Cannon Fodder Genius Game Producer - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: The 23rd Day of a Blockbuster

Sitting beside Pei Shu, Jiang Ziye was dumbfounded after hearing Pei Shu’s explanation.

So, Teacher Bu Shu hadn’t spent the last 8 years in retirement, but had amnesia?!

Jiang Ziye didn’t doubt his idol Pei Shu at all; he was simply and deeply shocked.

Opposite Pei Shu, Wang Fei held Pei Shu’s injury diagnosis report in his hand, his expression so complex and subtle it was worthy of being used as a case study for a micro-expression analysis course.

Facing this sudden answer from Pei Shu—one that sounded like utter nonsense but was eerily logical—Wang Fei opened and closed his mouth, feeling a choked mix of a thousand words stuck in his throat.

Just then, his phone buzzed and vibrated with a WeChat notification. He simply gave up on social etiquette and picked up his phone, intending to check the message to calm his nerves.

As soon as he picked up the phone, he saw a message from Li Sheng.

Li Sheng: Heh, since you said those documents were actually written by Pei Shu, I pulled them out and looked at them again, wanting to see if there were any bugs I missed. Turns out, there really aren’t any.

Li Sheng: Do you think this guy is sick? When we recruited him 8 years ago, he was in the spotlight; everyone was waiting for him to take off. Instead, he was muddled for 8 years. Just when he caused a pile of problems and was about to be fired, he suddenly woke up!

Li Sheng: What the hell was he doing for those 8 years? I really can’t figure it out—clearly such a good talent!

Wang Fei: …

He had wanted to pick up his phone to change his train of thought, but the screen was full of Li Sheng blathering “Pei Shu, Pei Shu, Pei Shu.”

Wang Fei stared at the phone, felt a wave of irritation, and sent a sentence back to Li Sheng.

Wang Fei: That’s right, he was sick.

Li Sheng replied almost instantly: ???

Wang Fei sneered and typed: He had amnesia.

Li Sheng: …

Li Sheng: Incredible, Old Wang. You’re about to leave the company and you’ve actually learned how to tell jokes!

Wang Fei gave a mental “heh,” looked up at Pei Shu, and asked, “Do you mind if I take a photo?”

Pei Shu offered a graceful “please” gesture: “Old Wang, feel free.”

Wang Fei then took the injury appraisal report, snapped a photo, and sent it directly to Li Sheng on WeChat.

Exactly three minutes later, Li Sheng replied with a whole string of exclamation marks.

Li Sheng: Crap!!! This is too ridiculous, isn’t it?! So he was hit by an electric scooter on his first day, fell into a coma, and got amnesia? He spent 8 years forgetting everything about games, only remembering after 8 years?!

Wang Fei added some details: …He was hit by an electric scooter and happened to hit his head on a utility pole, falling into a coma.

Truly a god-tier movie-level coincidence.

Li Sheng: I’m floored. I just checked his attendance records on the internal network. On his first day 8 years ago, he really did take leave because of this, but because the injury wasn’t serious, no one knew. I asked the assistants, and they said several generations of assistants have changed in 8 years, so they weren’t clear on the specifics. However, they found his leave record from 8 years ago. After arriving at the company, Pei Shu did indeed attach a digital copy of the injury appraisal report according to the company’s leave requirements… CRAP!

Li Sheng: Legendary. I’m willing to call this the most legendary incident in Jixing Studio’s history!

After saying that, Li Sheng immediately turned to the small group chat for the Super God project leads to spread this bombshell news, ignoring the no-longer-useful Wang Fei.

Wang Fei: …

With Li Sheng’s banter distracting him, Wang Fei finally felt less irritable.

He rubbed his temples. His habitually knit brows were still furrowed, but his overall aura wasn’t as aggressive as before.

Since Li Sheng said that 8 years ago Pei Shu really did provide a digital copy of this report to the company to justify his leave, then it was a real event, not something Pei Shu found in some corner to fool him.

Though the matter was bizarre, looking at it now… it was unexpectedly reasonable.

Wang Fei finally let out a sigh.

It was Jixing Studio’s lack of fate with Pei Shu. Perhaps if Pei Shu hadn’t chosen to join Jixing 8 years ago, he wouldn’t have encountered such a mysterious accident.

And 8 years later, the awakened Pei Shu…

Wang Fei suddenly remembered the day he had cursed Pei Shu up and down. Back then, Pei Shu’s reaction was already different from usual; perhaps at that time he had just regained his memory and hadn’t had time to figure out why he was being scolded?

And once Pei Shu sorted out his feelings, in just a single afternoon, he was able to re-submit all the affairs on his hands perfectly.

Pei Shu was indeed the same Pei Shu he had valued 8 years ago, only with a total of 8 years missing… it was truly a pity.

After thinking everything through, Wang Fei sighed: “I’m sorry.”

“For the past 8 years, I completely failed to notice that your condition wasn’t right.” As a project leader—if it were a large team of a hundred people, that would be one thing, but the entire Jixing Studio only had a few dozen people. When he noticed Pei Shu’s condition was off, he should have looked deeper into the details instead of simply scolding him in disappointment.

Pei Shu shook his head with a smile: “It’s fine. My amnesia symptoms were quite unique. I didn’t lose common life knowledge; what I lost was my understanding of games. If it weren’t me who had the amnesia, I wouldn’t have thought such a specific symptom could exist.”

If it weren’t for the suppression of the Plot Will, such unique “amnesia” probably wouldn’t find a second case in the entire world, right?

Seeing the guilt written on Wang Fei’s face, Pei Shu smiled with a bit of mischief: “Since the previous misunderstanding is cleared, do I have a chance to ‘pick up a bargain’ now?”

Wang Fei: “…”

One second, Wang Fei was immersed in a atmosphere of feeling he had failed in his duties; the next second, seeing Pei Shu’s cheeky look, he felt the rascal was asking for another beating.

He said irritably: “When I resign, I’ll sign a non-compete with Universal. For 12 months after leaving, I am prohibited from joining or participating in studios and game projects with a registered capital of over 1 million RMB.”

“What? Are you going to pay the compensation for my breach of contract?”

Upon hearing this, Pei Shu looked delighted: “Isn’t that perfect?”

Wang Fei: “…?”

Pei Shu smiled: “My ‘Bu Shu Studio’ only secured a total investment of 800,000. There’s still plenty of room to grow before we hit 1 million!”

“800,000?”

Wang Fei gave Pei Shu a strange look: “Your studio’s total capital is only 800,000?”

Pei Shu nodded with a smile.

Wang Fei looked at him with a bizarre expression: “Your studio’s office address is nearby?”

Pei Shu continued to nod, adding: “To be precise, it’s on the 29th floor of the Yuefeng Building at No. 168 Daonan Road West.”

Wang Fei: “…An entire floor?”

This time it was Pei Shu’s turn to be silent.

This floor was arranged for him by Li Chuyue, who said it was a vacant office floor and it would be a waste not to use it.

At the time, Pei Shu didn’t think anything was wrong. After seeing it, he was very satisfied and accepted the “Sugar Daddy younger brother’s” gift—anyway, the entire studio was funded by Li Chuyue. Even if Li Chuyue gave him absolute controlling interest, Li Chuyue was definitely the studio’s primary financier.

Since he’d already taken the investment money, a free office location didn’t make much difference.

Only later, when he realized Li Chuyue liked him, did he feel that accepting the free office was a bit of a “hot potato.” But 800,000 really wasn’t much; if he spent a large portion on renting an office building, the money available for the game would be much less.

Think about it carefully: hardware purchases, employee salaries, development costs, operating costs, publicity costs… and things like server rental costs after the game was finished… every single drop was money.

So Pei Shu gritted his teeth and decided to be a “shameful adult.” On one hand, he righteously rejected the Sugar Daddy younger brother’s “love,” while on the other, he used the benefits provided by Li Chuyue.

Tsk, he truly was shameless!

After condemning himself with his conscience for a while, Pei Shu made up his mind that once they made money, he would definitely pay back the rent for this free office to Li Chuyue.

But for now…

Pei Shu cleared his throat: “This is the investor’s property, provided for the studio to use for free. It’s not counted as part of the studio’s assets.”

Hearing Pei Shu’s explanation, Wang Fei’s expression immediately became subtle—what kind of saint-like investor was this? Investing 800,000 in a small game studio and then throwing in a top-floor unit in a high-end office building on Daonan Road West, where the annual rent would be at least 200,000?

Seeing the suspicion on Wang Fei’s face, Pei Shu finally admitted honestly: “The investor is my childhood friend, Li Chuyue of the Li Group.”

Li Chuyue of the Li Group?

Hearing this name, not only was Wang Fei stunned, but Jiang Ziye beside them was also surprised. This was also his first time hearing Teacher Bu Shu reveal the true identity of the investor.

Upon hearing Li Chuyue’s name, Wang Fei understood.

Although the Li Group had not ventured into the gaming industry, it was a top-tier domestic conglomerate with a volume sufficient to rival the Universal Group.

Wang Fei hadn’t originally intended to agree to join when he came to see Pei Shu. But first, he was shocked by Pei Shu’s 8-year amnesia excuse, and then he had the fact that the studio’s total investment was only 800,000 as a baseline.

These aside.

If Pei Shu’s studio really only had 800,000 in total investment, it wouldn’t make much sense for Wang Fei to join, unless the project in Pei Shu’s hands could thoroughly pique his interest and he felt the prospects were full and promising. Then he might consider it.

But besides all this, the fact that the investor was Li Chuyue…

Even across industries, Wang Fei had heard of the name Li Chuyue. He was a decisive young man. Over the past year or so, the Li Group had a series of successful cross-industry marketing events that gradually deepened the brand’s impression among young people for what was originally a relatively traditional group.

The future helmsman of such a Li Group.

Would he casually invest in a small studio just because the founder was his childhood friend?

Could this be a signal that the Li Group intended to step into the gaming field?

Thinking of this, Wang Fei felt a stir in his heart.

As a project manager who had held power over Jixing Studio’s Super God project for over ten years, he could stand his ground against the high-level management recruited from outside the group and run the entire Super God project as if it were a fortress. He didn’t rely on being a “good person” for that.

He was indeed a good person, willing to resign to protect his project from being encroached upon by people full of self-interest.

But he also had ambition and wanted to be able to show his skills in a higher field.

After his resignation, he had thought that the peak of his career might end with Super God.

But now, after understanding the composition of Pei Shu’s studio, he suddenly felt he might be able to take another gamble!

For the next half hour, Pei Shu seized the time to give Wang Fei a brief overview of the studio’s future development plan and the concept of the first game product.

After listening, Wang Fei didn’t say much. He just nodded and said he would consider it, then got up to say goodbye to Pei Shu and Jiang Ziye, returning to Jixing Studio first.

Jiang Ziye was a little worried seeing that Wang Fei had not given a clear stance until the end.

“Teacher, will Teacher Wang agree?”

Jiang Ziye, after all, was just a senior about to graduate; his thoughts were still relatively simple and direct.

Pei Shu smiled and said with certainty: “He has already agreed.”

Given Wang Fei’s personality, if he weren’t interested in the project, he wouldn’t listen to so many details from Pei Shu. Only when he had already basically decided in his heart to join Pei Shu’s studio would he pay such attention to the information.

Sure enough, Wang Fei didn’t keep him waiting for too long.

About half an hour later, he sent a message to Pei Shu.

Wang Fei: I agree.

Pei Shu: Welcome!

Pei Shu: Welcome to Bu Shu Studio!

As they spoke, Pei Shu quickly pulled Jiang Ziye and Wang Fei into a 3-person group chat named “Bu Shu Studio.”

Pei Shu: Welcome, welcome. The studio finally has enough people to start a group chat!

Wang Fei: …

Jiang Ziye: Um, hello Teacher Bu Shu, hello Teacher Wang Fei! (Bowing.gif)

Pei Shu: Ziye, don’t be so nervous. You are the second employee of the studio; you have more seniority than Old Wang!

Jiang Ziye discovered for the first time that Teacher Bu Shu was quite mischievous: …Panic Shark.gif No, no, it’s not like that!

Wang Fei: … Pei Shu, bullying a kid who hasn’t even graduated university—is this the only skill you have?

Jiang Ziye: … (Even more nervous).

To break the atmosphere where Teacher Bu Shu and Wang Fei seemed like they were about to fight, Jiang Ziye bit the bullet and sent the news from the WG forum into the group: @Teacher Bu Shu, @Wang Fei, Teacher, this public opinion online is already fermenting and spreading. Is it better to handle it?

Wang Fei: It should be handled. @Pei Shu

Pei Shu: Mm, since Old Wang, you’ve agreed to join, it won’t be hard to handle ^^. @Wang Fei, how about it? Can we go public?

Wang Fei: Yes

Thus, while things were still chaotic and it seemed as though the direction of public opinion was truly about to be achieved by those water army accounts, Teacher Bu Shu leisurely went online.

Teacher Bu Shu: Got some good news to announce. I’ve been preparing a game studio recently; the site has been chosen and registered. Currently, besides myself, two new employees have joined the studio @Midnight 30, @Wang Fei. In short, welcome to the small family of ‘Bu Shu Studio.’ I hope all members of ‘Bu Shu Studio’ can work together in the future to develop games that bring happiness to everyone. Bu Shu Studio, please look forward to the future.

!!!

The moment this news came out, the entire internet was shocked.

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