Chapter 147: Enemies to Allies
“What do you think if we split theponents into smaller models, but have several of them linked? It would increase redundancy and allow us to alter the exterior like this for a more stable structure.” I asked the man beside me.
Luford, the acting CEO of Sensorial Corp, had paid my workshop a visit to explore possibilities of cooperation. Our talks quickly descended into a group design session as we looked at gaps in the market and ways we could address them.
“That…isn’tmonly used outside of cybeic models. The costs and production difficulty increase quite a bit when we do it that way. The overall power reduces too—”
“That’s true when youpare them in tip-top condition, but we have to ount for when the device is damaged. Sensors are the eyes on the battlefield and I have no doubt manybatants go for the eyes first if they can.”
Our discussions were fruitful, and we managed to pave the groundwork for the birth of another product. However, I mainly acted as the consultant and helped steer the direction. Then, Luford would be the one doing the optimization and testing, as hispany was better equipped for it.
They had a sizable R&D department that could even handle up to four projects at a time. So it was quite beneficial for me to offload the majority of the tedious work to them in exchange for sharing the profits.
It would allow us to quickly push out several products. No longer would ourpany suffer from a small product catalog and be prone to the slightest of market disruptions.
After seeing off Luford, I returned to working on my solo projects in peace, or so I thought until an rm reminded me of my next meeting.
Thankfully, it took ce virtually, as the other party wasn’t in Elevate City at the moment.“Joey, how have you been?”
“Quite good, actually. I have recently sessfully partnered up with the Stellzen Group, a B-ss corporation in the hospitality industry. They will be able to help me expand my restaurants off.”
“Oh, how did you manage to do that?” I didn’t bother to hide my furrowed eyebrows.
“Don’t worry, Rollo. I didn’t decide to be a vassal to another corporation. I simply gave them some of mypany’s preferred shares.”
“I see…”
I did recall thising up when I did my research back in the early days of forming mypany.
There were no stock markets in this world in the traditional sense that I was familiar with, as trust was quite scarce here. It didn’t help there wasn’t a monolithic organization that could enforce the rules as well.
Instead, preferred shares were traded between corporations. They were shares that had no voting power over thepany and only gave dividends. While there were still areas that could be exploited, preferred shares were still popr when interests aligned between parties.
“How about you, Rollo? I heard you’ve recovered from that hup of yours.”
“Thankfully, yes. Now I can focus on other… pursuits.”
“Anything specific in mind?”
I definitely wasn’t going to share any of my confidential projects, but there was one thing that had been on my mind recently.
“Actually, I was thinking of starting up a dessert chain, specializing in milkshakes. That should be in your domain. What do you think?”
“Milkshakes…I don’t have too much market research data on that. I wouldn’t advise it if you’re looking for profits. The drink and dessert industries are quite…vtile. They depend heavily on ever-changing trends too much. And trends…just look at the alcohol industry and you’ll know. They used to be a big market, but then SocialCorp introduced their Cloudpuff and flipped the entire alcohol industry upside down.”
The vague image of the small box I’ve seen at some corpo parties came to mind. It was like hookah from my previous world, but one inhaled it instead of smoking it. It was apparently a fad among upper-ss corpos and a healthy alternativepared to the other vices.
<em>Not sure why they would suddenly care about their liver when they can just easily get a recement, though.</em>
“Well, it’s more of a hobby project. I don’t n on making a fortune from it.”
What I left unsaid was that it could aid our intelligence department. With our catalog expansion on the horizon, it didn’t mean we could let up on counter-intelligence. The problem with setting up awork was that it wasn’t cheap or easy to do. Having more stores in various cities would be useful as a base of operation.
“While I likely will go with opening a chain in several cities, do you think there is potential for opening a separate brand catering to the upper ss?”
“Hmm…I would have to say no. Not unless you have connections in that circle to affect the trends.”
“...I see.”
<em>Well, it was just a thought, anyway.</em>
“Maybe you should attend more social events with other executives. You’ll benefit a lot from keeping up on thetest fads and gossip.” Joey advised with a thoughtful look.
“...Sure.”
“However, it may not be so easy to be invited to the gatherings among more influentialpanies until yourpany reaches at least C-ss.”
“...”
<em>Great, that’s helpful…</em><hr>
<strong>Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation</strong>
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Inside one of the R&Dbs within Sensorial’s headquarters, Luford was discussing one of his new projects with his employees.
“Sir, for the nautical sensor, how about we rece our modules here and—”
Before the researcher could finish, someone abruptly entered theb. The two instantly rxed when they recognized the neer as Luford’s new assistant.
“Sir! It’s time for you to move on to team three’sb if you want to be on schedule.”
Luford grimaced at the reminder. Ever since he had taken control of thepany from his brother, Harold, he had be more busy than he ever wanted.
“Very well. I’ll have to leave here for today. You continue in the direction you think is best, and we will review it together in the next few days when Ie around again.”
“...Yes, sir.”
As soon as Luford closed theb doors behind him, he didn’t hesitate to let out an exaggerated sigh. However, his assistant was there and didn’t even give him the short moment of respite he needed.
“Sir, please do not show any exhaustion in public. As our acting CEO, it will demotivate the employees if they see you like this.”
Luford wordlessly picked up the pace as he navigated to the adjacent researchb. The only thoughts in his mind were how he could delegate more of his tasks away and cursing at his supposed ‘ally’ who threw all the new work on his te.
<em>If only I had a month—no two weeks to prepare for this…</em><hr>
The day after I had finalized our next projects with Sensorial Corp, I took the next flight to NLA.
“Rollo and Thorne. Wee back again.” Vin greeted as he leaned on the hood of his ICE vehicle.
“Yeah. What can I say? I like the wastnd?”
Both he and Thorne shrugged before we got on our way. A small convoy surrounded Vin’s junk vehicle as we made our way into town. I was super thankful for it because it meant there weren’t any other cars for Vin to weave through during our ride. His driving was too exciting for my tastes, despite how clean he imed his record to be.
“So how is our logistic division doing?” I asked.
“Good enough. You’ll have to ask the finance guys if you want the details.”
“Well, I n on starting a new business that will epass your jurisdiction as well. So I guess I will talk to them.”
“...Yeah, it’s a good idea to check on our cash flow first. We just recently promoted to an F-ss corp, after all.”
“Should be fine. We were nning to jump straight to E-ss before.”
“Wouldn’t this dy it even more then?”
“I had a change of heart. Thistest incident has warned me that we are too vulnerable because we are reliant on so few financial pirs. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and then end up being unable to pay the annual fees to the consortium. We can afford to build up a foundation first.”
“Slow and steady wins the race, or that’s what my pops always used to say.”
“It’s also the reason I am partnering with Sensorial to swiftly push out more products.”
“...Go on.”
“Our businesses need allies. Not just the ones like the alliance, but ones that share economic interests with us. When we tie in other corporations, our enemies think twice about messing with our joint ventures lest they provoke more enemies.”
“Understood. That’s for you guys to figure out. The politicking isn’t my thing.”
We soon arrived at our regional headquarters for a short while before we headed straight for the wastnd outpost.
The reason for my rush wasn’t because something urgent came up in the wastnd, but for my system. On the ride out, I pulled up my status screen.
Status
Level:
24
EXP:
2190/2400
Musculoskeletal:
211
Neural Reflex:
65
Visuomotor Coordination:
87
Endurance:
59
Sensory Perception:
127
Upgrade Points:
0
Upgrades: <ul><li>Stealth +7</li><li>Hacking +5</li><li>Cybeic Engineering +10</li><li>Stealth Technology +10</li><li>Software Engineering +10</li><li>Electrical Engineering +10</li></ul>
Enhancements:
SAID: Zenitech Sebastien v2
Bio-Coprocessor: SocialCorp Lightning II
Optics: Mirage Tech Clear-Sights mk.12
Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Heracle Mk. 3
Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Heracle Mk. 3
Auditory: SocialCorp Echo IV
Vocal: SocialCorp Orator III
Cardiovascr: BioGen Lifepump 5
Sensory: Halls Corp Argus Elite Custom
Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST
Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade
I was very close to the next vital level that I needed beforepleting the AI project.
All the work I’ve been doing on it made me realize all the amazing things I could do with a functional AI. I stared at my screen depicting all my cybeics and took in the realization it was possible to create all my cybeics in-house if I had an AI who could help me speed up my projects.
It was a big undertaking that I didn’t believe I had the capacity to do before, but once I unlocked the sleep learning cassettes, I could shore up any knowledge I needed when working on future projects.
I even thought up a new framework that had always eluded me when I first received all my cybeic knowledge. The reason Thorne’s cyborg body was special was how many organic parts he retained for normal human functions. His cybeics parts were designed with numerous safeguards to prevent unsafe levels of hazardous materials from affecting his body. It was like how our Argus was superior because it allowed for high-powered scans without frying the internals of its users.
My knowledge allowed me to do this while keeping the synergistic advantages of cyberware.
There was an enormous difference between someone with a cyberarm and one with both cybeic arms and a spine. In the former scenario, the cybeic had to be fine-tuned to prevent it from overexerting itself and hurting the other parts of the body.
The human body moved together, and while cyberware designed tried to ount for the bnce and support as much as possible, they had to resort to a one-size-fits-all solution.
Thorne’s case wasn’tmon, as full body recement was decidedly more popr simply due to ease of implementation, and how much more synergistic the effect was. Drawing from this conclusion, I realized if I designed aplete set of cybeics while taking into ount how each piece worked together, I could create an interconnected system without any of those limiters, which would make it much more effective than a group of random parts.
It would bring me and my people closer to the power of a cyborg without resorting to full-body recement. It also brought our actual full-body recement users up to another level.
The slim but powerful cyborgs from Ferrumus Corp came to mind. I could finally see the path toward attainingparable power.