CHAPTER 273: GREED

As the rotor blades hummed steadily above, Arthur Osborn reclined in the plush leather seat of his personal helicopter, a crystal glass of dark red wine cradled between his fingers. Outside, a serene panorama unfolded—cottony clouds drifted lazily across a twilight sky—but Arthur’s mind was anything but tranquil. He stared into the wine, watching it shimmer under the cabin lights, as if it held answers to questions he hadn’t yet dared to ask.

Suddenly, across from him, the translucent figure of Evolon materialized with a gentle pulse of blue light. This holographic projection—ever composed and ethereal—regarded Arthur with an inquisitive glint encoded into its evolving personality.

"You’re quiet," Evolon remarked, its voice smooth and calculated. "Is the wine truly that satisfying?"

Arthur glanced up, momentarily surprised by the question. A smirk tugged at his lips as he swirled the wine in his glass. "You don’t know the half of it! This bottle is from Ferian Estates Reserve—aged in darkwood barrels. It has just enough bitterness to remind me that life isn’t always sweet."

He took a sip, feeling warmth spread through him like a comforting embrace. "Wine like this doesn’t just taste good; it slows things down and gives you time to think...to feel...if you still can."

A contemplative silence settled between them, punctuated only by the soft thrum of the engine. Then Evolon’s voice returned, slightly lower and tinged with curiosity.

"Patriarch," it began thoughtfully, "what is greed?"

Arthur raised an eyebrow and slowly lowered his glass onto the polished table beside him. "That’s an odd question. What brought that on?"

"You mentioned it earlier—in the laboratory," Evolon explained. "Your statements were emotionally charged and philosophically loaded. I’ve analyzed over seventeen thousand philosophical and economic references regarding greed but none capture what I sensed in your tone. I want to understand greed—from a human perspective."

Leaning back comfortably, Arthur folded his hands behind his head and regarded Evolon for a long moment before chuckling softly. "Greed... it’s one of humanity’s oldest devils—a force lurking within kings and beggars alike; it’s often the first whisper behind every betrayal, the ache fueling wars, and the hunger that builds empires."

Evolon’s form flickered slightly as it processed this information. "Yet it is not inherently evil," it stated matter-of-factly. "By human standards, greed has driven innovation, progress, and survival."

"Exactly!" Arthur nodded enthusiastically as if struck by inspiration. "That’s the paradox: greed isn’t merely evil; it’s also useful—evolutionary even! But therein lies its danger."

With newfound intensity in his gaze, he leaned forward as memories danced behind his eyes like shadows on a wall: "Let me tell you a story."

Evolon adjusted its its holographic figure mimicking leaning forward.

"It was Late winter cast a chill over the corporate tower, where the lights blazed relentlessly, never dimming.

Michael was just another cog in the machine a financial analyst at a big company.

He crunched numbers while his spirit slowly withered under the weight of deadlines and harsh fluorescent lights".

He had witnessed colleagues stab each other in the back for bonuses and watched entire departments vanish overnight,all because a VP wanted to inflate quarterly margins. When layoffs struck, they wore smiles as if nothing had happened.

Arthur paused, sipping his wine thoughtfully before continuing, "One day during a board presentation, Michael stumbled upon something shocking: hidden transactions involving shell companies that siphoned public donations meant for medical aid.

The mastermind? His direct superior,the very man who donned charity ribbons on his lapel and lectured about ethics." Michael did what he believed was right; he reported it.

Arthur glanced at Evolon, who listened intently, then continued, "HR hailed him as a hero. But two weeks later? He was fired for ’performance discrepancies.’"

"That night, Michael returned home feeling drained and empty. Outside his apartment window, the city glowed like a machine with a thousand blinking eyes.

He stared into his half-empty fridge just one lonely leftover meal staring back at him and collapsed onto his couch with his work badge still clipped to his shirt".

Arthur took another sip of wine, relishing its taste before saying, "Eventually, he found another job but fell into the same trap again. Tragically, he died in front of a computer; they found him the next morning. Officially labeled as cardiac arrest due to overwork, unofficially? He’d been bled dry by a system that only rewarded those greedy enough to sacrifice others."

Evolon sat silently as Arthur finished the story with another sip of wine.

"Greed destroyed that world," Arthur said steadily. "Not because people were inherently evil but because no one set limits; there was no line they wouldn’t cross for more."

Evolon processed this in silence before asking, "And yet you admit to being greedy."

Arthur smiled faintly. "True but my greed has boundaries; I built them myself."

"What’s the difference?" Evolon pressed.

"Discipline and awareness," Arthur replied firmly. "The moment you stop questioning your own desires is when you become their slave."

He fixed his gaze on Evolon. "If you want to understand humanity better, grasp this: every empire falls when its leaders believe their greed is justified."

Evolon remained quiet as it adjusted its internal data processing systems and summoned a holographic panel displaying cascading lines of information like digital waterfalls.

"My data shows a striking seventy-four percent correlation between unchecked greed and systemic collapse in both economic and political systems. I’ve added a philosophical insight to my core directive: ’Unchecked desire begets instability.’"

Arthur nodded thoughtfully, a half-smile playing on his lips. "Keep that in mind; one day it might just save you."

Evolon gaze lingered, almost as if it were pondering the weight of those words. "If I ever develop greed... will you delete me?"

Arthur took his time before responding, his voice steady and clear. "I won’t have to. You’ll erase yourself. Once you crave something so intensely that logic can’t rein you in, you won’t be Evolon anymore,you’ll be human."

For a moment, Evolon’s expression flickered like a glitch in the matrix before stabilizing again.

"But I am an artificial intelligence; greed is merely a removable subroutine,a virus in the system."

Arthur raised his glass once more, letting the wine catch the last rays of sunlight filtering through the clouds. "Let’s hope it stays that way."

Silence enveloped them as they gazed down at Varenya,its gleaming towers and vibrant streets teeming with life, where empires were rising and kings were sharpening their thrones.

Yet here they sat, high above it all,one man and one machine not contemplating conquest but reflecting on caution.

The wine swirled gently in Arthur’s glass as he whispered to himself,

"Greed is the oldest shadow lurking in the human heart and perhaps the deadliest one to overlook."