The officials standing in front of Takayuki looked a little awkward.
They had all seen those reimbursement reports too.
Any normal person could tell just how many shady details were buried in them.
But at the end of the day, those expenses could still be labeled as merely unreasonable. For the sake of hosting the Olympics, the other two directors could very reasonably claim that everything they did was meant to showcase Japan's national strength and artisan spirit.
Just as those officials had said, none of that money was coming out of Takayuki's pocket, so on the surface it seemed like he had no reason to interfere.
And indeed, Takayuki had no interest in how that money was spent, nor was it really his place to manage it.
This was only a pretext.
What he really needed was to kick those two people out.
To be honest, he'd wanted to do that for a long time.
When three people jointly plan a massive event, what happens when disagreements arise?
Who do you listen to?
Some might say: whoever puts in the most money.
But reality is more complicated.
The other two each had powerful interest groups backing them, with considerable influence.
In the end, the most likely outcome was that none of the three would listen to the others.
And Gamestar Electronic Entertainment would actually be at a disadvantage.
Takayuki hated situations he couldn't control.
He just hadn't found a legitimate excuse before.
Those two were also well-known figures—removing them without proper justification would look bad.
But now…
"I'm not allowed to take these materials out, right?" Takayuki asked, looking at the younger officials.
"Yes, Mr. Takayuki. We're very sorry, and we hope you can understand," the young officials replied apologetically.
"That's fine," Takayuki said calmly. "You're just following orders. In that case, go ahead and call the committee chairman and a few senior executives over."
"Ah? Th-this…"
"Or," Takayuki added lightly, "I can notify the Prime Minister myself and ask him to help call those chairmen and executives. I have a pretty good relationship with him."
By "relationship," he meant professional cooperation.
But Gamestar Electronic Entertainment had always actively responded to the Japanese government's initiatives, handling cultural promotion projects flawlessly whenever asked.
Takayuki had personally proposed initiatives like Cool Japan and several other plans that significantly boosted Japan's economy, earning high public approval for the last two administrations.
On that basis alone, the Prime Minister held Takayuki in very high regard.
"Th-that won't be necessary," one of the young officials said quickly. "I'll go inform our superiors right away."
The young officials hurried out of the office to contact their bosses and the committee chairman.
Not long after they left, Takayuki's personal phone rang.
He picked it up and saw that it was Bob.
"Hey Bob, what's up?"
"Mr. Takayuki, I've followed your instructions and downgraded the recommendation priority for all Olympic-related news and content. On all of our platforms, it's now very difficult to see anything Olympic-related unless users actively search for it. And even then, the top search results aren't Olympic content. Is that okay?"
"That's perfect," Takayuki replied. "Thanks for the trouble."
"No trouble at all. This was easy," Bob said, sounding a little flattered. Then he added, "But, Mr. Takayuki… I am a little curious."
"Curious why I'm targeting the Olympics?" Takayuki asked.
"Yeah. You sounded pretty urgent earlier, so I rushed to get things done. I'm just personally curious—of course, if you don't want to explain, I won't press."
"It's nothing serious," Takayuki said. "This has nothing to do with the Olympic Committee or the Olympics themselves. It's just that some people on the Japanese side went too far. As for the Olympic Committee… consider them collateral damage."
"Uh…"
Takayuki asked, "What, did someone ask you about this already?"
"Yes," Bob admitted. "Not long after we lowered the recommendations, people from the Olympic Committee noticed something was wrong and contacted us. I figured I had to give them some kind of explanation, so I told them it was a system issue."
"Then just tell them what I just told you."
"That's okay?" Bob asked cautiously. "It won't affect your plan?"
"This is part of the plan," Takayuki said. "They need to know roughly why they're taking the fall. Otherwise, the pressure won't reach the Japanese side."
"Got it. I'll talk to them."
With Takayuki's confirmation, Bob felt much more at ease.
The Olympic Committee was a global organization—not huge, but not small either—and offending them wasn't ideal.
Even so, Bob couldn't help feeling a bit sympathetic.
They were really taking the blame for something that wasn't entirely their fault.
After hanging up, Bob took a few minutes to organize his words, then called his contact at the Olympic Committee.
The committee staff were already nursing a headache.
Bob had previously claimed that a system and server issue caused Olympic-related content to have zero engagement.
Zero engagement meant zero promotion—no recommendations at all.
In an era where information had to be pushed directly to users to be seen, no recommendation meant effectively no visibility.
The Olympic Committee clearly couldn't accept that explanation, but they also didn't have any immediate leverage.
"Call Bob again," someone said. "This time, don't let him brush us off. We need a reasonable explanation."
System and server issues?
That was obviously nonsense.
Why would only Olympic-related content have the lowest recommendation priority?
It was clearly being targeted.
The problem was, they had no idea who they'd offended.
Who had enough influence to make a tech giant like Facebook suppress Olympic discussions so thoroughly?
"I'll—"
Beep. Beep.
The phone rang.
The Olympic Committee staff hurried to answer. Bob's voice came through the line.
"Hello? Is this Mr. Kaven from the Olympic Committee?"
"Yes, this is Kaven. Mr. Bob, why are you calling again?"
"Cough—well, I'm calling to apologize for what I told you earlier," Bob said."I lied. The recommendation downgrade was arranged by me."
Kaven froze.
So did the colleagues around him.
Bob had admitted it outright—no beating around the bush.
Then Bob continued, "I'm apologizing, but also clarifying something. I didn't do this out of malice. You were simply affected as collateral. This is related to the Japanese Olympics—there are some unpleasant issues on that side. I don't know the specifics, but to avoid broader fallout, I restricted the spread of Olympic-related content to minimize the potential impact of any scandals."