October 8th, Monday.

The holiday was over, and it was the first day back to normal work.

Pei Qian sat in his office, questioning his life choices.

Eric and Zhao Xuming really hadn’t done anything at all!

Was it because they were on holiday and didn’t notice the problem? Or did they think the issue wasn’t serious enough to bother working overtime during the holiday to fix it?

This was going a bit too far!

Pei Qian had noticed the problems with the “Gods’ Fantasy” event early in the holiday, but since the issue had nothing to do with Tengda, he could only hope that Eric and Zhao Xuming would put in some effort and quickly patch the loophole.

Tengda didn’t work overtime, but surely Long Yu Group would put in some extra hours for this kind of problem?

But there hadn’t been any response whatsoever!

On the 3rd, Pei Qian thought that Long Yu Group might be slow to realize the issue—after all, IOI’s data should have been pretty good these days without any obvious decline, so it was understandable they hadn’t reacted yet.

By the 5th, Pei Qian thought Long Yu Group had probably identified the problem but couldn’t quickly devise a good countermeasure, and they must be working overtime to research solutions—waiting a bit longer would surely be fine.

Yesterday was already the 7th, the holiday was over, and still no response!

Pei Qian was perplexed. Something wasn’t right.

GOG’s data was clearly starting to rise against the trend, and this issue was being discussed heatedly online. Even if Eric and Zhao Xuming were blind, they should have at least heard the rumors, right?

But even today, with everyone back at work, the IOI side still hadn’t issued any announcements addressing the issue.

It was as if nothing had happened, or as if the event had no problems at all, completely acquiescing to the players’ behavior.

This was very confusing.

It was understandable if other regions worldwide were slow to respond. After all, IOI still had a considerable player base in these regions, and the event itself favored IOI, so data fluctuations wouldn’t be so obvious. This loophole wasn’t that serious.

It wasn’t worth changing the event, issuing announcements, or breaching contracts—essentially slapping themselves in the face—for such a loophole.

But the Chinese server was different.

There weren’t many players left to begin with, and the fish pond had been bombarded by GOG players. Even IOI’s most loyal players had finally been tempted to register GOG accounts…

How could they just sit there and do nothing?

Pei Qian could barely sit still himself.

So, Pei Qian sat in his office questioning his life, completely unable to understand what Eric and Zhao Xuming were doing.

He wanted to call and ask but feared Eric would misunderstand.

Calling at this critical moment would inevitably make people think he was mocking them, rubbing salt in their wounds…

So Pei Qian resisted the urge to call.

The event wasn’t over yet. Although the long holiday was its peak period, to make the traffic diversion effect more sustainable, the IOI side had set the event duration at two weeks. This meant that many players would only receive their final rewards after the end of this week.

This was originally intended to help GOG players develop the habit of logging into IOI daily, achieving a better traffic diversion effect.

But now… the result was hard to predict.

Pei Qian didn’t have any better ideas either, so he could only take things one step at a time.

After all, Mr. Pei was also very busy with a ton of work. He couldn’t possibly do nothing all day and just obsess over IOI’s activities!

He had already been so cooperative with them; if they still messed things up, Mr. Pei could only say: it’s hopeless, just wait for death!

Temporarily setting aside the “Gods’ Fantasy” event, Pei Qian calmed himself down and checked the official data for “Return to Shore.”

Finally!

Last month’s sales for “Return to Shore” had dropped—with great difficulty—just enough to meet the system’s critical threshold: within one-fifth of the previous month’s revenue!

“Thank goodness, at least the basic goal has been achieved.”

Pei Qian couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

Originally, this plan had a high probability of success. “Eternal Cycle” had attracted players’ attention, and many who hadn’t played but were planning to purchase “Return to Shore” had temporarily chosen to wait and see, abandoning the idea of buying “Return to Shore” for the moment. They planned to buy “Eternal Cycle” first for the experience, especially given the huge price difference between the two.

Unexpectedly, Qiao Laoshi’s interpretation had perfectly fused “Eternal Cycle” and “Return to Shore” together!

With terms like “two sides of the same coin” and “perfect DLC” floating around, players felt that buying “Eternal Cycle” without buying “Return to Shore” would be an absolute waste.

So in the last week of the previous month, “Return to Shore” sales surged again, making Pei Qian’s heart tremble.

Fortunately, the results were now in—he had nearly fallen into an abyss of no return.

If last month’s sales hadn’t dropped, then this month’s wouldn’t have dropped either, and making “Return to Shore” free would have been a distant dream—who knew how long he would have had to wait?

Of course, making “Return to Shore” free wasn’t as simple as just changing the price.

On one hand, he needed to submit applications to the official platform; on the other hand, he also needed to properly appease the players.

The application for making it free would be easy to approve, as the official platform’s primary goal wasn’t to make money but to promote the healthy development of the entire industry. A quality game going free would naturally be beneficial for promotion.

The key was appeasing the players.

A large group of players had just been persuaded by Qiao Laoshi to buy both “Eternal Cycle” and “Return to Shore” as a package, and then just days after purchasing, “Return to Shore” was going free. Who could tolerate that?

As a reasonable person, Pei Qian definitely needed to find a way to refund that money—he absolutely wouldn’t take a penny more from players than necessary!

After roughly figuring out a direction, Pei Qian planned to call Yu Fei to his office to briefly discuss this issue.

On second thought, he decided to go to the game department himself.

Because he had more than just one matter to discuss with Yu Fei.

……

A few minutes later, Yu Fei followed Mr. Pei into the meeting room.

During this period, Yu Fei had been carefully counting the days, calculating when Hu Xianbin would return.

With another month gone by, the affairs at the special training base should be wrapping up. Even if Hu Xianbin needed to go home to pack up and rest for a few days, he should be coming back soon, right?

Of course, during the long holiday, the managers in charge of the special training class were also on vacation, and he could see them active in the internal manager group chat again.

But for some reason, all the managers who participated in the special training were extremely secretive about this training session, basically not revealing any critical information. He couldn’t find out anything.

Yu Fei thought, since everyone was reluctant to say much, he shouldn’t ask for now.

After all, when Hu Xianbin returned from training, he could indirectly ask a few questions during the work handover.

During this time, Yu Fei had been diligently learning about game design knowledge, reviewing design documents, and arranging follow-up matters for “Eternal Cycle.”

For example, bug fixes, game content adjustments, refining story elements, and so on.

None of these were particularly complex tasks, so nothing had gone wrong.

At the beginning, Yu Fei felt quite pressured, but now that he felt he was about to leave, the pressure naturally disappeared.

He wondered why Mr. Pei had come to find him today—what could it be about?

Was it to affirm his work as a substitute for the past two months and see him off?

Yes, that was possible.

After all, Mr. Pei was known for his human touch. Taking him and the entire game department to Nameless Restaurant for a big meal as a send-off—that sounded like something Mr. Pei would do.

Or perhaps he wanted to assign another simple small task?

After all, it wasn’t certain exactly when Hu Xianbin would return, and the game department’s work couldn’t simply come to a halt—he needed to stand his last watch.

With these thoughts, Yu Fei sat down across from Mr. Pei.

Pei Qian organized his thoughts and said, “I have two things to assign to you.”

“The first is about making ‘Return to Shore’ free.”

“This month, the base content of ‘Return to Shore’ will be free, but this needs to be discussed with the staff at the official game platform, following the proper procedures.”

“You don’t need to do this personally—assign the task to your subordinates and just keep an eye on the progress.”

“Of course, considering that a batch of players have just purchased ‘Return to Shore,’ we should provide some compensation to them.”

“My idea is to compensate players based on when they purchased. Those who bought this month get a full refund; those who bought last month get an 80% refund; those who bought in August get a 50% refund; those who bought in July get a 25% refund.”

“For those who bought earlier, we won’t be able to compensate.”

Yu Fei nodded; this wasn’t a very complicated matter, just a standard procedure.

“What’s the second thing?”

Pei Qian pondered for a moment, carefully organizing his words: “The second matter concerns the lead designer position for the game department’s design director.”

“Hu Xianbin’s special training period has ended, and next, he should return to the company to continue working.”

When Yu Fei heard this, his eyes immediately lit up. Was this preparing for Hu Xianbin to come back and take over?

Phew… these two months had indeed been quite busy and nerve-wracking, but now it was coming to an end.

But seeing that Mr. Pei’s expression seemed a bit strange, Yu Fei didn’t dare act rashly and waited to see how things would unfold.

Pei Qian: “But after consideration, I feel he’s not suitable to return to the game department. His ability in game design is very strong, but this is precisely a major obstacle facing the game department’s development.”

“He’s too good at developing hit games, which isn’t a good ability, because all games might become wildly popular. This way, the game department’s output would completely turn into assembly-line products, rather than representing innovation.”

“While you’ve only been at the helm of the game department for two months, you carefully launched an unconventional work like ‘Eternal Cycle.’ I think…”

Yu Fei’s eyes widened.

Wait, with Mr. Pei emphasizing this, what was he trying to say?

“So, after comprehensive consideration, Hu Xianbin will be going to Rabbit Tail Live Streaming as a manager and won’t be returning to the game department for now.”

“The lead designer position for the game department will continue to be filled by you!”

Yu Fei could hardly believe his ears.

Hu Xianbin was indeed outstanding.

Even Yu Fei, who never sought power or profit within the company, acknowledged this, as did most people in the game department. In fact, Hu Xianbin had clear advantages over himself.

But the most important lead designer position in the game department—Mr. Pei was using somewhat far-fetched reasons to entrust it to him?

It was a bit incredible!

But on second thought, Yu Fei felt it actually made some sense!

As the saying goes, if a person has achieved success in one field, it becomes much easier to succeed in similar fields.

Hu Xianbin had completed “Return to Shore,” which had received quite good feedback. He should rightfully be assigned to a more important position.

Although Rabbit Tail Live Streaming no longer seemed to be Tengda’s most important business, compared to the game department, it did seem somewhat more important, with higher revenue and a broader prospect to explore.

From this perspective, this appointment indeed didn’t have any issues.

Pei Qian continued: “I believe under your leadership, the game department’s business will definitely get better and better.”

“So, regarding the future planning of the game department, what are your thoughts? ‘Eternal Cycle’ has been released, what are your plans for what comes next?”

Yu Fei couldn’t help feeling excited: “Thank you for your trust, Mr. Pei. This is an acknowledgment of my work!”

“Next, I’ll think about how to plan overall. Specifically, I want to first ensure the bug fixes for ‘Eternal Cycle,’ then further improve the related gameplay mechanics, while also expanding the content for the game later on.”

“However, after that, I’m more inclined to launch a game with richer content and higher quality.”

“As for what specific content, I’m still conceptualizing it.”

Pei Qian silently nodded.

Good! This way, Hu Xianbin could settle down at Rabbit Tail Live Streaming! That’s great!

After Yu Fei took over the game department, they would certainly plan new games.

They might continue the pattern of “Eternal Cycle,” using new games to drive old ones, continuing with a “Gods’ Universe,” but Yu Fei was still a bit inferior to Hu Xianbin, especially in project management. He couldn’t possibly produce the same shocking effect as “Return to Shore.”

The reason Pei Qian chose to communicate with Yu Fei in person was partly to confirm that “Return to Shore” could officially go free, and partly to reassure Yu Fei, ensuring he wouldn’t be distracted at this critical moment of officially assuming the role of game department head.

Of course, judging from Yu Fei’s response, he seemed to have quite good initiative, wanting to create a game with richer content and higher quality…

It seemed that Pei Qian’s understanding of Yu Fei’s abilities was a bit superficial.

He definitely had talent, but for now, he wasn’t as outstanding as Hu Xianbin.

This was the best scenario! The games Yu Fei made wouldn’t be so poor that they would shame the brand, nor would they be too excellent and become wildly popular, leaving Pei Qian unable to cope.

It seemed that Pei Qian’s assessment of each manager’s abilities was quite reasonable.

Old Ma and Hu Xianbin were indeed compatible and matched well! Both were very simple and easygoing people, and both were often easily persuaded. They were sure to become good colleagues!

Yu Fei was still so excited that he couldn’t sit still: “Um, may I ask… does Hu Xianbin know about this?”

After all, he had replaced someone else’s position, and directly transitioned from a substitute to a leader, which was somewhat awkward.

Pei Qian: “Don’t worry, I’ve already communicated with him in person. He expressed that he could accept going to Rabbit Tail Live Streaming and won’t have any complaints.”

This was a small lie.

Pei Qian hadn’t actually discussed this with Hu Xianbin but had arranged for Sun Ce to give Hu Xianbin a heads-up yesterday, saying that after the special training ended, he would no longer serve as the lead designer but would instead go to Rabbit Tail Live Streaming.

Hu Xianbin seemed very understanding at the time. When he heard that Rabbit Tail Live Streaming happened to have a need, and he could be of use, his first reaction was that he could utilize his strengths.

Although he didn’t quite understand why he couldn’t return to the game department, this level of adjustment must have Mr. Pei managing things behind the scenes, so he didn’t ask too many questions.

Mainly, during this period of special training, Hu Xianbin had also felt his own progress and indeed wanted to find a place where he could utilize his specialized skills. He hadn’t given much thought to issues of promotion or demotion.

Since everything had been arranged, Pei Qian would definitely communicate with Hu Xianbin soon and explain the position issue clearly.

Hearing this, Yu Fei finally felt relieved.

He didn’t like scheming and plotting but also didn’t want to create rifts with colleagues.

Since Hu Xianbin was already mentally prepared, it would be fine, and there wouldn’t be any awkwardness when they met in the future. He could focus on designing new games with peace of mind.

With experience, Yu Fei had further recognized his own abilities, gained more confidence, and looked forward to the upcoming game design process.

Pei Qian looked at Yu Fei’s expectant face, and his own expectations grew stronger: Yes, Yu Fei is indeed worthy of replacing Hu Xianbin. I hope he won’t disappoint me!

Make the next game that’s neither a flop nor a blockbuster!