It’s worth noting that during the meeting, both Zhu Xiaocai and Ye Zhizhou had been inspired by Mr. Pei’s insights when they came up with these two new ideas.

They might have been feeling quite pleased with themselves about their ideas, completely overlooking these subtle details.

But Mr. Pei, after simply listening to both of them describing their ideas, instantly recognized the issues with each of their concepts and cleverly used the method of swapping ideas to help their stories reach their theoretical maximum potential.

What was this called?

This was called the finishing touch, turning decay into magic!

A true master could, through a seemingly simple and even somewhat absurd operation, transform an excellent work into a masterpiece.

Yu Fei even felt that staying to continue working on this game was the right decision.

Being able to personally experience something like this was an absolute win!

What was the use of working in isolation? At most, it meant typing a few more words. But following Mr. Pei allowed one to learn these profound game design techniques and experience so many excellent stories.

Yu Fei couldn’t help but think, if one day he was eliminated first and left Tenda’s game department, wouldn’t he be absolutely invincible if he went back to writing web novels?

So, he abandoned the idea of resigning again and decided to develop “The Future You Chose” before making any decisions.

To create such a masterpiece with his own hands would be simply amazing!

After straightening out his thoughts, Yu Fei began writing the plot.

This time, “The Future You Chose” involved simultaneously producing a game and shooting a film, jointly handled by Tenda Games, Shangyang Games, and Fei Huang Studio, each with their own responsibilities.

Among them, Yu Fei was mainly responsible for the narrative structure, providing support for both the game and the film; Ye Zhizhou was in charge of game mechanics design, while Zhu Xiaocai was shooting the film.

Yu Fei needed to first clarify both stories, refine various details, and maintain constant communication with Ye Zhizhou and Zhu Xiaocai during this period.

The three would work together, ensuring that both the game and the film developed in the direction Mr. Pei required.

In addition, Yu Fei would also incorporate these two different stories into a book, which would be the official novel of “The Future You Chose.”

His book was already cyberpunk-themed, currently just begun and not yet deeply developed, so modifications were very convenient.

Yu Fei planned to fully integrate these two stories into his existing narrative framework, combined with the “resistance against Tenda” worldview proposed by Mr. Pei. This way, the available themes would be extremely rich.

Of course, after this integration, the entire story structure would be quite different from traditional web novels.

But that didn’t matter. Yu Fei felt there was no need to be too rigid or inflexible about such things. What’s wrong with web novels? Ultimately, web novel readers don’t want a certain formula; they want good stories.

The creative principles of web novels weren’t immutable; they could be broken as long as one could provide sufficiently good content.

In this regard, Yu Fei was full of confidence, rapidly typing on his keyboard, feeling that his work efficiency had improved tremendously again.

…

Meanwhile, Zhu Xiaocai was at Fei Huang Studio, discussing Ye Zhizhou’s idea with Huang Sibo.

Although Huang Sibo wasn’t as knowledgeable about filmmaking as Zhu Xiaocai, he had a background as a game designer and had a profound understanding of games.

The reasoning that Yu Fei could figure out, Huang Sibo naturally understood even faster.

After carefully studying Ye Zhizhou’s idea, Zhu Xiaocai also discovered its essence.

Through their discussion, they understood Mr. Pei’s intentions.

Zhu Xiaocai sighed, “Although my idea seemed good, thinking about it carefully, I realize it has certain problems.”

“At the time, my mind was full of grand scenes and war scenes, thinking about the protagonist’s gradual process of becoming ‘inhuman’ to fight against Tenda. I was somewhat trapped in my own thinking pattern.”

“But upon careful consideration, isn’t this more suitable for a game to present?”

“Creating war scenes burns through a lot of special effects and budget, and besides, how can watching these war scenes in a movie compare to the satisfaction of personally controlling the protagonist in battle in a game?”

“The protagonist gradually modifying himself appears pale in a film but can be portrayed very profoundly in a game. Because after the protagonist modifies himself, players can directly experience the improvement in combat power, which can also influence the game’s combat mechanics.”

“Players unknowingly become addicted to this power progression, so when the protagonist falls into confusion on the rooftop at the end, players will empathize and be questioned.”

“This perfectly aligns with Mr. Pei’s favored approach of ‘breaking the fourth wall.'”

“And the protagonist exploding into fireworks in mid-air… players would find it hard to empathize with, whereas in a film, allowing viewers to watch from an observer’s perspective would be more appropriate.”

“Ye Zhizhou’s idea is more suitable for a film.”

“Because the focus of this idea isn’t on action scenes but on dramatic content. A small-time thug who grows up on the streets, with combat abilities that aren’t very strong even at the end. The endpoint of this story isn’t about upgrading or fighting, but on focusing on various characters.”

“Compared to large war scenes, the life details in a cyberpunk world would be more suitable for film display because we can use exquisite sets instead of special effects, which is the advantage of film over games.”

“Films give viewers a sense of detachment; they don’t completely identify with the characters but rather observe from an outsider’s perspective.”

“Viewers watch the protagonist climb step by step from a street thug, using any means necessary to achieve his goals, only to end up with nothing.”

“In a game, players might not accept this because they’ve identified with the protagonist and feel they’ve put in effort without reward; but in a film, viewers watching from an observer’s perspective can easily accept it and even develop a sense of compassion from a superior position.”

“So, Mr. Pei’s modification is simply a stroke of genius!”

“If we had completely adhered to our own ideas, the game and film produced might only have been ordinary masterpieces.”

“But now, with the two ideas swapped, they both have the potential to become legendary works!”

The more Zhu Xiaocai and Huang Sibo analyzed, the more impressive they found Mr. Pei to be.

What is the Midas touch?

The feeling of working on a project with Mr. Pei was like climbing a high mountain shrouded in layers of clouds.

Each time you passed through a layer of clouds, you thought you were getting closer to the summit, but as you continued climbing and passed through more cloud layers, you discovered you still couldn’t see the peak, naturally feeling your own insignificance.

Zhu Xiaocai immediately got busy, beginning the various preliminary preparations for the film.

How the game protagonist would be designed depended on the game department’s intentions, but for the film’s protagonist, it definitely had to be played by Lu Zhiyao!

This time, he would take on several different identities in the film.

From the initial street thug, to the mid-stage contact person and fierce gang leader, and finally transforming into a wealthy businessman—each identity was extremely challenging.

Moreover, there were many, many details involved.

For instance, in the segment where he becomes a wealthy businessman, Lu Zhiyao would need to portray at least three images: the original wealthy businessman, the protagonist learning to become a wealthy businessman, and the protagonist after truly becoming a wealthy businessman.

According to the plot setting, the original wealthy businessman and the protagonist had similar physiques and appearances, which was why the impersonation could be effective.

Therefore, makeup and special effects techniques would be used to make certain changes to Lu Zhiyao’s appearance, making it clear to the audience that: the wealthy businessman and the protagonist were two completely different people who just happened to look somewhat similar.

And the three images mentioned earlier had obvious distinctions.

The original wealthy businessman should be very natural—someone born into wealth, well-educated, with a unique temperament in his every move.

The protagonist learning to become a wealthy businessman had to work hard to break his habits as a street thug, correcting his behavioral patterns and way of speaking.

The protagonist who finally became a wealthy businessman was a combination of both, needing to look like the original wealthy businessman but not identical, while retaining some of the protagonist’s behavioral details. After all, no one could completely become another person through imitation.

Whether these subtle differences between the three images could be perfectly presented to the audience entirely depended on Lu Zhiyao’s acting skills.

But Zhu Xiaocai believed that Lu Zhiyao would certainly be very willing to accept this challenge.

Fei Huang Studio quickly entered a tense, busy state of launching a major project.

They continued working until noon, clocking out on time.

The two put down their work, preparing to have lunch first.

Tenda’s employees all had a special ability—they could immediately stop their work when it was time to clock out, and when they returned to work, they could quickly pick up where they left off.

In other words, work could be paused at any point without affecting efficiency.

There was no choice; this ability had been forced upon them.

Clocking out on time was due to Mr. Pei’s strict requirements, while perfectly continuing work after clocking in was to ensure task completion and improve efficiency.

Everyone found it difficult to adapt at first, but gradually discovered that their work capabilities had significantly improved!

The reason was simple: to achieve this “stop and continue anytime” work state, one had to plan their work content very clearly, knowing exactly what to do at a glance.

And in the process of constantly cultivating this planning ability, everyone’s work capability naturally improved.

This principle was actually similar to writing novels: some authors relied heavily on inspiration and flashes of genius—when inspiration struck, they had to write non-stop because if they did something else, the inspiration might be lost; but mature authors often understood how to produce steady, continuous output, with planned content that could be paused and resumed at any time.

The difference between the two was essentially a difference in creative ability.

While eating Slackin’ takeout, Huang Sibo opened the department head group chat that he hadn’t checked for a long time.

Like Yu Fei and Zhu Xiaocai, he had been seriously contemplating game mechanics and film scripts recently, not paying much attention to external matters.

However, looking at the discussions in the department head group, Huang Sibo realized that quite a lot had happened recently.

The first event was the news that GOG and IOI were merging, which had caused quite a stir.

The second event was that many of Tenda’s departments were under fierce attack, and the situation didn’t look optimistic!