535 Grinding At School

I checked the apartment's log files and saw Gloria had left when her shift ended at 1 A.M. and Delamain drove her home. I watched the security footage of her shift in fast forward and then sent Delamain a thank you message for taking care of her. He sent back a short video of her safely entering the building.

“I can only thank you so many times before it becomes meaningless, choom.” I said with a laugh and used my program to check that she was safely in her apartment. As an actual thank you, I sent him a little hack that would let a short 5 second ad for his taxi service propagate through the all the display billboards across the city for the cost of one post, using part of the ad tracking program.

Because it would move in a rolling wave as it spread out, no one would complain that it had taken them all over at once or would gain his company the wrong kind of attention. It was his turn to thank me and he would use the extra proceeds to construct more cars to meet what he expected was going to be a huge surge in demand.

Instead of letting him take weeks to refurbish older versions of his taxis, or convert any scrap cars he could get his hands on, I sent him a referral to Atlas Incorporated. They had a subsidiary business for producing cheap raw materials and it wouldn't take much for them to produce the shells for the cars he wanted. All Delamain would need to do was install a proper receptacle for himself into them and then upload an instance of his main program.

“I can only thank you so many times before it becomes meaningless, choom.” Delamain repeated back to me and I laughed again.

“I'll make sure Atlas knows it's a priority. See you soon.” I said and cleaned myself with magic and dressed in my mostly repaired academy uniform. I pretended to grab my backpack from the closet and put the food printer into the back of it. No one knew how big it actually was, so claiming it was a backpack printer would be easily believed.

I left the apartment and went down the stairs at the same pace I went up them the night before, two at a time, and let gravity control my speed. It only took a third of the time and I had to slow down at the end to not bust through the door at the bottom of the stairwell.

The night security guard was there and his face was slack and his eyes were bloodshot. I didn't tell him he could close his eyes and monitor everything through his cyberware, that way his body had some rest while only his mind was occupied. I logged out, which didn't even get his attention, and I exited the building to find a Delamain taxi waiting for me.

“Long time no see.” I joked and climbed in.

“Considering I don't have physical eyes, I've never actually seen you.” Delamain said with a smile.

“Haha!” I barked a laugh. “Touche, choom. Touche.”

Delamain pulled away from the curb and into morning traffic. “I detected an odd metallic signature in your backpack. Can I inquire as to what it is?”

“Sure. It's not like it's a secret.” I said and mentally connected to the City Hall offices and entered the patent registration office. I filed dozens of patents for software and hardware, all of which was encrypted and had wrong information in it, so that no one could take them as they were and use them.

They would have to come to me for it all and they couldn't use them without my proprietary technology, which only I had at the moment. It was the only way to stop another corporation from taking everything and cutting me out completely.

“This my friend, is a food printer. It's based on the highly expensive backpack printer, heavily modified of course. It prints seedless food products molecule by molecule. It can even make bowls and things to hold them.” I explained.

Delamain's screen flickered once. “You have created a very dangerous thing, Veder.”

“Yeah, and Atlas Incorporated already bought it for an insane amount of money.” I said with a laugh. “This is only the prototype. The industrial size one he's going to build can print entire crops worth of food.”

Delamain shook his head. “Why are you taking it to school? Are you not worried someone will steal it?”

“It only works if you know how to use it.” I said, which I knew, because a drunk Gloria had tried to play with it and nothing happened. I replayed the footage again and it was funny to watch as she tried talking to it, tried to connect to it with her implant, and then offered it a drink to give her more potato chips.

“Good luck with that.” Delamain said as he pulled up to the curb down the street from where everyone else was being dropped off. “Have a good day at school.”

“Thanks, choom.” I said and he smiled. “I'll see you later tonight.”

Delamain drove away and I walked over to where the girls had gathered. Evelyn saw me first and she blushed, probably because I had kept the sulfuric acid molecule as my head decoration. She nudged the girl beside her, who just happened to be Carrie, whom looked up at me and whistled.

“Evelyn wasn't kidding. That's a preem look.” Carrie said.

I was pretty sure she didn't only mean my head design, since Evelyn did see me step out of the bath. I turned around to give them the full view and one of the bolder girls reached up and lightly traced the circles and lines on the side of my head.

“That's so nova.” Kei whispered.

“Thanks. It was Evelyn's suggestion to do a geometric pattern.” I said and Evelyn looked surprised I had given her credit. “After a bit of research on molecular diagrams, this was what I decided on.”

The girls praised the both of us for it, because it had worked out so well. It also gave them something to talk about until the front door opened and the students were allowed inside. Bruno gave my healed up look a sigh and a shake of his head. He knew I could have smashed the rest of the augmented athletes in the school and was sad I didn't qualify for my last term in the academy.

I handed him an apple as an apology and he didn't even hesitate as he ate it right there. He knew what would happen if he tried to bring it back to the break room where the other guards would see it. He'd have to fight to keep it or he'd lose it.

It was honestly impressive that he shoved the chord and all into his mouth and chewed on it. I held in my laugh, because he looked like an overstuffed chipmunk. The girls did not have my restraint and let out giggles and chuckles. He just waved us away and stood there by the door to make sure no one was left outside when classes started for the day.

We were almost at our homeroom class when the teacher approached us and handed me a hall pass and a note. I read it and nodded. It was from the Principal of the Arasaka Academy and I was to go to his office immediately. I whispered to the girls I was being called to the office and walked off before they could ask me why. Since I didn't know, I couldn't answer them anyway.

The secretary in front of his office waved me through without even looking at the pass and I entered the slightly dark office. Screens were everywhere, showing that he was watching multiple classes and hallways, which was a little odd to me. Shouldn't that be the guard's job?

As if he knew what I was thinking, he smiled and waved for me to sit in the chair in front of his desk. “It's getting close to final exams, Mr. Veder. I'm keeping an eye out for any talents that might appear before I'm bombarded with bribes and polite requests for information.”

I almost barked a laugh and he saw my amusement. I sat down and he took in a deep breath and let it out. It was almost like he was preparing to drop devastating news and I braced myself for the worst.

“The board of directors for Arasaka Academy, and more specifically myself, would like to apologize for the behavior of a former student.” The principal said, his voice grave. “His father was so deeply disappointed in his outrageous behavior that he pulled Katsuo Tanaka from our hallowed halls and stopped him from graduating.”

I blinked my eyes at that. As a corpo kid, the academy was the only way for him to enter the corporate world. It gave him the skills and knowledge needed to survive in a cutthroat world that was unforgiving and sometimes ruthless. If he didn't enter the corporate world, what was he going to do with his life?

“It is a tragic loss and his father has decided to retire from public life as well.” The principal said and pulled a large green envelope out of his desk. “This is the settlement payment he agreed to pay to not have his only son prosecuted and his name tarnished.”

I suddenly remembered using this same trick back when I was Clark Kent in the DC and Marvel combo world. Depending on the people's positive or negative reactions when they were presented, they were given more resources and better access to information they needed to succeed or left to flounder. I also remembered my teacher's advice about not being an idiot for accepting the first offer.

“I have a nearly airtight case, sir. His son killed me and I was only revived by sheer luck and Fate's hand.” I said and motioned to the envelope. “I doubt Mr. Tanaka knew that when making whatever offer that is.”

The principal looked surprised for a moment, then he nodded and put the green envelope away and pulled out a blue envelope. He slid it across the desk and it stopped right in front of me.

“An NDA will be required if you accept that.” The principal said. “There will be no mention of the crime, who was involved, or what you have been compensated with.”

“Standard procedure, then.” I said and he nodded. I opened it and pulled out the paperwork.Holy shit, that's a lot of zeroes.I thought when I saw the deposit request and I didn't let it show on my face.

Arasaka really didn't want anyone to know that someone from their company had committed murder in front of so many witnesses. Well, technically it was only attempted murder, since I did come back to life afterwards.

I read the Non-Disclosure Agreement and there were no hidden clauses or invisible ink. I flipped it over and there were no embedded printing or subdermal ink anywhere. When I looked up from the paper at the principal, I saw approval on his face. That was proof enough that it was legitimate, so I signed it and passed it back to him.

“We are glad you agreed, Mr. Veder.” He said with satisfaction. “You may return to your class.”

“Yes, sir.” I said and stood, bowed my head slightly, and left the office. I received a notification that all that money was deposited into my account and I immediately transferred it into another protected account, one that was associated with Atlas Incorporated, and invested into my own company.

That technically made it a publicly traded company, since it now had a private investor. With that in place, a few pokes at City Hall's servers added the corporation to the stock market listings. I set the initial stocks to number only 1,000 and then divided the settlement payment by that.

By the time I made it back to class and entered the VR Green Room, the stock listing appeared officially and became one of the most expensive and highest rated stocks on the current market at 50,000 Eurodollars a share.

I met up with the girls as they were discussing today's subject, diversification of assets, and I downloaded the remaining copy of the file the teacher provided, after checking it of course, and joined in the discussion.

Both Kei and Evelyn gave me longing looks, as if wondering if the caramel center inside would be worth taking the time to lick their way in or if they should bite into it right away. Carrie on the other hand, seemed to be conflicted about something and kept giving me searching looks. I wasn't sure why, though.

*

No one really noticed the change in the stock market ticker going across the bottom of the news station feeds. It was just a new abbreviation that appeared with a number and letter afterwards that was probably an error. Then it repeated after the long stock list rotated through again and it had the same number.

It was dismissed as a mistake at first, since there had been no public announcement of any company starting with those initials. On the third, fourth, and fifth roll through, the number on the new stock listing didn't change. The floor manager at one of the stations had the presence to call City Hall and ask if they showed the same error on their end, since it was supposed to be a live feed.

The clerk checked their servers and everything was working properly, as was the data feeds to the news stations. So, he checked the computers manually and found the same error, only according to the records and the logs, it wasn't an error. Someone had registered a new corporation and sold 1,000 stocks for 50,000 eddies each. It was a complete shock!

The clerk told the floor manager at the station he would call him back once they straightened things out and ran for his supervisor. The man checked as well, then gasped, then ran for his boss with the clerk right behind him. The scene was repeated with the department head and they all ended up in the mayor's office in a huddle and the servers were once again checked.

“It's true?” The large and corpulent black man asked. He was the mayor of Night City, Lucius Rhyne.

“Yes, sir. It only just happened this morning, which is why everyone's freaking out about it.” The head of the finance department answered. “No one is sure how such a thing went completely unnoticed, especially with how stringent the approval process is for new businesses.”

The smarmy guy with the smarmy smile felt his ears burn for a moment, shrugged, and went back to screwing his secretary's perky ass on his desk. He really loved his cushy job.

“What do we do about it?” The supervisor asked.

The mayor took a breath and let it out. “There's nothing we can do. It's legitimate and the paperwork's all filed and approved.”

“But, sir...” The finance department head started to say.

“No, I don't know why we didn't get our cut of the bribes or even part of the stocks in exchange. The city's board of directors is supposed to handle all of that.” The mayor said and swiftly stood, his large bulk not hindering him at all. “I'll be having a meeting with them to see what else has been going on in my city offices without me knowing about it!”

The three men exchanged relieved looks, because none of them had been blamed for it or lost their jobs. By silent agreement, they all went back to work and if anyone asked them about it, they pretended they didn't know anything.

*

Lunch was a nice affair as the girls brought me over to the table I usually sat at by myself. We all had trays of food from the vending machines and we all talked about class and how micromanaging things could be both beneficial and also a pain in the ass. You couldn't get too specific or you would lose focus of the overall project, which I pointed out was what happened when her did that program the week before.

They all instantly understood and gave me appreciative smiles, because giving them a real life practical demonstration to use as a reference, settled the last of the morning's lesson into their memories.

“Veder? Can I talk to you for a few minutes?” Carrie asked when there was about ten minutes left before lunch was over.

“Sure, just let me make something for the girls to chew on before class starts.” I said and picked up my backpack from the floor and opened it up to show the front of the device. “Before you ask, it's just a simple prototype. I already sold the plans to Atlas Incorporated.”

The girls all looked intrigued as I plugged it into the wall and then navigated the menu choices and chose the bowl of cherries option. They watched, completely fascinated, as the micro-server control arms moved in a blur and assembled the bowl and the fruit inside a molecule at a time. The soft ding told them it was done and I lifted out the bowl and set it on the table.

“Enjoy.” I said and unplugged the machine and closed the backpack.

All of them stared at me with their mouths hanging open. A couple of them weren't even breathing. I reached over and lightly slapped Kei on the back and she sucked in a huge breath. That seemed to knock them out of their shock and they bombarded me with many questions, a few specifically from Kei about how I must have used it to give her so many delicious tomatoes.

“Carrie asked to speak with me privately.” I said instead of answering any of them and took the girl's hand and led her across the cafeteria to the door. “See you all in class.”