At the same time, the Rong City University design department students who were camping in the live broadcast room watching the Annual Gala also heard the name “Xie Yunfan.”

Everyone’s first reaction was that they had misheard.

But in the next moment, the venue’s spotlight shone on the guest seating area below the stage, and a familiar face appeared on the live broadcast screen.

Damn, it really was Xie Yunfan? Their classmate Xie Yunfan?!

Xie Yunfan smiled slightly towards the camera, stood up from his seat with a natural and poised demeanor, and walked quickly onto the main stage.

The spotlight followed his back figure the whole way, and the on-site broadcast director also cut the shot to his front face.

Today he wore a relatively formal black suit, paired with a dark-patterned tie. The custom-tailored clothes fit him perfectly, making his figure appear even taller and straighter.

Xie Yunfan was already very handsome to begin with. Set off by the suit, the smiling young man standing in the center of the main stage looked as if his entire person was glowing.

In the live broadcast room, densely packed bullet comments flew past like snowflakes.
[Little sailboat is so handsome!]
[He clearly could have relied on his face to make a living, yet he insisted on making games?]
[Little boat looks to be in his early twenties, is he this young?]
[Why does the name Xie Yunfan sound somewhat familiar?]
[The champion of the university student design competition the day before yesterday seems to also be named Xie Yunfan, is it the same person?]
[It is one person, I watched the live broadcast]
[Wow damn! This is a senior from our Rong City University, a senior, who just took the champion of the university student design competition the day before yesterday]
[It’s actually a university student? Damn, 6!]

In the venue audience seating, listening to the enthusiastic applause around them, the jaws of the three design department classmates almost dropped to the floor.

It really was Xie Yunfan?!

The three of them were die-hard fans of Underworld Maze.

The girl who treated them to milk tea was named Qin Huiyao. Last winter vacation, she died dozens of times in Underworld Maze. Adhering to the principle of “I can’t be the only one suffering,” she strongly recommended this game on her WeChat Moments.

She was the class’s lifestyle committee member and had quite good relationships with people. Under her recommendation, many classmates in Design Department Class 1 downloaded Underworld Maze.

One passed it to ten, ten passed it to a hundred. Last winter vacation, their entire holiday was occupied by this game, and everyone even specially created a group to discuss how to clear the Maze.

After Qin Huiyao was shocked for a moment, she hurriedly took out her phone, opened the “Underworld Small Squad” group, and said: “Damn damn! You guys quickly watch the award gala, the chief planner of Yangfan Studio is actually Xie Yunfan!”

Someone in the group who was currently watching the live broadcast sent a row of terrified emojis.

Those who weren’t watching immediately turned on the live broadcast TV. Upon seeing Xie Yunfan’s face on the large screen, they let out a sound like everyone else: Damn?

“It really is him!”
“The game that tortured us for a whole winter vacation last year was made by him?”
“Holy crap! My favorite newcomer planner was actually right beside me all along? What kind of magical plot is this!”
“Even writing novels wouldn’t dare to write it like this!”

The messages in the group turned into “999+” in the blink of an eye.

Everyone was discussing fiercely, the messages scrolling so fast it blurred their eyes. This was even more shocking than the day Xie Yunfan took the national competition’s championship.

The national competition was a competition among university students. Even taking the championship could only prove that he was relatively outstanding among this batch of university students.

But this was the Annual Game Gala, comparing all the games launched last year together! For Xie Yunfan to take down “Annual Best Single-Player Mobile Game”—to put it bluntly, many planners couldn’t achieve such an accomplishment in their entire lifetimes.

Yet Xie Yunfan’s first game managed to do it.

This was too terrifying…

The classmates felt shock and jealousy. Some classmates even regretted not joining Xie Yunfan’s graduation project team back then. Various complex emotions mixed together, making this feeling truly sour and astringent.

At this moment, Cool Play Director Su Yi, sitting in the front row, had an expression shifting between gloomy and clear. Xie Yunfan, whom he had just called yesterday—the “little brat” who “didn’t know good from bad” in his mind—was actually the chief planner of Underworld Maze.

Truly hiding his depths well!

No wonder Xie Yunfan looked down on the 4 million buyout price he offered. Underworld Maze‘s final downloads exceeded 10 million, with a gross revenue of 150 million. After deducting various revenue shares and taxes, Xie Yunfan took home at least 100 million.

Coupled with the fact that the revenue for Ghost Realm, adapted from Underworld Maze, had been very good over the past half year, would Xie Yunfan lack that bit of money?

He didn’t lack it. So him making a rhythm game not to make money was very reasonable.

Recalling his tone when he made the phone call, Su Yi couldn’t help but let his old face turn red—having mingled in the industry for so many years, he hadn’t expected to crash his car in front of a university student.

It was all his own fault for being too hasty and not doing background checks well!

---

On stage, the host smiled and said: “Please welcome the award presenter, Mobile Games Home CEO Mr. Qin Fang, to the stage to present the award for the winner of Best Single-Player Mobile Game!”

Qin Fang, 35 years old this year, was also a legendary figure. He seized the good opportunity of those few years when mobile games blew up in popularity and single-handedly founded “Mobile Games Home.”

Mobile Games Home later became the largest third-party website in the country. Most mobile games could be downloaded here, and the scoring rules were relatively objective.

With this platform of his, he earned overflowing pots and bowls every year just from commission fees.

Games from small studios gave them a 20% commission. With Xie Yunfan’s Underworld Maze grossing 150 million, it gave him a 30 million share!

—Earning money lying down, that was talking about this President Qin.

Qin Fang extended his right hand, shook hands with Xie Yunfan, and smiled: “Congratulations, to have such an achievement with your first game, truly young and promising.”

Xie Yunfan said politely: “Thank you, President Qin.”

Qin Fang took the trophy from the ceremonial hostess, handed it to Xie Yunfan, and whispered: “Let’s add WeChat later, I’ll have Luo Hang push my contact card to you.”

Xie Yunfan said: “Okay.”

The audience couldn’t hear what the two were chatting about on stage, thinking it was just the award presenter and winner exchanging pleasantries.

After presenting the award, the photographer took a group photo of them, and Qin Fang stepped off the stage.

The host handed the microphone to Xie Yunfan: “Mr. Xie, your first game took down the Annual Best Single-Player Mobile Game. Do you have anything you want to say?”

Xie Yunfan smiled and said: “I am very happy to gain the recognition of the Game Gala Award Committee, thank you to all the judge teachers. I am also extremely grateful to the players of Underworld Maze for their support of this game.”

“As a newcomer planner, I will continue to work hard and make more fun games to give back to everyone.”

“Thank you.”

The bullet comment area continued flooding the screen.
[Make more fun games, I’ve noted that down!]
[You guys hurry up and do the next game, waiting to play]
[Are there any more events for Ghost Realm? Little boat, don’t forget Ghost Realm either!]

Xie Yunfan bowed gracefully to the audience.

Thunderous applause erupted on-site. Although it was his first time going on stage to receive an award, he wasn’t nervous at all when delivering his acceptance speech, appearing very calm and poised.

Xie Yunfan quickly walked off the main stage.

At the same time, on Rong City University’s campus network.

[Good News!]
[The game Underworld Maze, planned and produced by our school’s student Xie Yunfan, has won the “Annual Best Mobile Independent Game” grand award at the Hua Xia Game Gala Award Ceremony! Congratulations to Classmate Xie Yunfan!]

People from other majors at Rong City University didn’t know Xie Yunfan. They had already seen this name appear in a pinned public announcement the day before yesterday. Today, seeing the large-character press release floating on the homepage again, they ran over to leave comments one after another.

[Are my eyes blurry? Didn’t a good news announcement just get posted the day before yesterday?]
[The day before yesterday was the university student design competition, today is the Game Gala]
[Xie Yunfan took two awards?]
[Where did this god-like person come from? Truly awesome!]
[Just three days, two pieces of good news! Congratulations, congratulations]
[Posting the good news at such a fast speed, you can see how happy the dean is]

The classmates from the Design School who knew Xie Yunfan: “…”

What should they say? Xie Yunfan is the terrible student of our department? If a terrible student could take two awards consecutively, then what were they “top students” doing normally? How embarrassing was that?

Previously, when Xie Yunfan took the national competition’s championship, some classmates suspected he “bought the planning proposal with money,” and even mocked him sarcastically in their private small groups.

But now, the Oscars of the gaming industry, the most authoritative award gala in the country, Annual Best Single-Player Mobile Game…

They couldn’t possibly say this was bought with money, right?

This was truly awesome! An award money couldn’t even buy!

No one had the nerve to come out and question it anymore. Everyone could only believe that Xie Yunfan, for some unknown reason, suddenly awakened his talent?

---

The award gala continued.

After the mobile games section was awarded, it was the holographic section’s turn.

The R&D cycle for holographic games was too long, and the investment cost easily reached hundreds of millions. Small companies simply couldn’t afford to make them, so the number of original games every year was extremely small.

Launched last year were only Vampire Legend 2, produced by a European company and published by Cool Play Entertainment as an agent, and Ghost Realm, co-produced by Yangfan and Qihang.

The host announced: “The next award to be presented is, Annual Best Holographic Game!”

“This is an open-world game with a unique style. Players possess an extremely high degree of freedom in the game world. You can navigate labyrinths to challenge bosses, go treasure hunting and exploring, take photos and check in everywhere, or follow the NPCs to experience their love, hate, passion, and enmity.”

“On the day of the Ghost Festival event, this game’s online concurrency broke the historical online record for domestic holographic games!”

“Congratulations, the winner of the Annual Best Holographic Game—Ghost Realm! Please welcome the chief planner of Ghost Realm, Mr. Xie Yunfan, to the stage to receive the award.”

The audience: “???”

[Damn! Xie Yunfan went up again]
[Isn’t Ghost Realm’s chief planner someone from Qihang?]
[I thought little sailboat sold the game to Qihang! Turns out Ghost Realm was also made by our little sailboat?]
[Type “Yangfan Studio is awesome” on the public screen!]

The Rong City University Design Department classmates: “…”

There had truly been too many frights these two days; they didn’t have enough eyeballs to drop. Just took Best Single-Player, and now Best Holographic?

Qihang was one of the largest game companies in the country. Although they opened the market relying solely on the single game Starry Sky Walk, this company’s strength and financial resources were undoubtedly top-tier in the gaming industry.

For Xie Yunfan’s cooperation with Qihang, he actually didn’t sell the copyright to Qihang, but parachuted into Qihang to continue serving as the chief planner?!

The chief planner of a holographic game! How did Qihang dare to feel at ease letting him oversee such a huge project? And how could he possibly make the holographic version of the game this successful?

This world was too magical…

Xie Yunfan walked onto the stage. The award presenter this time was old Mr. Zhu Yuan, President of Hua Xia Games.

Old Mr. Zhu smiled and handed the trophy to him: “Classmate Xie, we meet again. Just now when I saw the winner list, I thought my eyes were blurry and I saw wrong. For a university senior to be able to make such an explosive game, it’s truly remarkable!”

Xie Yunfan politely took the trophy: “Thank you for your affirmation.”

Old Mr. Zhu patted his shoulder: “Keep up the good work. Make more games in the future to benefit the players. Hua Nation’s planning teams need fresh blood like you!”

Xie Yunfan smiled: “I will work hard!”

He picked up the trophy and stood together with President Zhu to take a photo.

The host said: “Mr. Xie, Ghost Realm took down the Annual Best Holographic Game. Do you have anything you want to say?”

Xie Yunfan said: “The holographic version of Ghost Realm is adapted from Underworld Maze. For this game to achieve such great success, I want to especially thank one person.” He looked below the stage and said loudly: “The CEO of Qihang Games, Mr. Luo Hang!”

The camera followed his gaze to below the stage.

Luo Hang’s handsome face was enlarged on the live broadcast screen. The man had deep eyes, and facing the camera’s sweep, his expression remained very frank.

Being cued by Xie Yunfan, he smiled slightly, his gaze still intently watching the person receiving the award on the main stage.

Xie Yunfan said sincerely: “Thank you to President Luo for his trust and support, giving me the honor to participate in the R&D of this project.”

“In the first half of last year, we encountered quite a few difficulties during the process of producing Ghost Realm, all of which were resolved with the help of President Luo and the team. For the operation and publication of this game, President Luo also put in an extreme amount of effort.”

“Thank you, you’ve worked hard.”

“This is a joint cooperation project between Yangfan Studio and Qihang Games. Thank you to the members of the Qihang production team for your full cooperation.”

“Of course, this is also an honor shared by all of us players of Ghost Realm.”

“Thank you everyone!”

Xie Yunfan bowed deeply to the audience once again.

Luo Hang smiled and offered him applause, in an exceptionally good mood.

Actually, Luo Hang could have gone up to receive this award. After all, Qihang’s employees made up the bulk of the planning team, and Luo Hang was the one busy with operations the entire time. But when Qihang compiled the games for award evaluation at the end of the year, he only submitted Xie Yunfan’s name.

Qihang had already established a firm foothold in the industry long ago. Yunfan’s studio had just started and needed these honors more.

Furthermore, he wanted to let everyone know—Xie Yunfan was still the chief planner of Ghost Realm. It was him whose eyes were as bright as torches, discovering this bright pearl.

Xie Yunfan thanking him individually on stage could also be considered taking him along to receive the award, right? This was their first joint award.

There were currently very few holographic games domestically, but Luo Hang believed the R&D progress for holographic games would accelerate, and there would be more and more holographic games in countries around the world.

He hoped that one day, he could take Yunfan abroad.

To take a major international award.

---

[Good News!]
[The game Ghost Realm, with our school’s student Xie Yunfan serving as the chief planner, has won the “Best Holographic Game” grand award at the Annual Game Gala!]
[Congratulations to Classmate Xie Yunfan once again!]

On Rong City University’s campus forum, the students were all very surprised.

Another grand award came? Three pieces of good news in three days, your Design School has a continuous stream of happy events, are you guys going to heaven!

Was the dean of the Design School grinning from ear to ear? Sending out good news one after another, the school leaders’ smugness could be seen between the lines.

As for the design department classmates, they had kept silent just now when Xie Yunfan won the award. At this moment, they finally couldn’t sit still either.

Questioning? Two consecutive awards, what the hell was there still to question!

Luo Hang applauding below the stage showed what? It meant Qihang’s boss acknowledged Xie Yunfan’s strength and let Xie Yunfan be the chief planner.

He took a half-year leave of absence before; turns out he ran off to produce Ghost Realm.

Many people in the design department left comments on the forum, and the tone had completely changed. Whoever dared to question him at this time would definitely be scolded by everyone for being jealous and green-eyed.

Classmates who usually weren’t very familiar with Xie Yunfan, or whose relationships were okay, ran out one after another to congratulate Xie Yunfan.

As for those classmates who usually mocked him sarcastically, at this moment their faces and ears were red, hating themselves for having eyes but no pupils (failing to recognize greatness)!

With such an awesome big shot lurking right beside them, how did they fail to see it?