This producer has no bottom line.

"Wang Dachui?" Da Peng repeated it twice, then clicked his tongue. "Sounds even worse than Wang Duoyu."

"It's going to be tragic," Ren Pingsheng said. "At least Wang Duoyu has the halo of a transmigrated protagonist, but Wang Dachui doesn't even have that. He's just an NPC forgotten by the system."

Luo Hongming sat at his workstation without saying a word, but he kept his ears open.

Da Peng circled him once, giving him a second look. "Are you sure he can handle the roles of two main characters? This kid looks like a high school student."

"You're a junior now, Peng-ge," Luo Hongming corrected softly.

"What's the difference between a college junior and a high school student? They're both people who haven't been toughened up by society yet."

Ren Pingsheng ignored this and instead pulled up the first episode of the initial draft of the script and projected it onto the screen in the conference room.

"Watch this show."

The screen shows the opening scene of the first episode. Wang Duoyu is fighting a boss in a dungeon when the system crashes halfway through, and he is teleported to a hidden, unreleased map. There, he encounters Wang Dachui—a player who has been stuck in the newbie village for three years due to a bug, his level forever stuck at level 1.

Wang Dachui's first line is: "You're here to exploit bugs too? Don't bother, I've been here for three years and haven't even gotten a chicken yet."

After reading this, Da Peng's brows relaxed.

"This character is interesting," he said, leaning back in his chair. "A person who's completely laid down, even more extreme than my loser self."

"Yes, Wang Duoyu struggled and failed, while Wang Dachui was too lazy to even struggle," Ren Pingsheng said. "But he didn't just give up because he was a Buddhist; he actually tried for three years and found that the system completely ignored him."

"So he chose to give up."

"Taking giving up to the extreme is another kind of attitude."

Da Peng looked at Luo Hongming, "Then you act it out."

Luo Hongming was taken aback. "Now?"

"Yes, right now, just give us a random excerpt."

Luo Hongming stood up and stood there for two seconds. He didn't make any preparatory movements, just stood there straight with his hands hanging at his sides, his eyes shifting from Da Peng's face to the trash can in the corner.

Then he spoke.

"Hello, welcome to the starting village. There's nothing here."

His tone was as flat as a blank sheet of paper, without any inflection, and you couldn't even hear the punctuation.

"I am Wang Dachui, level 1, no equipment, no skills, no savings, and no girlfriend."

"You ask me why I haven't quit the game yet? Because quitting would cost me 30 yuan for the monthly card, and I can't bear to do that."

The meeting room was silent for three seconds.

Xiao Lin was the first to break down and burst out laughing. Sister Zhao covered her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking.

Da Peng stared at Luo Hongming, his expression changing.

It wasn't because of his acting skills, but because his spirit was just so right. He's completely different from his character Wang Duoyu. Wang Duoyu is the kind of fool who gets stronger with each setback, while Wang Dachui is someone who's become numb after facing reality.

One jumps up, the other sinks down. Put them together, and the chemical reaction will be violent.

"Alright," Da Peng slammed his hand on the table, nodded to Ren Pingsheng, "I'll take over this kid."

Luo Hongming stood there without moving, his palms sweating so much that the seams of his pants were soaked, but he didn't show anything on his face.

Ren Pingsheng glanced at him and said, "Sit down. It's not your time to be smug yet."

Over the next three days, Ren Pingsheng finalized the scripts for the first six episodes of the second season. He spent his days overseeing the project team's daily work and his nights writing in his shared apartment until 3 a.m.

Liu Hao and Song Ming also arrived in Yanjing.

Liu Hao didn't talk much. On his first day, he sent Xiao Lin's edits back for rework twice. Xiao Lin was unhappy but didn't dare say anything because the reworked footage was indeed better than the original.

Song Ming was in charge of polishing the jokes and lines. He had a quirk: he had to read what he wrote aloud himself, adding facial expressions as he did so. His mutterings could often be heard coming from a corner of the office, and passing colleagues thought he was crazy.

Once everyone had arrived, Ren Pingsheng held a meeting.

At the meeting, he reviewed the production process for the second season. The biggest difference from the first season is that he is no longer handling post-production alone this time. Editing is divided between Liu Hao and Xiao Lin, voice acting is led by Luo Hongming, Sister Zhao continues with the production of the documentary, and Song Ming is responsible for polishing the dialogue in the second draft of the script.

He only does two things: final cut and directing.

"Let me make one rule clear beforehand," Ren Pingsheng said, scanning everyone around him. "You're not allowed to leak any information about the second season. Anyone who spoils the plot on QQ groups, forums, or Tieba will be fired immediately."

Luo Hongming glanced at Song Ming subconsciously. Song Ming shrank back, his mouth indeed not very tight.

"Also, Ms. Cang will not appear in the second season."

Upon hearing this, both Xiaolin and Song Ming exclaimed "Ah!" at the same time.

"Why? She's the one who boosted the numbers for the last three episodes of the first season." Kobayashi didn't understand.

"You can't rely on a single trick twice," Ren Pingsheng said. "The audience's interest has already been exhausted. If we use her again in the second season, the effect will be at most half of the first time, but the controversy will be twice as much."

He had calculated this very clearly. The appearance of Ms. Cang was a royal flush, and a royal flush can only be played once. Playing it a second time would become routine, and routine plays have no explosive potential.

"So what will drive viewership for the second season?" Sister Zhao asked a very practical question.

"Rely on the content itself."

Sister Zhao didn't say anything, but the expression on her face said, "Are you sure?"

Ren Pingsheng didn't explain. He was certain.

The data from the first season reveals a signal that everyone overlooked—completion rate. While the last three episodes featuring Aoi Sora did indeed garner explosive viewership, the completion rate was only 47%. In contrast, the first nine episodes, filled with pure comedy and no gimmicks, maintained a stable completion rate of over 72%.

I clicked in because of Ms. Cang, and finished watching because of Wang Duoyu.

Traffic can be generated through gimmicks, but retention can only be achieved through content. The goal of Season 2 is to turn retention into word-of-mouth, and word-of-mouth into organic word-of-mouth.

After the meeting ended, Luo Hongming stayed behind.

"Brother Pingsheng, there's something I want to tell you."

"explain."

"Wang Cong also wants to come to live with my three roommates."

"What can he do?"

"acting."

Ren Pingsheng looked up at him.

"His image is different from mine and Peng's. He's more... simple-minded, which is suitable for playing the kind of character who looks innocent but does all sorts of despicable things."

Ren Pingsheng thought about it. The second season has more ensemble scenes than the first season, and it's really not enough for Qiao Shan to carry the show by playing multiple roles alone.

"Have him send over a video introducing himself."

"it is good."

Luo Hongming walked to the door and then stopped. "Brother Pingsheng."

"Um?"

"I thought about the name Wang Dachui all night, and the more I thought about it, the better it seemed."

"Where is it good?"

"Big Hammer, his fate is to be hammered. No matter how much he struggles, he will always be smashed down by life. But his surname is Wang, which is the most common and the most common surname."

"Every ordinary person can be Wang Dachui."

Ren Pingsheng looked at him but didn't say anything.

After Luo Hongming left, the office area gradually quieted down. Sister Zhao and Xiao Lin left work one after another, Liu Hao was cutting something at his workstation with headphones on, and Song Ming was asleep on his desk.

Ren Pingsheng opened his email; Guo Weiwei had sent another email urging him to update on the progress. The situation with JX3 was more urgent than he had anticipated. The data for the first month of the open beta was unsatisfactory, and some people within the company had already suggested cutting the marketing budget.

Guo Weiwei wrote a very straightforward sentence in the email: "President Ren, if it can't be launched before October, I may lose this budget."

Ren Pingsheng replied with a short email: "I'll send you the final cut by the end of August."

After sending the email, he opened the calendar and glanced at it. Today was July 18th, forty-three days until the end of August. Forty-three days to film twelve episodes, plus post-production.

Time is tight, but it's not impossible. The footage for the first three episodes was filmed in just one day, and the process for the second season is already in place, with enough manpower.

What really bothered him wasn't time, but something else entirely.

He opened Sohu's internal OA system and scrolled to the personnel change notification section. The latest announcement was dated yesterday and contained only one line of text.

"Mr. Gong Yu, Senior Vice President of the Group, will officially leave the company on September 30, 2009, for personal reasons."

Ren Pingsheng stared at the line of text for ten seconds.

In his previous life, Gong Yu resigned in October, but this time it was earlier. He didn't know if his appearance had accelerated something, but one thing was clear—after Gong Yu left, Project Spark would have no backing.

Deng Ye won't take the blame for him, and Alex is even less likely to.

The window of opportunity left for him was shorter than expected.

My phone vibrated; it was a message from Dapeng.

"Pingsheng, you know that President Gong is leaving, right?"

Ren Pingsheng replied with three words.

"understood."

Da Peng's second message arrived more than ten seconds later.

"So what do you plan to do?"

Ren Pingsheng did not reply immediately. He turned off his phone screen, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the fluorescent light on the ceiling that was flickering on and off.

What should I do?

Make the second season a blockbuster, and before Gong Yu leaves, make the data so big that no one dares to cut it.

His phone lit up, and he typed six words and sent them.

"Brother Peng, filming starts the day after tomorrow."