This time, Alex Moqi arrived at the eastern access road of Xin campus without disruptions.
He had summoned his personal car beforehand, so it was waiting for him.
As for the color? Black.
This car and in fact everything he currently ‘owned’ had been given to him by his big boss; none of the funds earned during his training belonged to him.
Now that he was a full, adult member of the Organization, things would be different: most of the money earned by him would belong to him.
“I have to work fast and earn some money to spend freely…” he thought while watching the street rush past him.
These days, every large city in Central had switched to self-driving vehicles and adopted a speed-based lane system; as a high-level organization member, Alex could use the special fast lane reserved for government members, emergency services, and ‘system-critical businesses’.
“Ha, with money you can hire even a devil, they say; but did they ever pause to think about what the devil will do with their money?”
The term ‘system-critical businesses referred to those with an absurd amount of money and power, Alex knew to live the life he wanted…
“I will have to develop a business ‘system-critical’ enough to at least get me a fast pass.”
During his training he had thoroughly understood that things given by the Organization could just as easily be taken away again.
“While that may be the case, the big boss sure isn’t stingy this time,” he thought, exiting his car which had arrived in front of a small and by 21st century standards, modern mansion.
Although it looked classical to Alex, he knew it had all the high-tech accommodations the upper class in Central was used to:
The black-and white style face was not made of holo-material, thus, he wouldn’t be able to easily change its color.
But he knew that it was not marble, but the latest nuke-proof material.
“Although I cannot complain about my accommodations, I will never feel at home in a place I did not design myself.”
Alex had seen the blueprints and 3D view of the mansion beforehand, but…
“Did they put a hidden room? Hidden access tunnel?”
Hence, he personally measured and searched the actual building in person before finally settling down in the living room.
This had taken him quite some time, and the gentle light of the afternoon sun had been replaced by the red of sunset.
Alex had just connected his pie to the home station when…
“Ding!”
… a notification popped up in the holo space.
Working like this was more comfortable because of the higher quality 3D view and natural angle selection; and, although not relevant to the task at hand, the homestation had better specs and a faster network connection.
Tech-talk aside, Alex was currently responding the message which caused the notification.
“Sure. Instead of meeting outside, why don’t you give me your address?”
This was the response to a message from Weite, the retro robot loving dude from Deizh country, who had asked him if they could go ‘exploring’ right this very evening.
From the summary file on him, Alex already knew that Weite was living on campus and even his exact dormitory room; but this alone would not normally be enough for him to offer Weite a ride.
The reason for that was in the extended file displayed left to his chat with Weite: that dude was indeed poor and a scholarship student.
Since Alex had decided to take him in as his subor… ‘business partner’, he naturally wanted to show Weite the good life.
Wasn’t he just complaining for half a chapter that he had not earned any money yet?!
Indeed, still, the Organization knew to treat its high-level members well: his allow... umm mission funds were quite steep.
Now, if he gave Weite a meeting place... He was afraid the dude might chicken out!
Even the lower late-night establishments in a premium city like Toi were quite expensive, after all.
“Since I will be paying, I better pick him up.”
Alex was certain less than three people in this city could match him, anyways.
Although Weite had no status, at least he was a genius; to receive a Xin University scholarship one had to be at least a once-in-a-decade talent in their field.
“Thinking about it, what’s wrong with Deizh Country to not give someone like that proper funding?!”
The file gave him the answer: corruption and favoritism.
Weite with his honest personality did not know how to suck up to those of inferior intellect.
“Haha, better not make him the face of the company then.”
In addition, some family troubles severely impacted his ability to make connections.
“Ding!”
Weite had agreed; they’d be meeting at 11pm.
Till then there was quite some time left. After finishing Weite’s extended file, Alex opened the one of the big trouble-maker Wei.
How did Dawei manage to get into Xin?
Turns out, that moron was actually gifted as well.
“Fock, he is great at material science and interested in semiconductor technology?
“How come he is such a dunce outside of that?”
Since he had questions left unanswered after reading the file, he opened the psych data.
The Organization’s files were actually only partly machine-generated; because it had access to most of the data sent through the world-wide network, certain information was hard-coded to always appear in the summary and main file while an AI judged the relevancy of all other information.
Of course, files of important characters had multiple special human maintainers assigned to them to prevent machine error.
Needless to mention, Dawei Po was not deemed important.
Non-relevant information was then automatically sorted into various other collections.
The psych file held detailed information about mental state, intelligence assessments, etc.
“Seems like he originally had the ability to think. Now why did he only flourish in such a limited field by being an underperformer everywhere else?
“Haha, seems it is family troubles again.
“Hehe, perhaps I should help him study when I have the time...”
In a Toi City hospital capsule Dawei shivered, had the devil cast an eye on him again?
In this manner Alex finished reading through everyone’s files.
He still had some time left, so he spent it perfecting his plan for tonight’s entertainment as much as feasible.
Finally, he headed out to pick up Weite.
“Too bad he does not have a sister. A fiery red-head would surely be fun...”
Unfortunately, he knew from the file that Weite only had brothers.
When his car arrived in front of Xin’s northern access road, Weite was already waiting for him in a dull black leather jacket.
“I cannot take him to those places looking like this, or we won’t get any good girls,” Alex thought.
Luckily, they’d first be going to a different kind of bar.
“After, he should be light enough to agree to me investing in his dignity.”
Alex had gotten out of the car and greeted Weite, but the same was still standing there slightly stunned.
Then, he finally felt Alex’ questioning stare and snapped out of it.
“This... this car, is it yours?” Weite asked.
“It belongs to my family,” Alex provided him with the official explanation.
This answer made Weite look markedly nervous:
“Umm... I do not know... Can you tell me where will we go?”
For a moment, Alex wanted to mess with this dude, but then he remembered that there’d be enough for this later, so he responded honestly,
“Explore the city. I got a list of late-night establishments. First up is ‘Kay Bar’; do not worry, it’s in a 4th rank district.”
4th rank was the lowest rank a district in Toi City could have.
In simple terms, the lower the rank of a district the lower the cost of living there.
When Weite still looked hesitant, Alex got annoyed.
“Genius or not, my time is too precious to be wasted convincing others like this,” he sighed inwardly.
Outwardly he simply said, “Are you coming or not?” and got back in the car.
Only a few seconds later, Weite joined in.
While he was stunned by the luxurious interior, Alei had already set the course.
“Now, on to Kay Bar!”
