Corpo Age Chapter 158: Warning

I stared at the man before blankly at his introduction. He said he was the majority stakeholder of AeroDynamic, which practically ant he was the owner and the person in charge of it.

I was completely caught off guard.

Coming into this eting, I was expecting to talk with Jewel, their representative who attended the social event with two days ago, not their leader.

Why in the world would the owner of an A-Class corporation want to speak with ?

In just an instant, nurous possibilities flashed through my mind. Thankfully, I quickly reoriented my mindset, as I knew to prioritize the eting before first.

“...Nice to et you, Mr. Adiar. I am Rollo Halls. Will Jewel be joining us today as well?”

“Oh, please call Titus. It is currently my vacation, after all. And no, Rollo, Jewel will not be joining us.” Titus directed a aningful look at .

“Then…May I ask why you wanted to see ? I’m flattered, but I’m not sure if I can live up to your expectations.”

Titus smiled and shook his head.

“Enough with the pleasantries. Let’s have a straightforward conversation. What we’re going to talk about stays between us. I took the trouble of arranging this eting because of a certain personage.”

“A certain personage?”

Imdiately, one man ca to mind. The man who had saved a while ago when I fell for a trap that led out into the wasteland. I was blinded by the quick payout, thinking I had beco invincible sohow, and almost paid the ultimate price for it.

This mysterious savior of mine had always been at the back of my mind. That was because I knew he was soone much more powerful than , and there was no point in fretting over it when I couldn’t do anything about it. Not unless I gave up the idea of starting a business and went to the ground, which wasn’t a lifestyle I looked forward to in this world that beat you while you were down.

However, the revelation of the secret benefactor being able to even move power players from an A-Class corporation only made it more surreal. As far as I knew, I hadn’t done anything back then to have drawn their attention.

Nowadays, an argunt could be made for Lanus, my AI, drawing the heat to , but it had only been completed recently. I hadn’t even thought to create an AI back when he saved .

The more I learned about this enigmatic figure, the less I understood his intentions.

“That’s correct. Let’s just say soone has been watching over you, looking out for your best interests, of course. Unfortunately, they are currently busy with sothing far away, and their hands have been tied. They wanted to pass a ssage to you, ‘Stay low, and survive until I co back.’”

My facade couldn’t help but crumble as I took on a frown.

“Are there any other details you can give ?”

Titus ruefully smiled as he sat back and shook his head.

“...If there really is danger approaching , then couldn’t the personage’s allies, such as yourself, help while he’s gone?”

Again, he shook his head.

“It doesn’t work like that with matters on this level. Our enemies aren’t incompetent and can account for every action we take. When corporations at our level take action, they’ll have checks in place against every known quantity.”

“...Can you at least tell who is after ?”

“It is hard to say. There is a long list of suspects. The only thing we know is that an opportunity for them to take action has arrived, and they will definitely take it. However, it is unlikely they want to take your life. It wouldn’t benefit them in any way. You should plan accordingly with that in mind.”

So they’re just going to give a cryptic warning with no info and call it a day…

“Is there really nothing else you can tell ? Like why I am even being targeted anyway, or why the personage you represent even ‘protects’ if you can even call it that.”

“I would love to answer you, but unfortunately, I don’t have the answers you’re seeking.”

“Is there any advice you can give , then?”

The man crossed his legs and brought his arms together before he answered.

“Endure. Whatever cos, your priority is to survive, and our personage will clean up the ss once he returns. Whether you have to beg and crawl or hide in the darkest corner of the world, you should do it. Ti is your ally.” His movent stilled for a brief mont. “But ti is also sothing we have currently run out of.”

With those finishing words, Titus grabbed the circular device that had been projecting a field around them and returned it to his pocket. He then directed one final aningful glance at before taking his leave.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I could only watch as he went back to his family, who then began to depart together.

“Who said what?!” Claire cried out in my office as she tugged on Thorne’s sleeve.

“Titus Adiar, the effective leader and owner of AeroDynamic.”

“The company we bought our VTOLs from?” Thorne added with furrowed brows.

“Yea…”

After receiving that warning from Titus, we quickly rescheduled our plans, and I purchased the next ticket back to Elevate City.

People on the highest level were making power plays, and we were sohow caught in the middle of it. It was no laughing matter and our very lives were now on thin ice, if there was any truth to Titus’ words.

I chose to believe him, as there was no advantage for him to lie in this case. He was just so far above us that he wouldn’t need to resort to these roundtable tricks if he had malicious intentions.

“There are basically only two choices here…” Thorne muttered.

“Don’t leave us in suspense and say them, then!” Claire yelled out.

“Umm…Before that, do you know if we’re being targeted overall or just you?”

He looked straight in the eyes.

“Here, I’ll write down a transcript of our conversation, but from the words he used, I believe it is the latter.”

I pulled up the logs from my SAID and wrote down the conversation on a physical piece of paper.

Thorne and Claire took a quick glance at it before Thorne burned the note.

“I see…Well, don’t take the wrong way, but if only you’re being targeted, it makes things easier. The two choices I had were either to hunker down and weather the storm, or run and hide sowhere you won’t be found. Since they are only going after you, the latter option may be better.”

“If only I hide, won’t they just target you guys and the company to draw out? Even if I ignore that, it would an everything we had built up so far would go up in smokes.”

“Hunkering down against these foes will just end the sa way, but with you dead as well!”

“...Titus said they likely aren’t going after my life, so it should be fine!”

“Are you really going to bet on the rcy of other parties and let them decide your fate, Rollo?!”

“Thorne’s right! Where there’s life, there’s hope. We cash out and hide out sowhere like Lion City for a few months. How long could your guardian angel possibly take to return?” Claire said as she slamd both hands down on my desk.

“I understand where you guys are coming from, but it feels wrong to give up without trying first. We could still search for allies to help us like we did for our alliance with Ferrumus Corp.”

“With what leverage exactly do you have that will be able to move the top-tier corporations? Last ti, we had an entire alliance to back us up, but we’re on our own for this.”

My gaze instantly went downward toward where Lanus, our AI, was.

“Not that! It’ll just open a whole new can of worms!”

Internally, I completely agreed with Thorne and Claire’s sentint, but for so reason, I was having doubts. I felt like if I gave everything up now, I wouldn’t have a chance to make a coback for so reason. It was an intuitive gut feeling and not based on anything concrete, but I still had trouble ignoring it.

“Rollo! You have to realize this isn’t worth risking your life over, right? It’s not like you’re in a rush, so we can just rebuild your company later.”

“...There’s no telling if this will happen again. Sothing is going on within the upper echelons. So among them, for whatever reason, want to target , and I don’t think anything will change as long as we’re in the dark about it.”

“That is more reason to hide for now and investigate later when your so-called protectors co back! We can then slowly build up our strength, secretly this ti. Then you can even try to ask your protector himself for answers. I don’t know what’s the matter with you right now, but you’re too hung up on what we have right now! There’s nothing wrong with grinding our way back up.”

Hearing Claire’s words, I felt like a splash of water was poured over . Grinding experience points were how I built up what I had. It had awoken to the fact I had inadvertently taken our fast progress up the corporate ladder for granted at so point. I had felt like an unstoppable main character.

My smooth sailing so far had blinded to the fact it was the norm to slowly expand a business, and also how we were all at the whims of those who were more powerful.

I didn’t know why I was so stupid to believe our adversaries would co one at a ti and would be at my level, where I could then overco them one by one. I should’ve known anyone, even one of the big corps, could take action against at any ti.

This isn’t a video ga, where I only face enemies at my level. Wake up, Rollo! Shelve any useless ideas and focus on surviving!

As long as I had the system, I had a way to make a coback. I could bid my ti and make an explosive coback instead.

“Understood. Let’s begin packaging what we need and assign soone to take care of the company while we’re gone. If we’re lucky, we can co back to it unscathed. I also think it’s a good idea if we finish up the power armor to bring with us.”

My two friends imdiately jumped into action at my words. Claire imdiately barked out her plan.

“Thorne, you go pack what we need and arrange for transportation. I’ll go organize the personnel shift and…find us people to replace us as the acting managent.”

“Okay, but where are we going? Lion City?”

“...That is kind of predictable,” I said. “As impenetrable as their defenses are, I don’t think they’d let hide out in their city and draw trouble to them. How about… sowhere in Europa? There’s enough countries there to get lost in.”

The three of us exchanged glances and nodded in unison.

With a preliminary plan set, we all went into motion. I also quickly left the room and went to my workshop to get started on the preparations. I had recently hired a simulation expert, and it was ti to put him to work so we could leave with the best equipnt we could muster.

What else can I add to the power armor in a short ti that can help us fend off top-tier corpo spec ops?

Issiah - ??? Corporation

“Sir, we have an update.”

“I see…What have we learned about the person of interest, then?”

“Not much, sir. We couldn’t find any traces of hidden supporters or anything. All the reports were…clean.”

“Current conjecture?”

“With Abby’s help, our most likely conjecture is simply… that the person is a genius.”

“That doesn’t explain why that man had taken such an interest in them, though.”

“Apologies, sir! I’ll go dig deeper into it right away.”

“...Wait! There’s no need. Take this chance to bring them in. We’ll ask them ourselves.”

“But sir! That would al—”

“It’s fine. We don’t have to do it directly. Get Henry and his company to do it.”

“...Very well, sir.”