“This morning, Mr. Trent came to me and demanded to know whether I teamed up with you to set Skyrise up.”

Skyrise’s new model had been built off the design drafts and concepts Joy handed to Mr. Trent. Compared to Horizon’s new release, it lagged in performance by a lot.

Skyrise had pinned huge hopes on that car. They’d jacked up the price far higher than before, never expecting Horizon’s new model to be a straight-up ace—one that crushed Skyrise’s ...