The heated atmosphere quickly spread.

Tuesday.

The final day of the Higashitsu Gaming Festival.

“Executive Director Moriya, you called me?”

Yuki pushed open the door to Komera’s game division executive director Moriya Tetsuya’s office.

At that moment, there were two others present in Moriya’s office.

They were not outsiders—

Sato Muneki.

Okura Kazu.

Great, after more than a week of rest, the Silent Hill PT team was finally all gathered again.

No need to ask, this was definitely the sign that the full development of Silent Hill’s official version was about to kick off!

It made sense.

Silent Hill was currently at its peak popularity.

Countless players were clamoring for the release of the official version.

Add to that the terrifyingly high login rate of the motion-sensing pods, and it was obvious even without thinking much that this game would be a guaranteed hit.

It seemed the higher-ups had seen the current hype around PT and felt there was no time to waste; they wanted to push forward with cooperative development quickly.

With this in mind, Yuki smiled and nodded, sitting down alongside the other two main development supervisors, ready to wait for Executive Director Moriya’s development briefing.

However!

Moriya’s expression was not one of excitement or anticipation; instead, it looked somewhat gloomy.

“Everyone’s here, so let’s start a closed-door meeting,” Moriya said.

“You all know the rules for closed-door meetings, right? No objections?”

Upon hearing this, the three were momentarily stunned.

The closed-door meeting system was a common internal meeting format used by Komera and many other large companies.

Such meetings were neither public nor transparent and left no meeting records.

They were usually held when discussing confidential or sensitive matters that were inconvenient to disclose publicly.

Moreover, participants were expected not to reveal any information from the meeting outside.

It was basically an unspoken company rule.

The three were no strangers to this kind of meeting.

But the question was…

Why hold a closed-door meeting all of a sudden at this time?

For a moment, a sense of unease crept into the three’s hearts.

They exchanged glances and nodded, tacitly agreeing to the meeting’s format.

Then Moriya took three thin project proposals from his drawer and handed them to the three:

“These are the preliminary proposals for the official Silent Hill game. Read them carefully and return them. We have plenty of time today.”

Yuki took the proposal Moriya handed over and frowned slightly as she looked at it.

On it was written—[Silent Hill Project Proposal (Draft)].

Exhaling quietly, Yuki began to read carefully…

First, regarding the game’s setting, the official version would continue the “Surface World” and “Otherworld” settings established in PT.

The protagonist of the official game was named James, an outstanding plastic surgeon.

One day, by chance, he received a letter from his wife inviting him to a small town called Silent Hill, mentioning many things from their past.

At first glance, the letter seemed quite ordinary.

It looked like a divorced wife wanting to meet again.

But the horrifying truth was that James was not divorced; he was a widower—his wife had died three years ago.

This was a letter from his deceased wife.

So, harboring complex emotions, James went to Silent Hill.

There, he witnessed the most bizarre and surreal sights.

All kinds of strange and monstrous creatures appeared one after another, very powerful, repeatedly putting James in life-threatening situations.

Among these monsters, there was one especially strong.

She was a woman wearing an apron but had lost her head. Like a nightmare, despite being killed countless times, she repeatedly resurrected.

Finally, after fighting through, James reached the place indicated in his wife’s letter.

It was a mansion on the town’s outskirts.

Upon entering, players would see many group photos.

And the protagonist in those photos was none other than James and a woman wearing an apron.

Exactly!

James was the culprit behind another murder case of a wife mentioned in the PT radio—using his plastic surgeon skills to change his face and evade capture indefinitely.

This time returning to Silent Hill, he aimed to utterly eliminate the inexplicably “resurrected” wife.

In the end, James completely killed the headless wife in the very same kitchen.

But as fate’s cycle of retribution went,

Though his shot thoroughly killed his wife, it also ignited the liquefied gas in the kitchen.

Eventually,

In a massive explosion, James received his final punishment and was utterly destroyed.

Click.

The proposal draft ended there.

Yuki closed the proposal, her expression somewhat complicated.

She glanced at Okura, then at Sato.

She noticed their expressions were much the same as hers.

Objectively speaking,

This proposal’s completeness was decent.

It had a clear beginning and end, a complete story, focusing on a cause-and-effect retribution theme.

But the premise was—

Don’t attach the name Silent Hill to it.

“This…”

After carefully organizing her words for a long moment, Sato finally spoke:

“Pardon me for asking, Executive Director Moriya, but is this… Mr. Gu’s proposal?”

Seeing all three looked at him, Moriya shrugged ambiguously and asked in return, “What do you think?”

The three looked at each other, all feeling a bit awkward.

In the end, Yuki spoke up: “I don’t think so.”

It wasn’t that it was bad.

But it looked… too ordinary.

You have to understand, the reason PT had such outstanding horror effects and buzz was largely due to its vague and mysterious metaphors, its cryptic storytelling style, and the ambiguous, open-ended finale.

This “Gu-style” game format always added a layer of mystery, as if a veil separated the player from the game.

But now!

In this proposal version!

That veil had been removed.

What Yuki and the others saw was just a story centered on monster fighting and adventure, with a straightforward good-versus-evil karmic retribution plot.

Perhaps the only unique point was letting players play as the villain once.

Other than that, there was nothing remarkable.

Upon hearing Yuki’s words, a helpless look appeared on Moriya’s face.

He sighed and then asked:

“So, what do you think if this is taken as the official Silent Hill proposal?”

Hearing this, Sato clicked his tongue: “Executive Director Moriya, when you say ‘what do you think,’ what aspect are you referring to?”

“Sales,” Moriya replied concisely.

“It will definitely be affected,” Sato said bluntly.

Moriya nodded, looking at Sato: “Elaborate?”

“This proposal is obviously not from Mr. Gu,”

Sato, having said so much, saw no need to hold back and spoke frankly:

“If this was released as an independent game, no problem.”

“But if it’s released as the official version of PT, calling it a disgrace might be harsh,”

“But it will definitely damage the Silent Hill IP’s reputation.”

“Now, PT has been elevated to a godlike status by media and players’ analyses.”

“The unique charm it carries cannot be matched by this ordinary proposal.”

“When that happens, criticism and sales decline are guaranteed.”

After hearing Sato, Moriya nodded and then asked:

“How much do you think it would affect sales?”

Sato thought for a moment: “It’s hard to say, because in this case, player subjective factors dominate. Conservatively, about 20%.”

Hiss—!!!

At those words, Yuki and Okura both gasped sharply.

Just by switching to a somewhat ordinary script, the game’s sales could drop by one-fifth!

And this was only a conservative estimate!

“What about a higher estimate?” Moriya pressed.

“That’s hard to say,” Sato shook his head this time, signaling he couldn’t predict: “If they really use this proposal, halving sales wouldn’t surprise me.”

With that, silence fell in the office for a long time.

After a while, Yuki slowly asked:

“So, Executive Director Moriya… are we going to develop the official Silent Hill ourselves?”

With Moriya’s words having reached this point, no matter how slow-witted, the meaning was clear!

The higher-ups actually wanted to ditch Golden Wind and take all the Silent Hill official version’s sales profits for themselves!

And in response!

Moriya slowly nodded.

Although!

He was already prepared in his heart!

But!

When Yuki saw Moriya Tetsuya nod, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger!

What the hell kind of stupid move was this?!

Ditching Golden Wind meant ditching Director Sam too!

Fine!

You’ve seen how hot Silent Hill is now and the wide player support. Wanting to ditch sharing profits and keep everything yourself, that’s understandable!

After all, this was Komera’s usual style!

Besides, switching directors mid-project wasn’t new.

But!

Before ditching someone, did you even think about who gave this game its soul?

The “King of Horror” crown was on SamGu’s head!

Not in our Komera’s hands!

“This… this…”

Yuki could hardly understand the higher-ups’ move:

“Forgive me for being blunt, Executive Director Moriya! This is like us making cars but—”

…

“—ditching the engine manufacturer!”

Time rewound to yesterday!

Komera conference room!

At a closed-door meeting chaired by President Uekoe Kagemasa!

As game division executive director, Moriya Tetsuya raised the same doubts as Yuki!

This move was absurd!

However!

Before Uekoe Kagemasa could speak,

Yamamoto Tsunashiro, sitting nearby, darkened his face:

“Executive Director Moriya, are you saying that with my more than twenty years of industry experience and as a senior game designer, I am not qualified to replace a greenhorn and lead the official Silent Hill development?”

Exactly!

As President Uekoe’s ‘disciple and student,’

Yamamoto Tsunashiro was trying to usurp the position and take charge of both projects!

Now that the official version of Yakuza Frenzy was progressing steadily,

He could easily take over the explosively popular Silent Hill project!

This way, both hot projects would be his!

Coincidentally!

Since Silent Hill became a hit, Uekoe Kagemasa had been thinking about how to kick Golden Wind out of the project.

After all, this IP was too hot!

Once released, it would likely become a phenomenal horror game, possibly the highest-selling horror game ever!

And such an enticing project!

They still had to split 30% of net profits with Golden Wind!

For a pure businessman like Uekoe Kagemasa, this was unacceptable.

Forget 30%.

He didn’t want to share even 10%!

Uekoe didn’t understand games.

To him, Gu Sheng was basically an external “business manager.”

Gu Sheng brought them a big contract at Komera, and as compensation, he requested 30% revenue sharing during the project follow-up.

Uekoe naturally didn’t want to share profits.

After all, he had another top business manager—Yamamoto Tsunashiro.

And this manager had more seniority, more experience, and crucially, was not an external hire and didn’t require such a high share.

So, without much consideration,

Uekoe immediately agreed with Yamamoto to kick out Golden Wind and develop Silent Hill independently!

“This… this is too reckless, President!”

Moriya was stunned!

Uekoe didn’t understand games, but he did!

He knew very well how special Silent Hill was!

“The unique psychological horror experience of Silent Hill was pioneered by Sam, who was also the master designer of this concept. Replacing him, I think, uh…”

But before Moriya finished,

Yamamoto interrupted him!

“Haha, Executive Director Moriya, your words are a bit too harsh,”

Yamamoto laughed:

“Changing directors mid-development is nothing new,”

“There are many projects where directors were replaced halfway for various reasons, and the games still landed smoothly without quality issues,”

“Besides, PT is just a demo; changing the designer before the official version development is actually a good time.”

After speaking, Yamamoto looked proudly at Moriya.

Moriya ignored him and stared at President Uekoe: “President, this game really cannot change directors, after all, Sam earned the ‘King of Horror’ title through this demo, and if now…”

However,

Moriya didn’t finish!

Yamamoto spoke again, interrupting once more: “That’s just an empty title. Today he’s the King of Horror, tomorrow I can be too…”

“Shut the f*** up, you bastard!”

Bang!!!

Moriya finally lost it!

He slammed the table!

Pointing right at Yamamoto’s arrogant nose, he yelled:

“Who the hell do you think you are?! How dare you interrupt me?! You want to die?!”

His explosive roar immediately made Yamamoto shrink back!

Who was Moriya Tetsuya?

An executive director!

The highest-ranking executive inside the company after President Uekoe Kagemasa!

And who was Yamamoto?

A game designer!

His rank was nowhere close to Moriya’s!

Though Yamamoto was the president’s disciple and attended this closed meeting,

Rank-wise, Moriya could scold him like a dog without care!

“What a piece of trash…”

Seeing Yamamoto no longer daring to speak up, Moriya snorted coldly and glared at him fiercely:

“From now on, shut your filthy mouth. When I’m talking with President Uekoe, I don’t want to hear a single word from you, understand?”

Yamamoto lowered his head, shrinking, and glanced at President Uekoe beside him, seemingly wanting to say something.

But Uekoe waved his hand: “Get out.”

“But, sir—”

Slap!

Without hesitation!

Uekoe Kagemasa slapped Yamamoto hard across the face!

He immediately silenced him.

Then, flicking his hand, raising an eyebrow:

“How many times have I told you? Use titles at work! Get lost!”

“Ha… Hai—!!!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com