Itâs been more than a minute Earthâs time, an equivalent of more than an hour in the Dimensional Space, since he started testing the AGIâs â Lucyâs communication skill.
And the result? He was really impressed. Though Lucy hasnât gone through the remaining stages of her training to help her build more context, her communication skill was pretty good.
But while her communication skill was impressive, right now, sheâs like a child prodigy with flawless grammar and pronunciation, but limited life experience.
Liam knew that this was just the beginning and that once he trains her on context and interaction, sheâll go from an excellent speaker to a flawless communicator.
"Ok, Lucy. Letâs move on to the next stage of your training; knowledge scaffolding. Comb through the sites I will give you, gather all the information on them and bsorb them," Liam said and gave her the sitesâ names.
"Iâm already there, sir," Lucy said a second later.
"Good. Let me know when youâre done. Take your time and comprehensively learn everything there is to learn on them. Okay?"
"I will, sir."
"Good. I will leave you to it, then," Liam said and stood up from the chair.
He was about to stretch his body but he realised that he wasnât feeling the stiffness he expected to feel after spending a day sitting without moving his muscles.
Hmmm... Does it the time spent here not affect me physically?,
he asked, curiously observing his body.
Liam knew that he wonât get an answer this way and he decided to ask the system.
[No, Host. Your body isnât affected by the passage of time in the space as your body clock is linked to Earthâs. But this is only for you, as other biological entities will be subjected to the spaceâs time passage.]
Hmmm... Thatâs perfect. I can spend as much time as I want here and wonât have to worry about growing old faster.
"Awesome," he laughed.
Liam was done with testing Lucyâs communication skill and the second stage of her training was already underway.
The training will greatly help in improving her communication skill and it will help her builds a broad factual and academic base.
In other words, sheâs going through her own version of a childâs basic education.
The truth is that compared to other AIs in the world, Lucyâs training is considered basic. And the reason for this is simple; unlike them, sheâs not a commercial AI but a personal assistant. Liamâs personal assistant.
While other AIs needs to be train extensively on a lot of heavy datasets, Lucy doesnât need that. And with her level of intelligence and laptopâs computing power, she will leave those AIs in the dust in no time.
"I will come and check her progress in a minute," Liam said as he left the space, appearing in his room.
He took out his phone from his pocket and dialed Danielâs number. It was time to start sourcing the raw materials. He canât delay it.
The call went through and Daniels ever professional voice came from the other end.
"Good morning, Mr. Scott."
"Good morning, Daniel. The companies I asked you to set up, are they ready?" Liam asked
"Yes, sir," Daniel replied. "Iâve been trying to reach you to give the update, but I wasnât able to get through."
Liam exhaled softly. That mustâve been while I was inside the Dimensional Space.
"My apologies," he said smoothly. "I was tied up with something." He paused, then shifted the conversation. "Since the companies are ready, Iâll need you to begin procurement immediately. Bulk quantities. Hereâs the list."
He read the items off one by one, his voice steady. Nearly forty in total â thirty-five straight from the periodic table, with several specialized compounds added to the mix.
On the other end, Daniel remained silent except for the faint clicks of typing. After a few moments, he spoke again.
"I have the full list logged, Mr. Scott."
"Good," Liam said, his tone firm but calm. "Start sourcing them right away. Iâll need the shipments secured as quickly and discreetly as possible. Time is critical."
"Understood," Daniel replied. "Iâll have my teams move immediately. Once the acquisitions are in place, Iâll notify you and arrange for delivery under the corporate front."
Liam nodded to himself, satisfied. "Perfect. Thank you, Daniel. Iâll be waiting for your update."
"Itâs my pleasure, sir," Daniel said warmly.
Liam ended the call and sighed softly. He had already given the task of sourcing the raw materials to Daniel and he will be expecting results in a few days to a week at least.
"Now, itâs time to sign-in for today," he muttered to himself.
What he actually wanted to do now was to check the samples from the eagle, starfishâs and axolotl. But since the AGI isnât ready yet, he canât do that as he might ruin them.
He doesnât want to create unnecessary and avoidable situations for himself, Daniel.
It would had been different if they wonât be affected by the time passage in the space.
"Enough of that though. System, sign-in," he said with a smile.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host. You received 1.5% shares of
[You received 1 ton of 100% purity Lutetium]
[You received 50 Attribute Points]
[Note: The Lutetium is in the Dimensional Space.]
***
"Wow... Whatâs with these rewards?" Liam muttered in surprise.
The second reward, he could understand. But the 1.5% shares and the 50 Attribute Points? Both are weekly sign-in level rewards. And he was surprised that he got them from a daily sign-in.
Did the rewards evolve after yesterdayâs weekly sign-in? Or is it because my first monthly sign-in is just around the corner?,
Liam thought to himself.
But he didnât dwell on the questions as he had no answers to them. Instead, he focused on his rewards.
1.5% shares of the biggest movie/TV streaming company in the world meant $7.7b in value.
Not only that but his stake positions him as the companyâs biggest private shareholder and gives him very significant boardroom influence, giving him the power to influence voting decisions, alliances, or block moves that donât align with his interests.
But Liam doesnât care about those things. The board can continue running the company as they have been doing in the past.
But he was very satisfied with the rewards, as just like DisnÄy, it wasnât just about the current monetary value but also what he can do with it in the future.
$7.7b worth of stake has been added to Liamâs equity portfolio, increasing his net worth to a total of $124.1b.
Liam closed his eyes briefly and sighed when he thought of what this meant for him. It meant that he was now comfortably sitting in the top 11 spot of the documented worldâs richest people. He was now unshakeable from his position.
Liam exhaled softly when he thought of how much more drama he will go through in the future when his net worth is exposed.
He sighed and decided not to think about it as he turned his attention to the next reward; 1 ton of 100% purity Lutetium.
"Lutetium? One ton of Lutetium?" he muttered to himself slowly in disbelief.
Most people hadnât even heard of the metal Lutetium. Itâs a rare earth metal, one of the scarcest on the planet, usually spoken about in grams, not tons.
Lutetium is the heaviest and rarest of the rare earth elements. Its real-world price per kilogram ranges anywhere from $10,000â$15,000 depending on purity.
But thatâs for 99.9% purity (lab-grade). Liamâs bars are 100% purity, impossible to obtain naturally. That alone adds a premium.
1 ton is equivalent to $15 million. And at 100% purity, black market or research premium could push it closer to $30â50 million.
So, in raw numbers? It wasnât as insane as the 1.5% stake in NÄtflix. But in strategic terms, itâs worth far more.
How so? Global annual production of lutetium is only a few hundred kilograms. But Liam just got more in one reward than the entire world mines in a decade.
To governments and labs, this would be like someone casually dropping a mountain of diamonds.
Lutetium is used in PET scan detectors for medical imaging, nuclear technologies, catalysts for cracking oil refineries, high-tech alloys for aerospace, cutting-edge quantum research and even exotic lasers.
With a ton of it? He could bankroll global medical research or weaponize it into national defense leverage.
If governments found out Liam had this, they wouldnât just "notice." Theyâd panic. Because whoever controls lutetium reserves controls bottlenecks in multiple critical industries.
Countries like China currently dominate rare earths â but Lutetium? Even they barely touch it.
"Thankfully, they will never find out," Liam smiled.
After going through the first two rewards, it was time to finally check the last reward. But before he could do that, his phone started ringing.
He looked at the caller ID and he saw that it was an unknown number, though the number had a distinct international format.
Who could it be? Which of the companiesâ IR is calling me this time,
he thought to himself as he picked the call.
"Mr. Scott?" The voice on the other end was deep, calm, and professional, carrying the measured cadence of someone who had spent decades speaking through radios and cockpits.
"Yes," Liam replied.
"This is Captain Adler, sir. Chief pilot of your Airbus A380 Flying Palace."