"Sir… have you updated yourself with the condition of the business so far?"
Julia sighed as she spoke with Esmond the day after him spending time with Carter, torturing themselves with pain every time they gathered more knowledge from media.
Some of it had yet to be analysed and examine but following meetings with his staff needed Esmonds attention so he had to stop studying and head into the city.
"Sorry Julia, I've been focused on studying up some technology I am working on to help with the business operations."
Esmond was talking out of his ass when he said that, as he knew Carter would thoroughly watch and examine everything that goes through the business intranet.
With the upgrade of the system and space, Carter also went through a huge improvement as a basic Artificial System Spirit Core.
He knew there it would be a while before he became an intermediate system, but with the upgrade, the amount he could do before was peanuts compared to now.
Before he needed some help to manage everything that was happening just so he could stay afloat going through the world internet and reading through all of the data, but with the upgrade, everything was processed within minutes.
Not only that, considering everything Esmond hoped to have done in the coming years quietly without attraction attention was perfectly aligned with his growth so he knew it could be managed.
Therefore, some of the business decisions were considered nothing in Carters eyes when he started processing them after the upgrade but for the staff members Esmond hired, it was a huge storm at their feet that was getting out of control fast.
.
"So, you're saying the sporadic purchases made in the last few days have caused some attention...?"
Esmond couldn't believe his mother and father had bought several small chains of jewellery stores and some car yards while out shopping.
He couldn't understand their reasoning, but he didn't mind what they chose to do with the new freedom.
Instead, he loved it!
.
"Yes sir… based on what we have managed to understand, in the last few days, close to 3 jewellery store chains and 2 car yards were bought along with a restaurant within the city and out by the beach.
Now I've sent over people to gather all the information from these places as well as everything already given to me by your personal secretary, Carter, so I can begin assigning divisions of the business to manage them.
Problem is, everyone has yet to complete the training and orientation you have recommended with all employees."
Based on one of his past lives, Esmond created a complete training guide for his human resource department to follow with all employees when recruited, however it required some time to complete.
And with his parents going out and doing as they pleased, there was work already piling up they couldn't handle.
.
"For now, let Carter manage it and once everything at the office is ready to go, I'll get him to pass over the work in a steady fashion, so everyone isn't overwhelmed at once."
Some of the new employees came straight out of university without any experience so Julia hoped not to bury them in work that would dissuade them from giving their whole effort to work.
Esmond also wanted the graduates from the local universities to work for him, seeing that there would be a steady stream finishing their degrees yearly, it was a perfect place to source recruits through events both at the university campus and around the city.
"Also, Julia… could you look into something for me."
There was something on his mind after hearing they had purchased some car yards.
Though he was 18 and legal able to drive, Esmond chose not to know that he had a great deal of wealth and could pay someone to drive him around.
That wasn't all, he felt it was time consuming to focus on driving while he had to sort things out with both Carter who he would be on the phone with or receiving calls and emails from Julia.
But with his dad buy some car yards, he felt it would be a bad place to get into, as he was a fan of F1 driving and wanted to be a driver when he was younger, watching the race at Monaco.
His father, Daniel was a fanatic fan of racing and would try to watch or at least visit the events during some point when he could, but the problem was the cost and taking the family along as Ruby would never let him go alone without herself and Esmond coming along.
...
..
.
'You want to buy a fucking Formula 1 team?
In what lifetime did you deal with making racing cars?'
Carter wanted to beat Esmond over the head with the mahogany coffee table that had a dark tint, however he wasn't one to ruin beautiful furniture just to smack Esmond across the head.
Worse was, Esmond wasn't around to smack in the first place as he was currently making his way over to some gaming studios in Europe and America.
Why exactly? Well, when Esmond first spun the wheel of fortune, he received,
[Virtual World]
- [A programmed network that can be utilised to recreate a safe and immersive world for players to freely explore established programs within the world]
- [If the Host of the Virtual World allows other users to benefit from the world, Host can receive a portion of earnings through the world operations]
- [External sources can be brought in or connected with the Virtual World with the Hosts approval]
.
Esmond needed Carter to explain what the Virtual World truly offered, but hearing Carter explain some of its abilities, he asked Carter to organise his flights for Europe so he could get in touch with some gaming studios.
"Do you think I could recreate those times again?"
Esmond was reminiscing about his time in another life where he was a son of a duke in a world with cultivation, however kingdoms and empires reign supreme above sects and factions that usually litter those types of worlds.
Because the world was similar to the Middle Ages of earth history with cultivation, Esmond quickly used the knowledge from earth to create a dukedom worth more than any Empire.
He had entertainment like video games out for the people to buy near the end of his time in the world, when the Imperial family found him a threat and forced his father to make a choice.
At that point he'd made his own virtual world which people could go into and practise freely without any problems, proving their cultivation.
While it led to many people improving from battling and playing within the virtual world, it costed him his dear life at his father's hands.
.
"What is the real difference to the once I made back then?"
'This Virtual World is a successful end product and not the somewhat ok network you created.
While the Virtual World won't improve people's performance and give them ungodly power, it will help them with cognitive skills and training.
In time of course, adding the functions to give them power and strength from playing within the Virtual World is possible, we both know that humanity is way too volatile for that right now, if not for a long time ahead.
So, what I am suggestion is creating some games based on the past worlds we've been in.
Maybe Nivam, the world where you were born as a peasant and created your own empire to rival those magical nations to the south and abroad… fuck those were dark days man…'
"Mmm… I remember Dynos dying when those flying beetles ripped his head clean off his neck and the godawful crunch that came after when they started to eat his head…
Thank god the Saintess killed me…"
'What are elder sisters for hahaha!'
They both laughed at the memory of the girl he'd adopted as his sister during that lifetime and once she grew up, the people knew her as the Saintess because of her healing powers…
In the end her supporters persuaded her to kill Esmond for the throne and after her anointment, the church, in her name, started the most brutal genocide of the people who supported Esmond, as well as those who had power within the military.
But the thing that made them laugh was how poorly the girl Esmond took in as his sister killed him.
Her knife grazed Bens neck enough to cut some arteries, but not enough for it to gush out and die immediately, rather it was a slow, painful, and miserable death which included the tears and cries of the girl who harmed him, begging for his forgiveness.
'Didn't you laugh in her face as she asked you to forgive her…'
"Yeah… dumbass.
She became the puppet of those fools in the church after though, always miserable because she held no real power or authority without them."
.
Taking some time out to think about the past, the two decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to recreate one of the worlds from his past and bring in some elements of the present that they then could utilise.
For instance, Esmond thought about adding military warfare which they could use the Golden Knowledge ability on if something amazing was created by the users.
Because of Carters connection with the Primordial System, there were some restrictions to stop the Host who received such power from creating some impossible things using media, but knowing the restrictions, Carter could create enough of a world for gamers to play in and give them freedom to create original things.
That's why Esmond was on his way to meet with some designers behind some indie games that were popular with Apple software, but it was more of a way for them to earn some revenue to kickstart the studio so they could work on loftier projects.
Carter organised a meeting between Esmond and the owners of the small studio in the hopes to buy them all up and take them under his wing to make some amazing games that would shock the world in the future.
Of course, the knowledge he gathered from his past life about earth included a great deal of nonsense for some, but for him it was important.
Like the games that were popular, movies that were successful and studios that made it big, while others collapsed.
The gaming studio he was going to see was called Gloomy Shadow Games, one of the studios that collapsed when the bank they borrowed a loan from crashed during the 2008 market fall, leading them to lose the business and for some, ending their lives as they had nothing…
It was one of the studios Esmond quite liked for creating an indie soccer game that allowed someone to create a football club and play through minor leagues within the chosen country of the player and then make them giants of the world.
Everything was generic, because of licensing issues, but the developers did the best they could with generated players, mainly focusing on the other aspects a soccer club would go through, giving a fresh take to gamers that football manager and FIFA failed to capture in their games.
.
While talking on the phone with Carter in the air, he asked about planes, which obvious meant more work for Carter.
'You want to open up a fucking plane factory now?'
"For commercial Carter.
Find a company that is either going to go bust during the crash or someone that is selling for a reasonable price now.
If we can, then I'll get them working fast to make an airline that could offer another option in travel."
Most of these businesses Esmond was buying into weren't cheap one bit to manage and were costly to invest in, but Carter was managed the flow of cash coming in from investments and other revenues, leaving Esmond with a great deal of wealth but it carried many problems.
One of those problems was tax and playing pesky politicions from time to time if they began asking questions.
So far none had come to his door, but it wouldn't be long so before that Carter and Ben were working to set the whole business offshore, where they held some power that rivalled the government at the very least.
Somalia and Burundi were some of the poorest nations in the world and those arguably suffering the most from the lack of basic human necessities.
There were working governments in both of these nations that were official recognised by other world leaders and organisations like the UN and other similar groups of cooperation.
It was one of the reasons why he was annoyed with the power some of the nations around the world held, as it hampered his growth.
Another issue was the country he was currently living in, Australia.
A beautiful nation with a working government and a great lifestyle for a great deal of the people living here.
Main problem was getting control over the government without putting in some serious time and effort to gain a decent control over the government, but it would take years he didn't have.
Worrying about where to start his empire from, Esmond finally closed his eyes on his flight, putting down his phone and resting in his first-class seat, not knowing his biggest problem would become his much problematic secret…