After watching this video, Yan Qi felt an indescribable sense of loss.

It was as if the video truly was made by the artificial intelligence AEEIS, using AI thinking to stand from a third-party perspective and make a fair, objective judgment of the entire incident, while expressing heartfelt mockery toward those short-sighted players on the platform.

It seemed to be saying: You humans still claim to be higher life forms, intelligent beings? Is this all you’ve got? You can’t even distinguish between immediate benefits and long-term interests, can’t even control your base desires. You’re nothing but oversized paramecia!

It was infuriating, but somehow there seemed to be no way to refute it.

Because the facts might indeed be just that.

In the internet age, this was an extremely frustrating phenomenon: everyone believed themselves to be rational and smart, able to distinguish right from wrong, and would become righteously indignant about many things. Yet when countless “rational” and “smart” people gathered together online, they often did things more short-sighted than paramecia, things that made other rational people laugh and cry at the same time.

Clearly, humans sometimes overestimated themselves too much.

Yan Qi didn’t know how this problem should be solved, or rather, nobody in this world knew. Countless philosophers, sociologists, biologists, and artists had extensively discussed this issue, producing volumes of classic works.

But on the complex topic of human nature, there would probably only ever be incremental progress, never a final conclusion.

Yan Qi even questioned himself: if he wasn’t the designer of “Empire’s Blade,” but just an ordinary player who stumbled onto the Morning Dew gaming platform, would he be able to consistently evaluate these games from an objective standpoint and resist the temptation of 50% refunds after games were taken down?

He was surprised to discover that his answer was: he didn’t know.

Perhaps he would make the right choice, but he wasn’t certain.

This made him feel even more disheartened.

However, Yan Qi quickly pulled himself out of this despondency, because he realized that the appearance of this video was itself something worth celebrating, and he had indeed gained something from this incident.

At least he understood one thing: on many issues, if everyone chooses to mind only their own business, then things might never change. And the first person to step up and take action might seem foolish, might be misunderstood, might bear enormous pressure and losses, might seem completely meaningless—but at least they awaken more people.

Just like the Morning Dew gaming platform, which with its ephemeral existence had caused many designers and players to reexamine themselves.

Yan Qi had always felt that players couldn’t be trusted, and that a designer’s mission was to establish various restrictions and limitations to prevent those players who liked to exploit loopholes from finding any, ensuring the game could continue operating normally.

But now Yan Qi realized that while this might be the most efficient way, the most problem-solving approach, it wasn’t necessarily the most correct way.

Just like that famous saying: There are only two ways to solve problems in the world—the easy way and the right way.

Thinking about it carefully, wasn’t it something to be extremely proud of, something honorable, that he could personally witness the entire process of this gaming platform from its emergence to its demise?

In any case, doing the right thing alongside this gaming platform—even if the game was taken down—what of it?

Money could always be earned again, but such meaningful things weren’t always available to do just because you wanted to.

The Morning Dew gaming platform had already done the hardest part. For game developers, they only needed to complete their games, fix the bugs, and then quietly wait.

Yet even such a simple thing, many game companies still failed to do properly.

Seeing their games about to be taken down, they rushed to pressure the Morning Dew gaming platform, demanding changes to the platform rules, only seeing their own interests being harmed while completely disregarding that the Morning Dew gaming platform had actually sacrificed more and borne most of the pressure.

Even Yan Qi himself had previously harbored many doubts about the Morning Dew gaming platform, and had even considered abandoning it to seek opportunities elsewhere.

This was truly embarrassing.

“I should also contribute what little I can to the platform and stick with it until the end!”

“At worst, the game gets taken down. After being taken down, we can re-launch it a month later and be back in business. Besides, we can also make money on other platforms; it’s not like we’ll starve to death.”

“No matter what, keeping our game in the Morning Dew gaming platform’s library is at least doing what little we can to help!”

Having figured this out, Yan Qi felt suddenly enlightened.

Even if this matter had no outcome in the future, so what? Doing what was right according to his conscience was enough.

With his mind clear, Yan Qi clicked on the comment section of the video.

While he had been engaged in his ideological struggle, the video’s comments, bullet comments, and other metrics had rapidly increased.

This video was well-produced with concise content, discussing a hot topic in the gaming circle, and had been shared and recommended by Qiao Laoshi, so its traffic attraction effect was naturally excellent.

Clearly, the commenters were just like Yan Qi, as if enlightened by a sudden epiphany.

“So well said! I previously thought the Morning Dew gaming platform was too stupid, how could they be so stupid? Now I realize it’s not stupidity, but knowing something can’t be done yet doing it anyway!”

“So moving, it’s breaking my heart. Sigh, indeed, many people simply don’t deserve such a good platform!”

“Exactly! Strictly controlling game quality, requiring all games to fix bugs before going online, and even giving players the privilege to take down games—and this is how they use that power? Simply hopeless!”

“I object! Don’t attack all players! Those causing trouble on the Morning Dew gaming platform are just a small group of locusts swarming between different platforms, they don’t care about the platform’s survival! Most players can distinguish right from wrong, it’s just that this is a new platform, so most rational players haven’t come yet.”

“Right, I had only seen advertisements for this platform online before, had no idea there were so many stories behind it, I’m logging in right now!”

“Such a good platform can’t be destroyed by these low-quality players. I’m going to help too, contributing what little I can!”

“Morning Dew gaming platform’s attitude of embracing death to find life really moves me, and reminds me of Tenda. I originally thought only Tenda would do such foolish things, and I’ve always been hoping Tenda would launch a gaming platform. Although this platform isn’t from Tenda, it’s doing the same things as Tenda. Just for this reason, I want to support it!”

“Who exactly is this Young Master Tian? It feels like he’s just a puppet posting videos, could the real author be AEEIS? This feeling is exactly the same as when arguing with AEEIS, leaving people speechless.”

“Indeed, this aggressive stance is completely different from other content creators’ styles.”

“No way, is the AI crisis coming?”

Many players were speculating about who this Young Master Tian really was.

He definitely didn’t seem like an ordinary person.

Unfortunately, there was absolutely no relevant information to be found online, and the video revealed no clues whatsoever.

Like a completely transparent existence.

Besides this, many players were clearly touched by the video just like Yan Qi, and flocked to the Morning Dew gaming platform to help.

Given the current situation of the Morning Dew gaming platform, having a few more rational players wouldn’t really make much difference.

After all, whether the platform’s entire mechanism could continue to operate healthily depended on the decisions of most players on the platform. A few players wouldn’t be enough.

But what if enough players poured in to actually change the previous player demographic structure?

Yan Qi suddenly realized that things might not be as bad as he imagined.

The Morning Dew gaming platform’s current situation appeared hopeless, since once the power to take down games was given to players, how things would develop was no longer up to the platform.

The platform couldn’t possibly go back on its word and retract this right, as that would be like slapping its own face and completely stripping away the platform’s uniqueness.

But expecting these players to suddenly develop a conscience? That obviously wasn’t realistic either.

But now Yan Qi suddenly discovered another possible solution.

That was to let the entire gaming platform undergo a complete blood transfusion, thoroughly changing the platform’s player structure!

Currently, players focused only on immediate benefits without caring about the platform’s survival constituted the majority. This was because the Morning Dew gaming platform was new, and its games held little attraction for many veteran players, so it could only attract players of relatively poor quality.

This video was clearly insufficient to influence these players to give up their immediate interests.

To be precise, perhaps nothing could influence this group of players.

But what if this video could promote the Morning Dew gaming platform’s actions, bringing in more rational players who would gradually dilute these short-sighted players, changing the entire platform’s player structure and spontaneously forming a better environment?

This would require time, not something that could be accomplished overnight, and the cost would be enormous, requiring long-term acceptance of losses.

But as long as they persisted, there was still hope.

As for whether this would ultimately succeed, it depended on how one viewed the player base as a whole.

If one believed that the majority of players were short-sighted, irrational, and only concerned with immediate benefits, then the Morning Dew gaming platform definitely wouldn’t last long.

If one believed that the majority of players could distinguish between immediate and long-term benefits and were rational, then as long as the Morning Dew gaming platform held on for a while, it could slowly develop, and would become smoother and better in the later stages.

Searching his heart, Yan Qi would still choose to believe the latter.

Reality and ideals were different, and similarly, actual reality and expected reality were also different.

For many people, they needed to believe in something for life to have meaning, to have goals to pursue and motivation to persevere.

“I should learn more from the people at the Morning Dew gaming platform—not seeking eternity, but seeking a clear conscience.”

“I’ll just keep making my game well!”

Yan Qi suddenly felt very open-minded, and the previous confusion and melancholy all disappeared as he figured this out.

As if infected by some optimistic spirit, he understood certain things.

If a goal was extremely difficult to achieve, then don’t repeatedly think about it, but instead focus on taking the first step and let things flow naturally.

After all, with a company like Tenda already stepping up, how hard could it be for himself to quietly follow suit?

…

Meanwhile, in Guangzhou.

South Studio of the Poverty Path Project Incubator.

After the North Studio in Beijing got on track, Qiu Hong immediately traveled to Shanghai and Guangzhou, opening East and South Studios in these two places respectively.

Currently everything was running smoothly.

Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou could be said to be the most developed areas for the gaming industry nationwide, with abundant talent. So the incubator certainly wouldn’t lack people; the only question was how to find them.

After some practice in Beijing, Qiu Hong had become quite proficient at quickly finding people and quickly determining whether a game should receive funding from the Poverty Path Project.

Of course, this wasn’t a particularly difficult technical task, since Mr. Pei had never cared whether these games succeeded or failed.

Moreover, Qiu Hong didn’t even need to actively search; naturally, many independent game designers came knocking on his door.

Since the official platform editor Xia Jiang published that interview, many people had been suspecting that the real investor behind the Poverty Path Project was Mr. Pei of the Tenda Group.

But Qiu Hong always remembered Mr. Pei’s teachings and would never admit it no matter what.

Previously, the official platform had interviewed the Poverty Path Project Incubator, then interviewed Meng Chang who was responsible for the “Domestic Game Collection” promotional work, with just over a day between the interviews, which obviously had some implicative meaning.

Additionally, the layout of the Poverty Path Project Incubator had some similarities with Tenda Group, eating Slackin’ takeout, using Tuoguan Fitness…

It was hard not to be suspicious.

But suspicion was just suspicion; Qiu Hong simply refused to admit it, and nothing would happen.

Moreover, the Poverty Path Project had so many independent game designers, and not every game was popular. There were some games that didn’t perform well, that players didn’t like much, and the creators were still quietly making revisions.

Ultimately, pure passion was definitely not enough; players would only pay for excellent games in the end.

In short, the Poverty Path Project became hot for a while after that, then gradually cooled down a bit, returning to stability. Apart from some players passionate about domestic independent games who continued to follow it, it was only quite famous in the circle of independent game designers.

Now, independent game designers all took pride in receiving investment from the Poverty Path Project, which also allowed the incubator’s three studios to develop and grow rapidly.

After half a year of development, the three studios of the Poverty Path Project had produced a new batch of games, while the previously released or pre-sold games that had received good reviews, such as “Working Dog Survival Manual” and “Ink and Smoke,” were still being continuously updated and maintained.

For independent game developers, their output speed was far from comparable to large companies due to insufficient manpower.

So, after developing a game, to fully express all their intended ideas might require continuously adding content over a year or two, which was an inevitable process.

In any case, the Poverty Path Project had, as Mr. Pei had hoped, incubated a batch of excellent games.

At this moment, Qiu Hong had just finished watching Young Master Tian’s video.

“There’s actually such a gaming platform?”

“Wouldn’t Mr. Pei invest in this?”

Seeing the Morning Dew gaming platform’s deeds, Qiu Hong’s first reaction was that it would definitely receive investment from Dream Realization Venture Capital.

Because it matched Mr. Pei’s style too perfectly!

Qiu Hong even suspected that this might be a gaming platform set up by Mr. Pei himself.

After researching for a while, discovering that the Morning Dew gaming platform didn’t capture Tenda account data and hadn’t listed any Tenda games, Qiu Hong reluctantly accepted the fact that this platform had no direct relationship with Tenda.

“Such a gaming platform is truly precious!”

“I must help them!”

“After all, when Mr. Pei asked me to create the Poverty Path Project, wasn’t it to support the development of domestic independent games? Then, helping and supporting good domestic gaming platforms is also part of my job, right?”

“After all, Mr. Pei has always been teaching by example, conveying this concept to us!”

Qiu Hong immediately decided to package all the Poverty Path Project games and upload them to the Morning Dew gaming platform!

Such a conscientious gaming platform with few premium games—was that acceptable?

The Poverty Path Project and the Morning Dew gaming platform were a perfect match just by the sound of it!

Of course, some games in the Poverty Path Project weren’t of very good quality or had many bugs, possibly not meeting the requirements of the Morning Dew gaming platform.

But so what? If there were bugs, fix them; if the game quality wasn’t good enough, improve it.

After all, Mr. Pei had high requirements for the Poverty Path Project’s games, and failed games all had to be reworked. Compared to Mr. Pei’s requirements, what were the Morning Dew gaming platform’s requirements?

Qiu Hong thought that Mr. Pei was probably just too busy with work and hadn’t noticed this small platform’s situation yet.

If Mr. Pei saw it, wouldn’t he, in the spirit of the Poverty Path Project, immediately provide strong support and invest a large sum of money?

Since help would be given sooner or later, there was nothing wrong with the Poverty Path Project taking the first step.

Thinking of this, Qiu Hong immediately called Xi Hao.

“Package all the currently completed games from the Poverty Path Project and send them all to the Morning Dew gaming platform!”

“Such a good platform, we can’t just watch it collapse.”

“Put all our games up there. After all, the Poverty Path Project has accumulated a group of relatively rational players who support domestic independent games. This will definitely help improve the ecosystem of the entire platform!”

“It might not have a very obvious effect, but it’s at least contributing what little we can!”