Chapter 165 Undermining Global's Recruitment

Three days later, Mu Xin personally delivered the planning document, which was over two hundred pages thick, to the Governor's Office in Columbus.

John had three cadillac escalades; there was a gasoline-powered one in the front and one in the back, with Mu Xin's electric one in the middle. It hadn't been long since the incident with Derek, and John didn't want to take any risks.

Governor DeWine's assistant ushered Mu Xin into the second-floor office. When the door opened, Governor DeWine was standing in front of the window, looking out at the Columbus skyline.

"Mr. Mu, you have really put in the effort this time." Governor DeWine took the planning document, placed it on the desk, and began to flip through it.

"Two thousand acres," he spoke again after a moment. "Do you know how much land a Disney theme park occupies?"

"Disneyland in California is about five hundred acres. Disney World in Florida is larger, about twenty-five thousand acres, but that is the entire resort area." Mu Xin sat in the chair opposite him and crossed his legs.

"My two thousand acres are just for the theme park itself, excluding hotels, commercial districts, and parking lots."

"Then have you calculated the scale of the investment?" Governor DeWine was direct.

"The initial budget is three billion dollars." Mu Xin's tone was calm.

Governor DeWine looked at the numbers on the planning document. On that wrinkled face was an expression Mu Xin was very familiar with.

It was the expression of a politician nearing the end of his term, calculating how much political legacy he could gain from this deal.

"Three billion dollars." Governor DeWine repeated the phrase, as if weighing its significance.

"This is just the first phase." Mu Xin added, "The experience zone will be built first, and the initial set of static exhibition areas will be open to the public within six months."

"The second phase is the exhibition zone and education zone, and the third phase is the supporting water park and night performance center."

"After all three phases are completed, the total investment will be no less than five billion dollars, and in reality, it could reach nine billion dollars."

Governor DeWine's mind was racing. What did "no less than five billion dollars" mean?

Ohio's annual GDP is over eight hundred billion dollars; five billion dollars is equivalent to six-thousandths of the state's total GDP.

A theme park, a theme park built next to a small town of only twenty thousand people, with an investment scale approaching six-thousandths of the state's GDP.

This, damn it, isn't just tourism; this is building a city.

"Mr. Mu, I need to confirm one thing." Governor DeWine leaned forward. "Are you serious?"

"Do you think I'm the kind of person who would joke about something like this?!" Mu Xin countered.

...

Upon returning to Oxford Town, he had Jessica send an email to the recipient, Mark Woodbury.

The name Mark Woodbury carried as much weight in the theme park industry as Rick Joy's did in the resort hotel industry.

He had worked at Universal Creative, the design company under Universal Studios, for twenty-two years, participating in the creative design of almost all major projects for Universal Orlando Resort from phase one to phase three.

The overall planning of Islands of Adventure was his work; the Diagon Alley scene design for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was done by the team he led, and the core concept for the latest "Epic Universe" theme park at Universal Orlando Resort was also written by him.

The reason Mu Xin knew this person was because Jean-Luc had mentioned him once before.

When they were at Cheval Blanc, Jean-Luc had collaborated with Universal Creative once to do a thematic renovation for the Hard Rock Hotel next to Islands of Adventure.

After that collaboration, Jean-Luc's assessment of Mark Woodbury was only one sentence: "He is the person in this industry who best understands how to make tourists forget where they are."

Coming from Jean-Luc, this assessment carried significant weight.

Less than three hours after Jessica sent the email, Mark Woodbury replied.

"Mr. Mu, I am very interested in the project you described, but I need to see the site with my own eyes."

Mu Xin's reply was simple: "You are welcome anytime."

Mark Woodbury arrived three days later. He was younger than Mu Xin had expected, with thick hair, wearing a black polo shirt and khaki cargo pants, with a pair of The North Face hiking shoes on his feet.

He did not carry a briefcase, but instead held a sketchbook that looked like it had been used for many years.

The cover of the sketchbook was covered in scribbled sketches—architectural outlines, atmospheric scene drawings, and some symbols Mu Xin couldn't understand.

Mu Xin still chose the meeting location on that high ground by the lake in Hueston Woods.

Late October in Ohio was already a bit cold, and the wind blowing from the lake carried a crisp, damp chill.

The leaves of the primeval beech and maple forest in the distance were changing color, transitioning from deep green to golden yellow and ochre red, layered across the hillside like an unfinished oil painting.

Mark Woodbury stood on the high ground, looking at the lake and the forest before him, and remained silent for a long time.

He didn't measure the land with his eyes like Rick Joy, nor did he squat down to grab a handful of soil to smell it like Marwan Al-Sayed.

He just stood there, clutching the sketchbook, motionless, as if waiting for something.

"What are you looking at?" Mu Xin couldn't help but ask.

Mark didn't answer, and it was several minutes before he spoke.

"The best part of this land is not the location you chose." He turned around and pointed to the northwest of the high ground. "It is over there."

Mu Xin looked in the direction he was pointing. Over there was a steep slope with a drop of about forty feet, an incline of at least fifteen percent, covered with wild maple and oak trees.

From a commercial development perspective, that land was the most difficult to use; the slope was too steep, the foundation costs were high, and the landscape view was not as open as the position they were currently standing in.

"Why?" Mu Xin asked.

"Because the place you are standing is for looking at the scenery." Mark opened the sketchbook, his pencil moving rapidly across the paper, saying as he drew, "That land over there is the scenery itself."

He drew for about a few minutes, then turned the sketchbook around to show Mu Xin.

Mu Xin looked at the sketch on the paper and was stunned.

What Mark had drawn was a canyon, a man-made canyon winding through the entire steep slope.

On both sides of the canyon were towering rock walls, and at the top of the rock walls were suspended walkways and observation decks.

At the bottom of the canyon was a winding waterway, with several small boats floating on it, modeled after World War II landing craft and patrol boats.

In the bottom right corner of the drawing, Mark had written three words in pencil: "War Valley."

"Your theme is anti-war," Mark's voice sounded from beside him. "The theme of anti-war cannot be conveyed through preaching; it must be conveyed through experience."

"If a person stands by a beautiful lake, looking at beautiful scenery, and listens to you talk about how terrible war is, he won't feel it's terrible; he will only feel bored."

"But if he walks into a canyon, with simulated artillery fire lighting effects overhead, ruins of buildings destroyed by war on both sides, and the boat beneath his feet rocking in the waves stirred up by explosions."

"He doesn't need anyone to tell him how terrible war is; his body will tell him."

Mu Xin remembered what Jean-Luc had said, and now he understood the meaning of those words.

Mark Woodbury was not drawing an amusement facility; he was drawing a parallel world.

In this parallel world, tourists are not bystanders, but participants thrown into the war.

"Mark, before you came, did you think about the scale of my project?" Mu Xin returned the sketchbook to him, his tone casual.

Mark closed the sketchbook and looked at him. "I talked with Universal Creative, and they only asked me to come for a preliminary inspection; they didn't promise anything."

"But since I came, it means I am interested."

"What are you interested in?" Mu Xin asked.

"The scale." Mark's answer was very direct. "The largest project Universal Creative takes on is Orlando."

"But Orlando's expansion is pieced together, one piece at a time. From the initial studio to Islands of Adventure, to Volcano Bay, to Epic Universe, each piece is an addition built on an existing framework."

"The biggest limitation of expansion projects is that you can never break the boundaries of that initial framework."

"Your project is different. You are starting from scratch, which means I can paint a brand-new picture without needing to accommodate anything that already exists."

"You have worked at Universal Creative for twenty-two years. You participated in Islands of Adventure, participated in Harry Potter, and participated in Epic Universe."

"These things, on any theme park designer's resume, are projects at the pinnacle of the pyramid. Why would you be willing to come to Ohio?" Mu Xin asked.

"Because I am tired. Not physically tired, but creatively tired."

"Do you know how many procedures you have to go through to do a new project at Universal Creative?"

"Creative proposal, conceptual design, feasibility study, market research, budget review, management approval, IP licensor approval, construction drawing design, construction bidding, on-site supervision..."

"From concept to opening, it takes four or five years at the shortest, and seven or eight years at the longest. And in this process, half of your plan will be cut."

"Not because the person cutting it thinks it's bad, but because the person cutting it thinks there is risk. In a big company, risk is a more important thing than creativity."

He turned around and looked at the lake.

"Here with me, you can do anything you want to do." Mu Xin finished the sentence for him.