Leo had finalized the idea. He also had enough funding to squander on it. Now, all that was left was to create the most efficient plan to waste the credits.
"I need a research team that I can splurge on. Although I don't have many contacts, it shouldn't be hard to gather the most 'talented' people in the field."
Of course, when he used the term 'talented', he didn't mean it in the normal sense. His meaning was completely inverted.
"First, I need a chief researcher around whom the entire research and development team will be formed. For that, who better than a person that is obsessed with something else entirely?"
Leo wrote down a name that had stood out during his recent research. It was the first person he was going to recruit.
"Doctor Picollo, you will be the core of my team. Since you're so obsessed with your monster translator, you shouldn't have a problem stealing research money for your private hobby, right?"
After finalizing the first name, Leo moved on to the second researcher. It was also a person whose name he had just seen in an article.
Out of everyone, this person impressed Leo the most with his absurd ideas about creating a machine that could teach ordinary fish to walk on the ground.
One after another, Leo kept writing down the names on the list. All the names belonged to people that had already failed with their absurd ideas.
It was like he was creating a superhero team of his own. Of course, every hero in his super team had one superpower... the power to waste time and money. They had no self-awareness, even though they were considered scientists or inventors.
Leo selected a total of ten people for his research and development team before moving to recruit them.
First, he wrote a message to every person on the list, excluding Doctor Picollo. As for the contents, it was the same in every email. Only the name of the recipient was different.
There were no greetings. There was no self-introduction. There were only a few lines in the email.
..............
Doctor Ketchum,
You have been selected to take part in Alpha Corp's most prestigious project. The fate of humanity rests with the success of this ultra-secret project.
Please respond within two working days if you would like to join Alpha Corp and become a part of a team consisting of great minds.
-Alpha Corp
..............
"This should pique their interests, right?"
After sending nine emails to nine different people, Leo moved on to his next target. It was Doctor Picollo, the only person he hadn't emailed.
In the first place, he didn't feel the need to mail this person since he was a part of the Hero Guild. It was the only person out of the ten whose whereabouts were known. He could meet him in person.
...
"Doctor Picollo? Do we even have a person like that? Just wait a minute, I'll get you the information if there is anyone with that name."
Kayla was as useful as always, responding to Leo's question over the call.
As a part of the financial branch, she had all the records of people that worked for the Guild.
If anything, contacting her over this was an overkill. It was like calling the president of a country to get information on your local mail delivery guy.
Kayla quickly searched the name in the database.
"I found him. Should we send him to your floor for the meeting?"
Kayla didn't ask Leo about his reasoning. She just thought that Leo was taking the Guild up on their offer.
The Guild had already suggested Leo create a team of people that could help him with elixir research. They even gave him a list of suitable people amongst the great minds working at the Headquarters.
Picollo wasn't on the list, so Kayla was a little taken aback by how Leo knew about him. Then again, she couldn't see anything extraordinary about Picollo in the database.
He wasn't working on anything important. If anything, he had been demoted by the Guild multiple times. Now, he was only working as an assistant researcher.
"Have you selected any more people from the list that you would want me to connect with?" Kayla asked again.
"We can discuss that later. For now, tell me the whereabouts of Dr. Picollo. I will meet him myself."
"You want to go to him? Are you certain? The Guard that we are about to assign you is still on his way back. Would it be alright to leave that floor alone?"
"You talk as if I'm going to some battlefield. Isn't this Guild HQ? Don't worry too much, and just send me the address. It's about time I got a feel of the Guild."
"Send me the location right now. I'm waiting for the lift."
"A-alright," Kayla swiftly answered. "He should be on the 700th floor, lab 290. Please wait a minute. I will send someone to guide you there."
Beep...
"Hello?" Kayla called out again, but there was no response. Leo had already disconnected the call.
"I am in a hurry to waste money, not time. Why are they trying to babysit me so much?"
Leo tapped the key card on the lift. Even though it was a master key card for his floor, it had many other privileges that came with it, one of which was allowing him to go to every floor, including the floor where the Guild Executives stayed.
Only one person from each floor had such a high-ranking card, and they were internally called the Floor Lords in the Headquarters.
Leo didn't even realize that he had already received the title 'Floor Lord' and the value that it came with.
He simply thought that it was just a normal key card that everyone in the Guild received, the only difference being that it could be used on his floor while others couldn't.
He stepped inside the lift, and the doors closed. He selected the 700th floor as his destination, and the lift started going down with music playing in the background.
He went down more than a hundred floors within a few minutes, yet it felt like the lift hadn't moved even an inch. Before he even knew it, he was already on the destination floor as the doors opened.
He stepped out of the lift, only to be greeted by people in white robes rushing all over the place. Some were carrying physical papers that had been all but forgotten in the modern era.
Others were carrying their glass tablets, talking to someone in low voices.
'No wonder the entire Guild is noisy,' Leo thought as a scientist walked past him, their shoulders colliding. The man didn't pay attention or apologize, remaining focused on his call.
Leo glanced back at the man with a frown. The man was already inside the lift, and the doors had started closing.
"Are you sure it happened on the way to Earth? The Elven Empire must be really furious," the man said as the doors completely closed.