FB: Chapter 95 – Vice Leader Clara

“Real name, Samantha Heraldson, in game name, Clara Smiles,” I said while looking at the woman in front of me.

“If the name is a problem, I can create a new character if that is necessary,” the older woman stated. I shook my head.

“I will be sticking with Clara if that is okay, in game?” I asked and she nodded. “Your resume is incredibly impressive, and you were one of the early entrants into Exponential. Level 45, is that accurate?” I asked.

“Level 46 now,” she replied with a faint smile, living up to her self-given title.

“I am tempted to hire you right now. Your qualifications are stellar and your background is impeccable with your executive positions in all those companies. But I have some questions. Why come out of retirement? You are 77 years old. I would think you would want to enjoy your senior years and wealth,” I replied.

“I am bored. In the real world, I am too old, too slow. Bah! I was forced out of my last position. They wanted me to stuck as an Executive Advisor to the Board. Waste of time. I like to get right into the mix of things. I have been following your exploits and several of my family members are in Exponential. This seemed like the perfect fit when I heard about the position,” Clara said.

“I see you prefer directness,” I replied.

“There is a difference between being direct and rude. You aren’t hiring me to compliment you. You want someone who will come in and get things done.” I nodded at this statement.

“You understand the job role?” I asked.

“Create a working group to handle data analytics across the guild for all officers and departments while also reviewing the number of staff roles to where things can be streamlined without overburdening the current people working in those roles,” she answered.

“That was a very good summary. Any questions for me?” I asked.

“Compensation. I was told I would need to ask you for an answer.”

“Right now, our compensation packages are low. This will be corrected once the current guild operation is complete, and I have time to review plans being put together. This is the current offer, and these are the preliminary plans,” I stated and pushed a sheet across my desk. Clara picked it up and looked it over before setting it down.

“Low is an understatement for the valuation of your company. The highest level of compensation with stock options is barely acceptable for someone of my caliber,” Clara replied.

“That is above what any of the other guilds are offering,” I countered.

“And below companies with an equivalent worth. I will state right now, I won’t be accepting anything less than that option,” she replied.

“And I could hire someone right out of business school looking to prove themselves,” I countered.

“You could. And they would eventually leave once they got experience working for you to put on their resume. You want someone to hit the ground running with a proven track record. You can’t afford to mess up a streamlined data analytics department. You see my history in the insurance industry handling such issues.”

“Alright, then give me your pitch. What are you going to do that I haven’t thought of and makes you worth shelling out that much,” I countered, and Clara smiled.

“Leveraging the data that is in game through the various unions. The NPCs have an interface like us players do. Their technical level is quite high, especially with data collection since QAI is monitoring everything. It will be some magical thing in game, but the fact is that the data is out there. Lots of data. We just need to tap into it. Leveraging your connections with the Administration Union, this would be possible for a fee. Then we would make in an game app that we can use internally in our guild for rapid metrics. Let me guess, you had a physical presentation in your last guild meeting?” I nodded at this.

“Yes,” I replied with a sense of relief. This had occurred with the super guild I was working with in the future, but I hadn’t had the time or energy to develop all of these things within the guild. Just keeping track of everything was exhausting, which was why I had to hire another Vice Leader.

“I will get holographic displays working. Since we are analyzing everything in Exponential we need to leverage what is already out there. If necessary, we can develop a set of custom analytics. Starting off I would request a list of prioritized data requests from each officer and department and go from there, working my way through the list. As for the staffing issues, that is slightly more complex.” I didn’t interrupt as she continued her explanation.

“Departmental metrics and goals would be the best way to go with individual staff interviews. We set goals on a three month and yearly basis and evaluate how close we come to those goals while the quarterly interviews with staff members will ensure any systemic problems or problem employees are quickly sorted out. That is why you are going to hire me. To hit the ground running instead of acting clueless for a couple months like a new employee would as they gain confidence and constantly bothering you. Anyone can come up with these ideas, but it is execution that you are hiring me for,” Clara calmly explained.

I leaned back in my chair. “I will be authorizing the highest level of compensation. The stock options will only come into effect once they do for everyone else,” I finally said. While I could look for another person, I didn’t want to waste time. Clara clearly had a direction that matched my vision and knew how she would execute it.

“That is acceptable,” she replied with a smile. I sent a message regarding the agreed upon compensation package to Isabella who would give it over to her HR staff member to handle the necessary paperwork both in game and the real world. Since I was giving Clara the highest level of compensation, that would leak out to the staff and officers who would be excited about such a development.

With the interview handled, I began looking through my small inbox. Henry screened everything for me so that anything that did reach my desk was important. Most of the stuff was just summarized reports that got distributed to all guild officers. It would be nice when Clara made the formatting standardized to make these reports easier to look over.

The last item in my inbox was an in game invitation to the Capital Ball. The timing for the event was right after the deadline for dealing with the Unmentionable Horror. While I would like to take the invitation as a suggestion, it wasn’t, since the host was the Human Emperor. I had a bad feeling about the entire event.

Unfortunately, there was no real option to decline going. If I failed to show up, then the Human Emperor could take a lot of petty actions to punish me for slighting him. And if there was one thing the Human Emperor was good at, it was being incredibly petty. I also had no doubt he would try and put me in a difficult situation at the event. Most likely due to QAI targeting me for being the top player in the game. I had known the Human Emperor was petty, but after reaching my lofty heights it was incredibly obvious that he was just a lever QAI used to moderate Exponential within game actions.

The only good news was that nothing was completely unwinnable if one wasn’t stupid. I wrote out a note of stuff for Henry to follow up on. He would act as my plus one and would have to memorize everything about everyone who was going to be attending the ball, so I didn’t make a social mistake. Also, I would need to brush up on my social jiu jitsu for such an event and to get an appropriate dress.

The style of the Human Empire was currently excessive. That meant costly materials and gems as part of the dress. As a Viscountess, I needed something nice, but not too nice to outshine the top nobles. While I had avoided other events so far, this was one event I could not avoid. I would also need a gift to give to the Human Emperor as well. I had no doubt my gift would be singled out during the event, so I needed something that would appease him enough to avoid a social disaster without bankrupting me.

For my rank, something that cost around 100 platinum was acceptable or I could put in effort myself. An Imperial Banner made from Mega Spider silk would be a decent gift. Patriotic, valuable, and collected with my own efforts. The enchanting and dyes would use up the money allocated while also making the entire thing a decent gift.

There would be a lot more that went into the Capital Ball, like the timing of my arrival, when it was socially acceptable to leave, and any other human nobles that might show up.

As I filled out the note for Henry, I realized the worst possible thing that could happen and with my Luck it probably would happen. I would have to dance, and the Human Emperor would probably pick me as one of his many dance partners for the event. I would need to practice my dancing a lot with an NPC tutor.

There were several dance routines I would need to memorize well enough so that I could do them flawlessly. Any kind of incident would be seen as an insult to the Human Emperor, which I knew would be what he aimed for. That would be a lot of dance routines, which would use up more of my time. That was also the point, to slow me down and put more roadblocks in my path. This event wasn’t something that was regularly scheduled, but something that the Human Emperor scheduled on a whim.

The whim being the timing of my quest to put even more pressure on me, showcasing how petty he could be. I had stabilized our mobilization and the financial situation, which meant something else had to be thrown in my direction to keep me busy.

I could run away to the mobilization, but I would not be allowed to return until the guild had earned all the war merits. Also, there was a good chance a representative would be requested if I didn’t attend, which would only increase the risk of someone else screwing up this event. I didn’t trust anyone else to handle it properly. The Capital Ball was something that I couldn’t avoid no matter what. Even death wouldn’t be a good enough excuse.

But that was Exponential and QAI. The real question I needed to focus on was if there was anything I could do to turn the Capital Ball around for my benefit? The Illuminati were looking to make another big splash. Some very careful maneuvering outside the capsules and suggestions could create an incident to embarrass the Human Emperor. The more I thought about the idea, the worse it sounded. Revenge sounded nice, but trying to beat the Human Emperor was like trying to beat up gravity. You weren’t going to win and you would just end up looking stupid as you were dragged down into the muck.

Taking the nearby towns would be beneficial for our expansion plans. I would need Henry to look at what possible deals I should be looking for. Perhaps a dedicated staff member to handle the noble aspects of the game. I frowned since that meant one more person I would have to pay, but I needed someone who kept an eye on the NPCs and what they were doing so I didn’t get blindsided.