Thursday, December 17th.
Lin Feng finally finished the event system.
After some polishing and resolving a few merge conflicts within the codebase, they could finally get started with stage two.
This was going to be on an entirely different level compared to stage one.
Lin Feng pulled up the task breakdown.
"I'll work on scene management," he said. "Basic 2D sprite rendering, basic collisions, tile maps - the whole nine yards."
Li Jun nodded.
"And I'll handle resource management," he said. "Audio system integration, sound effects, music, texture loading and management..."
He trailed off, already looking slightly daunted.
Lin Feng smiled grimly.
"This is going to be difficult."
"Yeah."
They braced themselves and got to work.
…
Monday, December 21st.
Lin Feng and Li Jun were still grinding away at the game engine codebase.
They encountered complex situations almost daily - architecture decisions, performance bottlenecks, edge cases they hadn't anticipated.
More than once, they found themselves consulting Zhang Wei on how to navigate certain problems.
"You're overcomplicating the texture atlas," Zhang Wei said during one such session, pointing at their code. "See here? You don't need to reload the entire sheet every time. Cache the UV coordinates."
Lin Feng nodded, making notes.
It seemed they did indeed improve faster through projects than through pure study. Their skills had grown more in these past few days than during the entire latter half of their learning sessions with Zhang Wei.
That said, they were still far from accomplishing their tasks.
On the Fool's Gambit side, everything was going well. Sales remained steady, and the Western market continued to show strong numbers.
On the Xingyao side, Lin Feng and Mengqi were still working extremely hard to finalize the new music. They were extremely close but it still wasn't quite there yet.
And as of today, Xunfeng's expansion officially began.
The new warehouse was operational. Workers were hired and routes were being established.
Things were moving forward on all fronts.
…
Friday, December 25th.
Lin Feng sat in his office, leaning back in his chair.
Don't they call this Christmas in the West?
He smiled.
Well, it was indeed Christmas for him.
He had just finalized the new music with Mengqi. After weeks of painstaking work - pirating tracks, restoring them, composing original elements, blending everything together - they had finally achieved the sound he wanted.
He was extremely satisfied with it.
On top of that, since today was the 25th, his 50,000 yuan salary from Xingyao had arrived.
He pulled up his system.
[Infinite Money System]
[Total System Balance: ¥522,742.00]
[Available System Balance: ¥522,742.00]
His daily system gain had officially crossed 500,000 yuan.
And for the cherry on top - the renovation for his new office space was finally complete.
Does it get any better than this?
Then his expression turned serious.
It was time to finally make his move.
He opened his laptop and began drafting a job listing.
Position: Studio Director
Company: Moonlight Animation Studios
This was the new company he had established. An animation studio.
His new money-making venture.
His plan was simple.
After Su Yue recorded the new song, they weren't going to release it like a normal track. Instead, they would release it as an AMV - animated by his new studio.
But this wasn't the real money maker.
In fact, the studio would most likely burn cash doing this.
This was just the setup.
The new song they had created was titled "Becoming Fairy."
It told the story of a girl who becomes a fairy - one who saves the world through her singing.
The reason for the AMV wasn't exactly to make money. At least, not on the studio side.
The reason he wanted it animated was to create a character.
This character would be the visual representation of the fairy - a new IP born from the Moon Fairy brand.
He would then license this IP from Xingyao Entertainment to Moonlight Animation Studios.
And with that IP, he would produce an animated film.
This was where the real money lay.
The reason he was so confident about the film was because it was a film he was restoring from the future.
It was called Idol Demon Hunters.
In his previous timeline, it had been featured as the 2025 breakout film of the year. It also held the position of Netflex's top-watched film for quite some time.
But this time, he wasn't just going to restore it.
He was going to put his own twist on it.
The original had starred three idols as the main characters. For his version, he planned to borrow from the lore of another similarly popular film from that era - Song of the Welkin Moon.
That one had been particularly successful because it was actually a game adaptation. It became the most popular film of 2027 and won numerous awards.
From it, he would borrow the concept of the Three Moon Sisters.
So if he took the concept of the new IP as a Moon Goddess...
And from her emerged the Three Moon Fairies who sing to save the world...
He paused mid-thought.
It seems I need to get some writers too.
He added another line to his notes.
After the release of this film, he expected to capture an entirely new market and expose Moon Fairy to a much broader audience.
This was the only way he could achieve that kind of exposure.
Su Yue wasn't a traditional idol. She was an asset he wanted closely tied to his brand and image.
That was why, even after all this time and all her popularity, she had yet to do any major sponsorships. She hadn't appeared on variety shows or entertainment programs - things that were common for idols her size.
He had deliberately kept her exclusive.
And now, he wanted to expose her to a greater audience through this project instead.
He leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
He admitted this was somewhat of a long-term project. It wasn't his usual style - the quick returns he relied on to compound his system balance.
But this one was worth it.
The amount of money that would result from this...
It would be no small change.