Walking through Heidelberg was a very pleasant experience overall.
Although I underestimated how popular watching rich children compete would be for the average individual, though it may have just exploded on UsTube, plus most comments were positive. There were obviously those who had their own witty comments about me - yet due to being a young cute girl with a bubbly exterior managed to make those people become outcasts.
It didn’t matter to the wider community if “the video was fake”, “they’re adopted” or “she’s just a rich girl” as at the end of the day… The video started off with an adorable (not an opinion as I am factually adorable) girl kicking the ass of a rich young master only for that young master to get his ass beaten by that girl's younger sister. In fact, the realisation that we aren't blood related, only made the entire video all the more ‘badass’ to the wider community.
Though many fools expressed surprise we weren’t sisters with how “similar we looked” which was obviously silly.
Your average household rightfully wouldn’t care much whether a girl was ‘pure-blooded’ descendent although we likely wouldn’t have exploded in popularity if we were ugly. Humans would always have their bias’ and it was hard to tell whether the bias of the rich families or the lower classes were worse. At the very least it became a great boon to me as it would be these ‘lower classes’ that would make the foundation in LHO. Rich people may invest some manpower after a market shift yet at launch it would be only those with free time to spare.
As such I, making sure to give everyone around me a bright smile, waved at them or made a cute pose whenever I saw them pointing their cameras toward me.
I made sure not to come across as condescending though; ensuring to thank anyone who showed any interest while spreading around that I would indeed be taking part in more tournaments. Didn’t just say it outright as I was playing cute. There were many ways to be subtle about it so as to not ruin my image.
There were even some nice aunties who gave me some strawberry bakewells with an uncle giving me a large weaved hat “so I don’t get heatstroke” which of course I paid for in full. Somehow I just felt “right” with a large hat upon the top of my head - maybe I should shop for one with my mother in the future? As a whole the locals were very welcoming.
Having a subsidiary heir from Porshi (specifically from the main family) ensured that their economy would gain a big boon which… Was indeed within the plan. Even if I had no exact plans for this city, not knowing I would become the ‘ruler’ of it until a week ago, I wouldn’t waste my daddy's faith in me nor would I do so for these people.
Grandpa seemed upset at first at all these random people approaching me, however, he eased up when someone did try to get a little too close. An aunt pretty much decked him with a straw bag. To me this just strengthened my belief that public opinion was one of the strongest weapons that could obtain then use for the best possible future. I can’t help thinking back to that warm looking entity who played around with all of those little baby spirits….
When we finally managed to actually reach the Furstin branch we were welcomed with a wide open spaced facility. The entire front being glass. Above there was a banner that displayed “Welcome To Your First Step; Amor-Cordis Porshi” with the paint seemingly still being fresh. So fresh that they seemingly forgot they needed to actually wait for the paint to dry.
Based on all the university-age students roaming around - we seem to still have a very strong connection with Heidelberg University. This was certainly a good thing. I may even be able to get some university degrees while I work on my sharpshooting as well as my sharpshooter.
That’s right; I intend to produce my own guns or at least have a large say in their designs.
On the ride over I had looked into a lot of possibilities after being inspired by that entity, if I can’t have more bullets while retaining power I would just have more guns, on top of that it will be great for experience. Inside of the world of LHO where I wished to spawn there were no firearms of any type. The closest things were apparently some magical flamethrowers the dwarves had managed to make with the rest just being cold-age tech that was enhanced by magic.
For that reason - there was a part of me that doubted my father in gifting me a revolver - why bestow me something that would provide no purpose? Even if I said I wasn’t worried about not having a useful class… Well it was a bit of a lie; you can’t be a gunslinger with no gun after all.
Yet there they were; with flintlock pistols all across their chest which made me wonder why they wouldn’t use a more modern design. The answer was fiendishly simple - they focused their weapons on power instead of a sustainable fire-rate.
They likely had so many in order to make up for that fact.
So I would like to do the same.
It would also improve my growth if my assumptions about my talent are correct.
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Useful as always.
Entering through the front allowed us to come into association with a decently well groomed middle-aged man who seemed to be approaching his twilight years. Splattered all around his thinning hair was patches of grey within an otherwise quite dark brown set of hair - a rather tubby tummy seemingly barely being kept in place by his buttons.
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Looking down at me, he brought his sweaty palms together, rubbing his hand together with a greasy smile upon his face. Quite obviously he recognised me as there was a gleam in his eyes. One that made those unflattering cheeks of his curl up even more.
“Allow me to welcome you to our little branch, miss Porshi!” His voice matched his appearance but I didn’t care so much about his appearance as long as he was doing his job well.
“I hope you don’t mind me taking over from now on.”
A little test to see how good he was at this game of politics; most won’t exactly be happy about a child gaining the power to order them about and only experts can hide that fact. “Haha no problem at all, miss Porshi, we are all exhilarated I assure you!”
Competent indeed.
“Then please guide me around for now and I hope you’ll take care of me in the future uncle.“ As a reward I gave him a bright smile - in return he gave a faint bow before heading forward after giving the handsome man at the desk a nod.
The man then seemingly pressed a button behind the desk - resulting in one of the doors on the left opening up which he promptly brought us through. “Due to dealing with a lot of potentially dangerous materials and knowledge we have to keep our security quite tight. Still, due to people don’t like to have men with big guns at the front doors, we mostly keep our security guys out of public view.”
Just as he said that; we walked by a man in full white armour with a large rifle firmly gripped in his fully protected hands. Making him look like something akin to a futuristic knight, blue lights faintly hummed from those eagle-like eye-lenses as well as from all of his joints. He wasn’t the only one around as many of these impressive people wandered around the smooth black corridors with heavy automated doors with scientists following behind while taking notes.
There were also several people with safety equipment & lab coats yet when one see’s something cool they will obviously focus on that.
“That’s fine - I don’t want those civilians around outside to be scared of us - though I am also very interested in how the silver-knight project is going?” I of course knew exactly who those beings were as it was one of the projects I was very interested in and had approved as soon as I came in charge.
Simply put… It was a private army of cybernetic knights that most definitely were morally questionable due to utilising some stem cells to produce a ‘brain’. In other words; we were playing god by making our own life complete with an instinctive hive mentality through the usage of our technological advancements. One may look at AI and ask “what is the point in the flesh” yet these are no mere artificial intelligence as they don’t just follow instructions but have the ability to ponder on how to do it.
Essentially we removed the weakness as well as danger involved with AI. That of them misunderstanding instructions with potentially dangerous results. Due to adding a smidgen of sentience which allowed for the self-reflection that only flesh could provide them.
Not to mention they were theoretically 100% loyal (as that’s what they were “born for”) while being far stronger and faster than a normal human could ever hope to be. Even with implants. Seeing those walking around in the armour made me raise a brow; had they already made preparations and were just waiting for the all clear?
As if to squander all my hopes - the head guilty rubbed the back of his head with his shoulders shrunken down with a goofy smile. “Well, about that, we are just out of the theoretical stage thanks to the money you invested in us. So we’re having some basic AI test out the functionality of the chassis. We haven’t found any kinks yet so when we’ve finished with this we’ll move onto the trials. It should only take a week at most to develop a functional flesh component if our simulations are correct. So just give us a bi-”
“There is no need to rush uncle; there are still years to go before we can be sure they would even be alright to release into the world as a whole. It is not as if the Porshi would collapse in just five years so just keep everything on track and I will have no problems.” So I exclaimed, getting a sigh of relief out of him as well as those who were wandering around. Indeed we wouldn’t collapse in 5 or ten years…
But we would collapse in under twenty if I failed.
The Silver Knight Project was my back up plan should I not get the popularity required to hire talented enough people to make a guild bigger than HERO was. In other words, if I couldn’t recruit, I may as well just create my own guildmates and have them be talented enough to rival even the greatest of human players that could come to challenge me.
Not to mention, I can just keep making more and more when the time comes, if all the predictions are correct I’ll even be able to have them utilise their AI competently to grow indefinitely. That information will then get forwarded onto every other suitable model - resulting in an endlessly growing army. It will be hard to predict whether they stand any chance to use magic, however, that is a matter I can worry about when I already have a foot in the game.
Already they should have more than enough of an advantage to become great warriors - as their reaction time will be as fast as physically possible. They will not have the weakness that come with flesh nor those that came with being made from metal. Truly the perfect artificial warriors. I’m already confident they should be allowed in, as there were a few examples of golems across all the game worlds, even if they ended up being different in some fashion.
Thus if Furstin manages to succeed here; I’ll truly have my own private army inside & outside the game that will be completely loyal to me as it will be in their very literal genetic & digital code.
My genius is truly frightening.