Chapter 49

Chapter 49: Sun Strike Studios

Guangzhou.

Sun Strike Studios.

“Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.?”

“They want to come to our studios for a learning exchange?”

Zhou Muyan was befuddled.

This was the first time that he had heard of a gaming company wanting to conduct a learning exchange with another!

Something as such was typically done by university students for experiential learning to prepare themselves for working life post school.

Yet, there was never a gaming company that would organize something as such for its employees!

At least not domestically.

That was because most of the domestic gaming companies were in pursuit of profits. A long distance learning exchange would be a costly expenditure!

With an estimated 30 men group’s air tickets, hotel and other expenses and taking into the account that they would not be working for those days, that would add up to be quite a sum.

Furthermore, it wasn’t as though doing something as such would actually reap in much benefits for the company – it was a pure loss of money.

Even though they termed it as a learning exchange, what was there to learn about?

Which company would be so stupid…?

Zhou Muyan’s first instinct was to reject them.

He was the producer of Sun Strike Studios and was quite reputable within the industry.

Of course, technically speaking, it was more of being infamous. Since there were many people who flamed Sun Strike Studios, he could not avoid being associated with the insults since he was the producer.

Zhou Muyan was merely his nickname, not his real name. In the South, many companies had nicknames as it was the trend there and Sun Strike Studios was no different.

Recently, Sun Strike Studios was in the midst of creating an online FPS and they had been in production for more than a year with internal beta testing about to commence.

Under such a critical period, Zhou Muyan truly could not be bothered to entertain employees of a gaming company from a far Handong Province.

“Boss Zhou, this is a famous company! They were the ones that created Ghost General! I suggest we take some time to meet with them. If you don’t have the time, we can let Brother Sun go meet them. It won’t take much effort for him to bring them around the company,” The administrative girl who was in contact with Xin Hailu reminded.

“They made Ghost General?!”

Zhou Muyan was stunned and instantly felt that the girl’s words made sense.

As the saying went, the more friends you have the more options you have in life.

Even though they were competitors, rejecting their kind intentions of traveling such a long way just to visit and exchange thoughts would seem rather heartless.

Furthermore, Zhou Muyan knew of Ghost General – that was a mobile game that was extremely hot recently. It was clear that the creator of it was no fool.

Perhaps it would be quite a good idea to meet and get to know someone like that as well.

In any case, it would just take a single day at most and they would not really disrupt work by taking a spin around the office as well.

At that thought, Zhou Muyan nodded. “Alright, agree to it then. Set a date with them first. I’ll greet them personally.”

“Sure thing, Boss Zhou. Also, the elimination list of the newcomers is out. Please take a look at it.”

Zhou Muyan scanned through the list.

“Other than Lin Wan, fire the rest according to procedures.”

“Sure thing,” The girl did not probe further as she left with the list.

The lowest elimination system was commonplace in many gaming companies, especially those that hired more people from school.

It was the same for Sun Strike Studios as well. They would hire graduates and conduct an evaluation a few months into the job where the lowest ranked 15% would be fired.

For those fired graduates, they would be in an extremely awkward situation.

Firstly, they would no longer be incumbent graduates and they would not be able to take part in another company’s school recruitment drive. Secondly, they only had a couple of months worth of working experience and they were already fired from their previous company – that would be unhelpful for their future job searches.

In other words, Zhou Muyan’s single statement had just planted a huge obstacle in the career path of the fired graduates!

However, Zhou Muyan did not see anything wrong with it. Even though he knew that the fired graduates would definitely curse him and his family, it did not bother him.

To Zhou Muyan, the gaming industry was just a survival of the fittest jungle!

In such a cruel environment, there was no sympathy to speak of.

But of course, there was an exception to the list – Lin Wan.

She was a girl and just like the rest, was recruited from a famous university in Beijing with high qualifications.

Based on the elimination list’s grading, she was part of the bottom 15% as well.

Just like many other youths, Lin Wan had the same mistake of being naive and overly optimistic.

To Zhou Muyan, the games were but a business.

However, for Lin Wan and the other youths, they saw it as an art or a passionate dream. Because of that, the way they went about things went against the judging criteria of the elimination system.

In other words, she was just not the sort of talent that Sun Strike Studios required.

However, there was a reason why Zhou Muyan had left her out of the elimination list.

Everything aside, her background was simply way too horrifying…

Her father was the President of the largest communication and smart hardware distributor, Shenhua Corporation! Zhou Muyan could not afford to offend someone like that.

In fact, he could not wish for more than to be able to make connections with someone like that!

Of course, Lin Wan did not know that her identity had already been revealed because she had joined Sun Strike Studios through the usual school recruitment drives.

But clearly, Lin Wan had underestimated her father’s care and concern for her…

The second day that Lin Wan joined Sun Strike Studios, Zhou Muyan received a call from the president’s office of Shenhua Corporation.

There were two demands:

First, he hoped that Zhou Muyan and Sun Strike Studios could help to take care of Lin Wan so that she would not overexert herself and fall sick.

Second, he hoped that Zhou Muyan could destroy Lin Wan’s dreams towards the gaming industry as quickly as possible so that she would give up on wanting to build a career there!

Even though he was tactful in his words, a smart man like Zhou Muyan got the point right away.

Lin Wan’s father did not want her to join the gaming industry but he did not want to go against her openly in case their relationship turned sour – that was why he chose such a roundabout method to do things!

To something like that, Zhou Muyan naturally agreed to it immediately.

That was THE Shenhua Corporation! If they could make some ties with them, Sun Strike Studios would only stand to benefit in the future!

Therefore, Lin Wan was the only one that was retained from the elimination list.

Zhou Muyan had long considered about what was the best way to mow away Lin Wan’s passion towards the industry as quickly as possible.

It wasn’t something difficult.

As long as he could show her the truth about the industry, that would do.

The gaming industry, or the domestic one at least, was just a sweatshop.

Elimination lists, 996, giving up dreams and passion for money and turning an art into a money making tool…

Those were nothing new within the domestic gaming circle.

Of course, those things weren’t absolute – there were still genius designers and studios with heart domestically.

However, they were extremely rare.

Zhou Muyan believed that as long as he showed Lin Wan the truth about the industry, she would definitely be extremely disappointed and leave it. That was a certainty!