Chapter 26: What Game Is So Fun?
Half an hour later, the delivery arrived.
"The food's here. I'll eat first," Chen Mo said.
Wen Lingwei waved a hand. "Go ahead. I'm almost done with this level."
Chen Mo brought the takeout into the meeting room, eating while pulling out his phone to browse the app store for newly released games.
The official app store was different from some smaller channels. On minor platforms, you could directly contact the channel operators to buy ad slots, but the official app store didn't accept any paid rankings. It only ranked games based on comprehensive data like release time and sales volume, making it hard to manipulate the numbers.
Chen Mo wanted to check if Emperor Dynasty Entertainment or Zen Mind Entertainment had launched any new games recently. When these two giants released a new title, their built-in massive user base would quickly push them to the top of the new game charts, drawing all the players' attention.
Chen Mo was confident in the quality of *Plants vs. Zombies*, but he didn't need to go head-to-head with these two companies for now.
Fortunately, the new game chart was currently filled with works from smaller studios. Chen Mo downloaded a few of the top-ranked games and checked them out. Their quality was average at best, with the best one being about on par with Lin Mao's *Storm Knight Adventure*. None of them were likely to pose a threat to *Plants vs. Zombies*.
As Chen Mo was eating, Wen Lingwei burst through the meeting room door, grabbed a burger from the table, and wolfed it down in two or three bites, like a whirlwind sweeping through leftovers.
Then, at lightning speed, she finished off most of the fries. Finally, she picked up the cola on the table and shook it at Chen Mo. "No problem if I drink this at my seat, right?"
Chen Mo: "...No problem."
Wen Lingwei walked out of the meeting room with her cola, having spent barely five minutes from entering to leaving.
Chen Mo had only eaten half of his own burger.
"Is it really that addictive? I'm starting to wonder if you're a shill for this game..."
Chen Mo finished eating, cleaned up the trash on the meeting table, tidied up, and then went out to throw the garbage away.
The experience store was still just Wen Lingwei and Chen Mo. Chen Mo sat at the counter, researching the upcoming game launch, while Wen Lingwei continued to fight her way through the game, buried in concentration. For a while, the only sound in the entire store was the clicking of the mouse.
Three hours later.
Chen Mo stood up and walked around the store. To his surprise, Wen Lingwei was still playing with complete focus, and she was already close to clearing the third world. She was more than halfway through the first playthrough of the story mode.
Pretty fast, huh.
For a beginner, Wen Lingwei's pace wasn't slow at all. She was clearly starting to grasp the tricks, and finishing the first playthrough was just a matter of time.
Just then, Wen Lingwei's phone on the table rang.
After four or five rings, she reluctantly picked it up.
"Hello?" Wen Lingwei answered absentmindedly, her attention still on the computer screen, keeping an eye on a few swim ring zombies that needed special attention.
A male voice came through the phone: "Senior, where are you? We've been waiting for five minutes."
Wen Lingwei was taken aback. "Waiting for five minutes? Waiting for what?"
The guy on the phone said helplessly, "Our propaganda department's regular meeting. Today at 4 PM. Didn't you set the time?"
Wen Lingwei thought for a moment and slapped her forehead. "Oh, right. Is it today? Is it already four?"
Phone: "..."
Wen Lingwei asked, "Are you guys already in the meeting room?"
The guy on the phone replied, "Yeah, everyone's here. Just waiting for you to start the meeting."
Wen Lingwei reluctantly glanced at the screen in front of her. She could save the game, but she really didn't want to step away right now.
After a moment's thought, Wen Lingwei said, "How about you guys come here for the meeting? There's a sofa, a meeting room, and drinks. After the meeting, we can even grab a meal together. What do you think?"
The guy on the phone said, "Huh? Sure, you're the minister, you call the shots. Where are you?"
Wen Lingwei replied, "Right near our school, next to this residential area. You all know 'Fingertip Net Cafe'? No, not at Fingertip Net Cafe. It's at the new game experience store diagonally across from it. Yeah, just come straight over."
Wen Lingwei gave detailed directions to the store over the phone, then hung up and clicked "Continue Game."
About ten minutes later, a group of people arrived at the entrance of the experience store.
There were four guys and six girls, ten people in total, all looking like college students from the nearby university.
Leading them was a slightly dark-skinned, thin guy. He looked at the storefront. "This should be it."
A girl who was a bit under 1.6 meters tall, dressed in a cute style, had already walked into the store and called out in a very soft voice, "Senior, we're here."
Wen Lingwei glanced at them. "Oh, you're here. Jia Peng, Chang Xiuya, you two take everyone to the meeting room first. I'll be right there."
The slightly dark-skinned Jia Peng came up behind Wen Lingwei. "Senior, please don't tell me you were so hooked on a game that you forgot to come to the meeting..."
Wen Lingwei raised an eyebrow. "What, got a problem with that?"
Jia Peng quickly shook his head. "No problem! No problem!"
The others, including the cute girl Chang Xiuya, struggled to hold back their laughter, not daring to laugh out loud, and obediently took their notebooks into the meeting room to sit down.
Chen Mo didn't bother with them. The experience store was open to the public anyway; even if these people didn't play games, they were free to come in and sit.
Wen Lingwei paused the game, walked into the meeting room, and sat down in the center seat.
"Alright, let's begin." Wen Lingwei looked at Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward, but everyone present quickly adjusted their emotions under Wen Lingwei's presence.
Jia Peng opened the notebook in front of him. "For today's meeting, I have three main items. First, next week's promotional poster..."
Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya were the two vice ministers of the propaganda department, handling most of the actual work. As for Wen Lingwei, though she was the minister now, she only needed to make final decisions on major issues. For regular meetings, she basically just sat in and listened.
Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya each went over a few things, quickly assigning tasks. For the few issues they couldn't resolve, they let Wen Lingwei make the call. The whole meeting took about half an hour.
Wen Lingwei stood up. "Alright, all done? I'm heading out."
She left the meeting room and returned to her seat to continue battling.
Jia Peng and the others came out of the meeting room and stood behind Wen Lingwei, curious.
"Senior, what game is so fun that it's got you this hooked?" Jia Peng asked, intrigued.
In the eyes of these juniors, Wen Lingwei, as the propaganda minister, had always seemed to have a halo around her. The younger girls, especially, admired her to no end, seeing her as their ultimate life goal.
And now, their senior was so obsessed with a game? How fun could it be?