Cannon Fodder Genius Game Producer - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: The 24th Day of a Blockbuster

Those who frequent the WG forums are veteran “melon eaters” (gossip seekers) of the gaming circle.

These gossip-seekers spent the afternoon watching a group of paid trolls argue back and forth over that unverified resume of Teacher Bu Shu. It looked as though they were about to successfully label Teacher Bu Shu as a fake uploader who relied purely on a persona without any actual skill.

Little did they know, just as the online mockery reached its peak, Teacher Bu Shu went online and dropped a “King Bomb” (a game-changing move).

Subject: This afternoon’s gossip has been spectacular. Can someone summarize it? (Eating melon.jpg)

3L: Someone posted a “818” deep-dive thread, claiming to expose that Teacher Bu Shu achieved nothing in 8 years and that his online image is a scripted persona. It looked like the water army split into Team A and Team B: Team A acted as “brain-dead fans” and Team B as “die-hard haters.” The two sides battled all afternoon. Then Teacher Bu Shu dropped the bomb—he’s opened a game studio with Wang Fei and Jiang Ziye.

6L: Pfft, thanks to the brother on the 3rd floor—concise and clear. That thread was truly reeking of water army tactics; there was nowhere to even step. Neither the “fans” nor the “haters” looked sane. Occasionally, if a real fan of Teacher Bu Shu replied with a slight doubt, the firepower of both the brain-dead fans and the haters would concentrate on you—the fans would say you’re a hater in disguise, and the haters would say you’re using a new tactic of pretending to be rational.

8L: Man, the friend on the 6th floor is right. Basically, they said everything from both sides. Does this water army studio’s main business involve Weibo? It’s reeking of the entertainment industry style.

As the user on the 8th floor said, gossip in the gaming circle usually revolves around plagiarism, anti-plagiarism, or massive game BUGs.

Regarding uploaders, there are discussions about their character, and for technical livestreamers, there are debates about whether they are using “crisis actors” for fake matches.

In the case of Teacher Bu Shu, that thread was filled with various doubts. According to the usual routine of the gossip crowd, they would typically explore the logical consistency of the topic and dig into whether the Super God team at Jixing Studio actually had such a person.

Instead, the entire gossip topic proceeded at eight times the normal speed. From the first post to a “hot” thread dozens of pages long, Team A and Team B engaged in automated bickering, leaving the onlookers dizzy.

This kind of gossip is usually the least interesting to gaming forum users, but they couldn’t ignore it because the “onlookers” in Team A and B were so numerous—or rather, they had so many accounts.

Not only did they engage in automated bickering in the original thread, but they also opened various new threads outside.

In short, before Teacher Bu Shu posted his status, these people had practically pinned charges like “incompetence,” “fame-seeking fraud,” and “persona deception” onto him.

While most rational bystanders didn’t quite believe it, seeing it repeatedly was annoying. Some people who didn’t know the details might have their impressions of Teacher Bu Shu brainwashed as they kept reading.

Yet, before these people could achieve their goal, Teacher Bu Shu went online and posted that specific paragraph.

Subject: Laughing my head off. The hater rumors collapsed on their own. If Teacher Bu Shu were truly a fraud with a fake persona, Jiang Ziye aside, would Wang Fei choose to join Teacher Bu Shu’s studio the very next day after resigning from Jixing?

The gossip-seekers across the entire forum laughed.

Meanwhile, the water army studio that had taken a large sum from Lin Cheng to smear Teacher Bu Shu was in a bind.

Although their main business wasn’t the gaming circle, these paid trolls were professional enough to have researched the basics of the industry first.

Facing this sudden development, the trolls felt very “stiff.”

Should they continue smearing?

With the route they were taking before, the other party just casually raised a hand and, without even needing to enter the fray personally, blocked the “black water” they had thrown.

Should they find a new angle or direction?

The man is a review uploader who hadn’t stepped out for 8 years; he doesn’t take sponsorships, do advertisements, or post QR codes to scam fan money. His return shook the global gaming community. Aside from the fact that his whereabouts for the last 8 years were unknown, if you want to smear him, you need an actual direction to take!

But if they didn’t continue… the workload of an entire afternoon had already been invested, and it had looked like it was about to succeed.

Refunding the money felt like a loss.

Not only was the water army studio in a bind, but Lin Cheng, who had spent the afternoon watching the WG forum threads with smug satisfaction, was also dumbfounded.

Everything was supposed to go according to his plan. He thought he could use the same tactic he used to blacklist Jiang Ziye to thoroughly smear Teacher Bu Shu. Yet, the moment the other’s post came out, everything was reset to its original form?!

Lin Cheng immediately checked the progress bar in his system.

Mandatory Mission: Slap Teacher Bu Shu in the face, increase Life Satisfaction. (Current progress: 10%… 8%… continuing to slide!)

Mandatory Mission: Slap Jiang Ziye in the face, increase Life Satisfaction. (Current progress: 0%)

Crap!

Lin Cheng almost jumped out of his seat.

Earlier in the afternoon, when the trolls and haters were at their fiercest, the progress for slapping Teacher Bu Shu had climbed to nearly 50%. In less than 10 minutes, the progress bar dropped to 10%… no, 8%!

Lin Cheng watched the progress bar slide visibly to the naked eye. He could already foresee what it would look like when it hit 0%.

This is truly a nightmare!

But the system continued to issue constant “ding-ding-ding” warning prompts.

Ding-ding-ding! The completion rate for the mandatory mission to slap Teacher Bu Shu is sliding rapidly! Host, please save the mission progress immediately!!

Ding-ding-ding, ding-ding-ding…

Lin Cheng was so annoyed by the system’s beeping that he started cursing it in his mind: “Warn your grandfather! If I had a way, would I be sitting here watching the progress bar drop?!”

After Lin Cheng’s violent cursing, the system’s warning sound disappeared, but as soon as he opened the system, he could see the blood-red words. Mandatory Mission: Slap Teacher Bu Shu in the face, increase Life Satisfaction. (Current progress: 6% sliding)

Lin Cheng’s face turned green with frustration.

Over the past two days, he had finally regained the pleasure of being admired thanks to the Super God bug incident. He thought everything would go smoothly today and he could happily wait for Teacher Bu Shu to be humiliated, but now he was frustrated to the point of internal injury.

Thinking of this, Lin Cheng’s gaze shifted toward the executive workstation at the end of the office—Wang Fei was still sitting at his original desk.

Lin Cheng couldn’t understand it. He had worked so hard to kick Wang Fei out of Jixing Studio, thinking he could finally enjoy himself, but Wang Fei joined that Teacher Bu Shu’s studio the next second, hitting him with a “boomerang” effect?

Thinking of this, a surge of secret hatred rose in Lin Cheng’s heart. He felt as though he had personally handed Teacher Bu Shu the key card to win the round. This feeling made him want to rush in front of Wang Fei and ask him why.

In the Super God Project Management Group

Lin Cheng wanted to ask but had no place to do so, whereas Li Sheng and the others were directly “ding-ding-ding”-ing to gossip on the spot.

Lead Numerical Planner—Li Sheng: !!! Old Wang, what’s with you? You went to Pei Shu’s studio?!

Lead Client Programmer—Chen Shan: @Wang Fei, for real?

Testing Supervisor—Xiang Wensheng: @Wang Fei ???

The group, which gathered all the big shots of the Super God project, looked like an ordinary gossip group at this moment.

After being @-ed by everyone one by one, Wang Fei finally arrived.

Wang Fei: It’s true.

Everyone: !!!

Li Sheng: Old Wang, please explain your mental journey. I don’t understand this at all! Holy crap, that’s Pei Shu’s studio… Pei Shu’s!!!

Wang Fei: …It’s nothing. His studio has a small capital volume and the project investment is also small. It fits the non-compete agreement standards.

Everyone: …

Like hell we believe that!

Li Sheng was the first to want to curse, but he also knew that this was the company’s internal network and internal communication software. Even if Wang Fei had other reasons, he couldn’t reveal them fully right now.

But for a gossip enthusiast like him, it was truly heart-wrenching.

After all, everyone in this group had a good idea of Wang Fei’s annual income—nearly ten million a year. Now he’s going to a tiny studio with less than 1 million in investment?

If the non-compete agreement was truly the only standard, then there would be a whole basket of compliant studios across the country.

Why didn’t Wang Fei go to those, but went to Pei Shu’s?

If they said there wasn’t a secret motive, they wouldn’t believe it themselves!

Li Sheng stealthily pulled out his backup phone that had never connected to the company Wi-Fi, switched to WeChat, and messaged Wang Fei.

Li Sheng: You went to talk about this at noon?

Wang Fei: Yes. It’s hard to explain the specific situation right now, but Pei Shu’s studio indeed fully meets the non-compete standards. Universal’s legal team won’t be able to find any problems.

In fact, Wang Fei guessed that after the news of him joining Pei Shu’s team was released, Universal’s HR team would be quite nervous. But his non-compete and resignation agreements had all been signed; they no longer had the chance to add new clauses.

This was the source of his confidence in letting Pei Shu announce the news directly.

Li Sheng: Alright, let’s chat when we have a chance.

Wang Fei: Mm.

The management of this Super God team had been old friends for over a decade. Even if they had friction at work, a meal and some drinks in private would settle it.

The care between them was sincere. Now seeing Wang Fei quickly determine his next direction, the group, while gossiping, sent their sincere blessings.

Perhaps because they truly felt nervous about the news of Wang Fei joining Bu Shu Studio, Universal’s HR team found Wang Fei very quickly to repeatedly confirm the scale of the studio.

Looking at the nervous expressions of the HR team, Wang Fei said coldly: “With the strength of Universal’s HR team, could you fail to find information on a newly registered game studio?”

The HR team was backed by the external executives hired by Universal, who had always been at odds with Wang Fei. They had originally wanted to call Wang Fei in to exert pressure, but Wang Fei wasn’t someone they could push around. Ultimately, they had to let him leave, and they compressed his original one-week handover period to just one business day.

After letting Wang Fei go, the HR team members looked at each other.

“Should we keep investigating?”

“Maybe there’s no problem… maybe Wang Fei just simply wants to make games, so he accepted the invitation?”

The HR supervisor’s face was grim: “Do you believe that? If he wanted to make games, starting his own studio would be better than joining someone else’s. Does it make sense to resign one day and frantically agree to join a new team the next?”

“But he’s already gone. We can’t openly find trouble…”

The HR supervisor was silent for a long time before stopping. He simply synchronized this news to the group executive in charge of HR—just as his subordinate said.

Wang Fei was already gone. After all, Wang Fei was a member with distinguished service to the Super God project. If he left and Universal immediately caused him trouble, what would that look like?

But all of them felt that with Wang Fei going there, that new studio wasn’t simple.

When the HR supervisor reported this news to the Group Vice President overseeing HR, this V.P., surnamed Lin, replied elegantly: “It doesn’t matter. It’s just a small studio with only 3 members total.”

After a pause, V.P. Lin added: “Keep an eye on whatever project this studio has later, and pay attention to their project release dates.”

The HR supervisor understood immediately and responded with a “Yes.”

Although V.P. Lin’s voice was gentle and elegant, the HR supervisor still heard the scent of a “scorched earth” policy within it.

What finished product could a small studio of only three members make?

Even if it had great potential, what if the Group found a similar project internally and scheduled its release to clash with theirs?

When that time comes, one will be a project made by a 3-person team, and the other will be a project initiated within Universal that has passed a series of production rating assessments—at least a B-rank project confirmed to go live.

Which is superior? Does it even need to be said?

Thinking of this, the HR supervisor breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that Wang Fei had truly grown used to being pampered in the Super God project and lacked the brains for these internal power struggles.

To reveal his destination so early—isn’t that just waiting to hit a landmine?

In Jixing Studio, the frustrated Lin Cheng suddenly received another system mission—

King of Games (Plot Achievement Mission) Chapter 5—The First Game of a Career: Win the internal creative proposal competition at Jixing Studio, obtain independent game production rights, and lead the production of a game with a peak concurrent user count (PCU) of 50,000!

Mission Completion Conditions:

1. Obtain game production leadership;

2. Lead and produce a game with a PCU of 50,000!

3. Surpass competing products released in the same period in terms of popularity. (Predicted potential competitor: Bu Shu Studio’s new game product)

Seeing the predicted potential competitor at the end, Lin Cheng almost cursed out loud—CRAP! Why the hell is it Teacher Bu Shu and his studio again?!

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