82 Nico's Counter
A man walked into his living room, turned up the radio which began blasting cheerful music and sat down on the couch.
He picked up his laptop and booted it up.
"Finding the perfect ho should be easy, right?" The man asked with an enthusiastic smile. "Just a few clicks, and voila!"
He typed 'affordable family ho' into the search bar on his laptop. Imdiately, there was a bright pop up on his screen.
The first search result. Luxury mansion on the moon!
The man frowned.
Next result. Underground bunker in Antarctica!
"Hmm… this doesn't seem right."
The man kept scrolling, seeing progressively ridiculous options.
"I just need a nice three-bedroom house! Is that too much to ask?" He groaned. "What's with all these recomndations? Stupid AI."
He closed his laptop and walked outside his house, walking aimlessly on the sidewalk and looking dejected.
Suddenly, a man wearing a t-shirt that said Cooper Real Estate Agent appeared, waving at him.
"Hey, looking for a ho?" The agent asked in a friendly tone, the cheerful tune from the radio playing in the background. "Why don't we do this the right way?"
The man turned to him with a relieved smile. "You actually listen? Thank you!"
Then the agent shows the man a few realistic ho options.
A cozy suburban house, a chic city apartnt and a peaceful countryside retreat.
Growing more and more excited, the man exclaims. "Finally, soone who gets . No lunar mansions and underground bunkers. Just real hos for real people."
He shook hands with the agent who handed him a set of keys to his new ho.
The agent turned to look at and began explaining in a warm and friendly tone. "At Cooper Real Estate, we don't just recomnd hos. We help you find your ho. No nonsense, no bias. Just the perfect place to call your own."
The screen then displayed an image of a ho and text appeared on the image.
"Cooper Real Estate. Trust. Transparency. Ho."
The final shot was of the man relaxing in his living room, laptop on the coffee table with a sticky note over the screen that reads. "Retired from terrible recomndations."
The ad ended with the Cooper Real Estate logo and contact info with a voice over that said, "When it cos to your dream ho, we leave the moon mansions to the amateurs."
The screen turned black and I turned to the woman sitting at my left. "Beautiful work, Sophie."
The head of my PR team preened under the praise. "Thank you, sir. We have sent this and the other ads over to different dia houses. The key here is to keep emphasizing the terrible recomndations angle, pointing at the PathFinder AI's failings and promoting Cooper Real Estate at the sa ti."
"Good." I nodded. "Now that #terriblerecomndations is trending, we must keep the pressure on Walk Shop and make sure the public doesn't just forget about this. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
I nodded approvingly. With Elsa at work, it had been easier than if I'd done it myself to find PathFinder's weakness. In fact, I wasn't so sure I would've found it myself.
With that information, Elsa had worked her magic, making sure it found its way to the number one strear who quickly made use of the information. Of course, with a few WireFra agents making sure the chat moved in the right direction.
With the news out, Elsa had made it go viral, creating the terrible recomndations hashtag. It had resulted in PathFinder users deliberately searching for absurd things in order to find terrible recomndations.
Walk Shop was quickly dragged through the mud. The stock price hadn't really dropped too much but the negative publicity had been a lot.
With that, we'd enacted the next step of the plan.
I turned to the woman seated at my right. Elsa Klarsson sat with a wide smile on her face. This was the biggest smile I'd ever seen on her and it was oddly… beautiful. One could tell it was not a frequent expression but it was beautiful, nonetheless.
With this smile, I could tell that she was enjoying herself. This ans I was going in the right direction.
"How's the news of the sale?"
Elsa picked up her tablet and tapped a few tis. The screen blinks on and a few social dia posts scrolled by.
"I used the power of speculation." Elsa said, highlighting a few tweets. "Instead of using the news dia, I decided to use the analysts. With a few well placed rumours, it didn't take them too long to begin analyzing what a sale would an for Walk Shop."
"Coupled with this scandal, most of the narratives have been supporting a sale of Walk Shop. They've pointed out the need for a rebranding and the fact that the company is just another big scandal away from falling apart."
"Perfect." I steepled my fingers. With analysts extolling the pros of selling, Walk Shop's investors had to be feeling uneasy. Even if they had no intention of selling, the seed had been planted in their head.
And best of all, Justin will wonder where the rumors are coming from and will rember my words. He'll rember that this deal would be mine whoever he gave the deal to.
If the seed I planted grows, he'll subconsciously favor and when the ti cos, award the deal to .
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Wang stord out of the boardroom, his fist clenched. Everyone on the way scattered, not daring to attract his attention.
"How dare they?" He whispered under his breath. "How dare they!" He snarled.
He walked into his office, seized the monitor on his desk and smashed it on the floor. He snarled, grabbed his desk and tossed it on its side.
"HOW DARE THEY?" He raged. "Sell my company? Over my dead body!"
He began pacing the room. This had to be Nico's attack. The hashtag, the rumors, it had to be.
Now, he had an ultimatum. Close the Eidolon deal or his company would be sold.
He punched the window of his office.
He'll make Nico pay. He'd seal the deal and show him the aning of the na Wang.
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