Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 80
It was Monday night in the blink of an eye.
In the Game Director's office of Golden Wind Game Company, Gu Sheng sat with a game controller in hand, fully immersed in his game.
Technically, the company’s official closing time was 5 p.m.
But Gu Sheng always preferred to stay in the office until seven or eight.
Not that he was working—he just liked hanging around: scrolling on his phone, brewing tea and watching videos, or like today, plugging in a controller for a couple rounds of Vampire Survivors.
After all, he had no family to go home to—just himself.
Better to spend some extra time in the office than to stare blankly at an empty house.
At least in the office, staying late alone didn’t feel so strange.
Shing! Shing!
With a swipe of the Reaper’s scythe slicing through the on-screen skeletons, Gu Sheng finally set down his controller.
He glanced at his Mickey Mouse wristwatch—almost 8 p.m.
“Alright, time to head home.”
Muttering to himself, Gu Sheng packed up his controller and walked out of the office.
But as soon as he stepped out—
“Holy sh*t, I’m seeing things... Did I just see the gates of hell?”
He stared in shock.
At the end of the hallway, the meeting room was glowing.
You had to understand—Golden Wind’s meeting room was basically just for show. They used it maybe once every two or three months, tops.
Honestly, Little Nezha had probably used it more as a private movie theater than for actual meetings.
So normally, the meeting room lights were off, and the room was left empty.
But tonight—nearly 8 p.m.—the lights were on?
And the craziest part—the lights were red?
Under the dim glow of the evening, the deserted hallway leading to a red-lit meeting room...
Gulp.
Even Gu Sheng, fearless as he was, swallowed nervously.
Considering the Qingming Festival had just passed a week ago, he couldn’t help but wonder:
“What the hell is this... A seventh-day memorial service?”
Steeling himself, he tiptoed toward the red-lit meeting room and cracked the door open a sliver to peek inside.
There, on the meeting table, sat an iPad.
Two electric red candles flanked it, and in front of the iPad was a disposable paper cup with three thin incense sticks stuck in it.
Bathed in the eerie red light, Shen Miaomiao stood before the iPad, hands clasped together, mumbling as if reciting an incantation.
For a moment, Gu Sheng was completely lost.
But just as he was deciding whether to leave quietly or step in and ask, Shen Miaomiao finished her muttering, bowed three times to the iPad, and then opened her eyes.
Their eyes met.
For a split second, time froze.
“AAAAHHHH—!!!”
Like a cat with its tail stepped on, Shen Miaomiao let out a scream and practically jumped out of her skin:
“Gu Sheng, what the hell?! You scared me to death!”
“Me? Scaring you?”
Gu Sheng could hardly believe his ears. He pushed the door open, switched to the front camera on his phone, and pointed the screen at Shen Miaomiao:
“Come, let me show you a treasure—”
“Oh my God!”
Shen Miaomiao recoiled in horror, stumbling back onto the couch with a thud, staring at the phone screen in terror.
“G-Ghost!”
“That’s f**king you.”
Gu Sheng, exasperated, turned on the meeting room lights.
He glanced at the makeshift incense setup and then at Shen Miaomiao, who was still clutching her chest and trying to catch her breath.
“So... are you, like, summoning spirits or what?”
“Watch your mouth! What are you saying?!”
Shen Miaomiao scowled, hands on hips, and pointed at the iPad on the table.
“That’s the God of Wealth! Don’t joke around!”
Gu Sheng turned to look—
Sure enough, the iPad displayed an image of Guan Yu, the God of Wealth.
“...Wow.”
Gu Sheng fell silent for a moment before muttering:
“That’s one hell of a cyber way to burn incense.”
“Well... we’re working with what we’ve got,”
Shen Miaomiao scratched her head, looking a bit awkward.
“The main thing is sincerity, right?”
“I’ll make an offering too, then.”
Seeing her sheepish expression, Gu Sheng couldn’t help but chuckle. He stepped up to the digital Guan Yu, clasped his hands, and said:
“Dear God of Wealth, bless Golden Wind with lots of money and massive sales for every game—”
“Hey hey HEY—shut up!”
Shen Miaomiao’s scalp tingled. She lunged forward and yanked Gu Sheng away, quickly locking the iPad screen with a click.
Couldn’t believe the stuff coming out of his mouth!
Shen Miaomiao glared at him, nose scrunched, looking furious.
How could he say something so unlucky?!
Gu Sheng was speechless.
“You just locked the God of Wealth into your tablet...?”
“Because this is my God of Wealth!”
Shen Miaomiao clutched the tablet tightly, guarding it as if Gu Sheng would make more bad wishes.
“You can’t use my God of Wealth for your own prayers!”
“...Alright, alright, it’s your God of Wealth.”
Gu Sheng surrendered with a laugh, raising his hands in defeat.
“Can I at least ask why you’re praying to Guan Yu in the office this late? When I stepped out of my office, I thought I was seeing a seventh-day memorial service or something.”
“It’s because the first-week sales numbers for Left 4 Dead are about to come out!”
Shen Miaomiao lifted her chin.
“I was asking for the God of Wealth’s blessing. What’s wrong with that?”
“Ah... there’s no need to trouble Guan Yu with that.”
Gu Sheng shrugged.
“Our current sales are already leading the pack. Profits are basically guaranteed. What’s there to worry about?”
He wasn’t wrong.
From a business and market perspective, Left 4 Dead was a surefire success at this point.
Among all the FPS titles released in the same window, the strongest contender was Fearless Sniper from Guangyao Games.
But with the launch of their Workshop, they’d already crushed Fearless Sniper, despite Guangyao’s relentless attempts to blockade them.
In short, there was no more competition for them in the domestic FPS scene.
That’s why most of the team hadn’t been too concerned about the first-week numbers—they’d all clocked out on time.
But Shen Miaomiao, as always, had a different perspective.
“You guys are thinking too small!”
Hands on hips, Little Nezha declared righteously:
“What I care about is whether we can break even in the first week!”
In a way, she wasn’t wrong.
After all, with her Hundredfold Rebate Card in hand, for every yuan the company lost, her personal account would gain a hundred yuan.
So she was praying to Guan Yu to lose money—even a tiny loss of 10,000 yuan would net her a million!
But in Gu Sheng’s eyes, her image suddenly became radiant, almost holy.
“Damn—”
Gu Sheng sucked in a sharp breath.
No wonder she came from an aristocratic family!
While the rest of them were satisfied with Left 4 Dead’s current performance, Shen Miaomiao was dreaming of breaking even in the first week!
Look at that vision! That ambition! That mindset!
High! Sharp! Absolutely top-tier!
Gu Sheng felt luckier than ever to be part of Golden Wind—
Here, they had the budget to make the games they wanted, they could upgrade classics, the work environment was great, the pay was good, and the boss didn’t even set hard KPIs.
Any expectations were left to chance and superstitions, like burning incense to a digital God of Wealth.
Where else could you find a workplace like this?!
Even if he started his own company, there was no way he could match President Shen’s kindness and vision.
What a great boss...
Just as he was lost in thought, Shen Miaomiao cautiously asked:
“Old Gu... do you think our game can break even in the first week?”
“Hm—”
Gu Sheng straightened up, thought for a moment, and said seriously:
“If it weren’t for Fearless Sniper messing things up, breaking even in the first week wouldn’t be hard.”
“But their launch promotions and the post-release pressure definitely affected our numbers.”
“Still, don’t worry. Even if we don’t quite break even, we’ll probably be close.”
His analysis left Shen Miaomiao both excited and anxious.
Gu Sheng had a solid track record when it came to market predictions.
If he said it was hard to break even, it probably wasn’t going to happen...
But he also said almost, so how much was almost?
Please don’t let it be like the time with Vampire Survivors, when they lost just a couple of bucks, and she ended up with a hundred-yuan rebate...
If the final numbers showed they lost exactly one yuan, netting her a hundred in rebate, she might just jump out the window in frustration!
Just then—
Beep beep beep—beep beep beep—
Shen Miaomiao’s alarm went off!
Gu Sheng glanced at his Mickey watch: “One minute left. Let’s check it together?”
“Mm!”
Shen Miaomiao took a deep breath and nodded vigorously.
The two of them turned toward the projector screen, displaying the YiYou Platform’s developer backend page.
Ten, nine, eight, seven...
Shen Miaomiao swallowed nervously, heart racing, eyes squeezed shut:
“Old Gu, you read the numbers for me.”
“Okay.”
Gu Sheng nodded, counting down softly:
“Three, two, one...”
Click!
The page refreshed on the dot!
Staring at the final first-week sales summary, Gu Sheng pursed his lips and reported in a low voice:
“Left 4 Dead production cost: 10.85 million yuan, unit price: 85 yuan per copy.”
“First-week total sales: 158,088 copies, gross revenue: 13.43748 million yuan, after cuts, net profit: 10.75 million yuan.”
“...Unfortunately, just 100,000 short of breaking even.”
Silence filled the meeting room for a solid five seconds.
Then—
Shen Miaomiao’s trembling voice rang out:
“...Wait, how much did you say?”
“10.75 million.”
“No, the last part.”
“I said—unfortunately, just 100,000 short of breaking even. If it weren’t for those bastards at Guangyao getting in the way, we would’ve broken even this week...”
Gu Sheng’s voice faded into the background.
Shen Miaomiao opened one eye just a crack and peeked at the screen.
The first-week numbers matched exactly what Gu Sheng reported.
A second later—
She heard a crisp chime in her head:
[Ding! Time’s up! Investment cycle complete!]
[Ding! Project loss detected!]
[Project: Left 4 Dead]
[Total Investment: 10.85 million yuan]
[Loss: 100,000 yuan]
[Ding! Super Rebate Card Activated! 100x Rebate Applied!]
[Rebate Amount: 10 million yuan]
[Settlement complete. Rebate transferred to personal bank account.]
Her phone buzzed.
Bzzz bzzz—
[Your account ending in 1118 received a transfer of 10,000,016.00 yuan on April 15 via mobile banking...]
Ten. Million. Yuan.
Hot. Damn.
Shen Miaomiao felt her brain short-circuit for a moment, double-checking the deposit amount twice.
Meanwhile, Gu Sheng kept analyzing the numbers aloud, oblivious:
“Not bad, really. Even though we didn’t hit break-even in the first week, the total investment is what it is... The bigger the project, the longer the profit cycle. Plus, Guangyao’s constant interference in our marketing limited our reach, so we had to rely entirely on word of mouth from players...”
“In the future, we should focus more on...”
“Old Gu!!!”
Before he could finish, Shen Miaomiao’s voice burst out, brimming with barely restrained excitement!
“Huh?”
Gu Sheng didn’t turn around, still staring at the screen, and replied absentmindedly:
“What’s up?”
“This sales result is... so exciting!”
Behind him, Shen Miaomiao tucked her phone away, her big, sparkling eyes fixed on Gu Sheng, her mouth curling up into an uncontrollable smile.
“Yeah, it’s exciting,” Gu Sheng answered absentmindedly, his mind still on the numbers.
“Really exciting?”
Shen Miaomiao nodded enthusiastically.
“Really exciting!”
“Oh? How exciting?” Gu Sheng asked, not wanting to let the conversation drop.
Shen Miaomiao took a couple of steps back, bent her knees slightly, and sprang forward like a cat pouncing!
“THIS exciting! Hahaha—!!!”
She tackled him, laughing, her excitement overflowing.
Ten million yuan! Ten million!
Since getting the system, it had been almost a year, and the most she’d ever received in rebate was a measly fifty yuan.
So how could she not be excited after getting ten million all at once?!
“Whoa, holy sh*t!”
Gu Sheng felt a peach-sweet scent rush past him, and two slender arms wrapped tightly around his neck!
When he finally steadied himself, he realized Shen Miaomiao was practically hanging off him.
“What the hell?! Why are you riding me when you’re excited?!”
“This is called a triumphant gallop! Play along!”
Shen Miaomiao patted his shoulder.
“Forget it, you wouldn’t understand. Giddyup!”
“Isn’t this, like, workplace harassment or something?”
Gu Sheng protested.
“Harassment my a**!” Shen Miaomiao retorted.
“I weigh less than ninety pounds, not ninety kilos!”
“But I’m a director, you know? A respected professional. What if someone sees us? The impact—”
“I’ll treat you to dinner, order whatever you want.”
“...Fine, but only to the lobby!”
“Can I request a song?”
“Now you’re pushing it, Shen Miaomiao. What kind of ride talks back? I’m not some kiddie ride at the mall!”
“With a fancy iced drink on the side!”
“Call me grandpa while you’re at it...”
“Ahahahaha!”
They were still bickering when Gu Sheng’s phone rang.
Amid Shen Miaomiao’s excited giggles, Gu Sheng answered:
“Hello, this is Gu Sheng.”
A man’s voice came through the line:
“Hello, Mr. Gu, sorry to bother you. I’m calling today—”
“Not interested, thanks.”
Gu Sheng, recognizing a sales call, politely cut him off.
He pushed open the door and left the meeting room, Shen Miaomiao bouncing along behind him...