Chapter 197 Prime Industries Tour
Soon after finishing his conversation with Jyuuk, Benjamin logged out of the game to start his day. His arm was still hurting quite a bit from the day before, so he wouldn't be able to make breakfast today, which is why he asked Tony to do so today.
He would have asked Melody, considering that she was always ready to help with anything at all. But even though she didn't agree with what Michael was doing, she was still used to the lifestyle of orthodox Mormonism, so she would probably feel uncomfortable making the foods that the others wanted to eat, which is why Benjamin didn't want to force her to do anything like that.
Once the old man got dressed and washed up, Benjamin made his way to the kitchen, where his youngest son was already getting breakfast ready. "Morning Dad, it's still going to be a little while till breakfast is ready. You can go and sit down in the living room till then."
With a smile, Benjamin nodded and walked up behind his son. "Thank you, Tony. But what are you making? It smells good." He asked as he peeked over Tony's shoulder, who quickly moved to the side to block his father's sight.
"Shush, go sit down now. It's a surprise." Tony replied before his father chuckled and made his way to the living room, while Tony deeply frowned as he looked at the special ingredient for his father. "Weird…"
And then, one after another, the others joined Benjamin in the livingroom while Tony was working on the 'surprise' breakfast. "Isn't something smelling pretty rancid here?" Kyle asked as he turned to Sophia next to him, who swiftly smelled the air and tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"Rancid? I think it smells pretty good." She answered before Benji swiftly nodded his head. "Yup, I don't know what you're talking about, smells great to me." He said as he starred toward the kitchen before Natsuo perked his head up as it dawned on him what Tony was currently making.
"Wait, don't tell me…" He muttered with a look of disgust on his face before Tony slowly turned around to the group with the first serving of the breakfast, something that he made with the ingredients already in the kitchen, and that Benjamin himself had on hand at any time.
And with wide grins on their faces, Sophia and Benji nodded their heads in tandem. "That's right, it's obviously-!"
"…Natto?" Benjamin muttered surprised as he looked at the two bowls in front of him, one with Miso Soup in it, and one with white rice and natto on top of it. What surprised Benjamin wasn't that the dish was there at all, but rather that he didn't recognize the smell.
And it seemed like Tony noticed something was off as well. "Dad? You good? You love Natto, right? Or did you come to your senses and finally realize that it's a horrible food?"
"Huh? Oh, no, I still love it, don't worry… I was just caught up in a thought just now. Thanks for making it, Tony." The old man said to his son with a smile. Out of his family, there were only a few people that shared his peculiar tastes in some things. Or rather, two. Sophia and Benji.
All the others didn't enjoy it at all. Natto, made from fermented soybeans, had a rather peculiar taste to it, that one simply either liked or you didn't like it, and there wasn't much one could change about it, either way.
It just so happened that the majority of his family belonged to the latter group. Benjamin, on the other hand, did really enjoy it, for reasons he couldn't explain either. He remembered that when he first got to Japan, his late wife made it for him once, and he instantly fell in love with it.
Since then, it's been something of comfort food, since it just made him feel weirdly cozy, although that really wasn't what you would usually feel when eating it.
"Dad, please give me some as well!" Benji exclaimed with a wide grin, and Sophia did the same. Happy that Melody didn't mind Sophia eating this today, the young girl went all the way. "Make mine double!" She exclaimed, before Benjamin began to eat with a smile on his face.
The taste was the same as he remembered it despite the smell somehow being unrecognizable to him, so Benjamin could feel the usual comfort from it with just a little hint of the unfamiliar in the back of his mind that he was more than willing to ignore.
Soon enough, Benjamin finished his breakfast while Tony gave some portions Benji, and Sophia as well, while everyone else had a simple baked Nori-Sesame mixture on top of the rice instead of the Natto.
After they all finished their breakfast, the family quickly cleaned up and got everything ready for the trip to the Prime Industries location not too far from where they currently were.
The cleanup didn't take too long, and the family made their way to the cars outside, where they chose to drive in three groups since they were too many to fit into a single-vehicle.
"Grampa, you said we'd be able to test a demo of the game, right?" Benji asked excitedly from the back of the car before the old man turned around and nodded. "Mhm, you can. Although I don't really know what it's going to look like." Benjamin pointed out before he looked at Katy and Sean sitting next to their older brother. "But there's surely going to be a few super fun things to do for either of you. I've already got some ideas about what I would like you two to try out." The old man said with a smile before the young children got quite excited about it.
"Oh, oh! Can I see one of those birds?!" Katy asked with a bright smile, and Benjamin chuckled softly.
"I'm sure you'll be able to, yes. And do you know what you want to do, Sean?" He asked as he turned to the young boy, who was thinking for a while before swiftly shaking his head.
"You don't know, huh? That's fine. I'm sure you can try out lots of things today." The old man told them, before slowly starting to ramble on about the different things they could try, ranging from magic to art, and before they all knew it, they already reached the enormous main building of Prime Industries on this side of the country.
And soon enough, they reached the ramp leading down to the underground parking garage where a security guard stepped up to the car. "Hello there, Sir. What's your business here today?" He asked with a smile, that was quite obviously not as sincere as he was pretending, before Benjamin returned a quite genuine smile, as if to show him how you were supposed to do it. "Hello, we have an appointment with Samuel Morgan for 11. My name is Benjamin Theodore Joyce. You can check in with Samuel if you like."
But quickly, the Guard's expression changed to one of surprise as he shook his head. "No, that's fine, I was told you were coming. I'll need to see your ID to make sure that it's really you. I hope you understand, there are some classified things in there that even I don't know about, so I can't just let anyone in."
With a smile, Benjamin grabbed his wallet and looked through it for just a moment before pulling out his ID and handing it to the Guard, who took a quick look at it before nodding and handing it back. "Alright, all's good. Have a great day, Mister Joyce. Ah, the two cars behind you there belong to you, I assume?"
"Yes, they're with us. And thank you. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun." The old man replied before the gate to the underground parking lots opened up, and the guard gave them some more instructions. "There are some visitor parking spaces directly in the front here. Just go up the stairs directly next to them, and you'll end up near the front desk."
"Thank you. Have a good day." Benjamin smiled as Tony began driving again and the three cars parked directly next to each other in the front of the parking garage.
"Come on, hurry up! I wanna go inside!" Sophia excitedly exclaimed as she took off her headphones and wore them around her neck as Kyle looked at her with disgust in his face. "Urgh, how can you always be so cheerful? And shouldn't you have a hangover right now after what you drank yesterday?" He asked as he pushed his hands further into the pockets in the front of his hoody, obviously feeling more comfortable around his best friend's family at this point to be able to say something like that, which he surely wouldn't have when they arrived on Monday.
"What do you know, I feel better than ever right now!" Sophia exclaimed as she stemmed her fists onto her hips in a triumphant manner, while Natsuo laughed lowly and responded in the others' stead. "We Joyces don't get hangovers no matter what we drink, Kyle." He explained before Kyle frowned deeply and looked at Natsuo suspiciously.
"What do you mean, you don't get- Alright, yup, I totally believe that." Kyle tried to say that it didn't make any sense for that to be the case, although he stopped himself when he looked around him and saw the four giant men, Tony, Natsuo, Benji, and Benjamin, standing next to him while remembering the other things he found out about this insane family over the past few days. As such, he changed his mind immediately.
Moving on from this conversation, the group then made their way over toward the stairs that the Guard mentioned, soon finding the front desk, which they walked up to swiftly, with Benjamin in the front.
"Hello there, we have an appointment with Samuel Morgan for 11 am?" He explained, and before the young man at the desk could respond, he could already hear the voice of just that exact Samuel Morgan.
"Good morning, Benjamin! Long-time no see! Is what I would say if I weren't at your party yesterday…" Samuel laughed a bit as he greeted Benjamin with a handshake, noticing that his right arm was still bandaged up. "Still not better?"
Slowly, the old man shook his head while Samuel's assistant handed out visitor tags to everyone so that they could pass through the building safely. "Good morning, Samuel! It's a bit better, at least it doesn't hurt when I leave it like this, but I can't really move my arm that much right now."
"I see… Maybe you should go to see a doctor then. I suggest waiting a few more days to know how it's going to develop, though." Samuel told Benjamin before he turned toward the others and greeted them with a broad smile before he turned around and began to lead everyone through the building, while Samuel's assistant looked at him somewhat confused.
"Erm, Mister Morgan, should I tour them around? I'm sure you're busy, and I wouldn't mind doing that at all." The young assistant, probably an intern, said with a smile as he looked at Sophia from the corner of his eye, but Samuel shook his head, shooting him down immediately.
"Nope, sorry. I promised I'd show the Joyce family around, so I'll be doing that for a while. You can come along if you want, though." He explained and immediately waved the large group toward a corridor, and the assistant slowly nodded with nervosity.
"Alright, first, and probably the most important spot in the whole building. The Café, which is usually Employees only, as we pay for everything in there because of that. We'll be back in a while to eat lunch here. Sound good?" He suggested with a smile, and once everyone happily agreed, Samuel starts to lead them through a few different hallways to bring them to the next site while explaining a few basic things about the company.