Thea, having not flown very far, naturally felt the magical transmission: Slade had put on the ring.
She whispered a chant, activating the limb restoration spell pre-stored in the ring. With the modifying power of the Lantern Ring, his eye would heal quickly. Simultaneously, his strength, speed, and endurance would receive a massive boost. The replica ring didn't possess the ability to create hard-light constructs, but the emotional spectrum power would perfectly align with him, granting him a new ability. As for what that ability was, it would have to wait until he woke up to be revealed.
Shortly after returning to Star City, Thea issued orders to her subordinates to invest in the "Red Room" Laboratory.
After some capital maneuvering, a large sum of money bypassed the board of directors, ultimately being invested under the name of a Queen Consolidated subsidiary. This was done to prevent directors appointed by Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne from noticing anything amiss. The Group's daily cash flow was immense; no matter how high the IQs of those two men were, they weren't omniscient. They couldn't discover something they had no knowledge of.
Thea was also a director in both of their corporations, and they were also using funds behind her back. She couldn't track their specific cash flows, and by the same logic, they couldn't track hers. It was a rather ridiculous rule of the game.
Investment didn't mean transferring the money immediately; preliminary due diligence was still required. The incident at S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City was due to happen in just a few days, so Thea couldn't step away. Furthermore, for a "non-famous" laboratory, it wouldn't be appropriate for a Chairperson like her to go in person. Sending a Vice President showed just the right amount of importance.
"Remember... watch more, speak less. Note down everything of value," Thea whispered her instructions.
"Don't worry about it!! Hehe..." The Vice President she sent was none other than Miss Felicity Smoak. The genius hacker had heard she was going to see alien technology and was so excited she hadn't slept all night. Although she was sporting two large dark circles under her eyes, she was still radiant with energy.
Thea was quite reassured about her. Felicity might look flighty, but she was actually very shrewd. In the original timeline, right after Ray Palmer disappeared, she had stabilized the upper management of Palmer Tech. If it hadn't been for Green Arrow's constant mess-making, she could have remained Chairperson for a long time.
The due diligence team was entirely led by Felicity. The scale wasn't large, totaling only about a dozen people, mostly legal and financial professionals. The only ones truly entering the experimental zone were Felicity, the original R&D Supervisor and current Head of Applied Sciences Dr. Hoffman, and Cisco Ramon, who was wearing a Queen Consolidated uniform and posing as part of the team.
Thea feared Felicity might be isolated and helpless, so she dragged Cisco along. She made him take a few days off from Central City to act as an external consultant and help brainstorm.
Much like Felicity, when he heard he was going to see alien technology products, he was also excited for a whole night. Cisco, a homebody who rarely went anywhere in Central City, received Thea's call and rushed to Star City without a second word.
Sitting on the Queen Consolidated business jet, Cisco Ramon was still buzzing with excitement. Wanting to find someone to talk to in order to relieve his tension, he glanced at the serious Dr. Hoffman beside him. The old man's face was stern, looking as if he were off to complete some revolutionary mission. Cisco shrank his neck back and didn't dare speak to him.
The remaining guys dressed as business professionals clearly didn't share a common language with him either. He could only turn to Felicity, who looked like nothing more than eye candy as she frantically applied makeup to cover her dark circles.
He originally assumed she had no real talent, but after chatting for a few sentences, Cisco was astounded. She might be inferior to him in mechanical engineering, but in computer technology, he was far inferior to her.
Are all women in Star City this formidable...? The otaku Cisco usually spoke very little with women and was initially a bit nervous. But he soon discovered that Felicity's personality was very similar to his—this girl was a total nerd!
Aside from being beautiful and having a different research focus, there was no difference between them. Cisco had finally found a kindred spirit. The two chatted about everything under the sun, and by the time they got off the plane, they were already good friends.
"Welcome to Detroit, everyone. I welcome you on behalf of Dr. Silas Stone." The person picking them up was a seventeen-year-old black-haired girl named Sarah Charles. When asked about her specific position, she said she was an intern. This made several of the accompanying business professionals very dissatisfied. Are you kidding? We are here to give you money, and you send an intern to receive us?
Knowing this trip wouldn't be easy, Thea had given Felicity a heads-up beforehand. Silas Stone welcomed the investment, but he was one hundred and twenty percent opposed to anyone entering his laboratory. Unfortunately, he was no match for the generals; their orders were not something he could refuse.
Felicity put away her "nerd girl" aura from the plane. Her entire temperament shifted, changing so drastically that Cisco Ramon almost thought she had become a different person.
Having been a Vice President at Queen Consolidated for several years, Felicity had no issues with social conduct. Within a few sentences, she had extracted quite a bit of information from the seventeen-year-old intern.
Dr. Silas Stone was a master at researching technology, but his emotional intelligence was quite poor. The plan he had agonized over for half a day was simply to give the Star City group the cold shoulder. He hoped they would get angry and leave in a huff. But how was that possible?!
Leaving aside her friendship with Thea, alien technology was right in front of her eyes. Felicity would squeeze her head through the door even if it killed her just to take a look!
They met the laboratory head, Dr. Silas Stone. Although the Doctor's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, the former super-hacker and current Vice President Miss Smoak used every trick in her book. Ignoring his expression, she spoke unceasingly about the bright prospects of cooperation between the two parties.
Dr. Stone was incredibly frustrated. Felicity was a young woman who used feigned ignorance and cuteness to the extreme; he really couldn't just kick her out.
"Miss Smoak, I feel that... can you even understand the direction of my research? Is there really room for us to cooperate?"
Felicity looked around, trying to find something to prove herself.
"Eh?" She saw the system Dr. Stone was currently running, and her eyes instantly lit up. "Can I try this?"
Dr. Stone thought she was just curious about his lab's system and silently handed the control panel to her.
But in less than three minutes, he was dumbfounded. Felicity's expression was incomparably focused, her eyes gleaming with intensity, her hands flying as she typed commands on the control panel.
"There's a vulnerability here."
"This algorithm is wrong; it should be like this..."
"Bullshit! How can you guys turn a blind eye to such a massive bug?!"
Entering her professional field, Felicity instantly turned into another person. The only sound in the laboratory was her typing. "What kind of ghost name did you call this system? 'Maze System'? Hah, looking at it, calling it a 'Sieve System' would be more accurate."
Everyone in the laboratory stopped their work at hand because Felicity had already acquired administrator privileges... and kicked them all out.
A group of people looked at her speechlessly. Who is this person?