To Chen Hao's surprise, Old Ban could sing as well, and he was especially fond of military songs such as "Green Flower in the Army," "We Who Are Soldiers," and "Unity Is Strength."
When he sang "Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty," Pang Ban's rough voice brought out the song's boldness, vigor, and sweeping grandeur. The mature older woman beside him, as gentle as a Jiangnan water town, watched with sparkling eyes.
Chen Hao, meanwhile, belonged to the nostalgic group. With one arm around the mature older woman's slender waist, he sang "Ex-Husband's Love" and "Sister, You Sit at the Bow," before finally singing "Hu Lu Wa" and "Black Cat Detective"~
The group sang, drank, and played games. Waves of cheerful singing and laughter rang through the private room. They were determined to enjoy themselves while the wine lasted.
When the gathering ended, Chen Hao and Lin Lang each left with a woman in their arms. The women were quite willing, too. After all, rich young masters who were both handsome and loaded were not easy to come across in everyday life.
Pang Ban, however, walked out like a scholar who had just placed first in the imperial examinations. He coldly rejected Chen Hao's arrangements and left beneath the Jiangnan woman's reproachful gaze. What a case of her loving him while he remained heartless!
Half-drunk and pleasantly light-headed, Chen Hao and Lin Lang each put an arm around a woman and returned to their hotel suites,
where the real battle of the day began.
The battle process: 404
An hour later.
After the other party left, Chen Hao, who had already become a sage and wise man, tossed the business card into the trash.
He lay on the soft bed, feeling as if his body had gone from wood to limp noodles. Completely drained, he stared blankly at the ceiling with unfocused eyes.
He sighed. "I waited a full fifty chapters for this day."
After relaxing both body and mind, Chen Hao's thoughts raced for a while,
He had experienced eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling. Only the last one remained. He could try it when he got the chance.
He wondered how things were going for his buddy. Had he gone into overtime?
The agency fee for Miracle should be enough by now, right?
He wondered how the renovations in the capital were progressing.
Chen Hao's thoughts ran wild,
and before long,
he fell into a deep sleep.
Miracle was not called Miracle yet. It was called MU.
MU was an online game released by the Korean company Webzen in the latter half of 2001. As soon as it launched, it became wildly popular in internet cafés throughout Korea. It recovered its development costs in just two months, demonstrating an astonishing rate of profitability.
By the end of the year, MU had been selected as the "Best Online Game" by several authoritative official gaming organizations. At that year's game exhibition, it was also voted the most popular online game.
In particular, MU's dazzling equipment designs and flowing visual effects, built with virtual 3D technology and combined with a gear-crafting and enhancement system that laid bare human nature, delivered a tremendous visual shock to gamers of the time.
It also allowed Webzen to grow from a small game-development studio into one of Korea's leading game companies.
Today, however, Webzen's chairman, Kim Nam-joo, sat with his brows tightly furrowed as he stared at the three bids laid out on his desk, unable to make up his mind.
He had not even promoted the game overseas, yet these groups from Huaxia had come knocking like wolves that had caught the scent of meat. Their noses were impressively sharp.
The three companies were Shanda Network, The9, and Century Horizon.
Kim Nam-joo had heard a little about the first two. One was Legend's agent, while The9 specialized in virtual communities. But he had never heard of Century Horizon.
In terms of their bids, the first two companies were stronger, but their offers were not quite satisfactory. Century Horizon's price was very sincere, but it had only been established a month ago, and its management consisted entirely of young people. He was uncertain about the company's stability.
For that reason, he had just held a special meeting to discuss candidates for MU's agent. Although they had not reached a final decision, they had already eliminated one option: Shanda had been the first to be rejected.
Recent rumors claimed that Shanda had fallen out with Wemade over the agency rights to Legend, so they were not fond of agents who brought trouble.
The meeting's final conclusion was to continue negotiations with The9 and Century Horizon and proceed to a second round of talks.
Looking at the proposal submitted by Century Horizon, he could tell from the brand-new independent server room and the company's modern facilities shown in its brochure that it possessed considerable strength. Its offer for the agency fee was especially tempting: 3.1 billion won, approximately 20 million yuan.
There was no need to hurry. He was looking forward to the final result.
As for Zhou Xiao, although he did not know that Webzen had already eliminated him, he had begun to sense something.
Over the next few days of contact, President Kwon's attitude was no longer as warm as it had been at first. Instead, he treated Zhou Xiao with detached professionalism.
After Zhou Xiao invited him repeatedly, President Kwon agreed to visit a high-end nightclub in Seoul. Only after drinking too much did he reveal a little insider information.
It turned out that two other contenders had entered the fray, and their offers were higher. More importantly, Shanda's reputation was not very good here.
He knew The9. It was Zhu Jun's company, the one that operated a virtual community. He had heard through unofficial channels that The9 was almost unable to pay its employees' wages. It was not even in the same race, so why had it come here to join the fun?
And where had this so-called Century Horizon come from?
Without revealing the slightest abnormal emotion, Zhou Xiao had eaten and drunk his fill, then called over two pretty girls to keep President Kwon company. He also proposed meeting some of the other executives to make another attempt at winning the agency rights. Seeing that Zhou Xiao understood the rules, President Kwon agreed to introduce him to two executives with whom he had a good relationship.
Zhou Xiao truly had no other choice. He could only take the roundabout route of saving the country.
President Kwon left with the beauties, leaving Zhou Xiao alone in the room. He tugged at his tie, downed a glass of sake, and felt inexplicably furious. Nothing seemed to be going smoothly at work lately!
He thought to himself, Should I visit a temple and pray when I get back?
The person who was just as frustrated was Zhu Jun.
He had come to Korea full of enthusiasm for a trip, watched a soccer match, and then, with nothing to do that evening, gone online at an internet café, where he discovered an online game comparable to Legend.
Relying on a businessman's keen instincts, he had a vague feeling that the game had enormous potential. With Shanda's direct flight to success through its agency rights to Legend right before his eyes, he also wanted to enter the field and claim a share of the profits.
After spotting the opportunity, Zhu Jun did not hesitate in the slightest. He acted decisively, contacting the game's developer, Webzen, through its official website while having his already cash-strapped company raise the necessary funds.
A few days later, he sent over a bid worth two million US dollars, equivalent to approximately 2.5 billion won. That was the largest amount of money he could currently produce.
He had initially thought success was guaranteed, but after their first contact, he found the other side's attitude growing increasingly ambiguous. At first, he thought the Korean translator he had hired was incompetent. In the end, however, he realized they really wanted to negotiate again.
Damn it. They probably saw how explosively popular Legend had become domestically and now these Korean bastards want to jack up the price.
That was what Zhu Jun thought, but there was nothing he could do. At that time, Korean online games were all the rage. First came Millennium and Red Moon, followed by Lineage II and Legend, which already occupied more than half of the domestic market.
Things had clearly become somewhat complicated. Zhu Jun thought it over, scrapped the previous agency proposal, and made a new version from scratch. Besides keeping the original amount unchanged, he added several more bargaining chips.
The plan was to establish a new company, with him controlling it, and then transfer shares in the new company to Webzen as additional compensation for the agency rights!
He had even thought of a name: The9 Interactive Entertainment.
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