It was lonely at the top.
Literally.
Zoli occupied a mansion on his own, that would house dozens of tightly packed Interns – but sharing his space with anyone else didn't even cross his mind. As he found out, dungeon employees, including the CEO too, didn't exactly need rest, they provided a 24/7, or more likely a 24/365 service, and toiled away without pause and without a drop in productivity.
Ideal employees.
Not needing rest wasn’t the same, as not wanting it, so Zoli was content with his finely furnished luxurious retreat.
Yet, it was still lonely.
Getting a trophy wife, or at least expanding his secretary’s duties was debated for a time, but was finally discarded. While his comfort was of utmost importance, he missed some crucial urges, that would make bed-warmers necessary.
A tiny detail, the Stockholder forgot to mention.
Lunging in the pool got boring after a time, so he checked the process screens in his study. IT had installed another metric, so he could view the R&D’s progress in researching and developing the promised merchandise.
Enhanced Red Fox Fur (Zone Leader) – Researched
Enhanced Red Fox Fur (Senior Agent) – Researched
Enhanced Kleptofox Fur (Zone Leader) – Researched
Enhanced Kleptofox Fur (Senior Agent) – Researched
Enhanced Cryptofox Fur (Zone Leader) – Researched
Enhanced Cryptofox Fur (Senior Agent) – Researched
Enhanced Drop Fox Fur (Zone Leader) – Researched
Enhanced Drop Fox Fur (Senior Agent) – Researched
Alluring Scent (Male) – Researched
Alluring Scent (Female) – Researched
Sedatives – Remaining Time: 1 day
Numbing Potion – Remaining Time: 6 days
Paralyzing Poison – Remaining Time: 11 days
Wooden Locket – Remaining Time: 16 days
Wooden Locket With Gem Bug Gem – Remaining Time: 18 days
Wooden Pendant – Remaining Time: 23 days
Wooden Pendant With Gem Bug Gem – Remaining Time: 25 days
Polished Stone Locket – Remaining Time: 30 days
Polished Stone Locket With Gem Bug Gem – Remaining Time: 32 days
Polished Stone Pendant – Remaining Time: 37 days
Polished Stone Pendant With Gem Bug Gem – Remaining Time: 39 days
Around a month had passed since he ordered the research started, and the merchandise was still not ready. And the researched materials were basically the lowest level junk, a company probably could get away with – not that quite a few companies back on Earth sold better than junk anyway.
At least clay mining and vial production was well underway. He only had to invest in another two teams, one for Engineering to mine the clay and one for Production and Manufacturing to make the vials.
And direct Engineering to make a vial-making workshop.
Of course, he could have produced – or conjured – the complete vials himself, but a CEO couldn't and shouldn't be bothered to do menial work. Or work in the first place. What were the few MPDs for the new teams in contrast to his peace and rest?!?
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Of course, resting and lounging in the pool weren’t the only things, Zoli did in that month. Besides the workshop for vials, he also directed Engineering to build a workshop for potions, currently only making perfume, defined adaptive methodologies for entering the Mountain Biome, implemented elastic metrics for changing Zone 1’s Zone Leader, and enabled weekly stand-up meetings to seamlessly expedite cross-unit best practices.
Of course, he also held one-on-one meetings with his Managers.
“How is the Workshop for the Motto and Mission Statement going?”
“Yes, honored CEO!” Jenette from Marketing and Customer Service answered “My team came up with the Motto ‘We will kill your ass dead.’ As for the Mission Statement, it would be ‘Killing your ass dead.’ We have some alternate wordings for both.”
“Nicely done, and it took only a few weeks. However, you should employ dynamic out-of-the-box thinking. Threatening potential customers with termination misses the functional potentialities, that sets us apart from the competition. The motto needs impactful methods of empowerment and highlighting the distinctive models.”
“’Killing their asses dead’ doesn’t embrace those values?”
“Well… We will kill their asses dead, if possible, but so will other dungeons.” Zoli clarified “On top of my head ‘The grandest dungeon in all the Multiverses’ delivers that impact, we are looking for.”
“Honored CEO, you are a genius! I think we should adopt that as the Motto!"
Of course, everyone agreed, the CEO's suggestion was the best possible suggestion. After all, the higher one was on the corporate ladder, the smarter, more intelligent, and more knowledgeable one was. Why else would a CEO earn more money, than a simple intern?!
“As our internal Mission Statement, we could keep ‘Killing your asses dead’, but please work on the wording. It has to harness excellent partnerships and orchestrate customized growth strategies. Make sure, it isn’t offensive in any way. We don’t want bad press.”
“Yes, honored CEO, sir! How about ‘Integrating exceptional opportunities in their demise’?”
“Much better. Please make motivational posters and banners with some variations, and later we can hold an all-employee meeting and let the workforce vote on the best version. We can then select one, that actually conveys optimized functional vectors.”
“The researching speed is too low, Egon. Please provide holistic paradigms to credibly empower covalent interfaces.”
“Yes, honored CEO. In order to speed up research, you could invest in the Perk Faster Research. 25% reduction is billed at 20 SGC, and you can scale it as many times, as you want.”
“Buying it four times would mean, the research would be instantaneous, no?”
“Not exactly, honored CEO. Each time you buy it, it will shave 25% of the current research time. Buying the Perk four times will net a research time of 31,64% of the original amount. You could source Extra Fast Research for 40 SGC, and that would give a 50% reduction. Or Instantaneous Research for 200 SGC. Also, Parallel Research, which is another research slot, for 25 SGC would be also recommended."
“Our current overhead is 141 SSC, so it would take five months to save up for the best Perk. Assuming, we don't have market-driven expenses. Which we do. Please talk to Finances, and send me a flowchart detailing the possibilities."
“Dana, how is the detailed Org Chart for Zones 2 to 5 going?”
“We have a detailed proposition for Zone 2 ready, Zone three is almost done, while we are still facing certain challenges with Zones 4 and 5.”
“There won't be any objectively envisioned cross-platform meta-services this time?"
“No, the Basement Horror situation won’t repeat itself again, honored CEO.”
“What about exploiting infrastructures?”
“We had a meeting with Marketing and O&A, and are confident, we could include a ruined lookout tower in Zone 2, a watermill in Zone 3, a mansion in Zone 4, and finally either a cabin or another lookout tower in Zone 5. Engineering thinks, they can produce some generic stone buildings and are pushing for cemeteries everywhere. They say headstones with funny quotes are easy to make."
“Let’s hold on to the headstones till we have deceased customers. I agree with the lookout tower in Zone 2, but make it just almost-ruined, so the customers could enjoy the view of the first few Zones.”
“Yes, honored CEO.”
“Zone 3 has quite a stretch of stream, so a watermill will not be out of place. Will it be functional?”
“No, honored CEO. R&D hasn’t had time to research a truly functional mill. Besides, we don’t have anything to mill.”
“You have to incubate emerging future-proof scenarios! While we don’t have anything to mill yet, and we don’t know, what we can make from what we have, strategizing granular niches should be done before targeting intermandated supply chains!”
“Yes, honored CEO. I will inform R&D to start researching a functional mill and take a look at the properties of our current assets.”
“Honored CEO, researching a functional mill will take forty days after we finish researching Zone 1's assets," Egon informed him.
“Forty days?!?! HOW?!? The vial and potion workshops were built within a few hours, without a need for research!”
“Well, honored CEO, we had the technologies ready since you took over the company. I think those two are default processes, while a mill and other workshops have to be researched first. Or licensed from the system."
“We can buy the licenses? No need to research?”
“Yes, honored CEO. If I’m not mistaken, basic workshop licenses are sold for around fifteen SGC, with no upper end on the quality. And price.”
“Talk to Finances and integrate the workshops in the list of projected expenses. Don’t start to research the mill just yet. However, take a look around the Zones, and see, if there is anything, that is worth researching in detail.”
“Yes, honored CEO. It will take… ten to twenty days.”
“Get on it.”
