They had just agreed to 10 Nux Crystals, yet he had directly tripled the amount, which made absolutely no sense.
After all, who wanted to make less money? But after the initial shock wore off, it was replaced with ecstasy and admiration.
"We can do that! We promise to be the hardest workers you've ever found, right guys?" The man said after steading himself, realizing this may be the best opportunity of his lifetime.
"Right!" The others shouted in unison, not wanting to let this deal slip by their hands.
"Great, then you'll work 10 hours a day 5 days a week, I'll give you a Nux Crystal to the hour."
"Of course if you want to work overtime, then I'll still pay you the same amount, but you can only do a maximum of 15 hours a day, 5 hours on the weekends, or else I'll personally escort you out." Minos explained.
"No problem, we have a deal, Boss!" The man said happily, firmly shaking Minos's hand, but with enthusiasm this time.
While neither he nor his friends realized why Minos capped their work off at 15 and 5 hours, now wasn't the time to complain, so after signing the workforms, Minos personally guided them into the building.
Of course while they didn't understand the limitation, Minos did. The human body was no different from a machine, and overworking it would end up breaking it faster, so the 15 hour limit was just to make sure they could recover properly, and not work themselves into an early grave.
As for the 5 hour limit on the weekend, Minos just wanted them to have a reasonable work-life balance which would be more conductive to work.
"As you can see, I have yet to clean this place up, so in the meantime, I've got other work for you guys to do." Minos said, after giving his men a quick tour of the place.
"What is it, Boss?" Alfo, the leader of the men, said.
"I'll show you when we get there." Minos said, guiding them back out.
After a bit of walking, the small group arrived at the new building Minos had just purchased, and without any surprises, this place also had a few vagrants calling it home.
"Boss, how are we meant to work with these people here?" Alfo asked curiously.
"Simple, go and tell them that I plan on turning this place into a homeless center, and that they can stay in my other building until we're done with construction." Minos explained.
"Homeless center? Are you kidding Boss? Or just trying to trick them?" Alfo replied with confusion, having never heard of anyone making a homeless center before.
In his opinion, the fact that they could sleep inside these buildings was blessing enough for them, as for getting proper beds, that was just being greedy.
The fact was, no one cared about the homeless, whether they starved or froze was of no concern to most people, so Minos wanting to build them a place to sleep just felt incredibly odd to them.
The men behind Alfo also looked at each other with some surprise, but most agreed with Alfo, thinking this was just a scheme by Minos to get them out.
"No trick, I'm being serious. As for the ones who aren't in the right mind to reply, just carry them over." Minos stated clearly.
"..." The others stood in silence, digesting Minos's words for a second before finally coming to.
Meanwhile, Jal couldn't help but look at him with shining eyes, feeling like Minos was one of those heroes his dad had always told him about.
"Do you all understand?" Minos asked again, seeing them frozen.
"Ahem, we get it Boss, we'll get on it right away." Alfo said first, before forcefully pulling his men off to work.
"What about me, Boss, should I join them?" Jal asked, suddenly having nothing to do.
"No, instead I want you to go out and try to find me more capable workers, as many as you can manage." Minos replied.
"On it, Boss!" Jal said, running back out of the building.
With Jal off and his men at work, Minos took to overseeing, making sure that his men were operating as he instructed.
Fortunately, no one dared to go against his words, so just as he said, they went around from person to person, telling them Minos's deal.
Of course, while they were homeless, it didn't mean they were stupid, so most of them refused to leave, not believing Minos's promise for a second.
For those people, Minos just gave them a slight flick with his Nux, immediately putting them to sleep so his men could carry them off.
Now wasn't the time to play games with these people, so if he had to use a little force, he would do so.
With this strategy, the others realized they couldn't resist, so most went without any fight, allowing Minos to slowly clear out the rest of the building.
After a few hours of working like this, the building was finally cleared, but the foul stench still filled the halls, the place having been used as a toilet for who knows how many years.
"What now, Boss?" Alfo asked, wiping the sweat off his brow.
"What else? It's time to clean this place up, make it presentable." Minos said, handing each of his men a Shining Talisman and some cleaning supplies so they could clean up even the darkest corners.
"Start on the first floor and build your way up, and make sure to be meticulous, I want this place so clean I could eat off the floor, got it?"
"We got it Boss." Everyone replied, before heading off.
With them all going to the first floor, Minos made his way up to the roof, planning on cleaning from there and reaching them in the middle.
While he was only one man, one couldn't forget that he was a cultivator, so in terms of efficiency, he would only be faster than his subordinates, not slower.
After tapping his spatial ring and pulling out everything he needed, Minos immediately got to work, using all his strength with the mop to the point where the floor began glistening.
When he came across trash or other less than savory things, he would put them into a large trash bag, tying it off whenever it was filled.
Like this, the rest of the day slowly passed, and in what seemed to be a blink of an eye, the 15 hour limit Minos had set had come.
After going downstairs and paying his men, he sent them off for the day, while also taking this opportunity to check in on Jal, who had been waiting for him.
Once again, he had a few people with him, so after making sure they were all reliable, Minos told them the rules and had them sign the contracts before telling them they could come in to work tomorrow.
"Well done Jal, here's your pay for the day." Minos said, giving Jal what he owed him.
"Thanks Boss! Anything else you need?"
"No, it's late, just go and get some sleep, tomorrow will be another busy day."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow, Boss!"
Waving goodbye to Jal, Minos headed back into the building, getting straight into cleaning, not planning on sleeping tonight.
…
By the time sunlight had come, Minos had cleaned up the third floor, having done such a good job that the building looked like it was brand new.
Satisfied with his work, Minos looked out a open window, seeing his men slowly funneling into the building.
Heading downstairs, Minos greeted them before letting them get to work, deciding to take a small break.
With more men than yesterday, the group quickly finished cleaning up the first floor, finally heading up to the second.
With them working on the second, Minos did a quick inspection on the first, cleaning up a few spots they had missed before being satisfied.
While they had missed a few things, that was mostly due to their own limitations as normal humans, so Minos didn't mind.
After leaving the finishing touches on the first floor, Minos joined them on the second, following behind them and touching up on the spots they missed.
As for Jal, Minos had him do the same thing he'd already been doing, finding more workers for him.
Another day had passed in this manner, and after again sending them off and employing a few new men Jal had found, the third day finally arrived.
…
Sitting on the roof, Minos watched as the sun slowly rose from the horizon, enjoying the view as he waited for his delivery.
It didn't take much time for a man wearing a shirt that said 'Holan's Furniture House' to walk to the front gate.
Heading downstairs, Minos greeted the man and signed the delivery papers before having him unload all the beds on the first floor.
As he did that, Minos's employees finally arrived, Minos having them evenly disperse the beds between the three floors.
With more than a dozen men fast at work, the five hundred beds were made quick work of, and in only half a day, everything was set up.
By that time, Minos's shipment of blankets had also arrived, so after having them neatly folded on each bed, he looked at his work, satisfied.