TENGDA CORP: PLEASE LET ME GO BANKRUPT!

CHAPTER 8: The Details Behind the Madness

The plan to revamp T-Store into a global distribution platform could not happen overnight. The following days at Apex Tower were filled with piles of server specification files and technical debates. Julian deliberately spent a lot of time in the office, overseeing every operational detail with one main goal: to ensure their expenses were truly leaking from all sides.

That morning, Harry entered Julian's office with increasingly thick dark circles under his eyes. He carried a very thick pile of documents.

"Boss Julian," Harry placed the documents on the desk with a rather heavy thud. "Regarding your order to cut the platform commission to 5% and provide a 70% subsidy... our financial team and network division have stayed up all night to calculate the simulation. This... truly defies all common sense."

Julian sipped his free premium tea calmly. "Which part do you think doesn't make sense, Harry?"

Harry opened the middle page of the document, pointing to an expense graph that plunged sharply downwards. "If we launch this platform with a global user base, we have to rent large data centers in three main regions: North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. The cost of renting international bandwidth to accommodate the d******d traffic for gigabyte-sized games is massive. Added to that is the Boss's policy of wanting to give away free AAA games every Friday."

Harry swallowed hard before continuing, "The cybersecurity system to withstand hacker attacks and daily server maintenance alone will cost around $1.5 million a month. With a commission of only 5%, we could only break even if there are one billion transactions per year. Boss, we are a new studio. The ten million dollars in our cash will run out in less than four months just to pay the electricity bills and server rent!"

Julian had to use all his strength to restrain himself from smiling widely. Hearing the words "run out in four months" made his heart happy. Ten million dollars evaporating? That was the best news he had heard this week.

"Harry," Julian rose from his chair, walked over to Harry, and patted the designer's shoulder with a facial expression made as serious as possible. "You are looking at this from a short-term perspective. But I am looking at it from the perspective of the future. Do you know what the biggest problem in the game industry is right now?"

Harry blinked in confusion. "Uh... capitalism?"

"Exactly!" Julian snapped his fingers. "The giant distribution platforms out there have been extorting indie developers with 30% commission cuts for too long. They are going too far. Tengda Corp is not here to make a profit off of fellow creators. We are here to disrupt their market. Let our cash run a deficit, let us lose millions of dollars, as long as small developers can make a decent living and gamers can smile every Friday. Do you understand?"

Harry was stunned. Julian's words felt very profound in his head. A corporate boss who consciously was ready to burn millions of dollars of his own money for the welfare of the gamer and developer community? This was no longer just a business, but an ideological movement.

"B-Boss Julian..." Harry's eyes suddenly welled up with tears of admiration. "Your vision is too noble. Forgive me for being narrow-minded. I will contact the best global server vendors immediately. If you are ready to sacrifice for this industry, the entire Tengda developer team is also ready to work with total dedication!"

"Eh? Wait, there's no need to work like that—" Before Julian could put the brakes on Harry's enthusiasm, the skinny young man had already turned around and sprinted out of the room with burning passion.

Julian gaped where he stood. 'Why did that kid get even more fired up? Damn, I hope he doesn't optimize the server too well,' Julian muttered anxiously.

Before Julian could sit back down, the door to his room opened again. Chloe Sterling stepped inside gracefully, the scent of expensive perfume instantly filling the room. Today she wore a trendy casual blazer suit, carrying two premium lunch boxes.

"Julian! I brought you lunch from my favorite three-star restaurant," Chloe said in her signature spoiled style while placing the boxes on Julian's desk and sitting right in the chair across from him.

"Thank you, Chloe. But you don't need to bother coming to the office every day," Julian said, feeling a bit awkward seeing Chloe's overly diligent attendance.

"Of course I have to come!" Chloe gave a small snort while crossing her arms over her chest and looking at Julian. "My cosmetics company, Ember Beauty, has a lot of cash now after our product sold out. I am currently drawing up plans to expand our research laboratory. But after hearing from Harry about your new T-Store project..."

Chloe leaned her face closer with sparkling eyes. "You are truly incredible, Julian. Your subsidy strategy is completely crazy. My father threw a tantrum at home last night when he heard the rumors about your 5% commission policy. He said you are committing financial suicide."

Julian smiled with satisfaction inwardly. 'Your father is indeed a smart old man, Chloe.'

"But I immediately refuted my Dad's words!" Chloe continued in a proud tone. "I told Dad that you are a visionary. You're deliberately making T-Store lose money to gather millions of users first. Once everyone on earth uses T-Store, this platform will dominate the market and become unrivaled. Right, Julian? I know that's your secret tactic!"

Julian, who had just put food into his mouth, instantly choked hard. He coughed repeatedly, hurriedly drinking his water until it was gone.

"Y-you... thought that far ahead?" Julian asked with a pale face.

"Of course! I'm your business partner, after all," Chloe replied with a satisfied smile, feeling very smart for being able to read Julian's plans. "Don't worry, to support your subsidy project, I have already ordered Ember Beauty's finance team to divert 40% of our cosmetic sales profits next month... to help inject funds into T-Store's operational budget!"

Boom!

Like being struck by lightning in broad daylight, Julian Vance instantly froze in his chair with his fork still hanging in the air.

'She... she wants to inject capital from the cosmetic profits into T-Store's cash?! Adding to the money I have to burn?!' Julian screamed hysterically in his mind.