“In other words, to make games like ‘Eternal Cycle’ and ‘Ghost General 2’ successfully, the storyline must be placed in a high position, and the story designer’s authority must override that of other designers. Therefore, Yu Fei is the only suitable person to be the lead designer for this project.”

“Some might ask, ‘Can’t we make Yu Fei the story designer but give him the highest authority?'”

“No, we can’t.”

“A story designer is just a story designer. If Yu Fei holds the position of story designer, he won’t consider the issues that a lead designer needs to think about. Thus, the storyline he designs would still be merely a skin, unable to truly unleash his potential.”

“Others might ask, ‘Can’t we have other excellent lead designers direct this project?'”

“My answer remains: No, we can’t.”

“This isn’t to say that Tenda doesn’t have excellent game design talent. On the contrary, Tenda’s outstanding game design talent is in a state of surplus compared to other gaming companies. But the issue is that some abilities are innate—no amount of resources thrown at them can create or cultivate them.”

“Even the most excellent game designers are only specialized in their areas of expertise.”

“Can you throw enough money and resources to create an outstanding director, author, or manga artist? Obviously not. These things require natural talent. First, there must be talent, and only then is there the possibility of subsequent cultivation.”

“In this world, all-rounders like Mr. Pei are extremely rare. Most people are specialized talents with severe imbalances in their skills.”

“Therefore, to make games more diverse and to complete different development tasks, different people must be responsible for different projects to achieve excellence!”

“Mr. Pei promoted Yu Fei to lead designer outside the normal protocols precisely because his talent highly aligns with the characteristics of the games Tenda is developing next. That’s why I say this demonstrates Mr. Pei’s talent for recognizing and utilizing the right people.”

“I hope the keyboard warriors online will offer fewer uninformed opinions. You think Yu Fei isn’t important in the project team, that he’s just a writer of stories? You understand better than Mr. Pei? Why would Mr. Pei repeatedly try to retain someone who just writes stories? Does he have nothing better to do? It’s simply because of two points: First, the storyline is very important; Second, not just anyone can write this storyline!”

“If there were better choices, why wouldn’t Mr. Pei replace him? When did Tenda become a place that values personal relationships over results?”

“Obviously, it’s because Yu Fei truly has high talent in game storyline design. Mr. Pei recognized this talent and felt it would be a waste to lose it, so he repeatedly tried to retain him, hoping he could make achievements in game design and take a different path from Tenda’s previous lead designers.”

“So, I hope Yu Fei won’t underestimate himself. Evaluating ‘Ghost General 2’ shouldn’t only be based on sales; its significance in other aspects is even greater. And your role in this game isn’t dispensable—it’s irreplaceable!”

…

After reading He An’s long Weibo post, Yu Fei silently deleted the second Weibo post he had drafted earlier.

He wasn’t going to post it anymore!

If Qiao Laoshi’s video had merely made him secretly pleased, then Old He’s Weibo post was truly earth-shattering, enlightening, and answered the confusion he had harbored for a long time.

Why did Mr. Pei try to retain him again and again when he didn’t have any special abilities?

Now he understood—it turned out he was quite talented and important! Mr. Pei really couldn’t find a more suitable candidate, which is why he kept trying to retain him!

I have to say, Mr. Pei truly deserves to be the most outstanding game designer right now; his judgment is indeed sharp.

He An also lives up to his reputation as an industry veteran and leader, seeing through issues so clearly, completely unlike the keyboard warriors online who think they know everything!

That being the case, there was nothing more to say.

He wouldn’t leave for now!

Leaving now would not only disappoint the players’ expectations but also fail to repay Mr. Pei’s cultivation.

Although Yu Fei still preferred writing books to designing games, he thought carefully—there were so many excellent authors on Terminal Chinese Web, but among authors who were selected by Mr. Pei to be lead designers, he was the only one!

Yu Fei felt that his talent in web novels was quite good, above average. But it now appeared that his ability in game storyline design was undoubtedly top-tier!

With such talent, it obviously shouldn’t be wasted casually.

Yu Fei hesitated no longer and posted another Weibo.

“Thank you all, I have decided to stay with Tenda’s gaming department. I’ve read all your messages and am deeply moved. I will definitely continue to create more excellent games for everyone in the future!”

…

Meanwhile, Pei Qian was in his office, watching Qiao Laoshi’s video and trembling with anger.

“This damn…”

This Qiao Laoshi was beyond salvation, completely beyond salvation!

It had only been a few days since he returned from the suffering journey, and he was already making trouble with videos again!

Pei Qian calculated that this video was most likely planned from the first day after returning from the suffering journey, and today it was finally released!

Strictly speaking, this video should have been released before Yu Fei came to see Pei Qian.

If Pei Qian had seen it earlier, he might have agreed to Yu Fei’s request!

But at that time, he was in his office racking his brains to conceptualize his thesis and wasn’t browsing the AiLiDao website, so naturally, he didn’t notice that the vigilant Qiao Laoshi had updated.

“Ghost General 2” was just released two days late, and Qiao Laoshi caught it again!

It seemed that he had miscalculated and hadn’t controlled the timing properly. This suffering journey and the new game release didn’t coordinate very well.

After watching this video, Pei Qian suddenly began to doubt whether repeatedly trying to retain Yu Fei was the right choice.

If he stayed, as everyone said, Yu Fei indeed had a knack for storyline design.

If he didn’t stay, who could guarantee that randomly assigning someone from the gaming department as the lead designer would work? What if they earned even more?

At least so far, “Ghost General 2” had great reputation but average sales. What if the next lead designer came in and the new game’s sales exploded?

This was truly a difficult decision.

“Forget it, let’s discuss it after the New Year. There’s no use rushing; we need to plan for the long term.”

“I absolutely can’t make an even bigger mistake due to a momentary impulse, trying to remedy one error!”

One of the eight great forgivenesses: it’s almost New Year.

Indeed, it was almost New Year, and the company was about to go on holiday. There wasn’t much point in continuing to fret over work matters in these last two days; it was better to quickly outline his thesis.

…

…

February 7th, Thursday evening.

At Bunny Tail Live, in Zhang Yan’s streaming room.

After two weeks of hard training, Zhang Yan had finally achieved standard results in the rally race!

Although there was still a considerable gap compared to those excellent racing drivers, for Zhang Yan, this was already a huge improvement.

Of course, constantly racing on the track was also very expensive. Although Zhang Yan had been driving very carefully, she still had a few minor scrapes, and adding the tire wear and various normal wear and tear, the maintenance costs were still considerable.

If it weren’t for the substantial savings she had accumulated from her long-distance driving, she really couldn’t have afforded this.

Such high expenses even when driving carefully—not to mention those with a cavalier attitude who drive recklessly.

Online, people regularly shared their car accidents—some crashed in the city, some during long-distance drives, and others during rally or circuit races. The results of these crashes were varied.

Some people were furious, cursing at the game development team, while others were very calm, sharing their miserable state to “entertain the public.”

The attitude of netizens had changed from unlimited sympathy at the beginning to now taking pleasure in watching these crashes.

This mentality was a bit like seeing many wealthy people spend tens of thousands on a gacha game only to get nothing, and although it was indeed unfortunate, everyone enjoyed watching such spectacles.

Look at the name of the game—who told you not to drive safely and civilly?

Zhang Yan looked at the number of viewers in her streaming room, which had decreased compared to before.

Perhaps on one hand, it was getting close to the New Year, so the live streaming website’s traffic was naturally decreasing. On the other hand, it was because Zhang Yan’s racing didn’t provide much entertainment value.

Racing required too much concentration, and Zhang Yan’s skill level wasn’t considered top-tier on Bunny Tail Live.

Speaking of top-tier driving skills, there were some very impressive experts on Bunny Tail Live. Some were masters in simulation games who quickly got the hang of it, while others were actually professional drivers in real life. These people all had much better skills than Zhang Yan.

During her previous streams, whether it was getting her driver’s license, being a rideshare driver, or doing long-distance drives, the entertainment value was good because she was a female driver, and during long-distance drives, it was more boring, so she could chat with viewers, have fun, and thus gain followers quickly.

But in the last two weeks, as soon as Zhang Yan started streaming, she would go to the track to practice. She would practice on the same track for several hours, and even after those hours, there might not be any obvious improvement.

Additionally, racing required high mental concentration, so Zhang Yan basically couldn’t read the comments or interact with the audience, resulting in worse streaming effects and naturally a decrease in viewership.

However, Zhang Yan didn’t care much about this because her primary goal was to hone her driving skills and become a true master of driving. As for streaming, it was just something she did on the side.

If she had been counting on streaming to make big money, she might have moved to other platforms long ago. At that time, she could have created a gimmick as a female driver, put on heavy makeup, found an agency to boost her rankings, returned the money to the wealthy patrons in full, and split the viewers’ money 70-30. Wouldn’t that have been better?

So, Zhang Yan wasn’t too concerned about this situation. Being able to ride the wave of the “Safe and Civil Driving” simulator trend, transforming from an unknown small streamer to a somewhat well-known streamer in the “Safe and Civil Driving” section of Bunny Tail Live, she was already very satisfied.

“Huh? ‘Safe and Civil Driving’ is pushing a Spring Festival update tonight? And it’s a free update.”

Zhang Yan was a bit surprised.

Because “Safe and Civil Driving” was a single-player game with no additional value-added services.