Chapter 20 - Helping out Rudra (2/2)
”Hi man, what's up?” asked Slaine.
”Nothing. Just wanted to talk to Rudra about something. Where is he?”
”His old man just came. They are having a talk over in a private room.”
”Oh! He is already here. Cool!”
”You know about Mr. Manjunath Powers?”
”Yeah. I had a meeting with him over lunch.”
”That would have been some discussion. What the hell would you be discussing with him?”
”My father had a mining company. We discussed collaboration between them.”
”Ya, how goes the recruitment?”
”It is good. We have managers to maintain it round the clock. There are a total of 24 members working for the cyber cafe now. We can do with a few more personnel. But it is manageable.”
”We can go with a few automatons if required. I also sent a few million to Rudra recently to improve on the security.”
”Oh yeah. He was confused but did spend about 5 million on updating the security here.”
”You are considering the issue far too lightly. You don't have the cyber drome pouring money into you for the team. You need to get hold of your own gear. Handle the workshop on your own. We will have a lot more work than before.”
”I thought you would be providing us those stuff in place of David.”
”Me? I hardly have the connections in the industry to pull that off. With the cyber drome opposing us, it will be that much harder. We need to handle it on our own. Establish a guild and workshop for that purpose.”
”Man, you have planned a lot.”
”Well, I am your boss. Need to do at least that much. Also, maybe it is best if we get a few V.R. cabins for the workshop. Even for the guild management, we need to have shifts.”
”Ya, we already planned that. Rudra, Lizzie and I will plan to make sure atleast one of us is online most of the time.”
”Anything else?”
”None, we even set up an ice-cream machine, a small fast-food stall and another refrigerator in the first floor. Lizzie wanted to setup a small toy stall too. She went out for getting it done. She is very enthusiastic about it.”
”Oh. That's good.”
”Yeah, talk about yourself. The cafe isn't even open yet and I am already tired.”
”Haha, get a few automatons to handle the stalls. It would be easy work.”
”Already bought them. Rudra says he would set them up by night. All the food and toy stalls will have them. Only manager, assistant and technician counters will have people on the 2nd and 3rd floors.”
”I thought 3rd floor was for the workshop. Why are we having a manager for it.”
”We still need to gather influence for workshop. In the meantime, Lizzie insisted to setup up private rooms in the 3rd floor.”
”Not a bad idea. I guess, I can leave Lizzie and Rudra to handle everything here.”
”Yeah, are you staying for the opening tonight. We are having a small party at midnight.”
”No, No. I am sorry, but I am kind of busy.”
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In the meantime, at the manager's cabin, Rudra was in a heated discussion with his father.
”You are always asking me to come and work along with you and prepare to succeed you. Now you want to set me a deadline in a field which you are hardly acquainted with? That is ridiculous!”
”Well, you have been playing around with this for more than 5 years. You have gotten nowhere. How much more time do you need. Soon, I would be asked to groom someone else in the family if you continue along this way. The maximum I can avoid that is for another 6-7 years. To be successful you need to have a few targets and deadlines. So, we are going to discuss it,” said Manjunath sternly.
”OK. What do you suggest?”
”You are setting up a workshop, right?”
”Yeah, obviously”
”I learn't a bit about them. A new game, vita-nova is being released So, let us say that you manage to make it 2nd rate workshop by three years and develop it into a first rate one by five?”
”That is a bit fast and is really hard to do so in such a time frame.”
”I have complete confidence in you. I believe you can do it. And I don't suggest waiting form more than 5 years for you to start at the firm. I believe if you are a part of good guild, you can have the game as a secondary occupation or a part-time one. So, I think it is a good time limit.”
”But that is still hard without any financial backing.”
Manjunath looked at him seriously. Rudra did tell him five years ago that he didn't want any of his father's money and would live on his own. Manjunath hadn't forgotten about that incident and still a bit angry about him.
”I don't want money from you to directly invest into my workshop. I am suggesting stuff like sponsorship of competitions and rental of virtual properties in the game.”
”That is acceptable. You can always contact me regarding these. We have a deal. I will have someone understand and join your workshop as a liaison.”
”Sure. That would work.”
The talked about various things about Rudra's work in the V.R. and caught up with their lives over the past 5 years. Rudra even managed to convince him to use the V.R head gear and play the game vita-nova to get a first-hand experience at the game.
When they got out of the room, they saw Slaine and Balthazar listening halfheartedly to Lizzie rant about the possible effects of the new somnium technology on the economy and various training institutions. Manjunath immediately joined them and started listening to Lizzie with rapt attention.
Rudra pulled Balthazar to the side along with Slaine.
”So, you are staying for the opening tonight?” he asked Balthazar. Ever since Balthazar had insisted him to increase the security of the cyber cafe, he had a feeling that there might be some security issue with him.
”No, I can't really stay overnight here. It is best I don't.”
”I understand.”
”Also, I have another 25 million in my account which you sent. I hope you didn't intend to use all of that to upgrade the security here. We already have sensors and automatons around the place and employed a team of 5 guards from Meretseger Security services.”
”No. No. Just keep it. I think we might need it later for the workshop. Maybe some somnium V.R. cabins or headgear. We can discuss it later.”
”I heard my dad came to visit you.”
”Ya, we just had a talk about you and the cyber cafe in general.”
”Knowing my dad, he would have warned you to not indulge me or something like that.”
”He did try but I could convince him to give you and cyber cafe a chance to prove ourselves.”
”Thanks for everything.”
”It's nothing. It is not like I am going to loose anything with setting up the cyber cafe.”
He owed a lot to Rudra. Rudra was going to set up a cybercafe in a few months anyway. He just sped it up a little. He spent a little more time playing a couple of V.R. games while Lizzie continued to discuss the cyber cafe and V.R. world with Manjunath.
”Why don't you listen to her ideas. They are quite impressive,” he said looking at Rudra.
”I listen to her every day and night. You listen to her. These are new to you,” he retorted and went back to playing with Balthazar and the rest. He felt his father telling him to listen to his girlfriend to be quite ridiculous.
He left at about 5 p.m. and began his usual rounds at the racetrack with Robert and Anubis. Then, they hit the gym and got beaten up by Salazar. As he reached his room, he found a V.R. cabin/capsule waiting for him by his bed.