"Boss! Boss--"
The little assistant Chen Mengling hurried over, her heels making crisp tapping sounds on the smooth floor.
"It's bad! Our account was hacked!"
Looking at the flustered assistant running toward him, Xu Meng raised a hand to soothe her. "Don't panic, it wasn't hacked. I posted that."
"Oh." The assistant stroked her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good..."
The next moment, she reacted again. "No! You posted that, Boss?"
Xu Meng nodded.
"B-But... this..." The assistant stammered, "When was all this decided?"
"Ten minutes ago," Xu Meng replied.
The assistant leaned back slightly. "I only left the office for 10 minutes, right? Did we have a meeting in the middle of that?"
"No."
"No meeting?" The assistant blinked. "Didn't important decisions used to require a meeting?"
"I've never seen democratic decision-making make the company any better," Xu Meng said, unamused.
"Then..." After being dazed for a few seconds, the assistant asked the most crucial question, "Is the blood transfusion for the writing team also serious?"
"Of course." Xu Meng didn't hesitate. "What kind of dogshit writing is that? Fire them, fire them all!"
Chen Mengling was extremely surprised. "But... the writing lead is your senior sister, Boss!"
"?" Xu Meng froze for a moment, and after a brief recollection, found that it really was true.
Meng Bing, a woman who had been known for being slick and well-connected since her university days.
Not only was she senior to him and Zhang Yang, but she had also joined Dream Builder very early on.
One of the creative tenets of the writing team she led was: "Characters have their own lives, and players are merely bystanders and witnesses to the game world."
Xu Meng's evaluation of this was:
Out of their minds!
"Not just the lead, several writers in charge of the plot, side quests, and characters were old schoolmates she pulled in," the assistant added.
Xu Meng felt a black line across his forehead. No wonder the plot was so toxic and yet no one opposed it; it turned out not only was the creative philosophy flawed, but they were all completely nepotistic hires!
Damn it!
How could anyone make a good game with a bunch of pests like these?
"Fire them! Fire them all!"
"Fire them immediately!"
"Okay... I'll go to the Personnel Department and find Sister Chen right now," Chen Mengling agreed weakly. "Are there any special requirements when we recruit new people?"
"That's not urgent, I'll talk details with Sister Chen later." Xu Meng waved his hand. "First, book a few webnovel writers who write harem novels for me."
Xu Meng decided that the future plot of Frost Snow Project would follow the old-school webnovel route of a domineering protagonist building a harem.
Those guys who wrote harem novels had the exact right professional background.
"Oh oh... Okay." Assistant clearly suffered a not-so-small ideological shock.
"Stop oh-ing, hurry up and go. On your way out, call the art and programming directors in for me. Right, call the modeling team lead as well." Xu Meng urged.
Blinking, the assistant went out in a daze and trotted off to find people.
Before long, she pushed open the office door again, bringing in Art Director Yang Hui, Programming Director Peng Linmu, and Modeling Supervisor Chen Wanzhong.
"Boss, they're here." She restrained her panting and tried to steady her tone.
"Mm, all sit down." Xu Meng gestured to the leather sofa on the right-hand side.
This sofa had also been bought by Zhang Yang previously, seemingly some internationally famous big brand.
After seeing them all sit down, Xu Meng immediately spoke up, "Time is tight, so I won't waste words. Have you all seen the announcement I posted?"
"Saw it," Yang Hui and Peng Linmu nodded.
"What announcement?" Chen Wanzhong was blank.
"You..." Xu Meng paused. "Never mind, Mengling, show him."
"Okay." The assistant quickly took out her phone and handed it over.
"Bullshit! You guys don't know anything..." Chen Wanzhong read from the phone.
"Slap!"
The assistant snatched the phone back at lightning speed. "No, I messed up, I was refuting those netizens who were attacking the Boss..."
She quickly operated the phone a few times and handed it back to Chen Wanzhong.
Chen Wanzhong stopped reading aloud and obediently looked down at the announcement.
Xu Meng looked at the assistant, who looked like a quail wishing she could tuck her head into her chest, and rubbed his temples in speechlessness.
Of course, the comments under that announcement couldn't possibly all be good.
Those saying Dream Builder was struggling on its deathbed, that it was vulgar and obscene, that it broke the rules, accusing the operations team of messing around, questioning the development team's capabilities...
There were all kinds of things said.
Yet within just a few minutes, Chen Mengling had first run to the Personnel Department to relay the Boss's demands, then run separately to the art, programming, and modeling offices to notify them that the Boss was summoning them, and she had even managed to squeeze in time on the way to argue with people in the comment section.
This capability genuinely made Xu Meng look at her with a bit of newfound respect.
The announcement content wasn't much; 30 seconds was enough to read it, but Chen Wanzhong maintained the exact same posture for a long time without moving.
When he raised his head again, his entire face was written with bewilderment.
Xu Meng had no intention of resolving his bewilderment for the moment.
"Finished reading? Then I'll start assigning tasks. Put aside whatever work you have on hand for now."
"Your core tasks next are character gender swaps and costume changes."
"Art Department, redraw according to the amount of screen time each character has, from highest to lowest."
"I'm not going to hide it from you either, just draw them in a sexy direction for me, the sexier the better."
"Modeling is the same, also the sexier the better. In addition, you must ensure high fidelity."
"While keeping within the production schedule, make it as detailed as humanly possible."
Xu Meng looked at Chen Wanzhong. "Your task is extremely important..."
"Wait a minute!" Yang Hui, who had been silent all this time, suddenly interrupted Xu Meng.
"What is it?" Xu Meng looked at Yang Hui.
"Does it really have to be done this way?" Yang Hui asked.
"What are you referring to?"
"Turning male characters into female characters, and putting female characters in lewd outfits," Yang Hui said with a rigid face.
Xu Meng was slightly surprised, but still answered sincerely, "Yes, Game Observer was right, the company has reached the brink of bankruptcy, and we have no choice."
Yet Yang Hui still shook her head. "I cannot accept something so vulgar and lewd! Making characters sell sex—this is the naked objectification of women!"
Xu Meng froze for a moment.
He carefully looked at Yang Hui's expression.
Determined that she was serious, he said somewhat speechlessly, "Do you know about otome games? I suggest you go find a few otome games with a relatively large scale and aggressive romance to play, and witness how male characters sell sex. After that, you won't struggle with this anymore."
"Let's continue talking about modeling..."
But Yang Hui interrupted him again. "These are two different things! Women are inherently a vulnerable group. Doing this violates the rights of all women, and is the objectification and exploitation of women!"
Looking at her gritted-teeth expression, Xu Meng was even more stunned.
What is this? Weren't we trying to figure out a way to save the company and everyone's jobs?
How did we suddenly enter the realm of social issues?
If you were simply boycotting vulgarity and saying you wouldn't draw sexy characters no matter what, that would be fine.
The ACG games in this world currently indeed still stayed at the "cute" and "handsome" stage, and it was normal for veterans to be unable to accept edgy gameplay for a time.
Dream Builder wasn't going to make this kind of game forever either.
A 2D shooter game was already a deserted, niche track, and now, to save the company, Xu Meng was stepping on the gas to charge into the soft-porn track, which made it an even more niche of the niche.
He didn't expect this heavy dose of medicine to instantly bring Frost Snow Project back to life and turn it into the company's cash cow.
--That was not the case at all.
In Xu Meng's plan, the remade game would most likely bring in a massive wave of cash flow.
But that wouldn't be a revival; it would be a flash in the pan.
Just to snatch a window of opportunity.
Because Frost Snow Project had congenital flaws.
What truly sustained a game's survival was never sex appeal, but gameplay.
Dream Builder would ultimately return to a normal path, relying on hard strength to win the affirmation of players and the market.
So if you explicitly stated right now that you couldn't do it, fine, we'd just swap in someone who could.
Once past this hurdle, everyone could work hard together on a new game afterwards.
What was the meaning of coming out of the gate and picking a fight with me??
Did you think I wouldn't dare fire you?
I'm back!
Opening a pit for a new book, as per usual I beg for a wave of collections, read-throughs, and monthly passes!
Sapling stage, please nurture it~
Before you continue