Chapter 52

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

As Qiu Bin slowly calmed down, he was surprised at what he had posted on his Weibo.

“I was being too impulsive. What’s wrong with me today? Why couldn’t I just keep it in?”

Qiu Bin’s regret was settling in, but what was done had been done. Promises were made, Weibos were posted. There were tens of thousands of fans as witnesses, so it was too late to take it back.

The news would probably be written into articles and posted by various video game media companies. When the time came, the whole video game industry might have their eyes on this incident, and it might gain even more traction after that.

“Geez, that wasn’t smart!” Qiu Bin had never been the hot-headed type. If he was still full of zeal at thirty-something, why would he make a game like Guardian of the Holy Spring?

He knew better than anyone else that his game took inspiration from Plants vs Zombies in many ways. If he had been thinking clearly from the start to end, he wouldn’t have responded to Chen Mo.

The main problem was that if this incident did gain traction, even though Chen Mo did have a stake in this matter, he was benefiting from this no matter what!

It was a similar situation between Chen Mo and Shi Huazhe, bringing a lot of attention to Plants vs Zombies. The fight this time was much fiercer than the last, it was practically promoting Chen Mo’s next game!

Qiu Bin had always been timid and cautious, so this matter caused him some distress.

-Why was Chen Mo so confident? Was he that certain?-

Out of nowhere, Qiu Bin’s mobile phone rang. It was from Lin Chaoxu, the Chairman of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment!

Qiu Bin was shocked; how did this matter reach his boss so quickly?!

Qiu Bin carefully picked up his phone. “Hello. Mr. Lin. About the bet between me and Chen Mo, I…”

Qiu Bin wanted to explain himself, but Lin Chaoxu interrupted him in the middle of his sentence. “You did well on that,” said Lin Chaoxu.

Qiu Bin was shocked, “Sorry?”

Lin Chaoxu laughed, “This Chen Mo guy planned this quite extensively. I don’t think it was because he was trying to prove something, but he was trying to borrow some of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s fame to promote his own game. However, won’t an argument like this promote Guardian of the Holy Spring, too?

“Make your game as good as possible before April, add some more features if you can! Emperor Dynasty Entertainment will promote your game when the time comes!

“Your response to Chen Mo was very firm, not dropping any of the company’s face. I was actually quite worried that you wouldn’t respond, because you are usually quite meek. Remember, only we, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, bully others. Nobody ever bullies us! If anyone isn’t happy, we will destroy them!”

His speech had gotten Qiu Bin’s heart racing, and he replied, “Understood, Mr Lin!”

Lin Chaoxu replied, “Mm, give it your all. Don’t worry about the aftermath. You’re a part of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, and we never lose. Understood?”

Qiu Bin, his emotions filled to the brim, replied, “Yes, Mr Lin!”

Upon hanging up, Qiu Bin’s worries turned into happiness. Not only did Lin Chaoxu not hound him for making bets without permission, but actually praised him. What did this say about the situation?

Lin Chaoxu’s attitude was clear. First, so what if the game was copied, that didn’t matter! Using the sheer power that Emperor Dynasty Entertainment possessed, they could do anything they wanted. Everyone else had to bend over, even if they weren’t happy. As a videogame designer at Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, you could never back down from situations like this!

Second, Chen Mo wanted to use this opportunity for publicity, but Guardian of the Holy Spring could also seize this opportunity to raise the game. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment could support him and lift the game to the skies, allowing them to benefit from it as well!

As for the bet, it can only be said that Chen Mo had lost his marbles. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was the biggest channel in China. If they wanted to promote Guardian of the Holy Spring, what could Chen Mo do to counter that?

Chen Mo had no chance of winning this bet!

After some thinking, Qiu Bin turned his worries into a reason to celebrate. He was happy that something came over him and made him take the bet.

Qiu Bin made up his mind, “Alright, I’m not going anywhere for the next four months, and I will spend all that time on Guardian of the Holy Spring. There’s no way that Chen Mo can beat me with all that support from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment behind me!”

—

On the other side of the bet, Chen Mo had received multiple phone calls.

Lin Mao, Zhao zihao, Su Jinyu all called asking why Chen Mo had lost his cool. The bet was so one-sided that he basically wrote his own death sentence!

Chen Mo however, was very calm.

The experience store opened as usual, and Su Jinyu was already waiting at the doors.

“Boss, you’ve been too rash! I didn’t know that you were someone so hot-headed!” Su Jinyu exclaimed in worry.

Chen Mo opened his arms. “Geez, didn’t we go through this on the phone? I wasn’t being rash, I was prepared for that!”

Su Jinyu said, “What have you prepared to go head to head with Emperor Dynasty Entertainment?”

Chen Mo replied without a total lack of concern, “You wouldn’t understand even if I told you.”

“@#￥%&*%^*&(*%^!!!” was Su Jiny’s response.

Chen Mo tossed her a can of coffee, “Alright. It’s no big deal. We start developing the game today. If there isn’t anything important, don’t take leaves for the next four developmental months.”

Su Jinyu was happily surprised, “Really? Do you have the draft for your next game done?”

Chen Mo shook his head, “No, I haven’t written down a single word.”

Su Jinyu facepalmed. “Boss, can you act more reasonably?”

Chen Mo replied, “Alright, don’t panic. I’ll give you your tasks tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Su Jinyu sat down at the bar table reluctantly, “Make it quick, boss! We only have four months!”

“I know, I know.” Chen Mo said, waving his hand as he retreated back to the second floor.

“Who knows if he can actually manage,” Su Jinyu muttered under her breath, “It’s crazy someone as undependable as him was the designer of Plants vs Zombies…”

—

Back in his office, Chen Mo wasn’t rushing to start his design document, but instead chose to launch a drawing app.

As Chen Mo’s art skills were decent now, after half an hour of sketching and adjusting, a classic character from his previous life appeared on his computer screen.

It was a silly-looking minotaur.

It looked quite cute with it’s massive head and tiny limbs. It had two massive eyes, and thick eyebrows. It was quite serious in expression, yet dumb and cute. It had tiny ears and horns, and a massive nose ring on its trapezoidal face.

This was a cute drawing of a minotaur, yet it didn’t feel childish.

Chen Mo looked at the drawing, thinking it was missing something. After some thinking, he added three dots underneath its eyes.

“Yep, that’s about right,” Chen Mo nodded.

This silly cow was a classic character from his previous life called MT!

That’s right, Chen Mo’s next game was a card game that had been popular nationwide, called I Am MT.

In his previous world, I Am MT would’ve been outdated and most people would’ve already been sick of it. However, in the parallel world, the gamers didn’t yet know the genre called “Chinese card games”.

Chen Mo was sure of the plan Qiu Bin and Emperor Dynasty Entertainment had.

The play style and inspiration for Guardian of the Holy Spring was based on Plants vs Zombies, therefore Chen Mo had a certain expectation of the profitability of the game.

Even if Guardian of the Holy Spring was more content rich than Plants vs Zombies and had better promotion, the bet was still based on profit, and that type of game wouldn’t be suitable for top-ups.

If Emperor Dynasty Entertainment did decide to change the profit method, Chen Mo would only win by a larger margin.

It was only based on this pointer that Chen Mo could bet as confidently as he did.

In regards to profit-making, standalone games like that were some distance away from Chinese mobile games. This wasn’t a problem of the quality; it all had to do with how they profited.

That’s right, even if Plants vs Zombies was higher quality, with even better detail, it could never dream of surpassing I Am MT in terms of profit!

Quite often, the video game industry was just that unreasonable!