Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 157 - 155: Rising to Power and Elimination

Chapter 157: Chapter 155: Rising to Power and Elimination

Translator: 549690339

Moonset, sunrise, and a new week arrives.

Lincoln leaves home early today, feeling light-hearted as he goes to take his subject three exam.

Warner also gets up early, but unlike Lincoln, he carries the heavy mood of one who has lost his parents as he goes to attend NetDragon’s monthly meeting.

As expected, Richard emotionlessly questions him: “You were once brimming with confidence, claiming that you would achieve a technological breakthrough within two months and catch up with Cloud Dream’s technology.

Now there’s only a week left, do you have anything to report to me?”

Warner’s face is bitter; report? He wishes he could report something.

But the problem is that there has been zero progress in cracking the core microchip. What can he report? Apply for more funding?

Or should he ask Richard to bring in more top experts to help crack Cloud Dream’s microchip?

Or better yet, ask the boss to find someone more capable?

Of course, these inner complaints couldn’t really be voiced.

Warner can only helplessly say, “We can replicate the headband part, and we can replicate 80% of the console components. However, the last key component, the neural modulator-demodulator, is still being cracked and needs more time.”

Unfortunately, Richard studied business. If you talk to him about technology and games, he might be clueless. But business management and personnel management are his areas of expertise.

He can’t fool his boss with the art of reporting using equivocal language.

“So, how much more time? Are you saying that it’s impossible to achieve the original target of two months?”

“Yes,” Warner admits helplessly.

What else can he do but admit it? Is it better to wait until the last moment to be slapped in the face?

If they want to blame anyone, they can only blame Cloud Dream’s neural modulator-demodulator for being too complicated and their microchip protection being too strict.’

The previous 12 microchips had been completely destroyed during invasive cracking.

On Saturday, they obtained 1+8 new consoles – 43 of which were purchased from the market, and only 5 consoles were handed over to the company by employees who managed to get them.

Yesterday, they had dismantled half of them, and the R&D department is still struggling to find a way to crack them.

“So how long do you need?” Richard was angry, but he controlled it well. He

Imows that scientific research can’t be rushed. “Give me an exact time.”

I also want an exact time! Warner thinks, but what he actually says is, “It’s hard to say. Our team is working hard to crack the microchip. This involves trying every possible method, so it’s difficult to know which one will be effective, and if they don’t work, we need to research new cracking methods.”

After more than a week of reverse engineering Mirage, Warner has become completely humbled.

Statements like, “Lincoln only stumbled upon it through blind luck” and “Give me two months, and our team can do it too” – similar thoughts, he no longer dares to express.

The richness and strictness of the microchip’s protection alone is undoubtedly top-notch in the world.

It is hard to imagine how outrageous the content inside the microchip is to assemble these not-so-high-tech components on the outside into a virtual reality device!

Not to mention the creation of a perfect, executable virtual world software that runs smoothly without any bugs.

Even if we don’t talk about technological breakthroughs in hardware, just to create such a software, it would take at least a few hundred people and a whole year to complete, right?!

But what about Lincoln? He completed all of this together in less than a week!

The more Warner studies, the more he realizes how unfathomable Lincoln’s technical prowess is!

Each time he thinks about the gap between them, he feels fear—can he have even a sliver of hope of winning against such an opponent?

But Richard doesn’t care about any of that; his anger boils up, “So you’re saying you don’t know when you can produce the new device?”

Warner opens his mouth, but finding no plausible reason, he can only helplessly say, “Yes.”

“All this time, I’ve given you money when you needed it and personnel when you required it, and this is the answer you give me?” Richard is incredibly disappointed.

He turns to look at Henry, “How about you? What is the progress of the DLC?”

Henry also has a guilty conscience, “The progression is steadily increasing.”

Indeed, things are improving, at least everyone has gotten used to the daily meeting work style, and meeting efficiency has increased significantly… But Richard is not an easy person to fool. “Give me an exact timeline!”

Henry hesitated. Say one year? Definitely not! That would be tantamount to admitting that his efficiencv is appallinz!

But to say three months? That would undoubtedly lead to being proven wrong later.

How about saying half a year? Even if the work is not done by then, the problem can be dealt with at that time.

However, just as he opened his mouth to speak, Richard raised his hand and interrupted him.

Richard had a deep understanding of how slippery Henry could be, and he had already gotten his answer from Henry’s hesitation just now.

But even so, Henry still wanted to play tricks, completely exhausting Richard’s last bit of patience.

Richard gestured for his assistant, “Call Jason in.”

The female assistant immediately got up, and Henry’s face changed dramatically. He instinctively wanted to stop her but quickly put his hand down again.

He had a terrible premonition.

And the premonition was soon confirmed.

Jason entered the meeting room with a USB drive and a stack of documents. With Richard’s permission, the assistant turned on the PowerPoint projector, and Jason began to present his plan to everyone in the office.

He detailed the content that needed to be created for the “Blaze 3” DLC, dividing it into eight modules. He sorted the modules by difficulty, itemized the necessary personnel and department collaboration, and clearly marked the specific time required for each task.

Who would lead the group, who would be responsible for music, and who would provide technical support… All personnel arrangements were made down to the individual.

Work arrangements, acceptance, testing, and modification processes were also clearly defined.

On the last page of the PowerPoint was a detailed, feasible, and actionable timeline.

According to this timeline, with enough support, Jason could really reduce the development time to within three months!

With this plan as a comparison, Henry’s dry remarks about “steady progress in pushing forward” were nothing but a joke !

Richard clasped his hands on the table and looked around at all the attendees, especially those who had previously spoken in support of Henry and helped him become Chief Planner of “Blaze 3” — they all quietly looked away at this point.

Finally, Richard turned to Jason, “Very good. You will be in charge of the DLC development team from now on! You can arrange the work of any member of the production team at your discretion. If anyone is unhappy, let them come and see me!”

Richard was not lacking in decisive execution, “If the task is successfully completed, you will become the companys new game production team leader! The remaining employees of the Flame Group, as well as those in the DLC production team who are willing to stay after the task is completed, will be under your command!”

Jason immediately accepted; this was his goal!

As for Henry, he looked at Richard, wanting to say something, but Richard ignored him directly and adjourned the meeting on the spot.

Henry looked at Jason angrily, this traitorous subordinate!

But Jason ignored him too and turned around and left the office. He had to go back and announce the good news!

Henry’s old friends also got up one after another and left without looking at him again.

Henry finally felt at a loss: am I just out like that? So, what am I going to do next?

He returned to his own office in a daze.

Should he resign? But after resigning, where would he go? What would he do?

Moreover, the boss didn’t ask him to hand in a resignation. Was he planning to transfer him to a vacant position?

While Henry was feeling disoriented, Hillary, the Human Resources Department supervisor, knocked on the door and came in.

With an apologetic look on her face, Hillary handed Henry the A4 page she held in her hand.

Henry, visibly shaking, took the document and lowered his head to read the bold print…

“Employee Dropout Notice”