28- That's How Wealth Flexing Is Done.

"I forgot to asks. But is there something in particular you wants to do while we're in this world?" Cal asked, his arms laying across the seat he was on, as they were driven by some fancy limousine that they were promised were not related directly to Arasaka.

Monika, her eyes ever so slightly more glowing than usual. Shifted from gazing at the sight of nightcity to him, and turned into crescents. "Not much, seeing the sights, getting to experience new things... The people, also, those you spoke off and others. Though I do feels ever so slightly removed from everything." She sighed. "It's just so... Unreal when I stops to think about it. I knew I was in a video game, well, at least that's what I thought initially. But now, I don't really know what to think. Turned out what I thought to be an isolated digital space, was but a tiny part of the equivalent of a digital universe, or even a multiverse. And we, or at least you, can travel through it."

She shook her head. "The people of this world, they can't, and I doubt they'll ever be able to. It makes me feel odd, a sort of detachment, knowing we can leave and comes back as we please. That they are bound to rules, we are not."

Cal frowned. "I know what you means. But I think it's partially because of the nature of our existence in this world. I don't know why, but I think the script of this world allowed us to conserve most of our prowess by implementing us into the world as mysterious, hyper-advanced pre-datakrash era Ais."

"Here, watch this." Snapping his fingers, a spark lit up between them. "Here, in the physical world. That's all I can push my willpower to create. A little spark. In the net, I don't really need it much because of my proccessing power."

"To put it into more simple terms. If before I had to lift the weight of a planet affect our world back then, now I'd need to lift an entire galaxy worth of weight to be able to shrug off the rules of the world and do whatever I want. The script gave us the best hardware possible to exist in his world, and I'm pretty sure it skirt a few of its own rules for it too. Things would have been different if it had stuffed my character's file into a newborn baby, and I know for a fact it could have decided to do so if it wanted to, though I'm pretty confident I could have backed down from entering the world in the first place if it had been the case."

Monika contemplated on his words for a few seconds before she spoke up. "It looks like I was assuming some things. Is the script of this world really so much stronger than you?"

Cal nodded. "It is, when I felt it when we crossed the boundaries into here, it felt pretty much boundless. If I had the guess at the reason, I'd say it's because the game it originated from was an open-world. But then, as we know, the physical world is far from just encompassing night city alone."

A soft smile came to Monika's face. "Well, since it looks like we were given a free pass, maybe we shouldn't think about it all too much."

Cal smirked and shrugged. "Yeah, it's not the first place I'd have asked for a vacation to, but I'm not someone to refuse free anything."

"Really? Then what if I said that I was currently free for the taking?" Monika smirked coyly at him.

"I'd say you're lying, because you're already mine." He replied swiftly, lifting an eyebrow questioningly, as if she was saying nonsense.

Rolling her eyes, she drawled out, annoyed. "That's not what I was implying..." She gave him a sly look. "But you already know that, don't you?"

He threw her a smug grin. "Yes."

She didn't lose her smile entirely, but it did lessen.

—————

Descending from the car, the driver opening the door for them, they received a lot of looks as they strode to enter at Lizzies. Mostly of a weary nature, while some were downright lustful or hostile. Neither Cal nor Monika gave them any mind as they waited in Lines.

When it came to their turn, the bouncer, who had pink hair, very little clothes and holding a bat over her shoulder, looked at them suspiciously, her body relaxed but ready to act. "I don't think I've ever seen ya around before. And for reasons, this ain't a place for corpo brats to makes trouble in." She tapped her bat against her palm a few times, looking them up and down. Her gaxe lingering on their clothes and eyes, and more on Cal than Monika.

"We're not tied to any corpo. We're not here to cause trouble either. Just looks around, have a good time if possible, spend a few eddies. Maybe a lot of eddies, if there's business to be had with the Mox." He shrugged, and gestured at himself and at his sole pistol. "Besides, we aren' very well equipped to fo much of anything, no?"

The girl squinted and then snorted. "Spoken like a true Corpo, whatever." She put the bat back against her shoulder and looked at Monika. "And you, what's your deal? You his fancy mute doll or what? Or an output in it for the money?"

Cal rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. Monika didn't need his help. Though how she replied did makes it hard to keep a poker face may have led one of his eyebrownto twicth a few times.

"And what if I was?" Putting a hand to her cheek, she questioned toughtfully, looking at the bouncer. "I'm sure he'd offer a handsome pay for someone he'd find worthy of either of those positions. More than enough to buy any girls in this hellhole of a city, in fact." She shrugged nonchalently. "But you wouldn't believe me just with that, would you?" Her eyes flashed blue. "I don't like to waste my breath, on useless posturing that I have no interest in. That's why I stay silent, 'choom'."

The bouncer's eyes also flashed blue before they widened, and she mouthed a number silently. She looked at both of them with a renewed sense of warriness and let out a breath. "Uh, well. Sorry about that. I was wrong. You're definetely not corpo brats. I was just fishing for a reaction I could expect out of one of them, it's a bouncer things to filter the bad shaff, see? But I see you mean business, you can come in. I'll also warn someone to tell the boss that someone wants to meet her for business." She shook her head and smiled wrily, indicating for them to go in. "I'm Rita, by the way."

"I'm Cal. And it's all good, Rita. We're suspicious 'no names' after all." He smirked, making quote with his fingers at no names. "As for the potentially pissing off rich strangers, no comment."

"Monika." A hum and her name was his companion only parting words for the sheepish bouncer.

Futher in the bar, as they were led to a table. He finally questioned her. "What the hell did you shows her? Our bank account?"

Monika looked at him with small smile. "Yes, that."

"Seriously?" He found it difficult to not burst into chuckles.

"Uhuh." She nodded with a knowing smirk.

He shook his head. "Did the job pretty well, at least. And I'm not even gonna point out anything concerning the possible danger of doing that, we both know that's waste of time."

—————

After some time at a private booth, in which he listened with interest to a project Monika was working on with Hanako after hearing him talk about the video game worlds he knew about, they were interrupted by a dark-skinned woman knocking once before entering the booth.

"I've heard there were some potential promising business partners wanting to speak to me. But that's up to me to decide." She said, looking at both of them in turn. "If it wasn't obvious, I'm Susie Q, boss of the Mox. And I don't think I've ever heard of either of you before."

"I'm Cal Eikon. And this is Monika. And it's quite normal you've not heard of us. Since you could say we're new to Night City." He grinned at Monika's momentary surprise of his new name dropping, something he had chosen on recently.

Standing up he offered Susie his hand in a handshake. "I know that rep is almost everything in this city. But I doubt you will refuse what I'm here to offer you."

Sussie Q grunted, taking his hand after a second. "Spit it out then, what is it?"

Gesturing for her to sit, he uncaringly sat back himself and leaned back in his seat, drapping his arms across the backseat. "I'm ready to invest a 100 millions eddies into the Mox initially in exchange for you to grow your power as much as you can in as short a time as you can manage."

...

"I don't have time for jokes. This was a waste of time." Susie scowled an went to stand up.

"Neither do I. And we're not done here. Sit." Cal's smile took upon a more vicious edge as Susie's ass fell back down on the couch due to a sudden bout of intense dizziness.

His eyes flashing blue, he sent her directly a million eddies. "Money isn't worth gonkshit to me. But I know it's not the case for most anyone else in this shithole of a city. Of course, what I'm offering is not totally free, but it might as well be with the sum I'm throwing at your gang." He explained calmly, sending her another few millions a pieces, his eyes flashing blue every few seconds as he talked.

"As I said, you will uses the eddies to makes the Mox the most powerful as possible and to take cares of your own, as you value so much. Recruiting, big guns, chrome, and everything else in between, you'll do that. In exchange for it all, I want you to progressively adopt back the original philosophy of the Mox in your dealing, I'll take care of your hard cash need and of the other gang is they ever come to become a true problem to your growth." He set out the condition in the details, his eyes still occasionally flashing blue as he drowned her in pathetic cuts of a million dollars each.

Smiling pleasantly, he asked her. "Do we got ourselves a deal, Susie Q?"

It took the woman a few seconds to nods back slowly, almost mechanically, dazed as she was. And as she realized the flood of money had stopped and she came back to herself, her gazes toward them had changed drastically, dread being the most prevalent, yet a sort of odd respect also being present in it.