Corpo Age

Chapter 212: Eccentric Training

The next morning, I gathered our team to discuss our upcoming plans. We pretty much had everyone who was up in Aegis at the meeting, minus the security guards outside. As usual, Claire was alarmed when she heard my plan.

“Not this shit again! We haven’t even set up a proper office and you want to go fight with some corporation who’s been here for who knows how many years?”

“I get it. It does sound like a dumb idea. However, you have to consider our capability in the equation as well. Our current selves should be able to easily match a C-Class corporation. If we pull this off, we’ll earn prestige and deter all the companies up here and at the same time, gain access to a material supplier. All other business negotiations would go smoother as a result, too.”

“There’s a lot of ifs in the equation here, Rollo. Once fighting starts, it’s hard to say if you can just negotiate with them after bloodying their nose. You should know that. Things can get out of control.”

“You’re right. I’m not saying we should go storm their office at this moment. We’ll take proper caution and observe the other parties. Our Intel department can do a lot more with their upgrades. We can even investigate their leaders’ personalities and tendencies first.”

“What do you think about this reckless plan, Thorne?”

Having the ball passed to him all of a sudden, Thorne simply alternated looks between us and shrugged.

“Both sides have their points. Deterrence is good, but there’ll be some risk involved. Bidding our time is also good, but it’ll be slower.”

“Much slower,” I added. “In case you haven’t noticed in yesterday’s meetings, the only reason we’re even making any progress was because of the connections we made through Joey or the few we made during our party. We’ll need to negotiate deals with many more companies to be integrated into the community here, and this will accelerate that.”

“It’s because we want to integrate with them that we don’t want to come off as barbarians that resort to violence the first chance we get!” Claire retorted.

“I know, I know. That’s why we went through proper diplomatic channels first.”

We went back and forth all morning until our office personnel had to leave us to complete their other work. It was soon just the three of us left in the meeting room.

I double-checked that no employees were nearby before activating a remote jammer. It didn’t create a soundproof field in the fancy way I saw with powerful corpos, but it did its job of preventing any unwanted electronic devices near us from eavesdropping.

“There is another reason we should proceed with this plan,” I stated.

My actions and words caught both of my close friend’s attention. They weren’t particularly surprised, as I guess this wasn’t the first time I pulled off stunts like this. Their looks very clearly urged me to continue, so I did.

“This will be a good PR stunt with the dockworkers.”

“Why would we need to look good to the dockworkers?” Thorne wondered out loud. ”...Oh, are you planning to leverage that for your manual labor series of cybernetics?”

“No, just that bit of sales isn’t worth it. I’m talking about our HR issue with hiring enough bodies to fill our new positions. We’ll need a lot if we want to expand quickly. The faster we became self-sufficient with the basic materials we need for our pipelines, the better.”

“Hmm, I guess it is a way to poach workers without having to spend a lot,” Claire commented.

“Money can do a lot of things, but not everything. Especially for these dockworkers who lack ambition. I believe they’d rather have a stable income than risk their livelihood with a new company like ours. From what I saw yesterday, most people up here fully realize how much control corporations have over their lives. Living under a powerful and established company means stability, which is quite the incentive for them.”

“Really? You think stability trumps money as an incentive?”

“It may convince some of them, but we’d have to keep their salary high. Signing bonuses wouldn’t be enough. Otherwise, they could jump ship at the slightest speed bumps our company hits.”

“Yeah, yeah. Loyalty and whatnot. I understand that. I just don’t know if it’s worth the risk we’ll be taking.”

At her troubled expression, I exchanged glances with Thorne and nodded.

“You’ve been stuck dealing with the office matters too long. You haven’t seen all the new stuff our security forces now have. I assure you, we can easily handle this Astro Forge, at the very least. Isn’t that right, Thorne?”

“Yes, from what I can tell, we should be able to hold our own if we ever have to go up against B-Class corporations if not A-Classes. Nova Tech won’t easily get the better of us anymore.”

Claire looked up at us before she put on a thoughtful look.

“Come on, Claire. You should know why I’m so confident. I believe the level of tech we have can easily rival the baseline S-Class corporations in the areas we excel at, not to talk about A-Classes. We may not be as well-rounded as them, but we’re leaps ahead of most midsize companies.”

Having shared some details about my system with the two, they should know I wasn’t lying. Ten upgrade points in a skill put me on a level at par with the typical tech top corporations employed. That means S, SS, and SSS class corporations. The distinction between these three classes was blurred, but they were undoubtedly far ahead of A-Class corporations.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It was one of the major reasons why I was able to run circles around Nova Tech. In the areas I excelled at, they were just that outmatched.

“Go do your research first and see what Lucy finds. You may be in charge, Rollo, but I don’t want you to get reckless. The unique advantages you have only become stronger as time passes, rushing will be your downfall.”

“Yeah, under regular circumstances, but you know what’s going on with our guardian angel. Our protection period is on a time limit. We’ll have to grow large enough to stand on our own two feet as fast as we can.”

She said nothing and simply nodded before getting up to leave the room. I understood where she was coming from, and I agreed that my plan was, once again, reckless. However, what we stood to gain made it all worth it.

As they say, fortune favors the bold.

---

Andrew - Halls Corporation

“You seriously want me to do spy stuff?” Andrew hesitantly asked as he faced the leader of the intel department through the screen.

“You’ll be fine. Certainly better than our recruits if anything goes wrong. You’re one of the most experienced personnel at navigating in zero-g environment we have.”

“Yeah, but I’m also one of the most inexperienced when it comes to spying. I’m more of a combat person.”

“Nothing our latest cassette can’t solve. You’ll receive it in the next few hours. Be sure to destroy it after you’re done.”

Andrew frowned, having lost the war of words. He glanced over at Peng, who was staring blankly out the window of their room, which looked over the streets of Aegis.

“No need to be nervous, Andrew. You’ve done enough infiltration missions that’ll make intel gathering seem like a piece of cake. Compared to those, you won’t have to sneak into high-security zones. You simply have to socialize with the right people, then maybe follow them if they seem useful.”

“I understand. There’s no need to convince me anymore. Orders are orders.”

“I didn’t mean to force you. It’s just that we don’t really have the manpower up there right now. It’s my fault for forgetting how much of a trouble magnet our CEO is.”

That got a small chuckle out of Andrew.

“I’ll contact you once I’ve done my training. We’ll stay in touch.”

Once the call ended, Andrew plopped himself down on the bed. I brought a hand over his eyes and started massaging his temples.

How did I end up here? If you told me a few years ago that I’d be working in space as some sort of elite corpo spy, I would’ve called you crazy. Back then, I was still trying to act like the ideal minion for the gang to prove our ability.

As he reminisced about his recent experiences, the only other person in the room finally spoke out.

“Is Andrew okay? Peng is worried.”

“...I’m fine, Peng. It’s just I’ll have to go do a job in a few days. Will you be fine yourself?”

“Yes, Peng will be fine. There are other people who will look after Peng here.”

A slight smile escaped Andrew as he sat up straight. He knew he found a good place for him and his childhood friend to stay. He resolved himself to put in the work in order to keep their place.

Opening up his messages, he found the new orders he received from the intel department. It included best practices when using the cassette.

For physical skills, it is recommended to employ the hypnopedia function concurrently with virtual reality. Based on your prescribed regiment, it is recommended you play Legend of the Mythic War as a rogue class…

Is this for real?

This was Andrew’s first time experiencing the magical cassettes his company had widely adopted in recent months. He was part of the Halls Corporation’s elite team and an experienced operative. There was no need for him to undergo the basic combat training the cassettes provided. He knew how his company fought.

That didn’t mean he was completely foreign to the cassettes, though. He had witnessed numerous recruits doing the same training, but it was always in a controlled facility. Now that his instructions told him to play video games while he was supposedly training, he couldn’t help but be hesitant.

He continued reading the instructions and found that he had received permission to requisition funds from the company to purchase the materials he needed for his training. That meant buying a VR setup and the accompanying supplies.

“Peng, I’m going on an errand. Do you want to come along or stay here?”

“Will Andrew bring Peng to see space?” the large man said with undisguised excitement. “Peng has been waiting to see space again. It is so pretty.”

“No—well, I can get you something better than the real thing. Let’s go. It’s good for you to move around more. You need to master those new cybernetics sooner rather than later.”

“Hmm, Peng will do his best.”

The duo did a quick check-in on their bosses and found that their presence wasn’t required. Their CEO, Rollo, had shut himself in, working in his workshop. Their COO, Claire, was busy with all the office workers on bureaucratic stuff. Meanwhile, their direct superior, Thorne, was simply in the training range they had just finished setting up.

With Aegis’ sparse traffic, the two had no issue at all on their journey to the nearest mall. As Andrew had promised, he allowed Peng to experience the wonders of space by allowing him to try out the VRs on display while he spoke with the salespeople.

The purchase went through within a few minutes, and he was able to carry out a large box that contained everything he needed to assemble the capsule back on base. With Peng around, they didn’t break a sweat, carrying it back.

It took until nighttime for them to finish assembling the new machine, and by then, a package had been delivered to Andrew. It contained the all-important cassette that their company valued. It came in a heavy-duty lock box that required to be plugged into their main systems to decode. Otherwise, the contents would be destroyed.

After a tiring long day, Andrew finally finished everything he needed to do. He was ready for his first session of his training. The labels on the cassette informed him it would last two to three days, so with one last check on the equipment, he dove into the virtual world.

He quickly found himself in a dark space, but that only lasted a brief moment. That was because a screen popped up in the middle of his vision, displaying a welcome message. It then prompted him to create a character, which he selected default on everything except the class that he was instructed to pick.

Once that was done, he felt himself being yanked forward and his surroundings abruptly changed. He could suddenly hear the chirping of birds and the gentle gust of wind that blew through the forest he found himself in.

However, the scene wasn’t that of tranquility. That was because there were shouting and yelling all around him. It only took him a second to realize that those were the other players from the names hovering above their heads. They were all doing senseless things such as wrestling with a feral wolf that was trying to bite their throat, dancing naked, or simply fighting against each other.

For Andrew, who had grown up in the rougher parts of Elevate City, he couldn’t make any sense of what the other players were doing. The eccentric behaviors of gamers left him staring.

What the hell? Does this game make you crazy or something? Or is this the cassette making me hallucinate?

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