Leon Daniel Vas sat cross-legged on the cold marble floor of his living room, a tablet on one knee and three monitors displaying live feedback loops from Athena's server nodes. He hadn't left the house in two days.
He didn't need to.
The outside world was starting to respond to Athena—not with headlines or lawsuits, but with curiosity. Leon had seeded it carefully, and now that curiosity was taking root. The system notifications buzzed like ambient noise in his skull.
SYSTEM: Athena Protocol Active Devices — 5,922
SP Earned: +19,370 (Adjusted for New Region Yield Bonus)
Current Balance: 99,178 SP
It wasn't enough to buy the Quantum Emulator Node, but it was close. More importantly, it confirmed his theory: If you build something that quietly works better than anything else, people won't need marketing. They'll spread it themselves.
Leon opened a user heatmap. Most downloads were still concentrated in California, but he was starting to see sparks in New York, Chicago, and parts of Texas. There were also stray pings from Seoul, Nairobi, and Warsaw—likely from tech-savvy teachers or forum dwellers. That meant Athena's reach was already global.
He minimized the map and opened the performance analytics.
Athena Protocol
Avg. Student Improvement (7-day window): +28.6%
Avg. Session Retention: 82 minutes
Most Downloaded Module: Foundational STEM & Logic
It was all working better than projected.
Leon leaned back, exhaling slowly. He'd spent the last 48 hours optimizing the user interface, translating Athena into five new languages, and building a simple offline mode to help users with unreliable internet. Every step fed back into the system's intelligence. It was evolving faster than expected.
He clicked into a private thread on an obscure educational darknet forum. Dozens of anonymous teachers were sharing testimonials. Some even compared Athena to old government programs—favourably.
"I don't know who made this, but it saved my class."
"Feels like the software's actually alive. It adjusts when my students get frustrated."
"How is this not funded by a major university?"
Leon smiled faintly. Anonymous praise was the safest kind.
He glanced at his secondary screen—news aggregation.
Nothing yet from the big networks.
But local news? That was shifting.
"District Teachers Report Unofficial AI Tool Boosts Student Performance" — Sacramento Local 5
"Unknown Software Circulating Among School Networks; District Officials Unsure of Origin" — San Diego Chronicle
The narrative was beginning to form: something big was coming, but no one knew from where.
And that was exactly how Leon wanted it.
SYSTEM: SP Yield Multiplier Review In Progress...
Note: Organic growth exceeding projections. Threshold reevaluation likely.
He closed the windows and shut down the terminal for the night.
He hadn't released a product.
He'd released a whisper.
And the world was already leaning in to listen.