After listening to Xie Yunfan’s design concepts for the holographic version of the Underworld, everyone was filled with admiration.

Such a rich, colorful, thrilling, and bizarre world—wouldn’t you want to take a look at it? Let alone holographic game players, even they themselves wanted to go play in this so-called “Ghost Realm”!

Xie Yunfan looked at Luo Hang and asked, “This is just my preliminary design. VP Luo, do you think these designs are feasible?”

Luo Hang said decisively, “Of course they are. An open-world game like this is quite rare in the holographic market. According to your design concepts, the gameplay is incredibly rich and highly inclusive, giving players complete freedom to do what they like in this world.”

Initially, Luo Hang had also been concerned about the game’s adaptation direction. If the mobile version of Underworld Maze were directly ported into a holographic gaming cabin, it would face several serious issues.

First, as a “maze game,” it would immediately deter players with a poor sense of direction as soon as it launched. Given the immersive nature of holographic games, directionally challenged players might literally never find their way out of the maze. Secondly, the horror style and high-difficulty challenge elements of Underworld Maze would also drive away a massive number of “casual players” in the holographic market.

That would leave only a small group of gaming experts who enjoyed thrills and excitement.

The audience for this game would inevitably be very narrow.

Luo Hang’s initial thought had been to rely on word-of-mouth, building a reputation within a niche community to boost the brand awareness of “Qihang Gaming Cabins.” The game was destined to not have high profit margins; just breaking even would have been enough.

Now, after hearing Xie Yunfan’s adaptation ideas, Luo Hang also felt as if a whole new horizon had opened up before him.

The holographic version wouldn’t just be Underworld Maze, but rather a massive open world—the Ghost Realm!

The inclusivity of an open world instantly solved the problem of a narrow target audience. Scenery lovers, casual players, story enthusiasts, and challenge-seeking experts could all find their own niche in the “Ghost Realm.”

With this change, the target user base suddenly multiplied by dozens of times!

Luo Hang looked at Xie Yunfan and said, “We have abundant experience from previously making open-world games like Starry Sky Walk. You can go ahead and assign work to everyone without holding back.”

Xie Yunfan’s current designs weren’t fully polished yet. But a massive game couldn’t be completely designed in just two or three days. He had to lay down the framework first and slowly fill it in later.

Haste makes waste; he had to strictly oversee every single step.

When it came to concept art, if it were only figures like the Five Ghost Emperors and the Ten Kings of Hell, Ning Sha could handle it. But once side quests were added, it would be impossible for Ning Sha to draw the massive amount of side story characters by herself.

For instance, the Nie Xiaoqian side quest alone had seven or eight characters; Qiao Sheng and Liancheng went without saying, involving maids, supporting male characters, parents, friends, and more. That would require drawing at least a dozen characters.

Xie Yunfan looked at the long-haired woman across from him and said, “Director Xia.”

Xia Yixi, the Art Director of Qihang Games and the lead artist for Starry Sky Walk, was a highly capable illustrator. Earlier, when Xie Yunfan said all the characters would be drawn by Ning Sha, she had clearly felt somewhat indignant.

Hearing her name called, Xia Yixi looked up and said, “Here.”

Xie Yunfan said, “The game’s side quest content is extremely rich and involves many characters. Can I leave the arrangements for all the side story characters and field bosses to you?”

Xia Yixi was stunned for a moment. She had thought Xie Yunfan was playing favorites with the artist he brought along, not trusting her, which was why he made her a deputy.

She never expected Xie Yunfan to hand the entire side quest section over to her to manage.

Corporate workers all hope for recognition; otherwise, it would be very humiliating for her in front of her boss. Xie Yunfan’s words greatly improved Xia Yixi’s mood, and she immediately smiled, saying, “No problem.”

Xie Yunfan said, “Ning Sha will continue drawing NPCs like the Ten Kings of Hell and the Five Ghost Emperors, while Director Xia will draw the side quest characters. You two will be the lead illustrators for character concept art, with others assisting. For scene concept art, Chu Yue will be the lead illustrator, with a few assistants helping him. Director Xia will be in charge of the specific personnel allocations. Your art department will be split into three teams, proceeding simultaneously.”

Xia Yixi said crisply, “Understood!”

Xie Yunfan continued, “Ensure the art style remains as unified as possible, produce the design drafts as quickly as you can, and communicate with me promptly regarding any changes. Once a drawing is finished and finalized, transfer it to the 3D modeling team immediately.”

Looking at their boss’s serious expression, Ning Sha and Chu Yue hurriedly nodded. When in work mode, Xie Yunfan was actually incredibly serious and rigorous, completely different from his usual cheerful, easy-to-talk-to demeanor.

If they couldn’t finish their work on time, would he lose his temper?

Xie Yunfan then immediately looked toward another row: “Modeling Team. Director Zhou, make the arrangements. First, take the existing 18-layer Underworld scenes and NPCs like Black and White Impermanence and Meng Po, and build holographic 3D models for them. Finish all of it within a month.”

The environment of a holographic game was a “three-dimensional space.” Players could personally step into the scene, and what they saw from a first-person perspective was drastically different from what was displayed on a phone screen.

Director Zhou put on a bitter face and said, “The timeline is a bit tight, but we’ll… try our best to finish it.”

Xie Yunfan said, “Combat Mathematics Team. For the first phase, start by debugging the environmental parameters for the Hell of Boiling Oil/Steamer Hell and the Hell of Ice. Once the modeling team finishes other environments, you’ll also need to adjust player movement data like jumping, running, and sliding. VP Luo will oversee this. If you have any questions, report directly to VP Luo.”

Xie Yunfan looked at Luo Hang, who cooperatively said, “Yes, I will personally keep an eye on the numerical side. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to meet with the medical team to conduct human sample testing. We’ll first find the limit values for negative status effects in a holographic environment, and then calculate the designs in detail.”

The Combat Mathematics Team leader nodded: “Understood.”

Xie Yunfan continued, “Level Design Team. I will send you detailed background lore and initial skill settings for the Ten Kings of Hell. Based on the documents, I want you to create 10 bosses for me. Show me every single one you finish, and we’ll quickly revise any inappropriate parts.”

The people in the Level Design Team exchanged a glance and braced themselves, saying, “Alright.”

“The Programming Team needs to prepare the game framework and build the world map. Fill in the Eighteen Hells section first and leave the rest blank. We still need to add scenes and NPCs later, so you must rush to get this done.”

Programming Team: “…”

Preparing to go bald.

“Writing Team. I will give you outlines for a few side quests. Write the side quest scripts first. Players need a sense of participation; you can create choices at certain story nodes, allowing players to observe and push the development of the entire story forward.”

Qihang’s writing team currently only had two people. Sci-fi experience games like Starry Sky Walk didn’t have overly complex plots, only requiring some simple dialogue.

Hearing this, both girls were a bit worried.

Could they write side quest stories well? They could only bite the bullet and try!

Xie Yunfan looked at everyone and concluded, “This is the work content for the first phase. I hope every team works together seamlessly. If you encounter problems, communicate and resolve them quickly. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can come ask me directly.”

Listening to him assign work to every team so decisively, Luo Hang couldn’t help but feel puzzled—Xie Yunfan truly didn’t seem like a rookie, but rather an experienced game planner.

A Chief Planner didn’t need to do everything hands-on. They proposed the game’s design concepts, established the core gameplay, and then coordinated task assignments across the different teams. It was like placing all the gears in their proper positions, adjusting the speed, and letting them turn on their own.

Xie Yunfan was very methodical as a planner.

The progress of the entire project was firmly within his grasp.

Seeing that the colleagues in the conference room looked like they were under “a lot of pressure,” Luo Hang proactively brought up, “The timeline for this project is indeed very tight because we need to launch before summer vacation, so we must rush the work. I know everyone’s workload will be heavy. After the game launches, I will take a portion of the profits as a year-end bonus and distribute it to everyone involved in this project. I hope this gives everyone more motivation to work.”

A year-end bonus?

Hearing this phrase, the corporate workers’ eyes instantly lit up.

If the project became profitable, the profits would be a terrifyingly huge number. Split evenly among everyone, it would still be a lot—at least a five-figure bonus, maybe even hitting six figures?

For the sake of the year-end bonus, it was time to grind through this period!

Working overtime was completely normal for game developers, and Qihang hadn’t had them work overtime in a long time.

Thinking of this, the crowd suddenly felt full of drive, each and every one of them looking energized.

Xie Yunfan glanced at Luo Hang—using bonuses as an incentive truly was a good method; everyone was much more motivated to work.

For a massive open-world game like this in Xie Yunfan’s previous life, a development team taking two to three years would be considered fast, and some AAA titles took up to five years to develop.

But this world had many “AI-assisted tools” and various “programming editors,” which drastically shortened game production timelines and increased efficiency.

Luo Hang wanted the game to launch by summer vacation, which meant a production time of about 5 months.

Converted to the standards of the world Xie Yunfan came from, it would take at least 3 years.

Xie Yunfan was very glad that this world’s advanced technology provided him with so many conveniences. This way, he could turn even more of his rich, imaginative ideas into fun games.

Otherwise, at the pace of his previous life—taking 3 years to make a big game—he wouldn’t be able to finish all his material even if he worked until he was 60 with gray hair!

Step one, the Ghost Realm.

Later, there would be monsters in the Human Realm, immortals in the Heavenly Realm, and so on. He could unleash his imagination to the fullest, and the censorship system here was relatively lenient due to age ratings. This place was simply a paradise for game producers!

---

After the meeting, everyone returned to their stations and started getting busy. Xie Yunfan sent task progress schedules and detailed setting documents to the different teams in the work group chat.

Looking at the settings for the first side quest in the document, Xia Yixi asked in confusion, “A beautiful female ghost dressed in flowing white clothes with hair down to the ground? A scholar wearing a hat and cloth robes?”

Beside it were two rough sketches, outlining a general silhouette.

Through a few stream-of-consciousness lines, one could barely make out the shape of the scholar’s hat… Xie Yunfan’s drawing skills were on par with a kindergarten child’s.

What kind of characters were these?!

Xia Yixi held her forehead in a headache.

Seeing her conflicted expression, Ning Sha proactively said, “The style our boss requires is quite unique. He calls it ‘Chinese-style horror,’ and the characters’ clothes need to be specially designed.”

Xia Yixi asked, “Like Meng Po’s?”

Ning Sha said, “Yes. I also had to revise Meng Po’s draft several times back then. However, the boss is very easy to talk to. As long as you revise the draft until he’s satisfied during the sketch phase, there won’t be too many rework requests later.”

Hearing this, Xia Yixi relaxed slightly: “Alright, let me assign the manpower first. Xiao Yue, Rongrong, you two will be Ning Sha’s assistants. Luoluo and Brother Lin, follow Chu Yue. Let’s get to work!”

The art department began drawing drafts, and all three teams got busy.

Next door, the Level Design Team also had a massive headache. They took Xie Yunfan’s documents back, and upon reading them—good lord, the skills for these Ten Kings of Hell were all completely different?!

For example, King Qinguang’s skill could invert Yin and Yang, turning men into women and women into men; he could also divine good or bad fortune, granting players a buff if it was good, and a debuff if it was bad.

A boss that relied on luck? Sounded very interesting. But after clearing the level, the player was teleported to the Mirror of Retribution to look in the mirror and see what bad deeds they had done while alive??

Director Zhou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “After fighting the boss, make the player go look in a mirror?”

These lore introductions were absolutely wild.

King Chujiang, the boss of the Hell of Ice; his skill designs had to relate to “ice,” like an icy wasteland or falling ice blocks from the sky, leaving them to use their own imagination.

King Wuguan, the boss of the Hell of the Blood Pool, casually pushed players into the pool to be corroded. If a player got pushed in twice, wouldn’t they develop psychological trauma?

The staff in the Level Design Team looked at each other in dismay.

They really had never seen such bizarre and eccentric boss documents.

Xie Yunfan, just what kind of weird game are you trying to make?

**

The two girls from the writing team huddled together to look at the plot outlines.

Both wore expressions of “eating melons” (enjoying the gossip) as they read the stories with great relish.

“Nie Xiaoqian goes to harm Ning Caichen at first, but is ultimately moved by Ning Caichen’s upright character and helps him escape. The two fall in love, but humans and ghosts cannot be together, so the player has to help Nie Xiaoqian resurrect and become human?”

“This plot is so interesting!”

“There’s also the outline for the second side quest, Qiao Sheng and Liancheng.”

“They’re so pitiful. They always admired and loved each other, but unfortunately couldn’t marry because of their families’ opposition. Even after Liancheng married someone else, Qiao Sheng still couldn’t forget her. Later, Liancheng fell gravely ill and needed flesh cut from a chest to be cured. He didn’t hesitate to save Liancheng… Since they couldn’t be husband and wife while alive, they became a ghost couple in death?”

“What a truly devoted and deeply affectionate pair. This story is quite touching!”

“When players personally accompany them through all of this, they’ll definitely be moved, right?”

The previous sci-fi games had absolutely zero plots like this. After receiving the two side quest outlines Xie Yunfan gave them, they realized that this game was truly captivating!

If all these rich, colorful, twist-filled, and bizarre ghost stories were made into a side quest random encounter system, it would definitely receive massive praise from the “story enthusiast” players! Maybe some people would even spend money to play this game just to find Nie Xiaoqian or Liancheng’s soul in the Ghost Realm.

There were also plenty of players who didn’t like fighting and killing. This was a gospel for story enthusiasts!

The two exchanged a look and said with full motivation, “Let’s hurry up and write. There will definitely be other side quests later!”

---

[Double Chapter / Strict Planning]

At noon, Luo Hang proactively knocked on the door of Xie Yunfan’s office and asked, “Are you busy?”

Xie Yunfan was sitting at his desk, his hands flying rapidly across the keyboard. The initial settings weren’t comprehensive enough yet. For example, he had only written two side quests so far; he hadn’t had time to write the outlines for the others.

Back in the day, to design games, he had read an ocean of reference materials. He had his memory to thank—after his rebirth, it felt like his brain had been enhanced, allowing him to remember these stories clearly.

Besides Nie Xiaoqian and Liancheng, there were many other stories about male and female ghosts he could write. He had to slowly write them all out and hand them over to the respective teams to produce.

Hearing Luo Hang’s voice, Xie Yunfan temporarily paused the work in his hands and looked up at him: “VP Luo, do you need something?”

Luo Hang asked straightforwardly, “I’m a bit curious. So far, you’ve only made this one game, Underworld Maze. How is it that you seem so experienced?”

In truth, Xie Yunfan’s soul came from another world where he had worked as a planner for several years and produced quite a few successful games. It was just that no one would believe an excuse like that.

He also didn’t want to expose his origins and get taken away for research. He was already making a game about the Ghost Realm; if people found out about his rebirth on top of that, they might actually think he was an evil spirit returning from the dead!

He had to find a logical excuse to explain this.

Xie Yunfan had already thought of his script and said, “Actually, my brother, Xie Xinghe, was the boss of the Xingyun Group. He made a holographic game called Fighting Master. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it?”

Fighting Master? Luo Hang was slightly startled. Of course he had heard of this game.

It was the laughingstock of the holographic gaming industry. Half a month after its launch, it was taken down due to a massive number of player complaints, and it dragged the Xingyun Group into bankruptcy with it.

Back when Xingyun Group wanted to make gaming cabins, he had paid attention to the matter. After all, if Xingyun Group succeeded, Qihang would have gained another formidable rival.

However, Fighting Master and Xingyun’s gaming cabins ultimately ended in failure. Since Qihang didn’t specialize in fighting games, he hadn’t paid any further attention to it afterward.

To think that Xie Yunfan was actually Xie Xinghe from Xingyun Group’s younger brother?

Xie Xinghe was very protective of his younger brother; the outside world was completely unaware of his existence.

Luo Hang had never met Xie Xinghe, or else he would have recognized him much earlier.

Thinking of the man he had seen a few days ago—he looked very energetic, dressed cleanly and neatly, completely unlike the rumors of him suffering a mental breakdown and wallowing in depressed decadence. It seemed the success of Underworld Maze, produced by his younger brother, had helped Xie Xinghe step out of his predicament?

Luo Hang realized, “So your brother was the Chief Planner for Fighting Master?”

Xie Yunfan said, “Whenever I had time, I went to his company to learn, and I followed the entire production process of Fighting Master from start to finish. Therefore, I am highly familiar with the game production process. Even though our game failed, I learned a lot of lessons from the experience.”

This explanation certainly made sense. Lessons drawn from failure were actually incredibly valuable.

Fighting Master was a massive project with an investment of hundreds of millions. With learning experience from something like that, no wonder Xie Yunfan was so composed in assigning all the work.

Luo Hang set aside the doubts in his heart and asked, “Do you have any thoughts regarding your brother’s game? With such a large investment, it’s truly a pity for it to be taken down.”

Xie Yunfan joked, “VP Luo, do you want to buy Fighting Master too and we can collaboratively develop it? Treat it as a buy-one-get-one-free?”

“Our company currently doesn’t have the capacity to run two large-scale game production teams simultaneously. We don’t have enough manpower. Let’s finish the Underworld first.” He paused, then said seriously, “However, I will consider your proposal.”

Xie Yunfan scratched his head and said, “I was just joking, I don’t mean to force a sale on you, don’t misunderstand! Let’s just focus on the Underworld for now. I don’t have the energy to manage Fighting Master either. We can discuss it later if there’s an opportunity.”

Luo Hang nodded: “Mm, go eat lunch and take a break.”

Xie Yunfan smoothly sent his brother a message: “Brother, if anyone asks in the future, just tell them I participated in the entire design process of the game Fighting Master and was always at the company learning from you, otherwise they’ll doubt my abilities.”

Ever since Underworld Maze exploded in popularity, Xie Xinghe gave his brother unconditional support, immediately replying without hesitation: “Understood, I will personally vouch for you!”

The corners of Xie Yunfan’s mouth curled up. He closed his laptop, stood up, and followed Luo Hang.

The two arrived together at the employee cafeteria on the third floor of the Qihang building.

The food at Qihang was quite good. For lunch, there were over a dozen dishes to choose from, paired with various fruits and drinks. Employees ate for free, a perk that even made Xie Yunfan envious.

In the future, his Yangfan Studio had to have its own cafeteria too.

---

The next day, Luo Hang took the people from the Combat Mathematics Team to test samples, while Xie Yunfan took a three-day leave because his older brother sent a message saying his leave of absence application for school was ready and he needed to go sign it.

Xie Yunfan flew back to Rongcheng to handle his school affairs.

The school leaders were overjoyed when they learned he was the planner for Underworld Maze. For an unknown school like theirs to produce a talent like him, how easy could that be? Maybe Xie Yunfan would even become an “Honorary Alumnus” in the future, so the school didn’t make things difficult for him and very readily stamped his application.

By the time he rushed back to the Imperial Capital, it was exactly time for the first work report.

Over these three days, the entire project team had no leader, and everyone had busied themselves with their own tasks.

As soon as Xie Yunfan returned, he immediately had people report on their work.

With anxious hearts, the staff went to knock on the door of Xie Yunfan’s office.

On the art side, Ning Sha got one sketch approved. Chu Yue’s Bridge of Helplessness and Xia Yixi’s Nie Xiaoqian were sent back to be redrawn.

Xie Yunfan was very dissatisfied with the bosses designed by the Level Design Team and had them redo the skills.

The two girls from the writing team walked out of his office with even longer, more tearful faces.

Because Xie Yunfan had said: “Did you not realize you broke the character settings? Nie Xiaoqian is a female ghost. Does it make sense for her to revolve around Ning Caichen every day like some love-struck little girl?”

…

When Luo Hang returned, low air pressure surrounded the entire 13th-floor office area. He asked his assistant Little Qi in a low voice: “What’s the situation? Everyone’s expressions don’t look very good.”

Little Qi said, “Boss Xie was extremely strict today. When he had people do their first work report, almost every single team was sent back to redo their work.”

Luo Hang: “…………”

Was he that fierce?

Knocking on Xie Yunfan’s door, he saw him sitting at his desk, frowning in deep thought.

Luo Hang asked, “What’s wrong? Are you very dissatisfied with their work?”

Xie Yunfan sighed, rubbing his temples, and said, “It’ll take a little time to mesh together. This is the first time any of them are making a Ghost Realm-style game. It’s completely normal for the first drafts to not pass.”

Luo Hang said gently, “You’ve worked hard. You have to personally oversee the work of every single team.”

Xie Yunfan looked up and explained, “During the starting phase, every detail has to be done right. Otherwise, if we have to do reworks later on, the workload will double. I will be very strict during the initial stages, making them constantly revise their drafts until I’m satisfied. Once the final drafts are locked in later, things will speed up.”

Luo Hang said, “I understand. Being a bit stricter at the beginning is the right thing to do.”

Xie Yunfan frowned slightly: “I’m just afraid they’ll be unhappy and think I’m deliberately making things difficult for them.”

Luo Hang smiled and said, “Don’t worry. Our company’s employees all have excellent professional ethics. When making games, reworks and design changes are completely normal. They will cooperate.”

Hopefully.

The biggest problem right now was that the people of this alternate world didn’t really understand Chinese-style horror, nor could they write the plots for Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio well. Every single aspect had to be carefully polished over and over again.

Having to worry about everything was genuinely giving Xie Yunfan a bit of a headache.

But there was no other way. He didn’t have his own permanent team yet, nor did he have partners who were familiar with his style. Everything was essentially starting from scratch, so encountering difficulties was normal.

He’d just have to work hard to overcome them.

Xie Yunfan changed the subject and asked, “How’s the progress on your end?”

Luo Hang replied, “The Hell of Boiling Oil/Steamer Hell has started testing, and the progress is quite smooth.”

Xie Yunfan breathed a sigh of relief.

The initial finalization phase was the slowest, requiring repeated revisions. Later, once the concept art, plot, and boss designs were all completed and Qihang’s staff hit their stride, they were already a highly coordinated team to begin with, so progress would get faster and faster.

The numerical aspect was extremely important. If the numerical combat mathematics system broke down, the player’s experience would be incredibly poor; Fighting Master was a counterexample of this. Fortunately, all the numerical data for the holographic game was personally overseen by Luo Hang, who was also a very rigorous supervisor, so there shouldn’t be any bugs.

Xie Yunfan was still very confident that this game would successfully launch during summer vacation.