“Damn, you show off and then run? Are you even human, Old Qiao?”

“You could at least tell us what type of game it is before leaving! Is this how a decent person behaves?”

“Could it be that Old Qiao is just making things up? ‘Mission and Choice’ was only released two months ago, and a new game is already playable? Why am I so skeptical?”

“Although Old Qiao isn’t very reliable, he never lies. If he says he’s playtesting a Tenda game, it’s probably true.”

“But what game is it exactly?”

“I’ve always been hoping for Tenda to make an MMORPG game. I hope Mr. Pei can fulfill my wish!”

“I still prefer action games.”

“Give us another realistic masterpiece like ‘Struggle’!”

Everyone let their imaginations run wild, guessing all sorts of game genres.

Since Qiao Liang hadn’t given any clues, not even mentioning the game’s genre, where could they even begin guessing?

But one thing was certain: Tenda was definitely developing a new game, and it had reached the playable stage!

Just this fact alone was enough to keep everyone happily speculating.

As everyone was chattering and making various guesses, someone suddenly proposed a completely new angle.

“I just had a bold connection!”

“Have any of you read the novel ‘Eternal Cycle’?”

“I followed it all the way to completion. It had already finished, but recently the dog author suddenly started working like he was on steroids, intensively revising the novel’s content!”

“The key is that he’s not just revising the plot; he’s also changing some of the basic settings.”

“He’s especially spending a lot of text describing the control of aura during battles, the use of various weapons, and detailing the protagonist’s movements and positions when defending against enemy attacks.”

“Besides that, there are also some plot additions, like how the magic sword gets weaker as the protagonist kills more enemies, how his mind becomes clearer, and his final awakening, and so on.”

“At first I thought it was unnecessary because the changes were all details that didn’t greatly affect the main storyline. These newly added battle descriptions even felt a bit dragged out, affecting the artistic conception of the fights.”

“But thinking carefully, if these revisions were aimed at a game adaptation, they would make perfect sense!”

“The detailed battle descriptions would serve the game’s combat system; the plot additions could better express the complete story through item descriptions in the game, allowing players who haven’t read the original novel to understand the entire story just through the game.”

“Two months is indeed unrealistic for developing a major game from scratch, but what if it’s a sequel to ‘Turn Back to Shore’?”

“Assuming they could use some existing monsters and scenes from ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ the timeframe would be about right!”

“There’s also another crucial clue: Old Qiao was invited to be a playtester!”

“We all know that Old Qiao has only been a playtester for Tenda once, and that was for ‘Turn Back to Shore.'”

“If he’s been invited as a playtester again, it’s most likely for a sequel to ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ because why would they invite Old Qiao for any other game?!”

After this high-intensity analysis, all the silly group members were shocked.

Besides typing “666” (amazing), they were speechless.

Everyone expressed that this expert was too impressive—how could they connect all these dots?

And upon careful consideration, this reasoning was very logical!

There were now three known conditions:

The author of “Eternal Cycle” had spent tremendous effort revising the original novel without much additional benefit, adding a lot of content about battle and plot details.

Old Qiao revealed that Tenda’s new game had reached the playable stage.

Old Qiao had previously been invited by Tenda as a playtester for “Turn Back to Shore,” which was the only time he had gone to Tenda for internal testing.

Additionally, the Inspiration Class was personally established by Mr. Pei, gathering excellent authors from across Endpoint Chinese Web to create content around IPs owned by Tenda, with “Eternal Cycle” being one of the more outstanding works.

Now, there was one possibility that would connect all these known conditions.

If Tenda was truly considering developing a sequel to “Turn Back to Shore” based on the plot of “Eternal Cycle,” everything would make sense!

Moreover, continuing to dig deeper in this direction would lead to some more terrifying conclusions.

As everyone knew, the works from Endpoint Chinese Web’s Inspiration Class weren’t performing well.

Just how poorly they were doing was clearly shown by the data on that ugly promotional image.

But even a poorly performing work like “Eternal Cycle” could be developed as the official sequel to “Turn Back to Shore”!

How many authors would be green with envy?

Old Qiao’s fan group instantly exploded.

“I’m going to ask the dog author if it’s true! I’m still playing ‘Turn Back to Shore’ even now. If there’s a sequel, I’ll definitely buy it immediately!”

“Damn, the dog author has been quietly revising his work. Why not share such big news with us?”

“If this is true, it all makes sense. The other authors must have been stimulated seeing excellent works being developed for copyright, so they’ve found motivation again!”

“I’m in the fan group of that procrastinator Cui Geng. I’ll ask him; he must know something!”

Soon, this news began to spread from Endpoint Chinese Web to various authors’ fan groups, and even across the entire internet!

…

At this moment, Yu Fei was still diligently revising the content of “Eternal Cycle.”

Although it was Friday afternoon, he hadn’t slacked off, trying to make the most of every minute.

Because in August, “Eternal Cycle” would officially begin development. With Tenda’s efficiency, there would be no delays—the development schedule would be very strict.

There was less than a month and a half left.

Before official development began, Yu Fei definitely needed to complete the revision of the entire novel.

So far, although Yu Fei had already revised a lot of content, he himself wasn’t sure exactly how much more needed to be changed or how much time it would take.

“Eternal Cycle” was now the official DLC for “Turn Back to Shore,” personally designed by Mr. Pei, who had also significantly modified the game’s combat system. Success was almost a certainty.

When players came because of the reputation, what would they think if they found the original novel full of plot holes?

So, he had to make the most of every minute and absolutely couldn’t hold things up.

After finishing a section of revisions, Yu Fei took out his phone and browsed through it, immediately finding himself overwhelmed by a barrage of messages.

“Dog author! Has ‘Eternal Cycle’ been officially selected to be developed as a sequel to ‘Turn Back to Shore’?”

“Is the sequel thing true?”

“You’ve been revising the plot so diligently lately. Could it be that your fan fiction really became the official storyline?”

All the questions were along these lines.

After being stunned for a moment, Yu Fei couldn’t help but smile.

Indeed, he knew this couldn’t be kept secret. Even if he didn’t say anything, these people would eventually discover the clues.

However, Yu Fei was a bit curious about how they had found out.

When he had checked online discussions this morning, most people were still guessing whether it was about getting special recommendation spots or channel resources. No one had thought about copyright development.

How had these people made this connection in such a short time?

Yu Fei randomly picked one of his group administrators and replied: “Where did this news come from?”

The administrator immediately responded: “Old Qiao said it! He said he was experiencing a new version of ‘Turn Back to Shore.’ If the game is already playable, it must have been in development for some time! This news source is pretty reliable, right?”

“So is it true? Has ‘Eternal Cycle’ really been officially selected to be released as ‘Turn Back to Shore’?”

“You really know how to keep a secret. Such a big thing and you didn’t say anything earlier. The game is almost finished and you’re still silent!”

“Now that your work has been turned into a game, the other authors must be very envious, right? Does the Inspiration Class always have one work turned into a game each session?”

Yu Fei read all this with complete confusion.

Wait, wait.

What was going on here?

“Eternal Cycle” had indeed been selected by Mr. Pei for development as DLC for “Turn Back to Shore,” but development hadn’t even started yet! It wouldn’t begin until August!

Was Old Qiao sure he was playing this game?

There must be some misunderstanding.

Yu Fei instinctively wanted to clarify and tell everyone that this news wasn’t accurate—”Eternal Cycle” would only begin development more than a month later and hadn’t even been officially initiated as a project yet.

But halfway through typing, he suddenly realized an issue and quickly deleted everything.

No, he couldn’t leak confidential information!

If he clarified things, wouldn’t he be leaking all the information about “Eternal Cycle’s” copyright development?

Mr. Pei had said this matter needed to be kept confidential for more than a month.

Right now, everyone was just suspicious; there was clearly no concrete evidence.

Yu Fei wasn’t sure whether Old Qiao had leaked anything, but he definitely couldn’t leak information himself.

Otherwise, his chat records with others would definitely be shared online as concrete evidence, and Mr. Pei would certainly be unhappy when he saw them.

But what about firmly denying everything?

That wouldn’t work well either. The other party might counter with “If there’s nothing going on, why are you frantically revising your work?” How would he answer that?

With the internet users’ intelligence, since they were already suspicious in this direction, they must have discovered many clues. Outright denial would have the opposite effect.

Disappearing wouldn’t help either; it would just raise more suspicion.

Yu Fei thought carefully and realized there wasn’t a very good solution. He could only reply: “Better not ask too much about this. The situation is complicated, and some of your guesses are even wrong. It’s better not to make wild speculations.”

His intention was to say that Old Qiao must have been mistaken—”Eternal Cycle” would only officially begin development in more than a month, so Old Qiao couldn’t possibly be playing this game now.

After replying, Yu Fei closed the chat window, deciding not to respond further.

The more said, the more mistakes; the less said, the fewer mistakes. Just this one response shouldn’t count as leaking confidential information.

As for what the internet users would think, that was their own business.