Zhumeng Game Company, general manager's office.
Xu Meng looked around the clean and tidy office, touching the delicate texture of the solid wood desk, feeling a bit surreal.
Could it be that working overtime really brings blessings?
In his original world, he was an independent game developer. Staying up late working overtime was as frequent as eating and drinking. Recently, he had pushed himself too hard to hit the release date of his new work, Erlan Ring of Law, and directly suffered a sudden death when his vision went dark.
Waking up again, he had arrived in this somewhat different world.
The physical retail market was in decline, the economy was heading downward, and the mindset of striving and involution was rapidly receding.
People no longer constantly planned for the future, but instead began to focus more on the present, living in the moment, indulging in the internet, and enjoying life.
Thus, the entertainment industry suddenly ushered in a prosperous moment.
Xu Meng had transmigrated, and his newly acquired identity was that of a participant in this prosperity.
He was still a game developer, but—
He had directly turned the tables to become the boss!
Going from a struggling independent game developer to the boss of a hundred-person game company was no different from leaping from an unemployed vagrant to a successful person.
It was simply a pie falling from the sky.
Yet before he could sort through the chaotic memories in his head, urgent knocking suddenly sounded at the door.
Amidst the pit-a-pat knocking, the assistant's anxious voice was mixed in:
"Boss, it's bad!"
Xu Meng had no choice but to pause his recollections and call out, "Come in."
Assistant without a single second of delay pushed open the door and walked in instantly, "Boss, it's bad, it's bad! We've made it to Weiguang's trending searches!"
—Weiguang was Xia State's largest social network product, and its trending search traffic was astonishingly high.
"Isn't it a good thing to hit the trending searches?" Xu Meng was puzzled.
As an independent game developer, the two games he had already released: It Takes Two and Pokemon.
Both relied on the exposure brought by the internet to successfully break out of their niches, avoiding a disastrous release.
Yet the little assistant was panicked to death: "It's a trending search saying our game bombed and the company is probably about to go out of business!"
"???"
Xu Meng froze.
What on earth?
I just became the boss, and the company is about to go bankrupt?
As if pulling the thread from a chaotic ball of yarn, his disordered memories rapidly became orderly—
Upon graduating from university, it coincided with the booming development of the game and entertainment industry, so he hit it off immediately with his rich-second-generation roommate Zhang Yang, and established Zhumeng Game Company.
They ambitiously rented a place, decorated, recruited people, and developed games with hot-blooded passion...
After a year and a half of risking one's life working, they finally released the company's first game with high expectations—the 2D shooter game Frost Snow Project.
Yet after the game's release, what they welcomed was not flowers and applause, but a string of setbacks.
Major industry giants released major version updates on the same day, and internet trolls of unknown origin frantically manipulated public opinion.
Meanwhile, the game's rating was merely 5.3, its reputation continuously deteriorated, revenue plummeted, and player retention data grew worse day by day.
In the end, his good brother Zhang Yang had no choice but to tell him in this very office:
The game was already beyond saving.
His small villa had already been mortgaged to the bank, and two out of three apartments had been sold as well; he truly couldn't hold on anymore.
Dragging it out any longer would not only result in losing all investment capital, but also leave them owing the bank ten million.
Yet the former host was truly unwilling to give up, and asked him whether he could let himself try a little harder.
The final result was...
Xu Meng turned sideways and pulled open the drawer on the right side of the desk, taking out an agreement from inside:
"Zhumeng Game Company Equity Transfer Agreement"
Zhang Yang unconditionally transferred 70% of the equity in his hands to Xu Meng, and incidentally threw in a car key—that was Zhang Yang's own car.
From that day onward, this game company with over a hundred employees belonged entirely to Xu Meng.
As for Zhang Yang himself, he returned home empty-handed to admit his wrongs to his old man.
Before leaving, he didn't forget to tell Xu Meng, "Don't push yourself. If it really doesn't work out, go to Flower City to find me. Once I act like a good boy for a couple of years and squeeze some gold coins out of the old man, we'll make a comeback!"
—Fearing that his hard work would ultimately end in nothing and that taking on heavy bank loans would drive him to despair, Zhang Yang had given him a heads-up in advance.
One had to admit that Zhang Yang's foresight was truly spot-on, as subsequent events completely verified his predictions:
All of the former host's efforts were declared void.
Whether it was optimizing the game, fixing bugs, issuing more benefits to players, or tirelessly drawing blueprints and looking forward to the future, none of it could reverse the declining momentum of Frost Snow Project.
The company's liquid funds were about to hit rock bottom, while its anticipated future income had plunged to the bottom of the valley.
Good news: the expense of renting servers decreased rapidly.
Bad news: your players were almost running out.
Zhumeng Game Company was indeed going bankrupt.
They wouldn't even last until the bank loan repayment deadline; they would be forced out of business simply due to being unable to pay employee salaries.
"What should we do, senior? Should we issue a response?" The assistant panicked and lost her composure, no longer bothering to conceal her identity as someone hired through connections.
Her name was Chen Mengling, and she was actually a junior college mate of Xu Meng and Zhang Yang who was set to graduate this year.
Originally, she wanted to officially join the company right upon graduation, but now...
It was hard to tell whether she would graduate first or the company would go bankrupt first.
"Don't panic yet. Let me take a look at the situation."
Xu Meng took her phone and looked at the keyword hanging at the tail end of the trending search list—
#Zhumeng Game Bankruptcy Imminent#
Tapping into it, he discovered that the publisher was Game Observer.
According to the information gleaned from his memories, this media outlet loved reporting bad news in the gaming circle, and was particularly adept at predicting game company bankruptcies, earning them the nickname "Death Herald".
Peers in the industry all kept them at a respectful distance.
However, the impressive part was that this media outlet always managed to obtain a vast amount of internal intelligence, accurately predicting the bankruptcy of numerous large and small studios multiple times. It was precisely by relying on this "whoever they mention dies" grim-reaper mouth that they were able to generate considerable popularity with every single prophecy.
—Behind the savage development of the entertainment industry lay wave after wave of fallen losers.
"Due to the market performance of Frost Snow Project falling severely short of expectations, revenue has plummeted to the bottom, and it is about to drag down Zhumeng Game."
"According to leaks from internal insiders, company employees generally feel pessimistic about the future, and some employees have already begun looking for their next employer. Industry insiders estimate that Zhumeng Game is expected to launch large-scale layoffs this month to cut expenses."
"However, according to a former Zhumeng Game Company employee, Zhumeng Company still owes the bank a hefty loan. Even with layoffs to reduce expenses, they cannot repay the loan, and ultimately they still cannot escape the fate of bankruptcy."
"Internal insiders?" Xu Meng was slightly stunned. "The company has a mole!?"
The reactions of netizens in the comment section were also quite unfriendly:
"Serves them right! What kind of trash did they make? Garbage optimization, arbitrary stats balancing, poor shooting feel, and frantically resource-starved. The promised multiplayer is basically non-existent. To summarize in one sentence—super massive garbage!"
"To be honest, this is probably the most tightly wrapped female character in a 2D game I've ever seen."
"2D my ass! There are more male characters than female characters! And they're still pulling shipping stunts in the game. Am I here to be a third wheel, or am I here to be a security camera?"
"If I wanted to be a third wheel, did I have to come into a game to do it?!"
"With your company's art staff and modeling, seriously don't mention any 2D pretty girls; they simply aren't sexy at all."
"Lighting a candle in advance."
"Candle, candle, candle..."
Occasionally, a calmer comment had a style that went:
"Actually, I can feel the development team's sincerity, but their capability is lacking. Having just an attitude really doesn't help much."
"First of all, I believe Zhumeng Game's starting point was good. Secondly, you'd better not start at all."
Xu Meng almost couldn't help laughing out loud.
Yet the next second he snapped to his senses: he was now the boss of Zhumeng Company, and Frost Snow Project was Zhumeng Company's only product!
With players cursing so harshly, this game was clearly destined to bomb straight to the Earth's core.
If he didn't find a way to turn this situation around, the company would truly go bankrupt, and he would be saddled with tens of millions in loans.
Xu Meng drew a sharp breath.
He hadn't even owed this much money for a mortgage in his past life!
This wasn't a matter of whether or not to become a deadbeat; it was a matter of whether or not he'd be taking a leap off a tall building.
No way, he had to find a way to save this game!
The moment he made up his mind, a translucent light screen suddenly appeared before his eyes, and lines of text emerged accordingly—
Swimmer of the Sea of Information Universe.
Game Life (Developer Edition) binding in progress...
Binding successful
Initial task issued: The Beginning of Everything
As a game developer with a history of sudden death, you deeply realize the importance of a team.
Task Objective: Establish a game company
—
"?"
Xu Meng froze for a moment.
"Establish a game company? Don't I already have one?"
"Could it be that I have to build another one?"
Before you continue