Chapter 1710: Team Development and Growth

Once Ultima reached a certain stage, Luke would break down the results and give them to the New Hope Research Institute for verification.

There were now more than 200 researchers in the research institute.

Luke was paying them a high salary so that they could do their best as research assistants and help complete some of the experiments.

As for those who weren’t content with their lot and wanted to invent their own small things, they were removed regularly.

These sort of “geniuses” who were ambitious but lacked talent, or who just had no self-awareness, were fired – they could go and fleece some other investors of their money.

Luke had worked hard for his money, and it wasn’t enough to fill these bottomless pits.

If they were genuinely talented and creative, he would set them up with a separate research team.

After they produced certain results, Luke would look at the situation and decide to either keep these people or pack them off to other companies — the latter made up the bulk.

After all, research was the fastest way to burn money in the world! Plus, it was all legal.

No matter how rich he was, there was no way he would spend so much.

/

Tony, the spendthrift, was no exception.

Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to shoot a TV show was already astonishing; when it came to research, that amount was nothing more than water.

For truly top-notch technology, hundreds of millions or billions of dollars would be thrown in every eight to ten years, and most projects might not produce results.

Even if there were results, they might not be perfected until much later.

It was a good thing that Luke had “learned” Tony’s armor skills.

Only a morally upright young man like him would continue to give benefits back to the tycoon.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for the tycoon to recoup his losses.

On the other hand, New Hope Research Institute had been developing steadily in the last two years, and was gradually becoming famous.

Although most of the research projects came to nothing, the institute wasn’t stingy with funding as long as there were some genuine results.

The number of money-burning projects increased, but naturally, nobody paid attention to the failures, while the several successful cases earned a lot of money.

The more money the institute had, the bigger its reputation.

The bigger the reputation, the more attractive the institute was to researchers.

Now, New Hope Research Institute was a high-tech R&D company with some reputation in America, and it wasn’t as careless at recruiting talents as before.

For example, most of Adrian’s group had been invited to join as a separate research team.

After more than a year, Adrian and the others were no longer interested in being small shareholders in the freight company.

In comparison, doing research was more to their liking.

The research institute was located right next to Queens, and paid a lot.

Their friend, Phineas, had already joined the research institute for a period of time and had exaggerated the conditions there. Why should they hesitate?

Adrian’s research team could be said to be the second surprise for Luke — the first was naturally Bent, the R&D master developer of “social death” weapons.

Every time he saw the results Adrian’s team produced, Luke could only sigh. Electric engineers were indeed monsters.

These guys actually used some lousy Chitauri components to DIY a “vulture” flight suit.

Although it wasn’t very sturdy, wasn’t very flexible, and wasn’t very stable, it was indeed a freaking suit of armor.

Just like the Whiplash armor which Ivan had created in the beginning, the impoverished appearance of this Vulture suit couldn’t conceal the brilliance behind its design.

That was because defense, agility, and stability could be slowly improved – only real geniuses could create this main skeleton.

If armor development was calculated out of 100, Tony’s level was 120, with the extra 20 coming from inspiration, power and money.

Ivan was over 80, which was outstanding.

Right now, Adrian’s team was only in the 60s, just above the pass line.

However, ordinary people couldn’t compare with Tony at all.

All of the researchers in Stark Industries together couldn’t substitute for what he alone could do.

In a similar way, what Adrian’s team could do wasn’t something that any one of Stark Industries’ research departments could do since most of the departments didn’t even meet the 60-mark.

On the other end of the spectrum was Roxxon Corporation, which had developed the technology for the Death Soldiers.

Roxxon had wanted to upgrade the Death Soldier to the level of Mark armor, but was unable to.

If the company poached Adrian’s team, it could rely on the abundant Chitauri parts to create a batch of experimental special models.

In doing that, perfecting the armor wouldn’t be impossible.

A suit graded at 60 was indeed poor compared with Tony and Ivan’s skills, but would be very useful in an asymmetric battle.

But this was a world which looked at qualifications.

Adrian and his group of ordinary electrical engineers didn’t accomplish anything grand in the past, and they had very ordinary academic qualifications. Big companies wouldn’t look at them at all.

Now that they were under Luke, nobody could steal this team.

Bobby Max, Luke’s former PR manager, who had Mental Communication, came regularly to assess the research institute members.

Bobby worked at Titanium Phone Company HQ next door; it was easy for him to drop in and carry out a monthly assessment.

Of course, he never showed his face at the research institute, and was just as sneaky there as he was at the cell phone company.

During the assessment, he sat on the other side of the wall.

Even the admin staff had no idea that he was there. As they went through a list of questions with the employees, Bobby observed in secret.

In fact, Bobby had kicked out at least a hundred problematic employees this way.

It was because there was this “mature system” in place that Luke could take it easy for half a year and enjoy his capitalist benefits.

As a capitalist, if he could push the basic work off to someone else, he would naturally hand it over to his employees and his A.I..

He wasn’t afraid of anyone trying anything funny with the research institute.

The research institute was a private company that he 100% controlled. Nobody could interfere with its management, so nobody could blatantly try anything.

As for trying something in the dark, the darker the better; the best would be if a bright red name stepped forward.

Disposing of a problem might not be easy, but wasn’t it simple to dispose of the person who created the problem?

He could also earn experience and credit points in passing. It was perfect.

That was probably the case when it came to technology.

In terms of putting together a team, the biggest gain in the last six months was the addition of a top-tier support-type personnel.

This person was none other than Richard Gere, the shadow man who had gone into hiding in Brazil.

Luke had been stunned for a moment when he first heard the name.

Whatever the case, Richard was indeed a top-tier support genius.

He was a 23-year-old white man who looked… like a geek.

His appearance, manner of speech, and clothes were all ordinary. His only merit was that he was thin, and didn’t have to worry about his weight, like most shut-ins.

Luke gave the guy half a year off. Then, he dragged Richard out of a VIP room in a five-star hotel in Rio, and woke him up on a dark and empty beach.

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