Chapter 32 031 [「Proclaim to the World」—Forced Exposure Skill…

Chapter 32 "Announce to the World" – Forced Exposure Skill...

The five mini-games were being developed in an orderly manner.

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed.

The finished artwork came in faster than Song Tianyang had expected—she had no idea how long it usually took an artist to finish a piece, so she consulted the lead artist based on the workload and relayed the time suggested by the lead artist to He Yuan.

The lead artist had accounted for the artist's daily needs and her other ongoing commercial work.

When handing over the original drafts to Song Tianyang, He Yuan was pretty nervous.

Because her sister had not given her clear style requirements, nor even reference images, and just told her to go with her own preferences and draw whatever she wanted.

And He Yuan had no idea what art style she liked.

Her paintings had never been shown widely; the guests at her shows were all rich men and ladies from families that knew the He family, who bought her paintings out of social obligation, and of course they'd shower her with praise when asked. Her paintings had also been published in some niche magazines and periodicals, which Mrs. He would cut out and then casually bring up to her husband and father-in-law, pretending it was an offhand remark about how successful she'd been in educating her daughter.

Drawing CG for a game?

Mrs. He would never allow it, and He Yuan had never even considered it.

After being stripped of her identity as the He family's princess, the girlfriends who used to fawn over her and invite her out all vanished. He Yuan suddenly found herself idle, as if the whole world had forgotten her, and drawing for her sister filled that huge void.

She turned her gloomy thoughts into page after page of artwork.

To be fair, He Yuan painted with great care and poured her emotions into it.

But aesthetics are very subjective.

He Yuan had put in serious effort to learn the fundamentals, but no matter how amazing her technique, the audience might not care for it.

On the internet, you often see pros just doodle a few lines and get more shares than their serious works. You can't deliberately touch people's hearts; creators are basically blindfolded, using their brushes to capture that one-in-a-million spark.

So when a game is made as a product, adding classic cute elements, shiny golden wings, and pale white skin is all about keeping the mainstream audience happy. It's not that everyone likes these, but at least they won't be hated, and they have a fixed audience. Expensive skins pile on particle effects, regardless of whether the design is good or not—at least it shows hard work even if it's not a masterpiece.

He Yuan shook herself awake and packaged the original paintings to send to Song Tianyang.

He Yuan: "Sister, if it's not good, don't use it."

Song Tianyang: "It's gorgeous!"

He Yuan: "The file hasn't even finished uploading, sister."

Song Tianyang: "That doesn't matter."

He Yuan couldn't help cracking a smile.

Three days ago she delayed the painting over some trivial thing, then spent the next two days rushing frantically until she was out of her mind. Now that she had handed over the finished draft, she felt a huge relief, but fatigue hit her like a wave. Too lazy to go back to her bedroom, she gave the wall a push with her leg in a cast, slid the ergonomic chair backward on its wheels, and then flipped over onto the small bed in the studio.

...

Jiuwu Studio.

Song Tianyang didn't even take time to admire them; she just packaged everything up and sent it to the art team.

The mini-game's text had been adjusted to perfection, and the game had been debugged many times, just waiting for the final batch of CG art to come in. Zhou Qi took off her headphones and asked as she unzipped the file: "Your Majesty, how much per piece for this batch of artwork? Is it coming out of the company account?"

During this time, the employees of Jiuwu Studio had vaguely sensed...

Their "Majesty" was a trust-fund kid.

A rich kid starting a game company would naturally be idealistic and super lenient with the staff.

They just weren't sure how long it'd last.

Song Tianyang: "For free."

"Huh?"

Just as Zhou Qi thought her hearing might be shot from always drawing with her headphones cranked to max, the file on the computer finished receiving and decompressing.

When the first original painting came into view, Zhou Qi was stunned.

So polished!

Holy crap, where did they find such a master? The lighting, the details, the art style!

— The shock mostly came from the fact that Jiuwu Studio was making a chibi-style mini-game, where 80% of the time players see a cute little eunuch and various chibi concubines and maids, all bright and adorable.

Even so, they didn't skimp on art assets.

They didn't use AI or those cheap, brainless overblown assets; instead, they bought a batch of cute-style art.

But these originals blew them all out of the water.

Most players judge a painting based on a gut feeling.

But peers look at lighting, details, and perspective. The more Zhou Qi looked, the more she felt this artist was better than their lead. Of course, one of the lead artist's jobs is to fix any deviations from the character designs and oversee the visual direction—not necessarily to create a stunning piece of art on their own.

But the style was a bit too "not mini-game"—it leaned more toward...

More like concept art for big MMOs or AAA titles.

Of course, given the time constraints, the level of detail couldn't match those big projects.

But...

Still very impressive!

Zhou Qi racked her brain but couldn't figure out who did these.

"That can't be right," Zhou Qi muttered. "A pro with such a strong signature style—I should know their work."

"What are you mumbling about? Lemme see."

Other employees from the art department gathered around Zhou Qi's workstation.

And soon the same gasps of amazement rang out—

"Holy crap, does our little game even need such badass artwork?"

"Was it generated by AI?"

"Are you brain-dead? AI looks fake as hell, and you can literally see the layers!"

"Yeah, my bad, but how much did this even cost..."

Everyone looked up at Song Tianyang at the same time.

Song Tianyang scratched her cheek: "I told you, for free."

As she finished speaking, the art department staff all stared at her in unison.

Their eyes held both jealousy and resentment—

Aww, although they loved Her Majesty, exploiting such an amazing artist is way too much! They couldn't even commission such high-quality work privately! And it was drawn based on Her Majesty's own character design—original character fans would be green with envy.

"What's wrong? Did she make me look real handsome?"

Song Tianyang walked over to join them and look at the original paintings.

Due to limited drawing time, He Yuan hadn't been able to polish all the details, but every piece—

Wherever Empress Tianyang appeared, the level of detail was incredibly detailed!

The main subject of each painting depicted the empress's grandeur and awe-inspiring presence.

In the CG where the player is sentenced to death, the eunuch prostrates with hunched shoulders, spine trembling, while ink lines outline the empress's silhouette—the player can barely glimpse the true face of the one who ordered their death, with golden-armored guards lined up on both sides. When the empress's fishing is disturbed, the scene with her, including the fishing rod and silver line, is completely "still," contrasting sharply with the large splashes when the player falls into the water, creating a vivid contrast between motion and stillness.

It had movement and a strong narrative feel.

Zhou Qi looked at the painting, then at the empress in front of her.

Song Tianyang: "Why are you looking at me?"

Well, Her Majesty was very good-looking; going to work and meeting Her Majesty every day was simply refreshing.

But Her Majesty's face was round, with a hint of childishness, and compared to the cold and proud empress in the original painting, they weren't alike at all—like comparing apples and oranges.

Zhou Qi ventured: "Empress Tianyang is Your Majesty's Easter egg character, yeah?"

"That's right."

"So this was drawn based on Your Majesty...?"

Zhou Qi risked angering Her Majesty by probing openly.

To her surprise, Song Tianyang wasn't mad at all, but was overjoyed: "Exactly! Can't you see it at a glance? This is totally me!"

"......"

The art department went silent for a long time.

Forget it. As long as Your Majesty is happy.

"By the way, why did the artist draw all the palace consorts in 'Culinary Chaos' as men? Was it a mistake?" Zhou Qi pointed out.

The chibi art assets they had previously bought all depicted ordinary female consorts.

He Yuan hadn't communicated with the art department; she only knew that the key character, Empress Tianyang, was a female emperor, so she assumed the rest should be male consorts.

"Uh..."

Everyone looked at each other.

So it was a communication breakdown.

After a moment, someone said: "It'd be a waste to change such beautiful original art. How about we swap the old chibi assets and adjust the text as well? It won't take much effort."

The suggestion was met with approval from everyone.

Once the art assets were in place, they would be configured into the game, tested for effects and obvious bugs, then submitted for review. After that, it would be the marketing department's job to find influencers and run advertisements.

At the moment the game was completed, Song Tianyang also received a reward notification from the 'Emperor System':

"Your Majesty has ascended the throne and is diligent in governance. The people look up to you; you are to receive the Mandate of Heaven to manifest your divine prestige!"

[After Your Majesty's coronation, you have completed a game project. As encouragement, all ministers who worked on this game get the 'Founding Contributor' buff, increasing ability growth speed and making it easier to trigger 'lightbulb' creative breakthroughs. In subsequent projects, if these members serve as project leads, team efficiency increases by 20%.]

"Note 1: If a minister defects, related rewards will automatically disappear."

"Now, for Your Majesty's personal reward."

"'Proclaim to All Under Heaven' — Forced Exposure ability"

"How could Your Majesty's golden words not be plastered on imperial bulletins and proclaimed to the world? Within one week of the game's launch, a worldwide game promotion event will be automatically generated. The process will be perfectly logical, and no one will question it."

Song Tianyang sat on the dragon throne, stunned.

The 'Proclaim to All Under Heaven' ability had much less freedom than the previous blank imperial edict; the content was automatically generated by the system and not subject to her personal control, but the effect was no less powerful.

If she'd known the reward was this generous, she would've made a better game.

But the game content was finalized; there's no turning back.

Even as the supreme ruler, she could only leave it to fate.

The subsequent process had little to do with her as the boss; Song Tianyang sat on the dragon throne admiring her own original paintings, basking in delight.

He Yuan made her look gorgeous.

It completely exceeded her expectations, yet nailed the 'both handsome and beautiful' brief.

In the remaining four mini-games, the male consorts were also beautiful in their own ways, each gentle and handsome yet sharp-edged.

Among them, in a piece titled "Night Admonition," the most favored Consort Chen knelt by the empress's bedside, holding a plain silk memorial, his eyelashes lowered submissively. In the empty space of the picture, his shadow on the folding screen showed an arrogant, laughing madness. Meanwhile, the players on the other side of the screen unwittingly became the blade in Consort Chen's hand in "Culinary Chaos" and "Royal Posthouse."

As it was near the end of the workday, Song Tianyang wanted to invite He Yuan to dinner, which also gave her a ready excuse to skip that evening's tutoring—

Building ties with a key contributor is this emperor's top priority!

However, this time He Yuan refused her: "I recall you said you had tutoring every evening, sister? Since you want to beat big brother, don't slack off."

Song Tianyang had originally thought her sister's role was that of a Treacherous Minister.

Unexpectedly, she'd started offering advice too.

After her sister politely turned her down, Song Tianyang had no choice but to grudgingly go to tutoring, but during the lesson she was absent-minded, making her already scattered focus drift even further.

Chi Zhiqing sighed helplessly: "Is something on Your Majesty's mind?"

"Yes."

"Your Majesty admits it quite readily."

"Since I can't hide it from you anyway, I might as well just say it—I think He Yuan seems a bit off." Song Tianyang shoved aside the financial documents that were making her see stars.

"Your Majesty suspects her loyalty? She grew up in the He family, as brother and sister with He Jianshen for over twenty years. Your Majesty suspects she is also..."

"It's not that," Song Tianyang interrupted him. "I just feel something is off."

She couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.

Chi Zhiqing closed his laptop and said gently, "Since Your Majesty's mind is not here, perhaps you should go deal with what's troubling you first."

Called out for her distraction, Song Tianyang felt a little guilty.

She rubbed her nose and defended herself, "I'm really worried about her."

"I know."

How old is the Emperor? She couldn't hide anything from Chi Zhiqing.

He could see her sincerity and kindness.

"I'll take you to see her."

"Great!" Song Tianyang added a request, "Take the motorcycle, riding is awesome!"

Chi Zhiqing agreed with a smile.

...

The security system at the He residence had long registered the True Heiress's face. No matter what time Song Tianyang returned, she could go in as if it were her own home.

But the floors for different family members had passcodes.

Song Tianyang only knew that He Yuan's bedroom was on the sixth floor, not the specific code.

"Hah, a simple passcode? That's not gonna stop me!"

She took a photo and sent it to Chi Zhiqing: "Help me crack this."

Chi Zhiqing: "Your Majesty, maybe it's better not to break the law."

Song Tianyang: "If I don't get caught, then it's not illegal, right?"

She conveniently ignored the illegal part.

Chi Zhiqing: "Though I'd love to help Your Majesty, I can't crack codes. Sorry to disappoint."

Song Tianyang had to think of another way.

Fortunately, the sixth floor was high, but with the ten years of internal strength granted by the system, climbing the outer wall from her fourth floor only took a little effort: "Hmph, just two floors think they can stop me, the modern-day Spider-Man?"

Under the cover of night, she climbed onto the balcony outside her sister's bedroom.

With internal strength enhancing her coordination, she could now perform climbing moves she once only imagined.

"Ow!"

Song Tianyang got too cocky, missed her footing, but managed to grab the balcony railing by stretching out her arm.

Forget about stealth now—she called out, "Sis! Sis, save me!"

He Yuan, who had just finished a glass of hot water and was about to lie down, blinked, thinking she was hallucinating.

When she heard the call a second time, she abruptly stood up, stumbled forward because of the pain in her ankle, and hobbled to the balcony: "...Sister!? How did you get here!"

Seeing her sister hanging outside the balcony late at night, He Yuan's face turned pale with shock.

"I'll explain later, just pull me up first."

Song Tianyang activated her internal strength, used a little pull from He Yuan, and easily flipped into the balcony.

Forgetting her earlier embarrassment, she casually began exploring her sister's room.

Song Tianyang didn't often stay overnight at the He residence; her fourth floor was kept like a showroom model. He Yuan's floor, however, reflected her personal taste, with a tasteful combination of white and purple, and soft wool carpets covering the floor—not a single footstep made a sound: "Not bad, perfect for stealth."

"Sister—"

"What happened to your leg?"

Song Tianyang's gaze fell on He Yuan's right leg.

She was wearing a slightly loose white nightgown, emphasizing her slender figure, and the cast on her right leg made her walking movements a bit comical.

"I accidentally fell," He Yuan said, closing the balcony sliding glass door as the night breeze calmed. "I'm not as agile as you, sister."

Song Tianyang looked more closely and saw that she could still walk and take care of herself normally; there was no need for a wheelchair.

"That doesn't make sense. You paint at home every day, how could you fall?"

"I accidentally tumbled down the stairs."

"The He residence has an elevator; the stairs are just a backup. I've never seen you use the stairs."

Tell one lie, and you need a hundred to cover it.

He Yuan hadn't planned to meet Song Tianyang before her leg fully healed. Add to that the sudden visit and the balcony scare—people are rarely calm enough after a shock to craft a perfect lie with matching expressions. Song Tianyang darted forward and grabbed her wrist: "Don't lie to the Emperor!"

—Even in such a scene, she insisted on playing the emperor.

He Yuan was amused by her sister's strong commitment to her role. She pulled her sister to sit down and told her about He Jianshen's plan to make her a live stream host: "Big brother... you might not know him well, but since childhood, whatever he set his mind to, he always accomplished. Refusing him is a hassle. Mom and Dad would also try to convince me to listen, so I pretended to fall down the stairs... It wasn't serious, just a ligament tear. I kept crying at the hospital and said I couldn't walk. To be safe, the doctor made it sound worse, so I could rest more and have some peace and quiet. The wheelchair was just to make me look worse. See, I can still go to the bathroom and shower by myself, and I could even help you up!"

After sitting down, He Yuan's heart stopped racing.

She explained the whole story, even laughing lightly: "I didn't want to worry my sister, but instead I made you climb the wall at midnight... Don't do that again. The code for the sixth floor is our birthday. You can come find me directly."

Though they were switched at birth, not blood-related, they were born on the same day, month, and year.

He Yuan continued, "When big brother saw I was really hurt, he was disappointed but couldn't say a thing. I also suggested working at his company, and he agreed. I've been watching him build Qingying Live into something big; the big hype can cover up a lot of problems. I can look around his company for anything useful to dig up for you, sis..."

As she spoke, He Yuan realized Song Tianyang hadn't said a word.

"Sister?"

She looked up and saw her sister turning her face away.

"Sister."

He Yuan leaned forward and saw her sister's eyes red, tears streaming down, her chest heaving with rage. She started to panic: "...Why are you crying? I'm okay! I think I handled it well... Big brother won't suspect a thing, and I've got everything under control!"

Song Tianyang shook her head, so mad she couldn't even speak.

Her sister was too elegant; she really didn't want to cuss in front of her.

Besides, many cusses were hard to yell out properly when you share the same mom and dad.

After a moment, Song Tianyang said, "Stop acting crazy. This is insane. Don't you dare go to his company! Come to my studio. From now on, we'll take him on head-on. If he makes a move on my female official, he won't live to see next month!"

"Sister."

He Yuan took her hand again. "I'm not sacrificing myself for you; I'm looking out for myself."

"In the past, Mother often found excuses to take my money. I thought there'd be more coming later... so I didn't save much. But in these twenty-odd years in the He family, I've gained many intangible benefits—my knowledge, my talents, even this beauty that needs money to maintain—all of which are basically stolen goods."

He Yuan stopped Song Tianyang from retorting and continued, "The men I deal with are either rich or powerful. In the past, they used to respect me and not make moves on me because I was the He family's young lady and the fiancée of Young Master Gu. But now I have nothing. Even if I resign myself to an ordinary life in the future, they won't let me go. What happened with Tao Sheng made me realize."

"You as you are now can't save me."

"Only when you gain Grandfather's recognition and completely outshine Big Brother can you protect me by your side. All the efforts I make now are for myself, so you don't have to feel guilty."

Song Tianyang: "It's only fitting for all under heaven to serve one person. This emperor feels no guilt."

"Mhm."

He Yuan gently wiped the tears from her face with a handkerchief from the bedside. "Then don't cry, sister."

Song Tianyang, embarrassed and angry, said:

"This emperor is an emotional person. What's wrong with crying? Emperor Taizong cried a lot, so by that logic I'm basically him!"

If pushed too far, she'd go suckle on a breast.

"Fine, fine. So sister wants to be the emperor of the Li-Tang dynasty? Then why not aim to be Wu Zetian? I'd love to be your Shangguan Wan'er."

He Yuan coaxed her to cheer up.

Song Tianyang's tears came and went quickly. The two sisters, not blood-related, got into bed and slept foot to foot.

After a while, Song Tianyang was still too angry to sleep. "He plotted against my female official. I have to get back at him to even the score. Tell me what Big Brother has been plotting lately. Let me think how to trick him."

Listening to He Yuan's words, an idea slowly took shape in Song Tianyang's mind.

-----------------------

Author's note: Recording today's material gathering:

Me: (showing a paragraph from the text) What professional term can I use here to show this artist's skill is really awesome?

Painter: Hmm...

Painter: This person can actually freehand a really precise perspective!

Painter: This person actually draws the finger joints very clearly!

Painter: Because this kind is difficult; many people can't draw feet, so another one is that feet are drawn very well...

Very practical, but not quite suitable to write into a novel!