Corpo Age-Chapter 275: The Last Plan

“Well, your wound is stabilized. You can take all the time you need to select the right cyberarm for you,” I gently explained to my patient. “Let me know if there’s something you’re interested in. Even if we don’t carry it, I’ll try to procure it before the day ends.”

The young man before me simply nodded and drew his attention back to the terminal before him. His companions beside him bowed my way, a gesture of apology on his behalf. I smiled as I exited the room to give them some privacy. Well, Lanus would be monitoring them, so I wouldn’t say it was completely private, but it was what they perceived that mattered when it came to customers.

From my experience dealing with these types of clients, I knew they would take some time going over their options, so I made my way to the lobby. A stroll didn’t sound like a bad idea, but I would likely have to face all the work I had put off until now. Breaks never lasted long enough.

I childishly waited until I exited the hospital, taking the time to inspect every element that came into view. It was new, but otherwise of typical construction. The only notable aspect of it would be in the medical equipment. They were top-of-the-line and didn’t even need the intervention of doctors most of the time. The AI carried out most procedures, with only the need for supervision. It was what enabled us to build dozens of hospitals within a few months, a feat I was particularly proud of.

After all, I was the one to design and manufacture them. I didn’t have a lot of upgrade points to spare, but my continuous visits to the wastelands helped remedy that a lot.

Besides, focusing on medical pursuits was never a bad idea. Who knew what the higher levels of it entailed? It was only after indulging in all the new knowledge thrown into my head that I realized there were so many opportunities before me. In fact, I even suspected I could solve aging given more time. I had been blind to the potential of the system, until now, when my pressing need for power to protect myself waned.

NPC had kept up his part of the deal so far. SocialCorp under his leadership had become our close allies, sharing their expansive libraries of exclusive tech with us. That gave me the leeway to focus my upgrades on less militaristic options. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

At the same time, my company has been able to expand at an exponential rate ever since the battle against Silas ended. Previously, we were cautious about our expansions as it dipped into the other corporation’s market shares. We avoided revealing tech that was too eye-catching as well, lest those same corporations came knocking on our doors for the profitable new market we would be creating. However, with SocialCorp as your ally, none of that remained a problem.

The first action I took was to upgrade Lanus as much as I could afford. We wouldn’t need to be siphoning the hardware purchased under the guise of our game companies. We could put in large orders of processors and such, expanding Lanus’ capabilities greatly, which in turn accelerated all our research projects.

Keeping true to our previous principles, we sold neutered versions of the tech we made for ourselves to maximize our efficiency. That meant starships. SocialCorp’s manufacturing assistance allowed us to catapult into the market. Instead of stealth and particle armaments, our main selling points were comfort and efficient spaceships. We heavily advertised our smart systems that allowed for our ships to require less crew, almost flaunting the artificial intelligence capabilities.

It wasn’t because we found ourselves to be king, ignoring any law we saw fit, as the other corporations interpreted, but because it was a setup for what was to come. NPC’s AI governance plan was slowly being carried out in the background.

I had found out the limit of my system, bringing my software engineering to twenty points. Ever since, I have been slowly tackling the daunting task of creating the perfect AI that could take over administrative duties for well—the world.

The progress could be said to be both slow and fast. There were so many moving parts we had to account for. It wasn’t just simply mashing together some code to spawn a sentient overlord, and that was it. We had to make the system as foolproof as possible, accounting for malicious actors that would try to corrupt everything.

It led to the need to educate the populace so that they were fluent enough in AIs to monitor for any tampering. It was hard to balance it, so they knew enough to spot the issue and were equipped to handle issues without teaching them how to override the system. Nefarious parties could figure it out eventually, but we didn’t want to make it easy for them.

As soon as I took a step out of the hospital, I sighed and resolved to place a call back to my company. It only rang once before I could hear Claire’s voice blaring in my auditory implants.

“Rollo, where are you? Lanus has been pinging me about the completion of your stupid stealth ship every hour. And that’s on top of every other department pinging me to make decisions that are for you! Just managing the production of the programming cassettes is driving me crazy. Can you get your ass out of Lab Zero or wherever you are and come do your work already?”

I patiently listened to Claire’s complaints as I entered one of The Milkshake Halls located right next to my hospital. By the time Claire was done talking my ear off, I was already halfway through the milkshake I ordered and strolling through the streets.

“All right, Claire. I’ll be back later today. You can leave everything to Lanus until then.”

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“You—god damn it. Whatever, understood. You are the boss, after all. Gosh, it’s my fault for not handing in my letter of resignation.”

Disconnecting from the call, I leisurely took in my surroundings. Elevate City didn’t seem to change much. I could hear the distinct sound of gunfire in the distance while everyone in business attire nearby wore the same blank expressions as if they had sold their souls away. Occasionally, I could spot the gangbangers or mercenaries lurking in the alleyways or near their vehicle. They sized me up as I passed by, but I didn’t mind.

Having lost an arm a year prior, I took the opportunity to revamp my look. All my cyberware was covered by a layer of synth skin now. A necessity of my occupation. It made me look like an easy mark to the street thugs of the city, but it also made negotiations smoother when I conformed to the corporate culture, and those were vital for our plans.

As much as we wanted to defang the military power from the corporations, we couldn’t carry it out blatantly. We had to befriend them, conduct espionage missions, target their weaknesses, and make ample use of mercs to create infighting between them. The weaker they got, the easier it would be to demilitarize them.

During my little walk, I couldn’t help but notice a convenience store from the same chain I used to work at when I first arrived in this world. I smiled as I went inside for old times’ sake.

The bored-looking cashier barely glanced up before looking back down at the terminal in his hand. I strode through the aisles, carefully inspecting the snacks and drinks on sale. I shook my head as I read the labels. Having gained more knowledge in biochemistry from working in the medical field, I knew half of the ingredients listed were flat-out harmful for human consumption.

The carcinogens were the least people should be worried about if they ate this stuff on a regular basis. The buildup of various heavy metals would come to bite them a lot sooner. Within a decade or two, they would surely need their organs replaced, which I guess fed into the cybernetic business, completely within corporate interest.

Just as I inspected yet another drink, an alert obscured my vision, and time slowed down around me as my co-processor worked its magic. A feed from an aerial drone hanging above me then popped up, showing two armed individuals dashing toward the store from the car they just exited.

My system flagged them as a threat due to their demeanor, but they hadn’t done anything wrong yet, so I just let them be and resumed my inspections of the wares the store carried. Time accelerated back to normal as I crouched down to go over the bottom rows of drinks. Then the door swung open as the two individuals barged in.

One walked straight to the cashier while the other stood by the door as he glanced around the store. He failed to notice me, who was crouching down by the fridges.

I sighed when I noticed the new visitors unholstering their guns, with the former placing it on the counter between him and the cashier while the other simply held it at the ready.

“Hey Co, you better empty everything you got in that register of yours if you know what’s good for you,” I overheard the words the armed man whispered over to the cashier.

Seeing a gun pointed his way, the worker no longer looked bored, but instead terrified. He held up both hands while looking down at the register, unsure if he should lower his hands to work it.

“You deaf? I said credits. Now!”

I sighed at the scene, taking another look at the two robbers. They didn’t bother to hide their faces and looked to be barely eighteen. I wasn’t sure if it was some gang initiation or if they just wanted the money, but they seemed new to this. It was obvious they were pumped up with adrenaline.

“Hey C, hurry up!” the robber on lookout yelled.

That prompted his friend to stick his gun closer to his victim’s face.

This feels like déjà vu, except I’m on the other side of the counter this time.

Not wanting this to go on any further, I decided to intervene and stood up. My sudden appearance made the lookout jump before he pointed his pistol at me. I didn’t bother to even make use of my active camouflage and just shook my head at him. The tiny firearm he had would barely even leave a mark on my synth skin, not that he would be able to land a shot. My optics were locked onto the threats, my body was ready to accelerate at a moment’s notice.

The reason I even bothered to reveal myself to them first was so that their attention was on me, and not on the attendant. The last thing I needed was for them to accidentally pull the trigger if I spooked them.

I slowly walked down an aisle toward the cashier with my hands up.

“You boys seriously settling for this low-paying job? What percentage of people do you think even use cash?”

“Fuck off, corpo scum. Empty your pockets and whatever accessories you have. Your type likes their watches, don’t you?”

They were wrong. Wearing a suit was the most I could stomach. I’d much rather be in my power armor most of the time, or some comfy loungewear.

I didn’t bother correcting them, as I felt the world slow down around me. My systems were all green, everything was working perfectly. I quickly dashed across the store, ripping the weapons out of the robbers’ hands, and then unloading them, including the bullet in the chamber.

Despite mostly using particle beams or coilguns, it was more difficult to forget how to handle these low-level firearms than not.

When the time flow returned to normal, I was standing next to the robber by the cashier, with their guns neatly laid on the counter.

“If you want some creds, I could hook you up with a job,” I offered.

“What the fuck?” an obnoxious cry sounded out from beside me. “How the fuck did you do that? J, shoot this motherfucker!”

“C, stop! I think we should go!” the street rat by the door, suggested.

“If you want, I could introduce you to a QG, too. Depends on the career path you want.”

It took them a few more seconds for the robber beside me to realize their situation. He alternated between the two guns on the counter and his companion, then to me.

“Come on,” I urged. “I’m offering you something way better than the couple hundred of creds you can get from this store here.”

Dumb and dumber gathered together and stared at me blankly. I could tell they were conversing through their cybernetics, but I didn’t bother to eavesdrop. As a respectable individual who had ample experience in both corporate and mercenary life, I patiently awaited their answer.