I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

On the surface, Gu Yuqing still seems to be the high and mighty heiress of the Gu family and the head of Gaoshan Capital.

But this was only based on the fact that she had a smooth and successful journey.

If she stumbles here, not only will her ten years of hard work go down the drain and she'll have to start all over again, but the relationship between her investor and investor Chen Ya will also be the subject of gossip and speculation.

Her stepmother was watching her coldly, waiting to see her suffer a crushing defeat.

This could be considered her first and possibly last gamble of her life, and the stakes were all on "Original Demon".

“The 80/20 rule is so obvious in mobile games now. Everyone looks at the first month's data. By the next month, it’s too late.” Gu Yuqing frowned and thought for a long time, then suddenly pulled Chen Ya and said, “How about we add some more money to buy more users?”

Chen Ya spread his hands: "I have no money left."

"I'll give you the money," Gu Yuqing said through gritted teeth. "If I squeeze it out, I can still have tens of millions."

Upon hearing "squeeze in," Chen Ya subconsciously glanced at Gu Yuqing's chest.

"What time is it? Can't you be serious for once?!"

"I haven't said anything yet."

Chen Ya said, "There's no need to spend money to buy more traffic. If you really want to give me money, you can transfer it to my account, but I might have to repay you with my body."

Gu Yuqing gritted her teeth and said, "One of you offering yourself in return is probably not enough; you'll need at least ten."

"Okay, okay," Chen Ya replied dismissively.

He looked at the data in the backend and said slowly:

"No need to rush. We didn't implement any pay-to-win elements in the early stages of the game, so the data from the first hour doesn't prove anything."

"There's no rush. The factories outside, like Zhuchang and Echang, are frantically hiring online trolls to smear us. There's no rush!"

“As long as they don’t hit the mark, they’re just giving us traffic,” Chen Ya said. “In short, there’s no rush.”

……

Echang, Zhang Weiqiang Studio.

Zhang Weiqiang, sitting in his office with panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows, held a coffee and propped his legs up on the coffee table.

He's always been this domineering, and his employees have gotten used to it, euphemistically saying they're used to the laid-back lifestyle in America and don't want to change.

The root cause of the abnormal bugs during their game development has not yet been found, but he believes that he should focus his energy on the big picture, offer various insights to each group, and provide improvement suggestions every day.

Some employees had complaints about his management style, but they couldn't do anything about it.

The factory in Hubei Province placed great trust in him, giving him full control over the entire studio and treating him like a star producer.

Throughout the entire project, Zhang Weiqiang was decisive and fully responsible, demonstrating unwavering trust in his employees.

"Is 'Original Demon' downloaded yet?" Zhang Weiqiang asked his employee slowly.

"Mr. Zhang, almost there, just the last 5%, and it'll be done after the update," the employee replied.

Today is the open beta launch day for "Genshin Impact". Compared to Cai Zhenyi's studio, Zhang Weiqiang is much more relaxed and less tense.

Although they are both similar games, Cai Zhenyi's project definitely clashed with Chen Ya's in terms of scheduling.

Summer vacation is over and then comes National Day. Tsai Chen-yi is definitely planning to release his film during the National Day holiday. When the two films clash, it will definitely be a fierce battle.

But none of this concerns Zhang Weiqiang. With the Echang factory behind him, he's not worried. Let them fight on both sides; it would be best if they both died. It doesn't really affect him.

His game is still a long way off.

But since they're similar games, it's still important to see what other games are like. So, he asked his employee to download "GenDemon" to his phone so he could play it himself.

The employee finally finished updating and handed over the phone.

Zhang Weiqiang took the phone, and after a short wait, the game indicated that he could enter.

Upon entering the game and seeing the large Uni logo, Zhang Weiqiang curled his lip.

"What era are we living in? Still using the Uni engine."

An employee nearby asked in surprise, "Are they still using the Uni engine?"

Zhang Weiqiang said, "That's right. Although I knew it a long time ago, I still want to complain every time I see it."

He already knew from the information he got from the mole that Chen Ya was using the Uni engine, so he had known all along.

"It's almost time for the Fidelity 5 era, and they're still using Uni. This company must have no development experience at all."

Zhang Weiqiang curled his lip and said, "How can a fledgling team have any experience to speak of?"

The employee smiled and said, "That's true."

It's not that the Uni engine is bad; when used in a game like Genshin Impact with an anime art style, the visual quality isn't much worse than the Fantasy series.

However, because this engine is so "basic", it always gives people a feeling of wanting to complain.

However, thinking about the renderings sent by the mole, Zhang Weiqiang could also feel relieved.

After all, it's just a hastily made game; the Uni is more than enough.

After Zhang Weiqiang's phone finished loading, he entered the game.

At first, he was quite adept at it, but after about ten minutes, his expression became increasingly serious.

This... is different from what the mole said!

The more Zhang Weiqiang played, the more he felt something was wrong. The mole had given him a pheasant, but what he received was a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex from the Cretaceous period!

"Mr. Zhang, what's wrong?" an employee asked cautiously.

While controlling his character, Zhang Weiqiang said, "Something's not right, something's not right, something's really not right, how could this be?"

An employee nearby asked, "What's wrong? Mr. Zhang, is this game really that difficult?"

Zhang Weiqiang opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything for a moment.

Although many people in the company vaguely knew about the mole, he had an inside contact at Beichen Company.

But he couldn't very well say to his employees, "How come this is different from what the mole agreed on? I've been tricked!"

Wouldn't that make me look stupid?

He could only swallow his anger and say, "It's not very strong. I talked to their boss before, and the finished game is... better than I expected."

The innocent employee asked, "Is this a bit unexpected?"

Zhang Weiqiang nodded: "No, it's alright, it was... a little unexpected... Holy crap!"

His exclamation startled the employees.

He had just entered a new area when he saw a dragon fly overhead.

For a moment, he was a little dazed.

What kind of move is this? What kind of battle tactic is this?

Why didn't anyone tell me this before? Is Beichen really that amazing?

He didn't know if the dragon was programmed to fly there at this time, or if it was originally part of the entire open-world ecosystem.

If it's the latter, then what would happen?

This is like a thunderclap in the silence; ordinary players might be shocked to see this, or they might not even notice it and feel confused.

But as a veteran who has worked abroad for so many years, he certainly knows how difficult it is to achieve this.

If it were his own studio, and he gave the order to achieve the same thing, the employees would probably fight.

If even he himself couldn't do it, how could a makeshift team possibly do it?

He suddenly turned his head and asked, "Was the technical director at Beichen recruited from overseas?"

The employee next to him was bewildered: "N-no, I've never heard of it?"

"I don't believe there are such experts in China."

"Maybe...maybe they poached someone from overseas, but I haven't heard of any major personnel changes at major foreign companies this year? Maybe I missed it?"

When asked, the employee quickly opened his phone and started searching for news in reverse.

Zhang Weiqiang felt a slight pang of jealousy.

He rejected Beichen's job offer because he thought the pay wasn't good enough. His current mindset is like his ex-girlfriend rejecting him and finding someone better.

It's getting a little sour.

While searching for news, an employee next to me chuckled and said:

"Mr. Zhang, everyone online is criticizing 'Genshin Impact' right now, and even playing 'Genshin Impact' is considered treason."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Weiqiang was so frightened that he quickly turned off his phone.

He also opened social media and started searching for "GenDemon," and sure enough, it was all black.

"It's probably all orchestrated by Zhuchang and Donghuang Qixing. What could be such a deep grudge over a new game?" Zhang Weiqiang said.

"Their game is due soon, and they're the most anxious ones. They can't wait to crush Beichen."

An employee nearby asked, "Then, Mr. Zhang, should we join the fray and beat the dog when it's down? We're in the same boat."

"No need," Zhang Weiqiang waved his hand. "Our game is still a long way off. Making a move now would just be a waste of money."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Besides, 'GenDemon' didn't buy many copies, so why are they sending so many online trolls to smear it? Isn't that just making a mess of things? It's only giving them more attention."

The employee paused for a moment, then said, "That seems to be true."

……

If she could, Gu Yuqing would love to sit in Chen Ya's office all day long, monitoring the server launch status at all times.

However, she had already taken leave for many days in a row, and it was really unreasonable for her to skip work without a reason every day. In the afternoon, she still obediently put on makeup and went to work at Gaoshan Capital.

As soon as he arrived at class, he ran into Gu Zongyan.

"Uh... Dad, what brings you here?"

Gu Yuqing felt a little awkward when Gu Zongyan caught her being late, but Gu Zongyan didn't say anything about it.

"It's my own company, can't I come and take a look?"

Gu Yuqing forced a smile and said, "You can watch for as long as you want."

"Hmph." Gu Zongyan snorted coldly and went into the house first.

Gu Yuqing followed obediently behind, feeling uneasy.

Today is a special day, Genshin Impact is launching. I hope the old folks haven't heard any rumors about it yet.

Now that her life hangs in the balance, if he were to come and make things difficult for her, like by challenging her to another bet, she really wouldn't know how to respond.

She remained anxious and followed Gu Zongyan into the office. Gu Zongyan sat down, his expression softening slightly, and began chatting with her about everyday matters.

Now Gu Yuqing was even more confused about what he wanted to do.

Gu Zongyan kept circling around topics like "family affection," "filial piety," "disciple's rules," and "children's obligations," leaving Gu Yuqing somewhat confused.

After a long pause, she finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Stop beating around the bush, I understand. Just tell me straight, what do you want?"

Gu Zongyan's expression, which had softened, stiffened again, and he said:

"Okay, then I'll get straight to the point. In another month, it will be your sister's coming-of-age ceremony, and you absolutely must attend."

Hearing this request, which was so different from what she had expected, Gu Yuqing was momentarily taken aback.

"That's it?"

"What do you mean 'that's all'?" Gu Zongyan was slightly annoyed. "This is your sister's coming-of-age ceremony. I just talked about filial piety and brotherly love for so long, didn't you listen at all...?"

Gu Yuqing said, "When I came of age, I never heard of any coming-of-age ceremony."

These words left Gu Zongyan speechless.

Looking at Gu Zongyan's expression, which seemed to be a mix of pain and guilt, Gu Yuqing felt a little embarrassed.

She didn't really care about coming-of-age ceremonies. In her view, it was just a bunch of people in a small circle flattering each other, wasting her precious time and life.

She just said it casually, but she didn't expect it to actually arouse Gu Zongyan's guilt, making him reflect on his failure to treat everyone equally.

After a long while, Gu Zongyan finally composed himself and said:

"Yuqing, it's not that I don't value you. You have to know, I was quite busy in my younger years, and that meant I couldn't..."

"Alright, alright, I don't care," Gu Yuqing interrupted him impatiently.