America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 295, Section 293: Money, Please Let It Rain! (Revised version; select at your discretion if you have already subscribed)

"Eric, you need 80,000, is that right? Did I learn it?"

"NONONO! You have indeed learned it, but you can't tell them the cards I need. If they hear that, they won't let me win."

Upon seeing that the girl had tipped him off, Eric quickly stopped her.

"Sorry, I don't know the rules yet, but I'll be careful."

As she spoke, she stood behind Eric, made a face, flashed a peace sign, and twisted like seaweed, indicating that Eric needed two more strips.

Obviously, knowing Eric's situation, no one else would give him a card.

I printed more than a dozen cards, but none of them went up. Something felt off.

Eric turned around abruptly and saw the little girl holding her inconspicuous little steamed bun in her hand.

"I knew someone was up to something! No wonder no one played the two of circles!"

He reached out to grab her, but Elizabeth laughed, nimbly dodged, and ran to the side to play video games with Gal Gadot.

After eating and drinking his fill and watching an episode of "Truth or Dare," Arthur's mental fortitude was still too low, and he ultimately gave up after taking only $2.5.

Actually, having already answered 11 questions at this point, why not push a little harder? With so much dirt on myself, I need at least $10 to break even.

The second contestant was stronger and ultimately won $10. Although he would most likely face the consequences of divorce and family breakdown after going down the field, at least he got the money.

After watching the game, it was still early, so Eric suggested playing mahjong to strengthen their bond, since tomorrow was Saturday and they had a day off.

The villa was so large that even with the three Olsen sisters and their nanny and servants, it was still too spacious. Eric decided to requisition it as his temporary residence.

When playing mahjong, there naturally needs to be a stake.

So he suggested that they just play strip mahjong, and the loser would have to take off a piece of clothing.

In summer, people wear light clothing, and after three or four times, they'll basically be wearing underwear.

I never expected that they would team up to cheat and ruin their own lives.

Just like now!

"Kujo!"

"I won!"

"Are you kidding me? Another winning hand? Theron just had a nine-of-a-kind hand, why didn't you win?"

"I like it, it's none of your business! Hurry up and take it off."

"Hmph! Fine, I'll take it off then. I'm not losing anything anyway, like nobody's seen this before!"

Eric quickly took it off, leaving him with only Ander's crooked ear.

He doesn't shy away from showing himself off, saying that working out is necessary for long-term success. Although he's not as explosive as Schwarzenegger, he still has some muscles.

Nico chuckled and said, "You only have one piece left. What are you going to take off if you keep losing?"

"Exactly, Ander's ear's already off, what else do you have to bet on?"

Eric's eyes darted around: "I'll bet myself. Whoever wins by discarding the winning tile will get a 'manly experience ticket'."

"Ugh! Disgusting!"

"This is the worst thing I've ever heard."

"Do you think you're Joey?"

"So, I'm just asking if you want it or not."

"If I want to, maybe I'll get pregnant, hehe."

"Speaking of which, I'm actually quite puzzled. Eric, is there something wrong with your health? The five of us spent three months trying, and not a single one of us got pregnant."

"Even if your vitality is poor, there should at least be one successful bidder. Are you incapable?"

Eric himself had some doubts about this issue, wondering if the time travel had damaged any critical parts.

However, when I accompanied Nico to the hospital to freeze her sperm, the tests showed it was normal.

But nothing happened for three months. The odds are so low I could buy a lottery ticket. Is God helping me out? Giving me a little more time to relax?

After the rules were changed, the women's alliance immediately collapsed in order to win Eric's hunky experience voucher.

They stopped targeting him and instead allowed Eric to win many times.

More than an hour later, everyone had vanished into thin air.

Towards the end, no one was in the mood to play mahjong anymore; they were all absentmindedly looking at each other.

If Judy were here, she would definitely faint from happiness.

Even Gal Gadot and Elizabeth Olsen stopped playing video games and squatted down to observe.

Olsen was very shy; she had only ever spied on those shady things.

She knew the relationships among you guys were complicated, far more complicated than any melodramatic movie or TV show she'd ever seen, but knowing it was a far cry from the shock of witnessing it firsthand.

Elizabeth screamed at first, then covered her face, peeked around after a while, and eventually somehow got used to it.

Yeah, I'm used to it.

Being in the entertainment industry, she's exposed to all sorts of rumors, which has raised her standards considerably.

"No, it's too late. I have to go home. If I call again, it will be midnight."

Theron yawned, got up, dressed, and prepared to leave, actually feeling shy from Elizabeth's gaze.

Seeing that she was about to leave, Nicole also prepared to leave.

"Then I'm leaving too. See you another day." Gadot looked around, also preparing to run away.

When they arrived at the door, they found it locked and could not be opened.

Eric smiled at the three women: "I don't think we need to go home. After all, it's already midnight, and I'll worry if something happens."

"Moreover, this villa is very large, with a lot of rooms, enough to accommodate all of us."

"No! I object! This is my house!" Mary shouted immediately.

"I object too! This is the Olsen house, not the Cooper house. I don't want to see anything disgusting happen," Ashley echoed.

But since Eric had already conceived the idea of ​​sleeping with her, how could he let such a good opportunity slip by? Opposition would only fuel his desire to conquer.

He glared at the two sisters: "Objections are invalid. I'm the one who calls the shots here!"

Then there was a series of crisp cracking sounds as the mahjong tiles fell to the ground.

Eric is usually easy to talk to, but when it comes to asserting his authority, he is absolutely ruthless.

Elizabeth.

"what!"

The young woman was startled; she was stunned by what she saw.

"Don't be afraid, Elizabeth. This is just a game, you knew that all along, didn't you?"

Upon hearing this, the young woman nodded shyly, thinking to herself that he knew everything.

"Be good and wait here. I'll go and bring your three other older sisters over. They'll teach you how to play the 'yin-yang rubbing' game in a bit."

No numbers are omitted here!

There is no doubt that the airing of "The Truth or Not" sparked heated discussions across the United States.

Although this variety show is not a traditional competitive type, Lionheart.com still adopted the approach of releasing half a season at a time, and the discussion level exploded on the second day.

Some people said it was so damn good, the content was so explosive, it completely shattered their worldview.

This is truly the best variety show in human history, possessing unparalleled innovation and groundbreaking nature.

God!

Absolutely deified!

However, many people also criticized the program, especially several TV stations that opposed MGM, who finally found a legitimate reason to criticize it.

Film critics, scholars, experts, professors, judges, and other professionals took turns criticizing Lionheart.com, condemning it for lacking social responsibility and having a very negative influence on social values.

Faced with these criticisms, Eric's in-laws readily offered their help.

As a traditional aristocratic family that has existed for over a century, the Newhouse family, while not as powerful as some of the most prominent families, has still spread its influence to various sectors of society.

Do you think I don't have experts, professors, and scholars?

Consequently, professors from sociology, communication, journalism, and other disciplines at prestigious universities such as Princeton and Harvard also stepped forward to refute those smearing views.

The fighting was intense for a time, and while there were certainly negative impacts, the level of interest was also extremely high.

Many others questioned whether the whole thing was scripted and that the actors were hired by the production team. After all, would anyone really be that stupid?

However, Lionheart.com didn't need to prove these doubts; netizens quickly dug up the contestants' identities.

Their work, family, identity, and other information are all true and will be made public on the program. You can verify this simply by asking a few people in the area.

However, several of the parties involved have already gone into hiding. The scandals have rendered them socially invisible, and they will not be showing their faces for the time being.

Eric wasn't worried about this at all, because greed will never change, and the show will never lack blindly confident people.

Now, viewers are both clamoring for the release of the remaining half of the season and debating whether any brave soul will be able to take home the grand prize, or whether anyone will be able to withstand the test and still bring home the money.

If such a person exists, then he can participate in politics; he is undoubtedly a virtuous and upright person!

Some people suggested that the show invite celebrities, such as well-known villains like Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn.

The idea is good, but unfortunately it's a pipe dream.

After more than two months in theaters, Frozen has finally been taken off the screens, ultimately grossing $11.87 billion worldwide.

It was just one last push away; it didn't break the $12 billion mark.

However, it's not entirely hopeless. There are still sporadic screenings in a few countries such as the United States, Canada, and Norway, where they can earn a million or two per week.

If they keep it hanging like this, and MGM abandons its old ways to continue showing the film, it might actually break $12 billion in just over a month.

That's why the movie "Big Ship" was able to run for dozens of weeks back then.

"The Conjuring" remained strong, putting up a good fight against the combined attacks from the best actors and actresses.

After being heavily criticized for "Dead Silence" six months ago, James Wan's fans have started praising him again, comparing him to the most talented and awesome horror film director of the younger generation.

There are countless accolades praising The Conjuring, with some even claiming it rivals The Shining.

Furthermore, audiences have noticed a pattern: whenever James Wan collaborates with MGM, the resulting films are invariably high-quality, but collaborations with other companies are less consistent.

In an interview, James Wan also said that he lacks experience and needs to work on his grasp of certain plot points.

Sometimes I get too self-centered and too eager to express myself, neglecting what the audience wants to see.

This is a common problem among directors, and the failure of "Dead Silence" stemmed from this.

But at MGM, when he was unsure about something, he would consult with Eric and Leigh Whannell, and the three of them would brainstorm a storyline that best suited the market. As a result, audiences saw James Wan rise again.

James Wan also stated that he will prepare a sequel to "The Conjuring" as soon as possible and extend it into a horror universe, continuing to provide great works for movie fans.

For example, Annabelle, the ghost doll that left a deep impression on the audience.

Mean Girls fared much worse. After nearly four weeks in theaters, it only grossed a little over $46 million. It was only released in a few countries overseas and was also severely sluggish.

Andrea apologized to Eric for this, but to be honest, she really couldn't be blamed.

The movie was of good quality and they even made a small profit. Eric told her to rest and adjust her mood first, and he would assign her more work in a while.

At the same time, another piece of great good news has also been confirmed.

After a long period of investigation, the joint findings of various departments regarding MySpace were finally released, declaring that MySpace contained a large amount of sexually explicit content.

Furthermore, it constitutes a serious violation of user privacy, poses a huge risk of data leakage, and has a serious negative impact on sex crimes, especially sex crimes against minors.

The final penalty decision was to thoroughly rectify the borderline content, strengthen risk control, and impose a fine of $2.73 million.

Facebook was also fined $3800 million for its message in a bottle feature, but it only needs to rectify the relevant content, so the impact on its overall operations is not significant.

After the results came out, the MySpace service was temporarily shut down, and even accounts could not be accessed.

The internet is filled with lamentations, with veteran and novice perverts, as well as bloggers who make money by skirting the edge of pornography, all venting their anger and frustration.

People are criticizing the official channels, MySpace, and Facebook.

But it was too late; everyone knew MySpace was finished!

In contrast, Facebook's user registration numbers began to surge, returning to the levels seen when it first launched, with daily increases of tens or hundreds of thousands.

Whale fall gives birth to all things; even a small whale is still a whale.

Many businesses that previously advertised Google Ads on MySpace have also started to turn their attention to Facebook.

Please enable GG service, bro!

We've already handed you the money, can't you just take it?

Just for a little while, just for a little while, okay, brother?

At the same time, not only major businesses hope that Facebook will launch Google Play services, but many bloggers who have managed their accounts well and accumulated a certain number of fans also hope to launch them as soon as possible.

When MySpace was still around, they envied how much money they could make there, and they also knew that Facebook had adopted a user experience-first strategy to compete.

But now Myspace has collapsed, and you have a monopoly in the market.

What are you waiting for?

We all know you're a slut, stop pretending and take your clothes off!

As August approached, this situation had been brewing for half a month, and it felt like the time was ripe.

Eric ordered Fitz to send a notification to all Facebook users that Facebook would officially launch its Google services in three days.

It's easy to use. Just check the agreement in the backend, and you can become a self-media operator and connect with merchants independently.

The number of photos a blogger can attract depends entirely on their skill level. Facebook only categorizes the locations of photos in detail, avoiding annoying phenomena such as forced pop-ups or a single photo taking up the entire screen, thus trying to balance the interests of users, bloggers, and businesses.

Money, let it rain!

(End of this chapter)