Cannon Fodder Genius Game Producer - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The 14th Day of a Blockbuster (Part 1)

In a small shop along the student street outside Beijing University of Science and Technology.

The other three roommates from Dorm 716 were having a meal together in this small shop, but as they ate, “Second Brother” and “Fourth Brother” noticed that “Big Brother” beside them had suddenly fallen silent. He wasn’t speaking or picking up food; he just stared blankly at his phone.

“Big Brother, what’s wrong? Not eating? If you don’t pick up your chopsticks, Fourth Brother and I aren’t leaving any for you!” Second Brother said as he picked up some food, jokingly pretending to snatch the dishes.

Fourth Brother joined in, extending his chopsticks as if to compete for the food, laughing, “Aiya, Big Brother must be feeling sorry for us and leaving all the good stuff for us!”

Big Brother, holding his phone, seemed to be suddenly startled awake. He looked up at Second Brother and Fourth Brother, whom he had lived with for four years, and then looked at the space beside him. The relationship between the four people in this dormitory had always been very good; they used to eat out together often. In the past, “Third Brother” Jiang Ziye would always sit on his left side, but that seat had been empty for several months without them even noticing.

“Third Brother…” Big Brother suddenly blurted out.

The originally happy Second and Fourth Brothers froze, and the atmosphere instantly turned somber.

“Why bring him up all of a sudden, he…” Second Brother started irritably, but after a pause, he muttered gloomily, “That stubborn temper of his, he’s probably still cooped up in the dorm alone, right? He just won’t open his mouth to admit he was wrong!”

Fourth Brother beside him remained silent.

During that time, because of the incident with Jiang Ziye, their entire dormitory had been pointed at and whispered about. They had advised him to just apologize; eventually, he stopped claiming the game was his, but he remained deathly stubborn and refused to apologize. The surrounding students never stopped whispering about them. Finally, since they were about to start their internships anyway, they used them as an excuse to hide away from the school. Only Jiang Ziye stubbornly remained in the dorm.

They had thought about asking him to move out with them, but somehow, no one ever actually spoke the thought aloud.

Big Brother was silent for a moment, then suddenly closed his eyes. After a while, he said, “I’m forwarding a game for you guys to see.”

After saying that, he forwarded the game he had just cleared to Second and Fourth Brother’s phones. Then he closed his mouth and said no more.

Confused, Second and Fourth Brother opened their phones and clicked on the game shared by Big Brother—The Stolen Life?

They looked at Big Brother in confusion, but Big Brother just placed his phone on the table and remained silent. Looking closely, one could see that his eyes were somewhat red.

What was going on?

Second and Fourth Brother exchanged confused glances and opened the game. Soon, they too fell into silence.

As the game levels flashed before their eyes, familiar scenes unfolded simultaneously. When the three character images from their own dormitory appeared one after another, their eyes also began to turn red.

“Fuck!”

Second Brother, who had the hottest temper, cursed out first, then gave himself a hard slap across the face. “I’m a… I was the one who took that game back then to confront Third Brother and told him to stop plagiarizing!”

“I’m a goddamn beast!”

After cursing, Second Brother’s nose twitched, and two lines of tears flowed down. He wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, opened his mouth several times, and then closed it again.

Fourth Brother also fell silent after finishing all the levels. After a long silence, he suddenly said, “This game could absolutely not be Lin Cheng’s! If we had played this back then, we should have recognized it was Third Brother’s handiwork…”

But why hadn’t they played it back then?

They seemed to have had their own different reasons—escaping because they didn’t want to see something their brother had “plagiarized,” because looking at it was upsetting, because…

It was as if a transparent hand had guided them, making them perfectly miss the opportunity to see through to the truth.

It was as if a layer of mist had covered their eyes, and then things suddenly reached this point between them and Third Brother.

After a long silence, Big Brother spoke seriously, “We owe Third Brother an apology.”

While the three brothers of Dorm 716 were somberly preparing to apologize to Jiang Ziye, the post he had made on the Beijing University of Science and Technology campus forum had completely exploded.

The post, which initially few cared about, had accumulated dozens of comments in the blink of an eye, almost manually pinned to the most prominent position on the forum’s homepage.

The initial twenty or so floors of brainless flaming had now shifted direction. Almost every person who had originally been insulting Jiang Ziye had re-edited their replies.

10L: …Fuck! I don’t know what to say for a moment, let me process this. If the OP is Jiang Ziye… I… I’ll say sorry first.

13L: This is a bit shocking. Can anyone say if this is real or fake? My brain is fried already.

17L: If this is true, I take back everything I ever said about Jiang Ziye. I’m sorry… Dammit, I suddenly feel like just saying ‘sorry’ is too hollow, but I don’t know what else I can say… Sorry, I’m truly sorry!!!

56L: It’s really hard to describe my current feelings with simple words. Previously, it was just shock and anger at being deceived, but after forwarding it and seeing that ‘Thank you’ at the end, I completely broke down in a second. I feel so bad right now. Jiang Ziye, I’m sorry. I don’t deserve your thanks, but I will do my best to forward this more and help you find back your stolen life!

The screen was filled with apologies that almost overflowed. Anyone seeing this post, as long as they thought of the events of the past few months—thinking of how the once sunny, cheerful, and gentle Jiang Ziye had been treated because of this incident—felt a sudden pang in their heart.

—Sorry for treating you like that.

—Sorry for rejecting the hand you stretched out again with hope after you mustered the courage.

Some remembered that a while after the incident, Jiang Ziye had once found the courage to step out again, greeting them with a tired, forced smile, but they had rejected his greeting and the hand he extended.

At that time, they thought they were messengers of justice. Looking back now, they only felt they were utterly absurd.

This forum post quickly began to spread at high speed, with Beijing University of Science and Technology as the core.

Almost every student who saw the post eventually chose to share the game to their social spaces and friend circles. Every new player who clicked into the game out of curiosity couldn’t help but share it again after reaching the end.

Among them, some might not have been clear about the relationship between Crazy Graduation Season and Jiang Ziye, but soon someone wrote a long article about the post, Jiang Ziye’s game, and the previous “plagiarism incident,” posting it directly online.

Thus, this gentle breeze carrying the guilt of countless people finally blew through the entire university circle of Beijing.

It wasn’t just the student circles.

When Jiang Ziye uploaded this game, he also posted it on his WG platform homepage.

Midnight 30: The Stolen Life. A bit of a regret, this is my first game.

His personal WG page, which once had over a hundred thousand followers, now had less than thirty thousand left. Some were inactive users who hadn’t unfollowed simply because they hadn’t logged in. Among the remaining followers, some were “anti-fans” who held him in contempt and would occasionally come to his page to hurl a few insults.

Those truly willing to believe him were few and far between.

Until this game was released, the first to jump out were still the anti-fans maintaining their anger. But soon, as people clicked the game through the platform link, those angry voices suddenly disappeared, replaced by a long silence.

Inside the pitch-black Dorm 716, lit only by the faint glow of a desktop computer, Jiang Ziye looked quietly at the screen.

Time seemed to stand still, yet it flowed slowly.

New message notifications increased one by one. Jiang Ziye knew that these were the understanding and apologies he had waited so long for and failed to receive.

In the chat windows that had been silent for so long, new messages popped up.

It was as if the world that had once rejected him was stretching out friendly hands once again.

Looking at these, Jiang Ziye finally closed his eyes, then silently sent a private message to Teacher Bu Shu’s homepage: Thank you.

He typed those two words with a trembling hand, then leaned back slightly in his chair, head tilted back, not wanting tears of weakness to slide out of his eyes. He stared silently at the black ceiling until, after a long time, a faint sound echoed—the sound of the dormitory door opening.

Since the Big, Second, and Fourth brothers moved out, Jiang Ziye hadn’t heard that sound for a long time.

He sat up and turned toward the door. Three familiar figures appeared there.

He looked quietly at the three brothers he had been closest to for four years. He saw them seem surprised by the darkness in the room, hurriedly fumbling to turn on the lights.

Then, the three brothers finally saw Jiang Ziye sitting at the desk, looking at them quietly.

“…Third Brother.”

The three spoke in unison, and then stopped in unison.

Finally, Big Brother was the first to walk up to Jiang Ziye, reaching out to give him a hug. “Third Brother, although we might not be qualified to say this, we still wanted to come and tell you to your face—I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry!”

The voices of Second Brother and Fourth Brother rang out at the same time. Jiang Ziye looked at them. The originally floating, illusion-like feeling finally settled into reality at this moment.

He finally spoke with a light smile: “It’s okay.”

At the same moment, a message was forwarded to Lin Cheng’s phone.

Holy shit, Brother Cheng!! Look at this quickly!!! You need to go explain this fast!!!

Support