Qiao Liang sat down in the director’s position, feeling good.

He opened the AiLiDao website app and glanced at the status update he had posted on Sunday.

“I apologize to all my fans, but due to unexpected circumstances, I need to pause my content for a while. I’m going to Tenda to be an acting director, in charge of Rabbit Tail Livestreaming, so I probably won’t be able to update for the near future…”

On Sunday, Qiao Liang had already confirmed that he would be coming to Rabbit Tail Livestreaming, so he had given his viewers advance notice, making a proper announcement.

Disappearing without a word wasn’t something a professional content creator and streamer would do.

Unfortunately, his fans didn’t seem to buy it.

“Huh? You can’t trust a single punctuation mark that Old Qiao says!”

“Going to Rabbit Tail Livestreaming as an acting director? You? At least try to make your lies somewhat believable!”

“An excuse for delaying updates? Pretty creative, I guess. Most people wouldn’t dare to make up something this outrageous.”

“Go ahead, go ahead. You usually only update once a month anyway, you’re always MIA. At least this time you bothered to make up some excuse in the midst of your busy schedule. Your daddies are already very comforted!”

Reading these comments, Qiao Liang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

These days, people wouldn’t even believe the truth!

He had initially thought about taking a photo of the office to prove himself, but then reconsidered, feeling it wasn’t appropriate. It would be too deliberate a show-off, not smooth at all.

That wouldn’t be right!

Well, he’d better suppress his desire to show off and honestly focus on doing a good job as the acting director.

He absolutely couldn’t let down Mr. Pei’s trust, otherwise Qiao Laoshi’s lifelong reputation would be ruined!

If Qiao Laoshi stepped in and managed to destroy Rabbit Tail Livestreaming—widely recognized in the industry as having the most loyal viewers—wouldn’t his name be cursed for generations?

Yes, he had to maintain the right attitude and take this seriously. Since he was now a director, he had to be responsible and not just think about showing off.

During this period, he would work hard, do well as the acting director, achieve results, and then he could show off big time.

After briefly looking through the various instructions left by Hu Xianbin, Qiao Liang had a general understanding of Rabbit Tail Livestreaming’s current situation.

As a streamer on Rabbit Tail Livestreaming, Qiao Liang already had a fairly deep understanding of the platform, and now after seeing these internal documents, he naturally knew even more clearly.

Two points were particularly noteworthy.

First, the Anti-Tenda Alliance was already pulling in streaming platforms like Wolf Fang Livestreaming to join them, intending to completely encircle and suppress Rabbit Tail Livestreaming.

Of course, the other streaming platforms had actually targeted Rabbit Tail Livestreaming before, but after several rounds of friction, they discovered that Rabbit Tail Livestreaming had taken a completely different path from ordinary streaming platforms, so they later ignored it.

But as Rabbit Tail Livestreaming began to increasingly integrate with Tenda games and various metrics began to rapidly grow, these streaming platforms had started to feel uneasy again. Add to that the influence of several major companies in the Anti-Tenda Alliance and the big capital behind them, and naturally they had developed some new ideas about Rabbit Tail Livestreaming.

Second, a racing event that Rabbit Tail Livestreaming had been planning for a long time was about to be officially launched.

This event was meant to be a tie-in with the game “Safe and Civilized Driving.” The competition would be livestreamed in its entirety on Rabbit Tail Livestreaming, and would also be edited and recorded as a variety show.

The competition was divided into three stages: preliminaries, online finals, and offline finals.

The preliminary stage had already been completed, using the “Safe and Civilized Driving” game to select a batch of players who were good at driving simulators, advancing them to the online finals stage.

In the online finals, everyone had to participate using the Safe and Civilized Driving simulator, and winners would be determined.

The winners selected from the online finals could then participate in the offline finals: first, professional racing coaches would teach them, helping them transfer their simulator skills to real-world racing skills as much as possible, and then they would compete in a professional race.

The offline finals were divided into two categories: a professional category for professional racers, and an amateur category for pure online players who had never received racing training and had only played “Safe and Civilized Driving.”

When this event was originally planned, they hadn’t considered the current situation; it was simply intended as a collaboration with the “Safe and Civilized Driving” game.

But given the current situation…

Qiao Liang had a sudden inspiration, feeling that this event might serve as a breakthrough.

As the saying goes, a new official lights three fires.

Qiao Liang had been worried that as a newly appointed director, he wouldn’t have much to do. Wasn’t this a ready-made task delivered right to his doorstep?

……

Meanwhile, the other acting directors also began to take over the operations of various Tenda departments.

At the Horror Inn, Ruan Guangjian had just completed the handover with Hao Qiong and was now working with Ma Yiqun to study the new project design plan sent by Chen Kangtuo.

Ma Yiqun was at the Horror Inn at the grassroots level, so he naturally had to participate in the design of the new project.

“Chen Kangtuo’s concept is quite good. But actually making it happen would be quite challenging!” Ma Yiqun sighed.

The plan for the new haunted house project had been finalized through the collective efforts of various department heads, and it embodied everyone’s hatred for Bao Xu.

The plan itself was naturally very dramatic.

But upon careful study, one would find that it would be extremely difficult to create.

Because Chen Kangtuo’s plan aimed to achieve two effects: one was to make people stay inside for an extended period, and the other was to distort common elements of daily life to create a sense of psychological terror—not a physical attack, but a magical attack.

The former required extremely strong scene planning capabilities, which was relatively easier to handle, since many of Tenda’s directors came from game design backgrounds and had certain advantages in this area.

The latter was much more difficult.

If it were purely horror elements, that might be a bit easier to create—just some fake blood, severed limbs, and other such things, designed to be as frightening as possible, making people afraid to open their eyes.

But Chen Kangtuo’s plan required the scenes to have a certain sense of realism, while also carrying an indescribable eeriness. It couldn’t be so frightening that people wouldn’t dare to open their eyes, yet it needed to bring a sense of mental horror and stimulation.

The balance was incredibly difficult to achieve!

This was the kind of plan that “looked good on paper”—it sounded brilliant at first, but if you couldn’t capture the right feeling, the whole thing would fall apart.

Ruan Guangjian stroked his chin: “But I think this plan is great! Very challenging!”

“I feel like it’s sparked some inspiration in me, and I’m even eager to try it out!”

Ma Yiqun was taken aback for a moment, then realized something.

Right, this problem wasn’t a problem at all for the great Ruan!

The most difficult part of Chen Kangtuo’s plan was imagining those specific scenes.

To accurately capture this feeling required a concept designer with a perfect grasp of this sense of horror—not too much, not too little. The designer couldn’t be too brave, or they wouldn’t be able to feel the horror elements, but they also couldn’t be too timid, or they would lack the imagination for this kind of thrill.

Wasn’t Master Ruan the perfect candidate?

Ma Yiqun had long heard about Ruan Guangjian’s unique condition.

Although he claimed to be most afraid of haunted houses, and indeed would scream continuously once inside, he would emerge looking radiant and thoroughly enjoying the experience.

This indicated that Ruan Guangjian possessed both sensitivity to and imagination for horror elements.

Most crucially, Ruan Guangjian himself was a top-tier artist!

Even if others had this sensitivity and imagination, they might not be able to express it accurately. Having others create on their behalf would inevitably result in a lot of information loss, making it difficult to achieve the desired effect.

But what if an artist personally drew out the entire concept design, even detailing every specific detail?

Then the most brilliant aspect of this plan could be perfectly presented!

Ma Yiqun hurriedly said, “Master, you can do the concept design, and I’ll assist! It’s so fortunate that you came—no one else could handle this plan except you!”

Ruan Guangjian was also excited.

He had previously done illustrations and concept art, but after doing so much of it, he found it boring.

But now, being able to personally design a haunted house?

Just thinking about it was exciting!

“However…”

“This plan doesn’t specify any requirements for the specific design theme,” Ruan Guangjian said.

Ma Yiqun nodded: “Yes, probably because Chen Kangtuo himself hadn’t decided yet. But this is good, it gives us plenty of room to maneuver, to design freely.”

Ruan Guangjian fell into thought: “The plan says to present the most terrifying nightmare for Bao Xu as much as possible.”

“I’m not very familiar with Bao Xu, so I’m not quite clear what this nightmare specifically should be.”

“The plan has already conceived some real-life scenarios related to Tenda, and it also mentions incorporating escape room modes, but in Chen Kangtuo’s view, these still seem somewhat inadequate. Hmm… in his words, the mental torture isn’t quite enough.”

Ma Yiqun pondered: “I think… perhaps it’s that feeling of horror where ‘you think the nightmare is over but then a new journey begins again’?”

“In my impression, Brother Bao’s most desperate moment was when he had just won a trip in the annual company lottery and traveled for a long time, only to return and be evaluated as the best employee, forcing him to set out again without even having time to repack his luggage.”

Ruan Guangjian nodded slightly: “Hmm… that sounds like a very good idea. I think I’m getting some inspiration.”

“First, we’ll make him live in this environment for a month. During this period, if he wants to leave early, he’ll need to collect clues, solve puzzles, and obtain some key items.”

“But during the process of collecting items, once he fails, he’ll return to the starting point. Not only that, when certain specific events are triggered, he’ll also start over from the beginning, or go to specific areas.”

“He can’t just hide in one place the whole time. Sometimes, some doors will close, some doors will open, and some paths will have no way back…”

“It sounds like it will be much more interesting than an ordinary haunted house!”

Ruan Guangjian suddenly felt inspiration coming, unstoppable!

He instinctively placed Bao Xu into this new haunted house project in his mind and began to conceive various details.