Who Would Play This Ghostly Game?!

"...So, this was your interview project? Mario Bros.?"

Conference room, 22nd floor, Binjiang Technology Building, Golden Wind Game Technology Co., Ltd.

As the interviewer for this game director recruitment, chief secretary Chu Qingzhou looked at the game proposal in her hands, then at the young man in the Mickey Hoodie sitting across from her.

Her tone was full of uncertainty.

She simply couldn't imagine that this piece of trash could be called a "game proposal"!

The game concept art on the very first page alone was outrageous—

An A4 sheet lay horizontally, featuring obstacle designs identical to Mario's.

However, the protagonist had been changed from a mustachioed plumber into an upright-walking, smug-looking... cat?

The grass, pipes, and even the clouds in the picture were all marked with the character for "danger."

The countless vector arrows were dizzying, as though a hundred traps lay in wait for the smug cat with every step it took.

Even through the crude art style, an air of mockery radiated straight at her.

Was this thing really designed by a carbon-based lifeform?

Chu Qingzhou looked at the image again, her expression complicated.

Who the hell would play this kind of ghostly game?!

"Let me confirm this one more time, Mr. Gu,"

Taking a deep breath, Chu Qingzhou closed the proposal and asked with a frown:

"You're sure this is the concept art for the game itself?"

"I'm sure. Its style is just that..."

As he spoke, the big boy sitting across from her gave an awkward but polite smile.

"Abstract."

His name was Gu Sheng, a transmigrator who came with a system.

Three years ago, after an accident, he had transmigrated into this Parallel World and become a freshman in the game design program at Binjiang University.

In this world, electronic technology was slightly more advanced than in his previous life, but its games were painfully mediocre.

Game genres were limited, Gameplay was monotonous and rigid, and domestic games in particular were flooded with reskinned cash grabs and countless assembly-line products.

Gu Sheng's system seemed to have arrived specifically to conquer this blue ocean market—

Game Treasure Trove System

This was a points exchange system that stored the source code frameworks for every game from Gu Sheng's previous life.

Once activated, those works worthy of being called the Ninth Art would see the light of day again and continue shining in this world.

But.

Activating the system required fulfilling two prerequisites—

Condition One: Before the system was activated, the host was forbidden from releasing any games.

Condition Two: During the senior-year internship period, the host had to successfully obtain a position as a director or higher at a game company.

Note: Both conditions had to be met simultaneously for the system to officially activate. Otherwise, it would self-destruct.

The first condition was nothing. It was easy enough to fulfill.

The real problem was the second condition!

During an "internship," he had to land a "director" position at a game company?

The difficulty was pure hell!

What level was a director?

That was Hidetaka Miyazaki! Sid Meier! Gaben! Shigeru Miyamoto!

You wanted a student like him to apply for a game director position?!

Unless some boss was dead set on running their company into the ground!

Otherwise, it was simply impossible!

Forget him—even if Hideo Kojima himself came over, he couldn't possibly ascend straight to the top and become a game director before graduating!

But there was no helping it. Those were the system's conditions. If he failed to activate it during this one-year internship, the system would disappear automatically.

So Gu Sheng could only try his luck.

And just yesterday!

His hundredth resume had finally received a response.

A company called Golden Wind Games had replied to his application and asked him to come in for an interview today.

However...

It seemed the interview was not going particularly well.

Gu Sheng looked at the interviewer's dark expression and sighed inwardly.

In this world, he was just a poor student. Although he had interned at FromSoftware in his previous life and later returned home to work at Yubisoft Chongqing Studio as an assistant to the chief project planner, giving him extensive game development experience—

A clever woman could not cook without rice.

And the interview notice had come on such short notice.

With no other choice, he had hastily put together this "Mario Bros." as his interview piece.

"Although... it's a little rough,"

Seeing that the interviewer was already speechless, Gu Sheng decided to salvage some dignity.

"Its Gameplay is absolutely solid."

"The sheer number of traps will constantly stimulate players. Every time they clear a stage, it'll be a dopamine rush for them!"

Bullshit.

Chu Qingzhou rolled her eyes inwardly.

If I believed you, I'd be an idiot.

Were players all masochists? Was life going too smoothly for them, so they had to play this eye-searing ghostly thing of yours???

Chu Qingzhou sighed. She didn't want to waste any more time on an idiot designer, so she offered Gu Sheng an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Gu, but your, uh... work simply doesn't meet even the minimum standards of the game industry."

"So—"

Before she could finish!

A crisp, sweet voice rang out from beside her.

"So I think you have a lot of potential!"

At those words!

Both Gu Sheng and Chu Qingzhou were startled and turned toward the speaker.

Beside Chu Qingzhou, seated in the chief seat at the very center of the conference room, was a young woman.

She was around Gu Sheng's age, perhaps twenty-two or twenty-three. She had a round little face, big eyes, and a Little Nezha-style double bun atop her head. She looked sweet and adorable.

Oh, right. He had nearly forgotten about her.

Gu Sheng raised an eyebrow.

As absurd as it was, this young woman was the company's president—the true decision-maker and executor.

Little Nezha had not said a word until now, and Gu Sheng had almost mistaken her for a mascot.

Yet the moment she spoke, she said something shocking.

Chu Qingzhou was clearly a little dumbfounded.

Little ancestor, where exactly did you see potential in this guy?

That smugly grinning cat?

Or those pipes that could apparently be launched like rockets?

Or those brain-dead mushrooms that would poison you to death after one bite?

No matter how she looked at it, this trash game did not seem like a proposal any normal designer could have made, did it?

If this "Mario Bros." were released onto the market, forget selling even one copy!

If it managed to sell half a copy, she would kneel on the ground and kowtow to this kid three times!

However!

Faced with chief secretary Chu Qingzhou's astonished gaze, Little Nezha remained unhurried. Instead, she smiled faintly and looked at Gu Sheng.

"Mr. Gu, you said just now... you don't have any work experience, right?"

"No."

Gu Sheng nodded.

If his previous life did not count, he truly had no work experience.

"And you don't have any recent plans?"

"No."

"And you aren't preparing any projects?"

"No."

"Excellent! Then Golden Wind will be the place where you spread your wings and realize your dreams!"

As she spoke, Little Nezha actually stood up and extended her hand to Gu Sheng.

"Welcome to Golden Wind, Director Gu!"

Holy shit? No, wait, what???

Watching the two of them prepare to shake hands, Chu Qingzhou felt like her CPU was about to burn out!

What the hell was this supposed to be?

Had the boss gone crazy?

Why was she charging straight toward disaster?

However, despite Chu Qingzhou's desperate attempts to stop them, she was still one step too late.

Ding!

The moment Gu Sheng clasped Little Nezha's hand, a crisp chime rang out in his mind—

Congratulations! You have successfully obtained a director position. The Game Treasure Trove System has officially activated!

From this moment onward, the system will automatically collect players' Emotion Points to exchange for games. The higher a game's sales, the faster Emotion Points will accumulate!!!

This... had worked?

Gu Sheng almost wanted to laugh.

Happiness had arrived far too absurdly.

This Little Nezha really was a huge sucker... no, a great benefactor!

However, what he did not know was—

At the exact moment his system activated!

A prompt sounded in Little Nezha's mind as well—

Ding! Congratulations! You have successfully bound a Principal. The Rebate System has officially activated!

From this moment onward, whenever a project led by the Principal suffers a loss, the system will compensate the host with a tenfold rebate!!!