The head of customer service is a middle-aged woman with a special identity; she’s a seconded employee from their Japanese partner, which was one of the odd characteristics when “Fantasy World” was first brought into the country. Initially, all customer service personnel were dispatched from Japan, and only in recent years have they been gradually replaced by Marumi’s own trained staff. However, key positions in the customer service department of “Fantasy World” are still held by these seconded Japanese staff. This woman is named Fujimi Yukika, and behind her back, everyone calls her “Fujimi Sister.” She’s still somewhat attractive, with a mature charm. Today, unlike usual, Fujimi Sister has been looking grim since entering the conference room. Hearing the big boss ask for opinions, she immediately looked somewhat defeated and said, “Oh! I can’t take it anymore! I want to protest!”
This Fujimi Sister has been in mainland China for almost five years, speaking fluent Mandarin. If one didn’t know her true identity, no one would think she was Japanese. She continued to complain loudly: “These crazy game players, they’re too terrifying! They’re too awful! They’re too perverse! My staff really can’t handle it anymore! Ever since the new zone opened yesterday morning, the customer service center has been receiving complaints non-stop, especially after the company decided to temporarily close the zone. Over a hundred hotline phones have been ringing incessantly, the website forums and company email are nearly overwhelmed by players, and the entire customer service department is almost paralyzed. Those players must have coordinated; they’re threatening to call our customer service in the middle of the night to wake them up if the problem isn’t resolved. It’s so disgusting! Many of the girls have been crying. If this continues, my staff will collapse, and the consequences will be unthinkable!”
The Senior Vice President in charge of operations, Niu Xuegen, gave this crying woman a displeased look and then spoke: “What consequences are unthinkable? Does the customer service department want to quit? So what if players complain? If they don’t want to play, let them go! If there are such shameless players, call the police! Besides, we have money and resources! What’s there to be afraid of? I’ll handle the authorities like the industry and commerce, taxation, network supervision, and the publication administration. It’s just a few people trying to cause trouble and muddy the waters. What’s there to be scared of?” Niu Xuegen has always been very assertive, even in front of the big boss, he never hides his arrogance because he has the capital to back it up.
Liu Linna, the head of the marketing department, was a bold woman known for her sharp opinions. She stated firmly, “I have statistical data from major portals and gaming forums. Regarding this incident, I believe there’s no need for such pessimism!” Liu Linna nodded, and her executive secretary, understanding her intention, switched to a well-prepared PowerPoint presentation on the projector. The screen was filled with various charts and graphs, analyzed professionally and thoroughly. Everyone present was sharp; there was no need for Liu Linna to elaborate further—the outcome was clear. “It’s quite interesting!” Liu Linna explained, “On the day the new server launched, there was this mishap, but the players’ reactions were unexpected. Polls on major websites show that the support rate for the normal operation of the new server, ‘Void Fantasy,’ has reached an astonishing 95% and above! As you all know, for this new server launch, the company didn’t spend a penny on promotion, and even these polls on the websites were not something the company invested in! Although our relationship with the media has always been friendly, expecting them to promote us for free without any benefits is simply not possible! What does this indicate? It shows that this incident has transcended a mere common hacker attack; it has become a hot news event!” Liu Linna’s words were powerful, maintaining her usual style of speaking in a way that never failed to shock. She paused briefly to calm her emotions and continued, “From the current situation, this attack is only rumored within the industry. General players aren’t concerned with these matters; they only care about when they can register again in the new zone. They are interested in whether the new storyline in Void Fantasy will have the immersive reality promised in the promotional video! Players are most concerned with the realism in the gameplay, which aligns perfectly with the tone we’ve always promoted! Therefore, I believe this time, the virtual terminal technology, which has been criticized in the industry, could actually be our greatest advantage! We should seize this opportunity to immediately launch a terminal product that truly supports this technology! This is the time for Wanmei to make a move!”
When the conversation turned to technical matters, Sun Chen quickly chimed in, “Ms. Liu, your analysis is correct, and I believe everyone here has considered this issue. However, our technology is still immature; the virtual terminal technology does not meet the safety standards for mass production! Therefore, I oppose rushing into the virtual terminal market! Our focus should be on how to mitigate negative impacts and reduce player backlash! Just because our technology isn’t mature doesn’t mean there isn’t mature technology out there!” Liu Linna looked at the distressed technical director with a hint of mockery, “I’m not an expert in technology, but it’s an undeniable fact that our employees suffered serious harm in this attack! However, the performance of those two players, ‘Merciless Ghost Hands,’ was something even I, a layperson, could understand! Mr. Sun, you can’t just ignore this, can you?”
Sun Chen felt the sting of her words; he knew exactly what she meant. Both were using virtual terminals to enter the game; Wang Kai, under the protection of the company’s large-scale simulation terminal, still got caught in the NPC’s counterattack and remained unconscious, possibly facing brain death due to the overwhelming mental shock. However, the two ‘Merciless Ghost Hands’ reappeared in the game later, seemingly unharmed. This clearly indicated that the virtual terminal technology possessed by ‘Merciless Ghost Hands’ was far more advanced than what the company was currently developing. If the company could acquire this hacker’s technology, the biggest challenge of the virtual terminal would be solved. The question was, how to find this elusive figure? And how to obtain the cutting-edge technology from him? Buy it with money? Sun Chen had an intuition that ‘Merciless Ghost Hands’ wasn’t interested in money; otherwise, with such advanced technology, he could easily sell it to international giants like Microsoft or Apple for millions, or even billions of dollars. Although Wanmei was dominant in the domestic gaming industry, its foundation was somewhat lacking. Sun Chen, standing from his perspective, had already ruled out this approach.
