Chapter 581

The employees at WareSoft were well aware of the reason for the company’s decline.

It was simply because the game company was not creating proper games.

Amid the ominous atmosphere where MoonOwa could be torn apart entirely, Josh, the youngest employee in his fifth year, asked his seniors a question.

[Josh: What do you do when you come to work these days?]

[▶Mark: … I make proposals and PowerPoint presentations for reports.]

[Josh: Ah…]

It was always like this.

As employees in the organization get promoted, they eventually reach a position where their incompetence is revealed.

According to the Peter Principle, most positions are occupied by people who are incompetent for that role.

As far as Josh could remember, the last significant turning point for WareSoft was five years ago.

This was when Resonance Corporation integrated all games on Earth into a single platform.

Naturally, an offer came to WareSoft as well.

However, modifying a vast open world with a new game engine and graphics was an exceedingly burdensome and troublesome task.

The management had no interest in ventures that weren’t profitable, which ultimately sowed the seeds of their downfall.

Josh was slowly starting to become worried about the future.

His college friend, who foolishly chose to join Resonance Nova Studio to make an SF game, had his team’s game not only decided for film adaptation but also backed with a Star Wars-level production budget.

In contrast, the employees at WareSoft were completely absorbed in office politics under the pressure of restructuring.

Josh recalled the words of a senior who had left early during his first year.

[Just check it out and leave. Chairman Wang doesn’t know anything about games.]

When the top brass is incompetent, the entire organization rots and decays.

Even Mark, who once earned a reputation as a skilled VR game developer, had become an employee who wasted his salary watching internet broadcasts during work hours.

[▶Mark: Oh, that Unspecified Gender in MoonOwa, lol.]

[▶Mark: Seriously, this person makes the game enjoyable. You should definitely watch it.]

[▶Mark: Whoa, what? The rumor about Unspecified Gender acquiring it was real? Shocking.]

[▶Mark: What a pity. They had the money and knew game development well; they would have been perfect as the owner of our company.]

Unable to resist the temptation, Josh turned on the internet broadcast.

In the fiery battlefield, the pros of MoonOwa were venting frustrations similar to their own.

The end of the game.

Unspecified, having cut down all the enemies, smiled faintly under the starlit sky.

[I hope that after this night, a better tomorrow will come. The endings of MoonOwa have always been like this.]

It was a hollow statement with no countermeasures.

Yet, for some reason, it resonated with a sincere emotional undertone.

[I think it’s okay to hold onto a futile hope when no answer is visible. After all, nobody knows what the future holds.]

The pure desire to create a beautiful game.

[Instead, we have to do something. If we do nothing, nothing will change. Wouldn’t it be better to pioneer a deserted island than sink on board? We should be relentless.]

The adventurous spirit of pioneering an uncertain future.

[Can we, who have only ever made games, really do it?]

[If we’re with our colleagues, what can’t we do?]

“Oh, this is…!”

Josh covered his mouth with both hands.

-Purity, exploration, and the last remaining thing is comrade-

It was a catchphrase that at least employees who had a deep love for World of Arcelia would recognize…

Unspecified was declaring it openly.

‘I have not yet given up on MoonOwa.’

It had to be Unspecified; if it wasn’t Unspecified, this game had no chance.

At that moment, Josh realized that he wasn’t the only one who thought that way.

[WareSoft Community]

[Watching the salary-thief Unspecified’s broadcast]

[Wow, Unspecified is just insane! Unspecified is the GOAT.]

[What is everyone doing not working? lol]

[Why should such a fun game go down?]

[Please, Unspecified, buy this garbage company.]

[I don’t need to buy the whole company; just take me with you.]

(…)

[If it’s not being acquired by Jansol, shouldn’t someone threaten to quit?]

After all, the MoonOwa engine and ASI are so outdated that we’re the only ones who can use them now.

It wouldn’t even be easy to analyze files one by one without us, so why should we be scared?

If we present ourselves as unyielding, they will have no choice but to ditch the open world.

[Comments]

-A genius?

-What? Were we not switching to the Resonance engine?

└ No way, lol.

└ They would definitely refuse, saying it costs too much.

└ This is seriously a legendary corporate mess.

-But what if they really go for it? Then we’re screwed too.

└ There are so many weirdos in the management, it’s actually a real possibility.

└ Would shareholders sit idly if they burn through their assets?

└ If the company is going down anyway, we have to take that level of gamble.

Even though the number of employees didn’t reach 100, Jansol was an unprecedented giant with monthly sales reaching 5.6 trillion won.

The old saying that even the servants must strike in a great house led to the reality of a strike.

With the strike of WareSoft developers, many potential acquirers withdrew their hands.

The possibility that a disgruntled employee would turn the open world into scrap paper.

They had no reason to take that risk either.

Facing a situation where the IP of MoonOwa (intellectual property) wouldn’t allow even 1 trillion won back, even creditors fell into a panic.

On the day of Intelligence WareSoft’s bankruptcy auction.

The moment when Unspecified, who had briefly wandered around the company and then left, reappeared was exactly then.

WareSoft’s total debt was 1.8 trillion won.

Coincidentally, the acquisition amount proposed by Unspecified for the MoonOwa IP and business unit was.

“1.8 trillion won. I will pay off all the debts, including interest, in cash.”

It was a moment when the moods of creditors and shareholders were at odds.

* * *

“Wow!”

Creditors cheered at the revival.

The bankruptcy administrator chose me as the successful bidder with the highest bid.

Michelle Badiu, the former head of WareSoft’s business units and currently excluded from all decision-making, shouted in rage.

“You could have acquired it before it went bankrupt! You intended this from the beginning…!”

“I’ll leave the theme park, so please continue the auction.”

“You incited the employees’ strike, didn’t you? How else could this happen!”

The woman was dragged out of the courtroom, frothing at the mouth.

Management’s severance pay is lower in priority than other debts.

The approximately 100 million dollars in severance pay meant for Michelle Badiu was rendered null.

‘The fact that thousands of employees were pushed to the streets due to the company’s bankruptcy is entirely the CEO’s fault. With everyone getting laid off, how can one person try to sneak away with money?’

Even now, sharp-witted bio companies have formed partnerships with Jansol and R&D to recover most of their dropped stock prices.

Surviving companies… well, as long as they have their own capabilities, they’ll manage to stay afloat.

My goal is to acquire as many companies or core business units as possible with minimal waste.

‘More importantly, I need to cut out the rotten apples.’

How can I determine if this employee truly has a negative impact on the company?

There wasn’t enough time to conduct in-depth interviews with everyone, and asking the reputations from acquaintances could easily make someone a victim of office politics.

From this, I had an idea.

Money never lies.

Even those who fervently support the bottom-tier team cannot easily place bets against the odds.

I provided 160 hours of intense retraining to all employees, including WareSoft developers, and added 5 million won as a completion fee to their salaries.

To the finance team leader, who complained of excessive completion fee spending, I revealed a way to recoup it.

“Just one person. If you point out exactly one person whom you can’t have come to Jansol on the condition of forgoing their completion fee, I’ll personally verify that person. Not anonymously, but by name. If you inaccurately name someone, I’ll verify those individuals in return.”

It was not just a simple 5 million won, but 5 million won contained within 160 hours of brutal working hours.

The number of people who could still engage in petty politics while staking all of this is far fewer than expected.

If it’s just a boss who nags a lot or a slightly unlucky subordinate, they might move departments and never be seen again.

But if someone is genuinely problematic, they would be willing to let go of 5 million won for their future.

Using this method, 280 employees voluntarily returned their completion fees, and a total of 33 became targets of elimination.

The accuracy was considerable.

Except for about three, everyone was individuals worth shaking their heads at.

“So you grabbed your subordinate’s hair and kicked them in the face because they didn’t listen? Why?”

A team leader who used physical violence simply because of their high rank.

“On July 14, 2051, on that day alone, did you go to America, France, Egypt, and even Japan?”

A manager who continuously got promoted by stealing the project results from employees.

“What’s your MoonOwa nickname? What? You don’t have one?”

Even a sub-director who, without ever having played a game of MoonOwa, made the other departments create useless PPT presentations every week.

The villains who had only existed in my imagination until now were shown the door with severance pay.

Honestly, I was unsure how WareSoft could have crumbled…

Now, I find it hard to believe how they managed to survive until now.

After eliminating 30 rotten apples, I purged an additional 15 who had falsely targeted three.

Exactly 4 weeks and 2 days after acquiring the IP of MoonOwa and WareSoft’s core business units, I normalized the company.

In November 2053, on a day when the first snow fell.

[Shall we hit some upvotes if everyone likes the overtime that Unspecified is assigning?]

Developers had become so engrossed in their work that they hadn’t been able to take a stroll for a week, like a Border Collie.