March 29th, Thursday.

Three days had passed since the announcement of the “Fantasy Warfare Remake.”

Pei Qian deliberately chose today to visit Tenda Games, wanting to check on the development progress of “Mission and Choice.”

The reason he didn’t go on the same day he learned about the “Fantasy Warfare Remake,” but deliberately waited three days, was mainly to downplay the situation a bit and not leave the “Mission and Choice” project team with the impression that “Mr. Pei is anxious.”

Pei Qian knew very well that his attitude would seriously affect the work morale and state of the entire Tenda Games department.

If Pei Qian had gone to check on “Mission and Choice” the day the news about “Fantasy Warfare Remake” broke, Hu Xianbin and others would definitely think that Mr. Pei had high expectations for the game, was worried about them, and they would feel a strong sense of crisis, putting in 120% effort to complete the final work on the project.

But since Pei Qian deliberately waited three days before going, showing an “it doesn’t matter” attitude, Hu Xianbin and others naturally wouldn’t feel such a strong sense of crisis.

Therefore, Pei Qian’s main purpose for this visit was to reassure Hu Xianbin and others, make them underestimate the threat of “Fantasy Warfare Remake,” and thus solidify “Mission and Choice’s” defeat in one stroke!

Pei Qian strolled into the Tenda Games department and saw everyone working diligently with full concentration.

The project’s lead designer, Hu Xianbin, had his brows tightly knitted, his entire being shrouded in an atmosphere of anxiety.

Just then, he spotted Mr. Pei walking through the main entrance, and his dim eyes suddenly lit up with a gleam.

This feeling was like withered crops encountering sweet rain, or like a terminally ill patient meeting a miracle doctor!

He immediately stood up: “Mr. Pei!”

His voice revealed inexpressible joy.

Now that Mr. Pei was here, there was hope; now that Mr. Pei was here, “Mission and Choice” could be saved!

Hu Xianbin had learned about the “Fantasy Warfare Remake” promotional video the moment it was released.

After watching the video and reading the comments from netizens, Hu Xianbin nearly became depressed, almost coughing up blood on the spot.

How could they be so unlucky!

Hu Xianbin was already one of the relatively “long-lived” chief designers in the Tenda Group. He had taken over as acting lead designer responsible for the development of GOG Mobile when Li Yada was forced to go on vacation, and later he had been fully responsible for the development of “Struggle” and “Mission and Choice.”

From an outsider’s perspective, he should certainly have the title of “Golden Producer.”

But Hu Xianbin knew his own limitations very well.

GOG Mobile was a port of the PC game, and its success was mainly because the PC version had set a good foundation; the success of “Struggle” was entirely credited to Mr. Pei, and he was just an executor—though called the lead designer, he was no different from an implementing planner; as for “Mission and Choice,” it was established under Mr. Pei’s guidance, combining the efforts of Huang Sibo, Lü Mingliang, Li Yada, Bao Xu, and other former lead designers and core personnel.

Looking back, he had worked on three major projects, each very impressive, but none were his own responsibility—he couldn’t even claim the primary credit!

Under these circumstances, Hu Xianbin was already under tremendous pressure, especially since “Mission and Choice” had received massive funding and shouldered the important tasks of “continuing the Tenda Games legend” and “washing away the shame of domestic games.”

If it failed, how could Hu Xianbin face everyone?

As the game’s release approached, Hu Xianbin had been frantically adjusting his mindset, and had almost calmed down, but he never expected the “Fantasy Warfare Remake” to suddenly appear out of nowhere!

So, all his previous worries returned with a vengeance, growing even more intense.

During these three days, Hu Xianbin had been in a state of extreme anxiety, unconsciously opening the “Fantasy Warfare Remake” trailer again and again.

The more he watched, the more insecure he felt!

He was worried about “Mission and Choice” failing miserably and wanted to do something about it, but no matter how hard he racked his brains, he couldn’t think of any good improvements, which made him even more anxious.

He wanted to call Mr. Pei for guidance, but was concerned that Mr. Pei might be busy with other matters, and he worried that it wouldn’t look good for a lead designer to rely on Mr. Pei for everything. After hesitating for a long time, he still couldn’t bring himself to make the call.

Now, seeing Mr. Pei arrive, Hu Xianbin was overjoyed, as if he had been given a second chance at life!

Pei Qian asked with great concern: “Hmm? You don’t look so good. Have you been working too hard lately? Take a week off, go home and get some good rest, then come back to work after you’ve recovered your energy.”

Hu Xianbin was shocked. Time off?

This was like a fire burning his eyebrows! “Mission and Choice” was set to release next month and would be crushed by “Fantasy Warfare Remake.” He wanted to work overtime every day—how could he possibly think about taking time off?

He hurriedly said: “Mr. Pei, I don’t want time off, I want to work overtime!”

Pei Qian’s face darkened immediately: “Overtime? Why would you think of doing something so unwise?”

Hu Xianbin said: “Mr. Pei, haven’t you seen the promotional video for ‘Fantasy Warfare Remake’? Our game is going to be released in just a month—there’s no time left!”

“Mr. Pei, please give the order! Tell us how to revise ‘Mission and Choice,’ and grant us unlimited overtime next month. I’ll definitely make the game better before its release!”

Hu Xianbin spoke with tremendous passion, giving off the feeling of a warrior departing never to return.

Pei Qian almost laughed from anger. Well, you little rascal, I knew you hadn’t completely abandoned that bad habit of working overtime!

Normally, an employee like this should be sent home on leave to reflect for a while, but upon second thought, Pei Qian realized that the more anxious Hu Xianbin was, the quicker “Mission and Choice” would fail, which was a good thing. So he forgave him and didn’t dwell on Hu Xianbin’s desire to work overtime.

Pei Qian casually pulled over an office chair from nearby, sat down comfortably, then leaned back and crossed his legs in a very relaxed manner.

“The video? I’ve already seen it.”

“Overtime? That’s absolutely impossible.”

“There’s nothing to change in the game; the current state is perfect.”

“As for what you said about our game being released in a month, that’s not entirely accurate—your information is outdated.”

“I just received news that the release date for ‘Fantasy Warfare Remake’ has been confirmed as the 14th of next month, Saturday.”

“Therefore, we’re moving up the release date of our ‘Mission and Choice’ game and the movie’s schedule by half a month, to the 14th of next month!”

“For the game release time, you can negotiate with the official platform, and I’ve already asked Fei Huang Studio to have Lin Chang arrange for the movie’s rescheduling. There are no problems with either.”

Looking at Mr. Pei sitting across from him, casually crossing his legs with an extremely calm expression, Hu Xianbin was completely stunned.

He almost thought he had misheard.

Not only were they not postponing to avoid the impact of “Fantasy Warfare Remake,” but they were deliberately moving the release date forward to collide with it on the same day?!

“Mr. Pei, why put ourselves through this? There’s absolutely no need!”

“The game is one thing, but why also move the movie’s release date up by two weeks?”

“Wasn’t the May Day golden week a good release window? What’s the point of changing it to April 14th?”

Hu Xianbin felt like his worldview was about to be overturned.

Looking at the dumbfounded Hu Xianbin, Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel secretly pleased.

Good, it seemed this move was the right one again!

Originally, both the release date for “Mission and Choice” game and the movie were set for May 1st. Zhu Xiaocai thought that May Day was a golden week, one of the best release periods of the year, with a large number of moviegoers.

Since “Mission and Choice” movie had a huge investment and Lu Zhiyao’s participation, it shouldn’t fear any other films from any perspective, and dominating the May Day golden period wouldn’t be an issue.

And since the game was closely related to the movie, it should naturally be released on the same day.

Pei Qian had always been very dissatisfied with this movie release date, for the same reason: scheduled during such a hot period as May Day, what if the movie became a hit?

However, he had always lacked a particularly good excuse to change this release date.

Now, the excuse had presented itself.

Pei Qian cleared his throat: “Isn’t ‘Fantasy Warfare’ called an eternal classic in RTS game history?”

“The original was released too early, and our company wasn’t around at the right time to compete with it. Now that a remake is coming out, and our ‘Mission and Choice’ is also an RTS game, of course we should face it head-on!”

“Being afraid of sales impact and delaying or changing the release date? That’s what cowards do!”

“Besides, how is ‘Mission and Choice’ inferior to other games? We should be full of confidence!”

“Since what we’re doing is ‘washing away the shame of domestic games’ and showing the style of domestically-produced games to all players in China and the entire gaming world, we absolutely cannot be timid!”

“Whether it’s a few days earlier or later, if the quality isn’t good enough, we’ll still be criticized and scolded all the same—it won’t fundamentally change anything.”

“Instead, deliberately setting the release date on the same day demonstrates a spirit of drawing the sword. Even if we lose, our courage will be admirable, and there’s no shame in that!”

Hu Xianbin: “…”

Pei Qian’s confident and passionate speech left Hu Xianbin bewildered.

For some reason, his previously timid attitude completely disappeared, replaced by an indescribable calmness.

Mr. Pei made sense!

If this game’s goal was merely to make a little money, then avoiding “Fantasy Warfare Remake” would be completely reasonable and logical.

But “Mission and Choice” had invested so much money, in a do-or-die fashion, and its goal wasn’t just to make a little money, but to wash away the shame of domestic games and show players a new image of domestically-produced games.

If they backed down, wouldn’t they have already lost in terms of momentum?

But then Hu Xianbin had another thought and said: “Mr. Pei, I understand about the game’s release date, but as for the movie schedule…”