Corpo Age

Chapter 213: Rookie Operative

Andrew - Halls Corporation

After a night of progress, Andrew had gotten the hang of how the Legend of the Mythic War worked. He at least learned about how to level up, and the basic skills he started off with as a rogue.

At some point during the night, he began to lose concentration. He had been warned about it happening, so he wasn’t too worried. Instead, he relaxed and allowed his thoughts to wander.

Eventually, he felt like he was floating in a pool of water. The liquids beneath him were cool and comfortable. Even when some of it got into his ear, and then went further into his head, it all felt soothing to him.

Glimpses of various scenes flashed by him until he finally snapped out of it. He found himself standing around in the middle of the forest, still logged into his character in virtual reality.

He took a moment and glanced down at his hands as he processed what he gained.

Can’t say that was nothing. The cassette sure did its thing all right.

Despite being unable to exactly verbalize it, Andrew felt different in his skin. At the same time, there was a bunch of new knowledge in his memories. It pertained to how one could read the common ticks a person had for certain behaviors. It wasn’t comprehensive to cover everything, but today was only the start.

As he was instructed, Andrew continued to play the game. He fulfilled quests, killed monsters, fetched items, and looted everything he could. He slowly but surely progressed until he hit the point where he needed to enter an instance with other players.

“Hey, you! What are you doing? Hurry up and let’s get moving!” a young girl got into Andrew’s face and shouted.

He glanced above her head and found the name QueenDiva above her head.

“Okay…QueenDiva.”

“What are you looking at me for? You’re supposed to start the fight by knocking out one of the guards. Do you know how to do it?”

Andrew looked over and found the other members of the party glancing over at him as well. He sighed and proceeded to activate his stealth ability.

Why is it that even when I’m in a game world, I feel like I’m being ordered around to do the same things?

While Andrew obliged and fulfilled his role in the group, he also took the opportunity to put the new knowledge he gained to the test. For the first day, he simply read their emotion. It was hard to tell if he got anything wrong.

That changed within the next few days. He received knowledge on how to subtly coax information from his targets. He began putting them to the test.

His special education course lasted an entire ten days. Once he was done, he immediately reported back to the superior who had put him up to it.

“Ma’am, I’ve completed the course. I’ve disposed of the material as you instructed as well,” he saluted to the woman across the screen.

“Good. It’s about time. You should carry out the mission immediately. We want to have it done before our CEO comes out of his workshop.”

“Understood!”

With his new orders, he got started on his investigation right away. First, he reviewed what concrete information he had, and then did his own research online to fill the gaps. It didn’t take long, as the only intel he received was the company to be investigated and the location of their businesses spread around the city.

That lasted until the evening. Then, Andrew left the company building for the first time in ten days.

He left, knowing exactly where to go. Instead of taking a taxi, he found himself an old-fashioned bike rental. His new training informed him of all the easily accessible ways to track those who used vehicles filled with cameras like taxis, or public transit.

The antique bicycle he got may not score high in the looks department, but it still worked fine. It was one of the cheaper methods of transportation on Aegis, but even then, most workers chose public transit.

Few people wanted to exert themself traveling after a long day of work. Andrew was the exception, of course. He was fully outfitted with a complete set of cybernetics, which included all his limbs. Pedaling a bike was effortless before the might of technology.

As always, once he found himself in a secluded spot, he activated his Shade to cover himself with a projection. He didn’t have his power armor with him this time, as it was just too bulky. It wasn’t suitable for missions where he had to make direct contact with anyone.

With a destination in mind, he rode through the dirty roads of Aegis, stopping before a rowdy street. It was filled with pubs, clubs, and all sorts of establishments to relieve a worker’s stress. Even the corpos knew their workers needed to relieve their stress in order to stay productive.

The entire area was jam-packed with workers who had gotten off their shifts. Andrew moved along the street, making his way down to the other end. It was there he spotted one of the warehouses belonging to his target, Astro Forge.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He observed the entrance until he found a group of three men exiting the facility. They merrily walked into one of the nearby pubs, without realizing they were being tailed. Andrew spotted them taking a seat at the bar counter, so he sat beside them without any hesitation.

Plopping himself down, he drew the attention of his targets.

“And who are you?” the smallest of the three asked with a frown.

“I’m Tyler.”

“Well, Tyler. You see, there are a lot of other seats around here. Mind giving us some space before it gets busy in here?”

“Oh, come on. Do me a favor and don’t be a stranger, would you? I wanted to drink with someone before my shift. I’m new here.”

“Are you? Shift three, eh? A tough one for newcomers.”

The man answered, but wasn’t exactly enthusiastic.

“Here, how ’bout I get a round for you boys?”

“Ha, now we talking.”

This scene was a run-of-the-mill scene, so none of the other patrons paid any mind to it. The bar was only half-full, allowing them to chat without being overpowered by background noises.

Like that, Andrew began coaxing his three new friends about some basic information. He started with general information about Aegis, and then moved on to their interests. Then, he shifted toward the topic of their job.

“That’s a shame. If you didn’t have so many shifts to cover, maybe you could go Nessy’s more.”

“Ha, with the way our company runs things, I even have to go in during my off days. There’s always someone coming down with some injury or illness that I have to cover for.”

“Oh? What do you guys do at your company that regularly injuries? Mine just finds a replacement whenever they need.”

As it went deeper into the night, Andrew’s acquaintances got more drunk. Their lips got looser, but they still had the restraint to not delve into sensitive topics. But that was enough for Andrew.

He only needed basic information, and a lot of it. The intel he prized the most was the contact of others within the company. Using a combination of social media, names, and titles he received, he could then track them down and repeat his intel-gathering activities.

Hmm, this would be a lot easier if I hit the jackpot and find someone willing to sell out their company.

Having recorded the data from a live session with the D-Mother drones, I went into my workshop and focused on fine-tuning it right away. I also had to configure my workshop, so it took longer than expected.

It was fine though, as I knew we needed some time to gather accurate intel. I’ve been bitten too many times to be negligent about information before picking a fight. If I could have it my way, I wouldn’t want to fight at all. However, it was obvious from Astro Forge’s attitude that they didn’t take us seriously.

We were a new D-Class corporation while they were an established C-Class. Despite only being one class differential, the usual gulf between them was likely wider than the gap between D-Class and G-Class.

That was because of the fierce competition within the corporate world. Those who could stably hold on to greater wealth each had their own unique advantages. Class progression usually took years and years. The foundation one built from that wasn’t so easy to overturn.

Combined with the fact that our company was so new, everyone knew how shallow our foundation was.

The larger corporations may have capable intel departments that knew about our irregularities, but Astro Forge obviously didn’t. I suspected that was true for most other midsize corporations as well.

There were just too many companies in the world. They couldn’t keep track of all of them, especially if I hadn’t entered their niche.

This caused us to be underestimated, which made doing business very difficult. If I wanted to reach out to Astro Forge to become our supplier right now, like in our previous conversation, we would simply be stone-walled.

It was something we faced early on in Elevate City and something that couldn’t be fixed in an instant. That was, unless we showed some teeth. Which led me to my plan here. To attack Astro Forge into submission, forcing them to sign a favorable agreement with us.

This heavily depended on the nature of their management team. If they were especially stubborn, our attack would have no effect. We would have to adjust our strategy or even consider eliminating the harmful elements, so they could be replaced by cooler heads.

The answers I needed were in the file I had found in my inbox. It came in just last night, which prompted me to finish up with my drones.

Before I opened it, I sent a message to Claire and Thorne, asking them if they had read it.

*Nope, I didn’t get sent a copy. Must be waiting for you to review first,* Claire messaged.

I received a similar response from Thorne, so I called them both to my workshop. While I waited, I read through the report first. The two of them hadn’t arrived even after I finished, so I went over the minor details, opening up some of our internal files on how our operatives retrieved the intel.

I opened my eyes wide when I saw the name of the primary agent. It was Andrew, a member of my elite team who has been with me for some time now. He was part of numerous important operations, but I didn’t expect to see him in an investigative report.

It only took me a few moments of searching through the backdoors of our company app for me to find records of how the mission landed on his lap.

Ha, seriously? They made him train to be an operative and everything. I guess it is my fault that the role landed on him, but the number of people in our company who have experience operating in space is just too low.

I could barely contain my laughter when I went over the part where he had been playing virtual reality games for the first time to train. The young man played every night while he slept. It was something Lanus found to be useful in getting people to put their newly gained skill sets into practice.

In Andrew’s case, it obviously worked. In the report, he managed to gain lots of background info by chatting with an Astro Forge employee, and from there, he acquired contacts for more employees. He eventually even found someone in middle management who was willing to share their experiences with their bosses for a small bribe.

The information wasn’t anything critical, but it showed a lot about loyal they were. It was also thanks to them that we got an idea about the personality of their owner.

While going over some footage of Andrew’s time in the Legend of the Mythic War, the door to my workshop opened.

“This place…is messier than even lab zero,” my COO commented as soon as she walked in.

“That place has dozens of assistants, and my setup is already configured there. I need to adjust things on the fly here,” I retorted.

“Hmm, it’s about the same as his first workshop in the clinic. And you’d think he’d get his act together since then.” Thorne received the baton from Claire, continuing the criticism.

I shook my head, and no longer bothered to respond while I skimmed over the report one more time. Then, I handed my tablet over for the others to read.

I gave them a chance to finish reading it before I spoke.

“What do you think?”

Claire didn’t even look up at me and simply sighed.

“What else is there to say? The report answered everything we needed to know. You know exactly how we should proceed.”