The names of the companies that Aron owned gave everyone that heard them goosebumps. Although some of the people in the room hadn't heard of a few of them, they had indeed heard of the others, and all of them were very rich and very, very private.
Most of them knew of GAIA, Hephaestus, ARES, Icarus, and Asclepius; each of them were tentatively valuated at hundreds of billions of dollars, which was why they were shocked to their core.
That was when they came to the realization that the man in front of them or on their tv or phone screens’ net worth was nearing the trillion dollar mark. That would put him firmly in place as the world's richest man, with the difference between him and the second place more than 800 billion dollars. Billion! With a B!
But what absolutely mystified them was that Aron had only become a millionaire less than three years before, meaning that in the short span of three years he had gone from "moderately comfortable" to "money is just a scorecard for the game of life" without any aid from his family or friends and he was only twenty-three years old!
"Have you been paying taxes?" the representative who asked that wasn't surprised in the least, as he had already been informed about Aron's wealth.
"Yes, I paid more than twenty billion in taxes last year, but I fail to see the relevance of your question," Aron fired back.
"I'm the one asking the questions, Mr. Michael, not you," the representative sneered. "Are you aware that your OS has more than ninety seven percent of the OS market, which constitutes a monopoly under US law?"
"The same could be said for Google."
"We're talking about you today, not them. You know that, right?"
"Yes, and the answer to that is because our product is superior to other competitors, and unlike them, we haven't used any tactics to undermine our competitors.”
The back and forth between Aron and the representative continued until the representative's allotted time for questions ended.
"How does your company contribute to research and development initiatives in the U.S.?" the next representative asked.
"Not much, as we have no research institute here," he responded.
"And why's that? Aren't you a US citizen? Shouldn't you be helping your home country?" the representative asked, framing Aron as unpatriotic.
"The very first product I produced and released to the public was forcefully taken from me by the US government. So why would I do my research here when the government always wants to steal my work out from under me?"
"How do you respond to claims that your company's practices have led to job losses or wage suppression in the US?" The representative moved to the next question without responding to Aron's question.
"That's categorically false. Even our lowest-paid employee working here is completely insured by the company and their net salaries after tax are all over a hundred thousand dollars, with yearly raises and other benefits."
"Are there any upcoming plans for expansion, job creation, or major investments in the US?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Why should I invest in a country that's insistent on levying sanctions against me in a blatant attempt to steal even more of my technological advances, Mr. Representative?" Aron responded quite bluntly.
The hearing continued in that fashion for the rest of the day, and the three days following that, making it the longest congressional hearing related to a private company in history. Aron and Sarah had undergone more than thirty hours of questioning by the hostile committee.
…
From the first day of the hearing, it was the main topic in not only the political section of the internet, but the entertainment side as well. It was a weird situation, but understandable; Aron and Sarah were both incredibly attractive, even more than most actual celebrities.
Besides, both of them were way too blunt in the way they handled the questions. It was very fresh, since most people called before congress would go very far out of their way to hide whatever they could, answering almost every question with "I don't recall” or some variation on that phrase.
@Reallyman [Are you telling me this man became a trillionaire within just three years after being expelled from school? Are you kidding me?]
@nop [I can't believe it either, but I researched the companies he named and he should have much more than just a trillion.]
@thetruth [Op, he was falsely accused before he was expelled, nothing more to say just clarifying it.]
@warmonger [You people seemed to have forgotten the most important revelation of the hearing. The man has a private fucking military under him, and it fought and won a war against a fully legitimate country's military. The video of Eden's pilot shooting down five planes in less than a few minutes is from his forces.]
@damn [Holy shit, why didn't we see it earlier when everything was in the open? All of his companies are named after Greek gods, from GAIA to ARES. But that won't happen again as I sat and did a very deep investigation and came to the conclusion that they're the ones who deliberately caused the Indonesia incident to provoke the UN to sanction Eden so they can benefit.]
@nahthisiswild [Makes sense, since their company is now the only provider of many things. So he earns more money than anyone in the country... damn, brutal and smart at the same time.]
The internet focused on many different topics, based on people's interests, but nearly everyone talking about them was mostly focusing on Aron being either a role model or scum of the earth.
The Morgans utilized it to their benefit, using every means possible to paint Aron as a greedy madman.
The committee began their deliberation, and at the same time, recommended that the justice department open an investigation into Aron and his companies. They were privately directed that they absolutely must find evidence of him and his companies breaking the law, and if that evidence didn't exist, they were to find it anyway. They were also instructed to pay special attention to ARES during their investigative process.
…
Aron was in his private A380 with Sarah, heading back to Eden. He was leaning back in his chair, limbs akimbo, and pinching the bridge of his nose as he complained about idiots, morons, and assholes that shall not be named.
"How am I gonna explain this to my parents?" Aron had come to the realization that his parents would soon be asking him about his wealth and was trying to come up with a way to explain it to them as gently as possible.
"Why not tell them the truth?" Sarah suggested.
"I guess.... There's really no need to hide it from them, since the whole world knows about it now anyway," Aron said.
"Plus it'll make things easier on me since they'll be able to use the VR instead of traveling all over the place and risking attacks." He smiled when he thought of the mess his little brother would cause in the VR once he was introduced to it.
