Even after we had been fed and locked in, I did not engage Koji. I just threw myself on my bed and breathed a sigh.
I did not care about my newly increased debt. It was going to happen anyway.
it was just like I thought, they would use debts to control me and they would use spices addiction to control Koji.
There was no possibility of reaching freedom here.
Not in the conventional way.
My exit plan would have now to take a central stage. I had always known this. So it did not surprise me much.
I breathed another sigh of gratitude and relief.
I had survived my first actual day in fucking ord mantel... However that turned out, I would call it a fucking win...at least my head was still intact.
"And now you think I'm an idiot" Koji said plucking me from my own thoughts.
I could not see his face because the room was dark. But I could still tell there was that stupid grin plastered on his face.
I sighed again, this time not out of relief
"For sleeping with a whore? Not at all."
It was true. I did not think it was wrong to do it.
It might have been stupid if he had spent his money but he hadn't.
I mean had I been more daring, I might have taken that whore who had shown me her naked breast earlier in the entertainment district.
It would have helped me lower a bit of the discomfort that assailed my groin every morning.
"What are you high on anyway?" I asked in a way to point out my source of disagreement with him.
"Glitterstim, He said...And before you tell me how stupid I am, tell me what was I supposed to do?"
Koji said with an edge but funny enough still grinning
"the old man told me I had to know the exact effect. So I had to use a little of it."
There was a brief silence before Koji sat up and propped on the wall at the edge of his bed
"it's good though" he said with a giggle
"Yeah,bet it is. For the first couple of times. And then it closes in on you with an iron grip."
"Yeah, I know. I don't plan to be using it anymore now that I've found a better way of pitching."
"Which is?" I asked now fully interested.
I had thought Koji had given up on his faith and set himself on a free roll. But now slowly he was sounding like a person who had a plan.
"I'm not an idiot, you know" he said And suddenly tossed something at me.
It hit me on the stomach.
"A credit slab" I exclaimed "where the fuck did you get this... I thought you handed in everything ".
Koji's grin widened
"who is stupid now. You think I could have given them all the money? I gave them back their hundred credits so that they could not check me."
"But... A credit slab?"
There was no doubt it was an official credit slab... I did not know its official rate, but I think it was the equivalent of a couple of hundred of credits.
"How the fuck did you get a credit slab?"
"Slept with a whore didn't I?
I looked at the boy as I tried to figure whether he was fooling with me....
"are you saying a whore paid to fuck you"
Koji cringed "not the words she used... She preferd 'make love'" he said using imaginary quotation marks
"plus, I lied to the boss..." he added his grin growing even bigger "she wasn't a whore actually, she was the owner of the brothel.
I was now more excited by the fact he had managed to lie... Koji had lied... And to Hato no less.
Then again boss had walked himself into that, but still, it was a win for koji
" Why do you look surprised? You told me I had to learn how to lie."
"Yeah, I did not think you'd learn that quick."
Now, honestly, this was good news... a while ago, I was starting to think how I would do this alone and completely without informing Koji of any of my plan, because if he was going to be an addict to the syndicate controlled spices, then they would use it as an access to him and question him.
if I knew anything, an addict would give up anything for a taste of what they were hooked on.
"I'm not allowed to go to corporate district where there are pleasure hubs. They programmed my collar to stun me if I did." Koji narrated
"I did not want to push it, so I instead went deeper into the entertainment district."
"I was there too" I said
Then again, we could hardly expect to see each other in such a vast, sporadic district
"I was going to do the normal pitching the handler had told us. So I sat down and ordered a drink, but one of the girls brought it back, but refused my credit. Said it had already been paid for."
"Yeah... Not the first time you have encountered that. I mean, with your Zeltron looks and all."
"Actually, it is. "koji answered
" I spent my life in Zeltros,Remember? And in Zeltros, beauty is common. Or at least bad looks are rare. "
" If you say so." I yielded eager to hear the rest of the encounter
" So it turns out, the woman who bought me a drink is the owner of the brothel and the cantinas surrounding the area. And as it turns out, her lifelong kink has always been to play with a Zeltron boy"
"play? .. Define play?"
"be her toy for a while...do everything she asks... Let her do what she want... that kind of stuff"
I had to grin
"And you gave it to her." I said, "at a price, of course. How did you get her to pay you that much though... I mean no insult to your zeltron looks but... A slab is pretty fucking alot"
"Well, in stages." Koji answerd
"First, when he sent the girl with the room number, I took my own sweet time going there. Then when I finally got there, I played the shy boy, as if I had never touched a woman.
Though sex really is like basic education in Zeltros. I would know my way across a woman's body, even if I was to be blinded."
"any man with a functioning dick would stupid"
Koji burst into a lazy laughter fueled by the glittersteam
"It was my own way of pitching. I let her play the big girl and tried to calm me down. Some bottle of expensive Corellian, scotches and Finally, I discerned that she had done enough. I took out my sachet and asked her if she minded, that I had to use some to calm down. She said sure. She didn't even know what exactly it was but She was willing to share it with me. I had taken it earlier when they were showing me the various effects.
So I pretended to sniff a bit of it and gradually became more cheerful and more active. I began to peel off my pant as if it was nothing. Of course, it was nothing to me, zeltrons does that to you "
" Turns out when I attempted peeling her clothes off, she was also a bit of a shy girl which was a funny thing,i mean She literally runs a brothel."
"there is a difference between making love and fucking you idiot, but I guess zeltros doesn't differentiate, I bet those pheromones made her think she was in love with you, of course she would be shy"
"sex is sex" Koji stated "anyway, when I insisted, she gently pushed my hands off and asked if I could let her take a bit of my stuff. As she had apparently seen how good it worked, I told her I needed it. And that it was a little bit expensive and I might not afford the next batch."
" you monster, you mixed sex with pitching? "
Koji laughed it off
" sex was the pitching... She asked how much did the small sachet cost. I said 400. She said she would take care of the next batch. Hers and mine. That would make it 800. But she gave me one slab which resembles a thousand credits.
" a thousand what..." I exclaimed.
"that is what a slab is worth right?.. Atleast in zeltros it was"
Fuck.. I realised Koji must be right, I mean he had actually lived his life in this galaxy and so he was well suited to know this kind of stuff...
I had known that a slab was valuable form of physical credit, just assumed that it was a few hundreds not a freaking thousand credit.
"That alot" I said but Koji shrugged it off
"not to her"
"so..."
"so here I am, with fucking a thousand credits... Of course I won't buy nothing, I will give her my free sample"
"You're skipping the sweet part, I said.
" So did you get to service her? "
Now it was my horny self speaking.
" Yeah. Hell, I did. God knows it's been almost a month in transit. In Zeltron, I hardly went days without sex. And there's a problem when you train the body to get rid of some and then you suddenly change and begin to pile it up for weeks. I fucking flooded her"
"So she didn't pay for the service... She paid for the spice"
"Well, I didn't ask. But that is hardly my plan. Can't you see? I now know that even these wealthy women, owning brothels in entertainment districts, they have a need that has not been satiated for a while." Koji explained getting all business
"see, They must put up appearances and look like the mistress of their enterprises. And so they cannot fuck with just any other of their staff and neither any of their clients, which creates a specific market gap for people to service them. And it's not just them. "
Now this was an actual sex expert speaking, I realised, zeltros trained them for exactly this kind of scenario
" There are corporate women who frequent entertainment districts for drinks too, I realized. And in there I saw my niche. If I could establish a way to pitch specifically to high-end client, then it would also eradicate the risk of zones.
I no longer have to care about who controls which zone because the sessions will be private. And as time goes, I can get to decide where we meet. I can charge them twice.
A fee for servicing them and then I'll be bringing in clients like fuck, we would save enough to begin looking for my sister and whoever owns them I can pay them twice the price they paid for them."
I suddenly found myself building a new respect for this guy.
In his plan, he had not once mentioned reducing his debt. He knew it was futile. He too had a side game, which made me realize that I was dealing with an equal, not a spoiled Zeltross brat or an idiot."
" then" I asked eager to hear the rest of his end game.
"Then That's where you come in... you said you have a plan? He said, " you said if I learn to lie, you would tell me . "
At this point, honestly, if I withheld anything from him, I would be doing our friendship injustice. He had been so open with me And seeing that he also had a plan, it made me feel more confident in finding a partner.
" Well, my plan is a bit complicated I think I can access the force within dreams. I can build those abilities...
"Wait, wait, wait a minute. "koji said interrupting me.
" So it's true... The force?, you mean like the Jedi thing?"
" Well, don't call it Jedi. I'm not one of those monks. I like having my fair share of sex every once in a while, if I can help it."
Koji still glared at me.
"But yeah, the same one. I have not managed to access that point yet, but it's because I was training on the basics. Now I think I can achieve that."
"Wait,I don't get it... like you have to sleep to train this force?" Koji asked, sounding confused.
" not exactly. I think I just have to reach meditation...It's called a dream state. Whichever way I achieve it, seated or slept, it's just a parallel world where I can be able to practice on the day's event."
I was about to tell him that I could even reverse events to some extent and carry things from the dream when I chose not to push it that far.
It would create hopes and I knew the consequences. The system insisted that I must strive to avoid interfering with events that did not affect me directly. And by directly, it meant by my own action.
"like can you be able to use those light swords of theirs."
"Well, no. That's where it's different... We have no access to kyber crystal. which builds sabers. And we do not need it anyway. Mine is adapted to smuggling. if I can manage to build enough skills to stand on our own ground against the syndicate, then we might be able to escape. Not to mention that it is a smuggling world.
It can also help me make more credit alongside you. And in worlds like Ord Mantel , money literally buys life."
" My point exactly, Koji said...
"We can be able to get a crew" I said. And again, I had to stop myself from mentioning that I could pilot.
Yes, I was beginning to trust Koji, but he was not at full point for me to tell him that I was neither from this world and that a strange system had imparted on me some piloting skills.
that would make him push his hopes too high, too fast.And in his frustration at the disappointment that may soon ensue, he might begin to become careless. But as of now, we were on the right footing.
" we are going to make it."
"I know bro...I can feel it. We are going to save them. I have to ask you something...You are allowed to go to the corporate district. I mean, I'm not asking you to risk your life, but can you try at least looking for where my sisters could be? I mean, it would make my life easier if I already knew that we knew the place they were, that we were only working to liberating them."
I took a deep breath.
It wasn't a bad request, so long as it wasn't my primary goal and I never outright attempted to investigate the corporate district.
But then seeing that it was also in my plan, I did not see a reason not to.
" Sure, I'll keep out an eye. Now, if you will allow me" I said tossing back the credit slab. "I need to try and enter that dream state. Will you keep out an eye for a while? I don't plan to stay long today."
"sure" he said Returning to his gleeful self. "Plus, I also have to try and think of a place I'll be hiding stuff like this.I'm sure they'll be searching us very soon."