TENGDA CORP: PLEASE LET ME GO BANKRUPT!

CHAPTER 1: Rock Bottom at the Corner of the City

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 cynically. "From the start, the visual concepts and mechanics of this game were too idealistic. You're no genius, Julian. You're just a stubborn amateur who knows nothing about business. Tomorrow morning, I'm pulling all my remaining assets. Enjoy your bankruptcy."

Without waiting for an answer, Arthur grabbed his coat and walked straight out, slamming the office's glass door until it rattled.

Julian shifted his gaze toward the three people on the left side of the table. They were his core team, friends who had stayed up late with him for the past two years. However, looking at their expressions, Julian knew this was the end of everything.

Marcus, the head programmer as well as his best friend since college, placed his office access card on the table. "Sorry, Julian. We can't go on anymore."

Julian stared at the card, then looked at Marcus. "Marcus... our server is still running. We just need one more momentum."

"Momentum with what, Julian?" Elena, the graphic designer, asked with teary eyes. "We haven't been paid for two months. My apartment rent bills have piled up. We believed in you, but idealism can't be used to pay for food."

"Elena is right," David, the community manager, chimed in with a heavy sigh. "The investor has pulled out, and this game's community is already dead. Just admit it, Julian. This project is a total failure. We have to move on with our lives too."

Julian fell silent. Their words felt more stinging than Arthur Sterling's insults earlier. He wanted to plead and convince them, but the zero digit in his company's bank account could not lie. He did not have any capital to hold them back.

"I understand," Julian said softly. "Thank you... for your hard work all this time."

Marcus patted Julian's shoulder briefly without saying a single word. One by one, the three of them packed their belongings into cardboard boxes, then walked out of the office. Their receding footsteps in the quiet hallway made the office feel completely dead.

That night, Julian walked alone on the sidewalk of Riverdale City. The autumn wind felt cold, but his mind was far more chaotic. The official bankruptcy declaration from the court was folded in his jacket pocket, sitting right next to a one-dollar coin—the remainder of all the money he possessed right now. He had lost everything: money, reputation, his team, and his dream.

As he stepped beneath a streetlamp, the back of his head suddenly felt a powerful shock. Julian staggered and clutched his forehead, which throbbed with an intense dizziness. His vision blurred, and the noisy sounds of the street gradually faded, replaced by a high-pitched buzzing sound in his ears.

In the midst of his darkening vision, a bright blue holographic screen suddenly appeared and floated before his eyes.

[Scanning subject's brainwaves... Synchronization 100%.]

[Subject's financial condition: Absolute Bankruptcy. Eligibility: Perfect.]

Julian rubbed his eyes repeatedly, thinking he was going crazy from the stress. "What... what is this thing?"

[Congratulations. You have been selected as the sole host for the "Tengda Welfare System".]

A flat, mechanical voice sounded directly in his head. Along with it, a new holographic text appeared, displaying a crazy rule that defied logic.

[Welfare System Regulations:] At the beginning of each period, the System will provide "System Funds" as business capital. System Funds MAY ONLY be used for legitimate business operations and cannot be used for personal interests. At the end of the period, a Settlement process will be carried out with the following provisions: If the Business suffers a LOSS: Every $1,000 of the loss will be converted into $100 cash transferred directly to your "Personal Funds" (Ratio 10:1). If the Business makes a PROFIT: Every $1,000 of the profit will only be converted into $1 cash to your "Personal Funds" (Ratio 1,000:1).

Julian froze in place, reading the text over and over again. As a developer, his tactical logic immediately understood how this system worked.

If he generated a $1 million profit for the company, he would only get $1,000 for his personal pocket. But, if he managed to make his company lose $1 million, the system would send $100,000 in cash straight to his personal account to be spent freely!

Losing means getting rich. Profit instead keeps you poor.

A faint smile appeared on his face, which eventually turned into a chuckle in the middle of the empty street. Remembering Arthur's insults calling him someone who didn't know how to do business, Julian felt like fate was playing a joke. Making a successful and highly profitable game was brutally difficult. But if it was just making a piece-of-trash game that failed totally and lost money?

Julian was definitely an expert at that.

[First Period Begins.]

[Current System Funds: $50,000]

[Current Personal Funds: $1]

[Remaining Time Until First Settlement: 30 Days.]

The holographic screen vanished, leaving Julian standing under the streetlamp. His frustration was completely gone, replaced by a new, somewhat twisted motivation.

"Okay, Arthur, Marcus, everyone," Julian muttered while clenching his fist. "You guys said I can't do business? Let's see just how ruined this first business of mine will be."