Chapter 11 The New Agent
Before Fang Zhuo could answer, the property management staff waved his hand impatiently.
He'd seen plenty of these small business owners who were just looking around without actually renting. They'd take three hundred photos on a single visit to the top floor, hoping to use those photos to paint a rosy picture for investors and job applicants.
The money in my pocket is cleaner than my face, but I still have to put on a show.
He picked up the key with disdain and was about to lock the top floor door when he stood at the door and urged, "Brother, are you leaving or not? Your company only has about ten people, and the rent here is two million a month. It will take a long time to earn back the rent. Even if you take money from your family and throw it away, you should still consider whether it's worth it."
The man opposite him ignored his urging and simply replied, "Giant Entertainment."
"What?" Before he could process what was happening, it took him two seconds to realize that the man was responding to his previous question.
Giant Entertainment? Isn't that the nouveau riche company that suddenly became famous on Mars.net?
The recruitment conditions were ridiculously generous; even the lowest-level assistants had a starting salary of nearly 40,000 yuan, plus all sorts of enviable benefits.
His expression changed instantly, and he put on a big smile: "Please wait a moment, boss, I'll go get you some fruit and snacks."
"No."
The other party ignored his attentiveness, only sending him an online company certification card from Giant Entertainment, and then asked for the rental contract, which he quickly glanced through and signed.
Just as rumored, it was done quickly; the two million was like a trivial string of numbers in the account.
The property manager was all smiles; his commission for this transaction was over ten thousand yuan. He had barely put in any effort, and the other party had signed the contract so easily—the commission came too easily.
These big bosses are generous spenders; he plans to use this opportunity to make another big profit and squeeze every last penny out of the company.
"Boss, you must be short of office supplies, right? I know a store that has really good quality desks and chairs. Many companies renting in our financial center use theirs. Would you like me to recommend them?"
"unnecessary."
Fang Zhuo quickly made a quick look around, noting down the types of furniture that were still missing. Then, he put away his electronic key and walked out, coldly observing as the property manager's attitude underwent a complete 180-degree turn in just a few minutes.
"Call your direct supervisor and have him wait for me in the lobby on the first floor."
There is a private elevator on the top three floors, which takes only a few dozen seconds to reach the first floor. As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, he was warmly greeted by two rows of property management staff.
The leader was panting as he straightened his collar, apparently having rushed over after receiving a last-minute message.
Upon seeing him emerge, the head manager bowed and apologized profusely, trying to salvage the situation: "Mr. Fang, I'm so sorry, we were so negligent. If we had known you would come in person, we should have had our entire team come to greet you."
"If you need any help when the interior decoration comes in, just let our property management team know."
"This is my electronic business card, which has been sent to your computer along with the office floor plan. You can contact me directly if you have any needs in the future."
The supervisor was clearly much more capable than the property management staff member at the beginning, who only belatedly realized the enormity of his mistake, his face turning deathly pale.
Fang Zhuo was too lazy to argue with the service staff, and simply said coldly, "You lied about the top floor not being available for rent anymore, and you illegally promoted your renovation company. Is this your service attitude?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a thin layer of sweat appeared on the supervisor's forehead, and he repeatedly bowed in fear and apologized.
"We apologize. We will strengthen team training in the future and will also impose performance penalties on the staff involved in this incident."
"We apologize for the unpleasant experience this time. We will waive your first month's property maintenance fee, and this will never happen again."
The staff members lined up in two rows behind also bowed in unison, while the original property management staff member was so frightened that he stammered and his apology was halting.
Fang Zhuo did not reply, but turned and left the financial building amidst the supervisor's profuse cold sweat.
Instead of going straight back to his apartment, he turned around and went into the mall.
This business district happens to have the flagship store of the largest chain decoration agency in the Star Federation, so you can conveniently get all your soft furnishings ready.
After scanning the floor plan of the entire office area, the designer realized that a big order had arrived, so he quickly welcomed him into the VIP room and devised four plans.
"This row of workstations is our most recommended solution. It has the lowest cost. It requires 320 sets of desks and chairs to fill all available office space. Including the price of the various appliances for the break room that you need, the total cost is 2.05 million."
Fang Zhuo frowned.
These rows of workstations are like concentration camps with absolutely no privacy; employees probably want to burn them all down as soon as they clock in.
He scrolled through several other examples, then pointed to the fourth image: "I want this one."
The office layout in the picture is completely different from the current popular layout in the Star Federation; all spaces are furnished with open, flexible workstations.
Instead of cramped rows of tables and chairs or rigid cubicles, there are comfortable sofas that can be freely combined and semi-enclosed desks that are easy to move around.
Hidden sliding rails are installed on the floor, and partitions can be pushed and combined in any way to form a small conference room. The meeting content can also be projected onto the partitions in real time.
This model has low space utilization and high costs. The only advantage is that employees have a high degree of freedom when they are at work. The decoration style of the entire office area is no different from that of three or five friends working together at home. They can just lie on any sofa and start working. Even if they go to slack off in the middle, no one will notice.
"Boss, this whole package costs 5.6 million, which is much more expensive than the row-style workstations. We'll include installation and moving, and it can all be installed tonight."
"Okay." Fang Zhuo swiped his card promptly.
The designer uploaded the entire design to the cloud platform and couldn't help but exclaim while looking at the renderings, "It must be so nice to be an employee of your company! Boss, are you hiring?"
Even the girl serving them leaned on the table and joked enviously, "Without comparison, there's no difference. Take me with you, I don't want to work here anymore."
Fang Zhuo, who was about to leave, leaned against the table and smiled when he heard this: "They're still hiring. You can search for Giant Entertainment on StarNet and submit your resume directly on their official website."
Before leaving the room, he could still hear the surprised whispers of the people behind him—
"Giant Entertainment? Is that the Giant Entertainment I know?"
"Of course... Don't call me when you go to the site to supervise the installation this afternoon, or I'll be so sour I won't be able to tell the difference."
"Let me see what the design proposal looks like—damn, I'm envious too! I'm going to go back and secretly submit my resume, and none of you are allowed to tell our manager."
"It hurts. The thought that I can't enjoy the luxurious office that I designed myself makes me so sad."
"A starting monthly salary of 40,000 yuan, more than 20 days of annual leave, the ability to slack off at your workstation anytime, and a high-end coffee machine in the break room—what kind of troubles could you possibly have working there? Your nasolabial folds and forehead wrinkles would probably fade by now."
"Right now I want to smash all those cramped rows of workstations in our office and be equally jealous of every employee at Giant Entertainment. Who stole my life?"
Fang Zhuo glanced down at his watch. It was just past ten o'clock after he finished ordering the interior decorations, so he still had plenty of time.
This shopping mall is the core of luxury consumption in the entire Star Federation. Looking down from the third floor, you can see countless luxury brand stores. Top luxury handbag stores with prices of 100,000 yuan per item can only be squeezed into the corner at the very edge of the first floor.
He doesn't usually have much material desire, but this outfit is really uncomfortable to wear.
When he first transmigrated, he was wearing a tailor-made suit. All his other clothes were luxury brand ready-to-wear items that Jiang Yu had temporarily purchased, and the sizes couldn't fit him perfectly.
He walked into a long-established bespoke suit shop in the Star Federation. After listening to his needs, the shop assistant immediately began scanning the data of various parts of his body with a handheld device.
Having just received the initial data, he didn't have to wait long before the first version of the garment, made from the raw fabric, was ready.
The shop assistant then carefully noted down the areas where the clothes didn't fit, and twenty minutes later brought over a modified version of the garment, along with a portable screen for Fang Zhuo to choose his favorite style.
The advanced technology here has indeed saved time; this process is much simpler than the traditional handmade suits that often required three or four alterations.
Fang Zhuo crossed out several styles with overly flashy colors and designs: "One of each of the others."
"Okay, that's two million six hundred thousand in total."
Thinking about the agent who would be arriving that afternoon, he felt he needed to prepare a gift for him, but he couldn't tell the agent's size from the miniature figures in the blind box, so he could only prepare something more common.
Do you have ties or cufflinks here?
"Yes, we do." The shop assistant pushed over a huge display case, which contained more than a dozen ties of various styles, as well as five or six unique metal cufflinks.
The sales clerk bent down slightly and extended his hand to introduce the suit to him, saying, "The suits you've chosen are all rather traditional and understated. I suggest you try this dark indigo-patterned black tie."
Fang Zhuo only planned to bring some gifts for his new agent, and without even glancing at the prices, he said directly, "Please wrap them all up for me and deliver them to the entrance of the nearby park later."
Even established bespoke suit shops that cater to high-net-worth clients rarely see such large orders, sometimes only once every six months.
The shop assistant beamed from ear to ear, saying she'd be happy to carry the suit bag into a 100-meter race even now: "Yes, sir."
Fang Zhuo swiped his card all morning, but the amount he spent was less than a fraction of his current cash balance.
He sat on the sofa in the spaceship, watching the shop assistant hang the ironed new suits in the closet, while the tie boxes were neatly arranged on the table according to their patterns.
As the spaceship rapidly ascended from the ground, before leaving this core business district, he looked down from mid-air at this most expensive land in the entire Star Federation.
The area boasts the Federation's most luxurious shopping malls, top-tier financial buildings, and a scenic central park; it's no exaggeration to say that every inch of land here is incredibly valuable.
He asked Yi Dian Dian: "[According to the rules, employee dormitories can be located in any region of the Federation, right?]"
Yi Dian Dian quickly and happily replied: [That's right, the system can directly modify the land using the editor, and at the same time change the perception of nearby residents. Host, you just need to choose any open space with enough room.]
There weren't many vacant spaces here, so he selected a temporarily closed, unused area right next to the park.
The next second, a staff dormitory building with more than 30 floors rose from the ground, and a well-planned road appeared next to the building, seamlessly connecting it to the main city road.
[Building Name: Giant Entertainment Staff Dormitory]
[Basic Information: Two elevators serving four units per floor, each unit has a net floor area of 85 square meters, and the layout includes two bedrooms, one living room, and one bathroom.]
[Current company level is E, matching employee capacity: 152]
[Upgrading the company's operational level will allow for an increase in the size of employee dormitories. Keep up the good work, CEO!]
After efficiently resolving the issues of office space, interior decoration, and employee dormitory arrangements in one morning, Fang Zhuo leaned back on the sofa and rubbed his temples.
The first round of interviews for recruitment was scheduled for this afternoon. He had to rush back to his apartment before the interviews to pick up the agent he had drawn from the blind box.
He was still unsure in what form the agent sent by the system would arrive, given the bizarre appearances of the items in the previous boxes.
Given the precedent of other rewards, he wouldn't be too surprised if he saw a giant egg containing his manager in the living room after returning to his apartment.
However, before he could input the coordinates into the spaceship's positioning device, he received a message from an unknown account:
[Hello Mr. Fang, I'm your new employee, just deployed to the BC35 Star Federation plane. I think I'm currently adrift at sea. Could you please come and pick me up?]
Along with this message came the coordinates of a vast ocean on a remote, desolate planet.
...? ? ?
Fang Zhuo sighed softly: [A tiny bit of a shock, were the employees in the blind boxes randomly selected?]
Yi Dian Dian's voice was still as carefree as ever: "[Yes, because employee character cards are generally quite strong, so even if they are randomly placed in strange places, they usually won't cause any problems.]"
Of course, the main reason for adding this element to the main system is to enhance the relationship between the operator and the character card. There have been previous incidents of operators maliciously harming employees, and the main system does not want similar tragedies to happen again.
Fang Zhuo sneered: "[Sorry, but I think adding this step would actually make the kind of malicious incidents you don't want to see more likely to occur.]"
Yi Dian Dian: [...]
Fortunately, the coordinates were very accurate, and he arrived at the desolate sea surface precisely twenty minutes later.
His ill-fated agent sat helplessly in an orange-yellow raft, floating blankly on the sea.
Upon seeing the spaceship arrive, the agent stumbled as he stood up and immediately knelt down.
Fang Zhuo slowly walked down the escalator: "You don't need to be so polite."
The agent looked to be in his thirties, slightly overweight, and his physical strength wasn't as outstanding as Yi Diandian had described. His ability to stay afloat on the vast ocean for so long was purely due to his strong mental fortitude.
"Mr. Fang, let me introduce myself first. My name is Deng Jiaqiang, and like you, I come from the Blue Star plane—"
Deng Jiaqiang had only finished half of his introduction when his gaze fell upon the dozen or so ties neatly arranged on the table in the middle of the spaceship, and his expression suddenly became quite intriguing.
Fang Zhu shook hands with the other person: "This is a gift for you."
As soon as he finished explaining, Deng Jiaqiang's expression became even more inscrutable. He subtly made a gesture of choking someone and sticking out his tongue: "President Fang, do you mean that if I don't perform well, I have to use this to end my own life?"
The two looked at each other with puzzlement for a while.
The air suddenly became extremely quiet, with only the low hum of the spaceship running.
Although Fang Zhuo admitted that he was not very tactful in his speech, he did not mean that someone meeting him for the first time would have such a misunderstanding.
From his angle, he could see the mirror perfectly, and the smile on the face reflected in the mirror wasn't very obvious, but it clearly had nothing to do with the demanding and eccentric boss the other person had mentioned.
He tried to appear more amiable, softening his tone as he reassured her, "I didn't mean that. Why would you think that?"
After a moment of silence, Deng Jiaqiang finally breathed a long sigh of relief and sat awkwardly on the edge of the sofa.
“I was so scared. I’m sorry, my previous business owner left me with some psychological trauma.”
He carefully took the water that Fang Zhuo had poured for him, but didn't dare to drink a drop for a long time.
"Not only did the employer not come to pick me up, but when we first met, he also put a gun on the table and said that if I couldn't make a lot of money for him, I would be shot."
“Then you don’t need to worry so much.” Fang Zhuo entered the coordinates sent by Jiang Yu: “I’ve already made money, and your help is just icing on the cake.”
He sent the company information from his personal computer to Deng Jiaqiang so that the other party could get a general understanding of the company's operations.
When he received the documents, Deng Jiaqiang still looked extremely apprehensive.
His highly stressed mental state clearly shows how much psychological torment he suffered at his previous employer's hands.
The background of this dimension is relatively complex, and Fang Zhuo did not expect the other party to be able to digest all this information in one afternoon. He just wanted to use the important matter to calm Deng Jiaqiang's seemingly panicked and uncertain emotions first.
Before the spaceship docked at the venue, Fang Zhuo kindly suggested to the other party, "If you have the energy, you can come with me to the venue to take a look at the recruitment process for new employees. If you have any candidates you like, you can take the opportunity to keep them."
The venue that Jiang Yu rented was quite large and perfectly met all of Fang Zhuo's requirements.
When he stands on the stage, he can see thousands of applicants at the same time without any obstruction—as well as the attribute panels hanging above their heads.
Since the company's level was upgraded from F to E, the panel has also started displaying the corresponding recommended professions for other people.
Some people have "communication-related jobs such as journalists and lawyers" written above their heads, while others are labeled as writers. The system can only provide a general direction, but the amount of information is much greater than before, helping him quickly identify suitable employees for each position.
A staff of 100 is already quite bloated for a startup entertainment company. He only plans to select about 30 more people in the first round of interviews to fill the gaps in the original organizational structure.
A vast number of densely packed black characters floated in the air, each emitting a sharp, mournful cry:
[Host, are you sure you didn't take any energy pills? I feel like you've done the equivalent of five days' worth of work for other business owners today.]
While selecting people, Fang Zhuo struck up a conversation: "[Making decisions alone won't make you tired; it's meaningless, mechanical work that makes you feel tired.]"
Yi Dian Dian said weakly and painfully, "[No, just looking at it makes me tired. I feel completely drained, like I've just run 800 meters.]"
[Host, take a break for a bit, at least eat something. Do you remember you have a stomach problem? Are you really not in any pain at all?]
Fang Zhuo has already selected thirty-two employees, plus the somewhat timid child that Deng Jiaqiang picked, making a total of thirty-three new people.
After the onboarding meeting and explaining the tasks to be completed at the new office to Jiang Yu, Fang Zhuo finally ate his first meal in his hotel room at 7 p.m.
Even while eating, his personal computer was still playing the platform's TV drama streaming mechanism and marketing tutorials, and he could also leisurely chat with Yi Diandian:
[When I'm busy, I don't feel the pain anymore]
A tearful moment: [This is why you died of overwork in your past life]
Fang Zhuo disagreed: "[That's because I had a congenital heart condition before; my body is much healthier now than before.]"
Yi Dian Dian thought that if it had legs, it would be frantically running around right now. It exclaimed in shock: "[...You call this severe stomach ailment buff 'healthy'?]"
Fang Zhuo: [Isn't that right?]
Yi Dian Dian was extremely impressed and projected a kneeling emoji into Fang Zhuo's mind: [Host, you are Superman, and also my god.]
Busy until 11:30 p.m., the lights in the room gradually dimmed, and Fang Zhuo received a second message from Deng Jiaqiang before going to sleep:
[Manager Fang, I've got an idea of what to do with the new livestream room the system gave us! I've realized that the BC35 dimension is lacking a livestream format—]
A note from the author:
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