Chapter 320: BL Gaming Club

Chen Mo smiled faintly as Tang Qiu walked in.

He was quite satisfied with this lawyer he had hired for a million.

After all, there wasn’t much for her to do on a daily basis, but she could handle all the necessary paperwork and formalities for the company.

It was a textbook example of high investment, low return.

“Have a seat. There’s something I need you to take care of,” he said with a smile, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. Tang Qiu was now one of the few people in the entire company he could actually trust.

After all, since joining the company, she hadn’t done anything that directly brought in profits.

Tang Qiu sat down, eyeing President Chen’s smiling face with a trace of confusion.

Something about the way he was looking at her felt… off.

Once she was seated, Chen Mo finally spoke slowly.

“Here’s the situation. The company is planning to establish a gaming club. There are some registration procedures that need to be handled, and since you’re familiar with this kind of thing, I’d rather not hand it off to anyone else. I trust you with it.”

As he spoke, the hopeful expression on Tang Qiu’s face quickly faded.

She thought to herself,

What exactly was I expecting? When has President Chen ever given me something truly important?

“Understood, President Chen. I’ll take care of it as soon as possible,” Tang Qiu nodded. Regardless, this job was definitely better than doing legal awareness campaigns.

And Chen Mo wasn’t wrong about one thing.

After handling so many company registrations, she was already on familiar terms with the folks at the business bureau. These kinds of tasks were becoming smoother and more efficient for her.

“By the way, President Chen, what name should we register the gaming club under?”

“Just call it BL Gaming Club,” Chen Mo replied without hesitation.

He had already decided on the name before calling Tang Qiu in.

BL—short for “bailan,” or “giving up.”

That was his most sincere wish for the soon-to-be-established gaming club.

He hoped that every manager, coach, and professional player who joined would slack off and laze around. That would be the perfect outcome.

BL Gaming Club.

Tang Qiu silently repeated the name in her mind and gave a subtle nod.

This time, the name actually wasn’t bad. It didn’t carry the same unfortunate implications as some of the previous company names.

Nanhe—sounded like “nanke,” or “tastes bad.”

Lanpian (Blue Film) —sounded like “lame movie.”

Boring Short Video.

Even though she knew President Chen didn’t mean anything by them, every time she heard those names, she couldn’t help but make the connection.

Like Nanhe Coffee—among the general public, it had basically become known as “Bad Tasting Coffee.”

Just the other day in the elevator, she saw someone texting and referring to it as “Bad Tasting Coffee” instead of “Nanhe Coffee.”

Of course, she hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. The person was standing right in front of her, and all she had to do was glance down to see the screen.

She wondered if the nickname “Bad Tasting Coffee” had affected the coffee shop’s sales at all.

But this time was different. BL Gaming Club.

She had some knowledge of gaming clubs, and many of them used acronyms for their names—like the famous NNG Club.

“Alright, President Chen, I’ve noted the name. I’ll get started on the registration right away.”

Tang Qiu jotted down the club’s name. Seeing that there was nothing else, she left the office to begin the registration process.

Once she was gone, Chen Mo immediately called Shen Rou in.

“I want you to compile a detailed list of all current gaming club managers, coaches, and professional players. I want everything—good and bad.”

He looked at Shen Rou as he spoke, his tone calm and steady.

He needed to pick out some less competent management staff, but he couldn’t just come out and say, “Give me a list of the worst ones.”

So the only option was to have her gather data on everyone, and he would sift through it himself.

He would identify and select all the underperformers.

“Understood, President Chen.”

Shen Rou nodded. She already knew the company was planning to start a gaming club, so she wasn’t surprised that Chen Mo wanted information on other clubs’ personnel.

She figured he was probably planning to poach some people.

After Shen Rou left, Chen Mo fell into thought.

He wasn’t sure how much of the 140 million in System Funds he could burn through just by setting up a gaming club.

But he’d heard that poaching professional players could be extremely expensive. Some top-tier players could cost tens of millions.

Still, while recruiting these high-level players would certainly help deplete the System Funds, they might also lead the club to actual success in competitions.

And that was a risk he couldn’t take.

So, to be safe, he decided to rule out the top-tier players.

Instead, he could consider the so-called “water cooler players”—the benchwarmers. Their transfer fees weren’t as high, but still ranged from hundreds of thousands to a few million.

If he recruited enough of them, that should do the trick.

If one game wasn’t enough, he could just start clubs for multiple games.

With that thought, Chen Mo began jotting down notes in his notebook.

【Extreme Survival】, 【God of Guns】, 【Fire Dragon Island】, 【Mythical Beasts】…

A total of seven game titles were listed. These were all games that Chen Cong had mentioned to him, and all of them currently had organized professional leagues.

Chen Cong’s suggestion was to start by forming professional teams for just three of the games, monitor the club’s development, and then decide whether to expand further.

Otherwise, jumping into all of them at once would be too risky and would require a significant financial investment.

Looking at the seven game titles written in his notebook,

Chen Mo’s lips curved into a faint smile. Just three games? Not a chance.

Only kids make choices. I want all seven.

Extreme Survival had only recently launched. Aside from the Sky Pavilion Club, no other clubs had established professional teams yet, so recruiting pro players for Extreme Survival wouldn’t cost much.

If he wanted to invest more heavily in professional players, he’d have to focus on the other games.

But all of that would have to wait until Shen Rou finished gathering the necessary information. Only after reviewing the data could he make an informed decision.

………….

Jiang City.

In a basement room,

Zhang Lan and a few of her studio partners sat around a makeshift square table, a steaming hot pot placed in the center.

They gathered around the bubbling pot, eating with excited expressions.

“Come on, let’s celebrate. Cheers, everyone!”

Zhang Lan poured herself a glass of beer and raised it toward the others.

Ever since the last Sports Meeting ended and it was confirmed that there were no issues with their songs, she had gone back and uploaded the two new tracks to the music platform.

Though some time had passed since then, and the songs hadn’t exactly gone viral, they had still been warmly received by many listeners.