Lin Kailun nodded and took a file out of her bag, handing it to Chen Cheng. "This is the information I've collected on this company, including their investment projects, team background, market prospects, and more. From the current situation, the company's strength is quite good, but there are some potential risks as well."

Chen Cheng flipped through the file seriously, murmuring as he looked at the acquisition target's information, "Company Name Capital, Company Name..."

"... What I'm more concerned about is how long it will take to get it done."

Lin Kailun smiled slightly. "That depends on our negotiation skills. The other party is willing to sell, and our funding is not an issue. Once we enter actual contact, progress should be quite fast."

Chen Cheng's lips curled up. "Haha, then let's wait and see."

Lin Kailun thought for a moment. "I think we can push for some discounts on the price. Additionally, we could consider bringing in some strategic investors to participate in this acquisition together."

A flash of appreciation crossed Chen Cheng's eyes, but he was in a hurry.

He had too much money on hand, and he couldn't just let it sit there and rot; he needed to get it moving.

"Not bad. However, we need to do this as quickly as possible. Don't stretch the timeline too long; finish the battle in two, or at most three months. Forget about strategic investment; we aren't short on money."

Karen's brow furrowed slightly, but it disappeared quickly.

An investment team could have been built from scratch, but the boss chose to acquire one instead.

Acquisition meant he was already in a rush, and wanting to speed it up even more made it easy for them to be slaughtered like fat sheep.

But in Chen Cheng's mind, having a mature investment team meant he could be liberated.

Spending a little extra money didn't really matter.

"Sigh, I'll coordinate with Aks," Karen replied.

Chen Cheng looked at Qu Honglei, who had a broad face and thick eyebrows, and smiled. "General Manager Qu, please help out as well. After all, the other party is a local company. Aks and his team don't really understand the local customs, so I need my senior brother to hold the fort."

This made Qu Honglei quite happy, as it meant he was now part of the acquisition team.

That meant he would have a share of the credit if the acquisition was successful.

Qu Honglei nodded and agreed, "I will give it my all."

And Chen Cheng heard a sense of crisis in his words.

It was no wonder.

Chen Cheng had originally brought him on to provide protection.

But in reality, Chen Cheng had made very few moves over the past few years, acting more like a value investor. The key was that he had never been wrong.

It was like a family hiring a tutor for a child, but the child not only didn't need the teaching, they were never wrong—it would be strange if the teacher wasn't anxious.

Chen Cheng didn't say anything to encourage or comfort him; having a sense of crisis was a good thing.

Chen Cheng looked at Gao Yue again. "General Manager Gao, you should get ready on your end too. Once the acquisition is complete, the offices will definitely need to be combined. By then, there probably won't be enough room here. Go and see if there are any suitable properties for sale nearby."

This was a lucrative task. Gao Yue flashed a bright smile and said respectfully, "Understood, Mr. Chen. I will arrange it right away."

After thinking for a moment, she added, "We might need to hire a few people for HR, finance, and administration."

"Sure," Chen Cheng nodded in appreciation. With so many things to worry about, he couldn't cover every single detail.

Gao Yue was already considering the staff reshuffling after the acquisition.

After speaking, Chen Cheng waved his hand at them. "If there's nothing else, go get busy."

"Alright, Mr. Chen, you go ahead and get back to work." Everyone greeted him and left the office.

Karen also returned to her own office.

Chen Cheng sat in his boss chair, bored, looking at the recent financial statements.

The benefit of a small company is that the financial statements are simple and clean; there isn't much income, just expenses like employee salaries and tax filings.

Of course, the trading department's transaction records were much more complex.

Chen Cheng allowed the trading department to engage in small-scale arbitrage, as long as they maintained the initial stock shares.

The arbitrage profits were used to cover company operations, and any excess was naturally used for bonuses. Chen Cheng didn't take much of this profit—fifty percent—and the rest was distributed to the employees, with the traders getting the lion's share.

With such a bonus ratio, one can imagine how crazy the traders at Company Name were.

They were crazily squeezing out profits within their operating limits.

The reason for operating this way wasn't just for arbitrage, but also to heat up the target assets.

Traffic is the password to wealth, and trading traffic is traffic too.

Over in Los Angeles, Chen Cheng had imposed more restrictions and had strict risk control.

There was no helping it; the leverage abroad was just too damn powerful. Chen Cheng didn't want the famous anecdote of a single trader bankrupting a century-old bank to happen to him.

Just then, an electronic sound rang in his head.

[Ding! Check-in at the Dragon's Rise location successful, Employee Loyalty Aura unlocked.]

The sudden sound left Chen Cheng stunned.

Dragon's Rise location? What Dragon's Rise location?

However, the electronic sound wasn't finished yet.

[Ding! Obtained Alchemy Eye.]

Chen Cheng asked: "What does this aura mean?"

[As the name implies, the Employee Loyalty Aura can make employees more loyal to the host, significantly reducing the risk of embezzlement and betrayal. It advises and persuades them in their hearts to be honest, hardworking, and good employees.]

( ⊙ o ⊙ ) ... Chen Cheng couldn't hold back.

Is this the system automatically CPU-ing them?

Sigh, it's really tough for the working class.

Chen Cheng: "What about the Alchemy Eye?"

[The host can choose to view the real-time trends of five stocks for the next 24 hours.]

Chen Cheng's first reaction wasn't "Why only five?", but...

Chen Cheng: "Stocks? Can't it do gold? Can't it do oil?"

[What's up? You want to rule the world? You can't handle it!]

The originally emotionless electronic voice became a bit tsundere at this moment.

Chen Cheng: ...

Looks like that's a no.

Chen Cheng asked again: "For the selection, do I have to pick them myself?"

The master system rolled its eyes. [What else?]

Fine... it's got quite an attitude.

Chen Cheng just remembered and asked the master system: "Check-in? master system, what does this 'check-in' mean?"

[You can check in at Ode to Joy; of course, you can also check in at other plot locations.]

Oh? Wahahaha.

Doesn't that mean I'm going to be rich?

Chen Cheng: "Are there specific rules for this check-in?"

[Stay at the main location of each drama series for at least one hour to successfully check in and receive the corresponding reward. Note: You can only check in once per series.]

Chen Cheng rubbed his chin. Doesn't that mean the more the merrier?

Chen Cheng asked again, [And what the heck is the 'Dragon's Rise location'?]

[Kiewit Plaza is to Berkshire.]

Chen Cheng was dumbfounded; this was telling him to turn this building into a holding headquarters.

However, there were indeed some similarities.

The twenty-plus people on the top floor of Kiewit Plaza controlled over 400 subsidiaries and associate companies, with nearly a trillion us dollars in assets.

And this office of Company Name was also on the top floor, and a very small number of employees were controlling a huge amount of assets.

Chen Cheng finished understanding the system.

He secretly pondered the Alchemy cheat.

This was a damn super short-term trading cheat, but it was also a skill he didn't need that much at his current stage.

Super short-term trading is the ultimate battle between long and short positions, and the volume of funds that can be operated is extremely limited.

If the funds are too large, it affects the balance in the market; once the balance is broken, it becomes a brain-draining job.

If you pick stocks well and hit a limit-up the next day, you'd make at most eight or ten million a day. If all five hit the limit-up, the profit would only be around fifty million; any more than that and it wouldn't work.

However, with about 240+ trading days a year, it adds up to a pretty considerable amount.

If you pick wrong, you can short instead. The more he thought about it, the more he felt this skill was actually quite interesting; at the very least, it could guarantee he would never go bankrupt.

Wait~ Chen Cheng suddenly realized why he was limiting it to limit-up stocks.

Wool-gathering from the Americans, with no price limits—wouldn't that be even better?

His train of thought opened up instantly. Japan, Australia, Singapore, France, Britain, and so on.

Couldn't he fleece them all?

Japan was the most suitable—it had a large market, could withstand the fleecing, the time zone was similar, so he wouldn't have to stay up late. It was simply perfect!

Thinking of this, Chen Cheng sent a message to Aks, telling him to hurry up and secure the channels in Japan.

How could he use a personal account to fleece them? Of course, he had to register a new shell company.

Chen Cheng had already thought of the name: "Co-Prosperity Investment."

Using Japan's own ambition to fleece Japan—there's only one word for it.

Awesome!!!