The plankton sat back in the living room sofa as soon as he heard Lonappan's words. "Work? Really? My goodness, it's been a long time since I did that." He sighed.
Taro was confused. "Wait, you guys never go to work?" He asked.
"Why would we? We get our monthly allowance to play around with." Gibli was the one who replied.
"Wouldn't people get suspicious of you guys? Like, you never leave this house—how would you explain it to people?" Taro asked, yet again.
"Well, people rarely ask. However, if they did, I'd just say we're doing our work online. That's kinda booming up these days." Kunjan sprung back in his feet and replied.
"I see. Don't worry. I made this mess and I'll make sure to clean this up. I'm gonna find a work for me to do. Thank you for your concern, if you had any—but I'll walk alone in this path." Taro reassured. He didn't wanted anyone else to bust their asses because of him. They were already so kind to him, so he dared not to ruin it for them.
"Cut the cringe crap out, man. Even though we're from different planets and civilizations, around here, we're basically the same. So, of course we'll do anything to help you out, good brother." Gibli answered as he placed his hand over Taro's shoulders. Taro was on cloud nine, since Gibli just called him a good brother.
"By the way, how are you supposed to work around here when you know jack shit about this planet? Do you know the exchange rates? Do you know how much a lakh is supposed to be in universal currency? Hell, you don't even know how to speak the dialect; how're you gonna save yourself from getting swindled?" Kunjan chimed in with his questions.
"Guys, I'll just make them believe that I'm a mute." Taro shrugged.
"What happens then? As I stated previously, you can't communicate. Therefore, if you have to work, you'll have to take one of us with you. And if one of us is down to work, wouldn't it be better if everyone's out there earning the money. The more, the merrier, you know?" Kunjan explained.
Before Taro could reply, Lonappan took the helm of the conversation. "Okay, you guys are under our supervision. And as the self-proclaimed team leader of this troop, I take full responsibility for the idiocy that our rookie performed."
"I'm sorry, everyone!" Thankappan bowed towards them and apologized.
"Anyway, I agree with them. If you're gonna work, we might as well." Lonappan said.
"We?" Thankappan stood back up and asked.
"What? You were the root of the problem. How dare you think you'll go scot-free?" Lonappan scolded Thankappan.
"Hey, it would have happened sooner or later." The rookie retorted.
"Yea, but you accelerated the process!" Lonappan shouted.
Within this heated exchange between Lonappan and Thankappan which ended up in a catfight, Taro slyly backed away to talk to the plankton. "Again, I don't get how're you gonna explain this sudden change to people. You used to work online and now you're not. Whatever might be the reason, I wonder?"
"Grr, why do you care so much about what people think?" Kunjan's stoic face somehow looked pissed off about it.
"Nah, I believe that it'd be good for us to have a believable cover story." Taro replied.
"Let me think. The firm we're working for filed for bankruptcy due to the economic crisis in our country and now we're jobless. How about it?" Kunjan asked.
"That's pretty good!" Taro gave out a thumbs up.
"Cool. Now that's done, how do we go finding ourselves a job?" Kunjan asked as he stretched his body out.
In the meantime, Lonappan successfully subdued Thankappan and placed him in a sharpshooter. He got back into the conversation as he left the knocked out Thankappan on the ground. "I have my connections. Weren't you supposed to be online wizards? Find something there."
"Let's get to it!" Kunjan gave out a shout which could only be called a battle cry.
#
Hours passed. Everyone seemed busy. Even the previously knocked out Thankappan was up and about and really focused on his tasks. Finally, after long eight hours or something, everyone returned back into the living room.
Lonappan stood up. "So, welcome back everyone. How did the job hunting go on your side? Let's start with Gibli over there, shall we?"
"So, I applied for a mechanical engineer job vacancy—it's like fifty thousand a month. I'm an expert when it comes to machinery and stuff, so I'm pretty sure I'll get the job." The lanky alien smirked.
Lonappan clicked his tongue. "Dude, where are your credentials? Where's the degree? You think you can waltz into that job opening with no degree and no accolades and you expect the job just like that? Let me tell this to you, millions of aspirants get into engineering every year and among those who pass out, almost twenty percent of the engineers are either unemployed or are not working their desired jobs. No one can guarantee you a decent paid job with no degree, unless of course if you're related to someone influential. So, plan ditched. Next, Plankton—what's your plan?" He turned his attention towards Kunjan who cleared his throat.
"Look, we know that the guy's in MIB are seriously stronger than the normal mob. And we also know that Taro's insanely strong. Taking these points to account, how about we become bodyguards?" He asked.
"Good idea, but no. Taro's new to this planet and as you said before, if the reason for his super-strength is gravity, I would like him to adjust to the surrounding first and have a minimum level of interaction with people. Because, there's a good chance that he might end up hurting the people he's meant to keep safe." Lonappan replied.
"That's true." Everyone agreed with Lonappan's assessment—except one.
"Hey, I know how to control my actions!" Taro cried.
"I understand what you mean. Even though, we trust you, you never know what might just happen in a job like a bodyguard. You might even end up killing a person, if you're not careful. Sure, you might be able to control your actions, but emotion is just a wild thing. We just can't grab full reign over our emotions." Lonappan stood still for a moment and continued. "We're in need of a less conspicuous way for utilizing your power—all of our powers." Lonappan clenched his fist to look cool in front of his peers.
"Oh, I know! I applied for a head and sous chef jobs! I've seen the plankton make tasty dishes!" Thankappan sprung up and ruined the scene for Lonappan.
"It seems like the idiot will always be an idiot." Lonappan shook his head in disappointment for the umpteenth time that day. "I'll give you a bit of leeway this time around, since everyone seemed to say some dumb shit or the other. Now, what about you, Taro?" He didn't waste any more time in his junior and turned his attention towards the Wadorian.
"I tried searching for some job over on my smartphone, but I couldn't read any of the characters in it. Not having a text-to-audio translator fucked me over." Taro replied, looking visibly distressed on his inability to do shit.
"Well, you'll get it soon. So, don't worry." Kunjan encouraged Taro.
Taro smiled as he suddenly remembered something. "By the way, I have an idea."
'What is it?" Lonappan asked. At this point, Lonappan was willing to listen to all sorts of bullshit.
"How about we write a Webnovel on the galactic war? We do have a person who had a first-hand experience of it." He pointed towards the plankton.
"Oh, that's a really good idea! I can do that!" Kunjan agreed with Taro.
"But wouldn't that be plagiarism?" Gibli, who remained silent over the course of this conversation after his failed plan, asked.
"Do you think anyone knows about the galactic war in this world? And it's a historical event. How can a war be copyrighted? We can even write about it from a different perspective. How about the perspective of a fearless leader of plankton society?" Kunjan asked.
"Someone apparently do know about this galactic war you talked about. Look!" Thankappan replied the question for him as he showed his phone up in their faces.
Kunjan took the phone from him and started reading the synopsis. "Huh, interesting. Even the years are same. Someone outdid us on that."
"Well, you're not the only alien species here, are you?" Lonappan spoke.
"True. What are we supposed to do now?" Kunjan asked to the senior agent.
Lonappan stayed quiet for a few good minutes. The rest patiently waited on him to give out an expert answer, since he's the only one with any sort of outside experience. "Okay, if we're too do something, start small. Look at the bottom of the barrel. So, I did it. If there's some job that's able to utilize our skills inconspicuously, there's only one job I can think of." He smiled as he spoke.
"What is it?" Everyone were really interested as to what Lonappan had in store.
"Boys, you guys are gonna do construction work!" Lonappan proclaimed.
#