(Thanks to Cen Chengfeng and Wei You Haochen for the monthly votes.)
On the second day after moving into the new headquarters, everyone was still immersed in excitement and joy, Li Zhou included.
Li Zhou's usual office was on the same floor as Xiong Kexuan's Finance Department: Basement Level 10.
With a larger office, he felt much more relaxed. After studying the list Yuan Jingsong had given him for a long time, Li Zhou tapped on his desk.
"Zhou Song, take this list to HR. Hire everyone on it. Tell them the company has a partnership with Yuan Jingsong."
Zhou Song, who was practically Li Zhou's personal secretary by now, took the few A4 sheets Li Zhou handed over and flipped through them casually.
Zhou Song looked at Li Zhou in shock.
"Boss, you want to hire three hundred newly discharged brothers?"
Li Zhou took a sip of the extra-large coconut jelly milk tea from the company cafeteria. With coconut jelly in his mouth, he replied unclearly to Zhou Song.
"That's not even many. The ten basement levels must have security and confidentiality measures laid out to the standards of a top-tier military base. Besides that, I bought a large number of sensors, super cameras, and laser scanning devices. They should arrive tomorrow."
"Once the people on the list get here, you can start installing them. I'm sure you know this better than I do! According to my plan, your Security Department will be responsible for the safety of the entire building. As for the lowest ten floors, I'll implement fully intelligent security. Not even a mosquito will get in."
Zhou Song gave his boss a serious look. "Boss, you're not seriously doing this, are you?"
Li Zhou looked up at Zhou Song without blinking.
"What do you think?"
The two stared at each other for a while.
"All right, Boss!"
Watching Zhou Song leave with the list, Li Zhou took another sip of coconut jelly milk tea before setting it aside.
He rolled his neck, took a deep breath, and began rapidly hammering away at the keyboard of this computer, which had deliberately not been connected to the internet just in case.
If not for the clearly logical code displayed on the screen, anyone unaware of what he was doing might have thought Li Zhou was smashing the keyboard to vent his frustration.
According to Li Zhou's plan, once the intelligent security systems for the ten basement levels had been installed, he would assemble the first Photonic Computer alone in the underground laboratory and get the first photonic computer prototype operating normally.
Only then would true Artificial Intelligence come into play. Before that, Li Zhou needed to manually write all the Artificial Intelligence code in his mind into the computer.
As he rapidly typed out Artificial Intelligence code, Li Zhou thought that it would be great if he had a consciousness transfer device. If he did, he would not have to exhaust himself clattering away at the keyboard with hands honed by twenty years of being single.
Elsewhere, Zhou Song took the list straight to the head of HR.
"The boss requires everyone on this list to report for duty next week. When you call them, tell them the list was recommended by Yuan Jingsong. Just mention Yuan Jingsong's name, and they'll understand."
Zhou Song tossed down the list and walked straight out without even turning his head, his face expressionless.
Even after Zhou Song had vanished from the entire HR department's sight, all the beautiful women in HR still looked utterly confused.
Once she came to her senses, Zhao Fengxia looked in the direction Zhou Song had left, then at the list in her hand, her face full of helplessness.
Zhou Song! Employee Number 00001, the boss's personal bodyguard. There was no one in the company who did not know him.
Although she could be certain that the list had been sent over at the boss's instruction, what kind of move was hiring three hundred security personnel at once?
Zhao Fengxia picked up the company's internal phone and called directly into Li Zhou's office.
The moment the call connected, Zhao Fengxia immediately complained.
"Boss, are you sure you want to hire three hundred security personnel at once? The rest of the company only has a little over five hundred employees combined."
Li Zhou moved the receiver away from his ear and poked at it with a finger.
"Sister Zhao, I've thought this through carefully. If these three hundred weren't all discharged special forces soldiers, I'd still think three hundred wasn't enough."
Zhao Fengxia frowned and fell silent for a while on the other end of the line.
"Boss, are you worried that once news about the new project gets out, someone will try to break into the underground laboratory?"
"Ha! Sister Zhao, how are you so smart? This little brother admires you! Truly admires you!"
Listening to her boss's flippant tone, Zhao Fengxia could not figure out what he was up to. She sighed. Three hundred people, all reporting within a week—wasn't this going to work the dozen or so people in HR to death?
"Boss, are you really sure? If you are, I'll have my sisters get to work."
"I'm sure. Also, the sooner they report for duty, the better. The security facilities and equipment I purchased will arrive tomorrow, and we'll be waiting for them to install everything."
After hanging up, Zhao Fengxia looked at the list in her hands with a headache.
"Everyone, come over here."
"What I have here is a recruitment list the boss just gave us. There are three hundred people in total. Divide them among yourselves. I think you all heard what Zhou Song just said—they must all report for duty within a week!"
"In order, each person will be responsible for thirty. Before tomorrow ends, you must settle when the people assigned to you will come, what transportation they'll take, and roughly when they'll arrive. Make sure all that information is properly recorded."
On Monday, Li Zhou looked at the rows of discharged special forces soldiers standing ramrod straight before him, all dressed in the uniform security outfits custom-made by Future Technology's Procurement Department, and felt a deep sense of pride.
What Li Zhou truly had not expected was that all three hundred had arrived together on five coaches. After asking around, he learned that they were all special forces soldiers discharged in this year's batch. They had only just retired when Yuan Jingsong directly sent five coaches to bring them over.
Li Zhou could understand Yuan Jingsong's intentions. It was not easy to find discharged soldiers a good place to go, especially a high-paying job for people who had become somewhat disconnected from society.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
Li Zhou blew into the handheld loudspeaker in his hand.
"Everyone, on behalf of Future Technology, I welcome you all aboard. Yuan Jingsong should have already told you about Future Technology's benefits, so I won't go into detail here. Zhou Song should have explained everything else that needed explaining, so I won't waste words on it either."
"I won't talk about anything else today. I'll only talk about your most important task right now: setting up the security defenses for the entire headquarters, especially installing the various security devices from Basement Level 11 through Basement Level 20. I've sent the underground defense layout for the area each of you will be responsible for to your individual accounts through the internal software. I only have two requirements. First, you are absolutely forbidden from revealing your own blueprint to anyone other than yourself, not even the company's chief executive officer. Second, installation must strictly follow the specifications. Once the equipment is linked to the intranet, everything will be perfectly clear on my end."
"Any questions!!!"
"None!!!"
Li Zhou nodded in satisfaction.
"Very good. Then collect your equipment according to your own blueprints and begin installation."
After everyone dispersed, they opened the software and viewed their own blueprints. Upon seeing the installation plans for the defense equipment, every one of them was speechless.
This security arrangement was far too exaggerated. Not even military bases had this many defenses packed so densely together, and there were clearly plenty of designs specifically intended to trap intruders.
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