The employees below looked aggrieved as they said:
"We have the assets, but the visual quality is really a bit..."
"Visual quality? I asked headquarters for so much funding, and you still can't make it work?"
"Money can solve the background and scene issues, but without that technology, there's no way to improve the character models..."
In an era where the entertainment industry lagged behind, no one but Ye Ming could produce that kind of high-precision rendering technology.
"Hmph. I'll make a note of that problem and handle it myself. What other difficulties are there? Report them quickly."
"The animation design is also a huge problem!"
A bespectacled young man said:
"With so many characters and so many sets of animations, we really can't design them all."
"..."
Hearing such a blatant admission of incompetence, La Signora's fury instantly ignited.
"There are dozens of you packed into this room, every single one a graduate from a top university. What exactly did you learn there?"
"We never expected the game industry to be this competitive..."
"Shut up! If you can't win, leave. Tencent doesn't keep losers."
After berating her subordinates, La Signora let out a helpless sigh and said:
"If you can't make it yourselves, then go study what others have done. There are so many action games on the market. You can copy them and make some changes, can't you?"
"Understood!"
"As for that technology..."
La Signora thought for a moment, then said:
"I'll poach two people from MiHoYo. Then we'll have everything."
Just as La Signora was preparing to leave, another young man with greasy hair ran over and said:
"We've finalized the templates for our online trolls to attack Honkai Impact 3rd and MiHoYo. Would you like to take a look?"
"Don't come to me with that sort of thing..."
La Signora said with an unhappy expression:
"I'm only responsible for defeating our opponents with competing products. How to smear them is the publicity department's business."
"So Ganyu is actually Yae Miko's older sister?"
Meanwhile, while the editor-in-chief of Yae Publishing House had not yet left, everyone chatted with this unofficial member.
"They don't look alike at all. Yae Miko seems more like the older sister instead."
"That's not true. Sister Ganyu is far more dependable than you imagine."
As the actual person in charge of Yae Publishing House, Yae Miko's every word had always been carefully crafted. Only her sweet cry of "Sister Ganyu" was sincere.
"Whenever our families met, Sister Ganyu was the one who helped handle all the miscellaneous matters. Even when we were little, Sister Ganyu was the one who took us everywhere to play."
"It wasn't anything special."
Ganyu was a little embarrassed by Yae Miko's praise. Her cheeks reddened as she lowered her head and continued working.
"Speaking of which, Lady Yae Miko, would you be interested in launching fan activities for Lord Ye Ming through Yae Publishing House?"
"Fan works of Ye Ming? You mean... fan works of fan works?"
"That's right. For example, turning Ye Ming into a romanceable character and creating romance stories around that."
"..."
Hearing Rita's idea, everyone quickly thought of the same thing.
"You saw the manga Griseo drew, didn't you?"
"Yes. Lady Griseo truly deserves to be a renowned contemporary artist. Even when drawing manga, she does it with effortless mastery."
"Huh? What? What did Griseo draw?"
Kiana looked utterly curious.
"After Ye Ming's fan works became popular, Griseo created a deeply tragic piece with great artistic value. But that apparently wasn't enough to satisfy her desire to create."
Mei explained:
"Right afterward, she drew a short romance manga about Ye Ming in the style of a shojo manga."
"Huh? What was it about?"
"Roughly like this..."
Rita found the manga and displayed it to Kiana page by page.
"Wait, this long-haired, ponytailed, obedient, adorable person who looks exactly like the heroine... that can't be Ye Ming, can it?"
Kiana had to tilt her head nearly ninety degrees before she barely managed to find Ye Ming.
"That is indeed him."
"His personality is completely different!"
"Switching the personalities and positions of the conventional male and female leads is a common trope in romance manga aimed at women."
Himeko stepped in to explain. Aside from romance in real life, she was an expert in both dating games and romance manga.
"Is that so? I only read fighting manga. I thought those Magnetic Field Maniacs were already strange enough."
Kiana scratched her head. She had never imagined romance manga authors could possess such "powerful and forceful" creativity.
"I think this manga is still a little too restrained~~"
Rita said excitedly:
"If Lady Griseo could make Ye Ming even younger based on this, hmm... five or six years younger would be enough."
"Let the petite, adorable, helpless Ye Ming encounter a mysterious older sister, and then have some heart-pounding little stories happen between them."
"Even if it isn't a manga, if someone is willing to write it as a novel, I'll definitely subscribe to the whole thing!"
"..."
At first, when the girls started talking about Ye Ming, they could still treat Rita as a fellow fan.
But as they kept talking, everyone started to get scared.
"My hands have been trembling since just now..."
Meanwhile, in his office, Ye Ming mistyped several characters in a row because his hands were shaking.
A chill spread from his spine throughout his entire body.
"I have a feeling someone wants to harm me."
—That's normal. Honkai Impact 3rd is so popular that other companies will definitely want to cause you trouble.
"Right! Didn't someone try to mess with our servers before? Looks like we need to be more careful."
Trying to Poach Ye Ming
"Has anyone received any calls recently trying to poach you?"
When they came to work the next day, A-Tzu asked worriedly:
"More than one person has already approached me."
"Me too."
"And me..."
Keqing and Ganyu both nodded.
"What about Durandal and Rita?"
"We're fine so far."
"Looks like they're targeting the studio's longtime employees."
"Kiana got a similar call last night too. How did they get our contact information?" Mei was also worried.
"Isn't it obvious? It's Tencent's doing."
Kiana said angrily:
"Weren't we raising funds before? Tencent came to talk to us back then. We exchanged contact information and talked a lot. We thought everything was about to be settled."
"But they were completely deceiving us. They never intended to invest at all—it was a hostile acquisition. Thankfully, Sister Keqing and Sister A-Tzu spotted the problem, or our home would've been stolen out from under us."
That was also why, when Keqing met Ye Ming, everyone had followed along to investigate. They were worried something similar might happen again.
"Now that they've seen our game succeed, they've come back to poach us. Their shamelessness really knows no bounds."
Ei rarely showed an angry expression, but beside her, Ei's gaze was practically devouring people.
"Still, those people were really unprofessional. They said they wanted to meet me, but the first thing they said when they saw me was... 'You're still alive?'"
Himeko could not help laughing.
"I never thought my death could be useful in this way."
"Kiana should just wear a pair of golden contacts too. The moment she sees them, she can shout, 'Foolish insects, watch me crush you.'"
"They probably won't dare come near us ever again."
While everyone was discussing it, Ye Ming also came over.
"If you run into this sort of thing again, give them my contact information."
"Tell them I'm responsible for all the technical issues. Even if they poach you, it'll be useless."
Ye Ming knew very well that the most important reason Honkai Impact 3rd was difficult to imitate was its advanced game-development technology.
Tencent wanted to poach people for nothing more than the technology. As long as that relationship was made clear, they would not bother wasting their time.
"Are you MiHoYo's technical lead?"
Tencent's efficiency was admittedly quite high. Ye Ming had only just stepped forward to draw attention away from the employees when a call quickly came knocking.
"That's me. What is it?"
"I'm Tencent's project director. I'd like to have a talk with you."
"Just say what you need to say over the phone. It'll save time."
"Hehe. Once you hear the offer we're making, perhaps you'll want to meet in person."
On the other end of the call, La Signora, having secured sufficient funding, was already imagining Ye Ming eagerly coming over to pledge allegiance.
"What are the terms?"
"At MiHoYo, whether it's your salary or bonuses, come to us and we'll double them directly."
"Double? Really?"
"Of course. Otherwise, why would all those top university graduates love coming here? As long as someone has talent, we always offer the best compensation."
"I see... Those terms are indeed tempting, but I'm afraid you can't afford double my price."
"Hahahaha~!"
La Signora burst out laughing on the other end of the phone.
"Have you been at a small studio for so long that you don't understand the scale of a major company?"
"Even if you're receiving the highest salary for a technical position over there, how much could it possibly be?"
That question truly stumped Ye Ming. How much should he be paid, exactly?
"Let me calculate..."
Before you continue