TENGDA CORP: PLEASE LET ME GO BANKRUPT!

CHAPTER 7: Forced Monopoly

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 luxurious to the jet set.

Arthur Sterling stood frozen in the corner of the hall, the drink glass in his hand almost slipping as he saw the long line of rich people fighting to buy his daughter's product.

Meanwhile, Chloe Sterling came down from the stage with a joyful face. She immediately ran towards Julian and hugged him tightly in front of everyone.

"Julian! We did it! The product sold out in twenty minutes!" Chloe exclaimed in a joyful voice mixed with emotion. "Everyone is praising me! My father couldn't even say a word! Only you... you're the only person who believed in me from the start!"

Julian Vance stood stiffly in his place, letting Chloe hug him. His gaze was blank, staring at the phone screen displaying a notification from the System:

[Warning: Incoming revenue detected exceeding predicted limits.] [Tengda Corp's profit valuation this quarter: Up 600%.] [Estimated Personal Funds after Settlement: Near Zero.]

Julian felt like crying, but he couldn't. 'Damn it...' Julian screamed inwardly with full frustration. 'Why can't a single one of you just let me be poor?!'

A few days later, Julian sat in his new manager's chair at Apex Tower with a blank stare, looking at two financial reports on his desk. On the left was the audit report of Chloe's Ember Beauty, and on the right was the revenue report of the T-Store platform.

Ting!

The System's blue holographic screen appeared right in front of his face.

[Second Period Settlement Completed.] [Total Operational Expenses (Luxury Office + Hollywood Project): $450,000] [Total Combined Revenue (Donations + Cosmetics Sales): $4,500,000] [Business Status: EXTRAORDINARY PROFIT.] [Personal Funds Conversion (Ratio 1,000:1): $4,050] [System Funds Updated for the Third Period: $10,000,000]

Julian ruffled his hair in frustration. The company's net revenue had jumped tenfold. The money in the System Funds now reached ten million dollars—a figure equivalent to the assets of an upper-middle-class corporation—while the money in his personal pocket only increased by four thousand dollars. He still couldn't buy a sports car or a luxury house under his own name.

Click.

The room's door opened without a knock. Chloe Sterling stepped inside with her signature spoiled style, carrying shopping bags from famous brands. Her face was glowing, in stark contrast to Julian's gloomy expression.

"Julian! Guess what my assistant brought this morning?" Chloe sat on the edge of Julian's desk without permission, crossing her legs casually. "My father... Arthur Sterling, just sent an official letter. He wants Sterling Group to collaborate with Tengda Corp for our new real estate project!"

Julian heaved a heavy sigh while massaging his temples. "Tell your father I'm not interested in ordinary properties."

"Of course I already rejected it!" Chloe waved her hand arrogantly. "I told him, 'You insulted Julian before, Dad, so don't even hope you can suck up to him now'. But Julian, the success of Ember Beauty made me realize one thing."

Chloe leaned her body forward, staring at Julian with eyes sparkling full of admiration. "You deliberately made that expensive Tic-Tac-Toe game to raise my product's value in the public's eyes, right? An extraordinary cross-industry marketing strategy. You truly are the man who understands me the most."

Julian could only smile stiffly. 'What marketing? I didn't even know your product would sell, Miss!' Julian screamed inwardly.

"So," Chloe pulled out a bright red new folder and placed it on Julian's desk. "For our next step, I want us to build our own physical and digital game distribution platform. I want your T-Store to not just be a place for downloads, but to become the ruler of the world's digital ecosystem. And I am going to manage it with you!"

Hearing Chloe's words, Julian's tactical brain which was momentarily dizzy suddenly lit up again. He stared at the red folder, then shifted his gaze to look at Chloe.

Building a global-scale digital distribution platform to rival the giants already in the market was the biggest financial suicide tactic. The global server rental cost would be millions of dollars per month. Not to mention if he executed a "money-burning" strategy by providing crazy subsidies on game prices.

"A great plan, Chloe," Julian said, his voice suddenly becoming full of enthusiasm. He rose from his chair, making Chloe slightly surprised but smiling happily.

Julian immediately called Harry into the room.

"Harry! Gather the entire developer team and our network division right now," Julian ordered with cunningly glinting eyes. "We are going to launch the T-Store Global Monopoly Project."

Harry, who now looked at Julian with full admiration, immediately took notes swiftly. "What are your specific directives for this project, Boss?"

Julian smiled, staring at the whiteboard in his room. "First, cut the commission for all outside developers selling games on our platform. If other platforms take a 30% profit, T-Store will only take 5%, and 0% for small-scale local developers."

Harry was startled. "Boss... 5%? That's not even enough to pay the electricity bill for our main servers in Europe and Asia!"

"Let it be," Julian cut in with a casual wave of his hand. "Second, every time a gamer buys a game priced at $10 on our platform, they only need to pay $3. The remaining $7 will be covered and paid by Tengda Corp's System Funds directly to the game developer. We fully subsidize it!"

Harry swallowed hard, his digital pen almost breaking. "A 70% subsidy?! Boss, this is called mass money-burning! We could go bankrupt in a matter of months!"

Beside him, Chloe instead stared at Julian with sparkling eyes full of admiration. 'Incredible... He dares to harm his own company to destroy the greedy digital capital owners. This man is truly amazing!' Chloe thought, misunderstanding for the umpteenth time.

"And lastly," Julian added with a satisfied smile. "Every Friday, we will buy the licenses for large-scale popular games (AAA games) from overseas studios at full price, then we will distribute them for FREE to all T-Store users in the world."

Julian crossed his arms over his chest, looking at the trembling Harry and the mesmerized Chloe. With a target of subsidizing millions of users, a 5% commission cut, and giving away free games every week, the ten million dollar budget from the System was guaranteed to evaporate to zero in a short time.

"Do it right now, Harry. Don't let a single dollar remain in our operational cash without being subsidized," Julian said with full conviction.

As Harry walked out of the room with a pale face from shock, Julian turned to look at the city window, holding back his victorious laughter in his heart. Burning money through global digital subsidies... This time there would be no miracle that could save Tengda Corp's cash from total bankruptcy.