Chapter Summaries

Ito Suke and Nakamura Masakazu assessed Komeila’s new alliance with Vendi and planned to exploit Yunwei’s troubles and Golden Wind’s engine problems at the June China CJ Exhibition. Nakamura concluded that Golden Engine’s lack of standout features was restricting Gu Sheng’s potential, leaving Komeila poised to plan its counterattack.

• Ito Suke explained that Komeila had joined Vendi, and that he had become its largest shareholder and chairman.
• Ito Suke identified Golden Wind as the force uniting China’s game companies and threatening Komeila’s market share.
• Ito Suke invited Nakamura Masakazu to advise how Komeila should use the June China CJ Exhibition to counterattack.
• Nakamura Masakazu argued that Golden Engine’s fatal weakness was its lack of distinctive strengths in graphics, audio, immersion, or other features.
• Nakamura Masakazu said Golden Engine was like a cage restricting Gu Sheng’s distinctive design talent.

Nakamura Masakazu prepared Conflict Zone to exploit Golden Wind’s engine limitations at China CJ, while Gu Sheng began showing Minister Li how Golden Wind planned to address those weaknesses. The demonstration ended with a Type 08 Armored Personnel Carrier appearing in the virtual test ground.

• Nakamura Masakazu argued that Golden Wind had to slow its releases or achieve a technological breakthrough, and he unveiled Conflict Zone as Komeila’s flagship game for China CJ.
• Nakamura Masakazu explained that Conflict Zone combined high production quality, a familiar battle royale format, and airdrop-based military fire support modeled on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
• Jiang Yingcai joined Gu Sheng and Minister Li in Golden Wind’s virtual testing ground, where Minister Li questioned how Gu Sheng would solve the Golden Engine’s shortcomings.
• Gu Sheng proposed demonstrating the solution from a vehicle, then a Type 08 Armored Personnel Carrier drove out of the dust and stunned Jiang Yingcai.

Gu Sheng showed Jiang Yingcai and Minister Li Golden Wind’s Modern Warfare game, revealing a vast 64-player objective-based Team Conquest battlefield. He began demonstrating its combined-arms combat by driving an infantry fighting vehicle into a contested objective, then prepared to reveal a special feature of the Golden Engine.

• Gu Sheng brought Jiang Yingcai and Minister Li to a detailed northwestern China map and explained that the Dunge Railway and surrounding area formed the battlefield.
• Jiang Yingcai guessed the game was a Modern Warfare battle royale, but Gu Sheng said it used Team Competition with objectives that weakened the enemy when captured.
• Gu Sheng demonstrated six objectives across the map, where large forces fought over strategic positions in a 64-player battle.
• Gu Sheng drove an infantry fighting vehicle toward the signal tower objective, where friendly troops were struggling against defenders in a maintenance station.
• Gu Sheng aimed the vehicle’s 30mm cannon at the enemy position and introduced a special feature of Golden Wind’s engine.

Gu Sheng demonstrated Golden Engine’s realistic full physical destruction and large-scale combined-arms combat to Jiang Yingcai and Minister Li. The battle ended its presentation with Gu Sheng revealing the provisional title, “Battlefield: Uprising,” and asking Minister Li what he thought.

• Jiang Yingcai watched the autocannon demolish the maintenance station and was stunned by Golden Engine’s physical destruction system.
• Gu Sheng explained that buildings could be destroyed and collapse dynamically according to the location and force of attacks.
• An M3 tank blasted apart a factory and slaughtered its defenders before an attack aircraft destroyed the tank with a missile.
• Fighters engaged in a dogfight as infantry, vehicles, tanks, and aircraft fought across the battlefield in a 64-player conquest match.
• Gu Sheng explained the game’s manpower system, in which deaths and lost control points depleted a team’s remaining strength.
• Minister Li asked the game’s title, and Gu Sheng proposed “Battlefield: Uprising.”

Gu Sheng chose Battlefield: Uprising as Golden Wind’s flagship game for the CJ Exhibition, and Minister Li enthusiastically approved the provocative name. Golden Wind began developing the game while assigning other teams to prepare future projects, as the “zero-dollar shopping” trend continued outside.

• Gu Sheng selected Battlefield: Uprising, focused on large-scale multiplayer combat and destruction, to showcase Golden Engine at the CJ Exhibition.
• Jiang Yingcai worried that the game’s subject and name would be too sensitive, but Minister Li praised the name and urged Golden Wind to perform well.
• Gu Sheng assigned Golden Experience and Melancholy Blues to develop Battlefield: Uprising and familiarize the latter team with Golden Engine.
• Gu Sheng sent Steel Chain Fingers to Europe to collect references from medieval sites for a future project.
• Banks, car dealerships, convenience stores, and shopping malls reopened as the zero-dollar shopping spree began again.

A Yin and his crew prepared for the Car Dealership Heist in PAYDAY, scouting the dealership and planning a stealthy escape route. They opened the parking gate and began the robbery, leaving the crew poised to move in.

• A Yin’s crew chose the Car Dealership Heist after passing on the four-skull World’s First Bank job.
• A Yin and Brother Shu entered the dealership to scout guards, cameras, and the locations of the luxury cars while Zhuang Zhuang and Liu Liu waited outside.
• Brother Shu distracted a guard so A Yin could sneak upstairs, where he mapped the offices, patrols, cameras, and back door.
• The four regrouped and planned to enter through the second-floor back door, while Zhuang Zhuang identified the parking gate’s electrical box, patrol timing, and camera blind spot.
• Zhuang Zhuang cut the electrical box, opening the gate, and the four masked bandits prepared to begin the heist.

A Yin and his teammates infiltrated a car dealership in the game Payday to steal four supercars, but their careful plan fell apart when Zhuang Zhuang shot an employee who caught them. The chapter then cut to Qiezi's livestream, where Qiezi was hiding the body of another employee he had just killed.

• A Yin led Brother Shu, Liu Liu, and Zhuang Zhuang past the first guard and toward the dealership's back door.
• A Yin assigned Liu Liu to watch from the roof, Brother Shu to monitor two guards, and Zhuang Zhuang to keep her gun ready while he picked the lock.
• Liu Liu warned that the patrolling guard was returning, and A Yin got the door open just before the guard reached it.
• A Yin and Zhuang Zhuang entered the stairwell and came face-to-face with an employee descending from the second floor.
• Zhuang Zhuang shot the employee when he started to scream, while Qiezi's livestream showed him stuffing another employee's body into a bag.

Qiezi and Liu Di’s attempt to sneak through the car dealership collapsed into a chaotic gunfight, and the crew failed to escape before their pickup ship left. After restarting, Xiao Hei discovered that Golden Wind’s crew held the world record for the heist.

• Qiezi and Liu Di shot out a surveillance camera and rushed toward the manager’s office before security noticed.
• Qiezi found the manager, shot him, and accidentally triggered the alarm when a guard appeared behind him.
• Qiezi and Liu Di abandoned stealth and fought the dealership’s security while Xiao Hei and Dong Gua joined the open robbery.
• The crew failed to reach the getaway ship before it left and restarted the heist.
• Xiao Hei checked the Car Dealership Heist leaderboard and found Golden Wind’s Sam, LU, XDJ, and Tetsuya ranked first with a time of 2min59s77.

Xiao Hei showed the replay of Golden Wind’s record-breaking heist as Gu Sheng and his crew stormed a luxury-car dealership. The four began their armed robbery with ruthless speed, and Gu Sheng obtained the manager’s keycard while fighting off guards.

• Xiao Hei played the replay showing Gu Sheng, Lu Bian, Da Jiang, and Moriya arrive at the dealership and openly arm themselves in the street.
• Gu Sheng threatened the salesperson, subdued him, and shot at the guards as the alarm and failure countdown began.
• Da Jiang, Moriya, and Lu Bian attacked the security guards while Moriya ordered customers and staff to stay down.
• Gu Sheng split up the crew, entered the manager’s office, killed a guard, knocked out the manager, and took his keycard.
• Gu Sheng killed two more guards outside the office, using a sharpened Golden Wind poker card and his Desert Eagle.

Gu Sheng, Lu Bian, Da Jiang, and Moriya carried out a violent supercar dealership heist, escaping the police through a planned underground tunnel. They delivered all four cars to a shipping container at the docks and completed the job.

• Gu Sheng got Bill Leslie's name while Lu Bian and Da Jiang searched for his workstation and used it to unlock the supercar key vault.
• Gu Sheng planted explosives outside as police surrounded the dealership, then opened fire with a machine gun and drove a police car through the blockade.
• Lu Bian gave Gu Sheng a Bugatti key, and the four robbers took the Bugatti, Ferrari, and two Lamborghinis from the dealership.
• The robbers escaped through a blast-opened road into an unfinished underground tunnel, where Gu Sheng evaded pursuing SWAT vehicles and wrecked one with gunfire.
• Gu Sheng and the others reached the docks and covered the four supercars inside a shipping container.

Payday earned strong reviews, but its release revealed that Golden Wind’s engine still had no major improvements. Nakamura Masakazu and Ito Suke learned that Golden Wind had released a free DLC featuring a new collaboration with Legendary Pictures, leaving them stunned by the company’s next move.

• Payday received media and forum scores ranging from 9.4 to 9.6 for its exhilarating gameplay and pacing.
• Players and critics noted that Payday’s full release added content but showed no revolutionary improvements to Golden Wind’s engine.
• Nakamura Masakazu and Ito Suke discussed Golden Wind’s continuing engine problems and tried to anticipate Gu Sheng’s plans.
• A secretary informed Nakamura Masakazu that Golden Wind had released a free Payday DLC less than a day after the game’s launch.
• Nakamura Masakazu and Ito Suke watched the DLC trailer reveal a collaboration between Golden Wind and Legendary Pictures, recalling their earlier Titanfall and Pacific Rim crossover.

Golden Wind’s live-action DLC trailer revealed John Wick fighting through a neon-lit bar to rescue Charon. The chapter ended with the suited man identifying himself as Wick, John Wick.

• The DLC trailer opened with Golden Wind and Legendary Pictures logos, then showed a suited man asking a bartender for a pencil.
• The suited man killed the bar’s guards and manager with the pencil, then fought through armed thugs in the VIP corridor.
• He used firearms and close-quarters techniques to eliminate the attackers and rescue a Black man.
• The suited man guided the rescued man toward the exit as a bartender asked who he was.
• The suited man turned and introduced himself as John Wick.

Golden Wind’s Payday DLC trailer revealed Keanu Reeves starring in a John Wick film project, leaving Shen Miaomiao stunned by Gu Sheng’s successful game-to-film plan. Nakamura Masakazu interpreted the project as evidence that Golden Wind had hit a wall with its engine and urged Neon Komeila to attack before China’s CJ Exhibition.

• The Payday DLC trailer revealed Keanu Reeves as John Wick, and viewers erupted over the crossover and its connection to a movie.
• Gu Sheng told Shen Miaomiao that her idea to show Yunwei both sides of the business had inspired Payday and the film spin-off.
• Gu Sheng explained that he had partnered with Thomas and Legendary Pictures, which assembled a cast including Keanu Reeves, Alfie Allen, Ian McShane, and Willem Dafoe.
• Nakamura Masakazu argued that Golden Wind’s attention to Payday and its movie showed the company had reached the limits of the Golden Engine.
• Nakamura Masakazu told Ito Suke that Neon Komeila should seize the opportunity to attack Golden Wind before China’s CJ Exhibition.

Golden Wind’s John Wick film adaptation initially generated enormous excitement, but an SNG article redirected attention to the company’s engine troubles and China Game’s lack of core technology. A supposed senior Golden Engine engineer then posted a work badge on a developers’ forum and began revealing alleged inside information, leaving the claims unresolved.

• Golden Wind and Legendary Pictures announced that filming had begun on the John Wick adaptation and revealed part of its cast, sparking widespread attention.
• An SNG editor published an article questioning whether game adaptations were distracting from Golden Wind’s engine problems and China Game’s lack of core technology.
• Players and media seized on the article, and criticism of Golden Wind shifted toward predictions of the company’s decline and the failure of its self-developed engine.
• A poster claiming to be a senior Golden Engine engineer shared a partially blurred work badge on a developers’ forum and promised to reveal the engine team’s internal situation.
• The forum thread quickly attracted hundreds of replies, and the alleged whistleblower began laying out what he claimed to know.

After Komeila mounted a sustained public campaign portraying Golden Wind’s engine as a failure, Golden Wind announced that the Golden Engine team had disbanded without explaining why. Komeila’s executives celebrated the news as a victory, while the gaming world speculated that development had ended and Golden Wind faced trouble ahead of the CJ Exhibition.

• A whistleblower claimed that Golden Wind’s engine development had stalled and that the company planned to rely on its existing technology and an FPS flagship at the CJ Exhibition.
• Gu Sheng recognized Komeila’s coordinated media campaign but kept confidence in Golden Wind’s undisclosed advantage.
• Golden Wind announced that its Golden Engine development team had disbanded one month before the CJ Exhibition, without giving a reason.
• Nakamura Masakazu toasted Komeila’s executives, declaring the team’s dissolution proof that Golden Wind had abandoned the engine project.
• Media outlets and players debated the announcement, and speculation about Golden Wind’s prospects intensified.

Komeila unveiled Conflict Zone, a battle royale featuring reconnaissance drones and armed airdrop support, while Golden Wind faced mounting doubts after dissolving its engine team. Gu Sheng revealed that Golden Wind had secretly prepared Battlefield: Uprising, launching its campaign against Komeila ahead of the China CJ Exhibition.

• Komeila, under Nakamura Masakazu, released a trailer for Conflict Zone that showcased squad combat, drone reconnaissance, unmanned helicopters, and gunship support.
• Players praised Conflict Zone as an exciting blend of familiar battle royale, futuristic, and combat-support elements, and Golden Wind supporters worried that Komeila had grown stronger.
• Gu Sheng gathered Golden Wind's leaders and teams for an emergency meeting, revealing that they had kept their project and plans secret for two and a half months.
• Gu Sheng declared that Golden Wind would reclaim the initiative on home soil at the China CJ Exhibition.
• Golden Wind announced Battlefield: Uprising, its first game built with the full force of the Golden Engine, and began its World War II campaign against Komeila.

Golden Wind released the trailer for its flagship CJ title, Battlefield, shortly after Komeila unveiled Conflict Zone, startling Komeila president Nakamura Masakazu and gaming audiences worldwide. The trailer showcased an ambitious production and a stormy military assault, leaving the island battle poised to unfold.

• Golden Wind released its Battlefield trailer half an hour after Conflict Zone's trailer, triggering a media frenzy across China.
• Nakamura Masakazu heard the news on his way home, recognized Golden Wind's timing as a warning, and searched the internet for reports.
• The trailer revealed that Battlefield was built with Golden Engine, was a work by Gu Sheng, and was co-produced by Golden Experience and Melancholy Blues.
• The trailer announced Hans Zimmer as composer and the China National Symphony Orchestra as performers, stunning viewers and prompting comparisons with Conflict Zone's musical lineup.
• The trailer showed a storm-battered carrier fleet advancing toward the West Reef Islands as the narration invoked King Goujian, while defenders opened fire from the shore.

Golden Wind’s Battlefield: Uprising trailer stunned players and overtook Komeila’s Conflict Zone in popularity, leaving Nakamura Masakazu searching for a counterattack. Gu Sheng realized viewers had mistaken the trailer’s physical destruction effects for rendered CG, so the game’s major technical feature remained unnoticed.

• Golden Wind released a Battlefield: Uprising trailer showcasing sea, land, and air combat, and viewers reacted with intense excitement.
• Nakamura Masakazu watched the trailer, recognized Golden Wind’s strength, and saw media and forum attention shift away from Komeila’s Conflict Zone.
• Nakamura decided to argue that the trailer’s spectacular effects could not be reproduced in actual gameplay because the game’s engine was mediocre.
• Gu Sheng reviewed the online discussion and noticed that players praised the combat but had not discussed the trailer’s destruction effects.
• Gu Sheng concluded that players would only believe the physical destruction was real after experiencing collapsing buildings and shattered floors in gameplay.

Golden Wind finished setting up its enormous joint booth for the China CJ Exhibition as Komeila struggled to counter its success. When Komeila's team entered the main hall, they found their booth and Yunwei's flanking Golden Wind's spectacular battlefield display, leaving them stunned and furious.

• Gu Sheng, Lu Bian, and Da Jiang looked over Golden Wind's completed booth and recalled the company's rise from a tiny exhibition stand four years earlier.
• Shen Miaomiao arrived with Chu Qingzhou and Jiang Shan, admired the booth, and left with the others to get a buffet meal.
• Nakamura Masakazu and Kodera Taro entered the venue after Komeila's promotional plans in Shanghai had been blocked, which they blamed on Golden Wind's official backing.
• Komeila's team saw Golden Wind's massive Battlefield-themed booth, featuring collapsing landmark towers, fighter jets, helicopters, tanks, and dozens of motion capsules.
• Kodera Taro discovered that Komeila's small booth was positioned beside Golden Wind's, with Yunwei's similarly small booth on the other side, and Nakamura Masakazu reacted furiously.

At the China International Digital Interactive Entertainment Exhibition, Gu Sheng unveiled Golden Wind’s Battlefield and invited famous players to join a 32v32 VR match. The teams entered the Siege of Shanghai map, and the battle began.

• Gu Sheng opened Golden Wind’s presentation with a rousing speech as the Battlefield trailer and elaborate booth drew huge crowds.
• Gu Sheng announced that visitors would experience Battlefield in sixty-four Yiyou x2Pro VR pods and that the game’s biggest feature would be revealed through play.
• Four invited teams, including Qiezi, A+, Octane, and Shourd, joined the event and were assigned to the Chinese Red Faction and American Blue Faction.
• Gu Sheng introduced the Siege of Shanghai map, where the two factions prepared to fight over the city.
• The 32v32 match started as both armies charged from their bases to capture the point.