The automaton reward that he unlocked would solve the problems with the production of Caesar's Joy. Only he had the recipe for the Joy, which meant that he was the only one who could make it. However, it was neither practical nor efficient to be producing his product by himself.
Right now, he could do everything by himself but once he expands his business, that would no longer be applicable. He would need people to produce the product, transport it, and distribute it all together. He needed people who knew how to create the product.
It was obvious that telling the recipe to others would be stupid, since he didn't know who he could trust. Once he recruited some workers, there could be some spies from other organizations trying to steal the recipe, or maybe some of his workers could be greedy and sell the recipe to others.
There were a lot of ways to make sure that his workers were trustworthy: first, he could shower his workers with rewards so that they wouldn't feel tempted to betray him—for that, he needed trust. Second, he could rule through them with fear. He could threaten them and their families' lives.
But even if that were successful, he could never be truly sure that no one would betray him. This would be more evident once his business was really successful to the point of expanding to other countries.
This was a problem he had yet to solve, but as expected of his brilliant mind, he subconsciously figured out a way to solve that. Automatons. These were robots whose sole purpose was to serve their masters, nothing else.
Automatons would do anything their programmer intended for them to do. They could perform mundane tasks without feeling any fatigue. They wouldn't be tempted to give out the recipe to others because they aren't programmed to do so.
He had read about automatons in a book, but he never figured out how to make one. But thankfully, he was given a way to create one as a reward for leveling up.
"Huh? You wont need one?" Ybarra looked confused. He subconsciously looked towards the woman, but he quickly took it back.
"That's right. I have solved the problem of production," Caesar said as he crossed his arms. "But there is something you can help me with…"
Caesar didn't finish his sentence and just turned his body and his head towards the unassuming woman. He was now addressing her, instead of Ybarra, the so-called leader.
"Hey! You should talk to me, I'm the leader—"
"How did you know?"
Ybarra burst out in anger as if Caesar had just caught his weakness. But before he could rush towards Caesar, the woman spoke up, which made him shut up and return to his seat.
Caesar smiled and looked at the woman, who was the same age as him. She was the real leader of this group.
[Rola's status]
[Vitality: 23]
[Strength: 17]
[Dexterity: 20]
[Intelligence: 50]
She had straight brown hair—a common trait in these parts—medium build, likable face, and an unassuming presence. There was nothing special about her. She could look completely beautiful if she tried, but her normal face was average.
What struck out about her when Caesar first saw her, was her intelligence. Among the teenagers here, she was the one with the highest intelligence in the group, but she made sure to try and hide this.
Therefore, Caesar had already guessed that she was hiding her identity. First of all, Ybarra had barely any intelligence to rule over this operation. Even his speech when Caesar first met him felt like he was reading from a script. Rola probably instructed him to do so whenever meeting someone new.
This was because everyone would try and undermine Rola just because she was a woman. Therefore, it was much easier to intimidate others by making it seem as if Ybarra, the strongest and scariest one, was the leader.
Of course, Caesar wouldn't discriminate over Rola just because of her gender, so he was easily able to figure out her identity. The final nail in the coffin was Ybarra looking at Rola whenever he didn't know what to do. He was subconsciously asking for help from the real leader.
"It's because of this guy, right?" Rola asked as she smacked the back of Ybarra's head. He looked embarrassed knowing that he was the one who was the weak link. "I told you to never look at me. It might work on the stupid ones but will become obvious to the cunning ones."
Rola took her proper seat in the chair after Ybarra left the stage. She then looked down at Caesar and looked at the bag of Joy in her hands.
"How's the orphanage," she asked.
"Dreadful, like always."
"Hmm… coming from the same orphanage, I wouldn't want to see you die. You offended the Capo gang, and they won't let this off with just your death. They'll kill everyone in the orphanage."
"Are you not a member?" Caesar asked, unfazed by the threat of death.
"We're… acquaintances. We work alongside them." Rola replied as if she was disgusted with the implication that she is under the Capo gang.
"So you distribute the Joy for them. You're getting paid for your work, right? How much 100,000 Parou? 200 thousand a month?"
The atmosphere around the room started to get gloomy. Caesar looked at everyone and saw that their faces were either looking down or looking angry.
"Even less? Let me get this straight. You are helping the Capo gang earn millions upon millions a month sitting pretty on their luxury homes with clean water, while you guys earn less than 100 thousand doing everything for them living in this shabby room?"
Caesar's words felt like a knife cutting through their old wounds that were already scarred. They are being underpaid by the Capo gang, but they can't do anything about it.
"Shut up, you don't know the hardships we had to go through just to get enough street credibility for the Capo gang!" Mitre shouted.
"Why don't you just leave? I'm sure other organizations will recruit you," Caesar asked.
"We can't. We still haven't paid our debt," Ybarra answered.
"Shut up Ybarra, don't tell him that!" Mitre shouted.
"Ahhh… so you're not even getting paid? You're working for free just to pay off your debt?"
"And we were so close too! If it weren't for you and your new Joy, we would have been able to pay it off today!" Mitre said angrily.
"Shut up, Mitre. He's just egging you on," Rola said, stopping Caesar's investigations. With just a few questions, he was able to find out about their situation.
Mitre and Ybarra were angry at each other, blaming each other for being stupid enough to fall into Caesar's trap. But everything went quiet when they heard a faint humming sound.
"*I could neve live without you…without youuuu…*"
A man could be heard singing, with his voice getting louder and louder. No, to be precise, he was getting closer and closer. Dread suddenly replaced anger in Ybarra's face.
Ybarra, the man with 30 strength, the strongest man here, was reeling in fear. Caesar could see Ybarra's heart dropping in his stomach as they heard a faint rustling of the doorknob.
The man didn't knock. No, he just opened the door as if he owned the place. There was no violent reaction from the group of teenagers with the sudden intrusion. They were expecting this. Dreading this.
"*How is my dear money-making childrennn?*" the man sang his question. He looked at Ybarra
"We…we…," Ybarra couldn't let out his words. He was scared.
"I guess it was my mistake asking you. How about I ask you, dear miss? The real leader of the group?" he said as he faced Rola. He grabbed her chin and made her look up to him.
"Yeah, I know. I've always known, and I let it go because you were all doing such a great job, *such a great jobbbb*"
Rola tried her hardest not to look shocked, but the man's overwhelming presence made a tiny crack in her façade. She didn't think that he figured out her secret.
"But today…today's not a good job. Not a good job at all!" his voice turned sinister as he looked at her, frightening those who were near him. Rola was the only one who stood her ground as she looked away from him.
"Listen to my story. There I was at the club, singing my heart out, when all of a sudden, I see my customers throwing out my product. My shock turned my singing off-tone. ME!!!"
The man, afraid that his throat would become soar from shouting, tried to compose himself by combing his slightly curly hair with his hands. "They said my product was garbage! Garbage!"
"So, I ask you, why do my customers hate my product?"
Rola, with the burden of pressure on her, looked at the man. "It's just a bad day. They'll buy more tomorrow."
With Rola's answer, the man just started to laugh. "Hahaha…HAHAHA!"
Without any warning, he slapped Rola right on her cheek, sending her flying directly to the table. The collision sent wooden cups flying, and beer all over her face.
"You dare lie to the great Zaturn?!" the man shouted.
"Rola!" Ybarra quickly snapped out of his fear as he saw Rola hurt. She was looking down, with her hair covering her face.
"You!" Ybarra rushed towards Zaturn with his fists containing all of his strength and anger. But Zaturn just looked at him and opened his mouth.
He didn't block nor did he dodge. He only opened his mouth.
"*GAAAAA!*" he screeched with a high pitch tone.
Invisible sound waves traveled towards Ybarra and swept him off his feet, sending him to the wall, creating cracks on the concrete.
With intrigued eyes, Caesar looked at Zaturn's status.
[Zaturn's status]
[Vitality: 20]
[Strength: 30]
[Dexterity: 30]
[Intelligence: 61]
[Miracle Power: 75]
[Special: Sonic Burst]