"..." Director Park stared blankly at Huang He. Huang He, smiling, pulled out his phone and displayed a somewhat pixelated photo on the screen. With a sincere expression, he said, "Look, this is our Shanghai flagship store. Doesn't it look a bit bigger than your building!"
"Yes... but our building is in Seoul, and this is the most expensive area in all of Korea..." Director Park recovered and tried to regain some dignity.
"Yes, but my store is in Shanghai, and it's right on the Huangpu River. The annual rent is equivalent to your one billion Korean won. How much is your annual rent again?"
Director Park decisively shut his mouth, deciding not to dwell on the issue further. He then led Huang He and his entourage into the company and began a rapid tour.
First, they visited the development team. The entire development team occupied two floors of the company building. In this cramped room, over thirty people were developing games together.
Just as Director Park was about to boast about his development team's prowess, he heard Huang He say, "It's still not as many people as one of our OO project teams."
"I wonder how many development project teams OO has?" Director Park, with a touch of arrogance, asked.
"Not many, only about twenty-odd," Huang He replied with a smile. Director Park decided to completely close his mouth.
Next, Director Park showed Huang He a game demonstration video, which was the actual in-game footage. It was indeed quite impressive. Then Huang He commented, "This player is too weak. Their movement is flawed, their monster aggro is wrong, and their skill chaining is also problematic. It takes a whole minute to kill such a trash mob. If it were me, it would take at most twenty seconds!"
Director Park's face turned red because he had personally produced this demonstration video, and he was the one controlling the in-game character. Originally, Director Park could have retorted with "If you're so good, you do it," but considering Huang He's astonishing record of fighting five opponents alone in the Sino-US arena, Director Park could only obediently keep quiet. What if Huang He wanted to challenge him to a one-on-one fight?
"Let's try it out ourselves!" Director Park said, feeling utterly exhausted, and began the final hands-on experience session.
Fortunately, this time Huang He didn't criticize him or the company further. Instead, he earnestly experienced the game for a full hour. His attitude while playing was also very serious. He constantly switched camera angles, changed display settings, and tested skill combinations, exhibiting the demeanor of an extremely professional gaming expert.
"Mr. Huang, what are your thoughts on our game?" Director Park's pride resurfaced as he asked this question. He was quite certain that in 2002, no online game in the world could compare to his "Triumph."
"Very good. It's the best-looking online game with the best 3D effects I've ever played!" Huang He admitted quite frankly, which greatly surprised Director Park. He had expected this man to criticize him again.
"Then, Mr. Huang, are you interested in becoming our game's distributor?" Director Park asked with a smile.
"Before I answer your question, I have one I'd like to ask you!" Huang He said calmly. "What is your company's minimum system requirements?"
"Alright, our company's minimum requirements are..." Director Park stated the game's minimum requirements concisely.
"Aren't these minimum requirements a bit too high?" Huang He asked with a frown.
"It is indeed a bit high, but currently, 40% of computers in Korea can run our game. Moreover, our game is not scheduled for official public beta until the second half of next year. I believe the average computer configuration will improve significantly by then."
"Another excellent game is also an important reason for promoting the update of computer configurations. If Gangnam Group deals in computer equipment, then by distributing our game, you might even accelerate the pace of computer upgrades in your country!" Director Park said with a smile.
"Heh heh!" Huang He smiled slightly and said no more, making Director Park a bit anxious. He gave his secretary a look, and the secretary nodded and left the conference room.
A few minutes later, Huang He stood up to leave. Director Park enthusiastically invited Huang He to sit down and chat more, causing an extra ten minutes of delay. Suddenly, the conference room door opened, and a group of people walked in, looking dumbfounded at Huang He, who was chatting with Director Park in the conference room.
"Oh dear, my apologies. It was my oversight. I forgot that I also scheduled a meeting with the representative from Tengda Group for distribution negotiations today!" Director Park muttered to himself with a look of panic, then apologized profusely, hoping Huang He would wait for him a little longer so they could talk later.
"Mr. Park, your acting skills have a lot of room for improvement. If you're interested in the future, you can come to our Gangnam Group's entertainment company as an extra. We'll train your acting skills well!" Huang He said with a smile, and then led his people out of the conference room.
However, Director Park showed no sign of anger. Instead, he gave a sinister smile and then returned to enthusiastically receive the Tengda representatives.
"Boss, you're truly amazing! You actually guessed it. This guy really took us for a fool!" Hu Jing exclaimed with a mix of anger and awe as they left Imazic Company.
"That wasn't hard to guess. You just need to know that Tengda had already been in contact with this company and planned to purchase their 'Triumph.' That's when you'll understand how ill-intentioned they were in inviting me to visit," Huang He said with a cold snort.
Even a fool could see that Director Park's efforts to invite Huang He were not because he genuinely wanted Huang He to distribute their game, but rather to let the Tengda people see that they were in contact with Huang He.
It was likely that both sides were in intense negotiations over the distribution price. To force Tengda to concede, Director Park had invited Huang He to pressure Tengda.
He wanted to tell Tengda that even Gangnam Group was interested in them now. If Tengda didn't agree to their terms, they would hand the game over to Gangnam Group, and Gangnam Group would further suppress Tengda in business, leading Tengda to regret it later. Therefore, Tengda should quickly agree to his terms and sign the contract.
"But Boss, you were willing to visit because you also wanted to use this situation to wear down Tengda's funds, right?" Hu Jing asked.
"You're mistaken there!" Huang He shook his head. "Of course, I hope to deplete Tengda's funds, but I even more so don't want Tengda's funds to end up benefiting these disgusting Korean companies for nothing."
"Then what is your objective...?" Hu Jing was stunned. If not for that, why would Huang He have been willing to visit?
"You'll know in a moment!" Huang He waved his hand and then said to the driver, "Drive around this road, find an opportunity to switch cars, and then park near their company entrance again."
---
"Mr. Zeng, what should we do? Should we just agree to these Koreans' terms?" More than an hour later, the Tengda team also left the conference room, but all members wore gloomy expressions.
This was because, during the negotiations, the Koreans had overturned their previous offer of a $5 million distribution fee and increased it to $8 million.
Their reasoning was that the distribution fee negotiations between Shanda and Actoz Company for "The Legend of Mir" had concluded a few days prior, with the final agreed price being $8 million per year.
Therefore, Imazic Company stated that their game "Triumph," in terms of game quality, graphics, and gameplay, completely surpassed "The Legend of Mir," and by an era, completely crushing the competitor's product.
Thus, the distribution fee for "Triumph" could not be lower than that of "The Legend of Mir"; it should at least be comparable. Hence, Imazic also demanded an $8 million distribution fee.
This change angered the entire Tengda team because they had come today intending to sign the contract, but unexpectedly, the other party had changed their terms at the last minute.
What the Tengda team didn't expect, however, was to see Huang He in the conference room... Although Huang He was only ordinarily handsome, everyone at Tengda knew Huang He, and his appearance was deeply ingrained in their minds. Therefore, even seeing Huang He's back, they could recognize him.
"What is he doing here? Could it be that Gangnam Group is also interested in 'Triumph'?" This discovery caused the entire Tengda team to panic. Especially Director Park, who subtly hinted throughout the subsequent negotiations that Gangnam Group had already agreed to the $8 million offer. However, he claimed that Imazic was not aware of the ongoing negotiations with the Tengda team, and thus, adhering to the principle of credibility first, they were still prioritizing Tengda.
As long as Tengda could accept the $8 million offer, they could sign the contract immediately.
The Tengda team was in complete chaos. Everyone in China knew that Huang He was wealthy. Gangnam had earned at least over a hundred million dollars from Warcraft III. Spending $8 million on a potentially lucrative online game was not a problem at all.
Especially since Huang He himself was personally negotiating, it was highly likely that the negotiations were nearing completion. Director Park's words seemed true; Tengda had no other option but to accept the $8 million terms.
However, the problem was that asking Tengda to fork out $8 million for a game whose future was uncertain and whether it could truly become a bestseller was something Tengda was very unwilling to do.
Therefore, Tengda ultimately did not agree, nor did they refuse. Both parties agreed to continue negotiations the next day.
Thus, under the smug gaze of Director Park, the Tengda team members left Imazic Company with sullen and depressed expressions.
However, they didn't expect that as soon as they left the company entrance, a Chinese person stopped them and quietly said, "Hello, Mr. Zeng. I am Mr. Huang He's driver. He is waiting for you in the car to discuss matters in detail!"