Cannon Fodder Genius Game Producer - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Second Day of a Blockbuster

Li Chuyue heard the sound and turned around in surprise, only to see that beaming young man.

Seeing the little friend he hadn’t seen for eight years, Pei Shu had a smile on his face. His peach-blossom eyes curved slightly, making one’s heart itch at a single glance. Even the tail-end of his voice floated up with a hint of cheerfulness.

Seeing Pei Shu like this, the expression on Li Chuyue’s face was one of unconcealed astonishment.

Observing Li Chuyue’s slightly stiff expression, the smile on Pei Shu’s face retracted by two points. He paused for a moment before saying: “What’s the matter? Now that you’re all grown up, you don’t even call me ‘Brother’ anymore?”

Li Chuyue was stunned. His handsome face looked dazed for a while before he tentatively called out: “Xiao Shu!”

Pei Shu arched an eyebrow and looked at him: “No manners. Call me ‘Brother’.”

Li Chuyue, who originally had a somewhat mature appearance, immediately put on a wronged face the second he heard Pei Shu’s response: “Xiao Shu! Are you finally not mad at me anymore?”

Pei Shu glanced at him: “Since when was I mad at you?”

Li Chuyue twitched his fingers, wanting to confirm if the person in front of him was the Pei Shu in his memory, but he suppressed the urge and pulled his hand back, muttering dejectedly: “It’s been too long. Ever since I went abroad to study eight years ago, Xiao Shu, you suddenly started ignoring me. When I came back during winter and summer breaks and asked you to hang out, you only said you were busy… I thought you didn’t want to see me anymore.”

Eight years ago…

Hearing this number once again, the smile on Pei Shu’s face vanished completely.

The relationship between the Li and Pei families began with their fathers’ generation. However, after Pei Shu’s parents divorced and remarried their respective partners, he rarely went home. On the contrary, Li Chuyue, who was eight years younger than him, had been a little tail following behind him since childhood. Upon learning that Pei Shu had bought a unit in this apartment building, Li Chuyue insisted on buying the other unit on the same floor, sticking by Pei Shu’s side as his neighbor.

However, they hadn’t been neighbors for many years before Li Chuyue was packed off by his family to study abroad. It wasn’t until he graduated from university and returned home last year that he was immediately thrown into the family business for a brutal round of tempering. It was only now that he finally managed to find some free time to return to the apartment he had bought as a kid to take a look.

Li Chuyue was right. Over the past eight years, Pei Shu had indeed been very cold to him.

During those eight years, he had been walking the path controlled by the plot, and his perception of the world was blurred. If there had been someone close to him around, they likely would have noticed something was wrong long ago.

Pei Shu surmised that Li Chuyue’s sudden arrangement to study abroad eight years ago might also have been a direction that fit the needs of the plot… but then again, who knows.

Pei Shu sneered at the plot in his heart, walked past Li Chuyue, and opened his front door with the fingerprint lock.

Facing a clearly moody Pei Shu, Li Chuyue acted as if he didn’t notice. Once Pei Shu opened the door, he followed him inside.

The moment he stepped into the room, Li Chuyue used the corner of his eye to scan the layout of the entire apartment—all the decorations were exactly like Pei Shu’s house from eight years ago, yet they felt strangely rigid, as if someone had specifically decorated the house according to a previous template. Even the placement of the console in front of the living room TV was no different from eight years ago.

—Including that 2013 latest model that rolled off the factory line eight years ago, now an antique game console.

After entering the house, Pei Shu also scanned the room.

He had a bit of a psychological obsession with cleanliness. Even though he knew that the person living in this house for the past eight years was himself, looking at everything in the room, he didn’t want to continue using any of it.

Too lazy to manage the things in the room, he directly called the apartment’s housekeeping service. Once the housekeeper arrived, he told them without hesitation to take away and recycle every item in the house that showed signs of use.

The housekeeping staff were somewhat surprised, but being well-trained, they didn’t waste words and simply carried out the orders diligently.

While the housekeeping staff and the apartment manager handled the various items in his home according to Pei Shu’s instructions, the only thing in the room Pei Shu kept was that antique 2013 game console.

Watching the items being moved out of the house one by one, Pei Shu made another call, directly reporting the measurements of his home and asking the whole-house customization center to send a full set of brand-new furniture and bedding. He then took Li Chuyue, who had been following him, out for a simple meal at the noodle shop they used to frequent the most.

Pei Shu didn’t explain his behavior throughout the entire process, and Li Chuyue didn’t ask.

After the two finished their meal and returned to the 18th floor of the apartment, Pei Shu and Li Chuyue opened their respective doors after exiting the elevator.

Li Chuyue turned to look at Pei Shu, his tone a bit aggrieved: “Xiao Shu, you won’t go back to ignoring me, right?”

Pei Shu smiled and glanced at him: “I already said, call me ‘Brother’.”

“However…” Pei Shu looked at Li Chuyue with a half-smile: “If you insist on calling me ‘Xiao Shu’, I don’t mind.”

Pei Shu placed heavy emphasis on the words “Xiao Shu”, then smiled and pushed open his door, ignoring the person behind him as he walked straight toward the bathroom that had been re-cleaned by the apartment service.

Closing the bathroom door, he took off his clothes and turned on the shower.

Pei Shu let the water wash over his body, as if washing away the dust that had stained his body and soul during these eight years.

Thinking back to the little friend he saw today after eight years, the corners of Pei Shu’s mouth hooked into a slight arc—the little guy had grown up and changed, but he had become smarter.

In the apartment separated from Pei Shu by a single wall, Li Chuyue sat in the empty living room for over half an hour after entering, a pensive look flashing through his eyes.

It wasn’t until half an hour later that Li Chuyue picked up his phone and dialed a number: “Lu You, notify the agency that the apartment here in Daonan is temporarily not for sale. I will be moving back here.”

The person on the other end seemed somewhat surprised but quickly expressed understanding: “Alright, Director, I’ll handle it.”

Inside Apartment A1802, Pei Shu finished his shower and walked into the living room wearing a white bathrobe. He wiped his hair with a towel in one hand and picked up the phone charging on the stand with the other.

This phone’s content was so clean it was practically like a new device. In the contact list, there were very few calls from the past month, and there was absolutely no contact from his parents.

In WeChat, there was a pinned work group that only popped up messages when temporary notifications were released.

Opening the internal communication software for Aurora Studio on his phone, Pei Shu saw a message from Wang Fei.

Wang Fei: “Pei Shu… what do you mean by this?”

Pei Shu’s finger tapped the screen as he replied: “Normal work handover.”

After replying to this message, the image of Wang Fei’s frustrated expression seemed to appear before Pei Shu’s eyes. He smiled, ignored it, and started playing with his phone.

Unlike the antique game console from eight years ago in the living room, his phone was the latest Pear model released late last year. He didn’t buy it, it was a standard annual benefit for project team members.

Compared to eight years ago, the computing power and screen performance of the latest phones had undergone earth-shattering changes. Back then, he had predicted that mobile games would eventually become the main trend. Nowadays, the popularity and profit-making ability of mobile games were no longer comparable to the vast majority of PC-based games.

It could be said that he had missed eight years of the golden track and was also lacking knowledge related to eight years of game development—with the changes over eight years, had the game audience, design philosophies, and game genres developed new categories and concepts alongside the widespread adoption of technology and hardware?

Thinking of this, Pei Shu couldn’t help but feel a bit eager to try.

He hadn’t forgotten that he might still face suppression from the plot. Between him and the protagonist Lin Cheng, one had missed an eight-year golden development period, while the other possessed all the memories and golden fingers from the future.

Pei Shu’s peach-blossom eyes curved slightly again, his lips hooking into an arc full of interest.

This truly is an unequal competition.

But doesn’t that make such a game even more exciting?

Of course, to make up for such an unequal gap, there was still much he needed to do.

After briefly playing with his phone, Pei Shu opened his computer at home and quickly searched for game-related information portals in his memory. Some of these websites were still thriving, while others had become the dust of history. Pei Shu quickly memorized these pieces of information one by one, filling in various gaps in a mind map document he had opened, finally letting his gaze settle on the WG platform.

This game portal, founded 20 years ago, still stood tall today. Not only that, by teaming up with social media software that covered 90% of the social population, it jointly controlled nearly 100% of the platform traffic on both PC and mobile. Standing at the forefront of the era, it had become the strongest game distribution platform in the country.

Pei Shu opened WG’s data station and began to rapidly absorb and understand current trending game trends.

Early the next morning when Pei Shu woke up, someone in his WeChat was tirelessly sending him messages.

Li: “^^ Xiao Shu, good morning.”

Li: “^^ Xiao Shu, it’s time to wake up.”

Li: “^^ Xiao Shu, what do you want for breakfast? How about the dumplings and white porridge from the old shop, Li’s, on the next street?”

Pei Shu: “…”

Pei Shu raised his hand to rub his forehead and replied to the other side with a string of speechless ellipses.

What has Li Chuyue been through these past few years? Why is he acting innocently manipulative now?

Glancing at the time on his phone, Pei Shu was too lazy to put on slippers and walked barefoot to the bathroom to wash up. The floor in April was still a bit chilly. His fair toes curled slightly, but he continued anyway, not really caring.

When he was fully dressed and opened his door, he saw Li Chuyue leaning against the wall outside—he was very tall, over half a head taller than the 180cm Pei Shu, wearing a loose hoodie and casual pants. Compared to yesterday’s outfit, he suddenly exuded a youthful aura.

“Xiao Shu.” Seeing Pei Shu open the door, Li Chuyue’s eyes immediately lit up. He stopped playing with his phone and flashed a cute puppy dog smile at Pei Shu. “I brought you breakfast!”

Pei Shu looked at him expressionlessly: “I don’t eat Li’s dumplings and white porridge.”

The smile on Li Chuyue’s face brightened a few points more. He nodded: “Yeah, I remembered, so I brought Li’s soy milk, buns, and fried dough sticks!”

Pei Shu: “…”

Sigh, the kid has grown up, he’s got too many tricks.

Pei Shu had some doubts about what exactly Li Chuyue had noticed or imagined, but he didn’t care much. He just let Li Chuyue into the house with a mix of amusement and resignation.

It was rare to have someone like Li Chuyue who still cared about him, which made Pei Shu feel a bit more relaxed—at least the whole world hadn’t forgotten the real him.

Neither Pei Shu nor Li Chuyue said much during breakfast. After eating, they left the house together, but Pei Shu got off the elevator at the 1st floor while Li Chuyue waved goodbye to Pei Shu with a brilliant smile before heading down to the apartment’s underground garage.

Pei Shu didn’t bother with any of that and just held his phone, walking toward the company in a relaxed manner.

This was a path he had walked for eight years, but his previous muddled state made everything around him feel both familiar and strange.

When he entered the Universal Building, some colleagues from Aurora Studio recognized him, but no one greeted him.

Pei Shu wasn’t in the mood for greetings either, he was focused on playing with his phone. The previous night, he had downloaded several classic games and popular new games on his phone. Some of these games were classic and mature, while others had novel gameplay. Pei Shu played them with quite a bit of enjoyment, and a smile couldn’t help but tug at the corners of his mouth.

To the side, among the members of Aurora Studio also waiting for the elevator, a girl stared at Pei Shu for a long time before finally unable to resist, she quietly pulled out her phone and “clicked” a photo.

She happened to capture the exact moment the corners of Pei Shu’s mouth curled up.

Perhaps she was too nervous while taking the secret photo and forgot to turn off the shutter sound. At the same time she finished taking the photo, Pei Shu happened to look up and glance at her, flashing a beaming smile. The young girl was so startled she almost failed to hold onto her phone.

When the elevator arrived, the girl immediately dashed into the elevator clutching her phone. Seeing Pei Shu enter a different elevator, she immediately began howling to her sisters in a small group chat while clutching her phone.

“Ahhh, I saw Pei Shu while waiting for the elevator. I really couldn’t even remember what he looked like before, but looking at him just now, he’s really good-looking!!”

“[Image.jpg] Wuwu, look at this smile, it’s so bewitching. My heart is about to jump out of my chest!!”

“Help, this smile is truly so charming!”

This photo of Pei Shu quickly circulated within Aurora Studio’s internal private groups. Many people couldn’t understand why Pei Shu, who had always been obscure and known only for his useless reputation, had suddenly become so eye-catching.

Pei Shu ignored all of this and simply stepped into another elevator.

Next to him was an obvious new face, holding file documents, accompanied by an HR person responsible for the onboarding procedures of new employees at Aurora Studio.

As if noticing Pei Shu’s gaze, upon seeing Pei Shu step out of the 8th-floor elevator doors with him, the new face smiled at him with a hint of reserved pride.

A newcomer at this time?

Pei Shu arched an eyebrow. He already had a guess about this newcomer’s identity, but he didn’t pay much attention. He just smiled and went straight to his workstation to sit down.

Turning on the computer, Pei Shu took a look at the project’s version schedule—May 20th, the open beta of the new expansion.

So, in less than a month, he could verify whether the plot would still arrive as scheduled after he had done a series of remedial tasks.

On the 8th floor of the Universal Group Building, at Wang Fei’s dedicated workstation—

Wang Fei looked at the document in his hand. The “beep-beep” sounds of the internal communication software were non-stop. He ignored those sounds and instead clicked on Pei Shu’s avatar, but a whole night had passed, and the conversation between the two still remained at Pei Shu’s sentence: “Normal work handover.”

Seeing this sentence, Wang Fei’s expression turned a bit colder.

Not telling the truth!

This thought had been lingering in Wang Fei’s mind since last night. He looked again at the stack of documents beside him, which had already been printed on the specialized blue-lined paper for planning cases—these were the files Pei Shu had sent him before leaving yesterday afternoon.

As everyone knew, the tasks handed to Pei Shu in the project nowadays were all as simple as could be. But in reality, anyone with a few years of work experience would know that even for the simplest organizational work, different people would produce different results.

Newcomers just entering the workplace often only know how to follow the requirements of their superiors, listing the things that need to be organized into categories, and they don’t understand how to adjust the document content with formatting and other settings. People with enough work experience who are serious and meticulous will create a search index for the document while categorizing and will further refine the classification based on the importance of the content and the default recommended order.

The documents produced by these serious and meticulous people are clear and easy to understand at a glance. Even in the organization of the document, they can use the adjustment of the default category order to quietly present the content they want to emphasize in the most eye-catching position.

Over the past few years, the documents organized by Pei Shu had no such logical structure at all. He always acted like a newcomer just entering the workplace, mechanically completing the most basic tasks according to the initial requirements.

But these documents Pei Shu submitted yesterday afternoon seemed to have suddenly undergone a complete transformation. They were logically organized, clear at a glance, and very pleasing to the eye.

Not only that, the documents submitted by Pei Shu also had specific notes explaining which clearly missing content he had filled in during the organization process, and some erroneous content had also been revised. Specific annotations were also left for content that still needed numerical and system planners to confirm values and functional supplements.

Especially yesterday at noon, when Wang Fei had just blasted Pei Shu for the new version item value organization table—the reorganized items covered all the item requirements confirmed since the development of the new version. It even organized the corresponding new version functions for each item and made notes based on existing gift packs.

In the documents organized by Pei Shu, it was specifically mentioned that according to the current organized version, it was expected that there would be a significant shortage of player stamina items in the early stages of the new version, which might affect the players’ experience of the new expansion’s gameplay. It was suggested to increase the output of corresponding items and the sale of gift packs.

When Wang Fei first saw this suggestion last night, his instinct was to be skeptical, even somewhat angry.

Everyone had seen Pei Shu’s state over these eight years. Let alone finding numerical bugs, he was a bug himself.

But last night, looking at the logically clear organized document that was completely different from before, Wang Fei suppressed his temper and re-read the new document. Finally, he sent the document Pei Shu had reorganized to the project’s numerical head, Li Sheng.

Li Sheng gave feedback very quickly.

Li Sheng: “Old Wang, who organized this document? Some newcomer? They’re very sensitive to numbers. If it’s some intern kid, you can toss them over to me. I’m short on good numerical people here.”

It was precisely after seeing Li Sheng’s reply last night that Wang Fei turned around and sent that message “What do you mean?” to Pei Shu. But after waiting for half a day, the only reply he finally received was Pei Shu’s “Normal work handover.”

At his personal workstation, Pei Shu was unaware of Wang Fei’s complex psychological changes since the night before. He was looking at the old documents saved on his computer.

Pei Shu originally wanted to look at the studio’s past project archive cases, but he accidentally opened his work history from the past eight years—although he had lost his independent consciousness and his work was a mess, his body’s instinct still made him number and record every document according to the date.

Pei Shu casually flipped through these past work documents. As he looked, he suddenly found these documents quite interesting. Although the vast majority had no value, there were some fragmented sentences among them that felt more like flashes of inspiration from when he had independent consciousness.

Flipping through these documents one by one, from his blurred memories, Pei Shu also seemed to unearth some traces of his own consciousness violently resisting being controlled.

While Pei Shu was looking at his old documents, the “beep-beep” sound of the internal communication software rang, and Wang Fei’s avatar appeared in the computer’s notification bar.

Wang Fei: “Come to my workstation for a moment.”

Pei Shu arched an eyebrow and replied: “Okay.”

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