"...That’s the situation."

At the brink of fury, Betang finally found the last shred of reason buried beneath his arrogant mindset. He realized this was China, the motherland of Golden Wind.

So, he immediately embraced the spirit of “roll away if you must,” gracefully withdrew from Golden Wind, got into his car, and stormed back to the hotel where he was staying.

Then, he promptly reported the situation to Konik.

Upon hearing this, Konik frowned slightly.

There was no doubt that Shen Miaomiao, the CEO of Golden Wind, had insulted Konik, who was used to being on a lofty pedestal as an executive of Yunwei-Vivendi.

What kind of company was Golden Wind?

A mid-sized game company with a single industry focus.

A mid-sized game company from China, the country where the gaming industry had started the latest and remained the most backward.

Their transcontinental conglomerate dominated industries like water utilities, energy, transportation, and technology across Europe and America. With a market capitalization of 1.48 trillion dollars, they were among the world's top titans—truly a global capital giant!

And now!

This tiny company, valued at only three to five hundred million dollars, dared to speak arrogantly and rudely tell the vice president of a trillion-dollar giant to get lost.

Although this small company had the backing of a local wealthy Chinese capital group,

So what?

According to what Konik knew, Shen Capital, the local Chinese capital group, was only two ranks below them on the global market capitalization list, but its valuation was just over nine hundred billion, still far lower than theirs.

Of course.

Since both sides were already at the trillion-dollar level, simply comparing market capitalization was meaningless.

But the problem was, in terms of global influence, Yunwei-Vivendi still held the advantage, didn’t they?

Thinking of this,

Konik even found Golden Wind’s arrogance somewhat laughable:

“They’re just young and reckless bulls,”

“Having run rampant in China and tasted some sweet deals under Komera’s hands, they think they’re invincible now,”

“There’s a saying in China—‘courtesy before force,’”

“Now, we’ve shown them courtesy, but unfortunately, they won’t accept it...”

At this, Konik raised his eyebrows slightly, his mouth curling down, and a trace of regret flickered in his eyes.

Since the merger of Yunwei and Vivendi, they had encountered countless tough opponents.

But under their methods, none had survived beyond a year.

Even the toughest one back then, Ubsoft, was stripped of all ownership within just three years and became Yunwei’s cash cow.

And now, although Golden Wind seemed like a fortress of copper and iron, impenetrable and stubbornly refusing to go public or entertain their acquisition offers,

In reality,

Taking down such a mid-sized company was nothing difficult for a giant like Yunwei-Vivendi.

After all, the Shen Capital backing that once allowed them to walk tall across China and even Asia no longer had any real deterrent effect on Vivendi.

To put it bluntly,

The only thing Konik found somewhat troublesome was Golden Wind’s thrice appearance on official media newspapers,

This “bulletproof vest” was far more powerful than the influence of local Chinese capital.

But it wasn’t a big problem.

If open methods failed, they would resort to covert ones; if hard methods didn’t work, soft methods would follow.

As long as they could bring Golden Wind to a half-dead state and smoothly take over,

“No rush. First, let our old friend Mai have some fun with them...”

Chuckling, Konik waved his hand casually, showing his confidence.

Hearing this, Betang squinted his eyes slightly, intrigued:

“The president means...?”

“Heh, the unlucky producer we took in back then has quite a few grievances against Golden Wind,”

Konik smiled:

“Now is the time to let this shame-aware old friend take the stage.”

With that said,

Beep!

A notification sounded in their online meeting room.

An avatar of an Asian man in his forties entered the meeting.

Below his avatar was his Yunwei-Vivendi ID—

TYG (TokyoYamamotoGame) Studio Chief Art Director: Yamamoto Tsunashiro.

Exactly!

The very one who had stirred up and kicked Golden Wind’s independent development of Silent Hill, the instigator of the Golden Wind vs. Komera battle.

Ultimately defeated by Golden Wind’s Escape, he slunk away from Komera, a “shame-aware but courageous” figure.

Now, having crossed the ocean to the United States, he had become a studio director under Yunwei-Vivendi.

For this malicious acquisition of Golden Wind, the best vanguard was none other than this producer who had suffered a huge loss at Gu Sheng’s hands!

Konik was not worried about Yamamoto’s ruthless methods.

On the contrary, he worried Yamamoto might not be ruthless enough!

After all, this time—

...

“The ultimate goal of Yunwei-Vivendi is different from any opponent we have faced before.”

Binjiang No. 1, the standalone crown jewel building.

The residence of Shen Wanlin, the helmsman of Shen Capital.

At this moment, in the study, Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao were sitting directly opposite Shen Wanlin.

As Gu Sheng gently set down his teacup, the incense was disturbed and twirled softly.

An electronic calendar beside them displayed the current time—

Friday, 9:18 AM

A workday.

And in the study.

Yes, this time, Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao came home not to chat idly or play chess with Lao Shen.

Shen Wanlin nodded slightly, signaling Gu Sheng to continue.

Gu Sheng said:

“The former Xunteng Games wanted our team. Their elaborate plan was to make our team collapse and then acquire us with their funding.”

“They wanted the people.”

“And Komera, who we have clashed with before and still haven’t determined a true victor, ultimately aims to suppress our growth and secure their dominant position in Asia.”

“They want the reputation.”

“In the end, neither of these two companies wants Golden Wind dead, or to put it another way, our life or death is not their top priority.”

At this point,

Gu Sheng shook his head slightly and changed his tone:

“But Yunwei is different. They genuinely want us dead.”

“They’re after the IPs we hold. The closer we get to death, the easier their acquisition becomes.”

“And for them, as long as our value exceeds their acquisition cost,”

“They will never stop acquiring Golden Wind.”

Gu Sheng knew the methods of such super-capital companies too well.

With enough profit temptation, capital’s pursuit of gain never ends.

Hostile takeovers are best, like with Ubsoft.

If hostile takeovers don’t work, they don’t care, they just throw money at it, like with Golden Wind.

Of course!

You can have some backbone and hold out, preferring to freeze the IP forever rather than give in, even if it means dying with it.

But that cannot fundamentally prevent Yunwei from reviving the IP and forcibly prolonging your life.

Golden Wind currently had four executives, two studios, and an operations team with dozens of people.

If the company truly collapsed, Yunwei would only need to pay big money to recruit several studio members for a reorganization and claim it as “former Golden Wind affiliated studios.”

Then, projects like “Left 4 Dead spiritual sequel,” “Titanfall original team’s creation,” “Wolf-type game pioneering team,” and so on would flood in.

The effect, while not as good as outright acquiring the original IP,

Still, with these well-known IPs in the gaming world, the paying players would definitely not be few.

Continuous extraction of residual IP value and funds would keep flowing into Yunwei and Vivendi’s pockets.

Therefore,

Yunwei-Vivendi’s mission this time was very simple—

Destroy Golden Wind, force them to hand over copyright and team management,

Or die violently.

And in the face of such a brutal and aggressive attack, Golden Wind’s only counter-strategy was—

“To seek breakthroughs in the cracks, achieve continuous market value growth and expansion in the shortest possible time.”

Shen Miaomiao unusually showed a serious expression before Shen Wanlin, without any daughter-like attitude, her gaze calm, steady, and resolute:

“In other words, as long as our growth speed is fast enough, Yunwei’s acquisition input can’t catch up with us.”

“Maybe a hundred billion, maybe a trillion.”

“One day, our scale will become a deterrent to them, forcing them to completely give up the acquisition plan.”

This plan was somewhat crude.

But it was undoubtedly Golden Wind’s only way out now.

Just like Gu Sheng’s past life’s Arya.

In the face of hostile takeovers, only by enlarging one’s scale and cash flow to ‘redeem oneself’ could one avoid falling into the devil’s hands.

Golden Wind was no different.

Based on Yunwei-Vivendi’s current 1.48 trillion market cap, as long as Golden Wind’s valuation exceeded one quarter of that—

That is, 370 billion—

Yunwei-Vivendi’s acquisition pursuit would completely cease due to excessive cost.

Of course, by then, it wouldn’t be that Yunwei-Vivendi didn’t want to buy; it was simply that they couldn’t afford it.

From 400 million to 370 billion.

The road ahead was long and arduous. Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao had to lead Golden Wind in ceaseless pursuit.

And they had to be fast!

Vivendi’s increased offers wouldn’t come all at once.

Their goal was to elevate the group to a whole new market value level before Vivendi’s successive raises.

After hearing them,

Shen Wanlin took a deep breath, looked at Gu Sheng with full admiration, then gazed at his precious daughter with great satisfaction.

Then he nodded:

“Tell me your thoughts.”

Hearing this, Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao exchanged a glance.

After a brief silence, Shen Miaomiao took a stack of documents from Gu Sheng’s briefcase and handed them to Shen Wanlin with both hands:

“Director Shen, on behalf of Golden Wind Game Company, I hereby apply to Shen Capital Group for—”

[Subsidiary Independence Application]

Exactly!

Today, the reason Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao arranged to meet Shen Wanlin in the study was to discuss the subsidiary independence!

Three years.

Since Golden Wind was founded.

Shen Wanlin and his Shen Capital had stood silently behind them like an unyielding mountain, providing shelter.

Indeed.

Along this journey, Shen Wanlin, as he once said, never provided any substantial direct help to Golden Wind or Shen Miaomiao.

But!

No one could deny that Golden Wind’s rapid growth in just three years, dominating China and even Asia, was absolutely inseparable from Shen Capital’s backing.

But now!

Facing Vivendi—a monstrous giant in the global capital market.

Even Shen Capital could no longer deliver enough shock or threat to this greedy beast.

After all, as the representative of Yunwei-Vivendi, Betang’s attitude already spoke volumes—

A company of that level would never skip background checks, and yet, after performing them, they still dared to act so arrogantly, which indirectly confirmed some unspeakable facts.

And the reason Golden Wind resolutely chose to break away from Shen Capital and become a brand-new independent company at this critical juncture was simple.

They needed to speed up and move toward a more diversified cooperative business model, expanding their strength as fast as possible without going public.

But doing so meant that the strict approval processes in massive Shen Capital, which could take from one quarter to half a year or even a year, would severely hinder their progress.

Golden Wind wasn’t in a hurry before, because neither Xunteng nor Komera intended to kill them, and they feared Shen Capital enough to keep things in check.

Now, they didn’t have that luxury.

Yunwei-Vivendi struck with lethal blows and wasn’t afraid of Shen Capital at all. They had an arsenal of sneaky moves.

Maybe one day, when they also reached the hundred-billion mark and became a truly independent comprehensive game company, these approval processes would improve.

But now, they needed to temporarily bypass those redundant approvals designed for giants.

They needed their rapid expansion to counter Vivendi’s greed.

Shala.

Taking the application from Shen Miaomiao, Shen Wanlin flipped through it briefly.

For a moment, the entire study fell silent.

After a while,

Shen Wanlin looked up at the perfect couple before him and paused.

Then he smiled sincerely.

The protection from the previous generation should end here.

Go.

It’s time to embark on your true journey.

After a moment,

Shen Wanlin picked up the pen on the desk and signed the application with a flourish, then pushed it toward Shen Miaomiao:

“Go and deliver this to Uncle Li Heng. He’ll supervise the follow-up procedures.”

Then, as if remembering something, he stood and took a slender scroll from beneath his bookshelf:

“Just finished mounting this calligraphy yesterday. Since the company is becoming independent, consider it a gift from me.”

With that, Shen Wanlin waved his hand, signaling the two to hurry and find Li Heng for the formalities.

Leaving Lao Shen’s study, the two entered the elevator side by side.

Looking at the scroll in Gu Sheng’s hand, Shen Miaomiao curled her lips:

“Cheapskate Lao Shen. For company independence, he only gives his own calligraphy... What does it say?”

“Let’s see?”

Gu Sheng was also curious.

“Yeah, let’s see.”

Shen Miaomiao playfully urged Gu Sheng to open it.

Swish...

The brocade silk unrolled, revealing golden-splattered rice paper inscribed with two flowing, powerful, and elegant lines of cursive script, both vigorous and majestic—

“On the summit of Liupan Mountain, the red flag billows in the west wind”

“Today the long tassel is in hand, when will the azure dragon be bound?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com