Bosses and Loan Sharks [Part 1]

I went to Banana Junction first and stood on the same spot next to the vending machine, checking that the mask was secured on my face. I knew that I was going to be questioned by the regular workers here, like last time, so I had come a bit early. Still, it was all up to the lady. It would all be for naught if she didn't show up. I was going to avoid all types of confrontations, but this was just my wishful thinking.

"Well, I have no other choice but to hope. You can do it, Hasumi."

As I stood there, a car blowing red neon lights drove towards me from around the corner. This car was the same as the others, levitating above ground, and it also seemed to be emitting zero sound and carbon. It stopped next to me, and the glass-like covers that played the part of a window disappeared. Inside sat a fat man in a black suit, his pot belly going hard on the seatbelt that firmly restrained it into place. However, he didn't look at me but turned painfully to face the backseat, which I still couldn't see.

"Madam, we have a specimen here if you would like."

A lazy, squeaky sound came from the back, one that was not at all comfortable to hear.

"Ask him what unique things he can offer me. I don't care about his rates."

The voice of this woman reminded me of a very unsoothing, violent being mercilessly played.

"Everytime she opens her mouth, a deaf child is born into the world."

"Hey little mutt. What specialty do you offer?"

"None. I'm not working today."

"It doesn't matter if you're working or not. Name your specialty."

I seemed to have forgotten that this woman sitting in the car was rich. She was the type who would get what she wanted regardless of the hurdles between them. To avoid her, instead of saying no, I just had to be undesirable.

"Look, I specialize in nothing. I think the best skill I have is that I can tie my shoelaces in less than 5 seconds."

The man didn't say anything to me and just turned his head toward the lady silently. Then he looked at me again. I could only see his head turn, but his sunglasses stopped me from being able to see exactly where he was looking. It was to the point where I felt intimidated. Once the car had driven away, I kept standing there for a few more minutes until the other workers began to arrive.

"Oh great. Now I have to deal with them. This was around the time when the lady had arrived yesterday, and if she had a consistent timetable, it wouldn't be long before she came. Luckily, I had worn a cap today to disguise myself, but I doubted it would work for too long.

The guy, who had confronted me before, walked up to me.

"Hey you. You were here even yesterday, weren't you? Get lost before we beat you up."

"And here it is."

"I'm here to buy."

"Oh, are you? I don't really believe you, mister. I think you're here snooping around looking for some trouble."

I raised my hand and touched his neck.

Now that I had gotten a read on his memory, there were multiple things I could use against him. His name was Xavier, and he had been working on "Banana Junction" since he was in college. Initially, he had come here hoping to be hired by some rich woman who would then pay for his education. However, his first job was at a rich diplomat's house. He had taken the job because he was threatened by the diplomatic guards to either take the offer or end up dying. After this incident, he was so traumatized that he stopped going to college, and soon the diplomat began to force him into this line of work. Sadly for him, all he could do was this. Since the market was rough and police crackdowns were common, he assumed leadership of Banana Junction and controlled the other workers here to ensure the market didn't get too saturated. However, in return for the promise he had made to the others, he also charged money from them and even beat the ones who couldn't complete their target. In this entire hierarchy of leadership, he himself was a pawn who had to pay a weekly fee to someone above him, and I now knew he was far behind meeting the weekly target that was going to be due today.

The man moved towards me and smacked his fist against his palms as he licked his lips slyly.

"Littleface sent me here to check on you."

My first bluff.

"Littleface?"

Upon hearing the name, the man froze in his tracks, his mouth open in disbelief. He was now wondering whether to call my bluff or not. However, I was going to throw at him information that not even Littleface knew about.

"It seems to him that you need a little vacation."

"Wh-! You weren't sent by Littleface. If you did, you wouldn't be mentioning him so casually. Someone else sent you here, didn't they?"

"Oh, not at all. He's afraid his weekly quota of fifty thousand Earth crowns may be left unfinished in your hands. You don't have the amount, do you?"

"How can you know that? Not even He knows that until the weekends."

"I'm Littleface's special guy, you see. He keeps me out of the public's eye. I even know that you only have thirty-two thousand Earth crowns at the moment. You're in trouble, aren't you?"

Now the man began sweating and beseeching me to save him. It was a well-established fact that Littleface controlled a few lower floors of this megacity. One could say he had strong connections to the mafia and was out of the police's grasp to a certain degree. If someone was stupid enough to earn Littleface's wrath, the symbolic punishment was to lose a few fingers from their hands.

The man fell on his knees, begging me to talk to Littleface for him and extend the deadline. However, I had no interest in this person more than that he wouldn't bother me.

"Listen, calm down, would you? I can do something about it, and maybe—I can't promise you a bit—he might show some leniency. But I have a condition."

"What is it? Name something that is in my power!"

"I will need to stand here for a while. Tell your guys not to bother me. And keep my identity a secret. Do not tell anyone I was sent here by Littleface, because he'd hate you if you were to reveal his special guy in public."

"If that's what you want, please do not worry at all. We'll leave you alone."

"I'm glad to hear that."

I then went next to the vending machine and decided to pass the time checking out the vending machine. Just like I had seen the lady do, I repeated the steps, and soon the screens began appearing. The drinks all appeared right in front of me, right next to the screen, tempting me to pick one. I was busy taking it all in when suddenly a voice came out of the vending machine.

"Hello there. I am a vending machine. Can I assist you in choosing a drink?"

"No, I'll be okay."

"Are you sure you'll be okay? You look confused and haven't moved since the last 15 minutes."

"Were you watching me all this time!?"

"Why is that a problem? Can't I look at my customers?"

"You're a vending machine. How can you even look?"

"You're a narrow-minded individual. I am a vending machine. I identify as a breakfast."

"Then I remembered the androids. Maybe this vending machine was using advanced AI as well. There was also a high chance that marketers were collecting the audio data, and if I wasn't careful enough, I'd end up being found as an unregistered entity in this world. That was the last thing I wanted to do.

"Thanks a lot for waking me up at the vending machine. I had fun talking to you. But I'm okay. You can go back to sleep."

"I will sleep when I want to sleep. If you don't know what to drink, try out the new Sharky Sparky Sweetwater. It's new on the market and cheaper by half an Earth crown. The freshwater is completely lab-tested and contains all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. It's simply-"

"Just shut up."

I kicked the machine slightly and began to turn around, the vending machine screaming, "I was touched! I was harassed!" in the background. To my surprise, the lady from yesterday stood there, slightly smiling, as she speculated about my little scene with the machine.

"That was quite a funny show there."

"Yeah, well, they tend to do that often, don't they?"

That was just my wild guess. I was sure the AI software had slowly trained itself to deal with the type of customers that came here in Banana Junction on the 27th floor. Maybe the better the area, the more refined the AI and other automated services would be. In this world, customers weren't treated equally, but those who preferred or were used to a certain method of treatment were given exactly that. Since this lady was actually from the upper floor, it seemed like a funny show to her.

"So, are you working today?"

Again, sadness took over the lad's face, and she tensed up. Everything was going according to plan. Now she was going to ask me for my services and was going to secretly film it. I already knew everything by accessing her memories.

"Yeah. I'm working."

"Ok then. I would like a service. How much would you charge?"

Why had the woman approached me when there were others on this street bigger and stronger than me? Maybe she didn't care about that sort of thing and felt comfortable coming up to me today because she had already talked to me yesterday? It seemed to be the most likely explanation.

"I'll charge four thousand Earth crowns for my service."

The woman was shocked beyond her senses. Of course, I knew I was charging a lot, and asking for such a high rate had a purpose. I moved closer to whisper into her ears, and at first her body flinched, but as soon as she heard my proposal, she quickly took a step back from me.

"Huh? Who told you? How did you?"

"How did I come to know it was not your bigger problem? You love your husband, and very soon your home will be wrecked. I will only grant you one of the two. Choose if saving your marriage is more important than knowing how I know."

The woman looked very worried and looked down, wanting out of the entire situation. Multiple times she would look at me to try to find some sign as to who I was, but I knew it was of no use. I had also decided that if she refused my help, I would simply try erasing her memory of me, something I hadn't experimented with yet, and move on to the businessman. However, the woman stepped close to me.

"Are you certain that you can really help me out of this?"

"I'm certain. All you have to do is pay me the full price upfront."

"What if you run away?"

"Why would I do that? If I had been looking for money, I would have simply enjoyed servicing you and never looked back twice."

"Yeah well.. That too. You're a very strange person, and scary as well."

"And still, you have no choice but to trust me. I don't blame you for having doubts, but I am the only one who can get you out of this situation."

"Ok, then, what do you reckon I should do?"

"Tell your boss to visit you here. Tell him you're too shy to find a male pleasure service, and the boss himself can come over to the 27th floor. And before you call him, make sure to book a hotel. 

I motioned my hand forward, asking for money. She quietly nodded.

"I suppose you prefer a crypto form of payment?"

"Of course."

Blanka had given me her crypto wallet, in case I was successful. Although she had been reluctant, she had told me that if I ran away with the money, the wallet was only capable of receiving money and not transferring it outside.

Once I had been paid, the woman called her boss and told him to come. I waited outside for a few hours, a little distance from the door of the motel, when a car, a little bigger than the ones I had seen up until then, arrived. It was completely black, with dark gray neon further adding to the mystic aura of it. A man in a dark blue suit emerged and began walking inside. This was, without a doubt, the boss of the woman and her husband. His car stood outside and had automatically parked itself in the air, above the hotel, along with a few other smaller cars. This was the standard parking style in this world. 

"Now it's up to you, miss. Just beer with it a little."

A few minutes seemed like an hour, but finally the boss emerged from the hotel room, along with the lady behind him, walking slowly and lifelessly. Anger filled me up when I looked at the boss, but in order to correctly punish him, I had to control my rage. The only way to punish him was to execute the rest of the plan, the most important stage. I walked up to him and swiftly touched his face.

"Excuse me, sir, room service?"

"Unique Ability: Inspect Photon. Improved Unique Ability: CRUD Photon."

The man turned angrily, his forehead sweating and beads of sweat dripping down from his nose. He seemed the type of man to be heavily used to air conditioning, or maybe the floor where he was had a regularly cold temperature, so he wasn't used to the humidity on floor 27.

"Who hired this idiot? Are you okay? Why would I need room service when I haven't gotten to my room yet?"

He seemed the grumpy type and also in a hurry, and his eyes annoyed me a littleas they fixed upon me, tiny and cold.

"Oh, I apologize, sir."

Still, the man kicked me really hard in the leg, and a sharp pain shot up.

On the bright side, I now had his contact number, the contact information of his wife and colleagues, and I had deleted whatever inappropriate videos he had recorded back in the motel. Furthermore, I made sure to remove his memories of the fraud the woman's husband had committed. Of course he would come to find out about it again in future company audits, but by then, he would be arrested already."

Wincing in pain I got up slowly and smiled looking at the man with a feeling of superiority, to scare him.

"Sir, I understand you're in a hurry, but I need to talk to you about a serious matter."

"What is it now? Can't you see I'm busy?"

 I calmly answered. My confidence was going to be the key to successfully breaking him, and completing the negotiation.

"I'm here to discuss the situation with your employee. I believe there's been a misunderstanding."

Mr. Richard scoffed and looked down on me disdainfully.

"Misunderstanding? What are you talking about?"

"I have reason to believe that the woman you were with earlier was coerced into that situation. She's a victim here, and I think you should reconsider your actions."

Before defending himself, Mr. Richard's face displayed a mix of shock and confusion. His eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes widened in disbelief. He opened his mouth to speak, but for a moment, no words came out. It was evident that he was caught off guard by the seriousness of the situation and was struggling to come up with a convincing response. However, as he regained his composure, a defensive tone crept into his voice as he denied any wrongdoing.

"I didn't force anyone to do anything. She willingly agreed to—" 

Having the upper hand, I chose to cut out all the extra fuss, and get straight to the point. It was time to go for the kill. Now I had the upper hand.

"If this were to come to light, it could have serious consequences for you and your reputation. Not many people have time to listen to the defendant. He who speaks up first, is the victim."

A bead of sweat forming on his forehead, and his face turned dark, having understood now that he had been setup and was expected to do something in order to save himself.

"What do you want from me?"

A very simple, and easy to understand question, and perhaps the most used one in the history of humanity. A sentence that was so less and yet so deadly. Music to the ears of some, and a death sentence for others.

"I want you to leave the woman alone, stop harassing her, and promise to promote her husband in your company. In return, I won't expose this incident to anyone."

"Promote her husband? Why should I do that?"

"It's a small price to pay for avoiding a scandal. Think of it as a gesture of goodwill."

For a moment, there seemed to be a newfound will that shone in the man's eyes. He was resisting me, but I fixed my eyes firmly onto the man. I had already decided to expose him would he have denied, not only because he was evil and would then make sure to completely destroy the woman and her husband, and come after me as well but also because I had already invested too much of my time into this. In the end however, I succeeded into making him play it safe.

"Fine. I'll do it. But you better keep your end of the bargain."

"You have my word. Thank you for understanding, Mr. Richard."

Mr. Richard shot an angry glance at the lady, and waved in the air. A golden bracelet on his hand gleamed under the warm yellow streetlight outside the motel, and his car came right in front of him, it's doors opening. I shook hands with him, which he did rather unwillingly, but I needed to confirm what he was thinking in his mind. To my satisfaction, all I could sense was that he was very scared, his blood pressure had shot up, and he had full intention of keeping his side of the deal. Once his car shot past us, I looked at the lady and smiled.

"Happy?"

The woman nodded, tears rolling down her face. 

"I don't understand. How did he agree to everything, when his case was stronger. He's not the type to agree on such terms."

"I've told you before. You paid me to get you out of this problem, and I've done that. Or do you want to pay four thousand EC's extra?"

She smiled and wiped her tears.

"Tell me your name then, at least."

"Hasumi. And yours?"

"Sabrina"

I shook Sabrina's hand to say goodbye to her.

"And remember, not a word to anyone about this, ok?"

"mhm."

She quickly nodded motioning to keep her moth zipped.

"Now, I had one more job remaining, before I can afford a neurochip implant."

I was going to go to the address of the loan shark who had been giving trouble to that businessman.