For Leon, William gave him the same arrangement as Marcus: one day to find a place to rent. If he couldn't, he could crash with Marcus for a while, and if that didn't work, he could sleep at the office.
As for why he didn't invite him to the villa—well, not everyone was as easy to read as Marcus. You can't be too careful.
Around ten, Chris arrived at the studio.
He lived the farthest away among the candidates, in the distant capital. He currently worked at a research institute, which was funded by big companies in the entertainment industry and specialized in film and TV technology.
Chris had a delicate, refined look that made him seem younger than he really was. He was about the same height as William, but carried himself with more presence.
It was obvious Cynthia looked at Chris differently than she did the others—she even broke her usual habits and poured him a glass of water.
When William noticed the glass of water in front of Chris, he suddenly felt a twinge of unease—he didn't have one in front of him.
"You can step out for a bit," he said.
The reason for sending Cynthia out was simple—he was afraid she might lose her composure and say something she shouldn't. Realistically, with her professionalism, that was impossible, but he was planning to talk to Chris about things no one else knew. And since she wouldn't understand anyway, she might as well wait outside.
Before leaving, Cynthia shot William a glare.
That look seemed to say, Just you wait.
Once she stepped out of the office, William quietly let out a breath.
"Was the trip okay?"
"Pretty good," Chris said, taking a sip of water. "You look really young."
"Thanks, so do you."
"You're too kind. I'm almost thirty, and I've even started losing hair lately. No way I can compare to you."
"Let's get down to business," William said, stopping the polite back-and-forth. "I think the reason you're here is the same as the reason I want you to join us."
"Oh?" Chris gave a charming smile. "Why don't you tell me?"
"Game engines—they're a whole new direction."
"They might be new, but that doesn't mean they're the way forward."
William shook his head. "The potential of game engines is far beyond what you think. They're unlike any other software out there."
Chris said, "You know my research is in this field, right? My team has done in-depth studies on the future of engines. They're a good tool, sure, but their abilities are limited by other software. So I don't think they're better than the rest."
"Then your research is heading in the wrong direction."
"To be blunt, your cocos2dx engine isn't exactly cutting-edge."
"I won't deny that."
William wasn't surprised Chris had looked into cocos2dx. In fact, once the cocos2dx engine was made available for download, Chris's group should have been among the first to try it—since it was right in line with their research goals.
"To be honest, I really admire you for creating something like cocos2dx. It's pointed us toward a possible path, but it's still not the product we're looking for."
"Then are you ready to change your research direction?"
Chris, who had been keeping a straight face, suddenly broke into a grin. "Well, I'm here, aren't I?"
William stood up, reached out his hand, and said, "Welcome aboard."
"Nice to meet you."
As soon as Cynthia saw Chris walk out of the office, she went over and asked, "How did it go?"
Chris smiled and reached out his hand. "Miss Cynthia, looks like we're going to be coworkers."
Cynthia smiled back. "Then take care of me from now on."
"Alright, alright," William cut in between them and said to Chris, "From now on, you'd better call her Manager Cynthia."
"My apologies for earlier, Manager Cynthia," Chris corrected himself immediately.
Cynthia let it slide with a smile and took Chris to handle his onboarding paperwork.
That's when William realized he hadn't talked to Chris about his salary yet. He was about to catch up to them, but then figured Cynthia could handle it just fine, so he dropped the idea.
"How's it going? Almost done?" William asked Marcus.
Marcus had a little sweat on his forehead and was staring at his phone with full focus. "Almost."
William stood behind him for a bit over a minute and saw him beat the last pop song level. That was enough to tell him the new update was ready to go live.
"Nice work!" William patted Marcus on the shoulder. "Go get some rest—you look like you didn't sleep at all last night."
"Yeah," Marcus said with a yawn.
After sending Marcus off, Cynthia had just finished locking Chris's contract in the safe.
Because of some work-related reasons, Chris probably wouldn't officially start until next week, and Leon would start no later than the day after tomorrow.
In the end, only Cynthia and William were left at the office.
"What do you think about them?"
Of course, William was asking about the two interviewees from today.
"Chris is really handsome," Cynthia said with a dreamy look.
William rolled his eyes. "Be serious."
Cynthia pushed back, "What, you saying he's not?"
William gave her a look like, "Go on, I'm listening."
After the joke, Cynthia got back on track. "Leon's clearly capable. But with Chris, I still don't know what exactly he can do."
"What he can do is actually really important."
"Like what?"
"Like developing a game engine."
"But didn't their own project never even get off the ground?"
"We'll see soon enough."
Cynthia reminded him, "He's not cheap, you know."
Now that she brought it up, William did feel a little sting in his wallet. "Then maybe we just... don't hire him?"
This time, it was Cynthia who gave him the "go on, I'm listening" face.
After a few light jokes, William said he was going to push the game update and told Cynthia she could do whatever she wanted.
The news that Piano Tiles had added 20 new songs was quickly spreading online. The update came out of nowhere, and the timing was suspiciously perfect—just after the telecom authorities released a notice about the new Rule 97, saying it wasn't targeting any specific company and was just a routine adjustment.
But soon after that notice, Piano Tiles dropped 20 new songs for free. That naturally made people suspicious—was this some kind of jab at the way Earth Games was being treated by the telecom company?
You had to admit, internet users were great at reading between the lines. William hadn't planned it that way at all—it was just a lucky accident.
"What should we do?"
The update was already live—no way to roll it back now.
Cynthia tapped her fingers on the desk for a while before coming up with an idea. "Why don't we just make an announcement that we'll start releasing paid games in the future?"
"And then?"
"Well, there are still a lot of people online insisting we'll keep going the free-to-play route. If we let that grow, we might end up getting guilt-tripped into staying free forever. Better to make it official now and avoid the backlash when we start charging later."
"Alright, let's do that."
William originally wanted the online discussion to keep going, since that would help maintain the game's popularity. But Cynthia had a point—if they suddenly started charging later, the players who believed the game would stay free would feel let down and leave. Rather than letting them get their hopes up only to disappoint them later, it was better to break the illusion early.
After officially announcing that a paid system would be added to the game, William also casually mentioned an update, saying it wasn't targeting anyone and was just part of the regular plan.
But anyone with a brain could tell—this kind of wording was just like what telecom companies always say.
And you're saying you're not calling anyone out?
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