Corpo Age

Chapter 222: Putting on a Show

I watched as everyone in the club froze for a split second after I introduced myself. It wasn’t the exact reaction I had been expecting, but I waited until they caught their breath before I continued.

“Some of you may be wondering, but yes, I am from the Halls Corporation that most of you should be here for tonight.”

At my declaration, a few people instantly shouted with various questions or cries of disbelief.

“A rich scion of some corp is here? You sure you’re not fucking with us?”

“Don’t be so easily fooled, guys! No way someone so high up on the ladder would come here.”

“Hey, are the rumors about your salaries and benefits true?”

Seeing the chaos, I quickly had my vocal cybernetic amplify my voice.

“Everyone!” I silenced the crowd with overwhelming volume. “I understand that you all have a lot of questions and you’re eager for answers, but I can only answer them one at a time. Please raise your hands and only speak when I call on you.”

The chatter from the surroundings quickly became soft whispers with several people raising their hands. It was likely as quiet as it could get, so I proceeded to pick one from within the audience.

“You there in the navy overalls and the red beard,” I said, pointing at a random gentleman.

“I am Randall, sir. I wanted to ask what’s been on everyone’s mind. Are the rumors true? Will your company really pay us the same amount but for less work?”

As I expected, they immediately questioned if our six-day work week with a comparable salary was true. It was our major selling point and something we had crafted after many trials and errors.

We couldn’t afford to offer significantly higher pay out of the blue. Blatantly increasing our costs in the employee salary department would be like yelling at our competitors to take advantage of it. It would encourage predatory pricing strategies, trying to force us out of their market. It was something they wouldn’t hesitate to do, because, in their viewpoint, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot and presenting ourselves on a silver platter.

That was why we had to move the benefits from just monetary salaries into our other benefits. Benefits that were a lot harder for our competitors to gauge the costs, as the details weren’t out to the public. Even if a former employee did leak them, they still wouldn’t get precise numbers, either.

For example, it was quite difficult to estimate how much the medical coverage cost when prices varied so wildly depending on connections and the capabilities of companies that could provide those services in-house.

“While I am not sure what you’ve heard, but yes, our salaries are comparable to the market rate, and we require only six workdays each week. In fact, if you take into account our other benefits, such as our comprehensive medical coverage, employee meals, and housing subsidies, you will be earning a quarter more than what most company offers!”

Excited murmurs could be heard throughout the venue as I continued on to the next person.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“Sir, my name is Cody. I am very interested in your company and have many new rumors about it. I wanted to know if it’s true that you guys have established a new deal with Astro Forge?”

“That’s correct. Despite being so new, we’re quite connected and excited to expand into Aegis and beyond. That’s why we’re so eager to hire all of you here. Our analysts forecast exponential growth within the next few years.”

This time, I tried to play up my company as much as I could. While the questions seem to stem from a curiosity about the direction our company was taking, it could also be considered a question of our strength. They wanted to know if we really did come across Astro Forge and settle our conflict in such a short time. I had to give them confidence that our company wouldn’t go under as quickly as we appeared.

The next few questions were more specific to the role of the asker, regarding if their roles would be the same, the possibility of promotions, and how we handle resettling their family into our dorms.

All those questions let me settle in, which contributed to me getting off guard when a seemingly normal middle-aged man went next.

“My name is Zackery, and my question is a two-parter. First, you said your name was Rollo Halls, and from what I’ve read, that’s the name of the CEO of the Halls Corporation. Is that you?”

“Umm, yes. There’s only one Rollo Halls in our company and it’s me.”

“I see. Then why did you decide to come here in person?”

The man gave me a sharp glare, as if to ask if I had certain proclivities that would make me enjoy lording over them or something more nefarious. It made me feel like the bad guy, who he suspected came here just to play around with them.

The man’s questions swiftly turned the rowdy atmosphere in the club into dead silence as everyone waited to hear my reply. It was the most quiet it had been all night.

I couldn’t exactly say that it was because our Aegis branch was short-handed, and I thought I was more persuasive to them. It was something too arrogant to say out loud.

Memories of an old show I used to watch came to mind. It was a scene of a legal expert explaining why one shouldn’t represent themselves. One of those reasons was the very same one as why I couldn’t formulate an answer right away. It was hard to speak about yourself in a good light without coming off as arrogant.

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Quick, Rollo, think of something else to say. Something more diplomatic.

“I, umm, how should I word it? Hmm, I guess you can say I like meeting people in person before working with them. After all, my employees are the backbone of my company. It would be ridiculous if I had never met the people who keep our gears turning.”

I discreetly sighed upon hearing the crowd let out gasps of admiration and approval, but Zackery’s piercing glare didn’t move away from me. However, seeing he didn’t say anything more, I quickly moved on to the next person for their question.

After what felt to be several days of questioning, the crowd finally began to be satisfied with my answers. I was able to retreat into the staff area and exit through the back. As soon as I boarded the vehicle waiting for me, Thorne’s voice echoed beside me as he disabled the active camouflage around his power armor.

“Ha, that was quite the show you put up there. Like to meet the backbones of the company, huh? I wonder how our current employees would feel if I played a video of that in our portal right now.”

“Oh, quiet you. It’s not exactly false, but with our constant expansions, it’s not exactly possible for me to meet every single person we hire.”

“Yeah, and there’s no need to when you got Claire to do it for you.”

We exchanged a mischievous look before we both chuckled as the vehicle got moving. With that out of our system, we implicitly agreed to keep those words to ourselves as we returned to base.

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The next morning, I tagged along with the latest batch of pilots who had come up from Elevate City, and the new hires who would be manning our ships. We boarded a rental together and headed straight for Ferrumus Corporation’s private space station.

As we flew through the starry skies, I took the time to practice what I preached last night and went around talking with our new employees. There were over three dozen of them, so I didn’t have more than a few minutes with each of them.

“Captain Riley, how long do you estimate our crew will need in order to safely fly our new ships back to Aegis?”

“Sir, given the crew we hired are as experienced as they say, it should take just a few weeks to master our new vessels. If it’s just to fly back to Aegis, we should be good to go within a few days.”

“Our partners are offering cassettes with the relevant training needed on it. Do you think that’ll shorten it further?”

“Sir, with all due respect, it’ll still take at least two days. Nothing can replace hands-on training and flight tests.”

“I see. Well, thank you for your input, captain. I’ll make sure you have the adequate time you’ll need to familiarize yourself and the crew with the new vessel. I’m looking forward to your feedback in the future as well, when it comes time for us to launch our own ships.”

“Of course, sir.”

Our short journey soon came to an end when our rental began docking procedures with Ferrumus Corp’s station.

Everything went by without any issues, and we soon set foot on their base.

Immediately, we spotted dozens of guards waiting for us. At their head, it was a familiar man who was almost bald if not for the thin ponytail he had near the top of his head.

“Pleasure to see you again, Kai,” I greeted as we shook hands.

“Yes, my superiors are very happy with the friendship we’ve established. We have your two ships prepared already, and our trainers on standby to help your men learn how to operate them.”

“Thank you for your consideration. I believe my men wanted to get started on it right away.”

“Of course. May I ask if you will be joining them?”

I ruefully smiled and shook my head.

“No, there’s another reason I’m dropping by this time. Do you think you can get me a meeting with your executives?”

He stilled for a few seconds before slowly nodding my way.

“Yes, the president of our branch can set aside some time for you today. If it’s a matter that needs the attention of someone higher, however, you’ll need to wait at least a day for a reply.”

“That’s fine. Thank Ms. Fuda for me,” I quickly replied, reading off the names from the records on my SAID.

I had met the president of the Aegis branch, Emma Fuda, during my previous visit as an ambassador of my alliance. A lot has changed since then, and our position as well. Back then, we were so insignificant that they didn’t even need to pay attention to us if not for bringing up their rival, Virtue Corporation.

Now, for some reason, their higher-ups wanted to curry favors with me. It was likely due to the presence of my guardian angel but still. I believed we had bridged a good portion of the huge gap I previously witnessed between us.

Back then, their guards like Kai seemed so out of reach in how powerful they were. Now, as he led me toward their inner sanctum, I couldn’t help but discover that I had a decent chance of taking him on after assessing his cybernetics. Nevertheless, I wasn’t stupid enough to do so, especially at close range.

Ferrumus Corp’s famed swords weren’t a joke, and one of the things I had my eyes for in the upcoming discussion.

Reining in my anticipation, we were soon led into one of the many buildings in their station. I could immediately spot the cherry blossom tree out at the center. They had built their structures centering around this pink tree, with ample windows on every floor to gaze down on its beauty.

We rode to the top floor on the elevator while I glanced down at the tree. It reminded me of the attack that I witnessed the last time I was here.

We were seated in a grand meeting room with a table so large that it could fit a hundred people around it. We only had to wait an hour before some familiar faces started showing up.

“Nice to see you again, Mr. Halls,” the woman at the lead greeted.

“Thank you for inviting me over, Ms. Fuda, Mr. Bi, and Mr. Jo,” I called out the names of the president and vice presidents of this branch.

They were all smiles as we exchanged pleasantries, except for one of them. It was Bi Sun, the man who I had previously approached with the help of the QG, Amos. He had chatted with me a bit more than anyone else here, and it appeared he was carefully appraising me the moment he came in.

That was why I wasn’t surprised when he was the first one to break away from the pleasantries, asking me a very direct question.

“So, Mr. Halls, do you mind sharing exactly why you have called for this meeting today? I don’t believe it is anything about the rental of our mining vessels, right?”

I smiled as I nodded.

“You’re correct. I wanted to speak with you all because I wanted to explore further opportunities where we can work closely together.”

“Oh, didn’t we just sign this rental agreement along with technology sharing? Is that insufficient?” Bi Sun immediately retorted.

“We did, and we got to learn how great of a partner your company is. I want to deepen our relationship further. Instead of just mining technologies, how about we work together in defense technologies as well?”

All three heads of Ferrumus Corporation’s Aegis branch immediately widened their eyes at my proposal.