Chapter 31: Universe Technology’s Certificate of Honor!

Legend remained the dominant trend in the Huaxia online gaming scene.

However, Dadi Network’s War of Warcraft was indeed becoming increasingly formidable.

Both were pay-to-play games using time cards¹, but War of Warcraft featured more beautiful graphics and far fewer cheats. In just a few short months, it had swept through the majority of internet cafes across Huaxia.

Furthermore…

War of Warcraft was the first large-scale multiplayer role-playing 3D game introduced to Huaxia that featured a truly rich plot.

Many Legend players were immediately captivated by the visuals upon encountering War of Warcraft. The overall sensory experience was countless times better than what Legend offered.

According to data released by Dadi Network at the end of June:

In just a few months, the registered user base for War of Warcraft had surpassed six hundred thousand, with concurrent paying users exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand.

In 2005, these were staggering figures.

One had to realize that Legend’s concurrent users were currently only at three hundred thousand. Moreover, that figure had reached a point of relative saturation, and it seemed many players were beginning to churn every day.

Mumaen Technology’s other game, Dragon OL, had actually been released in March of that year. At the time, sensing the threat from War of Warcraft, they had specifically pushed the 3D concept, claiming it was the first 3D game in Huaxia.

The launch had been bustling with hype, but by June, their traffic had decreased rather than increased.

Many users found the idea of 3D novel at first, but after actually entering the game, they were profoundly disappointed.

This was a total scam!

It was just the so-called “move the mouse and watch a few maps move along with it” style…

3D?

3D my foot. Is this the best domestic technology can do?

What left Mumaen Technology even more speechless was that less than a month after Dragon OL began its open beta, Shengteng Technology released a game called Dragon Cave OL. Without a word, they jumped into the fray, and their marketing was even more aggressive than the original Dragon OL. This dragged Mumaen into a legal battle that would last for over a year…

The morning of July 3rd.

“Every era seems to have a dominant king of chat. This era is truly interesting…”

Sunlight fell across Zhang Yang’s face as he looked over the data of the world’s major gaming companies, rubbing his chin.

This was a world similar to his original one, yet not quite the same.

Zhang Yang pondered for a moment, then looked down at the liquid capital he currently had at his disposal.

After distributing various bonuses, his available liquid capital was around thirty thousand yuan.

These past few days…

Ever since the user count surpassed fifty thousand, Desert Bicycle had begun to decline. Consequently, the downloads for the auxiliary cheating software were also decreasing.

It had likely reached its bottleneck.

Previously, there was the incentive of prize money, but since the grand prize had been awarded, that incentive had vanished. There weren’t actually many players who truly wanted to enjoy this single-player game for its own sake.

This was the cold reality…

Everyone had come to play for the money.

Now that you weren’t giving out money and they had to spend five yuan to download the game…

Who would be willing?

It wasn’t as satisfying as playing a few rounds of Legend.

Although there was still a twenty-thousand-yuan Hidden Quest prize that no one had claimed, for some reason, everyone’s enthusiasm had begun to wane.

Up until now, aside from that inexplicable, meddling fellow who poked his nose into everyone’s business, no one had been able to complete all the Hidden Quests.

The decline of the game was an inevitable trend.

After checking his account balance, even knowing that twenty thousand of it was prize money for Desert Bicycle that hadn’t been distributed yet, Zhang Yang felt no sense of crisis. Instead, he felt quite calm.

He had started from nothing.

To have a balance now, while perhaps negligible to other companies, felt fine to him.

Zhang Yang left his office and looked at Zhong Chongwen and the others, who were testing Beat the Grass Mud Horse with dark circles under their eyes after pulling an all-nighter.

They looked exhausted, yet their eyes were filled with excitement.

This was especially true for the new members of the content department, Qian Cai and the man with glasses.

The two of them were repeatedly testing the sensory impact of the game, constantly refining various details…

In one more day, this game could officially launch on the Universe Technology platform.

Everyone hoped the game’s sensory experience would be better and more capable of stirring the players’ emotions.

“President Zhang!”

“President Zhang…”

“President Zhang!”

“…”

As Zhang Yang walked down, everyone greeted him one after another.

Zhang Yang nodded to them. When he reached Wu Zhuang in the marketing department, before he could even speak, Wu Zhuang stood up excitedly.

“President Zhang, good news! We’ve broken through again! Our game pre-orders have surpassed five thousand… the discussion interest on the Tieba forums is incredibly high!”

“Wait, it’s already six thousand! In just the last hour, another thousand joined!”

“Also, President Zhang, our Beat the Grass Mud Horse Tieba is amazing. Following users have reached sixty thousand…”

“Our discussion volume for this time slot has actually risen into the top twenty of the Tieba real-time trending list! We’ve made the charts!”

“Our new game might be even more legendary than Desert Bicycle!”

“…”

Wu Zhuang held a data sheet, his voice high with excitement and his face flushed, unable to contain his thrill…

Zhang Yang saw his Q-Dog chat on the computer screen; Q-Dog had long since exploded with activity.

“Stay calm, Old Wu. We are people who do great things. We must remain composed even if Mount Tai² collapses before us… just continue according to the plan!”

“Right!”

“President Zhang, are you heading out?”

“Yes.”

“What for?”

“I heard there’s a Mendeleev art exhibition in Yanjing recently. I want to go take a look…”

“President Zhang, you understand art?”

“I know a little. I actually quite like art… I see that Mendeleev has such a refined appearance, and his paintings are very distinctive, full of philosophy and childlike wonder. I think we should have a common language…”

“Oh! Holy crap, President Zhang, you aren’t… thinking of taking advantage of this great artist, are you?”

“…”

Wu Zhuang’s eyes widened in shock!

Recalling Zhang Yang’s habit of squeezing every bit of profit out of a situation…

His pupils shrank instantly!

Zhang Yang, however, simply shook his head and straightened his suit, leaving Wu Zhuang with nothing but the sight of his tall, upright back as he walked away…

……………………………………..

“Have you guys heard? It looks like President Zhang is handing out rewards again. The top three winners of the scriptwriting contest have all been paid…”

“For real?”

“It’s true. I came in twenty-eighth place, and I even got a hundred bucks!”

“Damn! That’s awesome.”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“Wait, I just got a notification too. It’s a text message telling me to add them on QQ?”

“Holy crap, I drew a picture according to the requirements and I actually got a three-hundred-yuan reward!”

“Me too! I just drew a house and I got two hundred…”

“Count me in, I got one too. Has President Zhang started another round of throwing money around?”

“Guys, did any of you get an honorary certificate? I think I got five hundred bucks and an honorary certificate for a ‘Universe Technology’ Special Commendation! It looks like it’s already in the mail. Here’s a screenshot of my notice…”

“What the hell? Seriously? Why didn’t I get one?”

“I got one too!”

“…”

“…”

The evening of July 3rd.

The “Beat the Grass Mud Horse” Tieba forum was becoming more crowded by the second.

It looked as if the forum was on the verge of exploding from the sheer volume of posts…

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes