Chapter 37: Life is weird

The first thing Damian saw when he woke up was a message from Emily.

Emily:Morning, babe. How are you ?

Damian stared at the screen for a second before smiling.

Damian:Barely good . You?

Her reply came almost immediately.

Emily:Alive enough to complain about my first class.

Damian:So basically normal.

Emily:Exactly.

Damian chuckled and tossed his phone onto the bed.

It still felt strange sometimes.

Not the relationship itself. He was getting used to that.

It was the little things.

Seeing babe on his screen.

Having someone ask how his morning was.

Knowing that somewhere on campus, there was a person who would actually notice if he didn’t show up.

A few months ago, none of that had been part of his life.

Now it was becoming normal.

And honestly?

He liked normal.

His phone buzzed again.

Emily:Also, make sure you’ve even eaten, before heading out thinking about Business .

Damian frowned.

Damian:How do you know I’ll be thinking about business?

Emily:Because you’re you.

He stared at the message.

Then typed:

Damian:That’s not an answer.

Emily:It is to me 😂

Damian shook his head.

She knew him too well already.

By the time Damian reached campus, Ethan was already complaining.

"This lecturer has something against us."

Damian dropped into the seat beside him.

"Good morning to you too."

"I said good morning in my heart."

"That’s where your attendance should be too."

Ethan turned toward him.

"See? This is why I don’t tell you my problems."

"You don’t have problems."

"I have many problems."

"Like?"

Ethan paused.

"My assignment."

"You haven’t started it."

"That is one of the problems."

Damian laughed.

The lecturer walked in a few minutes later, ending the conversation.

For the next hour, Damian tried to focus.

He did.

Mostly.

But something about his approach to ordinary problems had changed.

He found himself breaking things down automatically.

What was the actual problem?

What information was missing?

What could be tested?

What would happen if the solution failed?

He noticed it during a discussion in class and leaned back slightly.

When did I start thinking like this?

It wasn’t intelligence appearing out of nowhere.

He knew that much.

He had simply spent enough time around Westbridge to realize that guessing wasn’t enough.

Every decision had consequences.

Every assumption needed testing.

And every good idea could still fail.

That lesson had probably been more valuable than the money the system had given him.

The Westbridge office was busier than usual that afternoon.

Damian walked into the meeting room and found Daniel, Sarah, and Claire already there.

A laptop was connected to the screen.

Sarah looked up.

"Good. You’re here."

"What happened?"

"Something good," she said.

Daniel smiled slightly.

"We tested your onboarding suggestion."

Damian pulled out a chair.

"And?"

Sarah switched to the first slide.

"The changes were small. We didn’t rebuild anything."

The screen showed two sets of numbers.

The new version had a slightly higher completion rate for the guided challenge.

More importantly, support requests relating specifically to users not understanding the challenge had started dropping.

Damian nodded.

"How long?"

"Three days."

"That’s too early to call it a success."

Sarah smiled.

"That’s exactly what Daniel said."

Daniel leaned back.

"We’re encouraged. We’re not celebrating yet."

"Good."

Claire looked at Damian.

"You’re unusually difficult to impress."

"I’m trying not to destroy the company with one good idea."

Ethan wasn’t there to hear it, but Damian could practically imagine his reaction.

Fish brain has become corporate.

Daniel laughed.

"We’ll keep collecting data. If the improvement holds, we’ll make the change permanent."

Damian studied the figures again.

There was something satisfying about seeing an idea move from conversation to reality.

Not because it was his idea.

Because it worked.

Even slightly.

The discussion shifted toward the 200-student pilot.

Daniel brought up the next phase.

"We’re getting pressure to expand."

Damian looked at him.

"Pressure from who?"

"Potential partners. Universities. A few small business groups."

Sarah added, "The pilot is attracting attention."

"That sounds good."

"It is," Daniel said. "But there’s a problem."

Damian waited.

"Support."

Sarah pulled up another report.

"The more users we add, the more support requests increase. The majority still aren’t software failures. They’re questions about onboarding, features, and what users are supposed to do next."

Damian nodded slowly.

"So if we suddenly jump from 200 users to 1,000..."

"We could drown," Sarah finished.

Damian leaned forward.

"Then don’t."

Daniel raised an eyebrow.

"Don’t expand?"

"Not yet."

Damian pointed at the report.

"Getting 1,000 users sounds great on paper. But if 1,000 people start asking questions your current team can’t answer, the growth becomes a liability."

Claire nodded.

"So we solve the support problem first."

"Exactly."

Daniel was quiet for a moment.

Then he nodded.

"That may be the more important problem right now."

Damian looked at the numbers again.

Westbridge didn’t need to become bigger tomorrow.

It needed to become capable of being bigger.

There was a difference.

Later that afternoon, Damian checked his phone while walking out of the building.

A system notification appeared.

A golden screen materialized in front of him.

[WESTBRIDGE INVESTMENT UPDATE]

[INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE: POSITIVE]

[COMPANY VALUATION: CONTINUING TO INCREASE]

[FINANCIAL INFLUENCE: RISING]

The screen disappeared.

Damian smiled faintly.

Still moving.

His current bank balance sat at $919,924.32.

Seeing the number still felt ridiculous.

Just months ago, he had been worried about replacing a dead laptop.

Now he had nearly a million dollars sitting in his account and an investment that was steadily becoming more valuable.

Yet somehow, his biggest concern was whether 200 students could figure out how to use a software platform.

Damian almost laughed.

Life is weird.

Claire caught up with him outside.

"You heading home?"

"Eventually."

She walked beside him.

"I’ve been looking at the onboarding data."

"And?"

"You were right about keeping the experiment small."

Damian glanced at her.

"That sounded painful."

"Very."

He laughed.

Claire smiled.

"But seriously, I think the approach makes sense."

They walked in silence for a few seconds.

Then Claire asked, "What happens if the numbers don’t improve?"

Damian shrugged.

"Then we change the idea."

"That simple?"

"Pretty much."

"You wouldn’t defend your idea?"

"Why would I?"

Claire looked at him.

"Most people do."

"Then most people are going to waste a lot of time."

She smiled.

"Fair."

There was a brief silence.

The two of them both seemed to remember the awkward evening at Damian’s apartment.

Neither mentioned it.

Eventually Claire said, "Anyway, I’ll see you at the next meeting."

"Yeah. See you."

She walked away.

After a few steps, she glanced back.

Damian had already turned toward the road.

Claire looked forward again.

Just keep it normal.

That evening, Damian opened his laptop.

Nexora was still bothering him.

Not because the company was necessarily dangerous.

Because it didn’t make sense.

He pulled up the notes he’d made the previous night.

Nexora Solutions.

Six years old.

Strong customer base.

Institutional partnerships.

Experienced technical team.

More capital.

Mature product.

Everything looked normal.

Almost too normal.

Damian began digging into the company’s history.

Registration records.

Old business articles.

Archived interviews.

Early funding announcements.

Former executives.

He followed one reference after another.

Then he stopped.

An early article mentioned Nexora’s first major expansion.

The company had apparently received substantial private backing surprisingly early in its development.

Damian frowned.

"From who?"

He searched.

Nothing useful.

Another article mentioned early investors but didn’t name them.

A corporate record listed a holding entity connected to one of the early transactions.

Damian clicked it.

Northvale Holdings.

He searched that.

Almost nothing.

No polished website.

No recognizable executive.

No obvious connection to a major financial group.

Just scattered references.

Damian leaned back.

"That is weird."

He didn’t immediately jump to some ridiculous conclusion.

There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Private investors liked privacy.

Holding companies existed for plenty of legitimate reasons.

Still...

Someone helped build Nexora from the beginning.

And whoever that was had gone out of their way to stay out of the spotlight.

Damian wrote a note beneath his Nexora research.

Find out who owns Nexora.

He stared at it.

Then added:

And what Northvale Holdings has to do with it.

His laptop chimed.

A message from Emily.

Emily:You working again?

Damian smiled.

Damian:Maybe.

Three dots appeared.

Emily:Babe.

Damian laughed.

Damian:Okay, yes.

Emily:Close the laptop.

Damian:You’re very demanding.

Emily:And yet you like me.

Damian paused.

Then typed:

Damian:Unfortunately.

Her response came almost instantly.

Emily:Goodnight, loser 😂

Damian shook his head.

Damian:It’s not even bedtime.

Emily:Then go outside.

He looked toward his laptop.

Then at his phone.

After a moment, he closed the laptop.

"Fine."

He leaned back.

Maybe she had a point.

For once, he could stop thinking about business.

The next morning, Damian was halfway through breakfast when his phone buzzed.

An email.

From: Daniel Hart

Damian opened it.

Subject: Nexora Solutions — New Development

His expression changed.

He read the message once.

Then again.

Westbridge had received confirmation that the university involved in their 200-student pilot was now considering an offer from Nexora.

Nothing dramatic.

No threats.

No dirty tactics.

Just competition.

Nexora had approached the same institution.

Damian slowly lowered his phone.

"So it starts."

The golden screen appeared.

[COMPETITOR ACTIVITY INCREASING.]

[FINANCIAL IMPACT POTENTIAL: DEVELOPING.]

[USER’S RESPONSE MAY AFFECT FUTURE FINANCIAL OUTCOME.]

Damian stared at the final line.

This wasn’t about researching a competitor anymore.

It was about deciding what Westbridge should do next.

And for the first time, he wasn’t just an investor watching from the sidelines.

He was becoming part of the fight.