Ignoring the pressing issue, the group slowly made its way through the shopping center, buying a lot more things unrelated to what they ca to do than related ones. Currently, Noah walked ahead, searching for anywhere that held phones or virtual dive stations for gas such as valorwatch, while everyone else ate. A lot.
Alice had so sort of crepe, Maggie had an ice, Lilith had a massive ball of candy in her mouth, Bel was eating popcorn and Carlos... 'How did he not get fat yet?' Noah asked himself as he saw him eat a bucket of chicken wings at lightspeed.
"So... What are we looking for here?" Bel asked, seeing at least one person was actively looking for sothing.
"Maggy and mine's new phones, base stations for Valorwatch," Noah responded, looking at the passing stores.
"I don't think that's on this floor, you know?" Bel said, slowly crunching another handful of popcorn into his mouth as Noah ground to a halt.
"... is that why we did not find any yet?" he asked, turning back to face Carlos, who was absentmindedly eating wings.
"What. Don't look at like that, last ti I ca here was years ago," he raised his greasy hand and bucket, a vision that made Noah regret looking back for.
With a sigh, Noah went back to searching, now for the elevator, or the map.
As it turned out, Bel was right, there was no such store on this floor. Not because there was a the or anything of the like, just because there happened to not be any, which were scattered across the half a dozen floors.
"Do you guys know any of these?" Noah asked, as he went through the store locations on the map.
"Not really," Carlos responded, now ard with a bucket of wings. A different one. He had bought yet another.
"Guess we just go to the first floor and up. It seems the last floor has a nice view, so we can finish the day there," Noah said, reading the things written on the interactive map, a massive touch sensitive display that had all the information and paths.
As they boarded the elevator, a strange sensation made Noah's gaze shoot towards the distance.
'Did sothing happen?' Lilith asked. Thankfully her voice could still be heard clearly despite her mouth barely fitting the large ball of hard candy that would take hours to dissolve.
'I felt soone staring at ,' he said, not having found anything.
'Guess soone was eyeing us for being weird,' she brushed his impressions off, though Noah knew from the feeling he was the target, not the group.
"Odd..." he muttered under his breath, as the elevator doors closed. He could not see the person who then leaned from behind the ergency doors, carefully eyeing which floor the elevator went to, before disappearing into them.
Over the last few years, the standards for creating VR gear were made public, excluding the possibility of any company making a product that was exclusive, to improve choice and reduce monopolies. This ant every company could make one, and there was no real limit or requirent for power and performance.
This ant there were thousands of gears available, from tiaras for cheap phones that would not co with them, which would have capped imrsion and performance, to standalone consoles where you would lie down inside them for the best experience. This also ant there were always dozens of options best suited for each use, and hundreds of bullshit companies selling overpriced crap.
And now, Noah was finding how annoying it all was.
"As you can see, this is the ultimate experience possible for a VR gear, the pinnacle of technology and—" the salesman started another long pitch about his most expensive drive gear, which Carlos, most definitely, fell for. Noah interrupted him.
"I will just ask it plainly. How high are your margins on this one?" he asked, taking the salesman aback. "Don't play around. This is nowhere near the best product in the store. It is mostly gimmicks for stupid rich people. I'm guessing this one is the unit where you get the best commission, hence the best product in the store.
Now, cut the bullcrap."
The salesman was dumbstruck, and Carlos protested. But as this strange interaction lingered, a man in a suit appeared. "What can I help you guys with," he said with a deep somber tone.
"I want the highest performance, lowest latency, VR Console. I will buy multiple. But your salesman keeps trying to feed lies and overpriced garbage." Noah shrugged, making everyone look at him.
But contrary to their expectations, the man in suit gave a broad grin. "I see, you are a highly-knowledgeable custor. In that case, I'll be selling to you directly. Please co," he said, inviting their group over to a small room. "Don't get him wrong.
He wasn't lying or saying wrong things about the products, it's just he is trained to sell what most custors want," he said aloud, making Carlos' brows frown. "Most people care more about what you call 'Gimmicks' than the actual performance of the product, so we sell what will make them happy," he continued, turning around as he reached a small eting room to the side of the store.
"My na is Johan, this store's manager. I'll be your salesman today," he said, bowing, before opening the door and leeding them inside.
"So, what can I help you with?" Once everyone was seated down on the large sofa that easily fit 5 people, the man sat across from them, on an equally large sofa, and asked.
Ï'm really sorry for my friend causing you to step in and—" Carlos started speaking, only for the man to raise his hand, making him stop, confused.
"I would have needed be a fool to not recognize two of the most influential people from Eyrin. Elder Stern, Inheritor Carlos."
Carlos froze. He knew his face had begun to circulate in the underbelly of dia and intel organizations, but not to this extent.
'Looks like you guys are getting famous,' Lilith told him with a giggle, while Maggie nervously hugged Noah from the side. And the plush with her other arm.
"Don't get wrong. I would never have a few weeks ago, but Mr. Carlos' new enterprise has been casting shadows in the entire capital's security business. And it need not be said about the youngest elder in the whole Nine Families..." he clarified, making Carlos' nervousness get dispelled.
"I see... But why Inheritor?" he asked, since he now realized his issue.
"Even if you are starting other businesses, you are still the sole heir for the largest vehicle conglorate on this planet. Even if you try to distance yourself from that fact, it will always follow you around," the man said with a smile, making Carlos silently nod.
"I will keep that in mind," he responded, leaning back and leaving things in Noah's hands.
"I would like to buy the most advanced system you have when it cos to simulation quality and low latency. We are sponsoring professional Valorwatch players and need to make them a good place with machines equal or superior to world-class tournant machines." Noah's voice was monotone, but the businessman knew he was just to the point.
"That would be hard. You generally have to sacrifice one of the two. Systems for Valorwatch preferably have low latency even if quality suffers a little. I would recomnd taking a middle-ground, but it is significantly more expensive than the tournant consoles because those are not capable of this level of simulation," he said, pulling a flyer from a small screen on the wall that dispensed them.
"Here is the data and pricing for the machine you want. And on the other page is the data for what one would expect for Valorwatch." Handing four more pairs, he waited for Noah and his friends to go over the flyers, hiding his eagerness to get this deal through.
"Why would I buy the better machine if it cannot be used for my main purpose to the sa extent," Noah asked, making the man grin.
"In case it has a large update or you try out new imrsive gas that have a greater focus on visuals. Valorwatch is supposed to be played on any machine, especially with tiaras, but other gas are far more demanding."
Satisfied with the information and graphs on his hands, Noah had already made his decision. As he had already searched for the product beforehand, but everyone else didn't know that. "Could we settle for a discount for buying six of these units?" he asked, making Bel protest.
"But we haven't yet tried anything and this is only the second store we go in!" he complained, but Noah just ignored.
"There's no need to keep searching. But I will still ask for a small private test," Noah told him, turning back to see the manager nod.
"I can arrange for a 7% discount since you are buying multiple units if paynt is imdiate. But we would have to discuss delivery and installation," he said, swallowing dry to not be greedy.
"It will be arranged tomorrow. Location is still not defined, and I expect it would take a few days for the product to arrive in the capital," Noah said, making the man furrow his brows.
"Will it not be shipped to Eyrin?"
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