Meanwhile, at Magic City Airport.

Lu Xiaoping had just disembarked from his flight and gotten into the special car Shengyun Group had sent to pick him up, but his mind was a complete mess.

“What exactly is going on?”

“Can someone explain to me what this game’s plot is all about? What is Mr. Pei thinking?”

Lu Xiaoping felt utterly confused.

After returning to Fanqi Media, Lu Xiaoping had been busy with promotional matters for the new film. These past few days had been non-stop work, keeping him extremely occupied.

Tenda Group’s movie “The Future You Choose” hadn’t officially premiered yet, so although Lu Xiaoping considered it important, he hadn’t paid too much attention to it.

After all, the film had already won awards, so it definitely had substance. In the end, it would surely be a genuine battle. Worrying early wouldn’t help—things would become clear once both films were released.

Lu Xiaoping was also full of confidence in his own film.

As for the game, he hadn’t been too concerned about it. Although it shared a name with the film, it didn’t directly compete with Fanqi Media, so it wasn’t worth spending too much energy monitoring.

But today, after the game’s official release, numerous reports about it were thrust directly in Lu Xiaoping’s face.

The most shocking aspect for Lu Xiaoping was that Tenda Group actually played the villain in this game, portraying itself as a true monopolistic conglomerate.

This was absolutely ridiculous!

Moreover, no matter how hard one looked in the game, there was absolutely no trace of any other Anti-Tenda Alliance companies. The game did feature several major financial groups supporting the resistance, but neither their logos nor the appearances of their executives provided any clues.

If one were to force connections, the companies that somewhat resembled those in the game were actually those closer to Tenda, such as Tianhua Studio, Shenhua Group, and Fuhui Capital.

In short, Tenda Group itself became the villain that gets defeated in the game, and the entire game never mentioned anything about the Anti-Tenda Alliance.

This left Lu Xiaoping feeling extremely frustrated, as if their full-force attack had hit nothing but air.

Originally, he and Nie Yunsheng had judged that since this was a satirical cyberpunk work, Tenda would surely use the various Anti-Tenda Alliance companies as villains, highlighting the importance of their own actions. But they never expected this prediction to completely miss the mark.

After creating a frenzy online beforehand, everything suddenly reversed when the game was released.

Those previous hype posts had all become very amusing performance art, now being ridiculed by countless people.

That’s right—not vilified, but ridiculed.

Just a quick look at online discussions revealed that the Anti-Tenda Alliance had miscalculated this time, losing face tremendously in public opinion.

“Previously, so many people said Tenda Group wanted to use ‘The Future You Choose’ to attack other enterprises’ reputations and create an echo chamber. Where are these people now? Come out and show yourselves.”

“I’m dying of laughter! These people are way too self-important! Tenda Group never even mentioned this at all.”

“You garbage companies actually thought you deserved to appear in a game made by Tenda. Do you know what Tenda’s games and movies are? They’re art, not something any random cat or dog is qualified to make a cameo in.”

“These people have been frantically attacking Tenda Group, eliminating dissent, being narrow-minded, only to finally discover that they themselves are the narrow-minded ones. They assumed the worst intentions, but Tenda showed magnanimity and great generosity by making themselves the villain.”

“Do all the companies in the Anti-Tenda Alliance have persecution complexes?”

Seeing these mockeries from netizens, Lu Xiaoping felt like he had a mouthful of old blood stuck in his chest, almost spitting it out.

Especially considering that Mr. Pei had previously gone to great lengths to notify Nie Yunsheng—first posting on Weibo, then contacting him privately—trying hard to tell Nie Yunsheng that Tenda Group really hadn’t portrayed the Anti-Tenda Alliance or Nie Yunsheng in their new game and film.

But Nie Yunsheng simply wouldn’t believe it.

Not only did he disbelieve Mr. Pei’s words, he actually thought it was Mr. Pei’s strategy of misdirection, which strengthened his determination to persist with his stance.

The result was: the higher they had jumped before, the harder they fell now.

What made Lu Xiaoping even more desperate was that the film hadn’t even been released yet.

The worldviews of the game and film were basically bound to be related. Tenda Group had already played the villain in the game, so they were most likely also the villain in the film.

It couldn’t be that they were villains in the game but suddenly became heroes in the film, could it? Wouldn’t that be schizophrenic?

If considered this way, then all of Fanqi Media’s current contingency plans for Tenda Group’s new film were completely invalid, because they had guessed the enemy’s strategic intentions wrong from the very beginning.

If the foundation was wrong, what was the point of discussing what came after?

This put Lu Xiaoping in an extremely passive position. He began to seriously consider the film’s promotional strategy and felt he needed to make some corresponding adjustments, but didn’t know where to start.

While he was still pondering, they arrived at Shengyun Group headquarters.

Lu Xiaoping hurried to Nie Yunsheng’s office, only to discover that Zheng Hao and several other company owners or executives were also there.

They had clearly all been stunned by Mr. Pei’s game and were discussing countermeasures.

The biggest scapegoat, Nie Yunsheng, didn’t look very good at this moment. Seeing Lu Xiaoping arrive, he quickly stood up to welcome him to sit down, alleviating the awkward atmosphere from earlier.

“I can only say Mr. Pei is a master of psychological warfare. I was indeed careless and fell for his trap. This man is so unpredictable with his mix of truth and falsehood that it’s truly difficult to guess his thoughts.”

“But given the situation, we still need to find a way to solve the problem, otherwise all our groundwork before our film’s release will have been in vain.”

“If anyone has good ideas, speak up quickly. This concerns our final measures.”

While being frank, Nie Yunsheng unconsciously shifted the blame from himself, pinning it on thin air.

Others certainly noticed this, but at such a critical moment, it wasn’t time to assign blame—they needed to solve the problem.

This was a desperate counterattack by the Anti-Tenda Alliance, made in a situation where Tenda already held comprehensive advantages in various fields.

If they failed again this time, the Anti-Tenda Alliance could truly pack up and leave.

Lu Xiaoping had considered several approaches on his way here, and now it was up to him to offer suggestions.

“I think we must pivot now.”

“Continuing with our previous strategy would be suicide. Our attacks claiming that Tenda used the game to slander other companies, creating an echo chamber, eliminating dissent, and defaming other law-abiding enterprises—these arguments can no longer stand.”

“However, we can make some adjustments based on their counterarguments.”

“Currently, many people online are praising Tenda Group’s self-deprecating spirit, since Tenda Group indeed put its own image in the game as the final big villain.”

“But this is also a point we can seize, use, and attack.”

“That is, Tenda Group’s self-deprecation isn’t actually profound—it’s even a form of self-beautification.”

“If we can interpret this game as Tenda Group’s beautifying propaganda about itself, then we can neutralize its other connotations and lay the foundation for our film’s success.”

Nie Yunsheng and the other executives’ eyes lit up, as if seeing hope and dawn.

This indeed seemed feasible.

Currently, the Anti-Tenda Alliance’s biggest concern was that losing the public opinion battle during the game’s release would adversely affect the upcoming film. So their current strategic goal was at least to reduce this adverse impact and prepare the ground for the film.

Now some players online wanted to elevate this game to a masterpiece and extend its popularity to the film. What they needed to do was continuously downplay the game’s deeper meaning, making it appear very superficial, thereby elevating their own film.

Everyone looked at Lu Xiaoping: “But from which angles should we attack this game?”

After considering for a moment, Lu Xiaoping said: “I’ve briefly watched the gameplay footage of this game. Overall, the game’s plot arrangement has some similarities with the film, so I tried to analyze its deeper meaning from a cinematic perspective.”

“I believe that although this game overtly portrays Tenda Group as the ultimate villain, in reality, Tenda Group appears more like an innocent victim.”

“Especially in the plot, the department head surnamed Wu almost explicitly indicated that Tenda Group, despite holding a monopoly position, never utilized this artificial intelligence system for military purposes, nor did it excessively intrude upon or control ordinary people.”

“In other words, Tenda Group, as a monopolistic conglomerate, still retained a baseline conscience, and it was precisely this conscience that led to their defeat. Meanwhile, that corporate executive hidden within the resistance actually seized this power and stole the fruits of the resistance’s struggle. It’s foreseeable that in the future, they will develop into a monopolistic financial group even worse than Tenda Group.”

“So I believe this is a form of ostensible criticism but implicit praise. On the surface, it adopts a self-deprecating posture by making Tenda Group the villain, but in the details, it tries every possible way to beautify Tenda Group, creating a subconscious impression in everyone: Tenda Group might not seem very good, but it’s still the best among all companies.”

“Those companies clamoring to overthrow Tenda Group will end up being worse than Tenda Group.”

“Once audiences have this subtly implanted subconscious impression, it’s a double win for Tenda Group.”

“On one hand, they gain heat, traffic, and reputation through self-deprecation; on the other hand, they establish this subconscious impression in the audience’s mind, always placing Tenda Group a level above other companies.”

“In short, it’s all calculation!”

“However, precisely because of this, we can counter it. We can find ways to deconstruct the hidden intentions in this game, expose Mr. Pei’s conspiracy, and analyze the shallow premise of this game.”

“If a cyberpunk-themed work isn’t criticizing major financial groups but actually praising them, then the very purpose of this work has been negated by us.”

“This way, our film ‘My Property’ will naturally completely surpass Tenda’s work in terms of premise, creating a comprehensive dominance over both their game and film!”

“This is turning crisis into opportunity!”