I looked over the boxes of goods with a satisfactory nod. I was able to obtain more than I had expected in a single night. It was so much that I decided not to provide it all to the councilman, lest he grow suspicious of my methods.

  I had taken the parts back and forth to the apocalyptic world using my inventory storage with the amplification mod. At that point, I had reasoned out the most cost-effective way to move stuff back and forth between the two worlds, and the digitizer with the inventory storage was it. The more stuff I brought the fewer trips I had to take, but the cost of World Travel exploded exponentially based on the mass of the objects I tried to move.

  It was a matter of mass too. Larger objects could be moved as long as they weren’t massive. Just like traveling with luggage, I couldn’t just pack things in a small space. The only thing that seemed to circumvent the mass limitation was the Digitizer, and along with the amplification mod that made it abnormally large, traveling there and back with just what I could fit in the Digitizer was the most efficient manner. I had even considered stripping down and traveling naked, but the savings wasn’t so much that it was worth the embarrassment.

  I wrote a few notes with orders to the men, made sure the programming on the turret was set, and then appeared once again in my world. I immediately heard someone knocking on the door. With a cough, I walked over and unlocked it, revealing Mei Xing standing there with a slightly upset look on her face.

  “What are you doing in there? I’ve been knocking on the door for five minutes.”

  “I finished reviewing the stock. I’m happy taking it all.” I smiled.

  She looked around suspiciously. “There seem to be fewer crates here than before…”

  “Ah, I took a few in advance. My payment should have covered that?”

  “Took them?” She looked around incredulously. “I don’t see a truck. How?”

  “Never mind that… my crew will come in a truck tomorrow and bring the remaining product.” I handed her a card with my name and information on it. “If you need anything else, just call.”

  I had gotten those cards recently in the mail thanks to the efforts of Mizuki. She had probably gotten them made the second I expressed interest in starting a business. They had my number on them, but that wouldn’t help if I was in another world. I’d have to come up with some kind of forwarding system.

  Cecelia could forward my messages to the right person, but sometimes, Mizuki or Lily would be a better person to contact, and sometimes it would be Caleb. Since Cecelia wasn’t a programmer, designing such a complex algorithm for when I was off-world was out of her ability. I currently left it to redirect to Caleb, just because if Hazel or my mother called and got another woman on the line, I had feared I’d never hear the end of it.

  She took my card and looked at it carefully. “Daniel Miller.”

  “That’s my name, what of it?”

  “It’s not the name I’d expect for some gang lord.”

  I broke into a cough. “G-gang? I’m not in a gang. What are you talking about?”

  She glanced behind her, and three punks were standing nearby. They were admiring and playing with their guns while lording over the survivors, who were tied up and on their knees. They did look like gang members standing there about to execute a bunch of victims.

  However, before Mei Xing had led me to the warehouse of supplies, which turned out to be adjacent to their house and just a half block down the street from where our shootout had occurred, I had demanded that they tie them up and leave them all alive. The terrified gang didn’t put up a fight as they realized any other option was death.

  Lights had been restored to the street now, and the bloody remains were quickly dispersed with a hose before we allowed Mei Xing out of the home. The laser gun hadn’t left a lot of remains, and most of them were cauterized and burnt.

  “I’m just starting my business.” I declared, feeling a bit embarrassed considering the crime scene next to us. “Completely legit.”

  “A completely legit business.” She pursed her lips as I nodded. “One that requires you to buy large quantities of food and personal goods under the counter with no paperwork. One that leaves you equipped with high-tech weapons?”

  My nodding stopped. “Uh, it’s not for anything illegal.”

  Although I was saying that, I knew that was technically a lie. The items I was getting were the kind of stuff that was lost in transit, fell off a truck, or somehow disappeared. It was exactly the kind of stuff I needed. If I was going to bring things from this world to the other world, it couldn’t leave a paper trail. It was fine when I was buying a few items from a store, but when I was buying products from a warehouse at a time, I needed fewer loose ends.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  I had depended on Mizuki to get me larger amounts of items in the past, but I realized after meeting her mother that I couldn’t depend on that anymore. Thankfully, Caleb had come up with a solution for me. It just took bringing down a small local gang.

  “Right…” Mei Xing still looked doubtful, but she seemed less hostile than she had before.

  I was shocked at how well she had taken the entire shootout. She had to know that some of those red stains on the concrete had been people. There was even a man who was still alive who had lost both of his legs. I had given him some RegenX and he passed out. He wouldn’t die, but it wasn’t like his legs would grow back either. Despite that, Mei Xing hadn’t seemed all that upset at all. If anything, the scene made her look relieved.

  The pair of us left the factory and walked back to the group. The five remaining men, not counting the unconscious legless man, shook as they saw me approach. They were wary of the three men I assigned as bodyguards, but they seemed to be outright terrified of me.

  “What are you going to do with us?” The one who had spoken before demanded as I approached him.

  Among the survivors, he was the least terrified.

  “Is this everyone, or do you have more members?” I asked.

  “We have more, hundreds.” He responded.

  “Then, I guess we shouldn’t allow witnesses. Kill them all.”

  Caleb jumped in surprise as I waved at him casually, but he quickly nodded and lifted his gun. The man’s eyes widened and he let out a shout.

  “Wait! We’re it! I said we’re it!” He cried.

  I held up my hand, but thankfully Caleb had known I wasn’t being serious and quickly kept his men in check.

  “I already knew it was just your bunch. Caleb has run enough favors for you that he knows your size.”

  Caleb hadn’t told me that, but I used him as an excuse. I was mostly bluffing, as I wasn’t that confident, they wouldn’t have hidden things from Caleb and were part of a much larger group. My bluff seemed to work, although Caleb was preening as I had truly told him that.

  “Look, what do you want to do with us?” The leader licked his lips nervously.

  “Didn’t I tell you before?” I raised an eyebrow. “I want to recruit you. You guys, make nice with Caleb. He’s the captain now. He gets orders from me, you take orders from him. Other than that, I don’t care what you do.”

  “S-seriously?” He blinked.

  I pulled out a stack of bills and then flapped in front of him. “The pay will be nice, as long as you behave and do what you’re told.”

  The man’s eyes flashed greedily, but then he glanced at Caleb.

  “Guys not lying. He’s got a rich girlfriend. He’s setting up shop in town.”

  Mei Xing had been listening to this, and when she saw the money, her eyes flashed with interest as well. However, when she heard Caleb talk about a girlfriend, her eyes turned cold. I didn’t know where Caleb had gotten that from. Did he see me with Mizuki, Lily, or my sister and jump to conclusions?

  “I don’t have a girlfriend.” I coughed, causing Mei Xing to raise an eyebrow and cross her arms. “I don’t! I just have business partners. Like you.”

  “I’m a business partner, now?” She gave me an incredulous look.

  “Your father and you need the money, don’t you?” I asked. “You don’t want your dad dealing with that stressful work and getting sick, so won’t you be taking it over?”

  She hesitated for a second. “You want to continue to smuggle supplies? I was willing to help this once because it’s already been done… but dad is still the dock master…”

  “And you could be hired as his assistant,” I responded. “And secure enough money so he can get the proper medical care he needs.”

  I knew my words were a pretty low blow, but I couldn’t have her running off. As for her dad, I had the feeling that she was about to force him into retirement, and there was no saying the next dock master would be as corruptible. This was the best alternative solution I could come up with on the spot.

  She looked hesitantly, her eyes wondering to my hands, but the money I had shown earlier was already gone. It wasn’t real money anyway. Rather, it was a stack I had snatched from the bank in that world. Since I was there anyway, I saw some lying on the ground, not that it had any value in either world. It looked a lot like our money, but there were some key differences someone would notice if you look carefully enough. I still used it to the desired effect.

  She nodded her head. The leader of the gang also looked like he had come to his decision as well. It looked like I had finished up my business.