54: Chapter 54 The Gears of Fate Begin to Turn

Shengang, a young and vibrant city.

Early in the morning, sunlight shone through the gap in the rolling shutter door into the small storage room, revealing a line of floating dust.

Clang, clang, the rolling shutter was pulled open from the outside.

"Brother Xiao Niao, have you been working all night?" Mu Shan pushed the rolling shutter to the top. His gaze passed through the storage rack, and he discovered that Niao Huateng was actually still sitting in front of the computer. He silently marveled at how awesome that was; a Genius really did use the time others spent sleeping to work.

But what was he doing?

Receiving no response from Niao Huateng, Mu Shan walked behind him out of curiosity to take a look.

He discovered that the computer screen was displaying a screensaver wallpaper, clearly indicating it hadn't been operated for a while.

Niao Huateng was leaning back in his chair, looking lethargic, and his complexion was not very good.

Mu Shan couldn't help but ask: "Brother Niao, are you okay?"

"Ah, you're here," Niao Huateng regained his focus, turned his head to glance at him, and said, "I'm fine, I just need to rest for a while."

"Oh," Mu Shan noticed that when Niao Huateng turned around, he was holding his phone. The screen displayed that somewhat eccentric Text Jianghu game. He figured Niao Huateng must have been playing a small game to relax after getting tired from work; there was no way he had been playing this game all night, right? "Then you rest, I'm starting work." Mu Shan didn't think much of it and returned to his own workstation.

Niao Huateng looked down at his phone; there was no luster in his eyes, which hadn't closed all night.

This Text Jianghu game had indeed aroused his great interest.

However, it wasn't the game itself, but its security protection System—the protection System that had resisted his long attempts to breach it had birthed a bold hypothesis in him.

To verify this hypothesis, Niao Huateng had been leveling up all night. After this all-nighter, he finally trained his game character to the Creation Realm and successfully entered the Ascension Platform to read the user agreement.

The series of information revealed in the user agreement mentioned neither the login device nor the game manufacturer, which seemed somewhat different from his hypothesis.

The only useful information might have been the game name, "Fantasy Jianghu."

But when Niao Huateng searched the internet extensively using this name, he couldn't find any information about this game at all.

Even after sending screenshots of the user agreement to the group chat, he didn't get any valuable responses.

On the contrary, the group owner's "nothing to disclose" attitude made him suspect that there was no content behind it at all, which was why they were hiding it.

The whole thing gave him the feeling that it was just like pre-registering for an ordinary game.

Drowsily, Niao Huateng exited the game, turned off his phone screen, and prepared to get some proper rest.

But as soon as he closed his eyes, his phone rang.

Niao Huateng, lacking the strength, opened his eyes slightly. Upon seeing the caller, he helplessly answered the phone: "Hello?"

"Xiao Niao, you should be about done with our company's project, right? Bring it over for me to see now."

Niao Huateng looked at the date on his computer screen, and his mood soured. Wasn't the agreed time three days from now? Why was it suddenly moved up?

The person on the other end of the line laughed and explained, "Hehehe, I have an urgent business trip and am leaving this afternoon. I'm only at the company this morning. If you are willing to cooperate with us, please come over a bit early."

Niao Huateng was speechless for a moment, then said gloomily: "Okay, I'll come over now."

Hanging up the phone, Niao Huateng sighed.

One of the reasons he rented this small storage room to start his own business was that he didn't want to have to look at others' expressions anymore.

Yet the reality was not as he had imagined.

Just like now, when someone made a call, even if it violated their agreement, he still had to obediently comply.

Niao Huateng stood up and grabbed a bottle of mineral water. Conditions here were limited; there were no water pipes, so he had to use this to wash up.

Fortunately, he often stayed here at night, so he wasn't lacking in toiletries.

After rinsing his mouth and splashing his face with cold water, he felt a bit more refreshed.

Packing up his things, copying the files, and grabbing his laptop, he prepared to leave.

Just as he was about to leave, Mu Shan, with bright eyes, asked: "Brother Xiao Niao, how about I go with you?"

Niao Huateng thought about it. He hadn't slept all night, so his Mental Energy and focus were certainly not at their peak. Taking Mu Shan along would certainly be better.

But when he thought about what he had to do later, he didn't want Mu Shan to follow him.

"No need, I'll be fine by myself. You stay here and work hard," Niao Huateng said, shaking his head, leaving Mu Shan looking dejected.

Walking out of the storage room, the environment suddenly shifted from dim to bright, and Niao Huateng couldn't help but squint his eyes.

Looking up, high-rise buildings stood everywhere in the park. The crowds passing by were either clutching laptops and holding coffee, or carrying heavy laptop bags while hurrying along with their heads down—at a glance, they were the elites of the IT industry.

How full of vigor and vitality!

If only they were all my employees, how great that would be.

Niao Huateng pushed up the black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, his naive gaze revealing an unrealistic ambition.

Although, given his current situation where he could only rent a storage room to live in, this thought was indeed somewhat arrogant.

But he had a faint intuition that the gears of fate might just start turning from today.

Because the person he was going to visit today was Supervisor Gou, who was in charge of web games in the game department of the Qiuqiu Company.

Although this visit was three days earlier than scheduled, which meant he hadn't finished the project yet, he was full of confidence in the two small games he already had on hand.

Carrying dreams for the future, Niao Huateng arrived at the headquarters building of the Qiuqiu Group, the largest online instant messaging company in China.

He went upstairs and went directly to Supervisor Gou's office to knock on the door.

The door didn't open, but an assistant-looking person walked over and said politely: "Supervisor Gou is not here right now. Please go to the reception room and sit for a while. I will notify you as soon as Supervisor Gou arrives."

Niao Huateng nodded, but he was cursing inwardly.

You called to rush me over, and now you're not here—what is going on?

Forget it, I'll just wait.

Just as Niao Huateng was about to leave, he faintly heard movement inside the office. He frowned and decided to be cautious.

He pretended to walk toward the reception room, and after the assistant left, he strolled back to the door and pricked up his ears to listen to the voices coming from inside.

"Eight hundred thousand plus one percent of the profits."

"Too low. Two game slots; if I sell them separately, it will definitely exceed this price."

Niao Huateng's heart skipped a beat—that was Supervisor Gou's voice!

He and someone else seemed to be discussing a shady deal.

"One point two million at most. Any more than that, and our whole company would be working for you, Supervisor Gou."

"Fine, deal."

The two of them readily finalized the deal.

Hearing the sound of chairs moving, Niao Huateng quickly stepped back a few paces, pretending as if he had just arrived.

The door opened, and a man in a business suit brushed past him.

Taking advantage of the fact that the door wasn't closed yet, Niao Huateng deliberately jogged a few steps to make some noise and reached the door: "Supervisor Gou, may I come in?"

Inside the office was a middle-aged man wearing a plaid shirt; his slightly plump figure added a touch of geniality to him. A head of thick, black hair didn't quite match his age, but this also indirectly proved his success—otherwise, how could he afford expensive hair implants?

"Xiao Niao? You came really fast. Come in, come in, and close the door behind you," Supervisor Gou greeted him, looking very easygoing.

Niao Huateng replied with an "Eh," carefully pulled the door shut, and walked to the desk.

Supervisor Gou asked seemingly casually: "You've been waiting at the door for a long time, haven't you?"

Niao Huateng said: "No, no, I just arrived. I happened to see someone coming out of your office."

Supervisor Gou nodded: "Mm, sit, sit, sit. Take out your things and let me have a look."

Niao Huateng knew that the eavesdropping incident had been glossed over, so he placed his laptop on the desk and opened it.

He connected to the internet, plugged in the projection cable, and projected his computer screen directly onto the large screen.

After doing this, Niao Huateng began to introduce: "I will first show Supervisor Gou the first game, Happy Farm."

"Happy Farm?" Upon hearing the name, Supervisor Gou actually found it somewhat novel.

"This is just a random name I picked. If it's listed on the Qiuqiu platform, it should be called Qiuqiu Farm," Niao Huateng said while opening a small game.

"Young man, you have ideas. You've even thought of the name Qiuqiu Farm," Supervisor Gou smiled and looked at the large screen.

On the screen was a 2D cartoon farm, with a 3x6 plot of land right in the center.

He frowned: "Is this the game you made?"