Despite all their efforts, Mark ended up getting a Hotel room in Hazelpond. After he found his place, they still had one day to rest. Hera had her psychiatrist appointment in the morning, but during the afternoon, she forced everyone to stop training and actually relax, even Helena. Now, Hera and her team were heading up towards the underground forest once more. They had agreed to keep doing the dungeon until they found the third boss. It wouldn't take that long, would it?
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"Thank you for coming today, Becca," Romeo said as they entered the elevator.
"It's kind of hard to say no to your boss," Becca smiled.
"Don't be like that. I'd rather we have a more personal relationship than a strictly professional one."
Becca raised one eyebrow, "Sir, what exactly do you mean by that?"
Romeo frowned, but his eye quickly went wide as he understood what she asked, "No, no, no, no. For the love of the system, no. I didn't mean that. I mean, you are b… I can't say that. I just hope you can see me as a friend. Someone you can talk about random stuff like shows and books or just complain about life. Well, maybe not complain about your boss, but still."
"I thought it was that, but I had to be sure. I'm over the days of overlooking small comments like that."
"That is a good way to deal with a crappy situation. Please let me know if ever there is anything I can do to help."
"I'm a big girl, Mr. Ballester. I can take care of myself. But I appreciate the offer."
"Don't worry, but please, call me Romeo. What I said still stands. I would very much like for us to be friends. That way, we can be more honest with each other."
"If you want honesty si… Romeo. Let me say this. I don't like what you are doing here."
Romeo looked at the panel by the door. They were still on the 14th floor. The conference room was on the 45th, there was still time, "Care to elaborate before we start?"
"I don't trust the New Dawn as far as I can throw it, and I mean the building. Countless businesses went bankrupt because of them. People had to accept crappy settlements, not to mention the amount of secret research they have. It's all too sketchy. Last month there was even the whole orange debacle. How can someone mix an experimental product from a lab with a product for sale? Not to mention they were too quick to take care of it. They even swept it under the rug in less than three days. It was almost like they were expecting it to happen. Trust me, I know how hard it is to make something not become news. Now, you want us to work with them and leave our entire infrastructure in their hands. To me, this all seems like a bad idea. The guild is supposed to be neutral, not just some company's bitch," Becca explained.
"I get that. I really do, but let's face it. We are too old fashioned. Our policies haven't been updated since the Devil Hunt. That was in 2634. It's been over three hundred and twenty years, and we are just stuck in time. I mean, have you seen the mess that is the rooms where we get the signals for the bracelets? It looks like one of those old telephone switchboards we see in black and white pictures."
"So we should upgrade ourselves, not just pay someone to do it. What if they make a backdoor or something?"
"We don't have the manpower to do something like that. If we want to upgrade before the next century, we need more people involved. Besides, even if they show thousands of reports, I'm still going to have our people check every single piece of equipment they send us. I asked you to come here exactly because of that. I need someone who can smell bullshit from a mile away before closing this deal," Romeo looked at the panel once more. They were already n the 38th floor.
"And I'm guessing I'm the one who has to make the public feel like this is a good thing?" Becca said.
"Only if it works. Before that, make some notes about what you think is suspicious. We can have some people following it up later."
The elevator door opened with a ding revealing the 45th floor. It had a sizeable reception desk and a couple of large waiting areas with complimentary coffee machines and pastries. The receptionist told them that Mr. Waaberi was running a bit late but would be available shortly and asked them to wait by the couch. Becca took a glass of water while Romeo got some coffee and started to eat the mini croissants on the table. Around 20 minutes later, a tall black man in a fitted grey suit appeared from the hallway. It was close to impossible to not recognize the CEO of the New Dawn group, Morgan Waaberi. By his side, a man was wearing a black suit with a white shirt, hair pulled back and covered in gel. He had a large burn mark on his neck and a small scar on the middle of his forehead. The two laughed like old friends while Morgan accompanied him to the elevator. Curious about the situation, Becca used her [Fury] to increase her hearing.
"Hey, thanks again for the present. My little boy is in love with the pup, and I'm pretty fond of it myself, not gonna lie," the man with a scar said.
"Don't worry. That's what business partners are for, and I'm glad we could put that unpleasant situation behind us. Now, if you'll excuse me, I do have another meeting, and I'm afraid they must be waiting for a while already," Morgan replied.
"Of course, of course. But hey, sorry again for last time, Mr. Waaberi."
"C'mon Romeo, that's water under the bridge. Let's not dwell in the past, and you know you can call me Morgan."
They gave their farewells, and Morgan walked over to Becca and Romeo.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Apologies for the delay. I was just finishing some business with a partner. Curiously enough, his name is also Romeo," Morgan put out his hand towards Romeo, "I'm Morgan Waaberi, CEO of the New Dawn group."
"Of course. It is a pleasure. I'm Romeo Ballester, chairman of the Explorer's Guild, and this is Becca Swan, chief of our PR department."
"It's a pleasure, Mr. Waaberi," Becca shook his hand after Romeo.
"PR? Should I be worried?" Morgan asked.
"Oh… Well.." Romeo scratched his neck.
Seeing the reaction, Morgan laughed, "Don't worry, Mr. Ballester. I'm well aware of how the New Dawn is perceived by the explorers. If I'm to guess, I would say that Ms. Swan is here to start preparing ways to improve our reputation among your members."
"That is correct, sir. Although we won't be doing an interview today, I hope you can answer some questions to help prepare the narrative," Becca replied.
"Of course. I would expect no less from the best reporter inside the MAZE. After the lift of the information ban, I watched some of your work, and I must say, you are an impressive journalist Ms. Swan. It's a shame I didn't discover your talents before the guild. However, I do hope you can keep the prices of what you are about to see a secret. "
Becca smiled, "Thank you, but you just gave us an example of why the explorers have a hard time trusting New Dawn. And don't worry, I signed the NDA. For now, any articles I write will require your approval."
"I appreciate that and hope that you give me an opportunity to change that bad impression. Now shall we head to the conference room?" Morgan turned around and walked towards the hallway.
"Mr. Waaberi, sir. Errm... If you don't mind me asking. Who was the man you were just talking to?" Romeo asked.
Becca elbowed him on the side of his body and whispered, "Don't ask about his business and stop stuttering. Show some confidence. You are the chairman of the guild!"
"I don't mind. His name is Romeo Capri, he works with security. We already signed everything, so now I can talk about it. He ordered some gear from us. Body armor, vehicles. Things to help them survive inside the MAZE."
"Weapons as well?" Becca asked.
"He wanted it, but the New Dawn has a strict no weapons research policy. I'm more than happy to create tools to help with one's survival but not something that can kill. Although technically, cars or anything can be used to kill. I try not to focus on that," Morgan replied.
They entered a large conference room where Morgan quickly started his presentation. First, he talked about the issues with the infrastructure inside the MAZE. Romeo had already explained what they were looking for, but Morgan expanded on that. He performed a survey among the explorers who worked for the New Dawn to see any complaints that missed the guild leadership. Aside from the limited internet connection with low speeds in places far away from cities, the explorers had many issues with transportation. It took a long time for them to traverse large rooms, and they had no reliable way to carry back the monsters they slew. There were also complaints about the guild's lack of better equipment, such as the visors that tracked buffs and other information. Lastly, most of the explorers working for the New Dawn and using the gear they provided agreed that the guild had several out of date facilities.
He followed it up by pulling specifications of the towers and other parts of the guild's infrastructure and compared them with the options he had to offer. Even the cheapest tower would have close to triple the range and speed of the towers currently being used by the guild. He proceeded to show other items he could offer. Communicators, visors, tablets that could fold, beacons that would trigger an SOS warning, modular vehicles, busses, and railway systems that could be placed virtually anywhere. Even the ATRs, which were a point of pride in the guild, looked like a phone from two years ago in comparison with the Mana Training System the New Dawn had developed. Becca had to admit that the guild looked like something from the middle ages after watching the presentation.
The next part was about the offers he was putting out. Romeo had already told her about the budget and how much they were looking to spend, so she wouldn't get shell-shocked by the values, but it was still astonishing. Not just that, the offers were better than she expected. Morgan showed four plans. The proposals were all dependent on the success of the initial project. The New Dawn would update the towers, starting with 10 rooms already chosen due to their various conditions as a test run and then scaling up if it worked. The proposals started with just basic communication tower upgrades, going up to a full overhaul of the guild's buildings and offering communicators and new tablets to every explorer. That would require some time, and it would be done in waves, but the projection was to take less than a year to distribute all the equipment.
To make Becca's job even harder, the prices were competitive. It didn't look like Morgan was just giving everything away. She had researched the cost of New Dawn's products, and everything seemed to be on par with what she knew about it. There was also an option to buy the production methods of all the items they offered, on the condition that none of those would be resold. After that, Morgan took them to another room and showed them all the products he would be offering. Both Romeo and Becca already had experiences with those kinds of products, but seeing the top of the line was still impressive.
"It's a shame we can't test the towers here," Becca said. That was the highest selling point, and they had yet to see them working.
Morgan smiled at the comment, "Have you been using the internet here?"
"I have."
"Look out of the window," Morgan pointed towards the horizon. Beyond the city, there was a massive tower that looked to be a single piece of dark blue metal that was taller than the mountains behind it. It was the same structure that appeared during the presentation, the New Dawn Communication Tower.
"How far is that one?" Romeo asked.
"It's about 30 kilometers from our position. It can still give a strong signal to about ten times that distance. Everything in its radius is using the tower to connect to the internet. However, this is just the prototype, and the scale is not something we can copy inside the MAZE. That tower is over 500 meters tall. The versions we will be installing for the guild are smaller and have less range," Morgan explained.
"How tall will the towers be? I don't believe we ever talked about that during our discussions," Romeo asked.
"They will vary according to the size of the room. We want to make them at least five meters tall to ensure optimal performance, but if we have access and permission to build in higher areas, that can be changed. According to our estimates, each half a meter we add can increase the range by 10 kilometers. Of course, it also increases the amount of space needed for a stable base."
"Do you mind if I ask the million, or in this case possibly trillion gold question?" Becca turned to Morgan.
"Of course not. Please, ask away."
"What's in it for you?"
Morgan raised one of his eyebrows and opened a big smile as he chuckled, "You answered your own question. This deal has the potential to make my company trillions. Explorers might have other ways to make money, but for people like me, business is how we make money. I also have a great deal of respect for the explorers and hope to change how they see my company. I believe that if we work together, the brave people inside the MAZE might be safer, even if just by a little," Morgan said.
"I see…" Becca still wasn't convinced. Her gut was telling her that she was missing something. Some part of the bigger picture that she wasn't able to notice.
"Now, would you join me on a tour of our factory? That's the place where some of the core components of the tower and the other tech you saw here are made," Morgan said as he led them to the elevator.