Claire arrived earlier than expected at the store, allowing both Rei and Jin to reconvene once again in the conference room instance. Rei handed Claire the documents to take a look at Studio Mashi’s expenditure records, and she was quite shocked at what she was looking at.
“Isn’t this one of the few more popular animation studios in Japan? Are they really in such a dire state?” Claire asked. Both men were surprised that Grandma Yuan’s secretary knew a thing or two about the studio. The serious women certainly did not seem the type to watch anime.
“Let’s say that their previous CEO was not really the cleanest person in the studio. He had been embezzling a large portion of money before he ran away. Not many know about the situation since they’ve done their best to cover it up. I happen to have a connection there, and he begged me to help the studio. They’ve been struggling ever since, and the movie I am making is currently the only project they are working on and is somewhat their only lifeline.”
“So you’re expanding into movies now, Jin? That is a very risky move to play, even more so considering that this one’s an overseas studio.” Claire warned as she took some time to study the numbers after taking a brief. Unsurprisingly, Claire confirmed that the studio was bound to fail without a LOT of additional budget coming in.
“I am not too sure about the Japanese laws with regards to overseas investment, but saving this studio is nigh impossible. Even if you inject in extra cash, it’s less than certain that you will break even. You can forget about seeing any profit from it unless the upcoming movie that Rei is mentioning will become a multimillion dollar hit. And I’m talking USD, not yuan or yen. It is very highly likely that you will experience a loss.” Claire concluded.
“What about if I hypothetically create a movie studio and hire those peeps instead?” Jin asked
Claire shrugged at that particular idea but humoured him nonetheless: “I still can’t see you incur anything but losses. Nevertheless, that way you won’t have to worry that they waste the money and you will have control over the studio. Whatever the case, it’s not your responsibility to save any random Tom, Dick and erm in this case, Sato-san from their dying business. If you plan on doing that, I can only conclude that Grandma Yuan had misplaced her faith in you as someone unfit to make sound business decisions.”
Rei felt devastated by the sound of her analysis.
“Rei, are you able to get Studio Mashi to send over the incomplete work? Maybe we can still finish from there and publish it ourselves?” Jin suggested yet the manga artist wasn’t on board.
“I am choosing Studio Mashi because of their prestige in details and plot as well as their dedication to complete the project. I am not going to hand it over it to some Tom, Dick and in this case, Xiao Ming to complete their work.” Rei was fully adamant on it.
“Then my advice to you, Jin, is to not take this deal. You are walking in a financial death trap because of your friend. Let me repeat that you have no obligation to fulfil his request.” Claire did not know the whole situation, but she had been through enough to see that trying to save Studio Mashi would be a big mistake.
Contrary to her appearance, she did watch a few of their movies while younger and loved their characters. She would definitely be sad to know that the studio might have to close down due to bad internal office politics. However, that did not mean she would allow Jin to make a wrong business decision to save it.
“Unfortunately, I do owe him an obligation to save the studio, and that is why I also need your help.” Jin became extremely shameless when asking for Claire’s help.
“Why should I? I have enough on my plate as is. My only helping you are limited to things connected to Grandma Yuan. This does not extend to helping you solve the problems of your friends.” Claire replied until Jin dangled his trump card in front of her.
“In return, I can let you learn more about the System. Perhaps it can enhance your skills and traits too.” Jin said out loud, and Claire was dumbfounded. How could he offer something like that so casually to an outsider?
“Watch your words. I have no idea what you are talking about.” Claire pretended not to hear it until Jin had clarified the white elephant in the room.
“He is already under the influence of the System, and to be honest, he isn’t a friend. More of a colleague.” Jin did not say much, especially when ‘controlling’ isn’t the best of words to convince someone to join them.
“What? But judging from the conversation we had, he seemed to be in a different profession from you. Movie directing? Some animation artist?” Claire was getting frustrated that someone that simple was able to be exposed to the System. Why not her?
“I am a Manga Artist, and I actually hailed from another world. You know like those transmigration fantasies?” Rei decided to speak the truth out and instead, incurred the opposite effect. Claire could not make any sense from this. Was this just some sort of out of season April Fool’s joke or was this after all an elaborate plot to get her to join Jin?
“Look. Things are really that simple. He’s truly from another world and simply a typical engineer from his original world. Not some magic wielding super crazy powerful cultivator or that sort.”
“… Fine. Show me his creations, and I’ll believe you.” Claire folded her arms, wanting some proof. “You claimed that you owe him an obligation, which indicates that he must have already created something for you in return.” Claire’s demand made Jin slightly cautious.
“You see, if we show you his works, it will expose even more things about this particular System I have. Until you give me your word and sign a temporary contract, I am not allowed to give you any more information.” Jin tried to explain kindly as he had vastly underestimated Claire’s reaction.
The secretary sighed as she picked up the just materialised temporary contract and read the terms briefly. She quickly realised that there were many underlying meanings to the contract’s term.
“I see this contract has been vetted by a well versed lawyer. There’s a lot of double meanings in the terms despite its outward simplicity.” Even if that was the case, she was innately and insanely curious about this particular System that Jin was hiding.
Grandma Yuan had always kept a mysterious façade whenever this topic was breached, and it always made Claire feel left out when Yuan and Jin talked about it. She desired to know what made the System so special that it could have enabled a boy with seemingly normal qualifications to become so outstanding in a mere matter of months.
“Fine, I will sign but only on the condition that you limit this to today. If you presumably can really brainwash me, then I will accept the specified consequences.” Claire demanded, so Jin overwrote the time limit on the contract limiting it to midnight of January 1st. Upon signing, Claire felt that something entered past her entire body as if something took a long look into her soul.
