[7:53pm]
Click! Click!
The sound of cutleries eting ceramic plates reverberated inside a simple and neatly designed dining room.
Mr. Dave looked at his visitor with a beaming smile on his middle-aged face. "I’m glad you were able to make it".
Leon smiled. "Of course, I promised".
When Leon first learned what Evergreen District represented in Leviathan Quay, he realized that his Engineman friend was perhaps richer than he expected and that being a veteran Engineman paid more than he expected too.
To be able to own an apartnt in Evergreen District showed how affluent Mr. Dave was. Afterall, it was one of the most expensive districts in all of Leviathan Quay to live in.
Mr. Dave was drawing increasingly closer to retirent with every passing year, and his ho showed that he was ready for retirent.
The dining room had a simple design.
There was a large glass dining table, a big high-back chair at the front for the head of the family, and 6 smaller chairs at both sides of the table, 3 on each side.
The dining room was painted white, but it was decorated with purple and brown gold curtains. A white and gold chandelier hung above, illuminating the dinner table with bright and gentle light.
Mr. Dave sat on the high-back chair while to his left sat Leon, and on the right sat the rest of the Dave family, Mrs. Dave, a beautiful blonde-haired mature middle-aged Geneform with 2 boys who looked like they were in their early 20s.
One of the boys had blonde hair like his mother, while the other had auburn hair like his father.
Their reaction when he entered the house told Leon that they definitely knew Thomas Riley.
As they ate the sumptuous al made by the woman of the house, Mr. Dave finally did the introductions.
"Leon, et my beautiful wife, Kate". He looked at his wife and smiled. "Darling, this is Mr. Thomas, my friend and the man who saved my life".
She smiled and looked at Leon. "Mr. Thomas, my family will forever remain grateful to you. Thank you again for saving my husband".
Leon smiled modestly. "I didn’t really do much".
"Are you kidding ?" Mr. Dave butted in and laughed as he began demonstrating in front of his children. "I was this close to death!" He raised his hand to his throat in an exaggerated manner, making his sons smile.
"When it happened, I was focused on keeping the train moving so I didn’t see it but later after recovering from the shock, I watched the events through CCTV cara. I still rember it vividly". He shivered, making his children laugh.
"The Lieutenant was injured by the terrorist and I was exposed. I didn’t know then, but the terrorist was already behind ".
"It’s a miracle how I’m still breathing in front of you, but that’s when Leon ca like so knight in shining armor".
"Dad, that’s gay!" One of the boys protested.
Mr. Dave laughed. "But that’s how it really happened!" He snapped back.
With Mr. Dave recounting the events of that crazy day, the dinner stayed lively as it no longer felt awkward.
And then, he finally introduced his sons.
He grinned at Leon. "The blonde-haired one is my eldest, Shanks. He’s 22 this year. The one who has my hair color is Leroy and he’s 19".
Having just finished his food, Leon smiled at the 2 boys. "Hey Shanks, hey Leroy, you know ?"
"Of course, who doesn’t know the famous Thomas Riley?" Leroy answered.
Leon grinned. "Do you fight?"
"Ahem...," Mr. Dave coughed and cleared his throat. "Actually, I don’t want my children to enter the fighting world. It’s too dangerous".
Leon nodded in understanding, but then he shrugged. "Who knows? Parent’s wishes don’t always reflect what the children want, I believe in letting children pursue their goals". He grinned. "That doesn’t an letting them turn gay though".
He looked at the 2 boys, then he asked. "Leroy, Shanks, are you gay?"
"..."
Mrs. Dave clearly felt uncomfortable but she didn’t interrupt.
The 2 boys froze at the sudden question, but then they shook their heads in unison.
Leon gave a thumb up. "Keep it up, that’s how n should be".
He looked at Mr. Dave and sighed. "Since I blew up in popularity, I began to know more about this city and honestly, Leviathan Quay is a bit ssed up".
"The genetic altering really goes overboard sotis and does more harm than good".
"I’ve seen Geneforms, n who deliberately go for surgery to get the won things. I’ve heard of so who pay thousands of Neo Credits just to get breasts, can you imagine that?"
Mr. Dave coughed.
Leon sighed. "No offense, I’m just in a reflective mood this evening. I’ve been really stressed these past few days due to the terrorists and everything".
"No, don’t worry, none taken". Mr. Dave said.
Leon leaned back on the dinner chair and said. "I believe in letting children pursue their goals but honestly, if I ever give birth and my son develops gay tendencies," he grinned. "I’ll smack so common sense back into his head".
"I an, gay? You an you don’t like soft ass and big boobs? I believe that’s a ntal illness honestly".
"..."
"Ahem," Mr. Dave cleared his throat again.
"That doesn’t excuse what the terrorists are doing though". Mrs. Dave finally voiced out her thoughts.
Leon nodded seriously. "I agree".
They discussed different topics from the political state of the world to the Extremist Faction, to the Reclair Church, and to how the military was handling the terrorist activities in Leviathan Quay.
And then, Leon finally asked a question. "While coming here, there was a loud humming sound, did you guys hear it?"
"Oh, that?" Mr. Dave answered. "It’s the City Shield".
"You know that the Omnicore Federation doesn’t have only one major territory right?"
Leon nodded.
"They’re the only faction to have two major territories with equal levels of power compared to the other factions".
"Their headquarters and neighboring cities are in their territory in the Central Belt, but over the centuries, they also developed a Coastal gopolis in the Southern Coast".
"This ans the Geneforge Clans are sandwiched between the 2 main territories of the Omnicore Federation".
"We’ve suffered a few non-committal attacks from them over the centuries. They know they can’t defeat us in our ho ground, but they keep harassing us".
"The 3 cities of our Geneforge Clans are always alert against their marauding attacks. Anyti our aerial defense grid detects an approaching Federation vessel, the army activates the City Shield".
"Most tis, it’s just a precautionary asure as the Federation rarely attack. Sotis, in years, they don’t attack at all but still, every citizen of Leviathan Quay is used to the City Shield randomly being activated".
Leon nodded as he finally understood.
Talking of the Coastal gopolis of the Omnicore Federation, he finally rembered that he still knew very little about the endless ocean that surrounded the world.
He learned about the general geography of the world through the psionic network, but he didn’t learn in-depth details about any particular location.
He looked at Mr. Dave and asked. "What do you know about the ocean?"
As they conversed, Leon was surprised to see a tiny humanoid robot on wheels suddenly roll into the dining room.
Mr. Dave started explaining but Leon didn’t hear anything as his gaze beca fully fixated on the robot.
As Leon watched it with a curious gleam in his eyes, the robot ticulously picked and arranged all the plates and cutlery in the table in a stack before carrying them off to the kitchen.
As the robot left, he curiously used his System Snoop function on it.
DING!
~----~
[Snoop Function activated!]
[Target: Basic Cleaning Bot]
[Classification: Dostic]
Na: Chucky
Manufacturer: Crack Industries
[CORE SYSTEMS:]
>Versatile Dostic Cleaning A.I.
>Adaptive Intelligence using Machine Learning.
~----~
Leon’s eyes glead. ’What a simple but effective cleaning bot’.
’If I can get this blueprint and modify it a bit, I can create helpers that’ll help work in my shelter and future workshops’.
Only at this mont did Leon finally return to reality and the mont he did, he heard Mr. Dave’s voice explaining.
"...so I don’t really know much about it".
"Huh?" Leon stared blankly at Mr. Dave, he didn’t get anything that he said.
Mr. Dave traced where his friend’s gaze was previously and then he chuckled. "Oh, Chucky? He’s our dostic cleaning bot".
"Chucky?" He saw it in the System interface but hearing it spoken, for so reason, that na unnerved Leon.
He didn’t dwell on it as he looked at Mr. Dave.
He hesitated slightly but rembering how friendly this family had treated him so far, he thought. ’What’s one more favor from them? They literally see as their dad’s savior!’
He smiled at Mr. Dave. "Um, can I just look at the robot’s inner workings for a bit? I promise that I won’t tamper with anything, I may even improve it".
Mr. Dave was taken aback for a mont, then he chuckled. "Oh, I forgot that you’re a chanist. Just be careful with him, Chucky is a dear friend to my family".
"Of course!" Leon nodded vigorously, satisfied.
He didn’t go to dissect the robot imdiately. Afterall, he had all the ti with Mr. Dave tonight.
Mr. Dave didn’t just invite him for dinner but a sleep over, the Engineman had more than enough rooms in his house to host visitors.
After Chucky took care of the plates, Leroy and Shanks finally bid everyone farewell before going to their rooms. Mrs. Dave also left, leaving Leon alone with just Mr. Dave as they continued their conversation.
Mr. Dave started his explanation all over. "Few people know much about the Endless Ocean, but I’ve heard that it wasn’t like this before Genesis".
"Apparently, there was more land in the world".
He shrugged. "I’m an Engineman and our guideways don’t reach the ocean, so I don’t really know much about it. But there’s a good reason why our guideways don’t reach the ocean, it’s not just because it’s outside out territory".
"Just like the Abyssal Pit, it’s widely known that the Endless Ocean is one of the most dangerous places in the world".
"There are unnatural storms in the ocean, storms that kill even Ascended but that’s the least of the problem in the ocean".
"Just like there are nanite storms on land, there are ADE flux storms in the ocean and compared to their nanite counterparts, the flux storms encountered in the ocean are exponentially deadlier".
"All these reasons and more make the ocean one of the deadliest places known in the world, but certain people still make a living there".
"From what I know, a few centuries ago the water level started dropping and that was when islands started erging outside the established territories. That gave rise to the Age of Pirates in the Federation Era".
"Now, powerful pirates and their crews rule the ocean. They know safe routes through the dangerous waters that lead to known islands".
"There are 5 Pirate Kings and 11 Pirate Lords who rule the Endless Ocean, the explored parts of the Ocean".
"Till today, the Ocean remains one of the greatest mysteries of our world".
Leon deliberated in thought after Mr. Dave’s explanation, then he asked. "What of the major factions? They don’t have mariti fleets?"
"The Geneforge Clans only started putting effort in mariti exploration in the last century, but the Federation and the Synth Order have established mariti fleets that rival the pirates in their ho ground".
"The Freegrid Collective also have mariti fleets, but theirs is far smaller and weaker than the Federation and the Synth Order’s fleet".
Mr. Dave shrugged. "In the end, the Endless Ocean is ruled by pirates".
In that mont, Mr. Dave left to the fridge to bring a few snacks and supplents to snack on.
As they ate, Leon finally addressed the elephant in the room, one of the main reasons that made him accept the dinner invitation.
"I don’t know if you have connections to manufacturing companies in the Geneforge Clans, but I want recomndations to get to know them".
"I want to push my portfolio out to get more inco avenues for myself".
Mr. Dave nodded. "Actually, I do know a few manufacturing companies. If you want, I can introduce you to them personally".
Leon imdiately smiled. "I’d love that".
The duo continued discussing different topics for the next hour, mainly speculating exactly what the terrorists intended to do when the deadline that they set ca.
And then, around 9:43pm, Mr. Dave finally went to sleep.
That was when Leon took his ti to get acquainted with Chucky, the cleaning bot.
Within just a few minutes of opening up the robot, he understood its internal workings, blueprint and design.
DING!
~----~
[You have acquired a new Blueprint: Basic Cleaning Bot]
~----~
Leon slept around 10:05pm.
User Comments
0 comments from readers