Starting as a Manga Editor

Chapter 72: Avalon

"How’s it running? Any lag?"

Tang Yao quickly pulled herself out of her thoughts and got back to business.

"Nope... but that was just a short scene. No way to know how the full game will perform yet."

Sun Gong still had a weird look on his face as he replied.

"I see..."

Tang Yao hesitated for a moment, then after some thought, she suggested, "Let’s go ahead and build out the demo. I’m thinking of dividing the work a little. What do you guys think?"

Kang Ming perked up. "How exactly?"

"You’ll handle the system modules—basically building the entire game’s system framework and core functions."

Tang Yao laid out the plan carefully. "Shi Wanglin will handle combat and level design, focusing mainly on character battles: skills, equipment, monster AI, stuff like that. And Sun Gong... you’ll work on backend server architecture and optimization."

"Since we’re short-staffed, this is just a rough division of labor. It doesn’t mean you’ll only do the things I just mentioned. This is just to help streamline our workflow." She added seriously, "Once the demo’s done, we’ll add more people depending on how things go."

"Sounds good."

Kang Ming agreed right away.

"…Yeah."

Sun Gong and Shi Wanglin looked down at the phone, then back at Tang Yao, and nodded too.

"Okay, let me walk you through exactly what this demo needs to achieve."

Tang Yao glanced at the phone in Sun Gong’s hand, asked Kang Ming to hand her some paper, pulled over a chair, and started writing.

Soon after,she looked up and held up a sheet of paper for the three to see. "You’ve already seen the animated sprite effects—we’re off to a good start. So the demo needs to cover the early portion of the game's prologue chapter—Chapter Zero. I’ll provide the specific part we’re doing in the design doc."

"This will be the first level players experience, so it’s crucial. We’ll use it to validate core fundamentals: Does the theme and gameplay blend well? Can the art style and tech meet our visual goals? Are there any unsolvable foundational issues?"

"Oh, and we’ll also need to test the battle system."

That’s right.

Tang Yao planned to use Fate/stay night as the game’s opening chapter—even its tutorial level. Because if you’re doing Fate… there’s no avoiding Fate/stay night.

In fact, without that foundational work, it’d be hard to make the whole concept clear.

In her game, Chaldea would still exist, and players wouldn’t be replaced—they’d still have their own identity. But Tang Yao planned to insert Fate/stay night right at the very beginning.

And the setup? Super simple:

Year 2004.A certain urban city sees the sudden emergence of an “unobservable zone.”Chaldea suspects this anomaly could be the cause of humanity’s extinction, and decides to launch its sixth experimental mission—time travel to the past.

But before that,Chaldea prepares to observe the Fifth Holy Grail War taking place in a parallel version of that very city, during the same time…

That’s the basic setup.Whether players take the role of an observer or a backup Master from the Human Order Protection Agency (Chaldea), the point is—

They’ll get to play through Fate/stay night.

FGO’s story was actually great—but with a catch. It only really took off from Chapter 5 of Part One. The first few chapters were… rough. Felt more like a cash grab than a game. Even visual novel fans felt trapped, because compared to the breezy, fun pacing of slice-of-life VNs, those early FGO chapters were dry and clunky.

The plot was boring, the presentation lackluster, and the text was stiff. Tons of jargon, weird names, and dense setting dumps—it didn’t feel like reading a story, it felt like reading an encyclopedia.

Tang Yao wouldn’t use that kind of garbage to trick players. Sure, in this time period, even that might work—but once the competition heats up, how many new players would really pick her game?

That said, while FGO’s early story was a mess, the underlying Fate universe and storytelling format—using historical figures to drive narrative—was brilliant. From Chapter 1.6 onward, once Nasu (Kinoko Nasu, the original creator) started writing again, the story hit god-tier. And the game? It became a best-seller for years.

That just proved how good the model was.

The Fate setting is just that powerful—you can plug anything into it and it’ll work.

So Tang Yao’s goal was clear:Take advantage of this pre-gacha-game era, ride the lingering wave of Fate/Zero’s hype, funnel players into the game—and once they’re in… turn readers seamlessly into players.

How do you seamlessly make that transition?Make the game’s prologue a direct sequel to Fate/Zero—in other words, Fate/stay night.

That would deepen players’ understanding of the Fate lore and setting.

It would also make it easy to roll out the first gacha pool of the game. With a manga tie-in and a god-tier prologue, it’d be an easy win…

Then it’s back to the FGO model—players play as themselves, traveling through time…

In theory, if the IP is firmly established, then in a world where anime-style mobile games haven’t even taken off yet, launching the first high-quality one would absolutely support ten years of revenue.

Of course, the early chapters of FGO would need a rewrite—but just the beginning.

Once the game got going, Tang Yao wouldn’t even have to write the rest herself—just hire someone else.

As long as the Fate universe was solidly built.

"Also, the demo needs a gacha pool—we’ve got to get the gacha mechanics working."

Tang Yao placed the sheet back on the table and wrote another keyword, showing it to the three again. "This is just as important. You’ve all read the project plan… so you know what I mean."

The three of them nodded again.

This game’s primary monetization method was gacha.

"And finally, we need the basic systems to tie all of this together."

Tang Yao added one last word:

"That’s the full scope of what our demo needs to cover. Any questions?" "……"

The three stared at the A4 sheet in her hand… then shook their heads in unison.

Tang Yao nodded with satisfaction. "Then let’s proceed with the task split I mentioned—this is our direction!"

"Alright… though, we’re good."

Kang Ming hesitated a bit, then looked at Tang Yao. "But we’ve divided the work between us three—are you really okay doing all that by yourself? You’ve got planning, art, project management… and the battle system even involves 3D modeling…"

Sun Gong and Shi Wanglin also turned to look at Tang Yao.

"…I’ll see if I can find the right people. I’ll try to recruit a few."

Tang Yao went quiet for a second—she had to admit, this workload was getting ridiculous. She was doing fine for now, but this pace wasn’t sustainable.

The problem was… finding the right people wouldn’t be easy.

"Actually…"

Kang Ming looked toward the door and suggested, "You could try asking Si Jinliang again. Mingyu Tech is a game company too…"

"Trying to squeeze every last drop out of that guy, huh?"

Tang Yao couldn’t help but laugh. "I’d love to, but they’ve only got the operations team left. Where am I gonna find a dev there? …Whatever, if I run into Si Jinliang again, I’ll ask."

"Yeah."

Kang Ming didn’t say more. This wasn’t really his area—his only idea was to poach someone from Mingyu Tech.

"Alright, let’s call it a day. None of us have eaten… I’ll treat you all to dinner."

Tang Yao hesitated—decided it was time to play the social game.

"…Dinner can wait."

Kang Ming was about to agree, but suddenly thought of something else. "Now that we’ve got our studio direction locked in, aren’t we still missing something kinda important? Like, our name? Don’t we need one?"

"Oh—right, I don’t think I ever told you guys…"

Tang Yao put down her A4 sheet again and picked up her pen.

Kang Ming, Sun Gong, and Shi Wanglin all looked curious.

Soon enough,Tang Yao finished writing, held up the paper again with a soft smile, and said:

"Our studio name is already set. We’re called—Avalon, the Ideal Land."