Max distinctly recalled hearing Major Miller mention that tens of thousands of businesses had opened over the last few days, but as he scanned through the security cameras, it really began to set it just how many new people Absolution had gained since he had left to search for the origin of the Klem infestation.
Not just the number of visitors, though, was impressive, with every hotel being packed to capacity, but an entirely new high-density urban area had been added to accommodate the new long-term residents.
Moving to Terminus without an existing job offer wasn't cheap, as the standard procedure required the new arrival to purchase a home as well as any business space that they needed, but that hadn't been an issue for these new arrivals, and the number of newly assigned family residences was into the six-digit range.
And that didn't even include the aquatic and amphibious species that were eagerly awaiting the announcement of the opening of the next floor.
From the looks of it, the logistics department had been busy, and they had business licences pending, construction requests, custom business designs for the date of opening tenants, housing acquisition requests, and much more.
He might have been one of the greatest Mecha Pilots alive, but Max was very thankful for the ability to borrow non-piloting related System Functions at the moment. Without it, he would be drowning in requests, but with Nico's skill, he could take care of each of them in only a few seconds, and the batched requests much more quickly.
Like the investor that wanted to create ten nearly identical resorts, all under his brand name, and staff them all with Merfolk. It would be part of the underwater cities, and he had requested ten prime locations in shallow water where the light would penetrate easily. The money was there, and his requests were all reasonable, with each resort having a separate theme but a common design that would make them feel familiar to guests who had visited the chain's resorts on his homeworld.
Max approved it but flagged it for Nico to look into. If he was doing so well on his homeworld, why did he want to do such a large expansion here? The most likely guesses were for shady business or a generational handover, where one of the heirs couldn't get along with the others.
After a few hours, the Envoys finished up their daily business and promised to come to see him later in the day tomorrow, as they fully expected him to be up all night doing paperwork. It was greatly appreciated, even if he could tell that they would have to restrain the Innu Envoy, who was really excited to see the new floor and had even helped finance one of the resorts on the surface, with the promise of unlimited usage of a room for life.
It was an interesting funding method. The investors got a share of profits, and use of a room, as long as the one they wanted was available, or for a larger share, they could permanently reserve a room for their own use and guests that they personally referred.
It would serve as an all-inclusive vacation home that they could use to provide bonuses to loyal employees and business partners or stay at whenever they had time.
Just after midnight, Nico came back to his office, wearing nothing but a thin silk dressing gown, and hopped in his lap with a big smile on her face.
"I found all the stories behind the major investors. Both the ones that are already here and the ones that will be moving into the aquatic level. Nothing too suspicious. The one that you forwarded to me is in the name of the youngest daughter and was funded through shell companies. The oldest brother muscled her out of her inheritance using the board of directors, but she had hidden her share of the inheritance in cash, and now she's moving upward, using Absolution as a platform to start over as a luxury hotelier." Nico explained as she wiggled on Max's lap.
"You understand that if you keep doing that, we're not going to get any more work done tonight," Max smirked.
"Good. We've been working too much."
It was nearly noon by the time Max woke up, still wrapped around Nico, with the belated recollection that Cyborgs don't get exhausted and that Nico and the word "moderation" had only the most passing of familiarity with each other.
Every part of his body was sore and worn out when he got into the shower, but the warm water was slowly washing all of the aches away. The incoming message ding from his wrist device eventually pulled him from the warm water, and Max wrapped a towel around his waist before stepping out of the bathroom and coming to a full stop as he saw his reflection in the mirror.
Ignoring the multitude of small bruises and scratches, one very large purple bruise on his collarbone stood out against the pale tan of his skin.
"Seriously, Nico? A hickey?" He groaned as he realized he would have to rework his outfit for the day to cover it.
"It looks good on you. I should sign it. I've got a pen here somewhere." She giggled.
"And what would our investors and the Envoys think if they saw a huge hickey on the Commander of the Terminus Trading Company when they came for a meeting?" He asked rhetorically, as he already knew Nico's answer.
"They will think you're a Reaver Commander and that you might not have a huge stick up your arse and might actually have fun now and then. I can tease you under the desk if you are still feeling too uptight."
The thought of the Envoys reaction to that actually made him laugh out loud. The look on the Giant's face as he tried to process what was going on would be hilarious.
"No, I don't think that would be a good idea. Maybe on a day with no meetings."