The arcade they entered was quite large, spanning three floors of a five-story building, with each floor covering over 1,000 square meters. It boasted all kinds of arcade games available at the time, including slot machines. There were only a few arcades of this size in all of Ukraine.
With most people able to afford it, the place was packed.
Had the arcade manager not appeared quickly to personally greet Simon, it would have been difficult for him and his group to enjoy the games given the crowd.
There were simply too many people.
Upon Simon's arrival, the manager immediately followed the example of the nearby dance hall and stationed staff at the door to restrict entry. People were only allowed to leave, not enter.
By the time key figures of the Westeros system in Rivne, like Andrei Smirnov, the governor of Rivne Oblast, and Sergei Komorov, head of the Auldeko company, arrived, Simon had already led Charlotte and Yulia through the arcade, a crowded dance hall, and a multiplex cinema next door. They eventually ended up at a sizable billiards hall nearby.
To accommodate Simon and his guests, the billiards hall was entirely cleared out.
When the others arrived, thinking something urgent had happened, they were relieved to find that Simon was merely touring the area. Once they confirmed that nothing was amiss, they relaxed.
Their earlier tension was an aftereffect of the large-scale purge earlier in the year.
At first, many people in Rivne Oblast saw Simon as a wealthy foreigner throwing money around in Ukraine. But after the purge, those sentiments vanished completely. Everyone had experienced the ruthlessness and decisiveness of the young tycoon.
The purge at the start of the year had swept through the political and business circles of Rivne Oblast, as well as the private military forces and underground factions. Thousands of people were implicated, including the entire family of the former governor, Yuri Miloslav, who were brought down.
What was even more terrifying was that Simon, an outsider, could carry out such a purge in Ukraine without any pushback from the Kyiv authorities. In fact, Kyiv cooperated with him, solidifying the control of the Westeros system over Rivne Oblast.
Moreover, Simon's wealth, estimated at $700 billion in Forbes' recent ranking of America's 400 richest individuals, left many Ukrainian elites connected to the Westeros system astounded.
Those who operated at the top of society's pyramid understood the immense power that came with such vast wealth.
With Simon's $700 billion personal fortune and the trillions in assets controlled by the Westeros system, it was equivalent to dozens of Ukraine's economies combined.
Ukraine's economy had contracted by more than 10% again in 1995, with the country's GDP projected to be only $48 billion. Even the entire Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) couldn't match Simon's personal wealth.
Absolute power often leads to instinctive submission.
As a result, not only had resistance to the Westeros system vanished within Rivne Oblast, but key figures like Smirnov and others, who had been elevated by Simon, now felt a sense of pride in being part of this super-conglomerate.
Privately, people had even begun referring to Rivne as "Westerosgrad."
The City of Westeros.
Smirnov didn't know why Simon had suddenly issued an order, but when he arrived at the billiards hall, the first thing he did was report his progress. He had already sent someone to Rivne's suburban prison to retrieve the three girls' relatives, and they would be home before midnight.
As for the legal charges they had faced, Smirnov didn't bother mentioning them.
Some rules only applied to ordinary people.
Charlotte Brenita, who had witnessed all of this throughout the night, regretted not having learned Russian before. Following Simon back to the villa in southern Rivne around midnight, she still didn't understand what had transpired due to the language barrier.
However, Charlotte could clearly sense that Simon held the status of a king in this unfamiliar Ukrainian city.
Being a woman who deeply craved power, Charlotte was fascinated by it all, feeling a sense of admiration akin to "a great man should be like this."
The next day was November 2.
A Thursday.
At the villa in southern Rivne, Yulia Antonenko woke up early with red, puffy eyes, resembling a little rabbit.
Last night, she had stuck close to Simon, which allowed her to return to the villa. But she found that her former room had been turned into a music room by Yekaterina and the other two girls. She had hoped to sleep with Simon, but that didn't happen either, leaving her to rest in a guest room, feeling like an outsider.
Moreover, it was obvious that the three girls, having heard something, were no longer as friendly as they once had been. Instead, they showed signs of hostility, clearly hoping that Yulia would leave soon.
All of this filled Yulia with sadness and frustration.
But of course, she couldn't leave.
So, she woke up early, hoping to prepare breakfast for Simon and win his favor. If he agreed, she could stay.
But she wasn't even allowed into the kitchen.
Aside from Eve Bessonovskaya, who had always been kind to them, the other maids and attendants treated her coldly. They blocked her from entering the kitchen, using the excuse that no one else was allowed to handle Simon's breakfast.
It was clearly intentional.
In the past, she had made breakfast for Simon, and there had never been any such rule.
Simon still woke up early as usual. Unable to help in the kitchen, Yulia tried to join him for his morning exercise, but the three girls had woken up early as well and surrounded him. They were all dressed in stylish workout clothes from abroad, showing off their perfect figures. Yulia had once owned similar clothes, but she had been kicked out of the villa without any of her belongings earlier in the year. When she asked Eve about them, she found out that the three girls had personally disposed of all her things.
Left with no choice, she wore thermal underwear and pants to the gym, instantly looking like an ugly duckling next to them.
An ugly duckling? Fine!
She didn't care anymore.
Finally, Simon spoke up, and Yekaterina reluctantly lent Yulia a set of workout clothes.
But no sooner had she changed than it was time for breakfast.
After changing back into her regular clothes, Yulia sat at the table, feeling like the ugly duckling once again compared to the radiant other girls.
She barely held back tears.
Her biggest fear was that Simon would ask her to leave. But after breakfast, when Simon went to his study to start his workday without saying anything about her leaving, she felt relieved. As long as Simon didn't force her out like last time, she was determined to stay, no matter how much the other girls or maids tried to slight her.
If they rolled their eyes, she'd just pretend not to notice.
However, when Natalia Lyudaeva deliberately mentioned how she was even more shameless than Lyudmila Bessonovskaya, it still hurt her deeply.
That's when Yulia thought about what had happened last night.
Sneaking into a small living room on the first floor where no one was watching, she locked the door and picked up the phone to call home.
Despite her father's fall from a regional legislator to a prisoner, the phone line hadn't been cut off. Yulia had made sure of that, hoping that one day Simon might call. The small shop they owned in the northern commercial district brought in a decent income, enough to cover the expensive phone bills.
At first, no one answered the phone, and Yulia nearly slammed down the receiver in frustration.
After half an hour of trying, her mother finally picked up.
Yulia didn't explain much to her mother, nor did she care to hear about how her father had been released and sent to a hospital for treatment. Although she had pleaded with Simon to release her father, deep down, she still resented him for betraying Simon and siding with the former governor's family, which had led to her downfall. She had no intention of doing anything more for him.
She simply instructed her mother to have her sister Ivanna come to the southern villa as soon as possible and to make sure she dressed well so she wouldn't embarrass her.
Her mother, however, rambled on about how Ivanna was still at the hospital and asked questions about what had happened since last night. This made Yulia increasingly agitated and frustrated. She felt like she had the worst luck, being stuck with a treacherous father, a sluggish mother, and a weak sister.
If she hadn't been in the villa, Yulia might have screamed in frustration. Instead, she raised her voice slightly, threatening her mother that if they wanted her father to stay out of prison, they'd better listen to her.
Then, she slammed the phone down.
After personally inspecting the commercial street's bustling activity last night, Simon spent the morning reviewing the financial reports from the game halls, dance halls, cinemas, and other projects directly owned by the Westeros system on that street.
The results were quite satisfactory.
The large dance hall, in particular, had brought in $90,000 in revenue in October alone. Projected over the year, its revenue was expected to exceed $1 million. For a city the size of Rivne, given its economic conditions, this was beyond what most had imagined.
But Simon wasn't surprised.
In the current era, entertainment venues like dance halls and arcades, though considered lowbrow by some, were actually extremely profitable, especially in places like China. In certain core Chinese cities, large dance halls could generate hundreds of millions of yuan in annual revenue,
with astonishing profit margins.
The key, whether in China or Ukraine, was that not just anyone could open such venues.
To operate a dance hall, one needed political and business connections, as well as support from underground forces. Every angle had to be covered, or such highly profitable businesses would quickly be shut down by envious competitors.
The same was true in Rivne.
While there were other entertainment venues in the city besides those on the northern commercial street, the large-scale operations were all concentrated there. Any competitors trying to enter the market would face hundreds of ways the Westeros system could prevent them from succeeding.
Of course, Simon wasn't hogging all the profits for himself.
Calculating everything, the Westeros system directly controlled just over half of these venues' shares. Simon had generously distributed the rest to various local interest groups. While Simon didn't want the public to become too wealthy, it suited his plans to create a class of vested interests tied to the Westeros system.
After reviewing the financial reports, Simon's morning meeting was with Alexander Lyudaev, head of Rivne Media, a subsidiary of the Westeros system. He was also Natalia Lyudaeva's uncle and was responsible for managing the system's media assets in Rivne Oblast and throughout Ukraine, including television, radio, and newspapers.
In Rivne Oblast, most media outlets were now under the control of the Westeros system.
Today's discussion between Simon and Lyudaev focused on expanding Rivne Media's entertainment division.
Backed by the Westeros system, Rivne Media had grown rapidly.
Not only did it control regional television and newspaper assets, but Rivne Media also handled the distribution of Hollywood film rights throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
This was an extremely lucrative business.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent economic turmoil had decimated the region's entertainment industry, leaving it reliant on foreign content. The public's fascination with and admiration for Western culture made Hollywood content highly desirable, ensuring a strong market.
It was said that Yulia Tymoshenko, the "Iron Lady" of Ukraine, had started her rise to power by selling pirated videos.
Before the internet era, with its strong and organized subtitling communities, pirated content couldn't compete with the quality of legitimate releases.
Rivne Media's acquisition of Hollywood's official content licenses, combined with its in-house dubbing and subtitling teams, made their movies and shows highly popular throughout the CIS.
While this was a highly profitable venture for Rivne Media, it was a relatively minor revenue stream for Danerys Entertainment, Simon's core media empire. Nonetheless, it aligned with Hollywood's long-term cultural export strategy.
After all, the market would grow eventually.
At the same time, now that Simon had established a foothold in Ukraine, today's discussion with Lyudaev involved creating a local entertainment industry.
Cultural exports would inevitably face various barriers, and despite the appeal of foreign content, most people still preferred entertainment that was locally produced.
Rivne Media's expanded entertainment division would focus on two areas: television production and the development of a music business.
Television was self-explanatory.
It was a basic necessity.
Music, too, was a field that Eastern Europe had lagged in, but it was essential.
Drawing from his memories, Simon proposed creating a female pop group and even provided the name: "Holy Maiden Pop Group."
Coincidentally, the Holy Maiden Pop Group had originally come from Ukraine and had been the most popular and long-lasting girl group in the CIS. While other girl groups might rise to fame for a few years before fading or disbanding, the Holy Maiden Pop Group remained active for over a decade, with frequent changes in lineup but consistently maintaining its widespread popularity across Eastern Europe and Russian-speaking regions.
Now, with the backing of the Westeros system, Rivne Media had the resources and talent to recreate this legendary girl group.
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