3 Money and Business
[2 months Later]
"15 minutes of invisibility and a cooldown of an hour." I marked down the limit of my invisibility. I can use it continuously for 15 minutes and then there is a cooldown of 60 minutes. Bringing the ratio down to 1:4.
The good thing is that other than the cooldown time there are no side effects.
But my mind reading has. The longer I keep the ability active, the higher the mental exhaustion I suffer from. At first, I thought that it was a side effect of forcefully controlling my power using the 'switch' method. But it was not the case. Even after I removed the switch and let the ability run freely, I still suffered from exhaustion.
The 'switch' is pretty simple. I only need to let my body relax and focus on a target to read his mind. And once I let my body return to normal, the switch is turned off.
This makes me believe that the reason I didn't feel exhausted during the first time I used the ability was because my brain didn't register what was going on with my body. But now that the brain was slowly able to process my powers, the exhaustion was catching up to me.
I do not think that I have any other powers. I tried making small cuts on my body to check if I had regeneration and even tried element bending.
*Sigh* None of them worked.
[40 minutes later]
[Time: 03:43]
Mother is out for work as despite the curfew preventing most people from being outside, the ones who help the military were allowed to work before that.
"Today is the day."
I picked up my backpack and my shades. I took a few other 'essentials' with which I was prepared for my 'work.'
Locking the door, I looked around to check if someone was there. Our neighbors return home only at night because they get a lot of miscellaneous jobs from the military.
Calmly walking down the streets I find very few people on the road but that was good for me. I kept on walking as calmly as I could, not showing what I was up to on my face.
.
.
.
It took me a little while to reach my destination-
'The Bank.'
Which also happened to be the only 24-hour bank within my area.
Slowly walking towards the dark alleyway, I activated my invisibility and walked towards the bank.
Despite the invisibility being handy, I didn't want to take any chances, so I made sure that no one else was behind me.
.
.
.
.
.
…
...
100,000 dollars. That's how much I took from the vaults.
Because of the war, the banks barely had any money, and taking more than 100,000 dollars would be extremely risky. Even this amount was a lot and I was pretty sure that this will be in tomorrow's morning newspaper.
Now to multiply this amount, my mind-reading will be the key.
I already had Joel make a bank account for me. So the only thing left for me to do was-
"Going to the 'Casino'."
Because of the great depression that occurred a few years, the only places that had enough money were illegal places, especially illegal casinos.
Now, I cannot just walk into them and win all the money. Those casinos are illegal and if I win more than a certain amount, I will most certainly lose my head.
These casinos were run by high-class bosses and I don't want to get on their bad side. At least not yet.
…
…
[A few hours later]
I went through multiple Casinos and have ten times the amount I had before.
Walking inside the telephone booth, I made a call to Joel. "Yeah, it's me. You can arrange a meeting now. I will be back in an hour."
[30 minutes later]
I cannot walk into my house with this much money, I had to put all the money in the account before going towards the meeting.
"Now… Despite how small my 'non-existent' company is, I cannot walk into a meeting without a proper suit."
[20 minutes later]
"I should get going."
I didn't buy a car because I was not sure how I would be able to explain it to my mother and the legal procedures were a pain.
And I was pretty sure that buying cars wasn't possible now. Because most of the contracts were frozen.
This entire plan had a lot of flaws as I had to make them within a month. The war was going to be at its peak within 3 years. And if I didn't work fast then, later on, it would be even more troublesome.
The prices of most stocks were going to skyrocket within the next three years. War tends to cause the price of stocks to increase and I was not going to take the risk of waiting for three more years.
Portable phones were not invented before the year 1973 so communication was a bit of a problem. But nothing too serious.
Rushing towards my destination, I took out my father's pocket watch to check the time, '10:50.'
I still had another 8 hours before my mother returns.
…
…
"Dude, just in time. They are inside." Joel said, walking towards me.
Joel was suspicious in the beginning but he still agreed to help... like always.
I didn't own an office, so I had made Joel reserve this place. I promised that I would pay him later but he rejected the money.
A 17-year boy making business deals was not unheard of, as long as he was from a rich family.
*Click*
Opening the door I find three men sitting on an olive-colored couch.
"Good Morning, gentlemen." I put on my business smile while greeting them.
The three men nodded before the bald one sitting to the left raised his hand.
"Yes?" I took the seat in front of them.
"Before we begin the discussion, may I know why you specifically chose the three of us?" All three men looked skeptical. And it was understandable considering they were all men who had no prior experience. They just started their business with little to no success.
"Ah, it's quite simple gentlemen. It's because I am personally interested in your business or to be precise, the type of business you are associated with." I felt myself smirking a little.
"All of you are associated with businesses that are not very popular in the current time. Am I right?"
All of them nodded.
"Let's start with you, Mr. Lester." The man in question straightened his back. "You are planning on creating a portable telephone or as you call it, 'mobile' phone, am I correct."
He nodded which made my smile grow even bigger.
"I think your idea is ingenious. But I am sure that many of the other sponsors you went to had rejected you."
He released a sad sigh. The other two men looked sympathetic as well.
"I have been fascinated by science since a very young age and telephones were one of the things that interested me the most. The biggest problem with the telephone is that they are connected through cables and thus they are not portable. And Mr. Lester, your idea of using frequencies is truly interesting."
He looked proud and he should be. Portable telephones were not introduced before 1973. Motorola was the first to come up with a working portable phone, but this doesn't mean that they were the only ones who had the idea of making a working portable phone.
Many did. But most of them neither had the help nor the resources to make an actual working phone.
I want to change that.
"But no matter how viable your idea is. No company will sponsor you unless you show them a working model, especially during this time." This made him flinch.
"Do not worry, Mr. Lester. I am not like them, I am interested in your project and I also happen to have the money. So, I don't mind spending them on your project." He seemed hopeful.
"You are not the only one who had thought about this idea, Mr. Lester. Many have, but they do not have the resources to produce one." He clenched his fists. "But I want to change that. I want you to be the person to make the first portable telephone. Because I see potential in you."
He seemed lost in his thoughts at this point.
"Now, Mr. Sylvester… similar to Mr. Lester, your idea interests me as well. To be honest, it is really interesting." I look towards Joel, who took out a letter from his pocket. "Remember this Mr. Sylvester."
The men got nervous when he saw this letter. "H-How?" He asked.
"Oh, the company where you sent the letter to was also the place where my friend, Joel used to work." Lies, I had him investigate Sylvester and he managed to find the letter through his connections. Sylvester gulped. "Now, I would like to offer you the exact same thing that you requested from the company but I will be taking 37% of the profit."
"T-That is too much."
"It indeed is. But I do not believe that any other company will be willing to provide such a huge loan to a person who doesn't even have a stable job." This made him instantly shut up.
"But do not worry, I am willing to provide the funds for you to broadcast content on the television. The rights currently belong to Mr. Jenkins, but I am sure that I can manage to give you those rights in the near future." He looked towards me with hopeful eyes.
"No need to be so worried. I know that if you are successful, the money will come running in. And I am in no shortage of money." That was a big fat lie. I wasn't rich in the least.
"And finally, Mr. McDonald." The man flinched. "Your business is totally different from these two gentlemen. Unlike their technical approach, you're trying to approach the people through fast food? A very interesting idea and I would love to see you succeed."
McDonald brothers have already established their first restaurant. But right now, they were not successful.
"I am willing to help you in opening branches in multiple places as long as you sign these contracts." I looked towards Joel, who nodded and laid the contract in front of them.
"Gentlemen, please read it." I said before crossing my legs.
All three of them read the contract and their mouths opened looking at the content.
"T-This? Is this real?"
"Tell me you are not joking?"
"..."
"I never joke when it comes to business." I unfolded my legs and sat straight. "So, gentlemen. What do you say?"
All three of them looked towards each other before nodding.
"I accept."
"Me too."
"Yes."
I felt a smile creeping up my face.
"Gentlemen, welcome aboard."
