Arknights: The Prophet of Penguin Logistics — Chapter 103

Chapter 103: The White Lord of Eden

Eden Corporation. The newest, most enigmatic entity to carve out a space in Lungmen’s crowded skyline.

Situated in the sprawling plaza directly opposite the Lungmen Guard Department headquarters, its central office was impossible to ignore. The structure was a pale, sterile white—an inexplicable, monolithic cube thrust violently into the concrete earth, completely at odds with the neon-drenched grit of the surrounding city. Established a mere three months ago, early whispers suggested the building had been authorized directly by the L.G.D.’s clandestine Eternal Life Agency. As the weeks bled on, however, the rumor mill quietly ground to a halt, leaving only the monolith behind.

This pure white cube possessed no visible doors, no windows, and no external interfaces. Its only interaction with the outside world came through a series of massive, high-definition projection screens hovering around its perimeter. These displays cycled endlessly through Eden’s corporate mission, business models, cooperation guidelines, and its stark logo.

That logo—two sharply overlapping rhombuses—sat above a mission statement that read like a utopian fever dream: a promise to secure broader living spaces, to breathe new life into the abandoned and forgotten, and a bold declaration to lead humanity back to paradise. To the cynical citizens of Lungmen, it sounded exactly like the manifesto of a high-end pyramid scheme.

Yet, their actual products had garnered terrifyingly perfect reviews from every single buyer.

Code Name: Recovered Item.

Code Name: Regeneration Failure.

Code Name: Non-Designated Processor.

To the layman, these three flagship products sounded like absolute nonsense. In reality, they were industrial miracles.

The first, Recovered Item, was a massive apparatus capable of recycling all organic matter within a wide radius. It broke down, redistributed, and used biological material, even possessing the programming capacity to reconstruct a quasi-biosphere cycle in a frighteningly short window of time.

The second was a supplementary add-on designed to pair perfectly with the first, marketed externally as the Civilization Reconstruction Machine. using built-in architectural blueprints and an internal, automated forging facility, it could systematically rebuild an entire devastated zone, reshaping the very earth into whatever form the user desired.

The third was a heavy-duty processor for scrap metal and inorganic refuse, designed to feed raw materials directly into the second machine.

When combined and synchronized, these three facilities could effortlessly erase the catastrophic environmental damage caused by modern warfare in a matter of days. Once industry titans like Rhine Lab and the Umbrella Corporation began using these instruments for experimental hazard cleanup, the flawless results sent shockwaves through the scientific community. Almost overnight, Eden Corporation stepped out of the shadows and onto the grand stage of Terra.

Every single product they sold was incredibly massive, clunky, and brutally utilitarian, yet Eden Corporation rolled out constant updates and iterations. Rhine Lab and Umbrella Corporation practically threw money at them, buying up these simple, highly practical machines in bulk.

As for the unsettling, sterile strangeness of Eden Corporation itself? The market was more than willing to turn a blind eye when faced with the temptation of such high-quality, low-cost terraforming tech. After all, Rhine Lab and Umbrella were already viewed as eccentric, morally gray monoliths by the general public. A seemingly empty company with a utopian mission statement like Eden barely registered on the threat scale. Because it operated as a local Lungmen industry, it was easily overlooked by the global powers.

In short order, the Eden White Tower became just another common landmark in Lungmen, serving as the birthplace for a dozen new urban legends.

Conspiracy theorists in dive bars claimed with absolute certainty that Eden’s true goal was to reshape the entire planet, to forcefully transform the world into their own twisted vision of paradise. But such idle chatter was merely treated as free entertainment. The locals were simply happy to see a powerful, homegrown megacorp pumping LMD into the local economy.

As a massive trading hub, hosting the headquarters of heavy-hitting tech companies was a point of pride for Lungmen. Aside from a few lingering questions—why no one was ever seen inside the White Tower, why no CEO had ever stepped forward to claim ownership, and why only a small crew of external contractors handled the logistics—the public’s curiosity quickly faded. They just felt they had a nice, clean new landmark to look at.

However, what no one in the city knew was that deep inside the sterile belly of the white tower, right as the season’s first snow began to fall over Lungmen, the acting Representative of the building was finally welcoming her true master.

“…My company?”

“That’s right!”

“Registered entirely in my name?”

“Exactly!”

“Then how exactly did you manage to operate all of this?”

“Look, I did do a few odd jobs over at the Eternal Life Agency, after all. I realized the tech we were sitting on could make some serious LMD, so I redeemed myself by filing a few patents and liquidating some assets. But don’t worry, Boss, I’m someone who knows how to repay a kindness! How could I just go independent and leave you in the dust after you gave me a job? So, I marched straight into the L.G.D., found Officer Ch’en, and established this whole Eden Corporation right under your name! See? The revenue stream is looking pretty good, right? I told you hiring me was definitely the greatest choice you ever made!”

Staring blankly at the staggering financial data projected across the pure white walls of the facility, Lynn slowly rubbed his bloodshot eyes. His exhausted brain simply could not process the sheer absurdity of this transition.

It was only his second day back in Lungmen. He hadn’t even had the chance to touch a bed, let alone sleep, before a dangerously excited Mayer had dragged him by the collar into the hidden interior of the Eden White Tower, proudly declaring him the absolute Lord of Eden.

This global leading enterprise—a juggernaut in the industry of environmental utilization machinery, organic recycling, and crude product reprocessing—had inexplicably become his personal property.

“What is this? What is all of this?”

Looking at Mayer’s beaming, incredibly proud expression, Lynn felt a migraine building behind his eyes. After holding his breath for a long, painful moment, he managed to ask a tentative question.

“Then, you’re telling me these three flagship machines are just the byproducts you made according to our original plan. So where is the actual product itself? Is it finished?”

“No, no, of course not! What we’re selling to the public are just the discarded tools.” Mayer waved her hand dismissively, pacing around the holographic terminal. “Look at them, Boss. The product names are literally all failure codes! They are entirely failed products. Sure, you could say they’re usable in certain niche environments, but they completely lack universality and they absolutely cannot self-replicate. They can only be used as a temporary waste-utilization stopgap to generate funding when we’re out of money.”

She sighed, crossing her arms in frustration. “These nanomachines are a massive headache to program. The construction of the Gestalt network hasn’t even reached ten percent completion yet! Honestly, if you hadn’t given me that massive lump sum of LMD back then, Boss, I wouldn’t even know how to keep the lights on right now.”

“But the effects of these ‘discarded tools’ seem pretty incredible to me?” Lynn gestured weakly at the projection showing a barren wasteland being turned into fertile soil. “Recycling organic matter, breaking down inorganic matter, and then entirely reshaping the environment and geology… I feel like, to some extent, having the three of them complement each other should barely achieve the initial concept we talked about—”

“—That’s exactly why I said they are just a degraded, pathetic version of true nanomachines!” Mayer interrupted, puffing out her cheeks in deep dissatisfaction. “And they cannot regenerate a true biosphere! I’ve already tried!”

She glared at the holographic models of the machines as if they had personally insulted her.

“Pure White Land. Reshaping the planet. Complete self-reproduction. Infinite self-proliferation. How can those clunky, defective products even begin to compare to such a grand, beautiful machine? No, absolutely not. I refuse to let those defective hunks of metal contaminate the interior of this white tower. The planet’s ecology cannot yet be perfectly reshaped, and the primordial environment cannot be simulated. Why would I want trash inside my lab? They can’t even resist basic Originium contamination! They’re basically useless!”

“Oh… oh, I see…” Lynn muttered, feeling his soul slowly leaving his body.

“By the way, Boss,” Mayer suddenly pivoted, her eyes sparkling with a dangerous, calculating light. “That large sum of money you gave me back in Kazimierz? I’ve already burned through most of it buying up experimental testing sites and raw basic materials. It’s costing an absolute fortune. At this burn rate, in another three months, we’ll be completely broke again. Please send a bit more funding my way, at least enough to keep the industrial supply chain moving…”

‘What should I do?’Lynn stared at the ceiling of the sterile white cube.’The random sci-fi bullshit I was just spouting to sound cool… this manic tech genius actually went and built it. May I ask what I am supposed to do next?”Is it too late to build a makeshift rocket base and launch her into outer space to be an alien asteroid miner?’

Listening to Mayer, who was now happily rambling on about supply chain logistics and the desperate need for more LMD, Lynn seriously, genuinely considered the logistics of that question.