Fruit Ninja

Chapter 161

An open-air restaurant, the evening breeze was hot and dry.

The phone call ended.

Returning to his seat, the smile on Gu Ran's face completely vanished.

Pei Susu and Ye Jinliang, who had been fighting over french fries, froze. Sensing the drop in air pressure, their playful mood instantly dissipated.

"Did something happen?" Ye Zhenzhen put down her fork. Without asking for details, she gently placed her hand over his.

"Yeah, there's an emergency at the company. I need to head to Qinglin." Gu Ran squeezed her hand in return. "Sorry, I can't finish this meal with you."

"Is it serious?"

"A bit troublesome, but I can handle it."

Without another word, Ye Zhenzhen stood up and walked out. She hailed a taxi, opened the door, and then turned back, "Go. Text me when you arrive."

No pestering, no whining. She was so understanding that it made one's heart ache.

"Then how are you getting back..."

"Alright, stop acting like this is a final goodbye."

Before Gu Ran could finish, Pei Susu walked over.

She wrapped an arm around the sensible girl and lifted her chin at him. "Go do your thing. Zhenzhen is staying at my place tonight."

Seeing this, Gu Ran nodded and got into the car.

The taxi stepped on the gas and disappeared around the street corner.

Only then did Ye Jinliang snap back to reality. Holding a half-eaten chicken wing, he looked completely bewildered. "Wait... is Lao Gu going to work a part-time job?"

Pei Susu also frowned, equally curious. "Yeah, why is he acting so mysterious?"

Ye Zhenzhen looked in the direction the taillights had disappeared, pursing her lips into a soft smile. "He's not working a part-time job. It's his own company."

"Huh?!" x2

After the girl gave a brief explanation...

Smack.

The chicken wing in Ye Jinliang's hand dropped to the ground, splashing grease everywhere as a classic curse slipped from his mouth: "Holy shit?!"

Damn it, did his bro really make it big?

Do you even know how to run a company?

I'm begging you, come back and play shooters with me at the internet cafe!

...

An hour and a half later, Qinglin City, Sci-Tech Innovation Center.

After paying the fare, Gu Ran looked up at the brightly lit floor-to-ceiling windows on the sixteenth floor, took a deep breath, and pushed the door open to enter.

Sixteenth floor, GRGame.

Under the high-tech reception logo, the atmosphere was as oppressive as a memorial service.

The smell of smoke in the air was choking; anyone who didn't know better would think they had walked into a shady internet cafe at 3 AM.

Seven or eight young programmers were slumped in their chairs, their eyes vacant as if their souls had been sucked out.

Some were frantically refreshing forums, pounding their keyboards loudly, yet unable to write a single line of valid code.

Li Sinan's hair was messy. With her arms crossed, she paced anxiously in front of the conference table, the clack-clack of her high heels inducing panic.

"Boss Li, let's just give up."

A programmer with thick glasses took them off, rubbing his temples in despair. "That's Jay Chou! I just logged into Penguin, and the pop-ups are all for Everyday Parkour. Even the Penguin Avatars have been replaced with custom Jay Chou skins. How are we supposed to fight this? Bang our heads against a wall?"

"The forums have fallen too, it's all discussions about tomorrow's open beta. For that million Q-Coins, people have even set up hundreds of point-farming groups!"

"Our little bit of passion is just a joke in the face of real money and a top-tier idol."

Their mental states had collapsed; everyone was shutting down.

Li Sinan dug her nails into her palms, wanting to retort, but found that any motivational speech felt pale and powerless against a behemoth like Penguin.

"Who said we have to bang our heads against a wall?"

A cold, youthful voice spoke calmly, yet it sliced through the dead silence of the room like a knife.

Everyone whipped their heads around.

They saw a young man striding over, wearing a white T-shirt and black pants, looking pretty damn handsome.

All the employees were stunned.

Who is this? A delivery boy?

"B... Boss!"

Li Sinan's eyes instantly turned red, like a drowning person finally grabbing onto a lifeline.

Boss?!

The office instantly fell dead silent, the programmers' jaws nearly dropping to the floor.

This is the gaming god GR who single-handedly created the Temple Run myth and forced Penguin to resort to plagiarism?

Boss Li had said that since the company's founding, this behind-the-scenes boss had never visited once because he was busy with his studies.

But... this is just a freaking high schooler, right?!

Gu Ran ignored the shocked gazes, walked straight to the whiteboard, and picked up a marker.

"Explain the situation again, keep it brief."

Ignoring everyone's astonishment, Li Sinan took a deep breath and suppressed her panic.

"Tonight, Penguin Games officially announced that Everyday Parkour will launch its open beta across all platforms at 10 AM tomorrow. The spokesperson is Jay Chou, and the slogan is Everyone Runs. There's also a Parkour Festival event where the top ten thousand players will split a million Q-Coins."

Gu Ran wrote down Jay Chou and Q-Coins on the whiteboard.

"Also," Li Sinan's voice was strained, "they are using all-channel resources. Penguin pop-ups, Qzone pinned posts, portal headlines... they've even bought ads on pirated download sites. This is a saturation strike; they want to wipe out our aura as the original creators in one swift wave."

A max-level player slaughtering the beginner village—leaving absolutely no way out.

"We're completely screwed," someone muttered softly.

"Heh."

Gu Ran turned around, his gaze sweeping over the dejected faces, and he laughed out of sheer exasperation. "What, are you scared already?"

No one dared to answer, and no one wanted to.

After all, it was a newly established company, and the employees lacked a sense of belonging.

Right now, the vast majority were planning to just find another job once the company went under.

Anyway, in this day and age, that is how most programmers got by.

"One million Q-Coins, Jay Chou as the spokesperson, all-channel promotion."

Gu Ran tapped the whiteboard with the tip of his marker, his tone playful. "What a grand gesture. Penguin is getting desperate."

"Desperate?"

"If they aren't desperate, why would they use a nuclear weapon to kill a mosquito?"

Gu Ran's eyes suddenly turned cold as he drew a heavy circle around Jay Chou.

"From now on, delete the word screwed from your brains. Everyone, execute the three-step strategy!"

The young man's imposing aura suddenly spiked. That confidence of being in complete control forced the tech department employees to silently sit up straight.

"First, escalate the public opinion war!"

Gu Ran looked at Li Sinan, his words astonishing: "Penguin hiring Jay Chou is their trump card, but it's also their fatal flaw! What do Jay Chou's fans care about? Individuality, not following the crowd! Penguin's plagiarism is a proven fact, and now they are throwing money at Jay Chou to whitewash it. This is tarnishing their idol's reputation!"

"Contact influencers and ghostwriters, turn the tide. Absolutely do not insult Jay Chou; we need to feel sorry for him! I've even thought of the headline: The Arrogance of Capital: Please Don't Tarnish Our Youth with Dirty Money!"

"We need to separate Jay Chou from Penguin, direct the anger toward capital, and mold ourselves into victims oppressed by hegemony, just like Jay Chou! This is called Green Tea public relations, understand?"

Li Sinan's eyes gradually brightened.

The Green Tea tactic?

Using the enemy's strength against them. What a ruthless move!

"Second, the Tech Department!"

Gu Ran turned to the programmers. "Penguin is forcing an open beta tomorrow; their optimization will definitely be a piece of shit. Even copying Temple Run takes time. Tonight, I'm pulling an all-nighter with you guys to optimize Temple Run to the absolute limit! We need to make it run smoothly even on a cheap knock-off phone that costs a few hundred bucks!"

"Tomorrow, when Everyday Parkour lags and crashes, that will be our chance to turn our reputation around! Can you do it?"

Hearing that Gu Ran would personally accompany them in writing the code, the weariness in the eyes of these programmers dissipated. After all, who wouldn't want to witness the skills of the legendary "GR" in the industry?

"Don't worry, boss! We might not be able to compete with money, but when it comes to technology, we aren't afraid of anyone!"

"Very good."

Gu Ran nodded and drew a large watermelon on the whiteboard.

"But boss..." Li Sinan still maintained her rationality, "This is only playing defense. As long as Boss Chou's appeal is there, the traffic will still be drained dry."

"Defense?"

Gu Ran smiled, like a fox that had just seen its prey fall into a trap.

"Penguin spent a fortune to call out all the casual gamers in the country. With such a great stage set up, wouldn't we be doing a disservice to their wallets if we didn't go up and put on a show?"

He slashed a fierce stroke across the drawing of the watermelon.

"Tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, at the exact same time as the open beta of Everyday Parkour."

"Our new game, Fruit Ninja, will be launched on all platforms domestically and overseas!"

"They want to drown us with traffic? Then I'll ride their waves and sail our ship right into the sky!"

As his words fell, he tossed the marker aside.

"I want to let players across the country know what true creativity is..."