Chapter Summaries

Dawei and Cat Hero played Peak Nation together, and Cat Hero experienced the freedom and strength his illness had taken from him. Cat Hero died that night after asking Dawei to write a review, and his friend’s posthumous message reached Gu Sheng’s desk.

• Cat Hero climbed a sheer cliff in Peak Nation and made a risky leap between holds, winning Dawei’s promise of grilled fish.
• Dawei pushed Cat Hero through the streets as Cat Hero recalled the game’s landscapes and said he wished he could visit the Alps.
• Cat Hero asked Dawei to write a review and shared his gratitude for the game, his love of freedom, and his hope to see the Alps in another life.
• Cat Hero’s real-life friend posted that Cat Hero had died at 2:30 that morning, and the review drew widespread attention.
• The review was printed and left on Gu Sheng’s desk at Golden Wind.

Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng honored the late player SuperCat Cat Hero by adding his salute and cat-ear hat to Peak Nation, with the hat tied to a server-wide reward. Wearing it, Octane conquered the Solidification of Ice course and achieved its global first clear alongside Cat Hero’s memory.

• Shen Miaomiao showed Gu Sheng SuperCat Cat Hero’s review and asked whether they could commemorate him, and Gu Sheng revealed he had come to discuss the same idea.
• Golden Wind added Cat Hero’s Salute as a stunt move and the SuperCat Cat Hat as an accessory that would unlock a server-wide Ultimate Reward for the first Peak Eight clear.
• Octane equipped the hat and began the Solidification of Ice challenge, performing Cat Hero’s Salute before racing ahead of a massive avalanche.
• Octane navigated the forest and performed a spectacular aerial trick over the final slope, earning 12,855 points before crossing the finish line.
• The game announced Octane’s global first clear of Solidification of Ice, and Octane celebrated with tears as he called out to SuperCat.

Players united to solve the Peak Eight challenges after Octane’s first victory and the promise of a Cat Hero easter egg, while Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao discussed the players’ efforts at home. With six challenges cleared, Octane prepared to attempt the last two at Angel Falls as millions watched, bringing players close to discovering the easter egg.

• Octane’s success and the Cat Hero reward inspired players worldwide to tackle the Peak Eight and share guides despite the risks.
• Players organized their findings, and six of the eight challenges had been conquered by the eighteenth day after the game’s release.
• Shen Miaomiao told Gu Sheng she had tried Spirit of the Sea and posted her surfing experience, then teased him by covering him with her blanket.
• Octane’s upcoming stream drew 380,000 viewers as he prepared to attempt the remaining challenges at Angel Falls: climbing to the top and leaping into Impact Lake.

Octane cleared the final Peak Eight challenge at Angel Falls and accepted the Ultimate Trust challenge, which erased his account records as he leapt into the lake. Golden Wind revealed that the Ultimate Reward was the Golden Cat Charity Fund, and Octane donated his prize money as players celebrated; news of the fund left one group especially unsettled.

• Octane thanked the worldwide audience and promised to donate all his Peak Eight prize money if he completed the challenge.
• Octane climbed Angel Falls, survived a slip, and used a narrow groove beneath an overhanging boulder to reach the final checkpoint.
• Octane accepted the Ultimate Trust challenge and leapt from the summit as footage of his earlier challenges played.
• Golden Wind announced Octane’s global first clear, awarded participants the Golden Cat Cat title, and established the Golden Cat Charity Fund with the $10,689,445 prize pool.
• Octane donated his own prize money to the fund, while players celebrated and Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng joked about the outcome.
• News of the Golden Cat Charity Fund spread, and one group became especially unable to sit still.

After Golden Wind’s charity campaign and official-media interview boosted its prestige, Xu Zhixing and Matt recognized an opportunity to partner with the company. Matt decided to travel to China with Xu to meet Golden Wind in person.

• Xu Zhixing praised Golden Wind’s bold investment and successful promotion of its extreme-sports game, and urged Matt to pursue cooperation.
• Xu showed Matt a newspaper report featuring Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao as outstanding young entrepreneurs.
• During the interview, Gu Sheng described Golden Wind’s origins, charitable work, and plans to promote Chinese brands, while Shen Miaomiao watched admiringly.
• Matt read the reactions to Golden Wind’s published interview and concluded that the company’s rising prestige made a partnership urgent.
• Matt told Xu to book tickets so they could fly to China and visit Golden Wind.

Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao discussed Tencent Bull’s proposed promotional partnership with Golden Wind, and Shen Miaomiao’s Loss Rebate System unlocked a new project type. When the partners proposed a downhill ridge race costing about $7.6 million, Shen Miaomiao wondered how to raise the budget enough to lose money.

• Gu Sheng beat Shen Wanlin at chess, and they discussed Tencent Bull’s visit to negotiate a partnership with Golden Wind.
• Xu Zhixing outlined a plan to promote their brands through events, competitions, and sponsorships, delighting Shen Miaomiao with the prospect of spending money.
• Shen Miaomiao’s Loss Rebate System unlocked Promotional Projects and explained how it judged profits against promotional costs.
• Xu Zhixing proposed a global downhill ridge race in Utah with $300,000 in prize money and an estimated total cost of $7.6 million.
• Shen Miaomiao questioned the low budget and considered how to increase the event’s costs before giving her opinion.

Gu Sheng explained Golden Wind’s proposed Golden Bull Joint Challenge to Tencent Bull, pitching wildly different events to raise the project’s profile. Xu Zhixing was left reeling, and the partnership’s next step depended on whether Tencent Bull would accept the publicity potential and risks.

• Shen Wanlin encouraged Gu Sheng to invest boldly in the joint competition, and Gu Sheng decided to raise both its budget and publicity.
• Gu Sheng presented the Soap Box Derby, where contestants raced unpowered carts without brakes, leaving Xu Zhixing stunned while Moriya Tetsuya found the idea appealing.
• Gu Sheng proposed spending around thirty million dollars to build a new Mountain Descent Race course by blasting apart a mountain.
• Gu Sheng described a 7,620-meter parachute-less jump in which athlete Ike Garcia would aim to land on a safety net, and Xu Zhixing struggled to accept the danger.
• Moriya Tetsuya silently praised Gu Sheng’s ideas, while the representatives awaited Tencent Bull’s decision on the events and their public-opinion risks.

Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao finalized a ten-million-to-six-million partnership with Tencent Bull for the Golden Bull Extreme Challenge, while Gu Sheng aimed to secure the event’s largest advertising placement. With ordinary contestants refusing to sign up, the organizers recruited companies and media outlets to join, setting off a wave of publicity.

• Gu Sheng told Shen Miaomiao that Tencent Bull had accepted the soapbox-car challenge and proposed a forty-sixty investment split, but Shen offered to reduce her company’s share to ten million dollars.
• Gu Sheng agreed to the reduced investment while planning to claim the entire 2,500-square-meter safety net as Golden Wind’s advertising space.
• Shen Miaomiao reminded Gu Sheng to keep up their act as a couple at the homeowners’ handover, and they walked in hand in hand.
• At Yiyou Technology, Yan Sheng rejected his team’s soapbox-car design and ordered them to make a shark-shaped car with falcon-like wings to rival Swift Vine.
• After Golden Wind and Tencent Bull signed their agreement, almost nobody signed up for the challenge, so Gu Sheng, Moriya, and Xu Zhixing recruited partner companies and game media outlets to participate.

Shen Miaomiao watched Golden Wind’s soapbox challenge become a huge gaming-industry event and feared it would make her lose the chance to incur a system loss. On New Year’s Day in Sweden, the derby began with Yiyou’s ridiculous Falcon Shark entry, whose wings flew off at its first jump.

• Gaming companies, media, platforms, streamers, and commentators announced their participation in Golden Wind’s challenge, drawing widespread attention.
• Shen Miaomiao realized the publicity could bring Golden Wind more than ten million dollars in extra profit and mourned her inability to lose money.
• Gu Sheng and Xu Zhixing opened the Sweden Soap Box Derby in Karlskrona as crowds and livestream viewers watched.
• Principal Guan and Wawa began Chinese-language commentary and introduced Yiyou’s Falcon Shark, driven by two contestants wearing Yiyou x2 cockpit costumes.
• The Falcon Shark raced down the course, but its wings detached at the first jump ramp, prompting the commentators to yell the event’s catchphrase.

The soapbox race delivered a string of absurd vehicles and mishaps, culminating in a BT-7274 driver recreating Titanfall’s “Protect the Pilot” scene to cross the finish line. The mysterious driver agreed to reveal his identity, leaving the audience and Gu Sheng waiting.

• Great Shark Eagle finished the race, and the simulator pod brothers credited its design to Yan Sheng during their interview.
• Xunteng presented Polar Bear with drivers dressed as Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, while Ept Company’s pyramid car drifted down the course.
• A Yin’s Monkey Pulling Cart lost Cousin’s carriage in a turn, and Cousin chased after the moving racer through the hay.
• Shen Miaomiao revealed that she had arranged for a BT-7274 car and Pilot to enter without Gu Sheng’s knowledge.
• The Pilot inflated a balloon, sent BT backward across the finish line, and reenacted Titanfall’s “Protect the Pilot” scene.
• The Pilot agreed to reveal his identity, then bent forward as the crowd waited.

Gu Sheng reunited with Octane at the finish line and helped present awards at the challenge event. Just as the ceremony ended, Joe announced Ike Garcia’s dangerous 7,600-meter unassisted parachuting challenge, which left the crowd stunned as Ike jumped and colored smoke appeared in the sky.

• Octane revealed himself as the young man who had received a prosthetic leg from Gu Sheng, and the two exchanged thumbs-up across the venue.
• Gu Sheng, Shen Miaomiao, and Xu Zhixing rode to the finish line, where Gu Sheng warmly embraced Octane.
• Joe concluded the soapbox challenge awards, then announced Ike Garcia’s unassisted parachuting attempt into a net in the Baltic Sea.
• The crowd and livestream viewers reacted with alarm as Ike prepared to free-fall from 7,600 meters without a parachute.
• Ike jumped from the aircraft, and crimson and golden smoke trails appeared in the sky.

Ike Garcia successfully completed his unprecedented unassisted parachute jump into the giant Overwatch-branded net, turning Golden Bull’s event into a global spectacle. As Shen Miaomiao worried that Gu Sheng had planned more than a logo reveal, Joe announced that Winston would explain what Overwatch was.

• Ike Garcia’s accompanying coaches and cameraman opened their parachutes and moved away as he continued his descent toward the net.
• Ike Garcia landed safely in the giant net bearing the Overwatch logo, and Joe announced that his 7,620-meter unassisted parachute challenge had succeeded.
• Ike Garcia thanked Golden Bull, credited Octane and Cat Hero for inspiring him, and spoke about facing life with optimism and determination.
• Xu Zhiyuan and Gu Sheng addressed the crowd while spectators worldwide speculated about Golden Wind’s mysterious Overwatch logo.
• Shen Miaomiao feared Gu Sheng had arranged more than a logo reveal, and Joe introduced Winston as the one who would explain Overwatch.

Golden Wind launched the Overwatch trailer during the Golden Bull Challenge finale, while the event’s success expanded Tencent Bull’s sales and international reach. Shen Miaomiao discovered the challenge had earned $30.45 million and was furious at Gu Sheng’s promotion when he arrived with a new problem.

• Winston introduced Overwatch, describing the Omnic threat and urging heroes to stand up again as the trailer revealed its characters and logo.
• The Overwatch trailer drew an enthusiastic response from millions of viewers, and the first Golden Bull Challenge ended amid widespread excitement.
• Tencent Bull’s first-week sales surpassed its entire previous month’s sales, with sales in Europe and the Americas rising by 382% and 507% year over year.
• Shen Miaomiao read the report showing $30.45 million in weekly challenge profits and blamed Gu Sheng for the event’s runaway success and Overwatch promotion.
• Gu Sheng entered Shen Miaomiao’s office and told her they seemed to have a problem.

Golden Wind’s profits attracted pressure to go public, but Gu Sheng saw no need to let outside capital disrupt the company’s plans. In America, Yunwei-Vendi CEO Kornik plotted to exploit a public offering to take over Golden Wind and strip its studios and game franchises for profit.

• Golden Wind received a flood of partnership, investment, and IPO proposals after its profits surged, but Gu Sheng dismissed the prospect of going public because the company already had sufficient production capacity and funding.
• Kornik told Vendi vice-chair Sarah Gascone that he planned to sell Ubisoft after exploiting its franchises and studios for years.
• Kornik recounted how he had undermined Ubisoft’s Origin Island 2 project with a fake competing game, depressed its stock, and gained control through a hostile takeover.
• After taking over Ubisoft, Kornik had its successful franchises churned into sequels and mobile games until the company’s reputation and value collapsed.
• Kornik told Sarah he wanted to exploit Golden Wind’s game franchises and talent, and planned to use a public offering and falling share prices to acquire the company.

Yunwei-Vendi sent Charlie Betan to pressure Golden Wind into going public or accepting a takeover, but Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng rejected the offers. The meeting ended with Shen Miaomiao ordering Betan to leave.

• Kornik told Sarah that Yunwei-Vendi could acquire Golden Wind if it went public, and said they would force the issue or acquire the company outright if necessary.
• Charlie Betan led a seven-member Yunwei-Vendi team to Golden Wind, where Shen Miaomiao left him to tour with Gu Sheng and the company refused to show them the confidential OverWatch project department.
• Betan offered Golden Wind $500 million for 23 percent of its equity, but Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao rejected the offer because they would not go public.
• Betan raised his offer to $800 million and then $900 million, proposing deeper control over Golden Wind’s operations and staff.
• Betan offered $1 billion and warned that Golden Wind was too fragile to stand against Yunwei-Vendi, but Shen Miaomiao told him to get out.

As Yunwei-Vendi prepared to use Yamamoto Tsuna to attack Golden Wind, Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao decided the company had to grow fast enough to escape its hostile acquisition plans. They secured Shen Wanlin’s approval for Golden Wind to become independent and left with his calligraphy as a parting gift.

• Bedang reported Shen Miaomiao’s rejection to Kornik, who recruited Yamamoto Tsuna to lead Yunwei-Vendi’s next move against Golden Wind.
• Gu Sheng explained to Shen Wanlin that Yunwei-Vendi wanted Golden Wind’s intellectual property and would keep pursuing an acquisition unless the company rapidly expanded its value.
• Shen Miaomiao presented Shen Wanlin with Golden Wind’s application to become independent from Shen’s Capital.
• Shen Wanlin signed the application and sent them to Li Heng to complete the remaining procedures.
• Shen Wanlin gave them a calligraphy scroll, and Gu Sheng opened it in the elevator as Shen Miaomiao asked what it said.

Golden Wind became fully independent in response to Yunwei-Vendi’s threat, with Gu Sheng as CEO and Shen Miaomiao as chairwoman. As its leaders rallied allies, Moriya Tetsuya warned Xu Zhixing that Vendi’s attack was coming, but Xu remained confident and asked about Shen Miaomiao’s proposed thirty-million project.

• Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao privately celebrated Golden Wind’s independence while pretending to be worried about Yunwei-Vendi’s threat.
• Three days after announcing independence, Golden Wind appointed Shen Miaomiao chairwoman, Gu Sheng CEO and chief game art director, and Lu Bian, Xu Dajiang, and Moriya Tetsuya vice presidents.
• Gu Sheng traveled to Zhongjing and won Jiang Yingcai’s full support for Golden Wind’s independence.
• Lu Bian and Xu Dajiang met with Yan Sheng of Aiyou and Chen Guangde of Xunteng to urge continued cooperation against the challenges ahead.
• Moriya Tetsuya visited Xu Zhixing in Siam and warned him about Vendi’s coming attack, but Xu dismissed the threat and asked when Shen Miaomiao’s thirty-million project would begin.

Golden Wind released an Overwatch promotional film about Reinhardt inheriting Brigitte’s duty to protect his teammates, moving streamers and viewers. After watching it, Yamamoto Tsuna resolved to release his own game before Overwatch to weaken Golden Wind’s audience.

• Golden Wind released the “Glory” promotional film, which showed young Reinhardt learning from Brigitte that a knight’s honor meant protecting others.
• Reinhardt charged recklessly into battle, was wounded by a powerful omnic, and saw Brigitte sacrifice herself to save him and his squad.
• Brigitte entrusted Reinhardt with the Overwatch emblem and urged him to become his teammates’ shield; decades later, old Reinhardt answered the call to join Overwatch again.
• Liu Liu and yjj watched the film on stream and were moved by its story, while viewers praised its production and asked when the game would release.
• Yamamoto Tsuna watched the film at Yunwei-Vendi TYG Studio and decided he needed to release his game before Overwatch to draw players away from Golden Wind.

Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng learned that Yunwei had copied Overwatch and planned to release Hyper Front ahead of it, apparently after stealing Golden Wind’s data during repeated power outages. Gu Sheng unexpectedly revealed that there was good news too, leaving Shen Miaomiao confused.

• As Overwatch’s promotional videos boosted its popularity, Shen Miaomiao complained that the recurring power outages were slowing Golden Wind’s development while Gu Sheng and the staff treated them as opportunities for afternoon tea.
• Chu Qingzhou told Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng that Yunwei’s TYG Studio had announced Hyper Front, a multiplayer game featuring characters that closely copied Overwatch, for stress testing early next month and a March 15 launch.
• Chu Qingzhou pointed out that Yunwei had produced the game in less than a month, making it likely they had stolen Golden Wind’s confidential data while workers repaired the power lines.
• At home, Gu Sheng blamed himself for failing to guard the office during the outages, while Shen Miaomiao tried to comfort him and considered mentioning that there was good news.
• Gu Sheng cut Shen Miaomiao off, praised her for anticipating the good news, and laughed, while she wondered what he meant.

Gu Sheng revealed that Golden Wind had fed Cloud Might a deliberately terrible fake game proposal, which Yamamoto Tsuna presented as TYG Studio’s own work. Kornik approved the plan and ordered Yamamoto Tsuna to create its promotional campaign, leaving Cloud Might poised to launch the trap as a major game.

• Gu Sheng told Shen Miaomiao that Cloud Might had tried to recruit a Golden Wind programmer to steal project materials, but the programmer reported the approach.
• Gu Sheng, Moriya-san, Lu Bian, and Da Jiang devised a scheme to let Cloud Might steal a fake proposal, updating its fabricated progress over the course of a month.
• Gu Sheng explained that the fake proposal combined unpopular game modes, deliberately inflammatory character and matchmaking choices, and aggressive pay-to-win monetization.
• Yamamoto Tsuna presented the stolen proposal to Kornik and the Cloud Might executives as TYG Studio’s plan, praising its market strategy, matchmaking, and monetization.
• Kornik applauded the proposal and told Yamamoto Tsuna to design the game’s promotional plan.