Chapter 6 Supernova

Beside him, Li Lei rubbed his bleary, sleep-swollen eyes and woke up.

When he heard that Old Zhang was looking for Su Cheng, Li Lei immediately wanted to make a run for it.

“Uh, bro, I’ve been holding it in all morning. I’ll hit the restroom first while you go have a nice chat with Old Zhang… lunch is on me later…”

Guilt-ridden, Li Lei tried to use the classic bathroom escape^[1] to slip away, but a single sentence from the teaching assistant dragged him right back.

“Li Lei, Instructor Zhang said you’re supposed to go with Su Cheng.”

Li Lei: ?

I’m involved in this too?

On the way to see Old Zhang.

“Look, I drank way too much last night. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“I already deleted the Moments post.”

Su Cheng: …

Deleting it now was too late.

The entire school already knew.

Still, Su Cheng could accept Li Lei’s contrite attitude.

He had originally wanted to keep a low profile, never expecting Li Lei would broadcast it to the world.

And now, Old Zhang had summoned him for a lecture right away.

As soon as they stepped into the office.

Old Zhang had Li Lei lock the door from the inside.

Old Zhang was an advisor wearing glasses with a balding, Mediterranean hairstyle^[2]. One look at his hair made it obvious he was a true master.

The staple books sitting on his desk included 《Game Design and Development: Where Dreams Begin》, 《100 Principles of Game Design》, 《Game Mechanics》, 《The Art of Game Design》, and 《236 Techniques of Game Design》.

He possessed rock-solid expertise and was strict yet responsible toward his students.

In his own words: if you haven’t mastered your craft before heading into the industry, you will only make a fool of yourself.

“Did the two of you make 《King of Fighters》?”

Those were the very first words out of Old Zhang’s mouth, demanded with a stern scowl.

Li Lei did not dare utter a sound.

He had no idea whether he should admit it or deny it.

Admitting it might spare Su Cheng a bit of a scolding.

Denying it would dump all the blame entirely onto Su Cheng.

Su Cheng admitted it openly, saying that 《King of Fighters》 was indeed his work.

“Which parts did you do?” Old Zhang pressed.

“I handled the design and programming. The rest wasn’t me.”

Su Cheng told the truth.

The design and code were indeed written by him, but the CG, sound effects, art assets, and the like had all been provided by the system.

Li Lei: ??

Wait a second?

Didn’t you say you only participated in part of the development?

How did you end up doing the design and the programming too?

Other than the art, sound, and CG… so in the end, you made the whole game yourself?

That’s not what you said yesterday!

Old Zhang was equally surprised to hear this.

“Li Lei, you had no part in developing 《King of Fighters》?”

“No…” Li Lei shook his head.

Old Zhang genuinely had not expected that.

The two of them were usually close enough to share a pair of pants, yet 《King of Fighters》 had been developed by Su Cheng alone.

Still, that was easy enough to understand.

Li Lei was highly skilled and frequently took on outsourcing contracts from major studios, so he hardly had time to spare.

However, Old Zhang did not criticize or scold Su Cheng. Instead, he pulled out two meal boxes bound with rubber bands from his drawer, resembling the kind sold on trains, and handed them to the two young men.

“Sit down and eat first, both of you.”

Old Zhang’s unusual attitude made the two realize that this was no simple matter.

“You know about the school’s ‘Supernova’ competition coming up, right?”

The Supernova Competition was a nationwide collegiate tournament meant to scout promising games and standout game producers.

Placing in it was practically an official certification of one’s ability.

Moving forward, whether someone wanted to start an indie game studio or go through campus recruitment for major companies, it offered an immense advantage.

Some seniors from previous years had barely won the championship before being invited to join major corporations as full-time staff.

On top of that, there was prize money of up to a hundred thousand Yuan.

The game development major had been enrolling fewer and fewer students, and employment prospects were far from ideal.

As a result, capable students grew increasingly scarce.

Even if there were any, they went to universities situated in megacities like Jingzhou^[3] or Shanghu.

Take Supernova, for instance.

An advisor could recommend one or more students to compete in the campus qualifiers, ultimately selecting a single game or team to represent the school.

Old Zhang could not even find a single student.

There had been strong candidates among former students, but they were no longer eligible to compete.

As for the current batch, it was hard to put into words.

Those with a bit of skill secretly took outsourced gigs, while the rest just gave up and slacked off, idling their days away.

It was nothing like other advisors, who had a whole stable of elite talent under their command.

Old Zhang was retiring soon.

Whether he could take one last step up the ladder was hard to say.

The explosive success of 《King of Fighters》 gave Old Zhang a glimmer of hope.

Su Cheng and Li Lei were a bit surprised.

This was a title that had already been proven by the market.

Entering 《King of Fighters》 into Supernova… wasn’t that basically bullying the competition?

“Bullying, my foot.”

“As long as you beat everyone else on campus, there’s a twenty-thousand-Yuan prize, and representing our school is a real honor…”

Naturally, Su Cheng looked right past something like ‘Supernova’.

The grand prize was merely a hundred thousand Yuan.

Yesterday alone, 《King of Fighters》 had pulled in two to three hundred thousand Yuan in revenue.

As for fame and honors?

Su Cheng had zero need to prove himself in a competition like this.

All he wanted was to pour his time into a new game and make even more money.

In his past life, he had earned plenty of money, but it had literally come at the cost of his life, grinding away in relentless, frantic exhaustion.

In this life, besides making games, Su Cheng wanted to enjoy living more and experience a world of luxury and decadence.

I spent an entire lifetime making games. Can’t I enjoy myself a little?

Seeing that Su Cheng had little interest, Old Zhang let out an earnest sigh.

“There are things you should fight for when you have the chance. It won’t do you any harm.”

Old Zhang truly had treated Su Cheng well, bailing him out whenever he was on the verge of failing a course.

His dedication to teaching was leagues ahead of advisors who only slacked off and hunted for shortcuts to climb the ladder.

He only had a few years left before retirement.

If a student under his wing achieved such success, it would naturally grant him a final shot at promotion.

Besides, the whole school already knew; even if Su Cheng wanted to keep a low profile, he couldn’t.

In the end, Su Cheng decided to enter the competition.

《King of Fighters》 was already a complete game, so having Old Zhang submit it wouldn’t take much effort at all.

It was bound to be an uncontested victory anyway, and it really couldn’t hurt.

“All right, I’ll register you today. I’ll email you the forms later, so fill them out and send them back to me.”

The two walked out of the office.

“That’s weird. Old Zhang didn’t criticize us once.”

Normally, no matter how well someone did, they would still get a harsh dressing-down first.

Then again…

Su Cheng was different this time.

Su Cheng was the lead designer as well as the lead programmer.

With the Supernova Competition right around the corner and such a project and talent emerging under his watch, Old Zhang was far too thrilled to be upset.

“Not bad, you rascal! You actually developed 《King of Fighters》 completely on your own, and you didn’t even tell me!” Li Lei complained.

“No wonder you were nowhere to be found these past few days and skipped classes. You were buried in code the whole time, weren’t you?”

Li Lei was genuinely surprised.

It seemed as though Su Cheng had suddenly gained access to a massive amount of industry resources.

Take that gorgeous CG animation, for example. It must have cost an absolute fortune.

There was no way a single person could have made that alone.

Li Lei guessed that some game company had taken notice of Su Cheng’s game, saw tremendous potential, and put in all that effort to produce it to help him promote it.

Without that CG, there was really no telling if 《King of Fighters》 would have achieved any success at all.

More likely than not, it would have been buried in the platform’s massive library of games, forgotten by everyone.

And Li Lei had the nerve to complain?

Even though Su Cheng had kept so much hidden from Li Lei, the whole school had still found out the very next day, and Old Zhang right along with them.

If anyone had the right to complain, it was Su Cheng!

“We don’t have class this afternoon. What are the two of us doing?”

“I’m planning to check out some office buildings and rent a place for the studio. Want to come with me?”

“So soon? Just how much money did you make off 《King of Fighters》?!”