Starting from Zero

Chapter 2

Book 4, Chapter 2

Father"s Invitation

    We left the scene and headed towards theLost City. I think it"s a good idea to get Yuri some more levels.

    I received amessage from Wayne when we reached the city.

    "Where are you, boss?"

    "Theteleport station in Lost City. Why?"

    "Your father called you!"
   

    "My old man?"

    "Yeah. He asked me to tell you, go to Dragon Fate"sNew Nanjing Branch tomorrow. Oh and, bring Rose with you."

    "Alright. What are you doing now?"

    "Leveling in the forest near Lost City."

    "Come to me.I brought a friend, help her grind a bit."

    "A minute!"

    He came out of the station." "Sup boss. What--Wow! "

    Wayne stared at Yuri, drooling."O fair maiden, may I ask how did you know my boss?"

    Yuri giggled at Wayne"s silly expression.

    Withoutgetting an answer, Wayne turned to me. "Impressive. You got twoalready? Come on, when are you planning to help a poor brother out?"

    "Drop it. Since I got other business, I"ll have toask you for help to level her up. Take good care of her, she"s special and she"seven more squishy than a mage."

    "Squishy than mage? How is that possible?"

    "It willtake some explanation. Just ask her when you grind. Ok, I"m off now."

    "Roger that. Leave it to me." Wayne made a "ladyfirst" gesture. "This way please, ma"am."

    Phew. That"s a lot of work done today. I called Rose totell her the plan and hit the hay early.

  

    I drove to pick up Rose the next morning. She picked aformal outfit for the day, because she"s going to "meet the elders", asshe said.

    "Oh dear. You look like some super able career woman now."

    "Ow come on. It"s for you! You said dad gotsomething really serious to tell us right? I should behave. Theproblem is...What"s that on you? Shorts? Seriously? Go change it!"

    "No need for that."

    "Not good. Changeup. No buts."

    I was forced into a suit in the end. I rarely wear thisthing, now I feel all uncomfortable.

    When we reached the branch a senior manager is alreadywaiting for us. He jogged towards our car when he saw us, but stopped in histracks when we got out of the car.

    "My apologizes. Which one is masterSairin?"

    Rose tried to hold back her laughter.

    Sigh.

    "...That"s me."

    "Here"s the address code. The president asked me togive you this."

    "Huh? Nowthis is strange. Why didn"t he just tell me the place yesterday?"

    We went back intothe car and inserted the disk-like object into the navigator. A path appearedon the display.

    "...Outside the city?"

    "Just go!" Rose urged me. "I got a lotof experiment to do! I wouldn"t be out here at all if anyone else called me."

    "Okay okay. As you wish, my lady!"

    As sheordered, I raced the car towards the destination like a roller coaster, whilecausing Rose to scream several times. I guess I"ll receive a bunch more "girlypunches" again.

    "So..where are we?" Rose looked around theplain ground.

    There is a forest in front of us. The dense vegetationsin there don"t seem to belong to this season.

    "There arejust trees. Why would dad ask us here?" Rose scratched her head, unable totake in the situation.

    But I"m different. I"ve been to a dozen or so of thecorporation"s secret labs. None of them were built anywhere found in commonsenses.

    I was right. A row of yellow alarm lights appeared on the ground aheadand started blinking. After several seconds, the lights rose--no, the groundbeneath them rose upward.

    When the movement stopped, a tunnel about 10 metersin width has appeared in front of our car. I glanced at Rose, it seemssomething in her head stopped moving as well.

    Nothing special to me. I waitedfor the lights to turn into green arrow marks and drove down the tunnel.

    The entrance closed up again behind us. Typical.

    b.u.mp!

    We didn"t go far before the car dropped to the ground like an iron block. There"sno error on the display but I just can"t get it floating again.

    Rose recovered from her shock. "Whathappened? The car broke?"

     "Can"t moveit. But the car is all right. I think something in the base caused it. Don"tworry, the car got a backup system."

    I pushed a b.u.t.ton below the controlsand released the car wheels. Usually the wheels are kept inside the fairingsh.e.l.l to minimize pneumatic resistance. Now I"ll rely on them.

    After some more driving I noticed that we"re going in acircled direction. The tunnel is like a spiral stair, which means the base isdeep under us.

    We reached the end--a large parking lot.

    "Son! Here!"

    Father is standing near theentrance. I didn"t saw him cause I was driving too fast!

    We pulled the car and walked to him. "Hey dad. So...whydid you call me?"

    "Oh, nothing."
   

    "Nothing??"Well that"s unexpected.

    "I"m looking for dear Rose.It"s not safe for her to travel here alone so I called you along. You"re just herbodyguard plus driver."

    "That"s not--muuuf--"
   

    Rose covered my mouth. "You need me, father?"

    "Follow me. Let"s sit down and talk."

    Fatherled us into an elevator. And...more elevators. Then we finally arrived at something like a waitingroom.

    "You know, Rose, I"m positive you two"s business is guaranteednow, that is, I don"t need to hide much secret from you. I"ve read youreconomy simulation experiment. It looks good! Several days ago I sent anopinion letter to the State Council to have a look about your plans."

    "But...what"s my experiment todo with the State Council? I"m just studying on the relationships and effectsbetween economy and the society, is that important?"

    Father raised a hand. "Listen to me. You may notknow it but your theory is highly valuable. We tried to adjust some of yourvariables. The outcome is not perfect but is enough to pump some surprises intothose old-school researchers. I asked you here to invite you into ourcorporation."

    "You want me to work in Dragon Fate??"

    I seestars in her eyes. Now I"m quite certain a position in Dragon Fate is even moreattractive than her future husband.

    "I"m serious. You"re a worthy talent that we wouldnot hesitate to recruit even if you"re not my daughter-in-law. Now this is oneof the situations where we would meet much contradictions--we need talentedpeople, yet we cannot tell them too much about our secrets. But there"s nothingto worry if it were you. I can leave all kinds of matters in your hands. By theway, Sairin would need a helper too. He may not be one of the spoiled rich kids,but he"s totally the amateur when it comes to running a business. Do you knowwhy we welcomed you without any problems when you first came to our house? Usuallywe won"t accepting something so important without doing enough researches first."

    Rose shook her head.

    "Ahem. Wealready checked your files beforehand, including your ongoing project. I"m quiteimpressed by your talent in the field of economy. I"m already worrying that Imay not find a successor for my little empire. Now you gave me hope. So what doyou say? Will you come to Dragon Fate?"

    "STOP!!"

    I pulled them away when the twosmart guys are about to shake hands as if they just agreed on some super-duperimportant trade partnership.

    "Just, hold it! Dad? Rose is a nice girl, we"dbetter not get her involved in all those fishy business out there."

    "Oh don"t worry, Sairin. I want to try it out! Please?"

    Roseclamped onto my arm like a cat. Man I can"t resist those puppy dog eyes! Now Iknow why rulers would always ruin their throne when there"sa beautiful woman around.

    "Ok ok! I surrender!!"

    Father continued once we settled down. "Rose"sproject was just theoretic, but we added some detailed adjustments and now it"scompletely practical."

    "Adjustments?"We both asked.

    "True. The original topic was a mere relationalmodel, now we turned it into a deadly weapon!" Father is talking with muchenthusiasm. I think he"s about to dance, with that arm movement.

    "Wait, weapon? But isn"t Rose studying economics?"

    "That"s also true. I"m not talking about thosemilitary weapons. This plan works on the economy level, it will easily get awhole nation under control if successfully executed."

    "Really??"

    "Exactly. Andof course, we need the cooperation from various aspects to achieve that...butthat"s not important for now. And Rose, you can stop your college work now. Go straight to the corporation for your researches. Our specialists all wanted toinquire about your thoughts. Face to face. We got a whole lot of betterequipment than your school too."

    "Understood! Can I have a look at myworkplace?"

Remember that the game supports real-money trading? It"s meant to act as a giant money-bomb.

And no, this is not spoiler. It"s in the story synopsis but I never mentioned it...
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