Chapter 339 - 236: Summit (2)
But Lin Qi paid it no mind, nor did he continue to communicate with King Arthur in the temporary chat.
King Arthur was once again being given the cold shoulder.
But this time, King Arthur didn’t feel quite so awkward.
After the contents of Lin Qi and King Arthur’s conversation appeared, the lurking members immediately surfaced.
Capitalist: "You fought the Wizard?"
Master Ma: "You’ve met the Wizard?"
A dozen or so seconds later, Jingang also sent a message: "Details!"
Jingang’s message was clearly sent on Qiao Xi’s orders; it wasn’t because he was personally looking for gossip.
Capitalist had clearly smelled the scent of intel.
King Arthur looked at the messages in the temporary chat and sighed wistfully.
’Looks like I’m still quite popular after all,’ she thought. ’Getting the cold shoulder before was just a fluke.’
King Arthur: "We did meet, but it wasn’t the Wizard’s real body. As for whether we fought..."
She let the suspense hang for a moment before sending her next message: "Can’t say, can’t say. I can’t betray the Wizard’s trust!"
...
Alliance Mansion, 400th floor, directly above the circular council hall.
Qiao Xi was about to enter the circular council hall via a lift platform. As the nominal "Neutral Director" and "First Director," she had, unsurprisingly, secured the presiding authority for the summit.
Although she still had to consult with the other permanent directors on many of the details, there was no denying she held significant authority over this summit.
The time was exactly nine o’clock. Theoretically, this was when Qiao Xi should have stepped onto the lift platform.
But she paused and said, "Tell Jingang to check for any suspected traces of combat in Alliance City within the last twenty-four—no, seventy-two hours. Grant him my secondary clearance."
Only after saying this did Qiao Xi step into the lift platform.
Truthfully, if Qiao Xi hadn’t noticed how much the Wizard valued United Pharmaceutical, she would not have wanted to get involved in this summit at all.
But Qiao Xi believed that if she could help United Pharmaceutical in some way, she might earn a favor or even the goodwill of the Wizard, which was why she had chosen to preside over the summit.
This had largely disrupted the schemes of the four major established pharmaceutical corporations. However, the power struggle between the permanent directors backing them had paradoxically allowed Qiao Xi to secure the position with ease.
Qiao Xi stood silently on the lift platform.
When the time reached 9:02, the legendary "First Director" of the Asian Political Zone Big Business Alliance entered the view of all the summit’s participants.
"Director Qiao Xi?"
Liu Xuan was surprised; she hadn’t expected Qiao Xi to be the one to appear here.
It wasn’t just Liu Xuan who was surprised; the four major established pharmaceutical corporations were even more astonished.
They had assumed the one presiding over the summit would be one of the permanent directors backing them. After all, whichever permanent director showed up would signal whose side had the greater chance of victory.
But they never expected that the person to appear would be Qiao Xi, the Neutral Director.
The gazes of the four other parties instantly converged on Lin Qi and Liu Xuan.
If they recalled correctly, while Qiao Xi hadn’t openly supported United Pharmaceutical, she had granted Liu Xuan an audience when she was hitting a wall at every turn, giving the Liu Clan an opportunity to break the deadlock.
Although the permanent director backing the Liu Clan still appeared to be Jin Yuanxi, there was no guarantee that Qiao Xi didn’t have some entanglement with them.
The representatives of the four corporations all had different thoughts. While they were surprised and grew more wary of United Pharmaceutical, a sense of relief also emerged.
The bad news: the person who appeared wasn’t their own backer.
The good news: at least it wasn’t the backer for any of the other three corporations either.
For a company of United Pharmaceutical’s size to have secured the support of two permanent directors... their competitiveness still wasn’t considered top-tier.
Though their thoughts were varied, no one let anything show on their faces.
After all, Director Qiao Xi was just a short distance away. To pull a long face now—wouldn’t that be a blatant show of disrespect to the "First Director"?
Not only did they have to maintain their composure, but they also had to applaud her entrance!
Enthusiastic applause swept through the circular council hall.
Qiao Xi was used to such scenes. Ever since she became the representative for the Intercontinental Stability Trauma Emergency Company within the Big Business Alliance, no one had dared to give her a cold reception.
Possessing both background and power, Qiao Xi’s position as "First Director" was rock-solid.
"Everyone has arrived, so let the summit begin."
"As per procedure, I will first announce the specific rules for the summit."
"First, the Big Business Alliance has compiled all upstream material supply chains for the pharmaceutical industry in the Asian Administrative Region and, in accordance with the new legislation, has enforced compliance..."
"The summit will conduct a final evaluation of each representative’s company. Upstream supply chain capacity will then be flexibly allocated according to the rankings from that evaluation."
This information largely matched the intelligence collected by the major corporations, as well as by Lin Qi and Liu Xuan. All parties had already planned their strategies around these scoring rules.
But the surprise came with the very next sentence Qiao Xi read.
"The evaluation will be divided into... four dimensions."
Four dimensions?
That didn’t match the intelligence reports.
The intel had only mentioned three dimensions for the evaluation: market share, channel distribution, and academic ability. These were also the three tracks of competition.
Different companies had their own strengths on these three tracks, but the major corporations were like "triangle warriors," excelling in nearly every area.
But now, a new variable had been introduced.
Qiao Xi hadn’t even announced what the four dimensions were, but the representatives were already scrutinizing each other’s reactions.
United Pharmaceutical?
The two of them were expressionless. It was impossible to tell if they had anything to do with this.
Moore Potion?
Shock was written all over their faces!
Their young executives lacked the necessary composure.
Kudou Human Body Engineering Company?
Someone ought to tell him to get a handle on that low-grade Prosthetic Body of his!
The nerve signal transmission was already affecting it; his arm was twitching with a low-frequency tremor!
Dawn Pharmacy?
Not much of a reaction, but the A-level Researcher’s face showed a trace of unease. It seemed this had nothing to do with Dawn Pharmacy, either.
General Biological!
The more observant attendees focused their attention on Jin Shanghe’s brand-new projection.
’Did the old bastard attend remotely just so he could pull this stunt?’
Clearly, the seeds of suspicion were now sown, all pointing toward General Biological.
Furthermore, judging by the reactions, Jin Shanghe seemed to be one of the hidden hands behind this sudden change.
Observing the varied reactions, Qiao Xi was unfazed. She was used to it.
The games between major corporations were always like this; you never knew who would reveal their plans, or when.
In truth, the proposal for this change had only been finalized two hours ago, after a series of intricate exchanges of favors between several permanent directors.
Clearly, under the rules the four corporations had originally agreed upon, General Biological would have been the ultimate winner of the summit.
But then Qiao Xi had unexpectedly intervened, adding yet another layer of uncertainty to the proceedings.
"The four dimensions are market share, channel distribution, academic ability, and strategic planning. The scores for the first two have already been finalized."
"For the latter two, the company representatives present will need to make a final presentation to the summit’s steering committee."
"The assessment of academic ability will focus on R&D capability, and will be presented by the researcher representatives."
"As for the score for the strategic planning dimension, it will be judged by the Alliance’s AI. The attending business representatives will need to conduct a long-term corporate strategy simulation here in the circular council hall, using the Asian Administrative Region as the template..."
Hearing this, everyone in the front row understood. The change had been orchestrated by General Biological.
Strategic planning—this was a clear test of a company leader’s ability!
Who could possibly beat Jin Shanghe at a game like this?
He was a titan who had steered a major corporation for decades, with a wealth of real-world experience!
A battle-hardened veteran taking on a simulation?
This was a complete steamroll!
Hearing the rules, Lin Qi’s brow furrowed slightly.
The unexpected had happened after all.
According to their original plan, United Pharmaceutical could have at least taken the lead in the academic and channel distribution categories. Although their market share was weak, they could have guaranteed at least fifth place overall, with the potential to seize the top spot.
But now another category had been added, and it was one that was outside of Lin Qi’s control...
He glanced worriedly at Liu Xuan.
Liu Xuan met his gaze and said, "Trust me. It’s not a foregone conclusion that I’ll lose."