The silence that followed Liam's final words hung in the digital space for exactly three seconds. Then reality crashed back in.
On Earth, 785 million people simultaneously tried to process what they'd just heard.
"The age of scarcity is ending."
In Times Square, the crowd stood motionless, thousands of faces tilted upward toward the massive screens. Tokyo's Shibuya Crossing had gone eerily quiet, the usual chaos replaced by stunned contemplation.
Then the comments exploded.
"HE JUST CASUALLY ENDED CAPITALISM"
"Every economist on Earth just had a heart attack"
"$10,000 QUADRILLION. That number doesn't even make sense."
"The entire global economy is worth maybe $100 trillion. This ONE ROCK is 100,000 times that."
"Governments are watching this and realizing they're obsolete"
"Mining companies' stock just became worthless. ALL of them."
"He's not showing off. He's making a statement. 'Your economic systems are about to mean nothing.'"
