The equipment and accommodations had been settled. All that remained was procuring raw materials and recruiting talent. Xi Ye and that treacherous goblin had not argued much over the raw materials. After all, those things had standard prices on the market. Since this was a partnership, they would naturally have to be sold to Xi Ye below market price.
The quality also had to be guaranteed. After all, this was a long-term partnership. Overcharging was a skill, but selling poor-quality goods would damage one's reputation. A high-end goblin would never make such a mistake.
After carefully calculating everything, Xi Ye purchased nearly a billion worth of various raw materials, including the Black Mu Gold that goblin had mentioned!
The last matter was recruiting talent. Aside from the mold-making and electromechanical specialists reserved for Wine Immortal and the others, Xi Ye also planned to hire some people from the talent market.
The base was developing rapidly. Before long, the number of miners would probably reach saturation. At that point, he would need to train some more advanced talents. And to train high-end talent, basic instructors were indispensable!
There were currently only three races in the base. Xi Ye had no plans to begin cultivating other racial lines for the time being, so he first intended to recruit some excellent instructors for these three races.
The Hulk's evolutionary path was relatively limited. They basically all followed the warrior route, much like the Thunder Clan. The warrior path could be divided into many schools, but mainly fell into three major categories. The first focused more on technique and specialized in weapon types: the Weapon Master. The second relied more on one's innate strength: the berserker. He mainly needed to hire people from the first two categories. As for the third, the rune warrior, that path generally required a special bloodline. The Bronze Clan and the Thunder Clan both belonged to this category, as did the Rune Clan, which specialized in this field. The Green Titan was not included.
Therefore, he only needed to hire a few instructors specializing in the mainstream warrior paths.
By contrast, developers had far too many evolutionary paths available to them. Developers could basically pursue any Mental Department profession, but Xi Ye currently could not support such a vast and complicated professional system. At first, he had only intended to bring in instructors specializing in pure scientific research to educate the developers in that field.
But public sentiment now seemed somewhat off. Those developers appeared completely uninterested in pure research and were always thinking about going out to mine. They were truly rotten wood that could not be carved.
Judging from the performances of Grandpa Lu and several other followers earlier, they seemed quite interested in the profession of mecha piloting. They also appeared to yearn for mage-type professions. If that was the case, he would probably still need to hire some instructors in those fields to motivate the developers.
Otherwise, if that damned Grandpa Lu made another post, there would probably be even fewer new citizens willing to choose the developer path!
The severe shortage of developers was also a difficult problem facing the base!
Finally, the evolution of the Wood Elves would be rather troublesome. The elves were a Great Clan of the Universe, and the Wood Elves were both an elven branch and holders of an Ancient Bloodline. Their evolution required professional elven instructors. As far as Xi Ye knew, those arrogant fellows generally demanded extremely high prices and were also extremely picky about their environment. His Mars might not be able to attract them!
After considering it carefully, Xi Ye still decided to register with the talent market first and see what happened!
Thus, after returning, he opened the virtual network alone in his room and entered the Federation talent market using his exclusive Great Lord account.
"Respected Great Lord, are you here to register for recruitment?" As soon as he entered the Talent Network, a customer-service representative greeted him enthusiastically.
Xi Ye had entered the network through Proxima Star's IP address. Most people who could afford to browse this market were wealthy bigshots, so the Talent Network immediately arranged one-on-one service for him.
"Mm..." Xi Ye nodded coldly. "The base has just begun developing, and I need a group of excellent instructors to teach racial professions and skills. Introduce some to me."
"Of course. I'll fill in your information." As she spoke, the customer-service representative brought out an exquisitely designed form.
"May I ask the name of your faction?"
"Aierdia Star System!" Xi Ye thought about it, then ultimately decided to use his family's name. After all, everything he had was obtained through the blood and flesh of his family.
Aierdia? The customer-service representative froze. She secretly wondered whether the most famous family with the Aierdia surname was that Thunder Warrior family. When had that family produced a Great Lord?
"How much registration capital do you intend to deposit?"
Xi Ye froze. As a first-time employer registering on the Talent Network, he asked in surprise, "There's a registration deposit? Isn't there already an agency fee?"
"Of course." The customer-service representative smiled politely. "We're a professional talent website. We're responsible not only for Great Lords like you, but also for the people looking for work online. The registration deposit confirms your financial strength, allowing us to recommend talents suited to your means!"
Seeing Xi Ye hesitate, the customer-service representative continued, "Besides, the registration capital is only deposited with our Talent Network as a security deposit. You can withdraw it whenever you urgently need it."
"Then... let's start with five million, just to show good faith." Xi Ye spoke reluctantly.
Five million?
The customer-service representative's smile stiffened, but she continued to smile politely. "Respected Great Lord, it'll be very difficult to recruit excellent talent with a five-million deposit. People born into reputable families will surely be unwilling to believe they have a future working for you when they see such a poor registration deposit, won't they?"
Xi Ye: "..."
"Besides, for you to return to Proxima and start spending on your very first trip, you're surely not one of those penniless Great Lords who recruit Black Goblin losers, are you?"
Xi Ye: "Of course not!"
"Exactly!" The customer-service representative smiled sweetly. "You clearly look like a Great Lord with a promising future. To spend so lavishly on your very first return, your circumstances must be extraordinary. Surely you also want to recruit respectable members of reputable families, don't you? If I introduced you to people with questionable backgrounds, you wouldn't feel comfortable employing them, would you?"
Xi Ye was stunned. Although he knew she was trying to fleece him, he temporarily had no way to refute her.
While he had been at the Celestial God Academy, his teachers had taught him that when hiring employees, it was best to choose respectable members of established families, because job seekers with obscure backgrounds offered very little security!
This was common knowledge throughout the Federation. Almost every experienced Great Lord, aside from citizens they had developed themselves, prioritized recruiting respectable family members. For example, Xi Ye's Eldia Family had an excellent reputation in the Federation. Throughout countless years, there had never been an instance of betrayal, information leaks, or any other disgraceful conduct!
Because as a Family Disciple, doing such a thing meant tarnishing the family's reputation. Before the Great Lord could even cause trouble for you, your entire family would be the first to step forward and purge its ranks. Any Great Lord who hired you for espionage would also face the family's total boycott. They might even join forces with allied families to stop supplying that Great Lord with talent and recall every family member working within his territory!
A Great Lord had once done exactly that. Afterward, more than half of his elite personnel left, causing his faction's strength to plummet by several levels. In the end, it was swallowed by his hostile faction!
Thus, in the Federation, although a family's survival depended on Great Lords providing positions, families still maintained a certain degree of leverage when working for them.
Therefore, many Great Lords spent enormous amounts of money and resources cultivating the gene families within their own territories, gradually freeing themselves from the constraints imposed by other families. Of course, that was a matter for later. For new Great Lords just entering the field, respectable family members were actually more reassuring when recruiting from outside. The deeper a family's foundation, the more welcome its members were.
"Then how much do you think I should deposit?" Xi Ye asked.
The customer-service representative smiled sweetly. "You're a new Great Lord, so you'll certainly need a great deal of funding to develop your base. You can't neglect one thing for another. In my opinion, how about ten billion? That would demonstrate your faction's financial strength without putting you under too much financial strain."
Xi Ye sucked in a sharp breath. Her words sounded considerate enough, but why did that number feel so wrong?
"One billion! That's my bottom line!!" Xi Ye said firmly. "If you still can't find me respectable people from good backgrounds with that, I'll have to go to another talent website!"
Before you continue