Corpo Age Chapter 204: Afternoon Tea

“Joey, it’s been a while,” I stood up and greeted the bald man.

His entourage went out back to their waiting area, leaving him alone to approach our table. He nodded amiably at with a smile, shook my hand, and then Claire’s. We exchanged pleasantries, with Claire complinting Joey on how well his business seed to be doing, and how well his attire fit him. It took almost a full minute before we took our seats.

“I’ve got to take the call from the Lion City banks,” Claire declared. “Please excuse .”

Beating a hasty retreat, the number of people at the table swiftly reduced to two. We didn’t let it bother us and proceeded with our conversation.

“It’s been a while since we’ve t in person. You’ve changed quite a bit,” Joey said as he directed a look at my arms.

I had previously sported Nova Tech cyberarms that had a tallic finish. While as pleasing aesthetically as it was, according to corporate standards, it was unbecoming. Only low-level brutes flagrantly flaunted their cybernetics. The executive caste idolized achieving the perfect human form, not a cyborg form.

The synthetic skin I covered my cybernetics with was just the bare minimum. Those who had both wealth and adhered strictly to this ideal even invested heavily in fully functional biological alternatives. They strove to perfect their biological body by editing their genes. This fad resulted in several major breakthroughs, most famously the life-prolonging treatnt.

“Just so overdue upgrades. Had to make sure I looked the part for today’s celebration, right?”

He nodded in reply. “Appearances are important, but I’m not sure that it matters for you anymore.”

Neither of us said a thing for a brief mont as the waiter brought in refreshnts. I only responded after we all had a chance to take a sip of our drinks.

“What do you an? I’m planning on expanding to Aegis soon, so I’ll have to make many new connections. First impressions are always important.”

“Oh, co on, Rollo. We both know you have sothing to do with why the bunch from High Gate are so quiet even after our ceasefire has expired.”

“You’re overthinking things, Joey.” I let out a chuckle. “We’ve discussed this in our group etings and have agreed it’s mostly because they have learned it just isn’t profitable to continue their feud with us.”

This ti, it was Joey’s turn to let out a cackle.

“Ha, very persuasive. That is, only if I didn’t know those guys for so long. Knowing how to take a loss is the last thing I’d expect from the High Gate Group.”

I kept up the act of not knowing anything. We didn’t have the fancy device to prevent eavesdropping deployed. I couldn’t be sure no one was listening, and there was no need to reveal anything.

When our ceasefire with the High Gate Group had expired, no signs of another round of aggression appeared. In fact, it was the opposite. I couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, but I believed it was due to the influence of bigger powers.

Those who paid special attention to our company may have realized sothing was up, and the select few who were observant mainly consisted of high-level corporations. Joey was the exception due to our close relationship. It wasn’t surprising they all noticed the irregularities.

It wasn’t surprising that those in the know stayed clear of in fear for my guardian angel. Even those uninvolved with my little squabbles against Nova Tech would have noticed how much attention my company was drawing. Several A-Class corporations or higher should be snooping around, and they should all have noticed how none dared to take any drastic action against us.

For better or worse, this situation brought about peace for my company.

“People change in the face of benefits, Joey. Speculating won’t do us any good. Why don’t we move on to more productive topics?”

Joey smiled, glancing down while he ran a hand through his bald head.

“Sure.”

“I’ll need your guidance on how to get started in Aegis. Could you brief on the representatives who are attending the party tonight?”

“I’ll do what I can, but do be warned. My connections can only get you so far for this. Aegis is still the territory of the consortium. Everything there is under their purview.”

“That’s fine and all. The real estate isn’t the part I’m too worried about. It’s the dock that I told you about. I want to build my own ships.”

“Again, the best I can do is share my connections with you. My company only leases our vessels as our interests up there are much smaller. We’ve opened a few restaurants across several stations, but each shop is localized. We don’t require that much traffic to purchase our own spacecraft.”

“Still, your connections will speed things along. I thank you for that.”

We continued going over so of the intricacies of operating in space that we would have to pay attention to. Obviously, if I planned on operating in places without artificial gravity, I would need to train my employees on how to take on the new environnt. I wouldn’t have to go through as much trouble if they would stay put in Aegis. After all, that place was a bona fide city in its own right, almost indistinguishable from many tropolises.

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Our talks went on for hours and evening approached.

“Well, I’m sure there are many things I’ve failed to ntion,” Joey humbly said. “You’ll inevitably have to learn as you go if you plan on operating outside the main hubs. Just beware of the other corporations. There are nurous mid-sized companies up there, and they will attack if they sll blood.”

“I’ve heard rumors about that, but space should be large enough for us all. I’m sure it’s possible to avoid conflicts with them.”

“Space may be enormous, but valuable resources are limited wherever you go. Anyway, it’s about ti to start heading to the venue, yes?”

I glanced at the ti and nodded. “Yeah, let’s start heading over. It wouldn’t do for the hosts to be late.”

As we departed from the cafe, our personnel quickly sward each of us. They had to ensure all business was taken care of before the party got started.

“Rollo, I just finished speaking with the Bank of Lion City,” Claire reported. “I’ve scheduled a eting for next week.”

As always, the bank called everything we went up in rank. They explained various new services we could access and how to go about various matters, such as the hidden perks. They simplified the process of how to employ the assistance of the ECPD or the justice system. Now that D-Class enabled my company to operate in space, I expected their explanation was related to that.

I quickly deliberated if I should go in person. It wasn’t possible to send a body double as the bank’s verification thods would likely see through re holographic images. Their security involved taking DNA samples, and wasn’t worth fooling.

As smoothly as all our business was going, it didn’t an we could neglect them. Maintaining a business was harder than founding one. We had to monitor the situation and innovate to keep our market shares.

My ti is probably better spent overseeing how our ga and translation software is going. As soon as they stabilize, we plan to launch several lightweight gas to build up our catalog. We had a perfectly working platform that was our communication app, the EchoHalls, so it was ti to connect all our software products to one platform.

I also have several projects waiting for . There’s no ti to spare.

“I think I’ll skip out this ti. You can go if you want or send soone else in our place.”

“Hmm, I’ll go.”

Once we settled the matter of visiting the bank, the other employees brought several reports to my attention. The daily summaries could be skimd as the others were hired to ensure they were in order, but the report on our new aircraft was different. As the creator, it was up to to oversee it.

The tests were over by now, and the aircraft itself had been thoroughly examined. Thanks to how simple I kept it, no alarming issues arose. It was a good first test before I embarked on more ambitious designs.

The matter I paid the most attention to was how much I could reduce the noise of the flight. Even with sound dampeners, it was almost impossible to eliminate all sound. The motors, air turbulence, and vibrations were unavoidable. For full-sized aircraft, reducing the sound wasn’t that important compared to avoiding radar and other forms of detection. However, drones were a different matter.

The drones I envisioned could operate in confined spaces. That ant the volu of its flight had to be reduced to a soft whisper at the minimum. I planned to combine all the detection tools I had used so far onto this drone platform. It would beco a lot easier if highly mobile drones could deploy the Nyes for or even project holographic images for distractions.

With various reports to go through, it felt like I had reached my destination in no ti. We arrived back in the sa SocialCorp facility I had once visited with Joey. It was a giant holographic chamber that acted as a venue for various social events.

The last ti I was here, it was to celebrate so other company’s promotion to D-Class, too. How ti flies.

The previous ti, the scenery to set to that of an outdoor field. This ti, we had sothing a little more formal. A grand ballroom straight from the Victorian era. Having dealt with projections so much myself, my new optics could easily see through this comrcial-grade holographic, but that wasn’t useful for today’s event.

As the hosts, Joey and I were the first ones to arrive. We had our people swiftly complete any final preparations as we awaited our guests to arrive. That didn’t take long to happen.

Joey was well-connected, and we had our allies from the West Coast Agroindustry to count on. Those important allies showed up first.

“Congratulations, Mr. Halls. With how fast your company has been rising, I wouldn’t be surprised if you held another promotion celebration next year!”

“That’s right. By then, the bunch in High Gate Group would be even more reluctant to start sothing with us.”

Like the ballroom parties I had seen in movies, people began to crowd the area around the food and drinks tables. Before I knew it, the entire place was packed. Not only did our allies show up, but their respective connections did as well.

While I had called on Joey’s connections, many others who were acquainted with my allies eagerly showed up as well. I was told it was a common scene. Many people liked to make connections with up-and-coming D-Class corporations.

For the smaller companies, it could an obtaining a new source of raw materials if we engaged in mining. Those who already had interests in space wanted to buy our excess quota for the comrcial transport capacity of the space elevator. And of course, so wanted to seek space-related business partnerships.

Operating in space was expensive. Partnering up to diversify the risks was a basic strategy among corporations.

As many people ca to congratulate , the conversations were kept shallow. I had either just t them or rarely spoken to them. The norm was to socialize first before proceeding into business matters in the later part of the party.

Before we made it to that, the anomaly I had been inford about just a day prior had arrived.

A man walked in alone, and he drew everyone’s attention. The fabric of his attire scread wealth, and his hairstyle was unique. He only had a thin but long ponytail that ran all the way down to his waist. However, it was the small badge on his chest that drew everyone’s attention.

It depicted a sword with a cherry blossom tree in the background, showcasing his affiliation with Ferrumus Corp.

As the person who had the most contact with the A-Class corporation, Joey stepped forth to greet him.

“Welco, Kai of Ferrumus Corporation. I’m honored to see you today.”

The thin man only nodded in response before beginning to scan the room. As I suspected, his wandering gaze stopped when his eyes landed on .

No one present dared to greet him upcoming witnessing how he had brushed Joey off. This ant no one dared to stop him as he cut straight through the crowd towards .

I tried my best to suppress a sigh.

Oh dear, here we go.