Corpo Age Chapter 164: The New Normal

Noticing my gaze, Cora swiftly turned to face .

“What is it? Found sothing?”

“...Hmm, no. I was just wondering if you guys do live combat tests against mutants or sothing, too.”

“No, we do what we are assigned, and that ans testing the durability of the product against electronic hazards, whether it be software or hardware.”

“I see…”

As I began typing away on the terminal, I quickly shelved away any impulsive thoughts. There was a ti and place for everything, and it wasn’t ti yet to be making demands when I hadn’t earned their trust yet. Maybe later, I could make requests to perform experints with mutants or sothing so I could earn experience points.

It took a full hour to complete the observation report and recomndations to R&D. With plus ten in electrical engineering, and eleven in software engineering, I had plenty of recomndations. Of course, I kept most of them to myself and only gave them a few low-hanging fruits to show my value to them.

I couldn’t give them nothing at all, as they currently believed I was so genius that my mysterious savior recruited and trained for his sches. I needed them to believe it was in their interest that they had ‘robbed’ for their own benefit.

“There, finished. Should I send it to you or to soone else?” I asked the woman hanging over my shoulder.

“Relay it to . I’ll do a final check before sending it off.”

“Understood.”

It only took Cora several minutes to go through my hour of hard work.

“Okay, looks good. I believe we deserve a short lunch breach before moving on to our afternoon schedule.”

What did you an by ‘we’? It was all …

The junior researcher quickly led us out of the large cubicle room and back out to the main lab outside. We went down the hallway in the opposite direction this ti, and after a few turns down the hallway, we arrived at a cafeteria.

There were a few dozen tables around, with only half of them filled. The occupants ranged from fellow researchers to security personnel.

However, instead of soone or a bot manning the counter to hand out food, they had a fancy-looking 3D printer instead.

Cora didn’t bother to explain and headed straight to the printers. She keyed in several commands on the terminal. After a second, the 3D printer got to work and printed out a plate of blocky sushi within seconds.

“Go ahead, I’ll get a table first.”

Left to my own device, I awkwardly navigated through the nus of the 3D food printer. There was a wide selection, but no matter how alluring the food sounded, I couldn’t help but think it would taste disgusting.

And I was right.

After selecting what I thought to be the safest option, a pizza, I was rewarded with a mouthful of dense, rubbery substance that had a chemical-like aftertaste. I took a deep breath and swallowed while trying to distract myself with other thoughts.

I guess it was too much to think they would have anything good in an employee cafeteria. How cheap can they be when they are an A-Class corporation with multi-billion credit revenue?

As I promised myself that I would never be such a cheapskate, I quickly stood up to place another order at the 3D printer. I’ve learned my lesson and the only synthetic food I could palate was a good ol’ milkshake.

“So, about the recomndations you made. Are you sure they would work or are you just speculating? I have to admit, they seed pretty convincing.”

I took a big sip from my drink to wash away the nasty aftertaste before responding.

“I’ve never tested out sothing so complicated before, but the theory is all sound.”

“I see…Where did you study, by the way? I’m surprised you were able to make sense of our product so quickly without access to our internal knowledge base to refer to.”

I had to force myself not to raise an eyebrow. I wasn’t sure if she was just uninford or was trying to fish information out of , but either way, I would answer politely.

“I grew up in Elevate City all my life.”

“Oh? Which corp?”

“...SocialCorp—”

“What?! Really?!” she squealed.

“Let finish.” I shook my head to calm her down. “In a SocialCorp-sponsored orphanage.”

“Oh…”

It wasn’t long before we finished our lunches and we made our way back to the sa spacious cubic room to perform a new round of tests on Nova Tech’s latest cyberarm.

I didn’t nearly give them as many recomndations for the chanical engineering aspect, which was more relevant to the physical defenses of the cybernetic, as it wasn’t in my ballpark.

The day soon ended after compiling my second report. It felt short, considering I had sothing to do instead of just sitting around in my room. We had a quick supper after the tests before Commander Poltrix returned to escort back to my room.

“So how did your day go, commander?” I asked as soon as we were alone. He ignored , so I continued. “I did pretty well. Thank you for asking. We went through two rounds of testing that—”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He suddenly stopped moving, and I almost crashed into his power armor.

“Do I have to remind you to keep quiet about what happens in the lab?”

I smirked at getting a response out of him. No matter the reason, the more he spoke to , the more likely he would let his guard down around eventually. I found it sowhat fun, channeling my inner Claire.

This can get addictive. Maybe that’s why she’s like this all the ti…

“Oh, co on, it’s just the two of us here. As the commander of this base, you’re qualified to know everything I know at the very least, right?”

“Doesn’t matter. Others could overhear us,” he scoffed as he began picking up his pace again.

“Okay, okay. We can talk about sothing more harmless. So how often do you guys get an off day…? You guys can’t possibly stay in this isolated base every day of the year, right?”

I could hear him sigh as we continued making our way back to my room.

The next day, I was brought right back to laboratory number three and Cora once again greeted . We went through another morning of testing, doing the exact sa thing from the previous morning, but I could tell the cyberarm we were testing wasn’t the sa. They had implented the recomndations I made and several other minor adjustnts.

“File your observation report and then we can go to lunch.” Cora declared as she stretched her back.

“I don’t have to include a recomndation this ti?”

“Company protocol, this iteration was based on your recomndation, so you must hear out other researchers’ ideas first before giving any further input. Congratulations, it is an honor to have your changes accepted so readily.”

Throughout one night, they had already gathered all their researcher’s feedback and selected the optimal one? They sure do work fast…

“Do I get a bonus or sothing?”

“...” she gave a weird look before diving into her reports.

I quickly realized it was likely because it was frowned upon in corpo culture to blatantly ask for raises and the like. It wasn’t sothing I had to care about until now, being the boss and all, so I had a slip of the tongue.

I shook my head as I got to work on my report as well.

Once we were done, we repeated the sa routine and went to lunch. Unfortunately, people had to eat to survive, but I made sure to wash down whatever junk I ate with ample milkshakes.

“So, Cora. Do the researchers here stay on this base forever, or do you guys get so ti off?” I repeated the question I posed to the commander yesterday.

“Well, at my rank, I get one day off every two months.”

“And how do you spend that day off? Just laze around in your room?”

“What? Of course not. I’d spend it in Ceres Station, where there are actually things to do.”

Finally, I figured out I was held near Ceres Station. Thankfully, that was a na I was familiar with, which ant I knew I was sowhere between Mars and Jupiter. This is definitely the furthest I’d ever been from Earth. It could’ve been worse, so I couldn’t exactly complain.

“As an assistant, do you think I’d get to go there on my day off as well?”

“Hmm, I don’t know… I haven’t been inford about that. I’ll try asking for you.”

“Thank you!”

“No problem. Anyway, let’s focus on our tests this afternoon. I want us to do better results than those bitches in lab two this month.”

“Okay…”

She glanced at and I saw the realization hit her as she rembered I wouldn’t know anything about what she was talking about.

“Don’t worry about it…Just know that I want to do well, so I can get promoted to an associate researcher already.”

“You’ve been working as a Junior Researcher for how long?”

“...Too long, which is why I want that promotion! If you can help out, I’ll be sure to look after you as well once I get promoted.”

“Sure…I’ll see what I can do. Can you get the clearance to access the details of what we actually work on first? It’s not easy for to do anything when you guys are withholding so much information.”

“I’ll speak to Dr. Chen about it.”

“Thank you.”

Now then. Since I learned about this nearby space station, it was ti for to visit it in person. They had generously given access to various terminals connected with their internal system, so I just needed to put my software skills to work.

Claire - Halls Corporation

“Any new updates?” Thorne asked for the umpteenth ti upon entering Claire’s office.

“No. Everything’s been quiet. No action was taken against us, the company, or anything.”

“I see…”

“...Do you think Rollo can really escape whenever he wants, like he said? I get his stealth tech is impressive, but he’d be stranded in space or sothing even if he escaped, right? It’s not like he can suddenly create a stealth ship while in captive.”

“He…should be fine if it’s just surviving…” Thorne let out a sigh. “He’ll have to rely on his helper to get ho, though. And that is what worries the most. I an, it’s a corpo we’re talking about. There is a high chance that he doesn’t think it’s worth saving Rollo anymore, then he’d be stuck.”

The two sighed in unison before Thorne got up from his seat.

“Anyway, I’m going to head over to the security departnt now. Good luck on maintaining all our existing business relationships…” Shaking his head, Thorne exited the room.

Now that Rollo was gone, Claire had taken over all his usual duties. While the bureaucratic work was fine, managing relations was another thing.

Taking a deep breath, Claire steeled her resolve as she made her way to Rollo’s eting room, which was equipped with holographic projectors. She connected with the first partner she would be eting with today.

“Good day to you, Mr. Perez. Thank you for making the ti to update us on the projects yourself.”

“Think nothing of it. It’s my pleasure to talk to a beautiful lady such as yourself. Anyway, I take it that Rollo is still away?”

“...That is right, he went out into the wasteland like he usually does, but this ti, he said he might be gone for a while. I apologize on his behalf.”

“Oh, no, no. I don’t mind. As I said, I prefer to deal with you, and I really an it.”

I thought Rollo always said he was good friends with this Luford Perez person…How co he seems so reluctant to see Rollo again?

The call soon ended after so updates about their partnered projects, and Claire sighed in relief. It wasn’t easy dealing with these leaders of various corporations. This was doubly so, considering she had to lie about Rollo’s whereabouts. However, for his next eting, she wouldn’t have that luxury.

“Ms. Claire, I’m happy to see you again. If you’re here, I take it that Rollo is still missing… Unfortunately, this ans my company will have to rethink our relationship with yours during these troubling tis,” Joey, the head of Authentic Corp, dryly stated.

“I understand, Mr. Moretti. I just ask that we keep our existing deals as it is for now.”

“Of course, I will uphold the contracts for the specified duration.”

The call ended shortly after that, and Claire slumped into her chair. She had been hopeful when Joey had first hinted that he knew about their current situation because she wanted his help. She knew Authentic Corp had connections with the bigger corporations, but her excitent was instantly doused when the bald man clearly drew a line with them.

The fact he knew their situation ant that he knew the Halls Corporation had co into conflict with a party that he couldn’t afford to offend. In true corpo fashion, when the relationship could potentially hinder them, they took a step back to ensure their interests.

Claire swung her seat around so she would be facing out the window of Rollo’s office. Her office was just next door, but Rollo’s view felt much broader. It was beautiful, which made the mantle of defending what they had that much heavier.

When will you co back?