"Well look whose here!
Come in young man, your fathers been talking about you nonstop lately that I've gone bloody deaf."
James hugged Esmond as he entered, a little shocked by the muscle tone he felt from the usually skinny and normal nephew of his.
"Have you been going to the gym?
You look much healthier than you use to Esmond."
"Yeah, Uncle James, I've got myself a chef and…"
Esmond lied a little, explaining he'd been busy at the gym to help him with all his time travelling which made him feel unhealthy, so it was the push for him to investigate a healthier lifestyle.
James didn't question it and even asked for some tips from Esmond, who ended up bothering Carter for some help.
Before the two went to James' office so they could have their meeting, Esmond went by to the kitchen and found his aunt Lisa cooking one of his favourite meals, creamy pasta with mushrooms.
It was a simple but amazing meal with the garlic his aunt would cook into the creamy sauce and added some crispy breadcrumbs for a little crunch.
"I'll have everything ready by the time you two are done talking."
Lisa emanated the mother that loved to cook and feed any that would enter her doors.
Esmond had come over knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to leave without having a serving at the very least.
.
"So… what would you like to talk about?"
The two finally sat down in James office, away from the noises that might disturb them.
"I would like to offer you the position as my CEO for my company Primal that's currently focused on recycling and dismantling of waste.
For now, what I can tell you about the business and how it differs from others is that it'll breakdown the waste to reproduce the materials used to make them…"
Esmond have some files he'd brought along to show the project income and parts of the business operations, all to try and entice his dear uncle James to be his CEO, though it turned out he'd overprepared.
.
"Esmond… I'm in. I was in when your father told me about it a few nights ago…
But before we got ahead with any contract or finalised agreement, tell me a few things…
What will be your overall role in the business and what do you want from me?"
Esmond couldn't believe it was this easy to convince his uncle, instead he wanted to know how his father knew about him asking James to take on the role.
But he pushed that issue aside and explained to James his plans, minus explaining his plans for the empire, he spoke about his plans in Africa and what he knew about particular incoming events.
"My role will be Chairman, leaving most of the business in your capable hands, however there are specific areas I would like you to expand in and grow.
I'll be working with another business I've created and currently working to build alongside of the Primal is a Private Military Company that will work in my favour to protect my business assets and help revitalise the areas we establish ourselves in.
For now, we are negotiating with the tribes in particular tribes of Nigeria that have been affected by the pollution from extracting fuel.
Some rivers have been so heavily contaminated that it's destroyed the industries of the area without the government actually making a fuss about the corporations negligence."
Esmond went on to further explain his requirement to expand into a minimum of 10 nations that were struggling with either economic growth or lack of infrastructure.
There were some nations that Esmond had in mind from the continent of Africa, and even James had chimed in and added a few suggestions of his own.
.
"Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines are just some of the nations that come to my mind we could enter quickly, and I've also got some connections in those nations too."
"Great! If you can enter those markets, then I'm all for it… but I'll say this… the nations I'm looking to enter… well, I'm looking to influence the politics a little…"
Esmond was waiting for a mouthful from James, however when he heard him laugh instead, it made him question what the help was going on, until James cleared things up.
"Kid… that's a part of business.
Everyone does it, but I don't think people can reach what levels you might be thinking."
James was concerned Esmond had too big of a goal for his business, thankfully he had no idea about Esmonds true ambitions.
Otherwise, he would have fainted on the spot.
…
..
.
Esmond and James sat down to discuss for the next few hours how the business would work as well as what had been done so far.
They agreed to continue their work within Australia, but to focus on expanding their business operations into parts of Africa and Asia, with Esmond leaving the decision to James who was on board as CEO.
Julia informed along with Carter who both started to make the necessary changes while Esmond ate his pasta and left for the office building, he'd bought.
He was planning to jump over to the space from inside the building while the drones were rebuilding it from the inside and making the changes according to the design and plans Esmond had made with Carters help.
Also no one would be at the offices in the afternoon, especially after checking with Julia, who was one of the last people to leave, and Carter, who checked the cameras around the building and on the inside.
Esmonds taxi dropped him off just outside the entrance to the underground carpark for the workers of the building.
Without having to ask, gate shutters lifted up, opening the entrance to the carpark for Esmond to enter quickly and make his way down to the elevator before opening a small gate to the Spatial Ark Land.
"Carter, send them through…"
.
Dozens after dozens of small drones no bigger than the size of soda can were speeding through carrying huge amounts of materials with their nano and biotechnology make up that allowed them to integrate part of their body structure with the materials as a way to carry them.
A huge number of drones came through the gate with materials and dropped off more and more items on the carpark floor as Esmond watched.
Some of the drones had joined together to create humanoid forms that then started working, which really freaked Esmond out because the materials started to disappear into thin air.
"When the drone turns into a humanoid form, I can make them use the Inventory function to store materials and access them as they need, however when they are in their small drone forms, they can't connect with the Inventory ability."
Carter explained to Esmond because he noticed the confusion in his mind seeing the drones up close and working for the first time once they went through the upgrades a little time back.
Esmond felt like watching the drones work, however seeing the speed the silver humanoid drones work away made his head spin as they were programmed by Carter to finish the upgrades by the morning, he decided to leave and enter the Spatial Ark Land, leaving behind the drones to do their work.
.
"How'd Julia take it?"
"Beyond overjoyed… I swear I heard here cry at one-point hahha… but she still insisted for her daughter to be trained as my personal secretary according both her and mums wishes."
There was a small part of Esmond that thought his mother might be scheming things with Julia for something happen with her daughter, but he wasn't too sure and didn't feel like questioning his mother either.
"Anyway, is everything ready with EDI?"
"Not yet, I'm just finishing off some tests.
I can't use the graphite or silicon that's been infused just yet as it'll take a little long for me to prepare everything with Ogryx Alloy.
So, for now it's silicon with a load of work for me to get the most out of the materials and I've basically finished with the servers.
Like I said before, I'll call you, so bugger off."
Carter was developing a raging headache with the amount of work he was simultaneously doing, from managing the business out in Adelaide and making money off the market, he was also managing the space and all the projects going on inside.
He'd actually tried to use the servers that were being made for EDI and found they helped alleviate some of the strain, so Carter decided to hold off tell Esmond they were ready just yet.
In the meantime, Esmond thought about checking out the Hunting Grounds and what exactly they were.
.
*Ding*
[Activating Hunting Grounds…]
[Welcome to Hunting Grounds!]
[Level – 0]
[Host will go up against assailants that will allow the grounds to measure the fighting strengthen for future levels and rewards]
.
[Status!]
[Name: Esmond Manston]
[Experience: 48,578,500/1,048,576,000]
[Body Condition: Healthy]
[Body Status: Primordial Human]
[Status: Healthy]
[Strength: 67]
[Endurance:67]
[Stamina: 67]
[Dexterity: 77]
[Intelligence: 87]
[Agility: 64]
[Wisdom: N/A]
.
[Begin…]
…
..
.
"What now…"
Esmond groaned as looked around but saw nothing a dark forest all around him.
He knew immediately that he'd left the comfort of the space when he saw the huge red moon in the night sky which made the atmosphere dreary and ominous of bloodshed.
As he looked around to see what the next course of action was, Esmond finally saw the information he was waiting to see, though it didn't turn out like he first thought.
.
*Ding*
[Level – 0]
[Host has been summoned to Dark Swallow Forest, a highly dangerous region of undiscovered territory that is connected to greater regions with large populous of people]
[Hosts job is to battle against the hordes of beasts and monsters agitated by the red moon and are racing towards hosts current location]
[Host has 30 minutes to prepare for the arrival of the hordes and stop them from getting past to attack the human settlements]
[Difficulty: ?¿?]
[Rewards:
- (Based on results)]
.
"Ahh shit…"
Esmond cursed his luck that he had no weapons or anything that might be able to help him.
He looked around his surroundings and found there was a crack in between Esmond and the mass of jungle forest in front of him from where the beasts and monster would be coming from.
While he tried to figure out how to deal with the situation, his trusty audience member who'd never missed an episode of Esmonds Adventures was able to provide a little help.
"Umm why not try and open a gate to the space Esy…"
As asked, Esmond tried and was able to open up a gate to the space as drones started to pile out before settling beside Esmond.
"Hey Esy, do me a favour and activate EDI to help.
While I'd love to be involved with the battle, my systems are running near full capacity and I'm working off the power of my core.
Please take some time out to allow me to make my own severs later so I can deal with the increasing amount of work in the future."
"… Alright, once you get a chance, focus on creating a large grid of your own servers to help ease some of the pressure.
For now, could you tell me how to activate EDI?"
"Of course, I've already attached EDIs surviving and repaired CPU to the server that's automatically connected with the system.
So, all you need to do is 'activate' EDI…"
Esmond thought it through for a second before saying, "Activate, EDI" which saw a huge surge of energy being drawn to the servers that were being uploaded with EDIs neutral network and code.
This lasted for a couple seconds before the sounds of the fans frantically moving to cool the servers relaxed as EDI finally settled in his new body and home.
>Hello Master, My name is Extreme Deep Invader aka EDI, however I have gone through a range of improvements that void my original programming and rebuilt it to expand my capabilities<
>Therefore, would Master please give me a new name…? <
.
"How does Echo sound?
Your just an echo of your past self, no?"
>It's a lovely name, thank you Master<
Echos voice was clear and carried a little emotion which made it sound very human like.
It even had a throaty voice that made it sound more male, though that was the least of Esmonds current concerns.
"Echo, can you get to work straight away?"
> Affirmative, my servers are connected with the system, therefore I have knowledge of Master current predicament.
Would you like me to interfere and provide support? <
"Yes please…"