A little green fellow, a Goblin, probably one of the company employees, clothed in archaic-looking sportswear and holding a shield and a sword stood before a cave opening. He checked his gear one last time, before entering the cave – just as some generic but epic-sounding music cut in.

  The Goblin fought different animals, survived insidious traps, and skirted death multiple times, all the while striking heroic poses. All in all, the 'teaser' lasted for maybe five minutes, and ended with the Goblin slaying a Centipede, and opening a chest.

  “That was Fall Guy from Corporate Security. What a talented actor!” Burke informed the other department heads.

  Zoli was deeply impressed by the presentation, even if it hadn't contained colorful charts, little boxes, and arrows. He would buy the product immediately! If the finished product came even near the 'teaser', it would be an instant hit!

  He failed to notice, however, that the cave the Goblin fought in was actually the existing area in Zone 1, without the promised rebuilding, and the MOB was just repurposed from other Zones. Even the traps were only the ones already prepared.

  Even a CEO wasn’t immune to false advertising.

  “So, boss, we plan to make the caves a hidden extra Zone, so we wouldn't have to renumber and relevel the others. See, there is this little gimmick, making hidden levels. It would technically be Floor One-point-five, not Floor 2. We will keep around a third of the current caves as entrances, and the adventurers could only find the entrance to the sub-caves by completing set challenges. We want to move the hidden entrance every time, someone finds it. The final sub-zone would be three times as large as the original cave."

  Zoli was already sold on the idea – the Stockholder proposed something similar, and as everyone knew, the Stockholder was always right. As were the CEO and the managers. When talking to subordinates, obviously.

  Zoli's only issue with the whole idea was Burke's unprofessional way of speech. It was almost like he was just a pedestrian intern, not a department head of a soon-to-be successful company! Where was the professionally fostered elastic delivery of excellence? The progressively pursued proactive paradigms?

  He had to have strong words with Burke. Using intern speech would only lead to misunderstandings, miscommunication, and misrepresentation!

  “All right. Winston, can you provide an integrated time frame for a streamlined application of interoperable total linkage?”

  “Honored CEO, sir, from what I saw of the layout, I’m confident, Engineering could complete the new Zone within two months. That’s raw construction time. Including preparation and finalization, and counting time to conduct meetings, most likely four.”

  “Work with Zoning, Quality Management, and O&A to streamline the interdependent scenarios and consult HR for intrinsically matrixed error-free core competencies. Please provide a detailed Process Map, Org Chart, and Roadmap for the construction and the new employees."

  Obviously, construction and hiring couldn't be just done with a wave of the hand (especially not that of the CEO himself), a project of this magnitude needed proper planning, outlining, presentations, and meetings! This way, the CEO could outsource blame to underlings.

  “If there is nothing else, we can wrap up the meeting.” Zoli declared. The meeting dragged on too long already – he sincerely hoped, that was it for the next week or so. The department heads nodded. Finally! Zoli could finally relax after such hard work! Maybe he should direct R&D to bump up the sailing boat project in priority. Why have a beach house, when there wasn’t a corresponding boat too?

  Zoli decided to take a stroll in the finished Zones, and maybe test the relocated hot spring too.

  Starting from Ground Zero, he looked up to Zone 2's cliffs. The Goats were busy with training, most likely to enable competitive customer service as soon as the company opened its doors to the public. At least Zoli assumed, they were training – what else could dedicated employees do in their downtime?

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Goats hopping from one outcrop to the next, balancing on narrow ledges he could easily pinpoint as training. The others, chewing on some weed and dumbly looking out their heads though…? Well, it was probably for training overwatch positions and assessing potential customers. They may have been on their lunch break, but Zoli doubted that. His employees didn't need to eat, after all.

  Standing on Ground Zero, Zoli realized some challenges with it as a starting, or entry point: it was adjacent to Zone 2, and not Zone 1. It was like bypassing the reception area.

  “Colette!” he called O&A. “Dynamically relocate the front-end portals next to Zone 1!”

  “Yes, sir, honored CEO, sir. We will relocate the entry point right away! I’m calling a meeting with the Team Leaders to discuss the most excellent place!”

  And here Zoli was, working hard instead of on his leisurely and relaxing stroll.

  The next challenge he found was the complete lack of prepared hiking trails. No trash bins, no park benches, no camping tables, and, well, no trails whatsoever. He had to cross the untamed wilderness cross-country! The complete lack of infrastructure would surely lead to downvoting by the customers.

  “Janine, please inform the department heads about the challenge of no hiking trails. They should schedule a meeting to discuss potential solutions!" Zoli realized he had a secretary. Why contact someone directly, when his secretary could do the same?

  Despite the lack of proper infrastructure, the landscape was actually quite nice. While Zoli climbed Zone 1's hill, he passed outcroppings, small cliffs, and groves of different trees, and as soon as he reached the plateau, meadows full of short and long grasses, interspersed with patches of shrubs made an appearance. While on the slopes, and next to the stream willows, poplars, and oaks dominated, on top yews, rowans and junipers made a marked appearance.

  How Zoli knew, what kind of tree he was looking at, he had no clue. Normally, he could differentiate a pine from a coconut tree (there were none from either in Zone 1) with a good chance of success, but here, he knew exactly, what was what.

  It was probably because he was the most awesome and knowledgeable CEO there ever was. However, he felt, such knowledge was beneath his position – he had underlings to know such things, after all.

  Just as he finished the thought, and looked at another tree, he was surprised to not know what it was. Probably not a pine or a palm tree. It had leaves and branches and a thick trunk, so it was probably a… something or other.

  A normal person most likely would have gotten a fit because of forgetting a complete encyclopedia of plant lore, but Zoli just sighed contently. Knowing stuff meant that people expected to be graced with said knowledge, which in turn led to extra work. As a CEO, he only needed to direct his underlings to do and to know stuff, he was not required to do or know anything. For example, an underling should know, what kind of Fox just approached him.

  “Hey, little Fox! Keep up the good work!”

  (… Guys! The lazy moron is here! Pretend to do something!)

  Zoli was surprised to understand the Fox’s yipping. Who the lazy moron it was talking about was, he had no idea however. Probably it sensed one of the Representatives from one of the departments – he was sure, entry-level positions were full of those. If they weren’t lazy morons, they would be CEOs, like himself, obviously. Before he could ask the Fox, where the soon-to-be-fired intern was, it bounced off into the bushes.

  Zoli had a mind to promote the Fox. Snitching to the managers and especially to the CEO was basically a good thing. Well, as long as the deed wasn’t about something, the CEO ordered in the first place, the CEO cared about or was about one of the manager’s favorites or relatives.

  As it was, Zoli rejected the possible promotion. He already knew, there were enough lazy morons on the teams.

  Continuing with his stroll, Zoli was surprised, at how efficiently his employees were working. Well, he didn't see any of them, but that was just being efficient. First of all, employees shouldn't be seen by the CEO, they weren't paid for that, but for diligent work. Secondly, Zone 1's employees were hired because of their stealth skills, and the whole Process Map reinforced the imperatives to be staying hidden until the last moment, and only then delivering targeted, surprise customer service.

  Zoli stopped at a patch of thorny bushes. For some strange reason, he knew, there were herbs and stuff hidden behind the bushes. Luckily, he did not know, what kind of weed was planted as merchandise – knowing, they were even there was more information than he needed. The bottom line was, that one department or another started implementing the presented scheme already. CEOs shouldn't have to focus on minute details!

  After crossing half of the Zone, he decided enough was enough. The fake mill’s pond looked nice enough, however, so he decided to take a detour there before he returned to his more elaborate mansion.