“Li Xuan.” Qi Boyuan pushed the door open in a hurry. “There’s trouble.”
Li Xuan was in the middle of writing code for Reverse Track. He looked up at the interruption. “What happened?”
Qi Boyuan’s expression was grim. “Our game Nook has been taken down from all major app stores.”
“Taken down?!”
Li Xuan instinctively checked the time. It had been less than ten hours since Nook’s new update launched last night. “What’s the reason?”
“It was reported for plagiarism by the development team of Void Island.” Qi Boyuan felt like he was saying something out of a bad dream as he handed his phone over. “Here are the records of my negotiations with the app platforms and the evidence they received. This is just one platform’s report—the others are basically the same. See for yourself.”
Li Xuan’s expression darkened as he snatched the phone.
At 7:17 AM, just as Nook’s new version downloads hit a peak, the app store received an infringement complaint.
The accusation claimed that the “Snow-Covered Trees” decoration in Nook’s new update had plagiarized the “Thousand-Year Treasure Tree” from Void Island’s latest 1.3.1 version, which was released last week. Attached were side-by-side comparison images—visually, they were identical.
“This is insane. The knockoff is accusing the original of being fake!” Qi Boyuan fumed. “I’ve sent countless reports about Void Island stealing our assets, and every time they dismissed them, saying there was no ‘substantial similarity.’ Now, they pull this and get our game taken down within hours…?”
These app platforms never acted unless there was profit involved. Usually, they wouldn’t even respond to plagiarism complaints unless a court ruling was involved. But this time, their reaction had been unusually swift. Qi Boyuan had a good idea who was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Frustrated, he slammed the table and muttered, his voice trailing off.
“What’s going on with this plagiarism?” Li Xuan asked. He vaguely remembered the Snow-Covered Tree structure but hadn’t personally reviewed every Void Island update. “Is it really identical?”
“Yes…” Qi Boyuan gritted his teeth. “I just contacted the app store to verify. Last week, Void Island added a hidden map that requires players to reach level 50 and have ten million gold coins to unlock. That’s where the Thousand-Year Treasure Tree is.
“These conditions are ridiculously high—no real player should have reached it yet. My guess is that after their update last week, they used an internal account to take a screenshot, posted it on a game forum without keywords, and let it sink unnoticed. Now they’ve pulled it back up as ‘evidence.’
“And on top of that, their channel package submission also confirms the existence of this asset… Li Xuan, this was a trap.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Li Xuan let out a sharp laugh. “Art assets are the easiest thing to frame as plagiarism.” He scoffed. “So what now? Ghosts broke into our office in broad daylight and linked our artist’s brain to theirs, making them draw the exact same thing?”
Qi Boyuan knew full well what this meant—there had to be a mole. “I’ve already asked the team to investigate.”
“Who’s investigating? Get the entire art team in here. Now.”
Word about Nook’s removal had spread throughout the company, leaving employees anxious. When the art team members entered the office, their faces were pale.
“Start talking. Do I need to ask each of you individually?” Li Xuan suppressed his anger. “Who drew it?”
“…I did.”
A thin young man in the middle hesitantly raised his hand. He was usually quiet but skilled—Chu Tianheng had always spoken highly of his work.
“But it wasn’t me, Xuan-ge, I swear—”
“What do you mean ‘wasn’t you’? Why are you shaking? Pull yourself together! Stop stammering like a coward. No one’s even done anything to you yet.” Li Xuan pointed at him. “Where’s Chu Tianheng? If you can’t explain, he can.”
“The team leader went to find Wang Tian…” The artist was clearly terrified, barely able to string a sentence together. Sniffling, he continued, “It was the planning team that suggested adding it. It fit with our winter update theme, so I made a few drafts. But Wang Tian kept nitpicking, then gave me a sample and said it was his idea… Xuan-ge, this is the reference he gave me.”
As he spoke, he handed over their chat logs. “He said it was his own concept. Wang Tian knows some art himself and loves showing off—it’s not the first time. The team leader knows about this. You can ask him when he gets back. As soon as this blew up, he went to confront Wang Tian…”
“Wang Tian didn’t come in today?” Li Xuan narrowed his eyes.
“Yes…he didn’t.”
“Alright, stop crying. Your sniffling is giving me a headache.” Li Xuan thought for a moment. “Get the operations team to put out a statement about the takedown. Neither Void Island nor the app platforms are exactly squeaky clean—none of them will dare outright claim we were removed for plagiarism. Spin it with a different reason.
“The official website and WeChat store can still distribute the game, right? Pull the current build, revise it immediately, and relaunch within an hour. Go. Your punishment will be decided later.”
“Xuan-ge…” The artist looked utterly defeated. This was the biggest mistake of his career, and he was terrified. Hearing Li Xuan’s order, he didn’t dare move. The other designers also hesitated.
“Enough. Enough.” Qi Boyuan rubbed his temples and shoved them toward the door. “I’ll write the announcement. You guys focus on fixing it, and hurry up.”
After kicking them out and shutting the door, he turned back to Li Xuan. “I’ll call Chu Tianheng and tell him to get back here. As for Wang Tian, we should report him to the police…”
He hesitated. “But will that even help? If he insists it wasn’t intentional, the police might not even accept the case. At best, he’ll just have to pay damages.” He cursed under his breath. “Fucking scumbag. Looks decent enough on the outside… No idea what kind of favors your adoptive father gave him.”
“File the report anyway. Whether they act on it doesn’t matter—we need to show we’re doing something.”
Li Xuan’s face remained ice-cold as he returned to his desk. “Once the fixes are done, go talk to the app stores. We need Nook reinstated on all platforms within three days. The app stores have obviously taken bribes—they won’t hold their ground for long.
“If that doesn’t work—get the police report, blow this up in the media. Public opinion will be on our side. Yuanxin might be shameless, but the platforms can’t afford to only take their side this time.”
“That Wang Tian should have been fired a long time ago! Didn’t you warn him in the last meeting? The losses over the past few days must be at least—”
“Forget it. Just go write the announcement,” Li Xuan said with a frown.
Qi Boyuan sighed, turning to leave when both his and Li Xuan’s phones chimed at the same time.
“Why did Void Island suddenly update now? They didn’t even release an update announcement.”
Qi Boyuan paused at the door, mumbling as he opened the app. Initially, he just clicked around absentmindedly, but his expression gradually turned serious—then incredulous.
“This…” He swallowed hard and instinctively looked at Li Xuan. Lu Xuan’s was grim. He had clearly noticed it too.
Of course, he was the person most likely to recognize the issue immediately.
Void Island had just updated with seven new city maps all at once. From city layouts to major new gameplay mechanics, even item functionalities—they all looked eerily familiar.
Every single one of these features, mechanics, and even the game rules had been planned by Li Xuan before he even started working on Reverse Track. He had designed them as part of Nook’s roadmap for updates over the next six months to a year.
Except for the art assets, everything else was exactly the same.
