Chapter 2

8:30 AM.

Lin Yao walked out of her house.

Before leaving, she specially combed her long, black hair and tied it into a ponytail.

Because of her lack of skill, the ponytail was rather messy... well, unexpectedly, it was quite difficult.

However, she was naturally beautiful, and the few strands of hair that fell down made her look playful and cute, giving off a vibe of a girl next door.

Finally, she changed out of the professional attire that she found extremely uncomfortable and put on a combination of jeans and a T-shirt.

She had never worn such clothes in her previous life, and if she were forced to wear them, she would rather be eaten by a shark.

She would never wear them, no matter what.

Out the door.

Turn right.

After walking a few hundred meters, she arrived at the subway station and took the subway to the CBD, which is the Central Business District, five stops away.

Although this was Lin Yao's first time taking this route, it wasn't very unfamiliar due to her memory.

The city she was currently in was one of the largest coastal metropolises, and coincidentally, it was also called Pengcheng.

The company she worked for was a subsidiary of one of the top internet groups in the country, specializing in the development of high-quality games—anyway, that's how they advertised themselves, and Lin Yao somewhat believed it.

This online game company, registered as Yaoshi Software, was of medium size and had a decent reputation among players.

It was one of the leading companies that emerged in the game industry after the lifting of the game ban and the rise of the entertainment industry over the past few years.

Its development department had five project teams, and Lin Yao belonged to the second development team... internally known as the team that was good at nothing but making money.

As for why it had such a "reputation,"

that's a long story.

In short, the head of the second development team was rumored to be a relative of a high-ranking executive in the company.

But if you asked others to specify whose relative he was, no one could say for sure, just that he was somehow related.

Because of this, this boss was very domineering within the company, although he knew nothing about games, he knew how to be a troublemaker.

He loved to give orders and guide experts with his lack of expertise... and every game he developed failed.

This recent turmoil was actually quite simple.

It started when the head of the second development team, on a whim and without any research, suddenly decided to develop a turn-based online game and allocated a large budget for it.

At the same time, the third development team was also developing a new game.

With limited budget,

the two project teams began to compete for the budget, and in the end, the second development team won, securing a budget seven times larger than the other team's game.

But when the two games were finally released,

oh my.

The revenue was only one-tenth of the other game's...

a complete failure.

The people in the third development team, who were already dissatisfied, couldn't bear the huge disparity and directly reported the issue to the group's internal control department, copying the complaint email to everyone. The group's internal control then began an investigation.

As the situation escalated,

the capable, well-connected, and sycophantic members of the second development team, to avoid being implicated, immediately fled overnight.

The entire second development team was in chaos, leaving a mess behind.

But the game still needed to be operated... or rather, someone had to take the blame.

So Lin Yao, who was new and not good at sycophancy, became the perfect scapegoat. Under the head of the second development team's instruction, she was promoted to the lead designer overnight.

The speed of her promotion was unprecedented.

This was the story of how Lin Yao became the lead designer of the online game project.

Yes, the so-called "dog planner"...

As for the current situation, the number of online players for the turn-based game was gradually declining, and the revenue was low. They were already discussing whether to shut down the server.

And Lin Yao, as the lead designer, was forced to write a project failure report on her first day, with no version updates, and was in a terrible state.

She would probably be fired once the game server was shut down.

...If Lin Yao didn't have another soul inside her, the story would likely unfold this way.

But to be honest, even the current Lin Yao didn't really plan to do much.

In her previous life, although her job was loosely related to games as a game artist, it had little to do with being a lead designer, and she wasn't very familiar with this aspect of the work.

Moreover, this was a parallel world where the game ban had only been lifted recently, and the game industry had only been booming for a couple of years. Everything was in chaos, and there was no clear division of labor.

In her previous life, the roles of game designers were very specialized, with separate planners for numbers, levels, systems, and storylines.

But here, it was mostly a one-pot approach, and even if there were divisions, each company had its own way of doing it, with no unified and clear division of labor.

To put it simply, everything was in a state of rebuilding, and apart from knowing that programmers had to write code, every other process was still in the exploration stage.

This meant that a lead designer had a lot to do... and with her knowledge from her previous life, Lin Yao might be able to handle it.

But she didn't want to work so hard for a dying turn-based game—it didn't deserve it.

Of course, she didn't plan to quit immediately.

Even though she was a scapegoat,

the title of lead designer still had some use, and it would count as work experience when looking for a new job after being fired.

She planned to just get by for a while and get to know this world better.

After all, muddling through was her forte.

Thinking about this,

Lin Yao leaned against the subway car's central railing and smiled lightly, her demeanor particularly alluring.

After all, she was just over twenty, in the prime of her youth.

A few people nearby saw her and were immediately stunned.

Lin Yao, catching the expressions of the people beside her with her peripheral vision, immediately lowered her head, put on a serious face, and pretended she hadn't smiled.

The rest of the journey was silent.

After about ten minutes,

they arrived at their destination.

Lin Yao got off at Pengda Station, then walked a few hundred meters to the Meisen Building on Erzhong Road.

She followed the large crowd of people going to work, entered the building, and took the elevator to the floor where Yaoshi Software was located... there she was.

Lin Yao looked at the four words "Yaoshi Software" behind the reception desk, confirmed she was in the right place, and stepped forward.

But just as she took half a step,

a line of transparent text and a progress bar appeared in front of her.

[Revive the game "Fantasy OL," Progress: 0%]

"..."

...

Yaoshi Software, Second Development Team.

Lin Yao sat in a corner, her long, fair fingers crossed, resting on her soft, white chin, looking at the semi-transparent text and progress bar in front of her, deep in thought.

This was... the Human Completion Project! No, the Life Starter?

But the problem was, she had just planned to get by for a while, and now a task had appeared, which felt a bit awkward.

Lin Yao's expression was complicated.

She had a sense that her life was suddenly out of control.

She really didn't want to spend too much effort on that game called... "Fantasy OL," mainly because she was powerless. If she were really a lead designer, it would be different, but she was just a scapegoat.

In this situation, reviving the game was almost impossible.

She didn't have much confidence.

However...

Now that things had come to this, the task had appeared, and the atmosphere had been set.

Lin Yao put down her crossed hands, sighed, grabbed the mouse, and opened the game's development server, deciding to play "Fantasy OL" first to see what it was like.

Maybe the game was actually good, just not well-promoted.