Starting as a Manga Editor

Chapter 199: Foul Mouth

Tang Yao learned about the Dark Night Decree news that same evening.

As she sat on her bed reading the news, she could only feel speechless.

Although she had played the Dark Night Decree demo before, their demo clearly wasn't the prologue but rather some random segment of the story.

So at that time, she hadn't noticed any plot issues... To be honest, the overall quality was so poor that it never even reached the point where one could nitpick about the plot.

However.

She never expected.

The production team behind Dark Night Decree would be so bold. Not only did they make such a terrible game, but they dared to directly copy game plots and even transferred the male protagonist's identity onto the player character.

Seriously?

Did they really think players would be happy about this?

Dark Night Decree was supposed to be an adaptation of an existing work! The first people attracted would obviously be the original fans. There's no way these fans would be happy seeing such a plot! "......"

Tang Yao sat on her bed, playing with her smooth, waterfall-like hair cascading over her shoulders while shaking her head slightly as she looked at her phone.

Then after some thought, she sent Rumi a message: "Have you played Dark Night Decree yet?"

Rumi's reply came quickly - she first sent an emoji of someone fainting from anger, then followed up: "Played it. Almost got so angry I fainted on the spot. You should've seen my mom's expression when I showed her the game and reader reviews on my phone - her face twisted in horror... Not only that, many fans are cursing me on my social media accounts. I'm so pissed! How could they make something like this!"

"So how are you going to explain this to your readers?"

Seeing her reply, Tang Yao couldn't help but chuckle.

She could easily imagine Rumi's current frantic state. After all, during initial collaboration talks, Tang Yao knew Season Technology hadn't allowed Rumi any involvement.

They didn't even consult the original author's opinion. That the plot turned out this terrible was entirely Ji Fuliang's doing.

For Rumi as the original author to see her work adapted like this was heartbreaking enough, but according to their contract, she was still required to help promote the game during public testing.

Just yesterday.

She had mechanically posted the promotional materials Ji Fuliang provided on her social media.

And then faced immediate backlash, getting cursed at by some players.

The mere thought of it was infuriating.

"Explain? I won't explain! Look what they've done to it! I'm so angry! If not for the contract, I'd publicly declare this game has nothing to do with my manga! [Furious]"

"Then just let readers keep cursing at you?"

Reading the reply, Tang Yao lay back on her bed, hugging her blanket as she typed: "Yesterday you told readers to look forward to it though."

"? Are you rubbing salt in my wounds? You know Season Tech made me say those things, right?"

Rumi on the other end seemed absolutely livid: "And I had no idea they'd do this! I got screwed over too! If like your situation, I had been involved, I would never have let them do this!"

After sending this message.

She seemed to realize something, pausing briefly before continuing: "Wait, that's right - there's still you guys! Isn't your collaboration event launching tomorrow?"

"......"

Seeing Rumi's reply on her phone, Tang Yao showed a mischievous smile before typing: "That's right. So interested in being a promotional ambassador again?"

Having learned about Dark Night Decree's situation, she naturally knew about the unwarranted criticism FGO was receiving now.

Honestly.

She was baffled too. What nonsense.

What does this have to do with FGO? If only we could've launched earlier than them!

But what's done is done... Anger aside, Tang Yao wouldn't waste energy on pointless emotions.

The priority now was finding solutions.

After some thought though, she realized this wasn't actually a huge issue with no perfect solution except waiting for FGO's new version to officially launch.

Beyond that, the only option was working through the original author.

Hence she contacted Rumi...

"?"

Rumi replied with a question mark: "So this was your plan all along?"

"Well? Will you do it or not?"

Seeing her reply, Tang Yao smiled as she typed: "Teacher Rumi wouldn't want her magnum opus's game adaptation to leave readers with only terrible impressions, right? This would hurt your other works too."

"?"

Rumi sent another question mark. Though separated by screens with no visible expressions.

Tang Yao could almost see Rumi's current exasperated face through that punctuation. Rolling onto her stomach, she rested her snow-white chin on the pillow, lightly swinging her slender legs, unable to suppress her laughter.

Hmm.

She was starting to feel a bit like a capitalist now.

At the same time.

Tang Xun pushed the door open, looking helplessly at the "capitalist" lying on bed with half-dried hair.

Sometimes.

She really thought her older sister acted more like a high school girl than she did...

......

The next day.

Ji Fuliang's worst fears were confirmed.

Dark Night Decree's player attrition rate was much faster than anticipated.

From over 100,000 players at yesterday's launch, the numbers had halved by that same night.

Now approaching noon the next day, concurrent players hovered around just 20,000.

And this was only the second day!

Everything was over.

That was Ji Fuliang's current thought.

Despite not sleeping all night, he stubbornly had staff checking for potential issues.

But all investigations yielded the same conclusion - 80% of players who tried the game yesterday never reopened it.

As for Dark Night Decree's revenue... The numbers were downright pitiful.

Despite massive marketing investments, yesterday's revenue barely reached one million.

This didn't even cover marketing costs!

This didn't make sense!

Didn't FGO reportedly earn nearly 100 million on its first day? Why was his game stuck at a pathetic one million?

Where did things go wrong??

Ji Fuliang couldn't comprehend it!

"We had over 400,000 pre-registrations! How did it come to this!"

Bloodshot from sleep deprivation, Ji Fuliang sat before his computer, staring intently at the screen while muttering and scrolling through forums: "And why is revenue so low? What went wrong!"

On screen, numerous Dark Night Decree posts remained trending forum topics, with readers still cursing it.

Of course, many cursed game companies too, FGO included. But unlike equally cursed Dark Night Decree, FGO actually had players defending it.

The general sentiment was: While FGO also wastes my time and money, it's nowhere near as bad as Dark Night Decree... Don't even compare them.

The answers Ji Fuliang desperately sought were actually right there in the forum complaints.

Why did 400,000 pre-registrations translate to such low active players?

Because most pre-registered casually, and seeing terrible reviews, simply didn't bother playing - pre-registration numbers ≠ actual players.

Why abysmal revenue? Many Dark Night fans got upset just from the prologue plot. Jian Yinghua was among the more tolerant ones.

Other fans couldn't endure it, quitting before finishing the prologue. Without reaching the gacha tutorial, how would they spend money?

Those who persisted either quit upon reaching Chapter 1's frustrations, or were FGO players who found the quality too poor to justify spending.

These factors combined created Dark Night Decree's dismal performance.

Had this been an original story without FGO's precedent, the numbers might've been much better.

Perhaps even profitable.

But there were no what-ifs.

Perhaps.

Ji Fuliang himself realized his monumental mistake and the reasons for this situation - he just refused to accept it.

Yet denial couldn't change facts.

So when he saw another Dark Night Decree hate post mentioning FGO, only for someone to reply "Don't even compare them" -

He snapped, fingers spasming across the keyboard: "Is Dark Night Decree really that bad? I don't think so! And is FGO really that great? They're both mobile games adapting the same work - what differences could you possibly expect? Stop dreaming!

Go eat shit! You blind idiots!"

"?"

The other users seemed stunned by his reply. After a long pause came a question mark, then: "How dare you say 'both mobile games' with that straight face? With Dark Night Decree's quality? Insane! As for expecting differences adapting the same work - actually yes! Avalon is far more trustworthy than Season Tech.

Anyway, FGO's new version launches soon - why not try it yourself?

And clean up that foul mouth of yours."

"What if I won't?"

Ji Fuliang began passionately trading insults.

Soon.

He and one player had exchanged over twenty inflammatory posts.

But as more people noticed his comments and joined the dogpile,

He couldn't keep up. Seeing another "Why not try the game yourself instead of being fooled by Dark Night Decree's garbage" comment,

His hands left the keyboard, forming fists that smashed down violently.

Several keycaps went flying.

Panting heavily, he finally stopped replying.

Instead grabbing his phone to open FGO!

Breathing raggedly while searching for FGO's icon, he spat angrily: "Fine! Same adaptation - let's see what's so different! How much better can it be than Dark Night Decree!"

Sleep deprivation and failure had clouded his judgment.

He seemed convinced.

That if FGO also failed, it would make Dark Night Decree look better by comparison!

What absurd logic.

But Ji Fuliang was beyond reason now.

Eyes bloodshot, he finally found FGO's icon. Just as he was about to tap it - perhaps from shaking with rage - his finger missed, opening a social media app instead.

The app loaded.

Before he could exit.

A post that made his eyes bulge appeared...

Freshly posted by Rumi.