Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 254: Martial Competition

The next day!

Neon, Kora.

A tense and oppressive atmosphere filled the president’s office.

Koizumi Kazuo stood opposite Uekoe Kagemasa, barely daring to breathe.

In Uekoe Kagemasa’s hands was a stack of reports and summary docunts.

Actually, there was no need to look at the others.

Just the first data report alone was enough.

[Kora Booth Data Summary——]

Daily cumulative views: 30,000

Average stay ti: 10 minutes

Daily motion-sensing pod trials: 1,925 tis

Daily registered dia trials: 32 outlets

Daily heat index peak: 85%

Daily heat index trough: 40%

Daily comprehensive heat index: 65%

[Note: All data is up to the close of the first day of the Gaming Festival]

Looking at the report, Uekoe Kagemasa involuntarily took a deep breath.

Actually, these numbers were already quite good.

First, the total number of players who watched the Kora booth demos and videos, and participated in trials in a single day, was about 30,000, with an average stay of about 10 minutes each.

Uekoe Kagemasa still rembered that last year, their booth was in the sa location, and the first day’s data was roughly the sa.

The next item, the “motion-sensing pod trial count,” basically matched the expected load for the 52 trial pods they had set up on site.

As for dia, 32 outlets basically covered the major global mainstream gaming dia.

Regarding the last “daily heat index,” it was a composite calculation based on the vendor’s booth load, number of motion-sensing pods, player stay tis, and other data.

An average of 65% basically ant that the total number of visiting players throughout the day reached 65% of Kora booth’s ideal comprehensive load.

It was standard.

After all, the venue was so large, with so many vendors, exceeding 50% ant defeating 90% of all exhibitors.

However, Uekoe Kagemasa’s face remained as dark as a burnt pan.

Because!

At this very mont!

In the lower half of the report in his hand was the data summary for Golden Wind’s booth!

[Golden Wind Booth Data Summary——]

Daily cumulative views: 60,000

Average stay ti: 30 minutes

Daily motion-sensing pod trials: 1,102 tis

Daily registered dia trials: 85 outlets

Daily heat index peak: 241%

Daily heat index trough: 103%

Daily comprehensive heat index: 172%

[Note: All data is up to the close of the first day of the Gaming Festival]

Look!

Look!

Not to ntion Uekoe Kagemasa!

Whoever sat in his position with this data would feel as if they had been cut down by a single sword blow just when the posture bar was about to fill—blood pressure skyrocketing!

Sixty thousand cumulative visits in a single day!

What kind of concept was that?

Keep in mind!

As a mid-sized ga company, and not even the host, Golden Wind’s booth was far smaller in scale and decoration detail compared to Kora’s!

At most, it was only half, or even less, of Kora’s size!

But!

Under these conditions!

Golden Wind created data twice the volu of Kora’s!

If scaled proportionally to enjoy the sa treatnt as Kora, Golden Wind’s data could potentially double again!

One hundred twenty thousand?!

Rember, the total number of visitors received by the Gaming Festival venue on the first day was only about 200,000!

Moreover!

The average stay ti was as long as 30 minutes—half an hour!

On average! Every single person! Stayed for 30 minutes!

Uekoe Kagemasa hadn’t been on site, and he couldn’t even imagine what kind of massive crowd that was!

Wouldn’t that an the adjacent booths were also packed with people coming to visit Golden Wind’s booth?

Uekoe Kagemasa’s hands trembled!

The 85 gaming dia and live streaming evaluation staff not only covered the global mainstream gaming dia.

No doubt, even so influential independent dia and indie ga reviewers were probably involved.

Of course!

All of that was surprising, but still far from speechless.

Look at the terrifying “heat index peak”!

Two hundred forty-one percent!!!

Even the trough was at 103%!!!

That ant Golden Wind’s entire venue had been overcrowded with visitors throughout the whole day yesterday!

With that said!

Comparing this now to Kora’s data report?

Humiliating.

“Humiliating to the extre!!!”

Bang!

Uekoe Kagemasa slamd the related docunts onto the table with a bang!

Koizumi Kazuo shuddered violently from the shock!

“Pr... President...”

He had reluctantly reported this data to Uekoe. He was even more aware than Uekoe of how terrifying Golden Wind’s numbers were:

“Their... their booth’s data... mainly because Golden Wind doesn’t follow the rules...”

“Doesn’t follow the rules? How exactly?”

Uekoe Kagemasa squinted at Koizumi Kazuo:

“This is Neon! How unruly can they really be?!”

“Gu Sheng personally ca to Neon to attend as a vendor representative, and just stayed there day after day without leaving,”

Koizumi said angrily as he brought up this matter:

“The reason their booth had such high numbers, so many dia, so many players,”

“Was largely because Gu Sheng was always there,”

“The ga director and vice president of the company, yet he was constantly with a bunch of staff acting as booth custor service,”

“This had never happened in the history of our Gaming Festival,”

“Despicable! It’s simply a despicable way to boost heat!”

Koizumi spoke with righteous indignation, looking like he was filled with fury.

But Uekoe Kagemasa snorted coldly:

“If he can go on site, why can’t you?”

“I...”

That one sentence imdiately shut Koizumi up, his head bowed:

“President... I... I don’t like hyping things up as much as they do...”

The heat just wasn’t as high.

This, Koizumi had to admit.

Forget that Kora was a big company; their Koizumi Studio was one of the strongest peak studios after Yamamoto Tsunashiro.

In fact, in terms of personal reputation, he simply couldn’t compare to Gu Sheng.

That was an undeniable fact.

And regarding this, Uekoe Kagemasa pondered for a mont, clearly at a loss to refute.

However!

After a brief pause, he spoke: “If you can’t beat him, can’t you at least push him out?”

Hiss—!!!

At these words!

Koizumi Kazuo was stunned!

He was dumbfounded for two seconds, then raised his questioning gaze at Uekoe Kagemasa:

“Pr... President ans...”

...

“Using underhanded tactics, Gu-san.”

The second day of the event, afternoon.

Behind Kora’s booth, Gu Sheng sat opposite Moriya Tetsuya, accepting a cup of oolong tea handed over by Moriya.

Moriya happened to be passing by today and thought to inspect their booth’s work and exhibition status, while catching up with Gu Sheng.

“The heat index of 241% on the first day,”

Moriya shook his head with a bitter smile:

“This is already the highest record since the Gaming Festival began, which clearly shows Gu-san’s influence in the international gaming circle.”

“Hey—”

Gu Sheng waved his hand:

“What kind of influence is this? It’s just that I made more appearances.”

It was hard to imagine.

Just one week ago,

These two people sitting together drinking tea were both eager to use the toughest thods, fighting openly and covertly, trying their best to crush the other comrcially.

“What’s your plan after Moriya-san?”

Taking a sip of tea, Gu Sheng suddenly asked.

Moriya was stunned: “Plan for what?”

Gu Sheng pointed at the ground as if implying sothing: “…the expo?”

Seeing this, Moriya opened his mouth:

“The expo... the overall situation is already decided.”

“There’s still a long way ahead,”

Gu Sheng smiled slightly, pretending to ask casually:

“Oh right, Moriya-san, I have a small question, don’t mind .”

“Please, Gu-san,” Moriya nodded.

“Uh...” Gu Sheng hesitated for a mont: “I heard... that your ‘executive director’ in Neon is different from those shareholder directors on the board?”

“Oh, yes,”

Moriya smiled, not thinking Gu Sheng was inquiring about anything confidential, nodding:

“The executive director is not directly related to shareholders and doesn’t necessarily hold equity. Like .”

He pointed to himself:

“As the executive director of the ga division, I’m only responsible for daily operations and managent. I receive dividends but have no equity, and I’m definitely not a shareholder.”

Oh—

Gu Sheng understood.

He nodded.

Then Moriya asked:

“What’s up? Why are you suddenly interested in the upper managent structure of our Neon company? Could it be that, as rumored, you want to enter Neon and set up a Neon branch?”

“Hahaha,” Gu Sheng laughed heartily: “We’re just a mid-sized company. An overseas branch is still a bit far off.”

Saying this, Gu Sheng changed the topic.

“But... overseas branches will definitely be on the agenda in the future,”

He joked:

“Then I’ll co and poach you?”

“Chuckle...”

Moriya burst out laughing, shaking his head repeatedly:

“Gu-san, you really know how to joke. I’m your direct competitor on this project.”

“Hey—that’s not true,”

Gu Sheng waved his hand:

“There’s a saying in China: no fight, no acquaintance,”

“The more we’re opponents, the more chance there is to turn swords into plowshares...”

However!

Just as he said this!

Suddenly.

A voice with a Kansai accent shouted curses from Golden Wind’s booth.

Gu Sheng’s Japanese was not outstanding but having worked in Neon before, plus all of Steel Chain Fingers Studio were Neon natives, he could understand everyday Japanese.

The curses were filthy.

At this mont, although the booth area was noisy with visitors and players coming and going, this Kansai-accented shouting was louder than the buzzing discussions.

As the shouting grew louder, there was a loud crash, imdiately followed by visitors’ screams and cries!

Hiss—

Hearing the abnormality, Gu Sheng and Moriya exchanged a glance and stood up: “I’ll go check it out.”

With that, Gu Sheng left Kora’s booth, quickly returning to Golden Wind’s booth through a narrow passage behind the booth.

Upon arrival!

In the experience area, three to five youths dressed in leather, with wild dyed hair, stood inside.

Next to them, a motion-sensing pod was overturned on the ground.

The leader dyed his hair green, wearing a nose ring, shouting loudly:

“Where’s your person in charge! Huh? Where the hell are they! Co out!”

Gu Sheng frowned and stepped forward: “Hello, I’m the person in charge here. Who are you...?”

“Damn, so it’s you...”

The green-haired youth sized Gu Sheng up from head to toe, then grabbed a punk-looking girl nearby, pointing at the overturned pod:

“What kind of crappy ga do you have here? Fighting and killing, you scared my girlfriend stiff. What do you have to say for that?”

Huh???

Even soone as eloquent as Gu Sheng was left speechless!

You... are picking fights ridiculously!

However, seeing Gu Sheng not reply, the green-haired youth thought he was at a loss.

He then stepped forward and shoved Gu Sheng: “Hey—! I’m talking to you! Pretending you can’t hear?”

Two security guards nearby hurried over to stop him when Gu Sheng was pushed.

Gu Sheng instinctively raised his hands to signal he wasn’t going to fight.

The veteran’s experience told him—these colorful delinquents were here to provoke a fight.

More precisely—they were deliberately targeting his booth.

If he fought back now, regardless of whether he lost or won, it could affect and implicate his booth.

The expo lasted only four days.

If any conflict occurred during this period, according to the usual rules, Golden Wind’s booth would be temporarily closed.

And even if the investigation later cleared them, the expo ti would have passed.

Then Golden Wind’s Higashitsu Gaming Festival trip would be ruined entirely.

What to do?

Gu Sheng’s mind raced rapidly.

If this were China, he had plenty of ways to stop this.

But here was Neon, a foreign land.

And no doubt, these freakish, gaudily dressed youths were almost certainly sent by Kora.

Really... that was truly despicable.

“What the hell? What are you doing? Don’t drag !”

“Hey—! I’m talking to you! What now!”

“Try pushing again? You little bastard working as a lackey for Chinese people! Go to hell...”

Seeing the situation was about to get out of control.

At this critical mont!

The sound of urgent footsteps suddenly rang behind Gu Sheng!

Whoosh—!

A man in a gray suit strode past Gu Sheng like the wind, patting his shoulder and signaling him to step back two paces.

Then, splitting left and right to block the security guards ahead, he grabbed the green-haired leader’s long hair!

Buzz—smack!!!

A loud slap!

The big-eared man slapped the green-haired youth’s face hard, sending him sitting on the ground!

Whoa!!!

The onlookers all gasped in unison!

The green-haired youth lay there stunned for two seconds before fury exploded, shouting “bastard” and lunging at the suited man!

But the next second!

Smack!

Before the curses even landed, the suited man slapped him again: “Shut your trap! Open your dog eyes!”

“I don’t give a damn...”

The green-haired youth was clearly dazed, angrily cursing and turning to rush forward.

However, the next second!

Upon seeing the newcor clearly, the green-haired youth tensed up on the spot.

He froze for a full three seconds!

Then bowed sharply at a perfect ninety-degree angle, repeatedly nodding with a fearful and respectful attitude:

“Shimi Masai! Senior Moriya! Shimi Masai! Shimi Masai—!!!”