The news only showed a few snippets of the actual interview. CEO Hou Liang mostly talked about the game Supreme Ascension, while CFO Wu Chen talked about their company, Planet Monkey.
“There are several rumours about the identity of Planet Monkey’s owner and president. Some say that the owner is a rich young master, while there are hearsays claiming that the owner is a beautiful young lady. Can you tell us which of these rumours is true? Or better yet, tell us his or her real identity,” the interviewer asked.
Wu Chen chuckled mysteriously. “We’re not going to reveal our President-Owner’s real identity yet, but I’ll say this to all of you now. Make sure to record it. Our owner is a beautiful young lady who is also filthy rich. How else can we establish a company like Planet Monkey so quickly and so successfully?”
The interview snippets finally ended, and then the morning news went on a commercial break immediately after.
Inside the café, Zhou Mei’er and Ming Li looked at each other in disbelief. They knew that their comrades, iEatSlippers and Monkeyface, were busy running their new company. However, they thought that what they were working on was just a small business, perhaps an online store or something.
They never expected that the company of those two was actually the developer of the latest hit game Supreme Ascension. The most impressive thing was that they were the CEO and CFO!
Zhou Mei’er and Ming Li both reached for their phones at the same time. They immediately logged in to the Black Stars home page. The other Black Stars already started discussing about Hou Liang and Wu Chen after watching them in the morning news.
“Holy shit! My mighty slippers are shook! Did I just watch our troll leader iEatSlippers and strategist Monkeyface on TV?”
“They’re the CEO and CFO of Planet Monkey!!! They’re the ones who created Supreme Ascension!!! Damn!!! I kowtow to their awesomeness!!!”
“Those of you who haven’t played Supreme Ascension yet, what are you waiting for? Go start playing now and let’s all support our two comrades!”
For the first time ever in the history of the fan club, the Black Stars enthusiastically discussed in length something that was unrelated to their Boss Iris. (They still had no idea that Iris Long was actually the President-Owner of Planet Monkey and the direct boss of both Hou Liang and Wu Chen in the truest sense of the word.)
Everyone cheered for their fellow comrades, iEatSlippers and Monkeyface. They all felt proud of the two for their incredible accomplishment.
CaptainBlackStar: “Congratulations to our brothers iEatSlippers and Monkeyface! All of us Black Stars are extremely proud of the two of you! We wish you more success! Reach the top of the gaming industry! You can do it! But please don’t forget about us. We’ll always be comrades forever and ever!
LittlePhoenix: “Calling all the members of the Slippers Army! Assemble! Let’s all log into Supreme Ascension and wave our mighty slippers in support of our brothers iEatSlippers and Monkeyface! We’re gonna take over the game with our Slippers Army under the Black Stars banner! Let’s go!!!”
Within half an hour, a horde of Black Stars, specifically members of the Slippers Army, flooded the game’s global chat. They congratulated their comrades who were also the CEO and CFO of Planet Monkey.
Emperor Monkey: “Thank you. Enjoy the game.”
I Am Slipperlord: “Yes! All of the Black Stars, especially my beloved Slippers Army, are always welcome here! Let me see you wave those mighty slippers!”
These two replies caused an uproar, not only among the Slippers Army and Black Stars, but also among all the players of the game. The usernames of these two were different among the rest of the players. They were written in sparkling gold and were decorated with special badges, indicating that they worked at Planet Monkey.
These two characters, Emperor Monkey and I Am Slipperlord, were known among the players. They frequently played with the regular players, personally testing the game experience themselves.
Commander Black Star: “I’m not used to playing this game, so I don’t really know how things work here. I just want to say congratulations to Emperor Monkey and I Am Slipperlord for making the Black Stars proud.”
Lady Phoenix: “An emperor and a lord! Wow! You’re so cool, big brothers! We proudly wave our mighty slippers for the two of you!”
“All hail the emperor of monkeys!”
“All hail the lord of slippers!”
Lady Phoenix: “Big Bros @Emperor Monkey & @I Am Slipperlord, I humbly request that you grant our wish to make it possible for our characters to literally wave our slippers in the game.”
Other players laughed at her request. However…
Emperor Monkey: “Sure. Will work on it asap.”
I Am Slipperlord: “For the sake of my Slipper Army and the Black Stars, thy wish shall be granted!”
Huh.
What was the point of allowing characters to wave their footwear in the air? Would it help them level up? Could it be a fighting move?
Slipper slap! Slipper kick! Boomerang slippers! Slipper cannon! Or something?
“Uhm…I think I’m gonna join the Black Stars…Maybe my requests will be granted easily too.”
“Me too…”
And with that, the Black Stars had grown in number once again. Likewise, the game Supreme Ascension welcomed a new wave of players in a short period of time, boosting its popularity even further in the industry rankings.
The Black Stars all created game accounts in droves and began playing just for the sake of supporting their fellow comrades.
Unbeknown to them, they were also supporting their Boss Iris this way. It was a win-win situation, connecting them to each other and even to their Boss Iris without their knowledge.
###
In a dressing room, Iris sat on a make-up chair getting her hair and make-up done. She was getting ready for a magazine photoshoot and interview.
“The Black Stars are the best,” she commented, extremely pleased at what happened.
Afterwards, the two finally discussed the main purpose of the call.
As the CFO, Wu Chen called to update her of Planet Monkey’s current finances. They had invested a great deal of their funds to acquire the latest technologies to boost their game development.
Iris connected with her fellow Cross Academy student, the taciturn Michael Exlorsson who was also a genius mechatronics engineer.
Although she wasn’t close to him compared to her friendship with the ladies and even with Amanpio Kileksky, she didn’t hesitate to contact Michael for some advice regarding her gaming company.
In the end, Michael Exlorsson agreed to customize and licence some of his latest technologies to her company for a fee. After an intense negotiation via video chat, he agreed to give her a 40% discount from his original asking price for their connection as fellow Cross Academy students. But even then, the fee that she had to pay was still extremely expensive.
Despite this, she still willingly paid because she was confident in the quality of his work, not to mention that her company, Planet Monkey, would be the first in the world to commercially apply these latest technologies.
This head start would allow Planet Monkey to develop more quickly compared to its competitors.
At the moment, Hou Liang and his colleagues were gradually starting to use these technologies in their game development and apply it on Supreme Ascension.
The results of using all of these advanced technologies were so impressive that an inquiry was launched by industry experts and the other gaming companies. They wanted to know Planet Monkey’s secret as to how Supreme Ascension could improve so much in such a short period of time. For now, Planet Monkey had no intentions of revealing their secrets.
After the phone call with Wu Chen, Iris sat back in her make-up chair. Wu Chen shared great news. Although their technology investments hurt their funds, they were now starting to really profit. Their profits increased significantly after they broke through the top ten most popular computer games in the country.
Iris was very pleased at Planet Monkey’s progress so far. As a matter of fact, it exceed all of her initial expectations.
“If our international release of Supreme Ascension is successful later this year, I think I can finally apply for Planet Monkey to become a member of the academy’s exclusive business network,” she murmured.
