Chapter 62: The Road to the Top (Part 1)

Evening.

The sun was setting in the west.

Liu Ruohan walked out of the conference room, exhausted after the meeting ended.

The meeting had once again focused on a series of issues regarding Legend.

On one hand, there were communication problems with the South Korean side. They were still stubbornly clinging to the licensing fees, refusing to provide updates unless the fees were increased. They didn’t even care about the rampant cheating or the Private Servers.

On the other hand, Dadi Technology’s War of Warcraft was coming on strong. It had already seized a massive chunk of the market and was sharpening its blades, closing in on Legend.

Compared to Legend, the production of War of Warcraft was indeed more refined, with a richer plot in every aspect. There were even rumors that in September of this year, Dadi Network would collaborate with an American company to develop the gaming industry’s first true CG promotional cinematic. They claimed it would allow players to immerse themselves in a truly magical world.

Faced with such a massive gimmick, how many players could resist?

“We need to prepare for both scenarios!”

“If the Koreans continue like this, we’ll simply develop our own Legend game and call it Legendary World!”

“Also, I’ve decided that from now on, new users registering for Legend will no longer need to top up with point cards. The game will be free to play, and the same goes for existing users!”

“…”

A middle-aged man wearing glasses had appeared beside Liu Zhongshan at some point.

He was a game evaluator invited from America, and he had proposed a very advanced concept.

Free-to-play game, pay-for-item shop!

After hearing this, Liu Zhongshan slapped his thigh in excitement and made the decision right then and there.

Liu Ruohan didn’t understand much about game operations.

However, she felt that Mumaen Technology had shifted from its early days of shareholder voting to a state where votes were merely symbolic, and her father’s word was law.

The original shareholders… had they almost all retired?

Although power was becoming centralized, she didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing.

She returned to her office and called the retired Shen Yi.

On the other end of the line, Shen Yi remained silent for a long time.

“I don’t know what the future holds, but I know President Liu is a very aggressive man. Under his leadership, Mumaen feels like a runaway horse charging toward an abyss.”

“Of course, its foundation is still there, so there shouldn’t be any major problems.”

“…”

After hanging up with Shen Yi, Liu Ruohan began browsing news about the gaming industry.

When she saw that Zhang Yang was still on the front page of the gaming news, being cursed at with deep resentment, she saw faint traces of Liu Yun’s influence behind it.

She frowned slightly.

Today, Liu Yun had officially taken over as the head of the Human Resources Department, essentially succeeding Shen Yi.

Her father admired her greatly.

He felt she had excellent execution skills; whenever her father spoke, she would implement his words immediately.

But, this woman appeared poised and spoke with reason, yet she was far too petty.

As Liu Ruohan continued browsing…

She suddenly saw Zhang Yang again.

Only this time, people weren’t cursing him. Instead, Zhang Yang’s new game, the student version of God of Conquest, was dominating the charts!

After reading the news, she instinctively clicked on the single-player game download rankings.

What!

In just nine hours, downloads had surpassed seventy thousand? It was ranked second?

It was second only to the 140,000 downloads of Lone Island Gun God, the single-player game just launched by Dadi Technology.

What was going on?

One had to realize that the 140,000 downloads for Lone Island Gun God was the total for its entire first day!

He had reached seventy thousand in just nine hours?

“How did he do it?”

Liu Ruohan’s mouth hung open. She never imagined the data could be this insane.

She then clicked on the game comments.

“This game is truly miraculous. My son is about to start middle school, and after just four hours with this game… we were worried about his English, but I didn’t expect he could now write out all 26 letters of the alphabet from memory! He’s even learned some simple English spelling. Heavens, it’s amazing, he’s even starting to mimic the computer’s pronunciation!”

“I saw so much cursing online that I thought it was a garbage game. But since we bought a Bluebird Computer, this game disc came as a gift. At first, I didn’t dare let my child play it, but kids are clever. He sneaked onto it while I was at work. When I got home and saw him playing a game, I was furious, ready to take a belt to him. But when I saw the textbooks next to him, I felt like I was dreaming.”

“I had the same experience. The best thing about this game is that you have to master the knowledge from the textbooks to play. Otherwise, you simply can’t progress. Doesn’t this, in a sense, boost a child’s interest?”

“The difficulty of this game is too high. Unless you’re a top student, it’s really hard to get high scores and stats!”

“Haha, do you know who’s ranked first? The one in first place is my child, Jiajia.”

“Heavens, is that Jiajia from Hangzhou No. 1 Middle School¹?”

“Yes!”

“I’m from Hangzhou No. 1 too! My god, I didn’t think such a brilliant girl would be playing this game. No, I have to let my child download it too. It doesn’t seem expensive, only fifteen yuan!”

“Right, we got ours for free with the computer!”

“A Bluebird Computer?”

“Yeah!”

“…”

Liu Ruohan was stunned!

Dadi Technology.

Chen Qingsong, the head of the operations department, was terrified as he watched the skyrocketing data for God of Conquest!

He stared fixedly at God of Conquest!

The gap between this game and his own Lone Island Gun God was shrinking!

Moreover, the download growth rate was exploding, already surpassing that of Lone Island Gun God!

“What is going on with this game!”

“…”

Their company’s new game, Lone Island Gun God, had actually undergone a series of market evaluations before going live.

The market evaluation had been top-tier!

It wasn’t just Chen Qingsong; even the heads at headquarters had incredibly high expectations for this game!

They were hoping to use this title to shatter the single-day record of 181,000 set by Human Killing Machine last month, creating a new legend for domestic single-player games.

However…

Its first-day downloads still only reached 140,000!

While 140,000 was a bit of a blow to their confidence, the figure was still acceptable.

After all, piracy was rampant in the market. Getting 140,000 people to pay for a legitimate copy was actually quite an achievement.

But…

God of Conquest didn’t seem to be following the rules of reality at all!

Especially Zhang Yang, the owner of Universe Technology…

“That guy Zhang Yang is still being dragged through the mud on the front pages of the gaming world. His reputation is still collapsing!”

“How is this game selling like it’s possessed?”

“Did they fake the data?”

When Chen Qingsong checked the game data again, he found that the downloads had already surpassed 73,000!

He was stunned.

“Impossible!”

“This speed is absolutely insane!”

“…”

Not long after.

He received a phone call.

“We broke the record!”

“Including the data from the bundle sales with Lianzhong Technology, the total installation base for Lone Island Gun God has surpassed 150,000!”

“We’ve broken our company’s historical record for a single-player game!”

“President Chen, should we release the news?”

“…”

“Release it!”

The call was from his assistant.

The assistant was ecstatic!

When Chen Qingsong heard this, his uneasy heart felt as if it had been given a shot of adrenaline.

Even though they hadn’t broken the record held by Human Killing Machine, these numbers were worth celebrating!

Just after the news was released, he hesitated for a moment, then instinctively called his assistant back to ask about the installation numbers for God of Conquest.

“The total installation base for God of Conquest has also surpassed 90,000 units?”

“Wait, does that mean Bluebird Computers sold more than Lianzhong Technology?”

“This…”

Chen Qingsong’s eyes widened.

He could hardly believe his ears!

…………………………

Lianzhong Technology.

A group of people stared at the computer sales data in similar shock.

Their heads were buzzing!

General Manager Xu Chuanzhi never would have dreamed that Bluebird Technology’s latest computer sales for August 1st would actually surpass his own.

He had ten thousand units!

Yet Bluebird Technology’s Bluebird computer had reached seventeen thousand units!

In a single day!

Was the world going mad?

These numbers were already legendary!

This was 2005!

How was this possible?

Did Zhou Yang really have such terrifying influence?

General Manager Xu Chuanzhi felt completely dazed.

…………………………

As night fell.

Zhang Liang left Su Bin’s home with the production crew.

Su Bin’s expression was complicated.

He had always been someone who boycotted games.

But today…

His entire worldview seemed to have been overturned.

For a moment, he found it difficult to process.

Meanwhile, Zhang Liang began to consider the theme for this episode of Today.

Online games were a double-edged sword.

They had their bad points.

But…

They also had their good points.

However, how could he make this program feel complete? How should he wrap it up?

It would be best if it were more controversial.

Zhang Liang hesitated for a moment…

As he was getting into the car, an idea suddenly struck him.

“Xiao Liu, can you contact Zhang Yang’s company? Set up a time!”

“What?”

“I want you to take a crew to interview Zhang Yang. If we can go tonight, and if possible, we’ll do the interview tonight!”

“Understood!”

…………………………

Universe Technology!

The building was brightly lit.

“Seventy-five thousand!”

“Seventy-seven thousand!”

“Eighty thousand!”

“Eighty-two thousand!”

“Ninety thousand!”

“…”

“Reaching the top!”

“Reaching the top!”

“Reaching the top!”

Inside his office, even with decent soundproofing, Zhang Yang could hear the rhythmic chanting of his staff.

Fortunately, there were no other companies on the floors above or below, and this wasn’t a residential area.

Otherwise, they might have faced a noise complaint.

At this moment, everyone was staring excitedly at the charts, anticipating the moment they would hit number one and be crowned…

Even though!

It seemed there was still a way to go before reaching the top!

Zhang Yang smiled.

Though the group was being loud, it was understandable.

One must remain calm when doing big things!

One should face the winds and waves with a smile, watching the tides rise and fall.

Zhang Yang’s phone rang.

He answered the call.

His face lit up with joy!

His heart pounded wildly!

He realized he couldn’t stay calm anymore!

He rushed out of his office as fast as he could.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he wore an expression of pure excitement!

“Everyone!”

“We might, I’m saying we might, we’re going to be on TV!”

“Everyone, straighten your clothes…”

“The reporters are coming right now!”

“…”

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes