Chapter 15: A New Oppurtunity

“Thank you! Goodbye!” Celia waves to the lady whose stove she just helped repair.

Tabby follows closely behind her as the two of them enter the streets of Sector Nuremberg. 

Celia whips out her phone, watching her vouch counter in the ProtoTask app rise from 88 to 89, and smiles at her achievement. After only two weeks of commissions, she now had more vouches than Hikaru when she first started, and was starting to build a reputation amongst the people of Amsterlin. Curious about how many commissions Hikaru had completed now, she decided to give him a call before she heads back home for the day.

She orders Tabby to contact him, however, after a few minutes of calling, Hikaru still didn’t answer.

Hmm, I guess he’s busy with Alto right now, she reasoned.

The two of them had decided to give Alto some much needed upgrades in order for him to function properly in the current society. They wanted to equip and update him to the basic quality of life features that modern robots had, such as using nano drones instead of older satellite technology for GPS triangulation, and upgrading to modern solar power systems so that he didn’t have to recharge on the roof every night and could channel the energy from the light reflected from the moon instead having to rely on direct sunlight. 

Even though she was the general robotics engineer on the team, Hikaru was the one who had studied Alto’s anatomy in more detail so they decided to put him in charge of the upgrades while she built up her vouches.

Celia walks down the steps of the nearest subway station, standing next to the railings as she waits for the next train to arrive. While she was waiting, she suddenly heard a man in a business suit angrily talking on the phone. He had a thin mustache, minimal facial hair on his chin, and his messy, disheveled hair made it so that despite his formal attire, his demeanor was far from professional.

“I told you we need to delay the train by another day! We don't have the calculations for the inventory check ready yet,” the man says in a frustrated and tired voice, “Xiaoshu unexpectedly broke down today before we received the documents from the sister company, and we can’t process the calculations without her.”

Despite not wanting to be next to this random angry person, Celia couldn’t help but listen in on the conversation.

“I need to take her to a repair shop in the city which means she’ll probably be out of commission until tomorrow. We can probably reschedule the train for later that day and she can process the information while we’re on the way… the only problem is that it’s a long way from Amsterlin to Shanghaijing, so we’ll most likely receive the documents two days late…” the man said.

An incomprehensible shouting could be heard from the other end of the phone before the man mumbled, “yes… yes… I understand sir, but this just how things turned out. I don’t know of a faster solution in the city because I’m not from around these parts. We’ll just have to cancel the train tickets and apologize to the project manager.”

“Um… actually, there is another solution…” Celia nervously murmured.

The man looks at her with a strange stare and points at himself as if asking ‘are you talking to me?’ whilst the shouting continued on the other end.

She nodded. 

“I’m not exactly sure what’s broken, but I’m assuming it’s your support drone right? If that’s the case, then you can just post a commission on the ProtoTask app and an engineer can pick it up,” she explained.

“Hold on, I’ll call you back later,” the man said to the person on the other end as he hung up. 

“And how long can I expect it to take for someone to pick up the commission?” he asked.

“Well it really depends on the availability of the engineer and the voucher requirement you set on the commission but…” she points to herself up and down, “I am an engineer, and a pretty capable one too, especially when it comes to drones.”

The man narrowed his eyes and gave her an uncertain stare.

“And how do I know you’re not just trying to sham me and make some easy money?” he asked, “if you can’t tell I’m a pretty experienced businessman from Shanghaijing, so I won’t be easily scammed.”

She pulls out her phone and shows her screen to him.

“As you can see, I have 89 vouches on the app, which means that’s a 89 people who I’ve helped who are willing to vouch for me” she explained, “plus, it’s either that or you can continue getting yelled at whoever is on the other side of the phone. I’m just trying to help you out.”

The man rubbed his forehead in frustration. He was having a rough day, and despite feeling slightly bad about it, she was going to take advantage of it to try to nab a quick commission before she headed home for the day. Plus, he looked pretty rich given his attire and the fact he said he was a businessman from the Silk Axis, meaning she could probably score a pretty pretty penny from him.

“Fine,” the man finally relented, “how fast can you get it done?”

“Well it depends on how badly damaged your drone is, but it shouldn’t take more than a day,” she replied.

The man reached inside his bag, rummaging through it before he pulled out a square shaped drone. 

"This is my personal drone, Xiaoshu," he said, handing it over to her.

The drone's base was completely black with intricate carvings embedded on each corner of the cube, and it had a dull, circular, orb in the middle of its hollowed out center. The drone was currently powered off, so no light emitted from it, but if she had to guess by the muddied yellow color of its carvings and the orb, it was supposed to glow a bright, golden, color when lit. Based off its design, Celia deduced it was one of the expensive, somewhat older, drones that major companies still used, but it was nothing she couldn’t fix.

She carefully took the drone out of his hands and closely examined it. At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until she tried powering it on.

“What was it doing before it died?” she asked.

“I placed it on the table and left it alone to do some inventory calculation while I did other things,” he explained, “after a few minutes, it stopped computing and it suddenly crashed. I don't know much else other than that, since she was working fine until earlier."

Hmm, she thought to herself, a cubic shaped drone whose purpose is to do large calculations suddenly dying when placed on the table? If I had to guess…

“I know what’s causing it,” she finally said, “I should have this fixed within a few minutes. In the meantime you can setup your profile on the ProtoTask app and search up my name. It’s Celia Reiss by the way.”

The man nodded and pulled out his phone while Celia ordered Tabby to open up his toolbox. Using a lever, she pried open one of the corners of the drone, exposing a part of the orb at its center.

Since the drone's main purpose was to do large calculations, 90% of its core was an extensive CPU system made up of hundreds of tiny chips slotted together into multiple trays, similar to the older memory drive system Alto had. Both systems were developed around the time period where humanity was trying to quickly advance robot technology and found that cramming multiple discs and chips together was an optimal temporary solution while they developed a much more advanced singular chip over the years. 

These types of systems allowed for a faster computational rate, however, they shared the same flaw in that if it wasn’t connected together properly, the chips could risk loosening up and falling out. It was why most current technology preferred to use a singular chip system instead of a tray system. For this drone specifically, since the CPU was 90% of its system, a single chip falling out could cause CPU failure, which in turn meant that the drone would lose most of its functionality, causing it to power off.

Multiple factors could cause the chips to loosen up and fall out, but the most common mistake was holding the drone in a bad position. Since the drone was was cubic in shape and symmetrical in design, she figured that he must’ve accidentally placed the drone upside down one too many times, causing the chips to eventually slip out.

She opened up the central orb and looked through each side of the cube before finding a loose chip, confirming her suspicions. Using a tiny stick, she gently pushed the chip back into its slot, reassembled the drone, and powered the drone on. Sure enough, the intricate carvings on its side began lighting up with a bright golden color as the man looked at his drone in surprise.

“There we go, she should be good as new,” Celia said, handing the drone back to him, “try not to place it upside down on the table. It can damage the CPU which can lead to a shutdown of the drone just like this.”

The man hurriedly takes the drone back from her, as if he was running late for something.

“Thank you Celia,” he says reading her name off the app, “you just saved my company so much time and money.”

He quickly rummages through his bag and pulls out a small card.

“Here,” he says, handing it to her, “my name is Han Xu. Our company could use more engineers like you. If you’re interested in an internship, feel free to give this number a call.”

She took the card from him and her eyes widened upon reading the company name embedded onto it.

Terrastock, she reads, the world’s 3rd largest producer of Terrasteel.

However, before she could ask the man more questions he quickly begins packing his things.

“Well, I have a train I need to catch at another station and a phone call I need to make so just let me know later if you’re interested in the offer,” he says before rushing out of the station, "sorry to leave you hanging!"

As he leaves, Celia's mind could only process a single word.

What?