I've even abandoned all pretense of decency, can't I still make a little more m

Chapter 40 I've even abandoned all pretense of decency, can't I still make a little more money?

There are three people in this small office.

An elderly man with white hair and a suit sat behind his desk, a stack of documents in front of him.

Two people, one fat and one thin, one short and one tall, stood in front of the desk, their hands crossed over their lower abdomens, their faces tense and yearning for relief.

"I want to know, is this the investigation result you gave me?"

The old man gently closed the file, while lightly tapping the table with his right index finger.

The "tap-tap-tap" sound seemed to be knocking on the heart of a subordinate, while the ensuing interrogation was an outlet for venting pent-up anger.

"Have you seen this report? Ethan Jones has worked at Milrova for three years! And this report states that Ethan Jones should not know any of Milrova's internal R&D secrets? Furthermore, it notes that he should not have had any contact with our engineers in the past three years? Do you believe this result? Do you believe it??? Do you believe it???"

The sudden rise in his voice made the two middle-aged men standing opposite the old man tremble.

The questions that came their way made them shake their heads like rattles.

The slightly overweight man standing to the old man's left spoke with difficulty, "Boss, we don't really believe it either. But..."

"This result should be true."

The slightly overweight man looked embarrassed and said, "Boss, after receiving your order to conduct a thorough investigation, we contacted the California branch and asked them to write a report on Ethan Jones' work at our Milwaukee company over the years."

"After receiving the report, we discovered that Ethan Jones's first task after joining Mirova was to work with the marketing department on the Odyssey product and write guest invitations. During this process, he filled out an invitation that belonged to Nolan Bushnell. Therefore, after Atari created 'Pong,' the marketing department in California, or rather, Ethan Jones's superiors, in order to absolve themselves of responsibility, directly cut off Ethan Jones's normal work, only allowing him to do some basic outbound work, waiting for us to investigate and fire him. So…"

"Boss, that's when the embarrassing part of the report came in."

At this point, the slightly overweight man stopped.

He cautiously glanced at the old man, and seeing that his expression was normal and showed no signs of anger, he continued, "Boss, if nothing unexpected happens, this document should be the final result, and possibly the most accurate one. 'Snake Game' should be Ethan Jones' own idea, and his collaboration with Atari should also be a coincidence."

"After receiving this report, we personally reviewed the engineering design team's work logs and found no ideas similar to those in 'Snake Game,' or rather, no ideas even similar to those in 'Snake Game,' so..."

However, before he could finish speaking, the old man slammed his hand on the table with a loud bang!

"Oh!!! Sxxt!!!"

He stood up angrily, glaring at his subordinate with bloodshot eyes, and roared, "You mean, *Snake Game* is a clean game, right???"

"Or are you trying to tell me that Ethan Jones and Atari make a good partnership, is that right???"

"I……"

The slightly overweight subordinate opened his mouth slightly, unsure how to respond.

The old man didn't give him a chance to speak, continuing to roar, "Do you think this result satisfies me?"

"Or rather, will this outcome be acceptable to the board of directors?"

"Would our parent company accept this?"

"You need to understand, we finally managed to suppress Atari! We finally managed to strangle them in their new game development! We've just proven to the market that Miluohua isn't someone to be trifled with! We're not someone anyone can bully!"

"and then?"

"Has Nolan Bushnell found another breathing space by distributing new games?"

"More importantly, this new game was made by one of our former employees?"

"If all of this is fine, then what are we? Jokers?"

Spit flew everywhere.

The old man with white hair and a ferocious face.

His neck, with its bulging veins, resembled the gnarled roots of an old tree, while his flushed cheeks looked like his blood pressure had spiked.

After catching his breath, he sighed and said, "You know what? After the Los Angeles Times reported on Snake Game, the head of our parent company called to ask me why Ethan Jones, the inventor of Snake Game, was our former employee? Why had he achieved nothing in the past three years, but created a classic right after leaving Milrova?"

"He also asked me why, three years ago, Ethan Jones, as soon as he joined the company, facilitated the birth of Atari, and three years later, after being fired by us, he rescued Atari from its demise?"

"He doesn't understand how all of this happened. He doesn't believe it's all a coincidence, because even Hollywood screenwriters wouldn't dare write a plot like this, so... you know what I mean?"

Although the old man's voice had calmed down, the two subordinates standing in front of him felt an even stronger pressure.

Their eyes were lowered, and they dared not look up.

But at the same time, they were also very clear-headed and knew exactly what the BOSS wanted to do.

It's simply about finding and solving problems.

The former, finding the problem, refers to Ethan Jones.

After being fired by MilroVar, this guy invented a wildly popular game, a fact that greatly surprised MilroVar, who even suspected that Ethan Jones had plagiarized their internal ideas.

There's nothing we can do; they've all been so thoroughly copied that they've developed PTSD.

There are still more than twenty lawsuits to be fought, and then the former employee who was recently fired creates a wildly popular game. Anyone would think something is wrong.

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad, because according to their investigation, Snake Game had absolutely no connection with Mirova; it was purely an accident.

However, the publisher of Snake Game forced them to continue investigating this seemingly harmless matter.

The collaboration between Ethan Jones and Atari is such a coincidence!

The coincidences are so striking that it makes one wonder if this was a premeditated arrangement by someone!

Look, I just fired my employee, and he immediately released a wildly popular game; I beat the competition, and he immediately released another wildly popular game; what's more, these two guys were working together...

When such outrageous things come together, who would believe there's nothing wrong with it?

The problem is, after their investigation, they didn't find anything suspicious.

This outcome really makes things very difficult.

Thinking of this, the slightly overweight man and his thin colleague next to him exchanged a glance.

The tall, thin man took a deep breath and said, "Boss, we understand what you mean, but it's really difficult to make Ethan Jones take the blame for our mismanagement."

"For example, we might suspect that Ethan Jones and Atari conspired to join forces, but nobody would believe that, including ourselves. After all, when we launched the Odyssey, almost everyone was skeptical of home video game consoles, whether it was us, IBM, or Motorola. They all felt that home video game consoles and video games were not entertainment options that the general public could afford."

"So even if we insist that Ethan Jones was Nolan Bushnell's spy planted in Milrova, because after Ethan Jones was fired, he handed over his newly invented game to Atari for distribution... I think even if the court actually accepts our case, once we're in court, the judge and jury will think we've lost our minds."

At this point, the tall, thin man glanced nervously at his superior.

The white-haired old man was silent for a moment before nodding. "You're right."

The leader's understanding relieved the two subordinates.

But at the same time, the old man also said, "I know Ethan Jones might really be fine, but we have to make him look bad now. Because these things are too coincidental, and the company that's so coincidental no longer trusts us. Or rather, the board is already starting to suspect that the Odyssey's failure wasn't due to a problem with the product itself, but rather with our marketing methods and internal management."

"If we don't have problems, why did Atari succeed by plagiarizing our ideas? And why did an employee's idea succeed after we fired him?"

"If this happens once, I can report it to the board as an accident. But after two or three times, they no longer believe it's an accident; they just think it's inevitable."

"So, in order to let the board, and the leadership of the parent company, know that we have no problems, then Ethan Jones... must have problems. It's not a matter of the truth, it's a matter of keeping our jobs."

"I think you can understand that, right?"

The old man's question made the two people present tense up.

Silence fell over the office once again.

The eerie silence seemed to be the result of a serious internal struggle, but the deep breaths that followed were the best proof that an idea had been formed.

The slightly chubby guy looked at the old man and said, "Boss, I want to ask you something."

"you say."

"What steps do we need to take to prove we're not at fault? Is it successfully initiating a lawsuit, winning the case, or getting the other party to offer a settlement?"

The old man thought about the question for a moment and said, "Although I know the chances of winning the case are almost zero, we must win the case if we want to completely dispel the board's suspicions about us."

"Okay, boss, I understand." The fat man nodded and said, "Then we'll have no choice but to sue Ethan Jones and Atari for infringing our patents."

"?" The old man narrowed his eyes and asked, "They infringed on our patent? When did that happen?"

The fat man said with a serious expression, "They can infringe on our rights at any time, as long as we are willing to sue."

These words made the old man frown, because he didn't understand what the fat man was talking about.

But the next second, the tall, thin man spoke up, exclaiming, "You're not thinking of using the 8480 patent that Sanders Industries licensed to us to sue him, are you?"

"Doing that would ruin our reputation!"

"So what?" the fat man said dismissively. "From the perspective of that patent, Ethan Jones and Atari are infringing on our rights!"

"You need to understand that our goal now is not to find the truth, but to clear the board of doubts about us."

"In this situation, what does it matter if I lose a little reputation, as long as the lawsuit is successful?"

"You..." The skinny man's Adam's apple bobbed, as if he wanted to say something more.

But when the words reached his lips, he couldn't utter a sound.

The old man frowned as he listened to the conversation between the fat and thin men.

Although he didn't understand, it didn't matter, because his subordinate's confident words were the answer he wanted.

"Very good." The old man, who had been serious all day, finally showed a hint of joy. "I think you have a solution."

"Then I'll leave this matter to you."

"No problem." The fat man nodded. "Boss, don't worry, I will communicate with the legal department and file a lawsuit against them by September at the latest. You will hear good news in a month at most."

The old man liked the confident news from his subordinates, but he also had some doubts.

"September? It's June now, why is there such a long gap?"

The boss's curiosity made the fat man laugh. "Boss, it's simple. It's because 'Snake Game' isn't selling well enough. We need to wait until it's sold all over the country. Only then can we maximize our profits."

"Now that we've already given up on our reputation, isn't it reasonable to make more money?"

In the dimly lit office, the fat man's features were somewhat indistinct.

But the half-joking remark made the old man nod happily, "Not excessive at all."

The old man's lips curled up slightly. "Even... quite right."

Thank you to [Book Friend 20190611195126616] for the 100 Qidian Coins reward.

(End of this chapter)