Qiu Yue extended her hand and helped pull Rei up. Suddenly the entire dark interrogation room turned into one that was well lit and equipped with two chairs and a table. There were only Kraft, Qiu Yue who did not wear any mask and Rei in the room.
“Please, have a seat.” Qiu Yue requested, and Rei listened as he began to notice how beautiful the lady in front of him was. With a formal business scarlet dress, Qiu Yue folded her sleeves and placed the piece of contract right in front of him. (The System had already changed whatever she was saying into Japanese almost immediately.)
“Do you need anything to drink? A towel? My colleague has not been very welcoming to you.” Qiu Yue offered as she eyed towards Kraft with disdain. (It wasn’t too hard to act that part for Rei to believe her.)
“No, it’s fine. I’d rather get this over with and return home.” Rei replied as he could feel that something wasn’t right with the situation. It was too…drastic of a change.
Being a Mangaka artist, he had sufficient story ideas at the back of his mind, and Rei understood that he was experiencing one of these stories he had used in his manga before. Rei was glad that they seemed to believe him for now, but it felt… too easy, too convenient. (He still was glad that the torture had stopped)
“Fine. Let’s talk about your debt and our contract, shall we?” Qiu Yue suggested as she magically took a laptop out of her storage ring and booted it up immediately. With her phone connected to the laptop, it automatically activated a Panda Operating System.
With the Panda Operating System, she was able to access all the apps and programmes she used for creating the Dungeon City Fortress as well as managing her investments in the Goblin World. (Not to mention, the phone worked like a power bank as well, and she never had to worry about charging at all.)
With the contract app activated, she took out a wireless mobile printer from her storage ring too and was all ready to print a brand new contract for Rei to sign. What mattered now were the terms and conditions.
“So? What exactly are you willing to offer us for the interest of your debt? It’s no small sum to begin with, and the interest is definitely enough to feed your manga assistants for two years or so.” Qiu Yue asked as she was aware of the size of the debt due to Kraft’s sneaky mind peeking abilities.
“I …can offer all my knowledge and can prepare blueprints for you. I can even assist in building them, but I need you to ensure that my identity will be covered up. I do not want potential…assassins coming after me.” Rei knew how technology could be more than just competition.
Sometimes, mega corporations were of the mind, that if they could not have something, it was better that nobody had it, which was why they would send out corporate assassins to kill inventors or at least impede them in some way or another. The Dark Web was filled with such contracts ranging from grudges to assassinating to look like an accident.
“That’s all? You expect us to do all the dirty work according to your designs without paying us any money back?” Kraft slammed the table which scared the crap out of Rei immediately.
“I…I can give you a percentage of the upcoming movie. Depending on the success of the movie that it may even exceed the interest up to this point!” Rei replied in return. “But I’m not willing to give my everything!”
“All my hard work in manga drawing is my pride too! Those blueprints mean nothing to me compared to the work I am doing! To you, however, it should be worth a fortune! If you don’t want to build it yourselves then just sell it. I would have done it a long time ago if I didn’t have to fear being captured for doing so!”
“Then how about we offer you something better in exchange for everything?” Qiu Yue smirked as she stood up and told Rei to follow her. She unplugged the phone from the laptop and made a short call. “I need a portal to Star Cross Industries.” In an instant, a swooshing sound was heard, and a portal appeared right in front of them.
“Get in before I decide to help you!” Kraft threatened and cracked his bones. The next second Rei basically jumped towards the portal.
When he came out of it, all he saw was a Hangar…full of Core Units being refitted, and the Engineering and Mechanical Crew (EMC) of Pandas were working hectically to listen to their pilots’ requests.
There were two Core Units who had just returned from a sortie, and Qiu Yue recognised the first as Bu Dong, the Ape Cultivator and was told by the System that the other was Deng Long, the Wombat Cultivator. Each of them came back with the machines more or less busted and the Head Panda of EMC, Man Man, was shouting vulgarities at them.
Rei fell to his knees and saw the entirety of this place in disbelief.
This was no Mecha World, but the feeling was still nostalgic as he turned to Qiu Yue and asked who were they exactly. At the same time, Kraft (in his normal appearance) came out of the portal and smiled widely.
“We are not the Yakuzas but actually the colleagues of the one who saved you from the Yakuzas.” Qiu Yue answered as she called out to Man Man asking if there was a Core Unit available for testing. “However, we needed to know that you were the one that we were really looking for.”
“Arghh! First those two rascals and now you? Fine, fine! Parking Lot Nine. The joints were recently attached, but the armour plates are not in yet, so it’s not fit for a sortie. Don’t you dare bring it out or I will ban you from this hangar! Move only the arms and legs. Sit, Squat and stand. That’s all!” Man Man said as he knocked the two Pandawans on their helmets before dismissing them.
“Well? What are you waiting for? Want to try out the robot?” Qiu Yue offered Rei who was still trembling at the sight of all the busy hangar in this particular primitive world. He quickly nodded his head and moved towards the Core Unit with awe.
The Panda EMC Crew guided him all the way upwards while Qiu Yue merely jumped from the ground to the cockpit (earning her a bad stare from Man Man). The Gunndam mangaka artist sat on the new smelling leather on the seats and turned on the control consoles.
It wasn’t the same feeling as the ones back in Mecha World, but to be able to control a robot again, brought him to his tears. That was when Qiu Yue knew that they had succeeded in getting him on their side.
“You gotta give my foxes some credit, if not for Kiyu working her magic in the background, he might not have opened up to you,” Kraft interjected in her thoughts, and Qiu Yue rolled her eyes in dismay.
