Shen Miaomiao: ?????
She read it over twice.
After confirming that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.
Shen Miaomiao raised her bewildered eyes and looked at Gu Sheng in utter shock, turning her phone around:
"Director Gu... was this... your arrangement?"
"Oh, right, I'd originally planned to post it right before the game went on sale, but I forgot. That's why I only posted it now. Sorry, hehe."
As he spoke, Gu Sheng scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.
"When the project began, we held something back."
"Since every game was free to play during the event, and ours is a small game, repeated playthroughs would inevitably make players lose interest."
"So that v1.0 version was actually incomplete."
"We separated out a small portion of the game's content so we could update and release it alongside the game's full launch."
"That way, we can sustain the players' enthusiasm, and our sales numbers will look better too."
Gu Sheng was an old fox.
After all, he had worked for two major international companies in his previous life.
Although he had never handled publicity or marketing, even if he had never eaten pork, hadn't he at least seen pigs run?
This kind of marketing tactic was basic stuff in his previous life.
It was one of those marketing methods that cost nothing.
And it matched the format of this Development Festival perfectly.
After saying that, Gu Sheng even raised his brows at Shen Miaomiao and shot her a look.
Surprise!
Wasn't it surprising? Wasn't it unexpected?
You should be secretly delighted you hired me as your game director!
Meanwhile!
Shen Miaomiao's heart and lungs stopped working.
Gu Sheng... had updated the game version... right as it went on sale!
And posted an announcement!
Shen Miaomiao looked at Weibo, then at Gu Sheng's smug, showy grin. Her feelings were complicated.
Heh.
Gu Sheng, you—clack-clang, clack-clang, ding-clack!!!
This Great Sage—today I'll *@#*%& you!!!
Shen Miaomiao was about to lose her mind from rage.
Some people looked calm on the outside, but inside, they had already performed an entire Journey to the West rapid-fire ballad routine.
The next second!
The steadily rising curve suddenly kinked sharply upward!
"Oh, looks like we weren't too late. Our game announcement worked."
Not noticing Little Nezha's ashen expression, Gu Sheng watched the wildly climbing sales curve and spoke to himself.
"But that makes sense. It's prime streaming time right now. A streamer probably saw my Weibo post. Information exploding like this is perfectly normal."
Gu Sheng had gained hundreds of thousands of followers on the very first day he opened his Weibo account.
Recently, as the voting incident continued to ferment, his follower count had even surged past one million.
Big names in the streaming world, like Liu Liu, Liu Peiqie, as well as UP-zone personalities Young Master, Chairman, San Ren, and the rest, had all followed him.
With so many streamers, as long as one of them saw his game update announcement, the information would definitely spread.
What was more, the game update notice had not only been posted on his Weibo.
The game's detail page on the Yiyou Platform also had an update notice, one even more detailed than his Weibo post.
Give the players a little time to react, and they would spread the news among themselves.
Naturally, sales would rise along with the tide.
As an old hand in the gaming industry, Gu Sheng had seen this sort of thing countless times. He didn't make a fuss over it.
But for Little Nezha!
This was a fatal blow!
Holy shit!!!
No!!!
Shen Miaomiao wanted nothing more than to leap up and grab that rising curve!
Couldn't you climb a little more slowly?
Just like before!
Let's take it slow!
You were shooting upward like you'd shifted gears. Did you ever consider my heart?!
However!
The sales curve couldn't hear Shen Miaomiao's inner cries, nor could it understand them.
All it knew was to faithfully display the game's current sales based on the backend data.
Three hundred copies... five hundred copies... one thousand copies... five thousand copies...
It was selling like crazy!
In the conference room, Chu Qingzhou, Lu Bian, and Da Jiang grew happier, more excited, and more pumped the longer they watched!
"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! It went up again! It went up again!"
"Holy crap... this growth rate is insane!"
"Hiss—at this rate, we might break ten thousand copies in the first hour!"
"Ten thousand copies! Wouldn't that mean we've set a new Yiyou Platform record?!"
"And that's just the first hour!"
"You guys are incredible!"
"Ha... Old Gu deserves most of the credit. Of course, we can't leave out the brilliance and wisdom of this Lead Programmer either!"
"Tch—"
"..."
At the scene, only the two people seated at opposite ends of the conference table weren't particularly excited.
One was Gu Sheng.
He had been a senior professional in the gaming industry in his previous life and had worked on many major projects.
The sales of Vampire Survivors were certainly worth celebrating, but because its unit price was low, the actual returned funds weren't all that substantial.
So he only felt gratified, not especially thrilled.
As for Shen Miaomiao at the other end...
Some people looked like they were alive, but were actually already dead.
Who am I?
Where am I?
Will I ever be able to lose money in this lifetime?
The three great questions of life lingered in her mind.
Right then, Shen Miaomiao wanted to "break up peacefully" with Gu Sheng.
Could you leave, please?
Could you stop tormenting me all the time?
Shen Wanlin was only my biological father.
Damn it, you're my real dad!
No... are you... are you an S?
Why do you keep torturing me, Dad?
Shen Miaomiao instinctively wanted to stay as far away from Gu Sheng as possible.
This bastard attracted money. What bad luck.
But then she thought again!
No.
She couldn't fire Gu Sheng yet!
Because the system had already bound Gu Sheng as the Principal. If she forcibly unbound him, the system would become invalid too!
In other words!
Not only could she not get rid of Gu Sheng, this genuine little god of wealth, she even had to treat this lord properly and make sure he didn't get unhappy one day and jump ship!
Shen Miaomiao wanted to cry but had no tears!
She watched helplessly as the sales curve rocketed upward all the way, then surged forward by another huge stretch after breaking through ten thousand copies!
Finally!
Ring-ring-ring—!!!
As another piercing alarm sounded!
Chu Qingzhou immediately let out a cheer!
"The one-hour timer is over!"
"Friends! I hereby announce that the first-hour results for Vampire Survivors are in—"
"First hour! We sold a total of 13,333 copies! Total sales revenue: 199,995 yuan!"
"Everyone, applaud!!!"
Just as Shen Miaomiao had expected!
For Vampire Survivors, earning back its costs within one hour had indeed been an impossible task.
This time, her personally deployed array of unconventional tricks had not gone to waste.
With the bug-level assistance of the time reduction card.
She had finally lost money.
But Shen Miaomiao couldn't feel happy no matter what...
Ding! Time's up! Settlement for this round of investment is complete!
With a crisp chime in her mind, the system settlement interface appeared—
Ding! Project loss detected! Project: Vampire Survivors Project investment amount: 200,000 yuan Project loss amount: 5 yuan Project rebate amount: 50 yuan Remaining settlement time: 0 Ding! Loss settlement complete. Rebate has been issued to the host's personal bank card!
Then Shen Miaomiao saw her phone screen light up with a text message—
Your debit card account ending in 1118 received a mobile banking transfer deposit of 50 yuan on April 23. Balance: 13,775.23 yuan.
Shen Miaomiao: ...
Woohoo! I finally lost money, hahahaha...
What a huge rebate, hahahahaha...
Wuwuwuwu...
Fuck!!!
Shen Miaomiao nearly stood up and smashed her phone.
For a moment, she didn't even know what expression she should make in response to this "massive" rebate!!!
Shen Miaomiao felt! Terrible! All! Over!
This was fucking worse than not losing money at all!
A two-hundred-thousand-yuan investment, and she had only lost five yuan!
Multiplied by ten, the rebate came to a grand total of fifty yuan!
And later, she still had to take this group out for a celebration banquet and treat them to a goddamn seafood feast!
She even had to smile at these blond-haired bastards at the celebration banquet like some cuckolded victim, drinking and chatting happily with them!
Just thinking about it made Shen Miaomiao's heart ache!
It hurt!
It hurt so much!
And as if that wasn't bad enough, Chu Qingzhou excitedly looked at Shen Miaomiao's dirt-gray face.
"CEO Shen! Say a few words for us!"
Say a few words?!
Shen Miaomiao was so furious that the two buns on her head were about to fly off.
What the hell am I supposed to say?!
She weakly raised her hand. She didn't even have the strength to force a smile anymore.
"...Just eat and drink well later."
That was it.
She was tired.
Destroy the world already.
After saying that, she waved her hand, signaling for them to head to the restaurant first. She would arrive later.
Then she could only rub her forehead and sigh.
Sitting alone in the enormous conference room, Shen Miaomiao stared motionlessly at the fifty-yuan rebate text message, like a wife-watching stone.
Had she lost money? She had.
But it seemed she had not lost everything.
After a long while, Shen Miaomiao finally let out a helpless, amused sigh.
Forget it. At least this money proved that the rebate really existed, didn't it?
Besides, she had only lost five yuan this time. Maybe she would lose even more next time.
She should adjust her mindset early and focus on the next game. Next time, she would invest more and make sure she lost all the money these three games had failed to lose.
"Later, I should withdraw these fifty yuan, frame them, and put them in my office as a lucky cat..."
As she spoke, Shen Miaomiao got to her feet.
But just as she was about to leave, she saw that Gu Sheng had actually returned. He was holding a steaming cup of plain hot water.
"I just noticed you looked a little pale. Want some hot water?"
Before you continue