I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 120: Liam’s Ambitions (Patreon)

After placing a toy beside every child’s bed, Liam was about to quietly leave the room when a voice called out behind him.

“Mr. Liam, it’s not Christmas yet. Why are you giving us presents?”

Liam turned and found Wilbur looking at him.

He smiled.

“Because you’ve all been good kids.”

After leaving the mobile home, Liam towed his and Maria’s RV over as well. That way, when the utilities were connected, they could hook everything up at once.

Now there was only one problem left.

He had given away every toy he had, so he needed to restock.

Then Liam remembered that Goldman had been producing toys of his own. Maybe he could talk to him about it.

Early the next morning, Liam headed to the Freetown Forest Ranger Station.

When he arrived, he discovered that the ranger station had already been converted into a visitor center.

Thanks to Liam’s show and the promotional video featuring Watson, the place had attracted plenty of young people who enjoyed adventure, or rather, enjoyed risking their lives for fun.

They were also generous spenders, so Goldman had catered to them by stocking all kinds of interesting merchandise.

There were the T-shirts and toys he had shown Liam before, along with plenty of new products added as the show grew more popular.

The shelves held mugs and figurines printed with various designs, while posters were displayed around the checkout counter.

“Not bad, right? We get plenty of visitors every day, and the merchandise sells pretty well.”

Goldman appeared beside Liam, looking pleased with himself.

Liam shook his head.

“No. This is all small-time stuff. I think we can do much more.”

“Oh? What do you have in mind?”

Goldman immediately became interested.

Liam could sometimes be difficult to follow, but his ideas were always unexpected.

“I want to build an amusement park here.”

That was far more unexpected than Goldman had anticipated.

For a moment, he had no idea how to respond.

Finally, he asked,

“Where are you going to get the money for something like that?”

Liam answered confidently,

“No idea.”

“What?”

Liam explained,

“It’s only a rough idea for now. Think about it. I’m already involved in producing TV programs. If I eventually have a lot of successful shows and recognizable characters, how do you think I can make even more money from them?”

Goldman answered without thinking,

“Sell toys?”

“Mr. Goldman, you’re thinking too small. That’s pocket change.”

Liam patted him on the shoulder.

“Toys still need factories to manufacture them. But if I build an amusement park, people will come here themselves. Rides, food, drinks, overpriced merchandise. Every part of the place can make money.”

Goldman’s eyes widened.

“I get it. An amusement park can make money off practically everything people spend on while they’re there.”

Then he frowned.

“But what does that have to do with me?”

Liam sighed.

“Mr. Goldman, where do you think I’d build the amusement park?”

Goldman finally understood.

“Right. This place would be perfect.

“Wait. This forest is a national park. There’s no way they’d approve something like that.”

Liam laughed.

“Mr. Goldman, that’s my problem to solve. You just sit back and wait.”

Goldman nodded.

Although he managed the area, he had no authority over how the land itself was used.

The whole idea sounded completely unrealistic.

Yet for some reason, he was convinced Liam would find a way to make it happen.

“All right. I’ll get you your latest share.

“But take my advice. You need to make more shows. I don’t have enough kinds of merchandise here, and the visitors are already starting to lose interest.”

Liam laughed.

“Our station is about to properly launch. We’ve got a whole lineup of interesting shows coming. Just sit in front of your TV and watch.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Goldman went back to his office and returned with a stack of cash.

Liam took it and counted it.

There was more than a thousand dollars.

“Your show is hot right now, so business has been good. But trends fade fast. Keep working at it.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

Liam slipped the money into his pocket, left the visitor center, and drove toward the TV station.

The idea of building an amusement park had only occurred to him after he acquired a stake in the station.

There were several reasons behind it.

The first was money.

His shows were already bringing in a decent amount through rebroadcast fees and advertising. For Liam personally, it was a substantial income.

But if he wanted to turn the TV station into something much bigger, it was nowhere near enough.

To achieve that, he needed better shows.

And better shows required an excellent production team.

Whenever Liam thought about an excellent production team, for some reason Dylan’s laid-back, unreliable-looking face always came to mind.

He wondered whether these people could actually handle the job.

When Liam arrived at the station, everyone was already preparing the evening news.

Normally, news broadcasts were done live.

But this was a local TV station. Even setting aside whether their anchors were professional enough, the truly major stories would never fall into their hands anyway.

So they decided to focus on worthwhile local stories first.

Once they had enough material for one program, they could replay it throughout the week.

There would always be housewives and children with time to spare who wanted to know what was happening around their community.

The anchors for the news program were Dylan and a girl named Susie.

Susie was Dylan’s girlfriend, and he had practically dragged her into joining him.

To be fair, Dylan normally wore a leather jacket and sunglasses and looked nothing like a respectable news anchor.

But after putting on a suit and cleaning himself up, he actually looked surprisingly convincing.

Unfortunately, his very first line ruined the impression.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Fu...”

“Stop! Wrong station!”

James shouted angrily from behind the camera.

“My bad. I swear so much that it just slipped out.”

Dylan flushed, hurriedly opened his script, and silently read through the opening again.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Boston West TV. From now on, the news will be presented by me, Dylan, and Susie beside me.”

Liam watched for a while and nodded.

Dylan’s delivery was mediocre, but that could be improved with practice.

His greatest advantage was that he had absolutely no shame.

No matter what kind of news he had to read, he could deliver it in the same casual tone as always.

Once Liam was sure there wouldn’t be any more problems, he headed to his own studio.

The moment he walked inside, he found that the table had been completely transformed.

Castles, grasslands, cliffs, forests.

Charlotte had made all kinds of scenery from colored paper, along with plenty of clothes for the toys.

“Charlotte, did you make all of this?”

“Of course not. Lily and I made it together.”

The spider and the little cat jumped onto his shoulders, one on each side.

“Little One, I worked all night. Hurry up and praise me.”