10 Introductions 1

Milana's brows furrowed at Ci-ci's response.

She was normally a reserved person. In fact, it was only because of her anger that she was so outspoken right now. So, Ci-ci being so forward and honest with his response made Milana slightly uncomfortable. However, she could only move forward, pretending to not have heard what boiled down to a confession.

Clearing her throat and willing away the blood that threatened to rush to her soft cheeks, Milana turned to the other members of Petrov Technologies.

"I think it's best we start with some introductions." Milana said, nodding toward the other Petrov Technologies employees. "We're a small company. This building only exists as a meeting place for business. That includes requests, orders and board meetings led by our legitimate share holders.

That doesn't have to do much with us, though. Our job is to formulate quarterly plans based on the direction the company heads want to take us in. Including me and you, we have four total engineers. Aside from that, we have a single designer and a software specialist, who is among our engineers."

Although Ci-ci didn't let it show, he already found issue with this setup.

It was good that they had many engineers, but only having one software specialist was a problem. Coding was a different beast entirely to its own. It was the step susceptible to maybe the most mistakes and the idea of a single person being responsible for finding and editing those mistakes was a problem.

This problem became even worse when you consider the scale of what Ci-ci wanted to do. Often, useful technology required consistent updates, bug fixes and troubleshooting. Petrov Technologies would never be able to disseminate their products widely with only a single person being responsible for all of those things.

The only saving grace was what it meant to be an Inventor.

The term Engineer was broad and wide reaching. Engineers could be responsible for anything from building a bridge, to mapping the electrical circuit of your home, to designing a statue for the bust of a worthy government official.

However, to be an Inventor, the minimum requirement was being serviceable in at least three facets of engineering. And Ci-ci just so happened to know that one of Milana's specialties was under the computer engineer umbrella. Meaning, maybe Petrov Technologies only having a single specialist was only in theory and not in practice.

That said. It still wasn't enough.

Seemingly reading Ci-ci's mind, Milana continued, "We keep our numbers small because we outsource not only our production, but also the maintenance of our servers as well."

Ci-ci's eyes flashed at this. 'Outsourcing servers? .. Interesting.'

"That aside, much of the small details about how our company works can be looked through by you later. But, for right now, it's best you meet the team and we get started on our quarterly plan.

The good news is that although everyone here has been here for at least a couple years, they're also the product of a revamp in our staff. So, it will be easier to grow with them as we're all within the same general age range."

Although Milana said this, all Ci-ci could think was, 'So, they're cheaper.'

The longer employees stay on, the more time the have to earn higher tiers of payment as per corporate laws. In addition, keeping your employees young was another way to cut costs. It seemed Kazimir Petrov really went out of his way to cut corners.

However, this also likely meant that the schooling, experience and education of Petrov Technologies' staff didn't allow them to demand high pay. Either that… Or they had questionable records that worked against them much the same way.

Ci-ci had a sneaking suspicion it was more of the latter than the former.

"This is Lily." Milana looked toward an Asian young woman with clearly unnatural silver bob-cut hair. It held a single bold streak of pink and an interesting feather stuck out as well. She wore a skirt so short that her long legs were almost her most striking feature despite her hair color, and yet maybe the oddest part about her was the tie-dyed lab coat she slid over her low-cut and tight-fitting crop top.

Ci-ci smiled toward the young lady, nodding politely.

Lily was the only other on Ci-ci's side of the table, so she shifted her chair to get a look at his response to her introduction. She giggled to herself when she noticed how Ci-ci ignored the crossing and uncrossing of her legs.

The truth was that Lily had stopped being angry the moment Ci-ci walked into the room. 'He's too handsome to be angry at.' She thought to herself, having already settled on playing games with this young genius. But, she was quite surprised by the clarity in his eyes despite her subtle flirting. It made her all the more interested in who he really was.

"Lily is our designer. Her portfolio is quite impressive. But, unfortunately, we don't have time for in-depth introductions."

Ci-ci smiled apologetically at Milana's not-so subtle jab before shifting his gaze to the next person.

"This is Nicholas." Milana's gaze landed on a young man who was dressed quite sharply. His black hair was short and gelled, and he was also clean shaven. "He is our other engineer. His main focuses are mechanical and electrical engineering. He is also currently working towards a rudimentary understanding of software engineering as well."

"The last member of our team is JJ." Milana sighed as she looked toward the young man with his bare feet up on the large table. "He's the youngest among us, not even twenty years old, and we're quite optimistic about where he'll lead us in the future. Also, he is our main software engineer."

"You know who I am. I'm Milana."

Suddenly the room was quiet as gazes shifted to Ci-ci. It was clear he was being asked to introduce himself – something he found quite amusing considering the circumstances.

"I'm Ci-ci Bell. Inventor. Looking forward to working with you all." Ci-ci smiled lightly, inwardly chuckling at the disappointment painted on their faces. It was clear they wanted more. But, now was just not the time. It wasn't as though he could explain himself anyway.