In all honesty, the Starbucks deal is an experiment in of itself.

The crux of the matter is that his personal account is just accumulating a lot of cash and not doing much with it.

As they say... when one has saved enough, why not invest some of it?

There's generally some debate between saving and investing, however, Alexander was a proponent of doing both.

As for the difference between the two, is actually just the risk taken.

Saving typically results in you earning a lower return but with virtually no risk.

In contrast, investing allows you the opportunity to earn a higher return, but you take on the risk of loss to do so.

With how much he's steadily accrued over these re-life years, Alexander was now ready to be a bit risky.

It's just that the way he's being risky about it is quite bold about it. Or as covered... experimental.

With his advantage, he was in a unique position where he knew the most optimum stocks and knew the general rise and fall of most of them. Like the upcoming Black Monday for example.

It also had to be noted that he was a millionaire freelancer and even outmatch a pure businessman like Fatty Hackman by virtue of being a stock speculator alone.

For this current time, Alexander just needed to find some stock broker and he'd at worst... make a killing.

Then again, he didn't go for that direction, did he?

He straight up went to track down an ugly-stage Starbucks and invested a portion of his money with it.

Only that his little investment actually swallowed the would-be coffee giant as a whole.

Which made Alexander quite intrigued... since it really worked out.

He could proudly say that he had a 100% stake in Starbucks. It wasn't the Starbucks of the future but that in itself is something to write home about.

As a programmer with a lot of all-nighters, coffee was his go-to beverage, making this one of those surreal experiences that he could have with this re-life.

Of course, Alexander was quite lax to be a regular patron of Starbucks.

It's not that he didn't like their ideology or high pricing.

It's just that any other coffee provider that can whip up his go-to blend was good enough for him.

He liked pure black coffee, so that was just about anybody.

Now... it would seem that he had to be a Starbucks patron.

He currently owned the green mermaid, so he had to show some support... somehow.

Of course, Alexander's support and attention were mostly towards Howard Schultz, his current Starbucks point person and lackey.

From what Miss Consigliere told him, the man seemed quite driven to grow the "Italian" coffee experience towards the world.

If the man were to perform as well as he had in the past timeline, that would be great.

If the man wasn't up to standards or had ulterior motives, kick him out. Then, replace him with some other business-majored lackey that can do the job.

The man may be the king of caffeine but that didn't mean that no one else can do what he's done.

Of course, as covered, the whole thing is experimental and Alexander's attitude towards the whole thing was to wait and see.

Maybe advising a thing or two as the boss in the background. Maybe suggest stuff like the early popularization of Milk Tea, Milk Bars, and whatnot.

Then again, most of the time, he'll be minding his own businesses, and Starbucks can either grow or fall on the side.

That's just the risky nature of an investment.

Besides, it's just 3.8 million dollars, anyways.

He can earn all that back, quite easily, with his other means.

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For instance, his video game endeavor.

It may not have some half-fish-half-woman... but it did have a Mega Man.

Even though he's on his August vacation, Creed Chaos Systems updated nonetheless.

The menu subtexts had their denominators increase by one... and at 7/7... Mega Man was there to see.

But to play it, one needed a GameKey.

This status quo was basically known by almost every North American gamer at this point and every one of them hurriedly flocked to comic book stores near them.

Contrary to the suffering comic books that are on a downhill due to recent events, the newly risen video games were still rising.

While nerds all over are still tasting the adverse aftereffects of the negative Comic-Con debacle... nerds themselves were looking forward to the praised Mega Man.

After the rush that was Sonic, Creed Games actually had another blue wonder to offer and they prepared themselves for it.

GameKeys and manuals were brought despite the $35 price tag and with units selling by the hundred thousands and counting... the money earned might as well be another Starbucks.

Of course, Creed Games actually "delayed" some units from arriving in certain comic book stores.

It's just one of those rare petty acts against those that thought selling the NES was a good idea.

It was undoubtedly rare and undoubtedly petty, however, the implicated comic book stores could only grimace... especially with the printed trade on a downturn.

Maybe they should phase the Nintendo deal out. When they thought about it, NES consoles were actually not selling that much.

Perhaps they could placate the grudge-y Alexander Creed with that. "Delays" like Mega Man shouldn't happen anymore, right?

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Anyways... that was just the North American side of things...

In select places around Europe... Mega Man was making waves of its own.

Of course, it wasn't just Mega Man but the whole Creed Games roster. Creed Chaos Systems included.

The fabled 16+bit video game home console of the States has finally arrived.

The first wave supply was still limited and the retail locations were sporadic at best.

However... its fame and interest were already quite high and it was still growing. Growing fast.

Sega, hoping to get their Sega Mark III out of the Famicom's homecourt dominance, was scouting out untested territories.

They considered America but they knew of Nintendo's headstart... and that Creed abnormality.

Hence, they settled for non-American lands and were already setting things up for when the time came for their Mark III to become the Master System.

Unfortunately, a terror arrived, and what a terror it was!

The accursed Creed Chaos System, which was said to have rattled the great Hiroshi Yamauchi, had actually beat them to it!

From what they heard, said system also had multi-language capabilities and that is attention-grabbing and unbeatable already.

Accursed? It sure was cursed. To the point that Sega personnel could only curse.

Japan was taken by Nintendo. America was already dominated by Creed. Now, Creed is also taking over Europe.

Where else can poor Sega position itself?

Can't these other companies give a fellow console maker a break?!