Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 146 These Were All Purchased by the Employees at Their Own Expense (Second Update)

Chapter 146: Chapter 146 These Were All Purchased by the Employees at Their Own Expense (Second Update)

Lilith cracked a slight smile, "If we aim to make money under these conditions, it would certainly be quite challenging.

"But all I want are negative emotions; whether the game makes money or not is irrelevant. That shouldn’t be difficult, right? It could even be said to be quite simple.

"Or are you suggesting you have some other ideas?"

Gu Fan quickly shook his head, "Not at all! Absolutely not!

"Well then, I’ll give it a try."

Lilith was very pleased with Gu Fan’s attitude, "Very good! There’s a saying among you humans, ’He who understands the times is a true hero.’ Gu Fan, you have indeed never disappointed me, always very perceptive of the times.

"Then I look forward to your good news.

"Taking into account that this is your first experience designing a game by yourself, I shall give you a bit more leeway.

"Hmm, let me think... Five days should do!"

Gu Fan was stunned, "Just five days? Five days??

"Design a game in five days? President Li, you’re not joking with me, are you?"

Lilith’s face turned stern, "What’s wrong with five days? If it were me, I could have three design proposals ready by then!

"In five days, submit the completed design proposal, full of detail and not some simple concept sketch.

"Alright, it’s decided!"

After saying that, Lilith turned around, ready to leave.

Gu Fan quickly stopped her, "Wait, President Li, there’s one more issue.

"If we’re not doing a Western Fantasy theme this time, can the art team from Hell handle other themes?

"It seems that most of the members of that group are painters and sculptors from the ancient West.

"If I were to suggest an Eastern Xianxia theme for the art requirements, would that be okay?"

Lilith thought for a moment, "Hmm... that is indeed a problem.

"If it’s just a language description, that definitely won’t suffice.

"But if you can provide very accurate concept art and have them follow that, then it shouldn’t be a problem."

Gu Fan pondered, "So that means I need to recruit a concept artist from the Human World to create a few pieces of concept art, and then have the art team from Hell complete all the art resources."

Lilith nodded, "Yes, that’s doable. You handle it."

Among the current employees of Nitiandang, the art team leader Guo Hongyu could barely take on this job, but only barely.

Guo Hongyu’s main work was in resource management and the 3D modeling aspect. He could work on original artwork, but it wasn’t particularly outstanding.

And since the concept design of the original artwork would directly determine the style of a game, it couldn’t be just passable for it to be impressive.

It seems another candidate had to be found.

...

...

October 17th, Thursday.

The relocation work of Nitiandang was now entirely complete.

The move had only lasted a little over a day, but the subsequent arrangements within the villa took nearly three days.

Only now did everything finally settle down. With the exception of a few large items that had not yet arrived, all was in place.

In these few villas, Gu Fan had chosen two of the more spacious ones with fewer pieces of furniture for collective office use. He delineated workspaces for everyone in the living rooms.

As for office desks, chairs, and computers, Gu Fan hadn’t prepared at all.

Let everyone pick out and purchase what they needed—that was it!

After all, the money that should have been spent on renting a place and buying equipment had already been given out as bonuses. People were free to manage it on their own.

Those who were willing to compromise picked cost-effective tables and chairs; those with higher requirements purchased high-end sit-stand desks, ergonomic chairs, or top-end computers.

Before the move, everybody had already looked favorably upon their own selections. Once moved, these items were delivered directly to the door, and everyone set them up with a flurry of activity.

At this point, the villa did not look like a normal residence. Instead, it bore a resemblance to an internet cafe for gaming sessions, or an esports base.

Gu Fan was at that moment furiously pounding the keyboard, writing the design proposal!

He had no choice; Lilith had only given him a mere five days, which meant he had to submit by this weekend.

Gu Fan felt his brain was overheating, almost like his keyboard would start smoking from his typing.

Just as he managed to take a break and was about to drink some water, Xiao Mingyu approached him.

"President Gu, I mentioned before that Shengjing Group’s gaming business division is planning to send someone for an inspection and exchange. They should be arriving anytime now.

"They’ve sent roughly ten people this time, all core members who are quite interested in our company. It seems that Kang Yong, the group’s vice president overseeing the gaming business, will also come."

Gu Fan nodded, "Understood."

Shengjing Group had already made contact several days ago. Being a large company, arranging such an activity could not have been a spur-of-the-moment decision.

At that time, Xiao Mingyu had asked for instructions, and Gu Fan, without giving it much thought, casually agreed.

After all, it was just a casual visit, nothing disruptive.

It would also be an opportunity for the employees to meet and interact with industry elites, which wasn’t a bad thing at all.

The others didn’t mind either, as they all continued with their work.

About half an hour later, two business vans parked in front of the villa.

"President Kang, this way."

Assistant Zhao led the group to the villa, where Xiao Mingyu had been waiting at the doorway. After exchanging a few pleasantries, she led everyone inside.

Gu Fan was waiting inside the villa and shook hands briefly with Kang Yong upon his arrival.

Kang Yong looked around at the surroundings and couldn’t help but frown slightly.

In fact, before coming he had already gotten a basic understanding from Assistant Zhao, knowing that Nitiandang Game had recently moved from the small, rundown cafe into the villa complex.

At that time, Kang Yong didn’t inquire further, thinking there might be some kind of commercial space within the villa complex that could serve as an office area.

But now, he could see it was just a pure villa?

It seemed that despite his young age, President Gu was indeed quite resourceful, sparing expenses to this extent? And the employees have no complaints about it?

OK, today would be an eye-opener, and a good opportunity to learn some management knowledge, oh no, to learn how to "draw the pie".

Following behind him were essentially the core members of the Shengjing Group’s gaming division, including developers, artists, and planners, most of whom were from various gaming project teams.

Since there were several companies available for inspection today, everyone acted separately, going to whichever company they were interested in.

Among these people, some were genuinely interested, while others had simply picked arbitrarily, ending up here somewhat cluelessly.

Nevertheless, they were all industry insiders and had heard about Nitiandang’s games to some extent.

The last to get off the business van was a cute girl wearing round, black-framed glasses, looking somewhat like she hadn’t woken up fully, with an utterly plain appearance, devoid of any eye-catching decorations.

"Xiao Xia, hurry up and follow."

Someone called out to her, and she hastened her steps to catch up.

Xiao Mingyu then began to give everyone a brief introduction.

"Currently, our Nitiandang is roughly split into two groups. One is the core design group, which is where we are now, with the heads of design, art, testing, and finance mostly here.

"The other is the regular development and testing group, which is in another villa. All our other programmers and testers are there."

Actually, there wasn’t much to introduce. Nitiandang Game didn’t have much more to it, and she summed it up in just a few words.

Gu Fan smiled, "Our company’s conditions are quite modest and certainly can’t compare with large corporations. Everyone, please feel free to sit down and make yourselves comfortable.

"Any questions you may have, feel free to ask."

The villa’s living room had been converted, with the long dining table turned into a conference table. After everyone seated themselves, they were somewhat unsure of where to begin with their questions.

At that moment, what Kang Yong most wanted to ask was: President Gu, how exactly do you manage to keep your employees so dedicated despite the low salary and benefits? Do you have some kind of management secret you could share?

However, in such a setting, and in front of everyone, he felt a bit embarrassed to ask.

He had thought there would be a chance for a private chat with President Gu, but it seemed that Gu Fan hadn’t planned such a session?

With this thought, Kang Yong gave a signal to Assistant Zhao, hinting at him to come up with a few questions to keep the conversation going and to smoothly shift the topic.

Assistant Zhao instantly understood and smiled, "President Gu, I see that your company’s office conditions seem quite nice.

"Adjustable desks, ergonomic chairs, and high-spec computers, these must all be quite expensive, right?"

Indeed, that was a bit hard for Assistant Zhao, as these were the few bright spots he noticed upon entering.

As a top company in the industry, Shengjing Group’s office conditions were also excellent. They had their own headquarters building, splendid and luxurious, with a water bar and recreation room on each floor, and ample space at each workstation.

Even the cafeterias on each floor were larger than the office space of most companies.

Such conditions were the envy of many, and joining Shengjing Group was considered the ultimate career goal by many in the workforce.

Compared to that, working from a villa, although much better than working from a cafe, was after all somewhat unorthodox.

Gu Fan nodded, "Oh, these things, they belong to the staff themselves, I’m not quite sure how much they cost."

This left Assistant Zhao dumbfounded.

"What? They brought their own?"

He looked again at the workstations near the living room and realized it was true—each person’s desk and chair were different!

Assistant Zhao hadn’t noticed before and assumed that since the workstation nearest the door, which belonged to Zhou Yang, with its adjustable desk, ergonomic chair, and high-end computer with full lighting effects and three 4K monitors laid out like those in a surveillance room, others would be similar.

But obviously, they were not!

Kang Yong’s respect deepened considerably.

Employees personally funding their office supplies for work, and even their own desks, chairs, and computers? Incredible!