"Also…" Ivan addressed everyone in the meeting: “Those of you here, whether from the research or business department, must personally experience the game and gain a deep understanding of it before proceeding with any work."

"Meeting adjourned."

Walking out of the meeting room, Yasmine’s expression was sour. Ivan was discussing with the lead art designer, and she glanced at his tall, cold figure.

Rebecca, no longer the young girl who once admired Ivan, patted Yasmine’s shoulder: "People who just got promoted often do things with a large impact to show their talent and intellect. CEO Gate isn’t intentionally making things difficult for you. Just look at how well your previous plans were."

Yasmine smirked: “Yeah, the product speaks for itself. Today, I didn't do my part well. Let's just keep pushing forward."

Tome added Ivan, Yasmine, Sasha, and Rebecca to the same Lochat group.

Tome: [*Cute emoji* Thanks for your hard work today, everyone. From now on, we can synchronize any changes right here in this group.]

Sasha: [OK]

Rebecca: [OK]

Ivan and Yasmine said nothing.

Yasmine went to the restroom to touch up her makeup. She took off her glasses, which she had worn all day, and suddenly saw a younger version of herself in the mirror, at least three years younger.

While washing her hands, she thought, if she had known Ivan was overseeing the product for <Demonic Chronicles>, she would never have accepted Aurora Moonlit’s request for publicity. No, if she could turn back time, even six months ago, she wouldn’t have let alcohol cloud her judgment.

Why couldn’t people predict the future?

Yasmine clicked her tongue, pulled out her lipstick from her bag, and reapplied it. After finishing, she pursed her lips, her eyebrows instinctively furrowing, unconsciously giving the impression of gritting her teeth.

Her phone vibrated on the sink, it was a message from Ivan in the Lochat group:

"Ms. Nichols, nice to meet you. I look forward to our collaboration."

Nice to meet you? He’s really good at pretending.

Yasmine sent a neutral sticker: [Emoji *4 little pandas OK*]

Yasmine: [Sure.]

She put her lipstick and phone back in her bag. As she did, her round-neck shirt shifted slightly, revealing the hickey on her collarbone—the masterpiece Ivan had left the night before.

Yasmine squinted, quickly applying concealer to cover the mark, then thought for a moment before sending Ivan a friend request through the newly added group.

Know yourself, know your enemy, and you’ll win every battle.

Ivan accepted immediately. His profile picture was still the simple horizontal lines on a white background.

Yasmine’s finger hovered over the emoji panel for a long while, then she finally selected the panda with two streams of tears emoji and sent it with the message: "You’re speaking so coldly, as if I’ve never made you happy."

Yesterday, he deleted her from his friend list, today he’s acting like he doesn’t know her.

The corner of Yasmine’s mouth curled up. She wanted to see how Ivan would respond.

As Yasmine reviewed the documents Tome had just sent and adjusted her work schedule, she occasionally checked to see if there were new messages in Lochat.

The 27th time she opened Lochat, Ivan hadn’t responded to her since 4:30 PM, and it was now 8:20 PM.

The anger surged up without warning. Yasmine sighed, her eyes burning with frustration. She pressed down hard on the emoji album, ready to continue her attack.

No matter what the relationship between her and Ivan was, she was determined to tear off his fake mask.

Just as she was about to select an emoji, a message from Ivan arrived: [Send the plan to my inbox by noon next Friday.]

Yasmine immediately calmed her anger. Right, this was her job. She still had to make a living, and whether the proposal got approved or not depended on just one word from him. Whether it could move forward or not, it had to be approved by him first.

What a mess this was!

Yasmine cursed countless times in her mind, burying her face in the pillow on the sofa and shouting: “A...aaa!”

After venting without disturbing anyone, she brushed her messy hair back and calmly texted back: [Got it]

After sending the reply, she stared at the period at the end of Ivan's message. A tiny circle normally used at the end of a command sentence, in a gentle tone. But when Ivan used it, it was different—if it was a command, it wasn’t quite right, but if it was a gentle tone, there was certainly something off.

So, Yasmine sent another period: [.]

Her intention was clear: Haha…

In the office of the Walker Group CEO, Yasmine held her phone, controlling a female warrior character in Demonic Chronicles. The final boss of the enemy side fell to the ground and disappeared, the warrior in white fluttered, her sword returned to its sheath, and the system notified her that she had reached max level.

Yasmine logged out of the game, threw the phone aside, and slid into the swivel chair, staring blankly at the ceiling.

It had taken her three full days to go through all the materials for Demonic Chronicles, completing the current version of the game with a serious attitude. Now, her mind was a mess, filled with advertising forums, user data, market terminology, and multicolored line charts.

Having stayed up all night, sitting cross-legged for too long made her feel slightly uncomfortable in her stomach.

Yasmine stood up, stretched, and leaned against the window to look downstairs. The streetlights still reflected the early morning sunlight. Office workers stood tiredly waiting for buses in the cold weather, while students crowded around the food trucks for breakfast. The still dust from the night before was once again swept up. The streets were packed with cars, and people were surrounded by the night, only to be pulled out again like commodities.

This city was like a busy empty shell, and she was no different.

She closed her eyes and recalled Ivan's questions and requests. Slowly, a framework for her promotional plan began to form in her mind. With a basic structure, it would be easy to proceed—just needed to figure out the origins and make the necessary additions.

[@All, there will be a meeting at 2 PM today regarding the Demonic Chronicles promotional project. The meeting will be held on the 2nd-floor conference room. Please be on time.]

After sending the notice to the workgroup, Yasmine grabbed a facial mist bottle from the desk and sprayed it all over her face. Once she felt refreshed, she remembered that today was Thursday.

Her "date" with Ivan had ended with the change in their relationship. The "pressure reliever" had become the one "under pressure.” and the relaxed and slightly relieved expression on her face turned into one of frustration.