Mr.Head

"You don't need to do this.I..."Steven talked to a middle aged man.

The man addressed as Sir Charles interrupted him"You have handled it these couple of years.But what was the result? I still haven't got any satisfactory results to speak of.Which contrives me to do it by myself.I don't want to hear about this again. "

Steven said after a moment"But is it really necessary to tell them the reason?What will be the point of it?"

Charles replied with a sigh"Honestly i don't think it will make much of a difference.But we have no choice but to adopt all measures that we have left undone.Maybe,Just maybe,It might prove to be more useful than we think"

Steven didn't say anymore and became a silent puppet again.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

By following the map given to him,Allen reached a place which was supposed to be the meeting hall mentioned in the announcement.

The speaker had not announced his identity.So he could not guess why they would be called when they had just joined.

It was like someone had called a student who had just enrolled.Though in this case all of the new researchers were called.

This time he had arrived earlier than most of the others.He had already stored his new uniform and was ready to leave when the announcement started.So he could start walking towards here at a moment's notice without wasting any time in additional activities.

The space was spacious enough for the people present here.And it might fit all people who were about to arrive soon.But it might get difficult to hold more people here.

Allen was just thinking about these small details when more people started arriving in droves.They must have been a little late either because they were busy storing their uniforms or in the middle of wearing them.

After most of the people had arrived,the hall started to feel crowded.And it seemed that it might not be able to fit any more people.

But Allen was soon proved wrong.The hall started to shift its position in such a way that it seemed spacious for people present here.

"So it can Extend? First time seeing one" 

It was not that Allen had never thought the hall they were in right now could be a type of extendable hall.But he had soon dismissed that thought.

The extendable halls were space efficient but not cost efficient.And they were not famous for their appearance.Simply said they were not stylish enough. 

So they were not very popular,as people who had money did not want it and those who wanted it did have money.After all space efficiency doesn't necessarily means it would be liked by everyone.

Rich people like to build their halls as big and luxurious as they could.So extendable halls were not usually to their liking.

Extendable halls only extend when there are a certain number of people in them.So they never seem too spacious or narrow for people in them.

After the last batch of people had arrived and the hall ended expanding.A middle aged man stepped on a slightly raised platform.

Or to be more correct he was actually standing there but couldn't be seen before. 

The middle aged man wore the same color of EXCEL uniform Steven was wearing.And he even had 5 big stars etched on it indicating he was at a higher rank than Steven who was a personal attendant of the President of Excel institute.

"Who would have a higher ranking than Steven?Surely it can't be the president personally inviting us right?"

And the even more strange thing was there was no name written on his uniform.All uniforms he saw until now without exception had a name written on them with the finest materials

After the man had stepped on the platform,it started rising even further.Soon it had risen enough that even people in the corner could see the middle aged person clearly.

The middle aged man started talking after seeing all eyes focused on him"I am extremely sorry for calling you all so abruptly.But I have an important announcement to make."

The middle aged man paused after talking till here and looked at everyone standing below.

Coincidentally at this time,Allen's eye fell on the person who had asked the question about the resurrection of Project "Evo" to Steven.He was wearing the uniform the department had given him.His nameplate read M.Luke.

It seemed that he wanted to say something.But stopped after hesitating a little.

No one talked and looked directly at the man.

The middle aged man continued talking"I have had the honor of taking the position of President of Excel institute in my generation.It is all due to my grandfather's guidance. 

Some of you must have questions about why an old project with almost no hope of accomplishing would be given to you.I am not obliged to tell you,however I am still telling you so that your doubts would be cleared.

The truth is that the Resurrection of this project was vehemently rejected by the majority of the board of directors of Excel institute.And they had only given way at my persistent orders as they had no veto power. 

But now the project has been ongoing for a couple of years.Previously the institute would only admit new researchers in several years.But now in just these couple of years, the institute has already taken three waves of researchers.

I am afraid the project might not be able to go on like this for long.We dearly need a concrete result.

Even a small success in the right direction will be a beacon of light for us.

We are just that desperate. 

So we decided to make groups of researchers this time.Members of a group will be randomly selected by A.I. but you can also take the initiative to make or join a group.In groups your privacy might become limited but the efficiency will be increased.

And you only need to be in forced groups till the research on project Evo is over.You are required to be present in the institute at all time in this period.And you can only go out of the institute if permission is granted.

This is a necessity considering the situation.As they say"" Drastic times call for drastic measures""

Otherwise the project might be shelved for another few centuries.And in that much time we could make that much more progress with this technology.

In fact, the last attempt at this study was made by my grandfather.But he could not accomplish it in the end even though he is known to be the most talented researcher of the century.

I am not asking you to work for free.It's give and take.You will understand what I mean soon enough.."The president left after making his speech.

The president was not as hospitable to them as Steven, Steven had at least given them time to ask questions.But the president seemed like he might have not even talked to them if not for the project.

The president seemed to be quite worked up about the project.And about the part about him doing it for his grandfather,Allen thought that there seemed something strange about it.After all even if he loved his grandfather and wanted to fulfill his dreams,he is still a researcher and knows better than to just waste the resources.

And that was just the rational thought revolving in his mind,he could not put his finger on the real reason why he would feel it to be strange.

Even Allen didn't sense much hope in this project at its current condition and he was already being optimist by indirectly saying it has some hope.

Allen stopped thinking about it and started wondering about the president's age. If he was tutored by his grandfather who died about 50 years ago, Then his age at that time should be more than at least 10. Because usually most things related to business are only taught to children that age. 

As in that age usually a kid would know what is he being really taught about and not some superficial understanding.

If his age was more than 60 and he still seemed only middle aged,then Allen could only attribute it to his background.After all in this age even though due to good food most would live past hundred. There was still a limit. 

And he had already crossed the middle aged mark.

The moment the president left, he heard a message alert from his digital watch.It was a new message from the institute.

After opening it, Allen found that it contained a new merit system.

In the start it said that all merits earned from a task of project "Evo" would have value equal to ten times the merits of a task of another project of the same difficulty.

After completely reading it,Allen thought that they had really gone all out

The merits earned from project "Evo" could be used to purchase things not even available to the public.They might even have a small chance to join the board of directors.

Board of directors had limited seats.It had 20 seats of which in every generation only about 18 would be filled and 2 would be left empty.

There were more than a thousand researchers in the institute.And publicly admitted researchers were only a part of them.

They were not necessarily worse than each other.So taking a seat on the Board of directors just like that seemed a little easy.

But the thing to note here was that it was only a slim chance.But,  something is better than nothing.