"What we give them isn't necessarily money." Nick, leaning back with his arms crossed, stood in front of the table and asked, "What version has the Spider App updated to now?"
Finally shifting his gaze from his coffee, a programmer in a plaid shirt sitting at the end of the long table rubbed his hands together and said, "It's now at version 1.0.8, having gone through eight version updates."
"What's our income and expenditure situation then?" Nick looked at the finance person next to the table, who sifted through a substantial report from the bottom of his documents. After scanning over it, he nodded, "Financial statements look much better than the field department. Spider-Men seldom ask for much. Often, they undertake a heap of work merely for some things that aren't too valuable for us."
"So, we can manage the superhero team in the same way, releasing an official hiring app. Any superhero can register on it, accept employment missions, earn points and redeem rewards."
Nick laughed, "From what I gather, these young people nowadays, if you bring up the 'Superhero Registration Act' or shove a survey in their faces for them to fill out, they'll undoubtedly rebel. But if you say that a new game requires all of their ability data, they'll fill everything out without blinking an eye."
Everyone around the conference table laughed. An African American agent sitting in the center of the table spread his hands and said, "If you ask me to work for money, all I want to do is laze around in bed. But if you tell me I can earn points to get cool skins by playing a few more rounds in the game, I'll get up earlier than anyone."
"Then it's settled." Nick nodded in agreement and looked toward the programming department's team members, "Work your magic, and have a rough framework for us in the next few days. We'll first test it internally on the superhero teams we're familiar with."
The programmer adjusted his glasses, "That's not hard. We've already built the Spider App and the Octopus App. We can just adapt the framework from there. However, New York is so safe now, where are we going to find tasks to assign to them?"
The Head of Field Operations, a woman, stroked her chin and suggested, "When in doubt, just assign them some petty things to take care of, like running errands. We still have a ton of those tasks, don't we?"
"No." Natasha shook her head to veto this proposal, explaining, "The first set of tasks must be quite official because we are setting rules. Meanwhile, it lets them appreciate the seriousness with which the authorities treat the matter so that they will take following tasks seriously."
"If we really end up giving them tasks like delivering letters as in the game, after the initial novelty has worn off, they'll surely become exasperated. They'll feel like they're being treated like nameless minions and then completely abandon them."
"Indeed." Nick nodded, agreeing with Natasha's point of view, then added, "The first batch of tasks must be methodic and of moderate difficulty, especially not too easy, to make it clear that there is a possibility that they might get hurt. This is a security hiring mission, not just role-playing for fun."
"This way, we can also discourage those who play superhero for fun but actually lack both the skills and the resolve, reducing their casualties."
The female head of Field Operations banged her forehead with her pen and queried, "So, the first set of tasks has to be combative tasks? Where are we going to find enemies for them? And even if we find an enemy, they might not realize how dangerous they are through the task description."
"The enemy needs to look very fierce at first glance." Mark extended his hand, "The kind that is so scary it makes a child cry. Every CIA agent has heard from their predecessors about our first mission being to defeat an alien with eight hands that can shoot mind-controlling waves. It sounds ridiculous, but it really does weed out the cowards."
Nick nodded his agreement, lost in thought. It seemed that he was searching through his mind for a fitting enemy, but the longer he deliberated, the deeper his frown grew.
After a while, he sighed, and with a bitter smile helplessly admitted, "Remarkably, Earth is quite safe. But that's not my fault; blame our psychoanalyst... Wait, has there been any word from Shiller lately?"
People down below looked at each other before shaking their heads. Nick glanced at the date on the clock then murmured, "Shiller has been missing for too long. I fear his plan this time is beyond imagination..."
"Beep beep beep—!!"
Suddenly, a sharp alarm rang out from the communicator attached to Natasha's waist. Raising an eyebrow, she picked up the communicator.
"Hello, what's going on? Grant, why are you activating the emergency comm?"
Hearing the voice of Grant Ward from the other end of the communicator, Natasha sprung up from her seat, eyes widened, "What did you say? Reed Richards sent out a Level One warning through the laboratory's security monitoring platform, warning of an invasion by the Antimatter Universe Worm Race?!"
"Reed Richards wants a face-to-face with Nick Fury. Director, do you want me to patch him through?" Natasha turned her head to ask Nick.
Nick nodded. After Natasha finished the conversation, she quickly walked to the projector at the front, plugged her communicator into it, and soon the giant half figure of Reed Richards was projected to the center of the meeting room.
Nick observed that Doctor Otto and Dr. Banner were also behind Reed, who had a serious expression and declared.
"While observing the Antimatter Universe, I found that a superorganism called the Annihilator was working with an entity known as Ravenous to open a passage from the Antimatter Universe to the Positive Matter Universe. Currently, countless terrifying bugs are invading our universe."
"According to the images transmitted back by Stark's observer robot left in Universe Space, the Three Great Empires have yet to muster a resistance. The horrifying bug swarm—akin to a terrifying Annihilation Wave—has, in just a few minutes of their arrival, already destroyed hundreds of surrounding dimensions."
"If this is not stopped, then today will be the day of total annihilation for our entire universe..."
"Wait a minute." Nick raised a hand to halt Reed from going any further. Reed assumed Nick was going to ask he knew, and as he prepared to explain, Nick interrupted.
"What did you say the thing that the Annihilator was collaborating with was called?"
"Ravenous."
Nick didn't even look at Reed before turning to the others in the meeting room and waving his hand.
"Shiller's grand plan is here. Get ready for work."