Unliving-Living

"Huh... okay." Simons replied, confusion etched all over his face. He took a look at their surroundings and sure enough, they were now at the heart of the city.

He really teleported us all at the same time... Isn't he meant to be a Senar Initiate just as I am?

Simons questioned himself. He turned to look at Saquin just to see him disappear.

"This city is beautiful." Simons was startled by the voice behind him. Startled to the extent that it got a violent reaction from him.

With a violent jerk, he turned and palmed out, his target, the face staring at him through the vehicle's window. A green glow erupted from his palm as he attacked,

Voom,

And hit nothing. Thankfully.

"Woah. You are quite jumpy." Saquin narrowed his eyes. He found Simons's reaction quite interesting.

He had blinked out of the car to stand just beside Simons. Unknowingly, he had startled him to which he replied with an instinctive attack.

The small scene served as a reminder that all Empowered individuals he would be meeting in the Universe had essentially gone through a Trial and passed. So, in one way or another, they are all dangerous to some extent.

He also discovered that having Shalis by his side at all times may not be advantageous, at least not those he would be interacting with.

In that short moment that Simons had attacked, if he had not intervened and mentally commanded Shalis, Simons would have been made a mincemeat. It is quite something, considering she should be well aware of the fact that Simons was not a threat to him, but she had gone for the kill immediately.

"You have great instincts." Saquin complimented. He was now resting on the vehicle by the front passenger side.

Simons gently turned and looked at Saquin, cold sweat poured down his neck. "Thanks." He muttered as he wrote the dread that Saquin was permanently in his heart.

"Instincts that almost got him killed." Shalis chipped in.

Saquin smirked while Simons could only let out an awkward laugh.

"Come, let's get going. I need to have done a fair amount of wasteful spending before three hours are up." Saquin said.

"You are leaving in three hours?"

"Nah... Just have something to attend to." Saquin's eyes caught the transparent golden screen hovering in his peripheral.

[ Bloodline Assimilation...

Time left: 3 hours+. ]

Simons nodded as he opened the vehicle's door and jumped off. The LTV was an old model delivery type, it had the typical appearance of normal bus-type LTVs barring the huge company logo imprinted by its side. Unlike the bus-types though, it used tires instead of hover ports.

He tapped on his Comm and used it to open up the Vehicle's trunk.

Shalis gently floated out of it, then she landed gently and walked over to Saquin's side.

Simons stared at Shalis figure with apprehension. After she left the vicinity of the trunk, he walked over. Staring at the various goods that were meant to be delivered, he could not help but feel regret. He would definitely lose his job today. Then, his eyes drifted to Saquin, who was busy checking out the city. That is, if he did not end up being killed first.

It would really be a pity to die because of another man got mildly annoyed... He thought to himself.

"Ah." He signed in defeat as he tapped his Comm and closed the trunk.

"Why are you feeling so down?"

"Ah!" Simons jumped. Saquin had suddenly appeared by his side, his blind spot, again. Thankfully, this time he knew better than to go on the offensive.

"How do you keep doing that? And can you stop please? I think I would die of a heart attack before you kill me." Simons held his rapidly beating chest.

"First, it is a skill. Second, I won't kill you. I have no reason to. You might be a threat to others, but not me." Saquin replied. "Third, I think I can fix the reason for you feeling down." Saquin continued as he took out his newly gotten Comm.

"I am not sure you know the reason I am feeling down in the first place." Simons muttered under his breath.

"We can hear you." Shalis sparked another startled reaction from Simons as she appeared by Saquin's side.

"At this rate, my heart would give out in the next five minutes." All the happiness that stemmed from meeting someone of Saquin's caliber had been beaten off by his heartbeat rate.

Meanwhile,

Saquin had logged into the planet's general net on his Comm and searched for the key word "Star-Xpress Delivery's CEO."

---

Mani City.

The planet's capital.

In a simple office situated at the top floor of a sky-reaching building. A stoic middle aged man sat in silence, his eyes distant. Suddenly, his Comm started beeping.

"Huh?" The man was surprised. His Comm beeping at like this meant someone very important was trying to contact him.

He picked it up from the table.

[ Call from Unknown Contact { Top Valued }. ]

He stared at the interface for a second, trying to compose himself before picking.

"Hello." He answered the call.

"Oh, hello." The voice from the other side seemed to belong to a young man. He would not jump into conclusions that whoever it was was young as the powerful tend to age slowly and weirdly.

"How may I be of help to Your Eminence?" He asked slowly. Even with his position and power, he had to address whoever his caller was with respect. After all he had only managed to get the Valued tag recently after all his years of hard work.

"Well, what I want is simple. Would you mind telling me what the Star-Xpress Delivery company as a whole is worth?" The voice replied.

"Worth it?" He was taken aback.

"Yes." The young voice confirmed.

"Well, if I accumulate it all, it should be worth about... if we talk in Credits, the assets and all should add up to about four to five hundred million." He ran through various calculations in his head.

"Five hundred million?" The voice echoed.

"Yes, Your Eminence. The Star-Xpress Delivery company has a range that spans through the major part of the middle section of the galaxy. It also happens to be amongst the top three shopping and delivery service companies in this rural part." He quickly offered an explanation for the absurd price.

In all honesty, the company's true worth should not be more than two hundred million in credits, but he inflated the value. He did this so he could gain the interest of the caller who he presumes to be a potential investor.

"A company that spans through a great part of the galaxy... about five hundred million." The voice muttered.

"Yes, Your Eminence." He said gently as he clenched his fist. His mind was full of prayers as he really did not want to lose such a potential investor over inflating the price.

The voice stayed silent for a while, to which he thought the caller was calculating the amount of stocks he or she wanted to invest in. But he turned out to be wrong as the series of events that took place after were such he could never have imagined nor guessed.

"Hahahahaha..." The caller started laughing. Then, they abruptly stop. "That is so fucking cheap."

"What?!" Hearing what the caller said, he abruptly stood up in both shock and joy. He had struck it big. But with the joy blooming in his heart, another emotion grew, fear. Just who in the world was he talking to right now?

"I want to buy it." The caller said, ignoring his shout.

"Buy it? Like buy the whole company? Not the stocks? Like everything?" He poured out question after question. He could not remember ever being this flustered since he became a guru in the business world.

"Yea, the whole company. I know as a huge company, you would have a lot of procedures to go through before finalizing the sale. So, I would request your assistance on that aspect. I would send the name to be placed on the documents when you are done. Thank you for your time, Adept Mayor." The caller said in a gentle tone brimming with finality.

"Yes, Your Eminence." Mayor, still lost in the absurdity of the situation, nodded.

The call was cut off.

Mayor stood still for a full minute. He took a deep breath in as he tapped on the in-built system of the table. "Reina, I need you in my office."

just as he called for his assistance, his Comm beeped a couple of times as multiple notifications poured into it. As soon as he checked them out, a smile unlike he had ever experienced played on his face.

[ Account Notification:

-> Reris Bank: { Dear Esteemed User, your account level has increased from the Platinum Level to the Diamond Level. }

{ Dear Esteemed User, we have discovered a large incoming sum and have automatically used your Platinum Privileges to...}

{ Dear Esteemed user, welcome to the Diamond Level. Your Privileges are as follows: ... }

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.

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-> Reris Bank: { You have received Five Hundred And Fifty Million Credits (550,000,000C) from XXXXXXX. } ]