novelraw Chapter 113: Stepping Stone
Chapter 113: Stepping Stone
As expected, things played out exactly the way Tang Yao predicted.
Li Xue’s cousin, Lin Shuang, didn’t reach out to her again. Not only did she regain her confidence, she even leaked the day-one revenue of FGO!
Nearly 100 million on the first day…
No matter what kind of game you’re talking about, that number is insane—let alone in the currently low-profile mobile game industry.
In an instant, the entire market’s momentum shifted!
If people had only taken notice before because of the hype, now that the revenue numbers were public, it wasn’t just curiosity anymore—
It was gold fever!
Up until then, the PC gaming side had already been a bloody battlefield. The market was oversaturated, and most companies had even started shifting their focus to browser games, looking for new revenue streams. It was already approaching the exact point in time when, in Tang Yao’s past life, browser games began to rise as PC games became unsustainable.
But before browser games could fully take off...
Fate/Grand Order appeared. So when Lin Shuang leaked the revenue figures, that moment lit the whole industry on fire. All the small-to-mid-size studios, their eyes turned bloodshot. A bunch of venture capitalists too. Especially when their bosses asked around and found out—this kind of game wasn’t even that hard to make. Sure, art assets were costly, but everything else—from gameplay to mechanics—was pretty easy to copy.
They couldn’t wait another second!
Maybe regular players hadn’t noticed anything. They just thought FGO was fun.
But from the investment side, people were now lining up for anime-style mobile games! Everyone wanted in!
And Lin Shuang had the most say in this field—because leaking that info had been her way of drawing options to herself, hoping to find the next Fate/Grand Order, the next Avalon Studio.
When she saw wave after wave of eager startups coming her way, she knew she’d made the right bet.
She was one of the fastest-reacting investors.
So soon—
She found two promising projects. Both looked way more “reliable” than Tang Yao’s had.
The first was by a renowned lead artist who left a major studio to start his own game. He wasn’t just experienced—he’d even held art exhibitions and was a respected name in the industry. He moved into gaming simply because he loved it.
The second was a producer, also from a big studio. He had experience managing multiple hit games. When Lin Shuang chatted with him, he seemed to know everything. Whatever she asked, he had a quick, confident answer. He had a clear grasp of FGO’s success, explained player psychology, gacha monetization logic, and even pulled out funnel models to explain payment choke points, asset quality, game loops—he broke it all down.
After meeting these two, Lin Shuang didn’t hesitate. She invested!
Naturally, these two weren’t like Tang Yao. A couple million wouldn’t cut it.
But Lin Shuang felt it was worth it—way more worth it than investing in Tang Yao back then.
Why did she feel that way? Well, although she’d regretted it not long ago, after calming down, her confidence and pride had come roaring back. She wasn’t about to admit she made a mistake.
More importantly, even though FGO had launched with explosive hype, it hadn’t shown signs of further growth.
Lin Shuang spotted that immediately—it was a sign that operations weren’t keeping up.
Noticing that made her feel even more sure of herself… Yeah, the initial numbers were impressive, but it probably wouldn’t last. So what if she missed it? It wasn’t the end of the world.
She told herself: They’re not industry people. They just don’t understand the business.
Even if they got lucky and launched at the right time with a first-mover advantage, they’d probably only make one big payout.
In some ways, she even felt grateful to her cousin—for making her realize how profitable anime-style games were.
As for Fate/Grand Order… once other anime-style games launched, it would just become a stepping stone.
In a weird way, Lin Shuang leaking the day-one revenue kind of helped Tang Yao. A lot of regular players were stunned—“What kind of game makes people spend that much on Day One?!”—and they were drawn to check it out themselves.
But Tang Yao didn’t have time to pay attention to all that right now.
Because today, Si Jinliang and the external operations team officially joined Avalon Studio.
And at this very moment, the supposedly “clueless” Tang Yao—in Lin Shuang’s eyes, anyway—was busy introducing everyone.
Avalon Studio.
The atmosphere was a little awkward.
“So… that’s the situation.”
Tang Yao stood before Si Jinliang and the others, addressing the ex-Mingyu Tech employees who had already helped complete one game at Avalon Studio: “Si Jinliang and Yuan Yanbo’s ops team will be joining Avalon Studio and officially becoming part of our team. From this point on, Mingyu Tech no longer exists. We are all Avalon Studio now.
Also, I’ve leased the rest of the external office space. Let’s take half a day to move out of here. The space is tight—it’s hard to work properly.
As for desk assignments… Let’s just stick with the previous setup from Mingyu Tech for now.”
“……”
After she finished speaking, everyone’s expression turned complicated—except for Kang Ming’s trio.
Especially Yuan Yanbo from the original operations team.
He looked at Tang Yao and couldn’t help thinking about how Si Jinliang had shown up yesterday, recruiting for Avalon.
At the time, it had truly shocked him… This was basically a full-on takeover!
Even the boss had defected!
But after some hesitation… he agreed.
After all, if he left, he’d just be looking for another job anyway. And Avalon Studio needed ops staff, right there, right now. So why not?
No regrets now...
“Also, we’ll be forming a second project team.”
Tang Yao knew their emotions were a bit complicated, so she didn’t let the mood cool down too much. She kept going, “But for now, most people don’t need to worry about it. Our main focus is still Fate/Grand Order. I’m just bringing it up to see if anyone’s interested in joining Si Jinliang for the second project. We only need three or four people at most to start—just the foundation work.
Yes, the second project team will be led by Si Jinliang. And the project? I plan to completely overhaul Dou Pai and make it our next game.”
“!!!”
Everyone except Si Jinliang widened their eyes and looked at Tang Yao, clearly holding back their reactions.
They didn’t seem optimistic.
Of course…
Seeing their faces, Tang Yao knew Si Jinliang’s earlier concerns weren’t unfounded.
But she didn’t explain anything just yet—too early for that.
“I know what you’re all thinking. While Si Jinliang will lead the second team, I’ll still be the lead planner. I’ll be overseeing the complete redesign of Dou Pai.”
Tang Yao added casually, “We’re still in the exploratory stage. Whether it works or not remains to be seen. So go with your gut—if you’re interested in joining the second team, great. If not, no pressure.”
With that—
She turned to look at Si Jinliang.
He got the hint, stepped forward, gave a polite bow, and said, “Looking forward to working with all of you. Now, about the second team…”
He started trying to recruit from within.
Most people still had complicated expressions, but Si Jinliang clearly had already accepted his current position.
Tang Yao didn’t interrupt. Instead, she turned toward the original Mingyu Tech ops team, looked at Yuan Yanbo, and said, “This doesn’t involve you guys for now. Your main responsibility is still the operations for Fate/Grand Order.”
“……”
Yuan Yanbo glanced at Si Jinliang’s back, as if wanting to say something, but after seeing Tang Yao’s gaze, he swallowed the words and asked, “So what exactly do we need to do?”
“You know this better than I do.”
Tang Yao thought for a moment and added, “But personally, I think the most important things right now are platform partnerships, the upcoming Christmas event, and the new version launch. For platform access, well… all we’ve got right now is the serialized manga website. That’s way too little. As for the event, it’s your typical campaign-based ops: drive new users, keep current users engaged, boost retention, and of course, increase revenue…”
She laid out her ideas.
She wasn’t deeply familiar with this side of things—but that didn’t mean her past “workplace experience” was useless.
She still understood the standard marketing playbook.
Yuan Yanbo had just asked casually at first. But the more he listened, the more serious he became. His eyes even started to light up.
By the time Tang Yao finished, he had already turned to start discussing with his team.
Tang Yao waited patiently.
But before Yuan Yanbo could finish talking with his crew, Si Jinliang turned back.
He looked at Tang Yao with an awkward expression.
Tang Yao noticed and glanced around the studio—she understood immediately.
Not a single person wanted to join him…
…Yikes. That really was kind of a sad story.