Re-establishing a company—a company registered in the United States.
Takayuki would hold absolute controlling interest.
Lorenzo would participate as an investor.
Takayuki explained his core objective to Lorenzo in a very straightforward way.
He wanted to use this company to acquire Mikufu's game division.
There were several games from that division he was genuinely interested in, and he didn't want good games like those to be buried.
Once abandoned by Mikufu, the game IPs from that division would inevitably become sacrifices.
Takayuki hoped those games could have a better ending.
In his previous life, he had seen this happen far too many times—games that were genuinely good, but ultimately abandoned for various reasons.
Since Mikufu did have some truly solid games, Takayuki didn't want to see them disappear.
Lorenzo was a little surprised. He didn't quite understand why Takayuki would go through so much trouble—it didn't seem strictly necessary.
"You can think of it as my idealism toward video games," Takayuki said calmly. "I've already earned more than enough money. I'm not short on this."
"Then allow me to ask something a bit presumptuous," Lorenzo said. "You can answer honestly, or not at all—it might be private."
"Go ahead."
"Your personal assets—how much are we talking about? I mean including all of your company's assets. After all, that company has always belonged solely to you."
Takayuki thought for a moment. Since Lorenzo would be a long-term partner, he felt it was appropriate to share at least part of the truth.
After all, his relationship with Lorenzo was already quite good.
"Well… not that much, really. I currently have a bit over thirty billion dollars in liquid cash. As for other assets, I've never really calculated them—I don't have much need to."
Lorenzo: ???
That's… not much?
Lorenzo was completely stunned.
Were video games really this profitable?
Just liquid cash alone—over thirty billion dollars.
And that wasn't even counting corporate assets… or the 30% equity stake in Facebook.
This guy…
A hidden tycoon?
Absolutely absurd.
Takayuki was only in his forties, maybe pushing fifty at most.
And he had built all this on essentially one industry.
The Morgan Group, by contrast, had diversified extensively in its later years to reach its current scale.
But Takayuki? He had focused on video games alone.
Hearing that number, Lorenzo couldn't help feeling a mix of envy and amazement.
If only…
If only he had entered the video game industry back then—maybe the Morgan Group would've grown even further?
No… probably not.
There was no one in this world who understood video games better than Takayuki.
And there was only one Takayuki. Only one Gamestar Electronic Entertainment.
No second company could rival them in the gaming space.
"Gamestar rules the world. Takayuki is the god of the world."
Those words were practically gospel among players.
Still, it wasn't too late.
Even though he was already old, Takayuki had come to him now—to open up a new path.
Lorenzo thought deeply.
He quickly understood Takayuki's intention.
If Takayuki tried to acquire Mikufu's game division directly, it would definitely be rejected—and U.S. government scrutiny would be unavoidable.
But with someone like Lorenzo—an elder statesman with immense prestige—supporting the move, the company's path forward in the U.S. would be almost entirely unobstructed.
That was the kind of influence Lorenzo had.
"But if the two of us start a company together," Lorenzo said, "won't people see through it pretty quickly?"
"That's bound to happen sooner or later," Takayuki replied. "As long as we make it through the acquisition of Mikufu's game division, that's enough."
"And before that? You plan to keep your identity hidden? That won't be easy."
Takayuki smiled faintly.
"That's where my alt account comes in. People may investigate a newly founded game company—but if there's already a well-known figure standing at the front, very few will bother digging into the finer details."
"An alt account?"
Lorenzo looked puzzled. He was starting to realize that Takayuki still had many secrets.
At this point, Takayuki saw no reason to hide anything further. They were about to become close partners anyway, so he simply let Lorenzo in on it.
Ten minutes later, Lorenzo adjusted his glasses and stared intently at the tablet in his hands.
On the screen was the backend data of Takayuki's alt account on the Battle.net platform:
"Nintendo Damn It Is the Ruler of the World."
"This account… you've been cultivating it in secret all this time?" Lorenzo said in disbelief. "You managed to hide this for so long?"
He found it almost unimaginable.
"Even now, not many people know," Takayuki said calmly. "On the Japanese government side, only a few high-level tax officials are aware. Inside the company, only my closest confidants know. At the beginning, it was honestly unintentional."
"Unintentional?" Lorenzo laughed. "I'd almost think you'd been planning this from the very beginning. But then again, this account was created long ago—back when Mikufu didn't even have a game division."
Takayuki asked, "So what do you think? If we establish the company under this account's name, and you use your influence to keep the U.S. side discreet, will that be a problem?"
"Not at all," Lorenzo answered decisively. "They'll give me that much face."
As he said this, a spark of anticipation rose in his heart.
"A new company… that does sound interesting. Especially in an industry I've never really touched—video games. But I'm wondering, if we just set up a company and immediately move to acquire Mikufu's game division, won't that feel a bit abrupt?"
"That's true," Takayuki nodded. "Which is why I've already prepared the next step."
At that moment, Takayuki pulled out a proposal he had hastily prepared on the plane.
"This is…"
"A new game development plan," Takayuki said. "It'll be handled by an entirely new team, completely unrelated to Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. We won't need many people—less than a hundred should be enough to complete the core development. I estimate three to four months for the early development phase."
Lorenzo didn't know much about the game industry, but he did know this:
Truly popular games required significant capital and manpower.
Indie games could sometimes become hits—but they rarely exploded into massive phenomena.
Only large-scale games could do that.
And large-scale games required time and people.
If anyone else had shown him this proposal, Lorenzo would've stood up and left immediately.
He wasn't stupid—no one could fool him that easily.
But the man in front of him was Takayuki.
The world's top game creator.
The man known as the God of Games.
If he said a hundred people and three to four months were enough to make a sizable game… then it was at least believable.
So Lorenzo read the proposal carefully.
At the very top of the document was the title:
Game: Fortnite — Development Plan