The representative from the Herriet Bank was the first to sit down. He quietly tapped his holographic pad.
"Signed," he said, his voice trembling slightly. "The bank... accepts the second option. We will be making an offer to you in a week after discussing with all stakeholders..."
"Are we really accepting such crazy terms?" an old man asked the Herriet Bank’s representatives.
"I have rivals," the banker muttered, sweating. "If they get this suit and I don’t... I would feel stupid."
As he said it, his eyes glanced towards Fiona and the representatives of the Lionel Family.
Seeing Herriet Bank take the lead, the others also started having the fear of missing out. One after another, everyone started signing the terms, accepting further offers after internal discussions.
It was the first domino, and the ripple effects were massive.
So of them were worried that Herriet Bank would offer a crazy deal and sweep all the units.
In their haste, they didn’t just accept the terms but also made their offer, secretly offering the most that they could offer, even going out of their way.
Even the dia house owners weren’t far behind.
They secretly sent an offer, giving Alpha Corp the right to acquire significant shares of their dia houses in exchange for a few units of Alpha Clothing.
There were also a few leading research companies, not just from Earth but a few other planets.
They also made a bid, going all out to acquire a few units so they could try to reverse-engineer these suits.
"Signed."
"I’ll make an offer worth ten units. Signed."
"Do you accept paynt in mythical ore? Signed."
After a long ti, Fiona also spoke, "I accept the first set of terms. I want a thousand units!"
Her voice imdiately made everyone go silent. She was the first person who had selected to go with the crazy subscription model instead of the better one-ti offer.
With that, another wave of the domino effect began, and a few wealthy interplanetary tycoons followed her thod and selected a subscription model since that was a shortcut to get suits without much negotiation.
Five blocks away, Leo was walking away from the venue when he heard a loud voice.
"Why don’t you just rob ?" The voice was filled with disbelief. "A hundred credits for this?"
Leo looked at the commotion, finding soone arguing with a street vendor.
"Is there anyone more black-hearted than you?" the loud voice ca again, clearly belonging to a woman.
"Take it or leave it, kid," the vendor grumbled, flipping a sausage.
"Tch, you black-hearted person! Have you no kindness?" The woman, whose body was draped in black from head to toe, scoffed as she turned away.
She walked away, even as her stomach grumbled.
A few minutes later, she suddenly slled sothing good. Before she could look back, she saw a sandwich right before her, being held by soone.
"Fumu! Maybe you aren’t that black-hearted after all!" The woman turned around, almost about to thank the street vendor.
However, only then did she realize that it wasn’t a street vendor. It was a young man whose face was almost hidden under the shadow from his hood and the lamp above.
"Take it before my hands start to hurt," Leo said, pushing the sandwich into the woman’s hand before walking past her.
The woman tilted her head sideways, distracted. It was only when her stomach started grumbling that she ca to her senses.
She took a deep bite of the sandwich before chasing after Leo.
"Why did you help ?" she asked as she ran after him while chewing.
"You don’t have to thank . I just felt like doing sothing nice today since sothing good happened."
Leo waved his hand and didn’t stop for the stranger.
He had almost had a mini heart attack when he saw Picollo’s demonstration. But after realizing there was no way for him to profit from that, his mood had suddenly elevated.
As for spending a few hundred credits on a stranger, there weren’t any ulterior motives behind it.
He just rembered when he had gone hungry through those long days. He didn’t even have a hundred credits and had to starve.
On his way, just helping a stranger once was normal, now that he had so wealth.
"Sothing good happened? What?" The woman asked, finally catching up to Leo.
"I can’t tell you," Leo answered. "By the way, why are you following ? I told you that you don’t need to thank ."
"Can you lend a little more credits? I... I forgot mine at ho," the woman asked Leo, her voice growing strange as she talked about forgetting sothing at ho.
"You..." Leo’s lips twitched. He had just helped a stranger, and now she was asking him to pay her more? Did he look like a sugar daddy or sothing?
"Shouldn’t you find a job instead of relying on others?"
It was only when he finished speaking that he realized how wrong he had been. Wasn’t he soone who had tried to find a job, only to be rejected from even a janitor’s job?
With the thought, the pity on his face beca stronger.
"Fine. Just because I’m in a good mood, I’ll help you once. But after this point, we will probably never et again. So you better spend them wisely."
He brought a small card from his pocket, which was his hundred-thousand-credit ergency fund to be used in case he couldn’t access his personal bank account.
The woman looked at the card, still finding it hard to believe that soone had actually helped her.
"Can you at least let know your na?" She raised her hand, only to grow stunned. Leo was nowhere to be seen.
....
"I can’t even take a walk under the stars without spending money. Then again, who told to be so kind? I’ll just think of it as that one kind deed of my lifeti..."
Leo had returned to his ship, finishing his trip to Earth.
Just to be sure that Picollo didn’t change plans on his own again, he brought out his device and sent a stern ssage to Picollo.
"Good work at the demonstration today. From today onwards, I will be doubling the salaries of all researchers at the lab. Also, just to be sure..."
Until this point, his expression was calm. But from the next point onwards, he slamd his fingers against the screen like he was fighting for his life.
"YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE EVEN A SINGLE CREDIT FROM THE BUYERS!"
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