Early the next morning.

As soon as Pei Yi entered the studio, Li Yuan, who was waiting in the lobby, greeted him, “Pei Yi! You really predicted it correctly!”

Li Yuan handed the tablet in his hand to his friend and indicated, “Look, Xunya Technology’s official Weibo posted a new announcement at 8 o’clock in the morning, saying that Nanchan Games is not a subsidiary of their headquarters. Two and a half years ago—”

“That is, before large-scale plagiarism occurred, the relationship between them changed to a partnership.”

At present, Xunya Technology unilaterally announced the termination of its partnership with Nanchan Games, and apologized to the netizens who felt hurt by online public opinion.

From now on, company headquarters would conduct stricter inspections of its partners in order to keep similar incidents from happening again. Everyone’s supervision, criticism, and corrections were welcome.

Pei Yi clearly read the black and white statement with the official seal, and a glimmer of understanding flashed in his eyes. “A major company is indeed a major company. It is necessary to be clean and tidy, and they use this superficial skill well.”

Last night went from Mufeng Games’ stern questioning, to Chanming Studios’ statement, to the revelations about Nanchan Games’ series of plagiarism incidents.

Not only had it become big news in the gaming circle, but it had also made the two parties the target of attention and abuse from ordinary netizens.

Although the officials of the original game design competition had been hiding and pretending to be dead, there was no end to the ability of the vast number of netizens who could pick up and expose information. More and more evidence pointed to their shady behavior of using backdoors.

From Ke Ming and Changming Studios to You Chang and Nanchan Games, they became like street rats almost overnight.

There were waves of hot searches related to entertainment on Weibo, and the two topics about Chanming Studios’ backdoor and Xunya Technology were right there on the list of Weibo’s hot searches.

“There’s a lot more heat than I had imagined.” Li Yuan gave a low sigh, and then asked speculatively, “There must be someone behind this, right? Weiyi?”

Pei Yi raised his eyebrows slightly, which was enough of an answer.

The statement issued this morning was the result of a secret game between two sides regarding capital.

Whether it was Chanming Studios’ manipulation of the award results, or the shameless plagiarism of Nanchan Games in the name of profit, they had undoubtedly stepped on the moral bottom line of public conscience. 

Fueled by public opinion, people’s anger grew stronger and stronger.

For Xunya Technology, Chanming Studios’ “Destroy the Alien Beasts” was just a small subsidiary mobile game. The initial investment could not be counted as their own, and the profits in the later stage had not yet been achieved—

Although the backdoor investment in the competition was a bit of a loss, as a major game company, they could still afford it.

This time, Xunya Technology was forced to be at a disadvantage. If they didn’t cut off the relationship as soon as possible, the anger of the netizens would burn them.

“Don’t worry, the above and below-board fight between Xunay Technologies and Weiyi isn’t just a matter of a day or two. Although I’m the one who organized this counterattack, from Xunya Technology’s perspective, they probably consider our studio to be a move by Weiyi.”

Big companies had their own practices, and small studios had their own ways of living.

YWY had always done the right thing and sat upright. They were not afraid of retaliation by Xunya Technology. If something was said in private, they had the double protection of Bo Group and GM.

Of course, in the long run, their studio would sooner or later occupy a place in the Chinese gaming industry based on its own capabilities!

Li Yuan closed the door to the office. “By the way, Brother Xiang still has old work friends at Chanming Studios. He secretly discovered that Ke Ming got very angry at the company last night.”

“It seems that Nanchan Games suddenly announced an end to their partnership. Their backer pulled out suddenly.”

Pei Yi naturally understood who was responsible for this, and didn’t reveal more.

He imagined Ke Ming’s expression. “It’s normal to get angry. Given his temperament of looking at people with his nostrils turned upward, it would be strange if he could deal with all of this calmly.”

Li Yuan had never had a good impression of Ke Ming, and continued, “After the in-game transaction channel of ‘Destroy the Alien Beasts’ opened, it is said that the total income didn’t exceed 300,000.”

However, tens of millions invested in production and millions of operating expenses would only return an income of less than 300,000 in the end.

If Ke Ming was old and in poor health, he might have been so angry that he had a heart attack.

Pei Yi’s mind returned to reality. “Are the hot searches still up?”

“They are, the top hot search is at 18th place.” Li Yuan nodded and made another guess. “However, I estimate that as soon as Xunya Technology’s statement is released, related hot search topics will follow.”

There was a dark light in Pei Yi’s eyes as he said, “Pear Garden, make the announcement. Everything that needs to be prepared is ready, and it’s our studio’s turn to come out and make our presence felt.”

It would be their own loss if they didn’t take these free hot searches and exposure!

Ke Ming must still plan to make a comeback after a while, but Pei Yi’s intention was to make him fall again and again, never having a chance to get up!

Li Yuan fully understood what his friend was thinking, and nodded firmly. “Don’t worry, leave it to me.”

The studio’s online publicity team was already prepared. It was time to send back all the misunderstandings and malice they had received since Monday!

. . . . . . .

It was Saturday afternoon, the moment Weibo traffic slowly woke up.

A new post landed on the Youtu forum homepage: Take a look! YWY’s latest Weibo. After reading the entire article, I can only shout one sentence: Amazing!

It should be known that although public opinion in the past two days had circled around Chanming Studios and “Destroy the Alien Beasts,” the other end of public opinion was linked to YWY Studios and their similar work, “The Last Fog.”

This straightforward post immediately attracted the attention of many game fans.

Everyone smelled a big melon, and immediately clicked on the link, rushing to the latest statement released by YWY Studios—

[ On the same day, an internet user named Chasing Wind posted false information about our studio’s chief planner, Will (Mr. Pei), and the studio’s “The Last Fog” project on the Youtu forum and Weibo. We are making the following statement:

We took screenshots as evidence and filed a police report as soon as possible. The user (Qin Moumou) has admitted to the police that he paid for tracking and paparazzi, spread malicious rumors, etc. He is currently in the process of legal prosecution!

Several other users (the specific list is attached in Figure 2) have been confirmed to be paid commenters from the same marketing company, which collected money to spread malicious public opinion and rumors. This behavior has also seriously infringed on the reputation and interests of our Mr. Pei Yi and the entire “Last Fog” game team, and those responsible will be held accountable to the end in accordance with the law!

Finally, from its inception to present, the “Last Fog” game team has respected fairness, originality, and ability, and respects their peers and opponents even more!

The entire production team felt deeply powerless and angry about the suspicions they received after winning the “8th Original Game Design Competition” — 

From this moment, YWY Studios and the “Last Fog” team voluntarily give up the winning title of the “8th Original Game Design Competition” and also condemn the organizers’ inaction!

If an award cannot prove our excellence, then let the game itself shine and speak for us! ]

If the first half was a normal clarification, then the second half was the surprising part.

Although there was a lot of controversy over the original game design competition this time, its prestige could not be underestimated. It was also one of the few awards recognized by the Chinese gaming circle.

Give up their winning spot?

Did that mean that YWY Studios had voluntarily given up the series of subsequent exposure channels?

Just to protest and denounce the organizers of the competition from the perspective of the general public? The entire YWY Studios was so unyielding!

For a time, the comment area was occupied by netizens who followed the trend and came to enjoy the melons.

“To summarize Big Cat Face’s statement: A certain garbage studio used a backdoor and hired trolls to blacken them, and they asked the police to deal with this pile of trash! Also, their game relies on their own ability to be awesome. Whoever wants the prize can have it, but they don’t want it! Meow~ It’s over!”

“Hahahaha the cat-like summary is perfect!”

“Damn, this small studio has some backbone, ah.”

“The real thing is here. Let’s go try The Last Fog 1.0. It’s definitely the most interesting card game I’ve played in recent years!”

“It’s true, the painting style is so beautiful! And the game experience is also very smooth, without any messy advertisements!”

“YWY, my kitty cat treasure studio, ‘The Last Fog’ is really a domestically produced original. Now I’m looking forward to the 2.0 mobile game version!”

“Come quickly! There’s a big melon, the chief planner Will is a King of Drinking Capacity!”

This comment quickly attracted the attention of melon-eating netizens, and they all moved over.

Just now, Pei Yi’s Weibo had uploaded ten minutes of video content, and the accompanying post was unparalleled in its toughness—

Destroy the alien beasts copied and plagiarized.

Seven simple words, not killing without spilling blood.

The video began with a surveillance video from late August last year.

The fairly spacious conference room was packed with people, but soon, the focus of the video zoomed to the conference stage accompanied by clear subtitles.

It was the scene of the meeting during the first bidding in the capital. The video was accelerated, but it didn’t affect the normal viewing and understanding of the netizens at all.

From Lou Yang coming on stage to accuse Ke Ming of plagiarism, to Ke Ming denying it, then to Lou Yang showing evidence and slapping him harshly in the face, and finally Li Yuan’s warning to Ke Ming—

Everything was truthfully announced to the public.

Perhaps even Ke Ming himself had forgotten that GM’s conference room was monitored!

Everyone was born as a human being.

Everything a person said and did would leave a mark on this world!

In addition, the content of the last five minutes involved the contacts and exchanges between the two parties in the recent competition—

““It wasn’t enough for you to copy the modeling at the beginning, but now you have to copy the character settings?”

“What did I copy? Do you have evidence? I’m the one who finished presenting the game settings just now, and you guys are presenting yours in the afternoon. Who is plagiarizing who in terms of timing?”

“I heard that you plan to customize the attack settings of the game? This is indeed a good idea.”

“How can you say it was copied? We are colleagues, let’s learn from each other and make progress together.”

As early as after meeting Ke Ming in Haishi, Pei Yi had been more cautious, and would use his cell phone to record in real time each instance they met.

Therefore, at present, every item listed by YWY had enough evidence to prove that it was the original work of their studio. On the contrary, it was Ke Ming’s shameless behavior and remarks that aroused strong resentment from the public.

“I’m going to vomit! I’ve never seen anyone more disgusting than Ke Ming.”

“Calling plagiarism learning and progress? No wonder Chinese games have had such a hard time getting ahead these years! They were hurt by worms like Ke Ming!”

“Teacher Will is awesome!”

“If you ask me, no one should question Will. What does the number of years in the industry matter? Last year’s ‘Joyful Spirit’ had the great atmosphere of a Chinese horror story! Recently, ‘Traces’ and ‘The Last Fog’ won at the same time! I’m super looking forward to it!”

“Well, Chanming Studios and Destroy the Alien Beasts will be completely blacklisted by me. Asking when The Last Fog will be released. I’m still looking forward to a doomsday escape game with China as the focus!”

“Chanming Studio has been reported to the relevant departments! Looking forward to The Last Fog.”

Pei Yi looked at the increasing number of comments on his computer, then at Li Yuan opposite, and went on to the next step.

“Pear Garden, get ready. At five o’clock tonight, we’ll officially announce that ‘The Last Fog’ is in closed beta testing.”

Li Yuan had just received the real-time data from the online publicity team and had to admire his friend’s marketing methods. “You’ve eaten up this wave of exposure to death.”

As the saying went, contrast creates beauty.

The more problems Chanming Studios and “Alien Beasts” had, the more it would boost the popularity of “The Last Fog.”

It might sound a bit unfair to the former, but business competition was destined to be cruel. After all, it was Ke Ming, who deliberately caused harm behind the scenes, so what was wrong with them taking advantage of the others’ ability and trying to exploit them?

Pei Yi chuckled. “Little Mr. Li, I’m going to trouble you next. From the beginning of the closed beta to the launch of the public beta, all kinds of publicity and marketing methods must continue on.”

“Now that the mobile game version is on the way, there will be a web-based game in the future. “The Last Fog” will be our core project to establish ourselves in the gaming circle.”

Pei Yi had completed the initial review of the work, and now it was time for Li Yuan to give full play to his abilities.

“I know. I won’t take it lightly.”

Li Yuan thought about the studio’s next path, and he had never felt that the future was so smooth and bright.

He looked at his friend who was still browsing the web, and said without thinking, “En. Pei Yi, thank you.”

Pei Yi was taken aback, and looked over. “Thanks for what?”

Li Yuan also felt that his sincere thanks had come a bit unexpectedly, and coughed in embarrassment. “I just feel like my life has changed since I met you.”

Whether it was his career or his new love—

He left behind struggling in the mud and walked onto the right path step by step.

Pei Yi deliberately put on the airs of a boss and joked, “Stop being pretentious here and get to work quickly.”

Li Yuan completely suppressed his sentiment and retorted, “Stop your lecturing, and don’t be lazy. You still need to keep an eye on the copywriting team yourself!”

Saying so, he paused and shared a smile with his friend.

. . . . . . .

Inside a beautifully decorated private box.

Bo Yueming and Pei Yi sat next to each other, and naturally opposite them were Yan Cen and Li Yuan.

Yan Cen pushed up his glasses and spoke first, “Come, let’s take this glass of wine to celebrate the successful start of YWY’s first mobile game. Thank you for your hard work.”

Pei Yi joked back, “It’s not hard work. Anyway, the money invested at this stage still belongs to Mr. Bo and Mr. Yan.”

Bo Yueming laughed helplessly and raised his glass. “Come, ba.”

— Clink.

The wine glasses tapped each other with a pleasant sound, and even the wine swayed with a moving glimmer.

Bo Yueming asked casually, “Has the matter been resolved? Do you need me to send someone to keep an eye on Ke Ming?”

The “keep an eye on” he spoke of was not only regarding his career, but his private life as well.

Someone as arrogant and conceited as Ke Ming had his career ruined after so many years of hard work, and if his emotions got the better of him, he might do something as extreme as Bo Guancheng did.

Pei Yi took a sip of wine and said, “Pear Garden and I asked my brother to send someone, so there shouldn’t be any trouble.”

Li Yuan nodded in agreement. “Ke Ming can’t protect himself now, so he shouldn’t have the energy to ‘harm’ us.”

Yan Cen didn’t speak. He just silently wiped his hands with a wet towel and began to peel the shrimp.

When Bo Yueming saw this, he remained calm on the surface and quickly accelerated the same movements of hand-peeling shrimp.

Pei Yi thought the champagne tasted good today, so he drank several more sips while his lover wasn’t paying attention. “You two probably don’t know yet, right? ‘Alien Beasts’ will likely be removed from the shelves.”

Yan Cen was taken aback. “Removed?”

Bo Yueming had learned the general situation from Lin Zhong not long ago. “Is it because of the game’s publishing rights?”

Pei Yi nodded. “En.”

This matter had come out this afternoon—

“Alien Beasts” had been blocked by the relevant game departments before and was unable to obtain distribution rights because some of its scenes were too bloody.

Later, they contacted Xunya Technology through Nanchan Games, and the latter obtained the game distribution rights through special means and channels.

There had been a lot of fuss over “Alien Beasts” in the past two days, which caused many netizens to go directly to the official website to complain. The truth was exposed over and over again.

“With the current reputation of Chanming Studios, it will be difficult to obtain the distribution rights for ‘Alien Beasts’ once it is removed from the shelves.”

Li Yuan paused, feeling indescribably complicated. “I heard that Ke Ming invested a lot. I’m afraid his studio will go bankrupt this time.”

Competition was destined to be cruel, but it was likely that many employees would suffer from unemployment.

Pei Yi’s eyes brightened when he heard this. “Then quickly ask Brother Xiang to find out if there are any highly skilled employees willing to come to our studio?”

Anyway, their studio would expand sooner or later, and the more excellent talents they had, the better.

Bo Yueming was long accustomed to his lover’s way of doing things, and simply put a pile of peeled shrimp in his bowl. “You can take the opportunity to ask. Water flows to lower places, and people to higher places.”

Li Yuan nodded, his eyes unconsciously focusing on the pile of shrimp meat.

He was a little greedy.

In the next second, Yan Cen put the same shrimp meat into his bowl and coaxed him in a low voice, “You should also eat more.”

Li Yuan’s ears turned red. “En.”

Pei Yi peeked at the small interaction on the opposite side with great interest, and then glanced at the dining table—

The other dishes weren’t touched at all, but the shrimps on the side were all divided up by Bo Yueming and Yan Cen!

Good fellows, where was the competition here?

. . . . . . .

Dinner ended happily, and both parties returned to their respective homes.

The car parked outside the villa.

Pei Yi drank a little too hard that night, and he felt a drunken softness for the first time in a long time.

He was so drunk that he didn’t even think about getting out of the car. Instead, he sat on Bo Yueming’s lap, face to face with him. “Er-ge.”

Bo Yueming signaled for Lao Fu to get out of the car first, then unbuckled his seatbelt and hugged this person tightly. “I wasn’t watching for a moment tonight, and now you’re a drunken kitten again?”

Pei Yi lay his head on his shoulder and groaned. “A little thirsty.”

There was a thermos cup in the back row. Bo Yueming held his lover with one hand and poured him some warm water with the other. “Slow down and have a drink?”

Pei Yi swallowed it all in one gulp and leaned back onto his lover’s shoulder.

Bo Yueming coaxed him, “If you’re sleepy, how about we go upstairs?”

Pei Yi shook his head, feeling that Bo Yueming’s arms were soft against him.

He raised his head to look at his lover’s superior jawline, and smiled infatuatedly. “Er-ge.”

“En?”

“I can’t seem to get enough of you.”

Bo Yueming pinched his earlobe and said, “It would be bad if you got tired of me.”

Pei Yi straightened up slightly and asked in a low voice, “Have I been neglecting you lately?”

Since being criticized by the public due to Ke Ming’s malicious designs on Monday, Pei Yi had been working hard to prepare for his counterattack for the next five or six days.

Bo Yueming kissed his lips. “No, I know you’ve been busy.”

Unlike the already stable Bo Group, Pei Yi’s career was still in its infancy, so he naturally needed to put more thought into it.

Bo Yueming understood him. Joy spread in Pei Yi’s heart.

He took the initiative to kiss his lover’s lips, somewhere between innocent and sultry. “Er-ge, I won’t be working tomorrow or Sunday.”

Bo Yueming was stirred up by the person in his arms. The hands around his waist tightened and he said knowingly, “Is that so?”

“I’ll give you everything.” Pei Yi was ambiguous and clingy. “I’ll give you whatever you want tonight.”

---

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Chapter Eighty-Six <<Table of Contents >> Chapter Eighty-Eight