A Hidden Sword

As Xu Meng calculated the development progress of each department, a thunderous cheer suddenly erupted outside the door.

Further away, there was also scattered applause.

So Xu Meng stopped thinking and closed the empty money box with satisfaction.

He knew his goal had been achieved.

As for the reserve funds being completely exhausted, and the company's cash balance becoming tight again...

As long as the Frost Snow Project's revenue became healthy after the major update, this problem would be easily solved.

—With the company's current work enthusiasm and output, Xu Meng was full of confidence in this update! Of course, the money players spent on in-game purchases next month wouldn't reach the company's account so quickly.

But this wasn't a big problem either.

As long as the Frost Snow Project's revenue soared, he was confident that he could borrow another sum of money from the bank.

Or he could exploit the gold coins in his Zhong Deng account and transfer the pocket money Zhang Yang's mother gave him to deal with the emergency.

As long as he was sure he could pay it back, borrowing money for turnover wasn't unacceptable.

In short, as long as the Frost Snow Project could reverse the decline, all problems could be solved easily.

Xu Meng didn't rush out to accept the cheers of the employees at this time, but waited until the outside calmed down before walking out of the meeting room.

Even so, the employees still looked at him with admiration.

In addition to this, Xu Meng also discovered an unexpected gain—

The employees' work enthusiasm seemed to be even higher, and they were leaving work later and later.

Until one day, Chen Wanzhong appeared in the office carrying a roll of bedding.

Then, this behavior spread quickly like a virus, like a seasonal flu called "bedding," which swept through the Programming Department, the Animation Department, and the Modeling Department in the blink of an eye.

Xu Meng was a little scared to see this.

He counted his own output for a day, compared it with the average of these three departments, and decisively stopped working, starting to work on logistics.

The first thing he did was to fill the recreation room with snacks and drinks.

He also posted a solicitation on the office software, asking employees to fill in their favorite types of snacks and drinks, which the administration quickly purchased and filled in.

Then he asked Sister Chen to find a restaurant nearby and negotiate a cooperation.

So that employees could order freely, and the restaurant would deliver the food in a unified manner.

Although it was still takeout, with the company sending people to supervise, at least there was no need to worry about encountering unsanitary small workshops and causing health problems.

Finally, he ran to Ningzhou Kangya Hospital and consulted his doctor.

After confirming that the supplements he was currently drinking were suitable for ordinary workers, he bought a large batch and distributed a box to each employee of Zhu Meng.

The Programming Department, the Animation Department, and the Modeling Department received three times the amount.

The employees were dumbfounded when they received the supplements from the boss.

They couldn't figure out whether the boss was concerned about their health or implying that "with supplements, they could work even harder."

Until one day, someone discovered that the company had three more AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators), placed in the offices of the Programming Department, the Animation Department, and the Modeling Department respectively.

They finally understood: the boss was worried that they would die suddenly in the office.

So the "bedding flu" was finally effectively contained.

Xu Meng also breathed a sigh of relief.

On the other side, the large-scale poaching incident by Konjac Games that had been worrying him had not happened after all.

Instead, he once again heard a strange gossip about Konjac Games from his assistant Chen Mengling—

Konjac Games had been blacklisted by Long Teng Fashion.

Long Teng Fashion was the agency that Zhu Meng had contacted when inviting models before.

Chen Mengling got this news from the model whose stage name was Zi Lin.

This matter actually happened a week ago, but Zi Lin was a low-level model, and Long Teng Fashion would naturally not specifically notify her. Zi Lin got the news through chatting with fellow friends, so there was inevitably some delay.

But obtaining information through this channel also has an advantage—

That is, you get a lot of on-site details that are hard to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

According to the on-site details that assistant Chen Mengling relayed to Xu Meng, which Zi Lin relayed to her, which the models who worked together at the time relayed—

Konjac Games invited eight professional models with higher value and better figures.

Unlike those bottom-tier small models who have just entered the modeling industry because of ideals, enthusiasm, or something else, these are all full-time models who have persisted through the winnowing of the waves.

They can't be said to be very famous, but they are all-rounders and don't lack work.

So, they are not as easy to bully as the bottom-tier small models.

However, Konjac Games still didn't become more professional, and treated them the same way they treated the bottom-tier models before.

During the shooting, a group of people gathered around, pointing and gesticulating, and occasionally took out their mobile phones and took pictures of the models with wretched smiles.

Some models expressed dissatisfaction.

But the person in charge of Konjac Games just dealt with it perfunctorily and didn't take it seriously.

Then, a hot-tempered model dropped the props, walked out of the shooting area, and slapped a wretched man in the face.

(Hearing this, Xu Meng raised his eyebrows in surprise.) The wretched man refused to accept it and wanted to slap back, but the other models also rushed up and slapped him to the ground.

The wretched man's colleagues came to help, and the two sides fought, and several people's faces were scratched.

(Xu Meng's raised eyebrows fell again, and his trust in this third-hand news dropped by 80 percentage points.) In the end, the two sides broke up unhappily.

After that, after several confrontations between the two companies, Long Teng Fashion blacklisted Konjac Games.

Not only did they refuse all cooperation, but they also told their peers about the situation.

The little assistant finished speaking.

Xu Meng nodded and used one word to evaluate: Good riddance.

It's a pity they didn't really die.

But soon, Xu Meng keenly realized, "This seems to be a very powerful weapon!"

"If it can be used at the right time, it will be extremely powerful! It might even cripple Konjac's new game in one fell swoop!"

Gacha games are all about selling characters.

This is especially true for gacha games that focus on sex appeal.

If players knew that the game designers treated real-life models like this, how would they treat virtual characters?

Not to mention that these real-life models are, to some extent, reference objects for virtual characters.

If the players knew about this, if it didn't set off a super storm, then they wouldn't be gacha game players! "Good, good, good!" Xu Meng thought of the series of records of Konjac Games offending him in his notebook.

He looked at the little assistant: "Meng Ling, I have a very important job to give you!"

"Tell me, boss!"

"I'll approve a special fund for you. Contact Zi Lin and try to find the models who were on the scene at the time through her, and find out exactly what happened that day."

"It's best to find video data. If there isn't any, then spend money to record a video of interviewing the people involved."

"What do you think, can you do it?"

"Yes!" The little assistant was full of confidence.

She had already realized that the boss wanted to trip up Konjac Games.

Anyway, those models were also offended by Konjac Games, and now that they know someone is willing to stand up for them, they will definitely not hide it.

As long as they find the people, this matter is not difficult at all!

The little assistant set off full of confidence and completed the task in less than three days.

After Xu Meng watched the interview video she brought back and a short 35-second video with a shaky lens, he praised the little assistant's ability to handle affairs.

After encrypting and storing it on the company's server, he downloaded a copy to a USB flash drive and put the USB flash drive in the drawer.

Looking at Xu Meng's actions, the little assistant didn't understand: "Boss, aren't we going to announce it?"

Xu Meng shook his head, "There's no use in announcing it now. At most, netizens will scold them a few times, which won't hurt Konjac Games at all."

"Let's wait a little longer."

"Okay." The little assistant was a bit disappointed.

Xu Meng closed the drawer, put this hidden sword back into its sheath, and quietly waited for the day it would be drawn.

In this quiet waiting, the last few days of May quietly passed.

In the blink of an eye, it was the last day.