The silent global reaction, a wave of shock and then frantic activity, was palpable even from orbit. Kaelen watched through the main viewport as tiny, almost imperceptible flickers of light began to spread across Xianwu's surface – the holographic prompts appearing before billions of children and teenagers. She imagined the chaos on the ground: parents scrambling, children torn between the familiar and the impossible promise, entire villages erupting in debate.
Elias, however, remained utterly detached. He returned to his central console, the holographic displays of the floating schools now minimized to a corner, a simple, self-sustaining system he no longer needed to actively manage. His satisfaction wasn't emotional; it was the quiet triumph of a problem efficiently solved, a system optimized.
