Gabryell met Hugo's older brother, Bruno, at the café near the school entrance.
Bruno had not come alone. He had brought another man with him.
"This is Victor, the most capable accountant in our group. If you don't mind, he can serve as Fearless Company's accountant."
Bruno was the company's angel investor, and all the funding came from him. It was only natural for him to arrange an accountant to keep track of the company's operations.
Gabryell needed his investment right now, so for the company's development, he did not refuse. "Welcome to Fearless."
He reached out and shook Victor's hand. He could tell the man was cautious, with the aura of a workaholic.
Victor said, "When Bruno asked me to come to Fearless, I wasn't willing at first. But once I learned you were Ogabs from Tichondrius and had founded the WoW community forum and the guild's voice-chat platform, I immediately changed my mind."
Gabryell smiled. So he was a Warcraft player too.
"You play WoW as well?"
Victor nodded. "It's an honor to meet Tichondrius's top Mage in person. I'm also Alliance on Tichondrius, a Night Elf Priest. My character name is Isenor."
Who would have thought they were even on the same server? What a coincidence.
"Do you have a guild right now?" Gabryell wanted to bring him into Fearless, both to build rapport and to give him a stronger sense of belonging to the company.
Victor said, "I'm in a small guild right now. Not many people, only a few dozen."
Gabryell extended the invitation. "Since you're now Fearless's accountant, why not join the guild too? We can fight side by side."
Victor did not refuse. "I'll whisper you when I log in tonight."
"I'll look forward to it."
Victor added, "I'm not good at PvP, but if the guild has PvE activities later, feel free to invite me."
In other words, he would not join PvP events and would only play PvE.
Gabryell did not force him. "No problem."
In World of Warcraft right now, refusing PvP entirely was not exactly ideal, but whether to play PvP or PvE was a personal choice. Rolling on a PvP server did not mean you had to fight every day. Some players simply preferred dungeons, raids, and gearing up.
Bruno said, "Hugo told me about your situation. Don't worry about recruitment for the company. I'll help all the way."
According to the initial plan, the company did not need too many people early on. Its main work would be website maintenance, further development of the voice-chat platform, and operating the trading platform.
The most important parts were the voice client's continued development and the trading platform's operations. These were the company's core projects for the time being and would determine whether the company could make money.
"The trading platform is the company's first profit-making project. I hope it can go online as soon as possible."
Gabryell had already finished building the framework. Now he was only waiting for the customer service staff to be in place.
"Customer service is easy to hire. Two days at most, and the platform can launch."
As the angel investor, Bruno naturally hoped Fearless Company could start making a profit sooner so he could recover his investment.
World of Warcraft players were getting higher and higher in level. Over the next few days, the number of max-level players would continue to grow, and within a week, most players would be able to reach level 45.
Once players were generally level 45, demand for gold would surge. The main costs would come from leveling professions and buying mounts and gear. Mounts in particular were difficult. For players without Skinning, scraping together 100 gold by level 45 was hard.
Every player needed around 100 gold. Those who did not have enough could only buy it from other players, such as major gold farmers like Gabryell. As more players traded, they would need a secure platform to support those transactions. Although IGE already existed, it had not yet become the default trading channel for Warcraft players.
Fearless Company's trading platform could use the current popularity of the WoW community forum for promotion, guiding players into the platform and slowly turning it into a habit.
Gabryell had already decided that, in the early stage, they would only charge a 3% handling fee. Once traffic reached a certain level, they would slowly raise it until it eventually reached 5%, letting players accept the new fee without really noticing.
With support from the forum and lower fees than IGE, the new platform should develop well, bring profit to the company, and pave the way for future trading in other games.
"The voice-chat platform's potential is no worse than the trading platform's."
Bruno was a professional businessman. After reading Gabryell's development plan, he immediately saw the business opportunity.
Ahead of its time. Beyond the current era.
That was Bruno's evaluation of Gabryell's plan. As long as it was implemented, their voice client could quickly surpass established voice software and become the new mainstream platform.
Bruno said, "I'll do my best to recruit capable developers for Fearless so we can continue developing it."
As a reincarnator, Gabryell understood its potential too well. As long as it was developed according to his plan, it would bring the company enormous profit. The so-called plan was simple: copy the future version of voice-chat software.
Victor said, "You are currently the company's legal representative. Carlos, Igor, and Hugo will become shareholders. According to the angel investment agreement between you and Bruno, you will be the company's largest shareholder and retain absolute control. Bruno will only receive profit dividends and will not participate in later management."
Bruno was only paving the road for Gabryell and the others. Once the company was fully established, he would step back, hand management over to Gabryell, and simply wait for his yearly dividends.
In truth, as the future heir of the Hawthorne Group, Bruno did not have much time to manage Fearless Company anyway. He was doing this mainly for his younger brother, Hugo. Once Hugo had his own career, he would not return to the family business after graduation, making Bruno's position as heir rock solid.
Gabryell picked up his coffee. He did not like the stuff, but Bruno, a successful businessman, did.
"Coffee instead of wine. Here's to a good partnership, to Fearless Company getting on track soon, and to making us money."
There was no need to hide it. Bruno invested to make money, and Gabryell founded the company for the same reason.
Bruno smiled and raised his coffee. It was a little vulgar, but he liked it. "I believe you won't let me down. You have tremendous creativity."
Victor thought for a moment, then raised his coffee as well. "Leader, please look after me in Fearless from now on."
Calling him Leader brought them closer than calling him boss. In private, Victor would use that title. Only at the company would he call Gabryell boss.
"Fearless. Without fear, cutting through every obstacle. It will become the next rising star of the internet."
With his memories of the future, Gabryell could make Fearless soar and keep it at the forefront of the era.
The same was true for the company and the guild.
In World of Warcraft, Fearless was destined to become a legend.