Chapter 29: Already Taking the Shape of Morning Star

You Were Told to Lose Money By Making Games, and You Actually Did It? 

Chapter 29: Already Taking the Shape of Morning Star

On the afternoon of January 18th.

Xiu Fu, Gong Qi, and the rest of the employees finally returned to the company.

Looking at the familiar entrance, everyone felt a wave of emotions.

They were finally back.

Their trip to Osaka had truly exhausted them.

The sense of being in a foreign country was only a minor issue.

The real challenge was that they had not only been developing games and learning new technologies, but also playing a game of espionage while recruiting talent.

Still, as long as it was for the game and for President Chen's support, everything had been worth it.

"Brother Xiu, you're back!"

"Brother Gong, was Osaka fun?"

"I heard we poached quite a few people from Hyakukin Studio!"

Xiu Fu, Gong Qi, and the others smiled as they greeted their colleagues.

At the same time, they handed out local Osaka souvenirs to everyone.

After chatting briefly with the staff, Xiu Fu and Gong Qi headed to Chen Xu's office.

"Welcome back."

"You've given me a huge surprise!"

Getting up from his chair, Chen Xu gave each of them a hug.

These were truly his most trusted lieutenants.

He had already heard the details from Xiu Fu over the phone.

Hyakukin Studio had actually lost sixteen employees to their recruitment efforts.

When Xiu Fu had first mentioned poaching talent, Chen Xu hadn't even dared to imagine such a result.

Back then, he had estimated that bringing over two or three people would already be a success.

Instead, they had recruited sixteen.

Sixteen people meant a significantly larger payroll and a lot more money to spend every month.

"It’s only possible because Hyakukin’s the target. If it had been one of Japan's larger companies, it would've been much harder to recruit anyone away," Gong Qi said with a smile.

Although the statement was somewhat insulting to Hyakukin Studio, it was also the truth.

In Japan's lifetime-employment culture, employees rarely consider changing jobs if their company has a promising future and appears stable for the long term—especially regular full-time employees.

Hyakukin Studio, however, was very different from major publishers or established developers with steady output.

It had a reputation, but most of that came from star creators like Kamiyama Atsushi.

It had talent, but lacked a signature hit IP of its own. A series of failures had forced the studio into a cycle of contract work.

Under such circumstances, Hyakukin Studio's appeal wasn't completely nonexistent, but it was quite limited.

"No matter what, bringing over sixteen people is already an excellent result," Chen Xu said with a smile.

The number was practically perfect.

If they had recruited even more people, they might not have needed to outsource any work at all, that would have turned a profitable scheme into a costly mistake.

Break Room

Yamagami Eiji, Aonuma Shinji, and the others sat comfortably in the break room, drinking coffee and enjoying cakes and pastries.

The desserts were freshly made by a bakery.

They smelled absolutely amazing.

Xiu Fu really hadn't lied to them.

The benefits and treatment at Morning Star Games were genuinely excellent.

To be honest, they had all felt somewhat nervous before coming.

But everything they had experienced so far proved that Xiu Fu and the others had been telling the truth.

Through the break room's glass walls, Yamagami, Aonuma, and the others looked at the 4K-resolution monitors and high-performance development workstations, their eyes filled with anticipation for the future.

Although Morning Star Games was nowhere near Hyakukin Studio in terms of size, its working environment was already leagues ahead.

Eating pastries, leaning back on soft sofas—even those who still felt a little guilty about leaving Hyakukin Studio had to admit something.

Their hearts were already being won over by Morning Star Games.

Little by little, they were being reshaped into the form of Morning Star Games.

Perhaps after officially joining, they should even sign up for Chinese language classes.

Only by integrating more deeply into the collective could their future careers proceed smoothly.

Looking at the workplace environment and the energetic employees, everyone arrived at the same conclusion.

At that moment, Chen Xu entered the break room.

Behind him followed Xiu Fu and Gong Qi, carrying a stack of contracts.

Yamagami and the others immediately recognized Chen Xu as their future boss.

The moment he stepped into the room, every one of them stood up and bowed politely.

"Welcome to Morning Star Games. Xiu Fu has probably already explained the compensation package to you. Here are the contracts—please read them carefully, and feel free to ask any questions you may have," Chen Xu said with a smile.

Taking the contracts, Yamagami briefly scanned the salary section.

The base salary wasn't actually much higher than what they had earned at Hyakukin Studio.

In truth, Chen Xu would have loved to offer them significantly higher salaries.

And while he was at it, he would have liked to raise the wages of the company's existing employees as well.

Unfortunately, the system wouldn't allow that.

But from Yamagami and the others' perspective, the package was already more than satisfactory.

Especially the benefits section.

Overtime pay, transportation allowances, and housing subsidies.

When all those benefits were added together, their overall compensation was far better than what they had received at Hyakukin Studio.

"Oh, and one more thing," Chen Xu added.

"Once all the necessary procedures are completed, the company will handle your social insurance contributions."

"However, until you obtain permanent residency, the company cannot contribute to your housing provident fund. So that portion will instead be paid directly to you as an additional allowance."

"No problem, President Chen!" Yamagami and the others replied excitedly.

After giving the contracts a quick review and confirming there were no issues, everyone signed their names.

"President Chen, what will our work assignments be?" Yamagami asked eagerly, already looking forward to getting started.

Hearing the question, Chen Xu fell silent.

Come to think of it...

There really wasn't any work for them at the moment.

The game was already in the AQ phase.

He had been so focused on the fact that hiring them would allow him to spend a large amount of money that he hadn't even purchased their equipment yet.

"How about this..." Chen Xu thought for a moment.

"I'll give all of you four days off first. The company still needs to process your onboarding paperwork and purchase the necessary equipment."

"Use this time to sort out your housing arrangements. Then come back next Monday to attend the company's annual banquet. After the banquet, I'll assign your work."

Originally, Chen Xu had wanted to organize a special celebration.

After all, the company had just gained so many new employees—and foreign employees at that.

What could be more worthy of celebration?

Unfortunately, the timing happened to coincide with the annual company banquet.

He had already booked the hotel in advance.

Thinking about it, Chen Xu couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

"Oh, right," he suddenly remembered.

"Your salaries will start being calculated from the day of the annual banquet."

Technically, it wouldn't have mattered if they were paid during these few vacation days.

But Chen Xu firmly believed in fairness.

If there was paid leave, then everyone should enjoy paid leave together.

No favoritism whatsoever.

"Uh... what?" Yamagami and the others stared blankly.

Naturally, they had no idea what Chen Xu was thinking.

Just hearing the announcement alone was enough to leave them completely bewildered.

At that moment, every one of them was filled with confusion.

The benefits were indeed excellent.

The problem was that they were too excellent.

So good that it was actually making them nervous.

They hadn't generated a single cent of profit for the company yet.

How could they possibly deserve treatment this generous?

If they hadn't previously worked closely with Xiu Fu's team, and if they hadn't learned through various channels what kind of company Morning Star Games really was—they might genuinely have worried that one morning within the next half month, they would wake up on an operating table and discover that one of their kidneys had mysteriously disappeared.

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