Recruiting Talent Is What I Do Best

"Go on. What do you need me for?"

Old Wang sat calmly, knowing he couldn’t avoid it after all.

He had been fairly free lately. The things that needed handling couldn’t be delayed any longer, or it would dampen the enthusiasm of these two young scientists!

The most important thing when making a living was keeping your word. If you said it, you had to do it.

And judging by the timing…

It really was time!

Simmons glanced at Fitz, her eyes full of encouragement:

Fitz, you can do it!

Fitz had been somewhat hesitant, but with Simmons encouraging him like that, he naturally couldn’t show weakness in front of the woman he loved. He could only gesture as he spoke softly:

"Uh… Boss, there are a few matters I need to report."

Old Wang smiled. "Go ahead."

Fitz hurriedly pulled an A4 sheet from his pocket and handed it to Old Wang:

"The Kunlun Spaceship is even more incredible than I imagined. Its technology is at least a thousand years ahead of Earth’s. Whether it’s the materials it uses or its other technologies, we need better equipment to study them… This is the list."

Huh, he wasn’t asking me to recruit people? Old Wang’s mood instantly improved. Smiling, he took it. "It’s scientific research. Buy whatever needs buying. Can’t you just apply to Skye directly? Do you really need to come to me over something so minor?"

Fitz coughed and said cautiously, "Boss… You should take a look before saying that…"

Old Wang shook his head with a chuckle.

This young comrade was being far too cautious. How much could a bit of equipment possibly cost?

They weren’t what they used to be. The Iron Soldiers and virtual world had made so much money. Although most of it had been invested into acquisitions, manufacturing, and construction, they still had billions of dollars on the books.

What was there to make such a fuss about? He really hadn’t seen enough of the world.

Fitz said nothing.

Boss, the happier you smile now, the worse I’ll cry later…

After casually glancing over it, Old Wang’s expression gradually stiffened.

Everything at the beginning had been normal enough.

The Kunlun Spaceship’s hull was made from more than a dozen crystallized alloys. Through special ratios and structures, they formed reinforced composite armor. Its hardness and strength far surpassed Gold-Titanium Alloy, falling only slightly short of Adamantium and Vibranium.

Combined with energy shields and force-field shields, its defenses even surpassed Iron Man’s armor. It was no worse than Wakanda’s defensive systems. He had no idea what had happened back then for it to crash.

Some of the metals making up the hull alloy didn’t exist on Earth at all, though other metals could be used as substitutes, such as Vibranium.

For a spaceship nearly a hundred meters long, how many tons would the hull alone require?

Though it was only an alloy and the Vibranium content wasn’t high, the entire spaceship would still need at least one ton. That was ten billion dollars—

And that was only the hull.

Certain specialized components, such as the engine and thrusters, had even stricter material requirements and had to use 100% pure Vibranium.

To figure out the exact formulas and replacement plans, they needed equipment far beyond modern technology. Earth didn’t have it, so they could only make do with inferior substitutes. A complete set would still cost several hundred million dollars.

That was nothing.

It was expensive, sure, but they could still afford it if they gritted their teeth.

But what the hell was that large collider at the end? Its construction cost was actually…

Twenty billion dollars?

Buddy, were you kidding him?

Was this really the time for jokes?

Ask the more than two hundred countries in the world—how many of them could afford to build one?

And even if they could, who the hell would want to?

Old Wang looked at Fitz with an unfriendly expression.

Young man, you needed to give him an explanation!

Twenty billion dollars—where was he supposed to get that much money? Unless he sold the Azeroth Social Network Company!

"Uh… Bigger is obviously better, but a smaller one can barely work too. It definitely wouldn’t be enough to build a starship, but it should be about enough to build a Sky Carrier."

Fitz scratched his head. "The results would be a bit worse, but the cost would be lower too. It would probably only need five billion dollars."

Old Wang snorted.

This young comrade had really gotten carried away. Five billion dollars was considered cheap?

Spending money so recklessly, how was Simmons supposed to live with you in the future? He was deeply worried about you, young comrade!

Old Wang was a little annoyed. He scribbled a few lines on the paper and handed it back to Fitz.

"It’s not like there are no colliders in the world. I’ll find someone to apply for access and let you use one. That’s too much Vibranium, and you’re not manufacturing anything yet, only researching it. You don’t need that much. Besides, you couldn’t buy that much even if you wanted to. Wakanda definitely won’t sell it, since they don’t lack money. I’ll give you one kilogram to use for now. The rest is approved. Anything else?"

Fitz hurriedly took it, carefully folded it, and tucked it into his pocket. He felt utterly wronged.

The boss was so stingy.

Back then, he had promised them equipment when they needed equipment, money when they needed money, and people when they needed people. Now he couldn’t satisfy a single one of those requests.

How boring.

Seeing Fitz in low spirits and the boss looking displeased, Simmons immediately viciously pinched the soft flesh around Fitz’s waist.

Hiss!

Fitz was in too much pain to cry out, and his face twisted.

Only after Simmons let go did he continue, "Boss, Skye wants hard drives with faster transfer interfaces and greater capacity, as well as faster supercomputers, to meet the needs of building the virtual world."

Old Wang nodded. "I know about that."

Warcraft III was ultimately just a single-player game, made up of individual small maps and heroes. Each map had very few units present at once, and even fewer players—sometimes only one, and at most a few dozen.

Its hardware requirements were low. A reasonably powerful server could fully handle it.

The problem was that development of World of Warcraft was already on the agenda.

A true virtual world had incredibly high hardware requirements, and there was currently one very practical solution to this problem:

Quantum Computers.

A true Quantum Computer would run far faster than every supercomputer on Earth and could fully meet their needs.

Of course… Old Wang rubbed his temples. "You need quantum mechanics experts to help research Quantum Brain and Quantum Computer technology, right?"

Fitz nodded frantically.

Boss, please show some mercy. I’m exhausted. I don’t even have time to travel or take vacations with Simmons!

You said it yourself back then. We were supposed to have company-paid travel every year, weekends and holidays off.

But what happened?

It’s been over a year, and I’ve never traveled once. I haven’t taken a single day off.

Damn capitalist, always exploiting us proletarians!

"Skye will handle the recruiting, but you’ll still need to personally assess whether they’re suitable," Old Wang said.

Money made things easier. Scientists needed to eat too.

At worst, they could donate money to famous universities around the world, construct buildings and laboratories, and offer internships and research projects. That would definitely attract a large number of elite researchers.

As for scientists who had reached a certain level and no longer needed to worry about food, clothing, housing, or transportation, their goals were better projects, greater achievements, and higher prestige. They sought fame rather than profit.

The Azeroth Group and Shengun Bureau could fully provide that.

"Also, I’ll help you find top quantum mechanics experts. They’ll be here soon." Old Wang patted his chest in assurance.

Fitz nodded again. Fine, he would trust him one more time. After all, he was the boss.

Old Wang sighed.

Scientists were such a hassle. At least he had settled one of them.

He turned to Simmons. "What about you? What do you need?"

"It’s not a demand, it’s a request, Boss." Simmons looked aggrieved. "My request is the same as Fitz’s~~"

"Fine, fine. I’ll go recruit people."

Simmons had always been a gentle, mild-tempered girl. He hadn’t expected her to be so frightening when she looked aggrieved. It must have been an innate talent of female creatures.

Old Wang’s heart softened, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He quickly raised both hands in promise. "At most one month. I’ll definitely bring them in!"

Old Wang was clearly no good at scientific research, but recruiting talent?

He was an expert!

Fitz needed experts in physics and engineering, especially quantum mechanics. There weren’t many scientists in the world better than him, but there were at least a few.

Tony had already bought his ticket and boarded the ship—the kind that never docked.

Whether it was engineering machinery or software development, biochemistry or quantum mechanics, he was a scientist-level talent in every field. And whenever he got serious, he was a top-tier scientist, a true all-round genius. Even in all of human history, he would rank near the very top.

The person who was even more impressive in quantum mechanics had been waiting impatiently for a long time. Old Wang decided to personally deliver the ticket.

Simmons needed a top biochemist, especially one involved in human enhancement.

The two people at Vanguard Technologies could only barely qualify. Combined, they weren’t even worth half a Tony.

Though the Extremis Virus looked decent, it was actually far inferior to the Super Soldier Serum’s all-around enhancement. It had also gone down the wrong path, so Old Wang didn’t trust it.

The closest to success hadn’t been Vanguard Technologies, nor Howard Stark from more than a decade ago, but the military represented by General Ross.

The greatest contributor, "Dr. Bruce Banner," had very unfortunately—or perhaps very fortunately—suffered an accident during an experiment and transformed into the Hulk.

Both General Ross and S.H.I.E.L.D. were watching the Hulk. The former had specifically purchased ten Azeroth Model 1 Iron Soldiers. If nothing unexpected happened, they would be dealing with the Hulk soon. Old Wang was waiting to enjoy the show before stepping in to clean up the mess.

As for the earlier one, it was time to make his move.

Leaving the biochemistry laboratory, Old Wang arrived at the Virtual Laboratory and pulled up all information related to Pym-Hank—

Part of it had been gathered online, while the rest had come from S.H.I.E.L.D., though Egghead didn’t know that.

He needed to thoroughly analyze all the information before formulating the safest action plan.

"Hope van Dyne, Dr. Pym’s daughter?"

Old Wang fell into thought. "Perhaps… I can start with her?"