The main meeting room of Vance Tech felt incredibly tense. The air conditioner in the ten-by-ten meter room felt useless due to the heated atmosphere. At the end of the oval table, Julian Vance sat silently with his fingers intertwined. In front of him, the projector screen displayed a sharply plunging red graph—the global performance report for the idealistic game he had built over two years, Chronicles of Eldoria."Two hundred thousand dollars, Julian! Two hundred thousand dollars of my money is gone for this stupid pixel game!"Arthur Sterling, their main investor, slammed the thick financial report document onto the table. His face was flushed red with anger.Julian took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. "Mr. Sterling, the mobile game market is indeed saturated right now. If we are given just one more month to release a new patch—""One more month to burn my money?!" Arthur interrupted with a mocking laugh. He stood up and leaned both hands on the table, glaring at Julian cynica

Julian stared at the remainder of his personal funds, which had only increased by $119, while his System Funds had bloated to half a million dollars. He slapped his forehead hard."Damn it! Why on earth did they donate?!" Julian cursed in frustration.A profit of over one hundred thousand dollars for the company, but the money he could spend on himself was not even enough to buy a decent pair of new shoes. The 1,000:1 conversion rate was completely suffocating him if the company actually made money.However, Julian was not a person who gave up easily. With $500,000 in System Funds, he immediately drew up a new plan."If making a failed product is hard because of the market's weird taste, I'll just spend this money on office operational expenses!" he thought.The following week, Julian immediately made his move. He rented an entire floor in the Apex Tower skyscraper, the most elite building in the center of Riverdale City. The rental cost was no joke, $30,000 a month. Not stopping ther

Two weeks passed quietly in Riverdale City. For Julian, every day was pleasant. He spent his time relaxing in his office, reading comics, or simply enjoying coffee from the office cafeteria. His System Funds continued to decrease drastically to finance the luxurious office operations, as well as the capital for his two major projects.The first periaodic report came from Chloe's cosmetics company, Ember Beauty.Chloe sent a short message containing photos of her cosmetic product samples. Through his phone screen, Julian saw a complex, asymmetrically shaped crystal glass bottle with geometric carvings made by Italian craftsmen. Inside, there was a silvery-grey cream that shined faintly.Chloe: "Julian! I managed to cooperate with the best independent laboratory. The first batch of simulated meteorite dust raw materials has arrived from a Swiss supplier. The logistics costs and these crystal containers used up $150,000 of your investment funds. But look at this, the result is incredibly

The crowd of rich people and beauty critics in the Grand Ballroom of the Grand Riverdale Hotel apparently did not intend to protest Chloe. They instead fought to get forward to buy up Ember Beauty's cosmetic products.As it turned out, the viral effect of the game Tic-Tac-Toe: Cosmic Edition also dragged her cosmetic product along. On the internet, netizens discovered the fact that the sole investor behind the unique cosmetics was Julian Vance from Tengda Corp. Gamers and influencers immediately made a new theory: if the genius Julian dared to fund the meteorite dust cream, it meant the product must have an artistic concept as high as his Tic-Tac-Toe game.The grey cream in the Italian crystal container that was previously considered a joke was suddenly considered the coolest new fashion trend. Socialite women immediately swarmed the sales website for fear of falling behind the times. The expensive $250 target price that Julian set instead made the product look even more exclusive and

Julian hurriedly put down his fork. Cold sweat began to drench the back of his neck. His initial intention to make Chloe a financial burden had instead turned into a new problem. This girl now actually wanted to donate a massive amount of funds that could thwart his loss-making plan."Wait, Chloe," Julian interrupted, raising both hands to calm the girl in front of him. He adjusted his tone to sound like a businessman giving important advice. "That plan to inject funds... don't do it."Chloe furrowed her brows, staring at Julian in confusion. "Why? Doesn't T-Store need a lot of money to burn for subsidies? The money from Ember Beauty can help ease Tengda's expense burden, Julian.""That is exactly where it's wrong," Julian said, leaning back casually while crossing his legs to hide his panic. "Tengda Corp's business concept is full independence. If we mix cosmetic profits with digital subsidy funds, the market will see us as a corporation deliberately cross-subsidizing for the sake of