Chapter 660: Advertising Storm
Unfortunately, Beastmaster Manor had badly underestimated the instability of the seal.
The genius Lady Silvia, bearer of the Beastmaster Bloodline and a powerhouse whose strength was comparable to that of a Mythic Beast, had entered the Valley of Ten Thousand Wolves and never returned.
There had been no trace of her.
Once the Beastmaster Festival was over, Beastmaster Manor immediately sent experts to the Magma Grove to investigate. What they found only made the situation more disturbing. The seal around the cavern had been broken, and the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf was nowhere to be found. Instead, the only things they continued to discover were the corpses of members of the Roaring Tiger Squad.
There was still no sign of Lady Silvia, and no one could determine what had happened.
A battle had clearly taken place. The broken seal and scattered traces of destruction made that much obvious, while the steadily increasing number of Roaring Tiger Squad casualties only deepened Beastmaster Manor’s anxiety. Fortunately, the manor had a unique means of communication with Silvia, allowing them to confirm that she was still alive and that her life was not currently in danger.
That did little to ease their minds.
No matter how thoroughly they searched the valley, they couldn’t locate her.
In the end, Beastmaster Manor had no choice but to appeal to the Dragon Dynasty for assistance, hoping that the dynasty’s forces could help locate the missing Roaring Tiger Squad and Lady Silvia.
Marcus intended to investigate the Magma Grove himself first. Hopefully, his Insight skill, with its unique ability to scan and analyze the surrounding environment, would allow him to discover clues that ordinary investigators had overlooked.
The Magma Grove was located near the edge of the desert region within the Valley of Ten Thousand Wolves. It was a volcanic belt filled with constantly erupting pools of magma, and Level 70 fire-type monsters known as Red Demon Wolves roamed throughout the area.
From Marcus’s current position, however, the Magma Grove was still more than two hours away.
He continued flying on Blackie.
Just then, his in-game communication device began to ring.
Ring ring.
Marcus glanced at the incoming call and raised an eyebrow.
Vivian Sterling. The CEO of Mellory Financial.
He accepted the call, then immediately disabled his own video feed. Vivian’s image appeared before him, but she couldn’t see anything on his side.
The woman on the screen had short, flowing hair and sharp, elegant features, with an ethereal quality that gave her the appearance of a fairy who had somehow stepped into the business world. She was dressed in a crisp white business suit, perfectly tailored to her figure, and carried herself with the confidence and composure of someone accustomed to being in charge.
Marcus had seen plenty of women dressed like this in advertisements, online promotions, and corporate offices. Vivian, however, was on another level entirely.
Her beauty was striking, but it was her presence that made the greatest impression. She was confident without being ostentatious, proud without appearing cold, and carried herself with an effortless authority that made it difficult for anyone to overlook her.
She was, after all, the CEO of Mellory Financial.
Marcus couldn’t help comparing her to Emily, his former coworker. Emily was also beautiful and elegant, and she looked perfectly at home in business attire, but she had always carried herself with a softer, more reserved air. Vivian’s presence was far more commanding.
Looking at the blue-collared white suit she was wearing, Marcus couldn’t resist teasing her.
"A beauty is calling me personally. What can I do for you?"
For once, Vivian didn’t bother correcting the way he addressed her.
She went straight to the point.
"Marcus, what exactly did you do?"
Marcus knew perfectly well what she meant, but he put on an innocent expression.
"What?"
Vivian stared at him.
She had originally intended to have a proper conversation with him, but the moment she heard his deliberately innocent voice, the irritation she’d been holding back immediately flared up.
"The advertisement!"
Marcus continued playing dumb.
"Advertisement? What advertisement?"
"You..."
Vivian nearly lost her patience.
His shameless tone only made her more exasperated. Then she noticed something else.
"What are you doing? Why is your video turned off? I can’t see you."
"Ah, sorry about that. I’m taking a shower, so it’s not very convenient to turn on the video."
"Marcus, you..."
Vivian was speechless.
It was only four in the afternoon. Who took a shower in the middle of the afternoon?
He was obviously lying again, and Vivian knew it. The problem was that she had absolutely no way to force him to admit it.
She turned her helpless gaze toward Zina, who was sitting nearby.
Zina was even more beautiful and alluring than Vivian, and after exchanging a look with her, the two women reached the same conclusion.
This man really had no shame whatsoever.
Vivian finally decided there was no point wasting time arguing with him.
"Marcus, I’m talking about the advertisement you placed in Dominion. How exactly did you arrange it? The press conference for our new clothing line is tomorrow, but we still don’t fully understand the advertising campaign you’ve been running in the game. If the reporters ask about it tomorrow, I won’t even know what to tell them."
The situation had caught Mellory Financial completely off guard.
The press conference for the company’s new clothing line was officially scheduled for tomorrow, but customers had already begun calling two days ago to inquire about the upcoming products and discuss possible cooperation.
At first, there hadn’t been many calls, so the marketing department hadn’t thought much of it. They assumed the pre-launch publicity was simply beginning to have an effect.
Mellory Financial already had an excellent reputation, after all, and its products were known for their quality. It wasn’t unusual for customers to express interest before a new product line was released.
But over the following two days, the number of calls began increasing at an astonishing rate.
Then came the major distributors.
Several well-known clothing distributors operating at the state level began contacting Mellory Financial, asking about cooperation and distribution rights.
And just moments ago, everything had exploded.
The company’s phones and fax machines had been going nonstop. Orders and inquiries from major distributors were pouring in one after another, while several regional managers had even flown over personally to negotiate for distribution rights.
The marketing department had immediately reported the situation to Vivian.
That was when she discovered the real reason.
All of these distributors had been attracted by an advertisement in a game called Dominion.
Vivian had heard of Dominion, of course, but she’d never actually played the game. She had no idea how its advertising system worked, much less how a single advertisement could produce such an enormous response.
And with Mellory Financial’s new clothing press conference happening tomorrow, the timing couldn’t have been more startling.
The storm had already begun before the press conference even started.
According to the latest figures, pre-orders had already surpassed one million units an hour earlier, and the numbers were still climbing.
Vivian didn’t need to think very hard about who was responsible. There was only one person capable of pulling off something like this.
Marcus.
The shameless man she had hired at a high salary and tied down with what was, by any reasonable standard, an extremely favorable contract.
When she had signed that agreement with him, Vivian had expected Marcus to bring Mellory Financial substantial growth. She had believed he could help the company reach its ambitious ten-million-unit sales target.
What she hadn’t expected was for the marketing campaign to explode this quickly.
She had been preparing herself for tomorrow’s press conference, expecting that to be the moment when the new clothing line truly took off.
Instead, Marcus’s advertisement had practically done the job ahead of schedule.
Vivian had immediately called him.
"Ah!"
Marcus suddenly acted as though he’d finally understood what she was talking about.
"Beauty, you mean the Dominion advertisement?"
His tone was completely innocent.
"When I was playing, I happened to notice that players were about to open a new tourist destination called Dragon’s Roar Town. A lot of companies were already advertising there, so I had Tyler and Emily contact them. I figured it would be a good opportunity for Mellory Financial to advertise in Dragon’s Roar Town."
He paused, then added with an almost suspiciously innocent tone, "What’s wrong? Advertising there should be perfectly fine, right? I assumed Tyler and Emily had already taken care of everything."