Chapter 141 - Kiwi Cat Studio

With a thump, the last box of the lot was finally here with the rest of its buddies. Jasper flopped to the ground and so did some of the other boys. Teddy looked over his shoulder with satisfaction.

"That's all of it," he said and Jasper gave the strong teen a grateful nod. Ever since Camila and Ria had taken to going on world tours to perform and to join dance competitions, the teen had taken to bodybuilding and was quite the sensational fat to fit story. The young CEO couldn't be more thankful for having this group of wonderful boys help him with his business.

"Let's celebrate the moving of our new office. How do drinks sound like?" Rowan cheered and Jasper looked at his HR manager with dead eyes.

"We still need to unpack. We've only moved everything up and there will be more furniture coming in tomorrow."

Hearing their CEO speak, Rowan laughed uneasily. Jasper wasn't in a particularly good mood because none of his employees wanted to work at hot desks like in the last office before Kiwi Cat Studio became a big hit. For the entrepreneur, that would have been the easiest way to resolve the renovation issues. However, Jake Connor – Debbie's husband and Jasper's advisor, recommended a more youthful setup to inspire creativity for his employees. Hence, they had to move to a bigger office with more amenities to 'inspire' creative ideas.

Not everyone from the E.C. Class decided to work for Jasper. About half of them had chosen to walk on a different path to pursue their dreams. It was no surprise that the sports elites decided to pursue the professional path. Roy was training with the national team for track and field as a high jumper. Mustafa got a deal and a sponsor to go to England and train to become a professional soccer player. Dragon was training to become the next SEA games representative for martial arts.

Of course, there were others like Khalid who had his big break after a collaboration project with Lin Lin. The famous trending youth DJ made his debut as DJ Fatboi and is now travelling all across America to play in popular dance clubs. His social media was full of party scenes and food. How could anyone not envy him? Tom and Si-han were training to become idols and according to Alex, their debut was confirmed for next year. Valentino was the only one who rejected Jasper's offer and chose to build his own success. The boy applied for a job after graduating with a F&B diploma and worked as a manager-in-training at a restaurant to learn the business trade so that he can start his own popcorn store eventually.

Wilmer's internship helped to pave the path for the other nine boys who chose to follow Jasper and work for him after their graduation. Issac and Samuel didn't mind the administrative jobs that they were assigned back during their intern days and are looking into getting the Business Administration degrees. Samuel has even expressed an interest to get his MBAs. On the other hand, Jeremy decided to pursue accounting while Jeff figured he was good at numbers and systems so he preferred to study finance. Both boys were working part-time for Jasper at Kiwi Cat Studio to fill in for the finance department for now. Naturally, most of the financial reporting jobs were outsourced for now to external firms on Jake's recommendation. Rowan was obviously in the HR department because he was a very good social butterfly although he sometimes doubled up as a sales representative. The teen was the only full-time employee at Kiwi Cat Studio from the E.C. Class having graduated earlier than his peers. Lastly, the logistics department was formed by Benedict who coordinated most of the schedules, Jinru, Reggie and Teddy who were happier to use their bodies than their heads.

It was a Saturday so Jasper's full-time staff were not around. In addition to the E.C. Class, Jake helped Jasper to recruit two programmers – Ronald West and Vicky Chen to take over the coding that Elfie normally did. Ronald was a veteran in the field and did most of the background coding. Vicky on the other hand is a graduate with only two years of experience in the industry. However, she proved to be very creative and promising that Jake chose her among the others who applied for the job. They worked very closely and Jasper felt at ease leaving the creation and testing in their hands.

Jake also helped to hire two graphic designers for the game development. Henri Yeager was specialized in animation and special effects while Crystal Song was better at user interface designs. Their outstanding portfolio earned the handshake and even Alex approved of the people replacing her. Of course, this simply wasn't enough to get a whole company running but it would suffice for now. Jasper couldn't help but be thankful that while his team was small and many of his employees wore many hats to fill in the holes, they did so without complaining.

For example, the boys in the logistics team were often asked to come up with ideas for new game storylines and quests for update patches. The admin team sometimes helped Rowan prepare his materials for a sales pitch. The team often held frequent meetings to discuss project status and development directions with Jake who guided them along wisely. Nobody held back on opinions and they fought as much as they partied. Overtime was a thing but because the company had become a second home, nobody really bothered. It was also the main reason why Jasper insisted on moving to a bigger and better office. He didn't want his team to be sleeping on the floor or at their desks in the old office when they had to work overtime to complete a project. Jasper was paying them well but it didn't mean he couldn't treat them better.

Jake didn't dislike the CEO's soft side but he warned Jasper about the risks when he was expanding the company. Jasper didn't mind. In fact, he took a huge risk to get a bank loan with Wilmer's help to expand the office. The packing of their old office was a slightly nostalgic one for Jasper who used to spend a lot of time there with Elfie, Alex and Scarlet before they pursued their different paths in life. However, he wasn't too disheartened. They were still in touch frequently in the chat room. In addition, having a new office and a new team meant that Jasper would be able to create better memories.

Still, there was one thing bothering him despite how smoothly the business was progressing. Six years had passed since that time and he only found out a few years later about Scarlet's plans. He was two years behind time. While Kiwi Cat Studio was an astounding success to many, Jasper felt that it wasn't enough. His influence wasn't wide enough just yet for their plan to succeed.

Scarlet and Elfie needed Kiwi Cat Studio to be big enough to start acquiring other companies and expanding into other countries so that Elfie can tap onto its network intelligence to place a tracker on Anastasia. The list of companies that Scarlet wanted him to purchase were very powerful and Jasper felt frustrated that he wasn't able to approach them just yet.

He didn't keep his goal a secret from his team that he wanted Kiwi Cat Studio to become a multinational threat and a stable giant in the business world like Google. They were fired up at his speech and decided to work harder to make his dream come true. However, Jasper didn't tell them about Anastasia. In Jasper's opinion, both Alex and Scarlet were painting huge targets on their backs by entering the showbiz with the Wilde name. Time was ticking and it would only be a matter of sooner or later before Anastasia changed his target from Wilmer to the girls. Jasper wanted to build his company quicker and get a lock on EZ Express with the logistics team before that could happen so he built emphasis on the logistics department while developing a new app that could put that to good use.

Jake didn't know much about Jasper's intentions but he thought it was odd for a game development company to suddenly take interest in app development. True, gaming apps are becoming the trend but Jasper insisted that his main aim was to create an app for logistics shipment worldwide. The ex-entrepreneur had a startup of his own that he sold for a handsome profit many years ago before he retired. As a freelance software developer, he saw the potential in Jasper's vision but he couldn't understand it.

Jasper made a pitch about the power of consumer group buying and a cheaper cost by consolidating all orders and shipping companies to provide a seamless system of transfer to deliver the goods in twenty-four hours. The idea was good enough to hook Jake to agree with the proposal and start working on it without alerting the team as it was a private project for now. Still, the advisor couldn't understand the need for secrecy even from Wilmer. While the boys partied and unpacked their belongings into the new office, Jake congratulated Jasper from the side.

The teen was only sixteen but already he gave off a very mature vibe. Jake smiled. He couldn't wait to see what else this remarkable entrepreneur could achieve in the future.