Becoming A Tech Tycoon Begins With Regression-Chapter 229: Helix Falls

Helix Global was supposed to allow its failure, and blame everything on OmniTech,

But what the hell was this?

"We have a permit to investigate your labs, engineers and systems," a tall man said, "so please cooperate with us during this time."

During the past week, reports after reports of Helix Aegis' incompetence had been revealed.

At first, Helix tried to divert attention by blaming OmniTech for attempted cooperate sabotage.

The board's trust in the collector immediately plummeted, just as their public trust had.

The collector had promised to reveal evidence that OmniTech Corp was indeed connected to the Vigilants, but Ethan wasn't about to let that happen.

Fortunately, in hopes of seeing what Helix Aegis was capable of, the collector had also tried it on his systems.

This gave Athena full control over them, and destroying the evidence was as simple as formating his entire systems.

Now, he did have a couple backed up in the clouds, but he also had his passwords saved on his PC, which meant Athena had also easily been able to access those.

Even he hadn't seen any of this coming, he was sure that everything was in his control, but he had been proved otherwise. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

And people like the collector, the moment their control starts slipping, so did their sanity, though it wouldn't surface just yet.

OmniTech had retaliated to the accusations, really really hard. They were still going with the narrative that they were willing to push the technology of this era faster.

Yet Helix Aegis had not only rejected that idea, they had also spit on it. It was also revealed that the base code they were using belonged to OmniTech Corp, which had been released a few weeks prior to Helix Aegis' release.

OmniTech Corp claimed that this was supposed to be a foundation with enough clues to eventually develop a completely functional Sentinel.

With that, they had solidified the fact that they were not gatekeepers, just pioneers willing to guide them into the future.

From that point on, everything just spiraled downwards. They had been hit with investigation after the other.

Somehow, the government had found out about their failure of a nanobot and that wouldn't have been an issue....if they weren't at the human experiment stage.

That was when Helix Aegis was finally and swiftly closed down.

And worst of all, the Collector couldn't stop it.

Every attempt to regain control only exposed how little he actually had left.

Helix Aegis, once their crown jewel, was torn apart in public, Independent analysts dissected its architecture live on streams with millions watching.

They didn't even need to dig deep as it all just revealed its own errors for all to see.

Hardcoded prediction modules, delayed response loops, a self correcting heuristic that only worked if the attacker behaved "logically."

"It doesn't adapt," one analyst said bluntly on air, "it only responds as much as its operator anticipates."

Another followed up, "And worse, its learning model is seeded. It can't evolve past its creator's assumptions."

That single sentence killed whatever credibility Helix Aegis still had.

Then came the final blow.

A joint statement from three major governments.

"All Helix Aegis deployments are hereby suspended pending further review."

Suspended....was putting it politely.

In reality, contracts were voided, systems were ripped out, and Helix Global was quietly blacklisted from future national security bids.

But a failure for one led to the rise of another.

OmniTech's Sentinel filled the vacuum left by Helix Aegis almost immediately, their trust values went up and so did their stocks.

***

In Helix Global's private board room, the executives were engaged in a heated argument, mostly directed at the collector who quietly sat with a finger on his lips.

"You said we could pull OmniTech Corp down with Helix Aegis," Vladimir was the first to speak up, "but what the hell is this?"

The collector didn't reply, as he was still deep in thoughts.

"What?" Another of the executives built up his courage and added, "weren't you so sur you had everything under control? What happened to that control now?"

Normally, they wouldn't have been saying this, since the man before them was still a dangerous one.

But they were basically losing their sanity, and their rationality was far out the window.

The Collector finally lowered his hand from his lips and exhaled slowly, as if the noise around him was nothing more than background static.

"Control," he repeated softly, his tone completely calm.

Vladimir scoffed. "Don't philosophize now. We're finished. Our labs are seized, our assets are frozen, and OmniTech is parading Sentinel like a savior."

"You're panicking, which means your grip on control is slipping," the collector calmly said, "which blocks the bigger picture and forces you to make mistakes far worse than the current situation you're in."

His words made no sense to the current executives which worked to only annoy them even more.

After all, everything was going south and the man that was leading them there was busy being philosophical?

One of the executives slammed a folder onto the table. "Then enlighten us. Because from where we're standing, we've lost everything."

"No," he said. "I've lost Helix."

Silence fell.

"That was always acceptable," he continued before turning to each of them, "after all, you agreed to be pawns if I averted your downfall."

"That was not our agreement," Vladimir slammed his hand on the table, "we agreed to provide you with pawns, not become pawns."

The collector looked at them before smiling, "I guess my age is catching up to me."

Before anyone could say anything, he added, "but there's still one more thing you could do to ruin OmniTech."

"What's that?" Vladimir asked, even though he was a bit hesitant, but what none expected, not even the Collector, was for the screen in the board room to light up.

"I'm also curious Collector," a voice came from the screen, "why don't you tell me your plan of ruining my company."

"OmniTech," the collector calmly said before standing up, "or do you prefer, Ethan Carter."