The "Holiday Season Strategy Meeting" was the most cutthroat event on the Guangyi Interactive Entertainment calendar. It wasn't just about scheduling; it was about resource allocation. The project that won the holiday slot got the prime marketing budget, the best developers, and the full backing of the board.
The conference room on the top floor was packed. Department heads sat in leather chairs, their faces grim.
At the front of the room stood Zhou Kai. He looked confident, his suit perfectly pressed, his presentation slick.
"...and that is why *Frontline Duty: Oblivion* is the only logical choice for the holiday flagship," Zhou Kai concluded, gesturing to a holographic montage of crumbling skyscrapers and tactical nukes. "The market demands high-fidelity conflict. We are projecting 5 million downloads in the first week. It is safe. It is proven. It is what the shareholders want."
He stepped down, basking in the murmurs of approval from the conservative faction of the board.
Lin Wan, seated at the center, didn't applaud. She simply looked at her tablet, then up at the room.
"Safe," she repeated, her voice flat. "Safe doesn't create market leaders. Safe maintains the status quo. Does anyone else have a proposal?"
The room fell silent. Nobody wanted to challenge Zhou Kai's momentum. He controlled the biggest budget in the company.
Then, a chair scraped against the floor.
Zhong Ming stood up. He looked out of place—younger, thinner, and wearing a suit that had clearly seen better days.
"I do," Zhong Ming said.
Zhou Kai turned, a smirk playing on his lips. "Zhong Ming? You want to challenge the holiday slot? With what? A sequel to your pixel screensaver? *Survivor's Dawn 2: More Pixels*?"
A ripple of laughter went through the room.
"No," Zhong Ming said, ignoring the jab. He plugged his tablet into the projector. "I propose something that addresses the elephant in the room. The fatigue."
The screen flickered. Instead of a battlefield, a serene image appeared. It was a concept painting of a small, run-down farmhouse nestled in a valley, bathed in golden sunlight. Overgrown with weeds, but full of potential.
"The war ended fifteen years ago," Zhong Ming began, his voice calm but commanding. "But look at our entertainment. We are still fighting. Every major title is about tactical strikes, survival horror, or military dominance. We are forcing our players to relive the trauma of the Omnic Crisis every night."
He switched to the next slide. It showed a character tilling the soil, planting seeds, and fishing by a river.
"I propose a game about reconstruction. Not with guns, but with hands. A 'Farming Simulation'."
The silence in the room was deafening. Then, Zhou Kai burst out laughing.
"Farming? You want to compete with *Oblivion*... with a farming game?" Zhou Kai wiped a tear from his eye. "Zhong Ming, this isn't the agrarian age! Players want adrenaline! They want to feel powerful! Who wants to pretend to be a peasant?"
"I do," a voice said from the back.
Everyone turned. It was the CFO, Robert. He looked tired. "I spend 12 hours a day managing budgets and corporate politics. The last thing I want to do when I go home is manage a virtual squad of soldiers and deal with more death. I... I actually play a gardening app on my phone sometimes. It relaxes me."
Zhong Ming nodded. "Exactly. The 'Hardcore' market is saturated. But the 'Comfort' market is non-existent. We are sitting on a goldmine of stressed-out citizens who just want to escape to a peaceful world."
He pulled up the design document for **Project: Stardew.** (He internally called it that, paying homage to the masterpiece of his previous life, but on the screen, it was labeled **"Green Valley."**)
"This isn't just farming," Zhong Ming explained. "It's a social RPG. You inherit a ruined plot of land. You clear the debris—symbolic of our post-war reconstruction. You plant crops, raise animals, and most importantly... you build relationships."
"Relationships?" Lin Wan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"NPCs with depth," Zhong Ming clarified. "Characters with schedules, birthdays, likes, and dislikes. A marriage system. In a world where the population plummeted and social isolation is high, people crave connection. This game gives them a community."
He zoomed in on the map.
"There is also an 'Adventure' element. The mines. Monsters exist, but they are manageable. They are obstacles to overcome to get resources, not the focus of the game. This creates a gameplay loop: Farm to earn money -> Upgrade tools -> Explore mines -> Expand farm."
Zhou Kai stepped forward, his face red. "This is insanity! You're gambling the holiday slot on a niche experiment! The development cost for an RPG with social systems and a dynamic world is huge! You'd need complex AI pathfinding for the NPCs, seasonal texture changes, a calendar system... it's too risky for a team that just made a pixel shooter!"
Zhong Ming turned to Lin Wan.
"The development cost is 20% of *Frontline Duty*," Zhong Ming stated confidently. "Because we use a 2D top-down perspective with 3D lighting effects. We reuse assets intelligently. We don't need motion capture for soldiers; we need charming sprite animations. And I have a way to handle the NPC logic efficiently."
He tapped his bracelet. He was ready to use the System.
He had 350 Culture Points. He opened the **[System Store]**.
**[Item: Life Simulation AI Blueprint (Tier 2)]**
**[Cost: 300 Points]**
**[Effect: Provides optimized code architecture for NPC scheduling, memory, and relationship variables. Drastically reduces debugging time for social sims.]**
Zhong Ming purchased it instantly. A complex web of code structures and logic trees flooded his mind. He knew exactly how to explain it to the board in technical terms.
"I have developed a new 'Event Trigger' logic for the NPCs," Zhong Ming lied smoothly, though the System made it truth. "It allows for complex behaviors without heavy CPU usage. The risk is low. The reward is tapping into a completely virgin market segment."
Lin Wan stared at the image of the farmhouse. It looked... warm. It looked like a home.
"Zhou," Lin Wan said suddenly. "Your *Oblivion* demo... it plays exactly like the current *Frontline Duty*. What is the retention rate for the current title?"
"Uh... 25% on Day 7," Zhou Kai admitted reluctantly.
"25%," Lin Wan repeated. "Players are getting bored. They are churning. Zhong Ming's *Survivor's Dawn* has a 60% retention."
She stood up.
"The board is worried about stagnation. If we release *Frontline Duty: Oblivion*, we secure the hardcore niche, but we don't grow. We just fight over the same shrinking pie."
She looked at Zhong Ming.
"Zhong Ming. You have a month to produce a vertical slice. A playable demo featuring the farming cycle and one NPC interaction. If it captures the 'relaxation' factor you claim... you get the holiday slot. And the budget."
Zhou Kai slammed his fist on the table. "Director! You can't be serious! Handing the holiday flagship to a pixel game? It will ruin our brand image!"
"Brand image is about quality, not polygons," Lin Wan cut him off. "You have your orders. Zhong Ming, start recruitment. You can pull two developers from the asset pool."
She looked at the two of them, the rivalry crackling in the air like static electricity.
"I expect a progress report next week. Dismissed."
...
Walking out of the conference room, Zhong Ming felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. It was Zhou Kai. His grip was painful.
"You think you've won?" Zhou Kai hissed, his voice low enough that only Zhong Ming could hear. "You have no idea what you've done. You think making a 'farming game' is easy? The narrative team won't write dialogue for a peasant sim. The sound team won't waste time on bird chirps. I will make sure you get the leftovers of the company. Your team will be made of interns and rejects. You will fail, Zhong Ming. And when you do, I'll be there to shovel the dirt onto your career."
Zhong Ming removed Zhou Kai's hand effortlessly.
"Interns and rejects built the last hit," Zhong Ming said calmly. "They'll build this one too. Keep your high-priced veterans, Zhou. They're too busy polishing their awards to remember what 'fun' looks like."
He walked away, leaving Zhou Kai fuming in the hallway.
...
Zhong Ming returned to the 12th-floor office. Li Wei and Su Qing were waiting, having watched the meeting via the internal stream.
"Farming?!" Li Wei shouted. "Boss, are you crazy? I know you said 'hope' before, but... farming? In a world of mechs and lasers? How do I code that?!"
"You don't code it from scratch," Zhong Ming said, sitting down at his desk. He transferred the **[Life Simulation AI Blueprint]** files to a drive and slid it to Li Wei. "Read this. It's a new architecture I drafted. It handles the NPC pathfinding."
Li Wei plugged the drive in and skimmed the first few pages. His eyes widened. "This... this is brilliant. It separates the NPC logic from the rendering engine. It's modular. This would have taken us a year to figure out."
"We have a month," Zhong Ming said. He turned to Su Qing. "I need the world to feel alive. Not gritty. Vibrant. Greens, blues, golden sunlight. We need tiles that look like you can smell the soil."
He looked at his small team.
"We need to hire," Zhong Ming said. "We need a writer. Someone who can write dialogue that feels human, not robotic mission briefs."
He thought for a moment. He remembered a name from the reject pile he had seen when HR dumped the files on his desk.
"Zhang Kai," Zhong Ming muttered. "He always complained about writing dialogue for hallway shooters. Maybe he wants to write a story about a small town."
He opened a new file.
**Project Codename: Green Valley**
**Genre: Farming Simulation RPG**
**Target Launch: Holiday Season.**
**Status: Pre-Production.**
The stakes had just been raised. It wasn't just about a viral hit anymore. It was a battle for the soul of the industry. War vs. Peace. Guns vs. Hoes. And Zhong Ming was ready to till the soil.