Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

The club filled quickly, and a dozen servers hustled about delivering drinks to the patrons, which Max thought was a bit odd for the sort of venue that they were in.

"They will move to the lounge level in a bit and work as hostesses, the start of the night is to pick off the best new clients and convince them to head upstairs to drink in luxury." The boss explained.

"So that's how you sort out new VIP members, you let the staff recruit them from the main floor, and if they turn out well, you offer them a membership card?" Nico asked.

"It also lets me sort out the ones who are here for business. It looks like they have just been chosen for their money, but it lets us move to a private area without anyone asking any questions. All of the servers that are wearing a golden hairpiece are part of my organization and not just club staff." He explained, just loud enough to be heard over the music.

In minutes the club was packed, and one of the Harpia had moved over to dance in the alcove behind their table. All of the alcoves around the room had a different theme to them, and this one was an industrial area back alley theme, making the sultry dancing of the Harpia look like a beautiful drunk woman in a questionable neighbourhood.

It wasn't Max's vibe since he had grown up in a place like that, but the Harpia was drawing a lot of admiring glances, and Max could hear them all thinking about the chances of getting the dancer into the back alley behind the club for some privacy.

"You look almost pained, Commander." The club owner commented.

"He can read minds, and he can't turn it off. I can only guess what all of the people in the club are thinking about right now, with the dancers working and the staff rubbing up on them." Nico laughed.

"I wonder how many of them know that's not a female Harpia." The Huntress chuckled, and the younger Mimic blushed.

"You know, I didn't figure it out for like a week until I saw them changing outfits after someone spilled my tray." She told them with an embarrassed glance up at the dancer.

"I bet that was enlightening. But the Harpia pair bond, so as long as you didn't hit on him, it should be fine. He would only be interested in his mate." Max told her.

"I know that now, but for the next two days, it was so awkward. It totally doesn't help that their pecs ball up like that. I'm a Mimic, and I didn't realize the difference."

Nico patted her on the head in compassion, and Max nodded in understanding. The chest muscles of a Harpia were very strong to allow them to fly. But unlike a Valkia, whose chest muscles were elongated and flat, the Harpia's were bunched and attached on either side of the sternum, giving them the appearance of having small breasts if you used the anatomical standards of a mammal as a baseline.

The first few groups were being taken to the private rooms, and their spaces were quickly replaced with more people from the lines outside, keeping the club packed all the time but not overcrowded.

As the hours passed, the music switched from upbeat and somewhat relaxing to a more high-energy beat that was getting louder by the minute. The boss and his daughter had been called away not long after the club opened without getting a chance to talk about the proposal that he wanted to make, so Max came up with a plan to lower the volume in his head and take care of business at the same time.

The Harpia were clearly doing better than usual, and they were even signalling the staff over to people whose drinks were getting low, which was impossible to tell through the crowd. Soon, everyone would have to go to the bar for drinks, but knowing who was spending money helped them pick targets for the evening, and Max could tell that both the private rooms and the quieter lounge area upstairs were getting full.

"Do you need anything?" One of the girls with a golden trinket in her hair asked with a wink.

"We should talk to the boss. I hope the researchers don't mind if we head upstairs?" Max replied, and the Huntress waved him away while eyeing up one of the security guards in a predatory way.

Their study was basically done, they had all the information that they needed, and they only needed to check in on them tomorrow to make sure it was still working and that there were no side effects. With no work left to do, there was no reason she couldn't play.

"That sounds excellent. How about we get a few bottles, and you come upstairs with me?" The server said, a bit louder than the quiet conversation they were having before, making sure that others overheard that this group was being invited up into the private rooms.

That got them a bunch of envious glances, but it seemed that only the staff had recognized them so far, thanks to the boss sharing the information at the start of the night. He wanted to make absolutely sure that nobody insulted the VIP table that was sitting in the public areas of the club instead of the upper lounge, where people like them would normally be taken directly through the side door.

"Please follow me. The doors are biometrically locked, so only a staff member can lead anyone upstairs." The hostess explained with a smile and left a fresh bottle of Rum on the table for those who were staying downstairs.

Upstairs was much more relaxed, with mood music playing instead of club music, and the couches were full of half-drunk, rich tourists, with only a few residents present in the common area. There were surely more of them in the private rooms, but Max was doing his best not to notice what was going on behind closed doors.

It was better that way.