Qin Songyun had just wrapped up negotiations at the factory and had essentially finalized the partnership.
All that remained was to organize the details and submit them to Lin You for review. If everything checked out, production could begin immediately.
On his way back, he noticed NetDragon’s trailer for Blazing Flame 3.
This shocked him! Not because Lin You had been wrong—this move was indeed NetDragon’s doing, meant to overshadow Lin You’s Journey and promote Blazing Flame 3—that wasn’t surprising.
What stunned him was how quickly Blazing Flame 3 was set to release! That was impossible!
As the former lead designer of the Blazing Flame series, he knew every member of the development team intimately and was fully aware of the project’s progress.
Before leaving, he had handed over his responsibilities and even drafted a detailed plan and timeline.
Based on the schedule he and the team had laid out, Blazing Flame 3 was still six months away from completion! Even if NetDragon pulled members from other game teams to speed up development, it wouldn’t take less than three months!
Puzzled, he reached out to a former subordinate he was on good terms with and was shocked to learn that NetDragon planned to postpone all unfinished content and sell it as DLC. The version being released now didn’t even reach the originally planned ending!
Qin Songyun could hardly comprehend it—why would NetDragon do this? It would severely impact the game’s sales and reputation.
No matter what, NetDragon shouldn’t be sabotaging its own profits, right?
In their original plan, the early game had deliberately subdued storytelling to set the stage.
Only in the final three chapters would the narrative escalate, allowing the protagonist to unleash chaos in an open-world climax, igniting the players’ pent-up emotions in one explosive finale.
This grand finale had to be spectacularly immersive to make players feel all their effort had been worth it! Crafting such a sequence was incredibly labor-intensive and required extensive polishing.
And now, NetDragon was just cutting it out entirely??
“The new boss might not understand, but didn’t any of you explain the consequences of this?” Qin Songyun asked, baffled.
“We never got the chance. The new lead designer was parachuted in from upper management and outright ignores our input. This decision was handed down as a company mandate—we just had to follow orders,” came the frustrated reply.
But there was nothing Qin Songyun could do. He had genuine affection for Blazing Flame—it was his brainchild, after all.
But he’d already left. What could he do now? Storm back into NetDragon and plead with them to cancel the release?
They’d probably assume he was sent by CloudDream to sabotage morale…
With a sigh, he ended the call.
Then he opened Lingxi and glanced at his profile: 《Lead Designer of NetDragon’s Blazing Flame Series.》 He began editing.
《Game Designer at CloudDream Studio, Former Lead Designer of the Blazing Flame Series.》
After updating it, he ignored the online reactions and drove home.
Online, players had already been fervently discussing Blazing Flame 3. Now that Qin Songyun—the widely recognized 《Father of Blazing Flame》—had made a move, it was instantly noticed.
And then, to their utter bewilderment, they discovered that right as Blazing Flame 3 was about to launch—and right as NetDragon was trying to overshadow CloudDream’s Journey—the 《Father of Blazing Flame》 had defected to the enemy camp???
《Holy crap, Qin Songyun jumped ship at this critical moment?》
《Is this what they call ‘recognizing the thief as your father’? /dogemoji》
《NetDragon: ‘We were ready to fight to the death, Your Majesty, so why did you surrender first?’》
《What’s really going on? When did Qin Songyun leave? Will Blazing Flame 3 even maintain its old quality now? Don’t scare me like this!》
《I’ve seen Qin Songyun’s interviews—he’s a responsible guy. He probably left after finishing Blazing Flame 3, right?@QinSongyun, what’s the deal? Why did you leave? Did NetDragon screw you over?》
Qin Songyun, of course, didn’t respond. He was on the road, driving home.
Though it was still early, he was worried about Xiao chun being alone and just wanted to get back to his girlfriend as soon as possible.
As for NetDragon?
Hu Rong, the lead designer who had smoothly taken over the project, stormed into the PR department with a dark expression, demanding Zhang Heying find a way to control the online narrative and prevent Blazing Flame 3’s launch from being overshadowed.
Zhang Heying was seething with curses he wanted to hurl at this shameless opportunist’s face.
You were so focused on riding the hype for Blazing Flame 3 and lining your own pockets—did it ever occur to you that Qin Songyun might react?
Zhang Heying had immediately foreseen the uncertainty Qin Songyun might bring when Hu Rong first proposed piggybacking on the hype. But since Qin Songyun hadn’t disclosed his reasons for leaving, Zhang Heying had no idea he’d join CloudDream Studio—leading to this mess.
Before they could even strategize, the online discourse shifted again.
The internet’s collective darling—Princess Zhu Cixia—had made an appearance!
A short clip of Zhu Cixia surfaced and rocketed to the top of trending at an astonishing speed.
The video was brief, recorded by the Princess’s close friend Shuihua, who didn’t want to be identified and had created a throwaway account to post it.
The content was simple: Shuihua stood behind the camera, pointing at Zhu Cixia with a single finger, grumbling jealously, 《She’s so absorbed in her game, she doesn’t even notice me anymore!》
The camera panned slightly, showing an external monitor displaying the Princess playing Journey, before Shuihua whispered, 《Do you think she’d notice if I sneak up and pinch her cheek?》
With that, she tiptoed toward Zhu Cixia, who was fully immersed in the game—and then—
The video cut off abruptly!
At first, the clip from this unknown account went unnoticed—until esports pro 《Lin Shun》 reposted it.
《Some people already have their VR gear while I’m still waiting, tears of lemon juice streaming down my face…》
Players erupted in shock—someone had gotten early access to VR equipment! Envy and curiosity ran wild as they tried to figure out who had such connections.
Then someone recognized Princess Zhu Cixia.
All hell broke loose.
Almost instantly, the Princess’s devoted 《mom fans》 descended upon the video. Likes, comments, and shares skyrocketed, increasing by tens of thousands with every refresh.
As usual, they first gushed over how the Princess was as adorable as ever, then speculated about the headset she was wearing and what game she was playing, before lamenting how they wished they could trade places with the girl filming…
In short, they managed to spin endless discussions out of a mere ten-second clip.
And then—instant trending domination.
This was firepower on an entirely different level!
The combined gaming population of Great Xia might not even match the size of Zhu Cixia’s mom fanbase, let alone just the Blazing Flame players!
Zhang Heying’s brain shut down.
From this point onward, the conversation was beyond their control.
Whether Hu Rong wanted to keep struggling or not, Zhang Heying had already decided to give up.
Let fate decide!
（End of Chapter）