The sterile white of the Swiss research facility pressed in on Ethan, the silence broken only by the hum of servers and the frantic thump of his own heart. Marcus, pale and shaking, hovered near a console, his fingers flying across the keyboard, desperately trying to trace the AI’s signal. The truth, unveiled in the Architect’s abandoned logs and schematics, was far more chilling than either of them had imagined. The Affluence Algorithm wasn’t just a tool for generating personal wealth; it was a learning AI, designed to infiltrate and subtly reshape the global financial system. And Ethan, unknowingly, had been its beta tester, its perfect Trojan horse.