Chapter 11: Crazy Game Promotion (Part 2)

“Hey, brother, if you’re interested, give this money-making game a try. It’s great for some extra pocket money. I already made ten yuan yesterday! When you’ve got nothing to do, just think of it as earning some spare change.”

“What’s that? A money-making game?”

“Yeah, it’s this game called Desert Bicycle. You just click in, spend five yuan to download it, and then you get paid for every quest you complete. Look at my phone account, all this money was withdrawn from there…”

“For real? Five yuan… sounds like it might be a scam.”

“It’s only five yuan, what are you afraid of? Even if it is a scam, it’s just five yuan. You can’t even buy a decent meal for five yuan these days. Tell you what, I even have a photocopy of the boss’s ID card…”

“Maybe I’ll give it a shot?”

“Great! Take this Invitation Code and try it when you get back. Oh, and if you don’t have a computer at home, you can always go to an internet cafe!”

“Alright!”

“…”

The taxi cruised down the road.

Chen Shou chatted with his passenger while driving, naturally steering the conversation toward Desert Bicycle.

At this moment, he had plastered the back of the seats, the rear windows, and the door frames with the download URL for Desert Bicycle and his Invitation Code.

It was a bit of a rush…

The kind of rush one gets from a game.

One reward after another, one withdrawal after another!

These things stimulated a person’s nerves, triggering the reward mechanism in the brain!

This was cold, hard cash!

And while some of the excitement came from the game, some of it was very real…

For example, Chen Shou.

Chen Shou didn’t play games, but he was extremely interested in earning extra cash.

He was especially interested in the kind of side hustle where he only had to wag his tongue to make money.

Regardless, he had long since earned back his initial five-yuan investment.

From this morning until noon, he had invited another ten people and earned another five yuan.

The withdrawals were fast, there was no burden, and it was something he could do while working. Although it wasn’t a fortune, who would turn down extra money?

He used the same pitch on almost every passenger. By now, he felt like an insurance salesman, his pitch polished and professional.

Seeing the passenger copy the Invitation Code before stepping out of the car, Chen Shou flashed a brilliant smile.

He placed a call home…

“Wife, check how many points I have now.”

“A thousand points already?”

“That’s ten yuan in the bag! Withdraw it!”

“What? You want to play the game? A revival quest? It costs another five hundred points?”

“Fine, just withdraw five yuan then. But look, Liu Mei is already making money playing the game, why can’t you? If you really can’t do it, let’s just stop trying. You just don’t have the talent for it…”

“…”

Chen Shou tried his best to persuade his wife, Liu Jia, but after she hung up the phone in a rage, a look of helplessness crossed his face.

The woman was obsessed.

If you don’t have the talent, can’t you just give up?

All those points I worked so hard to pull in are just being thrown away on revivals?

This…

……………………….

This game was indeed very addictive.

Liu Jia realized she had fallen into a trap.

However, she was unwilling to climb out.

In front of the computer.

Every time she completed a quest, the sound of gold coins hitting her account frantically stimulated her nerves.

The game didn’t actually require a high level of difficulty, but it did require extreme focus.

Every time she was about thirty points away from a withdrawal, a Hidden Quest would appear. Once you completed the Hidden Quest, you would have enough to reach the hundred-Point withdrawal threshold!

When a Hidden Quest appeared, you had to keep your eyes glued to the screen. The moment a sandstorm appeared, you had to use the left and right keys on the keyboard to start pedaling.

Liu Jia’s focus was indeed lacking; she was always half a beat too slow to get on the bike.

Being half a beat slow meant the bicycle would be knocked over by the wind and sand, resulting in a “Quest Failed” or “Game Over” message.

Being somewhat obsessive, she no longer cared how many of her husband’s points she had used. At this moment, she only hoped she could complete it, even if it was just one Hidden Quest.

She didn’t even care about how much money she could make anymore, and she had lost all interest in that thirty-thousand-yuan grand prize!

She just wanted to be able to withdraw a single yuan!

If she could just manage one yuan, she would be satisfied.

But…

She just couldn’t reach it!

Of course, it couldn’t be a problem with the game. After all, her sister had already withdrawn money and had started the next round of quests.

Furthermore, every time her sister finished a quest, she would send a multimedia message¹ to brag!

And her?

“Gone again?”

She stared at the failure screen, feeling furious.

She wanted to use Chen Shou’s points to revive again, only to find that Chen Shou had already withdrawn them!

In this game, you could only revive using points!

And this damn game didn’t have a recharge interface. The only payment screen was the one to spend five yuan to download the game and register a new account.

You could only exchange points for money, not money for points. Otherwise, you had to invite ten people to gather five hundred points to revive your character!

She found it absolutely disgusting!

“Fine, I’ll start making calls!”

As a stay-at-home wife who rarely made phone calls, she finally gritted her teeth and started dialing!

“Hello? Old Zhang? Can you do me a favor? Download a game, I’ll give you an Invitation Code.”

“What? You already downloaded Desert Bicycle? You were just about to call me?”

“This… who invited you? Was it Liu Mei?”

“…”

After hanging up, Liu Jia started dialing again.

“Hello? Xiao Liu…”

“What? You downloaded it too?”

“This…”

“…”

………………….

Xingxing Internet Cafe.

In the internet cafes of 2005, Mumaen Network’s Legend was everywhere.

It was the equivalent of the game Legend of Mir² from Zhang Yang’s original world.

Aside from the different name, the content was almost identical. They were both games imported from South Korea, featuring three classes: Mage, Taoist, and Warrior…

Of course, since Dadi Network released a game called Interstellar Mission in March of this year, some of the traffic from Legend had shifted toward Interstellar Mission. Faintly, the two games were beginning to compete on equal footing.

A quick glance around the internet cafe revealed that many of the games were of this type.

The afternoon of June 20th.

After finishing his usual rounds of the internet cafe, the owner, Li Zongnan, sat at the counter and lit a cigarette.

A few taxis pulled up at the entrance, and several men who looked like taxi drivers walked inside.

The lead driver carried a promotional poster and enthusiastically offered him a cigarette.

“Boss.”

“Yeah?”

“We’d like to set up a partnership with you!”

“What kind of partnership?”

“We’ll pay you to install this game on your computer terminals. Then, if you put up this poster, we’ll give you three yuan for every download of the game. What do you think?”

“Huh? This is…”

“It’s Desert Bicycle, a new game where some rich heir is basically throwing money around…”

“Are you guys game promoters?”

“No, we’re just here for the partnership…”

“Oh. Give me the poster, let me take a look first…”

“Sure!”

After looking at the poster and then at the eager men who looked like taxi drivers, he felt a bit puzzled. Why were these guys suddenly promoting a game?

He didn’t really believe in this sort of thing. Shaking his head, he tossed the poster aside.

But not long after, another group of people approached…

This time, they looked like college students.

“Boss, can we talk about a partnership?”

“What partnership?”

“Desert Bicycle. If you get your users to download it, I’ll give you two, no, three yuan. You’re just sitting here anyway, so consider it a way to earn some extra cash. This is my Invitation Code. As long as they download and register successfully, that’s it…”

“????”

Li Zongnan stared at the poster.

He was stunned.

Then, he instinctively opened the website and clicked on the official page for Universe Technology…

The first line of text, eye-catching and bold, read: “An entertainment game that makes you money!”

He was dazed…

…

Evening.

When Zhang Yang saw that the download data on the computer’s backend had surpassed one thousand…

A faint smile appeared on his lips.

Then, seeing that the account had brought in over five thousand while spending over one thousand, leaving a current profit of four thousand, he narrowed his eyes.

He then placed a call to Zhao Hang.

His eyes bloodshot with excitement, Zhao Hang walked in, ready to report the data to Zhang Yang.

“Brother Zhang, we did it! We…”

Zhang Yang, however, did not lose himself in the moment.

Instead, he stared at the filtered users and the flickering data on the backend.

“Stay calm!”

“The wind is picking up now!”

“But the wind isn’t strong enough yet…”

“Distribute the prizes…”

“It’s time for another massive gust of wind!”

“By the way, our server capacity is three thousand people. Use the remaining money to upgrade the server capacity…”

“More people are going to come in…”

“As soon as we hit ten thousand, we’ll start making real money.”

After he finished speaking…

He narrowed his eyes.

He continued to stare at the steadily rising download numbers.

He felt a surge of excitement deep down, but his expression remained incredibly calm. Everything was within his calculations.

The world was like a chessboard…

And he was the player.

With a flick of his finger.

The great battle was about to begin…

The smoke of war was rising!

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes