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"David, do we have any plans for today?"
"Nah..."
I shook my head, finally finishing breakfast and starting to put it on the plates.
"...I thought we'd spend one more day at home, then we'll head to the clan's camp, check in, and get some work done there. We might change our line of work a little, especially since those training chips still need your attention..."
"Uh-huh... should I invite a friend over?"
I shrugged.
"Go for it. I'm not against it, just let me know if I need to make anything special, or if she's coming for lunch or dinner..."
Judy's eyes lit up again, then went out, and she, now a bit calmer, came over to the bar counter.
"Are we eating here today?"
"No..."
I shook my head.
"We'll eat in the dining room, like we almost always do. I'll just load our breakfast into the food lift, and that's it..."
"Alright. I invited Maiko; she'll be here closer to lunch. So it'll be good to make something for an extra guest..."
I nodded a couple of times.
"Alright, I'll make something."
"You're the best!"
Judy quickly climbed over the bar counter and kissed me on the lips. But she pulled away pretty fast, and after jumping back over the counter, she headed toward the stairs, wiggling her butt in an appetizing way.
"That devil..."
"Yeah... she's like that..."
Lucy came up next to me. I hadn't forgotten she was on the first floor, so I wasn't too surprised.
"What are you doing here?"
"I decided to help you a little..."
Lucy started helping me move the finished breakfast to the special lift. I could see she was a little awkward.
"Lucy, what's wrong?"
"Well... just, to be honest, I've been thinking about it recently... is it really normal that in our crazy group, which is threatening to turn into one crazy family, the only man is the one doing the cooking?"
"It is normal..."
I shrugged.
"...the one who cooks better should be the one to cook. And it's also good if that person actually enjoys it..."
I stopped talking provocatively.
"Well, we got lucky there..."
I glanced at Lucy, who was looking at me with laughing eyes.
"What, you wanted to drag out the dramatic pause?"
"Well... yeah."
I saw no reason to deny the obvious.
"But, as you can see, it didn't work out..."
"Well, if I knew you a little less, I would have believed that it bothered you that you're the one who has to cook. But..."
She grinned.
"...you know, remembering how inspired you look when you cook, especially when you're grilling steaks outside, I just can't believe you don't like it."
Now I grinned, too.
"You're right."
We loaded all the breakfast and, after closing the lift door, I pressed the button for it to go up to the dining room, where Lucy and I also went.
"But you know... I'd like to learn how to cook..."
"Well, if you want to, we can cook lunch together..."
"What are you two talking about?"
Becca, who was already sitting at the table, where all the other girls had gathered, looked at me and Lucy, who was coming up behind me, with interest and a hint of jealousy.
"I just offered David my help with the cooking."
"But you don't know how to cook..."
"Well, I'm not going to let her cook anything complicated right away. We'll start with something simple... chopping up ingredients... stirring... nothing too difficult."
"I see..."
And we were looked at with an extremely suspicious gaze.
"What do you see?"
"Did you decide to get ahead of me, too?"
"Who knows?"
Lucy grinned and, along with me, went to the lift. She took the food out of it and started helping me put it on the table. And the conversations quickly died down, as the girls started to just radiate a desire to pounce on the food...
"Enjoy your meal, everyone."
"Uh-huh..."
It sounded very in sync, and the girls immediately pounced on the food. They were literally devouring it. And that fed my ego...
"Listen, we're going to get fat..."
"Nah..."
I shook my head.
"You won't get fat; our work is too active and stressful. By the way, I found this funny thing that went out of style about forty years ago..."
"Hmm?"
"Well, I'm still looking for that shooting range I promised Becca, but so far, nothing. But I did find something, maybe something even more interesting."
"And what did you find?"
"Old virtual reality capsules."
"And what's so interesting about them?"
All the girls looked at me with great interest.
"The thing is, in addition to the function of immersing you in a virtual reality, they also had a function of maintaining muscle tone."
The girls processed my words in silence.
"You're saying..."
"Yeah..."
I nodded at Becca.
"Theoretically, if we reprogram a capsule like that and use it as a shooting range instead of a regular virtual game... It could turn out to be just as good as a real shooting range. Just imagine, combining a virtual capsule that can affect your muscles and a connection through a port. We'll make one hell of a shooting range!"
I shook my head.
"We'll be able to practice everything we want!"
"And we could add my idea to this, too..."
Judy thoughtfully bit her right thumb nail.
"...if we change the polarity of the connections a little, and adjust the perception and data transfer..."
"Exactly."
I grinned.
"I think in the near future, I'll order about six of those capsules. And as soon as you guys crack the shards, we'll start upgrading them, in addition to Judy's project..."
"Hmm..."
The runners exchanged glances. I could see that they were all interested in a project like this, just as they were in the project Judy suggested. And right now, they were literally torn between dropping everything and running off to crack the training shards.
"Alright, just don't get too crazy. Walks, and food, haven't been canceled. I don't want you guys to get all pale and turn into zombies..."
"Well, food, that's understandable... No one in their right mind would agree to give up the delicious food you make. But walks?"
"You have to maintain your physical shape."
I shrugged.
"Well... I think our joint exercises are enough for me... and I think Kiwi would be happy to have those kinds of 'workouts' as often as possible."
"Hey, hey! You're not the only one who wants to have sex with David! So don't go on about how happy you are about these 'workouts' and say that you're ready for more of them!"
Panam gave Judy a disgruntled look.
"We're here, too, you know..."
Becca chimed in, sounding a little annoyed that she wasn't being considered in the conversation about sex with me.
"Of course we're here, but the problem is that you and I haven't gotten into bed with David yet, and that's why they're ignoring us for now..."
Lucy was a bit more reserved about this.
And that's the moment Lucy chose to get up from her seat, come over to me, sit on my lap, and kiss me on the lips.
"...so, I, for one, intend to change this situation as quickly as possible. And besides, as a runner, 'workouts' to maintain my physical shape will come in very handy."
"Tch..."
"Alright..."
I took Lucy off my lap and sat her next to me. She hugged my arm, clearly not intending to let me go too far.
"...that's enough of you guys comparing your boobs. It's pointless and thankless. You'd be better off planning your day. I'll try to contact Regina and Rogue about jobs. Of course, I won't get any combat gigs from them now, but they can definitely act as a middleman for jobs on weapons repair and maintenance..."
"What, you're afraid you're going to blow all your money in a month?"
"Becca, I'm just being realistic about our expenses... and for now, despite all our capabilities, we still have things like: 'major unplanned expenses.' Those training shards, for example, were VERY expensive. I was expecting to pay as much for all of them as one cost... but as you can see..."
I shrugged.
"Yeah, by selling the info to our fixers, we were able to recoup some of the costs, and we raised our reputation in their eyes a lot, since we didn't demand anything and let them decide the value of the info themselves... But even so, our stash is pretty light... and even the fact that we cleaned out one asshole's accounts didn't make us that much richer."
"Your stash... ours are well-stocked... and it's all because one bastard spends his money without even asking us if we want to invest in projects or not. And yeah, I'm warning you in advance, I'm going to buy all the parts for my braindance project myself."
Judy looked pretty funny, as she was trying to sound stern.
"No problem..."
I shrugged.
"...it's your project; you can do whatever you want with it."
"By the way, I'm good with weapons, too..."
"You're good at shooting them, but you don't know how to upgrade them. But you can learn how to do that when the girls crack the shards. There was a tech shard in there, too. I think if you have the desire, you'll reach a decent level in six months to a year. Especially if the idea with the capsules works out, since we'll be able to practice most of our skills in them."
"Alright..."
My eyes lit up, and I decided to call Regina first.
"I'm not giving out jobs right now... I already told you that."
"Yeah, yeah. It's not about jobs, or rather, it is, but not the kind you're thinking about. I just figured, since you're taking a break right now, the solos who work for you have an open schedule. And since they have an open schedule, they might want to upgrade their weapons..."
"Go on..."
"In short, I can offer my services as a gunsmith for weapons repair and upgrades."
"That's... interesting. I'll send out a mass text to my solos. I think a lot of them will want to take advantage of this offer. What about the price?"
"Materials plus a ten percent markup for labor."
"That's pretty... cheap..."
"Well, I'm not a corpo who's going to take the last eddies out of people's pockets..."
"Fair enough. Alright, I'll pass on your offer. I think some of my solos will definitely be interested."
"Good."
After we agreed, we ended the call, and then I called Rogue and gave her the same message. And she, of course, agreed. But she still managed to surprise me.
"I'm sending a couple of my enforcers over to you; you'll take a look at their weapons?"
"No problem..."
"And you'll give your fixer a discount?"
"No."
"You cheapskate..."
There was no offense in her response, though, just a slight hint of mockery mixed with understanding and approval.
"...but I'm the same way. I won't lift a finger without getting paid."
"Exactly..."
I grinned.
"...anyway, I gave you my offer, you heard me, so now let me get back to it. We have a guest coming over today; I need to make something delicious..."
"Uh-huh... I get it... alright, talk to you later..."
"Talk to you later."
The connection was cut.
"Alright, I've warned the fixers, so we're waiting for jobs. Rogue, by the way, threatened to send her enforcers over to us, to work on their weapons... so we'll have work... but for now... Judy, how exactly do you want to destroy your friend?"
"Huh?"
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