Zhumeng Game Company, general manager's office.
Xu Meng looked around the clean and tidy office, touched the delicate grain on the solid wood desk, and felt a little surreal.
Could it be... that working overtime really brings blessings?
In his original world, he was an independent game developer. Staying up late and working overtime were as frequent as eating and drinking. Recently, he had pushed himself way too hard to hit the release date of his new work, Erlan Ring of Law, blacking out right before dying of sudden death.
Waking up again, he had arrived in this somewhat different world.
Physical retail 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, instead focusing more on the present, seeking instant gratification, indulging in the internet, and enjoying life.
Consequently, the entertainment industry suddenly welcomed a prosperous era.
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 flipped the script to become the boss! Going from a miserable independent game developer to the boss of a game company with a scale of a hundred people was no different from leaping from an unemployed vagrant to a successful person.
It was practically a pie falling from the sky.
Before he could sort through the chaotic memories in his head, however, urgent knocking suddenly sounded at the door.
Amidst the thud-thud-thud of the knocking, the assistant's anxious voice was mixed in:
"Boss, it's bad!"
Xu Meng had no choice but to pause his recollection and say, "Come in."
Assistant did not waste a single second, instantly pushing open the door and walking in. "Boss, it's bad, it's bad! We've made it to the Weiguang 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 get on the trending searches?" Xu Meng was puzzled.
As an independent game developer, the two games he had previously released: It Takes Two and Pokemon.
Both relied on the exposure brought by the internet to successfully break out of obscurity and avoid bombing upon release.
But the assistant was scared out of her wits: "It's a trending search saying our game bombed and the company is about to go bankrupt!"
"???"
Xu Meng froze.
What on earth?
He had just become a boss, and the company was about to go bankrupt? As if pulling the end of a thread from a chaotic ball of yarn, the jumbled memories quickly became organized--
Upon graduating from college, it happened to coincide with the booming development of the game and entertainment industry, so he hit it off with his rich-second-generation roommate Zhang Yang and established Zhumeng Game Company.
Ambitiously renting a place, renovating, recruiting people, and developing games with hot-blooded passion and drive...
After working like his life depended on it for a year and a half, they finally released the company's first game with great anticipation--the 2D shooter game Frost Snow Project.
After the game's release, however, what they ushered in was not flowers and applause, but a series of setbacks.
Large industry giants released major version updates on the same day, and bot accounts from unknown sources frantically stirred up trouble.
Meanwhile, the game's score was a mere 5.3, its reputation continued to deteriorate, 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 beyond saving.
His small villa had already been mortgaged to the bank, and two out of three houses had been sold; he truly couldn't hold on anymore.
If they dragged it out any further, not only would the investment be completely lost, but they would also end up owing the bank ten million.
Yet the original host was truly unwilling to accept this, and asked him if 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, pulling out an agreement from inside: "Zhumeng Game Company Equity Transfer Agreement."
Zhang Yang unconditionally transferred the 70% equity in his hands to Xu Meng, throwing in a car key as a bonus--that was Zhang Yang's own car.
From that day on, this game company with over a hundred employees belonged entirely to Xu Meng.
As for Zhang Yang himself, he returned home empty-handed to confess his wrongs to his old man.
Before leaving, he didn't forget to tell Xu Meng, "Don't push yourself and put up a stubborn front. If things really don't work out, go to Flower City to find me. Wait for me to play the obedient son for a few years and squeeze some gold coins out of the old man, and we'll make a comeback!"
--Afraid that his striving would ultimately amount to nothing and that taking on huge bank loans would drive him to do something desperate, Zhang Yang laid the groundwork for him in advance.
One had to admit that Zhang Yang's vision was indeed sharp, and what happened later completely verified his prediction: all the efforts of the original host were declared invalid.
Whether it was optimizing the game, fixing bugs, giving players more benefits, or working hard to draw big pictures of the future, none of it could reverse the downward trend of Frost Snow Project.
The company's liquid capital was about to hit rock bottom, while its expected future income had dropped to the valley floor.
Good news: the expense of renting servers was rapidly decreasing.
Bad news: your players were running out of gas.
Zhumeng Game Company was indeed going bankrupt.
Before even waiting for the bank loan repayment date, it would be forced into bankruptcy due to being unable to pay employee salaries.
"What should we do, senior? Should we make a statement?" The assistant panicked and lost her head, no longer caring about concealing her identity as someone with connections.
Her name was Chen Mengling, and she was actually a junior college mate of Xu Meng and Zhang Yang who was graduating this year.
Originally, she had intended to officially join the company upon graduation, but now...
It was hard to say 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 information obtained from his memories, this media outlet loved reporting bad news in the gaming circle the most, and was especially adept at predicting game company bankruptcies, earning them the nickname "Death Herald."
Industry peers all kept a respectful distance from them.
What was formidable, however, was that this media outlet could always obtain a large amount of internal intelligence, repeatedly and accurately predicting the bankruptcies of various large and small studios. It was precisely by relying on this "whoever it names dies" mouth of the King of Hell that they managed to generate considerable heat with every prediction.
--Behind the wild development of the entertainment industry were wave after wave of fallen losers.
"Due to the market performance of Frost Snow Project falling severely short of expectations, revenue has dropped to rock bottom, and it is about to drag down Zhumeng Game."
"According to leaks from an internal insider, company employees generally feel pessimistic about the future, and some employees have already started looking for their next employers. According to industry insiders, 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 high amount of loans. Even with layoffs to cut expenses, it will still be unable to repay the loan, and in the end, it will still be unable to escape the outcome of bankruptcy."
"An internal insider?" Xu Meng was 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, numerical values filled in with feet, poor shooting feel, and they crazily stall resources. The promised multiplayer is basically nonexistent. To summarize in one sentence--super big shit!"
"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 playing at shipping couples 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 run into a game to do it?!"
"As for your company's art staff and modeling, seriously don't mention any 2D pretty girls; they aren't alluring at all."
"Lighting a candle in advance."
"Candle, candle, candle..."
Occasionally, there was a calmer comment, and the artistic style was still:
"Actually, I can feel the development team's sincerity, but their capability is lacking; having just an attitude really doesn't do much."
"First of all, I believe Zhumeng Game's starting point was good; secondly, you guys had better not start."
Xu Meng almost couldn't help laughing out loud.
Yet the next second, he reacted: he was now the boss of Zhumeng Company, and Frost Snow Project was Zhumeng Company's only product!
With the players cursing this fiercely, this game was clearly going to plunge straight to the center of the earth.
If he didn't find a way to turn this situation around, the company would really 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 question of whether or not to be a professional deadbeat anymore, but a question of whether or not to go skydiving.
No way, he had to figure out 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 handwriting emerged accordingly--
Swimmer of the Sea of Information Universe.
Game Life (Developer Edition) binding in progress.
Binding successful.
Initial task released: The Beginning of Everything.
As a game developer with experience in sudden death, you deeply realize the importance of a team.
Task Objective: Found a game company--"?"
Xu Meng was stunned.
"Found a game company? Don't I already have one?"
"Could it be that I have to build another one?"
Before you continue