Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

At the same time, at Tengda Games…

Min Jingchao browsed through the forums as usual, freeloading off the gamers' creativity. He had to admit that the gamers' wisdom was limitless.

Take the idea of the Traveler Bao Xu, for example. Just one glance convinced Min Jingchao that the hero would be excellent. It would have a wide range of skills, a warm image, and—most importantly—it fit Bao Xu's character.

Thus, he accepted the idea on the spot.

However, not many ideas were as good as that. After all, few gamers understood the mechanics of the game and design inside and out. Most designs were problematic to a certain extent.

Now, Min Jingchao was shortlisting ideas from the vast sea of suggestions that gamers were making daily. Whenever he found suitable ideas, he would send them to the design team to be improved on. Then, the development process would be kickstarted.

Min Jingchao kept to a few unspoken rules when shortlisting ideas.

For instance, the designers of the games department were not to participate in this event.

Min Jingchao had designed a couple of heroes himself, but he had not received any compensation. That was because Boss Pei was already paying him enough for doing his job.

What's more, he could earn rewards based on the game's reputation and initial investment. There was no reason for him to be doubly remunerated.

It would be shameful to fight with gamers for a five-percent share of profits.

On top of that, Min Jingchao tried his best to choose hero ideas from different designers. Min Jingchao would only consider accepting two hero ideas from a single designer if a certain hero was obviously much better than the others, and Min Jingchao had to make use of the ideas.

That was because the event was meant for everyone to participate in. The number of heroes GOG could have was limited, as was the amount of money to be distributed.

If one person was rewarded too much, the others would feel less motivated to participate in the event. That would not keep the community healthy.

Of course, one also had to consider if each hero's mechanisms could fit into the overall game mechanism, whether each hero's defining characteristics would be obvious or not and whether they would repeat or clash with the existing heroes in the game or not.

Min Jingchao kept browsing the posts and suddenly spotted a post with a good number of likes. He subconsciously clicked on it and discovered that the idea was purely for the hero's skill mechanism.

The character's first skill was a short-range attack. After using it three times, it could cause enemies to fly back. The second skill was…

"Eh? These game mechanisms look quite interesting."

Min Jingchao thought hard about it. He decided that the hero's characterization was clear, and the mechanisms would be entertaining. The design team would just have to package the skills in the right hero, and it would likely be quite popular.

Yet, the problem was what kind of packaging they should give it.

If the enthusiastic gamer had written more about the hero's brief background story, perhaps they would have had a general direction. However, apart from the fact that he was a part-assassin and part-fighter, Min Jingchao had no other information about this hero.

Min Jingchao accessed the gamer's information, attempting to look for some inspiration.

After all, the idea was coming from this gamer. It would be perfect if the hero's appearance could have some sort of connection with him as well.

"Eh? He has all of Tengda's games? He's a veteran gamer of Tengda.

"Huh? He bought The Lonely Desert Road that early? He's an extremely old customer.

"…"

"Isn't this freaking Boss Pei himself?!"

If Min Jingchao had not looked into it, he would not have known a thing. However, after conducting a brief search, he now knew that this was Boss Pei's personal account! He checked multiple times and confirmed that it was indeed Boss Pei!

After that, Min Jingchao became deeply confused.

If Boss Pei had wanted to create a new hero, he could have just told me, right?

Why did he go to so much trouble and create a post on the forum? What if the gamers didn't appreciate his idea and like his post? Wouldn't the idea have gone to waste?

Could it be that Boss Pei was so confident in his own design that he knew it would stand out even if he posted it among the other gamers' ideas?

Yes, judging from the outcome, that was true. Yet, if that had been the only reason, it still seemed lacking.

Once again, Min Jingchao fell into deep thought. After all, 'thinking more' was a habit that every employee of Tengda needed to cultivate.

Why didn't Boss Pei design the hero's outer appearance? Couldn't he do it? Of course, he could!

That means he had left it out on purpose!

After much thought, Min Jingchao finally came up with two reasons that could explain Boss Pei's actions.

First, Boss Pei had left out the hero's outer appearance to test the abilities of GOG's development team. He had wanted the development team to guess his intentions and supplement his idea with the hero's outer appearance and story background.

Second, Boss Pei was trying to remain impartial. GOG and IOI were competing intensely, and Boss Pei did not want to pick a side. That was probably why he did not offer any guidance to GOG and instead chose this subtle method.

In other words, Boss Pei did not want anyone else to know that he was helping with GOG's design in secret, and so he had to help them sneakily.

This made Min Jingchao's heart feel warm. Indeed, GOG was Boss Pei's own flesh and blood!

Min Jingchao was sure that the five-percent share of profits would not mean anything to Boss Pei. Instead, the title as the designer of a hero would probably mean much more to him.

"I have to hide the fact that Boss Pei had designed the skill mechanisms for this hero and treat it as a design from an ordinary gamer.

"The next question to ask would be what kind of outer appearance we should give this hero. We already have a hero that's based on Boss Pei. Obviously, we have to base this character on someone else.

"Who should it be?

"Boss Pei must have someone in mind, but it was probably inconvenient for him to write it out."

Min Jingchao seriously considered this question and discovered that this hero could be very complimentary to Modest.

That was because Modest's second skill could close lanes and knock enemies back, and this knockback had the effect of launching enemies into the air and moving them away. Theoretically, it could follow up on the new hero's ult.

In other words, Modest could activate his second skill from the back, thereby closing off lanes and knocking key opponents back. Then, the new hero would use his ult.

Modest would maximize the absorption of damage, and both Modest and the new hero would deal as much damage as possible on their enemies.

Yes, they would be the perfect match!

Who was Boss Pei's perfect partner in reality?

Of course, it was Big Boss Ruan Guangjian!

What's more, the new hero's abilities matched Big Boss Ruan Guangjian's characteristics quite well.

The abstract image of an artist would be graceful and elegant. At the same time—while Ruan Guangjian looked ordinary on the surface, he had actually been deeply influenced by art. Every move of his carried the aura of an ancient literary genius.

At that thought, Min Jingchao felt inspired.

The new hero would be called: Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan. Ruan was an ancient Chinese calligrapher and artist, and his weapon would be a huge paintbrush.

His first skill would be violent scribbling with his paintbrush. After three uses, he could summon a raging wind with his scribbling, causing all the opponents on the lane to fly into the air.

His second skill would be rapidly drawing a landscape painting of clouds and mist, which could block enemy projectiles.

His third skill would be wind-riding, which would allow him to pass between enemies.

His ult would be creating illusions. He would create an illusion for all airborne enemies while riding the winds through thousands of miles to get to his target's side. Then, he would suppress and deal damage to the target.

After matching the hero's packaging to his skills, Min Jingchao intently checked everything once through and discovered that everything blended perfectly.

"Could this hero have been custom-made for Big Boss Ruan? Was Boss Pei just embarrassed to make it too obvious?

"Yes, that's very possible. After all, Boss Pei had increased the remuneration of outsourcing companies previously just to take care of Big Boss Ruan's workspace. He had done all that just to make sure that Big Boss Ruan made it through the initial difficulties after moving to Jingzhou.

"Ah, are all friendships between bosses so hidden?"

Min Jingchao could not help but fantasize about Modest and Ruan fighting side-by-side among all the heroes in the future.

Just thinking about it excited him!

At once, Min Jingchao began tidying up all of the requirements for Ruan's concept art. He wanted to send them to Ruan Guangjian as soon as he could.

Since the hero was based on Big Boss Ruan, Big Boss Ruan had to personally design this hero's outer appearance, of course!

Once the Traveler Bao Xu was released, it would be Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan's turn!

Min Jingchao was highly efficient. In less than two hours, he had completed the list of requirements for Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan. He sent the list to Ruan Guangjian immediately.

…

At Halo Workspace, Ruan Guangjian sipped his coffee and continued doing his work.

All of a sudden, the icon for the chat software flashed in the bottom-right corner of his screen. A pop-up window also appeared, displaying a document for download: 'Literary Genius of the Winds, Ruan - List of Requirements.xlsx'

"Eh?"

Ruan Guangjian was stunned. The next hero design was out so soon?

It was just last Thursday or Friday that he had started work on Traveler Bao Xu. Now, there was a new hero already?

Ruan Guangjian accepted the download, opened it, and became even more shocked.

The hero's surname was Ruan, and he enjoyed calligraphy and painting…

He began to suspect if the hero was based on him, but then he wrote off the thought for fear that he was being too narcissistic.

At that moment, Min Jingchao sent him a message.

"Big Boss Ruan, that's right. Boss Pei designed this hero based on you. I just added a few more details. However, Boss Pei seems to want to keep this low-profile. He doesn't want anyone to know that he was behind it. Don't make it too obvious; just take note of it in your heart."

Ruan Guangjian was speechless.

I just bumped into Boss Pei when I went to collect coffee earlier. In other words, just then, Boss Pei had already designed a hero based on me?

Yet, Boss Pei had not mentioned it at all at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe…

Hmm, that fits Boss Pei's restrained personality well.

Back when Halo Workspace moved to Jingzhou, Boss Pei had also appeared cool on the outside when he was actually warm on the inside.

He had not said much, but he had secretly increased the remuneration for outsourcing companies, thereby helping Halo Workspace to overcome its difficulties.

This time, he was being even more reserved. Without a single word, he had created a unique hero for the game based on me.

Instinctively, Ruan Guangjian's mouth spread into a grin. He replied, "Don't worry. I'll make the concept art look very impressive!"

Min Jingchao said, "Well, for its first skin, design a combined event with Modest. It's in both of the heroes' background stories that they're good friends, alright?"

Ruan Guangjian smiled knowingly. "Of course. I couldn't ask for anything more."