47: Chapter 47: Global Media Rush to Give It Full Marks

Song Yan held a tablet in his hand and pushed open the glass door of the president's office.

He was walking too fast, his shoe soles scraping against the polished marble floor with a harsh sound.

Ye Fei sat in his office chair, looking out at the night view of The Capital.

"Brother Fei, the review scores from thirty of the world's top gaming media outlets have all been lifted." Song Yan placed the tablet heavily on the desk.

Ye Fei turned around, his gaze falling on the red-highlighted data charts on the tablet screen.

"This bunch of critics who usually love to pick bones are all crazy this time." Song Yan pulled out the chair opposite and sat down, his fingers sliding rapidly across the screen.

"First Game Daily gave it a hundred points." Song Yan read the comments above.

"They said this is a complete reshaping of the industrial standards for action games." Song Yan pushed the screen toward Ye Fei.

"The official front-line magazine of Wei-Ying also gave it a hundred points." Song Yan continued to scroll down.

"They praised that sense of unknown dread hidden within the Victorian-era architecture, pushing the narrative boundaries of the Ninth Art to a whole new height." Song Yan took a deep breath.

Ye Fei picked up the mineral water bottle on the table and unscrewed the cap.

"An average score of ninety-eight—this is the highest record for any action blockbuster since the establishment of the Xinghai Steam Platform." Song Yan leaned back in his chair and looked at Ye Fei.

"The executives of those old-school 3A giants must all be in their conference rooms right now, worrying over these statistics." Ye Fei took a sip of water.

"That's not even the most exaggerated part." Song Yan pulled his phone out of his pocket and brought up another report.

"Our digital sales have already exceeded eight million copies in the past forty-eight hours." Song Yan placed the phone next to the tablet.

"At this rate, breaking ten million in the first week is a done deal." Song Yan rubbed his hands together.

Ye Fei put the mineral water bottle back on the table.

"Dunn's hardware sales should have doubled as well." Ye Fei looked at the sales curve on the phone screen.

The top-floor conference room at the Bald Eagle Country Wei-Ying Group headquarters was brightly lit.

Dunn, wearing a navy blue high-end custom suit, sat at the head of the long table.

He held a global channel sales summary report that had just been printed.

Lambert sat at the end of the long table, a cold cup of coffee sitting on the table in front of him.

"Gentlemen of the board." Dunn threw the report in his hand into the center of the table.

The stack of papers slid across the smooth tabletop for a distance and stopped in front of Lambert.

"This is the direct revenue that bloodborne has brought to the entire Xbox ecosystem over the past few days." Dunn crossed his hands under his chin.

"Console pre-order orders are lined up until March of next year, and the factory's existing assembly lines are already running at full capacity." Dunn looked at the board members on both sides of the long table.

Several older board members picked up the report and passed it around.

"Meanwhile, the refund rate for dragon age, which we invested heavily in developing jointly, has already exceeded seventy percent in its first week." Dunn turned his gaze toward Lambert.

Lambert picked up the coffee cup in front of him to take a sip, but his wrist trembled, causing the brown liquid to spill onto his cuffs.

"This is just an accidental market fluctuation." Lambert pulled out a tissue and wiped his cuffs haphazardly.

"Players were just temporarily attracted by that exotic art style; they will return to the embrace of traditional action games sooner or later." Lambert clenched the dirty tissue in his palm.

"You are still using your theories from the last century to guide the current market." Dunn stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

"This morning, the Xinghai Steam Platform already removed dragon age from the homepage recommendation slot." Dunn turned around to look at Lambert.

"Because its daily active player count has fallen below one hundred thousand—it's not even as good as an indie game." Dunn walked back to his seat.

The chairman of the board put down the report and cleared his throat.

"Lambert, the conservative joint project you were in charge of has caused irreparable reputational and financial losses to the company." The chairman looked at Lambert at the end of the long table.

"Following a unanimous vote by the board of directors, we are terminating your position as Vice President of Xbox." The chairman pushed a termination letter to the edge of the table.

Lambert stood up, knocking over the chair behind him.

The chair hit the carpet with a dull thud.

He looked at the termination letter on the table, his lips moving, but he couldn't say a word.

"Security is waiting for you outside; go pack your personal belongings." Dunn sat back in his chair.

Lambert turned and walked out of the conference room, his back appearing much more hunched.

"Additionally." Dunn looked at the board members present.

"I propose shifting the future strategic focus of Xbox entirely toward Silver Horn Studio; we must sign a permanent, deep-binding agreement with Ye Fei." Dunn tapped the table.

A chorus of unanimous agreement echoed in the conference room.

Over at Silver Horn Studio in The Capital, Song Yan had already arranged all the celebration matters.

"Brother Fei, I've booked the entire venue at The Capital Hotel for tonight; the brothers are all waiting for you to say a few words." Song Yan stood up and straightened his jacket.

"You guys go ahead and eat; I still have some closing data to process here." Ye Fei waved his hand.

"Then I'll have the waiter pack your seafood feast and send it over." Song Yan turned and walked toward the glass door.

"Don't worry about me; tell everyone to have a blast, and put it all on the company tab." Ye Fei watched Song Yan walk out.

The glass door closed, and the office became completely quiet.

Ye Fei stood up, walked to the door, pulled the blinds, and locked the door on his way back.

He walked back to his desk, sat down, and brought up the system panel that only he could see.

Since the release of bloodborne, players had been tortured to death by various monsters in the game.

The revelation of the deep Cthulhu worldview pushed this sense of despair to its peak.

Ye Fei had fully expected the progress bar for the "super difficult" rating to have been maxed out long ago.

He looked at the translucent light screen floating in mid-air.

The numbers on the panel left him completely stunned.