"One more thing, sir," Skrax said, looking a bit nervous. "We seem to have received a gift."

Skrax pointed to a corner. There sat a massive, five-ton boulder with a pink ribbon tied around it. A note was pinned to it.

"I'm watching you. Literally. This rock is a camera."

Leo stared at the boulder, rubbing his forehead.

"It's probably from the Watchdog Agency. And here I was wondering why the permit came so easily. It looks like we are still under initial probation."

"Well," Leo sighed, adjusting his collar. "At least we don't have to spend money on a security system for the lobby."

He showed a thumbs up towards the stone, even though he knew that it wasn't actually transmitting everything.

It was most probably just a recorder whose footage could only be accessed through the physical unit, especially after an official investigation was launched against them.

It was just a precautionary measure from the Watchdog Agency towards the new bank. Moreover, there was rarely any instance of any such official investigation.

In any case, Leo already planned to cast a full scale planetary blocking, so that even if the rock camera had a hidden mechanism, it shouldn't transmit anything back.

He then walked over to the ATM, which was bought from the second hand market. As it was only for testing purposes, he didn't really spend much on it.

"Did you test it? Are the basic functions of our bank online now?" Leo asked Skrax, who nodded.

"I checked it in my personal capacity. Everything seems to be working fine, since I can check my initial balance through this. I haven't tried withdrawing money from it," Skrax answered.

As they were still in the testing phase, Skrax had opened a test account. He had basically become the first customer of the bank, albeit the credits that he kept in the bank was only a thousand.

"Try withdrawing," Leo said, keeping his hands behind his pocket.

The ATM before him was already scratched up, but the screen still looked functional.

"Right away."

Skrax stepped forward, and started using the ATM, to withdraw fifty credits in the form of a coin.

As soon as he started using the ATM, it started trembling violently, like it could explode at any moment.

On the top right corner, there was a deep red timer that had already started counting down from thirty, with an explosive icon before it.

"It's not really going to explode in thirty seconds, is it?" Leo asked, subconsciously taking a step back.

"That's just a feature, sir," Skrax explained "It makes the customers feel like if they don't complete their transaction within thirty seconds, the machine might blow up. It really cuts down on the wait times for others waiting to use the ATM."

As he finished explaining, the ATM tossed out a coin worth fifty credits.

"See? It's working as expected. I told you that you can trust my source. It would never sell me a bad item." Skrax proudly stated, as he tossed the coin in the air before catching it.

"So, would you like to order the main ATMs from that source as well? Can I arrange a meeting? He might even give you a lot of discounts, and add a few more features."

"You can handle the order. After all, you aren't just a contractor but also the Branch Manager that I have selected," Leo said, waving his hand lightly. "Order as many as we need. Don't worry about the money."

"A-are you sure? You want me to handle this deal worth hundreds of millions?" Skrax asked, in a daze.

"Is there a need to be surprised? Once the bank gets running, you'll be the one handling everything. You'll be dealing with much more than just a few hundred million. So no need to exaggerate that much."

Leo had planned to make this bank a powerhouse. For that, he was going to handle most of the dealing himself. At least in the initial phase.

However, once he achieved his purpose, he could definitely leave this loss making machine running, leaving Skrax to handle it.

At that point, even the Lionel Family wouldn't be a threat. The only reason he even wanted to handle things personally for now, was simply because he needed to take this responsibility as long as there was a threat outside.

"Now, let's see the staff," Leo said, bringing Skrax out of his daze.

"Right." Skrax led him toward the back offices, where three figures sat behind bulletproof glass partitions that were thick enough to stop a laser weapon, at least for a few rounds.

In the center sat a woman who looked like she could easily have been a model, if not working at this bank.

She wore spectacles on a chain and was currently staring at a digital ledger with great intensity.

'Umm? Isn't our ledger supposed to be empty at the moment? Is she pretending to be busy?' Leo thought, scratching the back of his head.

"Excuse me, I-" he said, approaching the woman.

"It's lunch time. Come later," the woman said without even raising her head. She didn't even let him complete his sentence.

'It's lunch time?' Leo looked at his watch. It was barely ten in the morning on this planet. How was it lunch time already?

Moreover, the bank hadn't even opened properly. They were still in a trial phase, so how could she not even know what?

"It does remind me of a few banks back on earth. They really go out of their way with delay tactics. Not bad..." Leo mumbled.

"This is Assistant Manager Elga," Skrax whispered. "She was banned from the Lionel Bank for slapping a customer who kept asking her too many questions."

Skrax then shifted his attention to Elga, and raised his voice. "Elga, the heck are you doing? This person here is the owner of our bank."

Elga finally raised her head, and looked at Leo through the glasses. However, she didn't look very impressed.

"Good for you," she said like she was a literal reincarnation of boredom. "What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to ask you a few questions. You can think of it as a mini interview, if you're fine with it," Leo said.

Ega simply rolled her eyes, sighing, "What a hassle. Fine... Ask away."

"What will you do if a representative from the Financial Watchdog comes in asking to see our ledger, and neither Skrax, nor I am here."

Elga looked up then, her eyes behind the thick lenses barely showing much reaction. "I tell them that the ledger has been filed in Section 8."

"And where is Section 8?" Leo asked.

"The incinerator," Elga replied without blinking.

Leo felt a warmth in his chest that was either pride or the onset of carbon monoxide poisoning from the 50% unknown in the atmosphere. He turned back to Skrax.

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