novelraw Chapter 152: Chasing Wages?
Chapter 152: Chasing Wages?
The next day.
Tang Yao was at her desk, furiously working on Chainsaw Man pages.
She had made a promise to Li Xue—even though Li Xue hadn’t brought it up recently.
Still, Tang Yao didn’t want to let her down.
It was rare for Li Xue to take the initiative to talk about something like that. Since she’d told her not to be afraid and to boldly gain experience… then she had to provide solid backup support.
But.
While she was passionately rushing her pages,
A commotion suddenly broke out at the company entrance.
What’s going on?
Tang Yao was really immersed in her work, but the noise kept getting louder and louder, eventually pulling her out of the zone. As soon as she came to, she saw Li Xue’s back.
She seemed to be handling the disturbance.
The voices gradually quieted.
It didn’t seem like anything serious had happened.
But right after that,
Tang Yao saw Si Jinliang rushing over like the wind.
“?”
Seeing that, Tang Yao… decided to get up and go check it out.
When she got to the company entrance, she found six unfamiliar men standing there.
And whether by coincidence or on purpose… all six of them were about the same height, had crew cuts, and wore the same style of black-rimmed glasses.
If not for their different faces, at a glance—
They looked like six brothers.
What kind of performance art is this?
Tang Yao was stunned by the sight of them.
Those six men seemed to know Si Jinliang, and they were huddled together talking about something.
Tang Yao walked up beside Li Xue and asked, “What’s this about…?”
Li Xue turned around and quietly explained, “They seem to be former staff from Mingyu Tech, all acquaintances of Si Jinliang. They came looking for him.”
Tang Yao blinked, a little surprised, and glanced over at them.
But her first reaction wasn’t that they were here to join the team.
It was… that they were here to demand unpaid wages.
So she looked at Si Jinliang’s back, her expression turning complicated.
Meanwhile,
The six “brothers” had noticed Tang Yao too, but didn’t dare stare at her. They only snuck glances, eyes full of surprise and admiration.
Si Jinliang followed their gaze and also saw Tang Yao. He quickly pulled the group into a corner to say something.
He didn’t want the people he’d worked so hard to bring over to lose their chance to join because they offended the boss.
And then—
There came a chorus of shocked exclamations.
“Huh?”
“You’re joking, right?”
“No way I believe that!”
“……”
Hearing the commotion, Tang Yao decided she couldn’t just stand by anymore.
She thought for a second, then pulled Li Xue along and walked over.
She asked, “Si Jinliang, who are these people?”
Facing the six skeptical men, Si Jinliang turned with a helpless look and said, “Tang Yao, these four are former designers from Mingyu Tech, this one was a pipeline engineer, and this one did technical art.”
He introduced them.
“……”
Tang Yao nodded, though she had no idea who was who… she still said, “So how much do you owe them? I’ll front it for you.”
“???”
Si Jinliang froze, a flurry of question marks over his head.
But he quickly reacted and explained, “No, no, no—I didn’t owe them any pay. I invited them here to help out. They all have unique insights into card game design. I just hadn’t had time to tell you yet…”
He sheepishly shared his idea. His guilt mostly came from the fact that these were his former subordinates.
But there were just too many cards. He really couldn’t handle everything on his own.
“……”
Tang Yao paused, then looked curiously at the six men.
And they looked back, stunned at the graceful young woman in front of them.
Because Tang Yao’s earlier comment had confirmed what Si Jinliang told them—it was true. This girl really was the boss of Avalon?
Huh?
All six of them were old-school anime fans. They knew FGO was red hot in the anime circles right now.
But a game like FGO… and the person leading it was a beautiful girl?
What kind of anime plotline is this?!
Si Jinliang saw Tang Yao silent and thought she was rejecting the idea, so he quickly added, “They’re all veteran TCG players. I showed them the two decks you gave me yesterday—they were all really interested. I’d like to bring them into the Dou Pai project.
Yes, they used to work under me, but their abilities are rock solid. And I already told them—I’m just an employee now too…”
“……”
Tang Yao snapped out of it, turned back to Si Jinliang, and smiled brightly, cutting off his explanation: “No problem! If you’re vouching for them, that’s good enough for me. Miss Li, please arrange their onboarding. They’ll all join the Dou Pai project team.”
“…Alright.”
Li Xue didn’t ask anything further.
She simply walked over to the six men and started gathering their information.
Si Jinliang froze for a second.
Then looked at Tang Yao with deep gratitude.
…She trusted him that much.
What a wonderful boss!
Tang Yao pretended not to notice, a little embarrassed.
It wasn’t really about trusting Si Jinliang.
It was just that… people from Mingyu Tech were so damn useful.
She’d developed a dependency. As soon as she heard “Mingyu Tech,” she agreed without even thinking.
As for them having worked under Si Jinliang?
That wasn’t a problem at all.
Si Jinliang saw her look away and assumed she didn’t want him to overthink it, and was even more touched.
Tang Yao, seeing his emotional gaze, got even more embarrassed. She raised a pale finger to scratch her cheek, then quickly found an excuse to slip away.
She really didn’t have time to stand around chatting.
The onboarding was quickly arranged. Li Xue went to prepare the documents, while Si Jinliang took the group to get familiar with the office.
He led them straight to the Dou Pai project area.
Even now,
The six of them still hadn’t quite processed it all.
Once they arrived,
The slightly older one—technical artist Lu Xuehai—couldn’t hold back anymore and asked, “Old Si, that girl is really the boss of Avalon? The producer of FGO?”
“Yes, don’t doubt it.”
Si Jinliang knew what they were thinking and nodded. “If you don’t believe me, you can ask Chu Yuxin and the others later.”
“…Unbelievable.”
Lu Xuehai looked around at the others. Their eyes were full of shock.
Lately, as FGO continued to rise in popularity—and with ANF being such a massive hub for anime fans—plus the recent FGO update’s promotional campaigns that really hit home with core users…
Lots of anime fans were fascinated by Avalon, this company that “really gets” the anime crowd.
Forget others—even Lu Xuehai and his crew had discussed the company with fellow fans.
And again and again, their conclusion was—this game company’s boss must be an old-school otaku!
How else could they understand anime culture so well?
Forget the artwork that catered to every possible player kink—just the idea of having in-game virtual characters playing the game themselves showed… this person really knew what otakus wanted.
Chef’s kiss.
But brilliantly executed.
And now—
You’re telling us Avalon’s boss is not only not gross…
She’s a beautiful, ethereal young woman?
Lu Xuehai couldn’t even imagine how the anime community would react if this news got out.
He was tempted to leak it—just to see what those ANF users screaming “chef’s kiss” would say.
Si Jinliang pretty much guessed what they were thinking and shook his head, staying quiet.
He hadn’t believed it either at first…
“…Cut it out with those thoughts.”
Si Jinliang brought them back to reality, then got down to business: “Don’t forget why I brought you here. You all saw the two decks and rule docs I sent yesterday, right? What do you think?”
“……”
Hearing that,
The group finally returned to the moment.
Lu Xuehai pushed down his shock for now, looked at Si Jinliang, and replied, “Compared to standard TCGs, the cards and rules are definitely unconventional—but I have to say, it’s very fun…”
“Yeah, you can tell it draws from a lot of classic TCG elements, but they’ve all been simplified.”
“……”
They all chimed in, eyes sparkling—it was obvious they were intrigued.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have shown up this early.
However,
Lu Xuehai still kept a level head. He gestured for the others to quiet down, then looked at Si Jinliang and asked, “You haven’t forgotten what you told us when you invited us, right? …You’re not the game’s designer, are you?”
“Relax.”
Si Jinliang’s expression stiffened, then he sighed, “I’m not.”
The painful memories from Dou Pai made it hard to get them to return.
If not for how interesting the decks and Hearthstone-inspired rules were, they wouldn’t have bothered with him at all.
So when Si Jinliang invited them, he’d been upfront: he was just a worker now. This time, they weren’t working for him—they’d be working with him to make the first online PVP card game.
“Then I want to meet the designer—the one who made those two decks.”
Lu Xuehai, now sure of the facts, looked at Si Jinliang seriously: “Those two decks were clearly well thought out. The rules and card design had intent. But we still don’t have the full picture… I want to understand their thought process. What direction are they taking? How will they maintain strategic depth while staying beginner-friendly…”
“Got it.”
Before Lu Xuehai could finish,
Si Jinliang cut him off and turned to grab a massive stack of documents from his desk: “No need to ask. Just read this. She’s already designed all the cards for the public beta version. There’s a massive amount of mechanic and rule explanations included…”
“……”
Lu Xuehai and the others looked at each other.
What the hell?
Si Jinliang added, “The reason I brought you here was to help comb through all these cards. You all know—balance is the lifeblood of card games. We need to verify whether her designs are sound, if the cards and mechanics hold up…”
“……”
Lu Xuehai glanced down at the thick stack.
Finally, he came back to himself.
Holy sh*t!
Looks like someone came prepared!
Who was this person?
They weren’t just familiar with TCGs—they had ambition!
At that moment, another person couldn’t help asking, “How many cards are in here?”
Si Jinliang replied sheepishly, “Five hundred…”
“Five hundred!?”
Lu Xuehai snapped his head up, shocked: “One person? Don’t tell me half of it’s filler? This can’t be sloppy! I still want to talk to that designer!”
“No.”
Si Jinliang shook his head: “I skimmed through it yesterday. Definitely not filler. Most of the cards are well-matched in power, cost, effect, and rarity—and there’s a lot of clever design. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have asked you to come. As for the designer… you already met her. Go through the cards first—we can talk later.”
Lu Xuehai froze again, then keenly picked up on what Si Jinliang said: “Already met her… who?”
“Tang Yao. Our boss.”
“……”
“……”
“????????”