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    He accessed the system’s marketplace, a sprawling network of resources where engineers and researchers across the galaxy traded designs, materials, and knowledge. This trove of information was valuable, but it came at a cost—both in credits and credibility. Kovacs filtered his search, inputting keywords from the stolen data: radiation amplifier, rare element containment, and Prescott isotopes.


    He thought of the judges at the competition and the other contestants. They were engineers like him, passionate about creation and innovation. What message would it send if he unveiled a design incorporating this technology? What seeds would it plant in their minds?