After their initial meeting came the nitty gritty details.
"Castelle, I want you to prepare our products to launch. The soap line, the bicycles, the hand watches…everything that can be sold in a stall."
Castelle nodded. "Understood, Young Master. Here is an itemized list of what I think we should sell."
Even before Michael told her what to do, she had already thought up a list of their products to be sold.
"Good. Now Kong, I want you to construct a stall that we'll be selling the products in. I want it to pop out. You can talk with Yuna to see the specifications."
"I'll have to first browse the rulebooks from the association in Metropolis. But I think that there's no limit as to what kind of stall you can make as long as it's small and mobile," Yuna said.
"I'll visit Metropolis later tonight to officially ask for a permit. I'll ask for a rule book," he promised her.
"BU TO TO!"
"RAH! TA TA!"
The two Orc Chieftains immediately presented themselves to Michael, showing off their unique traits, muscles and quills.
"Boss! I offer you the services of the Orcanine Shadows. They shall endeavor to spread their clones and find out more about our competition in Metropolis," said Narito.
"We and the Orcupine Shadows offer you protection while on your visit to Metropolis. We shall also create safe zones that our clones can gather in," said Sasuki.
"I appreciate you both, but don't get too overboard with your spying and protecting. Metropolis has a lot of strong people—Maugnetics, to be exact. And they have Aubilities that can easily discover your shadows if you attach it to them.
But as long as you survey in neutral zones, and not invade other people's territory, then you're good."
The two Orc Chieftains bowed, and did their rituals.
"Those Aubilities are cheats!" Fudge complained.
This actually soothed Michael's worries about Fudge going overboard again. At least he knew that the little ninja slime wouldn't be able to do its pranks on those Maugnetics.
"Kukuku…that's fine. I don't have to infiltrate them through magic. There's always a chance to infiltrate them through belief…" Fudge muttered under his breath.
At the end of the night, their plans were finalized. Though to be honest, it was only Castelle, Sheina, and Yuna who did all the work with the preparation. As bad as it sounded, he and the others had already backed out by the afternoon, with Zion and Fudge inviting him over to play some board games.
Suffice to say, they were given a lecture by the girls at night as punishment.
…
…
…
On the next day, Michael was ready to go over to Metropolis and officially submit his application for the permit in Metropolis.
Thankfully, Jimmy, their news correspondent, had already gone off to Metropolis much earlier. And of course, Michael had left his own shadow on Jimmy, so he was able to transport himself on the gates very easily.
But before he left, Yuna pulled him aside and had a talk with him.
"Hey…um…please whatever you do, do not listen to a word she says, okay?"
Michael looked at her as if she was joking. "She? Who? What are you even talking about?"
Yuna looked like she wanted to say something, but ended up not saying anything at all.
"Just remember that I told her none of those things, okay?"
Now, Michael was even more curious about what she was talking about. But no matter how he probed, she just kept deflecting the conversation.
But whatever it was, it seemed personal. With the way she was acting reminded him of how he acted whenever his mother and father did some very embarrassing set-ups with her.
"Fine, I'll take your words into consideration," he promised her and that seemed to take a load off her mind.
"Okay, you can go now," she said.
Michael chuckled and shook his head. He truly didn't know how women worked.
Finally, he focused on his body and used his Supreme Skill to sense all of the shadows he left behind in the Queens region.
There were probably millions of them right now, swarming the Angora City and the Grafted Cluster specifically.
However, there was one of them much further north of the Queens region, bypassing even that of Batchrock Town.
Concentrating on this small target, he saw Jimmy standing by the tall walls of a territory, waiting for Michael to come with him.
With a single thought, Michael grabbed onto that shadow clone he left behind in Jimmy's feet and yanked himself over in that direction.
He immediately turned into a shadow, finding himself in a black realm before he whizzed past everything.
And within a second, he reached his destination.
Meanwhile, back in their headquarters, Seberus couldn't help but shake his head as he saw Michael disappear off to Metropolis with such ease.
"Haaa…so unfair," he muttered. Only someone like Michael with complete control over mana could sense his own shadow creation that was almost a month of travel away. And only someone with near limitless man could transport himself over there without even breaking a sweat. It truly was unfair.
…
…
…
Michael opened his eyes and found himself right next to Jimmy.
"Boss Michael! You're finally here."
"It's good to see you. How was the trip?"
Jimmy breathed out his exhaustion. "Next time, I think I'll take your shadow transportation. The trip was very boring! I can't wait until you can install train tracks and roads here."
"That's what I'm here for," he answered.
The two of them walked over to the gates manned by soldiers. There were plenty of carriages and horseback riders coming inside Metropolis, and all of them were being inspected by the guards for their paperwork.
"Permits please," said the guard to one of the carriages carrying barrels of wine.
The rider brought out a golden seal to the guards, which confirmed their identity.
"Alright, you can come in," he said, with the gates slowly rising up to let the carriage inside.
"Next," the soldier said, and it was finally time for Jimmy and Michael.
After seeing that they were only on horseback, the soldier assumed that they were just travelers.
"What's the purpose of your visit? Tourism? Business? Please state honestly."
Jimmy immediately presented one of his letters with a stamp on it. "I'm a journalist! I wrote to the newspaper company here for an article."
The soldier took a good look at the letter, especially the red stamp at the bottom, before nodding his head.
"Alright, come on in."
The soldier waved the two of them in, thinking that the golden-haired boy was accompanying the journalist.
"Hmm? Is there a problem?" the soldier asked.
"The purpose of my visit is different," Michael stated. "I want to get a permit from the association."
The soldier looked at Michael, surprised that someone as young as him was willing to brave the difficulties of getting a permit.
"Well, good luck young man," said the soldier. "One of our soldiers will guide you over to the association and they will be the one to brief you on the rules, is that clear?"
Michael nodded. "Who should I ask for?"
"Just ask for Claudia Montgomery. She's the one that's in charge of permits."