We Agreed to Create Casual Games, What the Hell is this World War Nonsense?
Ch. 3 - Shen Qinghan's Shock and Awe

To the company employees, Shen Qinghan, the second shareholder, represented a mysterious presence. This was because everything she wore and drove were things that ordinary people couldn't afford even after struggling for several lifetimes.

An investment of thirty million Federation coins—she invested it without hesitation. After investing, she didn't participate in the project's development at all, leaving everything entirely to Zhao Ming's management. This was the kind of investor so many people dreamed of.

But with such a major incident happening, the receptionist sighed inwardly. Even Director Shen probably couldn't do anything about it, given how little time they had left.

The [Anti-War Competition] would begin in nine days. What could they possibly create in nine days? A match-3 game?

Hearing the receptionist's words, Shen Qinghan frowned. "I understand." She then looked toward Zhao Ming's office. This incident had indeed come too suddenly, and Shen Qinghan knew that eighty percent of this investment was money down the drain.

For her, thirty million Federation coins wasn't much, but she was afraid Zhao Ming couldn't handle it. In this era, there was no such thing as a technological gap. As long as you had enough money to invest in photon supercomputing clusters to purchase computing power, you could create any kind of game effects and details.

"Cyber Blue Star: 2077," including her investment, had only used fifty million Federation coins for game development after excluding server rental costs. Meanwhile, Emperor Penguin Group's plagiarized "Wasteland Future: 2100" had used five hundred million Federation coins just for basic investment. Comparing the various leaked details and visuals, Shen Qinghan could see it was vastly superior to their "Cyber Blue Star: 2077."

Under these circumstances, going online would just mean waiting to get criticized. A trans-federal corporation like Emperor Penguin Group could easily drag them down. However, if he couldn't handle even this setback... forget it, she'd assess the situation first.

Shen Qinghan walked toward Zhao Ming's office.

She knocked on Zhao Ming's office door, and his voice came from inside, "Come in."

He didn't sound broken down at all—quite normal, actually. This relieved many employees in the office. At least the boss was still alive.

Only Hao Wen, the employee responsible for the core storyline, had flickering eyes. Hearing Zhao Ming's voice filled him with suspicion and uncertainty. How could he sound like nothing had happened? Could it be that this game had some core element or something that could turn the tables that Zhao Ming hadn't mentioned?

From outside the door, Shen Qinghan was also somewhat surprised. He sounded fine?

Shen Qinghan pushed open the door and walked in. The other employees in the office all looked toward the office, especially the guilty Hao Wen, who caught a glimpse of Zhao Ming operating something on his computer. Then the office door closed, cutting off all sight and sound. This made Hao Wen inexplicably panic.

——

Inside the office, Zhao Ming, sitting in his executive chair, looked up from his screen at the newcomer. What met his eyes was Shen Qinghan's perpetually cold expression.

Memories about Shen Qinghan immediately surfaced. Shen Qinghan—the student council president when Zhao Ming was in university, two years his senior. Rumored to have a mysterious family background—no one knew the specifics, but she definitely wasn't short on money.

There had been rumors about Shen Qinghan investing in students while at school, though the amounts varied greatly. If the original owner hadn't calculated that he was desperately short on funds, he wouldn't have thought to seek investment from Shen Qinghan.

But what the original owner hadn't expected was how smoothly the process would go. After the original owner laid out the design concept of "Cyber Blue Star: 2077" and its attractive elements for Shen Qinghan, he easily secured thirty million in investments. Everything had gone smoothly until yesterday...

Seeing Shen Qinghan enter, Zhao Ming stood up and gestured for her to sit on the sofa. "Senior."

This was his financial backer—he couldn't be negligent. Moreover, half the money they'd lost was Shen Qinghan's. Thinking about this made Zhao Ming's teeth ache.

Zhao Ming came over and sat down, pressing a lit button on the coffee table. A system inside the table provided hot and cold beverages on demand. Two cups of coffee soon rose from inside the coffee table.

Shen Qinghan nodded, glanced around, then looked at Zhao Ming. "I was worried you couldn't handle the blow. Looks like I was overthinking."

Being plagiarized by major corporations and ending up bankrupt was commonplace in this era, but there wasn't much that could be done about it—they simply did better and invested more money. Even if you tried to rally players to criticize them, players might not be willing. Countless entrepreneurs had jumped off buildings over this.

Seeing Zhao Ming's relaxed demeanor now, Shen Qinghan felt relieved, but became curious. "Looking at you, you don't seem affected by the blow. Does 'Cyber Blue Star: 2077' have some hidden gameplay that Emperor Penguin Group didn't copy?"

Besides having some gameplay that could turn the tables, Shen Qinghan couldn't think of any reason for Zhao Ming to be so calm. However, Zhao Ming shook his head and shrugged nonchalantly:

"No. 'Cyber Blue Star: 2077' is definitely finished. Even if we released it, we couldn't compete with Emperor Penguin Group. At least we have the copyright."

"They clearly got their start participating in the [Anti-War Competition], but after all these years, they haven't developed anything new—they just profit by copying others' work. We can't deal with them now, but when we get the chance, we'll have to crush them."

The corner of Shen Qinghan's mouth twitched, and her beautiful eyes rolled. She gave Zhao Ming a major eye roll. Many people have wanted to take down Emperor Penguin Group, but had any of them succeeded over all these years?

"Just tell me what you plan to do now. I invested thirty million. What's your plan?"

Zhao Ming's expression stiffened, and he coughed lightly. "Senior. You shouldn't be hurting for that thirty million... right?"

Shen Qinghan remained expressionless, saying nothing, just staring at Zhao Ming. Under that gaze, Zhao Ming quickly surrendered:

"Alright, alright, I've already thought of a solution."

He'd wanted to tease her a bit, but this woman was too cold.

Who could handle marrying her?

Tsk...

Then Zhao Ming explained to Shen Qinghan, "I thought carefully about 'Cyber Blue Star: 2077'—it could indeed attract a lot of attention and might even place well. But these kinds of innovative games always pop up two or three times each year. Players get tired of them after playing for a while. Ultimately, it's aesthetic fatigue. To break through, we need to bring something different to this world. The [Anti-War Competition] has been organized for so many years that it's forgotten its original purpose.”

"The purpose of the [Anti-War Competition] is obviously to oppose war."

"So how do you oppose war? Obviously by having players participate and experience the brutality of war. So I've decided to approach it from this angle. Develop a multiplayer online competitive shooting game.”

Zhao Ming finished speaking seriously.

His explanation was met only with prolonged silence as Shen Qinghan stared at Zhao Ming speechlessly.

....

....

After a long moment.

"That's it?"

Zhao Ming was somewhat confused and nodded:

"That's it. Isn't this enough?"

Turn World War II films into games, let players experience being cannon fodder, watch comrades next to them get headshots with blood splattering all over them, see people crawling around with gaping holes in their stomachs and intestines spilling everywhere.

Under those circumstances, who would still long for war?

Hash marks appeared above Shen Qinghan's head as she couldn't help clenching her fists:

"With this broken idea of yours, people stopped doing this two hundred years ago. Now everyone uses computing power to create virtual worlds—mecha, starships, even virtual mythology worlds with investments of hundreds of billions of Federation coins. Who would play such old-fashioned gunfight games?"

Hearing this, Zhao Ming understood and began explaining, "It's different. Mecha, starships, mythology—except for starships having some possibility in reality, everything else is fictional. Even the mecha model isn't suitable for combat.

No one would be stupid enough to actually build those things. Current society develops technology rapidly, but maintaining order still relies on military forces and firearms. The game I'm making is designed to give players the most realistic experience. And things they've never experienced before."

Hearing this, Shen Qinghan was so frustrated she laughed.

"A gunfight game, and you think you can make it revolutionary? The [Anti-War Competition] has been held for three hundred years. Gunfight games were played to death in the first hundred-plus years. What could you possibly bring players that they haven't experienced? Nostalgia?"

Zhao Ming shook his head:

"No."

Looking directly into Shen Qinghan's eyes, inexplicably making her heart tremble, the corner of Zhao Ming's mouth curved up.

"War."

War?!

These two words struck Shen Qinghan's mind like a heavy hammer.

Promoting war in the [Anti-War Competition]?

How dare he?!