A man behind a mahogany desk sat across from Bradley and James, “So you think you’re some kind of gun-maker now? James had a glowing attitude towards your weapon, but I’d like to say ahead of time that he’s unreliable. That’s why he was shipped off to the military.” The man looked at the gun, emptied the clip, and analyzed the bullets, “Why the hell would you make ivory bullets? Is this some kind of joke?”
Bradley sighed, “It seems you are out of the loop on anti-monster weaponry. No wonder your stocks have dropped by 22%.” The man tried to grab Bradley by the collar to pick him up, but he was unable to, “Sir, please let me go. I’m trying to do business here for my own convenience and because James said great things about your company. I could just create a sub-branch handling civilian arms selling, but I’m already so busy.”
Bradley pulled the man’s hand off his collar, “Let’s go to the shooting range. We can do a product demonstration, and if you still don’t like our product we can go our separate ways.” James’ father called for his assistant to lead them to the range, “I’ll grab a weapon to compare with. You follow Elizabeth and I’ll follow behind.”
Bradley and James left, and James’ father looked at his right hand. It was bruised, and he could barely move it, “What the hell have I gotten mixed up in? A little brat that doesn’t know his place.” He grabbed a weapon from a case under his desk, a prototype weapon he purchased from the military, “Let’s see if he can compete with this.”
Bradley handed James a pistol, “I want you to be the one to beat your dad in this contest.” James seemed a bit shocked, “I could never go against him. He’d-” Bradley interrupted, “He’d do shit. You’re my subordinate. I’m not gonna let someone talk about stuff they don’t know. You worked your ass off last night to make this possible.” James sighed, “Fine, I’ll do it. I’m a decent shot.”
James prepped his weapon, but a question lingered on his mind, “What are we going to shoot against?” James’ father burst in the door, with a devious grin on his face, “We’ll be shooting this.” He was dragging behind him a goblin corpse. “Unless you don’t think you could damage it?”
Bradley whispered to James, “Does he not know I’m from USDC? We’re the only supplier of anti-monster weaponry.” James began to laugh, “I totally forget, too late to tell him now. From his perspective you’re just a friend of mine that’s talking big since you’re a returnee.” Bradley glanced at the weapon James’ dad was carrying, “Ohh, a Glock-19 with magic rounds? That’s a good pick.” The man grew flustered, “What the hell do you know about this military grade weaponry? Just shut up and fire.”
The man let loose several rounds into the body, and the bullets hit and bounced off, leaving small holes in the goblin corpse, “Look at that, a weapon capable of hurting a goblin corpse. Beat that, punk.” James cocked back his pistol and fired a single shot, blowing a wide hole through the goblin’s skull. “Dad, how much did you pay for that ammo from the military? You might’ve been ripped off.”
“What the hell. I paid 8 million for a crate of a hundred thousand.” Bradley confronted the man, “Which branch sold you that product?” James’ dad didn’t back down, “Why the hell would I tell some brat?”
Bradley sighed, “James, you are a bit unreliable I guess. I’m the captain of Squad 0 for USDC as well as the main developer for anti-monster weaponry. Names Bradley Terrey. They must’ve discarded the magic bullets after I sold them the bone bullets. Now what branch of the military sold you that?”
James’ father facepalmed, “Damnit James, you gotta tell me who you’re bringing here. I treated a very important guest like I would a friend of yours. I bought it rom General ~~~~~~ from the Army.”
Bradley began laughing, “That bastard. His subordinate shot me through the chest and now he’s discarding goods at twice the price. We will develop weapons and ammunition at a low cost, and have you sell them to the public. We will sell you the upgraded weapons at 1.25x the production cost of the regular versions, and we dictate the sale price. You will profit, but this is for the sake of proliferating arms to the public that can fight against monsters.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
James’ father agreed, “Send over some documents and we’ll get it sorted. I appreciate your support and once again I’d like to apologize for how I initially acted.” Bradley waved him off, “I’m used to it, just make sure to keep your deal and I’ll treat you well as a business partner. Also can you get me the receipt for your magic ammo order. I should probably have some evidence before I go raise hell.” Bradley grinned, and James’ father grabbed it for him.
A gruff military man sat behind a desk counting money, “Who would’ve thought it would be so easy to make profit like this. I guess civilian businesses are desperate now too.” The man began to laugh, coughing on his cigar smoke. Suddenly a phone call rang, “Ohh damn, it’s that brat. Play it cool.” He answered the phone, “Hey, how’s my ammo making machine? Thanks to you we’ve pushed back monsters in several zones.”
Bradley began laughing, “That’s cute. You’re acting innocent. Let me inside, we need to talk.” Bradley hung up the phone and the gruff man became meek, and informed the person at the gate to let Bradley in.
Bradley kicked the door open as he entered and slapped the receipt down on the man’s desk, “So you think it’s cute to sell my outdated products to civilians at a markup after pressuring me not to sell to civilians? This is just one ammo and weapon seller. I’m gonna guess you’ve sold more seeing as how you look like you’re about to piss your pants.”
The man slammed his hand on his desk, “You can’t treat me like this, I’m a General. I deserve respect dammit.” Bradley snickered, “You’re a General for now, but what happens when I inform your higher ups that you lost the contract due to your greed.”
The man leaned forward, “What the hell do you want from me, I already got screamed at for having to meet your demands last time.” Bradley smiled, “You have two options, let me sell lower grade items to civilians and maintain our current deal, or I will cancel our contract and then still sell those items.”
“That’s just asking me to choose between keeping our contract or not. How the hell is this fair?” Bradley smiled, “How is it fair that you’ve already profited off of selling to civilian corporations, by selling my goods at a markup. Deal with it. I’ll only be partnering with Neal Manufacturing for now. I’ll inform you if that changes, as your approval should be considered. It's just I know I have your approval since you’ve already made deals with them.”
Bradley left the room, and the General slammed his hand into his desk, “That fucker, how dare he toy with me.” The man sighed, “That kind of hurt my hand.”
Bradley returned back to USDC headquarters along with James. “Oh shit, James can you make me some arrows? I forgot about Ben’s weapon since he never complains about it. I also need to make him something.” James smiled, “I’ll never turn down making a product. It’s too exhilarating.” Bradley sat down and began crafting. He took apart a DSR sniper rifle, maintaining the parts he needed, began building the correct bullet size, disassembling the ammunition, and slowly piecing together a new weapon. Bradley went as far to embed a crystal for Magic Cannon and one to absorb ambient mana using a spell ingot, giving the weapon a boost to magic damage and increasing mana regeneration.
Bradley admired the weapon, “Holy hell, this is beautiful.” James walked over, checking on what Bradley had made, “Hot damn, that is probably the sickest sniper I have ever seen. What will you call it?”
Bradley smirked, “What else could you call this? It’s gotta be White Death.” James laughed out loud, “That is the perfect name. That Finnish bastard would be honored I bet.” James dropped a pile of arrows on the table, “I made 100 in the time it took you to make that. You think that’s enough for now?”
Bradley got up and patted James on the back, “That’s perfect. It’s a little early for Christmas, but I think it’s time to shell out some presents.” James smiled, “Sounds fun, let’s get going.”
Bradley sent out a notification to Squad 0 to meet him for dinner, as well as informing Paul to bust out all the stops today at the cafeteria. James and Bradley sat down at a table in the back. The cafeteria was decently empty since a few restaurants had popped up around the area.
“Now we wait for em. James, have you had monster meat before?” James began to gag, “Wait, this place actually serves monster meat? What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Bradley laughed, “The meat regenerates mana, and I like the way it tastes. I’m sure you noticed you’re pretty low on mana after your rampage last night.”
James checked, “I guess you’re right. My skills use a mix of mana and stamina so it isn’t too bad.” Bradley smiled, “You keep surprising me on how useful you are.”