=====================
City of Orinoco, C.C.'s Iron Spirit Gaming-Center
"Alright, I leave it in your hands Lucy, I'll be in my room… Try not to need me." Cesare said to his shift manager Lucy Evergreen, as he rose from his seat, after checking on his system..
"Got it boss, you can count on me!"
Cesare waved his hand, acknowledging her reply as he left, heading towards his private room…
Inside which lies a top-of-the-line simulator pod, manufactured by the BSBH Corporation for playing Iron Spirit online…
Cesare has been able to grow stronger through playing Iron Spirit, increasing all his attributes via battling in the game…
It has been a daily ritual almost for Cesare, to log onto Iron Spirit and search for the username Chasing Clouds in the virtual marketplace..
Waiting for the protagonist of this world, Ves Larkinson and his first virtual mech after designing it and posting it for sale on the virtual marketplace..
The Fantasia 2R-E, a variant of the 2R base model manufactured by Kezia Armaments..
Ves posts the virtual mech for sale at the price of seventeen-hundredgold, the in-game currency of the game…
Everyday, Cesare checks the game waiting for the start of the timeline, so he can of course take advantage of his knowledge of the events that occur…
"Hmm, still nothing…" muttered Cesare, after checking the game's marketplace and failing to find Ves'sdesigneraccount, yet another day…
=====================
Cesare then decided to watch various live broadcasts, of different Iron Spirit players mech dueling on different maps and different match modes…
Like Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, Onev One, and even modes where teams of hundreds of players face off against eachother in virtual mech-combat..
A C+ Neural Aptitude might not be outstanding at the moment, but it's a safe aptitude, one Cesare does not have to worry about being made into cannonfodder by one of the larger and more advance galactic-states or interstellar-kingdoms..
======================
A couple of hours later after checking on his staff, Cesare left the gaming-center, driving a 'mag-lev', magnetizational-levitation hover-vehicle…
Headed home to his estate, a nice fifty-acres settled in a rural area outside of Orinoco..
Cesare'sfarm only breeds chickens and cows at the moment, the source of the farm animals being Cesare's system-dimension..
The land that isn't used for animal husbandry, is covered with terraces for growing cloud-rice, a staple food on the many planets of the Bright Republic..
Planet Cloudy-Curtain is the sole exporter of said rice, one of the few things the planet is known for, that and it's pink clouds dotted across it's atmosphere…
The technology of this era allows Cesare to run a small farm with utmost ease, a couple worker bots with a.i. programmed for taking care of animals is all it takes at the current scale of the farm…
In the guworld, the same could be done with a couple of mortals and a few enslavement gu, but Cesare rather prefers using technology over enslaving humans with insects…
Do not mistake Cesare's disgust with insects for weakness, he has already made a name for being dangerous and ruthless in the city…
After a couple of days of Cesare's business being open, and a few groups of armed thugs being disabled, then left with broken limbs in the alleyway, the news spreads fast…
"Don't fuck around down there at C.C.'s, it ain't good for your health…"
If this was a busy port system, like planet Bentheim, Cesare might have to seriously worry about gangs…
Luckily, the Walter's Whalers are the only mech-based gang on Cloudy Curtain, their leader Walter is known for leading the gang with a 'strength and restraint' sort of motto…
The Whalers are the local bullies of Cloudy Curtain though, taking a small protection-fee from every company on the planet, once they took over the planetary-security of the planet…
The Whalers were a gang in the Bentheim area, before being defeated in their first engagement forcing them to flee to Cloudy Curtain..
Walter knows if he charges too much, no one will do business with him, so he takes what he can without stepping on anyone's toes…
Ensuring the gang never attracts too much attention and risks the chance of being wiped out, or forced to leave their territory once again in shame and defeat…
