Directly, the 2 gamers disappeared from the digital coaching world and located themselves again within the Renovatio Imperii headquarters, handcuffed to their chairs.

Enzo noticed Edward, Brutus and a number of other different individuals clapping. They seemed very excited.

Edward mentioned, “Congratulations on profitable your house at Renovatio Imperii!”

One of many policemen who had accompanied the prisoners approached and unlocked the cuffs round Enzo’s arms and ankle.

“Uh, thanks,” Enzo mentioned.

Edward approached the policemen and handed them an envelope that clearly contained a bundle of cash. “Thanks, gents. We hope to see you once more someday!”

However then a horrified shout crammed the air.

“Please! No! Give me a second probability! Let me combat another person! Please! I urge you!”

Nevertheless it was ineffective. The policemen savagely beat Rachid, putting him within the abdomen till he gasped in ache and stopped speaking. They dragged him outdoors, muttering to one another.

“What a chunk of shit this man is. Too dangerous the electrical chair would not exist anymore.”

“Come on, killer, again to jail with you.”

Edward helped Enzo to his ft. “Effectively, then! Brutus will present you the place you are going to dwell. Get some relaxation, placed on some civilized garments, after which meet me on the tackle the HR director will ship you.”

Edward put a cellphone into Enzo’s hand. “Once more, welcome again to the free world, and welcome to the workforce!”

With a large, triumphant smile which Enzo did not utterly perceive, Edward left, together with nearly everybody else from the guild.

Solely Brutus was left. He nodded to Enzo after which walked towards a smaller door out of the assembly room. “Come on, beginner, observe me!”

Enzo nonetheless felt shocked, and his coronary heart nonetheless pounded. Was this actually taking place, or was all of it a dream? Regardless, he adopted with mechanical steps.

To Enzo’s shock, the modest constructing which he had entered was not all of the property which the guild owned! In actual fact, it was a extra humble, classical entrance hooked up to the massive enterprise constructing subsequent door. Brutus took him down a number of corridors and right into a glass elevator… then chosen the 54th ground.

Enzo seemed out in awe on the magnificent view of Rome which unfold out beneath him. “I do not imagine it,” he mentioned. “Your guild is de facto far more spectacular than I believed. You are actually only a firm that manages individuals in a online game?!”

Brutus laughed and mentioned, “Yeah! The boss raised some huge cash two years in the past with the discharge of World of Warcraft II! We’re not precisely the largest guild on the earth, not but… However we do have the largest guild in Rome!”

Lastly, the elevator stopped. Brutus led Enzo out into an condo advanced. He led him for a brief method till he reached a medium-sized unit. “That is the place you will dwell! The energetic job hours are from 8 AM to 10 PM with two hours of break doable in the course of the day. Meal service is between 12 PM and a pair of PM for the noon meal, plus between 7 PM and 10 PM within the night.

“Laundry is picked up on Monday and Thursday. The cleansing employees come on Friday. I feel that is the whole lot essential… Oh, a bit recommendation: do not be late within the morning. If you’re, the Human Assets supervisor will take it out of your wage. And I wager they will be a bit extra strict with you than with most individuals, all issues thought of…”

Brutus unfold his arms in a gesture of welcome.

“Effectively, that is all! You need to signal your contract in an hour, so get some relaxation, change your garments… and take a bathe, you filthy animal! Even the rubbish cans scent higher than you!”

Laughing good-naturedly with these final phrases, Brutus then handed Enzo a magnetic keycard. “I will come again in an hour so you’ll be able to signal that contract. See you then!”

Then he closed the door behind him, leaving Enzo alone in his new condo.

Enzo was completely disoriented by all these phrases and his sudden upheaval of fortune. This condo was not solely a lot better than his jail cell, however even higher than the depressing housing he’d lived in for many of his life!

Now he discovered himself in a sixty-square-meter place like a pleasant resort room. It might have been luxurious to anybody, however to somebody who had lived within the slums and in jail all his life, it was like waking up in paradise.

After showering, dressing, and brushing his hair, Enzo went again with Brutus to the coaching grounds. At this level, Brutus left, having further work he wanted to finish elsewhere.

Nonetheless, no person got here for nearly twenty minutes after the designated hour glided by. This was yet one more disorienting issue for Enzo—in jail, the whole lot had operated on fairly a decent schedule.

Immediately, an attractive, dark-haired girl appeared via one of many coaching room doorways. She had brilliant inexperienced eyes and seemed to be in her thirties. “Enzo Romano?” she requested.

Enzo answered, “Sure!”

She smiled. “I am the Human Assets (HR) supervisor of Renovatio Imperii. Comply with me, please!”

The girl took him to an enormous workplace that was even bigger than his new condo—an entire hundred sq. meters, no less than!

Every thing was luxurious: the desk manufactured from mahogany, the bookcase behind it crammed with golden books, and the sweeping view of Rome out the large window which took up an entire wall. Even the pen upon the desk will need to have been price a number of thousand credit!

The HR girl beckoned Enzo to take a seat down, however he was intimidated by the true leather-based chair in entrance of the desk. What would occur if he by chance broken it? However eventually, he sat down reluctantly.

She opened a briefcase and set out a contract about fifty pages lengthy, together with the extremely costly Montblanc pen which Enzo had already observed.

“Please signal directly,” the lady mentioned, “in order that your integration into Renovatio Imperii is formally recorded! Please remember that, till you do, the jail system remains to be formally your guardian.”

Enzo was intimidated by the dimensions of the paper stack, however he requested in a agency voice, “Can I learn it first?”

The girl rolled her eyes and sighed. “Alright, however hurry! I’ve an appointment with my beautician earlier than a enjoyable weekend on Mars!”

Enzo, who had an ideal command of the language attributable to his mother and father’ cautious training earlier than their decline, learn via the contract rapidly.

However the dense content material of the contract gave the impression to be intentionally complicated, most notably one paragraph within the center:

“The Employer is the only holder of the jail lodging of the Worker…”

Enzo did not perceive what this precisely meant, however the phrases “jail lodging” made him notice that issues may be a bit extra difficult than he’d thought.

“Are you able to please make clear this paragraph for me?” he requested.

The HR replied with disdain, “Oh, it is easy. It implies that the employer—Renovatio Imperii, after all—is answerable for you whilst you’re our worker.”

Enzo paused for a second. She appeared to have utterly prevented the query. “Pardon me, however are you able to elaborate? What are these precise obligations? I doubt that each one the opposite staff had the phrase ‘jail’ of their contracts.”

The girl seemed extra aggravated with each phrase out of Enzo’s mouth. “Principally, you are still within the jail system. What, did you actually suppose a tiny bribe was sufficient to set a legal such as you free for the remainder of your life? No, in case your contract is damaged for any cause earlier than your theoretical jail time period ends, you return to jail!”

Enzo, shocked, replied, “You recognize that I used to be sentenced to thirty years in jail, proper?”

The girl set free an extended, chilly sigh, then mentioned, “Effectively, then for the following twenty-eight years, it will likely be in your finest curiosity to protect this contract. That’s, in the event you do not need to return to jail.”

Enzo stared numbly on the jail contract in entrance of him. He felt like a idiot for not realizing these can be the phrases of his “freedom.” In reality, it was nothing greater than a type of fashionable slavery!

The HR girl pushed the posh pen in the direction of Enzo’s hand. “Look, in the event you favor to serve your time in jail, simply say the phrase. I will have the police right here with their handcuffs at a second’s discover so I can prepare for my trip.”

Enzo knew that this contract was a foul deal for him.

But, what alternative did he have? Both he might serve his sentence in a depressing jail cell… or in an expensive condo.

Nonetheless, his very spirit revolted towards this injustice. Regardless of his heritage, it was these with cash who now had the facility to regulate his destiny. He must promote his soul to the satan simply to maintain his ft out of hell for the following twenty-eight years.

Enzo picked up the pen and started signing the contract. His signature can be required over fifty instances earlier than he was finished, and he knew his hand would start to cramp up lengthy earlier than that.

As he fastidiously signed every dotted line with the elegant signature which his mother and father had taught him a few years in the past, the HR girl took out her cellphone and known as somebody.

“Hey, sir,” she mentioned. Her voice was utterly totally different in comparison with the best way she’d spoken with Enzo. It was each filled with assuredness and respect, the voice of somebody whose work is to make an essential particular person’s life as easy and simple as doable. There was no sign up her voice that she was desperate to go on an off-planet trip.

“The brand new worker has agreed to signal the contract. By the point you arrive, it needs to be ready so that you can finalize it along with your signature. Thanks, sir.”

Shortly afterwards, Edward entered the workplace. The HR girl stood in respect. Seeing this, Enzo adopted swimsuit.

Edward, smiling, leaned over the stack of papers. Many of the traces which required his signature had been stamped by the HR girl’s seal, which allowed Edward to solely make the ultimate signature himself as a substitute of getting to signal every line individually, as Enzo had been pressured to do.

“There we go!” Edward mentioned when he was completed. “Welcome to Renovatio Imperii!”

Enzo, who was inwardly livid at being pressured to promote his dignity, did not let it present. “Thanks,” he mentioned in a peaceful voice.

Edward replied, “By the best way… You may want a username. A Roman-themed one, after all! Have any concepts to date, or do you want time to consider it?”

Enzo answered with out hesitation, “Caesar! The conqueror of the Gauls.”

Edward burst out laughing. “Gaius Julius Caesar?! The person who conquered the Gauls? Who put the Senate of their place? The person who destroyed the Republic by creating the Empire?”

As Edward spoke, his tone turned extra considerate. “And the person who adopted Augustus, the second Caesar… Effectively, possibly I ought to insist you are taking the identify ‘Julius’ as a substitute! Because it occurs… I feel that identify’s already been taken. Is that proper?”

The HR girl nodded directly. It appeared that she’d been ready to say this. “Sure, that is Fabrico’s username.”

Edward nodded in the direction of Enzo. “Fabrico’s considered one of our high executives. I believed that was the identify he’d chosen.”

Enzo replied, “Is that this ‘Govt’ worthy of bearing the identify of Rome’s best conqueror?”

Edward smirked. “Not within the slightest! Certainly, he is only a senior government who does principally administrative work! An outdated man with a pen, because it have been.” He flipped the Montblanc between his fingers nonchalantly.

Enzo replied, “Then I will swap the primary two letters. I will be ‘Ceasar,’ with an ‘ea’ as a substitute of an ‘ae.’ In actual fact, it would make a few of my opponents suppose I am too silly to spell it correctly. It is a mistake they will remorse.”

Edward thought of it earlier than nodding slowly. “It is towards protocol, since names which sound the identical inside the identical guild will be very complicated… however it’s not like Fabrico will ever be doing something that places him in the identical league as you! I will make an exception simply this as soon as. Welcome, Ceasar, to Renovatio Imperii!”