Chapter 164: Changing Jobs

The next morning, early on, Yin Jian began contacting the people on the list provided by Bao Defa.

The process went relatively smoothly. Out of more than a dozen people, eight agreed to help him promote it.

Judging by their tone, the remaining few had already promised someone else.

Well, that meant offering more money.

At this, Yin Jian hesitated for a moment and did not reply immediately.

Instead, he decided to wait and see the results before considering it further. After all, his money didn't grow on trees.

Besides, it was still early, so there was no need to rush.

Having contacted the last host, Yin Jian looked over the information of those who had agreed.

He found that most of these streamers broadcasted during off-peak hours—specifically from midnight to four o'clock in the afternoon of the following day.

However, a moment's thought made it clear why: prime time slots were definitely booked long ago, and the competition was fierce; there was no way his turn would come.

Even though these were off-peak hours, the viewer conversion across the eight platforms should still bring in a decent number of followers.

"I just hope I can break into the top twenty."

...

Qiyou Headquarters

Chen Guang frowned as he looked at his assistant, and after a moment of deep thought, he asked, "Have you found out who is targeting us?"

Early this morning, he had received some bad news.

The higher-ups had suddenly issued a directive to rectify virtual games.

According to the new decree, more than half of Qiyou's games would be taken offline for rectification.

Hearing his manager's question, the assistant shook his head. "Unclear. The other party covered their tracks very well."

"However, one thing is certain: someone doesn't want us to succeed in our transformation."

"So my guess is that it must be the work of some real-world gaming company."

The pie was only so big. Adding another real-world gaming company would inevitably impact existing real-world games.

It was all about interests.

Capital would stop at nothing, and no move it made should come as a surprise.

"Manager, what should we do now?" the assistant asked.

If they followed the directive now and took all the borderline games offline, it would inevitably disrupt the upcoming game tournament.

Qiyou had prepared for this transformation for a long time and could not afford a single mistake.

Hearing this, Chen Guang pondered for a moment and sighed.

"Ignore it and proceed as usual."

"Manager, this might lead to a direct reprimand from above, and it could severely impact Qiyou's stock price, causing it to plummet," the assistant said worriedly.

In his view, Qiyou had fallen into a predicament where any action taken would lead to worse outcomes.

"I know. Just do as I say." Chen Guang paused here before adding, "Oh, and use the smart recommendation system to take down those games that fail the review."

Hearing Chen Guang's instructions, the assistant frowned, somewhat failing to understand his manager's train of thought.

Since they weren't going to comply with the higher-ups' regulations, why bother pulling the tournament games that failed the review through the smart recommendation system?

However, despite his inner doubts, the assistant didn't ask any further questions.

His duty was simply to execute the tasks assigned by Chen Guang properly.

After the assistant withdrew, Chen Guang sat at his desk in a daze for a while before opening his optical brain.

He began contacting some friends, hoping to leverage their influence to stall the review period—at least until the real-world game tournament concluded.

...

Qiyou Baiqiao Branch

In the office, Lin Xiaoxiao's brow carried a trace of hidden anger.

"Senior Lin, what's wrong?" Seeing Lin Xiaoxiao acting so uncharacteristically, Yu Jia asked with some concern.

In her memory, Lin Xiaoxiao had never shown such an expression before.

As Yu Jia finished speaking, Lin Xiaoxiao seemed to sense the worry in her words.

She parted her pink lips, exhaled a breath of orchid-like fragrance, and then rubbed her temples as she said, "It's all because of Jian Qi."

"What happened to Jian Qi?" Yu Jia's face showed curiosity at these words.

She had already known beforehand that Jian Qi had stood Lin Xiaoxiao up yet again.

Now, she couldn't imagine what else the other person had done to make Lin Xiaoxiao this angry.

Sensing Yu Jia's curiosity, Lin Xiaoxiao didn't hide anything and recounted the whole matter:

"Jian Qi is planning to move to another virtual gaming platform."

"Ah?" Hearing this news, Yu Jia was completely stunned.

This development was something she hadn't anticipated at all.

"Why?" She blurted out the question in her mind.

Because she simply couldn't fathom any reason for the other party to leave Qiyou.

Setting aside Qiyou's status in the virtual gaming industry, Jian Qi's accumulated fanbase at Qiyou alone was substantial.

Running off to another website so suddenly would inevitably cost him a massive amount of resources, which clearly outweighed the gains.

It was as if Lin Xiaoxiao could read Yu Jia's thoughts, for she sighed and said, "That's exactly where the problem lies."

"He values his fans' feelings too much."

"He's afraid of letting down their expectations."

Hearing this, Yu Jia finally understood that Jian Qi wanted to use an alternate pen name.

However, understanding was one thing, but what puzzled her was: "Why does Jian Qi need to go to another platform to use an alternate name? He can do that right here at Qiyou."

Lin Xiaoxiao shook her head. "This brings us to the platform Jian Qi is planning to go to."

"What platform?" Yu Jia was curious; she truly couldn't think of any platform with better perks than Qiyou.

"Lufei Game Network."

"Lufei?" Hearing the name, Yu Jia frowned.

She had heard of this name before.

Although Lufei's scale was less than a tenth of Qiyou's, the update speed of its games was an industry benchmark.

On average, it took only twelve days from a game's release to its launch.

For ordinary designers, the revenue split was also the highest among all platforms, reaching a 7-3 split in favor of the creator.

Moreover, because the recommendation mechanism was refreshed in real-time, ordinary designers could easily achieve the basic office-worker milestone of earning ten thousand a month.

While it seemed much better than Qiyou on the surface, Lufei actually came with considerable pressure.

Because the update speed of games within the platform was extremely fast, designers' games usually only generated revenue for two or three months after launch before falling into a state of zero subsequent income.

It was nothing like Qiyou, where later income might dwindle, but would trickle in continuously.

This made Yu Jia even more perplexed about Jian Qi's intentions.

"Lufei doesn't care about the designers' names at all, because on Lufei, you can change your designer handle anytime you want."

"So Jian Qi is already prepared to abandon his projects at any moment?"

Yu Jia finally understood now.

What could she say? She could only conclude that he truly lived up to his title of the King of Flaking.

He chose Lufei simply so he could break his promises and delay updates even more easily.

And what left Yu Jia completely speechless was that Lufei's rules seemed so tailored to fit this flake of a person—it was practically custom-made for him.

"So, has he already made up his mind?"