After Playing the Fool and Marrying the Blind Villain [Transmigration] - Chap 80
In order to enhance the communication and learning between game producers, the organizers specially held a three-hour free exchange meeting in the afternoon.
The venue was arranged on the 16th floor of the hotel, and the organizers had arranged the venue very carefully—
In addition to the major games on the market that were played in turn on the main stage, the logos and past representative works of each game studio were played on different small platforms.
After entering the hall, Pei Yi and Li Yuan looked around and walked to the small platform representing their own studio.
YWY’s logo was cute among all the cool ones, and their Last Fog mini-game was playing on the small screen. Compared with other studios present, they immediately gave off a sense of “cute and new.”
Li Yuan took a photo to send back to the group in the studio. Then he joked to his friend, “What can be done, Teacher Will? Our family doesn’t have enough to look at.”
Pei Yi chuckled. “Sooner or later, people will be unable not to look at it.”
Li Yuan agreed, “Yes.”
Pei Yi looked around. His voice through the mask seemed a little muffled. “Have you seen Ke Ming?”
“……No.”
Li Yuan carefully identified the guests in the audience, then gestured with his eyes in a particular direction. “He’s not there on the Chanming Studios platform, so he’s probably not here yet.”
Hearing this, Pei Yi pulled his mask down. He already understood thoroughly—
Of the game producers currently participating in the game design competition, only Ke Ming knew his true identity when he was at GM.
Pei Yi never thought his relationship with the Bo family could be hidden so thoroughly, but it was nice that fewer people heard about or looked into it.
Li Yuan patted him on the shoulder. “Will.”
“En?”
“There’s a friend I knew before.”
Li Yuan pointed to a man in a black windbreaker, and explained in a low voice: “He was my classmate after I changed my major in university. I’ll go say hello to him, are you coming?”
Pei Yi shook his head, but didn’t hinder Li Yuan’s normal social interaction. “You go first, I’ll take a look around.”
“Okay.”
Li Yuan stepped away, and Pei Yi’s eyes swung around again—
Before lingering on the wine tower in the corner.
Tempted by the seductive smell of red wine, Pei Yi quickly walked over.
He remembered Bo Yueming’s previous exhortations, and picked up the cell phone, snapping a picture to send to his lover. “Er-ge, do you think this wine is calling out to me?”
Bo Yueming’s message came back quickly, “Did you respond to it?”
Pei Yi’s face was tinged with a smile. “I’m waiting for your go-ahead.”
Bo Yueming replied, “Drink, but be careful not to overdo it. You know how much you can drink.”
Pei Yi forcefully typed out the word “En.”
Before and after they were in a relationship, Bo Yueming took the whole wine wall to accompany him in practicing his drinking capacity. Although he still failed to return to the ultimate goal of “King of Drinking Capacity,” he had at least made some progress and would not get drunk after one drink.
Having received the long-distance permission from his lover in the Imperial Capital, he impatiently picked up a glass of red wine, swirled it, and sniffed it.
Before he could take off his mask and formally take a sip, there was the slight sound of footsteps behind him.
“Hello.”
Hearing this greeting, Pei Yi turned around and looked over. The moment their eyes met, he recognized this person—
It was the man in the suit who had accidentally bumped into him before signing in that morning. He seemed to be the representative of the producer sent by Nebula Fun Tour to participate in the competition.
Pei Yi observed silently for two or three seconds, then nodded slightly. “Hello.”
The man in the suit looked at Pei Yi searchingly, and then asked hesitantly, “Is this Teacher Will? I’m the representative of Nebula Fun Tour.”
Hearing his gentle and polite tone of voice, Pei Yi suddenly thought of a possibility. “Team Leader Gu?”
The other party nodded at once. “Yes, I’m Gu Jianshen.”
Nebula Fun Tour was a subsidiary of China’s top game production company Weiyi, and the other party was the team leader of the copyright group Nebula Fun Tour.
Gu Jianshen had taken a fancy to Pei Yi’s “Tracking Pros and Cons,” and the two spoke in a friendly manner online, even once the copyright transaction was completed—
Gu Jianshen had also offered an olive branch to Pei Yi on behalf of his game headquarters, but was rejected by the latter.
Pei Yi removed his mask out of politeness, and stretched out his hand. “Hello, Team Leader Gu. I’m Will.”
Gu Jianshen stared at Pei Yi’s face, a little surprised.
Pei Yi noticed his expression and said straightforwardly, “What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”
“N-No.”
Afraid of causing a misunderstanding, Gu Jianshen quickly explained, “I just thought you didn’t want to show your face, Teacher Will, and I didn’t expect you to be so young.”
Pei Yi accepted his compliment with a smile, and put the mask back on. “Team Leader Gu, let’s talk?”
He naturally had his own set of standards for judging people—
When they first cooperated online, the communication between the two was very pleasant.
Now that he had met the real person, Pei felt that the other party was not the kind to have ulterior motives, so he was naturally willing to give him the courtesy that was due upon meeting.
Gu Jianshen had come to find him with this idea in mind. “Of course. How about we go to the lounge? There are so many people here. Since Teacher Will is wearing a mask, shouldn’t he want to be seen by fewer people?”
Pei Yi enjoyed dealing with smart and sensible people. “Sounds good.”
The two found a lounge next to the exchange hall and sat down.
Gu Jianshen was the first to open the topic. “I didn’t expect to meet Teacher Will here. I thought that when you said, ‘I prefer to be my own boss and make my own money,’ it was just an excuse to decline. I didn’t expect it to be true.”
Pei Yi raised his eyebrows. “Of course it’s true. I’ve always been serious about my career.”
He took a sip of red wine and smiled back. “I didn’t expect to meet Team Leader Gu here, and to see you bring Tracking Pros and Cons to the competition.”
After all, Nebula Fun Tour was backed by a top company like Weiyi. Once the game was launched, it would have its own various channels for exposure. Where did it need the extra blessing of winning a title in this competition?
Gu Jianshen didn’t deny it. “Whether or not we can win the award in the end or gain popularity, this is not what we value most.”
Of course, if an award could be won in the end, it would be the icing on the cake.
Gu Jianshen looked at Pei Yi, not hiding anything. “Actually, I have another important thing to do right now, which is to find suitable game projects for our company headquarters.”
The current Gu Jianshen was not only the head of the copyright team for Nebula Fun Tour, but he had also been promoted to be the copyright manager of Weiyi.
These past two years, the production levels and competition had become more and more fierce. It must be known that there were only three awards, and this didn’t mean that the games which lost in the end weren’t any good.
What he had to do was find high-quality game projects for his company, invest in them, or simply buy them out.
Pei Yi nodded in understanding.
Gu Jianshen said sincerely, “Teacher Will, I am very interested in the concept of The Last Fog 2.0”
A while ago, the operation of the 1.0 mini-game version of The Last Fog was developing well, and at first glance, the settings were aimed at a follow-up 2.0 or even 3.0 large-scale game.
As long as it was well-produced and properly promoted, it had the potential to become a hit game in the future.
Pei Yi heard his implication and replied simply, “Thank you for the compliment, Team Leader Gu.”
When a wise man spoke, he knew where to stop.
Seeing Will’s attitude, Gu Jianshen understood the unspoken answer.
If it were someone else or a different game, he would have tried to offer an olive branch, but facing the person in front of him, he could only dispel the thoughts deep in his heart.
Although the two parties hadn’t been in contact long, Gu Jianshen could roughly sense the other party’s career ambitions—
Will had his own business plan, which was to first use his original mini-games as a framework to attract a powerful Party A in the circle.
In fact, through the influence of Party A after the game’s production and release, he would make a name for himself as an original architect.
Then he would use a step by step game layout to climb steadily upward.
Right now, Will was holding a mature, well-formed game with no shortage of investment, so there was no need for big companies like them to step in and take away his business.
Gu Jianshen had to admire Will’s planning ability, and also looked forward to seeing where the other party would go in the end.
He raised his glass and said: “Then I wish The Last Fog a good ranking in the competition.”
Pei Yi gave a light chuckle, then spoke one of the doubts stuck in his heart, “Team Leader Gu, I happen to have something I want to confirm with you.”
“Please speak.”
“You must know better than me in Haishi who the behind-the-scenes people are amongst the competition organizers, or who the investors are.”
Gu Jianshen hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, then said truthfully, “Except for the relevant departments that handle things, the composition of the organizers is different every year.”
“This year alone, the Youtu forum, Xunya Technology, and our Weiyi have all put forth funds.”
“……..”
Hearing these well-known companies in the industry, Pei Yi suddenly understood.
No wonder Gu Jainshen’s Nebula Fun Tour was so near the front in the opening ceremony that morning. It seemed that the behind-the-scenes organizers gave their own people some pageantry.
Then what about Ke Ming and Chanming Studios?
Could they also indirectly rely on Nanchan’s game production, or could it even be Xunya Technology behind the other party?
Gu Jianshen noticed his silence and explained, “Will, don’t worry, neither Weiyi nor Nebula Fun Tour is the kind of company that wins by going through the back door.”
Weiyi and Xunya Technology had been fighting openly and secretly for many years.
This time, Weiyi’s headquarters heard that the other party had suddenly changed their ways and joined the investment competition, so they followed suit and asked Gu Jianshen to bring their own project to the competition.
“As I said just now, even if you don’t win any prizes in this competition, it won’t have a substantial impact on the popularity of the “Traces” game in the future. Besides—”
Their eyes met.
Gu Jianshen asked confidently and rhetorically, “DoesTeacher Will believe that with your game structure, coupled with the hard capability of our games, it’s not enough to make “Traces” stand out among the many participating games?”
If it couldn’t take a ranking, there would still be various exposure channels after the game was released.
But if they could get a ranking, it would be deserved, and they wouldn’t break any of the rules of the competition.
Pei Yi liked to deal with straightforward game makers like Gu Jianshen, so he raised his glass and said, “Team Leader Gu, don’t get me wrong, of course I don’t doubt the game ‘Traces’ or you.”
Who he suspected was somebody else.
Gu Jianshen was honest and true when dealing with people, but this didn’t mean that other people, studios, and companies were like this.
Gu Jianshen touched his wine glass lightly. “Of course, I also believe that Teacher Will is a person with game ideals and aspirations. Although it may sound too government-oriented—”
“The original intention of us game makers is to make Chinese games better and better right?”
Hearing these remarks, Pei Yi’s estimation of Gu Jianshen rose another level. “If Team Leader Gu hadn’t been promoted to Weiyi’s headquarters, I would rather lure you to our studio.”
“Then thank you, Teacher Will, for your approval.” Gu Jianshen returned his smile. “Right, as I said online before, if you have the opportunity to travel to Haishi, I will treat you to dinner.”
Pei Yi didn’t refuse. “Let’s wait until the competition is over. Tomorrow and the next two days, we have to split up and prepare for the game presentations.”
Gu Jianshen nodded. “Of course, business is the most important thing.”
. . . . . . .
When Pei Yi returned to the banquet hall wearing a mask, Li Yuan was looking for him everywhere.
As soon as they exchanged looks, Li Yuan rushed over. “Where did you go? I sent you a WeChat message, but you didn’t reply.”
“Sorry, the phone was on silent in my pocket and I didn’t hear it.”
Pei Yi put the remaining half glass of wine on the recycling rack and explained, “I met with Nebula Fun Tour just now, the person in charge of Weiyi’s copyright department. We chatted briefly for a while.”
Li Yuan returned to his senses. “Nebula Fun Tour? Is that the person we met at registration this morning?”
“En, I sold the copyright of ‘Pros and Cons’ through the Youtu platform before and connected with him.”
While speaking, Pei Yi looked around again. “Where’s Ke Ming? He’s still not here?”
Li Yuan said, “No, he still hasn’t shown up. From what I know about him, I’d guess that now that he has a better backer, he’s not bothering with this kind of exchange.”
Pei Yi nodded slightly. He actually didn’t want to see Ke Ming.
“Pear Garden, do you want to stay here?”
He had drank half a glass of wine, and was feeling a little stuffy now that he was wearing a mask again.
“No, let’s go back to the suite upstairs. I happened to inquire about something with my university classmate, so I’ll tell you behind closed doors.”
“Okay.”
. . . . . . . .
The two entered the elevator.
Li Yuan had quickly found out some useful information. “Pei Yi, do you know which game and producer are the most popular to win in this Haishi competition?”
Pei Yi thought for a moment. “Apart from Nebula Fun Tour’s ‘Traces,’ which is backed by their main branch, what else is there?”
Li Yuan didn’t play charades either. “‘Gazing at the Dark Blue Sea,’ from Mufeng Games. The core person in charge is Deng Mufeng.”
Pei Yi’s eyes shifted slightly. “An ancient-style game in this competition?”
“En, ancient martial arts.”
Li Yuan continued to tell what he knew. “I just checked, and there is a prototype novel for ‘Dark Blue Sea.’ The author is Deng Mufeng’s wife.”
The length of this novel was very long. It had been continuously updated for two years, and there were millions of readers who read and subscribed to it.
Three years ago, the original author deliberately left several undisclosed foreshadowings, and claimed that the novel would be changed into a game of the same name, with new settings added.
Although it caused dissatisfaction among some serial readers, it could be regarded as a disguised way to promote game advertisement.
“Besides his wife being amazing, I know that Deng Mufeng himself is also very capable.”
In the past ten years, he had served as the chief game planner for the large-scale ancient game “Soul Cage War.”
This game became popular as soon as it was launched, and still ranked among the top three ancient martial arts games in China.
Deng Mufeng only took the position of chief game planner before its release. Later, it was said that he chose to quit due to internal struggles and disappeared for nearly ten years.
Therefore, the young people in the current circle didn’t know much about him.
The current Mufeng Games was a production company funded and founded by Deng Mufeng himself.
Li Yuan said, “I heard that this game has been tested internally, and the response was very good. The public beta will be released soon.”
Pei Yi nodded. “The ancient game style is very easy to fail in the early stages, but if it is done well, it is easy to stand out in the circle.”
“I say, Teacher Will, are you aware of the seriousness of the problem?” Li Yuan followed him out of the elevator, taking advantage of the lack of people around to reveal his worries—
“Traces and Dark Blue Sea are both favorites to win awards, so don’t we have to fight for the remaining one? Coupled with the unclear situation with Ke Ming, I’m afraid the result won’t be as smooth as we imagined.”
Pei Yi didn’t understand his friend’s concerns. Now that it had come to this point, rather than being afraid of the competition, it was better to face them head-on.
Pei Yi took the computer out of his suitcase and smiled comfortingly. “Okay, let me check the presentation and promotional materials for the game tomorrow, so that there aren’t any mistakes.”
“All right.”
Li Yuan was helpless and impressed. “I really admire your calm attitude.”
. . . . . . .
The screening of the original game design competition was divided into three rounds, and the content judged in each round was different. The first round was divided into two rounds: morning and afternoon—
There would be ten games in a large group, and five players would be eliminated in each game.
Pei Yi and Li Yuan were assigned to the sixth spot in the afternoon group, but in order to test the overall strength of the other game producers, the two chose to watch the morning games.
“Traces” and “Dark Blue Sea,” which were considered the most likely to win awards, were both held in the morning, and judging from the content of the project released by Gu Jianshen and Deng Mufeng, along with the prepared presentation—
It was a certainty that these two primary screenings would leave the rest behind!
Soon, it was the last one’s turn for the morning session: Chanming Studios: “Destroy the Alien Beasts.”
Li Yuan looked at Ke Ming, who was standing confidently on stage. “Look, the big guy has made his debut on stage. His nostrils are almost raised toward the sky, isn’t he afraid of falling while walking?”
Pei Yi smiled: “Let’s watch first.”
They would see what kind of story “Destroy the Alien Beasts” was now. Was there any trace of the plagiarism in the past?
Pei Yi had an intuition that Ken Ming still had that sort of tendency, but he really didn’t expect the other party’s behavior to be worse than that.
It took less than ten minutes after Ke Ming took the stage.
A thin layer of red anger emerged on Li Yuan’s face, and he couldn’t help but curse. “Fuck, a dog can’t change its tendency to eat shit!”
It was still the main story of the game during the bidding in the capital, and even the settings and functions of “Alien Beasts” hadn’t changed drastically!
It was only the appearance that had changed, and it was said that an overseas special effects modeling and design team had been hired at a high price.
But the core change was in the game character design—
“Destroy the Alien Beasts” had been upgraded from the original single protagonist to a five-player team line, and each game character had different attributes and abilities.
The most particular thing was that one of the “protagonists” was a mutant wolf beast.
Others present may not be aware, but how could Pei Yi and Li Yuan, the creators of The Last Fog, not know?
It was similar to the core protagonist group in The Last Fog, as well as the most important “human zombie” who had lost his memory!
This was naked plagiarism!
. . . . . . .
The morning session came to an end, and everyone left the venue one after another.
Unable to bear it, Li Yuan walked up to Ke Ming and blocked the way of the other party and his assistant, asking bluntly, “Ke Ming, what do you mean by this?”
Facing his long-unseen anger, Ke Ming let out an amused chuckle.
He motioned for his assistant to step out first, staying alone to face Pei Yi and Li Yuan. “What does Mr. Li mean by that?”
Li Yuan was afraid his friend might reveal his identity, so he directly asked the questions instead. “It wasn’t enough for you to copy the modeling at the beginning, but now you have to copy the character settings?”
Ke Ming categorically denied it. “Mr. Li, don’t be so angry. My main focus of this game is modeling, graphics, and game experience, not like those story games with empty fanfare.”
“What did I copy? Do you have evidence? If you have evidence, you can report it to the organizers.”
Ke Ming’s skin was thicker than a city wall, and he even bit back, “I’m the one who finished presenting the game settings just now, and you guys can present yours in the afternoon. Who is plagiarizing who in terms of timing?”
Plagiarism?
It also depended on whether the official recognized it or not.
Among the investors of the competition was Xunya Technology, and some backdoor channels had already been arranged!
In this world, the winner was king, and a small, little-known studio like YWY wasn’t destined to compete with them from the beginning!
“. . . . . .”
The thief had shamelessly shouted, stop, thief!
Li Yuan’s fists were clenched, and he wanted to punch him.
Ke Ming warned, “Mr. Li, there is surveillance here. What do you intend to do?”
Pei Yi saw the malice and taunting in Ke Ming’s eyes, and pulled his furious friend back. “Pear Garden, don’t bother with this dog. Let’s go.”
Ke Ming’s complexion instantly changed. “Who are you scolding?”
Pei Yi looked at him coldly. “The dog can hear who I’m scolding.”
Ke Ming choked. He hadn’t expected to fall into this new curse.
It was a pity that Pei Yi couldn’t be bothered to give him another look, and pulled Li Yuan to walk out quickly.
The two of them came to an empty security access passage.
Li Yuan was still suffocating. “Pei Yi, why did you pull me away like that? He clearly wanted to embarrass us on purpose.”
“Of course I know that. But Pear Garden, think about it. If there really is something shady about the competition, then what is the use of us getting angry?”
Could they rush up to beat Ke Ming?
He would likely turn it around on them due to malicious harm, and their names would be stained for no reason.
“…….”
Li Yuan took out a cigarette, pressed it to the tip of his nose, and sniffed it to calm down. “I-I understand what you mean, but I can’t not get angry!”
He couldn’t just watch Ke Ming steal their hard work!
Pei Yi patted his friend on the shoulder. “Believe me, I won’t just let him go. But right now is not the best time to fight back.”
Li Yuan heard something in his friend’s words. “What are you going to do?”
Pei Yi recalled Ke Ming’s past. The coldness in his eyes became firmer, and he asked, “Li Yuan, under what circumstances do you think a game will lose all its money?”
Li Yuan understood, and his eyes shifted.
Pei Yi nodded silently, and the plan he had in mind gradually took shape—
He wanted to make Ke Ming lose all his money and never have a chance to turn his life around!
