"Holding a star in your hand"-a technological vision debated for decades: controlled nuclear fusion.
The most advanced realization of that grand promise was actually at the Stark industrial park in New York. Howard Stark had built an Arc Reactor there that could run continuously, but it could not produce a net energy output. It still relied on external electricity to put pressure on the reacting elements-
It was purely for show, only brought out for a spin on special occasions such as the Stark Expo.
But Stark Industries had now withdrawn from New York, and legendary salesman and former technological genius Tony Stark had also been missing for a long time. Even if someone brought it up, all anyone remembered was that the thing had existed for decades. Commercialized controlled nuclear fusion? Nothing but an empty promise.
When an old idea was suddenly brought up by someone highly persuasive in the present day, it became a hot topic again. By contrast, Dario had used ruthless methods to make "capital knows no borders" a reality, monopolizing over 90% of the world's oil. This greatly reassured investors, but they were also somewhat... used to it.
Dario was a steady professional manager, a reassuring man at the helm, but they needed something new to counter the new future Lier had promised.
The highly concentrated high-energy oil refining towers stood 800 meters tall, with each tower alone occupying over one square kilometer. Every level of their multistage tower structures served different extraction and refining functions. Built from special alloys supplied by Stark Industries, they could withstand extremely high temperatures and pressures while also resisting corrosion and oxidation.
Huge automated robots clung to the towers' surfaces. Like machines used in high-rise construction, they circled the immense structures and moved rapidly between levels. After all, not