech personnel and his mom.

But his mom...

It must be said, falling into a coma during his growth significantly hindered Lille’s development, his height hadn’t changed much from before his coma, evidently below what his genes should have allowed him to reach—

Because even though his mom wore heels less than three centimeters tall, she was still over one seventy-five, significantly taller than the one-seventy Lille by half a head, and... clearly not just the aura of money, this lady’s every move indeed had an aristocratic air.

This contrast made Lille look even younger, anyone seeing him would unconsciously treat him as a child.

If it weren’t for his strong presence... it wasn’t just the aura of money, but just seeing him, people would think of the sunken Truman.

Of course, most people didn’t show anything, just thinking: This kid hasn’t married yet and has brought his mom, maybe he’s clueless, but... couldn’t they introduce their own delicate flowers to this son through this noble lady?

Lille stepped forward with a smile, quietly saying to his mom, "Mom, I’m not going on blind dates, cover for me."

"But you’re also at the age to get married."

"I’m only 20."

"In Latovia, at 20 you can already have children," Maya stepped back, smiling as she playfully waved her fists, "But I know you have your own thoughts, Mom will cheer for you."

Lille shook his head, what could he possibly think of.

It was now time to make a precise calculation of the economic scale of Atlas Group and the interest conglomerate.