Cannon Fodder Genius Game Producer - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Third Day of a Blockbuster

When Pei Shu got up to leave, Zhang Sui, sitting next to him, gave him a curious look and was rewarded with another smile from Pei Shu.

Once Pei Shu had walked far away, Zhang Sui finally popped up in his small group chat: “Seems like he was called away by Old Wang!”

It was a sentence without a beginning or end, but everyone knew Zhang Sui was talking about Pei Shu.

Zhang Sui’s workstation was adjacent to Pei Shu’s. Yesterday, while peeking at Pei Shu, he happened to glimpse the resignation application form interface on Pei Shu’s computer screen. For people on this project, all resignation applications had to be summarized by Wang Fei, who would then decide whether to try and retain the employee.

Being called away by Old Wang meant that Wang Fei was going to start talking to Pei Shu about his resignation.

Actually, up until this moment, Zhang Sui felt that Pei Shu applying for resignation himself was something very incredible. After all, over the past few years, Pei Shu had done more than one stupid thing that made people feel he would be fired on the spot, yet he had remained until now.

Many people in the studio felt that Pei Shu would become the project’s deadbeat until the company eventually fired him.

But unexpectedly, this deadbeat had actually stepped up this time and filled out the resignation form. Recalling the Pei Shu who had started becoming different since yesterday, Zhang Sui felt that his resignation wasn’t as satisfying as he had imagined.

At the end of the 8th floor of the Universal Building, where Aurora Studio was located, were the supervisor workstations belonging to several big shots in the studio, including Wang Fei.

Wang Fei was currently dealing with the questioning of the project’s lead numerical designer, Li Sheng.

Li Sheng: “Oh, Brother Wang, who are we to each other? Just tell me, who did that document organization last night? I took a look, and they even had two suggestions that were very spot on. Meticulous numerical talent is so rare. Now that we finally have a good sprout, just transfer them under me!”

Wang Fei: “…Heh, even if you’re willing, they might not be.”

Li Sheng: “What do you mean by that? They don’t want to transfer to numerical? Are they from systems? Or levels? Or maybe a combat planner? Being this sharp with numbers, they can’t be in plot, right?”

Wang Fei: “None of the above.”

Li Sheng: “Then they are?”

Wang Fei: “…A resigning planner.”

Li Sheng: “???”

On the notification bar of the communication software, Li Sheng was still typing away. Wang Fei didn’t need to look to know that Li Sheng was definitely outputting like crazy, wanting him to fish back the person who was resigning.

Wang Fei sneered in his heart—it’s only because you don’t know the person who organized the document is Pei Shu. Otherwise, would I see you being this enthusiastic?

Wang Fei had already approved Pei Shu’s resignation application. Given Pei Shu’s performance over the past eight years, he had no reason to refuse. Yet, only after Pei Shu resigned did the ability he displayed suddenly remind Wang Fei of the brilliance he saw when he first encountered Pei Shu’s work eight years ago.

This display of Pei Shu’s also made Wang Fei inevitably feel irritated.

Glimpsing Pei Shu approaching out of the corner of his eye, Wang Fei quickly closed the chat window with Li Sheng and brought the stack of organized cases Pei Shu had prepared—which he had already printed out last night—to his side.

“Brother Wang.”

Pei Shu walked to Wang Fei’s seat, glanced at the stack of cases by his hand, said nothing, and just greeted him.

Seeing this calm and unfathomable look of his, Wang Fei felt a surge of frustration. He pointed to the chair next to him and told Pei Shu to sit down and talk.

Pei Shu smiled and sat down, showing no intention of being overly formal with Wang Fei.

Wang Fei looked at Pei Shu’s smiling face, felt a bit of anger in his heart, and pointed to the cases at his hand, asking: “Speak, what’s with you? Clearly you can work properly, yet you choose to mess around?”

Wang Fei pointed at him: “Pei Shu, if you have any dissatisfaction with the project, the studio, or any of us, you can just say it directly. There’s no need to waste your talent. Eight years—do you know what that means for a potential game developer?!”

The gaming industry is different from traditional industries that rely on time to accumulate seniority; talent mobility is extremely high. Many capable planners, after practicing in small companies, will rapidly move upward.

In a top 3 industry studio like Aurora, the development path for promising newcomers is different from the outside world. Truly talented newcomers, after being tempered by one or two research projects, will either become core project members or gain the opportunity to lead an independent project.

As long as one is truly capable, eight years is enough for a university graduate to grow into an independent sub-studio head within Aurora.

At least back then, that was Wang Fei’s expectation for Pei Shu.

Pei Shu heard the tone of disappointment in Wang Fei’s scolding. Wang Fei was indeed a rare good person. Pei Shu remained silent, unable to answer Wang Fei’s questions.

He only smiled faintly: “Brother Wang, I don’t have any dissatisfaction with the studio or everyone.”

“No dissatisfaction?” Wang Fei stared at him, looking like he wanted to scream a few curses, but looking at Pei Shu’s faint and calm expression, his breath finally deflated.

Pei Shu sat quietly, and Wang Fei also remained silent for a long time.

Finally, Wang Fei only gave him a resentful glare and snapped: “I’ve approved your resignation application. Look out for yourself in the future.”

Pei Shu’s heart wasn’t actually as calm as he appeared. He still remembered how, after the interview back then, Wang Fei had patted his shoulder and encouraged him. At that time, he too was full of expectations for the career ahead.

Complex emotions swirled in his heart. Pei Shu pursed his lips and only smiled at Wang Fei: “Thank you, Brother Wang.”

Wang Fei ignored him and just waved for him to go.

So Pei Shu got up, but as he turned to leave, he suddenly looked back and said to Wang Fei: “Brother Wang, remember to classify and clear the discarded documents from yesterday in a timely manner. Don’t make a mistake.”

Hearing this, Wang Fei sneered: “Do you think everyone is like you?”

Pei Shu blinked at Wang Fei. Since he was already resigning, Pei Shu rarely showed a bit of his old temperament: “Brother Wang, you’re right. There aren’t many like me!”

This was the truth. A cannon fodder character as miserable as him was indeed rare!

Pei Shu’s words made Wang Fei roll his eyes. He almost smashed the documents at hand onto Pei Shu’s head: “Go, go, go! Get out, get out, get out!”

“Hahaha, I’m getting out then. Brother Wang, see you if fate allows!”

After talking with Wang Fei, Pei Shu’s resignation process form went through without any obstacles and quickly received final approval.

The HR of Aurora Studio was very efficient. The form received final approval in the morning, and by noon, Pei Shu was notified that he didn’t need to come to the company in the afternoon—in fact, this was telling him he was no longer an Aurora person and should leave.

Pei Shu had no complaints about this efficiency. He casually took a box, simply picked up a few items from his desk that were slightly commemorative, took his phone, and stood up.

His eight-year career at Aurora was a blur in his memory, ultimately condensed into the two or three items in this box.

When Pei Shu was about to leave holding the box, Zhang Sui, who had been very contemptuous of him just the day before, looked at him with hesitation, finally offering him a smooth sailing in the future.

Pei Shu smiled and nodded at Zhang Sui, then casually waved at the people around who were peeking at him, and left the Universal Building with his box.

Stepping out of the Universal gates, the midday sun was just right.

With the warm sun shining on his body, Pei Shu felt light all over, as if some pressure that had been constantly attached to him had been cleared.

He knew in his heart that this was probably the influence of him gradually breaking away from his original cannon fodder identity—not bad, a very good change that made him feel happy.

With such a pleasant mood, Pei Shu walked easily toward the direction of the Daonan Road apartment.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he felt that compared to his walk to the company in the morning, on his way back now, there were clearly fewer pedestrians than in the morning, but the number of people staring at him seemed to have increased?

Watching two girls brush past him, the next second Pei Shu could hear suppressed screams coming from behind.

“Wow! He’s so good-looking!”

“Is he some celebrity?? Why is he so handsome?”

Pei Shu: ???

Pei Shu knew he had outstanding looks since childhood. By the time he was in his teens, he was used to being chased down by scouts on the street to be handed business cards. But these years…

Pei Shu suddenly remembered that in these years, indeed no one had ever been stunned by his looks; they only treated him as a mediocre, ordinary person.

Thinking of the feeling of lightness just now, Pei Shu suddenly understood—what use does a mediocre cannon fodder character have for eye-catching looks?

So… as he breaks away from the cannon fodder trajectory, will the mist that originally shrouded him and concealed all his traits gradually dissipate? Just as people were gradually noticing his appearance.

Because he was thinking about these things, Pei Shu came to a halt on the side of the road. Once he had clarified this logic, his watery peach-blossom eyes curved slightly with a smile again.

This truly is interesting, isn’t it?

In the sunlight of a spring afternoon at one or two o’clock, a young man with a charming image stood leisurely under the shade of a tree. Coincidentally, a beam of sunlight filtered through the shade and brushed past him. The young man seemed to think of something interesting, his eyes shimmering with laughter. With a gust of wind that just happened to blow by, his slightly curly hair lifted.

Passersby couldn’t help but be attracted to this young man who seemed to have his own halo, and they all stopped to look at him.

The two girls from just now hadn’t gone far and were looking back at Pei Shu. Seeing this scene, they immediately used their phones to capture this beautiful moment.

Blushing Rice-chan: “#HeartbeatInTheThirdDimensionFromTheSecondDimension Wuwuwu, help, I just passed by the vicinity of Universal with my sisters and saw this big brother. My heart really skipped a beat on the spot…!”

A Weibo post was uploaded to the internet, drawing likes and retweets from female friends. This post, which initially no one cared about, was like a Siberian butterfly gently flapping its wings.

Pei Shu didn’t notice, or rather, he didn’t care about others’ secret photography.

After walking for about ten minutes, he returned to the Daonan Road apartment. After taking the elevator back home, Pei Shu cleanly changed into comfortable loungewear and sat down on the soft carpet in the middle of the living room.

Because he sensed that the influence of the plot’s will on him was gradually weakening, Pei Shu’s mood at this moment was quite pleasant. But that wasn’t enough!

He looked at his long-dusty account and rubbed his chin—he actually couldn’t wait to test the impact of breaking away from the plot’s trajectory, but there was still a month before the protagonist’s first emergence at Aurora Studio. Waiting honestly wasn’t his style.

Since the plot’s definition of his identity was a cannon fodder that no one cared about, would the plot’s will notice him again when more and more people started paying attention to him?

And when he gradually gains the ability to oppose and influence the main plot of this world… will the plot’s will have new feedback?

Currently, it was known that the protagonist of this power fantasy world would climb to the top on the path of gaming. So what could he do that had a chance to let more and more people notice him while also having a chance to influence the main plot?

Thinking of this, Pei Shu dug out his old accounts on his phone.

Back then, he had always had the habit of doing game reviews, including his own personal review accounts on public platforms like Weibo and the WG forums.

However, eight years had passed. The people who used to chase him and call him an idol now had new hobbies. These accounts had gathered dust. Aside from the first year or two when people left messages asking where he had gone, as time went by, only some archaeological visit comments remained.

Pei Shu then clicked on the streaming platform of the WG forums—this platform already existed eight years ago, but back then the streaming business had just started and was unnoticed. His game review account was exactly among the first batch of streamer accounts invited to open streaming permissions.

Nowadays, relying on the authority of the country’s largest gaming platform and its partnership with the two major social software, WG had already become the industry king in the field of streaming.

Pei Shu opened the back-end of his WG account and confirmed that his previous self-media certification and streaming permissions were still there.

Excellent!

He happily arched his brows—time to work hard, new game streamer Pei Shu!

On the WG platform, even on a weekday, there were hundreds or thousands of game streamers starting their broadcasts every day. They were carving up the audience group of wealthy and idle game nerds and students who didn’t have classes at that time of day.

It should be said that any new streamer choosing to start broadcasting at this time was a very unwise choice.

But Pei Shu didn’t care. He hadn’t considered possibilities like becoming famous in one battle either. Currently, it had been too long since he had recorded any review content, so he would just try it out first.

Opening his phone and adjusting the streaming position, Pei Shu mischievously changed the room name to “2013 Latest Model Game Console and Game Unboxing Review”.

After setting these up, Pei Shu clicked to start the broadcast. Seeing that no one had entered the room, he didn’t pay attention and instead lowered his head to focus on his antique game console.

Calling it an antique machine was a bit unfair to it. This 2013 antique game console, the only thing he kept yesterday, was the latest model back then, bought in the year he graduated—the same year he joined the company. He had bought it along with the latest console games of the time.

But eight years had passed. The once latest model had become an antique configuration, and the once latest games had become content forgotten by many.

This game console had been placed in the living room. Before he had a chance to unbox it, he went to join Aurora Studio, and after that, there was no more chance to unbox it.

Thinking of this, Pei Shu smiled.

Back then, he had also wanted to make an unboxing video for the new machine. Now it seems it’s not too late to make up for it?

While thinking this, Pei Shu used a utility knife to cut open the console’s packaging box.

“This is the latest 2013 game console produced by the Biake Group. It was called an epoch-making product by Biake and was expected to dominate the console market for the next ten years. It is equipped with the strongest custom processor as of 2013, and at the same time, the game screen presentation has been improved to 1080P. Also, the processor is specifically matched for graphics and audio processing…”

In the living room, following his memory and the configuration introduction on the console packaging, Pei Shu leisurely introduced this machine that he had a hard time getting through a proxy back then.

And in the originally empty streaming room, some bored fun-seekers had wandered in at some unknown time. On the originally blank public screen, sparse bullet comments began to float across.

“New streamer?”

“Looks like a newcomer, but what’s with this account? It’s actually a verified ‘V’ account?”

The self-media certification of the WG platform had become increasingly difficult to obtain as the platform grew larger. To date, including the self-media certification accounts issued early on, there were no more than 500 in total. Even if some are not very active now, as soon as one appears, they are all major traffic players on the WG platform.

Seeing a verified account that no one had seen before suddenly appear, the fun-seekers also seemed very confused.

“Holy shit, take a look at the streamer’s broadcast ID number. Friends, it’s a 3-digit ID!”

???

A 3-digit broadcast ID?!

Isn’t this a legendary WG antique account worth millions?!

“Is it some wealthy person who bought a WG antique account to stream?”

“…No, shouldn’t all the WG antique verified accounts that can be traded have already been traded once?”

“Right? Those that can’t be traded should be ‘ghost accounts’ where the original owner disappeared and no one can be found.”

“So, is this a ghost account resurrection?!”

“Wait, let me look at the streamer’s name… Teacher Bu Shu? This alias looks a bit familiar…”

“Ahhh, I remember now! Teacher Bu Shu! Wasn’t this one of the WG Top Ten Personalities of the Year 10 years ago? He disappeared suddenly 8 years ago. Later many fake accounts appeared online, but they were all exposed as fakes. So is this the real Bu Shu???”

“It… is, right?”

After all, a 3-digit WG self-media certification cannot be faked!

At this time, the administrator patrolling the WG streaming platform also noticed the sudden appearance of this long-buried account.

This administrator was a newcomer, but the group leader training him was not.

After noticing the broadcast of the account with the 3-digit certification ID “Teacher Bu Shu,” this administrator quickly reported the news to the administrator group leader who was training him.

The WG backend administrators had already gone through the procedures one by one.

“How is it? Confirmed any signs of account theft?”

“No. The login IP is the same as the commonly used login IP 8 years ago, the login password hasn’t had multiple attempts, and the phone verification hasn’t had a changed number!”

After quickly going through this wave of inspection procedures, the WG platform administrator breathed a sigh of relief, and a look of surprise appeared on his face—good news! The formerly well-known review account that disappeared for 8 years has returned to the scene!

What is this?

This is a fresh topic!

The administrator group leader immediately greeted the streaming promotion group to give this account, Teacher Bu Shu, a platform-wide recommendation.

However, some people doubted whether the account Teacher Bu Shu could still have heat after eight years. The streaming environment of back then and the current one were also worlds apart. Could today’s Teacher Bu Shu still be as popular as back then?

“What are you afraid of?” the administrator group leader said. “What we want is just the gimmick of ‘Teacher Bu Shu’s return.’ As for whether he can stabilize his heat after returning, that’s Teacher Bu Shu’s own business.”

The promotion group leader adjusted his glasses and also smiled: “You’re right.”

They gave the heat; the rest, of course, would depend on Teacher Bu Shu’s own ability.

While they were talking, without Pei Shu knowing, his streaming room had already been placed in the top 5 position for site-wide promotion.

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