You said you would make games by yourself, but how did you become the richest man by doing nothing?

Late at night, the neon lights of the magic capital flickered, reflecting on the glass windows, weaving a dazzling array of light and shadow.

The conference room of the Peach Garden Studio, however, was filled with an eerie atmosphere of tension.

Mo Xiaoxuan, the planning director, pushed up his glasses and glanced at the people in the conference room with a complicated expression.

Zhang Qiqi sat in the corner, her fingers flying across the keyboard of her notebook, muttering to herself as if she was imitating the dialogue logic of an NPC in a game.

Chu Xiong, the program director, frowned, staring at the computer screen, his eyes showing a kind of excitement but also a hint of guilty conscience.

Several members of the art team were holding drawing boards, frantically adjusting the character models, not even taking a sip of the coffee in their hands, concentrating on the character details on the screen.

If an outsider broke in at this moment, they would definitely think that this group of people was rushing to meet the project deadline.

But the problem is—

They were clearly secretly working overtime!

—This is absolutely an unforgivable taboo in Peach Garden!

And the culprit of all this was sitting in the center of the conference table, with firm eyes and a solemn expression—Liu Mengyuan.

She crossed her hands, her expression serious, her eyes revealing a kind of determination to see through all the truth.

"Everyone, we must be clear about one thing."

Her tone was sonorous and powerful, as if she was carrying out some kind of revolutionary mobilization.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for her next words.

"President Lu's 'lying flat philosophy' is actually to force us to grow actively!"

There was a deathly silence in the conference room.

"……"

"???"

Everyone looked at each other, their eyes filled with shock and confusion.

...What did you say?

"Think about it, does President Lu really just want us to relax?

No, his goal is far more profound than we imagined!"

"He knows that if he directly forces us to work hard, we will definitely resist, so he deliberately lets us go, making us mistakenly believe that we can lie flat."

"But in fact, he is using this method to stimulate our sense of responsibility and make us actively pursue excellence!"

"After all, true strong people don't need anyone to force them, they will find the meaning of struggle themselves!"

"So, President Lu's 'lying flat policy' is actually—the most top-level management wisdom!"

"……"

The conference room fell silent again.

They really wanted to refute, but they couldn't find a reason.

After all, if you think about it carefully... it seems to make sense?!

"So, we can't let down President Lu's expectations!"

Liu Mengyuan's eyes became more and more firm.

"Since he has given us freedom, we must use this freedom to create miracles!"

"From today on, we—secretly work overtime!"

Everyone: "……"

"Wait! Isn't this what a normal game company should do?!"

Zhang Qiqi couldn't help but complain.

"No, it's different!"

Liu Mengyuan said decisively.

"We are not passively working overtime, but actively working overtime.

We are using our own will to create the future!"

"We want to work hard, but we want to work hard openly, willingly, and—without regrets!"

The conference room was silent for a moment, and then—

"Sister Liu is right!"

"Since President Lu chooses to believe in us, we can't let him down!"

"That's right, we want to work hard, but we want to work hard with confidence!"

"Brothers, let's get to work!"

So, in the night of the Peach Garden Studio, a secret "struggle action" quietly unfolded.

Everyone seemed to have been pressed a switch, and began to frantically accumulate experience and brush proficiency.

The planning team optimized the plot overnight, frantically filling in the world view details, making the NPC's dialogue logic more natural and smooth.

The program team desperately optimized the code, improved the operating efficiency of the game engine, and increased the loading speed of the entire big world by 30%.

The art team constantly polished the character models, making the characters' expressions more vivid and the texture of the fabrics more realistic.

Everyone is getting stronger!

But at the same time, they must also carefully hide their hard-working behavior to prevent Lu Yu from discovering it.

[Accidental Activation of the Bottom Guarantee System]

However, in the process, something unexpected happened.

Peach Garden's "bottom guarantee system" was accidentally activated!

This system was originally a "just in case" mechanism set up by Lu Yu—if an employee's progress speed is too fast in a short period of time, the system will automatically give additional personal growth rewards.

But Lu Yu's original intention was to encourage employees who are confused in the workplace, so that they can get positive feedback in the occasional burst of learning state.

But he never expected that Liu Mengyuan's wave of "thought distortion" would directly cause the proficiency of the entire team to skyrocket, triggering the bottom guarantee system's "full staff overspeed growth" mode!

Chu Xiong's programming ability directly broke through the bottleneck in two weeks, and he mastered the new technology that he originally needed half a year to learn in advance.

Zhang Qiqi's planning ability has been improved to a new level, and she has even begun to actively study the possibility of AI generating plots.

Several members of the art team began to frantically practice sketching, and the quality of the character illustrations has been improved by several levels.

The entire team has entered an unprecedented "rapid growth" state!

However, all this is not Liu Mengyuan's ultimate goal.

After a period of "secretly working overtime", she suddenly realized—

It's not enough to just work hard, we must expand a larger business territory!

So, she began to actively look for new cooperation opportunities, contact large companies in the industry, and expand the influence of Peach Garden.

"Our game is not just for the domestic market, we want to impact the global market!"

"We are not just a game company, we want to get involved in the entire digital entertainment industry!"

"We want to build a business empire that truly belongs to us!"

Her eyes showed an unprecedented ambition, as if she had already seen the glorious blueprint for the future.

[Lu Yu's Shock]

And when Lu Yu finally noticed all this, the entire Peach Garden... had completely changed.

He stood in the office, looking at a group of high-spirited and passionate employees, and fell into deep thought.

"...So, what exactly are you doing?"

Liu Mengyuan looked at him with a firm expression and a sonorous voice:

"President Lu, we are realizing your dream!"

Lu Yu: "???"

Wait, when did I have this dream?!

A group of people sat around the table, staring intently at Lu Yu, who was sitting in the chief seat, holding a cup of hot tea in his hand, with a comfortable smile on his face.

Their boss, the soul of Peach Garden, a man with the title of the ceiling of outrageous ideas.

At this moment, he said slowly:

"I want to add a setting to the game, where the protagonist can freely marry all NPCs, including but not limited to various races, robots, AI, and even a stone."

There was a dead silence in the conference room.

A few seconds later, Chu Xiong, the program director, twitched his eyebrows and couldn't help but say: "Wait, a stone?"

"Yes, a stone."

Lu Yu nodded as a matter of course.

"Don't you think?

In most games, players can only marry humans or humanoid races, completely ignoring those player groups who have special interests in 'non-living things'."

"So, I want to allow players to conquer everything, including the stones on the ground, the potted plants in the corner, and even the weather system in the game!"

Everyone: "……"

Zui⊥Xin⊥Xiao⊥Shuo⊥Zai⊥Liu⊥9⊥⊥Shu⊥⊥Ba⊥⊥Shou⊥Fa!

"President Lu, do you have some misunderstanding about 'freedom'?"

Yang Cheng, the art director, supported his forehead, with a look of hopelessness on his face.

But Lu Yu looked at them with a smile and said in a relaxed tone: "Don't you call yourselves a genius team that can turn any idea into reality?"

Everyone was silent immediately.

Of course they knew that Lu Yu's "outrageous ideas" were never just talk, but he really wanted to do it.

And the iron rule of Peach Garden is—President Lu's ideas must be implemented!

"Okay, since President Lu requires it, then let's see how to implement this 'conquering a stone' system."

Liu Mengyuan rubbed her temples, took a deep breath, and forced herself into "planning mode".

She tapped on the table and said decisively after thinking for a moment: "First of all, we need to define the emotional system of 'non-living NPCs'."

"For example, the 'intimacy' of a stone can be improved by players sitting next to it for a long time, painting it, or touching it with warm hands."

"The 'favorability' of a potted plant can be increased by watering, pruning branches and leaves, or even talking to it every day."

"As for the weather... if players often hold umbrellas on rainy days, it may make 'rain' feel good about him, and eventually form some kind of 'weather spirit' bond system."

Chu Xiong twitched his lips: "So you're serious?"

Liu Mengyuan looked serious: "Of course, planning never lies flat."

"Okay, then the program side has to think about how to implement the 'weather's emotional value'."

Chu Xiong sighed and opened his notebook.

"I think we can refer to the AI deep learning method to allow the weather system to respond according to the player's behavior pattern.

For example, if the player always wears sunglasses on a sunny day, the weather may be 'jealous', so deliberately make the sun more poisonous."

"Conversely, if players like to walk in the rain, 'rain' may become gentler, and even have rainbow effects."

"In short, we want to make players really feel the 'emotions of the weather'."

"...Sounds inexplicably feasible?"

Just when everyone began to seriously study "how to make the weather have emotions", a scream suddenly came from the art team.

"Wait, I suddenly thought of a character setting!"

——Li Fei of the art team, a man known as a "genius", stood up excitedly, waving the paintbrush in his hand.

"Since the NPCs in the game can conquer everything, then we must design some NPCs that are truly 'personalized'!"

"For example——an 'tsundere' ice queen AI, as long as the player enters the wrong command, she will explode, but if the player always communicates with her in a gentle tone, she will slowly become docile."

"For another example, an NPC who 'reverse conquers the player', he will frantically release favorability to the player.

Once the player rejects him, he will pretend to be 'sad', and then deliberately make the player suffer in the task."

"Also, also!

We can design an NPC with 'built-in barrage comments', all of his lines will be automatically translated into player barrage, such as 'Your operation is really bad', 'Is that all you got?', 'Better delete the account and start over'!"

"Finally, there must be a 'Bug Goddess', all of her dialogues will have a little program code.

If the player can crack her sentences, they can unlock hidden plots!"

"……"

In the conference room, everyone looked at Li Fei and was silent for a few seconds.

Then,

"Okay! This NPC must be made!"

"The Bug Goddess setting is so interesting, it must be arranged!"

"Barrage commenting NPC, this is simply an extreme torture for players, do it!"

Everyone hit it off, and began to frantically conceive the plots and interaction methods of these NPCs, and even Lu Yu couldn't help but applaud: "As expected of the Peach Garden art team, this idea is amazing!"

With the implementation of one outrageous setting after another, the entire game world gradually became unprecedentedly rich and wonderful.

Players can conquer everything, from ordinary NPCs to weather, stones, and even bugs can become love interests.

The AI system of NPCs is extremely intelligent, and will make real feedback based on the player's behavior patterns, and may even "reverse conquer" the player.

The details of the world view have been polished to be extremely detailed, and incredible hidden plots are hidden in every corner.

All of this was originally just a whim of Lu Yu, but with the genius creativity of Liu Mengyuan and the team members, it actually became a reality.

Late one night, Lu Yu stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the office, looking at the developers who were still working enthusiastically in the room, and couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

"...These guys are really too crazy."

He just casually mentioned an idea, but it was actually realized little by little by Liu Mengyuan and her team with amazing execution and creativity.

They are really weaving a miracle.

And this miracle will subvert the entire game industry.

The corners of Lu Yu's mouth raised slightly, he picked up the teacup on the table, took a light sip, and whispered with a smile:

"It seems that my 'outrageous empire' is really about to be built."

Not far away, Lu Yu was leaning on the sofa, drinking lemon tea while leisurely flipping through a travel magazine.

"Everyone, relax, our goal is to make life a part of the game, not to make the game the whole of life."

His tone was relaxed and comfortable, as if he was imparting some kind of philosophy of life.

However, Liu Mengyuan, the planning director sitting opposite him, obviously didn't buy it.

She put down the coffee cup in her hand, crossed her hands, stared at Lu Yu, and said with a hint of suppressed anger in her tone: "President Lu, I really want to know, are you serious, or are you digging a hole for us?"

Lu Yu put down the magazine and looked at her with a smile: "What's wrong? Isn't our project progressing smoothly?"

"Smoothly?"

Liu Mengyuan took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.

"Do you know the first layer of reverse nesting we're doing recently?"

"Of course, I know," Lu Yu nodded. "To allow players to experience true 'enjoyment of life' in the game, we specifically nested a 'life simulation system' so they can experience all kinds of ultimate pleasures in the virtual world, such as traveling around the world, extreme sports, gourmet exploration—this was your own suggestion."

"Yes, but do you know where the problem lies?"

Liu Mengyuan held her forehead, her tone helpless. "We added too much content, and the complexity of the system skyrocketed, causing the entire game to be plagued with bugs!"

The situation of the internal game test was simply terrible. (End of this chapter)