The Second Flight of Garuda

The Partnership Offer – Bukittinggi Café

It came in a brown envelope.

Delivered by ojek. No name — just a card inside:

"Nusa Café Collective – Bukittinggi. Let's Talk."

Rakha blinked.

Nusa Café was no warung kopi. It was a rising cooperative café group run by young entrepreneurs — known for bold flavors, minimalist design, and a promise to source "local, honest, artisanal." They were starting to show up in magazines. Urbanites from Jakarta mentioned them like a movement.

Their founder, a woman in her late twenties named Nadya Rachman, had visited Rakha's stall. Quietly. Observed from the crowd. Bought two bottles. Said nothing.

Now she was offering shelf space, exposure, and — most importantly — a co-branded product partnership.

Rakha sat on the floor that night, legs folded under the flickering oil lamp. Around him: his parents, his uncle who helped stir the boiling vats, Rendi from the youth team, and Bu Murni who had been bottling by hand since the start.

He passed around the card.

"Nadya wants us in two of their locations," he explained. "Not just as a supplier. As a partner. We keep our brand. They elevate the packaging and expand the reach."

Rendi looked excited. His father frowned.

"A city café? They'll jack up the price, say it's 'artisan,' and forget where it came from."

Rakha shook his head. "They're not like that. I checked. They use producers' names on every label. Theirs is a different crowd — one that cares about story."

His mother, Siti Halimah, rubbed her fingers together slowly. "Will they take our name?"

Rakha met her eyes.

"They want our name," he said quietly. "That's the difference. They're not asking us to hide. They're asking us to rise — with them."

Still, she hesitated.

She had sold red sugar in traditional cone molds since she was fourteen. No logo. No glossy sticker. Just sweat, ash, and fire.

Now her son talked of labels and pricing tiers.

"They want this to be… fancy sugar?" she asked, voice uncertain.

"Not fancy," Rakha said, "respected."

He pulled out a prototype design — hand-drawn: a label with earth-tones, clean font, and a tagline underneath the Lawang Saka stamp:

"Dari Tebu Kami, Untuk Negeri Ini"From Our Cane, For This Nation.

His father gave the smallest of nods.

"You're sure we don't lose control?"

"We don't." Rakha looked around. "We own the recipe. We own the production. We even name the price. They just help us walk farther — faster."

The room was quiet.

Then Bu Murni smiled.

"I always said this sugar deserved a better bottle."

Laughter. Lightness. Agreement.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]Collaborative Enterprise Path UnlockedNew Objective: Market-Ready Packaging Standard (Stage 1)Bonus Perk Activated: Urban Taste Sensor (Product Positioning Insight)

And just like that — Lawang Saka stepped beyond the valley.

Not as a hidden treasure.

But as a name ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of the nation.

Bukittinggi, July 1994Nusa Café HQ — Jl. Panorama Raya No. 17

It was sleek.

The two-story house-turned-office space had white walls, vertical gardens, and bamboo-slat blinds that filtered the midday sun like it was curated. Inside, the air smelled of coffee blossoms and eucalyptus oil.

Rakha stood at the reception counter, holding a canvas folder in both hands — filled with business plans, production maps, and the original sugar refinement notes his mother still swore by.

He wore his cleanest shirt. Still too big for him. But his hair was neat, his sandals dusted, and his voice steady when he said:

"Appointment with Ibu Nadya. From Lawang."

The receptionist blinked.

Then looked down at the visitor list — and did a double take.

"Um… you're Rakha Yudhistira?"

He nodded.

She didn't ask questions. Just stood and guided him upstairs.

Second Floor – Meeting Room B

Glass windows. Indoor plants. Chalkboard wall filled with design sketches and flavor projections.

Nadya Rachman stood barefoot behind the table, wearing wide-leg linen pants and a green sleeveless batik top. Her laptop was open beside two bottles of Lawang Saka.

"You really are eleven," she said, half-smiling. "Thought your letter was written by some brilliant old farmer using a kid's name."

Rakha offered a polite nod. "It's easier to get meetings when people underestimate me."

She laughed. "You'll go far."

Then her tone shifted — professional, sharp.

"I tasted it again this morning. Your syrup is gold. But here's the catch: in this market, product isn't enough. People pay for story, design, and the feeling they get when they show it off to friends."

Rakha slid the folder across the table.

Inside: upgraded label drafts, a projected budget for scaling bottling, and a community contract ensuring all income percentages returned directly to Lawang's co-op.

Nadya flipped through it, surprised. "You did these projections yourself?"

"Some with help," he admitted. "But I verified each one."

"And this clause — no investor can override the village's ownership share?"

Rakha nodded. "We don't sell dignity to sell product."

She closed the folder.

Silence.

Then she leaned forward.

"You want shelf space in three cafés. I can give you five. But I want full production consistency. Clean bottling. And a story photos within two months."

Rakha considered that.

"I'll need a bottling machine, at least semi-manual. I can source the parts if we split cost. And I want our kids to be in the video. Not actors."

Nadya's grin widened.

"You're negotiating like someone twice your size."

Rakha's voice didn't waver.

"I'm negotiating for people who trusted me. I don't get to play small."

[SYSTEM NOTICE]Negotiation Skill +3Trait Evolved: Social Gravitas (Youth Authority Boost)Unlock: Urban Market Leverage Tier I

Nadya stood and extended her hand.

"Deal?"

Rakha shook it.

"Deal."

On the way down the stairs, Nadya glanced back one last time.

"You're not what I expected, Rakha."

He smiled.

"You're not either."

Outside, the mountain breeze hit his face as he stepped into the bustle of Bukittinggi. He didn't walk faster.

He just walked forward.

Lawang Village, Late July 1994The Sugarcane Shed Turned Workshop

The old sugarcane barn echoed with clinks, buzzes, and the low hum of focused conversation. What used to store rattan baskets now housed tools, metal sheets, and a prototype frame propped up on bricks.

Rakha stood over a wooden workbench, blueprint unrolled, sleeves rolled to his elbows.

"This one here — pressure-release valve," he said, pointing to a sketched copper pipe. "If it jams, we lose syrup. If we weld this right, we don't waste a drop."

Two teenage boys nodded beside him. One held a blowtorch. Another, a modified crank arm recycled from an old cassava grinder.

Outside, his father Halim watched with folded arms and a quiet smile.

"They're building a bottling line," he said to Ustaz Mahmud. "In a village without a single factory."

Two Weeks Later – First Run

The bottling machine stood upright, gleaming with a mix of scrap metal, bicycle gears, and precisely mounted rollers. It wasn't automated — not fully. But it worked.

Plastic bottles, cleaned and dried, were placed under the nozzle. A simple crank pressurized the syrup flow. The next lever capped them in place. All powered by hand and community sweat.

Rakha wiped his brow, then lifted the first finished bottle to the light.

Clear. Sealed. Label centered.

He nodded once.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]Engineering Skill +5Blueprint Efficiency Upgrade: Rural Semi-Automation Line IUnlock: Local Production Tier Validated

That afternoon, the village held a soft blessing ceremony. Siti Halimah sprinkled flower water over the first crate. The village elder, Pak Ahmad, murmured a prayer.

"May this sugar sweeten more than just tongues," he said, "but futures."

Bukittinggi – Nusa Café Launch PhotoshootEarly August 1994

The café was already decorated — woven mats, sugarcane stalks, and wildflowers in recycled glass jars.

But it was the photo corner that told the real story.

Nadya had insisted on it: "No studio. No models. We want your village. Your team. Your truth."

And so the launch photos were taken with:

Mak Uni, the herbalist, holding a bottle of Lawang Saka with soil on her hands and a proud grin.

Rakha, standing beside the bottling machine, shirt slightly stained, holding a notebook and bottle — half entrepreneur, half inventor.

A wide shot of the village team — teens, elders, mothers — lined up behind a bamboo display of syrup bottles, smiling into the future.

Nadya reviewed the photos that evening and nodded. "These aren't product shots," she said. "They're proof."

[SYSTEM NOTICE]Milestone Reached: First Product LaunchNew Feature Unlocked: Brand Identity Builder v1.0Next Tier: Strategic Scaling (Regional)Reward Pending…

That night, as the café served its first Lawang Saka Ginger Latte and customers began asking where they could "get more of that village syrup," Rakha stood at the back — arms crossed, gaze calm.

But not everyone was pleased.

Two days after the announcement, Pak Halim returned from the market with tension in his shoulders.

"Mahfud, the cane buyer, stopped me," he said. "Said if we keep 'cutting into the market,' he won't buy from Lawang anymore."

Rakha sat still, eyes dark.

Mahfud — a longtime tengkulak — had been underpaying Lawang's farmers for years. Now Lawang Saka was threatening that quiet monopoly.

Rakha didn't flinch.

"Then we stop selling to Mahfud. We find cane from farms who want fair trade."

"But transport costs—" his cousin Rendi started.

"I'll cover it. For now."

That night, Rakha submitted a transport permit request to Bukittinggi's district co-op office. He even began sketching plans for a shared ox-cart delivery circuit that could rotate between villages and reduce reliance on any one buyer.

He wasn't building a business.He was dismantling a system.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]Conflict Node Detected: Market InterferenceSubroutine Deployed: Supply Chain Autonomy Protocol

At dawn the next day, the sky shifted in Rakha's mind.

The Garuda System pulsed softly, then unfurled like a golden script.

[MAJOR MILESTONE UNLOCKED]You've initiated your first economic resistance against entrenched actors.Your product has achieved regional recognition.Your team has reached cooperative threshold.

Mentor Template Unlocked: Haji Agus Salim→ "The Grand Old Man of Diplomacy" — Polyglot. Diplomat. Resistance Scholar. Master of moral persuasion and Islamic-rooted reform strategy.

Skill Enhancements:

Persuasive Diplomacy (Lv. 1)

Strategic Conflict Resolution (Lv. 1)

Legacy Ethics Integration (Passive Trait)

A voice joined Rakha's inner monologue — not robotic, not entirely human.

Measured. Wise. Sometimes wry.

"To reform a nation, you must first resist being reformed by it. Speak truth. Even when it trembles the floorboards."

Rakha exhaled.

He wasn't just building sugar syrup anymore.

He was building leverage.

Closing Scene – A Decision to Scale

That weekend, Rakha sat with his youth team and drew circles in the dirt.

"This is Lawang," he said. "This is the next village. This… is the next province."

"Ambitious," Faiz said, eyebrows up.

"No," Rakha said, "Necessary."

We start with syrup. Then dried sugar bricks. Then packaging. Then cold storage.

Every product a stake in the ground — a declaration that rural doesn't mean irrelevant.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]

New Enterprise Phase Unlocked: Multi-Village Cooperative Scaling

Next Goal: 1,000 Product Units / Month

The movement… was beginning to grow teeth.