With no other option but to accept this new reality, I reluctantly agree for it and sign the documents that are required to keep this confidential and work with the top 5 companies and the Hunter's Guild handler to accept and complete the missions and the Dungeon raids.
They will also give us wages, but it may vary depending on the missions we take and complete. With this information, I look at my team who are sitting proudly in a corner of the room with smiles on their faces except for Sylas who has a determined look on him wanting to prove he is worthy of this.
We also sign the relieving documents from the Hammerand and got the procedures concluded as we can't work for the government and a company at the same time. I could see a hint of fear in Mr. Cooper's eyes, fear for his daughter's safety which reminds me of the promise I made to him when I joined the company.
Only after the meeting, I get to know that Jack was an official from the government who has been assigned to train me in combat and tactics to become a leader and to lead a squadron of soldiers in difficult missions that can't be completed by normal soldiers and he is at High-B grade.
The Iron Vale squad is currently comprised of 7 people. Me, my team consisting Snowfa, Sylas, Mara, Clevis and Lucksonlay while Jack will be the leader, observer and trainer of the squad. We will be going on missions every week and will not be able to purchase any skills or equipment outside the Hunter's Guild or the shops recognized by them as we will not be having any credits with us.
The credits we currently have will be changed into contributions which we can use henceforth. The convert rate is 10 credits = 1 contribution. After the exchange I have 4393 contributions and this contributions doesn't have any value outside and hence doesn't need a bank account or any physical form of any coins or papers.
After that we also got new and upgraded prototype holowatches which has all the features we had in our old hunter watches, but with 1 extra feature which I never thought is possible. We have an AI in our new watches which will be our personal best friend and a fail safe to keep everything confidential.
They say that this AI is completely removed from the main data collector and will be only monitoring us and will not share any information about us or what we do without our permission and will do it only through emails or texts which we can keep track of.
I wish I can believe it, but after what happened yesterday, I am not sure if I can trust them ever again in anything and only time can tell if they are honest with us or not.
I reach home by 4:00 PM after the meeting and all the procedures are completed. I see my parents and Zaana are worried and waiting for me looking at the entrance of my house. When I enter the house, they are look at me with relief and ask me what they wanted from me to which I say "It is confidential, I can't tell to anyone. Hope you guys understand." To which my mother and sister nod and my father just scoffs.
I enter my room after convincing them it is good that they didn't know what has happened in the meeting and it will be beneficial for me and the family. I close the door and lock it as soon as I enter.
I connect the wireless ear plug that is given to me along with the holowatch which will help me to speak with the AI when I want to and activate the holowatch. Hologram of a bald woman pops up on the holowatch and greets me saying "Hello Alexander Saad. I am an artificial intelligence assigned to help you in any way I can and keep the confidential things a secret."
I am startled looking at it as I initially thought I will only be hearing the voice of the AI using the ear plug and never expected an image to appear. I ask for her name and she says it is a designation 'AI-1428'. I am not surprised to know that as it is not a living being, but a program created by humans.
I don't want to call the AI with the designation as I will not be able to speak with her when I am outside if I do that. I want it, no 'Her' to have a name and after a few seconds of thinking she comes up with a name 'Shona'. I am not sure why she wanted to be called Shona, but I agree to it.
We discuss a few things regarding the job role that will be placed on me when I start the job after a few days as I will have to work on my poker face which I do not have. Even a 5 year old can easily find out that I am bluffing when I do that.
When I say that to Shona, she chuckles saying "It is not hard to lie and you are not lying, but just hiding the truth or not telling the entire truth."
I wonder what is the difference in that as I can't find any. She says since I am in Low-E grade now, I can officially get another skill and can train it while she teaches me on how to have poker face and tell only partial truth to my family and friends when the time comes.
With all the things that has happened from yesterday, I forgot about the skill selection which I want to purchase. I had a small confusion on the skill which I want to purchase, whether it is going to be an attack, speed or body strengthening skill that will help me, but I finally decided to go with the attack skill as I already have a defense skill "Ice Armor" that also increases my speed.
I will think about getting the body strengthening skill later on as from now on I can get as many skills I want due to my body energy capacity has increased and I will no longer have any restrictions in purchasing the skill, if I purchase it from the Hunter's Guild.