Chapter 376: The Plan Starts on Campus

Marvel's ultimate cinematic universe plan sounded simple in theory, but actually pulling it off would not be easy. Setting aside issues like funding and talent, perfectly portraying the abilities of Marvel heroes on the big screen was a massive challenge in itself.

As everyone knew, Marvel heroes possessed a wide variety of abilities, making film production highly dependent on CGI. It wasn't that current special effects couldn't pull it off, but rather that doing so would cost an exorbitant amount.

Having Marvel's screenwriters map out a proper overarching plot to connect everything was similarly difficult. If they didn't want to end up throwing things together at the last minute like DC and Warner Brothers used to, they had to do their homework here.

After the three-day board meeting, Duke was asked to stay at Marvel by Stan Lee and Kevin Feige to exchange further thoughts on the plan. While Duke was an absolute expert in film, he knew little about the comic industry and its merchandise, so he could only speak with them from a cinematic perspective.

Duke had originally planned to finish this trip to the East Coast within a week, but he ended up staying at Marvel alone for ten days.

It wasn't until New York saw its first heavy snow of the winter that he left Manhattan and headed to the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia to check on the results of his other $300,000 investment.

"You're finally here."

The moment Duke stepped out of his car at the entrance of the Wharton School of Business, he heard Ivanka Trump's voice.

"I thought you'd forgotten our appointment!"

"Sorry, darling."

Brushing the falling snow from his hair, Duke smiled at her. "I got held up by something unexpected."

He opened his arms and gave Ivanka Trump a gentle hug. Braving the snow together, the two headed into the Wharton School of Business.

"You're dressed too lightly!"

Letting go of Duke's arm, Ivanka unwrapped the scarf from her neck. She turned to stand in front of him and bundled it tightly around his wind-exposed neck.

It was indeed quite cold. The East Coast of North America was often struck by blizzards, and one seemed to be brewing right now. Duke pulled his woolen overcoat tighter and fastened the entire row of buttons.

"The snow is getting heavier."

Looking up at the large, feather-like flakes, Ivanka took the lead. Quite a bit of snow had settled on her knit hat and dark gray coat, making it obvious she had been waiting at the entrance of the Wharton School of Business for some time.

Making a lady wait in such terrible weather was undeniably rude, and Duke felt a rare pang of guilt.

The snowfall grew noticeably heavier, turning the entire world white. Ivanka strode ahead on her long legs, her dark brown knee-high leather boots leaving clear footprints in the snow. Duke followed her tracks, keeping his eyes on her tall figure through the driving snow. Unafraid of the bitter cold, they supported each other as they pressed forward.

"Where are we going?" Duke asked, instantly feeling snowflakes blow into his mouth as he spoke.

Ivanka turned her head back, the curled blonde hair escaping her hat catching the snow. She parted her lips slightly. "What did you say?"

With the wind howling and the snow falling, Duke had no choice but to lean in close to Ivanka's ear. "Where are we going?" he repeated.

"The library!" Ivanka heard him clearly this time. "They have a public computer lab and serve hot coffee. We can look at our new website while we drink."

After braving the snow for another five minutes or so, Duke and Ivanka finally reached the library. The moment they stepped up to the glass doors, a wave of warmth rushed over them, making it feel as if they had instantly teleported from Philadelphia back to Los Angeles. Shaking the snow off their clothes, they pushed through the doors and, with Ivanka leading the way, soon found the public computer lab.

After ordering two cups of hot coffee, Duke and Ivanka sat down at a computer in one of the cubicles, waiting for the Microsoft Windows system to boot up.

Holding her paper coffee cup, Ivanka gave Duke a brief update on the situation. Since the two of them had been talking frequently on the phone over the past six months, she only needed to go over the basics.

"The website is temporarily running on a rented campus server. It officially launched on the twenty-second of last month. There's a dedicated link on the campus BBS."

Once the computer finished booting up, Duke opened the browser and typed in the URL exactly as Ivanka instructed. It quickly loaded a rather minimalist website page. In the upper right corner was a prompt to register an account, and at the top sat the page view counter and registered user count—though the numbers were on the low side.

The website had 856 page views, while the registered user count was only 293.

Duke then glanced at the top left corner. The website's name was as simple and straightforward as could be: Instant Sharing!

"This is just a temporary name," Ivanka said, pointing at the address bar. "Right now, it's just a campus network. Once the site truly branches out and gets a top-level domain, I'll come up with something catchier."

She turned to look at Duke. "You're a shareholder too. You can come up with one."

"Really?" Duke put on a thoughtful expression.

Ivanka winked playfully. "If the name you come up with sounds terrible, I have veto power."

Duke shrugged. "I'll leave such a daunting task to you."

Then he changed the subject. "It looks like promoting the site is going to be a tough job."

"It's been online for less than a month, so having few users is perfectly normal." Ivanka wasn't discouraged in the slightest. "I'll promote the site at all sorts of events here at Wharton and across the University of Pennsylvania."

Thinking for a moment, she freed up a hand and pointed to the site's registration section. "You're the major shareholder, so contribute a registration. It would be best if you uploaded a lifestyle photo of yourself. If a big director like you joins the site, it will definitely attract a lot of people."

Clicking the registration link, Duke signed up using his real name. While it was different from the social networking sites he had used in the past, this incredibly primitive-looking website actually supported instant photo uploads.

"Video uploads are just a plan for now. If we couldn't even upload photos, there would have been no point in building this site."

Hearing Ivanka, Duke turned to look at her. Her expression was completely serious. Just as she had outlined in her business plan, she was treating this as a major entrepreneurial venture.

Social networking sites were an essential part of the future internet. Almost everyone online would become inseparable from them and their related social apps.

What would become of this site in the future? It was impossible to tell right now.

"Hello, Wharton School of Business!"

After completing his registration, Duke left that message. He clicked around the page for a while, noting that the website still had a few blog-like features.

"Any good suggestions?" Ivanka asked.

Duke had already thought of a few on his way over. "Once the site has a top-level domain, I'll have someone link it on my personal website."

"Mhm, good idea." Ivanka nodded. "I'll also mobilize my friends and some of my family's connections."

Taking a sip of her hot coffee, she asked, "What about the website itself? Do you see any areas that need improvement?"

"You could keep enhancing its sharing features," Duke said, recalling the two social apps with "Micro" in their names he had used in the past. "For example, registered users could follow each other or add each other as friends to build their own social circles, and they could 'like' the photos, videos, or posts shared by others..."

Ivanka immediately set her coffee cup aside, pulled out a notepad, and started taking notes. "Anything else?"

Duke didn't have much else up his sleeve. He just gave a general rundown of some features from those two apps he used to use. Whether they could actually be implemented later on was outside his concern.

Then again, Ivanka's original intention had been to build a video-sharing website. Constrained by servers, funding, and technical limitations, it had morphed into its current form. If these social networking elements were added into the mix, what would it ultimately become?

To be honest, Duke was incredibly curious.

Having worked with Ivanka for a long time, he knew she was a highly capable girl who lacked nothing but practical experience. Perhaps, influenced by him, she would go down a completely different business path than she otherwise would have.

Because his East Coast trip had run severely over schedule, work was piling up for him in both New York and Los Angeles. As soon as the blizzard let up a little, Duke planned to leave Philadelphia and head back to New York first.

"Darling, I'll be waiting for you to grow the site, take it public, and have the stock skyrocket so we can become mega-billionaires together," Duke joked with Ivanka Trump as they left the Wharton School of Business.

Ivanka, brimming with confidence, replied, "Just you wait, Duke. You might be in the lead right now, but I'll catch up to you one day."

Back in New York, Duke went straight to Victoria's Secret headquarters to meet with its vice president, Rebecca Fein. Under her guidance, he took a special tour of their design studios. The place was bustling with preparations for next year's super show, and the projects they were working on tied directly into the agreement both parties had reached regarding The Lord of the Rings.

The theme for next year's Victoria's Secret angels show would revolve closely around elves!

The Victoria's Secret angels had already been sent off to a training camp in Florida for rigorous conditioning, all so their figures would better match the ethereal, slender grace of elves.

Soon after, Duke's art director, Hannah Serena, arrived in New York from out of town to assist with Victoria's Secret's related work.

Before returning to Los Angeles, Duke made another trip to the Upper East Side to meet with Aerin Lauder, who had just rushed back from Europe. Since establishing her personal cosmetics brand, her workload had become far heavier than before. She seemed well on her way to becoming another Mrs. Leah, not only jetting all over North America for necessary commercial promotions but also flying to Europe to actively push into the European market.

This trip to the East Coast ended up costing Duke a full half a month. By the time he finally returned to The Lord of the Rings Studio in Los Angeles, he resumed post-production on The Fellowship of the Ring. After Weta Studio finished the visual effects for the opening battle, he edited the first commercial trailer and handed it over to Warner Brothers.

This thirty-second commercial would air during the upcoming Super Bowl!