Inner Ring, Kubwa District, Big Joe Plaza.

["Welcome to Big Joe Plaza."]

["Your one-stop shop for everything electronics!"]

From inside the luxurious floating car where she rode on, Madam Ophelia- Tyla looked at the massive building and focused on the holosigns hovering around it, advertising what was being sold inside.

To the outside world, Big Joe Plaza is a well-known electronics plaza that was owned by the wealthy businessman, Earl Joe and this is its headquarters.

But this massive building was not just the headquarters of Joe’s electronics business empire, it was also the headquarters of his enormous underground trafficking empire.

The massive electronics plaza sat wedged between two glittering commercial towers which were other big business corporations in the Omnicore Megacity, the fact that it was here alone showed Earl Joe’s wealth and influence.

Afterall, Kubwa District is one of the most expensive district in all of Neo Solace with hotel room prices for a night rising as high as 85,000 Neo Credits and even 100,000+ Neo Credits for a night.

This was the heart of the Federation Megacity called Neo Solace.

Surrounding the massive building were layered collage of neon ads, including flickering holo-billboards and signage to attract customers and tourists.

Inside was busy as a stream of nobles flowed in and out.

There were students haggling and arguing over refurbished implants, there were mundane mechanics and Ascended Mechanists browsing firmware and machinery parts, while tourists moved in and out, attracted by the noise and color.

The massive plaza was loud, chaotic, and memorable in its own way which was the perfect distraction that Joe aimed for.

It was the perfect camouflage, because this is just the surface. This building is far larger than it appeared and was secretly one of the biggest in the entire city.

The visible outer structure comprising multiple stories of crowded storefronts and stacked kiosks was only the surface skin. Beneath and behind all of it, hidden by clever spatial engineering and partitioned architecture is the true headquarters, a gigantic complex that unfolded like a buried colossus.

It was hidden underground.

When Madam Ophelia first entered, she played her role as a prospective buyer like she was instructed to do.

Vendors shouted over each other and rows of stalls overflowed with cybernetic limbs, cracked neural chips, and black-market processors. The plaza was heaven for any Mechanist who visited the inner ring of the Megacity.

The air inside buzzed with static and noise, and the atmosphere was thick with the scent of ozone and overheated circuits.

Most people here were Synths and A.I Constructs, they comprised more than 80% of the total population in the inner ring of Neo Solace.

Followed by her guards as she walked through the long corridors, it was clear that Madam Ophelia was not a regular customer and her guide found her almost immediately due to it.

Once they met, she was led to a different and isolated part of the plaza that housed a single massive elevator that was guarded by heavily armed men.

There, new demands were made.

"Madam, you can’t go down with your guards. You have to go alone".

Madam Ophelia blinked, acting surprised and insulated then she raged and protested vehemently like usual but this time, the traffickers didn’t relent despite her status. They were firm.

She didn’t relent either, which resulted in him making an appearance.

Ding!

The elevator opened and he came out, and for a brief moment time seemed to become still.

"Hi madam," he smiled. "I’m the manager of this enterprise". His voice was smooth like silk, soft like a gentle caress.

Madam Ophelia looked up and she was stunned.

Standing before her was a tall and handsome Geneform, about 6 foot 7 with short curly silver hair, icy blue eyes and rosy lips.

His eyes were gentle, but hidden beneath was a predatory gleam that reminded her of facing a Wolf Neon Beast, the kind of eyes and temperament that would melt the heart of any woman. He clearly had Wolf DNA.

"..." Madam Ophelia froze.

Unlike other Geneform women on seeing him, Madam Ophelia wasn’t stunned because of his otherworldly beauty, she was stunned because she knew him and she didn’t expect to see him here.

’Dante...’ She almost hissed.

For a moment, Tyla thought that her cover was blown. Afterall, this is the exact same face that Leon sent to them yesterday that is Joe’s personal assistant.

But in hindsight, it made sense.

Dante being Joe’s personal assistant meant he was very close to him, and being close to him meant he likely knew about his underground empire too.

Tyla recovered immediately but she didn’t show it, instead, she reacted like most other Geneform women did when they met Dante for the first time.

"Ha..," she chuckled, curling her hair playfully in a self-conscious manner with her fingers. "Hey, hi, y-you’re the manager?" She stuttered, then she coughed to correct herself as she finally realized what happened.

She cleared her throat, then she becoming condescending again as she looked at him.

"You’re the manager?" She repeated, this time in a calm and confident tone.

"Yes," Dante nodded calmly, then he said. "Madam, I’m very sorry but our protocol demands that we don’t make any exceptions to anybody".

"If you want to go down, you’ll have to leave all your guards behind and you’ll have to go through a thorough security search".

Madam Ophelia looked at him. "But I already did one of that earlier!"

Dante smiled calmly. "This is different and mandatory".

In the end, acting as if she was mesmerized by his smile, Madam Ophelia finally relented as she allowed them to lead her guards back to wait for her outside even as she started being scanned.

"Your phone ma’am". Dante asked politely.

"Is that necessary?"

"It’s even more necessary than the others," he said calmly.

Madam Ophelia didn’t protest, she calmly handed her smartphone over to be scanned by their technology.

On the surface, she looked calm, enamored by Dante’s looks and trying hard to hide it but inside, Tyla’s heart was beating extremely fast.

BADUMP! BADUMP!

This was the headquarters of Joe’s underground empire! Tyla was not confident in Talia being able to evade all the security checks despite all the preparations that they already made before now.

But in the end, she got both good and bad news.

The good news was...

Dante looked at her with a smile. "The check is complete. Congratulations ma’am, you’re cleared to go in".

The bad news was...

"I’m sorry, but we don’t allow smartphones underground. You’ll have to go without your phone, I’m sorry for the inconvenience".

Madam Ophelia looked at him again. This time, she was clearly annoyed but due to his looks, she couldn’t bring herself to raise her voice at him.

She nodded calmly but inside, she heaved a sigh of relief. ’Thankfully, we prepared for times like this’.

And finally, she was led underground on an elevator where she was alone with Dante.

On the surface, Madam Ophelia acted in a fidgety manner as she was alone with the extremely handsome Geneform but in reality, she was already mapping out everything that she was seeing.

Underground Big Joe Plaza was a whole new world entirely that was even bigger than the structure on the surface.

Entire sections of the gigantic building existed off-grid, masked from public schematics, their mass folded into adjacent zones using overlapping zoning permissions and illegal expansions.

This was a vertical underground empire.

After they arrived at the underground floor, Dante led her to a wall.

He placed his hand on it, scanning his fingerprint and with a soft ’beep’ sound the surface flickered. For a split second, the illusion peeled back, revealing a reinforced security door beneath.

HISS...!

The door opened with a subtle hissing sound.

The moment they entered inside, Tyla felt an immediate shift.

The noise of the plaza above faded instantly, swallowed completely. And in its place came a controlled silence that was sterile, regulated, and oppressive, making her feel isolated like a cub in a Wolf’s den.

For a moment, Tyla almost panicked but then she reminded herself that she was not under attack yet. That meant something.

She exhaled, then she refocused, observing her surroundings.

This was the first inner layer, the transition zone.

Inside, Tyla saw clean corridors stretching ahead, each one of them lined with matte-black walls that absorbed light rather than reflect it.

Armed personnel stood at intervals. They didn’t wear any official military uniforms, just bland black leather attire, but in one look Tyla could tell that they were all unmistakably trained.

Tyla even felt that there were Ascended among them, and this was just the surface underground security.

Their presence wasn’t for show, it was containment.

Dante led the way forward, casually walking past them and leading her through checkpoints where they went through further security checks comprising biometric scans and behavioral analysis grids with silent A.I evaluations running in the background.

Her identity as a "buyer" was verified not by what she said, but by how she moved, how she breathed, and by how her eyes reacted when scanned.

Having prepared for a scenario like this, with the help of the CH Mask, Tyla played her role to perfection as she survived all the checkpoints.

In preparation for this role, she spent a few days with the real Madam Ophelia just to learn her mannerisms.

And now, it was action time.

Her act was seamless.

Only when she passed the final verification did the doors ahead reveal themselves, massive black doors of reinforced metal and ADE-infused black wood.

The massive doors opened automatically.

Click!

And then the full scale of Joe’s underground empire revealed itself.