Chapter 106: All Stabbing Me in the Back

At Cangxue Games,

Chen Mo leaned back in his seat, his gaze sweeping slowly over Fang Chang, Wei Yan, and Zhao Bowen.

The three stood nervously in front of the desk. Ever since President Chen entered the office, he hadn’t said a word—just stared at them, and the pressure was immense.

“Speak. What’s going on with the Tianlong game?”

“President Chen, so you’ve already heard!”

Fang Chang visibly relaxed the moment he realized what Chen Mo was asking about.

“We were planning to inform you once the Tianlong player base had completely stabilized.”

Hearing this, Chen Mo’s heart gave a jolt. If they had really waited until the players settled down before informing him, it would’ve been far too late.

Were these guys planning to give him a “big surprise” on settlement day?

Thankfully, he’d discovered it early. Otherwise, it would’ve been another backstab from this bunch.

With that thought, his expression darkened as he looked at Fang Chang.

“If I recall correctly, I never gave you permission to update or overhaul Tianlong, did I?”

Fang Chang straightened up at the question.

“When I asked President Chen what to do next with Tianlong, you just left in silence.”

“Later, I consulted Director Wei and finally understood your intentions. After all, you’re the boss—you can’t be expected to micromanage everything.”

“Your move to tweak the equipment drop rates and bait the whales into hiring farming studios brought in a huge influx of players. That alone gave Tianlong a new lease on life.”

“You had already taken it this far, and I was still asking you what to do. That’s on me—it was my failure.”

“Thanks to Director Wei’s guidance, I woke up. We then rallied ninety percent of the company staff and spent two weeks revamping the game.”

“In the end, we didn’t let you down. Judging by the current results, the game is looking very promising.”

After listening to Fang Chang’s explanation, Chen Mo immediately understood.

He gave Wei Yan a subtle glance.

So this backstabber’s been stirring things up behind my back again!

This guy was poisonous! He could extrapolate that much from a single silent walkout?

“Using drop rates to attract whales to farming studios, thereby successfully generating traffic”—wasn’t that just a lucky accident?

And what did he mean, “not letting me down”? His expectation was for this game to lose money!

Now it all made sense.

Fang Chang alone couldn’t have pulled off this much.

Wait a minute—

Wasn’t Fang Chang always in charge of losing-money games? Why was the Tianlong overhaul so successful this time?

Chen Mo’s heart sank. That was a critical issue. Fang Chang currently had a new project going. If that game succeeded too, it would be a disaster!

He narrowed his eyes and asked, “Did you handle the update all by yourself?”

“Of course not. Credit goes to Director Wei and Zhao Bowen. It was Director Wei who suggested tweaking the drop rates—it’s turned out to be very effective.”

“The new class and world boss ideas came from Zhao Bowen. That new swordsman class? Players love it.”

“I just played the role of coordinator.”

Fang Chang said modestly.

Chen Mo nodded, relieved. So the successful overhaul was due to Wei Yan and Zhao Bowen.

He shot a cool glance at both of them.

No need to say anything about Wei Yan—he was a born traitor.

As for Zhao Bowen, that was unexpected. Who knew the guy had this much capability? And with someone this competent still around the company, how could Chen Mo rest easy?

He’d have to keep a close eye on Zhao Bowen and make absolutely sure he didn’t get involved in Fang Chang’s new project. Otherwise, what was supposed to be a losing game might turn profitable under his influence—and that would be bad.

While Chen Mo was deep in thought, Wei Yan suddenly broke the silence.

“President Chen, to be fair, Fang Chang did a lot of work too. Tianlong’s success wasn’t just the efforts of a few people—it was the whole company working together.”

“For the past two weeks, everyone’s been working overtime, even weekends, just to revive Tianlong.”

Chen Mo’s mouth twitched involuntarily.

Good grief…

So the whole damn company’s been secretly working behind my back?!

No wonder the game had undergone so many updates in just two weeks. So they’d all been sneaking in overtime just to stab him in the back!

His expression grew serious as he looked at Fang Chang.

“I was very clear about not allowing overtime, wasn’t I?”

“President Chen, I never asked them to do overtime. They volunteered,” Fang Chang quickly explained.

“But you knew they were working overtime and didn’t stop it. That’s still a problem. I don’t want this to happen again.”

“Understood, President Chen.”

Chen Mo nodded. What’s done was done—he could only try to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Still, there was a way to make the best of it.

He looked at Fang Chang and said, “Go compile their overtime hours. Double pay for all of it. Notify Finance and have it issued with next month’s salary.”

“But let me make this clear—this pay is not to encourage overtime. It’s just what they earned. Overtime work should be compensated properly.”

“Yes, President Chen,” Fang Chang nodded quickly, quietly thinking, Boss may be sharp-tongued, but he’s soft-hearted.

Then he remembered something.

“By the way, President Chen, we’ve got some good news: player traffic has exploded over the past couple of days, and game revenue has spiked.”

“Total revenue has already surpassed 200,000 yuan.”

“…How much?”

Chen Mo already had a bad feeling the moment he heard “good news.”

“Two hundred thousand, President Chen,” Fang Chang replied with a smile.

After confirming he hadn’t misheard, Chen Mo slumped back into his chair, defeated.

If I’d known this game would make money, I would’ve just approved Fang Chang’s proposal to shut it down. Can I still shut it down now?

【This game is now in a profitable state and no longer meets the conditions for shutdown. To shut down the game, it must operate at a loss for at least three consecutive months.】

Hearing the system’s notification, Chen Mo was speechless.

Great.

If he couldn’t shut it down, he’d just have to keep spending.

Fortunately, it wasn’t making that much yet.

There was still time before settlement. There were still ways to spend that money.

He still had a trump card—expanding the clothing factory.

Even though 200,000 might not be enough to rent a big factory, putting down a deposit wouldn’t be unreasonable.

In any case, the money can be spent.

Then another idea struck him: all the money from Tianlong’s profits was still sitting in the game’s account—it hadn’t been transferred to his company’s account yet.

If I just make sure not to transfer any of the funds to the company account before settlement…

Wouldn’t that mean the system still sees my funds as under 8,000 yuan and lets me pass the evaluation?