Chapter 1 A Slightly Depressed Atmosphere

Shang Yang Games, office area.

The atmosphere was a little heavy.

Everyone had originally thought that having a new boss would be the start of a wonderful future. They had all been looking forward to Boss Pei sharing their joys and hardships, throwing out good ideas one after another, and working together to create a refreshing game that would sweep the best-selling charts…

But none of this happened.

Boss Pei did show his face, but left after saying less than ten sentences.

He removed Wang Xiaobin, the most senior employee, from the position of lead planner and promoted a newcomer who had joined the company most recently to be the lead planner, also giving him a monthly quota for firing someone without giving a reason.

As for the company's future plans, they were even more outrageous.

The first step was to cut off all the paid content in the two existing games.

The second step was for everyone to write a design proposal.

Apart from that, Boss Pei had no opinions or suggestions, and as for Boss Pei personally taking action? That was even more impossible.

Judging from the fact that Boss Pei had given Ye Zhizhou a “Shangfang Sword” (Imperial Sword of Authority), it was likely that he would not come here for a long time. Ye Zhizhou was his spokesperson.

It felt as if Shang Yang Games, which was about to be revived and rise from its coffin, had been pushed back into the coffin in an instant, and Boss Pei had even hammered a few more nails into the coffin lid.

How could the atmosphere not be depressing!

Of course, everyone also knew that with Tengda as a backer, Shang Yang Games shouldn't go bankrupt in the short term, and everyone's jobs were secure.

It's just that it was really hard to say how long these jobs could be guaranteed.

Wang Xiaobin looked at Ye Zhizhou's workstation with some worry, and saw that Ye Zhizhou was looking down and typing on his phone, not knowing who he was chatting with.

He couldn't have used his first no-reason firing quota already, right?

Wang Xiaobin was still quite worried.

Now Ye Zhizhou was the lead planner, and it was up to him to give orders and arrange work tasks for everyone. This was the lead planner's responsibility.

If Ye Zhizhou didn't speak, everyone else could only sit at their workstations and dawdle.

Wang Xiaobin was very unsure whether Ye Zhizhou could handle this job, but since things had come to this, he could only wait and see.

Ye Zhizhou was sending a message to Ma Yiqun.

"Brother Ma, there's something I don't know how to tell you..."

Ma Yiqun replied quickly: "Tell me, with me here, what difficulties can't we brothers overcome together?"

Ma Yiqun hadn't been assigned any work at Tengda, not even writing the plot for the new version, so he was bored out of his mind every day and replied to messages instantly.

Ye Zhizhou hesitated for a moment and typed, "Boss Pei came to a meeting and promoted me to be the lead planner of Shang Yang Games..."

Ma Yiqun: "???"

He sent more than a dozen question marks in a row.

Ma Yiqun's bewilderment could be felt through the screen.

What does this mean?

Ma Yiqun completely didn't understand this world anymore.

Back then, he and Huang Sibo were doing odd jobs at Shang Yang Games, suffering together.

But in the blink of an eye, Huang Sibo transferred to Tengda Games and rose to the sky in one step, going directly from an executive planner to a lead planner.

Later, he and Ye Zhizhou were doing odd jobs at Shang Yang Games, suffering together.

But in the blink of an eye, Shang Yang Games was acquired by Boss Pei, and Ye Zhizhou also rose to the sky in one step, becoming the lead planner!

Only Ma Yiqun was still studying Boss Pei's design philosophy every day, and so far he had not achieved any results that he could be proud of or even mention.

Ma Yiqun fell into deep self-doubt.

Why was it that two executive planners in a row had been directly promoted to lead planner?

Could it be... I'm a koi fish?

Anyone who's suffered with me can become a lead planner??

Then why can't I, the koi fish myself, encounter any good things?

Seeing that Ma Yiqun hadn't replied for a long time, Ye Zhizhou typed again: "Brother Ma, I'm under a lot of pressure right now. I've never been a lead planner before, can you talk to Boss Pei and have him change someone?"

Ma Yiqun almost had a stroke from anger.

You little brat, you're getting an advantage and still acting like you're not happy, you're really taking things too far!

You don't even want to be the lead planner when it's offered to you? Are you deliberately trying to piss me off!

"Goodbye." Ma Yiqun wanted to close the chat window at that moment.

Ye Zhizhou quickly replied: "No, Brother Ma! I really don't think I can do it. I've only been in the industry for a short time, I don't know anything, how can I be a lead planner?"

"Boss Pei has entrusted such a heavy responsibility to me, what if I mess it up?"

Ma Yiqun looked at the message sent by Ye Zhizhou and thought to himself, so this kid is worried about letting Boss Pei down.

Well, he's teachable.

Ma Yiqun thought for a while and felt that as someone who had been there, someone who had been trying to understand Boss Pei for several months, he should pass on some of his experience to his little brother.

"Don't worry, just go for it."

"Do you know Huang Sibo? The one who quit before you came, we're also good brothers."

"He was also an executive planner at the time, doing the same work as you."

"Later, he went to Tengda Games and was also directly promoted to lead planner by Boss Pei!"

"Guess what? 'Fortress at Sea,' that's what my brother Huang Sibo made."

"So, you don't have to worry at all. You can not believe in yourself, but you can't not believe in Boss Pei's vision!"

"So far, Boss Pei has promoted a lot of people. At the beginning, everyone didn't understand Boss Pei's intention, but soon they discovered that Boss Pei has a unique vision, and these people have shining points that others can't see!"

"So, you don't have to worry at all, since Boss Pei says you can do it, then you definitely can!"

Looking at the message sent by Ma Yiqun, Ye Zhizhou fell into deep thought.

So that's how it is, this kind of unconventional promotion isn't the first time, there were precedents?

Moreover, they were all successful examples?

Then, Boss Pei saw some shining point on me?

I didn't even know...

But, it's true, like Ma Yiqun said, Boss Pei couldn't have promoted me for no reason, and given me such great power.

Ye Zhizhou thought about it and suddenly became confident.

Since Boss Pei has given me such great power, that means he's implying that I should go for it. If I cower, wouldn't that mean I don't have the style of a Tengda employee at all, and I'd be letting Boss Pei down?

I'm also a glorious Tengda employee now!

Thinking of this, Ye Zhizhou suddenly felt enlightened.

"Thank you for the guidance, Brother Ma!"

Ye Zhizhou opened the document and started typing on the keyboard with confidence.

In the few months since he joined the company, the thing that Ye Zhizhou had done the most in private was to complain about these two games.

This was only natural. If these trash games were feeding players shit, then Ye Zhizhou was equivalent to playing with the shit in his hands every day. How could he not feel disgusted!

In Ye Zhizhou's eyes, or rather in the eyes of most people at Shang Yang Games, these two games were full of flaws, and you could pick out a bunch of problems after playing for just five minutes.

But no one changed them.

Because everyone was just getting by. If Old Liu didn't give them tasks, no one would be willing to increase their workload.

As for why Old Liu didn't change them, that was also very simple, because the huge revenue pressure was there.

At that time, the game's revenue was only barely enough to cover the company's operating costs, so where would the money come from to buy art resources and drastically change the game's gameplay?

There were plenty of good ideas, but the key was that changing the game with good ideas not only took time, but also required money!

Now that Ye Zhizhou no longer had Old Liu or President Du above him, he could of course do some things that he thought were meaningful.