Li Xing's bewitching voice was like a demonic chant.
It kept rattling Pilaf's thoughts.
Drool ran from the corner of Pilaf's mouth.
Slurp!
"Excellent, that's a great idea."
"By the way, I'll give you 10% of the company shares. Say the company earns a trillion in a year, and you'll get a hundred billion. How about that?"
Pilaf came to his senses.
"My lord, something's not right."
Li Xing held back a laugh and pretended not to understand.
"Oh? What's not right?"
Pilaf furrowed his brow, doing his best to engage his clever brain cells.
He didn't understand things like accounting, but numbers were simple enough for a scientist like him.
"My lord, why is it only 10%?"
Li Xing looked at Pilaf.
"You really are an idiot.
"First, once your income reaches the hundreds of millions, there's not much difference between a hundred million and a hundred billion. You can do whatever you want either way.
"What difference does the amount make?
"Second, doesn't manufacturing products cost money?
"Take the rockets and satellites you make, and the launches. Didn't you buy the materials with the money from selling my jewelry, then use those materials to make them?
"We're a legitimate company. We can't go around robbing people. Everything has to be legal and aboveboard. We have to do business.
"Even if costs take up a third, that's 33% gone, right?
"And doesn't it cost money to run the company? Don't the people we hire need to be paid?"
Li Xing was about to keep spinning his tale.
Pilaf suddenly grew anxious.
"Wait, my lord, I agree with everything you said before. But why do we have to pay the people we hire?
"Shouldn't they be paying us to work for our group?
"Isn't it enough that we give them food? Why pay them, too?"
Li Xing stared at Pilaf with a green-eyed gaze.
He'd thought the experts from his previous life were already unrivaled.
He hadn't expected there to be an idiot like this in the Dragon Ball World.
And that idiot was his own subordinate.
"Fine. Money, whether it's more or less, isn't that useful. Once we unify Earth, won't you want to see other planets?
"There are all sorts of strange things out there in the universe."
"What? Are there really aliens?"
Pilaf immediately cried out.
Xiao Wu and the dejected Ashu also perked up.
Li Xing nodded with a smile.
He wasn't a professional at making grand promises, but fooling these three simpletons was easy enough.
"Of course. Don't doubt me. You'll know for yourselves in fifteen years at most."
Li Xing spoke with confidence.
But in his heart, he wasn't so sure.
In Pilaf and the others' minds, anyone living beyond Earth counted as an alien.
If technology advanced fast enough, he might be able to build a spaceship first and head to Namek.
That would prove his words outright.
"By the way, Pilaf, here's what you'll be doing. As the Aurora Group's chief scientist, you'll oversee the group's researchers and research direction.
"No problem, right?"
Pilaf was so excited now that he had no other thoughts.
He answered enthusiastically that there was no problem.
"Good. Next, Xiao Wu, you'll become the Aurora Group's chief human resources officer, responsible for assigning everyone in the company except the scientists."
Xiao Wu's face flushed, and she immediately answered in a shrill voice.
"I promise I won't let Director Li down.
"I'll handle everything impartially."
Li Xing gave her another resentful look.
He'd actually watched Super Detective.
Xiao Wu looked nervous, unsure what she'd done wrong.
Li Xing waved his hand. "You get 5% of the net profits."
Xiao Wu didn't compare herself to Pilaf.
She was loyal to Pilaf, and Pilaf's role and abilities were greater than hers, so naturally she wouldn't compete with him.
After assigning Xiao Wu her role, he turned to Ashu.
Li Xing had originally planned to train Xiao Wu, Ashu, and Pilaf.
It was only after he arrived at the castle and had a sudden inspiration that he'd thought of founding a group and taking the scientific route.
There was a lot more ahead that Li Xing hadn't seen.
He knew one thing for sure: in the GT Timeline, Vegeta couldn't become a Super Saiyan 4 without Bulma developing the Super Concentrated Blutz Wave.
That wasn't all. Li Xing was also eager for Bulma's later high-tech inventions, like her time-space transmission technology.
The Dragon Ball World consisted of countless parallel worlds, and he wasn't sure whether he was in the Super God Timeline or the GT Timeline.
Li Xing had only one thought: whatever the timeline, whatever the chain of events—
He'd raise his strength first. Then, whoever came after him, he'd smash them all.
With a cheat like this, if Li Xing lacked confidence, he'd be letting down the journey he'd made from orphanhood to a life better than that of most adults.
He assigned Ashu to oversee the group's security and manage the army.
That completed the setup: research and development, the backup personnel and supplies, and frontline combat strength.
Of the three, only Pilaf needed to spend a lot of time researching in the lab. Xiao Wu and Ashu didn't.
Especially Ashu. His main job was to find people to spar with Li Xing.
What was the point of making money?
Wasn't it to enjoy life?
Instead of going all over the place to train in misery, he could train a group of people himself and spar with them every day. His strength would naturally shoot up.
As long as he kept it within reasonable limits, there wouldn't be any problems. He could keep gaining strength by training that group.
"My lord."
Li Xing looked at Ashu's miserable expression and gave a noncommittal grunt.
"My lord, I've got it rough. Could I, um, not be in charge of security?"
Li Xing raised an eyebrow.
"Really? Then which of them will you switch with?"
At that, Ashu fell silent.
Switch with whom?
He couldn't even do arithmetic properly. Who could he possibly trade places with?
Ashu looked aggrieved.
"Um, me!"
Li Xing glanced sidelong at Ashu.
"Or you can do nothing at all and give up your 5% of the net profits."
Ashu turned deathly pale.
That was absolutely unacceptable.
He had to have it.
"Fine."
Li Xing waved a hand.
"Good. Xiao Wu, start hiring people. Our chief scientist can start improving things, beginning with personal computers, then smart mobile devices.
"These few trillion are small change. Once the internet is up and running, I'll teach you all about it. Then you'll know what it means to rake in money every day."
Li Xing spoke with great confidence.
Then he shooed them away.
"Come on, Ashu."
Li Xing said with a cheerful smile, while Ashu looked like his parents had just died, his face full of sorrow.
Li Xing was just about to stand up and head to the training room.
"Opportunity detected. Super Choice System activated."
The system's voice sounded, both unfamiliar and familiar.
This useless system had issued a mission two months ago and settled it half a month ago. Now it had shown up again.
It had only appeared three times in two months. How unfamiliar.
"Ashu, go rest for a bit. Remember to recruit some strong people to fight me, too. That'll help take some of the pressure off you."
Ashu's eyes lit up, and he immediately stood tall.
He'd thought he was in for a rough time this time. Who knew things would work out so well?
My lord really did care about him. He'd clearly changed his mind halfway through.
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