"????"
"????"
"????"
In the pitch-black livestream room for Frost Snow Project with over one hundred thousand viewers, the screen filled with surging, endless question marks.
One after another.
Growing more intense by the second!
Everything that just happened was simply too sudden.
First, Dream Builder claimed they locked down the source of the bug and would give everyone an explanation, and then they immediately started a livestream, taking everyone to find an employee in the office.
Normal people would naturally assume this meant explaining on-site where the problem lay in the code, then having the programmer fix the bug live.
Letting everyone act as cloud supervisors would count as providing an "explanation."
Everything was logical and reasonable.
However, Dream Builder's thought process differed completely from everyone's expectations!
After finding the programmer, they just straight-up burned the person to death? Burned them???
This fire not only burned the person, it also left over one hundred thousand netizens utterly bewildered:
"Wait, wait, wait! What the fuck is Dream Builder doing!?"
"So the source of the bug refers to the person who wrote the bugged code?"
"Does Dream Builder's explanation mean executing the bugged programmer?"
"What an outlaws-of-the-law kind of guy!!"
"Holy shit, call the police!"
"This has got to be fake, right? They wouldn't actually burn someone to death, would they?"
"Hard to say, this looks way too real!"
"At least the office is real! Dream Builder's former art staff director posted the office environment to prove his identity, and it's identical to the video!"
Before the discussion in the livestream room could even finish, the Frost Snow Project account posted another update.
With extreme arrogance, they released this video of Burning Programmer to Appease Heaven across the entire network, accompanied by text:
[Thank you all for your concern, the bug issue has already been dealt with.] So the netizens, who hadn't finished venting yet, immediately shifted battlefields and came to the comment section to continue the debate:
"What a super-aggressive boss!"
"You call this dealing with a bug??"
"We only asked you to deal with the bug, not the person who wrote the bug!"
"Oh lord, is it really this dangerous to be a programmer at Dream Builder??"
"Are you all serious? This can't possibly be real, right?"
Netizens were naturally not stupid.
At first, they were indeed startled by the livestreamed arson, leading to some worry that the Dream Builder boss might have an antisocial personality and suddenly snapped to set a fire.
However, once Frost Snow Project grandly published this video across the entire network, everyone basically concluded that it was fake.
--Who on earth actively uploads their own criminal recording to the internet?
Yet this didn't affect the massive reaction the incident stirred up online at all!
The video's trending status directly exploded!
This time it wasn't just the ACG Game circle, but the entire gaming circle, and even the entire social network that caused a massive sensation.
The trending topic #Dream Builder Livestream Burns Programmer to Appease Heaven# quickly surged up the hot search list, surpassing the buzz generated by Frost Snow Project for the entire day in an extremely short time.
Relying solely on the hype of Frost Snow Project couldn't possibly compete with a social topic that simultaneously touched upon multiple explosive points: gaming, workplace culture, programmers, and office arson.
It was rapidly surpassed in popularity.
Yet this wasn't necessarily a bad thing for Frost Snow Project. On one hand, it brought in more external attention, while on the other hand, it effectively diverted public focus.
--Who is even talking about bugs now! The Dream Builder boss angrily burning a programmer in his office! Isn't this topic way wilder than a bug?!
After this whole series of maneuvers by Xu Meng, the bug still existed, but nobody cared anymore.
Even though internet trolls and radical feminists were still trying hard to make an issue out of the bug, they completely failed to stir up any more momentum.
In fact, many people had already chickened out.
Yang Hui, who had been attacking Dream Builder by name for objectifying women, gender discrimination, and acting like a corporate gang after verifying her identity, was startled by the news of Xu Meng setting people on fire and didn't dare pop out to stir up trouble for several days straight.
Meng Bing, the senior schoolmate who didn't use her real name but kept running a burner account to maliciously badmouth Dream Builder and Xu Meng, chickened out on the spot.
A short while later, she started deleting all her Weiguang posts attacking Xu Meng, pretending to be an ostrich without making a peep.
Even Fire Knife, who had been constantly talking about how high the value of the reworked characters in Frost Snow Project was, how hard the modelers and animators worked, and considered himself already standing on the same side as Dream Builder, felt his eyelids twitching and eyebrows jumping when he saw the video.
--This move had way too much deterrent power! Even though you knew there was something wrong with the video and the person who got burned was most likely fine.
Just thinking about how Xu Meng could splash gasoline on someone else without changing his expression, and toss a match to set someone on fire without the slightest psychological barrier...
Who wouldn't shiver inside when thinking about going up against such a ferocious man?
What if he got desperate one day, rushed into your workplace while you were at work, splashed gasoline on you, threw a match, and burned you to death in a single fire?
You couldn't afford to provoke him, absolutely not.--"Look, the problem is solved."
In the general manager's office at Dream Builder, Xu Meng smiled slightly at Song Zhicheng and the little assistant.
Song Zhicheng, the head of operations who had hurried over, and Chen Mengling, the little assistant who came to deliver nutritional supplements, didn't know what expression to make for a moment.
Anyway, neither of them could really manage a smile.
Especially Song Zhicheng.
He felt that his professional experience formed from seven years of working in operations was currently facing a severe challenge.
"Can you... solve problems like this?" Song Zhicheng couldn't help asking.
From the pivot in the Frost Snow Project announcement, he could tell that the boss liked to take unconventional paths, but this was way too unconventional!
"Why not?" Xu Meng countered. "Haven't you seen celebrities expose other people's gossip to suppress their own scandals?"
"Huh?" Song Zhicheng and the little assistant froze simultaneously.
"Is that even the same thing??" The little assistant asked in confusion.
"Don't worry about those details." Xu Meng waved his hand.
"Anyway, now netizens aren't staring at the bug anymore, and the troublemakers can't stir up any momentum. We can slowly fix the bug now."
Song Zhicheng still felt a bit twisted up inside, but he also knew Xu Meng was right.
Although the method was a bit psychotic, the public relations crisis of Frost Snow Project had indeed been resolved smoothly.
"You two have plenty of work ahead of you as well. While monitoring online public opinion and player feedback, you must be sure to maintain Dreamjin well."
"In the future, Dreamjin will be even more important than Frost Snow Project."
Song Zhicheng looked at Xu Meng in surprise. Wasn't Dreamjin just the player community for Frost Snow Project? Why would it be more important than the game?
However, that matter was still relatively far off, so Xu Meng didn't explain further.
He drank his supplement and called Peng Lin to arrange the bug-fixing matters.
Along the way, he also released a formal bug apology announcement, assuring players that Dream Builder was going all out to fix the bugs.
By the time the announcement was posted, the time had reached 5:50 PM, leaving only ten minutes until off-work time.
As always, nobody showed any intention of getting off work.
Yet different from the past was that right now, everyone up and down the entire company was immersed in a bubble of joy.
Every single person wore a radiant expression on their face.
Obviously, although Xu Meng hadn't publicly announced the specific data for Frost Snow Project after its launch, everyone was an industry insider and understood ACG games well enough.
Just by looking at the number of streamers broadcasting Frost Snow Project and the popularity of the livestream rooms, they already had a rough idea in their hearts.
Then taking a look at P Station, Weiguang, and their own Dreamjin regarding the discussions and evaluations among players, it wasn't just a rough idea anymore—they basically had a solid bottom line.
Thus, everyone was immersed in the pure joy of their hard work paying off, wanting to bask in this atmosphere a little longer without any thoughts of leaving work.
Xu Meng had no choice but to come out and chase people away--
Clapping his hands, he shouted, "Everybody look over here! Look over here!"
"I have some good news to announce to you all," he said with a smile. "Though you've probably already guessed this good news."
"The brand-new version of Frost Snow Project is a massive success!"
"Six hours since the servers opened, the gross revenue across all channels has already exceeded 26 million! Current real-time online players: 2.74 million! Peak concurrent online users: 3.8 million!"
"By tonight, these two numbers will continue to rise."
"However, we don't need to wait until tonight; we can already draw a conclusion right now--"
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have successfully created a miracle--using one month to bring Frost Snow Project, and Dream Builder, back from the dead!"
Thunderous applause instantly erupted in the office.
Without even realizing their palms had turned red from clapping, everyone clapped harder and harder! Some sensitive female colleagues even had teary red eyes.
--The past month had simply been too exhausting.
Amidst this applause, Xu Meng shouted loudly, "I won't waste words with extra nonsense!"
"Bonuses for everyone!"
"Stick it out for one more week, and all departments will rotate on leave!"
"No work tomorrow afternoon, we're having a collective team dinner! Anyone who doesn't want to come can leave work early!"
"Now, get off work, dismissed!"
The applause instantly grew even more enthusiastic, and the outgoing colleagues cheered and jumped for joy on the spot.
Up and down the entire company, everyone was in a state of jubilation.
At this point, Dream Builder's bankruptcy crisis had finally vanished like smoke.
Asking for monthly passes, asking for continued reading, asking for recommendations!
Thanks to Panic War for the 5,000-point tip! Thanks to Glazed Shattered Glazed for the 2,000-point tip! Thanks to Xiao Shijiu Eats Pomegranates for the 1,500-point tip!
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