At once, the two players disappeared from the virtual training world and found themselves back in the Renovatio Imperii headquarters, handcuffed to their chairs.
Enzo saw Edward, Brutus and several other people clapping. They looked very excited.
Edward said, "Congratulations on winning your place at Renovatio Imperii!"
One of the policemen who had accompanied the prisoners approached and unlocked the cuffs around Enzo's hands and ankle.
"Uh, thank you," Enzo said.
Edward approached the policemen and handed them an envelope that clearly contained a bundle of money. "Thank you, gentlemen. We hope to see you again sometime!"
But then a horrified shout filled the air.
"Please! No! Give me a second chance! Let me fight someone else! Please! I beg you!"
But it was useless. The policemen savagely beat Rachid, striking him in the stomach until he gasped in pain and stopped talking. They dragged him outside, muttering to each other.
"What a piece of shit this guy is. Too bad the electric chair doesn't exist anymore."
"Come on, killer, back to jail with you."
Edward helped Enzo to his feet. "Well, then! Brutus will show you where you're going to live. Get some rest, put on some civilized clothes, and then meet me at the address the HR director will send you."
Edward put a phone into Enzo's hand. "Again, welcome back to the free world, and welcome to the team!"
With a wide, triumphant smile which Enzo didn't completely understand, Edward left, along with almost everyone else from the guild.
Only Brutus was left. He nodded to Enzo and then walked toward a smaller door out of the meeting room. "Come on, newbie, follow me!"
Enzo still felt shocked, and his heart still pounded. Was this really happening, or was it all a dream? Regardless, he followed with mechanical steps.
To Enzo's surprise, the modest building which he had entered was not all the property which the guild owned! In fact, it was a more humble, classical front attached to the huge business building next door. Brutus took him down several corridors and into a glass elevator… then selected the 54th floor.
Enzo looked out in awe at the magnificent view of Rome which spread out beneath him. "I don't believe it," he said. "Your guild is really much more impressive than I thought. You're really just a company that manages people in a video game?!"
Brutus laughed and said, "Yeah! The boss raised a lot of money two years ago with the release of World of Warcraft II! We're not exactly the biggest guild in the world, not yet… But we do have the biggest guild in Rome!"
Finally, the elevator stopped. Brutus led Enzo out into an apartment complex. He led him for a short way until he reached a medium-sized unit. "This is where you'll live! The active job hours are from 8 AM to 10 PM with two hours of break possible during the day. Meal service is between 12 PM and 2 PM for the midday meal, plus between 7 PM and 10 PM in the evening.
"Laundry is picked up on Monday and Thursday. The cleaning staff come on Friday. I think that's everything important… Oh, a little advice: don't be late in the morning. If you are, the Human Resources manager will take it out of your salary. And I bet they'll be a little more strict with you than with most people, all things considered…"
Brutus spread his arms in a gesture of welcome.
"Well, that's all! You have to sign your contract in an hour, so get some rest, change your clothes… and take a shower, you filthy animal! Even the garbage cans smell better than you!"
Laughing good-naturedly with these last words, Brutus then handed Enzo a magnetic keycard. "I'll come back in an hour so you can sign that contract. See you then!"
Then he closed the door behind him, leaving Enzo alone in his new apartment.
Enzo was totally disoriented by all these words and his sudden upheaval of fortune. This apartment was not only much better than his jail cell, but even better than the miserable housing he'd lived in for most of his life!
Now he found himself in a sixty-square-meter place like a nice hotel room. It would have been luxurious to anyone, but to someone who had lived in the slums and in prison all his life, it was like waking up in paradise.
After showering, dressing, and combing his hair, Enzo went back with Brutus to the training grounds. At this point, Brutus left, having additional work he needed to complete elsewhere.
However, nobody came for almost twenty minutes after the designated hour went by. This was yet another disorienting factor for Enzo—in prison, everything had operated on quite a tight schedule.
Suddenly, a beautiful, dark-haired woman appeared through one of the training room doors. She had bright green eyes and looked to be in her thirties. "Enzo Romano?" she asked.
Enzo answered, "Yes!"
She smiled. "I'm the Human Resources (HR) manager of Renovatio Imperii. Follow me, please!"
The woman took him to a huge office that was even larger than his new apartment—a whole hundred square meters, at least!
Everything was luxurious: the desk made of mahogany, the bookcase behind it filled with golden books, and the sweeping view of Rome out the massive window which took up a whole wall. Even the pen upon the desk must have been worth several thousand credits!
The HR woman beckoned Enzo to sit down, but he was intimidated by the real leather chair in front of the desk. What would happen if he accidentally damaged it? But at last, he sat down reluctantly.
She opened a briefcase and set out a contract about fifty pages long, along with the incredibly expensive Montblanc pen which Enzo had already noticed.
"Please sign at once," the woman said, "so that your integration into Renovatio Imperii is officially recorded! Please be aware that, until you do, the prison system is still officially your guardian."
Enzo was intimidated by the size of the paper stack, but he asked in a firm voice, "Can I read it first?"
The woman rolled her eyes and sighed. "Alright, but hurry! I have an appointment with my beautician before a fun weekend on Mars!"
Enzo, who had a perfect command of the language due to his parents' careful education before their decline, read through the contract quickly.
But the dense content of the contract seemed to be deliberately confusing, most notably one paragraph in the middle:
"The Employer is the sole holder of the prison accommodation of the Employee…"
Enzo didn't understand what this exactly meant, but the words "prison accommodation" made him realize that things might be a bit more complicated than he'd thought.
"Can you please clarify this paragraph for me?" he asked.
The HR replied with disdain, "Oh, it's simple. It means that the employer—Renovatio Imperii, of course—is responsible for you while you're our employee."
Enzo paused for a moment. She seemed to have completely avoided the question. "Pardon me, but can you elaborate? What are these exact responsibilities? I doubt that all the other employees had the word 'prison' in their contracts."
The woman looked more annoyed with every word out of Enzo's mouth. "Basically, you're still in the prison system. What, did you really think a tiny bribe was enough to set a criminal like you free for the rest of your life? No, if your contract is broken for any reason before your theoretical prison term ends, you go back to prison!"
Enzo, shocked, replied, "You know that I was sentenced to thirty years in prison, right?"
The woman let out a long, cold sigh, then said, "Well, then for the next twenty-eight years, it will be in your best interest to preserve this contract. That is, if you don't want to go back to prison."
Enzo stared numbly at the prison contract in front of him. He felt like a fool for not realizing these would be the terms of his "freedom." In truth, it was nothing more than a form of modern slavery!
The HR woman pushed the luxury pen towards Enzo's hand. "Look, if you prefer to serve your time in prison, just say the word. I'll have the police here with their handcuffs at a moment's notice so I can get ready for my vacation."
Enzo knew that this contract was a bad deal for him.
Yet, what choice did he have? Either he could serve his sentence in a miserable prison cell… or in a luxurious apartment.
Still, his very spirit revolted against this injustice. Despite his heritage, it was those with money who now had the power to control his fate. He would have to sell his soul to the devil just to keep his feet out of hell for the next twenty-eight years.
Enzo picked up the pen and began signing the contract. His signature would be required over fifty times before he was done, and he knew his hand would begin to cramp up long before that.
As he carefully signed each dotted line with the elegant signature which his parents had taught him many years ago, the HR woman took out her phone and called someone.
"Hello, sir," she said. Her voice was completely different compared to the way she'd spoken with Enzo. It was both full of assuredness and respect, the voice of someone whose work is to make an important person's life as simple and easy as possible. There was no sign in her voice that she was eager to go on an off-planet vacation.
"The new employee has agreed to sign the contract. By the time you arrive, it should be prepared for you to finalize it with your signature. Thank you, sir."
Shortly afterwards, Edward entered the office. The HR woman stood in respect. Seeing this, Enzo followed suit.
Edward, smiling, leaned over the stack of papers. Most of the lines which required his signature had been stamped by the HR woman's seal, which allowed Edward to only make the final signature himself instead of having to sign each line individually, as Enzo had been forced to do.
"There we go!" Edward said when he was finished. "Welcome to Renovatio Imperii!"
Enzo, who was inwardly furious at being forced to sell his dignity, didn't let it show. "Thank you," he said in a calm voice.
Edward replied, "By the way… You'll need a username. A Roman-themed one, of course! Have any ideas so far, or do you need time to think about it?"
Enzo answered without hesitation, "Caesar! The conqueror of the Gauls."
Edward burst out laughing. "Gaius Julius Caesar?! The man who conquered the Gauls? Who put the Senate in their place? The man who destroyed the Republic by creating the Empire?"
As Edward spoke, his tone became more thoughtful. "And the man who adopted Augustus, the second Caesar… Well, maybe I should insist you take the name 'Julius' instead! As it happens… I think that name's already been taken. Is that right?"
The HR lady nodded at once. It seemed that she'd been waiting to mention this. "Yes, that's Fabrico's username."
Edward nodded towards Enzo. "Fabrico's one of our top executives. I thought that was the name he'd chosen."
Enzo replied, "Is this 'Executive' worthy of bearing the name of Rome's greatest conqueror?"
Edward smirked. "Not in the slightest! Indeed, he's just a senior executive who does mostly administrative work! An old man with a pen, as it were." He flipped the Montblanc between his fingers nonchalantly.
Enzo replied, "Then I'll swap the first two letters. I'll be 'Ceasar,' with an 'ea' instead of an 'ae.' In fact, it might make some of my opponents think I'm too stupid to spell it properly. It's a mistake they'll regret."
Edward thought about it before nodding slowly. "It's against protocol, since names which sound the same within the same guild can be very confusing… but it's not like Fabrico will ever be doing anything that puts him in the same league as you! I'll make an exception just this once. Welcome, Ceasar, to Renovatio Imperii!"
