Looking around the finished bar, Alex was blown away. Elysium looked so impressive that he couldn't take it all in. The whole bar screamed luxury and sophistication. The black and copper colour scheme really did work well. Looking at the view out of the floor to ceiling windows, Alex was blown aback by the view. The crisp outline of the skyscrapers glinting in the light looked like huge crystal monoliths, the rainbow light thrown by them refracted among the whole of the rich quarter. Alex could see the docks in the distance and the golden sands of the beach peaking between the skyscrapers. The sound of the city floated up from the valleys between the neighbouring building a constant reminder of the hustle and bustle of the capital city they were in.
"You really outdid yourself Jerome, take me to the meeting. Let's have a catch up with everyone."
Walking up to the roof, Alex noticed that everyone was busy chatting nonchalantly around a large table. There was an empty seat waiting for him at the head of the table, taking a seat, he sipped the drink prepared by Jerome. Calmly looking around, he took everything in.
To his right was Scarlet, in her courtesy black dress. Elizabeth was seated to his left along with Jerome right next to her. After them came Eleanor and facing them across the table were Leo and Jack. Everyone looked ready to discuss their gains over the past fortnight.
"Alright, I'll go first. I had a bit of a busy start to the period. I cleaned up the area around this plot. A local gang called the Jackals ruled this area, a couple of hours was all it took to get them subdued. A bit of a play with the brains behind their prostitution operation put the fear of God into them. Since then, I have been increasing my skills in hacking with the help of BlackNet's materials. This led to me having a self-made skill, Hacking, generated by the system. Other than that, my time has been pretty chilled out."
Scarlet jumped in next, immediately incensed at Alex's words.
"You call brutally torturing the pimp in front of every one of his employees a play?! You need to work on your understanding of words because you obviously don't understand what a play is. I took over the rains of the Jackals after Mr. Night left. I have stabilised the hotel, with the employees working away. Tim, the original gang leader has already submitted to us and is busy dragging in and training more thugs. I need to find and train a proper manager for the prostitution ring so that we can expand both the employees and the clientele. It would be best if we could take the best looking and best trained employees to work in this bar as 'waitresses', the fees we could charge would bring in a healthy profit. I believe that this is the best route to expansion for now."
"If we do want to expand to provide that kind of services, we will need to buy out at least another floor under this penthouse, that will cost us probably another couple of million. I do not currently have that kind of money to spend, we will have to wait until Elysium starts bringing in profits. I estimate we should be able to have that amount of profit saved up in about 6 weeks."
"That seems like a good way forward, let us pen that down as a next goal. The expansion of the bar's services seems like a good springboard into the high society. Alright, Leo is next."
" I had much success at the ball, we should have three important guests, the Minister of Entertainment, the chief editor of the Daily Mail, and the Deputy Minister of Media. He should be wanting to meet with you Alex, he is being blackmailed by the Red Mafia over some photographs he doesn't want to go public. I have also arranged two gifts for our Mr Night."
"Ooh, some gifts, I can't wait!"
"One is more a gift to me, but it is still an important future asset of the syndicate. The bargirl at the charity event was called Lily Dumas, I found out that she is a scout of the Red Mafia. I have already finished my class quest and got the reward, and 'Informant' skill book. The system told me that I can use it on other people so that they become fully loyal to me as an informant, it will also provide some small bonuses to the person so that they can execute their position better. This would allow us to have a mole buried in the Red Mafia, especially one that is not suspicious in the slightest. The second gift to our dear boss, is a man by the name of Jonathan Wykes, an ex-military man who is also the son of the current Admiral. He was dishonourably discharged due to a plot involving the other branches of the Armed Forces. He has grown to have the same ideology as us when it comes to hypocrites and being a military prodigy, it would do well to have a well-positioned man in the military for our benefit."
"It should not be too difficult to get him reinstated as an officer, he could file for retrial, and we scare the previous witnesses into telling the truth. Not that difficult."
"I agree, the contacts in the Morrigan group could help put some pressure on the participants as well."
"I'll talk to my grandfather about bringing up military corruption in parliament. It should make the conspirators sweat a little."
"You seem to be next Eleanor, how are things on your end?"
"My endeavour has hit a wall. Grandfather refuses to allow me to enter the cadre early, however, I have persuaded on letting me get my own position without his help. I have been in contact with a few ministries, and I have been able to secure myself a good position in the ministry of internal affairs. I have also been forging relationships with well placed classmates, they should be paying dividends soon enough."
"Thanks for the update, Theo?"
"Applied to sit the bar exam, should be sitting it next week. I have talked with the dean of the school of Law, he was impressed by my knowledge and offered to let me graduate early if I pass the bar with full marks. I should be able to start taking on cases within a fortnight."
"That leaves us with only one thing to do, this weeks Recruitment Shop. With the money I liberated from the Jackals and the leftover funds from the bar decoration we have around $1.5 million. This week's selection is an assassin, a pimp, and a cook. The cook is out of the question since he costs $3 million. The decision is between a pimp for the Jackals hotel costing $1.2 million, or an assassin so that we can take on assassination contracts for $1.4 million. We will take a democratic vote, mine will count for 5, the four other Underbosses will count for 3, the consigliere will be for 2 and everyone else for 1. With that I vote assassin."
Scarlet: Pimp
Jerome: Pimp
Jack: Pimp
Eleanor: Pimp
Elizabeth: Pimp
Leo: Assassin
Theo: Assassin
"That gives, 11 for assassin and 10 for pimp. Assassin it is."
Making his selection in the system, $1.4 million was deducted and the familiar blur appeared at the end of the conference table.