NOVEL WEB 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.
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Status |
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Level: |
16 |
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EXP: |
20/1600 |
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Musculoskeletal: |
211 |
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Neural Reflex: |
65 |
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Visuomotor Coordination: |
87 |
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Endurance: |
59 |
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Sensory Perception: |
127 |
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Upgrade Points: |
3 |
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Upgrades: |
|
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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 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.
“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 entrée, 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—”
“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—”
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.