Inside the Core Laboratory in the Earlis Research Zone.
The team responsible for researching Nanomedical Machines was celebrating this hard-won victory... After all, the project had been anything but easy, and had nearly been scrapped several times.
Passing the final test was undoubtedly news worth celebrating for everyone on the project.
Alt Corporation had never been stingy with its researchers. In fact, it was quite generous.
For that very reason, Alt Corporation had approved a substantial budget for the staff to celebrate the project's completion, and the bonuses awarded to these key contributors exceeded ten thousand credit points.
Bart Black held a wineglass, feeling thoroughly at ease.
Now that the project was finished, he had not only received payment from Mister and cleared his debts, but also collected a sizable bonus from Alt Corporation. Life could hardly have offered a more dramatic reversal. Just days ago, Bart Black had been worried that his inability to repay his debts would get him killed and dumped in the sea. Now he was sipping expensive red wine and enjoying life...
The contrast had even made Bart Black forget the fear of those past few days, and his fingers were itching to try his luck at the casino again.
A junior researcher beside him seemed to notice something. He looked at Bart Black with a hint of puzzlement and asked:
"Mr. Bart, why aren't you joining them?"
He was naturally referring to the researchers raising their glasses and drinking heartily. The prolonged research had put them under considerable stress, and now that the project was over, they were letting loose as that pressure lifted.
Bart Black waved a hand at the question, then said:
"I'm not particularly interested in that sort of thing..."
The young researcher looked enlightened, then seemed to think of something