Corpo Age

Chapter 93: Workshop Retreat

“Listen, Jacob. Remember to follow my directions unless you want to get shot at,” I said to the wasteland kid sitting in the Wraith with me, who dumbly nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”

We exited the car that was parked in an alleyway, and we both turned on our active camouflage. I had put together a suit like the one I initially used before creating the Shades for the boy. I placed a hand on his shoulder as we walked toward the entrance of an office building.

There was a lot of traffic going into the building as everyone rushed to work. When we entered the building, there was a small line in front of each turnstile. The employees waiting in line all had glows in their eyes, as they orderly waited their turn. The line moved quite quickly, as each person simply had to tap their security card to get through.

There were a few guards who patrolled the area, but to me, they seemed more like mall cops who were lightly equipped. It wasn’t surprising, though. This building didn’t belong to any particular corporation.

All the businesses that operated here were small companies that shared the building. You wouldn’t find any proper corp or aspiring corporations here, as they all took their privacy very seriously. The ones here either had funding issues where they couldn’t afford to rent their own property or simply didn’t care for privacy as they resigned themselves to be corporate underlings.

Even so, they still adopted the typical corporate lifestyle, with some hopefuls here to build up their resume to be recruited into the bigger corps. It was almost like this was the minor leagues where official corporations were the major leagues.

We trailed a lone security guard who walked around nonchalantly, whistling a tune to himself. He did a quick lap around the lobby before retreating further into the building, allowing us to get through the turnstile unnoticed as we trailed after him.

We then went toward the elevators, where there was yet another line. We scanned the people waiting there so we could project ourselves as them. I found two who had their security cards visibly displayed on their hip and scanned them with my terminal implant as well.

I guided Jacob into a nearby washroom and donned our guises via projection technology. When we came out, we headed straight for the stairs.

While the projection disguise was great, it wouldn’t work that well in an enclosed space like an elevator where we would be bumping into others.

I tapped my hand and had the terminal ping on the security lock by the door with the credentials I had pilfered. We only needed to climb five flights of stairs before we arrived on the floor of the company I had chosen for this little outing.

We took a small break in the stairway to rest my Shade and the boy’s suit while I had the Nyes keep watch. Once we were ready, we reactivated our camouflage and exited the stairwell.

The elevator opened shortly behind us, with two women exiting onto this floor. We followed them and headed past the reception desk and further into the office, where dozens of cubicles were. I slowly guided Jacob around, allowing him to take in the sights before him.

“...That’s right. I want to travel with Pete. Is my flight and accommodations booked already?”

“Yes, ma’am. There isn’t any leeway left to change the booking now. The expos have made most accommodations fully booked.”

After a quick tour of what a typical corpo did at the office, we went into an empty meeting room when no one was looking.

“Seen enough? I don’t think there’s anything more to see. It’s all pretty boring.”

“I find it interesting. Can we see them scheme and backstab each other, too?”

“...This isn’t a TV show or something. It doesn’t just happen on demand for your entertainment.”

“Okay, fine...”

Once I had accomplished the request from the wastelanders, I finally headed back toward Elevate City.

The stretch of the wasteland between Miles High and Can Sauce City wasn’t that long. The wasteland was only a small part of it. Since our route ended in Can Sauce City, we didn’t really need as many facilities there as we did in Miles High, so I left that to the other staff.

Immediately upon my return, Claire strolled into my office, sent me a large file of work to be done, and marched away without a word.

I spent the next three days catching up on the work that had been accumulating and the new stuff that had come up due to opening up the new route.

On the fourth day, when I finally had spare time, I shut myself off in my workshop and resumed the projects I had previously been working on. There were several ones I currently prioritized, with them being a new implant for monitoring my employees, a commercial one to bolster our sales now that the Shades were declining, and working on the various vehicles we use, such as transport trucks.

Once I leveled up again, I would be bringing electrical engineering to ten as well, where I would then make another pass at our vehicles.

I also had to allot more time to examine the cybernetics I got from Benjamin Link’s bodyguard, who had the stealth suit and a forcefield of all things. I had already taken a preliminary look at it. The stealth tech not being anything special, I only benefited from learning how sensors could counteract that specific model. The forcefield implant, on the other hand, was foreign to me. I didn’t know how to even properly dissect it, let alone understand it, so it was shelved for the time being.

As our business expanded, I felt like I had less and less time to work on anything, though. I couldn’t believe I was considering creating an AI to help me manage things too. The main thing that stopped me was how taboo it was among the consortium and all the other corporations. I was sure the larger players used it discreetly anyway, but did I really have what it took to keep it hidden?

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Hmm…I am going to need my AI to be better than any other out there to lower the risk of detection. The only surefire way to do that is to level software engineering past ten with my system…

From my experience with both cybernetic engineering and stealth tech that had ten points in it, I could tell that the level of technology it gave me was likely around what the most powerful corps had in their arsenal.

Anything beyond that should, in theory, be at the forefront of what exists in this world. It would be at least at the level of what the major corporations had for their specialty product that defined them. Their ace in the hole.

In terms of productivity, creating my own AI would probably rank near the top, and definitely an option to consider. It would have to be an all-out effort, investing a significant amount of points into it, though.

I would need a few more levels before I had to make my decision, so I pushed aside the thoughts and let my future self decide later. For now, I would focus on the most pressing project.

For now, I crossed off working on the vehicles as I would rather come back to it once I gained another level. Otherwise, I would have to revisit it anyway for updates when I gained new knowledge.

That left me with the commercial cybernetic project or the employee monitoring one. We weren’t hurting for cash at the moment, though we were at the point where we needed to save up or attain a new major stream of funds before we could accelerate our expansions. So that left me with the monitoring project to prevent another Judas from appearing in our company.

Although it would be a stealth implant that secretly monitored people, I should add something to our existing software, too. It would be a decoy, making others think that was our new solution instead.

It was time to do some tinkering.

Claire - Halls Corporation

“Would you believe him, Thorne? He shut himself into his workshop again the moment he came back and cleared his paperwork. Does he not care about tracking down that traitor at all?” Claire said as she stuffed an entire cream puff into her mouth.

“Leave him be. I think that’s what lit a fire underneath him and he’s working up a solution to prevent any more incidents like this in the future.”

“Yeah, I get that. Lana told me about it too, but he should do that after punishing that traitor. I can’t believe he doesn’t want to get back at the person who put you guys in danger!”

“Well… I think you both have good points. If he can be the bigger person and let it go, just leave him be.”

“Are you calling me petty? Who’s side are you on Thorne?!”

“Calm down. I’m helping you search for that traitor, no? Any new intel on that end?”

“...No. We’ve been checking through everything we can find at all the airports, ships, and every single way to get out of the city. No luck so far.”

“Maybe their backer extracted them? No offense, but I don’t think you guys could track them if a corporation secretly took her away.”

“Their backer was QuickLinks Logistics! They don’t even exist anymore. I doubt helping some informant was their priority when they were gearing up for war.”

“Then that means she’s still in this city?”

“Probably…There’s too much data to sift over. This city isn’t exactly small and there’s just too many goddamn people here.”

“If it’s that important to you, then let’s go get some professionals to help.”

“Our intelligence department is supposed to be the professional!”

“Come on, I’m not saying they’re not, but QGs got their own contacts out in the streets. They’re more effective for tasks like these.”

“...Fine.”

Thorne stood up from his office chair and sent a message to the security team to have an extra team on standby in case Rollo wanted to go out. While he thought it was unlikely, he needed to be prepared, as Rollo was sometimes unpredictable with his hobby of hunting down harvesters. Thorne didn’t think an extra team would exactly replace him, but he knew it was the limit, as Rollo would strongly object if his entourage grew too large.

The pair who had known each other since their days supporting each other as lab rats made their way down into the garage and got into a Wraith.

“Where are we going exactly, again?” Claire asked once she buckled her seatbelt.

“Haven. We got a job for a QG, right?”

“...Sure.”

Their car soon exited the garage, escorted by two other vehicles, as they made their way to District 10. With the auto-drive taking care of everything, the duo became spectators, watching others veer out of the way once they noticed several corporate cars behind them.

“...We should get Rollo to create an unmarked vehicle with a low profile. I really prefer not to have others look at me in fear or contempt. The intel department could really use one, too,” Claire noted as she looked back at the car that had gotten out of their way.

“But then he’ll be shut into his workshop for even further.”

“We’ll just have to drag him out every day. He should at least eat outside of his workshop.”

They exchanged looks before both bursting out into laughter. The thought of Rollo’s face filled with vexation as they dragged him out was too comical, and something they both mischievously looked forward to.

It wasn’t long before their small convoy arrived near Haven. Everyone on the street seemed to be armed mercenaries, and they directed cautious looks at their corporate vehicles.

“You guys stay outside and guard the cars,” Thorne commanded the security team that accompanied them.

“But sir, we can’t leave—”

“It’s okay. Haven is neutral ground, fighting is strictly forbidden inside. No merc would be foolish enough to do so if they wanted to continue in the business. Besides, I can handle myself.”

The guard slowly nodded and relented.

Walking past the carefree bouncers near the entrance, they headed into the lively bar where many people were merrily drinking and laughing.

Claire glanced towards the rooms with glass walls in curiosity. Her daze skipped over the ones that were tinted, toward one where she could see two distinct groups inside. They had half a dozen men on each side, all staring down at each other menacingly, but their presumed leaders who were seated were chatting away happily, as if they were best friends.

“Claire, come on, stay close.” Thorne’s voice snapped Claire away from the scene and followed him up a set of stairs. On the new floor, there weren’t any seats in a large public area like below. It only had those glass-partitioned rooms that were all soundproof.

Thorne walked down the hallway, taking note of the room numbers displayed by the door until he found the one he was looking for. He hit the button on the terminal and the door soon buzzed open.

Claire followed Thorne in, and immediately spotted a buff cyborg of a man, even more so than Thorne by at least two sizes, standing behind a middle-aged lady with brown hair. The woman leaned back into the seat lazily, with an elbow resting on top of the shoulders of another man seated beside her. Upon closer inspection, Claire noticed that the man had more cybernetics bits than organic ones, just like the cyborg towering behind them, though he looked organic at first glance.

“Oli, we’re here with a job for you,” Thorne stepped forward and stated.