035

That being said, it wasn't as if he could do anything about it. Ivan's partner was a cheerful girl named Emilia. Even though she wasn't the girl he was interested in and, quite frankly, she was just a stranger, he remained courteous. He had no reasons to be angered at her anyways. As the group of five decided to go eat together, Ivan invited her to tag along and she agreed. It turned out that she fit right in with the group. The three other girls enjoyed her company and she seemed at ease with them. Ivan was already thinking of how he could use her to get closer to Nancy as long as she managed to get friendly enough with the three. She would be his partner for that lesson, they would have many opportunities to discuss his love interest and he would make sure she helped him.

As for Ron, he simply enjoyed the meal surrounded by people his age. It was a kind of happiness in its own way. One that he didn't experience during his childhood and could finally taste. He truly liked it. It was lively.

Once they finished, Ron had to go to his new job while the others were going to check out the clubs. As they were going to part ways, Laila asked Ron if he wanted them to check if there was any club that he might be able to join. He told them that they didn't have to go out of their ways for him but if they ended up coincidentally finding him, he would be grateful if they told him about it the next day. The fact that he had to work was going to prevent him from doing quite a lot of school activities but that was something he must give up on if he wanted to have a steady stream of money. As a lone youth, he needed to work to live.

They separated and Ron walked alone towards the company that hired him. As he reached the doors before the agreed upon time, he saw Harold, the HRD, pacing in a circle next to the door. He called out to him waving his hand and smiling. As he saw him, Harold beamed and hurried over. They greeted each over politely and Harold welcomed him inside.

Harold told him that he would first go meet the business owner. Robotronics 752 was a sub-company owned by a man in his fifties. It was attached and worked for Robotronics Universal but was a separate entity. Financially, it meant that if one drowned, the other would survive. It did help in many more ways too…

Anyways, the owner was a man named Harrison. He was very amiable and polite as he met Ron. Ron was a young engineer. It was something akin to a gem in the eyes of Harrison. After all, engineers were a must in this day and age and the requirements to become one were high. It was something in high-demand yet with very few available people. Everyone might try to become an engineer but not everyone could. Honestly, a lot of people failed due to inability and lack of competences. Which is why finding a young engineer was like a dream for any mech company. They might stay for years with them after all.

After having had a nice chat with the owner, Harrold took Ron to his own laboratory. It was labeled Lab 03. As they moved toward that place that was behind the company building, Harrold explained that there were two more senior engineers employed by the company and they worked in Lab 01 and Lab 02. Both of them were responsible for two different projects and Ron would get the third one. Harrold didn't get too much into details about that one. For one thing, he wasn't that knowledgeable on it and secondly, he thought it would be better to have the others working on it to explain things.

They entered the hangar and Ron marveled at the numerous screens all over the place as well as the many mech parts strewn about seemingly randomly. In the middle of the hangar, there were two elevated platforms with one depicting a car hologram while the other having some mech parts assembled. It seemed like one was the virtual plan and the other was the physical prototype. As he had been told, he would be in charge of a car project.

Harrold spoke quite loudly: "Guys! I brought your new dep.head! Come over!"

After a few seconds, five men and one girl came out from different areas of the hangar. They looked tired, one even yawned as he walked over. They weren't wearing suits but rather sported easy-to-move-in clothes. They weren't dressed much differently compared to the students from Ron's university in fact. The difference was that these were middle-aged workers.

As he saw that they had arrived, Harrold began to introduce Ron: "Guys, this is Ron Morgensen, he will now be in charge of the project as the new head engineer. Be nice, ok?"

Ron bowed as he greeted them with a warm smile: "I am Ron Morgensen, a pleasure to make your acquaintances, please take care of me"

They greeted him back in a similar way and then, Harrold bade them farewell. Ron glanced at the six employees and they looked back. The awkward silence continued for a minute until one of the guys couldn't help it and asked: "So, Mr. Morgensen, what are your directives?"

Ron looked at him with curiosity. What directives? Weren't they the ones that should tell him what to do? He wondered for a moment as he looked around and told them: "Well, how about you guys introduce me the project to begin?"

After all, regardless of his incompetence, he at least needed to know what he was supposed to be working on.