Chapter 96: The Mastermind Behind the Curtain… Is Me?

“Got it, President Chen.”

Fang Chang responded promptly to President Chen’s instructions.

But in his heart, he was already calculating—now that they had such a large amount of funding, a few of his previously difficult-to-implement ideas could finally be tested out.

Originally, he had planned to wait and see how the game performed after launch before deciding whether to include them.

But now, it seemed he could add them in ahead of time.

“Alright, you all carry on. I’ll be heading off now.”

Chen Mo got up to leave. Since the money had already been spent, there was no reason for him to stick around.

Seeing that President Chen was about to leave, Fang Chang quickly called out.

“Wait a moment, President Chen.”

“Is there something else?”

Chen Mo turned back to look at him.

Hearing the question, Fang Chang gave a smile.

“Yes, President Chen. There’s something else—but it’s good news.”

“What kind of good news?”

Chen Mo frowned slightly. Based on his experience, anything they claimed was “good news” usually wasn’t.

“It’s about that game, Tianlong. Recently, its user traffic has suddenly surged, and a lot of players have been spending money in the game.”

“Tianlong is starting to generate profit now. It’s not a lot yet, but if this momentum continues, revenue will surely increase.”

“Of course, it’s all thanks to your brilliant strategy, President Chen. First, you stirred up the whales’ competitive spirit, then you set the drop rate of gear ridiculously low, forcing them to ask others to farm gear for them.”

“President Chen, that move was genius!”

Fang Chang rambled on, his eyes full of admiration as he looked at Chen Mo.

Recently, Zhao Bowen had also been paying close attention to Tianlong, even logging in using the company account to check things out himself.

He finally understood what was going on—and why President Chen had asked for a game account.

Turns out, President Chen had been acting as a game shill himself!

They had used paid shills before to stimulate spending, but after the game started losing money, they had removed all of them.

After all, paying shills cost money.

Chen Mo, meanwhile, was completely bewildered by Fang Chang’s words. Brilliant strategy? What did I do?

And what do you mean Tianlong is turning a profit again?

“Hold on a second. What exactly do you mean by Tianlong is making money?”

Fang Chang looked at Chen Mo’s completely clueless expression, and the admiration in his eyes deepened.

He had clearly been the one who single-handedly brought Tianlong back to life, and now he was pretending he had nothing to do with it.

This was truly the embodiment of: “Having done the deed, brush off your robes and disappear, leaving your merits hidden.”

But since President Chen didn’t want to admit it, Fang Chang didn’t press the issue.

He played along and explained the whole situation from start to finish.

After hearing it all, Chen Mo felt his vision go dark. He braced himself against the table and slowly sat down in a chair.

Tianlong was profitable?

And the true mastermind… was actually himself?

Who knew how long it was before Chen Mo finally recovered.

He let out a long breath.

He had just realized something: maybe things weren’t as serious as he thought. The players flooding in now were mainly gold farmers.

These people didn’t actually care about the game itself—they just wanted to grind mobs, get drops, and sell the gear for cash.

But the whale who was buying all the gear couldn’t possibly keep doing that forever. Once he had enough gear, and no one was buying anymore, those gold farmers would leave too.

At that point, Tianlong would return to its previous unprofitable state.

Understanding this, Chen Mo finally felt relieved.

“President Chen, what should we do next?”

Fang Chang finally asked cautiously after seeing Chen Mo remain silent for a while.

Chen Mo looked up at him, opened his mouth to say something, then shut it again and left Cangxue Games with Shen Rou.

A sudden thought hit him: If just casually playing the game almost revived it… what if I accidentally bring it fully back to life by getting involved again? That’d be a problem.

After thinking it over, he decided—he couldn’t interfere anymore.

Once that whale had enough gear, and the gold farmers and studios left, everything would die down.

It was better to let things cool off.

Fang Chang scratched his head, baffled by Chen Mo’s cryptic expression.

What on earth does President Chen mean? And he didn’t even tell me how to handle the whole Tianlong situation…

He thought long and hard but couldn’t figure it out.

In the end, he had no choice but to seek help from Wei Yan.

In all of Cangxue Games, probably only Wei Yan could interpret President Chen’s thinking.

Some time later—

Wei Yan walked in from outside.

“Manager Fang, something wrong?”

“You know President Chen was just here, right?”

“Yeah. Didn’t he come to talk to you about the new project? I’ve only just started learning about the gaming industry—if it’s about projects, I wouldn’t be of much help.”

Wei Yan assumed Fang Chang wanted to discuss the new project.

“It’s not about the new project. It’s about Tianlong.”

Fang Chang explained briefly and then recounted what had happened.

Then he looked up at Wei Yan.

“What do you think President Chen meant?”

“Oh, so that’s what this is about!”

Wei Yan’s expression brightened as if he had an epiphany.

“This is actually really simple.”

“Huh?”

“You know what President Chen meant?”

Fang Chang stared in shock. He figured it out just from that? I’ve been thinking for ages and still couldn’t understand what that last expression from Chen Mo meant!

Wei Yan smiled slightly at Fang Chang’s reaction and began analyzing:

“Look, Tianlong only ended up where it is now because of President Chen’s quiet efforts behind the scenes, right?”

“Right.”

Fang Chang nodded. The game’s turnaround was entirely thanks to President Chen acting as a shill and reviving it by himself.

That was undeniable.

“So, if President Chen already transformed the game this much, and then you go asking him what to do next—does that really make sense?”

“A boss is still the boss. He can point us in the right direction, give us general guidance.”

“Our job is to follow that direction, dig deep, and innovate.”

“If the boss has to do everything himself, what’s the point of us even being here?”

Wei Yan finished calmly and looked at Fang Chang.

Fang Chang’s eyes gradually lit up—it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head, waking him up completely.

He got it!

Right!

I’m the company manager and lead game planner.

President Chen already quietly turned Tianlong around.

And here I was, foolishly asking him what to do next. Of course he wouldn’t answer.

What I need to do now is revive Tianlong completely!

With that in mind,

Fang Chang turned to Wei Yan, eyes full of renewed determination.