At seven that evening, Meng Shu tied on an apron and prepared to make dinner.
Ever since he had shown off his cooking skills a little on the night he transmigrated, his sister had been clamoring to eat his stir-fried dishes.
So from then on, the responsibility of cooking dinner every night had passed from their mother to Meng Shu.
And every dish he made each night left Meng Xiaoran with a mouth full of oil, to the point that he had started worrying she might eat herself into a little fatty.
Tonight, under her expectant gaze, Meng Shu planned to make dry-pot chicken thigh, minced pork mapo tofu, and lion's head meatballs for her to try.
Just as he was about to start chopping vegetables, Meng Xiaoran suddenly asked curiously about his work.
"Big bro, haven't you found a job yet?"
"A few days ago, I saw you going out every day. I thought you were going to interviews."
Meng Shu: .
The hand holding Meng Shu's kitchen knife paused. With his back to her, he curled his lips into a faint smile.
This girl thought he had been looking for a job when he had been out searching for office space for the company.
Come to think of it, that made sense.
He was already twenty-four, yet he stayed home all day without going out. It was only natural for his family to ask about it.
Sigh.
After all, the family's financial situation was far from optimistic. The older one was like a shut-in who could not find work, while the younger one had injured her leg and could not even go to school.
And now, this tiny family still had to rely on the two elderly parents?
People would look down on them if word got out.
"Big bro, if it's hard to find a job... you could... you could, you could try streaming! I see lots of streamers playing games these days, and they're pretty mediocre. They don't have much skill; they just play for fun. Why don't you give it a try?"
Meng Xiaoran looked at her brother and asked quietly.
Meng Shu's face darkened.
I, Qin Xuan, was once praised by Time magazine as the youngest successful entrepreneur of the modern era, a genius producer behind several famous games—and I should become a streamer?
He shook his head.
"I'll have a job. Your brother hasn't been sitting around at home doing nothing, so don't worry, girl. Your brother isn't a hopeless case."
Meng Xiaoran's expression immediately turned awkward.
"Ah, big bro, I didn't mean you were... that, that, that... um... Anyway, that's not what I meant! I know you're amazing. Just like how you can cook—it really surprised me. I know you definitely aren't... um... a freeloader!"
At this moment, the flustered Meng Xiaoran had switched from her usual "big bro" to "brother," showing just how embarrassed she was.
Meng Shu merely smiled. He did not mind, nor did he turn around.
"All right, hurry back to your room. There'll be a lot of cooking fumes once I start stir-frying. Even with the range hood on, there'll still be some. Aren't you afraid of getting dirty when you love being clean so much?"
"Mhm! Call me when it's ready, brother!"
Meng Xiaoran quickly seized the chance to leave, limping away. Her face was still slightly hot with embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Meng Shu raised his kitchen knife and deboned the chicken thighs.
He had not told anyone about starting a company.
His parents, his sister, his friends, his classmates—none of them knew.
He had no achievements to speak of yet. Rashly saying he had started a company would only make people worry.
What was he right now?
Just a vocational college graduate who had not been out of school for long.
Say that he had started a company?
Who would believe that someone without even a bachelor's degree had what it took to start a business?
So he would wait until Dark Forest launched before saying anything.
Meng Shu stopped thinking about it and focused on cooking.
Another week passed.
During that time, the reveal of the monster designs caused the gameplay demo on Danmu Network to surge in popularity once again!
Its views reached an astonishing 17.75 million.
It directly ranked first across the entire site!
It also prompted many content creators and players to upload their own gameplay videos.
Now, searching the keyword "Dark Forest" brought up fourteen pages of related videos!
Of course, Meng Shu's own gameplay demo still ranked first, followed by a video from someone called Zai Zong, with over 2.4 million views.
Meanwhile, the Demo download count on the cloud drive had also reached 280,000.
Compared to the video's view count, this showed one thing.
There were still plenty of people who only watched others play games, as well as plenty who did not play games at all.
Meng Shu looked at those 280,000 downloads and felt a little regretful.
If those 280,000 people had bought the game instead, that would have been great.
Even if he priced it at just 59 yuan, he could have earned over 16.5 million.
Even after Cyber Platform took its 30 percent cut, he would still have over 11.5 million.
At that thought, Meng Shu's fingers unconsciously sped up on the keyboard.
But just then, his phone suddenly lit up, and a notification sound accompanied the arrival of a text message.
Meng Shu casually picked it up, assuming it was some promotional message or scam text.
Yet after one glance, he could no longer look away.
The message on his phone was short, but it told him clearly.
Dark Forest had passed review!
Now, his Horror Game had its own publication license in Huaxia. It possessed the relevant qualifications and legal protection, and could be promoted openly and aboveboard!
Meng Shu was indescribably excited.
A publication license!
In his original world, due to restrictions for certain reasons, it had been extremely difficult for single-player games to pass review!
Not only was the content subject to strict scrutiny, but the wait was also incredibly long.
Some game companies worked painstakingly to make a game and submit it for review, only for the review process to take so long that the company collapsed before the license even came through.
And such cases were common.
Of the several games Meng Shu had led his team to develop, only two wuxia titles had received licenses. All the rest had gone onto Steam Platform.
And now, this Horror Game with a subject matter so terrifying that children who played it could only sleep with their eyes open had actually passed review!
For someone who had lived through the publication-license winter, how could he not be overjoyed?
At that moment, there was only one sentence in his heart, and he could no longer wait to blurt it out.
"Fear Points... none of you players are getting away!"
He immediately began planning the next step.
The game was currently ninety percent complete through Chapter 2. At most, it would take another three days to finish all of Chapter 2's content, and then he could release it all together!
As for Chapter 3, the final chapter, it had far less content than the first two, so it probably would not take long to develop.
What he needed to do now was contact Cyber Platform's agent in Huaxia, sign the contract, and put the game on the platform.
Then, while the hype was still hot, he would release the remaining CG trailer.
After that, he would quickly announce the game's EA Early Access version and choose a release date.
Finally, he would use the money he earned to recruit talent, contact other gaming platforms and port the game, then prepare for his next game.
After all, games purchased with Fear Points did not include playable Demos, art assets, or original soundtrack composition.
He could do all those things himself, but they would take a great deal of time.
Rather than that, it would be better to hire people and save on time costs.
Besides, he had another idea.
While developing Horror Games to earn Fear Points, he could also develop other types of games to make money.
The mainstream games in this world were guns, cars, and balls.
Leaving cars and balls aside for now, guns alone already offered too many choices to count.
Just among first-person FPS games, there were the famous Call of Duty series, the universally known Battlefield series, and so on—all incredibly satisfying linear shooters!
Of course, this world had similar exhilarating games, so those two series might not hold much of an advantage. He could only win through volume.
But that was fine. If linear shooters were not enough, then open-world shooters with RPG elements would take the stage!
For example, the Far Cry series, the Borderlands series, the Rage series, and so on.
And if that still was not enough, there were science-fiction titles like Crysis, Deus Ex, Serious Sam, Wolfenstein, the Doom series, and more.
There were even survival-horror titles like Left 4 Dead, Metro, BioShock, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, and so on.
And those were only first-person shooters. If third-person shooters were included, the number would multiply several times over!
Besides these works with sequels, there were also countless standalone indie titles.
Even if some of those games looked graphically outdated due to their age, with the system's help, he could still create next-generation visuals and make each work look completely new!
No matter how Meng Shu looked at it, he felt that these games could utterly crush the games of the current era.
He could even borrow a classic saying from his original world.
"Not a single one of them can fight."
Before you continue