Chapter 169: Newcomers

The outlaws Li Mochen wanted to hire had not yet appeared, but the people sent by Nathan Sports Group had already moved into the Unicorn Apartments one after another.

There were four in total: Judith Smith, a Level 13 magic-energy sorcerer; Marlon Lewis, a Level 13 magic-energy hunter; Jiang Lun, a Level 13 magic-energy paladin; and Soichiro Kusumoto, a Level 13 magic-energy warrior.

Nathan Sports Group specially rented four eighty-square-meter rooms in the Unicorn for these four to live in daily. This way, even during their off-duty hours at night, they could provide protection for Li Mochen.

However, after these four moved in, along with the powerful outlaws around Angela, they vaguely began to develop the Unicorn Apartments into a fortress.

In addition, there was a team of twelve bodyguards, with strengths ranging from Level 9 to Level 10, but these people were responsible for the perimeter and usually did not appear before Li Mochen.

Regrettably, his previous bodyguards—Brent Goodman, Qi Tai, and Craig Harrell—had all been transferred away.

Li Mochen guessed it was mostly due to the turmoil he had caused in the dark world earlier.

Although Li Mochen had tried his best to exonerate them, and the security department of Nathan Sports Group did not pursue the matter, it still had some impact on these individuals.

The only one left was Chu Siguo. Powerful magic-energy shooters were extremely rare, and since he also had some command ability, it was estimated that Nathan Sports Group could not find a suitable replacement for the time being.

Li Mochen was helpless about this and could only give Qi Tai and the others his blessings at their parting.

Then, in the following days, Li Mochen stayed at home.

He didn't ask for leave; instead, the school, for safety reasons, informed him not to attend classes for a few days.

At the Unicorn Apartments, even during work hours on Monday and Tuesday, about three thousand people blocked the main entrance and the garage. And at Linden Academy, only 350 meters away, the situation was equally intense. Looking from his side, Li Mochen saw about two thousand seven or eight hundred people there as well.

The school's opinion was to send someone over these days to give Li Mochen private lessons. However, since his studies had already advanced far ahead, basically covering university content, this was merely a formality on paper to ensure Li Mochen wouldn't miss class hours.

So during these days, Li Mochen spent most of his time in the forging room studying alchemy techniques, taking only two to three hours every other day to go to the Rising Sun Company to handle affairs.

It wasn't that Li Mochen was lazy or indifferent to this business; rather, their superstore plan had entered its final stage. The locations for the eleven stores had all been selected, the lease contracts were all signed, and they were now in the midst of intense renovations.

Although they hadn't managed to negotiate down to the most ideal signing numbers, the costs were still controlled within a very satisfactory range. Considering that the locations of these stores were quite ideal, along with the spacious areas, they had actually gotten a good deal.

So next, they only needed to train the staff and wait for the renovations to complete before opening.

What Li Mochen was now focusing on was only the aspect of personnel training.

Whether the superstore plan could succeed depended heavily on the sales staff. However, Li Mochen did not interfere too much, because he didn't have much experience in this area and couldn't compare with the two sales experts hired by Kadirun Jebson.

Li Mochen valued only a few things: drive, enthusiasm, eloquence, and polished speech—he believed these were the most basic qualities a successful salesperson needed. Everything else could be learned gradually in actual sales work. The first two could be motivated by money, but the ability to talk depended on talent.

But the sales experts hired by Kadirun Jebson demanded more: goal awareness, cost awareness, customer awareness, problem awareness, quality awareness, discipline awareness, team awareness, and so on. They also categorized potential customers and taught various sales techniques.

Although Li Mochen personally thought this might have limited effect in actual work, he had to admit that the two experts made a lot of sense, leaving him with no choice but to watch.

Then, over these days, Li Mochen frequently received calls on his mobile phone, and almost every day there were visitors.

Carl Holton dutifully spread the word for him, attracting a swarm of agents who nearly blew up Li Mochen's mobile and landline phones.

However, there were not many that Li Mochen would take time to respond to; only the more famous agencies and agents piqued his interest.

Yet those big agencies, though very interested in Li Mochen and making grand promises of various favorable conditions, were disappointing when it came to discussing the actual contract terms.

"Your demands are too harsh, A-Mo."

After who knows how many failed negotiations, Mike Ross, who was handling the negotiations for Li Mochen, shook his head repeatedly: "If it's as you require, their ability to bind you is almost zero. Correspondingly, you can kick them out anytime. And as for the control over endorsements and commercial activities, if they can't make money, how would they be willing to invest resources in you?"

Li Mochen didn't think he was being excessive: "That's not too much, is it? The agent contracts of those league superstars are even more苛刻 than this. I think I have the qualifications now."

"The problem is, you're not a superstar yet."

Mike Ross casually turned on the TV nearby, which was playing an interview program.

"—Obviously, there must have been a conspiracy in last Friday's game. I'm not saying the NHSAA competition committee was unfair, but their methods were very clever. You know, nowadays various drugs, high-tech gadgets, and cross-era illusion techniques have been invented. I don't know how they did it, but Arcadis Sports Goods Company was clearly cheated."

"No, no! No need to wait for Cadio Rhodes; in the round of sixteen, tomorrow afternoon, Ibe Bryan will take care of him and expose his true colors!"

"That's Ensfeld, a professional player who retired ten years ago. He often talks nonsense, but many people still like him."

Mike Ross laughed: "You see, these days, almost all the TV stations have these kinds of programs. I guess they have limited understanding of your true strength; they're only contacting you because of your current fame and image."

"Then let's wait a bit longer, until I win the Atlanta City individual championship."

Li Mochen sighed and then instructed Chu Siguo: "Chu, if any similar calls come in, please say I'm not interested."

Anyway, he had limited interest in Belinda Harris's MV; even if he gave it up, it wouldn't matter.

But on Friday morning, Chu Siguo handed the phone to Li Mochen again. It wasn't about an agent's call, but Li Mei.

The little girl he planned to adopt, Hazel Wittenstein, had gone missing on Wednesday night, suspected of being kidnapped.

This immediately made Li Mochen's heart sink. Although he had only met Hazel a few times, his body had a considerable connection with the little girl.

Not to mention the merit power Hazel had provided him; without it, he wouldn't have been able to take down the Blackscale Fire Dragon so easily a few days ago.

He couldn't help but be concerned about this girl.