Chapter 12: Crazy Game Promotion (Part 3)

The evening of June 20th.

Night began to fall.

Li Zongnan, the owner of the cybercafe, took a drag from his Sijiu¹ cigarette, his eyes fixed on the screen showing that Desert Bicycle had finished downloading.

A game that makes money?

What kind of game was this, exactly?

Was it some kind of scam?

He had lived more than half his life and seen all sorts of things, but he had never heard of a game where you could actually earn money!

Still, curiosity killed the cat.

Even if he suspected it was a trick, he felt compelled to find out exactly what kind of trick it was.

Five yuan for the download?

That was just the cost of two hours on one of his machines; he’d make it back in no time.

He wasn’t hurting for five yuan.

With that thought, he looked at the computer desktop.

Soon, a game icon appeared…

The icon was simple: a man riding a bicycle across a yellowed desert, heading toward an unknown distance. Aside from the road, the surroundings consisted only of yellow dirt hills and two cacti.

It looked remarkably like the pixel art games that had been popular a few years ago.

He clicked on the game and took another look.

Other games were several gigabytes in size, but this one was tiny, not even reaching one gigabyte.

The smaller the capacity of a game, the simpler the content and the fewer elements it contained.

He instinctively clicked to open the game.

The first thing that popped up was a registration page, and below that was a page to bind a bank card.

He hesitated for a moment but eventually bound a bank card that had zero balance.

After completing all this, he finally clicked into the game…

“In the future world, the battle between humans and alien creatures has reached a fever pitch…”

“You wake up…”

“And find yourself lying in the middle of an endless expanse of yellow sand. In the distance is a vast, lonely highway. As you come to your senses, you realize you are a medic. You must deliver medicine to the base camp within eight hours. Otherwise, not only will the people at the base camp die, but so will you!”

“This is destined to be a lonely eight hours!”

“Players, are you ready?”

“…”

When the game started, this background text scrolled across the screen, accompanied by a very somber image of ruins.

After Li Zongnan finished reading, he fell into thought.

He wasn’t actually a reckless person. In his youth, he had been quite gifted at gaming. Back when everyone was still struggling to figure out how to clear the home console games imported from Japan, he had already beaten them!

Eight hours?

That was the total duration of the game. In other words, it only took eight hours to beat it!

If those eight hours passed, the game would be a failure!

That was what the background story seemed to imply…

Then, he officially entered the game.

The controls were simple: the left and right mouse buttons controlled direction, while the Enter key next to them controlled getting on and off the bike or resting…

“This game seems a bit interesting!”

As Li Zongnan steered the bicycle to dodge one sandstorm after another, he saw the points coins on the side constantly ticking upward.

Though he remained calm, he knew this was the game’s reward mechanism!

It was a form of psychological suggestion. Everyone wants to gain something, and everyone hates to lose…

The reward mechanism of this game was used with absolute mastery. Every time a task was completed, the sound of the gold coins was particularly loud. Even the background music would turn festive, constantly reminding you how many points you still needed before you could withdraw cash.

This invisibly stimulated the secretion of dopamine in the human body, making one look forward to completing tasks with immense anticipation and providing an intangible sense of achievement.

Li Zongnan’s concentration was intense, and his reflexes were sharp!

He soon completed a task!

After finishing it, he looked at the one yuan available for withdrawal.

Just as he was debating whether or not to actually withdraw it, he suddenly heard a loud shout from across the cybercafe!

“Holy shit! Oh my god! I finished a task achievement! I’m the first player in the game to reach two hundred points…”

“It rewarded me twenty thousand points! That’s two hundred RMB!”

“Oh my god!”

“I withdrew it! Damn, it really let me withdraw two hundred bucks!”

“It’s real! Heavens, this game is fucking real! You can actually fucking make money!”

“Damn!”

“Boss! Get me three Cokes and put fifty on my account! I’m going to grind this game until I beat it and earn thirty thousand!”

“Quick, Boss! Get over here! I can’t stop! If I break the flow, I won’t be able to finish the mission!”

Li Zongnan was stunned.

Immediately after, he saw a young man shouting and screaming in excitement, rushing over like he’d gone mad.

Li Zongnan knew this guy. His name was Ge Yumiao, and he was a “Ge Shen²” of sorts. He spent all year in the cybercafe playing Legend³. When he was thirsty or tired, he just slept in the cafe. In the eyes of all the local parents, he was the ultimate example of an internet addict!

Li Zongnan instinctively walked over. He saw the man staring at the screen with bloodshot eyes, playing Desert Bicycle with intense emotion.

Li Zongnan was actually worried the guy might have a sudden heart attack from being so worked up.

“Holy crap, is this game for real? I saw a bunch of people posting achievements for this game on GooseChat⁴, but I didn’t believe it!”

“Is it true?”

“Damn!”

“It actually works?”

“Ge Shen, can I take a picture? I want to post it in my GooseChat group.”

“Shit, I’m going to download it too. I thought it was a scam game before. Who knew it was actually a ‘rich kid throwing money away’ kind of game?”

“…”

“…”

The other players in the cybercafe who had been playing Legend came swarming over after hearing the series of shouts.

They stared at the screen, looking at the “Withdrawal Successful” notification and the alert sound from Ge Yumiao’s mobile banking app…

Once it was confirmed that the withdrawal was successful, everyone grew excited!

“Don’t crowd around! Don’t mess up my controls! Boss, stop staring and add money to my account! Don’t let it cut out! I’ll give you the money in a bit. Don’t you have a card reader? Go swipe it yourself! The PIN is six sixes⁵! I can’t stop this game! The later missions get harder and harder, but the rewards keep getting higher!”

“…”

Ge Yumiao continued to roar at the machine, but his eyes were glued to the screen. He completed one task after another, so focused that he didn’t even care what his card’s password was anymore.

Li Zongnan was stunned for a moment, then instinctively took the card over to the card reader to swipe it.

“Boss, is this for real?”

“Is there actually money on the card?”

“…”

A crowd instinctively gathered around him.

As he swiped, Li Zongnan checked the balance and discovered there really was money on the card!

“There is!”

Li Zongnan nodded, staring at his own game interface with a look of lingering doubt.

The moment they heard there was real money on the card, the players who had been grinding away at Legend went wild!

They all rushed back to their seats and began downloading the game.

While Li Zongnan was helping Ge Yumiao top up his account, he happened to see a prompt pop up on his own game interface.

“Task failed. Spend ten points to revive? Withdraw? Note: After withdrawing, you must still spend ten points to revive and restart the game. If you need to earn points, please see the official points website for details…”

“…”

He clicked “No” on the withdrawal and exchanged ten points to continue.

Suddenly, shouting erupted from the other side again.

“Boss, did you top me up yet? Don’t let my internet cut out now, I’m almost done with the task!”

“Shit! Boss, I failed the task! I was a beat too slow!”

“Dammit, someone beat me to it!”

“…”

After finishing the top-up for Ge Yumiao, Li Zongnan looked back at his own game interface, only to find he had failed again.

“Task failed. Spend twenty points to revive? points have not yet reached the withdrawal threshold. Withdrawal unavailable!”

“…”

At that moment, he finally understood. This game required absolute, unwavering concentration!

Then, he clicked on the official website to see how to earn points.

He finally realized why people had been coming to him all day, asking him to help promote this game.

Inviting ten people earned five hundred points, which was five yuan!

His net cafe usually had a daily traffic of about two hundred people.

If he brought in all two hundred of them!

That would be a hundred yuan.

In an instant…

He understood everything!

Right then…

A banner appeared across the Desert Bicycle interface.

“Ding!”

“Player Zhang XX has completed the Stage Two task. Reward: 30,000 points, 300 RMB!”

When that notification sounded…

The entire net cafe was electrified!

In less than half an hour…

The netizens who had been playing Legend suddenly had a change of heart. More than half of them downloaded Desert Bicycle, and some even pulled out their phones, making calls everywhere to recruit people.

Meanwhile, Ge Yumiao stared intently at his “Game Over” screen, pounding his keyboard like a madman.

“Argh! I messed up just now! Dammit, the game crashed. Stage Three task failed. Revive! Revive! I’m going for the Stage Four reward!”

“Not enough points? Shit, why isn’t there a top-up interface? Are you kidding me, I can’t top up?”

“I have the damn money, why can’t I pay? I’m going to complain, dammit!”

“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have withdrawn the money. I should have used it to revive and pass the level to get the reward! Make calls to earn points?”

“…”

As night fell…

Even a net cafe legend like Ge Yumiao, someone who never used a mobile phone, was among the first to pick one up and join the ranks of those making calls.

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes