You always only need 3, never 9.
You said:
"You can choose who to invest under, so let me know who you are investing under or if you don't care who it is just write "anyone" in your post and I will decide who your investment will go under."
if level 1 is already busy that means he needs 3 investors only! if on level 2 there are 2 persons and i pay I would be on 2nd level and I doubt you will put the next 3 who invest under me so i can get fist the money!
so yeah we need 9 not 3! well one of us needs 7 the other one 8 and the last one 9