The game had been packaged and sent for review. It would take some time to get the publication license. With finals approaching, Xie Yunfan focused more of his energy on studying for exams.

On December 31st, his eldest brother, Xie Xinghe, suddenly returned to Rongcheng.

Ever since Xie Xinghe went abroad for a vacation, he would message Xie Yunfan every few days to ask: “Are you attending classes? Haven’t caused any trouble lately, have you?”

In his brother’s mind, he was still that ignorant, headache-inducing younger brother.

Xie Yunfan hadn’t told his brother about establishing his own studio.

However, he would be making many games in the future; he couldn’t keep this from his family forever. He decided to wait until his first game achieved good results—it would be much more convincing then.

On the evening of the 31st, his cousin, Ming Zhi, drove to the airport to pick up Xie Xinghe. Receiving the news, Xie Yunfan also returned to the Xie family’s suburban villa.

After two months of relaxing abroad, Xie Xinghe’s condition had improved significantly. He wasn’t as decadent as before; he had shaved his beard, wore neat clothes, and looked like a proper person again.

He came back this time wanting to spend the New Year with his family.

Xie Xinghe patted his younger brother’s shoulder and said with a smile, “Yunfan, you told me to go out and relax, and you know what? Taking a trip really did bring new opportunities!”

Curious, Xie Yunfan asked, “Opportunities? Who did you meet abroad?”

Xie Xinghe replied, “I went to Nanyang Island for vacation and happened to bump into the boss of Dream Wings. He’s very interested in the game Fighting Master and wants to collaborate with me.”

Xie Yunfan asked, “How do they want to collaborate?”

“They want to buy the copyright to the game and redevelop it. Fighting Master was forced to be taken down because the combat stats were unbalanced. If it’s rebuilt from scratch, it has a chance to be relaunched. Dream Wings is the largest game company in the country; partnering with them has great prospects.”

Dream Wings? Xie Yunfan had heard of this company.

They were the developers of the classic maze game Tower of Dreams.

This was a massive internet conglomerate that integrated game production, publishing, and operations—similar to the major corporations like Tencent or NetEase from his previous life—occupying a third of the gaming industry’s market share.

Collaborating with them did indeed have good prospects.

However, large corporations certainly wouldn’t offer good terms to a bankrupt company.

Xie Yunfan asked bluntly, “How much are they offering? Buyout or revenue split?”

Xie Xinghe said, “A 30 million RMB buyout.”

Xie Yunfan couldn’t help but frown. “Brother, your initial R&D investment for this game was hundreds of millions. Selling all the data to them in a package deal for 30 million is too much of a loss, isn’t it?”

A trace of disappointment flashed in Xie Xinghe’s eyes. “I know it’s a huge loss, but Dream Wings is a major corporation after all; I don’t have much negotiating power in front of them. Besides, Fighting Master has already been taken down, and it’s not making a single cent right now. I don’t have the ability to remake it. If I don’t sell it, all that data and code will just rot on my computer.”

Xie Yunfan: “…”

He could feel his brother’s sense of powerlessness when facing a massive corporation.

Dream Wings was a top-tier game company in the country. In their eyes, Xie Xinghe—bankrupt and heavily in debt—was nothing but a small fish they could easily manipulate.

Businessmen prioritized profit, but buying out the data and copyright of a VR game for a mere 30 million was taking advantage of someone’s misfortune; this approach was simply too shameless.

Seeing his brother looking somewhat wronged, Xie Yunfan didn’t feel good either. He gently patted his brother’s hand and said, “Brother, don’t rush. Your game has a unique style. If Dream Wings wants to acquire it, maybe other companies will have the same intention. Let’s wait and see.”

Xie Xinghe scratched his head. “Yeah, I’m still considering it. I haven’t decided yet.”

Xie Yunfan didn’t say anything more, just squeezed his brother’s hand tighter. He wouldn’t just stand by and watch his brother suffer such a huge loss.

---

After the New Year holiday, Xie Yunfan received a message in his inbox: “Hello, your game Underworld Maze has passed review and is classified as Category C. Game publication license number: C654XXXX. Please visit the official SARFT game review website XX to check.”

Xie Yunfan clicked the link in the email. Sure enough, an approval announcement had been posted on the official game review website, and his Underworld Maze was prominently listed.

Now that he had the license, he could choose a date for release.

Xie Yunfan sent the game to Little Hu and had them conduct the final test.

Hu Fei ground through it for two nights, beating Nightmare Mode as well. He said excitedly, “Boss, we didn’t find any bugs. The clipping and lag issues we mentioned before have all been fixed!”

Xie Yunfan asked, “If you had to rate this game out of 10, what score would you give it?”

Hu Fei hesitated for a moment before saying, “Above a 9.”

Xie Yunfan said, “Tell me the truth. Don’t just give it a high score because you took my money.”

Hu Fei’s face flushed. “No, no, no, these aren’t pity points. I genuinely think this game is very interesting. Even though I wanted to smash my phone several times while playing, I also looked forward to seeing how psychopathic the next level would be.”

Xie Yunfan: “What did the other power-levelers testing it say?”

Hu Fei replied, “Unanimous praise! It’s been a long time since we played a game this addictive.”

The stone in Xie Yunfan’s heart finally fell. “That’s good.”

Hu Fei asked, “Boss, when do you plan to release it?”

Xie Yunfan: “Probably during the winter vacation.”

Hu Fei was taken aback and carefully suggested, “There will be a ton of new games releasing during the winter break. Plus, the Mecha Apprentice grand finals and the Desert Island Survival professional league—a whole bunch of tournaments will also take place then. Wouldn’t the competition be too fierce if you launch it at this time?!”

Xie Yunfan naturally knew that launching in the fiercely competitive winter break meant his little game was very likely to become cannon fodder.

But it also had the potential to suddenly rise to prominence and become the biggest dark horse.

Xie Yunfan said, “It doesn’t matter. My game is suited for a holiday release; it can attract student players.”

Hu Fei was too embarrassed to say more.

But in his heart, he felt that forcing its way into the winter break slot was not a wise move.

When the time came, the big games on the leaderboards would all release new dungeons in unison, coupled with the impact of various tournaments… how many people would actually be willing to pay attention to this obscure, niche maze game?

---

On the afternoon of January 7th, Xie Yunfan finished his final exam.

The school had officially started its winter break. Just as he walked out of the exam room, his phone suddenly rang. The caller ID displayed a very strange, 10-digit number starting with 400.

Xie Yunfan answered the call: “Hello.”

A clear female voice came through the earpiece: “Hello, is this the person in charge of Sailboat Studio?”

Xie Yunfan paused. “Yes, may I ask who is calling?”

“I am from the game operations department of Dream Wings. We saw that your game, Underworld Maze, has obtained its publication license, and we would like to discuss matters related to game publishing and operations with you. I contacted you through the official review website. Is it convenient to add you on WeChat?”

Xie Yunfan: “…”

Dream Wings again. This company was certainly well-informed; they reached out to him proactively not long after his game passed review.

Xie Yunfan said politely, “Sure, I’ll add you.”

The other party’s ID was Meng Xiaoyue, and her avatar was a cartoon character. Immediately after accepting the friend request, she sent a string of messages: “Hello, Dream Wings is the most professional game R&D and operations company in the country. The games we operate include many classic blockbuster hits. The maze game Tower of Dreams is one of our works, and it currently holds the number one spot on the sales and rating charts for maze-genre games.”

Xie Yunfan replied politely, “I know, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

He had already heard so much about Tower of Dreams from Little Hu that his ears were growing calluses.

The other party continued: “Your game happens to be a maze theme. We read the general introduction of the game on the official website and felt it was very innovative, which is why we contacted you officially. We have very rich experience in operating maze games. If you are interested, we can collaborate.”

Whether a game succeeds or not hinges on two main aspects: “game content” and “operation model.” Design and operations are like the left and right hands; neither can be missing.

If you can find a very powerful operations company, the number of game users can multiply several times, or even hundreds of times over. Of course, there are also countless examples of good games being ruined by garbage operations.

Therefore, one must be cautious when choosing a collaboration partner.

Xie Yunfan asked, “How do you want to collaborate?”

Meng Xiaoyue: “We want to buy the copyright to your game for 2 million RMB. You can confidently leave the operation and promotion of the game to us. This is the first game produced by Sailboat Studio, right? Dream Wings possesses over 30% of the gaming user base; we will definitely help you build your reputation.”

Xie Yunfan was outright amused.

A 2 million buyout? Did they think he was some clueless rookie? Did the other party feel that for an obscure, new studio like his, clinging to Dream Wings was a blessing?

He could do without this “blessing.”

Xie Yunfan said flatly, “A buyout is out of the question. Gross profit split: 60% for me, 40% for you.”

At the Dream Wings Group headquarters, the girl who was typing instantly widened her eyes. A 60-40 split? And he wanted the lion’s share? How dare he!

She looked at the man behind her, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: “Director Fang, Sailboat Studio says they want a net profit split, and he takes 60%.”

The head of the operations department, Fang Jiming, spat out a mouthful of tea. “What the fuck? This is a fucking gaming noob who has no idea about our company’s strength, right?!”

The girl said speechlessly, “I already told him. Our representative works include Tower of Dreams, which is a hall-of-fame masterpiece in maze games that remains unsurpassed to this day.”

Fang Jiming couldn’t believe it. “You explained it clearly, and he still made such an outrageous demand?”

Dream Wings was one of the three major giants in the gaming industry. Their real-name registered user count had broken the 300 million mark. A casual internal “user push notification” could send a game’s download numbers soaring.

Being favored by such a powerful operations company was like a pie falling from the sky for a newcomer.

A single-player maze game with a file size of only 500MB definitely didn’t have high R&D costs. Selling it for 2 million would already earn him a lot of money. Backed by the massive tree that was Dream Wings, it was the perfect opportunity to build a reputation.

Yet he was actually greedy enough to dare negotiate a 60-40 split? He truly didn’t know what was good for him!

Fang Jiming laughed out of anger. “He’s probably a total rookie who doesn’t understand the gaming market at all… Forget it, no need to argue with these arrogant kids. Let him experience the cruelty of business competition. A niche maze game like this, without powerful operations, will absolutely die a quick death.”

The girl nodded and replied to the message: “Sorry, we cannot accept your condition.”

“No problem, let’s collaborate if there’s an opportunity in the future~”

Xie Yunfan put away his phone, deep in thought.

The Dream Wings company seemed to be making big moves recently. The boss personally sought out his brother to acquire the copyright for Fighting Master, while the operations department kept a daily watch on the official review website, looking for obscure small studios to acquire potential new games. They had probably duped quite a few newcomers who didn’t understand the market.

But Xie Yunfan wasn’t some college student whose eyes would light up at the sight of 2 million RMB.

The potential of his game went far beyond that.

Originally, he had wanted to find a professional game operator to help him promote Underworld Maze. But after this “completely insincere” negotiation with Dream Wings, he also realized the difficulties of collaboration—

His studio was a “new studio” with absolutely zero reputation. Collaborating with an operator meant he definitely wouldn’t get a good deal.

Moreover, he didn’t feel comfortable handing his very first game over to someone else to operate. If they operated it so poorly that its reputation collapsed, it would be difficult to salvage.

Since he couldn’t get negotiating power, he might as well do it himself.

He didn’t have many connections in this world. He didn’t know any advertising or marketing companies, much less possess any brand awareness or user base.

Promoting a new game by himself would be extremely difficult.

But he believed that Underworld Maze, with its unique style, would definitely not remain buried.