December 7, Tuesday.

Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.

Yesterday’s written exam had concluded, and now they had entered the intense paper-grading phase.

Considering the enormous workload of grading, a week had been allocated.

Interviews would be conducted next Monday, a week later, after which they could quickly produce the admission list, determining which batch of people could join Tenda as interns and get the opportunity to take the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test.

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this schedule.

On one hand, the written test, interview, and admission—the entire recruitment process—was stretched to nearly two weeks, creating a certain deterrent effect.

On the other hand, requesting leave twice on Mondays within a short period made most employed candidates feel desperate, effectively deterring a batch of experienced applicants.

In short, finding all possible ways to deter more people was the right approach!

The grading work was temporarily fully entrusted to the Human Resources Department and the Administrative Department.

Given Tenda’s current scale, there was probably no need to guard against favoritism and malpractice yet.

In the future, when recruitment became larger, they would grade papers strictly according to the standards of some large-scale examinations. By then, purchasing specialized equipment and recruiting graders would likely cost another large sum of money.

Just as he was thinking about this, someone knocked on the door.

Pei Qian looked up to see that Ye Zhizhou had arrived.

The development of “BE QUIET” had started earlier than GOG, and by now, they could produce the first demo version.

In its current version, one could hardly speak of completion percentage; at most, it had implemented some of the most basic functions, such as character movement in the scene and the use of props.

The art resources were also far from complete, with only one scene produced. Props, characters, special effects, etc., all had many areas that needed improvement.

However, this initial version already revealed something.

Ye Zhizhou took a deep breath at the doorway of Mr. Pei’s office, calming himself down.

Previously, it had always been Mr. Pei visiting Shangyang Games to check on game development progress. This time, Ye Zhizhou himself was coming to Tenda for an “imperial audience,” so he couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous.

“Stay calm, stay calm.”

“A demo is inherently an imperfect version; various bugs are normal, and Mr. Pei won’t be harsh about it.”

“As long as we can showcase some basic functions properly, it will be fine.”

“Unless… there are too many bugs, making it completely unplayable.”

“That shouldn’t be possible. Before coming, I had the testing group do a simple test and fix those more serious bugs.”

“There are indeed still some minor bugs, but it shouldn’t be so unlucky that we encounter all of them.”

After reassuring himself, Ye Zhizhou knocked and entered.

“Mr. Pei, here’s the game program. Please install it.”

Ye Zhizhou handed over an external hard drive.

Pei Qian reached out to take it, installed the game demo on his computer, and then handed the controller to Ye Zhizhou to operate.

Pei Qian didn’t know what kind of game this was yet.

Because at the time, he had only restricted Shangyang Games with a few general directions, he busied himself with other matters.

So now, Pei Qian had a bit of anticipation for the demonstration of this game demo, curious about what kind of game the people at Shangyang Games would create following the dead-end path he had pointed out.

However…

Under Tang Yishu’s aura enhancement, would it still be possible to see the true state of this demo?

Pei Qian expressed high doubts about this.

After a brief black screen, the game started normally.

Pei Qian was slightly surprised.

It opened! No errors or crashes!

It seemed this demo was made quite well.

Ye Zhizhou, completely unaware of the impending danger, moved the controller’s joystick, operating while explaining.

“The current demo has mainly completed some of the most basic elements, such as character movement, using scene props, and so on.”

“The main purpose is to let you see if the current horror atmosphere and overall style meet your expectations.”

“This is our first character, a standard adult male. The information on the interface shows his health value, stamina value, sanity value, and so on…”

“We plan to release many different body-type character models, allowing players to customize their appearances…”

Ye Zhizhou observed Mr. Pei’s expression as he introduced the game.

Mr. Pei was focused intently on the screen, as if anticipating something.

At the same time, hidden within this anticipation was a bit of… surprise?

Ye Zhizhou couldn’t help feeling a bit proud.

It seemed that Mr. Pei valued their game project highly; this expression of anticipation was not feigned!

Moreover, Mr. Pei’s slight surprise indicated that the current completion level of the game exceeded his expectations.

The situation looked very promising!

Ye Zhizhou’s explanation became even more enthusiastic.

However, only two thoughts occupied Pei Qian’s mind.

“When will a bug appear? I’m looking forward to it.”

“There still haven’t been any bugs yet? The people at Shangyang Games seem to have put a lot of heart into this demo.”

As for the game itself, Pei Qian didn’t have much feeling.

He could only say it was done decently; from this demo alone, there were no signs it would become a huge hit.

The basic content and details of the game, as well as the artistic style, were all well done.

After all, games these days were made using editors; as long as money was spent, the art wouldn’t be lacking.

But the horror atmosphere was far from adequate.

Of course, it might also be because they hadn’t yet added monsters and other players. Without any dangerous scenes, no matter how dark or scary they made it, the level of fear would be limited.

But regardless, this demo hadn’t left a particularly deep impression on Pei Qian so far.

“Mr. Pei, this is a special recorder. After using it, it will play a very harsh and frightening piece of music, greatly reducing the sanity value of surrounding characters. Please take a look…”

As Ye Zhizhou said this, he controlled the game character to walk up and interact with the scene prop.

However, nothing happened.

Ye Zhizhou: “?”

Feeling puzzled, he clicked again.

Still nothing.

“Ahem, Mr. Pei, this might be a small bug, but no worries, we have prepared other props.”

Pei Qian smiled: “No problem, it’s a demo version after all; bugs are very normal.”

Ye Zhizhou breathed a sigh of relief and moved to the second interactive prop.

“This is an axe. After picking it up, you can attack enemies like this.”

Under Ye Zhizhou’s control, the character continuously swung the axe, smashing the surrounding breakable objects like wooden crates and old tables into pieces.

Ye Zhizhou felt relieved; thankfully, the weapon system wasn’t malfunctioning.

However, before he could enjoy this relief for two minutes, the controlled character, while swinging the axe, fell into a gap in the map.

Ye Zhizhou: “…”

Quickly, he pressed the prepared shortcut key, and the character returned to the initial position on the map.

“Ahem, that was a small accident; I accidentally fell into a gap in the map.”

“But don’t worry, Mr. Pei, these gaps will definitely all be sealed up later.”

Pei Qian nodded: “Mm, of course.”

Ye Zhizhou didn’t dare to explain further, fearing he would leave Mr. Pei with a bad impression of “inefficient work and blame-shifting.” He continued controlling the character toward the next arranged prop.

However, this time, after walking just a few steps, the entire screen suddenly froze.

“Ding!”

“Ding ding ding!”

The program terminated, returning to the desktop, with several error prompt boxes appearing layer upon layer, arranged quite ceremoniously.

Ye Zhizhou was too embarrassed to explain further. He silently took the mouse, closed the prompt boxes, and restarted the game.

However, this time, the game wouldn’t even open.

Ye Zhizhou: “…”

Blank.

Confused.

What was going on??

Before coming, Ye Zhizhou had tested on several computers at Shangyang Games. Although they occasionally encountered some minor bugs, a complete demonstration was no problem.

Now the situation was dire; they couldn’t even enter the game…

Ye Zhizhou looked at Mr. Pei with some shame: “Mr. Pei, I don’t know why, it was working fine before I came here…”

“I’m sorry, there are too many bugs in the game. I’ll go back and have them fix it, then come back to demonstrate after some time…”

He was almost too embarrassed to face Mr. Pei directly.

Mr. Pei had shown such interest and anticipation for this game, but they had completely messed it up!

Ye Zhizhou now had only one feeling: he couldn’t face the people of Jiangdong!

How would he explain this to Director Lin when he returned to Shangyang Games…

However, Mr. Pei just smiled and said: “It’s all right. It’s a demo version; these are all very normal situations, no need to blame yourself.”

“Although I haven’t seen the demonstration of the specific content, I’ve already felt your sincerity in development. Just continue along the current path!”

“There’s no need to demonstrate this version again. When the basic gameplay is all completed, come back for a second demonstration.”

Mr. Pei… didn’t blame me?

Ye Zhizhou tried hard to detect any hint of blame in Mr. Pei’s expression but failed.

Mr. Pei’s expression was one of calm mixed with kindness, and within that kindness was a sense of gratification…

Wait, gratification?

What did Mr. Pei have to feel gratified about?

Ye Zhizhou was puzzled.

It certainly wasn’t gratification because of the numerous bugs.

Could it be that Mr. Pei had seen our design ideas through such a short demonstration? And foresaw that this was the correct approach?

Yes, it must be so!

After all, the game’s general direction was determined by Mr. Pei, and Mr. Pei surely understood the final form of this game better than any of us.

In that case, Mr. Pei’s expression wasn’t surprising.

Ye Zhizhou clearly knew that during this period, everyone at Shangyang Games had been working diligently, and the completion level of the demo was not an issue. It was just that today, for some unknown reason, their luck was a bit poor, and bugs kept appearing.

Fortunately, Mr. Pei didn’t pursue the matter and showed enough understanding of this low-probability event.

“Rest assured, Mr. Pei, I’ll fix all the bugs when I go back. The next time I come, I’ll show you an initial version with sufficient completion!”

Ye Zhizhou turned to leave.

Previously, he had felt some complacency, thinking that the game development progress was fast and smooth, naturally generating a sense of laziness.

But now, that feeling had completely vanished.

There was still a long way to go! He must continue to work hard!

Watching Ye Zhizhou suddenly filled with enthusiasm, Pei Qian felt somewhat bewildered.

I didn’t say anything, so why is he so excited…

However, this incident also confirmed one thing for Pei Qian.

Tang Yishu’s aura was indeed effective, and its effect was outstanding!