That evening, at Longyu Group.

Jin Yong arrived at the door of the Human Resources Director’s office and knocked gently.

“Director Kang, you were looking for me?” Jin Yong was very cautious, not daring to be negligent.

Longyu Group’s HR Director, whose full title was Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Administrative Affairs, directly oversaw the appointment, dismissal, and promotion authority for all managers in the group. He reported directly to the boss, wielding absolute power and influence. Many of his statements often directly represented the boss’s intentions.

Previously, when Zhao Xuming was poached by Tengda, it was Director Kang who handled the matter after discussions with senior management.

Jin Yong had taken over Zhao Xuming’s position, and whether in terms of rank or seniority, he was lower than Director Kang, so naturally he had to be respectful.

“You’re here? Please, sit down.”

Director Kang gestured for Jin Yong to sit on the nearby sofa and asked, “How are things going with IOI?”

Jin Yong was puzzled about why Director Kang was asking about this.

Nevertheless, he answered truthfully: “Everything’s going smoothly. The FV team’s championship skins have all been created. I’ve taken a look, and they’re of excellent quality. The FV team members are all very satisfied. According to the original plan, they’ll be updated along with our Spring Festival version.”

Director Kang nodded slightly: “Good. So you shouldn’t have much work left, right?”

Jin Yong was confused: “Uh… that’s right. Finger Company doesn’t have any work arrangements for the near future, and the notice our project team received from the company… is to take the normal holiday period.”

To be precise, everyone else in the IOI Operations Cooperation Department had already left. Some had trains tomorrow, others had already departed this afternoon. Cretian naturally had no reason to stay either and had already flown out for vacation.

Only Jin Yong had been called over by Director Kang.

Director Kang smiled slightly: “Let me be straightforward with you. The operations team for ‘Bullet Hole 2’ is fully staffed now, and all preliminary preparations have been completed. We just need a leader with sufficient authority.”

“The company leadership briefly discussed this and decided you would be the most suitable for this position.”

“As for the IOI Operations Cooperation Department, we’ve already prepared someone to replace you, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

Jin Yong was stunned: “Huh?”

He had known for a while that Longyu Group was assembling an operations team for “Bullet Hole 2” and that the game was in development, likely to be launched around Spring Festival. But he never expected that he would be the one to lead the operations team!

After all, Jin Yong was still the head of the IOI Operations Cooperation Department and was doing well, without making any mistakes. How could they suddenly reassign him?

And the person replacing him was someone with less capability and a lower position than himself.

Unless…

The company’s senior management already had a clear preference?

Director Kang smiled: “This isn’t a secret, so there’s no need to hide it from you. The company now values ‘Bullet Hole 2’ more than IOI. During this Spring Festival, we’ll closely monitor the data from both games. After all, the company’s promotional resources are limited and can’t be wasted on projects of little importance.”

Jin Yong was shocked.

What did “projects of little importance” mean?

Whichever game didn’t make money or generate enough attention would be considered a project of little importance!

Obviously, Longyu Group had been tolerating IOI for a long time.

Since acquiring IOI’s operation rights from Finger Company with great effort, Longyu Group had invested considerable promotional resources into this project, but the returns were not high and had completely failed to meet senior management’s initial expectations.

Previously, Longyu Group didn’t have any good projects on hand. Even knowing IOI wasn’t performing well, they had no choice but to reluctantly allocate resources to promote it.

After all, no matter how poorly IOI performed, it still had greater influence and generated more money than some domestic companies’ games.

If they didn’t promote it, what else could they do?

But now, the situation was different.

Mr. Pei had provided the idea and designers, leading Tianhou Studio to develop “Bullet Hole 2”!

People always prefer the new over the old.

Longyu Group clearly wasn’t certain whether this game would succeed and couldn’t immediately abandon IOI. So they decided to use the Spring Festival as an opportunity to let the two games compete head-to-head.

If “Bullet Hole 2” didn’t perform well, then everything would remain as is. But if “Bullet Hole 2” crushed IOI, then unfortunately, future promotional resources would shift entirely toward “Bullet Hole 2.”

After all, Longyu Group wasn’t a charity. With limited promotional resources, they would naturally allocate more to projects that could make money.

Jin Yong hesitated: “Director Kang, isn’t this inappropriate? I haven’t been involved in any of the preparatory work for ‘Bullet Hole 2,’ yet I’m being parachuted in as the person in charge. This…”

Director Kang smiled: “Don’t worry, with your experience, you’re more than qualified for the ‘Bullet Hole 2’ project. Actually, if Zhao Xuming hadn’t left, he would have been most suitable for this position, but well, he’s gone to Tengda now.”

“Besides, for this ‘Bullet Hole 2’ project’s operational activities, we don’t actually have much say, and there isn’t much we can do.”

“In this regard… I hope you can privately ask Zhao Xuming for advice. He’s been working at Tengda for a while now and should have more experience in this area.”

Jin Yong started to understand why he had been chosen as the person in charge.

On one hand, it was because he had sufficient experience and ability, but more importantly, he had a good personal relationship with Zhao Xuming!

As for how to operate “Bullet Hole 2,” the authority lay with Tengda. It had been stated in the previous contract that Mr. Pei’s side had absolute power. How the game was developed was decided by Tengda, with Tianhou Studio only providing manpower; how the game was operated was also decided by Tengda, with Longyu Group only responsible for investing promotional resources.

This working model was actually somewhat similar to the IOI Operations Cooperation Department, except that the partner had changed from Finger Company to Tengda Group.

To gain a deeper understanding of Tengda Group’s operational strategies, they needed to establish a connection with someone at Tengda. Zhao Xuming happened to be responsible for this area of business at Tengda, and Jin Yong happened to be well-acquainted with Zhao Xuming…

If it were someone else, Zhao Xuming might not even bother responding.

Jin Yong nodded: “Understood, Director Kang. I’ll definitely complete this task!”

…

The next day, Jin Yong moved directly to the “Bullet Hole 2” operations team’s workspace.

In the operations team, there were some familiar old faces and some new ones. However, everyone was very polite to him, clearly respecting him as the leader.

“Director Jin, I’ve forwarded Tengda’s operational requirements to your email,” said the employee responsible for liaising with Tengda Group and Tianhou Studio.

Jin Yong nodded: “Good, I’ll check it soon.”

After completing the handover, Jin Yong returned to his workstation, sat down, and opened the operational requirements.

But after reading it from beginning to end, Jin Yong couldn’t help but frown.

“This… is way too brief, isn’t it?”

Jin Yong was considered very experienced within Longyu Group, having operated more than ten games. Although some were directly managed and others were in supporting roles, he had seen countless operational plans.

But looking at the operational requirements sent by Tengda…

They were too simple!

The document clearly specified the pricing for various appearances in the game. These appearances included complete skin sets as well as skins for guns and other items.

The complete appearance sets were obviously the most expensive because the game had different professions. For example, the medic profession had a regular male military medic, a prettier female nurse, and a morally ambiguous female medical doctor. In short, these skins were quite distinctive.

Many of these characters were female, showing that Tianhou Studio’s designers and artists understood what thirsty players wanted.

Moreover, “Bullet Hole 2” had both TPS and FPS modes, meaning players could freely choose between first-person or third-person perspectives, making these skins an obviously important profit point.

However, all the paid content, including character skins and weapon skins, was priced very cheaply—almost at bargain prices!

Not only that, but Tengda’s operational requirements also clearly specified that promotional activities could only involve discounts. Other types of activities were not recommended.

What were “other activities”? Simply put, paid lucky draws, sign-in rewards, spending rebates, mystery shops, paid battle passes, and so on—all fell under the category of “other activities.”

In other words, besides selling skins and discounting them, there were no other activities for this game.

“This…”

Jin Yong scratched his head, feeling a bit dumbfounded.

All his expertise had absolutely no place to be applied!