"Boss! Boss--"
The assistant, Chen Mengling, hurried over, her heels clicking crisply against the smooth flooring.
"It's bad! Our account was hacked!"
Looking at the flustered assistant rushing toward him, Xu Meng raised a hand to soothe her. "Don't panic, it wasn't hacked. I posted that."
"Oh." The assistant pressed a hand to her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good..."
The next moment, she reacted. "Wait! You posted that, Boss?"
Xu Meng nodded.
"B-But... this..." The assistant stammered, "When was all of this decided?"
"Ten minutes ago," Xu Meng replied.
The assistant leaned back slightly. "I only left the office for ten minutes, right? Did a meeting happen in between?"
"No."
"No meeting?" The assistant blinked. "Didn't important decisions always require a meeting before?"
"I've never seen democratic decision-making make the company any better," Xu Meng said flatly.
"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 absolute dogshit writing they produced—fire them, fire them all!"
Chen Mengling was extremely surprised. "But... the head of the writing team is your senior, Boss!"
Xu Meng paused, reflecting for a moment, and realized it actually was true.
Meng Bing, a woman known during her university days for being smooth and worldly.
Not only was she the senior of both him and Zhang Yang, but she had also joined Dream Builder very early on.
One of the core creative philosophies 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:
Their brains were broken! "Not only the team lead, but several of the writers in charge of the plot, side quests, and characters were all past alumni pulled in by senior sister," the assistant added.
Xu Meng felt a headache coming on. No wonder the plot was so toxic and yet no one objected; it turned out not only was the creative philosophy flawed, but the whole damn thing was full of nepotism!
Damn it!
How could anyone make a good game with a bunch of pests like this? "Fire them! Fire them all!"
"Fire them immediately!"
"Okay... I'll go find Sister Chen in the Personnel Department right away," Chen Mengling weakly complied. "When we recruit again, are there any special requirements?"
"That's not urgent. I'll talk to Sister Chen about it in detail later," Xu Meng waved his hand. "First, get me a few web novelists who write Harem Novels."
Xu Meng had decided that the future plot of Frost Snow Project would follow the old-school web novel tropes of an overpowered protagonist building a harem.
Those people writing harem novels had expertise that matched the job perfectly.
"Oh, oh... Okay." The assistant clearly suffered a fair amount of conceptual shock.
"Stop saying oh and hurry up. On your way out, call the Art and Programming Directors in for me. Oh right, call the head of the Modeling Team too." Xu Meng urged.
The assistant blinked, dazed, and scurried out the door to fetch them at a run.
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.
"Right, have a seat, all of you." Xu Meng pointed to the leather sofa on his right.
This sofa was also procured by Zhang Yang previously; it seemed to be some famous international brand.
After watching them all sit down, Xu Meng immediately spoke. "Time is tight, so I won't waste words. Did you all see 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 pulled out her phone and handed it over.
"Bullshit! You guys don't know anything..." Chen Wanzhong read aloud from the phone.
"Slap!"
The assistant snatched the phone back with lightning speed. "No, mistake, I was refuting those netizens attacking the Boss..."
She quickly manipulated the phone a few times and handed it back to Chen Wanzhong.
Chen Wanzhong didn't read it out loud anymore, obediently lowering his head to read the announcement.
Xu Meng looked at the assistant, who looked like a quail wishing she could tuck her head into her chest, and speechless, he rubbed his brow.
The comments under that announcement certainly couldn't all be good things.
People saying Dream Builder was making a dying struggle, that it was vulgar and obscene, that it was breaking the rules, accusing the operations team of messing around, questioning the development team's capabilities...
There were all kinds of things said.
Yet within a mere few minutes, Chen Mengling had first run to the Personnel Department to relay the Boss's demands, then ran separately to the Art, Programming, and Modeling offices to notify them of the summons, and on the way, she had still managed to squeeze out time to duel people in the comment section.
This capability genuinely made Xu Meng look at her with a bit of newfound respect.
The content of the announcement wasn't much; thirty seconds was enough to finish reading 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 didn't plan to clear up his bewilderment just yet.
"Finished reading? Then I'll start assigning tasks. Put whatever work you have on hand aside for now."
"Your core tasks moving forward will be 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 beat around the bush with you—just draw them in a sensual direction for me, the sexier the better."
"Modeling is the same, also the sexier the better. In addition, you must ensure high precision."
"While guaranteeing the schedule, make it as detailed as 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.
"Do we really have to do this?" Yang Hui asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Turning male characters into female characters, and putting female characters in obscene outfits." Yang Hui said with a tight face.
Xu Meng was slightly surprised, but still answered sincerely, "Yes, the 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 such vulgar, base things! Making characters sexualize themselves is naked objectification of women!"
Xu Meng froze.
He carefully looked at Yang Hui's expression.
After confirming she was serious, he said somewhat speechlessly, "Do you know Otome Games? I suggest you go find a few Otome Games with relatively large scales and aggressive romance, and witness how male characters sexualize themselves. After that, you won't struggle with this anymore."
"Let's continue discussing modeling..."
However, Yang Hui interrupted him once again. "This is a completely different matter! Women are inherently a vulnerable group. Doing this infringes on the rights of all women and constitutes the objectification and exploitation of women!"
Looking at her gritting teeth, Xu Meng was even more stunned.
What is going on? Weren't we trying to find a way to save the company and everyone's jobs?
How did we suddenly enter social issues? If you simply boycott vulgarity and say you are unwilling to draw sexy characters under any circumstances, that would be fine.
The ACG games of this world currently indeed still stayed at the "cute" and "handsome" stages, and veteran staff accepting out-of-bounds gameplay all at once was normal.
Dream Builder wasn't going to make this kind of game forever either.
A 2D Shooter Game was already a deserted, niche track to begin with. Now, in order to save the company, Xu Meng was stepping on the gas to rush into the soft-core pornography track, making it even more of a niche within a niche.
He didn't harbor any illusions that this heavy dose of medicine would cause Frost Snow Project to instantly spring back to life and become a cash cow for the company.
--It was completely not like that.
In Xu Meng's plan, the remade game would mostly be able to bring in a massive wave of cash flow.
But that wouldn't be a revival; it would simply be a flash in the pan.
It was just to carve out a window of opportunity.
Because Frost Snow Project had congenital flaws.
What truly supported a game's survival was never sexiness, but gameplay.
Dream Builder would ultimately have to walk a normal path and win the affirmation of players and the market through hard strength.
So if you explicitly stated right now that you couldn't do it, that was fine; they could just swap in someone who could.
Once they got past this hurdle, everyone would work hard together on a new game later.
What did it mean for you to start throwing punches at me the second you walk in??
Did he not dare to fire her? I'm back! A new book opens, as usual begging for collections, follow-up reads, and monthly passes! In its seedling stage, please nurture it~
Before you continue