This. This was what a true scheme looked like.
And it was an aboveboard, righteous strategy laid out in the open.
Li De wanted these people to earn their own money to buy their own freedom.
At its core, negotiation was the art of exploiting information asymmetry to reap benefits.
Right now, Li De held all the information. No one knew the depths of his resources. The initiative was in his hands, and he controlled the entire situation.
Everyone was momentarily stunned when they heard Li De's words, glancing at this outstanding young man with peculiar expressions.
Clearly, this statement had taken them all by surprise.
Why had another 'test' suddenly appeared? And why was it in the form of exchanging in-game currency for RMB??
Li De's deep gaze locked onto Chen Feng. His slender right index finger tapped the tabletop lightly. Not a ripple of emotion showed on his face.
As steady as a mountain.
No one knew that at this moment, he didn't even have enough funds to cover the appearance fee of the Tianyue Headhunters. The 3,000 Gold Pucks were the entirety of his acquisition funds.
If he had tried to exchange Gold Pucks for RMB by himself, it would have taken far too long.
On the forums, those gold coin traders would consider it a good haul to swallow a dozen coins each. If he tried to dump a large volume of Gold Pucks all at once, it would inevitably have a massive impact on the market.
He had no interest in using such time-consuming, labor-intensive, low-skill methods. He might as well let the Sword and Shield Club handle it directly.
With the explosive popularity of Glory, he refused to believe that among 100,000 closed beta players, there wouldn't be enough demand to absorb 3,000 Gold Pucks.
He didn't have the channels to communicate with the big guilds that needed this currency.
But the Sword and Shield Club did.
Without causing market turmoil, leveraging the Club's decade of connections in the gaming industry, Li De believed they could execute this mission perfectly.
Moreover, this was a straightforward test: if such a large company couldn't even mobilize over one hundred million RMB, then this so-called 80-million-valued club was worthless and not worth acquiring.
Even if the Tianyue Headhunters' intelligence was excellent, it wouldn't be relevant anymore.
As he looked at Li De's calm expression, a moment of silence settled over the room. Everyone was trying to discern the deeper meaning behind his request.
These elite professionals were convinced that this move by the super-rich heir had hidden significance they couldn't see. There was no way it could be as simple as it looked on the surface.
What none of them could possibly imagine was that the man talking about investing billions into the future, the man who appeared to be born into extraordinary wealth, was currently pulling off a classic confidence scheme.
Though it couldn't exactly be called an empty-handed scheme.
He was simply having them earn the money to buy themselves out.
Chen Feng would never have guessed that the funds for selling his club hadn't even materialized yet and wouldn't arrive until after they sold the Gold Pucks.
One layer after another of cunning maneuvers, he never realized he'd already stepped into Li De's carefully constructed web.
The true King of Schemes.
"This task, I believe, won't be difficult for you to complete with your network. If you can't accomplish it, then our acquisition ends here," Li De's tone was firm and left no room for doubt.
"I will find a more suitable club."
Chen Feng naturally would never suspect that Li De was out of money.
Just the fact that he could engage the Tianyue Headhunters to track him down was proof of his strength.
Besides, with Li De's dazzling noble bearing, even if this man claimed he only had a few thousand yuan in savings, Chen Feng wouldn't have believed it.
How could an ordinary person possibly carry such a refined temperament? This wasn't something one could fake, it was etched into one's very bones.
Li De had merged with two hundred years of memory from the Vampire Progenitor. That aristocratic cultivation ingrained deep into his soul had been perfectly inherited.
Now, every movement he made radiated an elegance even he was unaware of.
This kind of grace, achievable only through fine upbringing and long-term refinement, was far more dazzling than the Versace suit he'd bought with the last of his savings.
This was the real reason none of them harbored any doubt about him.
Chen Feng nodded. He didn't think Li De's request was excessive.
"No problem. Glory is one of the main games our Sword and Shield Club plans to tackle next. It's only because it hasn't entered open beta that we haven't participated yet.
But given our standing in the gaming community, selling some in-game currency won't be an issue."
Beside him, Zhao Yue's expression turned a bit odd. She interrupted Chen Feng's confident declaration.
"President Chen, 3,000 Gold Pucks is not a small amount."
Zhao Yue happened to have one of the Glory closed beta slots. She'd been playing every day lately and was well aware of how valuable Gold Pucks had become.
Three thousand Gold Pucks, at the current exchange rate of 50,000 RMB per coin, amounted to 150 million RMB.
Handling such a massive quantity, and doing so during a closed beta of only 100,000 players without disturbing the market, was not going to be simple.
Chen Feng hadn't played Glory himself and didn't know how the market had shifted. He hadn't gamed in a long time.
He kept managing the Sword and Shield Club mostly out of sentiment, unwilling to let go of his years of effort, so he hadn't realized what 3,000 Gold Pucks really meant.
The Tianyue Headhunter staff around him were in a similar boat. They weren't die-hard gamers and wouldn't have paid attention to a game's exchange rates between in-game currency and RMB.
Zhao Yue then leaned closer and whispered a few words into Chen Feng's ear.
"What? Three thousand Gold Pucks are worth 150 million RMB???"
Chen Feng's exclamation made everyone freeze for a moment. Then, as if on cue, they all turned to look at Li De, who was calmly lifting his white coffee cup and taking a slow sip.