CHAPTER 8

It was difficult to call a sudden meeting with sponsors. I was not even sure if I would be able to convince them of funding the project within a day. The sponsors were also to bring traction to the game, with the name of three big companies will get the game hyped up quickly and will assure we could afford to take on the idea. Patrick managed to get into contact with our closet 'friends' that we helped in the past. This was Army's which was a car company trying to establish fully capable self -driving cars, with defensive systems. One of the projects that I was able to make a breakthrough in. but just kept it locked away for future leverage.

The other one was Maxima which was working hard on their video sharing and mainly social media platform. It wanted to dominate the social media space in an instant and attract advertisers, sponsors, and a great number of users of their platform.

They were both extremely ambitious companies just like Digicliff, the only difference came with the age of the companies. Digicliff was the youngest among these two giants but possessed the same capabilities as them. Well, I hoped it did or at the very least that is what I told myself every day in the mirror but it seemed to work either way.

Working on a tine-crunch made me think more about how to present the idea and coming up with ideas on how I could easily get them on board. I had already told Glenn some information on their personalities and he gave me different methods on how I could approach the idea the best way possible. It honestly felt like I was a knight heading it battle obviously I had already jumped into my own world of imagination but it was nice to think of myself as a knight in shining armor rather than a confused adult in khakis.

I entered the board room before the two proxies arrived, making sure to set up everything needed. Once they both arrived, I knew it was on me to make it as convincing as possible. Even if in my mind I was a nervous wreck, as usual, I maintained my composure. Unless you focused on my feet that were tapping intensely on the ground. No matter how old I became being in front of people was not my strong suit.

"Thank you for taking the time out of your day, to meet me here today. Ms. Susan and Mr.Daniel."I said patching a friendly smile across my face.

"So I have a proposal for you today," I said looking at their blank as paper faces with their eyes staring coldly at my bare heart.

Businesspeople were never fun to be around in any situation. It was like proposing a war plan where life and death were on me, which funnily enough was a war plan to save lives in Gendwall. Adding an extra bucket of pressure on me. I took an inner mystical breath to get all the ideas out of my mind and built the confidence to begin."

"We want to hold a gaming tournament," I said going completely off-script and they looked at me with the same dark impression that they started with.

They must have thought I was filling the gap of youth that I missed starting the company by giving it a tournament arc project. I was a complete idiot. But since I had already gone completely off with what I had to say I decided to keep it going.

"But not any gaming tournament. It is a code-based strategy tournament, it is not just for anyone but it will only be able to attract the smartest and most creative young students in Paradise."

They continued to look at me with a completely blank expression.

"It will be held over the course of two weeks depending on the fastest speed to complete the test. The three winners will be given opportunities to get direct internships to our companies. Therefore in an instant, we will all have young big brains in our companies. That will save a tremendous amount of time that takes to go through hundreds of internship applications and you get a great capability in return."I said turning to my project with a bunch of graphs and pie charts of prediction of what time and opportunities they would be able to attain.

"Plus with the recent establishment of the Digicliff transport tubes , we are still popular this week, announcing a new project amidst all this popularity will gain great attraction and bring attention to both Maxima and Army's in an instant. Which is enough press to last a few months which can be a useful time for you. With that Digicliff has offered to help with some of the projects that you had sent to us for assistance." I said taking a deep breath after the long statements.

"More so, Digicliff will take complete control of holding the tournament. So Susan, Daniel what do you think of partnering with us to hold the first-ever strategic code game-based tournament game?" I asked hoping I had at least done something to convince them of the plan.

They both looked at me shifting in their chairs a bit.

"Well Cyrus, we both respect you and you have contributed a lot in the technology industry but in no way do I see this beneficial to even yourself,"Daniel said putting me completely down.

"Susan?"I said shooting my sad eyes.

"I am sorry Cyrus but I have to agree with Daniel on this. Isn't it a bit odd for your company to go from establishing one of the most reliable transport systems in the city to a video game?"She said adding a cold tone at the end. Susan was supposed to be the nice one between the both of them so I knew they were unconvinced.

"That's the point it is an out of the box idea that is what Digicliff was built upon, something no one would expect, "I said giving it another try.

"My dear apologies, Mr.Mayday but we do not have the time to work with risks. But don't worry you are young you have enough time to come up with a better idea," Daniel said standing up, clearly leaving.

"Kindly reconsider Daniel, the analytics clearly show improvement. Plus considering that your target age groups are relatively young you could easily gain more attraction from your audience."I said handing him some of the detailed pages that I had prepared.

Daniel looked at the booklet and flipped through the pages, Susan was as quiet as ever probably going over the idea in her mind. She was probably calculating a thousand possibilities of it helping their company or at the very least raising it above their competitors. She was extremely smart and I could see it in both of them. The main disadvantage I had was my age. It was not easy to trust someone as young as me, who was relatively new to the business. As Daniel mentioned they always said that I always had enough time to build a new company if Digicliff failed, something I never even wanted to mention.

"We are not going to sponsor this, "Daniel said once again putting the booklet back on the table, " If we wanted to advertise we'll do it ourselves and I don't think a random contest among students will do anything," he said now walking towards the door, crushing my fragile heart. I felt like a failure.

"Cyrus we like you, we really do but some risks can't be taken and you're smart enough to know that, "Susan said with apologetic eyes following Daniel to the door.

At that point in time, I could not offer them false promises to convince them of anything. I knew if I did that and could not keep the end of my deal they would easily drag down the company to the ground in bitter shame.It was a strategy I could take even if it would have worked for that moment in time ,I still had to hold the pride of the company in my bare hands.

In that time of my dramatic defeat by my elders which was clearly an exaggeration that I had built in my mind, I clenched my fists and decided to be a protagonist of my own story and take control of the situation. Don't get me wrong I was still sweating profusely but I still could not give up at that moment or I would have let both Miranda and Glenn down when they were both sacrificing themselves. At that moment I heard the words of my best friend ringing in my head.

Glenn once said to me, "If there is something that could beat honesty, love, friendships, and logic was stupid power competitions." He told me this when he was eating mango chicken at my office, but I would never forget those words in my life.

Suddenly I stood up with my chest out and said whatever would flow into my mind into my mouth as long as I arouse their sense of competition.

"Well, a little birdy told me that Army's was planning to make a come back in the formula one races after a little mistake was made last time that gave a chance Mercedes to take the cup continuously. Since then Mercedes has been able to get their hands on the youngest racing prodigies by mere popularity alone. Army's coming back with no convincing talent or power of supporters will be really terrible. Even finding talent will be difficult. Times have changed whereby the young racers will not just sign to any company and little Armys might not get a chance to make a good comeback." I said with my power attack. It was an underhand trick to get to them like that but I was just stating undeniable facts that even a child could point out.

"Well, I could recall Maxima is barely making it through with their overly ambitious plans that they promised the public to achieve before the end of the year. To add salt to the wound, the government has really been on their case for the spread of fake news, pedophilic activities, child and animal abuse. Which will all calculate to heavy censorship on the platform and you know how the downfall of the heavy censorship. If the users are not fans of the censorship their royalty shifts with a single snap. Considering that there is a new platform that has been establishing itself with the youth going to the very extent of hiring a social media star as their new C.S.O. They might already plan a new place to go when Maxima is already crashed. It is sad how success is determined by the very young people who you enjoy putting down. " I said now feeling like I sold my soul to the dark side.

"Now I have contacted you guys first since I have a personal experience with both of you. We have worked on several projects together and I could testify on behalf of the company that it has been amazing, but if you looked outside your window you can see my transport tubes running through the city with scheduled expansions in two weeks time to four other cities and by the end of this year we would have gone to almost every major city in the entire country. The advantage of being young is not coming across issues, we provide good clean fun and now we already have some power in the city. I have Intel from every direction straight to my desk and the competition I face does not have the youthful influence as a company owned by a young person like myself. It's innocent, we work with trends and information, not traditional methods. We may take risks s but they said the same thing when we planned the transport tubes and now that's what we have established."I made sure to hit them with the young line to make them really feel the pain of telling me that. Just an act of mini friendly revenge.

"But I guess you both came in knowing all this and refused not once but twice in less than an hour. I am really sorry that we don't get to work together. I hope you have a nice day. I know Mercedes would not refuse. Wait I have to call a good friend of mine." I said trying not to push too much to the point of lying and dialed Glenn's number.

I knew they were tough nuts to crack. They did not easily fall for my basic strategy but I already caught them in my web all they needed to get them scared was to hear a representative talking to me and I would have broken them. I could see it in their eyes now. They did not want to be defeated easily.

"You haven't left yet?"I asked sarcastically, "Well let me get you on speaker." I said praying Glenn did not say something dumb.

That move assured them that I was not making a false call, and Glenn answered.

"Hey, Josh I have a proposal for you when we are free so we can discuss."

Well, here I trod softly. Glenn's name was Josh so technically I was not completing lying but I could feel the back sweat drenching my shirt. Even thinking of lying freaked me out.

"Of course Cyrus, we have been looking for a way to boost sales, " Glenn said cleverly, "I can fit you in my schedule tomorrow." He said and made me smile.

"Yeah, I think this will be of great benefit. thanks. Wait I forgot to congratulate your team, I heard your Ace was able to set a new record. "I said smiling knowing that I just made Daniel angry.

"Thank you. Well Cyrus we can't wait to see what you have to offer tomorrow ." He said

"Trust me it won't disappoint you, "I said hanging up with a smirk of triumph

I surely captured their attention now and by their facial expressions, I could tell they were worried. Spending all of the time with Glenn, he helped me to pick up these few indications of change in facial expressions and mood. I was clearly the winner

"So we have about twenty-four hours before the meeting I would pitch to them the idea that the two of you refused or I can give them a less exciting proposal with one of my other projects .it's your choice. Before I contact another company '"I said sipping my water slowly in all business glory.

Daniel and Suasan looked at each other and I looked at them.In utter defeat they walked back to their seats knowing that it would have been risky denying my proposal.

"This better be good,"Daniel said in bitterness.

I smiled at them with my usual childlike innocence knowing at the back of my mind that I had made one step into the plan.