Chapter 34: Project Established

Monday.

Fan Ziru and Zou Shaoqing reported to Qianhe Studio on time.

Zou Shaoqing looked the same as always: short sleeves, shorts, and sneakers.

He embodied the classic programmer look to perfection, yet he was actually an artist.

Fan Ziru was a different story.

She had clearly dressed up with care today.

Her features were delicate under light makeup, and the soft contours of her face gave off a warm, approachable feeling.

Her deep, sea-blue eyes sparkled radiantly, openly displaying her confidence and charm.

Her soft, wavy hair fell over her shoulders, complementing her complexion and giving her a natural grace.

With her long, slender legs and perfect curves, she walked as if strutting down a runway.

Everything about her radiated strong self-assurance and elegant poise.

“Let me introduce our two new colleagues to everyone.”

After making the announcement, Su Cheng asked them to introduce themselves.

Zou Shaoqing’s introduction was brief. He stammered out his name, his eyes darting around, visibly lacking in confidence.

Fan Ziru, by contrast, held her head high with poised dignity and introduced herself fluently.

Watching from the side, Du Xi couldn’t help marveling inwardly.

Holy cow!

Su Cheng certainly hadn’t sat idle over the weekend.

He was finally willing to hire more people!

Wait, though.

Why was the artist a guy and the programmer a girl?

She had assumed Zou Shaoqing was the programmer.

Judging from appearances, Zou Shaoqing looked much more like a programmer, while Fan Ziru seemed like the one with an art background.

Du Xi wasn’t sure whether she and Zou Shaoqing would get along working together.

She would have loved to team up with that sunny, outgoing girl, but that wasn’t an option.

Li Lei couldn’t help clicking his tongue.

Man, oh man.

That rascal Su Cheng really had good taste!

Picking such a pretty girl.

He felt like he had a real shot!

Li Lei was the first to rush forward to introduce himself and start bragging to Fan Ziru.

“Hello, Xiao Fan. I’m the studio’s lead programmer.” Li Lei extended a hand to shake Fan Ziru’s.

Fan Ziru didn’t decline. She gave it a light shake and replied with a smile, “Hello, Li Lei. Professor Zhang mentioned you to me.”

Li Lei froze on the spot.

Huh?

So she was a student recommended by Old Zhang?

And a senior alumna at that?

Li Lei discreetly glanced at Su Cheng, receiving a silent confirmation from his eyes.

Well, then.

Then he probably had no chance.

Whether Fan Ziru would even look twice at him was beside the point.

She was clearly here to follow Su Cheng.

Besides, she had worked at a major tech firm, so her technical skills were definitely no worse than his.

Whatever, forget it. Best not to dwell on it.

After everyone got briefly acquainted, they added the two newcomers to the studio’s group chat.

“Everyone, take a seat first. There’s one more thing I need to go over.”

Su Cheng signaled for everyone to sit down, then posted a design proposal for 《Elite Action》 in the group chat.

“If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to bring them up.”

Su Cheng gave them an hour to look over the proposal.

The proposal for 《Elite Action》 was actually quite simple.

The gameplay was even simpler.

Classic Mode: Terrorists breach and plant the bomb; Counter-Terrorists defend and defuse.

Biohazard Mode: Four players are randomly chosen as host mutants in a clash between humans and mutants.

Hostage Mode: Rescue the hostages.

Hide-and-Seek Mode: Randomly transform into an object on the map to hide.

All modes had shared maps.

For example: Dust II, Overpass, Mirage, Nuke, and so forth.

Su Cheng had only purchased the main program optimization pack and the sound effects pack from the store; for everything else, he would have to lead the team and build it personally.

“I have an objection.”

Fan Ziru was the first to finish reading, and she voiced her thoughts immediately.

“Go ahead,” Su Cheng prompted.

“FPS games are hardly rare on the market.”

“For example, 《Half-Life》, which launched the Steam platform, as well as all sorts of reskinned online games.”

“In terms of positioning, 《Elite Action》 is an online game, and one that demands high player interaction and heavy physics collisions.”

“If we want to make it exciting and truly stand out, we can’t use the generic engines available on the market. We need to develop a powerful game engine of our own.”

Mm, Fan Ziru had grasped the game’s positioning with pinpoint accuracy.

Su Cheng did indeed plan to develop an engine.

Personally, he possessed the Super Game Engine granted by the system.

However, it was strictly for his own use and couldn’t be shared with Li Lei or Fan Ziru.

But Su Cheng could simply copy out a portion of the source code from the Super Game Engine!

Then they could build a comparable one based on it.

Granted, its performance certainly wouldn’t match the Super Game Engine.

Even so, reaching fifty or sixty percent of its capability would already count as a success.

After all, everything would eventually be imported into the Super Game Engine for final optimization.

Even industry insiders wouldn’t be able to tell.

When the time came, even programmers like Li Lei and Fan Ziru who wrote the code wouldn’t realize that two different engines were actually involved.

“I was just about to bring that up.”

“We definitely need an engine, and I’ve already finished most of it. I need you two to refine and optimize it, especially when it comes to physics collisions.”

Li Lei: ???

Su Cheng?

Built an engine?

How come he had no idea?!

Just how many secrets was Su Cheng keeping? He had secretly built an engine all by himself.

And he hadn’t even told his best buddy!

“Ah, I wasn’t sure if it would work, and you have more important tasks anyway. I only put together a basic framework and core backbone.”

Then Su Cheng brought out the portion of source code he had copied.

The look on Li Lei’s face turned to absolute disbelief.

Humblebrag!

Keep humblebragging!

Su Cheng’s programming skills had skyrocketed!

Wait a second.

Could Su Cheng have been waiting for this exact moment to whip out the code?

He had just claimed to be the lead programmer, and now Su Cheng slammed down engine source code right in front of him.

Lead programmer, my ass!

He could kiss any chance with Fan Ziru goodbye.

Fan Ziru was also quietly amazed by her underclassman.

She had asked Old Zhang about Su Cheng and learned that his abilities were only average.

Yet the engine issue she had just raised had already occurred to Su Cheng long ago.

What was more, he had actually written the code.

And the quality of his code was top-notch, far superior to hers.

Could anyone capable of writing engine code truly be ordinary?

“Moving on, let me emphasize our key priorities on the art side,” Su Cheng continued.

Du Xi, Shen Manman, and Zou Shaoqing gathered their focus and pricked up their ears to listen.

“Firearms, character models, and maps are our top priorities…”

Once the art priorities were covered, Li Lei brought up another standard consideration.

“Since it’s an FPS game, an anti-cheat system is an absolute must. Otherwise, it will completely ruin the game’s ecosystem and player balance.”

Li Lei was right. Su Cheng had thought of anti-cheat as well, but they had to get the engine built first.

Normally, the process went like this:

The game would be made first, followed by anti-cheat measures, and then regular updates to the game security suite.

In reality, there was a much more efficient way.

Develop the programming and anti-cheat simultaneously.

That way, they could stamp out cheat modules on a massive scale right at the source.

“When it comes to anti-cheat, I think Leizi is the best fit.”

“The anti-cheat on The King of Fighters was done exceptionally well.”

“Besides, Leizi is our studio’s genius programmer. Back in high school, he even won an individual programming…”

Li Lei: ???

Normally, Li Lei wouldn’t mind being talked up like that; it would have made him look great.

But right now, Su Cheng’s engine code was towering right over him.

No matter what awards he had won, they couldn’t possibly hold a candle to that!

“All right, all right, stop putting a tall hat on me^[1]! I’ll do the anti-cheat, okay?”