First Round Voting Results

Sun Guoping's question was exactly what Chen Hang wanted.

"Well..."

Chen Hang pondered for a moment, then gave an awkward laugh.

"How effective it is all comes down to a word from you, Senior."

This was precisely why he had made the call today.

Just as Chen Hang had said.

As the marketing director of Yiyou Platform, Sun Guoping had a direct influence on whether a game became popular.

After all, through page placement adjustments, Sun Guoping could keep a particular game featured on the platform's homepage for an extended period.

After all, this was no longer an era where good wine needed no advertisement.

Whether a game could become a hit was directly tied to its promotion.

That was the fundamental reason so many domestic studios bowed and scraped before Sun Guoping, fawning over him--

The man could arrange promotional resources for you!

And once there was one such under-the-table move, there would naturally be a second.

If Game Company Zhang pleased Sun Guoping, then Game Company Li would naturally come knocking as well for a better promotional weighting.

Some game companies might not have wanted to flatter him.

But to ensure their games' rightful promotional weighting was not swallowed up, they could only be forced to go along with it and join the ranks of sycophants.

Bad money drove out good money. Nothing more than that.

Chen Hang and Sun Guoping had pulled this sort of collusive stunt plenty of times before.

Naturally, Sun Guoping had also received no small number of benefits from Xingmang Games.

But this time!

Faced with Chen Hang's renewed "hint,"

Sun Guoping hesitated.

"Hiss... well..."

"Here's the thing, President Chen,"

"This time, CEO Yan gave the order that we must strictly ensure the randomness of page rotation for games participating in the event,"

"To guarantee that every game's exposure weighting is open, fair, and impartial."

At this point,

Sun Guoping spoke with a touch of helplessness in his voice.

"I know Xingmang's games have always been well-made, and you have plenty of experience,"

"In principle, you should receive the corresponding support,"

"But--"

"The president's personal directive is right there, so I'm in a difficult position too..."

Old fox!

Hearing that, Chen Hang curled his lip on the other end of the line and snorted inwardly.

What fucking company orders, what leadership directives.

Your company had always stressed banning the abuse of power for personal gain.

Over all these years, had you gained any less for yourself?

Chen Hang knew.

Sun Guoping had only one purpose in saying all that--

He wanted more money.

Chen Hang wanted to curse Sun Guoping for his bottomless greed.

But when you were under someone else's roof, you had no choice but to bow your head.

After a brief silence, he burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha, I understand! I understand, I understand!"

"CEO Yan is making bold reforms, and as a company veteran, of course you need to give him your full support!"

After laughing, Chen Hang changed the subject. It sounded as if he were dropping the matter and shifting to casual conversation.

"By the way, Senior, were those few packs of tea I brought you last time to your liking?"

"How about this? A friend helped me get hold of two cakes of Lao Ban Zhang these past few days,"

"When are you free? I'll pick you up, and we can give them a try."

Now that was more like it.

Seeing Chen Hang put it that way, Sun Guoping nodded in satisfaction.

Of course, he knew Chen Hang's interest lay not in the wine, and the tea invitation was not really about the tea.

He nodded. "Sure, I happen to have time these next couple of days,"

"You pick the place. I'll ride on the coattails of my junior brother and taste this Lao Ban Zhang they call the King of Pu'er."

Chen Hang laughed loudly and waved his hands repeatedly. "Ah--Senior, stop making fun of me."

The two chatted happily. Once they hung up, everything was understood without being said.

In the blink of an eye!

The first week of the Development Festival had passed.

Shen Miaomiao had not been in a very good mood these past few days.

For no other reason.

The popularity of Vampire Survivors over the past week had exceeded her expectations!

Ever since the Development Festival opened on its first day!

Discussion about their game had grown increasingly heated among players!

Not only had streamers on every platform become obsessed with it.

Like lunatics, they controlled that little character who could only move up, down, left, and right, playing night after night and restarting over and over again.

They were having the time of their lives.

Players, too, seemed possessed as they began studying the game in depth.

Open Xiao Hei He, TabTab, or any other player forum at random.

Out of nearly every ten gaming posts, one would be discussing Vampire Survivors.

Some shared Super Weapon recipes, some reviewed character strength, and some analyzed different gameplay builds.

There were even people who had put together guides thousands of words long--analyzing exactly what to do at every stage of the game to ensure Super Weapons could be crafted as quickly as possible!

Shen Miaomiao was utterly speechless over this!

Did you people have something wrong with your heads?!

Nearly six hundred games were participating in the event at once!

Whether in visuals, genre, gameplay, or scale.

Over ninety percent of those games completely crushed theirs in every respect.

Most importantly!

She had personally led the development of this game!

How the hell could this garbage designed by a complete gaming idiot like her become popular?!

Could I actually be a game design genius?

But all I want is to be a couch potato!

The really lazy kind!

"Ugh--"

Thinking of that, Shen Miaomiao sat in her office and sighed.

Today was the day the first-round voting rankings would be announced.

Their game was probably going to rank near the top yet again...

Just as she was thinking that!

Knock, knock, knock--

Someone knocked on the office door.

Shen Miaomiao did not even need to open her eyes to know who had come.

It was the person she least wanted to see right now.

"Sister Chuchu, come in..."

Shen Miaomiao sprawled in her chair, rolled her eyes, and immediately gave up on life.

She put on an air of complete detachment, as though none of the worldly troubles had anything to do with her.

"Um... CEO Shen, the Development Festival's voting results have been released. I'm here to report them to you."

Shen Miaomiao had guessed exactly right.

The person who pushed open the door was none other than her chief secretary, Chu Qingzhou.

"Ah, okay, report..."

Shen Miaomiao did not want to say even one extra word. She looked listless.

She was not stupid.

Judging by the current level of discussion around Vampire Survivors among players, even if Golden Wind was not in first place in this first round of voting, they would definitely still be in the top three.

Good thing she had used the Settlement Time Reduction Card.

It had reduced the actual profit settlement period to less than an hour.

Otherwise, this game would probably make money again, leaving her unable to lose a single cent.

Thinking that, Shen Miaomiao waved her hand.

"Go ahead. What place are we in?"

"Top six? Top three? Or first?"

As she spoke, Shen Miaomiao looked toward Chu Qingzhou.

However!

This time, Chu Qingzhou actually shook her head.

There was none of her usual excitement on her face.

Instead, her brows were tightly furrowed, and she looked deeply worried.

Seeing that, Shen Miaomiao's heart clenched. "What happened?"

After a moment of silence.

Chu Qingzhou took a deep breath and slowly spoke. "CEO Shen, the first-round voting results Yiyou released today show that..."

"We ranked 428th."