TENGDA CORP: PLEASE LET ME GO BANKRUPT!

CHAPTER 5: The Storm Begins to Form

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 exclusive!"

Julian almost spat out the coffee he was drinking. A bottle of grey face cream worth hundreds of dollars that contained stone powder? Who in their right mind would apply something like that onto their skin? Consumers would definitely be afraid that their faces would get irritated or turn grey.

Julian: "Excellent, Miss Chloe. Just keep going. Use the rest of the money to rent the hall of the most expensive five-star hotel in the city center for the launch event. Don't forget to invite famous beauty critics. We must show them this quality."

Chloe: "You truly understand me, Julian! Other investors would have definitely had a heart attack seeing these expenses. Don't worry, our launch event will become the center of attention for the entire city!"

Julian put his phone down with a wide smile. 'Of course it will be the center of attention. The center of attention for being the most expensive failure of the year,' he thought happily.

Knock, knock, knock.

The door to Julian's office was knocked on somewhat hurriedly. Harry entered with thick dark circles under his eyes, but his face looked incredibly excited. He had just returned from a long flight from London.

"Boss Julian! I just got back from Abbey Road Studios in London!" Harry placed a flash drive on Julian's desk with hands that trembled slightly from exhaustion. "The recording process with the symphony orchestra went smoothly. They initially thought we were joking because we asked for a grand three-minute music arrangement for a Tic-Tac-Toe game. But once they saw the draft of the motion capture animation that the team in Hollywood worked on... they were immediately amazed, Boss!"

Julian raised an eyebrow. "Amazed?"

"Yes, Boss!" Harry nodded enthusiastically. "They said the combination of a simple game like Tic-Tac-Toe with symphony music and 3D knight battles is a very unique concept that stands out from the rest. Our Hollywood team also went all out. They hired professional action actors to perform complex sword choreography, just for the animation of the 'X' symbol cutting across the field!"

Julian coughed lightly, trying to hide the sudden anxiety that surfaced. Wait a minute. Why were these professionals taking this board game so seriously?

"And what about the cost?" Julian asked in a forced casual tone.

"In accordance with your order to spare no expense regarding the funds, we spent a total of $250,000 for the entire audio-visual production process, Boss. The remainder of our System Funds right now is just barely enough for the release f*e on the digital platform," Harry reported proudly.

Hearing such a massive expenditure figure, Julian's anxiety instantly vanished. He exhaled a sigh of relief. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars gone just for a board game with no ads and no shopping features. No matter how good the music or the animation was, a Tic-Tac-Toe game was still a Tic-Tac-Toe game. People would at most play it once out of curiosity, then delete it within five minutes. There would be no revenue coming in.

"Good work, Harry," Julian said while patting his employee's shoulder. "Gather all the assets immediately. We will release this game globally next week on the T-Store platform under the name: Tic-Tac-Toe: Cosmic Edition."

"Understood, Boss! We will prepare it right away!" Harry saluted and left the room with a firm step.

Julian walked toward the large window of his office, looking at the night view of Riverdale City. The settlement time from the System had only one week remaining.

On one hand, Chloe Sterling was ready to launch a bizarre cosmetic product with expensive five-star hotel rental costs. On the other hand, his game studio was going to release the most wasteful free game in the history of the digital industry.

"Two bankruptcy plans are already underway," Julian muttered while sipping his coffee, which was starting to grow cold. "Arthur Sterling, the investors who previously insulted me, and you, System... get ready to see how this business will run a total deficit."

However, in another corner of the city, Tyler "The Rage" Brooks had just uploaded an announcement on his social media account, which had millions of followers:

“Gamer friends, I just got a leak from an industry insider. Tengda Corp studio, the creator of the game The Unfair Quest, will be releasing their second project next week. Get ready, because this game is going to be completely different from the rest!”

Julian Vance was completely unaware that this free promotion from the influencer would instead mess up the bankruptcy plan he had neatly drawn up.