Haha

The secretary looked indignant; as the COO's assistant, she had never been treated this way before.

Thanks to the special nature of her position, whether inside or outside the company, as long as she introduces herself as the COO's secretary, visiting clients will generally give her face.

After all, this is Infinite Network Entertainment, and she is the COO's secretary.

So, this made her feel comfortable. Despite being very busy with work, she enjoyed it.

As a result, her way of speaking on chat apps has become somewhat 'cold,' often giving people a questioning feeling.

Now, that Supervisor Lian is completely ignoring me.

That's so rude!

Okay, since it's so difficult to ask you to do something, then I'll go myself.

We at Infinite Network Entertainment would never publish games for free.

The fact that they couldn't even negotiate the most basic copyright issue shows that Supervisor Lian is incompetent!

The secretary found the person in charge of the Only Game in the company's internal files and dialed the number without saying a word.

The call was cut off after only a couple of rings!

What's going on?

The secretary looked puzzled and dialed the number again.

The result was the same as the first time; the call was disconnected after ringing twice.

This made the secretary's already unpleasant mood even more unbearable.

Is it really appropriate for a small company like yours, which is cooperating with Infinite Network Entertainment, to act so arrogantly?

He won't even answer the phone?

The secretary dialed the number a third time, clearly annoyed.

Thinking to myself, if you hang up on me a third time, don't blame me for not warning you. This is your own fault for not answering the phone and not being open to discussion!

Thankfully, the call was finally answered this time.

Along with it came a slightly younger male voice.

[Hello, who is this?]

Hearing the voice, the secretary suppressed her dissatisfaction and put on a businesslike smile.

Although she couldn't see the boss on the other end of the phone, this change in attitude was something she genuinely learned from the workplace.

She cleared her throat twice and asked softly.

"Hello, are you Mr. Meng? I am the secretarial assistant in the operations department of Infinite Network Entertainment."

After speaking, the secretary waited for a reply. She didn't tell the other party her last name, because there was no need.

You just need to say what you do.

Strangely, the person on the other end of the phone suddenly stopped responding after she finished speaking, which made her frown slightly.

Fortunately, the silence only lasted a second or two before Mr. Meng, the small business owner, spoke again.

[Is this another call from the operations department? Okay, what's up with Infinite Network Entertainment?]

again?

What's the meaning?

Did someone else look for him before me?

The secretary was just thinking when she suddenly realized it was Supervisor Lian.

Yes!

In matters like copyright, would Supervisor Lian, as the person in charge, not notify him?

They must have already discussed it before I called.

No wonder you weren't replying to my messages; it turns out you'd already explained it here.

If that's the case, then Mr. Meng must know about the copyright business that the leader is discussing, which is why he asked what the matter was.

Okay, then I won't waste my breath explaining to him. Let's get straight to the point!

"Mr. Meng, it's like this. First of all, I would like to apologize to you for the oversight of our Supervisor Lian. Because of her mistake, you missed a very important clause when you signed the cooperation agreement with our company."

"It's about the product."

[What?]

During the phone call, Meng Shu suddenly interrupted, expressing her confusion.

This made the secretary, who had just spoken, grit her teeth and then feel indignant.

"Mr. Meng, please let me finish. Please don't interrupt me, thank you."

[Oh, I'm so sorry, I apologize.]

The secretary cleared her throat and continued what she had just been saying.

"Due to an oversight by our Supervisor Lian, there was a problem with the product ownership in the contract. The copyright should have belonged to Infinite Network Entertainment, but because of the contract, it became your Only Game copyright."

"I hope you understand this."

After speaking, the secretary, without waiting for the young boss's reply, spoke again to explain.

"Mr. Meng, do you know that our Infinite Network Entertainment has also released many other companies' products, but without exception, the copyrights belong to us."

"We can't do things for our partners for free, otherwise Infinite Network Entertainment wouldn't have been able to grow to its current scale."

"Your situation is rather complicated. We at Infinite Network Entertainment have invested a large sum of money in promoting your game through our internal channels. We approve the project, develop the plan, negotiate the price, and dedicate our human resources to it. But in the end, we only get a cut and don't even get the copyright, which is obviously unreasonable."

"It's like a company the size of Infinite Network Entertainment is spending a lot of time and effort acting as a middleman, and we even have to pay for it ourselves first. To be honest, Mr. Meng, I can't even imagine the serious consequences."

"If your game doesn't perform well in the market, then our method of spending our own money to promote it in the early stages will be a complete waste. If we have the copyright to the work, then it's fine, after all, it's our own work. If it fails, it fails, at least the IP is there."

"But we don't even own the copyright, yet we're being asked to take such a huge risk to do uncertain promotion. Mr. Meng, if it were your company, would you accept this kind of cooperation?"

The secretary fell silent and handed the microphone to the other party.

Meng Shu found it somewhat amusing.

He originally thought the call was from Infinite Network Entertainment seeking information about game development.

I didn't expect it to be a copyright issue.

Although the secretary rambled on and on, it all boiled down to one sentence.

"Our cooperation model needs to be changed."

Meng Shu, sitting in front of the computer, wasn't familiar with the secretary from the operations department of Infinite Network Entertainment, and didn't want to argue with her.

The questions she's raising now were already clearly asked last year when she discussed cooperation with Supervisor Lian.

He asked Supervisor Lian the same question back then: What if the game doesn't sell well and the sales are so poor that we can't recoup our costs?

Supervisor Lian told him directly and unequivocally that Infinite Network Entertainment wasn't just a publisher of one company's games. If they lost money, they could make up for it through profits from other sources. After all, that's how business is; there's no such thing as pure profit, and there are risks everywhere.

The reason for choosing to release Meng Shu's first game at the time, "Dark Forest," was not only because its popularity and buzz had reached their peak, but also because of its promising prospects in the Horror Games market.

It's a worthwhile investment!

Now, Infinite Network Entertainment has made the right bet.

But what about now?

Bringing up old stories?

Want to settle the score?

Product ownership?

Meng Shu simply couldn't be bothered to pay any attention.

Just say what you want to say; there's no need to ask me.

He responded indifferently, his tone tinged with annoyance and weariness.

Upon hearing this, the secretary disregarded whether the young boss on the other end of the phone understood the meaning behind her words and spoke frankly.

"It's very simple, Mr. Meng. Considering that it was caused by the mistake of our staff, your cooperation agreement with our company will continue to be implemented. You just need to cooperate with us to deal with some issues."

"First, your company needs to transfer the copyrights of the current works, including but not limited to games, music, art, and all related products that our company has participated in and distributed."

"Secondly, Infinite Network Entertainment will hold the copyright to all of your company's future products, including but not limited to games, music, art, and merchandise."

"Third, after completing the above two items, your company can continue to enjoy our company's publicity resources and promotion channels."

"That's all. We apologize for any inconvenience. We hope we can resolve this matter as soon as possible, Mr. Meng."

On the other end, Meng Shu remained expressionless after hearing the secretary's requests.

There wasn't even a hint of embarrassment in her expression.

Yes, but only calm and indifference.

After a long while, he slowly began to speak.

[Are you done?]

"That's all. Now, is your company willing to cooperate?"

Meng Shu scoffed and uttered two words.

[hehe.]