55: Chapter 55 Get a good night's sleep

Following Niao Huateng's demonstration, Supervisor Gou understood the game, and the disdain on his face became increasingly obvious as he spoke:

"This farm game starts with only three plots of land for the player, and the content is so simple—just planting and harvesting, planting and harvesting. Do you think this can be called a game?"

Niao Huateng rubbed his nose awkwardly and explained with a smile:

"Supervisor Gou, this is a simulation management game. There are only three plots at the start, but more can be reclaimed later. Players sell harvested crops for game currency, which they use to unlock higher-level seeds and reclaim new land. That is exactly where the fun of a simulation management game lies."

Supervisor Gou shook his head. "The key is that there's no replayability. A new player enters the game, clicks the mouse a few times, and completes all the operations. Then they have to wait several hours for the crops to mature. After those several hours pass, why would they click into your boring game again?"

Niao Huateng maintained a stiff smile on his face. "I've thought about that, which is why I designed a rather unique 'stealing crops' feature. When a player's own crops aren't mature, they can go to a friend's farm to steal crops, or help friends water, weed, and catch bugs. It can significantly increase user stickiness."

Supervisor Gou interrupted Niao Huateng's presentation unceremoniously. "Alright, alright. How should I put it? This game is too crude. It might be okay for kindergarteners to play, but as for listing it on the Qiuqiu channel, forget it."

Seeing the impatience on Supervisor Gou's face, Niao Huateng had no choice but to close the farm game, even though there was still much left to introduce, and opened the second game he had prepared. He still wore a smile. "Shall we look at the second game, then?"

Seeing Supervisor Gou give a lukewarm nod, he began his introduction: "This game is called Great Letou, a Wuxia fighting web game based on social interaction with friends..."

The screen displayed a classic 2D fighting scene. Two stick figures each unleashed Wuxia Moves, interspersed with various props. Amidst flashy special effects, the two stick figures exchanged blows for two or three minutes until one side's health bar was depleted, ending the battle.

Supervisor Gou watched patiently until the end. "The fighting is somewhat interesting, but why didn't I see you controlling it? Did you just make a random animation to fool me?"

Niao Huateng quickly explained, "Supervisor Gou, you might not know this, but this Letou game focuses on automatic battles full of randomness. Players only need to cultivate their characters and then spar with friends to see spectacular fighting scenes."

At this point, seeing that Supervisor Gou seemed to be thinking, Niao Huateng seized the opportunity to strike while the iron was hot. "If this game can collaborate with Qiuqiu, I can change the stick figure design to the Qiuqiu mascot, Qiu Chong. Combined with Qiuqiu's massive user base, it will definitely be a phenomenal casual fighting game!"

Supervisor Gou, however, shook his head. "These two stick figures, exchanging Moves back and forth, are somewhat interesting. But since you can't control them and can only watch the game characters fight—and for several minutes at that—what serious player has the spare time for this? If they really want to watch fighting scenes, why wouldn't they just watch a fighting anime? So, you got your user positioning wrong from the very beginning, and you can only go further and further down the wrong path."

"As for what you said about changing the stick figures to Qiu Chong, I think we should forget it. This would simply smear the group's reputation. If President Ma saw this, I might even get fired myself."

Niao Huateng was naturally shy, and hearing the barrage of blunt belittlement made his face flush. However, thinking of the effort he and his partner had put into this project, he really couldn't bear to give up, and he didn't dare to refute Supervisor Gou. He could only say, "Supervisor Gou, we agreed on this project beforehand, and you approved the general direction of the game."

Supervisor Gou's eyes widened. "Are you saying I'm going back on my word?"

"No, no, I mean please give me one more chance. I'll go back and make some changes." Niao Huateng's tone unconsciously carried a hint of fawning, and after he realized it, he felt very uncomfortable inside.

But even so, Supervisor Gou still shook his head and refused. "No. You know how precious our Qiuqiu web game slots are. I even fought for two game slots from the higher-ups out of respect for your teacher. Now that the opportunity has been given to you, it's you who didn't seize it."

Niao Huateng's heart sank. Whether it was he who failed to seize the opportunity or if the slots had already been traded away, Supervisor Gou was probably the one who knew best.

Supervisor Gou softened his tone at the right moment to console him. "Xiao Niao, although the games you made are not suitable for the market, are childish, and boring, I can see that your ability to architect code is still very solid. Why don't you just come work for us at Qiuqiu? We have a professional creative department; they provide good ideas, and you implement them. We can each play to our strengths. How about it? Think about it."

Niao Huateng had already realized that the outcome of this matter wasn't determined by whether his game was good or not, nor could it be changed by him bowing his head and saying a few nice words. He simply straightened his back, pushed up his glasses, and said in a calm and forceful tone, "No need to consider it. I believe I don't need anyone else's ideas to succeed." With that, he packed up his laptop and turned to leave.

As soon as he walked out of the office, he opened his phone and added Supervisor Gou's contact information to his blacklist.

He never wanted to have any dealings with such a person again!

After leaving the building, a sense of exhaustion suddenly surged up. Niao Huateng walked down the street in a daze, like a lonely ghost wandering in the sunlight.

Of course, he wasn't going to be crushed by this minor failure; the bigger reason was that he hadn't slept all night, and his body was now struggling to hold up.

Returning to the small storage room, when asked by Mu Shan how it went, Niao Huateng just shook his head and didn't want to say anything more.

He tossed his laptop aside, plunged into the bedding spread on the cot, and just as he closed his eyes to sleep, he suddenly thought of something and opened his phone to check the group chat messages.

What he saw was astonishing.

He hadn't checked the group for a day, and a group member was already on the trending headlines?

Niao Huateng immediately perked up. He clicked into the related videos and news to browse, and soon learned the ins and outs of the matter.

This Hu Gualing was actually that good at fighting?

It wasn't that he looked down on his fellow group member, but Hu Gualing had long ago said in the group: a heavy rain ruined his dream of getting into a junior college.

Since he was a Student Athlete who hadn't even managed to get into junior college, his physical condition was easy to guess—at most, he was just a bit stronger than the average person. How could he possibly beat a group of professional thugs armed with weapons until they were lying on the ground, while he himself could still be interviewed in front of the camera, completely unharmed?

Did he really think that playing this Wuxia game called Text Jianghu made him a Martial Forest expert?

A Martial Forest expert? The term flashed through Niao Huateng's mind, and he paused for a moment.

He remembered that Hu Gualing seemed to have reached the Creation Realm before him.

Then, could these unusual things happening to Hu Gualing be related to that Fantasy Jianghu?

Thinking of this, Niao Huateng sent a friend request to Hu Gualing and directly typed his question in the verification message: "Do you know what's going on with Fantasy Jianghu?"

Hu Gualing was currently lying in the hospital ward. At the door were ten nursing assistants hired by General Manager Wu Jinkai. He couldn't even sneak out for some fresh air, and lying in bed, he couldn't fall asleep, so he could only play with his phone out of boredom.

Seeing the friend request from Niao Huateng, he understood.

Thinking that they were all group members anyway, and Niao Huateng had also obtained game qualifications, he typed back to tell him: "I know you're in a rush, but don't panic yet. Once you get a good night's sleep, everything will make sense."

A good night's sleep? Niao Huateng didn't quite understand and was about to ask further when the other party's next message came through.

"I do know some things, but even if I told you now, I'm afraid you wouldn't believe it. Take my advice and just get a good night's sleep."

Seeing this, Niao Huateng still had many questions, but he had no choice but to send a message thanking him and wishing Hu Gualing a speedy recovery, then put down his phone and closed his eyes to lie down.

But his mind was filled with countless questions. Although he had been exhausted upon returning, he now found he couldn't fall asleep for a long time...