Industrial Tycoon of the Free Worlds League(Commissioned)

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 1

Well, it was over for me. I'd followed the advice of the MBAs the Board had hired, and we'd attempted to harness the AI boom. The company that I'd built from the ground up was going to be split up and sold off. I should never have gone public with it in the first place. But the allure of the money and the chance to create generational wealth for my family had been too strong.

I didn't even have a nest egg built up. I had poured every spare dollar I had into reinvesting in my company. Over the last twenty years, I'd spent many a month going without a paycheck to make certain that my people were paid. When we had gone public, I'd poured the revenue from dividends into various trust funds for my parents and siblings.

Two decades of hard work and trust built up with customers, employees, and a board gone overnight. I screwed up and blew everything on what I thought had been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Turning around, I looked at the darkened office and warehouse beneath it. I felt tears at the corner of my eyes as I handed my keys over to Jack, the Security guard.

"It's been a pleasure, Mister Blaze," Jack's voice hitched as he extended a giant hand to shake mine.

"Pleasure's all mine, Jack," I pulled him in for a hug. He'd been one of the first people I'd hired when we were starting out. This building had been in the worst part of town until we'd spent money on helping make it better. We'd hung out at the bar, played some video games together, and even gotten in more than our fair share of fights at a few football games. "And you know you can call me Edmund."

"It wouldn't feel right this time," his face was somber. "If you need anything. You gimme a call."

"Have a good night, Jack," I swallowed down the lump in my throat again. "I'll see you around sometime," I lied. The board had dismissed me, and shorted my shares when they had started to see that the AI boom was disappearing.

Slowly, I meandered over to the old, beat-up Toyota Camry that had served me since high school and climbed in. I pulled out the ring with the car and house keys on, pushed it into the ignition, before attempting to start it up. It turned over once, twice, then a loud rattle echoed through the dark parking lot. Old reliable had finally given its last desparate gasp.

I could probably have called an Uber or something, but I didn't want to waste whatever money was left in my accounts. So, I grabbed the backpack with the laptop and my personal effects before slinging it over my back and staying right there in my car for a while. Just processing.

There was something final about all of this. The end of a season, the end of my time at Blaze Incorporated, but not the end of my life. No, there were still plenty of opportunities out there in the world. I wasn't in the prime of my life anymore, but I wasn't dead yet either.

Taking a deep breath, I released the death grip on my emotions and allowed the tears to flow down my cheeks. I'd been blessed beyond measure through my years, and now it seemed like I had been abandoned. For the first time in a long time, I was truly alone.

I'd cared deeply for my employees over the years, but as we grew bigger, I could no longer know everyone as intimately as I once had. Relationships had drifted apart, leaving us no more than mere acquaintances most of the time.

Everything washed over me in one burst, all of the emotions that had built up over the last few months of trouble breaking through the dam I'd built around it and overflowing through my heart and soul.

Eventually, though, the flood stopped. The flood drew to a close, leaving behind destruction in its wake, but also the glimpse of life that was in the future.

The decision to start over had already been made, but now I was set on it. So, I opened the car door, looked over it one last time to make sure I hadn't left anything behind, and then closed it, leaving the car key behind inside of it along with the note. "If you can fix it, you can have it."

Then I turned and walked away. Heading down the sidewalk towards the apartment I'd purchased half a decade ago. It was time to take stock, figure out what mistakes I'd made, and how to learn from and not repeat said mistakes.

Today and tomorrow were going to be rest days. I'd spent too many sleepless nights trying to make things work over the last month and a half. Goofing off with some old PC games and/or diving into the world of designing random stompy robots was in my future.

In hindsight, I should have been paying more attention to the roads. Instead, I was buried in my own thoughts and ignored the sign at the traffic light. Walking through until I heard the screech of tires.

I glanced up in time to see a truck that actually had the logo of my company stenciled across the trailer. Time seemed to slow down. The light from the streetlights poured through the window, revealing someone I'd been responsible for hiring a couple of years ago. She hadn't been expecting much, just hoping for a job that could help get her family into something more than a ratty apartment at first. During the interview, I'd asked what her eventual goals were. When she'd told me she wanted to see the rest of the States, I'd marked her down for a potential CDL and made sure she got the certification.

This was going to crush her. I realized as time seemed to speed up. I wasn't going to be able to move quickly enough to avoid getting hit. Worse, Avery had already lost most of her family. She was going to be devastated because of this.

–
–

It was odd, lying here looking up at the dark skies and the stars that were only able to be seen when the lights of the city were at their lowest. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it was going to.

"Ohmygod!" Avery stumbled over her words and fumbled with her phone, tears streaming down her face as she called 911. "Mister Edmund, I'm so sorry!" The call finally connected, and I heard her weep while talking to the dispatcher. "He's bleeding everywhere. There's so much blood!"

That would explain why I couldn't feel all that much. I tried to touch the young woman with my right hand, but it refused to listen. So, I switched to my left, gently touching her face and looking her in the eye.

"It's okay," I garbled out as best as I could, trying to keep a smile on my face. "It's okay, Avery."

"Nonono!" Her words rushed together. "Mister Edmund, don't die, the Ambulance is on it's way."

I could hear the sirens, but just like I'd known, I didn't have time to move out of the way. I knew that the paramedics wouldn't make it in time.

"Shhh," I said quietly. "It's okay, Avery. Everything's going to be okay. You're going to be fine."

"But you're not," Avery sobbed. "It's all my fault. I wasn't paying attention."

"No," I tried to shake my head, but found that I couldn't. It was odd how calm I was now that I was dying. I just felt so very tired. I was going to close my eyes and rest. Just for a little while…

---

I woke up to an oppressive heat weighing down on me. My right hand and arm moved immediately to shield my eyes from the oppressive sun as I sat up. When my eyes adjusted, I wiggled my fingers in wonder.

There were tears and rips in my clothes, but my backpack and few personal items were intact. My limbs weren't the shattered and broken messes that they had been last night. No, everything was just fine. I began to giggle, which eventually turned into full-blown laughter and finally into tears as I wept.

I was alive! By all rights, I was dead. But here, by the grace of God, the universe, whatever you call it, I was alive!

Moreover, I felt better than I had in the last twenty years. It was as if the years had been turned back, and I was in my teens again. Energy bristled within, and I felt like I could take on the world.

Pulling myself up to my feet, I looked around the alleyway I'd found myself awake in. It didn't look like the city I'd come to call home when I started my company. In place of the humid and chilled air of the Eastern Seaboard, it felt like I'd been dropped into a desert. Gone were the silver skyscrapers and old buildings, replaced by the tan and earthy tones of desert stone intermixed with the modern era.

The streets weren't asphalt or concrete; instead, they looked like some sort of in-between that was both and neither at the same time.

I stepped out of the alleyway and into the busy streets, looking around with wonder at everyone and everything. Then I saw a storefront with what looked like TVs, a strangely familiar sight playing on it.

That was an Atlas on the screen, and the longer I stared at it, the more my head began to fill in the blanks.

Atlas AS-7D:
Manufacturers: Independence Weaponry, Defiance Industries
Weapons: Long-Range Farfire Maxi-Rack LRM-20; Close-Range 'Mech-Hunter Autocannon-Twenty, Tharhes Maxi SRM-6, four Defiance B3M Medium lasers
Engine: Vlar 300-

I forced my eyes away from the 'mech, and the information stopped feeding into my brain. That was odd. Surely that wouldn't happen again, right? Glancing back over, I saw that the display had shifted to another bipedal war machine. One that I didn't recognize immediately, and the information began to roll in again. Crusader: CRD-3R. I turned and began walking away from the storefront entirely. I didn't know what that was, but it was starting to give me a headache, and I still didn't know where I'd woken up. I didn't recognize anything, and this odd information that kept filling the back of my head wasn't helping.

On the side of the street, there was something I hadn't seen in a long time. Newspaper stands in the city had long ago been replaced by other vendors renting that space. Still, though, it would help me figure things out. Honestly, I was probably in the hospital suffering from some sort of mental delusion while hooked up to machines after the paramedics had gotten to me.

"You can't read that without paying," The guy manning the stand crossed his arms at me and glared. "So, cough up some cash or put the paper down."

Carrying cash was almost something that I had forgotten about entirely over the last few years. My company had mostly been in the digital marketplace, and it was rare that I'd had to pay with anything other than a debit card.

Still, I pulled my wallet out and went through it, hoping that past me had been wise enough to keep even a small amount of currency close. A pair of bills was all that stared up at me. One crisp, fresh, five-dollar bill that looked like it had come out of an ATM. The other… Well, that was the first dollar my business had ever made. It was rough, worn, and faded, the Eagle and President Washington barely visible. But it was still a dollar. Over the years, as things went uphill and downhill, I'd stop to look at that first dollar. Remembering that I'd accomplished something and that I could keep going even when things were tough.

I swallowed back the emotion as I looked at that dollar. I didn't want to spend it. Yet, I knew that I was probably going to have to. A little sacrifice of sentimentality to restart everything all over again./

"Here," I finally said, looking up at the dark-skinned man who was in charge of the newspaper stand. "It's not much, but it's what I've got."

The man looked at the green bill after I handed it to him and frowned before sighing. "Just take the newspaper," He handed me back the bill. "Try not to get jumped by the gangs again."

Unfolding the media article, I raised my eyebrows first at the date, and then at the headline.

January 1st, 3025.

"Parliament resumes session, beginning with debates over what trade restrictions should be placed on the other members of the Kapteyn Accords!"

Author's Note: Credit to @Warslick for commissioning this

 

[MrSplashy]

I am absolutely interested to see how this goes, it's gonna be interesting to see what Edward will do especially with his isekai power.