Despairing Compensation!

After seeing Shen Miaomiao off, Yan Sheng let out a sigh of relief.

He stretched his shirt and realized his back was completely soaked.

"Ah—!!!"

He exhaled heavily.

Yan Sheng was truly furious.

But at the same time, he felt a little pleased.

Because ever since he had joined the Yiyou Platform and taken charge as Chief Executive Officer!

He had wanted to bring down the "Old Guard Faction" led by Sun Guoping!

Yan Sheng was young, an intelligent and pragmatic man with ideals.

These days, the gaming industry's thinking had grown rigid. Many major game companies, led by Xunteng Games, had enthusiastically embraced the art of "borrowing inspiration."

The entire gaming market was like one massive imitation party. Today you copied me; tomorrow I copied you.

Game genres grew increasingly monotonous, while new ways to make money emerged every day.

A prize wheel today, limited-time releases tomorrow, gacha machines the day after.

Yet no one was willing to buckle down and focus on the fundamental issue of Gameplay!

And the reason the gaming industry had become such a cesspool was not merely because developers pursued profit and treated players like crops to be harvested.

Yiyou, as the platform operator, had also made a "significant contribution"!

One had to understand!

They were one of the country's foremost major gaming platforms!

Their every move could influence the entire gaming industry to a considerable degree!

Logically, as a gaming platform, they ought to have treated all games equally!

Their promotional strategy should likewise have followed the principle that the worthy rose to the top!

But now, unspoken rules ran rampant throughout the Yiyou Platform—

They did not look at quality, did not look at Gameplay, and did not conduct evaluations!

The platform's promotional resources were automatically prioritized for large, experienced companies that were willing to pay to grease the wheels!

Perhaps those companies' Gameplay was stale, their ideas outdated, or their games were outright reskins.

But that did not stop them from making money!

The developers made money, the platform took a cut, and the executives could pocket some perks too—a win-win-win.

As for the players?

With the market so severely homogenized, playing anyone's games was much the same. They seemed to have long grown accustomed to being harvested.

Yan Sheng's assessment of this was—

Draining the pond to catch the fish. A slow death.

As a sharp leader, Yan Sheng knew that if he continued allowing these unspoken rules to erode the platform.

Then sooner or later, the great ship that was Yiyou would be riddled with holes and perish beneath the stormy waves.

That was why he had resolved to reform it.

He would strictly enforce the principle that the worthy rose to the top, continually uncover rising designers, and establish deep partnerships with them.

Only then could Yiyou become the Huangpu Military Academy of domestic game designers.

Always standing at the forefront of gaming innovation and holding the market's core competitive advantage.

Perhaps, after accumulating enough strength, entering the international market would not be impossible either!

However.

Innovation had always clashed with complacency.

And since their conflict involved interests, it was fundamentally irreconcilable.

Thus, Yan Sheng had been searching for an opportunity, determined to kick those old parasites who outwardly obeyed while secretly obstructing reform out of the company!

And today!

The chance to make his move had finally arrived.

At that thought, Yan Sheng's expression darkened as he called the secretariat.

"Tell Sun Guoping to come see me. Now."

Yan Sheng worked quickly.

In less than two days!

Yiyou's "response" arrived.

That day, Shen Miaomiao opened the Yiyou Platform as usual.

Yet the moment she opened the app, before the homepage had even fully loaded, a pop-up appeared first—

Letter of Apology

Shen Miaomiao paused, then clicked into the detailed page.

Next, an apology letter several thousand words long unfolded before her—

Dear players, designers, and all friends who support the Yiyou Platform:

First, please allow us to offer our sincerest apologies to everyone...

As Shen Miaomiao read on, she could not help raising her brows.

She had to admit, Yan Sheng really had some nerve.

Because in the text below, he had actually disclosed every detail of the data switch and ranking manipulation.

Nothing was omitted. Every time the backend had been tampered with and every piece of evidence had been posted as images.

Shen Miaomiao silently gave him a thumbs-up.

For a company—especially an industry-leading one—to so seriously examine its own problems and publicly disclose the results showed that it was willing to bear all negative consequences.

That took responsibility, and it was rare.

...Following our internal self-inspection and investigation, the results are hereby announced as follows—

1. Xingmang Technology Co., Ltd. has been confirmed to have engaged in favoritism and fraud, deliberately interfered with the fair execution of the event, and allegedly bribed employees of our company. Its eligibility to participate in this event is therefore revoked. All Xingmang Games titles will be removed from the platform, and we will never cooperate with the company again. We also reserve all rights to pursue legal liability.

2. All relevant employees involved will be dismissed and permanently barred from reemployment. Where the suspected sums are substantial, we will request intervention from the relevant authorities. If the investigation confirms the facts, our company will file suit on charges of occupational embezzlement.

3. Golden Wind Technology Co., Ltd., which was affected by this incident, will have its random ranking refresh privileges restored effective immediately. Its first-round voting rank will also be restored, and the compensation details will be announced tomorrow. We welcome public oversight!

Good lord!

Even Shen Miaomiao could not help drawing a sharp breath upon seeing such severe punishments!

Yan Sheng was ruthless indeed!

One had to understand!

Fundamentally, Yiyou was merely a private enterprise, and private companies did not technically have "corruption" cases, which were generally not filed.

But this time!

Yan Sheng was determined to crush those people who had engaged in favoritism and fraud right under his nose!

He immediately hit them with a lawsuit for occupational embezzlement!

Even if it did not send the executives involved to prison, it would still leave them overwhelmed and unable to rest easy!

Ruthless.

And determined enough.

Shen Miaomiao was very satisfied with that.

After all, she had only been unable to swallow her anger at the time and wanted to warn Yiyou not to treat her like an idiot.

Golden Wind could slack off, but that did not mean they could truly treat her like trash.

Now, Yiyou had punished those involved, publicly announced the results, and offered a sincere apology in both tone and attitude.

Her goal had been achieved.

As for the "compensation details" mentioned at the end, Shen Miaomiao did not care. She did not need them either.

Let this matter end here.

However!

Shen Miaomiao had forgotten a saying—though the tree wished to be still, the wind would not cease.

The next moment, someone knocked on her office door.

Chu Qingzhou entered cheerfully, carrying a stack of documents. She sat across from Shen Miaomiao and handed them over.

"CEO Shen, this is the compensation plan Yiyou Platform customized for us. Please review it. CEO Yan said that if there's anything they failed to consider, you can add it!"

Shen Miaomiao was taken aback.

Then she smiled lightly. "What compensation? I'm not fighting for bread, I'm fighting for dignity."

As she spoke, Shen Miaomiao picked up the documents.

Then the smile froze on her face.

There, in black and white, the document laid out Yiyou Platform's "compensation"—

1. To compensate your company for losses caused by the abnormal ranking refreshes, starting at midnight tomorrow, "Vampire Survivors" will remain fixed on the homepage of the refresh rankings for five days, until the event ends.

2. To compensate your company for its first-round voting losses, starting at midnight tomorrow, "Vampire Survivors" will be restored to first place on the first-round vote rankings and featured in a launch-screen announcement for five days, until the event ends.

3. To compensate your company for its overall promotional losses, starting at midnight tomorrow, "Vampire Survivors" will receive a homepage banner recommendation for five days, until the event ends.

4. To be supplemented by your company.

Silence.

A long silence.

If one did not erupt in silence, one perished in silence.

Seeing Shen Miaomiao's face rapidly turn ashen, looking as though she was about to perish.

Chu Qingzhou could not help speaking up.

"CEO Shen... are you... feeling unwell?"

"Why has your complexion suddenly gotten so awful?"