Taking Turns Losing Their Minds

"Secretary Chu?"

Gu Sheng was a little surprised to see Chu Qingzhou.

"You didn't go to Zhongjing?"

Gurgle, gurgle—

Chu Qingzhou noisily slurped her lemonade, looking helpless. "We already came back."

So soon?

Gu Sheng was secretly delighted.

Looks like the deal fell through. Otherwise, why would they be back so quickly? They left in the morning and came back in the afternoon.

Great.

It's best if it fell through. Give me a little more time, and I'll be able to make Escape.

"Did it not go very smoothly?"

Gu Sheng gestured for Chu Qingzhou to come in and sit down as he asked.

At that, Lu Bian and Da Jiang turned to look as well.

Chu Qingzhou shook her head. "It went too smoothly. So smoothly that... it was a little unexpected."

"We've already reached a partnership with Yiyou. Our next game can launch on Yiyou x1."

Chu Qingzhou said,

"I came to notify you that we'll be holding the project approval meeting shortly."

"Holy crap! CEO Shen really moves fast!"

Lu Bian exclaimed.

"She went out in the morning and got it done by noon?!"

Heh.

Chu Qingzhou laughed bitterly to herself.

Of course it was fast. They offered him twice the price. If you were Yan Sheng, you'd have agreed even faster than he did.

"Mm."

Chu Qingzhou nodded.

"CEO Shen... places great importance on this project, so the pressure on your side will be relatively high this time."

This was merely Chu Qingzhou's own speculation.

After all, she truly could not understand why Miaomiao would spend twice the price just to secure launch rights for Yiyou x1.

What was she after?

Its small market? Its low market share?

So, she could only interpret it as Miaomiao placing great importance on this project.

Extremely great importance!

Hearing that, Gu Sheng straightened up as well.

"Mm. After all, this is our first time entering the immersive pod market."

"Not only does CEO Shen take it seriously, we'll certainly take it especially seriously too."

"Then I'll have to trouble Director Gu and you two."

As she spoke, Chu Qingzhou rose to her feet.

"I'll go prepare the meeting room first. See you shortly."

After seeing Chu Qingzhou off, the three brothers put away their previous lazy expressions.

"Judging by Secretary Chu's expression, this investment isn't small," Lu Bian said, lighting a cigarette.

"After all, it's the immersive pod track."

Gu Sheng nodded.

"Even a casual investment in it would be more than the combined investment in all our previous games."

"So... Brother Sheng, do you have any ideas now?"

Da Jiang asked.

"We're about to hold the project approval meeting. We should at least have a preliminary plan, right?"

At the mention of this, Gu Sheng honestly felt a headache coming on.

"To be honest, I only have a preliminary idea of the game genre."

Gu Sheng rubbed his face.

"But I haven't figured out the exact form yet."

"That's fine. Having a genre is enough," Lu Bian said. "There are so many immersive pod games out there. There should always be games of the same type to inspire us. What direction are we planning to work toward?"

Gu Sheng pondered for a moment. "A horror game."

It was as if an angel had passed through.

The moment he said that, the entire office fell silent.

After a long silence!

Lu Bian slowly opened his mouth.

"...Are you and Little Nezha taking turns losing your minds or what?"

Making a horror game?

What the hell was there to inspire them from similar games?

That genre had long since died out!

Lu Bian went numb.

Last time, Little Nezha had wildly thrown out nonsense at the project approval meeting, demanding pixel art and randomness and all sorts of things!

Luckily, Gu Sheng was awesome. He had turned into the big daddy and skillfully linked those absurd demands together, creating a masterpiece like Vampire Survivors.

But this time!

Gu Sheng was the one losing his mind!

And who could step forward to be the big daddy now?

No one!!!

"Big bro, can you wake up a little?! Horror games have been dead for ten years!"

Lu Bian grabbed Gu Sheng by the shoulders, trying to shake some sense into him.

It was one thing for other people to have brain farts.

But you couldn't lose your mind too!

The entire company's survival rested on you alone!

"Didn't we talk about this before? Have you forgotten?"

Lu Bian shook Gu Sheng as if trying to restore his sanity.

"That stuff is completely dead! These days, it can't even compete with galgames! No one makes horror games anymore! There's no market for them!!!"

"Um... Second Brother..."

Da Jiang weakly interrupted from the side.

"Galgame players' lives matter too. Otakus haven't offended anyone..."

"That's not my fucking point!"

Lu Bian was going crazy.

"Can we even touch horror games? Especially when we're just getting started! Investing in immersive pods is already incredibly risky. If we make a horror game too, won't we lose even our underwear?!"

Just as he said that!

Click!

The office door opened.

A small head topped with a bun hairstyle cautiously poked in, sneaky as a puppy. "Sorry, what project did you just say could make us lose even our underwear?"

"L-Little... CEO Shen?" Lu Bian shuddered when he saw the newcomer and hurriedly stood up to greet her.

That's right!

The person who had arrived was Shen Miaomiao!

She had just gone to the restroom. On her way back, as she passed Gu Sheng's office, she happened to hear Lu Bian roaring that they would "lose even their underwear."

Shen Miaomiao was immediately interested!

Lose even their underwear?!

What kind of top-tier project would that be?

Unable to suppress her curiosity, Shen Miaomiao pushed open Gu Sheng's office door.

"It's fine... it's fine, really..."

Shen Miaomiao waved her hand, signaling them not to be so restrained.

"I was just passing by. I heard your discussion getting pretty heated, so I thought I'd come take a look. What project were you talking about just now?"

With Little Nezha's arrival, Gu Sheng was finally able to break free from Lu Bian's "claws."

Thank goodness.

Gu Sheng secretly sighed in relief.

If Little Nezha hadn't shown up, my brains would've been shaken into mush.

Shaking his head, he said, "We were discussing the genre for the immersive pod project."

"Oh—"

Shen Miaomiao nodded.

"Director Gu's idea is...?"

"I want to try making a horror game."

Gu Sheng said,

"Although, judging from the current market, this genre isn't in demand, and almost no developers are willing to develop or produce such games."

"From the players' perspective, they also don't have much confidence in this genre, and their enthusiasm is low."

"But..."

Gu Sheng wanted to say, But I'm confident that I can break horror games out of their rigid Jumpscare formula. Combined with the high immersion of immersive pods, we can carve out a new path in the immersive pod market and fight our way through.

But before he could finish—

Shen Miaomiao clapped her hands!

"But isn't that exactly what our Golden Spirit represents? Great!!!"

Shen Miaomiao was overjoyed!

Wasn't this perfect?

She also wanted to make a horror game for immersive pods!

Originally, she had been worrying about how to bring up that suggestion at the project approval meeting.

But who would have thought!

Gu Sheng, that clever fellow, had actually brought it up himself!

He really had gotten carried away!

No wonder Supervisor Lu said this project would make them lose even their underwear!

Thinking of that, Shen Miaomiao excitedly slapped her thigh!

"Director Gu truly is the backbone of our company, a rising supernova in the gaming industry!"

"Bold! Creative! Driven!"

"Excellent! Full of spirit! We'll do as you say! We're making a horror game!"

"Come on! Let's go to the meeting room now and discuss the game's details!"