America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Looking up, Catherine watched as Sean Lee approached. Her expression remained calm. She lowered her head and began organizing the various documents in front of her. She closed the previously opened document on the computer and stood up.

"I've compiled all the cooperation contracts the company has accumulated over the past few days, and I'll give them to you later."

As she spoke, Catherine moved aside to make room for the computer. "Also, regarding the company's latest location, I've found two good places. I've already seen the office environment, and the prices are about the same. I've sent the detailed comparison information to your email; you can take a look."

"Oh, yes."

"And regarding what you mentioned before you left last time, the coordination with the ecosystem game forum and configuration, I have already sent cooperation applications to the seven major game companies. I have received responses from four companies for cooperation on thirteen large-scale games, one company disagreed, and one company has not yet responded. The specific game types, companies, and cooperation agreements are right here."

As she spoke, Catherine looked down, took out several folders from the many folders she was holding, and pushed them onto the table.

"Um……"

Upon his return, he was bombarded with so much information by Catherine, especially given her calm and even indifferent demeanor. Li Xiaoen raised an eyebrow and chuckled, teasingly remarking, "You've managed the company so well while I was away. It seems you really do have the ability to seize power."

"Thanks for the compliment."

With her lips pursed, Catherine nodded in response, "If there's nothing else, I'll head out now."

With that, she turned around gracefully, her high heels clicking a few times as she left the office, closing the door behind her with a final knock.

From that moment on, the office, which had just become a little lively, quickly fell silent again.

Did he hand over all the work and go on vacation, which upset the girl?

Li Xiaoen raised an eyebrow, shook his head, sat down in his seat, and picked up the documents left by Catherine to examine them.

Coordinating the configurations of similar games was a new project he instructed Catherine and the software development team to undertake before he left.

In short, it's the same principle as "standardizing writing and cart tracks." While various types of games on the market, such as racing, MOBA, fighting, and shooting games, may have unique control configurations that differ from other games, the game type ultimately dictates the basic control configurations that must be present.

Currently, due to the lack of a standardized operating configuration, players often need to spend a lot of time familiarizing themselves with and adapting when switching from one game to another of the same type. While games that cater to players may have customizable settings, configuring various parameters when moving from one game to another is extremely troublesome.

What he asked Catherine to negotiate with several major game companies was to unify these configurations, allowing the games to support the export of configuration parameters, which could then be imported into the selection of similar games.

Games of the same type can adapt to each other, and the same game can also import the parameter configurations of other people, such as expert streamers. This will undoubtedly promote the unification of the game environment and operating system.

Similar to the chat messages in online live streams asking the streamer about mouse sensitivity, runes, or even skill configurations, this feature will likely reduce such messages significantly.

Following the sharing of network push mechanisms, the next step is the sharing of game operation configurations, which is what he values ​​and represents the second step in BanYan's development.

As he flipped through the contracts with the game companies he had agreed to cooperate with, and the games they allowed him to develop with shared configurations, a strange smile unconsciously crept onto Li Xiaoen's face.

The various manufacturers and even the games listed above are almost exactly what he had in mind—they are all major companies and their best-selling large-scale games.

Some smaller developers, or those working on niche games, share the same controls and configurations as major games, allowing players to switch to similar best-selling games with minimal or no hassle. This poses a significant challenge to their confidence in their own games, and it's understandable that they would refuse such a collaboration as a precaution.

If this configuration sharing mechanism truly creates a siphon effect on best-selling games, then from another perspective, isn't it just another form of creating a breeding ground for harmful practices?
As he pondered this, Li Xiaoen couldn't help but think of it.

But on second thought, wouldn't this encourage game developers to improve the optimization and services of their games?

Regardless, this is undoubtedly good for the players.

This is also good for BanYan. As more game genres join the collaboration and sharing, other games that refuse to cooperate, stay aloof, and insist on using their own unique operation configurations will make it more difficult for players to get started. Players will naturally vote with their feet and join in.

Seeing great promise for the project, Li Xiaoen shook his head and stopped thinking about it. After confirming the contract several times, he put it aside.

I had just looked up at my computer when I heard a commotion outside the office; it was clear that it was time to leave work.

With her mind focused, Li Xiaoen opened her email on her computer and began browsing the new company office location that Catherine had mentioned.

Li Xiao didn't have many requirements for the new company's office location: it just needed to be quiet enough and spacious enough. Ideally, it should be close to the staff apartments of Haskel and his colleagues. Software development staff often worked late into the night, and although he had already paid them enough for overtime, it would be best if it made it easier for them to get to work.

With the company's continuous recruitment of new employees, the size of the employee apartments has expanded considerably, and many employees also own their own homes elsewhere.

The United States has some unique policies regarding real estate. After purchasing a house, you need to pay a certain amount of property tax every month. If you are renting a house, this tax is often included in the rent, which makes the rent often higher than the actual cost.

This is why most single employees in the company, regardless of gender, choose to live in the free employee apartments.

After briefly reviewing the information for the two locations, by the time Li Xiaoen finished browsing and stood up, the noise outside the office had subsided. He walked out of the office, greeted the few colleagues who were still thinking at their desks, and was about to leave when he thought for a moment, then turned around and opened the door to the personnel office.

Sure enough, they ran into Catherine, the only one left in her seat.

The sound of the door opening made her look up. When she saw it was him, Catherine's expression remained unchanged, and she lowered her head again.

"Are you organizing the contracts from the past few days of cooperation?"

After closing the door, Li Xiaoen walked over to Catherine, picked up a stack of folders that were piled up to the side, and opened them to take a look.

"I'm just here to check out the company."

Li Xiaoen casually remarked, "These cooperation contracts aren't in a rush; we can prepare them tomorrow."

"I'm not like some unscrupulous and irresponsible boss who doesn't care about his company's business and only cares about his own carefree life."

Rolling her eyes at him irritably, Catherine raised her hand, snatched the contract from Sean Lee's hand, put it back on the stack of folders, and then placed her own neatly organized copy on top.

"Especially during this critical period of rapid development for such companies."

As she spoke, Catherine's heart grew increasingly heavy. She couldn't help but turn her chair around and kick it. "I know about your plan to share system configurations with game developers. How could you dare to go out and play by yourself on such a crucial matter? And you just vanished into thin air, I can't even contact you..."

"Hey, I told you in advance, you'll be in charge of the company's business while I'm away for a few days."

Having been kicked, Li Xiaon quickly stepped back to avoid it, replying with a wry smile, "I went to a deserted island; there's no signal there. Besides, I believe in your abilities, Catherine..."

"Hmm, since you trust my abilities so much, why not disappear for a year or two and then come back?"

Catherine pursed her lips and forced a smile that held no real emotion.

"I just missed you."

Li Xiaoen chuckled and raised his chin, but Catherine's eyebrows instantly shot up. Seeing that she couldn't kick the young man with her feet, she stood up relentlessly, moved closer, and raised her foot again.

"Hey, hey, Catherine..." After being kicked again, Sean Lee helplessly pressed his hands on Catherine's shoulders to keep them apart. Fortunately, Catherine was wearing a bodycon skirt office lady uniform, so the movement of her thighs wasn't too much. "It's been a few days. To thank my little secretary for her hard work these past few days, I'll treat you to dinner. How about it?"

"Go eat by yourself if you want, I have work to do."

Upon hearing this, Catherine finally stopped bothering Sean Lee, rolled her eyes, and returned to her seat.

It was already like this after being away for a few days. If I leave now, who knows what kind of trouble it will cause?

Li Xiaoen muttered a few complaints to himself, never expecting that one day he would become the boss and have to coax his little secretary.

Unfortunately, while Catherine did help him a lot, and he had been somewhat hands-off, their relationship was essentially more like that of business partners.

Shaking his head, Li Xiaoen naturally knew how to solve the problem. He moved behind Catherine, placed his hands on her rounded shoulders, and gave them a few friendly squeezes.

"Okay, then you keep working. I'll help you relax, and we'll go out to eat together later."

"Sean..."

Feeling a lump in her throat from Li Xiaoen's words, Catherine twisted her shoulders indignantly, but couldn't shake off his hand. She turned around and glared at him, "Don't touch me!"

"Isn't this just a way to reward myself for my hardworking and dedicated secretary?"

Li Xiaoen smiled and raised his eyebrows. "Or rather, is there anything I can help you with? Let's finish our work early and go out for dinner together?"

After saying that, Li Xiaoen withdrew his hand and casually picked up a folder on the table.

"Eh……"

Catherine quickly stopped her, "I've already sorted them and put them in specific places, don't mess them up..."

"Leave me alone is better than anything else."

After snatching the document back from the young man, Catherine glanced at him sideways and saw him idly looking around the rest of the office with boredom. Only then did her anger subside considerably.

"Okay, okay, I'll go eat with you, alright?"

As she spoke, she turned around and angrily took her bag out of the cabinet.

"Is there anything you want to eat?"

Li Xiaoen finally got his wish and asked with a smile.

"Anywhere is fine, just pick a place."

As she murmured to herself, Catherine raised her hand to tidy her long hair, tilted her head back and swept it around a few times, releasing a fragrance of roses into the air.

"Then let's have French food."

French cuisine is arguably the most popular cuisine in America, and even the world. Sean Lee nodded, and seeing that Catherine had no objection, the two left the company together.

As they descended to the parking lot on the first floor, they happened to run into two girls dressed in overalls walking back to the company. When they saw them leaving together, they both smiled knowingly and greeted each other cheerfully.

"Is this our new female colleague from HR or administration?"

Not recognizing either of the girls, Li Xiaoen asked Catherine.

"They are involved in research and development, software programming, and machine learning."

Catherine rolled her eyes in annoyance, which conveniently concealed the flush on her face from the teasing of the two girls. "Seriously, you're having a pretty good time as a boss. You don't even know about the new colleague in the company's R&D department."

"With such rapid expansion lately and my busy schedule, how could I possibly remember them all?"

Li Xiaoen wasn't embarrassed at all, and shrugged. "Besides, it's a girl, so I guess it's from the company's HR or administration department, which makes sense, right?"

"Are you saying that women can't be software developers?"

"..."

"You know that's not what I meant."

After a moment's hesitation, Li Xiaoen shook his head and stopped dwelling on the topic.

Seeing the young man's eyes narrow slightly, Catherine raised her hand and punched him on the shoulder before turning her gaze to the side.

Is this clearly targeting him?

Li Xiaoen thought to himself, walked to the car, and specially opened the passenger door for Catherine before getting in himself.

“Hey, Catherine…”

As they started the car and drove off, Li Xiaoen said, "After we finish eating, let's go check out the new locations for the two companies. I've read the email you sent, but we still need to visit them in person to confirm more information."

The location and space of the school's incubation base have already limited the company's development. Since a new location is being considered, Li Xiaoen wants to finalize it as soon as possible and move there.

Catherine frowned slightly upon hearing this. "It's after get off work hours now, shouldn't the venue staff have gone home by now?"

"It's alright. The place we rented is very large, and the lease is for a long term. The commission we'll pay the staff won't be small, and they'll agree."

"Pull down the car window to let the evening breeze into the car," Li Xiaoen replied casually.

"..."

"You bastard……"

After a moment of silence, Catherine clenched her fist again and punched Sean Lee, "You had this plan all along, you wanted to take me to see the company's new location..."

"You kept saying you'd reward me with a meal, but now it seems you just want me to work overtime somewhere else, don't you think?"

With a cold snort, Catherine's ample bosom heaved, "How can there be such a scoundrel as you in this world..." (End of Chapter)