WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 46
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Yes, It's a Protest
"Yes, it's a protest."
The other end of the line went quiet for a moment.
"Ha. Look at this guy. Still entertaining, I see. Fine. What do you want? The fee's too expensive, is that it?"
"I don't want anything. I'm contacting you to suspend our dealings for real."
There was no way she wanted nothing. But whoever puts a number on the table first loses. That was an unchanging truth, in the game's auction house and in secondhand deals in the real world alike.
"You do know every broker in this scene is in the palm of my hand, right? One word from me and no broker in Gaon City will give you work."
"That's why I told you I'd do it without a broker, didn't I?"
"I gave work to a punk who turned down an exclusive contract, and even handed him a terminal."
"I'm grateful for that."
"And have you forgotten who brought a bigshot like Baekdu to a greenhorn like you as your first customer?"
"How could I forget? Thanks to that bigshot, my assistant's arm cracked."
At that, I heard a tongue click on the other end.
"Where's the job without risk? And I told you from the start. Whatever situation you ended up in, I wouldn't lift a finger to help. I clearly wrote that this one was dangerous too."
"Right. So I'm not arguing that. I went in knowing."
"Then what's the complaint?"
"It's not a complaint."
I glanced back once at the sleeping Rita and lowered my voice a little.
"The calculation has just changed."
"Calculation?"
"When I signed with you, Godmother, I was an engineer who hadn't made a name for myself. That's why we agreed on a fifty percent fee. I have no complaints about that. You took this commission under the contract too."
"...But?"
"But today, I got the child of an upper-tier megacorp back alive."
The line went quiet.
"At that price, the half I give you seems a little steep now."
"Ha. You pull off one job and you're already raising your price?"
"Doesn't it depend on what kind of job it was?"
A brief silence. Then Valeria spoke.
"...You said your assistant's arm cracked. What the hell came after you?"
Her voice had a different grain from a moment ago. So she did have enough loyalty to worry when an employee got hurt.
"The Blackhorn Captain came in person."
I heard a sharp intake of breath.
"...A Captain-level figure came all the way down to the lower tier in person?"
"Yes. I saw it with my own eyes. Our staff held him off at the door."
The silence that followed was a different kind from before. Not flustered, but calculating.
Valeria would have known Baekdu's young lady was hiding in the lower tier. But that things had grown big enough to move the Blackhorn Captain seemed to be news she was hearing from my mouth for the first time.
Then again. Even the people fighting probably hadn't known how far the upper-tier corps would let their own family feud go.
"...Fine. Thirty percent. That's a number I've never offered anyone in this business."
In the end, Valeria was the first to give ground. But I couldn't settle for this much.
Come to think of it, nothing below thirty percent? What a ruthless woman.
"That's a number I'm grateful for. But I think it's still a little short."
"You... there's something else you want, isn't there?"
I couldn't help but smirk.
She really was quick on the uptake.
"Godmother. Do you remember what you said at the start?"
"......"
"You said it was because I hadn't made a name for myself."
Peeling my back off the chair, I went on.
"But Godmother, have I still not made a name for myself?"
The silence stretched. Aiming for the highest price, I threw one last gamble onto the table.
"I heard it too, what Baekdu's young lady, Baek So-ha, left for you, Godmother."
It was a lie, of course. I hadn't heard anything. All I knew was that it was something in my favor.
But just laying a line like that down usually makes the side feeling pressured spill the whole story on their own.
"...Oh?"
But the voice that came back was strangely calm.
"What did the young lady say? Go on, tell me."
...I was screwed. Of course. She wasn't called the underworld's Godmother for nothing. I never should have tried half-baked mind games.
"What? Nothing to say? You said you heard."
A thread of cold sweat ran down my spine.
Thank god it was a phone call. Face to face, that precise prosthetic eye would have read every bit of my expression.
If I stammered here, it was over. The moment she caught me fishing, everything I'd built so far would collapse.
Think.
When Baek So-ha left, she'd said it clearly. That she'd left word with the Godmother, so something good would come my way.
And Valeria had called in a panic the instant she got my message suspending our dealings. Over one nameless greenhorn dropping out, what was so urgent?
There was only one reason to be in a hurry. If I left, Valeria lost something too.
The reason a nameless engineer from the lower tier would become that expensive overnight is...
...Ah.
Baekdu.
"When the young lady left, she told me. That she'd left word with you, Godmother, so something good would come my way."
That wasn't a lie.
"And the moment I said I'd cut off dealings, you called me, Godmother. So there's only one answer, isn't there?"
I steadied my breath once and offered up the answer I'd pieced together in my head as if it were fact.
"From now on, Baekdu's work goes to me. That's what she said, I take it."
Silence again.
And then.
"...Tch."
With the click of a tongue, the strength drained out of Valeria's voice.
"Did you hear it, or did you just guess?"
"Isn't it enough that I got it right?"
"...Fine. The young lady said so. From now on, any job where Baekdu needs an engineer goes only to that engineer."
Knew it. I'd hit the mark.
I cheered inwardly, but kept my voice as calm as I could so it wouldn't show.
"Yes. So from your standpoint, Godmother, if I'm out, Baekdu goes out with me."
And then.
"...Ahahaha!"
Laughter burst out, loud enough to blow the terminal apart.
"Look at this one. I thought you were another Gordon, but no. You're even more ruthless than Gordon. Good. Everything you said is right. Let's have a proper conversation. What do you really want?"
Valeria had known all along that what I'd done wasn't a breakup notice but a negotiation for getting back together.
"The fee. Wipe it out entirely. 0%."
"What?"
Even over the phone, the irritable voice made it easy to picture the scowl on Valeria's face on the other end.
"Do you think that's a sane condition?"
"Of course, you need to get something out of it too, Godmother. So don't take the fee from us. Take it from the client."
That quieted her again. Then Valeria's cackling laughter filled the terminal once more.
It was so loud I had to hold it away from my ear for a moment.
"...Take it from the client? You're telling me to charge the client for introducing you? Do you know what that means? It means you're turning yourself into a premium product."
I couldn't help but smirk and nod.
As expected of someone who'd been in the industry a long time, quick on the uptake.
"Of course I know what I'm doing. I'm confident. When it comes to repairs, any job at all."
The structure I had in mind went like this.
When someone needed a truly skilled engineer, Valeria would ask them: there's someone I can introduce, I can connect you to this person only after I collect an introduction fee first, do you want to try?
If the client agreed, Valeria would sort out the details of the job and send them to me.
"If it goes that way, I can't tolerate a single failure. It would hit me hard too, since I'm the one who introduced you. Then I'd have no choice but to make a move on you to protect my honor. Understand?"
"I understand. That's why we need one more condition."
"...What now?"
"I'll pick the jobs. You sort out the commission and send it over, and I'll only take what I can do. Not taking a job I can't do from the start is the surest way not to fail."
From the other end of the terminal, only a short breath came instead of an answer.
"Ha. Crafty bastard. Fine. Let's do it that way. But I'm taking one thing too."
Somehow, I'd known this wouldn't end smoothly.
"Go ahead."
"Everything you see on-site, bring it to me first. Like today's megacorp civil war and the Captain business."
That's Valeria for you. Even now, she was squeezing out whatever she could get to the very end.
"...I'm sorry, but I can't sell a client's secrets."
"Who said anything about selling secrets? I just want to know how the board is moving. That's your way to survive too."
I decided that much was a fair concession. Valeria had to make a living too.
"Fine."
"And if even after I do this much for you, you stain my name..."
"Yes. Feel free to kill me."
"...Crazy bastard."
Click.
The call ended.
Only then did I let out the breath I'd been holding, long and slow. My back was soaked with cold sweat.
...Kill me, I'd said. Hearing it back in my head, I really was a bit crazy.
"Big bro. Your heart's going super..."
Zino, mid-sentence, hesitated.
"...Never mind. Zino won't say. It's a secret."
I smirked and tapped my chest lightly.
"Good job, Zino. You learn fast."
Then.
"...Boss?"
A voice heavy with sleep came from the sofa. Rita, blanket pulled up to her chin, was rubbing her eyes with a rumpled face.
"Did something good happen? You're smiling really happily."
I set the terminal down as I answered.
"Yes. Something good did happen."
Saying so, I got up and went over to Rita.
"How's your body? Want me to make you some porridge?"
"...Is that a benefit too?"
"Of course. At our garage, kindness is the benefit."
Rita peeked out from the blanket with only her eyes showing and thought it over for a moment, then broke into a grin.
"Then not porridge. Let's eat out, us. You made money, Boss."
"...How did you know that, when you were asleep until a minute ago?"
"Takes one look. It's all written on your face, Boss."
Even without Zino, my heart seemed to give everything away.
"Ah, can't be helped. Fine. We're eating out today. Come on, let's go! Eating out!"
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