Chapter 46: Planning the New Game

The meme of "Zhuge Liang dying from overwork" swept across the Blue Star's internet in a way that almost felt like a cultural export.

Even netizens who didn't play FGO knew there was a "Village Dweller Zhuge" in the gaming world who was being "inhumanely exploited by players."

Leveraging the "mechanics reversal education" from the high-difficulty Rashomon event, FGO's reputation and revenue once again underwent a terrifying nuclear fission.

Tianhai City, 120th floor of the Global Financial Center.

Inside Chaldea Studio, Operations Director Yurito was excitedly reporting the past half-month's results to Oriole.

"President Kirito! We've won big!"

Yurito held a thick stack of reports, his voice trembling.

"During the Rashomon event, our daily revenue literally doubled! Youxing Network even set up a dedicated data line just for us, fearing our players would crash their main servers!"

Yurito took a deep breath, his eyes filled with admiration for Oriole.

"President Kirito, we've now completely monopolized the strategy game sector on Blue Star! As long as we strike while the iron is hot and quickly release the updates for the second and third chapters of the main story, we can crush the major studios once and for all!"

However, to Yurito's surprise, Oriole, sitting in his executive chair, didn't look ecstatic; instead, he was extremely calm.

"Yurito, you're still too impatient."

Oriole turned around, looking down at the sea of clouds outside the window.

"We have indeed milked the first wave of FGO's dividends dry. But if we rush to push out all the main story content now, players will quickly experience aesthetic fatigue."

"Games need a 'dead week' to digest emotions."

Oriole tapped the desk and pulled up a highly organized roadmap from the system, projecting it into the air.

"The upcoming Second Singularity (Rome), Third Singularity (The Sealed End of the Four Seas), up to the Fifth Singularity (North American Mythos War)—while the stories are decent, they lean more towards 'world-building and supplementation' compared to the shock of the Prologue and the twists in France."

Oriole knew well that in the original FGO, the reputation of these chapters was only mediocre.

If he forced them out as the main force to bombard the players' senses, it would only backfire.

"So, for the next period of time, FGO will enter a stable operation phase."

Oriole issued his orders. "Keep the main story updates at a frequency of one chapter per month. Supplement them with some lighthearted and funny events for Halloween and Christmas."

Yurito was stunned. "You mean... we're just going to slow down? What if the major studios release something big during this time and steal our hype?"

"Steal our hype?"

A mysterious smile played on the corner of Oriole's mouth. "Who said Chaldea Studio only has one game, FGO?"

"What?!" Yurito was shaken, as if he had heard some unbelievable secret.

Could it be... that the mysterious Ghost R&D Team behind President Kirito had another secret weapon hidden away?!

Oriole didn't explain. He just picked up an extremely strange sketch from the desk—one that looked like it had been drawn haphazardly—and handed it to Yurito.

"During this period while FGO is updating steadily and players are bored during the dead weeks, we'll use a brand-new, small-scale 'dessert-level' game to give them a change of pace."

Yurito's hands shook as he took the sketch.

In his imagination, what President Kirito pulled out would definitely be a 3D next-gen masterpiece even more shocking than FGO, or perhaps some exquisitely modeled beautiful girls.

However, when he saw the contents of the sketch, he was completely dumbfounded.

On the sketch was a naked baby, drawn as crudely as a stick figure.

This baby had no pupils and was eerily shooting out... round tears?

And around the baby were things even more baffling:

"For example, piles of poop with flies, various oddly shaped syringes, demon horns, and a mutilated dead cat."

"Pre... President Kirito, what is this?"

Yurito swallowed hard, feeling his aesthetic sensibilities had been severely assaulted.

This art style—forget 3D masterpieces—even the oldest 8-bit NES pixel games from decades ago looked more refined than this!

"Its name is The Binding of Isaac (The Binding of Isaac)."

Seeing Yurito's bewildered expression, the smile on Oriole's face widened.

"This is a buy-to-play, micro-indie game with no in-app purchases."

"The perspective isn't a grand 3D one either, but the most primitive 2D top-down view, or a VR miniature sandbox view."

"A micro-indie?! 2D top-down?!"

Yurito was lightheaded from the shock and was nearly jumping in anxiety. "President Kirito! We're the rising stars of the entire gaming industry right now! All the big companies are watching us, and players are expecting our next grand masterpiece!"

"If we serve up such a crudely drawn, even somewhat... disgusting pixel game, the paid trolls will definitely tear us to shreds, saying Chaldea is at its wit's end!"

Yurito's concerns weren't without merit.

In the Blue Star gaming environment, which was obsessed with 'visual effects' and 'giant wings,' the simple and even somewhat macabre art style of The Binding of Isaac was surely a death sentence.

But Oriole stood up unconcernedly, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at this still-backward gaming world.

"Yurito, do you remember the first lesson I taught this world with FGO?"

Yurito blinked. "Was it... that strategy can overcome stats?"

"Exactly."

Oriole turned around, his eyes flashing with confidence and madness. "And this time, I'm going to teach them a second lesson with The Binding of Isaac."

"I want them to know what a true Roguelike is!"

"I want them to understand that as long as the core gameplay is god-tier, even if the graphics look like a pile of poop, players will willingly rot in the Basement for ten thousand hours for it!"

"Go publish the announcement, Yurito."

Oriole sat back down and finalized the plan.

"Just say it's a 'relaxing, stress-relieving little game' released by Chaldea Studio during the dead week to give back to the players."

Relaxing and stress-relieving?

"O... Okay."

Yurito looked at the crying baby on the sketch being chased all over the place by monsters, and his eyes twitched uncontrollably.

He had an extremely strong premonition.

This devil producer, who had ground millions of players into the dirt, was up to his old tricks again, preparing to give the Blue Star players a new round of psychological bootcamp!"

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