034. Fifth Cycle Starts

Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shootin' stars~

Huu put on the music. 

~I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now~

He really could use a wish right now. 

~Yeah, I could use a dream or a genie or a wish~

He had made losses this cycle.

~To go back to a place much simpler than this~

But at what cost?

At what cost!? 

The moment, the very moment that he had gotten confirmation that things were okay.

That he had made losses.

That the cycle was over. 

He had received the messages of doom.

Hell, he had even made friends with Morgan Kell and Arthur Luvan who... wasn't in the game. Morgan, he remembered from the HBS Battletech game. He had a kid and his Orion was really crappy in the mission, but he was a cool guy. Nice beard. Wasn't he also from a monastery or something?

Bossing beard though.

Anyway, he had made a friend... had gotten himself all sorted, enjoying life. 

The losses had come in. Lots of losses, all the money into his personal accounts.

Until he had gotten the messages.

All the messages.

...

Then the objectives he had been given made sense.

Oh, they made sense.

System had set him up, dammit! 

He had won! 

Then this... a pyrrhic victory. 

He could remember it as if it were just 15 minutes ago... which it was.

~~Beep Boop Beep~~ 

The system had cheerily announced its presence.

++ The Cycle has ended Host! How has Host been doing? Is Host enjoying life? System certainly hopes so! Checking Objective completion now Host. ++

++ Host has diversified production lines! Host is a real Tycoon! Reward, profits from partners will not count on host's Balance sheet! ++

++ Host has created 2 non-war-like companies! Well done Host! Host is almost like a real entrepreneur now! Reward, Host's planetary assets will be calculated as Total Worth / Population, rounded up the nearest billion. 

Which is where the fear started. The System always screwed him over in some way, what was this about planets!? He didn't have a single planet!

++ Host has made two friends. System sobs is so proud of Host! Host will receive two meal vouchers for FFF burgers. Host must take friends out for a meal, on the System! Reward, Host's communication systems will not count to assets! ++

Fuck off system! A meal voucher? Even when he was running 100% on profits, he could make enough to go for a meal at FFF burgers! What was this about communication as well!? He had radios, they weren't enough to count as assets!

++ Host survived 49 assassination attempts! Host is really lucky! Host is really amazing to have defeated all those assassination attempts! Reward, Host's personal guard do not count towards assets! ++

What? 

49 assassination attempts? 

Where? When? How? 

Huu shuddered, the profit/loss calculation proceeding before he could refocus. 

49 attempts on his life?

FROM WHO?

Right. Breathe. 

Settle.

Focus on the losses and relax.

Fifty million Kroner in his personal bank accounts. Okay, that was enough losses. Just cuddle the money and cry. 

Good.

Good.

A brief moment to let the tears out.

Then the new missions.

++ Beep boop beep. New Cycle has begun Host! Cycle Length 12 months. Starting Funds, 10 billion C-Bills! Enjoy Host! ++

10 billion... wasn't that big a deal. The 12 months though? That was a problem... he had to keep losing money for the entire time, for an entire year. The stress was going to kill him.

++ New Objective: Host is neglecting the core industries. Return to basics host. All Tycoons must have a resource industry! ++

++ New Objective: Host is about to reach the human age of majority. Host must wave Host's arms like a discombobulated creature with no hand-eye coordination. Establish a physical entertainment chain! ++

++ New Objective: Host is neglecting Host's health. Host must find the reason why Host is so weak and puny. Establish a medical service! ++

Right. Those three shouldn't be too difficult to manage. 

Just. Um. Businesses. 

No problem at all. He was going to ignore the remark about his health.

However! There was always a however. He had trusted the System, and it had betrayed him!

++ ... ++

There had to be a catch! He was onto the System!

++ ... ++

++ New Optional Objective: Host has developed a reputation as a warmonger. Tycoons cannot be warmongers, Tycoons supply warmongers! Host must erase Host's reputation like a true Tycoon! ++

What? What reputation? How did he get this reputation? Why? It was Erwin again, wasn't it...

++ New Rule: Assets owned in conjunction with different companies will count as assets based on a % of Host's ownership of the assets. ++

++ Old Rule: All structures and materials worth over 1 million C-Bills will be counted as assets. 10% of asset valuation is counted as profits during System Calculation. ++ 

++ Old Rule: All assets must be used, assets cannot be left to do nothing. Assets cannot be sold. ++

++ Old Rule: Failure to achieve a loss or comply with rules will result in Host creating and running a social group unrelated to family or companies. ++

Huu had paused. 

The new asset rule.

It rubbed him the wrong way. 

There was something... malevolent about it. He just knew it. 

As was the planetary reward.

Both of those... all malevolent.

Why were they here... hmmmm. 

Then the messages had started to arrive and Huu knew he had been too naive.

Foolish. 

Why had he thought that things were too easy this cycle? It was because they were setting up to stab him in the back!

The Smialy. 

Oh, how he had thought it would not sell. He had thought that nobody wanted an ultra-light, 5 ton machine in the Lyran Commonwealth!

But no! There were orders, so many orders that for the next ten years his factories had been booked out. 

How! 

That was hundreds of thousands of machines! 

Huu took in a breath.

That wasn't the worst of the sabotage. 

No. 

It was Eggers Construction that had struck a betrayal most foul. Those primitive jumpships that he had thought they were going to produce one a year of? 

No... it was one a month. 

And they were going to give him 10% of the profit of each one sold, except for the ones Eggers Orbital Construction got to keep outright.

In other words...

In other words! He was going to get 800 million Kroner every month! He was going to get an 8 billion Kroner asset every ten months... and it was only going to increase as production increase. 

He whimpered. How had that even worked? The O'Neill Cylinder wasn't even finished, hell, it wasn't even properly started. Where were they building these things exactly? A quick glance and... no. The damned Hexes had come back to haunt him. Making him profits, stabbing him in the back. The worse decision that he had ever made. They were building single lines of shipyard-type Blocks. Single 30m hexes in a row. Then moving them around to set up a temporary shipyard. Shifting as the vessel changed in size and shape as the construction process continued.

The monsters had completely circumvented his O'Neill cylinder. They were meant to start production... like ten years from now or something!

How? How had he been betrayed so badly? 

Why were people buying these things? 

No, wait. Stupid question. Any jumpship is better than no jumpship. The better question is: How had he been suckered into this deal?

Huu pulled up the data on the screens. Went cross eyed before typing in the search bar.

A considerable effort later and... oh. Primitive jumpships could be constructed much more easily... because the material tolerances for the Jump Drive were much lower... and the jump drive was smaller.

He.

He had fucked up.

He had applied modern thinking to primitive designs. Even though he had a primitive gun factory. He had screwed up, and it was all his fault dammit. That was his fault for not reading carefully!

That wasn't even including all the primitive dropships they were producing. 2500 tons, a big engine, a big empty cargo bay, and a living space/cockpit for the crew. Enough to be worth millions.

Right. 

So. Eggers Armaments and Eggers Construction had betrayed him. Was there anyone he could trust?

~Bup bup beeep bup~

Another message? From Tolsand Warworks? 

The Armoured Exosuit, now named Armsman... was also booked out? They were opening more factories with all the money he had invested? They were licensing out the design!?

Anton! You. You have betrayed me most foul.

Armaments, Construction, and Warworks... they could not be trusted...

So much trust to lose him money, and instead they make it? 

The monsters. 

At least Eggers Educat... Education. Yes.

A solution.

Educational facilities don't count as assets. What if. 

What if each Jumpship had a school on board? Would it then not count as an asset? Not incur profits! If it didn't incur profits, that meant that it was making losses!

No wait. He had to be smart about this. 

Think Huu, think! He had rushed off before and instead had ended up stabbing himself in the back. He had to plan this out properly.

Education facilities don't count towards assets.

Communication doesn't count towards assets.

So.

Hmmmm. Nobody would want to learn on a jumpship, and clearly wasting money was against the rules, but what if he used the Jumpships as messengers? 

++ Host is correct about rules ++

Yes! That would work! Thanks for reminding him! Ha, at least the System wasn't entirely heartless. 

++ A reminder that the System is not human. System does not possess a heart. ++

Comstar was always talking about raising the price of HPG messages, said that costs kept rising. Their C-D class communication services were just jumpships travelling to send and receive messages, which would be losing money as well. It lost so much money they only had them in the periphery.

Which meant! 

Which meant that he could just... he could just use his jumpships to send messages, like a mailman... and not incur any profits at all! Instead, it would be all losses, all day, every day. Every single jump was a loss!

Comstar kept losing money from their messages.

He would be competing with Comstar, the no.1 communication service...

Yes... this would work.

See? Thinking through a problem would work.

First, separate all the ships out into Eggers Shipping underneath Eggers Construction... and have the dropships Primitive Bounty was producing act as messengers. All under the Eggers Shipping label, the perfect way to have net zero assets and lose money.

Perfect! Didn't the government back home always complain about the postal service not making money? Always spending public money, money the government was trying to save? They were doing it for a good reason, one he had to emulate now. Be the postal service, AusPost here we go!

As for education... they would need to set up schools on the orbitals. That way, none of them would count as assets! Yes... that would solve that problem. The dropships would be couriers, the jumpships carrying the messages and the dropships! Solving all problems with one stone! 

Huu let out an enormous sigh of relief, the two biggest threats to his future losses had been solved.

Eggers Media was still spending money as fast as it earned it. Good.

Chisaki, his most loyal division head. Someone he could trust fully.

Aliyah Martinez of Education was a close second. 

Agriculture kept losing money and the EDF was expanding... but still losing money. Something about having recruiting offices open in all Rasalhague Worlds. That was nice of them, finding ways for him to lose money.

So... in the end it was Construction, and Armaments. They had managed to drag Warworks in with them as well, his delinquent companies. How did he solve that problem?

Huu had to think about it. 

Every attempt had failed, thinking outside the box was necessary if he wanted to survive!. 

But he was confident in his success, he was a genius.

It was all coming up aces!