Greed God chapter 63

January 20th 2016 Metropolis 5:00 PM EDT

Cherry  managed to get my paperwork in order pretty easily. She had everything backdated and then pushed through the proper channels to pretend we had met all the requirements for both Gotham and Metropolis business licenses. Much like some companies would incorporate in specific tax havens, we set ours up in Gotham despite the Metropolis aimed structure of the company. Any business decisions or court cases would be handled  in Gotham, with all of Cherry's contacts able to weigh in on our side.

Still  we needed to check the company location out, and I'd shelled out the  cash for a massive shipment of cheap glasses and cleaned out a major  tech liquidation firm for cell phones. All of this took a few days so we  weren't able to start immediately as I'd hoped. The glasses being the  same had produced the same product when used as the focus, and I'd had  everything delivered to the premises. I hadn't bought a factory, but  rather a store front, right in the heart of Metropolis, and with some  greased palms I was good to sell right away. I just needed to combine  all the goods together. I was at thirty thousand, but after buy ten  thousand pairs of glasses and ten thousand junked phones I was sitting  at fifty thousand.

Of course I could only afford four thousand or so pairs of glasses with the points I had, but that wasn't  relevant at the moment with such a small shop. I threw together a hundred pairs of the base model for a thousand, then ten pairs of H  ranked glasses for the same to tout as our flagship model. H was world  class tech but just beyond peak normal, not yet into the crazy xenotech that would get me noticed even out here in Metro.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Elite Smart Glasses- H rank. A  pair of  glasses with all the capabilities of cell phone. Voice commands  can be keyed to the user and will allow for internet access, phone  connection with the insertion of a sim card, and storeable media on one  terabyte solid state architecture built into the frame. Solar charging.]

The  flagship glasses were sleeker, sturdier, and much less reliant on  external hardware. The shining silver frames were comfortable and  functional, and the rectangular lenses were scratch resistant and held  an absolutely breathtaking image at a resolution I really couldn't  describe as anything other than just looking like real life. I set up  the counter, setting everything out, with the normal I rank glasses  lined up in neat rows, and the flagship model in well made cases on top  of the glass displays.

Waylon sat in one corner of the  store, looking incredibly bored but somehow still threatening, his  massive size and impassive glare conveying the danger of trying to steal  anything, and Cherry was busying herself tidying up. Whisper and  Bonebreaker had stayed back at the Palace. I turned to Cherry. "Are you  sure that storefront was the best way to go with this? I mean, I get the  basic concept, and your old man did basically create all the movers and  shakers in Gotham. Even if you don't know business well enough to run  things I trust your gut here....I just don't know why."

She  smiled brightly. "Simple daddy, what we're doing is creating  underground buzz. If you announced yourself in the paper and did a big  sale and advertisement then you're openly competing with LexCorp and  Wane Tech. They have a ton of credibility, and you just look like  another pretender to the throne. Those up and comers come and go, but  rarely make a splash. But if you do this, things are different. You get  buzz on the ground from word of mouth, and suddenly you're not the young  buck trying to make a name for himself, you're the shadowy purveyor of  elite technology. The mysterious shop no one has heard of that sells glasses that you can't get anywhere else."

That  made sense. People loved doing shit they weren't supposed to do. Tell  them this place was a shadowy underground tech dealer and they would be  lining up, then word of mouth would get our name out and we could pivot  into a more respectable rep. I raised an eyebrow at her. "The main issue  with that is that we don't have a way to get word out. We just opened  this place. How the hell do we get people to show up and try the things  out to spread that word of mouth?"

She smiled slightly. "Because while we don't have a sign, our location is pretty fantastic. We got a place pretty close to the  Daily Planet, and I made sure that the delivery guys were really obvious  about coming in here. Reporters are all incredibly nosy, and even if  none come in, someone is bound to check it out. If we don't get anyone  we can always hire a few local thugs to spread some rumors in places  civilians will hear, but given Metropolis is a haven for crazy, I'm expecting someone any minute. Don't worry, we're still well on track with the plan."

It  took about two hours, but someone finally came into the store. I made a  mental note to have Whisper reach out to some of the cultists to speed  this shit up, I wanted to start a business, not be a goddamn shopkeeper.  Still, I could hardly complain about my first customer, she was a  knockout. Long golden hair pulled up into a ponytail, an off the  shoulder, midriff baring blue top and a long wavy red skirt. Bright blue  eyes that gleamed with friendly exuberance and a cute little button  nose. She was fucking adorable.

She  saw me and waved brightly. "Oh, hi! I was visiting my cousins  girlfriend nearby at the planet and I noticed this place had just  opened. I was pretty curious what you guys had here." She looked around  with interest. "Your sign was interesting. The Eye of Thoth. No words or  anything. Very mysterious. I assume whatever you sell here has  something to do with knowledge?" She looked quizzically around the  inside of the shop, clearly intrigued but also confused about what the  glasses on display did.

I  tried not to drool at that gorgeous flat stomach as I stepped up to the  much shorter girl and bowed deeply, making sure to keep eye contact as I  did so. Looking up at someone like that can be pretty sexual if you do  it right. The pretty little blonde just smirked a little as I stood back  up. "Welcome to Pythia Solutions, purveyor's of the finest eye based  communications and entertainment technology in the city. Would you like  to try out one of the products?" I plucked a pair of glasses from the  counter and passed them over to her to check out.

She  raised a dainty eyebrow at me before taking the pair of glasses,  scrutinizing them before finally slipping them on and looking at me  through them in confusion. I grinned. "Voice activated. That's our  flagship model. All you need to do is tell them what to do. For  instance." I cleared my throat, enunciating clearly. "Search romantic  candle lit dinner locations for younger diners in Metropolis." I winked  at her, and that drew a giggle from the girl, which turned into a blink  of surprise when a functional screen popped up on the lens.

Her  eyes went wide as she slipped them off, staring at them much more  thoroughly. "That...is interesting. I'm actually pretty interested in  engineering. How did you make these? The data storage architecture here  is pretty advanced, a lot of storage space in such a small area, not to  mention a functional processor and the screen resolution is absurd." Her  eyes were glued to the glasses as she excitedly barraged me with  questions I had absolutely no fucking clue how to answer. Luckily, I  didn't have to.

I  just smiled mysteriously and gave her another wink. "Trade secret I'm  afraid. But I can let you have that pair for two thousand. I know it's a  tad pricey, but with the internal storage and the solar charging  feature that set is completely self sufficient. Our lower end model is  only two hundred, and it comes with a microusb and a micro sd card for  storage and charging. It's much less sturdy though, and doesn't have the  onboard storage."

Her  face fell, bottom lip jutting out in adorable pout. "Oh. That's pretty  expensive. I can certainly understand the value, but I'm not exactly  flush." She blushed prettily. "I'm still in school, so I don't have a  job or anything. I guess I can try to save up." She looked down sadly.  Of course, I wasn't going to just give them to her, nor did I think she  was aiming for that, but I was interested in having this little  bombshell around more, so I had an idea to kill two birds with one  stone.

I  plucked the glasses from her fingers, folding them up neatly. With my  enhanced perception I could see she had been entirely relaxed despite my  speed, which was a bit odd, but I shrugged it off. "Well I wouldn't  want to wipe the smile off that pretty face. How about this. You're a  pretty and interesting girl, I bet you have lots of friends. If you can  refer enough people in here that I can make a sizable amount of sales on  my first day, I'll save one of the flagship models and you can come  pick it up tonight." I winked at her. "We can even celebrate over dinner  at one of those places from the search."

Her  eyes lit up and she smiled back challengingly. "Using me for  advertising huh? And here I thought you wanted me for my body and not my  mind." She twisted her lips in thought. "Alright. I'll be your word of  mouth marketer if you save me that pair of glasses. As for dinner." She  looked me up and down in thought. "I might be available next week, if  you're good. But you'll have to work for it. Do I get your name by the  way, Mr. Handsome shopkeeper guy? Or would prefer I call you something  more formal, like sir or boss."

I  grinned widely at the little spitfire. "I'm Nick, though I don't mind  you calling me sir in private. As for working for it I don't mind.  Anything worth doing is worth doing right." I let the double entendre  there hang without too much emphasis, but I saw the sparkle in her eye  that told me she'd gotten it. "But that means you have me at a  disadvantage do I get a name to put with that pretty face?" I could have  just appraised her, but honestly I didn't want to appraise everyone all  the time, it felt boring, especially a cutie like her. Chatting up a  pretty girl was a skillset, and I didn't want to get rusty.

She  giggled, turning to walk away, hips swaying enough for me to catch  glimpses of her tight little ass through that wavy skirt. Not huge, but  VERY toned. That was a sculpted little booty. She looked back over her   shoulder, catching me staring and smirking at me teasingly. "Well, I  suppose you've earned at least that much. My name is Kara. Kara Kent.  I'm looking forward to seeing more of you Nick, so make sure to program  your number into those glasses, because I'll be back for them later."  With that, she sauntered out and I grinned at the exit.

Cherry  stepped out from the back of the shop, eyebrow raised. "Is this going  to be an all the time thing? Because it kind of seems like you're going  to pick up girls everywhere we go." I chuckled at that, and made to  answer when I got a text. I pulled out my phone, wondering who it would  be, and smiled when I saw it was from Dinah. I opened it without much  thought and then froze. It was a request for a meeting asap. I mentally  counted the days and my face paled slightly. I was pretty sure Dinah  just found out we were going to be parents.