Shen Xingye had been dealing with a monumental headache over the past few days. She had created narrative-driven games before; in fact, that niche game she once worked on boasted a rating as high as 9.5 on Mobile Home, and its storyline had been widely praised.

However, her previous projects had always adhered to a strict 1V1 setup where the male and female leads shared a mutual affection, perhaps with a second male or female lead added for flavor. Writing those stories had been relatively straightforward.

Now, the “Otome game” proposed by her boss suddenly introduced four male leads at once. Making all four of them exceptionally charming, balancing their presence perfectly, and threading them together through a singular main storyline was simply an astronomical challenge.

Moreover, the “Wuxia world” framework constructed by her boss was an entirely foreign domain to her.

Wuxia? What exactly should the male leads be doing so they could cross paths with the player without it feeling glaringly forced? Shen Xingye wrote draft after draft of the narrative outline, cutting and tweaking constantly, yet she remained utterly unable to finalize it.

In all her years as a creative writer and narrative designer, this was the very first time she had been hit with a bout of writer’s block so severe it was making her pull her hair out.

Three days later, Shen Xingye decided to swallow her pride and seek out Xie Yunfan—after all, her boss had an exceptionally good temperament, and she could consult him on any issue regarding game development.

Shen Xingye knocked on the office door and said, “Boss, I’ve been trying to map out the outline over the last few days, but I consistently feel unsatisfied with it. I wanted to come and ask for your guidance. For a Wuxia world, how should we structure the main plotline? What kind of object or event can we use to thread the male leads together naturally?”

The people of this alternate world possessed no deep understanding of Wuxia worlds. Presenting them with a core concept and expecting them to immediately flesh out a fully formed plotline was indeed a bit asking too much. Xie Yunfan pondered for a moment before saying, “Tell you what, gather the rest of the copywriting department, and let’s hold a meeting to discuss it together.”

A short while later, the copywriting department assembled in full.

As everyone sat in the small conference room, Xie Yunfan offered a detailed breakdown: “Wuxia, the Jianghu, the martial world—they all mean roughly the same thing. This type of background centers entirely around ‘martial arts’ as its core. Factions like Famous Sword Villa, the Nether Sect, Medicine King Valley, and Heavenly Secrets Pavilion where our male leads reside represent the different influential powers within this Jianghu.”

“A Wuxia world is one where martial prowess is paramount. For example, let’s say the strongest figure in the martial world, the Sword Saint, left behind a manual on his deathbed detailing his lifelong insights into swordsmanship. As the absolute strongest under heaven, the manual he left behind is naturally a peerless treasure of the martial world that absolutely everyone covets.”

“The player transmigrates into a certain small town in this alternate world, which just so happens to be where clues regarding the location of this sword manual surface. The four male leads, representing their respective factions, head out in search of it. Encountering the player one after another upon arriving in the town becomes entirely logical, doesn’t it?”

“If the player happens to witness a specific event right after transmigrating and accidentally becomes a critical ‘clue’ herself, the male leads will naturally find ways to take the player away for investigation, thereby deepening their interactions further.”

The members of the copywriting department felt as though a sudden light had been switched on in their minds.

Framed this way, the sword manual could serve as the grand anchor for the entire game’s main storyline.

Since every faction the male leads belonged to was hunting for this secret manual, the player would be passively swept into the vortex. This would naturally generate a complex web of grievances and pull-and-push dynamics with the male leads, opening up an abundance of narrative material to write about. Even after the “sword manual” was eventually located in the later stages, they could still unfold further conspiracies or obstacles to keep the plot progressing.

Xie Yunfan offered a hint: “By the way, the main storyline should focus primarily on unraveling mysteries and searching for the manual. While the player can travel alongside the male leads, and the male leads can develop feelings for the player, the player cannot actively reciprocate those feelings toward any specific male lead within the main plot. Because every player favors a different male lead, showing mutual affection for Male Lead A will alienate and upset the players who love Male Lead B.”

Shen Xingye came to a sudden realization. “In other words, the main storyline is about traveling with the male leads and focusing heavily on building their careers and solving the mystery, while the branching paths and dates are where the actual romance takes place. Whichever male lead a player wants to romance is left entirely to their own choice?”

Xie Yunfan smiled. “Exactly. Those handling the branching subplots can write adventures where the male leads take the player out exploring, which we will later turn into secret realm instances. We’ll build four standalone male lead secret realms based on their respective factions. Additionally, we’ll create a public secret realm with a flexible, shifting narrative—for instance, an incident occurs in the Jianghu that requires the player’s intervention, and at this point, the player can freely choose which male lead to bring along to assist.”

These five secret realms would serve as the hubs where daily quests were issued in the game.

Within the public secret realms, players could choose freely; they could clear a stage with this male lead today and a different one tomorrow. Players who loved all the characters could cycle through a different lead every single day.

On the flip side, the individual male lead secret realms would be the top choice for single-character devotees. There, you could spend quality time with the male lead you adored, whether exploring, solving mechanisms, or engaging in casual conversations, entirely undisturbed. It would be a private world belonging strictly to the two of you.

Of course, omnivorous collectors could choose to grind through the secret realms of every single male lead.

When Xie Yunfan designed games, he preferred granting players an immense degree of “freedom.” Every player’s preferences varied, and there was absolutely no need to force a player to spend time with a male lead they didn’t care for.

Keeping a respectful distance in the main plotline while leaving the branching paths and secret realms entirely to the player’s choice was the ideal balance.

…

Throughout the afternoon, Xie Yunfan explained patiently, cleanly unpacking the core philosophies of “Wuxia” and the “Jianghu” for everyone. The members of the copywriting department listened intently, boldly raising questions whenever they encountered something they didn’t comprehend.

Xie Yunfan never put on the haughty airs of a boss, chatting with them like a peer, which made for an exceptionally harmonious meeting atmosphere. By the time the session wrapped up, they had gained a far deeper comprehension of the Wuxia world setting and the distinct writing methodologies for the main and branching storylines.

Having been guided by their boss in such a precise manner, everyone felt a tremendous explosion of creative inspiration.

Upon returning to their workstations, Shen Xingye immediately delegated tasks to everyone and began drafting the narrative outline.

Xie Yunfan then convened a meeting with the art department, discussing the specifics of the male leads’ designs—hair color, height, eye color, and every minute detail was carefully finalized.

He directly assigned Ning Sha, the most brilliant character illustrator and the art director of Yangfan Studio, to oversee this project personally, showcasing just how heavily he prioritized this game.

After reviewing the profiles from the copywriting department, Ning Sha asked, “Boss, can we differentiate the hair and eye colors of the male leads using distinct palettes? For instance, for this one from Medicine King Valley, I feel giving him white hair would make his personality pop significantly.”

Xie Yunfan replied, “Go right ahead. This game uses a slow transmigration model, and we’ll introduce fantasy and cultivation worlds later down the line. You can be bold with the hair and eye color designs; as long as it looks stunning, it works. Let’s have the art department draw up a few different concepts for the male leads’ official illustrations first, and we’ll cast a vote to decide later.”

The girls in the art department were itching to get started, returning to their desks to sketch out rough concept designs based on the profiles.

With the copywriting and art departments buzzing with activity, Xie Yunfan gathered the members of the remaining departments to hold separate meetings to map out the framework design of the game.

In traditional Otome games, the daily grinding for instances in the late game often devolved into a repetitive routine of “one-click clears” to hoard materials and level up cards, making the gameplay loop relatively monotonous.

Since this Otome game featured a holographic client, Xie Yunfan felt they could significantly deepen the “secret realm gameplay loop.”

First, given the martial world background, they could introduce a “Jianghu Bounty Quest system” featuring different randomized events every week that required the player to bring a male lead along to handle.

For instance, a notorious bandit appears in a certain region, and the player brings a male lead to apprehend the culprit; or a conflict erupts between two small sects resulting in numerous casualties, requiring the player to bring a male lead to mediate.

Such “weekly bounty quests” would reward players with resources that could be channeled back into the gacha pool.

Simultaneously, the daily quests within the male leads’ sect secret realms could feature puzzle-filled secret rooms, casual mini-games, or combat instances to eliminate traitors. Of course, these quests wouldn’t require daily completion to avoid burning players out; clearing them two or three times a week would suffice to claim the maximum rewards, allowing players to pick and choose.

By making the instances rich and engaging, the interaction models between the player and the male leads would become far more diverse.

The gacha pulling system, of course, was paramount.

Since the male leads’ cards directly corresponded to standalone “dating” storylines, the drop probabilities for rare cards, the methods for acquiring pulling resources, and the premium currency exchange ratios all required meticulous calculation by the numerical designers.

With probabilities, a stroke of good luck could result in pulling a desired card on the very first try; whereas a run of poor luck could see someone dump hundreds of pulls without getting what they wanted, which easily led to frustrated players abandoning the game.

Therefore, a hard “pity” system had to be integrated into the gacha mechanics, and the exchange shop should allow players to redeem specific cards using their cumulative pull counts. Players who missed out on their luck could directly use their accumulated resources to guarantee their desired card.

Xie Yunfan had no intention of forcing players into aggressive monetization. After all, the game needed to be operated over the long term; if the cost of engagement was too exorbitant, players simply wouldn’t be able to sustain it. His directive was that once the final numerical blueprint was locked down, players relying solely on a monthly pass should be able to play exceptionally comfortably.

A monthly card costing 30 yuan would allow players to hoard resources and successfully pull the male lead they favored. Omnivorous collectors who loved multiple male leads, or high-spending players, could choose to purchase additional pulls to acquire everything.

This way, players with tighter budgets could opt for the monthly card and focus exclusively on romancing their absolute favorite character. Meanwhile, collectors or completionists could invest more to secure every single male lead card available.

…

A week after the project was officially greenlit, the research and development timelines across the various working groups steadily fell into a smooth rhythm. On this particular afternoon, Xie Yunfan’s phone suddenly rang, with the caller ID displaying Luo Hang’s name.

He picked up the call and asked curiously, “CEO Luo, what’s on your mind?”

Luo Hang spoke over the line: “The smart companionship doll you asked me to look into earlier—the underlying AI model has been constructed. We need to collect your voiceprint data. When are you free?”

Xie Yunfan glanced over his daily schedule and replied, “I’m free for the rest of the day today.”

Luo Hang said cleanly, “Then I’ll head over right now to pick you up, and we can go together. I’ll drive the car down to Building A; you can head downstairs in a bit.”

Xie Yunfan: “Sounds good.”

A short while later, Xie Yunfan arrived at the underground parking garage and spotted a familiar car with its hazard lights flashing. He walked over quickly, opened the door, and slipped into the passenger seat, turning to look at Luo Hang. “Your team’s progress is remarkably fast.”

Luo Hang replied, “We’ve built intelligent NPCs before, so our company’s AI engineers possess a wealth of experience regarding the design of these smart dolls. Once the personality profile is calibrated, the AI just needs to spend some time learning.”

Xie Yunfan asked out of curiosity, “Was the personality profile modeled using me as the baseline blueprint?”

Luo Hang said, “Yes. To keep things fair, we modeled one using me as a baseline blueprint as well.”

Xie Yunfan’s emotions turned slightly complex. “The company bosses using themselves as baseline blueprints to produce physical merchandise… I suppose the two of us represent a unique historic first, don’t we?”

Luo Hang turned to look at him with a gentle smile. “For the sake of future physical merchandise, we can consider ourselves the very first batch of guinea pigs and test subjects. I instructed them to only produce two copies, strictly for our personal collection.”

Xie Yunfan nodded his head. “Mm.”

He was actually quite content to play the role of this guinea pig.

If these smart AI companionship dolls with integrated voiceprint registration could be developed successfully, then once the game officially hit the market, smart dolls of the four male leads could be seamlessly introduced as subsequent merchandise lines.

Bringing high-tech physical merchandise like this to fruition required a lengthy timeframe, so mapping out the blueprint well in advance was undeniably the right call.

With this thought in mind, Xie Yunfan fastened his seatbelt and said with a smile, “Let’s head out then. Let’s go take a look at your company’s holographic laboratory; I haven’t actually visited it yet.”