Shangyang Games, office area.

The atmosphere was somewhat oppressive.

Everyone had originally thought that having a new boss would mark the beginning of a bright future. They had expected Mr. Pei to share their struggles, offer brilliant ideas, and work together to create refreshing games that would dominate the bestseller charts…

However, none of that happened.

Mr. Pei did make an appearance, but he left after speaking fewer than ten sentences.

He removed Wang Xiaobin, the most senior employee, from the lead designer position and promoted the newest company recruit to lead designer, even giving him a monthly quota to fire someone without reason.

As for plans for the company’s future, they were even more absurd.

The first step was to remove all payment points from the two existing games.

The second step was for everyone to write their design proposal.

Beyond that, Mr. Pei offered no opinions or suggestions. As for Mr. Pei personally taking charge? That was even more impossible.

Given that Mr. Pei had given Ye Zhizhou this “imperial sword,” he probably wouldn’t be coming here for a long time, with Ye Zhizhou serving as his representative.

It felt as if Shangyang Games, which had been on the verge of resurrection, had instantly been shoved back into its coffin, with Mr. Pei hammering in a few extra nails on the lid.

How could the atmosphere not be depressing?

Of course, everyone understood that with Tenda Group as their backing, Shangyang Games wouldn’t go bankrupt in the short term, so their jobs were secure.

But how long those jobs would remain secure was another question entirely.

Wang Xiaobin glanced worriedly at Ye Zhizhou’s workstation, seeing him bent over his phone, messaging someone.

Surely he wasn’t already using his first unconditional dismissal quota?

Wang Xiaobin was quite concerned.

Now that Ye Zhizhou was the lead designer, he needed to give orders and assign tasks to everyone—that was the lead designer’s responsibility.

Without instructions from Ye Zhizhou, everyone else could only sit at their desks, idling away.

Wang Xiaobin was very uncertain whether Ye Zhizhou could handle this job, but at this point, all he could do was wait and see.

Ye Zhizhou was sending messages to Ma Yiqun.

“Brother Ma, there’s something I don’t know how to tell you…”

Ma Yiqun quickly replied: “Go ahead and tell me. With your brother here, whatever difficulties you have, we’ll face them together.”

Ma Yiqun hadn’t been assigned any work at Tenda, not even writing story content for the new version, so he was bored out of his mind all day and replied to messages instantly.

Ye Zhizhou hesitated, then typed: “Mr. Pei came for a meeting and promoted me to lead designer of Shangyang Games…”

Ma Yiqun: “???”

He sent more than a dozen question marks.

Even through the screen, Ye Zhizhou could feel Ma Yiqun’s bewilderment.

What did this mean?

Ma Yiqun completely lost his understanding of this world.

He remembered how he and Huang Sibo had struggled together at Shangyang Games, brothers in hardship.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Huang Sibo had jumped ship to Tenda Games, rising to the heavens in one step, going from executive designer straight to lead designer.

Later, he and Ye Zhizhou had struggled together at the Shangyang Games, brothers in hardship.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Shangyang Games was acquired by Mr. Pei, and Ye Zhizhou also rose to the heavens in one step, becoming the lead designer!

Only Ma Yiqun was left, still studying Mr. Pei’s design philosophy every day, without any achievements worth mentioning so far.

Ma Yiqun fell into deep self-doubt.

Why had executive designers been directly promoted to lead designers twice in a row?

Could it be… that he was a lucky charm?

Did everyone who struggled alongside him end up becoming a lead designer??

Then why couldn’t he, the actual lucky charm himself, encounter any good fortune?

Seeing that Ma Yiqun hadn’t replied for a while, Ye Zhizhou typed again: “Brother Ma, I’m under tremendous pressure now. I’ve never been a lead designer before. Could you talk to Mr. Pei about replacing me with someone else?”

Ma Yiqun nearly snorted with anger.

This kid! Getting all the benefits and still acting innocent, how shameless!

You don’t even want the lead designer position that was given to you? Are you deliberately trying to annoy me?!

“Goodbye.” Ma Yiqun was ready to close the chat window.

Ye Zhizhou hurriedly replied: “No, Brother Ma! I truly feel I’m not up to it. How long have I been in this industry? I don’t understand anything—how can I be a lead designer?”

“Mr. Pei has placed such a heavy responsibility on me. What if I mess it up?”

Reading Ye Zhizhou’s messages, Ma Yiqun thought, so this kid is worried about disappointing Mr. Pei’s expectations.

Hmm, he’s teachable.

Ma Yiqun thought for a moment and felt that, as someone who had been there before, someone who had been studying Mr. Pei’s mindset for months, he should pass on some veteran experience to his little brother.

“Don’t worry, just go ahead and do it.”

“Do you know Huang Sibo? The one who resigned before you joined—he and I are also good friends.”

“He was also an executive designer then, doing the same work as you.”

“Later, he went to Tenda Games, and Mr. Pei also directly promoted him to lead designer!”

“And guess what? ‘Sea Fortress’—that was created by my brother Huang Sibo.”

“So you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You might not believe in yourself, but you can’t not believe in Mr. Pei’s vision!”

Until now, Mr. Pei has promoted many people. At first, nobody understood Mr. Pei’s intentions, but they quickly discovered that Mr. Pei has an exceptional eye for talent—these people all had bright spots that others couldn’t see!”

“So you don’t need to worry. If Mr. Pei says you can do it, then you definitely can!”

Reading Ma Yiqun’s messages, Ye Zhizhou fell into deep thought.

So that’s how it was—this kind of extraordinary promotion wasn’t the first time, there were precedents?

And were they all successful examples?

Then, had Mr. Pei seen some bright spot in him?

He wasn’t aware of any…

But indeed, as Ma Yiqun said, Mr. Pei wouldn’t promote him without reason, let alone give him such great authority.

Ye Zhizhou thought about it over and over, and suddenly felt confident.

Since Mr. Pei had given him such authority, it was a hint for him to take charge. If he were to chicken out now, wouldn’t that completely lack the Tenda spirit and betray Mr. Pei’s trust?

He was now a proud Tenda employee too!

Thinking of this, Ye Zhizhou felt enlightened.

“Thanks for your guidance, Brother Ma!”

Ye Zhizhou opened a document and started typing confidently on his keyboard.

During his few months of employment, the thing Ye Zhizhou had done most in private was criticize these two games.

This was natural—if these garbage games were like feeding players shit, then Ye Zhizhou was like someone who had to play with shit in his hands every day. How could that not be disgusting?

In Ye Zhizhou’s eyes, or rather in the eyes of most people at Shangyang Games, these two games were full of problems. Anyone could spot numerous flaws just by playing for five minutes.

But nobody tried to fix them.

Because everyone was just getting by, and without Old Liu assigning tasks, no one wanted to create extra work for themselves.

As for why Old Liu didn’t make changes, that was simple too—the enormous revenue pressure was right there.

Back then, the games’ income could barely cover the company’s operating costs. Where would the money come from to buy new art assets or make major gameplay changes?

There were plenty of good ideas, but the key issue was that implementing those ideas into the games required not just time, but also money!

Now, with neither Old Liu nor CEO Du above him, Ye Zhizhou could finally do something he considered meaningful.