Helpers

Hearing Ruan Ningxue's words, Chen Xu could not help but blush.

However, he quickly composed himself, coughed lightly to ease the awkward atmosphere, and began thinking of an excuse.

"Well, there were mainly several reasons..."

Ruan Ningxue, seated across the table from him, could not help curling her lips.

Men's mouths are lying ghosts!

"Still, I can accept all the conditions you mentioned, but I have a requirement of my own!"

Ruan Ningxue said with a beaming smile as she looked at Chen Xu.

Hearing that, Chen Xu froze for a moment.

He had still been thinking about how to persuade her.

To be honest, Chen Xu had not been very confident when he first approached her. He had merely wanted to give it a try.

After all, he knew his own situation well. Money?

He definitely could not afford to pay her right now. If he really spent money on that, he could forget about making the game afterward.

There were still essential resources he needed to buy.

Rely on their senior-junior relationship?

But she was not obligated to help him, and no matter how he looked at it, it would seem like he was making empty promises.

But now, there was hope?

"What's your requirement, Senior?" Chen Xu asked Ruan Ningxue.

"One month. And if your game's sales are poor afterward, you'll have to come work for me!"

"At least sign two contracts! Of course, I definitely won't treat you like you're treating me, Junior—trying to get free labor out of me."

Ruan Ningxue said with a smile.

Hearing Ruan Ningxue's words, Chen Xu paused, then quickly came back to himself.

He did not have too many thoughts about the contracts. After all, in his previous life, there had been quite a few female doujin artists.

Like Yuzuki N or Nishizawa 5... Ahem. Actually, Chen Xu did not know a single one of those artists, much less had seen their works. He had only heard about them from friends.

"Then what kind of sales count as poor?" Chen Xu asked after recovering.

If she named some figure in the millions, Chen Xu really would not have much confidence.

After all, this was a Parallel World, and its gaming environment differed greatly from his previous life.

Although piracy was no longer a factor, the market itself was also different from that of his previous life.

Without capital for promotion and marketing, relying solely on players spreading recommendations by word of mouth would be extremely difficult.

Even among the indie games from his previous life that had received widespread acclaim and sold millions, or even tens of millions, of copies—

A closer look would reveal that many of them had only exploded in popularity half a year or a year later.

At the start, they had all been obscure.

Even titles as strong as The Binding of Isaac had basically been obscure in their early days.

After all, even the finest wine feared a deep alley.

So if Ruan Ningxue said one million copies, Chen Xu felt he would be better off working alone.

Because if he agreed, then with the game he currently planned to make, there was a high probability that he would end up becoming a doujin artist.

"Uh... 100,000. No, 50,000 will do!"

"If sales don't break 50,000 within one month of release, then you lose!"

Ruan Ningxue took out her phone and seemed to send someone a message.

About a minute later, Ruan Ningxue raised her head and named a number.

Hearing Ruan Ningxue's words, Chen Xu could not help revealing a confident smile.

50,000 sales in a month?

Although the gaming environment differed somewhat from his previous life, and he did not have much startup capital on hand—

Chen Xu could only say that number was practically being handed to him for free.

"No problem." Chen Xu agreed without hesitation.

"Then, Senior, we'll officially begin tomorrow! I'll head back first to make preparations. See you tomorrow morning!"

After saying that, he greeted Ruan Ningxue and gave her no time to react.

Chen Xu turned and left the café.

Leaving behind only a somewhat dazed Ruan Ningxue.

Had she... set the number too low?

Thinking of that, Ruan Ningxue hurriedly opened her contacts, found a phone number, and called it.

Two seconds later, the other person answered.

"Xin Jie, you didn't just lie to me, right? Is 50,000 sales in one month really a very high number?" Thinking of Chen Xu's confident expression just now, Ruan Ningxue felt a little puzzled.

A crisp female voice came through the phone. "It isn't high, but that's relative. Didn't you ask how many sales would count as high if someone was making a game for the first time and didn't have much money?"

"No money, first time making a game, not even a game designer, and only a tiny bit of engine resources available—this is practically a hell-difficulty start. Fifty thousand sales is S-Tier difficulty. Getting a few thousand sales in one month would already count as passing."

"Really?" Ruan Ningxue was skeptical.

"Of course it's true. That's the judgment of a professional game industry worker!"

"By the way, Xiaoxue, are you planning to make a game? Have you finally come around? I told you, if you come help me with concept art and character illustrations, we'll definitely build a great career together!"

Yang Xin on the other end of the line sounded extremely excited.

"Xin Jie, Xin Jie? What did you say? The signal is bad over here. Let's talk another time!"

Hearing the excited voice from the other end, Ruan Ningxue's expression shifted slightly. She held the phone farther away, said a couple of words, hung up, and let out a long breath.

Then, thinking about what Yang Xin had said over the phone, Ruan Ningxue could not help smiling.

First time making a game, no money, hell-level difficulty—every single label had been stacked onto Chen Xu.

So the problem of finding an assistant had finally been solved!

The only regret was that this assistant would not officially start work for another two months.

After parting with Ruan Ningxue, Chen Xu returned to his apartment.

After tidying up the room a little, Chen Xu sat at his desk and looked at his notebook computer.

As a development machine, its specifications were fairly average, but they were at least sufficient for the Magic Mirror project.

Of course, Chen Xu could not develop any larger-scale games right now anyway.

He simply had no money, and his official engine resource permissions were insufficient.

As for resource permissions, there were basically two ways to improve them.

The first was to become an officially certified game designer and raise his professional rank.

And how did he raise it?

Game sales and awards received could both be included in the evaluation.

The second method was much simpler and more direct: use the power of money. How many resources one could use depended on how strong one's financial power was.

However, none of that mattered to Chen Xu at the moment.

And a game like Magic Mirror did not require much anyway.

At least, the resources Chen Xu could currently use were absolutely sufficient.

Sitting before the computer, Chen Xu began writing the initial draft related to Magic Mirror—the game design document.

Although Chen Xu was the only developer, and Ruan Ningxue would only be handling the illustrations—

That did not mean there was no need for concept art.

Just like an outline for an essay, it could greatly improve efficiency.