"It means everything."
It was Su Mei who picked up the thread.
"Traffic is king."
Su Mei rose to her feet, both hands pressed flat against the tabletop, her blazing eyes fixed on Su Yu.
"For the internet age, as long as you have a massive daily active user count, the ways to monetize are simply too numerous to count."
"Physical brand collaborations, offline convention licensing, even slipping covert advertisements directly into the game itself... as long as people are watching, even a heap of pixel blocks can be sold for a sky-high price."
Su Mei drew in a deep breath.
"But, Su Yu. The one-two punch of free-to-play plus a monthly card really can pull in a colossal flood of traffic in the early stages—but how do you make that traffic stay? Players aren't fools. If the game isn't fun, they'll grab the free perks and walk."
"That is precisely the absolute core of what I'm about to say."
Su Yu straightened up, the smile fading from his face, replaced by a look of absolute confidence.
"Quality."
He pointed at the holographic screen, at Kiana's fluid motion-capture data and Eden's musical waveforms.
"What if those battle scenes Nuwa saw just now while pulling on the banner, all those particle effects, could be compressed and optimized through Ai's black-tech wizardry, and run on every single person's phone without the slightest lag?"
Su Yu looked at Su Mei.
"What kind of dimensional-reduction strike would that be?"
The meeting room fell utterly silent.
No one answered, because the answer was self-evident.
It would be a massacre.
A massacre with no suspense whatsoever—a wholly one-sided slaughter.
Those shoddily made match-three games and card-collision titles on the market, set against this game, would be like primitive men wielding wooden clubs facing a fully armed interstellar battleship.
"We possess the most cutting-edge motion-capture equipment of this era, we possess a foundational engine that transcends the age, and more importantly—" Su Yu glanced at Kiana beside him, "—we possess a story that will be branded into every player's very bones."
The white-haired girl was tilting her head up, looking at him.
In those clear blue eyes, the glow of the holographic projection was mirrored, and so too was the high-spirited, dashing figure of Su Yu at this very moment.
Kiana didn't really understand all that complicated business logic from before.
But she could understand Su Yu's last sentence.
This game told her story—the story of her and Mei, and Bronya, and Teacher Himeko.
Under the table, she quietly stretched out her foot.
The toe of her sneaker probed over ever so carefully, lightly nudging the edge of Su Yu's shoe.
Su Yu's body gave the faintest pause, but he didn't look down—only the fingers resting on the tabletop curled, imperceptibly.
"Free gacha is merely the cruel exoskeleton of this model. Its true heart and flesh and blood is the supremely excellent, flawless quality of the game itself."
"Use free gacha to lure players in, then use high-quality content and a profoundly moving story to keep them here for good."
Su Yu swept his gaze across the whole room and, word by deliberate word, delivered his final summation.
"This—this is the two-pronged combination punch with which we will rule this era."
If, a few minutes ago, the people in the meeting room still harbored doubts about this free-to-play model, then now, those laughable misgivings had long since been ground to powder.
The concepts of the "monthly card" and "daily actives" that Su Yu had tossed out were like a rusty iron key, forcibly prying open these otherworld natives' gate of cognition regarding internet commerce.
No one dared belittle this seemingly charitable operating logic any longer.
On the contrary, they felt a deep, sweeping awe.
"I'm not finished."
Su Yu didn't give them much room to catch their breath.
The holographic projector emitted a low-frequency hum, and the column of light that had been displaying battle scenes instantly transformed, drawing out a long timeline in midair.
"What is the biggest pain point of a buy-to-play game?"
Su Yu's finger slid slowly along that glowing timeline.
"Launch day is the peak. Once a player clears it, the game gets tossed into the library to gather dust. The hype drops off a cliff, and the developer can only bitterly greenlight the next title, shouldering enormous risk."
"But we're different."
"Our game is alive. It will keep updating in cycles, like a TV drama. Every cycle—that is, every new version—we'll roll out new main storylines, new maps, new events."
Nuwa pushed up the glasses that had slid to the tip of her nose, her eyes locked dead onto those Banners representing the new versions.
As a veteran otaku, she knew all too well the magic of "chasing updates."
"As long as the game keeps updating, as long as our art and story quality don't fall flat, players will always have new goals."
"Every major version update is a detonation of hype across the entire internet. This means that the popularity of Honkai Impact 3rd will no longer be a flash in the pan, but a continuous, sustainably monetizable waterfall of traffic."
"And that's not all."
Su Yu dropped the final depth charge of today's meeting.
The image on the screen froze once more.
It was an extravagantly gorgeous gacha interface, and a splash art of the [Dimensional Outfit: Forget-Me-Not]—different from the earlier Moonbeam pull interface—shone brilliantly within it.
But unlike before, at the very bottom of the interface there appeared a glaring red countdown: [Time Until Supply Ends: 13 Days, 23 Hours].
"I call it—the Limited-Time Character UP."
The meeting room was deathly quiet; only the faint operation of the central air-conditioning could be heard.
"What you can't have is forever restless in your heart."
"For characters in the standard pool, players can slowly accumulate resources and pull at their leisure."
"But a powerful character on this kind of limited-time UP—miss this village, and you won't find the shop. Maybe in half a year, maybe a year, before there's a rerun."
He swept his gaze around the room, taking in every last one of those expressions on their faces—a mixture of shock and sudden epiphany.
"When an extremely powerful, extremely beautiful character is only available to obtain within one brief window..."
"Take a guess—those players who normally pinch every penny and hoard their free crystals, as they watch the countdown creep closer day by day while they still can't pull her... what will they do?"
"They'll go insane."
Bronie muttered to herself.
It was as if she had already seen countless deep nights, the scene of those red-eyed players, hands trembling, tapping open the top-up screen.
This wasn't selling game items at all—this was selling anxiety! Peddling that very "fear of missing out"!
As the marketing director of an MCN company, Su Mei knew all too well the destructive power of this entire combo chain.
She looked at Su Yu, and the look in her eyes was no longer that of regarding an ordinary partner, but of regarding a monster.
"I understand completely now."
Su Mei stood up, both hands braced on the conference table, her blazing eyes fixed on Su Yu.
"Use the free gimmick to shatter the barrier to entry, madly absorbing grassroots traffic."
"Use extremely high-quality art and animation to keep them."
"Use the monthly card and daily missions to bind their daily activity tight, cultivating user stickiness, then use Abyss speed-running to ignite their vanity and their urge to one-up each other."
Su Mei's speech grew faster and faster, fitting every single concept Su Yu had tossed out together without the slightest gap.
"Finally, use periodic version updates to maintain long-term hype, and use Limited-Time Character UPs to manufacture scarcity and anxiety, completing the final—and most ruthless—harvest."
She drew in a deep breath, her ample bosom heaving violently.
"Su Yu." Su Mei's voice echoed clearly through the meeting room, carrying a near-reverent certainty.
"This so-called free-to-play, in-app-purchase gacha model of yours—you're not here to make a game at all."
She paused, and word by deliberate word, she handed down the final verdict on this meeting, and on the Honkai Impact 3rd project itself.
"You're aiming to overturn the entire gaming market."
Su Mei's conclusion landed like a heavy hammer, slamming down onto the meeting room's solid-wood tabletop.
The cold air from the AC blew with a whoosh, yet the temperature in the air seemed to ignite in an instant.
Kevin maintained his slumped posture in the chair; this freshly installed CEO was now staring at Su Yu dead-on, with an expression that was extraordinarily complex—as though he were meeting the man before him for the very first time.
"Su Yu, confess honestly—did somebody seize your body?"
"With that salted-fish personality of yours, where you can't even be bothered to let your instant noodles steep one minute longer, how could you possibly have dreamed up this kind of man-eating, bone-spitting commercial chain-combo?"
"Buzz off." Su Yu cursed with a laugh. "This is called 'great wisdom appearing as folly,' hiding my depths—you get it? You think everyone's like you, with nothing in their head but instant noodles and grinding away at a job?"
The holographic light-column flickered.
Theresa's petite projection, arms folded, sent her gaze across the long table to land on her nephew, Kevin.
"I was curious before—how a guy like you could suddenly get a fever in the brain, throw away that high-paying job, and run off to work under Su Yu."
"Now I understand completely. This good buddy of yours really is no simple character."
"Damn right!"
Sitting in the corner, Ma Feima was so excited he slapped the table, jolting the water in his cup until it splashed out.
"I never imagined Eldest Senior Brother Su Yu wasn't just a martial-arts powerhouse—his head for business is this terrifying too! Is this the legendary 'master of both pen and sword'?"
Among this crowd of dimensionally-struck "country bumpkins," the one who reacted most violently was, without question, Su Mei.
If what the others saw was awe, then what Su Mei saw was a mountain of gold with no end in sight.
And Su Yu was the sole key to that mountain of gold.
"Su Yu..." Su Mei licked her somewhat dry lips, her voice carrying a tremor she couldn't suppress. "If this model can really be made to work, then within half a year, the entire industry of Arc City will go mad for you."
"Sister Mei is right!"
Beside her, Nuwa excitedly threw up both hands.
"The moment this meeting's over, I'm packaging up this recording and sending it to my sister! If Fuxi sees this, she'll absolutely come roaring over in her sports car to poach you! And even if she can't poach you away, she'll definitely cling on shamelessly and demand to buy in!"
Su Yu said nothing.
He merely sat there quietly, savoring this moment of "manifesting his divinity before others"—a moment of being worshipped and revered from the bottom of everyone's heart, something absolutely unprecedented in this world.
It was right then that he felt a slight stirring coming from under the table.
Kiana sat to his right, outwardly sitting bolt upright, the very picture of a good girl listening attentively.
But under the table, the toe of her white sneaker had quietly crossed the boundary line, lightly rubbing against Su Yu's ankle.
Su Yu tilted his head slightly, shooting her a glance from the corner of his eye.
The white-haired girl wasn't looking at him at all; she was staring at the virtual screen before her.
But that signature ahoge atop her head wagged twice, smugly, and the corners of her mouth tilted faintly upward, impossible to suppress.
She didn't really understand any of this stuff—monthly cards, daily actives, dimensional-reduction strikes.
She only knew that the man now sitting in this meeting room, the one everyone was gazing at with that awe, that worship, even that fervor like Su Mei's, was the Su Yu who cooked her instant noodles every night and squeezed onto the sofa with her to watch TV.
This filled her with an indescribable pride, and a possessiveness she didn't want to share with anyone.
And so, her toe pressed down lightly once more on Su Yu's calf, like a cat marking its territory.
The corner of Su Yu's mouth curved up into a gentle arc without his realizing it.
He didn't pull away—he simply let that restless toe go on testing along the hem of his suit trousers.
He reached down and pressed his hand low, signaling for everyone to quiet down.
"Making money is a matter for later." Su Yu screwed the cap back onto his mineral water bottle. "The urgent priority right now is to fill out this ramshackle crew. No matter how strong Ai's computing power is, it can't replace concept artists, writers, and basic operations staff."
"What we lack most right now is manpower. But given the studio's current zero name recognition, even if we plastered recruitment notices all over Arc City, I'm afraid we couldn't hire many reliable people."
Hearing this, everyone nodded in turn.
In this era where even fine wine fears a deep alley, without fame, everything is just empty talk.
"However—" Su Yu's tone took a turn, his gaze locking precisely onto Nuwa, who was still immersed in her excitement. "Our brick to knock on the door should already be ready, shouldn't it?"
Nuwa blanked for a moment, then her eyes suddenly lit up.
She shot to her feet and planted her hands on her hips, looking thoroughly pleased with how amazing she was.
"I'm on the case, and you still don't trust it? Take a good look at who I am! Our debut promotional PV has been sitting on the hard drive of my computer for a full three days already."
"That frame rate, that lighting, that rendering tier... I'll stake my reputation on it—the moment we release it, it'll absolutely grind those so-called next-gen masterpiece trailers on the market into the floor until they smoke from the friction!"
"Very good." The corner of Su Yu's mouth curved into a satisfied arc. He braced both hands on the tabletop and announced to everyone the strategic deployment that was to come.
"One week from now, we'll push out the debut PV of Honkai Impact 3rd across the entire internet. It's time to let this world witness the roar that belongs to miHoYo."
He turned his head toward the two holographic figures.
"As for promotion and distribution, that goes entirely to Elysia and her team."
"Theresa, you're in charge of assisting her. Use your traffic pool and hype the buzz up to the absolute maximum for me."
"No problem~ leave it to me. I'll make everyone in all of Arc City feel this surprise as dazzling as scattering petals."
Elysia made a finger-heart, and Theresa nodded to show she understood.
"As for personnel..."
Su Yu's gaze fell upon Lin Zhaoyu, who was diligently taking notes.
"Eldest Senior Sister, personnel recruitment and financial coordination will be handled by you for now, on top of your other duties."
"Once the debut PV drops and the hype ferments, we'll immediately launch the studio's first formal recruitment-expansion campaign."
Lin Zhaoyu nodded solemnly: "Leave it to me, Eldest Senior Brother. I'll spend every single coin and every single talent right on the cutting edge."
After another round of meticulous work arrangements, this historically significant meeting was at last declared adjourned.
Everyone dispersed to their own tasks, beginning preparations for the war three days hence.
Su Yu rubbed his somewhat sore neck and pushed open the door to his private office.
Kiana followed in like a dutiful little tail, promptly collapsing onto the broad leather sofa and letting out a long, drawn-out breath.
Clearly, that meeting just now, packed with calculation and business jargon, had left this white-furred dumpling—whose head held nothing but fighting and eating pizza—thoroughly exhausted.
Su Yu had just sat down in his boss's chair, not yet even getting a sip of water, when that familiar red light-screen, carrying a hint of mischievous malice, abruptly popped up before his eyes.
[Beep! Beep!]
[Detected that the Host has just completed a session teaching the inhumanly cruel art of capitalist dimensional-reduction striking! This System is deeply gratified! That pitch-black heart and liver of yours is simply the most dazzling pearl of the internet age! Even Satan, waking from his slumber, would have to settle for second place beneath your pitch-black heart and liver!]
[Many years later, the players subjected to inhuman torture by that old scoundrel Su Yu would still recall that night—the night the old scoundrel Su Yu revealed his healthy, sunny smile. Back then they didn't grasp its meaning; now they finally understood that the smile was clearly saying—"You've fallen into the trap!!"]
"Shut up, spit it out if you've got something to say." Su Yu rubbed the space between his brows, immune to this lousy System's flattery.
[Ding! Main Mission updated!]
[Main Mission: Traffic Is King]
[Mission Description: Even fine wine fears a deep alley; the finest pig-butchering scam... ah no, the finest game still needs players. With the deadline set before the official version of Honkai Impact 3rd goes live, by whatever means the Host sees fit (cheating, conning, swindling, kidnapping, and stealing all permitted), you must fiercely make this game's name resound throughout this world!]
[Mission Time Limit: Before the game's official open beta.]
[Mission Reward: A tiered grading settlement based on the final fame index and player anticipation value. The higher the grade, the more outrageous the reward!]
"Cheating, conning, swindling..." Su Yu's mouth twitched. This System was indeed a thrill-seeker with no bottom line whatsoever.
Before he had even finished reading, the panel refreshed again.
[Ding! The Studio Community Function (Tarot Card System) has unlocked its 2.0 Advanced Version!]
[Advanced Rules Explanation: The Tarot Cards no longer represent merely the bond of a single individual. They are now deeply bound to the studio's overall strength.]
[Put simply, the greater the number of employees the Host recruits, and the higher their professional caliber (quality), the more the corresponding functional Tarot Card's rank will automatically rise.]
[For example: once the quantity and quality of concept artists meet the standard, the [Temperance] (Nuwa) card's rank rises, and the studio's overall art rendering speed and inspiration-burst rate +50%!]
[Gathering grains of sand into a tower—this is the ultimate profound truth of capital operation!]
"Somewhat interesting." Su Yu stroked his chin.
This meant that he not only had to recruit people, but recruit top-tier people.
Every elite employee who joined would, like a rolling snowball, multiply the studio's output efficiency through the buffs of the Tarot Card System.
[Ding! Chain side mission triggered!]
[Side Mission: The First Recruitment Expansion]
[Mission Description: A ramshackle crew won't get far. After the debut PV is released, riding the east wind of the traffic, complete the studio's first formal recruitment expansion.]
[Settlement Rules: The System will conduct a comprehensive, all-around assessment of newly recruited personnel's professional ability, loyalty, and personality compatibility. Quantity and quality are equally important—do not pad the ranks with deadweight.]
The red light-screen gradually faded from his retinas.
Su Yu leaned back against the chair and turned his head to look out the window.
The setting sun of Arc City was dyeing the rows upon rows of towering skyscrapers a sheet of gold.
This city was vast and bustling, yet like all modern metropolises, it carried a kind of cold, detached alienation.
Su Yu drew his gaze back, letting it settle on Kiana, who was dozing not far away on the sofa, hugging a cushion.
Strands of white hair were scattered across the black leather sofa, looking especially striking.
He let out a soft breath.
The PV one week from now was not only the debut of Honkai Impact 3rd in this world—it was also the most solid step he had taken toward thoroughly anchoring this girl's existence.
As for the road ahead, he was brimming with anticipation.
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