When I said stop in the Yamato language, the girl froze.
Then we were stuck in a weird limbo.
I was frozen with my hand raised.
She was frozen while looking at me warily.
And Zac, that bastard was still engrossed, waving his hands in the air, oohing and ahhing.
There wasn't much I could do. I said all that I could. I didn't know what to say or how to say it. The only thing I could do was try and get Zac's attention.
While holding eye contact, I reached out my hand.
She flinched.
I stopped my hand, before continuing.
Finally I was able to tap Zac's arm. But he was completely unconcerned about my tapping and pulling of his arm.
Eventually I had to say, "Hey! Zac! You bastard! Oy! Wake up!"
He was still unconcerned and said dismissively, "Huh? What?"
"That girl is here!"
That seemed to wake him as he jumped a bit and then looked around.
"Huh, who is here!?"
Then he saw her standing there apprehensively and said shyly something in the Yamato language.
They had a conversation for a very long minute before Zac said, "Ok. I explained it to her. She thought that you were a drug dealer and that I was high."
"Yeah, that's kind of what I thought she thought. I was afraid she was going to call the police."
"Ha, she probably would have. Good thing you stopped her that would have been even more embarrassing."
"Oh, yeah. Explaining to the police that you are in fact not on drugs. They totally would have believed you."
"With how I'm sure I looked I would have been dragged to the station and tested."
We laughed about that before the girl said something. Zac paused and replied to what she said.
Zac took the glasses off and asked, "Hey can you, like change the, uh thing?"
I thought about what he might be referring to and realized that he was talking about the translator. I guess he found out about it while talking with her.
I pulled out my phone and flipped the direction of the translation.
I said, "Ok, I flipped the translator."
Zac said, "Cool, thank you." and handed the glasses to the girl.
She took them confused and reluctantly put them on.
I said, "Are they working?" while looking at her reaction. She made a mystified expression then said a word in the Yamato language.
After a moment she looked a little uncertain then said, "Yes."
She definitely had an accent but she managed to say a word in English. I nodded and said, "Congratulations."
Zac cut in and said, "Now you can understand what we are saying."
I said, "Yeah. But, I could have just worn them and talked in your language."
Zac, "Yeah, true. But I wanted her to see just how cool these are."
Me, "That's fair I guess."
Zac then seemed to remember the girl and introduced her, "Oh! Right! This is Nozomi Yoko. She is the girl I told you about."
I said, "Yeah, I kind of figured."
The girl said, "Hello."
I said back, "Hello, it's nice to meet you."
Zac then asked, "Right, before I forget to ask. Where did you get those? I have to see about getting a pair for myself."
I answered, "You can't. I mean you can get some that look like those. But I upgraded those quite a bit. So, even if you get a pair that won't be nearly as good."
Zac asked astonished, "You upgraded these? How?"
"I upgraded the processing power, resolution, and the entire software. I basically created a new version that's way better than what they are offering."
"Whoa. That's incredible. That must be how you were able to afford to build a factory, right?"
"No. Actually because I built those off of a patented item it falls under that patent. Because they have the rights to upgraded versions. I could however, make a new pair of AR glasses and patent those.
Now, the translation part of the glasses. Those are all mine. They were actually really easy to make, all of the things I needed were freely available online. I beefed them up and optimized them a lot to make it as good as it is.
There is still a long way to go though. With getting all of the dialects, to making the data compression better. Anyway enough about the specifics. All in all, I could patent that and make an app out of it.
I hadn't really thought about it but maybe I'll do just that. Then add in a few other languages? Yeah, it's all coming together."
Zac was beyond stunned, he said, "Wow, it sounds like a lot has gone into these. But, if you don't mind me asking how did you make your money?"
I said, "Yeah, I don't really care. I made an AI that makes a lot of money."
"Really? I was expecting something more complex for an answer. That seems really simple."
"Yeah, it is. Simple is the way to go. If you want money, then make something that makes money. Literally."
"And how does it "make" money?"
"Stocks."
"Yeah… That's what I thought, but I just wanted to be sure. I imagine that it doesn't work well in Yamato, does it?"
"Ha, yeah, not really."
"Well, it's time to open the store. Better get to work, money won't make itself. Not for me at least."
"Haha, not yet."
Zac opened the cafe and a few zombie like customers made their way in. They were all drunk, hungover, or a little of both.
The regular work hours in Yamato were from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM with an hour for lunch.
So, the only people here at 6:00 AM are the ones coming from the bar or from "hotel alley". The alley where drunk office workers sleep.
They swayed their way into a line and kept their voices low. Even if they were drunk they kept their manners. Patiently waiting for their turn to get a coffee to help wake them up and get ready for another day.