“It’s not... Didn't the money already get distributed?”
“They're even holding a supplementary award ceremony? Are they really giving us that much face?”
“Virtual City! You finally remembered! Do you know how long I've been waiting?! ”
“Don't just focus on Wisteria Metropolis, what about our Silver City?”
…
Following Xu Meng's announcement, players flocked to the game.
Besides looking forward to the opening of Virtual City, many players were reminding Xu Meng—
“But wearing only a bikini on the street...”
“How can that be proper? How can that be proper?!”
Huan Yue was already worrying about something that was still just a distant possibility.
The media and the industry were even more agitated than the players.
Players would only consider what fun things Virtual City had to offer and wouldn't pay much attention to anything else.
But the media and those in the industry couldn't help but wonder—
What kind of impact would such a city have on the entire gaming industry, and even the entire internet industry?!
Its potential and commercial value were almost impossible to estimate.
Everyone involved in internet-related work with a keen sense of smell, from coders, self-media, and individual creators to the management of internet companies and even giants, turned their attention to Zhumeng.
In fact, the internet giants had been eyeing Zhumeng ever since Huo Dao's interview.
Some sought cooperation, some intended to acquire them, and some wanted to invest heavily.
Zhumeng did not respond to any of them.
After dragging it out for a few days, several giants had to reveal their stance—
They had already been exploring this technology before Zhumeng was even established, and the project had already started last year/the year before/5 years ago.
Now the project team has achieved phased results, and they are only a few steps away from launching the product.
…
This was, of course, nonsense.
The work of poaching people had only just begun, let alone the project's establishment.
But for the sake of their stock prices, they had to say so.
But they really didn't expect Zhumeng to be so fast!
So fast that they were caught off guard!
On this day, countless companies urgently convened management meetings.
The more they met, the more worried they became, and the more restless they felt.
…
Zhumeng was much simpler. Everyone discussed it directly in the office group, and if there were any problems, they would directly @ boss Xu Meng.
Xu Meng didn't appear much—because he was busy preparing for the new project.
But if everyone was straying too far from the point, he would jump out and say something to help eliminate the wrong answers.
After waiting like this, the rotation leave ended, and the employees all returned to work.
Before convening the launch meeting for the new project, Xu Meng first held a meeting for the «Kings of War» project team.
In the same office where the project launch meeting was held a few months ago.
This meeting was very short.
Xu Meng stood at the front of the conference room and said happily to everyone:
“Everyone, welcome back!”
“I hope you had a pleasant holiday!”
“And then, let's quickly get to the point—”
“Many of us have our own gaming ideals.”
“Thank you for your efforts for «Kings of War» in the past few months! As a reward, if anyone wants to make their own dream game, now is the best opportunity!”
A crowd of people was sitting in the conference room, still carrying the laziness from the end of the holiday and the anticipation for the new project, the atmosphere was extremely warm.
No one expected that the boss would suddenly start with such an opening.
The lively conference room instantly fell silent.
Everyone looked at each other.
After a moment of silence, Xue Liang slowly raised his hand and asked, “Boss, do you mean internal incubation, or are we being kicked out?”
“Both are possible.” Xu Meng's answer was once again unexpected.
“Of course, I hope that everyone can stay in Zhumeng, but if someone wants to independently complete their own game, I can completely understand, and I will also provide help.”
“If you want investment, I'll invest!”
“If you don't want investment, Zhumeng can provide interest-free loans.”
“If the game is really outstanding and gets my approval, I can also give money unconditionally!”
“In a word, feel free to pursue your dreams!”
Hearing this, Xue Liang's eyes lit up, and he immediately said, “Then boss! I want to complete «Fire of Storms»!”
His original purpose in coming to Zhumeng was to work, earn money, improve his skills, and then perfect his highly acclaimed «Fire of Storms» demo into a full version for sale.
“No problem!” Xu Meng agreed readily.
“Are you planning to do it yourself, or continue to stay in Zhumeng to do it?”
“Of course, I'll stay!” Xue Liang quickly replied, “And I want to participate in the new project!”
“Can you handle it?” Xu Meng asked.
“Boss, don't underestimate my ability to grind! I can work on «Fire of Storms» in my spare time! With Bill's help, it's not a problem at all!” Xue Liang was full of energy and confidence.
【Bill】 is his intelligent partner, a squirrel cowboy with two guns on his waist and a cowboy hat on his head.
“You decide this kind of thing yourself, just don't work yourself to illness.” Xu Meng nodded, “Anyone else?”
Ge Ming also raised his hand, “Boss, I want to try again too.”
Ge Ming had previously produced a highly acclaimed independent game, but it had always been popular but not profitable.
Now he feels that if he can log on to the Zhumeng game platform, then sales should be very guaranteed.
Moreover, after training in the «Kings of War» project, he vaguely felt and understood some of the techniques to make the game a bestseller.
In short, this is a great opportunity to wash away the shame!
…
After Xue Liang and Ge Ming, three more employees offered to try.
All of them hoped to stay in Zhumeng and carry out the project through internal incubation.
Xu Meng agreed to each of them.
The only requirement was: the game must be made carefully!
If it's not done well, change it, keep changing it until Xu Meng is satisfied, before it can be released on the Zhumeng game platform.
…
Xu Meng spent 10 minutes to renew the dream of making personal games for 5 people—and by the way, he also moved a few steps towards the extra reward of the next ring task 【Foundation】.
After that, it was the main course of today—
New project!
The employees of the original «Kings of War» project team were divided into two, one part went back to continue developing and maintaining «Kings of War», and the other part joined the launch meeting of the new project together with a large number of new employees.
Xu Meng looked at the familiar or unfamiliar faces in the office, and the same expectation in their eyes, and started the meeting with a question—
“How many of you have seen the 【Riot Era】 player questionnaire?”
Half of the people in the conference room raised their hands.
—All members of the «Kings of War» development team raised their hands.
“Very good.” Xu Meng said, while opening the data analysis chart of the survey questionnaire on the projector.
“Many players and netizens thought that I sent this questionnaire to disgust Du Huo Studio.”
“But it's not.”
After a pause, he couldn't help but laugh, “Okay, at least not entirely.”
The participating employees laughed heartily.
In the laughter of everyone, Xu Meng said frankly: “I really wanted to disgust them.”
“But at the same time, I really wanted to investigate which elements in 【Riot Era】 players are most interested in.”
“From the full million questionnaires received, we can find a very prominent tendency—”
“Players are mostly obsessed with behemoths.”
“Survival construction, cold weapon combat, hot weapon shooting, etc., although players have given praise, the degree of emotional intensity is far lower than behemoths.”
“Even now, the online rate of 【Riot Era】 mode is still very amazing—no less than 【Human Purgatory】 and 【War Zone】.”
“The voices calling for Zhumeng to quickly update more behemoths and strengthen the combat interaction between players and behemoths are also increasing day by day.”
Listening to Xu Meng's words, many people had guesses in their hearts and subconsciously sat up straight.
Xu Meng opened another picture.
This is the data that Xiao Meng grabbed keywords from Mengjin's massive number of posts and summarized.
“Only half a month has passed since the launch of 【Riot Era】. On the Mengjin platform alone, the discussion volume of behemoth keywords has exceeded 30 million times, and the discussion volume on the entire network will only be more exaggerated.”
“Another situation that cannot be ignored is: as time goes by, not only has the discussion volume not decreased, but it has shown a slow upward trend.”
“So… the content of the new project is already very clear.”
Under everyone's expectant gaze, the image on the projector changed again.
Four bold, splashed-ink characters leaped out.
The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ said ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥ ⊥ book ⊥ ⊥ bar ⊥ ⊥ first ⊥ hair!
Xu Meng clapped his hands and summarized:
“What players want, Zhumeng will do!”
“So, the tentative name for the new project is—”
“Monster Hunter!”
“We want to create a wild world for global players, with a complete ecosystem where behemoths and civilizations compete for survival!”
“We will give players stronger physical fitness and combat abilities, and design armor and weapon systems with consistent styles and coordinated aesthetics.”
“Allow players to obtain the most insane and wildest hunting experience on a brand-new planet!”
Every time Xu Meng said a sentence, a corresponding animation would appear on the projector behind him.
When he talked about hunting, the screen showed a nine-foot-tall strong man, almost bare-chested and only wearing shoulder armor, wielding a steam-powered mechanical giant blade larger than himself, leaping down from a high place!
His body was almost bent into a bow, accumulating the strength of his whole body to slash at the beast below.
—This beast's head alone was bigger than the strong man's body!
At this moment, the beast raised its head and roared and howled at the hunter in the sky!
In the conference room, everyone stared at the visually impactful scene, their mouths wide open and their brains blank.
What shocked them was not how well the animation was made.
But—
Boss, did you finish the game by yourself???
As a project initiation meeting, the maturity of this project is too high!!
This isn't even a "concept" drawing anymore!
“Boss…” Lead programmer Li Xingyun couldn't help but ask everyone's doubts, “You didn't make a demo by yourself, did you?”
“What?” Xu Meng was stunned for a moment, then immediately shook his head to deny it. “Of course not!”
“I'm busy buying a house, getting hardware, and writing algorithms. Where would I have the time for that!”
“That's good, that's good.” Li Xingyun breathed a sigh of relief.
The members of the original "King of War" project team also breathed a sigh of relief.
Only the new employees who didn't understand Xu Meng's heaven-defying efficiency looked at their colleagues' strange reactions inexplicably.
“But I made a trailer for the game.” Xu Meng added.
“???” Li Xingyun's head popped up with question marks.
The others had similar reactions.
For a moment, the entire conference room was filled with question marks.
Who would make a trailer for the game before the project initiation meeting even started?
Xu Meng felt a little embarrassed when he saw everyone's expressions.
“I know some of you may not understand.”
“But I plan to announce the news of the new project to the players at the Global Survival Competition awards ceremony on the 1st of next month. Time is tight, so I did it myself first.”
“But…” Li Xingyun was still a little confused, “What if there are changes in the game production later, what if the game content in the trailer is changed?”
“If it's changed, it's changed.” Xu Meng spread his hands a little helplessly, “Then just treat it as a false advertisement, it's not a big deal.”
Li Xingyun opened his mouth, speechless.
Laughter broke out again in the crowd.
As the laughter subsided, Xue Liang asked, “I saw that all the scenes just now were close combat with cold weapons. Are thermal weapons excluded?”
“That's right.” Xu Meng affirmed, “Many things in [Chaotic Era] are a reuse of discarded resources during the development process, which leads to very obvious conflicts between many elements.”
“As a free update, that's fine.”
“But the new game can't.”
“The various elements of the new game must be fully coordinated, whether in terms of art, combat, or gameplay.”
Xue Liang nodded, understanding that it would be a little difficult for him to show off his skills in this project.
His specialty is still thermal weapon combat.
Xu Meng added, “Speaking of gameplay, I need to add something.”
“The core gameplay of the [Monster Hunter] main body is what I mentioned above: hunting various large beasts, and even extraordinary behemoths with elemental powers, in an open, wild, and vibrant world.”
“But after successfully hunting a monster, I hope to obtain not only weapons, armor, and cooking materials, but also an important additional item—the monster's [Essence Soul], which is a non-physical monster image.”
“In the main game, [Essence Soul] is mainly used to display hunting results and add gorgeous special effects to weapon attack actions.”
“This aspect must be done cool!”
“At the same time, we must create a gap.”
“Ensure that the larger the monster the player hunts, the cooler the Essence Soul, and the more gorgeous the special effects during combat!”
“When players fight against each other, there must be a gap between Essence Souls of different levels.”
“Will the new game also have PVP content?” Someone couldn't help but ask.
“The main gameplay of the game does not involve PVP, only hunting monsters. But in supplementary gameplay, there will definitely be player-versus-player content.” Xu Meng answered clearly.
“What supplementary gameplay?” Someone asked again.
Xu Meng clapped his hands, and the screen behind him switched again.
This time, it was dozens of hunters holding various large weapons, confronting each other on the same map.
“Three supplementary gameplays, but I'll talk about two here first.”
“One is similar to [Chaotic Era], throwing dozens or hundreds of players into the same hunting ground for a killing contest, with the last person or team standing winning.”
“The other is: a tower climbing challenge.”
The screen behind him switched again.
A giant tower, almost connecting the sky and the earth, stood between the buildings of the city.
Even though Xu Meng was still talking, the employees couldn't restrain themselves and couldn't help but make surprised noises.
Xu Meng was not disturbed and continued, “This part of the gameplay will take place in a virtual city—I built this [Sky Arena] in Sprawl City.”
“A total of 251 floors, with 10 floors as a level.”
“Players start from the first floor, challenging each floor, with the winner rising and the loser falling.”
“Here, Essence Souls are no longer just decorations and special effects, but can also provide combat assistance and attribute bonuses for players.”
“This will greatly enhance the viewing experience of the duel.”
“For this reason, this giant tower will also be open to all ordinary users, welcoming them to come and watch.”
“Of course, challenges are also welcome.”
“It's just that facing players with Essence Souls, they will hardly have the power to resist.”
“In addition, I also plan to provide some rewards for players who reach the 100th and 200th floors.”
“Spectating players can also participate and bet on the outcome.”
“But I haven't figured out what to reward or what to bet on yet.”
“After all, we can't really gamble money—that would be illegal.”
Speaking of this, Xu Meng sighed regretfully:
“What a pity! If gambling was legal, it would be super invincible profitable!”
Gladiator arena + gambling, it would be strange if it didn't make money!
If we further develop the core competitiveness of the [Frost Snow Project] team and add sexy hosts similar to ring girls…
That would be even more crazy profitable.
Unfortunately, this money cannot be made.
—These thoughts just flashed through his mind.
In fact, what Xu Meng really regretted was not not being able to make this money—even if gambling was really legal, he would not want to make this immoral money.
He's not short of money.
What he really regretted was not being able to pull off this absolutely amazing thing!
While he was sighing regretfully, the employees sitting across from him, whether leaders or ordinary employees, were all staring blankly with their eyes wide open and their mouths open, looking like a bunch of silly geese.
They never expected that Xu Meng, while talking about the supplementary gameplay of the new game, actually planned to make such an exaggerated and outrageous thing!
No!
He had even quietly done it already!
After regaining their senses, everyone's emotions were quite excited:
“Boss! This could be made into a separate new game, right? And you're just taking it out as a supplementary gameplay???”
“Is this really a project initiation meeting, or a mid-term summary meeting???”
“You still say you didn't secretly make the game alone?!”
