In the conference room, silver-haired, blue-eyed Blanca and a man in a suit sat on opposite sides of the table.
Standing behind Blanca was Ato, his expression serious and his eyes alert as he watched his surroundings.
Beside her was Levi, wearing Elysia's skin.
However, no one knew that both Ato and Blanca regarded him as Elysia herself.
"We refuse to sign this contract."
"?"
After confirming with Blanca that Levi was qualified to speak on behalf of the First Research Institute, the man turned his gaze toward him.
His brows furrowed slightly. "You should understand, Miss, what kind of reputation the research institute you're with has in the scientific community."
"Please think carefully before you answer. If you leave us, I'm afraid none of the surrounding cities will be willing to cooperate with you."
"Is that so?"
Seeing Blanca nod slightly, Levi put on a troubled expression.
Seeing this, the man across from them slowly leaned back after straightening his body.
'Got you!'
"Looks like my cute Mobius will have to take a break for a while."
Levi's muttering echoed through the small conference room.
After saying that, he looked toward Blanca. "Blanca, is there anywhere you'd like to go? We might as well take this opportunity to go traveling with the Doctor and relax."
Before Blanca could answer, he showed another troubled expression. "But even if the Doctor wants to rest, those guys definitely won't let the Doctor rest."
"This is really troubling for a beautiful girl."
He said it as though intentionally, or perhaps unintentionally.
"Without a supply of raw materials, no matter how unwilling they are, the experiments will have to stop."
Seeing the suit man's expression constantly change, Blanca seemed to understand something. She pushed up her glasses and spoke calmly.
She turned her head toward Ato, whose hand remained resting on his waist, still in a state of alertness.
She asked him for suggestions about where to travel.
Looking at the suit man, whose expression was still changing but who had no intention of speaking, Levi smiled and pulled Blanca toward the exit.
They went down to the second floor.
In the end, before they could leave the building, they were stopped by the other party, who had hurried over.
"You name the price."
"Not fifty percent anymore?"
Levi looked at him with a smile.
Under the gazes of the three of them, the other party smiled awkwardly. "How could I, how could I... I was only joking just now. I'm a legitimate businessman, a legitimate businessman."
Standing where he was, Levi thought for a moment before naming a price.
After hearing the number from Levi, the smiling suit man clearly froze for a moment.
"What? Ten percent above the market price isn't acceptable?"
Hearing Levi's voice, the suit man came back to his senses and quickly nodded. "Acceptable, acceptable!"
He had already prepared himself to take a huge loss.
He had even been prepared to sell below market price... even at cost.
But he hadn't expected the other party not to take advantage of the situation to demand an exorbitant price. Instead, they were willing to purchase at a price higher than the market rate.
Compared to the other party, his behavior just now really hadn't been very decent.
He felt a little guilty in his heart.
Soon, the new contract was handed to Blanca. After reading it and confirming that there were no problems, she signed the name of the First Research Institute.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
"Pleasure doing business with you!"
After leaving the building, Ato said unhappily, "Elysia, why did you give him such a high price?"
He hadn't said a word the entire time, but he had seen the other party's expression clearly.
That guy had obviously been caught by Elysia.
At that point, no matter what price Elysia had named, that guy probably wouldn't have refused.
How could they not take the opportunity to make a good profit?
"Using a small portion of the profits to ensure that the research institute's material supply won't have any problems in the future, doesn't that count as making a profit?"
Levi produced a business card as if performing a magic trick, waved it twice in front of Ato, then handed it to Blanca.
"From now on, if the research institute is short on materials, just contact him directly. For emergencies, use today's pricing model."
"That's..." Ato stared at the business card in Blanca's hand, the corner of his eye twitching. "You recruited him?"
'That easily?'
Levi shrugged. "He's nothing more than a dog raised by those people."
From that man's expression at the time, it was obvious that he was a dog they didn't value much.
And for a dog that wasn't valued by its owner, wasn't casually changing owners a perfectly ordinary thing?
He didn't give the puzzled Ato any further explanation.
"By the way, Blanca."
Levi suddenly spoke when he thought of something.
"Mm, go ahead."
"When you go back, have the Doctor make some of the patents under the Doctor's name freely available to that guy. Mm, publicly, just say that the research institute doesn't have enough funding and can only make up for it this way."
"Pay attention, it's for that person, not the company that person works for."
Levi gave her a special reminder. Blanca didn't quite understand the point of doing this. Wasn't that company under that person's control?
What was the point of making such a distinction?
However, Levi had already demonstrated his abilities just now, so Blanca had no reason not to follow what he said.
After saying all this, Levi fell silent.
Watching the two of them chatting intermittently, he silently took out his phone, took a picture of Blanca, and sent it to Mobius.
"I was kidnapped?"
Blanca's puzzled voice came from beside him. "Didn't I send you a message before I went there? You didn't check your phone?"
Her pretty brows furrowed slightly. In front of Ato, she opened her phone and showed him the message she had sent.
The name of the building they had just visited was clearly written there.
Only...
Ato pointed at the text below the message. "You didn't send it."
'Didn't send it?'
Blanca froze, only then noticing the message below saying that the sending had failed.
After checking, they eventually concluded that her phone had run out of credit.
"Strange... I remember topping it up with several hundred yuan just a few days ago..."
Blanca's eyes were full of confusion.
Suddenly, Ato thought of something. After telling Levi to look after Blanca, he hurried off in a certain direction.
Levi knew at a glance that he had gone to return the car.
But judging by the time, it was already late at night. The owner had probably discovered long ago that someone had stolen his beloved car.
With Ato going to return it now, there was a high chance he'd be taken inside for a little chat.
And if that really happened...
'Tomorrow we'll be able to receive a full-blown notice from Fire Moth about Ato.'
Elysia held back her laughter.
Especially since Ato currently had a gun on him, one that Levi had taken from Fire Moth before leaving.
However, the Doctor would definitely step in when the time came.
At most, Ato would receive some insignificant punishment.
Listening to Elysia's voice, Levi looked at Blanca beside him and blinked. He pulled her over to sit down on a bench.
"Now that the only guy has left, shouldn't we talk about some girls' topics~"
'?'
Elysia slowly typed out a question mark.
'You're a girl?'
'I'm an armed helicopter.' Levi answered in his heart.
A guy walked away. What does that have to do with an armed helicopter?
'...'
Ridiculous. Levi was still as ridiculous as ever.
At least he had been a human before. Now he wasn't even human anymore. He'd directly become a helicopter.
And judging by the look of things, he was even pretty proud of it.
'What?'
'Did a plane crash on you or something?!'
'Why are you so proud?'
"Girls'... topics?"
Blanca looked at 'Elysia'.
"..."