“Rollo, I’ve seen the latest promotion video you put out with Qilin Corporation. I’m sure members of our alliance would be happy to procure some of your latest 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 rectangular devices and placed them on the table. There were labels on the subject of knowledge contained within each one, ranging from shooting skills to knowledge of electromagnetism.
I wanted to find more comprehensive 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 available. The shooting skill was a more niche one that was popular among corpos for their social sporting events like the trap shooting I had participated in.
I pocketed 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 flashed 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 the company. The data we decrypted from the database we copied during our infiltration had plenty of information on how QuickLinks ran its logistics network. We were still in the middle of analyzing how they ran their ship and were picking out the parts we would emulate.
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 Claire, 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 of last month mindlessly exterminating mutants in the wasteland.
The first week I came here, I went over the new production facility with the Argus implant while refining the new logistics network to replace QuickLinks Logistics.
We had to hire a new round of employees to handle the manufacturing of our new implant. 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 wasteland to keep up with the resources we would need and form new trade deals with the companies in space that sold us the processor units and other delicate electronics. That wasn’t particularly easy either, especially as a G-Class corporation.
G-Classes were known to easily go under as ambitious companies succumbed to the pressure of the million credits fee per year. While our company 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-Class at any time, but we were being prudent.
I had taken a break from the wasteland today to review the progress my company had made. As I sat in the NLA office, I downloaded the latest report and had it displayed on the terminal before me.
The sales of our Argus had ramped up quickly in the first week of launch, 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 particular, had begun expanding our main office building. We already had dorms built in the plot of land there, but the five-story building no longer fit us. It was planned 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 building large castles with confusing layouts. It bolstered their defenses by confusing their enemy and tired them out from covering more ground.
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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 similar 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 logistic network was doing after we had implemented the new measures.
While QuickLinks Logistics didn’t have our wasteland connections to help us safely navigate through the various wastelander clan territories, that only accounted for human threats. They had a mature system for dealing with mutant threats, to logistical timetables that were designed with 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 planning, and added them to our transport vehicles. We formed our own routes, though, since wastelanders 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 success of multiple areas of our business, our income had skyrocketed to the point where we could safely upgrade from G-Class to E-Class directly. E-Class had an annual fee of 10 million credits, and according to Joey, it would give us influence over the judicial and police force that the consortium controlled.
Still, we waited for the completion 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 wasteland, as the technological aid that each level provided had become increasingly important.
I relaxed in my seat and turned around from my desk to look out the window. Change was coming 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:
* Stealth +7
* Hacking +5
* Cybernetic Engineering +10
* Stealth Technology +10
* Software Engineering +8
* Electrical Engineering +10
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
Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5
Sensory: Halls Corp Argus Elite Custom
Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST
Miscellaneous: 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 too complicated for me to decipher. I was surprised an E-Class corporation like QuickLinks even had access 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-Class 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 plastered 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 before you can work on the machines.”
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 the latest 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 glance 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.’