"The big companies are making moves now," William said.
Unlike the challenge they faced from Life Restart Simulator, he wasn't worried about Piano Tiles losing its spot.
"This time, they picked the wrong opponent," Marcus said with the calm confidence of someone who knew the fun of Piano Tiles inside out.
"Should I be a good colleague and warn them?" Cynthia said sympathetically.
Aunt Oliver didn't understand their conversation and kept her focus on the card game. Playing with three distracted people, it was no surprise that she won the round.
"All right, if you guys have work to talk about, don't waste time with an old lady like me."
"Let's call it a day, then."
It was getting late anyway, so it was a good time to stop.
Before sending Marcus off to catch a taxi, William asked for his thoughts on the new mode over the past few days. Marcus gave it high praise, saying it felt like a complete transformation.
Hearing that, William felt reassured. Even though Marcus was a fan and might be biased, he wasn't the kind of person who would lie. If there were any real problems, he wouldn't have kept quiet about them.
"Midnight tonight, we'll release the mini-program version and then wait until morning to push the update."
It was true that WeChat Games and Earth Games had a partnership, but that didn't mean they couldn't be rivals too. Since WeChat Games chose to step into the spotlight, they shouldn't blame William for stepping up.
"Why not just update it right away?"
Cynthia had left Tencent, so she had no reason to feel bad for the competition.
"Don't burn all the bridges. We might meet again in the future."
William didn't think there was a need to go all-out. After all, the partnership between the two companies still existed. Earth Games still needed WeChat's server support, so if they wanted WeChat to keep honoring the contract, they couldn't push them too hard.
Besides, they didn't give Cynthia any trouble when she switched jobs, so William figured it was only fair to return the favor.
"They won't let us launch on time."
"I know. But that's their business, not ours."
With that, William told Merry to post an announcement saying that Piano Tiles would go live as a WeChat mini-program at midnight tonight.
Now that the statement was out, they'd just wait and see how the other side reacted.
00:00
At midnight sharp, WeChat Games' The Pianist went live on the mini-program platform. At the same time, almost all WeChat mini-programs crashed — except for The Pianist, which worked just fine.
[Unlock Growth Path — Engine Commercialization]
[Have a game developed by another studio using your engine and successfully launched] Reputation +50
Another growth path unlocked.
"Oh wow."
Cynthia scrolled through Weibo with an apple in one hand and her phone in the other, refreshing nonstop for updates.
"Not afraid people will criticize this move?"
William tried several mini-programs. Just like people online were saying, only The Pianist worked.
Technically, they didn't block Piano Tiles from launching — but they kind of did.
"So what? Good or bad, it still gives them more attention." Cynthia saw right through it.
The server "crash" lasted less than two minutes. After a so-called "emergency fix" by WeChat, all the mini-programs were back to normal.
Did it work?
Yes, it did.
The number of online players for Piano Tiles was less than one percent of The Pianist's. The Pianist had already passed 10 million users, while Piano Tiles had just barely hit ten thousand.
It was the worst launch they'd ever had. But Piano Tiles wasn't Life Restart Simulator — one story wouldn't kill it. As a game focused on gameplay, the most important thing was whether it was fun.
William was very tempted to announce the new mode update right now to steal some of The Pianist's thunder. But a man should stick to his word — keeping promises even when no one's watching. Better to wait until morning.
"Time to sleep."
And so began the next day.
Work started at 8:30 a.m., and William usually woke up around 7:50. But today he got up a little earlier to witness the new mode update for Piano Tiles.
"Morning."
As he came downstairs, he saw Cynthia sitting in the living room, eating breakfast and chatting with Aunt Oliver while watching the morning news.
"Want some?" Aunt Oliver looked up at William.
He nodded, and she got up right away and headed to the kitchen.
"I wonder if Merry's up yet," William said as he sat down next to Cynthia.
Cynthia didn't even turn her head. "You're the only one who sleeps in every day."
"I'm not late, though."
"Yeah, but you don't have to put on makeup or dress up."
"I mean, I don't really need to…" William looked himself up and down. Yep, pretty plain.
Cynthia set her chopsticks down and glared at him. "So you're saying *I* need to do all that?"
"Uh… of course not!"
What kind of talk is this about death.
"Hmph, so you think everything I do is just a waste of time?"
"Did I say that?" William felt like he couldn't breathe.
"If you've got something to say, say it. No one's stopping you."
William looked at her. She was clearly just picking a fight.
Just then, Aunt Oliver showed up at the perfect moment, handing William a bowl of porridge and giving Cynthia a thermos. "Drink more brown sugar ginger tea."
William might not have eaten pork, but he'd at least seen pigs run—he finally understood what was going on.
She's not someone he could afford to mess with.
He grabbed his bowl and chopsticks and headed to the dining room. Best to just stay away from Cynthia.
Before he could finish breakfast, Cynthia came in and rushed him to get to work.
"Why don't you go ahead first? I'll just take a cab."
William didn't really dare ride in the same car with her. Who knows what kind of drama might pop up on the way?
Cynthia stared at him for a few seconds. "Oh."
Once he heard her car drive off, William finally let out a sigh of relief.
Time skipped forward to 8 AM.
Merry posted the update announcement for Piano Tiles right on time.
The announcement was written by William and used pictures and text to explain how the new mode worked.
At the same time, a 15-second gameplay clip was posted online—recorded by Marcus and shot from a third-person view by her cousin.
The clip was shared by both Earth Games and William's personal account.
Those short 15 seconds were like a quick flash of brilliance, fully revealing the new mode.
William had no idea what was going on with the WeChat Games side, but online players were going wild.
Especially Earth Games fans, who were already bitter over the failure of Life Restart Simulator and then had to endure all the mockery last night—now, finally, they had their moment to strike back.
But no matter how much the official team hypes it up, players will always do what matters most—actually play the game.
And once they did, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. People were calling it a complete transformation, saying this update took the Piano Tiles genre to a whole new level.
"A revolutionary new mode."
That's what the ever-present comment section expert said.
And besides the players praising the new mode, even more were using this chance to clap back at those who had said Earth Games was done for. This update slapped them right in the face.
"Where are all the dogs barking last night?"
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