Pei Qian and Lin Chang quickly reached an agreement regarding Lin Wan, having a pleasant conversation.

After dinner, Lin Chang planned to immediately call the old man to report on this matter. If all went well, Shenhua’s gaming department should be established soon.

As for Pei Qian, he needed to deceive Lin Wan, and then arrange work for Shangyang Games.

When it came to deceiving Lin Wan, honestly no one else but Pei Qian could get through to her. If the Lin family elders told Lin Wan to go east, she would deliberately go west, full of rebellious psychology. Only someone like Pei Qian, who naturally exuded a special aura, understood Lin Wan’s temperament, and possessed extraordinary intelligence, could successfully deceive her.

For this task, Pei Qian felt obligated.

Initially, he had only planned to take a business trip to Tianhua Studio, but by some twist of fate, he had attracted Lin Wan, and things spiraled out of control from there.

Regarding this major threat, Pei Qian had always hoped to eliminate it as quickly as possible, and now he had finally found another suitable opportunity!

Of course, this matter couldn’t be rushed.

Lin Chang had just arrived in Jingzhou and just met with Lin Wan. If Pei Qian immediately approached Lin Wan to discuss the Shenhua gaming department, it would easily arouse her suspicions.

Moreover, although Shenhua Group was huge and prosperous, they had never had any experience in the gaming industry before. Setting up this gaming department wasn’t something that could be accomplished in just a few days.

Like many domestic giant companies that talked about getting into web novels or games but ultimately failed miserably and accomplished nothing, it just proved that different industries were like different mountains—even large conglomerates couldn’t succeed at everything they tried without careful planning.

So, the two of them would work separately.

Lin Chang would first convince Old Man Lin and make preliminary plans; meanwhile, Pei Qian would remain discreet, keeping Lin Wan steady and preventing her from becoming too suspicious. When Lin Chang’s preparations were nearly complete, Pei Qian would step in to deliver the final blow!

Shortly after sending Lin Chang off after dinner, Pei Qian received a message from He An.

It contained just two words: “Admirable!”

Seeing these two words from He An, Pei Qian was absolutely furious.

Admirable my ass!

This old man was really something—Pei Qian hadn’t even settled scores with him yet, and here he was, coming over to provoke him!

Speaking of which, Pei Qian was quite exasperated. Back then, he had racked his brains trying to lose money making games, but he had failed repeatedly, almost to the point of giving up.

That’s when He An, this “guiding infernal lamp,” appeared!

Pei Qian followed He An’s theory to create “Struggle,” thinking it was a sure thing, but unexpectedly, a negative multiplied by a negative yielded a positive result, completely overturning He An’s game design theory in the process.

He An refused to believe it, so Pei Qian let him personally design a game that was guaranteed to fail, which led to “Mission and Choice.”

From the game’s genre and world background to its specific gameplay details, all of it was determined by He An!

The only part where Pei Qian exercised creative freedom was in naming the game “Mission and Choice,” the same name as the “national gaming disgrace.”

In the current situation, how could He An not take full responsibility?!

Pei Qian didn’t yet have a complete understanding of “Mission and Choice’s” current status.

For a game with such massive investment, good reviews didn’t necessarily translate to profit. A small explosion in sales wasn’t enough—it needed a massive explosion, to break out of the gaming circle, to make money.

The game had only been released recently, and many people still didn’t know about it, so it was too early to say whether it would make money.

But the current momentum of the game was definitely not good.

On Weibo, “Mission and Choice” had directly claimed five trending topics—three about the movie and two about the game. From the first wave of player feedback, everyone seemed to strongly approve of the game’s content.

This was already enough to make Pei Qian lose his appetite and lie awake at night!

And He An’s message, though only containing the word “Admirable,” made Pei Qian even more anxious.

Didn’t this mean that He An had also played “Mission and Choice” and was similarly conquered by the game?

What was the point of playing it then!

Pei Qian was extremely frustrated and replied: “Teacher He, that’s not what you said before! Didn’t you say ‘Mission and Choice’ would definitely lose all its investment? Didn’t you tell me to quickly develop a new game using the scraps to recoup some losses? What’s going on now?!”

To Pei Qian, He An seemed like nothing but a con man!

And he hadn’t just been deceived once or twice.

Before the game was launched, Pei Qian had asked He An about these details, and He An had guaranteed with his hand on his chest that doing it this way would definitely lead to failure. He even worried the toxicity would be too strong and advised Pei Qian to adopt only one or two of his suggestions.

During the game’s development, He An came to Jingzhou for a visit, tried the game’s demo, and then declared the game wouldn’t work, urging Pei Qian to quickly salvage what he could using the leftover assets.

Right before the official release, He An specifically came to warn him that “Fantasy War Remake” was about to launch, telling Pei Qian to absolutely avoid releasing during the same period as “Fantasy War Remake.”

Again and again, He An had continuously reinforced Pei Qian’s impression that “Mission and Choice” would definitely lose all its investment, which gave Pei Qian tremendous confidence when the game was released.

He figured that He An was, after all, a veteran of the domestic gaming industry, a towering figure. Even if he was old now, he must still have deep professional understanding of games, right?

But to his surprise, not a single word turned out to be accurate!

This gave Pei Qian a sense of being deceived, hence his reply.

But these words appeared completely different to He An.

He An quickly replied: “Hmm? Mr. Pei, I compliment you and you get all worked up?”

“I really didn’t expect ‘Mission and Choice’ to receive such good reviews after its release, and I was congratulating you out of encouragement!”

“But don’t think you’re in the clear yet, showing off to me like this. ‘Fantasy War Remake’ releases this afternoon!”

“To be honest, although I haven’t finished ‘Mission and Choice’ yet, I can already see that you’ve played a clever trick and taken a shortcut.”

“You didn’t follow the traditional RTS game formula at all, but instead seized a middle ground between RTS games and plot-driven AAA titles. You’re not focusing on strategic gameplay competition, but on exquisite storyline progression.”

“I have to say, it’s a genius attempt, and it’s indeed yielded good results.”

“If ‘Fantasy War Remake’ wasn’t being released, I would have unlimited confidence in ‘Mission and Choice.'”

“But ‘Fantasy War Remake’ is a traditional RTS game with real hardcore strength. They not only have storyline but also classic, deeply tested gameplay mechanics! Plus extremely strong game balance and ladder systems or even esports events that extend the game’s lifespan!”

“‘Fantasy War Remake’ will dominate the core RTS player group, which will inevitably impact ‘Mission and Choice’s’ sales and reputation, and might even trigger a major discussion about ‘where the future of RTS games is heading’…”

“In short, the situation isn’t optimistic. Mr. Pei, you should still pay attention to ‘Fantasy War Remake,’ you absolutely cannot let your guard down!”

Obviously, He An thought Pei Qian’s words were boasting, and he immediately broke down, replying with several messages in succession.

Pei Qian couldn’t get a word in edgewise, and became increasingly annoyed as he read.

What did he mean by “seized a middle ground between RTS games and plot-driven AAA titles”? What did he mean by “genius attempt”?

Damn it, weren’t you the one who taught me all this?!

The game hadn’t even made money yet, and you’re already preemptively passing the buck of profitability to me?

This was outrageous!

Although he was a bit angry, seeing how highly He An regarded “Fantasy War Remake,” Pei Qian slowly felt a glimmer of hope rising in his heart.

As the saying goes, heaven never seals off all paths.

Thanks to He An’s previous suggestion, Pei Qian had arranged for “Mission and Choice” to be released alongside “Fantasy War Remake.” Now it was time for “Fantasy War Remake” to play its role!

Pei Qian replied: “Sigh, let’s hope ‘Fantasy War Remake’ does its part.”

He An: “…”

Young people these days are just too impetuous.

…

In the afternoon.

Qiao Liang had just returned home from the cinema and eagerly turned on his computer.

Today had been absolutely amazing!

First, he had stayed up all night to complete “Mission and Choice.” After sleeping until the afternoon and having lunch, he went to see the “Mission and Choice” movie. Now that he was back, he could start playing “Fantasy War Remake.”

Triple the pleasure!

As a hardcore gamer, nothing was more exciting than having two quality games released on the same day, not to mention that “Mission and Choice” also came with a spectacular movie.

Undeniably, watching the storyline on the big screen in a theater was vastly different from watching it at home on a monitor—the audiovisual experience was superior in every way.

Qiao Liang already knew all about the plot, so there wasn’t much to say there, but what surprised him most was that the movie version had removed all the gameplay elements, yet it didn’t feel disjointed or disconnected at all. Conversely, the game had interspersed so many battle sequences within the storyline, yet it didn’t feel bloated.

Despite the difference of several hours in length, both the game and the movie provided excellent experiences, which was quite remarkable.

This game once again sparked Qiao Liang’s desire to express himself—he had found content for the new episode of “Masterpiece”!

However, Qiao Liang decided to complete “Fantasy War Remake” first before making this video.

Because Qiao Liang felt that these two equally excellent RTS games would make for a good comparison.

In all likelihood, both games had achieved the pinnacle of the RTS genre, just with different pursuits.

“Fantasy War Remake” should represent the peak of traditional RTS games, inheriting classic RTS gameplay while achieving the current technological ceiling in graphics, sound effects, and storyline.

Meanwhile, “Mission and Choice” had explored a new direction for RTS games in an era when the genre was gradually declining, with its raw power similarly crushing most contemporary works.

One was a Western fantasy classic, the other an Eastern sci-fi; one a traditional RTS, the other an innovative RTS; one a foreign masterpiece, the other a domestic blockbuster…

Qiao Liang could hardly wait.