Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

But Fred shook his head: “There are some, but I don’t know them well. On the other hand, those I want to bring over, not one has come over yet…”

“What do you mean?”

“Boss, do you still remember the DLC for ‘Blaze 3’?”

“‘Red Flame’?” Lincoln certainly remembered, “Yeah, it’s pretty good, and their trailer was especially outstanding, leaving a deep impression.”

“Jason, who led the development of this DLC, suddenly resigned on Monday, and on Tuesday he completed the handover and left NetDragon.” Fred’s knowledge of what happened at NetDragon was quite detailed, not at all like someone who had resigned a long time ago.

“I thought it was strange at the time, how suddenly he left. Now it seems that he must have discovered the problems inside NetDragon beforehand, and that’s why he hurried away.”

Lincoln looked at Fred, unable to help but ponder: Was this guy spending his time after work gossiping in a group with his former colleagues?

Cloud Dream lets off work early, making it convenient for you to gossip, right?

“So now he’s a free agent. I wanted to tell you about this yesterday to see if we should bring him to Cloud Dream, but you didn’t show up all day yesterday…”

Wasn’t I busy working on my exoskeleton… Lincoln explained in his heart.

“No problems with his character and values, right?”

“No problem, he’s a pretty straightforward person. He even has a bit of idealism. I always thought that NetDragon didn’t deserve him. I wanted to find a chance to bring him over earlier, but there was never an opportunity.”

“Alright, let’s invite him then. Any requirements, he can talk to me or Sister Quentina.” Lincoln did not doubt Fred’s judgment.

“There are also five old friends who haven’t resigned yet, all of good character and competence. Should we take this opportunity to dig them up as well?”

Lincoln nodded directly: “Dig, we can dig all of them!”

In the past few months, Fred had successively brought a lot of people from NetDragon, all of whom completely met the employee standards of Cloud Dream.

The constant loss of talent from NetDragon was not only due to the decline of VR games as a whole, but also to NetDragon’s rapid downhill, as well as Fred’s tireless digging efforts.

And since Fred knew NetDragon so well, the people he dug up were NetDragon’s most valuable core talent.

Their positions might not be very high, but their abilities, character, and comprehensive qualities were all very strong, making them indispensable for the stable development of the company.

The most important thing was: due to the top-level treatment of Cloud Dream in the industry – whether it was money, system, security, or welfare, Fred’s success rate of digging up people was incredibly high.

They only encountered a few obstacles with those five old friends.

– These people were the kind who didn’t care much about the external environment, and preferred to bury themselves in their work with minimal changes.

But this time, Fred was 100% sure that he could bring these people over as well!

He had already thought of the reason:

‘Your boss has been sent to jail by my boss, isn’t it time to leave the darkness and join the light side?’

These five people, plus Jason, were the last people he wanted to pull from NetDragon to Cloud Dream.

As for the rest, whether or not to dig them up would depend on Lincoln and Quentina’s ideas.

Moreover, even if they wanted to dig, the screening and interview process would be much more complicated than this kind of internal recommendation.

“Should I hurry up and arrange a meeting with them?” Fred couldn’t wait.

“Go ahead, go ahead.”

As Fred left, he opened the panel and searched for contacts.

However, halfway through, he suddenly turned around, gave Lincoln a thumbs up, and said: “Boss, quietly sending Richard to jail, awesome!”

He didn’t wait for Lincoln to explain and turned around and left.

Lincoln was left speechless on the spot.

Mavis had already told him the secret: the company’s many small groups were already in an uproar.

Especially the photo of him staring expressionlessly through the car window at the NetDragon office building, which was almost plastered all over the groups.

The male staff’s evaluations were basically:

“Awesome! So fierce!”

“This is a real man! On the surface, he’s laughing and expressing his emotions, but in reality, he’s already secretly laid traps for everyone without anyone noticing. Once triggered, his opponents will be in dire straits! Invincible!”

“Thirty years in the east, thirty years in the west, even NetDragon has its day?!”

“I searched the whole internet, not a single person could guess how the boss did it! No wonder he’s the boss! A mind as deep as the sea, planning every move!”

Female staff commented:

“Is this the boss’s revenge? So cool!”

“He must witness his opponent’s downfall, look at that cold stare!”

“Cold-faced male god, I can’t believe that he and the boss who slack off every day are the same person!”

“Is this the charm of contrast? Oh dear, I’m going to fall for him, by the way, the boss doesn’t have a girlfriend, right?”

“What are you thinking?!”

…

Thanks to their imagination, the image of Lincoln underwent some ridiculous changes.

From a pleasure-seeking genius who likes to slack off, to a cold-blooded, scheming black-bellied genius.

When he logged into the virtual office, Lincoln noticed that the employees’ gazes towards him had changed significantly.

Especially the male staff, the excitement and admiration was almost overflowing in their faces.

It felt like just putting on a ring and stretching out his fingers, these people would passionately shout “Godfather” as they kissed his ring.

But the problem is…

This matter——

He really has nothing to do with it!

Appearing there was purely to watch the excitement happening in the front row, okay?!

*

Fred didn’t get in touch with Jason right away.

Because at this moment, Jason was still cooperating with the investigation in the National Security Bureau…

After dealing with NetDragon’s office building and R&D center, taking away all the suspects for interrogation, those who might know about the matter were also taken away to cooperate with the investigation.

Jason, Warner, Gary and other current and former executives of NetDragon were almost all caught in one swoop.

Even former NetDragon employees who were already recruited by Fred to join Cloud Dream received phone enquiries.

However, their situation was much better, only receiving a phone call and being informed not to leave Xiajing City within the next week, they were not taken away.

—This incident has a much greater impact than many people imagined, even beyond Lincoln’s expectation.

It wasn’t until the afternoon that Jason finished his “cooperation with the investigation” and left the solemn and awe-inspiring building.

After receiving his mobile phone, he saw Fred’s invitation.

Even with lingering fear, he couldn’t wait to accept the interview invitation and hurried home—the interview would be conducted in the virtual world.

In fact, after completing his resignation yesterday, he had thought about submitting a resume to Cloud Dream.

After all, as the only virtual reality game company in the world and almost a holy place for game practitioners, who wouldn’t want to go there if they had a little gaming dream?

However, at that time, he harbored the secret of “his old employer stealing Cloud Dream’s confidential technology” and couldn’t pretend not to know anything, and go to the “victim’s” home to apply for a job like nothing happened.

Unless he could tip them off about his old employer, that could be used as a letter of recommendation.

However, he wasn’t that cruel…

He ended up deep in a dilemma.

Fortunately, the dilemma didn’t last long—after just a day and a half, NetDragon was surrounded by SWAT, and he too was approached by the National Security Department, who requested his cooperation in the investigation.

He was frightened and terrified!

During the questioning, he was like spilling beans, answering whatever was asked without any hesitation.

Not only did he answer the questions actively, but he also talked about things that were not asked.

Even so, he was still “educated” for a long time for “knowing but not reporting”.

Warner’s situation was similar.

Since both of them were not involved, and considering the particularity of virtual reality technology, they didn’t know that it involved national security and didn’t report it, it was barely understandable.

So after a round of national security education, they were allowed to go home.

In comparison, Gary left much earlier than them.

—Because he really didn’t know anything about it…

Richard had no intention of telling him from the beginning.

Usually, this would be a sign of not being trusted by the boss, but when he left the gate of the National Security Bureau, Gary couldn’t help but deeply appreciate Richard’s mercy.

When Jason came out, he could only describe his mood with one word: “surviving a catastrophe”.

If he had made a wrong move at that time, blinded by money, he might have been sent to jail now!

“Stealing confidential technology involving national security for personal and company profit.”

Upon hearing this charge, even if he wasn’t involved, Jason was scared into sweating profusely on the spot.

…

While Jason was hurrying home for the “interview”, many NetDragon employees began looking for a way out.

The managers looked for headhunting companies, while ordinary employees downloaded recruiting software.

Everyone felt that the building was about to collapse.

Gary was no exception, worried about his future.

He had been wanting to leave NetDragon for a long time but couldn’t make up his mind—because he couldn’t find a company with satisfactory treatment and prospects.

So he waited until today.

In his eyes, if NetDragon was declining rapidly before, after today, it became a sinking ship.

It was time to jump ship to survive.

But where to go?

The ideal choice, of course, is Cloud Dream.

However, Gary felt that he had a grudge with Lincoln.

So he didn’t think he would receive the same treatment as Fred, but more likely receive the treatment like “Henry”—

Being ridiculed by Lincoln online.

That would be really humiliating.

But for Gary to give up this opportunity directly, he still couldn’t bear it.

So the remaining option was to try his luck contacting people, his former colleagues who have already joined Cloud Dream, and test the waters a bit.

After all… what if?

—Until now, he still didn’t know that Cloud Dream doesn’t have public relations.