Clearly, Eric was the best scapegoat for this incident.

Although the data in other regions had also changed to some extent, the difference in player numbers between the two games wasn't as significant.

During the event, ioI's data first increased and then decreased, which could be explained as a normal phenomenon during the event. It was just like how supermarkets experience a surge in customer traffic during sales, followed by a sharp drop after the sale ends.

In short, the heads of ioI in other regions could find plenty of excuses, and their interests were generally aligned.

The upper management of the group, for various considerations, did not take action against this event, so everyone would share the responsibility. Other regions could fudge the numbers a bit, and the higher-ups wouldn't investigate too closely.

But the situation in the Greater China region was different.

Here, the difference in the number of players between GoG and ioI was enormous, so the data changes were particularly obvious. Compared to the data from other regions, it was too glaring to ignore.

Moreover, Eric was the one who submitted the proposal for this joint event.

Was there anyone more suitable to be the scapegoat than Eric?

Although Eric had been idealistic, thinking that he was just a mouthpiece who didn't need to make decisions and therefore wouldn't need to take responsibility, he was clearly mistaken. Often, mouthpieces naturally become scapegoats, because a mouthpiece is expendable, and using them to take the blame is a matter of course.

Pei Qian was utterly speechless.

Miserable, so miserable!

Although Eric himself seemed resigned to his fate and didn't complain much, Pei Qian thought carefully about it. Since he had met Eric, this guy seemed to have been consistently unlucky...

Initially, he was a high-ranking executive in the media business of the Dayak Corporation, parachuted into Finger Company as the head of ioI in the Greater China region. He should have been able to spread his wings and accomplish great things.

However, he had an unfavorable start and struggled for a long time without making any progress.

After being demoted the first time, Eric lay low for a while and finally made a comeback, but before long, he was about to be demoted again.

Although Eric hadn't explicitly stated it, Pei Qian could roughly guess his fate.

He definitely couldn't be the head of the Greater China region anymore. He wouldn't be directly fired, but he probably wouldn't be responsible for any work related to Finger Company and ioI anymore.

The most likely outcome was a symbolic demotion, going back to his old line of work.

But there was nothing Pei Qian could do.

He couldn't possibly run to the Dayak Corporation and plead for Eric, asking them to let him continue as the head of the Greater China region, could he?

Wouldn't that further confirm their improper relationship?

Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, "Before you leave, do you want to come to Jingzhou one more time? I'll treat you to a meal."

Eric thought about it. "Sure, my flight is the day after tomorrow. I can take the high-speed rail to Jingzhou today, come back tomorrow night. It's doable."

Pei Qian was very happy. "Great, give me a heads up before you come, and I'll arrange for someone to pick you up!"

He had to be a little nicer to his good buddy.

If it weren't for Eric, ioI wouldn't have burned money with GoG for so long. He didn't know how many settlement cycles Pei Qian had gotten through because of this.

Without ioI's help, Pei Qian would have gone crazy from the money GoG had earned.

But his good buddy had also burned himself out in his selfless dedication, becoming a scapegoat.

Pei Qian was a man of loyalty. How could he let his good buddy shed blood and tears?

Who knew when they would meet again after this parting.

No matter how poor Pei Qian was, he could afford a good meal, especially since the system would reimburse him.

...

At the same time, Bao Xu arrived at the Tenda Games department.

"Brother Bao is back?"

"Hello, Brother Bao!"

As one of the most veteran employees of the game department, Bao Xu had a good relationship with these people. Many people greeted him.

Unlike the project managers, who trembled when they saw Bao Xu, these ordinary employees weren't so afraid of him.

It was the project managers who were tortured by the suffering trips. What did it have to do with us grunts?

Even if many people had voted for Bao Xu, it was an anonymous vote. Bao Xu couldn't find out exactly who voted for whom.

So everyone wasn't worried about being caught by Bao Xu and forced to go on a suffering trip.

In this situation, everyone's attitude towards Bao Xu was still relatively friendly.

After greeting everyone, Bao Xu arrived at his workstation.

Hmm... for some reason, he felt like he was in another world.

There were many empty workstations in the Tenda Games department now, but some personal items had been retained, and the computers hadn't been formatted or reinstalled.

For example, Huang Sibo's workstation, Lu Mingliang's workstation, Lin Wan's workstation, Li Yada's workstation...

Among them, Lin Wan's workstation was particularly special. Although she was currently at Chi Xing Studio, she had a workstation she used in the Tenda Games department, and she also had a workstation she used at Shang Yang Games.

Reserving workstations meant allowing every departing Tenda employee to come back and visit often, that this was their eternal home.

But Bao Xu always felt that these empty workstations were like tombstones...

Of course, it might just be an illusion.

Casually pulling up a chair, Bao Xu began to discuss the matters of *Ghost General 2* with Yu Fei.

During this time, Yu Fei had compiled some information, mainly the original art and settings of various generals. He had also downloaded some classic fighting games on the computer, such as *Fist Overlord*.

But so far, there hasn't been much progress.

If he only played them superficially, he would only understand the basics, which wouldn't help with the game's design at all.

Yu Fei's biggest progress was organizing all the hero artwork from the game *Ghost General* and carefully studying their character descriptions and life stories.

Hmm... he had to admit, the person who wrote this story background was truly a talent.

Of course, more accurately, *Ghost General* didn't have a game plot or story background, only character settings for each general.

But by combining the character settings of the generals with some historical events of the Three Kingdoms, it was still possible to imagine a lot of things.

Yu Fei was very curious about the original author of *Ghost General*. After asking some veteran employees of the game department, he learned that it was the joint work of two Ma's.

The first Ma was Ma Yang, Tenda's first employee and Pei Zong's right-hand man, who had been responsible for many important projects such as Touching Fish Internet Cafe, Round Dream Ventures, and the esports club. He was said to be an investment genius who invested based on his interests. His most outstanding investment case was his investment in Finger Company, which earned him 500 million yuan with one investment.

Recently, this Ma had been in charge of Rabbit Tail Live, which was also very effective.

Although this Ma's work had little to do with writing, his casual creations had given the game *Ghost General* a soul. It could be said that the writing was natural, a stroke of genius.

The second Ma was Yu Fei's old acquaintance, because Ma Yiqun was the head of Qidian Chinese, and Yu Fei himself was an author at Qidian Chinese and an outstanding member of the Inspiration Class.

It was said that Ma Yiqun had also worked in the Tenda Games department before, and had revised all the general background introductions in *Ghost General*, and had also rewritten the background introductions for a series of new generals that were added later.

Based on maintaining this unique style, he filled and expanded the content, and then the entire story background of *Ghost General* was roughly determined.

Yu Fei suddenly felt that being responsible for this project was something to be very proud of.

This was standing on the shoulders of giants!

Although his surname wasn't Ma, so he couldn't complete the "Three Ma's" tale, it didn't matter. The key was to dedicate a satisfactory game to the players.

Yu Fei was still very confident in the plot.

After all, Pei Zong had praised the plot of *Eternal Reincarnation*, and the game had been made and the response was good.

In terms of plot, *Ghost General 2* should have a lot of room for development.

The key was how to design the gameplay.

Bao Xu sat next to Yu Fei, seriously considering how to help.

In fact, he already had a rough idea, but he couldn't tell Yu Fei directly. Pei Zong had specifically emphasized that Yu Fei had to think independently, and Bao Xu was only playing a role in inspiring him.

But to what extent should he inspire him? This was a technical job. Too much was as bad as too little.

Saying too much would definitely have an impact, and saying too little wouldn't work.

After thinking about it, Bao Xu decided to start with the characteristics of fighting games, and simply talk about some very basic but easily overlooked common sense issues, and then slowly expand on this basis to help Yu Fei successfully complete the entire design.

"Fighting games are actually a very unique kind of game. As an old player of *Turning Back is the Shore*, you may think that action games and fighting games have some similarities, but in fact, in the eyes of fighting game enthusiasts, the differences between them are very huge."

"Pei Zong has repeatedly emphasized that this time we are designing a fighting game, so he will definitely not agree to turn it into an alternative version of *Turning Back is the Shore*, because that would be misplaced and overlap with existing games."

Yu Fei listened carefully and nodded frequently.

He had indeed made such a suggestion during the meeting before, considering whether he could make *Ghost General* into a third-person follow-up perspective similar to *Turning Back is the Shore*, but it was immediately rejected by Pei Zong.

Now that he heard Bao Xu say this, his idea was indeed not in line with Pei Zong's requirements.

Bao Xu continued, "Fighting games are a kind of game that looks relatively simple, but is actually very difficult to operate."

"If you can't train systematically and purposefully, no matter how long you play the game, you won't improve, and you won't be able to experience the fun at all."

"You must constantly engage in repetitive and boring practice, and fight against people who are better than you, and be abused repeatedly, in order to improve and gain fun."

"It may look similar to *Turning Back is the Shore* on the surface, and both are suffering, but in fact there is a big difference, one is PvP, the other is PvE."

"The main fun of *Turning Back is the Shore* lies in PvE. The key to defeating the Boss lies in memorizing the patterns. As long as you can remember all the Boss's moves and actions, and know how to choose targeted strategies to deal with them, you can always win."

"Although this kind of game can also have PvP content, the fun of fighting is completely different from PvE, you should be very clear about this."

"Fighting games mainly focus on PvP. Memorizing patterns is useless, because everyone's habits are different. Fighting relies more on reacting to moves, which is hard power."