It was still because it was far too niche!

So niche that no one was willing to sponsor such a strange, self-destructive project!

For a moment, the conference room fell into an awkward silence.

Seeing this, Matt awkwardly parted his lips, wanting to retract what he had just said.

He had never been a domineering person.

As a former chief marketing manager, he knew very well that a mature company could never be led by a single willful leader.

Unless that person was a chosen one, possessing prophetic foresight and a market intuition that never failed.

Matt admitted he did not meet such a freakish standard.

So all along at Tiansi Group, he had been good at listening to the management’s opinions.

It was true that no one touched niche projects.

But likewise, they lacked popularity and recognition.

Come to think of it, sponsoring this kind of thing seemed no different than sponsoring a neighborhood soccer team.

However, just as he was about to speak again,

Xu Zhixing suddenly spoke from the side:

“I think this idea is actually quite good.”

What—?

In an instant, everyone’s eyes shifted from Matt to Xu Zhixing.

This was bad; big trouble was brewing today!

The chairman and the CEO were both acting strangely at the same time!

The executives all wore pale expressions.

If only the chairman had lost it, the CEO could correct him.

If only the CEO was acting up, the chairman could steer the direction.

But if the top two leaders were both out of sorts simultaneously, what were they supposed to do?

Suddenly, the conference room became deathly silent. Everyone hesitated, sensing something was amiss.

Then Xu Zhixing said:

“As you all know, I was born in Ganzhou, Huaguo, and later moved to Siam with my mother and changed nationality,”

“I still remember when I was in middle school, there was a very powerful entrepreneur in our area,”

“Extremely wealthy, with countless mansions and luxury cars, personal assets exceeding one billion,”

“Guess what industry he was in?”

Hearing this, the executives began guessing eagerly—

‘Cars?’

‘Mining?’

‘Silk? Isn’t Huaguo silk world-famous?’

‘Technology?’

‘I think maybe finance; the earliest financiers all made a fortune…’

‘…’

However,

Xu Zhixing just shook his head at their guesses:

“None of those. He was just a rice noodle seller,”

“More precisely, the largest rice noodle supplier in the entire city and county,”

“The rice noodles sold outside at two or three yuan a bowl—over ninety percent came from his channels.”

At these words!

The conference room erupted in astonishment.

Amid the surprise, they suddenly understood Xu Zhixing’s point—

Globally, any industry that establishes a certain monopoly can rake in huge profits.

Whether you sell rice noodles or beverages!

As long as you monopolize a certain volume of channels, you become the undisputed dominant giant!

“That’s right,”

Xu Zhixing nodded:

“Although extreme sports are still niche and seem insignificant with little attention and few participants,”

“Don’t forget, there are 233 countries globally, with over eight billion people,”

“Even if only a hundred people per country qualify for extreme sports, that’s over twenty-three thousand extreme athletes worldwide,”

“And if each country has only ten thousand viewers willing to watch extreme sports live streams, that’s over two million three hundred thousand viewers worldwide,”

“Extreme athletes need platforms to showcase themselves, channels to gain recognition,”

“Although the audience is niche, their combined strength is not insignificant,”

“So I think we might as well give it a try,”

“Besides…”

Here,

Xu Zhixing paused.

Then he continued:

“Besides, I can ask my friends in Neon to try to find manufacturers willing to cooperate with us to develop extreme sports projects,”

“Although they are a game company, which sounds even further away from us, a beverage company and extreme sports,”

“But their recently developed extreme sports game has indeed caused quite a stir, even showing signs of breaking out of its niche,”

“I think…”

…

“…We can have some preliminary talks with Tiansi.”

As he spoke,

Moriya Tetsuya pushed a can of golden tin-packaged drink across the conference table to Gu Sheng.

Snap.

Gu Sheng took the can, examined it carefully.

He was both surprised and amused inside.

Damn, no wonder I couldn’t find anything about the “Red Bull Challenge” before!

Looking at the familiar packaging’s BULL logo, and the two red bulls butting heads on the can!

So, Red Bull from the parallel world is here!

Also the same Tiansi Group, and the same Austrian and Chinese-Siamese partners developing it together!

The only difference is that in this world, Red Bull… or rather, now called Bull.

Bull beverage has just completed the domestic beverage unification, monopolizing the top spot and extending its reach to Southeast Asia.

They still have a long way to go before dominating the extreme sports market, sponsoring F1 teams, and advancing on the path of sports sponsorship.

However!

It was exactly this small change in the world line that brought about a butterfly effect in South America, triggering a tsunami-like upheaval across the Pacific!

Xu Zhixing and Moriya were actually old acquaintances!

Fate, truly wonderful…

And now, Moriya, as the deputy director of Golden Wind, was in charge of the project Peak Kingdom!

If Golden Wind really cooperated with Bull?

Gu Sheng’s expression became subtle—

RedBull? (×)

GoldenBull! (√)

Golden Bull Extreme Challenge! Golden Bull Extreme Rally! Golden Bull Soapbox Challenge! Golden Bull Formula Team!

The best chance to break out of the niche seemed to be beckoning him!

Seeing this, Shen Miaomiao raised an eyebrow!

Not bad at all!

She had just pushed the odds of Peak Kingdom’s documents up by 100 times, and now the derivative project was being handed to them?

Tiansi wanted to seek cooperation and bring them in to sponsor an extreme sports challenge event with zero audience base?

What the hell is that but throwing money into the water?!

Oh, there is a difference.

At least throwing money into the water makes a splash sound.

This crappy event was pure money wasting.

Shen Miaomiao was extremely willing, even ready to cover insurance for the applicants!

Thinking for a moment: “I think we can proceed with preliminary talks. Gu Sheng’s meaning is…?”

Shen Miaomiao looked at Gu Sheng.

Gu Sheng pondered for a moment, then pulled the tab on the drink and took a few sips, checking the ingredient list.

Not bad, just the right taste.

Then!

Gu Sheng nodded slowly: “It’s actually a pretty good opportunity to try…”

At this moment!

Both of the schemers still had fairly simple ideas.

Shen Miaomiao thought this silly derivative project was pure money wasting, planning to ask the system about loss rebate rules for such sponsorships, imagining how to maximize the loss rebate.

Gu Sheng thought the soapbox car challenge was really fun, stratosphere skydiving was awesome, and if he partnered with Bull as sponsors, he could go all over the world watching silly soapbox and daredevil extreme challenges.

However!

What they didn’t know was!

As the two simultaneously extended their thoughts beyond the game into the derivative industry for the first time,

The gears of fate had quietly begun to turn.

A massive empire centered absolutely on gaming was being built in an incredible way,

…

Clink.

Taking the drink handed by Gu Sheng, Shen Miaomiao downed it in one gulp, then tapped the empty can on the table with a smack.

Pretty tasty. She decided to have the nearby supermarket stock some for the claw machines.

Thinking this, Shen Miaomiao clapped her hands:

“Alright, that’s settled for sponsorship. Director Moriya, discuss with President Gu later, and you can have preliminary talks with Tiansi Group,”

“Any other reports?”

Since normally this salty fish CEO seldom attended meetings,

When the executives and studio leaders received news that Director Shen would attend, they usually prepared a summary of recent work and project status to report specifically to her.

This was Gu Sheng’s instruction, and also Chairman Shen Wanlin’s directive.

As Shen Wanlin put it: “It’s understandable if you’re less professional than Little Gu, but at least don’t know nothing when asked. You can’t embarrass your old man.”

Although Shen Miaomiao was quite reluctant,

After thinking carefully, staying updated on company projects would provide richer data and experience to help her walk the loss road more smoothly in the future.

So, she reluctantly agreed.

Now!

All related executives’ reports were complete.

Next up was the main focus Shen Miaomiao cared most about—the Garden Warfare derivative project!

At present!

The Loss Project Multiplier Purchase Voucher was quietly lying in her system warehouse!

Ten thousand loss rebate converted to one multiplier!

She had 10.03 million loss rebate deposits!

Plus the original Garden Warfare document’s built-in 15x rebate multiplier!

A total of 1018x rebate!

A lifelong feast opportunity was here!

Shen Miaomiao cleared her throat: “No other reports, let’s talk about the Garden Warfare derivative project!”

Whoosh—

At her words, everyone in the conference room became energized.

Especially the Golden Experience Studio executives led by Jiang Yun, who all picked up pens, ready to take notes!

Yes.

Just last Friday, with the new version of APEX also updated and tested, the two major online multiplayer competitive projects mainly handled by Golden Experience had reached a stage conclusion.

Next, they would face the challenge of the Garden Warfare derivative project!

Jiang Yun’s expression was serious.

Because Garden Warfare was a rather special project—

It was the only one among Golden Wind’s 15 games so far to have “mostly positive” reviews.

According to YiYou Platform’s rating classification:

A rating of 95% or more positive was “Overwhelmingly Positive”;

80% or more was “Very Positive”;

70% or more was “Mostly Positive.”

For other game companies, having “Mostly Positive” might already be decent, since 70 points is a passing score on a percentage scale.

But Golden Wind was different!

Look at their other games.

Not to mention big-budget masterpieces like Titanfall and Sekiro,

Or milestone genre-defining works like Vampire Survivors and Left 4 Dead,

Even Golden Wind’s earliest two small games, Cat Mario and Who’s the Daddy, had about 85% positive ratings, earning “Very Positive.”

Only Garden Warfare!

Had just 76% positive.

Of course, you could say it didn’t get a good rating because Komera sabotaged them with plain business tactics, flooding bad reviews.

But!

Don’t forget.

Since Sekiro’s announcement, Komera had completely shifted focus and no longer cared about Garden Warfare.

Yet even so, the game still hadn’t recovered its reputation, and probably never would.

Jiang Yun felt conflicted.

When the game first launched, everyone blamed Gu Sheng, calling him the Old Thief fallen from grace.

But in reality, this was also a rebuke of Golden Experience Studio, the founding members of Golden Wind.

Golden Wind, who rose to fame through shooting games,

Had stumbled on a shooting game, leaving a “Mostly Positive” scar.

That was a hurdle Jiang Yun couldn’t get past, and a wound the Golden Experience team bore.

Moreover!

Steel Chain Fingers was now thriving.

A Plants vs. Zombies game went viral, selling seven million copies in seven days, creating an industry miracle.

Sekiro crushed Komera, gaining worldwide attention and even worship from Neon’s local players like a deity.

Though all under the same company, Jiang Yun was very close with Sato and his team.

But seeing Steel Chain Fingers so successful now, Jiang Yun definitely felt a bit jealous.

All studios under Golden Wind got exactly the same top-tier industry salaries and benefits.

You make great achievements and steal the spotlight; are we just here to slack off?

Remember!

Golden Wind only had one salty fish—the boss, CEO Ou!

Everyone else joined with ambition!

Even ignoring ambition and ideals,

Honestly ask yourself: Does Garden Warfare’s performance justify CEO Ou’s trust?

Forget trust!

Look at the practical benefits—

Top industry salaries, full social insurance, strict double weekends, punctual off work, anti-toxic competition, no shift changes on holidays.

Though overtime was forbidden, if they worked extra, triple pay was always paid without deduction.

Such a company! Such a boss! Such treatment!

Plus a chief director who was undefeated like a war god!

Such a lineup!

Yet they handed in a seemingly passable but actually flawed report card?

Jiang Yun could not tolerate it.

Golden Experience couldn’t tolerate it!

Thinking this, the Golden Experience executives exchanged glances and silently vowed to fight fiercely.

Turn the tide and wash away past shame!

Create a profit legend this time!

This was the reflection of the core veterans, the creed of Golden Experience’s FPS games!

They had created legends like Left 4 Dead, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and APEX!

And this time!

This project!

Would be the legend of legends!

No profit, no life!

At this moment!

Gu Sheng said:

“Although the final plan for the derivative project is not yet decided, I’ve already thought of its name—it will be called—”

“OVERWATCH”

“Overwatch.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com