Starting as a Manga Editor-Chapter 206: Vicious Tactics

Let's rewind time a bit.
On the day the collaboration event revenue was announced, until around 8 PM in the evening.
Tang Yao finally saw Li Xue again.
Because Li Xue had been extremely busy. Currently at Avalon, she essentially held two positions simultaneously - executive officer and Tang Yao's special assistant.
Although Avalon had recently recruited a batch of management personnel, such as department managers, to assist Li Xue.
For someone responsible for overseeing the company's daily business operations... even with assistance, it obviously wouldn't be easy.
As for the assistant position... Tang Yao had actually asked her to find a suitable replacement long ago, but perhaps because no suitable candidate was found, Li Xue never managed to find someone to take over her role.
This was actually one of the reasons why the two hadn't seen much of each other recently.
It wasn't just because of misunderstandings.
But busy as she was, it must be said.
Li Xue was truly intelligent and resilient, growing almost every day during this period.
Combined with the fact that the company's content department operated relatively independently, with Tang Yao as the nominal 'chairman' keeping an eye on things... while it wasn't easy, Li Xue at least wasn't completely overwhelmed.
However.
That was before.
After the first-day revenue numbers for the FGO x "Dark Night" collaboration card pool were released.
With Avalon operating at full capacity, Li Xue began struggling, to the point where even after reconciling with Tang Yao, she didn't have time to return to her workstation.
She was swamped beyond belief.
Of course, being busy was one thing - her not returning to her workstation also carried a hint of guilt.
As for why she felt guilty...
The moment Li Xue returned to her workstation, before she could even catch her breath.
Tang Yao immediately sprang up from her chair, lightly grabbing Li Xue's neck and shaking her back and forth, gritting her teeth: "Finally caught you!"
"...I'm sorry, I was wrong."
Looking at Tang Yao's beautiful face tinged with a faint blush... Li Xue knew exactly why she was angry.
So without another word, she immediately lowered her head in apology.
"..."
Her straightforward apology actually left Tang Yao at a loss.
Tang Yao looked at the bowed head of her older sister figure, falling silent for a moment before asking: "Aren't you going to explain yourself?"
"No, I really got carried away."
Li Xue raised her head, sincere: "Even as a joke, I shouldn't have done that..."
"..."
Hearing Li Xue's earnest words, Tang Yao fell silent again, now truly at a loss for words.
Because they often hugged each other, she wasn't actually that angry... it was more about embarrassment and surprise.
And as time passed, her waiting for Li Xue was less about anger and more about simply feeling indignant...
One could call it karma... normally loving to look at lewd pictures of big sister types, right?
Now she'd become the protagonist herself.
Thinking this.
Tang Yao released her grip on Li Xue's neck, suddenly feeling world-weary: "Forget it, I'll forgive you this once."
"..."
Li Xue blinked in surprise at Tang Yao's words.
She'd been fully prepared to be scolded, never expecting Tang Yao to let it go so easily.
At the time, she really hadn't thought much of it, just acting on impulse because she cared... and because Tang Yao's actions had made her get carried away.
Li Xue cautiously asked: "You're not angry?"
Tang Yao sat back down, amused: "I am angry! What are you going to do about it?"
Li Xue thought for a moment, then smoothed her skirt and elegantly sat down, moving her office chair closer to Tang Yao before slightly puffing out her ample chest: "...Let you get your revenge then."
Since she'd said she didn't mind.
If they were going to pretend, might as well go all the way.
Tang Yao: "..."
Damn it.
So tempting.
...
The reconciliation between Avalon's two executives didn't immediately benefit the other staff.
Mainly it just improved the moods of the two involved.
Of course, that only lasted for that day.
Soon, neither Tang Yao nor Li Xue had time for each other... both overwhelmed with work.
March 23rd.
Tang Yao was racing to complete this week's "Chainsaw Man" manuscript.
But keeping herself completely isolated from outside matters... was impossible.
Soon enough, Si Jinliang came knocking.
"Tang Yao, here are a few new game names we came up with, see if any are suitable."
He handed her an A4 sheet, snapping Tang Yao out of her drawing trance as he explained his purpose.
Tang Yao took the paper, glanced down, and immediately scrunched up her pretty face.
After a long moment.
She finally looked up and curiously asked: "These are the names you came up with?"
"Mm."
Si Jinliang nodded, pointing proudly at the paper in Tang Yao's hands: "See, we've got the xuanhuan-style 'War Hymn of the Spirit Pivot', fantasy-style... 'Scepter Epoch', 'Echoes of the Abyss', 'Dragonfall Pact', and dark fantasy... 'Contract of the Time Ruins'."
"..."
Tang Yao looked between the names on the paper and the seemingly satisfied Si Jinliang.
She couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
But none of them felt quite right.
"...Not suitable?"
After enthusiastically introducing each name, Si Jinliang finally noticed Tang Yao's continued frown.
"Hmm... how to put it, they don't feel very catchy."
Tang Yao hesitated: "And they don't seem to match the game's theme."
"I see... do you have any better names then?"
Si Jinliang scratched his head: "This was the best we could come up with."
"Me?"
Tang Yao fell into thought at his question.
Truth be told.
She didn't have any either.
However.
Tang Yao had considered simply calling it "Hearthstone"... but she was still hesitating. In Diablo and World of Warcraft, hearthstones were game items used to return to town, and Blizzard's card game used that name with clear intent - to tell players that hearthstones could lead them home...
Although Tang Yao felt even that name was somewhat forced.
After some thought.
Tang Yao set the paper down, not rushing to decide: "How about this - let me think about it some more and I'll give you an answer later."
"Alright."
Si Jinliang nodded and took his leave.
No sooner had Si Jinliang left than before Tang Yao could pick up her pen to resume drawing, Li Xue returned.
Seeing Li Xue, Tang Yao set aside her drawing to ask about the co-publishing matters: "Miss Li, how are things with the co-publishing?"
Li Xue smoothed her skirt and sat down, taking a sip of water before replying: "Most manufacturers have agreed to send over their DEMOs."
"Have any major companies contacted us?"
"Actually yes... I was just about to tell you about this."
"Oh?"
"Have you heard of..."
Li Xue set down her cup, then asked with a serious expression: "Jiuxiao?"
"The second largest internet company in the country?"
Tang Yao was stunned: "They contacted us too?"
"Yes."
Li Xue nodded, then hesitated before adding with clear distaste: "But their attitude was extremely poor."
"Extremely poor?"
This surprised Tang Yao... it was rare to see the normally gentle Li Xue show such open dislike: "How so?"
"When they contacted me, their opening demand was that... Avalon must accept their investment as a precondition for co-publishing."
Li Xue took a deep breath, regaining her usual composure before continuing: "Despite all their talk about strategic cooperation and establishing deep joint mechanisms for mobile games... their attitude was incredibly arrogant, even carrying undertones of threat."
"...Huh?"
Tang Yao looked shocked: "How much equity did they want?"
"40%, plus involvement in Avalon's game development and operations."
Li Xue shook her head: "Even worse, they demanded that all future new games' distribution rights must also be granted to Jiuxiao's channels... essentially meaning our future games, including the current FGO, would have to be released through Jiuxiao's platforms."
"???"
Tang Yao's face filled with question marks as she instinctively blurted: "Are they insane?"
This was truly her most genuine thought at that moment.
How could they dare make such demands?
While Avalon couldn't compare to them, they were currently in a rapid growth phase.
Even at their lowest point.
Couldn't Tang Yao seek other external funding? Why would she agree to such ridiculous terms?
How was this any different from being led to slaughter?
Tang Yao couldn't help asking: "Where do they get such nerve?"
"..."
Li Xue fell silent for a long moment before responding: "I was furious too when I first heard, so I did some research on Jiuxiao... turns out they have quite the notorious reputation, specializing in using capital to crush small and mid-sized game teams."
"You know how copyright law protects expression but not ideas, meaning pure game mechanics aren't protected, right?"
"They exploit this loophole to pressure smaller teams... their methods are crude but effective - copy successful games, then leverage their massive financial resources and accumulated user base to create nearly identical competitors to challenge the originals."
"Most small teams can't resist these bully tactics - either accept their investment or go under, because proving plagiarism is difficult, and lawsuits could drag on endlessly."
"If you stubbornly resist, as the second largest internet company, they'll use their vast resources to completely overwhelm the original game with their copy."
"Even if they can't completely crush it, they'll gradually erode the original game's user base until it dies."
"And this strategy is practically unstoppable for small and mid-sized teams."
"..."
Tang Yao's beautiful eyes widened slightly: "So their threat is... they'll copy FGO?"
"Correct."
"...?"