Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

November 26th, Saturday…

Zhao Xuming brought his assistant to SUG Club headquarters in Shanghai.

The GOG branch of the SUG Club was located in Jingzhou, but there were other projects in the headquarters, so it was still in Shanghai.

As for why he had chosen the SUG Club as his first target, it was obviously a result of careful investigation and careful consideration.

Zhao Xuming knew that there was a personal feud between SUG Club and Tengda's Boss Pei!

SUG Club was one of the first established clubs to form a GOG branch and collaborate with Tengda. Their offer was the most generous.

What's more, the SUG had successfully won third place in the international invitational tournament some time ago. They had worked very hard to achieve what they did.

Yet, such a club had been mercilessly kicked out of the GPL league by Boss Pei. They could only play in the secondary league!

Now that the GPL was in full swing of intense preparation. Zhao Xuming would not believe that the boss of the SUG Club, Ding Gan, had no complaints.

What's more, the SUG Club also had a branch of IOI. They had gotten some subsidies from Eric previously, and they also had a contract with the live-stream platform. Thus, they could still afford it.

This time, Zhao Xuming wanted to start with the easiest SUG club. He wanted to make sure that the SUG would be able to help lead the teams in the training competition.

It would not be a joke for them to fight other foreign teams in the world finals.

If they did not compete in the training tournament and directly went up to fight the foreign teams, they would definitely be tortured to the point where they would not be able to find their own way. They would also not be able to drive the popularity of IOI's local server. Time might be tight but it was always good to sharpen their guns at the last minute.

Ding Gan was already waiting at the entrance of the SUG Club.

Ding Gan immediately went up to Zhao Xuming when he got out of the car. "Boss Zhao, welcome, welcome!"

Seeing how passionate Ding Gan was towards him, Zhao Xuming was initially elated. He felt that today's matter would most likely succeed. However, on closer inspection, he felt that Ding Gan's gaze was a little evasive.

What was going on?

Zhao Xuming was too embarrassed to ask further. He could only take it as his own illusion.

"Boss Ding! Hello, hello. This is…" Zhao Xuming looked at a lady who looked to be in her thirties and was dressed formally.

Ding Gan said, "Oh, this is our club's manager, Manager Yang."

Manager Yang smiled. "Hello, Boss Zhao. Please take care of me."

Zhao Xuming was a little confused. "Eh, isn't your club's manager someone with the surname Li? Did I remember wrongly?"

Ding Gan smiled awkwardly. "Oh, you must have found the information online, right? We just had some personnel changes recently…"

Realization dawned on Zhao Xuming. "Oh, I'm sorry! My news might be delayed."

Ding Gan smiled and said, "It's alright. Let's not stand here and do nothing. Let's go in and talk, shall we? Please come in!"

Zhao Xuming and Ding Gan walked into the club while chatting and laughing. Manager Yang led the assistant and chauffeur that Zhao Xuming had brought along to receive them.

Both parties took their seats in the conference room.

Zhao Xuming took a sip of his tea and exchanged a few pleasantries. He felt that he could get straight to the point.

There was no need to keep them in suspense about something that was almost certain. There was no reason for the SUG Club to reject it.

Zhao Xuming had limited time. He had to focus on convincing the other clubs.

At that thought, Zhao Xuming said, "Boss Ding, to be honest, I have good news!"

"Currently, Finger Games is preparing for IOI's world finals. What's more, they place a lot of emphasis on the domestic market. That's why they will give some slots to the local teams this time. There was an IOI branch in SUG to begin with. This time, I went against everyone's wishes and convinced the upper echelons of Finger Games to give the club a slot."

At this point, Zhao Xuming lowered his voice. "This is confidential information, please don't spread it."

Ding Gan quickly nodded. "Of course."

Zhao Xuming continued, "This is my thoughts. The current IOI branch of the SUG Club is quite complete, and the members are more experienced. We'll consider letting the SUG Club take the lead and organize a training tournament."

"As for the other clubs, we will talk to them one by one. However, the teams of these clubs might still need to be strengthened and adjusted. Thus, we might need Boss Ding and Manager Yang to be on the ball for organizing the training tournament."

"What do you think?"

Zhao Xuming had thought that Ding Gan would agree to it. He did not expect Ding Gan to look at Manager Yang awkwardly.

Zhao Xuming's heart sank. He had a bad feeling.

However, he was very confused. What else could happen?

Would Ding Gan reject such a good opportunity to organize a training competition to enter the IOI World Finals?

Ding Gan looked a little awkward. "Boss Zhao, we are very grateful that you have helped us fight for such a precious opportunity. However, I'm afraid that organizing the training tournament… will be a little difficult. That's because our IOI branch… has only three members left… for now."

"If only you had come two days earlier."

Zhao Xuming's jaw dropped. "Huh?"

How could the IOI branch only have three members left?

Most of these people had thought of switching to GOG before, but they had not done so because the professional gamers at GOG were already saturated. If they went to compete, they would not be able to obtain good results or bonuses.

On the other hand, IOI had at least some meager subsidies to ensure the basic lives of these players.

What were the players doing then? Not playing professionals anymore?

That didn't make sense. The branch was still there. What would happen to the penalty fees if they left?

Ding Gan quickly explained, "Boss Zhao, this is the situation."

"Originally, the members of the IOI branch would play live-streams and occasionally arrange for training competitions. Recently, the training competitions have become more and more difficult to arrange. That's because very few clubs have retained the IOI branch. They have all transferred to GOG."

"A few days ago, several GOG clubs suddenly came over, saying that they wanted to buy players from IOI's branch. They were also willing to pay the transfer fee, which was much higher than their current salary."

"The players are all very tempted. We respected their wishes and… let them go."

After being stunned for two seconds, Zhao Xuming suddenly realized something.

This is bad!

GOG had just formed a GPL some time ago. All the teams were frantically fighting for players. More than ten teams had been formed therefore the demand for players had increased exponentially.

While the members of IOI were more proficient in IOI, there would always be a few players with talent for GOG. In the past, there were few spots and no teams wanted them. However, now that the quota had been expanded, there would be teams that wanted these players with professional experience and talent.

Zhao Xuming had neglected this point partly because he had been busy negotiating with Finger Games previously and had no time to care about these clubs. On the other hand, it was also because when the GPL Club was just established, it did not show any intention of poaching IOI players.

He did not expect IOI's team to be torn down after just a few days!

Zhao Xuming had originally thought that if there was still a complete IOI team in the SUG, they would not need to spend any more time to form a team. They could take the lead and organize a training competition. They should be able to obtain a relatively good ranking in the international competition.

However, now that two members had been poached, there was no more hope!

IOI was a five-person game after all. A lack of people meant that they had to recruit new people and work together again. The impact was too great.

When Zhao Xuming first arrived, he was filled with excitement and confidence. In the end, he was splashed with cold water.

Ding Gan was a little embarrassed as well. He quickly said, "It's alright, Boss Zhao. We'll start recruiting immediately. If it really doesn't work out, we can spend money to buy people from other clubs. We'll definitely reassemble the team as soon as possible!"

At first, Ding Gan did not think too much about it. He just felt that there was no point in keeping the IOI branch. Since there was no competition, he could still earn a sum of money by selling them to GOG's club. It did not matter even if he sold them.

However, the IOI World Finals had been delivered right to his doorstep right on the heels of selling his players. How could he explain this?

After a moment of silence, Zhao Xuming nodded. "Alright."

What else could he say? The players had already been sold. They could not possibly pay the breach of contract to buy them back, right? That would be a huge loss.

The main reason was that these players were now very valuable. The transfer fee was also much more expensive. Wouldn't they be making a huge loss this time?

Ding Gan would rather buy the IOI team members from other clubs than buy his own team members back.

However, Zhao Xuming was worried that since GOG clubs had started to buy IOI members on a large scale, they were probably not only buying from SUG.

What if IOI teams from other clubs were also torn apart?

Was he going to use the existing teams to create two or three teams that could compete in the international competition, or was he going to find new players purely based on luck?

Zhao Xuming suddenly had an ominous feeling. He felt that his mission might look simple but it was not that easy to achieve.

Tengda's mastermind had tentacles that extended far beyond his imagination!

"Could this be part of Boss Pei's plan?"

Zhao Xuming suddenly shuddered.