Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

If there was one thing that united all the human-like creatures across all the possible realities… it was business.

It didn't even have to be something related to money, power, or anything in particular. As long as there was a benefit to be gained from cooperation, social creatures would come together.

In a sense, this was what made human… a human.

This trait, born out of specie's intelligence, was its greatest weapon.

And now, that was exactly what I was here for. To get some business done.

"For now," the leader of the natives stepped to the side and revealed a set of chairs set up just behind. "Please, let's sit. We have a lot to discuss."

They were still out in the open and roughly the same distance between the nearest structure within the basin as they were away from our maglev.

'Right in the middle, huh?'

A corner of my mouth trembled a little at just how by the book the other party was going.

It was just as reasonable for us to move a little bit from our vehicle as it was for them to step away from possible reinforcements. But, even if we were stepping into a trap…

'Haaa…'

If there was anything that a fledgling supreme-bis like me could do, it was to detect any other beings on that level.

The weight of my reinforced aura weaves pressured the free aura around. In a sense, I wasn't looking for signs of someone at my level or even at Claudy's level, but rather the side-effects of their mere presence in the world around me.

'There are supremes here, but nothing stronger,' I concluded right by the time we reached the chairs and all sat down around, you guessed it, a round table.

Even if we were stepping right into a trap… We had a supreme and two who reached beyond that level to pit against a surprisingly high number of supremes on the native side.

Still, as I've already learned, while not unbridgeable, the gap between evolutionary ranks was… massive to say the least. Those gaps were so deep in their nature that only in the very edge cases one could hope to overcome such differences.

"Allow me to introduce our side," Isera was quick to stand up the very moment everyone sat down. "I'm Isera, and I'm working directly under the Patriarch." Her hand moved to point at the middle-aged man sitting, you guessed it again, in the middle of their group. "This is Banjay, the… the field general serving in defense of the fortress.

And this is Salicious, the chief general of the fortress defense."

I would have to be blind to miss the slight pause in these words.

"I'm Peter," I stood up and smiled, putting down my hand on my chest and performing a small bow. "I'm a chief adviser to the head of our development group. This beauty here," I turned my hand towards Fay while turning my polite smile into a deathly glare, "is my dearest wife, currently acting as my Chief Executive."

I turned my hand over to Claudy.

"This handsome knight here is a confidante of the Imperial Princess, acting to ensure the Imperial interests within our current investment project."

This speech I've long since rehearsed. Coupled with my weird greeting, I've worked on them with Makary directly, opting for the corporate approach for a selection of reasons.

Reasons that could be summed up with nothing more but presentation.

And by keeping to our decision to adhere to the corporate rules of the modern world, I could slam those natives with more fancy words than they had any right to understand.

"Since we are the unexpected party, allow me to explain what brought us here first."

I looked over at the, as introduced by Isera, likely a second in command in the middle of their group.

"Please, go on," the middle-aged man nodded his head and gestured with his hand for me to continue.

"For that, I deem it best to exploit a simple story. Please, imagine a simple soldier, thinking of nothing but the next cup of booze while on guard duty," I started my own, fancy way of explanation. "Suddenly, this simple soldier notices a snake slithering down by his legs."

I smiled.

"A snake the poison of which can be turned into a great medicine. A precious and extremely rare find."

I raised my hand up, pointing just one finger up. Explore new worlds at empire

"But the simple soldier doesn't know the snake's value."

Having no other choice, my counterparts nodded their heads as they carefully listened to my story.

"Now, this story comes with three meanings. Firstly, we are like the story's soldier, not knowing what's going on and carelessly destroying what we don't understand," I started with the self-reflective side of this example. "We are inherently affecting a world that we are fully ignorant about. But," I moved my raised finger to the sides as if I was trying to warn the other side about something.

"But that's just one of the story's many meanings. In a different one, it's your patriarchate that's like the soldier from the story, stepping and outright discarding things that you know not the value off."

For the first time, I noticed a small twitch on the native leader's face.

Or, the second in command, assuming a field general was a rank below a chief general, as introduced by the courtesy of Isera.

"There are many more interpretations of this simple story, but those two best describe our current dilemma," I concluded the story-time, now moving the conversation over to the more pragmatic part. "In short, we don't know anything about this place, yet have no other choice but to make judgments with what little information we have. Yet, we also herald a great change, change that will come regardless of your support or resistance to it."

Finally, my perfectly acted smile died down a bit.

"What we want to know, though, is if you would rather benefit from the opportunity we brighten, or watch how it all goes to waste as the rest of the world moves on?"