Let's rewind ti a bit.
On the day the collaboration event revenue was announced, until around 8 PM in the evening.
Tang Yao finally saw Li Xue again.
Because Li Xue had been extrely busy. Currently at Avalon, she essentially held two positions simultaneously - executive officer and Tang Yao's special assistant.
Although Avalon had recently recruited a batch of managent personnel, such as departnt managers, to assist Li Xue.
For soone responsible for overseeing the company's daily business operations... even with assistance, it obviously wouldn't be easy.
As for the assistant position... Tang Yao had actually asked her to find a suitable replacent long ago, but perhaps because no suitable candidate was found, Li Xue never managed to find soone to take over her role.
This was actually one of the reasons why the two hadn't seen much of each other recently.
It wasn't just because of misunderstandings.
But busy as she was, it must be said.
Li Xue was truly intelligent and resilient, growing almost every day during this period.
Combined with the fact that the company's content departnt operated relatively independently, with Tang Yao as the nominal 'chairman' keeping an eye on things... while it wasn't easy, Li Xue at least wasn't completely overwheld.
However.
That was before.
After the first-day revenue numbers for the FGO x "Dark Night" collaboration card pool were released.
With Avalon operating at full capacity, Li Xue began struggling, to the point where even after reconciling with Tang Yao, she didn't have ti to return to her workstation.
She was swamped beyond belief.
Of course, being busy was one thing - her not returning to her workstation also carried a hint of guilt.
As for why she felt guilty...
The mont Li Xue returned to her workstation, before she could even catch her breath.
Tang Yao imdiately sprang up from her chair, lightly grabbing Li Xue's neck and shaking her back and forth, gritting her teeth: "Finally caught you!"
"...I'm sorry, I was wrong."
Looking at Tang Yao's beautiful face tinged with a faint blush... Li Xue knew exactly why she was angry.
So without another word, she imdiately lowered her head in apology.
"..."
Her straightforward apology actually left Tang Yao at a loss.
Tang Yao looked at the bowed head of her older sister figure, falling silent for a mont before asking: "Aren't you going to explain yourself?"
"No, I really got carried away."
Li Xue raised her head, sincere: "Even as a joke, I shouldn't have done that..."
"..."
Hearing Li Xue's earnest words, Tang Yao fell silent again, now truly at a loss for words.
Because they often hugged each other, she wasn't actually that angry... it was more about embarrassnt and surprise.
And as ti passed, her waiting for Li Xue was less about anger and more about simply feeling indignant...
One could call it karma... normally loving to look at lewd pictures of big sister types, right?
Now she'd beco the protagonist herself.
Thinking this.
Tang Yao released her grip on Li Xue's neck, suddenly feeling world-weary: "Forget it, I'll forgive you this once."
"..."
Li Xue blinked in surprise at Tang Yao's words.
She'd been fully prepared to be scolded, never expecting Tang Yao to let it go so easily.
At the ti, she really hadn't thought much of it, just acting on impulse because she cared... and because Tang Yao's actions had made her get carried away.
Li Xue cautiously asked: "You're not angry?"
Tang Yao sat back down, amused: "I am angry! What are you going to do about it?"
Li Xue thought for a mont, then smoothed her skirt and elegantly sat down, moving her office chair closer to Tang Yao before slightly puffing out her ample chest: "...Let you get your revenge then."
Since she'd said she didn't mind.
If they were going to pretend, might as well go all the way.
Tang Yao: "..."
Damn it.
So tempting.
...
The reconciliation between Avalon's two executives didn't imdiately benefit the other staff.
Mainly it just improved the moods of the two involved.
Of course, that only lasted for that day.
Soon, neither Tang Yao nor Li Xue had ti for each other... both overwheld with work.
March 23rd.
Tang Yao was racing to complete this week's "Chainsaw Man" manuscript.
But keeping herself completely isolated from outside matters... was impossible.
Soon enough, Si Jinliang ca knocking.
"Tang Yao, here are a few new ga nas we ca up with, see if any are suitable."
He handed her an A4 sheet, snapping Tang Yao out of her drawing trance as he explained his purpose.
Tang Yao took the paper, glanced down, and imdiately scrunched up her pretty face.
After a long mont.
She finally looked up and curiously asked: "These are the nas you ca up with?"
"Mm."
Si Jinliang nodded, pointing proudly at the paper in Tang Yao's hands: "See, we've got the xuanhuan-style 'War Hymn of the Spirit Pivot', fantasy-style... 'Scepter Epoch', 'Echoes of the Abyss', 'Dragonfall Pact', and dark fantasy... 'Contract of the Ti Ruins'."
"..."
Tang Yao looked between the nas on the paper and the seemingly satisfied Si Jinliang.
She couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
But none of them felt quite right.
"...Not suitable?"
After enthusiastically introducing each na, Si Jinliang finally noticed Tang Yao's continued frown.
"Hmm... how to put it, they don't feel very catchy."
Tang Yao hesitated: "And they don't seem to match the ga's the."
"I see... do you have any better nas then?"
Si Jinliang scratched his head: "This was the best we could co up with."
"?"
Tang Yao fell into thought at his question.
Truth be told.
She didn't have any either.
However.
Tang Yao had considered simply calling it "Hearthstone"... but she was still hesitating. In Diablo and World of Warcraft, hearthstones were ga items used to return to town, and Blizzard's card ga used that na with clear intent - to tell players that hearthstones could lead them ho...
Although Tang Yao felt even that na was sowhat forced.
After so thought.
Tang Yao set the paper down, not rushing to decide: "How about this - let
think about it so more and I'll give you an answer later."
"Alright."
Si Jinliang nodded and took his leave.
No sooner had Si Jinliang left than before Tang Yao could pick up her pen to resu drawing, Li Xue returned.
Seeing Li Xue, Tang Yao set aside her drawing to ask about the co-publishing matters: "Miss Li, how are things with the co-publishing?"
Li Xue smoothed her skirt and sat down, taking a sip of water before replying: "Most manufacturers have agreed to send over their DEMOs."
"Have any major companies contacted us?"
"Actually yes... I was just about to tell you about this."
"Oh?"
"Have you heard of..."
Li Xue set down her cup, then asked with a serious expression: "Jiuxiao?"
"The second largest internet company in the country?"
Tang Yao was stunned: "They contacted us too?"
"Yes."
Li Xue nodded, then hesitated before adding with clear distaste: "But their attitude was extrely poor."
"Extrely poor?"
This surprised Tang Yao... it was rare to see the normally gentle Li Xue show such open dislike: "How so?"
"When they contacted , their opening demand was that... Avalon must accept their investnt as a precondition for co-publishing."
Li Xue took a deep breath, regaining her usual composure before continuing: "Despite all their talk about strategic cooperation and establishing deep joint chanisms for mobile gas... their attitude was incredibly arrogant, even carrying undertones of threat."
"...Huh?"
Tang Yao looked shocked: "How much equity did they want?"
"40%, plus involvent in Avalon's ga developnt and operations."
Li Xue shook her head: "Even worse, they demanded that all future new gas' distribution rights must also be granted to Jiuxiao's channels... essentially aning our future gas, including the current FGO, would have to be released through Jiuxiao's platforms."
"???"
Tang Yao's face filled with question marks as she instinctively blurted: "Are they insane?"
This was truly her most genuine thought at that mont.
How could they dare make such demands?
While Avalon couldn't compare to them, they were currently in a rapid growth phase.
Even at their lowest point.
Couldn't Tang Yao seek other external funding? Why would she agree to such ridiculous terms?
How was this any different from being led to slaughter?
Tang Yao couldn't help asking: "Where do they get such nerve?"
"..."
Li Xue fell silent for a long mont before responding: "I was furious too when I first heard, so I did so research on Jiuxiao... turns out they have quite the notorious reputation, specializing in using capital to crush small and mid-sized ga teams."
"You know how copyright law protects expression but not ideas, aning pure ga chanics aren't protected, right?"
"They exploit this loophole to pressure smaller teams... their thods are crude but effective - copy successful gas, then leverage their massive financial resources and accumulated user base to create nearly identical competitors to challenge the originals."
"Most small teams can't resist these bully tactics - either accept their investnt or go under, because proving plagiarism is difficult, and lawsuits could drag on endlessly."
"If you stubbornly resist, as the second largest internet company, they'll use their vast resources to completely overwhelm the original ga with their copy."
"Even if they can't completely crush it, they'll gradually erode the original ga's user base until it dies."
"And this strategy is practically unstoppable for small and mid-sized teams."
"..."
Tang Yao's beautiful eyes widened slightly: "So their threat is... they'll copy FGO?"
"Correct."
"...?"
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