∞Problems

'I have to handle the situation very carefully or I will end up in a very unfavorable situation.' My mind was occupied with thoughts on how to tackle these problems when someone decided to interrupt my thought process.

"Don't you think you were extremely rude to barge into our conversation like that Mr. Stone?" The Nick person asked in a very condescending tone. The atmosphere in the office froze at his comment.

"This is the director of our company Mr. Nicholas Clark. He is just very frank and speaks without thinking. You don't have to take it to heart Mr. Stone." Samuel tried to ease the tension while glaring at Nicholas.

"This is my company, my property Mr. Clark. I can go wherever I want whenever I want and no one has the right to question me and might I remind you that you are standing on my property and I can have you thrown out." I answered him back in the same tone in which he questioned me. I was already annoyed by the situation I found myself in and I didn't have time to deal with some self-important snob.

"You better behave with respect kid. You may think that you are someone but this is Hollywood. Everything works on connections here and I have the necessary connections to make your life very difficult." Nicholas spat angrily with a red face. I think he didn't like the comment about throwing him out but I don't like when someone threatens me.

"Mr. Clark you may think that you are someone but you are nothing except a washed-up director who has constantly made flop movies." I said to his face but I wasn't done yet.

"And don't forget that this is America everything works on money and connections here. I may be a useless son but I am still the son of Cyrus Stone so I have both the money and connections to make your and your family's lives very very difficult. Now I will allow you to rethink your words and speak very carefully this time." I used his words and returned them in a much more threatening manner.

He looked at me with a pale face realizing that he was not talking to some no-name youngster but the son of a very influential man. Sure I will not act upon my threat nor Cyrus will help me in this but sometimes a deterrent is much more effective.

"I am sorry Mr. Stone I was not thinking straight and spoke carelessly; I hope you will not take it to heart. I have some matters to attend so if you will excuse me?" He spoke very fast, apologized and ran away without even hearing my answer.

It was actually better this way so I don't have to deal with him again. I am not some Chinese novel protagonist who can keep slapping people left and right. It's downright exhausting to deal with these situations.

"Mr. Nelson can you lead me to my office because it is my first day and I don't know the way." I turned around and spoke to Samuel.

"Yes of course Mr. Stone and please you can call me Sam as everyone else does." Sam replied to me hurriedly but I could hear a slight quiver in his voice. He might have been intimidated due to my threat to the director.

"I will do that Sam and you can also call me Alex." With Sam leading the way, we quickly reached an office that will be mine in the future. It was a spacious office which looked really professional with nice furniture.

"Thank you, Sam. You can go do your thing and please inform me when it's time for the meeting. One more thing, can you please send me company performance and account reports for the past year." I said to him as I sat down in my chair with a harmless-looking smile on my face.

"Sure Alex I will send someone with the files." He said while nodding to me and left. It was about 20 minutes later when I heard a knock on my office door.

"Come in." I answered.

"Mr. Stone these were the files you requested frommm…" it was Amanda the receptionist. She stopped mid-sentence when she saw my face. The look on her face was absolutely delightful but I am not someone who takes pleasure in other people's miseries, not at all.

"Thank you Amanda but why are you delivering the files? Shouldn't it be an assistant's job?" I took the files and asked her with a straight face.

"…Mr. Nelson's assistant was busy with something else so she asked me to deliver those." She replied to me stiffly.

"Oh it's alright I was just asking casually. You can leave." I dismissed her and focused on the files but she was still standing in the office.

"Was there something else?" I asked her while fully knowing what she wanted to say.

"Mr. Stone I want to apologize for all the things I said about you earlier." She looked a little scared.

"I can understand that office gossip is a thing but don't divulge the circumstances of the company to strangers again." She helped me understand the situation of the company for which I am thankful but it can be quite damaging to the company if these kinds of things leak outside. So I left her with a warning.

"Thank you, Mr. Stone. I will not do it again." she visibly relaxed at my words and after thanking me left the office.

I once again started reading the files to better understand the current situation of Starlight and what I found was not good at all. I knew that the company situation was dire but the extent of it was still out of my expectations. The production department of the company was responsible for undertaking many loss-making projects.

I also noticed that all those loss-making projects had the shadow of two people. One of them is the director Nicholas I fired earlier and another person in the upper management of the company. I immediately sniffed foul play but now was not the time to take care of this problem. I continued reading and noticed many big and small problems.

'I might have made a very loss-making deal with Cyrus. I would have fought for more benefits if I knew this situation beforehand.' I was more astonished that Cyrus let the company deteriorate this much and didn't do anything but I quickly found the answer to my question.

The person managing the company before me was a novice in Hollywood related matters so he was not involved in any decision-making related to projects of the company and since movie making is a heavily luck-dependent venture the losses can be justified. Moreover, as the company was making profit in the distribution no one paid much attention to these small details. Cyrus was also an extremely busy person and could not pay attention to every detail.

Starlight Entertainment was a sinking ship plagued with problems and since I took the helm of this company these are my problems now. I sighed and continued reading the files. I studied every little detail I could find in those files, marked the inconsistencies, and searched the problems that were reflected in the data. Once I did what I could by myself I decided to ask for help.

"System" I called my trusty artificial retard.

[Yes]

"Analyze the data in these files." I asked this of the system for two purposes. First I wanted to test the analysis function of the system and second I wanted to find any potential bug before I get screwed over again.

[Affirmative]

[Data is being imported… Please Wait]

[Data Import completed]

[Data is being analyzed… Please Wait]

[Estimated time 03 hours 12 minutes]

"…" I was speechless after seeing the completion time. It didn't even take me this much time to read and analyze those files.

'…Well, at least it works.' I comforted myself with these words. I was slowly losing hope in my system.

I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. Right now I just wanted a moment of rest but fate decided that I don't deserve a moment of peace. It didn't even take 5 minutes after closing my eyes when a knock sounded on my door.

"Come in." I sighed and answered. I realized that I am sighing a lot these days.

"Sir, Mr. Nelson asked me to inform you that everyone is waiting for you in the conference room." A beautiful blonde lady with glasses said to me after entering my office.

"Thank you for informing me and can you lead the way as I don't know the way to the conference room. Miss?" I asked her name offhandedly because a competent boss should know the names of his employees. It was totally not because she was a stunning beauty, I am not that shallow.

"Abigail Turner, Mr. Stone but you can call me Abby, and sure I can lead the way." She answered my question and started walking while leading me.

"So what do you do in the company Abby?" While walking behind her I asked.

"I am Mr. Nelson's Assistant." She replied to my question with a to-the-point answer. She seemed like an employee who worked hard in her career, not in her boss's bed. I didn't speak again and we walked in silence until we reached the conference room.

I entered the conference room and saw five people sitting there engaged in small talk. They saw me entering and stopped talking and shifted their focus on me.

"Mr. Stone, we were waiting for you." Samuel came forward with a smile and greeted me. Then he introduced everyone else in the room.

"Let's get to the point I don't like to waste time. Mr. Samuel what is the current situation of the company." I shook everyone's hand, got seated, and cut to the chase.

In the conference room, Samuel outlined the company's challenges. Resignations, especially in the production department, were significant. Rumors circulating in and out of the company had a significant impact on public relations. The distribution department was the only department left unharmed.

Robert Cole, head of the production department was a slightly obese man in his 40s and looked very exhausted. The head of the distribution department David Reed on the other hand had a very smug look on his face. David had a muscular physique with thick facial hair. These two department heads make a sharp contrast. I could feel their rivalry based on their expressions.

"How is the public relations department doing?" I asked Kevin Blake, head of the PR department. He was a very average-looking man and the only distinct feature on his face was the round-framed glasses he wore.

"The PR department could manage without much difficulty normally but right now we are also dealing with bad press so it is proving a little difficult." He answered my question but I could see that he was underplaying the situation.

"Who released those rumors?" This was the question that I was waiting to ask because those rumors were the root cause of this situation.

"It was a tabloid that released those rumors but how they propagated in the company I don't know." Kevin answered while sneaking a glance at the sixth person in the room which was enough for me to understand a lot of things.