Chapter 110: Chapter 110: Explosive Growth

INNOVATIA HEADQUARTERS – CONFERENCE ROOM – 9:30 AM

The Innovatia headquarters occupied twelve floors in New Eden’s commercial district. The building had stood empty for a year before Cassia purchased it—a victim of the last tech bubble burst when a promising startup collapsed spectacularly.

Now the building hummed with activity. Developers on floors three through seven. Marketing and PR on eight. Operations and HR on nine. Executive offices on ten. Server rooms and technical infrastructure on eleven and twelve.

The building’s location was perfect—central business district, easy transit access, surrounded by restaurants and services. New Eden itself was one of the Federation’s mega-cities, built after the Great Unification as a model of efficient urban planning. Vertical gardens climbed the building exteriors. Maglev trains ran overhead on elevated tracks. The air was clean thanks to atmospheric processors installed throughout the city.

Cassia sat at the head of the table in Conference Room A on the tenth floor. The space still smelled new—fresh paint, new carpet, brand-new furniture. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the city. Delivery drones zipped past at regular intervals.

Around the table sat her executive team. Six people she’d worked with for years. People she trusted.

Victoria Gallagher, VP of Engineering—sharp-eyed woman in her forties, former lead architect at a major cloud computing company.

Thomas Kim, VP of Marketing—Korean-American, early thirties, known for viral campaigns that broke the internet.

Rachel Brennan, Head of HR—warm demeanor hiding a ruthless talent for identifying the best candidates.

David Martinez, CFO—meticulous number cruncher who’d saved his previous company from bankruptcy twice.

Lisa Hammond, Head of Operations—could coordinate complex logistics while juggling five crises simultaneously.

James Park, Legal Counsel—young but brilliant, specialized in tech law and intellectual property.

“Alright,” Cassia said. “Let’s start. Thomas, marketing update. How are we looking?”

Thomas grinned like he’d just won the lottery. “Cassia, we don’t just have a successful launch coming. We have a phenomenon.”

“Explain.”

“Aether OS hit one billion downloads yesterday. One billion. In a single day.”

The room went silent.

“That’s impossible,” Victoria said. “Operating systems don’t get a billion downloads in one day.”

“This one did.” Thomas pulled up his laptop, mirroring it to the main display. “We put the installation package you gave us on the Innovatia website yesterday. Anyone could download it. I paid tech influencers for product reviews. They tested it and started promoting it immediately. Others found it organically.”

The screen showed a video. A popular tech reviewer, Marcus Chen—150 million subscribers—sitting at his desk with Aether OS running on multiple devices.

“Folks, I don’t usually get this excited about operating systems,” Marcus was saying. “But Aether OS is genuinely revolutionary. I’ve been testing it for a day and my productivity has increased by—I’m not exaggerating—over a hundred times.”

Thomas played another clip. Different influencer, tech YouTuber with 300 million followers.

“The AI integration is insane. It’s not just smart—it’s actually helpful. It predicts what I need before I need it. The apps are all professional-grade. The performance is flawless. I’ve been doing video editing that would normally take me six hours. With Aether OS? Five minutes.”

Another clip. Female tech blogger, massive following on social media.

“I ran benchmarks. Aether OS uses 90% less battery than my old operating system while running twice as many apps simultaneously. The compression technology is literally black magic—my files are taking up one-hundredth the space with zero quality loss. How is this even possible?”

Thomas paused the videos. “These are just the big names. There are thousands of influencers posting about it. The consensus is unanimous—Aether OS is the best operating system anyone has ever seen.”

“One billion downloads,” David repeated, still processing. “In one day.”

“The growth curve is vertical. Everyone in the Federation knows about Innovatia now. A startup that came out of nowhere and dropped the most advanced OS ever made.”

Cassia felt a thrill run through her. Her son had built this. And Rene—Orion’s AI—had been helping Cassia manage the company side. The AI sent her instructions through discreet messages, guided her decisions, helped coordinate operations. Nobody else knew about Rene. As far as the team was concerned, Cassia was just exceptionally good at her job.

“Revenue?” David asked.

“The OS is free for personal use,” Thomas said. “We’re monetizing through AI subscriptions. Users get basic AI assistance free, but advanced features require monthly subscriptions. We’re seeing subscription rates at about 95% of active users.”

David’s fingers flew across his calculator. “95 percent of one billion… that’s 950 million subscribers at ten credits per month…”

“9.5 billion credits monthly revenue,” Thomas finished. “And that’s just from the AI subscriptions. We haven’t even launched enterprise licenses yet.”

“Holy shit,” Lisa muttered.

“What about competitors?” Victoria asked. “The major OS companies must be panicking.”

Thomas’s expression darkened. “They are. We’ve detected some concerning activity.”

He pulled up a technical report. “Our security team has logged multiple intrusion attempts on Innovatia servers. Sophisticated attacks. Professional-grade hacking. All targeting our source code and development systems.”

“Who’s behind them?” James asked, leaning forward.

“Can’t prove it definitively, but the attack signatures match known tools used by corporate espionage groups. The major OS companies—QuantumOS, NexCore Systems, Stellar Computing—they all have cyber-security divisions that occasionally go… offensive.”

“Occasionally commit industrial espionage, you mean,” James said flatly.

“Yes.”

“How bad is it?” Cassia asked.

“That’s the interesting part. Every single attack has been blocked before it could do anything. Not just blocked—completely shut down. Our developers are confused because they’re not the ones stopping the attacks.”

Victoria frowned. “Who is, then?”

Cassia smiled slightly. “Most likely Orion. I’ll ask him.”

She knew it was Rene, of course. The AI was monitoring everything, protecting the company’s systems automatically. But she couldn’t tell the team that.

“The competitors are also trying another angle,” Thomas continued. “Negative PR. They’ve released multiple articles attacking our brand. ’Innovatia is stealing user data.’ ’Aether OS contains backdoors.’ ’The AI is training itself on private information.’ Standard fear-mongering.”

“Is it working?” Rachel asked.

“Not even a little. Nobody believes them. Because users can test the software themselves. They can verify we’re not collecting personal data. They can see the AI works locally without sending information to external servers. The transparency undermines every attack.”

Thomas pulled up social media reactions. “Look at this. Users are actually defending us. ’I ran network monitors—Aether OS doesn’t phone home.’ ’The source code analysis shows no backdoors.’ ’This is just desperate competition trying to smear the better product.’”

He scrolled through more comments. “The negative articles are backfiring spectacularly. They make the competitors look scared and dishonest. We’ve actually gained users because of the controversy.”

“So we have nothing to worry about?” Lisa asked.

“Nothing. The product speaks for itself. That’s our advantage—we built something genuinely revolutionary. They can’t compete on merit, so they’re trying dirty tactics. And those tactics are failing.”

Cassia nodded. “Good. Keep monitoring the situation, but don’t engage directly. Let the users defend us. What about the product launch event?”

Lisa spoke up. “Aurora Convention Center, one week from today. Capacity: five thousand people in-person, unlimited virtual attendance. We’ve invited tech media, major influencers, industry analysts, corporate representatives.”

Aurora Convention Center was New Eden’s premier event venue. Built ten years ago using Federation funds as part of the city’s cultural infrastructure initiative. The main hall could accommodate ten thousand people with perfect acoustics and holographic projection systems. Cassia had secured the smaller Innovation Hall—still impressive at five thousand capacity, but more intimate.

“Response rate?” Cassia asked.

“Ninety-two percent acceptance. Everyone wants to attend. We’re also streaming globally. Current registration for virtual attendance: over two million people.”

“Two million people want to watch our product launch?”

“Aether OS is the biggest tech story of the decade. People want to hear directly from Innovatia.”

Thomas added, “We were planning to pay for top-tier influencers’ travel, accommodation, and appearance fees. But honestly, they’d come for free. This is the event everyone wants to be at.”

“One more thing,” Cassia said. “Orion told me we’re also launching two new products at the event. BCI devices—Brain-Computer Interface technology.”

The room went quiet.

“Brain-computer interface?” Victoria said carefully. “That’s… that’s cutting-edge neuroscience. Medical-grade equipment.”

“Orion’s designed consumer versions. Two products: AR BCI earbuds with a processing watch, and a full-dive VR headset.”

She pulled up the product specs Orion had sent her.

“The AR earbuds look like normal wireless earbuds but contain neural sensors. They read brain activity and translate thoughts into commands. Combined with Aether OS, users can control their devices with thought alone.”

Images appeared on screen. Sleek earbuds, elegant smartwatch, all looking like premium consumer electronics.

“The full-dive VR headset provides complete sensory immersion. Visual, auditory, tactile feedback—all generated by neural stimulation. Users experience virtual environments as if they were physically real.”

More images. A comfortable-looking headset, lightweight design, nothing like the bulky medical equipment that currently existed.

“These will be ready for the launch event?” Thomas asked, leaning forward with visible excitement.

“The first manufacturing batch will be completed in a few days. Orion will send units to all of us. We’ll test them, learn how to use them, figure out how to market and advertise properly.”

“Live demo at the launch event?” Thomas was practically vibrating.

“Yes. We’ll demonstrate both products on stage. Show people what thought-controlled computing and full-dive VR actually look like.”

“This is going to be insane,” Thomas said. “Aether OS alone would be the tech event of the year. Adding revolutionary BCI technology? This will be the most important product launch in history.”

Rachel, Head of HR, spoke next. “Recruitment update. We posted listings for fifty developer positions. We’ve received over eight thousand applications in two days.”

“What’s the quality?”

“Exceptional. Senior developers from major corporations. People with fifteen, twenty years of experience applying for junior positions just to join Innovatia. We’re the hottest company in the tech sector right now.”

The United Federation’s education system had produced millions of skilled developers over the past few decades. After the Great Unification, the Federation invested heavily in STEM education. Universal basic income meant people could pursue careers based on interest rather than pure survival. The result was an enormous pool of talented programmers.

But even among that talent pool, the applications Rachel was seeing were exceptional.

“What will they be doing?” Victoria asked. “Most of the development is automated by Orion’s AI.”

“Learning,” Cassia said. “Orion built Aether OS using a new programming language called Nexus. The developers we hire will learn Nexus, study the codebase, and eventually contribute to future projects. For now, they’re learning and supporting.”

Victoria nodded. “That makes sense. Nexus is revolutionary. Anyone who masters it will be the most valuable developers in the industry.”

“Exactly. Hire the best fifty. Start training them immediately.”

“On it.”

Cassia looked around the table. “I also want us to open a public forum. A place where users can submit suggestions, report issues, request features. We listen to our users and continuously improve.”

“I’ll set that up today,” Thomas said. “Community engagement will boost loyalty and give us direct feedback.”

“Good.” Cassia paused. “Now, there’s something I need to show you. Something that hasn’t been made public yet.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep