Chapter 20: Make Another Version

Du Xi had never actually expected her first draft to be approved in one go. After all, when it came to art, how could anything be finalized without going through a few iterations?

Producing four concept art pieces in a single day was already pushing the absolute limits of an artist.

Of course.

Quality and efficiency were not mutually exclusive.

Du Xi had already prepared herself for revisions.

However, being rejected by Su Cheng because the quality was too good was something she never could have anticipated in a million years.

Although Su Cheng had explained his reasoning, she still felt a lingering sense of frustration.

She worked so hard and took her job so seriously precisely because she wanted to earn her pay.

Even though Du Xi had joined the studio mainly to pad her resume, she was still someone with a strong sense of responsibility and dedication.

Oh well, whatever.

If she had to redraw them, she would redraw them.

It was just drawing something worse; who couldn’t do that?

Anyone with hands could do it.

It was just…

Su Cheng gave her a faint impression of being unreliable.

On just her second day on the job, the urge to jump ship was already creeping in.

Still, she suppressed the thought.

A monthly salary of thirty thousand, with full coverage for all social security and housing fund contributions.

Plus, two days off on weekends.

Benefits like these were already far better than what senior art directors got at some major tech giants.

Most importantly.

The studio was right here in Yezhou, right on her doorstep, meaning she could eat at home every single day.

What more could she ask for?

Seeing that Du Xi looked a bit off, Shen Manman stepped forward to comfort her.

“Sister Du, he wasn’t being sarcastic. He was genuinely praising your work; it’s just that the game’s positioning was off.”

“Didn’t he say the quality of those four pieces was good enough to be promotional art? You really drew them exceptionally well.”

“Thank you.” Du Xi found this younger junior quite endearing.

“How about this, Sister Du? Since the quality requirements aren’t high anyway, and there are four characters here, two male and two female, could I try drawing two of them?”

“Sure, no problem.”

Du Xi’s artwork was indeed higher quality than Shen Manman’s.

However, since Su Cheng didn’t require high quality and had actively asked her not to draw so well, there was no harm in letting Shen Manman join in.

After all, there were two artists.

It wouldn’t do for one to work themselves to the bone while the other sat around completely idle.

“Great! Then we’ll each draw one male and one female character. If there’s anything I don’t understand, I’ll come ask for your advice.”

“Mm.”

…

That evening.

Su Cheng and Li Lei sought out Old Zhang and pitched their idea of organizing a tournament.

They would need Old Zhang’s backing for this.

After all, when it came to esports, no one on Blue Star was doing it yet; people still primarily upheld traditional, bona fide competitive activities.

Such as Chinese chess and Go.

Video games, on the other hand, were dismissed. Subconsciously, everyone believed playing games was a frivolous waste of time.

And organizing a tournament for it? That would just be seen as being completely obsessed with gaming, something frowned upon by society.

This was precisely why games on Blue Star were developing so slowly.

In the eyes of parents, games were like ferocious beasts, liable to be reported to the authorities at the drop of a hat.

After hearing Su Cheng’s idea, Old Zhang thought it sounded pretty good.

“It’s a bold idea. There has never been an open, public gaming tournament like this before.”

Su Cheng’s original thought had been to hold an internet cafe tournament, which wouldn’t face as much resistance.

As long as there were enough participants to ensure the system quest was completed, that would suffice.

Su Cheng’s principle, however, was to either not do something at all, or do it to the absolute best of his ability.

An esports tournament was no exception.

“If you pull it off well, not only will it build your reputation, but it’ll also expand the influence of 《King of Fighters》, which will help your bid to win ‘Supernova.'”

“It’ll make me look good, too.”

Old Zhang readily agreed to pull strings for Su Cheng.

“However, the prize money you set is a bit too high. It would be better to dial it back.”

Three days passed.

Du Xi and Shen Manman not only finished drawing the character art, but also designed the bosses, equipment, and weapons for every stage based on the background descriptions in the design proposal.

Over those three days, Su Cheng and Li Lei didn’t bother attending class; they simply locked themselves in the office playing games.

From time to time, trash talk and banter between the two drifted out from the office.

In the entire studio, it felt as though she and Shen Manman, the two artists, were the only ones actually working.

What on earth were these two programmers doing, playing games every day without touching the framework or writing a single line of code!

Those top-spec computers were gathering dust!

If they really couldn’t handle it, could we at least hire a few more people, hey!

Du Xi knocked on the office door to turn in the artwork to Su Cheng.

The two were still gaming.

“Take a look at the quality and see if it works,” Du Xi said, placing the tablet in front of Su Cheng. “Characters, weapons, equipment, reward icons, and background variations.”

Su Cheng was in the middle of a match against Li Lei right then.

He had no choice but to pause, freeing a hand to swipe casually across the tablet and glance over it perfunctorily.

It was still done too well.

Good enough.

“Looks fine. Go ahead and start modeling.”

???

That was it?

Du Xi took back the tablet and walked out of the office completely bewildered.

In reality,

Su Cheng and Li Lei hadn’t just been playing games over the past three days.

They had been developing a cheat and anti-cheat system, injecting it into the game for continuous testing.

Bugs like infinite health, damage reduction, and unlimited meter kept cropping up, leaving the two laughing and cursing, which was the racket Du Xi had heard from outside.

After three days of development, King of Fighters’ anti-cheat system was nearly perfected.

On top of that,

the two had also worked overtime to create an official website for [Qianhe Studio].

Aside from a brief introduction to the studio, it had only a single feature:

The registration system for the [King of Fighters Championship].

The cheat and anti-cheat system, along with the official website, were completed almost simultaneously.

Su Cheng updated the King of Fighters build on the backend.

Meanwhile, Li Lei began taking the website live.

As for Old Zhang, he had pretty much finished pulling strings, and all the relevant parties agreed to let them host the [King of Fighters Championship].

…

The website went live.

Su Cheng posted brief announcements on the official Weibo and P-Station^[1] accounts.

Esports tournaments were still quite novel on Blue Star; a competition in this format had never existed before.

The moment news of the [King of Fighters Championship] went out, it quickly sparked heated discussion.

Su Cheng had originally intended to set the prize money at thirty to fifty thousand Yuan.

However, considering Old Zhang’s suggestion that handing out so much cash might cause a bad impression, he ultimately changed it: the top ten would receive high-end graphics cards, CPUs, and other computer components, accompanied by a 1,000 Yuan cash prize.

The tournament adopted a points-based system.

Those who ranked in the top 100 on points would receive a 500 Yuan cash prize.

Everything leading up to the finals would be played online, while the finals would be held offline at Yezhou Sports Plaza, with the organizer covering lodging, airfare, and related expenses.

As for the tagline,

Su Cheng wrote only a single sentence.

[King of Fighters: Your blood-pumping battlefield!]

Brief, punchy, and passionate.

“King of Fighters Collegiate League Tournament? What the hell is this?”

“An official tournament?”

“Looks like only college students can participate, representing their schools.”

“Interesting! It’s just a gaming tournament, yet the champion gets a top-spec PC! Plus a thousand Yuan cash prize!”

“Holy crap, can graduating seniors register? I haven’t attended my commencement ceremony yet!”

“Seems like it, but there are campus-level qualifiers first before you advance round by round.”

“These rewards are pretty generous. A gaming tournament actually giving out this much money? A thousand Yuan is enough for a month of my living expenses.”

“Think about it carefully. If you sell the PC, wouldn’t that cover six months of living expenses?”

“Hey, wake up, you guys up there. You haven’t even won the championship yet.”

“The learning curve for this game is super steep. My roommate played for a solid week before barely beating it on the highest difficulty, and now they’re already launching a tournament?”