Chapter 27: Like a Marriage Proposal
** Harper **
The first half of the week was a blur to Harper. She lost track of how many versions of narrative outlines she had drafted, revised, trashed, and started over again. The sheer workload made her wish that she could grow two more heads, and it didn't help either to know all this effort was going down the drain into a project that her boss had no plan to even put into production. Too many times, she found herself daydreaming that some miraculous luck would descend upon her again and save her project the same way Eli had saved her web novel.
Who knew her dream actually came true?
Eli's phone call the night before was like a bell of awakening. She had been too busy following her mandatory tasks to spare the time to think through the situation ... But of course he was right! With the investors calling the shots, this presentation wasn't just a chore, but rather a precious second chance that she'd be a fool to let slip by. As long as she pitched it right, the future was still unknown and well within her control.
"Aren't you in a great mood this morning!" Her new marketing partner, Wallace, marveled as he strode into the conference room where she was waiting for him, making her realize belatedly that she was actually humming in excitement. "Came up with a new idea to add to our bullet list today?"
"Oh, many." Harper beamed. Her spirit was indeed high enough today that she felt fully revived on the spot with max HP. "Remember those novel tropes I told you about yesterday?"
Wallace was a new grad just like Harper herself, which made it quite easy for them to work together. Their brainstorming sessions for the past few days had actually been lively despite Harper's overall gloomy mood, and at some point, she had even joked about common tropes in web novels that she felt tempted to use in her game story, such as court intrigues where the dashing and charismatic prince turned out to be the evil big boss, or the rise of the underdog where the weakest fighter picked up the most OP loot and slapped all his bullying opponents in the face.
At the time, Wallace had been fascinated. But the look on his face right now was one of bewilderment. "You're seriously considering adding them to the game?" he asked.
"Well, sort of ... with modifications of course," Harper clarified. "I think there are a few ways to fit them nicely into a space themed game. Political intrigues are a good subplot to add to the alien culture exploratory missions. OP loots and resource cultivation work well for colonization campaigns. The gameplay strategies there will also be close enough to the kingdom-building products we've already developed, which makes the integration seamless on the technical side."