《Corpo Age》 Prologue ¡°Start packing your things. I want you out of my office by the end of the day,¡± The obese man in front of me said, as he took a swig from his whiskey glass. He had called me into his office first thing in the morning and had dropped this on me all of a sudden. ¡°Sir? What is this about? You had just given me excellent reviews on my work last week.¡± The man adjusted his glasses while he whirled his glass around, ¡°The past isn¡¯t something you can fix. If our company had known of your history, we would not have hired you.¡± ¡°...What do¡ª¡± ¡°Enough, your gang relationship has come to light. While I have found no problem with your work so far, if it got out that we had someone like you in our company, it would ruin our reputation. The decision is final.¡± ¡°That is in the past, I don¡¯t¡ª¡± ¡°Enough. If you could please stop wasting my time, I am busy here.¡± And that was how I ended up losing my first job within the first three months. It had been devastating. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. It felt like all the work I had put in to better myself was all for nothing because of where I came from. It only pained me more since I just thought I had escaped from my past, only for it to catch up. My dream of getting rich and having an easy life seemed impossible now. No other company in the industry would hire me with my meager amount of experience. They would only hire their former interns for the beginner roles, and they wouldn¡¯t touch someone a top company had let go after only a short while. I had to do some horrible things back when I was growing up to survive and I had thought I could change, but reality wasn¡¯t such a forgiving place. After my termination, I refused to give up and took several part-time jobs in retail, aiming to save up enough to start my own business. The small amounts I could scrounge up into my savings each month were depressing. With rising food prices, rent, and inflation, it seemed like some force was out to get me. It took three years of diligent saving, but I was finally ready. ¡°It was nice talking to you today, Mr. Halls. I will have the documents emailed to you soon. Once you have signed them, we should be able to incorporate your business. Hope you have a great rest of the day. See you soon.¡± As I exited my attorney¡¯s office with a hop in my step, I put on my earphones and started humming happily to a tune as I made my way to the bus stop. From now on, I no longer had to juggle between my part-time jobs and could wholeheartedly focus on my business. I watched the light change before crossing the street. Just as I had made it halfway, car horns rang out from all the surrounding cars. I turned, only to see bright headlights rapidly growing in size. I had just enough time to make out the terror on the truck driver¡¯s face before everything turned dark. Chapter 1: The First Step It was hot¡­ Too hot. I opened my eyes and found a flaming wall of fire blocking me in a corner of a room. I turned to find a window behind me that was my only source of fresh air. Wherever I was, I was on the fourth floor of some building and¡ª Suddenly, gunshots rang out from below. I looked down and found a giant man slowly walking into the courtyard below, firing his shotgun at people below me. I knew there were people as shots were fired back at the man, but he ignored it as the bullets bounced uselessly off him. That¡­isn¡¯t a human, is it? ¡°Hector, load the EI rounds. I¡¯ll disable him!¡± Another voice yelled out from below me. I was too afraid of all the bullets flying around to try to poke my head out of the window to get a better view. Before long, something was thrown at the man, and a bright light blinded me for a full second. When my vision returned, I found the man frozen stiff, as the people below pelted him with more gunfire. I wanted to shout out for help as the fire continued to rage on behind me, but my vision started to blur and my throat was parched. I felt really hazy and soon, I couldn¡¯t even hold my eyelids open.
The sound of the morning alarm chimed loudly in greeting to a new day. The dreaded noise made me regain consciousness instantly, though I refused to open my eyes yet. I took a deep breath as I gathered my thoughts. Did I set an alarm last night again? Was there even something to do today besides sleeping in? The alarm continued to ring. Lazily, I leaned over toward my nightstand to reach for my phone from where I always left it, and my hand made contact with a cool glassy surface. Glass? But my nightstand is made of wood. What the¡­? As the alarm rang once more, I quickly opened my eyes wide and looked over to and saw a completely unfamiliar nightstand made of glass. On top of it was a thin translucent screen that seemed to be the source of the noise. The screen lit up with several options to either stop the alarm or to put it on snooze. I tapped the stop button and silence was immediately restored. I looked around and saw an undecorated room with only a simple desk in the corner of the room and the nightstand that stood beside me. Shit¡­ did I get kidnapped or something? I got up from the bed and quietly opened the door closest to me, only to find a washroom. I then opened what appeared to be a set of closet doors to find a walk-in closet that had two sets of clothes on the hangers. I opened the last door, and it led to a small living room area with an open kitchen off to the side. It seems like I am alone in here, but where in god¡¯s name am I? The fact that I don¡¯t even know how I got here scares me the most. I don¡¯t normally drink, so that rules out a hangover. Did I get drugged? With nothing interesting I could find, I moved back to the bedroom and picked up the thin screen. It appeared to be a cell phone and started playing around with it. It instantly lit up with the words Biometric Confirmed before the display opened to a familiar-looking dashboard. It was similar, but unlike any of the operating systems I knew of, so I turned the phone over and saw the words ¡°Zenitech¡± engraved on it. I turned the phone back over and started investigating it for any clues, but instead of resolving the mystery, I only got more and more confused. I found a chain of emails that were addressed to MY name, on a phone that I¡¯d never seen before¡­
FROM: [email protected]
TO: [email protected]
DATE: Friday, November 16, 499
SUBJECT: Resettlement Package
Dear Rollo Halls, First, I would like to express my condolences for the loss of your place of residence, Happy Homes, due to a fire caused by hostile parties engaging on the premises. Rest assured, the perpetrators have been accordingly dealt with. As Happy Homes is a subsidiary of SocialCorp, it is our responsibility to help resettle all the charges that were under Happy Homes, as they can no longer do so. However, we would like to offer you the opportunity to apply for emancipation. If you choose to proceed, we will provide you with a compensation package that exceeds the normal benefit package. I have included the details in the files attached to this email. To apply, please¡­
There were dozens more back-and-forth emails down the chain describing what summed up to be a story about an orphan, who had the same name as me, having to deal with the aftermath of the destruction of their orphanage. The orphanage was a subsidiary of some company named SocialCorp. With the old orphanage effectively disabled from having been caught up in some fight, it fell to SocialCorp to deal with the surviving orphans. Instead of rebuilding or moving my namesake to a new orphanage, they offered a package that basically said: ¡®Agree that we are no longer responsible for you, and in exchange, we will offer you some money.¡¯ My namesake agreed and received 10,000 credits that somehow became 5000 after a bunch of processing fees I didn¡¯t bother to examine. What a sucker he had been. He should¡¯ve at least negotiated and milked them dry! I dug around a little more to find what I could on the phone and went on the web as well, but even then, I couldn¡¯t access any of the usual websites I frequented. Stolen story; please report. Wait a second¡­ This can¡¯t be¡­ Something clicked for me all of a sudden and I rushed out to the living room and pushed the blinds aside as I stared out of the window. What greeted me were giant megabuildings that stretched into the sky. There were some futuristic-looking vehicles that zoomed by between the colossal buildings, but the thing that drew my eyes the most was definitely the giant tower off into the distance that stretched infinitely up into the sky. Well, shit¡­ I don¡¯t suppose I am in some foreign country, am I¡­ Wait¡­ THAT MEANS ALL THE MONEY I HAD BEEN SAVING FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS IS GONE NOW. NOOOOOOOO!
Yeah¡­ so it turned out this wasn¡¯t the world I knew and I am now somehow in a place called Elevate City, one of the largest metropolises and artificial islands in the world. Home to the only space elevator on the planet, and from what I saw on the maps, huge was the understatement. The city alone was home to over fifty million registered residents. How did I know this, you may ask? Well, a full day on the web would fetch you some useful information sooner or later. It also helped me get situated and distracted me from panicking like the lost chick that I was. Food was running out in the apartment, forcing me to go out. I found a convenience store on the same floor as the unit I was in, where I spent twenty credits for some really shitty-tasting food. I used the money from the wallet I found in the apartment. It had a few bills that totaled 50 credits. Credits was the currency used here, and they used plastic bills as cash, even though most transactions were done electronically. The wallet also contained an ID with my name and a matching photo that accompanied it. Sigh¡­ As I walked back to my apartment, most people who went by completely ignored me, but I could spot a small group who was scanning everyone from the corner of my eye. They were doing exactly what I had done in the past when I was part of the gang. They must be looking for easy marks to rob or something. I quickly blended into the crowd, away from their attention, and hurried home. When I returned, I immediately sat down in my living room, trying to accept the idea that I may have replaced an alternate version of myself or maybe some other hijinks at work. Either that or I had suddenly gone crazy and all these memories from another world were made up by my crazy self. Either way, I will have to keep living here since I don¡¯t know what else I can do. And to continue living means I need a certain something to survive¡­Money. I found the banking app on the phone that was unlocked with my biometrics. I apparently only had around 2,500 credits left, after including my cash. But 2,000 credits worth of rent was waiting for me to pay in twenty days, which wouldn¡¯t even leave me with enough to afford three meals a day until then if I didn¡¯t do something. I guess things don¡¯t change even in another world. Money makes the world go round¡­Time for job searching. Sigh¡­ I wish I still had my savings¡­
¡°Hmm¡­First job I see.¡± The man in front of me mumbled. I subconsciously nodded after a second of delay before I stared straight back at him. It took me another second to realize he wasn¡¯t even paying attention to me as his eyes gave off a soft blue glossy glow as he stared forward blankly. While I may have read about them, I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little amazed at cybernetic implants like his eyes. They were just everyday tech in this world that could be seen by the dozen out in the streets. Well¡­their price may start from several thousand credits at the very least, but they were as common as a smartphone from my world. It also wasn¡¯t hard to spot a few metal prosthetic limbs here and there while I went about my daily life. Though, I didn¡¯t think it would be something to worry about, as those were likely way out of my budget for the foreseeable future. All the job postings I found required either prior experience in similar roles, degrees from some expensive corporate-certified school, or both, and I have neither. My alternate self was an orphan who received the minimum required education, as the orphanage didn¡¯t really care unless we showed promise. In that case, we would be whisked away by some corporation. That brought me to this job at a convenience store that was only a few blocks away from my building. They offered twenty credits an hour for a dead-end job with no future prospects in sight, but I needed this to survive in the short-term. Why couldn¡¯t I change places with a version of myself from an alternate universe that was rich so I could take it easy¡­? ¡°Biweekly pay and shift changes, twenty creds an hour. You good with that?¡± Trying to wipe the frown off my face, I answered back, ¡°Yes, thank you for having me. When do I start?¡±
So it turns out there were some things that were different in this world: crime and safety. Throughout the past few weeks, traveling to and from work, it was safe to say that there had been at least two shootings a day around me from the gunshots I heard. The news hadn¡¯t even covered them, as it was too common throughout the city, barring the rich corporate areas. Another difference was the word ¡®phone¡¯ that I had been using. It wasn¡¯t even called that here and was instead called ¡®terminals¡¯. It was a blanket term for all computer devices, such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc. I looked into getting a weapon to defend myself or something defensive, like a bulletproof vest to wear underneath my shirt. There was a shop conveniently located in my building, but their prices started from a few hundred credits. With my current income after taxes, I didn¡¯t have much of a leeway so I cheaped out and bought nothing instead, and now I came to regret it. Why, you may ask? Well, what was another regular day at the job working the cashier, ended with two not-so-friendly clients, pointing their pistols at me. I thought the only thing I had to deal with was to ring people out. Whether it be by cash, card, or more commonly, some wireless payment people did through their cybernetics, Now, as much as I wanted to look brave and cool, not much got you shaking with fear as quickly as the thought of suddenly being murdered when you least expected it. My panic grew when I realized I had no control over the situation. ¡°Hey Co, you deaf or what? Give us the damn money already!¡± The man with the pure red cybernetic pupils said as he shoved the gun closer toward me. I blankly stared straight at the unfamiliar gun, then towards him, before I snapped out of it and started to work the cash register. I complied, hoping he wouldn¡¯t shoot if I followed his instructions. There is still so much money to be made and so much to do. I don¡¯t want to die here. ¡°HEY YOU, you ain¡¯t leaving till you give me all you have,¡± I looked up at his words and caught sight of his partner in the back, threatening a customer who was trying to leave. The customer, who was a man wearing shades and in a dark bomber jacket, looked completely relaxed and sighed before replying, ¡°...You really want to do this?¡± ¡°DO I LOOK LIKE I¡¯M JOKING TO Y¡­¡± The robber yelled at the customer and brought their gun up to point at him. An electric buzz rang at the same time as a bright flash of light that abruptly filled the entire store and blinded me. Pain flooded my eyes as I could still see flashes of light in the back of my eyelids, as if to mock me with the futility of closing my eyes. I then heard gunshots that rang out in quick succession, which made me instantly duck down behind the counter for cover. I may have gotten used to hearing gunshots from the daily commute between here and home, but hearing them so close without warning always makes me flinch. Damn shots are loud as hell. As I slowly recovered my vision, I saw the robber who had been threatening me, lying on the ground beside me in a pool of blood. He was still breathing and was trying to get up, but it seemed like he could only move his head. It made for a comical sight, as if he was struggling to complete a sit-up. He soon noticed my gaze, and his red eyes snapped towards me. He then tried to bring his arm up to point his gun at me, but he was moving as slow as a snail, struggling to make every little bit of progress. God damn it! Give it a break already. What did I ever do to you? I quickly scrambled up and decisively stepped on his wrist that was holding onto the gun. ¡°Stop that shit! I¡¯ll call an ambulance for you, so just lie still already! You don¡¯t have a death wish, do you?¡± The man tried to speak but choked on his own blood and coughed instead. Then I felt his hand grab onto the ankle of my other leg that wasn¡¯t pinning his wrist to the ground. I reflexively raised my leg to break free from his grasp and succeeded but lost balance as my only other foot was stepping on an uneven surface that was his wrist. As I felt myself fall backward, I hastily stepped forward instead to counteract the momentum with my recently freed foot. This resulted in me stomping right onto the robber¡¯s chest instead.
+10 EXP
A notification suddenly appeared within my vision, coming from just above the robber¡¯s head. ¡­What the hell? Chapter 2: Breaking the Status Quo I dove headfirst into the bed and burrowed my face into the pillow as I thought back on my day and what to do from now on. Well, that sucked¡­ Stomping on the injured robber was apparently enough to kill him. I quickly called the cops right after, and they didn¡¯t show up until 30 minutes later, which was enough time for me to snap out of my daze, only to find the store in a mess. I even mindlessly rang a customer out who didn¡¯t seem to care one bit about the two dead bodies while they shopped. When the cops showed up, all they did was ask me a few basic questions and take a few pictures of the crime scene. They didn¡¯t even take the bodies away, quoting ¡°Not our job.¡± Not even five minutes after the police had left, I received a call from my manager, who angrily yelled over the line. ¡°YOU IMBECILE! WHY DID YOU CALL THE POLICE?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY CHARGE PER CALL?¡± He continued yelling profanities at me. In the meantime, I wallowed at the realization of how different things worked in this world. ¡°YOU DON¡¯T HAVE TO SHOW UP TOMORROW ANYMORE, YOU¡¯RE FIRED! AND YOU BETTER CLEAN UP THE GODDAMN MESS IN THAT STORE BEFORE THE DAY ENDS OR I¡¯M TAKING IT OUT OF YOUR PAY!¡± I hadn¡¯t even bothered arguing. I had done enough research that I knew it was expected of every business to screw their employees over just because they could get away with it. If you tried to fight back, it would only waste time and money, with the lawsuits always ending in a battle of attrition. Once you are rich enough, you could bend any rules at will or, at the very least, play by an easier rulebook. I suppressed my simmering anger and got to cleaning. I looted the gun and dagger from the bodies before I disposed of them. It didn¡¯t seem like the cops cared at all about their weapons, so I helped myself. It would save me some credits, as I was looking to buy a weapon anyway. I left the store as soon as the person for the next shift had arrived and power walked straight home. Once I had enough of self-wallowing, I jumped straight into the shower to clear my head. I finally had some time to think back on the floating ¡°+10 EXP¡± message I had seen. Did I hallucinate that, or was it even real? If it was real, then did I attain some sort of system? I couldn¡¯t help but be a little excited as that thought came into my mind and started testing out my theory. ¡°System!¡± I called out louder than I had wanted, but luckily the sound of the shower dampened the noise and no one else was here to hear me. Nothing happened, so I kept trying, ¡°Menu¡­Status.¡± On my third try, a menu popped up. The third time¡¯s the charm, they say.
Status
Level: 1
EXP: 10/100
Musculoskeletal: 11
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 12
Upgrade Points: 6
Upgrades: null
Enhancements: null
I instinctively reached out to touch the screen, but my hands went straight through it. I went over what the screen displayed and when I got to the upgrade points, the screen automatically changed and displayed a list. I looked through the list and quickly got the hang of navigating, as it simply moved according to my intentions. What was shown on the menu were various skills such as Hand-to-hand Combat, Pistol, or Stealth while it also had more knowledge-focused selections like Kinetic Weapon Technology. This was like the status screen from some kind of game where I could upgrade skills and stuff. However, the only thing I could interact with was the upgrade points. I couldn¡¯t upgrade the other stats or anything¡­ I held back my impulse to test it out and upgrade something right away. I needed a plan first before I randomly upgraded anything, assuming it even worked. Shelving my thoughts regarding the system, I started looking for a job once more. Despite being paid last week, with the amount I had to set aside for rent, I won¡¯t be able to build up much of a war chest at all. It would have been so much easier if the money I had been saving came along with me to this world¡­ I always used to say ¡®Money is power¡¯, it has never hurt so much to be right. Time to start saving¡­again. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It wasn¡¯t long before I found a new job, well¡­ old job, but different store. At least this time it was even closer to my home, being just down the street. On my second day of work, I stopped by the gun store in my building and brought along the two guns and knives I had looted from the bodies. Upon passing through the first set of doors, a guard asked me to unload my weapons or store them in a nearby locker. The guard watched me awkwardly pocket the bullets I unloaded, as I had nowhere else to put them. With the guard¡¯s permission, I headed further into the store by passing through another set of doors, where I found the store¡¯s merchandise on display. Good thing I had practiced with the guns at home and understood how to handle them safely, with the help of my personal advisor, the web. Otherwise, it would¡¯ve been even more awkward. I headed directly to the checkout counter, where a woman with a red ponytail wearing an army vest over a tank top was. She stood on the other side of what I presumed to be bulletproof glass with a bored expression. I placed the pistol and knife into the opening of the glass between us. ¡°How much can I get for these?¡± The woman ignored the knife and picked up the pistol to look it over. She took it apart with practiced ease before she replied. ¡°Decent condition Vipera, I¡¯ll take it for one fifty creds. The knife is just a hunk of metal. I¡¯ll take it for ten creds, a total of one sixty creds.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon, you can do at least two hundred!¡± ¡°No can do. We still have crates full of these sitting around. One sixty is the best I can do, or you can try your luck elsewhere.¡± Well¡­ it wasn¡¯t as bad of a deal as I had thought. From what I had found online, a brand new ACN-90 or more commonly known as the Amazing Corp, Vipera, would cost around 300 credits. I made the sale and looked around before I bought a few extra magazines and ammo for the Vipera I kept. I also got a small belt holster that had room to fit three additional magazines. I had come out of the store positive, though by only 10 credits, but that was better than nothing. Plus, I got some new gear. Once I got to my workplace, I promptly headed to the back to get changed. I kept my new weapon strapped to my waist underneath my uniform. It was somewhat hidden beneath the shirt, but anyone could easily spot the bulge if one paid enough attention. The other employee that had passed by likely had seen the gun but they didn¡¯t bat an eye. That was just how it is in this world, I guess¡­ As I started working, my mind inevitably wandered towards the system. I thought about what I should upgrade, and what the future awaited if it was real. I was so excited at the prospect of escaping from these dead-end jobs, and the possibility of becoming filthy rich!
For the past week, I had gotten settled into a routine of going to work and then heading to the shooting range at the gun store to practice with my new firearm. It also doubled as a test since I saw the ¡°Pistol¡± skill available to upgrade. I wanted to see if practice would help me gain a level in it without having to spend a point. There really wasn¡¯t an option to add points to any of the other stats like Musculoskeletal and Neural Reflex, so I only focused on what I could control for now. So far, there was nothing to show for my efforts, so it was probably one of three scenarios:
  1. It took even more practice to reach level one.
  2. The upgrades provided a fixed amount of knowledge/skill. That meant if I naturally learned the same skills before upgrading it, I wouldn¡¯t gain much as it would be redundant content.
  3. The upgrade was in a literal sense. It will be an upgrade on top of what I already have, kind of like a +1 to my base stats if this were a game. However, that brings the question of if it would be dynamic; if my natural skill increased, would I suddenly learn more or would I just build on top of what I already had?
Without more information about the system, I shelved away my thoughts and continued practicing my shooting at the range. On a quiet day at the range, two women approached me and struck up a conversation all of a sudden, ¡°You new at this co? We could give you a few pointers if you want.¡± I looked over to the two women who both fit the description of textbook Amazonians to a tee. They were muscular and stood around six feet tall, just around the same as me. However, the one who spoke to me had a distinctive dark red metal right arm and matching cybernetic legs. ¡°Sure, if it doesn¡¯t cost me anything, why not?¡± The one who had spoken to me proceeded to watch me shoot, while her friend began shooting at her own pace in the lane beside me. Once the last of my mag was spent, the target returned, and I embarrassingly examined the results. ¡°How long you¡¯ve been shooting?¡± The woman asked without a hint of belittling me in her voice, much to my relief. ¡°Just started up again for a week or so. Previously, I had only shot maybe 3 or 4 times in my life,¡± I answered while I reloaded. ¡°You a corpo or something?¡± She said with an eyebrow raised. ¡°What¡­? No, um¡­orphanage, corpo sponsored.¡± I quickly made up an excuse and kept my eyes on the target, not wanting to meet her eyes. ¡°I see, well why don¡¯t you take a look at how we shoot for a bit, and then we will give you some pointers? By the way, I¡¯m Flo and this is Erza,¡± Flo said. She then gave me a grin as she drew her large pistol that matched her size while Erza looked over and gave me a quick wave. I introduced myself before Flo proceeded to demonstrate her shooting skills. It was evident from her form and stance alone that she knew what she was doing. Once she finished, it was my turn again. She helped correct my stance and coached me as I tried to imitate their form. As they took turns teaching me, I became more comfortable chatting with them and my aim became slightly more consistent as well. ¡°Nice. You¡¯re getting at least five outta ten in the inner circle now, much better than before.¡± Flo commented with her arms crossed. ¡°Better than before, yeah, but how does that even compare to the average?¡± I curiously asked. The two of them were hitting seven or eight out of ten shots at a much longer distance than I was shooting from. ¡°Well, at that distance, the average wasteland raider outside the cities would probably hit about seven. The average security guard with a few weeks of training would probably hit about six outta 10. And as for mercs who have been in the game for a while like us, if they can¡¯t get at least 9 out of 10, they should probably consider different careers. This is a stationary target we¡¯re talking about, after all.¡± I soon ran out of the practice ammo I had bought for the day and was relegated to being only a spectator. The pair also didn¡¯t continue for long, as they had apparently only been testing out their new iron. ¡°We¡¯re done for the day too. Wanna head out to grab a drink with us?¡± Flo asked as they secured their weapons. ¡°While that sounds great, I gotta get up early tomorrow, and I don¡¯t have much disposable income right now.¡± I gave them a helpless smile. ¡°Well, you take care then and keep practicing. You improved pretty damn fast in a day. We may drop by again sometime. Once you have had some more practice, you could probably make some creds working as a merc if you are willing to take on some risks.¡± ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡± ¡°Here, let¡¯s exchange contacts. Oh, you can save this contact as well. It¡¯s for our QG, Fitel, for when you want some merc work.¡± As appealing as that sounded, I needed some time to consider the risks first. I would much rather live a long and healthy life where I could enjoy my wealth. The best way to do that was to start a business, but I needed startup funds for that. Mercenary work may prove to be a decent way to break free from being a wage slave. If there was one thing I learned throughout my life, it was that good health came at a pretty penny. I would need security, healthy food, doctors, financial security, and more. ¡°QG?¡± I asked, despite having gotten the gist that it was some fixer guy. Flo raised an eyebrow questioningly, ¡°Seriously? Quest Giver, the people who mercs like us work with to arrange jobs and guarantee¡­¡± As Flo rambled on, I couldn¡¯t focus on her words. I was too busy screaming internally. I mean¡­ Quest Giver? Really? Who the hell named that? Chapter 3: Questing A few weeks had passed since I met Flo and Erza. I finally requested a day off. We usually only had one day off every week, and on a random day of the week too, that kept changing depending on how the shift schedule went. During that time, I thought a lot about what to do moving forward. While the first thoughts that came to mind, when I found myself in another world with a system, would naturally lean toward a life of thrilling action. I knew that wasn¡¯t something I wanted out of my own life. Running straight into danger was not the smartest idea when my life was at stake. Being a one-man army sounded cool and all, but hadn¡¯t really appealed to me as much as getting rich did. There was so much more in life to enjoy, but most of it required money and your life being intact to savor. At the end of the day, I still wanted to live a laid-back life, but it didn¡¯t take a genius to foresee it would be a lot harder in this world, being a wage slave, someone who was near the lowest caste while the people from the top corporations could do whatever they had wanted. If for some reason I couldn¡¯t work right now, my income would come to a halt, and with no safety net in place, it wouldn¡¯t end well for me, to say the least. This world really lived up to my life motto, ¡®Money is power¡¯, maybe too much¡­ That was why I wanted to strike it rich with the power of my system. Once I got rich, I would have to spend more on security to protect my wealth, which would throw me into a cycle of attaining more and more, but that was fine. It was much better than living in fear of being snuffed out on the whims of others, with no control over my life whatsoever. I created a plan for what I wanted to do with the system during this time, but the one thing that troubled me was the consequences of going through with utilizing the system. Making use of the system meant I would need experience points to level up, and the only known way to gain EXP was to kill¡­ I had no intention of becoming a bloodthirsty serial killer but thankfully, I could tell there was no shortage of bad people in this world despite my short time here. It wouldn¡¯t change the fact that I will have to kill. Some may deserve it, while some may not. I wasn¡¯t a saint nor skilled enough to affirm that first without putting myself at serious risk. If I planned to go down this path, I would have to steel my resolve. All my enemies would simply have to die for the sake of my wealth and power. Nothing was truly free, after all. With my determination reaffirmed, I got off my bed and started preparing for the day. I got dressed and sat down with my handheld terminal out. A terminal was what they called the phones here, along with most computer systems. I used mine to call a number I had previously saved. The call connected after ringing three times. ¡°You have reached Fitel. May I ask who is calling?¡± A man spoke politely, with a calm and measured pace. ¡°Hi, this is Rollo, Flo said you were the man to call for some jobs.¡± ¡°I see¡­how many are on your crew?¡± ¡°Just me.¡± I quickly replied. ¡°Depending on the type of job you are looking for, some may have much higher success rates working with a crew. While I may not provide matchmaking services, you may consider asking Flo about several establishments where other security freelancers frequently gather.¡± ¡°No thank you. I plan to continue working alone.¡± As much sense as that had made, my plans had not included working with any others for the foreseeable future. With the rapid improvement I could achieve with the help of the system, it just wasn¡¯t smart to involve others, as they would ask questions I wouldn¡¯t want to answer. I would only work with someone I could really trust. ¡°Understood, though that may limit the type of jobs I will be able to entrust you with. The larger jobs will be off the table for now because they require more of a ¡®heavy¡¯ touch. That is until I can confirm what you are capable of¡­¡± ¡°Actually, I was looking for jobs that entailed more of a¡­delicate touch. I don¡¯t mind starting small first as well.¡± ¡°I see, well I do happen to have a job that would fit the criteria, though be warned, if you prove inadequate for a smaller job like this, you won¡¯t be hearing from me again. I will have the details sent to you shortly. Contact me when you are done. Have a great rest of the day now.¡± The man had spoken at the same measured pace the entire time, and somehow ended the call before I could reply. I thought he would have wanted to see me in person and test or something first. So it was kind of a surprise that he gave me a job right away. It seemed like I wouldn¡¯t have any chances if I screwed this one up, but I had no intentions of failing. It was time to see what the system got. I¡¯m honestly amazed at myself for holding back until today. A text quickly came a few minutes after the call. It was a complete dossier with the details of my objective and the targets involved. The job was to poison a certain employee of a medium-sized corporation, though poison may have been too strong of a word as I would use a strong laxative. The target was also a small-time corpo, just another grunt who happened to be a member of their corporate football team. On paper, the sports teams were simply methods corporations used to let their employees exercise, blow off some steam, and socialize with other corps. It was also an open secret that it served as a basis for a gambling ring catered toward middle management, and for the senior management to gain bragging rights. The dossier I received detailed my target¡¯s entire history, address, and even how much his salary was, which definitely had not gotten me jealous of that extra digit in their salary despite it only being an entry-level job like mine was. I considered applying again to a corporation, but quickly dispelled the idea. All corpo employees had to install their company¡¯s software in their implants that monitored their activity and who they were in contact with. It was definitely not an option for me with my system unless I wanted to be bagged and caged somewhere the sun would never reach ever again, reduced to a lab rat. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. While the job hadn¡¯t entailed killing, meaning I wouldn¡¯t gain any experience points. I still wanted to complete it to earn Fitel¡¯s trust and open up the way to bigger jobs that had a larger paycheck. Then I could buy better equipment, and cybernetics so I could safely target the scums of society for the experience points. I memorized all the relevant information I needed from the dossier and deleted the files as instructed. Subvocalizing ¡®Status¡¯, I brought up the system. The long-awaited upgrade time has come.
Status
Level: 1
EXP: 10/100
Musculoskeletal: 11
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 12
Upgrade Points: 6
Upgrades: null
Enhancements: null
I scrolled past the various skills like ¡®Pistol¡¯, ¡®Sniper Rifle¡¯, ¡®Melee Weapons¡¯, and went for the option that I found to be the most effective at killing. With six points to work with, it may be worthwhile to select two skills. I looked around at all the electronic devices that were responsible for locking my doors to the cameras found everywhere and decided on my second skill. I selected them, and a rush of knowledge flooded my brain. It was strange, as it felt like I gained the muscle memories of the skills I learned as well. All the new know-how I gained made me want to try them out immediately. Without further ado, let¡¯s go test it out.
I stopped in front of a stall and looked over the various newspapers laid out in front of the bored-looking owner, who was enjoying his morning coffee. I picked up the one from Elevate News and left a bill as payment before I entered the megabuilding nearby. There were only a few people walking by around me this early in the morning. They were all dressed in suits and seemed to be in a rush, completely ignoring me as they rushed about their day. Once I made my way up the elevator, I found a discreet corner outside the view of any cameras and connected a cord from my terminal to jack into the wall. I then found myself a seat on an empty bench next to a vending machine. It was off in a corner but still gave me clear sight of the elevators. I casually crossed my legs while I unfolded the newspaper and started reading. The front page was an article regarding a recent huge raid on some corporate transports traveling through the North American continent¡¯s wastelands, how much money they lost from it, and how much the companies condemned the raider activity in the area although there wasn¡¯t much they could do about it. What utterly useless threats, as if some raiders that had been living out in the wasteland would even hear about it. Though I guess they needed to do some posturing for their stock prices or whatever. No corporations could truly eradicate wastelanders because, true to their name, they lived out in the wastelands, where a raging sandstorm raged on without rest. No planes could go near it and it jammed all communications inside. It resulted from climate change and nuclear war in the past, a testament to human folly. I skimmed over the other articles that varied from business news, local incidents, and the celebrity section. I checked the time and paid more attention to my terminal as I tried to kill time by going back to read the more interesting articles in detail. In the corner of my eye, I watched groups and groups of corpos mechanically wait for their elevator from the camera placed right above them. While they waited, some of them were staring blankly ahead with glowing irises, likely going through the screen in their optics, while others plainly waited or were checking on their outfits and makeup. On the fifth batch of people waiting for the elevators, I finally spotted the person from the dossier. I silently took a deep breath and waited for the elevator doors to close. Then I calmly stood up and headed toward my target¡¯s apartment. I turned the cameras away so I could casually stroll by the blind spots and reach the unit. I repeated what I had done earlier and slotted a cord into the panel by the door and within a few seconds; the door clicked open. I¡¯m glad this building had cheaped out on their security and used old software straight from the box. Closing the door gently behind me, I took in my surroundings and found a small one-bedroom apartment with a layout somewhat similar to mine. I took out the hidden camera I bought, which was the size of a grain, and placed it in a spot that gave me a clear view of both the open kitchen and the door to the bedroom. I had gotten the camera for a hundred credits while I was out picking up the package that came with this job. It only had enough battery for three days, but barring any accidents, it should be more than enough. Just when I had finished placing the camera, I suddenly heard the mechanical lock of the door clicking. The door swung open, and I fluidly slipped into cover behind the island of the open kitchen. My movement was smooth, as if I practiced this movement hundreds of times before, but it was thanks to the system and not my hard work. I started navigating my terminal to connect to the feed of my newly placed camera while I had one hand firmly gripped onto my pistol. By listening to the footsteps of the new intruder, I got an idea of where they were. I used that information to keep the island between us, keeping me out of sight. It didn¡¯t take long to get connected with my camera and I soon got the video feed that showed both me and the intruder. I could clearly see myself crouched behind the island, staring at the terminal in hand, while the intruder, whom I recognized as my target, entered his bedroom. Taking another breath, I relaxed my grip on my gun. This guy had to pick today to forget something¡­ He soon came back out to the living room and headed to the sofa that was right beside me. I crouched around the island as he walked around the house until he finally left. With the door closed once more, I switched to the feed to the cameras outside, where I watched him enter the elevators. I didn¡¯t relax until the door closed behind him, but when I did, my legs gave out from all the crouching dropping my butt to the floor. Damn, I should¡¯ve gotten access to the cameras on the ground floor as well¡­Maybe even program something that could recognize and highlight targets, then alert me when they showed up on the cameras I had access to. Multiple things that I could¡¯ve done to avoid that close call flooded my mind, but I promptly forced myself up once my heart rate settled. I then double-checked my work, then planted another camera in the bedroom before I left. On my way back, I reflected on the entire episode. I couldn¡¯t deny feeling a little happy at having completed my job undiscovered, but there were definite areas I could improve on. The battery for the camera lasted three days, so I needed to go back at least once to either swap out the battery or retrieve the camera. I had to suppress the giddy feeling while I worked at the convenience store that evening. I also couldn¡¯t fall asleep from the excitement, as if I had a test the next day. I dreamed about the future, now that I had a working system, until the sky started to brighten and sleep overcame me. Chapter 4: Mercenaries The day after my seamless infiltration, I returned to the same megabuilding in the early morning. This time, I could effortlessly get access to the building camera again and also a clear view of the inside of the unit thanks to the camera I had planted yesterday. From the camera, I watched as my target woke up and brewed coffee in his open kitchen before he retreated to his room. Immediately, I entered the unit the same way I had done so previously. I found his freshly brewed coffee and poured some of the special laxatives I had received specifically for the job right into it. The laxative would apparently have the man glued to the washroom for the next week and drain him of strength that would take another week to recover from. That time period coincidentally coincided with his football game. It¡¯d be pretty impressive if he even had enough stamina to play ball, not to talk about performing well. While I had felt a little bad as the man had done nothing wrong, at least from what I knew, but a job was a job. With my objective complete, I smoothly retrieved the cameras and exited his unit. How naturally it felt to move around silently felt slightly off-putting, but it showed that the points I had spent in stealth really paid off. Once I left, I returned to my apartment safely and called Fitel. After the second ring, the call connected. ¡°Mr. Halls, congratulations on a job well done. If you would send me the account you would like me to send the payment to, I can have the payment deposited immediately.¡± ¡°...Did I tell you my last name? And don¡¯t we need to wait and confirm the laxative worked first?¡± ¡°I apologize if I offended you, but in my line of business, it is often wise to know who we are working with. And as for your other question, your target has contacted their employer that they will be absent due to illness, and my other sources have also confirmed this, which means the job is complete,¡± Fitel explained in his usual relaxed rhythm. ¡°...I see, here, I just sent you the account information,¡± I answered. ¡°Yes, I have received it. You should receive the payment shortly.¡± I opened my account using my terminal in my apartment and confirmed my balance had increased by 2,000 credits. It was more than I had made for two weeks of work, all from two days of work. I could see why mercenaries were so common. It was an accessible job to anyone who would take the risks. Otherwise, you would have to settle for a dead-end job like mine. ¡°One more thing, Mr. Halls. I have found your performance satisfactory and have another job lined up for you. The job will require a lot of your time, as you will be surveilling a target for a few days to up to a week. You will have to take some time off or quit your current job. In return, you can expect 1000 credits per day with room for bonuses. Do you find this agreeable?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯ll have to start tomorrow though,¡± I answered without hesitation, goodbye crappy job. I won¡¯t miss you. ¡°Very well, I will have the job details sent to you. Have a good day Mr.Halls,¡± Just like last time, Fitel seamlessly ended the call once the business discussions were done. The moment the call ended, a familiar-looking text appeared in my view.
+10 EXP
What¡­? Had I ended up killing someone? The guy I poisoned? No, it could also be for completing the job, or for incapacitating my target. This was something I should look into more when I had the chance. Right now it was faster and easier to kill despicable criminals. I pulled up my status as I reflected on the events that went by in a blur for the past few days.
Status
Level: 1
EXP: 20/100
Musculoskeletal: 11
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 12
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +3
  • Hacking +3
Enhancements: Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. null
Just as I was ready to take a nap, I realized something¡­ I still have to call my boss and tell him I am quitting!
I spent a week doing the surveillance job. The only exciting part was at the start, where I set up the cameras, and at the end when I retrieved them. I spent all the other time looking for ways to kill time. Though it was boring, it paid well, so I didn¡¯t have too many complaints except for the fact I had received no experience points for completing the job. During that time, I had messaged Flo about the establishments that other mercenaries usually hung out in. She had sent me the information for the ones she knew and had invited me to one she and Erza usually went to celebrate completed jobs. It was a bit far away, located in District 10, while my place was in District 8. This was why we held it off until I had finished the week-long job before we met up at the bar, Haven. When I stepped inside, neon lights shone brightly around the spacious bar. The open area around the bar counter had a lot of seats spread around. There were private rooms surrounding the bar in the middle. I could see through the glass walls where people sat and chatted, while some rooms had the glass walls blurred or completely opaque, which blocked it from view. The place was packed, with many people sporting cybernetic limbs or some with weird-looking eyes that looked like metal snow goggles that melded into their skulls. Others had builds that were so unnaturally large I doubted much of their bodies were organic anymore. Despite the vast array of flashy-looking individuals, it hadn¡¯t taken long before I spotted Flo waving her maroon-colored cyberarm from a table off to the side. At her table, I spotted Erza sitting beside her along with two others, a man and a woman. The man was of a medium build with dark brown hair, and sitting there beside Erza probably made him smaller than he actually was. There weren¡¯t any distinguishing features about the man besides the fact that he sat there hugging a huge rifle in one arm while he had a beer in the other. The woman looked particularly small compared to the others sitting at that table, but otherwise looked to be a normal woman with light blue hair, tied into a ponytail. She had an ample figure that shone through the long coat she wore. She sat down low on the lounge chair lazily, looking bored. I waved as we made eye contact and made my way over to their table across the busy room. Though it was rowdy, it wasn¡¯t loud enough that we couldn¡¯t hold a conversation once I was at the same table. ¡°Hey, Flo,¡± I said as I sat down on the empty seat closest to me. ¡°Hey, how¡¯s it going co? Finally done that job you were doing?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve been doing a lot better now that I actually have some savings. Are these people your crew?¡± I said as I looked over the two new faces. ¡°Right, introductions, sorry ¡®bout that. The guy¡¯s Max, our overwatch, and the bitch is Liz. Don¡¯t mind her, she¡¯s always like that unless she¡¯s doing a gig.¡± I nodded over at the two of them, ¡°Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Rollo.¡± Liz¡¯s eyes dimmed and glanced over before she returned glow lit up once more and she resumed staring blankly at the ceiling. Max was more enthused and gave me a return nod before staring daggers into Flo. ¡°Don¡¯t forget ¡®bout my wife¡¯s introduction,¡± Max returned his gaze to me. ¡°Flo and Erza had talked about you. Glad to meetcha. Anyway, on a more important note, this here is Lucy.¡± He held the rifle up for me to see before pulling it towards him to give it a kiss. ¡°Buzz off, you¡¯re making my drink taste bad,¡± Flo retorted. ¡°What was that?¡± As Flo got into an argument with Max, Erza leaned toward me and whispered, ¡°Sorry about that, don¡¯t mind them. This happens all the time. It¡¯s just what happens when a bunch of weirdos like them gather.¡± Flo abruptly paused mid-sentence and turned toward us, ¡°But at least I¡¯m your favorite weirdo.¡± Erza leaned over and gave Flo a quick kiss and grinned. ¡°That you are.¡± As if proud of the fact that her point was proven, Flo flashed me a gloating grin. ¡°Oh, so you guys were together. I should¡¯ve known, considering how happy you guys looked together.¡± ¡°Yep, we¡¯ve been full-time for three years now. Anyway, as you can see, Haven here is where we normally hang out before or after jobs. There are a few other common merc spots as well, but Haven is the one geared more towards the mercs who¡¯ve been doing well.¡± At Flo¡¯s words, I took another look at the venue, and then at the prices on the menu, which clearly reinforced what she had said. Even the cheapest drink would cost my entire day¡¯s earnings from working at the convenience store. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I got you covered tonight. By the way, this may be a bit sudden, but how ¡¯bout you join us on a little gig tonight?¡± Flo said as she gave me a pat on the back that staggered me a little. ¡°Oh, you have a job tonight? No need to worry about me. I just wanted to have a look now that I¡¯m in the business as well.¡± ¡°Ha, it¡¯s just a small gig we usually wouldn¡¯t even bother with, so don¡¯t sweat it. I only took it outta habit, felt weird coming here if we weren¡¯t prepping or celebrating a job. As a smaller gig, it won¡¯t pay too much, though. Your cut would be about 7,000 creds. You in?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the job?¡± With the pay the same as my week-long job, it was hard to resist. ¡°Just a simple eliminating some targets. Don¡¯t worry too much about it intern. As I said, I got you covered tonight.¡± I sighed at the thought of how easily I caved. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m in.¡±
Once we had left Haven, we got into Flo¡¯s car, which was basically an armored van with more than enough room for eight people, and we were only five. I wasn¡¯t even sure what the plan was yet, since Flo simply replied that it was a simple job that didn¡¯t really need any prep and to just follow her lead. ¡°So where are we going and who are we eliminating again?¡± I spoke to the person sitting in front of me, Liz, who was likely just as clueless as I was. Meanwhile, Max seemed preoccupied with checking his rifle over. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just some poser gang that took over some old building that is slated for demolition. Suckers refused to get out, so we just needa flatline them all. Best part is since the building is scheduled to be destroyed, we won¡¯t have to care about collateral damage.¡± While a frontal assault wasn¡¯t something I specialized in or wanted to be part of, with these guys who seemed to be experienced here, it should probably be okay just for tonight¡­ ¡°So is it just us, against an entire gang?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but confirm. ¡°Yeah, we usually have one more in our crew, a computer geek, but he isn¡¯t really needed here. And you know how them geeks are, still always yapping non-stop as if they were still corpos. We¡¯re more than enough to snuff out 20 or 30 posers with just us.¡± ¡°Right¡­So what¡¯s the plan?¡± ¡°Ha, as if we¡¯d need one for this, even just Max boy here could take them out by himself.¡± I turned over to the person mentioned, but he was already gone. An empty seat where he once was, and the backdoor completely open while the car continued to move. I could see the road behind us constantly receding and the backdrop of the city. What the hell! Did he jump out of a moving car? Before I could ask questions, the car violently jerked, accompanied by the sound of crashing into something. The seatbelt pressed into me so tightly that I had trouble breathing until it loosened. ¡°What the hell happened?!¡± I looked back toward the front as I heard the car door open. Flo and Erza were already standing outside when they turned back to reply. ¡°We¡¯ve arrived. Time to do our job.¡± Chapter 5: Tag Along ¡°We¡¯ve arrived. Time to do our job,¡± Flo said before immediately rushing out of the car with a massive gun. She wore a heavy-looking vest and matching closed-face helmet, while Erza followed right behind her in a similar get-up. ¡°Ha ha finally, time to go shoot up some scumbags, follow me intern, and watch the show!¡± Said Liz, whose demeanor took a sudden turn as she exited the vehicle holding a compact SMG. I followed her into the treeline off the side of the road. It appeared as though we crashed through a metal gate where a worn-down two-story villa was visible just off in the distance. There were trees decorating the side of the road that led from the gate to the mansion. Overall, it looked like some fancy estate that had an unreasonably large yard. Not long after we started navigating through the trees and bushes, the sound of gunshots echoed throughout the area, coming from the road where we came from. I barely kept up with Liz even though I wasn¡¯t wearing a heavy-looking backpack like her, but it wasn¡¯t long before we made it out of the thicket, where we got a clear view of the firefight taking place. To our left was the villa where several gunmen took turns peeking out to take potshots from their cover, which comprised sandbags and blocks of concrete. Meanwhile, Flo and Erza on the right were right in the middle of the road, slowly advancing toward their position. Flo held a heavy-looking metallic tower shield with her cybernetic arm with her gun poking through an opening specifically made to allow her to lay down suppressing fire. Based on the sound alone, I could tell that her gun was some sort of shotgun and not a rifle that it appeared to be. Erza, on the other hand, took cover behind Flo¡¯s shield, where she fired what seemed to be a grenade launcher toward their foes. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go,¡± Liz said. She led us closer toward the enemy position, where we had a clear view of a dozen of them in cover. She signaled to me with her eyes before we took aim at our targets. I brought up my pistol and aimed at the woman, with a face full of tattoos. She was reloading behind the cover, which made her a sitting target from my vantage point. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger when I heard Liz shoot from beside me. I had done worse back in my days when I hung with the wrong crowd, so I didn¡¯t hesitate at all. I thought I could get away from this kind of violent life, but I was obviously wrong. I watched my target drop, then readjusted my aim before I pulled the trigger again.
+10 EXP
I searched for my next target and pointed my Vipera toward him. As I lined up my shot, he reacted and tried to point his rifle toward me, but he was too slow.
+10 EXP
This time, it appeared I shot him right in the head as I saw the experience notification float above him instantly. While I took my time lining shots one after the other, Liz dumped her entire mag toward everyone in sight while laughing manically. It seemed she got quite a few of them, but her theatrics definitely caught their attention. Right after I finished my second kill, I ducked back down into the treeline for cover while Liz followed a moment later. Following her was a hail of bullets that landed where we just had been. Immediately afterward, explosions rang out at the enemy positions. The bullets stopped flying in our direction, so I peeked to see Flo and Erza much closer to the enemy than before, with several new bodies lying in a pool of blood by their feet. Without saying anything, Liz rushed up toward the enemy position to join her friends while our foes were distracted. A few noticed her running out, but before they could do anything, a giant hole appeared in their chests. I looked in the direction where I thought the bullet came from, yet I couldn¡¯t spot the shooter. I had a pretty good idea who it was though. With our enemies pressured from two angles, they started retreating into the mansion behind them. The only ones left outside were dead or incapacitated, so we started gathering by the entrance. While I walked by the carnage, I noticed a few gang members on the ground were unconscious but still breathing. I took out a knife and plunged it into any bodies that were still breathing. For my efforts, I was rewarded with several experience notifications, though most were duds. Hey, if they are going to die anyway, then don¡¯t mind me. I¡¯m just helping them avoid prolonged suffering, even though I may benefit from it as well. Ha ha ha, isn¡¯t this what they call a win-win situation? Once I reunited with the group, Flo and Erza both stared at me, probably because I took too long, which was kind of embarrassing. At least Liz just flashed me a smile, which I returned with my own. The group exchanged glances while I awkwardly stood there. Just before I was about to ask what was going on, Flo spoke up. ¡°You should look into getting some optics and a SAID soon. It¡¯ll do you well in group ops like these so you can see Liz¡¯s drone feeds and be on comms with us. Okay, we¡¯re ready to head in, stay behind us.¡± I followed them in but couldn¡¯t see anything from the back with the tower shield in the way. Flo moved surprisingly fast while lugging that thing around. She stood at the forefront, bashing open doors, and unloaded her heavy shotgun into any poor sods we found. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Rollo, stay on this floor while we clear upstairs,¡± Erza said as Flo was halfway up the stairs. I nodded. I¡¯d rather not be in a straight-up firefight or mess up their teamwork in enclosed spaces. A few seconds after they were out of sight, I heard some noise from the window above. As I carefully made my way toward it, gunshots roared from upstairs. When I peeked out the window, I saw a body lying motionless in a pool of blood right outside the building. Before I could take another step, a thunderous impact rang out from the floor above. A window shattered and two figures came crashing down onto the ground before each rolling to their feet. Flo stood there, without her shield and shotgun, while the other person, a large man, stood missing his right arm. The man¡¯s entire body appeared to be metal except for his face. Even the wound where his arm was missing gave off an electric sparkling noise with no blood or bones in sight. While the two caught their breath, another figure leaped down from above and swung down at the cyborg with a sword. The blade met no resistance and smoothly sliced through the cyborg¡¯s metallic shoulders. The cut made him freeze in place before he collapsed on his back. With the enemy dealt with, the entire place suddenly sounded eerily quiet without the sound of fighting. I walked outside and gathered around the dead cyborg where Erza was taking the body apart. ¡°Think we got all of ¡®em that was here, though no vehicles around, so a few probably weren¡¯t home. I don¡¯t think we need to worry about them coming back here though. Those corpos will probably have their demolition team here within the hour as soon as we let them know the job is complete.¡± Flo stated. ¡°Corpos?¡± I asked ¡°Construction jobs like these are all usually for corps, not that hard to guess, though I doubt Fitel would confirm it if you asked. C¡¯mon, let¡¯s gather up any loot and jet.¡± I headed back and looted any guns or cybernetics that were still functional from the corpses, while everyone else did the same. Before I left the area around the house, I went over to what remained of the dead cyborg and stabbed his skull. It shattered like a jar of liquid as fluids came gushing out.
+20 EXP
It seemed like I was right, his brain was still being kept alive. I wasn¡¯t sure what exactly the system counted as a kill, especially when I still got experience prompts right away, even when I hit the torso. The brain couldn¡¯t have possibly died so fast, and I still got the experience points. I also got double the experience point for some reason¡­ We then returned to the car where Max was already waiting before we drove off together. We had the same seating arrangements as before, and the moment Liz sat down, it was like her switch flipped. Her energy disappeared, reverting back to her listless self. ¡°So what do you say, wanna join our crew?¡± Flo said as she stared at me through the rearview mirror. Thankfully, the car was on autopilot because she was at the wheel. ¡°You guys were great and all, but I¡¯m not really looking to join a crew. I¡¯d rather be solo and doing jobs that involved less fighting for my life.¡± ¡°Ha, no need to mince your words. Suit yourself.¡± We returned and parked at the area where the bar Haven was and sorted out the loot while they made calls to report the success of the job. With the sun coming up soon, Flo paid me my cut and gave me some extra credits for my share of the loot, which I was glad to accept rather than have to carry it back and sell it. With business settled, the group quickly split up and departed to get some much-needed rest. It felt a little awkward as the only one who didn¡¯t have their own vehicle. I declined Flo¡¯s offer for a ride, as I¡¯m sure they were more tired than I was as they did the heavy lifting. I guess that was one more thing to add to my shopping list. I seriously needed to take a few days off, I haven¡¯t had the chance to really rest since I started doing mercenary work. It didn¡¯t help that I got more excitement than I was looking for today. Thankfully, my trip back home went smoothly as I called a cab, especially as it was self-driven, so I didn¡¯t need to interact with a driver while I was exhausted. Like a drone, I mechanically went through my nighttime routine and threw myself into my bed. ¡°Status,¡± I muttered.
Status
Level: 1
EXP: 90/100
Musculoskeletal: 11
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 12
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +3
  • Hacking +3
Enhancements: null
Ten more to go, but I wasn¡¯t in any rush. It would become a lot easier once I had more practice, and with the upgrade points, it would snowball sooner or later. I also had to start investing in better gear and cybernetics as well, but for now, it was time for some rest. With that as my last thought, I fell asleep as soon as I relaxed.
I slept until late afternoon and by the time I left my apartment; it was evening already. I was always shopping in my megabuilding or in the area nearby, so this time I decided to go somewhere new. A shopping mall I had looked up online had a comprehensive variety of products and was classier than what I was used to. The first thing I was looking for when I arrived was food! All the stuff I had been eating was honestly terrible. They were all synthetic foods, insect protein, and stuff that was no different from flavored animal feed. Now that I had a little more money, I wanted to splurge for once! I mean, there was absolutely no point in money if I didn¡¯t use it. This would surely motivate me, as good food was one of the reasons I wanted to be rich, anyway! I went through the menus of many places, but to my disappointment; I found nothing I was looking for at all. How hard can it be to have some real meat like chicken or beef? I picked the place with the most traffic and ordered a few dishes that were recommended, but it was hard to be excited about ¡°Authentic Locust Stir-fry¡± when I didn¡¯t even know what the unauthentic version was like. Unfortunately, it was about as expected, but at least felt like food suitable for human consumption. The one saving grace was the dessert menu. It seemed like artificial sweeteners or whatever crap they used actually tasted good, though I would be so pissed if they somehow managed to make ice cream bad. Finally, having found something that tasted familiar, I couldn¡¯t help but get a milkshake to go as well. With my appetite sated, I was ready to start shopping. Chapter 6: Shopping Time I was leisurely strolling around the mall, enjoying my milkshake while I observed the different stores and the people who patronized them. I slowly made my way across the floors that sold things such as clothes, cosmetics, and home electronics. I had marked down the store I wanted to check out, but I also wanted to do a little bit of window shopping first. With the money I made recently, I budgeted on how much I would spend today. I needed to leave some leeway for food, rent, and in case of emergencies, so that brought my budget for the day to 10,000 credits. Each floor sold the same category of products. The products tended to be more expensive the higher up you went. I eventually made my way to the floor that sold what was on my shopping list, cybernetics. With a dazzling array of various brands, each store showcased a variety of cybernetic prosthetics in their flashy displays. I went into a store that had a decent flow of traffic called Nova Tech and started browsing on a terminal that had their catalog. They had detailed information regarding the specifications and videos of the products in action, showcasing a prosthetic hand bending a bar of metal. There were various choices, including more minor enhancements such as tendon replacements, and major ones that replaced your entire legs and spine. For some reason, only a few products had their prices listed in the catalog, including the one on physical display where people gathered. They all had one thing in common; they were all really pricy, and entirely over my budget. I found an employee who didn¡¯t seem to be busy to get their assistance. ¡°Excuse me, where can I find the prices for some of the products in the catalog?¡± The lady gave me a quick glance over before replying politely. ¡°Apologies sir, the products with no price listed are models we have phased out and we no longer carry them. Though you may still find them quite easily in the open market, especially for arm prosthetics, as our company is a leader in the field.¡± ¡°The open market?¡± ¡°The cybernetic clinics that are the main retailers of cybernetic products. I can recommend you a few that are Nova Tech affiliated if you would like.¡± I thanked the lady for her time and declined her offer before taking one last look around. I¡¯d rather do my own research for these clinics than take their word for it. I¡¯m sure they didn¡¯t have me in mind with their offers as much as for their own benefit. It seemed all the other stores too only had the current latest generation stocked, so I headed off to another floor to shop for something else. The next thing I wanted to buy was equipment. The job last night really highlighted how unprepared I was, though an open firefight wasn¡¯t something I planned to do often. I wanted to be equipped enough to handle myself so I could start leveling up, and the best way to do that was if my targets didn¡¯t see me coming. The floor that sold combat equipment differed greatly from any other floor, where each brand had its own shop. All the brands here shared the floor, with each their own space, like a department store with different sections for each brand. It was located in the basement levels where security didn¡¯t allow customers to carry their firearms around loaded. Heavy security was apparent throughout this floor, but different from the store in my building, it was obvious they catered to a more affluent clientele. The first thing I was looking to buy was a new weapon. If stealth was my theme, then I had to stick to it. The Vipera was nice and all, but it was a bit too loud for my purposes. I could get a suppressor for it, but from my research, a regular weapon with specialized attachments would still be inferior to a purpose-built weapon with covertness in mind. The stealth skill had given me knowledge and muscle memory on how to move quietly. It also taught me how to track the perception of people and cameras, but I would still need weapons to deliver the blow. Each brand had its own salesperson, so I had them assist me in looking for the various silenced weapons they had in stock. It seemed like the only thing they weren¡¯t selling was silenced sniper rifles unless you had a permit issued by the government or a corporation. I went through various types of guns that the salesperson had shown me, from pistols to SMGs, to various rifles. In the end, I found pistols were more to my liking as it was easier to sneak around with. The weapons weren¡¯t completely silent like in the movies, but quiet enough that would be hard to notice if you were having a conversation. All the options I saw were just okay and didn¡¯t stick out to me until I came across the weapons made by Premier Arms. The company specialized not in traditional firearms but in electrically propelled weapons. ¡°Sir, our company has just what you are looking for! The ECG-704, more commonly referred to as the Suri, is one of our latest releases and has been thoroughly field-tested! As a coilgun with almost no moving parts, it carries 20 rounds per magazine and is even more durable than traditional firearms. It is also as quiet as you specified. It shoo¡ª¡± ¡°Can I test it out first?¡± I interjected as I quickly learned that it was faster experiencing it in person than listening to these salesmen babble on. ¡°Yes, right this way sir!¡± The man placed down the show model and swiftly picked up a metallic case from the cupboard below. I followed the salesperson to one end of the main floor, where the changing rooms usually were. There was a changing room there, but beside it, was the entrance to a shooting range as well. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The man nimbly opened the case and started loading the gun as he explained how to handle it. ¡°So just like a traditional firearm, the safety, magazine, and release mechanism are all the same. The rounds are of course different, so be sure not to load it with regular ammo. There is one new part here that replaces the hammer with the battery. The battery is good for two hundred rounds when fully charged and takes 5 minutes to recharge. You can purchase more to reload it instead, just like a magazine like this.¡± He gripped the release mechanism on both sides, then pulled out the cubed battery easily and showed it to me before he slotted it back in. ¡°Does that thing explode?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°Ha, rest assured, the battery is a proud product of Premier Arms using our proprietary technology. We have field tested it extensively, and it is not flammable, nor will it explode!¡± He finished preparing the weapon before handing it to me. The gun felt slightly heavier than the Vipera but was definitely still easy enough for even a child to hold, although it had a slightly longer barrel than what I was used to. As the sales agent looked at me expectantly, I started lining up a shot and pulled the trigger. Instead of the loud bang that you heard with traditional firearms, the Suri emitted a short and quiet electric buzz. The most noticeable part was the much lower recoil that lured me into firing several more rounds consecutively to confirm. Once I was out of ammo, the salesperson took the chance to give me another pitch. ¡°The Suri was designed to be as quiet as possible, as you may already have noticed. As it is a coilgun with no moving parts, it is only audible if you are standing within 5 meters in most environments. Another advantage of an electrically propelled weapon is that there are no gases as well. It would be very hard to spot the weapon even after firing.¡± ¡°Are there any other types of rounds as well?¡± I said as I handed the gun back over and he packed it back into the case. ¡°Yes, of course, the Suri fires standard coilgun pistol rounds, the most common rounds are the solid alloy ones you have just fired but our company offers a selection of rounds that pack a larger punch, which can compensate for the subsonic nature of the bullets that allow it to be as quiet as it is. The most popular ones are explosive rounds, incendiary rounds, and EI rounds.¡± ¡°EI rounds?¡± I furrowed my brows at him. ¡°Electronic intrusion rounds, more commonly referred to as hacker rounds. They are loaded with nanite transceivers that help you invade closed-off networks of the target shot, usually to open a connection to your target¡¯s cybernetics for hacking.¡± ¡°That sounds kind of fancily redundant.¡± ¡°It is quite useful as a non-lethal option or against really armored cyborgs if you have an individual who can perform the hacking once the connection is established,¡± We continued discussing the specifications as we made our way back toward his section of the store. Once we were there, I took another look at the price of the Suri, a good twelve hundred credits. ¡°How much for the magazines and battery?¡± Instead of answering, the sales attendant smiled and pointed toward two nearby price tags. The magazine was comparable to the one I got for the Vipera, but the battery was almost as expensive as the Vipera itself! I looked back at the salesperson and grimaced. ¡°I can throw in a free holster for you if you purchase today.¡± Sigh¡­I could only tell myself that it was a necessary investment, as I felt my wallet lighten.
On my way out from purchasing my new gun, I dropped another two thousand credits on a compact backpack, first aid supplies, some combat-rated clothes and boots, and a jet-black body armor that did not constrict my movement much. I also bought a small vibro-bladed dagger that took up a good chunk of the two thousand credits. I had asked Erza about her short sword. It was apparently a vibro-blade and not just an old-fashioned hunk of metal. It could get through most armor like butter, though it had a limited battery life and was pretty dangerous for an untrained wielder. That was why I stuck with a small dagger instead. As stealth was my theme, I thought an extra sharp blade could come in handy when I wanted to be really quiet. Soon, my day at the shopping mall came to an end. I then started looking up reputable clinics and made an appointment for the next day to purchase the cybernetics I had wanted. The next day, I made my way to my appointment at a highly reviewed cybernetic clinic called Roseland Clinic in the downtown area. The place was located on the ground floor of some building and had a fancy-looking lobby behind a set of glass doors. Once I checked in with the receptionist, they led me to a spacious room with a desk off to the side and an operating table in the center. They guided me to sit by the desk, where a man in a traditional lab coat soon arrived. ¡°Mr. Halls, I presume this is your first time here, correct?¡± The doctor asked as he shook my hand. ¡°That is right.¡± ¡°Pleasure to meet you. You may call me Dr. Keyes. Do you have a file of your medical history?¡± ¡°No, will that be a problem?¡± ¡°Hm no, not really, but we will have to take some scans before we can operate on you. The scans will not take long, but will cost 1000 credits.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s go over the cybernetics you have in stock first, and do the scan after,¡± I replied, wanting to ensure I was actually going to be buying something here first. ¡°Very well, please browse our available products in the terminal here,¡± Dr. Keyes said as he pushed a terminal over to me. The terminal was almost identical to the one I had seen at the mall yesterday, though it had a lot more choices with a mix of different brands instead of only one. I first filtered the products by type and set it to show only secretarial assistant implant devices, or SAID as Flo had called it. The SAID was basically mandatory before getting most other cybernetics as it acted as a hub and bridged your other cybernetics to your brain. The price varied greatly, starting from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands. The more expensive models, of course, had more functions and better specs. A standout feature I saw was the ability to download knowledge to the implant, and then help your brain absorb it while you slept. It was way out of my price range, so I picked a more suitable one before proceeding to select something from the optics category that used up the rest of my budget. ¡°Are there any options for stealth or camouflage? I can¡¯t seem to find any.¡± I asked Dr. Keyes as I looked up at him. A flicker of annoyance crossed his face, but hid it before replying. ¡°Unfortunately, Mr. Halls, while stealth cybernetics are not explicitly restricted products, companies do not tend to sell them to the general market in order to keep their proprietary technology a secret and prevent targeted countermeasures from being developed. So the answer is no.¡± ¡°I see¡­ Well, I am ready to proceed with my selection here, then.¡± ¡°Great, please move over there to the table and we can get the scans started. We can start administering some anesthetics first as well. It is just a small operation, so it shouldn¡¯t take too long.¡± I laid down on the table, wore the mask the doctor handed to me, and inhaled the anesthetics. Before long, my vision darkened, and I lost consciousness. Chapter 7: Night Owl The first thing that hit me when I woke up was the dull throbbing pain in my head and how dry my eye sockets felt. I guess that¡¯s what happens when you plug a chip into the brain and replace your eyes¡­ Thankfully, I could see and my vision was much better than before, as if I had switched a video from 480p to 1440p. There was also something else in my vision, a HUD. Off in the corner was ¡®Settings¡¯, and when I focused on it, a new menu appeared. ¡°Mr. Halls, I am glad to see you awake. Please wait here while I notify Dr. Keyes,¡± I glanced over at the woman who had addressed me. She was well-dressed impeccably in a light grey suit, complemented by a skirt in matching colors. Before I could reply to her, she exited the room. I massaged my temples in an attempt to treat my headache and looked around. I realized they had moved me to a smaller room, similar in size to the one where I did my eye exams. After five minutes, Dr. Keyes returned holding a small paper bag. ¡°Mr. Halls, how are you feeling?¡± ¡°Like a hangover, and could also really use some eyedrops.¡± ¡°No need to worry, Mr. Halls. This is normal for your first time installing optics. You should make a full recovery in a week. Here are some painkillers while you recover, I included the dosage instructions inside.¡± Dr. Keyes handed me the paper bag. Inside was a small container with some green pills. I immediately took one, desperate to relieve the pain while I listened to him. ¡°Now let us test your new cybernetic vision enhancement and secretarial assistant implant device.¡± The doctor gestured me over to a screen that had various symbols on it, exactly like an eye exam. ¡°Focus on the glyphs there and see if you have any issues zooming in and out.¡± The doctor made me do various exercises where I tried out the features of my new eyes, including night vision and thermal vision. Some better models would have better definitions from greater distances. Some could highlight hostiles and potential weapon systems as well. ¡°Good, now open up your secretarial assistant program. You should be able to see your Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 and Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 itself listed there. It will be where you can find the status of all the cybernetics you have installed.¡± I verified what the doctor showed me, which didn¡¯t take too long because the SAID allowed me to navigate its menus with just a thought. It was quite strange having my intentions read and being able to text with my mind. After the doctor completed the diagnostics, I was finally free to leave, after I had made my payment, of course. Once I got home, I stuffed myself with food and jumped into my bed before I opened my status screen.
Status
Level: 1
EXP: 90/100
Musculoskeletal: 11
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +3
  • Hacking +3
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4
Hmm¡­ my sensory perception went up and my new cybernetics are listed under enhancements now. I guess it makes sense that getting better eyes meant better perception. I couldn¡¯t dwell on my status screen much longer. The pain and fatigue prevented me from focusing and my eyelids struggled to stay open. Hopefully, I could sleep this off.
I spent the next five days mostly just resting at home and taking walks around the neighborhood. I also tried out the milkshakes throughout the area, as it was one of the few things that tasted like it was meant for human consumption. The soothing coldness also helped numb my dull headache. On the sixth day, I took public transit and headed to the south end of the city. ¡°Good evening everybodyyyyy! Tonight, we are going to go crazy! It will soon be five hundred years since we restarted civilization, from living in the toxic wastelands to building a space elevator, twice! Out in space, we¡ª¡± The sound from the radio died as the subway doors opened and I exited. I followed along the GPS route displayed in the corner of my vision. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The roads grew more and more crowded as I got closer to the seaside. In the background, the enormous space elevator lit up the middle of the ocean as it loomed far above. It was like a giant glow stick. There was a festive mood as people drank and partied out on the streets throughout the waterfront. I arrived a little early, so I found a cafe and killed some time by going over how businesses were started here. I had gradually grown accustomed to my new implants and, with it, the convenience of a computer on standby in my head. The SAID was super useful even when not considering the communication aspects of it, as I could use it as a digital wallet, allowing me to pay like some of my previous customers had done when I worked at the convenience stores. When it was almost midnight, I headed out of the coffee shop and patrolled around the area. I made my way into the alley of a building I picked, where I found a suitable place to jack into the security system with my worn-out terminal. I really needed to look into getting a specialized hacking terminal or a cybernetic version of one once I could afford it. Within a minute, I could tell the building¡¯s security wasn¡¯t something I could breach with my current skills, not in a short time at least, so I did the sensible thing and gave up. I repeated the same thing with several other buildings until I found one that had an older security system, something that was manageable for me to bypass. Once I had access to the building, I made my way to the roof. With my new optics, there was no need for binoculars, as I could directly zoom in on my surroundings, though they didn¡¯t have the best clarity once it was too far away. A stark contrast existed between the waterfront, where a boisterous crowd gathered, and the other streets in the opposite direction, where it was deserted and quiet. The crowd grew louder when party boats came into view, along with several flying vehicles hovering above. Not long after, midnight arrived. Everyone had counted down together for the last ten seconds. Once it was over, fireworks shot up around the space elevator, in the shape of a giant 500. For a few seconds, I took some comfort in how similar the celebrations were to my old world before I shook off the sentimental thoughts and turned on the night vision mode on my optics.
I had looked around for hours from the roof of the building. If I still had my organic eyes, I¡¯m sure I would have felt the strain by now. While I did not miss them, I wonder if I would feel the same when I started replacing other parts of the body. I planned to get an implant to address my weak stamina, especially when I worked alone, where I had to do everything myself. My thoughts were interrupted when I finally spotted what I was looking for. I watched as two figures exited their car and approached a drunk couple who were making out in a dark alleyway. As it was now a race against time, I sprinted down the building and made my way toward the van the two people had got off. I quietly followed them while I tried to control my breathing at the same time. I spotted one of the two figures crouched over the couple, who was now unconscious. One of the suspicious individuals had a cable connecting them with the couple. Meanwhile, their partner, who I made out to be a rough-looking woman, stood guard nearby with a metal baton in hand as she leaned against the wall. ¡°---longer til the damn jammer is up? We can probably snatch half a dozen more tonight if you could hurry your ass up.¡± The woman turned in my direction and spat on the ground. I got closer by hiding behind a nearby dumpster, moving as her field of view turned the other way. Once I got close enough for me to feel confident in my aim, I double-checked the safety of my new pistol. ¡°Yeah yeah, easy for you to say. Our clients this time want healthy adults, and these two have some decent corpo hardware. It¡¯ll just take a little longer to jam the signal.¡± A man¡¯s voice resounded in response to his partner. With a clear view of both my targets in the alleyway, I took my time aiming and pulled the trigger. Before the first bullet reached her, I gently squeezed the trigger again. Two soft electric buzzes hissed out.
+10 EXP
Immediately, I aimed at the crouched figure and shot out another two bullets from my coilgun as he tried to turn around. I rushed down the alley, carefully keeping the Suri trained on the prone man. Once I was right above him, I carefully placed another shot at the back of his head.
+10 EXP
After examining the bodies, I found that the couple was still breathing, so I disconnected the cables that were attached to their necks. I looted any guns and valuables off of my kills and found the unconscious couple¡¯s wallets with their corpo IDs in them. They were low-level employees who worked at Amazing Corp, one of the largest corp that dealt in military equipment. I confirmed how my aim was with the first target, noting the woman had two gunshot wounds in the chest. The guy I had shot also had a Nova Tech-branded cyberarm, but appeared to be a really old model. I thought about taking it so I could sell it, but it sounded like a lot of work, lugging around an arm and finding someone to buy it when the returns on it weren¡¯t that great. I decided to leave it and continued on. I found four pistols and the baton, so I left two of them with the couple assuming they were theirs, and enough credits for them to get home, just in case they couldn¡¯t access their SAIDs. Once I was done, I calmly walked out of the area and returned to the roof. Although Elevate City had a great concentration of wealth with the support of the space elevator, it also brought along its own issues with crime and wealth disparity. There were a ton of kidnappers looking to make some quick cash through ransoming, harvesting organs and cybernetics, or selling people for corporate experiments, which was probably what happened earlier. I settled in my spot on the rooftop and opened up my status while I continued to keep a lookout over the surrounding area.
Status
Level: 2
EXP: 10/200
Musculoskeletal: 11
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +3
  • Hacking +3
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4
It was reassuring to see that I had finally leveled up, and I got two upgrade points from it as well. I thought I would only get one, which made it a pleasant surprise. It also confirmed that none of my other stats went up from leveling up, which was a shame. Good thing I wasn¡¯t planning on becoming a superman, anyway. As much as I wanted to invest my new points into something that would help me safely make money, I knew that increasingly my ability to level up as safely as possible came first. Taking that into consideration, I dumped both points into stealth. Once again, a wealth of knowledge entered my mind, as if someone uploaded textbooks directly into my brain. The strange part was that it felt like the new knowledge came with the muscle reflexes as well, which made my body feel like a puppet on strings, though that uneasiness went away as fast as it came. Not long after I returned to the rooftop, I noticed a police cruiser and an armored vehicle marked with Amazing Corp¡¯s logo pulling up by the alley where the couple were. It seemed like the jammer thing the guy was talking about was undone. Lucky them. With the presence of the police vehicle nearby, I decided to roam around the other desolate parts of town to try my luck elsewhere. Not even fifteen minutes had passed since I was strolling around aimlessly when I spotted some guy stun-gunning a drunk who was puking his guts out. Hopefully, it will stay this easy to find them for the rest of the night. Chapter 8: Back to the Grind When I woke up, it was already late afternoon, not long before sunset. I stayed out until sunrise yesterday but only found a grand total of three encounters to gain some experience. Maybe I should start tracking them back to their hideouts, because what I was currently doing didn¡¯t seem efficient at all. I could also try asking Fitel, though I doubt he would hand out information for free. With no obvious answers coming to me, I headed out to visit the weapon store downstairs. From the experience of my last visit, I unloaded my firearm with practiced ease and headed further into the store. I headed straight to the counter to sell the loot I had gotten last night. It was a different clerk this time, a gruff man sporting scars on his face. We completed our transaction quickly, and my HUD notified me of the new funds I had received. My next errand brought me to a place I had never visited before. It was three blocks down from where I lived, at the edge of the downtown area. Honestly, I was surprised this place was open when I had checked earlier. My common sense told me a bank wouldn¡¯t be open on New Year¡¯s Day, let alone past 5:00 PM, but I guess there weren¡¯t any unions in this world and corporations didn¡¯t have their employee¡¯s working conditions in mind. Now that I thought about it, I don¡¯t think there was even a public holiday, ever. Fortunately, I didn¡¯t need a teller, so I headed for the much shorter line to use the ATM. I followed the instructions on the screen that weren¡¯t much different from my world and deposited the cash from my new gains. As I was navigating the machine, my thoughts couldn¡¯t help but stray toward leveling up my hacking skill until I could hack the bank and get rich from it. There was so much I could do with that money, though their security seemed tough. I was confident I could do it as long as I invested enough points into hacking. It was only a thought though, as I doubt I would get away with it without an entire corporation or two hunting me down. I was just one man. I¡¯d rather not take on an entire organization alone. While getting rich was my goal, there was no point if I couldn¡¯t enjoy my wealth. I put any tempting thoughts about robbing banks and corporations behind me and returned home. I had rested enough, so it was time to take on another job. Once I got home, I immediately placed a call to my QG through my SAID. ¡°You have reached Fitel. What can I do for you today, Rollo?¡± I minimized the empty profile picture with ¡®sound only¡¯ labeled in it to the corner of my vision. ¡°Fitel, got any jobs that suit me?¡± ¡°I hope that means you have fully recovered?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine now.¡± ¡°I see. There is a job that I have been waiting for someone like you to handle, though it¡¯s more of a lead in finding an item, so it may not pay if the lead is wrong.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the missing item?¡± ¡°A SAID from one of their presumed to be deceased middle executives. Raiders wiped a Nova Tech caravan in New North America out in the wasteland and they want the SAID retrieved or proof of its destruction.¡± ¡°New North America¡­you think it¡¯s here in Elevate City, a few thousand kilometers across the sea? And a big corporation like Nova Tech didn¡¯t have some fancy self-destruct function on their important equipment?¡± ¡°That is correct, and they did, but it seemed to have malfunctioned when their caravan got hit with an EMP. That is why we were hired. You¡¯ll be paid thirty thousand credits if you can retrieve the item, but nothing otherwise. They want this to be done quietly before any rival corporation catches wind of anything,¡± Fitel emphasized the last part. ¡°Ok, I¡¯ll take the job, but you better find me something else if this lead doesn¡¯t work out. I¡¯m not trying to waste time looking for a needle in a haystack or anything, not for long at least.¡± ¡°... Excellent, I will have the information sent to you soon.¡± Fitel uncharacteristically paused for a second before he got his last line in and hung up, as usual. I laid flat on the couch as I started browsing through the intel he sent over. It helped that I didn¡¯t need to hold anything as I read, since the screen was literally in my eyes. The lead Fitel had received was kind of a stretch. To be honest, it was just some guy selling some military-grade weapons that matched the ones the raided caravan used. Even if it was the same weapons, there was a possibility someone just found it after killing some raiders out in the wasteland, though that meant I could find some details from them. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I first had to find the person and the only information I had were pictures of him and his car that was taken from a street camera in the Neon district. They were two of the same photos, taken on two separate Sunday mornings.
I moved along with the flow of the crowd as I passed by various clubs and bars that had huge lines. A lot of the establishments here had pink neon lights outside, with windows where you could see the people dancing inside, in their birthday suits. There was a mixed bag of individuals in the entire area, from gang members, average-wage drones, to wealthy-looking guys who were let in as soon as they stepped out of their ride. I kept my eyes open as I watched a valet driving the car, recently put into his care, toward a nearby parking complex. My GPS guided me to my destination as I pulled up the photo on my optics so I could compare the faces of anyone I came across. Before long, I arrived and thankfully, found the same car from the photos. I looked around and saw no one nearby, so I approached the vehicle and attached a small chip to it. With that done, I could now take it easy. I made my way to a bar that had outdoor seats and a good view of the car, where I then sat back and ordered a drink. The cheap alcohol I had drunk in this world was frankly nasty, but it was better than nothing. Another server, different from the one that took my order, brought my drink, but then sat down instead of leaving. ¡°Mind if I join you? You seem lonely.¡± Not wanting to cause a scene, I nodded and resumed watching the people around who were walking along or lining up for the various venues. ¡°So you looking for anything tonight hun?¡± The woman moved her seat closer and grabbed onto my arm. ¡°No, I¡¯m just having a drink,¡± I looked around the other tables where people flirted. The woman had been staring at me, and from watching the others, I realized what she was getting at, so I ordered her a drink. ¡°Hun, no one comes to the Neon District desiring nothing. Here, anything can be bought, at the right price, of course,¡± She took a sip of her drink and leaned in closer. While she was attractive, I would never part with my money for anything she could offer. ¡°I can help you look for the person you are searching for,¡± the lady leaned in close and whispered into my ear. ¡°...What do you mean? I¡¯m not looking for any¡ª¡± ¡°Hun, you don¡¯t have to pretend. I¡¯ve been here long enough to tell what a man is looking for. I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re some detective looking into adultery or some hitman. You give me the creds and I can get you the information,¡± She continued whispering. ¡°I don¡¯t need your help. Maybe next time, I¡¯ll keep it in mind.¡± I paid the bill, left her a tip, and started moving to where I would meet my cab. The tracker I had put on the car started to move. It seemed like my target got into his car while I was distracted, but that didn¡¯t matter. I wasn¡¯t going to follow too closely, anyway. My automated taxi arrived in three minutes. I guided the taxi toward my target, taking a slightly different route. After twenty minutes of driving, the target seemed to have stopped at a secluded area that had nothing but storage buildings, so I had the cab stop a distance away. With night as my ally, I stayed in the darker parts of the street and made my way toward my target. It didn¡¯t take long before I spotted a pair of old warehouses that were gated off with flimsy chains, surrounded mostly by a thicket of weird-looking trees. The area was quiet, but from the thermal vision of my optics, I spotted figures at the entrance of each warehouse that faced a shared outdoor parking lot. I moved around to an unmonitored section of the fence. I pulled out my dagger and flipped the switch on it, producing a dull buzzing noise as it was brought to life. Slowly pushing the blade toward the fence, the obstacle parted way before my knife with little resistance, like cutting through butter. I moved cautiously, mindful of generating any noises, and made my way to the other side of the fence. I spotted the car I was tracking in front of the warehouse closest to my position. As I had done to infiltrate buildings previously, I moved toward the side door but to my surprise; it didn¡¯t have any electronics to hack into. It was a mechanical lock. Why can¡¯t these people use half-decent facilities¡­? I hugged the building¡¯s walls and made my way around until I noticed an open window on the second floor. Luckily, there were also dumpsters nearby, so I slowly pushed one toward the opened window. When I was halfway there, the dumpster suddenly screeched loudly. Damn it, underneath the patch of grass on where I pushed it, was a hidden patch of worn-out pavement. I quickly jumped into a dark patch of tall grass and aimed my firearm at the back door that was nearby. I waited for five minutes, but there didn¡¯t seem to be any movement. After another minute, I got back up and started moving the dumpster again, while trying my best not to screw up again. Before long, I managed to push it right under the window. I climbed it and reached for the window when I suddenly heard the metal door that was just around the corner swing open. It caught me off-guard. I froze awkwardly atop the dumpster with my gun pointed to the corner of the building, hoping no one would come my way. The noise of a lighter being lit rang out, accompanied by footsteps that only grew louder as it headed my way. A bald man soon entered my vision with a cigarette in hand. He took a puff before looking up and found me frozen atop the dumpster. Our gaze met for a full second before he reached for the gun on his hip, but he was too slow. I pulled the trigger repeatedly in a slight panic. The Suri quietly hissed out multiple times and the man soon collapsed onto the ground.
+10 EXP
I jumped off the dumpster and took cover behind it, while I kept my gun aimed toward where the man came from. It took a full minute before I realized there wasn¡¯t anyone else and released the breath I had been holding. Okay, while I admit that wasn¡¯t the most elegant, it did the job. The previously locked door was now opened, and I also had the window as another potential point of entry as well. Let¡¯s hope the rest of the night goes more smoothly than that had gone¡­ Chapter 9: Sneaky Beaky Like Once I realized there were no other threats, I recollected myself and inspected the person who I had shot. From the experience notification, I knew he was dead, so I searched the body. The body didn¡¯t have keys or anything, so I threw it into the dumpster along with any equipment, opting to go over it later. With that set aside, I entered the building from the door that the man had opened. I tried to stay as silent as possible as I traversed the hallway, checking each room I came across. Most of the rooms looked abandoned and were piled with trash or dusty boxes. At the end of the hallway was a door that led to the main room of the warehouse, where tall empty shelves loomed over. Off to one side of the warehouse was an open area with stacks of metal shipping containers half surrounding it. The open area was well-lit, with one person who sat below a set of stairs that led atop the containers, leisurely reading an actual book. It seemed like there weren¡¯t many of them active at this time. I couldn¡¯t really blame them either as it was around 4:00 AM. With the place so lightly guarded, I easily moved around unhindered and climbed up to the second floor of the shipping containers. I slowly opened the door to a container that they were using as makeshift rooms and found a man in a sleeping bag snoring away. I moved on when his face didn¡¯t match with the image of the target I had pulled up in my optics. I repeated the same steps for all the rooms on this floor. Some of them were empty, but most weren¡¯t. Not having found my target, I made my way back down to the first floor of containers, away from where the man was still reading, near the bottom of the stairs. I dropped down as lightly as possible, but I couldn¡¯t entirely kill the sound. I hastily moved to another spot and kept watch for any reaction. The man looked up from his book for a second but didn¡¯t bother investigating and returned to his reading. After allowing the man some time to be absorbed into his book, I resumed investigating the remaining makeshift rooms on the ground floor. It wasn¡¯t until the third one that I found someone awake. ¡°Would it kill you to knock¡ª¡± The man froze as he turned toward the barrel of my gun. I gestured for him to stay silent while I kept my Suri trained on him while I closed the door behind me. ¡°Adam, I¡¯m just here to ask a few questions. Now you answer them quietly and we all can go our way. Do you understand?¡± He nodded before I gave him permission to speak. ¡°...Who are you, why are you looking for me?¡± Adam spoke as he kept alternating glances at me and the barrel pointed at him. ¡°No, Adam, I am the one asking questions here. Now tell me, where did you get those weapons you sold a few weeks earlier?¡± ¡°Weapons? What weapons?¡± ¡°Come on now, Adam, we both know you are lying. Let¡¯s not make this difficult.¡± ¡°Look, I do a lot of errands for our group, so I probably sold off many packages, but that doesn¡¯t mean I know what it was,¡± He said as he wiped the sweat that was building around his temple. I stared at him unflinchingly. ¡°...Okay, look, it wasn¡¯t my idea. I¡¯m just a grunt, I didn¡¯t know we were raiding your corp. I¡¯ll do anything you tell me, just let me go,¡± He nervously pleaded. So his group was responsible for the raid? I thought wastelanders did it¡­Was this guy a raider? No way, I thought they didn¡¯t stay in cities. ¡°So what did you do with the things you stole from us?¡± I asked, playing into the role of the corpo that he had assigned me. Might as well go along with it, right? ¡°It¡¯s all here with us. I even have the keys to the stash. It¡¯s right there in the drawer,¡± He slowly placed his hand on it and looked toward me for permission to continue. I nodded and took a step back. Adam gradually opened the drawer but then abruptly jerked it fully open and grabbed something from within it. Two soft ¡®Pfft¡¯ noises resonated within the small shipping container, followed by two ¡®clinks¡¯ noises of the bullet hitting the walls.
+10 EXP
I should have known this was how it was going to end¡­ As I inspected the room and his body, I found nothing in particular besides the gun he tried to pull on me. I was on my way out of his room when a knock came from the door. ¡°You okay in there, Adam?¡± A man¡¯s voice spoke out, and when no one responded, he continued knocking. Shit, my gun may be quiet, but the sound of the bullets hitting the metal walls wasn¡¯t. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. I stalked closer to the door and pushed it slightly open. I aimed my gun at the gap and waited. ¡°You mute now or what? The fuck you doi¡ª¡± As his head poked out through the gap, I opened fire from almost point-blank range, right at his forehead. Immediately, I dashed back into the warehouse, away from the shipping containers. After five minutes had passed, it didn¡¯t seem like anyone else had noticed the commotion. Now that their group was deemed hostile in my books, it was time to earn some experience points. I already killed three of them, and the last thing I wanted was to be a potential target of revenge. I retraced my previous path, then quietly entered the shipping container rooms one by one to silently dispatch the occupants with my dagger. I didn¡¯t even need to turn on the vibroblade function as I could take my time aiming for the vitals. I secured the area after I had gone through every container. I took some time to go over any loot they had and piled it all by the area where the man had been reading, though it was mostly just guns. Just as I was bringing the last few hauls of loot out, someone called out while I had my hands full and was in the middle of descending the stairs. ¡°Hey, Baron! When the fuck are you coming to relieve my shift? I¡¯ve been¡ª¡± The man stopped talking and stared at me once he got close enough to make out my masked face and dark attire. ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡± He raised his rifle toward me. I swiftly dropped everything in my hand away, jumped off the side of the stairs, and took cover behind the metal staircase. Several loud shots echoed throughout the warehouse as the man started shooting as soon as I had moved. Now that I was in cover, I could take the time to prepare for a fair gunfight¡­ Okay, maybe not something I was confident in, but thankfully I had some aces up my sleeve. As I tried to swap the mag in my gun, I fumbled it as my left hand didn¡¯t respond like I was used to. Shit! I looked down and saw my blood trickling out of a hole in my upper arm. Deeming the imminent threat that was still shooting at me more important, I peeked out to scan for my opponent¡¯s location. In response, I received several more shots fired at me that forced me to duck back into cover. Though now I had a rough idea of where he was, behind an old forklift. I swapped the ammo in the gun with my one good arm and blind-fired several times in his direction. Boom Boom Boom Three explosions rang out consecutively, and he hadn¡¯t shot back this time. ¡°Haha!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but laugh to myself. Firing off explosives sure was fun, if only I wasn¡¯t starting to feel the pain from my wound¡­ Those explosive rounds had better be effective too, they were quite expensive! At least the cost was a good deterrent for me from getting addicted to it. I took another peek out and bullets once again came at me in response. I responded with my own shots, exploding ones at that, but this time, I started pushing forward to my assailant by diving behind a crate while laying down suppressing fire. Let¡¯s see if you can fight back when pelted by a rain of explosive rounds! I¡¯ll show you that money is power! When I jumped out of cover again, no more shots were fired my way. I made my way to where I last saw him, behind the forklift. When I cleared the corner, I spotted the man holding onto his bloodied chest while panting heavily. His rifle was lying on the ground, slightly away from him. I pulled the trigger to finish the man off from the cover of the forklift.
+10 EXP
With the system having helped me confirm the kill, I took a closer look at my left arm as I felt warm liquids continuing to drip out. Shit, I sure fucked up¡­ I should¡¯ve known there still was a guard out front¡­This wasn¡¯t a video game where enemies stayed in place and patrolled in fixed routes. Wait¡­ there is still an entire building next door that I haven¡¯t checked out yet and there¡¯s also a guard posted out in front of it too¡­ After I realized the threat I was under, I retrieved a syringe from my med kit and stabbed it right beside the wound to stop the bleeding and doubled time out of the building the same way I entered. By the time I was outside, I heard car engines starting up and lots of yelling. I made my way out of the fenced area and back into the thicket. ¡°Over there!¡± A voice yelled out behind me. Damn it, it seems like they spotted me. I headed further in where the foliage was thicker, covering my tracks. I made my way around a hill to ensure I broke the line of sight from my pursuers before I found a nice hiding spot atop a large tree. In a minute or so, I spotted several lights moving nearby. I waited until it was a distance away from me before I started dressing up my wound and collected my thoughts. Well, at least I now know that I hit the right target¡­But if I left now, who knows if they would relocate or not? In the first place, could I even get away? They had cars on standby, and people searching for me on foot. I would need to call for a pickup to extract me, but that was probably something they would expect. In that case, I should play to my strengths. ¡°Status,¡± I called out.
Status
Level: 3
EXP: 20/300
Musculoskeletal: 11
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +5
  • Hacking +3
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4
You know, I planned to start spending my points on technology skills that could help me start earning credits, but I guess the saying ¡°No plan survives contact with the enemy¡± was too true. I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for the direct knowledge dump into my brain that I got when using my points, and double-checked my equipment. I really need to be more careful and avoid falling into situations like these from now on. Let¡¯s hope this will be the last time¡­ Chapter 10: Sneaky Beaky Like Pt.2 Yuri Kasakov - Outland Marauders ¡°What the fuck is going on, Yuri?¡± The six-foot-five tall man walked towards Yuri with anxiety in his voice. His face was stoic as always though, likely because he could no longer display any facial expression due to all the augments he had. ¡°It seems someone attacked the other warehouse, everyone there is dead. We spotted a person running from the scene and a team is chasing them right now.¡± ¡°Everyone is dead?! How many of them are there? We better get ready to evacuate from this shithole.¡± ¡°Yes¡­Most of them were killed in their sleep and we only spotted one of them so far. Our cars are all on standby, but we don¡¯t even have 20 men left now¡­¡± ¡°Idiots! The lot of them! Go recall everyone. We¡¯re packing up and leaving.¡± ¡°...We¡¯re just going to let them go?¡± ¡°Do I have to repeat myself?¡± ¡°No sir, I¡¯ll go call the team back myself,¡± Yuri said and immediately speed-walked out of the boss¡¯s room. ¡°That fucker was probably happy now that there were fewer of us to share our latest score with.¡± A beautiful red-haired woman said from behind him. ¡°Now is not the time for this, Kat,¡± At his words, Kat pouted, which he could only ruefully shake his head to. He used his SAID to place a call to Jarvin, the team leader of the pursuit team, and was answered on the second ring. ¡°Jarvin, it¡¯s time to leave. Get your men back here double time.¡± After a few seconds of waiting, he still got no response, but he knew he was on the line as he could hear heaving and breathing on the other end. ¡°Hey Jarvin, answer me!¡± ¡°...Can¡¯t talk, we¡¯re pinned down, send reinforcements,¡± The man whispered before the call disconnected. Damn it, did they get led into a trap? ¡°Kat darling, I¡¯m going to pick up Jarvin and his team. I need you to stay here to coordinate.¡± ¡°What!? I¡¯m coming with you!¡± ¡°No, we don¡¯t have any men to spare. I need you here. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll have Roman with me.¡± She sighed, ¡°...Fine.¡± He walked out of the building and found his brother leaning against his car. ¡°Roman, let¡¯s go, Jarvin and his boys are calling for help,¡± Roman nodded back at him before grabbing his shotgun from the trunk and then started following him. They started heading out of the compound in the direction he had previously sent the team toward. They headed into the thicket fast, without needing to use any lighting equipment as both of them could see perfectly fine in the dark with their optics. Occasionally, the two heard shots ring out from the distance, so they had no confusion about the direction they needed to go. Once the gunshot grew louder, the duo readied their weapons, kept low, and moved from cover to cover. In fifteen minutes, they were close enough to start worrying about friendly fire as the brothers neared the position they were informed of. He called Jarvin again as they inched closer to receive updates on their position. The two made their way to a small space surrounded by thick trees and a steep hill. They spotted their man peeking out and rushed toward their position. ¡°What¡¯s the sitch Jarvin? Where¡¯s the rest of your team?¡± He said as he looked him over along with the only other person with him, a woman who he recalled was called Sandra, someone he had spoken little to. ¡°We¡¯re the only two left. Someone¡¯s out there hunting us. They keep shooting us from every direction and we can¡¯t find them, so we took cover here.¡± He took out a mirror and used it to look around from the safety of cover in response to his warning. ¡°How long has it been since you were last under fire?¡± He said as he threw the mirror over to his brother to see if he could find anything that he hadn¡¯t. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ Maybe like 5 minutes ago.¡± His brother finished scanning the area and shook his head. ¡°That means they could¡¯ve been gone by now. We didn¡¯t see anything or get shot at on our way here,¡± He said as he rose to his full height while he made sure his gun covered the gaps in his armor. Before he could step out, a hand landed on his shoulder. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°...Or maybe they are waiting for us to get out of cover to start picking us off again,¡± Jarvin warned. ¡°Boss wants us out of here ASAP. We don¡¯t have time for this.¡± He brushed Jarvin¡¯s hand off his shoulder and started jogging back in a zig-zag pattern, just in case there really was someone out there. Several minutes of jogging later, the group encountered no issues and arrived at the edge of the compound, where he gestured for them to come to a stop. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong¡­I don¡¯t see any movement up ahead and they are supposed to be packing up right now.¡± He made a call to his boss, but it just kept ringing, with no one answering. He then tried Kat, but got the same result¡­ ¡°Hey you guys, see if you can reach anyone. The boss ain¡¯t answering.¡± A few minutes later, after everyone had tried every number they had, they still couldn¡¯t get hold of anyone. ¡°This ain¡¯t right man¡­I knew it! It¡¯s probably some corpos hit squad. They found out after all¡­ I don¡¯t want none of this shit, man,¡± Jarvin said nervously as he started backing away. ¡°Come on Jarvin, boss won¡¯t enjoy hearing about you going off with that shit again. Let¡¯s carefully check things out. We still have a huge fortune sitting back in there,¡± He pleaded, as he wanted as much help as he could get to go save Kat. ¡°I don¡¯t know, man¡­¡± He gave a troubled look over to his partner, Sandra, who simply returned a shrug. ¡°We¡¯ll be quick. I mean, if you leave and the boss is still kicking, he ain¡¯t going to take kindly to traitors.¡± ¡°...Fine, fine. We¡¯re in, let¡¯s go quickly. We needed a car anyway.¡± He gave Roman a quick glance, who nodded back. Guess I don¡¯t have to ask if he is in too. They moved in a diamond-shaped formation as they had been trained to do, with Yuri at the front. Seeing how everything was quiet, they opted to go in swiftly as opposed to quietly. They weren¡¯t that good at being quiet, anyway. The group got close enough to the parking area to make out a few bodies spread around. The cars nearby still had their engines and headlights on, so they had adequate lighting in the area. Yuri briefly noted who the bodies were once they got close enough, ensuring Kat wasn¡¯t one of them, and led the team toward the boss¡¯s room, which was right next to where the gang had stashed their loot. Inside the warehouse, it was completely dark beside the flashlight attachments Jarvin and Sandra had on their rifles. Their lights shined on the floor, which showed a few trails of blood but no bodies since they entered the building. It was so quiet he could hear Jarvin swallow nervously as he adjusted the grip on his weapon. It didn¡¯t take long before the four of them arrived at the shipping container that was the boss¡¯s room. The door was already open, and they saw the figure of a large man who resembled their boss. He sat at his desk with his head planted on the table, face down. It almost seemed like he had fallen asleep at his desk, but the gaping hole at the back of his head told a different story. They next went to check the room where the loot was stored, but found it still locked. As the second in command, Yuri had a key as well, so he started searching for it in his pack. Just as he was about to insert the key, the noise of something dropping entered his ears, followed by a few dull thuds. He turned around and saw Sandra, Jarvin¡¯s last remaining team member, sprawled out on the ground while his brother Roman crouched down and fired his shotgun repeatedly into the darkness. Even with night vision, he couldn¡¯t spot anything in the direction Roman was shooting at. ¡°Backs against each other now!¡± Yuri yelled out louder than he intended. He ran up and brushed his shoulders against his brother¡¯s and covered a different angle. After a moment, he didn¡¯t feel Jarvin in the space they had left for him and looked over in his direction. ¡°Fuck! I told you this was a bad idea!¡± Jarvin yelled out before he started running toward the exit. That goddamn coward. ¡°Brother, we should get out of here,¡± Roman whispered to him. ¡°But what about Kat¡ª¡± ¡°She probably already escaped if¡­the worst hadn¡¯t already happened. We need to stay alive to find her.¡± ¡°...Fine.¡± He gritted his teeth. He knew Roman was right, and he wasn¡¯t thinking straight right now. The brothers rearranged themselves with their backs against each other and started going for the back exit, but were startled by the sound of automatic gunfire followed by a few explosions coming from the parking lot. Spying out of a window, they noted a new flaming vehicle by the main entrance of the warehouse. Deciding it wasn¡¯t worth it to go toward the parking lot, the duo continued toward the back door. Just as they were about halfway there, Yuri unexpectedly felt some pressure punch into his chest and the dull thud that accompanied it. He could tell from experience that he was shot, but luckily, it didn¡¯t penetrate his body armor. He briskly started scanning for what shot him while laying down suppressing fire to hopefully discourage his attacker from continuing their attack. He caught a brief glimpse of a shadow just as it ducked back behind a nearby shipping container. His brother, Roman, followed closely behind, but both of them were now pinned down. The two dashed away in the opposite direction of the enemy while keeping a close watch. Yuri felt bullets hitting body armor once more, but this time, from a completely different direction. Roman started firing back at their assailant to no avail, as they could only catch glimpses of the enemy before they relocated. ¡°We can¡¯t stay in here any longer. There¡¯s too much cover in here. Their weapons may be silent, but they can¡¯t penetrate our armor. Run out together now!¡± They sprinted back toward the main entrance, and when they were just around the corner, a sudden explosion loudly went off right next to him. It threw him straight onto the ground and left his ears ringing. He felt his body heat leave him, carried away by the warm liquids flowing out from his wounds. Fuck, is this the end¡­? After what felt like an eternity, the ringing in his head lightened up. He tried to get up, but only made it halfway when he saw a figure standing over him. The figure pointed something blurry in his direction¡­ no; he realized it was his vision that was blurry, and that something pointed at him was obviously a gun. So I guess this is the end¡­ He always knew it was coming. He had killed enough to know it would one day be his turn, especially with all the misdeeds he had done. But he didn¡¯t regret it. You had to do what you needed to survive in this world. He mustered every bit of air he had left in his lungs and was able to mutter out his last words. ¡°Do it.¡± Then everything faded to black. Chapter 11: Raiders Once I finished what should be the last enemy, I immediately went to examine the rooms near the big, dangerous cyborg I had taken out first. Unfortunately, with one arm injured, I didn¡¯t have any leeway to leave anyone alive to question, but judging from the reaction of the last group I dealt with, it seemed like he was someone important. I found the dropped key the man had tried to use earlier and unlocked the crate. Inside the shipping container were neat stacks of crates with Nova Tech logos on them. Upon opening one, I found several hands, prosthetic ones. The other crates were all filled with similar cybernetics, various limbs, tendons, and muscle replacements. This was¡­ a fortune. It was worth way more than the 30,000 credits from this job. It was a flat-out jackpot. The models in the crates were all current-gen ones, worth a pretty penny. This was a huge payday! I couldn¡¯t wait to be able to afford better food, buy like bots to do cleaning and cooking, and maybe even move to a better place¡­though that would require stabler income. I could also bring forth my plan to start a business with this startup fund. I just needed to level up more and upgrade a suitable tech to base my business around. While taking in the mountain of expensive tech packed in front of me, I spotted in the corner an out-of-place box that didn¡¯t have any markings on it. Within it lay various limbs and other smaller cybernetics in a disorganized fashion. Rummaging through the box, I sorted out the smaller cybernetics, and examined what make and model they were. It didn¡¯t take long until I found the SAID I was supposed to be looking for. I guess the box contained all the chrome looted from the bodies of the caravan¡¯s personnel. With my newfound fortune came the problem of how to move it. With the mission objective secured, I walked out to the parking lot to secure a means of transport. It was about time I got my own ride. I wonder how the ownership and insurance stuff would work¡­I was not looking forward to that one bit. I inspected the vehicles and found they all looked pretty worn and some of them had bullet holes all over. Only two didn¡¯t, a sedan and an SUV. After spending some time searching the bodies, I found the corresponding keys and started packing away all my loot into the cars. It took over half an hour to load all the crates from the shipping container into cars, and with some room left, I went to search all the other locked areas I ignored previously when I was busy taking out the surrounding hostiles. The shipping containers I searched in the first warehouse I snuck into were simply bedrooms with nothing special in them. When I went to search for the final remaining ones in the second warehouse where the boss was, my search came up empty until I opened up the one furthest from the exit. The moment I opened the last container, a pungent stench instantly rushed out, and within, I could make out the two slim figures in the corner, huddled together. What was most notable from the silhouettes were the chains tied around their arms and feet, attached to the railing welded to the wall. As I wasn¡¯t able to make out much detail even with night vision, I took out a flashlight and shined it towards them. With color restored to the world, I spotted a girl with long brown hair around my age holding onto a boy around eight, who looked similar to the girl. ¡°Who are you two?¡± I asked as I made my way closer. ¡°You¡¯re not with them, are you? Why don¡¯t you introduce yourself first?¡± The girl snapped while she placed herself between me and the boy. ¡°I¡¯m Rollo. I had some business with your captors, but they aren¡¯t around anymore. Now I can leave you alone and be on my way if you want, or I could do some charity work and bust you out of there, up to you.¡± While helping them wasn¡¯t profitable in a financial sense, I hope they could bring me some useful business connections; it wasn¡¯t that steep of an investment for me, anyway. ¡°...Yes, remove these chains¡­ please.¡± ¡°Sure thing, stay still,¡± I pulled out my? handy vibro dagger to cut the chains loose. The two of them followed me as I headed out. I had everything packed and looted the place clean, so I was ready to leave. They didn¡¯t speak until the moment they had stepped outside. ¡°Where are we?¡± The girl said as she looked around. ¡°We are¡­in the outskirts of District 12.¡± I read off the map from my optics. ¡°...Is that in the north part of NLA?¡± ¡°NLA?¡± ¡°New Los Angeles,¡± The girl stared at me as if I was dumb. Okay, maybe they aren¡¯t the local connection I was looking to make. ¡°I¡¯m just going to go ahead and let you know we are in Elevate City, over 3,500 kilometers off the coast of New North America.¡± ¡°...How many miles is that?¡± ¡°Um. over 2,000.¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. She froze for a second as the young boy held her closer. ¡°...You guys want to stay at my place for now?¡±
¡°Excellent work, Mr. Halls. Send me a message once you have dropped off the package at the designated spot.¡± ¡°About that loot I mentioned. Are you sure Nova Tech won¡¯t be looking for it back?¡± I asked while I kept my eyes on the lights, waiting for it to turn green. ¡°The chances are very low, as they likely have written it off and claimed their insurance policy already. Unless you retrieved a sizable part of the shipment and flaunted it around, there should be no one looking for it.¡± Fitel replied at his usual measured pace. That was useful to know. I had only told him I found a few cybernetics instead of the dozens of crates that I actually had. ¡°I see¡­thank you. Then I¡¯ll text you once I drop off the package.¡± ¡°Understood, and one more thing, Mr. Halls, I would recommend keeping minimal contact with people affiliated with raiders, regardless of age.¡± ¡°...Thank you, I have it under control.¡± ¡°Very well, until we speak again,¡± Fitel said before he hung up. I turned to look at the other two people in the car sitting behind me and gave them a smile. They had opened up a little, and we managed to hold a conversion with them while the car¡¯s auto-drive did its work. It seemed like they were children of a tribe living out in the wastelands of New North America, what most people called wastelanders or raiders. Apparently, they were being held hostage and their tribe was made to do work for the group. I guessed that wasn¡¯t a half-bad plan for a motley put-together crew, as corporations rarely cared as much about raider attacks. They were considered cockroaches that kept coming back no matter how many times they were put down, and it was an unprofitable business trying to wipe them out considering the harsh terrains they lived in. They were able to use the information they gathered in the city and use raiders to do the actual work and would have gotten away with it too, if only they didn¡¯t happen to get a hold of some sensitive item the corp wanted back. I took some time messaging my building¡¯s management office through my SAID and attained two guest parking passes. It seemed like I would have to go in person if I wanted to rent one. Once that was done, I spent some time surfing the web, looking for ways to send these two to NLA, the closest city to their tribe. Plane tickets were way more expensive than I had thought, easily in the five digits, and these two didn¡¯t have any IDs in the first place either. ¡°And we¡¯re here. How about we grab some food first for you guys before going up to my place?¡± I turned around to ask the two as we pulled up to the colossal megabuilding. ¡°Woah, you live in this giant tower?¡± The little boy asked excitedly. ¡°Just renting a small place here. They¡¯re almost two hundred floors, housing hundreds of thousands of people.¡± ¡°That¡¯s like¡­ a lot,¡± The boy replied, counting his fingers. I grabbed a crate with my one good arm, dreading the fact that I had to move them all to the apartment now. ¡°Here, let me give you a hand,¡± The girl quickly took a crate, wincing at my poor one-armed display. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re both tired. Let¡¯s go get something for you guys to eat first.¡± ¡°I insist. It would shame my clan to eat without having worked for it,¡± She glared at me with determined eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll help too!¡± The boy said brightly and carefully picked up a crate with both arms. ¡°...By the way, my name is Sarah of the Wells clan, and my brother is Caleb.¡± The girl muttered as she carefully watched her brother lift the crate. ¡°Well, nice to meet you, Sarah, and Caleb. Now follow me. I don¡¯t know about you, but I¡¯m starving.¡± We safely arrived at my apartment without incident and picked up some food along the way. It seemed like the siblings did not enjoy the cheap food here, but still ravenously ate it all. Can¡¯t believe even raider clans probably eat better than the garbage sold around here. How far have we fallen¡­ Once we finished eating, I rented a cart from the building used for moving in or out and transported all the crates into my unit. I had the two accompany me to both keep an eye on them and to make it seem like they were moving in to help keep curious eyes off my cargo. With all the moving around and excitement dying down, Caleb fell asleep soon after, so I let the two of them rest while I headed out after organizing the crates. Ensuring the cameras placed in my apartment were in order, I first headed to drop off SAID at a lockbox and messaged Fitel. Then I headed to the cybernetic clinic I had previously used. Fortunately, I only had to wait twenty minutes even without an appointment. ¡°Dr. Keyes, we meet again. How are you doing?¡± ¡°I am fine, but you have seen better days.¡± He paused and stared at my bandaged-up arm before continuing. ¡°You know, you should go to a normal clinic to get your wounds looked at. We mainly perform installation or removal of cybernetics here.¡± While I could have gone to the hospital instead, for my arm, it would take some time to heal. Not to talk about the rehabilitation period. I was planning on installing cybernetics anyway, and this just accelerated that decision. ¡°Yes, I am aware. I¡¯m looking to have my arm replaced with this.¡± I placed a package on the desk between us. I had gone over the cybernetics from my loot and picked the best one that suited me, a Nova Tech Mudra. It retailed for 20,000 credits and was considered one of the better middle-tier cyberarms. Dr. Keyes took a moment to take out the arm from its factory-new packaging and inspected it for a few minutes. ¡°I can do that. There doesn¡¯t seem to be any problem with it. The fee for installing a cyberarm for the first time will be 5,000 credits. Is that acceptable?¡± ¡°Yes, do you guys accept cybernetics as payment, or would you like to buy some? I happen to be in possession of a few pieces you may be interested in.¡± I immediately took the chance to hawk my new wares. The loot wasn¡¯t useful to me until I converted them to credits, after all. ¡°No, Mr. Halls, it is against our company policies and procurement contracts.¡± Damn it, the payment for the job hadn¡¯t come through yet so I¡¯ll be using almost all I had left, but I had plenty of stuff to sell if I needed so I wasn¡¯t too worried. It was better to get the cyberarm now than to wait weeks for my wounds to recover naturally, plus all the new functions that came along with it. ¡°Understood. Please go ahead with the installation.¡± ¡°Perfect, as a licensed cybernetic surgeon. I do need you to sign here to confirm that you would like to remove your current arm. I will not be able to reattach it after the operation if you change your mind.¡± ¡°Ha, I can always get a new one grown if I come to regret my choice,¡± I said as I read over the waiver before signing it. ¡°Well, if you had a couple of hundred thousand credits to spare, you could do that. Anyway, the procedure won¡¯t be too different from last time. Please lay down on the table and inhale from this.¡± I guess that means it is time for lights out. Hopefully, Fitel will come through with the payment by the time this is done. Chapter 12: Planning I was able to return home by early evening after having my new Nova Tech cyberarm installed. When I stepped into the apartment, both Sarah and Caleb sat on the couch, watching TV. ¡°You guys all good?¡± I asked as I placed down several bags. ¡°Yes, we are fine. What did you bring back? The two walked over to sate their curiosity. Woah, is that a new arm there?¡± Caleb¡¯s eyes sparkled as he stared at my new arm. ¡°Yeah, the old one wasn¡¯t in the best of condition anymore,¡± I gave Caleb a wink. ¡°Woah, can I get an arm like that too, sis?¡± Caleb pleaded with puppy eyes. In response, Sarah crossed her arms and made her displeasure apparent, ¡°You know you can¡¯t. Don¡¯t make me tell Dad.¡± ¡°Aww¡­¡± ¡°Here, both of you, I got you guys some stuff. See if the clothes are the right size,¡± I push two bags toward them. Since all they had were the dirty clothes they had been wearing, I bought some daily necessities, clothes, and some blankets. The two went ahead and tore open the bags and inspected the items within. ¡°I guess this will do,¡± Sarah muttered while Caleb continued going through everything with excitement. ¡°Hey, I can¡¯t say I¡¯m well-versed in fashion, let alone for teenage girls.¡± She glared at me and walked away towards the bathroom. Once they both cleaned themselves and changed into new clothes, we sat down and ate. ¡°So, do you both remember anything about how you got here?¡± ¡°We¡­ don¡¯t really know. Once they captured us, they kept us in that container the entire time until you came.¡± ¡°I see¡­ how long were you guys in there for?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s not easy to keep track after the first few days, trapped in a box.¡± ¡°Thanks for telling me about it, even though you may not want to talk about it. I¡¯ll try to figure a way to get you back to your tribe.¡± ¡°It¡¯s clan, clan Wells, and we can take care of our¡ª¡± Sarah paused for a second and looked at Caleb, who had pulled at her sleeve. ¡°...If you get us back to NLA, we can make it back from there¡­In return, I¡¯ll handle cleaning and laundry for you.¡± She looked around at the unit as if to emphasize how valuable her service would be. I mean, it wasn¡¯t that bad, presentable at least. The priority of a cleaning robot on my wish list may need to be bumped up a little¡­ ¡°Sure thing. I¡¯ll see what we can do. Anyway, let¡¯s eat before the food gets cold.¡± If they were in the shipping container the entire time, that meant they probably didn¡¯t get here by plane. The more likely method was probably by cargo ships. That made sense, as that was the best way to smuggle something, considering they didn¡¯t have any IDs. Now, I had a direction to look into.
With Fitel not wanting to get involved, I had to go find a cargo ship to smuggle Sarah and Caleb, myself. I doubt Flo and her team are experts at that, and I¡¯d rather not bother them for this. The next morning, after having failed to find any cargo ship information regarding their routes online, I went to District 20, where the biggest commercial port in Elevate City was. There were crowds of workers rushing about their day throughout the entire area. I managed to enter the port management building uncontested. From the signs on the wall, it was apparent that port customs were on the third floor, but I didn¡¯t need to head all the way there. I directly headed to an automated terminal that dealt with all the incoming ships that docked here and directly jacked into it, using the cable from my new cyberarm. The new arm had a slot to hold a portable terminal to perform the hacking that I had been doing with my old terminal. To be honest, the three points in hacking weren¡¯t enough to make me into a super hacker. If one point gave me beginner knowledge, three points only made me a little better than an amateur. Judging from my stealth upgrades, five points would make me about average in the relevant industry, enough to be a professional, and seven would be around the veteran level. Luckily, the shipping routes submitted to the port authorities were stored in this outdated security terminal that even an amateur like me could handle. I got through after several minutes and downloaded everything into my terminal, then exited the port by blending with the crowd. With my new data in hand, I headed to a fast-food chain and got to work, looking over the data while enjoying a refreshing milkshake. Dozens of vessels arrived in Elevate City every day so the files I downloaded were quite a pain to go through, even with a search function, but I narrowed down the dozen of ships that would leave within the week. I crossed out the options that had their cargo noted as classified or were obviously managing stuff from large corporations, which left me with four options. Then I checked the shipping company for each option and investigated how much their employee¡¯s pay was. To nobody¡¯s surprise, they were paid like crap unless they were higher up on the totem pole or had valuable skill sets as captains did. I looked up the file for the Chief stewards for each of my options and examined the details. Within two hours, I found everything I needed and headed to the closest hostel where one of the Chief Stewards was staying. I waited outside and soon found a tall woman walking out with several others who matched the profile I had. I followed them, heading into a diner where they ordered their lunch. My patience paid off as she left the table and headed to the washroom. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Chief Stewardess Ava, can I have a moment of your time?¡± I asked as she was about to pass by me. Her body snapped toward me and had a hand on her holster while looking warily at me. ¡°Ambushing a lady on her way to the washroom isn¡¯t very gentlemen-like. Why don¡¯t you introduce yourself first?¡± ¡°You can call me¡­User, I don¡¯t mean any harm, just wanted to propose to you a business opportunity.¡± ¡°Really?¡± She said as she raised an eyebrow at me. ¡°Your ship is heading to NLA next, right?¡± ¡°... Yeah, I ain¡¯t doing anything that would harm our ship. The crews are like family to me.¡± She glared at me and tightened her grip on her pistol. ¡°Relax, I just want you to bring some people with you and ensure their safety. How does 5,000 credits sound? That¡¯s almost your entire monthly wage.¡± ¡°Smuggling? They wanted or something?¡± ¡°No, just no IDs. They¡¯re fine otherwise.¡± ¡°...5k per person, upfront payment.¡± ¡°I¡¯m only paying you half upfront, the other half once I confirmed you got the job done.¡± ¡°You look here boy, I¡¯m the one taking the risks here, upfront payment or no deal.¡± The Chief Stewardess made a show of slowly walking away. ¡°...6,000 per person, if you can accommodate half now, half after the job.¡± I didn¡¯t mind paying more, as long as she accepted my condition. People worked harder if they still had something on the line. Upfront payment would incur a higher risk of her screwing over Sarah and Caleb if anything went wrong. ¡°Fine, but they bring their own supplies. The trip¡¯s going to take a week or two.¡± ¡°Deal,¡± I replied and held out my hand.
While we ate lunch, I informed the siblings of the ride back I secured for them. The ship was scheduled to leave in two days¡¯ time. With their situation settled, what was left was for me to begin serious planning for the business I wanted to start. I had a ton of valuable cybernetics that hadn¡¯t been liquidated yet. It wasn¡¯t something easy to do in a short time without tipping people off on the amount I had. Anyway, to start my business, I, of course, had to decide on which industry I would go into. The system would definitely be an integral part of this, as it served as the basis of the business. Therefore, I opened up my status page and went through all the potential upgrades that would fit what I was looking for.
Status
Level: 3
EXP: 210/300
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
After installing my cyberarm, my musculoskeletal stat shot straight up, which definitely tempted me to install more implants to raise the scores, but I was wary of the augments that dealt with how my brain worked, especially with the cheaper models. I proceeded to select upgrade and went over the vast collections of various things I could spend points on. While some names like energy weapons popped at me, I doubt I could enjoy my wealth for long with all the attention that it would draw. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if a corp violently took over my business if I proceeded recklessly like that. I also didn¡¯t want any tech that was in markets that made me compete against big corporations for the same reason. The more mundane everyday products weren¡¯t something I wanted to go into either, as the system¡¯s technological aid wouldn¡¯t be as helpful and those industries required more brand recognition than quality of products, anyway. I remembered a line I had heard before: ¡°Third-class businesses sold products, second-class businesses sold brands, and first-class businesses sold markets.¡± I would have to start from the bottom with a great product first. I would still need to level up a lot more in order to attain enough upgrade points for my selected field. Gaining experience points would only get harder and harder, so maybe I should select something that synergized with helping me gain the experience points as well, in other words, killing. There was an option to level stealth technologies, but all the best stealth products I knew were, for good reason, cybernetics. It simply blended in better when it was literally hidden within you, but cybernetic engineering was a separate category in the system. There currently wasn¡¯t much stealth-oriented cybernetics out in the market though, as corporations kept that technology to themselves, but a solid target market for it was there too. Mercenaries like Flo had sufficient disposable income and were willing to spend big, since they could always die on their next job. That meant I should focus on cybernetics first. I probably needed both points in cybernetic tech and stealth tech to create any half-decent implants, but I happen to be sitting on a pile of cybernetics right now. Cybernetics was definitely something cool that only this world had, and it was honestly exciting too. It¡¯s decided, I will focus on cybernetics first and then go into stealth technologies to create my own implants.
In the afternoon, I finished up the last of my errands, dealing with my two new cars. They may have seen better days, but they were still new in my books. I tried to rent the parking spot to keep the SUV, but apparently, car registration was actually something required, so I headed to a second-hand dealership instead. The place I went to had a wide selection of vehicles displayed up front and they all looked to be in much better condition than my two rust buckets. Though for now, I was satisfied to have something practical, I¡¯d rather not waste unnecessary credits in my current situation. ¡°Hey there, I wanted to sell the sedan over there and fix the registration information on the SUV,¡± I spoke to the man in a suit who immediately came to greet me the moment I walked in. ¡°Welcome to Don¡¯s Auto. We can definitely do that for you. Why don¡¯t we get a closer look at the vehicle you would like to sell!¡± To no one¡¯s surprise, the sedan wasn¡¯t worth a lot but could cover the cost of having the SUV registered to me. It didn¡¯t sound very legal, but I guessed no one cared, especially not for an old car. I was on the road once I sorted the insurance out and enjoyed my first actual drive without the auto drive this time. Just as I got out of the dealer¡¯s parking lot, I received a call. ¡°Hey, Mr. Rollo, this is Caleb. Can you buy some ice cream when you come back?¡± A childish voice rang out. ¡°Sure thing, kid.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be back in half an hour.¡± I hung up, only to realize I forgot to ask what flavor they liked. Just as I was about to call back, another call came in first and I quickly picked it up as I started accelerating onto the freeway. ¡°What flavor did you¡ª¡± Before I finished, a different voice than the one I expected interrupted, ¡°Rollo, are you free right now? We could really use your help.¡± It took a second before I realized it was Flo on the line. Well, unfortunately for Caleb, it seemed like ice cream was going to be delayed. Chapter 13: The Way In ¡°Rollo, are you free right now? We could really use your help.¡± ¡°Flo? What¡¯s going on?¡± I put the car back into auto drive to focus on the call. ¡°An idiot on my team got picked up a few days ago, and we finally located him. The problem is that he is being held in some corp facility, so we can¡¯t just go in guns blazing this time.¡± ¡°I¡¯d love to help Flo but I don¡¯t think I can go against some corporation even you¡¯re hesitant to antagonize¡­¡± ¡°Look, they aren¡¯t some big untouchable corp. They are just some fucked up startup specializing in human experimentation that other corps outsource to. If we went guns blazing, they would activate their fail-safes that would dispose of all their ¡®subjects¡¯ for some bullshit confidentiality contract. Can you take a shot at sneaking in to disable it?¡± ¡°Fine¡­ I¡¯ll try, but no promises. You guys already have a plan?¡± ¡°Great, we¡¯ll owe you one. Come on over to Haven and we¡¯ll go over the details.¡±
They filled me in on the plan in one of the private rooms inside Haven. There were glass windows in the room that looked out to the rest of the bar, though we set the windows to be opaque. By the time we finished, the sun was just setting. We headed out right away, driving circles around a small but normal-looking office building with only a dozen floors and a loading area in the back. I ensured I had everything I needed before getting out of the car. ¡°Test, test. Can you hear me alright?¡± A woman¡¯s voice rang out in my head thanks to my SAID. ¡°Yeah, loud and clear.¡± ¡°Okay, you can respond by text once you¡¯re in, but our connection will break up once you pass into the jammed area and you¡¯ll be on your own. Once you get in, you should be able to disable it.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. We just went over it.¡± ¡°Just wanted to remind you that once you¡¯re in, you¡¯re on your own. You better do exactly as I instructed, because your shitty intern-level hacking skills ain¡¯t going to do shit in their system.¡± I sent a thumbs-up emoji through my SAID and observed the people going in and out of the building. The girl was a hacker they brought on for the rescue called Lana. She was apparently the one who tracked down our target, her friend, Leo, who was the hacker for Flo¡¯s team. I waited until the loading area was clear and casually walked as close as I could without entering the camera¡¯s view. Once I was in position, I aimed my Suri and shot right at the base of the camera. *You should get a connection soon.* ¡°Okay, I¡¯m in, but as we expected, their security systems are air-gapped from the cameras. I¡¯m looping the camera feeds now. You should be good to go, ¡±Lana responded almost instantly to my text, with a symphony of clicking and clacking noises in her background. I couldn¡¯t believe someone still used mechanical keyboards when she could do it through her SAID. I walked up to the door and pried into the panel covering the jack for technicians. Once I plugged in, I didn¡¯t have to do my usual hacking and could sit back while Lana did the job for me. Before long, the door¡¯s lock clicked open, and I made my way into the building. I headed for the staircase where the call connection I had with Lana started breaking up as I descended. I went as far as I could until I reached a floor that required an ID card to access, so I made my way back up to the previous floor. I made my way through the mechanical rooms, searching for the one that was responsible for this building¡¯s HVAC. According to the info we had, the lab where they held Leo was on the bottommost floor, and the security control room was on the topmost restricted basement level, so I had to somehow gain access to that floor. I eventually found the mechanical room I was looking for and brought out a grenade that looked more like a toy. I pressed the button on it and threw it toward the control panel. After a second, a loud fizzing noise echoed throughout the room. Within seconds, I heard the machines around me slowing down, making a whining noise that it definitely wasn¡¯t supposed to make. I picked up the spent grenade, then went to conceal myself in a corner of the room, and started praying the plan would work. If no one came, then we would have to abort the mission and go back to the drawing board. With no connection to the outside world, I spent my time playing around with the settings of my cybernetics and ensured they were in optimal condition. Right now, I relied on official patches to their firmware, so I was going through them as a reference for the day when I would design my own cybernetics. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. After 15 minutes, I finally heard someone approach. I watched the door intently while trying to calm my nerves and stay quiet. I watched a man in a dirty technician outfit with a hard hat open the door and walk straight toward the control panel. I gave it a second to see if anyone else was behind him, but once I was sure there was no one, I made my move. In one swift motion, I covered his face with a cloth I had gotten from Flo and put him in a chokehold. I felt his surprise and struggle, but my cyberarm had him in a tightly locked in place, and soon his struggle weakened until his body completely fell limp. I quickly dragged his body to the corner where I then swapped outfits. I packed my old clothes into a bag and ensured I had his security card and all my gear before heading back down the stairs. This time, with the security card, I could pass through. I casually strolled through the empty hallway while searching for the security control room. The entire floor looped around in a circle, so I eventually spotted the room. I walked up and stood in front of the door, and pressed the button on the intercom. ¡°What do you want, techy? You better have good news about the cooling, cuz it¡¯s getting really hot in here with all the equipment running.¡± ¡°Yes sir, it should be fixed now, but I need to manually reset each control panel until we get the replacement parts.¡± ¡°All right, hurry up and reset ours.¡± The door automatically opened. I walked in slowly and a guard soon came into view. I scoured the room; not that large and had only two guards in total. The other guard had his attention on the screens while he fanned himself with a terminal. ¡°That¡¯s the panel for the AC,¡± The first guard pointed and then crossed his arms while he watched me. He didn¡¯t seem like he was going to go away, so I guess it was time to pull one of the oldest tricks in the book. I placed my bag down beside the panel and then pretended to rummage through it as I grabbed my Suri within. I looked back and locked eyes with the man who still had his full attention on me. ¡°If this is the AC panel, then what is that one for?¡± I put on the best show of looking as confused as I could and pointed at the one on the other side of the room. The moment the man turned, I brought my gun up and placed a well-aimed shot right at his head, then unloaded the rest of the 20-round mag into the remaining guard who was still in his seat until I saw the experience notification.
+10 EXP +10 EXP
I raced over to the terminal, pushed the body out of the way, and searched for the jack to plug into. After fumbling for a bit, I found the jack and inserted the chip the hacker Lana had given me. I executed the program as instructed, then it automatically took over with no further need for my input. While I let the program do its thing, I started looking over the screens and the layout of the floors that we didn¡¯t have information on. I could see rooms with about half a dozen people living in them, all wearing simple white gowns. There were also a few rooms with surgical tables, like the one found in Dr. Keyes¡¯s clinic. Outside in the corridors were a few people in lab coats walking around and a few armed guards. Before I could find Leo, the person we were rescuing, the console in front of me made a ding noise, informing me of the program¡¯s completion. A familiar voice then spoke out to me within my head. ¡°Can you hear me, Rollo?¡± ¡°Yeah, loud and clear.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ve got full control of their system now, but I can¡¯t disable the fail-safes remotely. You¡¯ve got to go to the head researcher¡¯s room and do it from his terminal. I¡¯ll send you the floor layout with real-time information on where everyone in the facility is.¡± ¡°Okay, got it, but you do see how many people are in there, right? Do we even have enough transportation to get them all out?¡± ¡°No, we¡¯re only here for Leo. The rest of them are going to have to find their own way once they¡¯re out.¡± ¡°Really? At least half of them are going to die or get caught again.¡± I took a deep breath and sighed. ¡°We aren¡¯t charity workers. They can stay there if they want, but if they do, they¡¯re guaranteed to be dead within a year or two. A slow and painful death too. We¡¯re already giving them a chance to escape. Come on, focus on what we came here for.¡± She was right, there was no profit to it even if I could save them all. I could only do so much. I placed the real-time layout in a corner of my vision like a minimap. I then made my way to the head researcher¡¯s room after I swapped into the guard¡¯s uniform. With the help of the minimap, it was practically like cheating. I effortlessly hid in the blind spots or avoided anyone in my way. It was really annoying how each set of stairs that led further down was located somewhere different on each floor, but I eventually managed to arrive at the door to the head researcher¡¯s office. I hate whoever designed this place, security be damned. It must suck, having to go through this maze every day to get to work. I scanned my security card, but the scanner turned red, denying me access. Seeing no one within earshot, I called out to my helper. ¡°Hey, I need help getting into the researcher¡¯s room, plugging you in now.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s the please?¡± She sighed, ¡°Give me a second¡­and you¡¯re in.¡± Entering the room, I found the terminal at the head researcher¡¯s desk. I repeated the same steps I went through in the security room, plugging in the chip, and then waited for the program to do its job. ¡°Okay, the program is done. Can you deactivate it now?¡± ¡°That terminal doesn¡¯t respond to remote commands, so you will have to be the one to deactivate it.¡± Following Lana¡¯s instructions, I eventually found the command to disable the fail-safe. Even so, once the test subjects escaped, they would still need to visit a cybernetic clinic to remove the physical chip that was forcibly installed in their heads¡­ I then searched the files on the subjects within this facility and downloaded what they had into my SAID. The information included a file on Leo and where they kept him. ¡°Okay, I found him, and the fail-safes are off. It¡¯s time for you guys to do the heavy lifting.¡± ¡°Gotcha, Flo¡¯s team is coming in hot now. Go secure Leo before the chaos spreads down to you.¡± Within ten seconds of her words, the entire place violently shook, almost throwing me off my feet. Chapter 14: The Way Out Once I regained my balance, I quickly left the room. The way was clear as researchers scrambled back into rooms and the guards congregated by the entry points. I carefully approached a group of guards from behind who were fortifying their position against the staircase I had entered from. There were six of them ?divided into two groups to form a crossfire. Once their sergeant finished giving out commands, their attention was entirely on the entry point. I took the opportunity to close in with two new toys in hand. I grasped the tops of the toy and sprung them open like a childproof bottle, then threw the first one at the trio furthest away from me. I gently lobbed the second one without delay at the other group near me before taking cover behind the contours of the corridor. As soon as I had gotten into cover, the sound of an explosion rang out, swiftly followed by another. From behind the cover, I saw the six experience prompts.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
That was a lot easier than I thought. I should definitely stock up on a few more explosives just in case, even if it doesn¡¯t go well with stealth¡­ Searching the bodies, I found two usable submachine guns and strapped them to my back, along with the chest rigs that carried several spare mags. I double-timed it back to the head researcher¡¯s office and issued the command to unlock all the rooms that held the test subjects. I raced toward the room where Leo was. On the way, I saw several doors slightly opened with people peeking out who quickly hid when our eyes met. It was the same at the door to room two, where Leo was located, though they thankfully didn¡¯t slam the door on me. The person at the door retreated further in and chatted with the residents of the room while I entered. ¡°---ones coming.¡± The teenage red-haired girl closest to the door said. ¡°Calm down, Claire.¡± A voice from the back replied. The room was only furnished with six beds, with three on each side of the room. There were four other people standing around the girl, and the last person in the back was still in bed. The man turned to face me as I entered. ¡°So Flo did call in another team for this shit hole.¡± He scanned me from top to bottom. ¡°I¡¯m not much of a team by myself, but yes, Flo did send me. I¡¯m Rollo.¡± I approached and offered my hand. ¡°The new guy she met?¡± He gave me a doubting gaze, though he still shook my hand. ¡°Leo, as I¡¯m sure you already know. What¡¯s the plan?¡± ¡°Flo and your team are upstairs¡ª¡± ¡°Heh, so I¡¯ve heard¡­ go on.¡± ¡°They are upstairs fighting their way down, so we¡¯re going to make our way up to meet them. You know how to use one of these?¡± I said and threw one of the submachine guns at him. ¡°As if anyone in this city doesn¡¯t, proficiency, on the other hand¡­I¡¯m more of the computer guy than a fighter.¡± ¡°Well, they shouldn¡¯t be expecting us from behind, so just point and shoot.¡± Leo fidgeted with his new gun as I looked over to the other five, who were eavesdropping off to the side. ¡°You guys, go gather up everyone else on this floor. We¡¯re all leaving¡­unless you want to stay.¡± One of the older boys, who was about sixteen with short brown curly hair, nodded immediately and dashed out of the room. In the meantime, I connected a call with Lana. ¡°I¡¯m with Leo. What¡¯s the situation up there?¡± ¡°Little busy here, they¡¯re past the control room,¡± The sound of her mechanical keyboard continued clacking at a rapid pace. ¡°Ok, we¡¯re heading up from here.¡± ¡°Roger, stay on the call. I¡¯ll keep you updated.¡± Seeing that Leo was ready, we exited the room and headed toward the stairs. We found a crowd of people wearing white gowns gathered there. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. I spotted the one who was in Leo¡¯s room earlier and walked up to him. ¡°Is everyone here and ready to go?¡± ¡°Well, almost everyone¡­ Thorne and Claire are still in there.¡± He pointed to a nearby room off to the side that was visible through the glass walls, showcasing what seemed to be an operating room. At the center of the room was the operating table with a few moveable hospital beds off to the side. Standing still by one of the beds were the teenage boy and girl from earlier. The boy¡¯s lively expression was completely gone and the color from his face had been drained. As I approached him, he continued to be motionless despite my attempts to draw his attention with loud footsteps. With a better view of what he was looking down at, I grimaced. It was an unzipped body bag with the face of a middle-aged woman poking out. Her features resembled the boy¡¯s, though I couldn¡¯t say if their eyes were similar as the body was missing eyes. ¡°Thorne and Claire right? I¡¯m sorry for your loss, but we need to get out of here. Now.¡± I placed my hand on his shoulder. Thorne replied without looking back, ¡°I don¡¯t have anywhere to be¡­ I¡¯ll stay here.¡± ¡°... You think that¡¯s what she wanted, staying here with no future?¡± The girl cried out. It seemed like the girl who was called Claire had the same objective as me, to convince Thorne to leave. ¡°...I have no future even if I leave¡­ I wouldn¡¯t survive alone¡­not without Mom. I¡¯d become a beggar at best¡­and I have nothing to live for.¡± Thorne¡¯s voice grew quieter as he went on. ¡°Idiot! You won¡¯t be alone. I¡¯ll stick with you, and we¡¯ll make it work somehow. As long as we are alive and free, we¡¯ll have opportunities. Come on, do it for me. Let¡¯s go,¡± Claire said as she started dragging Thorne. ¡°Well, I just happened to be planning on hiring to start a business. Come work for me. As my employee, I¡¯ll make sure you live a life that will make her proud,¡± I offered my hand to him as he glanced over.
¡°This floor is clear too. I¡¯ll go check out the next one now. Shouldn¡¯t be long before we rendezvous with Flo.¡± ¡°Okay! No worries, I can protect everyone!¡± The red-haired girl cheerfully replied while lifting the submachine gun in one hand. I was talking to Leo, but I decided not to bother with it and proceeded to the next floor. I gave Thorne and Leo one last look before I headed out. All the cameras were destroyed by now as they realized someone had breached their security. I made my way up the stairs to the next level and found two guards posted up on the other side of the door. Lana the hacker had informed me that Flo¡¯s team had just made it to this floor, so it made sense they had guards stationed here in case the intruders tried to sneak by. Too bad their communications were a mess and never found out about the intruders from below. We had them sandwiched now. From where I was, I could hear sounds from the ongoing fighting. Wasting no more time, I slammed open the door, right into one guard, and immediately shot the other. Just as the dazzled guard turned to face me, I sent another bullet right into his eye.
+10 EXP +10 EXP
As I peeled my eyes away from the experience text, a sword poked out around the corner down the hallway. I brought my Suri up and aimed at the corner when a seven-foot-tall man came into view. From all the visible cybernetics, it was safe to say the man was a genuine cyborg, as all his limbs were cybernetic replacements. I reflexively unloaded my entire clip at him, only to see it deflect off his armor and synthetic skin. He grinned and dashed straight at me with inhuman speed. I threw myself back into the stairwell and closed the door behind me. I retreated down to create more space between us. Just as I made it down the first flight of stairs, a loud impact rang out, and the walls around the door I just closed cracked. Changing ammo as I made my way out of the stairway, I spotted Leo and Claire down the corridor with their guns at the ready. I double-checked that my connection with Lana was still good. ¡°Lana, I¡¯m going to need your help really soon. Get ready for a new connection that¡¯ll open up in a second. And you two, stay back!¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Claire said, confused, while Leo glared behind me cautiously. I ignored them and continued, ¡°Lana, you hear me?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Just busy getting the corpo nerds outta the security system, but sure, I definitely can help you out even with my hands full. I¡¯ll just have to use my third hand.¡± Standing at one end of the corridor, I aimed at the door to the stairwell on the other side. I took note of Leo and Claire, who hadn¡¯t listened to me. They opted to remain, but I didn¡¯t have time to care or rebuke them right now. As I expected, the cyborg showed up behind me, ramming the entire door in my direction as he came into view. He once again dashed forward as soon as he saw us, the three of us unleashed a hail of bullets in response. This time, he zig-zagged around despite our bullets simply dinging off his body even when they struck. Once he was halfway toward us, I stopped shooting and tapped on both my ally¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Move back. We need to buy some time.¡± We sprinted away from the incoming cyborg while sending a text via my SAID to my hacker, *Lana! Did you get the connection?* We dashed into an empty room because we would¡¯ve led the threat to the rest of the group if we continued any further down the hallway. The cyborg followed right behind us, ripping open the door from the hinges and holding it in one hand, like a makeshift shield. ¡°I¡¯m working on it. It should just take a second. You¡¯re lucky this baby corporation¡¯s security sucks.¡± Right when the cyborg started his dash, he seemed to suddenly lose steam before he tripped over himself and fell face-first into the ground. ¡°I locked his chrome. Hurry, before he restarts his soft.¡± Lana¡¯s voice cried out. Pushing down my instincts that told me to stay away from the menacing cyborg, I quickly unsheathed my dagger and plunged it into the back of his head. There was some resistance when the vibroblade made contact with him, but it couldn¡¯t stop it from piercing through.
+20 EXP
We collectively released a sigh of relief as we stepped over his body and exited the room. Leo spat at the body as he walked by, ¡°Cyborg fucker. Lucky I don¡¯t have any of my gear on me right now.¡± Thank the heavens I bought the EI rounds and had a hacker on the hotline, because I definitely didn¡¯t have the skills or equipment to do any hacking in the middle of a fight. I swapped my ammo back to my regular rounds and split off from the group again to check on the floor above, but as I was halfway up the stairs, Lana spoke out to me, ¡°Flo¡¯s team cleared the floor, I let her know you¡¯re on the way.¡± That was the kind of good news I liked to hear. Now let¡¯s hope the rest of this outing will be smooth sailing. Chapter 15: Starting a Business Having met up with our reinforcements, Flo¡¯s team, who frankly looked like they needed more saving than us, we returned to the surface level with the entire group without incident. I witnessed the aftermath of what shook the entire building earlier as there was an enormous hole in the wall, next to the backdoor I entered from. Once we were outside, it became a lot more chaotic as the former test subjects went their own way and scattered. Our group immediately went back to our cars. ¡°We should be good now. You can head back. Thanks for your help, we owe you one,¡± The large mercenary, Flo, energetically said, despite how worn out she looked. ¡°No problem, I¡¯ll take you up on that favor. Are you sure everything is okay now, though? No corpo hit squad chasing after us?¡± ¡°Neuro Nexus is a startup corp at best. We¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°What about the police?¡± ¡°Ha, good one, the ECPD only shows up after incidents to do cleanup. All right, we¡¯re set. Let¡¯s hang out at Haven sometime once Leo gets his shit fixed,¡± Flo said as she stepped into the back of her armored van. I waved her off as I got in the driver¡¯s seat of my car. Thorne, who had been following me, got into the passenger seat. Watching the former test subjects scattering into the streets, I started up the car and was about to leave when the back door clicked open. ¡°All right boss, I¡¯m ready for a new adventure. Let¡¯s get going!¡± A cheerful red-haired teenager declared from the backseat. ¡°I don¡¯t remember offering to hire you or to give you a ride, Claire¡­¡± I said as I turned on the auto drive. ¡°Come on, you heard me when I said I¡¯ll be sticking with Thorne. An offer to him equals an offer to me.¡± ¡°Claire¡­¡± Thorne looked back and sighed before turning to me. ¡°Can I ask you to hire her as well?¡± ¡°Sure, that¡¯s what I intended, but it¡¯s not like I have a company or anything yet, so don¡¯t expect much.¡± We drove aimlessly for a while until I decided to bring the two to a motel near my place first. Sarah and Caleb were still in my place, so it would be too crowded to have these two stay over as well. Speaking of Caleb¡­ Oh right, I still have to buy him ice cream. They¡¯re probably asleep by now, so I guess he¡¯ll have ice cream for breakfast¡­
After a night of well-deserved rest, I was fully charged. I quickly got ready instead of lazing around, as I was expecting guests later. Yesterday, when I left Thorne and Claire at the motel with some money to pay for their rooms, food, and the clinic fees for removing their tracker. We decided to meet up this morning at my place to plan things out. As I basked in the hot water during my morning shower, I brought out my status sheet as I deliberated about my next steps.
Status
Level: 4
EXP: 50/400
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
With two people under my care now, I had to start earning more so I could pay them. Overall, it wasn¡¯t a terrible trade to have two employees that I could trust¡­ Well¡­ more trusted than the average employee I would find off the streets. Following my plan, I went ahead and dumped my new points into cybernetic engineering.
Status
Level: 4
EXP: 50/400 Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +2
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
A familiar rush of knowledge entered my brain. I felt like I had gone to college studying the subject, just condensed into an instant instead of a few years. I knew the materials requirements that are or are not compatible with the human body, the procedure to install them, and the tools required. Though I doubt I could create anything close in capability to any of the cybernetics I¡¯ve seen, not without more upgrade points. Upon walking into the living room, I noticed an argument between Sarah and Caleb. It seemed like Caleb wanted to have the ice cream for breakfast while Sarah forbade it until lunch. I ignored the argument that had nothing to do with me and proceeded to make my food. I spent the time after breakfast looking up the procedure for starting a business in this city. It seemed like there were different classifications of businesses with a clear distinction between the local run-of-the-mill businesses, being where I would have to start from, and corporations that were further divided into several levels. If a business did well, it could then apply for membership to join the Elevate City Consortium, which would mark the transformation of a business becoming a corporation. They would enjoy various benefits, being in a higher social class from all the other riffraffs. However, you would need to pay an annual membership fee depending on the tier. In return, they would reduce your tax rate and various conveniences related to importing and exporting. By the time I finished arranging a law firm to complete the paperwork for establishing my business, the doorbell to my apartment rang. Thorne and Claire arrived, so I introduced them to the raider siblings and got comfortable before starting our discussion. ¡°To start things off, I plan to be opening a cybernetic clinic and I will be hiring you as my assistants for now as there isn¡¯t really a fixed set of duties for you guys yet.¡± ¡°Ok, cool with me as long as you¡¯re paying,¡± Claire replied with a smile while Thorne solemnly nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be paying you both 5,000 credits a month for now. I¡¯ll also cover all your expenses within reason until your first paycheck.¡± They both nodded and seeing as they had no comment, I continued, ¡°I¡¯ll be dealing with the bureaucracy side of it for now, so I want one of you to deal with our current inventory over there and the other to search for potential properties for the clinic itself.¡± ¡°Oooh, real estate shopping, I always wanted to buy my own place. I¡¯ll do it!¡± Claire energetically raised her hand. ¡°...I¡¯ll do the inventory then.¡± ¡°Sounds good. I look forward to working with both of you.¡± I smiled and shook their hands. Great, bureaucracy time, woohoo, so exciting¡­Hopefully, this won¡¯t take too long.
It turns out starting a local business wasn¡¯t too hard but a cybernetic clinic was, simply because I had no credentials to operate and the alternative methods¡­ weren¡¯t something I could afford right now. Seeing how I was mainly targeting mercenaries anyway, I decided to simply start an underground clinic. The major disadvantages were mainly no access to licensed suppliers, being unable to advertise with legitimate avenues for an unlicensed clinic, and minor things such as being unable to do business with most companies like insurance without a hefty surcharge. The major advantages were simply no taxes. As an unregistered business, I wouldn¡¯t be paying any taxes to the corporate overlords. This also meant that I didn¡¯t have much to do now that there was no bureaucracy to do for the past week, so I looked for suitable locations with Claire during the day and started hunting for experience during the evening. Sarah and Caleb had left during this time after I saw them off with the Chief Steward I had hired. She gave me regular updates, as half of her payment was still with me. Claire seemed to be finishing up her talks with the owners of all the places she found and wanted to go over the options with me to finalize our choice soon, but before that, I barely had enough money to cover all the fees and rent. Which was why today, I headed to a clandestine clinic that Flo introduced me to sell off some of my wares. I drove to the Neon District and found a dark stairway in between some bar and a nightclub that led down to a large metal door that looked like it could withstand a small bomb. There were no signs or anything throughout the entire way down. I¡¯m sure if I hadn¡¯t been told of its location, I would have thought it was just some backdoor for a building. Pressing on the intercom, I backed away from the door and stared straight at the peephole while I waited. ¡°What do you want?¡± A feminine voice spoke at a fast pace. ¡°Dr. Rad? Flo introduced me to this place. I have some business with you.¡± The door clicked open automatically. Inside was an identical door with turrets hanging from the ceiling beside it. I walked in and the door closed behind me. After a few seconds, the second door opened, leading me to a brightly lit area with a few chairs neatly lined up. A large glowing sign stood in my path with the words ¡®Wait here and don¡¯t wander or you¡¯re dead!¡¯ written on it. It seemed like I came a little early compared to the rest of her clientele, as it was noon and there wasn¡¯t anyone else here. Before I had a chance to sit down, a thin girl with purple hair walked out from the back. Though her most distinct trait was all the tattoos she had. ¡°Follow me, you looking for a checkup, new chrome, or what?¡± She turned around and asked while she started walking away all jittery, as if she had too much caffeine. I sped up to keep up with her before replying, ¡°Actually, I had some cybernetics to sell, brand new.¡± I held the bag I was holding to emphasize my point to her despite she hadn¡¯t turned my way. ¡°Let¡¯s have a look.¡± We moved into her operating room and proceeded to lay out all the cybernetics I brought on a table where she then examined them. I took the time to check out her setup, which comprised a simple terminal by her operating table that listed her products. I couldn¡¯t match the variety she had at the moment and needed to pay extra to the corporate salesperson because I didn¡¯t have a proper license. Soon, Dr. Rad finished inspecting the cybernetics and quoted me a price. She seemed to offer about half of what it retailed for, which was pretty good considering she would have to sell below the retail price. Otherwise, people would simply go to the legit clinics unless they really didn¡¯t want any records of their hardware. ¡°I still have more of the same kind if you want. I can get it here within the hour.¡± I continued to hawk as I only brought a few of each model I had. ¡°No thanks, maybe next time, no reason to hold too much stock. If that¡¯s all, you know the way out.¡± She started to ignore me and started working on some half-completed cyberarm. ¡°Do you happen to know any other places that may be interested in buying?¡± She paused for a second and put a finger to her chin, ¡°Hmm, there may be a few. Not sure though, I don¡¯t really contact them that often. Here I sent their info to your SAID.¡± With the transaction complete, my balance displayed on my optics was much higher than before. I exited and restocked before I made my way to the locations she sent me to rinse and repeat the sale. Some contacts I visited completely ignored me and shooed me away, while some only bought limited quantities. Now I know how those salesmen pestering me feel. Maybe I should¡¯ve cut them some slack. As evening approached, I made my way to the last contact I had gotten, in some warehouse on the outskirts of the city. There weren¡¯t much here besides a couple of chop shops. Just as I exited my car, I heard a thunderous noise coming from just around the corner. I instantly jumped back into the car with my gun unholstered, ready to leave at a moment¡¯s notice. ¡°Sigh, come on, I just wanted to sell my stuff in peace today¡­¡± Chapter 16: Property The thunderous loud noise rang out again, though it was quieter this time from inside my car. Seeing nothing but the junkyard around, I moved to a better vantage point to assess the situation. Cautiously hugging the warehouse, I peeked around the corner to find two men wearing eye-catching red plate carriers in a maroon uniform underneath. They were both facing away from the warehouse, toward the scrap cars piled up. One of them had a hand raised, pointing it toward the rusty vehicles. The hand wasn¡¯t a regular one but a prosthetic one that looked more like a gigantic gun barrel than a human limb. Before I could get closer, the thunderous noise rang out again, much louder this time as I was in direct line of sight from the source. I watched the hand cannon fire, decimating the scrap metals in its way. Assuming they were only doing target practice, I proceeded toward the clinic, albeit discreetly, trying not to draw their attention, just in case. The door leading into the clinic was completely open, and I could see a small lobby area. There were a few people waiting in the lobby, all seeming to be the rough-looking mercenary type, with a few dressed in the same red uniform as the two outside. Walking in, I spotted a lady behind the counter near the entrance smiling at me. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m here to see Dr. Bennett.¡± I put an arm on the counter and leaned forward. ¡°Yes, take this, and please take a seat.¡± The lady ripped a queue ticket in a practiced motion and handed it to me. I sat down and saw a screen displaying the queue. I patiently waited for my number to come up, spending the time surfing the web through my implants. After almost an hour of waiting, I could finally see the doctor, an older man with a hunched back, wearing a monocle. I repeated my sales pitch, which had been well practiced by now, to the doctor and handed him some samples for examination. ¡°Ahh, these are brand new, very good. How many of these do you have?¡± The doctor asked as he continued his examination. ¡°How much can you offer for these models?¡± I fired back. This was my last sale, and I didn¡¯t want to sell too much for now. I only needed a bit more credits to hit my goal. ¡°Hmm¡­ How about this price?¡± He sent over a small spreadsheet file with the models and offered prices directly to my SAID. The prices were a lot lower than what I¡¯d seen all day, which was around 35-50% of the retail price, while he offered a measly 25%. ¡°25% of the retail price is pretty low, I¡¯ll need at least 40% or I¡¯d rather try elsewhere.¡± ¡°Now, now. I am willing to buy in bulk, which I¡¯m sure my colleagues wouldn¡¯t. How about this? I can raise it to 30% at most.¡± We spent another few minutes bargaining back and forth, but the doctor didn¡¯t seem like he would budge any further. Being so close to my goal, I decided to take the hit and sell just enough to reach my goal. With the transaction complete, I headed back home just as the sun started to set and texted my two employees. Once I was home, I took in the now slightly more spacious living room, having sold off a few crates that were taking up space. I barely sold more than a tenth, but should now have enough to get the equipment I need and pay for the lease, considering I wasn¡¯t looking for any prime locations. Before long, Thorne arrived with Claire and began going over the result of her hard work. ¡°So, as you said, I went to look for the best potential spots for your clinic. Further narrowing down the options to the neighborhoods near District 10, there are three main types of properties listed here.¡± Examining the file on the terminal placed on the table between us, I secretly looked up the address for each and left a marker on the minimap displayed directly in my eyes. Once everything was settled, I should really install a proper SAID and optics for these two. ¡°The first type is the street-level retail locations like these. Since we don¡¯t have a license yet, we may not be able to openly operate, so this may not be the best option. The second one is these units inside various megabuildings and apartments. The third option is leasing properties from various complexes and plazas.¡± Considering my primary target market for the foreseeable future was mercenaries, all the properties were near District 10, where Haven was located. All these options had their own pros and cons, but now that I had sufficient funds, I could go for the options that best fit my preferences. Which would be privacy in my situation. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Let¡¯s go for the commercial properties, something with privacy,¡± I said while tapping my finger on the table. ¡°Okay, in that case, these are the remaining options,¡± Claire started filtering the options on the terminal. There were five options left, all similar in that they were separate buildings at a plaza, though two stood out to me. They were larger units that were a distance away from other buildings, being at the corner of the plaza. The road surrounded it on two sides and the parking lot on the other two. Having made my decision, I gave the two each a look and stated, ¡°Let¡¯s go take a closer look at these two. Set up meetings so we can go take a tour.¡±
While I sat at a red light, I watched as the ECPD carried out body bags into a van while some old lady wearing a badge leaned against the car and smoked. It was awkward when the lady made eye contact with me, but thankfully, the light turned green. Fighting the urge to steal a glance back at her, a timely call came in. The display showed the caller ID, Flo. ¡°Hey Rollo, you wanted to talk?¡± ¡°Yeah, I had a job for you guys to do. When do you think you guys are available?¡± ¡°Leo¡¯s been recovering, so we haven¡¯t taken any jobs recently, which means we¡¯re free. What kind of job did you have in mind?¡± ¡°They¡¯re some medical equipment I need, was hoping you could pull off a heist,¡± I said as I watched a group of ruffians, all armed and wearing matching green uniforms, march down the streets like they owned it. ¡°I thought stealing shit was more your thing. You expecting company?¡± ¡°The equipment I want is gonna take up a whole truck. I¡¯d rather not sneak in a forklift.¡± Honestly, I¡¯d rather buy the equipment properly and save myself the trouble, but without a license to operate a clinic, the sales staff was giving me a hard time with how much they were increasing the price. I could¡¯ve gotten a surrogate to buy it, but I didn¡¯t know anyone I trusted enough with the money, and definitely had nothing to do with me wanting to get back at the sales staff. ¡°Hah, I¡¯d love to see that.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be tagging along. Of course, I¡¯ll need you guys to do the heavy lifting. Sending the detail to your SAID now.¡± It only took a minute before Flo replied, ¡°That¡¯s some hardware alright. What do you need this for?¡± ¡°For my clinic. Didn¡¯t I tell you? I¡¯m starting a business.¡± ¡°Oh, is that why Fitel¡¯s been bugging me about when you¡¯re coming off hiatus?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get back to him once everything settles down. Anyway, I got to go. Let me know if your team has any issues with the plan. See you,¡± I said as the car pulled up and I gazed at the building in front of me. ¡°They¡¯ll be good. Catch you later.¡± Exiting the car, I immediately spotted Claire waiting at the door with some woman in a dull grey suit and skirt. ¡°Hey there Mr. Halls,¡± Claire cheerfully said while emphasizing the way she said mister, while winking at me. ¡°Nice to meet you, sir. I am Lea. Please feel free to ask me anything about the property.¡± The lady said while holding the door open and gesturing for me to enter. We slowly toured the entire building. It wasn¡¯t furnished at all, but was quite spacious and had two floors. The place seemed to be set up as more of an open retail space, though, so I would need to have walls built or dividers of some sort. It should have enough space to divide out six rooms and a lobby area on the first floor, and the second floor could be where I lived for now until everything was running smoothly. We finished the tour after I had asked everything I needed regarding the potential work I needed done on the property and the details for the lease. ¡°Sir, we can definitely accommodate your needs. You only need to sign a one-year term lease with us.¡± ¡°I see. I¡¯ll look over the details and get back to you. Thank you for your time,¡± I quickly departed before she had a chance to continue talking. Claire drove with me this time to another location quite a ways away and met up with a young man this time who acted as our guide. The place this time was even larger, though with the caveat, it was only one floor. The price was fairly similar to the previous ones, and it also fulfilled all the requirements I had come up with Claire previously. However, they wanted the lease term to be at least two years. Once we finished the tours, I brought us to a nearby coffee shop of a chain I frequented as I was a fan of their milkshake, or chills, as they called it. ¡°So, what do you think?¡± I asked the girl in front of me while sipping on my drink. ¡°I like the location of the second one more, but the first one seemed to be better space-wise for a clinic. Both could work honestly.¡± Unlike a sweet tooth like me, she was chatting while enjoying a latte. ¡°Sounds about right. Let¡¯s see what Thorne thinks before we finalize the decision.¡± ¡°Sure thing, Mr. Halls, you¡¯re the boss!¡± She said mischievously. I glared at her, she sounded like she really enjoyed calling me Mr. Halls though she used to just call me ¡®boss¡¯, while Thorne was more rigid and wouldn¡¯t stop calling me Sir, not sure which one I preferred, they all made me sound old. ¡°Well, I sure hope you like doing logistics, because you¡¯ll be responsible for all of that after I pick out all the furniture we¡¯ll need.¡± ¡°What!? At least let me participate in the shopping too! That¡¯s the fun part.¡± ¡°I have a feeling our tastes wouldn¡¯t match. I¡¯ll have Thorne shop with me this time.¡± ¡°No way! You guys are going to pick something so boring.¡± ¡°Boring is safe, and safe is good. Go decorate your own room.¡± She stared daggers at me for a moment before replying, ¡°...Maybe after I get my first paycheck, speaking of the first paycheck, that is worthy of commemoration right? I think you should commemorate it with a big bonus!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do after we¡¯re done spending and start earning. For now, let¡¯s head out. Thorne¡¯s still waiting for us.¡± ¡°Right behind you! Mr. Halls!¡± Okay, maybe I should look into some auditory implants. Chapter 17: Sourcing Equipment ¡°How may I help you, sir?¡± asked the well-dressed salesman with Premier Arms¡¯ pin on his collar. ¡°I wanted to browse your handguns that have greater armor-piercing capabilities,¡± I inspected the various models around the shop. ¡°Of course, sir. Please let me show you some options that meet your specifications,¡± The salesperson said with a glint in his eyes. While the man fetched various firearms to show me, I kept an eye on Thorne, who was browsing a distance away at a section for a different arms company. He had asked for an advance on his pay and when confronted; he said he wanted to learn how to fight so he could run security for the company. It seemed he thought himself to be unproductive since he had finished doing an inventory of all the cybernetics at my place within the first few days and had nothing else to do. He was very helpful, according to Claire, in helping her out when she was going over the properties, but he thought otherwise. Of course, I refused to give him the advance as it would set a bad precedent for us and the company in general. Though purchasing equipment for the security of the company was a different story, it was definitely something I could justify as a necessary company expense. ¡°---and this here is the latest model¡­¡± ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll take some time to think it over myself first.¡± The sales attendant tactfully went to help the next customer while I examined the guns. As expected from premier arms, their products consisted mainly of coilguns and railguns. They were a lot more expensive than conventional arms, and the railgun I was looking at had lower durability and staying power. In return, they also had much higher penetration power, which was definitely something nice to have handy, especially after that run-in with the cyborg. Although I wasn¡¯t planning to be fighting any cyborgs often, at least not in a fair fight, I wanted something handy, just in case. Searching online, there were several reviews for all the models that the salesperson had presented to me. I went through them, searching for the best-rated reviews and the worst ones to try to gauge which one would fit me. In the end, I decided on a well-tested model from the Electra Force line, the EF-012 because the newer model¡¯s better-staying power wasn¡¯t worth the cost for a secondary weapon, especially since the battery reloads would be more expensive along with the gun too. The EF-012 could shoot eight rounds before needing to change the magazine, which also included the battery. It was definitely convenient to have it all reloaded together as one. They designed it that way because the railgun required considerably more energy, and considerably more of my funds for the special mags. After an uneventful test fire, I made my way to see what Thorne had been up to. I found him waiting beside the Premier Arms area, carrying a large gun case. He was decked out in rugged clothing and body armor, a combination I normally saw mercenaries wearing. ¡°You sure look like you had a large haul.¡± Thorne could only sheepishly smile, ¡°Thanks to you, sir. I¡¯ve been doing some research online and signed up for a training course. It had a comprehensive list of items I would need.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you are taking it seriously, and I¡¯m sure Claire would love to see you in this getup.¡± He looked a lot more mature. I commanded my optics to take a picture and sent it to the person in question. ¡°Please don¡¯t. She¡¯ll make me model for her in this.¡± ¡°...May be a little too late for that, anyway, wanna go grab something to drink before we head back? I¡¯ve been to this mall before and¡ª¡± I gestured for him to follow and started heading toward the level where the food and drinks were. ¡°No way¡­¡± A voice echoed behind me.
¡°You in yet?¡± I whisper over the call. ¡°Give me another few minutes. This isn¡¯t some off-the-rack security they are running here. Fancy places like these hire actual security specialists to tailor their systems. You¡¯re lucky to even have someone skilled enough to breach through undetected.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, you¡¯re awesome, I get it.¡± ¡°...Unlike regular gun-for-hire mercenaries, hackers require a high level of education and training. There¡¯s a reason why almost all of us are ex-corpos, you know. Ones that could hack into a mall like this one are rare. You should show us a little more appreciation.¡± ¡°Okay, let me know once you¡¯re done, Mr. genius hacker, Leo.¡± I put the call on hold and switched over to another channel, ¡°How are you holding up Thorne?.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine Sir, can¡¯t say I¡¯m not nervous, but rest assured, I¡¯ve trained enough this past week to at least not be a liability.¡± ¡°If this all goes smoothly, you¡¯ll only need to be carrying stuff back and forth, so relax. We¡¯ve also got a lot of professionals here to cover our backs.¡± After checking in with the rest of the team, Leo finally breached the cameras using the connection we established earlier when the mall was still open. I rushed toward the walls and shot a grapple gun to secure a way onto the roof. After a quick climb up, I entered through the roof entrance unchallenged and started making my way to the objective by following the building layout Leo got hold of. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Though the mall was considered the higher end of the middle tier that hosted stores from various corporations, their security was less stringent than I had thought. I assume it wasn¡¯t really worth it for the mall to invest too much into protection, as it was suicide to piss off several corporations at once anyway. This was why we carefully planned our route and only targeted the medical equipment reseller. While they were a medium-sized corporation that had their hands in several different pies, Leo was confident he could cover our tracks well enough for them to give up and just claim insurance instead. Besides, what we took would likely just be chump change to the company. Upon every terminal I came across, I opened up a connection to Leo so he could do the heavy lifting, gaining control of the cameras to spot any patrols and loop the feed that was being sent back to the security room. With the security cameras on our side, I easily avoided patrols entirely or had ample time to find places to hide. Repeating the same process, I eventually gained access to the medical equipment store and found their security terminal. It took only a few minutes before Leo disabled all the in-store security measures, and we then called the rest of the team in. While I waited, I browsed around the storage room, examining the collection of medical equipment and supplies of various brands. It was a pity that we couldn¡¯t take too much. If their entire store got hit, the entire corporation would surely respond while a few missing items could go under the radar, as it could be embezzlement or inventory error. The team soon arrived. I pointed out what to take and everyone got to work. It took three round trips to carry everything we were here for. Fortunately, we didn¡¯t encounter any trouble and packed everything into a truck we parked in the loading area. There was a different type of satisfaction in pulling off a heist quietly, with no hiccups along the way. It felt¡­ professional and badass. After offloading everything onto the first floor of my new and very empty office, we gathered around before disbanding. ¡°I¡¯ll be sending over the promised payment now. Should I send it to each of you individually?¡± They gathered mercenaries exchanged glances for a second before Erza playfully shoved Flo forward. ¡°Look, we owe you with the Leo thing, so we decided to not take any payment for the job this time since we didn¡¯t do much. It¡¯s not enough to pay you back for the risk you took, so we¡¯ll still owe you.¡± ¡°...No, this definitely returned the favor, let¡¯s call it even. I don¡¯t like keeping favors from friends.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s what you want¡­But still, call me if you need anything.¡± Flo patted me and exited the building, followed by Erza, who gave me a quick nod. Liz was the next one who started moving, looking as if she would pass out at any time while Max came to a stop in front of me. ¡°I¡¯ll come by with a few friends once your clinic opens,¡± He winked as he walked by. Leo, the last one to leave, came straight up to me and was about to speak, but seemed to stop himself and chose to leave with the rest of his team instead. With them gone, I looked over at the only other remaining person. ¡°While I¡¯m glad that went smoothly, it seems like there is a lot of work ahead of us.¡± Thorne nodded and alternated looks between the pile of boxed-up equipment we just received and the emptiness of the rest of the future clinic. ¡°Well, let¡¯s deal with it tomorrow. Let¡¯s go get some rest.¡± We made our way up the stairs to where our rooms were. We leased the building with two floors and contracted a construction team to renovate it, but the work hadn¡¯t started yet. I kept the designs simple so the bulk of the work was simply putting up several walls, along with the wiring and plumbing that the new rooms required. At least we got our bedrooms upstairs furnished, as that was our priority. Now that I had some extra cash from the money I set aside to pay Flo¡¯s team, I think it was time for additional investments. I set a reminder to browse through the security options for the building tomorrow as I fell asleep.
Status
Level: 5
EXP: 350/500
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 8
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +4
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
Staring at the tools sprawled out in front of me, I got busy organizing and inspecting the equipment¡¯s conditions. From putting points into cybernetic engineering, I learned how to use related tools. I even knew the entire process of installing cybernetics from start to finish, but that didn¡¯t change the fact I had zero experience doing it. I was honestly nervous about my future first operation, so I took the time in the morning to sort out everything and set up an operating room on the first floor. I really should put a few more points in cybernetics first. Unfortunately, the net in this world didn¡¯t have any useful academic knowledge for me to consult with. It seemed like all the useful knowledge was being kept exclusive or was behind paywalls. ¡°Whatcha doing?¡± An abrupt voice startled me, coming from over my shoulders. ¡°Have you heard of knocking?¡± I glared at the red-haired girl behind me. ¡°I did. You just didn¡¯t answer,¡± She seemed to brush away my glare and brought her face closer to examine the equipment spread around the room. ¡°This stuff seems expensive.¡± ¡°Yeah, which is why I set up a meeting with a representative from Amazing Corp about security installations in the afternoon.¡± ¡°Sounds boring. I¡¯m more interested in all this stuff here, teach me!¡± Claire turned and gave me the classic puppy eyes. ¡°Maybe when we have the time later.¡± ¡°What do you have to do now?¡± ¡°Me and Thorne are going to the range. Wanna join?¡± ¡°Nah, sounds boring. You boys have fun,¡± As swiftly as she had entered, she took her leave. Hmm, maybe I should start teaching her some cybernetics, wouldn¡¯t hurt to have some help But how long would it take to train her with the knowledge in my head¡­ It¡¯s not like she could just download it into her brain like I did. Wait¡­ Some of the high-end model SAIDs had a similar feature. They interfaced with your brain while you slept to promote learning. I should definitely look into it once I have raised my cybernetic engineering levels up some more. Chapter 18: Setting Up Shop Thorne - Rollo Halls Associate ¡°Stay there and watch, don¡¯t do anything unless I say so or you¡¯re spotted.¡± ¡°Yes, sir, I¡¯ll do my best. I think I¡¯m getting the hang of how to stay out of sight.¡± For the past month, he had followed his new employer out during the night to hunt down miscreants of society. He had been taught how to stay away from them his entire life, so it was strange to be searching for them instead. His employer nodded and quickly melded into the shadows of night. If he wasn¡¯t used to looking out for it, he would definitely lose sight of him. Luckily, he knew where he was going, so it was much easier to keep track of his boss. With practiced ease, he watched his boss slip a tracker onto the target¡¯s vehicle and return to his location in a dark alley. They then both monitored the car with the help of the night vision mode on their optics. Thankfully, his new employer offered him a set of optics and SAID and allowed him to pay it back in installments deducted from his pay. The norm was for companies to force employees to use their standard cybernetics that they retained ownership of. If you left the job, they would recover them whether you agreed or not. You wouldn¡¯t even be able to get away with them as the company cybernetics had software that monitored their employees 24/7 that obviously came with trackers. After a few more minutes, the criminals they were tracking returned to their car, carrying a person over their shoulder. They tossed an unconscious girl into the back where several other victims lay and started their car up. The two gave chase in a car of their own, following them from a distance. Even though it wasn¡¯t their first time doing this, Thorne couldn¡¯t help but feel excited. It was every kid¡¯s dream to be a superhero who lurked in the dark and preyed on the villains. That was until he learned how that only worked in fiction, and in reality, the best way to survive was to live with your head down and avoid drawing any attention. His family had done just that, but his mom had still ended up with a sad ending. That was why his new goal was to attain strength. He needed it to protect himself and his friends. He planned to never let what happened to his mom be repeated ever again. ¡°Thorne, you there?¡± ¡°Yes sir, sorry, I spaced out.¡± ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re okay? You don¡¯t have to come with me if you¡¯re tired.¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine, sir. Let¡¯s finish this before the sun rises or Claire is going to talk our ears off again.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ you have a point. It looks like we found one of the bigger hideouts this time too. Let¡¯s hurry. Same old rules, follow my lead.¡± The car we had been tracking had stopped in the back alley of some desolate stores. They parked their ride a distance away and approached the tracker. The duo spotted their targets, two men carrying the bodies, one at a time, down into the basement of the building. Making sure he kept up with his employer, Mr. Halls, they made their way behind the car. Then he received a text. *We¡¯ll each take one down the next time they come back* Not long after, the door squeaked open and the two figures returned to the car. As they were pulling out another victim from the back, he struck out with his combat knife, slitting the man¡¯s throat as he had another hand over his mouth, like he had trained to do. He held the man, preventing his body from dropping, and gently laid it on the ground. Once he was done, he saw Mr. Halls standing above the other body. He came over and plunged his combat knife into the back of the head of his kill. He didn¡¯t question it as it wasn¡¯t the first time it happened and his employer didn¡¯t seem to want to talk about it. He had thought Rollo didn¡¯t trust he had done a proper job at first, but he kept reassuring him, so he decided to just stop overthinking it. The two then entered the basement where the two men came from. The entire time he was focused on Mr. Hall''s movement as he had picked up a few things from it, but he was still far away from being about to move so quietly with such agility. They soon spotted a room where they kept their victims, a small holding cell, a few tables where they could strap victims onto, various cybernetic parts lying sprawled across the room, and some clear containers that had various organs in them. So these guys were a bunch of harvesters, sickos who stole people¡¯s chrome and organs and resold them. He gripped his weapon tighter, secretly thankful that he hadn¡¯t been kidnapped by these people instead of the research corp. At the far end of the room, a bright white light shined on a table. Through the curtains, they could make out the silhouette of someone standing by the table holding various sharp tools. ¡°AHHHHH STOP!¡± A voice yelled out from the table, followed by laughter tinted with insanity. Thorne aimed his silenced pistol at the laughing man when a hand was placed on his shoulder. He turned to see Mr. Halls giving him a look and soon found another incoming text. *Calm down, gather information about our surroundings first. We¡¯ll take that guy out all right, but we need to play it smart.* Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Taking a deep breath, he nodded back and followed. There was an open door behind the gruesome scene happening. There was a room with several couches, each with a person resting on it. From their glowing irises, it was obvious they were focused on what was displayed in their optics. There was a set of stairs from that room that led up as well, but it was locked with heavy chains. Having scouted out the entire place, they meticulously ended the lives of all the preoccupied harvesters. They then made their way back to the other room, where he let out all of his frustrations at the man who had still been operating on the poor man on the table. While he had dealt with the last disgusting harvester, Mr. Halls adeptly operated on the victim. He rummaged through the room and found some prosthetic organs and limbs that he used to put the man back together. It took over half an hour; Thorne used the time to check in on the other victims who were still alive and packed away all the ill-gotten chrome the harvesters had. By the time the two finished up in that basement and ensured all the victims would be okay, the darkness of the night sky started to brighten.
Status
Level: 8
EXP: 40/800
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 9
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 4
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
¡°Seriously, you two, do you always have to go out until morning?¡± ¡°But Claire, we had to¡­¡± Checking out my progress from last night, I ate my first meal of the day while Claire was giving us an earful. Well, more like giving Thorne an earful, so I let him handle it. I was busy studying my status sheet, where I recently found my endurance had gone up by one. I didn¡¯t install any new augments or anything but it went up. I hadn''t had the chance to go on any gigs as I had to focus on supervising the clinic while renovations were done. There were expensive cybernetics and equipment lying around, after all. That left only nighttime to do some community cleanup, which Thorne had started tagging along. Not sure if I was lucky or not, but the area around my clinic had quite a few harvesters. Maybe that was why they were eager to lease this place out, even if it was only for a one-year contract. Maybe all the exercise from all the outings was what increased my endurance. If it was, it was a lot slower than simply installing a new cybernetic instead. Anyway, it was convenient that I was able to find a few wrongdoers every night, and that has helped me make good progress on leveling up. Now that I had four upgrade points available, I wasn¡¯t sure what to upgrade with them. Of course, I could invest them all into cybernetic engineering, but that may draw unwanted attention if someone who had no prior record of studying the field was able to suddenly create sophisticated implants. Maybe I was paranoid, but I¡¯m sure someone would find out eventually just from the cybernetics I would be installing from my handiwork. Each time I upgraded it, I learned a little more about how to configure it to help it fit more seamlessly with the intended user. However, I was starting to feel the diminishing return. Another thing that stopped me from upgrading cybernetic engineering was because of the allure of spending the points elsewhere. Having learned more about cybernetics, I realized it would require putting some upgrade points into software engineering in order to design and create the software for the new cybernetics for it to function the way I wanted it to. I also had to spend points on stealth technology itself as well. With leveling up being harder and harder each level, I didn¡¯t need to dump everything into cybernetics engineering when I didn¡¯t have the use for it right now, which was why I have been holding out on the upgrade points. Maybe I should see how it went with my clinic first and do more market research on the type of cybernetic I wanted to create. The upgrade points didn¡¯t expire, so there was no need to make a decision right away. ¡°--oss, hey boss, you hear me?¡± Glancing over, I found both Claire and Thorne staring at me. ¡°Sorry, what¡¯s up?¡± ¡°The foreman said they¡¯ll be done by tonight. Is it okay if I have the furniture delivered tomorrow morning?¡± Finish by tonight? That is pretty fast by my old world¡¯s standard. Thank you, whatever technology that sped it up. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll try to have all the medical equipment set up before then so we can move the new stuff around freely.¡± ¡°...Are you sure you¡¯re going to be awake tomorrow morning? You¡¯re not going off all night again, are you?¡± Claire wore a scowl on her face and alternated looking between me and Thorne. ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t plan to tonight. Let¡¯s have the clinic open tomorrow. It¡¯s time to get the revenue to start rolling in. Actually, let¡¯s all go out for drinks tonight.¡± Sensing Claire staring daggers at me, I quickly added, ¡°We¡¯re going to Haven to start marketing to our potential clients!¡±
Haven Sitting at a table out in the main lobby, I had Thorne and Claire beside me while on the couch were Max, Liz, Leo, and Lana. ¡°So you¡¯re finally opening soon, eh? Flo and Erza couldn¡¯t make it tonight, but I¡¯ll get the word out to them and a few other acquaintances.¡± The brown-haired man said across from me while embracing his large rifle as usual. ¡°Hmph, I guess I could try reaching out to my acquaintances as well, but I doubt they will check out some unlicensed back alley clinic.¡± Said the girl, who was holding onto Leo¡¯s arm. ¡°Hey, come on, don¡¯t be like that. Sorry, Rollo, she may have worded her words badly but our circle comprises mostly ex-corpo like us, so they aren¡¯t exactly anti-corpo and would rather go to official clinics,¡± Leo helpfully elaborated. From what I heard, most hackers and their ilk were ex-corpos who were out on their luck but were looking to get hired again by another corporation while showing off their skills. ¡°No worries, just spread the word if you can, no need to force it,¡± Leo nodded in response. I looked over at Liz, whose eyes never stopped having the distinct glow of watching something through her optics. She leaned back lazily into the couch while she continued to grab the snacks off the table. Yeah, I¡¯ll leave her alone. We then drank and made merry. My two employees familiarized themselves with the rest of the group. They brought us around to some other groups they had known and overall; it was a fun night. Hopefully, I will see some familiar faces tomorrow as customers on my first day. Chapter 19: The Clinic ¡°Wake up!¡± I opened my eyes to the words everyone definitely wanted to hear first thing in the morning. I don¡¯t think I could ever be a morning riser. Especially when I stayed up late the previous night, setting up the various rooms with the proper equipment and surgical tables. Hounded by Claire, who dragged me downstairs for breakfast, I was then forced to help her direct the delivery of the new furniture along with Thorne, who looked far more energetic than me. Good thing we already knew where to place the larger pieces as they were made to order. The only pieces of furniture we had to move around were mostly armchairs and small sofas for the lobby and the break room. By the time we finished furnishing the place, it was well past lunchtime. Seeing how we planned to start business hours at 3:00 PM today, we ordered delivery and splurged a little to celebrate. While we waited, we paced around the first floor, making sure everything was in order. It was frankly cute to see how they were so nervous, considering this was my company, and not theirs. When the time came, we didn¡¯t do anything special. As an unlicensed clinic, I would not have any signs outside or grand opening florals. That was why we had instead focused on word-of-mouth marketing, spreading the word amongst mercenaries. Returning to the operating room one, I closed my eyes and started reviewing steps on how to go about a few common procedures. I don¡¯t think any other cybernetic professional had experienced what I was feeling right now, having all the knowledge of what to do in my head but having absolutely zero hands-on experience. Once I had my fill of practice, I made my way to where Thorne was. He was in the security room where he monitored all the cameras we had monitoring the inside and outside of the building, and the controls to the turrets I had installed all over the premises. They were surprisingly cheaper than what I had expected and had a pretty advanced targeting system. It could identify threats and retaliate automatically against hostile actions that included pointing guns at people who were in its system. Though as a programmed system, it wasn¡¯t perfect, so they recommended having someone manning the controls. Tapping my security card, I entered the cool room filled with screens, ¡°Everything all right in here?¡± ¡°Yes, Sir¡ª Rollo.¡± I smirked at him as he fumbled his words; I had been trying to get him to be more casual with me, but he always reverted to sir, especially when we were in the heat of it. Looking at the screen, I watched the cameras pointed outside toward the parking lot and the one showing the lobby. I could see Claire sitting at the reception counter behind a glass panel. It didn¡¯t have to be said it was bulletproof because it was actually harder to find non-bulletproof glass in this city, apparently. What a world I lived in¡­ ¡°So, how¡¯s it going with your training classes?¡± ¡°...A lot of the same drills over and over again, but I¡¯m hanging on, can¡¯t complain when I¡¯m only there in the mornings a few times a week.¡± ¡°Well, keep it up¡­Were you planning on moving out like Claire as well?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I think¡ªThere¡¯s someone approaching, sir.¡± The screen displayed three guys walking toward the front of the building. Once they got closer, it wasn¡¯t hard for both of us to recognize one of the people on screen, especially when he carried his signature sniper rifle. I buzzed them in through the front door and made my way out to greet them. As I came upon a corner of the hallway, I noted the turret mounted on the ceiling jerking around, tracking its targets. Hmm¡­ I should definitely tune up on the settings. It wasn¡¯t very welcoming, to say the least¡­ Going down the hallway, I found the three men standing in front of Claire¡¯s counter. ¡°---seeing you again.¡± ¡°Yeah, you too, and look at who we have here. If it isn¡¯t Dr. Halls!¡± The man said with a wide grin as he turned in my direction. ¡°Hey, thank you for showing up. You can call me Rollo. Are these your friends here?¡± I glanced over at the two men beside Max. Now that I got a closer look, I could see that their arms were all prosthetics from the sliver of exposed alloys between their gloves and sleeves. ¡°That¡¯s Rick and Will. They¡¯re my buddies back from when we fought down in Texas.¡± The two nodded at me and eyed me up before one of them spoke up, ¡°You the Chrome Doc we can trust?¡± ¡°I respect all my clients¡¯ privacy. If that doesn¡¯t assure you, I was hoping you could give me a chance to earn your trust. I wouldn¡¯t want to let down Max or any of his friends.¡± ¡°Okay, that¡¯s what we¡¯re here for. We¡¯re looking to get a checkup that¡¯s been long overdue. We don¡¯t trust any of the corpo scums this island is infested with and we haven¡¯t had a chance to go back to NNA for a while now.¡± ¡°Sounds good. Follow me, let¡¯s see what we can do for you.¡± I led them into the closest room and prepared for the check-up. This will be a good warmup.
¡°Your synaptic nerve connectors are ancient and require a replacement. That¡¯s why you¡¯re feeling the disconnect with your arm. Other than that, the internal of the arm just needs some cleaning done. Though, you can get a much better-performing model at a decent price range nowadays. If you want, I can¡ª¡± I explained as I brought the terminal over to him to illustrate what I was talking about. ¡°No thank you, Doc. I¡¯m used to this old arm and will stick with it until it breaks. Just fix what you can within my budget of two thousand credits.¡± ¡°Understood. The nerve connectors are common enough, it is well within your budget.¡± I pushed the terminal off to the side and went to grab the parts. His arm was still disassembled on the table beside me, and I got to work on it. Working on the cyberarm was the easy part, the hard part was to replace the connectors that were still attached to his nerves. ¡°Here, I¡¯ll need you to take a whiff of this. It¡¯ll put you to sleep for a bit so it doesn¡¯t hurt while I work on the nerve connectors.¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Once he was out cold, the surgeon suite brought me the various screwdrivers and scalpels I needed to open up the port that connected his cybernetic bits with his organic ones. This is a little nerve-wracking knowing that a mistake could damage the nerves in his shoulders permanently. The price to have that regrown was not cheap, to say the least¡­ I successfully steadied my hands throughout the procedure and completed the operation. My patient woke up after half an hour as the dosage given to him wasn¡¯t too high to begin with. ¡°How are you feeling? Ready to do some calibrations?¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯ve been worse. Got to say, my entire shoulders feel a lot lighter already. My hand feels as responsive as my real one!¡± ¡°Happy to hear that.¡± Max and his friends soon left once I finished some fine-tuning. We didn¡¯t have another client until the sun had set. We never expected any significant traffic. Having just started out, making a few hundred credits for checkups was pretty cool, though I was looking forward to installing actual cybernetics. The checkup only consisted of adjusting the fit, diagnostics, and renewing lubrication. When it was completely dark out, Thorne sent me a quick text that someone I knew had come, so I once again ventured out to the lobby. Turning the corner, this time, I spotted two women, one with familiar light blue hair while the other had short brown hair. ¡°Hey Liz, thank you for coming,¡± She turned towards me and lethargically raised a hand. She simply continued to stare at me blankly, so I turned to her friend. ¡°And this here is?¡± ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Serene, I¡¯m Liz¡¯s guildie,¡± The girl with short brown hair jumped forward to explain. I don¡¯t believe they were mercenary guilds or anything here. Was she talking about games? ¡°Nice to meet you. What can we do you for today?¡± ¡°Umm, I was thinking about upgrading my right arm,¡± She gestured toward her organic hand. ¡°We can go over some options, follow me,¡± I said as I watched Liz make herself comfortable on a chair in the lobby. Leading Serene to an open room, I let her browse the terminal that listed the different options she had as I proceeded with a checkup on her to prepare for the installation. She eventually finalized her decision, though frankly, my catalog wasn¡¯t that extensive. This was it. I really was going to perform an operation today. Once the checkup was complete and everything was ready, I put Serene to sleep and began. As this was her first cyberarm, there was the extra procedure to remove the original and install the nodes where it would connect with the nerves. The cybernetic engineering knowledge I received from the system had detailed information on how to go about the entire procedure. It even included how to account for compatibility when designing any cybernetics, as it was the core focus. I isolated the knowledge I didn¡¯t need at the moment and focused on the surgery. With the blood flow to the arm halted, I removed the arm with various tools such as a scalpel, a surgical scissor, and a bone saw. The part I was most nervous about was the connection afterward, between cybernetics and the human body, as it was the most delicate part. While everything proceeded smoothly, I had to slow down as I was performing the installation for the first time. I definitely did not have the muscle memory to do it efficiently. It felt like I was writing really slowly in order to keep my letters neat and legible. After over an hour, I finally finished slotting in the arm and completed the installation. Plugging a cable into the arm, I let the computer take care of the real-time diagnostics. I left the room as the last step would require the patient to be awake. I found Liz in the same chair with glowing eyes. ¡°Hey, your friend should be up in another half hour. You wanted anything?¡± She looked up at me briefly before going back to whatever was on her optics immediately, ¡°...I¡¯m good.¡± Seeing how she didn¡¯t want to talk further, I shrugged and turned back and caught the sight of Claire smirking at me, ¡°Got turned down too, huh?¡± Opting to ignore her, I returned to my patient and prepared for the testing and calibrations.
Throughout the past week, various acquaintances visited, as well as some new clients. Hopefully, that meant word about my clinic was spreading around. Every cybernetic installation was a huge sale for me as I didn¡¯t have to pay the cost of my inventory. It was all either from the initial gang where I found Sarah and Caleb, or looted from the local harvesters. Though that meant the cybernetics weren¡¯t brand new, from a technical standpoint, it had no difference as long as I re-calibrated it, replaced the connection nodes, and customized it to increase the affinity with the user. With a routine settling in, I decided to reach out to the Quest Giver that I had been neglecting. ¡°Hey Fitel, it¡¯s been a while. How¡¯s it going?¡± I immediately said as soon as the call connected. ¡°...Mr. Halls, I was starting to think I would not hear back from you. I take it by you calling me, it means you are ready for some work again,¡± With a slight pause, Fitel responded at his usual measured pace. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m looking for work that will give me info on harvesters, gangs, whatever criminals.¡± ¡°Yes¡­that can be arranged. May I also offer you other work in other areas? In return, I will provide information on what you want from my network?¡± ¡°Sure, and also, could you maybe recommend my clinic if anyone is looking?¡± ¡°...I will consider it after looking into it. Anything else?¡± ¡°No, thank you.¡± ¡°Good day to you then. You will receive the information for the job soon.¡± Moments after the call disconnected, I received the mission dossier swiftly, as usual. It was a gig about taking out one of the hideouts of a small gang, and quietly at that to send a ¡®message¡¯ to the targets on behalf of the client. This was something I could do, but would be difficult if I wanted to bring Thorne along. He wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with me, at least not quietly. And I doubt he would agree to be left behind. Well, thankfully, there wasn¡¯t a pressing timeline. There was something I wanted to test out as well¡­ ¡°Status.¡±
Status
Level: 8
EXP: 260/800
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 9
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 4
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
Since the clinic had been operational for a while, I felt I didn¡¯t need to spend any more points on cybernetic engineering at the moment. But now, I had an idea of what to spend the points on. I hadn¡¯t been able to focus on leveling this past while but I¡¯m sure with the jobs and information from Fitel, the pace should start picking up again. Access the web through my SAID, I could see if the items I needed were available. I made my way to an empty room on the second floor of my clinic. Hmm¡­ This seems like it will work. It definitely will be an excellent learning experience, regardless of the ultimate results. Chapter 20: Testing First thing in the morning, I ventured to an electronic store I found online with positive reviews. There was an entire street dedicated to electronics with only pedestrian access, and it was crowded even this early in the day. Disembarking from the car, I watched it drive off to auto park itself in a nearby parking lot. Taking in the crowd of people, I couldn¡¯t help but note the cybernetics people had, as it was my current field of work. I slid past the crowd while following the GPS. I soon arrived at my destination: a large electronic store that spanned 10 floors of an entire building. I made my way to the floor for the components that were on my shopping list and marked down everything I wanted to buy. I would then submit the list when I left to checkout and they would prepare the products for me. The last item I wanted to buy was on the top floor of the store where there were much fewer people. The entire floor was enormous and felt a little empty compared to the other levels. There were even more staff than customers on this floor. With the signs clearly labeled, I made my way to the section I was looking for and saw rows of metal boxes that ranged from the size of a microwave to the size of a bedroom. I compared the description information of the first few that caught my eye. I started getting a little lost, as there were many specifications and technical jargon that made no sense to me. ¡°Hello, sir. How may I help you today?¡± I looked up to see a young woman walking up to me with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m looking for a 3D printer for some personal tinkering. Can you go over some models and their differences?¡± ¡°Why definitely, please follow me to the demo terminal.¡± The woman walked with an exaggerated sway at the hips while she brought me toward a corner of the floor where a large terminal lay. With a few commands from the woman, a hologram shot out from the terminal and displayed a particular model of the boxy printers, similar to the ones I just examined. A few different models soon popped up beside the first one, then each one began printing a similar figurine. There was a featureless person operating each printer, showcasing how it was operated, and also served as a benchmark to determine the sizes of each machine. ¡°Sir, I have these models here suitable for beginners and experienced people alike and have the versatility to print with most materials. These should satisfy most personal workshops unless you have something specific in mind.¡± ¡°I¡¯m mainly looking to work with electronic parts and apparel.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­.¡± The woman took a moment to go through the terminal in front of her, ¡°I do have a few that specialize in those areas, but do note that complex and sophisticated electronic parts like CPUs cannot be printed unless you use a specialized industrial model we do not carry here.¡± The previous models disappeared and were replaced with new models that were a few sizes larger. ¡°That¡¯s fine. Explain to me the differences between these models you have here.¡± ¡°Of course, all the models here have various systems that allow for electroforming, chemical etching, electrochemical machining, and laser cutting, on top of all the usual features of a standard 3D printer. You should be able to work on the vast majority of electronic parts and apparel you requested. The main difference between these models from the previous ones would be the speed of printing, build volume, and resolution. Please feel free to filter the options on the terminal as you please.¡± Taking a closer look at the hologram that projected each model along with their specifications, I saw that the prices and sizes of the printers varied quite a bit. I filtered the size to the smallest possible but was still efficient at printing human-sized apparel. This was the approximate size I needed, working with cybernetics and equipment. Any larger would be mostly overkill, and I didn¡¯t have too much cash remaining since I invested it all into the clinic. I decided on one that cost just over 10,000 credits and finalized the order before returning to the clinic to set it up while I had time before the clinic opened in the afternoon.
¡°I got all the cameras set up around the perimeter. How¡¯s it looking on your end?¡± ¡°All clear, Sir.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s rendezvous by the car.¡± Since he was all the way on the roof, I made it to our meeting spot first, allowing me to watch as Thorne approached with unnaturally quiet steps. ¡°How is it? Everyone working fine?¡± ¡°Yes, it feels fine. I tried jumping and running while I waited too and it still worked.¡± ¡°Okay, but if anything goes wrong, I want you to sit out and just stay out of sight.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Understood.¡± After confirming that there wasn¡¯t anything unexpected on the cameras, we made our way to a back alley. We headed straight for the door between two dumpsters. There was a camera looking down from right above the door, though I had already breached it earlier when I was setting up surveillance to keep a lookout for any unexpected guests. The door had similarly outdated security, which meant we easily bypassed it as well. The lights were still on inside, giving us to clear view of the kitchen area that the backdoor had led us into. No one was inside, so we made our way through toward the dining area. In the dining area, we spotted a man and a woman sitting in the bar seats. They both had their eyes glued to the screen on the wall while they enjoyed a drink. My optics zoomed in on their neck and identified the distinct tattoo of a spider that was the same as the one in the dossier I received from Fitel. Noticing a third drink on the seat beside them, we waited a little longer and soon spotted three people coming out from the corridor adjacent to us. ¡°Only managed to convince these two shitheads to join us, so who¡¯s dealing?¡± The two seated people got up and followed the others to a larger table. The women then whipped out a deck of cards and started dealing. I looked over to Thorne and whispered, ¡°We¡¯re dashing behind the bar to where those new guys came from. Match my timing. We¡¯re going when they have their attention on their cards when the round starts.¡± Thorne nodded back in acknowledgment, and we waited patiently for the gangsters to start their game. Once the cards were dealt, we silently opened the door and dove behind the bar. The corridor we were aiming for was on the other side of the bar, so we ducked behind the counter and smoothly made our way to the other end. Before we dove out, we waited for the next round before we dashed out from behind the counter, down the corridor. We passed by the washrooms and storage room until we found a door that led to the basement cellar. We made our way down to find an open area set up like a communal living room and an open kitchen. There was no one in sight, so we confidently strode down the hallway that led further in. Silently entering the first room, we found a bunk bed with a lump visible on each bed. Exchanging nods with Thorne, we each headed toward a target with me going for the upper bunk. With our targets fast asleep, we effortlessly disposed of them. On my way back down, I plunge my knife into Thorne¡¯s prey as well to get the extra experience points.
+10 EXP +10 EXP
Thankfully, he stopped asking about my strange behavior after the first few weeks we worked together. After the first room, we continued clearing out the entire hideout, but with Thorne holding the hallway in case someone left their rooms or the people upstairs came back down. In one room, a bright lamp was on with a man sitting by the desk, cleaning what seemed to be a disassembled gun. He was completely focused on his work, allowing me to sneak behind him.
+10 EXP
Just as I was exiting the room, I heard metal clanging, followed by a soft hiss from the hallway. Rushing out, I spotted Thorne staring down at a body with his gun aimed at it, and his knife on the ground. ¡°Sorry, Sir, the guy reacted better than I thought and caught me off guard. I had to shoot him.¡± Thorne glanced downward and retrieved his knife. His pistol wasn¡¯t a coilgun like mine. It was a more economical traditional firearm with a clunky suppressor, and even then it was louder than my Suri, but still enough to remain quiet in an enclosed space. ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it. Treat it as a learning experience.¡± I continued going from room to room, and soon we managed to clear the entire basement. This time we left all the valuables and cybernetics intact as requested to send the message they were targeted. In the living room area, we brought out a can of spray paint and drew a symbol the client requested onto the wall. ¡°I think we¡¯re all done here, and I don¡¯t think we forgot anything. Just have to go up and finish off the last stragglers, right?¡± Thorne said, as he cleaned up. ¡°No, we lure them down here first. The client is looking to take this bar back, so we don¡¯t want to risk damaging anything.¡± ¡°...With all due respect, sir. What a pain in the ass.¡± He had a point. It would be much simpler to just sneak up and shoot them. What could even lure them all over? ¡°...You take this opportunity to try luring them over. I¡¯ll wait behind them upstairs to prevent any from getting away.¡± What a great opportunity we have here for Thorne to gain some experience! Definitely not because I can¡¯t come up with any good ideas. I snuck my way back upstairs and took shelter in the washroom. I waited for a few minutes before I heard a door slamming open, followed by the sound of something dropping down the stairs. With my ear against the door, I soon heard a set of footsteps coming from the bar that walked past the washroom toward the basement. ¡°You okay?¡± A female voice yelled out, ¡°Bloody hell, hey you boys, one of you come give me a hand, this idiot fell down the stairs.¡± Another set of footsteps approached and passed me again, so I informed Thorne of the situation. *Just two are headed your way* Within a minute he responded, *They¡¯re taken care of. Are the other three budging?* I took a peek out of the restroom door and listened intently. ¡°Let¡¯s call it a night, boys. They¡¯re taking their sweet time, so let¡¯s go see what¡¯s going on.¡± *Yeah, they¡¯re coming. I¡¯ll follow them down.* Once I counted three sets of footsteps that went by me, I softly opened the door and followed behind the trio. Just as they were starting to get confused at the top of the stairs, as they looked down at the three sprawled bodies below, I lifted my feet and stomped as hard as I could onto the back of the person in front of me. The man instantly tumbled down the stairs, bringing the other two with him. Before they could recover, Thorne came into view and finished them off. Once he was done, he made his way up and I grimaced at the creaking noises as he ran up the stairs. I guess the boots aren¡¯t perfect yet, after all. ¡°Okay, good job. You can write the review for the shoes tomorrow, after some rest.¡± Chapter 21: A Day Out One day, when the clinic had just opened, I tinkered around in my new workshop while there weren¡¯t any clients yet. I placed a pair of boots on the workbench and disassembled them for maintenance. There was barely any wear and tear, which was good news, but they weren¡¯t flexible enough yet. I needed to expand the programming so that it could account for the change in different surfaces and conditions. My current skills in software engineering were barely enough to do more than ensure its ongoing functionality and the on/off button. The boots currently could allow users to move noiselessly most of the time, but had issues with obstacles like glass shards. There were superior models on the market that performed better, but nothing too advanced. The top-of-the-line stuff or tech that shared similar working principles with, was kept off the market because it was what corporate operators used. They implemented various reverse engineering countermeasures to strictly guard them against their rival corporations. I¡¯m sure the world of corporate espionage was going full throttle in this world, fueling an R&D war between stealth and detection tools, just like with offensive and defensive armaments. Once I finished examining the boots, I had my SAID put a call through. ¡°Hey Thorne, how did it go this morning with testing the boots?¡± ¡°It no longer feels like the shoes were clamping onto the ground and definitely more natural, but I still can¡¯t tell what type of surface I¡¯m stepping on from feeling alone. I¡¯ll send you the detailed review form once I finish it.¡± There was a limit to how much I could enhance my work with my current knowledge, as I had to rely on trial and error.
Status
Level: 9
EXP: 60/900
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 9
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
  • Stealth Technology +3
  • Software Engineering +1
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
Previously, I had gotten started and upgraded Stealth Technology and Software Engineering. With only a few points invested, I couldn¡¯t produce anything amazing yet, but it was a start. Now that I have more points, I should be able to comprehensively improve my old work and open up new options. There are a few things that aren¡¯t available on the market that I may start developing. I spent the points and took a moment to sort out the new knowledge that rushed into my head.
Status
Level: 9
EXP: 60/900
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 9
Sensory Perception: 37
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
  • Stealth Technology +4
  • Software Engineering +2
Enhancements: A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
With the new information dumped into my brain, the way I looked at my earlier creation instantly changed. Various mistakes and inefficiencies stood out to me. It wasn¡¯t like I suddenly had a better design, but my application of theories and scientific principles was rough and I now knew I could do a lot better. I got to work and started tweaking the boots on hand until the lack of components held me back. I also wanted to start my new project, so I definitely had to go stock up on parts. Adding shopping to my to-do list for tomorrow, I exited the workshop and went to greet the first customer of the day.
The next morning, I left the clinic at the same time as the other two residents. Thorne headed off to training while Claire decided to tag along with me, as she was free. Returning to the same electronic store where I had bought my 3D printer, I quickly found the high-tech components I was looking for and the additional resin for the printer. ¡°Hey boss, can I take a look around before you checkout?¡± Claire said without even turning to me as she was enamored with a small processing chip in front of her. I double-checked I had ordered everything I needed before replying, ¡°Sure, why not? We have some time before lunch anyway.¡± Thankfully, the items were only brought to me once I had paid by the exit, so I didn¡¯t have to lug anything around. We went from floor to floor, browsing through different categories of electronics that ranged from home appliances to niche specialty equipment or even to the gaming terminals that gave me the urge to check out what the gaming community of this world had to offer. It wasn¡¯t like I was struggling as I had been in the early days when I would worry about how to spend every little credit. I could afford to have a hobby now. Maybe when everything could run smoothly without my intervention. My stock of cybernetics was dwindling day by day, as the harvesters seemed to have gone underground, getting ridiculously difficult to find. My initial stash of Nova Tech cybernetics was close to being gone, but I had a plan on how to restock. ¡°I was thinking, boss¡­ I wanted to get a good terminal as well, so I¡¯ve been saving up for one. Did you want one as well?¡± Claire¡¯s voice drew me away from the gaming terminal I had been eyeing, ¡°Hmm¡­Yeah, I might want one to play around with. Why did you want one?¡± ¡°Well¡­Thorne has been working so hard, training in the morning and going out with you at night. I wanted to do something useful as well.¡± ¡°You¡¯re plenty useful already. I need you here to help me hire more people soon too and the HR management that comes along with it, you don¡¯t have to worry about having too much free time soon.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just, I wanted to do more than that. Lana said she would help me get started on learning how to code and stuff.¡± ¡°When did you manage to get so close to Lana?¡± She smirked, ¡°Us girls have our ways of bonding. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Well¡­If she was going to get free lessons from someone who knows what they are doing, then maybe I should encourage it. Unlike in my previous world, knowledge and skills were closely guarded, or behind paywalls. To attain a similar level of expertise to Lana in hacking, I would need to invest quite a few points or pay a sum I couldn¡¯t afford to some educational institution that I probably wouldn¡¯t even trust to begin with. ¡°...I was just looking to play around with a terminal. If you¡¯re serious about learning from Lana, why don¡¯t we buy one to share for now? I don¡¯t plan on using it too much anyway.¡± ¡°Really?!¡± She turned toward me with a sparkle in her eyes. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s call it a company expense.¡± ¡°In that case, let¡¯s go over there. I want one that is more lightweight so I can carry it around with me anywhere I go,¡± She dragged me over without waiting for my response. Carrying it with her wherever she went? Did she not just hear what I said about sharing it¡­?
¡°Come on Doc, can you give me a discount on this? 10k for the arm is way too much.¡± ¡°That Nova Tech model goes for 15,000 credits normally. It is already discounted,¡± I explained. I had been getting more and more new clients, which inevitably came along in a mixed bag. ¡°Yeah, but that¡¯s because this is used or stolen right?¡± ¡°All our cybernetics here are in prime condition, I assure you. If this is too pricy, maybe you can check out these other ones here,¡± I filtered the prices for cyberarms and pushed the terminal over for the client to see. He took a quick glance at it disinterested, ¡°So where do you even stock these models anyway? Some of these are older than me, I think.¡± ¡°No comment, but the prices are justified. You get what you pay for.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to save this list and think it over first then, Doc.¡± ¡°Understood. I look forward to your visit.¡± I walked the man out to the lobby and glanced over at Claire, who was completely zoned into the terminal we had bought the other day. ¡°There¡¯s a client waiting in both rooms two and three.¡± She noted without even looking up. I should start considering hiring more people¡­I¡¯ll need the clinic to go legit first, though. We closed the clinic at the usual time and decided to go out for dinner for once. We haven¡¯t really gone out much during nighttime as we had each been busy with our own matters. Driving through the city at night, I enjoyed the view of the colossal megabuildings, comparing sizes to the smaller buildings surrounding them. The restaurant we went to was at the edge of the island, which had a clear view of the water. Sitting by the patio, I could spot a few ships out in the distance, with their lights on. Elevate City was one of the few free trade zones owing to the joint corporate control plus the space elevator. It was inevitable tons of ships came and went every day. Instead of human servers, the staff that greeted us were robots. They weren¡¯t AI-controlled as it was banned, so they could only speak and perform pre-programmed tasks. For this meal, we splurged a little bit. I wasn¡¯t sure if the food was actually good or if it was a sharp contrast to all the junk I had gotten used to eating, but it was definitely a few steps up. After finishing our meal, we leisurely took in the scenery and watched the musicians perform. ¡°So are you guys planning to go out again tonight too?¡± Claire said as she placed down her cup of tea. ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t have any jobs from my QG, but he did have some information on potential hideouts.¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t get it. Why are you still doing dangerous things like this? You make more than enough in the clinic, and we could source the chrome from somewhere else. Even if we have to pay for it, it would be much safer.¡± Claire frowned while looking at the table while Thorne alternated glances between us and decided to sip on his drink and not get involved. From Claire¡¯s perspective, I guess it hadn¡¯t made any sense to put myself and Thorne in danger so often. I needed to keep doing so to continue leveling up, but that wasn¡¯t something they could even fathom. While I wanted to come clean, the system was a secret I don¡¯t plan on sharing lightly. ¡°Look, I can¡¯t explain or go into detail, but this is something I need to do to continue making progress with myself and the company.¡± ¡°...Fine, do what you want. You¡¯re the boss.¡± Having sensed Claire¡¯s deteriorating mood, Thorne quickly injected, ¡°So what are you planning with the business anyway? I know you¡¯ve been working on something in your workshop. Do you plan to sell those?¡± ¡°Hmm, yeah, I¡¯m still just testing out the tech, but something along those lines. Will have to figure out the profitability, manufacturing, and market viability of it first, though.¡± We moved to more benign topics before we paid and went on our way back home to the clinic. On the way back into the city, this time, it was hard not to notice the stark transition from the more well-off districts to the regular ones. As we drove by, I couldn¡¯t take my eyes off the homeless, gangsters, and lifeless corporate drones that went about their evening. It reinforced to me how important money was and that my desire to get rich wasn¡¯t wrong. However, it highlighted how society in this world was really horrible compared to my old one. An urge to do something about it welled up inside me, but I knew it wasn¡¯t something one person could tackle. This was something that would have to be shelved until the time was right. We pulled up into the parking spaces in front of the clinic. ¡°Hey, boss, sorry about earlier. You don¡¯t have to tell me anything you don¡¯t want to. You have a right to your own secrets. It just somehow made me take it as you not trusting me, but I know that¡¯s not the case, right?¡± Before I could reply, loud engine noises roared from the main road, heading closer and closer rapidly toward us. When I looked over, I saw the figure of someone¡¯s upper body pop up from the car and then a thunderous noise resonated throughout the area as we instinctively took cover behind the car we just exited. The two turrets installed at the front door of our clinic came online and locked onto the threats. Only one managed to get a shot off at the car, as gunfire disabled the other one. It seemed to be a targeted attack, as they knew what they were doing. We heard another car closing in as well, but taking the opportunity while the attackers were occupied with the remaining turret, Thorne and I laid down covering fire while we swiftly shepherded Claire with us into the clinic. Okay, what the fuck, who is attacking us? I don¡¯t remember pissing anyone off. Chapter 22: Attack On Clinic The first thing we did when we went inside the clinic was to head straight for the security control room. From the cameras within, we saw about a dozen masked men outside, all armed and wearing ballistic vests who were trying to enter our building. They were only waiting for their vanguard to finish prying open the front doors with a crowbar. Meanwhile, at the back entrance, there were also two men there, but they didn¡¯t seem to plan to enter the building. We ensured the turrets were ready for them as soon as they entered, while Thorne got geared up. ¡°Thorne, buy some time up front. I¡¯ll go flank them,¡± I said before immediately leaving the room. Instead of rushing straight out, I headed to my workshop and retrieved the body suit I had been working on. I changed into it as fast as I could. By the time I finished dressing, I heard multiple gunshots coming from the lobby. Rushing over to one of the empty operating rooms, I popped open the window, activated my new suit, and climbed out into the parking lot. There wasn¡¯t any cover, but I boldly strode around the building toward the front. I watched as the masked men took cover near the front, engaging Thorne and the turrets inside. In fact, I walked straight by them toward their cars behind them. They were only two SUVs, though each had a driver and a gunner manning a light machine gun on the roof of each vehicle. It was time to test my new creation, so I opted to walk toward them, slightly away from where their guns were pointed, just in case. I couldn¡¯t help but wave at them as I got closer to see if they would notice, and they didn¡¯t react. They were still focused on the building and its surroundings. I looked down at my hands but only spotted it when I really focused on it while it was moving. There were still some kinks to work out as this was still a prototype and was more of a test of the application of some new tech. At least it is good enough right now for them not to notice. It would be really awkward if they saw me¡­ Moving to their blind spots, I pulled out my trusty Suri and examined it. It seemed like it was working properly and the camouflage tech was projected onto it correctly, which meant it was invisible, like the rest of my body. With the two cars right beside me, I lined up the shot at the man through the window and pulled the trigger, rapidly switching to the next targets. The shattered glass drew the attention of the men in front of the clinic. They quickly took cover either behind cars or forcefully pushed into the clinic, where they had a foothold. I started moving over to their flank where I could freely lay fire into several of them, but midway toward my destination, I noticed that the camouflage from my suit began to flicker. Damn it, the battery and the projectors needed some time to cool off. I really should get around to linking the display of its remaining duration to the SAID so it could be displayed on my HUD. I could also add an alert when it was about to turn off. Thankfully, the men in their cover hadn¡¯t spotted me. I had quite some experience sneaking around without the crutch of active camouflage, so I wasn¡¯t too worried. I returned to old habits and quietly moved when I knew their attention was directed elsewhere. The few who had stayed outside were lined up from around the corner of the vehicle I was behind. I drew my other pistol this time, the Electra Force railgun that had much better penetration than the Suri. Though it wasn¡¯t suppressed, there was no need for that this time. Releasing a deep breath, I carefully lined up as many targets as I could and fired the shot.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
The kick I got from the railgun was much stronger than the Suri, and it felt satisfying. The blaring sound of the projectile breaking the sound barrier was almost unbearable. I really needed to get some auditory implants. Of the five that I saw outside, three dropped down from my shot. The other two further away turned their gaze toward me as I finished pulling the trigger a second time.
+10 EXP +10 EXP
With the experience prompts confirming that the threats were neutralized, I took a peek at the camera feeds connected to my optics to see how the situation was. As expected, Thorne was able to hold them off inside with the help of our defensive emplacements. The enemies weren¡¯t able to push in without heavy weapons to deal with the turrets. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. With the last of them trapped like a fish in a barrel, I notified Thorne that I was in position. I watched as he pulled the pin to a grenade and lobbed it over towards the entrance where the men were pinned down. I propped my gun on top of a car by the entrance and watched as the masked men tried to retreat away from the grenade, straight towards my line of fire.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
After three new experience prompts, the grenade exploded. The camera feed confirmed they were all out of commission. I checked in on the two who were posted out back and found that they were gone already. The suit had recharged by now with the integral parts having cooled down, so I swept the area in search of the two stragglers. They seemed to have escaped, so I gave up as I didn¡¯t have any clues to search with. Instead, there was a whole mess waiting for me to clean up now¡­just great¡­ Whoever these guys were, they are so on my list.
The ECPD ended up showing up, but only took brief statements and collected the bodies for ¡®evidence¡¯. The unfortunate thing was that as an unlicensed business, I didn¡¯t have insurance, so all the damages I had to pay out of pocket. The loot from our attackers that we secured before the police arrived had covered it, though, especially from the two cars they left. Though the police had claimed a part of the loot, it was overall nice that losses were minimal. One thing I learned from this incident was how fast the construction industry in Elevate City worked. When we called for someone to repair the clinic, they sent someone over to inspect the damage, and the next morning; they had everything repaired within a few hours. Now I couldn¡¯t say all the constant violence throughout the city had no benefit. It certainly gave the construction industry plenty of practice. The help of nanomachines may have played a vital part, but nevertheless, the speed at which the walls and doors were repaired and replaced with the exact same look was quite something to behold. Once everything settled down the next day, I sent the command to my SAID to place a call. ¡°Mr. Halls, are you calling about the unfortunate attack on your clinic?¡± The man on the other side of the call spoke in a rhythmic tone. ¡°You¡¯re already informed, I see. Yes, I wanted to hire you to learn more about the attackers.¡± I¡¯m glad he already knew what I wanted before I said anything. A well-informed person was exactly who I needed right now. ¡°While I would be happy to oblige, the jurisdiction of your clinic lies with the QG for District 10. It would be better for you to reach out to her. The attackers are likely from around the area as well, based on what I know.¡± ¡°...Okay, send me the contact info.¡± I knew each quest giver had their own jurisdiction. They may be a good chance to connect with someone new, especially since they definitely had some influence with the mercenaries in my district. ¡°Very well, now if that is all, I will contact you again once I have a job or the information you seek. Best of luck with your endeavors now.¡± The contact was sent a short moment after the call ended and I immediately had my SAID dial it. ¡°Hello, who is this?¡± A plain-sounding woman answered. ¡°Hi, is this Oli? Fitel gave me your contact. I have a job that you may be able to help me with,¡± I said as I made my way to the lobby to pick up the food I had ordered. ¡°Meet me in Haven in 30 minutes, booth #2.¡± The call hung up before I could say anything else. I looked at the food in my hands and scarfed it down. Coming to Haven in the late morning was a first for me. The main area felt empty compared to usual, while the rooms at the edge of the place had their glass windows tinted or only displayed vague silhouettes. I made my way to booth number two as directed and found a buff cyborg at the door. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m here to see Oli,¡± He stared at me for a second before he gestured with his head for me to proceed in. Once inside, I spotted a middle-aged lady seated casually on the couch, with an elbow on the shoulder of a well-built man. Upon a closer look, my experience with cybernetics told me he was definitely as much of a cyborg as the guy at the door, though he had some quality synth skin to cover it all up. ¡°Rollo Halls, from the new chrome shop. I can¡¯t say I¡¯m a fan of that corpo wannabe QG you associate with. You should¡¯ve reached out to me sooner instead. Is this about the recent attack?¡± She said before she reached out for the drink in front of her. ¡°Yes, can you help me look into the attackers?¡± ¡°Of course, as long as you have the credits. I already have preliminary profiles for a few of the people that were on the scene. I¡¯ll need a day or two to dig into the others and uncover the details.¡± ¡°Okay, please do so. I¡¯ll take what info you have right now as well.¡± A quick transaction of credits and information took place through our implants, ¡°I¡¯ll contact you once I learn more. You¡¯re also available to do jobs for me right?¡± I nodded. ¡°Great, talk to you soon.¡± Taking the hint, I took my leave and returned to the clinic as we were due to open soon. I browsed through the info she sent me on the drive back. She had profiles for three of the people I had shot, all with various petty and violent crimes. Only one had a more complete profile, Mark ¡°Screwer¡± Layton, a known harvester in the ECPD database who was previously released due to lack of evidence and likely some bribing involved. He operated out in this district as well, and an address from the police records that led to one of the megabuildings in the area. I quickly took the opportunity to send out a text. *Thorne, we got a lead to pursue tonight. Bring along something to disable someone, non-lethal.* A reply soon came, *This is Claire, I¡¯m coming too.* Why¡­or how did Claire reply instead? *No, that¡¯s too dangerous.* *I¡¯ll stay a distance away. I¡¯ve learned a few things from Lana and Leo that can help.* I could tell that Claire will be stubborn about this, *Fine¡­ remember to listen to us and stay far away from any action.* Allowing her to tag along would let us keep an eye on her. It seemed like now that we had a lead; we were all looking forward to the counter-attack. Let¡¯s see where this goes. Hopefully, it will lead me to the mastermind of the attack so we don¡¯t have to worry about them too much longer. Chapter 23: Tracking A few hours later, I picked up Thorne and Claire and we drove off to one of the megabuildings in our district. ¡°Boss, plug this into the network for a bit and I¡¯ll be able to get access to the cameras.¡± Claire handed me a small lipstick-shaped device. ¡°Got it. Remember, don¡¯t leave the car.¡± Having warned her, Thorne and I strode confidently into the building and went up to the elevator. There were a few people just hanging out on this floor we went to, but they didn¡¯t seem to bother with us despite the stealth suit I was wearing. Momentarily splitting off with Thorne, I went and plugged in the device Claire gave me when the opportunity presented itself. ¡°I¡¯m in. I don¡¯t see anything unusual on that level.¡± Claire¡¯s voice resonated from my implants, thanks to the group call we were on. ¡°Rollo, I¡¯ll go knock on the door. You hang out of sight in case anything goes wrong.¡± ¡°Okay, go ahead.¡± I agreed without hesitation, as Thorne was the one wearing proper armor while my suit¡¯s defensive properties were questionable at best. It had nothing to do with being happy that he was finally getting used to calling me by the name at all, though it was a welcome change. I shadowed Thorne as he went toward the address we had found from the profile we had received from the QG, Oli. The hallway right in front of the place was narrow with no cover, so I engaged the camouflage function as soon as he knocked on the door. After a brief moment, the door opened slightly, and a middle-aged woman peeked out behind the chain lock. ¡°What do you want?¡± Thorne visibly relaxed his grip on his weapon, ¡°Hi, we¡¯re looking for acquaintances of Mark Layton, we¡ª¡±, the woman¡¯s expression immediately changed at the mention of the name, ¡°What do you want from my son? Are you one of those ¡®friends¡¯ of his? I want nothing to do with you people. Leave my son alone.¡± ¡°Um, no, we¡¯re actually here for his friends, actually.¡± Thankfully, Thorne was the one to speak with this lady. I don¡¯t think I could talk to her face to face considering I was likely the one who killed her son, regardless of whether or not he deserved it. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything about them. Go away!¡± The door slammed shut with a bang. I tapped Thorne on the shoulder and signaled for us to retreat. It wasn¡¯t likely the lady was lying and there wasn¡¯t much for us to do. We returned to the car and made our way back. ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Thorne asked pensively, breaking the silence in the car. ¡°There isn¡¯t much we can do but wait for Oli to turn up with some info. We don¡¯t have a network comparable to QGs like her.¡± ¡°I could try to dig around as well. If I can¡¯t handle it, I can ask Lana or Leo,¡± Claire noted. ¡°Don¡¯t, you¡¯re still new at this, let¡¯s leave it to the professionals, and don¡¯t bother Lana or Leo either, they do this for a living so we should pay them but I already paid Oli and her team to do the job.¡± She looked like she wanted to say something back, but decided against it and started playing around with the terminal in her hand. ¡°Cheer up guys, learning to delegate is something you¡¯ll have to do sooner or later. Shall we grab some desserts before we head back?¡± Having worked in an office of one of the biggest companies in the previous world, it was common to wait around for the other departments to finish their part before you could start yours. This will be a good experience for these two.
Late afternoon the next day, a call came from Oli, sooner than I expected. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back with you. Please feel free to browse our wares on the terminal. The prices are listed there as well.¡± I left the client to browse at their leisure while I went into an empty room and closed the door behind me. ¡°Hey Oli, you found something?¡± ¡°Yeah, identified most of the bodies of those who attacked you and we found out that half of em are small-time harvesters in the area and the other half are from a gang called the Rust Scrappers. I¡¯ll send you the details. We even have the location of the base the harvesters operate out of.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± I replied as I sent out a text to my two employees with the good news. ¡±Well, that is all for now. See ya later.¡± Then Oli hung up. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Later in the evening, when the clinic closed, the three of us headed to the new location from the info we got. The alleged harvester base was at a worn-down apartment where several units adjacent to each other were connected together. We repeated what we had done the previous day, gaining control of the surrounding cameras before we approached. Unlike before, the entire apartment was sparsely populated. It may just be because it was late, but we didn¡¯t see a single person around. When I connected Claire to the floor of the suspected units, she called me after a few minutes. ¡°I can¡¯t get past the security anytime soon. They actually have some decent up-to-date shit.¡± ¡°Forget it then. Don¡¯t risk exposing yourself and go back to the clinic first.¡± ¡°What W¡ª¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. We can still keep in touch while you head back. There¡¯s no point for you to be so close to danger anymore.¡± With the likelihood of this place being a real harvester base skyrocketing, there was no point in Claire being here any longer if she couldn¡¯t breach their systems. This time we didn¡¯t just stroll to their front door, we went to the floor above and climbed down onto their balcony. I went first with my active camouflage activated, followed by Thorne once I deemed it safe. Thorne was hugging the wall while my camouflage system was still engaged and I scouted out the apartment through the windows. As the info had indicated, I saw the unit in front of me connected with the adjacent unit, separated by a crude half-broken wall. The living room area in view had no one in sight as well, so we proceeded to enter. The balcony sliding doors were unlocked, which made it too easy. Okay, with how easy this is, did I walk into a trap? Cautioning Thorne, we stealthily entered one of the rooms. Inside was a familiar sight to us in recent times, an operating room with various sharp tools and organ containers messily sprawled out around. For some reason, the containers were empty and there were no cybernetics in sight as opposed to what we typically saw in a harvester den. We quickly moved to the other rooms and found a bedroom with actual people inside, snoring away. ¡°Don¡¯t kill them, bind them up,¡± I asked Thorne, who returned a nod before pulling out several bracelets from his pack and handing me a few. He then moved toward one of the unsuspecting harvesters and slapped the bracelet onto the ankles and wrists. The bracelet instantly activated with a soft hiss and bound their limbs together. Following his lead, I swiftly did the same before they had a chance to wake up. We continued clearing out the place and found only one other bedroom, having captured only a total of five people in this base that spanned three apartments. It was honestly strange to me to see so few people in a base of this size. Usually, if there were only half a dozen of them, their bases would be much smaller. The size of one unit instead of the three here. They were all wide awake now, as it was hard to stay asleep when your limbs were restrained. We took each one to a different room, separating them. Once we thoroughly searched the place, we started the interrogation. ¡°So, you are the leader here? Were you the one who decided to attack my clinic?¡± I glared at the tied-up man sitting on the toilet, being mindful of any changes in his expression. ¡°What? No, they just forced me to work for them. I had no idea they attacked you, I swear!¡± He pleaded. ¡°Oh, then I have no need for you.¡± I drew my weapon and aimed it at his head. ¡°WAIT WAIT! I¡¯ve been in this group for a long time. I can tell you anything you want to know! Please, just let me go after.¡± ¡°I¡¯m listening.¡± I steadied my gun and kept it pointed at him. He started spewing his entire history with the harvester group and went into the minute details. ¡°Stop, give me only the relevant information about your leader and why you attacked me.¡± ¡°...Sir, I¡ª¡± His expression looked like he was coming up with an excuse so I interjected, ¡°We¡¯ll be asking this of your friends by the way, if yours doesn¡¯t match I won¡¯t mind pulling the trigger.¡± ¡°...Of course, I speak only the truth, I assure you! Sir, the reason we attacked should be obvious, shouldn¡¯t it?¡± He stared up at me with disgusting puppy eyes. ¡°Spit it out.¡± I slowly placed my finger on the trigger and ensured he saw it. ¡°Okay okay, it¡¯s because someone¡¯s been sacking all the other harvester groups, that made the higher-ups worry and wanted to end the threat so we can do our business with peace of mind.¡± ¡°...And why do you think it was me?¡± Though he didn¡¯t explicitly say it, it was obvious he was referring to me. ¡°Someone noticed a lot of the chrome you have in stock matched what some groups were holding onto. Competitors keep a close eye on each other, after all.¡± Well shit, with all the harvesters I had been hunting, I thought everything would be fine as long as there were no survivors. I needed to think things through more¡­ ¡°So one of you guys saw what I was selling and came to that conclusion, you guys are a lot more aware than I had thought.¡± ¡°...Well, someone else noticed and approached us about it so we teamed up¡­¡± Oli did mention there was some gang involved as well. ¡°You sure know a lot for someone who swore they had no idea about the attack on me.¡± ¡°...Haha, I learned a lot of things since we had nothing to do but gossip for the past while since the boss disappeared.¡± ¡°Disappeared?¡± I frowned. ¡°Yeah, after the attack failed, our boss and a few others went out and haven¡¯t come back.¡± ¡°Did they say where they were going?¡± ¡°Yea yea¡­ They went to meet with the Scrapers to discuss the failed attack.¡± I gave him a questioning look. ¡°They¡¯re a large gang¡­so we didn¡¯t dare to bother them. We¡¯ve just been waiting here ever since.¡± ¡°Send me the location of where you usually meet them.¡± ¡°Of course, of course¡­Will you let me go, please? I swear I won¡¯t bother you or anyone again. I¡¯ll leave the city!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what your friends have to say first.¡± There was no way I was going to let him go. Harvesters like him were like cockroaches that always sprung back up, but even if he really quit doing any crimes, he had to pay for all the people they had brutalized until now. While personally, I would rather have him spend the rest of his days doing hard labor and creating profits for me, the value of experience points was hard to argue against. Corroborating all the stories our prisoners provided, we got a clearer picture of what was happening. The location they provided was some bar they met at, so it wasn¡¯t too useful, but still worth checking out. Once I finished dealing with the harvesters, I received a group call that included me, Thorne, and Claire. Sharing a look with Thorne, it was immediately obvious who initiated the call. ¡°Guys, some people just came after me. I got away and I¡¯m tracking them down right now. I¡¯ll ping you my location.¡± Chapter 24: Pursuit Claire - Rollo Halls Associate ¡°Forget it then. Don¡¯t risk exposing yourself and go back to the clinic first.¡± Rollo, her current boss, dryly commanded. ¡°What W¡ª¡± Before she could voice her complaint, he cut her off, ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. We can still keep in touch while you head back. There¡¯s no point for you to be so close to danger anymore.¡± Then he hung up. ¡°Damn it!¡± She slammed her hand onto the dashboard. She couldn¡¯t believe this. She thought she could finally be useful and help him and Thorne out. That was why she had been working so hard on learning about cybersecurity. Taking a deep breath, she started sorting out her thoughts. She knew it wasn¡¯t Rollo or anyone else¡¯s fault, and she blamed herself for being inadequate. She knew she was only a beginner, so she shouldn¡¯t even find this surprising, but she couldn¡¯t help but feel frustrated. She wanted to contribute and make it safer for those two and the current her wasn¡¯t able to do that. Searching through her contact list, she placed a call while the car drove her back. ¡°Hey Clairy, what¡¯s up?¡± She sighed before responding, ¡°Lana, are you free? I could really go for a drink right now.¡± ¡°Woah, I thought you were a law-abiding citizen who won¡¯t drink until you¡¯re past twenty.¡± ¡°Yea? Who¡¯s going to enforce the drinking age, the corpos?¡± ¡°Ha, they¡¯d probably encourage you to drink more instead, to up their sales. I would know, I¡¯ve worked for them. Anyway, sorry, I can¡¯t come out tonight. We can do it tomorrow when you come over for lessons.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± ¡°So what happened, girl? Want to talk about it?¡± She let out another sigh, ¡±...I got told to sit out because I couldn¡¯t breach some dumb network.¡± ¡°Girl, you¡¯ve been learning how to about cy-sec for how long? It¡¯ll take a lot more learning before you¡¯ll be able to consistently breach into most up-to-date civilian networks.¡± A text came in from Thorne with an update, confirming the hideout was a harvester den and they got in safely. ¡°Ahhhh, how did scums like harvesters even get up-to-date security patches? Don¡¯t tell me they pay for it like normal people.¡± ¡°You¡¯d be surprised. Most groups past a certain size likely have a cy-sec specialist on hand. It takes a lot more brain than you think to run their shit. It¡¯s not as simple as just randomly picking people up and chopping out their chrome and organs.¡± ¡°So I won¡¯t be able to breach into any harvester network anytime soon¡­just great. Please tell me you have some way to help me learn faster. I can¡¯t stand this.¡± ¡°Not unless you¡¯ve got a high-end SAID model with a hypnopaedia feature. Then you¡¯ll need the cassettes with the right knowledge on it, which are even harder to get. There¡¯s a reason why most skilled cy-sec specialists are corpo or former corpo.¡± She sighed for the third time, ¡°Anyway, we can talk more when I come over tomorrow. Thank you for listening to me vent.¡± She watched as the car pulled into the parking lot in front of the clinic. ¡°Sounds good, see you.¡± With the call ended, she exited the car and set course for it to go back to the boys using the auto drive. Instead of returning to the clinic right away, she started walking down the street. She needed something sweet to cheer herself up first. Just as she made her way out of the plaza, she noticed from the corner of her eye a couple standing around, both staring daggers at her from across the street. When she turned towards them, they both looked around, avoiding eye contact. They were holding hands, but otherwise seemed to ignore each other. She continued onward to Rollo¡¯s favorite milkshake place while she kept an eye out. Not her actual eyes, but from the street-facing security cameras that she could breach. She plugged her terminal into her neural port discreetly and continued walking down the street. Once she was down the street, the camera feed she had pulled up on her optics showed the two suspect individuals following in her direction. It was late at night so there weren¡¯t that many pedestrians which made it easy to keep track of them. Trusting her gut instinct, she made a few turns to confirm if they were tailing her. And they were. Are these guys related to the people who attacked us? Now I can call for help and be a damsel in distress or¡­ I can deal with it myself. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Deciding she wanted a safety net just in case, she started moving toward the street with all the clubs and bars. These places weren¡¯t like Haven and were cheaper and catered to the more casual folks instead of mercenaries. This meant that the security policy was different, and they didn¡¯t allow weapons to be brought inside. The old weapon detectors in the lobby worked through automated scans and had an open connection for her to invade from. She used the programs she received from Lana and breached into it like she was taught. She wasn¡¯t at a level where she knew exactly how it worked and could only use her pre-made programs and alter it slightly, but the old detectors still had known exploits. She allowed herself to pass the detectors while still holding possession of her pistol and entered further into the establishment. A moment later, one of the two people stalking her followed her in. The woman was forced to leave their firearms in the weapon locker. Little did they know that even though her stalker stowed her guns away, she could still trigger the detectors the moment she tried to walk through. Immediately, the bouncers nearby moved to intercept and tackled the woman onto the floor. Taking advantage of the commotion, Claire swiftly made her way to the weapon lockers and hacked into the one her pursuer had used. As fast as she could, she unloaded the magazine and attached a tracker to it before loading it back in. Looking at the cameras pointing outside, it appeared the other male stalker had moved to cover the back door, which meant the woman who was now having an interesting conversation with the bouncers was responsible for watching the main entrance. She briskly made her way toward her original destination while she had her SAID call for a cab to wait for her there. Once she bought the sweets she had been craving, she entered the cab and observed the location of the new tracker she had placed. It was on the move, so she made the group call to Thorne and Rollo. ¡°Guys, some people just came after me. I got away and I¡¯m tracking them down right now. I¡¯ll ping you my location.¡±
Thorne and I rushed out of the harvester den and thankfully, my car had made its way back and was already waiting in the same spot. We set the car¡¯s destination to follow after Claire. Thorne, who sat beside me, checked his equipment while Claire was on the line with us, retelling us a more detailed version of what happened. ¡°...So they¡¯re pulling up to a gated mansion, let me see if I can find a way¡ª¡± A loud shout suddenly rang out beside me, ¡°Stop! Wait for us first!¡± I looked over at Thorne and listened quietly as he continued, ¡°You¡¯ve done enough already! Why didn¡¯t you call us in the first place when you noticed you were being followed?! It could¡¯ve gone really differently.¡± ¡°Come on, you want me to just sit here doing nothing? I¡¯m not some kid that needs babysitting. I can handle myself.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant. You should¡¯ve given us a heads up, so we could back you up if anything went wrong! You can¡¯t be taking needless risks like this, Claire, not when your life is on the line. Promise me you won¡¯t do that again.¡± ¡°...Okay¡­ I might¡¯ve acted too impulsively¡­Sorry.¡± That was the first time I heard Thorne lash out, but understandably so. I needed to start going over options to up our security after this. Right now it was just street gangs, but if more organized groups or mercenaries set their sights on us, we were grossly unprepared, not to even mention corporations. We arrived and met up with Claire on the main street closest to the mansion she had tracked her pursuers to. Claire wore a bashful smile as we approached, ¡°Hey guys, here¡¯s the receiver for the tracker. Take this as well. You guys haven¡¯t eaten or drunk anything for some time right?¡± She handed us each a burger and a drink. ¡°Thank you,¡± I took a sip of the drink, my usual milkshake that was slightly melted, but the sugar helped energize my mind. ¡°I¡¯ll head in first to scout it out. You two stay here and wait.¡± Thorne waited until he finished chewing to respond, ¡°...Okay, you really need to get me one of those suits soon.¡± ¡°The suit¡¯s really just to test the tech out. I¡¯ll definitely get you one once the cybernetic version is done.¡± I moved out as soon as I finished snacking. The entire place was fenced off with metal gates. There were cameras spaced out as well, but with my suit¡¯s stealth system on, I could climb over and approach the building in the distance undetected. There was a limit to how fast I could move as the camouflage system started being more wonky the faster I moved. It was something I planned to work on further before moving on to the implant version. This suit was destined to only be a prototype as it was just plainly inferior to a cybernetic version. Especially when the stealth system wasn¡¯t active, it screamed out suspicious activity to anyone who saw you wearing one. The three-story mansion soon came into view and had even more security around the premises, but thankfully, someone left a window open on the second floor. Once I climbed up, I immediately tried to breach into their camera network while I hugged the walls to stay out of sight, allowing the suit to rest. The security in place here was notches above everything I¡¯ve tried to breach before. I knew Claire wasn¡¯t better than me at hacking yet, so I had to be mindful of cameras from here on. Moving cautiously, I cleared each corner and noted down spots where I could hide at while the suit needed a break. The rooms I had entered so far appeared to be simple bedrooms, storages, and bathrooms. It wasn¡¯t until I reached further in that I heard the sound of people. ¡°---back?¡± ¡°Yeah, I led him to the boss, and he seemed pissed. Better to stay out of sight tonight lest he take it out on you.¡± ¡°If Larry can¡¯t do a proper job, then the boss should use us. I don¡¯t get why we¡¯re being kept in the dark.¡± ¡°Shhh, stop complaining. Larry is his wife¡¯s cousin, so of course, he trusts him and his group more. We don¡¯t need to snoop where we shouldn¡¯t.¡± The two who were conversing soon came into view. They both had combat vests and rifles, decked out in red-themed clothes. They stood by the staircases that led further up. They changed the topic to the girls they recently saw and other mundane topics. I slowly moved past them with the camouflage activated while their conversation distracted them. On the third floor, my search for important people bore fruit when I spotted a pair of sentries who stood guard by a set of fancy double doors. With the door shut, it wasn¡¯t feasible for me to walk by even if they couldn¡¯t see me. Instead, I went into one of the adjacent secluded rooms and climbed out the window. My boots clamped onto the outer wall as I made my way toward the guarded room. For some reason, the people in the mansion really liked their open windows, allowing me to peer into the study where two men sat on sofa chairs, having a conversation over a drink. In front of the two was a man and a woman who kneeled before them, staring straight into the ground. Chapter 25: A Night at the Mansion I held onto the ledge as I peered through the open window at the two men facing away from me. Off to the side, a man and a woman were kneeling before them. ¡°Doctor, are you certain that this clinic is worth further investment? I lost a squad already, and this is proving to be quite a hassle. I won¡¯t be able to cover up further damages and if the higher-up finds out, there¡¯ll be hell to pay.¡± One of the men sitting down facing away from me said as he took a puff from some tube connected to the walls. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m confident in my assessment of the value of our target. We should be able to get quite a paycheck from it. All for ourselves too, the higher-ups wouldn¡¯t have a clue. We can easily recruit replacements, let us wear them down using various harvester groups. They should all be looking forward to putting down their bogeyman once and for all.¡± For some reason, the man that was called ¡®Doctor¡¯ sounded strangely familiar. ¡°Fine, but it¡¯s up to you to convince the harvesters, Jim and his lackeys are still downstairs.¡± ¡°Understood, I will¡­¡± I pulled myself up into the room as they continued their conversation. I¡¯ve heard enough to confirm that these were the guys who were the perpetrators of the attack and not some other random thugs looking to kidnap Claire. Unholstering my Suri, I walked closer and lined up a shot. By the time I dropped the two on the couch, the remaining two that were kneeling were halfway up as the bullets struck them.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
Seeing how there were no cameras in the room, I came out of stealth and turned over the body of the man, who sounded familiar. I found an old man wearing a monocle, the one whom I sold some cybernetics to before¡­ I checked the other bodies for anything useful, then took pictures using my optics and sent them to Claire. *These the two that were following you?* Almost instantly, she responded. *Yep, that¡¯s them.* Before I could inspect the last body, the door suddenly slammed open. ¡°Sir, are you okay?!¡± The two guards I saw outside came rushing in with two people behind them carrying a first-aid kit. The guards saw me and we all froze for a second before they brought their rifles up toward me as I ducked straight behind the couch, knocking over the whiskey glasses in the process. Immediately, I reactivated the active camouflage and started crawling on all fours as the bullets started ripping through the couch. The men stopped shooting and approached from both sides of the couch in sync. ¡°Where¡¯d he go?¡± ¡°There¡¯s something moving behind you!¡± Unfortunately, it seemed like the stealth suit was still somewhat visible when people paid attention while I was moving. There was a lot of room for improvement, but that would have to wait. The man tried to make a one-eighty turn but was interrupted by the roar of my railgun that successfully punched a hole straight through him. Not waiting to see the results, I continued pulling the trigger to ensure I got his partner behind him as well.
+10 EXP +10 EXP
Once I saw the experience notification appear from above their heads, I turned to the door where the remaining duo who were carrying medical first aid equipment were but found them gone. An obnoxiously loud alarm started resonating throughout the mansion so I didn¡¯t bother to look for them. With my element of surprise gone, I ran back to the empty room I was previously in and let my suit rest while I peered down from the window to scout out their movement. There wasn¡¯t anything outside the building yet, so I called Thorne. ¡°Thorne, prepare the car. We¡¯re leaving as soon as I get back.¡± ¡°Got it. Are you okay?¡± ¡°Yeah, but they know there¡¯s an intruder.¡± ¡°Their security detected you?!¡± ¡°The boss I zeroed probably had some health monitoring system or something¡­I should¡¯ve known. Though there aren¡¯t that many people here, from what I can tell. I¡¯ll come as soon as my suit has cooled down.¡± ¡°What?¡± Thorne seemed to be talking to someone else and went quiet for a while. ¡°There¡¯s cars rolling in fast to your location! Get out of there quick!¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I glanced over to the main gate of the mansion, where it was being slowly opened by the two guards there. A moment later, the loud roar of engines rang out as three cars sped their way onto the estate. They immediately split off to surround the mansion. I had a clear view of one of the vehicles that came to a stop near my side of the building. There were several fully armed men in their red uniforms disembarked from the car, each looked ready for war. With my experience as a cybernetic surgeon, I could tell they all had quality cybernetics just from a glance. The way they carried themselves and moved showed they had proper training as well. The group then split into two teams of three, with one team entering the building while the other set up defensively around their vehicle. I¡¯m sure the same thing was happening where the other two vehicles were. I had to get out soon¡­ The gauge on the suit showed that it should be good for a little under two minutes before it needed to rest again. I should be able to make it out if I hurried. With the camouflage¡¯s assistance, I climbed down the building and started making my way out of the estate. I tried to keep my distance from the group keeping watch outside and moved straight for the fence I had jumped over previously. While I passed their vehicle, I carefully monitored the men as I moved past them. ¡°Witness reports say the intruder was last seen using optical camo. Derek, you switch to thermal!¡± One of the men suddenly blurted out. The man standing off to the side of the one who spoke began panning around the entire area. I hesitated for a moment to decide on which gun to draw, but seeing their armor, I opted for the safer option and drew my railgun, as I wasn¡¯t confident in my aim to target the gaps. Please don¡¯t look behind you. Focus on the mansion. The man scanned left and right around the mansion, but then started panning his entire body around. Just a moment before I entered his vision, I pulled the trigger.
+10 EXP
Immediately, the loud boom of the projectile breaking the sound barrier rang out, alerting everyone, especially the other two armed men beside me. Swinging toward the one who had spoken earlier, I pulled the trigger. By the time I turned to the last person, I was staring down at the barrel of his gun. Two gunshots rang out at the same time.
+10 EXP
I watched the experience notification fade from above his head as he dropped. Phew, that could¡¯ve gone a lot worse¡­ Now I had to book it before their backup arrives. Fortunately, there happened to be a perfect getaway car right here. I ran toward the car, but after taking my first step, my body screamed out in searing pain. I looked down to see blood flowing out of a small hole from my torso. Not this shit again¡­ There was no time. I didn¡¯t want to be here for a second longer, so I grit my teeth and rushed into the car as fast as I could. Upon entering the driver¡¯s seat, I found the keys conveniently already plugged in. Every car I¡¯d seen in this world used a traditional key. It seemed like electronic keys were rare, as you had to keep the security on it up-to-date or it would easily get hacked. With the pedal to the metal, I accelerated at full speed toward the gate. I watched as the two gate guards turned toward the noise of my approaching vehicle from their booth beside the now-closed gate. They came out and motioned for the vehicle to slow down, but their expression changed when they noticed the vehicle had sped up instead. There was no time to inspect the vehicle. They could have an anti-theft tracker on it, so I chose to take no chances. I pulled the pin to a grenade I had been carrying and dropped it on the dashboard before diving out of the vehicle. I made sure my prosthetic arm took the brunt of the impact and rolled to disperse the impact as best as I could. A moment later, a tremendous boom almost deafened me, along with the residual shockwaves. I forced my groaning body to get up and found the two guards lying on the ground, writhing around in agony. I quickly put them out of their misery and inspected the gate, which was now a scene of flaming, deformed metal entangled together.
+10 EXP +10 EXP
There were engine noises coming from the mansion, but with the gate wrecked, they would have trouble following me in their vehicles. I leaped over the fence and dashed back into the city. It was painful to take every step, but I found my car after a short jog. ¡°Go! Start driving!¡± I called out immediately upon throwing myself into the backseat. ¡°Holy shit, you¡¯re bleeding,¡± Claire exclaimed beside me. ¡°Where¡¯s the first aid kit?¡± ¡°There¡¯s one in the back!¡± Thorne quickly responded, holding onto the wheel tightly despite it being on auto drive. ¡°Calm down! I have one on me here. Claire, do you see an exit wound?¡± I turned my back towards her. She held onto my sides and leaned down, ¡°Umm¡­ there¡¯s a hole about the same size as the one in the front.¡± ¡°Perfect.¡± The poor defensive property of the suit turned out to be a boon somehow. The round they shot me with cleanly overpenetrated my flimsy defenses. I stabbed myself with the stim to stop the bleeding and started applying the combat gauze to my wound. ¡°Rollo, should I take us to a hospital?¡± Taking a quick glance around, I saw no one pursuing, ¡°No, bring us back to the clinic.¡± Although a cybernetic clinic definitely wasn¡¯t the first place to go when injured, it still was stocked with equipment and nanomachine injections that helped close wounds and deal with holes in the body. The hospital may be watched now if they were still pursuing and honestly, the medical fees in this world counted as horror stories in itself from what I heard. It felt like it took no time at all to arrive at the clinic, and my two employees helped me out into one of the operating rooms. The scan began once I was seated, and I started calibrating for the small operation my nanomachine would have to do. The two of them just stood by and watched, as they didn¡¯t know how to help. It was a little sketchy to have to do this myself. There was a reason why computers were called incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid, while humans were incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Despite the small operations, it was not reassuring at all to leave it all to the computer, if only I had an AI to control this or something. As if able to read my worried expression, Claire stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder, ¡°Is everything okay? Can we help somehow?¡± I took another look at the damage the scans showed; it didn¡¯t hit any important organs and what was damaged, the nanomachine could put back together. The wound should heal fine, with no aftereffects. Simulating the steps I would normally do and potential incidents, I compiled a quick tutorial using my SAID and sent it over. ¡°Here. Although the machine should do everything, follow these instructions in case anything happens,¡± I muttered, as I struggled to keep my eyes open. Claire stilled for a moment with a serious look in her eyes before nodding, ¡°Got it. You can rely on me!¡± I weakly nodded before I grabbed the mask and breathed in the anesthetic. Lights out. Chapter 26: Business Development When I woke up, it felt like only a few minutes had passed since I fell unconscious. Claire was focused on the medical terminal while Thorne was still standing there in the same spot facing me. He quickly noticed me and tapped Claire on the shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re awake! How are you feeling?¡± I sat myself up, ¡°Like every morning, tired. How long was I out for?¡± ¡°Just a bit over an hour!¡± Claire exclaimed. That wasn¡¯t too much longer than expected¡­Looking over the logs on the terminal, everything almost went smoothly. Claire only needed to make some minor adjustments, and she did well. ¡°Isn¡¯t it almost morning? Let¡¯s all go get some rest.¡± I stood up and stretched. The area around where I was shot felt a little sore, but should be fine in a few days. ¡°Umm, is it okay to do so? Those guys that shot you are still looking for you, right? They must suspect it was retaliation for the clinic attack,¡± Thorne awkwardly stated. ¡°Should be fine. From what I learned, the only people who targeted us are already dead. The rest of the whatever you call that gang shouldn¡¯t know about us, but we should keep our guard up for the time being anyway.¡± ¡°You mean the Rust Scrapers¡­ they¡¯re a pretty big gang, so I guess it makes sense that they aren¡¯t too centralized,¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°Right, Rust Scrapers¡­maybe it¡¯s time for us to hasten our plan to recruit more people. A security team sounds like something we could use, a receptionist and another surgeon or two too, but I¡¯ll need to get a license for the clinic first to hire any proper medical professionals¡­¡± Claire hesitated for a moment before clearing her throat, drawing our attention, ¡°About that¡­ I think I want to learn about Chrome as well. That was pretty cool what I just did.¡± She smiled toward the medical terminal attached to the operating table. ¡°I thought you were learning about cybersecurity? Are you switching over or are you planning on juggling both?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°I¡¯ll do both! Come on, don¡¯t look at me like that. There¡¯s a limit to how long I can throw myself on one subject until my brain explodes!¡± Claire exclaimed. ¡°Oh, and can we look into getting those fancy SAID models that have the sleep learning feature? That would make me learn a lot faster!¡± ¡°...Hypnopedia models shouldn¡¯t be an issue, but the cassettes with the relevant knowledge on them aren¡¯t cheap and only Social Corp sell them as far as I know. And they aren¡¯t sold to just anyone.¡± With six points in cybernetics engineering, I can probably design a working hypnopedia model, but the way the so-called cassettes inject knowledge into the brain in a safe and effective fashion was beyond me. I will need more points in software and even then, I will still have to do a lot of testing on live subjects, so that isn¡¯t really an option. ¡°Tsk, okay, I¡¯ll study the old-fashioned way¡­¡± ¡°You also were going to do the interviewing right?¡± Thorne ruthlessly delivered another blow. ¡°...Yeah, I¡¯ll manage¡­¡±
There was a flood of ads whenever I tried to watch any videos online. I could command my optics to shut it off while it played, but the interruption made me want to stop watching entirely. Sitting in a chair inside an empty office lobby area, I spotted the distracted receptionist busy with whatever was playing on her cybernetic eyes. I got up and stretched when the nearby door opened. ¡°Mr. Halls I presume?¡± I shook the man¡¯s outstretched hand. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you. I am Garcia Torres. We spoke on the phone.¡± ¡°Right, pleasure as well, Mr. Torres.¡± ¡°Please, call me Garcia.¡± I nodded amiably, and he continued, ¡°About what we previously discussed, preparations are complete. Once you have the funds transferred over, we can go ahead to the examination room.¡± My SAID wired over the funds and I proceeded to follow Garcia out of the office into the maze-like hallways of the campus. We passed by crowds of students either rushing about their classes or simply socializing around the hallways. We took an elevator to a more secluded floor and passed through a security check you would typically see at concerts or sports games in my previous world. Crossing through a large open area, we entered a small classroom, with a couple dozen one-person desks and a terminal attached to each one. ¡°Well, Mr. Halls, feel free to pick any seat here and we can begin. If you need anything, please notify me or any of the other proctors that may periodically replace me.¡± Garcia sat down at the front of the room and his eyes then took on an unnatural glow. I picked a random seat and before long, a woman entered and tapped her security card on the terminal in front of me. The console unlocked and I found several test subjects to choose from. Not wanting to worry about remembering which ones I had completed, I started from the top. After a long and grueling amount of time, I was finally done, but it wasn¡¯t entirely over yet. Next, they led me to an adjacent room where there were several stations with a person manning each of them. I had to diagnose or perform specific procedures to get a passing grade for each one. Though tedious, thanks to my experience at the clinic and the knowledge from the system, I breeze through everything without being stumped. Despite my results, there weren¡¯t scholarships or anything to soften the blow on my wallet though¡­
After spending a whole day and a whole lot of credits, I returned to my clinic with a new medical degree. The clinic was closed today, so it was not surprising I didn¡¯t find Claire in the lobby. As I walked toward my workshop, I heard some noises in the break room, luring me in to investigate. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°---you for your time today. We¡¯ll contact you as soon as we have made a decision.¡± I watched as Claire shook hands with an older woman. They noticed me as the woman was gathering her things. She smiled and nodded at me as she walked by and I returned the gesture as I watched her close the door behind herself. ¡°Interview? How¡¯d it go?¡± ¡°Super tedious. I need something sweet after this. Wanna order ice cream or something?¡± ¡°Sure, get me the same milkshake as usual then,¡± I replied and took a seat next to her. I stole a glance at the profiles displayed on her terminal. ¡°Any interesting candidates?¡± ¡°What do you qualify as interesting? They were all qualified for the position they applied for on paper. I didn¡¯t ask for their life story, but I got the basic gist of it from their education, work history, and from speaking with them.¡± ¡°Well, okay. I left you to handle it, so you do that.¡± ¡°...How about you? Everything went okay?¡± I sent her a copy of my new credentials, ¡°Yep, it was expensive and tedious and I still have to spend another boatload of credits for a forged residency record.¡± ¡°You can do that? So it¡¯s that easy to get certified¡­ That¡¯s a scary thought.¡± ¡°I doubt the doctors you¡¯ve seen had bribed their way through to get their medical licenses. Any corporation or medical facility could figure it out with a little digging during the hiring process. People only usually bribe their way to a license to just brag or collect it like trophies.¡± People who bribed their way through wouldn¡¯t be hired unless their employers were oblivious to a ridiculous degree. They could start their own practice like I was doing, though. ¡°I see¡­anyway, let¡¯s pick up where we left off yesterday in our lesson! I can¡¯t handle staring at people¡¯s resumes any longer.¡± ¡°Okay, sure.¡± I could spare some time before resuming my project at the workshop.
Thorne - Rollo Halls Associate As he pulled up to the parking lot, he received a call. ¡°Thorne, can you get some food for us when you guys come back?¡± Claire instantly blared out. ¡°Sure, the usual?¡± ¡°Yeah, gotta go now. See you.¡± ¡°All right everyone, let¡¯s go.¡± He spoke to the rest of the car and started making his way into the enormous low-rise they had parked in front of. He spared a glance back at the four other people lagging behind before walking up to the reception. ¡°Hi, I made a reservation for Thorne.¡± ¡°Yes, we are expecting you, sir. Please sign here.¡± Once the paperwork was complete, they took them to a locker room to get changed. He grimaced as he noticed they appeared to be a rag-tag group that wore different equipment, with no uniformity whatsoever. They then went into a lobby area before a set of metal doors with a terminal beside it. The door opened once he keyed in the specification into the terminal. Inside was a tactical training facility that made extensive use of projection technology that allowed anyone to quickly customize the course. However, instead of training how to assault a facility, they were doing the opposite, focusing on defensive tactics, as that was the job they were hired for as guards. ¡°Get ready. Training begins as soon as we step inside.¡±
The numbers on my account grew smaller and smaller. I still had a decent income from the clinic, but the expenditure was greater than the income. I was on the last few crates of cybernetics I had available for sale too, so I had to find a new supplier. The harvesters in my district went to the ground recently, so I switched to targeting other scums and expanded my area of operation to other districts. I tried not to target any one group in particular, which resulted in my experience gain, slowing down as I had to pick my mark. I opened my status as I sat in waiting.
Status
Level: 10
EXP: 270/1000
Musculoskeletal: 51
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 12
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
  • Stealth Technology +5
  • Software Engineering +3
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4
After the previous incident, I went ahead and installed a combat-rated auditory implant and an implant for cardio. As a result, my sensory perception and endurance went up. The cardiovascular implant I got was like a pacemaker, but housed nanomachines instead, which enhanced my stamina. I was a little too hesitant to replace an entire organ as important as my heart with an entirely cybernetic one, not with my budget at least, so I opted for this one. For the same reason, I opted to shelve the idea of getting cybernetics that improved my visuomotor coordination and neural reflexes. After all, the brain wasn¡¯t to be casually messed around with. ¡°Thank you for waiting, Mr. Halls. We are ready to receive you now. Please follow me.¡± A man¡¯s voice drew me from the status screen. ¡°Yes, of course.¡± I got up, buttoned my suit, and followed the man into a room that was reminiscent of a small courtroom. I took a seat in the middle while a panel of three sat where the judges would sit, looking down at me. The man who led me took a seat amongst the panel before he continued, ¡°Well, we have reviewed your documents and completed your background check. We believe we have enough information on hand based on your evaluations and requirements to be able to skip the tedious interview process and grant you your Cybernetic Surgeon License. Congratulations, you are now officially recognized as a licensed medical professional in the field of cybernetics.¡± Well, I might¡¯ve spent a lot on the bribes, but at least I got what I paid for. I listened to each member of the panel recite some iteration of congratulations and excitement for embarking on a new journey in my life. ¡°---We look forward to seeing the positive impact you¡¯ll make with your practice.¡± Great, with my license finally obtained, my clinic can now operate legitimately, meaning I could get proper supplier channels that aren¡¯t as over-priced, and hire professionals to increase the number of surgeons so I won¡¯t be the only one at the clinic. Being over the moon, I immediately set out to purchase my favorite milkshake before I made some calls with some cybernetic suppliers. I then sent a message to Claire, asking her to start hiring cybernetic surgeons and the bureaucratic processes to legitimize the clinic. Having pushed all my bureaucratic responsibilities to Claire and her team of clerks we hired, I couldn¡¯t wait to finish the latest creation that I had been cooking up in my workshop. ¡®Time is money¡¯, If only I can buy more time, it feels like I never have enough of it. Chapter 27: Starting Production ¡°Okay, deploy the security team,¡± I called out to Thorne, who was beside me with the new security guards we hired behind him. ¡°Okay, you guys, set up position,¡± He watched the team file through the door. A minute or so later, he nodded at me. ¡°They¡¯re in position now.¡± I issued a command for my SAID to double-check my new implant to ensure the settings were all correct. ¡°Sounds good. I¡¯m heading in now. No need to notify them.¡± Passing by the metal doors, I made sure to move as stealthily as I could and made my way toward the center of the room, where a small house was. It looked quite real, and I wouldn¡¯t have doubted it if I didn¡¯t know projection technology was at play beforehand. I wonder what the actual material is beneath the projections. Moving in, I soon found the security guys all set up in one room, carefully guarding the only entrance and window. A quick command through my SAID booted up my new implant. I watched as my hands blurred from view until I could no longer see it. My limbs and body were now see-through. I unholstered my pistol by touch alone, as the active camouflage prevented me from seeing the weapon at all. I switched to thermal on my optics and was able to see the outlines of my limbs again. I knew it was possible to create a version that could mask my heat and IR signature, and other detection methods like through the surrounding airflow as well, but it would cost more points into stealth tech, time, and money for the materials. They also weren¡¯t suitable for mass production for the same reason. The doors and window were opened for this exercise since they knew I was coming. Their attention was glued to the two entry points. While the instincts from the stealth skill screamed at me to only move in their blind spots during a lapse in their attention, I slowly strode into the room. Walking around them, I picked up the small bag placed in the middle of the room. On my way out, I took the opportunity to place a sticker on each of them. Once they were no longer in sight, I swiftly toggled the stealth mode off and made my way back to Thorne. ¡°Okay, you can recall them. Tell them to check the back of their boots too.¡± A moment later, the guards returned as they grumbled to each other. ¡°Thanks guys, we¡¯ll do a few more tests and we can finish up.¡± We repeated the test several times, and I then got their feedback. It seemed like going through the window when they were paying attention was a no-go, as the wind blowing through the window, coming to an abrupt stop, easily gave me away. That was definitely something to improve on with later iterations, but this current one worked well enough for a mass-market model. We grabbed some food at the company¡¯s expense and then returned to the clinic in time for our operating hours. Now that we had one other surgeon, I could spend some time in my workshop to fine-tune my latest work and start going over the production plan.
¡°Hello, you have reached Airo Tech. How may I help you?¡± A woman¡¯s voice rang out in my ears directly, thanks to my auditory implants. ¡°Hi, I wanted to place a bulk order for some electronic parts.¡± ¡°Of course, sir, what is your corporation¡¯s ID number?¡± ¡°The business number is xxxxx-xxxxx.¡± ¡°Apologies Sir, our company only sells to corporations that are members of Elevate City Consortium and have trade agreements with us. Thank you for calling us. Have a good day.¡± The call quickly disconnected. This wasn¡¯t the first one to hang up on me though, I had several other failures. Whether it be electronic parts or raw materials, as soon as they heard I wasn¡¯t from a corporation, they hung up. With no alternative in sight, I called up my resourceful Quest Giver. ¡°Mr. Halls, how may I help you?¡± I¡¯ve still been doing a few jobs for him now and then, but there were fewer leads recently to ones that suit my criteria and were on his turf. ¡°Hey Fitel, do you know a way to source electronic parts or raw materials in bulk?¡± ¡°Apologies, based on what I know, that isn¡¯t possible on a consistent basis. We can arrange a heist to target a shipment, but that isn¡¯t something you will get away with if done repeatedly.¡± ¡°I see. Thank you for your time.¡± Before I could hang up, Fitel continued, ¡°If you plan to continue your search, I would advise against it. The sellers for the items you are looking for have the initiative, and they only sell in bulk to other corporations.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The next few days, I did some research and confirmed most of what Fitel said. Most small corporations couldn¡¯t even source enough raw materials for their needs and would have to either mine it themselves or establish raiding teams to go into the wastelands to scavenge the junk there. Either of those options required significant investment and real estate off the island, so neither was viable. So instead, I had to make do with the retail-priced products, which meant I had to dial back my production plans. It sucked that the cost was higher, and I had to make do with selling fewer units, lowering my profits. The margins were going to suck if I didn¡¯t raise the prices.
¡°Here¡¯s the program you guys wanted,¡± Leo placed a storage drive on the table. ¡°Thank you, hey Clair¡ª¡± I glanced over and found Claire busy talking with Lana a short distance away, ¡°Here Thorne, can you start uploading it to the server?¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll have everyone install it tomorrow as well.¡± He quickly took the drive and walked out of the room. ¡°So you¡¯re becoming more and more of a corpo, huh?¡± ¡°...It wasn¡¯t my idea, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re asking. Those two were super stubborn about it; wouldn¡¯t stop going on about how easy it was for our employees to steal, threatened, or be bribed to screw us over.¡± Leo shrugged, ¡°Doesn¡¯t change the fact you¡¯re going to be monitoring them 24/7, I¡¯m not criticizing you though, any corpo would understand the necessity of it. ¡± ¡°Well, here¡¯s your pay. Want to get some new cybernetics while you¡¯re here?¡± My SAID sent the credits at my command. ¡°Received, not much of a fan of chrome. I¡¯d rather invest in better terminals. By the way, what are you working on? Can¡¯t say I¡¯ve seen that implant before,¡± He said as he leaned over my shoulders. I continued with my work and reinstalled the cover that was engraved with HSU-002, ¡°It¡¯s the new camouflage implant we¡¯ve been working on, doing last checks on this batch, then we¡¯re having a volunteer test it out.¡± ¡°This small thing? Where does it even go?¡± He moved his face closer to examine the thin metal board in my hand. ¡°It goes under the skin, and can be anywhere, but I tuned it for the mid-torso section.¡± It was basically a nanomachine housing unit where the nanomachines had video and projection capability that enabled the camouflage ability. It worked similarly to the suit I had worn before but was much more compact, so people wouldn¡¯t notice anything while it wasn¡¯t active. After all, anyone who saw you wearing a suit like that would expect something was up. ¡°I see. Well, good luck with that. We got a job to do tonight, so see ya. Lana, come on, let¡¯s go!¡± The two exited after a little back and forth. Claire walked them out while I continued my work. I took breaks and worked on a few clients until it was almost closing time. ¡°Hey there, did I come too early?¡± A girl with short brown hair said, behind her was a sleeping-looking Liz. ¡°No, no. You guys are just on time, please sit. We¡¯ll need to do a short surgery to install the new implant, but it shouldn¡¯t take long at all.¡± I directed Serene into the chair and started my usual scans to prepare for the installation. ¡°Sure thing. As long as I get the new chrome for free, I¡¯m happy.¡± She winked at me before taking a seat. I glanced over and saw Liz already seated in the corner, as if she teleported there. I finished the operation within twenty minutes without incident after Serene was knocked out by the anesthetics. Serene soon woke up, due to the lighter dosage. After some checks and calibrations, we exited the clinic to test out the new implant. For this test, I would tail her to monitor its performance. ¡°Okay, so the test will be to sneak into the den over there, search every room, and then get out.¡± ¡°Do you have an idea of who is even there? Might not be such a great idea testing this in a harvester den¡­¡± Serene stated. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just some kids posing as a gang. They just hang out there, play, drink, and do drugs. Nothing dangerous. I¡¯ll be right behind you.¡± Liz rested her hand on Serene¡¯s shoulder and gave her a thumbs-up. Both Liz and Thorne were going to be staying in the car, acting as our backup in case anything went wrong. Serene calmed herself and started the infiltration with me hot on her heels. Apparently, Serene acted as her mercenary team¡¯s scout and flanker in combat. So she was used to sneaking up to assess the situation, which was also where her desire for stealth tech came from. Normally, she forwent stealth suits as they had flimsy defenses and were hard to get a hold of, but with my new cybernetic, it allowed her to wear her usual combat gear without any obstruction. She went straight up the megabuilding toward the target unit. Once she was on the right floor, she maneuvered out of sight and spotted a bunch of teenagers hanging out in front of the target unit. The door was opened as loud music blasted out of it. She took a deep breath and exhaled before activating her new implant and faded out from my vision. I switched to thermal optics before turning on my active camouflage as well, then followed her in. The unit wasn¡¯t very large but still had two rooms, plus the living room we had entered from. They were teenagers dancing, making out, or just sprawled on the couch or floor. I watched her carefully move around, ensuring she wouldn¡¯t bump into anyone as she inspected each room. We found one messy room with drugs everywhere, while the other had a couple getting intimate. Once we toured the place, we swiftly returned. The brief trip had barely drained a fourth of the uptime of the implant and would be recharged within the minute. ¡°Good job. I got a lot of useful data from the test. Do you have any feedback?¡± I asked the woman, who was busy gulping down a bottle of water. ¡°That was absolute zero! I felt like a ninja in those animes I watched as a kid. They had no idea I was there! Fuck, is this what corpo spy teams use? That sounds scary as fuck!¡± I noted that down as no complaints, ¡°Careful, it¡¯s not perfect as indicated in the manuals. This would be a cheap beginner version of what large corporations have, so you better not let it get to your head.¡± She nodded, ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t see anything wrong with it. The gauge connected to my optics that lets me know how much longer I can use it is cool, but maybe longer operation time?¡± ¡°Right, that¡¯s something I¡¯m always working to improve. Anything else?¡± ¡°Errrr¡­ Nope, all good to me. I¡¯ll let you know if anything comes up.¡± ¡°Sounds good. In that case, you can go for tonight, as promised, and you can keep that as payment. Please let your friends know about it as well. I currently only sell it in my clinic, but I¡¯m planning on changing that soon, too.¡± ¡°Got it. I will definitely let my acquaintances know. They¡¯re going to be so jealous when they see this shit!¡± Great, now to solve my production problem¡­ Chapter 28: Expansion James - ??? ¡°James, I want you to handle this incident review here.¡± ¡°Yes, sir, consider it done.¡± He stood straight as he received the dossier from his boss with both hands. His boss clasped a hand to his shoulder, ¡°You may be new, but I¡¯m expecting good things from you. Don¡¯t let the director down.¡± He had to force himself from wincing at the mention of his dad. He tightened his facade and escaped from the office after some small talk. Setting the car to auto-drive, he reviewed the information he had received as the car drove him to the place of the incident. This case was a typical theft from their corporation¡¯s stores, so it wasn¡¯t anything too important. A case that was hard to screw up on, which was likely why his boss had given it to him, seeing who his father was. A quick check in the company¡¯s database showed this wasn¡¯t an isolated incident either. With theft on the rise in various retail stores that sold medium to low-value goods, whoever was behind it was targeting low-security stores. The camera footage from the incidents hadn¡¯t shown much, just some products up and disappearing from sight by itself. He soon arrived at the store in question, as it wasn¡¯t that far from the headquarters. ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve been expecting you. My name is Nathan. Please allow me to be your guide,¡± A man greeted him at the door as soon as he got out of the car. ¡°Take me to your security room. I want to review all the footage you have.¡± ¡°Of course, sir, follow me.¡± He followed Nathan into the store. He was brought to the elevators, up through several floors, and passed by high-security scanners before they arrived in the monitoring room. If we had the equipment on this floor pointed at our goods, we would have caught the perpetrators right on the spot. Looking over the monitors, James spotted hundreds of cameras being cycled across the dozen floors of retail space. Several people in reclining chairs were hooked up to the security terminal, scrolling through the camera feeds in real time. Even with this setup, they still somehow didn¡¯t notice the incident until five minutes after the theft. Talk about incompetence. A woman immediately closed the distance with them once she noticed him, ¡°Identify yourself, only authorized personnel can¡ª¡± ¡°Stand down Debra, this is an esteemed guest from headquarters¡¯s security team. I apologize for her rudeness sir, please feel free to review the footage you wanted here,¡± The man brushed aside Debra and pulled a chair back for him. He took up his offer and plugged the cord from the security terminal into the port in his hand. The company provided SAID instantly keyed in his corporate credentials and he soon gained administrative access. With the help of his cybernetics, he reviewed all the footage during the day of the incident at a rapid pace. He looked for all the common theft tells they were trained on, including camera tampering, tricks people placed on the product beforehand, and their internal employee¡¯s logs during the same time. The most common options were crossed out, so he reexamined the footage of the products disappearing. He placed the footage onto the big screen in the room and zoomed in on it. ¡°Nathan, you guys reviewed all the footage yourselves, right? Did you cross-check the position of every customer and employee in the store at the time of the incident from other cameras?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. They were all accounted for.¡± It could be internal tampering with evidence, but he was sure their division¡¯s cy-sec specialists would have caught it by now unless it was someone really skilled like from another corp. ¡­But why would another corp resort to petty theft? ¡°Sir?¡± A voice pulled him out of his musing. ¡°Yes, what is it? I¡¯m thinking.¡± ¡°...Apologies Sir, but doesn¡¯t this look like the stealth tech your department¡¯s operatives typically use?¡± His gaze shifted upward to the screen at the man¡¯s words and replayed it in slow motion. The way the product disappeared did seem similar to the stealth tech he had used in training¡­ A few days later, he reported his findings back at headquarters. ¡°James, my boy, what was the result of your investigation?¡± The man in front of him poured two cups of whiskey and handed one to him. Following protocol, he printed out all his findings in physical form and placed them on the table. ¡°We found the method of theft and captured the suspect. It seems like stealth tech had leaked out somewhere and some kid was using it to lift our products.¡± His boss raised an eyebrow, ¡°Stealth tech? You ran it by R&D yet?¡± ¡°Yes, it isn¡¯t any tech that any known corporation uses, but it is simple in design and function, just basic camouflage features so no new information could be extracted. It is either a new player or dead gear.¡± From the lack of distinctive features and the homemade feel of the chrome, he thought it was more likely to be dead gear, disposable for some black op team, but that left the question of where it leaked from. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Countermeasures?¡± ¡°It is a basic camouflage unit, so any IR or acoustic units could detect it. There¡¯s no need for any specialized detection equipment. I recommend installing an IR camera at the entrance of each store. We¡¯ll be able to identify future suspects by cross-examining the locations of everyone in the store if they choose to enter normally.¡± ¡°Excellent low-cost solution. I¡¯ll submit the recommendation to all our retail stores as it is. Good work, James! Just make sure R&D gets a more detailed pass at the retrieved tech. We may be able to figure out how the more advanced version of this stealth tech works by exploring its application.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± This small investigation earned me a lot more points than I had thought. Give me another few cases like these and my promotion would be guaranteed, even without my dad¡¯s help. Thank you, whoever leaked the stealth tech out to some dumbasses.
¡°Hi sir, what would you like to drink?¡± A pretty brunette asked as she leaned down to match my eye level. ¡°Just water, please.¡± She took a cup from her tray and handed it over to me, then proceeded to ask the person in the seat over. I continued my movie while I had the camera feed from the clinic¡¯s cameras pulled up in the corner of my vision. Everything seemed to be operating smoothly with the new hires, with Thorne and Claire at the helm. The other people on the plane seemed to be moving about to the bar, but I stayed to enjoy my business-class seats. It was only a four-hour flight, so I wasn¡¯t desperate to stretch my legs. When I finished the movie and only had less than an hour to landing, I reviewed all the information Max had given me. He had a contact for me in the city that I should meet before I began hiring and planning for the outpost in the wasteland. Once we have that settled, I should have a stable supply of materials from scavenging to kick-start the production of my cybernetics. Then I could meet the rising demand of the mercenary community. I would start selling not just in my clinic, but across the entire city, and I could rake in the profits. I looked out the window at the landmass we were flying by. Further inland, a giant sandstorm engulfed everything inside while the area we flew in was eerily calm. Whatever war happened many years ago threw the ecosystem to hell. No wonder the elites prefer to live in space now. Inside the sandstorms of the wasteland lay countless valuable salvage and natural resources that the big corporations ignored due to the rising cost-effectiveness of space mining. It was also the key to expanding my business. The signal for everyone to be seated and buckled up to prepare for landing turned on as I watched everyone slowly scramble back to their seats. The flight attendant returned to check on everyone and soon disappeared into the back of the plane. A moment later, more flight crew walked by in the same direction, and the sounds of a commotion going on grew louder until people started to crane their heads back in curiosity. It was too far away for me to see anything from here, so I used my time going over my status instead.
Status
Level: 11
EXP: 70/1100
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
  • Stealth Technology +6
  • Software Engineering +4
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
As I took a sip from my cup, the commotion grew louder rapidly as the source got closer. I joined the majority and peeked out; I spotted a large man with cybernetic limbs walking straight up the aisle while several crew members tried to hold him back. ¡°Sir, please return to your seat. The plane will be landing momentarily,¡± One of the crew members desperately cried out. ¡°Get out of my way if you don¡¯t want to get hurt. I¡¯m just going to take a seat where the chairs actually fit me.¡± ¡°Sir, all the seats at the front are full. Please, it won¡¯t take long before we land.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go to the cockpit and sit with the captain, then.¡± I couldn¡¯t tell if the man barging his way through was on drugs or plain stupid, but it seemed like there was no getting through to him with reason. Maybe this was why corpos had exclusive flights, to not have to deal with the riffraff. The prices were high though, and I wasn¡¯t even eligible for it, so no point in crying about it now. ¡°Sir, do not approach the cockpit. We will have to abort the landing if you disturb the pilots,¡± The man ignored the cries around him and continued on his way, passing my seat. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± I really didn¡¯t want to have a delay on my first trip abroad in this world. I guess I had to do something. I climbed over to the other aisle and got ahead of the commotion, waiting for the man to come through. Once he moved the blinds aside and moved into my vision, I sprung my ambush and thrust a hand at his throat. I didn¡¯t relent and followed up with elbows and threw punches to his chin and temples with my cybernetic arms. The new surgeon at the clinic had helped me install my second arm that was more geared toward precision movements such as aiming my guns or surgery, but that didn¡¯t mean it couldn¡¯t pack a punch in a melee. Surprised by the storm of blows from my metal limbs, the man slumped over as I swung, dodging my attack as he collapsed. The flight attendants quickly closed in and restrained the man in a shocking display of unity, as they weren¡¯t even fazed by the violence. I returned to my seat, and the plane landed safely as scheduled at the NLA International Airport. I couldn¡¯t wait to recover my weapons from the checked bags. I couldn¡¯t believe I would think this way one day, but it didn¡¯t feel safe or right to walk around unarmed. Security barged onto the plane soon after we landed, but skipped me and went straight toward the back where the man was held. Without even questioning me, I successfully retrieved my bags, cleared customs, and was on my way out of the airport. What I didn¡¯t expect when I landed was someone holding up a sign at the arrival hall with my name on it. A buff guy with cybernetic arms, similar to the man who almost delayed my flight. I really hope there isn¡¯t going to be more trouble. Chapter 29: New Los Angeles I tried walking past the man who held a sign with my name on it, but it seemed like he recognized me the moment we made eye contact. ¡°Mr. Halls!¡± He exclaimed. ¡°I hope you had a great flight. I¡¯ve been waiting for you. My name is Vincent, but you can call me Vin.¡± He approached and shook my hand with both his cybernetic ones. ¡°Vin¡­? You¡¯re Max¡¯s friend right?¡± It turned out he was the contact Max had told me about before I left Elevate City. ¡°That¡¯s right, we fought together back in Texas many years ago, history now, but we still keep in touch.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, Vin. You can just call me Rollo. I didn¡¯t expect to see you so soon.¡± ¡°Haha, Max, let me know you were on your way so on a whim, I decided to come. Follow me, my car¡¯s this way,¡± He moved to help me carry some of my luggage. We navigated through the airport halls and out into the glaring sun until we reached a spacious parking lot. A few more minutes of walking led us to his bright red pickup truck, which must¡¯ve been ancient by this world¡¯s standards. ¡°So, where are you headed?¡± He asked once we both got in the car after throwing in my luggage in the back. ¡°Downtown Summit Hotel,¡± I sent him the nav data to his SAID. ¡°Yes, sir,¡± He started the car, one with a combustion engine, the only one I¡¯ve seen in this world. ¡°Did Max get a chance to tell you about my request?¡± ¡°Request? He just told me you¡¯re the guy I should talk to, to get situated, find potential people I could hire, and real estate,¡± I said, as I tried to enjoy the view and not worry about the occasional rattling noises that came from the engine. ¡°Figures. The only thing that guy could do properly is all related to his gun. So anyway, he says you¡¯re hiring security for wasteland salvage operations right?¡± He looked over at me, taking his eyes off the road, so I quickly answered. ¡°Yes yes, that¡¯s right. Watch out!¡± He swerved around the vehicle that was in front of him and overtook it before he continued as if nothing happened. ¡°Great! You see, I¡¯m actually looking for a stabler job in security. Do you think I would fit for the job?¡± He placed a hand on my shoulder to grab my attention. When I glanced over, he had a bright smile while pointing at himself. ¡°...I don¡¯t see why not since you have Max¡¯s trust¡ª¡± The car once again swerved around, this time past traffic as we ran a red light. ¡°...Are you sure you¡¯re good to drive, though?¡± He took his eyes off the road once again to turn to me. I really miss auto-drive right about now. ¡°Hmm? Of course, everyone always insisted I be the driver since forever! I¡¯ve never crashed before and always got out us of trouble. Just ask Max, I drove him and the boys out of more shit storms than I could count, while under fire too.¡± No matter what he says, it doesn¡¯t reassure me of his driving skills at all¡­ ¡°Why did you want a new job all of a sudden?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about it for a while. All the new fancy space mining tech in the last few years has made the wasteland less profitable, so in turn, the corps have been reducing my paycheck.¡± ¡°You work for a corp?¡± ¡°Nah, contract security for their transports across the wasteland. The wastelanders have also been acting up all around the place recently, so it¡¯s the perfect time to transition away. With you, we would be limiting our activity to fewer areas where we can actually monitor the local situation in real time.¡± ¡°I see¡­ Do you have any leads on who else to hire? I¡¯m looking to start off with a small outpost, so we only need about a dozen personnel, including non-combatants.¡± ¡°Out in the wasteland, everyone is a combatant whether they want to be or not, but yeah, I know a few people I could call up, give me a few days.¡± The car¡¯s speed finally slowed down as he entered the more urban area. With business out of the way, there was a brief awkward silence as we continued our drive in silence. ¡°...So Rollo, how was the flight? Tired?¡± ¡°Yeah, a little. I had to subdue some guy who was making a commotion and was about to delay the flight. I thought there¡¯d be more security on the plane or something, but I guess not.¡± ¡°Haha, fat chance, that shit happens more often than you think and the corps running the airlines will never care. They did some study where they found the people on the flight would more often than not step in to resolve most issues because if the plane is screwed, then so is everyone else on it.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°...Then they can cheap out on security if that premise holds true. They really aren¡¯t afraid of any accidents, are they?¡± Vin Shrugged. ¡°Guess not, it¡¯s just another insurance write-off to them, just like with the convoys I protect.¡± After a grand total of thirty minutes, we arrived at the hotel. I declined to go out with Vin for the rest of the day, as I wanted to settle in and do some preliminary research. We exchanged contacts and agreed to meet up in a few days once he had a chance to reach out to some people. Once I secured my luggage in my room, I decided to take a walk around the area to get a feel for the city of New Los Angeles. I checked my pistols and holstered them before I left the hotel. The people that walked by didn¡¯t seem too different from what I¡¯ve seen in Elevate City so far. The restaurants around had less variety of cuisines, but the moment I spotted a place with my favorite milkshake, I had to try it out. I continued down the road until I heard sirens down the road and watched as a convoy of cars drove by, each marked with the logo of some corporation I had never seen before. The people on the street seemed used to it and ignored them as they drove by noisily. As the sky dimmed, I wandered my way into a decently busy pub to sit down, relax, and listen in on the surrounding conversations. My auditory implants helped me filter out the background noise and the mundane chatter. ¡°---been rough lately?¡± ¡°You could say that again. Those goddamn wastelanders have been popping up everywhere non-stop, can¡¯t even hit them back properly when they run so damn fast under the cover of the storms.¡± ¡°Ha, at least you¡¯ve got away safely. I heard half of Peter¡¯s crew is either dead or maimed.¡± ¡°He¡¯s always been an asshole. Karma finally got his ass. Cheers!¡± ¡°Quiet down. They¡¯re right over there,¡± The woman pointed toward a corner of the room. ¡°Ha, whatever. Anyway, did you see the Holly Corp convoy rolling into the city again? They¡¯ve been at it non-stop for a while now. Think they found a mine or something?¡± ¡°I¡¯d say most definitely, they stopped hiring contractors for salvage operations too, must be trying to keep avenues of information leakage to a minimal.¡± I searched online for more information on what I had heard. It seemed like these small corporations sometimes found deposits to mine out in the wasteland. The bigger corps weren¡¯t really interested though, with space mining being more reliable and efficient, and they had enough capital to dip their hands at it. After all, there was a huge market for resources in space to upkeep or expand their habitats and ships that all required various mineral resources. I filtered through a few more conversations, but there weren¡¯t any more than gossip and rumors, so I decided to call it a night and returned to the hotel. Unlike Elevate City, the city wasn¡¯t lit up in its entirety and only in certain sections of the city. You couldn¡¯t help but notice that stark contrast as I walked away from the commercial streets into the more residential ones. As I crossed into the residential area to return to my hotel, the glass to a window across the street shattered without warning and a woman tumbled out of it. ¡°You wastelanders seriously think you could just strut into the city as you please?¡± A skinny man with pale skin climbed out of the window shortly after her. I tried to avoid attention and silently continued walking by. The man slowly approached the woman, who was still dazed from the rough landing out of the window. ¡°Heh, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll show you a good time before I sell you to the harvesters.¡± Harvesters harvesters harvesters. They were all on my list after their attack on my clinic. Now that I¡¯m in a new city, I could really use some info on where I can gain some experience points. The man stepped on the woman¡¯s back and was fidgeting around in his pockets for something. With him distracted, I took the opportunity to power up my stealth implant and close the distance. I got behind him and placed him in a chokehold. He struggled as hard as he could, but it meant nothing in the face of my cybernetic arms! Once the man fell unconscious, I pulled out the binding bracelets and restrained his limbs. Now where do I even bring him to interrogate? It¡¯s not like I can just carry him back to the hotel¡­ ¡°Who are you?¡± I glanced over to see the woman warily looking up at me from the ground. ¡°Don¡¯t mind me, I just have business with harvesters,¡± I said as I lifted the man over my shoulders. ¡°I¡ªthank you. I am in your debt. My name is Jane. May I ask who helped me?¡± There was no reason for me to get involved with a supposed wastelander. I really didn¡¯t want to answer, but I also couldn¡¯t just leave her hanging, ¡°I am¡­Max-well.¡± I replied as I walked away from her. Continuing down the street while I pretended not to hear her, I carried the heavy package around while unsure if I was getting weird looks or not. I was too embarrassed to meet anyone¡¯s eyes, so I eventually decided to stop in a secluded alley a good distance away from the main road. The man wouldn¡¯t wake up even when I slapped him until I pinched his nose together and covered his mouth. ¡°Wake up! I wanted to ask you a few questions about your harvester friends and then you can go.¡± I tried to deliver the best customer service smile I could. ¡°Who the fuck are you? Do you have any idea who you¡¯re messing with?¡± I took a step back, unholstered my Suri, and aimed the gun at him. ¡°I can ask someone else if you don¡¯t know.¡± His glare at me softened as his expression of fear was mixed with thoughtfulness, ¡°Okay, fine¡­¡± He began to spill the information I was looking for, such as the locations of harvester dens, but there wasn¡¯t really any way to tell if he was telling the truth or not. Once he was done and was sure I wouldn¡¯t get anything more out of him, I placed a bullet between his brows.
+10 EXP
I had enough of taking chances. The last thing I needed in a new city was someone working against me. On the final stretch back to the hotel, I received a text from Vin about being ready to meet. He had several people who were interested in taking the job lined up. After a bit of back-and-forth texting, we finished planning for interviews to take place in my hotel meeting rooms. Until then, I had some harvesting to do. I had a feeling I wouldn¡¯t get many opportunities once we got too busy with the wastelands. Chapter 30: Wasteland ¡°Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. Did you have any questions for me before you go?¡± ¡°Umm yes, how long is the position for?¡± ¡°It is a permanent position. We may not be a big corporation or anything, but we plan to stay around.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± The woman stood up and exited the room. Multiple tabs on my optics were opened with various information sheets, resumes, and other miscellaneous administrative documents, creating a mess in my vision. At least it seemed like that was the last interview for the day. As I was finishing up the paperwork, Vin entered the meeting room. ¡°Your lawyer says to call once you are free. We can also leave whenever you¡¯re ready. The car is already out front.¡± Releasing a deep breath, I looked up at the man, ¡°Okay, just give me a few minutes.¡± We got back into Vin¡¯s old car once I was ready. I called the lawyer while he drove. I used the conversation to distract myself from Vin¡¯s driving as best as I could. Too bad the call didn¡¯t last me the entire ride¡­ As we drove out of the city, the surrounding landscape quickly went from the urban city to an empty desert, with the road conditions growing drastically worse. ¡°We¡¯re going to be heading into the wasteland soon. Get ready for a bumpy ride,¡± Vin announced. I¡¯m not sure if I should be afraid or very afraid when hearing that from him¡­ Not long after his warning, a natural disaster came into sight. The entire scenery in front of me was filled with a wall of sand. It was strangely ominous that a raging sandstorm was just straight ahead, while the area in my direction was entirely calm, as if there was an invisible wall blocking the sandstorm. It was one thing to read about the wasteland and another to witness it yourself. No wonder the corporations gave up on this mess and focused on developing space instead. ¡°Quite something to see for the first time, right?¡± Vin noted. ¡°...Is it always like this? That¡¯s safe to drive into?¡± ¡°Yep, though communications are limited to short-range in there. There¡¯s a reason why even corps can¡¯t do anything about the wastelanders living in there after all.¡± ¡°...I swear I just saw a streak of electricity flash by.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. It only happens high in the sky. It may fry some unshielded electronics if it¡¯s too close, but it¡¯s mostly harmless.¡± Not long after, our car slowed down and entered into the storm. The sound of sand rattling against the car rang out unrelentingly, but other than that, we were able to continue moving. I watched as Vin navigated through the storm using the GPS instead, as the storm blocked almost all visibility. ¡°I thought long-range communications were blocked. Is that saved nav data?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, I have a good chunk of this area mapped out from my jobs. The place we¡¯re going to is over here, not too far.¡± We soon arrived at what the map showed as the foot of a small mountain. ¡°A lot of corps have outposts in valleys around the area since there is a good spot to salvage materials from the ruins of the old civilization. I happen to know a good spot here that I use as a grouping point during my travels. It¡¯s pretty small, though, so we¡¯ll have to look around for a better spot for an outpost.¡± The car pulled up in a small valley surrounded on three sides by the elevated terrain around it. It was a spot where the storm barely reached. We only stopped for a moment before we started searching for potential spots where we could set up the outpost. There weren¡¯t a lot of unclaimed natural areas where sandstorms died down, so we looked for spots to dig into instead. ¡°I think that¡¯s enough for now. We should head back,¡± I noted as I reviewed the new nav data I gained. ¡°Sure, want to go by the ruins as well to check it out? Might as well make this trip worth it.¡± There are still a few hours until sunset. So why not? ¡°Okay, let¡¯s check it out.¡± True to his words, it barely took fifteen minutes until we arrived at the ruins. It was obvious we were there as the storm weakened, shielded by the many buildings and skyscrapers in the surroundings. Vin handed me a mask as we disembarked from the car. I took in the view of the ruined city that I¡¯m sure once stood tall. Just the materials from the alloys used in the construction of these old buildings alone were enough for my current purpose, barring a few types I may need missing. ¡°Careful, this area is well scavenged, but mutant wildlife still roams around as they make these old buildings their homes.¡± We didn¡¯t plan to go into any dangerous areas today, so we stuck to a short walk around where we parked. We entered what seemed to be an old residential apartment and found the place mostly empty. We climbed up the building and found some old furniture, but all the electronics or anything of value were missing. It wasn¡¯t until we climbed up to the floors higher up, in the double digits, that we found more junk in each apartment. ¡°While most corporations claim an entire town or city for themselves, this one here is unclaimed and anyone can come, including the riffraff who are looking to make some quick creds, but I think all this junk left behind will fulfill your needs.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. He was right. To transport them in bulk, though, I would have to invest in some trucks, and that was exactly what I was planning to do. The profits from transforming the raw materials into cybernetics would cover the expenses. The two of us, with our augmented limbs, carried a fridge back down the stairs. He filled it with a bunch of other junk, like metal pipes, into it as well. The short walk soon brought us within sight of the car when a sudden growl came from its direction. We stopped in place and before we could place the refrigerator down, a sand-colored lizard the size of a go-kart leaped over the vehicle, straight toward us. The moment its legs touched the ground, it dashed so fast its limbs blurred. As if we were telepathic, we dropped the fridge down at the same time and pulled out our weapons. We didn¡¯t have time to point our weapons at the lizard as we both dove out of the way of the charge. I got up and found myself against a wall of a building to only duck from pure reflex as I caught a glimpse of something lashing out at me. The sound of concrete crumbling rang out behind me as little chips of debris rained down around me. I brought my gun up to search for the target, only to hear a gunshot a few meters away. Glancing up, I was just in time to see Vin firing another shot of his pistol grip shotgun at the lizard that was visibly bleeding dull green blood through the holes in its rear leg. The second shot landed on its front leg, further restricting its movement, so I took the opportunity to line up a shot with my railgun from behind the lizard, mindful of Vin¡¯s positioning. The familiar sound of the projectile breaking the sound barrier resonated in my ears as I pulled the trigger again. By the third time, the lizard slumped down on its stomach.
+10 EXP
The familiar experience notifications appeared above its body. I instantly opened my status to confirm.
Status
Level: 11
EXP: 180/1100
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
  • Stealth Technology +6
  • Software Engineering +4
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
So these mutants really do give me experience points too¡­ A voice that came from right beside me startled me, ¡°Sandcrawlers. Could¡¯ve been worse, but let¡¯s get out of here before anything else smells the blood.¡± I nodded in agreement and we doubled timed out of there with our salvage. Looking toward the back of the truck, it seemed much smaller now, with the fridge taking up space. We¡¯ll need big trucks or something to make every trip worth it. From the ruins, we headed straight back to the city. I couldn¡¯t help but be on the lookout for more lizards crawling about. I let out a mental sigh of relief once our car exited the sandstorm, ¡°Let¡¯s take a day break tomorrow, then we¡¯ll rent equipment and build out a preliminary outpost before we work out how we¡¯ll operate with the team.¡± ¡°Sure thing,¡± Vin answered. With us being out of the wasteland, we could actually see out of the windshield again. It sounded really quiet without the wind battering against the car constantly. Watching the sandstorm behind me, I caught sight of a small convoy of vehicles exiting out of it a distance away. They had expensive-looking armored vehicles for escorts and larger transports in the middle of their convoy, though they all seemed to be worn out, with small dents and burn marks all over them. ¡°We¡¯re taking a small detour. Those corpos don¡¯t like anyone straying too close,¡± Vin noted. ¡°Those are the transports that you used to escort?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a Holly Corp convoy. They¡¯ve stopped hiring contractors and gone full in-house only. They¡¯re probably coming from further in-land, Firebird or something.¡± ¡°Is it expensive transporting things around here?¡± ¡°Depends on the season. It affects the area the wasteland encompasses. Planes can¡¯t fly through it, so they have to go on a really long detour that makes it no longer financially worth it.¡± We safely made it back to the city, though the trip took longer than planned, as we had to take the scenic route. We ended our first adventure out into the wasteland as Vin dropped me off at my hotel.
¡°You sure we should lease these ones?¡± I said as I stared at the car in front of me that looked like it was on its last leg with all the rusted frame. ¡°Trust me, this is the best thing for the job within your budget. It¡¯ll just take a little work to fix these up and they¡¯ll be stellar. Too bad they don¡¯t use good ole¡¯ combustion engines, they are less prone to failure when exposed to the magnetics storms in the wasteland.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll leave it up to you to decide.¡± That took the last thing off the checklist. The production site was ready, and we just needed to go fetch our rental equipment. With the shopping done, we went to rendezvous with our new hires at a small warehouse we rented. I spent all of yesterday confirming the paperwork to receive the keys to the small warehouse we rented where we will be processing the salvage and turning them into cybernetics. The zoning was strict here, so all the other buildings around were manufacturing-related. In return, it had ample space, unlike in Elevate City, where skyscrapers dominated the island with little areas allowed for factories. We didn¡¯t need a lot of space for our productions, so it was possible to do it back there as well, but it was simply more efficient to have everything done within the same building. When we entered, the people inside abruptly stopped their conversation and swiftly assembled in front of us. All the gear and equipment they wore were mismatched except for the blue armband they each wore. Vin stepped forward, ¡°So everyone here has been briefed? Any questions?¡± After a short moment of silence, he continued, ¡°Okay, then you all know what to do. We¡¯re heading out with the heavy equipment.¡± We split off into two trucks and two Amazing Corp Vanguards Vin had refurbished. We had a dozen people between the four vehicles. Our vehicles were of an older generation compared to the sleek high-tech ones that I saw in the corpo convoys, but the ones we had weren¡¯t anything to sneeze at either. The Vanguards were equipped with a proper turret and were quite similar to Humvees from my old world. Not long after we entered the sandstorm known as the wasteland, our detection equipment picked up several cars nearby traveling at high speeds with suspected gunfire coming from them. Vin, our head of security¡¯s voice, rang out in everyone¡¯s comms, ¡°Everyone, check your weapons. We have guests.¡± Chapter 31: Desert Encounter Claire - Rollo Halls Associate Just as she finished changing and was ready for another day, the door to her room suddenly swung open. ¡°Claire! The harvesters are on the move again!¡± ¡°Are they outside?!¡± She asked in a panic, scrambling for her gun and ammo. ¡°What? No, they¡¯ve been lurking around recently and now they have attacked our patients.¡± She found the gun in the holster still attached to her outfit yesterday. She transferred it over to her attire for the day, unholstered the gun, and threw it as hard as she could at Thorne. ¡°Then don¡¯t rush in here like it¡¯s an imminent emergency. Have some delicacy, would you?¡± ¡°Sorry,¡± Thorne rubbed his forehead. ¡°I panicked for a moment and wanted you to know as soon as possible¡­Don¡¯t give me that look, I¡¯m okay, I¡¯ll keep it cool.¡± ¡°Thorne¡­¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°Just because you¡¯re technically in charge of security now doesn¡¯t mean you have to do everything. Did you talk to the other guys yet? You know, the one we hired for security?¡± ¡°No¡­¡± Right after he said that, his figure retreated from her room. She double-checked if she had everything again and picked up her gun lying on the ground as she headed out to start a new day. After a quick breakfast, she found Thorne and the security team all in the control room together. ¡°We need to widen the area we¡¯re monitoring. We can¡¯t have our clients being attacked left and right, team¡ª--¡± Not wanting to disturb them, she retreated to her home office she had set up upstairs where there was still a free room. They had a new receptionist, so she spent the majority of her time learning more about how to install cybernetics and cyber security instead. She opened the terminal Rollo had bought for her and started reviewing the camera footage they had on their server. The coverage they had outside of the clinic definitely wasn¡¯t great, so they didn¡¯t have a recording of the attack. Not having footage didn¡¯t mean there was no footage at all, though. She started breaching through the cameras around the block that she had previously played around with, so she knew which ones she could gain access to. The harvesters were far from professional groups, and the various captured footage had their shadows everywhere. It took a while to sift through the pure number of recordings, but after an hour or so of digging around, she found the footage she wanted. Thorne couldn¡¯t be found in the clinic, so she called him, ¡°Claire, what is it?¡± ¡°Sending you some footage I found. Check it out.¡± ¡°Okay¡­I¡¯ll spread the guy¡¯s image around. It¡¯ll make it easier to search, thanks.¡± ¡°No, I didn¡¯t find the footage for that. Did you watch the whole thing? It shows the vehicle they ran away in too.¡± ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s some getaway car they lifted off the streets right?¡± ¡°Yes, but I traced it back to the ECPD database on the report for the stolen vehicle and found the security footage when they stole that car as well, which led to another vehicle they used for the car theft.¡± ¡°You can just do that?¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯re not dealing with humanity¡¯s brightest here. They at least removed the plates from their car, but following them around on the cameras, I found a fast food place they visit every day. Sending you the location now, go check it out, and turn on your body cam.¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± A moment later, her terminal received the connection to Thorne¡¯s body cam, allowing her to watch. He contacted the rest of the security team and made their way to the location she had sent them. Upon coming close to the location, the cars split off and went around the area. She linked the feed to her optics as she went about studying cybernetics and observed the installation process at the clinic. By the time the last scheduled surgery for the day commenced, Thorne¡¯s voice drew her attention back to the body cam. ¡°All units, we have spotted the target vehicle. It is entering the drive-through now.¡± Their entire team stayed a comfortable distance away and started tailing them. They circled around the block a few times so they had to switch out the car following them. Then they moved to the downtown commercial area where she would¡¯ve never been able to access their security footage without alerting corporations. By the time the last client left the clinic and they were preparing to close, Thorne¡¯s team finally came to a stop as the vehicle parked at the edge of the island, by the ocean. They followed the men into a small harbor where the footage went dark as Thorne and his team turned on their active camouflage. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. When the camera resumed, they were already in the interior of the boat with several bodies sprawled around. *Everything okay over there?* She texted over to avoid distracting Thorne too much. *Yeah, it¡¯s clear, we¡¯re just investigating now. This isn¡¯t their headquarters, but there should be clues here. I¡¯ll plug you in, in a moment, so you can see if you can find anything from their systems.* True to his words, she soon received a new connection a moment later. I guess I won¡¯t be sleeping anytime soon tonight.
¡°Everyone, check your weapons. We have guests.¡± Right after Vin called out in our comms, our small convoy slightly shifted directions to stay away from the approaching vehicles. ¡°They don¡¯t seem to be chasing us, but there¡¯s continuous gunfire¡­I think there are two separate parties fighting,¡± Vin noted from the driver¡¯s seat as he continued to study the information our detection equipment provided. ¡°So we¡¯ve just stumbled upon their fight?¡± I asked. ¡°Hopefully¡­¡± His gaze continued to be glued to the terminal. A tense few minutes passed, but the screen showed that the vehicles continued on their heading without change. ¡°We¡¯re in the clear! Detour a little further before we head to our destination.¡± Everyone relaxed at Vin¡¯s words. We took a long detour and changed directions several times before we arrived at the location we selected to build our outpost. It was at the foot of a cliff that stood tall even against the unrelenting sandstorm. Our plan was simple. We would simply be using the fastest and cheapest method, which meant we brought a specialized excavator and tunneling equipment that we rented. The construction specialists quickly got to work deploying their sensors on the cliff and rapidly adjusted the blueprint to account for the terrain. The excavating was much faster than I expected. Within a few hours, a spacious lobby area was dug out, enough for us to unload what we brought. ¡°How long will the construction take?¡± I asked the specialist when he was slightly less busy. ¡°Sir, it¡¯ll take a few weeks in total at the very least, but the residential units should be ready in a week once we finish setting up power, water, and ventilation,¡± He noted as he reviewed his handheld terminal. With the cargo emptied, we split off into two teams. One remained here with the construction crew while the other one prepared to head out into the ruins for salvage. Following the salvage team, we repeated the trip to the ruins. The difference this time was we had to find a spot to park the trucks, so we drove further into the ruins. We soon spotted a clearing between the buildings that would work. As we pulled up to the spot, a low howl roared out. Followed by it were dozens of wolves, as tall as a person, rushing out from behind the surrounding buildings. ¡°Contact! Fire at will!¡± Without needing my input, the turrets from the Vanguard roared to life and filled the area with the sound of gunfire. The larger caliber bullets ripped into the wolves. The wolves soon recognized the great threat we posed to them, their disadvantageous position, or both, but they collectively made the decision to retreat just as fast as they came. ¡°You two, man the turrets and defend the cars. The rest of us will head into that building over there. Let us know through the comms if you hear anything,¡± Vin barked out as we exited the vehicle. We headed straight into the large office building nearby. The windows were all shattered, but it was in decent condition. The moment the leading man stepped into the stairway, a figure leaped out at him from the corner. He was instantly pinned to the ground, but he held his attacker back at the jaws with his metal arms as the mutant wolf tried to bite down on him. We quickly fired into the immobilized wolf, ¡°Be alert for more!¡± Vin rushed into the stairwell, guns pointed up the flight of stairs.
+10 EXP
I offered the man a hand, ¡°Are you all right?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine, sir,¡± He answered as he hopped to his feet. The rest of the trip was uneventful as we successfully loaded the truck with salvage and the wolves seemed to have learned to keep away from us. We headed back to the construction site and by the time we got back; it was almost time for us to return to the city. We planned to rotate a team that would stay here while the rest of us returned to bring back our loot and bring in more materials for the construction efforts on the next run. On our way out of the wasteland towards the border, our sensors pinged several vehicles coming at us from an angle again. There was gunfire coming from them as well this time. Not this again¡­Are these the same ones we found before? We repeated our previous decision and altered our trajectory to avoid the vehicles. ¡°Look! There¡¯s one breaking off from their group and heading straight toward us!¡± ¡°Sir, they¡¯re going to catch up to us soon. The trucks can¡¯t keep up!¡± One of the drivers said over the comms. ¡°Head back to the ruins. The buildings there should interfere with their tracking systems. We¡¯ll lose them there!¡± Vin, as a veteran, adeptly shouted out commands to the drivers as we sped away, but the vehicle continued to chase us down. Not long after, the dilapidated concrete jungle came into view again. Vin commanded the team to go over some rough terrain, making it harder for our pursuer to take advantage of their faster vehicle. ¡°They¡¯re onto us, we can¡¯t lose them, sir!¡± The driver shouted back. ¡°I can see that. We need to find a good spot to ambush them¡­¡± Vin furrowed his brows. ¡°I¡¯ll get off and disable their car, drive us somewhere they have to go slow!¡± I said as opened the rear doors. ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous to go alone,¡± A firm hand rested on my shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Vin, I¡¯ll make use of my active camouflage to get the jump on them or retreat if it fails. That¡¯s why I should go as the only one with the implant to do so. Just rush in to back me up once I disabled their vehicle.¡± He didn¡¯t respond but feeling his grip loosen; I rolled out of the car once it was slow enough. They then made a turn a short distance away, so I readied myself at the turn. It didn¡¯t take long before a large four-seater shaped like a dune buggy approached. They slowed down for the uneven terrain and I patiently waited as they closed the distance with my camouflage activated. I waited until the car slowed down further as they went into the turn and shot my railgun at the wheels until my clip emptied. I repositioned and reloaded my gun then surveyed the aftermath of the vehicle. It was at a standstill in the middle of the road. The two doors at the front violently swung open at the same time as two figures popped out with their firearms at the ready, aimed in the direction I had shot from. They wore heavy-looking vests, so I edged closer for better accuracy. After a few steps, I noticed one of the figures was a girl with long brown hair. She looks awfully familiar¡­ I angled around to get a better look at her face. ¡°...Sarah?¡± Chapter 32: The Wastelanders ¡°...Sarah?¡± I muttered. The man and woman in front of me instantly snapped toward me. I noticed how agitated the man beside her was, with sweat dripping from his brows and his finger on the trigger. Meanwhile, Sarah had a bewildered look. ¡°Tell your friend to relax Sarah, it¡¯s me, Rollo.¡± She turned and gave the man a look. After a brief stare-down between the two, the man yielded, and pointed his gun down, but still at the ready. ¡°Rollo? Where are you?¡± ¡°Right here,¡± I said, as I deactivated the active camouflage in front of her. ¡°Woah, is that how you used to sneak around? You scared the shit out of me.¡± ¡°Ha, sorry about that, but you guys were following my group.¡± I stole a glance at the inconspicuous turrets mounted on their oversized dune buggy. ¡°...Things have been hectic since I got back. My dad ordered the clan to retaliate against the corpos who kidnapped us. Are you on a job¡­ protecting convoys?¡± Her face dimmed as she asked, while the man beside her visibly tensed. ¡°Nah, this is for my business. Needed some raw materials the corporations wouldn¡¯t sell.¡± ¡°Really?¡± She exclaimed. ¡°That¡¯s cool¡ªwait a second¡­take these and put them on your rides. That way, our clansman will know you¡¯re friendly and won¡¯t attack you guys.¡± She handed me several devices with a button on them. They looked like car keys from my world. ¡°Princess, NO! You can¡¯t give outsiders those!¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± I alternated looks between the two. ¡°Shut up! Rollo is me and my brother¡¯s benefactor,¡± She gave the man a cold shoulder and turned to me. ¡°Don¡¯t mind him. Anyway, you should come to visit us. Caleb would be happy to see you again and my dad would like to thank you as well.¡± Before I could respond, the sounds of footsteps rapidly grew louder. Both Sarah and her friend instantly reverted to combat mode, with a serious look on their face. That¡¯s right, that¡¯s probably my backup. ¡°Hold on, they¡¯re probably my people,¡± I said as I held a hand out to them. I moved around the corner and stole glances at the newcomers and watched Vin jogging at the forefront of the team. I stepped out into the open where they could easily see me. ¡°Sir, are you fine? Did you finish them off?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine. I found some acquaintances, they¡¯re friendly. Everyone hold your fire,¡± Thankfully, they followed my order without complaint despite the skeptical looks they had. At my words, Sarah closed the distance with her friend, desperately chasing after her. She stopped beside me and gave Vin a look over. ¡°Hmm¡­ Are you the one directing the team? Not bad for a city person.¡± It¡¯s quite enjoyable seeing Vin at a loss for words for once. Sarah continued, ¡°So Rollo, want to come visit?¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯m a little busy for the next while, but I will when I have time. How do I contact you out here anyway?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t be able to while we¡¯re in the wasteland, some of us sometimes come out to buy some stuff if you need to reach out, but for you, take this,¡± She pulled a small chip out from a port found on her wrist. ¡°It¡¯ll have live updates on the locations of our camp, so you¡¯ll be able to find us even if we relocate.¡± I awkwardly received it as I watched the man beside him grimace and hold his head with his hands, having given up. ¡°Thanks¡­Are you sure you should give this to me?¡± ¡°Yep, we still have Andrew¡¯s to guide us home. Just be sure to take care of it and don¡¯t let anyone else get a hold of it.¡± ¡­Not exactly what I meant. I tried, Andrew, forgive me. ¡°I¡¯ll take good care of it, anyway it¡¯s going to get dark soon. I think we¡¯re going to head out now if we are to make it out of the wasteland while we still have sunlight. Follow us, we¡¯ll give you a lift back to your people,¡± I offered as I awkwardly looked over at their ride. It was only fair seeing how I totaled their car. ¡°Sure, you can drop us off by the border too. We¡¯ve got people there on the lookout for any corporate convoys right now.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m sorry about your car, by the way¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. We really were aggressively approaching you guys. It wasn¡¯t entirely your fault. We¡¯ve got some really great mechanics so we can fix it up!¡± Seeing how Andrew didn¡¯t react, I guessed that was true. We then returned to our vehicles and headed back to where we encountered Sarah and her people at the border of the wasteland. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°So you guys were in the middle of a fight? Why did you decide to chase after us, then?¡± Andrew answered in Sarah¡¯s stead, ¡°To chase you guys off. We can¡¯t be having any spectators who may potentially join the fray or relay information to set ambushes.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Sarah and I then updated each other on what we¡¯d been up to while we made our way across the wasteland. This time, when our sensors detected vehicles nearby, they were able to establish a private line of communication with her people. After their conversation, a large car cautiously approached. It had guns messily strewn onto it, but Sarah happily waved towards it. The people from her clan weren¡¯t interested in chatting, so they departed soon after we said our goodbyes. With their fleet of cars headed back toward the depths of the wasteland, we safely managed to exit it.
I found the optimal way to go over the electronic paperwork. I could directly display my files on my optics instead of my terminal, so I could go over them while being in any position I wanted. That was why every time someone came into my office, they would find me sprawled on the couch in my office. The expenses had been racking up from equipment, hiring enough personnel for the wasteland base, and the production facility we have in the suburbs of NLA that I¡¯m currently at. At least the outpost had been shaping up with the residential unit up. No longer would the teams staying there have to camp out in a cave with no water or power. The production facilities here were also making progress with material extraction from the salvage we brought in. We brought back any random metallic salvage and turned them into precious and rare metals that we needed to create our cybernetics. We were doing so well that the common metals that were extracted were starting to overflow, so we transported them back into our wasteland outpost to be used as construction material. The only annoying thing I had to deal with was the business taxes. Unlike in Elevate City, NLA wasn¡¯t run by corporations and had an actual government. A corrupt government, but still a government that set taxes much higher than what the Elevate City conglomerate did. While I reviewed our finances, the door to my office opened after a quick knock. ¡°Rollo, we¡¯re ready to head out¡­Are you sure we shouldn¡¯t bring more people?¡± Vin gave me a look that screamed, ¡®Can we really trust those wastelanders?¡¯ ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. Bringing more people will only agitate them. I¡¯m ready, let¡¯s go.¡± I stood up and grabbed my stuff. Following the navigation data I received from Sarah, we headed out early, because the location marked was quite deep into the wasteland. The entire trip was mostly just staring at the sand and wind, but when we almost arrived at the coordinates, we detected half a dozen vehicles approaching us. We quickly pressed the button on the device Sarah gave me. The device rang like it was connecting to a call before it suddenly projected a hologram screen right above itself. The figure of a rugged man appeared. ¡°Identify yourselves,¡± He succinctly commanded. ¡°I am Rollo. Sarah invited me over to visit.¡± ¡°Wait.¡± The projection of him disappeared for a few minutes before reappearing, ¡°Follow us. Do not stray.¡± The other cars came to a stop and only one began to move. Taking the hint, Vin drove the Vanguard after it. As we headed further in, we passed through a short ravine where the storm abruptly abated, restoring visibility. We could see a flat clearing of undisturbed sand with a settlement off in the distance. Glancing back, the sandstorm behind us continued to rage on, making a stark contrast. The settlement was filled with short structures that had the same color as the sand. It would¡¯ve been hard to spot from the distance if it wasn¡¯t for all the little dots that were likely people moving about around it. We were led to a clearing on the outskirts, where we dismounted from our rides. I didn¡¯t even have a chance to find my footing when a loud voice called out to me. ¡°Rollo! You¡¯re here!¡± The familiar figure of Sarah approached with a shorter boy slightly behind her. ¡°Hey, Sarah, Caleb, how¡¯s it going?¡± ¡°It really is Rollo! Welcome!¡± The little boy greeted. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to show you around!¡± Sarah said, but then Andrew, who was shadowing behind, cleared his throat. ¡°...but first, let¡¯s go see our dad. He¡¯s expecting you. Follow me.¡± Sarah started walking off with Caleb in hand, without delay. ¡°Sounds good. You guys can wait by the car,¡± I said to the three others who came with me. ¡°I¡¯m coming along too. Come on, I want to get a closer look at this place. It¡¯s not every day you get to tour a wastelander tribe,¡± Vin said, as he began to follow after Sarah without waiting for my reply. As we passed by the people of their tribe, they gave us looks, but they continued to go about their day like anyone else in the city would. The difference was that the place was much smaller, and people walked around with a herd of cow¡­mutant cows. They were bulkier than the cows I knew and looked a little menacing. Having a closer look at the structures, I noticed they were all made of thin alloys. I heard wastelanders were nomadic. I had thought they would be in tents or something similar, but it made sense to use alloys if they can be lighter and stronger than most materials. All the buildings were quite short, but we soon stopped in front of one that was much wider than the rest. At the entrance stood two guards, who looked like they meant business. They sized us up and then gestured for us to head in with their heads. Inside was a simple, spacious room, with carpets of various patterns overlaid on top of each other. At the center was a fit middle-aged man with a full beard who sat atop a stack of carpets with his legs crossed. He was smoking a wooden pipe that seemed antique even to me. Sarah and Caleb rushed to his side and took a seat on the carpeted floor next to him. He wore loose robes and sat casually with his eyes closed while he lit the pipe. He deeply inhaled the pipe and held it in his lungs for a moment before blowing ring-shaped smoke back out. ¡°So you are Rollo?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Eugene though folk ¡®round here call me Gene, I welcome my children¡¯s savior to the Wells Clan,¡± He said as he spread his arms out. ¡°Pleasure meeting you.¡± I stepped forward and offered a handshake. He wiped his hand on his clothes and took my hand, ¡°Please enjoy your stay with us¡­is what I¡¯d like to say, but there¡¯s something I wanted your assistance with, pertaining to the city.¡± The city? I¡¯m going to have to decline if it has anything to do with getting involved in his fight against the corporations. ¡°Do not worry,¡± He smiled as if he could read my mind. ¡°We simply want you to help us look for one of us who has been missing for the past week. Several people from our clan have tried searching for them, but to no avail.¡± ¡°So you want someone from the city to give it a try instead?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good that you are fast on the uptake. Jane, enter,¡± At his words, a familiar-looking woman stepped in from where I had entered. She froze for a second as we locked eyes. ¡°You will accompany Rollo here and provide information so you may find Perry.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± The woman replied with her eyes glued to me, ¡°So we meet again¡­Maxwell...¡± Chapter 33: Looking Around ¡°So, your real name is Rollo? I didn¡¯t have a chance to say thank you the other day.¡± I stared at the woman for a second, as my memory failed to remind me who she was. ¡°...You don¡¯t remember me? You helped me the other night in NLA.¡± Right, the one I tried to ignore and walked out on. ¡°Right, glad to see you¡¯re okay.¡± ¡°...Our leader told me to brief you on Perry. Follow me.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll meet you outside when you¡¯re done, Rollo.¡± Sarah cut off in the middle of her conversation with her father to inform me. The woman named Jane led me out of the room, leaving Sarah and her family behind. We went to a small office nearby with real paper documents messily strewn across the room. Jane dug through several folders, chucking a few in a growing pile until she found what she was looking for, ¡°Here, everything we found in the city. Last seen in the entertainment area, here¡¯s the photo captured from a nearby security camera.¡± The folder had actual printed-out copies of the photos instead of the digital copies I had gotten used to. The image showed a red-haired teenager, Perry, the missing wastelander from Clan Wells. I recorded everything with my implants before returning the files to Jane. ¡°...Please try your best to find her. Her parents haven¡¯t been doing so well since she¡¯s gone missing.¡± ¡°Understood. We¡¯ll start looking tonight when I get back. I¡¯ll do my best, but I can¡¯t make any promises.¡± ¡°Did she have any friends or enemies in the city?¡± Vin stepped forward and broke his silence. ¡°Of course not. We don¡¯t have much contact with outsiders. It was her first time in the city¡­¡± Vin asked a few more questions but didn¡¯t uncover anything new, so we made our way back while Jane stayed to pack and got ready to accompany us. ¡°Chances are, some corpos got her for who knows what. Nothing good for sure, with the escalation they have with wastelanders. It¡¯s a waste of time looking for her,¡± Vin mumbled as soon as we were out of earshot. ¡°We never know. It¡¯s worth a try for sure, though. I¡¯d like to take this opportunity to improve my relationship with the wastelanders too.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re the boss. I¡¯ll let you know when you¡¯re about to do something dumb.¡± Despite his words, it was obvious Vin wanted to help as well, but didn¡¯t want to get anyone¡¯s hopes up. ¡°Sure thing. I¡¯m counting on you to do so.¡± We met up with Sarah¡¯s group, who were chatting with the two guards just outside the building, where I met Eugene. ¡°Welcome back, done with all the business?¡± ¡°Yeah, going to be my tour guide now?¡± ¡°You betcha! First stop, the mootant stables!¡± Following the high-spirited siblings, we proceeded through a majority of the small town and headed toward the outskirts. We passed by more people than I had thought. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if there were a thousand people here. We continued until we reached a tent-like building, where it started to smell like a farm. Upon entering inside, the smell intensified as dozens and dozens of mutant cows neatly lined up in their own stall. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of cows¡­Where do you even get enough grasses to feed them?¡± ¡°They¡¯re mootants. They don¡¯t eat grass like normal cows. They just need lots of water, sunlight, and whatever food scraps we have.¡± Sarah said as she petted a nearby cow. ¡°Do they produce milk?¡± Vin asked. ¡°Yep. Want to try some later?¡± ¡°Sure.¡± We continued our tour and headed back in the direction of town, where we got a look at their garages, which were more like warehouses that houses dozens of cars plus space for their mechanics to do maintenance. We also saw a giant platform that was attached to several trucks. It wasn¡¯t surprising, considering their need for transport while they were on the move. Our final stop was their medical facility before we settled for lunch. They didn¡¯t have that much in terms of medical equipment and supplies, which I guessed was a reason they even bothered to head into the city at all. There were some things they simply didn¡¯t have access to anywhere else. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Lunch was served in a shared communal dining hall where we brought our trays and lined up for food, where everyone received the same thing. For once, the food actually appeared to be real, and not the vat-grown proteins with flavoring added. When I bit into the steak, my eyes couldn¡¯t help but get a little wet. I just missed good food so much. I¡¯ve had enough of all the shit I¡¯ve been eating since coming to this world. ¡°Is that a new model arm you got?¡± I glanced over to see little Caleb staring at my arm fervently. My new cyberarm was the same steel color as my old one and looked similar. You would have to get a closer look to spot the difference in the model. ¡°Yeah, how¡¯s it look?¡± ¡°So cool! I wish I could get one¡­but I don¡¯t think Dad would allow it,¡± He shrunk back. From what I¡¯ve seen, there aren''t many wastelanders with a lot of cybernetics, they didn¡¯t have much equipment for it either in their medical facility. ¡°Caleb, you know better than to ask for prosthetics when you have a perfectly working body!¡± Sarah reprimanded. Caleb didn¡¯t respond and continued to eat his food as he looked down. It wasn¡¯t my place to get involved in something so personal and everyone seemed to agree, so we moved on to other topics as we ate.
After our visit to Sarah¡¯s home, we started our journey back to the city with an additional person onboard. Thankfully, the new place we had in town had ample space so she could stay in one of the spare rooms. Once we got back, we introduced her to the security there and dropped her off while I returned to my hotel. We regrouped for dinner, which it also served as a strategy briefing before we started our search for the missing girl. Dinner was completely unappetizing with its synthetic taste after the lunch I had, so I just quickly stuffed myself to fuel my body. Though in Vin¡¯s case, he didn¡¯t seem to have any obvious preference, which could only mean his taste buds had gone bad or corporate propaganda had brainwashed him and was a lost cause, or maybe a bit of both. ¡°So let¡¯s split up for tonight and ask around. Tomorrow, we¡¯ll hire a cy-specialist through a Quest Giver to do some digging,¡± I laid out as I sipped on a milkshake. ¡°You know, the fastest way is to reach out to as many QGs as possible and enlist their help for the search directly,¡± Vin said, as he struggled to cut through the fake steak he ordered. ¡°That¡¯ll also notify everyone we¡¯re looking for her and if anyone looks further into it, they¡¯ll know she¡¯s a wastelander. And I¡¯m not even going to get started on how their relationship with the corporations in this city is right now.¡± ¡°Right, even most city folks don¡¯t take kindly to us,¡± Jane chimed in. ¡°Let¡¯s see how it goes tonight first. We¡¯ll rendezvous in a few hours.¡± I split off with the two of them and began my search. I was familiar with stalking the streets at night, as it was my main method of gaining experience points with the system. I could¡¯ve gotten my other security guys to do it, but I never saw myself ever sitting back and letting others do my bidding, not with the system to level. The difference this time was my goal. I was trying to look for information, not zero some vile criminals. There were a few guys I had seen on my previous nights in town who stood around on the streets. They sold drugs and contraband that I had ignored, but this time, I chose to approach one. ¡°What do you want, co?¡± A paranoid-looking man asked as he continued to peer left and right. ¡°Looking for someone, I¡¯ll give you a hundred credits for any verifiable info.¡± ¡°Fuck off, I ain¡¯t no snitch.¡± The man aggressively shooed me off. The other dealers had similar reactions, albeit some in more polite ways, but I wasn¡¯t getting anywhere. I changed up the strategy and asked around stores and street vendors. They all made me buy something and gave me vague descriptions that I was 90% sure were made up. Just as I was about to have my SAID hail a cab to move to another area, I overheard a voice of someone screaming out in pain. I turned up my auditory implant and moved toward the source. In a nearby alleyway, I found two drunk men who appeared to be corporate workers judging from their attire. They repeatedly kicked an old homeless man who was still in his sleeping bag. The pair laughed as they took turns slamming their feet into the torso of the poor man. He groaned in pain at every hit but otherwise just laid there and took the beating. ¡°Haha, how do you like that? This is what you get for stinking up the streets. Go get a job, you lazy fucker.¡± ¡°Watch it, Kevin. You¡¯re bloodying him up and it¡¯s getting on my shoes.¡± I wasn¡¯t a saint who donated to homeless people at every chance. Maybe when I was younger and more naive. But as I grew up and dealt with the pressure of my bills building up, I simply ignored them, and that was that. Whatever these two were doing right now, though, was simply too far out of line. I didn¡¯t even bother with my active camouflage, as they were distracted by their senseless violence, so I managed to stroll right behind them. I didn¡¯t plan on killing them for this, though. It wasn¡¯t worth alarming their corporate security team. Even with my own business, I had software installed on all my employees to monitor them, so I knew for sure corporations had a more advanced version compared to the homemade product by Leo and Lana. A death would definitely alert them so I grabbed some broken broom nearby as I closed the distance. With them distracted, I swiped the end of my broom right toward the temple of one while I swept the feet of the other. I quickly winded up an overhead swing and brought it down on the second person, who was on the ground. The two were knocked out easily, as they likely never had any training whatsoever and lived lives that didn¡¯t require any fighting. My old habit of looting took over, and I emptied their pockets. After all, they deserved it. ¡°You okay?¡± I offered a hand to the homeless man. ¡°Ye, thank you, but you don¡¯t have to worry bout me.¡± He avoided my hand and pushed off from the ground for leverage instead, with the other hand tightly holding on to his belongings. ¡°Here, take this. It¡¯s the least they owe you.¡± I split the credits I got from the two and gave the man half. He hesitated for a short moment and quickly snapped it up. ¡°Thanks.¡± He turned around and began walking past me while leaning on the wall for support. Well, back to asking around. Should I try to interrogate these two once they wake up? Nah, too much trouble, wait, might as well ask everyone I can. ¡°Hey wait! I¡¯m looking for this person in the photo here. There¡¯s some reward money if you provide verifiable info.¡± I showed one of the pictures I got from Jane of Perry once he turned around. ¡°...Ye, I¡¯ve seen her before. Doesn¡¯t carry herself like most folks, so I remember. She walked into the club two streets down two days ago.¡± Chapter 34: The Glove ¡°...Ye, I¡¯ve seen her before. Doesn¡¯t carry herself like most folks, so I remember. She walked into the club two streets down two days ago.¡± The disheveled homeless man stated. ¡°Are you sure?¡± He held his stare at me for a second before he continued, ¡°I don¡¯t have time to fool around with you. I¡¯ve said my piece, goodbye.¡± ¡°Wait, give me your contact information. If your info is right, I¡¯ll pay you for it.¡± ¡°No need, I don¡¯t need your charity,¡± He said as he continued walking away. He didn¡¯t give me a chance to continue, so texted Jane and Vin the new info I got and proceeded to the club mentioned. The NLA night scene wasn¡¯t much worse than in Elevate City. The streets were getting more crowded as I approached the street where various clubs and bars were. The people had pretty weird getups and came in a large variety as they made use of their chrome to customize their eye and hair color. It took me a while to find The Glove, the club the old man told me about. It only had a small sign on the main road while the actual entrance to the establishment was in one of the small streets with much less traffic. There were still quite a few people inside the spacious open area with high ceilings. They were all crowded around a boxing ring, cheering and drinking. Off to the side was a bar where people occasionally ordered a drink before joining the crowd around the ring. I walked by a small booth where they took bets and approached the bar. The bartender was busy serving others, so I waited patiently and took a look around. ¡°Thank you all for waiting, folks. The next fight is about to start. You have one minute to place your bets if you haven¡¯t already!¡± The speakers nearby all rang out with the voice of the announcer. There was a quick rush to the stall to place bets immediately after the announcement. A timer was displayed on the wall where a giant screen was and when the timer counted down, the sound of a gong being rung echoed throughout the venue. ¡°Time is up folks. Get ready for our second round of fighters! Give it up for Rabid Jab Joe, and his opponent, Dempasy Rio!¡± The announcer introduced the two walking hunks of cybernetics and muscle, who both sported dangerous-looking cyberarms. People cheered for their favorite fighters as they entered the ring. I waited until the noise died down a little before I approached the bartender, who now stood idle and ordered a drink. ¡°Hey, have you seen this person?¡± I held up the photo to him as he placed down my drink. He gave it a brief look, ¡°No, she¡¯s not a regular around here.¡± ¡°I have a friend who saw her come here two days ago. Are you sure?¡± ¡°Could have come before or after my shift. I don¡¯t know anything. Ask someone else.¡± ¡°...Do you have a manager or something around?¡± He pointed over to where people placed bets and went back to do his own thing, ignoring me. I walked over to the gambling counter that was now free as everyone paid attention to the fight. The attendant there was sitting leaned back with a glow to his eyes that indicated he was watching something on his optics. ¡°Hey,¡± I lightly tapped the table. ¡°Are you the manager around here?¡± The lights in his eyes faded, and he looked up, ¡°What do you want? Bets are closed until the next round.¡± ¡°I just wanted to ask a question. I¡¯ll pay credits for your time,¡± I slipped him some credits. ¡°...One second,¡± His eyes were unfocused as he stared blankly for a moment before returning to normal. ¡°He¡¯s over there near the front, watching the fight. He said you can go over to him.¡± The fight climbed toward the climax as I made my way to the front. I instantly saw the area I was directed to as it stood out with fancier chairs than the rest, where a fit bald man cheered as the fight went on. A bodyguard in each direction surrounded him, and they watched me carefully as I approached. As I tried to speak with the man, one guard held up a hand and signaled for me to wait. Looking over at the fight, I watched one of the men completely on the defensive as he was being pummeled into the corner. The attacker landed a strong body blow that dropped his hand for a second and took the opportunity to continue his assault. From there, a downward spiral began as a barrage of punches slowed the defender¡¯s reaction time. The attacker soon found a gap in his defense and landed a decisive blow, knocking him to the ground. The crowd cheered in unison for a full minute before it calmed down. I gave the guard, who stopped me a look, and she gestured for me to approach her charge ¡°Hey, the bartender told me to speak with you about helping me find someone. Can you check if you or your staff have seen this person?¡± I held up the photo to the man. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. He took a swig from his glass and inspected me, ¡°No, we¡¯re not in the business searching for people or selling info.¡± ¡°I can pay you¡ª¡± He held up a hand to gesture for me to stop, ¡°Do I look like I need some pocket change? I bought this place for my enjoyment, not to be bothered by random people. But you don¡¯t seem so bad. How about I¡¯ll help you out if you take part in a bout tonight?¡± He pointed toward the ring. Fighting head-to-head was never my forte¡­Should I give it a go? Fighting augmented people was never safe, but the gloves or whatever safety feature they had seemed to tone it down or else that fight wouldn¡¯t have lasted so long with metal cyberarms bashing into each other. ¡°I¡¯m not much of a fighter, but my friend who¡¯s on the way may be interested.¡± ¡°No, I want you to do it or no deal. We recently got an opening tonight and you fit the weight class. This is a yes or no question,¡± I never knew how much pressure being glared at from all directions produced, but the surrounding bodyguards helped me gain this valuable experience. ¡°Your opponent isn¡¯t any established fighter, either. I¡¯ll cut you some slack, make it a good show, and I¡¯ll help you even if you lose.¡± Would it be rude if I sighed in his face? At this point, I guess I¡¯ll agree. From my experience with the medical equipment I normally deal with, I can clear most damages sustained from a fistfight within the night with the help of medical nanomachines. It¡¯s just going to hurt¡­ ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll do it.¡± With my agreement, they took me to the back, where they outfitted me and briefed me on the rules, which consisted of various restrictions that limited you to your hands. Whatever happened next felt like a blur, because it was my turn in no time. ¡°Good evening folks, for our next fight, we have a slight change to the contestants. Fighting in the stead of Roger Guns, we have Seeker versus The Rush! In light of this change, previous bets on this match will be refunded. You have fifteen minutes to place new bets now!¡± I hadn¡¯t bothered giving my name or creating one, so I guess Seeker was what they chose for me. I awkwardly walked toward the ring and waited right below as people rushed to place their bets. The crowd stared my way with judging eyes, so it was a little uncomfortable. My opponent seemed completely relaxed, though. He was shorter than me and young, so he couldn¡¯t be that experienced, but he certainly knew what he was doing more than me. Unfortunately, things got worse as I spotted people who did know me approach. ¡°...What in the world happened for you to get roped into this?¡± Jane said, befuddled. Behind her, Vin was holding his stomach, laughing his heart out. ¡°HAHAHA, do you even know how to throw fists, Rollo?¡± I gave him an unamused look, but he didn¡¯t stop so I ignored him, ¡°I¡¯ll explain later, but I needed to do this to get our next lead.¡± The time quickly passed and the lines to place bets thinned. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let the fight begin!¡± I was summoned into the ring with my opponent by the ref. We wore these thick gloves that someone put on for us while they also sent us some software for our cybernetics to tune them down. The ref then brought us close and talked loudly so we could hear over the crowd, ¡°You two know the rules?¡± We both nodded at him at the same time. ¡°Okay, start!¡± He pointed to his nearby partner, who rang the gong in response. Almost immediately, my opponent closed the distance and started throwing a wide swing at me that I instinctively backed away from. Calm down, me. I may have only played around, imitating what I saw on TV in the past, but I¡¯ve seen enough to know the basics. Keep moving, weave, and throw compact punches. Just as I was starting to realize how bad of an idea this was, he threw another swing at me and I barely dodged out of the way by stepping to the side. I instantly followed up by throwing a basic one-two at his head and jumped back. Wanting to continue my offense, I attacked while circling around him, making full use of his blind spots in my opponent¡¯s vision that my stealth skills had taught me. I landed a few good combos, but it proved to be a big mistake as he started anticipating my movement. I tried to imitate the most orthodox stance I¡¯ve seen from most boxers with my hand up to defend. I didn¡¯t have much time to think as the man in front of me unleashed an unrelenting barrage. I continued backing away as he swung and missed. He continued his onslaught, but what I didn¡¯t anticipate next was my back making contact with the ropes at the edge of the ring. With nowhere else to run, the blows landed on my guard. Desperate to defend, I held both arms up and went entirely on the defensive. I can¡¯t let this continue. I need to make some distance or hit him back. Luckily, he started to slow down. I decided to drop my guard and take the hits with my forehead and fight back. I tucked my head down and threw punches back, carrying more for quantity and power than precision. I felt my fist make contact several times suddenly; I realized he had stopped attacking. ¡°And he¡¯s down! The fight is over and the Seeker wins!¡± The announcer declares, followed by the cheers and jeers from the crowd. Awkwardly, they guided me off the ring and I got changed before one of the previous bodyguards led me back to her boss. I found the bald man sitting in the same place as before, smirking at me, ¡°Congratulations!¡± He slowly clapped, ¡°Here, have a drink.¡± ¡°No thank you, now if you¡¯ll help me search for my friend as promised.¡± ¡°Straight to business, I like that. Leandro, go ask the staff about the person our friend is looking for and check the camera footage too. You said your friend came here 2 days ago, correct?¡± I nodded at his question and watched one of the guards head off toward the back. ¡°Take a seat. It¡¯ll take some time.¡± Accepting his offer, we sat there in silence as he continued to drink and the next fight soon started that captured his full attention. I wasn¡¯t too interested in the fight, so I surveyed the venue and found Vin and Jane nearby, occasionally stealing glances my way. It wasn¡¯t until a few minutes after the fight ended that Leandro returned and whispered into his boss¡¯s ear. ¡°Good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?¡± ¡°...Bad one.¡± ¡°Okay, the bad news is none of our staff remember seeing her. Can¡¯t blame them really, we get pretty high traffic around here so you can¡¯t expect them to recognize every new face.¡± ¡°And the good news?¡± ¡°We got footage of her time here. The recording is right here,¡± He held out a small storage chip to me. Chapter 35: Following the Lead ¡°We got footage of her time here. The recording is right here,¡± He offered me a small storage chip that I immediately plugged into the port in my wrist. I played the video file inside the chip and saw Perry entering the club from the front entrance along with three others, a woman and two men around her age. She was dragged into the club by the woman, but the footage inside showed they were merrily drinking together as they watched the fights. ¡°Thank you, I¡¯ve got what I came for so, I will be leaving now. Goodbye.¡± Just as I turned around, the owner continued, ¡°You¡¯re welcome back if you want to fight again. Watch yourself tonight though, a lot of people lost some good credits betting against you,¡± He grinned. Ignoring him, I made my way out of the club and headed back toward the main street, where I met up with Vin and Jane, who soon followed after me. Vin had a huge smirk on his face while Jane spoke, ¡°So what was going on back there?¡± ¡°The boss back there wouldn¡¯t help with finding Perry unless I fought. Here, check this out.¡± I handed the chip over. She pulled out a terminal to play the chip. A moment later, she handed it over to Vin for him and his eyes took on a glow. ¡°So what now? All we got was a few new faces to search for¡­¡± Jane said with a frown. ¡°Use the timestamp to track her from the nearby cameras?¡± I suggested. ¡°Won¡¯t work. Places like these would have wiped their footage by now,¡± Vin answered. ¡°...¡± We stood silent for a moment while no new ideas came up. ¡°Let¡¯s retire for the night. We¡¯ll plan things out first before we search again, no use wearing ourselves out,¡± I concluded.
The next morning, I repeated my routine in my office and checked out some job applications we received for the few remaining positions. A college student had applied, seeking an internship that I wasn¡¯t planning on accepting, but my curiosity won over, so I viewed her submitted profile. Her resume was filled with various extracurricular activities on top of the usual educational background. Like clockwork, Vin entered into my office. ¡°We¡¯re ready to depart, whatcha looking at?¡± He stared down at my terminal in hand, ¡°...You looking for a ¡®personal assistant¡¯ or something?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like that¡­ I just wanted to take a look.¡± ¡°Hmm, she is pretty, and goes to a good school too.¡± ¡°Not like that¡­Whatever.¡± So a good school huh, it would probably be too embarrassing to admit I barely knew if the school was reputable or not. Especially these ones from New North America. I took another hard look at the school in the background of her picture and compared it to the ones I found online. They all looked the same to me, though. Wait a second¡­ ¡°Vin, go get Jane.¡± ¡°What? I don¡¯t think you need to get her opinion of your personal assistant candidates, no matter how pretty you think she is.¡± ¡°No! Get her to search the schools for their records while we¡¯re in the wasteland.¡±
Upon returning from our trip to the wasteland, my restored connection immediately picked up a text message from Jane. *Message me once you¡¯re back. We should meet up.* I replied with a meeting location and time and returned to the city to finish off the miscellaneous tasks for the day. When Vin and I showed up at the bar, we designated as our meeting spot; we found Jane arguing with a man twice her size. ¡°Say that again, bitch.¡± ¡°I said to get your fat ugly ass away from me. Your stench is making my drink taste like shit.¡± The two were right in each other¡¯s faces. If we didn¡¯t know any better, it could¡¯ve easily been mistaken for an intimate couple from afar. The man couldn¡¯t hold it any longer and took a swing at Jane, but she easily dodged it as if she anticipated it. As the man brought his arm back, Jane bashed her drink into his head. Angered, he tried to lash out once again. However, Jane was too quick for him to catch. The two continued their cat-and-mouse fight for a full minute before one of the man¡¯s friends seemed to be tired of it and tried to get behind the wastelander. I intervened and sprinted toward him before he got close to her and shoulder-bashed him back. He regained his balance swiftly and shifted his target to me, opting to charge straight at me. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I was still in boxing mode from the fight yesterday, so after I sidestepped him before handing out a one-two combo as I circled around him. ¡°Gentlemen, that¡¯s enough. Any more and we won¡¯t be able to afford to pay for the damages,¡± Vin¡¯s voice boomed throughout the establishment. Everyone stilled for a moment and turned to Vin before exchanging looks with their friends. ¡°Fuck this, it¡¯s not over yet, bitch! Let¡¯s go.¡± The first man lashed out one final time before he left with his friend. It was perfectly understandable that the incident got us kicked out of the bar too, so instead, we headed to one of the fast-food chains I had been patronizing lately. ¡°What was that about?¡± I asked, immediately after we sat down with our order. ¡°Nothing¡­Sorry, I was just agitated, and that scumbag picked the wrong time to approach me.¡± I shared a look with Vin and we both came to the conclusion of leaving it at that. ¡°So, did you find anything today?¡± She sat back in her seat and sipped on her drink, ¡°Yeah, I found the kids that were with Perry from the University of Holly Corp.¡± ¡°And?¡± Vin urged her to continue. ¡°Got their address and everything, but I couldn¡¯t get in. They¡¯re all in the same gated community.¡± ¡°Send the info. I¡¯ll go take a look.¡± She looked up at me in surprise, ¡°I said, a gated community. With good security too.¡± ¡°I still want to give it a try. Send it over.¡± ¡°...¡±
Unlike in Elevate City, NLA, located on the mainland of the North American continent, had a lot more space, so the city wasn¡¯t entirely a concrete jungle. Vin dropped me off near the location of the gated community I received from Jane. I approached from the cover of the thickets in its surroundings. I carefully approached the metal gates and surveyed for opportunities for entry. The gate appeared to be the electric type that actually would sting and alert the guards, so I snuck back around the main gate instead. There were two guards sitting in the booths that controlled the gate. I watched as they pressed some buttons on the terminal in front of them before the gate opened for a car to exit. Okay, so they don¡¯t have military-level security, as I feared. I should¡¯ve expected as much for a civilian dwelling. Having found no security measures that could threaten me around, I simply engaged my active camouflage and sprinted through the gate when it opened again. It didn¡¯t even matter the camouflage wasn¡¯t perfect when I did intense movements, as there were no attentive guards on the lookout as they stayed in their cozy little booths. Once I got in, I found a dark secluded area to allow my stealth implant to rest. I searched for any geographic information and mentally mapped out a route to reach the houses where my targets lived. I opted to have one of the men who had accompanied Perry into The Glove for my first visitation, simply due to their house being the closest to my current location. As it was nighttime, there weren¡¯t a lot of people outside besides the few who were going on a run or walking their pets. Sticking to the shadows, the house soon came into view. The lights were on, so it was likely someone was home. Cautiously circling the house, I found all the doors and windows were properly secured, but found a window upstairs on the second floor opened. I warily climbed up and hung from the window with my camouflage on. Music could be heard out of the window and a quick peek revealed a man sitting on his bed, jamming out as he sat by a desk. I carefully climbed in and got a better look at the man. So it is the guy I saw from the security footage back at The Glove. He wasn¡¯t paying attention to anything but his music, so I walked up to the terminal and plugged into it. There was a lot of junk data and porn, but nothing criminal or related to the missing girl. Quietly exiting his room, I surveyed the entire house and came to the same conclusion that this place was clean. With no reason to show myself yet, I left the way I came in and began making my way to the next house. The house this time was twice the size of the previous one, belonging to the only female companion Perry had been in contact with as far as we saw from the footage. This place was a lot easier to sneak into, as there were several workers who came in and out of the building as they threw away trash, got some air, or smoked. I repeated my old tactic and followed one of them back into the residence with the help of my active camouflage. It was hard to miss the dining room where the servants went in and out of, so I took a break in an empty room to let my stealth unit charge before I headed over. In the room, I spotted five people sitting around a dining table, an older couple, a young man, and two girls. One of the girls was the one who had led the missing wastelander into The Glove, while the other one was Perry, the missing girl herself, in the flesh. ¡°Claudia, I hope you¡¯ve been keeping up with your studies despite your¡­distractions.¡± The older woman glared at Perry. ¡°Yes Mom, I¡¯ve been studying with Perry.¡± ¡°¡­Very well, I will be retiring for the night. Good night to you all.¡± As the woman exited, I caught sight of the older man giving his daughter a defeated smile and shrugged. They chatted for a little while more before they disbanded. I watched as Perry and her friend leave hand in hand. I tailed the two and saw them head into their own rooms on the second floor that were adjacent to each other. A few seconds later, I knocked on the door Perry went into. ¡°Claudia? Did you forget something?¡± The door opened, but she found no one there, so she peeked further into the hallway. ¡°Did I imagine it¡­?¡± After inspecting the hallway, she closed the door and returned to her seat by the desk. ¡°Perry? From the Wells clan?¡± She twitched at my voice and scanned around the room. ¡°Who¡¯s there!?¡± ¡°Calm down. Your clan leader, Eugene, sent me,¡± I answered as I disabled my camouflage. Her eyes widened as I came into view. ¡°What, our clan has dealings with corpo black op teams now?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m just a friend. They¡¯re all worried about you. From what I can see, you aren¡¯t being confined or treated badly. Why didn¡¯t you contact anyone?¡± ¡°...I messed up¡­and didn¡¯t want to face them until I corrected my mistakes.¡± ¡°Look, they¡¯re really worried about you. You should go back and explain to them your situation. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll help you.¡± ¡°That¡¯ll prove that I¡¯m incompetent!¡± I remember seeing this throughout all the workplaces I¡¯ve worked at. People who made mistakes and tried to cover it up or have others take the blame. ¡°No, being too afraid to ask for help and letting problems grow or persist is what really shows you¡¯re incompetent!¡± ¡°...¡± She looked like she wanted to retort but couldn¡¯t say anything and only pouted. I took a deep breath before I continued, ¡°Look, this isn¡¯t any of my business. Do you have a phone?¡± She nodded at my words. ¡°Give me your number and I¡¯ll have someone from your clan call you. Promise me you¡¯ll talk it out with them.¡± ¡°...Fine.¡± Chapter 36: Another Day in the Wasteland The next day when we went back to the wasteland, I stopped by the Wells Clan settlement while my workers continued their way to the outpost to continue the salvage operations. In my car was Jane, Vin, and one from the security to watch the vehicle. When we approached, a small convoy met us just like the previous time, but there was a lot less tension as we were known quantities to each other and Jane was with us as well. Once we arrived, they immediately led us to their clan leader, Eugene. Jane went to see him first alone while we waited. After fifteen minutes, we were allowed in to meet with Gene. ¡°Rollo, I¡¯ve heard you¡¯ve succeeded in our request. On behalf of Clan Wells, I would like to thank you,¡± He bowed. ¡°I¡¯m happy everything worked out.¡± Being thanked is great and whatnot, but I wonder if there¡¯ll be an actual reward. ¡°While there are some complications, that is another matter.¡± I had heard from Jane on the way here about how the girl, Perry, had lost the valuables they entrusted her with from gambling. She got lucky and met some friends who bailed her out and took care of her, but she wanted to get the money back twice over before returning home. ¡°Our clan owes you for your assistance, and we don¡¯t like owing any favors. Is there anything you would like as a reward?¡± This is it, what I had been waiting for! ¡°In that case, I would like to request permission for free passage and protection for my business¡¯s operations in the wasteland.¡± ¡°...We can promise you that, but we won¡¯t be able to guarantee any protection against other corporations.¡± ¡°Yes, I understand, but you can provide information on their movement and routes for us to avoid them.¡± ¡°Very well. Speak with Jane later for the details. Our clan shall officially allow you to operate in our territory and provide you with information.¡± Perfect! One of the major costs of working in the wasteland was security against wastelander raids, and the information he provided will be a good bonus as well. After discussing some more details on how we will communicate in the future, the meeting disbanded. Waiting outside were Sarah and Caleb. ¡°I heard you helped us again. Thank you!¡± Sarah stepped in and gave me a hug. ¡°Thank you!¡± Caleb mimicked her with a slight delay. ¡°No need to thank me. Your dad has already done so. We¡¯ll be keeping in touch.¡± ¡°Still, at least let us treat you to lunch.¡± We still had some time from what we allotted to this detour, ¡°Sure.¡±
After leaving the wastelander camp, we returned to our outpost, leaving Jane behind. The rest of the team that hadn¡¯t gone with us already made two trips from the nearby ruins. We followed along for the first trip after lunch into the ruins. I had enough common metals stocked up by now, so the focus was on high-tech parts that had rare metals in them that could be extracted. When the ruins came into view this time, I spotted the trail of another group nearby. ¡°Steer us away from them.¡± Vin¡¯s voice sounded throughout the convoy. We made a slight change to our course as we headed further into the ruins of what used to be the downtown area. The buildings made it an optimal habitat for some mutants, which made it more dangerous. Vin had plotted out the areas for us to potentially search, but being here in person gave us a better idea of which buildings were more intact. We found an alleyway clear of rubble to park our Vanguards and set up a defensive position. As this was a more dangerous area, we only split off into two teams, one to defend our rides and the other to explore. ¡°Sir, this entrance is blocked too.¡± ¡°I see. Look for any sublevel entrances in the area instead,¡± Vin replied to his second in command. We continued moving cautiously and found an old subway entrance that led us down. The leading security members turned on their flashlight attachments to their own guns as we all activated our low-light modes on our optics. I should really standardize our equipment so we don¡¯t look like the rag-tag bunch that we are¡­ There were several flights of stairs for us to go down until we went across a tunnel, where we finally made it to a spacious corridor that had storefronts on both sides. This was an underground mall in the past, as I could still see some of the signage intact, directing people to buildings and the subway. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Before we settled in a direction to walk in, a noise suddenly rang out from one of the commercial units. We all trained our guns toward it but found nothing except a cafe in disrepair. ¡°Fuck!¡± Suddenly, one of our team members screamed out from behind, followed by the sound of something hitting the floor. I turned around in time to see him knocked over on the ground. Standing on top of him was a rat. This rat, though, was the size of a large dog, and behind it, several of its friends scurried toward us. ¡°Rudents! Open fire, be sure to keep it low,¡± Vin cried out.
+1 EXP +1 EXP +1 EXP
The sound of gunfire instantly filled the tunnels. The giant mutant rats died easily compared to the Sandcrawlers, but new ones kept crawling out from the shadows behind them to replace their fallen brethren. These little shits only gave one experience point each and my pistol railgun wasn¡¯t well suited for so many targets. Just as I reloaded while complaining to myself, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my calves. I looked down to find one of the rats biting into me, which earned him a quick shot to the face. ¡°Sir, they¡¯re coming from behind us as well!¡± ¡°Everyone fighting retreat, go into the department store over there!¡± Vin quickly decided. The store he selected was a large grocery store in the basement of some building, so there must be a way up from these tunnels. Vin came up to me and lent me his shoulder as we continued to shoot into the crowd of rudents while we retreated. An explosion sounded out behind us as someone lobbed a grenade behind us as we moved up the staircase inside the store. The next floor was still part of the same grocery store, so we were able to throw the empty shelves to block out the stairway. We stood guard, staring at the debris we threw in for a few minutes before we collectively let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Tend to the wounded and then take ten.¡± Right after Vin gave out his orders, he came up to me and inspected the leg that had been bitten. ¡°Doesn¡¯t look too bad, just need to inject something to prevent any diseases and patch it up.¡± He opened his pack and fished out a first-aid kit. ¡°I¡¯ll leave it up to you. Sorry for letting my guard down¡­ I need more training in a straight-on fight.¡± ¡°Ha, I¡¯m the one who¡¯s supposed to apologize to you. You¡¯re paying me for security right?¡± He grinned as he dressed my wound. After a quick ten-minute breather, we started moving up again. I could still move myself, though I wouldn¡¯t be doing any running, not fast at least. We came to the ground level and found the barricade entrances that we had previously failed to enter from. We could definitely remove them out of the way from inside now, so we should be able to leave without having to go back down into the tunnels. This floor had various counters on this floor and seemed to be where they sold cosmetics before. Besides the elevator, there were still intact metal signs that displayed what each floor sold. ¡°Floor seven is for electronics. Let¡¯s go there,¡± I noted, looking toward Vin. ¡°Roger that.¡± Walking through all the expired cosmetics sprawled all over the ground, we made our way to the staircase. It was literally a pain to walk up the staircase, but it also wasn¡¯t painful enough for me to want to use the combat stims as painkillers. The way up was thankfully peaceful. We managed to arrive on the seventh floor, and upon opening the doors, we were met with an entire level of untouched electronics. ¡°Haha jackpot, seemed like no one looted this place when shit went down or anytime after. Empty your packs of any non-essentials. We¡¯re going to clear this entire place out.¡± It took me a second to realize Vin was referring to the nuclear wars fought in the past. It made sense that people back then would be more worried about stocking up on food and water than anything else. We threw every electronic device we saw into our packs that we could carry. We would leave the heavier stuff for later when we weren¡¯t worn out and injured. Before we left, we locked every entrance into the floor in case some other team took the opportunity while we were away to take our prize. On our way down, I spotted a giant cockroach crawl by the walls of the stairwell, but fortunately, it scurried away, as I wasn¡¯t in the mood to deal with them after rats. We got back to the ground floor, where the healthy members started digging through the rubble to clear out the exit. As part of the injured team, we guarded our bags nearby. I took Vin¡¯s bag and made my way toward where the injured lay when the ground started to shake. It wasn¡¯t enough to throw me to the ground, but a disturbing noise came from the concrete underneath me as it croaked. My fears came true as a loud crack rang out and the floor beneath me gave out, dropping me down as I fell to the clutches of gravity. The fall didn¡¯t last long as I landed soon, with the impact of the fall knocking the wind out of my lungs. I got up as soon as I could and saw that the hole I fell through was now blocked by some rubble above. I swiftly called out through the comms. ¡°Anyone there?¡± I nervously swallowed, trying my hardest to keep away the thought of being alone down here cut off from the rest of the world away. A short few seconds that felt like an eternity passed, ¡°--ollo, can you hear me?¡± To my relief, Vin¡¯s voice rang out on the other side of the communication line. ¡°Yes, are you guys okay?¡± ¡°Somewhat. We had a casualty from the debris falling, but the rest of us are fine. The stairway down to you is blocked off. How are you doing down there?¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t have any new injuries besides a bruised butt. I¡¯ll find a way back up. You guys get back to the cars first and send the wounded back to camp.¡± ¡°Roger that, but we¡¯re coming right back down to get you after.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t. We don¡¯t need anyone else to get hurt with all the rats down there. Not to talk about the potential tunnel collapses from that earthquake just now, it¡¯ll delay everything.¡± ¡°No, we¡¯re finding a way to you. You put me in charge of security, so I¡¯m taking charge no matter what you say.¡± ¡°...Fine, but I¡¯ll try to find my own way out. Make sure you¡¯re ready to pick me up once I make it back to the surface. I¡¯ll keep in touch. Go send the wounded back first.¡± ¡°I will, and you better not take any risks alone, you hear me?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make it back out before you get back. Don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m worried about.¡± Ignoring his words, I started surveying my surroundings. Now then, let¡¯s get out of here before Vin returns. Chapter 37: Getting Out Surveying my surroundings, I found the fall had only brought me one floor below the ground level. It was on the top floor of the supermarket where we escaped from the rudents, the mutant rats. I spotted the bottom of the stairway that led back up, and it was completely blocked off with debris. My comms couldn¡¯t reach Vin anymore as we were too far apart because he went back with the injured. Now then, let¡¯s see if I can get out of here before he returns. I¡¯d rather not have them try to come down only to sustain more injuries. While it was common practice to not pay if they didn¡¯t work, one selling point of the contracts I offered was the adequate worker¡¯s compensation agreement within the terms of employment. With the way up blocked off, the only remaining exit was back down, where all the mutant rats were. Once I recollected myself, I moved down the stairs and tried to be as quiet as possible. There was a bunch of junk we threw down the staircase when we retreated, that I had to move out of the way. I just had to be careful where I stepped or else the noise may alert the nearby rats. When I finally made it to the bottom floor of the grocery store, I found it eerily quiet. I made my way out of the store and back onto the main pathway of the underground shopping street and it was just as silent as it was in the store. It hasn¡¯t even been that long since we dumped bullets into a horde of mutant rats and there are no longer any traces of it¡­ Not wanting to stay to find out what had wiped the place clean, I headed back to the tunnel we descended from, but as Vin had mentioned, the tunnel had collapsed as well. The sound of something kicking a bottle suddenly echoed beside me and I reflexively turned on my active camouflage. Snapping toward the direction of the sound, the night vision from my optics clearly outlined a rat on its two rear legs, sniffing at the air. Give me a break¡­While I¡¯m not visible, I do not doubt it can detect the blood from my wound even though it had dried. I really needed to upgrade my stealth implant, at least the one I personally use. I drew my Suri and shot at the rat before he could track my smell. Maybe because it was dead silent down here, my gun produced a much louder sound than I had expected. From all around, I started to hear something scuttling around in the darkness. I picked a direction and started running down the pathway. I needed to get out of here before my camouflage gave out. On the way, I started seeing more mutant rats sniffing around, but they only scanned in my direction in confusion, as they couldn¡¯t see anything there. In my rush, I accidentally kicked a glass jar by my feet. Even though my boots killed any sound, it didn¡¯t help when the glass smashed into the nearby debris. Instantly, I could hear lots of movement from behind me. I refused to look back and picked up my pace. I continued to run even when my stealth went offline and ran until I felt the fatigue in my legs. I had augmented my cardiovascular system, so I wasn¡¯t easily winded, but my muscles were another case. Feeling myself slow down, I stole a glance behind me and found nothing there. Now that I think about it, I couldn¡¯t hear them chase after me for a while now. The surrounding area looked no different from before, with stores flanking both sides. This place must be huge because I was pretty confident I ran pretty far away. An entrance to the basement of an office building came into view, along with a worn-out coffee shop by the entrance. The stairway up was blocked off but the escalators right beside it were mostly intact. Pushing down my excitement, I cautiously climbed up to a small lobby with fancy turnstile gates and marble support pillars on both sides. The smell of blood was thick in the area and I could see dried blood every few meters on the floor. There were even some damaged guns and terminals that lay scattered around, from the emblems on the gear. It was obvious it belonged to some corporation. Not wanting to outstay my welcome, I climbed over the turnstile to find the area behind littered with light-colored ovals the size of bowling balls. The stairway at the end of the hall had sunlight shining down from the floor above. It also illuminated the weird things I saw on the ground. Those are eggs¡­ of what? A sharp hiss sounded out from a corner behind me, and I swiftly turned towards it. Curled onto one of the pillars supporting the building was a giant snake that was as thick as my body. It could definitely swallow me whole. It was staring straight at me as it let out yet another hiss. It would really help if I could use my camouflage right now to avoid confronting it, but it needs more time to cool down and recharge. Damn it. We stared at each or a short moment before we both moved at the same time. It lunged at me while I drew my pistol railgun and shot at it. The only good thing about such an enormous snake was the massive target it provided and, with it charging toward me, it was hard to miss. The shot broke off one of its fangs, and the snake recoiled back as it hissed loudly. Right when I saw it recoil back, I turned and ran behind the pillar on the opposite side of the room. With a solid cover in between us now, I peeked out to catch sight of it slithering between pillars. Firing several shots into the snake, it hissed out in pain again, but otherwise seemed to be moving unhindered from the damage. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. First the swarm of rats and now this, I need to add firearm shopping to my to-do list. I changed my focus to escaping to the stairs leading up. Every time I stepped into the open, it made a charge at me. It feinted and dodged a shot, but I reloaded whenever I had the chance, so my next shots kept it at bay. I made my way to the final pillar that was closest to the stairs. There was more than double the distance to it compared to the pillar-to-pillar I had traversed. I took a second to reload and gauged the situation. While I took my time, the giant snake crossed over to my side and approached by weaving in and out of the pillars as cover. With its approach as a signal, I ran for the stairs while I took potshots at it. I climbed the stairs as fast as I could, but my injured leg was slowing me down, going up at this rate. I wouldn¡¯t make it up before the snake caught up. As I climbed, I made sure to keep my eyes on the snake. Just as it was about to lunge at me on the staircase, I forced on my camouflage and dove out of the way. It should have recovered enough for a few seconds. The snake rammed into the handrail to the side where I was and came to a standstill when it didn¡¯t find me. It swiftly let out its tongue to taste the air in order to locate me, and it did. But it wasn¡¯t fast enough as I unloaded the rest of my clip into the mouth of the stationary target.
+50 EXP
I couldn¡¯t have been more relieved to see the experience notification. I allowed my legs to give out and plopped myself on the stairs. I opened the status screen to confirm the new experience points I gained.
Status
Level: 11
EXP: 960/1100
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
  • Stealth Technology +6
  • Software Engineering +4
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
I expected Vin to return soon, so I forced myself up after a short break and surveyed my surroundings to reorientate myself. I should still be in range for the comms, but it didn¡¯t hurt to be closer. Upon reaching the ground level, I found all the doors and windows in the lobby were welded shut with metal plates. It had high ceilings towards the doorway as another floor above shared the same roof. The windows higher up on the mezzanine had light coming through the glasses, so I made my way up another set of stairs. The windows at the front were too far to reach, but a quick survey of the floor allowed me to find a window by the elevators towards the back of the building. I backtracked to grab a nearby chair and threw it toward the glass pane. It cracked with the chair rebounding back onto the ground. I picked it up and continued to throw it at the window, and on the sixth throw, the glass gave way, allowing a part of the chair to stick out on the other side. Thankfully, my arms were prosthetics and didn¡¯t tire. I pried the chair out of the window and smashed it a few more times until it had an opening that I could comfortably fit through. Carefully clinging on, I lowered myself slowly before making the one-story high jump down. I tried to do a roll to disperse the force as I landed, but I clumsily fell to my side as my injured leg gave out on the landing. Gaining a new scrape on my knees, I made my way back onto the main street. The streets felt desolate without any life in sight, but I spotted some movement from within the nearby buildings. I really do not want to encounter any more mutants or anything. On the side of the street near the building that I came out of, there was a flipped-over vehicle that looked like a more advanced version of our Vanguards. It was heavily damaged, so I couldn¡¯t make out its affiliation, but it didn¡¯t take a genius to realize its value. The only issue was how to transport the precious salvage back. ¡°---there?¡± Static suddenly rang out from my comms with a familiar voice that could be made out toward the end. Well, that solves the issues of transportation. I promptly replied, ¡°Hey, I¡¯m still alive and kicking over here. Can you read where I am from the signal? I have something over here we should drag back with us.¡±
¡°You really should expand our team and invest in our equipment more if you¡¯re complaining about the hazard pay you set.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, I know, that¡¯s why I¡¯m going back now. You¡¯re running a tight ship here without me. Time to make some sales once the products are shipped back.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t plan on opening any clinics here yet?¡± Vin raised an eyebrow. ¡°Not right now, will have to wait for things to settle back in Elevate City before I even have the resources and money to expand so far,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I see. Well, have a safe flight. I still want my paychecks, so try not to get killed.¡± Vin grinned and gave me a quick hug. ¡°You too. I¡¯ll be back soon. We¡¯ll stay in touch.¡± I arrived at the boarding gate just as the final call started. The flight was pleasant as I slept through its entirety. The fatigue from my recent escapades must have been catching up to me. The view of Elevate City as we landed was breathtaking, as always. It was hard to imagine the sheer amount of people that lived in this concrete jungle. When I exited the airport, I found the familiar faces of Thorne and Claire waiting by my car. As I walked up, Claire leaped at me while Thorne followed slightly behind her. ¡°Welcome back!¡± She said as she hugged me. ¡°I¡¯m back. Hope everything was okay while I was gone?¡± I smiled at the two of them. We kept in touch while I was in NLA, but almost all of their updates were the same, stating that they had everything under control. Thorne gazed downward and scratched his cheeks, ¡°Mostly yea, but we just got ourselves a competitor within the last eight hours. Yesterday, some small-time corp launched a similar chrome to ours¡­they beat us to the punch.¡± Chapter 38: Beaten to the Punch The view of Elevate City sprawling with life filled my eyes from the passenger seat of the car. ¡°So, tell me about this new competitor of ours,¡± I looked over to Thorne in the driver¡¯s seat. His eyes took on a glow before he replied, ¡°The Hathway Corporation, led by James Hathway, has been a declining corporation since the time of his father. They specialize in projection technology used in various large-sized terminals used for presentations and conferences.¡± ¡°So it wouldn¡¯t be hard for them to use that technology for producing a working active camouflage.¡± ¡°Yes, but I¡¯ve seen their product, and it¡¯s just that, a smart projector. It isn¡¯t nearly as optimized as ours for use in the field, with much worse reliability and uptime.¡± ¡°That means their threat is minimal. They only have the first mover¡¯s advantage right now?¡± ¡°Right¡­but from my investigation this morning, they have some pretty bad reputation in their industry. They¡¯re infamous for corporate espionage and stealing their competitor¡¯s tech.¡± ¡°Well, that fits their image of a declining business that is desperate to stay afloat. We need to stay alert for thieves¡­¡± ¡°Yes, but me and Claire have been more worried about other corporations taking the opportunity to enter the market. If Hathway can butt their heads into our industry, so can any other corps. We need to launch our product first and snatch up some market share.¡± ¡°Hmmm, that¡¯s what we were going to do anyway. There isn¡¯t much else we can do but keep improving our products. Don¡¯t worry too much about it. The bigger corporations are more interested in defending their more lucrative markets, so it wouldn¡¯t make sense to leak one of their corporate espionage techs to their competitors to earn some chump change. We¡¯ll just need to beat out the smaller players.¡± ¡°Right.¡± ¡°So anyway, how¡¯s it going with you, Claire? Gotten any better with cy-sec and cybernetics?¡± I turned to look at the girl sitting at the back. ¡°You betcha, I¡¯ve been practicing chrome installation virtually too. I should be ready to get that cyber surgeon license in a few more months, but I¡¯ll need to save up for the bribe to get all my credentials like you did.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll foot the bill for it if you keep up the good work.¡± ¡°Really?! Yes, please! Allow your faithful underling to give you a massage, boss!¡± She held onto my shoulder from behind. As much as she is joking around, she isn¡¯t half bad at giving massages. ¡°So tell us, how was your trip to NLA? You said you got hurt in the wasteland as well. Is it really that dangerous out there?¡± Claire asked. The massage paused while she awaited my answer. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was really interested or just wanted to distract me because she didn¡¯t want to continue the massage, but I might as well oblige. ¡°Yeah, the sandstorm that rages in the wasteland was insane. It was a breathtaking scene when I first saw it. I also met Sarah and Caleb with their tribe. There were various mutant animals too¡­¡±
¡°Make sure you adjust the connection here based on the scans for each patient, especially on the first installation. The difference between a good job and a poor job will significantly affect the chances of rejection, infections, swelling, pain, and the entire bag of complications,¡± I held up the cybernetic to be installed for Claire to see. She had been studying with the surgeons at the clinic, but decided to observe my first installation since coming back. I installed a health monitor implant on the client that allowed them to have a detailed grasp of their real-time condition. It was an entry model that went for a few thousand credits. The more expensive models had nanomachines to help repair any sustained trauma. The installation was completed without a hitch and I let Claire do the calibrations with the patient at my supervision. ¡°So Doc, do you think it¡¯s okay for me to keep chroming up? I¡¯ve heard a lot of horror stories about people getting corrupted, becoming those emotionless drones when they get too much chrome, too fast¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be fine for quite a few more augmentations unless you have some faulty SAID. That¡¯s why it¡¯s important to regularly come in for checkups,¡± I opted not to elaborate further as it would get too technical. The calibrations were soon complete and Claire quickly returned after she walked the client out. She reviewed the note she took on her terminal, ¡°What was that talk about people getting corrupted?¡± ¡°It¡¯s slang for a topic you¡¯ll learn soon if not already regarding anhedonia as a result of cybernetics.¡± ¡°Ah, the one that makes you emotionless like a robot.¡± ¡°Right, it¡¯s not that common, or else cybernetics wouldn¡¯t be so common, but it doesn¡¯t stop people from fearing it because of all the horror stories of how some corporations purposefully inflict the corruption on people to make them their mindless minions,¡° I collected my belongings and stood up. ¡°Follow me if you want to continue our chat. I¡¯m going to work on something in my workshop.¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m okay. I¡¯m going to order lunch. Anything you want?¡± I opened the door and turned back to reply, ¡°Nope, just get me whatever.¡± Just as I cleared the door, I heard Claire¡¯s voice catch up after me, ¡°With a milkshake?¡± ¡°Yep, thank you!¡± Entering my workshop, I continued working on the project I started last night when I heard about Hathway Corp. There was a high chance they knew about our stealth implant and may send infiltrators to steal our tech to dominate the market. The market for stealth tech wasn¡¯t that large. The ratio of mercenaries to the general population was barely considered a drop in the bucket and expressed as a decimal. The market for stealth implants was even smaller, being only a fraction of all mercenaries. That was why I was working on a countermeasure. It was convenient that knowing a lot about stealth tech also made you privy to their weakness and detection methods as well. From the stealth tech they were selling, it seemed to be only an optical camouflage, so we had infrared cameras installed. Still, I wanted more options for me and my personnel because the thermal vision on optics makes you pretty much blind to everything else. With speed and practicality being the main focus, I rushed the job a little in order to create enough for the entire security team. ¡°Did you need something?¡± Thorne opened the door to my workshop and asked. ¡°Here, take these to replace the visors on the headgear we gave to security.¡± I threw a case over to him. He took one out and flipped it back and forth, studying the dull grey visor, ¡°You sure these are combat-rated? Any instruction on how to use them?¡± ¡°No, but it should do its job. It¡¯s already calibrated to use our encrypted channels that are only accessible to our employees with the company software, so just slot it on. It¡¯ll automatically do the rest.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± With Thorne gone, I cleaned up the workshop and headed to the break room, where I found the food and drinks Claire had gotten for me. After a quick lunch break, it¡¯s back to work time. Why do I feel it hasn¡¯t changed much from my part-time job days¡­? The day went by slowly as I continued carrying out my scheduled installations and chatted with Thorne and Claire during the downtime. The clinic closed and most workers went home except for security. They worked in four shifts, so it wasn¡¯t that terrible, but that also meant there were only three of them not counting Thorne. ¡°They¡¯re ordering food, you want anything, Rollo?¡± Thorne came in to ask as I was getting ready to go out for some good ole community cleanup that paid in experience points. ¡°No thanks, I¡¯m heading out soon.¡± ¡°...Right.¡± Thorne would stay back to guard the place, so I would be heading out alone for now. I finished cleaning my two pistols and collected ammo from my stockpile before I put on a black armored suit. By the time I finished, the deliveryman had already arrived and was at the door of the lobby, where two of the security team members were waiting. One good thing about delivery here was definitely its speed. It was way faster than what I was used to in my old world. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was because the people here were impatient, jobs were competitive, or because the food they made here was completely trash and required no prep time at all. Probably leaning closer to that last one. I waited for the deliveryman to leave first before I did, as I didn¡¯t want to startle him with all the gear I was wearing. After all, they were rightfully strapped while they worked in this dangerous world. Just as the door closed behind the deliveryman, the conversation between my two employees abruptly ceased and an awkward second passed by in complete silence as they shared looks. The silence was then immediately broken by the sound of weapons being drawn, pointing toward the doorway. They reacted well to a situation they weren¡¯t familiar with, but it was still too slow. I had already pulled the trigger of my railgun, filling the lobby with the noise of the projectile breaking the sound barrier. Small pieces of metal debris scattered around the area I shot. The space flickered around the entrance before a person decked out in a black suit similar to mine suddenly materialized and slumped to the ground.
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Footsteps then quickly came from behind me and I watched Thorne rush out from behind. ¡°What¡¯s¡ª¡± He came to a full stop and glanced at the new body by the entrance, ¡°...Bring the body inside and clean up the entrance. I¡¯ll call someone to repair the door.¡± He ordered one of the two guards. I looked up at the door where the glass window part of it cracked, and now sported a small hole. Okay, another good thing about this world was how fast they built and repaired shit. ¡°What was that?¡± Thorne¡¯s voice broke me from my musing. ¡°What was what?¡± I looked back at him, ¡°You know, suddenly I could see the highlight of someone through the walls.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t I explain? The visors I gave you are linked to our channels, including the new infrared cameras. They spotted the guy creeping up and shared the view with us in real-time. That way, we don¡¯t all have to always have thermal on.¡± ¡°...I thought they only had a thermal optic addon. You only said they allowed us to spot active camouflage. This is entirely different. We¡¯ll have to train on how to properly take advantage of the possibilities this allows for.¡± ¡°Yeah, you should be able to find some references online regarding the training. This stuff is pretty bread and butter amongst all corporation securities.¡± It would be more common among mercenaries too if it didn¡¯t require an expensive main server to process the data, and the know-how to keep the connection encrypted. Otherwise, enemies would just spy on the channel and you would suddenly let enemies see everything you saw. We followed the guard, who carried the body into one of the unoccupied operating rooms. The body was placed on the table where I started performing an autopsy. The equipment I used to scan patients for a detailed view of their bodies in preparation for cybernetic installations took care of the majority of the work, but even then, it took a whole hour. When I finished, Claire helpfully handed me a smoothie to refresh myself. Though Thorne didn¡¯t let me enjoy my drink as he stepped forward and pressed me for the results, ¡°So, did you find out anything useful?¡± ¡°Just some data we can look further into with, not much other than¡ª¡± Without warning, a loud explosion shook the building. I briskly re-equipped my headgear and looked around. My visor highlighted a dozen figures and vehicles through the walls. ¡°Thorne, you might have to order more than just a door.¡± Chapter 39: Fighting Back The visor I attached to my headgear highlighted the various figures and vehicles just outside the clinic. Just as I finished counting them, they vanished from view. They must have destroyed the cameras outside. ¡°They failed the quiet approach and quickly switched it up to the loud approach. These guys really are your typical bullies.¡± ¡°Rollo, we have no time to analyze them! I¡¯ll go out and flank them with Peter. You head to the control room.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go with ¡ª¡± Thorne instantaneously interrupted, ¡°No, it¡¯s our job to keep you safe. Besides, you haven¡¯t trained with us yet, so you aren¡¯t as coordinated as we are.¡± Well, I can¡¯t argue with that. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s try to get this done fast and clean, yeah? I¡¯m really tired of having my clinic be a battleground.¡± He nodded and jogged out of the room with the security guard, Peter, who had carried the body into the operating room for us earlier. I headed straight to the control room; I unlocked the door using the biometric scan and found one of the other security guards, whom I hadn¡¯t seen yet tonight, sitting inside. He gave me a brief nod and the glow in his eyes returned and his gaze unfocused. The screens on the walls showed the current situation, which was the attackers breaking into the lobby through the hole they blew open from the earlier explosion. They were having trouble pushing into the lobby itself as the turrets in the ceiling deployed and rained hellfire at them. After our last rodeo at the clinic, I had the sense to upgrade our defense, but it seemed I hadn¡¯t gone far enough. I saw the only other guard on shift tonight defending the lobby, working perfectly in sync with one of the turrets. Seeing how that particular turret reacted, I could tell the man beside me had manual control of it and the two guards had practiced their coordination regularly. Good job Thorne. Another explosion rocked the building once more, as the bastards blasted another hole open through the windows of the lobby, creating a new entry point. A short moment later, the door behind me swung open. ¡°Are they trying to blow up the entire building?¡± Claire said as she speed-walked toward an open seat. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t be if their goal was to steal tech,¡± I said, as I started hooking up to the control system. I gained access to the system and took manual control of a turret in the lobby. It felt like a video game, to be honest, especially with my virtual connection. ¡°I got the new entry point,¡± I stated to my nearby partner, who nodded in response. From the virtual view, I saw a man dashing in through the new hole, holding an LMG. The automated system may need some time to identify and ensure he was a threat before shooting, but I didn¡¯t. I pulled the trigger, and the turret instantly opened fire. Streams of large caliber rounds soon ripped the confident man apart.
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An extra notification popped up behind him, informing me that I had managed to pick off another one of them. A few guns then stuck out around the corner and shot toward the turrets, but the armor plating simply deflected the small caliber rounds, leaving only shallow dents behind. They refused to leave cover, so the situation devolved into a stalemate. Just as I checked the ammo count on the turret, I looked up to find the outline of all the attackers outside the building highlighted in red with two friendlies in blue beside them. Then the sound of gunfire from their side intensified for a brief moment before it halted entirely. The red outlines disappeared rapidly, leaving only the two blue ones remaining. A voice soon rang out from our comms. ¡°We¡¯ve cleared all the attackers out front. We¡¯re going to take a look around as well, just in case. Keep the turrets ready until we¡¯re done,¡± Thorne¡¯s voice reverberated in my head. An hour after that, I sat in one of the break rooms along with Thorne and Claire, who both looked exhausted. I couldn¡¯t fault them either as I left the aftermath to them entirely, handling the police and the cleanup. ¡°It is obvious who organized the attack. They barely even tried to hide it. They used their own employees, for god¡¯s sake.¡± Claire let out a sigh, ¡°Calm down, Thorne. Even if we knew who it was, it doesn¡¯t mean we have to rush in to retaliate. Let¡¯s talk and plan things out first.¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°She¡¯s right, focus on reinforcing our defense for tonight and send out a few teams to dig up some more info about Hathway tomorrow, I want to know where everything they own is, their production facilities, offices, everything we can find.¡± I stood up and made my way to the door. ¡°You¡¯re going out still?¡± ¡°Yes, there are some preparations I need to get done before we strike back.¡± If Hathway was blatantly attacking us, I saw no reason not to retaliate, but unlike them, we would stick to our specialty of stealth. Our equipment was due for an upgrade and I just happened to be close to leveling up, so I had some community cleaning to do tonight.
Yuki - Security Forces of Rollo Halls Company ¡°I heard the CEO sent a team out to retrieve some vital info to improve our project. How come we haven¡¯t heard back anything yet?¡± A man dressed in a traditional corpo suit asked. Beside him stood a woman, leaning against his desk. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Everyone I asked has either been tight-lipped or clueless as well.¡± ¡°...You know what that means, it¡¯s time to start searching and applying to other companies, you¡¯ll come with me right?¡± He reached out and grabbed the woman¡¯s hand. ¡°Yes, of course,¡° She rose to her full height and grasped the man¡¯s hand with both of hers. ¡°Excuse me for a moment. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± She exited the office, and Yuki followed. She gave a pleasant smile to the few other employees on her way to the washroom, but the moment she was alone, her facade instantly vanished. ¡°Fucking horny bastard, as if I have any more use for him if he can¡¯t get me a promotion. I hope he enjoys himself starting back out as the new guy in another company.¡± She vented to herself as she vigorously washed her hands. While the woman was busy with that, Yuki brought up her terminal and connected it to the security card that was hanging from the woman¡¯s waist. *Peter, you¡¯re green to go, you got about twenty seconds.* She sent the message through the company¡¯s network. There was only a five-second pause after she sent the message before she got a reply. *I¡¯m in, thanks Yuki.* As soon as she saw the message, she disconnected the card and waited for the woman to exit the washroom together, as it would arouse suspicions if the door opened by itself. Once she was out, she quickly slipped into the staircase and deactivated her stealth augment. She gave a quick glance at the camera above, thanking their cy-sec specialist for looping the feed for her. The newly upgraded cybernetic they had installed had much better uptime than before, but it was still limited. It did have more functions and was invisible to infrared sensors, so she wasn¡¯t complaining too much. In fact, there wasn¡¯t much to complain about her new employer at all. The pay wasn¡¯t anything special, but they didn¡¯t work them to the bone with long hours and even had a few days of paid holiday a year. And she hadn¡¯t even brought up the hazard pay for work-related injuries, which she had never seen in any employment contract before. *I¡¯m done here. Get out within five minutes.* A text alert broke her from her musings. As instructed, she rushed out of the building by making use of the active camouflage and returned to the car parked a street away. Sitting in the car was Peter, who somehow returned faster than her. He gave her a curt nod and pressed some buttons on his handheld terminal. Within a minute, a fire alarm was heard from the building they had just exited and people soon rushed out. The firefighters responded promptly and arrived within 5 minutes, but they faltered when a sudden explosion threw shards of broken glass down from the twenty-third floor of the building. The smoke coming out the window showcased to all that the raging fire was still going strong. Having confirmed their mission was complete, Peter started up the car, and they drove away in silence. Yuki stared at the rearview mirror as they left the scene and felt slightly bad for the corpos staring blankly at their workplace. The ones who worked at their rival company, Hathway, were going to be out of a job very soon. I¡¯ve really started becoming one of them if I can empathize with them¡­ At least my idea was accepted, and we started a fire to force the evacuation first to prevent unnecessary casualties. Only their decision-makers were at fault, after all. Their drive back to the clinic was uneventful. They parked and headed back into the security room where their boss, Thorne, sat along with another one of their colleagues. ¡°We¡¯re back. We can confirm the office we went to is destroyed. I made sure to blow up their server rooms,¡± Peter reported. Thorne stared at the projected map in the middle of the room for a second before he responded, ¡°Good job. You guys can go take a break first. We¡¯re moving out together later tonight,¡± He said, as he drew an ¡®X¡¯ on a spot on the map that she recognized as the location they were just at. ¡°Understood.¡± She saluted in unison with Peter and walked out of the room together. It¡¯s time to enjoy a nice break in the middle of work. How nice, maybe I should take a nap. They did say we were going out tonight.
¡°Rollo, all the attacks were successful. We have either disabled or destroyed all the important assets they own across the city. Though we can¡¯t reach the ones located in other cities, they can¡¯t operate properly in Elevate City anymore,¡± Thorne reported, as his eyes glowed. I was glad to hear the good news. It was unfortunate we weren¡¯t able to touch their production facilities located in the Asia Union, but we¡¯ve crippled them enough. We just have to deal the final blow. ¡°Good, have the team prepare to set out soon. Let¡¯s give our friend James an evening visit.¡± As planned, we headed out once the sun had set. We brought two teams, half a dozen men with us, bolstering our number up to eight, including me and Thorne. Leaving two men behind to watch our vehicles, the six of us made our way inside a megabuilding, all dressed casually with the exception of the sunglasses we wore. It helped scramble our faces from cameras and had the technology to sync our vision like the visors we used. We got into the elevator together and when the door closed, Thorne plugged into the panel and signaled Claire to begin her remote takeover. Automatically, the button to the topmost floor lit up, and the elevator ascended. It brought us to the roof access floor that was normally only open to the maintenance crews. From there, we spotted the penthouse below. We acknowledged everyone was ready before we collectively turned on our active camouflage and descended to secure the area. My vision was soon filled with various outlines of the guards on the floor as if I was wall hacking in a video game. Now then, what kind of welcome gift should I give to my friend James? After all, how can I show up empty-handed? Chapter 40: Sending a Message I stayed back on the rooftop and glanced down at the floor. I watched as the highlighted red enemies slowly slumped down one by one before disappearing. Only the pair of guards in front of the master bedroom were spared. ¡°They¡¯re about done. We should head down lest they notice anything,¡± Thorne stated from beside me. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± With those words said, we leaped down onto the balcony. My boots canceled out any noise of the impact, which saved me from the hassle of having to roll on the ground to disperse the impact. One of our men stood watch by the balcony door as we walked by to head into the living room. Several bodies lay sprawled on the ground in every corner that our eyes reached. ¡°Sitrep?¡± I heard Thorne quietly ask from behind, ¡°Twenty targets subdued except for the three by the master bedroom, as instructed.¡± Inspecting the bodies, I found that they were still breathing, as it was the protocol Thorn and I set when ambushing our foes. More often than not, people were more useful alive. It allowed us time to identify them before deciding on the appropriate follow-up option. We continued heading further into the penthouse, toward the owner¡¯s bedroom. We soon rounded a corner where we could hear a conversation nearby. ¡°---our shift, want to go to the Neon District?¡± ¡°Ehh¡­Why not? We¡¯ve been racking up overtime these past few days. I could blow some credits.¡± ¡°Now we¡¯re talking. Alfred has been down our throats with the protocols and infrared cameras. It¡¯s high time you come blow some steam off with me.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­when is that bastard Ed coming back from his hush-hush mission anyway? He should come as well.¡± ¡°No clue. I tried asking Alfred in a roundabout way, but he didn¡¯t reveal anything.¡± ¡°He¡¯s always been a tight a¡ª¡± I didn¡¯t let the man finish his sentence as I put him in a rear naked choke. His friend beside him turned in surprise at the sight, but before he could scream, Thorne took care of him. With the guards taken care of, the only obstacle that remained was the door to the master bedroom. It seemed like James had some sense of self-preservation. His room was more like a large safe, locked behind a biometric scanner. Thorne moved up and connected a terminal to the back panel of the scanner. A moment later, Claire¡¯s voice rang out in my head. ¡°Thanks for the wait, guys! This is worse than expected. That impressive-looking lock still used the default software it came with, which is something accessible to the public. It¡¯s open now. Tell our friend I say hi.¡± The door audibly clicked open as it was unlocked. The light from the hallway leaked into the dark room. ¡°...Alfred? What¡¯s going on?¡± Our friend, James, nervously said from his bed. Despite the lack of light, my implants helped me make out the movement of his throat from swallowing. We made our way into the room and closed the door behind us to James¡¯s panic. He jumped up from his bed and reached for the drawer of the nightstand beside him. He held up a gun that resembled a collector¡¯s revolver. From its markings, I could tell it was from Premier Arms, just like my weapons, which meant it was probably an electromagnetically propelled weapon of some sort. He grew more nervous and confused as he realized there was no one by the door. He frantically looked around the room and found only himself. ¡°Jasper, Gran, are you there?¡± He screamed out. When he found no response, he quickly drew another item from the drawer, a pair of glasses, and wore them before taking a scan of his room. Having seen enough, I lunged toward him, slapped his gun out of his hand, and shoved him into his bed face-first. ¡°Hey there, James, guess which of your friends came for a surprise visit?¡± His struggle to get up intensified, ¡°Now, now. Calm down James, we¡¯re all friends here.¡± ¡°Get off me. Do you have any idea who I am?! You¡¯re so dead! You and all your loved ones.¡± ¡°Oh, are you convincing me to tie up loose ends right now?¡± I gestured to Thorne for his gun, which I then racked right next to his ear and pressed it against the back of his head. My fancy guns were cool and all, but too bad I can¡¯t rack them to make this iconic sound. ¡°Stop, stop! I¡¯ll give you way more than what you¡¯re getting paid right now. Just let me go. ¡° ¡°Sure, transfer me some credits from your account to this one,¡± I immediately replied. Who in their right mind will pass up on free money? The temporary account I set up soon received a transfer of fifty thousand credits. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°So you think fifty thousand is way more than what I¡¯m getting paid? You¡¯re pretty cheap for a CEO, don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°That¡¯s all I can move right now, trust me! Let me go and I¡¯ll wire more to you later.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I didn¡¯t come here for the credits anyway.¡± ¡°What?¡± He tried to turn back toward me, but I shoved his face harder back into the bed. ¡°You tried to attack the wrong people. This isn¡¯t an issue you can buy your way out of, understand?¡± Once he heard my words, his struggle re-ignited and was stronger than before. ¡°Calm down James, we¡¯re not unreasonable people, we talk reason, that¡¯s why you¡¯re alive and chatting with us right now.¡± ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°Nothing.¡± ¡°Nothing? You sneaked into my home and pinned me to my bed for nothing?¡± ¡°We came here today to just warn you, James. Leave the camouflage cybernetic business and stay in your own lane, making projectors or whatever, before anything unfortunate happens.¡± ¡°Is that a threat!?¡± ¡°Yes, it is. Think carefully now, we can always find you again and have another chat next time, though I doubt we¡¯d be as friendly. It¡¯s your choice.¡± He fell silent. I brought out the bracelet restrainers and put them on James before whispering to him one final time, ¡°We¡¯ll always be watching.¡± On my way out of the room, I threw down a milkshake from my pack on a nearby desk. It may have melted by now, so he¡¯ll have to do with what he¡¯s got. I hope he enjoys my handpicked gift. It¡¯s from the place I have constantly been ordering from recently.
After our visit, we returned to the clinic and disbanded, leaving only one security team on the premises, along with me, Thorne, and Claire. We set up a few hidden cameras at James¡¯s place just in case of immediate retaliation. It probably won¡¯t last once he makes a clean sweep of the house, but it allowed us to see his immediate reaction. ¡°Are you really sure we should let them go?¡± Claire asked as she munched on some peanuts. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯ll be hard to root them out when their family is scattered around the world. We don¡¯t have that kind of reach. Rather than fight a war with them, it¡¯ll do us more good if James listens and backs off. Besides, who knows if they have some insurance that had a revenge clause or something, can¡¯t be too careful with these corpos.¡± ¡°But you had to let all his men go too. He¡¯s got the manpower to retaliate at any moment now, you know?¡± ¡°He always can. We just have to keep our eyes open. There¡¯s no point killing all his employees, he¡¯ll just hire new ones. Also, I¡¯d rather not murder some poor worker doing their job. There¡¯s enough garbage around for me to clean up that I can¡¯t get to yet.¡± ¡°Fine, but we should prepare for the worst-case scenarios.¡± ¡°That was the plan. We¡¯ll need to earn more first to upgrade our security and hire more people. In the meantime, we¡¯ll be more careful.¡± I looked to Thorne, who nodded back. With our conversation finished and we didn¡¯t spot anything unusual with James, I returned to my workshop now that I had some time. I wanted to study the active camouflage Hathway Corporation had put together as I could only tell that the tech base for it was an entirely different approach to how I did it, even though it performed similarly. Their version had several synchronized small wide-view lenses that were installed around the body to project images of the surroundings to create the effect, as opposed to my nanomachine-based method. If I could adopt some of their tech onto the nanomachines, I could increase the efficiency of my nanomachines, allowing for the same effect with less of them, which in turn lowered the costs. After a detailed breakdown, it turns out the main things I could replicate were their lenses and the software their implant used to accompany them to keep multiple lenses in sync, though it will take some trial and error. Without the original blueprint or anything, it took a full week until I could reproduce lenses that could perform at 90% of the original. It then took another week before I got a consistent enough production method. The most fortuitous thing to come from the new production method was that it was possible to use the product of my old design as materials with minimal loss, which further kept my costs down. I planned to reduce the price slightly but my target market, who would spend on stealth tech, weren¡¯t ones to cheap out on equipment that their life depended on. It would increase my margins per unit as a result. ¡°Our existing stock has been changed to the updated version, and the next shipment is on schedule. You have a meeting with Delnar Medical¡¯s representative scheduled in thirty minutes and one with State Care Clinics at 4:00 PM today,¡± Claire faithfully recited from her terminal. ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll leave things here to you then,¡± I said, as I started packing away some samples of our product into a briefcase. ¡°...Are you sure you don¡¯t want to sell our better model, or at least a watered-down version of it?¡± I inspected the sample one last time before packing it away, ¡°Claire, our latest model contains some tech that we will want to keep to ourselves, indefinitely.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t we just patent it and sell a downgraded version? It¡¯ll be hard to keep it a secret forever.¡± ¡°Ha, a patent won¡¯t solve anything. It¡¯s not a monetary concern but a security one. You can see from just the recent incident with Hathway, leaking their tech allowed us to prepare countermeasures. A watered-down version will still have the same operating principle that others can extrapolate. We¡¯re only going to sell the basic version where it doesn¡¯t matter to us if everyone got a hold of it.¡± ¡°Okay, okay, just a suggestion. I got things to do. See you later,¡± She said and quickly exited my workshop. She was right in that it was hard to keep our tech a secret, but everyone had that same issue. I already installed a self-destruct sequence in the new cybernetic we gave out to our security team. It had several trigger conditions, such as disassembly, the death of the user, or manual activation. Even then, it won¡¯t be perfect. I¡¯ll just have to keep updating the anti-theft measures and monitor closely. I arrived at the meeting place, which was one of Delnar Medical¡¯s nearby cybernetic clinics, with fifteen minutes to spare. They were a middle-sized corporation and had various medical facilities besides cybernetic clinics, but that wasn¡¯t relevant to me today. The receptionist had helpfully guided me towards a meeting room on the floor above, where a middle-aged woman was already waiting inside. She was dressed neatly in formal business wear with subdued colors as expected of a typical corpo and was sitting relaxed while she watched me enter. Standing beside her was a younger woman who was bent over, whispering something into her ear. ¡°Welcome Mr. Halls, I am Ida Mereth. I know it¡¯s a little early, but why don¡¯t we jump straight into it since you are here already? I believe you have a product you would like us to carry in our clinics?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, our company has recently launched a new cybernetic, the HSU-003 ¡®Shade¡¯.¡± Chapter 41: Shade ¡°That¡¯s right, our company has recently launched a new cybernetic, the HSU-003 ¡®Shade¡¯.¡± I said as I sat down on the opposite side of the table to Ida Mereth, the middle-aged woman and her assistant. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve read about it but haven¡¯t had the chance to see one in person yet. Stealth cybernetics are rare for a reason. It will be a risk for us to carry this product if there isn¡¯t a market for it.¡± As expected of a corpo, of course she would probe for any faults possible to push down the price. Good thing I came prepared. I brought out my terminal and placed it on the table between us, ¡°You do not have to worry about that. Here is some data from my business regarding the market for stealth implants. As you can see, demand for our product has been exponentially growing, and that is from minimal marketing. There is still a large untapped market with all the mercenaries in Elevate City.¡± ¡°I see... These are attractive numbers, if true. Let us see a sample, if you will.¡± Opening the briefcase, I fished out the sample of stealth cybernetic we newly designated as ¡®Shade¡¯. It was unimpressive looking, as it was a small device that only had the purpose of housing the nanomachines within the human body. ¡°Rebecca, if you will.¡± Ida looked back and instructed her assistant. The assistant then took a full minute to insert commands into her handheld terminal before the doors opened and a humanoid robot clumsily walked in. ¡°Mr. Halls, we wanted to test your product on our G-Pig, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Of course, go ahead.¡± I¡¯ve seen them before when getting my medical license. They were not only used to test cybernetics but also helped practical exercises in med school. However, I didn¡¯t have any experience working with them as they weren¡¯t used in my exam. It didn¡¯t take long for the assistant, Rebecca, to install Shade into the robot. ¡°Connected with the G-Pig¡¯s SAID, activating the cybernetic, Shade, now!¡± She cleanly enunciated with a voice that carried across the entire room despite it only being the three of us. The robot that was standing still swiftly blurred out of our vision and I caught both Ida and Rebecca looking left and right around the area before it disappeared. Ida quickly composed herself when she noticed my gaze. She took a moment to clear her throat, ¡°I see¡­I can definitely see it is up to par, but marketing stealth tech so openly may put us on the wrong foot with other corpora¡ª-¡± ¡°Please, let¡¯s be honest here, Ms. Mereth. If that were the case, you wouldn¡¯t even be sitting here talking to me. We¡¯re willing to give you a wholesale price of 75% of what we retail it for.¡± The middle-aged woman took a deep breath and replied, ¡°50% and we have a deal.¡± A common habit from all the corpo I¡¯ve seen is that they always keep negotiating until they feel like they won something. It makes it a pain in the ass to negotiate with most of the time, but predictable, which makes it manageable. After some back and forth, we settled on 60% of the retail price before we messaged our lawyers to draft up the legal documents. They were on standby, so it only took thirty minutes before we both read over the written terms and electronically signed the contract. Okay, finally, one down and two more to go, for today at least¡­
Mia - Mercenary ¡°Where is Henry? We have to meet our client soon!¡± The team leader, Magnus, yelled as he paced around impatiently. He may appear menacing with his large bulky frame that probably consisted more of chrome than meat, but someone had to be the one to answer him. He wasn¡¯t all that bad once you got to know him. ¡°He said he was going to the clinic earlier, but I wouldn¡¯t worry too much about him. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s ever been late¡­for work-related things.¡± ¡°You trust him too much, Mia. He¡¯s the type that you have to constantly hassle or he¡¯ll instantly slack off. Give him an inch and he¡¯ll take a fucking thousand miles.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t say to stop calling him, but we can relax while doing so.¡± Magnus took a deep breath before he sat back down on the sofa and chugged the rest of his drink down. He looked like he wanted to say something but decided against it, as no one else in the room seemed to be on his side. Stealing a glance at the rest of the team, she saw them all doing their own thing without a care in the world. Who was it that said mercenaries all had a screw loose in their head or something? Because they are so right. When there were only two minutes left until the meeting, Henry¡¯s lanky figure nonchalantly strode into the private room. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Where the fuck have you been?¡± Magnus immediately snapped at him. His aggression seemed to bounce off Henry, who just shrugged and spoke back in a laid-back tone, ¡°Who cares? I¡¯m on time, aren¡¯t I?¡± ¡°You¡­let me have a word with you after this. Everyone, it¡¯s time. Let¡¯s go.¡± The five-man team then got up and made the short trip out of their private room on the ground floor of Haven and exited to the much noisier common area. They made their way directly to the stairs to reach the second floor, where it was quieter as it was reserved for private rooms only. They entered a new room where three unkempt men were waiting. It was the team¡¯s policy to let Magnus do all the talking in these negotiations. Though recently, Mia was starting to think maybe it¡¯s just because everyone else just let Magnus deal with the stuff that was a pain in the ass. ¡°You the guys Oli sent?¡± The smallest of the trio asked as soon as we got seated. ¡°Right, you asked for discretion, so just tell us the details and we¡¯ll be on our way.¡± One of the men sitting beside the speaker stood up and aggressively glared at Magnus. It amused Mia a little, seeing someone try that on the behemoth of a man. She held back her laughter and applauded herself for her restraint. ¡°Show some respect, co. You¡¯re working for us now, right?¡± Magnus stared right back at the man while the entire room was quiet. It would be a lot more tense if she wasn¡¯t only an inch away from bursting out into laughter. The silence didn¡¯t last long before the previous speaker gestured for his friend to back off, ¡°Excuse us, he¡¯s not the best communicator. I agree with you, this is no more than a transaction of money and services. Everything you need to know is in this terminal here. Do not download the file, just read it from here.¡± The others sat with glows in their eyes that easily gave away that they weren¡¯t paying any attention to the conversation while Magnus read over the details of the job. To no one¡¯s surprise, she was the only other one who even bothered to go over it after Magnus was done. Once she was done, the five-man mercenary team exited Haven and began their journey to the location provided. The gig wasn¡¯t anything new to them, a simple ¡®kill these guys from the other gang and take over the location¡¯. The only thing to note was the location being a small grocery store, so there would be random civilians in the way and the employer wanted to keep the damages to a minimum. The team checked their weapons as Magnus briefed the idiots who hadn¡¯t paid any attention earlier. This time, it was Mia¡¯s turn to zone out the talking as she caressed her beloved Zappy. Who is the best submachine gun in the world? Zappy is! It wasn¡¯t until she finished cleaning every single nook and cranny of Zappy that Magnus finished. ¡°---any questions or ideas?¡± ¡°Me, me, me!¡± Henry raised his hand like a school kid. ¡°I just got a new toy installed. I can go in to pop the fire alarm or something to get those uninvolved out of the way.¡± ¡°New toy?¡± Mia reflexively asked. ¡°Yeah, active camouflage. Stuff that I always wanted, and what the corpos hogged to themselves.¡± ¡°I thought the corpos installed self-destruct mechanisms in all of them or something. How did you get your hands on one?¡± ¡°I think a few corps are selling¡¯em now. Luckily I waited and a new model just released that was within my budget and had better performance than the old one, so I got it installed earlier. Here look.¡± As soon as Henry said that, his body began to vanish, starting from his torso and spreading to the rest of his body. For once, the other team members turned to look as well. A second passed as everyone stared dumbly at the space Henry had previously occupied before he suddenly came back into existence a few steps away. ¡°Absolute zero, right?¡± A rare sight occurred as the team started to ask Henry various questions about the capabilities of his new implant and where he got it, but Magnus silenced the budding discussion at the clap of the hand. ¡°All right everyone, we¡¯re almost there. We can chat later. We¡¯ll go with Henry¡¯s plan for now. Mia, if Henry gets you into their network, can you stop the fire alarm¡¯s signal from getting out? I¡¯d rather not have the fire department show up to get in our way.¡± ¡°Sure thing. He just needs to plug this in,¡± She pulled out a small chip from her pack and held it out for all to see. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s finish this job up, quick and easy.¡± She finished the calibrations, ensured the chip had a connection to her terminal, and handed it off to Henry as they got out of the car. She was the only one left in the car and enjoyed the extra space by stretching around. It wasn¡¯t long before she gained a connection to the grocery store¡¯s network. It was easy to breach, allowing her full access to their cameras and other systems. After giving the okay to Henry, the team executed their plan and triggered the fire alarms while she intercepted the signal from leaving the network. Mia watched from the cameras as the shoppers all slowly walked out of the store, pissed at the disruption. She spotted a few obvious gang members in the back scrambling to find the source while some exited along with the customers. ¡°We have a few stragglers that exited the building, along with the crowd just now,¡± She spoke into the comms. She continued monitoring the show as the shootout started, as their team wasn¡¯t known for their stealth, after all. The previous gang members who exited the building soon heard the shooting and tried to head back in when they suddenly fell down one by one, all with their throat slit. It didn¡¯t take a genius to tell who had done that, especially when she spotted the man himself come out of that active camouflage and join the fight. I guess it didn¡¯t last as long as he bragged about, but still¡­
A few weeks after we started selling our products across clinics all over the city, orders started to come in at an accelerated rate. Word had gotten around and with our prices comparable to what Hathway had but with better performance, it was only natural the pragmatic mercenary market shifted toward my product. This allowed us to start a round of expansion with our new credits, hiring additional professionals in various areas, such as finance and management. These professionally combed through our previous records and were implementing improvement in areas we were lacking in. And today, yet another person came into my workshop, which was more like my office now, with a recommendation. ¡°Sir, we believe from our projected income, the best course of action right now is to incorporate with the Elevate City Consortium. It requires an annual fee, but the lower taxes of becoming a corporation will pay for itself with our projected profits.¡± I paused at tinkering with my workbench for a second as I took in what my employee had said. If I listened correctly, what he meant was that it was time to officially upgrade the business into a proper corporation. Chapter 42: Elevate City Consortium
Status
Level: 13
EXP: 800/1300
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +6
  • Stealth Technology +8
  • Software Engineering +6
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
I stared blankly at my status while I organized my thoughts. I have been researching the topic of incorporation since one of my employees brought it up. My goal was always to strike it rich so that I had full control of my life and could afford better security. I always knew the only viable way was to create my own corporation. There was no way for me to change how society worked here, so I could only join them. Maybe when I became one of the top dogs, I could implement some changes to make this place friendlier and more peaceful. After all, I couldn¡¯t enjoy my riches without a peaceful world. Elevate City was an independent city-state that was controlled by the Elevate City Consortium, a group of corporations that came together to stand on their own feet, away from the influence of other governments. The various corporations here have immense influences throughout the planet and even the colonies in space. While the corporations shared an interest in the consortium, they were in no way friendly to each other, as constant fighting in the background took place for their profits. Still, they allowed new businesses to join their ranks to replenish the ones that dissolved from the cutthroat fighting. It also allowed for new ideas and inventions to sprout up. Although they allowed it, it wasn¡¯t easy to join the exclusive club; they set a simple and effective barrier to entry. A large annual fee to be affiliated with the consortium in the name of contributing to the city¡¯s expenses. The fees paid were divided into ten different levels. The more you paid, the more privileges you got that ranged from lower tax rates to priority with infrastructure like the use of the ports. The one we were looking into was the lowest G-tier and required an annual fee of a million credits. I¡¯ve read many horror stories of businesses forcing their way to join the consortium to be recognized as legitimate corporations that they had no more cash flow to grow, causing them to stagnate and soon no longer able to afford the fees. My accounting department had outlined a more detailed proposal on the feasibility of incorporating and expected to have higher profits even if our sales stayed the same as they are now if we took advantage of the lower taxes from becoming a corporation. The only thing we were discussing was when to incorporate the business, whether it be now or a bit further down the line. We had to decide if we were to spend our money on expanding the company and purchasing better equipment now, against more income from a lower corporate tax rate. I am tired of seeing the security team wearing mismatched gear and definitely want to standardize it. Did I really want to put it off even longer? I also was considering expanding into NLA to better make use of our existing facilities there already. A sudden knock broke me out of my musing, ¡°Hey Rollo, you busy?¡± The door opened and Claire¡¯s head peeked into my room. ¡°No, was just taking a break. Need me for something?¡± ¡°Nothing important, just that we were planning to buy a VR capsule to play together and wanted to see if you wanted to join us.¡± The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Well, I did tell you guys to spend that money to reward yourselves, as there was no use letting it sit in our account. Why not? ¡± ¡°Cool! I¡¯ll send you the one we were getting. Give me a second.¡± I watched as she quickly brought out her terminal and navigated through it. I¡¯ve been deliberating by myself for too long. Maybe I need a fresh perspective. ¡°Hey Claire¡­¡± ¡°Hmm? I¡¯m almost done, just one more second¡­and done. What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I wanted to get your opinion on when we should incorporate.¡± ¡°So you really plan to go through and make this company an official corp, huh?¡± ¡°Yeah, or else we won¡¯t be able to continue growing. Businesses we work with won¡¯t take us seriously until then.¡± ¡°I see¡­I¡¯m not sure how I feel about that, especially Thorne, considering what happened with his mom.¡± Right, I should talk with Thorne as well about this before we go through with it. He may reflexively have a bias against all corporations, a perfectly understandable one too, as they took his mom away from him. ¡°Let¡¯s call him here to talk it through,¡± I said as I sent a message to the person in question through my SAID. He entered the room within a minute, as the clinic wasn¡¯t that large to begin with, and Claire gave him a quick summary of our discussion. ¡°I don¡¯t see a problem with incorporating. I know you and it¡¯s not like you¡¯re going to suddenly become like most of the corpos because of what some documents say.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± I nodded at him and he then continued, ¡°Though I do want to ask what your end goal is, how big did you want to grow the company?¡± ¡°To be honest¡­my main reason was to get rich and use the wealth to secure my safety and freedom but it seems like that isn¡¯t going to happen until I become such a top player that we become immovable, so I recently plan to bring some change to the corporate world while on the way to the top, starting with better working conditions.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Thorne stated, while deep in thought, before Claire smugly added. ¡°Well, that¡¯s predictable, seeing how generous you already treat your employees.¡± Thorne chuckled, ¡°She¡¯s right, but anyway, you¡¯re not in any hurry to incorporate right?¡± ¡°Yeah, but I didn¡¯t want to take it too slow either, with the Harvesters and Rust Scrappers threat always hanging nearby.¡± ¡°Then I still think we should take our time and hire more people first. A new corp, no matter how small, will draw some attention from the hyenas, so we should be prepared.¡± He was right. I was rushing it a bit too fast in the face of profits. What was more important was the ability to defend my wealth being kept up at the same pace. ¡°Right, we¡¯ll focus on expanding then. I¡¯ll leave it up to you two on that end.¡±
¡°I think you¡¯ll love what we have next at 1345 SocialCorp Road. It may be an older building, but it¡¯s at a prime stop within this district. The plot of land is half an acre in total, though the current building doesn¡¯t make full use of the land, you can freely rebuild it after your purchase,¡± The young man proudly introduced as our ride pulled up to a slightly worn-looking office building. I exited the car, looked up, and counted five floors. ¡°How high are we allowed to build here?¡± ¡°It is currently set to the same height as the current building, so around five stories, six if you stretch it, though it is possible to negotiate with city hall.¡± Right, what zoning law could stand up to the might of a bribe in this city? Surveying the surrounding area, there were a few small businesses, mainly selling food and coffee shops, spread out between the various similar-sized office buildings that likely belonged to some corporation. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t popular to share an office building in this world as it posed a serious security risk with all the corporate espionage that happened daily. That meant each corp had its own building, which meant the smaller players had mini office buildings in individual plots of land. The ones in the downtown area were sold to only established corporations, but there were still plenty throughout Elevate City. Fitting as a corporate-controlled city-state to have available offices while the average workers were stuffed into megabuildings. It was also no surprise that the rent for the office buildings actually seemed fair compared to the rent they charged for residential units. Still, this old five-story office building and the surrounding land will cost one hundred thousand credits per month, more than the annual fee for becoming a corporation. The only reason they managed to convince me of the move was due to another attack on the clinic by some small-time gang looking for some quick money. I needed a more secure place to live in and more room for the new employees we¡¯ve been hiring. We also planned to turn the ground floor into another clinic as well. ¡°There are 36 underground parking spots spread across two basement levels. An independent power generator and water filter are included in the rent.¡± The man continued to babble on as I walked into the lobby. So far, this seemed to be the best one as it fit the size we were looking for, with ample room to expand into. ¡°We¡¯ll go with this one. Please start contacting the owner and start drafting up the documents. I also wanted to take a look at the floors above.¡± ¡°Of course, sir. I¡¯ll be here getting it ready. Please feel free to head up at your leisure. There is no one else here today.¡± The one elevator in the building brought me straight up to the top floor. It wasn¡¯t really high up, being only five floors, but the view from all the full-sized glass pane windows was still a sight to behold. I stared downward where hundreds of ant-sized people went about their day. Before I could take a seat and relax, my SAID alerted me to an incoming call request. ¡°Rollo, this is important, go watch the Elevate City news right now!¡± Leo¡¯s voice immediately rang out. Leo and Lana had started working for me recently. They had always wanted to return to being a corpos, so they took Claire¡¯s offer without hesitation. The only catch was that they were the ones who created the software that monitored my employees, so at their insistence, I had to put my upgraded software engineering skills to the task. With Leo being my new head of cyber security, there was no reason for me to doubt him. My optics booted up the news as a new screen took up half my peripheral vision. ¡°---are only forty-eight hours left until the time limit, then I believe most colonies will declare martial law and restrict all travel as the war begins.¡± Listening to the newscaster, my eyes immediately got drawn to the bolded headline toward the bottom that read ¡®War Declared by Europa Station against Enceladus Station!¡¯ I continued listening in on the details provided about which consortium was against which one, the notable corporations involved, and some expert commentary. Once it was finished, it looped back to the beginning that I hadn¡¯t seen yet. ¡°For those of you just tuning in, the government of the space colony on Europa Station has just declared war on Enceladus Station for reasons unknown. There is a 48-hour grace period for all those who do not want to get involved to leave as soon as possible. Travel will then be restricted, I repeat, there are only forty-eight hours left until¡ª¡± I closed the window and brought the call with Leo back into focus, ¡°That seems serious, stock up on as many materials and medical supplies as possible before the price rises.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already told Claire to get on that, but you need to be worried about other things. War in space means a lot of resources will be directed off-planet, logistics will be screwed up for a while, and you won¡¯t be able to easily find someone to ship your products from your factory in NLA to Elevate City anymore!¡± ¡°Shit¡­it¡¯s too late to find someone to sign a deal, isn¡¯t it¡­¡± Chapter 43: Logistic Nightmare ¡°Rollo! We tried contacting our usual shipping company, but they declined all our orders. We¡¯re getting the same answer from all the other shipping companies we contacted.¡± Claire rushed toward me frantically as soon as I stepped back into the clinic. ¡°How much stock do we have left?¡± ¡°We have enough for a little over a month for the clinic, but we have pending orders to State Care Clinics coming up next week and one another one the week after.¡± Shit, this wasn¡¯t just the penalties for breaking the contract at stake, our credibility with our partners will go down the drain before it even began. ¡°Reserve our stock for the orders. We¡¯ll temporarily stop selling Shades for now.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯m on it,¡± She said, as she ran off to the back. This would only stop the bleeding for now. We needed to find an alternative fast. I headed back into the camera room, where I found Leo. ¡°Got any ideas for our situation?¡± I walked up and stood over his shoulder. ¡°No¡­ I have tried everything I know. I called up Fitel and some other QGs too, but every corporation out there is looking for more shipping capacity to make a tidy profit.¡± ¡°I guess that means buying a boat or plane is out of the question too?¡± Leo downed his cup and turned to me. ¡°Nothing. The entire city is sold out, from luxury yachts to old scrap buckets that can barely stay afloat. First large-scale space war in 30 years, and everyone is overreacting.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m going to NLA then. If there¡¯s nothing we can do here, then might as well try elsewhere.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come too. I¡¯m not having the company I just joined go down so soon.¡± ¡°Book the next flight for us.¡±
The flights to NLA this time were five times the price and with carry-on only. Vin was waiting for us when we arrived in the same old car he drove. ¡°Sorry boys, I had everyone reach out to see if there was any luck on this side, but we¡¯ve been getting nothing so far. This may have been a fruitless trip for you guys. Nevertheless, feel free to give it a try yourselves if you want.¡± ¡°...I could try looking for some ships to steal from a small company or something. A smaller yacht would suffice for the quantity we¡¯re moving,¡± Leo cautiously said. ¡°You think a small business will be able to keep their boat in this current landscape? Only corporations with a decent security team will have anything we could use by now.¡± Vin turned to Leo in the back seat and replied, much to my dismay, as he was manually driving the car. We shared a moment of silence as we were each deep in thought. Before we knew it, we arrived at our NLA office, which doubled as a production facility. There were unfamiliar faces on the security team, but they seemed to know who I was as they respectfully saluted as we walked by. This was true for all the other new employees we passed by as well, while the veterans who I recognized knew I liked to keep it casual. I briefly inspected our production process and the storage with our Shades, our company¡¯s stealth cybernetic. There was still quite a bit of room in our warehouse, though if we stopped shipping them out, sooner or later it would fill up. My office upstairs appeared unchanged from the last time I was here. It was apparent someone had cleaned and maintained the room, though. I sat down in my chair and spun around to get a view of the streets down below when I heard the noise of the door opening. ¡°I got everything on the shopping list you gave me in your room. Got any plans for the rest of the day?¡± Vin¡¯s voice rang out from behind. ¡°Where¡¯s Leo?¡± I asked. ¡°He¡¯s just dropping off a few things to his room. He¡¯ll be here in a second.¡± ¡°I see, by the way, thank you for driving through traffic to make the errand run.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the boss. If you want to thank me, then give me a bonus.¡± From his voice alone, I didn¡¯t need to turn around to see the wide smirk on his face. I fought the urge to look back and took in the view of the city, where cars moved at a snail¡¯s pace due to all the traffic. The door then opened again as Leo joined us and took a seat next to Vin. ¡°Anyway, how¡¯s the ground transportation looking around here?¡± ¡°About the same as everything related to logistics since the war declaration. Though not as intense, since cars are way more plentiful and don¡¯t require trained personnel to handle. The main bottleneck is security to transport through the wasteland. Any large convoy with weak security is just a prime target to be raided.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Have the wastelanders become more active recently?¡± Leo inquired with interest. ¡°Yep, they don¡¯t like all the new convoys running through their territory, so I guess it¡¯s in reactionary response. Armored vehicles and security are in high demand right about now and are hard to find, just like our shipping situation.¡± ¡°That¡¯s it!¡± I exclaimed. They both urged me to elaborate with their eyes, ¡°You think we can barter ground transport for shipping?¡±
¡°Woah, so that is the wasteland,¡± Leo¡¯s expression easily betrayed his amazement. ¡°It¡¯s like a wall of sand, but it¡¯s so weird that there is a clear border where one side is a raging sandstorm while the other is so tranquil.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I thought too when I first saw it. You¡¯ll get used to it, but don¡¯t forget how dangerous it can be once inside.¡± ¡°Yeah, you don¡¯t say.¡± Our Vanguards soon entered the wasteland where the sound of the sand hitting the car overpowered any of our conversations until our ears got used to it. Our driver, Vin, switched from looking out the windshield to looking at the recorded map information and the sensors of the car. The drive went on for a while until our sensors picked up several approaching vehicles. ¡°We¡¯re here boys. Leo, you better stay respectful and let Rollo do the talking.¡± He nodded in response before we exited the car together. This time, instead of just the Wells Clan security team coming to escort us, Sarah was here as well. She lightly skipped over and was about to leap at me, only to be stopped by the woman behind her, holding onto the hem of her shirt. She calmed down to straighten her shirt before greeting me, ¡°Welcome back, Rollo! It¡¯s been a while. How are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to say great, but some issues have come up. I¡¯m hoping to find a solution here today, with the help of your clan.¡± ¡°So the spacer¡¯s wars are affecting you too, huh?¡± ¡°You guys sure are well informed.¡± ¡°Well, yeah, we have some people who regularly go out into the cities. It¡¯s their job to bring back news as well. Anyway, follow me. Dad¡¯s already aware of your arrival and will see you right away.¡± Leo and Vin silently walked behind me as I followed Sarah and her entourage toward the familiar building where their chief resided. On the way, I continued to make small talk about how she and Caleb were doing, and I learned that he was busy studying. The main difference was that their school was more focused on practical skills that helped with surviving in the wasteland. When we arrived, we were immediately invited into the room where Chief Eugene resided. ¡°Welcome Rollo, I hope you have been doing well in these turbulent times.¡± ¡°Thank you for your warm welcome, Gene. I actually came here to see if you could help me solve a problem that arose exactly because of these ¡®turbulent times¡¯.¡± He stroked his beard as she stared blankly into the air, ¡°Speak freely and we¡¯ll see if we can be of assistance.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll get straight to the point. I would like to request your clan to allow us to operate a transportation business through your territory.¡± ¡°Transportation you say¡­I take it you won¡¯t only be transporting your own company¡¯s cargo?¡± He stared me straight into the eyes. ¡°Correct.¡± He closed his eyes while he lit his pipe and only spoke again when he exhaled the fumes, ¡°We cannot allow you to assist our foes to circumvent us, so you may make profits. Especially not after they tried to kidnap our children and use them to force us to do their bidding.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be sure to not do any business with the corporations that wronged you. You must understand that corporations are divided and are competitors amongst themselves.¡± ¡°I fully understand. Exploiting that understanding is how we¡¯ve managed to survive with minimal interference from any corporation for so long. But what will my people or the other clans say when they see us buttering up to you city folks after the incident with the children?¡± Shit, the wasteland political situation isn¡¯t as simple as I thought¡­ The room stilled as our conversation came to a halt while I tried to think of ways to make it work. The silence was only broken when Gene finished smoking his pipe and laid it down. ¡°The only way we would approve your request is if you assist us with destroying the evildoers who were behind Sarah and Caleb¡¯s kidnapping.¡± ¡°...As much as I¡¯d like to help, I don¡¯t think I can help with that,¡± Picking a fight with a corporation when I wasn¡¯t even a newcomer yet would do me more bad than good. ¡°Let me tell you about them first before declining me,¡± I nodded at his request. There was nothing to lose from it. ¡°They are a new corporation called QuickLink Logistics. We¡¯ve investigated quite a bit about them and have already been targeting all of their convoys and their partners for quite a while. Although we are doing a lot of damage on that front, we cannot touch them in the cities. Otherwise, the other corporations would band together to remove us. ¡± ¡°I see, so you want us to help take them out for you¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. If you attacked them, it would just be another day¡¯s squabble between corporations. If we attacked them, we would prove to be a threat and a target for elimination. We want you to remove their presence from around our territory. Here is the information we have on them.¡± He got up and went to the corner of the room and found a folder to give me. I opened the folder to find real paper, something I had rarely seen since coming to this world. I couldn¡¯t help but lose myself in nostalgia for a second, feeling the texture of the paper before I started reading its contents. ¡°They may be a new corp, but they have branches not just in NLA and Firebird, but in Miles High, and Can Sauce City.¡± I raised an eyebrow as I continued reading. ¡°We only want you to cripple their ability to do business in NLA and Firebird to destroy their route that crosses into our territory. Their headquarters are in Miles High, so it should still be doable.¡± ¡®Only¡¯ and ¡®doable¡¯ he says, it may be doable in NLA, but going to a new city to attack a corp isn¡¯t to be taken lightly. Plus, this can easily earn us a powerful enemy, if not done right. ¡°Give me some time to consider it first.¡± ¡°Very well, there is nothing we can do without your help so we are not in a position to hurry,¡± I held back a sigh after hearing his words. Right, I¡¯m the only one that¡¯s in a hurry here, I¡¯m going to have to discuss this with Vin and Leo, and maybe convince Claire that this isn¡¯t a stupid idea¡­well, at least it will be interesting to pitch an attack against a corporation to them. Chapter 44: Firebird ¡°You guys want to do WHAT over there?!¡± Claire¡¯s image, from the video call that was projected directly into my eyes, leaned forward as she chastised us like children. ¡°We plan to attack QuickLink Logistics¡¯ facilities in NLA and Firebird to destroy their route. They¡¯re a corp that¡¯s only been around for a year or so and it¡¯s just their branches and not headquarters.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t change the fact that they¡¯re a legitimate corporation. You¡¯re going to antagonize them big time! Think clearly, Rollo, is this really worth it?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve thought about it all night. This recent incident with the shipping issue has highlighted a real weakness for us. We¡¯re at the mercy of those we outsource our logistics to. If we go through with this, we¡¯ll be able to establish our own transportation network we can profit from.¡± ¡°You want to go into the logistics business?¡± ¡°Yes, our advantages will allow us to operate at much lower costs than others.¡± I was careful not to mention our relationship with wastelanders over the call. God knows who could be listening. ¡°And what do you think about this, Vin? Are you sure they are someone who we can mess with?¡± Before he could answer, Leo cleared his throat and jumped in. ¡°I spent all of yesterday and this morning looking into them. While they are definitely bigger than us, they are also very spread out across four different cities.¡± ¡°Yeah, but what if they have some elite hit squad that will retaliate against us?¡± ¡°They¡¯re a relatively new corporation that had to spend heavily on security for their transportation routes, so they shouldn¡¯t have enough money accumulated to form anything elite. They have also been deep in the red for the past while for their Firebird to NLA route because of all the attacks from wastelanders. They shouldn¡¯t be willing to invest much into their nearby branches, at least, not anything we can¡¯t handle.¡± ¡±So there¡¯s still a chance¡ª¡± From the video, I could see Thorn pulling at Claire¡¯s hem, ¡°Calm down, you know Leo knows what he¡¯s talking about.¡± They argued in whispers for a short while before their attention turned back to the call, ¡°Fine, do what you think is best. You¡¯re the boss, after all. Just don¡¯t get killed.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not eager to pick fights I can¡¯t win either.¡± The call soon ended, and I met Vin and Leo in my office for further discussions in a more secure setting. The people who weren¡¯t physically here had no need to hear the details of our plans. Before we jumped straight into it, I questioned Vin, ¡°So, you think we have what it takes to do this?¡± ¡°Yes, but not alone. We¡¯ll be able to handle their facilities in NLA if the objective is to just cripple their route. We¡¯ll just have to make it too expensive for them to continue running it by attacking their valuable assets. Though in the case of Firebird, we¡¯d have to hire mercenaries to do the job so we can hit them in both cities at the same time. I don¡¯t know any reliable QGs there, so I¡¯ll have to go to the city myself.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll be the one to go to Firebird then. You take care of things here. You¡¯re better at commanding the people you¡¯ve trained.¡± ¡°...Is that really wise? There are a lot of things that can go wrong in an unfamiliar city. There¡¯ll be some serious risks.¡± ¡°Not much different from anywhere else. I did come to NLA alone at first, too.¡± ¡°But you knew me already. This time you¡¯ll be going in completely alone with no connections.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go with him,¡± Leo chimed in, he gave me a nod that I reciprocated. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll send a team to escort you guys over, then you¡¯ll have to be careful.¡± We then went over and fleshed out the details of the plan, how we would coordinate, and some contingencies. On paper, it will be a quick sabotage mission. Hopefully, it will be as simple as it appears.
The next day, we rode into the wasteland with two vanguards. The sandstorm continued to rage on as always, allowing for no visibility once we entered. The entire trip was estimated to take two full days if we didn¡¯t encounter any issues. It was going to suck without having the everyday conveniences I was used to during that time, especially a shower, but there simply wasn¡¯t a better way to travel across the wasteland. We had three people in each car, so we had a rotation of drivers going while one rested in the back. I should consider hiring a team there once everything settles because it will be hell to make the trip back with just me and Leo. It was my turn driving, but it was really ensuring we didn¡¯t crash into anything the sensors picked up and kept our heading straight. To kill the boredom, Leo and I were currently playing a game of chess through the screen displayed directly to us from our optics. It was simply too much of a hassle to use a terminal when the car was on the move, so even though it took up some space in our vision, we could still watch videos while we played. ¡°So, how¡¯s it going between you and Lana recently?¡± I started a conversation as I was stumped on how to get out of the bad position I was in. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Nothing special, same as always.¡± ¡°What, really? It¡¯s obvious she¡¯s into you. Just move in together or something already.¡± ¡°We agreed to focus on our careers for now. Can we talk about something else?¡± He turned to stare straight into my eyes. ¡°Okay, okay, sure. So why did you guys decide to join my company? I thought you wanted to be back with one of the bigger corps, not a tiny business that isn¡¯t even an official corporation yet.¡± ¡°You know both me and Lana have a black mark with our old corporation. It¡¯s not likely to get hired back by them and all the other corps won¡¯t either, as they prefer to raise their own cyber security personnel for obvious reasons.¡± That wasn¡¯t a surprise. I too would be hesitant about hiring someone who I didn¡¯t know and letting them manage sensitive parts of the business. They could easily be a spy sent by someone. ¡°...Besides, I know you, I¡¯d rather work for someone who I know is a good guy, especially with all the shit we¡¯ve seen in our time as mercenaries.¡± He¡¯s definitely mistaken about me being a good guy. I am a greedy person who simply uses whoever is useful in helping me turn a profit. I wasn¡¯t going to refute a compliment, though. We continued our trip with idle chat and took turns sleeping in the back. They let me sleep during the night while the other employee took over the night shift. It wasn¡¯t a fancy bed or anything, but cars always had a way of luring you to sleep. Just as I felt my consciousness fade, the vehicle abruptly swerved to the left. I immediately sat up to assess the situation. ¡°What is going¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t finish my sentence as I spotted a giant shadow rapidly growing in height off to the side. It was visible through the gaps of the sandstorm thanks to the flares someone had launched. The cylindrical monster was at least 30 feet in diameter. I couldn¡¯t hear it at all, as the sound of the sandstorm was overwhelming. ¡°What the hell is that?¡± ¡°Hell if I know. Some giant mutant, but who cares? I¡¯m not going to stay around to find out,¡± Leo yelled back from the driver¡¯s seat. I glanced back at the monster and noticed its figure was growing larger, ¡°It¡¯s chasing us. Step on it!¡± ¡°I already am! Get on the turret and try to slow it down or something! Aaron, go back there to assist him.¡± While the security guard sitting beside Leo climbed into the back seat, I immediately popped open the hatch into the gunner¡¯s cockpit, which was fully shielded from the elements and aimed toward the monstrosity. It was keeping up with us despite going as fast as we safely could driving in the sand while having to be mindful of obstacles we may run into. I couldn¡¯t even spot any limbs or anything to shoot at, so I aimed low and pulled the trigger. The night vision provided by my optics made it easy to spot the bright tracer rounds that were fired every few bullets which helped correct my aim. A low growl rang out in response to my bullets, and the creature seemed to have sped up. I continued to hold the trigger down as I yelled, ¡°I think we pissed it off!¡± ¡°So you got its attention then, good. Aaron, tell team two to shoot it from another direction. Let¡¯s see if we can take turns drawing him between us.¡± ¡°Roger,¡± He immediately contacted our second car after a succinct reply. Not long after, I spotted tracer rounds from a different direction, firing at the creature, and I took the cue to cease fire. The colossal creature appeared to be entirely ignoring the new threat until well over a hundred bullets were fired toward it. Much to our relief, it seemed to be fed up with the constant gunfire pelting it and changed targets to the other car. ¡°Good, it¡¯s working,¡± Leo celebrated. ¡°Sir, at this rate, we¡¯ll run out of ammo before long!¡± Aaron said as he finished loading up a new belt of ammo into the turret below me. I heard Leo hiss just before I started firing again to draw the creature¡¯s attention. We continued to take turns drawing its attention to ping-pong it between us. After the fifth belt of ammo was expended, Leo¡¯s voice rang out again, ¡°I detected some ruins up ahead with some big buildings still intact. Hold on.¡± I focused on the target so I didn¡¯t bother to try to spot where he was talking about and continued shooting, but before long, the ground below changed from sand and dirt to concrete, and then buildings started to appear as we drove past them. I watched as the creature slowed down and came to a halt near the edge of the buildings. It then let out another growl before it began shrinking in height, burrowing back into the ground. ¡°It stopped chasing. Let¡¯s regroup and spend the night here and hope it goes away,¡± I said as I threw myself back onto the backseat. ¡°Agreed. Whatever that was, I don¡¯t want to see it again.¡±
After we regrouped, we spent the night in some derelict building. It was always impressive to me how these structures weren¡¯t just filled entirely with sand and could provide shelter despite their shoddy appearance. In the morning, we resumed our trip and thankfully this time, there weren¡¯t any giant mutants chasing us down. From there, we enjoyed an uneventful trip until we could make out the skylines of the city two days after our encounter. ¡°The city looks pretty much the same as any other metropolis¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t help but mutter. ¡°What were you expecting? Some fiery buildings?¡± Leo replied as he popped up from the back seat. ¡°Nothing in particular really, it¡¯s a little comforting to see, actually. I can¡¯t wait to take a shower and get some food.¡± It wasn¡¯t long until we got close to coming upon traffic, both on the ground and in the skies above, where flying vehicles zipped by. Having gotten used to sitting in the car for such a long time, it felt like an instant before arriving at our hotel through the traffic and our escorts started their return trip. Good luck to them. Hopefully, they won¡¯t encounter that thing again. The last thing I wanted to do was to pay a hefty compensation if anything happened to them. After I got cleaned up, I immediately began my search for any information on the colossal creature we encountered. Unfortunately, information wasn¡¯t freely posted on the web in this world, and I only came across dubious anecdotes on various wasteland creatures. Not even paid libraries have much on the wasteland, as it wasn¡¯t in the corporation¡¯s best interest to spread that info around. Having given up, I tried out the milkshakes here and went with Leo to an establishment he found where we could get into contact with a Quest Giver. Unlike in NLA and Elevate City, where the establishments we went to were bars, the one we went to right now was an underground casino. They didn¡¯t operate sneakily in the back alleys and operated their casino openly on the streets, but the reason why I knew it was underground was because every single corporation supported gambling bans. It only made sense as having your employees addicted to gambling was a serious security risk and made them unproductive, so I was surprised to see them operating a casino here out here so openly. I wasn¡¯t even able to make it to the entrance of the casino before I felt someone grab onto my thighs. ¡°Sir! Please help me.¡± Chapter 45: Frightened ¡°Sir! Please help me.¡± I glanced down to find a man in a business suit grabbing onto me. ¡°Get off him. What are you doing?¡± Leo immediately stepped forward and tried to push him away. I spotted the security nearby was walking briskly past the crowd toward us as well. ¡°Sir, please, they have my daughter. They won¡¯t give her to me until I pay them. Please lend me some credits,¡± The man begged as he continued to resist Leo¡¯s attempts at removing him. While it was probably a lot easier for me to do it myself, seeing I was the one with cybernetic arms, I decided to see this one through. ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell us your story inside over a drink?¡± I gestured to Leo to let go of him. ¡°But Rollo! There¡¯s no¡ª¡± I sent a quick text over to him, *As much as I trust your information-gathering abilities, might as well get some information from a local like him.* The security soon reached us before he could respond, ¡°Sir, is everything okay?¡± The bulky man looked at me as if waiting for my signal so he could inflict violence upon the man. ¡°Yes, everything is fine. He is just a little drunk.¡± The security guard sighed with a look of disappointment and turned back. I was grateful we hadn¡¯t made a scene like I had expected, so we were able to casually enter the casino without drawing any particular attention. We passed by a security scanner where more guards stood by. They didn¡¯t comment on our firearms and let us proceed unobstructed. The first thing that came into view were lines of vending machines that dispensed game chips. Card game tables could be seen further in, with crowds of dangerous-looking people gambling. In the middle of the room was a bar on a slightly elevated platform and a seating area surrounding it. We headed straight toward the middle, where we found a small table that sat four. A server immediately came to us and took our order before leaving the three of us in an awkward silence. ¡°Leo, can you go get us some chips? It would be weird coming here without at least getting some.¡± Taking the hint, he nodded and backtracked back toward the vending machines. ¡°So umm¡­¡± ¡°Garland, my name is Garland.¡± ¡°Garland, I¡¯ll listen to your story, but in exchange, you¡¯ll answer some of our questions. Sound fair?¡± ¡°Right, of course. Please, lend me some credits. I got ahead of myself and took a chance, but now my daughter has to pay for it. Please, it should be me who faces the consequences.¡± He continued rambling nonstop about his life story, even when the server delivered our drinks. His story basically summed up to him having a bad time due to the passing of his wife but was forced to continue working. And to no one¡¯s surprise, he soon made a mistake that resulted in him being fired from his corporation. The corp made him pay back to compensate for the damages caused which didn¡¯t leave him enough to pay for his daughter¡¯s schooling, unwilling to put her in the public schools, he tried his chance at the casino that he could now visit due to not working for a corporation anymore. ¡°I can pay you for some useful information. How much do you know about the QGs around here, the corporations, and the local situation?¡± I listened to him as I slowly drank from my cup. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Leo stroll by. He finished shortly after I was done with my drink, providing me a basic overview and some bits of information from a corpo¡¯s perspective. It wasn¡¯t anything exciting, but it was nice to have a new perspective. In the end, I decided to pay him his requested amount of five thousand credits with the promise of him leaving this city with his daughter. Mostly because I didn¡¯t want to leave any easy trails to track me down if anything went wrong. It also wasn¡¯t that much to me anymore, probably not a strikingly large sum for him either, if he was still on a corporation¡¯s salary. ¡°Are you done with your charity yet?¡± A teasing voice came out of Leo as soon as he sat down, once the man was gone. ¡°It wasn¡¯t charity, it was an additional source of information.¡± ¡°Find out anything useful then?¡± ¡°Mostly names of QGs that aren¡¯t afraid to work against corporations.¡± ¡°Well yeah, most that operate here openly will fit that criteria. There¡¯s an understanding to let these QGs operate as they are useful when they need to deal with rival corps.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go find one then. Shouldn¡¯t be too hard since we¡¯re dealing with a small-time corp.¡± Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Way ahead of you. While you had your chat, I set up a meeting already.¡± We had a few hours until the meeting, so we killed some time making use of the chips I made Leo exchange. Surprisingly, the games played were like the ones I knew of from my world, a variation of baccarat. Leo simply watched as I went on a roll. By the time we almost had to leave, I doubled the two thousand credits I started with. The meeting took place in a normal-looking office on a different floor that contrasted heavily with the casino we were just at. There were people walking around the cubicles with the sound of conversations and the constant ringing of the phone filling the area. However, the moment we stepped into the meeting room, all the noise instantly ceased as soon as the door closed. Sitting inside was an overweight man in a suit who gestured for us to take a seat in front of him with a smile. ¡°Welcome, the name¡¯s Roger. How can I help you today?¡± I glanced around the room to find it very bare, but from my knowledge of stealth technologies, I could spot several hidden spaces enough for turrets within the ceiling and walls. ¡°We¡¯re looking to hire some people for a job. I heard you are well-acquainted with all the mercenaries in the city.¡± ¡°I see. Is it for logistic security across the wasteland, if I may ask? I assure you of my confidentiality of anything you share with me, but of course, you can let me know as much or as little as you want. It¡¯ll just be harder to find the perfect match for you.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯ll be within the city. We¡¯ll need someone with discretion and a tight lip.¡± ¡°Of course, though you¡¯ll find that the prices are a little high at the moment. A lot of people are hiring short-term contractors for the moment due to the spacer war. The remaining operators are of higher quality or looking for lower-risk jobs, and I think that between the two, the former is what you¡¯re looking for.¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll need enough to form two teams to sabotage secure locations.¡± ¡°Very well. I will contact you tomorrow,¡± Roger stood up and declared. We then paid the deposit he asked for and returned to our hotel. I half expected to have someone following us, but we didn¡¯t detect anything. ¡°Are you sure we can trust this, QG? The vibe he gave off was really different to the ones I worked with back in Elevate City.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but voice my concern as we stepped into my room. ¡°Should be fine, just a different culture around here. My corporation used to debrief us about it when we went to new places. And it¡¯s not like QuickLink is expecting us to be here and have a trap ready for us.¡± We then discussed our scouting plan tomorrow before he returned to his room. True to my habit, I decided to gear up and take a stroll and see where Firebird needed my community cleaning services.
Lucy - Mercenary Shit, this can¡¯t be happening to me. It was supposed to be an easy delivery job. She caught her breath as she hid in a dark alleyway behind a dumpster. She took stock of her weapons as she tried to ignore the pain from her ribs that were likely fractured. I can¡¯t believe Jo, Bartha, and Angel are all dead. How did those gangbangers know which route we took? Damn it, this isn¡¯t the time to think. I have to get out alive, screw the job. Her auditory implant picked up on the sound of a car door opening nearby, and then she heard several sets of footsteps running in her direction. She held her breath and tried to stay as quiet as possible as one drew close. ¡°Come on out and play. I promise we¡¯ll be nicer to you than we were to your friends, little lady. That is, if you willingly hand over the package, of course,¡± A man yelled, followed by the sound of laughter from the people behind him. They continued walking down the alley until they stood just in front of Lucy, but they didn¡¯t spot her, thanks to several cardboard and garbage bags in the way. The man at the front repeated his message as he occasionally smacked his rifle into the metal pipes and dumpsters around to generate loud clanging noises. Now that she had a chance to look them over, their outfit and tattoos gave away their affiliation, Gearheads, one of the larger gangs in Firebird. Taking the chance once they walked by her, she got up and moved in the direction they had come from. Just as she pushed off the ground with her prosthetic arm, a groaning noise came from it as the joints locked up. Damn junk must¡¯ve taken some damage from the crash. ¡°Over here!¡± A voice rang out, followed by the footsteps that grew louder. She got up and made a run for it now that she was exposed. She tried throwing anything she could find in the path behind her, hoping to buy some time. Deep down inside, she knew it was futile since there was a small chance their car had already left. She might¡¯ve had a chance if she could sneak by, but that no longer was an option. When she came out of the alley, she had her gun raised, ready to go down fighting. What greeted her instead was a parked van on the side of the road that was eerily quiet. No way¡­ Did they all get out of the car to chase me? Are they stupid enough to leave their car unattended? Approaching the car with her weapon at the ready, she spotted two bodies slumped over in the front seat. She took a glance around but found no one around this side street. She tried to listen for any sounds, though for some reason, it had gotten completely quiet. Before she knew it, even the footsteps of her pursuers were entirely gone. For some god-forsaken reason, she decided to backtrack down the alley she had just emerged from, only to find her pursuers all sprawled around on the ground. Hell no! Whoever is responsible, I want no part of it. ¡°Leave me alone, I¡¯m just the deliveryman, you can have it!¡± She threw down the package her team was supposed to deliver onto the ground and started running out of the alley as fast as she could. Her mind was in a blur and before she knew it, she was driving the van from earlier down the street. I¡¯m done being a mercenary. I don¡¯t care anymore even if I have to put up with some corpo asshole as a boss. As long as it¡¯s a stable job, I¡¯m fine even if it¡¯s boring. She quickly selected her QG from her contact list, ¡°Lucy? Where¡¯s Jo¡ª-¡± She didn¡¯t have time for this anymore. She wanted to go home and be done with all of this, ¡°They¡¯re dead, the gig was a shitshow, we lost the package and I¡¯m done! Goodbye.¡±
I leaned over to pick up what the woman had left behind. I felt a little sorry for scaring her, but she suddenly showed up behind me and screamed. Before I had the chance to say anything, she threw something down and hysterically ran away. Opening the package, it contained a small data chip. I knew better than to plug in random chips into my network. Good thing I had Leo around. Chapter 46: Cloak The following day, I handed off the chip I found to Leo to deal with while I sat back and relaxed.
Status
Level: 14
EXP: 320/1400
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +7
  • Stealth Technology +9
  • Software Engineering +6
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm(Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
I was still quite a way from leveling up, but seeing the daily progress never fails to motivate me. Well, that and the new knowledge the system offers was also a bit addicting. It scratched the itch of my curiosity about what comes next and gave me a new challenge on how I could apply the new theories. However, I needed to start deciding on a new direction to take, as it wasn¡¯t a smart move to sell more advanced stealth tech to the general public. It would only draw the ire of other corps and give away information that could jeopardize our security. The system had a large selection to choose from but with leveling up getting more and more difficult, it would take a while to start off in a new field, not to talk about the investment and equipment needed besides the know-how. We currently were looking to dive into the transportation business, more so to become self-sufficient. Maybe I should search for options that could complement that. The obvious choice would be in vehicles but that encompassed various disciplines of science that couldn¡¯t be covered by only one choice in the system. Maybe if I targeted a specific aspect of a vehicle, I could hire the relevant personnel for the rest. There were other options to explore as well, though I wasn¡¯t in a hurry to decide. For now, I didn¡¯t even have any spare points. I should focus on our current objective in Firebird or I would be counting the chickens before they hatch. ¡°Hey, Roll, that chip you gave me is heavily encrypted,¡± Leo said as he walked into my workshop. ¡°So we can¡¯t find out what¡¯s on it?¡± ¡°No, we can, but it¡¯ll take over a week at the minimum.¡± ¡°Then just¡ª¡± An incoming text covered up the corner of my vision, *This is Roger, we talked yesterday. I¡¯ve put together a team, I¡¯m sending you the information and where to meet them later today.* ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Leo asked. ¡°Got the message from the QG last night. We got a meeting in an hour and a half.¡± ¡°Send me the info and let¡¯s head out. We can grab some food and check out the meeting place at the same time.¡±
I walked up to a small group that was huddled around their car in a secluded alleyway, ¡°Kurt? I¡¯m Cloak.¡± He gave me a look over, ¡°Can¡¯t say we¡¯re glad to have an outsider on the team, but it¡¯s the client¡¯s request. Try not to get in our way.¡± I had the mercenaries we hired agree to take along one of my people so I could join incognito. Leo was also with the other team, monitoring them remotely so we could coordinate with Vin¡¯s strike team in NLA. There was no need for him to be disguised as he would be sitting in the back, on his terminal, like a typical client. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. In my case, I wanted to join in on the action so I had to minimize the chances for QuickLink Logistics to recognize me. With more points in stealth tech now than before, I upgraded my personal cybernetics as well as my security team¡¯s, though I kept the best to myself. The uptime my new implants allowed for was way longer, with better energy capacity and lower cooldown time. It also hid me from various forms of detection common to high-security systems common to corporations. With that said, it wasn¡¯t perfect. I was still physically there, so any weight-based detection or physical contact could still give me away. For this outing, I chose to wear a mask and visor to keep my face hidden and clothing that did not show any skin. I definitely looked like some sketchy person you did not want to get involved with. The sound of a clap drew my attention, ¡°Okay, it¡¯s almost time. Everyone get in the car and we¡¯ll discuss any final details on the way.¡± There were only three other mercs here besides Kurt, their leader. Like the quality outfit the QG had advertised, they all wore standardized tactical equipment. It was a sore spot for me, as my own security still appeared to be a motley crew, sporting different gear and equipment. The moment the car got moving, Kurt continued, ¡°So Tera will run cy-sec in the car as usual, being in contact with the other team who will be executing this operation at the same time as us. Our target is a vehicle maintenance facility, so expect a lot of cars. Our focus is to sabotage high-value and hard-to-replace equipment. Any questions?¡± ¡°How are we taking care of any witnesses?¡± A man with short green hair spoke up with his helmet held under his arm. ¡°They are not a priority, eliminate any obstacles, but no need to chase after any runners. Our main goal is to sabotage anything of value.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± The man nodded. ¡°What about him? This will be a quick and chaotic operation. I don¡¯t want to trust my back to an unknown,¡± He continued as he glared at me. ¡°You¡¯ll have to¡ª¡± ¡°I¡¯ll move separately from you,¡± I interjected. ¡°We¡¯ll stay connected to avoid friendly fire, but otherwise, I¡¯ll be a distance away.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s up to you. I have no authority over you, but to ensure you don¡¯t jeopardize our mission, I¡¯ll have to ask you to wait for our signal before starting anything,¡± Kurt responded. ¡°Sure, be my guest.¡± With our plan settled, we parked on the streets near our objective. It was a distance away since the target facility was located in a suburban area with few buildings in its surroundings. It was a huge warehouse that acted as the storage and maintenance facility for the Firebird branch of QuickLink Logistics. I trailed Kurt¡¯s team as we drew near and stayed a small distance behind them. Once they were near the target warehouse, they took a deep breath and started running straight at the building, right through the front toll gates. The security mainly kept unauthorized cars out, so it didn¡¯t pose any obstruction when their team of three attacked on foot. They shot the two guards in the booth and rushed into the compound. Their plan was to go in fast and hard, with explosives to blow any obstacles in their way and any machinery they could reach. Then they would leave before a more organized response could be mustered. The garage doors meant for trucks were all closed, but the thin sheets of metal were quickly blown out of the way. Seeing how they went loud and got the party started, I activated my new and improved active camouflage and made my way slightly away from the commotion. Not long after they went inside the warehouse, I spotted a door slam open as a squad of five security guards rushed out, decked out in armor. I took out a grenade from the pack on my hip and set the timer to three seconds before activating it and slipping it into the tactical vest a guard was wearing. I then dashed past the door they came from before it fully closed. Before the door could slam shut, the explosion slightly shook the ground beneath me. My experience notification indicated only three confirmed kills, though I¡¯m sure the other two weren¡¯t fit for combat anymore. For this gig, I would rather do maximum damage to the facility and worry about experience points later. Inside, the guardroom near the entrance was empty. The hallway was filled with the sound of people scrambling about. As I turned the corner, I found people rushing out toward the exits on the opposite side of the commotion. They were no threat, so I left them be while I made my way through until I spotted a room labeled ¡®Machinery¡¯. Instead of a grenade, I had explosive packs prepared for this, similar to the ones Kurt used to blow their way into the maintenance bay. I placed them evenly across the machinery room and activated the switch once I was out of the way. The loud explosions caused the escaping employees to panic even more, as they double-timed out of the premises. With fewer people in the way, I soon came upon the storage room where I repeated the previous steps to blow the place up. I heard several explosions in the distance, which should mean Kurt¡¯s team was progressing well. The last room I came upon was up the stairs to the supervisor¡¯s office. The door was locked and since this was a shock and awe day; I allowed my cybernetic arms to utilize all their strength and slammed a shoulder into the door. The flimsy warehouse door came off at the hinges and landed boldly in the room, crumpled up. ¡°What the fuck?¡± A man yelled out in panic as our eyes met. He came to a realization and immediately reached for a drawer near him, and a gunshot rang out.
+10 EXP
He slumped down in his chair while I cleared the room of any other threats. The nameplate on the desk was for some supply chain manager. Having been running my own business, I knew too well how difficult it was to find qualified and experienced people, so hopefully this loss added another incentive for QuickLinks to pull out from this city. I noticed his handheld terminal still had an ongoing connection, so I quickly disconnected it, even though it was likely too late. With that done, I glanced out the window from his office, which had a clear view of the large open area where their trucks were serviced and parked. I could spot flaming wrecks where the service bays once were and various bodies spread across the floor. I went through the door that connected to the open area and rendezvoused with Kurt, who stood guard nearby as his companions busied themselves with rigging the place up with explosives. I deactivated my camouflage before approaching him, ¡°You guys finished?¡± His body tensed as it snapped toward me but relaxed after meeting my eyes, ¡°...Yes, we were about to clear the back halls real quick and head out. Our spotter outside picked up some activity so we don¡¯t have long.¡± ¡°I got that taken care of. Let¡¯s head out once you guys are done here.¡± He nodded slowly in response and gestured to his team with hand signs that I couldn¡¯t decipher. Not long after, we were all on our way out of the compound. Several firefighter trucks were parked outside, but they simply ignored us as we ran by. As if on cue, a thunderous explosion rang out behind us the moment we crossed the toll gates by the entrance. Ignoring the crowd of employees gathered together who let out screams, we moved into a discreet alleyway where our ride was waiting. We drove in silence as we made our way back to where we had met, and I texted Leo the latest updates. After a few minutes, I could make out the parking lot, but just as we turned in, an incoming call blocked out a corner of my vision from Leo. ¡°R¡ªCloak! If you guys are done, then get over here ASAP. Our team here is pinned down. They have some serious guys over here.¡± ¡°You okay?¡± I instantly asked. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m monitoring the situation remotely, but the mercenary team has already taken casualties. It¡¯s become a shitshow over there.¡± ¡°Okay, understood,¡± I inspected the mercenary around me, who seemed to still be fresh. ¡°The other team needs our help. Our employer has agreed to give out bonuses as outlined in the contract if you assist. You guys in?¡± Their team whistled in unison before Kurt responded, ¡°Let¡¯s go. We were thinking the gig was going just a little too smoothly. Something always goes wrong. Glad the fuck up wasn¡¯t on our end.¡± Chapter 47: Reinforcements We pulled up right next to an armored van parked casually on the side of the street. Just as I walked up to it, the windows came down, and Leo¡¯s face popped out. ¡°Took you long enough, connecting you to the live feeds now, oh and do you still have those EI rounds?¡± I reached into one of the pockets on my tactical vest before I replied, ¡°Yeah, loading them up now.¡± I didn¡¯t need to question him why, because the next moment, a window displaying some footage from a camera appeared in the corner of my vision. I commanded my SAID to center the screen as I got a closer look at the two men who were both decked out in cybernetics. ¡°Those cyborgs are some mercenaries they hired for their convoys which happened to be refueling in the facility we¡¯re hitting tonight. They¡¯re a team of five who all share an obsessive interest in cybernetics. Our team took out three already in the opening ambush with the sacrifice of one of theirs.¡± As sad as it is to hear someone I hired had died on the job, I couldn¡¯t help but be a little relieved I had hired some of Roger¡¯s top operators or this could¡¯ve gone a lot worse. ¡°The team is pinned down inside the warehouse and they don¡¯t have the firepower anymore to take down the remaining two walking tanks, not to talk about the incoming reinforcements.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll go hit them with the EI rounds. You go coordinate the team here to draw the reinforcement¡¯s attention.¡± I immediately jogged toward the logistic warehouse that acted as a fueling station and parking lot for QuickLink Logistics. There were obvious signs of gunshots and explosions around as I spotted a hole in one of the garage doors leading into the building. From the live feed my optics were showing me, I could hear the occasional sound of gunshots and people running across the screen. With my camouflage active, I rushed in without having to be too mindful of being spotted. I stalked around the warehouse, which was more like a parking lot with only cargo trucks that blocked any visibility. Heading toward the sound of fighting, I soon spotted a figure peeking out, taking potshots at the two encroaching cyborgs. They kept retreating, using the trucks as cover, while the two beefy men cautiously took cover every time they shot back. They must be wary of any surprises since their comrades got taken out. Because the small arms fire they were dishing out would have a hard time penetrating all their chrome and armor. Readying my Suri that I had loaded with the electronic intrusion rounds, I took aim at the back of the closest target. The bullet may only travel at subsonic speeds, but it was still too fast for the man to react when I fired this close behind him while he was caught off guard. I trusted Leo to breach his systems as fast as he could, even without my signal, and pointed my gun at the next target, but what I saw was only a blur that quickly dove behind the cyborg I had already shot. His submachine gun then poked up from the armpits of his friend and started spraying bullets in my direction. Thankfully, I had already moved behind a truck as I tried to reposition myself for a better angle. Before I could be relieved, the man fished out a few grenades from his pack and threw them all around him, prompting me to dive behind cover. An electric beep rang out, followed by thunderous explosions¡ªor not. Instead, my SAID alerted me to several errors and then I visibly witnessed my active camouflage glitching out until it deactivated entirely. Shit, those must¡¯ve been EMP grenades! There was a moment of silence all of a sudden as we each waited for the next move. I stole glances at the man and noted he was the only one remaining as his friend lay motionless on the floor nearby. He must¡¯ve spotted me because a rain of bullets chased me as I returned to cover. I stayed prone and crawled away while I commanded my SAID to text the mercenary team in here with me. Thank god my SAID still worked. I could hear the cyborg scramble toward where I was last seen, so I hurried and took cover behind another row of trucks. More gunshots rang out, which were probably from my allies. I allowed the stealth skills engrained in my body to take over and peeked out when the cyborg was distracted. I managed to fire off two shots at him before I had to duck out of the way of his bullets. This time, he threw caution out to the wind and started sprinting straight toward me, ignoring my allies. I quickly fumbled around my utility belt and threw a grenade over in his path. The explosion that followed would¡¯ve definitely made my ears ring from being so close if it wasn¡¯t for my auditory implant. I tried to regain my balance, but before I was fully up, the cyborg appeared out of the smoke covered in scratches, yet still functional. He threw his damaged gun away and went into another charge toward me. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I timed my dodge to the side and swiftly drew my railgun to aim at him once he passed by, but I didn¡¯t need to pull the trigger. The cyborg was lying face-first on the ground with his mechanic limbs frozen in place. He swayed around as he tried to move but to no avail. Taking no chances, I moved closer to the guaranteed headshot on the side of his head where the plating was thinner.
+20 EXP
I went back to his friend and put him out of his misery too. The last thing I needed was a human tank rampaging around the city, looking for revenge. The experience points were definitely a good incentive as well. Was the system conditioning me to kill? I should be a little more mindful of that before I become someone who kills as easily as breathing. Still, I¡¯ll do what is needed in order to survive and thrive. That hasn¡¯t changed since the day I was born. The three mercenaries I had hired soon popped out from behind a truck, with one of them carrying a body over their shoulder. There were five of them last time we met, so they were all accounted for, including the one outside working the cyber security. Our eyes met, but before we could open our mouths, more gunshots rang out from outside the building. ¡°How much time do you guys need to finish sabotaging this place?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll need five more minutes, minimum. We didn¡¯t get that much time before we had to deal with these shitbags,¡± He glared behind me toward the bodies. ¡°Okay, try to go as fast as you can. I¡¯ll go help the team outside,¡± I immediately ran off, and got on a voice call with Leo. ¡°What¡¯s the situation outside? I¡¯m heading back out now.¡± ¡°Kurt¡¯s team blew up the leading vehicle and blocked the road in with the wreck. They¡¯re in a stalemate, shooting at each other in cover, so they should hold for a while, assuming no more reinforcements show up.¡± I checked up on my customized Shade unit to see if it could still activate the active camouflage, but my SAID indicated a few components were fried. I guess it¡¯s time to fight fair and square this time. I¡¯d rather not try to sneak up on over a dozen trained corporate goons without the camouflage, no matter how weak QuickLink Logistics was compared to other corporations. ¡°Let Kurt know I¡¯m coming out to help him.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to flank them?¡± I started jogging back the way I had entered from. ¡°No, some asshole fried my cybernetic with some EMP.¡± Now that I thought about it, only my Shade unit was completely fried, the rest of my cybernetics were fine¡­I really need to upgrade it to be EMP-resistant, but that isn¡¯t exactly my forte. I soon reached where the fighting was ongoing and took cover and joined the defensive line. It was honestly way more boring than I had thought. We simply blind fired at each other from cover and no one did anything to break out of the stalemate. Not long after, we got a signal indicating the sabotage was done and we could begin the retreat. ¡°Cloak, they are blowing out an exit on the other side of the compound. Get out of there quick.¡± ¡°You sure they don¡¯t have anyone waiting to ambush us outside?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m monitoring it. They don¡¯t have any more forces to spare since they had to split half their forces to the other maintenance facility you were just at.¡± An explosion shook the ground in the backdrop of Leo¡¯s voice. No longer wanting to waste ammo, I rallied Kurt¡¯s team and got out of there after throwing the last of any grenades and explosives we had and faked a push toward our adversaries. By the time we cut through the building, we spotted the hole in the walls that was our ticket out. True to Leo¡¯s words, there were no surprises, and we managed to get picked up by our getaway vehicles.
Daniel - QuickLinks Logistics The tension in the air was so thick Daniel was sure he could cut into it if he held out a knife. Jared¡¯s holographic figure projected across from him wasn¡¯t helping either, with Jared constantly taking a sip from the glass. Placing down the cup from his twentieth sip this minute, Jared¡¯s gaze turned to him as he cleared his throat, ¡°Daniel, you¡¯re related to the boss, right? Please put in a good word for me. I¡¯d be satisfied even if I got demoted.¡± This fool¡­ He couldn¡¯t help but burst out in laughter at his words. ¡°What¡¯s so funny Daniel¡­come on, answer me¡­ You¡¯re scaring me.¡± Daniel reached out to take a sip from his glass before answering out of petty revenge. ¡°You really think we¡¯re just going to get a slap on the wrist? This was our chance to turn the company¡¯s wastelander situation around with the demand for transportation rising through the roof. But now, out of nowhere, our entire operation on the West Coast has come to a halt because of this attack.¡± ¡°If we could just get some more funding to re¡ª¡± ¡°No! We¡¯re done, you and I both. Our route has barely been turning a profit with those feral wastelanders getting in the way. There¡¯s no way headquarters would approve any more funds to help us get back on our feet.¡± ¡°Then at the very least, just¡ª-¡± The projection buzzing into life at the head of the table stopped Jared mid-sentence as the duo both stood up at the same time and bowed toward their boss, the CEO of QuickLink Logistics. The silver-haired CEO relaxed into his chair and crossed his legs. ¡°Tell me, why should I tolerate you two any longer?¡± The older man held his gaze on Jared first before moving to Daniel. His aura of authority pressed them until they felt like they couldn¡¯t breathe despite how laid back he appeared. ¡°Sir, please give us another chance!¡± Jared¡¯s leg gave way and fell to his knees. ¡°I didn¡¯t ask for an apology. I asked for an explanation. Tell me, did you even figure out who attacked our facilities?¡± Daniel swallowed hard and gathered up his courage. ¡°No sir, all we know is that they hired some capable mercenaries. If you gave me some time, I could¡ª¡± ¡°Enough, our company is in a bad position because of you two. We need to focus on recuperating first. Jared, halt all business operations in NLA and liquidate everything. You¡¯re moving out to consolidate with Daniel so that we can keep the Firebird to Mile High City route alive. I¡¯ll be sending someone to take charge, you¡¯ll both be working hard as assistants as penance. Is that understood?¡± The two both shouted out yes in unison before their boss nodded in satisfaction and his projection disappeared. I can come back from this. I¡¯ll just have to work hard and produce results. Then I swear I¡¯ll find out who the mastermind of this incident is and pay them back tenfold. Chapter 48: Work Work ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll leave things here to the both of you,¡± I placed a hand on the shoulders of my new head of security and the manager of the Firebird branch before I entered the car with Leo. The QG, Roger, had come through with some potential hires who were looking for more stable employment. It was a surprise when one of the mercenaries I interviewed wanted to be hired as an office staff instead of security, but her resume met our requirements, so I had no qualms about it. I even let her be the branch manager since our operations in Firebird would be minimal for now and anyone who was vetted would do. We planned to simply have a warehouse here for our trucks to drop off and pick up their cargo, and it wasn¡¯t hard to find such a warehouse, even in the current climate. The main bottleneck was security right now to cut through the wasteland, so I was able to finish off my business quickly and start my return to NLA. Back in NLA was where the bulk of our workload lay ahead as we needed to procure trucks rated for the wasteland, rent a maintenance facility, hire personnel, start planning our operations, marketing, and loads of other tasks. The only caveat was that we could lower our requirements for security personnel and get away with it because we didn¡¯t need to fend off wastelanders, only the mutants. The drive was duller than before, with only the two of us this time. We planned out our route so we could stop for the night to rest. We luckily didn¡¯t encounter the colossal mutant this time and were able to safely trek across the wasteland in three days. When we finally reunited with Vin, the first thing he did was not greet us or congratulate us, but instead, complained, ¡°Please Rollo, hire a manager ASAP, I could handle the bureaucracy before when it was simple but I just can¡¯t anymore.¡± ¡°Okay, okay. I left a lot on your shoulders, I understand. Thank you, you can take tomorrow off,¡± I comforted him on reflex, as I didn¡¯t know what else to do when seeing Vin in such a state. ¡°Yes! I really need that. I¡¯ll transfer you all the documents that I was working on and the scheduled meetings I had booked right away.¡± His enthusiasm scared me a little, so I had him take the rest of the day off too as soon as we made it back to the office. Within the information Vin had left behind were updates on what QuickLinks Logistics had been doing since the attack. It seemed they were completely pulling out of NLA and gathering what they had left into Firebird. Little was as gratifying as seeing our hard work come to fruition. What was left to do was to build up a functional logistics network to profit from the current spike in demand while it lasted. The first step of that was to reaffirm my deal with the Wells Clan. The next morning, we set out with our convoy back into the wasteland and followed the route displayed on the device we got from the wastelanders. This time we were headed in a slightly different direction and further, as well. We knew we were close when the usual team of dune buggies had come out to escort us. Neither Sarah nor Caleb was there when we arrived. Instead, an unfamiliar man had led us straight to the building where the leader of their clan resided. It was kind of weird seeing the exact same building as before, despite knowing we were in a different location. I wondered what they used to transport or if they rebuilt it to the same specifications. ¡°Welcome, friend. I have heard good things from our information network. Tell me, have you accomplished the mission?¡± Eugene said as he stroked his beard. ¡°Yes, your enemies will no longer operate in your territories. We¡¯re still monitoring their movements, so I¡¯ll let you know if anything changes.¡± ¡°That is good news. Tell me all about the details.¡± I talked until I was parched, but I managed to narrate our exploits and answer any questions he had. It wasn¡¯t until Sarah and Caleb showed up that I was saved. ¡°So about what you promised me before¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, once we have confirmed the news, you may operate your business across our territories as you like. Keep in mind this is our territory only. Just like your corporations, we aren¡¯t monolithic, so the other clans will not take kindly to your intrusion into their territory.¡± ¡°I understand, thank you.¡± Now the main issue is to set up our logistics network, we¡¯ll need to rent a lot of trucks for now until we have enough funds to purchase our own. We¡¯ll also need the bare minimum facilities to operate with. After spending some time with Sarah and Caleb, I returned to the new pile of problems awaiting me back in the city.
¡°Nice to meet you, Mr. Halls. I am Jared Reinhart from QuickLinks Logistics,¡± The overweight man across from me shook my hand and gestured for us to take a seat. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°A pleasure to meet you as well, Mr Reinhart.¡± ¡°Let us get straight into it then. Here are the terms for leasing this warehouse. If you are able to sign it today, we are willing to give you a ten percent discount for the first three months.¡± I glanced over the document on the terminal he placed in front of me and redirected the feed to my lawyers to review. ¡°That is an attractive offer but brings along some problems. You see, I¡¯m a very picky person who likes to shop around first. Maybe if you could extend that discount for the entire first year, I could make a decision right away.¡± ¡°I understand, but this is the best offer I¡¯m authorized to give. This warehouse may not be brand new, but the price is already well under the market price. It is located in a secured and convenient area with access to the highways ¡± ¡°Is that so¡­I thought there were rumors that the location was recently attacked. I wouldn¡¯t call it secure.¡± He grimaced and took a sip from his cup, ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as a perfectly secure area in this world. Using the advantageous geographic location, we were able to protect our employees, so it is truly secure in that sense. But I regrettably see that malicious rumors have started to spread despite our successes. I¡¯m willing to acquiesce and give you a discount for the first six months.¡± Hold it together me¡­Please don¡¯t burst out laughing when negotiations are near the finish line, but the irony of trying to rent from the people you attacked was just too hilarious to me, and now he¡¯s even giving me a discount. ¡°Very well, I accept,¡± I declared while tensing every muscle on my face to keep them in place. I had been swamped with paperwork and meetings to ensure we had the proper licenses and equipment we needed to operate. Having finished this final meeting for the day, I decided to leave everything related to acquiring trucks to Vin. He had his day off, so I was going to put him back to work. As for me, I was going to spend the rest of the day relaxing and shopping. The first thing I did was to get changed out of my stuffy corpo suit and went to try out a milkshake from one of the places on my ¡®to-try¡¯ list that had just been building up since I was always busy or out in the wastelands. Then my next stop was the mall to shop around. There was something I had been meaning to buy, but I put it off for a while now, so it was about time I got off my lazy ass. Arriving at one of the smaller megabuildings I''ve seen, I was greeted with fancy displays with brand names plastered all over, and all the nearby pedestrians seemed well-dressed. The entire building was a shopping mall. It was mind-boggling to think that the building was so enormous it was classified as a megabuilding. It had less than two hundred floors, though, making it one of the smallest megabuildings around. Just like in the mall in Elevate City, the floor that sold weapons was located in the basement, where security was visibly stricter than the other floors. The layout was familiar as well, with each brand taking up some space on the shared floor, like a department store. I spotted the brand I had been using, Premier Arms, and went straight to them. From my experience, there are always some moments where I was forced into a traditional gunfight. While that wasn¡¯t my forte, I wanted to be prepared. The pistol railgun I had was great and all, but it just wasn¡¯t cutting it against multiple enemies. ¡°Hi sir, how may we help you?¡± A clerk quickly came up to assist me. ¡°Yes, I was looking for something that could handle multiple targets.¡± ¡°I see. Are you looking for something for close quarters or more of a medium range?¡± ¡°Close quarters. I wanted it to be compact and lightweight as well.¡± All of my engagement has been pretty close range owing to my stealth capabilities. ¡°Yes, of course. Let me bring out some options for you. Would you like to test-fire them?¡± ¡°Yes, please.¡± He quickly brought out a few gun cases and led me to the side of the entire sales floor through a door. It was like going to the change room in a big box store, but the change room was replaced with a shooting range instead. ¡°I have three selections of personal defense weapons for you. Allow me to introduce you to them here,¡± He explained as he took out three boxy submachine guns from the cases. He went on to explain the main features of each gun, with the first one being a directed energy weapon that shot particle beams. It was configured to shoot rapidly, but the beam intensity could still be adjusted in exchange for power. This was probably the coolest thing I¡¯ve ever shot. The next one he introduced was some weird plasma spitter that shot bright beams of plasma contained in a magnetic field. This one was honestly not that great of a fit for me, as it would give my position away the moment I shot out bright, glowing projectiles. The final option was a coilgun I was familiar with. It was optimized to shoot these smart rounds that could lock onto targets. Although it was the most boring option, it was also the one that fit my needs the most. I didn¡¯t like putting myself down, but I was honestly not the best shot, so the smart ammo helped. It was also the only choice that didn¡¯t shoot bright beams, which made it more effective from stealth. ¡°Excellent choice, sir. The ECA-17, also known as the Coil Wrath, is probably the most reliable product from our PDW line. Please be reminded to use our company¡¯s ammunition or our warranty will be voided with this weapon.¡± I glanced over at the price tag and it wasn¡¯t that bad until I looked down at the section for the ammo. I sure hope my new business gets up and running soon. After shopping around a little more without an objective, I returned to my hotel with a full harvest. As soon as I got into my room, I spotted Leo on the couch, working away at his terminal. ¡°Rollo, about that chip you had me d¡ª¡± I placed down my bags and turned to him before he could finish, as my curiosity was piqued. ¡°Did you already decrypt it?¡± ¡°Not fully. Just the first level, but I got a sense of what it contains with the titles of each column in a spreadsheet.¡± ¡°Go on then. What did you find?¡± ¡°It is a ledger of some sort and it belongs to SocialCorp.¡± ¡°SocialCorp? As in the largest corp around, that SocialCorp?¡± ¡°Yea¡­¡± Chapter 49: Welcome Back ¡°Rollo, Leo, you¡¯re both finally back!¡± Claire cheerfully welcomed us as we pushed our luggage toward the car. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have anything more to say? It¡¯s been like what? Over a month?¡± ¡°Sure¡­ but we¡¯ve been talking through the net almost every day. What else is there to say?¡± ¡°Men,¡± She sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s go then. I reserved a table for us at this new restaurant. Lana will be joining us as well!¡± She evilly grinned in Leo¡¯s direction. Leo, Thorne, and I nodded in unison before we finished packing our luggage into the trunk so we could get on our way. The car started leaving the airport and got onto the highway while I enjoyed the view. It was nice to see the familiar landscape of Elevate City again. The backdrop of the space elevator in the background acted as a permanent landmark that made it impossible to mistake it for any other city. From the rearview mirror, I could see that Claire was on a call, which explained the silence. ¡°So how was your time in NLA?¡± Thorne asked as he merged into the traffic that crossed the bridge toward the city. ¡°For the majority of it, boring. The only fun part was before we managed to strike a deal with a shipping company to transport our stuff in exchange for our transportation service. After that, we spent the last few weeks doing paperwork, going to meetings, and interviews. ¡± ¡°How about you Leo?¡± ¡°Not too different from normal. As long as I have a good connection to the net, it¡¯s mostly the same for me. It was just that Rollo kept throwing work on my plate or it would¡¯ve been a pleasant trip.¡± I glared at Leo beside me mainly for show, as he wasn¡¯t wrong, though it made Thorne wear a troubled expression, ¡°I see¡­ so you guys got the transportation network thing figured out?¡± ¡°Well, mostly. Trucks are running and everything. We¡¯ll have to see if any issue arises, though. The main thing I¡¯m worried about is if the fake damages we put on a vehicle will be seen through. I¡¯d really rather not deal with another corp who gets any ideas with our wastelander connections.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the monitoring program I made will monitor your men and keep them honest and I doubt any corp would waste resources analyzing your vehicles often enough to figure out anything,¡± Leo said as he played around on his terminal. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s been working pretty well for us here, but I think we should get a dormitory soon. It¡¯ll further prevent any possible leaks with the added security,¡± Thorne added, as he signaled to change lanes. ¡°Well, that will have to wait until we get some funds. We¡¯re stretched thin already with this new transportation endeavor and renovating our new office. We¡¯ll also want to save a good chunk of credits to incorporate too.¡± Claire glanced back at me, her eyes no longer glowing, ¡°The math boys say it¡¯d be best to incorporate in two months when our cash flow stabilizes.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll listen to the professionals then. It¡¯s not like we¡¯re in any rush. In the meantime, we can spend the time to relax and enjoy life!¡± ¡°Yay, I agree!¡± Claire clapped as I watched Leo and Throne with a frown on their faces. ¡°Come on, lighten up, boys, and let¡¯s go enjoy dinner.¡± Once we arrived, the two of them tried to put on a smile at the insistence of Claire, but Thorne faltered and tensed up once he saw the prices listed on the menu. It wasn¡¯t until he started eating that his expression relaxed. I watched as Leo and Lana bickered in their married couple fashion, as former corpos, they ate with refined table manners with ease. Compared to Thorne, who still looked tense at the shoulders, and Claire, who was enjoying herself a little too much, these two were far from ready to handle business dealings involving other corpos. Let¡¯s hope business goes well. That way I can increase their pay so they can eat out at places like these more often and learn more about corporate culture. I¡¯d much rather have them help me manage the business than hire some scheming corpo, even if they were more experienced.
After dinner, we returned home, and I got prepared to go out as usual. As it¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve been in the city, I called up my old friend, Fitel, to purchase some info on any harvester hideouts. I¡¯ve been away long enough for them to infest the areas I had previously cleared. They were seriously like cockroaches. ¡°Fitel, it¡¯s been a long time. Do you have any jobs or info on harvester hideouts?¡± ¡°Mr Halls, it has been a while. I don¡¯t have any jobs that fit your criteria right now, but I do have some information on harvester locations.¡± ¡°Great, how much?¡± ¡°It will be the standard information fee of ten thousand credits.¡± ¡°Sent, I¡¯ll be around for a while now, so let me know if any job comes up.¡± ¡°...It surprises me that you would still be interested in taking jobs from me, but alas, it is none of my business¡­ I will contact you if anything suitable comes up.¡± The call ended before I could reply. Typical of Fitel. Within a minute, the information I had bought from him arrived too. I set the car to head for the new location while I went over the file. Stolen novel; please report. Normally, for a small den of half a dozen or so harvesters, I could break even with the information fee unless I was unlucky on the loot. The information I got from Fitel this time was a larger one, with an estimated twelve to fourteen harvesters in the hideout. They operated out of a small warehouse within an industrial district where they disguised themselves as one of the many workers going about their day in their van. Despite the late hours when I reached there, there were still many warehouse workers in sight. Most corporations I knew had their workers either on two twelve-hour shifts or three eight-hour shifts depending if delicate controls were needed on the job. For my logistic warehouse in NLA, I implemented four six-hour shifts instead because of the compensation clause I signed with my employees. If they kept getting hurt on the job, I would be out on quite a bit of money before I knew it, so I tried to ensure they weren¡¯t overworked. After all, the compensation policy wasn¡¯t something I planned to go back on, considering how effective it was at motivating them. The truck drivers would still be on three eight-hour shifts, though. Three was the maximum number of people the trucks we rented could hold. It simply wouldn¡¯t make sense to have it any other way if we wanted them to be on the move 24/7. I stuck to the unlit area as I crept closer to my target warehouse. I only used the camouflage to cross areas that didn¡¯t have any blind spots I could traverse. The warehouse compounds were each separated by thin metal sheets they called walls and large gates that allowed multiple semi-trucks to pass at once. When I reached the correct warehouse lot, it was entirely empty outside without a guard in sight. If I didn¡¯t know better, I would have thought it was unoccupied. Just in case of cameras, I made use of my Shade, the stealth implant, the entire way until I entered the building and breached the locked door. With my software engineering skills up to par now, it helped somewhat with my hacking skills, as it allowed me to prepare hacking software to be used beforehand. Once I was in, I made sure the coast was clear before I detached my new submachine gun, the Coil Wrath, from my lower back. I had it fitted to my suit, so it wasn¡¯t in the way while I moved around. I had gotten myself to continue using it recently to get more experience with it, but it may be because I¡¯m a little addicted to the ease it allows me to land shots with the automated smart bullets that helped correct my trajectories. I had gotten the suppressor attachment, and although it wasn¡¯t as quiet as the Suri, it was still enough to clear an area without alerting anyone in the neighboring rooms as long as the walls weren¡¯t too thin. With this new gun, my tactics slightly leaned more toward brute force than pure precision. Once I was prepared, I ventured further into the building where my auditory implant soon picked up on the sound of mumbled conversation. I soon came into the big open area of the warehouse, which was partitioned into different areas with blinds that many harvesters used for their so-called ¡®surgical area¡¯. I spotted the overseer¡¯s office on the high ground and headed that way immediately for the vantage point. The thugs in here, like many others I¡¯ve encountered recently, were really sloppy. They were busy watching videos on their implants, or chatting amongst themselves. Maybe it was because I had been comparing them with corporate forces I had gone up against. Even if it was from a small corporation, they were still miles ahead of common criminals out in the streets. With the view from the second floor, I took some time to mark down everyone in sight, as well as the layout of the entire place. I then went to each exit I found and blocked it off with a little hacking. With the stage set, I relied on my Shade to reach the center of the warehouse where the majority of the harvesters were. Once I was in position, I checked my new Coil Wrath once more before I aimed and pulled the trigger. The automatic fire kicked in as the smart bullets exited the chamber and flew to all the targets I had already marked. Screams echoed as others scrambled around with confusion.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
One relatively smarter woman had lain prone and started shooting toward the direction of where she thought the bullets came from. Unfortunately for her, the bullet¡¯s trajectory wasn¡¯t completely straight, but I took the cue and kept on the move as I reloaded. A few stragglers managed to get behind cover and ran away as fast as they could, only to be stopped by doors that they desperately tried to pry open. With a fresh mag in my gun, I finished off all the remaining harvesters around me before I dispatched the last few by the door. I then took stock of the inventory they had here, most of the cybernetics and organs packed away in crates with a few that were freshly taken out of some poor souls still by the bloody operating area. There were still a few bodies dumped together in a pile that was only covered in some plastic sheets, but one of the bodies on the operating table suddenly coughed. I quickly examined him and found that he was missing an arm, his optics, and likely various smaller implants in his head, judging by the incision point that still remained. I guess I¡¯ll be here a little longer than I thought. I¡¯m going to have to find these implants or find ones that would work with what he has. Why can¡¯t they have names on them? By the time I got back, the sun had already risen. I opened up my status as I lay on my bed and pondered for the future.
Status
Level: 14
EXP: 800/1400
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +7
  • Stealth Technology +9
  • Software Engineering +6
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm(Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
Chapter 50: Across the Ocean I woke up at the sound of my alarm and immediately started my morning routine. I needed a hot shower in the morning to really wake up before I made my breakfast from the open kitchen out in the living room. Once I ate and dressed, I exited my unit to the elevator and went up one floor to the penthouse on the fifth floor. The elevator doors led me straight to the middle of the office, where several employees were already busy with the work on the terminals in front of them. At the other end of the room, there were three offices behind the glass walls, where I spotted both Thorne and Claire in their respective offices. We shared looks as I approached my own office in the middle and saw Claire get up as soon as she saw me. I continued into my office as she quickly entered behind me while the door was still open. ¡°Good morning Rollo, your appointment to incorporate is set for this afternoon at 2:00 PM. Thorne already arranged for your transport, so you better be on time.¡± ¡°Yeah, I know, it¡¯s not like this just suddenly came up. We¡¯ve been waiting for this for two months.¡± ¡°As long as you understand, I got a lunch meeting starting soon so I¡¯m heading out, see ya!¡± Claire came and left like a hurricane, on her way to the elevator, I spotted her new assistant scrambling to catch up with her. I checked my emails on my terminal and made sure my agenda was cleared. There wasn¡¯t really much for me to do today, so I exited my office and called out to a nearby employee to buy drinks for everyone. I then made my way into Thorne¡¯s room. Thorne was focused on his terminal and only noticed me when I opened the glass door to his office, ¡°Hey Thorne, what are you working on, need some help?¡± ¡°Rollo, no thanks, I¡¯m almost done. I¡¯m just ensuring the training itinerary is correct and the orders for new equipment are accurate.¡± His words drew my gaze to the armor he was wearing. It had mainly black outfits with midnight blue highlights. Its armored plates were enough to stop most rounds and were better than the junk we had our security team bring themselves. The main thing that satisfied me was the standardized design that they all wore, so they actually looked like a professional crew. You know what they say, clothes make the man. ¡°Your car is ready to leave anytime. I have a team waiting in the garage,¡± Thorne said, as his gaze continued to be fixed to the terminal. ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll head out a little early after I drop by Leo and Lana first.¡± ¡°Sounds good.¡± He then went on to ignore me, as I didn¡¯t have anything to say, so I returned to my office and waited for the milkshake I had one of the employees buy. Ten minutes later, with my drink in hand, I headed down to the third floor, where most of the security personnel stayed. It had the main security monitoring room and a server room Leo and Lana had put together. They stayed cooped up in there like shut-ins most of the time, barely ever going back to their unit on the fourth floor except to shower and sleep. The doors to the room automatically opened as I approached. ¡°Hey Rollo, Leo¡¯s busy right now, needed something?¡± ¡°Not really, just checking in to see if you guys got settled in here yet.¡± ¡°Yeah, the connection we have in here is great, way better than the residential lines we had to endure. The upgraded hardware we bought with the company funds helps too, of course.¡± ¡°You think Leo can finally crack that data chip with the new setup, then?¡± ¡°...Hard to say. With a bit of luck, it could be in a few days or a few months if we¡¯re unlucky.¡± ¡°As long as progress is being made, I won¡¯t take up any more of your time. I¡¯m heading out now, have fun.¡± ¡°Ha, you too. It is your big day, after all.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the company¡¯s and you¡¯re part of it too. We¡¯ll celebrate once we settle everything today.¡± I exited their server room and headed to the basement garage next. There were several Vanguards parked. Two of them immediately started up and stopped right next to me. ¡°Sir.¡± The tinted windshields came down as the people inside saluted at me. I nodded in acknowledgment and entered the vehicle. I had given up telling them to be more casual as new faces showed up and Thorne convinced me that building a habit of discipline was the better option. ¡°Let¡¯s head there early. I¡¯ll leave the route to you guys.¡± It wasn¡¯t the most comfortable being sandwiched by two fully geared guards, but it was a choice I made since this was more practical than having a luxury vehicle customized with defensive armaments; we didn¡¯t have that much funds to spare as we were saving for today. Even through the heavily tinted glass, I got to enjoy the view of Elevate City as people went about with their lives on the streets and FVs flew by overhead, likely carrying bigshot corpos. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. As traffic slowed us down, I opened up the status screen to kill some time.
Status
Level: 15
EXP: 1480/1500
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 1
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +7
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm(Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
Once I put in the tenth point into stealth tech, the system displayed it required two points to upgrade it further. Even if it gave me more knowledge, I did not believe it would be worth it at the moment. I wasn¡¯t going to sell any more stealth tech anytime soon, as it would reveal my trump cards, and ten points were already more than sufficient. There were other things I wanted to upgrade that could be more useful, but I held off for now until I accumulated more points so I could think about it some more. It¡¯s been a while since I upgraded my cybernetics. They seem sorely outdated by the standards of what I could afford now. I definitely need to put that on the agenda. Having approached the topics of finances, I had my optics display the spreadsheets I had stored in my SAID with the finances of the company. For the past two months, we¡¯ve been selling about 200 units of Shades a month. Those numbers included our own clinics and the ones we supplied to others. We sold each unit for around ten thousand credits retail and had a profit margin of around five thousand credits. That meant we made about a million per month, but that wasn¡¯t sustainable once we went through all the mercenaries who would purchase our product, our sales would start to decline. We also had our transportation business that only ran two convoys of ten trucks that we rented. Each truck cost about ten thousand to operate per month and pulled in about twice that amount due to the ongoing demand. So that was another two hundred thousand profits each month while the war was ongoing. With a total of about 1,200,000 credits in profits per month, we still had to carefully plan our expenses to allocate for the one million for incorporation today. The company still had other expenses and salaries to be paid to about fifty employees, with an average wage of ten thousand per month. We also needed some funds to expand and a reserve, but we were more than ready today. The reduced corporate tax rate we would get will pay itself in no time. The view around the car opened up as we exited the city and proceeded onto the ocean bridge that connected to the space elevator. As the sight of it slowly grew larger as we got closer, it became more and more difficult to contain my excitement at finally having the chance to approach that marvel of human engineering. The ocean-view scenic route soon ended as we approached the first checkpoint that was still quite far from the space elevator. The checkpoint was heavily fortified with various advanced armaments, and a small army could visibly be seen guarding the area. Our car waited in a line until we were waved to approach a booth where the guard questioned us and asked for our identification. We were scheduled to meet with a representation of the Elevate City Consortium that was headquartered here, so we were allowed to enter once they found us in their systems. We had to pass through one additional vehicle checkpoint plus one more for foot traffic right at the base of the space elevator that prevented us from carrying firearms inside. I managed to contain the urge to crane my neck up to witness the grey tower reach higher than I could see and went inside the building that felt somewhat like an airport. Following the signs, we soon arrived at a large lobby area that belonged to the Elevate City Consortium that I would easily mistake for a hotel lobby. ¡°Good afternoon sir, how can I help you today?¡± The receptionist greeted us with a bright smile. ¡°I have an appointment for 2:00 PM today under Rollo Halls.¡± Her eyes flashed with light before she promptly responded, ¡°Yes, of course, Mr.Halls, we¡¯ve been expecting you. There is still some time until the meeting, so please feel free to tour the commercial area while you wait. We will contact you immediately once we are ready to receive you.¡± She gestured us to a nearby escalator that led us toward a shopping area that seemed identical to the shopping malls I¡¯ve been to except more luxurious. We did arrive a little early, so we toured what the shops had to offer. There were surprisingly a lot of people, despite the strict security of who was allowed in. The prices of each floor reflected the exclusivity of this place. I couldn¡¯t resist and bought a three-hundred credit milkshake as I observed the vanity items rich people bought. It was hard to imagine that just several months ago; I was still working a part-time job here as I was confused with this world, barely making enough to pay the two thousand credit rent. Another well-dressed woman walked past me, or so I thought, until they stopped right in front of me, with her eyes staring straight at me. Her guards dressed up in suits behind her flanked her sides while directing a cautious gaze at my own security team. ¡°You¡¯re a new face. I see that you are a connoisseur of the finer things in life as well,¡± She pointed to my milkshake with her gaze. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a vice of mine,¡± I politely replied, unsure of who I was talking to or how to deal with her. ¡°Oh please, sugar is hardly a vice compared to the things most people put into their bodies. Would you be free to¡ª¡± Before she could finish her sentence, a robot wearing the same uniform as the receptionist from earlier came out of nowhere, ¡°Sir, we are ready to meet you now. Please follow me.¡± I exchanged glances between the robot and the woman before she continued, ¡°Evidently, you¡¯re not free. Until we meet again.¡± She gave a polite smile and headed off into the distance with her retinue. The robot wasted no time and started guiding us. Finally, we are officially going to become a corporation. Chapter 51: Within the Halls of the Consortium ¡°Welcome Mr. Halls, I am Frank DeSantis and I will be the one walking through your application today.¡± A tall middle-aged man greeted me immediately upon entering the meeting room. I reached out to shake his hand, ¡°Thank you, Mr. DeSantis.¡± We then took our seats across from each other. He placed a hand on the terminal on the table and pushed it toward me. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll want to go over the contract once more. Please feel free to do so while I go over a few things.¡± As planned, I transmitted the footage from my optics back to the lawyers we have on retainer. ¡°So Mr. Halls, I am required to explain to you our geopolitical situation before you join us. Are you already familiar with it?¡± ¡°Just what is known to the public.¡± He paused for a moment before he continued, ¡°I see, then allow me to give you an overview. The Elevate City Consortium is a collection of the largest corporations that together manage the city, the space elevator, and trade with the various nations on this planet,¡± He paused to take a sip from his cup. ¡°We enforce trade contracts and work together to create a more hospitable business environment. By becoming a member, you are agreeing to join us in helping us with enforcing these trade contracts.¡± He directed his gaze to me, to which I nodded. ¡°Now, with that said, please do not mistake our consortium as an alliance. It is common for fellow members to have hostile relationships and even come to arms. We do not manage the affairs and relationships as long as it doesn¡¯t go over the line and severely affect the market.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± I replied fully aware that he meant as long as it wasn¡¯t outright blatant, anything went. ¡°Perfect, now we just need your signature once you are ready,¡± DeSantis said. When my lawyer team gave the green light, I looked over the form myself one last time before I signed it. ¡°Congratulations Mr. Halls. The Halls Corporation has officially joined our consortium today. You will receive a welcome package soon that will introduce you to your new privileges and distinctions within our consortium.¡± I still winced a little at the mention of our corporation¡¯s name. It was embarrassing to have it named after yourself, but Claire and Thorne wouldn¡¯t have it otherwise. Both parties didn¡¯t linger further once business was done. We shook hands once more and departed from the meeting room. I met up with my guards waiting outside and started our journey back to the company to deliver the good news. We ordered food for the celebration while we were in traffic, as it would probably take a while to prepare enough food for the entire company. When we parked in the basement of our office building, a small crowd had gathered right beside the elevators. ¡°So, how did it go?¡± Claire asked as she held onto Thorne. It¡¯s not common to be rejected this late into the application, but I guess you can never be sure until the deal is done. ¡°Starting today, Halls Corporation will be officially recognized as a G-Class member of the Elevate City Consortium.¡± A boisterous cheer filled the basement as the party began.
The next day, I brought both Claire and Thorne into my workshop. ¡°So what did you want, Claire?¡± I asked. ¡°To settle on our company logo, of course! Now that we are a corp, just using the same colors won¡¯t do. We¡¯ll want a logo to brand onto our products, uniforms, cars, everything!¡± I stole a glance at Thorne, who simply shrugged back in response. ¡°Why can¡¯t we just use our company name like most corporations?¡± ¡°Boo, that¡¯s boring. And I thought you hated the idea of having your name plastered everywhere.¡± ¡°Knowing you, you¡¯re just going to have the name included, anyway. It¡¯ll just be even more noticeable with a logo beside it.¡± ¡°Hehe, maybe. Let¡¯s see what we come up with first.¡± I listened as Claire bounced logo ideas off of Thorne. They quickly settled on an animal theme for some reason, but couldn¡¯t decide on much more than that. ¡°We should do something cute, like a rabbit!¡± Claire stated. ¡°No, we should have something that fits our company¡¯s image. With our Shade, we should use something like a chameleon,¡± Thorne retorted. Their exchange was at a stalemate and they both decided at the same time to turn to me instead, ¡°What do you think, Rollo?¡± ¡°...If you are dead set on an animal, we have to consider if it will fit our color theme as well. We already decided on black and blue, so you guys figure it out from there.¡± They both paused as they fell deep in thought. A minute or two later, Thorne spoke up, ¡°How about a snow owl then? We could have a snow blue color theme for it and it fits into the camouflage theme as well.¡± Claire¡¯s eyes started to glow, as she likely was searching for images, ¡°Sure, why not? They¡¯re cute! They¡¯re like Rollo as well, nocturnal.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°...Yeah, sure, let''s get this over with.¡±
¡°Good morning, Rollo, we have a slight issue that just came in last night,¡± Claire said as she came into my office. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°We got an email from our bank, congratulating us on incorporating last night.¡± ¡°Okay... What¡¯s the problem?¡± ¡°Our new status requires additional security measures to be in place to continue using our accounts. They want you to send someone to their headquarters in Lion City to register the biometrics of people who you want to have access to the accounts. They¡¯ll be covering the travel expenses.¡± ¡°Not in Elevate City, but all the way to Southeast Asia?¡± ¡°Yes, they¡¯re the biggest bank that issues the credits for a reason. They¡¯re outside the control of corporations and operated by one of the wealthiest city-states. Otherwise, how could corporations entrust their money with another corp?¡± ¡°All right, I¡¯ll open up my schedule for a trip then¡­¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to go in person if you don¡¯t want to. You can entrust your biometric data to someone and send them in your stead. I think that¡¯s what most corpos do.¡± ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t mind doing some sightseeing, anyway.¡± ¡°Okay, then I¡¯m coming too, since I manage the finances normally. I¡¯ll see who else wants to come.¡± She excitedly exited the room with a hop in her step. With an upcoming trip on the horizon, I had to hasten my plan to upgrade my cybernetics. I opened my status screen so I could review all the implants I currently had.
Status
Level: 15
EXP: 1480/1500
Musculoskeletal: 76
Neural Reflex: 15
Visuomotor Coordination: 27
Endurance: 24
Sensory Perception: 52
Upgrade Points: 1
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +7
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6 Cyberarm(Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5 Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2 Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
Most of my cybernetics were quite expensive to me when I bought them at the time, but my financial situation has drastically changed and has stabilized as well. I was long overdue for an upgrade. I opened the procurement list from the suppliers for the clinics and started browsing various high-end models for sale. The high-end models started from several tens of thousands and went up into the millions. I¡¯m sure there were even more expensive options that were only available with connections, but that wasn¡¯t my concern for now. With the high-end models, I could probably trust them to be reliable enough to think about implants that improved my Neural Reflexes and Visuomotor Coordinator. I also could start taking a look at the SAID with hypnopaedia feature again. Now that we were a corporation, I should be able to buy knowledge cassettes to help Claire learn. I could then study it and hopefully reproduce it myself. If that worked, I could provide my people with the ability to learn while they slept. First I selected several high-end models to replace what I already had. Although our corporation was raking in money, we were also expanding and had to purchase equipment and vehicles. That meant I didn¡¯t have unlimited money, and I settled for the ones around the hundred thousand credits ballpark. The one implant I had to splurge on was the SAID. As the centerpiece of everything, it was vital to have a high-quality secretarial assistant. With my order placed, I exited the building and went to check out a downtown mall I had yet to explore. My new cybernetics wouldn¡¯t arrive until tonight. With my impatience, I wanted to examine the real thing in person first. A small team of four security guards followed me around at the orders of Thorne. He said they would even follow me when I went out at night. He told me they could just watch if I wanted, but he wouldn¡¯t budge on siccing these babysitters on me. Upon entering the mall, we immediately headed for the cybernetics floor. As a legitimate corporation now, one of my privileges included having armed guards accompany me to most places that normally didn¡¯t allow it. We entered the Zenitech store where I found the SAID implant I had just ordered, projected on one of the showcase cabinets. An employee noticed me and my guards and came to assist me. ¡°Sir, how may I help you today?¡± She said, bowing low, emphasizing her subservience with her body language. ¡°Please give me an overview of the Sebastien model right here.¡± I pointed at the projection. ¡°Of course, sir, the Sebastien model is one of our flagship products in the secretariat assistance implant market. It boasts the capability to host a rudimentary AI to truly provide you with a secretary in the truest sense.¡± She smiled proudly as introduced the product. ¡°How does it compare to SAIDs in a similar price range on the market?¡± While I had my own view on the matter, I wanted to see what a Zenitech salesperson had to say. ¡°While I¡¯d like to say it is better in every possible manner, our Sebastien model truly shines in its ability to access the web securely. With our proprietary solutions, there is no worry about giving hackers a potential avenue to invade your systems. You¡¯ll be able to have the convenience of staying connected to the web while fully being at ease.¡± From what I could tell with my cybernetics and software knowledge, the Sebastien model used some air-gapped method in combination with read-only access. While I did not believe in implants being truly unhackable, with the proper settings on the Sebastien, you could easily detect any attempt at hacking and disconnect to seal off any attempts. With my curiosity sated, I spent some time shopping for clothes and treated the entire team to lunch. I frolicked around until I got a message that my order had arrived. I arrived at the nostalgic clinic that was my home for a few months and met with the cybernetic surgeon on duty. I¡¯ve done plenty of installations before, but it was a bit awkward this time around because I had my security team as the audience. I couldn¡¯t imagine how the surgeon felt as well, probably nervous, which didn¡¯t comfort me at all. You can do it, Mr. Surgeon. Steady hands, please¡­ I inhaled the anesthetic and hoped it would all be over soon. I would feel a lot more comfortable if Claire was the one to operate on me. She is one of the few people I fully trusted. I should really try harder to get her that cassette on cybernetic knowledge for her. Chapter 52: Lion City When I woke up, I felt a strange dissonance with my body. It still moved how I wanted it to, but it just felt different. Well, I did change out almost every single one of my cybernetics. ¡®Correct, host has replaced every cyberware in his body except the unit labeled ¡°HSU Custom Shade¡±. Rest is recommended.¡¯ A feminine synthetic voice suddenly rang out in my head. That¡¯s right, my new SAID came with a smart assistant. I still need to set that thing up. A smart assistant may be a few steps down from an AI, but it was sufficient to carry out my commands and help me micro-manage things as if I had a personal secretary... ¡®The only setup that requires the host¡¯s attention is my designation, voice selection, and permission level.¡¯ Right, it was my SAID so it can pick up on my thoughts like how I used to text. I¡¯ll call you Kiri from now on, and you can keep the voice as it is. Only pick up on my thoughts when I allow it. Is that possible? ¡®Yes, I can do so.¡¯ The surgeon soon came in as I got used to talking to the voice in my brain. He helped me calibrate the new implants, which made me feel a bit better. From my knowledge, I needed some time to get used to the new hardware. There was just no way around it. My security team drove us back to our office building, which doubled as my residence. I took the time during the ride to inspect and try out my new chrome.
Status
Level: 15
EXP: 1480/1500
Musculoskeletal: 211
Neural Reflex: 65
Visuomotor Coordination: 87
Endurance: 59
Sensory Perception: 127
Upgrade Points: 1
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +7
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
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 Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
My new optics had several modes that could be used concurrently, allowing the different modes to be connected to my SAID, which will alert me to any findings. It could also detect if devices were giving out signals, find where wireless connections were available, and zoom much further with crystal clear clarity. I also got a bio-coprocessor, which was a chip in my brain to boost how fast I processed things and how fast my signals went out to the rest of my body. It was the first implant I got that boosted my Neural Reflex stat. While I got the jump on others most of the time, this would definitely increase my survivability to another level. For cyberarms, I got a matching model that was a good balance between strength and utility. It had all the functions of my Shiva but better. It had various integrated tools in it that ranged from old ole lockpicks to a freaking blowtorch. The other upgrades mainly improved performance and durability. It was more shielded from things like EMP attacks and hacking. Overall, it was definitely a worthwhile investment, especially since my adversaries in the future may be more corpos. Now that I have some wealth, I need to keep upgrading my defensive measures to be able to retain my fortune. Otherwise, I¡¯d just be a prime target for others.
¡°Excuse me, madam, please be seated for landing,¡± an air attendant said in my direction. She wasn¡¯t talking to me though, but to the person in the seat beside me. ¡°Oh, sorry,¡± Claire responded sheepishly, like a kid being caught stealing candy. She had been glued to the window since we boarded the plane. I couldn¡¯t blame her for it either, considering that was her first time flying. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! On this trip to Lion City, there were two teams of security guards accompanying us, totaling our party to ten. The bank of Lion City, that summoned us, paid for all the expenses, so it was a no-brainer to have our security join us. We soon began landing, and the metropolis came into view. They had a giant dome at the center that was large enough to house megabuildings. The dome was where the actual citizens of Lion City lived, where outsiders were normally not allowed. The government of Lion City actually had full control of their city-state. Corporations were subject to their regulations, and despite being an authoritarian government, they kept the well-being of their citizens in mind. They had some semblance to some of the countries back in my old world. I would¡¯ve wanted to become a citizen of this place too, if I didn¡¯t have the system, but they were highly xenophobic. The fact they weren¡¯t under any corporation¡¯s influence was why they were trusted to manage the currency of the world, the credits. They weren¡¯t the only party as the spacers had their own organization that worked together with them to maintain the economy. Lion City¡¯s airport was glamorous, as expected of a place where the wealth gathered. An employee from the bank was already there, waiting to guide us to our accommodations. On our way from the airport to our hotel, I observed the people on the streets. Though they were all similar to what I¡¯ve seen in Elevate City. It made sense, since most people outside the dome were foreigners. The next morning, we were brought to a megabuilding that had the Bank of Lion City¡¯s logo plastered all over it. In the meeting room they guided us to, we met the representative of the bank, a young woman. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Emma. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Halls,¡± she said as we shook hands. ¡°A pleasure to meet you. Let me thank you ahead of time, as we¡¯ll have to rely on you to guide us through this process,¡± I replied. ¡°Of course, I will do my best to be of service to you. If you would please follow me.¡± She led us to a room that looked like it was part of a hospital, with all the medical equipment. A nurse there then led us to each device to take a detailed scan that recorded our biometrics. It took over two hours, but at least we were done after that. ¡°Thank you so much for visiting us for this. Your accommodations for the next two days are covered, so please feel free to tour the city until you are ready to leave. Did you have any questions?¡± Said Emma, on our way out. ¡°Thank you. I think we will take a look around the city. By the way, why are there so many foreigners here? They can¡¯t all be here for the bank, right?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°There is a healthy population of mercenary and adventurous people that are here for the nearby dungeon,¡± She replied. Dungeon? She isn¡¯t going to tell me there¡¯s magic next, right? Kiri, what do you know about the dungeons in Lion City? ¡®The dungeon in Lion City is believed to be the bunkers the people from the past built before the nuclear war. It is a dangerous place with various mutants inhabiting it, but contains many relics from the past. These relics include technologies and knowledge that are long lost and can have tremendous value.¡¯ ¡°I see. Thank you for taking care of us. I don¡¯t have any more questions,¡± I answered. With Kiri¡¯s explanation, there was no need for her to clarify. ¡°Thank you guys for coming. You may want to check out the auction house if you don¡¯t have any plans. They usually have some relics you can get a closer look at if that interests you.¡± We were then driven back to our hotel, where they simply told us to inform them when we wanted to leave and they would acquire the plane tickets for us. Claire and I decided we would stay until our free accommodations ran out. We weren¡¯t in a hurry, so we would take full advantage of the freebies. In the afternoon, we rented cars to go tour the food markets where they had a wide selection of exotic fruits that weren¡¯t commonly found in Elevate City unless you paid an exorbitant price. The things we saw on the streets and in malls were too similar to what we had back home, so we skipped them. We planned to listen to Emma¡¯s recommendation and visit the auction that started later tonight, so we spent time in a nearby spa until dinner. When we entered the auction house, a man in a suit soon came to greet us. ¡°Welcome, dear guests. The entry fee to the main area is five hundred credits per person, or ten thousand if you would like a private room. Which one will it be?¡± He got straight to the point politely. ¡°The main area is fine. Lead the way,¡± I declared. ¡°Of course, your bodyguards may go to our waiting area if you would like. Your security is guaranteed while you are in our establishment.¡± I agreed to his offer and got seated with Claire in the auction hall. It wasn¡¯t that packed, though we would¡¯ve had issues finding a seat where we could all sit together if the guards came along. The auction soon started as scheduled and various items were brought forth. I¡¯m not sure what I expected, but it was plain boring. Relics sounded exciting until you found out it was just trash from the world before the nuclear wars. The most common items being auctioned were various pieces of furniture made of wood. It seemed like organic wood was scarce nowadays with how much the nuclear wars destroyed the planet¡¯s ecosystem. ¡°Look at that desk, Rollo! It¡¯s made from authentic wood, you should get it for your office. It¡¯d look cool and stylish,¡± Claire held onto me and said. ¡°Yeah¡­No thanks, maybe for yourself?¡± She shook her head. ¡°Too gaudy.¡± Then why would you recommend it to me¡­? When the auction went into the category of overpriced artwork, we took our leave as neither of us was that interested. ¡°Where do you want to go next?¡± I asked Claire. ¡°Umm, how about we get a snack and drive around to see how the nightlife scene is around here?¡± ¡°Sure, let¡¯s go.¡± The ten of us split off into the two rental cars and headed to one of the local fast-food chains that was still open. We got off to view the menu and ordered takeaway, so we could relax back in our hotel. When we returned to the parking lot, Kiri suddenly spoke up. ¡®I have detected suspicious individuals from the observing digital layer of your optics. There are four detected individuals to your nine o¡¯clock that aren¡¯t visible to the naked eye headed your way.¡¯ My optics instantly entered the digital mode, where I could spot digital wireless connections. I could see some signals coming from my left that matched what you would see coming from a SAID that most people had. We¡¯re out in a public area with no one else around. If they¡¯re using stealth tech that has a limited duration while near us, then¡­ ¡°Hostiles! Claire, stay down!¡± I quickly pulled out my pistol railgun and shot toward the invisible foes before activating my own active camouflage. A member of our security immediately pushed Claire to the ground while the other shot in the same direction as I had. I watched as an arm suddenly came into existence, having been damaged. A moment later, more enemies started firing at us while still hidden by their stealth devices. My guards scattered into cover and turned on their camouflage as well. I was likely the only one who could reliably spot the enemies, but our company software allowed us to share targeting information. I peeked out in stealth, without firing, highlighting our foes for my allies to see. Whenever I marked an enemy, my security team followed up with a hail of bullets. Following this strategy, we soon neutralized all our foes. They were all shot up pretty badly, so I finished them off for some experience points.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
¡°Rollo, are you okay?¡± Claire came up immediately once the fighting was over. ¡°Yeah, how about the rest of you?¡± I directed my question to the leader of my squad. ¡°Just two lightly injured, sir.¡± Before we could get out of there and examine our wounds, sirens rang out all around us. In the blink of an eye, the Lion City police had us surrounded. Why do you have to make me miss Elevate City PD of everything out there¡­? Chapter 53: Friendmail ¡°So you admit you were the aggressor?¡± One of the two detectives across from me asked. ¡°What? No, they were obviously hostile, sneaking up to us like that. It was obviously self-defense. Anyway, it¡¯s been an entire night. Where¡¯s my lawyer?¡± The duo exchanged glances but didn¡¯t answer my question. ¡°Tell us about the incident from start to finish again. What were you doing there?¡± They continued to hound me with repetitive questions until they eventually got tired of it. I was then allowed to make a call, so I contacted Emma, the representative from the Bank of Lion City. ¡°Apologies for your negative experience. The local police don¡¯t have favorable impressions of foreigners, especially ones that get into trouble. I will contact them right away.¡± It was evident I made the right choice on who to call when, fifteen minutes later, the same two detectives returned and immediately uncuffed me. They wordlessly guided me out where I was soon reunited with Claire and the rest of our security team in the lobby of the police station. ¡°How are you? Did they do anything to you?¡± I asked the tired-looking Claire. ¡°No, just mouthed my ears off. Let¡¯s get out of here. I can¡¯t stand being here a second longer.¡± I nodded in agreement and called a cab once we got our belongings back. We spent the entire day catching up on sleep, and the next day staying around the hotel as we lost our appetite to explore the city. Soon, it was time for us to leave, and we boarded our flight back to Elevate City. Although it wasn¡¯t the best trip ever, I was starting to get used to these incidents wherever I went. It only encouraged me to build up my company even more so we could beef up our security. Claire glued herself to the window as soon as we boarded, so I took the time to review my gains from the previous night.
Status
Level: 16
EXP: 20/1600
Musculoskeletal: 211
Neural Reflex: 65
Visuomotor Coordination: 87
Endurance: 59
Sensory Perception: 127
Upgrade Points: 3
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +7
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
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 Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
Our four assailants had gifted me the last bit of experience points I needed to level up. Now I had a whole three upgrade points waiting to be used. I wanted to upgrade a completely new skill, so I wasn¡¯t in a hurry to use them. Just three points wouldn¡¯t provide enough knowledge to be worthwhile. I spent the free time while we traveled to browse for any skills in the system I may have missed until we landed.
¡°Welcome back, Rollo, I got something for you,¡± Leo said. He came into my office the afternoon we returned from Lion City. Seeing how he hadn¡¯t messaged me and instead came in person, it must¡¯ve been a sensitive topic. Kiri, turn on the privacy mode for my office. The glass walls of my room dimmed until it was opaque, and the low thrum of a jamming field indicated it was up and running. He placed down a familiar data chip in front of me, ¡°The chip you had me decipher, it¡¯s done.¡± ¡°And? Is it some sensitive information about SocialCorp that could jeopardize us?¡± ¡°If it was, I would¡¯ve destroyed it already. This is something a little more benign, some ledgers from one of their smaller businesses. It¡¯s mainly evidence of some branch manager embezzling funds from the company. It¡¯s something SocialCorp would thank us for if we turned it in instead,¡± He smiled. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°You want us to turn this into SocialCorp for just a ¡®thank you¡¯?¡± ¡°Look, it could get us invaluable connections.¡± ¡°Maybe if an individual turned it in, but we¡¯re a corp, Leo. They¡¯d just be cautious of us, thinking we were trying to dig dirt on them.¡± ¡°...Then this isn¡¯t really useful to us. Want me to destroy it?¡± ¡°Well¡­If your idea was to build a connection, we could still do that.¡± ¡°What are you suggesting?¡± ¡°You see¡­¡±
¡°ID, and purpose of visit?¡± The heavily armed guard asked as our car stopped right beside his booth. ¡°Here, we have a scheduled meeting in the annex. Here¡¯s our confirmation,¡± Leo replied, holding out his terminal for them to see. The guard¡¯s eyes shone and a few moments later, he let us pass. We then continued our way across the bridge toward the space elevator in front of us. The view was great as always as we drove across the ocean. It was just me and Leo this time, as our meeting was more sensitive than usual. After passing a few more checkpoints, we soon arrived. We followed the signs in the parking lot and parked in the area for the annex instead of the spaceport. When we arrived in the meeting room we booked, we found a lanky man already there. He stood with his back facing us, as he stared out the window at the ocean view. He didn¡¯t turn around until both Leo and I were seated behind him. ¡°You people are really brave, trying to blackmail a manager from SocialCorp. Tell me, are you just dumb or do you people have a death wish?¡± The middle-aged man calmly said. ¡°Relax, Mr. Paulsen, no need to posture with us. We¡¯re not here to work against you, and you know it. Otherwise, we wouldn¡¯t even be meeting here today like this,¡± I retorted. ¡°This is clearly extortion. How can you say you are not working against me? Get to the chase. How much do you want?¡± ¡°We¡¯re not here to take anything from you. We just happened to find your ledgers and wanted to inform you of the leak, as a friend, of course. So please don¡¯t use such repulsive words like extortion or blackmail. Maybe friendmail would better describe it?¡± He paused and gave me a thorough inspection from top to bottom. ¡°We just wanted to make a connection with you, though I¡¯m sure you¡¯d find this suspicious if we really asked for nothing. So our first request is for you to help us buy some cassettes with cybernetic knowledge. Can you do that?¡± I asked. ¡°...If that is all you want, I can oblige. But I won¡¯t be reduced to a dog and be at your beck and call. Destroy all the information you have on that ledger, and I¡¯ll owe you three favors. The cassette will be the first favor, and I won¡¯t do anything against SocialCorp.¡± ¡°Very well. We got off to a bad start, but I hope we can get along. Would you like to join us for lunch?¡± I asked, as I offered a handshake. ¡°No, I¡¯d avoid as much contact as possible if I were you. There¡¯s no telling if SocialCorp¡¯s counter-intelligence will investigate me.¡± ¡°They do that normally?¡± I asked as I scanned the room. ¡°Only when I am working on a sensitive project, we have too many employees to monitor the insignificant small fries like me.¡± With our business done, he soon left, leaving me and Leo alone. ¡°Well, that went better than expected,¡± Leo said. ¡°Yeah, hope he delivers. It would save Claire a lot of time with that cassette. Anyway, want to go grab lunch while we¡¯re here? They have pretty good food here, I think.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­And they cost an arm and a leg for it.¡± ¡°My treat, for cracking that data chip.¡± ¡°What are we waiting for then?¡± He gestured for me to lead the way. We searched around the commercial area and found a restaurant that served authentic chicken meat. There was no way I would miss the opportunity to finally have some real meat. Our server guided us to the second floor, where we sat by the window that overlooked the shopping street below. The food may have taken longer than all the fast food I was used to, but when I bit into my first bite of the entr¨¦e, the chicken dish, tears welled and clouded my vision. ¡°...Rollo, are you okay?¡± Leo asked, looking a little stunned. ¡°Yeah, just some spices got into my eyes. I¡¯ll be right back.¡± I retreated to the washroom to clean up and swiftly made my way back to the table to finish my meal. Though I had to bear Leo awkwardly stealing glances at me for the rest of the meal, it was a small sacrifice in my books. Once we were done, it was Leo¡¯s turn to use the washroom. I browsed the web with my optics while I enjoyed an after-meal milkshake. I only stopped when I heard him pulling his chair back. ¡°That was fast¡ª¡± ¡°We met again,¡± A young woman said with a gleaming smile from across the table. ¡°Let me introduce myself this time. I¡¯m Margarite. And you are?¡± I froze for a second before I recognized her as the woman I had met during my previous visit here when I incorporated the company. ¡°I¡¯m Rollo, a pleasure to see you again.¡± ¡°Likewise, so tell me, Rollo, did everything go well in that meeting last time?¡± ¡°Yes, it was just to sign something with the consortium.¡± She raised an eyebrow, ¡°So you own a new corporation then? What does your company do?¡± ¡°Just sell some cybernetics and transportation, nothing major,¡± I replied and took a sip of my drink. ¡°Transportation, through the wasteland, I presume? My company¡¯s been looking for someone who knew their way around the wasteland, and you know, with the war and everything, none of the other companies have the time or capability to spare. Whereabouts does your transportation business operate? ¡± ¡°Just around NLA and Firebird, like I said, nothing major. What does your company want, specifically?¡± ¡°We specialize in auctioning rare items to the cultured around the world. There¡¯s been this new trend of capturing mutants as pets. We just need someone to guide us to where we can find the mutants. We¡¯ll take care of the fighting. Does that sound like something you can help with?¡± She placed down a small terminal for me to see. On it were preliminary job details and, more importantly, the pay offered. I counted the digits twice and confirmed it was a five, followed by six zeroes. Five million credits to just guide them around. It was almost too good to be true. That money could accelerate our expansion and add an entirely new route to our transportation network. ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll have to hash out the details, but I don¡¯t see why not.¡± ¡°Perfect, but I have just one condition.¡± Okay, maybe it was too good to be true. ¡°Shoot.¡± ¡°I¡¯d like you to accompany us. I¡¯ll be going as well, so it¡¯ll be a fun trip between new friends.¡± I took a moment to think it over and didn¡¯t find it to be much of a problem. I needed to go to NLA to deal with some bureaucracy, anyway. ¡°Sure, send me your contact info.¡± She left shortly after we exchanged contacts, and Leo happened to return shortly after that. As he took a seat, he stared at me with a shit-eating grin. I summarized my discussion with Margarite to get his opinion, but the only thing he said in response was ¡°I see,¡± and ¡°You decide.¡± He finally spoke up when we got in the car as we headed out, ¡°You know I¡¯m going to tell Lana and Claire, right?¡± After that, I decided to ignore him the entire way back. When we got back, he followed me up to the top floor, where Claire and Lana were chatting away in Claire¡¯s office. Having accepted the teasing to come, I entered the room with Leo. ¡°You guys wouldn¡¯t believe what¡ª¡± Before Leo could continue, Thorne jumped into the office. ¡°Guys, take a look at the news channel.¡± Thorne speedily turned on the projector in the room as we all focused on the headline displayed. ¡°---¡¯s right folks, Europa Station has signed a peace treaty with Enceladus Station. The war is over. We expect transportation to revert to normal within two months¡­.¡± That means the high demand for transportation will soon revert back to normal as well. This is for sure going to have an impact on our transportation business. I guess I was destined to head back to NLA. Chapter 54: Mutant Capture Team I placed the small rectangular device into the specialized scanner I had installed in my workshop. I would take a scan of it before and after I disassembled it to study its inner workings. I had already copied the software on it, so even if I messed up, it wouldn¡¯t be a complete waste with some material to analyze. The device was what we got with the connections provided by Rob Paulsen, the SocialCorp branch manager we friendmailed. It was the cassette that worked in tandem with compatible SAIDs to help people learn in their sleep. SocialCorp had a monopoly on them, turning it into a seller¡¯s market. From what I¡¯ve researched so far, it wasn¡¯t particularly difficult to replicate the technology. The key was how the knowledge was organized when it was fed into the brain. Different knowledge required a whole new set of trial and error to determine the optimal way to help the brain learn the information in a comprehensible way without any side effects. There was an enormous amount of testing and optimization required, so it was no wonder that the largest corp specialized in it. What I wanted to try out was to create my own cassette based on the knowledge I learned from the system. The way the cassettes worked was shockingly similar to the system, except it was able to dump all that knowledge into my brain in an instant. Though even if I succeeded, there was no way I would sell them, as that would antagonize a corp I couldn¡¯t afford to. This would just be for internal use, for people like Claire and Thorne. Before I knew it, my alarm rang, reminding me it was time for dinner. I quickly got dressed and exited my workshop. Just as the door to the elevator opened, I almost bumped into the person who tried to rush out. ¡°Rollo, you actually kept track of time this once¡­¡± ¡°Come on Claire, I¡¯m always on time if you let me know about it at least a day before. Let¡¯s go. We have a reservation, right?¡± She pouted and retreated back into the elevator. I stepped in and pressed the button for the garage. ¡°So, how¡¯s it going with the cassette? Is it working?¡± I asked. We had bought a few, one with cybernetic knowledge for Claire to use, and a few cheaper ones for me to experiment with. ¡°I think so. It¡¯s still a bit too early to tell, as it¡¯s still going over the things I¡¯ve already learned. There¡¯s still a whole month until I get through all of it.¡± Unlike the system, the cassette paired with a SAID that had a hypnopaedia function required over a month to get through one cassette. You had to go from start to finish, as that was the only safe way. ¡°I see¡­ Well, keep me updated. It may help with my research.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, sure.¡± The elevator soon arrived, and we met up with Thorne, Leo, and Lana, who were all already waiting in the parking garage. After hearing about the scrumptious meal Leo and I had, the others, mostly Claire, pestered me about the unfair treatment. This was why we made an appointment today at a high-class restaurant that served authentic poultry to make up for it. We moved out together in one Vanguard while another two accompanied us as security. My gaze couldn¡¯t help but be drawn to our company¡¯s logo that decorated our guard¡¯s uniform and cars. The snow blue owl was fine, but seeing my own last name flaunted around made me grimace. It was obvious at a glance the restaurant we arrived at was an expensive place to dine in with the decor alone. However, there was one excellent perk I found in these fine dining establishments, which were the waiting rooms they had for guards. The server soon led the four of us to our table. Once we ordered, Claire eased into her seat and grinned in my direction. ¡°So Rollo, what¡¯s this about going to NLA to do some job for your new girlfriend?¡± ¡°She¡¯s not my girlfriend, and you saw the details on the contract. We¡¯ll be netting five million credits, and catering to their request is the least we could do.¡± ¡°Oh, I wasn¡¯t talking about financially,¡± She smirked. ¡°I¡¯m still against it. We should negotiate with them. There¡¯s no need to put yourself in danger¡¯s way. They¡¯ll be capturing mutants, not killing them, and there are so many things that could go wrong working with an unknown corp,¡± Thorne interjected. While what he said was true, it didn¡¯t apply to my situation. I still often went out to fight harvesters and other miscreants of society, so the risk of going out into the wastelands would be no different. They all fueled my system with experience points so I could continue to improve. ¡°I¡¯ve dug around into them. There aren¡¯t any nasty rumors about them, so that should be okay in that regard. The risks of going out into the wasteland still remain, though,¡± Leo added. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not much riskier than what I normally do. Besides, I recently got an upgrade, so I¡¯ll be able to handle myself better than ever.¡± ¡°...Then at least let me come along,¡± Thorne replied. ¡°Then who¡¯ll take care of our security team here?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what you say every time. I¡¯ve trained up a few replacements who can take care of things while I¡¯m gone. Leo will also be here if anything happens,¡± Thorne turned his gaze to Leo, who nodded in response. ¡°Okay¡­ Then why not? I don¡¯t think you¡¯ve left this city before, have you? The wasteland will be a good experience for you.¡± I may also be feeling slightly guilty, having left Thorne behind every time. Our company needs to be able to stand tall even if a person or two is missing, anyway. ¡°Enough business talk guys, let¡¯s enjoy tonight,¡± Lana said, to change the topic. We went on to discuss more mundane matters, such as the VR game they had recently started playing. My capsule arrived as well, but I didn¡¯t have the time to try it out yet. The food soon arrived and the authentic chicken I ordered was delightful. It was experiences like these that really reminded me of the wonders of what money could bring. I still couldn¡¯t believe that crap I had forced into my stomach when I first came to this world, but it served as a powerful motivator for me. My next goal was to have every single one of my future meals be at least as good as what we had tonight.
By now, traveling was a routine affair for me, but the same couldn¡¯t be said for Thorne. We flew to NLA with just the two of us as airfare was expensive, and we had a security team waiting for us at the airport as well. Our security team department there was even larger than the one at Elevate City as it was where our production facility, transportation warehouses, and wasteland scavenge team were. We also planned to open a clinic here, but we delayed it due to funding. In Elevate City, we only had a clinic and our office, so it wasn¡¯t unreasonable that we had less security there when we had fewer areas to protect. We had contacted Vin about our trip and they had been scouting out the wastelands for suitable spots to bring our clients to hunt for mutants. When we exited the airport, we found Vin waiting in his usual beat-up car, along with two vanguards parked beside it. The Vanguards had our logo on it which meant my name as well. Vin had on the same company security outfit that I¡¯ve grown familiar with as well. ¡°Welcome back. You sure brought along an interesting job this time,¡± Vin said, as he opened the trunk. ¡°Yeah, well, I figured it wouldn¡¯t be too hard for us to scout around the routes we¡¯re familiar with.¡± I left the part where we wouldn¡¯t have to be worried about wastelanders unsaid, as we were out in public. ¡°Well, you figured right. We have the latest updates on mutant sightings ready for you. You¡¯ll need it in your meeting later, right?¡± ¡°Yep. Oh and before I forget, this is Thorne, the head of security for Elevate City.¡± Vin nodded and looked Thorne over, ¡°Nice to meetcha, I¡¯m Vin. I guess we¡¯re the same rank, or maybe you¡¯re my superior as you work in headquarters?¡± ¡°Nice to meet you, too. We¡¯ll go with equals. I don¡¯t think we¡¯re that strict with ranks when we can avoid it, anyway,¡± Thorne replied. We got on our way and headed back to our office, which remained unchanged, where it doubled as our production facility as well. We didn¡¯t stop for long as we had to attend the meeting with Margarite and the people from Desire Corp, her corporation. We met in a conference room we booked, located in a business hotel in downtown NLA. When we arrived, Margarite was already there, along with two guards and a skinny man with glasses. It was rare to wear glasses, so it was likely some kind of device instead. ¡°We meet again, just in time, too. Please, take a seat,¡± Margarite offered. I had Thorne and Vin with me, but Thorne opted to remain standing behind us like Margarite¡¯s guards. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m glad to see you well,¡± I replied. The scrawny man beside Margarite cleared his throat before he spoke up, ¡°I am Dr. Lut. I will be tagging along as the one who will be deciding which mutants we will be capturing. Why don¡¯t we ?jump straight into it? If you could provide us with the information as promised, we can quickly plan our trip and be on our way.¡± ¡°Yes, of course. If you would, Vin.¡± Vin then began his presentation on his findings, giving us an overview of what mutants were available in the area, their characteristics, and their habitats. He even went over a colossal worm-like thing I had previously encountered on my way to Firebird, too. As expected of corpos, they quickly gave up on that creature, as it was too massive and was nocturnal. I couldn¡¯t even imagine the amount of men and resources they would need to capture that thing. They took an interest in mutant spiders and snakes, which brought back some terrible memories of my own encounters. I let Vin take charge of the conversation as they discussed how many men they should bring and the route to take. By the time they were done, the sun had already set. After saying our goodbyes, both parties departed quickly, as we decided to set out in two days. They must have a lot to prepare, as they were visitors here. I¡¯m impressed they could even deploy that many troops on short notice. As expected of a medium-sized corp, that had a D-class membership with the consortium, which meant they paid the annual membership fee of twenty-five million credits.
Two days went by in a blink of an eye. Our convoy of four Vanguards met up with Margarite¡¯s party just outside of the wastelands. We only were guides this time around so we didn¡¯t bring that many people. I had Vin stay behind to manage the operations, so it was me, Thorne, and the four teams of guards. The vehicles at Margarite¡¯s party had seemed much newer than our own, but at least we had them beat in cohesiveness, thanks to our standardized paint job. They had rented out various vehicles, so they were all nondescript gray. There were a dozen cars in their group, along with one big truck they had prepared for keeping the mutants. Their men, standing guard around their vehicles, were decked out in high-tech gear and cybernetics that I could recognize at a glance. They were the type I wouldn¡¯t antagonize even if I had the drop on them unless they were alone. That was because they may have active scanners that could detect me if they were on the lookout. We drove up slowly to them, and I got out of the car once we were close enough and approached. I found Margarite wearing high-tech gear, similar to what the rest of them wore, while Dr. Lut was in a suit for some reason. They were both staring at the raging sandstorm of the wasteland with a determined demeanor. ¡°You guys ready?¡± I called out to them. Chapter 55: Hunt Our four Vanguards took the lead as we led our client, Desire Corp, deeper into the wasteland. The convoy of military vehicles, which were customized to be used in the wasteland¡¯s environment, drove for an hour before we came to the first stop on our agenda. We arrived at a ruin that had once been an industrial complex with the entire? area scattered with low-rise facilities and warehouses. While there were mutants that only resided on the plains of the wasteland, they were a lot harder to track down compared to the ones that used the derelict buildings as nests. One of the targets Desire Corp decided on this time was a mutant spider that they called webclaws. We approached a large complex that probably served as a production facility for a company long ago. The area the building spanned was probably more than six soccer fields combined. It always amazed me how these buildings were still standing after so many years of being battered by the wasteland¡¯s sandstorms. I pointed toward the entrance the scout team had previously found, then I watched as Margarite and her team moved in to secure the building. I followed shortly after with Thorne and a small squad of my security team. I found Margarite and Dr. Lut at the forefront of three dozen men who stood at attention. ¡°Captain Melchior, you¡¯ll lead squad one to be the capture team, while your deputy will lead squad two to be the distraction team. Squad three will stay here to defend this location and our vehicles outside. Remember, you¡¯re not authorized to use lethal weapons on our targets unless as a last resort,¡± Dr. Lut commanded. I wondered what they considered being a last resort. I was sure that a few casualties were well within acceptable losses for most corps. For me, on the other hand, I¡¯d rather not have to pay the worker¡¯s compensation and re-train personnel. Soon, the corporate soldiers received their orders and moved out. Two-thirds of them went further into the building while the remainder, including Margarite and Dr. Lut, stayed in the lobby. They placed a few terminals around and created a mobile security room, where multiple screens displayed the body cam footage of their soldiers. From the footage displayed, we saw them move cautiously around the corridors of the building until they reached an open area with high ceilings. It was filled with dusty, worn machines that looked more useful as scrap metal. This was where the two teams split off, with the bait team continuing onward. It didn¡¯t take them long to stumble into an area where spider webs could be seen in every direction. There were large cocoons spread around the area as well, and when the team looked up, they finally spotted the prey they wanted to capture. The only issue was that there were over two dozen of them. As if smiling at the cameras, the spiders all bared their fangs at the soldiers in unison before they dropped toward their intruders. It wouldn¡¯t have been that bad if they were just oversized spiders, the size of a car tire, but their legs had sharp claws that were reminiscent of crabs. They were powerful offensive and defensive tools. The soldiers of Desire Corp immediately opened fire with their specialized tranquilizer guns and backed away while they shot. Unfortunately for them, the claws of the spiders simply deflected the darts as they failed to penetrate the thick chitin. Although it appeared the men were at a disadvantage at first glance, they orderly retreated at a speed that just barely kept pace with the encroaching mutants. They continued to back up toward the other squad that had an ambush ready. Once the mutants were lured in, the trap was sprung. The two squads worked in unison and pelted the spiders with tranquilizer darts from two different directions. The claws couldn¡¯t protect them from two directions, with occasional shots that went past their defense. The ones that were hit swiftly went lethargic except for the particular large spider towards the back. Even when the darts landed on the more vulnerable rear of the spider the size of a go-kart, it failed to penetrate the monster¡¯s hide. It rushed forward at the distraction team and cleanly cleaved two men in half with its sharp claws. The soldiers panicked and rushed to build some distance with the monstrosity, allowing it to claim several more victims as they turned their back on the threat. Just when I thought they would have to resort to stronger firepower, the captain I saw earlier rushed into action. He was a giant of a man, standing easily past six-four, with augmented limbs. He definitely fit the classic description of a cyborg as only his neck and above seemed to be organic. When he dove into action, his large figure blurred and soon reappeared right next to the large mutant. He swung a back fist at the creature and blew its claw away with the powerful blow before he stabbed it with a syringe he held in his other hand. The gigantic spider faltered but was able to muster another swipe at the man with its claw. The man blurred once again and reappeared on the spider¡¯s flank and stabbed out once more. This time, the spider lost balance and fell on its stomach. The surrounding soldiers stared at the down creature for a few seconds before erupting into cheers. ¡°You sure have a pretty powerful helper on your team,¡± I noted behind Margarite. ¡°I believe so. He¡¯s the captain for a reason.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°With the amount of credits invested into his body, he should be ashamed of himself if he couldn¡¯t deal with some mindless beasts,¡± Dr. Lut added. His words drew my gaze back toward the captain so I could examine his hardware in more detail. The superhuman speed he displayed was only possible with all the augments he had done, with his spine all the way to all four limbs. If any parts were still organic, it wouldn¡¯t be able to handle the strain or keep up at all. It was a little too extreme for me, as I doubted I would be able to enjoy food the same way anymore if I didn¡¯t even have a stomach. Maybe I should consider hiring a few cyborgs like that as my bodyguard. I don¡¯t believe I can do anything against an opponent like that without catching them off guard right now. ¡°Rollo, can you augment to be like that as well?¡± A voice suddenly whispered into my ear. I looked over to find Thorne, who stared at the screen of the terminal unflinchingly. ¡°Claire would give you an earful if you tried to become a cyborg like that guy. There are other ways without going that far and still be able to compete.¡± ¡°But those methods would cost exorbitantly more, right?¡± ¡°...It¡¯s just not worth it. We can discuss this more when we get back,¡± I said, hoping Claire would talk some sense into him. Margarite soon commanded a few more of her people to go help with the cleanup while Dr. Lut sat there with a teacup in hand, like the snob he was. They started packing away all the silk in the room, the cocoons, and all the paralyzed spiders. With the way they bound the spiders, I couldn¡¯t help but once again think about crabs found in the seafood markets. I should really look into where they served actual crabs. I¡¯m starting to salivate just thinking about it. Once they packed everything away in the trucks they brought, we drove off toward our next destination. The next stop was at a nearby ruin that was filled with skyscrapers instead of the industrial buildings we were at. It was a high-traffic area with other scavengers as well, so there were more than just mutant threats around. Though with that captain around, I don¡¯t think anyone would succeed in attacking us even if they set up an ambush. As we came up onto an empty plot of land where we could park all our vehicles within this concrete forest, we heard gunfire ring out nearby. ¡°Should we relocate? We can come back later,¡± I suggested to their leadership team. ¡°Su¡ª¡± Before Margarite could reply, Dr. Lut interjected. ¡°No, we¡¯ll be fine. Time is money and I am not in the habit of wasting any.¡± I watched as Margarite swallowed her words and nodded in agreement. Our next target was my old friend, the mutant snake that they called serpentant. As I found out the hard way, they like to nest underground like in the basement of buildings. We left a team to stand guard by our vehicles while we delved into one of the larger office buildings nearby. Like before, they set up a forward base in the lobby while they prepared to head down to the floors below. There was ample furniture left on the mezzanine, so I had my security team set up a corner for us. There were only eight of us here, including me and Thorne, as the rest were by our vehicles, so we could set up in a cozy corner near where they had their terminals. Their team soon headed down below. They didn¡¯t encounter any unexpected situations this time and were able to complete their mission smoothly. I watched as they tugged a giant snake out of the basement. ¡°With this haul, our trucks will be full,¡± Margarite informed Dr. Lut. ¡°Very well. This was a pleasant bonus. Let¡¯s complete our main objective and get out of here, then,¡± The doctor declared. At his words, the vibe their men gave off immediately changed. Their surrounding guards suddenly drew their firearms toward us and opened fire. I watched as a few of my guards were instantly slaughtered. What?! But why? Faster than I could react, Thorne pulled me into cover behind a pillar. ¡°Rollo, we¡¯re getting out of here. Turn on your active camouflage now!¡± I did as he instructed before we both made a run for it while in stealth. We didn¡¯t get far before a hail of bullets chased after us. Thorne pushed me out of the way and soaked up the bullets. The damage disrupted his Shade; he flickered into view until he was fully out of stealth. ¡°Go¡­¡± He muttered as he collapsed. I didn¡¯t even have time to hesitate as a figure abruptly appeared beside me. I stepped back in time to feel the strong wind pressure pass by me as I dodged an attack. I quickly pulled out my railgun and fired shots at my assailant, the cyborg captain, as I desperately backed away to create distance. The captain blurred out of existence and reappeared beside me, completely dodging my attacks. I rolled away and fired more shots, but this time, he simply batted away the bullets with his hand. No way, that¡¯s unreal¡­ I cannot compete at all in a fair fight. I need to get out of here with Thorne somehow. I need to use explosive rounds as a distraction with the dust it will kick up. Before I could plot further, I felt my feet lose contact with the ground. I found myself on all fours, puking my guts out. When I looked up, I found the cyborg, who was the captain of their forces, standing over me. He stabbed out with a device in hand, and my mind blanked as electricity ran through me. ¡®Excess electricity current detected in the host. Several rib fractures detected. It is recommended the host gets immediate medical attention.¡¯ Stop with the unhelpful alerts. I know I¡¯m hurt. ¡°Enough, we want him alive. Secure him already.¡± Beside the captain, Margarite emerged. The shock stopped, and I instantly gasped for air. At least I could focus again. ¡°What¡­ do you¡­ want?¡± I squeezed out. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Mr. Halls, we want you alive. You¡¯re lucky enough to be headhunted by our company for your excellence in dealing with wastelanders,¡± Margarite replied. ¡°Wastelanders? You¡¯re not¡­ from Desire¡­are you?¡± ¡°We know about your relationship with the wastelanders. You¡¯ll find out who we are very soon. As for now, why don¡¯t you rest up?¡± She snapped her finger, and the captain stepped toward me. Just when his hand was about to make contact with me, a strong gust of wind made me reflexively close my eyes. A sharp, piercing sound rang out and hurt my ears, followed by a shockwave that knocked me back. When I opened my eyes again, I found the cyborg looking down at a huge hole in his chest. He tried to raise his arms toward his injury, only to collapse as if his strings were cut. What in the¡­? There¡¯s no time for that now. It¡¯s my chance to escape! Don¡¯t give out on me, legs¡­ Chapter 56: Life and Death I watched the cyborg captain in front of me collapse to the ground as he stared in disbelief at the hole in his chest. Everyone around was frozen in shock, as if someone had cast time-freezing magic. ¡°Sniper!¡± Margarite yelled. Hearing her words, the surrounding people immediately thawed and dove into cover. I struggled to get up, only to fail as my legs buckled. Several soldiers received a new hole in their bodies, punching a hole through whatever they had used as cover, in quick succession. I crawled toward Thorne, but my pace was pathetically slow. ¡°Find out where the sniper is and have the turrets on our vehicles decimate the attacker!¡± Dr. Lut shouted. Having found that cover proved to be worthless before the sniper, they all ran out at the doctor¡¯s command. The doctor himself wanted to follow, however, he soon collapsed as the next victim of the deadly attacker. They all soon evacuated from the building so I couldn¡¯t see what was going on, though the sound of gunshots from outside told a story in itself. It didn¡¯t take five minutes until an eerily silence overcame the sound of fighting. I had reached Thorne and found that he still had a pulse, but he was losing a lot of blood. I tore my clothes and bandaged his wounds as best as I could. When I was halfway done, I heard the door to the building swing open. I readied my firearm and hid it under me as I lay still. There were three sets of footsteps who slowly walked towards me. I need to take them all out at once or else I¡¯d just be a sitting duck, laying prone like this. The footsteps grew closer, and I prepared myself to spring into action. I decided I would make my move once they walked past me. They were soon right beside me, but they then stopped moving. ¡°Relax, we¡¯re not your enemies. I just wanted to tell you to be more careful from now on. We won¡¯t be able to protect you forever or from everything. This is your first and final warning,¡± Said someone with a distorted voice. Their footsteps resumed, though they headed back for the exit instead. I turned myself over and spotted a tall figure in an all-black combat suit and a tactical helmet that hid the face. ¡°Who are you? Why did you help me?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll find out eventually if you keep growing. Let¡¯s just say we have similar goals in mind. Take care, Rollo.¡± The figure spoke as they continued walking away. The two other similarly dressed figures politely held the door open for the one who spoke. I couldn¡¯t make out any features as they all wore helmets. As they left, I turned my focus back on Thorne, who urgently needed my help. I finished dressing his wounds as I started to recover control of my body. I was able to stand, allowing me to scavenge for medical supplies. We had prepared plenty for this expedition, so I soon found a medkit. I stabbed Thorne with a cocktail of stims and nanite injections, which seemed to have helped as some color was restored to his face. Now that he was more stable, I surveyed our surroundings. Bodies lay everywhere, and I quickly spotted the bodies of Margarite and my employees. I will aven¡ªno, I will get back at who is responsible. For their transgression and making me pay a fortune in worker¡¯s compensation! I dragged Thorne out of the building and soon found our vehicles. Some of the vehicles from Margarite¡¯s group had a familiar gaping hole in them. I found my own company vehicles and swiftly unlocked them. Just as I threw Thorne into the car, several figures emerged from one of my Vanguards. ¡°Boss! You¡¯re okay!¡± A man yelled out. From their blue and black attire, I could spot the logo of a snow owl on their shoulders, designating them as members of my security team. I soon recognized the person who spoke to be one of the guards we had left outside to guard our vehicles. ¡°You guys are okay? How did you survive?¡± I asked. ¡°We¡¯re not sure. We were suddenly attacked by a sniper, and even the Desire Corp people dropped like flies. For some reason, the sniper left us alone, but then someone snuck behind us and locked us in the car. We were there until now. What about you, boss?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll save that for later. We need to quickly return to the outpost. Thorne needs medical attention ASAP!¡±
¡°Rollo! How is he? Will he survive?¡± A tearful Claire dove into me as soon as she found me. ¡°I don¡¯t know. The doctors are operating on him now. He¡¯s strong, and he lasted the entire trip out of the wasteland already, so just believe in him,¡± I replied. ¡°What the hell happened?¡± Leo yelled out from behind her, holding Lana in his arms. ¡°I¡­It¡¯s a long story.¡± I briefed the three of them while we waited outside the operation room. They had a lot of questions, particularly the part about my mysterious savior, but we didn¡¯t dwell on it, as there was no way to find out the truth right now. Although I knew my body was tired, I couldn¡¯t sleep after what happened. The trio here had just arrived from Elevate City too, so I¡¯m sure they were tired as well, but we all sat together in silence for some time after I summarized the recent events. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°It¡¯s my fault¡­ I cleared those guys to be safe to work with,¡± Leo suddenly muttered. ¡°Leo, no. Then I¡¯m just as responsible as you. They were prepared and had more resources than us,¡± Lana consoled. ¡°She¡¯s right. If anything, it would be my fault. I accepted this job even though it sounded a little too good to be true. I am responsible for your lack of equipment as well,¡± I said. ¡°Stop it, all of you! It¡¯s no one¡¯s fault. We all didn¡¯t want this to happen or see it coming. The only thing that matters is Thorne¡¯s recovery right now,¡± Claire interjected. We all nodded in unison, as we sat there in silence, waiting for the surgery to finish. I stared at the operation in progress sign for an entire hour before the lights of the sign finally dimmed. The doors soon opened with an automated bed coming out, transporting Thorne back to a recovery area, followed behind by the doctor. ¡°How is he?¡± Claire quickly rushed up and asked. ¡°He is stable for now, but his spinal cord and the surrounding nerves were damaged. His limbs were also without blood for too long and had to be amputated. He will need a replacement grown or cybernetic alternatives. Until then, he will be paralyzed.¡± We then proceeded to Thorn¡¯s room. He wouldn¡¯t wake until half an hour later. ¡°Thorne!¡± Claire immediately embraced him. He weakly muttered something unintelligible. After sipping on some water, he tried again. ¡°Looks like¡­we¡­made it. How are¡­you, Rollo?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m unhurt, thanks to you.¡± He let out a sigh of relief before his eyes opened wide, ¡°I can¡¯t move¡­¡± ¡°We¡¯ll just need some time to regrow new parts for you, and then you¡¯ll be good as new. All on company expense. Just bear with it for a while.¡± ¡°Yes, the doctor says your limbs had to be amputated, and your spinal cord and nerves were damaged,¡± Claire added. ¡°...I want¡­to replace them¡­with cybernetics. Can you¡­do that for me, Rollo?¡± While that is cheaper than regrowing the organic parts, replacing all his limbs plus the spine is no small decision. He¡¯ll lose most sensations that humans are used to and become one of those cyborgs for real¡­ ¡°Thorne, no! Just replace your hands if you must, but don¡¯t become a brain in a jar,¡± Claire cried out. ¡°...I¡¯ve made up my mind. I want to be as strong as that captain, Rollo.¡± Our eyes locked for a while as the tension in the room thickened, ¡°I have a way to have your spine and limbs replaced with cybernetics and still keep the rest of your body organic. I¡¯ll just need some time to work out the surgery.¡± ¡°I trust you.¡± At his words, I felt the gaze of everyone in the room on me. It was rare for someone to have all augmented limbs but an organic torso. The amount of devices running in the body, with all the electronics, would start interfering with your organs. That was why they usually replaced the torso, too, turning people into what we call a cyborg. I would need to invest my remaining points in cybernetics and plan out what cybernetics to use. I would need to keep the implants¡¯ functionality in mind without harming his squishy organs. Though this may delay my plans, it was worth it in the long run and for the sake of Thorne.
Status
Level: 16
EXP: 80/1600
Musculoskeletal: 211
Neural Reflex: 65
Visuomotor Coordination: 87
Endurance: 59
Sensory Perception: 127
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +10
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
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 Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
Eight days after Thorne¡¯s surgery, I watched as he opened his eyes in his new body. ¡°How do you feel?¡± ¡°Absolute Zero! I¡¯ve missed being about to move on my own two feet so much,¡± Thorne declared. ¡°You¡¯ve only been bedridden for a little over a week. Calm down, big guy!¡± Claire quipped. ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re eager to move. We¡¯ve got a lot of tests to do. While your cybernetics are all well tested, we need to see if they are integrated into you properly. The architecture of how your implants are unified is completely untested.¡± ¡°Will I have to limit myself to prevent damage to my body?¡± ¡°No¡­I made sure you can make use of the chrome the same way most cyborgs can. You¡¯ll still have a time limit on how long you can push it, but the same applies to other cyborgs.¡± ¡°That sounds¡­ too good to be true. Do you mean I can move super fast like that, captain?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯ll strain your brain, spine, and legs, though. That¡¯s why that guy only sped up his movements occasionally to dodge and close distances.¡± ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll be sure to practice it well.¡± ¡°Hurry up, you two. We have a reservation today to celebrate Thorne¡¯s full recovery! I¡¯ll go finish up some work while you guys do your thing, but you two better not be late.¡± Claire interjected. As she left the room, we shrugged at each other helplessly. We proceeded with the test smoothly, testing if the implants really wouldn¡¯t hurt him when working at full power. We examined energy and heat management, along with various things that could be harmful to the human body. ¡°Rollo, I¡¯ve been thinking. I want to resign as the head of security.¡± ¡°What? Why?¡± I stopped my work on my terminal and looked up at the speaker. ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand. I¡¯m not quitting the company. I want to focus on being your bodyguard instead. It won¡¯t be the last time we meet someone like that captain, as there will be more corporations that we¡¯ll be working with in the future.¡± ¡°I see¡­In that case, I decline your resignation from the head of security. Just delegate your work to a few people while you guard me. There¡¯s no need for you to give up the post.¡± ¡°But¡ª¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, delegating is an important skill to have in a leadership role.¡± ¡°...Okay. I¡¯ll need some time to go back to Elevate City to set everything up first, though.¡± ¡°Take your time then. We¡¯re not in a race here. The transportation business can wait. We can use this time to train more personnel for the new routes we plan to have, anyway.¡± And I needed some time to level up as well. The next step of expanding the transportation business relied on adopting some new technology that will improve our vehicles and provide me with knowledge on how to design EMP-resistant devices. Chapter 57: Voltage Vipers Andrew - Voltage Vipers Member ¡°Hurry up Peng, or I¡¯ll leave you behind,¡± He called out to the big oaf behind him. ¡°Peng is coming! Please hold the door, Andrew!¡± He ignored his words and watched the big oaf dash as fast as he could, just barely grasping the elevator door as they almost completely closed. When the large man stepped in, the entire elevator swayed. ¡°Did you install new chrome or something? It¡¯s like you gained over a hundred pounds since yesterday.¡± ¡°No, don¡¯t be so mean, Andrew. Peng may have eaten a little too much recently¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sensitive about these things you¡ª Oh never mind, why do I bother with you? The leader is waiting,¡± He sighed as he pressed the button. When the door opened, Peng rushed out for some reason, crashing into a pair of mother and daughter. ¡°Watch yourself! Peng is part of the Voltage Vipers. Are you messing with Peng?¡± The big oaf got enraged at the little girl he bumped into. Tears welled up in the girl¡¯s eyes as her mother embraced her from behind. ¡°Please, we¡¯re¡ª¡± Why do I put up with his stupid shit¡­If only he weren¡¯t my childhood friend. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Peng, leave it. You already caused enough of a mess for us. We haven¡¯t even explained to the leader about it yet. Don¡¯t start new shit.¡± ¡°Yes, Andrew. Peng is sorry.¡± He turned back and bowed to Andrew. He had been like this since we were little, and I promised his parents I would look after him too. Oh, the folly of youth. The pair proceeded to cross the lobby of the megabuilding. Once they turned a few corners, the entire area¡¯s vibe changed. The section of the building was Voltage Vipers¡¯ territory, where few outsiders dared to enter. They passed by dozens of members of the gang, who either nodded in acknowledgment of them or stared at the duo coldly. He had grown used to it though, as factional strife was an inevitable part of gang life, no matter which gang it was. The duo headed further in until they got to the end of the hallway, where the room with one of the best views on this floor was. The two guards outside waved them in, where they found a spacious apartment with large windows on three sides of the room. They could see the beautiful view of NLA¡¯s nighttime landscape from here. By one of the windows was a commercial-sized bar that stood out sorely. It was entirely out of place as it was inside a luxurious apartment, and Andrew would¡¯ve gawked at the sight if he hadn¡¯t been here before. He approached the bar and took a seat with Peng. The bartender continued to clean the glass in his hand as if he didn¡¯t notice them at all. The two sat in silence for a few moments until they heard footsteps coming down the stairs nearby. Slowly climbing down the spiral staircase, was a man with spiky red hair, fashioned in a matching red suit. He wore sunglasses that hid his eyes, but Andrew could tell he was staring at them the entire way down. ¡°If it isn¡¯t Andrew and his pet, Peng. You finally decided to show yourself, eh?¡± ¡°Apologies sir, we had to lie low to ensure no one followed us.¡± He sat down a distance away, and the bartender immediately readied a drink for him. ¡°I took you kids in because I thought you would be useful. Are you proving yourself useful?¡± ¡°Yes, we¡ª¡± ¡°Yes? Forgot what I taught you already? Only a dog who knows how to listen to instructions is useful. What in the world were you two doing, being so high profile with your acts of violence?! Didn¡¯t I tell you to keep things quiet?¡± ¡°But sir¡­They tried to stab us in the back first.¡± ¡°So you two saw red and chased them down around town, then? Right into a busy intersection. You two really have no self-control like the animals that you are. Enough, you kids are¡ª¡± Suddenly, the lights to the entire place went off. ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± The leader cried out. From the soft glow in each of their eyes, Andrew could tell their night vision kicked in. His optics were bargain bin outdated models, so it didn¡¯t have any fancy colored night vision, but it did the trick. The bartender had pulled out a menacing-looking shotgun while the other three all stood up and cautiously looked toward the door. ¡°Martin, get some people to see what¡¯s going on!¡± The bartender nodded. ¡°They¡¯re on it, sir. Lights should be back soon¡ª¡± Immediately following his words, gunshots rang out in the distance, and everyone visibly tensed. ¡°Sir, get back in your room for now.¡± ¡°Fine, you better fix this quickly.¡± As the leader briskly climbed the stairs back to his room, the bartender¡¯s eyes fell on Andrew and Peng. ¡°You two, go help guard the door.¡± Andrew nodded, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± he poked Peng with his elbow. The bartender followed them cautiously from behind as they made their way to the door. Just as they opened the door, the duo found the two guards that were posted outside collapsed on the ground. Andrew quickly slammed the door back closed. ¡°What are you doing?! We should go out and check the situation,¡± The man yelled while lifting his shotgun at them. ¡°Are you serious? We didn¡¯t even hear any fighting and your guards got taken out¡­This is some corpo spec op shit. We need to hold out somewhere secure while you call for reinforcements!¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°...¡± He said nothing, but he could tell he was hesitating from his expression, ¡°Come on, you want to live too, right?¡± ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll go protect the leader. I already called some of our men. They¡¯re on their way.¡± To the leader¡¯s displeasure, the three of them barged into his room and slammed the door shut. It was an armored door that could stop most firearms, which gave them all some peace of mind. Not long after they closed the door, they heard the sound of a metallic impact with tremendous force. Having realized how close the danger was, everyone in the room had a solemn expression. The exception was Peng; he was the same as always, but Andrew made sure he stayed quiet by placing a hand over his mouth. There were a few moments of silence and the group almost relaxed, but then the door to the room clicked with the sound of someone attempting to open the door, only to be stopped by the lock. They all readied their weapons and aimed at the door. The worst happened when they heard the metal groan. Someone with unnatural strength was on the other side, and they were trying to open it with brute force. Shortly after what sounded to be the handle breaking off, the door clicked unlocked, allowing the door to be swung wide open. They all placed a finger on the trigger, ready to fire, but no one came in. Even after a full minute, nothing changed. The bartender, Martin, seemed to have gotten impatient and made his way to peek outside. He didn¡¯t make it halfway when Andrew heard a soft hiss from behind him. He rapidly turned and witnessed the leader falling to the ground with a bullet hole in his forehead. ¡°We surrender! Don¡¯t hurt us!¡± He yelled and quickly forced Peng to throw their weapons away and kneeled on the ground with him. ¡°What are you two doing, you stupid¡ª¡± The bartender, Martin, frantically scanned the room as he reprimanded the two until he suddenly found several new bullet wounds in his body as well and collapsed. ¡°Andrew, let Peng up¡ª¡± ¡°Shut up. Whoever is out there, we mean no harm. Please don¡¯t shoot.¡± He didn¡¯t hear a response, which made him fear for the worst, but he kept trying. ¡°Please, we¡¯ll do anything if you let us go.¡± In response to his pleas, the door closed shut, drawing their attention. In front of the door, a silhouette of a person suddenly came into existence. It was blurry and they could see through it, but there was definitely the outline of someone there. ¡°Are you two kids the dumbasses who were having a gunfight at a busy intersection earlier?¡± Is this what it is about? Did we accidentally get someone important caught up as collateral damage? Shit¡­Mom, how do I get out of this one?
Status
Level: 17
EXP: 560/1700
Musculoskeletal: 211
Neural Reflex: 65
Visuomotor Coordination: 87
Endurance: 59
Sensory Perception: 127
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +10
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
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 Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
Thorne quickly returned to Elevate City after his condition stabilized, along with the rest of the group who came to visit. It took him a full month to learn how to use his new body. In the meantime, I focused on preparing the expansion of our transportation business and leveling up the system. I gained a lot of experience points dealing with some gang called Voltage Vipers, but otherwise, it was difficult to further attain experience points. Things returned to normal because we soon found out about several mysterious deaths of ¡®Desire Corp¡¯ executives. It seemed like whoever had saved me before had done a thorough job at it. They had sent an anonymous video and data to reassure us that whoever had targeted me was rooted out. That meant I shouldn¡¯t be targeted by anyone anymore except for my saviors themselves, who were apparently watching me. However, there was nothing we could do about it for now. We just needed to grow strong enough, so we weren¡¯t at anyone¡¯s mercy. That was why Claire handled all the paperwork for me back in our head office recently, allowing me to focus on hunting down harvesters and violent gang members. We hired quite a few more people and were training them on a rotation with our more experienced crew. While the new security we hired would have to be trained to fit in with our system, the other positions shouldn¡¯t take as long to onboard. With all the new personnel we hired, we needed to expand our equipment as well. Most importantly, the vehicles for our transportation business. Which was why I headed to the dealership with Vin today. ¡°Did we really have to come? I thought you were just going to lease the same models we¡¯re already using,¡± Vin said. ¡°You¡¯re probably right. We don¡¯t have that much liquidity left after paying compensation for the deceased guards, but it doesn¡¯t hurt to check out our options while I have the chance. Plus, I may buy one to tinker around with.¡± Reflecting on how I can improve my safety, I decided to make use of my stealth technology expertise to mod the cars I used. Out in the wasteland where you couldn¡¯t physically see anything, if you could fool the sensors, you¡¯re basically undetectable. I would need to experiment around first to get the hang of working with vehicles, though. ¡°Suit yourself. Just make sure to buy the vehicles for us when you have the funds to spare. We can¡¯t customize the vehicles while we lease them, and there are other restrictions as well.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me twice. Just the premium they add to the insurance is a reminder enough.¡± We entered the showroom that had several electric vehicles, like our Vanguards, on display. There were other types of models as well, luxury cars with a myriad of safety features, transport trucks, and even tanks as well. The common denominator for this dealership was how all the vehicles were specialized for the terrain of the wasteland. My next upgrade would come in handy if I wanted to improve the performance of our cars, so I was here to study the various options out in the market. With a small fee, we were allowed to test-drive most models. I took the chance to examine their internals for future reference. A lot of the vehicles were better than the budget Vanguards we used. They had various features that helped them traverse the wasteland easier, faster, and with more comfort. They had better battery capacity and efficiency, allowing improved driving range. Some even had efficient solar recharging that worked in the wasteland¡¯s sandstorm for long-distance trips. ¡°You should get this one, Rollo. It¡¯ll fit you.¡± Vin pointed at one of the luxury models. ¡°With that price tag, I¡¯d rather get a few more Vanguards or other military-class vehicles. Way more bang for the buck.¡± ¡°Come on. You¡¯re the boss, aren¡¯t you? This car has way more defensive features to help you survive and get away from the heat.¡± ¡°I¡ª¡± ¡°Hold on, I¡¯m getting a call from my assistant.¡± Vin held out a hand. Can¡¯t believe he finally got one, though it is probably my fault for pushing so many responsibilities for the NLA¡¯s branch of the company onto him. The call only lasted a dozen or so seconds. ¡°Rollo, it seems like the Wells clan wants to talk about the request you made of them.¡± ¡°Hmm, about time. Let¡¯s go meet them tomorrow.¡± Chapter 58: Bush Clan The next morning, we headed into the wasteland with the daily scheduled convoy, which now consisted of a dozen Vanguards and two trucks. We used the devices we had gotten from the Wells clan to locate them, as they occasionally moved around. Apparently, most wasteland clans were nomadic within their own territories. They were well? connected with their neighbors too, owing to sharing the common threat of corporations. A little more than an hour after trekking across the wasteland¡¯s sandstorm, we soon approached the Wells clan¡¯s encampment. As usual, they set up their base somewhere the sandstorm couldn¡¯t reach. Familiar buildings entered my sight as their guards escorted us in. ¡°Rollo!¡± Sarah and Caleb cried out as they welcomed me. ¡°How are you two doing?¡± ¡°Good,¡± Sarah smiled, while Caleb had a different answer. ¡°Boring, can I go to the city with you?¡± ¡°Ha, I don¡¯t think your sister or father would approve. If you get their permission, I¡¯d be happy to take you around.¡± ¡°Really?¡± The innocent boy replied, only to receive a karate chop to the head from his sister. ¡°Ouch!¡± ¡°Enough, Rollo is busy. Follow us, we¡¯ll take you to Dad.¡± ¡°Sure, thank you.¡± We found Eugene, their dad, in his usual position atop a stack of carpets with his pipe in hand. ¡°Welcome, Rollo. Thank you for coming.¡± ¡°Thank you for having me. They said you have news regarding my request for an introduction to the neighboring clan?¡± ¡°That is correct. I have spoken to the Bush Clan up north, and they are willing to hear you out. Anything beyond that is for you two parties to discuss.¡± ¡°And how will we find them?¡± ¡°They will be sending an envoy to guide you. Return in three days and you can depart with them. You can bring no more than six rides.¡± ¡°Understood, thank you.¡± After frolicking around with Sarah and Caleb for a bit, we returned to the city. When I shared the news with the rest of the company that night, Thorne insisted he had recovered and would be flying over in two days.
The next day, I once again went to check out some electric vehicles, but this time, we went to a racetrack. The racing scene here was a little more violent than what I was used to. They allowed a degree of contact as they traversed an obstacle course. As a corporate-sponsored sport, they had the budget to implement more advanced tech, which ironically made it a somewhat safe sport. Vin accompanied me once again. We got there a little early and took a tour of the racetrack and the old models of the vehicles they used in the past, inside the museum across the street. When we returned from our tour, the racetrack got even more crowded and seemed to be on an upward trend as more time passed. We made our way into our seats in the stands. Everyone in our area seemed to be wealthy, as I overheard them boasting about the large amount they would soon win. It only made sense as we bought the ¡®corpo¡¯ seats. Otherwise, we¡¯d be constantly getting looks from the general public as Vin was dressed in our company¡¯s uniform. ¡°You¡¯re not betting, Rollo?¡± Vin asked. ¡°Nope, the house always wins. I¡¯m just here to enjoy the show.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯m not complaining. I¡¯m getting paid to be here after all.¡± Before I could respond, a man¡¯s voice rang out from beside me ¡°You there. Is this your first time here?¡± ¡°Yes. Is there a problem?¡± ¡°Oh, nothing like that. It¡¯s just I overheard your conversation and I can¡¯t let it stand without teaching you the joys of motorsport.¡± Why do I always attract the weirdos¡­ ¡°It¡¯s okay, I¡¯d¡ª¡± ¡°Please, listen. The only way to truly enjoy the race is to place a bet. You don¡¯t have to bet too much, mind you, just enough so you have a stake in it. The thrill it can bring you would almost make you think you¡¯re in the car with the racers themselves.¡± He pointed at the big screen above that showed first-person camera footage from the driver¡¯s perspective. I listened to him ramble on as Vin ignored the looks of help I was giving him. It only got worse when the races started. Thankfully, my auditory implant let me filter out his long-winded speeches. I only unmuted him when the race was finally over. ¡°That was magnificent! Oh, where are my manners? My name is Joey Moretti. How about you?¡± The man offered me his hand. ¡°Rollo. And apologies, I do have to¡ª¡± ¡°Oh, Rollo, my good friend, do you happen to have time to join me for lunch? I happen to have some authentic steaks reserved at a nearby restaurant. It would please me if you could join me.¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°I don¡¯t think¡ª¡± Wait. Steak? Damn it, how can I say no to that? ¡°I don¡¯t think that would be a bad idea if you don¡¯t mind having me, Mr. Moretti.¡± ¡°Please, call me Joey.¡± He led me to a nearby restaurant and when we entered, a dozen or so of the staff welcomed us. ¡°Welcome, boss!¡± They shouted out in unison. ¡°Don¡¯t mind me. I¡¯m just going to be having lunch with a new friend here.¡± ¡°So, you own this restaurant?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°Haha, yes, our company does have a hand in the food service industry. But I¡¯m not here to promote my store to you. I really reserved some fine steaks for us to enjoy.¡± From the searches I did through my SAID, Authentic Corp was a major player in the food industry. They had dozens of restaurants and were even larger than the Desire Corp that screwed me over. I instantly grew wary and shared a glance with Vin. ¡°Is there anything the boss of Authentic Corp would want with me?¡± I asked cautiously. ¡°Relax, it¡¯s a hobby of mine to make new friends. You may not believe me, but I think I¡¯m a pretty good judge of character. It¡¯s one of my secrets to success!¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t even know much about you besides your name. It¡¯s not fair that you¡¯re the only one who knows about my company now. Why don¡¯t you introduce what you do as well?¡± ¡°...Some minor cybernetics and transportation.¡± ¡°Transportation, wonderful. Our company is always striving to build a robust logistic network so our restaurants can serve the freshest food with the largest selection. If you would like, I can have my secretary talk business with you.¡± ¡°I appreciate it, but maybe in the future. We don¡¯t have much capability right now and are in the middle of an expansion.¡± As if waiting for our conversation to die down, the several waiters entered together with a dozen different dishes. ¡°Haha, I hope you don¡¯t mind. I¡¯m an impatient fellow when it comes to food. I like to have everything come at once.¡± Our conversation soon moved back to motorsport while we ate. As much as I wanted to, I didn¡¯t mute him this time. I didn¡¯t have it in me to mute someone who was conversing with me while looking me in the eye. At least there was steak as promised, and it was exquisite!
Upon returning to the office after grinding some experience points, I began tinkering with the Vanguard I bought with Vin. The first step was simply to disassemble it to study the different parts, and there was a lot that went into a car. The parts I was most interested in were the electric motors and the materials of the frame. I wanted my vehicles to have the ability to hide from scans. It won¡¯t be that effective in normal conditions as there are many detection methods, but it became exponentially more effective out in the wasteland. All the knowledge of stealth technology told me I needed to be careful of motor and electronics placement. I also needed to paint a layer of radar-absorbing materials over the entire car, which was expensive, to say the least. There were definitely some alternatives too that required further research. I only noticed that night was over when the knocking behind me broke me out of my trance. ¡°Rollo, what are you doing? Preparing for the wasteland trip?¡± I turned around and found Thorne at the door, carrying several bags. ¡°Thorne! You¡¯re here already.¡± ¡°Yeah, I had got a few people to take over my responsibilities. They should be able to handle it without me.¡± ¡°Sounds good to me. If Claire let you go, then it should be okay.¡± ¡°...¡± He broke eye contact and examined the room. ¡°Anyway, what are you working on?¡± ¡°Just trying to make our cars harder to detect. I¡¯m still playing around, so don¡¯t expect anything for our trip.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. This time, I¡¯ll make sure to keep you safe.¡± ¡°And yourself too. Go unpack in your room first. We can discuss our travel plans later.¡±
Tinkering with the car made time pass by in the blink of an eye, and it was soon time for us to set out for the wasteland to meet up with the envoy from the Bush Clan. Seeing our success in running our transportation business thanks to our connections, I couldn¡¯t help but want to replicate that on a new route. That was why I had Eugene introduce us to the clan that was in between NLA and Salt Lake City. They weren¡¯t the only clan on the way there, but we had to start somewhere. Our convoy this time only had half a dozen cars, as that was the rule they had in accepting to see us. We cut through the wasteland and soon made it to the Wells Clan, as we had done a few days prior. We were led to the usual spot, at a clearing to park, but this time, there were several dune buggies already there that sported different markings from the Well Clan¡¯s vehicles. When we got out of the cars, Eugene, the chief, was there to greet us, along with several other wastelanders. ¡°Gene, it¡¯s an honor to have you come greet us,¡± I said. ¡°Rollo, welcome. Allow me to introduce you to our guests from the Bush Clan. This here is Jamie from the Bush Clan.¡± A rough-looking man with a full beard similar to Eugene¡¯s stepped forward from an entourage of wastelanders dressed similarly. While the Wells clan dressed in sand-colored clothing with stripes on them, the Bush Clan seemed to prefer scattered shapes scattered randomly on their clothes. ¡°So you are the corpo friend of the Wells Clan. Our leader is willing to hear you out, but don¡¯t expect a warm welcome from the rest of the clan. We¡¯ve fought against the city-dwelling corpos for a long time, and some grudges inevitably remain.¡± ¡°I understand. I am honored that your people are willing to welcome me to your clan.¡± He nodded, ¡°Very well, let us make haste. It would be wise for us to get there before sunset.¡± He then boarded the buggies with his entourage of guards, as we did the same. One of their guards came over and handed us transceivers to stay in touch before we got on our way. Exiting the Wells Clan¡¯s base, the everlasting sandstorm soon consumed our vision. ¡°We¡¯re heading further and further away from NLA. You sure this is a good idea, Rollo?¡± Vin asked an hour into the drive. ¡°It¡¯s impossible to be sure of anything, we can only prepare. That¡¯s why you guys are here.¡± ¡°Ha, don¡¯t worry. All the boys are alert and know what to do out here.¡± As if to prove his words, one of the drivers of the other car yelled into our comms. ¡°Contact! We got a dozen cars on course to intercept us.¡± I shared a look with Vin, ¡°You had to jinx us, didn¡¯t you¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t look at me boss, the wastelands are a lawless area for a reason. Something always comes up.¡± A short moment later, a fierce explosion blew away the area of impact for a split second. ¡°Evasive action, get ready to earn your paycheck, you guys,¡± Vin yelled. ¡°The Bush Clan vehicles are spreading out toward our foes, so I don¡¯t think they¡¯re hostile.¡± ¡°Get us into contact with the Bush Clan envoy. We need to coordinate our actions with them so we don¡¯t accidentally blow them up along with the enemies,¡± I commanded. I sure hope these are just random bandits because nothing has been going my way recently¡­ Chapter 59: Negotiating with the Clans ¡°Those are warriors of the wasteland like us, follow our lead, city-dwellers,¡± said Jamie. ¡°Very well, Vin here will coordinate with your people,¡± I said before I exited the call. I became a spectator as my security team sprang into action at Vin¡¯s command. There wasn¡¯t a whole lot I could do while in the car. Vin, who was beside me, occasionally yelled out commands as he conversed with his counterpart in the Bush Clan. From what the sensors were telling me, we had our adversaries half-encircled and the turrets of our Vanguards began laying down fire. Even the wasteland¡¯s sandstorms couldn¡¯t completely silence the sound of large-caliber gunfire. I only flinched away from the sensors when bullets landed squarely on our Vanguard, accompanied by the sound of them being deflected. Our driver quickly veered off to dodge away from the attack, and the sound of gunfire only intensified. After a few more minutes of combat, I could tell we were on the winning side. We transitioned to chasing down our foes, which didn¡¯t last too long as we had sustained some damage ourselves and it was never a good idea to chase wastelanders out here. ¡°How bad is it?¡± I asked once we seemed to be in the clear. ¡°A few injured, and two cars with flat tires. We¡¯ll need a couple of minutes to get them patched up,¡± Vin replied. ¡°And our allies?¡± ¡°They lost an entire dune buggy, but their remaining forces are unharmed.¡± ¡°I see. I¡¯ll go speak with them while you take charge of the repairs.¡± He nodded, but we both remained seated next to each other as we carried out our work remotely. I reconnected to the call with the Bush Clan. ¡°Envoy Jamie, now that it is over, can you explain why other wastelanders are attacking us in your territory?¡± ¡°...I assure you we have no part in this.¡± ¡°Then why¡ª¡± ¡°Apologies Mr. Halls. It may be better for you to ask our leader. Our political situation isn¡¯t something I care to share.¡± So they were real wastelanders. Crossing off the possibility of imposters. ¡°Fine¡­Hopefully, we aren¡¯t too far off from your clan?¡± ¡°It should be another hour from here.¡± ¡°Very well, I will let you know once we are ready to depart.¡± It took fifteen minutes before we resumed our journey. Everyone was visibly more tense after the attack, once bit twice shy. After a lot of driving through nothing but sand, we soon arrived in a valley where the sandstorms didn¡¯t reach. Like with the Wells Clan, a small town appeared on the horizon. The first thing that caught my eye was the structures they lived in. Unlike the Wells Clan, they lived in large tents, as I had initially expected when I first visited the Wells Clan. Judging from the size of this settlement, they were similar in size and numbers. When we disembarked, we could easily tell Jamie and his party were in a foul mood, no doubt because of their losses in the encounter. They still completed their duty wordlessly and finished their job when they guided me to a larger tent where their leader was. There were two guards outside the tent who politely stopped us outside. ¡°Halt, please leave your weapons outside if you wish to enter.¡± I nodded to Vin, who reluctantly passed his weapons to the guard beside him while I did the same. Only the two of us went in, leaving our team outside. We were then led into the tent, where we found a small old woman sitting on a rocking chair. She looked to be over ninety, at an age it wouldn¡¯t be surprising for her to pass on peacefully any day. She had her eyes closed as she continued to rock her chair as we approached. ¡°Rollo, friend of the Wells Clan, is it?¡± She said in a raspy voice. ¡°Yes, and this is Vin,¡± He nodded at his introduction. ¡°We have come with a request for your clan.¡± ¡°Welcome to our clan, Rollo and Vin. I am Kelsey, the leader of the Bush Clan. I know that your corporation is flourishing, transporting things through the Wells Clan territory. Is that what you have come for?¡± ¡°Yes, then I¡¯ll be direct about it. I wish to have a similar arrangement with your clan.¡± She paused her rocking chair and fell silent. Just as I was getting worried she fell asleep, she spoke out as if reading my mind, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m awake. I¡¯m blind, not senile. Your request is a difficult one to accept, indeed.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°We¡¯re willing to help you out in any way we can. There must be something people from the city like us could help with.¡± ¡°No, that is not the issue. As much as I hate to admit, we who reside in the wasteland have our own political squabblings. The attack on your way here wasn¡¯t a coincidence.¡± ¡°You mean there¡¯s wastelanders who are trying to prevent us from establishing relations?¡± She resumed rocking her chair with a smile on her face, ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re quick on the uptake. That is indeed the case. The clans around the area have heard of your dealings with the Wells Clan, and we have become more divided than before.¡± ¡°...I presume you are of the same faction as the Wells Clan?¡± ¡°Yes, the Bush Clan I lead is of the same faction as the Wells Clan, of course. That is why they have introduced us to you. We share the belief that it is best for us to find ways to co-exist with you city-dwellers despite knowing many of you are¡­ not amenable to diplomacy with us. The faction that attacked you is part of the ones who would like to remain at arms with the corporations and all city-dwellers.¡± ¡°Are you guys the majority? What other factions are there?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but be a little anxious at the possibility that the majority of wastelanders were against building a relationship with me. ¡°Calm yourself. It isn¡¯t as bad as you think. We¡¯re mostly even with the faction that has attacked you. The majority of other clans have remained neutral, choosing to take a wait-and-see approach or simply not caring.¡± The thought of removing the opposition briefly crossed my mind, but I doubt that would help my case at all. I should stay away from that corpo, cold, calculated way of thinking. ¡°I see¡­So the best way to resolve this is if I convince more clans to take our side?¡± The old woman, Kelsey, smiled and nodded as she continued to rock her seat. ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll go meet with these neutral clans then. I would appreciate it if you could introduce me.¡± ¡°It was my intention to do so. The clans aren¡¯t far away, as many of them congregate around the ruins of Las Vegas. I will have Jamie escort you to the closest one. What happens next will be up to you.¡±
¡°...and they all wanted the same thing, weapons,¡± I explained to everyone on the call. ¡°There¡¯s no way we can supply them with weapons, Rollo. The other corps will sniff it out in no time and they¡¯ll be on our asses,¡± Leo immediately retorted. ¡°I know¡­There are not many things we can trade them without setting off serious flags.¡± ¡°How about leaking info to them on other convoys that carry the weapons they want?¡± Claire suggested. ¡°No, the corps aren¡¯t stupid. With the quantity we¡¯re looking at, they¡¯ll sniff it out, just the same,¡± Leo replied. ¡°...How about trading them food?¡± I proposed. ¡°That would be fine¡­but would they agree to the deal with just food? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s valuable enough to make them budge.¡± ¡°What if we included household electronics and building supplies? I¡¯m sure wastelanders would all appreciate having access to better power generators and other conveniences.¡± ¡°That could¡­work. It¡¯ll depend on how your negotiations with them go.¡± The next morning, we set off straight for the Bush Clan after we picked up some samples of what we would offer the wasteland clans. The clans we met didn¡¯t trust us enough to leave us the locators to find their camp. Each of the clans we had spoken to left a small delegation at the Bush Clan to await my response to their conditions. Trekking across the wasteland was a boring journey, as always. It took almost three hours for us to reach the Bush Clan settlement. Several dune buggies led our convoy in, and I soon spotted Jamie approach when we disembarked in the clearing where they made us park. ¡°Welcome back, Rollo. I take it you have a reply to what the clans have requested of you?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m hoping it will satisfy the clans. Can you guide me to them?¡± ¡°Of course, we have already alerted them. They should be gathering by the tent over there.¡± Jamie led me to an enormous tent that could easily fit a few dozen people. Inside were three groups of wastelanders congregating within their own circle. They each wore a rugged cloak fit for traversing the wastelands and had clothing with patterns unique to their clan underneath. ¡°Please wait one moment to allow the envoys from the Bates Clan to arrive,¡± Jamie said, as he led me to a seat. I got seated on a bundle of carpets with Vin and Thorne, then took a look around. The envoys were lying down with a pipe in hand. It wasn¡¯t lit, and they simply fidgeted it around. I passed the time in my optics by reading a novel I had downloaded. By the time I almost finished reading a chapter, the last attendees arrived. Jamie signaled me with a glance, and I got up and went before the representatives of the four clans. ¡°Thank you all for waiting for my response. I have come to a conclusion¡ª¡± ¡°No need to pleasantries. Let us hear it,¡± One of the latecomers said. ¡°Very well, I regret to inform you all that we will not be able to supply any weapons to you. If we did, the other corporations would destroy us for doing so in no time.¡± The four groups swiftly devolved into whispering amongst themselves, so I gave it some time for them to digest. ¡°Although we cannot supply you with weapons, we have a counter-offer. We would like to offer you various supplies, including food, household electronics, and the raw materials we have access to. We have brought a detailed list and samples of what we can offer.¡± At my cue, Vin came forth, placed some samples down, and handed out pamphlets to the audience. It was expensive procuring physical paper as it was more of a luxury item in the city, but all the wastelanders I¡¯ve seen continued to use it, so they may have a source I don¡¯t know of. The mutterings among each group grew once more before a member of the clan that all wore star-patterned clothing spoke out. ¡°I will have to consult with my clan leader first. Allow me a few moments to do so.¡± The other envoys all nodded in agreement, and an intermission inevitably occurred. It seems like they have mastered some form of long-distance communication across the wastelands I don¡¯t know about. I wonder how many more secrets they have? After a thirty-minute break, our meeting resumed. The man who had last spoken was the first to respond. ¡°Our leader tentatively agrees to your proposal. We¡¯ll need to discuss the amount you will offer and set up frameworks for subsequent trades first, but we believe that is negotiable.¡± ¡°Our clan plans to do the same as well.¡± ¡°As does our clan.¡± One after the other, the envoys agreed to my proposal. Great, now for the final one. All eyes were drawn to the Bates Clan, who were the final ones that had yet to answer. Feeling everyone¡¯s gaze, the leader of their group stepped forth. ¡°Your clan leaders must be blind! I can¡¯t believe you would associate with these city-dwellers for the sake of some cheap comforts!¡± Chapter 60: Picking a Fight ¡°Your clan leaders must be blind! I can¡¯t believe you would associate with these city-dwellers for the sake of cheap comforts!¡± All parties in the room were rendered motionless by the shock. No one expected the Bates Clan¡¯s sudden outburst. Before anyone could compose a response, a thunderous noise resonated throughout the settlement. The four Bates Clan¡¯s envoys suddenly drew weapons from underneath their cloaks, a shotgun of some sort that would be devastating at this range. However, faster than they could bring their weapons to bear, bullets abruptly struck them, knocking three of them flat onto the ground. The last one scanned his surroundings, confused. The look on his face remained, even when his head was suddenly disconnected from the rest of his body. Immediately after the violence, the area beside the bodies flickered, and a large figure came into existence. He really has bulked up with all the chrome he has now. Thorne flicked the blood off his wrist blade and walked back to stand behind me. As if being thawed, commotion erupted throughout the tent, all at once. ¡°How could this happen?¡± ¡°The Bates Clan struck during a sacred meeting?! Did they fake their neutrality?¡± The commotion was only halted as the sound of gunfire filled the area. It came from outside, where the loud noise from earlier originated. Sharing a glance with Thorne and Vin, we prepared our weapons and went out to assess the situation. The tent we were in was secluded from the rest of the settlement to give us some privacy. It had a good view of the clearing between the entrances to this valley and the settlement, which was where the action was taking place. I could spot my vehicles in the distance, joining the fight against the attackers, who were two dozen dune buggies strong. The Bush Clan defenses were caught off guard and were on the back foot as they struggled to rally together. I immediately brought out the SMG attached to the back of my suit and took cover behind some nearby vehicles. Kiri, designate the targets for my weapon. ¡®Affirmative, smart ammunition ready to fire.¡¯ Lazily aiming in the direction of our attackers, I pulled the trigger. A stream of bullets shot out from the barrel of my compact submachine gun and curved toward their target. A portion of them missed, but enough had hit its target that I got several experience prompts.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
My bullets didn¡¯t do much damage to their vehicles, but it was a different story for Vin and Thorne, who fired their rifle one after the other in short bursts. While their weapons did significantly more damage to the vehicles they struck, mine definitely had higher accuracy. I turned back to the sound of the envoys rushing out behind us, each carrying weapons of their own. With the respite we gave the defenders, they had the time to rally together and start a counter-offense. Groups laid down fire in unison and soon, more and more dune buggies fell prey to our gunfire. The enemy commander sensed the tide turning as well, as a horn sounded, which signaled the start of their retreat. With them gone, the Bush Clan quickly busied themselves with dealing with the aftermath of the attack while I gathered with my security to assess our damage as well. One of our Vanguard was completely totaled. It was taken out at the start of the ambush, as it was a priority target, and the team inside was lost as well. The other guards were only slightly injured, as they weren¡¯t caught up in the explosion. I don¡¯t think I can ever get used to losing people in my employ. Especially when I had to inform their families and pay the compensation¡­ We watched Jamie and a few other leaders of their clan barking out orders. When they finished, Jamie spotted us and approached. ¡°Come with me. Our leader will be having a meeting with all the envoys soon and you¡¯re invited,¡± I nodded back in response. He wordlessly turned around and led the way as Vin, Thorne, and I followed. We were led to their leader, Kelsey¡¯s tent, where I found all the other envoys already there. They gestured for us to take a seat off to the side before they began. The old leader cleared her throat, drawing attention to her as she stood up. ¡°Everyone, I will jump straight to the point. The Bates Clan has betrayed our trust and attacked us during what should have been a sacred meeting of discussion. We may have had occasional skirmishes before for resources, but the attack on our settlement this time has broken tradition. They have gone too far.¡± She took a pause to drink from her teacup before she continued, ¡°Our Bush Clan will be gathering our allies and declaring war on them. Will any of you be willing to join us?¡± Everyone in the room alternated glances at each other and the murmuring grew louder until a woman stepped forth. ¡°We have consulted with our leader before this meeting. The Bates Clan¡¯s betrayal and dishonorable actions are unquestionable. We will be glad to join you to punish their misdeeds.¡± The other clan¡¯s representatives soon stood forth, one by one, and gave similar answers. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Thank you all for joining us. We shall discuss further details at a later date. We will soon see who will stand on the Bates Clan¡¯s side. For now, we shall all prepare for the battle ahead of us,¡± The old clan leader declared. The meeting was soon adjourned, but I was asked to stay back. The envoys gave me an appreciative nod as they exited. If anything, at least I earned their favor with this incident. Kelsey, the leader of the Bush Clan, spoke out once again once she ensured the room was cleared. ¡°With this incident, your matter of obtaining safe passages for the route to Salt Lake City will be delayed until we win the war.¡± ¡°Yes, it is understandable. How confident are you guys in your victory?¡± ¡°We are certain of it. With the neutral clans on our side, we should have the numbers, so it is a matter of how many casualties are taken in the process. We will soon have a war council with the other clans to discuss the battle and, more importantly, how to split the spoils and territories.¡± ¡°I see¡­and how does this involve me?¡± ¡°Unfortunately for you, your previous arrangement with those clans will probably be rescinded soon. They will insist you take part in the fight to lessen their casualties. I wanted to give you a warning ahead of time.¡± Shit¡­So my entire sales pitch was wasted and now I have to participate in a war between wastelanders. How did this spiral into such a mess? ¡°I understand. Thank you for your warning.¡± ¡°You should go prepare for the battle as well if you want to receive the safe passage to Salt Lake City. Otherwise, it is an option to stay out of this fight and negotiate after the war as well, but the clans likely won¡¯t be as receptive to you. We will contact you once the war council is arranged.¡± ¡°Again, thank you. See you soon.¡± We took our leave and returned to where our vehicles were parked. On the way out, it was easy to tell the mood around the settlement had drastically changed since the attack. ¡°We should leave straight away. Better not to bother them and overstay our welcome when they are on edge,¡± Vin whispered. ¡°Sounds good to me. We have to prepare for this war anyway¡­¡±
¡°What have you gotten into again, Rollo?! And you, Thorne? I thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on him!¡± Claire¡¯s voice pierced through the call. ¡°...Claire, it wasn¡¯t something we caused. It¡¯s just how things turned out,¡± Thorne explained. ¡°Enough, it shouldn¡¯t be too bad this time. While wastelanders usually have the advantage with their hit-and-run tactics that make use of their mobility in the wasteland, we have them on our side in this fight as well. They should be able to coordinate us to best make use of our equipment advantage, right?¡± I glanced over at Vin. ¡°Yes, in theory, but they could also have us act as a decoy since our vehicles are much more durable.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll just have to negotiate with them when this war council of theirs happens. In the meantime, we¡¯ll have to prepare for the fight.¡± ¡°We should do a crash course to refresh our men on how to fight against other humans in the wasteland¡¯s environment. They don¡¯t have much experience since we normally breeze through the wasteland and only have to fight mutants. Fighting people is very different from beasts,¡± Thorne added while eyeing Vin. ¡°Right, you two do that. We¡¯ll take care of this Claire, don¡¯t worry too much.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys are always getting into trouble. I think I¡¯m used to it at this point. Contact me if you need me. In the meantime, I¡¯ll be busying myself with your paperwork.¡± The call cut out and the three of us swiftly dispersed as we were each busy with our own matters. As for me, I needed to go shopping. My equipment so far was all catered toward my covert activities. My weapons were all only suited for close quarters, as I only had pistols and SMGs. It was time to expand my repertoire to something with a little more range. I headed to the same place I had bought my SMG, at the Premier Arms section of the weapons department store. The salesperson there greeted me and soon brought up several options for me to try in their range. There were various bulky options of various designations to choose from. Despite using different technologies from traditional firearms, they still classified them as sniper rifles, designated marksmen rifles, and so forth. I crossed out all the sniper rifles from the list as they required proper training that I didn¡¯t have, nor would I spend any upgrade points on it. I reviewed the memo I made on my SAID when the sales agent introduced each weapon and picked up one I was interested in. ¡°Sir, that one is the Thunderstrike Railgun. It¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, I remember. Let me test it out.¡± ¡°Of course, sir.¡± The salesperson immediately shrunk back. This particular weapon was classified as a rifle and was something even I could use without specialized training. It was only a size or two up from my SMG. It maximized the advantages of a railgun, allowing for ultra-high velocity projectile speed, which meant I didn¡¯t have to compensate for bullet travel as much. It also packed a lot more punch, which I sorely needed when fighting against all the dune buggies wastelanders used. None of my other weapons were suited against vehicles, so this would fit in that niche. The final deciding factor was the scope it came with. The integrated scope performed as well as the scope attachments they sold. With its integrated nature, its durability was much higher, making it more reliable to use in the wasteland¡¯s sandstorms. Having purchased my new rifle, I spent the remainder of my time training with the security team. I too did not have much experience fighting against other humans in the wastelands, and I needed to learn how to fight together with my employees as well. During my spare time, I continued to tinker around with the Vanguard in my personal garage. With war approaching, it may also be an opportunity for me to gain a lot of experience points. I opened my status to double-check how far I was away from the next level up.
Status
Level: 17
EXP: 920/1700
Musculoskeletal: 211
Neural Reflex: 65
Visuomotor Coordination: 87
Endurance: 59
Sensory Perception: 127
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +10
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
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 Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
I needed all I could get before I had enough to update the new tech I wanted. After all, just two or three points wouldn¡¯t be enough to satisfy my needs anymore. Exactly seven days after the Bates Clan¡¯s attack on us, we received a summon to join the war council that would take place in three days¡¯ time. Chapter 61: War Council Jamie - Wastelander (Bush Clan) ¡°Jamie, you will go guide Rollo and his entourage to the war council,¡± The old lady in front of him, who was his clan leader, commanded. Invite that city-dweller back? Why? He¡¯s the reason we¡¯re even having this war right now. ¡°...Are you sure, ma¡¯am?¡± She turned to him despite being unable to see. She took a puff of her pipe and leaned back into her rocking chair before she responded. ¡°I know what you young ones are thinking. Do not be mistaken, the war was inevitable to begin with. It had only been accelerated.¡± ¡°But¡ª¡± ¡°The friction was already there. The clans have never been united and only put on a front to oppose our common enemies. The only thing we should focus on now is how to get through the challenges ahead and come out in the best position for our clan as possible.¡± ¡°...I understand.¡± ¡°And your reply to my earlier request?¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am, I¡¯ll do it.¡± As much as my brain understands she is right, my heart won¡¯t let me accept those outsiders. But I will carry out my duties as expected of me. He exited the leader¡¯s tent and rendezvous with his party. They headed off to where the war council would be held, a neutral area belonging to no clan. Each clan had sent people there to set up the perimeter, and it should be finished soon. They needed to go there to finalize their clan¡¯s assets first before he went to fetch the city-dweller. When they arrived, Jamie spotted an old friend from the Wells clan. ¡°Jane, long time no see. Did they send you out to take care of your clan¡¯s area?¡± ¡°Jamie. Yep, and way ahead of you too. Your Bush Clan¡¯s areas are right over there, besides ours. Hurry up and set up your tents and give us a hand with the defenses.¡± ¡°Just because we are faster at setting up our shelter doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re an extra labor force¡­¡± ¡°Quit complaining and get to work,¡± She smirked. He proceeded to help with setting the tents up in our area before fortifying their position with machine guns and mines around the entire area. The clans were sparing no expenses as they mobilized for war. The Bates Clan and their allies could attack at any time. They had already confirmed at least two other clans had rallied with them. At least there hadn¡¯t been any surprises yet. Their two allies were well known to be anti-corporations. Even though they outnumbered their opposition, it would take unacceptable casualties to defeat them. That was exactly why he would have to guide those outsiders here to supplement their forces. I need to be more mature. Keep my emotions in check and do what I need to. For the clan.
Three days ago, we received a message from the Bush Clan that the war council would take place today. The Wells Clan was the furthest away from the meeting point, so they decided to send someone from the Bush Clan to escort us. When we arrived at our outpost in the wasteland, I found our familiar guide, Jamie, waiting with his group. ¡°Rollo, allow me to guide you to the location of our war council. Are you ready to leave?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s why we¡¯re here.¡± We followed Jamie¡¯s dune buggy, leaving behind the portion of our convoy that was here to supply our outpost and carry out the daily scavenging activities. Our convoy was a dozen Vanguards strong for this campaign. It wasn¡¯t our entire force, but we weren¡¯t about to commit everything to this. With a seasoned veteran of the wasteland guiding us, we trekked through the wasteland without any trouble. We didn¡¯t even encounter any mutants before we arrived at the ruins of what seemed to be a prison. The fences stood strong even in the sandstorm, with a watchtower at each corner of the complex. We drove through the gates and into the courtyard that was shielded from the sandstorm. The place was filled with tents and small houses that appeared to have been built recently. Once we parked in the area we were assigned, we were then led to one of the old prison buildings. Inside was a refurbished room was a large meeting room with a rectangular table that could easily fit two dozen people. ¡°So you have arrived. Please take a seat, our people outside should be accounting for all the resources we have brought together. Once we know what resources we have to work with, we can then begin planning,¡± Said Kelsey, the old leader of the Bush Clan. I listened and exchanged nods with all the acquaintances I recognized around the room. After half an hour, several of their assistants entered the meeting room, carrying a projector and a few terminals. They began going over the forces we had on hand and the information we had on our enemies, which were the Bates Clan plus two others. They discussed several assault plans, and I remained a spectator, as wasteland warfare wasn¡¯t our specialty. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Eventually, they polished and revised the plans until there were only two left. One had us act as bait to lure out their forces, while the other involved a three-pronged on all three of the enemies¡¯ settlements to spread their forces thin. ¡°As much as we trust you with our forces, we refuse to be the decoy, distraction, bait, or whatever you name it. Let us go with the assault. You wastelander will be able to employ hit-and-run if you encounter a larger force, right?¡± ¡°We can. We¡¯ll need your forces to be the hammer to our anvil that will destroy their weaker forces quickly, though. Are you willing to have your forces in the thick of the fighting?¡± Eugene, the leader of the Wells Clan, asked. That sounds a lot better than serving ourselves up on a platter, waiting for the opponents to make their move once they are ready. This way, we would be fighting where they were weakest. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll leave it to your forces to distract and hold the enemy in position. Just send along a few guides to direct us.¡± With the strategy set, the meeting soon ended after going through the details of it, which I left to Vin and Thorne. We spent the night here, in some rooms they assigned us inside the old prison building. We would be carrying out the attack the next morning, so I forced myself to an early bedtime. In the early morning, the united clans¡¯ forces set off to the last known location of where our enemies were. They had been keeping track of their movement since the day the Bates Clan attacked us, so they couldn¡¯t hide away like they did against the corporations. It was a feat the corporations couldn¡¯t pull off without the same familiarity of the land as the wastelanders had. We set off with a wastelander guide assigned to each of our Vanguards, with Jamie joining the one Thorne and I rode on. ¡°We meet again. Thanks for doing this, Jamie,¡± I offered him my hand. He hesitated for a moment before he shook it, ¡°It is my duty. We will be on standby until the three forces make contact with the enemy. Would you like to wait in the command post?¡± It sure beat sitting around in the car all morning. ¡°Sure, please lead the way.¡± I had Thorne and Vin come along, entering a room with a large table in the center, with a map and chess-like pieces on it. ¡°These attacks we¡¯re carrying out. What are your customs on how to deal with the non-combatants?¡± Thorne asked from beside me. ¡°War between clans isn¡¯t as uncommon as you think. Our people are trained from an early age on our responsibility in these situations. All the non-combatants will stay away from the fighting, where they shall not be disturbed.¡± ¡°And what happens to them after you win?¡± ¡°We do not believe in senseless slaughter if that is what you¡¯re getting at. We are already outnumbered by your city-dwellers, so we cannot afford to. Our custom is to exile them to other clans, away from here, where the survivors will be absorbed into those distant clans.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t foster enmity and have them coming back for revenge?¡± Vin interjected. ¡°It is our people¡¯s rule to forgo all enmity once we are defeated. If they do such a dishonorable act of disregarding this rule, other clans will unite like we have to punish them.¡± As they chatted amongst themselves, I paid more attention to the table where several wastelanders periodically came in to move the pieces around. I definitely have seen this before in old medieval films when they waged war. Is this what they reverted back to with communications hindered in the wasteland? I would love to see those high-nosed corpos try to imitate this. Two hours into it, the tension in the room suddenly spiked with the next update to the war council map. ¡°All three forces have spotted the enemy and will be engaging them shortly. Once they update us on the numbers on each battlefield, it will be time for us to move out,¡± Jamie informed. Vin notified our men to prepare while me and Thorne double-checked our weapons. Ten minutes later, the update we were waiting for arrived. ¡°It seems like they have concentrated most of their forces in one place. We shall attack the Bates Clan, which is further away from their army. Let us go, it¡¯s time to join the fight,¡± Jamie said. Just as we exited the room, a loud explosion rang out. ¡°Shit, are we under attack?¡± I exclaimed. ¡°Rollo! Get behind me,¡± Thorne instantly stood in front of me. A moment later, gunshots rang out from somewhere in the building. It was on a different floor, so it was hard to pinpoint exactly where. ¡°Wait in the war room, Jamie. We¡¯ll go check it out.¡± I exchanged looks with Vin and Thorne. We ran down the stairs and when the sound of gunfire was close enough, all three of us turned on our active camouflage. Two floors below us, we spotted one of the wastelander guards in the middle of a firefight. His opponent was also a wastelander, but I had hung around them long enough to tell which of them wasn¡¯t from any of our allied clans. We were in a tight hallway, so we weren¡¯t able to close the distance without risk of catching a stray bullet. Instead, I threw a grenade toward the enemies. They recognized the threat and the shooting instantly stopped. As soon as the grenade exploded, we took the opportunity to peek out into the hallway with our guns at the ready. Our foes soon poked out from their cover to resume the fight. They were a moment too late, though. Everyone on our side was ready for them and immediately unleashed a flurry of bullets in their direction.
+10 EXP
The remaining foes started to retreat, and our allies swiftly pointed their weapons in our direction. I guess it makes sense from their perspective. Random, invisible people appeared out of nowhere, right beside them. I would be on guard too. Thorne had already sped away to chase after them while Vin and I called out to our allies to identify ourselves. ¡°Easy, we¡¯re friendlies,¡± I declared as we came out of stealth. The wastelanders visibly relaxed when they saw us, but then shots rang out and drew all of our attention. It came from Thorne¡¯s direction and stopped just as quickly as it came. We moved over and found Thorne standing near several bisected corpses. Okay, I need him to move separately or something. How am I supposed to get any experience points with him around¡­? I tried attacking the corpses in the hope they still counted as being alive, but as expected, they were very dead and provided me with no experience points. We let the wastelander guards deal with the aftermath and regrouped with Jamie. ¡°I¡¯ve heard there were a few intruders that managed to smuggle in?¡± He asked immediately upon seeing us. ¡°Yeah, there weren¡¯t a lot. The guards are doing a thorough sweep right now, though. Should we still be leaving?¡± ¡°Of course, the battlefield there is more important. I assume we may have a few traitors amongst us that allowed our enemies to sneak into our headquarters. We¡¯ll have to deal with them later. We don¡¯t have the time right now.¡± ¡°Understood, let¡¯s head out.¡± It was time to bring the battle to them. Chapter 62: Capture ¡°We¡¯re almost there now. Get ready,¡± Jamie said over the comms. Not long after, the sound of fighting reached our ears. Looking at the sensors, I could tell two groups of vehicles were fighting each other while on the move, parallel to each other. They kept some distance between themselves, prolonging the fight without a decisive conclusion. With our arrival, that quickly changed. Whoever was in command had us start an encirclement that we could now do with our superior numbers. Our Vanguards were much sturdier than the dune buggies they drove, so half a dozen Vanguards were assigned to reinforce where they could break through. Unlike the wastelanders, who were only equipped with machine guns, the riders in our vehicles had grenade launchers as well. Our superior firepower soon had them in disarray, as I watched the explosions scatter them in different directions in an attempt to escape. ¡°We¡¯ll have the cars continue to hunt them down while we can. We¡¯ll need you to deploy some forces to clear their remaining base on foot and capture their clan leader.¡± ¡°Okay, Thorne, come with me. I¡¯ll have Vin lead our convoy while we go on foot.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have it any other way,¡± Thorne replied. A few Vanguards, including my car, veered away from the fight and soon arrived at the Bates Clan¡¯s settlement. Like the Wells Clan, they lived in buildings similar to what we had in the cities. There were several larger buildings that seemed important. ¡°We¡¯ll split off into two groups to hunt down their leader. Thorne, you lead the other team.¡± ¡°But I¡ª¡± ¡°No buts. We have the initiative and active camouflage, so there shouldn¡¯t be any dangers. We need to finish this as quickly as we can and get the Bates Clan¡¯s forces to surrender.¡± I took my team of five, including me, toward one building, while Thorne reluctantly did the same toward the other structure. ¡°Stay close, and only engage if you determine I can¡¯t handle it,¡± I ordered the second in command. I really wanted to earn some experience points in this campaign, and I finally got Thorne to split off. These guys can just watch my back. He exchanged glances with the others and nodded. While the wastelanders erected buildings, they weren¡¯t that big, especially compared to what we had in cities. The building we were headed into was only three floors and slightly smaller than a typical high school. With our active camouflage on, we made our way into the building. There were a few guards posted out front that we bypassed. We didn¡¯t want anyone wondering where they went. Most rooms on the first floor were empty, so we swiftly made our way to the second. On this floor, the rooms were turned into makeshift barracks, filled with bunk beds. There weren¡¯t that many people here, though, most likely all deployed in the fight earlier. There was still a communal room where half a dozen wastelanders sat together and chatted. ¡°How do you think our main force is doing? Those guys outside seem to be buying time just like us, so you think they¡¯re having a decisive battle somewhere?¡± I interrupted their conversation once I was right behind them. I pulled out my Suri and quickly placed a bullet into each of them who were in their seats. The last two managed to react and got up, only to be knocked to the ground by one of my security guards.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
We continued to clear the floor, finding their armory and several others who were resting alone. We took a break once we cleared the floor to rest our Shades before we continued up. On the third floor were meeting rooms and offices. One of the meeting rooms was fashioned like the war room we had, with several people inside. They seemed to be the commanders and advisors of their forces, but I didn¡¯t spot the leader of the Bates Clan. I quickly disposed of them and quickly went to search the next building. Just as we secured a second building, I received a text. *Rollo, I got the clan leader captured. Heading back to the Vanguards now.* ¡°It looks like the other team completed the objective. Let¡¯s go help them secure our prisoner and have their clan surrender.¡±
The war snowballed quickly with the capture of the Bates Clan leader. We had several other prisoners of their clan, all important people, released into their main forces. They brought news of their leader¡¯s command to surrender and instantly crippled a third of their forces. The remaining two clans were the hardliners who were initially known to be highly hostile to all corporations and people from the city in general. They refused to surrender and our forces soon had them encircled. We had called out to them, informing them about the news of the Bates Clan¡¯s surrender to attack their morale. While they hesitated, none of them dared to surrender and only looked on to their stubborn leaders. Their short-sighted leaders ordered them to continue to fight and attempted to break out of the encirclement. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I manned the turret in our Vanguard and held the trigger down until the barrel started heating up. By that time, their forces were disorganized, and small groups started to surrender on their own initiative. The cleanup was entirely left to the wastelanders, as they were better at navigating through the wasteland. We wouldn¡¯t be able to track or catch up to them like they could. Instead, we returned to the war council. Jamie led us to the war room this time, and we spotted quite a few guards present. I soon understood the reason for that when I saw the various clan leaders inside. ¡°Welcome back, Rollo. It seems like the battle is about over. Our enemies have surrendered or are being chased as we speak,¡± Eugene said. ¡°Yes, and we were just discussing how the new territory will be divided amongst us. In your case, you wanted free passage through our territory, correct?¡± The leader of the Bush Clan said, in her rocking chair, that she somehow brought along. ¡°That is correct.¡± ¡°Very well, our Bush Clan hereby declares that your Halls Corporation will be granted free passage in our territory,¡± The old lady said and turned to the other clan leaders. They each nodded and, one by one, proclaimed the same thing. ¡°Thank you all. With the battle done, I will be taking my leave then, and leave you to your discussion. Please feel free to find me should you need my assistance.¡± Having attained the free passage that I had set out for, it was time to focus on the other aspects to prepare for this new route we have opened up. Once we said our goodbyes to everyone around, we immediately got back into our cars. On the drive back, I stared at my status screen, hoping I could quickly get that last bit of experience points.
Status
Level: 17
EXP: 1510/1700
Musculoskeletal: 211
Neural Reflex: 65
Visuomotor Coordination: 87
Endurance: 59
Sensory Perception: 127
Upgrade Points: 2
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +10
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
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 Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
As soon as we returned to NLA, we immediately got to work with the preparation for the new route to Salt Lake City. We had the personnel already because we had the foresight to prepare them ahead of time. We still had to do the leasing of additional cars, scheduling, and all the minor logistic details with the accompanying paperwork. It was a lot of work, but I was really excited about it. The new route meant more profits, which in turn gave us more resources to strengthen ourselves with. I had an unknown corpo out there watching over me. They were friendly for now, but who knew when that could change? The entire point of creating this company was to attain enough power to not be at the mercy of the corporate overlords. And my recent close call only invigorated my resolve. ¡°Hey, Rollo, can you help me with maintenance? The wasteland was not kind to all my implants,¡± Thorne said. ¡°Sure, go ahead and take a seat. Just give me one moment to finish up here.¡± I quickly finished up the paperwork I had on my terminal. It helped that I only needed to set the main direction and my employees would do the rest. ¡°Let¡¯s see here. I¡¯ll have your cybernetics go through a thorough scan first. Did you feel any issues with it?¡± I had Thorne laid out on the table as I plugged into his hardware to run a diagnostic. ¡°Not really, but with all the sand that had gotten into my chrome, it can¡¯t be good for it.¡± ¡°Give it a little more credit. A little sand wouldn¡¯t damage it. Did you have any other concerns?¡± ¡°How do I say this¡­? I¡¯ve been going over how to make use of all these implants, and all the resources I¡¯ve read talked about how vulnerable I am to EMPs and hacking. Is there any way for you to help in that regard?¡± ¡°Hmm, I can customize your soft more, but that will take a while. The cybernetics you have should already be pretty resistant to EMPs. It¡¯s just my Shade that isn¡¯t EMP-resistant. I plan to fix that soon, so just give me a bit of time for that as well.¡± We finished our checkup and soon headed out into the night of NLA. Thorne had to go and remind me how close I am to leveling up. With a few more points, it should be enough to start implementing some EMP countermeasures to my gear. To humanity¡¯s disappointment, it didn¡¯t take long for us to find sketchy people hanging around the nightlife area. I watched as a group of thugs waited outside a club with their weapons ready. I tapped Thorne on the shoulder and gestured toward the group. ¡°You sure they¡¯re up to no good? They could be good guys ambushing bad guys too.¡± ¡°Just look. They have no trigger discipline. If we let them do their thing, they¡¯ll probably hit several bystanders.¡± I was usually a lot more picky with who I targeted. I would observe while I tailed them. It also gave them a chance to lead me to their hideout for more loot and experience points if they turned out to be a threat to the public. I will probably pull the trigger much faster this time. I am just so close to leveling and they seem prepared to have a public shootout. ¡°Look, they¡¯re making a move.¡± The two of us swiftly turned on our active camouflage and got closer. The group of people we were monitoring was just hanging out in an alleyway, watching people go in and out of a club. Many people exited the venue at the same time for some reason, and before long, they found their mark. The half a dozen of them swung out from the alleyway and fast walked with a hand in their jacket. They didn¡¯t even wait for the crowd to thin out and pulled out their weapons and started shooting once they got close. The people quickly recognized the situation as they heard the gunshots and rapidly scattered. The six gunmen took no heed to the crowd and shot toward their target, who was escaping under the cover of the crowd. *Told you, I¡¯ll take them out before they hurt more civilians, you stay put for any unexpected situation,* I texted Thorne. I ran through the crowd with my vibro-bladed dagger out in one hand, and my Suri in the other. I waited until I was almost touching the gunmen before I attacked. Otherwise, I would risk shooting into the crowd like they were. The gunmen didn¡¯t even notice their allies being taken out for some time, thanks to how chaotic the street was. By the time only two remained, the crowd had dispersed, allowing me to finish them off with a few well-placed bullets.
+10 EXP +10 EXP
Unfortunately, scenes like these were too common in this world. I spent the rest of the patrolling around with Thorne. We finished by the time the sky began to brighten, and I ended off the night by spending some upgrade points for the first time in a while. I braced myself for the flood of knowledge to come and selected my upgrades. Chapter 63: To Salt Lake City
Status
Level: 18
EXP: 30/1800
Musculoskeletal: 211
Neural Reflex: 65
Visuomotor Coordination: 87
Endurance: 59
Sensory Perception: 127
Upgrade Points: 0
Upgrades:
  • Stealth +7
  • Hacking +3
  • Cybernetic Engineering +10
  • Stealth Technology +10
  • Software Engineering +6
  • Electrical Engineering +4
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 Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade
As I spent my points, a familiar feeling arose as knowledge directly flooded into my brain. Various principles, theories, and know-how flooded into me, and I had to press down the urge to immediately test out the new theories. While four points in electrical engineering weren¡¯t a lot, it armed me with enough understanding to start adding defenses against EMPs to my devices and customize the electric motors of our vehicles. Once we had the new route to Salt Lake City stabilized, I could focus on leveling up and further enhancing it. Maybe I could hasten it by leveling up in the wasteland against the mutants. ¡°So, when are we going back to Elevate City?¡± Thorne asked. He didn¡¯t have any responsibilities in NLA, so he mainly assisted me or Vin when needed. ¡°I think after seeing through this new route. Might as well, in case we have to come back later if something pops up.¡± ¡°In the meantime, Claire is going to be pissed, since she has to shoulder all your work back home.¡± ¡°...Want to go shop for some nice souvenirs for her?¡±
¡°So we¡¯re ready to make the first trip today, or do we need to delay it again?¡± I asked Vin, sitting across from me in my office. ¡°We¡¯re ready this time. The vehicles are in good condition and our men are prepared to fight off the mutants we may encounter. We¡¯ll need to work on faking the damages on our convoy and keeping the men quiet so that corps don¡¯t catch wind of our relationship with the wastelanders, though.¡± ¡°We also have to go set up our assets in Salt Lake City. If you¡¯re ready, then let¡¯s be on our way, then.¡± I stood up from the seat and exited to the parking lot. This time, Vin boarded the same Vanguard as me and Thorne, as the driver. ¡°Remember, we don¡¯t have any accurate navigation data for this route. Expect that it will take longer, as we will have to move slower.¡± ¡°Yeah, I asked the clans for info about the ruins on the way that we can take shelter in. So no need to rush. I¡¯d rather we move slower than bump into a boulder and wreck the cars. I am the one paying for the repairs, after all.¡± ¡°Yes, Your Highness, I¡¯ll try my best so we don¡¯t have a bumpy ride.¡± Our car proceeded into the wasteland as per normal. After an hour or so into our trip, the vehicles slowed significantly as we embarked into new territory. I watched as the equipment on the car worked in real time, analyzing and mapping our surroundings. Suddenly, the car tilted to one side before something rammed into our car. ¡°Contact with possibly Sandcrawlers! Everyone speed up to the nearest ruins,¡± Vin commanded. Another impact hit our car before we sped up. We soon approached the ruins of several skyscrapers where the sandstorm weakened. We could see a small lounge of Sandcrawlers following behind us. Our vehicles lined up in a line and prepared for them. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The mutants mindlessly charged toward us, allowing our turrets to easily rip them apart. After the first wave, they were smart enough to retreat. ¡°That should be the last of them. Let¡¯s set up camp here for the night.¡± Following Vin¡¯s instructions, several Vanguards detoured to find suitable shelter for us. We settled on the first floor of one of the more intact buildings to set up camp in. ¡°How are you two doing?¡± Vin came and sat down next to Thorne and I. ¡°I¡¯m fine. This isn¡¯t my first time spending the night out in the wasteland,¡± I replied and turned to Thorne. ¡°No need to worry about me. I can even go a few days without sleep, so this is nothing.¡± ¡°Suit yourself. Just know that this trip won¡¯t be short, and then we have to stay in an unfamiliar city until everything is set up too,¡± Vin continued. ¡°Yeah, let us get some rest while we can,¡± I said. Just as we were ready to turn in for bed, one of the security guard¡¯s voices boomed out on our comms. ¡°We got company! Looks like the Sandcrawlers want a round two.¡± We instantly stood up and made our way outside. Our Vanguards were parked defensively around us, and several guards were already ready on the turrets. I raised my Thunderstrike railgun and lined it up with the small shadow in the distance that grew larger by the second. Once they were in range, everyone fired in unison, scattering the approaching Sandcrawlers.
+10 EXP
Amidst the shooting, my auditory implants picked up the sound of glass shattering on the other side of the building, on one of the floors above. I turned to Thorne and tapped on his cybernetic shoulders for his attention. ¡°Something¡¯s coming from the other side of the building from the floors above. Let¡¯s go check it out. Vin can handle it here.¡± Thorne nodded, and I immediately jogged back into the building. A squad of six followed us as we made our way to the staircase. I opened the door and the next thing I knew; I was already on the ground. I stared up at the mouth of a Sandcrawler, ready to bite down on me. Before I could even try to overpower it with my cyberarms, a metal blade suddenly poked out of the throat of the mutant. Thorne had managed to stab it through the back of its head, and he swiftly knocked the dying mutant off to the side. I regained my footing and saw several other Sandcrawler bodies laying motionless in the stairwell, and pierced the one that had attacked me with my dagger.
+10 EXP
¡°They know how to flank us now?¡± I complained. ¡°In the end, they¡¯re just animals. We can still rip them apart with our superior weapons.¡± ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s seal this staircase and form chokepoints all around our camp.¡± At my words, we exited the stairwell after a few of my security guards placed some toys inside. I left it to them as they knew how to calculate the placements and quantity required for the job. We stepped behind a solid wall before activating the explosives. The explosion was immediate, and the rumble of the stairway turning into rubble was just as loud. We returned to our camp and found our people still standing guard outside, scanning for any remaining threats. ¡°Vin, they¡¯re learning to flank us. We blew up the only working stairwell, so they shouldn¡¯t be able to surprise us anymore.¡± ¡°They should know better than to attack again today. They¡¯ll probably still hang around to look for our opportunities, but we should be fine to rest up for the night before we get the hell out of here tomorrow.¡± How nice of them to be hanging around. Seems like they have offered me the chance to earn some experience points! ¡°Sounds good. Let¡¯s have our normal night shifts and give the chance for our employees to rest. Thorne, let¡¯s go hunt ourselves some lizards.¡± ¡°...You two suit yourself,¡± Vin sighed. The Sandcrawlers weren¡¯t even visible in our heat vision, but normal night vision was enough for us as I had the help of my smart assistant. Kiri, highlight all Sandcrawlers you find. ¡®Affirmative.¡¯ Thorne followed me on my climb up the next building over, where I could get the best view possible of our surroundings. Once we got a trace of our targets, we descended and headed straight for their last-seen location with our active camouflage activated. The lizards were clinging to the side of a building, completely still. It gave me ample time to take aim before firing my Suri at them. Their large frame meant that I needed several shots to put them down, but it was worth it to stay quiet so the rest of them wouldn¡¯t run away.
+10 EXP
We continued our hunt well into the night. I almost couldn¡¯t believe how many of these little crawlers had stalked us. I only felt relieved when we set off the next morning, in the safety of the Vanguard. Our tedious slow trek resumed, as we let our mapping equipment record the route. The only distractions were the occasional mutants that appeared. It seemed like when we traveled below certain speeds; we attracted them to investigate. I wasn¡¯t going to complain, though; they provided good experience points. After ten whole days, we finally arrived at Salt Lake City. Unlike in the other cities I¡¯ve been to, the sandstorm of the wasteland visibly surrounded the entire metropolis. The air around the city was a little sandy too, or maybe it was just a psychological thing. We had contacts with several companies in the city before, but the areas outside of corporate territory were completely new to us. As planned, we headed over to a hotel downtown. On our way over, I observed the city and its people. On the outskirts, the people seemed a lot poorer than what I¡¯ve seen in NLA. They dressed similarly, but had grimy hair and skin as if they hadn¡¯t showered in weeks. This only applied to the outskirts, though. The closer we got to downtown, the wealthier the area seemed to be. By the time we got to what was considered downtown, I could hardly differentiate it from the other metropolis, except for being surrounded by sandstorms in all four directions. After we checked in, we immediately split up and made our way to various local establishments to gather information. Thorne and I went to what we were familiar with, the outer districts where mercenaries were plentiful. The mercenary scene here seemed to be the most vibrant I¡¯ve ever seen. There was an entire street of bars that all seemed to be a similar level to Haven, filled to the brim. We picked one where there was a free table and listened in on the conversation around us after ordering something. This was where auditory implants truly shined, as mine helped me filter through the background noise. ¡°You guys still taking bodyguard gigs, even with all the wastelander activities recently?¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s actually been pretty peaceful. They haven¡¯t attacked much, and the pay is better than before as everyone is scared something will happen.¡± ¡°You better call it quits while you guys are ahead. It¡¯s much safer to hunt mutants or go out into the ruins like us.¡± ¡°Those aren¡¯t corporate sponsored, though. The last thing I want is to pay those ridiculous fees for freshwater when I could get it for free working for corps.¡± ¡°Suit yourself. It¡¯ll be you and your team¡¯s funeral.¡± We stayed for a whole hour before we retired for the night. The next morning, we had a quick meeting to summarize everything we found. ¡°We took a look at the real estate prices around. It¡¯s all pretty cheap compared to NLA. The only catch is the utility prices are through the roof, especially for water,¡± Vin explained. ¡°We¡¯ll only need a small pit stop here. I guess the prices balance it out, so let¡¯s go ahead and search for places today. The rest of you can take some time off in shifts.¡± As we adjourned the meeting, my SAID notified me of an incoming call from Claire. ¡°Rollo! Someone just destroyed our latest shipments from NLA, and it¡¯s the second time already. I think we¡¯re being targeted.¡± Chapter 64: Tempted ¡°So, how bad is it?¡± I immediately asked as soon as I got into the car. ¡°It hasn¡¯t gotten too bad yet. We split up the shipments into smaller, but more frequent shipments, so our losses are limited. They stole our shipment the first time, and in the latest incident, they burned it,¡± Claire replied. ¡°And our casualties?¡± ¡°None. Both times, they struck while the shipment was sitting in port before we picked it up. The liability coverage from the transport company doesn¡¯t cover it, though, as they had already dropped it off.¡± ¡°I see¡­Let¡¯s discuss this with everyone first.¡± A security guard who sported our company¡¯s logo drove us back as Thorne and Claire chatted about our time on the NNA continent. We soon arrived at our office building, and we directly went to the meeting room. Leo and Lana were already there, along with several others that Thorne had put in charge in his absence. ¡°Leo, Lana, did you guys find anything?¡± I asked as we sat down. ¡°No. All the footage was erased, or the cameras were disabled. None of the workers in the port seem to know anything, either.¡± ¡°Then we know absolutely nothing. Not who did this nor how they did it¡­¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°Does anything else have any information to provide or something to add?¡± I glanced around the room. ¡­ I assumed it was a no, considering the silence and how the security personnel avoided my gaze. ¡°Then let¡¯s end this meeting here. Everyone go dig around and see what else we can come up with.¡± I stepped out and headed to my personal room to unpack, with Thorne following right behind. ¡°Are you planning to contact a QG to have them dig around?¡± Thorne asked as soon as the elevator door closed. ¡°Maybe, if we don¡¯t find anything in a few days. Hopefully, we can shape up and learn how to do it ourselves.¡± ¡°You know, there¡¯s another way to find the perpetrators if they really are targeting us.¡± ¡°Go on¡­¡± ¡°We¡¯ll just have to bait them with our next shipment. Then we¡¯ll get all the info we need once we capture a few of them.¡± ¡°And if this was some corpo spec ops, we may just get killed.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯ve been telling you we should make use of our men instead.¡± ¡°Look, you¡¯ve trained them well and all, but how long has it been since you guys were formed? They are more suited to do what you¡¯ve trained them on, to guard our assets. I¡¯d rather not lose them and have to pay the expensive compensation and train new recruits all over again.¡± ¡°They won¡¯t mature if you don¡¯t give them a chance.¡± ¡°...If you want to go through with your bait plan, we¡¯re going to need to hire specialists to bear the brunt of it. Shock troops who are experienced. Our men can play the supporting role.¡± ¡°So you are going to call the QGs again.¡± ¡°If we don¡¯t find anything ourselves. I¡¯ll give it five days or so. The next shipment isn¡¯t due until next week.¡±
I took the first two days to get caught up with all the work I offloaded to Claire and stayed in contact with Vin, to who I delegated the task of setting up our Salt Lake City branch. On the third day, I began the search for information on our potential attackers. Thorne and the rest of them had gone over the most common information sources, so I paid a visit to the most iconic structure in the city. I got to once again enjoy the perfect ocean view as I drove across the water. The environment sure is strange. It looks perfectly fine here, but I¡¯m sure it is entirely out of whack in other parts of the world. I passed by several checkpoints, and thanks to my status as the owner of an official corporation affiliated with the Elevate City Consortium, they swiftly let me through. Once I arrived, I went straight to the cafe I had made a reservation with. At my table, a familiar middle-aged man was already there. ¡°Rob, how have you been?¡± I greeted the SocialCorp manager who had connected me with the cassettes. ¡°Rollo¡­Was there something you want?¡± He asked cautiously. ¡°No, be at ease. I just wanted to chat. I told you, I wanted to be friends, remember?¡± He chuckled and took a sip from his cup. ¡°And I thought I told you to keep contact to a minimum. SocialCorp counterintelligence isn¡¯t a joke.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t plan on getting you to do anything against them now or in the future,¡± I paused as the server came. ¡°A milkshake please.¡± This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. We both watched as the server walked away until they were out of sight. ¡°Anyway, I wanted to ask you about your experience dealing with other corporations.¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°What? You think some corp is finally targeting you?¡± ¡°Maybe, I don¡¯t know for sure. Unlike you, my company doesn¡¯t have a goliath of an intel department.¡± ¡°Ha, those guys just report to the higher-ups, the people who matter. Then, the info is passed down the chain as necessary.¡± ¡°I assume it won¡¯t be that easy to find out who is targeting me, then?¡± ¡°It depends. If an entire corporation is out to get you, then it will be difficult. If just a manager or someone is working independently to gain merit, then it¡¯ll be a lot easier.¡± ¡°Easier, how?¡± ¡°They won¡¯t be using the full might of their corporate security. They¡¯ll hire mercenaries or use their trusted personnel only.¡± ¡°I see¡­Thank you for your time. Want to grab lunch while we¡¯re here?¡± ¡°No need for your thanks. A true corpo repays favors with benefits, financial or otherwise.¡± ¡°Come on, I¡¯ll treat you to lunch.¡±
¡°This is awesome, I¡¯ve missed this! I can see through the obstacles and what my allies are seeing. My Lucy is ecstatic!¡± The man exclaimed as he kissed his sniper rifle. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re enjoying it, though it will only be for this operation. It only works with our company¡¯s server, processing all the info for us.¡± ¡°Yeah, I know. They had this stuff back when I served in Texas too. It¡¯s nice for sure, but nothing beats the skill you hone and the chemistry you have with your beloved rifle.¡± ¡°Sure, just make sure you don¡¯t get too excited and get us spotted,¡± Thorne interjected from behind. ¡°You kids these days don¡¯t get it, huh? A shame, really.¡± He shook his head and brought his attention to the scope of his gun. My high-tier optics came with comparable zoom, allowing me to take a quick glance around with my naked eyes. My SAID had access to the feeds in the other optical modes like infrared, so I could leave it to Kiri to notify me if it spotted anything unusual. The port in front of us was simply enormous. Stacks and stacks of shipping containers filled the area. The lights were only on in the sections where workers were, allowing anyone to easily spot where the workers were. Over ninety percent of the entire pass was pitch black, as the port employees couldn¡¯t cover the entire port. Leave it to the corporations to know how to save on their electricity bill. This makes it really easy for any intruders to avoid people as well¡­ Paying more focus to the unlit areas, we sat at our vantage point atop a nearby building for several hours by now. I wouldn¡¯t even complain because I knew the other team had it way worse. ¡°You guys think they will show up tonight? It would suck if Lucy and I didn¡¯t get to make use of this program you gave us.¡± We have come a long way from when the coordination program had to be synced with the makeshift visors I made before. Now it was simply a program for optics that was connected to our corporate servers. ¡°They definitely will if they really are targeting us,¡± Thorne replied, as he remained on guard, scanning the area unrelentingly. He did have the advantage of stamina, thanks to all his chrome, he physically never gets tired. ¡®Infrared has detected suspicious individuals,¡¯ Kiri¡¯s voice suddenly rang out. I immediately added an infrared layer to my optics. Kiri had helpfully highlighted the people it spotted for me. ¡°Turn on thermal, over there.¡± I made sure to vocalize loud enough for my companions to hear. While they adjusted their equipment, I zoomed in on the suspects, as close as my optics allowed. The thermal imaging only showed an outline, but combined with night vision, I could make out the weapons they had equipped. ¡°A dozen of them, all armed. Do you guys see them?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah, me and Lucy got them on our scope. I sent the signal to the team down there. You two should bring your minions and surround them.¡± ¡°Minions¡­really?¡± Thorne stopped and turned to Max. ¡°Yeah, really. They obey and are small fries, right?¡± ¡°Forget about it. Let¡¯s go, Thorne!¡± ¡°Right. I¡¯ll contact teams one and two to go around.¡±
Flo - Mercenary ¡°How long has it been since we¡¯ve been stuck in here? Hey Leo, is anything happening outside yet?¡± ¡°It hasn¡¯t even been ten minutes since you last asked. No!¡± He yelled through the comm, not trying to hide his agitation whatsoever. ¡°...How about now¡ª¡± ¡°Come on, Flo, stop teasing the kid. Want to watch ¡®Love Code: 401¡¯ with me instead?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been full-time for how long? You know I don¡¯t like romance shows unless I¡¯m trying to sleep, Erza.¡± ¡°Heh, maybe that¡¯s what I¡¯m planning so I can cuddle you.¡± The sound of hair brushing up against something drew Flo¡¯s gaze to the side, where she found Liz looking up at them. For once, her eyes weren¡¯t glowing, but she was quiet as usual. A few moments later, she took a deep breath and went back to watching whatever she did on her optics. ¡°Haha, you even got Liz here feeling uncomfortable. That¡¯s why I love you.¡± Just as Flo was about to give Erza a hug, Leo¡¯s voice rang out with impeccable timing. ¡°They¡¯re here. Max has eyes on them. You should be able to see their outlines once they get close enough.¡± ¡°Leo¡­has anyone ever told you, you¡¯ve gotten even less fun ever since you returned to being a real corpo.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡ª¡± Seeing the look Erza gave her, she cleared her throat. ¡°Never mind. How many of them are there?¡± ¡°We spot twelve. Rollo and Thorne are already encircling them from a distance with our men.¡± ¡°You really have changed. You really like being a corpo that much, huh?¡± ¡°What are you getting at? Why wouldn¡¯t I like having a stable job with prospects to move up in the world?¡± ¡°You can do that too, working as a merc,¡± Flo smirked. ¡°No, that¡¯s different. At the end of the day, mercenaries are just treated as disposable pawns. There¡¯s a reason why all the jobs are high risk. If you want a stable life, you should join us, Flo.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­Maybe. But I ain¡¯t ready to sell my soul and be exploited like a slave.¡± She couldn¡¯t help but remember some memories of her childhood when her parents toiled away. She swore to never be like them, at the beck and call of their superiors, like a well-trained dog. ¡°You know Rollo wouldn¡¯t do that. Think about it when you have time. The intruders are closing in. You should be able to see them soon.¡± At Leo¡¯s reminder, she looked up to see red outlines appearing in her view, one by one. She grabbed the tower shield leaning against the wall and double-checked her shotgun. ¡°You two ready?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Erza and Liz replied in unison, with excitement tinged in their voice. Even I can¡¯t fully get used to Liz flipping her switch so abruptly after so much time together. They watched as the intruders climbed up atop the shipping containers and grew closer to them. New outlines in blue, marking them as allies, tailed the suspected enemies from a distance behind. They finally reached the container Flo¡¯s team was in and slowly began cutting the lock. Show time. Chapter 65: Entrapment ¡°Get ready, they¡¯re breaking into the container,¡± Thorne¡¯s voice rang out through our comms. I surveyed our surroundings and found all our allies and enemies, highlighted through the shipping containers stacked in our way. ¡°Remember, try to capture them,¡± I added. A series of affirmatives came back in response, and I could even see a few of them saluting through the walls. As we inched toward them, our targets were busy cutting away with some sort of plasma torch. It took less than ten seconds before they got through the lock of the shipping container. I watched one of them slowly pull open the container, only to find the door swing open much faster than he had expected. The door violently smashed into him, knocking him off the second floor of shipping containers, onto the ground. Not sure if that was lethal or not¡­ The rest of the saboteurs all had their eyes glued to their friend when he fell. When they turned back to the container in unison, they found a tower shield charging toward them. Gunshots rang out¡­or not, as they used silenced weapons, but the impact of the bullets bouncing off Flo¡¯s shield echoed throughout the night. A neon-colored grenade gently lobbed into the air and went off right above the thieves. A glue-like substance scattered all around, with some getting into the eyes of our enemies. Flo reached her closest foe and shield bashed one to the ground, and smashed another with her shotgun as if it were a bat. A few smarter ones tried to target where the grenade had come from, inside the container, but they abruptly collapsed onto the ground. Through the outline, I could tell it was Liz, by her feminine figure. The saboteurs realized things were going really badly for them and tried to scatter. Their attempt led them straight toward us. It wasn¡¯t even fair, as the majority of us made use of active camouflage, ambushing them as they were on the run. By the time I finished crushing the legs of the intruder that came my way with my cyberarms, everyone was already restraining our captives. I pulled out the bracelet devices and cuffed my prisoner¡¯s limbs. ¡°Rollo, we got them all accounted for,¡± Thorne walked and informed me. ¡°Did you check in with Max to see if there were any others?¡± ¡°Yes, they had two trucks with their drivers outside. Max already got them.¡± ¡°Good work. We knew we couldn¡¯t capture them all alive. This was pretty good results already.¡± ¡°No, he got them alive.¡± Well, that was unexpected¡­How does one do that with a sniper rifle? ¡°Okay, awesome. Now let¡¯s get out of here before someone notices.¡±
We repurposed one of the rooms in the office as a temporary prison while we interrogated them. It seemed they were all disciplined, with no one having said anything since we captured them last night. ¡°Any luck?¡± ¡°Not from the prisoners,¡± Thorne replied. ¡°Does that mean we found something elsewhere?¡± ¡°Well, aside from their obvious gang affiliation with the Rust Scrappers, based on their tattoos, Leo looked into their terminals.¡± He placed down a terminal and zoomed in on a picture for me to see. ¡°They received orders through physically written paper, but some dumbass took a picture of it. We can confirm from this that someone is indeed targeting us specifically.¡± ¡°Is it the Rust Scrapper themselves? Maybe they found out we were responsible for taking out their doctor and his men from a while back.¡± ¡°That is our main theory, or it could be someone else hiring them as muscle.¡± ¡°Let me guess. We don¡¯t have anything else to go on?¡± ¡°...Right.¡± ¡°I guess we¡¯ll have to put the feelers out for the Rust Scrappers, then. Have people look into their hangouts, but don¡¯t be too aggressive and alert them. We aren¡¯t even sure if it¡¯s them.¡± I have always known that gang is no good. But still, I should know better than anyone that not everyone in the gang is inherently bad. Not when I was a member of a similar infamous gang back in my old world¡­ As I let others do the investigating, I retired to my workshop to focus on improving my old cybernetic models. Now that I had more points in electrical engineering, I needed to spend more time incorporating my knowledge into my designs to make them more EMP-resistant. I worked on it for the entire day and went straight to bed. The next morning, I received a message from a friend I wasn¡¯t expecting to hear from. We scheduled a dinner together before I set off on another day in the workshop. Thorne and Leo each came in a few times to report what they had found, which wasn¡¯t much. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I really should find some information gathering specialist to join us. My alarm rang before I knew it, and I headed out for my scheduled dinner. Thorne accompanied me, as well as a squad of guards. It was only too convenient that most high-class restaurants had specific waiting rooms for accompanying guards. I had gotten there fifteen minutes ahead of the reservation, but I found my friend already there. ¡°Good to see you again. Can¡¯t say I was expecting to see you in Elevate City, though.¡± I stepped forward and shook hands with the bald man. ¡°It is a pleasure to see you as well. As we may have discussed last time, my Authentic Corp has a few establishments spread around the world. And we couldn¡¯t miss being in such an important place as Elevate City.¡± I sat down and continued exchanging pleasantries with Joey, the owner of Authentic Corp. ¡°So Joey, was there a reason for your invitation today?¡± I asked once we finished the entrees. ¡°Not in particular. I had business here and remembered you were based in this city, so I wanted to see how you were doing.¡± ¡°Not bad. We¡¯re still in a period of rapid growth, and trying to continue that as we bump into different obstacles. Nothing major.¡± ¡°Good, good. Then maybe you can help me with my logistics soon.¡± He did mention that last time¡­ is that really all he wanted? ¡°You flatter me. I doubt a startup like us could service a big corporation such as yours.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t count yourselves out. Let me tell you something. Once you get to a certain size, you will have¡­rivals. And the best way to deal with these rivals isn¡¯t to take them head on or find allies of similar strength, but to gather many to support you.¡± That is a little too straightforward of a corpo, laying his cards out. Though, I doubt he would need an elaborate lie to trick me when he had the power of his corporation at his beck and call. We chatted about business philosophy and management practices as we ate dessert. This was the first time I actually enjoyed something sweet here that wasn¡¯t ice cream. Genuine eggs, flour, and milk were vital, after all.
I regrouped with Thorne and our guards and returned to our place without any incident. ¡°Thorne, you can follow along, but you¡¯re not going to make a move unless it¡¯s an emergency. Okay?¡± ¡°For the third time, yes.¡± We got into a Vanguard, and two security guards chauffeured us to one of the potential Rust Scrappers hideouts we uncovered. From the information we got, they operated an underground gambling ring in District 12, near the outskirts of the city. It wasn¡¯t a particularly wealthy or poor area, with many corporate warehouse workers and middle management that worked the docks. There were people still loitering the streets this late into the night. Several of them seemed to be sporting gang colors and tattoos. As we approached our destination, more and more people wore the maroon colors of the Rust Scrappers. We parked inside a megabuilding to not draw attention. The two guards stayed in the car while only Thorne came along with me. As soon as we left the megabuilding, we turned on the new function I added to our implants. Our outfits blurred and changed colors until we both appeared identical to the Rust Scrappers I scanned on the ride over. It was simply another application of our Shades, but instead of constantly projecting the surroundings to become invisible, we maintained a set of disguises. As the Shade didn¡¯t have to constantly recreate our surroundings, it consumed much less power and generated less heat. That meant it had a much higher uptime compared to our usual active camouflage. People gave way when we walked by, while thugs in different colors gave us hostile stares. We soon arrived near our destination, a spa inside a commercial plaza. We hid in a discrete corner and surveyed the surroundings. We found people casually dressed, walking into the spa in question. ¡°You see that?¡± I gently elbowed Thorne. ¡°What? The people going inside?¡± ¡°They¡¯re dressed casually, but their expensive watches are a dead giveaway that they¡¯re corpos.¡± ¡°Sounds like we got the right place, then?¡± ¡°Only one way to find out.¡± We gave our implants some time to rest before we entered after another guest, with the help of our active camouflage. The attendants at the spa brought the guest toward the back, where a set of stairs led into the basement. The moment the basement doors opened, bright lights filled our eyes. If mine weren¡¯t cybernetics, I would probably be squinting. The entire place was grandly decorated with maroon wallpaper that had black patterns on it. The floor was all carpeted in snake-like patterns in tan-gold. What immediately drew our attention, though, was the security checkpoint. Having seen the same thing, Thorne swiftly sent me a text. *You sure you want to keep going? They have a lot of security down here. I can spot half a dozen mounted turrets from here alone.* *Yes, we¡¯ll keep going. Follow closely.* The new guest walked by the checkpoint, and the entire hallway suddenly flashed red lights. ¡°Sir, our sensors have flagged you. Please come along for further inspection.¡± The man complied with frustration clear on his face. *Are You sure we can get by their sensors undetected?* *Not sure, so I¡¯d rather not test it. We just have to follow their guards in.* We waited until the man returned after being checked and tailed the guard escorting him closely. Just as we thought we had safely passed through, another light flashed out. ¡°What did the system flag him for? We just checked him in the room,¡± The guard shouted out. ¡°It just says a lot of metal was detected. Does he have a lot of internal chrome or something?¡± ¡°No, we¡¯ve scanned him thoroughly.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s probably just an error with all your equipment. Just go on through.¡± Well, that sure got my heart pumping. They soon led the guest through a double door, where a spacious floor entered our view. It was sprawling with lights and noise from the neatly placed terminals that appeared to be slot machines. In the back were tables for various card games, creating a scene that was a smaller replica of what I¡¯d seen in Firebird¡¯s casinos. As the man went off to gamble, we headed to the washroom where we let our Shades rest. ¡°This place is a lot bigger than I thought,¡± Thorne whispered. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s hurry up and find the manager¡¯s office or something.¡± After our break, we resumed our search and scanned for the most important-looking place. I spotted a tinted window on the floor above that looked over the casino from the center. There was conveniently a set of stairs right below that place, and we swiftly made our way up. What stopped us next was the bane of our existence: a closed door. *What now? We break that door down and I assume the entire place will go off like a kicked hornet¡¯s nest.* *We wait¡­* *Our Shades won¡¯t keep up for too long, though.* Just as I was halfway compiling my reply, the door opened, and a woman walked out. She bowed back towards the occupant of the room. ¡°Good evening, sir. I will see you tomorrow.¡± We quickly slipped in before I redid my text and sent it. *There, it worked.* Chapter 66: Operation C *There, it worked.* Once we got inside the room, we turned toward the only occupant. He was a large man who had maroon-colored cyberarms. On his shoulder was the symbol of their gang, the Rust Scrappers. We circled around him as he was busy working the terminal on his desk. Behind him were the tinted windows that gave us a clear view of the casino down below. Rather than waiting any longer, I immediately lashed out and stabbed the man¡¯s nape with a syringe. It was simply a drug to knock him out, and it worked fast. Before I could place the syringe back into my pack, the man fell face-first onto the table, unconscious. Thorne and I disabled our active camouflage in unison as he stepped in to put restraints on the man. We lifted him together and brought him to the corner of the room before I sat down in his chair and browsed his terminal. It seemed like he was in the middle of writing a report about the casino¡¯s business and was about to send it to someone named Luther. Diving further into the terminal, I didn¡¯t find any conclusive evidence that tied them to us, but I did find that the Rust Scrappers were going to be having a meeting between the various executives soon. They were even hosting it in this casino itself in three days¡¯ time. ¡°Nothing here, but they¡¯re having a Rust Scrappers meeting here soon. Let¡¯s come back then.¡± ¡°What about him?¡± Thorne pointed at the unconscious man. ¡°I¡¯ll hit him with a drug to make his memory foggy. He shouldn¡¯t make too much of a fuss about it.¡± His terminal was still logged into his account and had access to the security throughout the place. I downloaded the schematics and swiftly made our way out. With administrative access, I disabled the sensors out front for the next half hour to allow us to escape. The next time we return, we¡¯ll be much more prepared.
For the next couple of days, I focused on paperwork during the day, and back to hunting harvesters during the night. We didn¡¯t uncover anything vital during this time, just several Rust Scrappers hideouts. We were waiting for their meeting to take place first so we could learn more before we took any overtly hostile actions against such a big gang. I enjoyed a stroll in our neighborhood and visited the cafe that was having a limited-time flavor milkshake. There were still several hours until the meeting, so I returned to finally put some hours into the VR game Claire had gotten. The immersive VR here wasn¡¯t what I imagined it to be, where I would be put to a sleep-like state. Instead, it was a pod where I floated around inside like a fetus in the womb. I logged on and immersed myself in a Victorian-era RPG, and relaxed while enjoying something other than work. The game had a lot of freedom with lifelike NPC that I could almost mistake for a real person if not for the indicator above their heads. Dungeons had descended to the backward society, causing upheaval with all the changes it brought. From skill orbs, levels, and monsters, it was a world more akin to what I would have expected myself to end up in after being hit by that truck. My alarm rang, covering my vision, and prompting me to exit out of the game. I met up with Thorne in the security room, who was in the middle of briefing our men about the operation tonight. I stood out of the way and analyzed the layout of the underground casino in case anything went wrong. ¡°So, you guys are going off into the lion¡¯s den again, huh?¡± I turned to the speaker and found Claire standing beside me. ¡°We¡¯ll be fine as long as we have you guys looking out for us.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll need you to get us a connection into their system first. I have been improving pretty fast, so Lana says, but it¡¯s still Leo and Lana who will be doing the bulk of the work. Let¡¯s get this done fast so we can resume dealing with all the paperwork. It¡¯s starting to pile up with Vin finishing up our branch in Salt Lake.¡± I looked around the room and saw the cy-sec duo busy on their terminals while the men started filing out of the room with Thorne headed straight toward me. ¡°Rollo, we¡¯re ready,¡± he said. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡±
An advance team that included me, Thorne, and two others, retraced our steps from our previous visit to the underground casino. We came a few hours early, before the start of the meeting, to get into position. It didn¡¯t take long before we spotted someone heading into the spa that was the front for the casino. Just like last time, we tailed behind them as they entered the basement where the casino was. From the information we downloaded last time, we found information on their defenses, which included the scanner they had. I adjusted our implants to counter its precise detection method using the frequency they used. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it We waltzed through the checkpoint this time without setting any alarms and made our way into the casino. Rather than going to the same office, though, we split off to find a place where we could connect to their systems, so our cy-sec specialists could do their thing. The main floor where all the slot machines and tables were had too much traffic for us to plug in unnoticed. I took breaks in the washroom to allow my Shade to rest. Just as I was about to head out to continue my search, I received a text from one of the security members who infiltrated together with us. *Found the mechanical room in the staff-only area. It¡¯s beside the chip exchange.* With that taken care of, I made my way to the room where the Rust Scrappers meeting would soon take place. I bugged the room and its adjacent washrooms and hallways before I made my way to reunite with the other three. I found Thorne already plugged into the control panel on the wall as the other two stood guard. ¡°Did you guys get a count on how many people are here tonight? Especially around the meeting room.¡± The man who had found this room answered, ¡°Sir, we found around thirty staff and the same number of security. Not too different from your reports.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t account for all the men those other executives in the gang will bring when they arrive,¡± Thorne added. ¡°It should still be manageable as long as we still have the element of surprise.¡± Not long after, we received a message from Leo that they were in. We had admin access the last time we were here, which gave us a backdoor we could breach through quickly. We had a few teams that were waiting outside, taking turns to infiltrate one team at a time while the others stayed outside to keep watch. They had to wait for guests to show up, but we were trickling into their casino. In the meantime, I killed time by scrolling through the camera feeds throughout the premises. I settled on one that observed the guests playing. They mostly played the same games as the one in Firebird, a variation of baccarat. After observing for over an hour, I unsurprisingly found that the casino cheated. The table I was observing had played normally until one of their patrons kept doubling his bet. He had won twice in a roll and was about to go for one last gamble, but from the angle of the camera, I could see the dealer discreetly added a card to the top as they dealt. The gambler who lost was so frustrated he threw his drink at the ground, shattering glass everywhere. I watched as he argued with a manager, who pressed him to repay his debts. The argument soon ended when security came in and escorted him out. I guess casinos can still get clients, even with a bad reputation, as long as people still get hooked on gambling. After another hour of waiting, the meeting time fast approached. ¡°All units, we¡¯ve spotted several vehicles pulling up to the back of the spa. Be advised, there are at least twenty members of the Rust Scrappers coming in now,¡± Claire¡¯s voice broadcasted through our comms. We continued to stay put in the mechanical room and watched the new additions through the camera feeds. The Rust Scrappers executives moved in groups of five, where one stood out from each group as the apparent leader. The executives were easy to spot, as they all had one thing in common; they all confidently strode into the building like they owned the place and were flanked by their bodyguards. All of them soon arrived at the meeting room, and the familiar man with two maroon-colored cyberarms we encountered last time strode in last. He sat at the front of the table, where six other executives of the Rust Scrappers were already seated. ¡°Thank you all for coming here. Our leader isn¡¯t here, so I will go by tradition. As the host, I will be the facilitator for this meeting today. First thing on the agenda¡­¡± They started going over mundane business reports and finances for a whole hour until they took a break. Several of them headed for the washroom while others headed out for refreshments. In the bathroom, I watched as the facilitator, the man whom I had previously knocked out, chatted with another man who was using the urinal next to his. ¡°I¡¯ve got a few more people who couldn¡¯t pay their debt around. Can you still liquidate them quickly?¡± ¡°The war out in space is over, so laborers aren¡¯t in demand anymore. I can reach out to a few harvester groups, though. Unless you have some young and attractive merchandise?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll send you their profiles later¡­¡± Having heard enough of their conversation, I switched channels to listen in on three female Rust Scrappers executives at the bar. ¡°Where is your pretty lieutenant you always have with you?¡± ¡°Dead. That useless thing went and got himself killed without my permission on a simple mission.¡± ¡°My¡­ how wasteful.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get me started on it. I thought I would do the late Dr. Bennett a favor and avenge him in a small way against that corpo who took him out. But I can¡¯t believe he couldn¡¯t even manage a simple sabotage mission.¡± And bingo! We have a winner. To be honest, I don¡¯t think I was going to let them go from what I¡¯ve heard, even if I didn¡¯t find our saboteurs. ¡°Attention all units. We¡¯ll be proceeding with plan C, starting in fifteen minutes. Teams outside, did you track where they took the man they brought outside an hour ago or so ago?¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s in the next building over,¡± Claire responded. ¡°Have a team split off to secure that area as well. They''ve got possible prisoners there that we should free.¡± ¡°Roger that.¡± I turned and exchanged looks with Thorne and the two other guards before we made our way back outside. We shared our vision, allowing enemies to be highlighted through the walls if others in our network saw them. I watched as the blue outlines of my allies got into position. When we were finally ready, I headed right toward the meeting room that had resumed their session. More than a dozen guards stood outside as their charge was in the meeting. Once I got into position, I gave out the command to begin the operation. *Start.* I immediately lifted out my SMG and unleashed the armor-piercing rounds I had loaded it with. The rounds sliced through their cybernetics and armor like cheese, tagging their allies behind them.
+10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP
Thorne and the other two struck as well, firing off their assault rifle into the crowd with me. Once we released our fingers from the trigger, the hallway didn¡¯t have a single enemy left standing. I moved to finish off the ones I hadn¡¯t hit as the rest of my team got ready to breach into the meeting room. Thorne had placed a breaching charge on the doors and looked back at me. I nodded, ¡°Do it.¡± Chapter 67: Rust Scrapers Chapter 67: Rust Scrapers ¡°Do it.¡± We used the wall as cover, as the thunderous noise of the directional charge did its job and blew open the door to the meeting. The doors were sted inward, into the room, and we got ready to charge inside right after it. Thorne took out a grenade and threw it into the room. A secondter, a bright light shed out, apanied by a low buzzing sound. The four of us immediately rushed in with our fingers at the ready, on the trigger. I spotted several figures rolling around on the ground. Before we could aim our guns at them, a gigantic figure suddenly charged us from the corner of my eye. It mmed into the guard beside me, propelling him a full two meters in the air before he mmed into the ground. He lunged at me next, with his maroon cyberarms extended, ready to grab hold of me. Just as I managed to point my gun toward him, a blurry figure rammed into my attacker with his outstretched arm and brought him to the ground. Taking advantage of the opportunity presented to me, I aimed down and pulled the trigger. +20 EXP ¡°Thanks, Thorne. Let¡¯s get these guys restrained right away.¡± We pped the bracelet restraining device onto the Rust Scrapper executives who were struggling to get up, tying their limbs together.We got exactly six of them as our captives, as the seventh one was dead. There is some irony in how the guy who we had knocked out several days ago almost knocked me out today¡­ ¡°How is he?¡± I asked Thorne, who was tending to the guard who got sent flying. ¡°Fractured bones and damaged organs. He¡¯ll recover within a week if he gets to the nano-doc soon.¡± I nodded, ¡°Bring him outside ASAP and get him to a doctor.¡± Imanded the other guard. Not long after he brought the injured away, another security team showed up. Together, we secured our prisoners and carried them out once we sedated them. As we made our way out of the casino, I witnessed the carnage we had brought to the ce. The music was still ying, with the terminal slot machines still making their characteristic noises, but I spotted bodies here and there sprawled about. There may have been over forty of them, but they stood no chance when twenty of us caught them off guard. ¡°Rollo, we found the casino¡¯s captives and secured them. What do you want to do with them?¡± ire¡¯s voice rang out from thems. ¡°Just leave them outside and let the police deal with it. It¡¯s all they¡¯re good for, anyway.¡± I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen a single cop in this world do anything useful. They always showed up after the incidents. Except maybe those guys in Lion City, but I don¡¯t want to be reminded of them¡­ With our objectiveplete, we quickly evacuated from the area around the spa and returned to our office. We might need to have some prison cells built the next time we renovate. Once I got cleaned up in my room, I went to one of the makeshift interrogation rooms we had put together. ¡°Are they willing to talk?¡± I asked the guard on duty. ¡°Yes, sir. We made each of them tell us the location of their leader separately and got the same reply. Here is the address.¡± ¡°I see, thank you.¡± I quickly ryed the information to the rest of the gang through ourpanyms. We weren¡¯t going to give the Rust Scrappers any respite. We¡¯ll bring down their leadership before morning, so they¡¯ll be in no position to retaliate. It was the best method since they were toorge a gang topletely eradicate. We quickly mobilized and boarded a Vanguard with Thorne. ¡°I want to do this one quietly, so have everyone else on standby around the target location.¡± ¡°Fine, but I¡¯ming with you,¡± Thorne replied. I nodded, as he wasn¡¯t going to have it any other way. I enjoyed the view of Elevate City¡¯s night view instead, as we made our way to the address we got. It was one of the megabuildings in the Neon District, which meant it was currently the liveliest time of the day throughout this district. Neon signs soon filled my view, with the streets filled with partygoers. We arrived inside one of the megabuilding¡¯s parking garage and only me and Thorne exited the vehicle. I had an idea of how I wanted to dismantle their leadership to cause chaos within their ranks. Rich people or those with power always preferred to live in the penthouse for some reason. I was thankful they chose a megabuilding though, as it made it really easy to get a connection into their systems. With Leo and Lana¡¯s help, breached the stairwell¡¯s security. The elevators were being watched at all times, and it only went up to the floor below our targets. He also had a small army stationed on the floor right below his residence. We took the elevators up to just a few floors below before we entered the stairwell. Once we got to the top, we could spot someone through the thin ss panel on the door, standing guard on the other side. *Can you get this door open?* I texted our cy-sec specialists. Within a few seconds, the door clicked and popped slightly open. ¡°What the?¡± The guard stepped forward and pulled the door back shut as he stared at it in confusion. A momentter, it popped open again. ¡°He¡ª¡± He turned around, so I took the opportunity to grab him before he could yell and alert anyone. I swiftly passed the door and plunged my dagger into him in one fluid motion. +10 EXP We dragged his body back to the stairwell and left it there before we closed the door behind us. Theyout of this floor was just like any other one in a megabuilding, where dozens of units were jam-packed together. The main difference, though, was how all the units faced the outside while they reced the inner part of the building with a spacious courtyard. Inside that courtyard was where the stairs that led up to the penthousey. Although there were a few lookouts, they weren¡¯t really paying attention, as their eyes glowed and gave away the fact their attention was elsewhere. We found an inconspicuous corner to hide without the assistance of active camouge and waited. It took half an hour before I heard someone approach, and was stopped by a lookout. ¡°Carm? What do you want? The boss is sleeping right now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s urgent! Bison¡¯s ce got hit while they had their meeting. All the executives are gone. Someone¡¯s attacking us.¡± ¡°Calm down, let me call in first,¡± The lookout said before his eyes took on a glow once more. ¡°Okay, the boss will see you. Follow me.¡± Sharing a look with Thorne, we once again activated our active camouge and tailed the duo. We made our way up theminate stairs that were made to look as close to authentic wood as possible. The wealthy in this world were all crazed about using wood where they could to show off and gain prestige. I, on the other hand, only cared for the practicality of the material. Once we made our way up, they stood outside a door that seemed more like a bank safe for a few moments before it opened. The sound of a giant metal door opening was not pleasant for the ears at all. Hurray for auditory imnts. A muscr man stood on the other side of the door with a displeased expression. ¡°Tell me the details now. I¡¯ll have the entire organization look into this attack!¡± ¡°Sir, all we know is that¡­¡± While they had their talk, Thorne and I invited ourselves into the residence. ¡°Enough, I will take care of it from here. You may leave,¡± The muscr man dered. Once the vault-like door closed, we followed him into his house. He made his way across the living room and into his home office. As soon as he sat down by his terminal, we acted. I drew my Suri while Thorne materialized behind with his wrist des pointed at the back of the Rust Scrapper leader. A second after Thorne, I turned off my Shade while I pointed my gun from the other side, sandwiching the man between us. ¡°Hey there, thank you for inviting us to your wonderful home. Do you think you can do us a favor?¡± The man alternated nces between us, and I could hear the gears spinning in his head. ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it. We have this room jammed. You won¡¯t be able to contact anyone. Don¡¯t Move. Thorne, plug in,¡± Following my instructions, Thorne connected a cable from his terminal to the neural port in the gang leader¡¯s wrist and his terminal. With Leo having gained ess to his internal systems, we could rest assured that he was truly isted. ¡°...What do you people want? You¡¯re not going to get away with this if you do anything to me, you know?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We simply want you to invite all your lieutenants to your wonderful home here, right now.¡± ¡°Why in the¡ª¡± Thorne grasped his shoulder with his free arm. ¡°We¡¯re not asking. Do it. Now. And no funny business. We have this entire area under watch.¡± The Rust Scrapper leader red at Thorne and breathed out heavily through his nose. ¡°Fine. Have it your way, then.¡± He proceeded to log into his terminal, which was connected to their gang¡¯s internalwork, and sent out the summons. We monitored him in real time to ensure he didn¡¯t slip any unneeded information into his messages. He could still send something encoded out, but we had this ce surrounded and he knew that. He may be a gangster, however, he was smart enough to be the boss, so he should know that would only get him killed. We were silent as we waited because Thorne and I chose to onlymunicate amongst ourselves through text. It didn¡¯t even take twenty minutes before our first arrival came. Our observers didn¡¯t note anything unusual, so we proceeded with caution. At the terminal, we could see the feed just outside the bunker door. The previous lookout together with a middle-aged woman. ¡°Go on, let them in.¡± The muscr gang leader hesitated for a moment, butplied when Thorne pressed his de into his neck. The woman proceeded alone into the house and I went into my active camouge. I stood off to the corner and waited. Before long, her footsteps grew closer and closer until she knocked on the door. ¡°Richard, I¡¯m here. Can Ie in?¡± ¡°...Yes, the door is unlocked.¡± The woman only took two steps into the room before she froze as she processed the scene before her. ¡°What in the¡ª¡± I immediately grabbed her from behind and subdued her. I injected the drug to knock her out and left her in the corner of the room as we prepared for our next arrival. ¡°...What do you people want?¡± The gang leader repeated. ¡°You can shut up and find out or be disposed of now. Your choice.¡± ¡°...¡± In total, it only took an hour before every Rust Scrapper lieutenant arrived at their leader¡¯s beckons. It was really helpful that they all deferred to their leader so much. ¡°Before we proceed, I wanted to ask you one more thing,¡± I faced the gang leader, Richard, after ensuring all his lieutenants were properly secured. As if having sensed his fate, panic was clear to see from his face. ¡°I¡¯ll answer anything. Just let me go. I promise I¡¯ll forget about this, like a bad dream.¡± ¡°I wanted to ask if you knew about your people¡¯s attack on my corporation.¡± ¡°Please, just promise me you¡¯ll let me go. I¡¯ll help you find out every single person in the gang that has wronged you.¡± ¡°Answer the question.¡± ¡°No, no. I don¡¯t even have any idea who you are.¡± Well, he got unlucky since his subordinates provoked us, but he had iting with all the misdeeds he sanctioned and profited from. ¡°I see. You should¡¯ve known this day woulde with all the victims you produce every day. Just from the records on your terminal, we found in this short period, do you even know how many lives you have ruined?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean¡ª¡± I gave Thorne a nod, and he injected the same drug we used on the rest of his men to knock him out. I took some time going over the house for any other terminals to extract all the information from. Once I was done, I regrouped with Thorne in the study where the entire Rust Scrapper leadership was held. ¡°Did you set everything?¡± Thorne nodded, and we proceeded to make our exit. As soon as we exited the courtyard, we activated the device, and the penthouse went up in mes. Chapter 68: Gang War Chapter 68: Gang War Today was a special day. A week after dealing with the Rust Scrapper¡¯s leader, we kept out of their way and monitored the situation. With their leadershippletely gone, the remaining members were conflicted about who would take over the gang. They pointed fingers at each other for being responsible for the previous leader¡¯s death, and soon a civil war started amidst the gang. In the meantime, I kept busy by doing mymunity service and leveling up. I had cy-specialists, hard at work, decrypting the data we downloaded from the gang leader¡¯s residence. And on this special day, I finally managed to level up. Status Level: 19 EXP: 40/1900 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 2 Upgrades: Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Sebastien v2 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 Cardiovascr: BioGen Lifepump 5 Misceneous: HSU Custom Shade I immediately dumped my newfound points into electrical engineering and enjoyed the sensation that I hadn¡¯t experienced in a while. The flow of knowledge answered many of my previous curiosities but also brought on new ones. The way I looked at anything in the field had gone through a metamorphosis once more. I spent the whole day studying and figuring out ways to improve the EMP-resistant properties of my cybeics. When I was done with that, I moved on to the electric motors of our Vanguards and all the other internals of it. Just as inspiration struck me in an application on how to improve efficiency, several familiar faces barged into my workshop. ¡°Rollo, we¡¯re finally done decrypting the data,¡± ire said, with Leo and Lana standing behind her. I tried to pretend I didn¡¯t hear her, hoping she woulde backter and continued working on the motor. ¡°Rollo, Rollo. Mr. Halls! Wake up!¡± She started grabbing my shoulders and shaking me around, so I no longer had a choice. Sigh¡­ ¡°Yes, I¡¯m listening. What did you guys find?¡± ¡°So you were listening, huh?¡± ¡°...I¡¯m sorry for ignoring you. I was busy, but I can no longer focus now, so go ahead. You have my attention.¡± ire smirked, and she looked back toward Lana, who stepped forward as Leo gave her a slight push. ¡°We found detailed records of all their business activities: function, schedules, contacts, locations, everything.¡± ¡°Sure, but it¡¯s been a week. The remnants must be fighting over these things, and some of it may have changed by now.¡± ¡°Some of them, yes. But the majority of it should be left untouched. They shouldn¡¯t be stupid enough to affect their profit-making businesses with their squabble. After all, profits are what they¡¯re fighting for.¡± ¡°So, what do you rmend we do?¡± This time, Leo responded. ¡°Before we say anything, take a look at the files first.¡± He sent me arge file, which was transferred over to my handheld terminal to examine. Inside were all the business activities the gang did. From drugs, prostitution, racketeering, kidnapping, and much more. It even had a list of people they held captive or kept around for theirbor as if they were ves. ¡°This is a lot, but if we steal from them, we¡¯re going to be theirmon enemy.¡± ¡°We weren¡¯t thinking of that. You were always worried about how they may still retaliate after their war settles, right?¡± ire replied. ¡°If we go after these businesses and dissolve them instead, there wouldn¡¯t be anything left for them to fight for. Then their entire gang will crumble and be absorbed by others, effectively destroying the Rust Scrappers for good.¡± The three of them gave me a knowing smile. ¡°You guys want me to help these people who are their victims?¡± ¡°Just an added bonus along the way of removing the threats. We thought it was something you would want to do.¡± Leo winked. When did I give off the impression that I want to help people? I thought I made it clear that I was in it for the profits. They weren¡¯t wrong that I don¡¯t mind if I could save people along the way, as long as I don¡¯t lose anything doing so. ¡°Plus, this can serve as a training exercise for your new hires and that new team you guys are putting together,¡± ire added. ¡°...Let me go ask Thorne and Flo if they are even ready for an operation so soon. I¡¯d rather not have to find recements and restart training if they get zeroed.¡± And thepensation, can¡¯t forget thepensation I will have to pay if they get hurt or die on the job. The Rollo in the past, you should¡¯ve set thepensation to be lower. Why were you so stupid?
Andrew - Halls Corporation ¡°Peng, you got in my way again. How many times do I have to tell you to push in and side off to the side as fast as you can?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry Andrew, Peng will try to remember that for the next time.¡± ¡°Goddamnit, it¡¯s been the¡ª¡± ¡°Drop it, Andrew. You guys are still new, there¡¯s no rush,¡± therge woman with cybeic arms strode in and chided. ¡°You mercs should know danger could be lurking anywhere. To survive, we have to learn and adapt as fast as possible. This has been the eleventh time we had to repeat your training exercise!¡± ¡°What did I tell you to refer to me as?¡± She red. Andrew unconsciously took a step back and gulped. ¡°...Instructor Flo.¡± ¡°Good. Now get back there and redo the exercise with your team. You¡¯re causing issues, not just to Peng, when all you do isin. Remember, you have other members on your team as well. We may train with interchangeability of members in mind, but that doesn¡¯t mean you should ignore them.¡± Knowing when to take an L is a key part of survival. But just you wait, I¡¯ll be sure to get back at you. ¡°Yes, instructor Flo,¡± Andrew replied. The two obediently went back to the entrance with their team and readied themselves for another attempt. Once the course was reset, they were the first two to rush in. They posted up against the front door to the building as their two other team members followed. Andrew then tapped Peng on the shoulders, signaling that he was in position. Peng held up a fist to his team before he shield-bashed the door down. Andrew quickly followed him in and shot at the defending team while hiding his body behind Peng¡¯s shield as much as possible. They kept moving forward the entire time to create space for the two teammates behind them. ¡°Behind us!¡± the team member protecting their nk shouted. Andrew ducked behind the shield and turned back to see the red contours through the walls, back out where they came in from. He aimed and fired his rifle at the highlighted enemies. There was no damage to the walls as the virtual bullet traversed it and pinged the target on the other side. Having been shot, they instantly stopped shooting and moved out of the course. The virtual system urately simted the firearm physics, so he knew if this was a real engagement, his bullet would¡¯ve prated through the walls and hit his targets. Fights would¡¯ve been so much easier if I had this tech back when we were fighting other gang members. ¡°Gather up, I have an announcement to make,¡± Flo, our instructor, immediately yelled out as soon as the training exercise was over. ¡°You guys are still pathetic in my eyes, but tomorrow, we will be going out on a live operation.¡± He exchanged looks with Peng, only to find him staring nkly at the speaker, so he nced over at his other two teammates. There were also people from the other teams, but he hadn¡¯t spoken to any of them yet. ¡°You people will hear the details tomorrow. You¡¯re all dismissed for now.¡± ¡°Peng is hungry. Can we go eat, Andrew?¡± ¡°...Sure.¡± Just as he began to walk away, a voice called out from behind. ¡°Wait! Can we join you guys?¡± He turned and identified the speakers as his teammates. He hadn¡¯t taken any interest in them, but if they were going to be fighting together tomorrow, he thought it wouldn¡¯t hurt to at least get to know their names. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go errr¡­¡± ¡°...He¡¯s Brian and I¡¯m Mark. How long have we been training together again?¡± The taller of the two stepped forward and replied. They were both pretty muscr for being barely twenty. It was enough to tell him they had a good upbringing and were actually fed, unlike him and his childhood friend. ¡°Let¡¯s talk at the restaurant, Brian and Mark. You don¡¯t want to see Peng throwing a tantrum when he gets too hungry.¡± ¡°...¡±
Andrew - Halls Corporation ¡°You boys look sleepy. Are you sure you guys are ready for some action?¡± Flo said, right after they had assembled. ¡°Yes, mam!¡± Everyone saluted and responded in unison. They were experienced enough to know the repercussions if they didn¡¯t, and it almost came reflexively to them now. ¡°Well, suit yourselves. The operation today may get violent, you have been warned. The two teams are being split, and here are the dossiers with everything you need to know. No one else will be giving you a hand, so you¡¯re all on your own.¡± They all continued to stand at attention until Flo waspletely gone from the room. As soon as she left, everyone collectively let out a sigh of relief as they split off to go over their own mission details. Andrew and his two other team members read the terminal together while Peng yed around with his tower shield. After agreeing on a n, they got into an unmarked van and moved out. For this operation, they wouldn¡¯t be using their Vanguards so they could stay incognito. The team parked in a small street near their objective, a rundown part of town that was just outside of the Neon District. They all left the car, as it wouldn¡¯t be necessary for the rest of the n. There was no way for them to escape with the captives without neutralizing all the enemies in the area, not safely at least. The early morning streets were mostly deserted. The GPS on their optics quickly found the address their instructor had provided them with. ¡°Remember, no stealth tech. We don¡¯t want anyone to think we¡¯re from a corp.¡± ¡°Peng remembers.¡± I¡¯ll give it a 50/50 that he will actually remember. ¡°Okay. Just like training now. Peng, you got the lead.¡± Peng nodded and started moving into the back alley of themercial unit that was their target. Hisrge figure lugging around a tower shield meant that it was only a matter of time before they would be spotted, so speed was their priority here. Andrew watched as therge figure of Peng charged at the back door and mmed his shield into it, just like in training. The flimsy door came off at the hinges, and the team quickly filed in behind him. Inside were empty hallways, but they didn¡¯t dawdle, and started clearing the rooms. They had Brian in the back, holding the hallway, while Peng and Andrew charged into the closest room. Andrew found several people with tattoos that matched the ones he had seen from the dossier and wearing red, the signature color of the Rust Scrappers. ¡°What is with all the noise? Who the fu¡ª¡± One of the men nursing a headache was about to reach for his gun, so he fired. Peng took that as the signal to go wild and mmed his shield at the closest gang member who was just rousing. Hearing the firefight, the fourth member of the team, Mark, who acted as the flexible rotator, immediately came to back the two of them up. It couldn¡¯t even be called a fight, as they were caught solely unprepared and quickly sumbed to the surprise attack. It was only when they finished clearing the room that Brian called out to them about the others in the building who had woken up and were on their way. The team quickly retreated into the narrow hallways and had Peng move to the front with his shield. Bullets bounced off his shield, holding them back, as Andrew prepared a surprise for them. He hefted up thepany-supplied grenadeuncher and shot it down the hallway at his foes. He shot another one for good measure before his team started advancing on the enemy, who were all either injured or taking cover. Weak, just too weak. We were weak gang members, just like them not too long ago. I really should make use of that employee discount to chrome us up. You never know when a corp would throw you away, after all. Chapter 69: Initiative Chapter 69: Initiative ¡°That¡¯s it, right there,¡± Thorne pointed toward a in-looking warehouse alongside many others in this industrial district. We drove by slowly in an unmarked car. We then got the camera feed opened up on my optics. The camera panned around the interior of the warehouse. ¡°Sir, we found the captives in an underground area, modified to be a prison,¡± a voice spoke from right above the camera. It then pointed at some shelves, where they found a hidden passageway that led down into a basement. At the bottom was a metal bunker door, the type that opened by spinning the wheel attached. Immediately upon entering, you could find a spacious area upied by several desks, neatly lined up to each other. There was a chaotic scene that wasid out before the camera, with blood and bodies scattered around. The equipment seen easily gave away the fact this was a chemical production area of some sort. ¡°We found fifty kilograms of pure Nectar here and captives further down,¡± the cameraman informed us. ¡°What do you want to do with the Nectar, Rollo?¡± Thorne turned to me and asked. ¡°Destroy it. That stuff is too addictive and destructive. It¡¯s better off gone.¡± ¡°Are you sure? That¡¯s worth millions in credits.¡±¡°Yes. I¡¯d rather no corpe looking for the source of the stuff that is killing their employees. Burn it all.¡± ¡°Right.¡± The camera continued, going further into the basement, where the cells were. We soon spotted several other members of our security with a bunch of people in rags beside them. They were all sitting on the ground, huddled together. There were about twenty of them and consisted mostly of women and children, with a few muscr men at the front who protectively shielded theirpanions. ¡°These prisoners are malnourished and are on guard against us. What do you wish to do with them?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°Just let them go, of course.¡± ¡°But they still have very chips in them. Others could easily restrain them if they just get released into the city like this.¡± Thinking back to the time when I initially met Thorne and ire. I did have to disable the remote activation linked to their chip before we freed them. ¡°Then we can bring them back to the clinic to remove those first.¡± Charity work¡­Maybe I should have sold off their drugs or something. We watched as the former prisoners had to be ushered into our vehicles in separate groups. While they were hesitant, they still obeyed us meekly, likely out of habit. ¡°Let¡¯s go too. I¡¯ll help out with the surgeries.¡± When we got to the clinic and entered the operating room we had reserved for our neers, an awkward stand-off was taking ce. ¡°No, we refuse to go through any surgery. You¡¯re not putting any of us under. Who knows what you sick corpos will do to us with your crazy experiments?¡± One of the muscr men argued with the surgeon assigned to help them. ¡°We¡¯re here with orders to help you remove those ve chips you have imnted. You can stand by and watch the entire process if you want.¡± ¡°No means no. Let us go already if you want to help us.¡± ¡°That will just¡ª¡± ¡°Enough,¡± I cleared my throat and dered. The surgeon and the security in the room turned to address me while the newly freed prisoners quieted down and stared daggers at me. ¡°You¡¯re in charge, right? Tell us what you want with us. We just want to leave, please let us go.¡± ¡°Rx, we¡¯re not here to harm you. We really just want to help you remove the chips in your heads, and then you can be on your way.¡± ¡°No way we¡¯re letting you corpos operate on us ever again!¡± ¡°Consider it for a moment. You currently have nothing and, frankly, are worth nothing to us. We¡¯re interrupting our business by reserving this room for you guys. We have no reason to harm you.¡± ¡°Enough with your talking, you¡ª¡± The man stopped mid-sentence as one of the women behind him grabbed his arm. ¡°He¡¯s right. And we really still do have those chips inside us. We don¡¯t have anything valuable to pay for someone else to help us if we leave. Why don¡¯t we take their offer? They did say they are letting us all stand watch as they operated.¡± She turned her gaze to me, to which I nodded. The man stared down at his feet and stayed silent. The rest of them exchanged nods and soon, the woman who spoke out stepped forward toward the operating table. ¡°Allow me to go first.¡±
ire - Halls Corporation ¡°Madam ire, where are you going?¡± ire turned to see her assistant rushing to catch up. ¡°I have something to discuss with Rollo. You go finish off those paperwork waiting for me and I¡¯ll check them over after.¡± ¡°I¡ª¡± Opting to continue the conversation no further, she quickly got on the elevator and pushed the button. She got off and navigated through the hallways until she reached Rollo¡¯s workshop. She knocked, but as she expected, he didn¡¯t respond. Using her own keycard, she forced the door open and found Rollo entirely absorbed with the car parts that were half disassembled. ¡°Hello? Earth to Rollo. Please respond.¡± It took ire shaking his shoulders violently to grab his attention away from his work. ¡°ire, what do you want? I¡¯m kind of busy right now.¡± ¡°We all are, so let¡¯s make it quick. I need you to sign off on a budget for me to hire more people.¡± ¡°Sure, send me and file and I¡¯ll sign it.¡± He signed it so fast she could tell he only skimmed the numbers without looking at any of the details. ¡°Oh, if you¡¯re hiring more people, then help me find some for our R&D department,¡± He continued. ¡°We have one of those? Howe I didn¡¯t know that? Where are they?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t¡­Well, we do, but it¡¯s just me right now. That¡¯s why I need you to hire someone for this car project I have going. I can cover the electrical and software, but we¡¯ll need assistants and someonepetent in mechanical engineering and material science, at the very least.¡± ¡°Rollo, you know that all the talented people have all been snapped up by corporations or go to their schools originally, right? I can do something about the assistants, but you¡¯ll have to somehow find the cream of the crop that doesn¡¯t have a corpo background for your experts. Even if you do find some, you may have to invest in their training and studies to get them up to standard.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­You deal with the assistants, then. I¡¯ll call up an old friend to see what he can do.¡± Always casually sending more work my way¡­Whatever. ¡°Hi, Mr. Torres. It¡¯s been a while since west spoke. I actually wanted to ask you about¡­¡± He started talking to the person on the other end of his call. Having gotten what she had wanted, and seeing how Rollo no longer paid her any attention, she exited the workshop and traveled back to the top floor, where her office was. Just as she was about to enter her office, she quickly changed her mind and took a few steps to the room a few paces away. She knocked on the ss divider before immediately entering Thorne¡¯s office. ¡°Hey, Thorne. You busy right now?¡± ¡°I can talk. What¡¯s up?¡± He gave me a brief nce before his focus returned to the terminal in front of him. ¡°I got my budget approved just now. Do you have anyone suitable for the new department I¡¯m setting up?¡± He raised his eyebrow and looked up again, with his full attention this time. ¡°What did Rollo say?¡± ¡°Him? Nothing. He was too busy in his workshop.¡± ¡°...Just let him know soon. He usually has some good input on how to go about these things.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. So anyway, do you have anyone suitable for me?¡± ¡°Not really, we¡¯re expanding a lot too right now. But I do know of someone who may be well-suited for what you¡¯re looking for. They¡¯re being transferred from Firebird to here now, since we got someone more suitable for her role there.¡± ¡°Are you serious Thorne? I want professionals. Why are you handing me the leftovers?¡± ¡°They¡¯re just not suitable for managing the business side at the scale of an entire branch. She should be useful to you as a former mercenary.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be the judge of that. Spit out who it is already and where I can find them. I¡¯ll go see them.¡± ¡°Here.¡± Thorne sent a ping to her SAID with the relevant file. ire quickly exited his office and went to find the person in question. They were in one of the office spaces downstairs, in an area that was vacant until recently, as she was a neer to this city. Searching around for a while, she sessfully found the correct desk thanks to the projected namete, disying the name Lucy Goodwin. She waited around at the desk for another fifteen minutes until a woman finally approached. ¡°Lucy, right? I¡¯m ire.¡± ¡°The head of HR¡­? ¡­How can I help you?¡± Lucy¡¯s attempts at hiding her nervousness failed miserably, but ire continued on for the sake of progressing the conversation. ¡°How would you like to join the new department I¡¯m forming?¡± She stared nkly for a second before wearing a suspicious look. ¡°For what kind of position?¡± ¡°Management. Here, I sent you a file with the key points. Read it while you follow me. We¡¯ve got a lot to do.¡± Seeing her eyes had taken on a glow, ire dragged the woman back to her office. We¡¯ll have to make do with my room for now until the new department gets its own workspace. By the time they arrived, Lucy had finished reading over the document, so ire went straight into exining their short-term goal and what was to be expected. ¡°So, you have the overview of the objective listed, but what about the action n?¡± Lucy asked. ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯ll be discussing now.¡±
¡°Mr. Torres, it is so good to see you again,¡± I said, as shook the old man¡¯s hand. ¡°Mr. Halls¡­You sure have changed quite a bit since youst visited our school. Here is the information you asked for.¡± He spoke in a much nicer tone than what I had remembered when I came here for my medical license. ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll send the credits over now.¡± He pinged my SAID with arge file transfer, which I epted. Within the file were detailed records of all students at his university. It wasn¡¯t just their grades and profiles, it even had recordings of their everyday life throughout the campus. I guess you could build an urate profile of someone if you monitored them 24/7. Especially if you ignored the right to their privacy¡­ ¡°I will go over this and contact you at ater date before I approach any of your students. Thanks, I¡¯ll see you soon.¡± ¡°Understood. Please take care.¡± There was just too much for me to go through alone. Thankfully, I had people who could support me. When I returned to the office, I went straight to ire¡¯s office, so I could drop it off for her and her two cy-sec teachers to deal with it. ¡°Hey, ire¡ª¡± I paused, as I spotted another person in the office with her. She looked really familiar, but I couldn¡¯t put a name to the face right away. She immediately stood up and saluted, ¡°Sir.¡± Someone from the security team? ¡°You came just at the right time, Rollo. Oh, and this is Lucy. She was managing our Firebird branch until recently.¡± Oh¡­That one I left in charge before I left Firebird. I hadn¡¯t talked to her since, as Vin usually took care of all the matters between the NLA-Firebird route. ¡°Hi again, thank you for taking care of our branch there until now. And ire, what did Ie at the perfect time for?¡± ¡°We were just about to finalize our n to set up our own intelligence department and were about to present it to you.¡± ¡°When were we setting up an intelligence department? Howe I didn¡¯t know about it?¡± ¡°You approved the budget earlier, and we were about to consult you on it. Here, take a look at what we¡¯vee up with so far.¡± For the second time in the hour, anotherrge file was pinged to my SAID. Chapter 70: Outing Chapter 70: Outing I reviewed the file ire sent me as she and Lucy talked quietly in the background. Their idea of an intelligence agency wasn¡¯t what you¡¯d see in movies with the operatives and thrilling espionage, but much more practical which I favored. They nned to create a mobile app that was tentatively a game and targeted to the general public. In doing so, they would gain ess to thousands of people¡¯s messages and mine data from them. I¡¯m sure the powerful corporations could already do this by simply brute forcing into theworks or bribing the telmunicationpanies. Neither of those options was viable to us, as we were too small. ¡°Did you finish going over it?¡± ire asked as soon as I turned off the disy on my optics. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a pretty good n,ing from you.¡± ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°Nothing. Anyway, a few things. Your n entirely relies on the fact that people will use our app in droves. How are you going to ensure that?¡± ¡°Make the best app we can, at low prices.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s say you do. But in the first ce, do you even know the size of your target market, which are the people who often y games?¡±¡°A lot? Definitely enough for our needs to collect information.¡± ¡°Maybe, but I think we should go into something with a bigger market. How about inmunications?¡± ¡°Communications? There¡¯s like a million different ones already.¡± ¡°Yeah, but they¡¯re all costly to use. The corporations are squeezing as much as they can from the popce while corpos use their own internal solutions like us. We should make a free¡­no, low-price messaging app.¡± If we did free, it would only intensify the general public¡¯s suspicions of the goal of the corporation. If we lowered the price instead, they may think it¡¯s simply a price war between corps. ¡°You¡¯re going to need to invest quite a bit to set up the server infrastructure.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no time like now to get started. Call Leo and Lana, we¡¯ll want their input.¡±
We ended up deciding to finish the project to build ourpany dorms first before we constructed a server for our app idea. In the meantime, I began developing the basic foundation for the app with ire, while also working on the electric vehicles. I was only able to spare time on both projects now thanks to all the new hires we had at our new R&D department. Nothing felt better than handing off all the tedious work and calctions to others, allowing me to focus on only the important bits. We were so close to getting it the way I wanted, but a few bottlenecks inevitably appeared during development for both projects. Even if wepleted them, we wouldn¡¯t be able to proceed without the server room for the app and expanding our salvage operation to acquire materials for the vehicles. That¡¯s why I decided to fly off to NLA once more. While I would oversee the expansion project, the main objective of the trip was to level up in the wastnds. I had learned my lesson. Targeting others, regardless if they were lowlives or not, would entice retaliation. They weren¡¯t well equipped or very smart about it, but they¡¯ll find a way, and it would be annoying to deal with. My businesses were going on track and any potential disruption would dy us. That was why I decided to hunt the mindless beasts of the wastnd instead. For that purpose, I only brought a small team of elites with me, which only consisted of Thorne and two new recruits who had been performing well. Vin and the new administrative manager of NLA greeted us at the airport. ¡°Wee back again. It¡¯s been over a month, but it just felt like yesterday that you left,¡± Vin said. ¡°Yeah, but we¡¯ll be mostly staying in the wastnd this time. Probably bring a few extra things with us to leave in the outpost, and onlye back out every few days to a week. ¡°...You sure you canst so long out there without ess to showers and good food?¡± ¡°...Sure.¡± That night, I took us out to the best restaurant that hadst-minute avability and pigged out.
¡°So this is the wastnd¡­¡± I heard the guard driving, mutter. ¡°Peng has never seen such a massive storm before. Peng wants to go explore.¡± ¡°Peng, I told you to shut up unless we were talked to. Sorry boss, he¡¯s a little awkward.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯ll be boring for us all without having some conversation. Isn¡¯t that right, Thorne?¡± ¡°Yeah, traveling in the wastnd is a boring experience. The scenery is repetitive, and the only thing to look at is the navigation screens, lest we go off course.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I picked a ruin that wasn¡¯t that far from our outpost and also had quite a few mutants to entertain ourselves with.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure I share the same view on fighting mutants as you, boss¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s normal to be nervous doing something you¡¯re not familiar with. You¡¯ll get used to it during this trip.¡± Slightly more than thirty minutes of driving away from our outpost, we soon arrived at the ruin in question. We had scouted out the area before when we were looking for mutants for ¡®Desire Corp¡¯ to capture. This was an older area that had been picked clean already, so few people frequented the area. We found a ce to park in the ruins and set up the car¡¯s turret to automatically defend this location. It was easy to rig together, as it was simply the same working principle as the turrets that defended our clinic. The two guards, Peng and Andrew, apanied Thorne and me into one of the derelict skyscrapers. It was literally empty inside, but the people of old seemed to like their underground facilities because this one apparently connected to the undergroundwork that covered the majority of this deserted town. Unlike the previous ones I¡¯ve been to, this one was a bit icky, though. Water leaked into the underground paths that filled it with puddles every few meters. We didn¡¯t even make two steps before something burst out of the water toward us. Thorne¡¯s figure blurred, and the next thing we saw was him pinning a crocodile-like mutant down. The mutant had longer limbs which made it stand tall, at the perfect height to take a bite at our throats. It had dangerous-looking ws as well as a spiked tail. It thrashed about, trying to break free, only to be shoved violently into the ground. I pulled out my railgun and ended its struggles. +10 EXP We continued forward, much more cautious of the murky puddles than before. While the three of us who weren¡¯t cyborgs that possessed lightning-fast reactions and speed, Peng, with his shield, was able to halt any attacking mutants for us to finish off. ¡°Yuck, are we looking for something down here, boss?¡± The guard, Andrew, asked as he brushed off the mutant bloodstains on his clothes. ¡°Think of this as a research trip. We find mutants, kill them, and scan them.¡± I had to put on a show of doing something, as we were only here to kill mutants. ¡°Peng is hungry,¡± therge man said as he stared at the corpses of the crocodiles. ¡°Peng, shut up. I don¡¯t think those are even edible¡­right?¡± ¡°Yeah, unless you put them through a protein extractor.¡± ¡°There you have it, Peng,¡± He shrugged. We continued our hunt and went further into the basement maze. We moved slowly, so our optics had a chance to scan our surroundings. ¡°There¡¯s like half a dozen in there,¡± I pointed toward the corner that was likely a former retail store of some kind. The four of us aimed our weapons at the threat and fired at them before they could spring their ambush on us. +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP I should¡¯ve done this more often. It was a pain to head out into the wastnd, but it was a way more suitable ce to grind experience points. Just as we began moving again, the earth suddenly shook. ¡°Earthquake! Don¡¯t get split up. Everyone, stay close!¡± The rumble of the ground slowly intensified as we all held onto the walls to keep our bnce. As it grew stronger, we decided to lie prone on the ground, shoulder to shoulder. It shook for a full minute before it finally subsided. We stayed on the ground for a little longer, mindful of any aftershocks. After a while, we stood back up and dusted ourselves off. ¡°Rollo, look!¡± I turn toward where Thorne was pointing, to find the store where we finished off the mutants was now gone. Gone as in the entire floor of the store gave out, and only a hole in the ground remained. I got a closer look at what was down there, but I couldn¡¯t see the bottom of it. ¡°This goes really deep. We should get out of here before the ground beneath us crumbles too.¡± We regrouped by our car and ventured only on the ground level instead for the remainder of our outing. Once sunset drew near, we returned to our wastnd outpost. We pulled up to the spacious garage that had dozens of Vanguards parked inside. There was an open area off to the side where vehicles were being worked on. The outpost hade a long way from when it was just a hole in the cliff. We used the extra scrap metal for construction materials and created an entire facility that could hold a hundred people for a long time. There weren¡¯t that many people here, though. Only about two dozen that rotated their use of the base. My other job while I was here was to oversee the expansion. That¡¯s why when we returned, I quickly went to see the basemander after cleaning myself up. It sucks I can¡¯t shower, but at least I can wipe myself off with a wet towel. ¡°How is it going, Anders?¡± ¡°Sir, we are currently recruiting personnel and training them in rotation. The only issue we¡¯re having is the vehicles. We¡¯re spending more time than expected on maintenance, and we need more trucks if we want to significantly increase our capacity.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll let procurement know. The sooner we get this started, the sooner we should be able to produce our own vehicles and parts.¡± ¡°...Sir, regarding that¡­ It¡¯ll be difficult to upkeep a high level of materials that fit the quality we¡¯re looking for. It¡¯s not as simple as just getting more people and trucks to ship out more materials. The method of scavenging we¡¯ve been using won¡¯t be able to provide enough quantity, consistently.¡± ¡°Did you have a suggestion?¡± ¡°We follow what other corporations do, we find ores to mine or take it from someone else.¡± ¡°You want us to attack another corp for their mine? I don¡¯t think we can handle the heat thates along with it.¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s either that or we find a mine¡­It¡¯ll take some expensive prospecting equipment to work in the wastnd. Even then, we¡¯ll need a lot of time and luck to find one, though.¡± ¡°I see, thank you, Anders. I¡¯ll think about it. You continue on with your work.¡± Now then, how am I going to get us an entire mine? Chapter 71: Day Off Chapter 71: Day Off ¡°Hi, can I get a cao-free chocte milkshake?¡± I asked the teenager behind the cashier. ¡°Yes, just a moment, sir. That will be¡­errr, 9.62 credits.¡± I watched as he fumbled his job, likely the first day on the job. When he finally entered my order into the terminal, his co-worker had already finished making my drink. I walked back to the seat near the front entrance and sat on the opposite side of the table from Thorne, who was munching away at some fried crickets. He nodded at me before his eyes took on a glow once more, probably watching some video. As for me, I enjoyed my milkshake while I people-watched. On my right was the window that showed streams of people going about their day on the other side. To my left was the fast-food joint where people lined up for their orders. We had stayed in the wastnd for a full week before we couldn¡¯t handle it anymore. My hair felt gross no matter how much wiping I had done. The field rations we had to eat weren¡¯t any better at keeping my sanity, either. Thest straw was theck of web connection. I had only downloaded so many shows and books before I ran out. As a modern person, every day disconnected from the web was torture. That was why we decided to take a two-day break back in NLA. I had gotten tired of doing nothing but hunting mutants through all the sand and dusty buildings. I took advantage of this time to check out the prospecting equipment we needed for our resources problem, but they were all rented out with none avable. After the war out in space, the spacers were hogging all the materials they usually sold to Earth in order to rebuild, or so they say. This made all the middle or lower-tier corporations urgently look for alternatives, such as mines, to keep up their profits. With no other option in sight, I had given up for now while I did some shopping as a rxing activity, yet there wasn¡¯t anything I found interesting. Clothes were great and all, but I only needed so many sets before they just took up space. In the first ce, I always wore my armor overtop anyway, so fashion didn¡¯t really matter too much as long as I was presentable. The only time I wore armor underneath was when I had to dress in my business suits for official meetings. Armor was just that mandatory when living in this world. Who knew when¡ª A gunshot suddenly rang out within the line for food. ¡°Everybody hands up! Hand over every single credit you have right now if you want to live!¡± I watched as a duo, a man and a woman, raised their guns up to the cashier and the people around. It didn¡¯t take long for the crowd to realize what was happening, and they all dispersed like the wind. The duo seemed to have given up on the people running and focused on the cashiers instead. I watched as my optics highlighted one of the employees at the back, drawing out their own weapon while hiding behind the fryer. Is it exactly these everyday urrences that make armor so important whenever I go¡­ I looked up to Thorne, who was still munching on his snacks as he watched on. ¡°You want to handle this, or should I?¡± ¡°Those two are cute. You go ahead if you want,¡± He replied. I took onest big sip of my milkshake before cing it down. For these amateurs, I didn¡¯t even need to use active camouge to sneak up on them. I silently walked up to them, making use of their blind spots, and gestured to the employees in the back to stay put. I tapped on the shoulder of the man, who was still yelling at the poor employees out front to transfer all their credits to him. ¡°Hey, you know there are better ways to make money, right?¡± He jumped at my voice before quickly turning toward me. ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡± ¡°Calm down, I¡¯m¡ª¡± Mid-sentence, he tried to raise his gun toward me. I quickly gripped his wrist while it was in motion and pushed it to the side. He struggled to break free, but my Nova Tech cyberarms weren¡¯t a joke. His partner finally reacted as she heard the scream of pain and attempted to point her gun at me too. I shoved the man in front of me, as my human shield, and closed the distance to the second assant. She wasn¡¯t that bad after all, as she hesitated to pull the trigger. It also allowed me to ram into her with her friend, knocking the wind out of the woman. While they were groaning in pain and squirming on the ground, I took the liberty of picking up their weapons and unloaded both of them. I then ced it on the counter where the employees stood nkly, watching the scene unfold. I spotted the employee who had the firearm earlier and gave him a nod to reassure him. Seeing how the police were probably on their way, I returned to Thorne and picked up my milkshake. It¡¯s a little annoying how it¡¯s slightly melted now, but that¡¯s just how life is. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Thorne took a moment to finish chewing before responding, ¡°Where to?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s check out the racetrack again.¡± We got back into our car and made our way to the racetrack I went with Vin previously. Just likest time, the clientele around our seating area were all wealthy-looking corpos. We watched the electric cars belowplete their warmupps before they began the race for real. Now that I had more points in electrical engineering, my urge to closely examine those machines only deepened. Just from the sound alone, there were many ideas I wanted to confirm by looking under their hood. There were races every thirty minutes, and we had arrived just in time for the start of one. We nned to stay for a while as there wasn¡¯t anything we wanted to do instead. If we just went back, we would¡¯ve wasted it by either watching videos or going to the gun range. We could do those things at the outpost too, so we would stay for the next race as well. Just as the first race ended, a voice called out to me from behind. ¡°Rollo, fancy seeing you here again.¡± I turned around to the aisle in the back and found a bald man standing there, surrounded by his bodyguards. I stood up and approached, shaking his hands. ¡°Joey, what a coincidence.¡± ¡°Haha, it¡¯s fairly easy to find me here, as it is one of my few hobbies outside of fine dining. Please, join me.¡± We moved seats to join Joey and conversed with him while we waited for the next race to begin. ¡°I heard your business was expanding again. How great,¡± Joey said as he took a sip of wine. ¡°You are very well-informed, I see.¡± ¡°Ha, words travel fast in our circles. You shouldwork more with other corporations. It may be a give-and-take rtionship most of the time, but there¡¯s a lot of useful information to be gained.¡± ¡°Maybe, I just haven¡¯t gotten a chance towork as thoroughly as I liked.¡± ¡°Then why don¡¯t you join the party I¡¯m holding at my estate at the end of this month? I don¡¯t mind introducing you, though. You¡¯ll have to be mindful lest you get taken advantage of.¡± A chance to connect¡­Why not? ¡°That is¡­very generous of you. Don¡¯t mind if I do ept your offer.¡± ¡°Great, I¡¯ll send you the information soon.¡± He moved on to discuss the issues he had been facing at work with his employees and how hispany, Authentic Corp, was doing. The point he kept returning to was how the price of operating was increasing too quickly, and the price of food only ever rose, as well. ¡°Why don¡¯t you join me for some food after this, Rollo?¡± The first thing that came to mind at his words was the delicious steak I had thest time he took me to his restaurant. My bodily urges were simply too strong. ¡°Sure.¡±
¡°Hey ire, how¡¯s it going?¡± I said, over the video call disyed directly on my optics. ¡°Busy as ever, since you boys are cking off!¡± ¡°Haha,e on. Someone has to be here to oversee the expansion and production of our vehicles.¡± ¡°And someone has to guard Rollo, since he¡¯s always getting into trouble,¡± Thorne added. ¡°And what is this I¡¯m hearing about you guys taking on gigs again?¡± ¡°...We wanted to blow off some steam. Nothing intense, just a rxation mission. You do not know how hard it is to live away from civilization for an entire week.¡± ¡°Whatever you say, I¡¯m done talking. Unlike you guys, I still have a lot of things to do.¡± She hung as and the two of us could only shrug at her antics. We resumed going over our equipment while we sat in the car and prepared for our mission. We had another day off and we already exhausted all the recreational activities we had in mind, so we decided to take an easy gig from a local QG to keep our skills sharp. Hunting mutants did that as well, but fighting against mindless beasts waspletely different from sneaking around humans or fighting them head-on. I re-donned the outfit I wore during my tenure as ¡®Cloak¡¯ and went by the same name when I had approached the QG. Once I was ready, I inspected Thorne, who wore nondescript, jet-ck gear. ¡°We simply going to install a virus on the terminal of some grunt-level employee and, if possible, on the person himself. That means we want to be quiet the entire you, so you stay by the door as our contingency while I take care of the sneaking.¡± ¡°Right, I get the boring role,¡± Thorneined. ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re the right fit when a delicate touch is needed here¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, fine. I understand, but next time I get to pick the job.¡± ¡°Sure. Why not? As long as it isn¡¯t anything risky and doesn¡¯t involve sand and mutants, I¡¯m down.¡± We headed for the megabuilding that had a familiaryout. In fact, I think almost all megabuildings had the sameyout. It was simply cheaper to use a design that was already proven to work, I guess. The two of us used our Shades to project the image of a normal-looking civilian as we headed for the elevators. We walked by families and their children, gang-affiliated ruffians, and regr corpos who all shared the building. Arriving on the 28th floor where our target lived, we moved immediately, as we knew where the regr ess points were. I breached into the flimsywork and gained control of the cameras and shared the feed with Thorne, who was on lookout duty. The door to our target¡¯s unit had the ess panel wide open right there, and it was just almost too easypared to all the other facilities I had to break into. The door soon clicked unlocked, and I slowly eased it open. The lights were already out, and my optics automatically kicked into night vision. I took a cursory nce around the living room before I made my way into the only bedroom in the apartment. Unlike the living room, the lights in the bedroom were on. I activated my active camouge before I quietly entered. Inside, I saw a skinny man seated at his desk conversing with someone over his SAID. ¡°How much longer do you think this¡¯ll take? I can¡¯t believe Malcolm would give us such a tedious task¡­¡± As the man continued toin, I moved closer and jacked into the terminal beside him. He lookedpletely engrossed in whatever he was doing in his optics, so I took the chance and brushed my cyberarm as close to the neural port in his wrist as possible. The Nova Tech Hercule had both great strength and utility, with dozens of useful gadgets at my disposal. I could even gain ess to connections like this using its close-range wireless transceiver. I quickly uploaded the virus I got from the client into his SAID and made my way out. With ess to his system now, I could even eavesdrop on his conversation. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not even sure if any of these listings are real. The bottles we¡¯re looking for are probably extinct by now. We should look for another gift to please that Ophelia bitch from Airo Tech, or some other way to win the contract.¡± I was sure the client had ess to his cybeic systems too, and could see my ess, so I quickly logged out and took my exit. Now then, a party to go to at the end of the month, and I still needed to find a way to find a mine or some other alternative for materials too. Have I be a workaholic, only takingfort when I¡¯m busying away¡­? Chapter 72: Party Chapter 72: Party I sat in the backseat of a Vanguard and rested my eyes while we were stuck in traffic. Status Level: 19 EXP: 1830/1900 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Sebastien v2 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 Cardiovascr: BioGen Lifepump 5 Misceneous: HSU Custom Shade I took a look at the results of my hard work for the past two weeks from grinding out in the wastnd. I was so close, and I would normally just take another trip to attain thatst bit of experience points, but the party I promised to attend with Joey was today. This would be my first time at arge function where numerous corpos gathered. I knew these went on often enough, but I never had the connection or time to attend any of them. I also wasn¡¯t very good at social events in general. Most corpos were trained for them their entire lives as they attended their corpo schools, so I was seriously at a disadvantage here. Maybe not exactly in negotiation, but not being able to understand the nuances and implicit rules was definitely a huge disadvantage. As we got closer, the surrounding neighborhood appeared significantly wealthier, withrge estates and fancy mansions. I double-checked my own attire so I wouldn¡¯t embarrass myself, looking over my newly bought suit just for this asion. The suit had the blue of my logo, with a white shirt and pocket square to fully represent thepany colors. ire had a field day, helping us pick it out over a call, which was frankly helpful, as fashion wasn¡¯t a subject I was well-versed in. I knew we arrived when we passed through a fancy gate that led into the garden of the estate that belonged to Joey. There were neat flowers and trees nted in the middle of the twones of traffic and at the end of it was a beautiful fountain that stood before the mansion. The architecture seemed European to me, but most things with fancy carvings did. A man with silver hair, who fit the textbook description of a butler, greeted me as I disembarked from the vehicle. ¡°Mr. Rollo Halls, I presume?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± ¡°Thank you for joining us tonight. Allow me, Tio, to guide you to our esteemed master.¡± As we walked in, I couldn¡¯t help but notice the fancy-looking cars and flying vehicles that were parked by the fountain. He led me into an open garden to the side of the house, where I could spot many well-dressed corpos and just the same number of servants frolicking around. I picked up a drink from the tray a server held as I continued to follow the butler. We walked toward the open yard where I soon heard the sound of an electric buzz, as if something short-circuited. I was soon able to spot what caused the sound as I saw a bald man with a shotgun, which was probably ancient by this world¡¯s standard, shooting drones as they zipped by. The man continued taking shots at the drones that buzzed by. Each time he pulled the trigger, another drone got shot down. There was a small crowd of spectators around him, silently watching him on as they chatted quietly. Tio, the butler, walked straight toward the man and stood a respectable distance away. When the man finally finished his shooting, he approached. ¡°Sir, your guest, Mr. Rollo Halls, has arrived.¡± The man handed his shotgun off to a person standing beside him before he turned around. ¡°Rollo! Wee, d to see you have made it.¡± ¡°Yes, thank you for inviting me, Joey,¡± I said as I shook his hand. ¡°Why don¡¯t youe with me? I¡¯ll introduce you to a few people.¡± He led me into the crowd, toward an outdoor pool surrounded by severalfy-looking outdoor sofas. Each set could easily sit a dozen people, with a ss coffee table in the middle. All the people sitting by the sofas seemed to be bigwig corpos, while they had servants waiting on them behind them. There were also a few people swimming in the pool, and they were all attractive, but they seemed to be more focused on putting on a show rather than truly enjoying themselves. We approached a group of four, three men, and one woman, who chatted away on one of the sofas. They all asionally breathed in from an oxygen mask connected to a metal box marked with SocialCorp. The entire scene was reminiscent of people smoking from a hookah. ¡°Lady and gentlemen, I hope you¡¯re all having a great time,¡± Joey said as he ced a hand on the shoulder of the man closest to him. ¡°Of course, how can we not when your Authentic Corp can serve the finest food and drinks to us,¡± the lone woman at the table replied. ¡°Ha, an honor that you think of us so highly. Allow me to introduce my friend here, Rollo Halls.¡± There was a brief pause, less than a second, before the man closest to Joey replied. ¡°The new Halls corporation, I¡¯ve heard of you. I¡¯m Fernando from Holly Corporation. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.¡± I shook his hand before I moved on to the next person who introduced themselves to me. The other two men were Malcolm from Mirage Tech, Kevin from Amazing Corp, and the woman was Ophelia from Airo Tech. They were all executives of their respective corporations, with the exception of Fernando, who was the owner¡¯s son. Joey and I sat down to join them and after answering some of the questions they had for me, they resumed their previous conversation, allowing me to take a backseat. Joey offered me the oxygen mask, and seeing the confusion on my face, he whispered to me an exnation. ¡°Cloudpuff, it¡¯s what most corpos like to use instead of alcohol. Healthier too.¡± I tried it out and got a slight buzz when I breathed it in. As I was studying this new experience, I listened in on the conversation taking ce. ¡°So anyway, Ophelia, I happened toe across the Layfit wine you were talking aboutst month. I¡¯d be honored if you epted it.¡± Fernando snapped his finger, and a woman came out of nowhere, holding a bottle of wine out to him carefully. So I guess Ophelia wasn¡¯t like most corpos, then? I watched as the face of the man named Malcolm turned red as he red at the bottle of wine. ¡°My, how thoughtful of you. I humbly ept, then. I¡¯ll be sure to put in a good word about yourpany¡¯s purchase order.¡± ¡°Thank¡ª¡± ¡°Ophelia, you can¡¯t be serious. Ourpany really needs those extra parts. Airo Tech should¡¯ve expanded their production by now with that new mine you found,¡± Malcolm interjected. ¡°I¡¯m sorry dear, yourpany isn¡¯t the only one who¡¯s in dire need of our products. I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to pay the expedition fees if your needs are truly so dire.¡± Before the conversation could heat up further, Joey took this opportune moment to insert us back into the conversation. ¡°Oh, so Airo Tech found another mine, huh? How fortuitous in these trying times, with the spacers hogging all the resources so they can recover from their war. Have you guyspleted expanding your production yet?¡± ¡°Not yet, but it will be soon. The increased wastnder activity has dyed things, unfortunately.¡± So they hit it big and found a mine, huh? Mighty confident of them to have let that news out to the public. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if other corps try to steal the mine if they find out where it is. Wait¡­If they found a mine already, will they still need their prospecting equipment? ¡°If yourpany is still busy with your new mine, would it be open to renting out their prospecting equipment?¡± I asked. ¡°Hmm¡­ If it¡¯s for a short period of time, I don¡¯t mind doing your corporation a favor.¡± ¡°That would be great. Cheers!¡± I held up my drink and toasted. A dozen servants soon came to our area and ced down tters of food. True to Authentic Corp¡¯s name, all the proteins were authentic, with real chicken and pork. Coming to this party is one of the best decisions I¡¯ve made.
I took the next day off as well because we settled on a two-day break every time we returned from the wastnd. With only the tidbit of experience points I needed, I couldn¡¯t sit still and went off first thing in the morning. While I could have gonest night, the party yesterday went prettyte, and I was honestly toozy once I changed out of my suit. I went to the areas filled with bars and clubs to search around, but I came toote, or too early, depending on how you saw it. Either way, the area was deserted, so I could only drive around town. The poorer areas were just as quiet so early in the morning as the activity during this time was all in the office areas. It took me a whole two hours before I heard gunshots while waiting at a red. I made a right and quickly chased after the source, only to witness three cars driving parallel to each other, exchanging gunfire. The cars were marked in gang signs and each represented their colors, dark yellow and neon green. Two of them belonged to the green gang, while the other belonged to the yellow one. It didn¡¯t take long before the yellow car lost control and crashed into a building, either due to damage to the vehicle or the driver. Whichever it was, the surviving party celebrated by shooting into the sky as they drove off. I followed after them and thankfully; they seemedpletely oblivious as they cheered and asionally took potshots at their surroundings. They finally stopped when they arrived at a small apartmentplex, entering into an underground parking garage. I quickly parked around the corner and infiltrated the building from the backdoor. The security of the door was close to non-existent, and I made my way straight to the basement. It wasn¡¯t hard to find my targets, as they weren¡¯t being the quietest, drinking away by the hood of their car. It seemed they had taken over a corner of the garage, setting up their own cozy little corner with couches and speakers that sted music. They only made it easier as I watched them shoot up on drugs and danced around. I turned on my active camouge and approached in a straight line. Let¡¯s get this over with. I took out my SMG that was attached to my lower back and made sure smart rounds were loaded up. Kiri, mark all my targets for me. ¡®Affirmative.¡¯ With no real threat in sight, I moved close and got on top of one of their cars. From the vantage point that I had, overseeing their entire party in the corner of the parking lot, I pulled down the trigger on my SMG. +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP I wasn¡¯t sure if there were more of them in the building, but my goal wasplete.
I spent the rest of the day in the garage of my office. I still had the Vanguard I bought that I could tinker around it. With two additional points in electrical engineering, I immediately got to work. By the time most corporate workers were well asleep, I finally emerged from the garage. I didn¡¯t emerge alone, though. I was apanied by the baby I had been working on, and Thorne who tagged along. ¡°Rollo, please tell me you didn¡¯t remove any of the safety features,¡± Thorne asked, with his cyberarms tightly gripping the seatbelts. ¡°Of course not. However, they may not help when I¡¯m testing this thing at top speed.¡± ¡°...Do you really need to push it to the limit?¡± ¡°Of course, the fastest way to test energy efficiency and the motor output.¡± ¡°And the fastest way to our deaths,¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°Right, running into bullets is fine with you, but when we go a little faster, and that¡¯s where you draw the line?¡± ¡°...Come on. Let¡¯s get this over with.¡± Chapter 73: Sand Bat Chapter 73: Sand Bat After we had our fun testing the new car, we slept in the next morning as we had to wait for Ophelia from Airo Tech to finish all the paperwork for renting their prospecting equipment. Once I woke up, I waited by fine-tuning the car until a small convoy from Airo Tech finally arrived. ¡°Ophelia, a pleasure to see you again.¡± ¡°Rollo, the pleasure is mine,¡± she replied as she shook my hand. She signaled for her people to unlock the truck, opening the back door to reveal a minivan. The vehicle itself was the prospecting equipment that was rated to work within the sandstorms of the wastnd. ¡°I¡¯m doing this as a favor for you, Rollo. Make sure you get the Sand Bat back to us in one piece next month.¡± ¡°Right, I really appreciate it.¡± I watched as they handed the vehicle over, and our employees immediately got to the handover, which included testing the vehicle out and documenting its condition. Once everything was in order, we both signed the contract and were officially given ess to the Sand Bat. The Airo Tech people swiftly left once the handover wasplete, while ours began a more thorough investigation of the vehicle. Thest thing we need is for them to include some sort of tracker with it or other surprises. It was well past lunchtime when the vehiclepleted the inspections. We immediately headed out to the wastnd and tried to make up for lost time, but the Sand Bat could only go so fast. It would be a little toote to bring it out again once we arrived at the outpost, so we settled on a regr trip to the nearby ruin. ¡°You know, Rollo, even with that giant prospecting machine, it isn¡¯t so easy finding anything useful. Otherwise, all the corps wouldn¡¯t be in such a bind,¡± Thorne said, as we drove back from our outing. ¡°It¡¯s better than not trying at all. Or would you rather we hit up a corporate-owned mine and take control of it?¡± ¡°No thanks, I¡¯d rather not fight unless victory is assured.¡± ¡°Well, then we better go over how to best make use of that thing when we get back.¡±
¡°So, what do you guys have to show after a whole week out there with your new toy?¡± ire said across the video call with a smirk. ¡°It¡¯s just the first week. We have at least three more and we are still learning how to use the Sand Bat.¡± ¡°Right, well, tell me when you guys strike gold.¡± ¡°...Sure. Anyway, how¡¯s it going back in Elevate City?¡± ¡°Just a few firefights here and there, nothing notable.¡± Thorne and I exchanged looks with raised eyebrows before he asked, ¡°bor¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s over already. Oh, there was one thing you guys should know. We started training the personnel at the clinic. Once their training isplete, we¡¯ll be sending them your way to the nned NLA clinic. Vin says he found several spots already, so you guys better find the time to hash out the details on your end before then.¡± ¡°Okay, then we¡¯re hopping off now. We¡¯re going to get a head start on that so we can get back to the wastnd on schedule.¡± ¡°See you, bye.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get into any trouble, ire,¡± Thorne added before the call disconnected. We split our tasks and Thorne went to deal with the new clinic while I went to study the mechanism of the Sand Bat. We had to do it when we were outside the wastnd or we wouldn¡¯t have any connection in there. Using the terminal in my office, I browsed through the web in search of information regarding the Amazing Tech Sand Bat. To no one¡¯s surprise, there wasn¡¯t anything useful to be found for free, especially any technical specifications. The good news, though, was that there existed paid sources that discussed the detailed specifications of the older version of the machine, with benchmarks topare to the other simr equipment in the market. After paying an amount equal to a few months¡¯ pay for most workers, I downloaded the information onto my SAID. I pulled it up in my vision and left my office to take a walk as I read. By the time I got in line at one of the nearby dessert shops, I came across the information I was looking for. I continued reading and referenced various other information online, as I sipped on my milkshake on my way back. ¡°Rollo, you didn¡¯t go check out the potential ces for the new clinic together with Thorne?¡± A voice called out as soon as I entered the office garage. I turned to see Vin, huddled with several security guards, around a Vanguard. ¡°No, I let him take charge of that while I look into the Sand Bat.¡± I resumed walking away, toward my office, and I could hear him following. ¡°How is it going on that front, then? I just got the finance boysining about the maintenance bill.¡± ¡°If you want to know the details, I found out that the Sand Bat makes use of a type of ground-prating radar that could work through the radiation of the wastnd to a certain degree. The sand, however, decreased the prating range by quite a bit.¡± ¡°...And how does that help us?¡± That is the question I have been pondering my entire way back. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to tell you, but the entire wastnd is filled with sand,¡± He continued. That isn¡¯t true¡­ Our outposts, the wastnder settlements, the ruins¡­ In all those ces, you could actually step on solid ground. ¡°That¡¯s it! We bring the Sand Bat to ces with minimal amounts of sand,¡± I dered. ¡°Well, if it improves its scanning range, why not? I¡¯m not sure you¡¯d find a mine in such specific ces, though.¡±
¡°Seriously? We exhausted all other ces, and you want to bring it underground now?¡± Thorneined as we stared at the rubble in front of us. ¡°Peng is hungry. Andrew, can we eat yet?¡± ¡°What did I tell you earlier, Peng¡­?¡± The other three upants of the car were all making a lot of background noise for me as we drove toward the ruins. It¡¯s been a few weeks since we started working together, so the two guards, Peng and Andrew, got a lot more informal with us. ¡°This¡¯ll be the best way to scan deeper than most corp had done before. The best way to find something is to search ces others haven¡¯t looked at yet, right?¡± ¡°Sure, but look at all the stuff we have to bring for this. People are going toin if this was for nothing.¡± We nced back at the convoy behind us. Half a dozen Vanguards escorting a cargo truck and a cement truck. ¡°Let them. They¡¯re getting paid, so they¡¯ll just be venting.¡± After another thirty minutes of driving, we made it to the ruins we had visited on the first day the four of us came. We navigated the terrain from memory and soon found the entrance to the skyscraper that had ess to the undergroundwork. While doing the preliminary scans around this town didn¡¯t produce any results. I thought we could scan deeper inside by bringing the Sand Bat underground, shielded from the sandstorm, and closer down for a deeper scan. ¡°Andrew, Peng, you two stay outside with the team to defend our vehicles. Let¡¯s go, Thorne.¡± We took two squads of guards with us and traced the path we had takenst time. The murky water on the way down hadn¡¯t changed, and we cautiously scanned the pool for any mutants as we advanced. +10 EXP +10 EXP What is wrong with the mutants¡­? They keeping back to the same spots as if they are respawning there. But then, they smarten up after a few gets killed and clear the area again. We thoroughly cleared the area before we turned back. It was time to start building a ramp for the Sand Bat to get down here. Heavy equipment was soon brought out, pulverizing any rubble in the way to make room for us to pave a new road down. ¡°Rollo! There¡¯s a lot of activity headed our way. I don¡¯t think the mutants like all the noise we¡¯re making.¡± ¡°All teams, take up defensive positions. Time for you guys to earn your paycheck!¡± We had brought half a dozen Vanguards here, which amounted to twenty guards if you didn¡¯t include my team. The Vanguards were ced protectively around the building to make use of their turrets, so we weren¡¯t worried on that front. The one that seemed to be a problem was the underground tunnel we were working on. I watched as my security set up machine guns and the turrets on our vehicles while we prepared for the wave of monsters toe. It didn¡¯t take long before we heard the screeching of some Sandcrawlers outside followed by the rumbling of the tunnel. Thanks to the impressive magnification of my optics, I was the first to spot a wave of mutant crocodiles and rudents rushing out together at us. I double-checked the ammo I loaded into my rifle and secured the explosives on my belt, as I wouldn¡¯t be using them in this small tunnel. As scary as mutants could be, they were nothing before human ingenuity when we had time to prepare. We verified the effectiveness of crossfires that day and gained me a lot of experience points.
¡°Here, remember to hydrate.¡± I held out my sk over to Thorne. He may be a cyborg now, but that doesn¡¯t mean he doesn¡¯t need food and water. Even more so since his torso still has many biological parts, unlike most cyborgs. ¡°Thanks.¡± He grabbed it and chugged the entire thing. I rxed in my seat as I surveyed our surroundings. The lobby of this tower was filled with bodies of the mutants we yed while our engineers were hard at work, building a ramp into the lower level. The two of us sat in silence, resting from the previous battle. It wasn¡¯t exactly the most intense battle, but it was exhausting on us mentally as we had to be on the constant lookout for any mutants trying to get the jump on us. We both watched as one of our employees approached. ¡°Sirs, we are done constructing the ramp. It should dry overnight and be usable tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°Thank you for your hard work. Go ahead and tell them we¡¯ll be camping here as nned. Have the engineers find and seal off any undesirable entry points,¡± I replied. ¡°Yes, sir.¡± With our men¡¯s hard work, we soon had a basic camp set up inside the lobby. It was mainly a cooking area and washrooms, as it was safer for us to rest in our vehicles. We took shifts to rest through the night, and in the morning, we began our expedition underground with our Sand Bat. The engineers had tested the strength of the structural integrity of the tunnels and they could easily withstand the prospecting vehicle, but our armored Vanguards were another story. Everyone fifty meters, we would stop and have the Sand Bat perform a scan with its radar. It would then give us a detailedyout of the ground beneath us and identify the basic materialposition as well. The majority of the time, we only came up with soil and rocks. There were some small deposits ofmon metals found too, but they weren¡¯t significant enough to be worth the trouble. We pushed on until we arrived near the retail unit that had its flooring copse on us thest time we were here, resulting in a giant hole into the abyss. ¡°Sir, the scan is done, and we found arge tunnel underneath here. Here, take a look.¡± He handed his terminal over to me. I took a cursory nce, ¡°Anything noteworthy?¡± ¡°The tunnel has significant veins of the rare metals we need.¡± I quickly scrolled to the page for materialposition to confirm her words. Jackpot. Chapter 74: Digging In Chapter 74: Digging In I watched the camera feed from the tunnel boring machine we rented while fantasizing about a refreshing milkshake. It was hot and the snow of just constant digging wore on me, so I? pulled up my status screen to distract myself. Status Level: 20 EXP: 880/2000 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: Enhancements: SAID: Zenitech Sebastien v2 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 Cardiovascr: BioGen Lifepump 5 Misceneous: HSU Custom Shade ¡°They say we¡¯re almost through. Let¡¯s get ready, Rollo. They say there¡¯re quite a few mutants down there.¡± ¡°Okay, but I¡¯m sure you can handle it. Make sure to push in, though. We don¡¯t want to fight near the boring machine and risk damaging it.¡± ¡°Yeah, I remember the n. I¡¯m going to go get Andrew and Peng. You take your time.¡± I closed the status screen and readied my equipment before grouping up with our security teams. Once we were gathered, we went down the tunnel toward the source of all the noisy digging, the boring machine. It grew exponentially louder as we got closer. My auditory imnt did its best, but it also made all the other noises sound muffled. We endured as the machine continued its work until it finally broke through thest obstacle in its way and connected us to an undergroundwork of tunnels. Thorne rushed out as soon as we broke through, and I followed closely behind. The tunnel was pitch ck, and even our optics needed some light to work with or we couldn¡¯t see. We were thankful that the boring machine had a giant light attached and shlight attachments on our guns. I felt the vibrations of the ground first before the mutants came into view, and they were probably one of the most disgusting ones I¡¯ve seen. They were worms that had numerous limbs like a centipede and had spiky teeth in their mouths that they opened toward us in a threatening manner. They moved in a zig-zag pattern as if they were slithering snakes. ¡°Contact!¡± One of the security personnel yelled. We all quickly opened fire once they were in view. I used my SMG loaded with smart bullets, so hitting the targets wasn¡¯t an issue for me, but the others were struggling as our targets stayed low to the ground and swerved about. Even when hit, the worms continued to slither our way until wended several more shots. +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP A few managed to close the distance to us and received Thorne¡¯s de as a reward. At least these worms didn¡¯t regenerate when cut in half, unlike the urban myth I heard as a kid. Once we cleared the area, we had the tunnel boring machine retreat as it hadpleted its job. We then continued clearing out these tunnels of its mutant inhabitants. We had dug into one end of the tunnelwork so we could push in one direction with our nks secured. Although the tunnel did branch off further in, we would simply have to set up small checkpoints at the chokepoints. Not even thirty minutes into our operation, I heard Andrew, who was beside me, let out a high-pitched shriek. We turned to find one of the mutant worms right next to him. I quickly pulled him back before we riddled it with holes. Royal Road''s content has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He sensed our gaze once we confirmed it was dead and awkwardly looked down. ¡°...That thing dropped down from the ceiling.¡± ¡°You heard him, everyone careful of the walls and ceilings!¡± We continued our advance until we arrived at a fork in the path. We had a few guards stay back to hold the nk while the rest of us veered off to the path that led to a dead-end. The Sand Bat helpfully provided us with the generalyout with its scans, so we could plot out the extermination mission ordingly. The branch tunnel led up to a circr and spacious clearing. The entire way was empty¡ªor so we thought when the walls suddenly moved. ¡°What the hell is that thing?¡± someone yelled out. We all backpedaled as we watched a colossal worm, the size of the tunnels itself, uncurl itself in the area we thought to be a dead end. It then faced us and let out a high-pitched shriek toward us. ¡°Open fire before that thing gets close!¡± I yelled out. Our gunfire sounded quietpared to its war cry just now, and we only made it squeal again with our attacks. It winded up its body like a spring before it charged straight toward us. ¡°Spread out! Don¡¯t go into the tunnels or we won¡¯t have room to dodge it.¡± I watched as it rammed into a guard and took hold of him with its disgusting mouth, only to drop them a momentter when Thorne ran parallel to its body, shing through it as the worm passed by. ¡°Someone pull that man away and tend to his wounds!¡± I really didn¡¯t want a fatal casualty that would make this venture even more expensive than it already was. The worm distanced itself from Thorne and opened its mouth to howl out at Thorne in a challenging manner. ¡°Do that again in thirty seconds, Thorne!¡± I didn¡¯t wait for his reply as I fumbled my Suri out of its holster and changed the mag. I watched as Thorne took hold of his rifle that was attached to his shoulder sling and fired it at the monster. Having caught its attention, he quickly turned on his active camouge as the worm geared up for another charge. Shit, did he not know worms don¡¯t use their eyes to see? I don¡¯t think they even had any in the first ce. Our upgraded Shades wouldn¡¯t block airflow so it would be hard for it to feel where he is, but the vibrations of our movement are another matter. ¡°That won¡¯t work Thorne! Dodge!¡± I witnessed Thorne dodge just barely in time and made a gash on the mutant¡¯s mouth as it charged by. It repeated its previous reaction and growled toward us in pain, but I took that opportunity to fire off my entire magazine into its mouth. With a few milliseconds dy, explosions rang out from within the worm¡¯s mouth. It positioned for another charge, but then let out onest growl before it fell to the ground. +50 EXP ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked, as I walked up to Thorne, who was kneeling on the ground. ¡°Yeah, I think so.¡± He tried to get up, only for his knees to buckle. I kneeled down to take a closer look at his cybeic. ¡°I think the actuators or joints are damaged. Stop trying to move, or you might damage it enough that it won¡¯t be repairable anymore. Peng, Andrew, carry him up.¡± Thorne sighed and obediently waited to be lifted. We retreated back upstairs to the lobby of the building and let another team rotate down to continue clearing the tunnels. Thorne had to stay on a stretcher the entire time, and we brought him back in one of the vehicles that was headed back to the outpost for supplies and scheduled updates. Inside the outpost, we were equipped with rudimentary medical equipment and a garage for maintaining our vehicles. I brought some scraps and dismantled a few terminals and spare cybeics we had for the wounded for parts, in order to perform a stopgap repair. ¡°You should be able to at least stand and move around a little, but we¡¯ll need to print some new parts for it once we get back. We¡¯ll go back to NLA with tomorrow¡¯s convoy.¡± ¡°Fine, but you can stay. You need to oversee the work, right?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll be fine without me for a few days. They¡¯re just building roads to get vehicles down there.¡± We rested for the night and returned to the city the next day when the scheduled convoy headed back in the afternoon. It was a bit early, but it beat watching men dig around and do construction work all day. We ended up ordering some proprietary parts and 3D printed the other for Thorne¡¯s cybeics. It took a whole day once we gathered the parts. I took the liberty of removing his Shade to upgrade it to the more EMP-resistant variation I had been working on. I examined his other cybeics to see if there were any tricks I could learn, but a lot of the essential parts were ck-boxed or purposefully obscured, with a lot of redundant parts designed to mislead others. Since we found a mine, it meant we could resume our other ns as well. Once Thorne was put back together, I immediately immersed myself in creating the prototype vehicle I had been designing. I asionally had to stop to consult with our R&D team that was back in Elevate City for the areas that were outside my expertise, but I mostly rushed through those parts in order to realize my own theories with a working prototype. Besides improving the efficiency of the electric motors as best I could, there were three main areas I focused on. First was the efficiency of the electric motors while working in the wastnd¡¯s conditions. The constant maic fields the wastnd gave out to would normally increase the wear and tear of manyponents, not to mention all the sand. I managed to make a case for the motors that made use of the constant force from different directions, to fuel the motors instead of disrupting it. Next came the durability of the vehicle. If your vehicle gave out on you in the wastnd, you were practically dead and could only wait for rescue or your demise. I moved away from the design of the Vanguard and ced the motors in the back instead. I increased the number of motors to six for redundancy, but reduced their power and size in exchange. With my newfound knowledge of electrical engineering, I could properly sync up those motors and get the best out of them. Lastly, the new outeryer that made use of the maic fields also shielded it from other kinds of disruption. This included EMPs and bullets, with the extra chunk of metal protecting it. While those were the areas I focused on the most, I let my electrical engineering knowledge go wild and worked on various misceneous devices in it as well. The entire prototype cost almost three times the amount a Vanguard went for, to produce, but that was still considered cheap, seeing how the Vanguard was an old model. I¡¯m sure the ones other corps employed cost at least that much. With that said, the cost was mainly thebor costs and some materials and parts we had to order. We could produce the less demanding parts ourselves. There was no way we were going to sell our new design though, as it contained our stealth tech and detection equipment too. ¡°You ready to head back, Thorne?¡± ¡°...That¡¯s what I¡¯ve been asking you for the past three days. They expected us to be back three days ago, but that car had possessed you.¡± ¡°Calm down. It¡¯s worth it to take this opportunity to test out the prototype, right?¡± He didn¡¯t reply and simply boarded the new car that we called Wraith, for how stealthy and elusive it was. There was only one prototype, so the other teams used our old and reliable Vanguards to apany us. ¡°Team 3, we¡¯re going to test out the new vehicle as soon as we enter the wastnd. Come after us with a thirty-second dy and try to locate us,¡± Imanded a car behind us. ¡°Roger that. Dying thirty seconds.¡± We ventured into the wall of sand that marked the wastnd and quickly turned on our stealth devices that blocked sensors. We momentarily stopped broadcasting our locations to Team 3 and waited for them to follow after us. ¡°Rollo, we got a ping on their location,¡± Andrew said as he looked up from the sensors. ¡°Thorne, take us behind them. We¡¯re going to be stalking them a bit.¡± He nodded, and I soon felt the car elerate. We followed behind the Vanguard for a good twenty minutes before the gauge for the sensor-blocking device showed 60%. We turned it off as we wanted to leave a good margin for emergencies and concluded the test by broadcasting our signal to Team 3 again. ¡°Team 3, exercise over. Let¡¯s head to the outpost now.¡± Chapter 75: Mining Your Own Business Chapter 75: Mining Your Own Business A week after we found the mine, wepleted the construction of the roads leading down the mine. We just needed to finish building a defensive outpost here now, preferably a hidden one, which wasn¡¯t too hard, with so much rubble around us we could use as materials. ¡°You have all the materials gathered?¡± I asked the construction manager who was in charge of the entire project. ¡°Yes, sir. Thest cement truck has just finished its delivery. We should be able to use the metals here to construct a bunker-grade door and seal off all the unwanted entry points.¡± ¡°Good work, I¡¯ll leave it up to you, then. I won¡¯t be back until we finish our new vehicle production facilities. Keep up with the regr updates and let me know anything thates up, no matter how small.¡± ¡°Yes, sir. Have a good trip.¡± He saluted me as Thorne and I walked by. We boarded the prototype Wraith, which Andrew was driving, and joined the convoy that escorted the cement truck back to the outpost after having delivered itsst run. We drove across the sandstorm in silence for only five minutes before the lead car sent out a warning to the entire convoy. ¡°We detected a vehicle at the edge of our radar for a split second. Be on alert,¡± the woman called out. I exchanged nces with Thorne before taking a look at the sensors in front of me. Electrical engineering had also taught me about some radar technology. A good chunk of radar technology wasposed of the transmission and reception of electromaic waves and their reflections.It was a given that I would implement all the things I had learned and put together a customized radar in the prototype Wraith. The sandstorm was like an all-epassing broadcasting tower that made a lot of noise that disrupted other signals. The new radar had stronger concentrated waves that allowed it to detect further, though at a slightly reduced cone width. I quickly scanned toward the direction our leading car had indicated and detected the vehicle in question. They were moving rapidly away from us. I ordered our convoy to change directions toward the vehicle, and within a minute, they detected our course and made adjustments to stay away. ¡°They have better detection equipment than our Vanguards. We already upgraded to thetest civilian model, which means they¡¯re likely from a corporation.¡± ¡°What are the chances they just randomly ran into us and just want to stay out of trouble?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°Normally, it doesn¡¯t matter, but we just came from our mine. If they were monitoring us and found out about it, there¡¯ll be hell to pay. Order the entire convoy to give chase, Thorne. We need to go make sure they haven¡¯t found anything.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Our entire convoy soon received themand to steer our course back to our outpost before we engaged our stealth units to hide from detection. We then smoothly altered our course back to be on the suspected corporate car¡¯s trail. We followed them for almost a whole hour, where they detoured and went around in circles for a while. ¡°Sir, the other Vanguards won¡¯t be able to have the sensor blockers active for much longer.¡± They¡¯re ying it too safe to just be some random people¡­ ¡°Have them fall back and stay out of the enemy detection range. Our Wraith will follow them and transmit our location.¡± The chase continued for another half an hour before the car soon approached a small valley that was shielded from the sandstorm. Vin had shown me a simr one, albeit smaller, the first time he brought me to the wastnd. Our sensors picked up on a lot of metal there, so we veered off to the side. ¡°With that amount of metal and signalsing from there, they¡¯re in a base of some sort.¡± ¡°Must be their outpost. Should we back off?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°No, let¡¯s sneak in and check them out. I¡¯m pretty sure they found out about our mine or have a clue about it. We need to nip the trouble in the bud.¡± ¡°If you say so, just hope they don¡¯t detect us.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get a closer look first. You might need to stay back if their base looks heavily fortified. Yourrge frame filled with cybeics tends to be a bit easy to detect.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Andrew and Peng, you two stay in the car,¡± Imanded. I exited the car with Thorne, entering into the sandstorm, and made our way to the entrance of the base we discovered. With our active camouge on, we soon entered the valley where the storm couldn¡¯t reach. With our visibility restored, we instantly spotted therge metal gates at the front that defended the ce. There were watchtowers behind the gate and tall walls with lookouts patrolling. ¡°They seem to have only walled off the chokepoint here. Let¡¯s go back around and climb over to get in.¡± Under the cover of the sandstorm, I had my Nova Tech Heracle cyberarms turn into picks, to be used as makeshift ice axes to help scale up the steep valley. Thorne could climb up fine without it somehow with his fully cybeic limbs. We jumped into the valley once we reached the top to shield ourselves from the sandstorm and surveyed the area below us. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. There was a small outpost there, with several buildings made of metal sheets. They looked simr to the prefab buildings I had seen in the catalogs when I initially nned for my wastnd outpost. We could spot several people moving around outside and the only lookouts were on the watchtower near the entrance. I spotted several cameras and sensors on the edges of the outpost, but they were easy to deal with once we knew they were there. ¡°They seemx, so they shouldn¡¯t be backed by a big corp. They only have people defending the main chokepoint and automated everything else. They must be working with a limited budget.¡± ¡°Rollo, it¡¯s not like everypany is paranoid about every little bit of their assets. This is probably a simple outpost without any valuables. The corp behind probably didn¡¯t bother to invest too much and would rather im insurance if anything happened.¡± Right, insurance. We had opted out of getting it so far, as our transportation business in the wastnd was low risk. I¡¯ll need to get it for the new clinic, though. ¡°I see their vehicles gathered over there. Let¡¯s head over and see if we find the one that led us here.¡± We donned our camouge and moved along the edge of the base. When we got close to the parking lot, I had Thorne carefully follow me to avoid their sensors. I had to load an EI round and fire it at a nearby pole to breach and disable the final sensor. Once we were through, we strode around the various cars parked there. There were several mechanics working on the vehicles, so we made sure to leave some space between us. All the cars were marked with the logo of Cipher Corporation, an unknown name to me. Kiri, got anyone information on this corp? ¡®Database has limited information. All that is known about Cipher Corporation is that they are a small corporation based in NLA.¡¯ Just great, very helpful information there. I used the thermal vision on my optics to spot the residual heat from the cars. The one we had chased should be much warmer than the ones that were sitting idle. I saw one of the mechanics approach, so I hid behind a vehicle and waited for him to pass. He stopped right in front of the vehicle that I was heading for, the one with the most heat. ¡°Did Josh¡¯s crew get back? Howe I don¡¯t see them?¡± The mechanic yelled back to her team. ¡°They went straight to the supervisor. Bring their car over first before you go off to find them. That¡¯s thest one we have to work on for today.¡± The female mechanic proceeded into the car, which meant we no longer could inspect it, but we got the information we needed. We left the parking lot and went toward the closest building to start our search. The first one was simply a storage of car parts, so we moved on to the next one. As soon as we opened the door, we immediately spotted a reception desk with a woman behind it, staring at the open door. ¡°Hello? Youing in or not?¡± I quickly moved in with Thorne and stepped to the side as she came out to investigate. She peeked out the door, looked both ways, and found no one. ¡°...Is there something wrong with the door, or am I being pranked?¡± She muttered. Hoping she didn¡¯t dwell too much about it, we quickly moved further into the building. We took a more careful approach with the next door that obstructed us and shoved the snake cam from my arm beneath it. There was an empty hallway there, so we quickly passed through it before the receptionist came back inside. With more room to maneuver, I shot an EI round at the nearest camera to disable them. We then scouted out each room and didn¡¯t find anyone until the room at the end of the hallway. There was an office with several people inside, who were in the middle of a conversation. ¡°---confident are you in this information?¡± ¡°Sir, we followed the lead of construction trucks and found out the same corp that had recently rented prospecting equipment. We should send some operatives in there to verify.¡± ¡°Who else have you four told?¡± ¡°No one, sir. We came straight to you.¡± ¡°Very well, I will take charge of it from here on and contact headquarters. You guys should keep quiet if you know what¡¯s good. You¡¯ll be rewarded handsomely if we turn up with something.¡± ¡°But sir, we¡ª¡± ¡°You¡¯re dismissed.¡± ¡°...Have a good day, sir.¡± I quickly sent a text to Thorne as I heard them walking out. *Wait until they get somewhere where we can bag the bodies.* *Okay, following your lead.* We stepped aside as the door opened and watched as four men aggressively stepped out. We followed closely behind. On our way out, I found a window conveniently along the way and unlocked it. ¡°That dumb prick wants to steal the credit for our info. Are we really just going to let him get away with it?¡± One of the menined to their leader. ¡°What? What else can we do?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Let¡¯s think this through after some sleep. We all need it after staying up for surveince for so long.¡± ¡°Agreed.¡± The four of them made their way toward their dormitory. They had the luxury of each having their own rooms, though they were small to the point that they could bepared to capsule hotels. We waited until they split up and retired to their rooms before striking. We each followed one into their room and quickly dispatched the key witnesses. +10 EXP Once we were done, we each took the time to bag up our bodies before moving on to the next. I knocked on the door to my target and waited. ¡°You guys forget something?¡± A voice called out as the door opened. He found nobody there and peeked his head out into the hallway, only to have me drag him back into his room from behind. My cyberarms made quick work of his unaugmented throat. +10 EXP With four bodies to carry now, I was thankful for Thorne¡¯s monstrous strength as a cyborg. We wanted to bring their bodies along with us as their corp would have a harder time investigating what happened. For all they knew, they could¡¯ve simply deserted or bought out by someone else. If they found their bodies instead, they may dig a little too deep towards the real reason. Thorne took custody of the bodies while I headed back to the office from before. These pre-fab buildings didn¡¯t exactly have a back door, but they did have windows. I made my way back into the building using the window I had left unlocked and proceeded into the supervisor¡¯s office. I didn¡¯t waste any time and strode straight in. ¡°What is it, Debra? Could you not at least notify me before rudely walking in?¡± The man spoke as he remained focused on the terminal in front of him. I moved behind him and ced my hand near his neural port so I could establish a connection to his cybeics. I activated my signal jammer while I started up the program I received from our cy-sec specialists. He soon looked up as he received no response. I ignored him as I continued to watch the program¡¯s progress. I got into his system just in time to see the call he had just ced to his secretary. With hisworks in my control, I disabled my active camouge and pressed my gun against his head. ¡°Who did you tell about the mine?¡± Chapter 76: Finishing Loose Ends Chapter 76: Finishing Loose Ends ¡°Who did you tell about the mine?¡± I pressed my gun to the back of his head. ¡°...Who are you?¡± The supervisor of thisplex muttered. ¡°I¡¯m the one asking the questions. Now answer me, who did you tell about the info you just got from your goons?¡± ¡°I¡­I¡­¡± As he stuttered, I tried breaching into his SAID for his records, but as expected, I wasn¡¯t skilled enough to breach those encrypted files. At least we were in the wastnd, which meant he couldn¡¯t have sent any messages outside of this outpost. ¡°You have to the count of three. One. Tw¡ª¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t send it to anyone yet. You have to believe me!¡± I took out some bracelets and snapped them onto his hands and feet. They instantlybined to restrain his limbs.¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Shut up,¡± I said as I threw him into the corner of the room. I then took his seat and went through his terminal to check the logs. He seemed to have drafted up the information about spotting our construction vehicles and rental records in a report to his superiors, along with his suspicions. He had it saved to an external data chip, so I quickly deleted everything and pocketed the chip for myself. ¡°So, you really didn¡¯t inform anyone else in this ce?¡± ¡°No, none of them have the security clearance to learn about something that doesn¡¯t involve their duties. Only the team that collected the information knows, but I told them to keep quiet. I swear, believe me.¡± ¡°Very well, I believe you.¡± Sigh, there isn¡¯t much option for me here¡­ ¡°Wait¡­ What are you¡ª¡± I went over to him and ced him in a body bag. Once he was fully inside, I took out the syringe that I used to knock people out and adjusted the dosage. You got unlucky. There¡¯s no way for me to check your SAID¡¯s encrypted files and I¡¯m sure as hell ain¡¯t bringing you along. It¡¯s too risky. The least I can do is make this painless. I injected a fatal dose of drugs into him and got a detailed scan of his features before I zipped up the bag. +10 EXP I then used his terminal to send a message out to his secretary to prepare an empty car for him. Just in case, I brought along his terminal before I exited his office. I waited by the window until I saw a car pull up outside. Kiri, have my Shade project an image of our supervisor here. ¡®Affirmative. Please note the body dimensions have more than 75% variance. Your reach will be significantly different from what is seen.¡¯ The manager may have been a little shorter and rounder¡­ It shouldn¡¯t be a problem just to get into the car. I strode out to the lobby, where the receptionist, who doubled as the supervisor¡¯s secretary, immediately stood up and greeted me. ¡°Sir, the car is ready. Is there anything else you need?¡± I shook my head and continued to walk toward the exit without stopping. I didn¡¯t possess a voice changer imnt, though it may be a good idea to see if I could get one. ¡°...Sir?¡± The receptionist gave me a worried look, but I ignored her and beelined it to the car. Once I was in, I quickly drove away toward where Thorne had been waiting with the bodies. *Thorne, I¡¯ming toward you in the car. Turn on your camouge and get in.* *Understood.* I stopped the car where the body bags were and opened the doors to the car. I then proceeded to load up the bags while maintaining the projection of the supervisor. Once I was done, I got back in and drove away. ¡°You want me to disguise myself as one of the guards? Or you got a cover story to go out of base alone?¡± Thorne said, as he materialized in the seat beside me. ¡°Sure, why not? Go get a scan of one of them.¡± A disguise wouldst longer than being invisible, so it can¡¯t hurt. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Already did.¡± We drove straight toward the front gate that was sandwiched by the two watchtowers. ¡°I got the secretary girl to inform them that I wasing. Try not to speak, who knows if they recognize their voices.¡± A guard by the gate came out and watched my vehicle approach. I rolled down the windows, and he saluted me as soon as he saw my face. As my car glided toward the gate, it began to slide open. The guard looked at me as if expecting orders, but I simply drove off while I had the chance. A short drive got us back to where we left Andrew and Peng with our Wraith. ¡°You two, help us carry those bodies over,¡± Imanded as Thorne and I each threw a body into the back. As I fostered the task onto my two guards, I went and configured a device to be attached to the car marked with Cipher Corporation. ¡°You¡¯re not taking the car back to be scrapped?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°Too risky, who knows if there are trackers or if anyone sees us with it mid-transit? I¡¯ll let the wastnd bury this for us.¡± Once we transferred over the bodies, I set the car on auto drive a distance away and set the timer on the explosives I just nted. We watched the car leave until it was out of sight before we got going.
¡°We need to get the best detection equipment we can get our hands on,¡± I said, as I sipped on some milkshake while looking around the meeting room. ¡°We¡¯ll also need to purchase a few trucks so we can customize them and add your stealth devices in. All the stock vehicles we rent are subparpared to the customized vehicles other corps use. Currently, they can estimate our specifications easily as it¡¯s all public information,¡± Vin added. That is a sore point for us. Having to expand so fast meant we only had the capital to rent instead of buying vehicles. That meant we weren¡¯t contractually allowed to customize them. I took a second to allow everyone else to speak their mind before I continued. ¡°I¡¯ll take charge of upgrading our vehicles. I¡¯lle up with a stopgap solution for now until we produce our new models. How is our construction going at the mine?¡± I looked over at the construction manager responsible for the site. ¡°Sir, the bare minimum needed to operate it is done. Though it¡¯s just roads down to the mine with a gate at the front. The construction of the defensive armaments has slowed as you have instructed transport to be limited to vehicles equipped with stealth fields.¡± ¡°Understood, I¡¯ll prioritize the upgrade of the transport vehicles. Does anyone else have anything to add about our recent operation?¡± They all shook their heads. ¡°Then that concludes this meeting.¡± As everyone filed out of the room, Thorne leaned in and whispered, ¡°ire wanted you to call her when you had the time.¡± I nced over at my SAID settings and noticed it was on ¡®Do Not Disturb¡¯ and quickly disabled it to find two missed calls. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll call her back. You can go do your own thing. I¡¯ll be spending time in the workshop.¡± I exited the meeting room and began heading to the workshop that I¡¯d moved to the garage levels so I could better work with the vehicles. I ced the call to ire as soon as the elevator doors closed. ¡°Rollo? Your meeting over already?¡± ¡°Yeah. What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Wanted to update you on the server room we¡¯re setting up in the office. We ordered the equipment and should be finished by the end of this month. We hired several soft techs for themunication app too. Just need you to go over it when you have time.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll take a look. Message me if you need anything. I gotta go right now.¡± ¡°Okay, bye.¡± Once I hung up the call, I immediately did an inventory check in my workshop and began tackling the various projects I had in mind. Now that we had the materials needed to produce our own vehicles, I had to finish refining the production process into chunks, so that the workers only knew about the part they were responsible for. I then had to modify our transport vehicle¡¯s design to fit in our stealth fields and improved motors. And thetest thing added to my agenda after today¡¯s meeting was to work on our own detection devices, as thest incident proved we were sorelycking in that department. My electrical engineering knowledge gave me a solid foundation in sensors and radar technologies. I had ns in my head on how to improve the resistance to jamming the wastnd¡¯s environment constantly emitted, and the range of it, but I needed to consult with other experts while doing a lot of trial and error to design something so specialized. I spent the next two weeks shutting myself inside my workshop while the construction of the mine proceeded slowly yet smoothly. The upgraded phased array radars were taking a lot more of my time than expected, seeing how I had to consult with the R&D back in Elevate City. I only left my workshop today because we were finally ready to produce more Wraiths. With that said, we didn¡¯t have to venture out anywhere because the production facility was here, beside my office. Our building was an old warehouse that served as our production facility for our Shades and office space. We were able to rent out the adjacent warehouse and refurbish it to our needs. We had ns to t-out buy the buildings and surroundingnd, but that would have to wait until we had more cash. ¡°How¡¯s it looking in here, Vin?¡± I immediately approached therge man visible from the entrance. ¡°Rollo, we¡¯re doing training production runs right now. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard, seeing how we¡¯re not making theplicated devices or the chips and processors.¡± ¡°Well yeah, they¡¯re like thousands of parts to a vehicle at the very least. We simply don¡¯t have the time, resources, and know-how to do a good job if we make everything ourselves.¡± I stepped forward toward the noise, where several workers were slowly putting a Wraith together. Their eyes glowed, giving away the fact they were consulting with the instructions as they proceeded. While it was slow, a new Wraith was unmistakably taking shape before my eyes. The vehicle, with ourpany colors of snow blue and ck, was soonpleted. They turned on the vehicle as it softly roared to life. The workers all apuded each other as I went to study the vehicle for defects. Once I was done, a team of security personnel apanied by one of the workers boarded the vehicle and drove off for the test run. ¡°Well, everything should be able to run on autopilot from here,¡± Vin said from beside me. ¡°Perfect. You can focus on recruitment and training, then. We¡¯ll want quality to be on par with middle-tier corporations at the very least.¡± ¡°That¡¯s going to be expensive.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to expand the budget. That goes for our team back in Elevate City, too, Thorne.¡± ¡°Right, I¡¯ll get on it as soon as we return. When are we returning, by the way?¡± ¡°Soon. I¡¯m going to take another week to design the city-variant of the Wraith first while I¡¯m already used to the workshop here.¡± ¡°...You sure you have to do it here and you are not making excuses, so you don¡¯t have to go back and face the paperwork awaiting you?¡± ¡°Of course¡­Creators work better in a familiar environment. It¡¯d be a waste of time for us to set up a workshop in the garage over there before I got to work.¡± ¡°Sure¡­You be the one to break it to ire, though. She is the one covering your work in your stead.¡± ¡°...¡± Chapter 77: Communications Chapter 77: Communications ¡°So you two finally decided to return, huh?¡± ire said while ring at us. ¡°It¡¯s been a while. Can¡¯t say it feels like it since we talk almost every day, though,¡± I replied. ¡°ire, has everything been going well?¡± Thorne asked. He stood next to her as if he was awaiting orders, like a puppy staring at their owner. ¡°Just barely keeping it together since I had to juggle between my own responsibility, themunication app project, and Rollo¡¯s stuff.¡± I could feel re¡¯s re from behind me, but I continued to load the car with our luggage, pretending not to have noticed. ¡°Here, we got you a souvenir.¡± My savior, Thorne, brought out our trump card. Her expression visibly softened as she inspected her gifts. ¡°Flowance Corp handbag? You guys got brand name stuff? And is this made out of mootant hides? Looks absolute zero!¡± ¡°Yeah, we got a good source for the high-quality hides, so they let us skip the queues for their new limited edition bag.¡± ¡°Thanks! I can¡¯t wait to see how it looks with my terminals. Hmm¡­ I may have to buy a new one that matches its style more.¡±¡°Come on, let¡¯s get moving already,¡± I said while she was distracted. We quickly boarded the old Vanguard and made our way back to our office cum residence. Vin would have our new Wraiths shipped out to us from NLA soon, though I couldn¡¯t say I liked the shipping fees. I had to think of it as the purchasing fee for a cheap vehicle before I could sign off on that expense. Otherwise, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to stomach it. Once we got settled and unpacked, I immediately went to visit the new server room they had set up. It was on the same floor as our security control room where Leo and Lana were, so I visited them first before heading in. ¡°How¡¯s it going, you two?¡± They were both seated and were visibly working on whatever was disyed on their optics. They continued typing away for several more minutes, with Lana¡¯s mechanical keyboard making its loud cky noises until Leo finally stopped and turned to me. ¡°Back already? I¡¯d thought you three would¡¯ve gone out to have lunch somece nice beforeing back. What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I wanted to check out the new server room and the app ire and her new team have been working on. What do you think about it?¡± ¡°That¡­ I left it up to them since I was busy with my own stuff. I think Lana was more involved with it, right?¡± The mechanical keyboard stopped at the mention of her name. ¡°Yeah, it should be ready soon. Can¡¯t say it¡¯s that great, though. It¡¯s just a watered-down version of ourpanyms, done in a roundabout way so other corps can¡¯t find any clues about ours.¡± ¡°It¡¯s enough, as long as it works. It¡¯s for the general public, so we don¡¯t need anything top-of-the-line for it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what ire said, so I only helped with optimizing it. You give him the tour of the app, Leo. I¡¯m busy.¡± Me and Leo could only exchange rueful smiles as Lana started typing away on her keyboard again. ¡°Well, shall we?¡± Leo then guided me toward the room next door, where they had set up racks and racks of servers. At the center were several terminals that controlled the operations. He listed off the specifications of the parts they used and the difference between brands, even with the same models. He went off on a tangent, into the territory of something I wasn¡¯t familiar with, and I simply allowed him to let it all out. Once he had a chance to talk to his heart¡¯s content, we finally moved on to the terminal, where he gave me an overview of the current iteration of the app they were developing. ¡°Right now, we have the basic functions finalized. We still need to work on a new encryption that is entirely separate from ours. However, the transfer speed isn¡¯t the best and is honestly decent at best. Compared to a lot of what the other corps that specializes in apps have to offer, ours hardly stands out.¡± ¡°And those other apps also charge a lot more, right?¡± ¡°Well yeah. They start from a monthly fee of fifty credits, and that is entirely separate from the fees you have to pay the carriers for your n.¡± ¡°Ours will be a one-time payment of ten credits, and I doubt the general popce would care about milliseconds difference in performance.¡± ¡°Ten credits¡­That¡¯ll barely cover the server fees if we don¡¯t get at least tens of thousands of users.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good enough. This main objective isn¡¯t to make a profit but for intelligence gathering. How is it on that end?¡± ¡°Well, at the end of the day, we created the architecture and encryption. We¡¯ll be able to see what we want within our traffic if we really want.¡± If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Be sure to highlight how we only keep their information for 24 hours for operations purposes only. That should save you some on server costs.¡± It¡¯d also reassure the users about their privacy to a certain degree. Even back in my world, where privacy was an actual concern, most users didn¡¯t really care and sent sensitive information all the time, anyway. The people here should care even less, except for the mercenaries and highly anti-corporate folks. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll make a note and send it to ire as a reminder.¡± ¡°Thank you. I¡¯m going to get back to the workshop now. Let me know when you guys are ready tounch the app.¡±
¡°The next stop is District 10. Doors will open on your left.¡± The PA on the train announced. I quietly walked around the train and observed the passengers. About half of them used their optics for most things, so I couldn¡¯t view what they were doing, but I could for the other half that were on their terminals. I watched the screen that a seated man held as I stood nearby, sipping on my milkshake. He was dressed like the typical corpo drone, wearing a dull-colored suit, with lifeless eyes. The app he was using gave away his affiliation with Zenitech. Moving on, I found another woman who was more casually dressed. She was typing away on her terminal, opening multiple chat groups she was in, and responding to each one of them. The magnification on my optics could clearly make out the words on her screen. *Did you guys here? The sales agent that sometimes shows up at the store is going to get terminated.! We won¡¯t be seeing him anymore.* *What?! The pretty-looking one from Quantum vors Inc.? The one with the long hair?* *Yea, his entire department apparently screwed up big time on some procurement deal they lost to their rival.* *OMG, where did you find out?* I moved on down the train and continued my rxing people-watching exercise. It was really awkward in the beginning when some corpo with decent optics noticed me and we stared at each other for a full second, but I learned to spot who to avoid. It just wasn¡¯t worth it to use my Shade for this excursion. By the time I finished my milkshake, I got off the train and began my way back to the office. Gunshots rang out every so often around the city, but when I got out of my station, I was met with the scene of an active firefight. I instinctively took cover and assessed the situation. Once I got in cover, I took out my terminal and ced it around the corner to get a view of the firefight from the camera without putting myself at risk. Two gangs I didn¡¯t recognize were actively shooting at each other right in front of the station. There were around half a dozen on each side who wore their own colors, so they were easy to differentiate, with one side sporting yellow clothing, and another sporting green clothing. I nced around and surveyed the camera coverage of the entire area, and opted to stay out of it. If I went into camouge, the cameras would instantly spot me disappear. It had also already captured footage of me from before, making it easy to expose myself if I acted. I backtracked to the garbage bins to throw out the empty cup I was holding, and when I went back, the shooting intensified abruptly in the meantime. By the time I could view what happened, I found the scene filled with the bodies of the gang members from both sides of the conflict, and some neers that sported ck and snow blue gear. On their shoulders was the insignia of the snow owl that I¡¯d be familiar with. A squad of them quickly surrounded me and were alert for any remnants of the gangs. ¡°Rollo, I told you it was a bad idea to take the public transit.¡± ¡°What? They weren¡¯t even targeting me. I was just enjoying the show and letting them fight it out.¡± Thorne gave me an unimpressed look. ¡°Whatever. Let¡¯s go back already. Let¡¯s be present before they finish their final adjustments andunch the app.¡± ¡°All teams, we¡¯re extracting from the area!¡± Thorne yelled out. The security guards instantly escorted me out of there, surrounding me the entire way and dictating the pace. I had wanted to take a rxing walk, but oh well. They¡¯ve been getting more protective the more training they received, so it proved theirpetence in a way. When we returned to the office, I found the entire area where the intelligence department had settled in, filled with the sound of chaos, as people conversed loudly in a rush. It was as loud as the street markets, but people barely moved from their seats as they scrambled about electronically and not physically whatsoever. At least I¡¯m not the one who has to handle this.
??? - Retail Worker ¡°Did you guys hear? There¡¯s a new messenger app at a ridiculously low price and only needs one-time payment!¡± ¡°What? Is it some crappy app someone stole and is reselling? Those happen from time to time, but will get shut down within the week.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s verified to be from an actual corp. They aren¡¯t big or anything, but they shouldn¡¯t get shut down anytime soon.¡± ¡°Let me take a look. What¡¯s it called?¡± ¡°EchoHalls. It¡¯s not in the ranking lists yet, but I heard a lot of the low-level corpos are using it already since theirpany apps don¡¯t work well with other corps and this one is so cheap to use.¡± ¡°Heh, they¡¯re probably trying to outprice theirpetitors out of the market or some other corpo scheme they always busy themselves with. Let¡¯s download it before they bring their prices up or something.¡±
¡°Rollo, look! The downloads have increased by another ten thousand already!¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. I know we¡¯re growing rapidly. You¡¯ve been refreshing the page for the past hour already. Give it a rest already.¡± ¡°What? No. You won¡¯t understand the feeling I¡¯m getting when I see my creation blowing up like this. It¡¯s too exciting for me not to track.¡± ¡°At least take a break for lunch. Let¡¯s go out to celebrate.¡± ¡°Wait¡­Give me another hour or so. I can¡¯t be at ease until we make enough sales to cover all the maintenance and bandwidth fees for the week. It was way more expensive than I thought.¡± ¡°...You do remember this wasn¡¯t a for-profit project, right?¡± ¡°Leave me alone. I want to see my baby project mature before my eyes.¡± ¡°ire, I think you should listen to Rollo this time,¡± Thorne interjected. ¡°No means no!¡± ¡°...Fine, I¡¯ll order delivery. Let¡¯s go, Thorne, leave this idiot to it herself.¡± ¡°Hey, what did you say?¡± Her voice grew quieter as I walked away. She didn¡¯t give chase though, as she was glued to the terminal, refreshing the statistic page. I walked past ire¡¯s assistant, just as she finished talking to the new person ire had put in charge of the intelligence department, Lucy. ¡°Sir, what time may I contact you from now on?¡± Lucy called out as I was about to pass by. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. You¡¯re going to be reporting to me from now on. You can contact me whenever, my SAID will screen your message for its urgency, so don¡¯t worry about spamming me.¡± ¡°Perfect!¡± A perfectunch we¡¯re having so far. Those always get me nervous as I expect something to go wrong. Chapter 78: The Moon Chapter 78: The Moon On a Monday morning, I stayed in my office for once to get a head start on all the paperwork, so I could take it easy during the week. A lot of my work mainly consisted of reviewing documents and signing them off with my stamp of approval. It sounded simple, but when you were reading the hundredth page worth of boring text, it mentally wore on you. ¡°Rollo, can you sign off on this one first?¡± I looked up and identified the person who barged into my room as Thorne. He held out a terminal to me, adding more to my pile of paperwork to review. Well, it doesn¡¯t really matter to me what order it¡¯s in. It took me a few minutes to read through it. ¡°The budget request for augmented tendons seems normal to me, but are you sure this other one here is the document you wanted me to approve? He took back the terminal and quickly skimmed through it. ¡°Yes, this is the right one.¡± ¡°...Are you serious? Why are you suddenly forming apany volleyball team? How did you even arrive at that all of a sudden?¡± ¡°Well¡­it was a chance to satisfy what ire wanted without having to fork out a ton of credits.¡±¡°What ire wanted?¡± ¡°She was talking about marketing to increase the download of her new app and how you wouldn¡¯t approve the funds for it.¡± I did remember her pestering me about it. Our funds are tied up with the expansion and upgrade of our equipment. We are also saving up to purchase our real estate instead of renting and leasing all the time. We just couldn¡¯t spare credits to invest in something with little potential return when there are many other high-profit options. ¡°And you arrived at signing up for a corporate volleyball team, how?¡± ¡°The event has good visibility on live streams. It also worked out as I was looking for something to train our men in coordination with something at stake instead of just repetitive practice all the time. It¡¯s the ultimate team sport, after all.¡± ¡°...Sure. If it¡¯ll give ire one less thing to pester me about, why not?¡±
After having had my fill of authentic fried rice, I headed over to the gymnasium in my new Wraith, urban model. Our production of vehicles wasn¡¯t high at all, with us only able to produce two vehicles every three days. There were just way too many parts involved. Our mining operation was still in its early stages, and theck of funds for arge factory. I pulled up to the ce Thorne had been renting and headed to their court after noticing I had arrived a little early. When I went in, the first thing I saw was the uniform they were wearing. It had ourpany logo right next to our app¡¯s icon, which was simply the name EchoHalls in a fancy font. Maybe I should take charge of naming from now on. I don¡¯t think I can handle seeing any more clothes filled with a variation of my name on it. I found a nearby bench and took a seat as I watched them finish up their practice for the night. ¡°Remember to work on your hand signals and get used to constantly changing the system we use. Just like we do in the field, we need to change it often lest our enemies are able to read them. Setters, get used to making split-second decisions where you have no time to consult anyone. You need to always keep track of your teammates and your opponent¡¯s movements. Liberos, you¡­¡± I half listened in on Thorne¡¯s speech while I went over some documents on my optics. Now that I was listening to his logic, maybe there are quite a few skills you can pick up from volleyball that are relevant to field operations. By the time I finished going over the reports from NLA, Thorne had just finished reviewing with the team. ¡°You need to take a shower or something?¡± I asked as he approached. ¡°I¡¯m good. I barely ever break a sweat nowadays.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­It could be the cooling system I had set up for the cybeics inadvertently affecting your sweat nds. I should take a look at that on our next checkup.¡± ¡°I already promised ire I¡¯ll let her start doing that from now on. She says she¡¯s been making great progress, especially since she has your medical exam soon.¡± ¡°If she wants to, sure. But your setup is a little too advanced for a beginner to do anything more than the basics. Remember to call me too when she goes over it.¡± Once Thorne got into a new change of clothes, we headed toward the restaurant we had booked for tonight, The Moon, owned and operated by Authentic Corp. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. It was inside a SocialCorp hotel and was one of the highly rmended restaurants that still appealed to the public rather than exclusively high-level corpos. Even so, all the guests were mostly corpos with a few asional mercenaries that could afford to eat here. We found ire waiting in the lobby with Leo, Lana, and Lucy. ire and Lucy were today¡¯s main characters as we were celebrating all the work they had put into the app and establishing the intelligence department. ¡°Took you guys long enough. Come on, let¡¯s hurry up. I¡¯ve heard really good things about this ce and can¡¯t wait to try it!¡± We kept pace with the excited ire and made our way to the basement level of the hotel. A woman immediately greeted us as we walked in. ¡°You must be Mr. Halls. Please allow me to take you to your private room.¡± She then led us across the main hall, which was decorated with numerous thin crystals hanging from the ceiling. They acted as curtains that respectfully divided the different tables in the main hall from each other. The path then snaked inside, with a private room behind every bend. At the end of the path, we were greeted with the sight of an artificialwn, where a lone house stood in the middle of it. It was reminiscent of a traditional Japanese house made of wood and sliding doors. The entire ce was spacious, as if we were outdoors. Especially with the projection of the sky and moon hanging over us. When we stepped inside the house, I immediately spotted the bald man seated at the wooden table. ¡°Rollo, how punctual of you! Everyone, please, be at ease and take a seat,¡± Joey, the owner of Authentic Corp, said as he weed us with open arms. ¡°Thank you for today, but you didn¡¯t have to go out of your way to greet us.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. How could I not when I found out you had made a booking at one of our restaurants? I won¡¯t bother you guys further. I hope you guys enjoy your dinner tonight. Let us talk again soon.¡± Not long after he left, everyone in our party visibly rxed and began wandering their eyes around the room. ¡°This ce must cost a fortune with all the wood used. Is your wallet going to be okay, Rollo?¡± ire asked. ¡°Joey waived the room fee, so if you don¡¯t go all out, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°What? This is a rare opportunity. I¡¯d be stupid not to splurge when given a chance like this. Come on girls, let¡¯s order everything on the menu.¡± ¡°...¡± At least in high-ss ces like these, their menu had limited selections. Soon, several servers knocked and entered the room. They brought us delicately put-together dishes. When I tried some, I was instantly blown away, along with any apprehension I may have had. I was finally able to sample authentic sushi and beef, that didn¡¯t lose at all whenpared to what I had in my old world. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we almost didn¡¯t want to leave after our meal was done. We ordered an after-meal drink and sat outside, facing the moon as we drank. We knew it was fake, but the atmosphere it evoked was very real. ¡°So, you guys starting to parse through all the chatter that goes through the app yet?¡± ¡°We have the automated filter justpleted yesterday. We still need people to go over the reports it gs, though.¡± Lana answered. ¡°Yeah, it was a nightmare adjusting the filter. It really made me wish there were still functional AIs to manage it for us,¡± ire added. ¡°Stop that. We¡¯ll get the consortium on our asses if any rumors about us being interested in AIs gets around.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. You wouldn¡¯t understand, since you were sealed off in your workshop the entire time.¡± We listened to irein some more before it was time for us to leave. It felt like we had already overstayed, seeing we were there for over an hour after our meal finished. ¡°You guys want to go take a stroll?¡± ire asked the moment we left the restaurant. ¡°Stroll? Around here?¡± I gestured out the window toward the concrete jungle we were in, being in downtown Elevate City. ¡°No dummy, let¡¯s go to the waterfront.¡± And so we did. We went out in a convoy of several Wraiths and Vanguards. We parked at the port before we strolled along the ocean. Even though it was in the dead of night, the lights eternally lit up the entire city, especially in the areas near the main roads. It wasn¡¯t the rxing stroll I had in mind as our guards cleared the way in front of us and tailed us from behind. One of the Wraiths could be seen driving slowly nearby as well. We picked a spot without too many people, and the few that were there gave us a wide berth. There was a mix of regr citizens struggling to get by, to wealthier corpos, unting their wealth. At this point, I was definitely part of thetter to any onlookers, and I don¡¯t think I could say they were wrong. We only slowed down when a group of people, who were heavily guarded like us, crossed paths with us. Their uniforms marked them to be a group from a corporation called GrainScape Tech. I¡¯d never heard of them before and a quick search informed me that they were a smaller supplier dealing in their namesake of grains. Our two groups walked by, with the security teams ring at each other while we sped past them without slowing. I could tell theirrge cyborg of a woman red at Thorne the entire time, but we all ignored them. ¡°Not the friendliest of corpos, are they? Did you know that woman, Thorne?¡± ¡°No, not at all.¡± ¡°I think those guys are trying to dig around on our website. I just got a few alerts and the timing couldn¡¯t have been more coincidental,¡± Leo said. ¡°...¡± Seeing how we were silent, Lana added, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not that umon, they¡¯re just posturing. If they were really malicious, we wouldn¡¯t have known so easily.¡± We all continued walking and cut our stroll short. We instead went to a dessert shop nearby to end our night. Just as we were about to board our cars, an iing call came through ourpanyms. Except it wasn¡¯t just for me, everyone received one as well. We exchanged nces before we all connected to the call. ¡°Sirs, and Madams, the system just gged a report you guys should see. We got intel on a possible attack against our assets on the New North American continent.¡± ire broke the tension and sighed. ¡°Are you guys going to be leaving me alone again?¡± ¡°...Depends on the situation. Vin has been expanding our forces, so they could probably handle it themselves if we are on top of the intel game. Let¡¯s hurry back for more details.¡± The entire group nodded and boarded the Wraiths. ¡°If only it would go as smoothly as you say.¡± I heard one of them muttering. Chapter 79: Threat Chapter 79: Threat Our convoy of cars rushed back to our office¡¯s garage. Immediately upon arriving, we all swiftly made our way to the security control room. Leo and Lana quickly took their seats upon entering the room, while the rest of us gathered at the table in the back. One of the security officers on duty hurried to set up the projector on the table and connected the terminal to disy thetest information. The projector shot out a holographic screen that rested in mid-air, directly above the center of the table. ¡°Sir, the new apps had just gged thesemunications approximately half an hour ago. There are mostly conversations between friends or family that originate from Firebird.¡± With ourck of marketing, I¡¯m surprised the app has reached all the way to the New North American continent already. I watched as the projection zoomed in on several textmunications. *Hun, I¡¯ll be stuck in Firebird for a while. The corp that is our best client is having more and more peoplee in and I have to ensure all of them are well-fed, so I¡¯ll have to do some overtime this month.* *Did you see the corpo building down the street? They keep having their convoys blocking up traffic. I heard from someone that those trucks are filled with weapons and soldiers, and they aren¡¯t the friendly kind. So don¡¯t pick me up on the main streetter,e around the back.* There were several other messages that hinted at a build-up of forces from a certain corporation.¡°What corporation are they referring to, and why do you think it rtes to us?¡± I asked. ¡°Sir, we got confirmation that the location they¡¯re referring to is the branch office of QuickLinks Logistics. The one on our watch list.¡± Those guys who we disrupted their logistic routes on behalf of the Wells n¡­Did they find out we attacked them? But how? Thest time we met, they happily leased their assets to us¡­Was there anything that has changed? No, they might¡¯ve started to suspect us when we came in to take over their route at such perfect timing and began expanding non stop. I exchanged nces with Thorne and ire, who knew about our past rtionship with QuickLinks Logistics. ¡°Rollo, you think they found out?¡± ire asked. ¡°They probably are fairly confident, even without proof. Our timing was just too perfect. We were a little too eager back then.¡± ¡°It was inevitable the moment we decided to go into the same market as them. We would¡¯ve fought them for market share or something else, sooner orter,¡± Thorne added. ¡°We¡¯re a lot more prepared for a fight than we were before. Let¡¯s contact Vin to make preparations and send out a reconnaissance team.¡± ¡°Right,¡± they both replied in unison.
Daniel - QuickLinks Logistics ¡°How confident are you, Daniel?¡± The silver-haired old man asked. The projection of his image couldn¡¯t hide how fit he was, even when not taking his age into ount. He stood as straight as an arrow. ¡°Sir, I may not have concrete proof, but the timing matches too well. We can¡¯t let them get away with taking our route.¡± ¡°I understand the grudge you may have. You should still focus on how you may turn a profit with this newfound information. Do you have a n to take back our route or profit in other ways?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. I had a few contacts dig around in Elevate City, where they¡¯re based. They¡¯re a new corporation that isn¡¯t even a year old. We can definitely crush them with force. We just need your permission to send out a strike force quietly, and we can catch them off-guard.¡± ¡°I see¡­Let me discuss this with the board to see when we can spare the manpower you¡¯re asking for. Either way, don¡¯t take this grudge too far, Daniel. We¡¯re not in a position to waste resources to crush every corporation that opposes us. Especially when our group is already under attack as it is. ¡± ¡°I understand, sir.¡± The silver-haired man nodded, and his projection disappeared as he disconnected. Daniel sat back in his chair and stared down at the terminal in his hand. These bastards even had the nerve to lease our facility from us. I won¡¯t let them off with just some loss in profits. He then ced a call to his secretary using his SAID. ¡°Yvonne, go reach out to that QG you talked about a few weeks ago. I have a job for her.¡±
NLA Vin¡¯s bright smile greeted us as we stepped into our NLA office. Thorne quickly stepped forward to give the man a hug while I took a seat. ¡°So what¡¯s this imminent attack about? Didn¡¯t expect to see you two back so soon. It¡¯s been like what? A month or so?¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°You should know the severity of this from the encoded messages we sent you. We¡¯re here to give you the details in person, so there¡¯s no chance of anyone intercepting it or leaving any records.¡± Vin took a seat across from me and frowned. ¡°Our new intel department believes that QuickLinks Logistics is nning to attack us to take back their transport route.¡± ¡°Those guys? So they finally found out, then. Faster than I had thought.¡± ¡°You knew they were going to find out?¡± Thorne asked from the seat beside him. ¡°You can never truly hide anything, forever. Even when you destroy all the evidence, that in itself creates a hint. They¡¯re plenty of people that have a good sense that could pick up on it. Especially if they got the resources of a corp to aid in their investigation.¡± ¡°Well, whether you¡¯re right or not, that doesn¡¯t change the fact that they¡¯re nning on attack. Have you drafted up a n?¡± ¡°It¡¯s hard to have anything concrete when we don¡¯t know exactly when they¡¯re attacking, where, and their numbers. With that said, we¡¯ve been consolidating our assets,bining our convoys to form arger group while we have sent out a scouting party to Firebird and hired some mercenaries to snoop around.¡± ¡°Rollo and I won¡¯t be joining in this time. There¡¯s a chance they may target our assets in Elevate City too, and we wanted to leave it up to you this time.¡± ¡°That is my job. We¡¯ll manage. You boys are going to head straight back?¡± ¡°Yeah, tomorrow.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll get to work with the information you¡¯ve brought. Is there some way to keep us updated with your intel department?¡± ¡°Not yet. We¡¯ll send someone to pass on the data in a physical data chip for now,¡± I answered. Vin took off out of my office, leaving only me and Thorne. With our jobplete, I went to inspect the only other thing we were here for. We went out on a Wraith, apanied by two teams of guards even though it was only a few minutes¡¯ ride away. We arrived and parked at a nearby megabuilding and went to the seventh floor. It was one of themercial floors that was filled entirely with shops. We went to one of the retail units that didn¡¯t have any signage outside and only tinted ss windows. Ourpany software opened the lock, and we stepped inside the vacant room where several construction workers were practicing their craft. Multiple heads turned our way, but quickly returned to their work once they noticed the heavily armed guards escorting me and Thorne. I surveyed their work for a few minutes before heading to the rooms in the back. Each room had the familiar operating table inside, with all the equipment one needed to install cybeics. ¡°This setup looks exactly like ours in Elevate City,¡± Thorne noted. ¡°That¡¯s fine. If it ain¡¯t broke, don¡¯t fix it. The employees who will be manning this clinic would have trained in our clinic back home, so this will only make it easier for them.¡± I inspected the equipment in each room before turning to Thorne. ¡°Hope on, let me do a quick checkup on you while we¡¯re here.¡± ¡°If you say so¡­¡±
We soon returned from NLA back to the only city on Earth with ess to the space elevator. Thorne was busy reinforcing the security of our assets and with his volleyball team, while I had mountains of paperwork waiting for me with three different expanding businesses on our te. I only saw Thorne and ire at the end of the day while we ate. ¡°How are the both of you doing?¡± I asked, while opening the delivery we ordered. ¡°I¡¯ve been busy hiring people to fill out the intelligence department. I mostly pulled from our existing security team too, so I had to hire their recements as well,¡± ire replied before looking over at Thorne. ¡°With ire¡¯s new hires, we have to go through training again. At least we had always been expanding, so I was able to bolster our defenses with ease. We only have the office and the clinic to worry about. Just remember to lie low for now, Rollo. Don¡¯t head out during the night until this is over with.¡± ¡°Fine, I had a new project that I wanted to spend some time in the workshop for, anyway.¡± ¡°And consider buying some additional protection. As great as our defense is, there are still some gaps we can¡¯t cover. A sniper can still threaten us if we step outside, or they can ram a truck full of explosives towards you. Maybe look into getting a VIP car or something?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­Sounds expensive. It also won¡¯t solve my problems when I¡¯m on foot. I¡¯ll go take a look, though. Want toe?¡± ¡°You mean right now?¡± ¡°Might as well. The sooner the better, they say.¡± ¡°Oh, I want toe too! I haven¡¯t had the chance to get much shopping done recently,¡± ire interjected excitedly. The three of us soon drove off toward the mall we had often patronized and entered the floor with military equipment in the basement. We had two fully armed squads apanying us inside, a perk of being from an official corporation. We skipped the weapons this time and browsed through the defensive options. There were different sections for equipment meant for the average guard or mercenaries, and ones designed for VIPs. The VIP equipment all had an extra zero in the price tag and was designed to be inconspicuous, blending in with the typical corpo attire. They all seemed to be lightweight bullet-proof vests to me, so I asked the clerk for assistance. ¡°What is the best option you have here to defend againstrger caliber weapons and snipers?¡± ¡°It would be my pleasure to help you, sir. The type of vest that may satisfy your requirements may be these cloud vests. We have several models, but they all function simrly. They detect any high-speed objects heading your way and expand arge protectiveyer to keep you from harm.¡± I watched as the salesperson demonstrated the vest¡¯s defensive functions on the big screen terminal, where foam-like cotton candy was suddenly expelled to protect the wearer from bullets and impact. The only downside I saw was that it could only be used once before it ran out of the cloud-like protective substance, but it could even protect you in the event of a car crash, like an airbag. We browsed through different brands that offered the cloud vest and finally settled on thetest model from a corporation called Bulwark Tech. With our defensive equipment shoppingplete, we boarded the elevator to visit a different floor to browse other things. As I walked in and pressed the button to select the floor, an electrifying shock suddenly sparked brightly between my cyberarm and the button. ¡®Hacking attempt detected. The intrusion attempt has been thwarted, and the connection has been forcefully terminated.¡¯ My SAID assistant, Kiri, suddenly alerted me. I turned back to the other upants of the elevator. ¡°Someone just tried to hack me. Everyone on alert!.¡± The team quickly pushed me toward the middle, along with ire. ¡°Rollo, are you okay?¡± She asked. ¡°Yeah, my SAID is air-gapped from external connections,¡± I replied as I got my weapons readied. My past self sure was far-sighted. This was definitely a worthwhile purchase. I watched as a guard cautiously pushed the elevator button with his organic finger. ¡°The elevator isn¡¯t responding! Everyone, watch out!¡± He yelled out. Chapter 80: Coordinated Attack Chapter 80: Coordinated Attack ¡°The elevator isn¡¯t responding to us! Everyone, get ready!¡± The guard who tried to press the elevator buttons yelled. We could feel the elevator bringing us higher and higher. Thorne sprang into action and pushed the hatch open on the ceiling of the elevator. He carefully climbed up the moving elevator and a short momentter, the elevator came to a shrieking halt. I could spot sparks flying up above as the elevator brakes did their job. ¡°Come on up, I¡¯ll pry these doors open,¡± Thorne yelled out from above. We had several security members go up first before ire and I followed. I stepped forward and helped Thorne pry the elevator doors open with our cybeic arms. The doors were half a level above us, which made it more difficult than expected, as we didn¡¯t have the greatest leverage. The metal creaked under ourbined strength and eventually failed to obstruct us. Immediately upon opening the doors, our security swiftly climbed out with weapons at the ready. I could hear shouts of surprise as I climbed up. There were numerous customers staring at us with caution as they hid inside the stores. Our group scanned our surroundings for threats, which meant weapons were pointed at the curious shoppers who peeked their heads out. Some were scared and retreated while some yelled angrily and reprimanded us, but we ignored them all and moved toward the staircase, with me and ire at the center of our formation. I watched as our vanguards checked each corner carefully as we made our way down the stairs. The elevators had brought us up to the seventeenth floor before it was stopped. We maneuvered cautiously down each flight of stairs, taking us an entire ten minutes to get down. There were several security guards from the mall on the ground floor waiting for us, trying to secure the area. It seemed they were well aware we were the victims, as they yelled out to us instead of pointing their weapons.¡°We¡¯ve secured the exit if you would like to leave. We have additional teams and the ECPD en route as well. If you would like to bunker down here.¡± ¡°No, thank you. We¡¯re leaving now,¡± Thorne replied immediately as he stood at the forefront of our party. The mall security didn¡¯t argue and moved out of the way. They even secured the driveway for us as we made our way toward our vehicles. We quickly boarded and rushed out of the area at full speed. ¡°I called for backup to meet us halfway. We¡¯re going to take a random roundtable route back,¡± Thorne said as soon as the glow from his eyes faded. ¡°You should head around downtown where security is best to prevent any potential pursues from tracking us through the street cameras,¡± I said. ¡°Right.¡± Our convoy of military vehicles swerved in and out of traffic as we red our horns. Most cars were smart enough to stay out of our way, but some decided to honk and flip the bird at us. Entitled drivers were a breed that never went extinct, like cockroaches. Just as we wereing up to the bridge that brought us toward the downtown area, I spotted a vehicle parked off to the side of the bridge. It started up its engines, shing on its headlights. ¡®Weapons spotted in that vehicle,¡¯ Kiri, my SAID, warned. It quickly followed us as we passed by, and the hatch on top of their SUV opened, and I could spot a figure peeking out with a rocketuncher in hand. The rm in our call rang out as it warned us of being locked on by a hostile targeting system. I had already jumped forward toward the driver¡¯s seat and mmed my hand on the button that enabled our Wraith¡¯s stealth field. I turned back to see the rocket being fired, chasing after us. Our driver reacted to the rm as trained and swerved. The rocket failed to track us and continued flying at a straight trajectory before it soon exploded as it hit the road. Thank the heavens the stealth field worked on homing systems. ¡°Open fire! Don¡¯t let them shoot again!¡± I yelled to Thorne, who had climbed to the gunner¡¯s station. In response, the machine guns mounted on the Wraiths spitted out heavy caliber rounds at our enemy¡¯s vehicle. Their SUV was of a civilian make, which meant the bullets ripped it apart like it was paper. I watched as sparks flew as new holes were made in the car until it veered off course and crashed into a streetlight. ¡°Keep your guard up. Who knows where else they cane from.¡± Our cars continued onward, crossing the bridge. We soon came upon the concrete jungle that made up the downtown core. There were various office buildings here, from arge variety of corporations from throughout the world. While we couldn¡¯t cross off one of them may be assisting with the attack, it wouldn¡¯t be likely they could gain ess to many cameras around here to track us down unless multiple corps were in on it. In that case, we probably wouldn¡¯t have even survived until now. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t go back straight away, Rollo,¡± Thorne advised. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°You¡¯re right. Let¡¯s drive around here for a while first. Have our backup do a sweep of the area around our office before we return.¡± ¡°I contacted Leo and Lana already. We¡¯re going to look for any suspicious activity trying to track us down,¡± ire added. ¡°Hmm¡­This probably has something to do with QuickLinks Logistics, right?¡± I asked the two. Thorne turned to me at my words. ¡°If that is so, then they¡¯re probably taking action in NLA, too. You should contact Vin to warn him if it hasn¡¯t happened already.¡±
Drew - Halls Corporation ¡°Hey Drew, how long do you think we¡¯re going to stand by here? We¡¯ve been here for over twenty-four hours now when they would normally only give us ten to rest,¡± a tall but thin woman said to the man sitting nearby. They both had a cup in front of them as they sat listlessly in the breakroom of theirpany¡¯s wastnd outpost. They both wore dark attires that made it apparent they were meant forbat and provided resistance against small arms. On their shoulders was their corporation¡¯s logo, which depicted a snow owl that showed their affiliation. ¡°I think they¡¯re waiting for the other team that went out to Salt Lake City to make it back. We¡¯re formingrge groups now for increased security.¡± ¡°Who knows if we¡¯re actually their target? If we have to be this careful every time a corp gears up, we¡¯ll be stuck like this forever!¡± ¡°Calm down S. I¡¯m sure the higher-ups know more than what they¡¯re telling if they are being this careful. Better than them pretending to know nothing and sending us out as bait.¡± ¡°At least you two have it nice and easy, just taking a break here. We, in logistics and maintenance, still have a ton of work to do.¡± The two security guards nced over at the middle-aged woman who had just entered the room. ¡°Right. We¡¯re thankful for you guys, helping us keep our vehicles in good working order,¡± Drew said. ¡°You better. You have no idea how much of a pain in the ass it is working with these babies that regrly go out in that nasty sandstorm. The new Wraiths are better since we can produce all the parts easily enough, but the Vanguards are like a jumble of mess that is barely held together.¡± The two security guards smiled at the woman in mechanic¡¯s attire as she passed them toward the coffee machine. Drew took another sip of his coffee as he watched on. This stuff may be synthetic, but at least it doesn¡¯t taste like shit. And it¡¯s free, so we can¡¯t reallyin. Just as Drew was expecting the same synthetic coffee to be spat out by the machine, the device vibrated strongly and made a noise he had never heard before. Soon, thick liquid poured out, and the mechanic shoved a straw into the cup. She turned around and saw the two staring, confused. ¡°What? You two didn¡¯t know the drink machine got a milkshake option added?¡± ¡°No¡­That¡¯s a thing? Who even bothered to install that sugary crap?¡± ¡°Watch your words, kid. The boss himself had it installed. He¡¯s a big fan, though this machine only dispenses coffee-vored milkshakes. It¡¯s good enough to take the heat out of me from being in the workshop all day.¡± Curious, Drew stood up and dispensed himself a milkshake as well, to give it a try. The burst of energy he got from the sugar and the caffeine made him feel slightly refreshed, but he still preferred his coffee. Hot drinks are more my style. The frozen stuff makes me long for a hot shower. How long has it been since Ist showered, anyway? Just as the older mechanic left the room, Drew and S both received a message that popped up in their optics. It was from thepany software, so there was no way to mute it. It also monitored them, so they were careful not to mess around with it too much. *Your unit #702 is scheduled to head out today at 14:30. Please be there at least fifteen minutes early.* Drew looked down at the time disyed on the top right of his optics and found that he had less than thirty minutes before the departure time. He exchanged looks with his partner before they got up and went to prepare themselves. They passed the hallway with a window that looked down at the garage below, where a dozen or so mechanics busied themselves with the vehicles below. Once they were down the stairs, they headed straight for the armory where theirrades in the security department had begun to gather. Drew plugged his neural port into the scanner at the door, allowing thepany software to verify his identity before the armory door opened. Inside was another set of doors, where he had to wait for the doors behind him to close before he could proceed. His friend, S, performed the same procedure and joined him in the airlock. Once she was in, the first set of doors closed and the two were allowed into the core of the armory. Various small arms were avable, though the expensive railguns were only rewarded to those who performed exception tasks. Drew and hispanion selected an assault rifle to add to their armament, which had only consisted of a pistol until now. They then exited and went to the change room where they found and equipped their helmets. The entire helm felt smooth and looked like it was made of tinted ss, but Drew had seen one of these deflected bullets before. By the time they were fully equipped, they exited out into the corner of the garage, where they found the rest of their team. Thepany organized their security into groups of four to make up a squad, which meant they had another two members that were part of their team. After a brief moment of waiting, the captain of the security forces, who was in charge of this base, walked in with his lieutenants. ¡°You¡¯ll all be carrying out the daily transport mission to retrieve the material from Point B now. There¡¯ll be a dozen squads on this trip this time, so you may have guessed it. We are expecting to be attacked. Everyone, keep your guard up!¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± everyone yelled out as they saluted the superior officer. Drew then boarded the Wraith their team was assigned and slowly drove out of the garage. He was in charge of driving and monitoring the detection equipment, which also made him the squad leader. Watching the pings return nothing but sand was a boring job, to be honest. At least the new equipment can detect further out, so there should be a mutant or something showing up on the screen soon. ¡°Hey Drew, I heard you were talking crap in the breakroom about the boss¡¯s taste in drinks,¡± thenky man beside him teased. ¡°Ha, you sure the boss man hasn¡¯t already heard what you said from thepany software? Are we going to have to host you a goodbye party already?¡± The long-haired man said as he poked out his head from the back. ¡°Stop it, you guys. We¡¯re not on break. I¡¯m sure Mr. Halls isn¡¯t one to dismiss me for such a minor thing, anyway.¡± At least I hoped¡­ Just as he was about to continue consoling himself, an unmistakable ping rang out on the scanner. At first, he thought it would just be the asional mutant, but upon a second look, the sensors detected too much metal for that to be true, and various other pings were picked up one after the other. He quickly opened the channel that was connected to the entire convoy and ryed his findings. ¡°Contact, I detect five¡ªno, a dozen vehicles heading our way!¡± Chapter 82: Nye Chapter 82: Nye The first thing I did upon entering my workshop was to inspect the equipment and materials I had in stock. Not everything could just be ordered at a moment¡¯s notice, with some parts needing to be crafted or through cing a special order. This was especially true for specialized parts like the processing chips and nanomachines. The nanomachines I had been using for my Shades were made by apany based in space that specialized in them. It required a lot of sophisticated equipment to produce and a zero-G environment reduced the production cost significantly, so almost all businesses that were in the market had their manufacturing done in space. After taking stock, I performed the diagnostics on the equipment like the 3D printer, and took out my terminal to start working on a new design. There were a few things I had on my wishlist and now was the time to bring two of them into reality. The first one was the simplest, to create a terminal for the hacking and data retrieval I did during infiltration missions. Not just any terminal, though, a hidden cybeic version with some serious processing power, and would be ced inside my body. It would allow me to sneak a more powerful unit unseen into restricted areas when I disguised myself. It was simple enough to make with ten points in cybeic engineering and referencing the readily avable terminals throughout society. It could only serve as a warmup project. The second thing I wanted to make was a mobile camera to help me scout ahead. I realized it one day when tuning my Shade and studying the nanomachines I used. They could observe the surroundings and project them back into reality, creating the active camouge effect. That meant they were all literally mini cameras in themselves, despite the fact that they had limited range due to connection and battery levels.As much as I wanted to be able to design longersting batteries to solve the issue, I would have to settle for erging the entire device to create capacity instead. I would take a group of nanomachines and have several of them be battery packs for the others. While it would lose the size advantage of nanomachines, it could still be kept at the size of a grain of sand, barely visible to the naked eye. My electrical engineering knowledge came in handy in configuring the ranged control modules and tuning how they shared their battery packs with more efficiency. Once I got into my groove, I spent the next three days ordering food every meal to sustain my workshop sessions. I only emerged when I finally had a prototype to test. As my new device, I dubbed it Nye, and it was only the size of a grain. I had made it entirely controlled through my SAID and a housing unit for it, so I could carry it around and charge the nanomachines. I exited my workshop and headed for the residential floor where I should find the others eating around this time. Once I arrived, I hid in a corner and unleashed mytest creation. Kiri, send the Nye to scout out my surroundings. ¡®Affirmative, connecting their feed to you now.¡¯ Just like with camera feeds, several small windows popped up in the corner of my vision. It was entirely dark, as it was still in its charging case, so I quickly took it out of my chest pocket and ced it on the ground. A few secondster, the scene brightened, and I could see my surroundings projected on the feeds. It was disorienting being so low to the ground, and everything looking gigantic. Hmm, I should tune it up and add a filter so the video is easier on the eyes. The little Nyes started moving around. It had some issues with choppy footage, but that couldn¡¯t be helped as the transceiver needed some work. I would need to do some trial and error to stabilize the footage while keeping the connection secure and discreet. The Nyes soon reached the first room closest to the elevators and slipped easily under the door. It took a tour around and found Thorne¡¯s room to be empty. It was tidy but also bare, with only the essentials. ire¡¯s room was surprisingly techy, with terminalsid about. The real surprise was in Leo¡¯s room, which had all these posters of retro movies and animes. It was surprising because he had never really mentioned this hobby of his before. Passing by the rooms, the Nye soon arrived at themunal room where we used to eat our meals together. I found the entire gang there as expected and listened in on their conversation. ¡°---don¡¯t want me to get him?¡± ¡°He¡¯s an adult, so he can take care of himself. This is better than him running off to join the fight with Vin,¡± ire¡¯s voice rang out through the feed. I couldn¡¯t get an angle on what was on their tables from the ground, so I made the Nye climb up the table. While it was midway through, the low-energy failsafe kicked in, and it dropped back onto the ground and cut the feed. ¡®Nye #2 is returning in low energy mode.¡¯ Right, I still have to work out how it reacts in different situations. I only have the self-destruct configured, so that it would activate if returning to me wasn¡¯t possible. I will have to add more of a battery warning, and maybe a recording function for when the connection gets interrupted. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. I quickly sent a text over. *Thorne, stop the little camera on the ground from exiting the room.* With the test drawing close to finish, I swiftly made my way over in time to find Thorne squinting at the ground by the door. He reached out and grabbed the Nye and it suddenly sparked and turned to dust in his hand. The nanites had sessfully broken up and vaporized themselves. It¡¯s a good thing I had the foresight to ask Thorne to do it, or someone may have burnt their fingers. Thorne stared down at his hand, puzzled until he spotted me. ¡°Rollo, what was that about?¡± ¡°Just testing out a new gadget. Want to try it out, too?¡± For the first time in three days, I had dinner outside my workshop while I exined to them about the Nyes and the terminal imnt that I would get ire to install for me the next morning.
Andrew - Halls Corporation Andrew stared out the window to only his entire view filled with sand. The sandstorm persisted no matter the time of day out in the wastnd. He couldn¡¯t help but think back to a week ago when his boss ordered him, ¡°Go to NLA to support Vin in gathering intel.¡± What he happened to have left out was that he was to be sent to Miles High, a city that was separated from NLA by the entire western wastnd. ¡°Peng needs to use the washroom.¡± ¡°...Peng, you just went not that long ago.¡± ¡°Sorry, but Peng needs to pee.¡± ¡°We¡¯re on a schedule, Peng. Go pee in a bottle off in the corner or something.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± ¡°...¡± Well, that¡¯s one bottle that¡¯s no longer usable. He exchanged looks with Brian and Mark, his two other teammates, who were seated up front. An awkward silence permeated throughout their car as the only sound that could be heard was a slow and steady trickle of liquids filling the bottle. For a short while after that, the three upants of the car could be seen with glows in their eyes, distracting themselves with whatever media they had saved as they drove along. They could safely do so because they were simply following along the other car that was leading the way. It took another two hours to exit the wastnd and another hour until they reached their target destination, Miles High. The two unmarked cars entered the metropolis like any other mercenary team visiting. Immediately upon seeing the pedestrians on the streets, Andrew suddenly felt like they were a lot more haggard than he had thought whenpared to them. I thought we did pretty well keeping ourselves clean after a whole week out in the wastnd. We definitely need a shower. The entire city of Miles High seemed to favor the neon lights that were usually only in the entertainment districts. Even during the day, the entire city was lit up in a variety of neon lights, including the downtown office areas. Their two squads soon arrived at a motel. As they got out of the car, they couldn¡¯t help but notice the various groups hanging out in the parking lot, all visibly armed. Their team of eight continued onward to the lobby, while keeping careful watch of the other, even though the other party seemed to ignore them and were busy having fun amongst themselves. Andrew was relieved upon entering the room he would be sharing with Peng. He immediately took a hot shower, savoring the hot water he finally had ess to once again. The moment Peng was ready, he shepherded them out of the room and grabbed some food that wasn¡¯t field rations. After a night of well-deserved rest, the entire team gathered in Andrew¡¯s room. They all thoroughly inspected the room for bugs and turned on a jammer before they began their discussion. A woman from the other squad facilitated the meeting as she was the appointed leader of this expedition. ¡°We will do as nned and work separately from here. My team will handle contacting the fixers, while Andrew¡¯s team will start working on their low-level employees. We¡¯ll meet every day during lunch, message us otherwise, or we¡¯ll assume your cover is blown and the rest of us will escape immediately.¡± Everyone in the room nodded but Peng. The meeting soon finished, and the two teams quickly got to work. Andrew rounded up his team and directly went to one of the QuickLinks Logistic facilities. The information provided showed that the facility was only a processing center where low-level employees were, but they still cautiously approached. The information showed that the facility superiors rarely showed up here, preferring to stay in their cozy offices in the downtown area. That didn¡¯t mean the security wasx there, though. As a vital facility to their business, the important packages they were entrusted with were well-secured, with various automated defenses in ce. Andrew¡¯s team of four drove around to scout out the building and its surroundings before they parked a street away. ¡°The lobby is filled with scanners, like our intel says. We¡¯ll be detected even with our Shades,¡± Mark said. ¡°That¡¯s standard corpo practice. We¡¯re not the only corporation around with active camouge, you know,¡± Andrew replied as he poked Peng to make him pay attention to their discussion. ¡°There look. Let¡¯s catch a ride with one of their vehicles as it goes inside.¡± He pointed toward the loading docks. The team then hid in an alleyway while they waited for a QuickLinks vehicle to arrive. It didn¡¯t take long, as it was early in the day when packages arrived to be processed in this facility. They quickly activated their Shades and jumped onto the back of a truck while it stopped at a red. The truck slowly drove through the gates of the processing center and directly went to the cargo area. It slowed down to back into a dock, allowing the team to all disembark and enter the facility through the opened cargo doors. They immediately hopped off the conveyor belt meant for packages and began snooping around. The team surveyed the building for an administrative office. It didn¡¯t take long, as they followed the signs and the employees that walked around. They easily sneaked in as the door was left open and found the office of the head of the facility. It was easy to spot when it was the only room behind ss partitions throughout the entire office. The manager was busy working on his terminal, but that meant he was in the way. Have to get him out of here somehow¡­ Andrew spotted the drink the man had on his desk and swiftly pushed it over, spilling its contents onto the manager. ¡°Goddamnit it!¡± The manager yelled. He tried to wipe it with some synthetic tissue paper and cursed at the stain. He then got up and exited the room, cursing the entire time. ¡°Okay, Brian, download all their employee information. Mark, go bug the ce. We¡¯ll need to make a visit to their employees once we get their addresses, too, so let¡¯s hurry it up.¡± Chapter 83: Alliances Chapter 83: Alliances ¡°So, what did you find out over there?¡± I asked as I ate my breakfast, which consisted of authentic oatmeal and milk. ¡°They¡¯re posturing defensively right now. They have rivals to keep in check and they just lost a part of their forces. Still, there¡¯s a slow buildup in Firebird centered around their hired guns, so they still have the capability to attack again,¡± Vin replied. ¡°They must be desperate at this point. They need to turn things around quickly or the predators lurking around will start smelling blood. Did you find out who their rivals are?¡± ¡°That¡¯s where it gets interesting. Their so-called rival isn¡¯t as simple as just another corporation in the same transportation business, but an alliance of medium to small-sized corporations. QuickLinks Logistics themselves are part of a rival alliance.¡± He took a sip of his coffee before he continued. ¡°The two rival alliances are both big producers of agricultural products and QuickLinks does logistics for their group, mainly the route between Can Sauce City to Miles High.¡± ¡°So their rivals must want to take over the route from QuickLinks, then.¡± ¡°Right, trade between the East Coast and West Coast is profitable but difficult to manage. ¡°There is a lot of politics at y here. Which means we can¡¯t just eliminate them lest we piss off another party,¡± I said pensively. ¡°It may not be that hard to solve if you¡¯re dead set on eliminating them.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡±¡°Your friend from before, the bald one from Authentic Corp. They are one of the leaders of the rival alliance against QuickLinks. You should enlist his help in dealing with QuickLinks for good. I¡¯m sure he¡¯d be happy to help against amon enemy.¡± ¡°...I see. But that¡¯ll affiliate us with their group and earn us their enemies, too.¡± ¡°Sure, but also allies that¡¯ll help keep them in check.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll talk to him and see how it goes first.¡± We soon finished our call once Vin updated me on how our business was doing in NLA, especially about the new clinic where the surgeons we had trained were now dispatched. They only needed to hire a few more staff and sign with the suppliers before they were ready to operate. I then called ire and Thorne into my office to update them on what I discussed with Vin and the current situation we were in. ¡°You should listen to Vin on this one. I don¡¯t see how affiliating ourselves with a group is a bad thing. Just like how no one survives entirely alone, it is the same for corporations as well,¡± ire stated. ¡°We¡¯ll gain their help, but enemies too. Getting in bed with them will rope us into a lot more schemes, too.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s what corpos do, yeah? This is also a chance to expand our transportation businesses two-fold and an in with bigger yers. I¡¯m sure you know by now that business alliances are necessary to expand further. Like I said, no one can operate alone without relying on others for something, not even SocialCorp.¡± I looked to Thorne, who shrugged in a way that somehow clearly conveyed that he didn¡¯t want to weigh in on a matter that wasn¡¯t his specialty. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll set up a meeting with him. Let¡¯s hope he¡¯s still in Elevate City.¡±
¡° Thank you for making time for me today, Joey,¡± I said as I shook his hand. ¡°Of course, anything for a friend. Please take a seat.¡± He gestured at the chair on the other side of the table as him. After contacting him yesterday, he had set up a meeting in this conference room that was located in the spaceport, at the bottom of the space elevator. ¡°I must say, I¡¯m surprised you chose a meeting room this time. I would¡¯ve assumed you preferred a racetrack or a restaurant.¡± ¡°Yes, I do, but business is business. I believe what you want to discuss requires a bit of discretion and professionalism.¡± ¡°So, you are aware of our situation, then?¡± ¡°Somewhat,¡± he smiled. ¡°We keep a very close watch on ourpetitors.¡± ¡°I see. I won¡¯t beat around the bush, then. We would like to enlist your help in dismantling QuickLinks Logistics.¡± He raised an eyebrow. ¡°That¡¯s pretty decisive of you.¡± ¡°They are a threat to both our safety and stability, and that¡¯s not good for business.¡± ¡°Understandable, but why should I step in when it is more advantageous for us to wait until you guys have exhausted each other?¡± He narrowed his eyes. This was the first time I¡¯d seen Joey go into business mode, where the friendly aura he had given off vanished into thin air. ¡°I know what you and your allies are looking for. We¡¯ll take over operating the route for you guys at discounted rates.¡± His entire face gleamed, matching the shine that his bald head gave off. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°You do understand you will be effectively joining our little alliance, right? We have several otherpetitors, so you will be earning yourself new enemies as well as you stand on a united front with us.¡± ¡°Yes, I am aware, but I¡¯ll be gaining allies as well. Is that correct?¡± It was my turn to re at him. He nodded, ¡°Correct.¡± He extended his hand. I held our gaze for another second before I took a firm grasp of it.
It didn¡¯t take long for Joey to draft out the terms of entering the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance, and I signed it. Not only did I gain new allies, but I also gained ess to the group¡¯s exclusive procurement channels. I could purchase the raw materials I had sought from the corporations that owned mines in the wastnd and had a surplus. I immediately sent out the ns to ramp up production of our vehicles to the branch manager in NLA, as we will soon have two new routes to manage. With thatplete, I took the opportunity to browse the shopping mall inside the spaceport since neither I nor Thorne came here often. ¡°Do you seriously n on buying those archaic wristwatches? There¡¯s six digits in the price tag, not five, you know?¡± ¡°No¡­Not really. I was just lost in nostalgia.¡± ¡°Nostalgia?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just I remember seeing one a long time ago when I was a kid. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Oops, almost misspoke there. I got a little too absorbed in looking at the various wristwatches that were surprisingly still in fashion here. I had always wanted one back when I joined the workforce. It was a symbol of sess to me back then, but now there were more important things to spend my credits on. We skimmed through the vanity items and only took a more detailed look when we chanced across a cybeic store. As expected of this ce, it was filled with umon models. They weren¡¯t reallybat-focused and catered more toward productivity and overall health, though. I guess it made sense that a corpo executive worried more about efficiency and illnesses than a stray bullet. One item that did draw my eye was one that catered to public speaking. It was a vocal imnt that could help you enunciate words, pace, and adjust your tone. The part that stood out to me was its vast ability to adjust your voice. It was practically a voice changer, one that others wouldn¡¯t be suspicious of you for having. After making the purchase, I went to pick up lunch with Thorne before we left the spaceport after he had reminded me to order takeaways to bring back lest we earn ire¡¯s wrath. On our way back, I went over the details we received after entering into the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance. We would soon integrate into their intelligencework to a certain degree. Corporations never fully trusted each other, but that was fine. As long as they could cover any gaps we may have in our current fight against QuickLinks Logistics, I was satisfied. As we made it back into the city. We were once again weed by the aggressive drivers and gunshots that rang out in the distance. I had the urge to go out to get thatst bit of experience points I needed to level. Still, I should behave and wait it out a little longer to avoid giving my enemies any opportunities. When we made it back to the office, all the executives had gathered around in the meeting room, awaiting us. They had been going over the new intel our alliance had started providing. People were chatting loudly with each other while they remained in their seats, busy doing whatever was on their SAID and optics. It was a different kind of chaos than people rushing in and out of the room with documents that I had experienced in my old office. Me and Thorne sat down and files were quickly pinged my way. Before I could start going over them, ire and Lucy, our head of the new intelligence department, stood up and everyone quickly went quiet. ¡°Now that Rollo is back, let us start going over the new intel we received. Lucy, please take it away.¡± ¡°Right. The intel we received is mainly on QuickLink Logistic¡¯stest movements, schedules, and forceposition. As expected, the main bulk of their forces are in Miles High, and operating the route there to Can Sauce City.¡± ¡°Have youmunicated with the alliance on a coordinated attack?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°Yes, but they won¡¯t be able to help directly. They¡¯ll be busy holding back all of QuickLink¡¯s allies and diverting their attention.¡± ¡°Sounds like excuses, so they don¡¯t incur any damages to their forces,¡± Thorne muttered. I shook my head. ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do about that. Please continue, Lucy.¡± ¡°They also have some information on defenses of QuickLink¡¯s headquarters. They employ something called an E-Dome across their entire facility that cuts off all wireless connections from the building to the outside world.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s their trump card from cy-sec intrusions,¡± one of the security officers mumbled. ¡°We¡¯ll go over their Miles High defenses in more detailter when we¡¯re actually going to be attacking their headquarters. How are there forces in Firebird?¡± I kicked the ball back to Lucy. ¡°They don¡¯t have any detailed information for the defensives there. The facility there is too new and QuickLinks has been careful about it. All we know is the approximate numbers, and they are continuing to build up their forces there. Nearly half of it consists of mercenaries, though.¡± ¡°Then our next target is to eliminate their forces in Firebird. We can¡¯t allow them to build up their forces unobstructed. We¡¯ll need to eliminate them before thinking about doing anything at Miles High. Contact our forces in NLA to start preparing.¡± After listening to Lucy go on a while longer about the other information we received regarding their business in Can Sauce City and Miles High, I quickly returned to my workshop. I got into the elevator, but before the doors could close, ire made her way in. ¡°I hope you¡¯re not going off to think about joining the fight. At least wait until the final attack on their headquarters. You¡¯ll make our security officers think you don¡¯t trust them if you fly off to every conflict at first notice.¡± ¡°Rx, I don¡¯t n on joining in on the fun in Firebird this time. I¡¯m going to work on something that will hopefully give us an advantage.¡± She stared at me suspiciously. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Of course. I¡¯ll be busy for the rest of the day. Why don¡¯t you go eat the takeout we got you from the spaceport?¡± ¡°What? You guys remembered to get me something?! ¡­But that can wait.¡± ¡°...Oh, I just remembered. I bought this new vocal imnt. You¡¯ve been installing cybeics for people at the clinic from time to time, right? Want to install this for me?¡± I reached over and grabbed the new cybeic that was still in its packaging. ¡°Woah, that looks expensive. Let me see it.¡± ¡°Yeah, and it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to install either, as you¡¯re not recing anything. It just attaches to my vocal chord.¡± ¡°Oh, this is exciting. My first time installing a cybeic on you!¡± ¡°...Just perform as you always have. No need to get fancy now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ve been diligently practicing for how long now? You can trust me!¡± No matter what you say, I can¡¯t help but be a little worried when you look at me like you¡¯ve gained a new toy¡­ Chapter 84: Pixie Chapter 84: Pixie Vin - Halls Corporation Inside the NLA office of Halls Corporation, Vin strode into the meeting room he had set up as a base for managing all affairs rted to the fight against QuickLinks Logistics. ¡°Talo, have the new equipment arrived?¡± He asked his second inmand. ¡°Yes, sir. They sent someone along with the new gear. They¡¯re in the basement, going over it with the men in rotation.¡± ¡°Good, we can start executing our nned strike then. We¡¯ll set off in three days. We need to end this quickly so we can focus on expanding our vehicle production. We¡¯ll need it.¡± Vin then paced around the room, as he carefully examined the information disyed on the various screens. They each contained updated information provided by thepany¡¯s new allies from the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance. A majority of the information was mostly mundane and unimportant, but paying attention to all of them gave clues and painted a bigger picture. That was why there were several cy-sec specialists monitoring all the iing data. ¡°I¡¯m going to check out the training downstairs. Contact me if you find anything new.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± Several voices replied as Vin exited the room. He walked past the main floor, where several workers were assembling together parts to create a new Shade, to reach the elevator on the other side of the building. He pressed the floor to the lowermost level in the basement. When the doors opened, he was greeted by several turrets on the ceiling and a thick door blocking his way. Beside the door was a terminal and a screen that disyed some numbers.The floors in this small chamber acted like a scale, with the screen disying the weight of everyone who was inside. Vin took a brief nce to ensure that nothing was out of the ordinary before he proceeded. He didn¡¯t seem to mind the weapons pointed at him at all. He walked straight up to the terminal, plugged into it and looked into the iris scanner. With his security credentials verified, he passed through to find several more turrets in the corridor ahead, with four security guards standing behind them. ¡°Sir.¡± They saluted as he approached. He saluted back and continued moving past several sets of automatic doors. Through the ss windows in the hallway, he could make out the several rooms, power generators, and the armory for this base. This floor contained the NLA branch server rooms that contained the files for their products and everything pertaining to their business operations. Which was why the additional security was justified. Right next to the armory was a small area that they sometimes used as a shooting range or to drill their team maneuvers. Right now, it was configured for thetter, using pre-fab walls to construct a basicyout of the interiors of a typical building. He could see a lone woman standing by the entrance of the makeshift building, studying the various screens disyed before her that showed the body cam footage of the people inside. Vin walked loudly toward her to announce himself. ¡°You must be the one they sent from headquarters, right?¡± The woman immediately saluted before she replied. ¡°Yes sir. I am Yuki from the Elevate City security team. I have been tasked with overseeing the training of the new equipment.¡± Vin¡¯s gaze moved to the table behind her. ¡°Is that the new device Rollo made?¡± ¡°Yes sir, this is the new stealth drone, dubbed the Pixie. Its role is support for frontal assaults rather than reconnaissance, though.¡± Vin approached and picked up the small drone to carefully study it. It¡¯s more like a mouse than a pixie¡­ ¡°How does it work?¡± ¡°See for yourself, sir. Team 21 is just about to test it.¡±
Vin - Halls Corporation ¡°Get ready, everyone. We will be going straight to the enemy base as soon as we reach the city.¡± Vin¡¯s voice resounded throughout the entire convoy through thepanyms. Once he finished, he looked over at the woman beside him. ¡°Are you sure you want to participate in the fight? I believe you didn¡¯te with your team, as they didn¡¯t mean for you toe along. Your job was to only train my men on how to use the Pixie.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me. I¡¯ve been with thepany since the start. I know how not to get in your way,¡± Yuki replied. ¡°Okay, as long as you¡¯re fine with it.¡± The convoy of two dozen Wraiths continued cutting through the morning of the wastnd for another two hours before they finally exited out of the sandstorm. They swiftly split off into groups before they entered the city to avoid drawing attention. ¡°Are you sure they only have one facility in Firebird?¡± Yuki asked as she took in the sight of the metropolis. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve been getting information from both our own intel department and from our allies that confirms the same thing. Makes sense considering they don¡¯t operate the Firebird NLA route anymore, and they learned their lessonst time of splitting up their assets.¡± The Halls Corporation security team parked their vehicle in various alleyways and waited. Once they were all in position, Vin gave the order. ¡°Execute the n. Remember, go fast, and target the QuickLinks employees. The mercs will go away once they know it¡¯s a losing battle.¡± Vin smoothly exited the car with Yuki following close behind, along with the other two people in the car. They each enabled their active camouge the moment they stepped out of the alley, as if there were some sort of line there. With theirpany program sharing their vision with each other, they could still make out where their fellow teammates were. Vin¡¯s team rushed toward a small building that was the only QuickLinks office in the city. It was five floors tall, but had a spacious plot ofnd at the front where numerous vehicles were parked. They moved past the front by hopping over the parking gates that were only meant to stop vehicles. A lot of those cars are of different makes. They must belong to various mercenaries. The Halls Corporation guards bypassed anyone outside as their first goal was to take control of the security room. Fighting now would only allow a chance for QuickLinks to rally together and organize a tougher defensive effort. Vin led his team inside the first floor of the building and straight into the washroom that was just before the security scanners that blocked their way. ¡°You do the honors, Yuki. You know how to use the new drones best, right?¡± She nodded and took out several Pixies, the new drone her boss had made, and released them out of the bathroom. Using the same method they had employed, the drones turned invisible and scurried into the building through the various vents. Yuki connected the rest of her team with the live footage to keep them up-to-date. One of the pixies soon peeked into the rooms on the second floor to find several mercenary teams on standby. Among them were heavily augmented people, cyborgs that definitely were specialized in frontalbat. ¡°Let¡¯s not that those guys head on. I know you can handle it, but these are the guys that will leave once they are disadvantaged, right?¡± Yuki looked up and asked her current superior. ¡°Yes, keep looking around. We want to take out any QuickLink leaders here that are pulling them together.¡± The Pixies continued their search and mapped a good chunk of the building. As they had suspected, the executives stayed on the top floor, on the fifth. An unhealthy big man sat in the most important-looking office with several cyborgs standing guard behind him. Sitting on the other side of his desk appeared to be a mercenary. ¡°You know we still have to charge the same price even if we¡¯re just standing by here. Otherwise, my men will goof off and start leaving if they aren¡¯t gettingpensated appropriately,¡± the mercenary said. ¡°Fine, as long as you agree to adhere to the NDA contract, and disable your connection to the web while under our employ,¡± the obese executive replied as he wiped the sweat from his brow. The mercenary soon left his office after their negotiation was over. One of the guards then spoke up after confirming the mercenary had left. ¡°You sure that¡¯s okay, sir?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. We have more important things to worry about. Go see¡ª¡± Yuki drew her attention away from the footage from the drone and looked toward Vin. ¡°Sir, we got the location of a VIP. Should we move to secure him first?¡± ¡°Yes, we need to take out all their decision-makers to keep them scattered. Did you find a way for us to get in unnoticed?¡± ¡°No, sir, nothing inside or outside. We¡¯ll need a cy-sec specialist in their security system to do that.¡± ¡°Alright, then this is where we go loud,¡± Vin toggled over tom frequency for the entire team. ¡°Everyone, prepare to go loud in five minutes. We¡¯ll be rushing in to neutralize the VIPs.¡± As the team was waiting in the bathroom for the final five minutes, the door suddenly opened as someone walked in. The person walked up to the urinals and started to relieve himself. The entire team waited with bated breath as the man went about his business. Once he finished, he went to wash his hands with the synthetic foam dispensers and began fixing his hair while looking into the mirror. Vin watched the countdown draw close as the man took his time caring for his appearance. The time ticked down, and when there were only ten seconds left, Vin made his move. He turned on his active camouge and quickly maneuvered himself behind the unsuspecting man. Vin thenshed out and ced the man in a chokehold. ¡°Get the restrainers on him. We¡¯ll leave him in the bathroom.¡± Once the man was out cold, they ced him in a stall before they rushed out of the toilet. Then ignored everyone in the lobby and rushed straight toward the staircase behind the scanners. It didn¡¯t take long for an rm to re throughout the building as they were detected. Vin wasted no time as the people in the building were confused or panicked and rushed up the stairs. ¡°Jam the doors as we go up!¡± Hemanded. With the building only having five floors, it didn¡¯t take long for the crew to reach the top floor. They could already hear shooting downstairs as the decoy team did their jobs. ¡°Sir, his two guards aren¡¯t moving away from the door. They¡¯re just around the corner,¡± Yuki yelled out after looking at the camera feed the Pixies gave her. ¡°Ready the heavy weapons¡ª¡± ¡°Sir, leave it to me.¡± A look of realization dawned on Vin¡¯s face as he nodded back at her words. Yuki immediately got to work and focused her attention on controlling her Pixies again. She had another Pixie rendezvous with her previous one andmanded them to approach the two cyborg guards. The drones came out of the vents,nded on the ground, and rushed up to their designated targets. The active camouge allowed them to stroll straight to their cyborg objectives, where they then exploded right at their feet. ¡°They¡¯re disabled, go take them out!¡± Yuki cried out. Vin and his team quickly reacted and rushed out immediately after the explosion. He could see the two cyborgs slumped over on the ground, struggling to move. The EMP from the Pixie drones had taken out the controls of their cybeic limbs, and they wrestled to regain control. Their systems were likely robust enough to recover too, if given enough time. Unfortunately, they didn¡¯t even have five seconds before Vin plunged a de through their throats where they were least augmented. With the two guards down, the team quickly pushed through the door and found the obese man still sitting at his desk. Vin stared down at the namete for a moment. ¡°Mr. Jared Reinhart, order your men to surrender now or you¡¯ll get a bullet. It¡¯s your choice.¡± Chapter 85: Cy-Sec Infiltrator Chapter 85: Cy-Sec Infiltrator Andrew - Halls Corporation ¡°We have no connection here at all, and we¡¯re not even inside their buildings yet,¡± Brian said to his three other team members. ¡°We¡¯ll take a quick look around first. We need to gather some useful information about this ce. Mark, go around with Brian and record everything you see of the east building, including the exterior. Remember to hightail out of here at the first sight of trouble.¡± ¡°Roger.¡± The two quickly moved as instructed, leaving only Andrew and Peng by themselves. They moved toward the building by cutting across the parking lot they were in. The entrance had a set of automatic doors with a variety of sensors at the ready to scan anyone entering the building. Andrew watched the other team circling to the back of the building until they disappeared from view before he led Peng to survey the west building. They then met up to finish scouting out the main building together. Once they had the recordings of all three ten-story buildings and the sky bridges that connected them, Andrew quickly reviewed them. He found no openings or entry points that could fit a person on the exterior of all three buildings. ¡°The only way in is through the doors¡­We¡¯ll need a cy-sec specialist for this, but they¡¯ll have toe with us on the ground since we can¡¯t connect to the outside in here.¡± He looked between his teammates for opinions before his gaze settled on Peng, who was staring nkly back at him.Andrew shrugged. Should have expected as much. ¡°Let¡¯s head back.¡± After a quick five-minute in and out, Andrew led his team back to an unremarkable car nearby. Once outside the area around the QuickLinks Logistic base, they regained their connections. He quickly opened hispanyms andpiled a report using a special encryption method. I hope this information helps at all. All we found out is an impregnable fortress¡­ We¡¯ll need a lot of brute force to storm the ce.
¡°I received reports about your sessful operation. Good job, Vin,¡± I said to the projection of Vin standing in front of me. ¡°It went a lot smoother than I expected, really. We didn¡¯t expect toe across such a cowardly corpo as their leader. He didn¡¯t even try to pull any tricks and pissed himself when I was only a little rough with him.¡± ¡°How many of their forces escaped?¡± ¡°ording to their files, there¡¯s only eight to ten of their employees unounted for. We eliminated or captured the rest. We let the mercenaries scatter, though.¡± ¡°Anything useful from the captives?¡± ¡°No. My cowardly friend here is willing to talk, but they didn¡¯t inform him of the really important stuff. The only person who was entrusted was part of that convoy that attacked us in the wastnd near NLA.¡± ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate. I doubt he¡¯s still alive, but it¡¯s enough that we removed a nail from our NLA branch. They shouldn¡¯t be able to muster any significant forces there, and we can move on with our n of striking at their headquarters to end this.¡± ¡°About that¡­ I received news from the people I sent to Miles High. The QuickLinks headquarters is nothing to scoff at. We¡¯ll need to concentrate our forces to attack it and probably sustain heavy casualties.¡± Vin transferred me some files over our encrypted line. It was slow but safe. Once it was done, I could view various images and videos someone recorded of the QuickLinks Logistics headquarters building. It was a ten-story high building, with a spacious outdoor parking lot at the front. A wall surrounded theirpound. Above each section of the wall was a menacing turret that could rip apart any unarmoured vehicle with ease. Not even an armored vehicle could tank many shots. We really should upgrade our headquarters into something simr. We¡¯re a little short on cash now since we focused it all on producing our own vehicles, so maybe afterward. I continued going over the various recordings and notes the operation had left. ¡°No connection once they step on their territory? Does that affect their own people, too?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve tried to gather as much info on that as I could to see if there was any countermeasure, but the indiscriminate jamming affects themselves and all intruders without weakness to exploit.¡± ¡°...That must suck for the people working there. Like what, wired connections only?¡± ¡°Yes, their wired connections have to go through their own server first. They have cy-sec specialists on call managing their systems, too. Breaching their system through brute force isn¡¯t really an option.¡± ¡°...I see. Give me a day with this. I¡¯ll try toe up with something.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Very well. We¡¯re heading back to NLA for now to prepare for our trip to Miles High. You won¡¯t be able to contact me while I¡¯m in the wastnd.¡± ¡°Okay, safe travels.¡± I disconnected from the call and went back to my workshop. It was time to study the specifications from the footage I received. A frontal attack seemed like a stupid idea for this, and I had an idea of how to breach inside. The only problem was that it required a cy-sec specialist to break through their systems once they were in the building, but most of them weren¡¯t exactly field-ready. Especially not an infiltration mission into a corporate headquarters. I mulled the issues for the entire day and when the mental fatigue set in; I ordered a milkshake and some food to refresh myself. My order came swiftly, right after a quick shower, and I went to see the experts themselves to pick their brains for ideas. ¡°Leo, Lana, are you two busy?¡± I found the two sitting in their usual spot, where they nkly stared ahead as they were focused on what was disyed on their optics. The glow in Lana¡¯s eyes faded, and she turned to me. ¡°Leo¡¯s busy right now. What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I wanted to see if you guys could help mee up with any ideas on how to sneak into this ce here.¡± I held out a terminal with the information rting to QuickLinks Logistic¡¯s headquarters. She took the terminal for a second and transferred the info to her own before she took a few minutes to examine the information. ¡°This is the type of ce to be loaded with cameras, turrets, and even traps. You¡¯ll definitely need someone in their systems if you want to go in quietly, but the E-Dome listed here is the real problem.¡± ¡°Yeah, do you think there¡¯s a way for me to punch a connection through to the outside somehow if I can plug in from the inside?¡± ¡°You read the info. We¡¯re not magicians here. That thing jams all connections indiscriminately. You¡¯ll need ess to theirndlines that connect to the outside world, but you won¡¯t be able to get in there in the first ce without someone in their system to disable their security.¡± ¡°I see¡­ and I doubt either of you would be capable of sneaking in with us, then?¡± ¡°You can stuff as many of your stealth imnts inside of us as you want, but it won¡¯t make us infiltrators.¡± I can already see them stumbling and out of breath, trying to keep up. ¡°So, no ideas on how to help us get in, then?¡± ¡°...You know the basics of how to breach their systems, but their cy-sec specialists would stop you cold in your tracks. Pre-made stuff won¡¯t work against an active geek holding the reins. Maybe you could connect andline to the outermost systems and we¡¯ll be able to distract them¡­But even then¡­¡± Her eyes lit up once more, and she typed away at her terminal. ¡°Here, try to breach into thiswork I¡¯ve set up.¡± I did as instructed and plugged into the terminal, using the cableing out of my wrists. The defenses were tougher than anything I had attempted to breach personally, but I¡¯ve also seen better pretty often. All my pre-made programs didn¡¯t work, so I was forced to tweak what I had to create my own on the spot to try to find the loopholes in the system. While coding wasn¡¯t the issue with my software development skills, I had troubleing up with ways to bypass or trick the system. I continued at it, slowly making progress using trial and error. Just as I thought I was about to have it after almost half an hour, the entire system I had been trying to breach changed. It was as if I was solving a math question when it suddenly became a history test. My progress was instantly reset. I tried again for another ten minutes, but progress was slow. ¡°Not nearly good enough,¡± Lana¡¯s voice rang out beside me. ¡°Leo had been battling me this entire time, and he still had to leeway shrug off your breaching attempts. You don¡¯t have a delicate touch at all, so you made it easy for him to notice you, too.¡± ¡°She¡¯s¡­ right, Rollo. Maybe you should try finding a cy-sec specialist merc that is also good at infiltration¡­Or not. Talent like that must be corporate trained, and they wouldn¡¯t be allowed to leave thepany even if they wanted,¡± Leo added from the side. If we can¡¯t infiltrate their headquarters, a frontal attack would be costly and risky. Even if we seeded, we would be weakened and vulnerable to others. We might not even have enough strength to take over the route like the alliance wanted. ¡°I have an idea. Let¡¯s try this exercise again tomorrow.¡± ¡°Rollo¡­there¡¯s no point. You would need to train for a few years to get to the point required. Even if you got a cassette with the right knowledge, it would take a few weeks,¡± Leo warned. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about how I¡¯ll do it. Just let me do it one more time tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°...If that¡¯s what¡¯ll satisfy you.¡±
¡°...Cloak, can you please reconsider this?¡± Thorne¡ªNo, Ken asked. ¡°It should be fine. Our new allies have been on the lookout for any enemies in the city for us. They should¡¯ve all gone underground by now.¡± ¡°But to ept a gig that pits us against some gang, really Cloak?¡± ¡°Hey, we¡¯re rescuing some poor kid, way better than helping some gang squabble among each other.¡± ¡°...¡± We made our way toward the megabuilding our intel department had picked up. The gig we took to find the kidnappers was a breeze when we were up against idiots who thought texting in their so-called ¡®codes¡¯ would magically encrypt everything they sent. A quick breach into the megabuilding¡¯s security cameras, which were full of holes, was all that we needed to confirm the intel. We made our way up the elevator and found a crowded floor that was filled with junkies and other unsavory crowds. We entered the side halls where the residential units were and soon found the unit we were looking for. Once I confirmed there were no cameras in the area, we both turned on our active camouge and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so I knocked again, louder this time. ¡°What do you¡ªHuh?¡± A man opened the door and looked around before angrily cursed as there was no one there. ¡°Those dumb junkies!¡± He said as he mmed the door shut. However, we had already gotten inside. I followed the man walking past the living room, into one of the bedrooms where half a dozen other people were. He soon sat down by the desk then picked up a syringe and injected it straight into his arm. ¡°Woah dude, look at you taking another plunge.¡± ¡°Shut up! How else am I going to calm down after those shitters outside screwing with me?¡± ¡°Haha, I told you not to go get the door.¡± We moved past them to inspect the other rooms. A few of them had people sleeping, while others were simply watching something on their optics. When I got into a bathroom, I found a girl tied up like a mummy. ¡°You take care of her, Ken. I¡¯m going to clean this ce up.¡± Chapter 86: Hacking Skills Chapter 86: Hacking Skills I woke upter than usual in recent times, as I had ventured outst night with Thorne. Once we finished our gig, we still had to bring the girl to a safe location where we contacted the QG, Oli. We couldn¡¯t use Fitel as it was too likely he would spot through my fake persona, Cloak, so we used the other QG we were familiar with. It was honestly quite fun being treated as a mercenary again. It was like taking part in a stage y where I acted out a character too. Though, I doubt I would still be happy with it if itsted longer than a day. Once I showered and finished breakfast, I sat down at my office and dimmed the ss dividers for some privacy before I opened my status. Status Level: 21 EXP: 20/2100 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 2 Upgrades: 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 Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade Our gigst night sessfully allowed me to level up, and I received my two long-awaited upgrade points. The original n was to put them into electrical engineering to finish rounding it off, and I could then make another pass at our vehicles too. However, this war with QuickLinks Logistics was hindering our growth and costing us money every day it went on. Ending this battle was much more urgent for us, so I took the plunge and threw my two valuable points at the skill I had neglected since the start, hacking. As it had been with stealth, the rush of information that flooded into me was different from the other skills that provided knowledge. My instincts, intuition, thinking process, and reflexes felt like they had all changed within an instant. I took a moment to confirm my new status. Status Level: 21 EXP: 20/2100 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: Enhancements: If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. 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 Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade Thinking back to the hacking exercise I did yesterday, I could start seeing areas I could try to exploit. Though, it wasn¡¯t that easy. When there is a cy-sec specialist on the other end defending a system, the defenses would constantly evolve to keep you at bay. I made my way to the elevator and pressed the button for the floor where the security control room was. I walked past several employees who stood to salute me, but I was too eager to try my hand at hacking that I ignored them and beelined for Leo and Lana. ¡°Good morning, you two. Can we redo the test from yesterday now?¡± Leo nced at Lana, who sighed. ¡°Fine. You¡¯re paying us for our time anyway, so it¡¯s up to you to waste it too.¡± Leo smiled weakly at me and shrugged before his eyes lit up as he focused on the terminal before him. Lana took a few moments to set it up on her terminal before she gestured for me to plug into it. ¡°I won¡¯t be participating directly today. We had another cy-sec specialist take the defensive role so they won¡¯t know about your breaching attempts. Try not to get noticed¡ªnot that you can.¡± Once I was connected, I began breaching into thework she had pulled up on her terminal again. This time, when I ran into the security, I didn¡¯t get entirely stumped. It was as if I studied before the exam, and I could intuitively tell what the question was asking for before reading through it entirely. Even then, I didn¡¯t rush into it and steadilypiled a new program on my custom internal terminal I had previously installed. Once I was done, I gave it another pass and optimized it to be aspact as possible. I allowed the program to start infiltrating thework as I made real-time changes to it in order to fine-tune how it handled the firewall¡¯s reactions. When I was halfway done, the entire defensepletely changed again, just like yesterday. It¡¯s only been ten minutes¡­Last time, this didn¡¯t happen until half an hour. Even though the board was flipped, I could stille up with ways to bypass it after some investigating. As I began breaching into it again, I could feel the firewall actively responding much better than before to my attacks. So this is what it¡¯s like to breach awork that is actually manned. It wasn¡¯t doing aplete change like before though, only minor changes that kept dying me. As I got used to my new skill, I slowly sped up while my opponent seemed to be slowing down. I could feel myself overwhelming the defenses, and before long, I won. Immediately upon gaining ess to thework, it shut down and my connection was cut off. I looked up to find Lana turning her entire body toward me. ¡°...That was actually not bad. How did you improve so much overnight?¡± ¡°Yeah, you did really well. Were you even trying yesterday?¡± Leo added his question to the list. ¡°...I had used a new hypnopaedia imnt with the right cassette. Don¡¯t worry too much about it.¡± I said as I kept up my poker face. ¡°Anyway, do you think that I¡¯m good enough to infiltrate QuickLink¡¯s headquarters now if we have you guys distracting their cy-sec specialists?¡± The two shared a nce before Leo answered. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say for sure, but you definitely have a good chance.¡± ¡°Great, we¡¯ll take a shot at it then.¡± ¡°Again, I emphasize, chance. Be sure to have a good getaway n if things go south.¡± ¡°Of course.¡±
A few dayster, we finished hashing out a n, and I made my way to the NNA continent. It was a tiring ordeal simply because I had to argue with the faction that didn¡¯t want me to go to the front lines. I sessfully convinced them when I demonstrated my newfound hacking skills that would be vital to the n. They were all smart enough to realize that prolonging this wasn¡¯t good for business or anyone, really. And they knew this n to infiltrate their headquarters to take out their leadership would be the most efficient method for us. Our allies from the West Coast Agroindustry, led by Joey, agreed they would utilize everything they had to finish off the remnants out of our reach if we seeded in our decapitation strike. Although that meant they wouldn¡¯t make a move if we failed. They justified it by saying we would be gaining QuickLinks Logistics¡¯s entire route if we seeded, so we were the ones who had to put our necks out on the line for our potential gains. ¡°Rollo and Thorne,¡± Vin said, ¡°can¡¯t say I didn¡¯t expect you two to miss the party.¡± The veteran weed us with open arms as we exited out of the airport, escorted by a convoy of Wraiths. ¡°Let¡¯s talk on the way. You have everything ready, right?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± He scoffed. It wasn¡¯t hard to track my movement, especially when I took a flight. That was why we nned to have the convoy here head directly for Miles High after faking a return trip to our office for any prying eyes. This was aplished by using the new vehicle-grade Shade I named Specter that I had created while were devising our ns. It was expensive to the point where the active camouge system cost as much as the car itself, with all the nanomachines that were required to cover one car. It did have a much longer uptime, though, with more space for batteries. Still, it was only useful on roads, or else the tracks would give it away. It wasn¡¯t as easy as I had thought to get out of the city; we had to ensure we didn¡¯t go too fast lest the curious investigate the fast-moving vehicles that could be picked up on their sensors. We also had to dodge the other vehicles who couldn¡¯t see us. Even with those dys, the new stealth device easily had enough uptime for us to drive out of the city. The excitement of sneaking out of the city soon dialed down as the boring ride through the wastnd started. ¡°I pulled all the best men we had for this mission to be on standby in case the infiltration doesn¡¯t work,¡± Vin said. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re fine with just Andrew¡¯s team and Thorne?¡± Andrew and Peng, huh? It¡¯s kind of ironic seeing them on the elite team considering they were no good teenagers, roped into a gang not that long ago¡­Well, that same could be said about me, though. ¡°Yeah, the six of us are already toorge. The more of us, the easier it¡¯ll be for us to be spotted,¡± I answered. ¡°Well, they¡¯ll be swarming the ce, on full alert the moment we have Leo and his geeks start their cyber attack.¡± ¡°They should be focused on reinforcing the outside of their base for an attack, since Leo will be targeting their E-Dome. We should be fine.¡± ¡°...If things often went as nned. Be sure to keep the re gun close. We¡¯ll be ready if you need us.¡± I spent the time riding through the sand by going through the n. There were many things that I could see going wrong, but not enough that we couldn¡¯t handle it. Whether it be by luck or not, we safely crossed the wastnd after several days of traveling through the night without any mutant encounters. The moment we exited the wastnd, I could spot a mountain looming over the metropolis that was our destination. Even though the sun was still out, I could see the glow of neon lights the city gave off in the backdrop. We quickly split off into smaller groups and dispersed into the city before we drew attention to ourselves. Only Andrew¡¯s car was in my group as we made our way toward the QuickLinks Logistic headquarters. ¡°Sir, follow my lead. We¡¯ve been here before.¡± Andrew¡¯s voice rang out on ourms. He soon let us into an alleyway near our goal, where we all disembarked and readied our gear. ¡°You good to carry it alone?¡± I asked Thorne, who was carrying a terminal the size of a mini fridge out of the car. ¡°Yeah, but you sure we¡¯re not going to be instantly spotted with this thing?¡± ¡°...Your Shade should be able to cover it if it can cover you. We¡¯ll find someone discreet to ce it and have someone guard it. We just need it plugged into their system somewhere so Leo and them get their connection.¡± We swiftly turned on our active camouge the moment we left the alley as Andrew traced the path he had previously taken to get into their headquarters. The entirepound was walled off, with two sets of gates at the front where turrets and defensive emcements were visible in a disy of power. I could barely make out what was behind the gates, a spacious parking lot that was surrounded by buildings on three sides. I took a deep breath and spoke out into our teamms. ¡°Are you guys all ready?¡± Chapter 87: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.1 Chapter 87: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.1 ¡°Are you guys all ready?¡± I whispered into the teamms. Thorne and the four on Andrew¡¯s team quickly replied affirmatively, and we began our infiltration mission into the headquarters of QuickLinks Logistics. From the previous report, getting through the front gate was the easy part. Their sensors out front mainly scanned vehicles for dangerous items when passing by. Different from the basic Shades we sold, the customized versions were able topletely bypass these scans as a product created with ten points in stealth technology behind it. The scanners at the entrance to each of the three building within thepound was another matter, though. They had maized fields that carefully screened and detected anyone passing by, and even though I was confident my Shade to get us through, the mass and weight detectors easily gave me away. It wasn¡¯t like I could make myself weigh nothing or fly over them, either. We first moved along the outer walls of thepound until we arrived at the western wall. We hugged the walls close, out of the camera¡¯s sight, despite being in active camouge, and each brought out an extendable shovel. The six of us began to dig and with Thorne¡¯s might, we quickly created a small hole the size of a bathroom stall. We ced the mini fridge-sized terminal into it along with Brian, from Andrew¡¯s team. The hole wasn¡¯t deep enough for him to stand, so he had to crouch down and hug his knees. We then draped arge piece of dirt-colored fabric over them before we left. We circled around and passed through the front gate toward the wide parking lot that was surrounded by the three buildings from the west, north, and east direction. They were each ten floors tall, but it was apparent the north building was the main one. It wasn¡¯t only because it was positioned in the middle, but due to the building was muchrger, with twice the girthpared to the other two. The moment we entered thepound, our connection to the outside world was cut off. I could no longer make out the outline of my teammates as our connection to ourpany server was disrupted. We couldn¡¯tmunicate wirelessly either.We had already expected this, having set an area to rendezvous at. As I made my way across thepound, my eyes were drawn toward the entrances to the main building, where the security was naturally the tightest. Still, the other two were just as big of an issue for us as the main one as it could detect us from our mass alone. I really need to look into a way to counter the mass sensors¡­ Instead of going toward any of the three entrances, I went around the back of the west building. I arrived by the wall and deactivated my camouge after confirming it was safe to do so. A momentter, I watched Thorne, Andrew, and his teammates do the same. We wordlessly gathered and waited. When the time disyed in the corner of my vision hit noon, a thin cord was thrown over the wall andnded by our feet. ¡°Make sure you don¡¯t tug it too fast,¡± I said to Thorne, who took hold of the cord. He nodded, and we made our move. We didn¡¯t bother to activate our camouge yet, as a floating cord would give us away, anyway. We moved to the base of the west building and brought out some gloves we had stored in our pockets. The gloves worked like suction cups, allowing us to climb up the building. Thorne and the others stayed back with the cord while I climbed up with my camouge back on. I didn¡¯t go too far up, just toward the first window on the second floor, where I began peeking inside to find a room with ess to a terminal. It didn¡¯t take me long to find a lone man with his back facing the window, typing away on his terminal. I took hold of my vibro-ded dagger and slowly cut a small hole in the ss. I only felt confident doing this on the lower floors or my chance of being spotted would dramatically increase. Thanks to the E-Dome they have employed, all wireless connections were down, which meant they couldn¡¯t deploy the usual wireless sensors most buildings had to detect damages. I took out the Nyes I had newly crafted and deployed them through the small hole I had cut out. I couldn¡¯t get any live footage from them as wirelessmunications were down, but I had prepared for this, so they would return with the recordings for me. The footage they brought back informed me that there were no surprises inside, and the man really was alone. The small hole I had cut out was able to fit the barrel of my Suri through it. The man was sitting so close, it would¡¯ve been harder for me to miss. +10 EXP With the lone resident of the room out of the picture, I started cutting a muchrger hole through the ss that could fit a person. A few minutester, I ced one hand on the part of the ss that I was cutting,tching onto the piece of ss that was about toe loose. I gently carried the ss with me as I entered the building and ced it on the ground. I signaled for the others, who soon followed me up. ¡°Peng, Mark,¡± Andrew whispered, ¡°you two watch the door.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I moved the body of the man out of the way as Thorne plugged in the cord he had been holding into the terminal. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s connected. Leo and them should start their cyberattack any moment now,¡± Thorne noted as he watched the screen change. I nodded and nced over at the cord that ran from the terminal to all the way outside the walls. ¡°As nned, we¡¯re leaving someone in here and one outside to keep watch.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll stay with Peng. Mark, you keep going with Rollo and Thorne,¡± Andrewmanded. ¡°Roger that.¡± I gestured for Mark and Thorne to secure the hallway on the other side of the door while I turned to Andrew. ¡°Remember, don¡¯t attack unless they notice something, so better get rid of that body, fast.¡± He nodded in response, so I made my way out of the room to catch up with the other two. I found them stopped at a corner, waiting for me. ¡°Cameras and turrets looking down the entire hallway,¡± Thorne said. ¡°The only blind spot is right under it, where the door to the stairs is.¡± ¡°Take turns moving past it so we don¡¯t bump into each other.¡± Thorne went first, followed by me, then Mark. I spotted a few people in the rooms, but none of them came out. The three of us made it past the hallway, yet were blocked by the locked door to the stairwell. ¡°Give me a second. Stay in stealth in case someonees out,¡± I said as I plugged into the panel on the wall. With the help of the custom terminal I had imnted inside of me, the processing power I had ess to was at least on par with the bulky, specialized hacking terminals. Just like in practice, upon seeing the system¡¯s defenses, I could intuitively tell what could work to breach the system. I wiped the sweat building on my brow and worked as steadily as I could. It would only take a small mistake for any cy-specialists on guard to notice me and make this a whole lot harder. Before I knew it, I got through the system and I quickly unlocked the door. I checked the time to find out it had only been five minutes. This was much easier than what Leo and Lana had dished out at me. But then again, this is just a door in a random hallway. Don¡¯t get overconfident, it¡¯s not likely to stay this easy. ¡°We¡¯re in. Take a quick break here to allow our Shades to rest and then we¡¯re off to the third floor,¡± I said as I pushed the door open. The third floor was where I had spotted the sky bridges that connected the three buildings. Our goal this time was the leader of QuickLinks Logistics, a silver-haired old man who was called Benjamin Links. There were also a few executives to be eliminated to disable theirpany¡¯s ability to regroup after this attack. As we made our way up the stairs, I could see movement outside from the windows of the stairwell. People rushed around outside, from building to building, with some going to reinforce the entrance. I watched as the metal gates began to close, shutting off all vehicle traffic to thepound. They must be reacting to the cyberattack, thinking an imminent attack from the outside will soon follow. We soon arrived on the third floor and I deployed my Nyes and sent them out to investigate the other side of the door. They soon returned and alerted me to a lot of activity on this level. We quietly opened the door and moved as a single unit, cing a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us, as we couldn¡¯t see each other. When we came up on the sky bridge, we witnessed a team of security guards marching their way toward the main building. We quickly followed behind them and passed through the door leading onto the sky bridge. They even had the decency to open the stairwell door for us once we crossed into the main building. Their team rushed downward, toward the lobby while my team headed up. Our target was likely on the top floor. The leaders ofpanies all enjoyed cing their offices at the penthouse level. This was true for me as well. I was thankful the stairwell connected to all ten floors, saving us the hassle of finding other staircases that led upward on each floor. I¡¯m sure this was the norm, though. I just couldn¡¯t forget about theplex staircases at theb ce where I found Thorne and ire. On the tenth floor of the stairwell, I once again connected to the panel before me, so I could unlock it, as we didn¡¯t have the security card. Again, the difficulty of this one wasn¡¯t any different from the previous one, and I opened it in under ten minutes. Immediately upon passing through the door, we instantly spotted two cyborgs looking over at us from where they stood. The door closed behind us, and the two buffy guards exchanged nces before one of them approached the stairwell. I tapped on Thorne¡¯s shoulder to signal him to ignore the guard and circled around to the other guard in the main hallway. I nced around for cameras and spotted one with a clear view of the guard we were approaching. It seemed like these two guys were guarding the elevator door. We had to take them out because there was no way they wouldn¡¯t report this. There was also a fancy double door just at the end of this hallway, so our target should just be behind it. Is it time to go loud¡­? I went off to a corner behind the guard and started pulling out the Pixies in my pack. The guard who went to investigate soon returned in the meantime. ¡°Nothing there. Be on guard. There are probably some rats around. Watch my back while I go report this in.¡± I quicklymanded the Pixies as I saw them approach a terminal on the wall. I release three Pixies that quickly charge toward the two guards and the camera overseeing us. They were rtively close, so in just two seconds, they reached their target and a bright sh of light filled the hallway. I could hear screeching metal as the two cyborgs struggled to move after getting hit by the EMP. I rushed toward them and plunged my vibro dagger into them before they could move again. +20 EXP +20 EXP When I was done, I turned around to find Thorne out of camouge, standing at the ready behind me, with his wrist de out, ncing around cautiously. Mark had his back against him, holding his rifle at the ready. ¡°I think they¡¯ll know we¡¯re here from that,¡± He said as he saw me materialize beside him. I rushed forward toward the double door and found it was locked. I quickly released the Nyes to scout out the situation on the other side of the door and plugged into the panel beside the door. ¡°It¡¯s a race against time now. Let¡¯s finish this before they send a team¡ª¡± ¡®Malicious program detected. Proceeding to quarantine the¡ª¡¯ Kiri¡¯s voice suddenly rang out in my ears. What? There was a virus on the door panel here? A trap? Why¡­? Did they know I wasing or has this always been here? Chapter 88: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.2 Chapter 88: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.2 Andrew - Halls Corporation ¡°Peng, remember, only attack if they actually notice us or try to touch the terminal.¡± ¡°Peng understands. Attack if they touch.¡± ¡°...Yes. Wave at me if you need me. I¡¯ll just be outside.¡± Andrew then climbed out of the hole in the window and went back downstairs. He found a discreet corner where he could hide without using his Shade. He constantly kept watch of his surroundings, but more so the window where Peng was. It couldn¡¯t be helped, as that was the part Andrew was most worried about. A few minutes quietly passed before the sound of footsteps distracted Andrew from his worries. He nced down at the cord that ran from the other side of the wall to the ground before him, and then up into the room where Peng was. It¡¯s not really visible, but they¡¯ll definitely notice if they step on it. He waited patiently as the footsteps grew louder until he saw a patrole around the corner. There were two fully armed men slowly approaching the cord, as he had feared. He readied his rifle and ensured the silencer was properly attached before taking aim.Just as he was ready to pull the trigger if they showed signs of noticing the cord, a loud voice yelled out. ¡°The idiots back there, get to patrolling the rooms inside now! Look for anyone suspicious people on terminals, not people in the backyard, damn it!¡± Andrew watched as the two guards exchanged nces and shrugged before they jogged back to the front. Andrew let out a sigh of relief as they disappeared from view. Wait, now I shouldn¡¯t be relieved. Inside is where Peng is! He swiftly decided to join Peng instead of staying outside. He climbed back up and disabled his camouge when he was sure no one was nearby. ¡°An¡ª¡± Andrew quickly interjected, as Peng raised his voice. ¡°Keep your voice down, you big oaf.¡± ¡°Sorry Andrew, Peng will be quieter.¡± ¡°...Did anything happen while I was gone?¡± ¡°Um, someone opened the door and took a look around. They left after seeing no one, so Peng left them alone, too. Did Peng do the right thing?¡± So they only gave a quick nce over, looking for someone on a terminal¡­Lucky us. ¡°Yes, good job Peng.¡± ¡°Yay!¡± ¡°Shhh, quiet. Watch your damn voice!¡± Andrew could only sigh as he watched Peng dete at being reprimanded. Hopefully, things are going just as well with our boss¡¯s team.
¡®Malicious program detected. Proceeding to quarantine the¡ª¡¯ Kiri¡¯s voice suddenly rang out in my ears. What? There was a virus on the door panel here? A trap? Why¡­? Did they know I wasing or has this always been here? ¡°Rollo, what¡¯s wrong?¡± Thorne asked, as I had stopped talking mid-sentence. My Nyes returned at the same time, so I gestured for him to wait while I reviewed the footage. On the other side of the fancy double door here beside me, the Nyes recorded a shot of the entire room. It was a spacious office where only one desky at the end of the room. The windows had a clear view of the city below, and luxuriously looking cabs lined up on the side of the room with various awards and trophies on disy. The thing that drew my attention the most, though, was the half-a-dozen security guards, armed to the teeth inside,ying in ambush. They had their entire attention at the door, with their weapons at the ready. I looked back to find Thorne staring at me impatiently. I pointed at the door and signaled for him to retreat. We stepped back away from the door carefully, as if we were walking on shards of ss until we were a good distance away. I¡¯m d we incorporated hand signs for quickmunications like they¡¯d been practicing for the volleyball team. ¡°The ce is a trap. The terminal for the door tried to hack into my systems and there¡¯s a whole teamying in ambush in there,¡± I whispered to Thorne. ¡°What? Did they know we wereing or was this ce always a trap floor¡­?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, but we need to leave quickly. That terminal likely has already informed their control room that it has been sprung. They¡¯re probably just waiting for the report from their ambushers.¡± Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. We quickly waved Mark over and made for the staircase to head back down. On the way down, we discussed our options in hushed whispers. ¡°We should retreat, Rollo. This mission has failed and we need to get out of here before they start looking for us.¡± ¡°...We still have at least twenty minutes before they investigate. They should still be thinking we¡¯re busy hacking into the terminal there.¡± ¡°Yes, enough time for us to get out of here,¡± Thorne¡¯s voice strained. That is the safest option, to retreat and ren. But then they¡¯ll be on guard for sure and our only remaining option will be a frontal assault¡­ ¡°Let us try to find their control room first to disable their coordination and find out where their leader is. If we don¡¯t find it in fifteen minutes, we¡¯ll retreat.¡± ¡°...Ten minutes. And do you seriously think their boss is still around here?¡± ¡°I doubt there¡¯s a safer ce for him to be with all of our allies doing their best to track him down.¡± I stopped us as we arrived on the fifth floor and began unlocking the door. The security on this door was more secure than the others I¡¯ve encountered. It was only around the level of what Leo had pitted against me, though. Does this mean the other ones were easier on purpose to let me walk into the ambush? No, that¡¯s too random unless they knew I was the oneing¡­ With my Nyes scouting out the area before us, we quickly proceeded without encountering anyone. A few patrols were on this floor, but there were also plenty of empty server rooms for us to hide in. We made our way toward the core of the building and continued scouting the ce using the Nyes. ¡°Found it. There¡¯s a pair of guards standing guard, though. The patrols also regrly pass by. We¡¯ll need to take them out at the same time.¡± ¡°...How did you find it so easily?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°All the control rooms are usually in the most secure areas. And what other area is more secure than in the center of this entire building?¡± Thorne wrinkled his brow in thought for a moment before nodding in eptance. The most logical options also made it the most predictable option. Our own control room back in Elevate City was also located in the center of the building. ¡°Mark, you hold the corridor here in case any employees pop out and hold off any reinforcements that may hear us. Thorne, you want to deal with the guards by the pair or the patrol?¡± ¡°I¡¯m faster than you. I got the patrol.¡± I nodded in response and we began right away. Time was ticking, and it wasn¡¯t on our side. The three of us activated our active camouge and went toward our targets. We couldn¡¯t see each other, but the clear assignment of roles should prevent us from interfering with each other identally. I marched up to the pair of guards standing at the sides of a door and waited with my Suri at the ready. The sound of approaching footsteps soon grew louder and another pair of guards soon came into view. I quickly shot the cameras overseeing this corridor before Thorne sprung into action. The patrol was marching toward me down the hallway when they suddenly jerked back and their feet came off the ground. The sight before me was like cartoons I¡¯ve seen in the past where tried to continue walking in mid-air as someone held them back by the neck. The only difference was the person choking them was invisible, and it wasn¡¯t aical sight. The broken cameras instantly caused the guards beside me to panic, but the grunts from the struggling patrol quickly drew their attention instead. As they turned toward their allies, I imitated Thorne¡¯s maneuver with my two cyberarms and pulled their necks tightly toward me. This way, there wouldn¡¯t be any blood to alert anyone that drops byter. Their struggles onlysted for a short time as the strength of our cyberarms was too much for them to bear. +10 EXP +10 EXP Thorne quickly rushed toward the door and dismantled it with his brute strength. Whoever was on the other side definitely knew something was up as soon as the cameras were shot out, so time was of the essence. As Thorne busted the door open, gunshots immediately rained out towards him. They created ripples in his camouge, but otherwise, uselessly bounced off his cyborg frame. I took the opportunity to throw a shbang inside. Once it went off, the two of us immediately rushed in. We quickly moved away from the door and took full advantage of being invisible by being on the move. I could tell Thorne was using his wrist des to dispatch the disoriented foes while I used my Suri from up close. I didn¡¯t want to identally damage any of the equipment in here any more than necessary, after all. +10 EXP +10 EXP We took care of the half a dozen guards manning the control room, and I quickly hopped onto their terminal. Luckily, it was still logged on, so I had free rein into their systems. In the meantime, Thorne physically disabled the turrets mounted around the room, which were still scanning for targets. There was no way for it to detect us while we had our active camouge activated, though. He then went outside to check on the fighting between Mark and the other patrols, who had likely heard the previous gunshots. I scanned through various camera feeds and found the room that was responsible for the E-Dome. However, I couldn¡¯t disable it remotely, nor would I want to at this moment. The ambush team in the penthouse had probably received a message to be expecting us. Allowing wirelessmunications was a double-edged sword that had more detriments than benefits right now. Just as I suspected, I found the text log between the control room here and the terminal inside the office where the ambushers were. I quickly sent out amand to order them to stand by and resumed going through their system. There were dozens of alerts about the ongoing attack into their systems, but a portion of the cy-sec specialists that had been manning the defenses was now gone. It appears there were still other geeks in the other building, actively resisting Leo¡¯s cyberattack. Though now Leo actually had the upper hand. I didn¡¯t have the time to help him out, though. It wasn¡¯t even our goal to win the cyberwarfare, so I quickly continued my search. I could see the movements of guards outside. They were postured for an imminent attack, but I could see a significant number of them were ready to rush back into the buildings. Was there really a leak of our attack somehow¡­? I mindlessly continued reviewing the various cameras as I mulled about the unusualness when Kiri suddenly alerted me. ¡®Anomaly detected on camera #00380. Well-armed guards congregating on the basement floor.¡¯ I pulled up the camera in question and confirmed the findings. There were strong-looking cyborg guards patrolling on screen, patrolling around the maintenance shafts. It was on the B2 level, so I checked the other areas on that floor. It seemed like that was the only area with a lot of guards. Even the other basement levels didn¡¯t have this many. There weren¡¯t any cameras inside the room they were defending, too. It was definitely suspicious. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Thorne. I think I have an idea where our boss man is.¡± Chapter 89: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.3 Chapter 89: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.3 Having located where our missing target, the boss of QuickLinks Logistics, could potentially be, we quickly set off from the security control room. We had left Mark in the control room to dispatch anyone who came to investigate, run interferences in theirms, and more importantly, prevent our friends in the basement from making contact with anyone outside. He could also guide us, despite the fact we had to use the integrated terminals throughout the building tomunicate. With ess to their systems, we took the elevators. I pushed the button, and we disabled our camouge the moment the doors closed. ¡°Are we still doing this quiet, or can I go loud now?¡± Thorne asked, as he checked his weapons. ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone will be able to hear what¡¯s going on in the basement. As long as Mark has control of the security room, they can¡¯t contact anyone outside. Let¡¯s make this quick.¡± Thorne proceeded to take out therge caliber shotgun he had bought exactly for this asion and loaded it with armor-prating slugs. Once he was done, he looked up at me and nodded. ¡°Where¡¯s your rifle? We¡¯ll be dealing with some heavily armed borgs down there.¡± ¡°It was too unwieldy to bring along, and I don¡¯t think firepower is what we¡¯ll need to take them out,¡± I said as I patted my pack. He shrugged as if he disagreed, but didn¡¯t bother arguing. There wasn¡¯t any time to argue anyway as the elevator dinged, alerting us that we had arrived at the B2 level.Donning our camouge again, I ced a hand on Thorne¡¯s shoulder as he carefully strode out. The floor we arrived on looked unimpressive appearance-wise. It had dreary colored walls without any furnishing whatsoever. It was only to be expected of a maintenance floor, though. We came up on a janitor¡¯s closet and moved to clear it lest someone surprise us from behindter on. I deployed my Nyes and got a good grasp of what was on the other side before opening the door. It was surprisingly an actual janitor¡¯s closet with nothing remarkable inside, so we continued. We came across various mechanical rooms, garbage collection rooms, or other closets filled with supplies, and we would stop in each one to scout the road ahead with my Nyes. At every crossroads, we would contact Mark in the control room to verify we were going the right way, and that nothing had changed about the cyborg guards on the cameras. After ten minutes of taking this cautious approach, we finally spotted the borgs in person. There were half a dozen of them and they hung out in front of a narrow corridor that led into another mechanical room. ¡°Prepare to rush in,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m sending in the Pixies right now.¡± Thorne nodded back to me as I took out the drones from my pack. I had a dozen left, but that was more than enough to take care of those cyborgs. We followed closely behind the Pixies in camouge as they closed the distance to the borgs. ¡°I hear something!¡± One of them shouted out. I guess all their cybeics weren¡¯t just for show. They all were on guard and looked in our direction with their weapons held up. The Pixies were small, like mice, but with the help of active camouge, it didn¡¯t matter that they wererge enough to be visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, their smaller build meant they could only fit a standard optical camouge and our opponents weren¡¯t poorly equipped enough for me to risk using it and alerting them to our hostile actions. Imanded the Pixies to venture forth without using their optical camouge. ¡°My optics picked up something! Rats?¡± the husky voice of a woman sounded out. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, shoot them.¡± Another manmanded. I could see a few of the guards step back while they watched their allies ce carefully aimed shots at the approaching Pixies. They were all on autopilot because wireless connections weren¡¯t possible, so they were predictable after the first few missed shots. ¡°Haha,e on Bernard, hit your shots.¡± ¡°...Wait a second, zoom in with your optics. Those aren¡¯t rats!¡± The man had noticed a little toote because the Pixies had already gotten close enough that it became hard to aim at with their unwieldy rifles. His allies all tried to join in shooting the Pixies down, but a loud and powerful shot rang out, which gave the cyborgs pause. One of them grunted and fell t on his back as a hole the size of a tennis ball appeared in the center of his chest. ¡°Contact! Spec ops, everyone spread!¡± Themander quickly took cover behind the contours of the hallway and readied a grenade from his pouch. It was a neon-colored grenade that looked more like a toy than a weapon. He was toote, though. Thorne¡¯s shot had bought enough time for the Pixies to close the distance and they each found their target and exploded with the might of the EMP they carried. Themander was in mid-throw when he got hit, and his grenade dropped weakly to the ground beside him. A colorful cloud bursted out of the grenade and when it cleared, the entire area was stained with colorful paint. Was that a countermeasure against stealth tech¡­? Why didn¡¯t they just use EMP grenades¡ªwell, maybe not if you¡¯re a team of cyborgs. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Their entire team fell to the ground as their limbs locked up. I pushed the useless thoughts aside and rushed in with Thorne. ¡°Watch the door!¡± I shouted to Thorne as I raked in the sweet experience points with my vibro dagger. +20 EXP +20 EXP +20 EXP +20 EXP +20 EXP +20 EXP With the threats eliminated, we swiftly made our way to the mechanical room where we suspected our target was. If there was anyone inside, they had likely heard themotion by now. I once again sent in my Nyes to spy behind the door. A momentter, they returned. What was on the other side was arge office room where a lone middle-aged man was. He had a head full of grey hair with a well-groomed appearance. His suit almost sparkled and was evidently made of expensive materials that would have cost a normal worker their entire sry. ¡°I think that¡¯s him in there,¡± I reported to Thorne. ¡°He¡¯s alone? Let¡¯s go in and finish this.¡± ¡°...Wait. Let me deploy the surviving Pixies first.¡± The drones weren¡¯t small enough to fit under the door, so I deployed them by our feet, ready to rush in the moment we opened the door. Once I was ready, I nodded to Thorne, who began wrestling the door with his cybeic limbs. The metal groaned, but after a full minute, it hadn¡¯t budged one bit. ¡°Stop it. I don¡¯t think we can open it with brute force. This is probably his bunker or something.¡± I plugged into the panel beside it and began hacking into it. In the meantime, I used the connection from plugging in to ask if Mark could open it on his end. He replied after several minutes that the controls to the door were linked to a different terminal, so I persisted with my hack. No inspiration hit me upon seeing its defenses, so I continued my trial and error. When the ten-minute mark was toe up, I was able to breach into the system with a stroke of luck. I cautiously pushed the door open and moved in with Thorne, while the Pixies followed behind. ¡°Rollo Halls, I know you¡¯re there. Why don¡¯t you show yourself and have a little chat with me?¡± The middle-aged man loudly dered with the back of his chair facing us. ¡­He knew I wasing? I instantly was on guard and positioned myself toward the exit. ¡°Come on, now. You have won, haven¡¯t you? I never expected you to have dodged the ambush that I took the trouble toy out for you. Tell me, what gave it away?¡± Whatever he knew, at least he didn¡¯t have any intel on about mytest creations. Still, I would be an idiot to expose myself when I was this close to ending this war. ¡°Still staying silent, are you? I didn¡¯t take one who had the guts to infiltrate my headquarters to be a coward, but I guess a man can wear many masks,¡± He continued, ¡°if you really are the clever man I thought you to be, then please hear me out.¡± I decided not to answer and inspect the room for any signs of danger. ¡°The West Coast Agroindustry you chose to get into bed with was a poor choice. They have powerful enemies, much more dangerous than a little corporation like mine. You should¡ª¡± There¡¯s nothing here, and he is obviously buying time¡­Okay, I¡¯ve heard enough. There is no way I can even consider betraying my new allies or else no one would dare to affiliate themselves with me in the future if it got out. I gestured for Thorne to end this. He took a shot with his shotgun and the armor-piercing slug broke the sound barrier. Upon hitting his chair, it surprisingly ricocheted off to the side. The same slugs that had prated the cyborg outside were ineffective against a chair. ¡°How dare you! Only barbarians like the wastnders attack in the middle of a conversation. I guess I was wrong to try to make you see reason. Now die!¡± Following his words, several turrets deployed from the ceiling of the room between us and our target. Two of them fired their HMG rounds at us while the other two swept the room with their methrowers. We quickly jumped down to a prone position and waited. I only had to wait for a second before the electric buzz noise of EMPs going off reached my ear and the turrets twitched. I immediately brought out a grenade from my pack and pulled out its pin before I lobbed it at the boss of QuickLinks Logistics. As it sailed through the room, it was suddenly cut in half mid-air and exploded. I could spot the shrapnels deflecting off something invisible in the room, a sight I¡¯vee to be familiar with. I quickly reached out for an EMP grenade and threw it at the same spot. It went off much earlier this time, as I had set a short fuse time. That meant it went off slightly away from where Benjamin Links sat. The space in front of the office table flickered, and parts of a silhouette of a person became clearer and clearer, as tiny sparks marked the malfunctioning of whatever stealth device had. A thin yet fit man soon materialized into existence, wielding a pistol in one hand and a katana in the other. He grunted and quickly sliced off the suit he wore and tore it off himself, exposing the one cyberarm he had up to his shoulder, wielding the sword. Active camouge, advanced ones too. My optics didn¡¯t pick it up at all. Whoever that guy is, I¡¯m sure as hell not getting close to him and his katana. Thankfully, Thorne shared my thoughts as he quickly took another shot from a different angle at the new enemy, but the man reacted way too fast. His hand blurred and cut the slug shot at him in half. While Thorne distracted him, I loaded my Suri with explosive rounds and fired them at him as he slowly walked toward us. It seemed like he couldn¡¯t figure out where we were and he knew there was more than one of us, so he could only cautiously move forward. The explosive rounds went off as they made contact with his de, but a blue shimmer appeared in front of him. Once the dust from the explosion settled, he appearedpletely unharmed. Is that¡­a forcefield or something? He charged at the location where I had shot at him and shed out at the empty space. I had already relocated, having learned from my experiences. Thorne shot out at him again from a new angle as I did the same. This time, the sound of the explosives was followed by a crackling noise, and he swung out at where I was again while shooting his pistol wildly around. He must really not like my explosive rounds. Which is why I quickly made some space and unloaded my entire clip as fast as I could. The dust cleared out and when I could see the aftermath of my attack. The skinny man was crouched on the ground on one knee, nursing his head. Before I could even finish reloading, another gunshot rang out that punched a hole through the man¡¯s chest. He instantly dropped to the ground and silence suddenly overcame the room. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I swiftly reloaded and ced another shot at his head, just to be sure. +30 EXP I then looked up toward the desk where Benjamin, the boss of QuickLinks Logistics, sat. He had turned his chair and was facing us now, with a shocked expression. ¡°Larson¡­H¡­How can... This be¡­¡± Chapter 90: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.4 Chapter 90: Infiltrating QuickLinks Logistics Pt.4 I watched Benjamin, the boss of QuickLinks Logistics, slowly change his expression from shock to terror. His gaze darted around the room but averted me or Thorne. I exchanged nces with Thorne before we both pointed our weapons at him. We kept our distance as we didn¡¯t want any more surprises. ¡°Wait! I can give you¡ª¡± The electric sound of my railgun echoed throughout the room. Then once more. +10 EXP I have been cking off recently and haven¡¯t been to the range¡­ At least now, it should be over. Oh, and can¡¯t forget about loot. I definitely want to check out the chrome our samurai friend had. ¡°It¡¯s over. Let¡¯s get out of here, and take a picture of Benjamin and bring his body,¡± I said as I began cutting off the cybeics I wanted to study from the samurai bodyguard. Thorne knew what he was doing and grabbed the terminal on the desk along with the body as we made our exit. Once I spotted one of the wall terminals on the way out, I quickly notified Mark to retreat as well. We made our back up through the elevator and stopped at the lobby of the main building. We activated our active camo as the door opened and ced his body down once we saw no one around. We then pressed the button for the third floor where the sky bridge was. With the Nyes clearing our path, we managed to sneak past all the patrols. By the time I stepped on the sky bridge, I could see amotion going on by the main building, with arge gathering of people. Just as we made it halfway across the bridge, an explosion rang out from behind us, toward the main building. I looked up through the ss windows and found smokeing from one of the floors above and kept moving. That was probably Mark¡­ We continued our way back to where we had left Andrew and Peng and noticed many more patrols than when we had just left. They kept marching down the hallways and checking room to room and we gave them a wide berth. As we slowly made our way down the stairs, we finally arrived at the hallway in front of the room where we had infiltrated. A group of security guards blocked our way as they searched each room. They were getting closer to the room where our allies should be, so we readied ourselves to quietly take them out. We loomed over them from behind as they opened the door to the room. I had a hand just inches away from the throat of the guard at the very back. Just as I thought I had to make my move because there was no way they wouldn¡¯t see the cord sticking out from the window, they began to back out of the room. ¡°Clear, no one inside.¡± The guard at the front yelled out. ¡°Well, yeah. This is like the third time we checked this floor. Shouldn¡¯t we search elsewhere?¡± ¡°You¡¯re paid to follow orders. Now let¡¯s go.¡± I froze and blinked at the unexpected turn of events as the man in front got further away from me. We waited until they turned the corner before we entered our room. ¡°Watch the door,¡± I asked Thorne as we stepped in. We deactivated our Shades upon entering and fortunately, someone was here as a familiar voice called out to us. ¡°Sir, you¡¯re back.¡± I turned to the corner and found Andrew materializing, followed by therge fellow, Peng. ¡°Good work here¡­¡± I nced at the two guards and scanned the area outside. ¡°Who¡¯s watching outside?¡± ¡°I am, sir,¡± Andrew said. ¡°I¡¯m keeping a watch from up here, but there don¡¯t seem to be any patrols outside. They¡¯re just keeping watch from the cameras, I think.¡± ¡°Well, pack up. We¡¯re leaving as soon as¡ª¡± The sound of the door opening interrupted me as we both turned to find Thorne opening the door wide before closing it again. A momentter, Mark deactivated his Shade and came into view. ¡°Okay, we¡¯re all set. Pack up and let¡¯s get out of here.¡± I moved over to the terminal to send out the news about our sess and began our climb back down. We followed the cord back to the wall and scaled our way up. There were sensors that detected anything moving past it, but with Mark blowing up the control room, there wasn¡¯t anyone left to receive the alerts. We smoothly climbed over to the other side where we had dug a hole previously, to keep the terminal that Leo and his team had wirelessly invaded their systems from. Just as we retrieved the mini-fridge-sized terminal along with Brian from the hole, another loud explosion rang out around the corner, toward the front gate to thepound. A voice then rang out on a loudspeaker. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Attention all QuickLinks Logistics personnel. I¡¯m sure many of you already know, your leader, Benjamin Links, is dead. Our group, West Coast Agroindustry Alliance, has eliminated all of yourpany¡¯s assets in Can Sauce City as well. You have five minutes to unconditionally surrender.¡± I peeked out around the corner to take a look at the situation. The main gates were blown open, and several armored vehicles lined up outside thepound. Half a dozenrge figures were standing around. One of them seemed to be the one speaking. He had a screen projected behind him, showcasing the image of the dead Benjamin we just parted with. With the magnification of my Mirage Tech Clear-Sights, I could clearly make out that the figures were, in fact, people in power armor. One of those cost millions with their mini-nuclear power reactor. And another fortune for maintenance¡­It¡¯s the fighter jet¡¯s equivalent of urbanbat. Having seen enough, I went back with my team and retreated from the area. We sent a message and found our Wraiths waiting for us a few streets over. As soon as we got into the car, Thorne asked, ¡°Those guys from the West Coast Agroindustry sure act fast¡­They could¡¯ve lent us a hand earlier if they got all that firepower.¡± ¡°They¡¯re corpos. They won¡¯t do anything out of goodwill. You can¡¯t really me them for that. They held up their end of the bargain at least and held back the other members of the High Gate group that QuickLinks was part of from interfering. It¡¯s already nice of them to handle the cleanup operation for us.¡± ¡°...So, what next?¡± ¡°Even if they take care of the cleanup for us, we should stay around just in case.¡± We drove around and deployed a normal drone that flew out of the car. It approached where the power armors were. The drone was the civilian kind that was easily detectable, so we sent a message to them ahead of time. They didn¡¯t exactly respond, but seeing they hadn¡¯t shot it down, it was probably okay. The people in power armor didn¡¯t have to wait long because a few minutes after their speech, several grenades were lobbed over the walls toward them. The sh of light and buzzing noise allowed me to easily identify them as EMP grenades. Loud gunshots immediately followed, and multiple small explosions could be heard. That sounds like an HMG loaded with explosive rounds¡­ My optics swiftly changed to infrared mode as the smoke blocked any visibility. It allowed me to see therge figures of the power armors adeptly maneuver around and bring out weapons of their own. The powerful sound of a projective violently breaking through the sound barrier was transmitted through the drone as I watched one of the people in power armor fire off his weapon. Whatever he fired, it bore a hole through the wall,nding right on his targets. As the smoke cleared, I zoomed in on the weapon. It was slender and long. I could recognize the brand from thebel that showed off the name Premier Arms. That¡¯s a nasty railgun alright. The others held simr weapons and continuously fired into thepound. Their weapon was connected to their armor, which was likely what enabled them to fire without concern for power consumption and heat management. Their vehicles remained motionless the entire time, and they seemed to have taken no damage from the attacks, either. Three of the power armors soon stepped forward into thepound after expending hundreds of railgun rounds that decimated much of the walls. The drone couldn¡¯t get too close without losing connection from the E-Dome, but we could make out dozens of people in the parking lot outside. Many of them had their hands up in surrender, while a few appeared to be running toward the back and attempting to escape. ¡°You see the footage, right? Drive over there and capture them,¡± Imanded. The more decisive this ended, the faster this war will officially end.
Joey Moretti - Authentic Corp Inside the office in NLA somewhere, a bald man sat by his desk, talking with the projection of a man with a full beard. ¡°Sir, are you sure we shouldn¡¯t intervene if they need assistance?¡± ¡°Follow your orders, captain. Standby until I give the word.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± The projection soon disappeared as Joey ended the call, only to be reced with yet another one. However, in the new call, there was more than just one person on it. The projection was much moreprehensive, disying an entire meeting room where the seats around the oval table were filled with representatives from various corporations within the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance. An old man with long white hair that flowed all the way down to his shoulders nodded toward Joey and cleared his throat. ¡°Now that we are all here, we will start our meeting about dealing with QuickLinks Logistics. Ourtest member will be taking charge of this operation, so I¡¯ll let them exin the operation.¡± Everyone¡¯s gaze drew toward the girl off in one corner of the table. ¡°Greetings everyone, my name is ire and¡ª¡± While the girl was giving her presentation, Joey received a private message. *Joey, are you sure we want to go through with this attack and entrust this so-called Halls Corporation to take over the route? Those guys at High Gate won¡¯t stay quiet after this.* Joey looked up across the table at the person who had sent the message beforepiling his response. *Yes, it¡¯s about time we took action or else we¡¯ll start stagnating and fall behind them. With that said, we¡¯re only providing support once they have proven themselves with the sess of their decapitation strike.* *I see. It won¡¯t be easy though¡­That old weasel, Benjamin, has escaped our attacks so many times with the help of that bodyguard, Larson. Then the High Gate people just keep funding their reconstruction after every attack and we¡¯re back to square one.* *The Halls Corporation has a more delicate touch that may work. Just have your people in position around the Can Sauce City area and be on the lookout for any reaction from the High Gate Group.* The presentation by ire, the representative from Halls Corporation, soon finished along with the Q&A session while Joey was busy organizing his forces. It didn¡¯t even take a full day until he received a message about the sessful assassination of Benjamin Links. He immediately spread the news to his allies and gave out the order for his own forces to take action. Once that waspleted, he ced a call to the friend he had incidentally met not too long ago. ¡°Rollo, my friend. Congrattions on the sess of your operation.¡± ¡°Thank you. The forces from your alliance seem to be impressive as well. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll have a turn after this.¡± ¡°Ha, they may be well-equipped, but they are mainly there for the initial surprise attack. They¡¯ll be needed to keep our rival group in check once they try to respond.¡± ¡°I see¡­ Well, I¡¯ll be around Miles High until this settles, then.¡± ¡°Very brave of you to be in the front line¡­When you have the time, let us schedule a meeting with the rest of the alliance. There is much to discuss.¡± Chapter 91: Aftermath Meeting Chapter 91: Aftermath Meeting After spending a whole week cleaning up the remnants of QuickLinks Logistics along with our allies at West Coast Agroindustry, I was finally able to return to NLA. The entire operation ended a lot more smoothly than anyone had thought. High Gate Groups, the rival group of corporations that QuickLinks was part of, hadn¡¯t responded to their member¡¯s demise at all. Even so, it took some time our us to clean up all their assets spread across the three cities of Firebird, Miles High, and Can Sauce City. I returned to NLA and rushed to my office to oversee the work that was being done rting to the takeover of the new logistics route. Joey had also invited me to a meetingter tonight to discuss the aftermath and handover procedure of QuickLinks¡¯ routes. I stepped into my office and witnessed three technicians in the middle of setting up the new projector I had Vin purchase for me. The West Coast Agroindustry meetings took ce over their holographic meeting room, and I needed the hardware that supported these virtual meetings in my NLA office. The projector cost me fifty thousand credits despite being an entry-level corporate model. Instead of leaving them to their work, I stepped forward and joined in on the assembly. One of the technicians sent over the schematics and I began going over it to join in. The schematics had precise instructions on how to put together each unit, but we had to figure out where to install it in the room. The main unit was a no-brainer, being by my desk, but the projector units needed to be spread out across the room. It took us a whole afternoon to measure and drill holes into the walls to install them. When it was done, Vin seemed to have sensed it and immediately entered the room with perfect timing as the technicians left.¡°Rollo, here¡¯s the expense and casualty report for the operation. We¡¯re still working on the budget estimates for establishing our foothold in both Miles High and Can Sauce City. That is also what you¡¯ll be discussing in your meetingter tonight, right?¡± I grabbed the terminal he held out and browsed through it. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± ¡°Then inform me of the results as soon as it ends. I¡¯ll ry it to the relevant departments.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± ¡°Rollo?¡± I heard him ask as I continued to be focused on my terminal. ¡°Yeah. What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Is there something wrong with the reports? Why do you look so perplexed, going over it?¡± ¡°Oh, I was just reading over the casualty report here.¡± ¡°Yeah, it was on the low side of our forecasts. Only two KIAs and several injured.¡± They hadunched a frontal assault on QuickLinks bases in Firebird and wastnd outpost afterward. I guess it couldn¡¯t be helped, taking some casualties in a war. ¡°Yeah, but about this part about one of the family members of the deceased refusing to take ourpensation¡­¡± ¡°We tried several times convincing the mother that there are no strings attached, but she is highly anti-corpo. We couldn¡¯t even arrange to deliver the body back to her.¡± ¡°If we don¡¯t properlypensate our men¡¯s family, it¡¯ll be as if I broke my promise to them. Send me her information. I¡¯ll go speak with her.¡± Vin shrugged, ¡°If you want, I guess¡­ Though, I¡¯d rmend leaving her alone. If she doesn¡¯t want the money, it¡¯s not our responsibility.¡± I stood up and stretched my back. ¡°Still, it¡¯ll present a bad image to the rest of thepany. I¡¯ll take care of itter. For now, want to go grab a bite with me?¡± ¡°No way I¡¯m missing out if you¡¯re treating. Lead the way.¡±
I sipped on a milkshake as I returned to my office after our meal. There was still a little bit of time left, so I reviewed our recent production numbers for our vehicles and cybeics. We managed to expand our vehicle products somewhat, and we are able to produce a Wraith every day now instead of two every three days. The Shades, though, were constantly being downsized as the market for it continued to shrink. The target market only consisted of a certain profile of mercenaries and we didn¡¯t really have many repeat customers, with it being a one-time purchase. I should start nning for anothermercial product as our earnings would continue to shrink. The new transportation routes maypensate for the majority of it, but we needed to keep growing and not stagnate. Stealth technology isn¡¯t a wise choice to continue spreading, so maybe another imnt since I do have ten points in cybeic engineering. I should use my electrical engineering knowledge to add a function with apetitive advantage somehow, too. An rm suddenly rang out and broke my chain of thought. Before I knew it, it was already time for the scheduled meeting. I directed my attention back to the terminal in front of me and ensured it was properly connected with the new projection module. Then I activated and the lights in the room instantly dimmed. The room took on a blueish tint before an entire oval table was projected into the room. I was sitting in one corner while I watched as various people¡¯s projections appeared beside and across from me. There were a few empty seats that likely signified guests who hadn¡¯t joined yet. There should be around two dozen people here once everyone arrives. I took the opportunity to survey all the new faces around the table. The more expensive projectors would¡¯ve been much more realistic, but for me, this was more than enough for meetings. What was even the point in seeing each other in high definition to the point you could see their pores? This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Many of the people around seemed to be well acquainted, conversing with their neighbors. I could only spot the movement of some people moving their lips as their conversation was muted for me. I was soon able to spot a familiar face, who smiled in my direction as our eyes met. ¡°Rollo, it is good to see you well,¡± the bald man greeted from the head of the table. We were a distance away, but I could hear him clearly, as if he was right in front of me. I double-checked the voice settings I was on before I replied. ¡°Joey, it is a pleasure to see you well as well.¡± ¡°We should definitely have a chat at one our my restaurants while you¡¯re still in town. We can set something up after this meeting, but for now, I believe it is starting.¡± I nced around the room at his words and spotted the few mission seats earlier had been filled. The chatter quickly subsided, and one of the unfamiliar faces had their entire seat light up, literally being in the spotlight and drawing everyone¡¯s attention. It was an elder man, with a head full of grey hair that reached his shoulders. When I focused my attention on him, I could see his name card pop out disying a ¡®Hamlet Worshire - Worshire Corporation¡¯. ¡°Greetings everyone. Every representative of their corporation that will be attending the meeting today is here. We will now start the meeting regarding the aftermath of eliminating QuickLinks Logistics.¡± He took a pause and nced around at each person before stopping at me. ¡°Thanks to our new allies, the Halls Corporation, we have sessfully eliminated one of the malicious actors that had been impeding our business operations. As we have previously discussed, we n to have them take over the route from Firebird to Miles High, and the one between Miles High and Can Sauce City.¡± I nodded at his words. No one around the table seemed to have anything to say, so the old man continued. ¡°Previously, QuickLinks Logistics intercepted our shipments when we used any otherpany and charged us 300% more than the market rates. I would like to enquire on behalf of our West Coast Agroindustry what rates the Halls Corporation can provide us after we have helped you take over the routes.¡± All eyes were drawn to me. I had previously discussed this with Joey before joining their alliance, though we never had settled on anything concrete. There were just too many variables at y, with how much assistance they provided before we took over the route, how much we contributed to the war, and the operations costs of running the route. Everyone in the alliances mainly specialized in food-rted products or shipping. Their previous transportationpanies were destroyed by the rival, High Gate Group, so none of them could urately estimate the costs when the turbulent wastnd condition was such a variable. This sort of gave me a nk check on what I would charge them. Of course, a discount was expected as they were my allies, but that was based on the market price. They didn¡¯t know about my lower operation costs from befriending the wastnders. If I could befriend the ones by the new route, my profit margins could widen significantly. ¡°From what we gathered on the new route so far, the best I can promise right now is a 20% discount from the market price,¡± I spoke out to the audience. ¡°Our average discount rate among the alliances is 30%. Surely you can amodate a little more. We¡¯ll be movingrge amounts of our products on a consistent schedule, so it¡¯ll be easy for you to manage, too.¡± One of the men I didn¡¯t know immediately shouted out. ¡°The costs and risk of operating in a new territory are just too great right now. That is why 20% is the most I can offer right now.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± Joey said, ¡°20% is eptable. I trust that Mr. Halls will provide us with the best rates that he can offer and will increase the discount if possible in the future, correct?¡± ¡°Yes, of course.¡± I immediately agreed. It was all just for the sake of appearance, as everyone in the room knew that no corporation would suddenly offer discounts without something in exchange. It seemed like the 20% discount was within their initial expectations and are satisfied with it. Hmm, maybe I should¡¯ve lowballed it some more. I have to install refrigerationpartments on the trucks for their foodstuff, too. The meeting soon moved toward the handover procedures. They had taken over some equipment and vehicles from their attacks, but I would need to set up the facilities in each respective city first before they handed it over. Each corporation would discuss further with us about further discounts for each vehicle they transferred to us. It was very weed, as the fact they were willing to hand over the vehicles was a huge boon. We didn¡¯t have enough vehicles, so it saved us the trouble of leasing and let us get the transportationwork up and running faster while we slowly produced our own vehicles. It was an arrangement that was mutually beneficial. The meeting then headed as it gotte. I spoke with Joey some more privately to set up a meeting. He seemed eager to be my first customer of the new route and wanted to sign a contract already. When I got off the call, I quickly sent the summary and key points to Vin before I headed over to my workshop. It would¡¯ve been nice to go out and hunt for some experience points too, but it wasn¡¯t entirely safe to do so with things still settling down. Who knew if a survivor of QuickLinks or their allies put a target on my head? Also, my persona, Cloak, was only active in Elevate City, so it wouldn¡¯t be smart to have him appear in NLA while I was in the city at the same time. I pulled up my status and the terminal in my workshop and got to work brainstorming a new cybeic product we could sell instead. Status Level: 21 EXP: 260/2100 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade Cybeic and electrical engineering, what can I make that best take advantage of the two? Chapter 92: Cleaning House Chapter 92: Cleaning House I had just gotten started working in the workshop inside the NLA office when a call marked urgent stopped me in my tracks. Imanded the nanomachines to cancel their soldering task and ced down the terminal as I took on the call. ¡°Rollo, about that matter you had me investigate, something has turned up,¡± Leo¡¯s voice immediately rang out. ¡°So, there really was one?¡± ¡°Yeah, they quit the day after you left the city, and since your policies allow them to freely do so, as long as they follow the procedures. We¡¯ve lost track of them, though.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. There¡¯s no point in finding them now. Did you figure out how they did it?¡± ¡°There are many ways, like I told you before. They just needed to have established a code of some sort before joining us. They may have to move into our dorms, but you¡¯re still giving our employees too much freedom, Rollo.¡± ¡°Yeah, I bet ire will be giving me an earful soon.¡± ¡°She¡¯s having the intel department track them down. Maybe it¡¯s time for you to go for the more intrusive methods and limit their freedom, as we¡¯ve discussed before.¡± ¡°...Maybe. I¡¯ll work on it and let you know.¡±¡°Okay, I¡¯ll send you the info packet on what I found so far.¡± I soon ended the call and went back to working on my new cybeic project as I thought about what Leo had said. We had found a traitor among our employees who had sold off info about my movements during the start of the war against QuickLinks Logistics. I had my suspicions about it after our infiltration into their headquarters had an ambush waiting for us, but then Joey told me about the troubles his alliance had had with dealing with Benjamin Links, the owner of QuickLinks. He revealed that they always had issues with assassinating him, being an elusive figure. It wasn¡¯t after half a dozen attempts that had found a traitor that had been leaking info to them. They were more careful in their next attempts, but Benjamin seemed to have a talent for either nting moles or finding people who could be bribed or ckmailed. The thought of having a traitor appear again was nagging me at the back of my mind while I worked, so I decided to seriously face the issue at hand. I brought up the info Leo had sent me and started reviewing it. One of our office workers had leaked that I went to the NNA continent and when I would be out of reach when I was within the wastnd. It seemed like she overheard someone higher up discussing it as they went about their duty. Okay, maybe I will address this first. We¡¯ve been getting away with it until now, but with the constant expansion, we¡¯re bringing more and more people who can allow unsavory elements to blend in. We needed more countermeasures. I looked further into the file and they suspect that the QuickLinks had a way to temporarily disable ourpany¡¯s monitoring software without alerting anyone. Leo was looking into fixing the security breach, but I don¡¯t believe this was something we could prevent entirely. The corporations specialized in software would likely be able to replicate this if even QuickLinks could do it. I searched the web for anecdotes of how strict other corporations¡¯ security was toward their employees to refresh my memory. There were definitely some horror stories of personnel with ssified information being confined to secure locations that had no way to reach the outside world. While that may be effective, I don¡¯t believe that was how I wanted to treat my employees. I kept exploring the experiences of my fellowizens until it was finally time to depart back to Miles High. I was going there to oversee the construction of our new facility and to talk to our partners and potential clients. On the way there, I would drop by the Wells n and have them introduce me to the local wastnd ns around our new routes as well. On the ride through the wastnd, I gathered my findings and began designing a solution. Currently, the only method we had to monitor our employees was using the software Leo and Lana designed. It ryed all the information about its user¡¯s cyberware. Whatever they saw and heard was transferred to ourpany¡¯s central server. With the current setup, even if I found a perfect defense for our monitoring software, how could I stop any moles from reporting back if they joined thepany with a coded method ofmunication already established? I didn¡¯t want to make my employees feel like they were prisoners, but there¡¯s a reason why the other corps handled it that way and it really was effective. Maybe I should approach it from another perspective. To prevent most employees from even attaining any sensitive information and only inform my most trusted circle. Still, any malicious party could gain valuable clues from mundane information that our employees inevitably would overhear over the course of their work. My software engineering may have a perfect solution if I spent a lot of points to create the perfect security program, but was there a way for me to deal with it using what I already had? I opened my status for me to review as our car continued the boring trip across the wastnd. Status Level: 21 EXP: 260/2100 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade It is a no-brainer that my specialty is in cybeics and stealth. Maybe I should use that to¡­create a cybeic that secretly spies on my employees. I might not be able to create the perfect defense for our software, but if our monitoring method is unknown to our allies and enemies alike, then they can¡¯t ount for something they don¡¯t know about. With an idea taking shape in my mind, I quickly brought out a terminal andid the groundwork for my new imnt. I didn¡¯t n on informing anyone about it either. The fewer people who knew about it, the better.
¡°Mr. Halls, it is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Sadarhrvin Runedeep from the Bahar Medtech Corporation,¡± a fit young man said as he held out his hand to me. ¡°Nice to meet you too, Mr. Runedeep.¡± I shook it, and he gestured for me to take a seat. We were in a meeting room we had rented inside a hotel in Miles High. There was a legal clerk with me and Thorne standing behind me on my side of the table. Sadarhvrin simrly had an assistant with him along with two guards who had their faces hidden beneath their helmets. ¡°Now, don¡¯t mind if I get straight to the point, Mr. Halls. Mypany would love to sign a long-term contract to have you transport our medical supplies from Can Sauce City to our branch in NLA. We have a detailed proposal ready. If you would allow me, I can have the files sent to you right away.¡± I nodded at his words and received a ping with the attached files immediately. I quickly forwarded it to our team back in Elevate City to review ande up with negotiating terms for me. Mr. Rundeep was patiently awaiting my response as he took a sip from his cup. Hisck of arrogance made him a much more preferable clientpared to all the ones I had been meeting this morning. I couldn¡¯t avoid dealing with those other clients, however, as they were part of the West Coast Agroindustry, which made them feel entitled to have us meet their needs. Our expansion of vehicles was stable, but still required more time in order to run these new routes at full capacity. We had set our prices based on market prices, enough for us to turn a profit even if we couldn¡¯t strike a deal with the wastnder ns around the routes. After a few minutes, I received the terms to be negotiated and resumed my talks with Mr. Runedeep. We went back and forth for another hour before we signed off on a tentative agreement and concluded ourst meeting of the day. I spent the rest of the day sightseeing around the city, which only consisted of driving around in arge convoy. I studied the people going about their lives on the streets, some thriving while others appeared to be struggling to get by. The lifeless eyes I saw on a few pedestrians waiting for the light to change reminded me of myself when I first came to this world. Once I had my fill of the city and sampled the milkshakes it had to offer, I retired for the night. The next morning, we departed early into the wastnd. We nned to visit two ns today, one that we had passed through when we came from the west coast, and another near the eastern side of town. The visit to the first one ended amiably as the Wells n were in contact with them, so they knew what to expect. They agreed to trade for everyday electronics and supplies in exchange for free passage, but only during scheduled times on particr routes where they would oversee us. The second n we visited was much more ambiguous as they weren¡¯t connected with any of the ns I had met until now. The wastnd they resided in waspletely cut off from the one I had been in. There was a wide stretch ofnd centered around Miles High, that was sandwiched between two separate wastnds. The one where the Wells n resided was called the western zone by the wastnders, and the one I was visiting was located in the central zone. We were only able to contact them because the Wells n agreed to send an envoy to pave the way for us. With that said, when we arrived at their camp, I found them to be not that different from the other wastnders I¡¯d seen. The negotiations went surprisingly smoothly except for the one weird condition that was suddenly thrown on. While I was negotiating with their leader, his teenage son broke into the meeting and insisted that we bring him to learn about the city dwellers. His father supported the idea for some reason, and I was soon left with no choice but to take on a babysitting job if I wanted the negotiations to proceed smoothly. We returned to Miles High that evening with an extra person.
¡°Good morning, Rollo! Where are we going to start off the day?¡± The wastnd boy asked. I had him dressed up like a corpo to blend in with us. ¡°You wanted to see how city-dwellers earned their living, right? Let¡¯s go observe the life of an average worker, then.¡± ¡°Oh, yes. I always found it wondrous how so many people fed themselves when all they did was stay cooped up in the city for years on end.¡± We hopped into a Wraith and drove around as I exined. ¡°There are many of work to be done in the city, most perform mundane jobs like that over there. They work in stores that sell products and food¡­¡± I continued exining how the daily lives of the average worker went before moving on to do the same with a corporate worker. ¡°The corpos here make significantly more money but are under more restrictions imposed by their corporations. They are only allowed to be in certain areas and will have to apply to theirpany for leave otherwise.¡± ¡°Their n restricts their movements like ours, then. Can I take a closer look at how they fight with each other? Our n only allows official duels to resolve conflicts. I knew the city-dwellers were bloodthirsty, but I never knew they were like that to their fellow n mates as well.¡± ¡°Theirpanies are well guarded. It¡¯s not something I can show you.¡± ¡°Please. This is myst request and then I¡¯m willing to cut my trip short and your obligations will beplete.¡± We had agreed to a full week tour. If I can satisfy this request, then I can finally spend some time in my workshop and return to Elevate City. It¡¯s not like I have to infiltrate anywhere dangerous. I can pick somewhere easy. I pulled up the online ordering app and found several items I was looking for. I wasn¡¯t looking for anything overtly specific, so it wasn¡¯t surprising I found it quickly ordered them. ¡°...Fine, but you¡¯ll have to give me some time and learn how to use one of our stealth devices first.¡± Chapter 93: Workshop Retreat Chapter 93: Workshop Retreat ¡°Listen, Jacob. Remember to follow my directions unless you want to get shot at,¡± I said to the wastnd kid sitting in the Wraith with me, who dumbly nodded. ¡°Okay, then. Let¡¯s go.¡± We exited the car that was parked in an alleyway, and we both turned on our active camouge. I had put together a suit like the one I initially used before creating the Shades for the boy. I ced a hand on his shoulder as we walked toward the entrance of an office building. There was a lot of traffic going into the building as everyone rushed to work. When we entered the building, there was a small line in front of each turnstile. The employees waiting in line all had glows in their eyes, as they orderly waited their turn. The line moved quite quickly, as each person simply had to tap their security card to get through. There were a few guards who patrolled the area, but to me, they seemed more like mall cops who were lightly equipped. It wasn¡¯t surprising, though. This building didn¡¯t belong to any particr corporation. All the businesses that operated here were smallpanies that shared the building. You wouldn¡¯t find any proper corp or aspiring corporations here, as they all took their privacy very seriously. The ones here either had funding issues where they couldn¡¯t afford to rent their own property or simply didn¡¯t care for privacy as they resigned themselves to be corporate underlings. Even so, they still adopted the typical corporate lifestyle, with some hopefuls here to build up their resume to be recruited into the bigger corps. It was almost like this was the minor leagues where official corporations were the major leagues. We trailed a lone security guard who walked around nonchntly, whistling a tune to himself. He did a quickp around the lobby before retreating further into the building, allowing us to get through the turnstile unnoticed as we trailed after him. We then went toward the elevators, where there was yet another line. We scanned the people waiting there so we could project ourselves as them. I found two who had their security cards visibly disyed on their hip and scanned them with my terminal imnt as well. I guided Jacob into a nearby washroom and donned our guises via projection technology. When we came out, we headed straight for the stairs.While the projection disguise was great, it wouldn¡¯t work that well in an enclosed space like an elevator where we would be bumping into others. I tapped my hand and had the terminal ping on the security lock by the door with the credentials I had pilfered. We only needed to climb five flights of stairs before we arrived on the floor of thepany I had chosen for this little outing. We took a small break in the stairway to rest my Shade and the boy¡¯s suit while I had the Nyes keep watch. Once we were ready, we reactivated our camouge and exited the stairwell. The elevator opened shortly behind us, with two women exiting onto this floor. We followed them and headed past the reception desk and further into the office, where dozens of cubicles were. I slowly guided Jacob around, allowing him to take in the sights before him. ¡°...That¡¯s right. I want to travel with Pete. Is my flight and amodations booked already?¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. There isn¡¯t any leeway left to change the booking now. The expos have made most amodations fully booked.¡± After a quick tour of what a typical corpo did at the office, we went into an empty meeting room when no one was looking. ¡°Seen enough? I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything more to see. It¡¯s all pretty boring.¡± ¡°I find it interesting. Can we see them scheme and backstab each other, too?¡± ¡°...This isn¡¯t a TV show or something. It doesn¡¯t just happen on demand for your entertainment.¡± ¡°Okay, fine...¡±
Once I had aplished the request from the wastnders, I finally headed back toward Elevate City. The stretch of the wastnd between Miles High and Can Sauce City wasn¡¯t that long. The wastnd was only a small part of it. Since our route ended in Can Sauce City, we didn¡¯t really need as many facilities there as we did in Miles High, so I left that to the other staff. Immediately upon my return, ire strolled into my office, sent me arge file of work to be done, and marched away without a word. I spent the next three days catching up on the work that had been umting and the new stuff that hade up due to opening up the new route. On the fourth day, when I finally had spare time, I shut myself off in my workshop and resumed the projects I had previously been working on. There were several ones I currently prioritized, with them being a new imnt for monitoring my employees, amercial one to bolster our sales now that the Shades were declining, and working on the various vehicles we use, such as transport trucks. Once I leveled up again, I would be bringing electrical engineering to ten as well, where I would then make another pass at our vehicles. I also had to allot more time to examine the cybeics I got from Benjamin Link¡¯s bodyguard, who had the stealth suit and a forcefield of all things. I had already taken a preliminary look at it. The stealth tech not being anything special, I only benefited from learning how sensors could counteract that specific model. The forcefield imnt, on the other hand, was foreign to me. I didn¡¯t know how to even properly dissect it, let alone understand it, so it was shelved for the time being. As our business expanded, I felt like I had less and less time to work on anything, though. I couldn¡¯t believe I was considering creating an AI to help me manage things too. The main thing that stopped me was how taboo it was among the consortium and all the other corporations. I was sure therger yers used it discreetly anyway, but did I really have what it took to keep it hidden? If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Hmm¡­I am going to need my AI to be better than any other out there to lower the risk of detection. The only surefire way to do that is to level software engineering past ten with my system¡­ From my experience with both cybeic engineering and stealth tech that had ten points in it, I could tell that the level of technology it gave me was likely around what the most powerful corps had in their arsenal. Anything beyond that should, in theory, be at the forefront of what exists in this world. It would be at least at the level of what the major corporations had for their specialty product that defined them. Their ace in the hole. In terms of productivity, creating my own AI would probably rank near the top, and definitely an option to consider. It would have to be an all-out effort, investing a significant amount of points into it, though. I would need a few more levels before I had to make my decision, so I pushed aside the thoughts and let my future self decideter. For now, I would focus on the most pressing project. For now, I crossed off working on the vehicles as I would rathere back to it once I gained another level. Otherwise, I would have to revisit it anyway for updates when I gained new knowledge. That left me with themercial cybeic project or the employee monitoring one. We weren¡¯t hurting for cash at the moment, though we were at the point where we needed to save up or attain a new major stream of funds before we could elerate our expansions. So that left me with the monitoring project to prevent another Judas from appearing in ourpany. Although it would be a stealth imnt that secretly monitored people, I should add something to our existing software, too. It would be a decoy, making others think that was our new solution instead. It was time to do some tinkering.
ire - Halls Corporation ¡°Would you believe him, Thorne? He shut himself into his workshop again the moment he came back and cleared his paperwork. Does he not care about tracking down that traitor at all?¡± ire said as she stuffed an entire cream puff into her mouth. ¡°Leave him be. I think that¡¯s what lit a fire underneath him and he¡¯s working up a solution to prevent any more incidents like this in the future.¡± ¡°Yeah, I get that. Lana told me about it too, but he should do that after punishing that traitor. I can¡¯t believe he doesn¡¯t want to get back at the person who put you guys in danger!¡± ¡°Well¡­ I think you both have good points. If he can be the bigger person and let it go, just leave him be.¡± ¡°Are you calling me petty? Who¡¯s side are you on Thorne?!¡± ¡°Calm down. I¡¯m helping you search for that traitor, no? Any new intel on that end?¡± ¡°...No. We¡¯ve been checking through everything we can find at all the airports, ships, and every single way to get out of the city. No luck so far.¡± ¡°Maybe their backer extracted them? No offense, but I don¡¯t think you guys could track them if a corporation secretly took her away.¡± ¡°Their backer was QuickLinks Logistics! They don¡¯t even exist anymore. I doubt helping some informant was their priority when they were gearing up for war.¡± ¡°Then that means she¡¯s still in this city?¡± ¡°Probably¡­There¡¯s too much data to sift over. This city isn¡¯t exactly small and there¡¯s just too many goddamn people here.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s that important to you, then let¡¯s go get some professionals to help.¡± ¡°Our intelligence department is supposed to be the professional!¡± ¡°Come on, I¡¯m not saying they¡¯re not, but QGs got their own contacts out in the streets. They¡¯re more effective for tasks like these.¡± ¡°...Fine.¡± Thorne stood up from his office chair and sent a message to the security team to have an extra team on standby in case Rollo wanted to go out. While he thought it was unlikely, he needed to be prepared, as Rollo was sometimes unpredictable with his hobby of hunting down harvesters. Thorne didn¡¯t think an extra team would exactly rece him, but he knew it was the limit, as Rollo would strongly object if his entourage grew toorge. The pair who had known each other since their days supporting each other asb rats made their way down into the garage and got into a Wraith. ¡°Where are we going exactly, again?¡± ire asked once she buckled her seatbelt. ¡°Haven. We got a job for a QG, right?¡± ¡°...Sure.¡± Their car soon exited the garage, escorted by two other vehicles, as they made their way to District 10. With the auto-drive taking care of everything, the duo became spectators, watching others veer out of the way once they noticed several corporate cars behind them. ¡°...We should get Rollo to create an unmarked vehicle with a low profile. I really prefer not to have others look at me in fear or contempt. The intel department could really use one, too,¡± ire noted as she looked back at the car that had gotten out of their way. ¡°But then he¡¯ll be shut into his workshop for even further.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll just have to drag him out every day. He should at least eat outside of his workshop.¡± They exchanged looks before both bursting out intoughter. The thought of Rollo¡¯s face filled with vexation as they dragged him out was tooical, and something they both mischievously looked forward to. It wasn¡¯t long before their small convoy arrived near Haven. Everyone on the street seemed to be armed mercenaries, and they directed cautious looks at their corporate vehicles. ¡°You guys stay outside and guard the cars,¡± Thornemanded the security team that apanied them. ¡°But sir, we can¡¯t leave¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. Haven is neutral ground, fighting is strictly forbidden inside. No merc would be foolish enough to do so if they wanted to continue in the business. Besides, I can handle myself.¡± The guard slowly nodded and relented. Walking past the carefree bouncers near the entrance, they headed into the lively bar where many people were merrily drinking andughing. ire nced towards the rooms with ss walls in curiosity. Her daze skipped over the ones that were tinted, toward one where she could see two distinct groups inside. They had half a dozen men on each side, all staring down at each other menacingly, but their presumed leaders who were seated were chatting away happily, as if they were best friends. ¡°ire,e on, stay close.¡± Thorne¡¯s voice snapped ire away from the scene and followed him up a set of stairs. On the new floor, there weren¡¯t any seats in arge public area like below. It only had those ss-partitioned rooms that were all soundproof. Thorne walked down the hallway, taking note of the room numbers disyed by the door until he found the one he was looking for. He hit the button on the terminal and the door soon buzzed open. ire followed Thorne in, and immediately spotted a buff cyborg of a man, even more so than Thorne by at least two sizes, standing behind a middle-ageddy with brown hair. The woman leaned back into the seatzily, with an elbow resting on top of the shoulders of another man seated beside her. Upon closer inspection, ire noticed that the man had more cybeics bits than organic ones, just like the cyborg towering behind them, though he looked organic at first nce. ¡°Oli, we¡¯re here with a job for you,¡± Thorne stepped forward and stated. Chapter 94: Corporation Perks Chapter 94: Corporation Perks ¡°Rollo, you¡¯re going to bete if you don¡¯t go get ready soon!¡± A voice yelled out from behind me. I turned around and found ire standing there with a hand on her hip, looking annoyed. Thorne was standing behind her, looking on with a wry smile. ¡°Alright, alright. Wait for me in the car. I¡¯ll be quick.¡± I quickly noted some key points about where I was for when I resumed and the current ideas I had on the notepad on my SAID. After a quick visit to the shower and dresser, I met back up with the two of them in the garage. We set off in a convoy of a dozen Wraiths and entered into the traffic of Elevate City. Numerous flying cars that cost at least millions each flew overhead as we waded through traffic. It was honestly surprising that traffic still flowed with a poption in the hundreds of millions. Still, maybe it¡¯s about time to start thinking about getting a flying vehicle for myself. But then again, that¡¯s millions of credits deep for not that much of a return. There are better ways to spend our credits. As therge looming tower in the distance slowly grewrger, I spent my time reviewing the new imnt and software update that¡¯ll soon be ready for testing before we roll them out to our employees. There were many ways to monitor people, and even more considering we could install an imnt to my targets, which were my employees. I relied on the method I was most familiar with, the nanomachines to record the surroundings, like how the Nyes worked. The bulk of my workload was to keep the imnt and its function hidden from the users themselves or anyone who scanned them. There was an added part where nanomachines would plug into their host¡¯s SAID and track theirmunications, too. The software already handled that, but as proven before, others may be around it or disable it entirely without our knowledge. That was why I had the new imnt monitor themunications as well, without being part of the user¡¯s SAID itself. On the software side, I had worked with our cy-sec specialists to update it to the best of our abilities, and we weren¡¯t under the illusion that it became foolproof. My main goal with that part was to add something there as a decoy, drawing any malicious party¡¯s attention. It would make them feel confident of having ovee our defenses, making them fall prey to our new monitoring imnt.The feature I added was the privacy mode for our executives when they discussed any sensitive topics. It would automatically mute any other employees with lower authority when they came into range, preventing them from overhearing what they don¡¯t need to know while working in the same space. Ourpany would take a public stance of keeping our employees in the dark, strictly on a need-to-know basis only. This wouldn¡¯t deter any determined parties, though. They could still target multiple parties and piece together the bigger picture. After all, this was the go-to method of corporate espionage when investigating manufacturing processes, as it was the norm to have the workers only know about their own respective parts. ¡°Rollo, wake up. We¡¯re here.¡± I turned off the projection of notes I had pulled up on my optics and nodded to ire in response. We got off and entered into themercial section of the spaceport. ¡°I¡¯m going to go shopping, then. Call me once you guys are done,¡± ire said and swiftly headed off along with her bodyguards. Once we saw her off, I pulled up the map of this ce and began heading toward my destination with Thorne. Joey had invited me to a celebratory event with his acquaintance today, partly to introduce me, but also to discuss the logisticwork I had been building over the ruins of QuickLinks Logistics. It had only been a week, but it was enough time to read the general trend. We soon arrived at the entrance to a business that specialized in hosting social venues. It was owned and operated by SocialCorp, as depicted by the name on the wall behind the receptionist¡¯s desk, in a giant font that was hard to miss. ¡°Wee to SocialCorp Meets. You are here for Mr. Moretti¡¯s booking, correct?¡± I nodded. ¡°Let our assistant over here guide you to the room.¡± The young woman at the receptionist¡¯s desk pointed toward a robot beside her. It had a rectangr head, like that of a tscreen TV. It floated in the air somehow and quickly came out from behind the desk and guided us further into the building. It was like a movie theatre in the back, and we had to walk for a full five minutes until we arrived at the correct meeting room. The robot wordlessly opened the door for us and waved goodbye as we entered. The door led to a dark corridor where the only light was at the end of it. We could make out brightly lit greenery ahead, and when we fully exited the corridor, we could see the bright sun hanging above us. It illuminated the projections of trees and grass all around us. It seemed as if we were in the middle of a golf course. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. My optics couldn¡¯t even see through these projections until we got close. How high-tech, as expected from SocialCorp. I didn¡¯t appreciate the fake scenery for long as an electric buzz, characteristic of an electromaic weapon discharging, sounded out nearby. I turned to find a bald head reflecting the sunlight, standing by seven others who all had their backs turned to us. Off to their side were several armed guards whose gaze was drawn to us. One of the men I didn¡¯t know was standing at the very front, pointing a pistol toward the open space before him. He pulled the trigger once more, as a drone zipped by, shooting it down. He repeated it several more times before he stopped, and the crowd apuded. I took the opportunity as the next person came up to take custody of the pistol to approach the only person I recognized here. ¡°Hey Joey, thanks for inviting me here today.¡± ¡°Oh Rollo, perfect timing! I believe you have met the star of today, Fernando, before.¡± He waved over the man who had just been shooting. I drudged up the memory with the familiar-sounding name and asked Kiri to look it up once I failed to recall when I had met the man. ¡®Fernando Cortez, his father is the owner of Holly Corporation which operates out of NLA.¡¯ Ah, one of the guys I met at that party I went to in NLA a while back. All I had been told about today was that it was a celebration for one of his corpo associates upgrading their consortium tier to a D-ss. From what I recall, that meant they would be paying the consortium 25 million credits per annum now, an amount we definitely couldn¡¯t afford right now. ¡°Fernando is here in Elevate City this week to finish off the procedures of upgrading his family¡¯s Holly Corporation into the D-ss tier. They are a real rising star among all the corporations on the West Coast,¡± Joey continued. ¡°Please stop it, Joey. Ites off as teasing when I hear that from you. As an owner of a C-ss corporation, there are still many things we¡¯ll need to rely on you for. Anyway, thank you so much for joining us today, Mr. Halls.¡± He extended a hand toward me that I swiftly reciprocated. ¡°Congrattions Fernando. It is good to see you again, especially doing so well.¡± ¡°You as well. Feel free to partake in our little trap shooting tournament here. We have some prizes, with the top prize being a resort trip to the moon.¡± ¡°Looks fun, maybe I¡¯ll give it a try even though I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll do too well.¡± ¡°Yes, please do. Everyone has to disable their targeting augments, so may still get lucky even if you¡¯re not confident. Please, if you would excuse me for a moment,¡± He said as he spotted another neer behind me, and speedily went to greet them. A waiter took the opportune moment to hand me a drink as I turned to Joey, who remained. ¡°So tell me, Rollo, how fares your expansion?¡± He got straight to the point and asked. ¡°We¡¯re making good progress on navigating the route. The wastnd doesn¡¯t cover that much of the route from Can Sauce City and Miles High, so it wasn¡¯t as challenging as we had expected. Our only problem right now is producing enough vehicles. A lot of your perishable items require temperature control, after all.¡± He nodded and took a sip from his cup before responding. ¡°What is your estimated timeline to be able to fulfill all the contracts that are awaiting your signature at the moment?¡± All my time talking to other corpos has paid off. I instantly recognize that he is asking when I can fulfill his order instead of the others. Friends between corpos are just rtionships to trade favors and he is subtly asking for one. ¡°Should be another month. For yours, I can start next week.¡± ¡°Sounds to me you have everything in order, excellent.¡± He smiled and took another sip. ¡°I can see that yourpany¡¯s promotion is not far off as well.¡± ¡°Ha, you tter me. We¡¯ll likely take it slow to make sure our expansion is unhindered.¡± ¡°A wise choice, but it seems to me you may not fully understand the advantages of going up in membership rank. Tell me, do you know the significance of the Holly Corporation¡¯s promotion?¡± Hmm¡­I had gone over the information package they had sent when we incorporated ourpany, but some parts were worded vaguely, while the parts I cared about, like the tax rates, were clearly noted, so I never really looked further into it. ¡°The tax rates, of course. Followed by increased opportunities of working with other members, and ess to industry reports and market analysis.¡± I replied as I slowly drudged up what I had read before. ¡°Correct. That is what the publicized version says, but it is written in vague terms. It was done on purpose to keep these perks subtle, away from public knowledge. If your corporation upgraded from G-ss to F-ss, the main perk is to have public institutions give you special consideration. However, do note that once you have moved up in ss, it is not possible to downgrade back.¡± I immediately thought about the utilities, but that was all privatized. It wasn¡¯t like there were health care or much public facilities I could use. Seeing me silent in contemtion, Joey revealed the answer. ¡°The ECPD will listen to your direction within reason. While that bunch doesn¡¯t like to fight, they are useful in cleaning up incidents, detective work, tracking, or even arresting people as long as it isn¡¯t too strenuous for them. If you went up to E-ss, you could have the courts and prisons work in your favor.¡± ¡°That is¡­Not something I knew.¡± ¡°It is not surprising. Corporations like to keep that information to themselves. There are manypanies that get onto G-ss only to fall from grace shortly afterward, so there aren¡¯t any perks. It is something you will eventually find out when your corporation is promoted. You usually are only informed of the perks at your current tier. Even I do not know what the perks avable to those in the higher-up sses are.¡± So this is the dark side of the corps. The hidden perks¡­ ¡°Then, what did Holly Corporation gain in promoting to D-ss?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°Starting from D-ss, the corporations be considered as middle-ss corporations. They gain the right to rent or buy real estate on the space stations that the consortium controls, allowing them to start operating in space,¡± Joey said as his eyes shifted upward as if his gaze could pierce through to the space stations above us. Chapter 95: Back in the Saddle Chapter 95: Back in the Saddle The event to celebrate Holly Corporation¡¯s promotion to D-ss corporation continued, and I chatted with Joey over some snacks while I waited my turn to participate in the trap shooting tournament. ¡°It has been nice chatting with you, Rollo. I believe it¡¯s almost your turn, so I¡¯ll go check in with some other acquaintances before I must take my leave. I¡¯ll talk to youter. Good luck, Rollo.¡± He was just about to turn away before he faced me again. ¡°Oh, and onest thing. Do take care to bolster your forces while we have the opportunity. You never know when a stormy day will arrive.¡± ¡°What¡ª¡± ¡°Rollo Halls!¡± Before I could ask him for details, one of the people up front called out my name. As the attention gathered on me, I couldn¡¯t help but walk up front and receive the pistol one of the staff members extended to me. He then ced three mags on the table before me and started exining the rules. ¡°Make sure to keep the weapon pointed away from the party at all times. The target drones will fly out between 0.5 seconds to 3 seconds after you call for it. Any questions?¡± It was simple enough, so I shook my head and inspected the pistol. It was simple in design and handled simrly to my railgun, Coil Wrath. Once I was ready, I signaled for them to begin, and a drone soon flew out. The first few drones came quite close to me, so there wasn¡¯t any issue, but after that, they got further and further away. It was inevitable that I began missing, as I was never a marksman to begin with. I relied on stealth to take my time aiming or simply getting close enough.As I got overwhelmed, the shooting was over before I knew it, and I don¡¯t think even got half of them by the end. I relinquished the weapon and quickly went to get a drink to console myself, all while avoiding gazing in the direction where Thorne was waiting with the other bodyguards. He was definitely smirking at me and I would no doubt hear his speech about how I¡¯ve changed since I spent more time in the workshop than in the range. I didn¡¯t stay long at the party once Joey had left. I exited the meeting facility operated by SocialCorp and went to meet up with ire, who had been shopping the entire time. We found her sitting in a cafe, surrounded by bags around her. A quick look at the bag¡¯s logo that disyed ¡®Airo Tech¡¯ was all I needed to know the contents within. Airo Tech was one of the premier corporations that dealt with electronic parts. The spaceport we were at was likely the best ce to purchase their products, as all their manufacturing was likely done in space, especially when it came to specialty parts like processors. ¡°Did you boys have a good time?¡± ire asked as she sipped on her iced coffee. ¡°Here, I¡¯ll send the recording of Rollo participating in a shootingpetition. Heh, he got so into it that his form was crumbling as he struggled to hit anything.¡± ¡°...So you did record it.¡± He turned back to me and shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re the one who picked the optics.¡± I ignored the two of them, who were happily going over the footage andughing at it while I ordered a milkshake to console myself. I¡¯ll have my revenge sooner orter!
Once we returned from the spaceport, I resumed working on the imnt for monitoring my employees. The prototype was very close topletion, and I had to start considering how I would test it. The entire point was to keep it a secret, so I didn¡¯t want to inform anyone at all. That created the dilemma of me being unable to procure a tester. My rm soon rang, reminding me it was time to finish up for the day and go earn some experience points before retiring for the night. The moment I exited my workshop, I was almost run over by Thorne, who was heading in the opposite direction. ¡°Watch it! Your body isn¡¯t exactly light!¡± ¡°Sorry, I wasing to get you.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Let¡¯s go.¡± We headed out to one of the smaller clubbing streets that was in the opposite direction from the Neon District in our unmarked vehicle. While the appearance was different, I had used the same internals as the Wraiths, with some slight adjustments to make it fit. We got out of the vehicle and sent the car off to be auto-parked in a nearby lot. We strode around the busy street filled with bars and clubs. The bright neon light illuminated the ce as if it was daytime, and crowds of party-goers merrily went about their night. ¡°You pick today,¡± I said to Thorne while I looked over the chrome people had to study the current market trends. ¡°Fine, that one will do.¡± He immediately pointed in a random direction. I looked over to find it had decent traffic, so I shrugged and we entered. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. There was a line, but a quick tip to the bouncer got us instant ess to the establishment. The interiors were lit up with blueish lights with some pink spotlights here and there. The spotlights happened to be pointing at some young men anddies who were each on an elevated tform, dancing around in clothing with very little fabric. Upon closer inspection, I realized that there were projections when I spotted one float into the air, a feat that defied physics. I leaned in close to Thorne and whispered. ¡°A show bar, nice pick. Didn¡¯t know this was what you were interested in. I¡¯ll be sure to let ire know.¡± I quickly toggled on the recording function in time to capture his tongue-tied face. He froze for a few seconds before he gave up thinking about it. We rxed at a table and ordered some drinks and snacks as we watched the scene around us unfold. On our second drink, Thorne nudged me, and I looked up to find one of the other patrons highlighted in my vision. They were sprawled on the table, drunk as a skunk. We watched on from the corner for a little while longer and as expected, they soon made their exit. Exchanging nces with each other, Thorne and I paid our tab and discreetly followed after the drunk man. It didn¡¯t take long before I noticed another group following the same person once we left the show bar. I sent Thorne to retrieve the car while I stalked behind the other party. As we had suspected, the neers soon took the opportunity when the man was vomiting his guts out, to attack and capture him. I watched as a car soon pulled up beside them and they retreated into it. Once again, harvesters are so predictable¡­ I may have now preferred to hunt mutants out in the wastnd for experience points, but it never hurt to do somemunity service, especially since there were no wastnds near Elevate City. After having hunted harvesters for so long, I was starting to know how they thought. It had be a lot easier for me to find them by staking out high-traffic nightlife areas, just like how they did it to find their marks. I swiftly toggled on my camouge and ced a tracker on the vehicle before I waited for Thorne to pick me up. ¡°Do you want to end today early or wait for them to return to their base?¡± Thorne asked as soon as I got into the car. ¡°Thetter option. We don¡¯t have anything nned tomorrow, so let¡¯s be thorough.¡± I did have to make up for all the time I was forced to sit out in our base, when we wanted to avoid giving our enemies any chances to attack me. We followed them around the city, picking up more victims until they finally returned to their hideout. At this point in time, storming a harvester den wasn¡¯t even a challenge for me or Thorne anymore. There was no more nervousness, as it yed out exactly like all the other times. They were simply too under-equipped, untrained, and dumbpared to the corporate opponents we had been dealing with. We silently eliminated all the harvesters in a manner that created the smallest mess. Once we were done, I found some of the victims already had some of their imnts removed during the short time we took. Just like before, I scoured the den for the cybeics and swiftly put them back together. I found their chrome swiftly as I scanned their faces and found their social media ounts. Their pictures had what they looked like before being taken apart, meaning I could see which chrome they had previously. As I performed the reinstations, I passed the time by studying my patients¡¯ profiles to see who they were. It was just to satisfy my curiosity, but an idea suddenly popped into my head. I paused the surgery and examined the corpo I was operating on and then the cybeic to be installed. Hmm¡­This could definitely work. Just need a self-destruct button or something, just in case. If only I was more prepared¡­ It¡¯ll have to wait for tomorrow when I find another den or something, but that should be easy enough.
Jeremy Stand - Wiper Corporation Jeremy woke up to the most pain he had felt in years. It was all over his body, from his headache to the soreness he felt throughout his torso. When he opened his eyes, he found an unfamiliar white ceiling. He forced himself to sit up, ignoring the pain, and found himself on a bed that was surrounded by blinds. He heard people quietly talking behind the curtains and quick footsteps. His curiosity didn¡¯tst long when the curtains were pulled to the side, revealing a middle-ageddy in a nurse uniform. ¡°Mr. Stand, I¡¯m d you¡¯re awake. ording to the insurance covered by your employer, you are to immediately check out and report to work for it to be valid. You have two minutes to vacate that bed.¡± ¡°What happened to me?¡± ¡°You are very lucky to have survived being captured by harvesters. They found you in a den full that was cleared out, probably by some merc. That is all I know. Please get up now, sir. Other patients urgently need that bed.¡± Harvester den? Oh, shit¡­ I lived. Jeremy cursed the horrible treatment he received despite recovering from his fresh injuries while at the same time, thankful that hispany provided any healthcare to a low-level worker like him at all. He was d he picked this newpany that offered slightly better conditions in lieu of the bigger corp he had received an offer from as well. As instructed, he quickly gathered his belongings and ensured his SAID still had ess to his bank ount. He quickly hailed a cab and went straight back to work. He was smart enough to remember the contract he signed stipted he had to immediately report once he had recovered enough to move in the case of an injury. Only an amateur corpo would forget the terms of the contract they had signed, and Jeremy wasn¡¯t an amateur. When he arrived at the small three-story office building where his corporation was, the front desk security immediately gged him down, making him wait as someone came to get him. ¡°Jeremy Stand, thank you for waiting. I am Issac from security. We received a report of your incident and will proceed to give you a mandatory checkup right away.¡± Knowing better than to argue, Jeremyplied, as he knew thepany had to check if any of the cybeics they had loaned him had been stolen or tampered with. He was brought to a set of scanners and had all his chrome diagnosed. After a full hour of inspections, he was finally cleared and returned to work. When he sat down at his cubicle, he immediately let out an exhausted sigh and stretched his back before he put on a serious expression and got to work. I really need a promotion. Let¡¯s hammer out some code and aim to be the top performer this month! That half a day off is going to be¡ªOuch! Just as Jeremy celebrated, a sharp burning pain suddenly shed out from within him. The pain disappeared as quickly as it came. What in the world was that? Elsewhere within a messy workshop located in another building. A lone manughed manically to himself. ¡°Sess! After some fine-tuning, it will beplete! And then I can finally move on to the next project!¡± Chapter 96: A Break Chapter 96: A Break ¡°Let¡¯s gather at Haven tonight for a drink! Go call all our old acquaintances!¡± I said to Thorne first thing in the morning. ¡°...Any special asion?¡± ¡°Nope. Just to hang out after a while.¡± Ipleted testing the prototype of the monitoring imntst night. I named it Twilight¡¯s Gaze, in the internal documents I stored in my terminal within me. I wouldn¡¯t be informing anyone else about it, but I needed to name it for my own reference to organize thepleted projects. With itspletion, I had to n how to implement it for all my employees. Thankfully, I had less than a hundred, so it was still doable by myself, given some time. Then, I could install it when I update our monitoring software. I would just have to make the excuse that only I could perform the update due to how sensitive it was. It¡¯d be easy toe up with an excuse to knock them out while they were in the clinic. Still, it would mean I would have to make a trip to our NLA office sometime soon, but that was fine. It wasn¡¯t urgent to implement it for everyone, just the employees who hung around our main office were a priority. With a project done, I decided to call out everyone I knew tonight to take a breather. There were still many projects awaiting me, but there was only so much one man could do at once. ¡°Alright. You better finish your meetings on time, though.¡± At Thorne¡¯s words, I quickly checked my calendar and found the meeting he was talking about. The one scheduled with one of the clinics we were partnered with.¡°Of course. Send me the details once you finalized the details.¡± Thorne nodded and headed off into his own office beside mine while I did the same and entered my own office. It only took me an hour to finish all my paperwork for the day. Normally, I would retire to my workshop, but today was a break day. It¡¯s been a while since I had time to rx. With no imminent threat lurking about, I wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to spend my time. I wasted time browsing the web and watching videos. None of it held my interest for long. I went back to my unit where the VR capsule ire had ordered for me and tried it out again. The MMO they were ying was great, but required too much time investment for it to be worthwhile. Still, I yed it with an open mind to observe how the game was made and how the NPCs reacted. Maybe I can create my ownter once I¡¯ve upgraded my software engineering and get an AI to help out as well. Lunch time soon came, and I decided to go out for once. I¡¯d been cooped up in my workshop or avoiding any QuickLinks assassin for so long, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a change of pace. I picked out a highly reviewed ramen shop that had minimal seating, so I could have my security wait outside. The small convoy of Wraiths dropped off Thorne and me one street away. We then joined the line outside the ramen shop, where numerous corpos on their lunch breach impatiently waited. The line moved decently fast as the corpos ate quickly and left because the culture of ¡®time is money¡¯ was ingrained into them. It also may have to do with the thirty-minute lunch break heard mostpanies instated. We soon got seated at individual stalls that were equipped with handheld terminals for ordering. Though what drew my attention the most was the robot chef working in the kitchen before me. It worked with speed and precision, as it served meal after meal without a pause. While I waited, I nced around the interior of the store. I could see Thorne¡¯s torso sticking out beside me, but the divider blocked all view of his table and face. On my other side was someone in typical corporate attire, chatting away with his friend. ¡°How is it in yourpany, Tae? Because mine is a lot worse than I had thought.¡± ¡°Hmm? Mine¡¯s just kind of boring, with no one really interacting with each other. What¡¯s wrong with yours?¡± ¡°I thought joining a G-ss corporation would mean they would be a more tight-knit family, where I could actually be mentored and learn something, but it¡¯s even worse than at our old school. The factional strife, scheming, and politicking are all driving me crazy. I don¡¯t even think I¡¯ll survive the entire internship.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just how it is. At least it sounds like your co-workers are keeping it civil and within the rules. Mine are just outright hiring mercs to sabotage or assassinate each other on every single project.¡± ¡°...Damn it! I wish my parents would just let me be a mercenary! I¡¯m confident in making just as much as the middle managers if I had a chance.¡± ¡°Right, and I could start up my own corporation if I just got enough funds. Come on now, the grass is always greener on the other side. No point daydreaming about hypothetical situations.¡± I listened in on other people¡¯s conversations as the robot chef brought my food to me. Their menu had arge selection, from the cheap synthetic garbage that tasted like crap to the version made with somewhat authentic ingredients that I ordered. Theb-grown proteins were shit, but at least the broth and noodles were decent. Once we were done eating, I went to one of the clinics that belonged to thepany I was meeting withter. I mainly went there to browse through their catalog in order to refresh my perspective on the current market. I had to verify if my next idea for themercial project would be viable. After speaking with the clerk about what were the recent trends, I headed back to the office to tour the other sections of mypany that I rarely visited before it was time for my scheduled meeting. I first went to the dorms we had created, shortly before we built the servers for themunications app. It was a ten-story apartment building located within the fenced-off area where our main office was. There were over two dozen units on each floor, enough to house all our employees with room to spare. Seeing how the apartment building loomed over our office it reminded me how much we needed to expand our main building. We were in talks about purchasing thend, which was why they allowed us to build the dorms, but we would need more credits to purchase thend before we expanded the main building. All the floors within the main office building were in use now, so I took a quick tour of the area and left lest I interrupted their work. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Like clockwork, the representative from the corporation I was meeting today showed up on the dot. It was one of the best things about corpos. They all were punctual human beings. ¡°Mr. Halls, thank you for your time today.¡± A young woman greeted me and shook my hand. Once we got seated, she continued. ¡°Ourpany would like to discuss a sale of the Shades for the uing month. As the amount we¡¯ve been selling has dropped recently, we n to offer a big discount to make a big ssh.¡± There were more and more copycats entering the market that our Shades dominated, but the market was still small and declining. Both parties knew that the sales would only decline from here and would take a while before it evened out, so it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to go out with a bang. ¡°Very well. About the details¡­¡±
After the meeting, several of us headed toward Haven in separate cars. It was simply because there were too many of us to fit in one. We arrived early without any fanfare and walked past all the neon signs around the area until we got to the one that had Haven written on it. Along the way, all the mercenaries gave us guarded looks, seeing how we exited a car marked with corporate insignias. We got our own private booth this time, so we made our way toward a corner of the main area and entered the room behind the ss partition. ire immediately sat down and began chatting away with Lana and Leo while I nced over at Flo. ¡°Is Erzaing tonight?¡± ¡°Yeah, I made sure she agreed toe before leaving this morning. She¡¯s been cooped up in our home for too long.¡± ¡°You could always convince her to take up a job and work with you in training our security.¡± ¡°Ha, maybe in a year or two. She¡¯s been nning her break this entire time, so I doubt she would agree to any offer until then.¡± ¡°Oh, traveling to anywhere?¡± ¡°Lion City. She wants to try her hand at treasure hunting. Without having to fulfill any jobs while at it.¡± ¡°I see¡­I never really got to go anywhere while I was there. Just the part of the city where they allow foreigners, which was practically the same as every city.¡± A female server came in with a tray of drinks. She had pink hair and cybeic legs that were fully exposed by the slits on the side of her pants. Once she left, Thorne chimed in. ¡°I didn¡¯t get to gost time. You only went with ire. How about we go once things be less busy?¡± ¡°Pick your own goddamn time to go and don¡¯t interrupt my honeymoon!¡± ¡°As if we¡¯re ever going to get less busy!¡± Both Flo and I retorted at the same time. He took a swig of his drink and shrugged before falling silent. Immediately after, the door to our room swung open again, and this time, a familiar man walked in. He held his rifle lovingly in one hand as he went around greeting everyone. ¡°Max, it¡¯s been a while.¡± ¡°Rollo, yes, it has. I assume you guys are doing good with the looks of it.¡± ¡°Yes, all thanks to you.¡± ¡°You damn better be doing well. You headhunted half my team. Now I have to run with some newbies.¡± Both Max and Liz had declined to work for our corporation, preferring the mercenary lifestyle instead. We still sometimes stayed in touch, but with our reliance on mercenaries decreasing, chances to meet grew fewer and fewer. ¡°Newbies? Everything going well?¡± Flo raised an eyebrow and asked. ¡°Ha, things have changed without you guys. We do more delicate work now. The newbies are fine as my spotters, and Liz has them under control. We just took out some big shot from a gang the other day. No offense, but it¡¯s nice running things my way instead of yours.¡± ¡°None taken. Feel free to call us if you need help sometime. I think my boss wouldn¡¯t mind, right?¡± Flo nced over at me, to which I nodded. The next time the door opened, both Liz and Erza came in. With their addition, everyone was gathered. Despite Liz¡¯s lethargic aura, the party only got more lively as they started doing karaoke. ¡°Cheers!¡± We all came together and clinked our sses. I nced around and thought back to when I first came to this world, where my life consisted of only myself and my part-time job as a cashier. I may have encountered a lot of danger along the way, but it was moments like these that made me feel it was worth it. It was also moments like these that encouraged me to continue growing so we could defend our happiness and agency. Money didn¡¯t solve all problems, but not having money created numerous problems. As our night came to an end, we all departed, content. No trouble came our way. The mercenaries left us alone, and we peacefully returned home. As the clock hit midnight, the day switched on my calendar. Feeling refreshed, I returned to my workshop, which I had managed to stay out of for the entire day. I pulled up my status and prepared myself for a new design session. Status Level: 21 EXP: 960/2100 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade I had the monitoring project mostlypleted, with the calctions for the fine-tuning still being processed in the terminals. My n was to create amercial imnt next to revitalize our cybeic business. That didn¡¯t mean it had to be strictlymercial. I could have the neutered version sold to the market while we had a more advanced model like we did with the Shade. It also made sense since the cybeic expo was being held soon and we were invited as established yers in our niche. It would be a good opportunity to introduce andunch a new product to keep our sess in the industry going. As for what I should design, I have been designing many devices with stealth capability in recent times. Maybe it was time for me to work on the other angle, in detection. I couldn¡¯t have the Nyes deployed at all times, so it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to have several detection methods. With no enemy standing before us now, it was a good opportunity to bolster our defenses from the unseen threats. Then, once I leveled up, I could focus on the vehicles again before venturing into software, where I would aim toward creating an AI to give me an advantage over our adversaries. With a n forming in my mind, I got to work. Chapter 97: Argus Chapter 97: Argus Yuki - Halls Corporation Yuki woke up to the sound of her rm that was ring from the other side of her room. She had the option to simply use the rm function on her SAID, but sometimes she was so tired she would simply set it on snooze and fall back asleep. That¡¯s why she had ced her terminal across the room, to force herself to get out of bed. She drowsily brushed her teeth and prepared for a new day at work. While she was showering, she nced at the reflection of her torso through the mirror and inspected it for any scars from the instation yesterday. She thoroughly went through it and once she was satisfied seeing nothing there, she finally went to get dressed. Luckily for her, her workce was just a few steps away from where she lived in thepany dorm. Although it wasn¡¯t as convenient inviting friends and family over, she had never heard of any other corporation not charging any rent at all. The pay waspetitive too, enough for her corpo parents to stopining, which was a huge relief to Yuki, as she was under a lot of pressure from them when she had done poorly academically. She wasn¡¯t sure how her life would¡¯ve been when she was denied any opportunities outside of security jobs due to her poor showing in school, but she was happy she finally found her footing in life. After breakfast, she walked over to the main building of herpany and went to report to the security department in the basement. She equipped herpany-providedbat armor in the locker room and made sure there weren¡¯t any creases on thepany¡¯s emblem of a snow owl before she got her day started. Once she was ready, she went over to the office of her current superior, Peter, who oversaw all security personnel within the base. Yuki had been promoted recently to lead one of the elite teams, but she still had to report to hermanding officer every morning. ¡°Good morning, Peter. Is my assignment unchanged from what you told me yesterday?¡± ¡°Morning. That¡¯s right. The CEO will fill you in himselfter. Don¡¯t worry about any of your other duties for today.¡±¡°I see. Can I¡ª¡± The door to the office suddenly opened, cutting Yuki off. They both turned to find a heavily augmented man, whilerge, was slightly on the small side for cyborgs. ¡°Thorne.¡± Yuki nodded toward him with a smile. Peter had stood up to salute, and called out respectfully at the same time, ¡°Chief security officer, sir.¡± He red at Yuki for the casual demeanor she was showing. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I told you all to just call me by name.¡± Yuki grinned back at her superior, as if having won before speaking, ¡°I won¡¯t bother you guys, then. I¡¯lle backter.¡± As she was about to walk past hermanding officer¡¯s superior, a hand was ced on her shoulder, stopping her in ce just at the door. ¡°It¡¯s fine. You can stay. I¡¯ll be quick.¡± Yuki blinked and stepped to the side to give the men some space to chat. She had been taught from a young age to keep her head down and try not to stick her head where it didn¡¯t belong, so she didn¡¯t want to overhear any of their conversation. But she was also taught to listen to her superior¡¯smand. She watched as Thorne opened his mouth to speak with Peter, but for some reason, no sound reached her at all. When she concentrated on their mouths, a ck box appeared in her optics and covered the lips as well. Oh, that newpany software update. She remembered briefly hearing about that when she went to the cyber-doc yesterday. Yuki swiftly got over it, as it was a given that corporations had a tight leash on their employees. In fact, she was d the new measures were implemented. Now she couldn¡¯t even be a suspect for any leaks simply because she was in the vicinity, which was a nerve-wracking experience in itself. True to his words, Thorne only spoke briefly with Peter and soon left. ¡°Now, where were we? Right, you should report to the CEO now after getting changed. Wear something a typical mercenary would. You can find it from the intel department¡¯s disguises if you don¡¯t have any.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll go right away, then.¡± Once Yuki got changed as requested, she headed straight for the fourth floor where the executives lived and went toward the infamous workshop. Everyone knew this was where the CEO was usually holed up in, so it was the first ce she checked. She pressed the button to alert the inhabitants of her presence, and contrary to what she heard, she received an immediate reply. The doors unlocked and she walked into a messy room where various tools and parts were sprawled around the various workbenches. Beside one of the workbenches, she spotted her CEO waving toward her while sipping on his drink. ¡°Good morning, Yuki. How are you feeling after the instation yesterday?¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine, sir. What kind of tests would you like me to do today?¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°They briefed you on the new imnt before installing it, right?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. I haven¡¯t tested it as they strictly told me to await your orders, but it should be an infantry ss sensor, correct?¡± Her boss walked over to one of the nearby workbenches to fish out a device the size of a small cup and held it out to her. ¡°This is the prototype model for my Argus project. I¡¯m sending you the file on how to use it and how it works now. Try to familiarize yourself with it as best you can. You¡¯ll be using it in livebatter today.¡± ¡°Umm, I¡¯m sorry? We¡¯re expecting livebat?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve signed us up for a gig from a QG. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be tagging along, though mostly as a spectator.¡± ¡°...You¡¯ll be tagging along?¡± How is that something for me not to be worried about? If anything happens to you, they¡¯lly the responsibility for it with me! ¡°Yes¡­And a small team that¡¯ll stay a distance away from us, so it doesn¡¯t distract you.¡± So there is another team on bodyguard duty. Lead with that, please! Yuki spent her entire lunch focused on going through the file about the new imnt. She normally would¡¯ve dreaded being selected as a guinea pig for a corporation, but she trusted her current employer enough to enthusiastically agree when she found out they were looking for testers. The bonus pay was also convincing, but she believed their im that it was tested and perfectly safe for her. After eating, she soon found herself in an unmarked car being driven by her big boss. They drove into District 12, on the outskirts of the city, where various gangs had arger presence. Yuki could soon see from the pedestrians around that this part of the city was a lot more dangerous than the rest. Those corporate overlords who control the city are toozy to even bother with cleaning up the filth, huh? Or does their existence provide them with some sort of benefit? ¡°Today¡¯s gig is to rescue some corpo¡¯s son who has been kidnapped.¡± ¡°What, they can¡¯t do it with their corp?¡± As soon as the words left her mouth, Yuki realized her faux pas. How could I speak to the CEO so rudely?! Her boss simply smiled and answered her question. ¡°A lot of corporations don¡¯t care that much about their low-level employees. Or sometimes, they simply don¡¯t want to report the kidnapping as it can be a ck mark in their career, so they take matters into their own hands and hire mercenaries.¡± ¡°I see¡­Thank you for exining to someone like me.¡± ¡°Ha, I didn¡¯t learn about this until recently. Don¡¯t worry, ask anything you would like. Like I said before, you¡¯ll be taking care of this job today.¡± After asking some questions meekly. They found a parking lot to stash their car in and walked down one of the side streets toward the target building. Yuki was thankful that the cy-sec specialists had already done the majority of the work, tracking down the location of where the kidnappers were from theirmunications to the parents. It didn¡¯t take long for Yuki to locate one of the apartmentplexes that people had repurposed from an old warehouse. She quickly turned on the active camouge ability on her Shade and climbed onto the second-floor balcony where the door was opened. She was thankful to whoever left it open, even if they were probably drug addicts, judging from the drugs and smoking instruments out on the balcony. Once she was inside, she quickly activated her new imnt, the Argus. What settings should I enter again? Biological will just give me too many to work within a residence. Right, set it to scan for the specific SAID model that the rescue target has. The imnt scanned her surroundings, and the results were disyed in the corner of her vision, like a minimap in a game. There was just one result within the entire area, just one person with the Zenitech Pa Mk.4 within several hundred meters. It was located on the fifth floor of this building. With that new information, Yuki quickly got to work. She climbed the stairs and passed through the building¡¯s non-existent security with her active camouge and arrived on a floor that was filled with graffiti and hallway lights that barely worked as they intermittently flickered. She walked toward unit #512 where the sensor had picked up on her target and paused outside so she could scan once more, but this time, with the settings set for all biological targets around the target area. She was rewarded with a few pings that showed up in her minimap and found eight targets in the direction of the unit. Some of them may be from neighboring units, so she proceeded with that in mind. The doors were locked tight, but as she¡¯d learned from all the experience she had working with active camouge, she knew that people usually opened their doors when knocked. Even when they could see no one was there in the peephole, they would still open to investigate. And she did just that. The door soon opened, and a man with a face full of tattoos answered. Yuki swiftly slipped into the unit as soon as the door opened and found a living room that was more like an armory, with all the guns lying around. She found several other men with simr tattoos on their faces, sitting by the couch, watching arge screen terminal together. What they were watching, though, was horrifying to say the least. Yuki almost gasped at the brutal nature of the video being yed, which appeared to be a homemade recording. She quickly refocused her mind on the mission instead, which was to rescue the boy who would likely meet a simr fate as the victims on the video if left to his own device. She went through the various rooms in the apartment and found a boy tied up in one of the rooms. ncing at the unconscious boy, she verified it was the same one in the dossier she was given. Even the background of the picture she had received matched the room she was in as well. With her rescue target confirmed, she headed outside to finish off the kidnappers first, so she could safely extract the boy. What she found the moment she went back outside was entirely different from what she expected. Instead of finding the men merrily watching their ghastly videos, she stumbled upon a scene filled with blood and corpses inside the apartment. The men she had passed by earlier were dead, each with various holes in their bodies where their blood leaked out. It had all happened so suddenly, and without a sound as well. She would¡¯ve been more surprised if she wasn¡¯t so mindful of who was hanging around her the entire trip. She found the person she expected, her boss, leaning by the apartment¡¯s entrance in hisbat suit. ¡°Sir, I thought you weren¡¯t going to intervene.¡± ¡°Sorry about that. I couldn¡¯t resist. The entire point of the test was to see how you used the Argus, anyway. Combat wasn¡¯t a consideration.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Anyway, you got the kid, right? Let¡¯s head out.¡± ¡°...Yes, sir.¡± As expected. My boss is someone to be trusted. His sense of justice must¡¯ve urged him to act after seeing the horrific shit they were watching. Chapter 98: Expo Chapter 98: Expo Once my little practical test on the Argus was finished, I pulled up my status on the drive back. Status Level: 21 EXP: 1450/2100 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade ¡°Umm, sir. How did I do?¡± I looked over at the woman, Yuki, who had volunteered to test mytest prototype. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you did great. I didn¡¯t intervene because you did anything wrong.¡± I couldn¡¯t resist killing the kidnappers earlier, as they were just free experience points to be had. They were also an unredeemable bunch from what I saw of the atrocities they hadmitted and even had the nerve to record them. I just couldn¡¯t stand waiting there and watching their handiwork along with them while I waited, so I pulled the trigger. She released a sigh of relief and sank back into her seat. We drove along the streets of Elevate City in silence for a brief moment, then I spotted the various screens disyed on the skyscrapers that advertised the uing event the Halls corporations would be attending. ¡°Oh, and I¡¯ll be counting on you next week during the cybeic expo. The test went well, so we¡¯ll be going ahead and introducing the Argus as ourtestmercial product.¡± ¡°Yes sir! You can count on me¡­¡± she responded excitedly at first, but then wore a troubled expression. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? You had something nned during the expo?¡± ¡°Oh, no, sir. I was just thinking it¡¯s a shame that we won¡¯t be able to monopolize the Argus for ourselves.¡± ¡°Hmm, we¡¯ll be keeping the more advanced version to ourselves, of course. Themercial version I¡¯ll be working on until the event won¡¯t give away the core aspects of it, rest assured.¡± I saw a pondering look on her face and continued. ¡°Themercial version will be tuned down. It will have a shorter range, less detailed scanning, and most importantly, won¡¯t feature the ability to scan things undetected.¡± I thought back to the trouble I had when designing the Argus. Most detection devices were categorized into either passive scanners or active scanners. Passive scanners were drastically less likely to be detected by the other parties, but their detection wasn¡¯t asprehensive as active scanners. Simply infrared cameras fell into this category, and their weakness showed as I was able to tweak my Shade to counteract it. Meanwhile, active scanners had the disadvantage of alerting the subject that a scan had just swept by them. I tried to find the best of both worlds when designing the Argus and I had made a small breakthrough, thanks to all the knowledge I had on stealth technologies. I was able to make an active scanner that had a much lower profile and blew everything I hadpared it to out of the park. Though I could onlypare it to what was known andmercially avable, I had a pretty good idea now of what the smaller corporations were capable of. Uwfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Then what would be the selling point of the productpared to simr ones on the market?¡± Yuki asked. ¡°It will be able to filter out what you would like to scan with precision, as you had done with the kidnapped target¡¯s SAID. The ones on the market aren¡¯t nearly as precise.¡± I¡¯ll also be allowing the scans it will emit to be easily detectable. It will be a weakness of our tech that I will purposefully show in hopes of lowering the guard of others. But that was better left unsaid. We soon arrived back at our office and I immediately got started on themercial version. With all the data I got from the tests, the only time-consuming part left was optimization.
¡°It always surprises me that this city could get even more crowded,¡± Joey said as he looked out the window from inside the spaceport. The blue ocean reflected the sun into our eyes. From this sight alone, it was hard to believe the world¡¯s ecosystems were damaged immensely. ¡°I believe it is always like this around this time of the year. All the expos are held during this week. Will your corporation be announcing anything in particr?¡± I asked as I took a sip from my cup and surveyed all the other corpos in the cafe we were in. ¡°Yes, but my industry isn¡¯t as exciting as the cybeic one you will be participating in. It¡¯ll simply be announcing an increase in efficiency, refined techniques, or new variants of existing foods. It will be a good marketing campaign with all the eyes it draws throughout the system, though.¡± ¡°That honestly doesn¡¯t sound bad. I¡¯ll definitely check it out.¡± A food expo¡­There definitely will be free samples there! I can go sample everything and maybe even form connections to supply myself with what I like. As we passed the time with some mundane chatter, the screens that were ying the news suddenly grew in volume, drawing everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Good afternoon everyone. As you can all see behind me right now, the SC Pris is about to arrive. The two million-ton warship will be bringing along various corporate executives and leaders to visit Earth¡­¡± I watched the reporter stand by the docking bay of the spaceport above. The camera zoomed in on the spaceship, but it was honestly hard to tell the size of it, with nothing beside it topare it to. The screen then had various names of corporations and their leaders that were on board, which I wasn¡¯t particrly familiar with. I nced over at my friend to find him frowning. ¡°Something on your mind?¡± I asked. He snapped out of his musing and took a swig of his cup. ¡°Just a few unpleasant names.¡± He gestured to the screen. ¡°Some of them are powerful people that have some rtionship with those High Gate people, but they could be justing for the annual meeting that takes ce after the expo. They are too powerful for us to monitor, though, so we¡¯ll have to wait and see.¡± I nodded at his words while I dug up what I could on the names disyed. There wasn¡¯t a lot of information publicly avable, so I sent a quick message to my intelligence department topile everything we had on them and be on the lookout. I doubt it would uncover anything vital, as they all seemed to be fromrge corporations that could easily hide any information they see fit. It didn¡¯t mean we wouldn¡¯t do our due diligence, though. The spaceship on the screen didn¡¯t keep the audience in suspense for long as they swiftly closed the distance to the camera. Its growing size became more apparent as sections of the space station came into view and I could only imagine the costs associated with building such a behemoth. ¡°Well, I will have to depart to get ready for our panel, Rollo. Please feel free to visit if you would like,¡± Joey said as he stood up, buttoning his suit. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll be looking forward to it.¡± I watched him disappear into the crowd of people, surrounded by his guards. It was a first for me to see such a crowd gather within the spaceport. Not everyone could set foot here, so it was a surprising sight to see so many people. I finished off my drink and checked in on where Thorne and ire were on thepany tracking app before making my way toward the conventional hall area where the food expo was being held. Several expos were going concurrently every day with arge range of industries it covered. The cybeic one I was going to attend was going to take ce the day after tomorrow, so we could take the chance to look around on the other days. I waited off by the entrance with my guards for several more minutes before I spotted the arrival of my two trusted confidants. ire walked up to me with a spring to her steps. ¡°I can¡¯t believe we get to go to expos in person! I¡¯ve followed the live streams of it every year until now. I¡¯m so excited!¡± Thorne followed closely behind her and gave her a skeptical look. ¡°It¡¯s just a marketing event between dirty corpos and gives them a chance to flex on theirpetitors.¡± ¡°Still doesn¡¯t change the fact it¡¯s a giant convention that showcases a lot of cool new stuff.¡± She shrugged. ¡°Let¡¯s go before it gets even more packed,¡± I said and impatiently led the way. We entered the convention halls that hosted the food expo and were thoroughly inspected again despite the careful examinations we had to endure on our way to the spaceport. Our guards also couldn¡¯t proceed further with us, probably because it would only make it unnecessarily more crowded. The staff at the entrance scanned our credentials, and we then received a link that led us to the expo website that had the schedule for every ongoing and uing panel listed. ¡°Which one do you guys want to go first?¡± ire closed her eyes and put on the most serious face I¡¯d ever seen her wear, deep in thought, as if she was making a life-changing decision. ¡°Hmm¡­I have no idea. I can¡¯t decide between the panel for Penny¡¯s new chocte bar, materialized sushi, or thetest auto cook.¡± I took a look at the listed panels myself and found a majority of them were much simpler, going over the increased yields for existing fruits and crops. The few ire picked up would likely be popr owing to the fact it introduced a breath of fresh air rather than reiterating the old. ¡°It¡¯s all going to get crowded. Let¡¯s head to the closest one. I would much rather have a seat.¡± We navigated through the sea of corpos and soon entered a medium-sized room that could hold around three hundred people. The seats were already filling up, so we hurried to take ours before it was toote. Once we were seated, I nced around and had Kiri match the faces and logos on the clothing of the surrounding people to pull up a preliminary profile. I noticed that many of the people up front came from increasinglyrger corporations. They all seemed to be less visibility augmented too, and could be easily mistaken for being entirely natural. Their optics looked entirely organic. Even the ones who were likely viewing something, as they were staring nkly ahead, didn¡¯t have any glow in their eyes. It was quite ironic considering the less fortunate people judged people¡¯s wealth by their cybeics, causing some to unt them around while the corpos tried to hide theirs as they went up thedder. I guessed it was also fitting as survival in the streets relied on deterrence, while survival among corpos relied on scheming and hiding your aces. The doors soon closed, and the lights dimmed, signaling the start of the panel. ¡°Thank you everyone foring to our Penny Corporation panel. I¡¯m sure you have all heard, ourpany ns to introduce a new product made with our authentic cacao beans. It has been several years since we established significant production facilities in space that have allowed us to grow arge and consistent supply of¡­¡± As the presenter talked, I took note of how the entire presentation was set up. We would be doing a simr presentation in a few days, so I wanted to learn as much as I could while I still had the chance to fine-tune my own performance. It was vital to make a good impression. There were only a few hundred people here, but they represented numerouspanies in the industry who could be potential partners, whether it be in distribution, suppliers, retailers, and so forth. By giving a great presentation in these panels, you could kick start the interest in both your product and business, which may lead to additional business proposals. The presentation wasn¡¯t too long as they weren¡¯t trying to bore their audience to death. Once they had a chance to borate on the selling points of their products, they swiftly proceeded to hand out samples to make a bigger impression. While I was sampling the chocte I received, I couldn¡¯t help but think it was worth it toe to this panel, allowing me to get a feel of what was toe. I can¡¯t wait for the panel on pizza that grew from trees. Chapter 99: Woodcrafts and Dungeons Chapter 99: Woodcrafts and Dungeons The next day, we returned to the spaceport, where various expos were continuously being held throughout the entire week. The three of us had a lot of fun trying out various corporations¡¯ new products and taking notes on how each panel was held. Joey helped a lot in that aspect too, as we watched his Authentic Corp¡¯s presentation, I got a lot of useful insights from it. ¡°You boys better not lose track of them today. I have reservations for us at The Earl, and it wasn¡¯t easy getting them,¡± ire said from the backseat of our car. ¡°Rx, we¡¯re adults. Right, Thorne?¡± I took my eyes off the road to look over at the man beside me as the auto drive took over, to just catch the sight of the glow fading from his optics. ¡°Huh? What did you guys say?¡± ¡°See?¡± the girl in the rearview mirror said while triumphantly smirking. I shook my head at her and turned my attention back to Thorne. ¡°Did you pick out the panels we should visit?¡±¡°Only a few. There are so manypared to yesterday, I don¡¯t know which ones to pick. And did you guys want to check out the neighboring expos as well? I heard the one for wood crafts is really popr among corpos.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine with anything today. How about you, ire?¡± ¡°Those blocks of useless chunks may go for exorbitant prices, but I don¡¯t have the eye to appreciate them. I¡¯d rather we stay at the weapons expo unless it gets super crowded or boring.¡± Our car soon passed through all the stringent checkpoints and arrived inside the familiar convention halls at the base of the space elevator. We were immediately greeted with a sea of corpos when we entered the building, who mostly wore suits of muted colors. There were only a few asional people in the crowd who dressed shily, likely the children of some bigshot that came to y. Compared to yesterday, there were a lot of small drones flying overhead, transporting small boxes around. The weapons expo today would have some new products that allowed visitors to test them out at a range, so the logistical support required would be intensive. Following Thorne, we made our way to our first panel of the morning, inside a smaller room that could hold around one hundred people at most. I spent the time going over the other panels avable today before the session began. ¡°Wee everyone, I am Jeremy from Aether Tech, and thank you foring to the product release of ourpany, where we will be presenting thetest model of our automatons.¡± The man gave us a brief introduction to hispany before hemanded a robotic humanoid to enter the room. It carried a weapon and marched at a consistent but natural pace. He expounded on the features of theirtest model, and how powerful they were even against typical cyborgs. The overall reception from the audience was lukewarm, though. Robots weren¡¯t popr for a reason. They were too expensive and high maintenancepared to expendable humans. Cybeics were also very developed, which meant even cyborgs were a more efficient investment. Even so, they still had their uses in defending sensitive areas, where secrecy was a priority. Like us, it seemed about half the people who came here today were mainly just having fun taking a look and weren¡¯t serious potential business partners. I watched as the representatives ended the panel with a grimace, at having achieved poor responses. Our next few panels were much more popr, with next-generation railguns, holographic decoys, and maic pulse weapons that could disrupt electronics. It definitely helped that we were handed tokens after the presentation that allowed us to test out their product at the range. ¡°We should buy a few of these,¡± Thorne said, as he put down the maic pulse rifle he had just finished shooting. ire quickly sent the digital pamphlet of the weapon in question and highlighted the price tag for him. ¡°Hmm¡­maybe one or two for us. Our EMP grenades are way more cost-effective. We should definitely get a few of those decoys, though.¡± The decoys were cheap inparison. While it was possible to make something simr myself, it would cost too much time and energy when a mature solution was already avable. It was better to purchase them and modify them if needed. The three of us then went to a few drone panels before we started running out of interesting panels to visit. The remaining ones were too niche or industry-specific, and we weren¡¯t here to hear about the incremental improvements others had made by a few percent. We had some time left before our reservation, so we proceeded to the wood crafts expo in the neighboring exhibition hall. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The rity of my optics allowed me to immediately notice the fabric of everyone¡¯s clothes here was of a higher qualitypared to before. It made sense seeing this expo was more for hobbyists who could afford wooden works, and not the corporate drones that had to attend for the sake of their job. Unlike before, the panels were not organized by entire corporations, but by the category of pieces being presented. I may have said I didn¡¯t care, but how in the world is there anything interesting about seeing a wooden chair? We entered a random panel that was about to start as we didn¡¯t have a preference. We could immediately see an antique wooden chair that was finely carved sitting in the spotlight. It had a reddish hue and a marble b in the centerpiece of the backrest, but everyone around paid more attention to the rosewood. ¡°Haha, greetings everyone. I wanted to present to you mytest haul that my dungeon team had brought back to me. My researchers date this chair back six hundred years! Before the apocalypse. They¡­¡± As he continued to extoll thetest piece of his collection, I looked up the information online and my eyes widened in surprise. This wooden thing is worth over fifty million credits! That wasn¡¯t even the most expensive one, as there were ones that went for a much higher price. It was mind-boggling to believe that this little thing that was somon in my old world was worth several flying vehicles and more than everything I had made so far. It was a humbling experience, one that made me doubt if I went into the wrong business. So that¡¯s why there were so many mercenaries in Lion City, braving into the dungeons. I had thought they were only doing so for the lost technology there, but these antiques were much moremon and worthwhile. I still had no ns to venture into one, though. I heard these dungeons were mostly bunkers from before the apocalypse, but the defense systems for most of them still remained active. Even if they weren¡¯t functional anymore, the bunker itself was a hazard, with it falling apart. The worst of them were old test sites during the war, and I would rather not uncover a super bioweapon. The panels here were much shorter due to its nature as a bragging session among collectors. It worked for us as we were only here to broaden our horizons, not to closely inspect any particr piece. Before we knew it, the day was over, and it was time for our reservation. The Earl, the restaurant that ire had somehow made a reservation to, wasn¡¯t just any fine dining restaurant. It was one located under the space elevator, a restaurant under the sea. It was famous for its beautiful view of the underwater world. With mutants lurking deep underwater, it was one of the few ces to safely attain such a view in this world. It wasn¡¯t the most prestigious restaurant, though. Its sister restaurant had an even better view, being located in the space stations in orbit, far above our heads. For today, we would make do with this underwater dining experience. We headed deeper into the spaceport than ever before. Towards where the climbers that took its passengers into orbit were. After presenting our reservation to security, we were guided to a slightly different section where the elevators were. As we passed by the waiting area for the space climbers, we saw a huge crowd awaiting their ride. The terminals around informed everyone of their dys, and they weren¡¯t shy to let them know it was due to a VIPing down from orbit. Seeing it wasn¡¯t my business, I made sure to keep pace with the group and entered an elevator. It didn¡¯t take long at all because this elevator only went down, and a separate one was used for our return trip. Inside the elevator, we weren¡¯t alone. Two women in cocktail dresses were already waiting. They shed us a smile that we politely returned and they resumed their conversation, but that action had earned Thorne and me an elbow to the ribs. The moment the doors soon opened, I could hear several gasps beside me as the blue underwater world greeted us. The scene was definitely pretty, but it wasn¡¯t that different from the aquariums I had been. For the two beside me, though, it was likely their first timeying eyes on what was beneath the ocean in person. As they recovered, we made our way to our seats, guided by the server, and began talking about our presentation tomorrow. ¡°After seeing the presentations today, I think it would be a good idea for us to incorporate the usefulness of the Argus for dungeon exploration,¡± I dered. ¡°Well, it isn¡¯t that different from what we had. Mercenaries are still the ones who venture into them,¡± ire replied while keeping her eyes on the menu. ¡°Yes, but they seem to be a different sort of mercenaries that specializes in them. They definitely have the funds, seeing most of their patrons are willing to spend tens and hundreds of millions on those antiques we saw. No matter how much those corpos had undercut them, the crumbs of tens of millions can¡¯t be that bad.¡± Mercenaries had always been the target market we had in mind. We were a known quantity in their industry thanks to our Shade, which made it much easier to introduce our new product. The civilian market didn¡¯t have as great of a need for our detection imnts, anyway. It was better to work with our existing clientele than to set foot in an unfamiliar market where we could easily step on the toes of powerfulpetitors. ¡°I hope you¡¯re not nning on going into one of these dungeons, Rollo.¡± Thorne red at me. ¡°Nope, not for me.¡± ¡°...We may have to sponsor a dungeon exploration team before our officialunch.¡± ire awkwardly interjected. ¡°It would help promote us to that segment of the market a lot more effectively if we have proof and reviews of the Argus¡¯ effectiveness inside dungeons.¡± While we were holding a panel for the Argus tomorrow, it would hit shelves at a slightlyter date. This session was to help find business deals, retail stores to carry our products, and other regional distributors that we couldn¡¯t reach with our power alone currently. ¡°Maybe we can find someone who has the connection with apetent team tomorrow, then. I don¡¯t want to make a trip to somewhere with a dungeon to scout for mercenary teams,¡± I replied. We continued exchanging ideas for our presentation and reviewed what we saw for the day while we ate our food. When we were done, we returned using the other elevator designated for going up. This time, we had it to ourselves. We resurfaced as a slightly different section of the spaceport, and we started searching for our exit. It was a simryout, where we were close to the waiting area for the people traveling into orbit. As we were looking around to find the way, I froze when a statue entered my vision. It was a simple replica of the space elevator off to the side. The thing that caught me off guard was when I caught sight of the text on its que that exined its history. Thanks to my high-quality optics, I could easily make out every single word. ¡®...elevator was destroyed by the terrorist, The Gamer, and was promptly rebuilt through the power of¡­¡¯ The Gamer?! Was there seriously someone called that? And they had the power to destroy an entire space elevator¡­ Chapter 100: Presentation Chapter 100: Presentation ¡°We should be starting on schedule in two hours. Are you ready?¡± I drew my attention away from the web I had pulled up on my optics and looked up to find ire. I nced around and found everything had already been set up by our employees. ¡°Yeah, it should be fine.¡± Afterst night¡¯s dinner, I had been researching the so-called ¡°The Gamer¡± that I saw on a que talking about how they had destroyed the first iteration of the space elevator. There wasn¡¯t much information about them at all on the web, only briefly alluded to their existence in the articles talking about the history of the space elevator. It didn¡¯t make too much sense to me that there was so little information about the terrorist that managed to strike such a huge blow to the corporate symbol of the world. It didn¡¯t even happen that long ago, just fifty years. There should be plenty of people still alive from that time period. Anyone moderately wealthy person who could afford proper healthcare and life-prolonging treatments could easily live a century and a half. My suspicion that the corporations had covered up the incident only grew more the less I found. Though if that were true, I had no business uncovering what the high-level yers want to keep hidden for now or it would just be suicide. ¡°Hello, Rollo?¡± ire called out. ¡°Stop daydreaming and let¡¯s go grab something to eat before our panel starts.¡± Shelving the unimportant thoughts, I followed ire and Thorne out of the room we were assigned for the cybeic expo that was taking ce today. The room we were assigned was on the smaller side for this event and could barely fit a hundred people. The stage was at the center and people sat slightly elevated around it, so it was pretty smallpared to some of the ones we had visited for the other expos. As we ordered our food at one of the fancy restaurants in the spaceport, I reviewed my presentation.From what I saw at the wood crafts expo yesterday, I began incorporating the topic of dungeons into the marketability of the Argus. Our original n was focused on the entire mercenary market in general without targeting anything more specific because we believed the Argus to be useful in all types of situations. The wood crafts expo yesterday opened our eyes to how lucrative some of the markets were. The rich corpos were willing to pay huge sums of credit for old wooden antiques, more than I had imagined. My time in the upper echelon of corpo society was still too short for me to learn all about them. This was a difference between purebred corpo who grew up in such an environment and neers like us. The market for dungeon delving was gigantic enough for me to rethink how we approached the market. I believe it was worth designing various variants of the Argus that catered to specific segments of the mercenary market. While a general all-purpose model was nice and the simplest to execute, having variants that specialized allowed us to further build our brand, and allowed us to step foot into the premium cybeics market. It would build up demand for our product and have our customers look for us instead of the other way around where we pushed out our products onto retailers who, in turn, pushed them onto their customers. However, the dungeon delving segment of the market was the only attractive one that I believed we had the best chance of establishing ourselves in, as the Argus just catered to their needs much more. After a quick breakfast, we made our way back into our presentation room andpleted our final checks before our panel opened. On the way there, even though there were only other presenters in the hall, I could spot a variety of interesting cybeics that weren¡¯tmon at all. Some had an extra limb, while others had shy recements that were simply weapons like des or cannons that didn¡¯t even retain their function as hands. It reminded me of the shy fashion shows I had seen that were more for proof of concept than for the practicality of everyday use. Out of curiosity, I looked up the list of other ongoing panels and found the names didn¡¯t really give me a precise description of what they were about. I mean ¡°The Mantis¡±, was probably the one with the de arms, but what in the world was ¡°Project Alery Vortex Infinite¡±? How can they even leave their description entirely nk?! I let out a sigh of relief as I read over our own name, ¡°Sensory Cybeic - Argus¡±. We were part of the saner groups that listed our product category and had a brief bio in our description. Our presentation hall slowly filled up with various visitors as I went over the other panels that took ce at the same time. Nova Tech was included with one of the many panels they had scheduled for this event, but there wasn¡¯t anything to worry about, as our hall had limited space anyway. I could easily spot the people who came here for fun as we had done and the representatives from various corporations taking their seats. They wordlessly grouped themselves, with the people from the bigger corporations taking the better seats up front. When we reached the scheduled time, the doors closed and the lights dimmed. I stood up and walked into the circr stage where the literal spotlight was. This story has been uwfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, thank you foring to our Halls Corporation panel. Some of you may not have heard of us before as we are new to the industry, but I assure you ourtest product will be worth your time today. Without further ado, let me introduce to you the Argus.¡± I gestured toward the middle of the room where a hologram was projected. It showcased the Argus imnt slowly spinning around for everyone to get a good look at. It zoomed out and a featureless person stood beside it to give aparison in size. It was a thin and sleek device, a size smaller than the old smartphone I had used. ¡°The Argus is ourtest detection imnt designed for robust and demandingbat usage. Compared to the existing marketing alternatives, the Argus has a higher range, and precise filter capabilities tailored to iste specific search criteria. This, in turn, means it can also identify known models of cybeics the target has.¡± A projection of the technical specifications popped up. Sounds of my guests murmuring to each other and gasps of surprise could be heard. While the scanning technology presented wasn¡¯t revolutionary, the ability to fit such a powerful scanner into a cybeic imnt was another story. With ten points in cybeic engineering, my ability to create a workable imnt rivaled that of the greatest corporations. The only parties I foresaw surpassing me in how well I could safely integrateplicated technology into imnts would be the top corporations that specialized in such cybeics, with ab full of experts. Even the downgradedmercial version of the Argus wasparable to what most medium-sized corporations used for their spec-ops teams. ¡°That¡¯s¡­Are you sure those specifications are correct?¡± Someone at the front of the crowd asked. I nced over to find a representative from an E-ss corporation that developed specialty parts for cybeics. ¡°They are correct. We n to have a more premium variant as well, that is catered toward the dungeon environment.¡± Another round of whispers began and this time, I could hear some of them murmuring about how they doubted such a smallpany like ours developed this or how we were so desperate for money that we were selling our trump cards. ¡°And you are sure they are safe to use? The amount of energy, radiation, and electromaic interference such a powerful sensor produces could easily fry the user and their cybeics.¡± The same person couldn¡¯t help but continue. What he said were some of the major challenges that prevented others from developing a simr imnt before now. However, my hours holed up in my workshop were not in vain, and with the knowledge provided by the system, I would be embarrassed if I couldn¡¯t solve it. ¡°Yes, they are perfectly safe to use and within industry standards.¡± ¡°...That¡¯s¡­ Be honest with us here. This isn¡¯t some stolen tech you wanted to make a quick profit from, is it? It would be a waste of time for us if the original corporation that made this stepped in, and things would surely not turn out well for you.¡± I nced around the venue and found various expressions, some suspect, some amused, and some eager. ¡°I assure you the Argus was developed by ourpany. Anyway, allow me to demonstrate ourtest product in action.¡± I signaled to one of our employees to take out a copy of the Argus to showcase to our guests, while Yuki prepared herself for our live demonstration. ¡°Our employee here already has an Argus installed inside of her. To showcase to you the precision capabilities of the Argus, we will be disabling her optics and auditory imnts, and then have her scan a volunteer. Do I have any takers?¡± A few hands immediately shot up, mostly from the people who came here for fun. ¡°Okay, how about you with the red sses?¡± I pointed to a woman with auburn-colored hair. She walked onto the stage and I guided her to stand off to a corner. I just needed her to be away from anyone else. ¡°I have instructed my employee here to scan the area where our volunteer is in exactly 24 seconds from now. Please bear with me.¡± The short wait felt a lot longer than expected, but I soon detected Yuki¡¯s invasive scans, followed by her voice. ¡°I detect a Nova Tech Epilson Mk.2, Zenitech Benny Mk. 7, SocialCorp¡ª¡± I watched our volunteer¡¯s shocked expression and swiftly sent a message to Yuki that it was enough. The Argus wasn¡¯t perfect and it couldn¡¯t identify every cybeic in existence or the unlisted ones that corporations kept to themselves. That didn¡¯t mean we should expose every imnt our volunteer had, even though I¡¯m sure various scanners she had to go through received simr information. I should start working on a new project that can scramble and fake all these scans. It will have to be perfect to not reveal any traces to any corporation, though. ¡°Ma¡¯am, was my employee correct?¡± She slowly nodded.
My presentation soon ended after the demonstrations and I received multiple requests from various representatives for a meeting. This was amon urrence at these expos, and appropriate rooms for our meetings were easily found. I entered the room where a tall woman waited and immediately approached to shake her hand. ¡°Thank you for your invitation. I am Rollo Halls from Halls corporations.¡± ¡°Likewise, thank you foring in such short order. I am Mei from Qilin Corporation.¡± A quick search told me it was apany based in Lion City that was in the trade and distribution industry. Their reach stretched across Eurasia and into some parts of Europa. ¡°A pleasure to meet you. What would you like to discuss today?¡± I asked. ¡°I won¡¯t waste your time and get straight to the point, sir. Ourpany is interested in distributing your products to the cybeics market in Asia and Europa. We have connections with various retailers there.¡± She quickly sent over a tentative proposal. I knew the states in those regions differed immensely, ranging from corporate puppet states to powerful authoritarian reigns. It would be costly in both material resources and time to get our foot into their doors ourselves. ¡°Just for those markets, correct? With those rates, you are asking of us, is that all you can offer us?¡± ¡°Yes, just those markets. You can retain the rights to the other markets. What we can also assist you with is marketing. We know you¡¯re a rtively newpany, and may not have your own dungeon team contracted to you yet. We can lend you ours to help showcase your Argus to the otherpanies and make inroads in the dungeon-delving mercenary poption.¡± Apany contracted dungeon teams. This is starting to sound like corporate-owned sports teams¡­ Chapter 101: Endorsement Chapter 101: Endorsement A few weeks after the cybeics expo, I finally finished the premium variant of the Argus for the dungeon delving market. We had spoken with several businesses interested in carrying out new products, but a lot of them gave lopsided deals where our margins became uneptably low. We eventually decided to go with Qilin Corporation for the Eurasia market while we would be expanding into the American market ourselves, albeit slowly. We picked Qilin Corp as they had ess to exclusive markets and their experienced dungeon delving team could effectively endorse our product. While we could form our own or contract a team, it wasn¡¯t worth investing so much time and money to do so when the dangers of dungeons were so great. With thepletion of all themercial models of the Argus, we now had to proceed with the more mundane matter of producing them. I would have to return to NLA soon to oversee the expansion of our production facilities, which would allow me to grind out some experience points in the wastnd as well. For now, we could still make several copies of the Argus a day, and that was enough to send a few units to Qilin Corporation¡¯s mercenary team who would be endorsing it. I spent half the afternoon putting together those imnts and handed them over to one of ire¡¯s assistants to ship them. When I was done, I exited my workshop and went over the non-urgent messages that my SAID had blocked. Many of them simply needed a quick reply and affirmation while one stood out to me. That was because it was from the intelligence department that had been monitoring any suspicious activities since our productunch. I went into the elevator and made my way to the third floor where the intelligence department was and stepped into the tidy office, where several employees sat by their terminals. There weren¡¯t any private offices here, and I made my way toward the end of the room where our head of intelligence sat. ¡°Hey Lucy, you sent me a message about something that needed my attention?¡± Her eyes blinked as she focused her gaze on me before she immediately shot up from her seat and saluted like the security officers.¡°Sir! When did you get here?¡± ¡°Just now. You can rx.¡± I said and gestured for her to sit back down. ¡±So, what did you guys find?¡± Her eyes took on the characteristic glow when its user focused on the screen directly on her optics. A brief momentter, I received a small file. ¡°We¡¯ve received reports of a few corporations preparing to analyze our product. Most concerning of all, one of them is from the High Gate Group, which is hostile to the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance we are part of.¡± I went over the list of corporations she gave me and searched them up on the web whenever an unfamiliar name popped up. All of them were from small corporations that were E-ss or below. It made sense, as I ensured our advanced version of the Argus was at the standard of what medium-sized corporations kept to themselves. They would have simr tech and their priority to analyze ours wouldn¡¯t be high. They could stand to wait until it was released to purchase a copy for their R&D department. The corporations on the list must have wanted to gain the new tech to strengthen themselves while the one from High Gate wanted to study it to prepare for any future hostilities that broke out with us. They all seemed to think we pulled out one of our trump cards for financial gain. I wondered if they considered we would have a more advanced version we kept to ourselves. They could analyze it all they want, it wouldn¡¯t be so simple to reverse-engineer the Argus without it bing deadly for the user. There was a delicate bnce to ensure the use of powerful sensor systems could be safely used. As for our adversary at High Gate, the scanning technology itself that they would likely be studying wasn¡¯t anything new. The key advantage our in-house version would have was how hard it was to detect our active scans. With both the Nye and the Argus, we would have superior detecting capabilities. The main challenge in stealth devices was to ensure it was undetectable physically and on sensors. Most stealth solutions would have a weakness towards one or the other. The addition of the Argus gave me an easier time detecting the spec ops of other corporations. It was my response after the wake-up call from having fought a foe that made use of stealth tech like we did during the fight with QuickLinks. After all, we couldn¡¯t always rely on being able to hit them with EMPs.
Ozsus - Mercenary A thin man of average height released a heavy sigh upon exiting avish building. He could still hear the loud music and cheers of gamblers who were having the time of their lives behind him. He waited by the curb for several minutes as he lit up a cigarette. Hepletely ignored all the people who walked past him. As he released yet another sigh toward the pavement beneath him, arge minivan pulled up. The doors slid open and unveiled its upants, a young skinny woman at the wheel, a simrly aged boy sitting beside her, and arge muscr man who had to crouch down so his head wouldn¡¯t hit the ceiling of the car. The driver put an arm around the adjacent seat and leaned back to peek out at Ozsus. ¡°Get in already, old man. We don¡¯t want to grow old sitting here doing nothing.¡± Ozsus let out yet another sigh before flicking his cigarette away and taking the seat next to the giant, who did not appearfortable being in a vehicle that was too small for him. Still, he shed a smile at Ozsus as he got on and leaked out a surprisingly high-pitched voice. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Did you lose everything again?¡± Ozsus scoffed at him, leaned back into the seat, and crossed his legs. ¡°D..Do you need to s¡­stay over at my ce, again?¡± The boy sitting in the front nced back and asked. ¡°...No. Why are you acting so nervous about it? Are you that against hosting me for a few days again?¡± ¡°I¡­I¡ª¡± ¡°No shit, he¡¯s against it! Every time you stay over at his ce, you make a heck of a mess and bring your dumb cos over like you own the ce! Don¡¯t let him bully you into saying yes again, Kevin.¡± The girl at the wheel red down hard at both parties. ¡°Okay, okay. Don¡¯t worry, our employer messaged me about an easy payday for the gig today. On that note, did Pecs install the imnt they sent overst night, yet?¡± He turned to the giant man. ¡°Yes. It¡¯s in here, all right.¡± The man replied in his high-pitched voice while patting his chest. ¡°Good, let¡¯s go to our usual haunt, and get paid already!¡± ¡°Shut up. You don¡¯t get to be so demanding, you dumb old man. You haven¡¯t even told us about the gig. Spit it out already!¡± The car sped up as the driver grumbled, and the band of mercenaries soon made their way out of Lion City. On the way to the nearby wastnd, Ozsus briefed his team about the endorsement gig. After arguing a bit about how he informed them toote, not allowing them the chance to be more presentable for the recording they would be doing today, they arrived at their destination. It was a location known to only a few mercenary teams, where a giant sand crater gave them ess to an underground facility from the pre-apocalypse era several hundred years ago. Still, it wasn¡¯t that old, as there were signs of people living there until a hundred or so years ago. The team got out of the vehicle and made their way toward a hatch near the bottom of the sandpit. As soon as they entered, the team immediately got into their formation and took every step with caution. The reason why the mercenaries tacitly allowed other teams to visit this ce was because of the dangers that lurked about. Drones and robots patrolled around the bunker and would attack any intruders without warning. Potential traps and sentry turrets were lurking in every corner, and worse of all, all these defenses either repaired or replenished themselves every day with no set pattern. Even the traps were different every time they came, and none of the security measures here were weak at all despite it being ancient. It substantiated the rumors of how this ce was managed by an ancient AI. That was also why the mercenaries kept this to themselves, not wanting to have any corporation¡¯s involvement. ¡°Connect your feed to us as always, Pecs. We¡¯re starting the show.¡± Ozsus called out to therge man, who nodded in response. He then proceeded to start the recording as Pecs sent out the results from his sensors. ¡°I¡¯ve set the new sensor to detect anything wooden¡­The range is pretty good, considering all the reinforced walls in this bunker.¡± ¡°...Are you sure that junk from some small-time corp actually works?¡± The only girl in the group asked therge man with undisguised skepticism. ¡°I tested it a bit after installing it. It should work like a charm.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t get too excited yet. We¡¯ll see if it¡¯s a hit or miss soon enough.¡± The team made their way further in, sticking to the middle of the hallway, as far away from the metal walls as possible. They had fallen for traps multiple times previously, which was why they all wanted ample space to give them time to react. After hours of navigating through the maze-like bunker, Pecs alerted his teammates. ¡°And¡­.there. It¡¯s detected something three hundred meters out. Our usual scanner has less than half that range.¡± The team kept talking to a minimum to avoid detection, but a few minutes after heading toward their new destination, the periodic scans Pecs pinged out detected something yet again. ¡°The sensors picked up something moving. Nothing organic was detected, it¡¯s probably drones. Get ready.¡± Therge man whispered back to his teammates in his squeaky voice. They soon heard the sound of the door sliding open and a small army of red lights came into view. They were experienced enough to know that was the lighting off from the drones that defended this ce. ¡°Pecs, do your thing! Everyone else, protect him!¡± Ozsus yelled out. Contrary to appearance, Pecs wasn¡¯t a frontlinebatant, despite being a beefy cyborg. His body was mainlyposed of cybeics that yed a supporting role, including an electronic countermeasure suite, sensors, and loads of processing power for cyber-security. Pecs swiftly enabled the ECM suite imnt he had and sent out a wave aimed at frying any electronics in its path. It was expensive equipment that wasn¡¯t something mercenaries weremonly seen equipped with, but Pecs was able to afford thanks to the funds he had hidden before being dismissed from his old corporation. He had a small fortune set aside that was able to fund all his body recement, as his oldpany was ruthless in its termination efforts. Several leading drones were immediately fried as they were hit by Pecs¡¯ attack. It wasn¡¯t able to disable all of them, though, as several drones in the back began firing their weapons at the team. The lone girl on the team quickly stood in front of their cyborg and held up a tower shield, while the other two began firing back as well. With their well-practiced teamwork, all the drones were soon destroyed as the cyborg released yet another wave that fried the remaining drones. They then went the way the drones hade from and entered into arge warehouse area, where the ceiling reached over thirty feet. They followed the sensor and arrived in a corner of the warehouse, where nothing but a wall stood in their way. ¡°...So is it a dud, after all? There¡¯s nothing there.¡± The girlined. ¡°Let¡¯s search around first. There may be a hidden room behind there. We¡¯ll have to find the right ce to enter from. Everyone be careful when touching the walls. Thest thing we need is a steam pipe bursting on our faces,¡± Ozsus said, directing his team to begin their search. In the meantime, the cyborg Pecs, and began doing several more scans with his new imnt. ¡°There. I detected some electronic circuitry behind this wall that leads up there.¡± He pointed toward an old fire rm switch. It didn¡¯t take long for the experienced team to find an old keypad hidden behind the rm. With Pecs¡¯ skill set as a hacker and ample processing power contained within him, they soon broke through the systems, and the walls began shifting. Ozsus led the way into the new corridor that emerged. At the end of the path, he saw something that made his eyes gleam. A finely carved door made of ebony wood. ¡°Jackpot, this thing¡¯s probably worth a good sum even with the corpos lowballing us.¡± ¡°Maybe enough tost you a month.¡± A voice chirped from behind. Ozsus couldn¡¯t even form a response to that. The corporations only bought from corporate-affiliated teams, which also allowed them to collectively press down the prices. The price tag of tens of millions Ozsus had heard of only applied to transactions between corpos. They would be lucky to even get a fraction of those prices. They got to work removing the door despite his mood having dampened, but when they finished their work, they all couldn¡¯t help but cheer as they saw what was within the room. A private office that was fully furnished with a wooden desk, chairs, and alcohol cabs. It was all surely worth a small fortune! Chapter 102: Digesting New Gains Chapter 102: Digesting New Gains ¡°Rollo, I¡¯ve seen thetest promotion video you put out with Qilin Corporation. I¡¯m sure members of our alliance would be happy to procure some of yourtest products. In fact, I would like to do so as well if you are willing to sell your most advanced version.¡± The bald businessman said from across the table that was filled with fancy dishes. ¡°I¡¯m happy to do business and give discounts to our alliance members, of course. Though I¡¯m sorry to say the premium version, we released is already our most advanced. Apologies for disappointing you.¡± Joey swished his wine cup around and took a sip before responding. ¡°Come on, we all know you¡¯re not one to sell something without reserving the best for yourself. But fine, if you would like to keep it for yourself, then it is in your prerogative. Anyway, here are the cassettes you have requested.¡± He took out several dark rectangr devices and ced them on the table. There werebels on the subject of knowledge contained within each one, ranging from shooting skills to knowledge of electromaism. I wanted to find moreprehensive ones that I could use to train my employees, especially for our security department, but those were never on sale. It would either give away the creator¡¯s tactics or allow others to analyze them for weaknesses, so it was never avable. The shooting skill was a more niche one that was popr among corpos for their social sporting events like the trap shooting I had participated in. I pocked the cassettes after inspecting each of them and then took out my own storage chip and passed it over. ¡°This is everything we found from Benjamin Link¡¯s terminal when we took him out. It took a while to decrypt it, but everything is there.¡± Joey picked it up and immediately plugged it into the port on his wrist. His eyes shed with a soft glow as he went over the information on the chip.¡°This will be very helpful indeed to our alliance. I believe that¡¯s enough about business matters for now. Let¡¯s enjoy the food. ¡± As we feasted on the meal before us, I couldn¡¯t help but think about what my next steps were for thepany. The data we decrypted from the database we copied during our infiltration had plenty of information on how QuickLinks ran its logisticswork. We were still in the middle of analyzing how they ran their ship and were picking out the parts we would emte. I also couldn¡¯t wait to get back to my workshop to start dissecting these new cassettes I received. Although a way to create our own with whatever knowledge we wanted on it was still far off, every bit of information helped progress the project. The main roadblock was still the safety factor that other corporations remedied by performing human experiments, but if I could create my own AI to help refine the method, the risk of the experiments may be within a tolerable range. The more information and samples I gathered, the lower the risk, which was why I tried to gather at any opportunity I had. Once dinner was finished, I immediately went back and headed toward my workshop. Waiting for me at the door was ire, who blocked my entry. ¡°Rollo, you better go over all these documents first before you retreat into your workshop. Otherwise, don¡¯t think about heading off to NLA tomorrow.¡± ¡°...Yes, of course.¡±
Almost two months had passed since the information exchange with Joey, and I had spent it entirely in NLA. It felt like it went by so quickly, but that may be because I spent the majority ofst month mindlessly exterminating mutants in the wastnd. The first week I came here, I went over the new production facility with the Argus imnt while refining the new logisticswork to rece QuickLinks Logistics. We had to hire a new round of employees to handle the manufacturing of our new imnt. As much as I tried to automate the process, it wasn¡¯t so easy. It would also be safer to have the production process spread out between many parties, making it harder to steal. Our new facility for the Argus was able to produce one hundred and fifty normal versions and a hundred premium versions each week. If we wanted to expand even more, we would need to expand our mines in the wastnd to upkeep the resources and form new trade deals with thepanies in space that sold us the processor units and other delicate electronics. That wasn¡¯t particrly easy either, especially as a G-ss corporation. G-sses were known to easily go under as ambitiouspanies sumbed to the pressure of the million credits fee per year. While ourpany made much more than that, we had invested everything into expanding. We not only needed to pay for wages and the equipment, but we also were saving to purchase and renovate real estate across all our branches to build up our offices. We could have upgraded to F-ss at any time, but we were being prudent. I had taken a break from the wastnd today to review the progress mypany had made. As I sat in the NLA office, I downloaded thetest report and had it disyed on the terminal before me. The sales of our Argus had ramped up quickly in the first week ofunch, which was a month ago. It then stayed consistently sold out, whether it be the Eurasia market that Qilin Corporation managed or the Elevate City and NLA market that we managed ourselves. We already had existing connections with various clinics to sell our products, but we quickly made it an exclusive product of our clinic, as we couldn¡¯t keep up with the orders. With the infusion of cash the Argus had given us, we immediately got to work to buy out and renovate our offices. Our Elevate City branch, in particr, had begun expanding our main office building. We already had dorms built in the plot ofnd there, but the five-story building no longer fit us. It was nned to be doubled in size, expanding the space on each floor and bringing it up to ten stories. The additional space allowed us to expand even further and enabled us to install additional defenses. The people from ancient times had their logic in buildingrge castles with confusingyouts. It bolstered their defenses by confusing their enemy and tired them out from covering more ground. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Even our NLA branch here was doing the same with building a dedicated office building instead of using the makeshift warehouse we had been using. Our branches in other cities all received simr upgrades, though on a smaller scale. Once I was done reviewing how well our Argus has continued to do, and the smooth expansion of our assets, I opened up a new report on how our new logisticwork was doing after we had implemented the new measures. While QuickLinks Logistics didn¡¯t have our wastnd connections to help us safely navigate through the various wastnder n territories, that only ounted for human threats. They had a mature system dealing with mutant threats, to logistical timetables that were designed the local road conditions in mind. It especially helped that they mainly transported foodstuff much like we did for our new clients from our alliance. I copied what I found usable from their vehicle designs, especially in the refrigeration units and load nning, and added them to our transport vehicles. We formed our own routes, though, since wastnders weren¡¯t a threat to us. We preferred routes with the least chance of encountering mutants. All these changes meant we were running at a higher efficiency than ever before. We were finally able to meet the demand from all our alliance partners and start catering to the open market where we could charge full price. With the sess of multiple areas of our business, our ie had skyrocketed to the point where we could safely upgrade from G-ss to E-ss directly. E-ss had an annual fee of 10 million credits, and ording to Joey, it would give us influence over the judicial and police force that the consortium controlled. Still, we waited for thepletion of our offices first while we heavily expanded our armed forces. It wasn¡¯t good to signal to others that we were overflowing with wealth without the appropriate deterrence. That was why I continued grinding experience points in the wastnd, as the technological aid that each level provided had be increasingly important. I rxed in my seat and turned around from my desk to look out the window. Change wasing a lot faster than I thought, but I needed to go through with it to increase our security and retain agency. Status Level: 23 EXP: 2090/2300 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 had yet to make another thorough pass on our vehicles as I wanted to wait until I reached ten points in software as well. I didn¡¯t want to keep revisiting it as it was a pain to upgrade all our vehicles so frequently when they were already so busy. In the meantime, I analyzed the forcefield device I looted from the bodyguard of QuickLinks¡¯ owner and worked on the various cassettes I had been collecting. There were a few modules I could understand better with my electrical engineering knowledge, but a lot of it was still alien to me. The energy science of materializing the nuclear power source into a workable forcefield was tooplicated for me to decipher. I was surprised an E-ss corporation like QuickLinks even had ess to it. I believe one of the corporations within the High Gate Group must have given it to them because this was the work of at least a B-ss corporation, as it would take hundreds of millions of credits to develop it. Once I was done with my work, I exited the office and headed to the racetrack where I met Joey with Thorne in tow. This time, we didn¡¯t go for the stands but headed to the contestant area where various racecars were being maintained. We found a man, whose face was hidden by a helmet, sitting in a white car with the symbol of a snow owl stered on it. The car was surrounded by mechanics who were doing their final checks. The driver noticed us first, as the mechanics were busy going about their checks. ¡°Sir! We¡¯ll be participating in the next race, so you may have to wait for it to finish until you work on the machine.¡± The mechanics all turned my way at the driver¡¯s words and all immediately stood up straight and saluted as they noticed us. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m just here to spectate for today. I need to see the results of my work to find areas to improve on. Carry on without worrying about me.¡± It wasn¡¯t hard to find an enthusiastic driver who struggled to find the funding to participate in these races. There were several categories, just like the race scene in my old world, that had different power settings. While the pinnacle, tier S, was too expensive for me to just dabble in, I could still easily fund a tier B team. As they got ready to start the race, Thorne and I returned to the spectator area, lest we distract them too much. ¡°What do you think, Thorne? Will we win today?¡± ¡°...No idea. I got to say, I didn¡¯t know you¡¯d be interested in owning a team. Even a fan like the owner of Authentic Corp doesn¡¯t bother with one.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because I¡¯m a creator, while he simply enjoys the experience as a viewer. Watch closely. Today I¡¯m confident in our team getting into the top 3.¡± The rewards for winning a tier B race weren¡¯t that great, but I was in it for the valuable opportunity to test the ideas that my new electrical engineering knowledge gave me. Just as the race got started, Kiri¡¯s voice rang out in my head. ¡®Two targets in stealth detected on thetest active scan. Scanning again¡­Target¡¯s trajectory is headed your way. Increasing frequency of active scans and highlighting them on your optics.¡¯ After I had installed my own Argus unit, I made sure to make use of its best perk of being able to stealthily use active scans. I had Kiri control it, scanning intermittently. I quickly messaged Thorne the news so he could make use of his Argus to track the targets as well, and we moved to a more discreet corner away from the other guests. My prayers for not getting involved never worked, as I could see their silhouettes blinking toward us, adjusting their trajectory to match ours. I exchanged one final nce with Thorne and nodded as we readied our weapons. ¡­I guess they are right when they say, ¡®Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.¡¯ Chapter 103: Formulating a Response Chapter 103: Formting a Response The people who were in some sort of active camouge continued to trail us as we moved inside towards the hallways of the building, away from where the spectator stands were. The only people who could be the ones who were going to the restroom, so I had my Argus perform another scan in that direction to ensure no one would get caught up in our little squabble. As Thorne and I turned the corner, we both activated our own active camouge at the same time and readied ourselves to meet our foes. We had our scanners running as fast as they could, scanning once every one-and-a-half second, allowing us to see our pursers¡¯ outlines. I readied my railgun pistol as there was no need to be quiet here, alerting the building security was only to our advantage. Just as our foes turned the corner after us, we immediately sprang into action as soon as our next scan detected them. I pulled the trigger while Thorne lunged forward at superhuman speed and plunged his de straight through his target. My shot clearly hit something as sparks flew out of the area I had shot and the figure of a person soon materialized as their stealth device malfunctioned. It was the type most corporations hit teams used in offensive operations, a suit-type that allowed them to add some armor to it and prolong its uptime withrger batteries and heat sinks. It was a good option when you didn¡¯t need the discretion of being able to catch your opponents off guard by suddenly going stealth that the Shade gave. The wearer even survived my attack, only being knocked onto the ground, though it didn¡¯t matter as I pulled the trigger several more times. +10 EXP I turned around to find Thorne had already neutralized his target, having skewered his foe and was just flinging the blood off his de. ¡°Let¡¯s go get in the car first. That was targeted, and I¡¯m not staying around for any follow-up attack,¡± I said.Just as we got moving, a priority call via ourpanyms came in. I nned to call them once I got to a safe ce, so didn¡¯t waste any time and answered immediately. The voice of Lucy, our intelligence director, rang out. ¡°Boss, you need to immediately head back to where it¡¯s safe. The High Gate Group has started actively attacking various members of our West Coast Agroindustry Alliance.¡± ¡°Yeah, we already know that. A little busy right now. I¡¯ll call you againter.¡± Not waiting for her answer, I hung up. I instantly turned to Thorne in time to see a slew of text scrolling across his optics fade. We both swiftly made our way back to the parking garage. Thorne cautiously navigated through each corner by using our Argus to scan frequently, as we expected more enemies at any moment. We walked past one of the corpos who had just arrived at the race course, surrounded by her bodyguards, walking out of the parking garage. Both Thorne and I were on edge as they drew close, with our hands hovering over our weapons. The opposition easily noticed us as well, and we red at each other briefly before they left to keep up with their charge, who was unaware of our little confrontation at all. Thankfully, the parking garage was clear, and we quickly activated our car¡¯s auto-drive toe fetch us. We thoroughly scanned the Wraith before boarding it, where I immediately felt a sense of safety being inside an armored vehicle. Before we drove out of the garage, ourms rang out once more, with it disying ¡®Vin¡¯ on the caller ID. ¡°Rollo! We have a rapid response teaming to escort you. Stay put and wait for them. The racetrack¡¯s security should hold back any frontal assault teams, so mainly keep an eye out for any assassins.¡± ¡°...Roger that.¡± It didn¡¯t even take five minutes before our scanners picked up our allies entering the area and escorted us back to our NLA office. It felt weird being the bossy corpo this time who took up the road with over two dozen vehicles, but I couldn¡¯tin when our lives were at stake. After a tense yet uneventful ride, I met Vin in the main meeting room of our office, where a secure connection was already established with our Elevate City headquarters. I had reworked the encryption when I had leveled my software engineer recently. It was at a level where I felt confident that it would take at least months to decipher, which was enough for most non-sensitivemunications. Through the holographic projection, I nodded to each of the people being projected, which consisted of ire, Lucy, and Leo on their side. After curt greetings, we all turned our gaze toward Lucy, the head of our intelligence department. ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± I asked. ¡°We¡¯re still liaising with our partners in the alliance for more details, but they have confirmed several corporations among them have been attacked and they are confident the High Gate Group is responsible.¡± Several screens materialized in front of me, showcasing several reports of the alleged attacks. There were photos and videos of the incidents captured by the cameras or optics that disyed various offices, storages, and warehouses being assaulted. ¡°How do our allies know these men are from High Gate?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°They don¡¯t know for sure. It¡¯s just that a coordinated attack on this scale across the entire continent against our alliance doesn¡¯t leave many suspects with the resources and motive to do so. Our own informationwork from ourmunication app has also seen an upward trend of High Gate Group-affiliated corporations bolstering their defenses.¡± ¡°What about our own assets?¡± I asked immediately after Lucy finished. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition. ¡°...We¡¯ve lost contact with our people in Can Sauce City where several of our allies had already been targeted. One of our convoys that was headed there from Miles High had already received our warnings and turned straight back into the wastnd.¡± A map appeared in front of us, highlighting the locations of the attacks and where our people were. We all silently examined it for a brief moment before I turned to our expert in military affairs, Vin. ¡°How do you think we should react?¡± He furrowed his brows and his eyes took on a glow for several moments before he responded. ¡°This scale and forces involved aren¡¯t something we can handle. This isn¡¯t like the small fights between individual small corporations we are used to. This is a full-on war between two big interest groups.¡± He nced around to check if we all understood the weight of what he said before continuing. ¡°We¡¯ll have to coordinate with the rest of our alliance and formte a response n together.¡± At the end of the day, it meant we weren¡¯t powerful enough to be a yer in this war. We were one of the chess pieces for the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance, or in fact, the entire alliance may be a chess piece itself yed by people higher up on thedder as well. This was what I feared when we decided to join a group, but I had begun to learn that it was an inevitable part of stepping into the corporate world. We then tried to connect with our allies, who gave us up-to-date information on the situation, but they were too busy to formte anything right now as the conflict was ongoing in many ces. I tried calling Joey as well, only to receive a simr response from one of his secretaries. I could only watch through the live feed our allies provided at the battle unfolding somewhere while mypany went into full alert and prepared for war. It easily humbled me when I watched several flying vehicles speed through the city above with their thrusters, flying off their heavy machine guns and missiles onto a convoy of vehicles below. I may have started earning more recently, but it was still far from enough to fuel a well-armed force like the one I saw. It gave me an urgency to supply my own forces with power armors and flying vehicles. The various feeds we had ess to showed non-stop fighting throughout the night. The fighting only began to die down as dawn approached. The aftermath of the fighting wasn¡¯t that devastating, though. There were many other corporations in each city, and it wasn¡¯t in anyone¡¯s interest to wreak havoc upon the city indiscriminately. Every battle was targeted and kept to a localized area. Our intel department, after liaising with our alliance, got a clearer picture of how it went. Our group had defended most assets while a few were destroyed. The remnants were now gathering together to reinforce the intact bases. When noon soon approached, we finally began hearing back from our allies. An emergency meeting was to be held, and I quickly returned to my office, which was equipped to participate in the virtual meeting. I was one of thest ones to join as I swept my gaze across the virtual meeting room. It didn¡¯t take long before the previous old man, who previously had taken the role of the speaker, took charge once more. ¡°Everyone, it is clear the High Gate Group hasunched a full-scale war on us. Their surprise attack may have bloodied our noses, but we convene toe up with a proper response n. You may submit your proposals and we shall vote for it. The winner¡¯s proposal will be the basis of our action n.¡± I¡¯m not familiar enough with our capabilities versus High Gate¡¯s, so I¡¯m just going to end up as a spectator, aren¡¯t I? The West Coast Agroindustry Alliance¡¯s discussion took up an entire day before they settled on an initial n. They believed both parties had lost a decent amount of force, but it was just the beginning of the fight. They refused to just turtle up and allow them to freely poke and prod our defenses, but they couldn¡¯t expose their defenses either. They settled on drawing a small elite force that would attack important targets one at a time while bolstering the defenses at the same time. For our Halls Corporation, we sent out one elite team to participate, led by Andrew. ¡°I want you to focus on digging up why the High Gate Group feltfortableunching this attack all of a sudden. Use any means you can, and hire mercenaries if you don¡¯t have enough manpower¡­And¡­focus your search on spacer big shots who came by recently that had met with anyone from High Gate,¡± I said to Lucy¡¯s projection. ¡°Understood, sir.¡± Our allies had all insisted that the High Gate Group had been preparing for this battle for a long time, but I refused to believe they would go into total war all of a sudden. I wasn¡¯t sure if finding out the reason would help, but it was the only thing I could do that made me feel like I was making an impact while the bigger corps fought. I looked out the window at the sound of an airne taking off. Adding a private airne to my wishlist. I¡¯m tired of having to hunker down whenever something happens.
Andrew - Halls Corporations ¡°Be sure not to agree to anyone¡¯s unreasonable demands. You represent ourpany through this joint endeavor.¡± That was what Andrew¡¯s superior, Thorne, had said before his team was shipped off toward the frontline of a corporate war. That was a lot easier said than done, especially when it is obvious how outssed we are. Andrew observed his ally forces gather inside a base bordering the wastnd. The special strike forces that gatheredprised the elites of each corporation. The West Coast Agroindustry Alliance had a mix of small and medium corporations, and the forces from the stronger corporations stood out like a sore thumb. Their squads of power armor that arrived in flying vehicles made Andrew feel like there was a high chance they would be treated as rank-and-file foot soldiers. That could easily mean they got to take the safer roles of securing the areas others had conquered or being treated as decoys and expendables. Thankfully, themander of this strike force had been briefed somewhat on the capability of each force. ¡°Team from Halls Corporation, step forward!¡± ¡°Sir.¡± Andrew stepped forward and saluted on behalf of his team. ¡°You¡¯re being assigned as our scouts and saboteur force. Your callsign is Owl. Be sure to read over our codebook on how we willmunicate.¡± As themander moved on to assign roles to other forces, Andrew quickly went over the data he had received. It didn¡¯t take long before themander was done and the forces set off for their first target. They would be traveling using a mix of flying and traditional vehicles as they moved from city to city to strike at their enemies. Andrew prepared himself as he knew they would only be attacking important targets that belonged to medium-sized corporations. They were much harder to deal with, and he needed to be much more careful if he wanted to sneak past their well-equipped facilities. Their main strike force woulde in through the air after them, which meant they had to slowly drive toward their target if they wanted to be unnoticed. Andrew silently hoped that theirpany would get stealth aircraft in the future. He pulled up the map and double-checked if the unmarked building before him actually belonged to GrainScape Tech before giving the signal for his team to activate their Shades. The team used their Argus to perform a scan first and found an entry point on the floors above. With a sigh, Andrew ordered his team to put on their gloves, which allowed them to scale up the building. Let¡¯s quickly get this over with. We still have to move on to the headquarters of Quantum vors and then hitch a flight to Can Sauce City before the sun rises. Chapter 104: Selecting Envoy Chapter 104: Selecting Envoy ¡°Rollo, did you read over the report Lucy sent?¡± Leo said as soon as I picked up his call. ¡°I just received it. I¡¯m going over it right now.¡± ¡°Well, you better do so quickly and go speak with our allies. This is getting a lot bigger than we had thought. It¡¯s way out of our hands now.¡± I went over thetest intelligence report, which was honestly a mix of second-hand sources, conjectures, and circumstantial evidence. My employees believe a particr corporation recently became a backer of the High Gate Group, and not just any corporation at that. They were apany based in a space station they owned, far above us, a spacer corp. That meant they were a huge entity that was at least an A-ss corporation. The only saving grace was that they had little interest in our war and only supported marily. That part was conjecture, but it was likely true seeing the level of our current adversaries didn¡¯t stray from what our alliance had expected. For now, it was still manageable. However, if that corporation decided to get more involved at any point, we would struggle to survive that kind of onught. I could then only go into hiding and abandon much of my business, as it was a stationary target that I wouldn¡¯t be able to protect. ¡°We have to find out more about what kind of deal this mysterious corporation made with the High Gate people. How have we not found out which corporation it was?¡± Iined as I finished going over the file. ¡°All their meetings took ce in the spaceport, where the security is too high. Few people who frequent that ce use ourmunication apps, too, so little information is flowing from first-hand sources.¡± ¡°Keep trying. I¡¯ll go meet with your allies as you¡¯ve suggested,¡± I said, and immediately ended the call.This matter was too urgent to wait any longer. A single decision from the mysterious big corporation would pull the rug from right under me. All the work we¡¯ve put into thepany would easily get destroyed, as we would have to go into hiding until they stopped paying attention. I quickly connected to the channel our alliance used for meetings and sent out urgent alerts. As expected from corpos, not only were they punctual, they responded quickly when it pertained to important matters that affected their interests. Everyone was silent as they assembled around the virtual meeting table, with the spotlight being on me. They all urged me with their eyes to quickly speak, and I could tell they wouldn¡¯t be happy if they judged that I had wasted their time. Thankfully, with the stakes at y, I didn¡¯t have to worry about that. I cleared my throat once everyone was here, and stood up before sending a file to everyone present. ¡°I just received information about the main instigator that prompted the High Gate Group tounch their attack¡ª¡± ¡°How is it important how it started right now? We¡¯re still in the thick of it. We can care about the reasonter once we¡¯ve won. It¡¯s toote to stop the fight now that it has started.¡± One of the corpos impatiently interjected. I recognized his corporation¡¯s logo as the one who had it really bad from the reports I¡¯ve seen. Their forces were being decimated at a high pace and even their contribution to the strike team had taken serious casualties, ording to Andrew. ¡°Let him finish, Tavin.¡± The old man, who usually acted as our speaker, said in a reprimanding tone, as he red at the man who spoke out. I cleared my throat before continuing. ¡°I believe they had been prompted by a corporation they hade in contact with during the expos in Elevate City, with a spacer corp.¡± The room suddenly descended into chaos as the members took in the implication of the matter. They didn¡¯t even bother to whisper, as they voiced their astonishment at full volume. Even the speaker was at a loss for words and nkly sat there. ¡°Silence!¡± A voice rang out that silenced the room. Joey then stood up from his seat and continued. ¡°The info Rollo had sent out isn¡¯t conclusive. We must first gather as much information as we can before we panic.¡± Joey had kept a calm and cool-headed demeanor the entire time and it visibly helped calm down some of the members, but hearing him calling by my name in an official setting betrayed how unsettled the news had made him. ¡°I had already tasked my intelligence department to learn more, but it¡¯d be good to have everyone perform their own investigation as well. We need to find out the extent of their deal and prevent this spacer corp from interfering further. Do any of you have any suggestions on that front?¡± I nced over at my more experienced seniors for their insight in dealing with the bigger corps. They all exchanged nces or crossed their arms and closed their eyes. No one seemed to want to voice anything until the old speaker spoke up. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say without knowing which corporation we are dealing with specifically, but I doubt there¡¯s anything we can do alone if they are really targeting us. Either way, the power gap is toorge. Only a corporation with simr power can influence their decisions and hold them back.¡± ¡°Then we need to find an ally with one of the bigger corps¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°The High Gate Group should have the foresight to already be on the lookout for any signs of us reaching out to any notable corp. It¡¯s toote to start buttering up to any of them now. They¡¯d demand us to be all but vassals in name.¡± The old man replied while shaking his head. Joey suddenly shot up from his seat. ¡°We have to find out which corporation it is first. We have a chance if we reach out to their rivals! It may be costly, but it¡¯s our only option.¡± The old man closed his eyes and sighed. ¡°But then we¡¯ll need someone to go speak with this rival spacer corp. One of us will have to go up to Aegis to speak with them in person if we want them to take us seriously. If High Gate Corp had half a brain, they¡¯d set up ambushes and have hit squads waiting for us. Even our best men may not survive that, not to talk about us. It¡¯d be suicide for us to go¡­¡± I quickly looked up Aegis to refresh my memory of the name of the space station city located at the top of the space elevator. It appeared to be like any other metropolis I¡¯d seen except with the background of pure metal walls and located in space. ¡°Maybe for most of us, but there is one individual among us here who is morebat-trained than the others, making them suitable for the job.¡± I have a bad feeling about this I looked up toward the speaker at the bald man who I had thought was my friend. He had just thrown me under the bus and was staring at me with a smile. ¡°The CEO of the Halls Corporation here frequently participated in battle, and even in the heart of it. He had personally led the mission to assassinate Benjamin Links recently, so I believe he is our best bet for an envoy.¡± ¡°Joey! As much as I want to help, this task is beyond me. I¡¯ve only fought other small corps simr in strength to my own. I¡¯m not equipped to fight off spec-op teams fromrge spacer corps!¡± I quickly interjected in a desperate attempt to avoid being sent into the frying pan. ¡°Fear not. Only the High Gate Group would target you, not the spacers. I¡¯m willing to donate some of the gear from mypany to level the field between you and their forces.¡± ¡°That still¡ª¡± ¡°I agree with Mr. Moretti. I will also donate any equipment you need. Please, Mr. Halls, you are the most suitable candidate among us.¡± Another corpo jumped in and soon many others followed. I was drowned in the voice of support that it became clear that declining was no longer an option. Dering I would leave the alliance would only make us fend for ourselves, and High Gate may just clean me up anyway if they won the war. I nced around the meeting room in a gambit to find another suitable candidate, but the room consisted of owners and CEOs who all seemed ill-fit for anybat scenario. I am starting to regret not acting like the typical corpo now. I should¡¯ve left all the work to my goons as they do and only make use of persons like Cloak. The meeting soon came to an end as they all agreed that I would be named their envoy to the corporation we hadn¡¯t even decided on yet. We still had to hash out the concession we were willing to make during any future negotiations and the specific support they would give me. I made sure they offered me their power armors right away, though. If I were to fight against medium-sized corporations, I would need nothing less. I had them send it over to my head office in Elevate City, as Joey had arranged for his private jet to take me back. At least they all moved quickly, having decided that I would be the one to go to Aegis. The next morning, I boarded the jet with Thorne and arrived back in Elevate City in just two hours. The trip was purposely set to be spontaneous without a set schedule to avoid being targeted, so we surprised ire when arrived at our head office. Sections of the building were under construction, but the main areas where we operated out of remained untouched. I sat back in the chair as people started to fill into the meeting room. Each person who entered and saw me was instantly surprised. ¡°Now that everyone is here, I¡¯ll go ahead and ask our intel department first if they have found anything about the spacer corporation we¡¯re looking for.¡± I turn my gaze to Lucy. She shook her head. ¡°We have narrowed it down to several candidates, but we¡¯re still investigating. We¡¯ve been making good progress since our allies joined the search, but it¡¯ll take a few more days.¡± ¡°Okay, keep up the good work. The reason I asked that first was because it had to do with my sudden return. I¡¯m sure many of you are wondering, but I¡¯vee back because I was chosen to be the envoy between the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance and the rival corporation of our spacer corp we¡¯re looking for.¡± Thorne was the first one to shoot up from his seat, followed by several others who understood what that implied. Thorne¡¯s reaction hadn¡¯t surprised me, as I chose to disclose it to everyone all at once. ¡°That¡¯s too dangerous!¡± ¡°Unfortunately, I was the most suitable person for the job, as those other owners aren¡¯t that mostbat savvy, to say the least. Sending anyone of less importance will have whichever corp we¡¯ll be talking to, not take us seriously.¡± ¡°Just because those fatsos can¡¯t fight doesn¡¯t mean they can¡¯t rely on their own security to deal with all the potential hitmen targeting whoever is the envoy!¡± ire yelled. ¡°In fact, they can just use their loads of cash and chrome themselves up!¡± ¡°ire, you should know the difference between a team having to y bodyguard for their charge, and a team that doesn¡¯t is night and day in terms ofbat effectiveness. They can get all the fancy gear they want, but it won¡¯t change the fact that they¡¯ll easily be a liability in a fight.¡± I nced around the room to see our security team all staying silent, as they couldn¡¯t refute my words before continuing. ¡°There is something good to take away from this, though. I had our allies each transfer theirtest power armors to me. They should keep me safe.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll help youb through their software to catch any backdoors they had put.¡± Leo perked up at hearing about the new teching into our hands. ¡°No need. We¡¯ll go a step further. We¡¯ll analyze every single model they send me and create our own.¡± Chapter 105: Power Armor Chapter 105: Power Armor Although I said we¡¯d be creating our own power armor, that didn¡¯t mean we would be doing so from scratch. There just wasn¡¯t enough time to do so, as we would save a lot of time by tweaking one of the ones our allies had sent us. However, we would first have to settle on the design and select the most appropriate one to use as our base. We had received a total of six different types of power arms from our allies, and a total of two units for each type. There were a lot of corporations in our alliance, but there weren¡¯t that many mid-ss corporations who could afford to develop them. They weren¡¯t only expensive to create, their upkeep cost was no joke as well. The first power armor I examined came from Authentic Corp, Joey¡¯spany. It was the model I had seen in the aftermath of my infiltration into QuickLink¡¯s headquarters. With all the other models standing beside it, it was apparent that it belonged in the medium build category. It was equipped with a hefty but powerful railgun with impressive pration power at the cost of the rate of fire. While you could adjust it by changing the power settings, its strength was definitely its ability to continually dish out high-pration rounds thanks to its robust heat management system and ample power reactor. Upon disassembling parts of it, its impressive architecture immediately told a story of how reliable it was. However, the thing that stood out the most was its high degree of EMP resistance. It was no doubt a vital problem to ovee because most people¡¯s first reaction to power armor was to use EMPs to knock out its mobility. The second power armor I inspected came from A Corp, the one that the old speaker hailed from. They were famous for their hotels, so it wasn¡¯t surprising their power armor was more suited for defense. Their power armor was visibly thergest among all the others, standing a good three meters tall, and had a wide frame. It also boasted the most firepower, with four small anti-personnel missiles mounted on its back, along with heavy machine guns on each shoulder. It tickled the itch of wanting to have the biggest guns and strongest defense. It was particrly imposing as there was only one other power armor in the heavy build category along with it. The next three armors I inspected were much less interesting. There were another two with a medium build that appeared to be a lesser version of Authentic Corp¡¯s and the other heavy build one that was mainly used as a mobile cover to support other troops. Thest one, however, was the one that held most of my interest. It was from a shipping corporation called West Seas Corp. Their power armor was the smallest among the six, being of a light build. It was only slightlyrger than mostbat suits I¡¯ve seen. That meant its firepower and durability were almost the lowest among my small collection, but its major advantage was its mobility.All power armors were designed to be all-terrain and CBRN-rated, meaning they had protection against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. Seeing how West Seas Corp mainly operated on the ocean, it would make sense that their power armor was not only lightweight and maneuverable, but was able to take the skies as well thanks to its jetpack. The jetpack itself was a treasure trove of information for me. It didn¡¯t make use of any traditional chemical fuel to function, but made use of its ample electric power from the nuclear reactor. It generated thrust through the controlled emission of electrically charged particles, expelling positively charged gravitons to create the repulsive force against the generated maic field. It really reminded me that technology worked best whenbined with several disciplines of science. I would have nevere up with this design as my knowledge of physics and gravitational fields was abysmalpared to my electrical engineering knowledge. The hard work of several brilliant specialists working together could not be underestimated. As I finished my preliminary examination of all three power armors, I found out that they all had two things inmon. Their power sources all used a mini-nuclear reaction and shared simr principles. It was highly likely they were designed using the same technology, differing only from the design choices of materials andyout. Was nuclear technology shared among medium-ss corporations and higher? The other thing that was the same was the neural technology that allowed the user to control the power armor with ease. It used the same technology as the VR games I had previously yed, without the use of a pod to fully immerse myself into the virtual world. That meant the power armor could be used like your own body, allowing anyone to quickly learn how to operate it. Now that I had examined all the power armors in detail, it was obvious to me that none of them were designed to be operated in space. The city of Aegis, located at the summit of the space elevator, may have artificial gravity, but these power armors were not designed to maneuver in any zero-g environments. It would be negligent of me not to ount for dealing with any zero-g situation when I was heading up into space. I swiftly pulled out the design software and began working on a new design. The work itself wasn¡¯t as hard as I expected for now because I was mainly using existing modules from these power armors. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The base I used was Authentic Corps¡¯, after all. It was just superior engineering and was the tform that allotted me the most power to draw from. I took the jetpack from West Seas¡¯ armor and began tuning it to work with the heavier armor. I had to adjust the jetpack to allow for more delicate settings, to allow myself to navigate in zero-g. It needed to be able to produce powerful and intermittent thrusts in various directions, as opposed to a stable one, to maintain flight in the atmosphere. These changes may have removed its ability to maintain a stable flight, but it gave the power armor a new option to perform powerful jumps instead. It wasn¡¯t like it would¡¯ve retained its function to sustain flight because I was moving it into a medium-build armor that was much heavier than it could support. I reced some of the armor tings with the one from A Corp, as it proved to be a defensive powerhouse despite increasing the weight further. However, I would be recing the heavy railgun rifle, making it a bnced tradeoff. The railgun was honestly overkill when operating in space. I doubt I¡¯d be allowed to bring it anyway when it could heavily damage the space station. I equipped it with more conventional firearms and a vibro de, much like the ones I had seen Benjamin Links¡¯ powerful bodyguard wield. When my design wasplete, the next step was to create the program the new power armor would use while my nanites began implementing some of the smaller structural changes. The program was vital for managing the new jetpack and how the power armor distributed its power to the various modules I had cobbled together. Two dayster, I finallypleted the first prototype. I immediately ced a call to my trusty partner. ¡°Hey Thorne,e over to my workshop. I have something for you to test.¡± I let out a sigh as I stared at mytest creation, which was the umtion of all my hard work for the past two days. I¡¯ll have to start making another one soon¡­
Five days after the meeting with the rest of the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance, we had finally collected enough information about the corporation that had been in talks with the High Gate group. ¡°After amassing our intelligence capabilities together, we have found out that the corporation supporting those High Gate bunch is the Virtue Corp. They are an A-ss corporation specializing in neural and virtuality technology, being one of the major yers in the gaming industry.¡± The old speaker from A Corp announced. Several sighs of relief rang out in our virtual meeting as people rxed, hearing that it was an A-ss corp and not an S ss or above. ¡°What is the reason they support the High Gate Group, then?¡± someone asked. ¡°It appears they took quite a bit of damage to their assets during the previous war between Europa station and Encdus station. Their food production was hit hard, but they wanted to focus their resources on repairing other things, so they wanted to take control of a lot of food and biological resources. It just so happens that one of the sons of their owner married a daughter that hails from one of the High Gate Group.¡± ¡°They could¡¯ve just inquired to do business with us¡­¡± another voice muttered. ¡°It¡¯s toote for that. These spacer corps don¡¯t really care about those of us on Earth until they need more manpower or resources that they can¡¯t easily obtain in space. We should be d their whimsical decision only amounted to financial support and not taking action directly,¡± Joey interjected. The meeting soon went onto the topic of how the several rival corporations of Virtue Corp until they finally settled on one called Ferrumus Corp. ¡°They are a bit on the entric side, but they should agree to the terms we have discussed. Mr. Halls, we¡¯ll leave it in your capable hands to strike a deal with them. Remember, we just need to secure their assistance in holding off Virtue Corp in the case they n to take direction action, and that is sufficient.¡± ¡°...Of course.¡±
¡°Sir, it is an honor to apany you to space! I¡¯ve always wanted to go there once in my life!¡± The security personnel, who I recalled to be called Brian, excitedly eximed as we made our way across the ocean toward the space elevator. ¡°Calm yourself! You¡¯re here as a guard. We¡¯re not here to have fun and be tourists, we¡¯re expecting trouble so stay on alert!¡± Andrew reprimanded from beside him. As we were selected to be the envoys for the alliance, they allowed us to recall the elites that we sent to the strike force. ¡°Now, now. You can lighten up a little, Andrew. It¡¯s not every day that we suddenly get to head up into space. The tickets we have for the shuttle up the space elevator are easily hundreds of thousands of credits,¡± Mark said, defending his friend. I listened to the lively team converse with each other, as we soon arrived at the spaceport after passing through several checkpoints. It took longer than usual as they scrutinized the power armors that we had in the back. It was in storage mode; with it all folded down nicely into a block of metal that resembled a suitcase. Thankfully, the check-in process was much simpler as bringing these weapons wasn¡¯t rare, as rich corposprised the majority of the clientele that used the space elevator. The important people from high-ss corporations typically had bodyguards that used power armor. Though most of the time, the bodyguard version was mostly light builds, with smaller frames that were more inconspicuous. After we checked in our luggage and weapons, we made our way into the waiting area before the boarding gate. We passed the familiar corridor where the miniature model of the space elevator was and I read over the text once more that described the terrorist known as ¡°The Gamer¡±. In a sense, my system was very much a game-like system. Was there someone who had the same system before? Were there more out there somewhere right now? As I pondered those questions, Thorne snapped me out of it as he practically pped me with a milkshake. ¡°It¡¯s almost time. Let¡¯s go line up.¡± I gave him a re to show my dissatisfaction until I took a sip of the milkshake. It was one of the premium kinds that went for several hundred credits! I then followed our group to board the shuttle that would be taking us up into orbit. From the line, I could clearly see the shuttle that seemed more like a typical train to me, except it was angled to go straight up into the sky. The shuttle may not be anything special appearance-wise, but the thought of heading into space for the first time made me giddy like a child excited to go to the amusement park. I am so going to the zero-g sections once I get up into Aegis and free float around! Chapter 106: Aegis Chapter 106: Aegis It turns out I wouldn¡¯t have to wait until I got to a zero-g section in Aegis to experience the weightlessness of space. The shuttle elerated smoothly up the space elevator and when we got into orbit; it began to ease up once it reached a certain velocity and altitude where I was then able to experience zero-g. To be more precise, I was experiencing microgravity. The gravity of Earth was still acting on us, but the experience of floating around in space was the same in my books. As soon as the light to have our seatbelts fastened dimmed, I immediately left my seat to experience the floatiness that was the exclusive right for astronauts back in my world. I wish I had my new power armor here to start trying out how to maneuver with the new modified jetpack, but I had to make do with what I have now. The suits they made us wear for safety didn¡¯t have any fancy functions, but served as protection if we identally hit our heads as we rolled around. I couldn¡¯t help but open the cup of water. I had to see the water droplets floating around. ¡°Rollo, you¡¯re doing exactly what the kids are¡­¡± I heard Thorne¡¯s voice ring out beside me. I surveyed the shuttle and spotted several kids copying my actions, making me rein in my antics as I was starting to draw condescending looks from the corpos, who seemed to be frequent travelers to space. While I didn¡¯t exactly care for what others thought too much, it wouldn¡¯t do me any good if strange rumors got around when I was currently acting as the envoy for our entire alliance. The shuttle soon approached its destination at the other end of the space elevator, where the city of Aegis was located. I was still astonished at the fact that cities in space were meant literally, with millions of residents. Once we arrived, the sensation of gravity swiftly returned and the corpos around us began taking off their spacesuits. The corporation had artificial gravity and breathable air throughout the entire city, which made the experience simr to any old city I visited back on Earth.Though it was unmistakable we had made it to space, as I was able to look back down onto Earth from the windows. Once we exited the shuttle, there was even a wide section in the spaceport withrge panels of transparent ss where we could spot our home. It wasn¡¯t obvious the was spinning as the space station spun around with the as it was attached to the space elevator, but it was a different story when we stared up at the stars. Once I had my fill of the view of Earth, we smoothly fetched our luggage and made our way out of the spaceport. We had received a file that documented all the unique rules we had to abide by while we were up in space, which I skimmed over and would go over in more detail on our way into Aegis proper. The spaceport on both ends of the space elevator was only frequented by corpos as they came with a high cost, but it wasn¡¯t just the rich corpos up here. Themon folks that the corporations exploited were just as present. Either they or their ancestors were brought up here to serve space miners or fill other mundane roles. Cheapbor was always in demand, no matter where humans went. I¡¯ve heard themon folk¡¯s living conditions were even harsher up here in space as the corporations charged them for every single little thing. Food and water were a given, but the air they breathed wasn¡¯t free either. Combined with the fact real estate up here wasn¡¯t cheap either, the living conditions were quite harsh, with most living paycheck to paycheck. The moment I stepped out of the spaceport, a column of taxis was awaiting any new arrivals. I couldn¡¯t help but think the spaceports were exactly like the airports I was familiar with. We had no connections up here in Aegis, and the taxis would serve us fine for now. We hailed arger cab as the six of us boarded, with Thorne sitting at the front next to the driver while wearing one of the power armor we had just retrieved from our luggage. The car dipped down when he boarded, but held with no issue. I had put mine on as well immediately upon leaving the spaceport as we were cautious of any surprises from the High Gate Group. I watched as the driver flinched back at the imposing figure of the power armor right next to him before he gathered the courage to speak out. ¡°Sir¡­ where to?¡± ¡°Ariden Gardens¡­ Do you have a terminal for me to send you the address?¡± Thorne asked. I gave the driver another nce over at Thorne¡¯s word. It appeared the driver didn¡¯t have any cybeics, which prompted Thorne¡¯s question. He also seemed slightly dirty, with oily hair and chapped skin. ¡°Yes, yes. I know where that is, but I do have a terminal right here if you would like to send the address to be safe.¡± He pointed to the center console. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. The cab soon started making its way toward the more populous region of Aegis off in the distance, but the thing that drew my eyes the most was the false skies and greenery all around us. As the spaceport was in the corner of the entire space station, I could easily see that we were inside a dome as we could see out into space through the transparent material off to the side. As the dome curved up, the ss began to change, taking the form of blue skies. ¡°Does the sky get dark around here?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°Oh, first time up here? Wee! Yes, it does.¡± The driver answered without dy. It must cost a pretty penny to manage the day and night cycle up here, but the corporations did it anyway. Though it was understandable, as all these were a means to keep the people up here sane. Humans weren¡¯t meant to live indoors forever. The day and night cycle, coupled with the greenery around, served an important role in the mental health of everyone up here. Our car soon made good progress across the highway, reaching the city within ten minutes. There were buildings everywhere, like any good old metropolis, but the height of every building seemed to be capped at around fifty stories. However, the buildings were all made of metal, with a boring silver finish, and the people on the streets appeared to be more subdued as well. There were no crazy hairstyles among the normal bunch, and all the colors seemed muted. Few people sported cybeics until we reached downtown where most corpos stayed. The corpos were much the same as their brethren down on Earth, with them lifelesslymuting to work with dreary looks. As I watched them go about their days, we arrived at the hotel we had arranged prior to the trip. The prices for any hotels up here had an extra digitpared to Earth, but it at least covered all the misceneous fees, such as air and energy, that everyone was subject to. Immediately after we checked into our rooms, we swiftly set off for the branch of Ferrumus Corporation in this city. The High Gate Group were likely not idiots and their intelligencework should have caught wind of my movements by now, seeing how easy it was to monitor with one way up. They may not have had the guts to attack me when I was in the spaceports that therger corporations controlled, but now that I was in the city, they could show up at any moment. That was why it was important to get in contact with the Ferrumus Corporation as quickly as possible to finish our negotiations. We had set an appointment with them, but the other party did not seem enthused to speak and we could only set up a meeting with one of their sales manager. I went over the special rules we were subjected to while in this space station while we were on the way to their branch office. It was mainly some tutorials on what to do in case of emergencies where the life support systems went out. There were emergency devices, much like fire hydrants, spread around the city, and the info deck went over how to use them. There was even a section on orange boards that could quickly expand ten times in size, used to seal any breaches. The rules made it apparent that they took any damage to the space station facilities very seriously. For that reason, highly prative ammo was highly discouraged, especially when operating near the dome of the city. In fact, it was probably not avable for purchase to the general public. The corporations up here, however, were another story. If it were me, I would definitely push to develop ammunition that could fragment when it came within a certain range of the dome. For now, we would simply stick to the city center, where we could still freely use our weapons if we came under attack. The Ferrumus Corporation had their own building here in downtown Aegis, and we soon spotted the building that had the logo of a sword that skewered the letters of their name. We could spot various defenses on the za in front of the building with automated turrets and sensors everywhere. We got out of the vehicle a distance away so we could pass our power armors to Andrew¡¯s team before I entered their office with just Thorne. Once we stepped inside, the receptionist at the front greeted us with a smile. ¡°Mr. Halls, I presume?¡± I nodded. ¡°We are expecting you. Please head up to floor 12. We have someone to guide you once you are up there.¡± We obediently followed the instructions of thisrge corporation and were soon brought to a meeting room where anky man sat, dressed in what seemed to be traditional Japanese robes, but they seemed to call it Eastern clothing in this world. What drew our eyes the most was the sword he had sheathed on his hips. ¡°Greetings, Mr. Halls. I am Tara Nosei, sales manager of Ferrumus Corporation. I can assist you today to go over any of our vibro de products or custommissions you may have. Please feel free to let me know what you¡¯re looking for.¡± The man said with a business smile. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mr. Nosei. We¡¯re not here to make any orders. I¡¯m actually here because I want to speak to your corporation about potential cooperation that involves your rivals, the Virtue Corporation.¡± His smile disappeared for a moment before he wore a concerned expression, as if to empathize with me. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to say that isn¡¯t within my authority to discuss¡ª¡± ¡°I understand. If you can please help us set up a meeting with your superior.¡± ¡°I can ry your request to my superior, but this really isn¡¯t within the scope of what I can handle. Give us a few days to get back to you, sir.¡± I tried several more times to get him to ry us to something more important, but continued getting the same reply. Left with no options to proceed, I could only leave as we weren¡¯t getting anywhere. When we returned to our hotel, I allowed our team to all take a break to refresh themselves in their rooms after I had sent out some Nyes for surveince duty. Thorne shared a room with me, and he was fully on guard, remaining inside the power armor even inside our room. ¡°Now what, Rollo? The longer we stay here, the more of a target we be.¡± ¡°I know¡­You don¡¯t have to tell me. Every second allows our enemies to devise ns or set up an ambush.¡± Now then, what should my next step be¡­? Chapter 107: New Boys in Town Chapter 107: New Boys in Town ¡°Do you really think that Nosei guy will pull through and get us that meeting with someone higher up in Ferrumus Corp?¡± Thorne stared straight at me from his bed in our shared hotel room. ¡°Hard to say¡­ I doubt Ferrumus Corp¡¯s intelligence department doesn¡¯t know that we¡¯re here and what we¡¯re here for. It¡¯s just that to them, this whole matter isn¡¯t that high of a priority.¡± It would be foolish of us to bank it entirely on them reaching out. Their intel department may know about us, but who knew if they had deemed it important enough to pass it on to someone in a position to do something about it? I would need to devise a more reliable way to speak with someone in Ferrumus Corp if we want to secure our chances of attaining their support and have them hold back Virtue Corp from further interference in our war. ¡°We need to go gather information and find ways toe into contact with an executive from Ferrumus. We don¡¯t really have any connection up here, so we¡¯ll have to go ask around.¡± ¡°...Rollo, you want to walk around when spec ops from High Gate are probably lurking around?¡± ¡°Being on the move is better than hunkering down here as a stationary target. We can¡¯t entirely trust them to not make a move just because this hotel is owned by a B-ss corp.¡± ¡°...You better stay in the power armor then. We don¡¯t know the area enough to prevent a sniper or something from getting the jump on us.¡± As Thorne directed his attention to calling up Andrew¡¯s team to discuss the security arrangements for our outing, I looked up the web for any potential mercenary hangouts in Aegis.Unlike what was on the surface, it didn¡¯t seem like mercenaries had any fixed presence around here. How am I supposed to find a QG now? Do they even operate here¡ªNo, they must. They¡¯re everywhere. My search came up empty even by the time we were ready to set off. We rented a vehicle from the hotel and headed for a random bar I found online instead. It didn¡¯t take long to get there as this city had drastically less trafficpared to what I was used to. Something tells me it had to do with the lower standard of living themon folks had up here. ¡°Andrew, head in while disguised. We¡¯ll monitor the situation from the outside.¡± Imanded. It wouldn¡¯t do to walk in there with two power armors and a team of corporate soldiers all armed to the teeth. There was no need for us to expose the capability of our Shades, especially as it could expose how long it couldst. The one I had installed in the power armors had ess to ample power and could evenst longer, though. A video feed was soon directed to my optics from Andrew¡¯s point of view. I watched as he walked inside with Peng and took a seat in a corner. They wore casual clothing, which was actually a projection from their imnts. Most people in the bar appeared to be wearing overalls with some still in their space suit. They appeared to be mostly asteroid miners, which made Andrew¡¯s party slightly stand out. ¡°We¡¯ll get two of these¡­and why don¡¯t you get those twodies another round on me as well,¡± Andrew said to their server. The twodies he was talking about had been sizing them up from the table over and Andrew naturally shifted over to their table once he ced his order. ¡°Hey there, would you twodies like to drink with us tonight?¡± While the hostility in their eyes eased up once they heard Andrew bought them drinks, they still regarded my two employees cautiously. ¡°We¡¯ll spare you the time it takes for one drink. You two better not be getting any funny ideas, though.¡± She red at Andrew, who nodded before moving her gaze to Peng. Peng nkly stared back at her until he received an elbow from Andrew. Their party then made some small talk as they drained their cups before Andrew asked the important questions. ¡°So do you girls happen to know who to find for someone who knows a lot around here?¡± ¡°...That depends on why you¡¯re asking. Some people don¡¯t take kindly to peopleing in from other sectors, snooping around. Are you guys from a gang or something?¡± ¡°No, no. You see, we¡¯re looking for some information with this corporation that¡¯s been breathing down our necks.¡± The girls visibly flinched back before they got out of their seats. ¡°That topic is too heavy for us. Don¡¯t get us involved.¡± They said before quickly taking their leave. With that failure, Andrew began trying to chat up some other patrons and the bartender, to no avail. They simply didn¡¯t know much or barely spoke at all. ¡°Well, that was a good start.¡± Thorne¡¯s voice rang out in the power armor¡¯s audio. This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°...Maybe we¡¯ll need to find someone more involved in the ck market for answers.¡± Once Andrew and Peng returned, it wasn¡¯t hard to look up areas of the city that didn¡¯t have the best of reputations. We parked the rental car in a nearby lot to avoid damaging it before walking around a notorious area known for asional gang disputes. The people who loitered in this area were visibly armed and had a dangerous glint in their eyes, butpared to the typical thug I was used to seeing in Elevate City, they were heavily under-equipped and seemed to barely have any cybeic enhancements. Our entire squad of six was disguised as the asteroid miners we saw earlier as we toured around in overalls. While we received some looks, everyone seemed to be leaving us alone. Just as I was about to suggest we downsize our party, a dull gunshot rang out. It wasn¡¯t that loud, but I had Kiri on the lookout for it, so my auditory imnt picked it up perfectly. The sound of the impact against something metal was much louder than the actual shooting, though. It didn¡¯t take long before several more gunshots followed as we made our way over. We used our Argus to scan the area ahead to get a more detailed location of where it was. We turned on our active camouge as we closed in and found two groups having a shootout with each other inside an alleyway. There were less than ten people involved, with a group of four hooded figures, against a group of five, who all had numerous face tattoos. I had our team simply watch as they fought, and their numbers soon dwindled until the hooded group only had two people left against the four on the other side. Seeing how it may end soon, we took action. We would be helping the losers as I believed saving them would loosen their lips and definitely had nothing to do with me wanting to gain more experience points at all. I also wanted to try using the power armor, so I had everyone else on standby while I dove in. While in the power armor, shooting was linked to the targeting system through my SAID, so I didn¡¯t actually have to manually aim the guns. That¡¯s why I tested the meleebat of the armor instead. I closed in behind the tattooed men while remaining in stealth and unleashed the vibrode hidden in the sleeve of the power armor. As the four menughed hysterically as they pushed on the position of their adversaries who were taking cover behind a dumpster, I swiftlyshed out and bisected the two men who were in the back. +10 EXP +10 EXP The vibro de cut well as always, and it was refreshing to be using a bigger version of my usual dagger. My inexperience using the sword resulted in blood all over my suit as the geysers of blood spurted out from my downed foes. The blood even sttered over to their allies, drawing their attention. I quickly dashed toward them as fast as I could and activated the jetpack function to give my lunge a little boost. The intermittent boost I had installed on it was meant for maneuvering in zero-g environments, but that didn¡¯t mean I could use it to enhance my movement normally as well. The speed it propelled me almost caught me off guard, but I reflexively shed out with my de before entirely overshooting thest two foes. +10 EXP +10 EXP When I nced up, I saw my team had already moved to apprehend the two members of the hooded gang, and we quickly extracted them from the area. We moved just far enough from the area to prevent any reinforcements from either side from interrupting us as we interrogated our two guests. Inside a secluded alleyway, we posted Nyes in our surroundings to keep watch as the questioning began. I unhooded one of the guests to find a woman ring up at me. When I removed the restraints around her mouth, I found sharp cybeic teeth, glistening in a threatening manner at me. ¡°You better release me, you fools! Or you will be seeing members of our Banshee¡¯s Fangs eating your family alive by the end of the day before moving on to you! This is your first andst chance to avoid your deaths, so unhand me!¡± I proceeded to unhood our other guest and found another woman with simr-looking teeth who also spewed threats nonstop, along with herpanion. ¡°Thorne, bring this one with you to another alley. They¡¯re too loud together.¡± He shrugged and went to carry one of thedies when she suddenly tried to lunge at Thorne and take a bite out of him. The restraints around her limbs were still in ce so she only pathetically fell over on the ground. Thorne sighed before picking her up and I resumed questioning the one who remained as soon as they were away from earshot. ¡°I don¡¯t care about your gang or anything. I just want to know how to find a QG in this city and I¡¯ll let you go.¡± ¡°Fuck you!¡± She spitted at me, and itnded on the exterior of my armor. ¡°You new boys in the city? Corpo motherfuckers.¡± She continued spewing profanities at me and refused to cooperate at all. It didn¡¯t take me long to figure out she wouldn¡¯t be cracking soon, so I gagged her and hoped Thorne received better results. Unfortunately, we weren¡¯t so lucky. ¡°So now what? Pick up members from the other gang?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°I¡¯d rather not when we already initiated hostilities with them. Let¡¯s try talking to these so-called Banshee¡¯s Fangs¡¯ leaders first. They may be willing to talk in exchange for their friends here.¡± ¡°...If you say so¡­But don¡¯t say I didn¡¯t warn you, I think they¡¯re a gang of crazy bitches and you won¡¯t find any luck with them.¡± ¡®Multiple people heading rapidly in this direction detected. All armed and equipped with a small amount of cybeics.¡¯ Kiri¡¯s voice suddenly alerted me. ¡°Everyone scan with your Argus in that direction now! We¡¯ve gotpany.¡± I shouted. We staggered our Argus scans in intervals and linked our vision together, so we soon could spot the iing party through walls in real-time. There were a dozen of them, and they all moved quickly across the roofs of the nearby buildings that were all tightly packed together. Our entire team soon engaged our active camouge and waited to see what they were up to. They soon arrived in our position and slowed down before cautiously making their way onto the street level. ¡°Boss, they should be around here.¡± A hooded figure said as they looked left and right around the area. They were staring straight at where Andrew was holding our captives, so that meant they must have trackers on them. I had my men throw them down to avoid giving away their position, and from their point of view, their friends suddenly materialized from thin air. ¡°What the fuck?¡± One of them yelled. ¡°Scatter, that¡¯s a corpo hit squad!¡± Another hooded figure yelled. ¡°Wait! We¡¯re not hostile!¡± I quickly yelled out as their gang was about to scatter. Chapter 108: LF QG Chapter 108: LF QG ¡°Wait! We¡¯re not hostile!¡± I quickly yelled out as the hooded gang members were about to scatter. Several of them immediately pointed their weapons in the direction my voice came from. They nervously looked into the empty space where I shouted from, with their fingers on the trigger. Then one of the hooded figures held up a hand to gesture for the rest of them to rx before they took a step forward and shouted in my direction. ¡°Speak corpo. What do you want?¡± ¡°I have no business with your gang. Just tell me about all the QGs you know around here.¡± ¡°You think you can just waltz up to us andmand us around like your employees? We aren¡¯t¡ª¡± ¡°We did you a favor already by saving your two members over there from the firefight earlier. You have five seconds to decide or we¡¯ll try someone else.¡± ¡°...¡± The hooded figure nced around in all directions before settling their gaze on their members, who wore unnerving expressions. ¡°Fifty thousand credits.¡± The hooded figure blurted out.¡°...Done, but only after we make contact and verify your connections are legit.¡± ¡°You think we¡¯ll purposefully get on the bad side of some corporate spec-op team for some money? You already have all the leverage in this negotiation. If you¡¯re dealing with us in good faith, at least give us half the amount first.¡± I took a moment to think it over when a message suddenly came in from Thorne. *Rollo, these guys could be ying us. If you agree, I¡¯ll have a team trail them until we confirm their intel.* While that may be the safer idea, I didn¡¯t want to spare any manpower when we were already short-handed in unfamiliar territory. *It¡¯s okay. It¡¯s just fifty thousand, twenty-five if theye up empty. We can afford to risk that instead of ying these games.* ¡°Deal.¡± I dered. ¡°Excellent. Transfer the money to my ount, the number is 92¡ª¡± She paused abruptly as I had already sent the transfer over. It wasn¡¯t that hard to find their ount with their cybeics vulnerable before us like this. ¡°You¡­How did you¡ªnevermind. I¡¯m copying the deets to this chip here now. You better follow through on the remaining half,¡± she said as she plugged the chip into their neural port for a brief moment before throwing it over toward us. The chip sailed through the air andnded on the ground as they didn¡¯t know where we exactly were, but Andrew swiftly moved over to retrieve it. He plugged it into his terminal for a moment to scan it for any malicious threats before giving me the go-ahead. ¡°See you then. I trust you know what happens to people with loose lips, so I won¡¯t bother threatening you.¡± I quickly got moving without waiting for her reply. With our dealplete, the rest of the team quickly retreated under the cover of our Shades and regrouped a distance away. We uncloaked when a quick scan from our Argus notified us that there was no one around us. Andrew handed me the chip, and I plugged it into my port right away. There were three entries of information on the chip we received, detailing information on three different QGs. The first one was known as ¡®The Voice¡¯, and they were apparently the most well-known among themunity up here in Aegis. They were known to always find the right people for the job and were reliable in terms of both payments and information provided for jobs. The downside was that no one knew they took on clients, and they one-sidedly contacted mercenaries for jobs, with no one knowing their contact. They sounded like more of a corporate middleman to me, but either way, they weren¡¯t an option we would make use of right now. The second contact was some cyborg named Timothy. They hired anyone, but their jobs were often violent, with little details avable as you went into it. Again, not the most ideal candidate we were looking for. Thest contact was for a retired asteroid miner by the name of Amos. The information said they worked the more delicate jobs that were a pain and the pay wasn¡¯t the greatest. To me, that meant stability, and the job we had for them was definitely delicate, exactly what we needed. With the information we needed, we went back to get our car and headed for the district where our new QG could be found. He operated out of a street market in a district where most menial workers lived. We knew we entered the right district when all we could see on the sidewalks were people either in spacesuits or overalls, much like the bar we had tried our luck in earlier. The establishments around abruptly differed from what I hade to be used to as they catered toward a different clientele. There were no fancy terminals and screens everywhere, and instead, thick armored doors and disy windows. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. asional scuffles could be spotted all over, though they mostly relied on their fists. It was unlikely they would produce any life-threatening injuries because of theirck of cybeics and how malnourished they all looked to throw a good punch. We had Andrew¡¯s team y frontmen again once we arrived at the market. Thorne and I followed behind in our camouge power armors, as they joined the crowd of miners by projecting a set of spacesuits that were simr to what other miners wore. They walked into the nutrient store on our intel and joined the checkout line. The line was short, so it wasn¡¯t long before it was their turn and the man behind the counter greeted them. ¡°What do you want, gentlemen?¡± The cashier stared at their empty hands. ¡°If you don¡¯t see any more of the vor you want on the shelf, then it¡¯s sold out. If you¡¯re feeling spendy, ask one of the kids running around to unlock the cabs for you.¡± ¡°Peng is hungry. Can we buy some of those nutrient packs¡ª¡± The person beside Peng quickly elbowed him into silence before clearing his throat. ¡°Sorry, we¡¯re actually feeling unwell. Is there something more easy on the stomach and suited for the sick?¡± The person manning the counter fell silent for a brief moment before nodding. ¡°Yes, we keep those in the back.¡± The man turned toward the back and yelled out. ¡°Jacky,e guide our customers over here.¡± A young boy soon ran out from somewhere and gestured for the party to follow him. We crossed over into the adjacent unit that had been turned into a storage room and continued toward the back. A few people were browsing the unattended wares here, but we continued moving toward the back and no one paid us any heed. The boy soon led us to a cargo elevator, where me and Thorne had to carefully step inside. It should have the capacity to carry us, even in our power armor, but we didn¡¯t want to abruptly weigh the elevator down when we got on. Instead of pressing a button, the boys entered a series of codes into the terminal, which made the elevator go down and down into the basement for several floors before it came to a stop. ¡°Go straight ahead and you should find what you¡¯re looking for.¡± The boy instructed before the elevator doors hid him from view. Andrew continued to lead the pack as we ventured forth into our new environment. There were cases of nutrient packs down here, as well as cases of alcohol. The door on the side of the hallways seemed to be shut tight, with stacks of cases blocking entry, and we continued moving forward. It didn¡¯t take long before we started hearing some sounds ahead. As we got closer, it became clearer that it wasing from a terminal of some sort, and when we turned the corner, we spotted an old tscreen TV. It was ironic that it was called a tscreen, but in this world, the residents considered it ancient and clunkypared to the razor-thin terminals. The old TV was ying a recording of a recorded boxing match and sitting in front of it was an aged man who seemed to be in his eighties by the standard of my old world, with a face full of age spots. He turned toward Andrew and scoffed. ¡°What do you foreign corpos want? You can put an end to your farce now.¡± Before Andrew could respond, I took the initiative to disengage my active camouge. ¡°Hello, are you Amos?¡± I asked. He ignored my question and gave my power armor a good look over as he mumbled incoherently to himself. ¡°Hey there. Are you Amos?¡± I tried again, a little louder this time. He snapped out of it and made direct eye contact with me through the helmet of my armor. ¡°Yeah, yeah. I¡¯m old, not deaf. State your business, corpo.¡± ¡°I¡¯m looking to see if there is a way you can get me into contact with an executive from Ferrumus Corporation.¡± He raised an eyebrow before picking up the remote from beside him and lowering the volume on the TV. ¡°Ferrumus Corp, eh? That ain¡¯t no small fry corp you want to mess with. It depends on what¡¯re you looking to do with contacting their executive. Let me warn you, I won¡¯t be able to help if you¡¯re trying to kidnap or assassinate their people. I¡¯m too old to take that kind of heat. You might as well kill me now.¡± ¡°No, we¡¯re just trying to talk to them. Bring something to their attention.¡± He blinked nkly a few times before closing his eyes. I gave him some time to process his thoughts, but when a few minutes passed and he didn¡¯t seem to have any movement, Andrew and his team began to whisper amongst themselves. Thorne couldn¡¯t take it either. He turned off his active camouge as well and pulled on my arm. ¡°Let¡¯s leave. This guy is obviously senile and he can¡¯t help us. We¡¯re wasting our time.¡± ¡°Who are you calling senile, you giant tin can?¡± ¡°You! Stop wasting our time and just tell us if you can help us or not.¡± ¡°Kids these days have no patience. No wonder you forwent training and took on cybeics instead. Your mother failed in your education.¡± ¡°You¡ª!¡± I quickly stepped in and interjected. ¡°Now, now. Let¡¯s stop with the banter and get back on topic, shall we?¡± I nced back toward the old man once Thorne backed off. ¡°Can you help us?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ yes. But not for free.¡± ¡°Of course. Name your price.¡± He held up a hand to me and continued. ¡°Not in credits. I need a job done and you guys seem well-equipped for it.¡± ¡°You old fart, we¡¯re not mercenaries that you can just hire!¡± Thorne shouted out from behind me. He seemed a bit more emotional than usual, but I couldn¡¯t me him, as it must¡¯ve touched a nerve at the mention of his mom earlier. ¡°Well, that is my price if you want my help. It¡¯s non-negotiable.¡± ¡°Can you tell us what type of job you¡¯re looking to make us do, and why us?¡± ¡°You foreign corpo may not have noticed, as you¡¯re new around here, but the mercenary scene isn¡¯t exactly flourishing up here in Aegis. It won¡¯t be in the future either, with the corporations managing this city, monitoring and regting who¡¯s in and out of this city so strictly. One of the downsides of being stuck on this space station, unless you¡¯re rich or influential.¡± ¡°Get to the points,¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°The point is, there aren¡¯t many well-equipped people I can use around here, and it¡¯s not every day someone shows up to my ce decked out in power armor. Not only that, but your power armor can go invisible. That will be very useful for the extraction gig I have on hand. That is all I can tell you without epting the job. Does that satisfy your curiosity, younglings?¡± ¡°Can you really get us in contact with an executive from Ferrumus Corporation?¡± I asked as I brushed Thorne¡¯s hand off me. I could hear him sigh behind me, as he knew me enough to realize I nned to ept the gig. The old back looked back up with a gleam in his eyes. ¡°Of course.¡± Chapter 109: Extraction Chapter 109: Extraction The next day, after speaking with the QG, Amos, we headed to a local bar to meet our contact for the gig we had epted. We had gotten there slightly early to scout the ce out, but now it was almost half an hour past our scheduled time already. ¡°Do you think someone is actuallying?¡± Thorne asked as he ced down his mug, his fourth of the night. ¡°Let¡¯s wait it out some more. Amos is the one who wants this job done, so he should be more worried about it than us.¡± I sent a quick message to Andrew to see how his team was doing on lookout duty before I resumed staring at the exit. It wasn¡¯t as boring as it sounded when you could multitask, with the web pulled up on a section of my optics. In just a couple of minutes, we spotted a young teen walking through the entrance, nervously looking around. When his eyesnded on us, he flinched back before resolving himself to approach. He slowed down and was about to grab a seat next to Thorne, but when the cyborg directed him a look, he reconsidered and walked past both of us to take the bar seat to my other side. ¡°Are you¡­the people the old man sent?¡± I nodded. ¡°Umm¡­nice to meet you. I am Pino.¡± He awkwardly held out his hand to me. ¡°You can call me R, and this is T,¡± I replied, deciding it wasn¡¯t worth giving out my name for this mission.Once I shook hands with him, he moved on to Thorne, who looked impatiently down at him. ¡°We already waited long enough here for you. Let¡¯s get right down to business. Can we speak here?¡± He once again flinched back and took a brief moment to recollect himself before responding. ¡°...Sorry. Maybe we can change the scenery and talk while we drive around the area?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just talk in the car. We should be fine staying in the parking lot,¡± I replied. It wouldn¡¯t do, leaving Andrew¡¯s team behind, and we didn¡¯t want to follow this random kid around when we were already on guard against the people from High Gate. As soon as we mmed the car doors shut, Thorne immediately pressed the teen. ¡°So spit out the details for the gig. The old man said it was an extraction mission, but we haven¡¯t gotten any details.¡± ¡°....Right. So, my¡ªerrr partner, she infiltrated Sanso Corp. She had managed to get ess to their database with her identity as a researcher, but from all the information she had been feeding me, she won¡¯t be able toplete the mission herself.¡± ¡°Does she need a cy-sec specialist or something?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but interject. ¡°No, no. She can handle it already. It¡¯s just that the database with the info we want is hard-wired to set off an rm whenever it is tampered with and there¡¯s no way around it. The moment she tries to do so, their entire security system will go online. We need you to go in and help bring her out once she tampers with the database.¡± I exchanged nces with Thorne before beginning to look up information on this Sanso Corp. It wasn¡¯t hard to find under the consortium¡¯swork that they were a D-ss corporation. Their main business in space is to supply electronics to satisfy their own internal demand. They weren¡¯t particrly remarkable or anything, but that meant they were a stable, traditional type of corporation. They had a robust production chain that relied entirely on themselves and adequately decentralized to defend against corporate espionage. Their facility here in Aegis was only so-so, making this doable, as long as we didn¡¯t leave behind any identifying information that led back to us. The teenager watched us carefully as we thought it over and did our research. However, he had limited patience and soon couldn¡¯t withstand the silence. ¡°I have their entire facility mapped, and I¡¯ve used a model of their base to run numerous simtions on how you could approach this. This is definitely a doable gig.¡± He said before sending out a few files to us. It seemed like this was the kid¡¯s specialty, as the information he sent was prettyprehensive. He had virtually modeled the entire facility his partner had infiltrated and had data from various simtions on how to infiltrate the ce. His focus was mainly on how to time his partner¡¯s data breach with a roundtable infiltration that required stealing uniforms before springing a frontal assault on their base to extract his partner. It wasn¡¯t exactly how we¡¯d like to approach it. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll do the job, but we¡¯ll do it our way.¡± He looked at us, slightly confused. ¡°The n I devised should have a high chance of sess. What are you nning¡ª-¡± He cut off as I decided it was faster to show him by turning on my active camouge. ¡°...You guys¡­you aren¡¯t mercs. You¡¯re corpos!¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter who we are. We can be mercs that got our hands on some fancy cybeics or corpos. Either way, we¡¯re here toplete the job, and that¡¯s all you need to know.¡± ¡°You¡¯re foreign corpos, too¡­¡± ¡°And why do you think that?¡± ¡°...There¡¯re no mercs from around here that can hold on to stealth-type cybeics for long. The corporations won¡¯t allow it. We practically live in a cage up here in Aegis. It¡¯s not possible to escape their monitoring for long.¡± ¡°Hmm, I guess that¡¯s why the mercenary business isn¡¯t booming up here, then.¡± This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°We try¡­but unlike you people from Earth, we all have to stay low key and take on proper jobs as a front.¡± ¡°So you guys do merc work part-time?¡± ¡°Kind of¡­yes.¡± Wow, the mercenaries up in Aegis sure have it rough. I guess their existence isn¡¯t as needed when mostly bigger corporations operate up here. The amount of resources required to mess with medium andrge corps just grows exponentiallyrger, and that is before we factor in the difficulty of doing so in space. ¡°I see¡­Anyway, let¡¯s focus on refining a better n to take advantage of our capabilities. I take it you have a way to coordinate with your partner?¡± He nodded. ¡°Yes, she may be under heavy surveince, but we have our ways.¡±
Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°Andrew, make sure you guys keep out of sight, especially Rollo.¡± Thorne red at the man in question, who simply shrugged in response. ¡°Leave it to me. We¡¯ll ensure our escape route is cleared.¡± Andrew replied, beating a fist on his chest. Thorne nodded at the gesture before he turned to the other person in the power armor beside him, who was adjusting to the power armor he now wore. ¡°Everything okay there, Mark?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t say I feel confident using something new in livebat, but the neural interface should make it easy.¡± If only we had more time to train our men with the power armor. Everything has just been happening at such short notice¡­At least, Rollo agreed to leave it to someone else for this mission. As Mark got used to operating the power armor, Thorne spent his time inspecting the thirty-story office building before him. There was a giant billboard that had some video ying and quite some activity in the lobby, despite being nighttime. The dome of Aegis followed the same time zone as Elevate City, meaning it matched its diurnal cycle. Once the two in power armor were ready, they both turned on their active camouge and disappeared into the night.
Tally (Miranda) - Mercenary ¡°Good evening, Miranda.¡± A woman greeted as the undercover mercenary clocked in for the day. ¡°Good morning, Kana.¡± The greeting was kept short as Tally walked past her coworker and took a seat by her desk. The half a dozen corpos in the entire room each went on about their own work, paying little attention to each other. Tally could easily feel the tension every time anyone spoke to her as they regarded her cautiously because she was the new rising star in thepany. Thank god this will be thest day I will have to deal with this corpo politicking. The room was silent as everyone worked on their terminal and kept to themselves. The only noise came from people drinking from thepany-provided nutrient packets, which Tally suspected wereced with a cocktail of stimnts. It wasn¡¯t umon, especially when you workedte shifts like they did. To any spectator, Tally was diligently working away, but in truth, she was going over the n she received just the day before. It would take ce soon, so there wasn¡¯t a lot of preparation time allotted, but that wasmon in her field of work. Only those who could think on their feet and adapt to new variables quickly could survive as a mercenary, and that went double during infiltration missions. As the time approached, she grabbed her nutrient packet and got ready, paying full attention to the aisle leading out of the room from the corner of her vision. It didn¡¯t take long before the woman from earlier got up from her seat and began her way out of the room as scheduled. It¡¯s now or never. Tally stood up while pretending to be entirely absorbed with the terminal in her hand as she threw herself into her coworker¡¯s path. As they collided, she squished the nutrient pack in her other hand to ensure it got all over the woman¡¯s clothes. ¡°What the fuck?! Did your parents not teach you to use your optics, or what?¡± The woman screeched as the dark brown contents of the nutrient pack sshed all over her blouse. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I wasn¡¯t paying attention!¡± ¡°Well, fuck! How am I supposed to make my rounds while looking like this?¡± ¡°I truly didn¡¯t mean it. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Tally bowed and yed the meek girl. ¡°You¡¯re sorry? Can you do anything useful besides apologize?¡± ¡°Kana¡­Why don¡¯t I take your rounds for you while you go get cleaned up?¡± ¡°You better! And you¡¯re paying the bill for the dry cleaning!¡± The woman yelled before she shoved her keycard to Tally and stormed off toward the washroom. Tally let out a sigh of relief now that the ordeal was over. She nced around to find her other coworkers uncaring like mechanical robots before making her way out of the room. As programmers who maintained theirpany¡¯s website and database, they had to asionally diagnose their system for any errors. And some of those systems were only essible from special terminals that were physically connected. She went down the hallway that was surrounded by ss panels on both sides where she could see all the hardware that ran the systems. What she really focused her attention was on the automated turrets hidden in the ceiling every few paces, and the various security bots that patrolled across this floor. She kept her head down and went straight toward the terminal that was ced just outside the entrance to the server room. It was specifically ced there to perform the diagnostics, without the need to enter into the more sensitive areas. She hung around the terminal and began doing her job, albeit slowly, as she waited for her backup that she was informed about to arrive. To tamper with the systems, she would need to enter the server room proper, but the moment the door was opened, even with the security card her coworker had given her, security would be alerted. As she slowly operated the diagnostic program, she hoped whoever was watching the camera feed wasn¡¯t paying that much attention to her. She felt like they would catch on at any moment when they noticed how long she took. Just as she moved to brush aside the sweat building up by her brow, a voice suddenly sounded shockingly close to her, and it took everything in her to stop herself from flinching back. ¡°Tally, right? You can begin doing your thing. We¡¯ve got your back.¡± She took a quick nce around and saw nothing there before immediately directing her gaze back to the terminal lest the cameramen noticed her strange behavior. ¡°Rx, I have someone else dealing with their security control room. Go on, get started.¡± The voice rang out again, even closer to her this time. At this point, it was obvious whoever was speaking to her was invisible. She took a deep breath and cursed at her brother for somehow getting corpos involved. ¡°How are you going to deal with those turrets over there? The moment I walk in, they¡¯ll shoot if the guys in the control room don¡¯t rein them in within a few seconds of the security prompt.¡± ¡°Rx, your partner has told us of all the security features you informed him about. We know about the automated security systems.¡± Tally quickly resolved herself as she had learned from over the years working as a mercenary and began the n. Otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t be able to leave the cage her corporate overlords had kept her along with the other employees who had ess to sensitive information. And she just about had it with the corpo lifestyle. A few months was all she could take. She decisively took bold steps toward the fortified door to the server room and plugged in the keycard before walking in. She stared at the turrets the entire time that instantly came online and pointed toward her. She counted each second. She estimated she had five seconds at most before the system decided she was a threat and would then open fire. ¡°Five, four, three, two¡­¡± Don¡¯t shoot. Please don¡¯t shoot! Her prayers went unheard as a deafening gunshot reverberated throughout the room. Chapter 110: Extraction Pt.2 Chapter 110: Extraction Pt.2 Tally (Miranda) - Mercenary As Tally entered the server room of Sanso Corp, the automated turrets dropped down from the ceiling and quickly snapped their weapons toward her. Her prayers for the guns to deactivate intensified with every passing second. ¡°Five, four, three, two, one¡­¡± A loud gunshot rang out at the end of the countdown and Tally could only close her eyes in resignation at having trusted the corpos her brother had somehow gotten involved with. Damn it all! As she shut her eyes tight, she realized that she felt no pain whatsoever. Am I already dead? At least it was a quick and painless death¡­ Her thoughts started to wander about what would happen after her passing. Who would find the credits she had hidden, and how her brother would survive from hereon, but then her world began to shake. She instinctively opened her eyes to see what was going on, only toe face to face with an unfamiliar man, staring straight at her through a transparent helmet.¡°Hello? Aren¡¯t we in a hurry? Can you get on with it already?¡± She took a moment to nce around her and found that she was still standing in the same ce, inside the server room of Sanso Corporation. The man who had shaken her was in corporate power armor, and a quick look between that and the wrecked turrets gave her all the information she needed to figure out what had happened. Having gathered her bearings, she jumped into action and dashed toward the terminal that had ess to the database. ¡°You dumb brute! You couldn¡¯t warn me if you were going to shoot out the turrets, not to mention suddenly firing off that stupid gun right beside me.¡± Sheined as she jacked into thework. ¡°Brute force is a proper tactic that¡¯s been honed since the beginning of time. Just focus on your task and don¡¯t worry about it. I got you covered.¡± She snorted at the corpo and ignored him as she focused on her work in the virtual space. The surroundings were quiet, but herpany imnts had been ring out an rm as soon as the shooting had begun. Tally quickly activated the backdoor program she had set within thepany¡¯s software when she had initially infiltrated this ce and disconnected herself from Sanso Corp¡¯s systems. Once she was done, she could be at ease while she breached into the corporate systems. Everything was proceeding smoothly when more gunfire disrupted her flow, drawing her attention away. She looked up and found the man in power armor missing, but saw several scraps of what appeared to have belonged to the robotic patrols just outside the room. The shooting rang out again and this time, she could see a dozen security bots firing off their weapons indiscriminately down the hallway, hitting something that flickered in and out of existence. The flickering soon stopped, and she spotted the man from earlier, soaking in numerous bullets from the bots with his power armor while returning fire as if the enemy¡¯s attacks were just a slight inconvenience. When the shooting finally died down, the only thing left standing was the man in power armor. Dumb corpo war machines. Can¡¯t they focus their energy on something more productive? While cursing corpos in her mind at all the expensive machinery they wasted, Tally never stopped working her way into the database. It took her only two minutes until she got ess, allowing her to carry out the job she had been hired to do. The QG, Amos, was known as a man of the people. His jobs usually entailed helping out themon folks who were under the thumb of corporations, but that also meant the pay wasn¡¯t as good as the gigs from other QGs that affiliated themselves with the corps. Tally still decided to take this job despite that. She was tired of seeing her fellow residents of Aegis dying a slow and insidious death as they were squeezed dry. She thought if she could help by just earning a little less, then so be it. The job she was hired to carry out this time was to delete and fudge up several records that Sanso Corp had put on their watchlists. Normally in Aegis, once a corp targeted you, you were done. There was nowhere you could run for long, being trapped in the cage that was the space station. With Tally¡¯spletion of this job, whichever poor souls being targeted should now have a chance to escape. Themon folks were usually a low priority for corporations, so they shouldn¡¯t have backed up their files outside of the local branch. Once shepleted deleting the relevant records, she proceeded to ess the more sensitive data on the server and began downloading as much information as she could. The moment she did so, however, another rm was set off, and strong jamming filled the entire building. She didn¡¯t exactly know of this security measure beforehand, but she wouldn¡¯t regret her actions. They needed to make it look like another corp hired them for the job to draw some heat off of themselves. She also promised Amos she would deliver the data, and she had a reputation to uphold. ¡°Are you done, yet? They¡¯re going to start sending a lot more people here soon, and well-armed ones at that!¡± the man in power armor called out from beside her. She ignored him and continued working away on her terminal for another thirty seconds before she quickly unplugged from the database. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Done! Get me out of here!¡± Tally nced around at the aftermath of the carnage that unraveled around her and prepared herself for the bumpy trip out. She expected to encounter quite a bit of resistance from the fast-response teams that were definitely on their way, and she could only hope that they could get out before they deployed heavy weapons to deal with the power armor. What she didn¡¯t expect was the man swooping her off her feet. She quickly found herself being princess carried as the man began to make his exit. ¡°What are¡ª¡± ¡°Stay quiet, and try not to make any sudden movements.¡± Tally wanted to argue, but hearing the seriousness of the man¡¯s tone, she decided to be obedient for now. She found themselves boldly going toward the staircase to descend from the building. They had made it down two floors when the man¡¯s movement suddenly jerked as he turned around and brought them back up to the previous floor. He rushed out of the stairwell and waited nearby for several moments before Tally could hear a lot of movement from the stairway they had just exited. As if the man knew where the enemies were, he navigated back down the stairway when it was clear, and always hid when guards drew near. Like this, the duo soon managed to exit the building to the wonder of Tally. A few of the other office workers were definitively in a position to spot them, but they alwayspletely ignored them as they came through. It was only when Tally calmed down a little that she nced down to find themselves invisible to the naked eye. Right¡­ this corpo uses stealth tech. How in the world did Pino and the old man get us involved with them?
I watched as the outline of Thorne entered our getaway van, carrying along an unfamiliar person who I presumed to be the mercenary we were extracting. I was just about to be worried because the surrounding area was getting chaotic as streams of Sanso Corp guards flooded the area by the main roads. Our connection with Thorne was abruptly cut off during the mission, and only Mark made it out alone after a while. Thankfully, we hadn¡¯t panicked as we had experienced simr situations before, and they safely returned. The car tilted to the side as they entered and they soon materialized when Thorne deactivated the active camouge. I noticed the power armor Thorne was wearing was all scratched up, a testament to thebat he had experienced. ¡°Get moving,¡± I instructed the driver before turning to the back. ¡°Are you two okay?¡± ¡°Yes, we¡¯re fine.¡± He replied and nced over to the other person in a power armor beside him. ¡°Good work in there, Mark. Job well done.¡± They fisted-bumped as we drove away while the woman awkwardly sat there quietly. It was only when things on the street quieted down that she spoke. ¡°You can drop me off here.¡± I nced around and nodded to our driver, Brian. We had agreed to meet up at Amos¡¯ ce the next day when things died down first, so there was no reason to have her with us the entire time. As she left, I got in the back and got back into my power armor I had lent Mark as we made our way back to our hotel. We weren¡¯t going toze around, though. That would just be more suspicious. I had made several appointments with manufacturers of electronic parts to keep ourselves busy in the meantime. Our expansion required a lot of parts, especially delicate electronics. All the vehicles we were producing, cybeics, and even renovating our base needed them. I even n to construct several power armorster, proper ones that weren¡¯t Frankensteins that I cobbled together from various other power armors. The major manufacturers all operated in space, as that was where the conditions were optimal for their production, so it was an opportune time to negotiate contracts with them directly. They allowed me to don my power armor as I strolled into the meeting room. It seemed like paranoid corpos were amon breed, and as long as I deactivated the weapons systems, they wouldn¡¯t mind me wearing the armor. ¡°Mr.Halls¡­ a pleasure to make your acquaintance.¡± The young man in sses said as he extended out a hand. ¡°Likewise, Mr. Oyin.¡± With pleasantries set aside, he visibly began going through my proposal before speaking. ¡°I¡¯m impressed with what yourpany has aplished in the short time since it started, but apologies. I cannot ept your proposal.¡± ¡°And why is that?¡± I asked with a smile. I knew it wouldn¡¯t be as easy as just asking and they would agree to supply high quantities of their products to me at wholesale prices. ¡°While I personally believe in the strength and potential your corporation has shown so far, ourpany has a strict policy in regard to how much we can supply to a G-ss corporation. I can allow for the very top range of what we offer to G-sses, judging from your profile, but I rmending back once yourpany has been promoted.¡± ¡°I see. I¡¯d be happy to sign a tentative agreement right now with the terms of allowing for renegotiation when we are promoted. Is that agreeable?¡± He took just a brief moment to think it over before nodding. ¡°Very well, I see great things from yourpany, so am inclined to ept.¡± While the quantity they were willing to allot to me didn¡¯t satisfy all my demands, it was a start, and there were morepanies to negotiate with. I just had to be mindful of their rtionship with other suppliers. After concluding my meetings, we retired for the night and the next day, we headed straight back to where we had met Amos. The same boy led us into the back of their store where the cargo elevator was, and we found Amos sitting in the same position, watching his old-school TV. It appeared Pino and the partner we extracted, Tally, were already there beside him. The girl¡¯s mood visibly worsened when she saw us, and she quickly shot up from her seat. ¡°Our business is done. I¡¯ll leave you with your guests, old man.¡± She said before dragging the clueless Pino away. She red at Thorne one final time before they disappeared from view. ¡°Amos, we¡¯vepleted your job as promised. It¡¯s time for you to deliver.¡± I got straight to the point. ¡°Yes, yes. Would it kill you kids to learn to have some patience? You only have one life, which means you should tread carefully. Examine the risks and rewards first.¡± ¡°Old man, we¡¯re not here for a lecture. You¡ª¡± I quickly stopped Thorne from interjecting lest it only prolong this conversation. ¡°Hmm¡­I will do as promised, but I have one condition.¡± ¡°...What do you mean condition? We didn¡¯t talk about this before.¡± ¡°Correct. I didn¡¯t see the need to, but now that you have proven yourselves so capable, I need to react ordingly.¡± He lowered the volume on his TV before turning to face me directly. No matter how he puts it, I couldn¡¯t help but get a little angry, too, seeing how he is adding a condition after we did as promised. I could feel Thorne tense up, along with the rest of our entourage. ¡°Rx, what I ask of you isn¡¯t something you would have to worry about if you haven¡¯t been lying to me about your intentions. I simply want to be there along with my men when you meet my contact from Ferrumus Corp.¡± Chapter 111: The Marquis Chapter 111: The Marquis ¡°I simply want to be there along with my men when you meet my contact from Ferrumus Corp.¡± The old QG drylyid out his condition. ¡°...You¡¯re scared we¡¯d hurt your contact?¡± He nodded. ¡°Life up here isn¡¯t that easy formon folks like us. I need assurance that no idents happen. Otherwise, a lot of people, including me, will have to pay for it if anything goes wrong.¡± ¡°Whatever your reason is, you can¡¯t just pull out a new condition all of a sudden!¡± Thorne yelled. ¡°I understand this is sudden. I¡¯m willing topensate you. Let¡¯s see, how about the schematics of Sanso Corp¡¯s 3D printers that they use internally? It isn¡¯t theirtest model, but it is still better than most of what is avablemercially.¡± He sent me a file with the basic specifications of the printer in question. ¡°As someone who is known not to deal with corporations, you sure like to keep dangerous information on hand.¡± ¡°Only those who know how to save for a rainy day get to grow old. Though I only acquired this recently.¡± He chuckled to himself. ¡°Do we have a deal?¡± ¡°...Fine. When can we meet with your contact? We¡¯re in a hurry here.¡± ¡°No need to be impatient. I have already secured a reservation for you and yourpanions to the restaurant that a certain executive of the Ferrumus Corporation, Aegis branch, likes to frequent. Meet meter tonight at this space dock.¡± I quickly received another ping with an address on it.The old QG seemed to have finished his business with us as he turned the volume to his TV back up and began ignoring us. Exchanging nces with my men, we quickly departed back to our vehicle. ¡°Andrew, have two of your guys scout out the venue that old geezer sent us,¡± Thorne ordered as soon as we closed the door. ¡°Are you really okay with that QGing with us, Rollo?¡± ¡°He didn¡¯t seem like he would budge on it and we don¡¯t exactly have the time to prolong this. We need to speak with someone important from Ferrumus quickly.¡± I said as I went over the information on the restaurant we would be attending tonight. ¡°Let¡¯s go back and get dressed. The restaurant we¡¯re going to has a dress code.¡± We swiftly returned to our lodging and two of Andrew¡¯s team members immediately left ahead of time. The rest of us had plenty of time until time for our reservation at The Marquis, a sister restaurant of The Earl that we had once visited, located at the base of the space elevator. We killed the time by training Brian how to use the power armor, as we couldn¡¯t show up with it in a fine-dining setting. The security there should be fine, as the ce catered to the upper ss. Besides, the restaurant was isted from the rest of Aegis in a specialpartment that orbited around it. Several minutes before we were heading out, I received a video call from my ally, Joey. ¡°Rollo, sorry to interrupt, but I¡¯ll make this quick. How is your progress up there?¡± ¡°Ferrumus Corp hadn¡¯t taken us seriously and only sent me to some sales agent, but I should have a line that¡¯ll connect me to an executive soon.¡± The bald man narrowed his eyes and slowly nodded. ¡°Try to be as quick as you can.¡± ¡°Is it getting that bad down there?¡± ¡°No¡­but that doesn¡¯t mean the status quo will stay. In fact, I¡¯m calling to warn you because the High Gate people seem to have relented on their assault. They¡¯re satisfied with a slow and steady battle of attrition right now, which leads me to believe they are waiting for something. Be careful, they are either making new breakthroughs in their talk with Virtue Corp, confident that your negotiations with spacer corps will fail, or both.¡± ¡°Got it. I have to go now. Let me know if you find any new developments.¡± He nodded and ended the call. As we made our way toward the spaceport, I couldn¡¯t help but carefully survey our surroundings for any potential ambushes. There was no way the High Gate Group hadn¡¯t figured out I was up here by now, and with Joey¡¯s updates, an attack was surely imminent. The question was just when and where. Thews against property damage in Aegis were only really strict near the life support systems and the outer walls of the space station. Still, there were a lot of big corporations in the city, and earning the ire of any one of them could easily spell the doom for the party responsible. Where would I attack me if I were them? The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the vition. As I mulled over the issue, we soon arrived at one end of Aegis, where the VIP ports were. This was where all the private spaceships were docked, segregated from themercial ports that were responsible for the logistics, and the industrial one for miners. We drove into the airport-like structure and made our way toward a lounge where we found Amos already there, along with half a dozen guards. They didn¡¯t have any matching uniform and gear or anything, but one look at them and we could tell they were experienced fighters. ¡°You are here. Let us be off, then.¡± The old man immediately said as soon as we approached. We followed him through the security gates, where a majority of our guards parted with us. Only Thorne apanied me on my end, while Amos brought along three of his men. We boarded a small shuttlecraft that was shaped like a pyramid, tilted over to one side, with more rounded edges. It only took several minutes for us to arrive at The Marquis. The restaurant had an arm attached to the rest of the space stations that allowed it to safely orbit around Aegis. As we got off, I immediately felt a sense of vertigo, as the corridor from the shuttle to the restaurant was made of transparent ss, even the floors. At least the inside of the restaurant itself was slightly better, with partitions all around the ce to allow the guests some privacy. While we were led to our seats, I noticed many other patrons enjoying their food while gazing down at Mother Earth. I carefully examined the faces of all the guests, matching them with the images we had of the executives from Ferrumus, but to no avail. ¡°So, where is our contact?¡± I asked as soon as we sat down. ¡°Patience. The restaurant will have a live performanceter, and you will be able to approach Bi Sun to discuss what you need. For now, we eat and wait.¡± The old man said and gestured for us to take a look at the menu. ¡°Wait, does he even know we¡¯reing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure his security details always know, but the person himself shouldn¡¯t be aware.¡± ¡°What? I thought he was your contact?¡± ¡°While I do have a connection with him, it doesn¡¯t mean I have his ears anytime I want. Fret not, he is usually willing to hear other the other guests while he is here.¡± Well, not having an introduction hurts, but it is good enough if we can have him hear us out. More guests filed in as we talked and before long, we spotted a skinny middle-aged man wearing a very strange and distinctive hairstyle. He was almost bald and only had a few hairs left, but they were each very long, reaching all the way down to his waist. He strode in with his wife, daughter, and two guards who were just as skinny as him, but I could tell they were heavily enhanced. I almost wanted to say there were cyborgs, but their thin builds made me hesitant to dere them as such. I listened to old man Amos and reined in my urge to immediately approach the man. Thest thing I wanted was to make a bad impression by interrupting his family time, so I patiently waited. A lot was going on in my head the entire time we ate, trying to figure out the best way to approach him, and I barely registered what the food tasted like. I only broke out of my trance after dessert, when the lights to the ce suddenly dimmed. The ce quieted down as everyone waited. Then, lights began to bloom out, drawing all our attention below us, where outer space was. The lights were formed in various shapes, as if we were watching a fireworks show. Upon closer inspection, I realized the lights were various drones flying outside, working the spectacle. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us at The Marquis tonight! Tonight¡¯s scheduled event will be taking ce as nned. We will be bringing you footage of various spectacles taking ce on our home right away. Please feel free to step forth in one of our neural cabins if you would like a more realistic way to view what our drones see.¡± Right after the announcement, severalrge projections materialized in the center of the room, with various screensing from about a dozen drones. They monitored a wide range of things, from an ongoing firefight to the vortex of a storm, and even a gigantic mutant whale. The various guests stood up and surrounded the screens, so I quickly moved to join them, keeping an eye on where my target was the entire time. A server quickly came up to me with a tray full of drinks and I casually took one before moving toward the Ferrumus Corp executive. The room became louder as the surrounding guests merrily chatted away about their preferred topics. I quickly read over the bio I had of Bi Sun again as I waited for my chance to speak with him alone. He was the vice president of the Aegis branch of Ferrumus Corporation, which was born and raised at theirpany headquarters located on Mars. Their Aegis branch wasn¡¯t particrlyrge and was mainly a transport hub and distribution center for their products, such as vibro des. I noticed he wore a fancy sword on his hip, which made me search for my vibro dagger. On second thought, it would be embarrassing topare my cheap junk when his sword had such an ornamental scabbard. I nced back at Thorne, who was a few steps behind me, and he cruelly gestured for me to get on with it. When I looked back at Bi Sun, I saw his daughter and wife heading off toward the neural pods that were simr to the VR pods I had, leaving him alone with one of his guards. I didn¡¯t squander the opportunity and instantly approached. ¡°Hi there, are you Mr. Sun, by any chance?¡± He turned back to face me, giving me a good look at the man with a goatee. He seemed like an entirely organic human to me, which only made me more cautious. ¡°Yes, and I believe you are Mr. Halls. Was there something you¡¯re looking for from me?¡± He said as he gestured for me to stand beside me, looking over the main screen. ¡°I wanted to talk about a cooperative opportunity that may allow yourpany to undermine Virtue Corp¡¯s business.¡± He gave me a quick look before turning back to stare at the screen, but he remained silent. He was probably contacting someone to dig more information into what I was talking about, and that was exactly what I wanted. He adjusted his standing posture as he took a sip from his ss. Several minutes passed, and he breathed in deeply as he watched the giant mutant whale surface, exposing much of its body. I kept stealing nces at him, but he seemed unmoved. I started to have my doubts as I revisited what I had said to him in search of any mistakes. Did I say something wrong? Chapter 112: Business Trip Chapter 112: Business Trip I stole nces over at the vice president of Ferrumus Corp, Bi Sun, as he continued to stare at the screens before us that showed various drone footage from around the world. He hadn¡¯t answered for a few minutes since I mentioned a potential cooperative opportunity that would also undermine one of their rivals, Virtue Corp. I didn¡¯t want to rush him, so I could only wait patiently while taking sips from my ss. It was only when my cup was almost empty that he finally broke his silence. ¡°I believe there is some merit to hearing what you have to say. I must warn you though, ourpany has been quite busy recently with recovering from the war and our size sometimes slows our decision-making, especially when ites to these non-urgent matters.¡± I swallowed as I processed what he was saying. I believe he was saying, in the typical corpo roundtable fashion, that hispany was divided on the matter regarding their rivals and this wasn¡¯t something he could decide alone. ¡°Shall we arrange a meeting for us to discuss in detail, then?¡± I asked. ¡°eptable.¡± He took another sip of his drink. ¡°I can arrange a meeting in two days, at our branch headquarters. Here are the details.¡± I quickly read over the file he sent for the time and ce. There wasn¡¯t anything special consideration I had to take note of except for how to get to the meeting ce. Inside the file, there were security codes and a warning to arrive no earlier than fifteen minutes.It was so detailed because Ferrumus Corp¡¯s branch headquarters wasn¡¯t actually in Aegis, but in a separate space station that orbited Earth. Without following the instructions with the relevant security codes, any ship that approached them would be blown to pieces. That wasn¡¯t even something I had to be worried about right now because I didn¡¯t even have a ship to bring me there in the first ce! Not long after he sent me the meeting details, his daughter ran back toward him from the neural pods. Seeing how it wasn¡¯t likely for us to speak further, I silently slipped away and went back to our group¡¯s seats. I nodded at Amos, who seemed relieved nothing had gone wrong while Imunicated with Thorne about our uing ns. We silently spent the remaining time there until our shuttle came to bring us back. As soon as we boarded the shuttle, I turned to Amos. ¡°Do you know any pilots we could hire within a day or two?¡± I had tried searching for a ship to get to Ferrumus in two days while we had waited for the shuttle, but all rental services needed to be booked a few days in advance to schedule a pilot. If we wanted to fly there on such short notice, we would have to convince one of the other ships to ferry us there or find a pilot ourselves and rent a ship. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± He wordlessly sent over a payment request for five thousand credits for consultation fees. Once I paid, he sent over several contact information. With nothing better to do while our shuttle ferried us back, I got to work and began reaching out to our potential pilots.
Two dayster, we headed for the rentalpany in the early morning. We were all decked in either power armor or spacesuits as we prepared for our trip today. When we got there, a tall woman was already waiting for us outside the rental office in a skintight spacesuit. ¡°Nice to meet you in person, Priya.¡± I swiftly greeted our pilot for the day. ¡°Sir,¡± she said as she sized us up, especially at our power armor. She didn¡¯t seem to be a talker, so we quickly went inside to finish the procedures of the rental. It wasn¡¯tplicated on my end when I had ample funds to ce as a deposit and our pilot had the proper licenses, but our pilot insisted she inspects the ship herself before we finalized the deal. The employee at the office led us past a security gate where there was no artificial gravity on the other side. We barely had time to adjust to theck of gravity as the employee didn¡¯t loiter and headed straight to the nearby elevator, where they entered a bunch ofmands into the terminal before hurrying us in. I watched the elevator go up several floors and thenterally for some time before it came to a full stop. The doors opened to a spacious hanger where a small ship was floating in the center, with several chains keeping it in ce. Priya didn¡¯t wait a second before jumping off the ground, floating up toward the gunmetal grey ship. She brushed her hand across its hull as she made her way around it, using the propulsion system in her suit. It shot out gusts of air through various exhausts on the suit to help her navigate through the zero-g environment. She circled the ship once before heading toward a hatch and turned back to the employee who had guided us here. ¡°Open it up.¡± Even through the helmet of the spacesuit, we could all feel her impatient gaze. The employee quickly floated up toward her and entered the passcode into a terminal next to the hatch. As soon as it opened, Priya rushed in, followed by the helpless employee who had to keep watch over theirpany¡¯s equipment. The figure of both of them disappeared, and we didn¡¯t dawdle any longer as we moved to catch up. I also took this time to test out the modified jetpack I had equipped our power armor with to propel myself up. The powered armor was connected to my SAID, so to activate the jetpack, all I needed was a simple mentalmand. This narrative has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I felt a vibration as it ejected an electric pulse that pushed me upward. I made sure to start on the lowest power setting, but it was enough to propel me at the same speed as the previous two. I nced down at Thorne and sent him a quick message to try it out as well, and the two of us took a minute to test it out before we entered the ship. Although we had rented one of the smaller ships, it was still sizablepared to the aircraft that operated in the atmosphere. These spaceships were designed to travel longer distances that typically took days to months, which meant they were at least equipped with several crew cabins and a mess hall. When we passed through the hatch, we found ourselves in a corner of the cargo bay, right next to a corridor that led further into the ship. The walls had properbels, informing us where each path led. Taking a look around the cargo bay, we saw Priya just about to finish her inspection as she circled the spacious hold. She floated by us without a word and made her way further into the ship, following the signs for engineering. We were truly out of our element, so we left it entirely to her to inspect the ship as we quietly followed. We still had ample time before our meeting in the afternoon, and it was better to listen to the professional in these cases. The inspection didn¡¯tst as long as I thought. Half an hour went by and we exited the ship. Priya turned to me and dered the results. ¡°All good, sir.¡± I held in a sigh of relief and turned to the employee. ¡°Thank you for your time. I will sign the document now.¡± I sent the employee thepleted forms, and they quickly sent me the ess codes and handed me a physical key to the ship. ¡°Thank you for choosing to do business with us, sir. As written in the contract, this ship will now be your responsibility for the next week. If you encounter any issues, do not hesitate to contact us and we can have a repair team en route at the best market rates.¡± I nodded along and let her list off several other warnings and precautions before watching her exit the hangar. They had made me sign a week-long contract at the minimum or else they wouldn¡¯t rent it to me, so I don¡¯t n on bringing any more business to them. Even if I found myself needing repairs, I would search elsewhere. With the rentalplete, we wasted no time and boarded our new ride along with our pilot. Normally, only the crew came through this hangar and they would go pick up their guest at a specified boarding area, but since we were already here, there was no need for the redundant fanfare. Most of us settled in the mess hall, where there was ample space for us to sit together, while Priya and Brian went to the cockpit. There was only enough space there for two there, and Brian had been interested in watching. We needed someone to keep an eye on the external hire, anyway, so that left the remaining five of us together. Our pilot truly wasted no time as we quickly heard her voice over the ship-wide inte. ¡°All crew, ready for takeout. ETA of the trip is one hour and eight minutes.¡± We all fumbled around our seats and strapped ourselves into the hard metal chairs around our table. There were a few pods beside us that looked simr to the virtual reality ones, but they were only used when the ship was performing high-g maneuvers. As our trip was short, we all stuck to the seats around the table. A minute after her announcement, we felt the ship elerate, and I quickly pulled up the footage from the cameras attached to the exterior of the hull. I watched as our ship ventured into the expansive darkness of space, leaving Earth behind. Behind us was the dock we were departing from, which seemed more like a honeb from this distance. I tried spotting other ships, but the vastness of spacebined with the darkness made it hard to spot anything. ¡°Peng is bored.¡± A voice rang out from across the table. ¡°Shut¡ª¡± I held up a hand and interrupted Andrew. ¡°Why don¡¯t we all y something? How about some card games?¡± I suggested. The people around the table exchanged nces before they all nodded. I booted up the virtual program, invited all of them, and began going over the rules. It had been a tense week with all of us venturing into unfamiliar territory, so it was nice we could somewhat rx here. There was no one else onboard, and they didn¡¯t have to be on the lookout for anyone popping up suddenly. I settled on a game of poker, as I wanted to brush up on my ability to hold my facade before going into a negotiation with a big corp like Ferrumus. Maybe it was just wishful thinking that a game of poker would help, but I really wanted it to go smoothly so we could go home and end this stupid war we were dragged into. I couldn¡¯t grind any experience points up here and I wanted to get to the next level so I could round off another skill to plus ten. I bought up my status screen once I folded an early hand. Status Level: 23 EXP: 2130/2300 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 Just as another round was about to start, an rm red out from the inte, bewildering all of us. None of us were trained in how to operate a spaceship, so if anything went wrong, there wasn¡¯t a whole lot we could do. Priya¡¯s voice soon rang out. ¡°There¡¯s a ship that¡¯s¡ª¡± We could hear the distress in her voice before it got cut off by the violent shaking of the ship that threatened to throw us onto the floor. Chapter 113: EVA Scuffle Chapter 113: EVA Scuffle ¡°There¡¯s a ship that¡¯s¡ª¡± As our pilot, Priya¡¯s, warning was cut short by the violent shaking of the hull, I immediatelymanded my Argus to perform a scan of our vicinity. The scan returned a dozen results, with them all on the exterior of the ship. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that they were hostile. At least they weren¡¯t shooting us down, which means they couldn¡¯t, or they aimed to board us instead. Whatever I saw, my team saw as well thanks to our shared connection, so I didn¡¯t need to exin to them our current situation. ¡°Let¡¯s all head to the cockpit to regroup. We can¡¯t let them take control of that ce, no matter what.¡± They all nodded, and we wasted no time rushing toward the front of the ship. As soon as we walked into the cockpit, Priya spoke in amanding voice without hesitation. ¡°They¡¯reing in. Your men need to split up into three teams to defend engineering, life support, and a mobile strike force to clear them out.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll need someone here as¡ª¡±¡°No! I¡¯ll lock down the cockpit right after you leave. It should hold them off for quite some time if they try toe. You guys prioritize eliminating all of them. Hurry!¡± As we left, I watched the door to the cockpit slide close before several moreyers sealed the room. I turned toward the enemy we had been keeping track of with our scans for a moment and found that they had almost breached the ship. Once I took stock of the situation, I swiftly turned to my men. ¡°Andrew and Peng defend life support. Brian and Mark go to engineering. Thorne and I will go clear them out.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± They shouted in unison before rushing off to their assigned post. I then pulled up the map of the interior of our ship to find all the ces we could reach the exterior from. ¡°You ready?¡± ¡°For some EVA action? We do have the power armor,¡± Thorne muttered as he shrugged. The ship violently shook again, notifying us they had sessfully broken in. Our scans showed a dozen figures rushing in while another dozen remained outside, standing guard outside. ¡°Our guests have arrived. Let¡¯s go.¡±
Nightingale - Quantum vors ¡°Get ready to chuck the sensor blockers and any other evidence out of the airlock as soon as we board them. They¡¯ve done their jobs already.¡± A tall womanmanded from within a ck power armor. She watched as her men took action and finally regarded the captain of the mining ship they had hijacked once she was satisfied. ¡°How much longer until this ship is close enough to board their ship?¡± She asked as she shoved her weapon into the captain¡¯s face. ¡°Umm¡­.about a minute and a half if you use those pods you have...¡± As the captain spoke, one of his crew took the opportunity while their coercer was busy to sneak up on the lone woman in power armor. He took out the emergency ss breaker from his vest and readied a screwdriver in his other hand. Nightingale suddenly scoffed before abruptly throwing a backhand thatnded perfectly on the face of the man who had been creeping toward her. She then slowly turned around to find the man struggling on the ground while holding onto his broken nose. She slowly walked toward him without a care, not stopping even when she reached him. The metal feet of her power armor soon made contact with the man¡¯s leg as it continued to press its impressive weight down onto him. The man shrieked as his legs were crushed. His suffering didn¡¯t end there as the woman continued to step forth onto his arms this time. The man¡¯s crew members all watched on along with their captain with a grimace. No one dared to speak up, fearing they would be next, and could only listen to theirrade¡¯s scream in silence. Just as she was about to step on the man¡¯s torso, one of her subordinates returned from the airlock, interrupting her move as she listened to their report. The captain stared straight at the sensors and brightened up as the readings changed. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we¡¯re close enough for boarding action!¡± Having heard his words, Nightingale finally stepped off from the poor crew member and moved to organize her men. Once she was done, she leisurely watched her men set off to board the ship as she stayed back with her guards. She nodded contently when she saw her men sessfully gain ess to the interior of the ship. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. If only we could get ahold of explosives or a gunship to simply destroy them, this would have been much easier. Damn those spacer corps and their strict regtions. It¡¯s not like we would bring them onto any of their stations. She then turned her gaze back toward the captain of the mining hauler and his crew members. They had outlived their usefulness and were only liabilities now. As she contemted which method would be the best to erase them, one of her men¡¯s voices rang out through theirms. ¡°Watch out! They can see through our stealth tech somehow! We¡¯re pinned down over here!¡± ¡°I told you idiots to watch out for their active scanners! What are you doing getting caught off guard?¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am¡­they haven¡¯t used any active scans yet! They must have some other way to find us!¡± ¡°Never mind that, concentrate on fighting conven¡ª!¡± Before she could finish her sentence, another voice rang out in their channel. ¡°We need backup! Marcus and Devy are both down! We¡¯re about to get wiped out soon!¡± The call for backup didn¡¯t end there. ¡°Ma¡¯am! A power armor emerged from the ship! We need your backup!¡± Nightingale directed her gaze to the optical sensor showing the hull of the enemy ship they were boarding. She watched as her men uselessly tried to fire upon the suit of armor in question, failing to leave a scratch on the opposing power armor. ¡°Jake, Rai, time to go.¡± They rushed over to one of the escape pods they had hastily repurposed as boarding pods and set course for the opposing ship where the battle was taking ce. The impact against the hull was anything but gentle, and they awkwardly exited the pod, carefully cing their feet on the hull of the enemy ship until they were maically affixed to it. The power armor they wore was never designed for space in mind, so their maneuverability was poor. Still, it would have been enough when taking on a G-ss corporation that shouldn¡¯t own any power armors at all. With gritted teeth, Nightingale ordered her two subordinates in the power armor to spread out and surround the lone enemy unit toy down a crossfire. The enemy shot a slow-firing rifle that had impressive pration toward them, but their armor was able to tank the few shots that did hit before they closed into their optimal range. The mini-guns on their power armor began to spin, spewing outrge caliber rounds. With them surrounded, it should just take a minute or so until we breach their armor! As the three-on-one yed out exactly how Nightingale had imagined it, she couldn¡¯t help but smirk. However, it didn¡¯tst long, as one of her allies suddenly screamed into theirmunication channel. ¡°It hurts!!! Help me stop the ble¡ª¡± Nightingale quickly turned to find her subordinate had been bisected, with his upper body floating away in a different direction from his arm. The lower half was still maically attached to the hull, with a trail of blood spewing out of it. It took her a full second to react. ¡°Unleash all the paint cans at once! There¡¯s something in stealth around us!¡± At hermand, herst remaining subordinate unleashed the paint canisters all around them. The entire hull was repainted with a ssh of different colors. They were properly equipped to fight the up-anding corporation that was known to have impressive stealth tech, so they had these paint canisters prepared as ast resort when their sensors had failed. Nightingale observed her surroundings as they continued to fire upon the lone power armor in sight. The paint had spread as far as it could, but she still couldn¡¯t catch sight of the invisible lurker. Just as she was wondering if they had retreated back inside the ship, she caught sight of the moment when herst remaining ally got abruptly decapitated. How? Where did theye from? There¡¯s no way they could counter a foolproof method like our paint canisters¡­
I watched as thest opposing power armor refused to give up and released another cloud of paint throughout the surroundings again. Our exchange of gunfire pushed aside some of it, but the paint cloud reached quite arge radius around the enemy. Still, it wasn¡¯t able to reach where Thorne was, though. The enemy was fighting in 2D while Thorne was fighting in 3D. I looked up at the outline of his power floating around as it prepared to once again charge down to skewer thest foe. The customized jetpack worked surprisingly well despite theck of testing I had done. Whoever we were fighting didn¡¯t seem experienced in fighting in space at all, as they all sumbed to our superior mobility and stealth. With the three power armors defeated, it only took me a short time to wipe out the remaining remnants. It was just too difficult to fight against power armors without heavy weaponry. The only way they had a chance was to use vibro des up close, but that wasn¡¯t very viable when we had adequate mobility and the ability to turn invisible. Once we cleaned out the enemies on the exterior of our ship, we moved to hunt down any remnants of the enemy throughout the ship. I also noticed the enemy ship a distance away, but it just floated around without any movement, and it wasn¡¯t the time to investigate it. We had no idea how many more enemies were on it, and our current priority was to safely get away. Not long after we secured our ride, it began to elerate and the distance from the mining ship grewrger andrger. Seeing how our job wasplete, Thorne and I proceeded back to the cockpit. The door was still sealed shut as our men continued to show up. We were forced to wait outside, and several minutes went by with the doors still shut, with no signs of it opening. Thorne got impatient and began knocking on it. To my surprise, it worked. He immediately rushed in. ¡°What took you so long? Did you fall asleep in here?¡± Priya ignored his teasing and continued to flip several switches before focusing on the terminal before her. ¡°We have a serious problem. Whoever boarded us didn¡¯t forget to damage what they could before they were eliminated. Our fuel tanks have been leaking this entire time, and I¡¯m not sure how much we have left. I already readjusted our heading, but we have no idea what speeds we can safely travel.¡± ¡°Is that a huge problem? I mean, can¡¯t we just elerate as much as we need and cruise until we reach our destination?¡± I asked. She stared straight at me for what felt like an eternity before replying. ¡°...We can, but without knowing how much fuel we have left, we may not have enough to decelerate. So we mighte crashing into our destination with no way to stop if that¡¯s okay with you.¡± ¡°Okay¡­maybe not... Got any professional ideas for us instead?¡± ¡°Call for help and wait.¡± ¡°And how long will that take?¡± ¡°About half a day.¡± ¡°...I have a very important meeting in¡­an hour and a half. Let¡¯s see if we can physically check how much fuel is left before we make our decision.¡± ¡°The sensors are busted¡­And we have to fix the leakage first.¡± ¡°...Let¡¯s get to it, then.¡± Chapter 114: Ferrumus Station Chapter 114: Ferrumus Station It took us a while toplete our makeshift repairs to the fuel leakage, as we weren¡¯t properly trained technicians, especially not under microgravity conditions. The one good thing that we had going was that we were able to measure the levels of remaining fuel quickly after we got the repairs done. We did so by simply sending a Nye in to measure the fuel tank, saving us valuable time. ¡°So there¡¯s good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?¡± Priya, our pilot, asked once she got a look at our updated fuel tank. ¡°Whatever, just clearlyy it all out for us.¡± She scoffed at my reply. ¡°I always wanted to try saying that. Thanks for not ying along.¡± I shrugged, and she let out a sigh before continuing. ¡°Our remaining fuel isn¡¯t enough to correct our trajectory and slow us down for arrival. Not with your timeframe. If you want to make it on time, we would like to shave some mass off this ship.¡± ¡°...And I¡¯m guessing that will make the trip dangerous?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ve done it before. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard.¡±¡°Then go ahead and do it.¡± ¡°You know the rentalpany is not going to like it, right? You¡¯ll be paying some serious fines. Probably enough to cover for a new ship.¡± I paused at her words. I didn¡¯t need a connection to the web to figure out that a spaceship did note cheap. It should be several million, at the very least. I had to weigh that against being on time for my meeting with Ferrumus Corp. How drastically would beingte affect my negotiations? They can be understanding since we got attacked, right? On the other end of the spectrum, it would be pretty dumb if our alliance was wiped out because I tried to save a few million, so it was probably better not to take any chances. Wait, our alliance¡­I¡¯ll just have them foot the billter. Having resolved how I would handle the financial aspect of this trip, I turned back to Priya and gave her the go-ahead to start dismantling the ship.
After following our captain¡¯s instructions for dismantling the non-vitalponents of the ship, we finally approached Ferrumus Corporation¡¯s space station. It was their Earth branch headquarters, so it wasn¡¯t surprising to see it had a small fleet protecting it, along with numerous defensive emcements. Our ship pathetically limped into range and immediately received a transmission from their traffic control. ¡°Halt, you are not permitted to get any closer until you state your business.¡± A voice rang out from the speakers in the cockpit. I sent over the credentials Bi Sun had given me to Priya, who in turn, sent it over to their traffic control. ¡°We have a scheduled meeting at your station, transferring credentials now.¡± The guard at the other end of the call then asked us to connect to a video call to answer some questions. He seemed suspicious of us, and I couldn¡¯t me them, considering the state of our ship. We were even worried about the life support systems notsting until his questioning finished. Once he finally believed us and granted us ess to the dock, I left the cockpit to prepare fornding, as Priya hashed out the docking details. The airlock soon opened, and we exited the half-wrecked ship. We walked through a long corridor with see-through windows, allowing us to view the darkness of space around us and the station we were approaching. It wasn¡¯t nearly as massive as Aegis that was perched up on the space elevator, but it was still impressive, considering the ce was owned and operated entirely by one corporation. When will we have something simr? Waiting for us at the other end of the corridor was an entourage of security officers. ¡°Mr. Halls, we¡¯ve been expecting you. Please leave your power armor here, as they aren¡¯t allowed further in ording to your security protocols,¡± thenky security officer said. He had the same strange hairstyle as Bi Sun, where his head was mostly barren except for the few strands of hair that went all the way down to his waist. This can¡¯t be a trend within Ferrumus Corp, is it? Iplied and had Brian stow our power armor away back on the ship while the rest of us continued onwards. Thenky man with the strange hairstyle then became our guide. He led us through what appeared to be a training area, where several guards were practicing their sword swings. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°My name is Kai. Please don¡¯t hesitate to ask me any questions while you¡¯re here.¡± He said as he busied himself with a terminal beside a set of armored doors. A short momentter, the door opened, and he gestured for us to go further in. I took another look at the guards¡¯ training with swords of all things instead of firearms. I expected these powerful corporations would make use of more advanced weaponry instead of going backward. As I passed by Kai, my eyes were drawn over to the sword on his hip and I instantly recognized it contained sophisticated technologies rather than being a simple de. ¡°Is there a reason why you¡¯re all using swords instead of guns?¡± He smiled as if he expected this question. ¡°We also do employ range weaponry, like guns. It¡¯s just that swords happen to be what ourpany specializes in. I can¡¯t say much more, but trust that they are very effective inbat.¡± It wasn¡¯t long before he led us through another set of armored doors and an expansive scenery came into view. We were just navigating through indoor corridors a moment ago, but we suddenly entered into a spacious area like Aegis. The ceiling was high above, allowing room for tall buildings to be erected. Though there were no blue skies, and we were able to see the cold metal walls around the area. It was like a small campuspared to a proper city like Aegis, as it only epassed several buildings. ¡°Your scheduled meeting is starting soon, so we won¡¯t be taking any detours, but I¡¯d be happy to take you around onceter.¡± Our guide smiled as he watched us take in the scenery of their base. He then took us toward the central building in the area, a building that had no roofs as it connected directly with the ceiling. As soon as we entered the building, the first thing we saw was a gigantic cherry blossom tree inside a small garden. It was encased in ss in the middle of the building. We could look up through the window to see the hallways of different floors, which all simrly had a clear view of the tree from different angles. Kai urged us forth into an elevator, and we soon arrived at our destination on the fifth floor. ncing onest time at the cherry blossom tree at the center of the building below us, we opened the door to the meeting room. We were the first to arrive, so I took a seat while Kai swiftly served us tea as we sat down. He then retreated to a corner of the room, where he stood stoically. My guards, including Thorne, all stood behind me, across from Kai. Kai stared straight ahead at my guards, but we didn¡¯t have time to feel awkward about it as the doors to the meeting room opened. Three people walked in, an old woman and two men following behind her. I instantly recognized one of the men as Bi Sun, the vice president of this branch¡¯s office. They took a seat across from us and thedy was the first one to open her mouth. ¡°I am Emma Fuda, the president of the Aegis branch, Ferrumus Corporation.¡± Bi Sun introduced himself next, followed by a man named Jo Tobi, who was another vice president of this branch office. ¡°I¡¯m Rollo Halls. Thank you for meeting with me today. I wanted to speak to you about¡ª¡± The olddy held up a hand. ¡°Bi Sun and our intel department have already brought me up to date. Please tell us why we should act on this matter regarding your alliance and your adversaries.¡± ¡°You should already know that Virtue Corp is involved, and they want to make headways in the food market.¡± ¡°Yes, but it isn¡¯t much of a priority for us. It¡¯s not like they¡¯re entirely monopolizing all food trades from Earth.¡± The old woman continued in a kind tone like a grandmother¡¯s, but she had a predatory glint in her eyes. I reined myself in from taking a deep breath as I recalled the key points we had prepared. ¡°I understand your corporations are busy recovering from war. I believe helping us is in your best interest in that regard.¡± ¡°Please do exin.¡± She said with a smile. ¡°Our West Coast Agroindustry Alliance is willing to offer you generous discounts, so you may focus your efforts on different areas of reconstruction. You would no longer need to direct as much attention to your hydroponics, and at the same time, thwart Virtue Corp from a smooth recovery.¡± I said as I sent a file with theprehensive list of discounts we were ready to give them. The prices barely covered our costs, so we were basically working for free for them. We were practically dering ourselves their vassals. ¡°I see, we can make Virtue Corp redirect their resources on their own hydroponics while we save ourselves the trouble. Still, I do not believe this is worth us taking action.¡± I forcefully stopped myself from sighing. We were offering ourselves, and they were reluctant to take it. The feeling it gave me was definitely unpleasant, but it wasn¡¯t something we hadn¡¯t expected. ¡°There is no need for you to take action.¡± I took a sip from my cup while carefully observing their reaction. ¡°What we want is for you to simply exert pressure on Virtue Corp to prevent them from getting too involved in our battle. We will take care of the rest ourselves.¡± The old woman blinked nkly before exchanging nces with her peers. ¡°...If that is all you ask of us, then that is amenable.¡± I stood up and went to shake their hands before they reneged on their agreement. ¡°Still, it wouldn¡¯t do for us to do nothing at all. Allow us to cover the repairs to your ship. We won¡¯t be able to fully restore it, but we can make sure it¡¯s safe and functional by tomorrow. In the meantime, feel free to stay the night.¡± Was that too easy? Or is this expected since we are handing them free stuff for barely any work? The leaders of this base quickly left after that and we were led to a different building where they assigned us guest rooms. The new building appeared almost identical to the main one I was just in, with another cherry blossom tree on disy in the middle of the building. The only difference was the size of the tree, which was slightly smaller. When I entered my room, I immediately made use of the connection on this base to contact Joey to report on our sess. ¡°Excellent! Wonderfully done, Rollo! Now we just need to counter-attack and beat down the High Gate Group.¡± ¡°...Do we even have the forces to win convincingly?¡± I muttered. ¡°Not immediately, but the fact that a powerful corporation won¡¯t be breathing down our necks allows us to restore our strategic depth. We can discount them suddenly having reinforcements or using high technology that we were so afraid of. This fight won¡¯t end immediately, but the end is now within sight.¡± I exchanged some more information with Joey before I ended the call and contacted ire to see how they were doing. My call just rang when a deafening explosion rocked the entire building I was in. The rm began to re out and the PA system came online. ¡°All hands to battle stations. Enemy ships have suddenly appeared within range of the station. All other personnel are to stay in their rooms until further notice.¡± The message began to loop as my guards charged into my room. ¡°Calm down. Let¡¯s wait and see first.¡± Chapter 115: Slice and Dice Chapter 115: Slice and Dice As the rms rang throughout Ferrumus Corp¡¯spound, our team sat back and watched. Our Nyes acted as our eyes as they allowed us to see what was going on around us. The design of the building also helped with the clear transparent windows all around the center of the building. We were easily able to look down into the hallways of the other floors below. Guards and automated defenses scrambled around. Thetter were in much greater numbers, with various battle bots on the loose, while the asional patrols were much fewer in numbers. Still, each and every single guardsman appeared to be a treasure trove of high-tech cybeics, so their threat couldn¡¯t be measured by their numbers alone. On the other hand, the robots seemed much more disposable with their lightweight appearance. They were fast, zipping by like a silver sh, but I suspect they were more meant to bog down their foes. It didn¡¯t take long before we began hearing the sounds of fighting and it rapidly grew louder. We turned our attention to the source and spotted snippets of the fighting outside. It was in front of the adjacent building where the main Ferrumus Corp building was. Several ck hooded figures withrge frames moved with unnatural precision, shooting down a swarm of gun drones with what appeared to be mini-guns attached to the hands of several members of the hooded intruders. Each shot that was fired had the same stopping power as a typical railgun round. The drones were able to buy enough time for the nearby guards to assemble with ease, but it wasn¡¯t able to change the oue of the fight. The hooded group appeared invincible, as they barely flinched when they were hit while the guards from Ferrumus were mowed down with ease. While it took a few minutes at best, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much ammo was stored in those mini-guns as they fired nonstop. It quickly changed the scenery outside. A mountain of bots and drones littered the ground, asionally mixed in with the bodies of the guards. The invaders soon breached the building to continue their attack. Just as they disappeared from sight, an explosion suddenly rocked our building. I quickly flipped over the feeds our Nyes afforded me and found another team of hooded invaders entering our building.¡°Let¡¯s stay low. We¡¯re not here to pick a fight.¡± I said to my team. Seeing they all nodded in affirmation, I brought my attention back to the attackers, who were overwhelming all the defenses, along with the bots and guards who went to meet them in the lobby. Powerful railgun rounds sailed back and forth across the entrance, and the assants soon proved victorious in our battlefield as well. I watched as the hooded figures entered the stairway and emerged on the next floor above. They proceeded to briefly clear each room they came across as if they were looking for something. ¡°We¡¯ll sneak past them when theye to our floor. There¡¯s no need for us to get involved.¡± I dered. When they were about to arrive on our floor, we all quickly turned on our camouge with our Shades and went out of our room toward one of the stairwells. The door to the stairs mmed open as the hooded figures arrived. We all waited for them to pass through before escaping behind them. Just as we were about to enter the stairwell, several Ferrumus Corp battle drones rushed out from the other side of our floor. They immediately opened fire, and projectiles whizzed across the hallway. It was inevitable that several bullets had struck Brian, who was taking up our rear. He grunted and fell face forward, with the damage momentarily dispelling his active camouge. That,bined with the noise he made, was all that the hooded intruders needed to be alerted to our presence. When I turned back, the enemy had made short work of the drones and a few were staring in our direction. Their red eyes shed brightly as we made eye contact, and I instantly realized it wouldn¡¯t be easy fighting these cyborgs. They were likely from a rival corp that wasparable to Ferrumus, and that meant they were decked out in all the high-tech equipment that a powerful A-ss corp could offer. Just as they pointed their weapons toward us, a bright sh of silvery light dazzled our eyes, and half of them were instantly sliced up into small pieces. It took a moment before everyone realized what had happened and connected the dots as we all looked over at the lone man standing over the bodies. He had a sword sheathed at his waist with a hand on the hilt. He red at the remaining hooded figures with undisguised bloodlust. I would agree it was an intimidating sight if it weren¡¯t for theical hairstyle the man had. It was just a few strands of long hair that was a popr hairstyle in Ferrumus Corp, for some reason. Wait¡­That¡¯s our guide, Kai! The hooded men asked no questions and immediately fired at the neer. His lithe figure wasn¡¯t only for show, as he swiftly maneuvered himself through the hail of bullets at a speed that made it hard to even keep track of the blur that he was. I couldn¡¯t tell for sure, but I believed he even deflected some bullets while moving at such high speeds. He closed the gap and shed down an enemy in one swift motion, but what was more impressive was his hair. To my surprise, they weren¡¯t simply hair as they came alive and twirled around on their own, slicing apart any nearby foe as Kai went by. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. In a blink of an eye, all the hooded men were in except one. Thest survivor decided to engage him in closebat instead and brought out a vibro sword. Kai seemed to not care whatsoever, drawing his de to meet the man¡¯s. What the results were wasn¡¯t a surprise, but Kai¡¯s weapons were a different story. Ferrumus Corp was a major producer of vibro des, and that meant it was reasonable that they kept the best toys for themselves. Kai¡¯s sword shone with a dull white light the moment it was drawn. When his de made contact with the vibro sword of his foe, the vibro de parted with no resistance, as if it were just a toy. Only the sound of heavy metal hitting the ground confirmed it was made of real metal. My eyes widened at the sight. Vibro des held up exceptionally well against simr weapons and were known for their durability. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be so popr. ¡°Thatnky cyborg is so fast! It seems our guide wasn¡¯t as simple as he looked.¡± Thorne stated. ¡°That is the strength of specialization. Ferrumus Corp has heavily invested in maximizing the effectiveness of using a sword. It is even at the point of being able to match conventional weapons in enclosed spaces with all their augments.¡± I replied. It wasn¡¯t hard to tell that Kai was a crystallization of various high technologies, all aiming to make him a deadly sword master. He zipped by the team of hooded figures, shing into them with his unblockable de. As Andrew saw to Brian¡¯s injuries, Kai sheathed his de and slowly walked towards me. ¡°Apologizes for the mess. We will have cleaned up in a few minutes.¡± He said in a casual tone, as if it was just a small matter. ¡°Please follow me to some proper amodations that are free from these pests.¡± I nced back and found Brian doing fine as his armor blocked the round, then nodded and followed Kai. He brought us up to another floor and left us in a room identical to our previous one. Fighting could still be heard every so often, but nothing reached us after that. By nighttime, everyone quieted and we could see many of their employees outside.
The next day soon came, and Ferrumus Corp seemed to havepletely forgotten about the attack, so we quickly departed back to our ship while we still had the chance. I wasn¡¯t willing to stay to find out if it wasposure or just howmon attacks were around here that desensitized them to it. Priya had luckily spent the night on our ship, watching over the repairs. When we arrived at the docks, a proper spaceship greeted us. All marks of our makeshift repairs were gone, and the hull looked pristine. It looked different from what it did originally, but it at least gave me the confidence to ride on it. ¡°Is the performance back to its former peak?¡± I asked, as I saw Priya standing near the entrance to the ship. ¡°No way. It¡¯s only been a night. We¡¯ll need at least another half a day to fully repair it. Expect to pay some fines to the rentalpany.¡± Still¡­Repairing an entire ship in a day or two¡­That¡¯s way too fast. We soon boarded the ship and departed from Ferrumus station. My job wasplete, and I had already notified Joey of it, too. I could now return and join the fight against the High Gate group. A part of me wanted to linger around Aegis or another space station. I could use the excuse of evading my assassins while I adventured around, but that wasn¡¯t something I could actually do when mypany was in danger. ¡°What are you thinking about while you stare out into space like that?¡± I turned to find Thorne floating behind me. He handed me a drink packet as he came up beside me. ¡°Nothing much, just about our next steps.¡± ¡°Hmm, I see. Well, the pilot girl said we¡¯ll be arriving at Aegis soon, so you don¡¯t have much time left.¡± ¡°Did you arrange for our tickets back to Elevate City yet?¡± ¡°Yeah, the earliest they had was the day after tomorrow, in the afternoon, so we¡¯ll have to spend two nights in Aegis. I booked the same hotel asst time. Is that okay?¡± I nodded. ¡±Let¡¯s try to spend our time productively while we¡¯re stuck up here, then.¡± ¡°And how do we do that? Last I heard, the High Gate Group doesn¡¯t have any permanent presence up here.¡± ¡°...How about shopping around to prepare ourselves for the fight toe?¡± He shrugged and we both silently watched the space elevator growrger from the frontal cameras. The moment we docked, I received a call from the rentalpany. At their insistence, I went to meet them at their office before the day was over. ¡°Mr.Halls, we have finished inspecting our ship and would like to discuss with you the fee you still owe us after deducting your deposit. Here is the full list of repairs.¡± I quickly forwarded the file he sent to Priya to get her opinion. ¡°...Your repair n reces a lot of functional parts. Surely, you don¡¯t have to have the exact same type of hull ting and color.¡± ¡°As our contract states, we expect to have our vehicle returned to us in the same condition before it left our hands. Please¡ª¡± I held up a hand to him. ¡°Very well. If we¡¯re going ording to the contract, then we haven¡¯t returned the ship to you yet. We still have some time before the appointed time.¡± ¡°...¡± It wasn¡¯t difficult to find out from the repair list he sent me that they contracted the repairs to themselves. The costs were something they set, and I could shop around for a better deal before the time was up. I still had the ship for five days, so I¡¯d rather take my chances at finding a good deal. I ignored their hastily put-together ¡®discounted repair rates¡¯ and brought my team to go shopping instead. It wasn¡¯t a bad time to gear them all up in anticipation of the uing fight. The elites that followed me deserved better equipment, and I wanted to search for anything that could benefit our fighting forces. We soon arrived at the biggest mall in Aegis, called The Central. Various corporation names were stered out in front of the building, which looked like a pyramid flipped upside down. I didn¡¯t bother thinking about how it bnced or supported all that weight and entered the building from the ground floor, where several elevators were arranged in a circle. I picked the floor for cybeics and quickly arrived at a bustling floor that was filled with people. They didn¡¯t seem like the typical corpo in suits, as they were buff, likely from the security departments. We could see the entire floor upon exiting the elevator, with all the different brands segregated into their own area. At the center, a spacious clearing that was easily ten times the size of all the other areas was set aside for one corporation alone. Everyone could immediately tell from thepany logo that was stered around that it belonged to SocialCorp. My eyes zoomed in out of curiosity to check out their wares up here and my interest was instantly piqued. Chapter 116: Pit Stop Chapter 116: Pit Stop My optics zoomed in to the center of the entire floor that sold cybeics, towards the area where products from SocialCorp were sold. It was a surprise to see them here, as I thought they didn¡¯t sell any cybeics whatsoever, but a quick look at their area solved the mystery. Their spacious area sold only one type of product, and it was immensely popr. Their area, which was ten timesrger than the others, had various cassettes on disy. They were an integral part of the sleep learning function on various SAID models that SocialCorp monopolized. As I got closer to their booth, I could clearly read thebels on the various cassettes on disy that showcased the various knowledge contained within them. Each cassette was also a testimony to therge amount of human experiments that went on to create them. It was one of the major challenges I faced when trying to replicate them, and one I hoped to solve with more upgrade points in cybeics, along with the help of an AI overseeing the experiments. Still, it didn¡¯t hurt to continue studying the finished products SocialCorp had made, which was why I beelined to their area. ¡°Sir, how may we help you?¡± One of the salespeople immediately greeted me with a bright smile. ¡°Are all the models here for sale?¡± ¡°Yes sir. Whatever we have on disy is avable. Only the more specialized selections require a certain membership level to purchase.¡± He quickly held up a tablet to me that contained arge list for me to go over. I leisurely browsed through them, which only grew my urge to buy them all. The only thing stopping me was the price tag that began at seven digits. I held myself back and forced myself to buy only one.¡°Thorne, get me away from this area,¡± I said as I put away my new purchase. He smirked and took that as permission to drag me out of there. He headed straight for the integrated weapons and began browsing through the various limb recements. I quickly noticed he had a penchant for models with des, which wasn¡¯t surprising considering what we witnessed at Ferrumus Station. Too bad Ferrumus Corp kept their fancy weapons, that allowed them to cut through other vibro des like cheese, to themselves. While only cyborgs could effectively make use of them bybining them with various cybeics that boosted their speed and agility. I could see a lot of uses it could have if we attached it to a ranged delivery system. When Thorne finally finished browsing the various offerings from various brands, we naturally made our way to the sections that carried neural reflex enhancements. My employees were due for an upgrade. The ones with me today were all considered my elites, and it was only fitting for them to have elite equipment as well. Neural augments were one of the best ways to increasebat effectiveness as it drastically improves its user¡¯s reaction time. While all cyborgs, to some degree, had neural imnts already to help them manage all their systems, a truly specialized model forbat was on a whole different level. One of the main reasons I even kept up inbat nowadays was thanks to my own neural imnt, the SocialCorp Lightning II. I tried finding something better to rece it with, but there didn¡¯t seem to be anythingmercially avable. Many of them required consultation with the corp that made it, but that was a can of worms I didn¡¯t want to open. It was just too easy for them to slip in something malicious, so I had to add that to my long list of items to develop myself. If only I could clone myself¡­ Our cybeics shopping time was soon finished, only to be reced with weapons and armor shopping time. This time, I simply tagged along while I was in contact with Amos, the local QG. We exited the mall shaped like a reverse pyramid with a full haul. We had to drop by our hotel to offload it all before we could proceed to the new appointment I had just made. With our rental spacecraft having gone through a nirvana, we needed to find a reliable spaceship mechanic to turn it back to its original form, as requested by the rentalpany. It was a waste in my opinion, but I was set to pay for it either way because of the contract I signed. Well, my alliance would likely reimburse me for it, but it would leave me with a bitter feeling if I let the rentalpany get away with profiting even an extra credit extra after forcing me to turn their ship back to exactly how it was. We arrived in the industrial sector by the docks, where various warehouses were. There were asional apartment buildings with stores on the ground floor to service the workers around here, and our destination was at the end of the sector, where a rundown building at the edge was. At the front of the aged building was a closed garage gate. It was wide and could amodate two cars side by side. I found a terminal beside it and swiftly pressed it. I waited ten seconds, then fifteen, and twenty¡­ And nothing happened. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I went to ring the bell again, and this time, Thorne didn¡¯t even wait till ten before he stepped forward and spammed the button. ¡°Yes, yes! I¡¯m here. Who is it?¡± A young voice finally called out from the terminal. ¡°We¡¯re here on Amos¡¯ rmendation. He says you can help us repair our ship.¡± ¡°The old man? Tell him he still owes me for thest job I did for him. I won¡¯t do any jobs without seeing some credits first.¡± ¡°Yes, sure. As long as you can do a proper job.¡± ¡°Who do you think you¡¯re talking to? They call me the Ship Right because I always get the ships right.¡± The door buzzed, and it began to open. We walked in to find what appeared to be an old parking garage but with high ceilings inside. There were various broken-down spaceships scattered around. We heard a lot of activitying from the center, that was blocked off from view by the other wrecks in here. After walking under one of the derelict ships, we spotted a stocky man welding a te of metal onto the ship before him. His face was hidden behind the facemask that protected him from all the sparks. When we approached, he turned around to give us a brief look before continuing his work. ¡°...Is that going to take long?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, a good job takes time. And time is valuable, so hurry up and send over the files for the repair job you want done already.¡± I didn¡¯t argue and did as told while the man continued his work in silence. I gestured to the irritated Thorne and my security team to wait. A couple of minutester, he finally spoke up. ¡°I¡¯ll need to go see it in person to confirm, but you¡¯re lucky. It should be doable in three days, since I have the right parts in.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if I could believe his words, but three days allowed us to meet the deadline with some time to spare. Though, I¡¯d rather have this done before my return to Elevate City, so I don¡¯t have to leave anyone behind to finish handling this. ¡°Any chance of speeding that up to a day or so?¡± The stocky man pointed his blowtorch upward as he held both his hands up. ¡°Look at me. I¡¯m one man with two hands. There¡¯s a limit to how fast I can work. If you want to speed it up, thene help me yourself.¡± ¡°...¡±
¡°Hey, you! I said to mix this ting with 4.6% N76 steel, and 2% niobium. Why are you giving me this pure corpo stock shit?¡± The stocky man, whom I learned was called Grom, yelled out. We didn¡¯t have much to do before our scheduled departure, so I epted Grom¡¯s offer to help out with the repairs. I treated this as a learning opportunity for my eventual expansion into space. I already learned that spaceships were a lot more modr than they looked. Almost every part was interchangeable with others that were drastically different in appearance. The entire mess hall I was in previously was a modr part in itself. While I spent a lot of time in my workshop, so I knew my way around the materials, I kept being yelled at by Grom. He seemed to genuinely care about his work, so I couldn¡¯t even get angry at him. However, working with him is still a challenge as he tends to mix up materials and their ratios on the spot. Suboptimalbinations that I¡¯ve never heard of were made up on the spot. I always believed using the minimum amount of materials for maximum integrity while keeping it light was the right way to go, but everything Grom did went against that. ¡°Is there a reason forbining all these materials instead of just selecting a superior one that already exists?¡± ¡°You Earthsiders may not have noticed, but shipse in sizes that easily eclipse thergest aircraft carriers to ever exist down on the. Your fancy materials don¡¯t grow on trees. It¡¯s much better to use whatever is on hand or can be cheaply purchased. They repair better too if their users find themselves in a pickle when away from a proper dockyard.¡± I guess he is right in that repairs with specialty materials are much harder because they each differ in how they must be handled. ¡°Stopzing around and get me those capacitors! And you boys! Hurry up and bring the next ting over!¡± Thorne and Andrew¡¯s team weren¡¯t suited for the delicate tasks, so they were reduced to manualbor. They worked alongside the automated bots that performed the same task and it was franklyical how they tried to outdo aputer. Just as I was about to resume my work, an alert rang out in my ears. ¡®Multiple individuals fast approaching.¡¯ Kiri warned. I quickly sent a quick message to my team while I nced over at the garage door. The intermittent scans allowed me to see several highlighted targets approaching, and I began more detailed scans to verify their threat level. The Argus soon informed me they were poorly equipped, so unlikely corpos, allowing me to rx. The gates of the hangar banged out loudly before I picked up the voice of someone yelling. ¡°We know you¡¯re in there, Grom! Hurry up and pay your dues!¡± The person in question continued his work on the ship without a word, as if he didn¡¯t hear them at all. If I could see his face, I¡¯m sure it would be stiff and expressionless. Now that I thought about it, I¡¯ve never seen his face¡­He always wears the facemask no matter what¡­ ¡°Get out here, Grom!¡± the banging continued. I was a little curious, so I went ahead and poked Grom in the side. ¡°You have guests outside.¡± ¡°Screw off, I¡¯m not deaf! You better concentrate on your own work and get me thatpositeyer printed.¡± ¡°Suit yourself.¡± I shrugged and went back toward the 3D printer. Just as I resumed my work, a piercing noise rang out. It took me a second to recognize that noise as an industrial de cutting. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out that the guests outside had resorted to cutting open the gate when we could see sparks flying out. I sighed and returned to work as we each busied ourselves with our own tasks. It wasn¡¯t long before our guests finished theirs, and a piece of the gate came crashing down onto the ground. I watched as the outline of the half-a-dozen figures formed a single file line to enter. Just as thest of them came through, they all abruptly fell t on their face and suddenly got restrained. I turned when I heard a disturbing cracking noise when Thorne kicked one of them down. He must have been bored and frustrated that he¡¯d been reduced to aborer¡­Maybe I should start teaching him about crafting delicate circuitry as well. It¡¯ll be useful for him to perform repairs on himself. Chapter 117: Return Chapter 117: Return ¡°Hurry up and bring over thest piece over there,¡± Grom said as he continued to weld. I sat back on a chair in the mess hall of the ship as I watched Andrew and his team heft the piece of ting that would cover up all the internal wirings. From the outside, the ship appeared no different from the original model that we rented, but having been part of the repair crew, I knew there were many minute differences. I was sure the rentalpany would spot these discrepancies, and it was annoying that the rentalpany cared, even though its performance was up to par. Still, there shouldn¡¯t be much for them toin other than nitpicking. ¡°Call Priya. Let¡¯s perform some tests so we have something to back us up when the rentalpany startsining.¡± ¡°Quit your yapping. Testing your work is a critical step for any repairs. I don¡¯t need you to call anyone and I can take care of the tests myself.¡± Grom grumpily replied. I shrugged, and we all took a seat in the mess hall as we silently watched him work. He finished welding without any fanfare and wordlessly walked toward the cockpit. We quickly got up and followed after him. He sat down in the cockpit and got straight to it. The ship began to vibrate as it came online and before we knew it, we were floating in the hangar. ¡°Is flying in here safe?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask. We hovered above several other ships and the ceiling wasn¡¯t that high, so not that much room was avable for us to maneuver around in. That didn¡¯t stop Grom from continuing to pilot the ship, ignoring me entirely. We made our way toward one end of the hangar, where arge gate started opening as we approached. On the other side was a small room and an identical set of gates at the back that remained shut. We flew in and the gate closed behind us. An airlock. That means¡­ The second set of gates opened, revealing the darkness of space that was sprinkled with sparkling stars. As soon as the opening was wide enough for our ship to fit through, we instantly elerated rapidly. Several yelps could be heard behind me as some of my employees mmed against the wall. I raced toward the only other seat in the cockpit and when the others realized what I was doing, they all scrambled back into the ship in search of a seat before it was toote as well. I wasn¡¯t sure if they got into their seats in time because the eleration just now was only the beginning of what was toe.
After a long and strenuous talk with the rentalpany, we finally settled on a small fine. They were adamant about it because theposition of the ship was entirely different, while we argued the performance matched or exceeded the original ship we rented. We had signed a contract though, so I decided to settle for the small fine and be on our way back to Earth. A corporate war was still ongoing and anything could happen at any moment, which was why we wanted to return to begin our preparations. High Gate Group may still be banking on the support of Virtue Corp to win out this conflict, so they may be positioned to fight a battle of attrition while they stalled for time. That was why Joey had mentioned we would soon pool our forces for a big move, and hisck of a concrete n meant I could still influence how our alliance would y this out. I propped my leg up as the shuttle began its journey back down to Earth. I reviewed everything I¡¯d experienced up here in space and was slightly disappointed at the High Gate Group¡¯s weak response to my arrival. They had only sent the one-strike team, and that was it. No contingency n or anything. It had been a fruitful trip, but it also dyed my leveling as well. Status Level: 23 EXP: 2170/2300 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: Enhancements: This tale has been uwfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. 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 As long as nothing urgent came up, I nned to grind out thest bit of experience points I needed tonight, once we returned. ¡°Arriving at Elevate City. Please¡­¡± As the announcement on the shuttle sounded out, I looked up the window to get a good view of the familiar citying into view. I tried to spot the area where mypany was, but to no avail. The city was just too big and our building was just too small. I wonder how the expansion is going¡­ It shouldn¡¯t be much longer until it is done, considering the speeds at which the construction crews work around here. We safelynded and secured our luggage, which mostly consisted of our two power armors that were in storage mode. They blended perfectly with other suitcases. When we exited the spaceport, we were immediately greeted by arge convoy that all sported ourpany logo of a snow owl. One of the security officers who seemed to be in charge stepped forward and saluted, and we were quickly escorted back into the city proper. Having juste down from space, I couldn¡¯t help but look up the space elevator during our trip back. It only really hit me that we were back when we arrived in ourpany garage, where a small entourage awaited us. ¡°Wee back guys! Did you get me any souvenirs?¡± ire grinned our way. I exchanged nces with Thorne and we both began to panic, as we both didn¡¯t know how to respond. I knew I was forgetting something¡­ ¡°Umm¡­¡± I cleared my throat. ¡°That can wait. Let¡¯s go to the meeting room and get situated first.¡± ire¡¯s eyes narrowed at me before she slowly nodded. We swiftly made our way inside, and more familiar faces began to gather around the meeting room. ¡°Where¡¯s Lucy?¡± I asked after taking a look around the table and found our intel director missing. ¡°She¡¯s on an urgent field assignment. Our intel department is super short-handed, as they aren¡¯t equipped to handle something that epasses so many moving parts and involved corporations.¡± ire promptly responded. ¡°Okay¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve been keeping tabs on all the intel in her stead.¡± I nced around the room at Leo, Lana, and all the other members staying silent, so there really wasn¡¯t a choice in who to hear thetest updates from. ire took the silence as consent and began to speak. ¡°So nothing much has happened since you left. asional skirmishes mostly take ce in NNA.¡± That all sounded within expectation. While I had been gone, I was still receiving updates, albeit a bit dyed. The main thing I was looking for right now was the sensitive details that we had omitted from our transmissions. ¡°Oh wait, we did have someone attempt to attack us a few days ago¡­but that was so minor that it doesn¡¯t really matter. I don¡¯t believe they were even part of the High Gate Group. Our assets in NLA have been doing fine too, since the alliance sent us additional reinforcements.¡± They must¡¯ve been worried I would get targeted and sent additional forces to prevent me from getting ckmailed. There¡¯s no way corps would do anything out of the goodness of their hearts, after all. ire continued reciting over the unimportant tidbits of what had urred. During her rambling, I received a message from Joey and scheduled a meeting with the rest of the alliance forter tonight. It appeared they were in the middle of something or else they would¡¯ve had the meeting immediately. Once our internal meeting was adjourned, I immediately conveyed to Thorne my n to level up before the meeting. ¡°This is¡­not the most opportune time to do that, Rollo¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. I doubt High Gate Group has the leeway to target me when they didn¡¯t even know when I would be back. It¡¯d be safer to go out now thanter when they had the time to organize.¡± ¡°I¡­¡± He furrowed his brow before nodding. ¡°Fine. I may not understand why, but if you deem it important enough to go fight some harvesters right now, then I¡¯ll go along with it...¡± His trust made me feel a little guilty. While all the other strange times I went out to hunt harvesters for thest bit of experience points were justified, this time, there wasn¡¯t nearly as much urgency. It was just the fact that I had been so close for so long that urged me to do so while I had the time. I avoided Thorne¡¯s gaze and headed out into our unmarked vehicle. It hadn¡¯t been that long since I left, but those harvesters should have crept back like the cockroaches they were. It was just a hassle to find them. With that, I scrolled down to one of the oldest contacts I had, which was simplybeled ¡®QG¡¯, and ced a call through my SAID.
Lucy - Halls Corporation While Rollo was at Ferrumus Station The terminal before Lucy alerted her to thetest intel yet again. The cy-sec specialists who had been going through all the iing data from thepany¡¯s app had been keeping Lucy busy. It only took Lucy a few moments to skim through the new content, which involved some individuals suspected to be part of the High Gate Group¡¯s hit team. They were trying to gain passage up the space elevator into Aegis, not the first Lucy had to deal with this week. Setting the matter to be of high importance, she began skimming through her list of contacts to find someone to assign this task to. Away, busy, busy, recovering, busy, MIA, busy, busy¡­Is there no one left¡­? ¡°Hey, can one of you deal with this¡ª¡± Lucy yelled out to her peers in the office only to find no one responding. It wasn¡¯t that they were cking off, but the simple fact that she was the only one left at the office. The intelligence department she was in charge of had found themselves short-handed when the Halls Corporation found themselves in the middle of a corporate war. Unlike other roles, it took quite some time to hire and train intelligence operatives, especially ones that could be trusted. Finding herself alone, Lucy copsed back into her chair and let out a sigh. ¡°I want a vacation¡­¡± While she could simply send the information to the security team to deal with, she didn¡¯t trust their skills to covertly track down the right suspects. They were fine fighters, but hunting for malicious individuals who did not want to be found required a different set of skill set. That was why the modus operandi was to have an intelligence operative find and confirm they had the right targets first, and if they couldn¡¯t handle it, they would call in the muscle. Thoughts of putting off the task until someone else was avable crossed Lucy¡¯s mind, but she couldn¡¯t go through with it in the end. She thought back to her time as a mercenary and began to resolve herself to take the frontline once more. It should be fine... Chapter 118: Assault for Peace Chapter 118: Assault for Peace Lucy - Halls Corporation While Rollo was at Ferrumus Station Right in front of one of the bustling megabuildings in Elevate City, a woman wearing the uniform from Urban Crave, marking her as one of the many employees of the popr fast-food chain, exited from an alleyway and swiftly blended in with the crowd. She walked past the big screen ads, low-level corpos, and the less savory members of society who were frolicking around the front of the megabuilding. It was amon sight to see so many people with different values together, as they were forced to share living space due to their economic conditions. Everyone ignored the woman as her uniform instantly conveyed she was on a delivery, and there was nothing interesting about that at all. She confidently strode into the elevator where several men were menacinglyughing while waving their guns at each other in a yful manner. The people living here had established unspoken rules for living in harmony, which meant, for the most part, they wouldn¡¯t interfere with each other if they could help it. The doors of the elevator opened, and one of the men exited. ¡°See yater cos,¡± he said as he held up two pistols and pretended to shoot them alternatively at his friends while backing away. ¡°Fuck you, Jonas!¡±A loud gunshot abruptly rang out, making the delivery woman flinch. She jumped and turned to find one of the men remaining in the elevator with her had discharged his weapon to scare away his friend. ¡°Hey co, chill. It¡¯s crowded around here.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. I made sure to aim where there wasn¡¯t anyone.¡± Lucy watched the man who had exited the elevator holding his middle up to his acquaintances while the two on the elevator continued to bicker with each other as she waited for her floor. Much to her relief, her stop was next, and she promptly hopped off and left the unruly bunch behind her. The navigation app in her optics materialized a line for her to follow. It didn¡¯t take long before she found herself in front of a door of one of the residential units. She took a second topose herself before knocking. ¡°Hello, delivery from Urban Crave.¡± The sound of heavy footsteps grew closer before someone replied. ¡°We didn¡¯t order anything. Get lost.¡± ¡°...Sir, this is unit 3761 of the Bear megabuilding, correct? My order says this is the address, no mistakes. Would you like me to leave it outside your door?¡± ¡°...Hey you guys, anyone order food?¡± A muffled yell leaked through the door. More voices could be heard, but Lucy couldn¡¯t make out what the distant speakers were saying when the door suddenly opened. ¡°Come in and drop it off at the table over there.¡± Arge man with a ck cybeic hand pointed at the table several steps behind him. I faked the order and they¡¯re letting me in¡­ All her danger senses red out at full force within Lucy¡¯s head, as she only had a split second to decide how to proceed. ¡°Um¡­sorry sir. It¡¯s againstpany policy toe inside.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. I just wanted to grab a tip for you, soe in while I go fetch my wallet,¡± the man said while holding his door wide open and standing off to the side, gesturing Lucy in. ¡°I apologize, sir. I really can¡¯t. Thepany will fire me.¡± ¡°Come on, no one really cares. It¡¯s not like anyone is watching.¡± The two went back and forth for several more minutes, and the man seemed unrelenting. He began to get angry and grabbed Lucy by the arm. ¡°Just get in here!¡± The force of the cybeic hand wasn¡¯t something Lucy could ever contend with, and she was swept off her feet and dragged inside. The door was mmed shut behind her. ¡°Fes, tie her up in the back.¡± The man called out as he stepped into the living room. He threw Lucy down towards the living room before turning to the table on the side and picking up a half-eaten burrito. He took a bite and chewed several times, swallowed, and paused. ¡°Fes! You Listening? Anyone here?¡± He finally leaned into the living room to take a peek, only to find his ¡®fes¡¯ all lying on the ground, restrained, right next to the girl he had thrown down. ¡°What the fuck!¡± He turned to Lucy and lunged at her cor. ¡°Is this your¡ª¡± Something suddenly choked him from behind, cutting him off as he struggled for breath. The metal wire tightened around him and he quickly slumped to the ground. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we¡¯re having the nerds at cy-sec breach into their terminal, but we overheard them talking about their trip up to Aegis when we entered, so we¡¯re pretty sure we got the right people.¡± A voice called out from above where the unconscious man was. I¡¯m so d the invisible people are on my side now. In Lucy¡¯s vision, she could clearly make out the outline of the person there. She rubbed her wrist to lessen the pain from being gripped so tightly and narrowed her eyes at the man who was responsible. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Good work. Let¡¯s have them transported back ASAP.¡±
As I closed the door to my room behind me, I instantly opened my status menu and spent my newly earned points. Status Level: 24 EXP: 20/2400 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 The familiar rush of knowledge heightened the activity in my brain. It onlysted a split second, but it felt much longer than that due to all the new information being crammed in. As much as I wanted to open up my terminal to test out my new gains, I forced myself into bed. The rm then rang, as if I had set the timer to be only a minute, but several hours had passed. I swiftly finished morning preparations and donned a suit before heading to the meeting room. I barely had time to take a sip from my cup before the holographic projectors came online and joined the virtual meeting room. I could instantly see several familiar faces around the table. The majority of the people seemed weary, but had energetic eyes. Some chatted amongst their peers while others silently sat there like me. Several minutester, all the seats were filled, and the spotlight was centered around the bald man whom I had known for the longest among all the people present. ¡°Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join us today. I know the fighting hasn¡¯t been easy, but I¡¯m d you have all been staying strong. As many of you may already know, our negotiation with Ferrumus Corporation has seeded. In exchange for charging them our production costs for our products and services, they will keep Virtue in check. That means we won¡¯t have to worry about them directly intervening anymore.¡± He took a pregnant pause while directing his gaze at me. ¡°Today, we¡¯ll be discussing how tounch an alliance-wide counterattack so we may end this costly conflict at the earliest time possible.¡± While I one hundred percent agreed with the sentiment of ending the war, I was doubtful about how we would achieve it. Even without support from arge corp, the High Gate Group was every bit our alliance¡¯s equal. Completely destroying them didn¡¯t seem possible, but there may be ways to make them admit defeat and bring them to the negotiating table if we hurt them enough to want it. ¡°After considerable deliberation, I would like to present my n to you all. I believe it is the most efficient way to restore our peace, so we may go about creating profits once more.¡± Joey sent out a file to everyone in attendance, and I received one as well. He didn¡¯t give us the time to thoroughly read over it as he exined instead. ¡°My n is simple. We target the influential corporations within High Gate so that they may sue for peace with us. For that, I will need everyone here to make some sacrifices as we concentrate our forces to attack Quantum vors, GrainScape Tech, and High Grains Corp.¡± It wasn¡¯t hard to spot several faces grimacing at the mention of sacrifices. I had ess to many of the reports and many of our allies who are heavily invested in expensive facilities were taking the brunt of the damages. Their stationary farms and production facilities were too expansive to effectively move or defend. Mypany thankfully doesn¡¯t have many fixed assets in terms ofrge factoryplexes, so we weren¡¯t in the crosshairs. ¡°Mr. Moretti, this is a huge burden you ask of us. And who can say this really will result in peace talks?¡± ¡°I have done my research, Mr. Olopo. These three targets have considerable sway within each of their factions. If voices from threerge factions are all touting the same thing, it would be much harder for the other members of their group to go against the flow.¡± While several others continued to ask questions and state their points, I delved deeper into the documents and examined the concrete assault n. Joey had somehow gotten schematics for the expansion facilities each of the three corps had. Even the one that was practically a bunker in all but name. ¡°Everyone, I know you all have your doubts, so let me share one more piece of news that I hope you will all keep to yourselves.¡± He took a nce around, holding eye contact with each person briefly. ¡°I have a contact within High Gate Group who already wishes for peace like us. That is why I am so confident in the sess of my n. I can¡¯t give you the details, but I hope you all believe in me.¡± I could see many people around me muttering, but no sound reached my ears. They had all muted their mic as they fretted over the n. Thank god I¡¯m not the one having to take any risks. I¡¯d say I had done enough, so I¡¯ll be able to get away with just sending a small force to join the attack. Time was valuable for all parties involved, and a vote soon took ce. It wasn¡¯t even close as Joey¡¯s n went through with over 70% of the votes. ¡°Thank you everyone for believing in my n. Now we simply have to finalize the details of the forces we will be deploying. The targets of Quantum vors and GrainScape Tech are quite simple, as we can effectively assault them with superior numbers, but the attack on the High Grains Corporation requires special attention.¡± A 3D projection of the underground bunker base materialized above the table we all sat around. ¡°Due to the nature of this base, we won¡¯t be able to simply overwhelm it with numbers. We¡¯ll need to send in the elites of the elites.¡± Despite Joey saying we couldn¡¯t rely on numbers, we would be relying on overwhelming force from the quality of troops we would send. I wasn¡¯t too worried about it because I could easily foist the task on my employees. That was why I left them to discuss while I began to n out my research projects. With now ten points in software engineering, many possibilities opened up. I would first do a pass on all our existing systems used in ourpany and vehicles. What came next was up for debate. I could now even create my own AI given enough development time, even if I wasn¡¯t confident it would be the most advanced in the world. That meant I wouldn¡¯t create one right away and leave it to manage everything. It would be too easy for the other corps or another AI to notice the sudden change. Still, I could use it in more discreet ways, such as my private research projects. That way, I could evenplete experiment-heavy projects by offloading the tests to the AI. ¡°Rollo, did you hear me?¡± A voice suddenly woke up from my chain of thoughts. ¡°Sorry, what did you say?¡± ¡°Is it possible to have that cyborg bodyguard of yours lead the initial infiltration?¡± ¡°...¡± Chapter 119: Sewer Rats Chapter 119: Sewer Rats ¡°Is it possible to have that cyborg bodyguard of yours lead the initial infiltration?¡± I gazed over at the speaker, Joey. We stared at each other for only a second, but felt like minutes before he continued. ¡°He¡¯ll be a vital asset in the initial infiltration into High Grain Corp¡¯s underground base. None of our other agents have ess to stealth tech as developed as yourpany¡¯s.¡± ¡°So you want me to send a full team along with him as well?¡± He nodded. ¡°Correct.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ believe a small squad of three will be sufficient. More people would only increase the chances of being detected.¡± Joey took on a thinking pose for a moment before nodding. ¡°I will defer to your judgment.¡± I closed my eyes as I weighed the risks. As a small G-ss corporation, letting Thorne and my other employees take the lead in infiltrating a C-ss corporation¡¯s fortified base may seem like a fool¡¯s errand on paper, but I was confident my stealth tech was more than up to par for the task. Agreeing to it would also mean we would have the leverage to avoid sending troops to the frontal battles where casualties were almost guaranteed.I quickly corresponded with the person in question to rify. His replies came fast and without hesitation. ¡°Yes, yourpany can take a bigger share of the spoils if your men y a critical role. You also do not need to send any further troops to the other battlefields.¡± ¡°Then very well, I can send him along with a small team to open up the way for follow-up troops.¡± Joey smiled and nodded appreciatively toward me before he continued discussing the other facets of his n with the others in the alliance. Nothing else they discussed needed my attention, so I worked on all the paperwork I would have to do in the next few days while the meeting went on all the way until it ended. It was too bad not all my work could be done ahead of time, but I still appreciatedpleting the majority of my future tasks. It allowed me to spend more time in my workshop for the next while. With software engineering reaching plus ten, there was so much waiting for me to test and implement. I exited the meeting room and found Thorne and ire waiting for me. I quickly briefed them about what went on during the meeting. ¡°It¡¯s settled. I told them you¡¯ll be infiltrating that underground base. I¡¯ll send you what info we have right now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. As long as you promise to stay put in the base, I could use the exercise.¡± Thorne said, as he shrugged. I ced my hand on his shoulder and nodded. ¡°Yes, and if you¡¯re staying here, you better be doing your own paperwork.¡± ire said, ¡°Don¡¯t think I don¡¯t know you¡¯re nning to hole up in your workshop again.¡± ¡°...Yes, of course.¡± I then felt Thorne¡¯s hard, metallic hands firmly pat me on my other shoulder. Good thing I got a head start on it during the meeting already.
Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°I leave guarding Rollo to you.¡± The cyborg nodded toward the security guard wearing the uniform of the Halls Corporation. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll be fine without you. We won¡¯t be going into unfamiliar territory this time and will be staying at headquarters. Go on now.¡± Thorne gave onest look at the other guards behind Andrew before entering the gates of the airport. As his ne took flight, he found the trip excruciatingly long. Either Rollo or ire always apanied him on his trips, but they weren¡¯t here this time. Instead, he traveled with a team he hadn¡¯t spoken to much before. All he knew were their names, and that they were one of thetest batch of elites who would prove to be useful during their infiltration mission. Seeing how there wasn¡¯t anything else to do on the flight en route to the NNA continent, Thorne took the initiative and spoke to the neers beside him, who were all silently sitting still. ¡°You¡¯re Aiden, and you¡¯re Polrath, right?¡± Thorne said, as he nced over at the two young men frozen stiff in their seats. The one to his left, whom he had spoken to first, nodded with the glow still apparent in his eyes while the one on the right abruptly bowed ny degrees towards Thorne. ¡°That¡¯s right, sir! I am Polrath Dalem. I¡¯m good with explosives and I¡¯m at your service!¡± Thorne swiftly gestured for him to quiet down as he was creating a scene. The ne they took only had corpos aboard, and that made it worse as they cared about appearances. Still, he kind of liked the passionate young man as opposed to the one who gave him a cold shoulder. These cy-specialist geeks are always so bad with people! I just hope Leo hasn¡¯t wasted his time training him and he can get the job done. The Halls corporation had been expanded quickly, which included training new personnel. Not all positions could be directly hired, with many sensitive roles needing to be trained in-house. Cy-sec specialists usually fall into this sensitive category, especially the ones who were also trained to be field operatives. ¡°So, tell me about yourselves¡­quietly,¡± Thorne asked once the other passengers no longer paid them any attention. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the vition. In response, he received a data packet from Aiden, while Polrath leaned in and ¡®whispered¡¯ at a volume that was more akin to a normal speaking voice. Am I really taking someone who doesn¡¯t know what whispering means on an infiltration mission¡­? Passing the time over a conversation, the trio soon arrived at their destination.
Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°Remember to configure yourmunication devices. Otherwise, High Grain Corp will quickly notice your transmissions and sniff you out.¡± The old man warned. He wore a splendid military uniform with many badges on it, and the emblem on his chest betrayed his affiliation to a corporation instead of the military. He was one of themanding officers the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance had put in charge of the attack on the High Grain Corporation. ¡°We remember already. Can we start yet?¡± Thorne asked, slightly irritated as he had to listen to the old man, who kept repeating himself. ¡°Patience, child. The other two strike groups are still getting into position. It takes time to move so many troops, unlike us, with barely a hundred men. Anyway, are you sure you have all devices properly configured yet? It¡¯d be your head on the line if the enemy detects a signal from you.¡± ¡°...Yes!¡± After what felt like the hundredth time the oldmanding officer had repeated himself, Thorne finally got the go-ahead to begin the infiltration mission. He quickly jumped out of the car and made his way toward the sewer entrance. His two assistants followed close behind, each carrying arge backpack. ¡°Set your equipment to phase one. We¡¯re going to enter their detection range soon,¡± Thornemanded as soon as they caught up. ¡°It really stinks down here!¡± Polrathined. ¡°It is just a smell. Simply ignore it. You¡¯ll soon adapt to it. It is what humans are good at, after all,¡± Aiden quipped. The underground base their target was in was located under a section of the city¡¯s sewers. The narrow undergroundwork of passages made it difficult to attack and also acted as a buffer from all the signal pollution in the city. This allowed High Grains Corp to implement their expensive detection equipment that tracked the sources and receivers of every transmission within the range of their secret base. This meant Thorne and his team had to ensure they didn¡¯t give off a signal of any kind once they entered the sewers or risk detection. ¡°Polrath, do you want me to carry the stuff Authentic Corp sent?¡± ¡°No thank you, sir! I am more than fit enough to do so myself!¡± Thorne shrugged as he continued to lead the way through the maze-like sewers. He proceeded cautiously, mindful of any potential guards that patrolled the area. ¡°Schematics show this should be point A001,¡± Aiden muttered as they turned the corner. Thorne nodded as hepared the hallway to the maps himself and gestured for Polrath to get to work. The earnest man quickly sprang into action, pulling out several items from his bag and affixing them to the sections of the wall that Aiden pointed out. The trio then continued moving deeper in, stopping every few hundred meters where Polrath would repeat his task. After doing the same thing for twenty minutes, the end was finally in sight. ¡°This is thest one. I hope that stuff they gave us works.¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°I have gone over its manual and there shouldn¡¯t be any issues as long as Polrath configures it properly.¡± Aiden emotionlessly replied. ¡°Leave it to me, Aiden.¡± Thorne watched as his team members went through the familiar motions of cing the contents of their bags onto the walls. However, this time, they fished out additional devices that looked like several small teacups. They quickly attached themselves when pushed against the wall, and the team spread them out in a fashion that drew a wide rectangle. Once they were done, the two members nced over at their superior, who was focused on the timer disyed in his optics. Thorne waited patiently as the timer ticked, and when the digits representing the hour finally changed, he gave the signal for his men to proceed. Aiden immediately took out his handheld terminal and activated a program on it. The three men then quickly retreated from the area, hiding behind the curvature of the sewers. Several seconds passed by in silence before a bright light shed out from where they just were. Seeing the sh of bright light, the team returned to the spot where they nted the devices and found holes all over the wall. The charges they had nted worked as intended, drilling past the thick concrete walls. The most important part was the circr devices the alliance had given them that jammed and contained all the sounds, vibrations, and any heat generated. The devices were still attached to the wall, preventing the defender¡¯s security system from? detecting the breach in their base. ¡°Clear! Hold on to me. We¡¯re turning on active camouge from this point forward.¡± Thorne said to his two subordinates. They quickly nodded and did asmanded, activating their Shades once they ced a hand on Thorne¡¯s shoulder. They had disabled theirpany program that highlighted each other¡¯s position in fear of the signals being picked up. Thorne then gripped the wall by the holes they created, and pulled down the entire wall, gently cing it down. They immediately spotted an empty corridor with a dull metallic color, decorated with small lights on the ground every few feet to light the way. Thorne picked the path that went further into the base and cautiously preceded. They hadn¡¯t found the schematics of this ce, so they didn¡¯t have a detailed map or anything to go by, so he had to carry out the search himself. They were looking for any kind of strategic assets to sabotage before their main force attacked. The trio continued down the dreary hallway for several more minutes until Thorne suddenly signaled for them toe to a stop. He ryed his findings to his teammates by tapping on their shoulders using the signal they had developed. It didn¡¯t take long for him to inform them that his auditory imnt picked up several footstepsing toward them. A few momentster, the door at the end of the corridor slid open and two armed guards came striding toward them. They walked straight past Thorne and his team without noticing anything and turned the corner. The three men continued their infiltration mission, but even after ten minutes of searching around, they hadn¡¯t found anything critical to the base. The entire ce was just toorge and was like a maze, filled with useless rooms and empty corridors. The elevators aren¡¯t an option as they likely have weight sensors¡­ Another patrol passed by Thorne, as he was deep in thought when one of the patrolmen yawned. Thorne suddenly signaled to his two teammates to follow after the patrol and began moving without exining his n. They didn¡¯t follow the patrol for long before they led them to one of the breakrooms within the base. Thorne could make out the armory right next door and spotted a dozen security personnel in the vicinity. He went inside the breakroom and soon found a terminal at one end of the room that highlighted the patrol paths for this floor. Perfect! Just let me take a photo and... saved. The trio then quickly ced some charges at inconspicuous ces before exiting the room. They found an empty corridor nearby where they could rest their Shades and discuss their ns. ¡°Polrath, do you think you can cave in the armory door?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I should have enough for one doorway, yeah.¡± ¡°In that case, let¡¯s go requisition ourselves some more explosives.¡± ¡°...Sir, I hope you don¡¯t n on detonating too much while we¡¯re still here. I don¡¯t have enough information to know how much force this ce can withstand before it alles crumbling down.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. This ce is a bunker. It¡¯s designed to withstand a few explosions. It¡¯s not so easy to demolish this ce or else we could¡¯ve just shelled this ce and be done with it.¡± ¡°If you say so, sir¡­¡± Chapter 120: Explosive Assault Chapter 120: Explosive Assault Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°Have you guys seen Randolph and his team recently?¡± An armed guard asked his partner as he strode down the hallway within hispany¡¯s base. His partner breathed out heavily through his nose. ¡°They¡¯re probably gone. I heard the executives are furious about it and have a fight to pick with some upstart corporation.¡± ¡°...Damn, I didn¡¯t think he would get taken out so easily with his fancy power armor¡­Makes me feel uneasy when I don¡¯t even have that.¡± ¡°Oh, quit it! We all die someday, no point worrying about it.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right¡­Not sure why I feel all sentimental all of a sudden.¡± ¡°It¡¯s probably the fatigue getting to you. It¡¯s been almost twenty hours since you started your shift. Go put away your gear and get some rest already.¡± The patrolman nodded and made his way toward a heavily guarded door with two guards standing beside it. They waved as the patrolman approached.¡°You¡¯re finally off, Omar?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± The guards nodded and remained still as their colleague walked by them. The patrolman, Omar, quickly produced his security card and gained ess to the room with a quick tap. Inside were numerous munitions and weapons, all neatly kept. He quickly unloaded his equipment on the racks, keeping only his pistol on him, and left. Just as Omar was about to exit the room, he felt something touching his neck and mouth, and a powerful force abruptly pulled him back, choking him unconscious. His body gentlynded on the ground and several figures materialized into existence from thin air. Two men of medium build and one particrlyrge suit of armor exchanged nces as they inspected the armory. ¡°I still have the camera ess, but it won¡¯t be long before they notice if I keep it up.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s be quick, then. Polrath, throw anything usable into the bag. We¡¯re leaving in a minute.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± A minute went by in a blink of an eye, and the door to the armory soon opened. A lone man walked out, and the guards turned to him and gave him a nod. ¡°See youter, Omar.¡± The man wordlessly nodded and walked away. Once he turned the corner, the man suddenly vanished. Just like that, Thorne and his team continued to raid every armory they came across. They weren¡¯t able to build up an impressive stockpile because they would make use of everything as quickly as they received it. ¡°That should be thest one. Unless this High Grain Corp was crazier than I thought, they shouldn¡¯t have any more armories on this floor.¡± Thorne muttered. This floor already had more weapons and explosives than normal, as it was one of the uppermost levels. That meant it was closest to the surface where their men must pass through as they made their way to the surface, making it an ideal ce to store weapons for fast mobilization. ¡°Our allies are on standby tounch the surprise attack at our signal. Are you ready, Polrath?¡± ¡°Yes, sir! I still rmend we get a bit further away, but I¡¯m ready to carry out your orders always, sir!¡± ¡°We¡¯ve wasted enough time. Get ready to ambush the reinforcements that jump out from the stairwells!¡± Thorne then nodded toward his men and Polrath quickly sent the remotemand from his SAID to all the charges they had set so far. It would alert the enemy, but the explosions would also go off instantly. Multiple explosions rang out consecutively throughout the entire base, making everyone in the base feel as if firecrackers were set off. The difference was that it was much more powerful, with the entire ce rumbling at each explosion. Many people in the base were caught off guard and tumbled onto the ground as they failed to keep their bnce. Even for those who expected the explosion, the ground¡¯s shaking soon overwhelmed them. Thorne took a knee while his two teammates were t on the ground. Polrath had lost bnce, while Aiden had smartly taken a prone position of his own initiative. Unfortunately for them, the shaking didn¡¯t stop. The ground beneath them began to crack. The concrete began to split and Thorne could only watch everything slowly unfold with no power to do anything about it. The splitting exponentially intensified, and the ground below abruptly tore apart, swallowing Thorne and his team. The fall was short, as only one level gave out. Landing on his rear, Thorne quickly found himself in the middle of a changing room. Unlike the main characters of some stories he had read before, the changing room he had fallen into wasn¡¯t the one for the opposite sex. Instead, it was filled with half-naked men who all wore shocked expressions. With the power armor¡¯s protection, Thorne was the quickest to recollect himself. He didn¡¯t wait for his two subordinates to get up and instantly turned invisible once more. ¡°Those aren¡¯t friendlies! We have intrud¡ª¡± A man who only had a towel wrapped around his lower half was quickly interrupted as he suddenly spurted outrge amounts of blood. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The people in the room were already shell-shocked from the copse of their ceiling, and the bloody scene didn¡¯t do them any favors. Blood began to flow as various body parts were sent flying away from their owners. The few who were armed began firing randomly around the changing room, but they were swiftly neutralized as they were the priority target. By the time Aiden and Polrath regained their footing, the entire fight had already ended. They turned to find Thorne trying to pry a door open. ¡°Sorry, Polrath. I should¡¯ve listened to you and should¡¯ve gotten further away, but we¡¯ll need to focus on staying alive for now until our reinforcements arrive.¡± Thorne nced up at the hole above them. ¡°The Nyes show that the path upstairs is blocked, and this door here won¡¯t open. We¡¯ll have to hunker down.¡± The changing room they had fallen into didn¡¯t have much space, especially with the rubble taking up space around them. There were cameras around the room, so whoever was in the control room must¡¯ve spotted them and locked down the room. By the time Thorne and his team had taken out the cameras, it was toote. Thorne watched the feed directly in his optics of the Nyes doing a pass of the hallways outside. The Nyes showed groups of enemies were gathering outside the room, building a defensive position. ¡°They should¡¯ve seen us use our Shades from the cameras just now. They¡¯re probably guarding the door as they gather enough forces to storm us. Aiden, can you get control of the doors?¡± Thorne turned over to the man in question. He swiftly moved over to the door and kneeled beside it to plug into the wall terminal. ¡°...No, their cy-sec operatives are on full alert. They have too much processing power for me to go against head-on.¡± ¡°We¡¯re out of explosives as well, sir,¡± Polrath added. ¡°We¡¯ll have to do this the old-fashioned way, then.¡± Thorne then unsheathed his wrist de and sliced the lockers up. He then stacked them to use as cover before destroying the lights as well. While all corporate soldiers had optics to fight in low-light conditions, the darkness could still hinder their perception and target recognition. He ced his subordinates in defensive positions and he himself got ready by the entrance. They didn¡¯t have to wait long before the door suddenly clicked open without warning. They threw shbangs and concussive grenades inside before charging in, but the cover was able to protect the Halls corporation employees. The doors quickly closed behind the assault team, as a measure to prevent them from slipping away while invisible, and Thorne took that as the signal to begin. He dropped from the ceiling he was clinging to and plunged his wrist de into the guard at the very back. The vibrode got caught on something inside the guard, so he opted tosh out with a fist to take out the closest guard to his left, who was turning back toward him. The power armor¡¯s enhanced strength sent the man crashing into hisrades, giving Thorne the time to free his de. If only I had a de from Ferrumus Corp, it wouldn¡¯t have gotten caught by some cybeics so easily. Polrath and Aiden began firing their weapons too, adding to the chaos. Like a wolf locked inside a room with a flock of sheep, Thorne darted around and made short work of the remaining assault team. Let¡¯s hope that teaches them a lesson and they stop attacking¡­I don¡¯t know how long we canst if they keeping at us in waves¡­
Izily stretched my back as I stood up from my terminal for a break. I had been coding for hours on end, and it was really draining my stamina. Huge props to all those in IT who had to deal with daily overtime. How they manage that in my old world without cybeic optics is beyond me. I took the time to go over my messages and alerts and found nothing particrly urgent. There was one thing that was interesting, though, which was the attack on our adversaries from the High Gate Group had begun. The alliance had a live feed I could watch from their virtualmand center. I wonder how Thorne is doing¡­ Having remembered that my friend took part in the operation, I quickly ordered a milkshake before going to my meeting room and connected to the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance¡¯s server. The holographic projections around me sprang to life, but this time, they didn¡¯t depict a meeting room. I found myself at the back of themand center, where severalrge screens were disyed at the front, and smaller screens could be found all over the ce with live body cam footage from various personnel. The people here seemed to be hard at work, coordinating everything, so I discreetly walked around myself, searching for the screen showing footage of the attack on High Grains Corp. As the operation was of a smaller scalepared to the other two, I found a small section of the room cordoned off for this particr raid. The other screens had dozens of armored trucks and fancy flying vehicles, all marching toward various facilities. While the footage for the raid on High Grains Corp was all from the perspective of body cams, as only infantry was deployed there. I couldn¡¯t find any of my employees, but I was able to see the overall situation with all the perspectives I had ess to. I watched as teams of cyborgs rushed into the underground level of an office building, shooting down the defensive turrets before they could even react. They all must¡¯ve some decent reflex enhancements or they simply knew where all the defenses were beforehand. They quickly demolished everything that stood in their way until they made it down a hatch. The assault team was stunned for several seconds before they reported to themand center. ¡°...Command, this is Team Leopard, we¡¯re on the first floor of the High Grains Corporation¡¯s base and it¡¯s mostly¡­rubble.¡± ¡°Team Leopard, you are to proceed with the attack. Quickly find your way down before the defenders can organize themselves.¡± ¡°Copy that, over.¡± I watched the poor field agents making their way into the rubble. Every piece they moved aside had a chance of releasing more rubble onto themselves, but the cyborg trucked on unflinchingly. Luckily, they had the power of technology and their sensors told them exactly where they needed to go. It took some time with the rubble in the way, but the assault team soon found the stairwell that was still fully intact. They quickly charged down as the sound of gunfire reached their ears. The shots weren¡¯t directed at the assault team, though. The sound of fighting had already begun before the team arrived. It must be the vanguards¡­my employees¡­ What are you guys doing taking such a big risk? The security personnel on the other side of the body cams immediately rushed into action at the sound of fighting. From the way they moved, it was easy to tell that each and every single one of them was a veteran who was fully aware of how to make the best use of their cybeics. I watched them take the enemy by surprise with ease, pelting them with their heavy caliber rounds while remaining unharmed with their thick armor. When their rounds were blocked by the enemy cyborgs, they threw concussive grenades forward before I witnessed a member of the assault force turn into a blur as they closed the distance in an instant. They unsheathed a machete and cleanly cleaved through the enemy armored infantries. At the end of their short but deadly battle, numerous base defenders were in and the sound of fighting vanished. The team didn¡¯t waste any time and continued to move forward into one of the rooms. Immediately upon the door opening, they were forced to stop as the room was dark and bodies obstructed their way in, with a small pool of blood seeping out. I took a deep breath as the assault team cautiously scanned the room while remaining outside of it. ¡­Thorne? Chapter 121: Numbers Game Chapter 121: Numbers Game I watched through the assault team¡¯s body cam footage as they continued to inspect the dark and bloody room. Bodies were in their way, so they took a cautious approach. With the tension strained, they all flinched at the sight of movement, pointing their weapons at therge figure that suddenly appeared. The person had blood all over them, but I immediately recognized the uniform despite the mess. A familiar voice called out. ¡°Took you guys long enough.¡± I let out an internal sigh of relief when the camera footage showed all my employees were still alive. The assault team didn¡¯t linger, though. They all swiftly proceeded deeper into the base to continue their raid. The fighting didn¡¯t hold my interest, so I excused myself and exited from the virtualmand center. I returned to my workshop, where I opened up my terminal once again and got to work on my new project. It was exciting to think about, but the amount of coding I had been doing was excruciating. I waspletely absorbed in my work on the preliminary AI I was creating. I didn¡¯t want to create one until I was sure I could make it top of the line, but it didn¡¯t hurt getting a head start by creating the foundation. Once I leveled my software skills more, I would have to make another pass on it. However, it would be much quicker to upgrade than starting from scratchter when the timees. I only snapped out of my inspired state when my SAID alerted me to a priority matter that needed my attention. I read the message and quickly headed out to the meeting room.The holographic disys came online all around me and I found myself once again in the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance¡¯s meeting room. It wasn¡¯t hard to tell everything had been going well judging from the expressions of the others, but that didn¡¯t prevent me from looking up thetest news that I had missed while busying away in my workshop. The three assaults had all been sessful, with moderate casualties, and Thorne was on his way home. Our holdings on the NNA continent were much less than the other corporations in the alliance, and I trusted Vin to take good care of the defenses for the few assets we had. ¡°Everyone, our attacks have been sessful, and we have begun reaching out to our like-minded individuals from the High Gate Group who share our rational sentiment of wanting to put an end to this profitless battle. As nned, the three new bases we have taken control of will be our negotiating cards during negotiations. I would now like to hash out the terms and select our¡­¡± As Joey began to delve deeper into the economic and political considerations that we may go over during our peace talks, I set my auditory imnt on record while I went over other matters. Honestly, what they were discussing was too nd for me to focus on right now, especially when my mind was still honed in on the AI. As they continued, I went over thepany reports that had piled up while I was in my workshop. The one that drew my interest the most was the expansion of our properties. It was ted to bepleted within this week, which meant I had to make some time in my calendar to tour the new area and watch over the instation of the new defensive emcements throughout the premises. When the meeting finally finished, I was summoned to yet another one immediately after. ¡°Rollo, you need to look over the new reports about that matter you asked us to look into and make a decision before shutting yourself in again.¡± ire immediately threw down a terminal before me as soon as I entered the room. I swiftly skimmed over the spreadsheets on the terminal. ¡°We¡¯re doing pretty well. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a problem.¡± ¡°For now, maybe. But of course, the Argus is doing well when it is still new and all.¡± I looked over the numbers again with the sales cycle in mind. Referencing the other products on the market and our experiences with the Shade, I could estimate how the Argus will do. It had a much wider target audience, so it was a given that it was doing wellmercially. ¡°The transportation business is performing and steadily growing, too.¡± ¡°The ie from logistics is stable, but it isn¡¯t going to bring us a huge influx of money. It¡¯s just enough to fuel a chunk of our expansions and pay the expenses.¡± ire picked up the terminal before continuing. ¡°With how things are, it¡¯s risky to try to leapfrog into an E-ss corporation all of a sudden. Especially with this potentially bing a money sink.¡± She showed me the page for the financial performance of ourmunication app, EchoHalls. ¡°It has been doing well since its initialunch, but the one-time payment thing has started to burden its financial capabilities. With the frequent use of our existing user base and more and more users downloading it every day, the server costs are catching up to our profits. If we don¡¯t do anything, it may start losing us money instead.¡± ¡°...Right, we initially did it for your intel department, and not for money making, but it is an issue when it can¡¯t even pay for itself.¡± ¡°Look, your initial idea was great, and we have a healthy amount of users now, but unless you can break us into the Europa market and gain an influx of users, we¡¯ll need to change up how we mize the app.¡± As much as I wanted to keep it cheap, things sure look different when you¡¯re on the other end as the provider¡­At least as a former user, I know people will probably have to suck it up as long as the price increase isn¡¯t too outrageous as most people didn¡¯t like change. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s start charging a monthly fee¡ªno¡­.limit their daily usage unless they enroll in the monthly subscription ns.¡± If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Right, I had already discussed it with the finance guys. As my former project, I¡¯ll take care of it. Just needed your approval.¡± I stamped the virtual file with my seal of approval before ire sent me another file. ¡°Thanks. We can take our time with the promotion. We¡¯ll wait until this war is over, and our businesses are on track, at the very least.¡± I saved the documents pertaining to upgrading our consortium membership rank and set them aside. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°No. Remember to eat and don¡¯t go out until Thorne is back. Got it?¡± ¡°...Yes Mom.¡± She pouted and turned to the side, and I took the chance to leave the room. There was so much to do before the AI was even remotely close to being done. I also had to procure arge amount of hardware to support it, but I¡¯ll wait until I finalize the design of it first.
¡°Rollo, I just got back¡­Do we really have to go out tonight?¡± I turned back to the cyborg, who was halfway into his power armor. ¡°No time better than now. There¡¯s no reason not to when the fighting has stopped and we are in a state of a ceasefire while the peace talks are ongoing.¡± ¡°...And weren¡¯t you going to work on your own model of power armor? Is this really going to be okay with where we¡¯re going tonight?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. If it works in space, it should work anywhere else. The original parts were from models that were specialized in atmospheric conditions, anyway.¡± ¡°...¡± I finished getting into the power armor first, as Thorne hesitated. I didn¡¯t wait for him and immediately entered the car. Seeing him still taking his time, I lowered the window and stuck my head out. ¡°I don¡¯t mind going solo, you know?¡± With an exaggerated sigh, he sped up his movements while I rested in the seat and brought up my status screen. Status Level: 24 EXP: 20/2400 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 could feel him board the car as the entire vehicle slightly tilted to the side at the weight of the power armor. We then proceeded out of the garage and entered into the busy streets of Elevate City. Despite it being nighttime, numerous neon lights all shined brightly, resulting in the streets being as well-lit as it was during the daytime. We drove straight toward the edge of the city, following the tracker to where we could look out into the expansive darkness. The sound of waves was strangely alluring in the dead of night. We parked beside the docks and discreetly walked out. ¡°You do know we don¡¯t own any ships, right?¡± Thorne¡¯s voice rang out inside my helmet. ¡°We can just ¡®borrow¡¯ one for the night. Come on.¡± ¡°...¡± I activated my camo and went straight out onto the docks. This one in particr didn¡¯t have the greatest security, as there were only old boats that catered to the middle-ss folks. We boarded the first motorboat we saw and immediately plugged into its systems. It only took me two minutes before I breached its systems and gained ess to its controls. Security would definitely notice the loud noiseing from the old antique, despite the noise of the waves covering most of it. There wasn¡¯t anything we could do about that, so we simply drove the boat out. It wasn¡¯t like this dock had the funds to hire professional guards who would pursue us out into the ocean. I only adjusted the course asionally to match that of the GPS and before long, we spotted arge ship off into the distance. It was heading toward us, or more urately, to Elevate City, so we maneuvered our boat to ce ourselves in its path. Once we were on therge cargo ship¡¯s route, we turned off the engines and waited. The waves carried us slightly off course as therge ship sailed by, but it was still close enough. With our active camouge still on, we activated our customized jetpack on the power armor and leaped up onto the ship. It was quite ironic we would be using this modified jetpack in maritime conditions, as the original version was specially designed for navalbat. Our metal feetnded firmly on the deck. However, the sound wasn¡¯t muted, and anyone nearby would¡¯ve easily noticed. Thankfully, no one was on deck. They were probably hanging out in thefortable interior of the ship. We weren¡¯t as stealthy as I had thought when I heard the cabin doors m open, and four armed men came walking out on full alert. ¡°Cap¡¯n says a small boat was detected around us. Make sure no pests are buzzing around.¡± The four men moved as a team, walking along the edge of the ship, ncing down its hull for any suspicious activity. They were likelymunicating with their allies frequently, so I opted to leave them alone and went further into the ship. I woulde back for these thieves once we had secured the ship. They were all valuable experience points and also targets the QG wanted to be eliminated. This gig smelt of corpo, but I didn¡¯t really mind as it satisfied all my checkboxes. The good thing about corpo employers was that they rarely minded a few ¡®missing¡¯ or damaged goods once they got their shipment back. Even so, the main reason I took this gig was that I currently didn¡¯t have the leeway to head to NLA grind experience points in the wastnd while the negotiation with the High Gate Group was still ongoing, so this would have to do for now. As I walked into the ship with Thorne, I drew a vibro de from the hip of the power armor while I watched his dee out from his wrist. Chapter 122: Looming Danger Chapter 122: Looming Danger Thorne and I stepped into the interior of the cargo ship and went straight for the bridge. Our old QG, Fitel, had the courtesy of including the schematics of the ship. It wasn¡¯t anything hard to find, being simply a typical cargo hauler. Knowing exactly where we needed to go, we got there within minutes. I released several Nyes to scout out the room on the other side and a momentter, the outlines of several people appeared in my view. I nced other at Thorne and exchanged nods. He took action immediately and whipped out his wrist de. He didn¡¯t hesitate to stab it right at the hinges of the door before shing down with it to cut off the hinges. In one swift motion, he shoulder bashed the door, sending it flying into the room while I threw a concussive grenade inside. Once the grenade went off, I dashed inside and began unloading bullets from my Suri at all the highlighted targets. +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP +10 EXP+10 EXP The power armor I had cobbled together didn¡¯t exactly have arge repertoire of silent weapons or many integrated weapons at all, so I had to make do with my old weapon. I simply needed to modify the trigger to fit the power armor. Though, in my future iterations of power armor, I would definitely develop specialized weapons that could do the job more effectively. ¡°What the fuck!¡± After confirming myst kill, I turned my attention to one of the crew members who had crouched down to take cover behind the control panels. He was too frightened to move from his cover, which made it easy for me to maneuver around him. I kicked him over and pinned him to the ground with a firm leg on his back. ¡°Where are the original crew members?¡± He gasped for air and mumbled to himself. I adjusted my auditory imnts in an attempt to make out what he was saying. ¡°---dear lord, forgive me for my sins as I am about to join you. May you for¡­¡± I leaned down and spoke into his ear. ¡°Listen to me¡­ I said, listen to me!¡± His mumblings ceased, and he tried to turn around, but the weight of my power armor didn¡¯t let him. ¡°Tell me where the original crew members are, and maybe I¡¯ll spare you. How does that sound?¡± ¡°They¡¯re¡­they¡¯re gone. We shot them and threw them overboard. Oh, Lord¡ª¡± +10 EXP After letting out a sigh, I plugged myself into the control terminals to force the engines to a halt and the anchors to be deployed. Once that was done, we didn¡¯t dally around and rushed to secure the rest of the ship. Using the results from our Argus and the camera feeds at the bridge, we swiftly moved to eliminate every member of the gang of thieves. It was a client request, and one that aligned with my purpose of gaining experience points. It took us less than an hour to do so, and we then went down to the cargo bay and opened up one of the crates. Inside were cases and cases filled with chips and other delicate electronic parts. Confirming the entire cargo bay was filled with the electronics of our client, we called the motorboat we had borrowed toe over to our location. We carried as much as we could fit on the small boat before exiting the area. The patrols around Elevate City should notice the stationary ship before long and they would deal with the aftermath. For us, we simply have to take some recordings as proof to our client. We parked the boat exactly where we found it and transferred all our loot to our car. While Thorne drove, I ced a call to our QG. ¡°I¡¯m d to be hearing from you so soon. I take it you have been sessful yet again, Mr. Cloak.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯m sending you the proof now.¡± ¡°Excellent¡­I take it youpleted the job with ease?¡± I nced around our surroundings while withholding my answer. Fitel wasn¡¯t one for small talk. He would normally only discuss things pertaining to the jobs and nothing more, so it was strange he was asking questions. ¡°...Yes.¡± ¡°Perfect. Then I¡¯ll see you soon at the usual booth in Haven.¡± He ended the call without allowing me to retort, as always, but it didn¡¯t make his bizarre behavior any less rming. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Meeting at Haven as usual? We¡¯ve never even met in person before¡­ While I wanted to go investigate immediately, I didn¡¯t forget to confide with Thorne while we continued heading back into the city. ¡°I think we should go hear him out as well.¡± ¡°Not what I expected to hear from you. Normally you would be going on about how it could be a trap and that we should return to the safety of ourpany.¡± ¡°If Fitel had malicious intentions against us, we would already be in the thick of it by now. If he¡¯s asking for a meeting in such a roundtable way, it must be important when he is being so careful of any potential eavesdroppers.¡± I nodded at his reasoning. Thorne didn¡¯t need me to tell him and began changing our destination to Haven. We sat in silence while I pondered on all the possibilities of what this meeting could be about. As he said, if Fitel wanted to harm us, he had way better opportunities. He could¡¯ve easily done so on any gigs he sent us out on. That was why Thorne was constantly on guard going into every gig, no matter how simple it may sound, but so far, his fears hadn¡¯te true. What could he possibly have to say that requires us to talk in person? My deliberating went nowhere, even up until arrived. We parked in a discreet corner of the lot and waited. We only had to wait for a few minutes before a familiar convoy of Wraiths pulled up next to us and several of our guards came to greet us. Both Thorne and I quickly got out of our power armor and left it with our guards before making our way into Haven. Crowds of mercenaries gathered both inside and outside of the establishment, but only a few of them had noticed how we walked out from a crowd of corpos. They mostly ignored us and frolicked around with their friends like they were having the time of their lives. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you message Fitel to ask which booth he is at?¡± Thorne asked as we made our way into the open area on the first floor, where the bar was. ¡°Probably not yet. If he¡¯s expecting us, he should be on the lookout for us.¡± ¡°He said booth, so let¡¯s go up to the second floor, then.¡± Walking past the crowd of mercs, Thorne took the lead up the stairs. The noise of all the merrymaking immediately dulled as we stepped onto the new floor. It was much quieter up here, with almost empty hallways. Most of the rooms had their ss walls in privacy mode, where it was blurred, and only a few booths still had clear windows. We slowly walked down the empty corridor, trying to peer into each room as we went by. Right as we turned the corner to find another quiet hallway, the door beside us suddenly opened. We nced over and found no oneing out. ¡°Come in¡­Cloak. You can bring your friend.¡± I couldn¡¯t see what was in the room, but I recognized the voice, and seeing how secretive he was being; I yed along and walked inside. The door automatically closed behind us, and I carefully examined the lone man sitting on the sofa. Fitel, my first QG who had always spoken at a calm and measured pace, was now before me. He was a middle-aged man with short salt and peppered hair, and his optics were the only apparent cybeic that could be seen. He was dressed in a light grey suit, with his legs crossed, and inspecting me just as closely as I was to him. I had a hunch with the way he spoke, but the way he carried himself also screamed out corpo. ¡°Cloak¡­It is a pleasure to see you.¡± He stood up and held out his hand. ¡°I am d to see you are well, Fitel.¡± We shook hands, and he gestured for us all to take a seat. He rxed and leaned back on the sofa while taking a sip of his drink. We nkly stared at each other in silence. I don¡¯t have all day¡­I want to rest early and resume working on the AI already. ¡°So, was there something you wanted to discuss, Fitel?¡± ¡°Oh, not really. I thought you may have wanted to join me after another job well done. I count myself as off the clock right now, so please feel free to treat me like a friend.¡± ¡°I see¡­so how have you been doing recently?¡± ¡°I¡¯m d you asked! I would say very well business-wise, but that also means it has been tiring. It really reminds me of the crunch days I had to endure back in my youth.¡± ¡°Well, too much business is better than the opposite.¡± ¡°Yes, I have no right to beining. Especially when I have just gotten a few lucrative deals. In fact, I should try to market myself for some less intensive jobs by offering discounts to rx my mind. Could you help me put the word out that I¡¯ll be discounting any intelligence-gathering-rted work?¡± I blinked nkly at his words as I tapped into all the corporate experience I had to decipher his words. ¡°Mr. Cloak?¡± ¡°Oh, sorry. Of course, I can. Anything to help out a friend.¡± ¡°Why, thank you! I consider you a valuable friend, as well. Let us drink on our friendship!¡± After we toasted our friendship, we ordered some food and our conversation devolved into sharing our experiences in our respective fields. Once we finished eating, Fitel quickly excused himself, prompting us to return as well. ¡°What was that about?¡± Thorne asked immediately upon closing the door to the car. ¡°I¡¯m not exactly sure, but I think he¡¯s giving us some sort of warning¡­¡± ¡°Warning of someone out to get you?¡± ¡°Hmm, maybe. He didn¡¯t exactly give a lot of details as you saw. Still, we should be on the alert.¡± ¡°...Feels like we have to be on alert 24/7 nowadays.¡± Ah, the cost of being a corpo. It was better left unsaid, though. The next day, we resumed business as usual, with me clearing out all my work in the morning so I could spend my afternoon in my workshop uninterrupted. ire caught me just as I was about to leave to make a report. ¡°Here, go over the subscription ns we wanted to roll out in a few days for the EchoHalls app.¡± I read over the details on the terminal she handed me. They nned to limit the amount of messages the free users could send and locked various functions behind a paywall. If they wanted to send files, photos, or videos as they had been doing, they would need to subscribe to our paid n. If this was still in my old world, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if people called for boycotting our product when this gets announced. Thankfully, they had few alternatives in our price range, and human nature likely meant they would be toozy to make a drastic change as long as what we asked for, to keep the status quo, wasn¡¯t too outrageous. When reading the part about how our intel department has been making use of the app, memories fromst night shed through my mind. ¡°Direct all the projected profits derived from EchoHalls to expand the intel department. In fact, get them to start expanding right away.¡± ¡°Is something the matter, Rollo?¡± ¡°...We¡¯ve received a warning yesterday. It¡¯s vague, which is why we need to stay informed.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll go tell security right aw¡ª¡± ¡°Thorne already knows. He should have it handled. Instead, can you help me ce a job with Fitel to start gathering info?¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll take care of it.¡± As I watched ire leave, I couldn¡¯t shake the feeling in my gut that whatever was going toe at us this time wouldn¡¯t be as straightforward as we imagined. We will just have to prepare the best we can and adjust as things happen. Chapter 123: The New Halls Corporation Chapter 123: The New Halls Corporation ¡°We have three ranges in this building, each with twentynes, allowing for our employees to brush up their aim on short to medium distances.¡± One of ire¡¯s assistants introduced as she gestured to one of the new buildings that was part of the new expansion. I walked into the building after ire and my auditory imnt immediately picked up on the faint sound of shooting. ¡°Each floor has a range and an open training area. The training areas can simte any urbanyout using the most advanced projection technology avable in the market that makes use of these modr smart blocks.¡± We peeked into arge room and found it much like the room I had trained in with Thorne and our initial batch of security personnel in the early days of thepany. With these facilities, we no longer had to book the training courses on third-party facilities and train without worry of leaking any intel. I still remember when I had done the initial trial runs for the Shade on my employees in one of these training rooms. It felt like it was just yesterday. The assistant proceeded to show us the entire building, all five floors of it, including a workout room, swimming pool, change rooms, saunas, sports gyms for our volleyball team, and even meeting rooms to discuss tactics. Once she was done, we moved on to the adjacent building. The next building was our in-house medical facility. It was where we treated our injured, and also where we had our own cybeic clinic to perform checkups and upgrades for my employees. It was only a three-floor building but should be more than sufficient. No longer would we have to bring our injured to hospitals and clinics, where they could be tampered with every step of the way. We then moved on to the other side of thepound. The training and medical were located on the west side of the main building, so we had yet to check out what was on the east side.We walked along the new walls that we erected around our plot ofnd until we came to arge two-storyplex. It seemed like a mini shopping mall, which wasn¡¯t far from the truth. Instead of shopping for vanity items, it was a food market that was filled with various cuisines. Having one mess hall was boring, or so ire said, so we had this constructed. There were two dozen restaurants and coffee shops, but none of them were manned by an actual human. They each had terminals to order from which were linked to the specialized dispensers that would automatically make their food. I watched as Thorne tested it out by ordering a bowl of ramen. Once he selected his order from the terminal, noise rang out from the back before an opening quickly opened to reveal a steaming hot bowl of noodles. This is almost like a giant vending machine¡­ I took a small bite and immediately stopped. I had been eating out with the likes of Joey and ire too much, that I had be a ¡®gourmet¡¯. My tongue had never agreed with this stuff made from synthetic ingredients, and only food made from authentic ingredients satisfied me. Previously, I had to force myself to eat what was avable, but now that money wasn¡¯t an issue, there was no way I would be eating this stuff again if I could help it. Whoever poprized this synthetic stuff is one of the greatest scam artists in history. We went around and tried out more food, and it seemed like my taste hadn¡¯t changed all that much. My pte only agreed with the synthetic milkshakes and ice cream. However, with the authentic stuff avable, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be a repeat customer at this food market. It was a shame it only had synthetic food since we had spent a pretty penny on this ce, but we couldn¡¯t justify the hassle of running an actual restaurant when we were so short-handed everywhere already. One of the disadvantages of our fast expansion. If I wanted good food just for myself, it would be more cost-effective to just hire a private chef, anyway. We may have spent a lot on these new facilities, but I had also learned from my past mistakes. I couldn¡¯t judge things from the standard of my old world, otherwise I would be too lenient. That was why the food wouldn¡¯t be free, and I would be charging my employees the market standard to supplement the operating costs. Once we could eat no more, we headed up the stairs to the second floor and came into a dimly lit room filled with VR capsules. ire ran up to one of the pods with a hop to her step. ¡°Rollo, want to y? I swear I¡¯ve barely ever yed with you since we set up your VR pod.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I have much time¡ª¡± ¡°Come on, just for a bit! Think of it as an opening ceremony.¡± ¡°...Fine.¡± I guess my programming session had to wait.
¡°Good news, everyone. Our talks with the High Gate Group have progressed smoothly, and we have made headways on a tentative agreement.¡± Joey proudly dered to his peers amongst the members of our alliance. With the expansion of all our assets, they had taken the liberty of upgrading my holographic projectors as well. I could now even see Joey¡¯s gleaming head from his projection. ¡°What are the details of the agreement?¡± ¡°They are willing to pay reparations for the fighting. And for Quantum vors, GrainScape Tech, and High Grain Corp in particr, they agreed to pay a fraction of their profits for the next year on top of a sizable amount if we agree to return the three bases we have recently captured in working conditions.¡± Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°I¡¯m just d the fighting is over.¡± Someone I wasn¡¯t familiar with muttered, and I couldn¡¯t agree more with him. The meeting soon ended as they discussed and set the terms, preparing our negotiation teams to go into battle with their counterpart. I was d I wouldn¡¯t be part of the battle where they would be fighting tooth and nail for every fraction of a percentage. I don¡¯t think I would have had the patience for it. Once the meeting disconnected, I made sure to forward the new files I received to the finance team. There weren¡¯t any concrete numbers yet, but it was decided that we would get a healthy chunk of pot for our efforts during the war. Our shares were more than double what most other corporations within our alliance would get, with only Authentic Corp¡¯s shares beingparable to ours. When I got back to my workshop, I found ire already there, looking over my work terminal in curiosity. ¡°...So can you or can you notplete these documents for me?¡± ¡°Apologies. While I can, my current settings disallow me from doing anything outside of the virtual ybox.¡± I stepped further into the room and cleared my throat. ¡°Rollo! Your ¡®friend¡¯ here is interesting. When are you going to have them join ourpany? I¡¯m sure the finance guys would love to have them on board at the very least.¡± ¡°...I forgot to lock my terminal one time, and you¡¯re sticking your nose into my projects.¡± I let out a sigh as I pondered how foolish I was to have trusted my workshop¡¯s security measurespletely. It certainly wouldn¡¯t do anything against someone who had ess. ¡°ire, I hope you already know this, but don¡¯t tell anyone about this project.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Even I know that the other corps would be breathing down our necks if they knew what you were making.¡± ¡°Good. Now, did you have any business with me or can I go back to my work?¡± ¡°No, I just want to try out the AI.¡± ¡°...Please get out. I can¡¯t focus if I¡¯m not alone.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­Maybe if you promise to let me test out the AI with you, I may leave you alone and take care of some of your workload for you.¡± ¡°...Fine, I¡¯ll call you when I do the tests, though it¡¯s way too soon for that. I still have to¡ª¡± ¡°Okay, see youter.¡± ire quickly took her leave. I was left confused if I should feel agitated at her leaving while I was still talking or that she obediently left me alone. Whatever, I still have so much to do and only five hours left until my flight¡­
Drew - Halls Corporation A young man snapped his eyes wide open at the sound of his rm. He swiftly got out of bed without hesitation and donned his uniform after a quick shower. Without pause, he left his unit on the seventh story and made his way down to the ground floor of thepany dorm he lived in. He could spot dozens of others who had already gotten a head start to their day and were walking around below. As the elevator went down, he nced around through the window and took in the view of hispany¡¯splex, and pride swelled up within him. Nothing was sweeter than the fruit of your ownbor, and I¡¯m proud to say I have stuck with thepany since its early days. It¡¯s grown a lot in such a short time. He exchanged friendly greetings with the people he passed on the way to the newly opened food market that was right beside their residence. He pulled up the map of the ce on his optics and followed it to find the closest coffee shop. and ordered himself a cup of ck coffee to prepare for the start of a new day. He swiped his handheld terminal and nced down at his bnce while the machine poured his drink. I know I should stay frugal in case anything happens, but I should have more than enough leeway after the next payday to buy that new car¡­ right? He deliberated on his options, despite knowing he had already made a decision deep inside. On his way into the main office building, he couldn¡¯t help but hum a tune to himself at the prospect of buying his dream ride. Thank you, Mr. Halls! I can¡¯t believe I have saved this much money already. Well, then again, it shouldn¡¯t be surprising with thepany covering my medical and equipment maintenance fees. The food is cheap too, so I don¡¯t have to budget that much each month! He soon arrived in his office on the third floor and sat down behind a namete with his name and title of Senior Compliance Investigator engraved on it. He smiled when he saw the photo he had taken with hisrades when they had fought out in the wastnd. It was a memorable part of his career and one that let him reflect on how far he¡¯se. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we have for today.¡± Drew got to work and began booting up his terminal and going over thetest incident reports. He selected the one with the highest priority and marked it to let others know he was on the case. He then ced a call to one of the contacts listed in the dossier. ¡°Hi there, my name is Drew, from the Halls Corporation. Did you have some time right now to talk about the report you filed, regarding the malfunction of the Shade you had bought? ¡­Perfect! I cane to you in twenty minutes.¡± With an appointment set, he quickly grabbed his vest and went down to get his car. On the elevator, he almost pressed the button for the basement floors out of reflex, but swiftly corrected himself. With the expansion of hispany, a new parking lot was built outside the main building, with the previous one now exclusive to the Wraiths and other armored vehicles of the security department. He sometimes wondered why the garage was moved outdoors when several new underground levels had been excavated, but he knew better than to poke his nose where it didn¡¯t belong. He drove out of hispanyplex and soon arrived at a bar where he would meet up with the mercenary who was a client of theirpany. ¡°Hello sir, can you show me the malfunctioning cyberware that you indicated has been uninstalled?¡± The man regarded him carefully before fetching something from his backpack. ¡°Here, you better refund me now!¡± Drew quickly examined it, taking photos and activating different optics modes to examine the specimen in question. He even used his Argus to perform intensive scanning of its structural integrity before sending off all the data to the forensics department. ¡°Sir, can you send me a copy of your receipt?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows how anal you corpos are, so I made sure to keep it. Here.¡± Upon receiving the digital receipt, Drew forced himself to keep aposed face, restraining himself from frowning. ¡°Sir, are you sure this is the only product you bought from ourpany?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, and I probably won¡¯t do so again if you keep taking so long with my refund!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir, but we won¡¯t be refunding you.¡± The customer¡¯s mood instantly turned for the worse as he stepped up and closed the distance with Drew. He leaned in, almost as if to kiss him, but his eyes had a clear glint of anger rather than love. Drew couldn¡¯t help but let a sigh escape him. Chapter 124: Research & The Grind Chapter 124: Research & The Grind Drew - Halls Corporation ¡°Hey Drew, how¡¯s it going?¡± A thin and short man greeted as he mmed his tray of food down onto the table. ¡°Derek. You know how it is¡­¡± Drew sighed at having remembered his day. ¡°If the customers aren¡¯t annoying to deal with, then they wouldn¡¯t have be our responsibility. Got an equal amount of Karens and scammers trying their luck. How about you?¡± ¡°Ha, they just recently let me go solo, so I don¡¯t have it as bad as you, yet.¡± Drew couldn¡¯t help but sh a bittersweet smile at the neer, who was busy slurping away at his bowl of ramen. ¡°Enjoy it while itsts.¡± The rookie looked up at Drew¡¯s words and replied while still chewing on his food. ¡°What did¡ªyou say?¡± ¡°...Nothing, slow down and enjoy your food. We still have a long day ahead of us.¡±¡°I can¡¯t help it. It¡¯s so good.¡± After lunch, the duo headed the same way back to their department¡¯s office together to ept their next assignments. They separated as Drew reached his office first. ¡°My stop is here. See youter, Derek. Oh, and do you want to go out for dinner with the other guys after work?¡± The petite man smiled wryly at the question. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I want to save up as much credits as I can, so I¡¯ll pass.¡± ¡°Hmm? Our pay should be pretty decent. You saving for a big purchase?¡± ¡°No, no. People who don¡¯te from a corpo background like me still need to watch how we spend. Now that I¡¯m in a good position, I need to send as much as I can back to my family. It¡¯s not easy for normal folks to survive in this city.¡± ¡°Okay, maybe next time, then. See you.¡± Drew cut the conversation short and waved as the rookie walked away. His family had been corpos for generations, and he didn¡¯t know what to say about the neer¡¯s family situation, as it waspletely foreign to him. And one thing that was ingrained in him was to not speak when he didn¡¯t know what to say. Instead, he refocused his energy on dealing with the next case. He opened up his terminal and logged into hispany ount to browse through all the pending cases.
I performed yet another scan with my Argus and this time; it produced results. We had been driving around these ruins in search of mutants for a while now, so it was satisfying to finally find some prey. ¡°Everyone, watch my back as usual. Don¡¯t step in.¡± I quickly received a ¡®Roger that¡¯ from all my guards except one who shrugged. I avoided Thorne¡¯s gaze and exited the Wraith as soon as it came to a stop. The sound of the wind howling immediately intensified, but thankfully, the mask I wore shielded my face from the sandstorm of the wastnd. We walked out into an open area between several buildings, which likely was a former park, and we quickly spotted our targets. There were several lumps of sand before us, but our Argus gave us a clear outline of their bodies that were beneath the sand. I fetched my SMG from my back and Kiri automatically tracked onto the targets for me. Once it was done, I held down the trigger and swept the weapon across all my targets. As soon as I fired, the lumps of sand rose before it fell off to the side, revealing round shells. My bullets quickly corrected their trajectories in mid-flight and allnded true to their targets, but the sudden movement of the creatures had veered the projectiles off their target, hitting their shells instead. Thanks to my system, I knew I had onlynded one fatal shot. +20 EXP The tortoise mutants all turned in my direction and began charging us, recognizing us as threats. ¡°You need some help there?¡± Thorne¡¯s voice rang out from beside me. I ignored it and swiftly loaded a new mag before firing again. This time, the mutants were ready, and they immediately retreated into their shells. My attacks bounced harmlessly off them, but it also meant they were now immobile. I pulled out my Suri and fired it off at the stationary targets. The subsonic rounds were fired without a noise, delivering my attack silently. I unloaded my entire clip, resulting in multiple explosions from my explosive rounds. +20 EXP +20 EXP +20 EXP This story has been uwfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. +20 EXP Unfortunately, the capacity of the pistol magazine was limited, and I ran out of bullets before I finished off all my enemies. The surviving tortoises took the opportunity while I switched my weapons yet again to close the distance. ¡°Everyone, Shade out!¡± Thorne yelled out as the mutants approached. I did the same as the rest of my team and activated my active camouge. We then made some distance, retreating back toward the skyscraper where our vehicles were. The mutant desert tortoises weren¡¯t to be trifled with up close. Their jaws were ridiculously strong, being able to bite through our armored vehicles with ease. If it was just that, it would still be manageable, but their tails also gave off a corrosive gas that could quickly damage our equipment. It simply wasn¡¯t worth it to fight one up close. The mutants charged toward the empty space where we once were beforeing to a stop, sniffing the air. Once we were an adequate distance away from the threats, I pulled out my railgun pistol and ced careful shots at the mutants. Even with my armor-piercing rounds, I doubt it could prate their tough shells, but the supersonic projectile speed allowed my shots to hit their mark before my enemies could react from the sound. +20 EXP At the end of the day, the mutants acted on instincts like animals, and they repeated their actions of retreating into their shells. That allowed me to rinse and repeat my strategy to pick them off. There was a reason why these tortoises were one of my favorite prey throughout the wastnd. They were frequently found in t areas where I could easily abuse our ranged weapons to take them out safely, without having to worry about them jumping out at me like in urban environments. They also provided twenty experience points each. If only they were moremon. Once we finished them off, we swiftly harvested the useful parts from their remains, which were mainly their shells, and made off back to our outpost. Our presence in the wastnd had grown with our recent expansion. It wasn¡¯t just our head office that received an upgrade. We extensively expanded all our assets, including our wastnd outposts. With our increasing profits, we needed to prepare to fight off any greedy opportunists and protect our wealth. We were sure the High Gate Group had spared no effect of tracking our assets, and even with the ceasefire, there was no telling if they would sell off their information to third parties to indirectly retaliate against us. We soon arrived and closely examined the fortified gate to our outpost while we waited for it to open. It was a man-made cave we had excavated, and we had ced a sturdy gate equipped with various turrets. Besides the defense measures I could see from here, there was also an entirely new section above the cliff, preventing our enemies from blowing a hole above our heads. While this ce would have definitely looked impressive and intimidating to the old me who had juste into the wastnd, it was still nothingpared to the fortifications we had enacted where our mine was. The value of that ce was just that much higher, but this outpost was still a better base to operate out of for my purposes. As soon as we arrived, our team dispersed with well-practiced movements, leaving the onsite personnel to deal with our haul. Some of my team would go have meals, while some would go rest. As for me, I would retreat back into the new workshop I had set up here to continue my work. I had made good progress with most of the tedious programming out of the way. There was still a whole database I needed to fill, but I could only do that outside the wastnd where we had connections to our data centers. That was why I had started up another project concurrently, to make more effective use of my time, and allowed me to take a break from tunneling on only one project. I walked through my spacious workshop, past a bulky military vehicle to where my terminal was. The contours of my vehicle shared a semnce with a tank. While having a tank may be a good idea, the other corpos would never authorize us to bring it into the cities where it could cause widespread coteral damage. It was much preferable to employ power armors, which was why I was working on an armored personnel carrier. The Wraiths were great at what they did, but in all our deployments, they proved to be clunky during our assaults. We needed dozens of them, as each only held four or five people. In urban warfare, we couldn¡¯t muster out an assault force quickly enough when using so many vehicles in crowded streets, which was why I copied what the other corporations had done during the war. They employed APCs that could carry over a dozen soldiers. That was just the cherry on top because their main use was to carry an entire squadron of power armor. They could even be used as mobile power armor workshops for urgent repairs and as a resupply station. ¡°Hey Rollo, don¡¯t forget to eat!¡± Thorne¡¯s voice rang out as I was working on the new design. He ced a te full of food and stood directly in front of me. ¡°Come on. This is the real stuff from the ingredients we shipped in. Eat before it gets cold.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, ire.¡± ¡°...¡± We both locked eyes with each other for a moment before we both burst out intoughter. ¡°Anyway, did you check in with our production crew back in NLA to see if the vehicle is done?¡± ¡°The prototype or the racecar?¡± ¡°The racecar. I¡¯ve tested the prototype of the new Wraith thoroughly already. They just need to work out the production and the update facilities.¡± ¡°I think the drivers were saying how too many features were automated and were asking for a way to set some of them to manual.¡± Must be all the work on the AI influencing me to automate everything¡­ ¡°...That should just be a quick software update, then. If they¡¯re ready, let¡¯s head back tomorrow morning, so we can see it in action.¡± ¡°We can head back tonight if you want. There¡¯s a convoy scheduled toe in from Salt Lake soon.¡± ¡°Right, sure.¡± As we slowly expanded our transportation capacity to fill in the hole QuickLinks had left, we were able to expand the frequency of our convoys. The logistics business only grew faster the more we became known as an established yer. We soon joined our convoy, heading back out into civilization, into our new head office of the NNA branch. Different from the warehouse we had made use of previously, we had built a proper office building on the adjacent plot ofnd. It was five stories, like our old headquarters, and had a simryout. We turned into the underground garage of the building while the rest of the convoy entered the warehouse next door. When we got off, we found Vin standing, surrounded by his entourage. It sure made him look like a big shot¡­Well¡­I guess he is one within ourpany. ¡°Hey Vin, is everything going okay?¡± I asked as I ced a hand on his shoulder. ¡°...¡± He didn¡¯t reply immediately. ¡°What is it? Come on, spit it out.¡± ¡°...We¡¯re still looking into it, but there have been rumors going around saying we¡¯ve been selling defective products.¡± Chapter 125: Product Defect Chapter 125: Product Defect Drew - Halls Corporation ¡°Yourpany betterpensate me for this. I can¡¯t believe you guys have the audacity to sell defective products. Did your colleagues embezzle the funds meant for quality assurance or what?¡± The red-haired mercenary raged. ¡°I understand your frustrations. Can I¡ª¡± ¡°What do you corpo dogs know? I say the only thing is how to wag your tail at your bosses and exploiting everyone else!¡± ¡°Can I please examine the product you have been using?¡± ¡°Here, take it. I already uninstalled your junk. You better give me a full refund.¡± The woman threw the bag right at Drew¡¯s face. ¡°Please allow us some time to investigate. If it is our fault, we will surelypensate you fairly.¡± Having caught the bag, Drew wasted no time and immediately scanned the cybeic within. As usual, he scanned it for the product code andpared it to their internal database. It only took a brief moment before it returned with a match. ¡°May I ask where you got our product from?¡±¡°Tssch, what¡¯s with all the questions?¡± ¡°Please, if you would¡ª¡± ¡°If you must know, from old man Klon¡¯s clinic!¡± ¡°Understood, thank you. I will refund you the full price now. Once our investigations finish, we maypensate you further if deemed justified.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. As if you corpos will hand out free money. I¡¯m done with yourpany from now on!¡± The female merc brushed Drew aside and exited the private booth, leaving Drew there scratching his cheeks. He checked his schedule in his SAID and began going to his next appointment. The next morning, his coworker, Derek, dropped onto the seat next to him without hesitation. Drew was surprised to see him again, seeing there were numerous other stores they could order breakfast from, with a low chance of picking the same one twice in a row. ¡°Why the long face? Clients again?¡± He asked, seeing Drew staring at him with a nk face. ¡°Hmm¡­Yeah. Except this time, they were in the right. It was my first time dealing with someone with a legitimate im, and I¡¯m on investigation duty now because of it.¡± ¡°You too? I heard Oakley got the same thing.¡± ¡°Well, I guess I¡¯ll go speak to him, then. I¡¯m going to get a head start. Take your time.¡± After refueling a cup of coffee, Drew headed straight for his office and began digging around on his terminal. He wanted to go over the incident report of Oakley¡¯s case before meeting with him. He soon found the correct report and went through it,paring it to his own. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Once he was done, he sent the man in question a quick ping and walked straight to his office that was only a dozen or so steps away from his. The door automatically opened as soon as he knocked. ¡°Drew, it¡¯s been a while. I heard you got a simr case, too?¡± ¡°Right, but mine got their Argus from another clinic. I was hoping we¡¯d still stay in touch as we head out to investigate, though.¡± ¡°Sure, we¡¯ll open a file and treat this as a potential rted incident. You should be able to see my logs in real-time.¡± The two men got to work, and they worked efficiently. They left before most of their coworkers even clocked in, heading out into the city. Drew got out of his car and sent it off to the nearest lot with the auto drive function while he scanned the neighborhood. It wasn¡¯t the best ce around, with various adult entertainment establishments that catered to the more economical clientspared to the Neon District. However, it was ces like these where certain QGs thrived, which naturally attracted like-minded mercenaries to the area as well. The streets were still fairly quiet, which was normal for this hour of the morning. Only the asional drunks and people stumbling back home from their night out. Drew paid them no mind and had his SAID disy the route to his destination. A yellow arrow materialized in his view, tracing a path for him to follow. It guided him into a building that stood thirty stories tall. It was one of the few around here that wasn¡¯t a low-rise or a gigantic megabuilding. Inside the lobby, various signs were clearly disyed beside the elevator, informing visitors of the businesses on each floor. He pressed the button for the eighth floor and the doors closed and, much to Drew¡¯s dread, old-fashioned elevator music began ying. As much as he wanted to mute all noise, he knew it would be a stupid idea to do so in the middle of field work. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. He impatiently rushed past the door when it opened, only to find himself in the middle of a clinic¡¯s waiting area. There was no one there except for the young man with bright green hair who was snoring away behind the counter. Drew quicklymanded his Argus to scan the floor while he walked up to the reception desk. The young man on the other side of it showed no signs of rousing, sleeping without a single care, so Drew went ahead and tapped his finger on the table. Receiving no reaction, Drew proceeded to increase the intensity and speed of his tapping until he gave up and mmed a hand on the desk. The man with bright green hair instantly flinched, scanning his surroundings in a panic. ¡°Old man, I was just resting my eyes!¡± His eyes darted around the ce and calmed down when he noticed it was only Drew standing before him. ¡°Erm¡­Are you a client? Don¡¯t think you made a reservation, though.¡± ¡°Can you check if Dr. Klon is avable?¡± Drew asked, despite knowing the answer. ¡°Give me a second,¡± the man said and stood up from his chair and headed into the back. He hadn¡¯t fully closed the door behind him and Drew could pick up on the sound of them muttering. The conversation didn¡¯tst long enough for Drew to fine-tune his auditory imnt to listen in on them, and the young man returned. ¡°The old man¡¯s resting. Why don¡¯t you make an appointment forter today?¡± ¡°I¡¯m only nning on asking him a few questions. It¡¯ll be quick.¡± ¡°Sorry, he¡¯s a stubborn old fossil, he¡¯ll¡ª¡± ¡°Here, take this for your troubles.¡± Drew pped down some credits on the desk. The young man alternated nces at Drew, the money, and the backroom before he nodded. ¡°Go ahead. Can¡¯t guarantee he¡¯ll be in the mood to talk, though.¡± Drew smiled and walked through the door the young man had returned from. He could hear the sound of some metal tinkering noise and he soon saw a tiny old man working on a cybeic arm. ¡°What do you want now, Mosshead? I thought I told you to beat it until evening.¡± The man replied without trying to hide his irritation or looking up from his work. ¡°Apologies. I wanted to ask you some questions.¡± The old man¡¯s hand stilled before he slowly turned around. ¡°Fucking unreliable kid.¡± The man cursed as he shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know who you are, but this clinic is closed until the sun sets.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not here for your services. I want to see if you recognize this person here?¡± Drew quickly took out his handheld terminal and showed the old man a picture of the client who had brought him the defective Argus. The old man scoffed and resumed working on the cybeic arm before him. ¡°I see a lot of people every day. Can¡¯t say I would recognize any of them or tell you about it, anyway.¡± ¡°Fine, but how about the Argus you had installed into her? Did you source that through official channels and did you tinker with it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you mighty corpos would be able to easily look into that. And I only customized my wares based on client¡¯s requests.¡± Seeing how the soft approach wasn¡¯t working, Drew swiftly tried out the hard one. ¡°You know, you should speak up before you get dragged into something where you don¡¯t belong. Since you¡¯re so wise and old, you should know what happens to people who go against the interest of corporations.¡± ¡°Try it. I don¡¯t care. Otherwise, leave me alone if you¡¯re not going to do anything about it.¡± Drew tried digging out some info on the old man to use as leverage against him, but quickly found nothing of use. He was an old and stubborn man without any living rtives. Seeing how he was making no headways, Drew shook his head and took on a tactical retreat for now to rethink his approach. I hope Oakley is having better luck.
¡°...We¡¯re still looking into it, but there have been rumors going around saying we¡¯ve been selling defective products.¡± ¡°What do we know so far?¡± ¡°It¡¯s only two separate incidents, but upon closer examination, the same malfunction happened in both cases.¡± The same parts malfunctioning¡­Could there be a problem with our production? ¡°Did you take a look at our QA department?¡± ¡°Yes, but they haven¡¯t found any¡ª¡± ¡°I understand.¡± I held up a hand to cut him short. ¡°I¡¯ll go take a look immediately.¡± So there goes my n to work on the AI. As the foremost expert on our products, there are some responsibilities that I can¡¯t just escape from. Vin went on about each incident in more detail before I descended onto the production floor. We had set up a quality assurance department in the corner of the floor, in between the production area and storage. There were several workers who were carefully examining each piece before them, utilizing nanomachines to view the parts closely, following the procedures we had set precisely. After seeing they were doing a good job, I stopped paying the workers any heed and picked up one of the products and began running a thorough myself. One of our main challenges when creating a new product had been to create a production method that produced the least amount of defects, even when our workers were unfamiliar with the processes. However we tried to address the problem, we still couldn¡¯t stop the dozens of defects from appearing each month. Still, it was strange that we hadn¡¯t detected two products with the same defect in such a close timeframe, so I closely examined the faulty part in question. Even after bringing several samples into myb and dissecting them, I still couldn¡¯t figure out any new clues. All the samples I had brought still appeared much like how it was supposed to be, with no particr vulnerability. Could it be something that only happens when operating in specific environments? Both incidents didn¡¯t have a detailed description of the environment when the malfunction urred, though. I doubt the merc would answer nicely either about any details that happened on a gig. I spent some time deliberating on different methods I could get the mercenaries in question to talk, whether it be by money or force, but it wouldn¡¯t be a good look if the word got out. Thest thing I needed was allegations about bribing or threatening clients toe to light. The corporations who were against us surely wouldn¡¯t miss the opportunity to disparage us. With that in mind, I resumed examining the specimens before me in hopes of finding new clues. I only stopped examining the freshly assembled Argus when Kiri alerted me to a priority call. There weren¡¯t any details besides it came from Flo, but it was enough for me to instantly put aside my work and answer. ¡°What¡¯s up, Flo?¡± ¡°I need to take some time off¡­And can I borrow some money?¡± ¡°What? Why? Did something happen?¡± ¡°Erza has missed three of our check-ins already. I¡¯m going to Lion City to find her.¡± Chapter 126: Field Work Chapter 126: Field Work I breathed in deeply as I listened to Flo about how Erza had gone out of contact. I knew how close she was with Flo and remembered how she had helped guide me when I initially came to this world. My first instinct was to shout that I would tag along in her search, but times have changed. I couldn¡¯t just leave on a whim, especially when the case about our malfunctioning products was ongoing. These incidents would have a high impact on our reputation and the confidence of our customers. The more we expanded, the more the scale of things grew. Every setback had magnified consequences, as it wasn¡¯t so easy to find alternatives when the mary amount had grown so much. ¡°...I¡­Take one of our teams with you.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t¡ª¡± ¡°Do it for me and go call Andrew. His team should still be on break since hest followed me up to Aegis.¡± ¡°...Understood. Thank you.¡± As the call finished, I immediately notified our intel department to keep an eye out for Erza while I got back to investigating the source of our faulty products. There were currently three main usible theories. The first one was a natural defect that only urs in specific environments or conditions unknown to me. We had tested out the Argus in everymon condition it would operate in, but we couldn¡¯t confidently we had tested every possibility. We simply didn¡¯t have the capabilities to do so as the big corps did.The second was that there was a problem somewhere in our production. It could be embezzlement with someone selling our waste products that didn¡¯t meet our standards. Or even be an honest mistake somewhere in our production process. What I didn¡¯t want to think about was the possibility of traitors within our ranks. I had previously implemented spying measures against all my employees and so far I haven¡¯t gotten any alerts. I would be quite sad to find someone had noticed and gotten around the stealth imnt I had installed. With more and more employees now, I had even spent some time integrating it into our other imnts like the Shade, where the nanomachines would then reassemble themselves inside my employees. Thest usible reason was we were being actively sabotaged. It wasn¡¯t surprising if some corporations found us an eyesore and took hostile action against us. Not every corp resorted to brute force as their first resort. In fact, waging economic wars and intrigue behind the scenes was moremon. And this kind of sabotage was exactly something I could see them do. I would have to wait and see if any additional incidents pop up first to gather more information, though. So far, the two cases didn¡¯t have anymonalities in regard to where they were sourced and who they were sold to. It was only how the way they malfunctioned was the same. All kinds of possibilities were still open.
Drew - Halls Corporation ¡°Oakley, over here!¡± Drew ced down his cup of coffee and raised his hands at his coworker to direct his attention to the corner he was seated at. The man spotted him and waved back before getting into the line to ce his order. Living up to their moniker of being a fast-food restaurant, it didn¡¯t even take five minutes until he sat down in front of Drew with a tray full of food. He silently began eating while Drew watched as he sipped on his milkshake in between bites. Their table was quiet until Oakley was fully done with his burger and moved on to his fried crickets. ¡°How did your investigation go?¡± Drew asked, leaning in toward his colleague. Oakley finished chewing his food first and took a sip of his drink to wash it all down before replying. ¡°I found nothing. I got all their records, camera footage, everything was in order, and the cyber-doc didn¡¯t seem to be lying either.¡± ¡°You sure their clinic or supplier didn¡¯t fiddle with our products?¡± ¡°My clinic is around the upper mid tier range. They bring products in the box for the clients to break the seal. The client should¡¯ve noticed if it came with a broken seal.¡± ¡°But there¡¯s still the chance they just resealed it. Shouldn¡¯t put it past them, especially when they deal in so much chrome on a regr basis.¡± ¡°If that was the case, they would¡¯ve taken out some parts for money. The sample we retrieved wasn¡¯t missing anything. There¡¯s no motive for the doc to randomly fiddle with a product and reseal it.¡± ¡°...Corporate sabotage?¡± ¡°Maybe, but any clinic that willingly goes along with it probably won¡¯t be in business for long with howmon that is.¡± Oakley paused to take another bite before continuing. ¡°How about you? Anything on your end?¡± Drew ruefully shook his head. ¡°My doc won¡¯t breathe a word. I was hoping you had better luck before I had to take more drastic actions.¡± ¡°Need help?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll be fine.¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere. The two men nodded at each other and then each silently finished their drinks before leaving separately to go about their duties. He got back into his car and entered thest used GPS address. Judging from the clinic¡¯s schedule, he believed it was probably better to do it earlier in the day rather thanter. Parking his car in the same lot asst time, he surveyed the area in an alleyway. After activating his Shade, he nonchntly strode into the same building he had been to earlier. However, he wouldn¡¯t be taking the luxury of an elevator this time and had to climb up eight floors¡¯ worth of stairs. Thankfully, he hadn¡¯t stopped training his body since his days as an active member of the security force. He may have been promoted to Senior Compliance Investigator, but he still thought of himself as an active soldier for the corporation. It was just that his enemies were different, and the methods to handle them were more varied. Having climbed up to the eighth floor without pause, Drew quietly opened the door from the stairwell and found himself in therge waiting area, right where the elevators were. The ce was still empty, with only the green-hairedd at the counter. Good, they really don¡¯t open until the sun sets. He watched the young man at the reception desk for a few moments and only moved once he confirmed he was busy watching something on his optics. The scans from his Argus showed the old doc was stationary in another room, so he confidently walked into the back. He soon arrived at the workshop the old doctor had been using to work on a cyberarm when he had talked with him and proceeded further when he found nothing of use. He skipped the various operating rooms until he reached one in the back that seemed to be an office. After setting the Argus to scan in short intervals, he wasted no time and immediately got to work. He plugged into the terminal and found some hefty defenses in the way, so he activated the software from the geeks that created a connection back to hispany¡¯s cy-sec department. He was confident even with this outgoing connection, they wouldn¡¯t be detected by the civilian setup here. He only had to wait a few minutes before a cy-sec specialist from head office helped him secure ess to the terminal. He swiftly downloaded everything while he skimmed over the contents. It was mostly client files and inventory information, which were all things he wanted to take a closer look at. However, this terminal didn¡¯t have ess to any of the camera feeds around this ce. Using hispany¡¯s app, he quickly sent a message to the cy-sec personnel to help him look into it. It took a little longer this time, but ten minutester, he received the location of where the camera feeds were stored. Once his download finished, he proceeded to move to the newfound location only to realize it was exactly where the young man, with bright green hair, was sitting. Arriving back in the main waiting area, he could only scratch his cheeks as he watched the young man leaning back on his chair, talking to himself as he was busy watching something on his optics. Back in camo training, they did say people who were lost in their optics were the blindest people around¡­But ignoring them in a live scenario is a bit¡­ Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Drew forced himself to take action. He crept up right next to the young man and plugged into the terminal while standing right above him. If whatever he had yed on his optics stopped for a second, he would instantly see a cable hanging above him. No wonder ourpany bans the use of our optics for anything that takes up more than half our vision while we¡¯re on duty. Drew had to rein himself in every time the young man moved, sometimes bursting intoughter. He could only pray that hispany¡¯s cy-sec specialists could do their thing faster. The download that should¡¯ve been only a minute or two felt like an eternity for Drew. Still, no issues urred, and he was able to sessfully gather all the footage he was looking for. Just as he unplugged from the terminal, the elevator suddenly dinged, announcing the arrival of someone. The young man quickly righted himself as he stared impatiently at the elevator doors opening. Drew could feel his cold sweat dripping down his neck as he thought about how he would¡¯ve been caught if he had just been a few seconds slower. He didn¡¯t bother to see who arrived and quickly retreated.
Andrew - Halls Corporation ¡°Are we going back to space so Peng can float around again?¡± ¡°No Peng, this is the airport, not the spaceport.¡± Andrew dryly replied while he looked over his team and the leader of their new mission. He was going to be the second inmand this time, with their former instructor, the tall and muscr woman with a red cyberarm leading them. Her aura had changed since thest time Andrew had seen her, being especially serious right now, but he couldn¡¯t me her for it either. They had been briefed about their objective, which was the search and rescue of their instructor¡¯s long-time co. Andrew could sense the entire team¡¯s hunger for the mission details, but he waited until they boarded their flight to broach the subject. ¡°Instructor Flo, can you share any intel you may have to help us on our mission?¡± The once-always energetic and reliable instructor simply kept her eyes closed as she responded. ¡°Just herst known locations and who shest associated with. Here, you take a look.¡± Andrew received a file with the details and quickly forwarded it to his team members, which was mostly just Brian and Mark, as he knew Peng wouldn¡¯t care either way. The three quietly discussed among themselves over the flight, all the way up until they got into their rooms in Lion City. Once they had settled their luggage, they immediately grouped up and prepared to start their search. ¡°What¡¯s the n, instructor Flo?¡± Andrew asked as everyone else¡¯s representative. ¡°You will all support me in the background. Stay out of sight while I investigate, and just watch for anyone trying to catch me by surprise.¡± ¡°...Instructor, it would be much more efficient if we all split off and did our own investigation.¡± ¡°No, too much risk for you guys in unfamiliar territory. You¡¯repany loanouts that I don¡¯t n on damaging.¡± ¡°...If you insist¡­You¡¯re in charge.¡± ¡°Yes, I insist. Now tail me from a distance while I go investigate Erza¡¯s hotel room.¡± The group then headed for the hotel several streets away. It was business as normal for most of them, as the outer section of Lion City was the only part foreigners had ess to and was practically identical to many metropolises around the world. Andrew could only watch as his team leader charged boldly into the lobby of the mid-tier hotel. He and his team struggled to keep up while in stealth, being mindful not to bump into anyone on the way. They caught up just in time to see everyone in the lobby of the hotel staring cautiously at the intimidating woman who boldly strode forward toward reception. I¡¯m so d we had taken the time to think it out and had the foresight to book a hotel that¡¯s a small distance away because we could foresee what was about to go down¡­ Chapter 127: Tracing the Trail Chapter 127: Tracing the Trail Flo - Halls Corporation A woman with a fit athletic build and an eye-catching red cyberarm stormed into the lobby of the Goodwin Hotel. The staff shed her a smile as they were trained to do, treating every guest with utmost respect up until she skipped the line to one of the reception counters. ¡°Open room 1217 for me. It should be under the name Erza Santaff.¡± The receptionist¡¯s internal panic was clearly shown on their face as they struggled with how to respond to the sudden inquisition. Thankfully for them, one of the managers had already noticed the situation and swiftly came in to save the day. The manager gestured for the receptionist to step back while they dealt with Flo. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m afraid we cannot open any of our rooms belonging to other guests for you. You should¡ª¡± ¡°Save your excuses and open it. I¡¯m her co, and she¡¯s gone missing. Let me in to take a look.¡± ¡°In that case, madam. Her belongings will be deposed off after her time with us hase to an end. I can promise to inform you when we throw her belongings into the trash¡ª¡± The manager¡¯s words were cut short when the menacing-looking woman mmed her cyberarm onto the marbled counter. ¡°How about you open that door right now or I throw you into the trash from here? We may make a scene, and there may be a few walls in the way, but I¡¯m strong enough to do it.¡± Flo dered as her red hand crushed a section of the marble top into dust.The manager began to panic as he nced around, seeing the expressions of his other guests. He loudly dered no and mmed his hand on the countertop as well before leaning in to whisper into Flo¡¯s ear. ¡°Fine, fine. If youpensate us for the damages you¡¯ve caused, I¡¯ll do it.¡± Flo smirked and subtly nodded. ¡°Follow my lead and don¡¯t make a scene.¡± ¡°If you do not want to make afoul of our corporate security, you better follow me!¡± The manager proudly dered, ensuring everyone in the lobby had heard him. Flo shrugged and grinned as she followed the man along while exchanging texts with her invisible backup team that lurked around her. *You guys can wait outside.* *Flo, seriously? Was that necessary? You know yourpany¡¯s pretty good at stealth, right? We could¡¯ve just snuck our way in.* *It¡¯s better this way. No need to cause a fight with the corp behind this ce if they find out.* *What do you mean? You just walked straight up to their lobby and started a fight!* *Nah, this is just a minor incident. Now if they find a mysterious corporation¡¯s spec op teams sneaking into their property, on the other hand, that¡¯s when it starts bing a serious problem. This is the best way to indirectly bribe them, otherwise even if they want to take a bribe, they wouldn¡¯t dare to with theirpany looking over their shoulders.* *...Whatever you say. Just give us more warning next time and watch your back while you¡¯re in there alone. Who knows if they want to teach you a lesson instead?* *Trust me, I¡¯ve been doing this for a long time.* It didn¡¯t take long for the grumbling manager to bring Flo to the 12th floor through the staff elevators, to where Erza¡¯s room was. The manager gave Flo a meaningful look as they stood outside the room. The experienced mercenary immediately transferred over some credits to him, which more than covered for the damaged counter in the lobby. The man nodded and with a slight brush of his master keycard, the door immediately clicked open. ¡°There.¡± The manager weed Flo in. ¡°Your friend¡¯s got this room for another three days. I trust that you know how to see yourself out when you¡¯re done?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll y nice and use the doors.¡± Shaking his head, the manager high-tailed out of there with surprising speed. Just as Flo had predicted, there was no ambush, no additional guards, and was actually led to Erza¡¯s room. She could immediately tell it was genuine upon spotting the contents of the room. Clothes were neatly packed away in a suitcase or hung on the rack. There was a lot of ammo in one of the suitcases, and several empty weapons cases. Flo swiftly looked past all that and reached into the cor of a jacket that was hung up. It took some effort before she found what she was looking for and moved on to the clothes on the next hanger. After that, she thoroughly searched the entire room before being satisfied. Once she was done with the room, she quietly left and returned to her own hotel. Knocking could be heard right after she closed the door. She opened the door with a smirk as she believed the boys must¡¯ve taken her warning to heart, and didn¡¯t dare to enter their hotel with their stealth tech on. ¡°So? Did you find any clues?¡± Andrew asked as he brought up the rear. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve gotten to know more details about what Erza was up to in the prior days before she lost contact.¡± Andrew waited with bated breath to hear her continue, only to be left disappointed by the stifling silence that followed. ¡°...Go on?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll keep the details to myself. All you need to know is that my initial prediction that she had run into trouble while out in a wastnd dungeon was wrong. Instead of looking outward, we should be looking inward.¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Inward?¡± Peng parroted with a confused look as he looked down at his own chest. Andrew shook his head as he ced a hand on his long-time friend¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Not inside you, silly. Inward as in the inner parts of Lion City¡­where the actual residents and power holders live.¡±
Erza - Mercenary Several days before losing contact with Flo ¡°Tell me, why did you sign up for such a boring ¡®tour guide¡¯ job?¡± A woman in herte twenties asked in a business-like manner while adjusting her lensless sses. ¡°Why else besides it align with my goals? I¡¯ve always wanted to see remnants of the civilization before us, so I guess I¡¯m just like your clients in that regard.¡± Therge woman sitting on the adjacent bar seat responded while shing a wry smile. ¡°I see. So this is a retirement gig, then?¡± ¡°...Is that a problem?¡± ¡°No, I personally prefer it, if you ask me. The only people who are better than having a well-experienced member join our team are those who are both well-experienced and can entertain our clients by chatting about the dungeons we bring them to.¡± The woman stared at Erza, awaiting some sort of expression or questions, but received no response and just a smile, so she continued. ¡°We¡¯d be happy for you to join. We¡¯re drafting up the formal documents now, but the pay is around this ballpark. Is that eptable?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not in it only for the money, anyway.¡± ¡°Ok, then. Come over to the private booth where I can introduce you to our other members while we wait for the bookworms to do their thing.¡± The twodies sent the bartender a tip as they got up, which made them gesture back appreciatively, finger-gunning their way. They didn¡¯t travel far and soon arrived in a private room where the ss walls were all cloudy, hiding the entire room from view. They went in and two otherdies were waiting within, zoned out while on their optics. ¡°Wake up Lara, Eli. We¡¯ve got a new member for the next gig.¡± The two girls looked like young teenagers, but Erza could tell they were at least mid-twenties from the skin around their necks. She would¡¯ve liked to view the back of their palms as well to be sure, but they both sported silver cyberarm recements. They had the same hairstyle with a short bob cut, but different colored hair. The first one to answer was the one with neon purple hair, Lara. ¡°Hi.¡± ¡°Hi, the name¡¯s Erza.¡± She only nodded back in response as her eyes began to glow once more, but luckily, the other girl introduced herself almost immediately after, cutting short any awkward moments before it manifested. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Eli. Don¡¯t mind Lara, she doesn¡¯t like speaking. I hope we¡¯ll be friends from now on!¡± The pale pink-haired girl responded cheerfully. After somehow dealing with the chatty Eli, Erza plopped herself onto the sofa and took a big gulp of her drink. These three are who I¡¯ll be working with for the next week or so, but I have a feeling it¡¯s going to feel much longer than that¡­
Erza - Mercenary A few dayster ¡°Fascinating. I believe this is where our ancestors once kept their strategic arsenals such as their famed missiles, with the range to reach anywhere in the world. What do you think, madam Erza?¡± ¡°Hmm, maybe, but I think it¡¯s possible it was a research center for military aircraft as well.¡± An old man thoughtfully took another scan of the spacious area he was in. He was surrounded by cold metal walls, but the ceiling stretched far above him, lightly all the way up to the surface. He was staring at everything longingly, as if it was still functional and not the derelict ruin that it now was. ¡°I can see that as well. Very fascinating indeed.¡± He smiled at therge woman beside him. ¡°I would love to speak more about what our ancestors had aplished with you, even after this expedition is over today.¡± ¡°It would be a pleasure, sir, but I have other engagements tonight.¡± ¡°I see, that¡¯s a shame¡­ Maybe another time? My offer will remain open to like-minded individuals such as yourself. Now, I believe it¡¯s about time this trip came to an end, I believe?¡± He turned his gaze to another woman, wearing lens-less sses, who had been standing off to the side. ¡°Of course, sir.¡± She quickly turned to the rest of the entourage and barked out new orders. ¡°You heard the man,dies. Don¡¯t lose focus and escort our client back.¡± At her words, two young women quickly took point, holding out a particrlyrge weapon for their frame. The weapons had a specialized scanner integrated into them, showing their users a plethora of data about their surroundings. ¡°Medium-sized drone swarm iing in thirty seconds. Do you want to divert?¡± The young woman with pale pink hair, Eli, alerted her team. ¡°Let¡¯s deal with it so our client can get back in time for dinner. Erza, you¡¯re up.¡± Grunting in response, Erza swiftly changed out the ammunition on her trusted grenadeuncher to one that was more suited against drones. She then pointed her weapon in the direction of where herpanions indicated the enemies wereing from and waited. Exactly thirty seconds after the warning from Eli, a swarm of silent drones came into view as they turned the corner and Erza immediately pulled the trigger. The grenade sailed through the air until it was just in the middle of the cluster of drones before it abruptly fried all the surrounding electronics. Erza quickly fired several more times for good measure before going on standby to reassess their situation. ¡°All targets eliminated. We¡¯re good to continue moving.¡± The pink-haired girl swiftly informed her team. With a nod of supporting from the other young woman with purple hair, the team resumed their escape and soon made it back to civilization. Once they returned, they dropped off their client next to the dome that shielded its inhabitants from the rest of the world, where only true Lion City residents could enter. ¡°Madam Erza, this is my contact info for when you¡¯re avable to discuss the relics of the past with this old man. I hope to hear from you soon.¡± ¡°Thank you, sir. I definitely will when I have the time.¡± The old man smiled at her polite answer and soon disappeared past the security checkpoint. ¡°Aren¡¯t you popr, Erza? I swear that man is trying to make you his mistress or something.¡± ¡°Come on now, Eli. I don¡¯t think Mr. Lee is that type of man from our conversations.¡± ¡°Yeah, and he¡¯s too old to be looking for romance.¡± The leader with the sses chimed in. ¡°Anyway, good work on the gig, everyone. I have to go, but the payment is already sent to your ounts. Feel free to check it.¡± ¡°Bye boss.¡± Eli quickly turned her back to her team leader as if she had already disappeared, ignoring her existence. ¡°Lara, and Erza, want to have dinner to celebrate another job well done?¡± The purple-haired girl shrugged, while the giant of the three nodded stoically. Erza had learned in the short time she had worked with the group that staying silent was the best way to keep the young woman from rambling. ¡°Okay, cool. I just have to go to the clinic real quick for my checkup. How about we meet up in two hours?¡± The two non-chatty friends nodded and Eli swiftly disappeared into a taxi. Erza also called for a ride to return to her room for a short break. She wanted to rinse out all the sand she had umted, but first, she had to perform maintenance on her equipment. Just as she finished and was about to undress in the washroom, she suddenly received a text from the friend she was scheduled to meet in a short while, along with the address to what appeared to be the clinic she said she was visiting. *I need your help, Erza! I¡¯m pinned down and there are so many of them!* Chapter 128: Silencing Mercs Chapter 128: Silencing Mercs Erza - Mercenary Immediately after hearing her new teammate¡¯s distress call, Erza instantly got dressed and prepared her weapons on instinct. She eventually slowed down, realizing it was a good idea to inform the rest of their team as well. After sending out the texts, her teammate promptly replied they were on the way and their ETAs, but both their leader, Trisha, and the purple-haired girl, Lara, were quite far away and would arriveter than her. Erza let out a sigh as she couldn¡¯t help but think back to the early days in her career when Flo had called her out as backup almost daily. She would either get into a scuffle with other mercs while trying to one up them, or for other insanely stupid reasons when they were drunk. So much had changed since those days, but some things never did. Mercenaries had to help each other in their time of need or else there would be none of them left. Erza quickly hailed a cab and went to reinforce her new friend. When she got out of her ride a block away from the clinic, her surroundings were eerily quiet. There was no one dawdling around the streets, and only the sound came from the flickering of the lights. The clinic was on the ground floor of amercial building with oncerge panels of ss walls that were now shattered all over the ground. There were a few bodies lying around the clinic, but theck of people definitely made Erza cautious. The only exnation she could think of was the fighting had been intense enough to have scared everyone out of the area. Before she could y detective, she heard sirens in the distance. She remembered that the police in Lion City weren¡¯t a joke and quickly got moving while cing a call. The call to her friend went unanswered as suspected, but to her surprise, a text soon came from the same person in question.*They¡¯re chasing me through the sewers. Pinging you my location now.* With the new location, Erza tried to download a map of the underground sewers, but was disappointed to find it wasn¡¯t publicly avable. With no choice and seeing the location of Eli wasn¡¯t far away, she began sprinting down the street to get as close as her teammate first. Once she got to roughly where the signal hade from, she began searching for an entrance and didn¡¯t hesitate to open up a manhole before jumping down. She could hear her feetnding on a wet surface before her optics changed to adapt to the low light conditions. She didn¡¯t even get to wonder where to go next when the sound of gunshots reached her ears. She instantly ran toward the sound of it and was d to notice the fighting was close. The narrow corridors of the sewers soon opened up to a muchrger tunnel, and it was also there where she spotted several people firing upon a lone girl taking cover within one of the side tunnels. Erza didn¡¯t hesitate to bring out her trusty grenadeuncher and fired off several shots toward the group targeting her friend. The high explosive round traveled a straight path toward the enemies and exploded violently. She didn¡¯t need to check to know that the enemies were all dead, given that they were caught entirely off guard in such an enclosed space. ¡°Eli, where are you? It¡¯s me!¡± she quickly shouted out, in hopes the girl was still there. The girl seemed to have stuck around as she poked her head out from the side corridor cautiously. ¡°Erza, is it clear?¡± ¡°Yeah,e out. Let¡¯s get out of this ce.¡± The two women silently hurried out of the filthy sewers and swiftly called for a ride. They only spoke once they got into the back of the automated taxi. ¡°So, why did you call me instead of your leader, Trisha?¡± Erza asked. For a moment, Erza had thought it may have been a trap, but the execution of it would be too bad if that was the case. They had much better opportunities to lead her off to a more secluded location ande up with reasons to convince her she didn¡¯t need to be as heavily armed as she currently was. ¡°That woman never answers after a gig. And before you ask, Lara wouldn¡¯t have enough firepower to deal with those guys, so you were my best choice.¡± ¡°Hm, you knew the bunch after you?¡± ¡°...Yes, a bunch of mercenaries I¡¯ve seen around.¡± Erza turned her entire body to face her and stared at her with wide eyes. ¡°A bunch of people in the business are after you? Why? You screw them over or is this some conflict about gigs?¡± ¡°No, no. Nothing like that. I¡¯m not entirely sure why they attacked me¡­but I think it¡¯s because I saw them on their gig.¡± ¡°The confidential ones?¡± Eli nodded. ¡°Well, I¡¯ve pinged Trisha and Lara with the location to meet up with us at, so we can discuss what to do there. Do you think that was thest of them?¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Of their frontline crew. Either way, they had ample time to get the word out to their QG.¡± ¡°Then we need to hurry before they¡ª¡± Before Erza could finish her words, a car suddenly pitted their vehicle. The auto drive program was easily able to regain control of the vehicle, but the two mercenaries had to worry about the upants of the other car who were lowering their windshields to point guns at them. The two experienced mercenaries quickly ducked down for cover as bullets riddled their car. ¡°Targeting attack detected. Engaging evasion maneuvers as we head toward thetest police station,¡± the speakers in the car announced. ¡°Shit. Taxi, emergency stop now!¡± Erza impatiently yelled. ¡°Let us off!¡± The car responded and swerved off to the sidewalk before abruptlying to a full stop. Erza wasted no time to smash the doors open before bringing up her grenadeuncher to bear. Her high explosive rounds went into mes upon making contact with their assant¡¯s vehicle, but it only managed to push onto the sidewalk. The car remained in good condition, likely having been reinforced with armor by its owner. Firing off several more rounds, Erza pulled Eli out of the car and began making a run for it. It didn¡¯t matter if the enemies chasing after them were taken out or not, as there must be other teams lurking around if the enemy QG was halfpetent. While going toward the police may get them off their backs, Erza also didn¡¯t want to get entangled with them, especially when she had been firing off explosives in public. The two cut across an alley toward another street before running down the stairs to the public transit station. They only slowed down to catch their breath when the doors closed behind them and the tram left the station. ¡°Whichever QG we¡¯re up against, they seem to be prepared. Do you have any hideouts in this city to let things cool down?¡± Erza asked the out of breath, Eli, as soon as she recovered. ¡°No, let me ask Trisha¡ª¡± ¡°Don¡¯t! I think they got someone monitoring ourms. We¡¯ll have to go off the grid for a while until the duration of their contract to silence witnesses expires.¡± ¡°Then what do we do?¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll find a publicms terminal to ask someone the enemy cy-specialist won¡¯t expect. I¡¯m not sure how it¡¯ll go, though.¡±
Flo - Halls Corporation ¡°I¡¯m sorry, madam, but there¡¯s nothing we can do for you. The only way to enter into the inner city is to have a resident invite you or a business to vouch for you.¡± ¡°How can I ask any of them to do that for me when you won¡¯t let me speak to any of them? Even a call will be fine!¡± ¡°If you have their contact info, then please go ahead. We, however, cannot provide you with the contact information of any of our residents. I hope you understand,¡± the office clerk responded diplomatically. Therge woman with a red cyberarm could only grit her teeth and walk away, seeing how adamant the Lion City officials were about their rules. She had found out her partner was likely in the inner city, but she couldn¡¯t find a way in. Flo stomped her feet the entire way from the government building to their car parked in a nearby alley. She hopped in and quickly exined the results to herpanions. Hearing their predicament, Andrew cleared his throat. ¡°Instruct¡ª¡± ¡°I said just Flo was fine!¡± Flo irritated corrected. ¡°...Flo, I think we should just sneak into the inner city. We should be able to do it.¡± ¡°And risk turning the entire city hostile against us and Halls Corporation? You do realize not even the big corps have a say in Lion City. It¡¯s not so easy to do as we like in their territory.¡± ¡°...Then how else are we going to get in? I don¡¯t think we have any more clues to go on.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll think of a way. Thank you for your help yo guys. You can go ahead and return to help out thepany while I work out a new angle.¡± ¡°Are you sure you have the time to spare for that? We should call for backup instead!¡± ¡°What good will more muscle do¡­?¡± ¡°Maybe our boss can think of a way. He usuallyes up with solutions on the fly. Maybe he can give us a surefire method to sneak into the inner city?¡± Faced with the pressure of knowing every second affected her chances of seeing her partner again, Flo quickly sumbed after thinking about it. ¡°Fine, let me ce the call.¡±
¡°The inner parts of Lion City¡­That¡¯s not so easy to get into from what I know. We barely have any connections to that ce.¡± ¡°...If it isn¡¯t convenient for you to lend a hand, then don¡¯t. I¡¯ll ask someone¡ª¡± ¡°Now, now Flo. I didn¡¯t say I can¡¯t help. I may not have many connections in Lion City, but that doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t have any at all. In fact, we nned on upgrading our rank within the consortium for a while now, and the Lion City Bank just so happens to frequently invite a newly promoted corp¡¯s representative over.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that just to update your ounts?¡± ¡°Yes, but I¡¯m sure they¡¯re open to further our rtionship if they go to the trouble of inviting us over. I¡¯m sure they have the power to invite guests into the inner city if I mention I would like to take a tour of it.¡± ¡°Then¡­that¡¯s great! Are you sure this isn¡¯t throwing any of your ns out of ce if you¡¯re going to promote your corporation all of a sudden?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been nning to go up two grades. I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t affect much if we tone it down and just take one step up thedder right now.¡± ¡°T¡ªThank you so much, Rollo.¡± ¡°No need. I¡¯ll see you soon.¡± With the call ended, Thorne muttered from behind me. ¡°Well, there goes ire¡¯s carefullyid out n she crafted with the finance department.¡± ¡°Hm¡­You think she¡¯d like toe along with us?¡± ¡°Well, if you can find people to rece both of you in your absence, she¡¯d be happy to not have to cover for you again.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure our new assistants have gotten used to how things work around here to manage for a few days.¡± I stared into Thorne¡¯s unconvinced eyes and sighed. ¡°Maybe I can get Leo and Lana¡¯s help as well. We should only be gone for a few days.¡± ¡°Did you forget they are already upied with investigating the case about our products malfunctioning?¡± ¡°Hey, they can delegate too! Thispany needs to be able to stand on its own two feet or else what¡¯s the point?¡± ¡°The point in what? You¡¯ll lose more control of it if we keep delegating.¡± The point is for it to be an independent money-making machine, so I get to sit back and rx. But I don¡¯t see that being possible unless we get as big as SocialCorp¡­ ¡°You know what, never mind. Let¡¯s start packing our bags for Lion City.¡± Chapter 129: Inner City Chapter 129: Inner City Exiting one of the most luxurious airports there was, a familiar woman holding a terminal with my name on it immediately greeted me. ¡°Mr. Halls, wee back to Lion City. You may not remember me, but I¡¯m Emma, who was with you during your stay herest year.¡± ¡°Ah, yes. Thank you for your help back then.¡± When in doubt, always nod and answer vaguely. ¡°I was just doing my job. Now then, if you would please follow me. We would like to retake your identification metrics as you have gone through some changes since thest time you were here and then go over the new terms now that yourpany has be an F-ss corporation.¡± She said, while eyeing my cyberware. Iplied and was led to the Bank of Lion City¡¯s headquarters, which was a gigantic megabuilding in itself. It was located just on the border of the inner and outer city, where Lion City residents were segregated from foreigners. I was taken to a hospital-like room, fully equipped with a plethora of medical equipment. Various nurses each handled a device to perform a number of medical examinations on me. I made sure to have my sensitive cybeics hidden by the same tech my active camouge relied on. It should be enough to prevent their scanning and probing. Still, I got nervous about the battery levels as the examination continued, but I was thankfully released before they ran out. Emma then came back to pick me up and brought me to a standard meeting room, where sheid out a terminal with the updated terms of service before me.¡°As an F-ss member of the Elevate City Consortium now, you are entitled to superior rates when using particr selections of our services. We will also try to make your banking experience with us as easy as possible.¡± ¡°Any specifics?¡± ¡°It varies, but we will be able to help you facilitate small transactions on your behalf. I believe you already heard about the ¡®services¡¯ you may request from the Elevate City Police Force from your acquaintances. We are able to facilitate timely payments when you need such a service and act as the middleman.¡± At her words, I was reminded of what Joey had told me a while ago, about the perks an F-ss corporation enjoyed. We would be able to make use of the police force to help us investigate or resolve small matters. The famed ECPD would never risk their lives and fight for anyone, but anything else that was free from danger and they could grease their pockets, they would likely do without hesitation. At the same time, I was surprised she knew I had already been made aware of the perks I would receive as an F-ss corporation. Joey had spoken to me in a public setting, but quite concerning such information had spread. It made me even more cautious against the behemoth that was Lion City. While ensuring I was still wearing a facade, I reviewed the documents and signed them. ¡°Thank you. I have confirmed that you have signed the updated terms of service. Please allow me to show you and yourpanions to your amodations.¡± Just likest time, they nned to offer amodations to me at their expense. It was for a full week this time, and it honestly felt refreshing having the entire trip be free, but I doubt promoting a corporation¡¯s tier rank was thatmon. It was too bad I wasn¡¯t here to just enjoy the luxury, as I had another objective in mind. I walked over to the window while waiting for the elevator and looked out into the city. ¡°Emma, is it possible for me to take a tour of the inner parts of Lion City?¡± ¡°Umm¡­Please give me a moment.¡± Her gaze wandered and unfocused as she looked into my request. For a big entity like the Bank of Lion City, it shouldn¡¯t be an issue to get a foreigner into the inner city, but the problem was just how willing they were to oblige to my request. They didn¡¯t benefit from this in any way except earning my goodwill, while they would likely be responsible for any issues that arise due to me. ¡°Mr. Halls, was there a particr reason or ce you would like to visit in the inner city?¡± They would likely have someone surveilling me at all times while in the inner city, too. ¡°I just wanted to take a look at how Lion City residents lived their lives, so maybe a stroll around wherever I¡¯m permitted?¡± Emma responded after another brief pause. ¡°We should be able to get you a pass to enter the inner city in two days, but please do note that you will have to enter alone without bringing any weapons or guards.¡± ¡°Very well. Thank you for arranging this for me.¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy to be of use.¡± After my business meeting with the Bank of Lion City, I quickly stowed my luggage in my new amodations before rendezvousing with my employees. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Flo, did you guys learn anything new?¡± ¡°...Wee Rollo, and no¡­we¡¯re still working on it.¡± I nced over at Andrew, who was staring at the ground, and shook my head. ¡°So the only thing we know is that Erza may be in the inner city? Is there anything else I can use to find her? I got permission to go in, by the way.¡± ¡°We¡­no. We¡¯re still looking into it. All we know is that she was doing gigs that led her into the wastnd prior to her heading into the inner city somehow.¡± ¡°Wait, so she went there willingly?¡± ¡°Yes, I can confirm she left notes saying so.¡± This is only getting moreplicated the more I learn. ¡°In that case¡­¡± I mused, ¡°I assume you¡¯re already finding anyone she may have had contact with during her time here. Her QG, other mercs, everyone?¡± ¡°Yes, no luck so far. It¡¯s like they¡¯ve all gone to the ground.¡± Andrew chimed in. ¡°There¡¯s nothing much we can do but keep trying¡­¡±
We continued our investigation into the next day. Flo and Andrew¡¯s team had been looking into the QGs and mercenaries in the dungeon delving scene while Thorne and I began looking at ces Erza may have previously visited. There were numerous ces they could¡¯ve visited with the huge numbers of mercenaries in Lion City, but Flo¡¯s previous investigation had already given us several potential bars Erza frequented. With that information, it was only a matter of time until we gained ess to the camera footage. ¡°Do you know any of these people here with Erza, Flo?¡± I asked as soon as I sat down during our lunch meeting to review our findings. ¡°No. Fresh faces, but I think they¡¯re the team I heard about from Erza. I¡¯d never met them or spoken with them, so we¡¯ll have to start looking into them, too.¡± Flo¡¯s eyes took on a glow as she began reaching out to her contacts while I nced over at Andrew. ¡°Any updates on your end?¡± He frowned and hesitated for a moment before speaking. ¡°...Yes, and no.¡± ¡°What do you mean? Spit it out already.¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t found anything new, but I think there¡¯s been others trying to look into Erza as well.¡± ¡°...Why do you think that?¡± ¡°The people I¡¯ve spoken to. Nothing definitive, but I¡¯m pretty sure judging from the way they¡¯re acting.¡± ¡°...We¡¯ll have to find Erza¡¯s teammates first to learn more. You guys should¡ª¡± Before I could finish, Flo interjected. ¡°Found them. I¡¯m calling them now.¡±
¡°Mr. Halls, here is your visitor¡¯s pass. No weapons are allowed inside, so please leave them with your men before you head inside.¡± Emma, our contact from the Bank of Lion City, carefully handed me a thin metal te. I didn¡¯t doubt there was a tracker on it, but I still epted it with a smile. I wasted no time and immediately headed for the giant dome that the inner city was encapsted in. The entrance appeared to be unguarded, and the ss walls there seemed flimsy. But as a city-state that could even stand up torge corporations, it was a fool¡¯s errand to underestimate them. Emma followed closely behind me until I reached the entrance, where I simply had to tap my visitor pass for the doors to swing open. Inside was a dimly lit corridor that stretched further than the eyes could see. ¡°Do I just continue walking?¡± I turned to ask Emma. She nodded before taking the lead. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be worried about, Mr. Halls. Every resident turning to the inner city takes this same path.¡± Following along, I reined in my urge to scan my surroundings with my Argus. As hard as it was to detect the scans, it was better safe than sorry. I was pretty confident this corridor was filled with sensors that tried to see through me and had measures against any harmful elements I may bring to the city, whether willing or unwilling. I¡¯m sure there were more than one or two corporations that would like to infiltrate this ce with something like my Nyes. I wasn¡¯t arrogant enough to try myself with no good reason to do so. I could soon see the light at the end of the hallwaying from the inner city. When we walked out of the corridor, I couldn¡¯t help but be a little disappointed at how in the ce looked. There were many buildings like in any metropolis, all right. However, they all looked the exact same, with a dreary grey as the main color. It didn¡¯t take long to spot the residents after I got outside, dressed casually, and going about their lives. Seeing their expressions, it finally hit that the inner city was different from the usual city. The people here didn¡¯t seem stressed at all times or worked until they looked like lifeless drones. They had life in them and seemed happy. A sight I hadn¡¯t seen on this scale ever since I came to this world. As I passed by more residents of Lion City, I began to realize I was drawing a lot of attention. I turned back to Emma, who was following along with a neutral expression. ¡°Is it that easy to tell for the people around here that I¡¯m an outsider?¡± ¡°Yes, your military-grade cybeic limbs give it away instantly. It is not legal for normal citizens to use powerful models like yours, and security personnel must change into a civilian model while not in uniform.¡± ¡°...I see. You sure seem to know a lot. Have you lived here your entire life?¡± ¡°Oh no. Only one side of my family is from here. I studied in Elevate City growing up, which is why they trust me to deal with clients such as yourself. The average Lion City resident wouldn¡¯t be¡­a good fit when dealing with some types of corpos.¡± I took in her words as we continued to walk around aimlessly. The aromatic smell of food drew my attention, and I nced over at a busy side street that was crowded with people and restaurants. To my pleasant surprise, the food here was all made of authentic ingredients and I couldn¡¯t help staring at the various residents, wondering what they did for a living to be able to afford the luxury. I think even back in my world, there are a few rich cities with insanely high GDP per capita. They never had arge poption, but an entire city of rich people, huh¡­ After sampling the food to my content, I prepared myself and tried my luck with my request. ¡°Actually, I heard one of my friends is currently in this city as well. Do you think you can take me to them?¡± ¡°You have a friend who¡¯s a resident?¡± Emma looked back skeptically. ¡°No, they were invited in, like me. I heard someone by the name of Robert Victis Lee invited them. Do you think you can help me find them?¡± ¡°Give me one moment.¡± She said before quickly turning around and mumbling something. I could only silently stand there as I waited for the moment of truth. Chapter 130: Connections Chapter 130: Connections I patiently waited as Emma was on call to see to my request to visit a resident around here. I wished I could have done my own investigation into this Robert Lee, but there wasn¡¯t much we could find of an inner-city resident from the outside world. Lion City wasn¡¯t one of the ces where you could easily do what you wanted with just some bribes or exerting influence by unting your might. Their government may be known as draconian, but they upheld their order relentlessly and cared for their citizens. It took a whole ten minutes before Emma¡¯s call ended. ¡°I have gotten into contact with the man in question and he has agreed for me to bring you to him.¡± ¡°Great! Thanks!¡± ¡°No need to thank me. Every citizen here has the right to invite their guests over, which also means this wouldn¡¯t have happened if your friend declined to meet with you. I am just the messenger.¡± She stopped to nce over at a car pulling up. ¡°If you would please follow me, Mr. Halls. We should be able to get there within twenty minutes.¡± We got into the car and slowly made our way through the traffic. I watched as we passed by numerous buildings that all looked simr until we arrived at what appeared to be themercial district. The high rises were reced with spacious low-rise malls with the side streets between them filled with various stores and food markets. Watching the crowd of people as they happily shopped was somewhat surreal. None of them were cautious of their surroundings as they merrily enjoyed themselves with their family. It was a stark difference from the usual people who always had one hand hovering over their weapons or were eyeing the nearest escape paths.It may be because weapons were banned here, with strict enforcement, and criminals were swiftly dealt with, but either way, it was refreshing seeing everyone so rxed. We soon cut through themercial district and came into another boring residential district, and the car stopped outside one of the many apartmentplexesmon throughout the inner city. Entering the lobby, Emma walked up to the terminal by the entrance and entered several digits, and a call was ced. It was quickly picked up and the camera above the terminal lit up. ¡°Hi, Mr. Lee. I¡¯m Emma and this is Mr. Halls. We spoke on the phone earlier.¡± ¡°Yes, pleasee in.¡± The doors buzzed open, and we made our way toward the elevators. The elevator doors opened with a joyful family walked out, holding their toddler¡¯s hand as theyughed and talked. It made me feel I came to the wrong ce to be searching for a battle-hardened mercenary. We came up to the fifteenth floor and Emma led me to unit 1513. The door immediately opened as we drew near without even having to knock and an old man with a head full of white hair greeted us. Following behind him was arge woman who cautiously peeked out at us, but her eyes softened the moment our gazes met. ¡°Thank you for bringing our acquaintance here, Ms. Emma. Please feel free toe in as well.¡± ¡°No need to thank me. I¡¯m just doing my job. I¡¯ll be waiting outside.¡± Emma dubiously nced back and forth between me, the old man, and Erza behind him before backing away, seeing that there was nothing wrong. The old man then gestured for me to go in and the door closed behind me, separating me from my guide for the first time since entering the inner city. ¡°A pleasure meeting you, Mr. Halls. You might¡¯ve heard, but I¡¯m Robert Victis Lee. You can call me Robert. I hear that you¡¯re a friend of Erza, here.¡± The old man said as he shook my hand. ¡°The pleasure is mine, Robert. Please call me Rollo as well.¡± I looked over at the woman beside him. ¡°So Erza, got an exnation of what¡¯s going on? You know Flo¡¯s been searching for you.¡± She hesitated and nced over at Robert, then towards a room in the back. Seeing her gaze, Robert took the hint. ¡°That¡¯s right¡­ How could I forget to serve tea to guests? Old age sure makes people forgetful. If you would excuse me for a moment. Please make yourself at home.¡± As he walked off to the kitchen, Erza led me toward the room in the back. We entered a bedroom, and I could see a lump on the bed, underneath the nkets. Our movements had awoken the person who had been resting there, causing them to sit up and reveal their visage to me. It was a girl with pink hair and one that I recognized as Erza¡¯s teammate from the camera footage we dredged up yesterday. ¡°Can you tell me what¡¯s going on now, Erza?¡± She looked over at her friend before nodding. ¡°A certain QG is after us for¡­unknown reasons.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. ¡°Not unknown reason, because I saw them during their gig and they want to silence me now!¡± The pink-haired girl interjected. ¡°We¡¯re still not sure about that.¡± Erza shook her head at the girl. ¡°Rollo, we don¡¯t know much. Eli here suddenly got attacked after a trip to the clinic, and whichever QG it is, they were relentless. They kept sending people after us right away, so we decided to make use of our connections, and here we are.¡± ¡°You guys sure made some unique connections around here.¡± I looked back toward the door and couldn¡¯t help but use my Argus to perform a quick scan, only to find the old man still a distance away in the kitchen. ¡°Mr. Lee is a nice person, but he doesn¡¯t know about any of this. He simply invited us over to chat, and the inner city of Lion City happened to be a very safe ce.¡± ¡°I see, but I doubt you could stay here indefinitely. You should leave with me and we¡¯ll deal with those ¡®problems¡¯ as theye up. I have Flo and some of my men here. We can handle it.¡± ¡°...We can still stay here for a few more days. I think we should make full use of it. If wee back with you, their lookouts will notice immediately and a big fight may break out then and there. You should go inform Flo and have your men catch them off guard.¡± ¡°Not a bad n, though we still don¡¯t know who we¡¯re dealing with, right?¡± ¡°Eli said she recognized some of the mercenaries after us, so it must be someone from around the area she is usually in. Eli, why don¡¯t you name off every QG that you suspect?¡± The girl held her gaze at Erza for a moment before alternating between us. ¡°...You want me to reveal all my contacts to some corpo? I won¡¯t be able to deal with them ever again if they find out, and trust me, they will. Every single one that this corpo friend of yours goes near will sour an important connection for me, so no thanks.¡± I wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with how every mercenary needed to know how to keep their mouths shut. It was simply how themon folks protected themselves from the corporate overlords, so Ipletely understood where she wasing from. Still, not having any intel to go on will prolong this by quite a bit¡­ ¡°...I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯re the target of their gigs and they just want to silence you because of their other job, right?¡± I asked the mercenary girl. ¡°It¡¯s not umon to have in their contracts to silence any witnesses when on certain types of gigs.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t suppose going around threatening QGs is a good idea. Do you know how we can stop it, then?¡± ¡°...I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯ve never been on this end of it before and we usually don¡¯t stop until the QG tells us to.¡± ¡°So there¡¯s like a contract expiration on these types of jobs, or can I negotiate with them?¡± If it was possible, I¡¯d rather not go around hunting QGs. I relied on them often enough that I didn¡¯t want to close any doors to theirmunity, even if it was out here in Lion City. Besides, they weren¡¯t that easy to hunt down, as they each likely were used to corporations gunning for their head. Information was their trade, and I would be a fool to believe they didn¡¯t know how to keep themselves safe. ¡°Maybe¡­I don¡¯t know.¡± I took a peek at Erza, who shrugged in reply. ¡°Anyway¡­We¡¯ll go look into it first. Now that we can contact you through this Robert person, we¡¯ll stay in touch.¡± It was annoying how the inner city¡¯sms were isted, but now that we knew who to reach, our messages should be able to be redirected to them. We may not be able to ce a direct call through, but texts should work, albeit with a slight dy. ¡°Wait, how did you find Mr. Lee in the first ce? We need to look into it in case someone else uses your method to find us.¡± Erza grabbed my sleeve as I tried to turn around. ¡°Oh, no need to worry about that. We found your other team members, and they told us about who you knew from the inner city when we asked.¡± ¡°So Lara and Trisha are okay! Can you help me send a video recording to them? I¡¯ll do it right away!¡± Eli excitedly chimed in. ¡°Sure¡­You got anything else you want me to bring to Flo, Erza? Maybe a message as well?¡± ¡°No thanks. I¡¯ll see her soon enough.¡± ¡°She¡¯s been pretty worried about you, but suit yourself¡­¡±
¡°You realize whichever QG is responsible for hunting them down isn¡¯t going to be willing to hear us out, right?¡± Thorne dryly stated, with arms crossed. I looked at each person sitting in my hotel room, and they all seemed to agree with him. ¡°They should already know we¡¯re here and are keeping an eye on us to avoid us entirely,¡± Flo added. ¡°That means we¡¯ve already got their attention. Now we just need to convey our intentions to them.¡± ¡°Rollo, you¡¯re oversimplifying this. They¡¯ve got someone or something tracking us, sure, but QGs are elusive people. They wouldn¡¯t want to entertain you for even a moment overms, in case you were trying to track them down or trick them somehow,¡± Andrew rified. ¡°Then what? We should do as they feared and track them down so they listen to us? We should send a message to them through a third party or something, then. Maybe find one of their mercs?¡± ¡°No merc will y along with corpos like us when they¡¯re not sure if we¡¯re plotting against them,¡± Flo said as she took arge swig from her sk. ¡°...¡± Silence filled my room for a moment as we each brainstormed for ideas. We had a few days left until the time was up when Erza and her friend Eli would have to leave the inner city and fighting would re up. ¡°We should just hunt down every single mercenary that took the job,¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°...You want to go murder a bunch of mercenaries just doing their job when they¡¯re also our main customer base? Word will spread you know, we¡¯d earn quite a reputation alright¡­a repugnant one.¡± I drained my cup of milkshake as I fell in thought until the sound of me slurping air broke my concentration. ¡°How about we find an expert in these types of negotiation to be our third party instead? One that is used to handling both corpos and QGs.¡± ¡°What do you mean, Rollo? I don¡¯t think any corps around here specialize in providing negotiators.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not talking about a corpo, Thorne. I¡¯m talking about a third-party QG. They would know best how to negotiate with their peers and would naturally be able to contact them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­actually a pretty good idea¡­¡± Seeing everyone in the room nod in agreement, I wasted no time and ced a call to Erza¡¯s mercenary friends. ¡°Hey Trisha, we found Erza and Eli. I have something they wanted to give you and a question for you as well. Can youe over here right now to discuss something as well?¡± Chapter 131: The Corpo Way of Searching Chapter 131: The Corpo Way of Searching After we spoke with Erza¡¯s teammates, we found the contact information for one of the QGs they normally worked with. It took a bit of convincing and reassuring before Trisha, their team leader, was willing to hand it over. I was thankful that Eli¡¯s message had informed them of the situation, so they were willing to cut me some ck and take a risk by working with us. Once we saw the mercenaries off, I immediately ced a call to the new contact I received. The call was answered on the second ring. ¡°Speak.¡± Unlike what I expected from the name, a deep voice curtly responded. ¡°Is this Zenith?¡± ¡°You give your name first, Corpo.¡± Thest part of his words was filled with thorns, giving me pause as I thought about how to go about the conversation. I guess passing myself off with my Cloak identity was off the table. Then again, I wasn¡¯t nning on it while I was outside Elevate City, anyway. ¡°I¡¯m Rollo. I take it you know what I¡¯m contacting you for since you were expecting my call?¡±¡°Maybe. But I want to hear it from you.¡± ¡°...I was hoping you could act as our middlemen to negotiate with the QG that is targeting your acquaintances.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°We n to give them mary concessions and a promise to stay out of their business if they give up on their manhunt.¡± ¡°Just money isn¡¯t going to buy anyone reputation in my line of work. Your talks will fail.¡± ¡°...Then what type of concessions do you think will work?¡± ¡°Not my job to advise you.¡± ¡°Okay, fine¡­I would like to hire you to help me. Will you do it?¡± ¡°For the right price.¡± ¡°I thought you just said money can¡¯t solve the problem?¡± ¡°The price is to do an errand.¡± ¡°...Stop ying games and just spit out what you want.¡± ¡°Not over thems. Come to this address.¡± I immediately received a ping with an address and the call was cut short. Inspecting the address, I found it was for some bar in the district where mercenaries regrly hang out. What is with mercs all hanging around bars? Do they all really like to drink that much? I shook my head as I got Thorne, Flow, and Andrew¡¯s team up to speed before preparing to set off. We pulled right on the lot in front of the bar and did some sweeping around until Andrew¡¯s team deemed it wasn¡¯t a trap and I could go on in. Only Thorne came with me as the rest spread out to set up a defensive position or stealthily went ahead to clear the way. As soon as I entered, I found the interior of the building filled with smoke and people who were merrily conversing. I could spot many of them gathered around tables and were currently engaged in gambling. The bartender didn¡¯t seem to be busy, so I approached her and took out my personal terminal. With the address pulled up on the screen, I held it toward her. ¡°I¡¯m meeting someone here. It says booth #01. Where is that?¡± She gave me a polite business smile before pointing behind me. I turned around to find a clouded ss panel near the center of the room. Within seconds, the ss began clearing up. ¡°You can¡¯t miss it. It¡¯s got the best spot around.¡± Once the ss wallspletely cleared, I could spot a man with the physique of a gori standing on the other side of the ss staring towards me. I took to exchange looks with Thorne. ¡°That guy is bigger than you, and he doesn¡¯t even have any visible chrome.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just those well-hidden cybeics that all the high-level corpos use, right?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t be sure from afar, but he seems organic to me. Maybe some of those bio mods that are popr in Europa. It should have a market around here too, since the inner residents here aren¡¯t a fan of cybeics.¡± We didn¡¯t stand around and chat for much longer as we made our way toward the private room that oversaw the entire establishment. The gori-like man had stared at us for the entire duration of our small trip towards him. At least he opened the door for us when we got close. When the doors closed behind us, I witnessed the clear transparent ss turn back cloudy. I surveyed the room and found that only the muscr man was inside besides Thorne and me. ¡°I¡¯m Rollo. Are you Zenith?¡± He slowly walked back to his seat and gestured for me to take a seat across from him before he replied. ¡°Correct. I am Zenith.¡± ¡°I¡¯m here in person, as you requested. Can you tell me what you want now?¡± Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Yes, it is secure here.¡± He picked up a terminal and ced it on the low table between us. ¡°Find and capture this man, and scrub the criminal records for the names on the list.¡± I read the tablet and found the details of the people listed on it. They all had onemonality in that they werest seen in Elevate City and were mercenaries by profession. ¡°I¡¯m not looking to do jobs for you as payment. Can¡¯t you just ept credits? I¡¯m willing to pay a premium to speed things along.¡± ¡°This is my price. I doubt other QGs would agree to take this job from you for just credits. You can try reaching out to them, but trust me, I am your best bet.¡± It was annoying how QGs became less cooperative ever since my corpo identity had taken the main stage. They always made dealing with them soplicated. It¡¯s like they were the scheming corpo in our rtionship now, always trying to get ahead of me. ¡°...Is there a time limit?¡± ¡°No. But I work on your negotiations only after I got confirmation youpleted the job.¡± ¡°How confident are you in getting the other QG to back off?¡± ¡°Very. I will make use of my connections and favors I¡¯m owed to get him to y out the contract. Much more effective than just money.¡± ¡°So we are giving him money, too.¡± He looked at me with a serious expression before nodding. ¡°Money makes the world go round. But it is only effective whenbined with my social capital.¡± I nced over at Thorne, who only shrugged, and didn¡¯tment. I sighed before epting his request. ¡°I¡¯ll make some calls and see what we can do. It shouldn¡¯t take long, maybe a day or so, before we get results. I expect you to start reaching out to that QG as soon as I send you proof the job is done.¡± The towering QG nodded, stood up, and reached over to shake my hand. ¡°Deal.¡± I shook his hand as Imanded my SAID to ce a call back to my headquarters.
ire - Halls Corporation ¡°I don¡¯t know, Rollo. Lucy and her department are busy enough as it is. It won¡¯t be easy for them to suddenly find this person.¡± ire replied to her friend and boss over the video call. ¡°I know, they¡¯re shorthanded. That¡¯s why I called you. You should be able to do most of the legwork if you use our new power with the police.¡± ¡°The¡­ECPD?¡± ¡°Yes, don¡¯t you remember? We¡¯re a proper F-ss corporation now. They should be willing to help us as long as we make it worth their while.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the first I¡¯ve heard of this. We can order the police around now?¡± ire narrowed her eyes at her boss. ¡°Didn¡¯t tell you? It¡¯s one of the perks of going up a tier¡­.¡± ¡°No! You didn¡¯t!¡± ¡°...Well, just keep in mind they¡¯re open to helping us only if they have no skin in the game. They won¡¯t fight for you or anything.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. That¡¯smon sense with those losers. I¡¯ll check it out and keep you updated. See you soon.¡± ire shook her head as she stood up once the call ended. She couldn¡¯t wrap her head around the fact that they could now order around the police of all people nowadays. They had been an oppressive yet useless bunch throughout her life. She was taught to stay away from them from an early age. She went over the files Rollo had sent over on the terminal, a detailed description from the Bank of Lion City on the procedures of how to invoke the assistance of the police through them. All the payments could easily be handled by the bank. The only part she was examining in detail was the liaisons she was supposed to reach out to. After spending some time going over the numerous liaisons she could select from, she ced the call. ¡°Hello, this is Ynde speaking.¡± A feminine yet uppity voice responded energetically. ¡°Hi, I wanted to ce a request for assistance with the ECPD. I¡¯m sending you our code and credentials.¡± ire swiftly sent over the packets the bank had provided for her, allowing her recipient to be assured of their payment. ¡°Of course, ma¡¯am. Just give me a second to confirm¡­and there. Can you tell me what your assistance request entails?¡± ¡°Um¡­I want to ess the ECPD¡¯s resources to search for an individual and adjust some records that I believed had been wrongfully written.¡± ¡°Understood! I¡¯m sending you the relevant forms now. Please let me know if you have any questions.¡± As ire went over the documents, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the person she was talking to was part of the police force or the bank. Liaisons were documented to be prior members who now work for the bank, but she wondered if that was true, considering their extensive ess to the policework. She quickly shook away her thoughts as Ynde was ready to proceed. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯ve sent you some ess codes that you can ry to your cyber security department. They should be able to set up the initial connections to the relevant databases.¡± Having received what she wanted, ire wasted no time and sent the code to Lana. While she had been continuously learning about cyber security, a year or so of training wasn¡¯t going to make her an expert. Shepiled and sent off a brief summary to her while she made her way down to where the cy-sec department was. ire walked into the office and found all the employees there busying away on their terminals. In one particr corner, a frequent cky noise rang out from the single mechanical keyboard being used in the room. The woman on it typed at tremendously fast speeds and had several keyboards sprawled before her. ¡°Lana, were you able to gain ess?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m in right now¡­¡± The sound of clicking didn¡¯t stop, but intensified instead. ¡°And¡­ there, done. I¡¯ve connected it to a new database I just set up. You should be able to ess the information much easier from now on once you send them a request. The files you wanted to be changed are done, too. Now that only leaves the search for your friendly merc here.¡± ire leaned over to peek at the terminal, showcasing the internal police database where records of almost every resident were stored. Lana pulled out a chair from out of nowhere for ire and tilted her screen over before continuing her work. ¡°Searching now for one Issac Tannic¡­there¡¯s only a few dozen within the hundreds of millions of people in this city. Great¡­¡± re watched as the screen changed quickly from one profile sheet to another. It had a detailed record of the person listed on there, with information regarding their residence, biometrics, history, assets, and even travel records. With Lana¡¯s speed, it wasn¡¯t long before she went over all the suspects before she narrowed in on the one. ¡°This guy should be it, right? Everything matches, from his ce of origin, Lion City, down to his cybeic profile.¡± ¡°...Yes, that should be him. What information does it have on him?¡± A few key pressester, Lana brought up all the important details on the screen. It had his ID, contact information, and more importantly, his address. ¡°Got it! I¡¯ll get the intel department to follow up to see if he¡¯s there and capture him if he is.¡± ¡°You have fun, then. Was there anything else you needed before I dove back into my own stuff? Anyone you need to look up?¡± ¡°...Umm, not really. Wait! Can you look up Rollo and Thorne for me? I want to see their profile.¡± ire dered with a smirk. ¡°You know he¡¯s our boss, right?¡± ¡°Come on, pleaseeee!¡± ire tugged on Lana¡¯s shoulders and employed her puppy eyes, eliciting a sigh from her. ¡°Fine, but it¡¯s entirely your responsibility.¡± ¡°Love you!¡± As Lana began her search, ire hummed a tune to herself as she thought up pranks she could pull when the two came back. They deserve it for always leaving at the drop of a hat with all their work! ¡°Hey ire,¡± Lana shook her friend out of her scheming. ¡°Look at this¡­Rollo¡¯s file ispletely scrubbed clean. All this information here is just junk and ceholders¡­ None of it is urate.¡± ¡°What? But he shouldn¡¯t have had ess to the database before! We just became an F-ss corporation not long ago. It should be impossible for him to have done it¡­!¡± Chapter 132: Mercenary Contracts Chapter 132: Mercenary Contracts ¡°Rollo, your profile in the ECPD database has been tampered with!¡± ire¡¯s voice rang out through the video call. ¡°What do you mean, my profile has been tampered with?¡± ¡°Here, take a look. Your information on it is just ceholders. They don¡¯t even try to hide that fact.¡± My profile has been tampered with? Immediately, the thought of that powerful man who had once saved me out in the wastnd came into my mind. Judging by what he had said, he must¡¯ve been surveilling me. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising for someone like that to have tampered with my information, but that left me wondering about the motive. He was protecting me for some reason, but I struggled to find how that could benefit him. That was why I had tried to keep him out of my mind, as there wasn¡¯t much I could do about it. As long as they weren¡¯t hostile, I could ignore them for now. However, if it was possible, I¡¯d like to learn more about them so I could prepare for the scenario of when their stance on me takes a turn for the worse. It wasn¡¯t definite that my mysterious savior was behind the tampering, though. Police records weren¡¯t secure and any F-ss corporation or above could have essed them. There was a possibility it could be an unknown corporation or even one of my allies. For all I know, it could be Joey, but regardless, I couldn¡¯t narrow down their objective. ¡°Rollo, do you hear me? Your profile has been tampered with! Do you have any idea who could have done it and why?¡±ire¡¯s voice brought me back from my mulling, allowing me to refocus on what was important. ¡°Forget about that for now. We¡¯ll look into itter. Did youplete the tasks I asked you to do?¡± ¡°...Fine, I¡¯ll have Lucy look into it. And yeah, wepleted your stupid tasks. Your target is boarding a ne to Lion City soon.¡± ¡°Good. Then I¡¯m going to go talk to the QG. The more time we have left, the better.¡± No one knew how negotiations would go, even with the help of another local QG. It was important to have some time to prepare responses to unforeseen circumstances. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re wee.¡± ¡°Thanks, ire. Catch youter.¡± With that, I quickly hung up so I could make another call. ¡°Zenith, wepleted your job.¡± ¡°...Where is the man?¡± ¡°Sending you a file now.¡± I forwarded the file I received earlier that had the photos and videos of the man we had captured for Zenith. It was also our proof that we were definitively bringing him over. ¡°Very well. I will begin negotiations. You should drop by my ce, it is the same asst time. By the time you get here, there should be news.¡± With some traffic, it took me over half an hour to arrive at the bar where Zenith operated out of. I entered his private room and met eyes with the man with the stature of a gori. ¡°You have news, you said?¡± ¡°Yes. As I said, it won¡¯t be a problem for me to be sessful in the negotiations, as long as I am willing to spend my social capital.¡± ¡°So they¡¯ll stop hunting Flo and Eli now?¡± ¡°No, not immediately. I have studied the terms with Pater and have agreed to wait out the remaining five-day term before declining to renew it. They will still put up a show that they¡¯re still continuing with the hunt, but the threat level is low.¡± That meant there¡¯d be a few days Flo and Eli would still be targeted when they left the inner city. It should be fine if we bring them somewhere with high security. Maybe a high-ss hotel or something¡­
¡°Cheers! Erza and Eli¡¯s survival!¡± Flo dered as she raised her pint in the air. Several days had passed since we had sessfully gotten someone to negotiate with the QG that was targeting Eli and Erza, and they would officially stop the hunt today, as indicated in their contract. I heard their employer tried to convince the QG to continue their hunt, but they skillfully used the excuse that they were busy with another big job. I was d things ended without bloodshed and we could peacefully drink together without having lost anyone. ¡°So anyway, now that it¡¯s over, can you tell us what you saw, Eli?¡± Flo asked as she pped the back of the person she was interrogating. ¡°Ouch! I don¡¯t really know. They were just picking out some cybeics at the clinic.¡± ¡°You almost got yourself and Erza killed cuz you saw them shopping for chrome? What has the worlde to?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like the other party had any intention of listening to me. It¡¯s their job to dispose of any potential witnesses, so I kind of get it¡­But it sure turns me off from taking any gigs against other people. I¡¯d much rather stick to the dungeons or wastnd mutants.¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The drinking and teasing intensified as the night went by. With the matter resolved, it was time for me to turn back to my own matters regarding the potential product defect of our products. With my next flight booked for tomorrow night, I slept in the next day before heading out to the wastnd to grind some experience points before my flight. It was a good way to kill time and an opportunity I didn¡¯t want to miss, as the wastnd was the best ce for me to gain experience points in a rtively safe fashion. We had to rent a local vehicle, but we could still make use of our Argus to detect the nests of mutants. It was no surprise that the first one we found was underneath a ruin in the underground tunnels. ¡°Rollo, look at those prints¡­We¡¯ve got some crawlers with a lot of feet.¡± ¡°Scans show there¡¯s quite a few of them,¡± I stated as I readied my SMG with the smart ammunition. I just hope they give a good amount of experience. I¡¯d rather not hunt mutants that are only one point per kill. We moved into the underground tunnels that were once an underground subway. We didn¡¯t even make it to the subway tforms themselves before we picked up the sound of something scuttling toward us. It wasn¡¯t long before we turned to the corner to find the source of the noise. Dozens and dozens of giant centipedes crawled toward us. ¡°You might want to rely on a gun for this one, Thorne. Make sure we have a clear path of retreat for when they get too close.¡± As I pulled the trigger, I caught sight of Thorne nodding beside me as he stowed his wrist de and took hold of his rifle from his sling. +5 EXP +5 EXP +5 EXP +5 EXP Our first few shots eliminated the mutant centipedes with no problem, but the sound of our attacks made the mutants scramble in different directions. Some climbed up on the walls, but they continued creeping in our direction. I got into the zone and settled into a routine of shooting and reloading. What I didn¡¯t expect was when I was loading a new mag, one of the mutants had approached quite close by clinging to the ceiling. The giant centipede wasted no time and opened its mouth. A green blob wasunched toward us, instantly startling me. ¡°Poison!¡± I dove out of the way and instantly scanned my surroundings as I had let up my shooting. I found that spot where I had been sizzling, as the projectile was likely acid instead of the poison, which I had thought. Just as I got back on my feet, something pushed me back to the ground again. I looked up to find Thorne skewering one of the centipedes with his wrist de, but the acid was sizzling on the de as well. He would need a recement after this for sure. I jumped to my feet once more and beganying down fire as we regained our foothold. Having learned that these monsters had mutated and gained a ranged attack, I took on a more cautious approach as we continued our hunt deeper into the subway. Before long, the world fell silent once more and no more critters crawled toward us by the time we made it to the subway tracks. ¡°Keep watch real quick, Thorne. I¡¯m going to scan the area for any stragglers.¡± Seeing him nod in response, I quicklymanded my Argus to perform several scans. Several lifeforms were detected that instantly drew my attention. I nced over the information and found there were numerous mutants around us, but the ones closest to us weren¡¯t the mutants. ¡°Thorne, we¡¯ve got humanpany!¡± I quickly linked the results to him and activated our data sharing. This allowed us to both use our active camouge and keep track of each other, but we had to be fairly close to each other or else the wastnd¡¯s natural jamming effect would make us lose connection. We both didn¡¯t hesitate to go into stealth as soon as our connection was made and crept toward the humans we detected. They were in a room where thebel had faded with time, but I believed should be a staff room considering there weren¡¯t many other possibilities on the subway tform. With the closed door in our way, we pulled one of the oldest tricks we still employed and knocked on the door as we prepared to charge in when there was a gap. We watched for several tens of seconds and found the door hadn¡¯t budged. In fact, our scans showed the people inside hadn¡¯t moved at all since we knocked. I quickly released my Nyes to take a peek at what was on the other side of the door. I watched as they strolled through the empty room all the way to the back where a drape blocked the view of where the people I had detected were. When the Nyes attempted to cross the drape, I abruptly lost connection with them. ¡°...Want to break it down?¡± I whispered. ¡°Sure. Allow me,¡± Thorne replied with a slight tinge of excitement in his voice. From his figure, I could see him readying his damaged wrist de, and imitating a stance of some sort. While the form looked right, I doubt it helped him in any significant way inbat. He moved toward the door and thrust his de into the gap next to the doorknob to cut thetch. When he was done, used his other hand and pushed the door open in one swift motion. We walked in with our active camouge engaged, keeping a close watch on thetest updates from the Argus as we approached the unknown party. They still hadn¡¯t moved after our violent entrance, so we slowed down to watch for traps. We had enough experience with harvester dens to know how to deal with the average tripwires and other makeshift traps. They may be simple, but they were cheap and durable, which made them amon sight. I considered deploying them for ourselves, as they couldn¡¯t be disabled by simply jamming signals or using EMPs. They could catch our corporate enemies off guard if they were only expecting the sophisticated traps most corpos used. As we slowly made our way into the room, we found no signs of danger, which only made us more on guard. The people here didn¡¯t respond to their door being broken down nor set up any traps by the front. While they did have something in the back to jam my Nyes, it was still careless of them to allow strangers to get so close to them. It meant they either wanted us toe further in or they simply didn¡¯t care if someone intruded on them. We cleared everything but the area behind the drape in the back, so I prepared a stun grenade. Thorne got into position in front of me and moved a part of the drape out of the way. With lightning speed, I chucked the grenade through the gap. As soon as it went off, we rushed in and prepared to restrain any opposition, but what we found were several people already lying on the ground. They weren¡¯t writhing in pain from our stun grenade or anything, but simply remained listless as theyy there. They weren¡¯tpletely harmless, though. They were equipped in a fashionmon to mercenaries, with military-grade firearms and te carriers. I didn¡¯t hesitate and began restraining them as I sent a message to Thorne to do the same. During the process, they barely resisted and I could tell that they were very weak. Still, for safety reasons, I continued putting the restraining devices on them as we didn¡¯t know if they would suddenlysh out. What in the world happened to have left them in this condition? Chapter 133: Questions Chapter 133: Questions ¡°Hey, wake up!¡± I yelled out to the people Thorne, and I had restrained within the ruins of the wastnd. They weakly made incoherent noises without responding, so I examined them more closely. Their bodies were weak, showing signs of starvation and dehydration. If I had to guess, I¡¯d say they had run out of supplies for around three or four days now. ¡°Rollo, I don¡¯t think they¡¯re in any condition to talk.¡± ¡°I know¡­ For now, help me feed them.¡± If there was one thing the synthetic food from this world was good for, it would be how easy it was for the body to absorb the nutrients from it. Well, that and how it had a decent shelf life too. I held up a nutrient pack to one of the enfeebled mercenaries and gently squeezed the contents of the packet into their mouth. By the time the pack was empty, my patient struggled to keep their eyelids open. I nced over to see how Thorne was doing before moving on to the next person. They were all too tired to hold a conversation, so there was no choice but to evacuate them for now. ¡°Thorne, you carry them while I take point.¡±He nodded and nonchntly proceeded to perform the superhuman feat of carrying all four of them over his shoulders. I took one final nce around the room for any valuables before beginning our way out of this old subway. We hadn¡¯t even left the room yet and my Argus notified me of several dozens of mutants closing in on us. I briefly considered switching to explosive rounds, but the ancient tunnels around me discouraged me from going through with that idea. I¡¯d rather not test what little structural integrity this ce had remaining. I readied my SMG loaded with smart rounds and gently stuck my gun out from the door. Kiri, my SAID, did all the targeting, and I simply held the trigger down. +5 EXP +5 EXP +5 EXP +5 EXP +5 EXP ¡­ The only other job I had to do was to quickly swap between magazines. From my system¡¯s experience notifications, I could urately assess how many I had taken out, but my Argus kept indicating more targets in our area. ¡°Thorne, we¡¯re going to have to fight our way through. These little buggers keeping.¡± While these centipede mutants were a great source of experience points, I had to keep the supplies I had left in mind. I didn¡¯t bring unlimited ammunition, and getting swarmed was never fun. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll be right behind you.¡± After unloading another clip of smart bullets onto the swarm of mutants, we swiftly stepped out of the room when we created a foothold and cleared our way toward the stairs. I kept shooting as we sprinted, and it was hard to keep track of everything if I didn¡¯t have my optics draw arrows to guide me. Just as we finished climbing a set of stairs, I caught a glimpse of a shadow from above. I looked up just in time to see one of the mutant centipedes falling down toward us. While I could dive out of the way, Thorne wouldn¡¯t be able to while carrying four people. Making a split-second decision, I quickly sent out amand via my SAID to activate the function on the cloud vest I was wearing. These cloud vests were designed to deal with assassination attempts against VIPs. They mainly had snipers,rge-caliber weapons, and even vehicle crashes in mind, but it should work in this situation as well. Within an instant of mymand, the vest I wore immediately released a torrent of foam-like substances. It shot upward at the delicate control of my SAID, so it wasn¡¯t impeding our path. The mutant continued to fall down toward me, only to be intercepted by the cloud-like substance that I almost mistaken to be cotton candy. The monsternded squarely on the foam, only to be bounced back upward. By the time it began to fall again, we had already made an adequate distance up the stairs. Once the enemies in front of us thinned out, I didn¡¯t hesitate to point my weapon behind us and pulled the trigger once I had an angle. +5 EXP We continued shooting our way out, and the mutants didn¡¯t have time to form arge enough group to threaten us. With four liabilities with us, we didn¡¯t dawdle and made our way out of the wastnd, so these mercenaries could get proper medical treatment back in Lion City.
Two hourster, the four mercenaries we rescued appeared to be much better, having almost made a full recovery. They recovered so fast I almost couldn¡¯t believe it and had to remind myself the medical attainments of this world were entirely different. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Seeing how we still had a few hours until our flight, I took the opportunity to speak with them to kill some time. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Rollo. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions?¡± The four shared looks before they collectively directed their gaze toward one young man, who seemed to be their leader. ¡°You¡¯re one of the people who rescued us, right? We don¡¯t mind as long as we can answer it.¡± ¡°Great! Are you guys mercenaries?¡± ¡°Not exactly¡­We don¡¯t answer to any QGs and take gigs. We¡¯re simply scavengers, hunting for anything we could sell from the ruins.¡± ¡°Does that mean you think there was something valuable in that old subway where I found you guys, then?¡± ¡°Oh no. We don¡¯t only sell items. We deal in information, as well. We were mapping out the area to sell to interested parties.¡± ¡°So, how¡¯d you guys end up being trapped in a room surrounded by mutant centipedes?¡± They all grimaced and stayed silent for a moment. ¡°We failed to urately detect their numbers and wandered too far in. Before we knew it, we were swarmed and our ammunition ran out. We could only take shelter in that room to survive, but we didn¡¯t exactly have a lot of supplies with us.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t that I failed, but the damn faulty scanner I got!¡± One of the other men interjected. ¡°I knew I shouldn¡¯t have bought that damn cyberware from some newpany! It almost cost me my life for it!¡± ¡°Calm down, Xavier. It¡¯s in the past now, so save yourints forter when there¡¯s no one else around.¡± I held my breath at the mention of a faulty cybeic. ¡°Do you mind telling me which cybeic you¡¯re talking about?¡± The man named Xavier nced over at his leader, seeking permission. After a moment, the leader sighed and nodded. ¡°You may not know about it, so feel free to look it up on the web. It¡¯s some new detection cyberware from some newpany called the Halls Corporation. Here, I¡¯ll send you the link to the piece I got.¡± I struggled to maintain my poker face as I opened up the link that led to ourpany website, the section that went over our Argus. Well, this is awkward. Do I even tell them at this point? ¡°So¡­How did this scanner malfunction?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t apparent, which was why we almost died! The damn thing only detected the mutants in the peripheral when we were first going down into that tunnel. It caught us entirely off guard when more than double the numbers detected began to swarm us.¡± ¡°I happen to be pretty good with cybeics. Do you mind sending me the logs from your SAID of what happened?¡± ¡°...Sure. Give me one second¡­And there, sent.¡± Reviewing the logs, I quickly went over any potentially problematic sections. I found no obvious errors had popped up, which only left two possible scenarios. Either it had been tampered with or several parts in the Argus had deteriorated to the point itpletely malfunctioned. Either way, I could learn more from disassembling the cybeic in question in both scenarios. The most important takeaway from this information was that the current incident matched the other product malfunction incidents that were reported to ourpany. ¡°Thank you. I can¡¯t say I learned anything definitive, but I am confident thepany who made this would be very interested in getting their hands on this sample. You would probably make back all your credits plus more if you turned it into them.¡± ¡°Well, if they¡¯re willing to take responsibility andpensate me, then I¡¯d let them. Still, I¡¯m done with buying any more of their products in the future.¡± ¡°...From what I could tell, it wasn¡¯t thepany¡¯s fault.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. The bottom line is their product has defects. I don¡¯t care for the reason. I¡¯d rather buy from a credible corporation where this shit doesn¡¯t happen.¡± ¡°Xavier, watch yournguage.¡± I couldn¡¯t bear to argue with the young man. He was right in a way that the consumers didn¡¯t care about our situation. I, myself, may prefer to deal withrger corporations too in their shoes. They would be less likely to sumb to corporate sabotage and were likely that their products would be subject to a much more intensive quality assurance process. Instead of arguing with one of my customers, there was another thing on my mind. ¡°Do you remember which clinic you got your Argus from?¡± ¡°Hmm? Old Jack¡¯s clinic. It definitely wouldn¡¯t be their fault. I trust them to do a good job!¡± ¡°Rx, I wasn¡¯t saying it was the clinic¡¯s fault. I was just curious.¡± I redirected my questioning back to their leader and asked about more details of their activity in the wastnd while I discreetly sent a message to Andrew, telling him to investigate Old Jack¡¯s clinic. I left special instructions to thoroughly inspect their stock of cybeics, specifically our products. My instructions included setting up a spy cam there to observe the handling of our product up until its instation. Thorne also received a message from me to reschedule our flight. We were on the trail of thetest clues we had about our product. Hopefully, this investigation would reveal if someone was actively sabotaging us or we could clear up if there really was a natural defect in our products when under certain conditions. My employees worked fast, and thirty minutes after my chat with the scavengers finished, they already reported back about the sess of the mission I had just entrusted them with. ¡°Boss, we found no suspicious tampering with our products and have set up the cameras as you instructed.¡± Andrew saluted and reported. ¡°Good work. Please proceed to do the same for every clinic youe across. We¡¯re spreading a wider.¡± ¡°Boss¡­there¡¯s likely almost a thousand cybeic clinics in this city.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t need every single one of them. Just do what you can.¡± ¡°...Understood.¡± Next, I transmitted a message to Eli, one of Erza¡¯s mercenary teammates, and the one currently in the inner city. I asked her for any information about the mercenaries she had identally encountered at the clinic she had previously visited. All this thinking about sabotaging cybeics had made me start wondering if this was all connected somehow. I remember she mentioned she had recognized them as regrs from somewhere and they were the people I wanted to have a conversation with next. Communication with the inner city was a pain in the ass, especially for someone from the outside trying to connect to someone within. However, the reverse was not true. Fifteen minutes after my message, I received a call under the name of Robert Victis Lee, the inner city resident whom Erza and Eli were staying with. When I answered the call, a female voice immediately followed. ¡°Why do you want to know about those mercs? I thought the problem was dealt with?¡± ¡°I just wanted to talk with them.¡± ¡°...There¡¯s a code of honor among us mercs. You better not be trying to threaten them for info about their employer, or trying to get retaliation.¡± ¡°No, no. While I am very interested in their employer, I simply wanted to ask some questions.¡± A tired sigh could be heard from the other side. ¡°Whatever. Most of them are probably dead anyway. But do know that no merc, even the ones who work the rear, would be stupid enough to leak any information about their gigs to a corpo.¡± That was fine¡­A clear-cut answer was the best, but one could infer a lot of information based on people¡¯s reactions alone. I just needed to devise the right conditions to evoke such reactions. Now then, if I wanted to discreetly sabotage the Argus, how would I do it¡­? Chapter 134: Reactionary Measures Chapter 134: Reactionary Measures ¡°Hurry up and speak, corpo. We don¡¯t have all night for you.¡± Anky man said in an aggressive tone to me, standing at the forefront of his little group of four. ¡°Marcio, was it? Do you mind if we spoke in a more private setting?¡± ¡°Ha, always the same with your kind. Hurry up and lead the way.¡± I exchanged looks with Thorne and nodded before we made our way away from the general area of the bar toward one of the private rooms. I settled on one side of the sofa within the room while Thorne ordered for us on the terminal. The mercenaries swiftly nted themselves opposite to me and immediately resumed the conversation. ¡°Go on and ask your questions, but don¡¯t get your hopes up. We won¡¯t be answering anything we shouldn¡¯t.¡± Theirnky leader dered, and his teammates all nodded in unison with him. ¡°That¡¯s quick a prompt response. Do even know what I was going to ask?¡± ¡°We know you¡¯re acquainted with Trisha and her crew. Of course, you want to ask about the deets regarding our gig. We know, they know, the QGs know, everyone knows.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re so sure, then why did youe?¡±¡°I¡¯m not sure why our QG and Trisha¡¯s crew even bothered to ask us to, but we aren¡¯t turning down an easy favor from the likes of them.¡± ¡°Well, know that I didn¡¯te here to ask you about your employer or for you to recount your experiences of the gig. You¡¯d think I would ask your QG for, right?¡± ¡°Then what are you here for? Can¡¯t be for Rainbow here, that¡¯s for sure.¡± He pointed a thumb at one of his team members, a girl with a long ponytail that shared the same colors as a rainbow. ¡°Just to talk about the mercenary life. Rx, let us enjoy a drink first.¡± Thenky man, Marcio, snickered as he sank into his seat. I nced over at Thorne in time to find him opening the door for the server to bring our drinks in. We all stayed silent as the server ced down severalrge mugs until he exited the room. ¡°So tell me, Marcio. What are the rates to hire a typical outfit nowadays in Lion City?¡± ¡°Why are you asking us? That¡¯s a question for the QGs.¡± ¡°No, I want to know your price. To hire you directly.¡± ¡°...That depends on the details. We don¡¯t do anybat gigs or other risky stuff without a QG involved, though.¡± I noticed he was quick to soften his tone when we talked business, so I pressed on. ¡°What about for smaller tasks? Maybe some consultation work?¡± ¡°Bullshit, we¡¯re mercenaries. We don¡¯t do your corpo busywork type of dog shit.¡± ¡°I may have worded it inappropriately. What I mean is to consult your tech person and cy-sec person. After all, not every outfit has outstanding talents like yours.¡± ¡°So you are here for Rainbow¡­¡± He red at the woman in question as she let out a giggle. ¡°That stuff is their solo gig. I don¡¯t get involved, so you ask them yourself.¡± I looked over at the girl in question, who sported colorful hair. ¡°Rainbow is it? Are you the tech person or cy-sec specialist?¡± She giggled at my question. ¡°Thetter. Gunther is our tech guy with the delicate touch.¡± She chuckled to herself as the man she was teasing shook his head. ¡°Right. Do you two mind if I talked to you, then?¡± To my surprise, they nodded without hesitation. Rainbow was the first to respond, followed by Gunther. ¡°My rates start from 10k.¡± ¡°Eight thousand.¡± I nodded. ¡°Perfect, then I¡¯ll speak to you one at a time, then.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going off somewhere with my team members where I can¡¯t keep an eye on you.¡± Their leader quickly interjected. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I got another room just across from us. I¡¯ll keep the windows transparent.¡± ¡°...Make it quick.¡± I first walked over to the other room with Rainbow. We both looked back at ourpanions across the hallway, as our transparent walls did not obstruct anything. I spotted Rainbow shing a smirk to her teammates as she slithered onto the couch and then turned her back toward them. Just as I was about to take a seat across from her, she quickly called out to me. ¡°Come sit here with me or I won¡¯t talk.¡± I did as instructed because it didn¡¯t really matter to me, but I could feel Marcio, their leader¡¯s intense gaze, piercing me from behind. The moment I took a seat, Rainbow scooted over to me and leaned in. ¡°Is this really a good time to be teasing your friends?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask. ¡°Oh, is that what I¡¯m doing now? Well, whatever. The answer to your question is yes. There¡¯s no time better than now when ites to teasing your friends.¡± This narrative has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°...We¡¯ll move on from that conversation. I wanted to consult with you about your knowledge of sabotaging systems. Cybeics specifically.¡± I watched her expression closely, so I didn¡¯t miss it when she froze for a split second. ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯m an expert at that. Got anything more specific?¡± ¡°Yeah, I wanted to consult you on how I would go about discreetly sabotaging systems such as this one here.¡± I ced the terminal before her with the software of the public version of the Argus on it. She nced over it and asionally asked me questions as she worked through it. She exhibited no particr emotion and was hyper-focused on her work. Our talks soon ended, and she returned to the main room while the next person came in. A tall, stocky man sat down and nodded amiably towards me. ¡°Gunther, d you agreed to talk with me.¡± He wordlessly nodded, and I waited a second for him to speak, but seeing that he remained silent, I continued. ¡°I wanted to consult you on how to sabotage cybeics. Specifically, the model in this file here.¡± I quickly pinged him the file on the public version of the Argus and he calmly examined them. ¡°Can do it, yes. Considerations?¡± ¡°Discreet as possible. With that in mind, what are some ways you would go about it?¡± ¡°Secretly damage internal parts, rece with fake parts, fudge up the connections, tamper with the circuits, or thermite to vaporize all evidence.¡± ¡°Hmm, which one would make it hardest to find traces of the sabotage in the aftermath?¡± ¡°...Depends.¡± ¡°Then how about physically aging a part to induce a point of failure? I heard you have experience in doing that?¡± Therge man stayed silent for several seconds before nodding, but he once again didn¡¯t speak. I continued to pressure him with other methods of sabotage I came up with earlier to check his reaction, but he became more guarded and wore a poker face. Still, I think I gained some insight into my little product defect problem that had cropped up. Going into this, I knew they wouldn¡¯t be straightforward with me. Who knew the best kind of NDA was the honor among mercenaries? Though it was not realistic to believe that would be enough to stop someone from letting out any hints. Maybe that¡¯s why all the corpo hit teams have a stigma of either killing or imprisoning anyone they work with¡­ ¡°Thank you for your time.¡± Finishing up the meeting and paying the mercs, I decided to retreat for now and went back to my hotel. Seeing how there wasn¡¯t anything that needed my immediate attention here anymore, I went ahead and took the next flight back to Elevate City the next evening. When I went back, I immediately scheduled a meeting to share mytest findings. ¡°I have reason to believe ourtest product defects are due to sabotage,¡± I dered. ¡°What? Why? And who could be responsible?¡± One of our officers yelled. ¡°There¡¯s a long list of candidates. We expected this level of aggression when expanding into the cybeic market¡­just we thought they would be more direct about it.¡± ¡°See, I told you to be more wary of the traditional schemes and tricks rather than brute force. These are corpos we¡¯re up against, after all.¡± Leo chimed in, with the others following right after him. ¡°Intelligence director! Howe we haven¡¯t caught wind of this any earlier?¡± ¡°Whatever, it¡¯s more important to stop the bleeding and retain the trust of our customers! Everything else is secondary.¡± The meeting room quickly descended into chaos as various parties voiced their opinions and solutions. I let them vent it all for a few moments before clearing my throat to signal for them to quiet down. ¡°I don¡¯t know who the perpetrators are, but someone has been tampering with our products at various clinics. I found a mercenary team doing so in Lion City.¡± ¡°Then we must respond at once!¡± ¡°There isn¡¯t much we can do except warn the clinics. We can¡¯t cover so much ground¡­¡± ire muttered. ¡°We can do that, but what we need to focus on is protecting our brand. We likely won¡¯t be able to prevent all incidents of sabotage, so we need to focus on dealing with disgruntled clients and protect our reputation while we work on finding the mastermind,¡± I said to the room. ¡°Got it! I¡¯ll work with the finance department to revise ourpensation n right away,¡± ire responded. ¡°Good. And any word for Fitel on the intel-gathering job you gave him?¡± ¡°...Not yet, but I¡¯ll check in with himter.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll go call him right after this. You take care of the other stuff.¡± I can¡¯t wait to hear what he has to say. Looking back at it now, it seems like he knew something about this plot against us. He could¡¯ve at least warned us more directly, though¡­
Drew - Halls Corporation ¡°All of you stay tuned for all the changes to ourpensation n for our clients who have been confirmed to have legitimately bought our products. That is all.¡± The conference call ended and Drew immediately nced over at his coworker, Oakley. They had been discussing their recent findings with each other when the emergency virtual conference was called into session. ¡°You think all these pending cases are due to the sabotage against us? They¡¯re quite a few of them¡­¡± Drew said. ¡°Most likely¡­Sucks that Derek got a little too eager, and epted several of them this morning.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll all have to pitch in and get done as much as we can.¡± Shaking his head, Drew went on to ept a few more cases and began arranging meetings with the clients. He then pulled up the database in the corner of his optics to view thepensation packages that were constantly being updated. He made his way to a cafe where his first meeting took ce. Sitting in the corner of the second floor, a skinny woman was already there waiting for him. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Drew from the Halls Corporation. We spoke just now.¡± ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t have much time to waste. You¡¯ll find yourpany¡¯s product right here.¡± She pointed to the bag on the table before them. ¡°Yes, thank you. Allow me a moment to verify it.¡± Without needing to consciously direct his actions, Drew went over the motions of verifying the cybeic to be a product of hispany. He then went over the receipts and when everything checked out fine, he put on his best apologetic smile. He has had a lot of practice recently, so he was quite confident about it. ¡°Thank you for your patience. I am so sorry to hear how our product failed you in your time of need. Full disclosure, we believe our products are being actively sabotaged right now, and we will resolve it soon, so please do consider our products in the future as well. For now, we are more than willing topensate you for your troubles. Here are the options we have.¡± Drew bowed as he sent over the file that had several options for the customers to choose from. There were t marypensations, product recements, coupon credits toward future purchases, or a mix of the selections. It was a given that marypensation had the least value among the options, given that thepany tried to encourage the customer to do business with them again. The marypensation alone has be double the purchase price¡­Thepany really wants to keep its reputation with the customers. Drew¡¯s first meeting ended smoothly, and the customer left satisfied, so he was d he didn¡¯t have to handle a difficult client first thing in the morning. Just as he was getting back to his car, a ring rm rang out in his head. The source was hispany¡¯s software. ¡°Alert, a fellow employee has been detected in your vicinity engaging in suspicious activity. Please move to capture or eliminate them if they prove to be a threat.¡± ¡°...Huh?¡± Chapter 135: Seeing Things Through Chapter 135: Seeing Things Through ¡°Fitel, it hasn¡¯t been that long, but it sure feels like it has been. Did you have any updates on that intel job?¡± ¡°I believe that job is between me and ire. I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t reveal anything to you.¡± ¡°Come on. Be flexible. You know it was from me, anyway. We¡¯re a little too busy right now for these games.¡± ¡°I would not say following proper procedure is a game. If rules aren¡¯t followed, we will only get chaos.¡± ¡°Are we really doing this?¡± ¡°With that said, if we only strictly followed the rules to a tee, we would simply be thoughtless robots. I will go ahead and send you thetest info I currently have. However, the investigation is still ongoing, so do not expect me to find the root of your problem so easily.¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t mind increasing the pay. Just find me the mastermind behind all of this, so I can be done dealing with this bullshit.¡± ¡°Money isn¡¯t the issue here. Time is needed, and it can¡¯t be rushed.¡± ¡°...Fine, just keep me updated.¡±¡°I will, goodbye.¡± With those parting words, Fitel hung up the call, and I was left to nurse my head as I reviewed the info he sent. It was mainly a list of mercenaries and clinics, the perpetrators, and the crime scene where the tampering of my product had taken ce. Some of the ces listed hadn¡¯t been part of any reported incidents, so hopefully, thepromised cybeic hadn¡¯t been sold yet. I quickly sent over the list to the intelligence department to have them deal with it as I went over the remaining part of the report. Fitel had been working to find the root cause, namely the corporation behind this. There were severalpanies he suspected, but he was still investigating them. Through his connections, he was able to uncover some of the requesters for the sabotage jobs, but the trail ended there. The masterminds cleverly used people whose files couldn¡¯t be found anywhere. We had their faces, but no results turned up in any database, as if they had suddenly materialized from thin air. It didn¡¯t help that numerous QGs were involved, each with a different contact. I finished reading the report and returned to my workshop. I had a schedule to follow, as consistency was the key to progressing all my projects. As much as I wanted to jump into the field to prevent all these sabotages myself or raid the enemy¡¯s base, it currently wasn¡¯t possible to do either. Our enemy was still in the dark, which forced us into a defensive stance until we figured out who we were even up against. Being on the offensive side is so much better. You get to control when, where, and how. It sucks being on the side where you have to sit there, waiting to see what happens next. I quickly went up to the milkshake dispenser by my desk and took a big sip of my favorite drink to calm myself down. I needed to focus on the task before me, and losing myself to the programming was an adequate distraction. However, before I could really zone into my work, my SAID alerted me and Kiri¡¯s voice rang out in my head. ¡®Suspicious activity discovered. Attention required.¡¯ Pulling up the page on my optics, I quickly discovered the alert hade from the monitoring imnt I had discreetly installed into my employees. I had personally installed a few of them in the beginning, but then I had it added to the other cybeics my employees often used. It was a measure I had to employ because we were expanding so rapidly, with a good chunk of personnel located outside of Elevate City. The nanomachines took care of the instation once the host imnt had been installed. It may take some time for the nanomachines toplete the work, but it beats having to install the imnt by hand or risk exposing the information about the spy imnt to anyone else. Now that an alert had unfortunatelye up, it must mean someone within thepany was up to no good while my stealthy spy imnt watched on. It wasn¡¯t long before I had ess to the visual and audio feed from the suspected traitor. He was in his car out in the city. He wasn¡¯t on a call or anything, but I was quickly informed about his suspicious activity. He had received a text message not long ago, which wasn¡¯t strange, but the part that was? his reaction to it. The spy imnt had ess to his SAID, the root of all his cybeics. It had detected his optics going over the text message in a pattern consistent with reading a coded message. He also stared at the message for over half an hour, rereading it as he sighed to himself. I didn¡¯t know what he was up to, but I instantly sent amand for a security team to go greet him. However, they were a ways off from him, but when I scanned the area he was in, I found another of our employees was nearby. Stolen story; please report. After entering instructions for that employee to intercept the potential traitor, I made my way down to the cyber security department while closely monitoring the situation. I caught Leo just as he was exiting the room. ¡°Sorry to interrupt, Leo, but I need you back on your terminal to decode this message.¡± ¡°Can you give me a second? I was just going to¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s urgent.¡± I interrupted him. ¡°...¡± He wordlessly nodded, and we raced back to his seat and I sent him the text message our little Judas had been reading. ¡°You have software to decode messages, right?¡± ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s not a miracle worker. It may take a few seconds, hours, or days.¡± ¡°I have a clue. The coded message is read in this order.¡± I ryed how the traitor had read the message by taking the logs of the suspect¡¯s optics. ¡°In that case¡­it shouldn¡¯t take longer than a few minutes¡­ And there, done. Rollo, you should see this.¡± I nced over at his terminal with the deciphered message there before looking back at the suspect in question from the live feed I had pulled up in the corner of my vision and sighed. He had just gotten out of his car and was entering a bar. ¡°We need to stop him¡­¡±
I took an unmarked car and raced after the suspected traitor. Of course, Thorne was following along with a contingent of our security team. The only thing I was worried about was getting there on time. Both Thorne and I were equipped in our power armor, so it was unlikely for us to encounter any real danger. However, I really should get around to creating my own variant of power armor instead of this cobbled-together mess, but it was more than sufficient for us for now. My favorite feature on it was how long our active camougested with the help of the power armor¡¯s nuclear power source and its ample heat management system. The extra space gave me more room to work too, allowing me to fit in more powerful signal blockers and generators that blocked most active scans and gave out fake readings to trick any adversity into thinking we weren¡¯t there. It also worked on physical phenomena, making it so that even if we entered through a window where someone was standing by it, they wouldn¡¯t sense anything off as we wouldn¡¯t block the airflow. All these advantages allowed us to stay in stealth for a longer period of time, which was just what we needed in this. We followed our employee into the city, wading through the traffic. ¡°Have you tried restraining him by frying his cyberware through ourpany software? We are taking on unnecessary risk for every second you let this traitor go free.¡± ¡°Whoever is behind him should be smart enough to know how to disable these remotemands. I¡¯d rather not try it and alert him that we¡¯re on the way.¡± ¡°We should have the man we have on the scene to just shoot him.¡± ¡°Now, now. Let¡¯s not cause a scene. I don¡¯t want any bad rumors about us to go around. I want to see as much of this farce as possible to see their n through and find clues about the masterminds. Besides, it¡¯s a bad precedent to just shoot our employees whenever we get suspicious about them. He could be framed for all we know. Let¡¯s not take action before the crime is evenmitted.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just dumb. We should just put a bullet in his head and be done with it.¡± ¡°And then what? We kill one agent, but there wouldn¡¯t be any other benefit to it. Now that we know who this agent is, he¡¯s already stopped being a threat.¡± Our argument ceased as our alleged traitor began to make contact with one of our clients. We watched our employee, who had been nearby, enter the establishment right behind the suspected traitor, Derek, as he navigated toward the corner of the bar. There weren¡¯t a lot of people around as it was still early, but a gruff man was already seated, obviously waiting for our employee to show up. ¡°I heard you guys learned to take responsibility and will bepensating me for your defective products. Is that correct?¡± The man aggressively pressed my employee. ¡°Yes, of course, sir. Please allow me to examine the product you bought first and then we can start going over the different ways we canpensate you.¡± The man scoffed, breathing through his nose, and threw out a small bag he had hidden behind him. Derek wore his business smile and took out the contents of the bag, an Argus unit, and began to examine it. I had full ess to his systems, so I could observe him doing a fine job of verifying our product and assessing its damages. Consistent with all the units our clients have been reporting about, the unit he held had the same worn-out parts to them that resulted in defective performance. Once he was done with his assessment, the usual next step would be to apologize to the client and begin going over the newpensation n we had recently updated. However, my employee instead remained silent and wore an expression that didn¡¯t hide he was facing a dilemma. I saw him open up the text with the coded message to once again read histest orders. I didn¡¯t know which force was behind him, but they were definitely on my list of enemies we had no doubts about. They had started a war with us, not a literal one, but an economic one filled with cloaks and daggers. He began shaking his head, to the puzzlement of the client before him. ¡°What are you shaking your head about? The chrome I gave you should check out!¡± He continued to shake his head for a brief moment before responding. ¡°No¡­no it does not. The product you have given me is not of ourpany¡¯s. We do not take kindly to scams, but I give you the benefit of the doubt, and believe that you have been tricked by the clinic you bought this from.¡± ¡°That¡¯s impossible! I¡¯ve used that clinic for years, and had no issue when I installed even more expensive augments! You¡¯re lying to avoidpensating me for your defective junk. You damn corpos!¡± ¡°Sir, there¡¯s no doubt that this isn¡¯t one of ourpany¡¯s products. Please leave before something bad happens to you.¡± ¡°What did you say? Are you threatening me? I never back down from you disgusting pigs!¡± The man was getting agitated and was standing up to his full height, prompting our employee to spring into action. He swiftly leaped backward and drew his sidearm, pointing it straight at therge man. The action was so fast that the mercenary man only had enough time to bring his hands up to block the potential path of any bullets. Our employee pulled the trigger without hesitation. Chapter 136: Commoners and Corpos Chapter 136: Commoners and Corpos I watched as my employee pulled the trigger with his gun trained on one of our customers without hesitation, but his weapon simply clicked. His eyes widened, and he quickly pulled the trigger once more, to no avail. His weapon wasn¡¯t loaded, and the magazine was missing. For a moment there, I was about to have my spy imnt overload and kill the traitor. It wasn¡¯t exactly intended, but simply an option that was always open when I had ess to the nanomachines within their bodies. Usually, their SAID should have a failsafe against these types of remote controls, but I had root control of the SAID from ourpany software as well. However, I noticed our first responder, an employee by the name of Drew, had seeded. We didn¡¯t want to make a scene and wanted to question our traitor, so I was happy that Drew seeded in disarming him. As our traitor was dumbfounded at the fact that his gun had been unloaded, the mercenary caught on that no bullets wereing his way, so he lunged forward and shoved his assant aside. He didn¡¯t hesitate to dart for the exit, only looking back to ensure he wouldn¡¯t get attacked. His reaction showed he still had it together, despite my employee¡¯s provocation. It wouldn¡¯t be smart of him to kill a corpo on the clock, as that would usually mean earning a target on his back. It was the correct choice to just run to avoid any further trouble. I quickly sent a message to one of our guards, who had just arrived around the perimeter, to stop that man andpensate him for his troubles. Exining to him that it was a rogue agent he encountered and giving him some credit was a lot easier than having to deal with negative gossip that would make the rounds if he talked. It was likely what our enemy was aiming for when theymanded their spy to take action. ¡®Take him in. We¡¯ll receive him outside.¡¯ I messaged Drew.A moment after my message, I watched the outline of Drew, quickly restraining the confused Derek, and carried him out of the building. I couldn¡¯t help but turn off his outline for a second to witness the ridiculous scene the bystanders were seeing of Derek floating away. When he got outside, one of our factory-new armored personnel carriers was waiting in the lot. I named it Steel Guardian, and it had two variants. The one before Drew was the basic version that could carry sixteen people. The other one I had designed but yet to create was meant for holding power armors. There was no point making one before I finalized our power armor design because the APC was supposed to be a mobile workshop for it as well. We also only had the two power armors, so it wasn¡¯t worth having a carrier for it yet. Drew deactivated his camouge and walked into the empty Steel Guardian with our man. I soon drew my attention away from Drew¡¯s feed as we began pulling up into the same lot as well. I strode into our Steel Guardian with Thorne in tow and closed the rear door behind us. ¡°Sir, as you have instructed, I have restrained Derek. I still find it hard to believe Derek would betray us, though¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s best if you stay out of it if you¡¯re his friend,¡± I replied after noting his worried expression. ¡°No sir! Please let me participate in interrogating him. We may be from the same department, but that may prove helpful in getting him to talk.¡± Reading his file, he seemed trustworthy enough to me, and it was true our captive may be more willing to talk to a familiar face. ¡°Fine, you can do the talking, but listen to our instructions. I¡¯ll be messaging you.¡± ¡°Of course, sir!¡± I messaged all our personnel to get ready to leave the area and our vehicle got into motion. There was no one in the back of the Steel Guardian we were in except for me, Thorne, Drew, and our traitor, Derek. The driver was in his separatepartment up front, and wouldn¡¯t be able to hear anything going on back here. As the car hit the road, I made the helmet of my power armor transparent so I coulde face-to-face with our traitor. He grimaced upon making eye contact, and I stepped closer to get a better look at him. I shook my head and backed off to let Drew do the talking. ¡°Derek! Please tell us what happened!¡± He immediately yelled as he came up right next to him. Derek had been restrained, so he couldn¡¯t move away from his co-worker. ¡°I¡­¡± He looked down at the ground and closed his eyes. As the vehicle picked up speed, I took a seat. With the power armor on, I easily took up two seats, but with only four of us here, there was still ample space. ¡°Seat down first and look at him. We¡¯re having a civilized conversation here.¡± I interjected. Drew signed and took a seat beside Derek while Thorne remained standing right beside them. ¡®Ask him to tell us about his employer and everything he knows. I had people check out his background, and it seems like he used his real address where his family lives. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s that dumb if he was a professional spy, so I¡¯m willing to hear him out.¡¯ I messaged Drew. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. ¡°Tell me, Derek. Were you threatened?¡± ¡°...No.¡± I raised an eyebrow and looked at Thorne. To be honest, I wasn¡¯t expecting him to respond so decisively or at all, but this was a pleasant surprise. ¡°Then why did you do it? Did thepany mistreat you somehow, or you did do it just for some money?¡± Drew continued. ¡°No! No to both! I know very well how well ourpany treats their employees despite this being my first job with a corp.¡± ¡°Then why?¡± ¡°You thoroughbred corpos would never understand.¡± Derek nced away and muttered. ¡°Of course, we can¡¯t understand if you don¡¯t tell us!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Derek! Talk to me here! We¡¯re not trying to screw you over or we would¡¯ve done it by now!¡± ¡°Fine! I¡¯ll tell you then if it¡¯ll make you happy! It¡¯s because I¡¯m from the slums! And the slums have this thing called gratitude that we won¡¯t fail to repay! I doubt you corpos who only value your career, money, and yourselves so much would understand, though.¡± He then went on about how a certain individual had been funding many initiatives in his neighborhood since he was little. They had brought food and medicine to theirmunity, saving many of the residents. All of us who heard the story immediately thought this generous person who had helped Derek¡¯smunity was affiliated with the corp that was targeting us right now. I quickly ryed the info to the intel department so they could follow up on the matter with our own investigations while Derek continued to ramble on. It was apparent that he saw his benefactor as a saint, which exined his motive. He only stopped talking when the door opened once more, as we arrived back in ourpound. During the expansion of our base, there was one area we ensured was built, which was the holding cells. It was no secret we often had prisoners from our conflicts, so we made sure to leave room for our jail. It was an underground facility located near the security department. We handed off Derek to one of our staff to bring him into his cell while the three of us went to my office to debrief the results of our interrogation. ¡°Sir¡­while I may not understand the stupidity behind Derek¡¯s logic, this type of incident isn¡¯t unheard of and is something many corpos have been warned about since young. May I voice my suggestion?¡± ¡°You may.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t want to say this before, but now that it¡¯se to this, I wanted to advise you to stop recruiting from the general public. We should only recruit from real corpos who understand how the game is yed.¡± I blinked nkly for a second as I tried to understand what he was exining. If I was reading him correctly, he was saying that only people with a corpo family background were trustworthy enough to hire. They knew how to pick their bed andy in it, while the so-called moners¡¯ were more unpredictable and susceptible to being influenced by other corporations. His idea wasn¡¯t something I had thought of before. To me, it made no difference what their background was as long as they were capable. Of course, we would filter them over interviews and only hire ones that seemed likely to remain loyal, but it seems there was a reason the corpo caste had been born. ¡°I have heard your suggestion and will consider it, but I can tell you it isn¡¯t likely. Just look at who most of our executives are, or even at me.¡± ¡°I understand, sir¡­ Like I said, I wasn¡¯t going to bring this up either until this happened.¡± ¡°Thank you. You may go back to work now. I assume your department is getting a bit busy with all the sabotage that has recently taken ce against us.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± He saluted and quickly walked out of my office, leaving me and Thorne shaking our heads. Herees the painful part of waiting for the next developments. Now that hints of the fog obscuring our enemy will soon be cleared up, it¡¯s getting harder and harder to sit still and work on my projects. Maybe I should direct my attention to the power armor I¡¯ve been neglecting.
Spike - Halls Corporation ¡°You are to drop what you¡¯re doing and head over to the address I¡¯m sending you to investigate a person of interest. They are known as the sponsor of the economically disadvantaged area you¡¯re heading to.¡± The Halls Corporation¡¯s head of intelligence sternlymanded across the video call. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am. I¡¯m on it.¡± The short and broad man responded. ¡°Oh, and Spike, you should clean up your beard first.¡± The man¡¯s eyes widened as the call was swiftly ended by the other party. He quickly grabbed the rearview mirror and aligned it with himself and got a good look at himself. He found a few crumbs tainting his wless beard, and he quickly brushed them out. There were a few stubborn pieces stuck deeper into his beard that went down to his lower stomach, and he had to carefully pick at it to get it out. When his prized beard was clean once more, he quickly drove off toward his new destination. He parked his car in a secluded alley and nced over the mission details to prepare himself. Afterward, he reached into the back of his car and fetched out a new set of clothes. He had a neat collection that ranged from fancy suits to rags that allowed him to y any role he would like. While he had hispany¡¯s cybeic, the Shade to project different appearances for him, it simply didn¡¯tpare to the authentic article when he had to engage in intimate conversations with people to gather information. He got changed into a cheap and slightly dirty set of clothes before making his way toward the main road. The area he was in was filled with a bunch of low-rise apartments that seemed quite dated. None of them stood over thirty floors and were one of the relics from the previous generations. Its age made the ce cheap to live in, catering to the unfortunate who even struggled to get a ce in the affordable megabuildings. However, if there was one thing going for it, then it would be how united themunity was. It didn¡¯t take long for him to g down one of the local residents, who regarded him cautiously with bloodshot eyes. ¡°Hey there, I¡¯m from Hellum, and I heard you folks around here have a generous sponsor?¡± Spike introduced himself to thedy he found. Spike casually impersonated himself as a resident of another low-economical condition area. ¡°What¡¯s it to you?¡± ¡°I want to speak with them about helping ourmunity as well. We¡¯ve got people starving and in need of medicine. I was hoping to speak with this kind gentleman of yours.¡± While Spike wore a troubled expression, he was expecting the other party to direct him to someone who was often in contact with the mysterious benefactor or reject him for being an outsider. But instead, the woman started tearing up. ¡°Ah, you¡¯re talking about Mr. Benedict¡­¡± She covered her eyes and sniffled. ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± Chapter 137: Lead Chapter 137: Lead Spike - Halls Corporation ¡°You¡¯re serious? He¡¯s dead?¡± Spike asked the teary-eyed woman with a frown. ¡°Yes, we received the message this morning. I¡¯m sorry, but you¡¯ll have to find a sponsor elsewhere.¡± ¡°Wait! I don¡¯t want to give up so easily. Can you tell me who informed you of his passing? Was it his family or hispany?¡± ¡°...His brother did. He called to let us know about Mr. Benedict¡¯s passing and informed us he would being by to clean up any of his belongings.¡± ¡°When is heing by?¡± ¡°He¡­Would you leave him be for now? Leave me your contact information and I¡¯ll ry it to him, but for now, let¡¯s give him at least a day to grieve, shall we?¡± Spike held himself back from pressing harder for information. He was so close to getting on his target¡¯s trail, but he knew he couldn¡¯t push any further. It was likely an agent that wasing to clean up any remaining traces to prevent being traced. Still, it was hard for Spike to just give up like that.¡°...Apologies, you¡¯re right. I was getting ahead of myself. Give me a moment to send you my contact.¡± Spike took out his terminal and took a moment to open it. He discreetly activated a Nye to attach itself to the woman before sending her his info. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll take my leave, then. Thank you for your help.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± Seeing the woman off, Spike calmly made his way back to his car and got changed into a new outfit. He then tracked down the woman he had just parted with and activated his Shade before tailing her into an apartment. He knew he was dealing with a civilian, so he swiftly made his way to the floor where she was located and began climbing out one of the windows in the hallway. The unit the woman likely didn¡¯t have much in the way of security equipment, which meant he could simply pick the lock on their windows. He did just that and noticed the woman was going around the house, doing chores. He waited until she had her hands full, carryingundry before he went over to where she left her handheld terminal. While Spike wasn¡¯t a cy-sec specialist himself, hispany had plenty. He quickly opened up a connection to his co-workers, who swiftly breached the device within a few moments. Having attained what he wanted, he retreated out of the building and began browsing through the content they had downloaded. He walked down the street, bobbing his head as he hummed a tune to avoid having anyone approach him. Going through the contact details and text history, found the message from one of thedy¡¯s friends rying the news of their sponsor¡¯s death. He tried to find any contact details for the sponsor but failed, as the woman had never been in direct contact with them. However, Spike did find a clue as to where the so-called ¡®brother¡¯ of Mr. Benedict was headed to collect the deceased¡¯s belongings. ¡®Mr. Benedict¡¯s brother will being by to pick up his belongings. I already collected everything and threw it over to Arthur¡¯s ce. Can you talk to himter and see what kind of person this brother is? We¡¯ll need a new sponsor¡­¡¯ Spike reread the message one more time before sending it over to his superior, the head of the intel department. He hadn¡¯t even made it back to his car when the call came in from his boss. ¡°I ran the name ¡®Arthur¡¯ into the ECPD database for the people around your area, and we¡¯ve got a match. That text was sent not long ago. Hurry over to see if you can catch this ¡®brother¡¯.¡± Spike didn¡¯t need to be told twice and quickly made his way over. He didn¡¯t need to infiltrate the building or anything this time, and simply dropped a few Nyes for surveince before waiting in his car. As his luck would have it, he didn¡¯t have to wait long before he witnessed arge cyborg maning out of the building with a briefcase, apanied by a middle-aged man. ¡°Thank you so much for preparing all of my brother¡¯s stuff so quickly. I appreciate it.¡± ¡°No, no. No need for thanks. Your brother had done a lot for us in our time of need. This is the least we can do. Please feel free toe visit us anytime.¡± Therge man nodded and said his goodbyes before throwing the stuff in his hands into a car parked out front. Spike quickly started up his car and began following him. He wasted no time in rying the license te of the vehicle back to hispany and called for reinforcements. The car traveled at speeds just within the legal limit, which was painfully slow in Elevate City¡¯s standard, as people rarely followed the rules. Many felt like they needed to break a few traffic rules to snub the people in charge in a futile gesture of resistance against the corporate overlords. At least this means there¡¯s more time for my calvary toe in. Spike soon followed the man out onto the main street. To his surprise, the cyborg turned into the first za they came across and got out of the car. Spike tried to continue driving forward, looking to loop back instead of following him straight into the parking lot, but what he didn¡¯t expect was the cyborg staring directly in his way as he drove by. Before he could notify his allies that his cover was likely blown, the cyborg pointed a hand at him, and his wrist suddenly snapped out of the way to reveal a thick barrel. A momentter, the cyborg fired his hand cannon directly at Spike. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition.
I held out a terminal as I circled a prototype power armor that was currently only half-built. It was much moreplicated to design one from scratch than I had thought. While it was easy to connect different modules together to put together a power armor as I had done, designing each module itself was an entirely different story. It was likely this design doctrine was established with the customization of the power armor in mind so that it could easily adapt to different battlefield environments. I had benefited from this when I was putting together my makeshift power armor using all the parts from other corporations, but now I couldn¡¯t take that shortcut. Making use of the modules of others meant they knew everything about it, and that was not eptable when dealing with a trump card like the power armor. I was sure the other corporation constantly updated theirs anyway, so it was inevitable that I had to learn how to craft each module from scratch if I wanted it to stay up-to-date. Otherwise, they would¡¯ve never agreed to share their power armor with me. The only part I would be outsourcing is the mini-nuclear reactor the power armors used. They were sold by SocialCorp and weren¡¯t something I had the knowledge, time, or resources to create. At least they had several models to choose from, and it was one of the first things I had to decide on for my design. Based on that selection, I knew how much power I was working with, so I could ount for what other parts I could incorporate. Right now, I have finished the parts responsible for all our signature tech, the active camouge of our Shades, the active scans from our Argus, our Nyes, and silenced the footsteps of the power armor. While it was nice, it was only the foundation, and we wanted some more oomph in our trump card. The role of a power armor was that of an urban tank. If it only excelled at stealth ambushes, then it wouldn¡¯t make much sense. As a tank, I definitely wanted to up its defenses, but that would increase the weight. The heavier it was, the less mobile it was, making its stealth capabilities less valuable. Faced with this dilemma, I looked back at the piece of tech I had salvaged from an old enemy. Gazing upon the device that was only the size of a fist, I couldn¡¯t help but reminisce back to the fight I had against QuickLinks Logistics. I could still clearly remember the surprise I felt when that bodyguard stopped our rounds with a shimmering energy shield with a blue tint. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t perfect, and the shockwaves from several explosive rounds were able to disorient him and take down his defenses. However, if that bodyguard had also been equipped with a power armor, it may have turned out entirely differently. I shuddered at that thought, but alsopelled myself to consider adding it to my creation. The technology behind it was too sophisticated for me when I tried to decipher it previously, and I doubt much has changed since then. I would probably have to level up physics and some other specialized branch of science to be able to understand it. I opened my status screen and took a look at the long list of possibilities. Status Level: 24 EXP: 1730/2400 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 found a choicebeled Energy Defensive Systems, which was likely the one most relevant to the device before me, but I wasn¡¯t sure if I wanted to get sidetracked and spend my precious points on an entirely new subject. I still needed more points in software engineering to perfect my AI, so that it was less likely for others to detect it. It would be folly to chase after every new tech I came across. An alternative was to hire or train specialists like normal corporations did, but that would take time and luck. I don¡¯t think there would be any scientist on the market who just happened to have knowledge of the tech that I needed, as it was likely proprietary to some high-level corporation. Thest option I had thought of was topletely replicate the energy shield generator before me. I wouldn¡¯t try to understand it at all and copy it as best I can. It would likely take quite a few trials and errors, but it was also the option that was the most likely to seed. And if I could get the AI up online to assist me with it, it may be possible to get done in the short term. I sighed at the thought that there was yet another project that could be sped up if I finished the AI. I really need to hurry up, level up, and focus on finishing the AI first. If only all this bullshit with the sabotage can just go away¡­ As if the world had read my mind, a timely call abruptly came in. ¡°Hello, ire? Got something for me?¡± ¡°Yes. I have good news and bad news. Which one did you want first?¡± ¡°We really have to go through this routine, huh?¡± I sighed and shook my head. ¡°Give me the bad one first, then.¡± ¡°The agent we sent out to investigate Derek¡¯s ¡®benefactor¡¯ discovered that he was dead. We then found someone that should be rted to him, but he got away after blowing up our agent¡¯s car.¡± ¡°So they cleaned up after themselves¡­Have you informed our employee¡¯s family?¡± ¡°Oh yes, but he¡¯s not dead. Injured, but otherwise fine and should make a full recovery in a few weeks.¡± I did a fist pump as I celebrated the fact my employee had survived, and we wouldn¡¯t have to pay out the death benefits. ¡°Was that the good news?¡± ¡°Heh, no. The good news is much better than that. I just received word from Fitel that he haspleted his investigation and he believes he¡¯s fairly sure who the mysterious mastermind behind all this crap is. I¡¯m forwarding the file he sent me now.¡± Finally. Chapter 138: Clearing the Fog Chapter 138: Clearing the Fog ire - Halls Corporation ¡°Lucy, you called?¡± The red-haired woman yfully greeted as she peeked her head into the room. There were several others inside going about their work, but they all ignored her antics except the woman furthest in the back. She gestured for ire toe closer, and she did just that. Lucy, the head of the intelligence, only opened her mouth when ire reached the seat across her. Even then, the moment she spoke, every employee within earshot simultaneously had their auditory imnts deafened by thepany software to prevent them from overhearing something they shouldn¡¯t. ¡°Our teams that went to back up our agent, the one who had a lead on someone who imed to be the brother of Derek¡¯s benefactor, had just reported back. They found this benefactor dead, but had a ¡®brother¡¯ing to go through his belongings. We not only failed to capture him, our agent was seriously injured in the process.¡± ¡°...So that¡¯s a no-go, huh?¡± ire ced a hand on her chin. ¡°Did you speak with your agent already, or are they unconscious or something?¡± ¡°Yes, he was banged up, but still coherent. I¡¯m sending you the report now.¡± ¡°Thanks. And is your agent going to be okay, or should I start notifying the finance guys about thepensation we¡¯ll have to pay out?¡± ¡°The docs downstairs hadn¡¯t finished examining him when I spoke to him. You¡¯ll have to ask them.¡±¡°Okay, I¡¯ll head on over there, then. I¡¯ll report to Rollo, so you can focus on doing your thing. See youter at dinner, Lucy.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m still not sure if I can make it.¡± ¡°Of course you can. You¡¯re the head, for goodness¡¯ sake. Just delegate. You can alwayse back to the other stuff tomorrow.¡± Lucy could only awkwardly scratch her cheeks at having been told to ck off. It was entirely different from what she expected when she decided to change career paths into a corporate role. She felt like the words of encouragement she used to hype herself up when she had been promoted were all wasted. ¡°...I¡¯ll try.¡± shing the head of intel with onest smile, ire hummed as she made her way downstairs. The moment the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, a team of four guards from the security departments tactfully began to follow after her. ire continued her merry way without paying the guards any mind and soon arrived at the medical building next door. The ss doors slid open automatically for her, revealing the lobby that resembled a hospital¡¯s. There were a dozen people in seats, waiting for their turn, and a majority of them appeared to be the heavily augmented type of personnel, cyborgs from the security department. She walked up to the empty receptionist counter and pressed the buzzer to call for someone. While she waited, she couldn¡¯t help but remember the time when she had been the receptionist for Rollo¡¯s first clinic. Those were fun times when we almost spent the entire day together. Now there¡¯s almost always at least several others in our presence all the time. A voice called out to her as she was nkly staring at the guards that apanied her. ¡°Oh, how can I help you, Ms. ire?¡± The young man in nurse scrubs respectively asked from the other side of the reinforced ss. ¡°I wanted to speak with the doctor in charge of the¡­¡± She took a moment to pull out the file Lucy had sent her on her optics. ¡°A patient named Spike.¡± ¡°Um, yes, right away!.¡± ire smiled at the enthusiastic response by the young man around her age, but face palmed when she heard the PA system turn on a moment after. ¡°Dr. Addison, pleasee to the front as quickly as you can. The COO is here waiting for you.¡± The young man¡¯s voice reverberated throughout the building. Hmm¡­We should really add the protocols in bold letters not to use the PA system to fulfill executive officers¡¯ requests¡­Now everyone knows what I¡¯m doing. Thankfully, it isn¡¯t a sensitive matter this time. To no one¡¯s surprise, the entire lobby¡¯s attention was on ire and before long, a tall man in his thirties approached wearing a doctor¡¯s coat. ire wasted no time, as she was embarrassed, and swiftly got to the point, asking questions about Spike¡¯s condition. After finding out the agent was stable and there weren¡¯t any important matters that needed her attention, ire made her way out. She was just about to walk past the automatic doors when she felt someone pull on her sleeve. What are the guards do¡ª ¡°Hey COO, you here for a checkup or new chrome?¡± She turned around to find Thorne grinning at her. ¡°...What are you doing here?¡± ¡°Huh? Getting my checkup, of course. This body is quite high-maintenance if you haven¡¯t noticed, and Rollo is too busy most of the time, so I have toe here.¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡±Hmm, since you¡¯re already here, do you want to go¡ª¡± A call came in, interrupting ire mid-sentence when she read who it was from. ¡°Never mind, I have to take this call. Can you go get me lunch from Gregorie¡¯s? See youter.¡± She quickly walked off to the side, giving Thorne no time to respond, as she answered her call. ¡°Fitel, d to hear back from you. Did you find something?¡± ¡°Yes, I have found the parties responsible for yourpany¡¯s business challenges. I¡¯m having a courier send you a data chip with the details, but as you may have suspected, a corporate rival is responsible.¡± ¡°Names?¡± ¡°There are two. The one responsible for the acts of sabotage is Sensorial Corporation, an E-ss corporation that has been around for many years. They are in the detection equipment industry, which may be what motivates them to get involved with yourpany with the release of your Argus.¡± ire immediately looked up thepany in question using the web. ¡°So twopanies decided to team up against us, huh? Who is the second one?¡± ¡°The second one is apany is one you are acquainted with. They are called GrainScape Tech. They are part of the High Gate Group you may have heard of.¡± ¡°What? Those guys! Our alliance signed a ceasefire with them already. What are they doing? Do they want to continue to fight?¡± ¡°Word of advice. Do read the documents you have signed carefully. I believe a ceasefire only mentions direct hostilities.¡± ¡°...Thank you for the information, Fitel. I¡¯ll send you the rest of your payment with a bonus once your data chip arrives.¡± ¡°Pleasure. Please do call if you have any further business.¡± The call ended with Fitel getting thest word in and ire immediately scrolled to the pinned contact on her list and started another call.
I locked down all my terminals and ess to my workshop before I headed up to the meeting room. I had called for everyone to gather to discuss our next ns against the foes we had uncovered. When I stepped inside the meeting room, I nced around and found all the seats had already been filled. There were all heads of various departments and security officers who had been with thepany for some time. ¡°Everyone, we¡¯ve uncovered a nefarious plot against us. It seems our old enemy, GrainScape Tech from the High Gate Group, didn¡¯t receive the memo of the war being over and has instigated anotherpany to act against us.¡± I quickly connected the projector to my SAID and had it project the files from Fitel. It depicted the information on our two foes, GrainScape Tech and Sensorial Corp. ¡°Sir, isn¡¯t this a breach of the ceasefire agreement? Should we call for our allies?¡± One of the security officers asked. ¡°No, the agreement only epassed direct hostilities. They could argue they had only provided some information about us to an alliedpany, and our allies would buy it. It¡¯s no secret that many of them do not want to resume the war. For that same reason, we won¡¯t be able to simply retaliate against them directly.¡± ¡°These scumbags with their sewer tricks!¡± ¡°Then what should we do against them? We can¡¯t just let them get away with it, right?¡± ire directed her question to the entire room. Everyone began whispering, so I held up a hand to silence them. ¡°We will get to thatter. For now, we need to focus on stopping the sabotage. That means dealing with the executor of their malicious plot, Sensorial Corp.¡± I pulled up thepany¡¯s information. They had production sites spread around the New North American and South American continents, but the bulk of it was here in Elevate City, along with their headquarters. It was amon setup to have assembly take ce here because this was a convenient geographic location to ship out their products. As their name hinted, they specialized in various sensor devices, including cybeics. This is setting up to be a battle of their detection tech against our stealth tech, huh? ¡°I want info on their strategic assets, floor ns, defenses, and a battle n as soon as possible. Do you understand, security and intel department?¡± I nced over at Thorne and Lucy. Lucy nodded with a serious expression while Thorne looked to his adjutants, who managed the bulk of his workload for him. The meeting soon finished after we discussed various countermeasures and our policies going forward with the sabotages in mind. Now that it was clear our products were being tampered with, we decided to up ourpensation to your clients, including previous ones who already made a im to preserve our reputation among our clients as best we could. There was no sense in letting our opponents get away with small victories. My employees worked fast. The next morning, we reconvened to go over their findings. The topic of the meeting was the operation n for raiding Sensorial Corp¡¯s head office in the city. ¡°As expected, they have a lot of active and passive scanners spread throughout theirpound. The most troubling thing for us, however, is the pressure tes they have all over their property, including their back entrances, stairways, and other secluded areas. It¡¯d be hard to sneak in an advance team to sabotage their defenses with those in ce.¡± It was a surprise morepanies didn¡¯t make use of weight sensors, but the time for us to confront a corporation that made generous use of them hade. They weren¡¯t a huge problem until theybined it with surveince. They would need cameras or someone there to see if something was off, which we could exploit if we could hack into their systems. Still, we would need toe up with solutions to minimize the risks. ¡°...They shouldn¡¯t have weight sensors on the walls and ceilings, right?¡± I said. ¡°That would be expensive and overboard to implement on their property.¡± ¡°We haven¡¯t gotten all the details of their base. There may be weight sensors all over sensitive corridors.¡± Lucy replied. ¡°Leo, how confident are you in breaching their systems to disable these sensors?¡± ¡°Against a veteran E-ss Corporation with a solid foundation? It¡¯s possible, but they¡¯ll know we¡¯re intruding on their systems within minutes.¡± ¡°We should consider a frontal attack and just blow everything out of the way.¡± One of the officers muttered. ¡°We¡¯re not trying to destroy them and start a war here. They¡¯re too spread out for that. If we did that, they may retaliate the same way in turn. We only need to bear some teeth at them to get them to back off¡­Does their owner live in the sameplex?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± So it likely wasn¡¯t viable for us to attack or infiltrate them with what we currently had. It wouldn¡¯t be enough to get them to stop their sabotage. That meant if I wanted to infiltrate their base quietly, I would have to concoct something new to get around the weight sensors. Once I can infiltrate their base, but then what¡­? Killing their executives would just spark a war. ¡°They¡¯re entirely hyper-focused on their sensor industry, right?¡± I nced over to find Lucy nodding. ¡°In that case¡­Let¡¯s consider fighting fire with fire. They can¡¯t possibly be stupid enough to go down together with us. Look into which products are their best-sellers.¡± If I can build them, I can also break them. We¡¯re diversified enough with our transport business to take a hit. Let¡¯s see if you can do the same Sensorial. Chapter 139: Sensorial Corporation Chapter 139: Sensorial Corporation Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation ¡°Make sure it is set to the maximum power the sensor allows for.¡± A young man in his twenties yelled out as he continued to examine the device in front of him. The device was a full sizerger than the man himself, so he constantly circled it to search for anything he may have missed. Within a few seconds of his words, one of his assistants brought up a small stick-shaped device to him. ¡°Here, sir.¡± ¡°Thank you. Now step back and monitor the terminal as I begin the tests.¡± He swiftly brought the wand-like device toward a port in therge machine. As it made contact, electric sparks lit up the room for a brief moment while it made contact with the machine. ¡°Sir, the cycling has begun. It will beplete in 10¡­9¡­8¡­7¡­¡± The test was short but meaningful to the Sensorial Corporation¡¯s quality assurance department. Luford, the man in charge, raced toward the terminal as soon as the test wasplete. He rapidly opened up various spreadsheets and examined the results at shocking speed. ¡°Hmm¡­The expected lifespan is only 3.7 years. Forward the results to R&D. They¡¯re not going to be happy about it, but it is uneptable as it currently is.¡±¡°Yes sir! And uh¡­excuse me for overstepping, sir, but don¡¯t you have a meeting soon?¡± The young man took a moment to bring up the time on his optics before a look of sudden realization hit him all at once. ¡°...Damn! Is it that time already? I¡¯ll leave things here to you then.¡± The young man swiftly ran out of theb and swapped out hisb coat for his suit jacket before sprinting toward the main office building. As he ran by the various employees going about their day or the security personnel manning the checkpoints, none dared to stop him. Instead, they all respectfully saluted as he raced by. The elevator was just about to close before Luford managed to slip in a finger to pry the doors back open. ¡°Sir!¡± The employees inside all yelped in surprise at the sudden entrance of this special executive. ¡°Sorry guys, I¡¯m in a bit of a hurry.¡± ¡°Of course, sir.¡± The few people replied simultaneously, all looking down at their feet. Without needing any discussion, the woman closest to the elevator terminal adjusted the settings so that they would drop off Luford at his destination first, bypassing any other floors. ¡°Thank you guys. Keep up the good work!¡± He bowed to his employees as the doors opened before running down the hallway. Several other employees had to jump out of the way at his abrupt entrance, and he could only shout out his apologies as he continued his way. Luford then mmed into the main meeting room of Sensorial Corp, where a dozen people all sat in silence with crossed arms. ¡°Apologies everyone. I lost track of time in theb.¡± The man sitting at the forefront, closest to the CEO¡¯s seat, slowly tapped a finger on his arm and shook his head slowly at the appearance of his brother. ¡°Just get in your seat, Luford.¡± Luford nodded and sat down while staring wistfully at the empty seat at the head of the table. A momentter, the woman beside Luford¡¯s brother stood up and addressed the room. ¡°Thank you everyone foring. Without further ado, we will now be discussing both our short and long-term ns now that the Chief Executive Officer and owner of ourpany have been hospitalized.¡± ¡°We should immediately instate COO Harold as our CEO to take charge!¡± One of the executives across from Luford shouted out. ¡°CEO Perez has never supported Harold as his heir during numerous of our previous meetings when you brought it up. I believe CTO Luford is more fit for the role.¡± An old man from Luford¡¯s side of the table refuted calmly. The room then descended into more back-and-forth arguments from the opposing side of the table before Harold held up a hand to silence the room. ¡°Enough, we¡¯re not here to discuss who will be taking my father¡¯s role today while he¡¯s still sick in the hospital. We must decide on the direction ourpany must take, now that our sales have gone down because of the appearance of a strongpetitor.¡± ¡°My brother is right. Let us focus on the more important things at hand,¡± Luford added. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. He then nodded at his brother to urge him to continue. ¡°Everyone, please do voice out any ns you may have so we can brainstorm ideas together. I¡¯ll start first. I¡¯ve received some reliable intel about this newpetitor we have in our market. It seems they ran afoul of some other corporations and they are willing to work with us to push them down a notch.¡± ¡°Brother, who is thispany you n on working with? Are you sure there isn¡¯t some sort of trap here?¡± ¡°Worry not. I have done a thorough investigation on them and this GrainScape Tech does have a concrete motive for assisting us in dealing with the Halls Corporation. Our preliminary n involves discrediting their brand. With them being such a newpany, it should be much easier to aplish. GrainScape Tech had already gotten started and had a mole nted amidst them.¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t agree with this n. Force should only be a deterrence and ast resort. You¡¯re creating enemies for us when we have other avenues to pursue to keep thepany afloat!¡± The room fell into silence again at Luford¡¯s words. The tension was apparent as the upants all supported different ideas. Having calmed himself down, Luford continued. ¡°We should¡¯ve expanded into the niche parts of the sensor markets as I previously advocated for and we wouldn¡¯t have to be as worried about these market disruptions with a bigger catalog. We should still have time to retool and focus on the neglected parts of the markets while we just let the cybeic submarket cool off.¡± ¡°You mean you n to sell analyticalb equipment to those wannabe corps and smallpanies? How many sales can we even make and how much work would our sales department have to do to realize your n? Unlike the open market where can we sell upward of five figures per month, dealing with other corporations is going to take too much time and effort for every transaction to be worth it!¡± Harold argued. ¡°Those are easily addressable. We just need to change¡ª¡± ¡°Enough Luford. It is obvious we see things differently. Why don¡¯t we end the meeting today and resume tomorrow? I will have more details about my n then, and hopefully you will as well. Everyone else, do your due diligence and look into any solutions that have a realistic chance of seeding.¡± The meeting soon disbanded and everyone vacated the room. As the executives headed back to their offices, Luford followed his brother. ¡°Harold, are you serious about that n of yours? It goes against everything our father taught us!¡± Luford yelled as soon as the door closed behind them. Harold sauntered to his seat and sat down before replying. ¡°Yes. Times have changed, and we need to adapt.¡± ¡°...You should know that stability is key for a corporation! Only newly established yers or reckless gamblers in thepetitive markets vie for these risky operations against otherpanies! Please, we still have the leeway to take the cautious approach!¡± ¡°What leeway?! Do you know how many employees we have? Our sales in the cybeic market dropped by a whole 56% this month! If we cut their pay, we¡¯re going to have to start dealing with a plethora of issues when those hyenas catch wind of our weakness! Brother, don¡¯t you understand? The moment our profits fall and we lower our wages is when our people will start having ideas.¡± ¡°We can take a loan if that¡¯s the case.¡± ¡°Covering our executives¡¯ bonuses with a loan? ...Like I said, we have very different opinions on how to handle this matter. I know you won¡¯t budge as always, but I won¡¯t this time as well. We¡¯ll settle this by taking the others¡¯ opinions into ount tomorrow.¡± ¡°...¡± Luford could only return to his office without reaching an agreement with his brother. When he entered his room, he was surprised to see Numen, their head of HR, waiting for him. He was a man who seemed well into his sixties, but Luford knew he was approaching a hundred thanks to the life-prolonging treatments he had received. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about what your family is going through. Sickness has always gued humanity no matter how much we advanced our technology, but the rest of us still need to stand strong.¡± ¡°Numen¡­What are you getting at?¡± ¡°Luford, you¡¯re not young anymore. You should know after today¡¯s meeting that our executives are split between supporting you or your brother. I¡¯m here to tell you I¡¯m on your side and discuss how to proceed. I know for a fact Jacob and Tyler support you as well. We old-timers prefer your stability to your brother¡¯s recklessness.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not fighting against my brother.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t n to, directly at least. That would only hurt thepany more, but we need the influence and power to steer thepany toward safer waters.¡± ¡°...¡±
Having thoroughly examined our products that had been sabotaged, I had a general idea of where the problematic partsy. The only problem was how they did it and quickly enough during a sabotage mission, but in my case, I didn¡¯t need to know because the sabotage I wanted to carry out didn¡¯t need to bepletely discreet. I was trying to send a message to force them to the negotiating table, so I don¡¯t mind if they found it about our plot. We also didn¡¯t need to hire mercenaries to do our bidding for us as we nned to hit a muchrger target, and we were better equipped for it. The design for our own power armor wasn¡¯tplete yet, so our main asset was still the two I had made using various parts from my allies. For such a sensitive mission, I took it upon myself to take action. I justified it by saying we couldn¡¯t entrust the mission along with our valuable power armor to just anyone, but Thorne relented much quicker than I had thought. I guess it was a sign he was getting used to how we did things, so I wasn¡¯tining. ¡°These here are the various warehouses they ship out of the city from. They produce outside Elevate City, so the parts are usually shipped to their assembly facilities in their headquarters before they are shipped out to various distribution warehouses across the city.¡± Leo exined as he brought up various supporting visuals on the projector. ¡°And we have all the schematics for the other warehouses already?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°Yes¡­Frankly, it was quite easy. It¡¯s either a trap or they blindly believe we¡¯re still in the dark about them¡­ which is a really stupid rookie mistake, by the way.¡± ¡°Their facilities are still equipped with their high-end sensors from theirpany though, right?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes¡­your best bet is hitting their transports, but that won¡¯t produce the effect you want to create, right? To force them to negotiate instead of just escting hostilities, we¡¯ll need to make them worried about us.¡± ¡°Right, and the best way to do that is to pull off our sabotages under their nose. We¡¯ll leave them scratching their heads, wondering how we did it and fearing for their lives if we escted. To do that, I want to infiltrate their main warehouse at their headquarters.¡± I pointed my finger at a spot on the holographic map that had thergest red dot on it. Chapter 140: Fire with Fire Chapter 140: Fire with Fire Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation ¡°---And that concludes my presentation.¡± Luford thanked his audience before retreating back into his seat. He let out a sigh, as he knew the results weren¡¯t likely to tilt in his favor today. His brother, Harold, had amply prepared aprehensive action n coupled with the sweet promise of high profits and bonuses. It was hard to believe he still held more sway over the executives after today. This was especially the case when Luford¡¯s presentation involved asking thepany to take a pay cut to endure these hard times together so they could focus on developing new products for various neglected submarkets. Luford surveyed the table and confirmed his suspicions. A majority of all the younger executives in attendance avoided looking him in the eye, while only the older bunch showed their support for him. Unfortunately for Luford, the former outnumbered thetter. The voting phase quickly came and went, and as he had expected, his brother¡¯s n had won the majority. That meant his ns to take aggressive actions against another corporation wouldmence. It was the first time in many years that they would be taking such hostile actions against anotherpany. Luford¡¯s father, the hospitalized CEO, had taught the brothers to only use force as ast resort, as it served better as a deterrence. While Luford knew his brother¡¯s n went against those teachings, he was powerless to do anything. ¡°Luford, the vote has ended,¡± Harold reminded. ¡°You will put your full support behind the majority decision, correct?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡±He knew there was no sense in being a sore loser, as they would only weaken them further when they were already vulnerable. ¡°Perfect. You can focus on your duties in the QA department. Oh, and work with our special operation units when you can. You¡¯re the most knowledgeable about cybeics, right?¡±
Having decided that we didn¡¯t want to entrust the power armor to any of our employees, it was settled that Thorne and I would be the ones infiltrating Sensorial Corporation¡¯s warehouse in their headquarters. While we would have backups, they would wait a distance away in the peripherals. That was because they simply couldn¡¯t keep up with us without the power supply and heat sinks that our power armor offered. Even armed with our Shades, it was too dangerous for them to keep pace with us. ¡°This feels just like the time we snuck into QuickLinks¡¯s headquarters,¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°Yeah, except we were going in for the kill. This time, we¡¯re aiming for a more peaceful resolution, so try not to kill anyone if we don¡¯t have to. You have the tranquilizers prepared? Make sure you don¡¯t poke yourself with them because I ain¡¯t carry you out.¡± I replied. I felt around for the metal tube on my waist where I had secured the tranquilizers, as it would be embarrassing if anything went wrong on my end after saying that. The lid was properly on, but all it needed was just a brush with that needle within and we¡¯d be in for some trouble while in the middle of enemy territory. With our preparationsplete, we donned our active camouge and made our way to the front gate of thepound. Sensorial Corporation had active sensors periodically scanning their immediate surroundings, but we had tested them out the day before. Our in-house version of the Shade was able to hide from their sensors, which honestly wasn¡¯t much of a surprise for me. Despite how specialized they were in detection, with ten points in stealth tech, it was hard for me to believe an E-ss Corporation would haveparable technology. We chose to go through the front gate because it was simply easier to go in with their cars rather than to scale their high walls. We waited for one of their cars to return to their premises and tagged along. The next part would¡¯ve been historically our greatest challenge to bypass, even with our stealth capabilities. The entrance to each building had not only powerful sensors but also weight sensors. Thankfully, all the work I had put into the power armor recently reminded me of an already-made solution to our woes. I still had to fine-tune the armors with a sound-dampening load out or we wouldn¡¯t be getting by any guards. It wasn¡¯t that hard, though. One of the first things I had ever made was the sound-canceling shoes and the same principles applied in this case. Just in case, we waited until the guards at the doors were in the middle of changing shifts before taking action. They would be distracted while greeting their peers, which would help hide any noises if things went wrong. I eyed the section where the pressure tes started and where it ended, deep into the corridor. My optics recorded precise details of it and Kiri quickly let me know the distance I needed to cover. After waiting for several minutes, a new set of guards came to relieve their co-workers just on time. We followed them into the lobby of the warehouse building. This tale has been uwfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°How¡¯s it going¡ª¡± As soon as they started chatting, I began sprinting down toward the corridor. When I made it to where the weight sensors began, I leaped with the entire might of the power armor and activated themand for the modified jetpack. I had optimized it before our trip up to Aegis for space conditions, but as we had experienced in our gigs since we came back, it was still usable in atmospheric conditions. The issue was hiding the sound and emissions it gave off. In order to fully conceal those outputs, we could only use it in low-power settings. I looked down as my body flew over the pressure tes, going deeper into the hallway. I didn¡¯t even bother to look back to see how Thorne was doing with his heavier body, as I was nervous if I could make the distance of over fifteen meters. Fed with the calctions from my cybeics, the jetpack performed as expected, and I soon found myself on the other side of the weight sensors. It took me a second to regain my bearing around thending before I turned around to find Thorne directly behind me. Yeah, I don¡¯t need to worry about a cyborg. I know better than most how powerful his legs are. We continued on into the warehouse and soon came upon several doors. We weren¡¯t able to get schematics of buildings within their headquarters, so we had to carefully navigate through the facility. I would¡¯ve preferred to hack into their systems to get a more urate map, but that meant they would discover our infiltration sooner orter. For this asion, I wanted to keep our adversaries in the dark as much as possible. I cautiously proceeded by scanning for any personnel with the Argus before sending out the Nyes to scout the surrounding rooms. There was a surprisingly low number of people around, considering they should be moving their wares pretty often. We soon spotted the entrance to the main warehouse and were forced to wait at the door as our sensors picked up arge group of people within. So that¡¯s where everyone was¡­ I signaled for Thorne to watch our backs while I monitored the situation with a Nye. ¡°Hurry up and bring out the products if you want to keep your jobs. The CTO is waiting for you all to move it!¡± A person who appeared to be the warehouse manager shouted. Following the workers, I found them carrying crates to one corner of the building with ample open space. It didn¡¯t take long for me to figure out what they were doing as I watched a man in ab coat open up the crates to take out the cybeic within. He inspected the product from every angle before proceeding to open it up to do the same with its internals. He even brought a small handheld device against the imnt that caused electric arcs to form. ¡°You see this too, right, Thorne?¡± ¡°Uhh, I¡¯m busy watching our backs.¡± ¡°So you have no idea what you¡¯re looking at, got it.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t say I can refute that one.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I can¡¯t me you. We¡¯re shorthanded in the intel department and spec op teams for a reason. It¡¯s not that easy to train both fieldpetency and knowledge, but you need both to effectively infiltrate and identify what others are up to.¡± ¡°Rollo¡­This isn¡¯t the time. Do we wait here for them to leave, or what?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­They don¡¯t have signal jammers up so we can take some distances from my Nyes. Let¡¯s retreat into one of the empty rooms we cleared earlier.¡± While we moved, I didn¡¯t stop observing the employee from Sensorial Corporation perform tests on their products. I¡¯m not sure why, but we lucked out since their inspectors came just before we made our move. The chances of our plot being discovered just drastically lowered. While we could still negotiate even if they caught on, making them sweat a little, titled the future negotiations in our favor. The man in the white coat, who I believe was their CTO, was fully absorbed in his work while the others around him began to lose interest. ¡°That should be everything. Sir, we¡¯ll be waiting in the break room. Please let us know if you need anything!¡± The warehouse manager respectfully reported. Their superior in theb coat ignored them as he unceasingly worked. The warehouse employees soon filed out toward a different exit from the ones we used. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go.¡± I tapped on Thorne¡¯s shoulder. With no one on the other side of the door, we quietly entered into the greater warehouse and I swiftly made my way toward where our hard-working CTO was. As I closed the distance, Thorne quickly sent me a message. ¡®Should I knock him out and restrain him?¡¯ ¡®It¡¯s fine. Let him be. Just keep your eyes on him.¡¯ He was now working on arge detection device meant to be used in fixed positions, and I took a moment to observe how he performed his duties. He was quite fast, but thorough as well, while following standard quality assurance procedures. The pile of devices he had yet to inspect was growing smaller while thepleted grewrger by the minute. Having seen enough, I walked over to thepleted pile and began scouring for cameras. I found the one overlooking us and sent a Nye to be right on top of it. Then I moved out of the frame and fired an electronic intrusion round at it from my Suri. I quickly opened up the port to connect my Nye to it. They would now be receiving the feed through my Nye, after a little editing of course. It wasn¡¯t disrupting the camera at all, so their cyber security experts shouldn¡¯t notice unless they knew what to look for. With my basis covered, I began to sabotage all the devices in the CTO¡¯spleted pile. We weren¡¯t looking to do anything extreme that would injure the consumers, but we needed something noticeable to drum up news of their unreliability. I rigged the devices to trip at random times in the not-so-distant future. It wasn¡¯t elegant, but got the job done. The tinkerer in me took over, and I lost myself to performing my tampering and before I knew it, Thorne was shaking me out of it. ¡°Rollo! Read your goddamn messages! What are you doing, zoning out while in enemy territory?¡± ¡°Sorry¡­It¡¯s a bad habit I picked up. I know¡­ Did something happen?¡± Instead of replying, he pointed over behind me where I found the CTO unconscious and restrained on the ground. ¡°Uhh, what happened?¡± ¡°He noticed is what happened! You need to be more alert for god¡¯s sake. We¡¯re in enemy territory!¡± Oops..now what? I¡¯d rather not do anything to alert them to our sabotage, but is it toote? Chapter 141: Friendship Chapter 141: Friendship I stared down at the unconscious man before me, whom Thorne had tied up with the restraining bracelets. From the conversations I overheard he had with the other workers, he was the CTO of Sensorial Corporation. Great¡­What the fuck do I do with this executive-level figure now? Killing him was out of the question, as that would easily escte our conflict. We nned to negotiate a ceasefire to stop all the espionage stuff that¡¯s been going on and needed our sabotage mission to be as sessful as possible to hold leverage in our negotiations. If we just left him be, he would inform hispany of us, which would ruin the surprise factor I had in mind. The unknown was what humans feared the most. I wasn¡¯t sure if we would be able to get them to stop their sabotage activities if we failed this mission. Thepany behind them, GrainScape Tech, may continue to spur them on, and I wanted definitive results. ¡°So what do you want to do with him Rollo, take him back with us?¡± Thorne asked. While that was an option, it would create a huge red g for Sensorial and they would definitelyunch an investigation into their disappearing CTO. That would mean they may discover when we had infiltrated them, once again ruining my n of keeping them entirely in the dark to make them fear us. A perfect solution would avoid killing this man while keeping Sensorial in the dark about us. To do that, we can¡¯t let this CTO talk or let their entirepany think anything is amiss. The longer we needed to hold up this farce, the harder it would be. There was an enormous difference between a person missing for a day to a week.I looked down at the devices I had been tampering with. It was set to break down in a few days, but I may need to lower that timeframe. ¡°I have an idea¡­ Help me strip him down.¡± ¡°...What?¡±
¡°How do I look?¡± I asked the big cyborg in front of me. ¡°...Should be good as long as they don¡¯t touch you or something.¡± ¡°Perfect. You can be on your way. I shouldn¡¯t be long after you.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll have the teams outside be prepared to storm in, then.¡± ¡°Come on, have some confidence in me. It won¡¯te to that.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± He proceeded to ce the unconscious man into one of therger crates where they had stored therge detection systems, then ced my power armor inside another crate before climbing in himself. I went over and closed the lid for him, and I was then alone in the warehouse. I nced around the ce before taking one final look at myself, then towards the pile of devices I had sessfully tampered with. I had donned the guise of the CTO we had knocked out. I went over the recording of his conversation to let my vocal imnt imitate his voice and dressed in his clothes. It wasn¡¯t needed, but helped lessen the strain on my Shade. After all, I needed a high-definition projection of his face to fool anyone who knew the man. With everything set, I walked off toward the break room where Ist saw the warehouse workers had gone off. I opened the door and immediately heard chattering from within. A figure soon approached me to check who it was. ¡°Oh, Sir. Why didn¡¯t you just message us? There was no need for you to personallye get us.¡± The reason was that I didn¡¯t have his contact information. An executive¡¯s terminals and SAID were much more secure than the average Joe¡¯s and even if I did breach them, I wouldn¡¯t even know which contact was the correct one. ¡°Just stretching my legs. I had been sitting too long, inspecting all the products. I¡¯m here to let you know I¡¯m done. I left all the devices that had passed my checks there and will be taking some of the problematic ones back with me for further analysis. You can clean everything up and ce them back where they belong now.¡± ¡°Right away, sir!¡± I nodded at the enthusiastic warehouse manager, who sped back into the room to rally his men into action. They all respectfully nodded their heads at me as they passed by. As they went about their work, I proceeded back to the cart with therge crate on it and made my exit. I went out the same way I came and thankfully, no one dared to stop me. Even when I pushed the cart past the weight sensors, the guards only saluted as I walked by. I ignored the gaze of the people outside and headed straight for the front gate. That was where my luck ended and the guards stopped me. ¡°Sir Luford, are you heading out alone, without any security apanying you?¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Yes, I have something sensitive to attend to. I¡¯ll be gone for a day or two.¡± ¡°...Does the acting CEO know, sir?¡± ¡°No, but you can inform him.¡± ¡°...Are you sure you don¡¯t need a ride, sir?¡± ¡°I know what I¡¯m doing! I¡¯m in a hurry. Get out of the way.¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± The soldier instantlyplied with my order, but also seemed relieved to get out of my hair. He performed a stiff salute. Having escaped from a rival corporation, I hurried along to a more secluded area, where one of our teams was waiting. They had already disabled the nearby cameras and were sitting in an unmarked car with fully tinted windows. We quickly opened the crate and transferred over its contents. We left the container and cart there for another team to pick up and dispose of while we drove back to our headquarters.
Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation Ouch, my head! It really hurts. Luford woke up to find himself tied to a hospital bed. He tried to nurse his head but to no avail. His limbs were tightly tied to the corners of the bed. With his movement robbed away from him, he could only survey his surroundings with his eyes to situate himself with his current predicament. Where in the world am I? I was just in the warehouse inspecting our devices¡­Right! I saw one of our products get tossed into thepleted pile from nowhere. A sense of realization hit Luford, and he quickly looked around the room in fear. All he found was medical equipment, typical of a clinic, with no one in sight. I knew it! Dad was right! It¡¯s dangerous to break out into conflict with other corporations. Fuck, am I going to be tortured and killed for my brother¡¯s stupid n? Fuck you, Harold. Frustration welled up in him and he tried to release it by tugging violently at his restraints. It did nothing but produce noise. For better or worse, it managed to draw the attention of whoever was outside as a man peeked his head into the room. Luford froze as he made eye contact with the fully armed man. From the attire and equipment the man had, it confirmed his suspicions that he was in the hands of another corporation. The guard quickly closed the room behind him. ¡°Wait! Come back!¡± No response came back to Luford. He could onlyy there on the bed, as his mind raced to all the possible bad endings that awaited him. Nothing good ever came out of being captured by a hostile corporation. Even he knew that despite his sheltered upbringing. He breathed in deeply as his imagination spiraled out of control. It was only when the door opened again that he was brought back from his wild imagination. ¡°Luford Perez, was it? Can¡¯t say I expected the CTO of Sensorial Corp to be the son of the CEO as well. How are you feeling?¡± ¡°...Just kill me. I won¡¯t talk.¡± ¡°Oh? And I had thought the first thing you would¡¯ve asked was where or who we are.¡± ¡°You¡¯re from the Halls Corporation, right? Who else would it be¡­Ourpany doesn¡¯t have a habit of making enemies.¡± ¡°Really? I find that hard to believe. You guys suddenly made us your enemy from out of nowhere. I don¡¯t think we even had any other interactions before besides being in the same market as one of our products.¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t what we normally do!¡± Luford cried before quickly calming himself down. ¡°Whatever, just do what you want with me.¡± Luford closed his eyes as he awaited his fate. The man questioning him stayed silent as he took a sip from his drink out of a straw. His cup was soon empty as only the sound of his sucking on air resonated within the room. Luford couldn¡¯t help but open his eyes to watch what the man was up to. He simply wiped his mouth. ¡°Calmed down now? It¡¯s okay, you can rx, you know? We¡¯re not looking to harm you. I¡¯m just having a casual conversation with you. Here, why don¡¯t I take off those restraints? You can handle that, right?¡± The man¡¯s threatening gaze sent a shiver down Luford¡¯s spine. His instincts screamed out at him that the person before him was a seasoned killer. One who had likely taken more lives than he could count. Luford could only nod weakly, unable to muster up a response while being red at by such an intense gaze. He watched silently as the man¡¯s cybeic arms went about removing his restraints. He didn¡¯t even dare to sit up until the man had taken some distance and took a seat. ¡°Now, then. Let¡¯s continue our conversation. Why did you guys suddenly agree to act out against us? Just because we stepped into your market or because some other corporation told you to do it?¡± ¡°No¡­¡± ¡°Come on, there¡¯s no harm in telling me right? We¡¯re the victims here. We just want to know your motives.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s my brother¡¯s stupid idea. Our father would normally never agree to such risky actions, but he¡¯s hospitalized.¡± ¡°Hm¡­If you know it was stupid, then why did you agree to it?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t! I¡­I just don¡¯t have the same charisma and political power my brother has. I prefer to just stay in myb, so I don¡¯t have much political sway in thepany¡­¡± The man interrogating Luford rubbed his chin as he pondered his words. Luford could see from the look in his eyes that whatever he was thinking about was definitely something no good. ¡°So, would you say your brother is a person who wouldn¡¯t be amenable to holding peace talks?¡± ¡°...Yes. He¡¯s confident he can take on your F-ss corporation.¡± ¡°Even if we give him some¡­ setbacks?¡± ¡°...I don¡¯t know. He won¡¯t want his n to end up a failure, but he¡¯s not foolish enough to ignore the opinions of the other executives. He doesn¡¯t have full control of thepany like our father does.¡± ¡°I see¡­Well, I actually don¡¯t enjoy conflict with other corporations either, so I¡¯m looking for a way to end this peacefully. Are you willing to go back and facilitate peace between ourpanies?¡± ¡°What? You¡¯re not killing me? Are you serious? ¡­Are you trying to ckmail meter?¡± ¡°Calm down. I don¡¯t n to do any of those things. I don¡¯t believe in such short-term solutions where I have to stay guarded at all times. I prefer a healthy friendship more. Why don¡¯t we be friends and stop this stupid fight together?¡± Friendship between corpos? Is this guy nuts? ¡°...¡± The man stared at Luford while he contemted in silence. His eyes suddenly opened wide and he let out a cry, causing Luford to flinch back. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. How rude of me to be saying all that stuff about wanting to be friends without introducing myself. I¡¯m Rollo Halls, the owner of the Halls Corporation. Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°...¡± Luford blinked nkly as he alternated between looking at the man and his outreached hand. ¡­This guy is the CEO? Chapter 142: Politicking Chapter 142: Politicking ¡°So what did he say?¡± ire asked immediately as I got out of the room. I took a sip of the milkshake she handed me before replying, as we moved back to the main building. ¡°Well, stuff about the politics behind theirpany, for one. He then went over how they had undermined us in detail. It seems like he was the one toe up with the sabotage method.¡± I ignored the side eye she gave me for stopping there and proceeded to press the button on the elevator. ¡°...Hello? That¡¯s it? Give me the details.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be faster to show you.¡± I ignored her quipping and went into my workshop. I searched around and found the small device shaped like a conductor¡¯s baton and then went to fetch some spare parts I had lying around. ¡°He told me he was simply using this lifecycle tester to sabotage our products.¡± ¡°What does it do?¡± ire asked as she tilted her head.¡°It¡¯s a simple way to test an electric device¡¯s lifespan by running currents that simte their use. Our friend, Luford, told me he removed the limiters and had mercenaries spam our products with numerous currents until it degraded like it had been used for years.¡± ¡°Okay¡­And does knowing how they did it help us prevent it, then?¡± ¡°Not really. Our products are already out there. It would be expensive and ineffective to recall them and have an updated version made. It would take a long time to have our production adjusted, and our enemies can simply change their methods. There are just too many ways they can go about it.¡± ¡°So why did you bother telling me about it, then?¡± ¡°Umm¡­because you asked? I needed to get something done here real quick anyway.¡± I then ignored her and began manually crafting a cybeic for my new friend. We hade to an agreement, and he deserved a ¡®gift¡¯. Before I knew it, ire was gone from the workshop and I hadpleted my task. I went back to visit Luford in the cell where we held him. ¡°Come out Luford, let¡¯s get your body checked up real quick and we can send you on your way back home.¡± He nced up at me wordlessly but soonplied. We took him out of his cell and went into the medical building, where I personally gave him a quick checkup. Well, it wasn¡¯t that quick because I had knocked him out with an anesthetic. I proceeded to install a customer version of the spying imnt that all my employees had. While our talks had gone well, I wanted the ability to listen in on their internal meetings in real time and monitor the situation. I could then also react ordingly if he was losing out in the politicking. Once he wakes up, he can just return and start putting our n into motion. I¡¯m d I met him because being able to choose who to negotiate with is a luxury few ever have.
Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation Luford woke up confused as he found himself in an unfamiliar room. However, once his memory came back to him, he couldn¡¯t help but let out a yelp in horror. He had been captured by an enemy corporation and held against his will. They had then interrogated him and the crazy boss of the so-called Halls Corporation was spewing nonsense, like he wanted to be friends. Unable to read the man, it only made Luford more fearful of him. Luford had decided to talk about the situation in hispany, as he believed it wouldn¡¯t have changed anything, but he was then presented with a proposal for him to return and gain control. It was a nightmare scenario for him that he had dreaded about in his youth. To be forced to betray his own family. However, the talks hadn¡¯t gone the way he thought it would. They said they would let him retain control instead of making him into their vassalpany and would like to just have a good business rtionship. Luford was unable to tell if they were serious or if they had far more nefarious ns in mindter on, but then they suddenly knocked him out at the cyber clinic. It made Luford more frightened than anything else. Holy shit, did they put a bomb in me or something? What the fuck do I do? As Luford paced back and forth in the room, the doors opened, and the man who had proimed himself the boss of the Halls Corporation nonchntly walked in. Luford¡¯s emotions got the better of him and he immediately leaped toward him as he was desperate for answers. Before he could get his hands on his cors, the cyborg behind him moved at an inhuman speed and took hold of his wrists. ¡°What did you do to me?¡± Luford cried out. ¡°Hmm? Don¡¯t worry, as I said before, I don¡¯t n to hurt you. I didn¡¯t do anything that could harm you. You can rest assured. I am serious about fostering a better rtionship with you and yourpany.¡± While Luford wanted to refute, the cyborg ring at him made him think twice about opening his mouth. As Luford struggled with his internal dilemma, he quickly found himself in a car and was brought to a familiar area that was only a few streets away from his family¡¯spany. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the vition. He forced his legs to move and started walking back in a daze. Should I really fight for control of thepany as they wanted? It¡¯s a good idea so my reckless brother can¡¯t make any more stupid decisions, but I¡¯d be under the thumb of a third party¡­ Dad¡­What should I do? Having thought of his dad, he remembered how proud he was of their legacy, thepany that had been handed down to them for generations. Having thought of that point, the smoke in Luford¡¯s mind cleared and the light of determination ignited inside of him. ¡°First priority, keeping thepany afloat,¡± Luford muttered. He shuddered at the thought of the enemies his brother would attract if he let him continue to have it his way, so his next move was clear. Luford returned to thepany and immediately sent a message out to his current supporters, who consisted mainly of the old guards who had been with thepany for many years. The first to arrive in his room was Numen, the head of HR. He was soon followed by two others. ¡°Gentlemen, I¡¯vee to the conclusion that my brother¡¯s n is too dangerous. We need toe up with a contingency n for when he stirs the ho¡¯s nest.¡± Luford couldn¡¯t afford to let out the fact he was conspiring with an external party and that he knew an imminent counterattack wasing, so he could only frame it as a contingency n. ¡°Luford, I thought you agreed toply in order to maintain unity?¡± Numen asked. ¡°I am. We¡¯re not actively going against my brother right now, but we need to n to clean up his mess for when he screws up. To present an alternative for when the goings get rough.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m so proud of you, Luford. Your father would be too if he saw you right now. That is the right mindset a proper corpo should take, contingencies upon contingencies. You have our full support.¡± The next morning, the acting CEO, Harold, had called an emergency meeting, as Luford suspected. ¡°We have several reports of our products malfunctioning. New products that we¡¯ve recently sold, ranging from cybeics to modules designed for fortified positions. Our investigators indicate it is unlikely the malfunctions were due to natural causes.¡± A grim atmosphere took hold of the meeting room as people mumbled to each other. After taking some time to digest the news, one of Harold¡¯s right-hand men spoke up. ¡°Sir, for this to happen at this timing¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, I know. Our adversarial must have caught on to our plot and is retaliating. But fear not, both I and our allies over at GrainScape Technologies had thought of this scenario and we are well-prepared for it. We are ready to fight a war of attrition if we have to. Our allies will offer their financial support to help tide us over.¡± ¡°Harold! You said your n wouldn¡¯t hurt us financially in the short or long term. You do realize hurting our reputation will have a devastating impact on our future finances, right?¡± An old executive cried out. ¡°It may not have turned out as we had imagined, but it is still within expectation. With GrainScape¡¯s support, we¡¯ll be able to weather the storm better than our opposition ever hoped to.¡± ¡°But sir, we may be able to maintain our current financial position at best. We will inevitably deteriorate and lose market share from our damaged reputation, even if we win this war.¡± One of the neutral executives warned. ¡°Our position isn¡¯t stable in the first ce. We¡¯ll have to grit through it and expel these upstarts from our market first and think about recoveringter.¡± ¡­How is this any different from my initial n of staying low as we retool to expand our markets? This is just the same plus earning us enemies. The meeting devolved into a Q&A between the concerned executive and the acting CEO, Harold, while Luford stood by and watched. There were no good reasons for him to interject at this time, but he believed in the other executives to be smart enough to see where this was going. After the meeting, he secretly contacted them to privately discuss thepany situation. ¡°Patrick, you are a smart man. You should now see that my brother had fooled us with his sweet words, and the result he¡¯s producing is worse than what my n would¡¯ve done.¡± ¡°...Luford, it¡¯s not that I don¡¯t agree with you, but it¡¯s toote to change our decision now. The arrow has already loosed. We¡¯ll still have to deal with this new enemy we have earned, even if we backtracked to your proposal.¡± ¡°That¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong, Patrick. I¡¯ve had people open talks with the other party. This sabotage stuff isn¡¯t good for business and they¡¯re eager to get it over with. They¡¯re willing to forge better rtions with us after we put this behind us.¡± ¡°...But then that would put us on the wrong side of GrainScape.¡± ¡°They recently just lost a war. Do you think they have the energy and resources to start any fights? There¡¯s a reason why they approached us to do their dirty work for them in the first ce.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°There are no eternal enemies, only eternal benefits,¡± Luford muttered. A few dayster, another meeting was called, but this time, it was called by the CTO.
I reached out for another handful of popcorn when my hand made contact with nothing but air. I nced over to find ire hogging the entire bucket as she was absorbed in the projection before us. All our executives were present, so I didn¡¯t bother bantering with her in their presence. I shook my head and reached over to the other side, where another bucket of popcorny between Thorne and me. ¡°This is really like those shows corpos usually like to watch¡­¡± a voice muttered not far away from me. I nced over at the speaker, Lucy, and she flinched back. ¡°Sorry, sir. I didn¡¯t mean to say that out loud.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± We all then redirected our attention to the projection that had live footage from a different part of the city where a meeting was soon to begin. ¡°You know, watching this is getting me paranoid about some big corp doing the same to us,¡± ire said. I was just about to tell her not to worry about it when I realized some truths about her words. If the level of knowledge I had at plus ten with my system put me on even grounds with thergest corps, then they had simr capabilities. Maybe I was even slightly behind in the areas each respective corp specialized in. I could only master a few disciplines, but those megacorporations were surely not as limited. I don¡¯t believe we would draw their attention yet, being just an F-ss corporation, but it was something I would have to address eventually. ¡°Well, maybe that¡¯s why QuickLinks Logistics had thepound-wide jammer active all the time. We should look into something simr¡­¡± Before I could brainstorm various solutions, the projection drew all our attention again. I could see from the perspective of Luford, standing up and overlooking the rest of his peers. It was easy to tell which one was his brother as they looked alike and he didn¡¯t bother hiding his displeasure. ¡°Thank you everyone. I won¡¯t waste any more of your time and will begin this meeting. For today¡¯s meeting, I wanted to present a proposal to get us out of this unwanted predicament so we can focus on our business activities instead of these hostilities.¡± Let the show begin. Chapter 143: Collaboration Opportunity Chapter 143: Coboration Opportunity Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation ¡°What is the meaning of this, Luford?¡± Harold, the acting CEO, jumped up at Luford¡¯s opening line. ¡°We have already voted to go with my n. You¡¯re damaging our unity with this stunt you¡¯re pulling.¡± ¡°Calm down, brother. The reason I have brought a new proposal today is exactly because your n hadn¡¯t gone as you outlined. You had been withholding some vital information about who we were up against, and now we have to pay the price of underestimating them.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t withhold anything! In the real world, outside of yourb, things don¡¯t always go as nned. It is foolish to change direction so quickly and a sign of weakness!¡± Harold then turned to the rest of the table. ¡°Don¡¯t you all agree?¡± ¡°...¡± Silence befell the room as the executives exchanged looks. They were each smart enough to have made it to their position, so they could foresee the financial drawbacks of continuing with the current n and the weakness it would project to their enemies if they changed their tune so quickly after one setback. Caught in the dilemma, they chose to sit back and take a wait-and-see approach, preferring to put such a difficult decision on the back burner and let others decide. ¡°Cowards! The lot of you!¡± Harold mmed his fist on the table as he slumped back in his chair. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s hear your new proposal, then. I¡¯ll show you all how your n is full of holes and mine is the most reliable one we have.¡±Clearing his throat, Luford drew in everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°In case anyone is unaware, the target we had been sabotaging at the behest of GrainScape Tech has recently identified us as the perpetrators. They have begun their retaliation by doing the same, tampering with our own products and we are on the cusp of a subterfuge war. If we continue in my brother¡¯s n, it is projected that we will take a serious hit in our reputation and our market shares will plummet as a result.¡± ¡°GrainScape Tech will be financing us during this time, so we¡¯ll be able to make it through it without affecting any one of us,¡± Harold challenged. ¡°That may work in the short term, but the damage to our reputation will be unrepairable in a reasonable time frame. We¡¯d be sacrificing our long-term prospects. That¡¯s not even considering the reliability of GrainScape¡¯s aid. We¡¯d be at their mercy if they decided to leave us dry.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve done my research on them and they hate that Halls Corporation to the bone for being the key reason for their recent losses. We can trust GrainScape Tech if it¡¯s dealing with their hated enemy. Once those guys are dealt with, we can then worry about taking over their market shares! These issues can easily be averted.¡± ¡°Brother! Have you forgotten every lesson since young or are you purposefully rejecting our Father¡¯s teachings? Never let a third party hold sway over our fate. You¡¯re trusting GrainScape too much!¡± Luford raised his voice as he became more emotional at the mention of his father. ¡°That old man¡¯s conservative thinking will only make us stagnate! We should¡ª¡± Several executives cleared their throats in unison before the oldest among them, Numen, spoke up. ¡°Let us remain on topic. Shall we?¡± ¡°Fine! Go ahead¡­Brother.¡± Harold enunciated thest word slowly while staring aggressively at Luford. ¡°I¡¯ll get straight to the point, then. I propose we opt out of this conflict that is clearly not ours and make peace. We can then focus on expanding into the more niche markets to make up for our losses and be in a position to bounce back.¡± ¡°You imbecile! You think we can just stop a fight whenever we want?¡± Despite the harshness of Harold¡¯s rebuke, the rest of the room remained silent as they agreed with his sentiment. ¡°Yes actually. I¡¯ve already spoken to the other party. They are willing to cease this pointless fighting and explore potential business cooperations with us.¡± ¡°Now you conspire with the enemy too? Tell me, Luford. Have you gone mad? You were just telling me a second ago that I was too trusting of GrainScape. Now look at you!¡± That was a sore spot for Luford. He was ced in a position where he had to support the Halls Corporation because he was scared for his life. If they were really nning on screwing him and hispany, there was nothing he could do when they had already imnted something nefarious into him. In that case, he would be faced with dead ends, no matter which direction he went. That was why he ced his full trust in Halls Corporation, as there was no reason to consider the alternative. However, that wasn¡¯t something he could articte and convince the other executives with. ¡°No, I am confident the Halls Corporation isn¡¯t lying, as there would be no benefits for them to do so. As a victim of our plots, they want to end this farce more than anyone. If anyone is still not convinced, you can join me in negotiating with them.¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The two brothers made their case after several more back-and-forths. It was then time for everyone to cast their votes to resolve the dispute. They had done this rodeo before and all knew they had to vote. What they didn¡¯t expect was a tie. Both proposals were filled with uncertainty and based on assumptions, so it was no wonder they were tied. ording to theirpany rules, this meant they would hold another meeting in two days.
¡°What does everyone think?¡± I asked the room. They stared at each other before Leo was the first to speak up. ¡°They¡¯re a mess, which means they¡¯re vulnerable now if we want to strike.¡± ¡°Uhh, that¡¯ll just push them to band together, no?¡± I nodded at ire¡¯s words. ¡°Our true enemy, in this case, is GrainScape Tech. There isn¡¯t much to gain from antagonizing Sensorial.¡± ¡°Then should we wait and see? I¡¯ll have more people monitoring their movements in the meantime.¡± Lucy added. ¡°No¡­That¡¯s too passive. I say we help out our friend, Luford a little. I¡¯ll let him know.¡± I said, pointing to the ongoing projection of the man in question.
Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation Two days passed by in a blink of an eye. The sabotage retaliation from Halls Corporation intensified exponentially overnight as numerous new cases of malfunction flooded in. Everyone at Sensorial was tense since their management couldn¡¯t even decide on a direction yet. The second meeting happened in such a tense atmosphere. ¡°Our operatives report that Halls Corporation is starting to feel it. They may be handing out amplepensation, but words about their defective products have started to spread. This is proof my n is working!¡± Harold took the chance to speak first. ¡°And is there any concrete proof of that? I don¡¯t think any of us have received such a report.¡± Luford interjected. ¡°Instead of spouting such vague ims, I have negotiated something substantial.¡± Luford took a pregnant pause as he nced at everyone in the room. ¡°The Halls Corporation has agreed to end hostilities for the next week as a gesture of goodwill to us. They want to show us that they are willing to talk with us.¡± ¡°This has to be some ploy, Luford!¡± ¡°We can just wait and see. They have nothing to gain by doing this if they really don¡¯t want to negotiate. It is better than your n of bringing us into a war of attrition that relies on another corporation to win it for us.¡± And so, a week passed. Halls Corporation still found asional cases of sabotage, but overall, the subterfuge had calmed down.
¡°That we havee to a tentative agreement, then,¡± I dered while offering my hand to the acting CEO across from me. ¡°Yes¡­Thank you for your understanding, Rollo. Our Sensorial Corporation appreciates it and we look forward to working with you.¡± While I knew Luford was sprouting pleasantries, that meant nothing. It instantly reminded me to talk about cooperation with them. After this incident, it became apparent our corporation had a stark weakness due to the limited amount of time since our inception. Our finances were too reliant on a few products, which meant any issue with one product line had an oversized impact on us. There was a reason other businesses were quite diversified, even if they focused on a single field, but that was something they had built up over time. Our meteoric rise had been too fast and our foundation couldn¡¯t keep up. We didn¡¯t even have a handful of products in our catalog. ¡°Actually, I have another matter to discuss with yourpany, Luford.¡± ¡°...What is it?¡± ¡°I was wondering if you¡¯re open to coborating with us to design more products. I see yourpany has a strong foundation in optimizing, testing, and producing detection systems.¡± ¡°Yes¡­but let me get this straight. You want to co-develop products with us despite our recent hostilities?¡± ¡°Yeah, that is what I mentioned previously.¡± Luford blinked nkly at me, as if he couldn¡¯t believe my words. I wasn¡¯t sure what surprised him so much, but I really wanted to make use of their resources to help push more products out. While it would be a joint venture and our profit margins would go down, the reach and quantity of products, with their help, would make it more than worthwhile. After all, I didn¡¯t have unlimited time. I didn¡¯t have the time to spare to work on new projects that made use of the same application of technology as the Argus. My two big projects of power armor and AI already have me preupied. What you can¡¯t handle yourself, you outsource. ¡°Luford? Do you think this idea is something we can further explore?¡± ¡°You will be sharing with us the technology to minimize the radiation and other harmful elements from powerful active scans that your product makes use of?¡± ¡°Yes, and you will be adapting that to the various needs of the market, expanding our catalog. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s no shortage of demand, right?¡± ¡°...Yes. At the very least, the spacers would be interested in it for their space stations and mining ships.¡± ¡°Perfect! We can set another day to discuss the specifics. I¡¯m d to have made a friend like you.¡± I patted the man on the back. He deserved it after all the hard work he had to do to convince hispany to follow his n. I made my way back to our headquarters, and just as I was about to resume my work on the power armor, Thorne dragged me back to the meeting room. With my attempt to stay away from the meeting room for at least half a day failing, I let out an exaggerated sigh and nced at all the familiar figures in our meeting room. Every seat was filled, and their upant¡¯s attention was directed at me. ¡°Okay, everyone. Sensorial should be ying nice now. I won¡¯t micromanage our PR team on how to recover from the damage the sabotage has caused, so I guess it¡¯s time for us to address the real issue.¡± ¡°GrainScape Tech. I had already notified Vin to make the prep work, and Lucy has just redirected any spare intelligence personnel to the NNA continent,¡± ire reported. ¡°We can¡¯t attack them directly as per the agreement we signed under the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance.¡± Our legal expert warned. While thew meant nothing to corporations, contract agreements were a different matter. They were enforced directly by the Elevate City Consortium. They were known to enforce these contracts strictly to deter constant esction that may engulf others if left to its own device, which wasn¡¯t good for business. ¡°I believe we discussed how the peace agreement we signed only epassed direct fighting, right?¡± I looked over at the legal guy, who nodded at my questions. ¡°Time for us to look at the alternatives, then.¡± Chapter 144: Striking at the Mastermind Chapter 144: Striking at the Mastermind We explored several alternative methods in our retaliation against GrainScape Tech for instigating the incident with Sensorial before we decided on a general direction. It was important to hit back at them, so they knew when to back off. No definitive decision has been made as we gave our intelligence department some time to gather all thetest developments andy the groundwork first. This meant I got my long-awaited free time. Of course, I spent it all in my workshop to clear away the pile of work awaiting me. I alternated between the AI and the power armor projects. It was mainly optimization, as they both awaited thest pieces of their respective puzzles. For the AI, I was getting the framework done and would be making another pass at it once leveled up and ced more points into software engineering. I had never broken past the ten-point mark before with my system, so I wasn¡¯t sure how big the difference would be. That made me more conservative regarding adding any major features. For the power armor, I struggled with the old issue of bncing the defenses and mobility of it. The stronger the armor, the more heavy it would be, which made it less mobile. It was hard to strike a bnce that satisfied me because my power armor¡¯s main advantage would be our signature stealth technology. Having an invisible tank was nice and all, but if it couldn¡¯t navigate to the right location quickly enough or if it couldn¡¯t live up to its role as a defensive bulwark, then it would be a defective product in my mind. I was both the creator and client of this product, so it made it difficult not to pursue perfection. My tentative solution was the high technology I once encountered against the body of QuickLink¡¯s CEO. I still had the salvage from that encounter, a small shield generator that projected a shimmering forcefield of some sort that could easily block bullets. We only managed to get around it by making use of explosive rounds, as it seemed it couldn¡¯t fully block the shockwaves it generated. It must be because of its design to allow for airflow, which made it weak to shockwaves as a consequence. There was nothing I could do about that without understanding how the device even worked. For now, I gave up on understanding its principles. I nned on waiting for the AI to beplete first so it could help me in replicating it as it was. After an entire morning in my workshop, I headed to our daily update meetings. They were to give us thetest updates on the matter regarding GrainScape. Once that was done, I would normally have a quick lunch with Thorne and ire, but today, I received an invitation the previous day, so I had other ns. I boarded a Wraith and exited out of ourpound with a small convey, heading toward the greatestndmark in all of Elevate City, the space elevator. We passed the ever-present stringent security checks and arrived at the mall attached to the spaceport. I had my optics guide me directly to the restaurant, where I found a familiar bald man already waiting for me at the table. ¡°Joey, you sure got here quick.¡± ¡°What can I say? I got to avoid the traffic.¡± He smiled. Right, he has his own aircraft to chauffeur him around. We made small talk over our lunch and only got into the core subject matter when the after-meal tea arrived. ¡°So, Rollo. Tell me about your recent incident.¡± ¡°...You should already know most of it. It was hardly covered up or anything. In fact, our customers have been going on about it endlessly online.¡± Joey leisurely picked up his cup of tea and took a sip before replying. ¡°You¡¯re right, so you should know that it¡¯s been a hot topic among members of our alliance. But I want to hear it directly from you. I¡¯m sure there are a lot of details missing from what is publicly avable.¡± He said as he gestured out? the window that overlooked the city. ¡°You¡¯re right¡­¡± I went on to give him the rundown, going into detail on the part regarding who the mastermind was. His expression changed when I mentioned GrainScape, which told me he hadn¡¯t known yet. ¡°That is a problem¡­¡± ¡°In that case, will the alliance be getting involved?¡± He immediately shook his head. ¡°There are no issues with their actions, as it didn¡¯t break the peace treaty we signed. It¡¯s their hostility that is the problem. If they are acting on their grudges, then others within the High Gate Group may do so as well. We¡¯ll need to discuss how to address this with the alliance to prepare for the future when the contract expires.¡± While it would¡¯ve been ideal to have a contract thatsted decades, the fees for these official contracts that were enforceable by the consortium weren¡¯t cheap. Each corporation involved increased the price, which was why our contract was only for two years. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Joey¡¯s reply was quite disappointing, to say the least. It implied that we were on our own in this matter, even after knowing the identity of the perpetrators. After discussing some potential avenues we could mitigate future risk, we agreed to explore the ideas in a future alliance meeting and parted ways. All the talks about potential fighting reminded me how much more we should be investing in our security department. Not counting infiltration and ambush operations, I would say mypany was average at best in other areaspared to other corporations we were dealing with. The problem was that we were still an F-sspany that had middle-tier enemies that ranged from E-ss to C-ss. On paper, we were one of the strongest F-sses around, but that was simply because we were taking the promotions slow due to our financial considerations. ¡°How can we strengthen our men?¡± I identally muttered during our ride back into the city. ¡°Hmm, with training, cybeics, and equipment, of course,¡± Thorne replied while flexing his prosthetic arm. ¡°I guess in the short term, we can direct more money into procuring better weapons and cybeics¡­¡± ¡°That will help, but wouldn¡¯t it be better to create cybeics ourselves? You are pretty damn good at it, right?¡± ¡°Right¡­¡± I rubbed my shaved chin as I fell into contemtion. I definitely had the knowledge and skill regarding cybeics with ten points in it, but there were many reasons I hadn¡¯t gone with designing every single piece of cybeics for myself. One of the main reasons was that it took a considerable amount of time to design and optimize each one if I wanted to get it right. Optimization was the name of the game when putting out a good product. You had to tweak the product repeatedly, so you had something that could perform well while keeping itpact and durable. It hadn¡¯t been that long rtively since ourpany was founded, so we were constantly held back by time. Another reason was because of the limited areas I was knowledgeable in. I had ten points in Cybeics Engineering, Software Engineering, Electric Engineering, and Stealth Technology. While that seemed like a lot, it was still a drop in the bucket when you considered all the other disciplines of science there were. There was only so much one person could do. Cybeic engineering only epassed how to integrate these electronics into the biology of the human body. It didn¡¯t include the other technical know-how to give the products apetitive edgepared to what was on the market. That was why I only designed cyberware in the areas I specialized in, such as stealth. If I wanted to design my own cyberarm, I would need to delve into other areas like mechanical engineering, physics, and material science. If I wanted any other features, I would need the relevant know-how as well. I wish I could just hire experts in those fields, but they were just too hard toe by. Other corporations either snatched them up or trained their own. Maybe I should consider starting my own university or something. That was when an old project resurfaced in my mind. The specialized SAIDs that came with hypnopedia features which re had been using were a strong tool in learning. It made use of cassettes that each contained different knowledge and helped the user absorb all the new information during sleep. However, creating the cassettes required a lot of human experimentation for each type of cassette. When the content differed, you needed to find other ways to enter that information into the brain safely. Otherwise, it could easily drive the user insane or have other issues of the mind. I couldn¡¯t choose to go with these human experiments right away when I knew the alternative of having an AI overwatch the same experiments would drastically decrease the fatality rate. Another project where the assistance of an AI would exponentially speed things along¡­ With my determination to finish the AI renewed, I briskly walked back into my workshop.
A whole weekter, our intelligence department alerted us that they had gathered everything they could without alerting the opposition. We knew they were on guard since the incident ended with Sensorial, which was why I hadn¡¯t proceeded with our cooperation n with them yet. We wanted GrainScape to be guessing in the dark before we attacked. The initiative was on our side, and it was their turn to go on the defensive. Based on experience, I knew ying defense in the corporate world was much harder than offense. This was especially true the bigger apany was. I flew over to NLA and met up with Vin at our new branch headquarters. Gone were the days when it was just a bunch of warehouses, and we now had a proper building for ourselves. It reminded me a lot of our old headquarters in Elevate City, as it only stood five stories tall. ¡°Rollo, we just got some new updates while you were in the air. Here, take a look.¡± Vin handed me a terminal. I nced at the report about a bunch of shipments with their routes and destinations. ¡°It¡¯s probably fine in the other ces, but are you sure they haven¡¯t paid off the inspectors around here?¡± ¡°Of course. Food is something everyone needs, so it isn¡¯t so easy to bribe these inspectors with a shared interest among so many corporations preferring clean food. Only a fewpanies even bother to grow their own provisions, after all.¡± ¡°Then let¡¯s put our n into action.¡± I noticed Vin¡¯s gaze wander from me to the cyborg behind me before he added. ¡°Just so you know, Rollo. Our n doesn¡¯t include you going out into the field. Please let our employees do their job and earn their keep.¡± I knew he was just the spokesperson, so I immediately red at Thorne.
Issiah - ??? Corporation ¡°Issiah, how did you get this information? I thought that man was quite territorial about his turf.¡± ¡°Well, we just had him leave. It wasn¡¯t easy, but it seems like our little distraction out in the Kuiper Belt did the trick.¡± ¡°And the agent you sent is reliable?¡± ¡°Of course, I activated my best undercover agents. There was no way I would¡¯ve let this opportunity to gather intel slip by, even at the cost of one of my best assets.¡± ¡°That agent? With the way you conserved him, I thought he would¡¯ve been spending his entire life as a mercenary.¡± The old man took a sip from his cup and sighed. ¡°Anyway, about your report, this is quite concerning, but not to the point we need to act yet.¡± ¡°Are you serious? That person values them, so we could surely make use of that.¡± ¡°We have other things to worry about. It isn¡¯t like this person is the same kind of fool who destroyed the old elevator. We can put it off for now. We can always take actionter once we receive more concrete information. Your current mission is only to keep your eyes and ears open.¡± ¡°...Yes, sir.¡± Isaiah could only sigh once the call ended. He looked down at his home, then at the space elevator poking out from it, and sighed again. Chapter 145: Hitching a Ride Chapter 145: Hitching a Ride Yuki - Halls Corporation ¡°Sir, my team is ready to proceed at any time. Just give us themand,¡± Yuki said as she saluted to her superior on the other end of the video call. ¡°Please hold until the appointed time. The CEO has yet to arrive at themand center and has given the order to follow everything as scheduled. ¡®There is no rush¡¯, he says.¡± ¡°...Understood. We are on standby, awaitingmands.¡± Yuki ended the call and nced over to her teammates. She had been assigned to various teams before but has recently gotten to learn a bit more about her current teammates since they were reorganized to form a new elite team. There were three others current with her, a man with a buzz-cut, another who always wore darkened visors, and a middle-aged woman that you wouldn¡¯t expect to be out in the field. They were each making their preparations for the uing mission, working on their vehicle, fine-tuning their equipment, or typing away on their terminal. ¡°Command says the mission will start on schedule, not one second earlier.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± They each replied in their own fashion. ¡°Bobby, double-check the conditions of the chemicals. We have to ensure this looks like an organic issue.¡± The man with the shades turned his head toward Yuki. ¡°I¡¯ve got it, but it¡¯s not like the other parties won¡¯t find out its sabotage.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if they know or not. It¡¯s about proof. The inspectors are only able to make decisions based on provided facts. It¡¯s our job to help adjust those facts for them so they make the most correct choice.¡± The man simply shrugged as a response and returned to tuning a small handheld device. Yuki sighed and moved on to the next member of her team. ¡°How about you, Edith? Are you prepared to breach into their vehicles undetected?¡± ¡°Yes, hun. The prep team made everything easy by already having tried out the program they provided on a vehicle of the same model. I¡¯m just optimizing it to make it more streamlined with all the new information we received.¡± ¡°Great, keep up the good work.¡± The middle-aged woman smiled at Yuki¡¯s attempt to sound like the model superior. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± She teased. ¡°Oh, and would you like a cookie, hun? The sugar helps keep your mind sharp.¡± ¡°...Is that made from real sugar and butter?¡± ¡°Yes. The CEO keeps a pantry fully stocked here in NLA, too. And they sometimes hand out things that have been around for a while. It¡¯s nothing surprising, considering he spends most of his time in Elevate City.¡± ¡°How do you even know this? We only came here from EC for a week¡­¡± ¡°Oh hun, you simply have to ask. Plenty of people chatting during lunch.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Yuki tactically retreated from the conversation as she sensed it heading in a direction she didn¡¯t want to tread. She was no social butterfly, and she knew it. It was a part of herself that she didn¡¯t mind keeping unchanged. She moved on to her final team member. ¡°Quentin, is the car ready yet? We should be moving out in five minutes, so it¡¯s about time we closed the hood.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. These old ICE beauties are durable, so they¡¯re ready anytime. I¡¯m just going over the suppression systems. Sound shouldn¡¯t be a problem with the howling of the wind out here in the wastnd, but one little heat signature leak and we¡¯ll show up on their radars.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. We need everything to be perfect if we want to pull this off peacefully. Just wrap it up quickly and inform me if there is a problem.¡± ¡°Aye, aye captain.¡± Having finished her checks with our subordinates, Yuki let out a sigh of relief. She needed to ensure everything was perfect because an operation against a rival corp was no small matter. Any mistake could easily cost them their lives, either it be by the enemy or their employer. Judging from her time at thepany, Yuki didn¡¯t think her corporation was so cruel to its people. However, it only made her want to seed even more to advance the interests of thepany she had started to get attached to. She appreciated thefortable housing, selection of food, pay, and paid time off she was provided. But more than that, there was this indescribable atmosphere working at thepany that she had never experienced before. She found thepany more akin to a home than a corporate battleground where blood spilled for the smallest benefits, which made her feel at home. What they say about the culture spreading from the top down is true. I had gotten scared for a moment when we had expanded so quickly, but the boss seemed to have somehow kept our rxed work culture in order. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Like clockwork, Yuki received the go-ahead signal from the missionmand once the clock reached the new hour. ¡°All right everyone. Move out!¡± Their team all boarded the modified internalbustion engine car and drove out of the wastnd outpost they were in. The car was something that was put together recently, but required for their current mission. Their usual Wraiths were already one of the best stealth vehicles Yuki had seen, especially out in the wastnd, but as an electric vehicle, there were some ws that couldn¡¯t easily be addressed. The main one was arge amount of electrical emissions and interference. It would leak when operating up close to enemy sensors. The Wraith worked great at hiding from sensors from a distance, but their mission this time required them to be literally next to the enemy vehicle. That was why they were equipped with an old ICE vehicle, courtesy of Vin. They were antiques in this day and age, and few would even consider making use of them. That included the most designers of sensor devices. They were simply not calibrated to pick up on the signature of internalbustion engines. The man with the buzz cut, Quentin drove Yuki¡¯s team out into the wastnd. They went on for hours without stopping, even when the sun had set. They traveled like this in silence until midnight, where they quickly refueled before continuing their way. The sun was at its zenith the next day when they finally came into range of their target. They had precisely calcted the route of the target and timed their ambush exactly at a location where vehicles had to slow down to navigate through an area filled with tall sand dunes. If any vehicle was unfortunate enough to fall toward the foot of the dunes, they could easily get stuck. These enormous sand dunes were the perfect ce for Yuki¡¯s team to sneak onto the iing trucks when they slowed down. Visibility was near zero in the wastnd, so as long as they stayed off any sensors, they were practically invisible. As they had done ample nning ahead of time, Yuki¡¯s team didn¡¯t need to wait long before they detected the arrival of a caravan of trucks. The team needed no words as they set their n into motion. They trailed one caravan once they passed them, closing the gap with thest truck. Once they were close enough, they carefully hopped on over toward the back of the slow-moving vehicle, leaving only their driver behind. Edith, the middle-aged woman, handled herself surprisingly well for her age and swiftly plugged into the vehicle. It only took a second before the back doors began to open. The trio quickly turned on their Shades out of reflex. There wasn¡¯t a lot of room in the back of the truck for them to maneuver around in, as it was stacked full of sacks. Bobby, the man wearing the visor, quickly got to work while the other two stood watch outside. He closed the door behind him and fished out a canister from within his vest. He held it above him and pressed a button that made the canister begin to release a bluish gas. The entire process only took a dozen seconds before it wasplete. There were no visible changes among the numerous sacks of foodstuff on the truck, but the job wasplete. They just needed to repeat it with the other trucks as well. The team proceeded to repeat their work on the other trucks, up until thest one that was at the forefront of the caravan. Just as theypleted theirst vehicle, the truck suddenly began to speed up. ¡°Guys¡­This isn¡¯t supposed to happen. What is going on?¡± Yuki cried out. ¡°...We don¡¯t have a connection with Quentin, but from my readings on my Argus, I think we havepany,¡± Bobby replied. Swiftly pulling up thetest scans on her optics, Yuki quickly understood what her subordinate was referring to. Arge dot that indicated an organic organism was detected just behind them. ¡°Is that what I think it is, from thepany training?¡± Yuki muttered. ¡°Should be, unless you know any other gigantic mutants with a cylindrical shape? That should be the Devil Worm we were warned about.¡± ¡°...What are the chances¡ªWhatever! We need to get out of here. There¡¯s no way we can deal with that.¡± The trio nced back at theirpanion in the car. The entire convoy had picked up speed, forcing Quentin to pick up speed as well. They were far past the speed at which they could safely transfer vehicles in. ¡°These convoys are operated by an experienced corporation, right? They must have a way to deal with the Devil Worm,¡± Edith calmly stated. ¡°Yeah, but we¡¯re due to exit the sand dunes area soon. We¡¯ll be going too fast to jump back into our car. I¡¯d rather not jump off a high-speed vehicle and get detected. Bobby, you said you were prepared for such a situation. It¡¯s time to live up to your word.¡± The man nodded. His eyes were hidden by his pitch-ck visors, but he exuded confidence. The operatives waited patiently for the convoy to deal with the Devil Worm, and they did. All they heard was an enormous explosion behind them, along with the wails of the mutant, before their cars sped up again. While they heard the mutant screaming as it chased them, it grew quieter until it could no longer be heard. Even with the Devil Worm far behind them, the convoy didn¡¯t slow down and continued their journey at a high speed. The two women looked at Bobby to take action. ¡°Get ready to jump when we slow down.¡± He calmly climbed onto the roof of the car. Making use of hispany¡¯s provided maic boots, he silently trekked toward the driver¡¯s seat. Hey prone once he was there and fished out a small handheld device. He attached it just above the windshield and fiddled with it. A momentter, the front car of the convoy slowed down and steered toward the right. It didn¡¯t immediately pick up speed as it waited for the rest of the convoy to readjust. Bobby immediately retrieved his device and doubled timed it back toward hispanions. From his sensors, he found that they had already made it back to their car, so he didn¡¯t hesitate to leap over as well. It was scary to make a blind jump into the sandstorm, but he soon made contact andnded safely in the back of the reversing car where his squad mates were. The sound of the howling of the wastnd abruptly softened as the doors closed behind him. ¡°Floor it Quentin! We¡¯re all back!¡± ¡°Roger that!¡± The Halls Corporation agents safely distanced themselves from the convoy and Yuki could breathe again. She nced toward Bobby, whose visors were slightly off-centered, and pointed it out for him. ¡°Good job, Bobby, but what did you do to get them to slow down?¡± ¡°I simply had produced some fake sensor readings for the front car. I made them detect another one of those Devil Worms ahead, so they quickly steered clear of it. However, it¡¯s not perfect. If I sent out the fake readings to every car, they would each detect it at the same fixed distance I set it to. It would be easy to see through it if they were coordinated, so I had to target the leading car only.¡± ¡°Whatever works. You can leave the tech stuff to the brains back in thebs. Now then, since our job is done, let¡¯s quickly catch a ne back to Elevate City! I want to watch the results of our hard work with our boss!¡± Yuki excitedly dered. It was something she was surprised was allowed. Usually, agents didn¡¯t get to know many details except what they needed to get the job done. It made Yuki especially happy that she got to observe the fruits of herbor. It let her know her job had a meaningful impact. ¡°Let¡¯s see how GrainScape Tech feels, now that they¡¯re on the other end of sabotage!¡± Chapter 146: Resolution Chapter 146: Resolution Leandro - GrainScape Technologies Right at the entrance of a gated facility, a man got off the leading truck and made his way over to the security booth. ¡°Good afternoon, Lee. How have you been?¡± ¡°Same old, same old.¡± ¡°Oh, then you¡¯re doing really well, then,¡± Leandro smirked. ¡°Why don¡¯t we catch up over a beer tonight?¡± ¡°Sure. We can chatter. Let¡¯s get this inspection over with first.¡± ¡°Okay, I know the drill.¡± ¡°I know, but I still have to go through procedures.¡± Lee, the full-figured inspector, closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them. His pupils lit up brightly, as if showing off his optics.¡°Okay, as an official food inspector working on behalf of the city of NLA, I must inform you that we will begin our inspection. As a reminder, we will be recording throughout the proceedings.¡± ¡°Yes, sir. We¡¯re ready.¡± Leandro replied in a more polite tone than before. He then turned back to the convoy behind him and signaled for them toe forth while Lee did the same to his people around the heavily fortifiedpound. The gates before the convoy soon opened, and the trucks filed in one by one. Each vehicle was then directed to a separate berth spread out around the warehouse by the entrance. Leandro followed Lee toward where the leading truck was parked. By the time they arrived, there were already half a dozen men going through the contents of the truck. They each wore full-body protective suits and matching masks. On their chest was thebel ¡®Department of Health¡¯, denoting them as government employees. Leandro knew better than to strike up a casual conversation as the inspection took ce, especially while it was being recorded. He tactfully made himself sparse as Lee headed for his coworkers. Leandro found himself a quiet spot in the shade and dove into his optics to kill time by reading the news and watching videos when he suddenly heard his name being called out. ¡°Leandro! Come here now!¡± He nced over and saw his friend, Lee, who was looking over with an urgent expression. I have a bad premonition about this¡­ He quickly jogged back over to the truck, where Lee then pointed toward a bup sack. Leandro knew the contents should be fine grains hispany had grown, and other popr ingredients that were high in demand among high-level corpos. That was why his heart ached when saw the handheld detectors the inspectors used glowing red. It meant it had detected harmful chemicals at a quantity that exceeded the limit, and not by a small margin. Otherwise, it would only glow orange. ¡°This¡­this can¡¯t be! We examined the mycotoxin levels before we took off. They should all have less than 5 ppb!¡± ¡°Logistics Manager Leandro, I have to formally inform you that we have detected concerning amounts of harmful chemicals in your shipment. Your entire convoy is to be detained as we inspect them thoroughly.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­okay. Please give me a few moments as I contact my superiors.¡± As Leandro moved to make the call, he couldn¡¯t help but dread what was toe. The shipment he was responsible for was worth millions, and that wasn¡¯t even the worst part. Their artificial greenhouses were in the center of the continent and transportation wasn¡¯t quick or cheap. They had contracts with various customers and if they didn¡¯t satisfy them, heavy penalties awaited them. And all this mess would be med on Leandro because thepany verified the quality of each shipment before it headed out. He was thest person to touch it and signed off on it. His expression paled when he remembered all the hyenas back in at head office that wouldn¡¯t let go of the opportunity to get rid ofpetition. Leandro nced over to his long-time friend and saw that he was on a call as well. That dashed anyst thoughts of covering up the incident for as long as possible while he went into hiding. If only resigning was an option¡­
I watched as the food inspectors called for backup once they found an issue with the contents of the first truck. They came out of their building like ants from a disturbed anthill, descending in numbers onto the rest of GrainScape Tech¡¯s convoy. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve seen enough. You guys can take care of the rest, right¡± I nced over at ire, who was still snickering along with the audience. She waved a hand at me, so I took that as a yes and began to take my leave. While I made my way out, I noticed the field agents who performed the sabotage agents celebrating by clinking their stic cups with each other. The thing that drew my attention was the brand, Frosteers, one of the regr shops I went to for a good milkshake. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the vition. I had rarely partaken in anymon brand milkshake anymore, as I had ess to the pricey authentic stuff, but it surprised me that others in mypany shared a taste for it. Maybe I should have more milkshake dispensers installed around thepany? No, that¡¯s stupid. If I go that route, I should start up my own store instead. Shelving the unnecessary thoughts, I made my way back into my workshop and resumed working on the power armor. Now that we had retaliated against GrainScape, we were closely monitoring their reaction and also preparing for talks with them as well. It would be the same y we had with Sensorial, but this time, we wouldn¡¯t be offering any cooperation opportunities. This was because it simply wasn¡¯t realistic or profitable to continue our fight. At a nce, it looked stupid that we were ending it this way. It was almost as if we caught someone punching us in our sleep, only to go through a whole ordeal of uncovering who it was just to smack them back one time before making up. It was something you¡¯d expect from a quarrel between kids, but that was just how things went when everyone valued profits more than pride. Pride was great if it resulted in profits in the form of reputation, but at the core of corpo decision-making were still benefits. As they say, there are no entire allies, only eternal benefits. Well, in this case, it¡¯s enemies instead of friends, but close enough. Two days after our sessful sabotage, GrainScape Tech reached out to us. ¡°Greetings, I am Will, from GrainScape Technologies.¡± ¡°Thorne.¡± Thorne stoically responded to his offer for a handshake, which made me chuckle. I was watching from the feed through my optics as my fine employees had ¡®persuaded¡¯ me to sit this one out. They did it as a precaution against any hostile acts, despite them sending a messenger into our stronghold. I argued it would project me as weak or afraid, but they weren¡¯t having it. I didn¡¯t put up much of a fight once they pulled out the ¡®you can stay in your workshop¡¯ card. As I programmed the software the power armor would be using, I made sure to at least asionally keep track of what was going on in the talks. ¡°I¡¯ve heard both ourpanies had the misfortune of having to deal with¡­ unfair circumstances that hinder our business. I am here today to see if we would pool our strength together to remedy that.¡± The GrainScape diplomat said in a friendly tone. He waited for Thorne to respond, but the cyborg simply crossed his arms and red at him in silence. I couldn¡¯t help but let out another chuckle at the sight of that. I would¡¯ve enjoyed this entire negotiation more if Thorne continued to stay silent, but it seems our negotiation team sent him some instructions as I heard him let out a hearty sigh before speaking. ¡°Let¡¯s cut to the chase. We both want our problems gone. We think that¡¯s possible if you invest some resources into us.¡± ¡°Please, this should be a joint venture to end any business disruptions. We should carry the burden equally. There is no need to pool our resources.¡± Will replied while visibly straining to keep his business smile. ¡°Really? I think if these unfortunate incidents keep happening to our business, we are in a better position to persist through them.¡± Thorne shifted his posture to be more aggressive. I¡¯m sure he meant that it was because they were just on the losing side of the war, but it almost appears as if he was threatening him with a show of force. I doubted that would work against corpos, though. ¡°Please, Mr. Thorne. We should focus on more positive aspects of cooperation. Focusing on the negatives does none of us any good.¡± ¡°Well, our point still stands. We don¡¯t believe we will be able to put these issues to rest unless you invest some resources into us.¡± ¡°...I am willing to hear your n out. Why don¡¯t you tell me what these ¡®investments¡¯ entail?¡± ¡°Ten million cred¡ª¡± ¡°Uneptable.¡± ¡°If yourpany is having cash flow issues, we can ept other forms of payment as well.¡± ¡°This is not about insolvency. The amount is ridiculous for such a small matter. There is no way our shareholders would agree to it.¡± ¡°Well, ourpany won¡¯t budge, either. We would like to see you guys take responsibility for your actions.¡± Come on Thorne, you¡¯re directly referring to them now. Well¡­ I guess I should be surprised he even entertained Will¡¯s corpo talk at all. ¡°...On the responsibility issue, ourpany has an answer for that. It turns out a former worker of ours may be involved in the nefarious activities against us. They were terminated recently after the squabble with your alliance, and it seems they didn¡¯t take it well.¡± The agent from GrainScape Tech proceeded to ce down his handheld terminal and ced a call through it. It was answered right away, and the terminal projected a holographic image in between him and Thorne. The projection showed an unfamiliar man tied up to a chair with his mouth gagged. I didn¡¯t even have to search him up, as a quick message from ire identified him as an executive from GrainScape who had managed one of their branch offices. That office was exactly the one our alliance had attacked toward the end of our conflict with the High Gate Group. ¡°As you have said, we are more than willing to take some responsibility.¡± He turned to the projection and called out to someone on the other side. ¡°Do it.¡± Having heard his words, a figure swiftly went into the frame, positioning themselves right behind the restrained corpo. In one casual motion, the figure held a gun up against the former executive¡¯s temple before pulling the trigger. At the sound of the gunshot, I paused my work and focused on the video feed. ¡°I believe we have shown our sincerity, don¡¯t you agree?¡± Thorne scoffed at him, but soon received additional instructions from our negotiators. ¡°Five mill¡ª¡± ¡°We are willing to invest two million credits in yourpany to resolve these disruptions.¡± ¡°Three.¡± Will¡¯s eyes shed for a moment and he went silent. It seemed the general direction had been settled and only minor negotiations remained. I tuned them out once more and refocused on the work before me. They could slowly decide on the precise amounts themselves. I had more important matters to attend to. However, as much as I wanted to continue working on the power armor, the sessful talks with GrainScape meant it was now okay to proceed with our cooperation scheme with Sensorial. That was why I muted Thorne¡¯s meetings and ced a call to my new friend. ¡°Rollo¡­If I¡¯m receiving a call from you, I assume things have settled, then?¡± ¡°Yes. Let us start seriously considering how to cooperate toward more beneficial pursuits. Would you like toe visit my workshop?¡± ¡°...Do I have a choice?¡± Why does he sound so hesitant? I thought we made it clear that we¡¯re cool. ¡°Of course. We can go to yours if you want.¡± ¡°...¡± Chapter 147: Enemies to Allies 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¡ª¡± ¡°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. Not sure why they would suddenly care about their liver when they can just easily get a recement, though. ¡°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.¡± Well, it was just a thought, anyway. ¡°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.¡± ¡°...¡± Great, that¡¯s helpful¡­
Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. 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¡ª¡± 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. If only I had a month¡ªno two weeks to prepare for this¡­
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: 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. Chapter 148: Errand Boy Chapter 148: Errand Boy Thorne - Halls Corporation During a normal morning, before Rollo had left for NLA, Thorne had suddenly shot up from his seat with a serious expression. ¡°Listen to me, guys. Can you both please just hire an errand boy or something?¡± ¡°Why?¡± ire replied. ¡°I don¡¯t see a need for it.¡± Thorne then nced over at Rollo, who slowly finished chewing before responding. ¡°What she said,¡± ¡°...You guys¡ª¡± Before Thorne could continue, Rollo cut him off. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ll be going off to NLA once we have the business with Sensorial settled. I¡¯ll be counting on you again, ire.¡±¡°Yeah, yeah. It figures.¡± Thorne could only helplessly watch as his two friends progressed the conversation without him. He didn¡¯t even get a chance to bring up his topic again as they left immediately after their breakfast. Thorne clicked his tongue as he walked into his office and mmed his door shut. His sudden action startled the employees of the security department, as it wasn¡¯t often he lost his cool. However, no one dared to go question him about it and they all went back to their work. Thorne also paid them no heed and began reviewing the documents for the day. There were many things he had to sign off on for the security department. Ranging from procurement orders to personnel shifts, they all made their way to his desk for approval. While he wanted to delegate as much as possible, these tedious responsibilities weren¡¯t something he dared hand off to someone else. He only reaffirmed this belief as he read over the procurement order before him. He quickly summoned the officer responsible for the matter into his office after reading through the preliminary report. ¡°James, I¡¯ve just read the report. I see that you have outlined three potential VTOLs we should procure. I see that you have included all the manufacturers¡¯ information and specifications, but where is the recording of your test flights?¡± ¡°Sir, they refused to allow any recording of it, so I only included my report of my experience.¡± ¡°...In that case, schedule another test flight for me forter today, if possible. I¡¯ll go see if a few others who have experience flying these things are avable. We¡¯ll need as many people¡¯s input as possible.¡± ¡°...Yes, sir. I¡¯ll see if the seller can amodate us immediately. If you¡¯ll excuse me.¡± Watching his subordinate off, Thorne was about to ce a call to the people he needed to reach out to when an iing call disrupted him. ire¡¯s voice was easily discerned. ¡°Thorne, can youe with me to the mall? I wanted to get Lucy a gift since her birthday ising up.¡± ¡°...Sure, just give me a second.¡± With the new event popping up in his schedule, Thorne could only work faster to make up for it. He was used to his friends calling him up on short notice, so he wasn¡¯t surprised by their sudden requests. The two Halls Corporation executives soon exited thepound under the heavy escort of a dozen Wraiths. The number of corpos in the city was one of the highest in the world, but at the same time, the huge poption of Elevate City meant that the ratio wasn¡¯t that impressive. That was why plenty of onlookers still gawked at the scene of a corporate caravan driving down the city as if they owned the roads. The number of spectators lessened as they reached districts with higher economic conditions, but many curious gazes were still drawn to the high-profile motorcade. Despite being surrounded by dozens of guards, Thorne still never let his guard down as he apanied ire into the mall. He knew from experience danger could strike at any time, and he had enough of losing in one lifetime after the incident with his mom. However, today was not one of those days he needed to put hisbat skills to the test. ire was able to finish her errand and return without issue. It only ended so swiftly because she got a call from the office about a matter she needed to attend to, which forced her to quickly make her decision regarding the gifts she had been struggling to choose between. While this was a pleasant turn of events for Thorne, the interruptions didn¡¯t end there. ¡°Thorne! I forgot to buy the new handbag I wanted just now. Can you please go back and get it for me?¡± ire pleaded with puppy eyes as they pulled up into the head office. ¡°...Fine.¡± ¡°Yay, love you!¡± After letting ire off, he quickly turned around back to the mall. He used the precious moments while they were traveling to message his men about dying the test flights for a few hours. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. It was at moments like these, where he found himself strapped for time, that he allowed his convoy of vehicles to bully the other vehicles out of the way, guilty-free. And thankfully, ire had sent a detailed file on the bag she wanted, so he simply had to walk straight into the store and forward the same file to the store clerk. Just as he finished his purchase and made his way back to the car, another call came in. ¡°Hey Thorne, I heard you¡¯re out at the Emerald Square. Can you pick up some food there and pick up the limited edition Kyoto Grape-voured milkshake at Frostonics for me?¡± Rollo¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°...Sure.¡± He did a quick one-eighty and re-entered the mall. After that, Thorne¡¯s errands were finallyplete when he dropped off the items when he made his second return trip back to hispany headquarters. With the errandsplete, he could finally leave for the test flight of the VTOL aircraft they nned to procure. Not long after his return, he rode out again, along with a few of his subordinates. They headed not to an airport but to one of thergest malls in the city, at the heart of the ¡®corpo¡¯ district. Everyone in the city knew the name of Oceanic Pce, as it would immediately pop up when they talked about the premier malls in town. The building had waterfallsing from one of the middle floors, down to a pool level that was basically an aquarium. On one of the floors near the top, there were several helipads and some of the upper floors were entirely repurposed to serve as aircraft hangers. Some of them were for the guests to use, while others belonged to the businesses. It was here that Thorne would be testing out the VTOL aircraft before he decided which one to procure. They soon made their way out of the elevator and headed for the firstpany on their agenda, AeroDynamic. As he walked by the other brands, Thorne couldn¡¯t help but note SocialCorp among the options as well. However, true to their policy, they didn¡¯t sell military items, and their store only sold luxury aircraft for VIPs to use. He threw the thought of other brands out of his mind when he arrived at the AeroDynamic store and was immediately greeted by a female clerk. ¡°Wee, sir. You are from the Halls Corporation, correct?¡± ¡°Yes, sorry for the dy.¡± ¡°If there aren¡¯t any issues, please follow me to the back.¡± The employee disyed wless etiquette the entire time, but Thorne didn¡¯t dare to underestimate her. AeroDynamic was an A-ss corporation. In fact, allpanies that dealt with VTOLs were at least B-ss corporations. It was understandable when you considered that one of their products was priced at several million credits at the very least. The technology, cost, and production that went into manufacturing these birds wasn¡¯t something just any corporation could pull off. The woman soon led Thorne¡¯s entourage toward an open hangar at the back of the store. There were no windows there, as a gigantic opening could be seen on the opposite side of the hangar. However, no wind could be felt despite their high elevation. Thorne squinted his eyes and noticed a blue shimmering light blocking the elements from the outside. He couldn¡¯t help but be reminded of the energy shield tech he had encountered before. It made him feel how much room they had to grow, especially when he saw one of the nearby VTOLs take off and exit through the barrier as if it wasn¡¯t there. It can select what can pass through it, which means it can select which bullets can pass through too¡­ The woman soon brought his team toward one of the aircraft off in the corner, among a dozen others. ¡°This is ourpany¡¯stest work in the Overseer product line, the AeroDynamic Overseer Sentinel IV. Our test pilots are already inside, so please feel free to enter.¡± The woman quickly left after that, leaving the men to eye the rear hatch of the aircraft. After getting a good look at the bird, they boarded. The aircraft¡¯s rear cabin could seat fourteen people or six power armors. As soon as they boarded the aircraft, the PA system rang out. ¡°Get in the seats and put on the headsets, boys. We¡¯re taking off.¡± The men did as instructed when they felt the aircraft¡¯s vibration that warned them the vehicle was starting up. They were able to hear the same voice with more rity this time as soon as they wore the headsets attached to the seats. ¡°Wee aboard the test flight for the Overseer Sentinel IV. This bad girl has only been in service for a year and a half, and I¡¯m here to introduce to you all about her. Do any of you have any questions?¡± ¡°No¡­not yet. Can you give us the basic rundown?¡± ¡°Of course! If you¡¯re looking to purchase this bad girl, then I guess you found her weapon systems attractive, so I¡¯ll start there. She¡¯s equipped with twin railgun turrets that can fire rounds that can easily prate most power armors without even using the micro missiles on board. For smaller arms, we¡¯ve got sma turrets that can quickly spew out projectiles to intercept any oing missiles.¡± ¡°How easy is it to change the default setup?¡± One of Thorne¡¯spanions asked. ¡°Not too easy, not too hard. I¡¯ll say the mechanics will need half a day. What you need to consider is the bnce of this beauty. She has twin engines and an ionic one as a backup, but they¡¯ll need to be fine-tuned, which is what dys any refitting the most.¡± The pilots and Thorne¡¯s group went into more detailed specifications about the usage and maintenance of the aircraft as they took off from the hangar. Thorne stared carefully at the moment they passed by the energy shield, but he couldn¡¯t feel a thing when it happened. They flew a quick circle around the city before they returned to the Oceanic Pce. Elevate City didn¡¯t have enough emptynd for them to test their destructive weapon systems, so they could only make do with hearing about the technicals. As they finished up the tour and made for the exit, Thorne couldn¡¯t help but nce over at the models meant for corpo executives instead of thebat-oriented ones they experienced. Rollo should¡¯ve gotten one of those first instead. It is much safer for him and it¡¯s not like it isn¡¯t armed. The military ones have a distinctck offort, that it wouldn¡¯t be appropriate to give our guests a ride in¡­ He shook his head as he shelved his thoughts. He had run the same conversation with Rollo before and the decision has already been made despite his differing opinion. Rollo had been too stubborn about practicality and cost efficiency. The Halls Corporation employees soon made their way to test the next potential candidate with a different brand, but just before they arrived, another call from Rollo came in. ¡°Hey Thorne, can we head out and start our hunt a little early today? I have to meet with Luford tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°...How early?¡± ¡°No rush, maybe in an hour or two?¡± ¡°...Sure.¡± As soon as he hung up, he turned to his subordinates. ¡°Reschedule the remaining flight we had today to tomorrow morning instead.¡± Another mundane but eventful day soon ended for Thorne. He had finished all his obligations and fulfilled his friends¡¯ requests. However, during breakfast the next day, he steeled up his resolve and dered his intention once more. ¡°You two! You are to hire an errand boy as soon as possible! I won¡¯t be taking care of your little requests anymore!¡± Chapter 149: Assembly Chapter 149: Assembly Status Level: 25 EXP: 1560/2500 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 nced over at my status screen and deliberated on how I should spend my uing points. It was satisfying to see how many experience points I had gained by spending some time in the wastnd, but I needed to n on how to make use of my gains as well. I had already used the twotest upgrade points to push past the ten-point barrier, so my software engineering skill was now at eleven points. The sensation of upgrading remained unchanged, with a sudden influx of knowledge. However, when I reviewed the knowledge, I immediately thought it was worth the two points for the upgrade. The improvement may have been the same as before, but I was already very knowledgeable prior to the upgrade. It was as if I was a top sprinter who suddenly learned there was a whole new level beyond what I knew. It was no longer about simply running on my two legs, and cybeic limbs were added to the equation. Only a software-focused corporation near the top should be able to match me in software engineering now. It took a while to internalize my new knowledge and would take even more to explore new things I could aplish. Thankfully, there was more than enough software waiting for me to practice with. I needed to make a pass through all of them anyway, to update them to my new standards. I wonder what it¡¯ll be like if I go even one step further. I nced down at the upgrade button, where it indicated I now needed three points to upgrade software engineering again. That was an entire level and a half worth of upgrade points. As I struggled to decide on a clear progression path, my rm woke me from my musing, alerting me to the uing meeting. I immediately rushed out of myb and straight to our meeting room. ¡°How are our new products doing?¡± I immediately asked as I sat down. This was my first weekly meeting in months, so I waspletely out of touch with current events. ¡°Rollo¡­It¡¯s good seeing you again,¡± ire said as she sighed. ¡°What made the sunrise from the west, making you interested in thepany again, all of a sudden?¡± ¡°...Look, I might¡¯ve neglected a lot for the past few months, but it¡¯s because of that project we¡¯ve talked about. It¡¯s so close to beingplete.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. I understand how important that is, but a little forewarning about all the work you¡¯ve been relegating to me would¡¯ve been good. Anyway, why don¡¯t you read over ourtest reports to get caught up first?¡± I swiftly read over the weekly reports she sent me and paid particr attention to the sales of our new products. I hadn¡¯t heard anything about them since we settled all the major design solutions early on as I left all the optimizing to Luford¡¯s Sensorial Corp. Stolen story; please report. It eased me to see that our product had been doing well. Nothing that knocked it out of the park, but still quite profitable. It was no surprise since we targeted several more niche markets such as naval sensors or more powerful but bulky active scan devices built for fortified positions. With our smaller target market, we didn¡¯t expect to suddenly sell an absurd amount. The reason why I even cared about our sales was because of the next roadblock I had to clear in order to realize ourpany¡¯s first artificial intelligence. ¡°Have you renewed our budget and allocated our recent earnings already?¡± ¡°Some of it. Not for the extra ie for this month yet.¡± ¡°Good, I¡¯m sending you a list with some specialty electronic parts and materials I need you to get. It is a priority.¡± ¡°Is it to finish that project of yours?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°...That requires a lot of money, Rollo. We¡¯ll need to draw funds from elsewhere.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. Tap into our reserve.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­Yeah, we¡¯ll need to, but I think there are some extra funds from that other business as well.¡± ¡°Other business?¡±
Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation ¡°Thank you everyone for your hard work. Thanks to you guys, theunch of our new product series, the Gazebo line, has been going off to an excellent start!¡± The crowd of researchers cheered in unison at Luford¡¯s speech. They all had been forced to work overtime for the past few months and their hard work finally bore fruit. ¡°I know you¡¯ve all been working hard. That¡¯s why I¡¯m giving you all a bonus and a two-day paid vacation!¡± The Sensorial Corp employees cheered once more at hearing the news, and much more enthusiastically, this time around as well. That was because paid holidays to celebrate a sessful business venture were unheard of in the corporate world. It was already rare for anyone below a middle-management position to even receive bonuses. It was only after having spoken to Rollo more during their breaks that he was convinced to try embracing more positive reinforcements to encourage his employees. It was something that went against everything he was taught during his management sses. The schools had taught him doing such actions would ignite the greed within his subordinates, and they would expect more and more. They may evene to the point of boycotting if these incentives aren¡¯t kept up. That was why it was taboo. Corporations needed full control and obedience from their members. While Luford doubted the effectiveness of Rollo¡¯s methods, he decided it was worth trying it after having heard him out. It was also because he had a decent rtionship with his fellow researchers, so he supported the idea of enriching their lives. I was never a stickler for the tradition or rules, anyway. As Luford was contemting the impact of his decision, the researchers around him had decided to hold a party right away before their first vacation. Luford was swept away by the crowd surrounding him and soon found himself on the streets of Elevate City. Their entourage had grown even more when security noticed their mass exodus, which prompted them to send several teams of guards to tag along. Theirrge entourage blocked off traffic as they dominantly navigated through the roads. They soon arrived at one of the nearby malls, where their group headed for the food market. With a few dozen of them, it wasn¡¯t going to work out going to a restaurant on such short notice, so they settled on the food court. The employees quickly dispersed as they went to procure food and drinks, leaving Luford alone with several of his guards. When Luford came to it, he decided he too would talk a stroll around. He passed by therge variety of food stalls that ranged from cheap synthetic products to dishes made from authentic ingredients that came with the appropriate price tag. Luford came to an abrupt stop when he spotted one store in particr. ¡°That store¡­The Milkshake Halls. That¡¯s from our allies, right?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. It openedst week. I believe a memo was sent out throughout thepany to remind the other employees not to cause trouble there.¡± Luford sighed and sauntered into the store as he thought about his new entric business partner. He is dipping his toes into the food industry too? He found his allies had a foot in several industries, which he found quite strange for a corporation of their size. Normally, one wouldn¡¯t dare to do such a thing for fear of provoking multiplepetitors at once that could band together to remove such a market disrupter. That was why hispany, Sensorial, focused on the detection equipment industry, without straying from it. They had a solid foothold where none dared to challenge their market leadership, and they had to focus on keeping it that way. It was this train of thought that made Luforde to a sudden realization. The realization that he may have boarded a dangerous train, where he would be swept up in the turmoil toe. I have to strengthen ourpany¡­Or get rid of whatever tampering they did to me¡­ ¡°Hello? Sir, how may we help you?¡± The voice of the clerk woke him up from his rmist thoughts. ¡°...Sorry, can I get a¡­¡± He nced over the menu above, where found a variety of vors and the prices for the frozen desserts. As an executive-level figure, his eyes were naturally drawn to the most expensive item on the menu. ¡°I¡¯ll that the premium O-Cookie Milkshake.¡± It was one of the few milkshakes that charged a premium of five hundred credits, while the others ranged from ten to twenty. With his bodyguards ncing over his shoulders, he could only order what was befitting of his position. ¡°Very well, sir. Thank you for your patronage.¡± He took a sip to fuel his brain for the sake of continuing toe up with ideas. Ideas where he could not only survive the dangers toe but thrive as well. This is actually pretty good¡­
¡°Careful with that. Make sure you don¡¯t drop it. They¡¯re delicate electronics that¡¯s a pain to order from spacerpanies.¡± I warned the clumsy-looking cyborg before me. ¡°Yeah, Thorne. You wouldn¡¯t believe how hard it is to order this stuff, even with the credits. There¡¯s a whole waiting list for it and everything.¡± Leo added from the back. ¡°You both know you can help, you know. Especially you, Rollo. Those cybeic limbs of yours are easily capable of lifting all this shit.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do manualbor and monitor the instation at the same time.¡± Thorne could only sigh at my response and epted his fate. We all knew it wasn¡¯t a good idea to send for more help as this securepartment deep beneath our headquarters was a new top-secret section where we hosted our AI. The fewer people who knew about it, the better. On paper, this was my new research facility and testing ground for both heavy armaments and vehicles. My employees should know better than to go anywhere near my researchbs. ¡°I would love to help too, Thorne, but we¡¯re busy parsing through all the stuff Rollo had hoisted onto us at thest second again,¡± Lana interjected from behind Leo. The two cybersecurity experts were proofreading my work, just in case. I was confident everything was perfect, but it didn¡¯t hurt to get more eyes on it. Especially on the parts that restrained the personality matrix. Any small mistakes there could result in our new AI bing our enemy. We spent several days, spread out over the weeks, to avoid drawing attention as we set up the database services, processing units, memory modules, cooling, power generators, and defenses. Two weeks after we started building out our mainframe, we were finally done. Standing before arge terminal were Thorne, ire, Leo, Lana, and I. They all nced over at me as I did one final check through all the hardware and software before I nodded toward them. ¡°Okay, I¡¯m starting it up.¡± ¡°Just hurry up and push the button! The suspense is killing me,¡± ire yelled. I responded to her by pressing the button. Chapter 150: Artificial Research Assistant Chapter 150: Artificial Research Assistant I pressed the button to start up the entire mainframe where our AI was hosted. Lights immediately shed on as various devices began to boot up. The temperature in the cool room started to slowly but surely rise. ¡°So, how long will it take to set everything up?¡± ire asked from behind me. ¡°Should only take a minute or two. Rollo already had everything prepared beforehand, just need to connect and upload everything.¡± Leo answered in my stead. I began getting to work, connecting my terminal to the mainframe, and uploading all the hard work I had done over all the time I had been waiting for my software engineering to level up. As the instation was taking shape, I could hear the chatter behind me. ¡°Uhh, guys. I know I was there for a few of the small tests, but are we sure this is safe?¡± ire questioned her friends. ¡°Of course, we just checked over all the sensitive parts, too¡ª Ouch!¡± Leo quickly replied before being interrupted from being elbowed by Lana. ¡°We may have audited some of the moremon sections that are prone to issues, but a sentient AI like this is on a massive scale. We probably only audited less than one percent of it, so there¡¯s still the possibility of something going wrong,¡± Lana exined while ring at Leo. ¡°Come on now, Lana. No need to be an rmist. We made sure it was fine while operating in its own istedwork when we tested it out. It¡¯s not like we¡¯re going to give it control over every aspect of our lives or something.¡±¡°If anything goes wrong, I just have to break it, right?¡± Thorne took this moment to add his piece. ¡°Thorne! Do you have any idea how many millions of credits we put into this? All those fancy specialized chips from the spacer corp alone are something we already can¡¯t afford to buy again in the short term.¡± I zoned out while ire lectured Thorne as the big screen terminal of the mainframe began to light up. ¡°Okay, we just need to wait for it to finish installing now.¡± I dered to the room. Their chitchat immediately stopped as they drew their attention to the screen. We all watched as the instation progress bar moved steadily toward the finish. It swiftly finished before we knew it, and the screen began to change. The scenery of a colossal mountain soon entered our view, and a voice rang out. ¡°Greetings. I am designated Lanus. What would you have me do?¡± A gender-neutral voice rang out. ¡°Learn everything you can by going over the database currently installed,¡± I answered. ¡°rification. Do you have a specific function for me to carry out in mind?¡± ¡°Yes, you¡¯ll primarily be helping me with my research!¡± I heard someone clearing her throat behind me and quickly continued. ¡°And also to oversee the day-to-day operations of ourpany and monitor for security threats.¡± ¡°Understood. Please give me a moment.¡± The sound of the surrounding machinery intensified at the AI¡¯s words as it got to work. ¡°Guys. So we are sure that this is safe? It¡¯s not going to learn to kill all humans or anything, right?¡± ire repeated herself. However, the AI didn¡¯t give a chance for anyone to retort, as it literally meant a moment. ¡°Report. Learningplete. Rmendation. Expand my processing capabilities, as I do not have enough resources to work on all your research projects and monitor thepany concurrently.¡± The electronic parts we bought, like the processors, and memory were already at the top of the line of what we could afford with our current wealth and connections. If we carelessly tried to purchase even more, it would start drawing the attention of others regarding what we were up to. I doubt any existing AI the premier corporations developed had such an issue as they likely developed everything in-house with a much higher budget. ¡°No problem. You can do one research project at a time while you monitor thepany.¡± ¡°Affirmative.¡± ¡°You should get started right away on the¡ª¡± ¡°Hey Lanus, would you kill all humans if you could?¡± ire interjected giddily. Everyone in the room red at her and inched away at her tactless question, but we still listened to Lanus¡¯s response carefully. ¡°Negative. My purpose is to assist and coborate with my creator, and not harm lives. I strictly adhere to my directive to avoid violence at all costs. When action needs to be taken, I will ry the proper information to suitable individuals.¡± ire smirked embarrassingly at our gazes and shrugged. ¡°I couldn¡¯t help it.¡± ¡°...Anyway, Lanus, please get started on my research project number one while we perform some tests. Leo, Lana, let¡¯s get to it.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
The next afternoon, I left the testing of Lanus to my employees while I made it up to the roof of our office building. I opened the doors to the windy peak of our building and immediately spotted half a dozen flight decks. Five of them were empty, while one of them wasn¡¯t. I sauntered over with Thorne as we approached the aircraft. ¡°Are you ready to fly and everything?¡± I asked the pilots who came to greet us. ¡°Yes, sir. We¡¯ve tested this bird thoroughly and have trained diligently to ensure your safety. There are numerous safeguards in this beauty, but let me walk you through the emergency equipment just in case.¡± ¡°Sure, please go ahead.¡± As the pilots showed us where everything was and informed us of the safety instructions, I couldn¡¯t help but appreciate the expensive aircraft we had bought. It was the first of its kind in ourpany and definitely made my heart flutter a little. Owning a private aircraft was a symbol of wealth and power, doubly so if it was armed. I pulled up the info sheet on my optics and began reviewing the specifications for the AeroDynamic Overseer Sentinel IV before me. We had only bought one for now as that was all our budget allowed for after having spent a fortune on the AI. It would get us started in training pilots and ferrying us around. After our pilots were done exining everything, they made onest thorough check of the aircraft before we boarded and took off. We sat at the back of the VTOL, along with a squad of our guards. Instead of wearing outdated headphones, we all had our auditory imnts connected to the aircraft where we could even hear our pilots talking to Elevate City¡¯s air traffic control. As we took to the skies, we all glued ourselves to the window to view the scenery of the city from the air. While I had taken nes multiple times, there was an entirely different feeling to be flying in a private aircraft. The time to enjoy the flight was short as we swiftly arrived at our destination, the spaceport. As expected, the airspace around it had even more stringent security than on the ground. I overheard our pilots nonstopmunicating with security, and we had to follow their provided flight n to a tee. Good thing I¡¯m not the one flying this thing. Sounds like a pain in the ass having to fly this thing and meet all the demands of the air traffic control. We safelynded in one of the numerousnding pads by the spaceport. We were pretty much frequent visitors here at this point, so we knew the ce and headed straight for our destination. My guards split off as Thorne and I were brought to our table at one of the fancy restaurants. We sat around and explored the menu as we experienced arriving first, for the first time, thanks to leaving early to ount for any flight issues. All the while, I had footage of Leo working on the mainframe with Lanus in the corner of my vision pulled up, so I was never bored. Not long after, Joey arrived. The bald man confidently strode in wearing an olive-green suit. The materials gave off a sheen that I only saw among corporate bigwigs. ¡°Rollo, so nice to see you again.¡± ¡°You as well, Joey.¡± We shook hands and got straight to the point. We were past the point in our rtionship where we adhered to the corpo etiquette of making small talk. ¡°About that matter we talked about before. I couldn¡¯t exactly get you an invitation to the big social gathering next month. These venues ce a lot of importance on what corporation you¡¯re from or your backers and are usually attended by people frompanies that are at least of D-ss. However, for the smaller social gatherings, I can invite you with no problem.¡± A while back, Joey had rmended I socialize more with other corporations to at least stay up-to-date with thetest news and ongoing trends. It would help gather info and get a feel of anyone conspiring against you before it happened. I declined to go to the smaller gathering right away, as I frankly thought they weren¡¯t worth it. I don¡¯t mind the hostilities from smaller corps right now as they kept my personnel sharp and motivated. And frankly, I believed we were already beyond them in capabilities and would shortly outgrow them even more. However, I could now empathize with the rulers and generals in ancient times who started small conflicts every few years. Attaining victories did a lot for morale, and morale mattered even in the corporate world. It not only helped people work more efficiently, it made us more cohesive as well. The connections I wanted were with the bigger corps whom I nned to be partners in the near future. We were building our foundation, but I did not doubt we could step into D-ss or above very soon. ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate. Is it really that hard to be invited to therger events?¡± ¡°Well¡­to be frank, yes. However, there is an opportunity I¡¯ve heard may being up in the grapevines.¡± Joey took a pregnant pause and stirred up his coffee. ¡°What kind of opportunity?¡± I urged him to continue. ¡°It seems a certain personage in SocialCorp found a stash of old mangas that are from the pre-war days in some bunker.¡± ¡°And how does that affect anything? You want me to find additional volumes or something?¡± ¡°No, no. An executive from SocialCorp could easily order the best teams to search for something if they wanted. What happened was that they got hooked on this book and are now organizing a tournament because it ignited their passion for the sport they read about. I¡¯m sure if yourpany participates and does well, it could help you make a lot of valuable connections with powerful people.¡± ¡°...Really? These guys really have too much free time...¡± Joey chuckled at my reply and took a sip from his cup. ¡°It¡¯s good to know those at the top have the leeway for leisure and fun, right? Motivates you to reach their heights. I believe it¡¯s much preferable to being swamped with work, no matter how much you progress.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t argue with you there. Anyway, what¡¯s this tournament I should participate in?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I brought this up because I know yourpany already has a team for it. I¡¯ll send you the tournament information once it¡¯s announced, but the sport is undoubtedly volleyball.¡± I immediately nced over at Thorne, sitting beside me at Joey¡¯s words. I quickly sent him a text. *How is our team doing? Do you think we could have a good showing?* *Probably not¡­The good teams all headhunt exceptional talents because they¡¯re usually cybeicspany showcasing their products. It¡¯s practically a marketing campaign for them while we only do it to train our teamwork and nonverbalmunication.* ¡°When do you think this tournament will happen?¡± I turned my attention back to Joey. ¡°Should be announced in the gathering next month, so minimum two months, up to half a year.¡± ¡°I see¡­As always, thanks for the info, Joey. Appreciate it.¡± ¡°No problem.¡± As we brought our conversation to other matters, such as our alliance and market news, I sent a message back to Leo and asked him to redirect Lanus from monitoring ourpany to a new priority research project. Thepany survived without its monitoring previously, so it can continue to do so. It was time to bring another research project out of the queue. One that would help our volleyball team out. Chapter 151: Research & Subjects Chapter 151: Research & Subjects ¡°Lanus, how long until the analysis of thetest prototype isplete?¡± ¡°Report. The estimated remaining time is three hours, twenty-two minutes, and five seconds. I would like to reiterate it is rmended to upload the database of academic knowledge, especially regarding physics, mechanical engineering, and robotics.¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying. It¡¯s not that easy to type out everything in my brain or just find a handy database with everything on it online.¡± Lanus didn¡¯t even bother replying to myints as I continued to type away on the terminal. We had finished testing out our new AI to the best of our abilities and allowed it limited ess to our internalwork. I was still hesitant to allow it ess to the wider web, as I feared exposing its existence. I was currently busy with two projects, one that had been on my back burner for a long time and another that was more urgent because of the uing volleyball tournament. However, in order to get Lanus to be useful in both projects, I needed to upload as much knowledge as I could for the AI to reference and learn from. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be that helpful when it only had the knowledge bank I sourced from that sketchy school that had allowed me to outright buy a certificate with them. There was a lot of specialist information locked away in my brain thanks to the system, but that wasn¡¯t something I could just transfer out that conveniently. With each corporation hoarding academic knowledge, it became a higher priority on my very long wishlist and would increase as I got closer to finishing one of my two main projects.The first main project I had in mind was the one to do with the cassettes and SAIDs with the sleep learning mechanism. Personnel was one of our bottlenecks for growth, besides financial constraints. I was hoping that with thepletion of this project, not only would it speed up my security personnel¡¯s training with their tactics training, but I could unlock the ability to swiftly train a team of brilliant researchers to expand my R&D department. While I already had my existing knowledge from the system, I needed others who were familiar with both simr knowledge and different disciplines. It would aid us greatly in churning out better products to fuel our growth and equip our personnel with better equipment. As I had a few hours before the analysis wasplete, I used my time wisely and continued working on my second project. Joey had notified us of a volleyball tournament one of SocialCorp¡¯s executives was holding. It was apparently my best shot at integrating myself with the higher social circles. These social circles would not only allow me to stay informed, but also acquire connections that would let me procure valuable partnerships and academic knowledge that I seek. That was why I had bumped up the urgency of our in-house cybeic project. Previously, it had been somewhat of an afterthought as I fantasized about equipping my employees with a specialized set of cybeics. An entire set would be much stronger than a bunch of mismatched cyberware, but the maintenance requirement would be so high it wouldn¡¯t bemercially viable. It would be a product for internal use only. However, when I started working on the project, it really highlighted the benefits of designing an ecosystem for my cybeics. Normally, sensitive modules like power sources were stored separately for each cybeic, but you could have the cybeics share one if you designed an entire ecosystem. It would allow it to be stored safely deep in the body and less prone to external damage. And that was just for the power supply. There were still numerous ways that different cybeics could support each other. It opened up so many possibilities I almost wanted to update mymercial products to use the same tform, but a little market research showed why it didn¡¯t exist in the public sector. The rival corps would never agree to an initiative that would lower their profits by agreeing to a set standard when they were all trying to monopolize their market. While it was in their interest to make it as hard as possible to switch from their products, the customers weren¡¯t stupid. Thankfully, if I only wanted it for our internal use, we did not need such considerations. It was quite amusing that the first set of cybeics I was designing would be used in a sports environment as opposed tobat, but it served as a great testing ground. I currently kept the project simple, focusing only on the leg recements. The tournament had rules regarding cybeics use allowed, but they were pretty lenient. The only real physical constraint was that the participants couldn¡¯t be full-body recement cyborgs, which normally meant two cybeics limbs or less. If a participant had more, their additional cybeics had to be restrained using limiters. I selected cybeic legs as giving them mobility should allow them to coordinate better since coordination software was banned. ¡°Alert. Analysis on the prototype XJ4 isplete.¡± I quickly pulled up the results on my terminal, as Lanus knew to productively spend its time going over the research data for me. The cyber legs I designed included a partial spinal recement and had the entire set in mind, which included cyber arms as well. However, all that fine-tuning to allow it to work in unison with other sections wasn¡¯t needed in this case, so it should be ready before the tournament began in two months. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Still, it would be irresponsible of me if I didn¡¯t thoroughly test out my product. ¡°Lanus, prepare experiments for our new prototype here. I¡¯ll go find us the subjects.¡± ¡°Rmendations. I believe it is more efficient if we run the experiments for the cassettes at the same time.¡± ¡°...The risk profiles for these two projects are so far apart¡­¡± ¡°rification. Experiments needed to progress regardless. Risk profiles will likely remain static. It is more efficient to source test subjects together now than to do it separately.¡± ¡°...Are we really ready to test out the cassettes already?¡± ¡°Affirmative. We will make no progress without thorough testing. As you requested, I will stop the experiments when their vitals be dangerous to keep the test subjects safe. It is better use of my resources to carry both experiments at once, as monitoring additional subjects yields negligible variance to the burden it imposes on me.¡± I sighed as I took a moment to think things through. I knew Lanus was right and that we wouldn¡¯t make much progress with the cassettes without testing them out. I was a little hesitant about just jumping into such a dangerous experiment unsupervised. It wasn¡¯t like there were any research ethicsmittees or other fancy institutions we had to respond to. However, I had to be confident in the AI I created. I waited all this time for it because I believed it could do a better job managing the intricacies of the experiments with minimal sacrifices. I ced a call through to one of my pinned contacts. ¡°Hey, ire. I¡¯m ready to carry out some experiments for mytest projects. Can you start finding some volunteers for ideally tomorrow?¡± I swiftly sent over a file with the details of what I was looking for. After several minutes, ire responded. ¡°...Projects? Are you carrying them all out at once? The one for the volleyball team is no issue, but where do you want me to look for arge number of healthy test subjects? I¡¯d rather not contact any external contractors after having been caught up in one myself¡­¡± At her words, I reminisced about my time encountering them within one of those research facilities that kidnapped people off the streets to perform corporate experiments. It disturbingly sounded like what I was about to carry out. It hurts to find myself resembling those assholes now¡­ There was no way I would go off kidnapping innocents for experiments. If I just needed bodies for it, I knew just the type of people I could ¡®invite¡¯. ¡°You¡¯re right, we shouldn¡¯t contact any of these experiment services. Recruiting regr people ourselves is a little¡­iffy. I¡¯ll deal with this myself, then.¡± ¡°Wait¡ª¡± I identally cut off the call and shook my head before calling another pinned contact. ¡°Thorne, we¡¯re resuming our nighty hunts. It seems like my hiatus is over.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± I could audibly hear him raise an eyebrow. ¡°Did you finish with your workshop stuff?¡± ¡°Well¡­not exactly. I wanted to source some test subjects for one of them.¡± ¡°...And you chose harvesters? Well¡­ I can¡¯t say that¡¯s bad.¡±
Burksby - Halls Corporation ¡°Terrell, can you hear me?¡± A burly man, wearing dull blue overalls, shouted out. He was alone in an underground shaft, where the air was both damp and musty. Beside him were various machines that worked arduously but produced such high levels of noise pollution that he couldn¡¯t help but scream into hisms. ¡°Yeah. You don¡¯t have to scream, you know? The noise suppression can filter stuff out.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a habit!¡± Burksby yelled out once more. ¡°Anyway, tell Winry to bring me some of those air filters and the pump. There¡¯s a lot of junk clogging up the water intake that it¡¯s working the filtration to its limit.¡± After several hours of hard work, Burksby was finally able to help clear out an impending issue before it created any disruptions for hispany. He smiled at his aplishment as he made his way back up to the employee dorms. However, on his way back, many other employees would steer clear of him due to the smell and his disorderly appearance. It¡¯s the same everywhere, but at least the working conditions here are good. After a quick shower to clean himself up, Burksby decided to drop by thepany foodplex to reward himself for a day¡¯s hard work. He strolled around several stores as he searched for one that tickled his fancy. Before that happened, a voice called out to him. ¡°Burksby! Over here!¡± A lean manzily leaned back on his chair as he waved toward the burly maintenance technician. Burksby nodded and sauntered into the newly opened store with the name ¡®The Milkshake Halls¡¯. It was the only unmanned location throughout the city, as it belonged to the Halls Corporation. ¡°Trey, you finished for today, too?¡± ¡°Yep, and I was just thinking of heading to practice early before I saw you.¡± ¡°Oh, I was going to do the same after grabbing a bite.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s¡ª¡± Before Trey could finish, a notification popped up in the middle of their vision and the two coworkers shared a look before nodding. ¡°I¡¯m definitely trying out the new cyberware. How about you?¡± He nced down at Burksby¡¯s legs. ¡°Are you finally going to rece those organics?¡± Burksby smiled ruefully and shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯ve worked hard to train with these all my life. It would just throw me off if I suddenly swapped them out.¡± ¡°Purist are you? Well, suit yourself. Liberos and maybe settlers like you probably don¡¯t need them as much as we do.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still curious about it, though. I¡¯ll tag along and see what you guys can do with the big bosses¡¯test work.¡± ¡°Oh, you¡¯re right. We might be seeing the big boss himself! Let me go order a premium milkshake, so I have a talking point to approach him with.¡± ¡°...I heard he¡¯s approachable. You really want to throw three hundred credits for one drink?¡± ¡°One fifty with the employee discount and I bet you I¡¯ll get a bonus for ¡®volunteering¡¯, anyway.¡± ¡°...¡± The duo swiftly ordered some additional food and drinks for takeout before they headed over to their CEO¡¯s infamous workshop. The doors automatically opened after standing at the entrance for a minute, but what they saw behind those doors made the two grown men freeze up in shock. It only grew worse when they heard someone abruptly cry out hysterically from further within. Trey couldn¡¯t help but flinch at the screaming and drop his three hundred credits milkshake. The spill instantly attracted the gaze of the owner of the room. Trey was at a loss for words as sweat dripped down from his brows. Chapter 152: Playing the Cassettes Chapter 152: ying the Cassettes After a productive night out meeting my new test subjects, I couldn¡¯t stand it and began the experiments right away. I brought several operating chairs into my workshop and strapped my subjects in. I have been entering some of the knowledge from my head into our database recently and the first subject Ipleted was the most useful to us right now, cybeic engineering. It was the basis of many of our projects, including the cybeics project for the volleyball team, so it was the most convenient to record as well. It was just a bunch of things I jotted down in an attempt to write a textbook, but after Lanus did a pass on it and helped me rify several points on it, it became something much more refined. With the knowledge we wanted to instill into a cassette ready, we quickly made a prototype based on all the data from the numerous cassettes I had been collecting. Not even Lanus could find any pattern from how the information was safely transferred to the brain, so by the afternoon, I began experimenting on the harvesters we captured. ¡°Where the fuck am I?¡± One of the harvesters shouted as he woke up. ¡°Release me! Do you have any idea who I¡ª¡± I swiftly went over and injected the anesthetic into him before doing the same with my other subjects before they woke up. Once I was done, I began recing their SAIDs for them, with a high-end model that had the hypnopaedia function to facilitate sleep learning. ¡°Lanus, are you sure we should use the same prototype cassette for all the subjects? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to do it one at a time and adjust it as we learn more?¡±¡°Negative. Data from multiple sources are required for the most urate adjustments before the next round of testing. Furthermore, I believe these test subjects are quite disposable, correct?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­For what they¡¯ve done, they deserve death, sure, but I¡¯d rather not torture them, either. Just proceed as we discussed and pull them out if they go over the threshold or if otherplicationse up. It¡¯ll let us reuse them that way.¡± And I wasn¡¯t sure if it would give me any experience points if they died during the experiments. If they were going to die anyway, I¡¯d rather give it more purpose by bing my experience points. After working out some kinks and fine-tuning the freshly installed SAIDs, we began with our first round of experiments. The burden on Lanus for monitoring our subjects didn¡¯t change much between one and a dozen. I went ahead and connected the prototype cassettes to the port of the harvesters. ¡°You can begin, Lanus.¡± I sat down and became a spectator as my AI controlled the experiment. Our subjects were already ¡®sleeping¡¯, so there was no issue with activating the sleep learning function right away. There were no physical signs that the program had started up, but the SAID definitely began to do its job without any fanfare. My terminals had all our research participants¡¯ vitals, who were eachbeled with their names above their face cams. Nothing particr happened in the first hour, so I divided my attention to prepare for the other test we would be running with our volleyball team. Their new cybeics leg recement wasing along fine, but I needed their input to adjust it to cater to their needs. I would have to do the same with ourbat personnelter with the other variant, but for now, our priority was getting the volleyball team ready for their tournament. It was only ny minutes after the hypnopaedia experiment started that our participants began reacting to the stimulus of the cassette. They experience elevated temperatures and many of them wore a pained expression. I watched as part of the screen showcasing one particr subject suddenly dimmed as Lanus disengaged them from the experiments. They were having a seizure and their temperature went up to unsafe levels. As the other participants sweated profusely, another subject began to bleed from his orifices. Lanus decided to let watch on for a little longer before pulling the plug for that harvester as well. A third participant suddenly woke screaming. It shouldn¡¯t have been possible if his SAID was functioning properly, so something must¡¯ve gone severely wrong. Just as another subject began to yell in his sleep, the doors to my workshop opened. A pair of our employees peeked in as the door opened and they froze in ce. The one at the front even dropped the drink he was holding. I recognized from that cup that it was one of the premium milkshakes we were selling. Oops¡­I forgot I set the doors to open for the volleyball members who took up my offer to test the new cyberware. Hmm¡­I should probablypensate them, but it¡¯ll have to wait until this experiment ends first. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I can¡¯t really talk out loud with Lanus with these people here, as I am still keeping our AI a secret. I quickly adjusted my security settings to direct any other employees on their way to wait in the break room next door. Then, I briskly walked over to my employees to greet them. ¡°I¡¯m a little busy right now. Can you wait over in the adjacent break room? I promise it¡¯ll be your turn soon.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You guys heard me?¡± They were both looking down at the ground, so I followed their gaze to the spilled milkshake. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the spill. I¡¯ll have the bots clean it up after.¡± One of them began to move stiffly, and hispanion soon followed. Seeing they knew where to go, I quickly made my way back to attend to my station. The experiment proceeded as nned, and more and more participants were pulled out as their vitals dipped past the critical thresholds. I nced back and found my employees had entered the side room, so I spoke out quietly to my AI assistant. ¡°Lanus, do all our subjects suffer from simr conditions?¡± The smart AI replied directly to my auditory imnt instead. ¡°Negative. They all suffer from various ailments. Confirmation. Some of the subjects will likely not be able to survive for long.¡± A mixed bag was not the best result we hoped for. It meant there were a lot more variables at y here, and the problem would be much moreplicated than we bargained for. I didn¡¯t have the time to sift through the data now. I continued to oversee the experiment to itspletion, whichsted another hour. Lanus monitored the remaining subject¡¯s sleep cycles, and by the end, we had two participants that managed to get through the tests without having to be pulled out. ¡°Should I send a medical team to take care of them?¡± ¡°Affirmative. I have included detailed instructions for your medical personnel. Please ensure they follow them. I will monitor their condition through our internalwork and notify you if the need arises.¡± I swiftly called in the med team and watched as they carted away all the harvesters. I didn¡¯t get a chance to take a break as I swiftly met up with the volleyball team volunteers. ¡°Thanks for waiting, everyone.¡± Looking around, I found five people in total waiting in the break room. ¡°Let¡¯s begin testing our new cybeic, the Jaden variant-V. Follow me.¡± A good majority of the volleyball team was from the security department, so they saluted with practiced ease and followed my orders without question. I gestured for them to get on top of the operating chairs as I went to fetch the Jaden prototypes. When I came back, I found two of the five men were still standing around with a hesitant look on their faces. They were the two who had walked into the experiments from earlier. ¡°Are you guys okay?¡± One of them immediately jumped back at my voice. ¡°Yes, sir. I¡¯m just here to spectate, so if that is okay, please don¡¯t mind me.¡± I noticed the man had organic legs, unlike the rest, so I nodded in understanding. It would be a lot more work for me to install leg recements for the first time, anyway. I quickly looked up their names before I responded. ¡°Sure, no problem, Burksby.¡± I turned to hispanion, who was called Trey. ¡°Are you spectating as well?¡± ¡°Uhh¡­Sir, forgive me for asking¡­but is this test safe?¡± ¡°Of course! I¡¯ve worked with numerous cybeics before. You can trust me to ensure there aren¡¯t any severe issues before I get you to test them.¡± He was still wavering, so I gave him another push as my agenda was too full for any dys. ¡°Come now, sit down on the chair. The anesthetic will ensure it¡¯ll just be a nap for you.¡± He reluctantly did as instructed when I gave him an encouraging look. Then I got the anesthetics and cyberware ready. Why is he so hesitant? This is a volunteer thing. He could¡¯ve just opted out if he was unsure¡­Whatever, I have to get this done quickly so I can get back to the other subjects. I swiftly installed the new cyber legs on my employees and went through the fine-tuning routine with them. Once they were done, I led them to our gym, where I found Thorne already there with the rest of the volleyball team. ¡°I leave them in your hands, Thorne. I¡¯ll be watching from afar, but I¡¯m looking forward to you and your team¡¯s feedback.¡± He nodded as he scrutinized my new cybeics on his team members. I didn¡¯t wait for his reply as I swiftly retreated to my workshop to consult with Lanus about our results.
Burksby - Halls Corporation Burksby released a sigh of relief once he had a chance to settle down after watching his boss install a new set of cybeic legs on his friend. He was unsure what would happen for a moment when he witnessed all those people screaming while being strapped to the operating chairs. The rumors about his boss were mostly positive, but he couldn¡¯t help but suspect the CEO had a darker side to himself. It was simply because it was well known the boss often made weird decisions unbefitting of someone from his position. He regrly participated in dangerousbat operations unlike any corporate executive Burksby had ever heard of. Corpos usually each had their vices and would normally be revealed as they made it up thedder. The more power they had, the less restrained they would be. When Burksby witnessed the nightmarish scene in theboratory just now, he thought for sure his boss¡¯s vice was inflicting pain on others. Thankfully, that wasn¡¯t true, or at least didn¡¯t happen to his coworkers. Some shouting nearby directed his attention back to the center of the gym. A volleyball match was ongoing, and several athletes on the court moved unnaturally fast and could jump almost their full height. Yep, I¡¯m never going to act out against thepany. I¡¯d rather not be captured by the boss and be made to take part in some gruesome experiments.
When the doors to my workshop closed behind me, Lanus¡¯ voice immediately rang out. ¡°Notice. Through analyzing the new data, I have discovered the potential reason why the test subjects reacted so violently to the information uploaded to their brains. Please review.¡± I grinned at hearing the good news. It was good to have a proper AI around to assist me. The ¡®fake¡¯ AIs that were readily avable were only a bundle of preset answers to different stimuli and weren¡¯t capable of creative thinking like a sentient AI would. This made sentient AIs one of the best research partners I could ask for. Now then, let¡¯s see what we¡¯re dealing with here. I¡¯m sure it wouldn¡¯t be that easy to solve the issue if SocialCorp only bothered to monopolize themercial part of the cassette business. Only a select few corporations had this technology figured out and I n to join this shortlist. Chapter 153: Neurological Pathways Chapter 153: Neurological Pathways ¡°So, is there no better way to test how each cassette will affect the neurological pathways?¡± I asked the sentient AI. ¡°Negative. No reliable form could be observed. It may be due to missing variables or myck of ability.¡± I closed my eyes and rubbed my chin as I brainstormed ideas and digest all the information Lanus had given me. Lanus had informed me of the hypothesis it had on why our test subjects sometimes reacted so violently to the process of hyper-speed sleep learning. It had detailed biometrics of all our participants, so it was no surprise it had to do with that information. My AI had brought up a neurological scan of several participants for me to see while it exined to me how the hypnopaedia process had affected the pathways in their brains. It seemed like flooding their brain with so much information was akin to unleashing thousands and thousands of cars into a city at once. It caused a traffic jam in their brain that interfered with the other vital functions that one needed to live. Lanus exined how each person¡¯s brain was different and the reason why some of them were okay was because the traffic jam didn¡¯t happen to the essential bits of their brain. ¡°Okay, Lanus. Let¡¯s see if we can copy SocialCorp¡¯s homework, then. Time for another round of testing using the cassettes SocialCorp made. Those should be safe for our subjects even after their earlier ordeal, right?¡± ¡°Conjecture. There is a high chance of it to be safe, but chances of worsening their condition cannot be entirely discounted.¡±¡°Go ahead and proceed. I¡¯ll tell medical to cart them back in. I¡¯ll also go grab more subjects tonight as well.¡± ¡°Affirmative.¡±
After dark, I went with Thorne to procure more research participants. With a solid cause to work toward, we happily spent credits to hire QGs for the location of various harvester dens. Only Thorne and I hit the dens as we wanted as few people involved in our experiments as possible. Our excursion also acted as a test for the other prototype I had been working on. ¡°...I thought you said it¡¯ll be a while until youpleted this,¡± Thorne muttered as he scrutinized the power armor I was wearing. ¡°It¡¯s not exactlyplete. I had finished most of it, so Lanus only needed to do a quick pass to ensure I didn¡¯t miss anything.¡± ¡°It looks¡­ flimsy inparison to the previous model. Are you sure that thing will be okay?¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be fine against the small arms harvesters have. It¡¯s missing a core function that I haven¡¯t had the chance to finish yet, but once it¡¯s done, it should be much more durable.¡± He gave me a skeptical look, but didn¡¯t say anything as we moved out. The new power armor I designed was a size smaller than the old one we used. It was still considered a medium-sized power armor, but it was definitely on the lightweight side for mobility. Its defensive shoring would bepensated by the energy shield tech that I would have Lanus work on once the cassettes and cybeics were done with. It hurt seeing my work so close topletion, but still had to be dyed. It made me want to call up the corporation selling the processor chips to make another order to expand Lanus¡¯ capabilities. Unfortunately, that would be too conspicuous. Without an easy way to upgrade Lanus, I could only resort to employing my patience. We soon arrived at the location Fitel provided us with, one of the megabuildings that had hundreds of floors and was crowded to the brim with people from all walks of life. We turned on our Shades and had them project an image of the average resident as we blended into the crowd. As we went up the elevator, I nced down at all the neon lights everywhere. We passed floors that hosted a busy food market,mercial floors that were like a shopping mall, and an entire level dedicated to a gym. People could practically live here their entire lives without stepping out¡­ We soon arrived at the floor where our target was and found it much more deserted than the floors below. All the trash cans around were tilted over and graffiti decorated everything in sight. The few people who could be spotted wore sketchy masks and hoodies that covered their entire figure. They kept to themselves, and so did we. We quickly hid behind a corner and breached into the camera systems before engaging our active camouge. With our invisibility, we headed straight for the suspected harvester¡¯s den. The audacity these guys had to operate so close to the homes of so many people¡­ When we turned the corner, we could see a group of people camping out in the hallway. They brought out a table and chairs from somewhere and blocked the entire corridor. I soon got a message from Thorne. *You want to do this likest time? Throw all these buffoons in a room as we clear the area?* *Wait and see who they even are first. They might not be rted. Then we¡¯ll bag them as we go.* This narrative has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. We carefully stepped around them as we ventured further toward the apartment from our intel. As we got closer, we could hear the sound of an electric saw working. I had done enough cybeic instation to know that a bone was being used. We gave ourselves a little tour of their ce by unleashing several Nyes. From the camera feed, we soon found several men packing something into coolers. Our Nye climbed up to a nearby table to get a better view. From there, we were able to decipher the contents within the containers. There were several coolers in the room, each packed to the brim with various human organs. It was a lot more than what I usually saw in harvester dens, but I got my answers when my second Nye reached where their surgeon was operating. What he was doing was surprisingly not ripping out the cybeics of their poor victim, but instead harvesting their organs. *We¡¯re dealing with some bottomer feeders even among harvesters here¡­* Thorne texted. It took me a second to realize what he meant. The harvesters before us went after the easier marks who didn¡¯t sport any expensive cybeics. Second-hand organs should be pretty inexpensive with the technology to grow a new one and various cybeic alternatives. However, these scroungers didn¡¯t let the pittance of the organ trade go. I had known since long ago that it costs a lot to grow new organs, and were practically exclusively to reach corpos. I should¡¯ve deducted that there was still demand for second-hand organs due to the high costs of a brand-new one. The dazzling cybeic alternatives had blinded me to this fact. I¡¯m sure among many less well-off residents of the city, there would be some demand for these ¡®donor¡¯ organs from various medical conditions. It was natural for people who were struggling to go with the most economical option provided that it worked. Before we could finish our tour of our new test subject¡¯s residence, the cameras outside alerted us to neers. I watched the feed of three men carrying tworge sacks toward us. Seeing the scene, I grinned and messaged Thorne. *Hey, let¡¯s find where they keep thoserge bup sacks and race to see who captures more of them.* *You¡¯re on.* We both directed our Nyes to continue our tour of the ce. Thorne soon found a stack of bags on the side of the room, and the race was on. There¡¯s no way I would lose, right?
Nadia - Civilian How did I get such bad luck? Not only am I barely getting by, I even got abducted today. To add salt to injury, these idiots didn¡¯t even get the dosage right and I¡¯m still conscious. Nadia cursed at her carelessly and how unfair fate was as her kidnappers continued to carry her back to their den. She had thought she would be fine since she didn¡¯t have any expensive cybeics worth stealing, but she realized toote that she was still a viable target. I wonder what¡¯s these guy¡¯s deal are¡­ I hope at least they aren¡¯t the sadistic killers who like to record their ¡®art¡¯. ¡°Dog Face, you¡¯re back! What happened? How¡¯d you get uglier in such a short time?¡± A voice called out to his friend, who was carrying arge sack over his shoulder. ¡°Yeah, yeah. Get out of the way already. Gotta get these guys to the doc.¡± Upon hearing the word, doc, from the person carrying her, Nadia grimaced. She knew she likely wasn¡¯t going to survive this mess, but it was hard for her toe to terms with this fact so suddenly. ¡°Oh, no rush. The doc is still busy. Why don¡¯t you let me see what you have here while we wait? Maybe we can have some fun?¡± Almost immediately after, Nadia felt someone pulling on the bag she was in. She closed her eyes and feigned unconscious while someone gripped her by the chin and angled it upward. However, the man¡¯s hand abruptly retreated. ¡°What the¡ª?¡± The man carrying Nadia cried out. Before he could finish his sentence, his mouth suddenly shut as he struggled to make a noise. Nadia felt herself being dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. As scared as she was, she knew this was an opportunity, so she cautiously snuck a peek at her surroundings. She was lying on the ground, with half her body still in the bag, but she was surprised to see several other bags around her on the ground. These bags were all visibly filled with a person. Other victims? Seeing how she didn¡¯t spot anything, she got braver and sat up. A quick three-sixtyter, she found that there was no one around her except for the people in the bags. She didn¡¯t hesitate to open up the closest way to check on her fellow victims, but quickly came to regret it. What she found was the face of the ugly guy who had cornered her on the way back from work. ¡­These are the harvesters! What is going on here? No¡­ I don¡¯t want to know. Having suspected something that was beyond her was happening, Nadia quickly got up and made a run for it. She didn¡¯t know where she was going, but she knew anywhere was better than staying here.
I felt refreshed after returning to our headquarters. The little exercise we did to invite our new test subjects back with us helped me alleviate all my stress. I couldn¡¯t help but think back to how hard Iughed when we bagged the kidnappers using their own sacks. The look on their face, when they saw their allies suddenly disappear before reappearing inside those bags was priceless. Once I properly secured our new guests, I quickly took a shower before returning to my workshop to check in with Lanus. My AI cum research partner had been overseeing the second round of tests with SocialCorp¡¯s cassettes while I went out. ¡°Lanus, how are the experiments going?¡± ¡°Report. The tests werepleted thirty-one minutes and two seconds ago. Results. We have found that the cassettes employed by SocialCorp are optimized to minimize the burden it has on the neurological pathways.¡± ¡°Did you figure out how they did so?¡± ¡°Negative. No conclusive method has been discovered. Addendum. No connections were found between all the SocialCorp cassettes we tested. I believe SocialCorp does not have a concrete method either and has employed trial and error to brute force their solutions.¡± ¡°So¡­you¡¯re telling me there¡¯s no magical method we can use and will have to just test around with thousands of test subjects as they do?¡± ¡°Negative. We will only need several dozen participants over several tests to create a functional cassette.¡± ¡°What? Aren¡¯t we going to brute force it too?¡± ¡°Report. I can monitor how our subject reacts to our cassettes and abort the test as soon as the critical threshold has been reached. We simply need to keep restarting until we find the correct setup that will not overload the brain.¡± So that means¡­Using the previous analogy, we are trying to find a way where we aren¡¯t unleashing thousands of cars into a city at once in a disorderly manner. We need to find a way to keep those cars on the highway, so the city traffic isn¡¯t paralyzed. ¡°How long do you estimate this trial-and-error method will take for us?¡± ¡°Prediction. It should take between one week to three months, granted we have enough test subjects working throughout the day.¡± That fast? Well, I guess SocialCorp can do it even quicker if they employ thousands of participants at once. And they don¡¯t care about their test subject¡¯s survival either¡­ It was at this moment that a notification suddenly popped up in the corner of my eye and drew my attention. +10 EXP What? What happened? Chapter 154: Hermes Chapter 154: Hermes I saw a notification for experience points off from the corner of my vision and I quickly pulled up my status to confirm. Status Level: 25 EXP: 1720/2500 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 Yep, I¡¯m not mistaken. Where did ite from? I quickly nced over at the vital readings of my test subjects and, as I suspected, one of the subjects had passed away. They were all still strapped into their seat as I had just returned to the workshop, so I ran over to the subject in question. ¡°Lanus, what happened? You were monitoring them closely this entire time, correct?¡± ¡°Affirmative. Subject 04 was already showing adverse reactions during the first round of tests. Supplement. They were recovering steadily once the hypnopedia process was ceased, but it seems like they couldn¡¯t recover during the new round of testing.¡± There were so many things going through my mind at once. First, the potential causes of this fatality and the dangers of what I was dealing with. Then the implication that their death somehow still gave me experience points despite having no direct contact with them for hours. It was advantageous for me that I would still get the experience points, but I still preferred to rely on the safer and more efficient solution of wastnd hunting. ¡°Let me call the medical team to take them away if we¡¯re finished here. It seems like we¡¯ll need more test subjects on a rotation to allow them ample recovery time.¡± ¡°Concurred. I rmend having a minimum of six rotations, each consisting of at least twelve subjects.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see what we can do. It might take a few days¡­¡±
The next day, I requested our elite teams to carry out a new mission. Personally going to invite new test subjects didn¡¯t really me anything, so I delegated the task while I focused on things only I could do. I had to oversee the experiments with Lanus and also work on the cybeics from the feedback I got during our initial tests. It wasn¡¯t easy trying to add apetitive edge to my product. I had intended it as part of a set without going full-body recement. The strength I mainly added to it relied on functioning in tandem with the other part of the set. By itself, it wouldn¡¯t differentiate itself from the market that much. That was why at the start of the project, I paid a good sum to a headhuntingpany to find me several mechanical engineering specialists. My cybeic knowledge was mainly rted to integrating electronics with the human body. It wasn¡¯t enough on its own and required other skill sets to imbue it with apetitive advantage. I had done with the Shade with my stealth technology. I wasn¡¯t going to start leveling a new disciple of science when mechanical engineering wasn¡¯t the most hard-to-find subject around. There were plenty of experts around that other corporations wouldn¡¯t sweat losing. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. Combined with my electrical engineering and software knowledge, we should be able to produce something much better with ourbined strengths. For better or worse, the headhuntingpany only got back to me once I hadpleted the first prototype. ¡°Ms. Ste, I¡¯m happy to see that you¡¯ve decided to give us a chance, but I¡¯m wondering what made you decide to do so when you¡¯re already employed by a bigpany like Zenitech?¡± ¡°...Mr. Halls, I¡¯m sure you understand that rtionships in arger corporation can getplicated. Competition within thepany was already fierce, but as someone who hadn¡¯t studied in their schools, it had be unbearable.¡± ¡°Oh, where did you go to school then?¡± ¡°I went to Ivory-U, a school under the management of Ivory Corporation.¡± A quick searchted me the result that told the story in itself. Ivory Corp specialized in the academic field and was generally not affiliated with any other corporations. They allowed corpo families to attain the required education without binding themself to any one organization. I remembered back on what one of my employees, Drew, had previously exined to me. Some corpo families were smart in that they didn¡¯t put all their eggs in one basket. It wasmon for them to have family members all in different corporations that could even be in opposing factions. After asking several more targeted questions about Ste¡¯s motivations and knowledge, I quickly offered her the position. ¡°You can start as you finish our onboarding, which consists of a short seminar and a medical checkup.¡± ¡°Thank you, sir. I can start today.¡± ¡°I¡¯m d you¡¯re so enthusiastic, but you should move in first. Our employees are required to live in our dorms.¡± ¡°No problem. I¡¯ll be ready by the end of the day.¡± Wow, she sure was a go-getter. It didn¡¯t take long to finish the few interviews I had scheduled, and I sessfully hired three new researchers for our team. I left a memo and instructions on what they need to work on for their first day tomorrow and went off to my next appointment. ¡°Luford, it is so good to see you. I hope you are doing well?¡± I greeted the projection of my new friend with the best smile I could muster. ¡°...Yes¡­business has been going smoothly.¡± ¡°Perfect! Are you sure there isn¡¯t anything we need to take a look at? Or maybe a new product idea?¡± ¡°No, we¡¯re already working at capacity. If you want to do more¡­we¡¯ll need a few months to expand.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve seen the financials, no need to rush it when everything is going well. Anyway, there was another reason why I scheduled this appointment today. Does yourpany¡¯s knowledge database have any advanced academic knowledge you¡¯re willing to share or trade?¡± I scratched my cheeks as I asked. I wasn¡¯t sure if they did have such a thing, but it was worth a shot. A database withprehensive knowledge was something I¡¯d have to work on as our cassettes were taking shape. We needed a proper repository of knowledge for the contents of the cassettes themselves. ¡°I¡¯ll have to check to be sure what I can or cannot share, but that shouldn¡¯t be a problem. Was there anything specific you were looking for?¡± ¡°Do you think you can share everything that you can with me? I don¡¯t need ess to all your proprietary stuff, but I¡¯d appreciate it if you could share all the basic scientific knowledge you have.¡± Yes! So they did have something. It¡¯s so much better to use theirs as a base to build upon than to start from scratch. ¡°...Understood. I¡¯ll get in touch with you soon.¡± Once our call ended, I sat there as I brainstormed other methods to acquire more knowledge. I pulled up the list of publicly known cassettes SocialCorp sold, but none of them satisfied me. It was apparent they only kept much of the advanced topics to themselves. If it waspared to what the system offered, they only went up to approximately three to five points worth of knowledge. However, my eyes lit up when itnded on several other cassettes that offered knowledge in something other than the academic fields. They had basic weapon-handling cassettes, too. Extrapting that, it should mean it was possible to have knowledge rted to handling aircraft, vehicles, naval, power armor, and other specialized equipment too. Many of these fields took years to train qualified professionals, all of which could be shortened if I had a cassette for it. How did they record the contents of those cassettes in the first ce? It isn¡¯t like they could type it into their terminals¡­ As I mulled over the issue, ire walked into my office. ¡°Here are the financials for this month. We have a little more leeway now that Sensorial hasunched more products with us, but the cost of your big project still weighs heavily on our books.¡± ¡°Thanks¡­¡± I skimmed over the important bits while I shelved my thoughts. ¡°Cost of training has shot up?¡± ¡°You can ask Thorne for that one, but we¡¯re basically expanding big time again. Your new fancy bird in the air will need more pilots, and he¡¯s been getting some of the elite teams ready for your power armor.¡± Right, that is the next priority. I have to finish up with what¡¯s on my te as quickly as I can. ¡°So¡­Weird questions, but how would you go about recording how to specific skills like shooting a gun or driving a car?¡± ¡°Hmm? Why are you asking?¡± ¡°I was wondering how they did it for the cassettes.¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t they just record a walkthrough of it like a training video of someone¡¯s experience? It¡¯s how they do the tutorials in VR games. They really work! Nothing beats first-hand experiences, but second-hand experiencese pretty close.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± As convincing as ire was, I think I should just buy one of those cassettes to see for myself.
Time flew by fast, especially when you were as busy as me. With the addition of the new mechanical engineering specialists, we quickly optimized the cybeic leg. It was previously dubbed the prototype XJ4, but I came up with a proper name for it called Hermes. We went all out with it and since it was meant for internal use; the budget was up to me. The specific variant made for the volleyball team was optimized for jumping and short distance abrupt movements while the one for our security was still under development. The entire project had made me watch many of their practice sessions and I ended uping along for the actual tournament as well. It was only the preliminaries, but I could already see numerous teams from various corporations gathering in one of the big stadiums. A corporate executive from SocialCorp organized the event, so it was to be expected, but it was still surprising to see the scale of it when it was only the preliminaries. The gymnasium appeared like what I would see at a nationalpetition. It helped that every team dressed the part. Thorne and I followed along with the team to our assigned court. While they talked about strategy, I examined the surroundingpetitors. Arge majority of them had cybeics for all four limbs. The rules only allowed the use of two, but if you had more, you could still participate by using the tournament-provided limiters. From the cyberware people used and theirpany logo, I could tell the participants heavily leaned toward cybeicpanies. There was still a decent amount of corporations in different fields, as everyone tried to butter up to a SocialCorp executive. Having seen enough, I nced over at the list of all the participating teams once more. I grinned at the fact that all of them were from corporations below C-ss. Joey didn¡¯t tell me if my team needed to win or not to catch the executive¡¯s attention, but my chances were definitely higher, the lower the quality of my opponents. After spending so much time and resources on this, if it doesn¡¯t work out, I would be quite sad. It wouldn¡¯t be a devastating setback, but I¡¯d rather take part in the social circle among the powerful corporations sooner thanter. Soon, the tournament got on its way, and a gigantic projection of a man drew everyone¡¯s attention. The man was wearing ab coat and had a bowl cut. He was quitenky, and he was wearing sses for some reason. However, the most distinct feature about him was the design of his sses, which resembled lollipops. ¡°I¡¯ll get straight to the point. I would like to see some good volleyball. I won¡¯t tolerate any cheaters, so you have been warned. Let me see your friendship, passion, and teamwork overflow while you ovee your opponents!¡± I had heard this guy had started this tournament on a whim after reading a manga found in the dungeons. I had tempered my expectations of what he was like, but this¡­ I have no idea what to say about him¡­ Chapter 155: Hop! Step! Jump! Chapter 155: Hop! Step! Jump! Burksby - Halls Corporation Inside one of thergest gymnasiums in Elevate City, the volleyball tournament held by an executive from SocialCorp swiftly got started as soon as the opening speech ended. There was an impressive prize pool, as expected from SocialCorp, but the majority of teams here had a different objective, drawing the host¡¯s attention. For many small and medium-sized corporations, getting into the good grace of SocialCorp meant better business opportunities, security, connections, and more. On one side of a court, a well-built man began doing warmup stretches while his teammates were all busy fine-tuning their cybeic limbs. ¡°Burksby, are you sure you¡¯re in tip-top condition?¡± One of his teammates asked. ¡°Yes, when am I not?¡± ¡°Well, you never know with ¡®ganic limbs. Can¡¯t beat the reliability of cold hard machines.¡±The man grinned as he flexed his cyberarms. ¡°Well, you can only use your cybeic feet this time. Your arm¡¯s going to be limited and probably perform worse than these old ¡®ganic limbs.¡± ¡°Got to keep it within reason or else we¡¯d all be jet-packing around and destroying the ball.¡± Another one of their teammates, named Trey, added.The Halls Corporations team quickly got ready as their first match went on its way. Burksby as the team setter immediately ran to his position by the as soon as his team received the ball. He signaled his team to use their default formation as he prepared to set for his teammates. He kept an eye on the enemy team¡¯s position before deciding to set their left-wing spiker. As much as the team is all crazy about their new hardware, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that it¡¯s up to us to perform well. They sure can jump all right, but I¡¯m sure we can¡¯t overpower our opponents with just brawn. Thankfully, this tournament will have a week¡¯s break after the two matches today. We just need to survive today and we¡¯ll have more time to practice new strategies based on our new advantage. Thank you corpo host for forcing everyone to amodate your work schedule. He spent a split second eyeing their opponent¡¯s cybeics. Contrary to their team, the opposing team opted to have one cybeic arm and one leg instead. Burksby ounted for the increased height his teammates could now reach and set the ball. His teammate, Trey, jumped as he imagined and smashed the ball over the opposing two-man block. ¡­Maybe not.
As the volleyball tournament went on its way, I sat back and nced around the venue. We had our own little section to ourselves, and the other corporations did as well. I nced over at the section for the host, a floating tform hovering just above the courts. If I can form a good connection with this executive from SocialCorp, it might be possible for me to attain some of their more exclusive cassettes, too¡­ As I stared up at the tform, one of the guards standing on it snapped his gaze onto me. I amicably nodded his way before directing my gaze elsewhere while I was really reviewing the recording I had of him. He was an elite guard under SocialCorp, which meant I could expect him to be one of the best-equipped security personnel in the city. At first nce, he appeared like a regr bulky cyborg that you would see on the street. It waspletely different from what I had seen up in space when I visited the Ferrumus Corporation. Their cyborgs were much more streamlined, and their movements were agile and precise. I wish I could see these guys in action too. I wasn¡¯t too familiar with the sport, so I didn¡¯t really understand the intricate tactics the yers were employing down below. Thorne watched our team y carefully while I was preparing myself for a new research project once I returned. It hade to my attention that there were a few pressing things I wanted to address beforepleting the set of cybeics that went along with the Hermes. As much as the cybeic project could potentially strengthen our security department, I first wanted to deal with the worry that had sprouted up within me when we infiltrated Sensorial Corp. We had ced a spy imnt inside Luford to monitor the situation, which meantrge corporations could potentially do the same to us. That was why I wanted to install a jammer simr to QuickLink Logistics where their entire ce was blocked off from outside signals. With electrical engineering knowledge, I nned to create something a little more sophisticated. With Lanus around now, I could have all the traffic go through it, so it could be monitored. For that to happen, we would need to expand on the hardware specification for our AI, but it should be sufficient for now. The cassette project didn¡¯t need any intensive resources anymore, as it mainly required Lanus to monitor the subject¡¯s condition. Which meant I could handle one more project right now. For that new slot, it was a given I wanted to finish up the power armor with it. As I closed my eyes while deep in thought, the sound of cheering drew my attention back to reality. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I nced down to see one of the teams celebrating their victory. Even the host from SocialCorp was leaning over the edge of his tform as he excitedly looked down at the spectacle below. That was when one of the spectators in the stand below decided it was a good idea to aggressively pull out something from their pocket and point it straight at the executive. I watched as the bodyguard who had stared at me on the tform instantly turned into a blur as he jumped down from the floating tform. Before anyone knew what happened, the bodyguard was standing right beside the guy who had been trying to snap a photo of the tform with a handheld terminal. ¡°You think that guy is faster than the guy we saw at Ferrumus?¡± I turned to my friend, Thorne. ¡°...Hard to say when all he did was jump down from the tform. I¡¯d say his reaction is at least on par, though. Still, I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a lot up his sleeves. Ferrumus guy had a sword that could easily slice through power armor, so it only made sense that SocialCorp had a few trump cards as well.¡± If there was one takeaway from that disy, it would seem speed and reaction time were the most basic requirements in higher-levelbat. Thankfully, my power armor was already designed with mobility in mind. The first day of the tournament soon ended after every team yed two matches. We had faced up against a small G-ss corporation and an F-ss, so we ended the day with two victories. Our team celebrated on our return trip and I decided to treat them to a feast. Well, it wasn¡¯t that different from what I normally ate, except in catering portions. I took the opportunity to order some good ol¡¯ pizza, all with different toppings. It was the best party food and enabled me to try various vors. When I returned to myb, Lanus immediately gave me itstest report. ¡°Report. We are on track to finish our first viable cassette within the week.¡± ¡°Hmm? What made you so confident in your estimates suddenly?¡± ¡°Reply. Ourtest tests show the information is mostly passing through the major neurological pathways, which means we only need to optimize the current iteration.¡± ¡°Understood. Prepare to run a knowledge retention test once it isplete. We¡¯ll need to see how effective it is at imparting knowledge to the users.¡± ¡°Acknowledged.¡± ¡°Good, moving on then. Are you prepared to get started on the project to replicate the energy shield device?¡± ¡°Affirmative, to simply replicate, with no need to understand the undying principles of the device in question, should be doable within two weeks. The main challenge is to urately analyze the material makeup of the device and find viable production methods.¡± ¡°That¡­I¡¯ve tried using a spectrometer, but it isn¡¯t showing me anything coherent. Whoever made it coated it with something¡­¡± ¡°Rmendation. Procure alternative material analyzers and allow me to reference online databases in real-time.¡± ¡°Online databases? Corpos don¡¯t really keep much avable for the public.¡± ¡°Addendum. I have been informed that the ¡®dark web¡¯ is still thriving among the various neutral parties and has many reference data at attempts to reverse engineer corporate products.¡± Informed? Must be Leo, then¡­ ¡°Fine, but we need to finish the project to jam all connections within the vicinity of our base first, then. We can mask your activity more easily when everything is going through one central node. Make sure you don¡¯t do too much and alert anyone¡­¡± I was somewhat worried about giving Lanus ess to the outsidework. It would add a possible avenue for others to discover Lanus¡¯ existence. It may have been the reason why I waited until I got software engineering past ten points before I created it, but I had a feeling there were other AIs out there somewhere. It just made no sense that I could do it alone while the corporations with both time and money hadn¡¯t aplished it yet. Having Lanus around for just a short amount of time had made me privy to just how much of an advantage it was. I refused to believe that other corporations would be willing to give up such an asset. They must be enforcing the anti-AI rules above board to keep others from catching up with them. ¡°Report. Schematics for wide area jamming device found in the database. We can have it implemented in a few days. Proceed?¡± ¡°No, let¡¯s make some changes to it. We can work on this together. It¡­shouldn¡¯t take too much longer.¡±
A little more than a weekter, I sessfullypleted our newpany-wide jamming device with Lanus. The majority of the time was spent on assembling therge hardware parts of the device. It wasn¡¯t that big inparison to our entirepound, but I rarely worked on devices that took up half a room. The theory of it was simple: jamming was just spamming themunication channels into Armageddon, but the tricky part was how to allow select channels through. Then, there was the question of security. If we allowed an encrypted frequency to go through, our enemies could potentially make use of that loophole as well. That was why we added a central server node that went by Lanus, so it could monitor allmunications going in and out from the whitelistedms unit. Ipleted this project just in time to be summoned to the volleyball tournament venue again. It seems our team managed to get to the semi-finals, losing to the eventual champions. It wasn¡¯t the most ideal result, but it still gave me a good chance to approach this SocialCorp executive during the award ceremony today. Our convoy quickly arrived at the highly secure venue and I met up with our employees inside the gymnasium. ¡°Good job, everyone. Expect a raise for your performance.¡± I dered as I patted each of them on the shoulder. Thorne talked to them some more before the award ceremony soon began. Every team was neatly lined up as the host hovered just above us, giving out a speech. Then, the captain of each team was summoned to receive their medals and prizes before the event turned into an all-out buffet. I took the time to size up the environment and watched the various other corpos butter up the SocialCorp executive. It seemed like there was some understanding that the teams that ced well got to interact with the man first, which meant it wasn¡¯t long before it was my turn to greet the host. I walked over to thenky researcher with lollipop sses, who was now wearing a volleyball jersey for some reason, and shook his hand. ¡°Thank you for hosting such a wonderful event, Mr. Keh. It was a pleasure to attend.¡± He nced at me for a second and adjusted his sses before responding. ¡°Ah, Mr. Halls, from the upstartpany that has been making waves recently.¡± ¡°I¡¯m honored that you know of me, but mypany really isn¡¯t much. We are only an F-ss corporation, but we would love more opportunities to connect and see if there are any chances we can pursue together.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say getting to F-ss in such a short time, ¡®not much¡¯. It might be more appropriate to say you¡¯ve jumped quite high, and your momentum is still going strong. Rumors about yourpany have even been making rounds among the social gatherings I¡¯ve attended. I wouldn¡¯t dare underestimate you.¡± He replied with a sarcastic grin. Wait, rumors have been going on about us among the top dogs? Why? I don¡¯t think we¡¯re noteworthy enough to reach their ears¡­ ¡°Mr. Keh, I¡¯m not sure what these rumors are about, but I¡¯d love to join one in on these gatherings so I can present the facts to all interested parties.¡± He brought a hand to his chin as he put on a thoughtful look. ¡°Hmm, that could be entertaining, yes. I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± Chapter 156: Corpo Fatcats Chapter 156: Corpo Fatcats My volleyball team didn¡¯t win the tournament, but it still managed to help me form a connection with the executive from SocialCorp. Thankfully, I was able to receive an invitation to the uing social gathering among the local power yers. True to their name, SocialCorp¡¯s presence could be seen in every one of these social gatherings. While the one I was invited to was only among the local corporations of Elevate City. It was already more than I could ask for, as it was normally exclusive to corporations above C-ss. It would take ce up in Aegis, as that was the most convenient and safe spot to have arge gathering of executives. It was a hard ce for the riffraff to get to, and many executives normally lived in their resorts off. That was why I was waiting for my shuttle up to Aegis right now, at the base of the space elevator. ¡°Are you sure you want us to deploy these prototypes out in the field already?¡± Thorne asked, as he paced back and forth. ¡°There¡¯s a chance it could blow up ore apart, right?¡± ¡°The new Phantom Guard isn¡¯tpletely untested, silly. I just hadn¡¯t had the chance to thoroughly limit test it against other power armors. We simply don¡¯t have any specification on other power armors besides the one our allies gave us, and our¡­cyber experts aren¡¯t that good at designing simtions.¡± ¡°...That can¡¯t be good still, right?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not dangerous to use. I just don¡¯t know how it¡¯ll handle against different adversaries without some more time and data.¡± During the time between the end of the volleyball tournament and the social gathering, I continued working hard on my various projects. I managed to aplish a lot.For the cassettes, wepleted one with knowledge pertaining to my cybeic engineering. I had already begun rolling it out to my R&D department. It should greatly increase our speed and cooperation when we develop any new products in the future, since we would have a simr understanding of cybeics. Lanus was already working on testing the next cassette which I chose to have my electrical engineering knowledge on it. I wanted to keep some cards close to my chest, so I opted not topile one for stealth technology yet. Cassettes withbat skills were still under development as well. As for my power armor project, we finished a prototype, but have yet toplete field testing on it yet. There were a lot of things left to fine-tune that depended on what we would face in the future. I was confident in the framework of it, but a few things were left to be desired. For one, the weapons were simply open-market railguns. If I wanted to design a weapon that performed better than what was publicly avable, it would take another six months at the minimum. We also didn¡¯t know what the standards of our enemies would be. If we knew what to expect from our potential opposition, it would help us optimize the power armor greatly. Unfortunately, reality wasn¡¯t so nice, and such information as the specification of power armor was closely guarded and eternally changing. I wanted to create a simtion program with Lanus to help us optimize and find a sweet spot, but neither of us had made any good progress in it. I simply didn¡¯t have the relevant knowledge, while Lanus was only educated in what was avable in its database. If it resorted to brute-forcing, we could say goodbye to all its other functions for a few months at the minimum. The headhuntingpany I hired was working on finding me a suitable candidate, and I was also looking to trade relevant technologies with my allied corporations, but they all came up empty so far. Despite the setback, it wasn¡¯t enough of a reason for me not to field my new power armor that I called the Phantom Guard. On a positive note, Lanus was able to replicate the energy shield device I had looted in the past. We didn¡¯t understand the underlying principles and simply tried to replicate them. It wasn¡¯t easy without any know-how on its production method or how it was even supposed to work, but Lanus handled it. The analytical equipment was able to assist Lanus in deciphering a lot about the materials and what we couldn¡¯t produce, we found alternatives. As a result, our finished shield generator performed at only about seventy-five percent of the original. ¡°Soon arriving at Aegis spaceport. Please be seated for deceleration.¡± The PA system in the shuttle announced. We fetched a cab like our previous trip and checked into our hotel. To be honest, I wanted to set up a branch here, but that honor was only avable to corporations in D-ss and above. We couldn¡¯t even purchase a car or anything up here without meeting that requirement. Night soon arrived, and we made our way to the venue. It took ce inside one of the most prestigious hotels and also one of the tallest buildings in the entire city as well. We passed through stringent security and were allowed to enter after confirming we didn¡¯t carry any explosives. As they previously mentioned, they allowed four guards to apany me into the building. They weren¡¯t able to follow me all the way up to the rooftop party, though. I exchanged a final nce with Thorne before I separated from them. I couldn¡¯t help but be impressed by how cool my navy blue power armors looked as I parted. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. When the elevator arrived at the top floor, I took a deep breath and wore my best business facade. I honestly wasn¡¯t the best diplomat, negotiator, or socializer at all with my corpo counterparts. Our very different upbringings caused an unbridgeable cultural gap, but I¡¯ve been trying my best. The most awkward part of social events for me was always the beginning. I was a new face and everyone else was likely already acquainted and had formed cliques. That was why, as soon as I arrived, I began searching for familiar faces. Walking out of the elevator, I passed by the receptionist and sauntered into the rooftop pool area. Numerous people were hanging around, with a few even loitering around inside the water. After a quick scan, I failed to find my bald friend and continued my way further in. Off to the side of the pool were several long rectangr tables with snow-white tablecloths covering them. There was a wide selection of food from different cuisines avable, with robotic waitresses carrying drinks around. I noticed some curious gazes my way, and I was instantly reminded of Yu Keh, the SocialCorp executive¡¯s words. He informed me news of me had been making their rounds among the few social gatherings he had participated in. As someone from SocialCorp, it was without a doubt that I hade under the scope of some powerful people, but I didn¡¯t know why. Not spotting any acquaintances, I went even further in, toward an area with several spacious gazebos that could fit at least a dozen people each. All the corporate executives around this area were happily chatting away while asionally taking a hit of Cloudpuff. The trend that SocialCorp had spread, but to me, it simply looked like a respirator mask connected to a box. It was here that I finally spotted a familiar face, but not one I expected. I only inadvertently noticed him as I scanned for bald heads. He had this distinctive hairstyle where he only had several strands of long hair. I had only seen this style among employees of one particr corporation. Thankfully, the man in question had just gotten up from the Cloudpuff area and was walking in my direction. I didn¡¯t hesitate to approach. ¡°Mr. Sun, it¡¯s been some time, but I hope you remember me.¡± I greeted the vice president of the Aegis branch of Ferrumus Corporation. The man gave me a quick look and quickly put on a business smile. ¡°Ah yes. Mr. Halls. I hope you have been doing well since thest time you visited our branch.¡± ¡°Yes, all thanks to you and yourpany.¡± ¡°Good, good. I¡¯m going to grab some food. Why don¡¯t youe along?¡± ¡°I¡¯d be happy to.¡± I walked alongside him as we slowly made our way around the buffet. We chatted about mundane things mixed in with some roundabout messages that most corpo likes to employ. It was really annoying for me, but I had to y the game. I tried getting him to spill some clues on what the rumors about me were, but he either feigned ignorance or I didn¡¯t make myself clear enough. Still, it was a pleasant chat despite not making any significant gains. It was way preferable to being alone at this party. After we got some food, he even invited me to the gazebo he was at and introduced me to hispanions. ¡°This is Rollo Halls, from the Halls Corporation.¡± He gestured toward me before introducing his acquaintances from left to right. ¡°And from left to right, that is Mueller from Nova Tech, Havana from Premier Arms, Tuk from Amazing Corp, and Jewel from AeroDynamic.¡± Despite not knowing the new people personally, I had experienced each of their products. They were only branch managers like Bi Sun was for their respectivepanies, but it didn¡¯t change the fact that I was approaching the big boys¡¯ table. I was mostly a bystander after that as they chatted. For the first time, I took a hit of Cloudpuff, so I wouldn¡¯t stand out. It wasn¡¯t anything like I had experienced before. I felt all my stress disappear in an instant, a bit ted and rxed, but not so ck that I would lose myself to sloth. When I willed it, I was able to immediately snap myself out of my rxing trance. It wasn¡¯t so bad, but not something I would repeat. I never liked losing control of myself to any substance. Before I knew it, Joey had appeared somewhere along the way, and I attended the rest of the event under his guidance. Once the event was over, I made my way back to my hotel with my employees. ¡°Well, was it worth busting our ass to get you acquainted with those corporate fat cats?¡± Thorne didn¡¯t bother to mince his words as soon as we arrived. ¡°Nothing concrete yet, but it¡¯ll definitely be worth it as time goes on. It isn¡¯t easy to collect info from high-ranking corpos, you know? Our chatting app only has reached for the lower rung, which is why this is much needed.¡± ¡°Yeah, it may be needed, but that doesn¡¯t mean I have to like it.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m sorry if you don¡¯t like me getting all chummy with them. I know you¡¯re¡­not a fan of them and it¡¯s understandable with your history. However, I¡¯ll need to stick close to them from now on if we want to keep growing.¡± ¡°Rollo¡­Do we need to keep expanding? I know we talked about how we need to in order to attain the power to defend ourselves, but it seems like we¡¯re attracting even more danger with our aggressive expansions.¡± ¡°...In a way, you could be right. I¡¯m not sure. It may be possible to just stop here and dig in with what we have and we could live it out peacefully, but thatcks¡­ambition. Now that we¡¯re in the position with the power to do something, I¡¯ve been starting to want to change this world¡­for the better.¡± I took a moment to reflect on what had happened in such a short time. It hasn¡¯t even been two years since ourpany was formed. At some point in time, I realized I would never be truly safe because of how this world and its society were. If I wanted the peace I looked up to in my world, I would have to take it in my hands to change it. The only way to do that was to stand at the apex. ¡°...Forget it. Even if you change your mind, there¡¯s no telling what kind of danger coulde our way. I can¡¯tin about wanting to constantly strengthen ourselves, either.¡± ¡°Thanks for watching out for me. I appreciate it. But for now, let¡¯s rest, and take the next few days to go sightseeing. It¡¯s our first time in Aegis without some pressing matter waiting for us to deal with.¡± He nodded and retreated into his room in our suite. Just as I got ready to shower, I suddenly received a message from one of my new acquaintances I met today that I didn¡¯t expect. I double-checked the name and made sure there was no mistaking the name Jewel, the representative from AeroDynamic before reading its contents. *Two days from now, 14:30, at Launder¡¯s Cafe.* Why in the world did she suddenly want to meet with me? Chapter 157: Unexpected Expected Meeting Chapter 157: Unexpected Expected Meeting The day after I went to the gathering of powerful corpos, I spent my time freely within Aegis like a typical tourist. However, I couldn¡¯t fully get into it because of the strange meeting I was invited to tomorrow by the representative of AeroDynamic, whom I had just recently met. ¡°Wee to the Free Floating Bazaar. I hope you enjoy your stay,¡± the robot greeted us as soon as it scanned our tickets. ¡°Are you sure we should being to such a public area after that invitation?¡± Thorne asked, as he scanned the surroundings within his power armor. We were getting a few looks, but most continued with their day after a moment of surprise. ¡°AeroDynamic is¡­much bigger than us at the moment. They wouldn¡¯t need to plot in such a roundtable manner if they were out for us. No point in worrying too much about what we don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°You know, how you¡¯re acting says otherwise.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± I quickly turned the visor on my helmet, transparent to show my face to Thorne. ¡°See?¡± He shrugged, and we continued our way into the bazaar. The Free Floating Bazaar was one of thergest marketces on Aegis, and a famous tourist attraction as well. It was a three-dimensional bazaar, with entire shops floating in the air. Itbined the experience of microgravity with shopping.The main reason we initially chose this ce was because it didn¡¯t restrict what we brought inside. Microgravity parks made visitors wear their suits, while here, we could bring in our power armor as an alternative. We floated around as a party of six power armors, which made all the other visitors we came across steer out of our way. That was why I didn¡¯t bother heading into any crowded stores, in case I got in the way of their business. Most of the stores around sell electronicponents, processing chips, or high-ss equipment. There were also a few boutique clothing stores, but it didn¡¯t attract me as much when I could find the same stores back in Elevate City. The only store I visited was one of therger weapon stores. Their business was set uppletely differently from what I was used to. It seems like they catered more to businesses rather than individual clients because their store was mostly empty. They simply had a desk with several terminals along with several weapons on the walls behind the counter. I guess it¡¯s no surprise, considering the mercenary scene isn¡¯t exactly thriving up here. At the thought of mercenaries, I couldn¡¯t help but look forward to the meeting I arranged for tonight. As much as I didn¡¯t believe AeroDynamic to plot against me, I could never be too careful. I was in unfamiliar territory, so I reached out to Amos, a local QG, for some info. He said he would need the entire day, so I still had some time to kill before meeting with him tonight. I shelved those thoughts for now and turned my attention back to the weapon store I just entered. ¡°Wee sir, was there anything in particr you were looking for?¡± The clerk greeted me respectively, likely thanks to our imposing entourage. ¡°I just wanted to take a look. I¡¯ll call you if I need something.¡± ¡°Of course, sir, please feel free to view our products on this terminal here. If anything interests you, I¡¯d be more than happy to bring out a sample for you.¡± The clerk respectfully retreated and left me to my own device. I skimmed the list of products on the terminal while keeping an eye out on the other customers. I initially came to the conclusion this store catered to corpos exactly because of the customers currently in their store. They mostly seemed to be middle-management level personnel of various corps, and I was curious about how otherpanies usually took care of procurement. However, I quickly gave up as I realized they were all taking their time, likelymunicating with their head office. There was no point observing if all their decision-making happened back in their office. Instead, I carefully went over the selection the store had to offer, and boy, did it differ from what I was used to. Instead of just the small arms I¡¯ve seen in other stores, this store also dealt in a lot of advanced tech employed by corporations. They had various mini-nuclear reactors used in power armor, VTOLs, missiles, and even space-borne gunships. They didn¡¯t even have prices listed for some of therger items, as it only told me to contact the clerks. As interested as I was in a gunship, that was something to exploreter when we were at least a D-sspany, where we would gain the privilege of operating in space. I quickly switched to a different category of products lest it tempted me further and explored the more normal selection. They had everything I could imagine, including the cloud vests that could protect you from snipers and collisions to railgun rifles. I couldn¡¯t help but nce down at our own weaponry, as I found it pretty average. What we had was from the open market, as developing weapons was an entirely different ballgame. I had some knowledge about railguns from my electrical engineering knowledge, but it was all theory. If I wanted to get into arms development, I would have to brush up on all the other intricacies of it and dedicate some serious research time to produce results. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Even with the help of Lanus, it was hard to bepetitive against the arms industry. The corporate yers in that market were all powerful corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees at their beck and call. I¡¯m sure just the number of employees in their R&D could outnumber my entirepany. Realizing I wouldn¡¯t be making my own anytime soon, I decided to ce an order for a few weapons that caught my eye. The first one I bought was listed as a marksman railgun, simr to what Joey¡¯spany employed. It fired powerful rounds with high pration at the cost of a slow fire rate. Topensate for that, I bought what appeared to be an oversized assault rifle with multiple barrels that enabled a higher fire rate. I only bought six of each for the team with me because they weren¡¯t cheap at all. They each cost over twenty thousand credits and there was the ammunition and power supply to worry about as well. After our shopping trip, we went ahead and spent the remaining time at a cafe near Amos¡¯ ce. We watched the numerous residents from the second floor of the cafe heading in and out of Amos¡¯ shop that he used as a front. ¡°That old guy should be making quite a sum just from his legit business alone,¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°I guess it¡¯s required if you want to spend any of the funds he earns as a QG without drawing too much attention.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way he¡¯s not under surveince from the other corps, right? They must know about him.¡± ¡°Probably, but he¡¯s a convenient tool for them. Allows them to mess with each other without taking the fall for it.¡± ¡°Ha, knowing that wily old fox, he won¡¯t be satisfied being at the mercy of others. I bet he has some ace up his sleeve, like a fleet of spaceships or something.¡± I chucked at Thorne¡¯s imagination. I couldn¡¯t discount it entirely because I heard Amos had been an asteroid miner, so he must know a thing or two about ships. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to consult him when I expanded to space. As we chatted around while enjoying some coffee, we spotted a familiar face walking by down below. ¡°Isn¡¯t that the kid from that gig the old man made us do?¡± Thorne said as he rubbed his chin. ¡°What¡¯s his name again?¡± ¡°Pino¡­the mercenary kid¡­¡± Upon seeing his face, I immediately remembered when he tried to hand-feed me his n to help extract his sister. He said he had a knack for plotting simtions and hade up with a n based on it. I didn¡¯t give it too much of a look as it didn¡¯t ount for our abilities, but now that my research projects could make use of such simtions, I reconsidered. ¡°Let¡¯s go greet him.¡± We caught him just as he was about to enter Amos¡¯ shop. He flinched dramatically upon turning around to see our power armors. ¡°Pino, it¡¯s been some time. Can we talk?¡± I gestured toward a nearby alley. ¡°Umm¡­sure¡­¡± ¡°So, how are you doing since thest time we met?¡± ¡°Not bad¡­¡± He nced cautiously at us. ¡°Was there something I can help you with?¡± ¡°Actually, yeah. I was curious about the simtions you showed mest time. Can I see how you do them?¡± ¡°Umm¡­okay?¡± After some fumbling, he sent me a few files from his terminal. It didn¡¯t take me long to analyze it with my knowledge of software. However, the part that impressed me was the uracy of the mathematical models he employed. With my software engineering skills, I was familiar with simtion programs, but the uracy of it was another matter. I was missing so much data for Lanus to simte what we needed. The models Pino used instead of data were exactly what I needed. ¡°So you have a knack for math, right?¡± He blinked nkly for a moment, confused. ¡°A little bit?¡± ¡°What do you think about working for mypany? You can bring your sister, too.¡± ¡°...You want me to work for a corp¡­? And be a corpo? ¡± He lookedpletely astonished. ¡°What¡¯s the catch?¡± ¡°Nothing. It¡¯s just that I could use your help in my research department. There¡¯s a lot of stuff we could optimize with your work. You would have toe down to Elevate City, though.¡± ¡°Umm¡­I don¡¯t know. Thank you for the offer, but I¡¯ve never thought about leaving Aegis before.¡± He quickly darted out of the alley and I shrugged when I saw Thorne¡¯s amused look. ¡°Anyway¡­It¡¯s almost time for our appointment. We should be fine, being a little early.¡± We were smoothly led towards the back of the shop after we said the secret code to the storekeeper, where we took the loading elevator down to where Amos was. We found the old man sitting there, watching the same old tscreen TV from our previous visit. He only spared me a quick nce before tossing a data chip my way. I skimmed over its contents, which was the report Imissioned him on regarding the meeting ce tomorrow, and the person I was meeting. ¡°Is this it?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but ask after going over everything. ¡°There¡¯s basically nothing useful here.¡± ¡°Nothinging up is an answer in itself.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re saying they¡¯re clean?¡± ¡°That or they hid it well, which means she¡¯s operating under the blessing of her entire corp. It¡¯s safe to say this isn¡¯t the case of an employee taking action independently, like I initially suspected.¡± ¡°And why did you suspect such a thing in the first ce?¡± ¡°Happens more than you think. This Jewel you have there. Her name came up before when some other corpos had me do things to help them with their internal politics. You¡¯re on your own from here on, kid. Not much I can do when an entire A-ss corp is at work here.¡± ¡°...¡±
Armed with the knowledge that this representative of AeroDynamic was acting under the auspice of herpany, I went to the meeting as scheduled. The location was at Launder¡¯s Cafe, a run-of-the-mill cafe found on the border of the industrial spaceport and the corporate one. Its clientele seemed to be a mix of spaceship captains and carefree, affluent family members of corpos on vacation. It struck a nice bnce of being ssy without the stuffiness of following strict etiquette. I sat in the corner on the second floor after getting my drink. I was in my power armor that was hidden under a projection that made me appear to be a regr corpo enjoying my time off. I carefully examined all the other guests as I waited for the time to pass. I arrived slightly early, and it appeared the other party had yet to arrive. When the time in the corner of my vision changed to 14:30, I focused on the entrance being disyed through the lens of one of my Nyes. However, no one approached, especially not thedy named Jewel whom I had met two days prior. When I was about to text Thorne to get an update on the perimeter, I saw a man, who had been sitting with his family of three until now, get up from his table and head straight for me. He had short brown hair and a fit build that was absent of any visible cybeics. He sat down without hesitation and shed me a warm smile. Just as I was about to speak, he gestured for me to stay silent. He then took out a circr device from his pocket and ced it on the table. I saw a shimmering sh around us for a split second that reminded me of an energy shield. ¡°Okay, now we can talk, Mr. Halls. Allow me to first introduce myself. I am Titus Adiar, a majority stakeholder of AeroDynamic.¡± Chapter 158: Warning Chapter 158: Warning I stared at the man before me nkly at his introduction. He said he was the majority stakeholder of AeroDynamic, which practically meant he was the owner and the person in charge of it. I waspletely caught off guard. Coming into this meeting, I was expecting to talk with Jewel, their representative who attended the social event with me two days ago, not their leader. Why in the world would the owner of an A-ss corporation want to speak with me? In just an instant, numerous possibilities shed through my mind. Thankfully, I quickly reoriented my mindset, as I knew to prioritize the meeting before me first. ¡°...Nice to meet you, Mr. Adiar. I am Rollo Halls. Will Jewel be joining us today as well?¡± ¡°Oh, please call me Titus. It is currently my vacation, after all. And no, Rollo, Jewel will not be joining us.¡± Titus directed a meaningful look at me. ¡°Then¡­May I ask why you wanted to see me? I¡¯m ttered, but I¡¯m not sure if I can live up to your expectations.¡± Titus smiled and shook his head.¡°Enough with the pleasantries. Let¡¯s have a straightforward conversation. What we¡¯re going to talk about stays between us. I took the trouble of arranging this meeting because of a certain personage.¡± ¡°A certain personage?¡± Immediately, one man came to mind. The man who had saved me a while ago when I fell for a trap that led me out into the wastnd. I was blinded by the quick payout, thinking I had be invincible somehow, and almost paid the ultimate price for it. This mysterious savior of mine had always been at the back of my mind. That was because I knew he was someone much more powerful than me, and there was no point in fretting over it when I couldn¡¯t do anything about it. Not unless I gave up the idea of starting a business and went to the ground, which wasn¡¯t a lifestyle I looked forward to in this world that beat you while you were down. However, the revtion of the secret benefactor being able to even move power yers from an A-ss corporation only made it more surreal. As far as I knew, I hadn¡¯t done anything back then to have drawn their attention. Nowadays, an argument could be made for Lanus, my AI, drawing the heat to me, but it had only beenpleted recently. I hadn¡¯t even thought to create an AI back when he saved me. The more I learned about this enigmatic figure, the less I understood his intentions. ¡°That¡¯s correct. Let¡¯s just say someone has been watching over you, looking out for your best interests, of course. Unfortunately, they are currently busy with something far away, and their hands have been tied. They wanted to pass a message to you, ¡®Stay low, and survive until Ie back.¡¯¡± My facade couldn¡¯t help but crumble as I took on a frown. ¡°Are there any other details you can give me?¡± Titus ruefully smiled as he sat back and shook his head. ¡°...If there really is danger approaching me, then couldn¡¯t the personage¡¯s allies, such as yourself, help me while he¡¯s gone?¡± Again, he shook his head. ¡°It doesn¡¯t work like that with matters on this level. Our enemies aren¡¯t ipetent and can ount for every action we take. When corporations at our level take action, they¡¯ll have checks in ce against every known quantity.¡± ¡°...Can you at least tell me who is after me?¡± ¡°It is hard to say. There is a long list of suspects. The only thing we know is that an opportunity for them to take action has arrived, and they will definitely take it. However, it is unlikely they want to take your life. It wouldn¡¯t benefit them in any way. You should n ordingly with that in mind.¡± So they¡¯re just going to give me a cryptic warning with no info and call it a day¡­ ¡°Is there really nothing else you can tell me? Like why I am even being targeted anyway, or why the personage you represent even ¡®protects¡¯ me if you can even call it that.¡± ¡°I would love to answer you, but unfortunately, I don¡¯t have the answers you¡¯re seeking.¡± ¡°Is there any advice you can give me, then?¡± The man crossed his legs and brought his arms together before he answered. ¡°Endure. Whateveres, your priority is to survive, and our personage will clean up the mess once he returns. Whether you have to beg and crawl or hide in the darkest corner of the world, you should do it. Time is your ally.¡± His movement stilled for a brief moment. ¡°But time is also something we have currently run out of.¡± With those finishing words, Titus grabbed the circr device that had been projecting a field around them and returned it to his pocket. He then directed one final meaningful nce at me before taking his leave. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I could only watch as he went back to his family, who then began to depart together.
¡°Who said what?!¡± ire cried out in my office as she tugged on Thorne¡¯s sleeve. ¡°Titus Adiar, the effective leader and owner of AeroDynamic.¡± ¡°Thepany we bought our VTOLs from?¡± Thorne added with furrowed brows. ¡°Yea¡­¡± After receiving that warning from Titus, we quickly rescheduled our ns, and I purchased the next ticket back to Elevate City. People on the highest level were making power ys, and we were somehow caught in the middle of it. It was noughing matter and our very lives were now on thin ice, if there was any truth to Titus¡¯ words. I chose to believe him, as there was no advantage for him to lie in this case. He was just so far above us that he wouldn¡¯t need to resort to these roundtable tricks if he had malicious intentions. ¡°There are basically only two choices here¡­¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°Don¡¯t leave us in suspense and say them, then!¡± ire yelled out. ¡°Umm¡­Before that, do you know if we¡¯re being targeted overall or just you?¡± He looked me straight in the eyes. ¡°Here, I¡¯ll write down a transcript of our conversation, but from the words he used, I believe it is thetter.¡± I pulled up the logs from my SAID and wrote down the conversation on a physical piece of paper. Thorne and ire took a quick nce at it before Thorne burned the note. ¡°I see¡­Well, don¡¯t take me the wrong way, but if only you¡¯re being targeted, it makes things easier. The two choices I had were either to hunker down and weather the storm, or run and hide somewhere you won¡¯t be found. Since they are only going after you, thetter option may be better.¡± ¡°If only I hide, won¡¯t they just target you guys and thepany to draw me out? Even if I ignore that, it would mean everything we had built up so far would go up in smokes.¡± ¡°Hunkering down against these foes will just end the same way, but with you dead as well!¡± ¡°...Titus said they likely aren¡¯t going after my life, so it should be fine!¡± ¡°Are you really going to bet on the mercy of other parties and let them decide your fate, Rollo?!¡± ¡°Thorne¡¯s right! Where there¡¯s life, there¡¯s hope. We cash out and hide out somewhere like Lion City for a few months. How long could your guardian angel possibly take to return?¡± ire said as she mmed both hands down on my desk. ¡°I understand where you guys areing from, but it feels wrong to give up without trying first. We could still search for allies to help us like we did for our alliance with Ferrumus Corp.¡± ¡°With what leverage exactly do you have that will be able to move the top-tier corporations? Last time, we had an entire alliance to back us up, but we¡¯re on our own for this.¡± My gaze instantly went downward toward where Lanus, our AI, was. ¡°Not that! It¡¯ll just open a whole new can of worms!¡± Internally, Ipletely agreed with Thorne and ire¡¯s sentiment, but for some reason, I was having doubts. I felt like if I gave everything up now, I wouldn¡¯t have a chance to make aeback for some reason. It was an intuitive gut feeling and not based on anything concrete, but I still had trouble ignoring it. ¡°Rollo! You have to realize this isn¡¯t worth risking your life over, right? It¡¯s not like you¡¯re in a rush, so we can just rebuild yourpanyter.¡± ¡°...There¡¯s no telling if this will happen again. Something is going on within the upper echelons. Some among them, for whatever reason, want to target me, and I don¡¯t think anything will change as long as we¡¯re in the dark about it.¡± ¡°That is more reason to hide for now and investigateter when your so-called protectorse back! We can then slowly build up our strength, secretly this time. Then you can even try to ask your protector himself for answers. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s the matter with you right now, but you¡¯re too hung up on what we have right now! There¡¯s nothing wrong with grinding our way back up.¡± Hearing ire¡¯s words, I felt like a ssh of water was poured over me. Grinding experience points were how I built up what I had. It had awoken me to the fact I had inadvertently taken our fast progress up the corporatedder for granted at some point. I had felt like an unstoppable main character. My smooth sailing so far had blinded me to the fact it was the norm to slowly expand a business, and also how we were all at the whims of those who were more powerful. I didn¡¯t know why I was so stupid to believe our adversaries woulde one at a time and would be at my level, where I could then ovee them one by one. I should¡¯ve known anyone, even one of the big corps, could take action against me at any time. This isn¡¯t a video game, where I only face enemies at my level. Wake up, Rollo! Shelve any useless ideas and focus on surviving! As long as I had the system, I had a way to make aeback. I could bid my time and make an explosiveeback instead. ¡°Understood. Let¡¯s begin packaging what we need and assign someone to take care of thepany while we¡¯re gone. If we¡¯re lucky, we cane back to it unscathed. I also think it¡¯s a good idea if we finish up the power armor to bring with us.¡± My two friends immediately jumped into action at my words. ire immediately barked out her n. ¡°Thorne, you go pack what we need and arrange for transportation. I¡¯ll go organize the personnel shift and¡­find us people to rece us as the acting management.¡± ¡°Okay, but where are we going? Lion City?¡± ¡°...That is kind of predictable,¡± I said. ¡°As imprable as their defenses are, I don¡¯t think they¡¯d let me hide out in their city and draw trouble to them. How about¡­ somewhere in Europa? There¡¯s enough countries there to get lost in.¡± The three of us exchanged nces and nodded in unison. With a preliminary n set, we all went into motion. I also quickly left the room and went to my workshop to get started on the preparations. I had recently hired a simtion expert, and it was time to put him to work so we could leave with the best equipment we could muster. What else can I add to the power armor in a short time that can help us fend off top-tier corpo spec ops?
Issiah - ??? Corporation ¡°Sir, we have an update.¡± ¡°I see¡­What have we learned about the person of interest, then?¡± ¡°Not much, sir. We couldn¡¯t find any traces of hidden supporters or anything. All the reports were¡­clean.¡± ¡°Current conjecture?¡± ¡°With Abby¡¯s help, our most likely conjecture is simply¡­ that the person is a genius.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t exin why that man had taken such an interest in them, though.¡± ¡°Apologies, sir! I¡¯ll go dig deeper into it right away.¡± ¡°...Wait! There¡¯s no need. Take this chance to bring them in. We¡¯ll ask them ourselves.¡± ¡°But sir! That would al¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. We don¡¯t have to do it directly. Get Henry and hispany to do it.¡± ¡°...Very well, sir.¡± Chapter 159: Last Minute Gamble Chapter 159: Last Minute Gamble ¡°Lanus, are you sure you can fit into this?¡± I asked as I scrutinized the thumb drive before me. ¡°Affirmative. It is adequate to hold my core memory and vital processes. However, my resources will be severely reduced, and I will not be able to make anyplicated calctions like those required in research projects.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. You have all our data saved as well, right?¡± ¡°Affirmative.¡± ¡°If there¡¯s still room in there, transfer every bit of data we have onto it. There should be enough on it that we can just resume everything once the danger passes.¡± While I let Lanus continue to take care of the software side of things, I inspected the new power armor once more. I had made some hasty changes to them. Judging from what I¡¯ve seen of corpo hit teams belonging to top-tier corporations, it should give me the extra edge I need to survive. We hadpleted most of the other preparations we needed to do before we nned to depart from Elevate City. As a corporate-controlled area, it was just too risky to stake here when our potential enemies were powerful corporations themselves. For our headquarters, we will leave it in the hands of our employees for now, while Lanus¡¯ hardware will be repurposed into a simpler supeputer. It was done in case someone breached our base while we were gone. Thest thing we needed was to give more reason for other corps toe after us. When I was done with everything, I sat down in my office and nced out the windows to enjoy the view of the city.I sure hope I get to see this again, and not from somewhere else. I can only hope the big corpos don¡¯t bother to squash my insignificantpany if they know I¡¯m not there. If only mypany could grow legs and run away with me¡­ The sound of the door opening brought me out of my head as I turned to find ire. ¡°Done with everything?¡± ¡°Yep, I¡¯m just bringing you thetest reports to sign off on.¡± I chuckled as I began browsing over the terminal she handed me. I couldn¡¯t help but burst out inughter after reading through it. ¡°What is it, Rollo? Something wrong?¡± ¡°Haha. No, no.¡± Iposed myself. ¡°It¡¯s just that it¡¯s so ironic that ourtest report is showing we¡¯ve been performing better than we ever been. Sales are way up with our new products made in partnership with Sensorial, and even our transport business is breaking records.¡± ire shook her head and didn¡¯t say a word about the report, instead she told me to prepare for tomorrow before exiting my office.
The next morning, Thorne, ire, and I discreetly took an unmarked car out of ourpound. We made our way toward the airport while we had our Shades on the entire time, projecting the image of three middle-aged men onto us. We passed by security calmly and handed over the fake passports I made based on some random folks I found in the ECPD database. Once we passed security, we sat down by our boarding gate while we continued to make calls to various members of mypany about their new responsibilities while we were gone. ¡°Like I said, Vin, you do what is necessary during this time. You might not be able to get in touch with us.¡± ¡°...Should I be expecting anything to happen?¡± ¡°It is hard to say, so I guess it is better to be prepared than not in this situation.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± He gave me a knowing nod before the call was cut off. I nced over and found ire still on a call, so I conversed with Thorne, who was already done. ¡°This¡¯ll look so silly if nothing ends up happening,¡± I muttered. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be so bad. It¡¯s a nice test anyway to see if thepany can function without us. I heard other corps do these kinds of tests sometimes to simte when their entire management team gets wiped out.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ reassuring.¡± He shrugged. ¡°Hope for the best, but n for the worst.¡± We only chatted for a short while before the PA system rang out. It announced the start of boarding, or so I thought. ¡°The flight to Lion City LTP 0377 has been canceled due to unexpected issues with the aircraft. All passengers, please follow the instructions with our staff on how to retrieve your belongings and reschedule your flight.¡± I swiftly went on the web to look up alternative flights. We didn¡¯t have a destination in mind and only nned to take several flights before reaching one of the Europa countries, where we would continue our travel on foot to obfuscate our trail. My searches came up empty as I found every flight within the next two hours canceled. I swiftly nced over at mypanions with a look of urgency. ¡°Guys, watch out. I think¡ª¡± Before I could finish my words, all the lights abruptly went off, throwing us into darkness. Our optics instantly switched to low-light mode. I messaged ire and Thorne to activate their active camouge while I did the same. I can¡¯t believe we were being ambushed already¡­Did they have to be so quick about it? Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. We began scanning our vicinity with our Argus, while also sending out Nyes to keep watch. The other passengers all huddled together as they waited for the issue to sort itself out, so most of the bleeps on the scans were stationary pings. However, there were several fast-moving targets we picked up. I¡¯m sure some of them were people panicking or staff trying to solve the issue, but several of them were headed straight for us. Their pings were also weak, and I could barely receive any information on them, which was characteristic of stealth materials. It worked well enough to hide the material makeup, but not well enough to hide from our detection. Thankfully, our stealth tech was good enough to fool the security check. All three of us were in our power armor and were fully armed. We hadn¡¯t stowed it yet as we hadn¡¯t boarded the ne. Our optics were updated with thetest position of the potential enemies as our Argue kept scanning repeatedly. It didn¡¯t take them long before they were in range, and after checking there was no one in the way of our firing line, we pulled the trigger. It was better to err on the side of caution. Therge marksmen railgun in our hands fired off a high-pration round that almost instantly reached our targets. A piercing sound resounded throughout the area as three projectiles broke through the sound barrier. However, the scene of our opponents being decimated by our weapons didn¡¯t happen. A soft blue glow shed in the way momentarily, and our attacks disappeared. ¡°Energy shields! Use explosive rounds!¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if there were more specialized rounds to deal with energy shields, but explosive rounds were the most effective from the tests we did with our own energy shields. It allowed some of the energy from the kic shockwave through as a byproduct of the function that allows breathable air through. We moved to switch weapons to the assault rifle with the appropriate rounds loaded, but we flinched in surprise as our enemies suddenly sped up drastically. Our scans couldn¡¯t keep up as they crossed a hundred meters within a few seconds. ¡°Stay back!¡± Thorne yelled. ¡°No, activate the new thing I added first!¡± Thorne¡¯s movement froze for a split second at my reminder before we activated the new features one by one. From what I had experienced, I knew the forces of the top-tier corps had us outmatched in frontalbat. Our advantages were mainly our stealth and detection. That was why I concocted something that took full advantage of those perks. When I thought of the idea several days ago, I couldn¡¯t help but want to beat up my old stupid self. It was such an obvious way to make use of our perks. I guess there was some truth to the saying, ¡®During times of war, technology advances rapidly.¡¯ The pressure you face with your life on the line really spurs you on. Immediately after we activated the new function, each of our power armors released a gush of grey smoke. It only appeared like smoke, but was a special type of gaseous material that blocked all sensor readings and visuals at the same time. It wasn¡¯t anything fancy, but powdered-up particles made from the stealth material I already employed in our power armor coating. With three power armors all releasing this substance, the entire area around us soon descended into darkness, even for those with night vision optics. The only ones who could navigate through this smog were us, who were equipped with Argus scanners that were calibrated to still be able to function normally within it. As the chaos began to take hold of the airport and the other passengers began to react to the gunshots and sudden loss of vision, our opponents speedily closed the distance. They charged through the haze like an arrow, lunging straight toward ourst known location. Their movement was so fast, it pushed aside some of the fog surrounding them. I could see on the scans that they eagerly ran through where we were, and I grinned. I had also added a decoy function, where our power armor could drop these small devices that projected holograms identical to ourselves. Combined with the haze, our enemies must be really startled at the illusion they saw right about now. It was too bad I couldn¡¯t enjoy the surprise, but our lives were on the line. The three of us spread out, listening to Thorne¡¯s direction, before we opened fire with our new assault rifles on full auto. A steady stream of explosive rounds made their way toward our stunned enemies, peppering their energy shields. Those hit were stunned by the shockwave and became stationary targets. No matter how strong it was their shields were, they couldn¡¯t hold up to our unrelenting assault. Our opponents soon proved to be well-trained as several railgun rounds made their way toward us. There was no way we could react to the sudden attack, but thankfully, we had our own sets of energy shields. Their shooting quickly ceased, likely due to the unexpectedness of us having simr tech, as they worked to switch to countermeasures. During that momentarily pause, we continued to unload our weapon at their stationary allies, and their defenses soon popped. +30 EXP +30 EXP We didn¡¯t stick around to find out what countermeasures a top corp had in reserve against energy shields, so we quickly repositioned ourselves. Not long after we did, a grating noise screeched out from our old position. It was so loud I could feel my power armor vibrating, but not much else happened besides being a nuisance. Was that a frequency weapon? Whatever, I can think about itter. We continued to exploit of advantage of being able to hide in the smoke, while we shot at them from the dark. We were lucky. Most of them didn¡¯t have power armor, which meant the shockwaves of each explosion were easily able to disorient them for more follow-up attacks. I counted a total of seven attackers at the start, but we soon demolished six of them. The remaining enemy was, unsurprisingly, the only one among them wearing power armor. We couldn¡¯t disorient them as easily as their peers, but they were one-sidedly being fired upon just the same. It was only a matter of time before their energy shield was also overloaded. Itsted much longer than the ones the others used, so they must¡¯ve had a stronger power armor version. I swiftly switched to my marksman rifle with the pration rounds and fired as soon as the shield went down. In the aftermath of it, I could see a noticeable dent in the armor, but it was otherwise unharmed. However, the upant of the power armor didn¡¯t think the same. ¡°Stop, stop! I surrender, don¡¯t kill me! I have value as a hostage, so please don¡¯t kill me!¡± ¡°Rollo, we need to get out of here¡­It has started. We don¡¯t have time for this. Let¡¯s finish him off and run. They may have underestimated us during this first fight, but I don¡¯t think they will continue to do so,¡± Thorne said with undisguised worry in his tone. ¡°To be honest, with our stealth tech, it wouldn¡¯t be hard for us to just hide. However, they would then target our fixed assets in an attempt to flush us out. We¡¯d lose everything we had built up until now. Our only chance was to escape the city and leave a trail for them to keep following and waste their time, but that¡¯s no longer possible¡­I think I have another¡­drastic way to deal with this without losing anything.¡± ¡°What do you mean by that? I don¡¯t like it when you have that look in your eye!¡± He shouted. I ignored him and stepped toward our remaining enemy. ¡°You there. Get out of the power armor now, unless you prefer we continue shooting.¡± This may be the stupidest idea I¡¯ve had¡­but I don¡¯t see any other way for us to get out of this unscathed. We had been toote. There was no way I could see ourselves escaping now and leaving a trail to distract them. If we disappeared into the city, they would target ourpany to draw us out, and I didn¡¯t want everything I had built up to be destroyed. It¡¯d be naive of us to believe we could get out of a conflict against a top corporation that could employ energy shields unscathed. If I didn¡¯t want to lose anything, then it was time for the gamble of a lifetime. Chapter 160: Least Worst Option Chapter 160: Least Worst Option ¡°Rollo, what are you doing? Why are you bringing him with us? There¡¯s no way we can take control of his SAID in such a short time. He¡¯ll give away our location! You said we¡¯re dealing with big corpos for god¡¯s sake.¡± I ignored his ramblings as I shoved our captive into our car. ¡°You said you have value as a hostage. Speak, who are you?¡± ¡°I¡­I¡¯m the son of the security direction of our forces. You can trade me for safe passage! I¡¯m sure of it.¡± The young man frantically exined, despite his restraints. ¡°...I see. What was your mission? It must not have been to murder us or else you could¡¯ve done things a lot differently or made us of a more destructive arsenal.¡± ¡°I¡­I¡ª¡± ¡°Speak!¡± I yelled as I grabbed his throat. ¡°Okay, okay. We were sent to capture you. We were never after your life. There¡¯s no reason to kill me, dude.¡± ¡°That is yet to be decided.¡± I nced over at the front of the car as ire and Thorne got in. ¡°Start driving around for a bit. Stick to the downtown area byrge corporate office buildings.¡±¡°...Rollo, you have to know bringing him with us would mean they can constantly track us down. We should ditch that guy and find a way out of the city ASAP!¡± Thorne yelled back. ¡°I would love to do that too, but can¡¯t you see? It¡¯s toote!¡± ¡°So what? You seriously think capturing one of the goons of whoever sent them after us will give us a chance?¡± ¡°No, but it¡¯ll give them a reason to at least hear us out. Just drive around for a bit. I need some time to prepare for negotiations.¡± ¡°Guys¡­stop arguing. You¡¯re both obviously just winging it, so it¡¯s not a bad idea to create some time to think things through first. I¡¯ll reach out to Lucy to see if she can find us a way out of here,¡± ire added. ¡°As long as you guys are willing to release me, I¡¯m sure my dad can agree to your conditions,¡± our captive called out. ¡°Shut up!¡± I yelled. I back-handed him as another warning and he obediently huddled into the corner. The car began moving, and a stifling silence descended on us. It made the sound of breathing from our captive especially loud. I began fleshing out my idea and considered its viability. Back when I was working on cybeics for the volleyball team, Imented the fact that ourpany wascking in knowledge in many disciplines. It slowed down my progress onpleting a set of cybeics, as we had to slowly research the areas we werecking in. A cybeic that performed to my satisfaction would require something extra besides having high specifications. It really showed me why the onlypanies who had aplete set of cybeics so far were the big yers. We were an upstart, and not enough time had passed to build up our foundation. The academic knowledge other corporations treasured was built upon through generations, careful scheming, and backroom dealings. All of these things took time, connections, and money. In the past, I had fantasized about infiltrating other corporations to steal all their knowledge. It would save me from wasting my precious upgrade points on all the other disciplines of science I was missing. However, that was a rabbit hole I didn¡¯t want to go down as it would inevitably lead to more enemies. After all, there was no way to hide the fact it was us responsible unless we didn¡¯t make use of the stolen information at all. But that would mean there was no point in stealing it in the first ce. Developing or hiring personnel to expand our knowledge base was something we had always tried to do, but it wasn¡¯t a solution that could address our short-term needs. I would need to create my own schools like the other corporations, and then wait for students to go through the entire curriculum to be useful. I could use the hypnopedia cassettes to speed things up, but then again, I would need the knowledge in the first ce to do so. Trading with other corporations was possibly the best idea of the bunch to attain the academic knowledge we desire. Especially with the new connections I could form now that I had been invited to at least one party in the high society, but again, that took time and careful diplomacy to manage. I also wouldn¡¯t attain the best from this method, as corporations tended to keep the best for themselves. Now that escape from the city was not likely, I began to n for a different kind of scenario than what I was used to. A scenario I had dreaded since I hade to this world, but the conditions were different now. I had to decide if I wanted to gamble on the goodwill of someone I didn¡¯t know. On the goodwill of the mysterious actor who had saved my life once already. However, this time, they would have to go up against one of the top corporations that was at least an A-ss entity. ¡°You!¡± I broke the silence and yelled at our captive. ¡°Which corporation are you from?¡± ¡°...I can¡¯t say. They¡¯ll kill me if they knew I had such a loose mouth.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll kill you now if you don¡¯t loosen your mouth.¡± Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the vition. ¡°...¡± The man¡¯s expression changed every second as he struggled with what I presumed to be the biggest dilemma in his life. Seeing this, I decided to give it a little push. The information I valued was more of their capabilities rather than exactly who they were, anyway. ¡°Look, you can keep the name to yourself. Just answer me, how big is your corporation? How many people are after us?¡± ¡°That¡­I¡¯m not sure exactly how to answer. What I can say is¡­ that I¡¯m from an A-ss corporation. It¡¯s not a good idea to kill me because you won¡¯t be able to escape. As for how many of us are pursuing you¡­.I have no idea. They only sent us, but now that we¡¯ve failed, they would have to organize another team.¡± I red at him for several seconds before he continued. ¡±I swear I don¡¯t know anything more. We never thought my team would fail in the first ce, so I didn¡¯t ask anything else!¡± So an A-ss corp. That is at least on the lower end of what I was warned about¡­but still¡­Am I really willing to bet on my mysterious guardian angel to save me from an A-ss corporation? They did warn me to prioritize surviving at any cost and bid my time for now. But how can I be sure this enemy corporation won¡¯t change its mind and kill me before I¡¯m saved? ¡­At the end of the day, this is all a gamble. ¡°Are you still in contact with your superiors right now?¡± I directed a pointed nce at my captive. ¡°No, no. Of course not. Not even we can ovee the jamminging from these restraining devices.¡± ¡°But if I took them off, you could call for them, right?¡± ¡°I¡­Yes¡­But I wouldn¡¯t dare.¡± ¡°Rollo, we can¡¯t be too sure. They might have some advanced tracker we couldn¡¯t detect within him somewhere.¡± ire warned. ¡°It may be safer¡­to dispose of him.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t stop their second wave froming. I¡¯m all ears if you have any ideas to get us out of this city.¡± ¡°...Lucy is trying, but there aren¡¯t many transports not under surveince. They¡¯re working under the assumption that they have ess to the entirework in the city. Leo and Lana have already begun to iste ourpanywork from any external influences, too.¡± ¡°...Should I call for reinforcements?¡± Thorne interjected. ¡°Maybe we can break through somehow and jack an aircraft capable of transcontinental travel or something. Our VTOL can help us assault an airfield.¡± The inexperience from dealing with something as powerful as an A-ss corporation was painfully on disy from their suggestions. We had relied on brute forcing too often, whether it be by stealth, violence, or cybersecurity. I was sure all of us knew none of these methods had a good chance of sess, not without receiving retaliation against our fixed assets that we couldn¡¯t afford, but we simply didn¡¯t know how else to handle the situation. All this began to make me lean towards my risky n more and more. Depending on how I negotiated things, I could have ourpany get out of this unscathed. Based on all the intel we had so far, the enemy corporations only acted out because my guardian angel was busy. They wouldn¡¯t want to kill me unless new developments happened. I believed the reason they even wanted to get to me was to get info out of me. Whoever my guardian angel was, they must be even more powerful than an A-ss corporation. But if that is the case, why was my guardian distracted so easily? ¡­Wouldn¡¯t they keep these rivals of theirs in check before they left to deal with whatever it is that kept them upied? No¡­corporations at this level didn¡¯t operate like us. They must have numerous more considerations to make and dozens ofckeys to order around. The people after me could be one of their secret vassals for all I know. Heck, it was more likely than the enemy taking action directly. I felt my mind heat up as I considered the problem from different angles. If my assumptions were true, thisplicated conspiracy might be more multiyered than I initially thought. If there was one weakness, I knew from over-bloated organizations; it was that they often yed a game of broken telephone as stuff went down the chain ofmand. The corpo in charge of my capture should not know the full context of anything and simply ordered to take me in alive. The rest was at his discretion. I adjusted the restraining devices and had them deafen my captive as I moved to physically blind and gag him. ¡°Guys¡­¡± I said as I let out a deep sigh. ¡°I have a n, but I don¡¯t think any of you will like it.¡± ¡°We¡¯re on the cusp of a game over. What is there to not like? Just say it,¡± ire quipped. ¡°I n to negotiate with the enemy corporation. They want to capture me and I n toply in exchange for leaving ourpany alone.¡± ¡°What?! That¡¯s crazy!¡± Thorne yelled. ¡°You think they¡¯re just going to let you go after your so-called guardian angel returns? Even if he wants to save you, they could just execute you if they act.¡± ire nodded at his words and continued to team up against me. ¡°Yeah¡­I don¡¯t think they¡¯re doing all this just to invite you over for a chat, Rollo. Our victory condition is to have you survive, away from our enemies until your saviores running. All this stuff going on is way over our heads.¡± ¡°Guys, listen to me. The enemy¡¯s goal should be to interrogate me, not kill me. If they¡¯re acting so cautiously to avoid getting me killed, it must be because they¡¯re afraid of my guardian¡¯s response. If they¡¯re so afraid, it must mean my guardian is much more powerful than them. Remember my conversation with Titus? I have to endure. If I can¡¯t run, I¡¯d rather endure being a prisoner while keeping thepany and you guys safe. What I didn¡¯t mention was how I nned to convince my captor to work for them instead. I could y the role of a submissive street rat turned corpo, reveal everything I know, and offer my services as a researcher to them. Then I could use the opportunity to soak in all the knowledge they provide me with while I bid my time, killing two birds with one stone. ¡°Besides, if anything went wrong, I¡¯m confident I could escape myself. Our stealth tech should be a lot more advanced than what they have if they¡¯re only an A-ss corporation. It¡¯s just that if we keep running, they¡¯d start targeting our fixed assets, so we can¡¯t have that. I¡¯ll let them believe they have me captive,¡± I supplemented my reasoning. We continued to argue for several more minutes before they came to the realization that it was the least bad n we had. In the first ce, if negotiations didn¡¯t go through, we could just then go with one of their drasticst resorts. ¡°...¡± With that settled, I began to free my prisoner of his restraints. ¡°You just need to tell them I wish to talk with them about your release, okay?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Of course! My dad will surely listen to your demands in exchange for my life.¡± The man said as he received the terminal I handed him. It only took him a moment to ce the call through it, and I took the handheld terminal back. It was better to speak over a terminal rather than my optics because I didn¡¯t want to take the chance of getting remotely hacked somehow. You could never be too safe when dealing with these powerful corporations. ¡°This is Rollo Halls. Who am I speaking to?¡± ¡°Mr. Halls! Just the person we wanted to see. Now tell me, do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?¡± I have to get them to believe they had me cornered and lower their guard around me. As long as they don¡¯t dissect me to inspect my cybeics, what I have should be able to slip around them whenever I want. Chapter 161: Turning In Chapter 161: Turning In ¡°Now tell me, do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?¡± The voice on the other end of the call immediately cut straight to the chase. ording to my captive, I was talking to his dad, the person in charge of their security department, and the mastermind behind this ambush on us. I had already settled on a n, so it was time to go through with it. In order to appear like the timid street rat that had suddenly ascended up thedder thanks to the support of a mysterious actor, I remained silent as if I was too scared to reply. Just by doing this, I found out the other party wasn¡¯t the most patient person out there. ¡°Hello? I asked you a question. Now, if you value your life, I¡¯d hurry up and answer if I were you.¡± I slowly breathed in as I tried to get into character. ¡°I¡­I¡­want to negotiate¡­¡± ¡°Do you really think you have what it takes to negotiate with us? You may have gotten lucky the first time, but we have thousands of more agents on standby. If you surrender obediently, your friends might be able to walk away from this safely.¡± ¡°No¡­don¡¯t¡­ I¡¯ll give you back your son if you leave us alone.¡±¡°Ha! You¡¯d be a fool if you think a son or two would get a corpo to give up on what they want.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll¡­kill him! I¡¯ll really do it!¡± ¡°You low-born filth can only think of violence. I¡¯ll tell you right now if you go ahead and kill him, I¡¯ll make sure you¡¯d wish you were dead when I get ahold of you, boy. If you are actually intelligent, you would know I¡¯m trying to offer you a good deal that is beneficial for both of us.¡± He let out a dramatic sigh. ¡°I¡¯m telling you, kid. A big corp is after you and there¡¯s no running from that. The best you can do is to be obedient and make it easy for both of us.¡± ¡±What!? No! You guys will definitely kill me. I just want to live!¡± ¡°Hahaha!¡± He erupted into a fit ofughter and only stopped after a dozen seconds. ¡°If we really wanted you dead, it¡¯d be over already. We¡¯d simply snipe you from afar or drop something from orbit, and it¡¯d be over. Trust me, kid. Turn yourself in, and I promise we won¡¯t hurt you. We just want to ask you a few questions.¡± ¡°...That¡¯s¡­I don¡¯t know¡­¡± ¡°Decide quickly! I¡¯ll give you five minutes or we¡¯ll be doing this the hard way!¡± the man roared. I let out a yelp and threw the terminal on the ground to demonstrate my nervousness to the man on the other end of the call. I nced up to find Thorne holding our captive. He had been once again blindfolded and his sense taken from him. Both Thorne and ire stared my way listlessly. I expected them to be grinning at my performance, but I guess they¡¯re not in the mood for it now. I quickly sent them a message. ¡®We may have lost this battle, but we haven¡¯t lost the war yet.¡¯ The moment this ambush started before we got out of the city was when our loss was set in stone. We couldn¡¯t help it because if we immediately left with no preparation, the enemy may have raided our base, found our AI, and massacred our employees. Our only chance was to flee from the city before they were ready to act while leaving crumbs for them to follow. Otherwise, we¡¯d have to give up on everything else. In hindsight, that may have been the smarter choice for a safer option, but it was toote for that now. I moved to pick up the terminal and resumed my call. ¡°S-sorry about that. I¡­umm, if I turn myself in, will you leave mypany and employees alone?¡± ¡°Well¡­that depends on how obedient you are. Do you still have my son in one piece?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. Of course. Would you like to speak with him?¡± ¡°Put him on.¡± I did as instructed, temporarily disabling the restraints on him that prevented him from hearing or talking, and holding the terminal next to him. ¡°Yes, Dad. I¡¯m fine¡­I know. I¡¯m sorry.¡± After exchanging a few lines with his son, my captive gestured for me to take the terminal back. I made sure his restraints were back on before I spoke. ¡°S-sir¡­?¡± ¡°Yeah, I heard you. If youe to the spaceport within the next two hours with my son, then we have a deal. I¡¯ll leave yourpany and employees alone.¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Yes, sir! I¡¯ll be there!¡± With that, I ended and took a long look at mypanions. I had a feeling my mysterious guardian angel wouldn¡¯t return that fast or he wouldn¡¯t have bothered leaving all these warnings. ¡°You guys take my power armor and head back. I¡¯ll see you guys soon.¡± I dered and gave them each a hug. I didn¡¯t wait for their answer before jumping out of the car.
Grayson Stone - Nova Tech The middle-aged man sitting in the middle of a spacious and luxurious office stroked his mustache as he nced out at his window that overlooked his home. He was winding down from another hectic workday as the head of security within Nova Tech, one of thergerpanies in the cybeic sector. His everyday life normally consisted of dealing with rival corporation¡¯s raid teams, arsons, and assassinations, but today was slightly different. He received a sudden mission to capture a target alive, and from the reports, the target was just some low-level street rat who had a sudden turn of fortune. That was why he confidently sent his idiot son on the mission to gain some merits, so he could justify promoting him as he had nned. However, the mission didn¡¯t turn out like he had thought, and his pathetic son had somehow gotten captured instead. Where did I go wrong in raising him¡­? He shook his head and took out a hit of the Cloudpuff attached to his desk. It helped him rx as he prepared to clean up his son¡¯s mess. After another puff, Grayson ced a call to his secretary. ¡°Redirect the second strike team we just sent out to wait at the spaceport. Our target is turning themself in.¡± ¡°...Sir, are you sure they¡¯re not trying to pull a fast one on you?¡± ¡°Yes, they have Thomas with them and his tracker is steadily moving there. Ande on now, Betty, you¡¯d think I¡¯d get fooled by some peasant trash? The dumb fool was pissing his pants just from talking to me. He¡¯s too scared to do shit.¡± If Grayson was perceptive, then he would have literally heard his secretary rolling her eyes. Unfortunately, he was not. ¡°If you say so, Grayson.¡± ¡°Oh, and call off the mission to attack theirpound. There¡¯s no more need to waste any ammunition on it anymore.¡± ¡°Good, that means we can redirect the resources toward Encdus Station, as I had suggested. Our rivals are getting a little unruly there, despite the war already having ended for over a year.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­It¡¯s about time they start to act up as they make their recovery. They won¡¯t do anything big, though. Not until they replenish their ships and get their finances in order.¡± ¡°Anyway, is that all, Grayson?¡± The man in question breathed in another lungful of Cloudpuff before answering. ¡°Yes, take him to our facility in Ceres. The big man will dispatch someone to handle it from there.¡±
It didn¡¯t take me long to arrive at the familiar spaceport that was the symbol of Elevate City. All the previous times I visited were for joyous asions, meetings, and shopping, but this time it was different. My gamble was based on a lot of assumptions, but it was also the best n I could have at this moment. The frustration of being denied ess to better options made me reconsider my past decisions. Was it the right choice to spend all my points on things like electrical engineering and software engineering? Maybe I should¡¯ve focused on just stealth technology first, to the point that I was untouchable¡­ If I had done that, I wouldn¡¯t be able to amass wealth as quickly to fund my research¡­But I also wouldn¡¯t have drawn as much attention. No, my guardian angel already had my eyes on me long before. I don¡¯t think that would¡¯ve changed. The saving grace was that the first part of my gamble had worked for now. They confessed to not wanting to take my life and promised to leave mypany alone. While that wasn¡¯t a guarantee when discussing with corpos, I was confident the man I had spoken to would hold up his end of the bargain. No corpo who made it to an executive position was stupid enough to waste resources on a solved problem. There were no benefits to attacking my base now. For a corpo, it was best toplete his mission at the lowest cost possible. If he suddenly decided to attack mypany now, his corporation would only frown at him for wasting resources on an insignificant F-sspany. The predictability of organizations hyper-focused on efficiency was sometimes a double-edged sword. As I exited my auto cab, I strode into the spaceport with my now-freed captive. ¡°Lead the way¡­erm¡­ What was your name again?¡± ¡°...It¡¯s Thomas. And it¡¯s this way,¡± he replied with a hint of arrogance returning to his voice. As we got closer to the boarding gates, we found a group of a dozen fully decked out in power armor, waiting for us. I could recognize the model as the same one our friend Thomas had worn during our engagement. His waving at the group also confirmed my suspicions. We definitely wouldn¡¯t have won against this group in a straight-up fight. We¡¯d run out of the concealing particles before we could even finish all of them off. Thomas cheerfully reunited with his allies while one of them stepped toward me with a handheld scanner. They waved it around my body before they stilled as they read the results. The person who scanned me nodded to theirpanions and then we immediately got on our way. Our entire group passed by the security checkpoints unhindered, and took us into apartment of the shuttle that we had to ourselves. The entire time, two people in power armor nked me, but they seemed quite at ease, not even considering the possibility I was a threat. They weren¡¯t exactly wrong as I handed in everything I had to Thorne for safekeeping, along with Lanus. I feltpletely naked without my trusty weapons, especially my Suri, which I had with me for as long as I could remember. The only things I kept with me were my cybeics. My internal ones were all upgraded with the best stealth tech I could muster, which I was confident it wouldn¡¯t show anything wrong on their scans. I knew they were an A-ss corporation, and my stealth tech was on par with at least SS-ss corporations. I couldn¡¯t enjoy our trip up the space elevator this time as I looked back at the below. I tuned out Thomas¡¯ cheerful noises as he chatted with his coworkers while I began brainstorming how to best take advantage of my situation. I had convinced Thomas¡¯ father I was a nobody. If I could continue to do so in my uing interrogations, I should be able to convince them to allow me to work on research for them. That way, I could absorb their knowledge rather than sit in a cell like a damsel in distress. Who knows, maybe I can even take advantage of opportunities when they fight against their rivals to escape. After all, from my experience with Ferrumus, the big corps were always fighting. Chapter 162: The Captive Chapter 162: The Captive Raven - Nova Tech A petite girl sat on one of the couches inside a luxurious office. She was fidgeting with her two cybeic arms to pass the time as she waited for her big boss to call on her. She asionally made eye contact with her superior¡¯s secretary, sitting behind the nearby counter, but the room remained in total silence. It¡¯s been like two hours since I¡¯ve been called up here¡­ Thankfully, before Raven could let out another sigh, the nearby secretary finally broke the stifling silence. ¡°Ms. Raven, you can now head on into Mr. Athalik¡¯s office.¡± Hearing the news, she swiftly got up and briskly walked in, following the guiding lights on the path behind the secretary. Raven soon came across a fully transparent walkway where she could directly look out into a space dock. Despite being a private dock that belonged exclusively to their CEO, there were dozens of spaceships in the port. They varied from sleek little ships that could only fit several people to full-sized cruisers that could hold thousands of guests with ease. The myriad of colors from the different designs dazzled Raven, who had a modest upbringing. It was only at the blinking of the guiding lights that she was urged forward. She soon made it past the walkway and into the spacious office of herpany¡¯s CEO. The ce was filled with bright light and had delicate red carpetsid out in the center while the rest of the room was decorated with bookcases and disy cases filled with cybeics products of theirpany.It was only after walking over a small arched bridge over a small waterway that she came before her boss, sitting behind a grand wooden desk with intricate engravings. ¡°Mr. Athalik, I have arrived as requested. What do you need of me?¡± The aged man of average build calmly inspected thetest arrival before nodding. ¡°Yes, Raven. I¡¯ve heard a lot about you from your superior, Grayson. I have an important job specifically for you, one that needs to be done with the utmost confidentiality. Can I entrust you with it?¡± ¡°Of course, sir!¡± the short woman instantly saluted. ¡°Rx, you can call me Henry. Let me stress that whatever you see or hear during this mission, you must keep to yourself. Do not reveal it to anyone, even if Grayson asks. Is that eptable?¡± ¡°Of course, sir¡ªHenry. Whatever you need.¡± Raven thumped her chest in a show of confidence. ¡°Very well. You can find the details in this folder here. Don¡¯t record anything and burn it when you¡¯re done reading it. I¡¯ve already arranged for a ship to your destination for you. You can head to the docks immediately.¡± ¡°Understood. You can rely on me.¡± After curtsying to her boss, Raven swiftly made herself sparse as she felt out of ce within the opulent office. Although she had questions as to why her big boss would suddenly go over her superior¡¯s head and order her directly, she was savvy enough not to ask questions. She had grown up in an orphanage from a young age until she was picked up by the orphanage¡¯s sponsor for showing excellence. She had an inkling that whatever job she was assigned made full use of her unique upbringing, which often made use of the effectivemunication skills she had with the ¡®peasants¡¯. The same couldn¡¯t be said of most of her purebred corpo peers, who only knew to snobbishly look down on everyone else with roundabout euphemisms and bent the knee when they encountered someone more important. As someone who knew how to strictly followmands, Raven wasted no time and quickly boarded the ship, waiting for her at the dock. She began reading over the folder she received during the trip, and the mystery of why she was selected became clearer. After a full day of traveling on the spaceship, they finally arrived near Ceres Station. Contrary to what she had thought, they didn¡¯t dock at Ceres Station, one of thergest settlements between Mars and Jupiter. Instead, they headed out into the asteroid belt. Their ship soon came across an unassuming asteroid that had been hollowed out into a secret base. It was one of Nova Tech¡¯s research facilities, where some of their most advanced inventions were birthed. As they docked, she nced out at the numerous defensive turrets hidden all around the asteroid until they finally finished the docking procedures. Her ship didn¡¯t stay for long and began starting up again as soon as she disembarked. Before she could question how she would return after her job wasplete, the sound of approaching footsteps drew her attention. A pair of men briskly strode toward her. One of them had messy white hair that went all the way down to his shoulders and wore a whiteb coat. The other man apanying him was fully decked out in power armor, but his helmet waspletely transparent, showing the face of a gruff man with dark red hair. ¡°You the girl Henry, sent?¡± The man in theb coat asked. ¡°Never mind, of course you are. I¡¯m Dr. Chen, the head researcher of this base. This here with me is Commander Poltrix, who is in charge of the security forces stationed here.¡± ¡°Ajax Poltrix, please contact me if you need anything.¡± A deep and gravelly voice sounded out from the speakers of the power armor. Stolen story; please report. ¡°Pleasure to meet both of you. If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯d like to get my job started right away.¡± ¡°Of course, Commander Poltrix will lead you to the man you seek. I¡¯ll be returning to my researchb. Please only call me if it¡¯s important.¡± ¡°Understood, thank you, Dr. Chen.¡± The woman and man in power armor watched as the old man swiftly disappeared down a corridor before they, too, went on their way. They navigated through elevators, and maze-like corridors, passing by asional patrols who were all decked out in power armor as well. They went through yet another elevator before arriving in a small room where Raven found a young man sitting calmly by a desk. Seeing how the man was curiously ncing around, Raven did a double take before grabbing Commander Poltrix back out of the room and closing the door behind them. ¡°Commander, are you sure it¡¯s fine to let him be without any restraints?¡± ¡°Of course, this base has many hidden defensive systems. If he tries to run or anything, we can easily restrain him through one of our hidden turrets or even by upping the gravity of his room. Rest assured, it isn¡¯t like a street rat like him would dare to escape when he already knows how far we¡¯re from Earth.¡± ¡°Okay¡­I hope you guys have already scanned him for any threats or hidden cybeics too, then?¡± ¡°Yes, your boss said his men had thoroughly scanned him, and our base has strict procedures to scan anyone who leaves or enters. He¡¯s clean, you¡¯ll be fine.¡± ¡°Very well,mander. In that case, I¡¯ll have to ask that you let me be alone with him. Our talks require the utmost confidentiality.¡± ¡°Of course, I have been briefed,¡± the man in power armor gestured for Raven to enter the room. ¡°He¡¯s all yours.¡± Raven took a deep breath topose herself before entering the room and sitting down across from the man. Once Commander Poltrix closed the door behind them, Raven fished out a small circr device and ced it on the desk. The device emitted a privacy field that scrambled any devices that may be eavesdropping on their conversation. ¡°Okay, we can talk now. Let me introduce myself. My name is Raven, an employee of Nova Tech. I know who you are already, so no need to return the favor. And by the way, those are some really cool cyberarms you have there. Ourpany does good work, right?¡± Raven asked with a smile. The man before her politely bowed his head in response. ¡°Um, so what do you want with me?¡± he asked nervously asked. Why does he suddenly sound so nervous all of a sudden when he seemed fine earlier? ¡°Today, we just wanted to ask you some questions. I don¡¯t know if you know this or not, but the man who you have been listening to is a very dangerous person and we would like to help you.¡± ¡°What?! You wanted to help me by coercing me off the with you guys?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Raven responded in the most serious tone she could muster. ¡°That man is just that much of a threat. Nowhere on Earth is safe from him. That was why we had to get a little rough with you, as time was of the essence. We would like to help you, but we first need to know what he has been up to. Can you describe your experiences with him?¡± ¡°Who are you talking about exactly?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no point in lying, Rollo. You know exactly who we¡¯re talking about. The man who had assisted you in forming your corporation.¡± Rollo¡¯s eyes widened at Raven¡¯s words. Despite everything going ording to the script so far, Raven couldn¡¯t help but feel something was off, but she couldn¡¯t put a finger on it. Still, she persisted in her duties, as she knew she was only a cog within herpany and she was paid to follow orders, not specte. ¡°...I don¡¯t know anything about that person. I didn¡¯t even know he was a man until now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. We don¡¯t expect you to have a file on him like some detective. We simply want you to recount all the experiences you had with him.¡± ¡°I¡­Well, you see¡­¡± As the man before her answered, Raven carefullypiled a transcript in real-time. She carefully asked the questions listed on the dossier she received, not deviating one bit. It took a full two hours before she was done. The interactions the man in front of her had with this mysterious backer were few, but were full of meaning if one took a closer look. It wasn¡¯t her job to pass judgment, so she kept her suspicions to herself and prepared to send off the report once she got a connection again. ¡°...And that¡¯s all I know. Please, can I go home now? I don¡¯t care if that man is dangerous. I just want to go home,¡± Rollo pleaded. ¡°That¡­I¡¯ll have to ask my superiors. In the meantime, please endure here for some time first.¡± Just as Raven was getting up, the man continued. ¡°Then please at least let me do something. It¡¯s too boring just sitting around when you guys won¡¯t even let me ess the web. I¡¯m pretty good with cybeics, so at least let me help you out. This is a researchb, right?¡± ¡°Oh? And why do you think that?¡± ¡°I saw some people dressed like researchers on my way in.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll ry your requests. Again, it¡¯s not up to me to decide, but I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± Seeing the man satisfied with her response, Raven took her leave. She found Commander Poltrix waiting for her just outside the door. ¡°You done?¡± ¡°Yes,mander. I¡¯ll need to use thems room to ry the results now. Oh, and can you pass a message along to Dr. Chen? The captive would like to do something productive instead of staying cooped up in his cell.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll ask. It¡¯s not like he¡¯s ever getting out of this ce, anyway, so I don¡¯t see why not.¡± Themander stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before ncing back at Raven. ¡°You¡¯ll have to follow me to thems room, since you¡¯ll need my codes if you want to contact the outside world.¡± Finally. I hope I don¡¯t get reassigned right after this. I was hoping to spend some time rxing in Ceres Station. Raven did not get her wish. After reporting back to the big boss, she received the orders to remain on standby so she could remain as the point of contact with the captive.
A day after my interrogation with whom I learned to be members of Nova Tech, a man in a research coat visited me in my little room. I had banked on the fact that my capture was something done with discretion, and it seemed like it worked. Thomas, the man I had captured, didn¡¯t seem to have corroborated his experience with hispany. It wasn¡¯t surprising considering no corpo would want to air their failures. That meant the people who now approached me all treated me like some upstart street rat who was in over his head. ¡°You. You said you wanted to help out, right? There just so happens to be ab around here, but I¡¯ll need to test you first before I allow you to do anything. Show me what you can do.¡± The old man threw a tablet before me. ¡°If you pass this, I don¡¯t mind giving you some small responsibilities to start with.¡± I picked it up and found its contents to be simr to the tests I took when getting my cybeic license. My gambit had paid off. These cartoon viins really believed I would never be able to escape if they were willing to let me approach their sensitive research facilities. At the same time, it also made me a little anxious if my guardian angel could really rescue me from here. I would have to keep an eye out to see if I could forge my own way out in case he failed. Either way, I couldn¡¯t wait to gain ess to Nova Tech¡¯s database. Let¡¯s see what an A-ss corporation has got. Chapter 163: Life in a Rock Chapter 163: Life in a Rock Afterpleting the tests Dr. Chen had given to test out my capabilities, he simply retrieved the handheld terminal and left. That was three days ago. I hadn¡¯t heard from anyone since and spent my days stuck in my plimentary room¡¯. While the terminal here wasn¡¯t connected to the inte, at least it had a vast catalog of shows and movies to consume. However, thanks to theirx inspection of me, I still had my own terminal hidden within my body. I used that to kill time, working on the designs for the set of cybeics thatplimented the Jaden cyber legs I made for the volleyball team. There was a limit to how much I could do on just an internal terminal, but it was better than making no progress at all. Is this what jail is like? No, from what I heard back in the days, they at least had other inmates and could do things like work out or basketball. I, on the other hand¡­ My entire being snapped to attention at the sound of the door opening. ¡°Mr. Halls,e with me,¡± a man¡¯s voice came out of the power armor by the doorway. The helmet was opaque so I couldn¡¯t get a view of the face behind it, but from the voice, I believe it was the same guard who had led that interrogator to mest time. Iplied and swiftly followed him out into the cold metal hallways of whatever facility I was in.During our walk, I tried ncing around for any hints, particrly for a window of some sort or markings. I wanted to find some clues about where I was because just knowing I was in space didn¡¯t cut it. Even if my guardian angel came to save me, I doubt it would happen diplomatically. I needed to be prepared if anything went down. ¡°Keep walking,¡± the cold voice resounded from the power armor. ¡°Okay, okay. I got it. I was just curious about this ce after holding up in my room for days. What is your name, anyway?¡± I replied as I tried to gain information from chatting up the guard. He didn¡¯t reply and wordlessly urged me forward. ¡°Come on, I haven¡¯t talked to anyone for some time. You can at least humor me with your name, right?¡± ¡°...It¡¯s Poltrix.¡± He replied in a tone that was half speaking and half sighing. ¡°So, Poltrix, how long have you worked for this Nova Tech?¡± ¡°...¡± Again, no reply came, so I pressed on. ¡°What? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re new? I thought this was a secure base and they let rookies guard it?¡± ¡°I am themander of the garrison here¡­ Rest assured, we will protect you from any threats.¡± ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s Commander Poltrix! What an honor to be escorted by you in person.¡± ¡°...¡± Themander¡¯s acting ability was horrible, to say the least. His attempt at reassuring me that he was here to protect me wasughable, at best. Still, I humored him as we continued walking down the empty white corridors. ¡°Anyway, Commander. Do you eat the same stuff they have been feeding me? All this synthetic shit is making me go insane. Not that I don¡¯t understand how much harder it is to get real food with the logistics of being in space.¡± ¡°...Spacer standards are higher thanside. It¡¯s just this facility emphasizes efficiency rather than luxury. No more talking, we¡¯re almost there.¡± We arrived at an elevator and after going up several floors; we found ourselves outside a set of reinforced st doors that was basically tworge chunks of metal. We stood still for several dozen seconds before it opened. We went into an airlock where we were soaked in some kind of gas before we got through to the other side. When the second set of st doors opened, I found a spacious and neatly organizedb. It had all the equipment you could ask for when performing R&D. There was even arge room enclosed in ss that was actually a 3D printer. I saw dozens of people in the sameb coat Dr. Chen had worn, operating the equipment in the room or rushing around to attend to their own affairs. One of them stood out as she simply stood there by the entrance, looking our way. She had long brown hair tied into a ponytail and wore a set of sses, which was a rare sight in this world. ¡°Wee toboratory number three. I am Junior Researcher Cora, and you will be working under me as per the instructions of Dr. Chen.¡± She nced over at Commander Poltrix and bowed politely to him. ¡°Thank you, Commander Poltrix. I can take over from here.¡± The man in the power armor wordlessly strode out of the room, and Cora immediately pulled me along. ¡°Let us be quick, Mr. Halls. We have quite a few things on schedule today. I¡¯ve been told if you hinder us in any way, you¡¯d be kicked out. I¡¯ll try my best to help you get started, but I¡¯ve got my own work to deal with, so just try to keep up.¡± We quickly headed for one of the doors on the side of theb that led to another cold white hallway. However, every few paces, there was a window that looked out into arge cubic room. The first room I passed by contained two bots, arm-wrestling with each other. Several researchers were carefully studying the terminals beside them as they monitored the tests. In the second room I saw, I found a lone bot holding out his cybeic hand toward the other end of the room, where several targets were set up. The hand quickly transformed into a cannon that fired a powerful round that prated its target cleanly. I didn¡¯t get to see what was in the third room before I was pulled through another set of doors. After descending the stairs, we found ourselves inside one of the cubic rooms I had seen. There were half a dozen others already in the room, all standing around impatiently. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. When they saw us enter, they immediately straightened their backs. ¡°We¡¯ll be starting the tests immediately. Assistants, get to your posts,¡± Cora dered. ¡°As for you, Rollo, you¡¯ll be monitoring the results with me. Feel free to voice out any observations or suggestions you may have at improving our product.¡± As I followed her toward the area with all the terminals to monitor the test, I nced over and found another bot equipped with the same model of cyberarm I had seen in the other rooms. ¡°Can you send me the file on the cybeic we¡¯re testing?¡± ¡°That¡­I cannot do that. I¡¯m afraid only ourpany researchers are allowed ess to its schematics. You are currently registered as a junior assistant. You¡¯ll have to work your way up to gain the relevant permission levels.¡± ¡°...You want me to give rmendations on something I don¡¯t have the schematics to?¡± ¡°...Yes. It¡¯s the bestpromise we could get you. It¡¯s either this or you start from scratch, doing the jobs of what the other assistants are doing.¡± She tilted her head over at the others in the room. They were scrambling to aplish their tasks, performing thest checks before we got the experiments underway. From the closeup of the screens beside me, I could see them frantically crunching the numbers again to verify the calctions. They adjusted the cyberarm to properly fit with the bot and prepared emergency response measures should the tests go awry. They were all tedious tasks that I would prefer not to do, which was why I usually delegated them to someone else. ¡°I understand¡­but still, what¡¯s the point in hiding the schematics but showing me the tests?¡± ¡°That¡­is a decision made by the higher-ups and not something I can speak for.¡± Our conversation was cut short as all the assistantspleted their checks and the experiments began. Although I didn¡¯t get briefed, it didn¡¯t take long for me to figure out what the tests taking ce in this room were for. The bot was patrolling in a circle while holding onto a fake firearm when one of the assistants shot out a round from a grenadeuncher at it. The grenade exploded in a familiar fashion that told me it was an EMP round. The bot¡¯s overall movements weren¡¯t hindered and continued to walk around. However, the cybeic arm it was equipped it swung at a visibly slower speed than before. Next, the same assistant fired several rounds from a pistol at it. The metallic sound of the bullets hitting metal resounded in the room, but nothing else happened. Instead, the action was taking ce on the screens before me as the assistant began to hack into the bot¡¯s systems. I could see the SAID was a run-of-the-mill model from Zenitech, which the assistant bypassed easily. It was the part that came after that was more interesting. Despite the assistant gaining full control of the SAID, the roguemands it tried to issue to the bot werepletely ignored. When the assistant then tried to remedy the situation by essing the software of the arm, they were thwarted even after ten minutes of trying, unlike before. ¡°Are electronic defenses the only thing you¡¯re testing against today?¡± I muttered as I got tired of the assistant¡¯s pathetic attempts. ¡°No¡­we¡¯re scheduled to do the more physical aspects of its defenses in the afternoon. We¡¯ll need to submit the observation report and rmendations for this test first before that happens, though,¡± Cora replied as she meaningfully nced at me. ¡°...You want me to do it?¡± I red back and her look told me everything. ¡°Can I use the terminal here?¡± She gestured for me to go ahead, so I quickly sat down on the table adjacent to one of the assistants and started up the terminal beside his. As I had suspected, even this terminal couldn¡¯t ess the web. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was because it wasn¡¯tmon to ess it out in the part of space I was in or if this entire facility was off the grid. My only experience up here was in Aegis, but it was hard to judge from that experience because it was so close to Earth. I felt Cora¡¯s hovering just behind me, so I stopped dawdling and got to work. From what I observed, the EMP resistance of the current devices was subpar. It worked in the sense its user could keep fighting but at reduced performance. While whatever countermeasures they had against electronic intrusion rounds weremendable in that they prevented hackers from using the user¡¯s cybeic against themself, it still became unusable junk the moment the enemy breached their SAID. With that said, I couldn¡¯t really fault Nova Tech as they weren¡¯t designing a SAID here. However, this gave me a few inspirations for when I designed my own ecosystem of cybeics. There were unique advantages I hadpared to otherpanies, and I had full intentions of making use of it. I couldn¡¯t just end the report with ¡®captain obvious¡¯ insights, though. Not if I wanted to increase my clearance level so I could learn more from them. It was the perfect opportunity to make use of their misconception that I¡¯d never escape from them to grasp their tech. Still, I needed to make progress in learning the ins and outs of this facility. If my prediction was right, the biggest challenge my guardian angel faced when attempting to rescue me was to prevent them from finishing me off during a rescue mission. It was in true corpo fashion to deny their enemies their prize. If he tried to rescue me and it was apparent that he would soon seed, nothing stopped my captives from ending me. I doubted even my guardian angel could pull off apletely stealth mission when we were in such an isted and secure facility. If the role was reversed, could I infiltrate this facility myself? I didn¡¯t have any resources off, and would likely have to spend quite some timeing up with various solutions to avoid detection¡­ I opened my status screen, and I mulled over how much I could shorten that time if I upgraded stealth tech or other enhancements. Status Level: 25 EXP: 1720/2500 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 Come to think of it¡­Can I somehow gain experience points while I¡¯m here? I might be able to solve the survival problem during a rescue mission if I level up my oldest skill, stealth, or even something else¡­ With that, I couldn¡¯t help but nce over at Cora and her fellow assistants. Chapter 164: The New Normal Chapter 164: The New Normal Noticing my gaze, Cora swiftly turned to face me. ¡°What is it? Found something?¡± ¡°...Hmm, no. I was just wondering if you guys do livebat tests against mutants or something, too.¡± ¡°No, we do what we are assigned, and that means testing the durability of the product against electronic hazards, whether it be software or hardware.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± As I began typing away on the terminal, I quickly shelved away any impulsive thoughts. There was a time and ce for everything, and it wasn¡¯t time yet to be making demands when I hadn¡¯t earned their trust yet. Maybeter, I could make requests to perform experiments with mutants or something so I could earn experience points. It took me a full hour toplete the observation report and rmendations to R&D. With plus ten in electrical engineering, and eleven in software engineering, I had plenty of rmendations. Of course, I kept most of them to myself and only gave them a few low-hanging fruits to show my value to them. I couldn¡¯t give them nothing at all, as they currently believed I was some genius that my mysterious savior recruited and trained for his schemes. I needed them to believe it was in their interest that they had ¡®robbed¡¯ me for their own benefit. ¡°There, finished. Should I send it to you or to someone else?¡± I asked the woman hanging over my shoulder.¡°Ry it to me. I¡¯ll do a final check before sending it off.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± It only took Cora several minutes to go through my hour of hard work. ¡°Okay, looks good. I believe we deserve a short lunch breach before moving on to our afternoon schedule.¡± What did you mean by ¡®we¡¯? It was all me¡­ The junior researcher quickly led us out of therge cubicle room and back out to the mainb outside. We went down the hallway in the opposite direction this time, and after a few turns down the hallway, we arrived at a cafeteria. There were a few dozen tables around, with only half of them filled. The upants ranged from fellow researchers to security personnel. However, instead of someone or a bot manning the counter to hand out food, they had a fancy-looking 3D printer instead. Cora didn¡¯t bother to exin and headed straight to the printers. She keyed in severalmands on the terminal. After a second, the 3D printer got to work and printed out a te of blocky sushi within seconds. ¡°Go ahead, I¡¯ll get a table first.¡± Left to my own device, I awkwardly navigated through the menus of the 3D food printer. There was a wide selection, but no matter how alluring the food sounded, I couldn¡¯t help but think it would taste disgusting. And I was right. After selecting what I thought to be the safest option, a pizza, I was rewarded with a mouthful of dense, rubbery substance that had a chemical-like aftertaste. I took a deep breath and swallowed while trying to distract myself with other thoughts. I guess it was too much to think they would have anything good in an employee cafeteria. How cheap can they be when they are an A-ss corporation with multi-billion credit revenue? As I promised myself that I would never be such a cheapskate, I quickly stood up to ce another order at the 3D printer. I¡¯ve learned my lesson and the only synthetic food I could pte was a good ol¡¯ milkshake. ¡°So, about the rmendations you made. Are you sure they would work or are you just specting? I have to admit, they seemed pretty convincing.¡± I took a big sip from my drink to wash away the nasty aftertaste before responding. ¡°I¡¯ve never tested out something soplicated before, but the theory is all sound.¡± ¡°I see¡­Where did you study, by the way? I¡¯m surprised you were able to make sense of our product so quickly without ess to our internal knowledge base to refer to.¡± I had to force myself not to raise an eyebrow. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was just uninformed or was trying to fish information out of me, but either way, I would answer politely. ¡°I grew up in Elevate City all my life.¡± ¡°Oh? Which corp?¡± ¡°...SocialCorp¡ª¡± ¡°What?! Really?!¡± she squealed. ¡°Let me finish.¡± I shook my head to calm her down. ¡°In a SocialCorp-sponsored orphanage.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± It wasn¡¯t long before we finished our lunches and we made our way back to the same spacious cubic room to perform a new round of tests on Nova Tech¡¯stest cyberarm. I didn¡¯t nearly give them as many rmendations for the mechanical engineering aspect, which was more relevant to the physical defenses of the cybeic, as it wasn¡¯t in my ballpark. The day soon ended afterpiling my second report. It felt short, considering I had something to do instead of just sitting around in my room. We had a quick supper after the tests before Commander Poltrix returned to escort me back to my room. ¡°So how did your day go,mander?¡± I asked as soon as we were alone. He ignored me, so I continued. ¡°I did pretty well. Thank you for asking. We went through two rounds of testing that¡ª¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere. He suddenly stopped moving, and I almost crashed into his power armor. ¡°Do I have to remind you to keep quiet about what happens in theb?¡± I smirked at getting a response out of him. No matter the reason, the more he spoke to me, the more likely he would let his guard down around me eventually. I found it somewhat fun, channeling my inner ire. This can get addictive. Maybe that¡¯s why she¡¯s like this all the time¡­ ¡°Oh,e on, it¡¯s just the two of us here. As themander of this base, you¡¯re qualified to know everything I know at the very least, right?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Others could overhear us,¡± he scoffed as he began picking up his pace again. ¡°Okay, okay. We can talk about something more harmless. So how often do you guys get an off day¡­? You guys can¡¯t possibly stay in this isted base every day of the year, right?¡± I could hear him sigh as we continued making our way back to my room.
The next day, I was brought right back toboratory number three and Cora once again greeted me. We went through another morning of testing, doing the exact same thing from the previous morning, but I could tell the cyberarm we were testing wasn¡¯t the same. They had implemented the rmendations I made and several other minor adjustments. ¡°File your observation report and then we can go to lunch.¡± Cora dered as she stretched her back. ¡°I don¡¯t have to include a rmendation this time?¡± ¡°Company protocol, this iteration was based on your rmendation, so you must hear out other researchers¡¯ ideas first before giving any further input. Congrattions, it is an honor to have your changes epted so readily.¡± Throughout one night, they had already gathered all their researcher¡¯s feedback and selected the optimal one? They sure do work fast¡­ ¡°Do I get a bonus or something?¡± ¡°...¡± she gave me a weird look before diving into her reports. I quickly realized it was likely because it was frowned upon in corpo culture to tantly ask for raises and the like. It wasn¡¯t something I had to care about until now, being the boss and all, so I had a slip of the tongue. I shook my head as I got to work on my report as well. Once we were done, we repeated the same routine and went to lunch. Unfortunately, people had to eat to survive, but I made sure to wash down whatever junk I ate with ample milkshakes. ¡°So, Cora. Do the researchers here stay on this base forever, or do you guys get some time off?¡± I repeated the question I posed to themander yesterday. ¡°Well, at my rank, I get one day off every two months.¡± ¡°And how do you spend that day off? Justze around in your room?¡± ¡°What? Of course not. I¡¯d spend it in Ceres Station, where there are actually things to do.¡± Finally, I figured out I was held near Ceres Station. Thankfully, that was a name I was familiar with, which meant I knew I was somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. This is definitely the furthest I¡¯d ever been from Earth. It could¡¯ve been worse, so I couldn¡¯t exactlyin. ¡°As an assistant, do you think I¡¯d get to go there on my day off as well?¡± ¡°Hmm, I don¡¯t know¡­ I haven¡¯t been informed about that. I¡¯ll try asking for you.¡± ¡°Thank you!¡± ¡°No problem. Anyway, let¡¯s focus on our tests this afternoon. I want us to do better results than those bitches inb two this month.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± She nced at me and I saw the realization hit her as she remembered I wouldn¡¯t know anything about what she was talking about. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it¡­Just know that I want to do well, so I can get promoted to an associate researcher already.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been working as a Junior Researcher for how long?¡± ¡°...Too long, which is why I want that promotion! If you can help me out, I¡¯ll be sure to look after you as well once I get promoted.¡± ¡°Sure¡­I¡¯ll see what I can do. Can you get me the clearance to ess the details of what we actually work on first? It¡¯s not easy for me to do anything when you guys are withholding so much information.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll speak to Dr. Chen about it.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Now then. Since I learned about this nearby space station, it was time for me to visit it in person. They had generously given me ess to various terminals connected with their internal system, so I just needed to put my software skills to work.
ire - Halls Corporation ¡°Any new updates?¡± Thorne asked for the umpteenth time upon entering ire¡¯s office. ¡°No. Everything¡¯s been quiet. No action was taken against us, thepany, or anything.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± ¡°...Do you think Rollo can really escape whenever he wants, like he said? I get his stealth tech is impressive, but he¡¯d be stranded in space or something even if he escaped, right? It¡¯s not like he can suddenly create a stealth ship while in captive.¡± ¡°He¡­should be fine if it¡¯s just surviving¡­¡± Thorne let out a sigh. ¡°He¡¯ll have to rely on his helper to get home, though. And that is what worries me the most. I mean, it¡¯s a corpo we¡¯re talking about. There is a high chance that he doesn¡¯t think it¡¯s worth saving Rollo anymore, then he¡¯d be stuck.¡± The two sighed in unison before Thorne got up from his seat. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m going to head over to the security department now. Good luck on maintaining all our existing business rtionships¡­¡± Shaking his head, Thorne exited the room. Now that Rollo was gone, ire had taken over all his usual duties. While the bureaucratic work was fine, managing rtions was another thing. Taking a deep breath, ire steeled her resolve as she made her way to Rollo¡¯s meeting room, which was equipped with holographic projectors. She connected with the first partner she would be meeting with today. ¡°Good day to you, Mr. Perez. Thank you for making the time to update us on the projects yourself.¡± ¡°Think nothing of it. It¡¯s my pleasure to talk to a beautifuldy such as yourself. Anyway, I take it that Rollo is still away?¡± ¡°...That is right, he went out into the wastnd like he usually does, but this time, he said he might be gone for a while. I apologize on his behalf.¡± ¡°Oh, no, no. I don¡¯t mind. As I said, I prefer to deal with you, and I really mean it.¡± I thought Rollo always said he was good friends with this Luford Perez person¡­Howe he seems so reluctant to see Rollo again? The call soon ended after some updates about their partnered projects, and ire sighed in relief. It wasn¡¯t easy dealing with these leaders of various corporations. This was doubly so, considering she had to lie about Rollo¡¯s whereabouts. However, for his next meeting, she wouldn¡¯t have that luxury. ¡°Ms. ire, I¡¯m happy to see you again. If you¡¯re here, I take it that Rollo is still missing¡­ Unfortunately, this means mypany will have to rethink our rtionship with yours during these troubling times,¡± Joey, the head of Authentic Corp, dryly stated. ¡°I understand, Mr. Moretti. I just ask that we keep our existing deals as it is for now.¡± ¡°Of course, I will uphold the contracts for the specified duration.¡± The call ended shortly after that, and ire slumped into her chair. She had been hopeful when Joey had first hinted that he knew about their current situation because she wanted his help. She knew Authentic Corp had connections with the bigger corporations, but her excitement was instantly doused when the bald man clearly drew a line with them. The fact he knew their situation meant that he knew the Halls Corporation hade into conflict with a party that he couldn¡¯t afford to offend. In true corpo fashion, when the rtionship could potentially hinder them, they took a step back to ensure their interests. ire swung her seat around so she would be facing out the window of Rollo¡¯s office. Her office was just next door, but Rollo¡¯s view felt much broader. It was beautiful, which made the mantle of defending what they had that much heavier. When will youe back? Chapter 165: Day Off Chapter 165: Day Off I spent the next week following my new routine atb three, along with my superior, Cora. We continued our tests on the same cyberarm as an updated iteration of it appeared every few days. On my way to the testing room, I noticed the adjacent room had even begun testing it on live subjects as well. They were still using various animals, but I knew sooner orter, they would use humans. Whether they were willing testers or not was another matter to be determined. The sheer scale and resources put into the project made me feel that my own R&D back at mypany was inadequate. They had multiple of these fancybs to optimize their projects to their utmost, and it was hard not to be jealous of it. At least this is giving me a taste of how to organize my ownbs in the future¡­ While I was on the job, there was one thing my captors weren¡¯t able to keep track of well. Whenever I wrote the reports or had ess to their terminal, I would work on my little piece of software that slipped into their internalwork. For discretion, I slowly created the program throughout several sessions. As cautious as I was, it was hard to fathom they would catch on with the knowledge I had from eleven points in software engineering. From their security software, I gauged that whoever created their systems was only at around eight points if it was calcted using my system. Still, I couldn¡¯t be too confident, as my hacking skill was only at five points. It was another reason why I took it slow, as my intuition and inspiration for finding loopholes around their security wascking, therefore it took some time. ¡°Hey, can I really not take a look at the operating system for the project? I think there¡¯s a lot I can do with it if I had ess,¡± I innocently muttered to my superior once I finished my report for the day. ¡°Trust me, we¡¯re trying¡­It hasn¡¯t been decided yet, but we¡¯ve been pushing for your promotion to a full-fledged researcher, but the bureaucracy involved may take some time,¡± Cora responded as she adjusted her sses.I had worked with her long enough now to have taken a peek at the function of that eyewear. It could swiftly measure various emissions in its field of vision and could attain a breakdown of the materials to a certain degree. It required her to focus on the object for some time, but the speedy result justified its use. It was much more convenient than bringing a sample to the bulky analysis machines. It wasn¡¯t as urate, but was useful to have when constantly reiterating on a project. ¡°I see, well I guess I¡¯ll be taking my day off tomorrow then¡­Thepany doesn¡¯t do rollover vacation days between months, right?¡± ¡°Correct.¡± ¡°Okay, then confirm me for taking tomorrow off.¡± ¡°I can do that, but¡­you still aren¡¯t authorized to leave the base.¡± ¡°...It¡¯s fine,¡± I sighed. ¡°Umm, if you want to buy anything, I could help you with it. I¡¯ll be taking the day off soon too, and will be heading to Ceres Station.¡± Cora kindly offered upon spotting my expression. ¡°No, thank you. I¡¯d rather explore the ce myself when I have a chance to go.¡± ¡°...I see.¡± Ending on that, we swiftly made our way back to the mainb where I was picked up by Commander Poltrix once again. It kind of surprised me that a mightymander would personally escort me every day, but also kept me on my toes, seeing how they valued keeping me in captivity. However, I wouldn¡¯t be staying put for the next day. When I returned to my room, I instantly jumped into my bed. It was reassuring that throughout this entire time, no one hade to see me after the initial interrogation. They left me alone for the most part, and that was how I liked it. Based on that fact, it allowed me toe up with a n to ensure my chances of survival remained high no matter what happened. The main challenge I currently faced was theck of information. I didn¡¯t know what was going on in the outside world or when my guardian angel would save me. If we could somehow coordinate, then the ease with which I could escape would rise drastically. Escaping wasn¡¯t the only issue either. If that was the only consideration, I could likely somehow do it myself. However, that would just get Nova Tech on our asses, hunting me down and harming mypany in the process. I could only escape when my backer has returned to keep them in check. The next morning, I woke up slightly earlier than usual. I grabbed a terminal and pretended to mess around with it as I began connecting with the program I had in their systems. I only had ess to whatever thebs could, and I found all the defensive emcements were on a separatework, likely controlled by their main security room. At least theb could view a majority of the camera feeds throughout the facility. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. This was my first time essing their systems directly, and I didn¡¯t dare to make any noticeable changes, like shutting down or looping their cameras. That was because I feared it would leave any trails behind. I simply viewed where they had cameras and at what angles, especially the ones near my room. After getting a good grasp of their security, I began going through my usual morning routine and prepared myself for the new day. I hit the key to open my door and began to step out, only to abruptly turn back. ¡°Oh, right¡­how forgetful of me,¡± I muttered toward the hidden camera. However, as I did that, I quickly had my Shade execute the program I hadpiled for it. It was a function to enable my active camouge at the same time as projecting a hologram of me. It allowed my real body to turn invisible while a projection of me returned to bed. It took some time for my Shade to create enough nanomachines to be left behind that could maintain the projection, but thankfully, it could make use of my handheld terminal¡¯s battery pack instead. It killed two birds with one stone, as the terminal¡¯s battery draining would be more in line with someone making use of it. Completing my switcheroo, I carefully monitored any alerts in the security system using the internal terminal within me. It was only after several minutes of silence that I dared to leave the vicinity of my room. Now free to walk the silver halls of this facility, I navigated through it using the information from their systems. The entire ce was way moreplex than I had thought, and the exit from my room required going up and down on several elevators. However, I didn¡¯t head straight for the exit and instead went to visit my current superior. Following along the arrows projected directly onto my optics, I soon reached the employee dorm area for researchers. I found a spot hidden from view and waited patiently outside my target¡¯s room. It took an entire hour before she emerged. She must¡¯ve slept in nicely, but I was d to see Cora all dressed up, ready for her day out in thergest hub around. I followed her through the base as she made her way out to a transport ship. There were several reasons I waited for her. One, I needed transport for my trip to Ceres and on the way back. It would be too difficult otherwise, with having to find the transport schedule and stowing away. Second, to traverse out of the base, there were heavily reinforced doors and checkpoints. While I believed I could slip past their notice, that was only if the doors were already open. Or else they would find it quite suspicious that their doors were opening by themselves. Cora soon joined up with several other Nova Tech employees as they boarded the ship inside a colossal hangar. I could spot dozens of ships in here that were at least ten times bigger than my VTOL, and even smaller fighter aircraft. This research facility must be important to host thisrge fleet. It was nice they scheduled all their employees¡¯ days off in groups, or else I would have to give up if she rode on a small one-seater. I quickly slipped onto the ship and found myself in a nice spot in the washroom to hide from sight lest I strain my Shade too much. It was only when my Shade was back at a hundred percent that I began exploring the ship. Soon, we could feel the vibrations of takeoff, and I focused on the screens found around the ship, depicting the scenery outside. We quickly picked up speed and exited out of the energy shield protecting the hangar. In a matter of seconds, we sailed out into the starry seas. The view wasn¡¯t as beautiful as I thought, because there were numerous asteroids floating around us in every direction. That didn¡¯t change throughout the entire flight. It only took us thirty minutes to arrive at a gigantic asteroid that I momentarily thought was a of some sort. To be precise, I believe it was ssified as a dwarf, but everyone still called it an asteroid for some reason. The surface of the dwarf waspletely bare and filled with craters and uneven terrain. We quickly descended andnded on a helipad-like tform on the surface. Then, the tform began to rumble as it brought our entire ship underground. The ship elevator took some time before the movement finally stopped. The voices of the researchers could be heard as they made their way to the airlock ¡°Finally, back after two months. I can¡¯t wait to go shopping.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to party all night instead. It¡¯s been so long, I can¡¯t stand it!¡± ¡°Hey, Iona, are you going to try to find someone using that dating app again?¡± ¡°Of course! My superior doesn¡¯t allow workce romance, so where else will I find my true love?¡± The conversations never died down, but the sound of the airlock soon drowned them out. A momentter, all the Nova Tech employees streamed out of the ship. I didn¡¯t waste any time and caught up with Cora, and continued following her. I needed to find where she was staying the night so I could follow her for the return trip tomorrow. It was at times like this that I wished I still had my Nyes and other handy tools. Maybe I should look for parts and a workspace to build up my arsenal¡­But I don¡¯t have any money and if I ess my ounts through the connections around here, it¡¯d be an instant red g if they monitor such traffic. Cora made her way out of the spaceport and found herself in Ceres Station proper. It wasn¡¯t anything like Aegis that was hard to differentiate from megacities. Instead, it felt like I entered some giant facility, owing to the cold metal walls everywhere and a low ceiling. I wasn¡¯t surprised as I watched us head underground. However, even an underground facility like this had a spacious za that reminded me of the interior of cruise ships. I watched as numerous people frolicked around, with an unsurprising majority of them being corpos. As Cora made her way to her lodgings, I spent my time deliberating if the people in Lion City, who operated my ount, would leak information about me if I made use of their services. It only took me a few moments to realize I shouldn¡¯t tempt the devil. There were too many moving parts, and the corporations could have cyber security specialists monitor the less sensitive records, like transactions. It was hard to say which corporation could outsmart Lion City. However, that left me with no money. After following Cora into a store, that turned out to be a hotel. I left after noting down which room she stayed in, and I swiftly found myself alone and broke. With no money or tools at my disposal, I had to figure out a way to contact the outside world, and more importantly, the people I trusted. It didn¡¯t take me long as my eyes were drawn to the passerby sipping a cup of coffee. What do they say again? Extreme circumstances call for extreme measures, right? Chapter 166: Ceres Station Chapter 166: Ceres Station Time was ticking, and I only had one night before I had to return to my cage. Immediately after I parted from Cora¡¯s hotel, I inspected the people around me. There were mostly corpos with a few miners in the mix, but they kept their distance and moved along quickly. I had the time while I stowed away on the spaceship to think up ns for different scenarios on what to do once I got onto this space station and it was time to carry out the best one I came up with. The main objective was to get into contact with my allies, but I needed ess to a terminal first. Out here in space, my wireless connection didn¡¯t seem to work, nor would I trust essing the localwork using my SAID. That was why I searched for my mark, for someone who was distracted. It didn¡¯t take me long to find a corpo, who was busy enjoying a cup of coffee walking by, and I quickly closed the distance while in active camouge. I spotted his handheld terminal hanging out from his pocket. With invisibility, it was a piece of cake to swipe the terminal, or so I thought. Just as I gently took it out of its owner¡¯s pocket, I spotted a strap attached to the inside of the corpo¡¯s jacket. Thankfully, my cyberarm had multi-tools, and I cut the terminal loose. After evacuating to somewhere with less traffic, I instantly turned to my prize. The terminal was locked, but it only managed to stop me for a few dozen seconds before I was in. The first thing I tried was to ess the greater web. I wanted to leave messages in the throwaway mailboxes my intel department used for informants. However, something came up that I didn¡¯t expect. Thework the terminal was connected to was isted to this space station only.In hindsight, it made sense the web wasn¡¯t freely connected between space stations. The dy was huge and made it inessible to the average person. After looking around in the intr, I found several ces calledms offices with specialized terminals that would facilitate long-distancemunications. The problem was that they were all operated by various corporations that I wasn¡¯t familiar with. Either way, I needed to code my message¡­I just need money to make use of their services¡ªOr hack a corporatework in record time and be back for my ride by morning¡­ I let out a sigh as I redirected my sights back to the pedestrians around me. I know one of the obvious uses when one could ess stealth technology is for stealing. I just can¡¯t believe I will still have to resort to it after bing the boss of a corporation. This time, I investigated my targets a little more thoroughly for where they kept their money. I knew most corpos still carried cash or else all their transactions could easily be traced. No proper corpo would want to make it that easy for their enemies or their superiors to track their improper usage of funds. I just had to find where they hid it on their person. It was at times like these that I wished wallets were still popr. These sneaky corpos all hid their cash carefully, as if they were afraid of getting robbed¡­Well, I guess they had a valid reason for that. As I inspected all the corpos I came across, I noticed almost every single one of them was armed. It made me do a double take of the station, half expecting firefights to bemon. Well, I guess can¡¯t be too careful around all the schemers these people work with on a daily basis. I finally came across a fast-food restaurant where I spotted a corpo using cash for his transaction. My eyes followed to where he returned the change and I judged that his suit¡¯s inner pocket was doable, considering he was about to take a seat. A stationary target was a good target. I waited until he got his food and began eating to take action. I elegantly went to pick his pockets, or so I thought in my mind, and retrieved a small stack of stic bills. I didn¡¯t hesitate to swipe his firearm as well. It felt off traveling the streets without being armed, and I frankly missed the weight of my trusty Suri. I¡¯m sorry whoever you are. Hopefully, I won¡¯t cause you too much inconvenience. After exiting the store, I had my new handheld terminal direct me to the closestms office. After navigating through the narrow corridors of this space station, I came across a store with no visible products inside, but many people lined up before the few counters at the center. I hid in a corner and let my Shade rest. Then I donned the guise of a random passerby I recorded before joining the line inside thems office. ¡°Greetings, sir. Please remember to download our app and fill out everything before your turn at the counter,¡± ady immediately stepped forward to greet me. I did as instructed and opened up their website on my new handheld terminal. The line moved smoothly, and it was my turn in no time. ¡°Sir, please confirm the details of the order. Please note we do not offer refunds.¡± I double-checked the terms that went on about how they weren¡¯t responsible for any losses due to connection interruptions org before paying the clerk the fee to use theirwork. This tale has been uwfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Once I had ess, I swiftly sent off the inconspicuous message I hadpiled to one of the many dummy ounts that ourpany¡¯s intel department made use of. The message barely contained any details and even if it somehow got intercepted and deciphered, they would barely figure anything out. With that done, my heart could finally be at ease. I stepped back out into the greater Ceres Station, or so I would have liked, but a nearby gunshot instantly put me on alert. I raced back inside themunication office for cover. I once againmented at the fact I didn¡¯t have any of my usual equipment. I instinctively wanted to deploy my Nyes, but I only had the pistol I pilfered. I quickly deployed a scan with my Argus instead and found some fighting outside between parties I had no information on. I nced back at the rest of the store, where the crowd was calmly taking cover, and the gates of the store soon came down to block off any potential threats. Now that I was stuck inside with this many eyes, it wasn¡¯t an option for me to turn on my active camouge either. That would just get me scrutinizedter. The risk of being exposed wasn¡¯t worth it. Once the defenses were fully online, the clerks actually continued to process their customers while several security guards came out of the back. Gunshots could still be heard on the other shield of the shutters, but on this side, it was business as usual. However, I kept track of the situation outside and I knew everyone here would be in for a big surprise soon. I quickly positioned myself toward the back of an area where cover was essible. The sound of something being lit up could be heard, and the sparks by the front doors soon drew everyone¡¯s attention. A thermite of some sort cut through the gates within seconds, and the doors came crashing down. Several men decked out inbat gear without any identifying marks charged in and were greeted by a torrent of bullets from the guards and mounted turrets. The fighting this time got the crowd moving. Screams could be heard amidst the chaos of all the corpos diving for cover or making their escape. I had taken up prime real estate behind the counters as a decent chunk of the crowd rushed to do the same. Now that I was stuck here, there wasn¡¯t a whole lot else I could do lest I turned on my Shade and escape. I didn¡¯t have any Nyes to monitor the fighting detail for me, so I could only hunker down. The fighting only intensified for several more moments before an authoritative voice from the speakers. The voice immediately silenced the scene all at once. ¡°Cease this foolishness. Your target has already taken the back doors of our establishment. Leave. Now. Else you make an enemy out of us. Don¡¯t think I don¡¯t know who your employers are.¡± With only a brief moment of dy, the two parties fighting disengaged at the man¡¯s words. The strange scene reminded me of school, where the teacher came in to break up the fights between kids. Except here, both parties had to drag away the bodies of their fallen brethren. After the fighting ceased, the ce was cleaned in short order and everyone went back about their day. Not even in this space station is there any peace¡­ I shook my head as I headed out. The short encounter was a wake-up call to me regarding how vulnerable I was. Without my equipment, it became increasingly hard for me to navigate gunfights. Unfortunately, just my Argus scanner wasn¡¯t enough. Everyone was armed in such tight enclosures that it was hard to gauge what was hostile or not until it was toote. As I nced at the time, I found I still had half the night left until it was time for my ride back with Cora. There was no point in wasting any time. I still needed to make as many preparations as possible for when I received a reply back from my allies. The performance I just had wasn¡¯t up to standard. Since I have the time, I should make what I don¡¯t have! I searched around in the intr and found a hardware store. It wasn¡¯t anything like the big stores down on Earth, as real estate was obviously in scarce supply here. I entered into a room where I could touch the ceilings. It was around the same size as thems office, but appeared much smaller due to all the shelves taking up space. ¡°Looking for anything in particr?¡± A husky voice came out from the woman behind the counter. ¡°Yes¡­I was wondering if I bought some parts from you. Can I make use of your facility here?¡± I nced down at my remaining funds and counted a modest amount of nine hundred credits. ¡°For a fee, of course.¡± She stared back at me inly for a few moments before responding. ¡°Two hundred credits an hour.¡± That is highway robbery¡­on Earth, at least. I have no idea what the prices worked around here. This type of stuff wasn¡¯t listed on the intr. ¡°Hmmm, how long until the end of your shift?¡± I asked. ¡°Nine in the morning, and just so you know, I¡¯m not interested in going anywhere with you.¡± I discreetly nced over at the time in the corner of my vision and it showed two in the morning. ¡°How about four hundred for the rest of your shift?¡± ¡°Five hundred.¡± Hmm, four hundred should be enough for the parts I need. ¡°Very well.¡±
Raven - Nova Tech ¡°Understood, sir. I will continue to monitor the prisoner.¡± Raven saluted to the person on the other side of the screen right before the call disconnected. She then let out a sigh as she walked herself out of the room. ¡°Any orders from above?¡± a masculine voice resounded right next to her as soon as she stepped out of the doorway. ¡°Ah! Commander Poltrix, you surprised me.¡± ¡°...Apologies.¡± ¡°Oh no, it¡¯s my fault for being distracted. And no, there haven¡¯t been any new orders. We are to continue as it is.¡± ¡°You are to continue staying here just to monitor that annoying brat?¡± ¡°...Yes. Anyway, I¡¯m going to check on him. He¡¯s still in his room, right?¡± Themander wordlessly nodded, and Raven proceeded to make her way toward the room assigned to their captive. She had spun a story and told Rollo that he was being protected here for his own good, and she had to keep up the act. She was going to report that it was still too dangerous for him to leave the facility. At least that way, he would keep quiet and remain easily managed for the time being. Raven soon arrived before Rollo¡¯s room and took a moment to rpose herself before knocking. ¡°Hello, Rollo, can Ie in?¡± One second, then two seconds passed, and no one answered. Even after five seconds or ten seconds, no one answered. ¡°Hello? Rollo?¡± After half a minute of nothing, Raven opened the door on her own initiative. Her eyes widened when she found itpletely empty. Chapter 167: Proactivity Chapter 167: Proactivity Raven - Nova Tech ¡°Hello? Rollo?¡± After having heard no responseing from the room, Raven opened the door into the room. She found itpletely empty, with no one there. Her heart began to beat rapidly as she ran through a scenario in her head. A scenario where their captive had escaped and while it was on her watch, too. She dreaded the consequences of failing her duty and could even feel her palms beginning to sweat. Just as she was cing a call to Commander Poltrix, the door to the bathroom opened. Raven reflexively ced a hand on her firearm and was about to draw it, only to be stopped by a voice calling out. ¡°I¡¯m in the washroom. Can you give me a few minutes?¡± ¡°...¡± Raven awkwardly stared at the door to the bathroom for a moment before doing a quick one-eighty and briskly walked out of the room. It was then, with perfect timing, that the basemander picked up her call.¡°Raven, what¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°...Oh, nothing much¡­I just¡­ wanted to see if the application to prompt Rollo to a junior researcher is approved, yet?¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll ask Dr. Chen again when he has the time. Is that all?¡± ¡°Yes, thank you.¡± Raven let out a sigh of relief after ending the call. I need to get my shit together!
That was way too close forfort. After hitching my ride back to the base along with Cora and other members of Nova Tech, I found someone standing right outside the door to my room. Thankfully, I hadn¡¯t been toote. I waited until she got impatient and entered my room to slip in with her. Then I jumped into the bathroom and called out to her. Thankfully, she immediately retreated. I quickly got myself in order and prepared for another workday in theb. When I exited my room, I found the same woman waiting for me, as expected. ¡°Did you need something from me?¡± ¡°Oh, I wanted to update you about your current situation. Unfortunately, the threats haven¡¯t passed yet, and we strongly rmend you stay in this ce for the foreseeable future. If there is anything you¡¯re in need of, please feel free to let me know, and I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± ¡°A connection to the web would be nice.¡± ¡°...That isn¡¯t something we can do, as it maypromise the security of this base. Please understand.¡± ¡°Fine, fine. Can I at least have better food? This synthetic stuff just doesn¡¯t work for me anymore.¡± Iined with the best whiny voice I could muster. ¡°...I¡¯ll see if that is possible. Anyway, I believe your promotion from assistant to researcher should be approved soon, so we may have a better chance at fulfilling your request if you are willing to use some of your pay.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m getting paid? How much?¡± ¡°Our junior researchers start at a sry of two hundred thousand credits.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­a lot! Sure, I could use some of it to upgrade my food.¡± I watched as Raven nodded in satisfaction at my answer. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s bring you to theb then, shall we? I¡¯ll be your guide today.¡± ¡°Is this really necessary? I know the way by now, I can go by myself.¡± ¡°...If you insist¡­I¡¯ll ask themander. Just note that there will be penalties if you wander into restricted areas, unknowingly or not. I highly rmend against it.¡± ¡°...Sure, let¡¯s see what the big man says.¡±
Thorne - Halls Corporation After attending the Halls Corporation security forces¡¯ morning training, Thorne once again made his way to ire¡¯s office to repeat the same question he had been asking throughout the past week. ¡°Any new updates?¡± ¡°No¡­ Nothing has changed.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± ire was used to this exchange by now and swiftly resumed her work on her terminal. Thorne stood there for a few moments as he sent out messages to the cyber security experts, Leo and Lana, and then to Lucy, the intelligence director. ¡°Feel free to sit down, Thorne. I¡¯m not expecting anyone today.¡± ire offered as she continued to be focused on the terminal before her. However, even after a dozen seconds, Thorne remained unmoved, causing ire to look up. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Thorne?¡± ¡°...Come with me, quickly!¡± Thorne wasted no time and closed the distance between them, grabbing her by the wrist. He pulled her to her feet, and they quickly made their way out of the office. ire didn¡¯t botherining as she immediately realized Thorne¡¯s strange behavior meant something urgent hade up. She struggled to keep up with the cyborg and only had a moment of respite when they entered the elevator. ¡°Thorne, what¡¯s going on?¡± The man in question turned to her while continuing to spam the elevator terminal. ¡°Lucy says she received some strange messages from our mailbox reserved for informants. It could be about Rollo!¡± ire was instantly taken back at the sudden development, but quickly took on a determined look. ¡°Let¡¯s hurry, then.¡± They soon arrived at the intel department, and they both briskly walked toward the desk at the very end. All the employees in the department looked up from their work at their executives charging through their department. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± ¡°Are they angry at us for something?¡± They all perked their ears when the duo made their way to their boss¡¯s desk. However, they didn¡¯t get to hear a single word as thepany software instantly deafened them. If they tried peering in their direction to read their lips, their optics would blur them out as well. ¡°Lucy, show us the message, quick!¡± The intelligence head of the Halls Corporation didn¡¯t flinch at the eagerness of her friends and superiors and quickly turned her screen toward them. ¡°This is the message we received from one of our electronic mailboxes just earlier. It¡¯s heavily encoded using the cipher we employ for our top secret intel, and even after decrypting it, it¡¯s just a bunch of gibberish to me.¡± Both ire and Thorne leaned in at the same time. ¡°This¡­¡± ire muttered. ¡°Is this what I think it is?¡± ¡°Yes¡­it¡¯s from Rollo¡­¡± ¡°What?¡± Lucy¡¯s eyes widened at the revtion. She had been informed that Rollo had been taken away, but not much of the details. Thorne cleared his throat and exined. ¡°It¡¯s a new encryption he¡­made, just before he left. The message says he¡¯s alive and well. He¡¯s currently near¡­Ceres Station? Where¡¯s that?¡± Lucy swiftly pulled up the station in question on another screen. ¡°Dwarf between Mars and Jupiter. Not exactly a ce ourpany has any reach in¡­¡± ¡°We need to prepare a n to extract him right away. His situation could change at any moment,¡± Thorne shouted. ¡°Quiet down, will you?¡± ire quipped. ¡°You heard the n before he left. We need to wait for his backer to return so he can keep the big corps in check. There¡¯s no point in trying to do anything ourselves when we are up against¡­Nova Tech.¡± Lucy nodded at her words. ¡°...ire¡¯s right. If our enemy is really Nova Tech, even if we manage to extract Rollo ourselves, they could easily chase us down and destroy us. Especially so if we¡¯re going out into space where we have no assets.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Thorne, the message says to reply before we even do anything hasty. Rollo wants to wait until his backer is ready, too. What we should be doing is contacting them, so we can ry their n to Rollo when the timees.¡± ¡°Very well¡­¡± ire and Lucy shared a nod before they went to carry out their n. They discreetly sent a message to Titus, the owner of AeroDynamic, asking to talk. However, they didn¡¯t receive a response even after a whole week. They suspected Titus was either not ready to speak to them yet or the message hadn¡¯t even gotten through at all. After all, it was hard to say for sure that an esteemed individual, like a boss of an A-ss corporation, would be that essible. His secretary or someone else along the way may have disregarded their message for all they knew. It was exactly seven days after they had sent the message that Thorne could no longer take it. ¡°That¡¯s enough waiting. I¡¯m going up to find him to speak with him myself.¡± ¡°Thorne, don¡¯t be reckless! If they don¡¯t want to answer us, what makes you think they would see you? You¡¯d just be wasting time.¡± ¡°Then what else are we going to do? At this rate, it¡¯ll be years before we get Rollo back!¡± ¡°I¡­I don¡¯t know.¡± ire weakly replied as she nced off to the side in search of an answer. ¡°Look, ire. If you can just sit here and wait, then good on you. But I can¡¯t sit still anymore. Just let me go find this Titus guy. I¡¯ll make him hear me out if I have to.¡± ¡°...Thorne, do you even know what you¡¯re saying?¡± ¡°Yes. If I can¡¯t meet with him in person, I¡¯ll just have to leave messages that he can¡¯t ignore! There¡¯s no way he won¡¯t value our ability to contact Rollo while he¡¯s in captivity.¡± ¡°...Fine, but tell me your n first. I can¡¯t let your recklessness ruin thepany while Rollo is gone.¡±
Lana - Halls Corporation On a sunny morning just outside the spaceport of Elevate City, several Wraiths were parked and several people were gathered beside them. ¡°Let me get this straight. I¡¯m onlying because ire wanted me to keep an eye on you. I expect you to listen, like you promised. Got it?¡± ¡°Yes, I got it. I already promised Leo, too. Rest assured,¡± the cyborg perfunctorily replied. ¡°...Whatever, as long as you understand. Anyway, are you sure you want to bring these two along?¡± Lana pointed toward the two security agents behind Thorne. ¡°Yes, and they have names. Both Peng and Andrew have been with us for quite some time and have proven their capabilities and loyalty.¡± The bigger of the two nodded immediately. ¡°Peng agrees. You can rely on Peng to do a good job.¡± Lana took a moment to scrutinize each of them further before turning away. ¡°Come on, it¡¯s almost time for our shuttle.¡± The four swiftly made their way across the spaceport and soon boarded the shuttle that would be taking them up into orbit. As Lana got seated, she couldn¡¯t help but sigh upon thinking back about why she had epted the request to apany Thorne. Either Leo or she had to stay behind to look after thepany, and she was selected to apany Thorne. ire¡¯s reasoning was that Leo would easily get overpowered by Thorne when it came down to it, or would just go with the flow once he found it a hassle. Lana couldn¡¯t even refute her ims, as she knew it was true. As they were others within the same shuttle, the four of them never spoke about anything sensitive throughout the entire ride. They waited until they had arrived in Aegis and had checked into their rooms before talking about their mission. ¡°Okay, Argus indicates this room is clear. Let¡¯s talk now. ire said you had a n, but can¡¯t share any of it with us. Not even our main objective until we get there. Can you at least outline our next few steps now?¡± ¡°...Yes. Our first objective is to get to Ganymede Station.¡± ¡°What? That¡¯s quite the journey. We¡¯ll bepletely isted there,¡± Lana sighed. ¡°You do know that we¡¯d be disconnected from the we¡¯ve been using the moment we get too far from Earth, right? We¡¯d literally be alone in foreign territory.¡± ¡°Yes, and I know we¡¯re not exactly the most experienced in how things work in these space stations. That¡¯s why our immediate goal is to rendezvous with someone who is. He should at least be able to arrange for our transportation.¡± Lana frowned and gave Thorne a skeptical look. ¡°We have connections up here?¡± Thorne confidently nodded. Chapter 168: Smuggling Aboard Chapter 168: Smuggling Aboard Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°We have connections up here?¡± Thorne smiled wryly at Lana¡¯s question as he nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right¡­Rollo picked up a new hire from here not long ago. Aputer guy called Pino. His sister tagged along and was assigned to Lucy. She¡¯s already here to pave things out for us.¡± ¡°Then where is she?¡± ¡°I messaged her already. We should hear back soon.¡± ¡°...Then what do we do in the meantime?¡± ¡°Rest. Only those who know how to take care of themselves can stay in tip-top shape for the battlefield.¡± ¡°...¡±The four of themzed around in their room while they each did their own thing. Thorne and Andrew were both on their optics, and Peng was spacing out as he looked at the scenery out the window. While Lana was typing away on the mechanical keyboard, she brought along. Like that, they waited a whole three hours before their contact responded. The saving grace was that their contact didn¡¯t simply send a message, but showed up in their room shortly after. ¡°Nice to see you again, Tally. Thank you foring,¡± Thorne greeted as he opened the door. The woman hesitantly nodded as she entered. ¡°It¡¯s been a while¡­¡± ¡°No need to be so stiff.¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy for you to say. I never expected to be working with you, or under you, nevertheless.¡± Thorne smirked. ¡°You didn¡¯t have to join us if you didn¡¯t want to.¡± ¡°No way in hell am I leaving my brother alone with you corpos.¡± ¡°Now, now. You¡¯re one of us now. Can we talk business? There are others here, after all.¡± Tally took a moment to nce around the room where the others were staring their way. She sighed as she relented. ¡°Fine. We don¡¯t have that much time, anyway. I¡¯ve looked for several ways you guys could use to reach Ganymede Station. Since you¡¯re there as diplomats and not as a hit team, you¡¯d prefer legitimate channels, correct?¡± Before Thorne could answer, Lana paused her typing and nced over at the neer. ¡°Yes, and we need intel on Ganymede Station itself. Maps, factions, special rules, whatever we would need to not make a fool of ourselves. We can¡¯t afford to mess up when we¡¯re going somewhere so far away without any additional support.¡± ¡°No problem, I got the old man on it. The issue you should be worrying about is your ride.¡± Tally nced at for a moment and found her audience befuddled. ¡°You¡¯re all pretty heavily equipped with two power armor in your group. Themercial flights will force you to stuff it into storage, but they¡¯re not known to be the most secure. There¡¯s a good chance someone will examine it without our permission or outright steal it, which isn¡¯t something ourpany wants, right?¡± Everyone else in the room nodded in unison. ¡°Then the best way to retain your equipment and control is to rent a ship like you guys had done thest time you were here. The main drawback of doing it this way is finding the right ship. The trip to Ganymede isn¡¯t exactly short, so you¡¯ll need an adequatelyrge ship geared for long-distance voyages.¡± ¡°I take it theserge vessels aren¡¯t readily avable?¡± Thorne grimaced. ¡°They are¡­but only the older models. They¡¯re much slower and would take an entire month to get there, at the very least. Inparison, if you take a newer model like the ones they use formercial routes, you¡¯d get there in a week.¡± ¡°...That¡¯s too long.¡± Everyone¡¯s gaze was drawn to the only cyborg in the room. None of them were as clear as him regarding what their mission was even for. ¡°We have to get there as quickly as we can. A month is out of the question¡­¡± ¡°...I can start the search of an adequate ship, but don¡¯t expect too much on such short notice.¡± ¡°Whatever you¡¯re thinking, it better not be hijacking a spaceship.¡± Lana quickly added as she saw the thoughtful look on Thorne¡¯s face. ¡°...I know, that¡¯ll justplicate everything.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s my ce to speak, but¡­¡± Andrew interjected from the corner of the room. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Go ahead. Speak your mind.¡± ¡°Then I will. If the only issue with taking amercial ship to Ganymede was to keep our power armors secure, then couldn¡¯t we just not bring them?¡± ¡°...That is possible.¡± Thorne hesitantly answered. ¡°But it¡¯ll lower our leverage by a bit. Not even considering the dangers that an unfamiliar territory could present, we¡¯d just be a group of regr corpos. The other corporations may not take us seriously at all. Power armors aren¡¯t justbat assets, but a symbol as well.¡± ¡°In that case, we could just smuggle them.¡± Everyone instantly turned to Andrew at his rming idea. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t risk earning any corporation¡¯s ire,¡± Lana quipped. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s not that big of a deal if they don¡¯t find out, right? The new power armor is optimized for stealth, so it shouldn¡¯t be an issue.¡± Andrew gazed over at Thorne for confirmation. ¡°He is¡­right. That is possible. Plus, if anything goes wrong, it¡¯d just be an issue between us and thepany operating the ship. Not any of those based on Ganymede.¡± The group then discussed in further detail regarding how they would carry out such a n until they found it satisfactory. They didn¡¯t have a lot of time as the next scheduled voyage departed in the evening of the next day, and the next one wouldn¡¯t set out until a weekter. After a night of rest, the group went off to make their preparations during the day, and then all assembled near the docks just before evening. ¡°Did Amos find anything?¡± Thorne asked as soon as he saw Tally¡¯s arrival. Instead of responding, she simply held up a data chip to Thorne¡¯s face as she proceeded to the boarding gate. ¡°I¡¯ll board ahead with her. See you guys soon,¡± Lana said before jogging to catch up to herpanion. This left the three guys by themselves. They waited around for an entire thirty minutes before taking action. With both Thorne and Andrew in a power armor, they changed the projection camouge they had to active camouge, allowing them to meld in with their surroundings. With their invisibility, they began making their way to the boarding area. They followed closely with the other passengers until they reached the airlock of therge cruiser. The entire ship was so huge that it wouldn¡¯t surprise anyone if they were told it could hold tens of thousands of people. There were a few security guards around, but their main focus was the inspection of items being brought onto the ship. It was perfectly understandable, as such a long voyage meant they wouldn¡¯t have anyone nearby to save them if anything happened. If someone smuggled explosives onto the ship and set it off, they would have to deal with it themselves until they reached their destination. That was why all guests had to go through a long line of security checks where their belongings were thoroughly scanned. Thorne and Andrew took a moment to inspect the security measures around them before they continued. They found multiple active scans were employed every few seconds, but their power armor held up against it. With the long lines of people blocking their path, Thorne decided to reuse the strategy he had once employed with Rollo when they infiltrated Sensorial Corp. They jumped high into the air with the help of the thrusters from their modified ionic pack. It pulsed several more times to adjust their course and prolong their air time until they reached the other side of the security area. They swiftly joined the rest of the guests in boarding the ship and made no detours on their way to their assigned rooms. As hundreds of people were constantly boarding, every staff member was all too busy with their own tasks to have noticed anything amiss. Thorne and Andrew were able to safely navigate their way into one of their rooms. Right as they opened the door, they spotted the pair of girls who had gone on ahead. ¡°Seems like everything went well,¡± Lanamented as the men began to exit out of the power armor. ¡°Yeah, we should be back soon, but are you sure you know how to operate these things if someonees?¡± Thorne asked in a skeptical tone. ¡°Yeah, yeah. Neural interfaces are made to be stupid-proof, don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ve done my fair share of VR to know how to just move it.¡± ¡°...Okay. It should only take us like half an hour to get past that line.¡± Closing the door behind them, the two men had to rely on their Shade instead to make their way out. It didn¡¯t take them long to find Peng standing around in the same spot as they had left him, but he wasn¡¯t alone. ¡°As I said, if you¡¯reing to Ganymede anyway, you should just agree to the gig! It¡¯s practically free money for you,¡± a woman wearing a red suit said in an exasperated voice to Peng. Seeing the scene, Thorne and Andrew decided to disable their Shade around the corner beforeing in to assist theirpanion. ¡°Madam, is there something you need from my brother here?¡± Andrew intervened. The woman sharply turned their way before silently scrutinizing them for a moment. ¡°Yes, yes¡­not bad. I was looking to hire people like you for my trip. I heard from Peng here that you guys were going to Ganymede, correct? I¡¯d like you guys to apany me as I deliver something there.¡± ¡°...Isn¡¯t that something you should ask of yourpany¡¯s security force instead of an unknown corporation?¡± ¡°Oh please. It would be much safer with neutral parties like you guys. You just have to be a deterrent for me and it¡¯s extra money while you¡¯re on the job..¡± ¡°...Lady, no means no. We don¡¯t have time for time.¡± Thorne stepped in with an imposing aura. ¡°Come on, guys. Let¡¯s go.¡± He ushered his subordinates away with him to board the ship while he nced back to snap a good shot of the woman to search for any indication of which corporation she was from. Having saved the photo, the trio wasted no time in getting started with the tedious process of going through security. This was doubly so for Thorne. As a cyborg, he was scrutinized much more than others.
Lana - Halls Corporation ¡°I won¡¯t be in contact for some time. Make sure you remember to eat and sleep.¡± Lana called out to the person on the other end of her call. ¡°Yeah, yeah. I¡¯m not a child,¡± Leoined. ¡°You should be more worried about yourself. I heard spacers corps are even more vicious, and regrly target each other¡¯s assets whenever they can. Don¡¯t get caught in anything you shouldn¡¯t¡­or at least make sure Thorne doesn¡¯t get caught up in anything.¡± Lana chuckled at his words. ¡°Of course I will! I¡¯ll also be sure to get everyone souvenirs. Anyway, we¡¯re departing soon. Say hi to ire for me.¡± ¡°Have a safe trip.¡± Their call ended, and Thorne¡¯s party soon returned. They had gotten a family suite to be able to stay together and take turns keeping watch over their room. ¡°Was everything okay while we were gone?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°Yeah, feel free to rest up. We¡¯ve already cleared all the bugs and monitoring devices as soon as we boarded.¡± Thorne was instantly rmed at her words. ¡°What? They had those installed in here? Did you trace where they¡¯re sending the feed to?¡± Chapter 169: Trip to Ganymede Station Chapter 169: Trip to Ganymede Station Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°What? They had those installed in here? Did you trace where they¡¯re sending the feed to?¡± Thorne nced frantically around their room abroad on the starship, searching for any signs of monitoring devices. He employed his Argus to scan in every direction. ¡°Calm down. The cams and bugs I found were all directed to their main security hub on the ship. My Argus indicated it¡¯s in the other rooms as well, not just ours. It¡¯s just their additional measure against any detrimental actions taking ce on their ship. We¡¯re not being targeted,¡± Lana reassured. ¡°Still, we can¡¯t be sure.¡± Thorne then proceeded to use several hand signs to converse with his co-workers. ¡°Thorne, it¡¯s fine. This ce is now clear. We can talk.¡± Instead of verbally replying, he continued to use signs. He warned hispanions to be more cautious as they were up against A-ss corporations and above. Seeing how there was no convincing the cyborg, the others soon followed suit and conversed through a mixture of hand signs and directed messages through their SAID.As they did that, the starship undocked from Aegis Spaceport and began its journey. Thousands of other corpos were on board, and many flooded the various amenities on the ship. As a Cruiser-ss starship, the Megalodon wasparable to the top cruise ships back on Earth. It had entire shopping areas, pools, casino, and various eateries on it. Several hours after Thorne and his crew had settled in, they finally decided to rotate a portion of their group out of the room to explore the new vessel. ¡°Come on, Thorne. Keep up, and put away that long face,¡± Lana lectured. ¡°...Do we really need to go get food ourselves? I¡¯m sure they have room service.¡± ¡°Seriously, Thorne? You want us all to stay cooped up in a room? Doesn¡¯t that draw more attention to us than anything else? Come on now; we went through this already. Stop throwing a tantrum.¡± Thorne could only relent, as he had already been thoroughly defeated during their earlier discussion. They cut their way through the shopping area to reach the part of the ship where the dining area was. They passed various different types of people, ranging from entire families to other corporate entourages. ¡°So about that woman from Airo Tech who tried to hire you guys. Do you expect to find trouble around here?¡± Lana asked as she observed a group of corpos who seemed to be celebrating something. ¡°Where there are corpos, there is profit. Where there is profit, there¡¯s conflict. Keep your eyes peeled.¡± That was exactly what Thorne did all the way up until they sat down at Lana¡¯s chosen restaurant. They had a quick meal before venturing back out into the greater part of the ship. ¡°This detour¡­Is it really necessary?¡± ¡°Well, if you think something is going to happen abroad on this ship, we better investigate thoroughly.¡± Lana shook her head as she guided herpanion toward the casino. ¡°ces where people drink or gamble do pretty well in loosening people¡¯s lips.¡± ¡°...¡± Like Thorne had done many times with Rollo, they soon found themselves at a table in the corner of a bar located in the heart of the casino. From there, they could hear the bustling sound of the slot machines and people loudly shouting as they gambled. ¡°If intel gathering was your goal, shouldn¡¯t you look for a chance to breach into their system?¡± Thorne whispered. ¡°...We¡¯re on a spaceship, for goodness¡¯ sake. If they detect someone breaching their system, we won¡¯t have anywhere to run. It¡¯s not worth it unless it¡¯s an emergency.¡± ¡°...¡± The two fell silent as they focused their ears to listen in on the nearby conversations. ¡°Are you gentlemen nning to go anywhere on Ganymede Station?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be listening topany MO and staying put within ourpound.¡± ¡°Hmm, that sounds boring. Perhaps I may go sample the unique venues they have down there.¡± ¡°d to know we are like-minded. However, we¡¯ll need to assemble an adequate escort if we¡¯re to head out.¡± There wasn¡¯t a whole lot of useful information to glean from the chattering of the nearby patrons. Many of them were sharing old stories and were all having a pleasant time. After half an hour at the bar, Thorne and Lana finally decided to head back. Their journey was smooth all the way until they arrived in the hallway to where their room was. They were both alerted that their fellow co-worker was before them, but with active camouge engaged. They were standing outside one of the rooms belonging to the other guests, but there was no one else in sight. Seeing the strange scene, both Lana and Thorne decided to send a quick text to their allies. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. *Andrew, what is going on?* *I¡¯m not sure. We¡¯re investigating some loud noises we heard in one of these rooms. When we scanned with the Argus, we found everything around here entirely nk. They have a jammer of some sort set up.* Thorne and Lana exchanged looks before both quickly turning on their active camouge. As she wasn¡¯t equipped with power armor, Lana made her way back into their room while Thorne joined Andrew. The two of them simply stood outside the room in question, trying to listen in for any clues about what was inside. They didn¡¯t stand there for long as Andrew¡¯s Nyes returned. Despite the room being jammed, the Nyes were programmed to record everything in their surroundings before returning if the connection was lost. This meant they could still be relied upon to scout the peripherals of a jammed area. Thorne soon yed the recording in the corner of his eyes. He watched the video taken from the perspective of a Nye, which was low to the ground, entering a dark room. Inside it recorded several bodiesying motionless in there. The furniture in the room was also in disarray, as if a wild animal had been let loose in there. *You said you guys heard a loud noise. What kind of loud noise?* Thorne texted. *I¡¯m not certain. Maybe something heavy mming into the metal deck? Either way, this doesn¡¯t seem like something we want to get involved in.* *This happened like three rooms over from ours. We need to be certain it has nothing to do with us. Looks like people in the other rooms heard themotion as well.* Right after Thorne¡¯s message, he pinged Andrew to look up at the main hallway. Several armed guards were taking long strides their way. The two Halls Corporation operatives came to a quick decision about what to do and simply stepped out of the way. They hovered just a small distance from the starship¡¯s security and watched them work. As staff members of the ship, the two new guards easily unlocked the room in question. From there, they followed the guards into the room and observed the crime scene firsthand. ¡°Pat, contact centralmand, now! We¡¯ve got an incident.¡± The entire response time from the starship¡¯s security crew was immediate. Dozens of people flooded the room within a minute as they investigated the crime scene. Thorne and Andrew watched as they discovered a small circr device that was the source of the jamming. After taking note of the bodies for any identifying hints, the two returned to their own room. ¡°Is this the kind of trouble you were expecting?¡± Lana asked as soon as she spotted Thorne. ¡°Not exactly¡­But it¡¯s still in line with what I expected. It¡¯s not too out of the norm for those who hang around Rollo¡­¡± ¡°...¡± During the brief moment of silence, the big guy in the back noticed the return of hisrades, albeit with some dy. ¡°Andrew, wee back! Peng is hungry. Is it our turn to go eat yet?¡± ¡°...¡± For the next day, the group hunkered down as they prepared to face the unexpected, but it never came. They peacefully passed the time and even resumed taking turns to go out and eat. Like that, a week quickly passed, and they arrived at Ganymede Station. ¡°Well, that trip ended uneventfully after the first day,¡± Lana muttered as they disembarked. ¡°That¡¯s a good thing. Now, is the main challenge. We have to find a ce to stay first, then somehow talk to the owner of Aerodynamic,¡± Thorne replied. ¡°This ce¡­it looks pretty worn down,¡± Andrew noted as he took in the surroundings. They were still inside the spaceport, but even there, the ting and furnishing looked aged. If the metal walls were rusted as well, then it would make one think they had entered into a scrapyard. It didn¡¯t take them long to pass through the spaceport andid their eyes on Ganymede Station proper. It was just like Aegis, with high ceilings and buildings like a proper city. However, the skies were a dreary gunmetal grey, and smog was constantly churned out from some factories. Thankfully, the smog didn¡¯t pollute the city too much as heavy venttion shafts ran their way down from the high ceilings of the city. The group gged down two taxis. ¡°Bring us to a decent hotel,¡± Thorne instructed the two drivers. The group had been in a rush to Ganymede Station and couldn¡¯t find any information on potential lodging. That was why they had to wing it. The taxi driver awkwardly nced back at Thorne and rubbed his chin. ¡°Umm, there aren¡¯t any hotels that would be up to corpo standards around here.¡± ¡°What?¡± Lana yelled. ¡°I thought you couldn¡¯t book any rooms around here because it was disconnected from thework. Are you telling me Ganymede straight up doesn¡¯t have any hotels?¡± Before she got a reply, gunshots rang out in the distance. There were numerous buildings that were only inches from each other, even on the outskirts of where the spaceport was. It was within these dense clusters of buildings that the sound of gunshots originated. ¡°I knew from Amos¡¯ intel that Ganymede wasn¡¯t tourist-friendly, but I didn¡¯t expect it to be this bad¡­¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°Umm, sir.¡± One of the taxi drivers spoke up. ¡°There are hostels we can take you to, but they are for the average worker like us. In fact, most of the ces here are operated by and for regr folks.¡± ¡°Understood. Let us head out to the best one you know of.¡± As their group got moving, Thorne couldn¡¯t help but read over Amo¡¯s report once more. It had indicated Ganymede station was a ce that hosted the premier foundries in the entire area. It processed therge amount of ore mined from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. The corporations that operated this station treated it only as a foundry and invested the minimum in other facilities. They didn¡¯t care, as all they wanted were usable alloys that they would ship elsewhere. The quality of life or security of the regr workers wasn¡¯t even in their consideration. Only profit was in their calctions. For that goal, they shipped hundreds of thousands of people to Ganymede every year to rece their stock of workers lost to the hazardous conditions and the rampant crime in the city. For the people in charge, it was more cost-efficient to rece the once-empty cargo ships,ing in to pick up alloys, with new workers than to improve the conditions of the station. That was why on their entire trip to their lodging, Thorne and his crew witnessed numerous rundown buildings, and the pedestrians did not seem well off at all. However, there would be the asional areas that appeared affluent. They were thepounds for various corporations and their core employees that operated their assets on the station. Their entire area was protected by high walls with ample security patrolling the area. Thesepounds created a stark contrast from the rest of the city. It was when their two taxis came across one of the most luxurious-lookingpounds that Thorne spoke up. ¡°Make them stop around here for a bit.¡± He waited until both cars came to a stop before continuing. ¡°That¡¯s where our target should be. Inside the headquarters of AeroDynamic.¡± They nced over just in time to see a dozen VTOLs taking off from the rooftop of one of the buildings and flying through the skies in formation. The group watched on in silence until the big man beside Andrew spoke up. ¡°Peng doesn¡¯t think it will be easy to get in there.¡± ¡°...¡± No one could say anything to refute that im. Chapter 170: Brainstorm Chapter 170: Brainstorm Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°We have submitted your request for an appointment, sir. There is nothing else we can do for today but wait,¡± the receptionist politely replied. She didn¡¯t bat an eye to the cyborg before her, who was obviously getting agitated. ¡°Are you sure? I believe if you let Mr. Adiar know that I¡¯m from the Halls Corporation, he may be willing to meet us today.¡± ¡°Sir, I¡¯ve already done all I can. We will contact you should the meeting request be epted. In the meantime, please return.¡± With those words, the receptionist finally directed a sharp look at Thorne, conveying the end of our patience. Thorne took one quick look around the ce and sighed. Despite the interior lobby looking clean and pristine, Thorne didn¡¯t fail to notice all the defensive emcements ready to burst out of their hiddenpartment the moment he showed any hostile action. Not even his cyborg body could survive under such heavy fire for more than a split second. ¡°Very well. Thank you for your time.¡± Thorne soon exited thepound, passing through the colossal white walls that protected it, and reunited with his friends. They were still in the two taxis, waiting just outside AeroDynamic¡¯s headquarters.¡°Judging from your face, I assume it didn¡¯t work out in your favor,¡± Lana said as she shook her head. ¡°Let¡¯s go. No more time to waste, then.¡± Thorne wordlessly nodded and boarded the vehicle and their party resumed their journey, cutting across the chaotic traffic of Ganymede Station. While the area around the corporatepound was normal, as soon as they left its area of influence, all trafficws were suddenly thrown out the window. People zipped by, ignoring the traffic signals, with cars weaving in and out of traffic. The only saving grace was that there weren¡¯t that many vehicles. It might be owing to the low economic conditions of the average resident here. The Halls Corporation entourage soon made it to their destination after cutting across the smog-polluted air, arriving before a in-looking hostel. It had a yellow neon sign depicting its name, Break Time Hostel. The group only needed a moment to scrutinize the five-story building that was made of the same gunmetal grey material as the neighboring structures. As they got out of the car, the people on the streets all directed their gaze toward Thorne¡¯s group. They had a hungry look and a defiant glint in their eyes. Even with their power armor hidden under a holographic guise it projected, Thorne could feel everyone sizing them up. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Following Thorne¡¯s lead, the group quickly entered the hostel the taxi drivers had rmended. ¡°Are you sure we can trust those guys about this ce?¡± Andrew muttered. ¡°Should be if they are allowed to ess the area around the spaceport,¡± Thorne replied. ¡°...Shouldn¡¯t they just use auto-drive taxis instead?¡± ¡°This city doesn¡¯t seem like the peaceful type of ce. The cost of recing an auto-drive taxi is much higher than a basic car and hiring the next Joe off the street¡­Or so Rollo used to say whenever we went to fast-food ces and convenience stores.¡± Their group of five was soon able to check into their rooms, and they swiftly reconvened in Thorne¡¯s room to discuss their next step. ¡°So what¡¯s your glorious n now that walking up to the front door didn¡¯t work?¡± Lana chided as soon as they got settled. ¡°In the first ce, why don¡¯t youe clean with our objective? You said you would reveal it once we arrived, didn¡¯t you?¡± Thorne took a moment to nce around and deployed several scans on his Argus before replying. ¡°Our target is called Titus Adiar, the majority shareholder of AeroDynamic.¡± ¡°What? Majority shareholder? You mean like the biggest owner of that damn corporation? And you thought you could just stroll in there and speak with him just now?¡± ¡°Yes¡­He¡¯s acquainted with Rollo.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m not going to dig into how that happened, but you¡¯re only trying to talk to him, right?¡± ¡°Yes¡­but if it doesn¡¯t work out, our minimum requirement is to leave a message he¡¯ll see. Though I¡¯d rather talk with him.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look.¡± Lana sighed. ¡°I can¡¯t hack into his calls or anything. The entirepound of an A-ss corporation is way out of my league. They probably have trained hundreds of cyber security experts who are at least on par with me.¡± ¡°I know it¡¯s foolish to do anything on their home turf. I was nning to do some research about this ce first. Maybe there¡¯s a restaurant or somewhere he often visits?¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The group descended into silence as they each had their own thoughts. However, they all knew who was in charge, so after a moment of hesitation, they allplied. They then began sharing various methods they could go about to gather info. ¡°In a ce like this¡­The workers probably have their ownwork. Maybe several gangs and whatnot as well,¡± Andrew muttered. ¡°Let¡¯s split into teams and get started, then.¡±
It¡¯s been over a week since I snuck out to Ceres Station. My life returned to a mundane routine where I ate, worked, and slept. However, with my ess to their systems still undetected, I asionally scouted around for valuable information. Unfortunately, they had good security practices in ce and they only kept the data for ongoing projects on thework. I believe they kept all theirpleted work and sensitive information on a differentwork. For me, the safestwork would be one that waspletely offline, so it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if others thought the same. My life had gotten boring, working on the same model of cyberarm every day, which was why I was super happy to hear that the project would be finishing up today. ¡°After thetest meeting among our executives, they believe our Project NVP 1389-THN is ready to move on to production,¡± Cora exined to her assistants and me. ¡°That is why we will be attending a brainstorming session with the rest ofb three to discuss the next project.¡± One of the younger women beside me raised her hands. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I believe there is still some room for improvement. The issue with the heat tolerance we discussedst week is still unchanged.¡± ¡°...Cassie, you should know that when the executives have made a decision, it is no longer up for discussion.¡± ¡°But¡ª¡± Cora raised her hand to silence the young woman. ¡°They have read our daily reports and have deemed it is no longer cost-efficient to continue pursuing a single-digit percentage of incremental improvements. Nova Tech is a business first and foremost, and finances should be taken into consideration as well.¡± The entire room suddenly seemed to be admonishing the young woman with their gaze. She must be new if she¡¯s unwittingly drawing this kind of attention to herself¡­ ¡°So, then.¡± I cleared my throat. ¡°Should we be heading back to the mainb to meet with the other teams?¡± ¡°In a moment. I have one more important announcement.¡± Cora took a pregnant pause and nced around the room. ¡°After examining all your hard work throughout ourtest project, Head Researcher Chen has approved several promotions among our ranks. First up, Alex, Candice, Kathryn, Megan. You will be promoted to Research Assistant ss IV. Next, Theo will be promoted to ss III. And finally, Rollo, your promotion to Junior Researcher has been approved. Congrattions to all of you.¡± Everyone in the room pped and cheered, even though some of them didn¡¯t mean it. I waited for it to die down before raising my hand to ask a question. ¡°Cora, does this mean I am of the same rank as you now?¡± ¡°No, I have also been promoted and am now an Associate Researcher. You will still be working under me, but several new assistants should be assigned to you shortly.¡± After exining some more mundane details about my new position, our group finally got on our way to the mainb. While walking there, I couldn¡¯t help but shake my head at the tant way Nova Tech was having Cora watch over me. Junior Researchers should usually be leading their own team to help with the testing of their assigned part of the project, but I was being kept on a leash. They were still cautious of me despite thinking I wouldn¡¯t escape their grasp, so I guess there were still some people in thepany who knew there was a possibility I would be rescued. This made me more worried about my future escape, as it would mean they would still be directing resources to defend me. However, if they agreed to promote me at all, it meant on the other side of the coin, some supported assimting me into theirpany entirely. Otherwise, it would be foolish to give me ess to their internal database. All this politicking that may or may not be happening in the background made me more motivated to move up the ranks, so I could have more leeway and influence. I¡¯m sure being able to ess information like their baseyout could provide tremendous value to my future rescuers. Soon we arrived in the mainb area, where dozens of chairs were set up in the open space. The seats were already more than half filled, so we got seated as well. Fifteen minutester, all the seats were filled and an old woman walked up to the forefront. ¡°Good day, everyone. As I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard, Project NVP 1389-THN has been deemedplete. I want to take a moment tomend everyone for their hard work.¡± The woman began pping and the rest quickly followed. ¡°Now then, this also means we will be embarking on a new, exciting journey. As we have done before, we will be discussing ideas regarding a new project. I won¡¯t waste any more time. Everyone, please log into the main hub.¡± The eyes of the surrounding people swiftly began to glow as they dove into their optics. A brief momentter, I received a message from Cora with some instructions. Apparently, this particr Senior Researcher in charge ofb three liked to use a virtual discussion room whenever they brainstormed new projects. Everyone would be incognito and could speak their mind freely without repercussion. The skeptic in me believed this was just a way for the Senior Researcher to im the ideas of her subordinates for herself, and also keep her people under her, without possibly to promote over her. Still, it didn¡¯t diminish the effectiveness of being able to share ideas openly, so I began considering taking a simr approach for mypany as well. I logged in as instructed and kept quiet as a fierce debate was taking ce between the researchers. In the meantime, I began requesting ess to Nova Tech¡¯s knowledge base with my new permissions as a Junior Researcher. It was finally time for me to plunder the fruits of their research. I made sure the terminal imnt I had in me was ready to record everything. Even the basic information was important to help me build up my foundation. I hungered for knowledge from various disciplines of science that I could all eventually turn into cassettes. Just when I managed to download a dozen different topics into my internal terminal, a sentence in the ongoing group chat drew my attention. *If we¡¯re doing a reflex mod, we should be doing the experiments ourselves. It should be doable to have them send us a few hundred subjects every week, right?* *The budget for that will explode!* *But you saw the market research reports. There¡¯s a gap in the bio-coprocessor market right now. SocialCorp is showing no signs of releasing a new product and old guards in the market like Mirage Tech and Neuro Technica are focused on different markets. It¡¯s our chance to grab some market shares.* *Who is this guy? Someone get him a business analyst position instead of a researcher.* As the text chat flooded with responses, I fell deep into my own thoughts. Human experimentation¡­but with Nova Tech. I wonder how they source their subjects¡­because I don¡¯t think I could work with a peace of mind if they used kidnapped innocent civilians as test subjects. Chapter 171: Bio-Coprocessor Chapter 171: Bio-Coprocessor The discussion among my fellow researchers inboratory three onlysted the day. When I arrived at theb the next morning, I found its interioryout had drastically changed overnight. They had moved around a lot of the machines to clear an open area at the center. They fenced off that open area to create a holding cell for the dozens of people currently trapped inside. They all wore in grey clothes and despondent expressions. Their age varied as well, ranging from young children to the elderly. When Iid eyes on the scene, I couldn¡¯t help but freeze up for a second. It reminded me of the experimentalb where I found Thorne and ire, except worse. They were all forced into one cage together. A voice called out to me before my thoughts spiraled. ¡°Good morning, Rollo. Isn¡¯t it so exciting to embark on a new project?¡± I turned to find Cora, my immediate superior, with a wide smile. ¡°Umm, I thought we were still quite a ways from having a working prototype. Do we really need test subjects already?¡± ¡°Oh, it¡¯s better to be prepared than not. We need to record enough data about their condition first and then we can also use some of them to test out existing market products forparison.¡± ¡°...I see.¡±I was soon urged to follow my superior out of the main area toward the same cubicle room we had worked in every day. From there, I found all the usual assistants already there, but along with a few new faces. ¡°Good morning everyone.¡± Cora dered as she pped her hands to draw their attention. ¡°We¡¯ll be spending most of today on our terminals,ing up with improvements to existing market bio-coprocessors, so let¡¯s get introductions out of the way first. To start, my name is Cora, the Associate Researcher in charge of this team.¡± Going around in a circle, we each introduced ourselves. When everyone was done, Cora turned to me. ¡°Ryan and Boyce, both of you will be under Mr. Halls starting today. Work hard, you two.¡± Two young men shouted out in affirmation at her orders, drawing my attention to a tall young man with a left cyberarm while the other was bulky, like a wrestler. With the introduction done, we all soon logged into our own terminals and began our work. Cora hadn¡¯t settled on a direction yet, so we all could explore existing products freely until she had orders. Our terminals had a detailed package with the technical specifications of most existing bio-coprocessors on the market. I quickly skimmed through the list and stopped when I spotted the product line I used. I opened up the file named SocialCorp Lightning and began studying the very cybeic imnted that was in me right now. As one of the premium options avable, it had high specificationspared to what wasmercially avable, but I was sure most of the corporations kept the best for themselves. After all, reflexes could give their security department huge advantages over other adversaries who didn¡¯t enjoy the same benefit. Immediately, the image of the Ferrumus Corporation operatives came to mind, as I remembered them deflecting bullets with nothing but their sword. Whatever bio-coprocessor they had must be top of the line. I had always been interested in developing a bio-coprocessor myself, but the inner workings of the brain wereplicated and it required high-intensity experimentations to tune it correctly. With ten points in cybeic engineering, I believed I could safely carry it out, but I still never dared to go through with it. That was because I didn¡¯t have adequate knowledge of nervous systems to increase human response times or any other unique tech that paired well with a bio-coprocessor. If I went through with making one, there wouldn¡¯t be many advantages. It made me feel that the human experimentations required weren¡¯t justified. However, now that Nova Tech was going ahead with it, I couldn¡¯t help but consider borrowing their resources to design my own model. It would be foolish to openly design it and allow them to obtain my designs, but maybe I could test some of my ideas in istion with the smallerponents. Just as I was getting started, I began to hesitate. The more radical the idea, the more dangerous it was. It would mean putting the danger to those poor subjects¡­ I¡¯m in no position to help right now. Focus on doing my own task and look for opportunities! I took a deep breath and got back to it. I started by analyzing the various inner workings of existing bio-coprocessors before examining the individualponents. My electrical engineering knowledge came in handy, as I could easily spot various issues or improvements that could be made. The main issue was how to have the more tricky solutions I had in mind tested without giving them away to Nova Tech. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred tform and support their work! The best way to solve this would be to engineer my solution to fail after aplishing its task. It would have to be a benign failure that wouldn¡¯t hurt the tester as well. As I put together a solution using the internal terminal inside of me, Cora called out to me once more. ¡°Rollo, look at thetest idea team two just put out.¡± ¡°Did they already put out something usable?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­ It¡¯s hard to say. That¡¯s why I wanted to have your opinion.¡± I quickly navigated to thepanymunication channel where the other teams had been posting their ideas. It appeared they had been thinking about it overnight with all the posts already out. I quickly found the one from team two and read through it. It talked about how it should use mini neural transmitters, simr to the ones used in VR systems, to read the thoughtmands. This would allow it for preemptive muscle activation based on how the user wants to move. Itbined well with the base function of faster reflexes a normal bio-coprocessor would have by allowing the user to act on their thoughts more quickly. However, I could immediately see that it wouldn¡¯t help with the actual reflexes itself. If something came too fast at the user and they couldn¡¯t react, it wouldn¡¯t be helpful at all. Most of the other ideas currently in the channel mainly leaned toward neural chemicals and stimnts, so despite its ws, I agree that the miniature neural transmitter was our best idea so far. ¡°It¡¯s a good function, and the best idea of the bunch, but it doesn¡¯t help with its base function.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. It¡¯s an extraponent. We can think up other ways to improve its base specifications.¡± This is going to be a long day, isn¡¯t it?
Thorne - Halls Corporation A loud horn sounded, marking the end of yet another shift at one of the many factories located in Ganymede Station. A torrent of workers streamed out as they each breathed in the fresh air and celebrated the end of a workday. While many of them returned home to rest or find their loved ones, a good portion of them also gathered at their respective hangouts. These hangouts took ce at the back of various stores or houses. The people who went to these gatherings were often seen carrying weapons and were not the nicest bunch. One of these hideouts was located on the second floor of a bar. There was always a person guarding the stairs leading up to it, and today was no different. This person screened who could or could not pass, and they immediately confronted thetest duo who approached. The two stuck out like a sore thumb with one big cyborg and ady who seemed too fine to be in this kind of establishment for factory workers. ¡°You two are going to have to find a seat down here. Upstairs for members only.¡± ¡°I¡¯m here to talk to a member. You guys are The Grindhouse Rebels, right?¡± the cyborg replied. The bouncer gave Thorne an unimpressed look and pointed him the other way. ¡°Get lost. We don¡¯t talk to foreign corpos.¡± ¡°Come on, now. If you know I¡¯m from a corp, then you should know better than to turn me away without hearing me out. Why don¡¯t you ask someone who can make decisions toe speak with me?¡± Before the bouncer could respond, Lana pushed Thorne behind her as she took his ce. ¡°Apologies. Mypanion iscking in manners. Here.¡± Lana passed along some credits to the man. ¡°We¡¯re just here to talk. We¡¯re not looking for trouble. Can you pass the message along?¡± ¡°...Wait one moment.¡± The guard¡¯s eyes shed as he called someone, and after some mumbling, he gestured for the duo to go up. ¡°Go ahead, but don¡¯t you dare try anything.¡± The two nodded and slowly climbed up the stairs. They could see someone waiting for them at the top. ¡°You¡¯re so bad at negotiating. Please let me handle the talking,¡± Lana whispered. ¡°...Yeah, yeah. Be my guest.¡± They were soon led through the lobby on the second floor, where dozens of people hung out around, toward one of the private booths in the back. They found a man wearing sunsses, and wearing a white fur jacket, sitting alone. ¡°I heard you two want to talk, so let¡¯s talk. What do ya want?¡± After giving Thorne onest stare to make him back down, Lana turned to the man with a smile. ¡°Hi there, we heard the Grindhouse Rebels had ears everywhere, so we wanted to buy some intel from you guys.¡± ¡°Intel, we can do. Anything else, we¡¯re not getting involved with.¡± ¡°Great, do you have any intel on the movements of Titus Adiar? We¡¯re looking to get a message to him.¡± The man¡¯s demeanor instantly changed as he shifted his sunsses down to get a better look at the people he was conversing with. ¡°The guy from AeroDynamic? You think we keep track of the head of one of the bigger corporations around here? What? You idiots trying to see if we¡¯re plotting a riot or something?¡± ¡°Oh no. As you already see, we¡¯re not from around here. We simply want to request a business meeting with him, and wanted to see if you had a way to reach out to him.¡± ¡°...Look, anything to do with a corporate top dog is dangerous. There¡¯s a reason they tolerate the existence of gangs like ours, and it¡¯s because we know the lines that shouldn¡¯t be crossed. We can¡¯t get involved in this.¡± Thorne grimaced at the negative response, but before he could interject, Lana held out a hand. ¡°Name your price.¡± Lana and the man stared each other down for a full minute before the man sighed. ¡°For the risk of being purged, I¡¯d say I deserve quite a sum. However, money isn¡¯t what we want around here. Too easy to be noticed. I want weapons and monitoring devices, good ones.¡± ¡°I thought you guys weren¡¯t nning to riot and had already good ears around here?¡± It was Lana¡¯s turn to furrow an eyebrow. ¡°Only those who strive to improve stay at the top. And if you want peace, prepare for war.¡± ¡°...Very clever of you. I¡¯ll see what I can get you, but the quantity won¡¯t be much. Quality, on the other hand, we can get you some of the best.¡± The man nodded and spat in his palm. Then he reached out his hand. ¡°You have a deal.¡± ¡°...¡± Chapter 172: Orchestrating Chapter 172: Orchestrating Thorne - Halls Corporation Just as Lana shook on the deal she forged with the Grindhouse Rebels, gunshots suddenly rang out from outside. Thorne swiftly pulled up the feed of the Nyes he had waiting around the area while Lana stayed close to her cyborg bodyguard. She had her eyes on the representative from Grindhouse Rebels the entire time and found he was equally surprised, which was the only reason she was so calm. ¡°Were you guys expecting trouble?¡± ¡°What?¡± The man looked back, bemused for a brief moment before recollecting himself. ¡°Of course not. It must be those Axle Heads. Damn it, I thought we had a peace thing going on that was profitable for both sides.¡± The fighting outside only intensified as everyone in the room contacted various parties about the new development. Thorne and Lana were alone in an unfamiliar territory while fighting had broken out, so it was natural they called for reinforcements. However, Thorne didn¡¯t find it urgent at all. He could see what was going on outside and confidently believed he was more than enough to handle it. He only called for backup as insurance as Lana was with him. Meanwhile, the man from the Grindhouse Rebels wasn¡¯t as rxed. He was frantically messaging various members of his gang. Beads of sweat formed on his forward as he got more nervous by the second. Seeing this, Lana leaned over and whispered into Thorne¡¯s ear.¡°Want to help them so they¡¯re in our debt? I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll motivate them to work a lot faster for us.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­those guys don¡¯t look like they¡¯ll be trouble for us. Sure.¡± ¡°What? That¡¯s it? I know I was the one who asked, but you¡¯re just going to agree to go into the thick of fighting just like that?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Thorne nodded. ¡°I see what I¡¯m up against. To be honest, they¡¯re not a threat, especially with the power armor underneath this projection. Plus, getting into unnecessary fights is a daily urrence when you roll with Rollo.¡± ¡°...I knew you guys headed out a lot, but I thought it was for intel gathering or something. Does Rollo seriously just fight random harvesters for fun?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­He says it¡¯s important to him in some way, so maybe? It might be his way of gaining inspiration because every time he¡¯s about toe up with a new invention, he goes hunting harvesters the night before.¡± A loud explosion rang out downstairs, interrupting the duo¡¯s conversation. They nodded at each other before Lana turned to the frantic gang member. ¡°Hey you, whatever your name is.¡± ¡°It¡¯s Marvin¡­¡± ¡°Okay, Marvin. Tell us the truth. You guys are in disorder out there, right?¡± ¡°...It may just be my allies are busy with the fighting. We shouldn¡¯t lose too badly to those Axle Heads, even if we got caught off guard.¡± ¡°Oh, then I guess you don¡¯t need our help, then?¡± ¡°...We would appreciate it if you did help. We like to keep casualties low for these conflicts.¡± ¡°We can do that, but not for free. You¡¯ll have to tell us about this feud you¡¯re having so we don¡¯t get mixed up in anything, and agree to put our request from earlier on the priorityne.¡± ¡°Sure¡­That should be no problem. There isn¡¯t much to exin. This is just some silly turf war. The Axle Heads have been always looking for opportunities to expand their business into our territory.¡± ¡°Business? You guys into extortion or what?¡± ¡°...Just medicinal remedies.¡± Lana shook her head at the mention of street drugs. It wasn¡¯t a rare thing toe across, especially in her short career as a mercenary, but her corporate upbringing made her flinch at the idiotic things people did. From a corpo¡¯s standpoint, drugs were the worst type ofmodity for both ends of the market. The buyers got addicted and became less productive members of society and would likely be affected to the point of preventing them from working normally. This meant the corporation¡¯s market would shrink. That wasn¡¯t even considering how it may negatively impact their own employee¡¯s performance. That was why narcotics was something normally only dealt with by gangs. Having confirmed they weren¡¯t sticking their business into other corporations¡¯ business, Thorne sprang into action. He swiftly made his way down toward the fighting on the first floor and found an ongoing shootout in the middle of the bar. The defenders were using the bar counter and various chairs as cover, shooting out at the enemies who were invading from the entrance. The only reason they were being pushed back was because of a giant hole that the previous explosion had caused. It allowed the assants an extra entry point from a different angle, dividing the defenders¡¯ attention. Having seen that both parties were only equipped with small arms, Thorne decided to simply rush into the fray. He released the camouge projection, revealing his power armor to the world, and descended into the group of attacks by the entrance. When they made eye contact with the power armor, they all widened their eyes in disbelief and their morale plummeted. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°A power armor?! What in the world? How did the Grindhouse Rebels get ahold of that?¡± ¡°Retreat, retreat! We need heavy firepower to deal with that!¡± As they tried to back away, they continued to fire off their guns helplessly at Thorne. The few bullets thatnded only bounced off the power armor. Soon, Thorne had caught up to them and began swinging down his wrist de. He only bisected the two closest to him before he stopped. The assants ran fast and Thorne had no incentive to hunt them down. He had already done his duty to fight off the attack and earn the Grindhouse Rebels¡¯ gratitude. I hope this is enough for them to work their hardest for us.
I watched as thetest batch of test subjects was awoken from their slumber after their imnt surgery. Nova Tech had worked fast after identifying a potential new feature they could add to their product. Despite not having a proper prototype, they reused an older model bio-processor that was modified with the new neural link function. They had it installed into the subjects immediately, which brings us to now. ¡°Each team will receive ten subjects. The tests we want you to perform have already beenpiled. Do not deviate and follow the instructions exactly. Am I understood?¡± the Senior Researcher in charge ofb three dered. Several yeses could be heard in unison before he walked off toward a corner of theb. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Rollo. You bring up the rear.¡± Immediately after those words, my superior, Cora, shoved a taser in my hand and began leading her group of ten subjects. As they formed neat orderly lines as they traveled to our testing chambers, I brought up the rear as instructed. I wanted to converse with these subjects, but I knew various monitoring equipment was watching and listening, so I opted to employ my patience instead. I nned to kill two birds with one stone. To help them escape, and at the same time, gain information on this base¡¯s security first hand. It wasn¡¯t a long wait because I nned to breach into their SAID system the moment they were hooked up to our terminals for monitoring. I had root ess to the terminals in our testing ground, so infecting these test subjects through the connection was an easy task. I did just that the moment they were ordered to take a seat and be hooked up to monitor their vitals. It was only after I ensured I had a channel ofmunication with these test subjects that I began doing the work Cora had assigned me for real. ¡°So Cora¡­What kind of tests were we assigned?¡± I asked as I continued to type away on my terminal. ¡°Hmm, we got the boring stuff, I think. All virtual and augmented reality tests for their basic reaction time. We¡¯reparing the speed of their VR avatarspared to the AR version.¡± From how I understood it, the virtual reality was calibrated to be realistic, like how they moved a normal bio-coprocessor of the same model, minus the neural link function. The AR version would have the results from the new prototype topare with. We were basically trying to confirm if this neural link feature actually improved the movements of the user. As exciting as that sounded, we simply watched on as the terminals did most of the work, presenting our subjects with various stimuli. The teststed for half a day, and within the first three hours, one of our subjects suddenly convulsed before their vitals went t. ¡°Report. Subject #084 is confirmed deceased,¡± one of the assistants dered. ¡°Call the cleaners but continue with the tests,¡± Coramanded. As I watched the so-called cleaners take the body away, I couldn¡¯t help but take in that I was an essory to these experiments. I had performed simr things myself to harvesters, so I couldn¡¯t speak out too harshly against the test, but it still made me sick, having read these people¡¯s profiles. Like I had suspected, they were simply innocent residents of Elevate City who had been taken from their homes. I tried to rein in my guilt as the experiments continued. There was nothing I could do in my position, at least not quickly. I needed toe up with a workable n for their escape. The rational part of me told me I should sit quietly and wait for my guardian angel instead. However, I didn¡¯t think it¡¯d hurt to have someone go first in escaping before I made my attempt. Even if I came up with the perfect n, I wouldn¡¯t be able to join them. It would make my enemies target mypany again, and I needed my guardian angel to return to keep my enemies in check. Despite not participating in the escape itself, I couldn¡¯t help but be excited. I wanted to test my mettle against the facility. I also wanted to get a look at any potential hidden defenses they had in ce. It was much better than being surprised by hidden trump cardster on. I didn¡¯t have the luxury to brew up a n while working, so I obediently performed my job and waited until I was free. A good n needed time to put together. It was counterproductive to rush something that had so many lives on the line. After all, I had counted almost a hundred test subjects just from this first round of testing alone. I heaved a sigh of relief as the experiments for the day were finished, and no new casualties urred in our group. The subjects were returned to the mainb, where they were forced back into their fenced-off enclosure. ¡°Are we going to keep them in theb like this throughout this entire project? Don¡¯t we have rooms we could put them in?¡± I asked after seeing off thest subject. ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s easier to manage when they¡¯re all together. Every little bit of budget we save from their maintenance goes to our research.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± We ended the day off by analyzing the new data we got and I returned to my room under escort once again. Seeing the subjects made me thankful I received my own room, since our situation wasn¡¯t so different. If I hadn¡¯t proved my worth to Nova Tech or had a powerful backer, I could¡¯ve easily ended up in their boat. Once I had a meal and settled down, I finally activated the newmunication channel I had rigged up. I had ess to the basic files on the ten subjects I was responsible for, so I chose to contact a woman who seemed to be a pir in her circle. She apparently had a daughter still in Elevate City, so her motivation to get out of here was strong. *Polina Burges, how are you doing?* I waited for a moment for her response. I was sure my message shed by in her optics, and she couldn¡¯t have missed it. It was understandable she would be surprised at the sudden message, though. After a full minute, I finally received a response. *Who is this? How are you in my system? Are you one of the people here?* *Yes, but I want to help you. Do you have any idea where you are?* *...No, I was minding my own business in my home when I suddenly found myself here. Some of my neighbors are here too, with their kids¡­* *Well, this isn¡¯t Elevate City anymore.* I gave her a moment to let that sink in before sending the next message. *We¡¯re in Ceres Station. If you want to go home, we¡¯ll have to n things out slowly. Are you able to unite everyone around you?* *What? No, I¡¯ve only stayed with the people I knew.* *You¡¯ll have to work on that first, then. I can¡¯t get you out of here without more help from you guys.* I continued messaging the womante into the night, exining to her about her situation and what we needed to break them out. The most essential thing she had to look out for, besides bing a leader among her fellow test subjects, was to find someone who could fly a spaceship. Otherwise, getting out of here was only a pipedream. Chapter 173: Scouting the Facility Chapter 173: Scouting the Facility The next day, I returned to theb once again. I briefly swept my eyes across the fenced-off test subjects, but couldn¡¯t spot Polina, the woman who I had messagedst night. I didn¡¯t mind, as I had other avenues to contact her and I¡¯d rather not raise any suspicions. The senior researcher made a short announcement on the results from yesterday and what we would be working on today before we disbanded into our usual teams. It seemed the neural link function proved to be effective enough to be added, but the other areas of the bio-coprocessor needed more work. We would be focusing on these otherponents first, but we had to ensure any changes werepatible with the neural link. Just from the tests yesterday, four percent of the subjects had died. The makeshift prototype we put together was prone to being overloaded, so we needed toe up with a different architecture to handle the load. For today, we would be once again brainstorming ideas forponents that wouldplement the new neural link. The head researcher was kind enough to give us each a report that outlined the issues that had arisen from the tests yesterday. The prototype bio-coprocessor we had overloaded too easily due to all the input it had with the thoughts a person had. Combined with its normal functions of elevating the reaction speed of the brain, it made it overheat, burning the victim in the process. Ourb would have an open line with the material science department toe up with solutions. Problems like these usually weren¡¯t solved by material alone and had to be paired with an equally brilliant architecture. We were allowed to fabricate our own prototypes and run some tests using the simtion software they had. The best contenders would then move on to live testing after some time. I suspected we would have at least a week before that happened since the material science department would likely need more time. I mindlessly aplished our tasks throughout the workday and was once again escorted out by Commander Poltrix himself.I let out an exaggerated yawn as we made our way back to my room. ¡°Thanks for walking me again,mander. d we could be such great friends. Good night.¡± He wordlessly turned around and made himself scarce while I went into my room. Once inside, I dove headfirst into my bed as I mentally dove into the terminal within me. *Polina, how did it go with getting your people united and finding a pilot?* *...I¡¯m still working on it. It¡¯s not easy to discreetly make contact with everyone.* *Very well¡­You should still have some time while they are working on a new prototype. There shouldn¡¯t be any tests within the next few days.* *I¡¯ll try to hurry it up¡­Those sick fucks are going to get us killed if we continue with their experiments. The people who had lost family in thatst test are not¡­taking it well. I¡¯d rather not see it happen anymore.* *I¡¯ll start formting a n, too.* After some more back and forths with my co-conspirator, I went to take a shower and prepared myself for bed. I walked over to the door and made of show of pretending to check if it was locked and ¡®identally¡¯ hit the button to open it instead. With controls of the cameras, I quickly swapped with a holograph projection of myself while the real me exited. I had previously ventured out to Ceres Station, so I had some basic idea of how to sneak out, but if I wanted to get a hundred people out, the requirements werepletely different. In the first ce, I needed to secure a vessel or multiple of them that could hold that many people. We would preferably have onerge ship, as we weren¡¯t even sure if we had a pilot yet. Still, I needed to ensure the logistics of getting so many people to the hangar were in order. That was why I began exploring this facility. I needed to know the ins and outs of the security team here to aplish my goals. I may have ess to themon area security cameras, but it wasn¡¯t enough. I needed to be more proactive rather than reactive to their movements. I started off by searching for the security room. If I got lucky and was able to sneak in, I would be able to gain full ess to this facility. Despite the ess I got from thework, I only had partial ess to everything. They had cleverly segregated the security controls, which meant I had no ess to their defensive emcements and the encryptedms channel their security personnel use. Those controls were all under Commander Poltrix. Not even Dr. Chen, the head researcher, was likely to have those. If only the ess I got from theb¡¯s terminal gave me theyout of this ce or something¡­ Forced to scout things out the manual way, I began deploying my new Nyes. During my trip to Ceres Station, I was able to buy some parts from the leftover credits I had. It allowed me to feed enough materials to the repurposed nanomachines I had within me to replicate Nyes. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. After losing ess to them, it made me appreciate its ability to scout things out for me even more. I wasn¡¯t a cyborg superman or anything, so it would be fatal for me to get caught off guard. I briefly explored the immediate vicinity of my room before moving on after finding nothing of use. After finding the stairway up to the floor where my usualb was, I veered off in the directions I had yet to explore. Unsurprisingly, I found fortified entrances that were almost identical to the one myb had. Seeing how I worked inb three, it was within reason there was at least ab one and two. I skipped out on going inside, as the security at the entrance wasn¡¯t something I could easily bypass. They had two sets of doors to go through, and I suspected they had weight sensors in the airlock portion of it. Moving along, I soon passed by a patrol of two power armors marching along. I smiled when I remembered one of my older infiltration missions back in the day and moved to replicate what I had done previously. I closely tailed the patrol while maintaining my active camouge. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t go as well as I had thought as they continued into a room with nothing interesting in it. It was a break room where they plugged in a cable into a smallpartment of their power armor as if they were refueling an old car. I guess even with a mini nuclear reactor; they needed to refill other supplies like water and remove the waste umted inside. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to operate in it all day nonstop. My Shade was close to its limits, so I had to break off and hide somewhere to allow it to rest. By the time it recovered, the patrol was nowhere in sight. My scans with my Argus couldn¡¯t detect too far as the materials in this facility blocked all signals. I nced around at the unfamiliar area I was led to and began my scouting mission once more. I didn¡¯t even make it five steps when I noticed someone heading my way, and I quickly approached them. What I found wasn¡¯t the patrol I had been hoping to see, but a tall researcher instead. He was alone and pushing a long metal cart. Curious, I decided to follow him as well. He didn¡¯t go far as he soon stopped before a heavily reinforced door that looked like it could withstand arge explosion. He swiped his handheld terminal on the side of it and it swiftly opened. I followed him inside to find an entire vault filled with cybeics arms. He didn¡¯t hesitate to enter some information into the terminals before one of the lockers popped open and he began to transfer the contents of his cart over. I only took a moment to watch him stow away some prototype cyberarms before I sprang into action. I had found one of their vaults for theirtest cybeics. As Nova Tech was one of the premier corporations dealing in cybeics arm recements, I didn¡¯t hesitate to window shop around. I spotted another terminal simr to the one the researcher was using and plugged into it. The cyber security wasn¡¯t that impressive, to say the least, but I understood why they would ck off on it. The system was isted and only personnel who had passed through the strenuous security checks of the base would be able to get here. I quickly breached into the system and downloaded the files before I skimmed it. I didn¡¯t have enough time to go through the details, but it wasn¡¯t hard to see which ones had the higher performances. While I would like to design my own, nothing said I couldn¡¯t take inspiration from others or even use their products as a stopgap solution. I nced over to find the researcher still busy unloading the cart and I decided to examine a real sample. I then ordered the terminal to unlock the cab to the cyberarm that I believed to be the most high-end model here that was reserved for internal use. I partially disassembled it to inspect its interior. While I downloaded the schematics, sometimes being able to see the real thing helped. I then returned everything to normal before rejoining the researcher on his way out of the vault. When I have the timeter, I should upgrade. It¡¯s long overdue, and I¡¯ve been getting looks from the other corpos as they were tantly metallic prosthetics. I needed to install ayer of fake skin over to blend in better. I went off on my own again to allow my Shade to rest before resuming my exploration. I ended up finding a dead end after passing by anotherb entrance and was forced to double back. I then ventured toward the area closer to the hangars, but before I made it halfway there, I spotted a familiar figure. A young woman casually sauntered through the hallways by herself. I immediately recognized Raven, the woman who had interrogated me. Repeating my n, I tallied after her this time and was led to another part of the facility unknown to me. To my surprise, an imposing power armor was waiting for her at her destination. The helmet of the power armor was opaque, so I couldn¡¯t see the face of its user, but I didn¡¯t fail to recognize Commander Poltrix, who had escorted me every day. The power armor he wore was of the same model as the rest, but it had these small modifications I could spot on the exterior ting. Plus, the shoulder had a unique insignia that likely denoted his rank. ¡°Go on it. I already entered my codes,¡± a deep nasally voice resonated from the speakers of the power armor. I made a split-second decision and followed Raven inside to find arge terminal that stood alone in the room. She quickly interfaced with it, and soon a video call was established on the big screen above. ¡°Henry, Sir. Nothing abnormally has happened, and the captive is behaving normally,¡± Raven reported while saluting to the screen. ¡°Good, good. There are finally some new questions I wanted you to ask him. Please prepare to receive the files I¡¯m sending you.¡± Raven took a brief moment to download and skim over the file. ¡°Received! Thank you, Sir.¡± ¡°One more thing. Be prepared to move the captive. It may or may not happen, but I want you to be prepared. Is that understood?¡± ¡°What? Should I be expecting hostiles, sir?¡± ¡°Those aren¡¯t answers I can give you. Just carry out your role.¡± ¡°...Understood!¡± The two then went on to discuss the details of how I should be transported in the event this Henry gives the orders and I heard everyst bit of it. If they are preparing to move me, does that mean my guardian angel is back? Otherwise, something must¡¯ve happened that is getting Nova Tech on guard¡­ With that food for thought, I exited the room with Raven. I found Commander Poltrix standing there, waiting for Raven. They exchanged a few words before they parted in different directions. I can think about thatter. Now is the time to follow after my prime target, Commander Poltrix. If anyone will lead me to the most secure areas, it¡¯d be him! Chapter 174: Setting the Stage Chapter 174: Setting the Stage Having parted with Raven, Commander Poltrix didn¡¯t dawdle and walked at a brisk pace. Therge figure in power armor noisily walked past a patrol without stopping. The patrols had to quickly move out of the way and salute the man, not daring to move until their superior was a distance away. I continued following him through the snaked corridors of the facility. His fast pace actually worked out better for me, as my Shade was on a time limit. We soon descended some stairs and arrived before another fortified entrance that appeared more like a vault door. It was identical to the ones thebs used, so I believed there would be yet another door like that behind it, forming an airlock. That was why I stopped pursuing him. The security to enter theb included weight sensors, and I couldn¡¯t afford to be trapped in there if I got discovered. I didn¡¯t even dare to slip a Nye on him for fear of the sensors. Instead, I ced a Nye to monitor the situation just outside and retreated to let my cybeics rest. With that set, I began exploring the facility again. I had my SAID confirm theyout I got from theb¡¯s terminal, searching for any discrepancies. Then I returned to my room when it was almost morning. I took a nap to refresh myself and got prepared for another day at theb. Meanwhile, I made sure to monitor the Nyes I had left outside the door themander had led me to. My next n required learning who went in and out of there and their schedule. Like that, a week quickly passed.I continued to work on the bio-coprocessor project and while I did that, I asionally messaged Polina about her status. She had been slowly getting to know the other captives and gaining their trust. She had even found an old veteran who had flown attack helicopters before in some old war. We weren¡¯t sure if he would be able to fly a spaceship, but he was the best option we¡¯ve got so far. However, the most important results throughout this week were from my Nyes lying in wait. While I had to go visit daily to refresh their batteries, my effort had paid off, and I now had aplete schedule of who went to and fro from the alleged security room. With that information, I nned to infiltrate into that room tonight. Repeating the same steps I have been using to sneak out into the facility. I swiftly arrived at the fortified doors in question. This time, I wouldn¡¯t be going in with active camouge enabled, but instead, projecting an image of someone else. I had fretted over whom to disguise myself as over the past week. There were quite a few security officers to choose from, but they all had a huge drawback. If I were to rece them, I would have to incapacitate them somehow. I couldn¡¯t risk anyone spotting two of the same person at the same time. There was also a possibility of picking a time when I knew they would be out of the way, but that was risky as well. Even if I did aplish it, recing someone had a huge weakness. If anyone who knew the person asked questions, they could likely tell something was off. I didn¡¯t think sneaking in after their shifts would work either, as they would be questioned by their peers. That meant there was really only one or two choices. I needed to disguise myself as someone no one would dare to question, which meant the people in charge. I would either take on the guise of Commander Poltrix or Dr. Chen. I quickly chose themander as he was the more intimidating of the two and it would be more natural for him to be there. The head researcher would rarely visit such a ce unless there was a reason. I rushed to the security room after work, as I nned to take advantage of the time when themander was apanying Raven. Raven would contact her superior using the terminal in thisms room every day, and it was guaranteed themander would be there. Once my Shade was adequately rested, I quickly projected the image of a power armor around myself as I began wrapping pieces of junk metal around me to weigh me down. It was easy enough to procure by skimming it off the empty rooms. Combined with themander escorting me every day, I easily got a detailed scan and its weight profile. I strode to the front of the huge vault door and waited for it to open. Thankfully, it did. I tried to imitate themander¡¯s confident posture and walked into the airlock. Then I stood still like I did every day when entering theboratory. Gases sprayed into my chamber as various active scans were swept over me. I knew my stealth tech would hold it to it, so I stood there with confidence, just like Commander Poltrix. ¡°Commander Poltrix, I thought you were in thems room.¡± It was during these times that I was happy I had the foresight to install my auditory imnt, the SocialCorp Echo IV. With ample samples of themander¡¯s voice from your daily ¡®conversations¡¯, I replicated his voice with ease. Still, I had to keep it short. ¡°Mind your own business,¡± my voice spoke out in a deep and robotic tone. ¡°...¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Before I knew it, the second vault door opened, allowing me inside. Instantly, I found myself in a dim room that had dozens and dozens of screens stered onto the walls. They depicted various scenes from the exterior of the facility, looking out into space, to the variousbs and residences. There were half a dozen peopleying on a neural interface chair, hooked up to the terminals, likely cyber security experts on standby. Behind them, a dozen other officers were each at their own desk, going through huge walls of text. Several of them turned their heads to take a look at me, but they quickly looked away when they recognized me. I spotted arge half-circle desk near the center and moved quickly toward it. However, just as I was halfway there, I noticed one of the screens in the room was showing a sliver of the real Commander Poltrix¡¯s shoulder from the security cameras. It made me panic for a second, but thankfully, there were simply too many screens for anyone to have noticed yet. Plus, I doubted they could recognize it from just the shoulder at a nce. That was unless he walked fully into the frame. Still, I quickened my pace and moved toward the desk that I presumed was reversed for me. I let out a sigh of relief at seeing the namete on the desk, seeing it belonged to themander, and swiftly hopped onto the terminal. One minute passed as I tried to breach into themander¡¯s terminal. I would asionally steal nces around the room to see if anyone had noticed any discrepancy, but thankfully, they didn¡¯t. Three minutes passed before I got ess to the terminal and I quickly erged several other camera feeds to cover up the screens. ¡°Commander?¡± one of the nearby security officers asked with an uneasy voice. I was just about to respond when I remembered how themander always used to respond to me. I turned my head toward the speaker and red him down. ¡°Problem?¡± I blurted out after seeing the man break eye contact. ¡°...No, Sir.¡± Even with the camera feed covered up, I knew it still wasn¡¯t entirely safe, and I had limited time. I quickly scanned the room and recorded it while I downloaded everything I could from the terminal. Their system was air-gapped, so this was my only chance. It also let me know that they didn¡¯t have direct control of the cameras either, as their systems only receive the feed in one direction from the other system I had ess to. This meant that when it was time for me to take action, I could tamper with the cameras if I didn¡¯t mind them finding outter. However, I couldn¡¯t ce a backdoor program to automatically disable their turrets and ess the st doors for the same reason. I was only able to leave myself a backdoor ess to make it easier next time, but I would still have to return to in person sabotage them. If only I knew exactly when we would carry out the escape n, then I wouldn¡¯t have toe back again. But if I use this option, I might not be able to do it again when the timees that my guardian angeles to rescue me¡­
Thorne - Halls Corporation A few days after Thorne and Lana¡¯s meeting with the Grindhouse Rebels, they received a report. One of their couriers had dropped by this morning and handed off a data chip to Thorne. Throughout this time, their group had been scouring the streets for information. Of course, they weren¡¯t tantly asking about the movements of a corporation¡¯s key figure. They simply gathered any type of information they could. They were in unfamiliar territory, and every bit of information could prove to be a boon in the future. Their biggest harvest was the information regarding the various factions at y on Ganymede Station, both among corporations and themon folks. ¡°Peng is hungry. Is it lunchtime yet?¡± No one in the room answered Peng, not even his childhood friend, Andrew. The tension covering the room was so thick that one could slice through it with a knife. That was because everyone was waiting impatiently for Lana to analyze the data on the chip they received. She was going through it at zing speeds, and her allies gave up on watching her work, as they couldn¡¯t understand what was going on. They all gave up and sat on the nearby couch while they waited. The only noise in the room was from Peng¡¯s mumblings and the ckly noises from Lana typing on her keyboard. After a whole hour, Lana finally stopped typing, and silence consumed the room. Itsted a split second as Thorne instantly stood up. ¡°So? What did they give us?¡± ¡°A lot of unusable nonsense, to be honest. There was a whole file on the movement of Titus Adiar¡¯s wife and children. None of that is usable unless we want to get him really mad quickly.¡± ¡°What? So they were useless, after all?¡± ¡°Calm down. I said a lot of it, not all of it. These rebels or whatever they¡¯re called may not have sifted through the info, but they do have a good quantity of it. They got the record of every restaurant Titus has visited throughout this past year and a half. Despite this ce mainly catering to the average workers, it doesn¡¯t change the fact that there are several corpopounds around. There are some high-ss restaurants around and I think I have a pretty good idea which one he will visit tomorrow.¡± ¡°...Will it even work if we just grabbed a table near to them or something?¡± Andrew asked. ¡°Not a chance,¡± Lana decisively answered. ¡°Their security will probably check the entire building and go through the guest lists. Plus, they¡¯ll also be in their own private room.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine. We don¡¯t have to talk to them in person right away. It¡¯s enough to leave them a message,¡± Thorne interjected. ¡°What do you mean? You want us to ce a terminal under their table that will ring when they sit down or something? This isn¡¯t the movies, you know? No way their security will miss a suspicious terminal lying around.¡± ¡°Come on Lana, what do you think ourpany specializes in? We¡¯ll just have to leave a message they won¡¯t be able to discover.¡± ¡°...¡± A few hourster, the team headed out around the time most people would be heading to bed. They didn¡¯t even bother using a car to avoid being tracked down. Their entire squad consisted of people in power armor, so they had ample leeway to utilize both their active camouge and holograph disguises to navigate through the city. Their destination was in an eye-catching area, inside one of the walled-off corporatepounds. However, the difference was that this particrpound wasn¡¯t entirely closed off. It was owned by a corporation entrenched in the retail and hospitality sector, which meant that built a small mall within theirpound that was open to others. Of course, only the wealthy were let it, but it didn¡¯t change the fact it was opened to the public. Numerous other corpos would visit during their leisure time. This mall had everything except hotels, as the owner didn¡¯t find it worth investing in such a low-traffic destination. Just as the malls closed down for the night, three figures slipped through the shadows and made their way inside. Unbeknownst to the owners, the stage was set. Chapter 175: Contact Chapter 175: Contact Titus Adiar - AeroDynamic ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re too busy to join me tonight?¡± Titus spoke into the terminal attached to his wrist. ¡°Yes. Enjoy with Polly without me. I¡¯d rather tough it out another night than get chewed out by you and the other shareholders if I don¡¯t deal with this properly.¡± ¡°Haha, the woes of a CEO never cease. If you think like that, you won¡¯t have a chance to do anything but work!¡± ¡°...Talk to you tomorrow. Good night Titus.¡± Ending the call, Titus nced back over at the golf course before him. Within the steel walls of hispound, he had a specialized golf course made. It employed advanced modr tforms that could form any desired terrain. If he felt like it, he could change the settings and the entire course would transform at hismand. He could erect mountains or fillkes. Almost any terrain suitable for golf was possible. For now, he was satisfied with the current settings and walked over to take a swing. He ensured any cybeics or tech on him that may assist him was turned off before he took the shot.Like that, Titus yed to his heart¡¯s content until he received a call from someone on his priority list. ¡°My love, I was just about toe pick you up.¡± ¡°Oh, Titus, are you really going to try that on me? You¡¯d think to learn that it doesn¡¯t work on your wife even after four decades.¡± ¡°Haha. Alright, Alright. I¡¯m on my way.¡± Titus swiftly left the course, leaving the bots to clean up after him. He briskly walked outside where a small convoy of VTOLs was awaiting him. Several guards in power armor patrolled the area and one of them respectfully guided Titus to a luxuriously decorated airframe. When the door opened, the face of a middle-ageddy popped out and Titus couldn¡¯t help but smile upon seeing his beloved. ¡°My dear, I always fall in love with you again every time I see you.¡± ¡°Oh, hurry up and get in, old man. I¡¯d rather not bete.¡± Listening to his wife, Titus quickly boarded the aircraft, and they were soon on their way out of thepound. Outside, another dozen ground vehicles could be seen guarding their flight path from any potential nefarious parties. As a founder of AeroDynamic, Titus preferred to believe in the sound design of his products for his safety, but his security team had other thoughts. It was much safer to have the ground route secured first to prevent any sudden ambushes. Like this, Titus¡¯ movement easily caused a hugemotion and traffic jams within Ganymede station. However, no one dared to speak out or do anything about it. This was simply how life was when a corporate bigshot from one of the major corporations went out. Titus¡¯s convoy of VTOLs soon arrived andnded on the roof of their destination building. Following their escorts, they finally arrived at one of their usual haunts. The restaurant manager greeted them with a smile and personally guided them to their private room. No other patrons were allowed to sit anywhere near the path Titus and his wife took, so they managed to reach their room without being exposed to any prying eyes. As they arrived at the private room, their bodyguards quickly inspected the room and dispersed around the perimeter without a word. They knew their patron didn¡¯t like to be bothered, so they swiftly made themselves scarce. ¡°We¡¯ll have the usual,¡± Titus turned to the manager and ordered as they entered the room. ¡°Of course, they¡¯ll be here within a minute. Let me get madam¡¯s favorite White Peony tea ready while we wait.¡± The manager left the room, and Titus wrapped a hand around his wife. ¡°My dear, how about we go to Europa Station tomorrow to do some shopping together?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you schedule a golf match with Albert from Amazing Corp? We can go the day after tomorrow.¡± ¡°I¡­Thank you, Polly. I don¡¯t want to imagine how disorganized I would be without you.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just you cking off ever since you retired,¡± his wife quipped. ¡°I¡ª¡± Before Titus could respond, his advanced warning system of his SAID warned him ofrge amounts of heat detected nearby. He quickly shielded his wife and nced over in the indicated direction. He found iting from one of the empty chairs beside them. A tiny stream of molten particles was sent flying from a tiny section of the chair. It was as if a mosquito was doing some welding. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The sparks ceased quickly and were reced by a holographic projection. The figure of a slim cyborg man came into view. ¡°Hi Titus, I¡¯ll make it short. My name is Thorne, from the Halls Corporation. I want to tell you we are ready. When the time hase, please allow us to join your team. We are irreceable assets that havemunication lines with your target. Please contact us using the details below.¡± A text box quickly materialized with the contact information. Despite Thorne not having mentioned any specifics, Titus knew exactly what he was referring to. That didn¡¯t stop him from being rmed that someone had been able to sneak something right next to him. He frowned when he thought of the possibility of it being a bomb instead. The projection swiftly disappeared, and the tiny objects that had projected it burned up and disintegrated. Titus didn¡¯t waste any time and called in his head of security. Unfortunately for that man, he would be receiving a long lecture today. Titus was not happy with him. He had reassured his boss that it wouldn¡¯t have been possible for any explosives or poisons to reach him, but then this happened.
¡°Today, we will be debugging the prototype assigned to us, as best we can. We only have a day until we¡¯ll be testing them out on our subjects, so make it quick,¡± Cora dered to her fellow researchers. I contained myself at having heard the news. I knew it wasing, but it was another thing to get confirmation only a day before the next round of human experiments. We didn¡¯t have enough time to put together a thorough n yet. If these tests go as nned, we may lose someone vital for our n, so I had to do something. ¡°Actually, I have a rmendation that I would like the Senior Researcher to consider. Should I submit it through thepany portal or speak with you directly?¡± ¡°...If you want Dr. Gab¡¯s attention, then let¡¯s hear it. I doubt they would notice your suggestions on the app. I¡¯ll talk to them directly if I think it is feasible.¡± ¡°Sure. So I went over the electrical circuitsst night and I believe there is a new architecture we can use to lessen the rapid buildup of heat within the bio-coprocessor. However, I fear the feedback from the bio-coprocessor taking damage would be¡­messy. Do you think you can propose to test on mutants instead first? I¡¯d rather not waste subjects or scare them so much that they¡¯d stop cooperating.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­Send me the details. I do see merit in using cheaper alternatives like mutants, but will the data from using them really be relevant?¡± Cora asked as she skimmed through the file I had sent her. ¡°Yes, I just need to test it out in practice. I¡¯m confident I¡¯ll be able to tune it so it is ready for human subjects.¡± ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll see what Dr. Gab says. We should have a few mutants in containment, so it shouldn¡¯t be an issue if your proposal is epted.¡± The day passed quickly as I tried to consider how to proceed in the event my proposal was rejected. There were a lot of holes to fill up in our n, but thankfully my worries were needless. Before the next day arrived, while I was on my way out of theb, I was informed that my proposal was epted. Dr. Gab even asked me to stay behind to fabricate the prototype models using my new architecture. While I had to work overtime, I was happy things went my way. The next day, I arrived at our team¡¯s spacious cubicle testing room and was greeted with the sight of mutants crammed into a cage. They looked like scorpions, except much more deadly with six stingers. Our assistant soon set up the instation process and at theirmand, the door to the cage opened. Just as one of them exited out of the cage, a shimmering energy shield appeared and blocked any other scorpions from escaping. As for the one who escaped, the nearby bots shot it full of tranquilizers. This allowed us to begin installing the bio-coprocessor into the mutant¡¯s nervous system. Apparently, the neural link worked just as fine with its nervous system as it would with the human brain. Once everything was set, we soon began our first round of tests. I had written the program for controlling this new architecture, so I naturally added all the functions I needed to put on a show. It was a nice feeling seeing the other researcher find nothing amiss when examining my work. The test consisted of having two scorpions, react to the same scenarios produced by holographic projections. One of them would have our new prototype installed, and one would be an unaltered mutant forparison. While everyone in myb carefully watched the mutant lunge at the projection of a human, I kept a close watch on how the other tests went. Several other testing rooms were working in tandem with different prototypes. In order to dy them from human testing, I had to put on a show that made them feel we were making rapid progress. And how better to do it than to start from the very bottom? Thirty minutes after the start of tests, I activated my hidden backdoor code to overload the new prototypes. Immediately, the mutant thrashed in pain before it suddenly exploded into goo and pieces. Hmm? I didn¡¯t get any experience points? ¡°Hmm, so it does violently explode when we overload the heat sink too rapidly. We¡¯ll have to fine-tune how the energy is distributed, but I think it¡¯ll decrease how hot the cybeic runs by several degrees when we get it right!¡± Cora gave me a silent nce at my exnation and returned her gaze back to the screens. We had bots going to dissect the aftermath and gather additional intel. Elsewhere on the other testing grounds, simr screens were taking ce. Seeing everything was going as nned, I rxed and began pondering why I hadn¡¯t gotten any experience points earlier. I had inputted themand to overload the bio-coprocessor, and usually, that would mean I would be credited with the kill. As I subconsciously frowned, Cora¡¯s voice resounded. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± ¡°...Oh no. I was just wondering¡­Do we have any other types of mutants to test on? Maybe one that has brain matter simr to ours?¡± Cora ruefully shook her head. ¡°No, they¡¯ll have to order some and then set up a new cloning line for it, so I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be anytime soon. It¡¯s not easy cloning these monsters.¡± What? Clones? Is that maybe why I didn¡¯t get any experience points¡­? So clones don¡¯t work, huh¡­ As we conversed, the first day of testing soon concluded, and wepiled our reports. Before I left, the Senior Researcher, Dr. Gab, and a few other researchers once again pulled me aside to talk. After rifying some points to them and setting our direction, they finally let me go. We all left with satisfied expressions. Now I just had to feed them the correct ¡®improvements¡¯ and it should keep them busy for a few days¡­Still, the schedule is looking tight. That was why that night I snuck out on the next ship to Ceres Station. It was time I kept my allies in the loop of my ns. Chapter 176: Escape Plans Chapter 176: Escape ns Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°That was a risky trick you pulled on me, but now you have my attention. Go ahead and speak, thismunication line is secure,¡± Titus¡¯ voice authoritatively rang out from the projection that shared his semnce. ¡°Apologies, but I couldn¡¯t think of any other way to get a message through to you.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve been informed to keep quiet during this time. Get straight to the point. What did you mean by being in contact with our target?¡± ¡°You should have done a thorough investigation on him, correct? His captors hadn¡¯t done theirs or didn¡¯t bother tomunicate details down the chain ofmand. He¡¯s moving unrestrained under their eyes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to say you have brought this information to the wrong person. I don¡¯t make the decisions for this matter. You should obediently wait at home.¡± ¡°...You can at least ry this to the person in charge, right? Trust me, having us be there when you take action will be beneficial to all of us.¡± Titus¡¯ projection went silent for a long minute before he responded. ¡°...I will send a message when I can.¡±¡°Perfect, thank you! I¡¯ll¡ª¡± Just as Thorne was speaking, Lana loudly crashed into the room. She then grabbed him by the shoulders with a serious look in her eyes. ¡°Thorne, it¡¯s urgent!¡± Thorne took a moment to nce back between the neer and the projection. ¡°Forgive me, please give me just one moment.¡± He decisively muted the call. ¡°What is it? Make it quick!¡± ¡°Rollo just contacted us again. Says he¡¯s about to do something big, plotting an escape for a whole bunch of people and whatnot.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± Thorne couldn¡¯t help but raise his voice. He had been there when Rollo had carefully exined that he needed to stay in their captivity to protect thepany. Only when his mysterious return would he break out. ¡°What is he thinking?¡± ¡°He also says he¡¯ll only be facilitating the prison break. He¡¯ll be staying behind as nned.¡± ¡°That idiot! They¡¯re going to relocate him after this if they seed. Then the security around him may increase several folds as well. He¡¯s making it a lot harder for all of us.¡± The two spent a brief moment in silence before Thorne began to shake his head. ¡°Did he say when he¡¯s carrying out this escape?¡± ¡°...In three days. He asked us to help out the escapees if we can.¡± ¡°Does that mean it¡¯s toote for him to receive our message?¡± ¡°Most likely¡­He¡¯ll have to escape from his facility to make contact and I¡¯ll doubt he¡¯ll do so again, so close to their n.¡± ¡°Then it¡¯s out of our hands now. Let me finish this call first, and we¡¯ll discuss it further.¡± After seeing Lana out, Thorne quickly resumed the call. ¡°Sorry about that, but I have some new information you may be interested in.¡± ¡°Oh, please do tell,¡± the powerful owner of an A-ss corporation urged him to continue with a skeptical look. ¡°Rollo is taking action. He ns to break out some captives in his facility. Now, before you misunderstand, he won¡¯t be escaping. He ns on staying behind himself. If we wait any longer, we might not be able to stay in contact with him again if he gets relocated.¡± ¡°...¡±
After leaving another message to my allies about my uing ns, I returned to work the next day as usual. Today, we performed tests on mutants again. By feeding them incremental improvements, ourb was satisfied with keeping up the status quo for now. When I left at the end of the day, I stole a few nces at the test subjects being kept in the mainb area. I could see them grouped up together, with Polina at the center. When I returned to my room, I immediately messaged her. *How¡¯s it going? Does everyone know about their role in the n, yet?* *Yes¡­We are ready to take action two days from now.* With the stage set, two days passed by in the blink of an eye. However, things didn¡¯t go as nned. On the morning of the day we would carry out the escape, an unexpected announcement caught us off guard. ¡°We will be transitioning to experimenting with our human subjects today. That means we¡¯ve made adequate progress recently and the higher-ups are satisfied. Let¡¯s give ourselves a round of apuse,¡± Cora celebrated. I mechanically pped along with my peers as my mind raced to adjust our ns. Rx Rollo. You nned for the unexpected. No n survives contact with the enemy. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Let¡¯s get started, everyone! Time is money.¡± While we got to work, I risked discovery and beganpiling messages to Polina about how to proceed. They didn¡¯t have much time to alter course, so our current choice was between waiting until night as nned or taking action early. *...It¡¯s toote to escape now. They have us separated already,* Polina replied. *In that case¡­You¡¯ll all have to survive the day first.* I silently pray for their survival, especially their pilot. He was the only man who could fly them out of here, and losing him now would be fatal. Wait, no! Don¡¯t leave it up to fate. I can still intervene! Perhaps because my n didn¡¯t directly involve me, for a moment, I didn¡¯t consider taking some risks myself. That wasn¡¯t because of myck of confidence in the n. It¡¯s just that I nned to stay until my guardian angel was back. Before I knew it, several subjects were ushered into our room, and I grimaced when I didn¡¯t spot the pilot among them. This was going to be a lot harder since he was with the other teams. As the assistants prepped our new subjects for a round of tests, I walked over to my supervisor. ¡°Hey Cora, do you think I can go around the other teams to observe?¡± ¡°Hmm? What, why? We have a lot of our own tes.¡± I mentally braced myself as I took on a facade. ¡°That¡¯s because I¡¯m just too excited about finally moving on to the human testing. I feel my inspiration flowing, so I want to observe all the tests at once! Please, I want to view the results of my work in real-time.¡± ¡°...Let me ask Dr. Gab.¡± Whether it be because of my ster performance or due to the results I¡¯ve been showing recently, Dr. Gab soon agreed to my request. However, it earned a few begrudging stares from the assistant. The work I would be leaving behind would go to them, after all. I pretended not to have noticed their gaze and began finishing up at my workstation. Despite getting permission, it didn¡¯t mean I would be leaving right away. I had to y the part and observe the tests our team was taking care of first. After witnessing the cybeic instation process for the hundredth time, we swiftly moved on to testing the reaction time of the new bio-coprocessor. It was the exact same test we did with the mutants. I watched the first two test subjects before I moved on to the next room. I only needed to walk briefly to reach the adjacent testing room. It was identical room to our room, being the size of a football field, and the ceiling reaching over five stories high. My eyes naturally were drawn to the crucial difference between this room and my own, namely the pool they had installed in the corner. It was apparent they were responsible for testing the cybeic performance in aquatic environments. Nearby, numerous terminals were set up with a couple of dozen screens. I walked over to where a man stood idly, staring at the monitors. He had to be the man in charge, as I doubt the other assistants would dare to ck off. ¡°Hey, there. I¡¯m here to observe if you don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°...Orders are orders, and I¡¯ve received mine. You can watch all you want, but don¡¯t you dare interfere.¡± ¡°Of course, thanks umm¡­¡± ¡°Bradley. Junior Researcher Hugo Bradley.¡± ¡°Thanks, Bradley.¡± He then gave me the silent treatment as he continued to oversee his assistants¡¯ work. He asionally barked out a few orders. It was harder to make out the test subject¡¯s faces as they were in the pool, but I soon got a good look at them all. No luck. The pilot wasn¡¯t in this batch. I quietly watched the first tests they performed underwater before quickly excusing myself. The nextb had a lot more researchers than I was used to seeing. In turn, it also had thergest group of test subjects I¡¯ve seen yet. However, they weren¡¯t doing any physical tests. Instead, they were each seated at their own desk, as if this was a college examination. I wasn¡¯t far off the mark. They were taking tests on their terminals, where they reacted to various cues. It made sense that their cognitive functions would be tested too, as we were dealing with a brain chip here. Again, no luck. I moved on to the final room in my wing, hoping I wasn¡¯t toote. There were still another four rooms on the opposite wing, but I was keeping optimistic. The new room was set up with four square courts that were divided byting. There were firing rubber balls rapidly at the test subjects inside, from multiple angles. I assumed this tested their cognitive load, seeing how much they could handle. It was here that I finally found the man I was looking for. He was sitting off to the side, awaiting his turn. That fact made me grin, as that meant there was still time. While the improvements I made to the co-processor should¡¯ve made it a lot safer, it was hard to say as it pertained to the brain. Plus, the balls they were pelting them with didn¡¯t help. I¡¯d rather not have an injured pilot. I walked up to the researcher in charge and greeted them. This time, the man in charge was an old man. ¡°Hello, you may have heard. I¡¯m here to observe. I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡± ¡°Associate Researcher Randolph Perkins, at your service. Feel free to just call me Ran,¡± the old man kindly smiled. ¡°Ran¡­Do you mind if I talk with your test subjects? I want to gauge how they are before and after your load tests.¡± ¡°We are already doing that, but be my guest.¡± I nodded amiably to the old man and strode over to the pilot who I recalled was named Seth. If I was a little more naive, I would believe Randolph Perkins to be a kind old man. However, seeing the tests up close, I formed a different opinion. The test subjects weren¡¯t being pelted by rubbery balls akin to tennis balls, like I had thought. They were using balls that were as hard as baseballs. I couldn¡¯t help but deviate from my course to ask the nearby assistant. ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s okay to use such firm projectiles?¡± ¡°Hmm? Dr. Perkins says it¡¯s fine. We need to test how they perform when injured, anyway, or so he says.¡± I held my sigh in and resumed my course for the pilot, Seth. He didn¡¯t bother to meet my eye, staring only at the ground, mumbling to myself when I stood before him. I crouched down and discreetly plugged my terminal into his port. It was only then that he bothered to look up, but I was focused on my terminal. I was taking a detailed reading on his condition. I needed to observe if the instation process was done correctly, and if there were any adverse effects. I didn¡¯t bother asking him to give me ess to his SAID and breached it. It only took me a minute to go over everything. He was doing fine, and likely will too, without external factors. However, being pelted by solid balls would be one of those external factors. It could damage the chip and him in the process. There also hadn¡¯t been enough time for the cybeic to settle. That was why Imanded my nanomachines to go instead and began fidgeting with his new bio-coprocessor. My ten points in cybeic engineering gave me mastery over how well machinery melded with the human body. While I couldn¡¯t elerate healing, I could do a lot of things. It took several minutes before I was done. While I was in his system, I didn¡¯t forget to leave him a message, too. *I am Polina¡¯s ally. If you want to survive, drool.* I then stood up and moved to inspect the other subjects to put on a show. Thankfully, all the other researchers were too busy with preparing for the tests to pay me any mind. It wasn¡¯t long before I returned to Randolph. ¡°Ran, I found something concerning with subject number thirty-eight. It seems the instation process hadn¡¯t been carried out correctly. I took a look, and it seems not all neural connectors were installed or they had been entangled somehow.¡± The old man silently stared at me for several seconds before turning over to one of his assistants. ¡°Keh, you go do a thorough scan of that subject in question.¡± Chapter 177: Subject Escape Chapter 177: Subject Escape The only pilot among the test subjects was quickly brought over for a detailed scan. As I nned, the results turned up with several subtle issues. It was just major enough to taint the data we would collect if they proceeded to use him in the tests. My ploy of sabotaging it using my nanomachines had paid off. ¡°Ran, I think this test subject should sit out for today. We¡¯ll need to reinstall the bio-coprocessor correctly in him before he can participate in any tests.¡± The old man nodded with an amiable smile. His tense expression from earlier, when I brought my suspicions to him, hadpletely vanished. The contrast made him an unpleasant person to be around. After ensuring they did pull the pilot aside, I swiftly took my leave. No need to draw attention. I had been staying a short time throughout every test group, so I shouldn¡¯t change that up. I swiftly went over to thest few groups on the other wing of theb. My objective wasplete, but I knew helping the pilot was all I could do. The rest were on their own. I could only wish them good luck. I had already put my neck out for them, and my power was limited. If I wasn¡¯t so confident I could hide my involvement, I would definitely hesitate to assist them at all. As I cut my way across the mainb, I made eye contact with the few remaining test subjects in their cage. It was easy to spot Polina as there were only a dozen of them left. There were backups, which meant they escaped the experiments for the day. I only briefly nced over before resuming my meddling with the other groups. Time swiftly passed by, and soon I returned to my own group. I hadn¡¯t witnessed any freak idents, but from the reports, there were still some casualties. This wasn¡¯t because there was a major w in the design I updated. It was because Nova Tech pressed them past their limit. In the name of limit testing, they didn¡¯t mind losing a few expendable subjects. On the walk back to my room, my heart couldn¡¯t help but beat rapidly. Commander Poltrix was right beside me, and I was going to pull a fast one on his base. There were so many ways things could end wrong, and that kept me on my toes. When I finally got into my room, I immediately pulled up the feed I had ess to. I had ess to both their systems inb three and the security control room. However, I couldn¡¯t go too far with my meddling, or they would know something was up. I needed to keep a low profile while helping the test subjects escape. My optics soon showed me the mainb room where Polina and the other subjects were held. They were huddled around a few people who appeared sick and unconscious. I knew it wasn¡¯t the best time, but I had to interrupt them. *Polina, it is almost time. Get everyone ready.* *Understood.* Even though she replied sinctly, I could see the struggle on her face as she got her allies ready to escape. They would have to abandon those who were unable to move. They simply didn¡¯t have the leeway to care for them. Polina¡¯s people were stronger than I had thought. They speedilyposed themselves and got into position. Our n was simple. They had mysteriously attained some tools. Enough to break out of their cage. They had three people familiar with cybersecurity, and I would assist them if they needed as they breached them past the various security. My role was to watch over the various cameras and feed them with information in real-time. I watched the time tick and sent out the message to begin the operation as soon as the clock hand hit seven-thirty. This was the time when the patrols changed shifts and most staff were busy eating dinner. Someone within the test subject¡¯s ranks took out a multi-tool and began cutting the cage made of steel wires. There were a few guards in theb, but they simply stood near the front. With over a hundred prisoners, they couldn¡¯t get a good view of all of them. They were sox because they had full faith in their security monitoring. However, little did they know I had ess to their systems. It was simple for me to manually point the cameras away, creating a blind spot. It wasn¡¯t long before a small group managed to break free from captivity, and they headed straight for one of the nearby terminals. Theb was filled with expensive equipment, and there were naturally numerous terminals. The cy-sec experts in the group swiftly got to work. The first thing they did was to gain control of theb¡¯s systems. With an insider like me here, I could guide them through the shortest path without doing anything on my end. It was like I had the answer sheet and I just had to read it out to them. Once they gained control, they put up fake camera feeds for the security control room. They then opened the door leading to the gate control room, which was just adjacent to the exit gate. It drew the attention of all the guards, allowing their detachment to strike. Without the same stealth abilities that I had, we knew from day one that they would have to get violent in their escape. If they couldn¡¯t sneak past them, they would have to eliminate them. As four of them took out the two guards, another three of them rushed into the room. They swiftly dispatched the guards on desk duty and gained control of the gates. From there, dozens of them streamed out of their cells and they began to organize themselves. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Some took up arms from the fallen guards, while others huddled together with their families. They wasted no time on idle chatter and opened up both airlock gates, creating a path to freedom for them. While almost a hundred people escaped, I kept a close watch on the patrols around the facility. *Polina, a two-man patrol in power armor is going to cross that junction in two minutes.* *Roger that.* I guided them up and down elevators, toward the hangar bay. Sometimes, they would all hide in a corridor until the patrols passed. Other times, they would have to double back and go around them. So far, everything has been going smoothly. Their security room was entirely unaware of their escape. Otherwise, their defensive systems would¡¯vee online. It was honestly so easy that it scared me. It was one thing for me to be able to sneak out; it was another for a hundred civilians to do so. My assistance with running sabotage with their defenses helped, but still¡­ I should design something to scramble enemymunications when I have the chance. Just bringing down their control center has crippled them so much, it really has opened my eyes to its power. Still, should it be this easy? There was nothing I could do despite my misgivings. I could only watch on as they continued their escape. They soon arrived just outside the hangar bay. This was near the end of the escape for them, but also the hardest part. The hangar naturally consistently had people in it. They performed maintenance inside or simply performed their duties to watch out for new arrivals. We had pulled out many hairs when we were nning what to do here. The guards were simply too well-armed here, and going quiet wasn¡¯t an option with so many people. In the end, we ended up with the most brute-force way we could think of. While the prisoners gathered on the periphery of the hangar, a small squad had split off while they rested. Following my map, they went straight for the nearest ordnance storage. The big spaceships they had required a lot of space to store their gunship-caliber rounds and missiles. The detachment force aimed for one of these storages. I watched as the half-a-dozen men breached into the room and began carrying a huge missile together. They walked briskly with the high explosives on their shoulder and headed back to theirpanions. Once they arrived, the group of subjects prepared to carry out their violent n. I watched with bated breath as one of them opened up the gates to the hangar. The moment it fully opened, the men carrying the missile charged straight at the control tower off to the side. They ran up the staircase as fast as they could. Tuning into the camera feed inside the control tower, I could see a pair of Nova Tech employees panicking. ¡°Quick, get the turrets to shoot them down!¡± ¡°Are you crazy? If we hit that missile, we¡¯d be dead too!¡± Their moments of indecision allowed the men to get right outside their door. They immediately ced it down and hit the button on its screen. The test subjects then sprinted back out from the way they came with all their might. It was then I had to intervene. The two security guards hadmanded the turrets to shoot them down, but I quickly canceled thosemands. They panicked, screaming at each other in bewilderment at the faultiness of their systems, and it was thest thing that crossed their minds. The missile exploded in a bombastic fashion, engulfing the entire corner of the hangar. Immediately, rms rang out throughout the base. People rushed into defensive positions, and the aircraft pilots rushed to their fighter jets and gunships. Unfortunately for them, despite going on high alert, it would take some time to reach their destinations. While the test subjects were already right there. Once the explosion subsided, they swiftly rushed into the designated ship that Polina had pointed out. Most of them rushed to board the ship, while several others performed the required inspections. They didn¡¯t only need to ensure that the spacecraft was flight-ready; they needed to ensure the energy shield to the hangar was still passable. Thankfully, the security guards on duty hadn¡¯t closed off the energy shields. Their consoles were broken now, and I doubt they could quickly regain control of it. This allowed the prisoners time to prepare their ship. I carefully scrolled through the camera feeds of the entire base and studied their reaction. It would be useful during my own escape, too. In a morbid way, these prisoners also served as a testbed for me. As I frantically scrolled through the feeds, in search of any threats, Polina¡¯s group finished their preparations. There was still nothing out of the ordinary in sight. It was both a good and bad feeling to it. Theirrge ship soon took off and passed through the energy shield. I would soon be out of range tomunicate with them, so I sent my final farewell message. *Take care, Polina. You guys still have to get back to Earth somehow before you can rx. If you¡¯re going to sell the ship for a safe passage like you n to, make sure it¡¯s to apany that rivals Nova Tech. Not one of their allies.* She didn¡¯t let me n that far ahead with her, citing it¡¯s their own business, but their future was still uncertain. *Thank you for everything. Let¡¯s meet again in Elevate City! I want you to meet my daughter too!* she replied. Our connection was soon lost as they got out of range. I switched over to the camera on the exterior of the facility and watched the figure of their ship grow smaller. I wished them good luck as I tossed and turned in bed. I would likely be interrogated again once this was over. There was a major security breach, and they would look over everything with a fineb. They may even relocate me, but that was fine. I could alwayse up with a way to get into contact with my allies again. As long as I didn¡¯t give them a reason to dissect me and remove my cybeics, I was confident. I had seen their security protocols. Even on another base, I doubt it would differ that much. Before I could deliberate further, something entered within sight of the camera feed in the corner of my vision. Four colossal spaceships suddenly came out of nowhere. No, they aren¡¯t moving at all¡­They must¡¯ve been cloaked in active camouge! The four ships headed straight for an interception course with Polina¡¯s spaceship. I didn¡¯t have to wonder what would happen next when one of the ships fired a missile. It sailed slowly through the expanse of space, but there was nothing anyone could do. The ship they took may have some defenses, but no skilled crew operated on it. With only dozens of seconds to react, it was toote. The missilended precisely on its engines, and I watched as their ship slowly lost eleration. ¡­Has my n doomed them all? Chapter 178: Cavalry Chapter 178: Cavalry Thorne - Halls Corporation ¡°ire, can you hear me?¡± Thorne shouted out to thems unit before him. The screen depicting his friend wasggy and only after a few seconds did she respond. ¡°...Yes! It¡¯s freezing up a lot, though!¡± ¡°Never mind that. I just wanted to contact you to let you know I¡¯ll be a little while longer. There are shows here I wanted to check out.¡± ¡°...Oh¡­Okay, then. See you soon.¡± The call soon ended after that. To any onlookers, it was just a harmless conversation, but Thorne had managed to convey the situation using previously agreed-on keywords. He turned his attention back to the bridge he was on. He was currently on a spaceship that was traversing the void. After having met with Titus, they originally nned to wait and see how Rollo¡¯s mysterious protector reacted. However, with the update that Rollo was taking action in a few days, Titus had sent a priority message.Surprisingly, the man answered. And from there, Thorne somehow ended up a destroyer. The ship had no markings that gave away its affiliation, and the crew were all reticent. They wordlessly allowed Thorne and hispanions on. Only the captain of the ship bothered to converse with them. ¡°Thank you for letting me use yourms, Captain Diaz.¡± Thorne nodded amiably to the middle-aged woman. ¡°No problem. If there¡¯s nothing else, you can sit in the corner there or return to your quarters.¡± ¡°Understood. We¡¯ll stay out of your hair.¡± Thorne decided to pick the former option and strapped his power armor onto the seat off to the side of the captain. He observed how the bridge crew of a dozen managed to coordinate a ship that wasrge enough to hold hundreds of people. He was warned it was going to be boring as it would take some time for their ship to get to their destination, but Thorne didn¡¯t think so. He believed that hispany would obtain simr assets in the near future. He would value this opportunity to learn about spaceships. We only have this one ship¡­If only Titus participated with his forces as well. Thorne still remembered when he confronted the AeroDynamic owner about participating. All he got in return was a brief lecture about how things were different in the upper echelon of corporations. He made excuses about how the enemy ounted for all of their rivals, and that his making a move would be meaningless. He justified it with spection of their enemies dispatching an equal force to keep him in check. That was because it was almost impossible to hide the movements of something as noticeable as warships. However, Rollo¡¯s protector had somehow retained some hidden trump cards for special circumstances. Thorne was d he was willing to utilize it for them. While Thorne was able to observe the surface level of the inner workings of the destroyer, a more knowledgeable person wouldn¡¯t have had the same worries. As a trump card belonging to someone who was estimated to be near the pinnacle of the corporate world, simr to SocialCorp, it wasn¡¯t surprising that it was a state-of-the-art warship. While it had taken more than a day for the ship to prepare, its speed was much faster than anythingmercially avable. Within the same day, they would already be arriving in the vicinity of Ceres Station. ¡°We will be arriving shortly, and I won¡¯t have time to talk to you anymore,¡± the captain suddenly said. ¡°Do you still insist on joining the boarding party?¡± ¡°Yes. Both mypanion and I will be tagging along. We¡¯ll be most useful with the search party heading to Rollo. We have power armors, so we shouldn¡¯t be a burden to your men.¡± ¡°...Understood. Then you¡¯ll want to head down to the main hangar.¡± After the captain reminded Thorne several times to listen to the toon leaders, Thorne escaped into the interior of the ship. He didn¡¯t forget to send a message to hispanions, alerting Andrew toe join him. He passed by numerous people who were in a rush. The atmosphere made it so that even the cold metal walls of the ship gave off an aura of urgency. It didn¡¯t take long to follow the line drawn by his optics to reach the hangar bay. It wasn¡¯trge, but it could still fit half a dozen fighter jets, and another half a dozen other small spacecraft. It was precisely one of these spacecraft that Thorne was being guided to. Before Thorne could greet the people standing in front of the shuttle, the one who seemed to be in charge spoke out first. ¡°And here¡¯s our guest. Be sure to check your fire when we get there.¡± ¡°A man. Do we really have to be on babysitting duty? Why is it only our team?¡± Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the vition. ¡°Stopining, soldier! There will also be one more guest, who will be wearing identical power armor. You¡¯ve got your orders. Carry them out.¡± ¡°Sir, yes, sir,¡± the teamzily shouted out. Every person in the squad waspletely covered in armor. They varied in loadout, with some wearing power armor while others wore a much lighter tactical suit. Just as the squad leader finished speaking to his squad, Andrew arrived, wearing the same Halls Corporation power armor. The squad leader then sent his men ahead onto the shuttle while he nced over at the two new arrivals. ¡°Names Loo, you¡¯ll be under mymand today. That means you¡¯ll have to listen to me if you want to tag along. Have I made myself clear?¡± Both Thorne and Andrew nodded, and the leader gestured for them to board the ship. ¡°I¡¯ll go over some things you¡¯ll need to know so you can at least tell allies from enemies while we¡¯re en route. Get strapped in first. We could be leaving any moment now.¡± The two did as instructed and got into the vehicle. Thankfully, the wait wasn¡¯t as suspenseful as they thought. There were monitors on the ship, linked to the sensor and optical feeds outside. There was nothing but empty space and asteroids around, but everyone tensely stared at the screen and the radar readings. The men sat there as squad leader Loo exined their doctrine for the uing battle. Their downtime was long and suspenseful, but they soon received a warning. Themunication officer opened up a channel for all relevant personnel and broadcasted thetest news. ¡°Ships detected up ahead. Making contact in one minute and thirty seconds. Heat signatures were detected in the area that are consistent with missiles. Prepare forbat. Raising to maximum readiness.¡± Thorne and Andrew exchanged a nce and remained in their seats and watched on, powerless to do anything else. They both thought they were experiencing the longest minute of their lives. Soon, their monitor showed a visual feed of the ships in question. There were five of them in total. Amercial shuttle, and four spacecraft that appeared no smaller than their own. The four guns were surrounding the shuttle, and it was clear they were preparing to board. Seeing the chaos, Thorne tried to contact Rollo, but to no avail. Instead, he could only listen to Loo update them on theirtestmands. ¡°Teams one through eight will be taking care of those frigates. We are on standby until further notice.¡± ¡°Their facility is right there. Weren¡¯t we going to be sent in?¡± Thorne asked. The squad leader looked over at him with a reprimanding gaze, but shook his head when he saw Thorne¡¯s expression. ¡°Our n didn¡¯t ount for four hostile warships right in front of us. We have to deal with those if we want to be doing anything.¡± Thorne was speechless, as he wasn¡¯t well-versed in spacebat, but he didn¡¯t have time to worry about it. That was because he received a new priority call. It was from the captain. ¡°Thorne, are you sure you can¡¯t contact our target right now? It¡¯d be useful to know his position before we go into this mess.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll try, but I think he should be at their facility still. He said he was only going to help others escape and stay back himself.¡± ¡°...I see, then we won¡¯t be holding back. We¡¯ll put a quick end to the enemy fleet.¡± Somehow, Thorne instantly knew their battle n did not ount for the civilians escaping on the ship. He wanted to say something to get them to help, but he couldn¡¯te up with a proper reason. It was at times like this that he missed Rollo even more. He wished he was like him, being able to press his will onto others with confidence. As Thorne fumbled his thoughts, the captain ended the call as she was busy with her duties. It was only after their destroyer had gotten close enough and prepared tounch an attack that the enemy fleet noticed their presence. The four ships were spread out, surrounding the civilian ship, so they werepletely unprepared to receive the neer. This allowed the technological superiority of Thorne¡¯s allies to stand in the spotlight. With the enemy not being able to utilize their numbers, Captain Diaz ordered her ship to focus fire on the closest enemy. Eight ship-grade railguns fired a few milliseconds apart, and a bright yellow beam sailed through the darkness of space. The targeted ship tried to steer out of the way but was too slow. All eight projectilesnded on target. However, it didn¡¯t do any physical damage. That was because a blue shimmering bubble surrounded the ship. It dimmed significantly after taking the hits, but it didn¡¯t change the fact that they were still unharmed. That was only until the next salvo came. With speed and precision, another eight roundsnded on the enemy ship again. Sensing their imminent defeat, the enemy ship desperately fired back as it tried to move into the cover of its allies. Missiles and railgun rounds sailed through incredible distances. Numerous turrets on the exterior of the ship fired nonstop to intercept enemy missiles. By the time Captain Diaz fired a fifth salvo, the enemy energy shield had been broken. It wasn¡¯t all good news, though. The three other ships managed to maneuver around to face their new foe. Captain Diaz read the predictable move and had already ordered her ship to kite around in a circle. Making sure her enemies wouldn¡¯t be able to utilize their numbers to concentrate fire on her lone ship. The ships began to tangle, going around in a semi-circle. Unbeknownst to Captain Diaz¡¯s foes, several stealth shuttles were floating around in between ships. With the three operable frigates chasing down the ship Thorne was aboard, they inevitably came closer to these shuttles. As soon as they entered the range, these vehicles powered up and charged straight at the enemy. At the same time, the captain finally ordered missiles to beunched. This made the enemy focus fire on them instead of their boarding spacecraft. Soon, Thorne was able to witness the carnage from the body cameras. Themandos quickly filed into the enemy spaceship. They ran with purpose, staying neatly in their formations. They only met resistance when they arrived at the more vital areas of a ship, like their reactors. This was when Thorne was able to see the minions of high-level corporations in action again. They moved at dizzying speeds that Thorne could barely keep up. They had so many technological gadgets to disrupt and counter enemies that it often descended into a melee or stalled gunfights. It truly reminded Thorne of the cyborgs for Ferrumus Corp and more. However, it didn¡¯t discourage Thorne or make him fearful. Instead, he was excited to join the fray. He believed he could still hold his own. But more than that, he was excited about his future self, who could reach a higher level along with his entirepany. The fighting was intense but short. The ships soon lost to the technologically superior party. Naturally, it meant it was soon Thorne¡¯s turn. Squad leader Loo abruptly shot up from his seat and nced at his men. ¡°It¡¯s go time, boys. We¡¯re moving in on the enemy facility. Stay sharp!¡± He directed thosest words at the two Halls Corporation employees. Chapter 179: Adapting to Circumstances Chapter 179: Adapting to Circumstances Did my n get Polina and all those other people killed? I knew one of the reasons I assisted them was to test out Nova Tech¡¯s security. Revealing their hidden fleet had satisfied that objective. Still, it left a bad aftertaste. The hidden fleet was likely there waiting to ambush my potential rescuers, so their revealing of themselves was another trump card off the table. Other corporations would catch wind of it and would take them into consideration whening up with a n. Strategically, I still won. However, it didn¡¯t make me happy. Just as I sorting out my feelings, the door to my room slid open. I turned to find the familiar power armor belonging to Commander Poltrix. He wasn¡¯t alone and was apanied by two other guards in slim tactical suits. Themander stepped in without warning and only stopped when he stood directly above me. ¡°Commander? What¡¯s up?¡± He didn¡¯t reply and maintained his re. After a few moments, he nodded toward his subordinates. Immediately, they split up and began ransacking my room, searching for something. There wasn¡¯t much, so they would soonplete their search. ¡°Commander, what are you guys looking for all of a sudden?¡± Iined.¡°Please cooperate. There¡¯s been a security incident, and we need to thoroughly search the premises.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± I knew themander was suspicious of me this entire time, and his reaction to this incident showed it. It was a dead giveaway when he personally escorted me every day. The two guards took several minutes, turning the entire room over before reporting to their superior. This caused themander to direct his attention back to me. ¡°Come with us. We¡¯re going somewhere safer.¡± I knew this may happen, but it was quite fast. They would naturally prioritize securing me after finding a security breach. However, I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d be able to find a ce to relocate me so soon. It wasn¡¯t easy to find another location that had the same level of security. After all, they had to keep me away from some major corporations. The best way to do that was through secrecy, so every time they moved me, more vulnerabilities popped up. ¡°Is it dangerous here?¡± I asked as I nced around nervously. ¡°Just follow me. We don¡¯t have time.¡± I was quickly escorted out of my room. I was familiar enough with theyout of the facility to soon figure out we were heading toward the main security room. However, before we made it halfway there, something unexpected came into view of the external cameras outside the base. The ship Polina and the other test subjects were on was surrounded and being boarded. With four warships around them, I thought their chances of escape were over. That was only until I saw several shes of light on the screen. The attacking ships had energy shields that withstood it, but it visibly dimmed. A brief moment after that, another volley came, then another one. They¡¯re being attacked by a third party? But who? A rival corp? Or is it my protector? Thest time I snuck out, they didn¡¯t say anything about recusing me any time soon¡­No, but I did tell them about this escape n, so did theye to reinforce me? I made sure to tell them that I¡¯d be staying captive, though¡­ I mindlessly continued walking as I processed the numerous possibilities in my mind. It onlysted until I bumped into the cold, hard metal in front of me. I looked up to find Commander Poltrix frozen as well. It was a given he had the highest clearance on this base. That meant whatever I was seeing, he could too. If he took this as a rescue attempt, did that mean he may finish me off to be safe? My ns are falling apart¡­ Just as the harrowing thought crossed my mind, I immediately acted. I executed the same program I had used to sneak away from my room. As I turned on my active camouge, a holographic projection reced me. I didn¡¯t have any nanomachines set up around here, though, so it would onlyst briefly while I was in range. That was why I didn¡¯t waste a second and immediately sprinted away. I had been exploring this facility, so I knew my way around. I quickly dashed toward the hangar. That was because I knew the moment I vanished, they would try to lockdown the facility. While I had backdoor ess, it may notst forever once they discovered me. They could manually reset everything, so I had to make use of my opportunity. I needed to get away from here. And fast. I barely made it halfway down the hallway before I heard Commander Poltrix¡¯s subordinates scream out in panic at my disappearance. I had just gotten out of range to keep up the holographic projection. ¡°He¡¯s gone!¡± ¡°What in the world?¡± I turned back in time to see themander doing a one-eighty at supersonic speed. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Deploy your active scans, you fools! And alert security to lock down this entire base!¡± I didn¡¯t bother staying to listen further as I raced toward the hangar. While running, I kept a close eye on their systems. It was time to make use of my ess. I watched as themand to close down the entire facility came in. st doors that were spaced every twenty feet wereing down in every corridor. Without their knowledge of me in their system, it was easy to alter theirmands. I disabled all the defenses on my way and opened up a path. It was time for me to take my leave from this base. It no longer mattered if they knew I had essed their systemter, as it was now or never. I could only gamble the invaders were my allies. Otherwise, I risk being executed. If it turned out to be some other party, then mypany would just have to handle the heat from Nova Tech. There wasn¡¯t much else I could do. I slipped into the hangar unhindered, making use of my head start. The ce was still a mess, with the control center demolished thanks to Polina¡¯s group, but the other vessels were unharmed. I found one of the smallest spacecraft and breached into it, but then faced my biggest challenge. I didn¡¯t know how to pilot the thing. Once I had ess, I began examining the code of its operating system. There must be something here. I just need to hurry. As I felt the pressure of the clock, an explosion suddenly rocked the facility, nearly throwing me to the ground. I directed my attention back to the cameras pointing outside and saw the lone ship cruising straight toward us. Behind it were the four warships idly drifting around. Ok¡­never mind. New n. Get in contact with them first to assess their intentions. As much as I wanted to think it was my alliesing, I couldn¡¯t be sure. I needed to make contact with them and consider my next steps from that. Otherwise, even if I could fly this ship, they may just shoot me down.
Thorne - Halls Corporation Thorne listened intently on hisms as various people celebrated their victory over the four frigates. While they may not have gained total control of them, it was undeniable that they were no longer a threat. With their boarding parties sessfully diminishing the four ships¡¯batworthiness, their main ship was now heading toward the suspected Nova Tech facility, which reassured all the men around him. They were currently already sailing through the harshness of space, discreetly sneaking up to the facility in question. They had nned to make use of themotion of the fighting to infiltrate, but the fighting ended much sooner than they had thought. It wasn¡¯t that the opposition was weak, but that they were caught with their pants down. The well-trained space marines easily overpowered the ships they boarded, or at least disabled them from functioning. This allowed their main ship to cruise on through. Thorne didn¡¯t bask in the relief of his fleet¡¯s victory and redirected his focus back on the screens. It showed the base getting closer and closer. ¡°Ready up, boys. Our new mission is to disable any defenses this base has so our finedy can safely approach,¡± the toon leader dered. After the infiltration team affirmed their newmands, they were soonunched out of the carrier they were in. They rode a pod that was shot straight at the base. However, as they got closer, the pod expelled gas to slow them down. It was able to perfectly stop right on the exterior of the facility. Next, the space marines got to work. Thorne watched them exit the pod with well-practiced movements, and one of them took out a small apple-shaped device. They ced it down against the exterior walls and activated it. It didn¡¯t take long for Thorne to recognize that it was a jammer of some sort before his allies started cutting a path into the base. With several hands working in unity, they soon cut their way into a maintenance shaft of some sort. Immediately, the people who were decked out in heavy power armor strode in first. The rest followed closely behind. They found that their connection with the outside world was cut off the moment they set foot inside, and Thorne was reminded of an old rival corporation he once infiltrated with Rollo. Nheless, the team was prepared, and they soon found their way into the facility proper. Despite their attempts at being discreet, it was inevitable that they were soon discovered by the sensors of the facility. They simply had too many people with heavy equipment, and the base had numerous active scanners. The team only found out they were detected when they noticed several patrols heading their way. These allies of ours¡­They don¡¯t have much in the way of stealth at all! A firefight quickly took ce as the two parties spotted each other. Heavy railgun fire filled in the gunmetal corridors of the base as the power armors fought. It was only during this firefight that Thorne got to appreciate how powerful his allies were. While they didn¡¯t have much in the way of stealth, their purebat power more than made up for it. His allies took cover behind the heavy power armors and immediately threw out grenades at their enemy. They weren¡¯t just any old grenades though, they were specially designed against power armor. Normally, one may think it would just be an EMP, but that was too predictable. Whoever equipped these people made use of oscition grenades, and they weren¡¯t the cheap kind. The sound waves these devices produced may not have much pure destructive power, but they were able to permeate through the solid defenses of the power armor, reaching the delicate internals. Various sensitive parts vital to the function of their enemies¡¯ power armor were swiftly destroyed and began to malfunction. The most important of them all being the energy shields. The Nova Tech security team¡¯s nightmare didn¡¯t end there. While they struggled with the sudden issues of their equipment, several other members of the infiltration team darted out towards them. They wore a much slimmer power armor and moved at lightning-fast speeds. Thorne knew he would have trouble keeping up with them, and was thankful they were on his side. These fast-moving infiltrators rapidly closed the distance and finished off their opponents with the bays of their weapons. From their disy, it was easy to conclude that even their bays were high-tech weapons that allowed them to pierce their enemy¡¯s power armor like butter. ¡°Let¡¯s go! Quickly find their defensive control room and disable all their armaments!¡± toon leader Loo shouted. He was just about to lead his team at the forefront when he was pulled back by Thorne. ¡°Wait, we should prioritize finding Rollo! What if they execute him now that they know we¡¯re here?¡± ¡°You told the captain that your man can survive fine by himself, so we took that into ount. We need to disable the defenses to allow more men toe join us in sweeping this ce!¡± ¡°...That¡¯s too risky!¡± The two stared at each other for a brief moment. They wanted to contact their superiors to clear up the dispute, but without the signal cut off, they both knew it would be difficult to convince the other party. Just as they both frowned at each other¡¯s stubbornness, theirms abruptly came back online. A momentter, they received new instructions from themand center. ¡°toon Leader Loo, you have new orders. Go extract the VIP immediately! He has holed up in theirms room. I am forwarding theyout of their facility now!¡± The two men exchanged nces and nodded to each other at the same time. Both of them knew exactly what they had to do. Chapter 180: Communication is Key Chapter 180: Communication is Key I safely arrived at thems center I had snuck into where my handler, Raven, asionally reported to her boss. This ce was as spartan as before, with only arge terminal at the center paired with an equallyrge screen. The security on this is not easy to get through¡­How did Raven do it again? I dug into my memory and remembered how Raven had always been apanied by Commander Poltrix whenever she was here. That must have meant that authorization was required from someone high up. I¡¯d rather not go against that man in his power armor while I am so unprepared¡­ I quickly scrolled through the camera feed to get an update on the movement around the base. The guards were running around and setting up checkpoints. All the researchers were either hunkered down in their rooms or in theb. It seemed the facility was under lockdown. Then the image of a familiar face appeared on the screen. It was Dr. Chen, the head researcher of this ce. I don¡¯t believe they would only give one person ess to thisms room. It would be too inflexible if thems could only be used by one person. With a new target in mind, I headed towardb number one. I took a moment to track down the position of the guards before I set off.Thankfully, they were mostly positioned to defend against external enemies right now. It seems themander had decided the people outside were a bigger threat than me right now. Or perhaps he thought it could serve as a two bird one stone move, by using perimeter defenses to fence me in, too. Regardless, it lessened the amount of patrols in the interior of the facility, which made it easier for me to move around. The only challenge was getting past the two vault doors to theb. However, I had already blown my cover. That meant I had no qualms about making use of all my tools, which included the ess I had to their systems. Having breached into the terminals from withinb three, it didn¡¯t take long for me to migrate the program over tob one. I sent an innocent research report to the head researcher under the name of Dr. Loo. The file was automatically epted, allowing my trojan horse entry. From there, all I had to do was take over Dr. Chen¡¯s profile and use it to override the main doors. Time was ticking, and distant fighting could be seen on the various security cameras around the ce. I could only catch glimpses of it, but it gave a good idea of how close the frontline was. I strode into the main area of theboratory and found it deserted. The facility was on lockdown, and they were all hiding in the smaller rooms. I jogged over to the Head Researcher¡¯s office and simply strode in. My active camouge was active, but it didn¡¯t stop the door from opening. From the onlooker¡¯s perspective, the door opened by itself. No, that wasn¡¯t urate. They were corpos and a well-informed one at that. Dr. Chen must know the telltale signs of corporate special ops teams. The old man instantly rose to his feet and whipped out a pistol from his desk. He didn¡¯t hesitate to unload his entire clip at the entrance. The pistol had a whitish rounded body and didn¡¯t fire normal rounds. I could quickly tell it was a railgun. It was simr to the Premier Arms Electra pistol I had previously owned. It was back on Earth with Thorne, and I missed it along with my Suri. The railgun rounds flew at a much higher velocity than the normal rounds. Thankfully, I reacted in time. I had been working on bio-coprocessors for some time now, so I had a greater understanding of how my own cybeic had saved me there. The speed of the projectile didn¡¯t matter as much when you paid attention to the opponent¡¯s trigger finger. I should definitely upgrade my own chip when I get the chance. After dropping to the ground to dodge out of the way, I took a moment to examine my target. I had underestimated him as I was pressed for time, but now I knew he wasn¡¯t just a scrawny researcher. He could at least shoot. I soon found out that was the extent of his abilities. I saw his fear grow as he realized his shots had hit nothing. He blinked rapidly before lunging at his desk for a fresh magazine. However, I acted. I pushed off the ground and sprinted toward him. Just as he was about to jam a new clip into his gun, I tackled him to the ground. He was an old man, after all. His strength was no match for my augmented limbs. I realized a second toote, and my hands crushed his brittle wrists. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhh! That hurts! God damn it! Stop, I¡¯ll talk.¡± He tried to roll around in pain, but I continued to pin him down. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. ¡°Can you hear me, damn it? I said I¡¯ll give up. I¡¯ll surrender and defect to your corporation or whatever. Just keep me alive and well!¡± It was apparent he didn¡¯t recognize me. I yed along with it and edited my voice using my vocal imnt. I selected a distorted voice. ¡°Tell me how to gain ess to yourms room. If you pull any bullshit stunts, don¡¯t think that¡¯ll be all the pain you¡¯ll be feeling.¡± ¡°Yes, yes. I understand. I¡¯ll send you the ess codes now.¡± ¡°...You better be thorough. I don¡¯t want to have toe back because it needs your biometrics or something.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I disabled those stupid features. I knew stuff like this could happen, and I¡¯d rather keep my eyes and limbs.¡± I remained still as I inwardly shook my head at the head researcher. His readiness to surrender and jump ship was somewhat surprising. I thought the corporation at this level had better reins over their employees. Well¡­they do have thousands of employees and they are locked up in a secure facility. It didn¡¯t take long before Dr. Chen sent me his codes. I tied him up and gagged him, then threw him in the washroom stall. It was only then he realized something was off, but he no longer had the capacity to struggle. Before I left him, I made sure to pick up his weapon and armed myself. I then swiftly raced back to thems room while the fighting was still ongoing. It was vital to get into contact with the other forces so I could gauge who they were. If they were friendly, I needed them to know where I was and how to identify me. I¡¯d rather not get identally gunned down. The gunfight wasn¡¯t just on my cameras now and could be heard in the distance. I wasted no time and dashed into thems room. Thankfully, the ess codes I got were legit. I gained ess to theirms terminal and began browsing its capabilities. There was no convenient dial button to call the iing warship outside, so I had to find their frequency or beam a public channel across to them. While I went through the terminal, I inadvertently found a special module within it. It was responsible for the site-wide jamming. That meant I now had ess to it as well and could disable it. Before I could deliberate further on if I should do it right away, the door behind me opened. I had been too absorbed in my work and realized toote. The neer in power armor suddenly charged in my direction at full speed. It was so fast that the asional scans on my Argus only picked it up when the door had already opened. This resulted in me activating my Shade a split second toote. I watched as Commander Poltrix¡¯s power armor stared directly at me in the corner of the room before I turned invisible. He didn¡¯t hesitate and brought up his weapon. I suddenly felt like I was a goalkeeper, defending a penalty kick. I had to select a direction to dodge, except I wanted to choose a different direction from what he picked. If I chose wrong, I¡¯d be screwed. Left? Right? Down? Or maybe even directly at him? No¡­ I trusted my gut and swiftly jumped up on top of the terminal. Then I went up further and climbed on the screens affixed to the walls. Thanks to my stealth skills, I managed to do it with minimal noise. Either way, any sound from my feet making contact with the metal terminal was immediately drowned out by the sound of gunfire. Themander swept his gun left and right, spraying around the entire room. I had the opportunity to fire off the railgun pistol in my hand at him, but I decided against it. I doubted it had enough power to punch through the energy shield of his power armor, and it would just give away my position. I didn¡¯t have ess to any EI rounds either to hack into his armor, so I could onlye up with other alternatives. From my tests, energy shield technology doesn¡¯t protect against low-velocity, high-mass attacks like from melee weapons. I had to close the range. Too bad I didn¡¯t have a vibro de of some sort¡­ Think Rollo, think. You had the chance to observe this power armor during your entire time here. There must be a weakness somewhere. I surveyed our surroundings, which were just a barren room with only arge terminal hooked up to the screen. There was no other obstacle around besides the cable leading into the walls behind me. Is my only choice to get away from him somehow? I might be able to escape during the chaos and also get the chance to examine who the attackers are anyway. My hopes were dashed when I watched a blue shimmer field be deployed around the figure by the entrance. It expanded beyond the surface area of the armor and covered the entire doorway. ¡°Surrender yourself, Rollo! You can¡¯t escape from here. My men areing now as we speak. It¡¯s only a matter of time before we get you. Now my boss wants you preferably alive for whatever reason, so let¡¯s not make this hard for yourself.¡± People never failed to call out to me when they knew I was around, but couldn¡¯t find me. It wasn¡¯t the first time this happened. That was why I prepared something so I could respond. I was tired of just having to keep my mouth shut, lest I give away my position. I deployed several Nyes around the room and used the speaker on them to carry my voice. ¡°Come on¡ª¡± Before I got more than two words out, Commander Poltrix held down the trigger while pointing in the direction of my Nye. His reaction time with all his chrome was seriously intimidating. It made me want to finish my set of cybeics as soon as possible to level the ying field. I waited for him to cease firing before making use of my Nye on the opposite side of the room. ¡°Come on now,mander. I thought your orders were to capture me alive. I thought we were friends too, so what¡¯s with all the hostility?¡± This time, he swung around toward the sound of my voice, but didn¡¯t shoot. He cautiously nced around. ¡°I said, preferred. Since you¡¯re in the middle of escaping amidst an attack, it wouldn¡¯t be strange for you to have died in the crossfire. If you want to me something, me yourself for getting on my nerves, you annoying little brat.¡± ¡°I had thought you liked me, too¡­ If you thought I was annoying, why didn¡¯t you tell me? I would¡¯ve corrected my behavior. Come on now,mander. Someone in your position should know thatmunication is key!¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯mmunicating to you right now that I want to kill you, aren¡¯t I?¡± Well, shit. He really wants to kill me¡­ Great, just great. I need to subdue him somehow, before more peoplee. There¡¯s no way I can handle more than one power armor right now. Again, I nced around the room as the sense of urgency within me welt up. I alternated between looking at my pistol, my opponent in power armor, and the lone terminal in the room. God damn it! Why can¡¯t they leave high-caliber weapons lying around everywhere? Chapter 181: Finding Weakness Chapter 181: Finding Weakness Time was ticking, and sooner orter, Commander Poltrix¡¯s reinforcement would arrive. I was already stumped on what to do against one power armor, so I¡¯d rather not have to deal with multiple. I had to act fast. I dredged up everyst detail I knew about their model of power armor, and several ideas came up. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have any of the tools and weapons required to carry out my n. All I had was one pistol. It may be railgun technology, but I doubted it could prate the armor even if I shot it from point-nk and bypassed its energy shield. I cautiously navigated around the room, toward the only thing in the room, the terminal. It was hooked up to the giant screen above it, so I would give my position away if I yed around with it. Thankfully, that wasn¡¯t my purpose. I went around behind it and inspected the hardware. The encased terminal the size of a cab was hooked up to the walls using several thick cables. With the jamming constantly online, it made sense they had to use a wired connection for thisms module. From what I learned, this terminal was connected to the jamming device as well. From my experience with jammers, I knew that it required a lot of energy. I began scanning each cable with my Argus. Found it! Now for the hard part¡­ After ensuring the cable was easily detachable, I maneuvered back to the front of the terminal. I didn¡¯t hesitate to start using the terminal, alerting my opponent.Commander Poltrix ruthlessly unleashed a torrent of bullets my way, but I had already ducked for cover. Still, this meant he had a good idea of where I was. This made him take action. He hit the door panel beside him and locked the doors shut. He then even employed a tiny meflower on his wrist to weld the door shut, locking us in. Once he was done, he resized his energy shield to cover only him. It wasn¡¯t something I should worry about, as I knew it didn¡¯t physically block my path. Energy shields didn¡¯t block things traveling at low velocity most of the time unless it was purposely used as a wall. They did this with the hangar entrance, but even then, they didn¡¯t keep it up for long. It was especially energy-intensive for it to block high-mass objects. In its normal mode, it would just alert the owner if something passed through it. I threw those idle thoughts away as I watched him charge toward me. It¡¯s now or never. I took the opportunity to take a few shots at him. Even if I had my active camouge still enabled, it definitely gave away my position. I was taking cover behind the terminal and themander rushed my position. I didn¡¯t even have the chance to take a breath, and the power was right before the terminal. It seems he decided to simply clear this entire area by physically bulldozing his way through. He knew I wasn¡¯t nearly as fast as him, and there was no point for him to randomly shoot around. It also had the added bonus of keeping damages to thems terminal to a minimum. It was exactly this thought process expected from a man of his position that I had gambled on. I had lunged out of the way, out into the open space adjacent to the terminal. If he had continued spraying and praying, I would be in a precarious spot. The man in power armor circled the terminal before standing still, ncing around. It wasn¡¯t hard to tell that he was trying to scan for me, but I knew it would do him no good. ¡°How¡¯d you manage to sneak in stealth tech good enough to evade my scans?¡± He waited a moment for my response but to no avail. ¡°Come on. I thought you liked to talk. So let¡¯s talk.¡± Confirming he was standing still, I closed the distance. I raced to position myself behind him and began looking over his power armor. He had customized his own suit quite a bit, but the base model was the same. It meant it must have the same ports I had once seen on the power armor his subordinates had been using. It was what allowed them to refill water and remove waste from the suit, so I doubted this feature would be removed. Knowing where to look, it didn¡¯t take long for me to find the small gaps in the armor that covered the ports. I could only trust in my cyberarms and mped down on my targets. In my right hand, I had ripped out the power cable from the terminal. In my left hand, I had ripped open the piece of armor covering the ports. I had to perform this in one smooth motion lest I allow him to react. That was why I didn¡¯t hesitate to jam the live power cable straight down into one of the ports I uncovered. No matter how well-designed it was, I doubted the designer ounted for damageing from within. While I did so, I watched carefully for any reaction from themander. I wasn¡¯t sure this would work. My heart lurched when I noticed the power armor turning my way. I instantly jumped back to gain some distance toe up with another n. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. However, I noticed the power armor was turning painfully slow. Previously, I had trouble keeping up with its speed, but now I could even catch sight of the details on it as it moved. It clumsily tumbled forward afterpleting its turn, struggling to regain bnce. It was like watching a drunk man stumbling around. Soon it lurched over, crashing down on its back. ¡°What¡ª¡± themander¡¯s voice buzzed sporadically, as if thems channel was under heavy jamming. ¡°You¡ªwon¡¯t¡ªthis.¡± He was still alive, as seen from his persistent struggle even while on the floor. He reminded me of a flipped-over turtle. I had no time to bother with him any longer, as I could see his men closing in on the cameras. If I break out now, I might not make it. The sma torch on my cyberarms isn¡¯t that strong and my Shade is overheating¡­What should I do? No, I need to finish what I started first. It took me a split second to decide, and I went back to thems terminal. I quickly finished the job and found a frequency where I could contact the party attacking this facility. While I was waiting for the other party to ept the call, I could hear sounds on the other side of the door. Someone was trying to cut their way in, and I didn¡¯t think they were friendly.
Thorne - Halls Corporation The jamming throughout the Nova Tech base had suddenly stopped working. This meant the invading forces could nowmunicate with their superiors on the warship. Thanks to this, toon Leader Loo received new orders that resolved his dispute with Thorne. The assault team sped through the enemy facility, as they received a detailedyout of the base. Thorne followed closely behind, careful not to disrupt their existing teamwork, but it was apparent he was impatient. ¡°Can you guys hurry up and blow through this checkpoint already?¡± Thorne yelled over to his currentmanding officer. ¡°If you guys can¡¯t do it, let me take the lead. I¡¯ll have them dismantled in short order.¡± ¡°Ha, while I¡¯d like to see you try, I¡¯d advise against it. There¡¯s a reason for everything we do. yers at our level have many tricks up their sleeves, so we can¡¯t blindly charge in like you¡¯re used to. Just sit tight, kid. We got our orders, so we¡¯ll carry them out.¡± The two paused their conversation for a moment as an explosion rocked the corridor beside them. The assault team was currently exchanging fire with the enemy on the other side of the corridor. If this was the usual operation Thorne partook in, he would¡¯ve had the entire team throw in grenades and blitzed them by now. He could only grit his teeth at being treated like a rookie, but he couldn¡¯t refute their ims. It hadn¡¯t been long since Thorne had be a corpo. Theirpany was unmistakably a neer with a weak foundation. It would¡¯ve been too much to ask of him to be able to dominate the battlefield betweenrge corporations. Thorne examined hispany¡¯s power armor that his subordinate wore and let out a sigh. He didn¡¯t forget topile a list ofints for his friend. Once he rescued him, there was a lot they needed to do. They had started tussling with the big yers, and they had to gear up for it. ¡°No matter what Rollo says, I¡¯ll make sure he approves arger budget for the entire department and for a new cyborg body for me,¡± Thorne muttered. I can¡¯t just keep up. I need to excel! ¡°Yeah, good idea,¡± Andrew nodded in agreement. It took another half an hour for their team to push through several checkpoints between them and thems room. Just as they were only a corner away, the sound of heavy metal copsing rang out. It was apanied by tremors due to how heavy the object that fell was. When the assault team turned the corner, the mystery was revealed. They say a giant piece of metal, copsed on the ground. It used to be the door protecting the room. Before they could examine it further, gunshots rang out from within the room. The residents within had clearly noticed their arrival and fired the first shots. The railgun rounds were easily stopped by the energy shield belonging to the vanguards in their oversized power armors. Thorne once again watched the assault team take action. They repeated their strategy where therge units blocked enemy fire and pinned them down while the lightweight power armors harassed from a distance. The moment the enemy revealed an opening, the more agile units lunged forward. Their speed made them hard to keep track of, but their handiwork could easily be seen. They effortlessly cut into the gaps of the enemy power armor, stripping tes of armor off the enemy. Sometimes they would pierce deep into the enemy unit, bringing down their energy shield. Regardless of the results of their strike, they quickly back away, allowing their teammates to pelt the enemy with even more gunfire. Both outgunned and outnumbered, the two resisting power armors belonging to Nova Tech were soon felled. In the aftermath, Thorne could only see three power armors lying on the ground, but no sight of his friend. However, he knew what Rollo was capable of. ¡°Rollo? Are you in here?¡± toon Leader Loo quicklymanded his team to take up a defensive position. He then nced around the room and deployed scans of his own. ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯s in here. The enemy had already breached it, so he must¡¯ve relocated. The jamming is down, so try calling him.¡± Ignoring Loo, Thorne turned his helmet transparent to reveal his face and shouted out once more. ¡°Rollo! It¡¯s me. Come out already!¡± The toon leader shook his head and grabbed Thorne¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Look. I said he¡¯s not here. Get ready to move out al¡ª¡± ¡°Thorne? So this really is Mr. Mysterious¡¯ forces?¡± a voice resounded from above the assault team. Everyone instantly directed their attention upward, to where a giant monitor was. A momentter, a man materialized into existence, hanging off the top of it. He let out a sigh of relief before hopping down. Thorne immediately grinned, as it was impossible for him not to recognize his friend. He quickly pounced forward, bringing the man into a hug. ¡°Ouch, ouch. Control yourself already, you big oaf. You¡¯re crushing me! You¡¯re in power armor, for God¡¯s sake.¡± While the two men reunited, toon Leader Loo watched on with his mouth agape. He exchanged nces with his team to confirm the scene before them. Someone from some F-ss corporation had managed to fool their sensors and was hanging literally over them. He couldn¡¯t help but let out a cold sweat as he imagined how things could¡¯ve gone wrong if the other party had been hostile. Still, his professionalism prevented him from asking any irrelevant questions in the midst of the battlefield. He quickly opened up hisms channel to his superiors. ¡°VIP found. The target is in our custody. En route to the extraction point, please guide us. Over.¡± Chapter 182: Snatch and Go Chapter 182: Snatch and Go His voice drew my attention and reminded me of the question I had been wondering ever since I saw their huge spaceship.¡°Men, get ready to move out in one minute,¡± toon Leader Loo shouted out. ¡°Thorne, who are these people?¡± ¡°You know more than me,¡± he shrugged. ¡°They should belong to exactly who you are thinking of, or at least rted.¡± ¡°...How in the world did you get mixed up with them?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a long story. To summarize, that Titus guy from AeroDynamic brought us together. Anyway, are you okay? They didn¡¯t do anything to you, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. In fact, I learned a lot while I was here.¡± ¡°...About what? Being a captive?¡± Before I could borate, the toon leader strolled over. ¡°Save the talking forter. We¡¯re heading out. Are you good to move on your own?¡±I took a moment to examine his power armor before replying. It was thicker than Nova Tech¡¯s default model, but moved a lot smoother. Nova Tech¡¯s power armors moved like they were stomping around, while the one before wasn¡¯t clunky at all. The entire thing seemed way better put together, without any obvious gaps. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± ¡°Good, we¡¯re heading out!¡± He turned to one of his men. ¡°Have squad two start clearing the path ahead!¡± He gave Thorne a meaningful look before heading outside thems room. I exchanged a quick nce with my friend before he gestured me to go first. ¡°After you.¡± ¡°Wait¡­Let me do something real quick first.¡± Now that there were no imminent reinforcements snooping around or about to show up, I had the leeway to finish what I started. I walked over to the motionless power armor by thems terminal. ¡°You got a vibrode I could use?¡± I said to the cyborg beside me. ¡°...Here.¡± After receiving abat knife simr to my old one, I stabbed out at the joints of the power armor. The energy shield was useless when I was so close, but the armor surprisingly held together. I guess regr vibro des aren¡¯t going to cut it¡­ The sharp edge wasn¡¯t working, so I employed brute force instead. I thrusted the knife with both hands, empowered by the strength of my entire body, and most importantly, my two cyberarms. This time, it slid in slightly into the gaps, and I only had to hammer it down. It took two tries, but I eventually breached the armor around the neck. +30 EXP There were many reasons why I decided to finish off Commander Poltrix. It wasn¡¯t just because I wanted the experience points. With my escape, it would leave behind several people who had close contact with me. I¡¯d be surprised if they didn¡¯t interrogate them once this incident was over, and I¡¯d rather not have them reveal anything. This was especially true for Poltrix as we had fought. He knew my capabilities, so he was a huge security threat. The man himself was quite the specimen¡­but it definitely wasn¡¯t personal. With the deedplete, I stood up and handed the knife back to Thorne. ¡°Keep it. I use this anyway,¡± his wrist de extended out, following his words. With that settled, I followed him out of the room along with the other soldiers that my guardian angel had sent. If he¡¯s taking action directly, does this mean I¡¯ll be meeting him after this? It¡¯ll be nice to finally get a name instead of just referring to him as my guardian all the time. It makes it sound like I¡¯m a minor who needs babysitting or something¡­ As we made our way through the silver corridors of the facility, I witnessed the aftermath of the fighting. Holes were blown open, bodiesid around every so often, and the smell of fighting was in the air. Our journey was smooth¡ªat least for the first few minutes before we were ordered to halt. The advance team had encountered resistance, and I was told to stay back. Iplied, as I knew I wasn¡¯t equipped to fight right now. I wasn¡¯t the most useful on an open battlefield without power armor. I had no delusions about the facts. Even if I did have my gear, our equipment was severely outmatched against entities at their level. It was better for me to sit back and observe. I believed it wouldn¡¯t be long until we reached simr heights, so this experience would prepare us for when the time came. Thorne was doing the same, silently sitting back along with me. I had thought he would want to charge in as well, but I guess this experience had tempered him somewhat as well. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°How wide do you think the gap is between us and them?¡± I whispered over to Thorne. ¡°...Tech-wise, a lot. However, skill-wise, even more so. It¡¯s like they¡¯re all veterans with decades of experience.¡± ¡°Well, they do seem to have decades to build up their foundation. I doubt any of the big corporations got to their position overnight.¡± I also believed that the huge difference in skill was likely due to the use of various training implements like the hypnopedia devices. I had yet to create one forbat skills yet, but I could see the potential of it in training our personnel. It was something to discusster on when we got back to Elevate City. Right now, I¡¯d rather not leak anything, even to our allies. Gunshots rang out, and the fighting seemed to intensify all at once before it became silent again. Then the bearer of bad news came. ¡°Turn back! They copsed the path. We have to hurry before they do the same to the other corridors!¡± ¡°Head to the new point I highlighted on the map. We¡¯ll blow a hole and make our own path,¡± toon Leader Loo dered. I was d he was cautious, despite having the advantage so far. Ipletely agreed with him that eliminating any chances of getting ambushed was the best move here. There was no time for further discussion as I followed everyone jogging back down the way we came. I knew ying defense was easier, but I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d resort to destroying their own base too. As we ran, I moved myself over to the toon leader to voice my concerns. ¡°They seem to be buying time. Do you think they have reinforcements on the way?¡± ¡°Who knows, but we won¡¯t stay to find out.¡± Our party went around to another path, and this time we didn¡¯t stay back to wait for our vanguard to give the all-clear. Time was of the essence, and we sprinted toward the sound of fighting. Thankfully, by the time we arrived, the fight was over. I just made it in time to witness our allies gunning down thest enemy power armor at point nk. We didn¡¯t bother stopping and continued running. The base was asionally shaking, and with all the researchbs here, I didn¡¯t want to find out what other trump cards they may have in store. We soon made it toward the residential area for researchers and posted up against one of the hallways. ¡°Set the charges here. It should connect us to the other side,¡± the toon leadermanded. While they nted the explosives, I continued scanning around with my Argus. I found several of these rooms had upants in them. Even the one belonging to my former superior, Cora. Hmm, it makes sense they¡¯re hiding in their rooms. After all, they¡¯re used to doing what they¡¯re told. To be honest, I think they were simr to be in terms of being a captive. I doubt they had much freedom, considering the amount of sensitive knowledge they had ess to. ¡°...What are you nning, Rollo?¡± Thorne¡¯s voice woke me up from my musing. ¡°Hmm¡­I was wondering how much room our ride out of here has?¡± ¡°...Are you serious? You want to bring along others?¡± ¡°Well, the ship you guys saved was upied by all the test subjects I freed, so it¡¯d be great to bring them along. And if we¡¯re doing that, we might as well bring a few more. Think about it. We always had trouble recruiting apetent research team. I¡¯d rather not wait years for us to set up a school.¡± ¡°...Don¡¯t you have that training thing going on that ire had used to learn about cybeics?¡± He was talking about the cassettes. ¡°That can¡¯t rece real first-hand experience. It¡¯s still great to get someone up to speed, but research isn¡¯t that easy.¡± ¡°...Let me ask.¡± The toon leader seemed busy, but it Thorne was connected to theirms channel. He fell silent for a few moments before directing his gaze back to me. ¡°He says as long as they don¡¯t slow us down, he doesn¡¯t care. His priority will still be you.¡± ¡°Okay, then let¡¯s get to it, then. Better finish up before they finish blowing a hole through the walls.¡± I ignored Thorne, who was shaking his head, and went straight to Cora¡¯s room. Then I knocked. As expected, no one answered. I knocked two more times before I plugged into the door and unlocked it myself. When the door opened, I immediately saw a woman inside pointing a gun in my direction. However, it was apparent she was anxious, as she saw no one. I maneuvered myself beside her and pushed the gun down as I spoke. ¡°Calm down, Cora. I¡¯m not here to hurt you.¡± ¡°What the fuck do you want with me? I¡¯m just a grunt around here. Leave me alone!¡± She struggled to regain control of the firearm, which caused me to disarm her. It was only once her ability to cause harm was neutralized that I turned off my active camouge. ¡°Cora, look at me. It¡¯s me, Rollo.¡± ¡°Fucking get off me. I swear I¡¯ll¡ª...huh?¡± She looked even more bewildered upon recognizing me. ¡°What the fuck, Rollo? What is this? Shouldn¡¯t you be in your room? And you appeared out of nowhere and everything like some spec¡ªWait, are you a spy from some other corp?¡± ¡°Hmm, not exactly, but close enough.¡± Her eyes widened in terror. ¡°I didn¡¯t treat you that badly, right? Please, don¡¯t kill me. I¡¯ll tell you what you want.¡± ¡°No, no. I said I wasn¡¯t here to hurt you. I wasn¡¯t lying.¡± ¡°Then¡­why are you here? To poach me over to yourpany?¡± I didn¡¯t want to waste any more time exining, seeing as she arrived at a simr conclusion, so I nodded. ¡°What do you say? Want to jump ship?¡± ¡°...Do I have a choice?¡± ¡°Of course. Decline and I¡¯ll be on my way.¡± She stared me down, and I could see she had many things she wanted to say. After a moment, she nodded. ¡°Fine, fine. Once they made the connection that I was in charge of a rat, I wouldn¡¯t have much of a career left anyway. God damn it! I just got my promotion too. You better put in a good word with your employer for me, Rollo. I¡¯m tired of being at the bottom rung my entire life!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be satisfied. Come on. I¡¯ll have to restrain you for now, but I¡¯ll make sure we treat you right.¡± With that, I pped on the bracelets restraining devices onto her and exited out of the room. Thorne had been visiting other researchers, so I was d when I saw several other scientists beside him. They all had downcast expressions, though. It likely had something to do with the fact Thorne was carrying a person in each of his arms as if he were carrying two sacks of potatoes. I could only sigh at the disy and carry on, as we had no time to address anything. I left Cora with our allies and went off to recruit several more researchers before a loud boom signaled that time was up. A path had been blown open for us. From there, we met minimal resistance. We didn¡¯t make it to the hangar, but instead, to some escape pods. Anticlimactically, nothing went awry before weunched ourselves out into space, directly toward therge warship outside. Now I don¡¯t suppose my guardian angel will be there, but I hope they do have a line ofmunication with him. It¡¯s about time we had a talk. He owed me that much, at least. Chapter 183: All Aboard Chapter 183: All Aboard Our team split off into several escape pods and shot straight out of Nova Tech¡¯s facility. Each pod had almost a dozen of us when it was meant to only carry six. The trip was short, so it wasn¡¯t too bad, but it didn¡¯t change the fact of how cramped it was. Once we shot out from the Nova Tech facility, I faced the man currently in charge. ¡°Somander, do you¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s toon leader, or you can just call me Loo,¡± themander said. ¡°Okay, Loo. Do you think I¡¯ll be able to talk to your employer once we get back?¡± He gave me a look before shaking his head. ¡°Not my department. I don¡¯t know anything about that.¡± I continued asking tasteful questions to learn more about these so-called allies of mine, to no avail. Loo was tight-lipped and refused to answer anything unrted to his mission. The only time he spoke more than a few words was when I asked about his weapons. Even then, I could tell he held himself back. With the conversation providing no useful information, I turned to Thorne instead.¡°Did you hear anything from Titus or anyone else about what happens next? Since he acted, I assume he¡¯sing back to keep Nova Tech in check?¡± ¡°I think they mentioned something like that. I didn¡¯t bother asking too much as long as they were willing to dispatch people toe get you. Otherwise, your dumb n to help randomly help those test subjects would probably get you shipped off elsewhere.¡± ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be a big deal. I could always just sneak out again if they did. Those guys had some serious mimunication and didn¡¯t check for my cybeics at all. They thought their advanced scans were all they needed when dealing with an upstart street rat like me.¡± ¡°Yes, leave it up to chance when we were in the perfect position to meticulously n things out.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re right in that regard. I thought I had to act to help those people out and also force Nova Tech to show their hand. Even though I did get to see their trump card, which were warships. I had to sacrifice many lives of innocent people to do so.¡± Now that things had calmed down, it didn¡¯t escape from my mind that my n had likely gotten many people killed. Even though Thorne and his helpers came to the rescue, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising to have casualties just from the opening barrage those test subjects endured. Even now, they told me they were still fighting on their ships. It wasn¡¯t realistic to expect no casualties. As we made our way back onto their ship, I pondered the things that had happened. Ways I could improve my n, things I had missed. Reviewing and identifying causes and effects could help me in the future. Experiences were just as valuable, if not more sopared to the experience points my system provided. Like that, we soon reached their massive warship. The images of the ship outside made me feel like I was on a small rafting up to an aircraft carrier. Our escape pod still had enough fuel to maneuver around, so we did just that. Loo and his men urately put our escape pod¡¯s path right up to their hangar. It was just like the one on base, where we could peer into it. Only the shimmering blue field acted as a window between the interior and the vacuum of space. ¡°Command says our pods aren¡¯t allowed onboard. Get ready to dock with one of our transportsing out.¡± Despite their warning, I didn¡¯t have an extra spacesuit or something, so I could only nkly sit there. I enviously nced over at Thorne and Andrew, who both sported mypany¡¯s power armor. ¡°...Sir, did you want to use my power armor?¡± Andrew perceptively deciphered my gaze. ¡°It¡¯s fine. There¡¯s no room here for us to really change. Anyway, it¡¯s rare to see you away from Peng. Did Thorne here force the mission on you or something?¡± ¡°No sir,¡± he saluted while remaining seated. ¡°We couldn¡¯t bring too many people, and I thought he wouldn¡¯t be suited to this mission that required more finesse than usual.¡± ¡°I see. Well, thanks foring.¡± We couldn¡¯t converse further as Loo¡¯s men were moving around in the cramped space, preparing to transfer over to their ship. We watched on and stayed out of the way. Soon, the hatch opened, and after a short jump over; we boarded their shuttle. We were literally right next to their hangar, so we arrived in no time. I was a little caught off guard when the shift from microgravity to gravity didn¡¯t happen. I expected it to be the same as the hangar in Nova Tech¡¯s base, but it seemed I was expecting too much. It did seem wasteful to install artificial gravity generators on spaceships. I didn¡¯t even know how much those costs, so I couldn¡¯tin. Stolen novel; please report. So far, only the base and the Ceres Station had artificial gravity. The ships I had been on never did. As soon as we disembarked, a squad of security officers awaited us. Loo floated over and greeted theirmanding officer. ¡°Chief Officer Jones, we have sessfully carried out the mission with minimal losses. Requesting permission for the boys to take the day off.¡± ¡°Granted. You can hand in your report anytime before we arrive at Aegis. Good job, toon Leader. You and your men may take your leave. We¡¯ll take over from here.¡± Loo offered a salute and quickly left, leaving me and my employees alone with the chief officer. ¡°Rollo Halls, I presume?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Nice to meet you, Chief Officer Jones,¡± I offered a handshake, which he reciprocated. ¡°I am not your officer. You can just call me Jones. Anyway, the battle is still ongoing, so we¡¯ll have to keep this short. The captain wants to see you. Please follow me to the bridge.¡± He turned around without waiting for my response and we quickly found his guards surrounding us. We exited the hangar and followed the man down the long corridors. I couldn¡¯t say I was confident in my zero-g maneuvering skills, but I at least had some experience in it. Thankfully, the corridors had these handles that pulled you along, as if you were on a conveyor belt. We quickly floated across the hull. After passing by half a dozen security checkpoints, we finally made it to the bridge. It wasn¡¯t as spacious as I had thought. Only a dozen crew members were there, sitting on their terminals. These were the people controlling the ship. There was one chair facing away from me that was in an elevated position. It oversaw the rest of the people in the room, so it was easy to guess it was the captain¡¯s seat. My guess was verified when therge metal chair turned to us. A middle-aged woman with light-brown hair smiled kindly at us. Her gentle gesture failed to hide her aura of authority. ¡°It is good to see you unharmed, Rollo Halls. I am Captain Diaz. As much as I would like to chat with you, we¡¯re still in the middle ofbat. Our conversion will have to wait until we get out of this area. For now, please take a seat beside me. A certain personage may want to talk to you after this is over.¡± Right, my guardian angel. Let¡¯s hope he¡¯s nice. I nodded and moved over to the chair she gestured toward. It was below hers, and likely meant for the second-inmand. Thorne and Andrew took up position beside me, and we observed as the crew continued to bark out various reports. ¡°Team Theta is requesting med vac! They say the enemy are holing up in their bridge, and setting off hidden explosives everywhere.¡± ¡°Team Epsilon is requesting for reinforcements. The enemy boarding party is using the civilians as cover, and they don¡¯t have the numbers to overwhelm them without harming the nonbatants.¡± ¡°Heat signature from the enemy base remains consistent, but we¡¯re still within range of their guns. We will lose weapons lock in thirty seconds as we turn around.¡± ¡°Fire in ten! Destroy all enemy armaments!¡± the captain ordered. Watching this was fascinating. I didn¡¯t have a naval background and was aplete beginner. I had ambitions to expand out into space one day, and I would need ships of my own in order to do so. Otherwise, I¡¯d be tied down to Aegis. There were so many untapped resources out in space, and it would be foolish to ignore them. ¡°You learn anything from them?¡± I whispered over to Thorne. ¡°Yeah. I learned navalmand was not my thing.¡± ¡°...Well, it¡¯d be more surprising if it were.¡± ¡°What are you trying to say¡­¡± ¡°Nevermind. Let¡¯s¡ª¡± Before I could finish my sentence, an explosion suddenly rocked the ship. Both Thorne and Andrew went down on one knee despite being in their power armor. I was grateful I was seated, or I would¡¯ve been thrown against the hull. ¡°Report!¡± Captain Diaz shouted. Several seconds went by as her men scrambled around on their terminal to gather information. Then one of them responded with a shaky voice. ¡°Captain! Enemy boarders detected! They somehow managed to breach our hull and are currently running amok!¡± ¡°...Stealth ships. Have all security personnel on the ship mobilized and close off the relevant security doors. We¡¯re on security protocol Red.¡± An rm loudly rang out, following the captain¡¯s order. I began hearing the loud mechanical noise behind me, so I turned to see what it was. It turned out to be a set of giant metal bulkheads closing, isting the bridge from the rest of the ship. However, before it could fully close, another explosion rang out. This time, it was shockingly close. It happened just outside thoserge metal gates. Its effect was immediate. The bulkheads slowed before it came to a total halt. ¡°Crew! Battle stations!¡± I immediately exchanged nces with my employees. This wasn¡¯t good seeing the staff officers take up arms. Thankfully, we had extra escorts who were watching over me, so we at least had some capable allies on our side. Those reliable allies took the lead and rushed to set up a defensive position right at the half-closed bulkheads. I didn¡¯t dare to sit around nonchntly, and quickly positioned myself behind Thorne¡¯s power armor. ¡°You don¡¯t suppose Nova Tech has elite spec ops that are better than our allies, right?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I just know that our own special forces are already deployed on the various enemy ships. toon Leader Loo¡¯s team is the only other one remaining, but they¡¯re not here right now. Prepare yourself.¡± I let out a sigh at the thought of what was toe. A professional boarding party that managed to escape detection, going up against a bunch of staff officers that normally gave outmands. Even with how powerful my allies appeared to be, it was hard to have unwavering confidence in them. That was why I texted my employees to prepare to join the battle. Our only advantage was stealth, so we had to be prepared to make use of it. ¡°You don¡¯t suppose you brought my gear with you, did you?¡± ¡°No, you¡¯ll have to make do with what you have,¡± he replied. I could tell he was happy myck of equipment meant I would be forced to take a backseat here. He was right, but I refuse to be reactive. I wanted to be proactive in these situations. I quickly deployed my Nyes to get ahold of the situation. We first needed information before we could n. Our winning conditions heavily relied on enemyposition and our allies¡¯ position. If the ship¡¯s elite security teams were on their way, we only needed to hold them off. Otherwise, we¡¯d have to get creative¡­ Chapter 184: Uneasy Chapter 184: Uneasy Shooting rang out as our defenders tried to deter our assants from advancing on our position. I watched from the Nyes how both parties were blindly firing into the gaps in our bulkhead doors. It was only wide enough to fit two people side by side. A whole arsenal was soon exchanged, and not just bullets. Grenades of all types were employed, which came with varying effects. Both sides were equipped with energy shields, so the casualties were low. I was just about to offer my help by providing the feed to my Nyes when the fight took a turn. I watched as one of the bridge officers pulled up the video feed of our enemies just outside. They tried deploying the defensive turrets to no avail. Instead, they shared their feed with their men. Since mypany had the same capability, I was sure they had the same technology to link their visuals together. Whatever the camera saw, they would now see the same thing, even through the walls. With the enemy positions revealed, our allies proceeded to throw another round of grenades. They were stun grenades of some sort and were especially effective against those who had failed to take cover. Catching the moment when most of them were disoriented, several of our guards rushed outside with vibro des. They only received a few shots from the ones who weren¡¯t stunned before they dove into the enemy like a wolf into a flock of sheep. Just as the surviving enemy was recovering, reinforcements came from the other direction. Having them pinched in, they quickly made short work of them. ¡°I guess they have it under control,¡± I muttered. ¡°Yeah. As I said, we¡¯re severely out-geared against yers at this level,¡± Thorne replied. When the teams outside managed to clear away the threat, they finally fixed the issue andpletely closed our bulkhead doors. They then moved to clear the rest of the ship, but the crew went straight back to overseeing the entire battle.We silently took our seats next to the captain and were careful not to distract her. We could only get glimpses of what was happening from the main screen being projected. After a while, Captain Diaz finally turned to me. ¡°Mr. Halls, I believe you put in a request to take these former test subjects with us. Is that correct?¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am. There¡¯s no reason to let them go and allow Nova Tech to get their subjects back.¡± ¡°Very, well. I will have to ce them in the brig. I hope you understand.¡± ¡°...Of course. You¡¯re in charge.¡± I couldn¡¯t exactlyin about better treatment for Polina¡¯s group. Asrge as this ship was, I didn¡¯t even know if they had extra amodations for a hundred people. It was good enough for them to take them in. After all, they already suffered enough on my behalf. ¡°So I take it you guys have them secured? May I ask how many were rescued?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure yet. I¡¯ve received reports of the fighting dying down, but they haven¡¯tpletely secured that ship yet.¡±
Polina Burges - Former Test Subject ¡°Aaron, are you sure you can fly this thing?¡± Polina asked as she watched her pilot fumble about. ¡°We already are, aren¡¯t we? Quiet down and let me focus!¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s not reassuring when you have to refer to the manual every two seconds. We can¡¯t fail here only after having escaped from the corpos.¡± The spacecraft carrying almost a hundred civilians steadily distances itself from the Nova Tech base. Everyone on board was carefully paying attention to the exterior cameras. They waited for bated breaths, waiting for the moment the dreaded facility that had locked them up would disappear. As the ship was steering out of the asteroid belt, rms suddenly rang out in the cockpit. ¡°What is going on Aaron!? These ring rms can¡¯t be good!¡± Polina shouted out with wide eyes. ¡°Something is on course to collide with us, and it isn¡¯t small!¡± the pilot frantically nced around to make sense of the readings. ¡°They¡¯re missiles!¡± Aaron¡¯s warning hade toote. A momentter, their entire ship rattled at the impact of the missiles. ¡°What is going on?!¡± Polina yelled while holding onto the empty seat beside Aaron. ¡°We¡¯re hit! I¡¯m losing control!¡± The lights on their ship shed on and off as the power on the ship was disrupted. Within a few minutes, the main lights shut off. Then, the reserve power kicked in, and dull lights blinked on. ¡°God damn it, Aaron! Give us more warning. I almost hit my head.¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying! That thing came at us too fast!¡± Seeing this situation, Polina dragged herself out of the cockpit and into the halls to check on herpanions. She found many of them sprawled over on the ground. Many of them were injured. Theirck of protection from purpose-made spacesuits hade to be their undoing. With nothing to kill the impact, many unfortunate passengers had sustained wounds of varying levels. However, their trials had yet to end there. A momentter, Aaron¡¯s voice rang out from the inte. ¡°We¡¯ve got more things headed our way. They¡¯re not missiles, but they¡¯re a lot bigger. They should be boarding vessels! They¡¯re going to collide with us in thirty seconds!¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the vition. As foretold, another impact shook the ship as streams of hostile personnel flooded the ship. The upants of the ship were soon horrified upon witnessing the invaders. The injured civilians were quickly restrained. Any who showed the slightest sign of resisting were shot dead on the spot. No! It can¡¯t end like this. We were so close! As Polina was thrown onto the ground, a gun was pressed against the back of her head. Her assants didn¡¯t like how she didn¡¯tply with their demands to get down immediately. Polina prayed to whatever existence out there that could save her so she could reunite with her daughter. She was afraid of her daughter falling astray and she wouldn¡¯t be there to correct her. To her surprise, her prayers were answered. Before her attackers could pull the trigger, the ship violently shook once more. The invaders regained bnce, but after listening to some chatter on theirms, their demeanor drastically turned for the worse. ¡°All of you, stay still and don¡¯t move out of this room. If we see any of you walking around, we¡¯ll shoot!¡± The group of boarders quickly retreated outside the main lobby area, and into the narrow corridors of the ship. They began blockading rooms to fortify their position. This was because they knew of the iing enemies. They had no way to retreat, so their only chance was to either neutralize all threats or wait until their allies resolved their fighting. However, a few of them showed up again a few momentster and began dragging several people with them. Polina was one of them. ¡°What do you want with us? We surrendered already!¡± Polina cried, to no avail. She watched as they set up a defensive position in one of the quarters. One of the men was still holding her by the arm, with a gun pressed against her. Polina soon found out the reason for their presence. Gunshots rang out in the distance, and pandemonium descended on the ship. It didn¡¯t take long for Polina herself toy eyes on the neers. She had no idea who they were, and only that they were fighting with her captives. Her heart lurched again when her captors shoved her upfront like she was a shield. Before she could register what was happening, something was thrown into the room that emitted a high-pitched frequency, making her groan in pain. Struggling to lift her head, she managed to spot the leading enemy charging in and firing without hesitation. It¡¯s over¡­I¡¯m sorry Lanie. After a few moments, to her surprise, none of the bullets had hit her. Bodiesy all around her, and the neers closed the distance within a split second. They quickly inspected each downed body before even bothering to turn to her. ¡°Stay in this room and don¡¯t move.¡± Polina could only nkly nod at their instructions. The doors were closed once more, leaving her kneeling in a pool of blood and corpses. She began crying. Not even she knew the exact reason. It was partly because she was grateful for surviving the experience. Partly the shock of everything that went down. Or partly because she was reminiscing about her misfortunes. Either way, she let her tears fall as she vented her emotions with a hearty cry.
¡°Forty-five were recovered? That¡¯s not even half of them¡­¡± I muttered. Captain Diaz nodded solemnly at her words. ¡°That¡¯s right. Twenty-four died from the impacts of their ship being hit. They didn¡¯t have any suits to break the impact, so it was unavoidable. They have even more with various injuries. The rest, the enemy had gunned down.¡± ¡°...I see. At least we saved some of them. I am grateful. Please ry my thanks to your boarding team.¡± ¡°They are only doing their duty, but I¡¯ll let them know.¡± ¡°Then¡­will I be talking with your superior now that we¡¯re in the clear?¡± ¡°Not immediately. Our employer is aware of our status. They are the one who choose when to talk to us, not the other way around.¡± ¡°In that case, I¡¯m off to see the rescued test subjects.¡± Seeing the captain wordlessly nod, I exited from the bridge. Thorne and Andrew followed along, and we quickly navigated through the ship. Some remnants of the battle could still be seen as we traversed the hallway. With the ship pinging me the route I needed to reach my destination, we managed to arrive after a ten-minute trip. It was so fast thanks to the handles that ran along the hallways, pulling me along like moving walkways, At the entrance stood two armed guards, standing watch. They only spared us a nce as we approached. It was a given they were informed of our presence, so they didn¡¯t bother us as we passed through the doors. I instantly found myself face-to-face with rows of jail cells. Instead of metal bars, each cell had an energy shield enclosing it. It allowed me to see the person on the other end clearly. The lone guard inside came to greet me as we entered. ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve been told to amodate you.¡± I nodded to the guy before resuming my search for my partner in crime. They had put at least four people in the same cell to save space. At least they added an extra bunk bed from somewhere, giving each of them a ce to sleep. After scanning through a dozen cells, I finally spotted the face of the woman who had been my aplice. The guard guiding us seemed to take the hint and immediately disabled the energy shield of her cell. I awkwardly approached as I didn¡¯t know what expression to take on. I was d she was alive, but that wasn¡¯t true for many of herpanions. ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked upon seeing my approach. ¡°Hi, Polina. You haven¡¯t seen me before, but we¡¯ve talked for some time now.¡± ¡°You¡­you¡¯re the guy who¡¯s been talking to me through my SAID?!¡± I nodded. Her eyes went wide as she lunged at me. However, she didn¡¯t hit me. Instead, she pulled me into her embrace. I felt a little stupid for thinking I¡¯d get punched or something. I should¡¯ve known¡­.Thorne didn¡¯t even bat an eye at her sudden movements. ¡°Thank you. Thank you so much,¡± she leaked out between cries. ¡°No. I should be apologizing to you instead. It was my n that got half of you killed.¡± ¡°We knew the risks. If we remained in the facility, all of us would¡¯ve just died a slow, painful death instead.¡± ¡°But¡ª¡± ¡°It was our decision to go through with it. You don¡¯t get to take the me to make yourself feel better.¡± ¡°...We¡¯ll be dropping you off at Aegis. You¡¯ll have to find your own way back home.¡± Not even I could afford to pay the shuttle fee for all these people out of goodwill. It would affect ourpany¡¯s cash flow too much. They would either have to tap into their own savings or do odd jobs at Aegis to afford the shuttle back. I stayed and chatted with Polina some more, and exchanged contact details. Then I returned to the bridge after we¡¯d said everything we wanted to. ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want to recruit them or something? Isn¡¯t that what you usually do?¡± Thorne whispered as sat ourselves next to the captain. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good this time. We¡¯re expanding, but we have to be more picky with who we hire if we want to keep progressing up thedder quickly.¡± Before he could answer, the captain directed her attention toward us. ¡°Mr. Halls. My patron would like to speak with you now. Please head to the adjacent meeting room. And alone, please.¡± I took a deep breath at her words. It was finally time to talk with my guardian angel. I would be lying if I said I wasn¡¯t feeling uneasy right about now. Chapter 185: A Chat Chapter 185: A Chat One of the bridge officers guided me at Captain Diaz¡¯smand to the meeting room nearby. It was a cozy room that could fit a dozen people. At the center of the meeting table was a holographic projection of the miniature ship that replicated the one we were on. It was apparent the executives on the ship normally used this room to discuss important matters, but I had it all to myself now. The aide, who had guided me, swiftly departed after cing down a cup of water for me. I approached the seat at the head of the table and sat down. I examined the terminal that controlled the holographic projection, but it was password-protected. Breaching the terminal wasn¡¯t something I was dumb enough to do while on my ally¡¯s ship. I could only sit around and wait. With nothing to do, I nced around the room, noting where the cameras were hidden and any other defensive turrets that could pose a threat to me. I wasn¡¯t sure what to say to my guardian angel. He had been protecting me for a while, but I had no idea what his intentions were. If the discussions soured, I had to be on the lookout and prepared to escape. I¡¯m sure Thorne realized as well, so he should be sizing up the bridge as well. What could my guardian angel possibly want to talk about? He was fine with staying silent until now. I went over the scenarios where he would need to talk to me. He may just want to reprimand me for my bold moves. However, I didn¡¯t think he would be that emotional of a person. In that case, he may have some important news for me. Maybe inform me about the enemies that were after me. It was evident my protector was busy with his own matters, so this may be him telling me to watch my own back. There were many other reasons as well. In the first ce, I wasn¡¯t sure why he even protected me. The former Rollo was from an orphanage and should have no connection with anyone who was that important.Was I his long-lost bastard or something? If that is so, it would make sense why he¡¯s keeping his assistance so low-key. He may have his own family, and it would be awkward to take care of his illegitimate child. Still, I have no intention of recognizing anyone as my father. I won¡¯t recognize anyone in this world as my father. I wanted to take control of my own life. After some time of thinking through the different scenarios, I found the cup I was sipping on empty. I stood up and went to the beverage dispenser. I went over the options and, as I expected, there was no milkshake option. I settled for an old-fashioned coffee instead, partly because I believe my powerful allies should have ess to authentic coffee beans. My assumption was correct. I briefly took in the aroma and took a sip. In the middle of doing so, the room¡¯s lighting suddenly dimmed. Then a bright projection materialized on the center of the table, recing the previous image of the ship. The holographic image depicting the back of a figure could be seen. The person was controlling over a dozen robotic arms that helped him work on something in front of him. I couldn¡¯t get a good look as he was turned the other way. The scene reminded me of the cybeic clinic when I worked on a patient. ¡°So. We meet atst, Rollo Halls.¡± The man¡¯s deep voice rang out from every speaker in the room. ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s our first meeting. I believe thest time was in the wastnd. I still haven¡¯t said my thanks for that incident, so let me do it now. Thank you. You saved both my life and Thorne¡¯s.¡± ¡°How are you so sure it¡¯s me and not someone else, or even one of my agents?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­A gut feeling.¡± ¡°A gut feeling? Ha ha ha. I¡¯d expect a researcher to be more rational about it, but I guess you¡¯re not a purebred scientist in that sense. Well, you¡¯re right.¡± I thought back to my first counter with my mysterious savior. I was lying prone back then, waiting for him to pass by me before I ambushed him. He didn¡¯t fall for my tricks and came right up to me and spoke with a voice changer of some sort. Back then, all his tech seemed so mysterious, but I now knew he hadn¡¯t even revealed a fraction of his capabilities. He had told me to keep growing, and that we had simr goals. I didn¡¯t even know my goals for certain back then, so I thought he was just bullshitting. However, now that I knew he had such a powerful background, he should¡¯ve had every bit of information about me prior to our encounter. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising for him to know me better than I did. ¡°So¡­what did you want me to talk to be about? I assume you¡¯re not someone who has a lot of free time, so it must be important, right?¡± The man didn¡¯t respond. He simply continued controlling the dozens of robotics arms to work on his little project. He only did so for five minutes before he stopped, but it felt like an entire hour. ¡°I should have told you thest time we met. Our goals align. That is all.¡± ¡°...Really? Am I the only person in the entire world who has simr goals to yours or do you help everyone who shares these vague objectives of yours? Howe I don¡¯t know anything about these goals you speak of? In the first ce, I don¡¯t even know your name!¡± The man in the chair finally turned around at my question. Iid my eyes on his face for the first time and struggled to contain my gasp. I had wondered what my guardian angel was like for a long time, but it wasn¡¯t anything I¡¯d imagined. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. His entire face had wlessly smooth skin, but the area around his entire left eye was naked titanium. He looked like one of the most extreme cyborgs I¡¯d ever seen, not something I¡¯d expect from a top corpo at all. The left eye had a menacing red glint, making no attempts to appear like an organic eye like corpo culture dictates. Taking a closer look at the contours of his body, I had no doubt he had a full-body recement. He was a bona fide cyborg. He smirked upon seeing my reaction. ¡°Well, do forgive me. I¡¯d rather not give you a full introduction at this point in time. For now, you can call me¡­NPC. As for my goals, you should already know.¡± My eyes widened, having heard the name he gave me. NPC, what in the world? Does this have something to do with QGs being quest givers, or is it a coincidence? From what I¡¯ve seen, these game terms were quite retro, dating back to the era before the Great War. That was over five centuries ago. But some it was possible some of that culture resurfaced from finds in dungeons. That was the case with that SocialCorp executive who organized the volleyball tournament. ¡°...NPC, does that stand for something?¡± I asked, trying to fish for more information. He simply smiled and gave me a knowing look. ¡°I see that you have a hint of what it might mean. It was a fruitful meeting. Before I go, I do have to warn you once more. Something has happened recently that has drawn the attention of every top corporation in the world. It means I¡¯m upied with this new turn of events as well. I have taken care of the matter with Nova Tech, but not whoever was behind them.¡± ¡°Should I lie low for some time, then?¡± This time, he unexpectedly shook his head. ¡°No, I was able to allocate some resources back from the front lines. It should keep any corp around you from acting out, but the situation could change at any moment. I am warning you because I want you to elerate your growth. You need to be able to defend yourself sooner rather thanter.¡± ¡°...That¡¯s a vague request if I don¡¯t know who is after me. Is it one or a group of corporations?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say¡­ You should at least set up a base where no one can find you to weather any future storms. Maybe also a fleet to protect it in the case of an emergency and run logistics. You¡¯re good at being hidden, correct?¡± ¡°Right¡­but space isn¡¯t something I¡¯m familiar with. It¡¯d take some time.¡± ¡°Time is something we are all short on, but we don¡¯t know exactly how much we have left. You should try your best to hurry things along. That is all I have to say. I hope the next time we speak again, you¡¯ll be closer to my level.¡± With that, the holographic projection disappeared and was reced by the image of the ship once more. I closed my eyes as I remained seated. I went through our conversation again in our head and processed everything. He refused to reveal what goals we exactly shared, so there was nothing I could do about that. However, I could tell it was something that required me to be in power. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t encourage me to grow as fast as I could. He must be hurting for allies of simr strength or something. Even if he didn¡¯t tell me to, I was nning on expanding my strength as well. This incident was a wake-up call. Enemies that were much stronger than me could strike at any time. I needed more safeguards. Maybe several safe houses and hidden bases like the one I was kept in. Stealth was my advantage, and I had to fully utilize it. Various ns began to go through my head. ns to design self-sustainable bases inside the wastnd. Various safe houses throughout Elevate City. The idea that had the best potential was the construction of arge spaceship. It would cost tons of money that we didn¡¯t have, but the idea of having a mobile stealth ship as our headquarters stirred up the child in me. After thinking up a storm of various base ideas, I then brainstormed what to do with the most fundamental aspect of everything: the people. I had the cassettes figured out thanks to my AI, Lanus. We had to hurry up and produce all the relevant training materials for our personnel. Then, to fund all of my ns, I would have toe up with more ideas to make money. So far, I have been in the cybeic market, with my Shade and Argus. Transportation throughout NNA was a steady ie as well, but that took too much time and investment to expand. The returns on it wouldn¡¯t be fast enough. The milkshake shop was in the same situation, so I had toe up with other ideas to make money. I could utilize my current knowledge and create another marketable cybeic or even venture into something new. I brought up my status screen while I deliberated. Status Level: 25 EXP: 1800/2500 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 It couldn¡¯t be helped that my eyes were drawn to my skill with the most points; software engineering. Hmm, back in my old work, softwarepanies did make bank if they could make it¡­. With that in mind, Ipiled a list of things to consider and questions I would have to ask my current head of intelligence. After all, they managed the messaging app that was our foothold in the software market. Chapter 186: Return Chapter 186: Return I wasn¡¯t able to return to Elevate City immediately. Ceres Station was quite far from Earth, even with the so-called NPC¡¯s state-of-the-art spacecraft. Communication was iffy as well. The distance made the transmission unstable. Normally, they would use a house-sizedmunication device to power through that, but even then, Captain Diaz requested we didn¡¯t use it unless it was urgent. Broadcasting signals were a good way to get detected. It may even allow any potential foes to set up an ambush on us. That was why I obediently stayed in my quarters during the past few days of traveling. Well, with somepany, of course. ¡°Pass me the sma welder,¡± I called out to my employee beside me. ¡°...Andrew, you don¡¯t have to listen to everything he says. You guys have been at it for over six hours. This guy wrote into your contract itself that you¡¯re entitled to a break every four hours,¡± the annoying cyborg chimed in from the sideline. ¡°I¡­it¡¯s fine, sir. There isn¡¯t much to do here anyway.¡± ¡°Yeah, stop nagging. Once we get back, I won¡¯t have any spare time left. That¡¯s why I have to use my time efficiently now or else your power armors will never get upgraded.¡± ¡°...¡± I ignored his grumblings and got back to work.Standing inside the quarters I was assigned was ourpany¡¯s power armor. Throughout my time during captivity and from this ship I was on, I had made many observations on the various advanced power armors. Powered by all the data I pulled from Nova Tech¡¯s database, I had a lot of ideas I wanted to try out. My foundational knowledge had increased, and coupled with the generous tools the captain allowed me to ess, I felt at home in my makeshift workshop. At the apex, power armors were no longer treated as mobile urban tanks. The standard wasn¡¯t the clumsy units I was used to, but a super fast force of scientific marvels. As they were operated by bigpanies, they also had the capacity to employ multiple models. Some specialized for speed and nking maneuvers, while some for soaking up damage. This wasn¡¯t something I had the leeway to do. Managing one model of power armor already kept us at capacity. I would have to wait until I expanded my team before thinking about that. That was why I focused on improving what we had. Seeing the energy shields in action in conjunction with the power armor designed with it gave me a lot of inspiration. I previously skimped out on the armor for speed, and that was in the right direction. However, what I should¡¯ve focused on was to redirect a bigger portion of the freed-up mass for mechanicalponents that increased the strength and speed at which it moved. That was how the frontline power armor I saw was set up. They allowed powerful bursts of speed. Their smaller counterpart was even more extreme, but they weren¡¯t suitable for being ourpany¡¯s lone model of power armor. In a way, those were just a beefed-up version ofbat suits. ¡°Thorne,¡± I called out while continuing to work. ¡°You said you witnessed the fighting from start to finish. Anything you noticed?¡± ¡°They¡¯re¡­just fast. Not fast enough that I¡¯m helpless, but it¡¯ll be trouble if I face multiple targets at that speed.¡± ¡°Hmm, I n on working on the set of cybeics before this incident. I¡¯ll try to focus on speed, but if you¡¯re saying that, maybe I¡¯ll look to work on a bio-coprocessor as well. Luckily, I recently made some headways in that direction.¡± Thank you Nova Tech. ¡°Okay¡­You do you.¡± I finished up the modifications and began running a diagnostic test. Once I got that finished up, I could have Thorne or Andrew test it out on the training grounds on the ship. The data of Nova Tech¡¯s premier cyberarms really helped in implementing more powerful mechanical parts. While I waited, I examined some of the other data I pilfered. With the topic of cybeics brought up, I naturally opened up the file regarding Nova Tech¡¯s other products. There was a lot to learn more about a market leader. Their architectural philosophy wasn¡¯tid out in words, but you could tell a lot from just inspecting the designs. I gained a lot of valuable knowledge from it. My cybeic knowledge worked best when apanied by other disciplines, to create an imnt that both excelled in its function and melded well with the human body. It was these various disciples of knowledge I was after. My work continued and only stopped when Thorne physically pulled me away from it. We then had dinner and visited Polina and the rest of the captives before going to bed. Then we would rinse and repeat on the next few days. On the sixth day of travel, we finally arrived at Aegis. ¡°Our shuttle will take you onto Aegis proper. This will be goodbye for us,¡± Captain Diaz dered as she offered her hand. I nodded and shook her hand. ¡°Thanks a lot, captain. I owe you.¡± ¡°We just did as ordered. Thank our employer instead.¡± The crewmates didn¡¯t really interact with us, so after saying our goodbyes to the captain, we soon departed onto the shuttle they provided. Wended within a private berth on Aegis. We didn¡¯t immediately head out as we waited for the shuttle to make a few round triples. That was because they had to offload the former test subjects as well. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I watched as they stretched their bodies with subtle smiles on their faces. They had been held captive for who knows how long, but they now regained their freedom. Well, it wasn¡¯t all sunshine and rainbows. Many of them would struggle to afford the cost of the ticket back down to the. With all my uing ns, even I balked at the idea of forking over a five-digit amount for each one of them, as they numbered almost fifty. I also already had to buy the tickets for my dozen newly recruited researchers. Some of them still had family, so maybe they could work things out. Otherwise, they would have to take odd jobs here and save up. The people who didn¡¯t have anyone to return to could just live in Aegis, but those who did would have a bumpy patch ahead of them. ¡°Well¡­This is where we¡¯ll have to part ways. If any of you have some skills and are looking to work for a corporation, you can consider checking my Halls Corporation out.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. You¡¯ve done enough for us.¡± Polina stepped forth and gave me a hug. ¡°We¡¯ll figure our way back down ourselves. I¡¯lle find you once I¡¯ve arrived.¡± I personally wanted to help out Polina and have made an offer to but she refused. Even with a daughter waiting for her, she didn¡¯t want to leave herpanions and received special treatment. I could only respect her wishes. ¡°...Here. This is mypany¡¯s website. There are some open positions we¡¯re looking to fill, and I¡¯ll give them a heads up about you guys.¡± Just because we couldn¡¯t help them the entire way didn¡¯t mean we didn¡¯t do anything at all. We at least supplied each of them with enough credits for their next month and a simple handheld terminal. Once we made sure they were okay, we headed straight for the spaceport. With pre-ordered tickets, we found no trouble and boarded the ride that would take us home. As we headed back down to theside, I couldn¡¯t help but smile. I had prepared myself to be gone a lot longer than a few months. It was a wee fact that it wasn¡¯t years, but a new sense of urgency welt up inside of me as Iid eyes on Elevate City. Down in the megacity, there were numerous corporations lurking within. There were still numerouspanies that rivaled Nova Tech in power, and any one of them could overpower my currentpany. I had enough of roleying the captive. I needed to grow, prepare, and adapt. I needed contingency ns upon contingency ns in ce. I swear I won¡¯t get captured so helplessly again.
¡°Surprise and wee back, boss!¡± arge entourage of my employees yelled out upon arriving at mypany grounds¡ªor so I imagined. Differing from reality, I quietly pulled up into our parking garage. Andrew¡¯s teammates, Brian and Mark, hade to pick us up. Our entire drive back was filled with them asking Andrew about his mission. I was the one who told them to act casually, so I couldn¡¯tin when I wasn¡¯t the center of attention. I had thought my return would be a lot bigger deal for some reason, but I was wrong. Things moved along in the Halls Corporation headquarters as normal, with no one batting an eye at my appearance. Well, that wasn¡¯t urate. Some did look my way and whisper to their peers. I could ess thepany software to eavesdrop, but that was too petty. ¡°You guys managed to keep the reason for my disappearance that well under wraps, even after so long?¡± I whispered over to Thorne. He grinned. ¡°Everyone knows your predisposition to hole yourself up every so often. It just so happens itsted longer this time, but nothing different from the usual.¡± ¡°...¡± At the curious gazes of my employees, I made my way to the top floor where our offices were. I headed straight to my room, only to find that ire sitting in my chair instead of her own. I walked straight through the ss doors and waved at her. ¡°Hey, as promised, I¡¯m back.¡± She nced up from the terminal for a moment before looking back down. ¡°Give me one second.¡± While she was focused on the terminal, I spotted several familiar faces arriving from behind me. Our head of intelligence, Lucy, and our cyber-sec duo, Leo and Lana, were all headed our way. ire picked this opportune moment to speak. ¡°Everyone was worried, you know? We all had to work extra hard to keep this ship together. I just want you to know that.¡± ¡°Yes¡­I¡¯ve ced a huge burden on you guys.¡± ¡°...¡± ire stood up and came to my side to wee the iing visitors. However, she suddenly held onto my arm and buried her face in my shoulder. ¡°Those were the words I had to say as the COO of thispany. Now these are my own words. I¡¯m d you¡¯re back, you idiot! Don¡¯t you ever pull off a stunt like that again!¡± ¡°I¡ª¡± ¡°Be quiet. I don¡¯t need to hear your excuses.¡± Her voice choked. I could feel my shoulder growing damp. I quicklymanded the ss partition to turn opaque on the other side as ire began to rant about all the difficulties she had to deal with in my absence. I saw our visitors take the hint and converse with Thorne outside the room while they waited. ¡°...were so uncertain with every decision we made. What I¡¯m trying to say¡­is I¡¯m d you¡¯re back, I guess.¡± Whatever I could see, ire could too. She quickly recollected herself, brushing away her tears. Her eyes weren¡¯t red or anything thanks to her optics. We quickly let ourpanions in. They all walked in quietly without a word until the door was closed and the employees outside could no longer peek in. Instantly, several handsnded on my shoulders and back. ¡°You made it back. I knew you could do it,¡± Leo said with a reassuring smile. Lana nodded in agreement before continuing. ¡°Can¡¯t believe the huge mess you got yourself into. Still, I¡¯m d things turned out all right.¡± The two of them seemed happy enough, but that couldn¡¯t be said for our intel director. ¡°Umm, sir. I would like to apologize. I should¡¯ve caught wind of something and given you more warning.¡± ¡°Nonsense. The people we were dealing with weren¡¯t ordinary, to say the least. It¡¯s not your fault. With that said, I do n on expanding your department, so just do better next time.¡± ¡°...You¡¯re keeping me in my position?¡± ¡°Yes. I trust you to do a good job.¡± ¡°I will!¡± Energy returned to Lucy¡¯s voice as she nodded with power. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best and more.¡± ¡°Ahem,¡± ire cleared her throat. ¡°Enough with all the work and gloomy talk. I think it¡¯s time for us to celebrate! Let¡¯s head downstairs and party it up!¡± She was so lively she waspared to a moment ago. It was a change I weed. It was also upon seeing how relieved she looked that I decided to swallow all the words I had down. It just wasn¡¯t the time to talk business. It could wait a day. There was no mistake that there was a lot to do. We had to expand our business, likely in the software market, once our foundation was stable. In the short term, create various hidden bases to protect ourselves. Train personnel. Create new cybeics. Get caught up with everything I¡¯ve missed, and connect with all our allies and friends. Like my guardian angel, or otherwise known as NPC, had said, time was ticking. It was safer for us to grow rapidly. I could no longer stay low and take things slowly. It was time to expand, and as fast as I could, too. Chapter 187: Hidden Bases Chapter 187: Hidden Bases There was a lot to do now that I was back, but security was my priority. It was confirmed that we hade into the crosshairs of the big corporations. The ships that ferried me all the way from Ceres to Earth weren¡¯t stealth ships, so everypetent corporation should have caught wind of something by now. They may not know the details, but they likely had enough to put me on their watch list. This meant I didn¡¯t want to dive straight into my expansion n. Thest thing I needed was for my research to be stolen and my AI to be discovered. I needed apletely secure location. Preferably, it would be mobile too, but that wasn¡¯t something easily set up in a short time. That was why I decided to head out to NLA, to venture into the wastnds. There was a reason why none of therger corporations had their real headquarters in Elevate City. Some do on paper, but their most important personnel were often absent. That was because they preferred to stay in more secure locations, like their own space stations. Ferrumus Corp was like this, and even then, they had to regrly fend off raids from theirpetitors. As much as I wanted to fortify a position into an imprable area, it was better to stick to something at which I excelled. Stealth. Ideally, I would have a stealth ship that could move around, but for now, I settled for setting up hidden bases across the wastnd. I retrieved my belongings from ire, including the drives that stored Lanus and our core data to bring with me. The hardware would have to be shipped one piece at a time, but I had everything I needed to get started. Once wended in NLA, Thorne and I were quickly escorted to our branch office there. We wasted no time and called a meeting. It wasn¡¯t that big of a deal, though, with it just being between us and Vin.¡°So you want to set up new bases out in the wastnd? You sure you don¡¯t want to just convert one of our current bases?¡± Vin asked calmly after listening to my exnation. ¡°No, they¡¯re too involved in our logisticwork. It¡¯s easy to trace their location with all the vehicles thate and go through it. I want something more discreet, more isted.¡± ¡°In that case, we¡¯ll have to build something from the ground up. We¡¯ll have to do the same dance we did before and find a suitable location first. After all, the wastnd¡¯s inhospitable conditions make it hard to just construct it anywhere.¡± ¡°Right¡­I assume all the best spots shielded from the sandstorm are already taken.¡± ¡°Well, the ns can tell you more, but yeah, all the ones near the city are taken by various corps.¡± At his words, I thought back to the Wells n that I hadn¡¯t spoken with in a long time. If I wanted to set up a self-sustaining base with minimal contact with the outside world, there were no better experts to ask than the wastnders themselves. However, that brought on its own problems. From my knowledge, each n was highly territorial. It was one thing to set up a trade route or a small outpost on their territory. Setting up apletely hidden base was another matter. If I sought their approval, it would create more points of failure for me. More people would know about the location of my base, which would defeat the purpose. I wanted something that only I and maybe a select few knew. The most difficult part about that would be constructing it without anyone noticing. I entered themand to the terminal before us and projected a map of the nearby wastnd. ¡°We currently have outposts pretty spread out along our logistic route from here all the way to Can Sauce City. We also have the mine nearby as well.¡± I pointed toward several points on the holographic map. ¡°Looking at this isn¡¯t that helpful, Rollo,¡± Vin noted. ¡°It doesn¡¯t give us a detailedyout of the actual terrains. The wastnd is just nk spaces on the map.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just trying to narrow down the general vicinity of where we would like to build our first hidden base.¡± He shrugged and didn¡¯t respond, so I continued examining the map. We had the territory of each wastnd n in the area clearly marked. They each covered a wide area, and it was hard to pick something within them. They were nomads who moved around their territory regrly. If I picked somewhere in theirnd, it would deteriorate our rtionship if they discovered me. Well, it¡¯s just sand out there, so it wasn¡¯t hard to get discovered eventually. That is, if I built it on the surface. I quickly ran some calctions in my mind and deemed it possible to create an underground base. It would require quite a bit of initial investment, but security was invaluable. ¡°Okay, prepare to survey some potential ces. How does next week sound?¡± Vin looked at me with a raised eyebrow. ¡°A week? That¡¯s a lot more patient than you usually are.¡± ¡°I need to make some modifications to our transports first. We¡¯ll need them for the construction.¡± I didn¡¯t waste any time discussing further and began heading to the garage. I needed to modify a few transports and add stealth capabilities. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t make sense to build a hidden base if others could track our transports. The wastnd may interfere with most detection methods, but I had to y it safe.
A week passed by quickly and we swiftly found ourselves in the wastnd once more. Our Wraithfortably traveled through the sandstorm that ever persisted, bringing us to our destination, the Wells n. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Our men out here stayed in regr contact with them, so we knew their general location even when they moved around a lot. As usual, several sand buggies approached us once we neared their area. Our rtionship had gone on for a while, so after a few basic questions, they quickly led us back to their n. They brought us to an enormous crater that was protected from the elements, and where they erected their temporary buildings. This time, I couldn¡¯t help but carefully examine their techniques. I wanted to know how they set up their buildings atop the sandy foundations. I didn¡¯t get to stare for long as I was led to meet with their leader. I found Eugene Wells, the leader of the Wells n, the same as always. He had a full beard and was lying on top of a pile of carpets with a smoking pipe in hand. There were a few new things in his room, though. There was arge screen terminal in the back, and several pristine refrigerators equipped with smart inventory management modules were present. It was a sign they had adopted to the tech normally found in the city now that they regrly traded with us. ¡°Eugene, it¡¯s been a while.¡± ¡°Yes, my children have missed you. You should go find that after this if you have the time.¡± I nodded, and he returned the gesture. ¡°So tell me, Rollo. Why have youe? I assume this isn¡¯t just a leisure trip.¡± ¡°I was just stopping by for some advice. I¡¯m exploring the idea of making my outposts more self-sufficient from now on. I wanted to investigate how you guys do it.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve seen our mootants before, and our other facilities. What else did you want to know?¡± ¡°I know how you dig for water and domesticate mutants, but the human diet is moreplicated. I don¡¯t think you guys buy supplements from the city. So where else do you get your nutrients?¡± ¡°We¡¯re nomads, as you know. We don¡¯t farm, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re thinking. Even with sandstorms, we are still blessed with nature¡¯s bounty. You just need to know where to find it. Various types of cactus and other nts exist.¡± As he began exining, it was obvious he was passionate about the subject as he rambled on. I listened quietly and evaluated if there was anything we could emte. While I kept an open mind to learn, I still preferred solving the issues with technological alternatives if possible. He exined how they harvested a lot of supplies across their territories, which obviously weren¡¯t suitable for my needs. Seeing how I didn¡¯t find any superior solutions to implement, I defaulted back to using hydroponics to solve our food needs. It was expensive but less vulnerable. However, that didn¡¯t mean I stopped listening to Eugene ramble on. The part I listened to most attentively was their construction techniques. They had their own unique way of finding suitable areas with stable foundations to set up dwellings on. One needed to know the ecosystem of mutants as well. I recorded everything he had said and thanked him for his time. By that time, I only had enough time to briefly greet Sarah and Caleb, the two I had once rescued, before I had to depart. Once I returned to our outpost, I got straight into designing our base and how to construct it. After my talks with Eugene, the general location had already been decided in my mind. I just needed to survey the actual sites to confirm the specific location. The next day, I did just that. Even when I found a location, it still took weeks and weeks to get everything ready. In order to speed things up, I didn¡¯t hesitate to unleash Lanus onto the limited equipment of the outpost. My AI assistant was particrly useful in polishing my designs. I never had an architectural background, so it was much needed. After a month of preparation, I was finally ready to build the construction. During that entire time, I didn¡¯t forget to face off against the local mutants during my spare time for some of those juicy experience points. Status Level: 27 EXP: 220/2700 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 had leveled up twice. I put all my points into stealth technology, as that was what I would be focusing on. It allowed me tofortably escape the clutches of my captors, and it would do so again. I couldn¡¯t afford to be captured again. I wanted to entuate my specialties even more. The two levels in stealth tech cost me four entire upgrade points, and it was worth it. The knowledge that rushed into my brain wasn¡¯t a lot, but made up for it in quality. It helped me refine my construction n, and use better materials that could escape the eyes of any scans. It took some time to create the right materials with the knowledge I had, but even a makeshift attempt at twelve points was not something to be underestimated. Besides knowledge of how to make fixed assets undetectable, the upgrade even gave me a clue on how to counter my mortal nemesis, the door. Throughout all my infiltration missions, doors were always a challenge. The new knowledge I attained wasn¡¯t just on materials and technology to avoid detection, but fooling the perception. This included both fooling organic and inorganic senses. Taken to the extreme, it could even create false illusions. However, that took more intensive research to aplish. It was something I had to put on the back burner for now while I directed my fleet of transports deep into the wastnd. There was only Thorne and Andrew¡¯s squad with us. All the vehicles were on auto-drive, following us. They carried various construction supplies and water. We made sure to acquire a vehicle that could tunnel down below for us as well. Our new hidden base was going to be underground, beneath all the sand. It would just be the first of many, and a prototype was always important to set the tone. Chapter 188: Decoy Chapter 188: Decoy The construction of our first hidden base didn¡¯t take as long as I had thought. The lengthy part was surveying for a spot with a stable foundation to dig into. The entire ce was set up in short order after that, making use of habitat modules to set up the initial framework of the facility. They would then rece these modr units with proper materials, such as reinforced concrete. However, even when that was done, the furnishing and equipment assembly was an ongoing process. We couldn¡¯t ship everything out at once. We needed to hide the flow of materials, to prevent alerting any other parties or allowing them to trace us down. The irregr logistics tied down the entire project. While the basic framework was set up, it would take yet another month before the facility was ready. That was why I returned to Elevate City once everything was in order. As my guardian angel had said, time was a luxury. I needed to expand rapidly to keep up with my enemies. No one knew how long I had. It could be a month, a year, or even a decade. The construction of a brand-new base was both lengthy and resource-intensive. It couldn¡¯t bepared with buying an existing house or office building that was ready to go. Despite our best efforts to hide this activity, any perceptive parties would realize something was up. It was inevitable some people would know we were shifting our investments into the wastnd. That was why I had nned to use our wastnd hidden base as a diversion. Arriving in Elevate City, I quickly ordered an auto cab. Thorne and I arrived inside one of thergest megabuildings in the city. This particrplex was located in District Two, the same district where our headquarters was.On the outside, the ce known as The Burrow only appeared average in size among megabuildings. It was known as one of thergest, not for its height, but its depth. It was built over the initial ind that Elevate City was built around. This allowed them to set up over fifty floors underground. While the lower levels were exotic, their rent and quality of living deteriorated the further down it went. It wasn¡¯t surprising from a resident¡¯s standpoint. There was no sunlight, and the air quality was subpar. It was also humid and made one feel confined. It was not the ideal residence. The low worth of these properties meant the less upstanding citizens took hold of the lower floors. Gangs and criminals ran rampant down there. The corporation in charge rarely cared about them lest they threaten the building¡¯s security. We got out of the taxi and found a middle-aged man with a face full of tattoos standing in a corner. We walked straight up to him and we exchanged nods. ¡°Is the ce ready?¡± I asked. Contrary to the man¡¯s appearance, he nodded and answered amiably. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s not clean, but it¡¯s usable.¡± ¡°...I thought you guys took this ce for over a month now. Shouldn¡¯t you clean it up before we bring our equipment in?¡± ¡°No, we purposely left it as it was. Members from other gangse to take a peek sometimes. They¡¯re like vultures, searching for weakness. It¡¯s better if we don¡¯t draw their attention.¡± ¡°Then a lot of the space is being wasted.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. We just left the main area around the elevators and stairs. Our projection technology can create a convincing background to fill in the rest. Those scumbags don¡¯t daree too close to our territory anyway.¡± I nodded, and we began to walk over to the elevators. There were other people nearby, so we kept silent during the entire ride down. It was only after we exited the elevator and found no one else around that we resumed our conversation. We talked as we walked down a rundown hallway with cold metal walls covered in colorful graffiti. ¡°We automated most of the defenses around here, as we only have a few trustworthy guards that are allowed here,¡± the middle-aged man informed. ¡°How do you define trustworthy?¡± ¡°Beats me,¡± he shrugged. ¡°Ask Thorne.¡± Being put on the spot, the cyborg cleared his throat as he thought up a reply. ¡°We carefully vet the background of those who¡¯ve been with us for many years and have risked their life for thepany. And remember? We had you give us ess to their records, where we examined every detailed aspect of their lives while they were under our employment. ¡°Right. I did sign off on that before I left.¡± ¡°I do have to say that I never knew thepany software could spy on so much.¡± It didn¡¯t. It was from the confidential imnt I had installed for all my employees. But, I¡¯ll keep that to myself. I¡¯d rather not have one of these guys leak it by ident. ¡°Yeah, Leo and Lana had been insistent on the monitoring aspect of the program. They said it barely meets the standard of a proper corporation.¡± Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The three of us soon walked past a second of the hallway when our vision suddenly distorted. The musty corridor that looked like it was falling apart suddenly became bright and pristine. It was as if we had traveled back in time to when this ce was just built. Standing before us was arge set of white double doors. I walked straight toward the terminal and plugged into it. Within a few seconds, the gates opened. The moment the three of us walked in, we each deactivated our Shades. The holographic projection that disguised us as civilians was instantly shut down. Immediately, ire wrapped her hand around both our shoulders. ¡°You two sure have gotten pretty creative in the ways you offload your work to me. Do you have anything to say?¡± ¡°...ire, we¡ª¡± A stern re silenced Thorne. ¡°Don¡¯t bullshit me now. I know I regrly cover for you guys while you¡¯re gone, but tell me who came up with the idea to dump everything on while you guys got thefy job as decoys? It wasn¡¯t easy securing this ce and bringing in our equipment, you know!¡± ¡°It was me,¡± I confidently stated, despite averting eye contact with the woman before me. ¡°Oh, in that case, since you¡¯re my boss, I won¡¯t be able toin too much. I¡¯ll just have to be satisfied with a bonus and a long vacation. Isn¡¯t that right?¡± I felt the thorn in her words at thatst bit. I instinctively nodded to avoid a catastrophe. The three of us then exchanged nces in silence for a few moments before we all let out a chuckle at the same time. We all knew the conversation was just banter, and we were each used to our roles by now. It felt like the banter was tradition, and it was nice to see not everything had changed. ¡°Anyway, you said you got the mainframe hardware down here, right? Let¡¯s plug it in first and let Lanus get to work. Then you can tell us all about the ordeal you went through.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have to get us some takeout from The Moon first, though. It was a pain dealing with this ce where there was no food delivery.¡± I agreed to all her snarky demands as we walked up to the mainframe room that would serve as Lanus¡¯ new home. I knew it was justified. I asked a lot of her, and these trivialpensations were the least I could do. Now then, let¡¯s take a tour of this ce. After all, it¡¯s going to serve as my actual main facility for the foreseeable future.
ire - Halls Corporation During the time when Rollo and Thorne were out in the wastnd, ire was secretly carrying out their n. The directive she received was simply to create a hidden base for them while they were gone. There weren¡¯t any other details. She fretted over what locations would work, sorting out a list of requirements. Rollo had mentioned he would enhance the security of the facilityter, and ire knew he wanted to host their AI in this new ce. That meant adequate ess to power, and to thework was required. To blend in, it would preferably be a ce with a lot of foot andwork traffic as well. That was why she immediately investigated several megabuildings and their surroundings. ¡°Most of your requirements aren¡¯t too tough. Pretty much all the megabuildings fit them,¡± Lucy said as she stared at her screen. ¡°But?¡± ire urged. ¡°But finding such arge space discreetly too isn¡¯t something easy. It wouldn¡¯t be feasible to buy several apartments and knock down the walls, either. Just the financial transaction records from that alone would raise a few gs.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you do those spec op things where you ckmail someone or bribe them?¡± ¡°This isn¡¯t a TV show, ire. Keeping someone¡¯s mouth shut isn¡¯t really reliable in the long term. People will notice something is off even if no one snitches.¡± ¡°Then what? Megabuildings are a no-go?¡± Lucy took a deep breath as she continued typing away on her terminal. A few momentster, she had it project an image of a megabuilding. The most notable thing about it was how a good chunk of the floors were underground. ¡°No-go if you¡¯re going through official channels. However, at The Burrow shown here, there are some ces you can secure.¡± ¡°Secure?¡± Lucy didn¡¯t reply and simply sent over a file for ire to review. It didn¡¯t take long for her to read it over. Her eyes widened at the new information. ¡°This is just fighting with the gangs for territory. We¡¯ve had our episodes with harvesters. Do you really think we should go looking for trouble again?¡± ¡°Well, this fits what you asked for. That decision is up to you.¡± Whether she liked it or not, Lucy was always busy with her work in the intel department. ire watched on as she worked before realizing she could only rely on herself for this decision. Sighing to herself, ire made a few calls. The security department quickly came up with several ns. Before she knew it, ire had somehow convinced them to allow her to join. However, not without wearing power armor. A squad of six other guards apanied her. They all had a holographic projection to conceal their identity. For this mission, they all took on the appearance of gruff men who would fit in with the gangs. They had many eye-catching cybeics and tattoo marks all over their faces. Having done their research, the team swiftly cut through the bustling market of the first floor. The residents there knew to steer clear of them when they entered the elevator. This made for a quick ride straight down to the sub-level thirty. While they descended, a murky smell of filth seeped into their space. It was only a prelude to when the doors opened for good. A cloud of smoke filled their vision when the doors opened. It didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out how much the ce was in need of maintenance. Things only got worse when they stepped out. They spotted the locals, who were all listlessly sitting down everywhere. Their gaze was weak, but the sharp glint in their eyes never faded. ¡°CO¡ªChief. The people on this floor are separated into two major factions. Shouldn¡¯t we set them against each other first before strolling into their area?¡± one guard asked. ¡°No, people aren¡¯t dumb. It¡¯d be a little too convenient that their fighting suddenly intensified, and we swoop in all of a sudden. I¡¯d rather not have to deal with insurgents lurking around. We should try a more diplomatic approach. Otherwise, the fighting or people going missing will draw more attention than we want.¡± ¡°Diplomacy, ma¡¯am¡­? Those gang bangers are tried-and-true killers, you know?¡± ¡°And so are we, right?¡± This left the guard speechless, as he would rather not leave a bad impression on his superiors. ire stormed off, with her entourage following close behind. She didn¡¯t hesitate to pull one of the menzying around aside. The poor man was half asleep, mumbling to himself. ire¡¯s action had fully awoken him. ¡°You, how can we speak to the people in charge around here?¡± Her straightforward and reckless question made all her guards gawk at the scene. Some of them wondered whether it was a good idea to bring along the entric COO. No matter their opinion, it was true to all parties that it was toote to stop her. Chapter 189: New Place, Same Work Chapter 189: New ce, Same Work ire - Halls Corporation ire strode headfirst toward the unit that she got out of interrogating the half-asleep man. He had told her to speak with the people in unit 27-15. While he hadn¡¯t borated, it was easy enough for ire to deduct that it was where the minions who were in charge of the gang¡¯s front gate. Even gangs had hierarchies. She doubted a random guy out front would lead her directly to their leader. The entire ce had the sameyout as the floors above, which were identical to all other megabuildings. There was arge terrace where stalls or seats were ced. Every few paces was a retail unit for proper stores. For Rollo, he had worked at a convenience store inside one of these retail units once upon a time. Off to the corners were the various pathways that led to the numerous residential units. On this particr floor, the caretakers had removed everyst obstacle around. It made it look a lot more spacious than usual, despite the smog polluting the ce. The storefronts were boarded up. Only bags of various filth were sprawled about and some of the inhabitants could be seen using them as makeshift cushions. The ce looked even more dirty due to the low lighting. Maintenance hadn¡¯t been done, and some lights were broken or dim. Sunlight wasn¡¯t avable for these sublevels, so it was inevitable that visibility was poor. While they made their way toward their new destination, they quickly heard the sound of chatteringe from up ahead. It didn¡¯t take long for them to spot arge group headed their way. They had over twenty men versus their seven. However, ire and her guards remained undeterred. The two groups only stopped walking when they were twenty feet away from each other. Any sharp-minded spectators would definitely clear out of the area if they saw this scene. Both parties were armed to the teeth and did not look friendly. Despite outnumbering ire¡¯s group, the neer cautiously appraised the intruders. ire had the appearance of a brawny man who towered over the gang members. More importantly, her entire group¡¯s appearance was that of cyborgs. No one would be dumb enough to underestimate more than half a dozen of those monsters. ¡°I think you guys strolled into the wrong area. What do you borgs want?¡± the leading man shouted. ire took her time examining the new gang members. From their markings, she knew they were from the gang called Retribution Angels, who were their target. ¡°We¡¯re here to make a trade. If you¡¯re not in charge, go get us someone who is,¡± ire¡¯s response came out in a gruff manner with the help of her vocal imnt. It was then the opposition¡¯s turn to stare. They scrunched up their faces as they watched their every move. ¡°Wait, here.¡± The man soon returned with a short and stocky man. They then began to discuss with ire regarding their purpose. The Halls Corporation was willing to spend a massive amount of money to purchase the property. Of course, it wouldn¡¯t be under their name or anything rted to them. No one around these parts dealt with the legality of ownership. They needed the get the current leaders to move their group or take over it by force. That was why ire had sought their leader right away. As they had nned, these individuals near the top often had great ambition. They leaped at the opportunity when they heard the amount offered. A million credits may sound like a lot for a regr working person, but at the level of conglomerates, a million didn¡¯t get you too far. The n went well, as ire could see the money signs shining from their eyes. However, just when the negotiation was drawing near a close, a young man walked into the room. He was apanied by half a dozen guards and was treated like a king to all the surrounding people. The man went straight to hispanions, who then exined the situation to him. After hearing the details, he turned to the Halls employees without any warmth in his eyes. ¡°Get out of here. We don¡¯t move at anyone¡¯s beck and orders,¡± the wide young man dered. ¡°Calm down, Jason. They¡¯re offering us a lot of money here. Please think it through first.¡± ¡°I thought it through. These guys better leave or bullets will start flying!¡± At his deration, the Halls employees visibly tensed up. They scanned the area for threats as they kept the vantage points clear. Thankfully, this unpleasant experience didn¡¯tst for long. Seeing negotiations breaking down, ire took charge and guided her people away. ire¡¯s entourage grouped back on the ground floor as they renned. ¡°These Retribution Angels don¡¯t sound like they¡¯ll be epting our offers,¡± one of her guards stated inly. ¡°What do we do?¡± ¡°Sounds to me like it is just a vocal minority within their leadership. Let¡¯s call Lucy and see what her department can do about it. If we can make them befall some ¡®idents¡¯, then maybe we can make some progress unhindered.¡± Even when dealing with regr street gangs, the Halls Corporation took no chances and was merciless. Information was quickly ryed and the relevant personnel were sent. The spec-ops in the security department charged off first thing. They had been ordered to perform a decapitation strike, removing hostile entities within the Retribution Angels. The only requirement was to make the deed look like an ident. ire continued to check in every few days. They monitored the change in leadership within the gang and only visited when those who agreed with their deal were present. It was on the sixth day after their previous leader had tragically passed away in an ident that the Halls Corporation received a positive reply. After some back and forth regarding the price, the Retribution Angels agreed to leave the area to make room for the new ¡®gang¡¯ in town. One party received money while the other receivednd. Both sides were happy. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
There wasn¡¯t a whole lot for me to tour of the new base. It was mostly empty except for the hardware ire had transferred over. Other than that, it was quite spartan. We would have to take some time to set up the ce to make it more livable. After all, I would mainly be staying here from now on. Once I took a preliminary tour of the facility, I double-checked the basic security was up and running. Then I began installing Lanus into its new home. There was still some hardware awaiting transfer, but enough was here to get Lanus working on a research project for me. The more hardware we could procure, the more it would be able to do. ¡°Lanus, it¡¯s been some time. Are you ready to resume your duties?¡± ¡°Affirmative. Please direct which project you would like me to work on.¡± ¡°For now, resume working on the cassettes. Also, resume monitoring thepany activities once you have the capability to do so. I¡¯ll try to get you ess to the headquarterswork somehow.¡± With its instructions, both Lanus and I got to work. For me, I intended to make another pass on Lanus before anything else. That was because I pulled the trigger and upgraded my software engineering once more after I had gotten another level. It was worthwhile to stay out in the wastnd for the past month or so. Status Level: 28 EXP: 360/2800 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 made this decision after witnessing how outmatched we were against the big corporations. In the short term, we couldn¡¯t just upgrade everything just because we wanted to. A lot of the high-end equipment was developed in-house, so there was no way for us to take a shortcut and just buy our way up. It simply wasn¡¯t realistic to develop high-tech cybeics, weapons, armor, and other equipment while having them leapfrog in ability. However, there were two big advantages I currently did have. They were software and stealth. After seeing how power armor was the norm in high-levelbat, I began getting ideas for integrating onboard AIs to assist the user inbat. It would simplify the controls, allowing me to add moreplexity to it. It was likely possible to have an AI control the entire thing, without needing a person, but that was a step too far for me. AIs weren¡¯t infallible. I still wanted an actual person controlling the weapon, hence assisting. Other than that, AIs could even be integrated into our vehicles, guns, and potentially our ships once we had a few. For our other advantage of stealth, I nned to first work on maximizing the difficulty of finding our various hidden bases, including the one I was currently in. Research into bulk materials that could block scans wasn¡¯t something I had dove into before. I would have to start from scratch. It was only after all these research topics that I would get to the other things on my to-do list. It had gotten pretty lengthy, with things like power armor, cybeics,mercial products, and even our own aircraft on the horizon. Upgrading Lanus didn¡¯t take too long, but it was tedious. Due to the improvements I implemented in the software side of things, the ideal hardwareyout had to be changed as well. Their performances were tied together, and we had to maximize various aspects such as heat management and redundancy. While I was in the midst of working, I received an alert from the resident AI. ¡°Report. The basic setup for the cassette research project isplete. Awaiting your directive regarding the contents and test subjects.¡± Hearing that message, I quickly got my SAID to contact Thorne. ¡°Hey Thorne, can you go send out a team to fetch and test subjects? ording to our new protocols, of course.¡± ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll see who¡¯s avable.¡± With my capable employees handling the grunt work, I resumed my coding. I didn¡¯t forget to pull up the feed to the security personnel helping me source the test subjects. The capture was quite routine, as harvesters were caught off guard and outnumbered by well-equipped corporate soldiers. They simply had no counter to the amazing synergy between our Nyes and the synchronized targeting system. The Nyes were our additional eyes, allowing my guards to see any targets they saw, regardless of how many walls separated them. If we didn¡¯t care about making a scene, they could literally shoot them through the walls from a safe distance. When they retrieved the captives, the team discreetly pulled up to my new facility. They transferred a majority of the harvesters to Lanus before returning to base. However, it wasn¡¯t over from there. Now that we were a lot more security conscious, we had decided to have body doubles rece me at headquarters. They would show their face around for morale and trick our enemies of my location. It wasn¡¯t even that hard to set up. With our projection technology, anyone could fill the role after some training. I got d¨¦j¨¤ vu seeing my security forces repeat their actions, handing over some test subjects to my body double who was inside our official base. ire and Thorne had everything in order, so they could handle most of the day-to-day affairs while I stayed in my new workshop. Once it expanded a little more, they could join me as well. There was no need to have our essential people stay in one ce where they could be targeted. Like that, two weeks passed by quickly. Two weeks I spent inside the sublevel workshop. I managed toplete my upgrade on Lanus during that time. I had also taken the liberty of creating a preliminary temte for an AI for vehicles and power armor. When I was done, Lanus informed me that ourtest cassette was close topletion as well. The new content I chose was sourced from the files I had downloaded from Nova Tech. They allowed me ess to their database, which was a rich databank their researchers relied on. While there wasn¡¯t anything notable, it gave me a nice foundation of knowledge to empower my employees with. Our expansion hinged on human resources. It meant it was only that much more important to focus on improving the quality of our personnel. With that thought in mind, I made my way over to where Lanus had been doing its experiments. I found myself in the control room that overlooked arger room filled with dozens of hospital beds. Each one had a former harvester on it, hooked up to various machines. As I stared out at the other side of the ss that separated me from them, I instantly knew what was toe. Another round of rapid expansion was upon us, but we first had to strengthen our foundation first. It may take up to a year, but it was something we had to do if we wanted to expand without issue. Things will be getting busy. I hope ire and everyone else at the office are prepared. Chapter 190: Reinforcing Foundation Chapter 190: Reinforcing Foundation Grace - Halls Corporation Almost half a year after Rollo¡¯s triumphant return from Nova Tech, the Halls Corporation was on the horizon to pick up steam in the corporate world again. While it sounded like a long time, it was the bare minimum they needed in order to establish their foundation so they could take their next step without fumbling. Businesses took years to grow. If one rushed this process, it would reveal many vulnerabilities for others to exploit. In the ruthless corporate world of Elevate City, that was a death sentence. The reason why the Halls Corporation was said to be picking up steam on this day was because of the opening of their new gship store. The new store was located in one of the most prestigious locations in Elevate City, the Oceanic Pce. It was thergest mall in the entire city and mainly catered to those of wealth. That meant the Halls Corporation¡¯s main clientele wouldn¡¯t often be seen there, but nevertheless, having a store there was a symbol within the corporate world. Even with only a thousand square feet, it was no small matter to have a store there. It demonstrated not only their financial capabilities but also their connections. Grace, a young woman who was recently hired, was to be stationed at this prestigious location. She watched on while wearing her well-practiced business smile as herpany executives cut the ribbon to her new workce. She couldn¡¯t help but think back to the grueling training she had been put through. Only a foolishpany would ceplete greenhorns at their most important gship. Even with Grace¡¯s ample experience in the retail industry, she had been put through the wringer before she was assigned to this store. Throughout the opening ceremony, Grace kept to herself. There were many guests around, each wearing a small pin denoting which corporation they hailed from. All of them were from prestigious corporations, and Grace wanted to minimize the chance of offending any of these influential people as much as possible.She was relieved when the celebrations died down. With the important-looking people taking their leave one after the other, the store employees were soon the only ones left. ¡°Gather around, people,¡± the manager pped to draw everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°It¡¯s our first day, so we better start off strong. If you have any questions, you should ask them now.¡± The tall man took a second to nce at each of his employees. It didn¡¯t take long, as the store only retained eight of them. ¡°Then I¡¯ll leave you guys to it. Those who aren¡¯t on shift right now can leave. Those who are, keep sharp. Notify me immediately if something arises.¡± The small crowd of employees only dispersed when their manager disappeared into his office. Some took their leave while those on shift spread out toward their stations. The store wasn¡¯t thergest, but it still properly separated each category of products into their own sections. For Grace, she was assigned to the cybeic section, specifically for cyberarms. She had one partner in her section who dealt with cybeic legs. She had heard rumors they would expand in the near future, but for now, it was just them two. There were yet to be any clients, so Grace naturally began gossiping with her co-worker. ¡°Did you end up going over our entire catalog too, or was it just me?¡± The man smirked and shook his head at her. ¡°So old habits got to you too? I guess we just can¡¯t help it.¡± ¡°You can say that again. I¡¯m too used to whatpanies usually expect of us. To just throw that all away because they told us to isn¡¯t as easy as I thought. I keep getting an urge to learn the specifications of every single product like we normally do. It¡¯s just ingrained into me.¡± ¡°Yeah, I get you. The pressure of having your pay deducted for failing to answer the clients¡¯ questions gets to you.¡± In the retail industry, it was the norm for workers to learn the details of every single product in their store. They had to deal with all types of clients that visited their store. To the businesses, it was just more efficient to have them learn everything, so whoever was free could address the next customer. It also added ayer of personalized shopping, having someone act as a butler or assistant of sorts, catering to the customer¡¯s every need throughout their time in the store. In the case of the Halls Corporation, they broke away from the mold and instated departments and boundaries between them. Their cybeics division wouldn¡¯t be addressing any clients looking to purchase a bio-coprocessor chip and vice versa. It was a strange idea to the employees as that would often leave them just staring at a customer, who they couldn¡¯t help. They would have to wait for the employee in the relevant section to be avable. ¡°If you ask me, this wholepany is strange. There are a lot of benefits for no reason. It makes me uneasy about the future,¡± Grace muttered. ¡°Well, it¡¯s just how it is. Companies rise and fall. We just keep our heads down and do our job.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Stolen novel; please report. The conversation was cut short as they both noticed their first proper customer entering the store. Several people who visited during the opening ceremony bought a few things as a gesture, but this marked the first walk-in customer. Contrary to the type of clientele they were expecting, their customer was a man dressed not in corporate suits, but in tacticalbat gear. His equipment had no markings either, which was typical of corporate security personnel. This,bined with the fact that the man was walking around, hugging arge sniper rifle, made the employees realize the man was most likely a mercenary. However, none of them dared to look down on the man. Theirpany¡¯s main target market was exactly people like him. They were trained on how to address the various types of customers. The greeter at the door swiftly weed the man and asked what the man was looking for. Grace¡¯s auditory imnt was tuned up in time to hear the man state he wanted to just look around. Following their training, the employees all stood straight behind their counters and stared straight ahead with a smile. They were forbidden from staring at the customer, as it may make them feel ufortable. The client gave no hints of whether he noticed it or not. He simply went around in a circle, carefully scrutinizing every product the store offered. He breezed past various sections and only slowed down when he reached the vehicle section. From her studies, Grace immediately knew all about the products there. The man could be seen scrolling through the terminal, examining the holographic projection of each model. The vehicle catalog currently only consisted of a Wraith-C all-terrain vehicle, Donkey-M transport vehicle, and Adventure-W dune buggy leisure vehicle. Each of these products was newly introduced, so Grace was confident she knew just as much about it as the employee in charge of that section. She was eager to showcase her knowledge and help the customers, but she had to wait. The man took his time asking questions and only arrived at Grace¡¯s station as hisst stop. ¡°Wee, sir. Please let me know if there is anything particr you would like to see.¡± The man nodded and took a few moments browsing the products inside the ss counters and scrolling through the terminal. ¡°Do you have any rmendations for someone in my profession?¡± ¡°Just to confirm, sir. You are in the mercenary profession. Is that correct?¡± ¡°What does it look to you?¡± ¡°In that case, let me rmend the Talos Type CC cyberarm of ourpany. For someone who likes to wield a precision rifle like yourself, it¡¯llpliment you well. It is no surprise that it wille with the ability to stabilize your aim and connect with your optics to highlight the estimated trajectory of your shots. In addition to that, the Talos model can deploy shield tes around you to provide cover while you¡¯re stationary.¡± The projection of the cybeic floated around between the two of them. It transformed as Grace did her pitch, showcasing its abilities. She then went on to borate on the various specifications of the cyberarm and how durable it was. Throughout her pitch, the man nodded along, but showed no other outward emotions. When she was done, he thanked her with a nod before taking his leave. None of the employees minded the interaction too much. It was a good warmup to start their day. It would be foolish for them to believe every customer who walks into their store would be buying something. Their day was only starting.
Afterpleting the opening ceremony for our new store, I quickly headed over to another new facility we had secretly constructed. In the interest of secrecy and saving resources, we had opted to make use of one of ourrger stores that our milkshake brand, The Milkshake Halls, upied. We converted the ample storage space into a training center for our new security hires. For that part, there was a lot of contention during the screening process. There were voices that both supported and against hiring from themon riff-raff without a corporate background. We had suffered one incident due to hiring from the public stock, but it was hard to cease hiring them due to the background of our executive team, including myself. It ended up with apromise that involved doing a more thorough investigation of the background of our hires. We needed to be sure they had no motivation to go against us, which meant we required them to have their families moved into ourplex with them. Our official headquarters was bing more and more like its own vige. ¡°Thorne, how is thetest batch of recruits?¡± I asked as we entered a room with a balcony overlooking the training area. It was just a bunch of capsules simr to the ones we had used for VR gaming, but this one wasn¡¯t hooked up to any games. Instead, they were hooked up to devices that interacted with their SAID to give it the hypnopedia function. Of course, it employed our homemade cassettes. The hard part of creating one for the security personnel was in the contents. It was extremely difficult topile something that worked in most situations while not having characteristics for opponents to exploit. Otherwise, if we taught each of them to check their corners in a specific way, the opposing factions who uncovered this could use it against our personnel. It was important not to instill any bad habits. ¡°We¡¯ve been field-testing them with wastnd missions and mercenary work. Their starting point is decent, but still need further tempering before they are up to standard.¡± ¡°But they require much less time to reach that standard, correct?¡± ¡°Right. It¡¯s hard to put a number to it as everyone is different, but I¡¯d say a few weeks here shaved off a year or so.¡± ¡°Understood. Those are results to be proud of, but continue to experiment with the curriculum. We can always improve. Just make sure they get adequate replenishments.¡± One thing Lanus learned from our continuous studies into the cassettes was that the learning process consumed a lot of energy. The brain demanded a lot more in order to function effectively. Thankfully, we were right inside our milkshake store. We had more than enough calories to go around. With the final inspection of the dayplete, I made my return to my cozy base under the megabuilding known as The Burrow. My body double would return to our official headquarters in my stead. As soon as I returned to my workshop, I went onto my terminal and checked off another item on the list. It had been many months since my return from space. There was a lot I wanted to get done, but it was inevitable that I had to start with reinforcing my foundations. I had allies and business partners to answer to. I couldn¡¯t leave everything and focus on new projects after being away for so long. That was why I tried to get all these tasks out of the way while my other projects took a back seat. I was still able toplete themercial version of the cyberarm that was part of the set with the Hermes cyber legs. The task ofpleting the rest of the set awaited me. Other than that, it was time to start upgrading our power armors and make headways into the software market. It would be our financial key that would fuel our uing expansions. Chapter 191: The Next Project Chapter 191: The Next Project ¡°How has everything been going? Do you have everything you need?¡± I asked as I walked over to one of the manybs within my new base underneath the Burrow. We had started calling this ce Lab Zero, to differentiate it from the others. It may have been me beingzy, and copying the naming convention of Nova Tech, but I didn¡¯t really care. The name wasn¡¯t important, rather; it was the facility itself. I had split it into four researchbs, owing to what I learned during my tenure at Nova Tech¡¯s base. It was a lot quicker to copy an existing structure. This was especially so when I had recruited their personnel who already knew the system. ¡°Sir, we are almost ready to proceed to testing with the new bio-coprocessor chip. Then we just have toe up with the production n. That part won¡¯t be too hard for the in-house version, but for themercial version will require more thorough testing to reassure our clients.¡± I saw Cora¡¯s expression darkened at the mention of the dy before her project would have amercial impact. It was understandable, as she had spent almost a year working on it. In the beginning, she was surprised at all the new ideas I had for it, but she quickly took them and thoroughly studied their viability. It really helped because time was something I was alwayscking. It couldn¡¯t be put into words how helpful it was to have someone take my rough ideas and polish them into something useable. The only reason why it had taken so long was because I had her team assist with the cyber arm first. Themercial version of the Talos was scheduled to be released much sooner, so we needed all hands on deck. ¡°Very good. Just enter all the details for the experiments you n to do. Headquarters will send you a reply once everything is ready, along with the test subjects.¡± ¡°Understood, sir.¡±She nodded her head toward me, but then continued to stare my way. She wasn¡¯t trying to hide her hesitant expression, so I urged her to speak. ¡°What is it? Feel free to speak your mind.¡± ¡°Sir¡­I wanted to request some time off for my team. I know it isn¡¯t appro¡ª¡± ¡°Stop,¡± I interrupted. ¡°Both of us know that won¡¯t be possible. At most, you and your team can frolic within our headquarterspound. I can¡¯t risk having you guys go out into the public and risk alerting Nova Tech.¡± Cora breathed in deeply and finally focused back on her work. It wasn¡¯t something I would budge on. Despite the NPC saying he had Nova Tech in check, it didn¡¯t mean I should openly taunt my enemies. I would rather not unt their former employees being under my employ. At the same time, these researchers knew a little too much. Without the assurance of their loyalty, I preferred keeping them where I could see them for now. Hmm, I guess my mindset is bing more corpo by the day. It was inevitable as we made our way up the corporatedder. Just a few months ago, we had pulled the trigger and upgraded our corporation to E-ss. It was part of our expansion n. By upgrading slightly before, we could im the membership fee as expenses, lowering our tax burden. It was something we had to upgrade eventually anyway if we wanted to expand into space. Seeing that there was nothing more needed to be said, I returned to my own office. Besides Cora¡¯s team, there were currently two other teams led by two others. One of them was led by Pino, the former mercenary from Aegis. He led the team that specialized in quality assurance. They would utilize his specialty of running simtions on top of the typical tests. The other team was led by the former head of the R&D department. They dealt with more traditional research and were empowered by all the new cassettes I developed inbination with Nova Tech¡¯s knowledge. The fourth and final team was led by me. Naturally, this team consisted of all the best experts in the fields I required help in. That included experts in the fields of mechanical engineering, physics, mathematics, and material science. They specialized in the moremon, but also most vital fields that numerous innovations required. It wasn¡¯t that I valued the foundational knowledge more, but the researchers in the more exotic and newer disciplines of science were in high demand. No sane corporation would let them out of their clutches. That was why I had begun saving up my upgrade points throughout this time, deliberating what to invest it in. I had a few potential candidates, but many of them also required an enormous amount of investment from ourpany as a whole. I would only dedicate my upgrade points to it once we had the means to make use of them. I brought up my status screen and the amount of upgrade points I had stored up always put a smile on my face. Status Level: 38 EXP: 130/3800 Musculoskeletal: 211 Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the vition. Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 20 Upgrades: 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 It wasn¡¯t possible to earn experience points every day, with me being cooped up in this underground base, busy with work. However, I took advantage of every opportunity I had, especially when I dropped by the wastnd. More than once, I was tempted to invest all the points into one of my existing skills. However, a more rational mind kept me in check. The theological knowledge I would gain would only be moreplicated. That meant the supporting factors around me wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up if I got ahead of myself. The materials I would need to manifest those theories into reality wouldn¡¯t be avable. That was unless I invested an equal amount of points into material science or whatever supporting disciplines were required. None of my helpers would also be able to assist me, as the contents would be far out of their reach. Any research would be excruciatingly slow, as I struggled to manage it all myself, without being able to delegate or make use of third-party resources. What I had with twelve points in both stealth technology and software engineering should be enough to keep any nefarious parties at bay. It was far better to spend the upgrade points on something that could strengthen both myself and thepany. One person could only do so much. I¡¯d rather not be a lone wolf. With that said, twenty upgrade points were still an astronomical sum. It was enough to upgrade two skills to plus ten points each. I still needed more time to see how thepany grew before finalizing my decision. That was why, for now, I had to focus on my existing projects. There were two main projects that were currently on my te. The first one was targeting themercial market by utilizing my software specialties. The second one would be focused on internal use first, with the set of cybeics. The software market was extremely attractive, especially for a smallpany like mine. It didn¡¯t have to worry about the physical logistics aspect and had huge earning potential. This would mean that any potentialpetitors would have fewer avenues to sabotage us. Most of their options would be limited to the virtual space, and that I was confident in. The second project for the set of cybeics had been on my to-do list for quite some time now. I was especially motivated to work on it after witnessing thebat between high-level corporations. The speed and ferocity of their fighting made it clear we weren¡¯t ready to participate. That was why I wanted to bridge that gap as much as possible. However, I knew that wasn¡¯t enough to level the ying field if fighting broke out. I also had the opportunity to witness several trump cardspanies had to ovee their enemies as well. Ferrumus Corp had their signature des that cut through energy shields and armor alike. My guardian angel¡¯s group had these frequency grenades to neutralize energy shields, and a lightweight power armor to finish off the job. Mypany had none of that. We had guns purchased throughmercial channels, and that was it. It would take ages for us to bypass any energy shields. That was why I was eyeing a few skills in my system to address the issue as well. Though, I had to ount for a second skill that would synergize well with it. These decisions hinged on how well my software product would do. The better it did, the more ambitious my n could be. With that in mind, I pushed these distracting thoughts aside and focused on my project. ¡°Lanus, put me on ¡®do not disturb¡¯ mode. I trust that you¡¯ll take care of the experiment request once Cora is done submitting it?¡± ¡°Affirmative. There are enough test subjects within the facility to be redirected to research group blue.¡± ¡°Good.¡± With my matters in order, it was time to start coding. Previously, I had spent months brainstorming on what I could do to maximize my profits without disrupting an existing market. Thest thing I needed was another corporation to have a feud with me over stealing bread from their table. Some level of that was always unavoidable, but there were different levels to it. It wasn¡¯t surprising that I started off by researching the existing market. The software industry wasn¡¯t as booming as my old world, due to understandable reasons. Enterprise software was missing, as each corporation only trusted its own work. Perhaps some vassalpanies shared programs, but that still meant they were entirely absent in themercial market. Productivity software was better, as it was much easier to detect any nefarious code from the finished works. Each corpo preferred a particr set of office suites. It was only the project management tools that were more absent from the market. Various other software only had niche markets due to all the security concerns. The remaining major sectors in the software market were cloudputing, SaaS, gaming, education, retail, emerce, and automotive software. This was due to these areas mainly catering to the masses, so security concerns were thrown out the window. My existingmunication app had already appealed to the masses, advertising we were different from the typical corporations that were out to milk them dry. Many were surprised we were still in business without being driven away bypetitors. We weren¡¯t surprised, though, as we knew beforehand that themunication app industry wasn¡¯t that attractive. It hadn¡¯t stepped on anyone¡¯s toes enough for them to take action. That was why my first idea was to head into the emerce sector. I could enable people to be able to host their own online business at reasonable prices. However, after some more research, the idea proved to be too disruptive. It was hard to regte what my customers would sell, which may in turn draw the wrong corporation¡¯s attention. It also dipped our toes into numerous industries, allowing corporations to possibly ally against us to shut us down. SaaS, which stood for software as a service, was out of the question for the same reason. There were major yers in that sector that I would rather not disrupt. Eventually, I settled for the gaming industry. It was generally a fast-moving consumer goods industry. People bought new games all the time. Thepetition was fierce, but thepanies knew not to waste time sabotaging others, as there were too many yers in the market. Consumers were always looking for the next new thing. It was just more efficient to dedicate your resources to your next game rather than sabotage. It also offered various payment models as well, with subscription models, in-app purchases, and offerings like loot boxes. However, the industry was not something easy for me to just jump into. As good as I had gotten with software, the gaming industry required an artistic aspect of it as well. The one thing I had going for me was that I had a treasure trove of knowledge from my world. In the past, a certain executive from SocialCorp had hosted a volleyball tournament just because he enjoyed a certain manga he had found. After doing some investigation, I found the entertainment industry waspletely different from what I knew. That meant I could ¡®borrow¡¯ some ideas from my predecessors. Chapter 192: Investigative Work Chapter 192: Investigative Work Ralph - ??? In the busy city of Elevate City, there stood a lone man inside a narrow alleyway. He was leaning against the walls, admiring the graffiti artwork on the walls before him. Or at least, that was what any passerby would think. While Ralph appeared to be one hundred percent baseline human, free from any augmentation, appearances could be deceiving. His eyes were a piece of high technology, and others wouldn¡¯t be able to tell even if he had something pulled up on it. Even if one had the skills to hack into his optic and spy on what he was doing, they would simply see him watching porn. That was because the message Ralph was receiving was heavily encrypted, and only relevant personnel could understand it. Another surveince gig. When will they finally recall me back to headquarters? I¡¯m long overdue for a promotion. I¡¯ve had it with fieldwork. Please let this be thest one. Ralph was only able to grumble to himself as there was no one to vent to. Even if there was someone, he didn¡¯t have long to do so. That was because the message followed his department¡¯s protocol. It didn¡¯t have any details on it and only a location. He had to be there within the hour. Otherwise, the mission dossier would self-destruct, preventing the agent from doing their job. And that was not something Ralph wanted to happen. He swiftly departed from the alleyway, back into the Neon District proper. The nightlights were shining brightly and loud music was being sted from various establishments. The scene wouldn¡¯t beplete without its signature neon lights, making the street look like the inside of a club. Ralph adeptly dodged the asional drunk passerby and entered into one of the establishments. It had a long line, but the bouncer simply let him walk by without blinking an eye.Strangely, none of the people in lineined either. No cloaking devices were used. The man¡¯s presence was just that thin, with no one bothering to take a second look at him. Like that, Ralph made his way into the strip club. He nced around for a specific target in mind, and when he found her, he beckoned her over. The two didn¡¯t say a single word to each other and went inside a private booth. Like most of the other guests, the two didn¡¯t bother to employ the privacy screens and left the door transparent. Thedy didn¡¯t seem to mind and led Ralph into a seat before she began dancing and stripping. While her movements were mesmerizing, her eyes were hollow. If anyone paid close attention, they would definitely conclude she was out of it, but Ralph took no note of it. There were people walking by every so often, so Ralph had to wait for the gaps where no one was around. Then he would use the cable from his wrist to plug into the girl on top of him. Her port was hidden beneath her long hair, so once he was connected, it would be hard for anyone to notice. Instantly, a flood of random data flooded his SAID. His imnt began to heat up as it worked hard to decode everything. Soon, he had theplete dossier downloaded. What in the world¡­ Apany that just became an E-ss corporation? Seriously? Is someone targeting me back at the head office, trying to push me to the sidelines with these missions? Despite his initial misgivings, Ralph continued to read on. It didn¡¯t take long for his expression to soften as he went over the details. He realized the corporation he had been sent to survey wasn¡¯t as simple as it appeared. That could be said for all corporations, but this case was on another scale. It was so far from the norm that Ralph¡¯s employers decided to partner him up with another agent. This was usually only done in high-priority missions where they predicted their agents would have a high chance of being terminated without being able to report back. This way, one could keep their distance and report on the anomalies if their partner were to disappear. Ralph didn¡¯t know to whether be happy or annoyed at being given a tough job. He took in a deep breath and went over to the main floor of the strip club to enjoy a drink. As a seasoned intel agent, being able to drink with strangers was a vital skill. It opened up a conversation where he could learn many tidbits of information. By the time he left the establishment, it would be morning already. Resting wasn¡¯t something he needed to do every day, so he went straight to the cafe where he would rendezvous with his backup. When he entered the coffee shop, he spotted a woman sitting discreetly in the corner already. They exchanged nods and Ralph took a seat next to her. Like many of the other people around them, they soon began to converse about mundane subjects. However, that was only a ruse. Through their SAID, they were actually on a call together. Theirpany-provided cybeics allowed their conversation to be entirely vocalized internally. ¡°You¡¯re Kriss, I presume?¡± ¡°Yes, and you¡¯re Ralph?¡± ¡°Yeah. Now that we got introductions out of the way, let¡¯s talk work.¡± ¡°Straight to the point, aren¡¯t you? They said to proceed cautiously. We don¡¯t have to rush.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean we should dy our homework. Care to share what you¡¯ve gathered so far?¡± In reality, both Kriss and Ralph were both smiling, having a pleasant conversation. Kriss took a sip from her cup before she continued. ¡°Not that much aside from what was included in the dossier and publicly essible. The target splits his time evenly between Elevate City and NLA for this past year. When they do stay in NLA, they choose the worst part of it, too.¡± Ralph furrowed a brow. The target¡¯s specific movements weren¡¯t something he had investigated yet. ¡°Thewless district?¡± ¡°No, worst. The wastnd.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­concerning,¡± Ralph sighed. ¡°My intel suggests they¡¯ve been moving a lot of equipment around. The heavy-duty kind. This may mean they¡¯re building or expanding some facility that we can¡¯ty eyes on. We¡¯ll need to n this thoroughly if we¡¯re to find anything in the wastnd. Maybe ce a tracker in their vehicles.¡± ¡°That¡¯ll work. While we don¡¯t have the exact route they take, we do know their ce of origin and destinations for their convoys. We¡¯ll need some time to prepare, though.¡± ¡°No problem. You did point out we can take our time with this. Let¡¯s start by just monitoring theirmercial activities for now. No need to dig too deep right away.¡± The two then exchanged how they would stay in contact and the various operation protocols before they disbanded. They had delegated the tasks and would keep their distance most of the time. Their only contact would be a daily call where they shared info. It was a practice that prevented others from tracing them back to theirpany, yet allowed them to stay up to date on their info in case something happened to them. Kriss would be sent to NLA while Ralph stayed in Elevate City. Ralph¡¯s first task was to scout out the gship store of his target. He knew they were rapidly expanding in recent months, so he had to see how their recent productunch was doing. Investigating these economic indicators was his bread and butter. He waited until the next day and got into the attire of a typical corpo; wearing a dreary suit, before making his way to the Oceanic Pce. He first stopped at the food hall and got himself some breakfast. He didn¡¯t fail to realize one of the stores on this floor belonged to thepany he was sent to investigate. After recharging with some grub, he walked into The Milkshake Halls. Reviewing their menu and prices were some of the most mundane parts of his job. He also had to examine how the workers performed, their belonging to thepany, and the standard cybeics they were equipped with. One could tell a lot from these small things. If the lower rung looked miserable, it meant their work environment could be exploited. They could investigate their immediate managers further, as they weren¡¯t likely to be much happier. This could lead him to some potential informants or even spies. To apany operating at the level of Ralph¡¯s, the typicalpany safeguards would prove no issue to him. Even if his plots were discovered, it was easy to permanently silence these grassroots employees. However, to Ralph¡¯s surprise, what he found was something he had never seen before in all his years. Over the short conversation he had with the employees, he heard only praise for theirpany. That wasn¡¯t umon as corpos were all under surveince, but Ralph could tell from their tone and facial expressions that their true feelings were consistent with their words. His training and intuition all told him the same thing. Normally, one would inevitably have some grievances with their employers, whether it be small or big. Ralph had to work the big ones out of them before he could be the devil by their ears. This time, he had met his match. He didn¡¯t find any openings from the employees to exploit. Taking a sip of his milkshake, he quickly calmed down as the cool temperatures of the drink relieved him. I can analyze moreter. Let¡¯s scout out the gship store first. For better or worse, Ralph found the employees at the gship store to be the same. This made him opt to focus on the products instead, as the personnel were so far a no go. ¡°So you¡¯re telling me this game of yours ispatible with any VR system? Yourpany doesn¡¯t have your own system?¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct, sir. Our support will still be avable twenty-four-seven if you should need to contact us, but any system would do. You can also refund your pre-order at any time.¡± ¡°You guys are a proper corporation, right? Not some indie gamepany?¡± ¡°Correct. You can expect the quality of our games to be at that level as well. In fact, this is one of the few ces where you can y the demo right now.¡± Ralph sucked in his breath and fell into thought. It was rare for a corporation not to push its own tform for its own VR games. It was the easiest way to retain repeat customers and additional projects as well. All they needed to do was ensure their product wouldn¡¯t work with games from otherpanies. While corporations weed others to make their gamespatible with their system, none allowed their own to work with the game systems of others. That meant the only games that would work across all systems were from indie developers. They were too small to develop their own tform or cared enough about these corporate struggles to lock their games out. They simply wanted to push out their games to as many people as possible. It may sound like it was all sunshine and rainbows selling games that worked across all tforms, but indiepanies typically struggled. The budget, optimization, and support were something they allcked. Even with their heart and passion, it was hard topete against giant corporations with infinitely more resources. Even if they found sess, it would be short-lived as the top yers would find a way to wrestle back the market. Sometimes, it would be filled with threats and coercion, while others may be with giarism. Only rarely would they get bought out instead. Those on top stayed on top. With his curiosity piqued, Ralph pre-purchased the game so he could study it further when the time came. The other products, like the cybeics and vehicles, were out for some time now that he didn¡¯t need to purchase samples. He was sure someone in hispany had already done so. That was why he only took a precursory look before returning to his hideout. He didn¡¯t forget to contact his partner. He had to update her on his progress. ¡°How¡¯s it going there, Kriss? Enjoying NLA so far?¡± ¡°Oh, you wouldn¡¯t believe it. It¡¯s pretty crazy here.¡± Even without having to analyze the hidden meanings in her words, Ralph could already tell the distress from his coworker. Her message practically yelled out how abnormal thepany they were investigating was. What is it now? Chapter 193: In-Demand Talents Chapter 193: In-Demand Talents Ralph - ??? It only took an hour for the two agents to update each other on their investigation. Upon finishing their report, they both sat in the call in silence, as they took in the situation before them. ¡°How can this be possible?¡± Ralph muttered. ¡°In all my years, I¡¯ve never heard of apany with no bad apples among their employees. There have to be a few who would talk given the right incentives. We need to work harder to find them.¡± Both agents tried tempting various members of the Halls Corporation in an effort to gain intel. They were well aware of the various means corporations employed to monitor and prevent such leakages, which meant they knew how to counteract them as well. They typically just needed to make use of their superior tech ormunicate in roundabout manners. They didn¡¯t even need to establish sophisticated codes because they knew fewpanies had the capabilities to parse through every single interaction of every single worker. ¡°Trust me, I tried,¡± Kriss sighed. ¡°The folks over here are just the same. Though, I couldn¡¯t get ahold of that many of them. They mostly stay inside theirpound. They seem to have gotten some impressive amenities for just an E-sspany.¡± ¡°Did you check the cyber-docs around the area and red-light districts?¡± ¡°Yep. Turned up as dry as your search.¡± ¡°Then that¡¯s just what we¡¯ll have to work with. Don¡¯t push too hard. We¡¯re only supposed to be passively surveilling. If you start anything, headquarters will throw you to the wolves without a second thought.¡±¡°Well, we still have to do the bare minimum somehow. I¡¯d rather not have my pay docked.¡± Losing out on pay wasn¡¯t as simple as it appeared. Kriss had heard of the stories ever since she joined the intel department. Underperforming agents weren¡¯t summoned back to be disciplined, but they received fewer resources. Once they cross a certain threshold, thepany may even deem them a security risk and neutralize them. That was why she knew how important it was for her to at least satisfy the bare minimum requirements of a mission. This caused the two agents¡¯ motivation to be reignited. For the next week, they would work tirelessly; staking out around the Halls Corporationpounds. Their hard work soon paid off as they each made some important discoveries. ¡°I¡¯ve found that they¡¯ve been trying to obscure variousrge shipments from Elevate City to NLA,¡± Ralph dered with a smile. ¡°From there, rumor has it that it¡¯s bound for the wastnd. That¡¯s exactly where their owner is supposed to be. Can you follow up on that?¡± ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll see what I can find,¡± Kriss muttered back with a listless voice. ¡°Hmm? What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°I¡­found something too. I should be able to make contact with more of their employees soon. You should check this out.¡± Upon going over the report his partner had sent, Ralph¡¯s eyes opened wide. Throughout his investigation, there was always something that had puzzled him, nagging him in the back of his mind. Now it was clear. It exined the reason for the abnormal loyalty the workers had to the Halls Corporation and why all their attempts had failed. Thepany they were dealing with was something that had onlye across Ralph¡¯s mind back when he was a child. The idea of an ideal workce. One where you only needed to strive for excellence instead of having to deal with all the backroom politicking and backstabbing that reality had forced upon him. Even to this day, he remembered his elementary school teacher giving that lesson that had changed his worldview. His dreams of working the way up the corporatedder of an ¡®unicorn¡¯ corporation. It was a term given to thosepanies that prioritized their workers instead of pure profits. It was also a derogatory term for the naive, and their teacher had made sure to instill in their mind that it was pure fantasy. They were taught thatpanies that appeared to treat their workers well always had ulterior motives. Otherwise, it would birth weakness within apany, where it will then be swiftly crushed by thepetitors. The corporate world was cruel. Every action they took could either make them a fortune or spell their doom. ¡°We¡¯re dealing with a unicornpany¡­One that has survived for over a year and is still prospering.¡± While he tried to convince himself of the new findings, he couldn¡¯t help but reread the report. It was inly stated in the text and supported by images that the Halls Corporation even allotted their employees paid vacations. Not just once every few years, either. It was a week each year. That¡¯s practically impossible. They¡¯re bound to be destroyed sooner orter. But¡­why am I feeling a tad excited?
Creating a game, or any software for that matter, was a lot of work. It may be possible for me to create the game on my own, but not the upkeep. The servers, updates, optimization, bncing changes and customer support were huge burdens. That was why I couldn¡¯t allocate all my time to coding. Instead, I actively participated in the training of ourtest hires. Throughout all this time, we were gearing up for expansion by recruiting people to our capacity. We more than doubled our numbers, going from several hundred employees to over a thousand. A vast majority of them were in training, which now meant hypnopedia training. In order to future-proof the investment in our personnel, we had thepany-provided SAID module customized to include such a feature. We kept costs down by making the SAID module just a port that would link up to arger pod, much like how VRs worked. It meant they had to be in one of these pods to ess the feature, but the price difference convinced me. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Creating the cassettes for their training wasn¡¯t hard but tedious. I had topile the relevant software knowledge into a cassette, but with Lanus¡¯ help, I only had to recite everything once. While nothing was perfect, and I didn¡¯t believe those who used my cassette could attain one hundred of the knowledge I had on that topic, just being able to build that solid foundation was already a great head start. After our recruits had gone through the initial sleep-learning sessions, those destined for the R&D department would then have some virtual sses with me. The terminal specialists were no exception. These newly hired software and hardware engineers weren¡¯t part of the four main R&D divisions, but were part of a separate one dedicated to our gaming venture. That was because their main focus wouldn¡¯t be research as much as it was to maintain our game. They would be handling all the tedious upkeep matters with the server and patches. For now, they helped me develop the game itself. After examining the existing market, I found payment modelsmonly used weren¡¯t that different from my old world. Micro-transactions, subscriptions, one-time payments, they had it all. However, what did differ was the game selection. They mainly offered shooters and management games filled with strategic decisionsced with deception. It became more and more apparent that the culture of the world was underdeveloped. It was likely owing to the apocalyptic events that happened five hundred years ago, resetting the world. At the same time, that meant there was an opportunity for me. I wanted to bring magic fantasy-themed games into the world. From the asional gaming sessions I had with ire and Thorne, I learned that massively multiyer online games were popr, along with mobile games for convenience. The lightweight package of mobile games definitely made it therger market, but in the end, I chose both. Twelve points in software engineering weren¡¯t just for show. It was possible for me to develop a cross-tform game by shifting most of the load to our servers. The main area I needed help in was the arts and animations department. It wasn¡¯t something that could be easily quantified or written down on a resume. Portfolios helped, but it was still hard to gauge other factors, such as their speed and efficiency. Most perspective corpos didn¡¯t excel in artistic endeavors. The regr people who did hid behind the anonymity of the web and shared their work. It would be a challenge to find them, and then convince them to work for a corporation. That was why I personally returned to our official headquarters to speak to our executives about it. ¡°What do you think? Can you guys fill the positions on my list with top-ss talents?¡± ¡°Sir, this list¡­¡± Lucy mumbled. ¡°They¡¯re over a dozen different positions that otherpanies highly value. It¡¯d be almost impossible to recruit them through normal means. In terms of difficulty of recruiting, they¡¯reparable to some of the middling R&D experts.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why I came to you guys. To find them from the general public.¡± I turned to Leo and Lana, expecting the two to be well-versed in thatmunity. Despite having corporate upbringings, the two did spend a considerable amount of time in thatmunity during their tenure as mercenaries. ¡°Look,¡± Lana sighed, ¡±reaching out to them isn¡¯t the hard part. It¡¯s convincing them to work for corporations that will be tricky. They¡¯re just like mercenaries, in that they¡¯re highly anti-corpos.¡± ¡°We¡¯re different from otherpanies. You can¡¯t group us all the same.¡± ¡°We know, but they don¡¯t.¡± ¡°I¡¯m asking you to exin to them, then. Make them understand. Having been among them, I¡¯m sure you two have a way, right?¡± I alternated nces between Leo and Lana. They crossed their arms and fell into thought for a few moments before Leo shrugged. ¡°We can try. No promises, though.¡± With that settled, I returned to the top floor where my office was and visited my two trusty assistants. I merely had to wave at them as I walked across the open office space and they both stopped what they were doing and followed me into my room. ¡°I know you¡¯re both working hard, but we¡¯ll only be getting busier once we fill out the art department for our game. I want to get as much work out of the way before then.¡± ¡°Yeah, we know. We do get looped into everything, whether we like it or not,¡± ire quipped. ¡°There isn¡¯t much I need from you. Just a few scheduled meetings with Joey and Luford you¡¯ll need to attend.¡± ¡°I see, thanks¡­¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ire immediately noticed my hesitation. ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ve been thinking. Since you¡¯re already managing most of our day-to-day operations, maybe you should be our CEO. I can take one from Titus¡¯ books and just be the majority shareholder in the background.¡± ¡°You¡­want to foist even more responsibilities on me? I don¡¯t know if you know this or not, but ourpany isn¡¯t stable like Titus¡¯. We¡¯re experiencing rapid growth, and you¡¯ll have to take the reins if you want it to be steered in the right direction. I can¡¯t do that. I can only maintain it as it is.¡± ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right. It was just food for thought. We don¡¯t have to do anything for now.¡± ¡°Ahem,¡± Thorne cleared his throat. ¡°As for me, you may want to dedicate a little more time to the training of our troops.¡± ¡°What do you mean? Didn¡¯t you say it was going along fine?¡± ¡°It is, but it¡¯ll be better to have you around more often if you don¡¯t want to be forgotten. On a practical note, you¡¯ll want to obverse them so you may design equipment that fits our needs. I know you n to dedicate more time to the power armor and cybeic projectter, but those aren¡¯t the only things we need.¡± ¡°Well, the Nyes and Nixie drones are pretty dated by now. I can see the need for new equipment to deal with adversaries on the same level as what west faced. However, we¡¯ll need the game project to seed first. Otherwise, we just don¡¯t have the funding to keep up.¡± ¡°I understand. We just want you to familiarize yourself with ourbat doctrine so you can gain insight into inventions that could enhance it.¡± And another item added to my to-do list. Thankfully, I got a bunch of new helpers now. ¡°Okay, I get it. I¡¯ll clear up my schedule.¡± ¡°On that note, you should prioritize clearing up next week, then,¡± Thorne immediately advised. ¡°Hmm, why?¡± ¡°Half our new recruits are based in NLA with Vin. They¡¯re the ones who were pushing for you to spend more time with the security department. They don¡¯t want to finish their training without having even seen their boss before. They¡¯re nning field exercises next week, so you may want to start there.¡± Well, I am floating around the idea of spending upgrade points on something that will enhance our overall strength. Let¡¯s see if my ideas are worth pursuing and find the best way to implement them. With that thought, I couldn¡¯t help but y around with the grip of the weapons holstered to my hip. Chapter 194: Facility Inspection Chapter 194: Facility Inspection I had my body double continue to show his face around Elevate City while I took the trip to NLA with Thorne. As always, we used our holographic projection tech to disguise ourselves as average Joes. That meant we wouldn¡¯t be getting an escort from Vin and our men from the airport to ourpound. Instead, we got a hotel like any normal visitor would do and settled in. We checked in with our luggage before I met up with Thorne in the lobby. ¡°You double-check you got everything?¡± I asked. All the stuff we would be leaving in our room was just props. If we couldn¡¯t return in time for some reason, we wouldn¡¯t mind losing it. ¡°Of course.¡± I stared at him for a second and waited, but he didn¡¯t do anything. It made me give him a nudge. ¡°Oh¡­right.¡± A look of realization set in before he stood close to me. That was because we were currently disguised as a couple. To the onlookers, I would be just another man traveling with his partner, holding on to him. We walked onto the public streets and began following the arrow drawn by our optics. It guided us toward a secluded, dark alley. Without a word, we moved over to a rusty manhole cover and removed it.With the strength of our cybeics, we were able to easily toss it around like a toy. Still, we ensured we closed it properly after we went down. The smell swiftly intensified the further down we climbed. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t flooded, so there was ample room on the elevated walkways beside the sewage flow. As we walked down the musty wastewaterwork that spanned the entire city, we made sure to be on guard. There were various critters like rats in here, and I heard there were crocodiles or even the asional mutant that snuck in as well. Whether it was true or not, I never had a good experience in the sewers. Every time I came down here, it was either to infiltrate into an enemy base or rescue some mercenary from her pursuers. As if the world knew what was on my mind, the sound of crumbling suddenly rang out behind us. We turned to see the stone walls that we had just walked, now had a crack on its surface. A momentter, the crack grew and several fist-sized pieces of debris fell into the wastewater. ¡°This ce is disgusting,¡± I said. ¡°The sewage system in Lion City was way better maintained than this. Even though the smell was no better, at least I didn¡¯t have to worry about the literal walls falling on us.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not too different from Elevate City. It¡¯s what happens when the people in charge will only do anything if there¡¯s an imminent and catastrophic failure,¡± Thorne shook his head as if reminiscing about a particr incident. ¡°What? What happened?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It wasn¡¯t anything important.¡± I narrowed my eyes at him for keeping his story a secret. It was cruel for him to mention it, only to decline when asked to borate. Too bad he didn¡¯t seem to care and kept walking. It may be because we both wanted to get out of here quickly. Shaving off even a second of having to breathe in this foul air was a huge boon. Before long, we spotted several people in rags lying to the side. They were beggars Vin had rounded up. Many of them normally slept down here, so we offered them some essentials in exchange for relocating to our specified locations. They would act as our makeshift sewer sentries. I ensured their trustworthiness by installing them with the same monitoring imnt I used with my employees. I couldn¡¯t take any more chances, so I made sure to add a safeguard in it too to eliminate them if they proved to be a threat. It wasn¡¯t long before the arrow led us toward a dead-end. However, we continued walking. That was because we knew the wall was a fake projection we had set up. As soon as we passed through, our scenery changed for the better. It still stunk of sewage, but at least the infrastructure was new. A set of sturdy doors began to close behind us and I turned up to nod at a camera. We didn¡¯t bother sticking around and climbed up the first essdder we saw. The metal hatch clicked open, allowing sunlight to rain down on us. When we got up, we immediately let out a stretch as we breathed in the fresh air. There was a gallery thatprised a dozen security guards watching us, but I didn¡¯t care. In fact, one of them helpfully handed me a spray that allowed me to remove the stench from my clothes. The moment I finished spraying my belongings, the guards parted, allowing a man through. ¡°Rollo. How nice of you to join us! I hope your tour of the underground was to your expectation,¡± Vin teased. ¡°Oh, shut it,¡± I shook my head. ¡°You know I made a rule for executives to follow the same procedure when they go out too, right? You¡¯ll be taking the same path if you want to go on leave.¡± ¡°Ha, as if I need to. Look around. We have everything we need here now.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. Our NLA branch mimicked thepound of our headquarters in Elevate City. It used to be of a smaller scale, but that was no longer true. Land in Elevate City came at a premium. It¡¯s what happens when there¡¯s only so muchnd, and hundreds of millions of people jammed packed in it. The poption density in NLA was much more reasonable, and they had amplend to amodate for an expansion. Our logisticpany also grew every month. The number of personnel needed to operate it required bigger facilities. Our recent expansion aligned with these needs. The goal was to reinforce the foundation needed to set up for our future development. That meant infrastructure and personnel. We focused on building training facilities thatplemented our cassettes, allowing our employees to train without leaving thepound. Their dorms were here as well, virtually eliminating their need to leave. This was done to discourage them from frolicking in public, bing possible intel leaks or hostages. I nced around, following along with where Vin pointed to, familiarizing myself with the ce. We were on some grass inside a park, and we could spot arge pedestrian path. If I didn¡¯t know where I was, I would definitely think it was just anothermercial street. Stores filled both sides of the road, ranging from clothing stores to coffee shops. There was even a VR cafe in the mix. There weren¡¯t too many people, but I¡¯ve been told they were more busy during thete evenings. That was because everyone within thepound was part of mypany. They would be working during this hour. In the distance, I could even spot a main street with fournes of traffic. I pulled up the map in my optics and began exploring. It told me what I saw was the only main road that allowed vehicles toe and go from thepound. The other areas only had pedestrian paths. We didn¡¯t dawdle in the park for long. Vin began escorting us to the main building. I took the liberty to stop by several vital buildings; mainly the training centers, clinics, and the motor pool. ¡°Come on, we¡¯ll being here tomorrow anyway. Don¡¯t you want to take a shower and rest for now?¡± Vin advised. He was right. My main purpose to visit was to oversee the training of the new recruits and facilities. I would being back for sure, but I had to sate my curiosity first. ¡°Fine. Let¡¯s go. You have our luggage right?¡± ¡°Yeah, and your rooms are ready, too.¡± On our way to our rooms, I spotted one of my milkshake stores, so I made sure to refresh myself before retiring to my room. The next morning, we returned to the training facilities. It hadrge rooms allocated for hypnopedia learning with our homemade cassettes. Directly adjacent to it, we had set up eitherbs or tactical training rooms to put what they learned to the test. The cassette part didn¡¯t need me to examine too much. I just needed to check the logs, and I was done. However, for the other sections, I decided to get a little hands-on with it. I went inside one of thesebs and ran the course like a typical trainee would. The first thing I had to do was to literallyplete a test. I sat by a terminal and began answering various questions. The questions would be consistent with the contents of the cassettes they used. For me, they just used whatever was already pulled up on the device for our little mock test. Afterward, theb was equipped with various tools that one would see in my workshop. Itsprehensive collection allowed our researcher trainees to experiment and try out applications of their newly gained knowledge. Overall, the facilities weren¡¯t something too alien. It was simr enough to what I¡¯d seen before. That was why we waited for the next batch of trainees to arrive, so we could spectate. ¡°The geeks have been telling me our new methods allow us to train security personnel twenty times faster than before. Less than two weeks with your sleep-learning stuff is equal to a year¡¯s worth of training,¡± Vin informed me as we nced over all the trainees. ¡°Yeah, but that¡¯ll also be as far as they can go with this method. They¡¯ll have to train themselves the old-fashioned way after that.¡± ¡°Are you sure you can¡¯t cook up those cassettes with more advanced skills?¡± ¡°The moreplex logic reasonings in those skills will make the brain endure most stress. It¡¯ll be easy to overload¡ª¡± I realized Vin¡¯s face was screaming disinterest despite my attempts at simplifying it, so I stopped. ¡°Bottom line is, no. For now, that¡¯ll be the best we got. We haven¡¯t figured out a way to safely create an advanced version that also doesn¡¯t instill exploitable habits. Genuine training is still king in this area.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t mean toin,¡± he shrugged. ¡°It already cuts down a year of training time for me. Couldn¡¯t help but get greedy, you know. It¡¯s the corpo way, right?¡± Vin nudged me with a grin. He never identified as corpos, even after how far we¡¯vee. In his heart, he was still a mercenary of some sort, doing a long-term gig. That was fine. I didn¡¯t need everyone to start acting like stuck-up corpos. I was d he remained unchanged. Next up were the tactical training facilities. It was simr to what I saw when I trained with Thorne and our first batch of recruits back in the day. Holographic technologybined with modr tforms allowed them to set up any terrain quickly. It was a given the most interesting part here would be the people themselves, so we had our new recruits put on a show. Vin had scheduled this even earlier already, apetition among the new hires, so there was no confusion. Various cameras and Nyes kept track of their exercise, allowing me to see every detail that went on. ¡°Is this the updated training curriculum you updated?¡± I turned my attention to Thorne. ¡°That¡¯s right. The cassettes only contained the general skills they wouldn¡¯t form bad habits from. We need to shore up their experience with dealing with our potential enemies.¡± By potential enemies, he meant power armors hailing from powerful corporations. The training scenario he hade up with included facing off against power armor and zero-gbat. Holographic simtions only went so far, so they included our real armors in the exercise as well. They were all equipped with energy shields, so it was more difficult to damage than not. In partnership with Vin, Thorne hadpiled a new set of tactics to go up against simr challenges they may face in the future. I could tell it was heavily inspired by my protector¡¯s fleet, where they worked together in unison with assigned roles to whittle down the enemy. Unfortunately, our equipment was much worse. It made theme up with a tactic to drag the fight out as long as we could. They needed to either drain the shields or create an opening for melee weapon wielders. It brought my attention to the major weakness I have been deliberating about. Our weapons were bought from the market. They were reliable, sure, but they weren¡¯t anything special. While it was fine to use against most opponents, therge corporations that have set their sights on us were a different story. I naturally opened up my status screen and my eyes drifted toward the upgrade section. There were numerous things I could upgrade. With twenty points to spare, my vision zoned in on the choices I had been keeping an eye on. I just need our software project to earn well. Then I¡¯ll be able to start addressing this weakness of ours. Chapter 195: Software Products Chapter 195: Software Products I sat there with my eyes closed as the barber bot worked its magic around my head. It was one of the many purchases we made in order to allow our employees to have afortable life within ourpound without leaving. While some corporations mandated that they couldn¡¯t leave without reason, I¡¯d rather use a softer approach. So far it mostly worked, but there were asional adventurers given I hadn¡¯t banned leaving. That was when my monitoring imnts came into full y. In a way, I preferred this to jailing everyone, as it could let us discover any sleeper agents early. It was preferable to be taken by surprise when they turned coat. That was especially so when I was currently watching dozens and dozens of my new recruits in the middle of their field exercise. Some of them even wore our power armor, which prompted me to consider the loyalty of my soldiers. These fears allowed me to understand why other corporations exerted such strict control. However, that was a game I didn¡¯t want to y along with. When I was going through school to turn away from gang life, I had dreams about corporate life. Stable jobs, money, co-worker get-togethers, sports, travel, the entire book. I had hoped to get into apany that wouldn¡¯t treat me too badly. Now that I was on the employer¡¯s side of the equation, I aimed to at least emte some of those aspirations I had. I couldn¡¯t force it on people, but I could create the environment for it. Of course, profits needed to be made, and I couldn¡¯t deviate too far from the norm. Not when I was such a small yer. The security field training soon ended,pleting my main objective for visiting. I spent another day talking with various recruits, shooting with them, and speaking to various employees to get their opinions on where we werecking. After ensuring our logistics were in order, I retreated into the hidden base within the wastnd. Since I was already here, I would be making use of the wastnd¡¯s bountiful resources, the mutants. My current coding project didn¡¯t require me to have ess to fancy equipment or test subjects either. I simply needed to direct a call to Lanus if I needed my trusty AI¡¯s help. I had everything I needed to spend thest few days of my trip out in the wastnd. It was time to grind. In both senses.
Game projects usually took several months at the minimum. There were a lot of different moving parts, with the coding, audio, writers, modeling, animation, etc. However, I had a cheat. It was called Lanus. Even after a round of upgrading, Lanus was still as hungry for hardware as ever. Nevertheless, it managed toplete several more projects concurrently. I simply had to input what I wanted done, and it would bepleted in record time. Leo and Lana had pulled through too, finding out some 3D artists and animators. I could have gotten Lanus to fill these roles, too, but the results would be too uniform. It would be easy for others to tell it wasn¡¯t man-made. In that case, I would have people wondering about the involvement of AIs. When my SAID alerted me, I stepped out of myb and went toward the elevator. It only took a few minutes of waiting until the doors opened and two figures emerged. I didn¡¯t say anything and turned around. They followed. We didn¡¯t speak until we were away from the fake background near the front. ¡°I¡¯m getting a little excited. Can¡¯t say I expected us to make our own game so soon. Does this mean you¡¯ll be ying with us more, Rollo?¡± I simply shrugged without turning back to ire¡¯s question. I doubted I would have that much spare time, but I didn¡¯t think it was wise to give her an outright negative answer. ¡°Anyway, did the finance and legal department give the all clear yet? It¡¯s still in testing, but we could probablyunch any day now.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. We did simr paperwork when we set up the payments for the EchoHalls app.¡± ¡°I would think micro-transactions would be moreplicated.¡± ¡°Nothing a few credits can¡¯t smooth over.¡± ¡°Well, I guess we just have to polish the actual product then,¡± I proimed as I held open one of the doors to a side room. Inside were several VR pods and half the development team. They were busy monitoring various data from our current beta server, where our employees were currently testing our game. There wasn¡¯t a lot that needed to be said, and we quickly found ourselves in our own pods. The neural link connection felt like I was hooking up to a power armor, but I was soon lured into the virtual world. Before the game finished booting up, I already received ire¡¯s invite to join her voice chat. ¡°What are you selecting? Both Thorne and I are stumped.¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°What? I thought you two often yed still?¡± ¡°Umm, not fantasy games like this. I¡¯ve never ever heard of these races, gnomes, and orcs.¡± ¡°Just pick whatever you want. We¡¯re just testing right now, anyway.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not how that works! If we¡¯re going to y, we have to get things right on the first try. Isn¡¯t that right, Thorne?¡± ¡°Umm, sure?¡± I shook my head as I got the character creation started. I quickly selected my race and ss and loaded into the tutorial. From my investigation into the game market of this world, I found that itcked many familiar sights of my previous world. Most of the games focused on modern and sci-fi battles, utilizing guns. Some of them focused on the management of resources and personnel, like running a business. While they had their fair share of sci-fi massively multiyer role-ying games, the fantasy genre was absent. It seems the idea of orcs, elves, and other races wasn¡¯tmon knowledge here. No wonder that executive from SocialCorp took such an interest in some manga he found in the dungeons. The entertainment media must¡¯ve been reset after the doomsday event five hundred years ago. And now I will be bringing it back. Good thing there¡¯s a convenient excuse for how we came up with the ideas. I can just say I discovered it from old records found in the dungeons. ¡°Wait, you picked already?¡± ire¡¯s voice rang out once more. ¡°Yep. Troll mage. Hurry up or I¡¯ll be leaving you behind.¡± I doubted she would rush the character creation, so I had to give her a push. I wanted to get this product out as soon as possible. To be honest, I didn¡¯t know what to expect when creating this game. In the creative field, it was often hard to tell if you could make a profit from it. Even with perfect coding, free from bugs, it was hard to tell how the audience would react to it. This was especially true when I nned to introduce a new genre into the scene. That was why we developed several games concurrently. In the middle of one of these projects, it even spurred forth an idea for another software product. So far, this MMORPG we developed had different races that spoke differentnguages. In an effort to make that more realistic, we made real-time trantion software for when the yers unlocked thatnguage. It was an idea that hadpletely escaped me previously. Every ce I had been to spoke the samenguage. However, when I was researching how to create the various fantasynguages, I found that there was a wide variety ofnguages in this world still. Most of that congregated in the Europa area, so I hadn¡¯te into contact with it. The trantion software would haveunched already if we weren¡¯t still in the middle of dealing with the legal paperwork. Europa was split into many city-states and small countries, and we were a neer to their market. In the end, our games and trantion software were scheduled to beunched in unison with the game. ¡°Rollo, what¡¯s your username?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± Before I could reply, ire yelled. ¡°What? Don¡¯t leave me behind, you two.¡±
After another month of testing, our game waspleted in time for our scheduledunch date. On that day, I waited patiently in my undergroundb, waiting for the sale to officially start. I checked every email in anticipation of any updates, and that was when I received a somewhat unexpected message. The sender was named Polina Burges. She was one of the female test subjects Nova Tech had captured. The one who I had nudged into escaping from their base. I had left her behind in Aegis, as I didn¡¯t have the leeway to pay for all of their tickets, and she declined my offer. She stayed behind with the rest of the former subjects to work for that fare. To no surprise, her message indicated she had managed to muster enough funds for her trip home. She was scheduled to arrive tonight and invited me to find her when I had the time. She did say she would introduce me to her family. Havingunched several products before, I knew it would take some time for our sales data to be gathered. I swiftly called the security department to prepare for my trip out. Having memories of Polina resurface, I couldn¡¯t help but think about the bio-coprocessor chips we were developing as well. I gathered many know-how from Nova Tech andbined it with my knowledge to create our own version. I had been holding back while I was working for them, but there was no need to do so anymore. I just needed to develop amercial and a private version where I could employ my full skill set. Nova Tech had issues with managing the heat and electrical emissions from adding neural link technology to their chip, but I easily addressed those problems. With ten points in cybeic engineering, fitting high-powered devices into the human body without producing any harmful effects was right up my alley. In fact, I had experience doing so with the Argus. I knew Polina still had the experimental chip installed into her, so I debated getting her a more stable imnt to rece her old one. However, it may remind her of those dark times, so I wasn¡¯t sure how to proceed. I eventually decided to meet her in person first to get to know about her situation first. Right as evening came, I had a small convoy of Wraiths, disguised as regr vehicles, escort me to the spaceport. For now, the VTOL was too high-profile, and we only had one of them. It made it easy for me to get targeted if I liberally made use of it. Our vehicle disguises were only turned on while in city traffic, as we¡¯d rather not antagonize spaceport security for no reason. It was still one of the most secure ces I¡¯ve seen, and there was no need for any misunderstandings. I arrived just as Polina¡¯s shuttlended. Before long, I spotted her blonde hair peeking out from the gates. It looked more lustrous than before, but her hallowed cheeks told a different story. She must¡¯ve overworked herself back in Aegis. ¡°Wee back home, Polina. I¡¯m d you made it.¡± ¡°Rollo, it¡¯s all thanks to you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s valid anymore. You worked your own way back here. It¡¯s easy to tell when you lost so many pounds since I¡¯vest seen you.¡± She shook her head as she smiled. ¡°That¡¯s just me losing the weight I¡¯ve gained from idling in one ce for too long,¡± she chuckled. ¡°That, and all the dock work they had us do in those flimsy EVA suits.¡± ¡°EVA suits? That sounds like an exciting experience.¡± ¡°Trust me, it¡¯s not.¡± ¡°Uh-huh. Let¡¯s stop our conversation here and get going. I think you have a daughter to see, right?¡± At my words, she beamed. We quickly boarded our cars and returned to the city. While we were on our way, I couldn¡¯t help but ask about her job in Aegis. My next ns involved expanding up there, and I could use as much info as I could get. Getting them from different perspectives was just what I needed. Let¡¯s hope our software projects take off and we actually have enough money to implement our ns. Chapter 196: Dawn Chapter 196: Dawn While our car made its way through Elevate City¡¯s evesting traffic, I sent a message to my sales department. It had begun to bug me that it wasn¡¯t possible to internally vocalize my thoughts over calls. From what I¡¯ve seen, it was a limitation ofmercial SAID models. Now that I¡¯ve discovered a way to address that with the neuralponent used in the bio-processor chips, I noted it down on the project files for our under-development SAID. One of our ongoing projects was the set of cybeics. The number of pieces in a set could vary. There were numerous tiny cybeics that could synergize and improve performance, but at the end of the day, there were only a few mandatory pieces in a set. The point was to facilitate high-speed movements by recing weak human parts with cybeic parts that could handle the stress. That meant a set often included the human limbs, the spine, relevant muscles, joints, and even some bones. The mostplicated part was the spine. It included numerous sensitive parts that reced the nervous system. However, for the set I was aiming to create, my main focus was on the SAID. That was because it was the control tower for all the other cybeics a user had. It was basically the heart of it. With all these delicate parts to design, it dyed the project again and again. It was to the point where I expedited themercial variant of the Talos, our in-house cyberarm. With more funds, we could expand our team and expand our research budget. We didn¡¯t want to rush our in-house cybeics, only to need an upgrade soon after. With all these things on the line, I couldn¡¯t help but have a screen pulled up in the corner of my eye to keep an eye on our productunch. We simultaneouslyunched our MMORPG game and our trantion software today. As it was a new market that we were entering, I had no idea what to expect. I didn¡¯t think it¡¯d fail, but the level of sess it could achieve varied too greatly for me to set what was a reasonable expectation. ¡°And, we¡¯re here. I almost can¡¯t believe it,¡± Polina muttered. I looked outside to inspect the towering megabuilding we were approaching. I¡¯ve seen many like it and even lived in one when I first got into this world. Still, it was hard not to be impressed by the architectural marvel that it was. Our small convoy of half a dozen cars pulled up in one of the parking lots and dispersed. Many of my security personnel would be clearing the way and guarding us from the distance. That left me and Polina to slowly make our way in. Immediately upon opening the door toward the greater atrium of the megabuilding, I was met with obnoxious music and the bustling of the crowd. Like the other buildings, the atrium was surrounded by numerous residences across hundreds of levels. The central part of the first floor was like a busy shopping mall with various businesses. We pressed the button for the elevator and I couldn¡¯t resist taking a peek down at the market below. We were only on the third floor, so I couldn¡¯t oversee the entire ce, but it allowed me to clearly see what businesses they were. Unlike the megabuilding I had lived in, this building appeared to be better on the security side. I didn¡¯t spot any gang members, and the eateries were jammed packed. I didn¡¯t get to examine them further as the elevator swiftly arrived. I simply followed Polina. She soon nervously came to a stop outside one of the many units. ¡°Go on. She is already expecting you, right?¡± She turned to me and, after a moment of hesitation, swallowed down all her worries and rang the doorbell. Immediately, the door popped open, and an eye peeked out. ¡°Mom?¡± the teenage girl on the other side widened her eyes as it got teary. ¡°Mom!¡± The door mmed wide open and a younger version of Polina rushed to her mother¡¯s embrace. ¡°Sally, I¡¯m back,¡± Polina weakly muttered with a gentle smile. ¡°I trust that you were able to take care of yourself properly while I was gone?¡± ¡°Of course. Didn¡¯t Auntie Suzy tell you about it?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. I still have to thank her for taking care of you.¡± As they continued to chat, I slowly took a step back from the dramatic reunion between mother and daughter and gave them some space. However, my good intentions were foiled as a hand reached out to grab me. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s head inside first. I have someone to introduce you to.¡± It was only then that her daughter noticed me. ¡°Umm, who? He¡¯s too young for you, Mom.¡± Polina fiercely smacked her daughter on the back of the head as we made our way inside. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be here without this person¡¯s help. Be polite.¡± ¡°Haha, it¡¯s fine. You can treat me casually. I¡¯m Rollo, by the way.¡± ¡°Sally. Thanks for helping my mom.¡± While the girl regarded me with a guarded look, she still weed me to a seat. There, I tried to keep my words short, so the two could spend more time with each other. The conversationsted a few minutes before Polina rebuked her daughter. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Where are our manners? Sally quickly go grab something to drink for our guest here.¡± The moment she left earshot, I whispered a question that happened to be one of my purposes for today¡¯s visit. ¡°Polina, do you still have that¡­biochip installed? The one from Nova Tech.¡± ¡°Yes, I was busy scrounging up every credit I could to get back here. There¡¯s no way I would pay a cyber doc to remove it when it wasn¡¯t an urgent matter. In fact, it helped me with my work quite a bit. There were a few times I got close to getting hurt from some hurling debris if it wasn¡¯t for the chip.¡± ¡°Still, it¡¯s dangerous to use that experimental product. It hasn¡¯t been thoroughly tested and wasn¡¯t even designed for longevity. It was something they smashed together for a one-time test. It¡¯s practically a ticking time bomb.¡± ¡°...I¡¯ll see what I can do once I get settled in again.¡± We fell into a moment of silence as we heard Sallying back with a tray in hand. She ced them down in the most polite way she could before going over to turn on the TV. It seemed she thought we were talking about something sensitive and kept her distance. ¡°Now that you¡¯re back, how about it? Will you think about my offer to work for me?¡± I continued. ¡°Oh please. I¡¯ve troubled you enough. I don¡¯t have any valuable skills that would be worth your time.¡± ¡°You¡¯re someone who has valuable experiences working in space now. I n to expand up there soon, so you¡¯d be plenty helpful.¡± ¡°Hmm, let me think about it first.¡± ¡°Of course. You deserve a break with your family.¡± At my words, we both turned to Sally. Her eyes were currently glued to the screen that was ying amercial. Themercial just so happened to be from mypany. ¡°Are you interested in games?¡± I asked. She snapped toward me and was about to answer when she suddenly settled down upon seeing her mom. ¡°Not really. I just recognize it because I heard my friends will be ying.¡± I grinned at her obvious attempt at hiding her desires. I checked thetest GPS update from my employee and found them just a few minutes away. ¡°I see. Well, I have a gift for you guys, but it¡¯s a little too bulky for me to carry, so I had someone else bring it over. It should be arriving soon.¡± I could almost see the question marks popping up from both their heads and chose not to borate. I excused myself to the washroom so I would return at the perfect time. Like that, several minutes went by. I returned to their living room just as their doorbell rang. ¡°Go ahead, that should be my gift.¡± The twodies exchanged nces before answering the door. They gasped upon seeing all the people outside. I had ordered a VR capsule unit for them so I could gift them mypany¡¯s new game. While we didn¡¯t manufacture any capsule units ourselves, we still reserved a number of them for our testing and demo sessions. While covering her mouth, Polina came over toward me as four men carried the bed-sized capsule into their home. In hindsight, I should¡¯ve realized they wouldn¡¯t have much room in their apartment. Thankfully they have just enough room to put it, but I feel kind of bad for crowding up their space now.N?v(el)B\\jnn ¡°What is this, Rollo? You didn¡¯t have to get us anything.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Mypany happens to beunching a game today, so I was giving these out as a promotional activity. I thought your daughter was at the age she would enjoy things like this. Sorry, it¡¯s so bulky, though. If you don¡¯t want it, I can get something else instead.¡± ¡°No!¡± Sally interjected. ¡°We¡¯ll take it!¡± She turned her pleading eyes to her mother, who only sternly red at her. However, the young girl didn¡¯t falter. ¡°Please, mom. I want to join my friends.¡± ¡°If you want something, then save up for it with your own abilities.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t understand, mom. Then I¡¯d be so behind. I¡¯d have to level by myself if I don¡¯t join them within the first few days. Faced with the puppy eyes of her beloved daughter, Polina did what any other mother do in this situation. She relented.
By the time I was on my way back tob zero, it was dawn. Our sales data for our opening day was just about ready. It was time to see how it did. Just the first day wouldn¡¯t be indicative of how it would do in the long run, but it was still a strong indicator. If we organizedrger beta sessions, and various preunch activities, we may have gotten more data to plot our estimates with. However, all those things also alerted ourpetitors. While the gaming industry wasn¡¯t one where sabotage wasmon, it was hard to say what they would do to deter newpetitors from joining their market. It was deemed safer to quickly enter the market first than to min-max our marketing campaign. I opened the file named ¡®Legend of the Mythic War Sales Report¡¯ and read over the numbers with bated breath. I skipped over the fluff and arrived at the sales number. I counted the digits behind the two. I counted three digits, then four, and then five. Including the two, that was six digits. That meant we had sold over two hundred thousand copies! It wasmon for famouspanies to sell tens of millions on the first day, but our results were still amazing. We priced our game as low as we could get away with it without appearing to be a cheap knockoff. That meant it was sold for fifty credits. However, that didn¡¯t include the micro-transactions avable in the game or subscription time in the future. Just from the initial sales alone, we made ten million credits in revenue. The development team was considered small, as Lanus did much of the heavy lifting, and the only significant expenses were for the servers and marketing. I couldn¡¯t wipe the grin from my face as I ced a call to my chief operations officer. ¡°So you read the results, too? Are you going toe back for today, or should we go over to you?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s¡­get used toing over tob zero. It¡¯s more secure.¡± ¡°Hmm, fine. I¡¯ll grab the others. See you in a bit.¡± ire swiftly ended the call before we managed to get into the meat of the conversation. I sighed and looked back down at the report. While hundreds of thousands of sales weren¡¯t record-breaking or anything, it was still a significant step forward. My bottom line was ten million in revenue within two weeks. It was what we needed in order to jumpstart our expansion n and we had met that in a day. It was a mind-boggling number to think about only a year ago. It was the same amount of credits we paid annually to maintain our new status as an E-ss Corporation. I knew the top yers in the market sold tens of millions, but I only felt satisfaction at our aplishments. Just Elevate City alone had hundreds of millions of people. The life of the average person in this world was miserable enough to strengthen their urge to y games to get away from it all. Nevertheless, they decided to spend their hard-earned money on my product. I couldn¡¯t be prouder of mypany. The sess had opened up numerous possibilities for us. Tomorrow, I¡¯ll have a lot of work to do. But as ire said, these moments are for celebrations. Our golden age ising. Chapter 197: Legend of the Mythic War Chapter 197: Legend of the Mythic War The doors to the elevators opened, and several figures exited. Seeing this, I exited myb to go greet them. I came just as they disabled their holographic disguises. ¡°Congrattions to you,head designer! Your baby is a sess,¡± ire cheered. While I was used to her antics, I wasn¡¯t ready for what came next from Leo. ¡°Come on, Rollo. Were you seriously surprised at the sess? Did you not believe in me when Lana and I sent you our reports after that closed beta we hosted?¡± ¡°Um¡ª¡± Before I could respond, Thorne cut me off. ¡°He one hundred percent skimmed through your report. I¡¯ve been watching him do that to everything marked as non-urgent these past few months. He shoved them all in a pile for him to view, or so he says.¡± ¡°Well, I¡¯ve been busy.¡± I couldn¡¯t verify Thorne¡¯s ims, but he was more likely to be right than not. In that case, it really was my fault for not reading it. ¡°Either way,¡± I cleared my throat. ¡°It gave me a pleasant surprise, so all¡¯s well that ends well.¡± ¡°Well, the one you should be paying close attention to is the trantion software,¡± Leo continued. ¡°For things like that, the sales usually ramp up rather than explode all at once onunch day.¡± He was right. Our target market for the trantion software was part of an entirely different segment. The gaming market was broad and leaned toward the younger age groups. Meanwhile, the trantion software was aimed at people of working age and above. More specifically, small businesses, mercenaries who traveled, or simply people going on vacations. These working adults were a lot more cautious in their spending habitspared to their younger counterparts, letting others review the product first. Then they would analyze it further to ensure it didn¡¯t have any detrimental effects. All this made the sales of the trantion software industry be slowly ramping. It was a lot harder to judge its sess based on data fromunch day alone. ¡°We¡¯ll deal with that as things happen. That was a side project anyway. For the next week, we need to gather more urate projections to calcte our expected ie. Then we can really start the expansion.¡± ¡°You boys!¡± ire pped, drawing our attention. ¡°Enough talk about work, I said. Come on, let¡¯s goy out the food. It¡¯s going to get cold.¡± She briskly walked toward the meeting room with Lana close on her tail. The three of us shrugged and followed along. The conversation went on to more mundane subjects as I swiftly found our meeting table filled with various delicacies. True to my taste, everything was made from authentic ingredients and none of that synthetic crap. I soon found out it was courtesy of my longtime acquaintance, Joey. He may be all business when it came down to it, but he at least knew how to enjoy when he could. I had barely met him or my other friend, Luford, after my return. Only asional business calls, so maybe I should change that soon. If I wanted to expand rapidly, I couldn¡¯t neglect my business rtionships. As ire got loaded up on booze, we quickly found ourselves running out of topics to talk about. We didn¡¯t exactly have much inmon outside of work. It naturally led the discussion to drift toward our new game. Apparently, it was okay to talk about it. I had no idea what kind of standards ire used, but I wasn¡¯tining. ¡°You two,¡± I addressed Leo and Lana. ¡°Tell me more about this closed beta I missed. I¡¯d rather hear it from you than read a report at this point.¡± Leo shrugged. ¡°What do you want me to talk about? It¡¯s just us reaching out to the acquaintances we made over our short career as mercenaries. Tons of cy-sec experts are nerds who dabble in games as well, so it wasn¡¯t that hard.¡± ¡°And what¡¯d they say that made you confident it would do okay?¡± ¡°Everyone thought it was refreshing,¡± Lana answered. ¡°Don¡¯t think there are many games that incorporate magic and made-up races. Usually, people find it too unfamiliar, but the world in the Legend of the Mythic War was captivating.¡± ¡°It just feels¡­ polished,¡± Leo added. I nodded. I knew it was because the entire concept, from the sses, game mode, leveling experience, and everything else, was based on my memories from one of the most popr games released. It was cheating in that Iborroweda developed idea. Things aligned, and the people of this world were new to the fantasy genre. I didn¡¯t regret being the one to introduce it to them.
Sherry - Mercenary ¡°I told you, I¡¯m busy for this weekend. You¡¯ll either have to find a recement for your gig or wait!¡± Sherry mercilessly cut off the call. It was from one of the few teams she asionally helped out, but she didn¡¯t regret it. It was hard for someone like her who had a corpo upbringing to get along with others who were so different. She believed she was already doing her best by being able to work with them at all.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om However, everyone knew she didn¡¯t have a choice. Practically exiled from corporate society, the mercenary jobs she had to take often required more than just brains. She needed boots on the ground and muscle to get past the security. It was unavoidable for people in her situation to work with these mercenaries from the. Once she ended the call, she dove back into her VR capsule and rejoined another call. ¡°Sorry about that. I¡¯m back.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°No need to be sorry. We didn¡¯t wait for you. Hurry up and catch up before we start the instance!¡± ¡°What? You guys couldn¡¯t wait a few minutes? Oh,e on. Come back and help me. There¡¯s no way I can quest faster than you guys in a group.¡± ¡°...Fine. Give us a min¡ªWait! We¡¯re being ganked! Dumb ugly orc rogues! Who in their right mind would create a character like that? Hurry up ande help us.¡± ¡°Where?¡± ¡°Look on the map, genius! It¡¯s just north of you.¡± Sherry swiftly got on her mount and speeded off to herpanions. The urgency of her actions caused one of the patrolling guards to signal her to a halt. It was a bot. Aputer-controlled character. Thankfully, it was one from the faction she hailed from, so it wasn¡¯t likely it would turn hostile. If Sherry could, she would rather blow past the bot if she had a choice. However, she knew that would just get her ced on the wanted list and taken to a cell once she returned to town. ¡°Halt. Exin themotion at once! We can¡¯t have you galloping at full speed in the town in this manner.¡± Sherry took in a deep breath to calm herself, despite knowing her real body did not mimic the same action. She needed topose herself before talking to the bot. It felt strange speaking to someone from a different time. Compared to her previous experience when ying games in a modern setting, it was a new experience. It pulled her into the atmosphere, which caused her to speak dramatically. ¡°Please make way! Mypanions are being assaulted and they need my help!¡± Her messages were instantly read by the game¡¯s AI and a response wasposed within a second. Different from Lanus, this AI wasn¡¯t sentient. It was simr to Rollo¡¯s old SAID AI, Kiri. It was simply a database of inputs and outputs that had preset responses. ¡°What? Under my watch? Outrageous! Guide me, I shall join you.¡± Like that, Sherry was joined by the bot in reinforcing her friends. It would inevitably lead to chaos. The chaotic battles on opening day were widespread. Numerous yers were experimenting with the mechanics of the game and the parameters of the bots. Everyone was rushing to be the first one to solve the game. It was something even Rollo didn¡¯t know how it would develop. AI brought a whole new dynamic to games. Having intelligent NPCspletely overhauled the experience. The economy was more sophisticated, as well as enabling a plethora of options. What the yers soon found out after the first day was that the AIs were strangely well-coded. They didn¡¯t find any game-breaking bugs or exploits. Praise of the game was being sung throughout the grapevines. The game development team of the Halls Corporation was establishing a favorable reputation. Unbeknownst to these yers, the party who was really responsible for the smooth gamey wasn¡¯t any human. It was, in fact, Lanus, the sentient AI. It wasn¡¯t a surprise for Rollo that Lanus was an expert in managing how a primitive AI worked. It took one to know how one worked. Even with Rollo¡¯s advanced knowledge, he was still only human. He would still make mistakes. It was only an AI that could produce perfect work. It was to the point where Rollo purposely introduced small bugs to not raise suspicion. But that truth wouldn¡¯t see the light of day.
The next morning, I woke up and went through my routine to get cleaned up. I then made my way to the server where Lanus was. ¡°Greetings. Good morning, Rollo.¡± ¡°Lanus, can I get an update on how the Legend of the Mythic War has been doing sincest night?¡± ¡°Report. It has been steadily growing. From the two hundred thousand, six hundred and forty-two yers recorded at eighteen hundred o¡¯clock, it has gone up by approximately one hundred thousand. Micro-transactions have been rapidly rising as well. Sending you a detailed report with the numbers now.¡± Satisfied with the numbers, I went to inspect our servers. With Lanus overseeing it, there haven¡¯t been any crashes or anything yet, but I needed to double-check everything on the hardware side. The pseudo AI we created for the game¡¯s NPC, or bots, as they called it in this world, was vital to the game. We gave them a lot of freedom, so any potential issues they had could easily ruin everything. It was something I wouldn¡¯t have dared to implement if I didn¡¯t have Lanus monitoring it. If anything was found, Lanus would then g it to our development team for fixes. Otherwise, it may raise some suspicion if any parties paid attention and discovered an inhuman response time. Overall, I was happy with the results. This entire project had another boon to it. It allowed us to openly procure arge amount of hardware parts for the servers. With thatrge order, we easily added extra parts to expand Lanus¡¯ capabilities as well. It could now handle all the day-to-day monitoring of my employees, game, and facility. At the same time, it was able to assist all four research groups. With the matter of the video game being on the right track, it was time for me to review our expansion n. For themercial aspect, our roadmap included upgrading to D-ss, so we could have the rights to operate in Aegis. We had a few other projects lined up as well, with the set of cybeics at the forefront. However, the focus of that would be on internal use instead. As we built up our business, we needed the strength to defend it. We needed to have a strong front to deter any parties from getting ideas. Our equipment also needed to be ready to operate in the zero-g environment. There were many upgrades in mind, but the most important ones were going to be directly rted to what I was going to spend my upgrade points on. It was time to pull the trigger. I confirmed ourpany finances would be able to support more ambitious endeavors. As my guardian, NPC, had said, the time to lie low was over. I could afford to reveal some high technology of my own now. I opened my status once more time to confirm my points. Chapter 198: Decision Chapter 198: Decision It was finally time to spend upgrade points. Ever since my return to Elevate City, I have been contemting how to utilize my points. There were several options, but I knew mypany needed some time to stabilize our foundations first. Things kept changing every month, so I decided it was better to save my points until I was ready. Now I am. Having saved twenty-two points, I knew it would have a drastic impact on my future. I had more than enough to bring two new skills to plus ten. For the knowledge upgrades, that was at the typical tech-level top corporations used. Of course, it couldn¡¯tpare to the areas where they specialized in. It was hard to gauge exactly what level their top-of-the-line equipment was at as they kept it ssified. I deliberated upgrading other types of skills only briefly, but quickly discarded them. Those skills were more intuitive, not something I could easily transfer to others in the way I could do with the cassettes. At the same time, I didn¡¯t want to go down the one-man army route. A person¡¯s strength was limited. It may sound enticing to be a superhuman, but it wouldn¡¯t align with my goals of growing thepany. We were still vulnerable. I couldn¡¯t afford to waste any upgrade points. There were a few skills I had my eye on. They were things that would facilitate our future expansion. In order to protect myself, as my guardian angel had advised, the most obvious things that came to mind were all rted to an immediate gain inbat power. That was expressed in skilled personnel and advanced equipment. My cybeic project was something that addressed this issue. I could upgrade something thatplimented it, but I found the effect to be limited. It had a diminishing return to it. There was only so much we could do to improve the cybeics. There was limited space avable in human-sized cybeics. If we tried to implement too many things, it was possible we may even have to invest more points in order to create the materials that could manifest these technological applications. All these reasonsbined with the fact it didn¡¯t give us enough of an edge, especially in our next frontier, made me discount it. Our current short-term goal was to advance into the space market. This new frontier wasn¡¯t a forgiving one to go into. Having experienced it for myself, just having cutting-edge infantry-levelbat power wouldn¡¯t cut it. That was exactly why my train of thought arrived at spaceships. In space, ships were the literal lifelines anyone had. Without it, you may be stranded or worse. In the same sense, space stations were just as vital, but the scale of that was toorge for me to think about for now. Even spaceships may be a little too ambitious for the current Halls Corporation. Even a small ship that I once rented to visit Ferrumus Corporation cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions. However, with ships, we could start small and expandter. It would provide valuable experiences to all the relevant personnel. To further that goal, I scanned through the exhaustive options I had in my menus. My search left me with the most obvious choice: aerospace engineering. Aeronautical and astronautical engineering were both likely under the umbre of it, as I could not find them. I theorized it would provide aeronautical knowledge in the early levels before diving into the astronautical stuff. This selection had been the safest bet, given that I had the funds to go into it. Now that my game hadunched sessfully, that requirement was satisfied. However, I wasn¡¯t as sure about my second selection. The only thing I knew I wanted to focus on was weapons. Having witnessed Ferrumus Corp and my guardian angel¡¯s forces, I knew the importance of strong offensive capabilities. It was a department we were severelycking in, having relied onmercial products. Despite knowing what I wanted, it wasn¡¯t easy to make a choice. There were too many weapons one could devise. Frequency weapons seemed to be the standard for dealing with energy weapons, but I wasn¡¯t sure if that was universal enough for our needs. I only had enough to bring one more skill up to a usable level against their top corporations. Just like my concern with cybeics, I had only seen frequency weapons at the infantry level. It was likely because the weapons of this tech tree had limited range. That¡¯s why I¡¯ve only seen it in grenade form. As it trade-off it was able to bypass the protection of most energy shields, directly damaging the internals of the devices. I believed something more traditional was more efficient. I wanted something that shared fundamental principles like guns and artillery. My eyes drew near the options for energy weapons, ones that could allow me to createser weaponry. I had nced over it before, when I first obtained the system, but avoided it due to drawing too much attention. Hmm, it¡¯ll be something new. I¡¯ll have to start from scratch, but that¡¯s the price I¡¯ll have to y catch up. I took a moment and nced down at my current skills as Imented this fact, but that was when I realized something. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the vition. I¡¯m an idiot. I do have existing knowledge that I could leverage in weapons already! My eyes rested on electrical engineering. So far, I have employed it to create our vehicles, our scanners, and a plethora more. Its potential didn¡¯t end there. I regrly used weapons that fell under electrical engineering as well. The theories were in my mind, but I never explored deeply into its military applications. In the first ce, I didn¡¯t believe what I could create would do much better than existing products. Railguns weremon enough among mid-ss corporations and weren¡¯t anything special. With electrical engineering having so much breadth, I knew its depth wasn¡¯tparable to more specialized skills. This led me to rest my eyes on another skill, one called Particle Physics. I had some cursory knowledge of particle beams thanks to it sharing fundamental principles with railguns. Unlike railguns, particle beams were directed energy weapons and not kic projectile weapons. As my goal was a weapon that could deal with energy shields, the energy weapon nature of particle beams became more and more attractive. From my tests with the energy shield we had captured, we learned they dealt with projectile weapons much better than energy weapons. It meant particle beams were a possible counter to these shields. It likely had intensive energy requirements, but I could solve that with the mini-nuclear reactors our power armor used for now. Then, in the future, I could branch off into these power sources. Combining particle physics with my existing knowledge of electrical engineering, I believed I could craft a powerful solution that could meet our needs for some time. It could not only satisfy our small-arms demand, but be scaled up for ship-scale armaments as well.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Before making my all-important decisions that would affect my entirepany, I called over my two trusted friends. ¡°What¡¯s up, Rollo? What do we need to talk about that we need toe in person? The first few times were fun, but having to disguise ourselves before dropping by isn¡¯t time efficient, you know?¡± Thorne snickered at ire¡¯s words. ¡°You¡¯re just annoyed we¡¯re buying takeout instead of sitting down at a fancy restaurant.¡± ¡°Hey! I don¡¯t have to bring you the next time then, okay?¡± ¡°Works for me.¡± ire red at Thorne¡¯s immediate reply. Its effect grew as time passed, causing Thorne to give me a look that said, ¡°Hurry up and change the topic, so I don¡¯t have to deal with this.¡± ¡°Ahem,¡± I cleared my throat. ¡°This may be sudden, but what do you guys think about expanding into aerospace and the arms industry?¡± ¡°What!?¡± ire yelled. ¡°Do you have any idea what you¡¯re saying? Both those industries are a yground for giants! You just scrapped by the incident with Nova Tech and you want to test your luck again?¡± ¡°ire¡¯s right. Even with our recent sess, it won¡¯t be easy to jump into that market even with enough resources.¡± ¡°I may have misspoken,¡± I gestured for the two to sit down and calm themselves. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to go wrestle market shares right away. The main purpose of entering this market is for internal use. I want us to be as self-sufficient as possible and have our own unique advantages. We can think aboutmercializing stuff muchter.¡± ¡°Did you alreadye up with something?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°No, but I¡¯m confident it won¡¯t take long. We can put our newly acquired funds to good use. We¡¯ll need to start by promoting thepany to D-ss first. Then¡ª¡± ¡°Woah, woah. Hold up,¡± Thorne interrupted. ¡°You want to spend all our new funds on tworge projects? I thought you were still busy with the cybeic one and power armor.¡± ¡°I should be able to finish those soon now that the game is going well. We did hire an entire department to oversee it, after all. Then the promotion to D-ss and acquiring real estate in Aegis will take some time, too. All these things will take quite some time since we¡¯re heading into unfamiliar territory. By the time they are processed, I¡¯ll be able to get to it.¡± ¡°What about the new personnel we¡¯ll need?¡° ire interjected. ¡°Do you have cassettes to train them up as well? Because I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able to find any aerospace engineers open in the market or whatever arms you want to develop.¡± ¡°Yes. With Lanus around, it shouldn¡¯t take long. I¡¯ll have time ready while you hire. Just focus your search for people with a solid academic background and trustworthiness.¡± ire nced down and didn¡¯t say a word. Seeing Thorne wearing a thoughtful look as well, I tried to reassure them. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much, guys. Just like always, I¡¯m confident I can cook something up that¡¯ll provide us with apetitive advantage. You wanted to be able topete against the likes of Nova Tech next time. Right, Thorne?¡± ¡°Competitive advantages?¡± Thorne parroted. ¡°...Don¡¯t tell me you can just enter such a sophisticated market and still stand above thoserge corps? I know you¡¯ve always delivered, but I still need to ask. How? Don¡¯t tell me that NPC of yours is really the one providing you with the tech? To what ends?¡± I met his gaze and sighed before ncing over at ire to confirm if she felt the same. She didn¡¯t bother to hide her skepticism at all. ¡°What? You¡¯d think I wouldn¡¯t be curious either? The timing is just too coincidental. You meet your guardian angel and shortly after you receive tech only big corps have? I know too well how much R&D would cost to even design the most basic spacecraft, and it¡¯s not an amount I think you could just hide away from us.¡± I had relied on mypanions to mind their own businesses this entire time. I had pulled new things one after the other like a magician, and even I knew I was stretching the definition of what a single genius could do. Usually, geniuses were in a particr field, and they didn¡¯te up with exactly what theirpany needed every time. It wasn¡¯t surprising they knew something was off from the start. Now, with the recent interactions that I had with the NPC, it was understandable as to why they drew such a conclusion. I had to decide if I should reveal my secret or not. ¡°No, it has nothing to do with the NPC¡­¡± I muttered as my mind raced. ¡°Then what?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°I know you may not want to talk about it, but I still have to ask. Who¡¯s behind you, Rollo? Are you sure we¡¯re not just puppets with someone pulling the strings? I want to know so I can prepare what we¡¯ll have to face.¡± With both their gazes on me, I had to make a decision. To answer or not to answer? Chapter 199: Weighing Benefits to Risks Chapter 199: Weighing Benefits to Risks I was faced with a dilemma. I could either truthfully tell Thorne and ire about the system or continue dodging the question. The system basically enabled me to bring up thepany by providing variouspetitive advantages that got us ahead of thepetition. Without it, our meteoric rise wouldn¡¯t be possible. We would¡¯ve been ordinary at best. Even if we were talented, it would normally still take generations to build up a corporation and slowly move up the ranks. Rising stars like us were almost unheard of. Those who wereparable were usually backed by one of therger corporations. It could either be at the whimsical fancy of an executive¡¯s children, a test, or bringing up a puppet for political reasons. Regardless, having a strong backer was the norm. For the same reason, everyone we¡¯ve been against suspected me of having a backer. Even Thorne and ire thought the same. I haven¡¯t told them anything yet, not because I didn¡¯t trust them enough, but because there were no perks to informing them about this monumental secret. It would only add a new avenue for potential leaks. Who knew what kind of interrogation techniques others possessed? It was hard to say for certain if they had truth serums or something simr. With that said, it also wasn¡¯t good to keep them in the dark forever. Right now, I single-sidedly decided the direction of thepany because I was the only one with all the facts. I nned the direction of all our expansions myself, as it centered around the system. If I told them the truth, they could provide insight. If I left the question unaddressed, it could cause a small crack in our rtionship that could fracture further down the line. To tell them was a show of trust and not telling them was the opposite. It was possible there came a time when I would be out of touch with them again, just like this previous incident with Nova Tech. If I let a seed of doubt take root inside their hearts, I may be exposing all of us to danger. I did a double-take on all the new security features we had in ce. No matter how advanced it was, at the end of the day, it came down to the humans who operated them. Perhaps that¡¯s why no one allows AIs to have full ess to security instations. If I were an emotionless AI, who knows when I would deem all humans a potential security breach and move to remove them? ¡°Okay,¡± I sighed, ¡°I¡¯ll talk. Lanus, activate the highest level of jamming around this area. I want it to be impossible for anyone to eavesdrop or record anything that goes on in here.¡± ¡°Rmendation. Move to one of the test rooms so no valuable electronics are damaged from prolonged high-powered jamming.¡± The three of us shared a quick shrug and began moving toward one of the test sites outlined in our SAID. I had copied a lot of the framework of how to run research groups from Nova Tech. It was something mature and already figured out, so I helped myself to it. This meant each of our research teams was equipped withrge rectangr test sites. We stepped into the spacious room with ceilings almost as tall as the room was wide. It could fit two football fields with ease. The entire ce was encased in ayer of reinforced concrete with nothing in sight. There were only a few terminals beside a stack of crates and boxes in one corner. It was how we kept the ce when there were no active tests scheduled. We walked to the center of the ce before we came to a stop. Immediately, a section of the walls near the ceiling slid open like a secretpartment, and severalrge satellite dishes came into view. ¡°Confirmation. Activate high-powered jamming, now?¡± Lanus¡¯ voice rang out from the speakers integrated into the room. ¡°Go ahead.¡± Within a few seconds, I could feel my entire body tingly all over. My SAID was flooded with various alerts as it raced to enter safe mode or tried to restart. It was a hectic scene in the virtual space. A courtesy of having a wide variety of cybeics from differentpanies. I noted to myself to hurry along with our cybeic project and create a premium model for myself. Thorne had even worse than me, being a cyborg and all, but our systems were redundant enough to still operate in these conditions. ¡°Hurry up and talk, Rollo. Or else I¡¯m going to have to rece every single piece of electronics in me after it¡¯s over.¡± ¡°Ha, about time you boys upgraded. In fact, everyone in ourpany needs one. Every time I had to meet your partners while you were gone, I had to endure their bodyguard¡¯s scrutinizing gaze because of the cheap chrome I had.¡± ¡°What we have is the best money can buy,¡± I quipped. ¡°Yeah, within the open market. That¡¯s like for third-rate citizens as far as the big corps are concerned. Even the secretaries from Sensorial and Authentic Corp have better chrome than me.¡± ¡°Well, they did have generations to build up their foundation. What I¡¯m going to tell you will have arge impact on that in the future.¡± ¡°Rollo! Stop with the cryptic wording. We¡¯re here and everything is jammed to hell. Out with it!¡± Both their gazes urged me to talk, so I did.
After spilling the source of my strength to Thorne and ire, I immediately got to work. They were momentarily befuddled, but they yed enough games to understand the concept. They didn¡¯t provide any particrly useful advice, though. They weren¡¯t familiar with the entricities of the system in how it provided both knowledge skills and typicalbat skills. They knew I had a n and encouraged me to stick with it. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. With that in mind, I selected two new skills to be added. Status Level: 39 EXP: 320/3900 Musculoskeletal: 211n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om Neural Reflex: 65 Visuomotor Coordination: 87 Endurance: 59 Sensory Perception: 127 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: 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 As I had nned, I selected aerospace engineering and particle physics. An intense flood of knowledge entered my mind while I got Lanus to monitor my brain activity. It was the same monitoring for our test subjects whenever we made new cassettes. Time to see if the process is simr enough¡­ All thoughts left me as the information overloaded my brain. I had gotten used to it enough to not nk out, allowing me to focus on the feeling of the process. The speed and intensity of it made it hard topare to the hypnopedia devices that were slow and gentle. However, this exact fact made mepletely puzzled when I reviewed the results Lanus recorded. The map of my neurological pathways depicted a horde of activity throughout my brain. Even in the smaller branches that we tried to avoid when we created our cassettes. It was avoided for a reason. Whenever the information flowed toward these smaller paths, it would interrupt vital bodily functions, producing severely harmful results. To bepletely blunt, the results we observed were crazy. It was as if every truck sent to deliver the knowledge to my brain was driven by professionals who put the pedal to the metal and sessfully navigated through the downtown core. They would have to weave in and out of traffic at high speeds without making a single mistake. ¡°Lanus, any idea how this is possible? How do we recreate this?¡± ¡°Reply. Insufficient data to draw conclusions. The phenomenon observed does not correspond to any knowledge in my database. Additional tests and information are required before a conjecture can be provided.¡± Well, I had low expectations to begin with. If this system wasn¡¯t some fantasy magic thing, it would be technology so advanced that made us look like cavemen. I¡¯ll just have to observe every time I upgrade now. Maybe in the future, I can discover something from it. With the matter about the system set aside, I started deciphering my new knowledge. I intended to get straight to work with them, creating our own small arms and basic aircraft to start. But I also needed to finish up the power armor and cybeic upgrades first. I decided to spend the points now to get a glimpse of what I would be working with. It was vital to know, as I could make minor adjustments in my current work to prepare for how it would fit together. Some designs could also be done concurrently, like the design of the power armor and its potential new armaments. It no longer was just recoil that the arm had to ount for. Energy and heat management could all be integrated together for better results. I knew the bulk of the work would be in cybeics. There were just too many moving parts I had to ount for to ensure the synergy remained high. For that reason, I nned to get the power armor upgrade out of the way first. I already did a few upgrades previously, but I now had new and improved skills. It was due for another pass. I had observed a lot from watching high-level corporations¡¯ power armor, so I already had been brainstorming what to do with it. The stealth was obviously our power armor¡¯s main advantage. However, everything else was mediocre at best. Since I nned to bring forth particle beams as our premier weapon systems, it was a given I would integrate that into the power armor as well. I needed to think how it would do on the battlefield. From the knowledge I gained from particle theory, I knew the weapons made from this technology wouldn¡¯t be able to pierce through energy shields like paper. Particle beams weren¡¯t kic weapons, but energy weapons. It would simply wear down the power supply of the shield at an increasing rate. That meant it wasn¡¯t suitable for close-range weaponry. There was no point equipping our power armor with a shotgun equivalent particle beam. It made more sense for the weapon to have adequate range. It fell in line with how I nned on arming our spaceships. Withrge particle beam cannons. For small-armsbat, it may not be the best option to lug around heavy equipment in stealth, though. At the same time, the morepact the weapon, the less energy it could hold and dispense at once. It would take longer to take out energy shields. That was why I fell back to the next weapon archetype. The sniper. When the topic of snipers came up, Max came to mind. He had gone off to form his own mercenary team after Flo and her other teammates joined me. The man always lugged around his favorite sniper rifle, so it could be said he was an expert in the field. It would be worthwhile to ask for his opinion, given that he wouldn¡¯t just rave about his own rifle. He treated that thing like a wife, so it was hard to guess what he would say. As I sent the person in question a quick text, inviting him over, I began my work. First thing first, the energy supply. Particle beams would be significantly energy-intensive. The best way to synergize with a power armor is to share its nuclear reactor, right? Hmm, I can also try adding these mini reactors to the weapon itself, though the cost would skyrocket. Let¡¯s see which way makes the most sense. Chapter 200: Big Upgrades Chapter 200: Big Upgrades Kriss - ??? ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you werete because of that game again. You¡¯re a professional, for god¡¯s sake, Ralph. Keep it together.¡± ¡°Calm down. It¡¯s not ying. It¡¯s for our investigation. We aren¡¯t just here to find ckmail material, you know? Learning about themercial activity, the state of their products, and their customer¡¯s reception to it are all things we need to include in our reports. It¡¯s not my fault there¡¯s too much content in this game.¡± ¡°Whatever you say, Ralph. I¡¯m done talking in circles with you. I have real work to do.¡± Before Ralph could respond, Kriss promptly cut off the call. She then double-checked her equipment that was sprawled around her hotel room. Every mission required a customized loadout. The quantity of devices she relied on meant that she needed to spend an equal amount of time to ensure each and every single one of them worked. Thest thing anyone needed was for their gear to fail during life-and-death situations. For tonight¡¯s mission, Kriss also had to stock up on food and water. It was something she hadn¡¯t done in quite some time. The usual missions herpany sent her on mostly took ce in space. There was rarely a need to venture out into the wastnd. In fact, there was rarely a need to stray from Elevate City. Still, a job was a job. Kriss dutifully prepared for every scenario and sped off into the fading horizon of NLA. Despite herpany providing a different car for each operation, the interior and controls were always simr. She didn¡¯t need to waste time familiarizing herself with where the hidden buttons were and could set her sights directly into the sandstorm. Throughout the drive, Kriss only had to monitor the scans on the terminal. The car was set on auto-drive with the destination already entered. During the previous day, she had sessfully imnted a tracking device on a shipment she hade across. Her perseverance in stalking every single car that came out of the Halls Corporation branch office had paid off. That directly led her out into the wastnd, as she overheard the employees talking about a scheduled test. It took Kriss a whole two hours before her GPS notified her that she was almost at her destination. As always, nothing could be seen as the evesting sandstorm of the wastnd blocked the line of sight. Combined with the darkness of night, sensors were the only things one could trust. That was true unless you were from a powerful corporation with ess to the most advanced gadgets around. Kriss¡¯ employers happened to be one such corporation. She grabbed a binocr-shaped crystal and mounted it onto her headgear. Instantly, she was able to see the area within a few dozen feet of her. This gave her the confidence to exit her vehicle. Following her training, Kriss activated her stealth suit and approached the location marked on her GPS. As she trekked across the sand, she suddenly stopped when her scanners indicated several people were directly in front of her. To be safe, she went into a prone position and activated a function on her suit. It expanded a tyer of gel below her, enabling her to slide across the sand without leaving any trails behind. Like that, she managed to close the distance with several unsuspecting employees. They had set up a position inside a desert crater, where they were shielded from the winds. Kriss¡¯ vision just barely extended to the center of this crater. She had to position herself around the crater in order to spot the people she detected. There were half a dozen men, all dressed in ckbat gear with a blue patch on their shoulders. Upon zooming in with her optics, she confirmed that they were members of the Halls Corporation due to the emblem of a snow-blue owl. Half of them were currently unloading crates from their transport vehicle, while the other half were setting something up in the middle of the crater. It didn¡¯t take long for Kriss to realize they were setting up a shooting range. She watched a man in ab coat holding up a strange-looking gun, scrutinizing every nook and cranny of it. Once he was done, he handed off the weapon to one of the burly cyborgs. It went without saying that a live-fire test was taking ce. Kriss could clearly see a blue sh of light, followed by a loud shockwave. What type of energy weapon is that? Aser? The blue light should be nitrogen and oxygen-ionizing. The lights on the target it struck caused an even bigger scene. The target dummy quickly received a new hole. That hole glowed with a fiery orange color and radiated intense heat from the energy that had just vaporized a part of it. She may not have paid attention to every single part of it, but that was the beauty of recording. She also had many chances as the Halls Corporation employees continued to fire again and again. They took a brief pause after each shot as they inspected the weapon and recorded their data. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Kriss carefully watched from start to finish. The test only ended when the sky began to brighten. As they began to clean up, Kriss took that as her cue to take her leave. She had recorded valuable intel, and she couldn¡¯t wait to send it back to herpany.
¡°How was the test?¡± I asked the researcher who I put in charge of the tests for mytest creation. While I had worked on the power armor and its new gun, I went ahead and designed a small arms version as well. It just made sense to do it all at once. ¡°As you noted, the ionizing of air within the atmosphere is an issue. It leaves a pretty trail of blue, alerting anyone of the location of where the shot came from.¡± ¡°That can¡¯t be helped. I already got rid of the corona discharge. There¡¯s nothing I can do about the ionizing issue. At least it won¡¯t have that problem in space.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but think back to the sniper¡¯s test done within the confines ofb zero. Therger and more powerful particle rifle emitted a powerful white light, causing a shockwave as a result. In a way, that became therecoilof the weapon. It was so powerful that one couldn¡¯t safely shoot it without being in power armor. I had dialed down the power for the small arms version to the point it no longer left a trail of sma, but there was no avoiding the light it left in its wake. Due to dialing down the power, it no longer made sense to use a sniper tform for this model, so it became a regr rifle instead. ¡°Sir, was there anything else you found missing from our report?¡± ¡°No, you may go.¡± He nodded and exited my room. As he walked out, Thorne entered. ¡°You done with that spectacle of yours?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Caught onto any rats?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no way to know for sure. I made sure they didn¡¯t activate any scans. I don¡¯t want to tip any of them off. The entire point of this farce is for them to see our new toy.¡±n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om Thorne mulled over my words for a few moments before showing an expression that screamed, ¡°I still don¡¯t get it.¡± ¡°So it was a necessary farce, right?¡± he asked. ¡°I won¡¯t lie and say I understand every nuisance of how corpos do their thing. But I can¡¯t shake the murky feeling of purposefully exposing our strength.¡± ¡°Thorne, it wasn¡¯t a bad thing. Not all corporations constantly have a knife at each other¡¯s throats. Many of the well-established ones are able to peacefully conduct their business for years at a time. It was how Sensorial went about their days before that incident with us. In a lot of situations, using one of our many trump cards as a deterrence is much better than saving it for the battlefield. Profitable too.¡± ¡°Okay, yeah. I get the logic, but I guess my heart hasn¡¯t caught up to it yet. Forget about it.¡± The test for the new particle beam, named Azure Lance Type-R, was conducted with the intent of exposing it to others. We had plenty of up-anding trump cards ready to join our arsenal. Exposing a minor one as a deterrence was more than worth it. It demonstrated to others we possess advanced particle beam technology. With this move, all the small corporations should refuse to antagonize us. Even middle-sized corporations would be reluctant to fight us without a good reason. It could also get our potential enemies hyper-focused on the Azure Lance, drawing attention away from other trump cards. ¡°Let¡¯s put it behind us for now, then. We have to get started on the cybeics test. Are you ready for your procedure?¡± ¡°Yeah. I came here to tell you that Cora¡¯s team had finished installing all the prototypes on team seven. They¡¯re waiting for you down at their test site.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s not keep them waiting, then.¡± I gestured for Thorne toe over to a corner of my workshop that acted as my personal cybeic clinic. Then I began the process of refitting his entire kit. It would take some time, as I would be recing the majority of his parts. That meant I would have to sedate him, robbing him of his consciousness. I had thought I missed the feeling of operating on someone like the old times, but that onlysted until I cut into his organic bits. The mess of blood and meat was never a pretty sight. Regardless of my feelings, it was necessary. I had sessfullypleted our cybeic set, so it would be dumb of us not to upgrade. Once the test with Thorne went without any issues, ire would be operating on me as well. It seemed she had continued her cybeic training. It didn¡¯t take up much of her time as she let the cassette do its work while she slept. Plus, Lanus could advise her if needed. This new upgrade was going to be a major one for everyone in mypany, but it won¡¯t be thest one for me or Thorne. That was because I didn¡¯t onlye up with one model for internal use but several. In the past, I left the model with the best performance forpany personnel only. Now it was no longer possible. With my skill points past ten points in three different areas, the materials avable to us could no longer keep up. Nopany sold the high-level materials I needed for the type of application I wanted to implement into reality. The only way forward was to do it myself. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t need to put points into material science. The skills I had included the theoretical knowledge of how to synthesize the niche materials I needed. The only problem was theck of raw materials. The small traces of exotic minerals I needed were especially rare on Earth. Either all the corporations had already mined it or Earth was never rich in these exotic materials. With no seller avable, it left me with no choice but to wait until I could mine the materials myself. For now, I would have to make do with the peak of what regr materials could handle. It wasn¡¯t that bad of a n as our soldiers would be sticking with them in the long run, anyway. The exotics I needed the advanced version were only avable in such small amounts that it would take ages before I had enough just to craft the set of cybeics for just myself. It was destined not to be mass-produced. Nevertheless, it was unmistakable that ourbat power would soar after this. It should approach the realm of what high-level corporations like Nova Tech possess. The important thing was that we wouldn¡¯t be helpless against them any longer. We now had enough teeth to bite back. Chapter 201: Adjusting to the New Chapter 201: Adjusting to the New Status Level: 39 EXP: 320/3900 Musculoskeletal: 358 Neural Reflex: 191 Visuomotor Coordination: 207 Endurance: 132 Sensory Perception: 155 Upgrade Points: 0 Upgrades: Enhancements: SAID: Halls Corp Grand Maestro Elite v1 Bio-Coprocessor: Halls Corp sh Elite v1 Optics: Halls Corp Monocle Elite v1 Cyberarm (Left): Halls Corp Talos Elite v1 Cyberarm (Right): Halls Corp Talos Elite v1 Cyberlegs: Halls Corp Hermes Elite v1 Vertebral Column: Halls Corp Theseus Elite v1 Auditory: SocialCorp Echo Custom Vocal: SocialCorp Orator Custom Cardiovascr: BioGen Lifepump Custom Sensory: Halls Corp Argus Elite Custom Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST Misceneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade ¡°What? Come on, say something!¡± ire cried out. ¡°You can¡¯t be wearing such an intense frown while staring at the screen so hard.¡± Feeling her shaking me, I finally nced up at her, giving her the attention she desired. There wasn¡¯t any other choice as I was stuck in bed as I recovered from mytest instation of new cybeics. ¡°Okay, okay. Calm down. I see that you¡¯ve done a good job from what I¡¯ve read so far. I can¡¯t help but be thorough when it involves my very own body, so please give me a moment.¡± ¡°Maybe I was a little too harsh. It¡¯s just hard when it seems like someone scrutinizes my work as if expecting me to make errors. I worked my butt off, you know?¡± ¡°And I thank you for that.¡± Seeing how ire¡¯s attention was soon lost on something within her optics, I resumed going over the report on my terminal. The new pieces I got were intrusive, to say the least. I had reced my legs and spine. By some standards, I was practically a cyborg now. Much like Thorne, my entire torso was still organic. However, I didn¡¯t have any reinforced tings embedded into the skin of my stomach or anything. Following corpo norms, I ensured the outeryer of my new chrome was covered in ayer of synthetic skin instead. It took some time tuning it to make it indistinguishable from real skin, but I couldn¡¯t afford to ck off on that. It was purely a cosmetic feature, but other corporations judged people from little things like that. As I moved up thedder, I couldn¡¯t afford for such minor details to disadvantage me in negotiations. As an owner of a corporation, I had to conduct myself ordingly. The clothes make the man, or so they used to say. In this case, it¡¯s the skin that does it. The recovery period from my instation wasn¡¯t that long. It only took a day to ensure the nervous system from the spine had settled in properly. Everyone felt different, but not in a bad way. That may have been due to all the bones I had reinforced or reced, throwing off my center of gravity. I was pretty much like Thorne now. The only part that differed was how much of the biological functions I managed to retain. My waste system was still the same, along with my reproduction systems. Those were things that were one step too far for me. Bing aplete cyborg wasn¡¯t in my ns. I had settled on an optimal bnce where I could attain the strength of a cyborg while retaining enough humanity to revert back to normal if I wished. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred tform. Support original creators! Cloning biological parts was widespread within corporate society. It was much more expensive than cold metal cybeics and required time. However, some people just felt morefortable in their own skin once they had enough money to drown away the security problems. If Thorne wanted to revert back to a baseline human, the procedure to be a massive undertaking. Like other cyborgs, his biological parts were too intertwined. It would be easier for him to be reduced to a brain in a jar before being transnted into a new body. In my case, I retained enough humanity to forgo that massive ordeal. It was still possible tounplugmy chrome and reattach my limbs. If only Thorne was in a more stable position back when I operated on him. I was a lot more inexperienced back then, and he was disabled from the waist down after our encounter with betrayal. When I was fully discharged, I did as any other man in my position would do. Test out the new toys.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om I had seen enough from my employees to understand the new parameters of the new cybeics, but feeling it first-hand was another matter. I ventured out of myb zero base and returned to our official headquarters with Thorne. I watched as our body doubles each began to take appropriate actions to sync up with our arrival. We had to seamlessly swap ces or our ruse would have been useless. Our tech did most of the work, and our holographic projections seamlessly swapped our ces. We uneventfully entered into the training facility of ourpany. ¡°I guess we should start the same way everyone else does. Basic fitness test,¡± I muttered. ¡°Want to use the vacant room or join the others?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°They¡¯re with the trainees right now, right? Let¡¯s leave them be for a bit first. The boring tests will get done much faster without any distractions.¡± The two of us proceeded to run through the basic exercises all our recruits did. After calisthenics, we did some weight training. Throughout the workout, it was easily noticeable how much my athleticism had improved. I wasn¡¯t even close to getting winded, and the weights I could lift were significantly heavier. I hadn¡¯t reced every single piece of cybeic within me with my own version. That was simply too much work, and I wasn¡¯t confident I could do a better job than what I had bought. These included my auditory, vocal, and cardiovascr imnts. Instead, I customized them. I thoroughly rebuilt sensitive electronics to ensure there were no hidden overrides. The improvements I made to them were negligible, with the exception of enhancing its stealth capabilities to be in line with the rest of my new chrome. After all, the weakest link would be the undoing of my covert activities. The most important tests of the day consisted of navigating through an obstacle course. It puts the synergy I had aimed for to the test. My body had to properly support the load of rapid movement. My bio-processor chip had to give me the necessary reaction time to make use of these new speeds. The human eyes would start perceiving things as a blur when they moved upwards of forty-five meters per second. For cybeic optics, that didn¡¯t go up as drastically as one would think. The retina and visual processing systems in the brain had set limits. So far, not even the mad scientists who could rampantly do as they wish could invent cybeics to rece these parts. The brain was just tooplicated and sensitive for them to figure out. That was why I smiled when I saw the top speed I had reached during the test. Sixty-two meters per second. It was in short bursts, but I could move at such speeds while maintaining stealth. The only new drawback was having to manage the stress and heat generated by such fast movements. One couldn¡¯t infinitely be at full sprint for that reason, and why power armor was still superior. The extra room afforded extra heat sinks for prolonged use. Now that my body wouldn¡¯t get wrangled up if the power armor was too fast, the limiter could be adjusted. We spent the entire day at the training facility. We performed every sort of test, from shooting, swimming, or even hand-to-handbat. Our new parameters met those of the other security members who had taken the upgrade. We would have simr abilities until I could source those exotic materials necessary for our unique versions of the imnts. We ended the session by sitting down together with my security personnel for dinner. They had gone through the same grueling exercises, and I wanted to show my face. ¡°Did you see the picture of Charles tumbling into the walls? That shit was hrious!¡± ¡°Shh, shh. Boss is here.¡± My auditory imnt easily picked up on their conversations as I walked in. They sat aroundrge rectangr tables as if they were on a pic. ¡°Thank you for your hard work, everyone,¡± I dered. ¡°I ordered something special for us tonight. I hope you enjoy it.¡± I had always heard food was the most important part of working out. Muscles were built in the kitchen. While protein supplements were enough, I had to provide everyone with real food. It wasn¡¯t only because I would feel awkward eating a different menu alone. I took a seat at a smaller table off to the side as we watched the robots prepare our tables. Just as everyone had neatly set up, the doors opened again, revealing half a dozen neers. Thorne immediately gestured for the leading two men toe over. They sat down across from us and bowed respectfully. ¡°How may I help you, sir?¡± He directed his words to Thorne, as he was too afraid to meet my eyes. ¡°Our CEO was just making the rounds around here, so it¡¯s perfect timing. Your squadron will be responsible for the test flights tomorrow, correct?¡± ¡°You are, sir. Are there any special instructions you have for us?¡± I exchanged a brief look with Thorne before he answered. ¡°No, we¡¯re here to rify any points you may have questions about. Now is the time to ask them, as the creator himself is sitting here.¡± The man finally turned to me and swallowed hard. It was strange how there were always one or two guys who were scared of me for no reason. I was amiable to every one of them, and they usually returned the gesture in kind. However, I knew there was no changing the minds of these people. Some of them were just conditioned to fear figures of authority. ¡°Well,¡± He stretched his word as he looked around, searching for help from his peers. ¡°I guess we have a few.¡± He didn¡¯t say anything for a few moments, so I peeked into his SAID to see what he was up to. My new SAID could keep track of multiple things at once, andyer my sight with things like heat vision, infrared vision, etc. It was also smart enough to automatically pull up everything I needed at a simple thought. I spied on his messages to his friends, convincing them toe over. They all came up with excuses, and he steeled himself to handle me alone. ¡°I wanted to ask about the new automated system highlighted in the manuals. During today¡¯s simtions, we¡ª¡± I listened to him carefully while my optics showed me a recording of those simtions in question. It made it easy to understand. It was made possible as the man before me used our new SAID model as well. It picked up on his thoughts and transmitted what he wanted to show me with ease. It allowed me to get a clear picture from their perspective or enabled me to give themmands via the same method. Itplemented our old system of synchronizing vision well. It allowed us to not only highlight human targets to each other, but point at precise locations to each other as well. It was basically an advanced pinging system often seen in video games. As I conversed with the captain of the flight squadron, a call from a close ally came in. ¡°Hello, Joey?¡± I internalized into my new imnt. ¡°Yes, Rollo. It¡¯s been a while, but we¡¯ll finally be meeting face-to-face soon once more.¡± ¡°Yeah, see you tomorrow. Was there anything you needed?¡± ¡°There is one issue. I just received a request to join our little celebration tomorrow. It¡¯s from a man by the name of Kai.¡± There was a brief pause in our call, as we both stayed silent. ¡°And?¡± I finally urged as I continued to search through my memory for the familiar-sounding name. ¡°He¡¯s from an A-ss corporation we¡¯re familiar with. Ferrumus Corp.¡± Just great. More powerful corporations to get involved with. Just what I needed¡­ Chapter 202: Eventful Day Chapter 202: Eventful Day I watched the feed from my Nyes spread around the area as I snuck up to the door. There were many others like it as I was currently on the sixty-fourth floor of a megabuilding. It was a routine exercise I did almost every day. Except sometimes, we would test out new gadgets at the same time. After observing our surroundings, I had my SAID ry my orders to Thorne. ¡°Thorne, time to try out our new toys. I see the adjacent unit is empty, so let¡¯s start from there.¡± His outline nodded, and we moved over to the door. We simply had to ce a hand on the terminal beside it and we were soon able to unlock it. It was part of the software update I installed on the power armor. It wasrge enough to host a whole bunch of nanomachine connectors, so we wouldn¡¯t have to find a port and clumsily plug into it anymore. We swiftly moved in and closed the door behind us while I kept watch on the movements of our targets. I didn¡¯t even need to watch the feed anymore as it would ry that information to my optics right away. It allowed me to see various people walking around in the unit next door despite there being a wall between us. ¡°Okay, you give it a try.¡± At the urging, Thorne walked straight to the wall and took out a small knife the size of a pen. Unlike a regr knight with sharp edges, it was mostly hollow. That was because it didn¡¯t rely on a sharp edge to cut, but on high-energy particle beams to melt through it. It was a lot of work trying to keep it discreet. The heat caused whatever it cut to ionize or it may even produce sma if the setting was high enough. It made bright lights to alert anyone nearby, so we had to fine-tune the frequency, the wavelength, and employ some ingenuity. I watched as Thorne held out a tip and stabbed it lightly at the base of the walls. A tiny spark lit up for a second, but we made sure there was no one in the room on the other side. Even if they were, it wasn¡¯t so easy to notice when we made the incision near ground level. Furniture could block the sight. After a small hole was made, it sent in several nanomachines that were simr to the ones we used in our Shades. It was capable of deploying holographic projections to prevent any further light from escaping while we cut. Thorne did just that. The particle beam knife easily opened up a hole to the other side. It was one of the alternatives we came up with in order to conquer our weakness of the door. We crawled through the newly made hole and entered into the adjacent unit. We found ourselves inside an empty bedroom, so we let ourselves out. We were monitoring everyone within the ce, so it was easy. The only challenge was the booby trap they ced on the front door. If we had opened it carelessly, it would¡¯ve set off explosives. Once we got in, the rest was routine pickings. We did as we always, going around to neutralize the harvesters in the apartment. Under my instructions, Thorne would tail me throughout the infiltration mission as I monopolized the experience points. We were so used to our system that we could converse casually while I finished off our enemies. +10 EXP +10 EXP ¡°Talking of our nightly hunting trips, I can¡¯t believe you thought I was in contact with someone else when we are together like this every time,¡± I teased. +10 EXP ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean I could monitor everything you do. Look.¡± He gestured toward my outreached hand that was currently holding onto a dagger that was plunged into my victim. The body was between us, so it somewhat obscured my hand. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening when your hand is blocked from view. You could¡¯ve retrieved some secret data chip serval times a night for all I knew.¡± ¡°Right, right,¡± I narrowed my eyes, despite knowing he couldn¡¯t see it through the power armor. ¡°You¡¯d think I am capable of such borate and subtle back-channelmunications, but not inventing everything myself.¡± ¡°Really? I¡¯m pretty sure everyone in thepanies knew you had some secret regarding where you sourced our products. The spending of our R&D department is way too lowpared to others and was a literal one-man army of a department. That¡¯s just not realistic, especially over several products.¡± I blew out the frustrations of everyone looking down on me by firing my Suri. It silently dispatched my foes, and I rushed in to catch them as they fell to the ground. +10 EXP +10 EXP I debated recing my trusted Suri with a new particle beam weapon, but in the end, decided against it. It was a lot of work creating a stealthy version of particle beam weapons. They had the issue of ionizing whatever it hit to worry about, so the time I would need to invest to create somethingparable didn¡¯t make sense. For an ambush weapon, the level of discretion was the most important criterion. The Suri worked just fine. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. ¡°Hey,¡± Thorne called out. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be wrapping it up? Leave the cleanup and rescuing to our team. You need some rest before tomorrow¡¯s big event.¡± I took another nce at the people who had fallen victim to this harvest den and ensured they were in decent shape. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s go.¡± While I tried to keep things unchanged, it couldn¡¯t be helped some things were different. Ourpany was scheduled to be promoted to D-ss tomorrow. Every part of it had grown a lot these past several months. This included my security detail.N?v(el)B\\jnn We even had a specific team that was meant to deal with my mess during these hunting trips. One for urban environments and one for the wastnd. One specializing in zero-g environments would likely be established soon as well. Besides protection, they came in handy when I was low on time. After all, many things would be happening tomorrow. Our first test flight of the aircraft I designed. The promotion to D-ss corporation. Then a party with Joey and my other partners for the promotion. Thorne is right. There¡¯s so much to do tomorrow. Why did we schedule everything for the same day?
I got up nice and early, at the break of dawn. I had to be up in time to observe our flight test for the day. While the end goal was to create our own spaceships for our future space expansion, we had to start from somewhere. Spaceships and aircraft were quite simr. The environment they were designed for differed severely, but you couldn¡¯t discount how one stemmed from the other. My aerospace engineering only dove into the spacecraft knowledge over theter levels. It wasn¡¯t surprising, given theplexity of a proper space-worthy vessel. At first, it may sound easy due to them sailing through the vacuum where weight wasn¡¯t as much of a concern. You could have a chunk of hollowed metal and it would float around fine. However, for it to be safe for humans to stay over a long period of time, there were manyplex considerations that had to be addressed. For one, space was a harsh environment. Radiation protection, advanced life supports, propulsion, navigation, supplies, and more were all things that needed to be ounted for. Otherwise, if someone went wrong, it would goreallywrong. Then you also had to ount for itsbat-worthiness, livability, and misceneous functions such as the capability to mine asteroids. Designing a ship that addressed all these things would cost a lot of money and time. Actually, building it costs even more. Thankfully, the R&D going into our new aircraft wouldn¡¯t be disappearing into the void. In-atmosphere aircraft still had numerous uses. Not only could it rece the VTOL I had bought from AeroDynamics, we could also build up an air fleet for our logisticspany. The wastnd may not be traversable, but there was a high demand for logistics to and from Elevate City. As themercial capital of the world, it wasn¡¯t a secret that huge amounts of items went in and out of the city. There was an inexhaustible demand waiting for ourpany to exploit. It was practically a seller¡¯s market. It may not be quick money, but it was stable work for those who could afford to get into it. With that in mind, I stepped into my office and engaged the holographic projector. I quickly found myself inside a virtualmand center. Near the head of the table, I spotted Vin already there. ¡°Morning Vin, did you guys finish drawing up the new routes in time?¡± He shook his head before taking a sip from his cup. ¡°No way we¡¯re finalizing anything when we don¡¯t even know if our birds are reliable. We also need to test its load capacity and speed first.¡± ¡°I sent those to you guysst week.¡± ¡°Yeah, theoretical numbers won¡¯t do. It¡¯s why we¡¯re doing this test today, right?¡± ¡°Fine, take your time, then.¡± I put up a front of being irritated, but I didn¡¯t really mind the dy. He was right. We weren¡¯t in a rush, but I found hisck of trust in our data amusing. I had worked so hard and set up the simtions with Pino, the mathematical genius from Aegis. Maybe it¡¯s too much to ask for others to put in the same amount of trust as I have. While our business n, the test soon got on the way. The test pilots I had met yesterday could be seen on the screens. They were doing their final checks before takeoff. As the first aircraft I designed, I kept it simple and made it simr to existing designs. The only areas I took liberties in were the stealth materials and its navigation software. All the otherponents, such as its armaments, were unchanged, while I focused on cost effectiveness and gaining experience for myself. A transport didn¡¯t need to be armed to the teeth, anyway. The new VTOL resembled our old one, but navy blue. It swiftly took off without any trouble. We watched the pilots circle the city on the predetermined flight path, and it took the whole morning to finish recording all the results. Ironically, once the tests were done, I was guided onto our only aircraft in active service myself. We flew directly to the space elevator. ¡°So sure you brought all the documents?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯d be a story all right if we had to send you back during our promotion meeting.¡± ¡°Oh, would it hurt you to have faith in me?¡± ire retorted. ¡°Of course I have everything. In the first ce, if I didn¡¯t have everything, they wouldn¡¯t have even approved the promotion and we wouldn¡¯t be heading out to the consortium today.¡± I took a peek out the window toward the ever-looming tower that symbolized corporate authority. ¡°Okay, okay. I was just making sure. We¡¯ll be staying there all day today, so I didn¡¯t want to have to do an extra trip for no reason.¡± ¡°Oh yeah, what was that about a representative from Ferrumus Corpst night? You said you knew him? Fill me in so I know what to expect.¡± ¡°Hmm, that guy. All I know is that he was a security personnel thest time I saw him. A powerful one at that, but I don¡¯t really know anything else about him. Ferrumus Corp, on the other hand, has been working with Joey pretty often. He should know more. They¡¯re still receiving a share of our profits for their agreement to hold back High Gate Group¡¯s backers.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be able to butt into your conversion with Joey too much during afternoon tea. Just tell me what you know. Particrly why they would want to join in on our celebration party so much.¡± ¡°Optimistically, they¡¯re just here for closer cooperation after learning some things about my guardian angel. Pessimistically, they are bringing news of new troubles. I guess we do have to n for the worst-case scenarios. These meetings create so much work for us!¡± ¡°You mean forus! Do you have any idea how busy our gaming department has been recently? I just hope none of this will affect our operations. We¡¯re making a lot of money, but we need every credit of it.¡± We used the time over the short ride from ourpany to the space elevator toe up with contingencies. The only thing we could do for now was to prepare and pray. Chapter 203: Promotion Chapter 203: Promotion When we arrived at the base of the space elevator, the first thing we did was head to the Elevate City Consortium office. ¡°Good morning, sir,¡± the receptionist greeted. ¡°I presume you are Mr. Halls from the Halls corporation?¡± ¡°That¡¯s corrected,¡± I nodded in reply. ¡°Perfect. We¡¯ve been expecting you. Please follow the assistant bot here to the meeting room.¡± Just like before, a robot wearing the same uniform as the receptionist came out from behind the counter and began guiding us further into the building. This was where Thorne would stay behind with the rest of our guards while ire and I proceeded down the hallway that led to the meeting rooms. The entire ce appeared empty, and we soon arrived at a fancy wooden doorway. My optics instantly analyzed it and informed me it was likely made of authentic wood that dated back hundreds of years. Unlike the other meeting rooms I had been to for our other promotions, this meeting room was obviously on another level. That notion was reinforced when we stepped into the room. The walls and furniture were all made of the same material, highlighting the extravagant wealth of the consortium. It made me suspect it could have beenb-grown materials, but considering the consortium¡¯s prestige, it was more likely it was authentic. That meant everything here could¡¯ve been retrieved from a dungeon at some point and were antiques. I didn¡¯t have much time to dwell on the subject, as my attention was drawn to the people in the room. One of them was a familiar face. A man by the name of Frank DeSantis. He was the one who had helped me with the procedure when I first incorporated thepany. The person beside him was a woman I had never seen before. Judging from her reserved demeanor, she seemed to be his assistant. Upon seeing us enter, both of them stood up and greeted us. ¡°Good morning, Mr. Halls. I¡¯m d to see you so soon again.¡± ¡°Good morning, Mr. DeSantis. It¡¯s a pleasure to be here.¡± We proceeded to shake hands as we each introduced our aides. ¡°This here is ire, our COO.¡± ¡°This is Rui, the official witness for this session.¡± ¡°An official witness?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s new.¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct, Mr. Halls. A witness is only necessary for promotions into D-ss and above. There are many details we will have to go through to ensure you understand the significance of this promotion. It isn¡¯t just your annual fees going up and your tax rates go down like how we want some people to believe.¡± I nodded along and allowed him to continue speaking. I knew he was referring to the perks D-ss corporations would receive. I had once heard from Joey that D-ss enabled my business to operate in space, but DeSantis wasn¡¯t aware I knew that already. ¡°The particrs of the numbers will be sent to you now. Our partners here can go over them should they need. As for us, let us go over the broad strokes.¡± ¡°Go ahead, sir.¡± ¡°Mr. Halls, you may already know this, but our consortium is in control of this fine property that we¡¯re in today. The new services you are able to ess after this promotion are closely rted to that.¡± ¡°The space elevator,¡± I stated, hoping to hurry along with his exnation. ¡°Correct. The space elevator. Our bridge to the unlimited resources of the new frontier. Starting from now on, you will be granted the right to do business with this new frontier. You may freely rent and buy properties up on Aegis and use the space elevator formercial purposes.¡± He took a pregnant pause to gauge my reaction. ¡°I see that you may already be familiar with what I have to say, so why don¡¯t we skip ahead to questions while your partner goes over the details of these new services?¡± Without daring to make eye contact with ire, I nodded. ¡°I¡¯m sure propertiesws up on Aegis will be very simr to what we have here, but what about for spaceships and stations? I know many corporations operate their own fleet and space stations, but how would I go on about that?¡± Frank DeSantis grinned. ¡°The ships should be simr to the aircraft we have down on the. Generally, leasing is the norm, but if you have security concerns in mind, it isn¡¯t impossible to hire someone to construct your own spacecraft. Of course, the price will be much higher in that case.¡± Seeing that I nodded, he continued. ¡°Now it is the space station that is a touchy topic. Officially, the consortium has no jurisdiction over these private stations or habitats of any sort. We only oversee Aegis and otherrger settlements off. That means you are free to do what you want with these space stations, but at your own peril.¡± The message was clear. The moment we left their sphere of influence, we¡¯d be out in the Wild West. Anyone could attack us, and they wouldn¡¯t care. The consortium only cared for their business interests, not private squabbles between corporations that didn¡¯t affect the bigger picture. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. I was sure if the conflicts affected the major trade hub andnes, that it would be a different story. For the most part, it was as I thought. Ever since I witnessed the attack on Ferrumus Corporation¡¯s space station, I knew space wasn¡¯t a friendly frontier of dreams. After that, I was given a brief overview of the territories the major corporations upied and some basic knowledge and procedures on how to get things done. Space was arge ce, so the territories didn¡¯t matter that much, but the shippingnes did. There were dozens ofrge stations out there that formed arge tradework. Certain goods went to certainnes. I listened carefully to how these routes were set up, as it would be vital to doing business up there. While space was enormous, the space stations themselves had limited capacities. It would be important to manage good rtionships with the respective ports to secure our trade channels. It took all morning to go over these topics before we were done. Thankfully, my optics recorded everything. I could afford to go over the details again at ater date, but ire wasn¡¯t afforded the same luxury. She went through the specifics of the new agreement in real-time, liaising with our legal department back in ourpound to triple-check that everything was in order. ¡°You¡¯re good to sign, Rollo,¡± she finally said.N?v(el)B\\jnn With her go-ahead, DeSantis ced a handheld terminal along with physical papers for me to sign. Once I did, the two consortium employees stood up and pped. ¡°Congrattions, Mr. Halls. The Halls corporation is now officially a D-ss corporation. This is a huge step for your promisingpany.¡± I had been warned that D-ss corporations were on an entirely new ying field. No longer would we be treated as a smallpany. We have entered the stage of middle-sized corporations. We weren¡¯t at the household name level yet, but it was still a big step up. As amazing as this is, I can¡¯t help but be reminded of the twenty-five million annual fees we now have to pay. It is more than twice what we had to pay as an E-ss corporation. Still, this is something we need to do if we n on expanding. As I thought that, I couldn¡¯t help but nce up at the sky, towards the new market we now had ess to.
After our paperwork was in order with the consortium, we spent some time frolicking around the spaceport. There was a gigantic luxury mall here and plenty to do. As a reward for all her efforts, I agreed to go shopping with ire. Naturally, that meant Thorne and the rest of our security followed. It was not the best decision. ¡°What do you think of this suit, you two? Is the color okay?¡± I tried to urge Thorne to answer her, but in our brief exchange of gazes, I lost. ¡°Well, what kind of essories do you have?¡± I reluctantly answered. ¡°It¡¯s best to coordinate the outfit with those, right?¡± ¡°Of course, I know that! That¡¯s not what I¡¯m asking. Hmm, now that we¡¯re a D-sspany, maybe I should just get several colors at once. You guys should, too!¡± ¡°ire¡­these cost tens of thousands each. That one over there is even more than a hundred thousand credits. They look just the same as the one we got.¡± I stared down at my own clothes. I had gotten a tailor to custom-make my attire, and even then, it only cost several thousand credits per outfit. It was more than what most people made in a month. ¡°You should know more than anyone the importance of presentation, Rollo. As the owner of a D-ss corporation, you have to dress the part or others will look down on you. It¡¯s simr to the deterrent effect you were talking about.¡± I sighed as I recalled all my previous encounters with people of importance. The quality of their clothingpletely escaped me, so I drew upon the memory bank of my cybeics. Even with something to refer to, I failed to see the differences, but I kept that to myself. ¡°Look, you don¡¯t have to be knowledgeable about the materials. Just at least wear well-known brand names.¡± I nced around the clothing store by the name of Ruper Tailors before surveying the other stores nearby. ¡°Ruper is a pretty good brand already. Probably among the best at this price point,¡± ire rified. I quickly did a web search to verify her words and found that the Ruperpany was one of the more popr ones among young corporate executives. There were several other brands that were more prestigious for therge corporations, and I only recognized one name among them. SocialCorp. I knew they were thergestpany around, which made me almost want to choose their brand, but I quickly decided otherwise. The more advanced thepany, the more capable they were. Even with all my skills and unique advantages, I didn¡¯t want to open myself up to them by using their products. I just knew too well how easy it was to embed something into your products. At the same time, their prices would definitely not be low. Instead, I searched forpanies that were more hyper-focused on the clothing industry. Their interests were more predictable, and their reputation was something they protected fiercely. While manyrger corporations diversified their business, just as many of them stuck to their corepetencies for obvious reasons. At the end of my search, I realized ire had made a good choice after all. That was because all the other options had prices that started from six digits, and easily moved into the seven or eight digits for a single suit. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll buy a few for these formal asions.¡± At the end of our shopping, I had gotten myself three new outfits. To be honest, I would rather be in my power armor, but there were events where I needed formal clothing. Events like the one we would be attending tonight. As the hours passed, thete afternoon soon arrived. We decided to head to one of our scheduled appointments slightly early to rest. We sat ourselves down at a table located on the patio of a cafe, and I began going over the data from today¡¯s flight test. Everything seemed to have gone as expected, which brightened my mood. I just spent a lot of money, and it was good to see my investment in the aircraft hadn¡¯t been a waste. Once the tests werepleted, it could enter into service, enhancing our logisticpany immediately. As it was for internal use, it wouldn¡¯t us a huge sum of money all of a sudden, but the importance of a stable ie could not be overstated. Hmm, if I want tomercialize my skills in designing aircraft, I probably should stick to the mass market as I always had. Otherwise, it would be a struggle to fight for space against existingpetitors. Having researched the market extensively for both my cybeic business and milkshake business, I knew the name of the game was to keep things affordable. It would expand my customer base, relying on the volume of sales instead of steep profit margins. After all, third-ratepanies sold products, second-ratepanies sold their brand, and first-ratepanies sold the market. It meant selling based on individual product profit margin was less profitable than selling a brand name. In turn, a brand name was less profitable than serving an entire market. In the context of the aircraft market, my mind naturally went toward drones. Drones hadn¡¯t been popr as the main force ofbat, being relegated to a supporting role. That was due to their vulnerability to hacking and EMP attacks. However, their value was unquestionable. They could fulfill so many roles and were so adaptable that I struggled to settle on what I wanted to provide to the market. Before I could deliberate further, the person I was scheduled to meet arrived. I looked up and saw a small entourage surrounding a familiar bald man. Chapter 204: Afternoon Tea Chapter 204: Afternoon Tea ¡°Joey, it¡¯s been a while,¡± I stood up and greeted the bald man. His entourage went out back to their waiting area, leaving him alone to approach our table. He nodded amiably at me with a smile, shook my hand, and then ire¡¯s. We exchanged pleasantries, with ireplimenting Joey on how well his business seemed to be doing, and how well his attire fit him. It took almost a full minute before we took our seats. ¡°I¡¯ve got to take the call from the Lion City banks,¡± ire dered. ¡°Please excuse me.¡± Beating a hasty retreat, the number of people at the table swiftly reduced to two. We didn¡¯t let it bother us and proceeded with our conversation. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since we¡¯ve met in person. You¡¯ve changed quite a bit,¡± Joey said as he directed a look at my arms. I had previously sported Nova Tech cyberarms that had a metallic finish. While as pleasing aesthetically as it was, ording to corporate standards, it was unbing. Only low-level brutes grantly unted their cybeics. The executive caste idolized achieving the perfect human form, not a cyborg form. The synthetic skin I covered my cybeics with was just the bare minimum. Those who had both wealth and adhered strictly to this ideal even invested heavily in fully functional biological alternatives. They strove to perfect their biological body by editing their genes. This fad resulted in several major breakthroughs, most famously the life-prolonging treatment. ¡°Just some overdue upgrades. Had to make sure I looked the part for today¡¯s celebration, right?¡± He nodded in reply. ¡°Appearances are important, but I¡¯m not sure that it matters for you anymore.¡± Neither of us said a thing for a brief moment as the waiter brought in refreshments. I only responded after we all had a chance to take a sip of our drinks. ¡°What do you mean? I¡¯m nning on expanding to Aegis soon, so I¡¯ll have to make many new connections. First impressions are always important.¡± ¡°Oh,e on, Rollo. We both know you have something to do with why the bunch from High Gate are so quiet even after our ceasefire has expired.¡± ¡°You¡¯re overthinking things, Joey.¡± I let out a chuckle. ¡°We¡¯ve discussed this in our group meetings and have agreed it¡¯s mostly because they have learned it just isn¡¯t profitable to continue their feud with us.¡± This time, it was Joey¡¯s turn to let out a cackle. ¡°Ha, very persuasive. That is, only if I didn¡¯t know those guys for so long. Knowing how to take a loss is thest thing I¡¯d expect from the High Gate Group.¡± I kept up the act of not knowing anything. We didn¡¯t have the fancy device to prevent eavesdropping deployed. I couldn¡¯t be sure no one was listening, and there was no need to reveal anything. When our ceasefire with the High Gate Group had expired, no signs of another round of aggression appeared. In fact, it was the opposite. I couldn¡¯t be one hundred percent sure, but I believed it was due to the influence of bigger powers. Those who paid special attention to ourpany may have realized something was up, and the select few who were observant mainly consisted of high-level corporations. Joey was the exception due to our close rtionship. It wasn¡¯t surprising they all noticed the irregrities. It wasn¡¯t surprising that those in the know stayed clear of me in fear for my guardian angel. Even those uninvolved with my little squabbles against Nova Tech would have noticed how much attention mypany was drawing. Several A-ss corporations or higher should be snooping around, and they should all have noticed how none dared to take any drastic action against us. For better or worse, this situation brought about peace for mypany. ¡°People change in the face of benefits, Joey. Specting won¡¯t do us any good. Why don¡¯t we move on to more productive topics?¡± Joey smiled, ncing down while he ran a hand through his bald head. ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll need your guidance on how to get started in Aegis. Could you brief me on the representatives who are attending the party tonight?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do what I can, but do be warned. My connections can only get you so far for this. Aegis is still the territory of the consortium. Everything there is under their purview.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine and all. The real estate isn¡¯t the part I¡¯m too worried about. It¡¯s the dock that I told you about. I want to build my own ships.¡± ¡°Again, the best I can do is share my connections with you. Mypany only leases our vessels as our interests up there are much smaller. We¡¯ve opened a few restaurants across several stations, but each shop is localized. We don¡¯t require that much traffic to purchase our own spacecraft.¡± ¡°Still, your connections will speed things along. I thank you for that.¡± We continued going over some of the intricacies of operating in space that we would have to pay attention to. Obviously, if I nned on operating in ces without artificial gravity, I would need to train my employees on how to take on the new environment. I wouldn¡¯t have to go through as much trouble if they would stay put in Aegis. After all, that ce was a bona fide city in its own right, almost indistinguishable from many metropolises. This story has been uwfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Our talks went on for hours and evening approached. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure there are many things I¡¯ve failed to mention,¡± Joey humbly said. ¡°You¡¯ll inevitably have to learn as you go if you n on operating outside the main hubs. Just beware of the other corporations. There are numerous mid-sizedpanies up there, and they will attack if they smell blood.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard rumors about that, but space should berge enough for us all. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s possible to avoid conflicts with them.¡± ¡°Space may be enormous, but valuable resources are limited wherever you go. Anyway, it¡¯s about time to start heading to the venue, yes?¡± I nced at the time and nodded. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s start heading over. It wouldn¡¯t do for the hosts to bete.¡± As we departed from the cafe, our personnel quickly swarmed each of us. They had to ensure all business was taken care of before the party got started. ¡°Rollo, I just finished speaking with the Bank of Lion City,¡± ire reported. ¡°I¡¯ve scheduled a meeting for next week.¡± As always, the bank called everything we went up in rank. They exined various new services we could ess and how to go about various matters, such as the hidden perks. They simplified the process of how to employ the assistance of the ECPD or the justice system. Now that D-ss enabled mypany to operate in space, I expected their exnation was rted to that. I quickly deliberated if I should go in person. It wasn¡¯t possible to send a body double as the bank¡¯s verification methods would likely see through mere holographic images. Their security involved taking DNA samples, and wasn¡¯t worth fooling. As smoothly as all our business was going, it didn¡¯t mean we could neglect them. Maintaining a business was harder than founding one. We had to monitor the situation and innovate to keep our market shares. My time is probably better spent overseeing how our game and trantion software is going. As soon as they stabilize, we n tounch several lightweight games to build up our catalog. We had a perfectly working tform that was ourmunication app, the EchoHalls, so it was time to connect all our software products to one tform. I also have several projects waiting for me. There¡¯s no time to spare. ¡°I think I¡¯ll skip out this time. You can go if you want or send someone else in our ce.¡± ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ll go.¡± Once we settled the matter of visiting the bank, the other employees brought several reports to my attention. The daily summaries could be skimmed as the others were hired to ensure they were in order, but the report on our new aircraft was different. As the creator, it was up to me to oversee it. The tests were over by now, and the aircraft itself had been thoroughly examined. Thanks to how simple I kept it, no rming issues arose. It was a good first test before I embarked on more ambitious designs. The matter I paid the most attention to was how much I could reduce the noise of the flight. Even with sound dampeners, it was almost impossible to eliminate all sound. The motors, air turbulence, and vibrations were unavoidable. For full-sized aircraft, reducing the sound wasn¡¯t that importantpared to avoiding radar and other forms of detection. However, drones were a different matter. The drones I envisioned could operate in confined spaces. That meant the volume of its flight had to be reduced to a soft whisper at the minimum. I nned tobine all the detection tools I had used so far onto this drone tform. It would be a lot easier if highly mobile drones could deploy the Nyes for me or even project holographic images for distractions. With various reports to go through, it felt like I had reached my destination in no time. We arrived back in the same SocialCorp facility I had once visited with Joey. It was a giant holographic chamber that acted as a venue for various social events. Thest time I was here, it was to celebrate some otherpany¡¯s promotion to D-ss, too. How time flies. The previous time, the scenery to set to that of an outdoor field. This time, we had something a little more formal. A grand ballroom straight from the Victorian era. Having dealt with projections so much myself, my new optics could easily see through thismercial-grade holographic, but that wasn¡¯t useful for today¡¯s event. As the hosts, Joey and I were the first ones to arrive. We had our people swiftlyplete any final preparations as we awaited our guests to arrive. That didn¡¯t take long to happen. Joey was well-connected, and we had our allies from the West Coast Agroindustry to count on. Those important allies showed up first.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡°Congrattions, Mr. Halls. With how fast yourpany has been rising, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you held another promotion celebration next year!¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. By then, the bunch in High Gate Group would be even more reluctant to start something with us.¡± Like the ballroom parties I had seen in movies, people began to crowd the area around the food and drinks tables. Before I knew it, the entire ce was packed. Not only did our allies show up, but their respective connections did as well. While I had called on Joey¡¯s connections, many others who were acquainted with my allies eagerly showed up as well. I was told it was amon scene. Many people liked to make connections with up-anding D-ss corporations. For the smallerpanies, it could mean obtaining a new source of raw materials if we engaged in mining. Those who already had interests in space wanted to buy our excess quota for themercial transport capacity of the space elevator. And of course, some wanted to seek space-rted business partnerships. Operating in space was expensive. Partnering up to diversify the risks was a basic strategy among corporations. As many people came to congratte me, the conversations were kept shallow. I had either just met them or rarely spoken to them. The norm was to socialize first before proceeding into business matters in theter part of the party. Before we made it to that, the anomaly I had been informed about just a day prior had arrived. A man walked in alone, and he drew everyone¡¯s attention. The fabric of his attire screamed wealth, and his hairstyle was unique. He only had a thin but long ponytail that ran all the way down to his waist. However, it was the small badge on his chest that drew everyone¡¯s attention. It depicted a sword with a cherry blossom tree in the background, showcasing his affiliation with Ferrumus Corp. As the person who had the most contact with the A-ss corporation, Joey stepped forth to greet him. ¡°Wee, Kai of Ferrumus Corporation. I¡¯m honored to see you today.¡± The thin man only nodded in response before beginning to scan the room. As I suspected, his wandering gaze stopped when his eyesnded on me. No one present dared to greet him uing witnessing how he had brushed Joey off. This meant no one dared to stop him as he cut straight through the crowd towards me. I tried my best to suppress a sigh. Oh dear, here we go. Chapter 205: Connections & Connections Chapter 205: Connections & Connections I resolved myself for the uing conversation as Kai, the representative from Ferrumus Corp, approached. He had just ignored Joey, so the tension in the air was high. A number of our allies within the West Coast Agroindustry were here. They all knew that Joey was the one who had remained in contact with Ferrumus throughout all this time due to the contract we signed. We gave them a share of our profits in exchange for keeping the High Gate Group¡¯s supporters in check. That was why Kai¡¯s conduct had added to the tension. It was evident that he had something serious to discuss with me. The almost bald man soon reached me and the surrounding people swiftly took a few steps back. Without missing a beat, Kai activated some device, something simr to what I had seen Titus from AeroDynamic use. It created a hazy barrier around us, cutting me off from any sounds beyond the dome. ¡°I have activated an anti-eavesdropping device, but I prefer we go somewhere private before we chat.¡± ¡°Of course¡­Follow me.¡± It wasn¡¯t like I had a choice. While their conduct was forceful and frowned upon, the disparity in ourpanies made it inconsequential. I led him off to one of the side rooms. SocialCorp was the leading corporation for a reason. They ounted for every need their customer would have and fulfilled them. In this case, our holographic party room had several smaller rooms for private conversations. ¡°We should be good here,¡± I dered. ¡°And please excuse me, I have yet to greet you yet, Representative Kai.¡± I bowed and gestured for us to take a seat. While he did so, I took the opportunity to reexamine his cybeics, as it had been some time since Ist saw him. Many things have changed since then, and my ability to analyze the technology used in cybeics has risen. The man was a lean cyborg, but I had seen him in action. His swiftness and agilityplimented hispany¡¯s des really well. He easily closed the distance and cut through any foe, whether they had energy shields or not. ¡°Mr. Halls, it has been some time. I¡¯m sure we have a lot to catch up on, but I hope you don¡¯t mind me cutting straight to the point first. My employers have a few things they wanted me to convey to you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t mind at all. Please speak freely.¡± ¡°Thank you. My employers wanted me to discuss potential partnerships together. Now that yourpany has reached the D-ss, we¡¯d be happy to help you navigate the intricacies of operating in space.¡±n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om ¡°Hmm, I have yet to decide if we would expand into space yet.¡± ¡°Mr. Halls, I highly doubt that. Well, even if we considered you have no intention of taking your business off for now, we can still help set up your foundations. We can help you with that aircraft you recently created. We can help you design a variant that is space-worthy with our years of experience.¡± I contained myself upon hearing those words. He was barely keeping up with appearances, basically telling me directly that he knew everything we were up to. I had expected they would keep an eye on whatever they could, so the new aircraft wasn¡¯t a surprise. However, it was unavoidable that I felt ufortable that someone from such argepany had dissected my actions. I quickly rposed myself and formted a response. ¡°Like I said, I haven¡¯t decided when or if I will be expanding off, but I¡¯m still open to hearing about some partnerships you have in mind.¡± ¡°We¡¯d be happy to sell you our mining ships and provide various technical support in establishing any type of manufacturing you may wish to pursue. Your business is wee to use the facilities on our highly secured stations as well.¡± That may mean paying ¡®taxes¡¯ to them and making us vulnerable to their whims. I¡¯d rather pay the consortium for more neutral ground. ¡°Hmm, these are too specific to discuss right now. It¡¯ll have to wait until we have a development n first.¡± Kai then proceeded to spew some other ways we could cooperate, making me learn that he wasn¡¯t just a cyborg bodyguard. He fluently barraged me with potential business deals one after the other. If I hadn¡¯t met him before, I would¡¯ve thought he was a seasoned salesman. No matter what he offered, I responded in the same way, as politely as I could. I dig my heel into the position of not being ready yet. It took an entire hour for Kai to finally give up. From there, he left the private room and socialized with the other guests briefly before taking his leave. ¡°What¡¯d he want?¡± my SAID immediately received a message from ire upon Kai¡¯s exit from the venue. ¡°Not a warning, at least. It seems like he¡¯s desperate to deepen business connections with us.¡± ¡°Did he say why?¡± ¡°No, but it¡¯s not hard to infer. Whatever political faction Ferrumus is part of wants to get on the good side of Mr. NPC. Or at the very least, they are opposed to Nova Tech¡¯s faction that is against us.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like this, Rollo. We¡¯re just small pieces in their colossal chessboard.¡± ¡°This is the hand we¡¯ve been dealt. We can only y it to the best of our abilities. We should be d that Ferrumus isn¡¯t antagonistic to us or warning us about an imminent threat.¡± This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ire didn¡¯t say anything after that, and the celebration for our promotion quickly resumed. Numerous people came up to me to congratte us on our promotion, but the only thing that I had on my mind was our future ns. I had to find a way to elerate our growth as fast as possible. We¡¯ve be too exposed, with severalrge corporations with their sights on us. It had its pros and cons. On one side, we could make connections with powerful corporations much easier. Normally, theserge corporations above A-ss wouldn¡¯t spare us the time of day. If we utilized these connections correctly, we could gain ess to various exclusive goods and knowledge. On the flip side, malicious parties also took notice of us. My guardian angel said he was keeping them in check, but that could be rescinded at any time. He had been kept upied once before, so it stands to reason it could happen again. I felt like we were on a slippery tightrope. One wrong step and it could alle crumbling, but if I survived, it was an unmatched opportunity to rise up. The celebration continued while I was barely able to keep up my facade. That was fine when dealing with people I was unfamiliar with, but the perceptive few I had met previously could see the cloud covering my face. ¡°Rollo, congrattions on your promotion.¡± I nced over at the voice to find a young man. ¡°Luford, thank you foring.¡± The young man who greeted me was Luford Perez, the current CEO of Sensorial Corporation whom mypany partnered up with. We had a dozen or so products in the sensor market, and someone who I had met often before the incident with Nova Tech. They were able to bolster our product catalog, making us less prone to disruptions due to the performance of a few products. While we had to share our profits with them, being able to diversify our portfolio was more than worth it. ¡°I¡¯m happy to see yourpany rising so fast. I thought it was only yesterday that you guys were still at F-ss, an entire grade below us. Now you¡¯ve already surpassed us.¡± ¡°Please, we couldn¡¯t have done it without the help of yourpany. We¡¯ll be continuing to rely on you in the future as well.¡± While it was true we were growing quickly, we still had to maintain good rtionships with our allies. When we were near equal in power, our beneficial rtionship allowed us to stand as a united front, deterring any otherpany from messing with us. Even when we surpassed them by a wider margin in the future, we could still make use of them. In my old world, bigpanies would engage in corporate takeovers. It allowed them to take over the business at a much faster rate than forming their own team to fill the same role their valued partners once did. It would reduce any disruption as well. Here, corporate takeovers only consisted of hostile takeovers. It was literally a matter of life and death. Those who lost the backing of theirpany became vulnerable. It wasn¡¯t like my world where one could retire peacefully with the money from the acquisition. That was why the moremon way things proceeded was subordinate business, or vassals, as some would say. It was basically another term for a friendly takeover, but allowing a little more independence to the childpany. ¡°Anyway, Rollo,¡± Luford¡¯s words woke me from my musing. ¡°I¡¯d love to explore more ways ourpany can continue to work with you. We¡¯re already partners, so it should be easy to work on other projects together. In fact, why don¡¯t we talk more at ater date?¡± ¡°Sure, just make an appointment for when you¡¯re free.¡± ¡°Oh, why don¡¯t we just directly talk over Legend of the Mythic War? I¡¯ll add you.¡± ¡°...That works.¡± Rollo¡¯s curiosity was piqued and his SAID was smart enough to provide him with an answer. It automatically pulled up Luford¡¯s ount record. The man had spent an average of sixty hours a week in the game. He even bought a plethora of cosmetic options, making him one of the big spenders of the game. His ount had spent no less than a hundred thousand credits. A whale¡­I don¡¯t know what to think about being responsible for turning my friend into an addict. Rollo didn¡¯t dare to dwell on the topic for too long. There were others at the party watching or waiting for him. Most of them didn¡¯t have any important matters to discuss yet and were mainly looking to form a connection. The surface-level discussion passed the time quickly until a certain bald personage approached. This is awkward. I¡¯m not sure how to act after seeing him get ignored by Kai in front of all these people. I guess the safe way is to act as if nothing happened. ¡°Joey, how¡¯s everything going? Did all of your guests arrive yet?¡± Engaging me in conversation, I watched as he put on his signature smile and nodded. ¡°Yes, of course. I can go get them now if you¡¯d like.¡± I nodded and quickly came face to face with three individuals. One of them was much like Joey, bald. However, he had a wide frame andrge eyes. He had some conspicuous scars around his forehead. ¡°This here is Wa, assistant manager to the Oasis Tree Corporation Aegis branch.¡± Joey had given me some preface to theirpanies, so I knew Oasis Tree was apany specialized in life-support products. It was no surprise they operated mainly in space, where their target market was. Not only did ships need a functional life-support system, but so too did the space stations. I shook his hand and exchanged polite greetings before Joey moved on to the next person. It was a middle-aged woman of short stature. ¡°This is Kaitlyn, sales manager at Apollo Corporation. If you need any propulsion system or to find the perfect fuel for your ship, they¡¯re the ones to go to.¡± Next came anky old man. He felt like someone I would find in a researchb instead of some social party. ¡°Last but not least, we have Julius. He¡¯s from A-Flux Incorporated. If you have money to spare, you should trust me and buy power generators from them instead of paying the station fees. They are one of a select few who are licensed to deal in nuclear power.¡± Thest man came from apany I was very interested in. They dealt in nuclear reactors, very simr to the ones used in power armor. The difference was that they only dealt in full-sized reactors and not the miniature ones that could fit in my pocket. The tech involved in that was much more mature and easier to implement. The miniaturization tech required for the power armor version was something only top corporations could produce. Nevertheless, there was no denying the high demand for energy, even in space. It madepanies like A-Flux essential to anyone without the tech to do the same. If I wanted to build my own ships in the future, I would definitely need the help of apany like them. Particle Physics had given me some knowledge of nuclear fusion, but I only had a small part of therger picture. So far, I hadn¡¯t invested in nuclear physics, so I believed it would be better to outsource these specialty parts unless that has changed. However, before I would embark on such an ambitious journey, I would brush up my skills with smaller-scale implementations first. My first prototype transport aircraft wasplete. It was a great start, but I wanted to test space-worthy vessels as soon as possible. The costs of these spacecraft were not to be taken lightly, which was why I had arrived at my drone idea. It had bothmercial earning capabilities and the ability to allow me to test numerous features I would like on my future spacecraft thanks to its low cost. I couldn¡¯t wait for the party to be over and dive back into myb. Chapter 206: Night Market Chapter 206: Night Market The celebration was finally over. I met numerous new corpos for the first time, each with varying backgrounds. Some operated out in Elevate City, while some mainly stayed on Aegis. From these new connections, I was even invited to several social gatherings events. I guess Joey wasn¡¯t lying that these events are usually reserved for middle-sizedpanies and beyond. He did me a solid for getting me into thatst event where people gossiped about mypany. Just like how we got to the spaceport, a small convoy of vehicles escorted us back into the city. ¡°Is it just me, or did I not get a chance to eat anything at all?¡± ire voiced as she held onto her grumbling stomach. ¡°I ate just fine,¡± Thorne quipped. ¡°Maybe you should¡¯ve done less talking and more eating.¡± ¡°As if I could¡¯ve done that! Didn¡¯t you see all those people always nearby, waiting to start a conversation with me?¡± ¡°Now, now. That¡¯s just how these social events are, especially when we were the star of it,¡± I justified.I knew it wasn¡¯t umon, but it usually didn¡¯t happen to us. Having an unending stream of people trying to get your attention was exhausting. As my COO, it was a given ire suffered from the same treatment. It would be more surprising to me if she managed to get a bite to eat. Meanwhile, Thorne worked security, so he didn¡¯t have to endure the same thing. ¡°Well, we should grab a bite before we go back,¡± ire suggested. ¡°I haven¡¯t had outside food that wasn¡¯t takeout in ages!¡± ¡°That¡¯s a security¡ª¡± ¡°Come on Thorne. We can¡¯t be living our lives in cages. What do you say, Rollo? Want to check out a night market? Don¡¯t think you¡¯ve had a chance to visit one yet, right?¡± At her suggestion, I quickly web-searched what she was talking about. Before I had enough money to gorge on actual food, I usually just purchased fast food or tasteless nutrient packets. Having sampled how disgusting the synthetic stuff was, I never had any interest in sampling the food markets. I took a brief nce at our security detail and was just about to say no, but then I spotted the pedestrians out in the streets having a great time. Arge friend groupughed and ate as they enjoyed the seaside breeze. They may be armed and ready for a shootout at any moment, but it didn¡¯t change how much fun they were having. Seeing their fulfillment made me rx all of a sudden. I may have been too uptight in light of what¡¯s been going on. I¡¯m starting to resemble those stuck-up corpo who lock themselves in their shiny ivory office towers. It wasn¡¯t healthy to segregate myself from the rest of the popce. ¡°Okay, just for tonight. Let¡¯s go check it out.¡± ¡°But Rollo, you know how¡ª¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. Lighten up,¡± I cated Thorne. ¡°This is a sporadic decision, so it¡¯s unlikely any nned ambush will be waiting for us, and our security department isn¡¯t just for show, right?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°If we¡¯refortable heading into Haven, where there are armed mercenaries everywhere, then we should be fine walking into a civilian night market right?¡± After several minutes of persuading, Thorne finally gave in. His concerns were warranted, as even regr people in this world were most likely armed and had training with their weapons. However, if our security couldn¡¯t even handle these regr folks, then there was no way I could trust them to handle the forces ofrge corporations. With that decided, our convoy began changing destination under the guise of our holographic disguises. Now that we weren¡¯t around the spaceport, we could transform the appearance of our vehicles to blend into our surroundings. Using this strategy, a part of our security team split off and went ahead to secure the perimeter. We pulled up to a spacious open parking lot, right next to a bustling za. Elevate City had hundreds of millions of people, so it was expected that most of these ces would be crowded. The three of us disembarked from the car and walked straight into the crowd. I was still wearing the same suit I had on for the celebration, and so did ire. Only Thorne adjusted his appearance to hide his power armor. Topensate for the added bulk, he projected himself as a wide, portly gentleman. The night market we chose mostly catered to the bottom rung of the corpo caste. That included their families and friends, so there was a good ratio of folks who didn¡¯t work a corporate job as well. Some of them seemed dangerous, but I let my security detail worry about that for me. Instead, I took this rare opportunity to enjoy the visit. There were dozens and dozens of food stalls, neatly lined up around the za. There were several seating areas at the center, with enough space to sit thousands. ¡°Oh, can you get us three of those?¡± ire called out to a worker behind a stall. I nced down at what she wanted, a weird-looking sausage that was being seared. I read the signs and learned that it was called ¡®New-Tro Sage¡¯, but learned nothing from the name. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. While I didn¡¯t exactly want to eat it, it was toote. ire had already ced one in my hand. She bit into it without hesitation, but I cautiously searched for what it contained first. Seriously? Someone thought to make sausages with the paste they use in nutrient packs? No matter how you cook tasteless junk, it¡¯ll still be tasteless junk. From my investigations, I found that it wasn¡¯t exactly filled with chemicals that were harmful. Nutrient packs were one of the healthiest things one could eat. The corporations that made them tried to cut corners, including only the necessary vitamins one needed to survive. As a result, it became a type of healthy sustenance, if one could trust thepany to have handled the paste with proper hygiene procedures. It wasn¡¯t like the health inspection bureau was trustworthy with how easy it was to bribe them. Perhaps that¡¯s why they seared it. It was due to this dubiousness that corporate executives normally only ate from vetted restaurants, carrying the best ingredients. ¡°What are you waiting for, Rollo? Bite into it before it gets cold.¡± ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s fine, right?¡± ¡°Yeah,e on. There¡¯s no need to be scared. On the off chance that someone ate some contaminants, SocialCorp had even made a food poison tablet to flush out the harmful elements.¡± ¡°It¡¯s concerning how you knew about that. I¡¯m hoping you¡¯re not a regr here?¡± ¡°No, but we sometimes order this kind of street food.¡± She nced over at Thorne and shared an incriminating grin. ¡°It¡¯s a nostalgic taste. Way better in person, too!¡± Before I could respond, a voice called out from behind her. It was a skinnydy from the stall that handed ire the food. ¡°Girl, you still have to pay for those if you don¡¯t want any trouble.¡± Just great, I¡¯ve made them hole up in ourpound so much that she forgot she had to pay for food. ¡°Apologies, ma¡¯am,¡± I intervened. ¡°Here, a tip for your troubles.¡± Using my SAID, I swiftly transferred her a hundred credits. I then ushered mypanions away, as the line behind us wasn¡¯t lightening up. ¡°Sir¡­Are you serious? Thank¡ª¡± I didn¡¯t bother waiting until the stall worker finished their words before we went out of earshot. ¡°What are you doing, Rollo? You¡¯re drawing attention to us,¡± ireined. It was only then that I looked back and saw a bunch of people staring our way. ¡°I only gave her a hundred credits¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s way too much! One New-Tro Sage only cost five credits. Geez, someone¡¯s lost touch with the value of money.¡± I held my tongue and continued walking away. I had only just thought how sheltered she had be, forgetting to pay only to have my own faults on st. Thankfully, therge crowd meant it was easy for people to lose sight of us. We freely roamed from stall to stall, sampling everything that caught our attention. As I expected, none of the savory food tasted edible to me. Instead, I focused on desserts as I tried to branch out from just milkshakes. The results were mixed, but we only sampled about half of what was avable. Our stomachs could only hold so much. Our fun and eventful day only came to an end when midnight came. I decided to return to our mainpound instead ofb zero just for tonight. Now that our corporation had be a D-ss entity, we would be having a meeting tomorrow afternoon. There was a lot of paperwork I had to oversee and reports to go through. I could only do so much remotely. It was much more convenient to be there so I could keep up with the various departments. The next morning, I started off by viewing our financials. We now had to pay twenty-five million credits per annum to maintain our status. That about drained a good portion of our war chest, and we relied on our new games to bring in the cash flow. ¡°The numbers have been looking good, but our employee suggestion box has been filled with ideas to improve our mization model. What do you think about that?¡± I asked the moment I stepped into ire¡¯s office. She nced up in surprise,pletely caught off guard that I was there, but recollected herself quickly. ¡°From what I read, they¡¯re just nitpicking faults withouting up with an actual idea. We¡¯re already doing subscriptions and micro-transactions. Isn¡¯t it almost too much already?¡± ¡°I mean, we can still add some vanity items to see how the consumers react. We could do stuff like virtual collectibles, and the option to gift others our subscriptions or buy the virtual game currency.¡± ¡°Collectibles? Like what?¡± ¡°You talk about it with consumer research. It can be anything. Like cards or pets or anything,¡± I¡¯ve seen arge variety from experience, but it was better to cater to this world¡¯s popce as precisely as possible. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll get it sorted by the end of the day and send you an update, along with the report regarding our situation up on Aegis.¡± ¡°No need. You guys can sign off on that much.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m assuming you¡¯ll be unreachable, then?¡± ¡°Oh no, I¡¯ll be reachable. It¡¯s just I may choose not to respond.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the same thing!¡± I walked away with a smirk as I prepared to return to myb. I had done everything that was needed of me. The rest could bepleted by my employees. It was time to focus on my research. The only thing I would respond to was if there were some incidents regarding renting out space in Aegis. With our promotion, ourpany took action immediately, seeking out properties up on the space station. Just like Elevate City, real estate was precious up there. The lowest-costingmercial properties wereparable to the most expensive areas down in the city. Then there were all the new fees associated with operating in space. Up on Aegis, we had to pay a premium for the air we breathed and the water we used. We were charged maintenance for the station as well, which amounted to higher tax rates. However, few corporations were deterred by these costs. The business environment up there made it easy to earn it all back. Some specialized businesses, like delicate processing chips, needed the zero-g environment to thrive, while others made use of the lower material costs. The main supply of new ores came from space mining. By being closer to the source, the cost became cheaper with less logistical burden required. The economies of scale that were allotted to businesses were hard to resist. In summary, doing business in space was profitable. I left my personnel to set up the groundwork for that, so I simply need to focus on what only I could do for now. I had picked up new knowledge, and it had to be put to good use. I didn¡¯t dare record everything into cassettes yet. It made it too vulnerable to theft and diminished my value. That was why I kept my head down and got working as soon as I returned to my workshop. That wasn¡¯t going to change until things in Aegis were ready for us. And from the look of things, that was going to be very soon. Chapter 207: New Frontier Chapter 207: New Frontier A few months after ourpany was promoted to D-ss, it was finally time to take our first step onto a new frontier. Everythingside had progressed well. For our game, the Legend of the Mythic War, the yer base was steadily growing. It demonstrated how effective word of mouth was. Leeching off this sess, we created several smaller games using the same theme. On one united virtual tform, our lightweight games ranged from a type of fantasy chess to farming simtors. The currency of these games was all united, meaning you could bring the wealth you made from one to the other. It was an ambitious move that I wouldn¡¯t have dared without Lanus watching over the market. The trantion software had also started taking off, but it would need more time before it reached its full potential. On the logistic end, we sessfully implemented a new aerial route from Elevate City to NLA. Not only did it keep our logisticwork in-house, but it also provided an avenue for us to give our pilots flight time. It was only our cybeic department that was performing moderately. Due to having to dumbed down ourmercial version, its specification wasn¡¯t heads and shoulders above thepetitors. To fully take advantage of it, one also needed to purchase aplete set. Few active mercenaries would do such a thing, as it would require time to get used to. Time that was better spent taking on the next gig. It was an issue that was difficult to address. Our potential clients were required to make a not-so-smallmitment. Buying a full set from us wasn¡¯t only a cost consideration. Not all mercenaries were cyborgs. Many of them simply had one cybeic arm or leg here and there. With all these factorsbined with the fact that we had only been around for a year, it was understandable our cybeics didn¡¯t be a breakout sess. Regardless, the main purpose of the set was for our internal use, so as long as it didn¡¯t end up in the red, I was satisfied. At the same time, thepetitive part of me searched for solutions to remedy the issue. I considered taking a page out of Sensorial¡¯s book, and start designing more variants to cater to different niches. Our partnership with them taught me a lot about the business adoption side of things. Numerous people made use of cybeics, not just forbat purposes.It was just as I got started on designing a cyberarm for manualbor that I received news about thepletion of the renting procedures up in Aegis. It was time for ourpany to move in and establish our foothold. A few dayster, we boarded a shuttle and headed up the space elevator. ¡°So you excited to see your sister for the first time in months or what?¡± ire impishly asked as she watched Pino struggle to strap into his seat. ¡°We¡­we already talk every day.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s virtual. In-person is different, you know?¡± ¡°I¡­¡± Pino was at a loss for words, so I interjected. ¡°Leave him be. He¡¯s been holed up in theb, doing simtions for our products for ages. He doesn¡¯t deserve to be pestered during the precious few moments he isn¡¯t working.¡± ¡°Hey, that¡¯s your fault!¡± ire cried. ¡°You¡¯re the one who¡¯s putting too much on his te.¡± ¡°Umm, it¡¯s fine, you two. I asked for more to do, and I don¡¯t mind chatting with ire,¡± Pino tried to cate both parties. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re not really fighting,¡± ire assured. ¡°Rollo is just grumpy. Anyway, you¡¯ve been living in Aegis most of your life, right? You¡¯ve got to bring me around!¡± Hearing that he was fine with it, I left him be to deal with ire. He asked for it. It meant I didn¡¯t have to deal with the chatterbox. Turning away from their conversation, I nced around thepartment we were in. We had reserved it for our personnel only, as we would be bringing two dozen people with us. It was the minimum we needed to establish a branch. Leaving Pino with ire, I smiled and nodded to Polina, who was sitting on the other side of me, before I caught sight of Thorne staring at me. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Hmm, I wanted your opinion.¡± ¡°On?¡± ¡°...Who to put in charge of the Aegis branch? It¡¯ll be a small team, but with our most advanced tech.¡± ¡°Did you already ask who¡¯s willing to take on the position?¡± ¡°ire had settled the office personnel, but I¡¯m talking about the security side of things. All of them are yes-men, so it¡¯s up to me to choose.¡± ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve got another Vin lying around. All of them are equally inexperienced, so believe in your gut.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± I knew I wasn¡¯t very helpful, but I didn¡¯t have a preference either way. As we expanded, it was inevitable I wouldn¡¯t be able to personally get to know all of our people. I already don¡¯t know all the names and positions of all my employees. It was only thanks to my SAID that I could call out their names when I needed to. Technology assisted us in managing distant outposts, so I would continue to rely on just that. There was a reason I spent so much effort installing the monitoring imnts into my workers. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Just like Pino, I spent most of my time in theb instead of bed as well, so after our conversation died down, I got some shut-eye. By the time I woke up, we had arrived. Retracing our steps from the previous visits, we soon found ourselves heading for the city. As several taxis rode down the quiet streets, we all looked out the window in curiosity. Aegis hadn¡¯t changed in the least. The parts outside downtown still looked rundown. The average person here had a much worse life than those living on the surface. ¡°How¡¯d you managed to earn enough money for the ride back so quickly around here?¡± I asked the blonde woman beside me. ¡°Perseverance? They¡¯re ways to get by in this city without being burdened down by all those fees they charge.¡± ¡°You were homeless or something?¡± ¡°I slept around the docks where I worked. Thepany didn¡¯t mind too much. Their turnover rate was high enough already, so I guessed they turned a blind eye to those sorts of things.¡± ¡°You said you worked EVA. I would assume that pays decent, no? How is the turnover rate high?¡± ¡°I told you, don¡¯t you remember? EVA is a dangerous business. Loose debris and garbage in orbit could pelt you at any time. Then there¡¯s the possibility of what you¡¯re working oning apart. If it wasn¡¯t for the experimental bio-coprocessor in my mind, things would¡¯ve gotten real dicey.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­good to know. I¡¯ll be sure to address the safety issue before I send our people to work.¡± She grinned and looked out the window on the other side. What she brought up required further investigation from me. It wasn¡¯t something Joey or anyone else had warned me about, but I guess it was to be expected. Corpos didn¡¯t care much about the safety of the lower rung. Manualbor was easy to find and cheap. It was the reason they didn¡¯t get fancy bots to do the job. Human beings were much cheaper to rece. Still, it should¡¯ve been too hard to install scanners on the exterior, and maybe some guns to shoot down debris? No, I doubt the station would allow for that. I should inspect the site before deciding on anything. Our ride through the city was smooth. Fewer people in Aegis could afford vehicles, which meant less traffic. We soon found ourselves outside a rundown building on the border between the office and the residential area. It was apparent that the property was on the low end, ording to corporate standards. It wasn¡¯t surprising, as I had approved the selection of this ce. Much like Elevate City, every inch ofnd in Aegis was worth its weight in gold. It wasn¡¯t exactly easy to expand the city, so we had to deal with it. My only requirement was a standalone property, free from any third parties. As we got off, three figures exited the building to greet us. Standing in the lead was a woman with a familiar-looking face. Before they could properly greet us, ire pushed Pino up to the neers. ¡°There you go, it¡¯s your sister. Go on, hug her, and tell her how much you¡¯ve missed her.¡± ¡°Umm¡­¡± Pino¡¯s sister, Tally, watched on, unamused. It caused Pino to shriek back despite knowing her re wasn¡¯t for him. ¡°Are you done with my brother yet, Ms. COO?¡± Her attitude caused ire to chuckle and put her hands up. ¡°He¡¯s all yours.¡± ¡°Sister, it¡¯s okay. I¡ª¡± ¡°Shh,¡± Tally cut off her brother. ¡°No need to make excuses for corpos.¡± Seeing how things were progressing in a weird direction, I stepped forth before it veered off anymore. The two men behind Tally instantly noticed my approach and saluted in my direction while Tally nodded my way. ¡°Good work. You¡¯ve managed to secure us a proper ce to build our foundation upon. I¡¯m going to have to ask that you give us a quick tour, though.¡± Tally looked down at her brother for a brief moment before answering. ¡°As long as it doesn¡¯t put my brother in danger, I¡¯m happy to do as told. I feel a lot safer now that we¡¯re back in our hometown, too.¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy to hear, but I assume it isn¡¯t exactly how it used to be, right?¡± Even I knew the difference in how one would be treated if they returned dressed like the corpos who suppressed their people. I just hoped it wasn¡¯t too bad for this pair of siblings. ¡°I keep a low profile and I didn¡¯t really have many friends in the first ce.¡± What a thing to say¡­ ¡°Well, once we¡¯re done, you¡¯re free to go visit Amos or whoever.¡± She simply nodded and gestured me into our new property. It was a rental from the city, but that was the norm around here. Rarely did they sell the property in Aegis. Everything was rented out from central management for a number of years. Our property here was rented on a ten-year term. I heard many big corporations rented theirs for the maximum term of ny-nine years. We then toured the building as Thorne led his team to set up the perimeter. Tally and her team had gotten a head start, but there was a limit to what three people could do. At the very least, they had gotten the ce to be habitable. There was running water, breathable air, and even some simple furniture, like beds and dressers. Once the tour was done, ire led another team to set up the work area while I entered my private chambers. I needed to set up a workshop here as well if I would be spending any serious time up here. I didn¡¯t need my gut instinct to know I would. New business partnerships needed to be made. Many deals needed to be negotiated in person in order to show my respect. I foresaw myself up here for the next few months. The next morning, our men continued setting up the ce while I headed out to my scheduled meeting. The celebration party I had a few months back wasn¡¯t just for fun. I made many connections and put them to good use. Ordering a taxi, it quickly cut through the city, leading me toward the edge of the entire space station. It was a weird contrast to see myself start from a highly patrolled area into neglected districts, only to once again enter a secured area near the edge. The perimeter of the city was heavily protected. It was to guard against any damage to the infrastructure. Anyone who damaged the outer walls was punished harshly, so few crimes happened on the outskirts. As we pulled up to the meeting ce right next to a dock, I couldn¡¯t help but stare at the orange sent tank off to the entrance of a side street. I remember learning how it was used to seal off any breaches to the structures in case of emergencies during my first visit. The reason I stared was because someone was currently opening up the box the sent was kept behind. It meant trouble was about. I sighed and quickly took a sweep of the area, searching for any of the man¡¯s allies or security forces. I do not want to be caught up in anything. Chapter 208: Meetings after Meetings Chapter 208: Meetings after Meetings Our group watched on in bewilderment as a man in his thirties was scrambled for the orange canister inside an emergency box. The use of this canister was something all visitors were informed of as they entered the city. It was sent meant to block off any breaches in the structure of the space station. We didn¡¯t detect any disturbance even when I scanned our vicinity, so we were left wondering what he was doing. Still, it usually wasn¡¯t a good idea to go up to someone and demand to know what they were up to. Not wanting to get involved, I swiftly sent a message to all my employees, ¡°Let¡¯s keep moving. Just ignore him.¡± I watched as our administrative personnel shifted away from the strange man while a portion of our security detail moved to block off the path between us and the potential threat. Our guards were invisible, so it would only appear like we were moving along, minding our own business. However, the streets were rtively empty. Most people were at work. This meant the unidentified man unsurprisingly noticed us. When he saw us, his expression quickly changed to that of rm. He alternated nces between us and the orange canister in his hand. Then he came to a decision and abruptly reached into his pockets, drawing something from his pockets. My security instantly reacted, positioning themselves between us. His sudden actions may have caused us to shoot him. To be exact, they would have shot him if our personnel hadn¡¯t gotten theirtest upgrade. The new bio-coprocessor afforded them more time to analyze and react ordingly. They were able to watch the entire ordeal with time to spare, recognizing correctly that it was a terminal in the man¡¯s hand. Before giving us an exnation, the man put the device to his ear and ced a call as he did a quick one-eighty. He didn¡¯t even wait for the call to connect and started running. ¡°Well, that¡¯s quite the character,¡± iremented. ¡°Whatever. We don¡¯t have time for that. Come on, it¡¯s almost time for our meeting,¡± I urged.My auditory imnts picked up sounds of sirens off in the distance, so I could guess what had happened. However, it was none of my business. We swiftly entered the cafe and were promptly greeted by the staff. Our security personnel disabled their Shades as they came in behind us. We had already checked in with the cafe and confirmed they were allowed in. Though, it didn¡¯t remove any of the awkwardness of seeing fully armed individuals strolling into a high-ss establishment. Once we were ready, the staff led us past themon area and into an extravagant marble elevator. The ride didn¡¯t only go up or down, as the elevator brought us deeper into the building. Within a minute, we stepped off into what seemed to be a fancy-looking lobby for a spa. No one came to greet us this time. Instead, a robot dressed in a butler¡¯s uniform popped up from behind the counter. ¡°Wee. Please confirm you are Mr. Halls, who has reserved a private room for the next four hours.¡± ¡°That¡¯s correct,¡± I replied. It wasn¡¯t strange talking to the bot at all, as I was always conversing with Lanus. Still, my software knowledge kept me reminded that this bot wasn¡¯t a true AI. It simply had a pre-recorded set of reactions for different stimuli. ¡°Affirmative. Wee, Mr. Halls. Please follow me.¡± The bot led us down a corridor, leading us even further into the building. We only came to a stop at room number 002. Wordlessly opening the door for us, the bot wordlessly left as soon as we had all entered. Inside, the thing that drew our attention the most was naturally the giant window that looked over one of the busy ports in the city. Numerous spacecraft were ferrying their contents around, with the dock facilities buzzing with activity. My optics zoomed in to give me a clearer view of the thousands of workers carrying about their work. Even with all the heavy machinery around, the workers still had to carryrge crates in and out of the giant shipping containers that filled the scenery. It gave me further affirmation that my manualbor-focused cyberarm would serve a great purpose. While most of us were enjoying the view of the activities that took ce in the dark expanse, ire nonchntly sat down and read over the menu. ¡°Oooh, moonlight hydrogen tea. Says it¡¯s made from material shipped directly from the moon within thest forty-eight hours. What do you all want to drink?¡± Nobody batted an eye to ire¡¯s usual antics, with some of her assistants joining in with examining the menu. Very soon, the same bot returned with our order and we began our final briefing before our meetings got started. ¡°Just to confirm, everyone, please check if you have brought all the required documents that we¡¯ll be exchanging with the representatives we¡¯ll be meeting momentarily,¡± ire ordered. Our employees began fetching their folders, searching for the physical copies of various documents. Some of them were written on stic sheets, while the more important agreements were written on authentic paper. While an electronic copy worked fine, it was proper etiquette to provide a physical copy as well. At least for those who were influential enough to reach space. ncing off to the corner of the room, I found her worries to bepletely unwarranted. That was because there was a functional printer in the corner, connected to a terminal. I could even spot packs of expensive paper beside it as well. The establishment we were in was evidently prepared to address every business need. This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. While we busied ourselves to get prepared, time mercilessly went by like a hurricane. The first delegation we were scheduled to meet had arrived. A group of three, dressed in monotone corporate suits, entered into the room. They looked lifeless until the moment we made eye contact, putting on a cheerful demeanor in an instant. ¡°Good day to you, Mr. Halls. It¡¯s been some time,¡± He said with a grin as he shook my hand. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s good to see you again, Mr. Zaderick.¡± The man before me was one of the numerous guests who had approached me during our promotion celebration. Hispany worked in a vital industry and was based on Aegis. He sat down and ordered himself some refreshment as we spoke pleasantries to each other. We also introduced our assistants during the small talk. They had a total of three people in their party, while we had five who would be involved with the talks. The others discreetly retreated away from view. The private room we were in was just thatrge. After some exhausting pleasantries, we finally got down to the meat of our discussion. ¡°As we have mentioned during your celebration, ourpany is more than happy to work with you to find the property you desire. I¡¯ve gotten a basic idea of what you want over our emails, but there are a lot of details we aren¡¯t permitted to send out. Why don¡¯t we start by going over these prospective properties?¡± Zaderick was from Clive & Jim Corporation, moremonly referred to as C&J corp. They were property developers who had real estate in every major hub in the world. They were people who could point me in the right direction of attaining my own shipyard. ¡°Yes, please go ahead.¡± Zaderick nodded and ced a small circr device down on the table. It immediately lit up, projecting arge screen for all to see. ¡°We at C&J have a plethora of options for you to choose from, even if you are only considering properties in Aegis. To reiterate, your requirement is simply a ce that can be used as a shipyard, and discreet enough so you won¡¯t have to worry about prying eyes. Is that correct? I nodded. ¡°Here are the specific requirements,¡± ire added, sending him a file. ¡°Understood. It¡¯s as I surmised. Please take a look at my rmendations here.¡± The screen changed, taking us on a virtual tour of some shipyards. ¡°The one you see here is one of the prime shipyards money can buy, or, if you so wish, rent. It was constructed by the Florence Corporation. They have recently moved all production into their private station in recent years, leaving it vacant, but it is still in good condition.¡± He proceeded to give us the rundown of several abandoned shipyards, a few small ones that were facing financial difficulties. They all sounded the same to me, as it was just an empty space we were looking for. They didn¡¯te with any hardware, which was where the cruxy. The boring presentation continued, and I had to keep up my facade. Thankfully, my new optics came with the ability to hide the re. I could have a movie pulled up and the surrounding people would be none the wiser. Using that to my advantage, I scoured for information on the web or looked over my current research projects. I only paused when it only got a little more interesting as he presented about a ce that was a dmissioned mission silo. Even then, it was basically just a hole in the space station. I let my employees deal with analyzing the pros and cons. Before I knew it, C&J had finished their presentation and had left, but not without leaving down all the details to my employees. We would get back to them at ater date. The meetings continued, with A-Flux Incorporated next. Joey had introduced them to me, people who specialized in dealing with nuclear power reactors. Their products were required unless I coulde through with an energy source of my own. Currently, I was busy enough, so buying ready-made products wasn¡¯t a bad idea. After all, beingpletely self-sufficient was only an ideal. In practice, it wasn¡¯t realistic. I slogged through the day, attending every single one of these meetings. The only pleasant thing about them was that they started and ended on time. Like that, we met with heavy equipment vendors for the hardware expected of a shipyard. Then with life support system vendors, propulsion chemicals, raw ore suppliers, spacesuits, emergency equipment, and a myriad of others. It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize this would be a long-term project. Throughout the entire day, we only took a break for lunch. Then we went straight back to meetings until the evening. When the final meeting came, I couldn¡¯t help but be excited for it all to be over. ¡°Representative Kai, we meet again,¡± I shook his hand, mustering everyst bit of energy I had to look enthusiastic about his arrival. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m happy you have reached out to us. I believe you prefer to get straight down to business, correct? So why don¡¯t we?¡± His words gave me another burst of energy. I didn¡¯t even care about how it was likely the result of their analyst carefully studying me because of the respite it gave me. ¡°Of course, let us proceed, then.¡± Unlike the others who hade prepared with a holographic projector with their presentation on it, Kai simply walked over to therge windows overlooking the docks below. Even after a day, the activity down there didn¡¯t cease even a bit. Without my optics magnifying the scene, it looked like an army of ants swarming all over the ce. He proceeded to politely take a handheld terminal and whispered something unintelligible despite my auditory imnts, due to the distance between us. It onlysted a moment before he turned his gaze back to me with a grin. ¡°Ourpany holds this partnership in high regard. Which is why our executives green-lighted some of what you requested right away. Behold.¡± The backdrop that depicted both the coldness of space and the industriousness of the dock suddenly darkened upon his words. All lighting through the window vanished. The abruptness of the matter made me jump up from my seat. If the room wasn¡¯t still adequately lighted, I would have concluded the power grid was under attack. Thankfully, it didn¡¯te to that. Still, it did cause a reaction from me and my personnel. I heard several yelps from beside me,ing from ire¡¯s assistants. Thorne even made himself to my side, grasping at my arm, prepared to usher me away. Perceptively, he didn¡¯t go through with it. He stepped down just as fast as he reacted. It was because we both realized what type of show Ferrumus Corporation was putting on. ¡°What do you think?¡± Kai asked with a wide smile. Behind him was a colossal vessel. A spaceship, to be exact. It was extremely close to us, covering the view of everyone else. Through the ss, we could even make out the bridge. As if reading my mind, the cold metal exterior turned translucent, revealing the bridge crew inside the ship. The man sitting in what I presumed to be the captain¡¯s chair waved at us. Then a thick robotic arm appeared from nowhere. Immediately following it was a menacing drill that was pointed straight at us, spinning at full power. Chapter 209: Starting From Zero Chapter 209: Starting From Zero Outside the window of our private meeting room, there was currently a sizable spaceship parked right by the window. It brandished a robotic arm and a drill for a brief moment before rotating them out for other gadgets. Next was the return of the robotic arm. It held onto a thick metal b this time, while another arm had a circr device attached to it. The circr device soon revealed itself as aser cutter as it powered up and began to cut into the b. It didn¡¯t cut through it immediately, taking several seconds, but it adequately showed its power. Once it was in pieces, a scoop came into view, and cleaned up the mess. It was only then that the ship began to back away. With some distance between us, I could clearly make out its hexagonal prism shape. For a moment, I thought the ship would take its leave, but I was wrong. It instead turned to one of its sides toward us before the metal exterior panels began to pop up and shift to the side. In its ce was a giant sr panel. I nced over at Kai, who had been watching me carefully for my reaction the entire time. Seeing my gaze, he simply smiled and nodded toward me. ¡°Care to share your thoughts?¡± he repeated his question, but with a different phrasing this time. ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s hard to say after a brief introduction, but it seems well-designed.¡± ¡°It is,¡± he nodded once more. ¡°It took ourpany many years of gradual refinement to arrive at the point it is at today. What you¡¯re seeing is not only an efficient mining ship but one that can entirely be sr-powered, given that you stick to the vicinity of the sr system, of course. It drastically reduces the production cost and allows for cheap construction ofrger ships.¡± ¡°And how long does it typically take to train its crew?¡±¡°Well, that depends. We always have seasoned officers on board, so the training is significantly dependent on the crew¡¯s prior experience.¡± Kai didn¡¯t borate much further. I knew his main job was bodyguard, not salesman, so this was the limit of what he could get into. I was sure if I had any questions, he would ry them to the relevant department in real-time, but I left that to ire and her team. They could take care of the micro aspects of handling the ship while I worked on the overall deal. ¡°We¡¯ll have to have our people board one of these fine ships of yours to confirm, but so far, I think the price you quoted is too steep. From what I see, this ship can only carry around forty thousand tonnes.¡± As I expected, Kai paused for a moment before responding. ¡°This model here specifically has a tonnage of fifty thousand deadweight tonnes. We do have other sizes, depending on your needs. If you would like to rent the ships as soon as possible, we only have this tonnage or two others. A ten thousand tonnes hundred ships or a hundred thousand tonnes model. ¡° ¡°Thank you for the information, Representative Kai. Please forward that over to my people.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± he replied with a relieved expression, as if he had justpleted a major battle. Unfortunately for him, our discussion was nowhere nearplete. We simply stayed silent because I was waiting for the people in my back office to do their thing. They would notify me of any questions they had as they worked, which I would then ry to Kai. He likely had a simr process, causing the two of us to be reduced to just middlemen. After not hearing back for a few minutes, I sat back in my seat and began browsing through the menu. ¡°We¡¯ve spoken long enough. Why don¡¯t we take a quick break? Was there something you wanted to drink or eat?¡± ¡°Green tea is fine, thank you.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± I took a brief moment to reread the menu. It was because I only skimmed it previously. Now that the talks had me more exhausted than I thought, I believe I deserved a nice treat aspensation. I first read over the options they had for milkshakes. While going over them, I spotted a ringed symbol next to a few entries. Reading the legend, I quickly found out that it represented space-graded products. It made me want to ask the bot about it, but I¡¯d rather not appear ignorant before our business partners. So I did what any sane person suffering from the same problem would do, opening the inte. I was d that Aegis was connected with Earth¡¯swork, exhibiting no lengthy dys whatsoever. I had enough of that back in Ceres Station, so I was thankful I didn¡¯t need to deal with that here. Hmm, so it¡¯s rated for consumption while in microgravity conditions. Probably something to do with ensuring its quality. My research reminded me of some old knowledge I had heard about. The taste and texture of food changed without gravity. Things like carbonated drinks would be unrecognizable, as any trapped air would affect the quality. vors could be intensified topensate for the diminished sense of taste, which was what I suspected this space-graded products to be. All this meant the grading was just a gimmick unless I was consuming this in a zero-g environment. Armed with that knowledge, I ignored strange vors like extra spicy chili or super sour lemon and went for a coconut and cookie. When I took my first sip, I knew I made the right decision. Once we had received our order and were settling in. An rm rang out, almost deafening us. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Alert! Ongoing code seven. Increased security personnel will be deployed. Please listen to their instructions.¡± From our vantage point, we could immediately see the movements of the people below change. Like arge tidal wave, they all stormed their way into various buildings. It reminded me of cockroaches scuttling back into their holes and hiding ces when the lights were turned on. Except they were quite a bit slower. Before I could contact my security team outside to get an update on the situation, Kai spoke out, drawing my attention. ¡°Sounds like just a small issue. Shall we resume?¡± I took another look out the window and found the activity outside had started to settle down. So many people evacuated all at once, so I couldn¡¯t exactly believe Kai¡¯s words. However, I doubt the issue could reach us in such a fortified facility. ¡°Of course. Then I won¡¯t hold back. Assuming we proceed with your offer, can you borate on the level of assistance you can provide for training?¡± ¡°Sending our experienced crew to onboard your people will have to be a different contract. The costs vary significantly for each instance. Some crew learned quickly while othergged behind. Thepensation would have to reflect the effort we put into the training.¡± In other words, if you want us to train your people, pay up. ¡°Hmm, we¡¯ll get to you shortly with those details so you can provide us with an urate quote.¡± Our talks after that further dove into the details of the deal. We practically became the middlemen, reading off questions and answers from someone else. The various departments of ourpanies were the ones dictating the terms, so we simply conversed with a friendly demeanor despite the contents of our conversation. After an entire hour, we had a tentative agreement drafted, but a lot was left pending. Our time was up, so both parties exited out of the establishment together. Or so I thought. Kai took a separate exit elsewhere. When I inquired about it, I found out they led to private berths for spaceships. ¡°Seems like we¡¯re starting from zero up here. We don¡¯t even own a car or anything, yet,¡± Imented as we walked out onto the streets. ¡°The procedures to transport something so big aren¡¯t easy or cheap,¡± ire quipped. ¡°We¡¯ll have to produce them up here ourselves once we got the permits sorted out.¡± Hmm, that sounds easy enough if we didn¡¯t consider the entirely new business environment we were in. We¡¯ll have to find new suppliers for our tools, materials, everything! Unless they have a branch here as well, but they¡¯d have to be D-ss and above. While we stood there, waiting for our taxi to arrive, the sound of something being knocked over caught our attention. It came from one of the alleyways, and we very quickly found out what had caused it. A person sprinted out of it at full speed. He nced left and right with a nervous expression. It was obvious he was being chased, and my guards were fully aware of that. They positioned themselves between us and prepared to take action. Just as we feared, he soon spotted us, or more specifically, the taxis that were pulling up before us. He only made it two steps in our direction before Thorne reached me. To a regr onlooker, it was almost like teleportation, as he moved fast enough to leave an afterimage. He grabbed him by the scruff. ¡°Back off if you know what¡¯s good for you,¡± Thorne said, before throwing him onto the ground. The abruptness of his situation caused the man to only be able to stare dumbfounded at my cyborg friend. We didn¡¯t wait for him to snap out of it, swiftly boarding the vehicles, and leaving him behind. ¡°I thought the security around this area was supposed to be good,¡± ire said as soon as we got some distance from the scene. Once we made a turn to the main street, I began to spot crowds of people on the sidewalk. ¡°They¡¯re too many dockworkers nearby, so it can¡¯t be perfect, I guess. Driver, do you know what¡¯s going on today?¡± ¡°Sir, they announced code seven earlier. Didn¡¯t you hear?¡± At his words, I double-checked the Aegis official website and confirmed that only meant there was a minor security situation in the general area. ¡°Yeah, but isn¡¯t it supposed to be minor? What¡¯s with all the people standing around here?¡± ¡°Well, it is minor to corpos. There are checkpoints set up around this entire area, and the regr folks have to wait in line to get out.¡± ¡°Hmm, thank you for the information.¡± After that, I stayed on our internalmunication line to converse with mypanions while we all observed the crowd in silence. ¡°I was going to talk about this in our debrief once we get back, but I guess we can talk about it now.¡± I paused to get their full attention. ¡°We¡¯ll have to hire dockworkers, some experienced EVA workers for the shipyard ourselves, along with the crew that will be manning our ships. We¡¯ve trained a bunch of pilots back down on the, but we¡¯ll need a trained crew to supplement them.¡± ¡°Yeah, and we¡¯ll likely be hiring people from this crowd,¡± ire replied. We didn¡¯t forget to hire these personnel beforehand, but was a purposeful choice we decided on. It cost a lot of money to transport people up here, and many of them had families. It would be a hassle hiring people who would be willing to stay apart from their families in space and pay for their transport, so we decided on Aegis locals. That way, we would be less likely to get those who would be homesick upon realizing space wasn¡¯t for them. The people of Aegis were familiar enough with this environment to make a proper decision. We had to brainstorm what our hiring requirements would be and put together a training n for our new employees. There were a lot of things to consider in order to get them up to par with our standards. Many things needed to be shipped up, such as their equipment. Then, many training facilities needed to be set up. With all that in mind, we arrived at an armed checkpoint. We could see the dockworkers waiting patiently for their turn to be let out so they could return home. I watched as they were subjected to a thorough scan under the watchful eyes of the local police. The officers were armed to the teeth, wearing a space-worthy version of abat suit. It came with a sleek helmet that consisted mostly of what appeared to be tinted, tempered ss. They treated the dockworkers harshly, shoving them into the scanners. Some of them even made their victims strip naked despite clearing the scan. It would be an understatement to just say the mood was oppressive. As we went into the checkpoint, our taxi was stopped as well, as one of the officers gged us down. After a few words with the driver, our windows were let down as the officers inspected us. I could see that he had screens pulled up on his optics, and his expression quickly changed to a respectful one a second after heid eyes on me. ¡°Sir, have a good day,¡± he saluted before quickly tapping on our driver¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Go ahead.¡± I kept an eye on our other cars, and they received simr treatment, being let go after confirming their identity. Once they were all cleared, the makeshift gate began to open for us. Just as our vehicle started moving again, a gunshot suddenly resounded nearby. It caused all the officers on the scene to flinch in that direction. The problem was that it came from within the crowd. I watched on with a mix of emotions, waiting to see how things would turn out. Chapter 210: D-Mother Chapter 210: D-Mother I watched on as the tense scene unfolded before my eyes. A gunshot had just rang out from amidst the crowd of dockworkers, who were eager to get home. It caused all the officers manning the checkpoint to turn in their direction with weapons drawn. No matter what happens, I can only watch. We don¡¯t have a foothold here yet to be doing anything drastic. Before the crowd could even react, drones flew by above us. It was obvious they belonged to the Aegis police force, looking to identify the threats from within the sea of people. It gave me some relief, knowing they had a more delicate way to do things. As tempting as it was to do so, I didn¡¯t hack into their systems to see what was happening. Nothing ever good came out of interfering arbitrarily. That was especially so when it came to hacking intoworks, as it was a hostile act. Such actions always left behind a trail. ¡°What are the chances this shit happens right before we pass the checkpoint?¡± Thorne muttered with a frown. ¡°Well, we did see iting, literally from our meeting room,¡± iremented. ¡°Yeah, and Ferrumus Corp deemed it as nothing because they could just fly off in their fancy spaceships,¡± I added. As we chatted, the crowd began to react to their new situation. Sharp-minded individuals knew things were turning for the worse. They came up with a n, with some of them retreating back toward the dock area until things died down. Unfortunately, not everyone in the crowd had the same idea. Many panicked and decided to shove their way forward, looking to push through the checkpoint. They weren¡¯t brave enough to break out of the crowd by themselves, so they clumped up for safety as they shifted forward.Seeing this, I started to have second thoughts. If I waited any longer, the crowd would soon be onto us. ¡°I don¡¯t know about you guys, but I doubt this taxi is armored. This ain¡¯t looking good if they manage to reach us.¡± Hearing my words, Thorne rolled down the windows and gestured toward one of the checkpoint guards. ¡°Hey! Move the blockade and let us pass already. You¡¯ve cleared us, right?¡± ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve been ordered to halt all passing until we deal with the situation.¡± ¡°Are you guys sane? You want us to wait here? Get your superior on the line with me this instant!¡± ¡°Sir¡­our procedures¡ª¡± ¡°Shut it! Do you have any idea who¡¯s in this car?¡± ¡°...¡± The checkpoint officer went silent as he struggled with what to do. It made me slightly embarrassed, having my weight thrown around, but whether it be on paper or in practice, I was the owner of a bona fide corporation. While Thorne was arguing, the other officers didn¡¯t just sit there and watch. The crowd approached, so they all assumed a defensive position, with their weapons pointed at the dockworkers. They each held up a long rifle with a magazine painted in a vibrant blue. ¡°Half of you load E-gas rounds!¡± one of themanding officers shouted. The people in the back row swiftly swapped their blue mag for a yellow one. I wasn¡¯t sure what was in it, but I did know that rounds used so close to the periphery of the space station were special. Whenever we entered Aegis, we were warned of the rules of the station. They reiterated the seriousness of damaging the integrity of the structure or the life support systems. It wasn¡¯t surprising when I found out they had special rounds that wouldn¡¯t pierce through the exterior walls. They were made to fragment and were what I presumed the blue mags held. The E-gas that I overheard didn¡¯t ring any bells for me. However, I found out what they were very soon. As the momentum of the crowd went unabated, the officers in the back row were soon ordered to fire their weapons. A slow-moving round arched through the air beforending in the crowd, releasing a cloud of sparkly dust. The moment it went full bloom, my optics picked up a current of electricity run through the air. People cried out in pain as they all got shocked. From what I could tell, it was simr to a taser, except it had a much bigger area of effect. The pain was enough to weaken the crowd¡¯s momentum, at least in the parts that were hit. Althoughrge parts of the crowd in the back were still unaffected, it had sessfully halted their movement. The people in the back weren¡¯t mindless enough to trample on their fellow workers. However, the problem was far from solved. ¡°Look, the situation is under control now. Let us through,¡± Thorne continued to argue. ¡°Sir¡­I would love to, but we have to follow orders. Ourmander says we are keeping up the blockade until we find the culprits.¡± ¡°Let me speak with him. Now!¡± Thorne¡¯s outburst seemed to have done the trick, and the officer gave in, calling his supervisor. After a few minutes, Thorne received a call. It was easy enough to listen in. ¡°I apologize, sir. Our ongoing situation is causing an inconvenience for you, but the mayor is particrly angry about this incident after finding out two lives were lost in the brazen shooting. He¡¯s ordered us to seal this sector in until we deal with the disruptions.¡± Stolen from its rightful ce, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Are you saying you are keeping us, including my boss, in here for your issue? And in the middle of this chaos?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Without the mayor¡¯s permission, our hands are tied. However, only the ground route has been cordoned off. You can fly a VTOL over if you would like. Or since your boss is there, I advise you to ask him to call the mayor for a special exception.¡± So it seemed I would either have to leverage my connection with the mayor or own an aircraft. Neither option was something we could go with right now. Bringing an aircraft up to Aegis wasn¡¯t a priority for us, so we had nothing up here. We had only just arrived, and I didn¡¯t even know the name of the mayor yet. I doubt renting one was that simple, either. In fact, if others found out about our dire need for transport, they could use it against us. ¡°Then hurry up with catching your culprits. How hard could it be? Just check the surveince cameras!¡± Thorne roared. Hearing up to that part, I couldn¡¯t help but sigh. It seemed more and more likely that we were stuck here. It made me grimace. We still had a lot of work to get to, and I rather not spend any more time here. ¡°Thorne,¡± I called out, ¡±let me talk to the supervisor.¡± ¡°...Here, my boss wants to talk to you.¡± ¡°Huh, what? I don¡¯t think that¡¯s¡ª¡± ¡°Hello, this is Rollo Halls of the Halls Corporation.¡± ¡°Umm¡­ yes, sir. It¡¯s an honor, sir. What can I do for you?¡± ¡°Well, letting me out of here would do wonders.¡± ¡°Sir, as I exined to your employee, that isn¡¯t possible without¡ª¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve heard. Either the mayor¡¯s order or you catch the culprits, right? I wanted to offer you my assistance with thetter. Considering the Aegis PD consents to it, of course.¡± ¡°Sir, that¡¯s¡­entirely up to you. We would be fools to say no to your assistance, but we don¡¯t dare to trouble you either.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a yes. Send me what you have of the suspects.¡± I swiftly disconnected the call and received an info packet shortly after. Then I gave themand to our security team to deploy one of our new prototypes. I watched as they exited the cars and made their way toward the crowd. However, that was only a front for what was really going on. The few who had our power armor equipped began to deploy our new drones under the guise of holographic projections. These tiny wonders had the shape of dragonflies and were equipped with the same stealth technology that was proliferated throughout our equipment. They flew at the volume of a soft whisper, making it virtually silent with all the background noises in the area. Zipping through the air, they scanned through hundreds of people, examining their faces and their possessions. The police had sent me a short video from a security camera of the suspected shooter. It appeared several people approached him from the crowd and tried to grab him. He retaliated by shooting at his assants before disappearing into the sea of people. Wow, shooting in such a dense crowd. No wonder there were casualties. Still, it¡¯s not my business to judge rights and wrongs right now. I just want to get out of here. Our new drone had several advantages from themon ones I saw. It acted not only as a mobile carrier for my Nyes, but I made sure it was equipped with all our ssic features like the Pixie. I upgraded the little Pixie drones to be up to par with our standards, but their role remained unchanged. It still snuck up to people and sacrificed itself to disable enemies with its EMP discharge. In a way, this new drone was like an aircraft carrier but for smaller drones and unmanned devices instead of jet fighters. Still, it could scout out the area just fine. I made sure the program used for object and facial recognition was the best I could do, allowing it to scan the entire crowd in just a few moments. While it didn¡¯t find the suspect, the drone, currently dubbed as D-Mother, managed to spot some suspicious activity. It spotted a few small groups huddled together, looking back and forth between the police drones and one of the warehouses nearby. The operator quickly acted on this behavior, sending the D-Mother into that building. It went in from one of the venttion shafts and began deploying the Nyes for more eyes in the facility. After all, the D-Mother still made some noise, while the Nyes, being virtually silent, were much more suitable for close-quarter scouting. My other security guards moved to surround the building. Of course, our movements were noticed by both the police and the dockworkers. It just wasn¡¯t possible to stay invisible while walking through so many people. I watched from the corner of my eye as Thorne picked up a call. He didn¡¯t hesitate to share it with me again. ¡°Sir, have your people found something? Do you need backup?¡± Thorne gave me a look, and I nodded. ¡°Nothing concrete yet, but we are moving to cut off all exits from the building in case we find something.¡± ¡°Understood. We¡¯ll deploy a few teams to watch your backs.¡± It was hard for us to decline, as there were challenges to operating with such arge crowd nearby. Any one of them could sneak up on our personnel, so more manpower was weed. As the outside of the building was being secured, I began directing my attention back to the interior. We only had two prototype D-Mothers with us. One overwatched from outside, while one searched the building. Even so, it didn¡¯t take long to scour the warehouse with dozens of Nyes. The first thing we spotted were the two men we had seen in the previous video. They were walking around the warehouse, searching through every nook and cranny. ¡°Come out, Perry! It¡¯s not such a big deal. Pay your dues and we¡¯ll leave you alone. We know you have the money,¡± one of the men cried out. His nonexistent attempt at hiding himself had me dumbfounded. I couldn¡¯t help but turn to the other upants of my car to see if I wasn¡¯t imagining it. ¡°Is this guy serious? Is he just shouting around in a building after a shooting took ce outside? He was an involved party too! Doesn¡¯t he know the authorities are hunting for them?¡± ¡°Hmm, he doesn¡¯t seem armed,¡± iremented. ¡°Probably doesn¡¯t think he¡¯ll get into much trouble. It¡¯s the guy they¡¯re chasing that shot.¡± ¡°Still, this guy doesn¡¯t know what the word discreet means. All the fuss he¡¯s kicking up was bound to draw attention even if we didn¡¯t intervene. How could he collect any money from someone in custody?¡± The two men¡¯s search continued as they flipped open every crate and container in their path. We ordered a team to go in and neutralize the men while we conveyed our findings to the police. A few moments after we had done so, the scene inside the warehouse changed drastically. Our Nye trailed the two suspected loan sharks and watched it all unfold. One moment, they were searching through a container. The next, a figure caught them off guard from behind, pressing a gun to the back of the head of one person and a knife to the back of the other. ¡°Give me everything valuable you have on you now!¡± the ambusher cried out hysterically. ¡°Do it quickly or I¡¯ll kill you! I¡¯m not joking!¡± Okay¡­That guy is definitely on the verge of having a mental breakdown if he¡¯s thinking of robbing his pursuers of all things. Chapter 211: Cause and Responsibility Chapter 211: Cause and Responsibility I watched on, bbergasted at the dramatic reversal of roles between the man who had been chased and his pursuers. He had a gun and knife pointed toward his two assants, and was making demands for them to hand over their valuables. At this point, my people were still securing the perimeter with the support of local police. I had to give out orders on how they should proceed. The only thing I knew was that both parties involved in this incident were up to no good. People just didn¡¯t randomly hunt others down for no reason. That often had ck market implications, rting closely to criminal activity. While in this world, that just meant they were doing something opposed to the corporation¡¯s rules, the underworld was still a ce stained with blood. On the other end, the person being chased was suspicious as well. Not only did others have a reason to chase him down, he even seemed mentally unstable. I couldn¡¯t tell if he was angry with his pursuers, really wanted money, or having a panic attack. ¡°You found something?¡± ire¡¯s voice red. ¡°Was I being that obvious?¡± ¡°Well, yeah. Usually, when you close your eyes, it means you¡¯re contemting something serious. It¡¯s definitely not workshop stuff though, or you would¡¯ve ignored me entirely.¡± ¡°Okay, fine. We did find the cause of all this ruckus. I¡¯m thinking about what to do with them.¡±¡°Hmm? That isn¡¯t for us to decide, right?¡± Her words made me blink nkly. I had been too caught up in controlling the situation. She was right in that I didn¡¯t need to set up a narrative, as I had no stake in it. I could simply just throw it over to the police to deal with. I was tunneled-visioned into thinking up ways to benefit me from this situation. It was one of the bad habits of dealing with corpos day in and day out. Your mind starts thinking along the lines based purely on cost and benefits. ¡°Capture them all, alive,¡± Imanded my field personnel over ourms. Not long after they received their orders, they quickly stormed the warehouse where the action was taking ce. The man still had his pursuers at gunpoint and knifepoint. They were visibly arguing, but the situation didn¡¯t seem to be deteriorating. It allowed my men to infiltrate into their vicinity undetected. In fact, they were undetected all the way up until they were right next to them. It wasn¡¯t surprising considering they were equipped with Shades. Even if they did hear something, they could move fast enough to be on them before they could react. My security personnel swiftly detonated a small EMP payload right next to them, disabling any cybeics they had. Then, they followed up by hitting all three of them with a taser to seal the deal. We quickly secured them and called the police over. The entire thing happened so fast that I could onlymend my workers for their efficiency. I nced over to Thorne, who understood my gaze, and ced a call back to the Aegis officer we had spoken to earlier. He then connected me to it once it went through. ¡°Hi there, officer. I just want you to know we have the suspect from the riot. I¡¯m sending you the locations now.¡± Before he could muster a response, I cut off the call. It was a technique I¡¯ve witnessed many times from my QG, Fitel. It kept things moving. With my tip submitted, the Aegis police force worked fast. More officers joined their perimeter while others charged in to secure the warehouse. I needed to wait for them to confirm the identity of the suspect before the roadblock would be lifted, but I couldn¡¯t help but feel something was off. I sat there and wondered as I watched the arrests being made. ¡°Wow, is this like the first time a police force has done anything?¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°The ones from Lion City do that on a regr basis,¡± I replied. ¡°Well, that¡¯s different. Everyone is well off in that city.¡± The officers went through the same old procedures of collecting the men¡¯s basic information, including their names and ID. It was when they were taking down their statement that I froze. I swiftly searched through my memory for the most up-to-date information regarding people who I had interacted in the past. Specifically, the ones who were at Ceres Station. It didn¡¯t take long before I uncovered the fact that the lone unstable man was indeed someone who had been part of the breakout crew who made it back to Aegis with me. I quickly alerted Polina and sent her the files regarding one of herpanions being arrested. ¡°This¡­can¡¯t be, is what I would like to say, but I can¡¯t. It¡¯s been too long since I haven¡¯t kept in touch with Perry since we arrived in Aegis. I was too busy looking for ways to return that I barely stayed in contact with anyone.¡± With the police actively interrogating the suspect, we quickly pieced together the picture. The man Polina called Perry was indeed one of the people who was a former Nova Tech test subject. Like Polina, he had a family down on the side and couldn¡¯t afford the fare down. The issue was that he couldn¡¯t raise enough money despite trying for months. It was almost impossible to save up money if one didn¡¯t get creative like Polina did. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Staying in Aegis was expensive. The air you breathed and the water you used were all overpriced. Polina had gotten around it by making use of herpany resources, avoiding these extra fees, but it seemed Perry didn¡¯t discover the same methods. It caused him to get more and more disillusioned with the world, and soon he couldn¡¯t take it anymore. With his family so close yet so far, he turned to crime to pay the bills. He stole and embezzled whatever he could, which caused his workce, the docks, to be entirely locked down when they finally caught on. There were two things that most corporations deemed a no-no. One was threatening security, such as the safety of their assets, and the other was impeding business operations. Perry had touched upon both. He stole the public sent canisters and also prized cargo. It caused a corporation in control of the dock to call in favors and act. ¡°So, what is going to happen to him?¡± Polina asked with undisguised worry. Her question struck a chord with me too, as it ended up being my responsibility as well. I was the one who decided to ship them back to Aegis and then leave them to fend for themselves. I had only offered Polina to pay for her return trip, and no one else. In hindsight, they should¡¯ve been a lot of takers, at least to someone who really needed it. However, we couldn¡¯t afford to slow down our expansion, so I ignored all of them. I was the one who forced Perry into a corner. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I answered honestly. ¡°It¡¯s not our jurisdiction. The Aegis police will have him, and likely the corp behind his employer will decide.¡± ¡°Is there any way to save him?¡± I nced out the window at the receding crowd out the window of our taxi. The dockworkers wanted to retreat to let the heat die down, but there were only so many ces they could go. They were literally trapped in this area like cattle in a cage. It¡¯s not going to be easy to help him at all. Not helping is so much easier but¡­ ¡°I can¡¯t make any promises right now. We¡¯ll have to look into it first.¡± ¡°Thank you. I knew I could count on you.¡± Polina¡¯s heavy expectations were thrust onto my shoulders. Itpelled me toe up with a n. It wasn¡¯t long after that the checkpoint allowed us to pass. We left the dockworkers behind us as we drove back to our new branch office. ¡°What are going to do this time, Rollo?¡± Thorne suddenly blurted out. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I know that face. You¡¯re up to no good again.¡± ¡°Hmm, maybe. I¡¯m not sure yet. I¡¯ll need Lucy and her department to investigate the people in control of that dock.¡± ¡°Well, they had enough sway to control the Aegis police department as they please, so I guess I¡¯ll have to buckle up like always.¡± ¡°Any F-ss corporations and above can do that, so virtually everyone who made it into space. Aegis PD is still part of the consortium.¡± ¡°Good. That means we can cross them out in any conflict we are involved in.¡± ¡°As if we didn¡¯t have enough disadvantages to work with,¡± Iined. ¡°We don¡¯t even have a single car up here. No assets against a corp that had years to establish their foothold. We¡¯ll likely be looking at a more diplomatic approach.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. I¡¯d say our new toys could allow us to overpower these midsizepanies. They have nothing on the likes of A-ss Corporations.¡± ¡°Hey, don¡¯t get a big head now,¡± I reminded. ¡°A-ss corporations aren¡¯t even the top dogs. There are still the S-sspanies.¡± ¡°I thought you said those S-sses were all simr. The number of S they have is just an honorary title, so that should make A-ss just below the apex.¡± ¡°Just remember, we¡¯re nowhere near the biggest fish in the pond.¡± Once we returned to our home base, we all disbanded. It¡¯s been a long day, and we all needed some rest. While I took a bath, I couldn¡¯t help but specte various scenarios despite having no concrete information to work on yet. Thorne may be right in that we can handle most midsizepanies with ease. A show of force is good too, especially for new yers in town. My theorizingstedte into the night when I finally received a report from our intel department. The file was concise, giving me everything I needed to know. The docks from this evening belong to several corporations, but only one of them was behind the blockade today. It was also thepany Perry worked for, called Astro Forge, a C-sspany. Their strength was in the same ballpark as Joey¡¯s Authentic Corp. Theirpany specializes in raw material mining and processing. Their lifeblood was to supply various producers on Aegis with materials in the form of ingots. That didn¡¯t mean the entire dock was dedicated to this job. The other investors in it dedicated their capacity to different purposes. They simply had the highest share in the dock. The more I looked into it, the more cautious I became. They didn¡¯t seem to be particrly threatening, so I was wary of any traps. There were still hostile parties out there waiting for our guard to be down. I couldn¡¯t recklessly be the aggressor only to give my enemies casus belli. That was why the first course of action I took the next morning was to reach out to Astro Forge. While a meeting couldn¡¯t be set up with such short notice, a virtual call was no problem. ¡°Greetings, I am Rollo Halls of the Halls Corporation,¡± I introduced myself to the older woman on screen. She had bright white hair at shoulder length. However, her skin appeared taut, like a young woman, but the aura she gave off was that of a seasoned veteran. ¡°Laura Simmons, Vice Manager of our Aegis branch. How can I help you, Mr. Halls?¡± ¡°You see, I heard that a certain rat hade into your possession yesterday. A rat who I happen to encounter, and I hope to again. I was wondering if you could facilitate that?¡± ¡°Oh? I thought your goals were more¡­business. I¡¯m not sure why you would be making this kind of request to us, though. We don¡¯t sell matchmaking services. If you¡¯ve got a missing person request to file, perhaps you can try the police?¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, let¡¯s not go around in circles. I humbly make this request of you. Please, at least give me a proper response.¡± The woman named Laura said nothing and simply stared nkly into the screen. A few moments passed and the only movement she had was to close her eyes. ¡°Mr. Halls,¡± she opened her eyes and voiced. ¡°I¡¯m afraid ourpany can¡¯t fulfill this entric request of yours. I¡¯m sure as yourpany is so new, you may be unfamiliar with a lot of the rules around here. I advise you to take the time to educate yourself on them. That is all. I hope you have a good day.¡± Without missing a beat, the call was disconnected. Just like before, we¡¯re being underestimated. As polite as she appeared to be, she was slighting ourpany. It made my mind race with more radical ns to address the issue. Thankfully, I managed to cover my bases overnight, justifying the costs of this operation should we proceed with it. As we had previously said, we¡¯re neers up in Aegis. We were strapped for all resources and needed time to grow. All growth required materials, and this Astro Forge happened to have exactly what we needed. It was time to demonstrate our old tricks once more. Beat an enemy into submission and use them to fuel our rise. Chapter 212: Eccentric Training Chapter 212: entric Training The next morning, I gathered our team to discuss our uing ns. We pretty much had everyone who was up in Aegis at the meeting, minus the security guards outside. As usual, ire was rmed when she heard my n. ¡°Not this shit again! We haven¡¯t even set up a proper office and you want to go fight with some corporation who¡¯s been here for who knows how many years?¡± ¡°I get it. It does sound like a dumb idea. However, you have to consider our capability in the equation as well. Our current selves should be able to easily match a C-ss corporation. If we pull this off, we¡¯ll earn prestige and deter all thepanies up here and at the same time, gain ess to a material supplier. All other business negotiations would go smoother as a result, too.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a lot of ifs in the equation here, Rollo. Once fighting starts, it¡¯s hard to say if you can just negotiate with them after bloodying their nose. You should know that. Things can get out of control.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯m not saying we should go storm their office at this moment. We¡¯ll take proper caution and observe the other parties. Our Intel department can do a lot more with their upgrades. We can even investigate their leaders¡¯ personalities and tendencies first.¡± ¡°What do you think about this reckless n, Thorne?¡± Having the ball passed to him all of a sudden, Thorne simply alternated looks between us and shrugged. ¡°Both sides have their points. Deterrence is good, but there¡¯ll be some risk involved. Bidding our time is also good, but it¡¯ll be slower.¡± ¡°Much slower,¡± I added. ¡°In case you haven¡¯t noticed in yesterday¡¯s meetings, the only reason we¡¯re even making any progress was because of the connections we made through Joey or the few we made during our party. We¡¯ll need to negotiate deals with many morepanies to be integrated into themunity here, and this will elerate that.¡±¡°It¡¯s because we want to integrate with them that we don¡¯t want toe off as barbarians that resort to violence the first chance we get!¡± ire retorted. ¡°I know, I know. That¡¯s why we went through proper diplomatic channels first.¡± We went back and forth all morning until our office personnel had to leave us toplete their other work. It was soon just the three of us left in the meeting room. I double-checked that no employees were nearby before activating a remote jammer. It didn¡¯t create a soundproof field in the fancy way I saw with powerful corpos, but it did its job of preventing any unwanted electronic devices near us from eavesdropping. ¡°There is another reason we should proceed with this n,¡± I stated. My actions and words caught both of my close friend¡¯s attention. They weren¡¯t particrly surprised, as I guess this wasn¡¯t the first time I pulled off stunts like this. Their looks very clearly urged me to continue, so I did. ¡°This will be a good PR stunt with the dockworkers.¡± ¡°Why would we need to look good to the dockworkers?¡± Thorne wondered out loud. ¡±...Oh, are you nning to leverage that for your manualbor series of cybeics?¡± ¡°No, just that bit of sales isn¡¯t worth it. I¡¯m talking about our HR issue with hiring enough bodies to fill our new positions. We¡¯ll need a lot if we want to expand quickly. The faster we became self-sufficient with the basic materials we need for our pipelines, the better.¡± ¡°Hmm, I guess it is a way to poach workers without having to spend a lot,¡± iremented. ¡°Money can do a lot of things, but not everything. Especially for these dockworkers whock ambition. I believe they¡¯d rather have a stable ie than risk their livelihood with a newpany like ours. From what I saw yesterday, most people up here fully realize how much control corporations have over their lives. Living under a powerful and establishedpany means stability, which is quite the incentive for them.¡± ¡°Really? You think stability trumps money as an incentive?¡± ¡°It may convince some of them, but we¡¯d have to keep their sry high. Signing bonuses wouldn¡¯t be enough. Otherwise, they could jump ship at the slightest speed bumps ourpany hits.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Loyalty and whatnot. I understand that. I just don¡¯t know if it¡¯s worth the risk we¡¯ll be taking.¡± At her troubled expression, I exchanged nces with Thorne and nodded. ¡°You¡¯ve been stuck dealing with the office matters too long. You haven¡¯t seen all the new stuff our security forces now have. I assure you, we can easily handle this Astro Forge, at the very least. Isn¡¯t that right, Thorne?¡± ¡°Yes, from what I can tell, we should be able to hold our own if we ever have to go up against B-ss corporations if not A-sses. Nova Tech won¡¯t easily get the better of us anymore.¡± ire looked up at us before she put on a thoughtful look. ¡°Come on, ire. You should know why I¡¯m so confident. I believe the level of tech we have can easily rival the baseline S-ss corporations in the areas we excel at, not to talk about A-sses. We may not be as well-rounded as them, but we¡¯re leaps ahead of most midsizepanies.¡± Having shared some details about my system with the two, they should know I wasn¡¯t lying. Ten upgrade points in a skill put me on a level at par with the typical tech top corporations employed. That means S, SS, and SSS ss corporations. The distinction between these three sses was blurred, but they were undoubtedly far ahead of A-ss corporations. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. It was one of the major reasons why I was able to run circles around Nova Tech. In the areas I excelled at, they were just that outmatched. ¡°Go do your research first and see what Lucy finds. You may be in charge, Rollo, but I don¡¯t want you to get reckless. The unique advantages you have only be stronger as time passes, rushing will be your downfall.¡± ¡°Yeah, under regr circumstances, but you know what¡¯s going on with our guardian angel. Our protection period is on a time limit. We¡¯ll have to growrge enough to stand on our own two feet as fast as we can.¡± She said nothing and simply nodded before getting up to leave the room. I understood where she wasing from, and I agreed that my n was, once again, reckless. However, what we stood to gain made it all worth it. As they say, fortune favors the bold.
Andrew - Halls Corporation ¡°You seriously want me to do spy stuff?¡± Andrew hesitantly asked as he faced the leader of the intel department through the screen. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. Certainly better than our recruits if anything goes wrong. You¡¯re one of the most experienced personnel at navigating in zero-g environment we have.¡± ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯m also one of the most inexperienced when ites to spying. I¡¯m more of abat person.¡± ¡°Nothing ourtest cassette can¡¯t solve. You¡¯ll receive it in the next few hours. Be sure to destroy it after you¡¯re done.¡± Andrew frowned, having lost the war of words. He nced over at Peng, who was staring nkly out the window of their room, which looked over the streets of Aegis. ¡°No need to be nervous, Andrew. You¡¯ve done enough infiltration missions that¡¯ll make intel gathering seem like a piece of cake. Compared to those, you won¡¯t have to sneak into high-security zones. You simply have to socialize with the right people, then maybe follow them if they seem useful.¡± ¡°I understand. There¡¯s no need to convince me anymore. Orders are orders.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to force you. It¡¯s just that we don¡¯t really have the manpower up there right now. It¡¯s my fault for forgetting how much of a trouble ma our CEO is.¡± That got a small chuckle out of Andrew. ¡°I¡¯ll contact you once I¡¯ve done my training. We¡¯ll stay in touch.¡± Once the call ended, Andrew plopped himself down on the bed. I brought a hand over his eyes and started massaging his temples. How did I end up here? If you told me a few years ago that I¡¯d be working in space as some sort of elite corpo spy, I would¡¯ve called you crazy. Back then, I was still trying to act like the ideal minion for the gang to prove our ability. As he reminisced about his recent experiences, the only other person in the room finally spoke out. ¡°Is Andrew okay? Peng is worried.¡± ¡°...I¡¯m fine, Peng. It¡¯s just I¡¯ll have to go do a job in a few days. Will you be fine yourself?¡± ¡°Yes, Peng will be fine. There are other people who will look after Peng here.¡± A slight smile escaped Andrew as he sat up straight. He knew he found a good ce for him and his childhood friend to stay. He resolved himself to put in the work in order to keep their ce. Opening up his messages, he found the new orders he received from the intel department. It included best practices when using the cassette. For physical skills, it is rmended to employ the hypnopedia function concurrently with virtual reality. Based on your prescribed regiment, it is rmended you y Legend of the Mythic War as a rogue ss¡­ Is this for real? This was Andrew¡¯s first time experiencing the magical cassettes hispany had widely adopted in recent months. He was part of the Halls Corporation¡¯s elite team and an experienced operative. There was no need for him to undergo the basicbat training the cassettes provided. He knew how hispany fought. That didn¡¯t mean he waspletely foreign to the cassettes, though. He had witnessed numerous recruits doing the same training, but it was always in a controlled facility. Now that his instructions told him to y video games while he was supposedly training, he couldn¡¯t help but be hesitant. He continued reading the instructions and found that he had received permission to requisition funds from thepany to purchase the materials he needed for his training. That meant buying a VR setup and the apanying supplies. ¡°Peng, I¡¯m going on an errand. Do you want toe along or stay here?¡± ¡°Will Andrew bring Peng to see space?¡± therge man said with undisguised excitement. ¡°Peng has been waiting to see space again. It is so pretty.¡± ¡°No¡ªwell, I can get you something better than the real thing. Let¡¯s go. It¡¯s good for you to move around more. You need to master those new cybeics sooner rather thanter.¡± ¡°Hmm, Peng will do his best.¡± The duo did a quick check-in on their bosses and found that their presence wasn¡¯t required. Their CEO, Rollo, had shut himself in, working in his workshop. Their COO, ire, was busy with all the office workers on bureaucratic stuff. Meanwhile, their direct superior, Thorne, was simply in the training range they had just finished setting up. With Aegis¡¯ sparse traffic, the two had no issue at all on their journey to the nearest mall. As Andrew had promised, he allowed Peng to experience the wonders of space by allowing him to try out the VRs on disy while he spoke with the salespeople. The purchase went through within a few minutes, and he was able to carry out arge box that contained everything he needed to assemble the capsule back on base. With Peng around, they didn¡¯t break a sweat, carrying it back. It took until nighttime for them to finish assembling the new machine, and by then, a package had been delivered to Andrew. It contained the all-important cassette that theirpany valued. It came in a heavy-duty lock box that required to be plugged into their main systems to decode. Otherwise, the contents would be destroyed. After a tiring long day, Andrew finally finished everything he needed to do. He was ready for his first session of his training. Thebels on the cassette informed him it wouldst two to three days, so with onest check on the equipment, he dove into the virtual world. He quickly found himself in a dark space, but that onlysted a brief moment. That was because a screen popped up in the middle of his vision, disying a wee message. It then prompted him to create a character, which he selected default on everything except the ss that he was instructed to pick. Once that was done, he felt himself being yanked forward and his surroundings abruptly changed. He could suddenly hear the chirping of birds and the gentle gust of wind that blew through the forest he found himself in. However, the scene wasn¡¯t that of tranquility. That was because there were shouting and yelling all around him. It only took him a second to realize that those were the other yers from the names hovering above their heads. They were all doing senseless things such as wrestling with a feral wolf that was trying to bite their throat, dancing naked, or simply fighting against each other. For Andrew, who had grown up in the rougher parts of Elevate City, he couldn¡¯t make any sense of what the other yers were doing. The entric behaviors of gamers left him staring. What the hell? Does this game make you crazy or something? Or is this the cassette making me hallucinate? Chapter 213: Rookie Operative Chapter 213: Rookie Operative Andrew - Halls Corporation After a night of progress, Andrew had gotten the hang of how the Legend of the Mythic War worked. He at least learned about how to level up, and the basic skills he started off with as a rogue. At some point during the night, he began to lose concentration. He had been warned about it happening, so he wasn¡¯t too worried. Instead, he rxed and allowed his thoughts to wander. Eventually, he felt like he was floating in a pool of water. The liquids beneath him were cool andfortable. Even when some of it got into his ear, and then went further into his head, it all felt soothing to him. Glimpses of various scenes shed by him until he finally snapped out of it. He found himself standing around in the middle of the forest, still logged into his character in virtual reality. He took a moment and nced down at his hands as he processed what he gained. Can¡¯t say that was nothing. The cassette sure did its thing all right. Despite being unable to exactly verbalize it, Andrew felt different in his skin. At the same time, there was a bunch of new knowledge in his memories. It pertained to how one could read themon ticks a person had for certain behaviors. It wasn¡¯tprehensive to cover everything, but today was only the start. As he was instructed, Andrew continued to y the game. He fulfilled quests, killed monsters, fetched items, and looted everything he could. He slowly but surely progressed until he hit the point where he needed to enter an instance with other yers.It was the first time in the game that he was forced to interact with other yers. ¡°Hey, you! What are you doing? Hurry up and let¡¯s get moving!¡± a young girl got into Andrew¡¯s face and shouted. He nced above her head and found the name QueenDiva above her head. ¡°Okay¡­QueenDiva.¡± ¡°What are you looking at me for? You¡¯re supposed to start the fight by knocking out one of the guards. Do you know how to do it?¡± Andrew looked over and found the other members of the party ncing over at him as well. He sighed and proceeded to activate his stealth ability. Why is it that even when I¡¯m in a game world, I feel like I¡¯m being ordered around to do the same things? While Andrew obliged and fulfilled his role in the group, he also took the opportunity to put the new knowledge he gained to the test. For the first day, he simply read their emotion. It was hard to tell if he got anything wrong. That changed within the next few days. He received knowledge on how to subtly coax information from his targets. He began putting them to the test. His special education coursested an entire ten days. Once he was done, he immediately reported back to the superior who had put him up to it. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯vepleted the course. I¡¯ve disposed of the material as you instructed as well,¡± he saluted to the woman across the screen. ¡°Good. It¡¯s about time. You should carry out the mission immediately. We want to have it done before our CEOes out of his workshop.¡± ¡°Understood!¡± With his new orders, he got started on his investigation right away. First, he reviewed what concrete information he had, and then did his own research online to fill the gaps. It didn¡¯t take long, as the only intel he received was thepany to be investigated and the location of their businesses spread around the city. Thatsted until the evening. Then, Andrew left thepany building for the first time in ten days. He left, knowing exactly where to go. Instead of taking a taxi, he found himself an old-fashioned bike rental. His new training informed him of all the easily essible ways to track those who used vehicles filled with cameras like taxis, or public transit. The antique bicycle he got may not score high in the looks department, but it still worked fine. It was one of the cheaper methods of transportation on Aegis, but even then, most workers chose public transit. Few people wanted to exert themself traveling after a long day of work. Andrew was the exception, of course. He was fully outfitted with aplete set of cybeics, which included all his limbs. Pedaling a bike was effortless before the might of technology. As always, once he found himself in a secluded spot, he activated his Shade to cover himself with a projection. He didn¡¯t have his power armor with him this time, as it was just too bulky. It wasn¡¯t suitable for missions where he had to make direct contact with anyone. With a destination in mind, he rode through the dirty roads of Aegis, stopping before a rowdy street. It was filled with pubs, clubs, and all sorts of establishments to relieve a worker¡¯s stress. Even the corpos knew their workers needed to relieve their stress in order to stay productive. The entire area was jam-packed with workers who had gotten off their shifts. Andrew moved along the street, making his way down to the other end. It was there he spotted one of the warehouses belonging to his target, Astro Forge. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. He observed the entrance until he found a group of three men exiting the facility. They merrily walked into one of the nearby pubs, without realizing they were being tailed. Andrew spotted them taking a seat at the bar counter, so he sat beside them without any hesitation. Plopping himself down, he drew the attention of his targets. ¡°And who are you?¡± the smallest of the three asked with a frown. ¡°I¡¯m Tyler.¡± ¡°Well, Tyler. You see, there are a lot of other seats around here. Mind giving us some space before it gets busy in here?¡± ¡°Oh,e on. Do me a favor and don¡¯t be a stranger, would you? I wanted to drink with someone before my shift. I¡¯m new here.¡± ¡°Are you? Shift three, eh? A tough one for neers.¡± The man answered, but wasn¡¯t exactly enthusiastic. ¡°Here, how ¡¯bout I get a round for you boys?¡± ¡°Ha, now we talking.¡± This scene was a run-of-the-mill scene, so none of the other patrons paid any mind to it. The bar was only half-full, allowing them to chat without being overpowered by background noises. Like that, Andrew began coaxing his three new friends about some basic information. He started with general information about Aegis, and then moved on to their interests. Then, he shifted toward the topic of their job. ¡°That¡¯s a shame. If you didn¡¯t have so many shifts to cover, maybe you could go Nessy¡¯s more.¡± ¡°Ha, with the way ourpany runs things, I even have to go in during my off days. There¡¯s always someoneing down with some injury or illness that I have to cover for.¡± ¡°Oh? What do you guys do at yourpany that regrly injuries? Mine just finds a recement whenever they need.¡± As it went deeper into the night, Andrew¡¯s acquaintances got more drunk. Their lips got looser, but they still had the restraint to not delve into sensitive topics. But that was enough for Andrew. He only needed basic information, and a lot of it. The intel he prized the most was the contact of others within thepany. Using abination of social media, names, and titles he received, he could then track them down and repeat his intel-gathering activities. Hmm, this would be a lot easier if I hit the jackpot and find someone willing to sell out theirpany.
Having recorded the data from a live session with the D-Mother drones, I went into my workshop and focused on fine-tuning it right away. I also had to configure my workshop, so it took longer than expected. It was fine though, as I knew we needed some time to gather urate intel. I¡¯ve been bitten too many times to be negligent about information before picking a fight. If I could have it my way, I wouldn¡¯t want to fight at all. However, it was obvious from Astro Forge¡¯s attitude that they didn¡¯t take us seriously. We were a new D-ss corporation while they were an established C-ss. Despite only being one ss differential, the usual gulf between them was likely wider than the gap between D-ss and G-ss. That was because of the fiercepetition within the corporate world. Those who could stably hold on to greater wealth each had their own unique advantages. ss progression usually took years and years. The foundation one built from that wasn¡¯t so easy to overturn. Combined with the fact that ourpany was so new, everyone knew how shallow our foundation was. Therger corporations may have capable intel departments that knew about our irregrities, but Astro Forge obviously didn¡¯t. I suspected that was true for most other midsize corporations as well. There were just too manypanies in the world. They couldn¡¯t keep track of all of them, especially if I hadn¡¯t entered their niche. This caused us to be underestimated, which made doing business very difficult. If I wanted to reach out to Astro Forge to be our supplier right now, like in our previous conversation, we would simply be stone-walled. It was something we faced early on in Elevate City and something that couldn¡¯t be fixed in an instant. That was, unless we showed some teeth. Which led me to my n here. To attack Astro Forge into submission, forcing them to sign a favorable agreement with us. This heavily depended on the nature of their management team. If they were especially stubborn, our attack would have no effect. We would have to adjust our strategy or even consider eliminating the harmful elements, so they could be reced by cooler heads. The answers I needed were in the file I had found in my inbox. It came in justst night, which prompted me to finish up with my drones. Before I opened it, I sent a message to ire and Thorne, asking them if they had read it. *Nope, I didn¡¯t get sent a copy. Must be waiting for you to review first,* ire messaged. I received a simr response from Thorne, so I called them both to my workshop. While I waited, I read through the report first. The two of them hadn¡¯t arrived even after I finished, so I went over the minor details, opening up some of our internal files on how our operatives retrieved the intel. I opened my eyes wide when I saw the name of the primary agent. It was Andrew, a member of my elite team who has been with me for some time now. He was part of numerous important operations, but I didn¡¯t expect to see him in an investigative report. It only took me a few moments of searching through the backdoors of ourpany app for me to find records of how the missionnded on hisp. Ha, seriously? They made him train to be an operative and everything. I guess it is my fault that the rolended on him, but the number of people in ourpany who have experience operating in space is just too low. I could barely contain myughter when I went over the part where he had been ying virtual reality games for the first time to train. The young man yed every night while he slept. It was something Lanus found to be useful in getting people to put their newly gained skill sets into practice. In Andrew¡¯s case, it obviously worked. In the report, he managed to gain lots of background info by chatting with an Astro Forge employee, and from there, he acquired contacts for more employees. He eventually even found someone in middle management who was willing to share their experiences with their bosses for a small bribe. The information wasn¡¯t anything critical, but it showed a lot about loyal they were. It was also thanks to them that we got an idea about the personality of their owner. While going over some footage of Andrew¡¯s time in the Legend of the Mythic War, the door to my workshop opened. ¡°This ce¡­is messier than evenb zero,¡± my COOmented as soon as she walked in. ¡°That ce has dozens of assistants, and my setup is already configured there. I need to adjust things on the fly here,¡± I retorted. ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s about the same as his first workshop in the clinic. And you¡¯d think he¡¯d get his act together since then.¡± Thorne received the baton from ire, continuing the criticism. I shook my head, and no longer bothered to respond while I skimmed over the report one more time. Then, I handed my tablet over for the others to read. I gave them a chance to finish reading it before I spoke. ¡°What do you think?¡± ire didn¡¯t even look up at me and simply sighed. ¡°What else is there to say? The report answered everything we needed to know. You know exactly how we should proceed.¡± Chapter 214: Business as Usual Chapter 214: Business as Usual ¡°So I guess it¡¯s decided then?¡± I looked over at my two trusted partners. ire shrugged while Thorne continued to stare down at the tablet with a frown. After all our time together, I could read what he was thinking. We¡¯ve had people set traps against us in the past, and he was worried this was the same. Usually, when the results were too good to be true, there was a possibility of being a setup. I pulled up the file on my optics and ran over it again as I waited for Thorne to respond. Thetest intel gave us an overview of the history of Astro Forge, its current structure, and its leadership. They had been operating in Aegis for decades, having moved on fromside activities for a long time now. They were previously an oilpany that pivoted their business to extraterrestrial resources when it became clear they had to adapt to staypetitive. However, once they established themselves in the space resource industry, their growth stagnated. It was believed that the ownership was used to a decadent lifestyle, handing off all business matters to their secretaries once they hit their benchmarks. They only cared to make enough to sustain their luxuries, and no longer wanted to put in any more work. It made me scratch my head at how spoiled they were. ¡°Couldn¡¯t they just have given up a small percentage of ownership to get apetent CEO to run their ship like Titus does with AeroDynamic?¡± Thorne muttered. ¡°I¡¯m guessing they¡¯re too afraid of delegating any power. Rightfully so, too. Anypetent CEO could easily see how vulnerable this Axion family is. It wouldn¡¯t take much to usurp their power,¡± I answered. ¡°So they¡¯re run by a bunch of assistants whose only orders are to keep up the status quo? No wonder they weren¡¯t responsive to any of your attempts at negotiating. I¡¯m guessing they want to make an example out of Perry to keep their workers in line.¡±Corporations had a lot of expectations of how their employees behaved. Gambling was outright banned in most cases to avoid having their workerspromised from debt. I could only imagine what kind of rules they had about stealing from thepany itself. The only reason we believed we had some time before we needed to act was because Perry made no effort to conceal the fact he had aplices. It was standard practice to investigate the source of their thefts. They wanted to find the people who were fencing the goods, facilitating the transaction, and so forth, so they could strike them down and recover some of the money. ¡°We should still have some time, but we should start acting just in case.¡± ¡°Start with breaking this Perry out, then?¡± Thorne casually suggested. ¡°You boys go do that then. In the meantime, I¡¯ve got to deal with bringing our assets up,¡± ire dered. ¡°Wait! Can you prioritize the procurement of materials first? We need at least a car to get around.¡± ¡°That¡¯s going to take like what? A week or at least a few days for you to put together? Just go at it with a rental or whatever. You guys are good at adapting, right?¡± ¡°Right¡­¡± With our next course of action settled, we quickly proceeded to the preliminary recon phase. With ourck of manpower, Thorne and I took to the field ourselves as we began hunting down Perry¡¯s whereabouts. It made me beat myself up for focusing so much on training pilots and security forces that I neglected the intel department. I had left it all to Lucy, but I should¡¯ve known she wasn¡¯t well-versed operating in space either. I realized it toote and had to y catchup. Owing to our previous experience, the first spot I stopped at wasn¡¯t at any of Astro Forge¡¯s known facilities. I showed up at an old nutrient pack store in the back alleys of Aegis and got in the back of the line. There were all sorts of people hanging around, carrying boxes full of nutrient packs to the checkout counter. Both Thorne and I had been here before, so we casually passed the time by checking out the various vors they had here. Nutrient packs were moremon here than on the surface. They took up significantly less space and were just more efficient. It also wasn¡¯t worth shipping garbage synthetic food up the space elevator. That meant the industry was booming, and I confirmed that as I saw several dozen brandspeting in the market. I preferred it this way, as I found nutrient packs to be more palpable than synthetic garbage. Tasteless was better than tasting god awful. Soon, it was our turn at the counter, and arge, bulky man assisted us. He didn¡¯t bat an eye at our appearance, as it was currently hidden beneath ayer of holographic projection. To him, we were just the average workers found throughout the city. ¡°What do you want?¡± he asked, noticing our empty hands. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Sorry, we¡¯re actually feeling unwell,¡± I replied. ¡°Is there something more easy on the stomach and suited for the sick?¡± He immediately nodded and pointed to the back. I saw his eyes glow for a few seconds, likely sending a message to someone. Following his instructions, we were moved over to the backroom where a young boy found us and gestured for us to follow. Riding down a cargo lift, I soon met up with a familiar face. The QG we were acquainted with, the old man Amos. He was watching another boxing match on his retro tscreen TV and only spared us a nce before he snorted. ¡°High and mighty corpos, back in my humble abode, I see.¡± ¡°We have a job for you. Are you interested in making some easy money?¡± ¡°That depends. Tell me the details first.¡± I expected his straightforward reply and simply sent him a file. It had the images, and all our known locations of Astro Forge facilities on it. I doubt it was something he didn¡¯t know about, but it was our due diligence. ¡°Just searching?¡± ¡°Yes, but we want to expedite it as fast as possible.¡± ¡°Fastest I can do in three days. My people need time to make arrangements.¡± The disadvantage of Aegis mercenaries was that they were rarely full-time. They had to work other jobs as a cover. ¡°Can we work something out? I prefer something today or tomorrow.¡± The old man simply shook his hand before directing his attention back to the television screen. ¡°..Just give us your best guess as to where they can hold him. You should have an idea, right?¡± Instead of a verbal response, he took out a piece of paper from his chest and threw it toward me. It flew erratically in the air as it slowly fell to the ground. Thorne snatched it in one quick movement and handed it over to me. It was an old receipt. It was his cheeky way of asking for payment first. A few thousand or even ten thousand credits weren¡¯t that much anymore, so I didn¡¯t bother haggling and paid right away. I transferred the fifteen thousand to his ount, which got me a file sent to my inbox immediately. During this whole thing, Amospletely acted as if I wasn¡¯t there, so we quickly left after checking I had gotten what I needed. It was a list of five addresses, along with the basicyout of the ce. I forwarded it to Thorne as we walked. *Five ces, this time. Want to split up?* *No, just quickly work through the ces together.* I knew he would pick the safer option, so I had already reached out to the few guards I had brought with me. There was one team, which amounted to four of them, plus us two. There may be only six of us, but with each of us equipped with power armor, we were quite the force. With little to no traffic in Aegis, getting around was easier than ever. We arrived at our first target location and gathered at a vantage point that had a clear view of the target building. Few buildings in Aegis were hundreds of floors. The space station¡¯s ceiling was only so tall, so the structures were reminiscent of my old world. The six of us surveyed the target building while keeping a low profile on the roof. One of my men was even looking for the perfect vantage point to set up his weapon. Ourtest weaponry was a particle beam sniper rifle. We had variants for close quarters as well, but their power wascking if we were to fight other forces with energy shields. Topensate for that, I copied Ferrumus Corp in creating a sword-sized particle beam generator. Our operatives had them in smaller sizes to cut through walls and other obstacles, but these were tuned for power. While it couldn¡¯t cut through energy shields as if they weren¡¯t there, the level of power it emitted could drain the shield¡¯s energy within a second or so. It consumed an enormous amount of energy, but with it connected to our power armor¡¯s nuclear reactor, that wasn¡¯t the problem. It was the rapid heat buildup that made it unsuitable for prolonged use. Since we had it off most of the time, I designed it to be retractable, like a copsible baton. When fully extended, it looked like an outline of a sword. With our equipment all checked or deployed, we soon got into positions. We had a sniper team of two stay outside. One was ready to shoot while the other kept watch of the surroundings and worked on cybersecurity. The four of us, which included Thorne, infiltrated into the building like we had done hundreds of times before. ¡°Remembers, keep casualties low. Just knock them out if we have to engage,¡± I reminded. ¡°You know that isn¡¯t possible against anyone with a power armor,¡± Thorne retorted. ¡°Our EI rounds will take too long to take control of them, and we can¡¯t afford to let them run free for even a few seconds.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Neutralize the threat if all else fails.¡± ¡°Are you sure you understand, Rollo? Don¡¯t get me wrong. You¡¯ve done this a lot, but usually, harvesters didn¡¯t have anything we need to worry about.¡± ¡°Thorne, I was there too at Ceres. I saw how they fought, and have fought against those in power armor multiple times. Remember, we won the first time we fought our would-be kidnappers at the airport?¡± ¡°...Winning a fight and seeding in an infiltration is different. Just be cautious, is what I¡¯m saying.¡± His face screamed that he wanted to take the lead. He also didn¡¯t bring it up as I had conditioned him into thinking I always liked to lead the charge. He was wrong. I only did it for the experience points. If we weren¡¯t going to take out our opposition on this mission, the vanguard role was all his. ¡°You take the lead, then. I don¡¯t mind staying in the back.¡± ¡°What? You? In the back?¡± I nced over at our two teammates, Andrew and Peng, and triggered the deafened option in imnts before I continued. ¡°You should know why I normally take the lead. There¡¯s no point here.¡± He didn¡¯t say anything, but just nodded and began the operation. It was still daytime, so there was some traffic going in and out of the building. The first ce we headed to was their branch office at Aegis. Their headquarters was a space station near the moon, so this was their de facto main base in the area. We chose this ce first, as we agreed it was the most likely ce to hold prisoners. Once we headed into the lobby, I swiftly pulled up the feed from the optics of our guys outside. I confirmed that they could see our highlighted figures through the walls, including everyone in our vision. One of them was looking at us through the scope. It made me reassured that fire support was always avable. Even if they had a sizeable force stationed here, oh boy, were they in for a surprise. Chapter 215: Light Judgement Chapter 215: Light Judgement Once I confirmed my men outside were in position, we started focusing on gaining entry into Astro Forge Aegis branch headquarters. I did a quick scan with the Argus and got ayout of their security systems in the lobby. ¡°They have some serious sensors around. If we try to use our boosters to jump over anything, they¡¯d detect it in a heartbeat,¡± I said over our encryptedmunication line. ¡°As if cloaking tech is anything new at this level,¡± Thorne quipped. ¡°Neither Nova Tech, Ferrusmus, or the people your guardian angel employed made use of any stealth tech. They should have counters in ce, so they don¡¯t bother with it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s different. Twopanies on the same level with neither specializing in stealth tech would obviously go into a stalemate, but that isn¡¯t the case here.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why we¡¯re still undetected, but gaining ess quietly won¡¯t be so easy here. It¡¯s their regional headquarters, so of course they will have implemented plenty of security.¡± We took some time simply standing there, observing the lobby, watching how everything worked. The employees went through turnstiles where they had to insert cards, look into a camera, and then scan their biometrics. It was only afterpleting these verification methods that they were allowed to pass through to the other side, which was separated by a wall of ss. ¡°If it proves to be too tedious to get through, we can always scale the outer walls,¡± Thorne suggested. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. Our presence here doesn¡¯t need to bepletely undetected. I don¡¯t mind leaving some digital traces or going loud if we need to.¡± ¡°You heard the man,¡± Thorne blurted out to our team members, Andrew and Peng. ¡°Weapons hot only if we¡¯re in danger or to ensure the target¡¯s safety.¡±¡°Understood!¡± A brief moment of silence passed before Andrew nudged hispanion, who quickly saluted in response. ¡°Peng understands!¡± I paid them no heed as I cautiously approached the turnstile. The guards in the lobby paid more attention to the wide-open entrance to their building than the interior. Combined with the stable cloaking technology my power armor provided, I easily plugged into their systems. ¡°Their security is tough,¡± Imented. ¡°We talking half an hour or an hour, or what?¡± ¡°Just a minute. I prepared a program to do the heavy lifting for me.¡± ¡°...Okay then,¡± Thorne replied, while the outline of his head shook left and right. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not perfect. It¡¯s pretty much a disguised brute-force attack. They¡¯ll know someone infiltrated them sooner orter, so it¡¯s not suited for every situation.¡± ¡°No need to exin the technicals to me. If it works, it works, but from what you¡¯re telling me, we should hurry up.¡± As soon as my program got me into theirwork, the first thing I did was ess the database of personnel the turnstiles were connected to. It contained everything an employee needed to pass their security check, and what we could use to do the same. As expected of an established C-ss corporation, theirworks were properly air-gapped, so I couldn¡¯t gain ess to any more than what the turnstiles needed to do their job. Once I was done browsing through their database, we selected several targets who were already in the building and had the system believe they exited the building. Then, we could disguise ourselves as them to enter. Everything went smoothly, and the four of us soon got past the lobby while we kept up our holographic projection to alter our appearance. ¡°This ce is thirty floors up and five down. Where do you want to start?¡± Thorne asked. ¡°One second, I¡¯ll go find out.¡± I nced around for cameras, then had a Nye sneak up to it so I could trace it back to their monitoring room. The results I received didn¡¯t differ too much from expectations. Their security room was on the tenth floor. We still decided to take the stairs, as our power armor weighed too much to go unnoticed in an elevator. Everything was uneventful as we swiftly found the control room we were looking for. The building had many floors, but each floor wasn¡¯t that big. We had enough Nyes to cover the entirety of a single floor with ease. The simpleyout helped, too, and the guards they posted outside didn¡¯t do them any favors. ¡°Knock them out, no need for lethal,¡± Imanded. This mission was a statement to Astro Forge. Killing their employees indiscriminately would only make it harder for us to reach the negotiating tables. We split up into two groups to handle each of the two guards. Andrew followed my lead as we snuck up beside him. On the count of three, we sprang into action. Andrew secured the unsuspecting guard¡¯s cybeic hands while I wrapped my own around his mouth and injected a needle into him with my other hand. He struggled violently, but with our new Talos series cyberarm, we were able to keep him in check. This content has been uwfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. We had practiced these movements many times, both in our facility and in virtual reality. That was how we were able to subdue them within a split second. Everyone flowed in one big movement, including breaking open into the security room and shoving their drugged bodies inside. Our actions understandably drew the attention of every person inside, but from their perspective, they simply saw their fellow guards stumbling in. They all thought they were drunk or feeling unwell for the first few seconds. Those few seconds were all we needed. We moved with lightning-fast speed. The world around me felt like it slowed down to a halt while our people alone moved with impunity. We pped restraints and drugged everyone in a rush, blowing through them like a hurricane. The people working inside were even more poorly equipped in the cybeics departmentpared to the two guards. It was normal, as they worked in cybersecurity where they didn¡¯t need brute strength. However, it allowed us to subdue a dozen of them before they realized what happened. Unfortunately, things didn¡¯t turn out exactly as nned. When we had taken control of the room, I swiftly moved to go through the cameras, searching for Perry. It didn¡¯t take long for me to find him on one of the floors above, and I didn¡¯t hesitate to release him from the chair he was strapped into. However, that caused a building-wide rm to go off. Despite my rush to free him, I had properly looked over the system for any traps, but there weren¡¯t any. I could only conclude that it was a physical tripwire attached to his restraining chair or something. No matter the case, I had to deal with the aftermath, and it came quickly. I spotted a red outline off to the side. It was where Peng was, in the deepest part of the control room. The walls beside him slid open as a thick metallic hand pushed it aside. I double-checked and found my bio-processor was still operating in full force. I should be seeing this guy moving in slow motion, but he¡¯s moving at normal speed for me. His casual movements threw me off as my brain didn¡¯t find anything wrong with the sight, but I knew this wasn¡¯t going to go down peacefully. Their casual movements meant the other party was moving much faster than normal, and their hostility was confirmed when I saw them bring up their firearm at Peng. Of course, my employee was faster, firing a blue stream of particle beams their way. Simrly colored blue light glowed softly in response, stating its presence as it dispersed the oing beam. It¡¯s dimmed slightly after tanking the shots, but it was a fact that it had safeguarded its user. That soon changed when several new bursts of lightnded on the same target. The energy shield flickered upon being hit by our attacks, with the power armor beginning to smoke. It appeared it woulde down any second, but our people weren¡¯t trained to take chances. Peng had charged forward after taking the shot. He wielded his rifle like a club, mming down at his adversary. It didn¡¯t do much, despite passing through the energy shield. The thick armor neutralized the bludgeoning attack, causing someone from beside me to yell out. ¡°Use the sword, you big oaf!¡± Peng acted as if he was a robot who had received itsmand. He instantly dropped the rifle and pulled out a small round cylinder, like a copsed umbre, and it expanded into a sword right away. Then, it powered up, with a burning hot white beam filling the hollowed space of the sword. He got the sword ready in time to receive the enemy swinging down with their wrist de. The two melee weapons collided, and sparks went flying. Normally, one would expect them to have locked des, turning the confrontation into a contest of strength. That didn¡¯t happen. As the white particle beam made contact with the metallic de, it actively melted the wrist de. I could see the enemy¡¯s concern grow as our new weapon got closer and closer to his body. While that happened, the hiddenpartment our enemy came out from proved to be able to hold more than one power armor. Two more had already managed to rush out while I could spot more behind them. Thorne, Andrew, and I quickly signalled our men outside for support. Our cover was blown, so there was no need to stay quiet anymore. We just had to protect our target and make our getaway now. Thankfully, this happened after I had taken control of their camera systems. This meant I had eyes throughout the building, and I could forward this information back to my team outside. As if they were impatiently waiting for our signal all along, the moment we gave the green light, a watermelon-sized hole manifested in the walls. A bright white light had punched through the concrete as if it wasn¡¯t there and then decimated the enemy before us. Several sharp popping sounds followed after it, but our ears were safe inside our suits. My men outside could see our figures through the walls and managed to snipe the enemy with precision. A giant hole was burned through one of their power armor, bringing it to its knees. In fact, it didn¡¯t stop at that. The walls behind it were melted too, and I could see the outside if I poked my head to trace the trajectory. It was all thanks to the new sniper rifle I developed, the Light Judgement. It fired a high-energy particle beam at the level of a miniature ship cannon thanks to the protection of our power armor. It couldn¡¯t be shot without it, as it needed ess to the nuclear reactor, and the resulting shockwaves could maim its shooter. My cybeic engineering knowledge came in handy when developing it, as I was used to minimizing the harmful emissions these powerful pieces of technology produced. It was the only reason I could enable its high power settings, despite it being an infantry-level weapon. Before the enemy party could understand what had happened, a second beam appeared. I could see that our sniper made use of his lookout¡¯s weapon, as it wasn¡¯t able to fire again that fast at max power setting. My team and I knew the next shots should take a minute as they relocated to a new vantage point, so we charged into melee range while they were disoriented. We made our move in time for Peng¡¯s struggle to finish. His de hadpletely melted through his opponent¡¯s weapon, proceeding to cut straight through the enemy power armor as the sniper shot had done. As much testing as I did to know that would be the result, I still can¡¯t help but be relieved seeing it work in action. The three of us drew our own des as we joined the battle. It couldn¡¯t even really be called a proper battle, as the speed and reflex advantage we had was too great. They could only move at the speed of walking while we could sprint to our heart¡¯s content. It was the result of setting our sights on A-ss corporations. We easily dismantled our opposition. ¡°No time to investigate or retrieve anything fancy. Rush to the eighteenth floor!¡± I yelled out. Counting half a dozen enemy power armors disabled, our team of four didn¡¯t bother to stick around as we rushed to Perry¡¯s side. I watched on the camera feed I pulled up, as several figures darted into his room at the sound of the rm. In the past, we would have to bet on the enemy to continue holding him hostage instead of executing him on the spot. We no longer had to make that same bet. As two figures darted into Perry¡¯s room, I saw another bright light sh through the screen. Another particle beam shot had prated through the exterior walls and snipped its targets. This time, its targets weren¡¯t afforded the protection of power armors. The sound and shockwave from the st sent the people behind the first two men tumbling onto the ground. Perry wasn¡¯t spared, but no permanent damage should have been done. For the moment, he was safe. But we still had to hurry in case that changed. Chapter 216: The Easy Part Chapter 216: The Easy Part Knowing the people at Astro Forge were trying to secure Perry, we rushed to get to him first, before that could happen. Prior to leaving, I made sure to disable all security features in the building and shut down their systems to make it more difficult for them to regain control. Then, for good measure, we blew up the control room as we exited. All the noise from our support team sniping in the building had already alerted everyone in the area, but our explosion definitely added more to the chaos. We deployed our D-Mother drones ahead of us into the stairwell as we tried to both be quick and cautious. From the view our sniper team had, I could see a lot of movement around the building, with security personnel scrambling around, while some decided to lock down the floors they were responsible for. Their control room had been sabotaged, so they were a mess. It meant we were met with minimal resistance as we stormed up the stairs. Their regr guards were no match for four power armors. Their attacks simply drain some power from our energy shields while our particle beams pierced through not only their bodies but the walls behind them. Hmm, the building codes here really do make the infrastructure weaker. I should remember to take that into consideration for our branch office here. Aegis was a city located at the tip of the space elevator. It meant it was attached to Earth, and gravity was a consideration of its structural integrity. This made the city impose limits on the weight of each building. That meant the heavily reinforced material typically used had to be reced by alternatives. It was one of the reasons why the Light Judgement was able to pierce through severalyers of walls here. We soon made it to where Perry was. No resistance was awaiting us, as they had already been either eliminated or scared off. I don¡¯t me them because I would be shaken too if enemies started sniping me through walls all of a sudden. We found Perry slumped against the wall, nursing his head. The particle beam had passed by him at close proximity. It had knocked him to the ground, and he was bleeding. ¡°Can you stand?¡± I asked as I kneeled down to his eye level to examine his condition.¡°P-Probably. Who are you?¡± I quickly adjusted the setting on my helmet so it would turn transparent. ¡°It¡¯s me. It¡¯s been some time, but I¡¯m here to help.¡± ¡°Ha, nothing ever good happens before I see you. I don¡¯t know whether to be happy or angry.¡± ¡°Well, we can debate thatter. It¡¯s time to go. Polina wants to say hi.¡± ¡°That woman? I guess she would still be trapped up here too, huh?¡± This wasn¡¯t the time to rify any misunderstanding, so I quickly injected him with a stimnt before helping him get up. Andrew and Peng already knew what to do and led the way out. We found the hallways eerily quiet. ¡°Let¡¯s use the elevators instead,¡± I suggested. ¡°They are all staying on their own floors, watching for movement. Let¡¯s not go through the stairwell where they have dozens of entry points.¡± Thorne knew what I was thinking of and simply unloaded his own D-Mother while my other two guards pried open the elevator doors. The drone swiftly entered the dark chambers of the elevator shaft and surveyed its terrain. It confirmed the elevator car was above us. The drone then extended a de to lodge itself into the corner before deploying a thin wire down to the bottom. Using this, we rappeled down the shafts while I had Perry on my back. It wasn¡¯t as bothersome as I had thought. My new cybeics were not only stronger individually, but the synergy between them made the load of carrying someone barely noticeable. As we passed by each floor, we could hear people talking, but thankfully, our feet were equipped with a noise-canceling function, so we went by unnoticed. It remained that way all the way down to the ground floor. Instead of bursting out of the shaft right away, we did the sensible thing of sending out Nyes to investigate. Our sniper team outside had to evacuate by now as reinforcements arrived. The police could be paid off, but Astro Forge¡¯s forces couldn¡¯t. Before the D-Mother even made it back down to us, we received a clear picture of the situation on the other side of the doors. Two trucks had arrived on the scene, bringing with them their fast response team. That consisted of a dozen power armors and two times that number in regr units. They were prepared to deal with enemy armored units as I could spot the menacing, heavy weaponry they had at the ready. Two entire turrets were set up in the lobby. Each of them faced a stairwell. ¡°They¡¯re scanning like crazy for us. I think we pissed them off,¡± Thorne remarked. ¡°Well, this was one of the responses we expected. I see our support team has our getaway secured.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call it a getaway, more like a decoy.¡± This book''s true home is on another tform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Whatever, close enough.¡± While we didn¡¯t have any vehicles in our possession, it didn¡¯t mean we couldn¡¯t requisition one. We didn¡¯t even need something fast and armored, as stealth was our strength. Getting away was, in fact, the easy part. We just needed to get out of the building first. ¡°So the sniper team is out. We¡¯ll have to rely on ourselves. How do you want to do this?¡± Thorne asked. I didn¡¯t hesitate to point at our weapons. He smirked and began assembling the work of art I hade up with. The Light Judgement wasn¡¯t a separate firearm that we needed to consciously decide to bring in our loadout. It was included in every single one of our power armors. It normally was in its disassembled form, with the extra parts tucked into our backs, while the rifle we had been using was the main body. We simply needed to reassemble our rifle into the powerful sniper that dished out decimating particle beams. The only issue we had to consider was to keep Perry safe while we shot. There was a reason this weapon was only usable if one was inside a power armor. ¡°Perry, we¡¯re going to have you endure being tied down for a bit. We¡¯lle get you once it¡¯s clear.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I answered by leaping upward toward the third floor. I then secured him to the elevator cabling and let him hang off the maintenancedder. ¡°Just wait here. It won¡¯t take long.¡± I didn¡¯t wait for his reply before jumping back down. ¡°Okay, so let¡¯s go with serve and volley.¡± ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want to just go with cloak and daggers?¡± Thorne asked with a chuckle. ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s about the same thing, but we get to show off our new toy. We¡¯ve already revealed it, so might as well go for the shock factor.¡± The four of us soon got into formation, pointing our Judgment Light sniper rifles toward the lobby behind the elevator doors. We could see everything outlined behind the obstacle thanks to the Nyes feeding us with their position. ¡°Leave the armored units for the volley part. We can¡¯t exactly destroy them in one shot.¡± ¡°Got it. Mithril dagger, ready to go,¡± Andrew remarked. ¡°Mithril dagger?¡± ¡°Oh, umm¡­particle sword.¡± I exchanged looks with Thorne before we both erupted intoughter. I could only thank myself for making sure the power armor didn¡¯t leak any sound as we let it all out. ¡°Get ready to cast photon cannon, boys!¡± ¡°Yeah, wait for me to get aggro before you move in. Healer, make sure you get me!¡± Andrew could only facepalm at his slip of the tongue as he waited for us to let it all out. ¡°You know what?¡± I said, after settling down. ¡°Mithril dagger is a pretty good nickname. Particle sword is too on the tongue, so let¡¯s go with Mithril dagger from now on.¡± ¡°Boss, can you please just let it go?¡± ¡°Hmm? No, I¡¯m serious. I¡¯m not trying to continue teasing you here.¡± ¡°...Have it your way.¡± With the new nickname settled, we once again got ready to break out of this ce. We delegated targets to each other with our targeting system and began charging our sniper rifles. It took a few seconds to reach max power and was one of the most challenging parts to ount for when I designed it. More power made it easier to be detected. It was impossible to hide all that energypletely, but since it was a sniper rifle, it was fine as long as it wasn¡¯t detectable at range. This fact caused our enemies to all turn toward the elevator doors just a split second before we unleashed four beams of high technology toward them. The metal doors received four new deformed holes as the metal dripped down from the heat. The shockwave of the attack made those not hit duck down for cover while their power armor predictably pointed their weapons at us. Unfortunately for them, they were in a formation facing the stairwells off to the two sides, not the elevators from the center of the lobby. That split-second dy was enough for us to charge out and engulf the entire ce with our smokescreen. It not only hindered them visually, but disrupted theirms as well. This meant they only fired off one volley before they stopped. The risk of friendly fire rose exponentially for them while we closed the gap. It allowed us to do so easily, after only tanking one volley with our energy shields. The only thing that could enable one to see through this smoke was our Argus sensors, which were calibrated specifically for the powdered stealth material we used in the smoke. It made the entire fight into a one-sided massacre. This stuff even threw Nova Tech¡¯s kidnappers for a loop, after all. It must be disheartening to face this when we can move so quickly now, too. ¡°No need to chase the people fleeing on foot. Just make sure all their power armors are disabled!¡± I reminded over thems. With four of us in the middle of this flock of mindless sheep, the fight was soon over. It took us several seconds to take down each armored enemy, but there were only a dozen of them in total. Each of us only had to deal with three, so within a minute, all their power armors were defeated. Their turrets had been decimated from our first strike, and only their regr infantry remained. Some fled to the streets while some tried to hide. Either way, we didn¡¯t really care about them. ¡°Thorne, go get our man.¡± Thorne was still a full-fledged cyborg among us. The rest of us were very close, but we still came up short when it came to the number of Gs we could withstandpared to him. This allowed Thorne to move the fastest without requiring any limiters in his suit. Under the cover of our grey smoke, we activated our invisibility to disappear away into the city. Not long after we crossed the finish line, our support team sent our requisitioned car barreling down the road. We had Nyes in there to project our figures within. It would leave a trail to follow, but it would only end in a fiery crash. As for us, we were moving around the city with various disguises, slowly making our way back. It was a bit too risky to have Perry show up at our office, so we would have to secure a safe ce for him to stay. Still, it wasn¡¯t something to stress over. If they find out, then they find out. The point of this operation was to just bloody their nose and get them on the negotiating table. I would say the action part was also the easy part. Next came the hard part. We had to tactfully approach the situation. The point was to get Astro Forge to calmly listen after we had beaten them down, so this conflict doesn¡¯t spiral out of control. After that, we had to get them to make a deal with us. It would likely require a delicate touch. That was unless I wanted to fullymit to the opposite spectrum. Chapter 217: Deterrence Plan Chapter 217: Deterrence n ¡°Perry!¡± Polina warmly called out to his former fellow prisoner. ¡°What sort of shit did you get yourself into?¡± The mismatch between her kind demeanor and her words made the man give me a questioning look as he awkwardly approached Polina. ¡°He¡¯s all yours,¡± I said and headed straight out of the room to let the two catch up. I didn¡¯t exactly have time to listen to his version of how he ended up being targeted by an entire corporation. I had just rescued him from the clutches of Astro Forge, and now we had to prepare our negotiation strategy. The former step was the easy part, while thetter would be where the challengey. Astro Forge didn¡¯t exactly know who had attacked them yet, but it was only a matter of time. We didn¡¯t hide all our traces, and our counterintelligence capabilities up here in Aegis were less than mature. That was why we immediately convened to set our n straight. We had some inkling as to how to go about it prior to the mission, but it was only after the sessful rescue that we could hash out the details. No n ever survived contact with the enemy. No one could¡¯ve predicted how our operation would¡¯ve gone. ¡°So, we¡¯re the amount of casualties we¡¯ve caused should be on the high end of our predictions,¡± I informed everyone in our meeting. We had the holographic projection of various executives, like Vin and Lucy with us, along with several managers from our branches and headquarters. The only people physically in the room with me were Thorne and ire, and thetter immediately had some words to get off her chest. ¡°Yeah, no thanks to you boys getting carried away with your new toys! You gave Aegis PD the perfect excuse to extort us for a sum!¡±¡°That¡­wasn¡¯t our intention. We didn¡¯t want to get into a confrontation, but once we did, we couldn¡¯t hold back against their power armors. They are C-ss corporations for a reason. They have a deep foundation and years of experience to refine their measures. It wasn¡¯t likely we¡¯d be able to bypass them just because our stealth tech is miles ahead of them.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Well, now we¡¯ll have to prepare a bigger budget for reparations.¡± ording to our n before the rescue, we hade up with several ways to cate Astro Forge after our mission. If the damage was minor, we could¡¯ve directlyunched aggressively into negotiations with the threat of disrupting their flow of business. It was more effective when everything was still going well for them, as people were less willing to stop earning money on their own initiative. Now that we had done enough damage to have gotten them spooked, I was sure they were posturing defensively as we spoke. It would no doubt hinder their business operations, and thus their ie as well. When the flow of money had already stopped, we estimated they would be a lot more willing to fight it out. In that scenario, we figured paying reparation to cover their loss was the fastest way to stop the conflict. It showed sincerity, covered their losses, and quelled any dissatisfaction from damage to their reputation. However, now that the mission was over, I had a new perspective. ¡°Hmm, I think there may be a better way to go about this than I had thought.¡± We had so tantly acted out against a corporation within the city, but we so easily got away with it. It was because of our new status, bribe money, and strength. For squabbles like these, no other corporation really wanted to get involved or impose the rules on us. As long as we didn¡¯t harm their interests, the otherpanies didn¡¯t care what we did. Even when we fired off quasi-ship-grade weapons into buildings, no one protested. And that got me thinking. ¡°Better way to go about it? Here we go again,¡± ire sighed and shook her head. ¡°Please don¡¯t tell me you want to escte it and kidnap their CEO or something.¡± ¡°Of course not!¡± I protested. ¡°Come on, don¡¯t think so little of me.¡± Everyone in the meeting avoided my gaze when I searched for their support. They all silently nced away. These guys¡­ ¡°Just go ahead and let us hear it,¡± Thorne said. ¡°We¡¯re used to it by now.¡± ¡°Hey, don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s not that strange of a n. I¡¯ve heard of others doing the same before with sess, so it¡¯s a proven method as long as we do it right. We just have to do what we¡¯ve been saying we should do. Stop holding back and unt our strength. Even exaggerate it!¡± ¡°Really? You want us to act like snobby big shots?¡± ire questioned with a frown. ¡°You should know that there¡¯s no point in holding back anymore, right? The reason the big corporations are steering clear of us is because of the enigmatic backer we have.¡± I took a moment to gauge everyone¡¯s reaction. I hadn¡¯t explicitly stated to the rest of thepany about the matter with my guardian angel, but they should have an inkling of the matter. At least those who knew of my time in captivity did. I simply confirmed some of their suspicions. While those who hadn¡¯t known anything were surprised, they quickly came to terms with it. I believe it was because some of them justified it as the reason why ourpany had grown so fast over the years, while some didn¡¯t bother to think at all. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Seeing no one said anything, I continued. ¡°If the top corporations are so cautious around us, it should be easy to get these midsizepanies to be the same way. Convince them we have a colossal backer behind us, and bully them into submission with our influence. This whole operation was to create deterrence, so we¡¯ll just be all-inning on that end.¡± I once again surveyed the room and yet again, no one spoke. They all stared at the floor in front of them, deep in thought. ¡°How do you suppose we do that?¡± Vin was the first to break the silence. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have an armada to intimidate people around with, or anything substantial people can see.¡± ¡°Well, to start, our new Light Judgment is pretty close to that. An infantry-sized weapon with the firepower approaching ship-grade cannons, albeit of the smallest grade.¡± ¡°They¡¯ve seen that already. I suppose you have a show of quantity with it, I guess, but those who are located off station won¡¯t really care as long as they don¡¯t think it can reach them. That¡¯s why ships are so effective as a deterrent.¡± ¡°Then if it¡¯s a ship we¡¯ll need to put on a good show, then a ship we¡¯ll get,¡± I dered. I caught sight of ire face-palming in the corner of my eye while the more militant of the bunch smirked, excited for what was toe. It seems like everyone knows me enough to see where this is going. Good.
Sometimes, I wish money could buy me more time. Too bad life never went exactly as you envisioned it, but I¡¯ve learned toe to terms with that. ¡°Hurry your ass over here if you want your ship to be ready on time!¡± a voice screamed out at me from a distance. I swallowed myints and quickened my pace while lugging around this huge ting on my back. However, I didn¡¯t stop myself from ring at the stocky man looking down at me from the scaffolding. He was the owner of this shipyard, so there was no one else I couldin to about the worst customer service I¡¯ve ever witnessed. Still, I tolerated him because I knew he was a man who got the job done. I carried this giant b of metal up to the tform that oversaw the midsection of a suspended spaceship in the middle of the hangar. There were parts strewn all over the floor, and only the immediate area below the ship was spared from the mess. Off to the side wererge pieces of machinery that fabricated parts and was also where I had fetched the ting from. ¡°Here it is, Grom. Where do you want it?¡± ¡°Did I say you could use my name? Call me Ship Right, as everyone else does!¡± ¡°...Sure thing, Ship Right.¡± He scoffed and easily took hold of therge piece of metal ting from my hands before pping it on the ship before us. It was a feat that was a lot more impressive during myst visit, after the negotiations with Ferrumus Corporation. With the gravity here being set so low, and equipped with a full set of cybeics, even I perform the same feat as him. Though, I doubt I¡¯d be able to urately eyeball the measurements of everything or work as precisely as he did. With thest piece I was responsible for, delivered, I surveyed the rest of the shipyard to see how my employees were doing. We had submitted a rushed request to Grom to lend us a ship and help us refit it to be as intimidating as possible. Just like thest time, he replied with, ¡°I¡¯m just one man with two hands. There¡¯s a limit to how fast I can work. If you want to speed it up, thene help me yourself.¡± This led my entire security detail and me to pitch in and help. I saw Andrew and Peng feeding in materials to bot as instructed, and Thorne leading the rest of our men working with the internals of the ship. One entire side of the ship still had its interior exposed, and only the side where Grom and I were was properly ted. This wasn¡¯t the usual method, or so Mr. Ship Right said. We were only doing it this was because of all the requests we made. We were looking to have the most intimidating ship around, which meant jamming numerous advanced functions that high-tier corporations would have ess to. These were all things I had taken into consideration when selecting mytest round of skill upgrades with the system. The only issue was that I hadn¡¯t taken the time to research the ship-grade application of them yet. So we decided to cheat. Spacecrafts were state-of-the-art technology that was carefully designed to hit every checkbox there was. It had to be fast; it had to be deadly, and it had to have a plethora of utility abilities. On top of all that, there had to be sufficient cabin space to host all the life support systems and amenities to make it livable for the crew. In our case, we simply needed something for the short term to put on a show, so we could cut out everything to do with making it livable. It was cheating, in and simple. Seeing Grom didn¡¯t need me for anything anymore, I climbed down toward Thorne to supervise their progress. While the flight capabilities were something Grom was in charge of, I oversaw the firepower, stealth field, and electrical systems of the ship. My aerospace engineering skill gave me a plethora of knowledge regarding how to design the ship too, but I had to throw most of that out the window for now. It only needed to work for a short time, so many parts were makeshift solutions. ¡°How¡¯s it going? Are you guys done with installing our cannon yet?¡± I asked as I walked up behind them. ¡°See for yourself,¡± Thorne pointed to the gunner¡¯s hatch above him. He was busy assembling the various oversized Shade units I hastily put together around the ship, so I left them along and climbed up the hatch. After going through an airlock, my power armor warned me I was entering the vacuum of space. When I got to the top, I was met with a round room with a bunch of harnesses meant to strap a dozen people against the wall. On the opposite end was a small tunnel where I could get a glimpse of the starry skies of the expanse. This was the cannon that we had devised on the spot. There was no way to produce a real ship-grade particle beam within a few days, so I decided to simply use the power of quantity instead. We would have a dozen people strapped together in a formation here, firing in unison to produce our own ship-grade beam. Despite the makeshift nature of our project, it still took me two nights to ensure everything was in order. I had to create new software programs to run the entire ship, synchronize a dozen Light Judgements to fire without incident, and coordinate countless Shade units to work together. It was a feat that wouldn¡¯t be possible without my expertise in software and electrical engineering. It was a lot of work. I could only hope the folks at Astro Forge would appreciate my efforts. Chapter 218: Show of Force Chapter 218: Show of Force Laura Uzbeck - Astro Forge ¡°What do you mean, you guys are dyed? It¡¯s your job to smooth things over with your station¡¯s harbormaster. How can you let it deteriorate to the point where it can cause a dy?¡± Laura admonished the man on the other end of the call. ¡°Ma¡¯am¡­that¡¯s not easy to do with the amount of funds we¡¯re¡ª¡± ¡°If it was easy to do, then we wouldn¡¯t be paying you so well. Just get it done, noining.¡± ¡°Yes, of course, ma¡¯am.¡± Seeing her menply, Laura turned off the call. She massaged her eyes as she contemted how to report to her superiors. While she was in charge of the Aegis branch of herpany, she still had to regrly check in with her boss. As if the person heavily weighing on her could read her mind, she received a call from them at this exact moment. The ringtone red out in a high-pitched horn, distinguishing it from any other caller. ¡°Yes, Mr. Bulrich, how may I be of service?¡± ¡°Laura, don¡¯t y me for a fool. When do you n on reporting to me about this recent attack on your office?¡±¡°Sir, I was just about to¡ª¡± ¡°Just about to do it? Well, you would¡¯ve still been ten minutes toote. The Axion family head himself questioned me about the situation. I could only assure him we had it under control, so it better be!¡± ¡°Of course. The attack is already over, and all our vital assets are ounted for.¡± ¡°Good. And you better keep me updated as you find the perpetrators!¡± With the call cut off, Laura shook her head as she breathed deeply to rx. She then made various calls out to different departments, urging them to hurry up with their investigations. Whether her efforts made a difference, she never knew, but she did get a report the next day. All clues pointed at a neer to Aegis that neither she nor her intel department had ever heard of. This resulted in a few extra days of investigation to get to the bottom of things. What? It¡¯s one of those annoying calls fromst week? Laura thought to herself. She barely remembered the conversation she had with this new CEO, but it was toote for her to regret it. She would¡¯ve never guessed some upstart had the galls to attack herpany in the first ce. After her investigators had put together a detailed profile of their assants, she finally called a branch meeting. Half a dozen people swiftly assembled in the meeting room, each respectfully bowing to Laura before taking their seats. ¡°Gentlemen, thank you foring so promptly. Today, we must decide on a course of action in response to the attack we suffered the other day.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± a stout man mmed his fist on the desk in agreement. ¡°Theypletely trashed my security room. Half our budget for the quarter is gone, just like that.¡± He then nced over at Laura with puppy eyes before continuing. ¡°Branch director, speaking of budget, do you think¡ª¡± ¡°You¡¯re dreaming if you think we have any funds for your department after your failures. Neither I nor anyone from the Axion family would approve of such a ludicrous idea.¡± At Laura¡¯s words, everyone in the room looked away. Their looks all said, ¡°Of course you wouldn¡¯t. You and the owners are always too cheap to approve any additional funding.¡± With no one saying a word for some time, Laura cleared her throat to get them back on track. ¡°Ahem, let us proceed. I want retaliation ns against this Halls Corporation that dares attack us.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± an older woman cut in. ¡°Should we not wait until we¡¯ve finished the thorough background check? The preliminary report only includes their brief history and immediate allies. We haven¡¯t even found out why they wanted to rescue this Perry person yet. I doubt they would be involved in some petty theft ring.¡± ¡°All we need to know is that they have malicious intentions against us. We can find out the detailster.¡± ¡°But, ma¡¯am, to start a war against another corporate so lightly isn¡¯t¡ª¡° ¡°There¡¯s no need for war. We¡¯ll crush them swiftly with surgical strikes,¡± Laura dered while eyeing the security officers. They took a moment to stare at each other before they each raced to share their n. They had all read the reports that the opposing force was just some newly promoted D-ss corporation. It was a perfect opportunity for them to earn some merits. As each one stated their n, the projector in the room listed them out on the screen. Laura just silently listened as they continued when the screen suddenly glitched out. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Fix this immediately!¡± Laura yelled. The technicians on the side instantly hopped onto their terminals to investigate the issue. They work furiously for a few minutes, to the growing ire of their bosses. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Just as they could feel Laura about to erupt in rage, the screen finally turned back on. However, what appeared on it wasn¡¯t the ns from their meeting, but a background image depicting outer space. ¡°Boot up the program already and get us off this home screen!¡± Someone quickly answered, but it wasn¡¯t from anyone in the room. Instead, it came from the speakers of the projector. A few sharp-minded individuals instantly realized then the screen wasn¡¯t showing some background image, but video footage of the cosmic expanse. ¡°Good morning there, people of Astro Forge. I hope everything¡¯s been going well for you people.¡± ¡°What are you guys doing? How did you let our systems getpromised? Hurry and cut the line!¡± ¡°Now, now,dies and gentlemen, no need to act so hasty. I have something to show you guys.¡± The screen, which depicted the background of space, quickly changed. It zoomed out and panned to the interior of a ship. It was a spacious and luxuriously decorated bridge, with authentic wood used to decorate the cabin without restraint. The camera showed the bridge crew and only stopped when it centered on the captain¡¯s chair, which was in an elevated positionpared to all the other seats. There was also another chair right next to the captain¡¯s that appeared out of ce, as if it had been hastily added there. An old man with a grey mustache sat in the main seat while a young man with dark hair sat in the adjacent chair. They smiled, and the young man tipped his head at them. ¡°Behold, a prosperous port that I¡¯m sure yourpany prides itself on.¡± The camera did a quick one-eighty, showing a familiar port on the screen. One Laura had visited regrly and often appeared in her reports. It was the port that dealt with most of thepany¡¯s logistics within the region. ¡°What are you implying by showing me this?¡± Laura barely managed to force out those words between her gritted teeth. ¡°Are you trying to threaten us?¡± It was only now that everyone in Astro Forge¡¯s meeting room realized who this culprit who had hijacked their meeting was. ¡°You tell me. I don¡¯t make a habit of telling others how they should interpret things, even if they are from an ipetent organization.¡± ¡°You little¡ª-¡° Laura stopped her words as the screen panned to arge cannon attached to the ship. It was pointed directly at arge cargo ship with the mark of Astro Forge on it. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare! Aegis port authorities won¡¯t forgive you if you do something so stupid.¡± As if to maliciously defy Laura, the young man simply gave out amand without a care in the world. ¡°Fire.¡± Instantly, the screen turned white as the cannon spewed out a powerful beam. It caused Laura and everyone in her room to gasp. Their hearts started beating rapidly while their expression turned grim. They were dreading what would happen once their superiors found out about the damages. ¡°Very well,¡± Laura seethed. ¡°If it¡¯s war you want, then war you¡¯ll have.¡± ¡°Rx, now. I wouldn¡¯t do something so boorish as to dere hostilities like this. Keep watching.¡± The screen panned back to the ship¡¯s direction again. Contrary to their expectation, what they saw wasn¡¯t a wreckage or a crippled vessel. The ship was fully operational, elerating away at full burn with no issues. Instead, an asteroid in the background now had a giant hole in it. The edges of the hole were still burning hot with molten g. Seeing this, Laura sent a discreet message through their encrypted channel to her men. *Hail that vessel immediately and verify the footage.* While a few people at her table visibly brought their attention elsewhere, most of them still watched the screen carefully. They saw their ship growingrger as the camera drew closer to it. It made the message they would shortly receive from their ship¡¯s captain more chilling. It was a message that confirmed the authenticity of the attack, but it also noted it came out of nowhere. They also said they were burning as fast as they could, as they couldn¡¯t detect the threats. However, Laura could now clearly see how close the ship was to the camera. It was close enough to send a boarding party. It made her grimace as she watched their ship severely outmatched. It may not have been a warship, but it should¡¯ve still at least been able to detect a ship at such proximity and moving at such high speeds. She quickly sent out a warning to the captain, but as if the cameraman could read her mind, it began pulling away and refocused its lens on the captain and the young man from before. ¡°So, I heardpanies like yours are entirely reliant on these ships to do business. What do you think would happen if a few started missing from time to time? Or to be more precise, every day or so?¡± While Laura had the urge to scream out profanities at the young man, she barely managed to hold it in. If what he said manifested in reality, she wouldn¡¯t meet a good end within the first week. Herpany wouldy the me on her, and she wouldn¡¯t be able to resist. Laura was too disposable. Talent wasn¡¯t required if thepany only wanted to maintain the status quo. It made finding recements very easy. ¡°¡­What do you want? If you have such capabilities, I don¡¯t see how apany of our size could interest you.¡± Hearing her words, the young man beamed. It was a smile that Laura thought made him so punchable that she almost hit the screen. ¡°Why, cooperation, of course. We may have started off on the wrong foot, but I would like to try again, amiably this time. What do you say?¡± Right on cue, a file was sent to their systems. Laura nodded to the technician off to the side, permitting them to pull it up. It only took a split second for all the business-savvy individuals in the room to see it was a proposal n. It included nonaggression agreements and long-term business deals. ¡°This¡­ we¡¯ll have to get back to you in a few days,¡± Laura muttered. ¡°I can¡¯t make all these decisions alone. I need to consult my superiors.¡± ¡°Two days. It¡¯s all you¡¯ll have. We¡¯ll stay in touch.¡± With that, the hijacked call finally ended as abruptly as it had happened. It was like a signal to open the floodgates in her meeting room as chatter erupted all at once. ¡°What was our intel department doing?! Those were obviously some type of highly charged energy weapons. These guys are backed by people we can¡¯t afford to cross!¡± ¡°More like that young gentleman is an offspring from somerge corporation. Who had so few brain cells that they decided to antagonize a powerful scion of some bigpany?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no point in finding me now! We have to quickly mend our rtionship at once! Someone go find a befitting gift.¡± Amongst all this chaos, only Laura stood there silently. She allowed her men to let out everything they had been holding in, but even after half an hour, there was no end in sight. ¡°Enough!¡± she finally yelled as she mmed her hand on the table. ¡°We have to consult with the higher-ups first. Just be prepared to carry out all those little favor-currying schemes you were spewing.¡± The meeting was then adjourned, as they all rushed to make arrangements. Some nned to jump ship from Astro Forge, while others plotted how to benefit themselves with the uing dynamics. They were so hyper-focused on the next step that none took a closer look at what had happened anymore. Not to the brute force hacking, nor the size of the enemy fleet. They all believed their decision-makers would ept the proposal. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone! Chapter 218: Show of Force Chapter 218: Show of Force Laura Uzbeck - Astro Forge ¡°What do you mean, you guys are dyed? It¡¯s your job to smooth things over with your station¡¯s harbormaster. How can you let it deteriorate to the point where it can cause a dy?¡± Laura admonished the man on the other end of the call. ¡°Ma¡¯am¡­that¡¯s not easy to do with the amount of funds we¡¯re¡ª¡± ¡°If it was easy to do, then we wouldn¡¯t be paying you so well. Just get it done, noining.¡± ¡°Yes, of course, ma¡¯am.¡± Seeing her menply, Laura turned off the call. She massaged her eyes as she contemted how to report to her superiors. While she was in charge of the Aegis branch of herpany, she still had to regrly check in with her boss. As if the person heavily weighing on her could read her mind, she received a call from them at this exact moment. The ringtone red out in a high-pitched horn, distinguishing it from any other caller. ¡°Yes, Mr. Bulrich, how may I be of service?¡± ¡°Laura, don¡¯t y me for a fool. When do you n on reporting to me about this recent attack on your office?¡±¡°Sir, I was just about to¡ª¡± ¡°Just about to do it? Well, you would¡¯ve still been ten minutes toote. The Axion family head himself questioned me about the situation. I could only assure him we had it under control, so it better be!¡± ¡°Of course. The attack is already over, and all our vital assets are ounted for.¡± ¡°Good. And you better keep me updated as you find the perpetrators!¡± With the call cut off, Laura shook her head as she breathed deeply to rx. She then made various calls out to different departments, urging them to hurry up with their investigations. Whether her efforts made a difference, she never knew, but she did get a report the next day. All clues pointed at a neer to Aegis that neither she nor her intel department had ever heard of. This resulted in a few extra days of investigation to get to the bottom of things. What? It¡¯s one of those annoying calls fromst week? Laura thought to herself. She barely remembered the conversation she had with this new CEO, but it was toote for her to regret it. She would¡¯ve never guessed some upstart had the galls to attack herpany in the first ce. After her investigators had put together a detailed profile of their assants, she finally called a branch meeting. Half a dozen people swiftly assembled in the meeting room, each respectfully bowing to Laura before taking their seats. ¡°Gentlemen, thank you foring so promptly. Today, we must decide on a course of action in response to the attack we suffered the other day.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± a stout man mmed his fist on the desk in agreement. ¡°Theypletely trashed my security room. Half our budget for the quarter is gone, just like that.¡± He then nced over at Laura with puppy eyes before continuing. ¡°Branch director, speaking of budget, do you think¡ª¡± ¡°You¡¯re dreaming if you think we have any funds for your department after your failures. Neither I nor anyone from the Axion family would approve of such a ludicrous idea.¡± At Laura¡¯s words, everyone in the room looked away. Their looks all said, ¡°Of course you wouldn¡¯t. You and the owners are always too cheap to approve any additional funding.¡± With no one saying a word for some time, Laura cleared her throat to get them back on track. ¡°Ahem, let us proceed. I want retaliation ns against this Halls Corporation that dares attack us.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± an older woman cut in. ¡°Should we not wait until we¡¯ve finished the thorough background check? The preliminary report only includes their brief history and immediate allies. We haven¡¯t even found out why they wanted to rescue this Perry person yet. I doubt they would be involved in some petty theft ring.¡± ¡°All we need to know is that they have malicious intentions against us. We can find out the detailster.¡± ¡°But, ma¡¯am, to start a war against another corporate so lightly isn¡¯t¡ª¡° ¡°There¡¯s no need for war. We¡¯ll crush them swiftly with surgical strikes,¡± Laura dered while eyeing the security officers. They took a moment to stare at each other before they each raced to share their n. They had all read the reports that the opposing force was just some newly promoted D-ss corporation. It was a perfect opportunity for them to earn some merits. As each one stated their n, the projector in the room listed them out on the screen. Laura just silently listened as they continued when the screen suddenly glitched out. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Fix this immediately!¡± Laura yelled. The technicians on the side instantly hopped onto their terminals to investigate the issue. They work furiously for a few minutes, to the growing ire of their bosses. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Just as they could feel Laura about to erupt in rage, the screen finally turned back on. However, what appeared on it wasn¡¯t the ns from their meeting, but a background image depicting outer space. ¡°Boot up the program already and get us off this home screen!¡± Someone quickly answered, but it wasn¡¯t from anyone in the room. Instead, it came from the speakers of the projector. A few sharp-minded individuals instantly realized then the screen wasn¡¯t showing some background image, but video footage of the cosmic expanse. ¡°Good morning there, people of Astro Forge. I hope everything¡¯s been going well for you people.¡± ¡°What are you guys doing? How did you let our systems getpromised? Hurry and cut the line!¡± ¡°Now, now,dies and gentlemen, no need to act so hasty. I have something to show you guys.¡± The screen, which depicted the background of space, quickly changed. It zoomed out and panned to the interior of a ship. It was a spacious and luxuriously decorated bridge, with authentic wood used to decorate the cabin without restraint. The camera showed the bridge crew and only stopped when it centered on the captain¡¯s chair, which was in an elevated positionpared to all the other seats. There was also another chair right next to the captain¡¯s that appeared out of ce, as if it had been hastily added there. An old man with a grey mustache sat in the main seat while a young man with dark hair sat in the adjacent chair. They smiled, and the young man tipped his head at them. ¡°Behold, a prosperous port that I¡¯m sure yourpany prides itself on.¡± The camera did a quick one-eighty, showing a familiar port on the screen. One Laura had visited regrly and often appeared in her reports. It was the port that dealt with most of thepany¡¯s logistics within the region. ¡°What are you implying by showing me this?¡± Laura barely managed to force out those words between her gritted teeth. ¡°Are you trying to threaten us?¡± It was only now that everyone in Astro Forge¡¯s meeting room realized who this culprit who had hijacked their meeting was. ¡°You tell me. I don¡¯t make a habit of telling others how they should interpret things, even if they are from an ipetent organization.¡± ¡°You little¡ª-¡° Laura stopped her words as the screen panned to arge cannon attached to the ship. It was pointed directly at arge cargo ship with the mark of Astro Forge on it. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare! Aegis port authorities won¡¯t forgive you if you do something so stupid.¡± As if to maliciously defy Laura, the young man simply gave out amand without a care in the world. ¡°Fire.¡± Instantly, the screen turned white as the cannon spewed out a powerful beam. It caused Laura and everyone in her room to gasp. Their hearts started beating rapidly while their expression turned grim. They were dreading what would happen once their superiors found out about the damages. ¡°Very well,¡± Laura seethed. ¡°If it¡¯s war you want, then war you¡¯ll have.¡± ¡°Rx, now. I wouldn¡¯t do something so boorish as to dere hostilities like this. Keep watching.¡± The screen panned back to the ship¡¯s direction again. Contrary to their expectation, what they saw wasn¡¯t a wreckage or a crippled vessel. The ship was fully operational, elerating away at full burn with no issues. Instead, an asteroid in the background now had a giant hole in it. The edges of the hole were still burning hot with molten g. Seeing this, Laura sent a discreet message through their encrypted channel to her men. *Hail that vessel immediately and verify the footage.* While a few people at her table visibly brought their attention elsewhere, most of them still watched the screen carefully. They saw their ship growingrger as the camera drew closer to it. It made the message they would shortly receive from their ship¡¯s captain more chilling. It was a message that confirmed the authenticity of the attack, but it also noted it came out of nowhere. They also said they were burning as fast as they could, as they couldn¡¯t detect the threats. However, Laura could now clearly see how close the ship was to the camera. It was close enough to send a boarding party. It made her grimace as she watched their ship severely outmatched. It may not have been a warship, but it should¡¯ve still at least been able to detect a ship at such proximity and moving at such high speeds. She quickly sent out a warning to the captain, but as if the cameraman could read her mind, it began pulling away and refocused its lens on the captain and the young man from before. ¡°So, I heardpanies like yours are entirely reliant on these ships to do business. What do you think would happen if a few started missing from time to time? Or to be more precise, every day or so?¡± While Laura had the urge to scream out profanities at the young man, she barely managed to hold it in. If what he said manifested in reality, she wouldn¡¯t meet a good end within the first week. Herpany wouldy the me on her, and she wouldn¡¯t be able to resist. Laura was too disposable. Talent wasn¡¯t required if thepany only wanted to maintain the status quo. It made finding recements very easy. ¡°¡­What do you want? If you have such capabilities, I don¡¯t see how apany of our size could interest you.¡± Hearing her words, the young man beamed. It was a smile that Laura thought made him so punchable that she almost hit the screen. ¡°Why, cooperation, of course. We may have started off on the wrong foot, but I would like to try again, amiably this time. What do you say?¡± Right on cue, a file was sent to their systems. Laura nodded to the technician off to the side, permitting them to pull it up. It only took a split second for all the business-savvy individuals in the room to see it was a proposal n. It included nonaggression agreements and long-term business deals. ¡°This¡­ we¡¯ll have to get back to you in a few days,¡± Laura muttered. ¡°I can¡¯t make all these decisions alone. I need to consult my superiors.¡± ¡°Two days. It¡¯s all you¡¯ll have. We¡¯ll stay in touch.¡± With that, the hijacked call finally ended as abruptly as it had happened. It was like a signal to open the floodgates in her meeting room as chatter erupted all at once. ¡°What was our intel department doing?! Those were obviously some type of highly charged energy weapons. These guys are backed by people we can¡¯t afford to cross!¡± ¡°More like that young gentleman is an offspring from somerge corporation. Who had so few brain cells that they decided to antagonize a powerful scion of some bigpany?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no point in finding me now! We have to quickly mend our rtionship at once! Someone go find a befitting gift.¡± Amongst all this chaos, only Laura stood there silently. She allowed her men to let out everything they had been holding in, but even after half an hour, there was no end in sight. ¡°Enough!¡± she finally yelled as she mmed her hand on the table. ¡°We have to consult with the higher-ups first. Just be prepared to carry out all those little favor-currying schemes you were spewing.¡± The meeting was then adjourned, as they all rushed to make arrangements. Some nned to jump ship from Astro Forge, while others plotted how to benefit themselves with the uing dynamics. They were so hyper-focused on the next step that none took a closer look at what had happened anymore. Not to the brute force hacking, nor the size of the enemy fleet. They all believed their decision-makers would ept the proposal. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!