Lao Mu opened his phone and recommended the game to several other friends who also streamed. The same thing was happening throughout the universe, and the game was expanding its reach through word of mouth!
Lin Guang had already gotten off work and returned to the apartment the company had arranged for him, preparing the game's future plans.
He had always believed in the quality of Honkai: Star Rail, especially in this Star Rail world.
If he wanted the game to become popular across the universe, he did not need to worry about quality at all. With the game system's version content, all he needed to do was focus on promotion!
Relying on the Interastral Peace Entertainment Corporation's promotion alone was far from enough. He wanted every player to have a chance to become one of his promotional resources!
"Let's call it the Honkai: Star Rail Creator Incentive Program!"
Creator incentives meant that as long as someone posted game-related videos—whether story content, walkthroughs, other fan creations, or game-related streams—they would receive certain creative incentives based on their data!
The game's official account would directly pay players who made videos about the game!
Beyond the gaming category's rankings, Lin Guang wanted the entire game community to be filled with Star Rail-related videos!
By then, the entire community would be my advertisement. Click anything, and it automatically downloads the game for you. A full-on descent into darkness!
And the funds used for this program would come from the game's microtransaction revenue, not the system's Game Points!
Although Game Points could be exchanged for Credits, Credits could not be exchanged for Game Points!
This would save him a considerable number of points on game promotion. He could use them all to update game content or strengthen himself instead of cashing them out for Credits!
Lin Guang looked at the microtransaction revenue on the Official Account. Since launch, the game's revenue had reached a staggering one billion!
The old Lin Guang might have been excited to see that kind of income, but now he thought it was merely decent.
After all, he had seen Asta casually top up two hundred million. This was only five casual top-ups!
Besides, all of it would be invested into creator incentives and handed out later. He might even need to exchange some Game Points himself to make up the difference!
After finalizing the incentive program's data standards and rewards, Lin Guang let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair.
That was all the game-related work handled for now. Next came the issue of his real-world job.
Lin Guang had not planned to quit immediately after making money, but he truly wanted to leave the Market Development Department, where they worked overtime every day.
Before, he had lacked both confidence and leverage. He had been afraid of demotion, pay cuts, and the like, so he had stayed put.
But things were different now. After thinking it over, Lin Guang decided—he would apply for a transfer to an Interastral Peace Entertainment branch office!
Normally, the company did not allow transfers, but transferring to a branch office was no problem.
Competition at headquarters was fierce. If a P37 position suddenly opened up, countless people would be desperate to leave.
Of course, although transferring to a branch office would not change one's rank, compensation would follow the branch office's standards, and promotion prospects were limited. So almost no one voluntarily applied to transfer to one.
But Lin Guang was different. If he could transfer to an Interastral Peace Entertainment branch office, he could not only escape his current job but also directly join the promotion work for his own game!
Then, as the game's client, he could quietly give himself a few favors. Wouldn't that practically make him branch office supervisor material?
And if he held Offline Events in the future, it would be much easier for him to coordinate with himself!
After planning the arrangements ahead, Lin Guang finally looked over his current System Panel.
Game Name: Honkai: Star Rail Game Version: 1.0 Registered Users: 3.75 million Current Online Users: 2.4 million Discussion Heat: 23.4 million
The appearance of the Launch Rewards had given the game another surge of popularity, and his Game Points had reached thirty-five million.
Although the interstellar universe's population was not comparable to his former world, achieving this result with two hundred thousand Credits and half a day's time was still acceptable.
Since most players would begin entering Belobog's story tomorrow, he needed to start preparing the game's later content.
"Seele's limited banner, limited Light Cone Banner, Character PV... there isn't a Companion Mission for Seele yet... Oh, right, version 1.0 also had Stellaris Gift, which gave out a limited ten-pull!"
After adding up all the costs, he would spend twenty-five million Game Points tomorrow, leaving him with around ten million!
Lin Guang could finally look into ways to strengthen himself. He opened the System Mall's personal item page and immediately spotted the most expensive entry.
[Envoy-level Augmentation—Permanent: 10 billion Game Points]
Seeing that option, Lin Guang could not help but suck in a breath!
Ten billion? How long would I have to earn for that?
But considering the interstellar universe, if he truly managed to spread the game far and wide, it was not actually an outrageous price!
Though he had been mentally prepared, the price tag of ten billion still made his heart jump.
If Emanators were this expensive, wouldn't Star Gods be absolutely ridiculous?
However, the System Mall currently did not sell Star God-level Augmentation. Perhaps it knew he could not possibly afford it right now.
Although the ten-billion price had completely killed any thoughts Lin Guang had of buying it, the word "permanent" caught his attention.
"So there are also experience cards you can buy for a few days?"
He looked through the other options and, sure enough, found what he was looking for.
[Envoy-level Augmentation—1 Hour: 1 million Game Points]
"That's expensive! One million per hour. If I actually fought someone at Emanator level, would the fight even end without going on for days and nights?"
Still, as long as he could display Emanator-level strength and intimidate ordinary people, that would be enough!
Lin Guang spent three million points to exchange for three of them as insurance, then turned his attention to the other options in the mall.
Food, books, equipment, even firearms and weapons—Lin Guang had no interest in any of those for the time being. His gaze eventually settled on one item.
[Stellar Arena: 100 million Game Points] [Item Description: One of the Interastral Peace Corporation's super-large Eco-Ships developed for crossing star systems and navigating the universe. Equipped with the latest AI piloting technology, it is mainly used for short-range interstellar travel...]
The company had developed several similar starship models, each designed to meet different interstellar travel requirements.
As a colossal entity spanning the entire cosmos, the company's fleets had long been capable of crossing star systems on their own and reaching every corner of the universe without relying on the abilities of Emanators.
But the company's fleets were not open to the public. Perhaps the upper management believed there was no profit to be made from interstellar travel, so the fleets were generally only used for company business.
But if he had an entire fleet...
Then of course he would plaster it with Honkai: Star Rail advertisements and fly it around the universe, or bring players in for Offline Events!
Character collaborations, offline Carnivals—he could show off the power of us anime fans!
Oh, but for people in this world, it probably wasn't called anime!
No Choice, He Offered Far Too Much
After checking the prices of starships in the System Mall, Lin Guang still could not gather that many Game Points.
Besides the item options, the System Mall also had a category related to Paths.
The available exchanges were more or less the same as the Blessings in the Simulated Universe: things like Destruction's Fighting Spirit and Preservation's Golden Shield.
Naturally, it also included some of the Paths' inherent traits. For example, the Memory Path could let someone shed their physical body and become a meme, the Erudition Path could make the brain enter overclocked computation, and the Propagation Path could greatly enhance one's reproductive ability...
It was another way to strengthen himself. If he could gather every Blessing from a single Path, then even a level-one nobody could probably stand shoulder to shoulder with an Emanator!
Of course, the prices were not cheap either. A level-one White Blessing cost thirty million, a level-two Blue Blessing cost one hundred million, and a level-three Gold Blessing cost five hundred million!
Altogether, it was only a little cheaper than directly purchasing Emanator Augmentation, but it was still beyond what Lin Guang could afford right now.
"Ah, I still need to hurry up and promote the game. Only once there are more players will I have spare Game Points to buy these things!"
After closing the system and returning to reality, Lin Guang opened the game's Official Account again.
The account had around five million followers now. Five million followers on the first day of launch might have seemed absurd in his previous life, but in this interstellar universe, it was still far too little!
To put it more concretely, its current influence only covered about half a star system!
For games in this world, normal promotional campaigns covered at least three to five star systems. The gap was enormous!
Based on what Lin Guang had learned during his time working at the company,
his current cooperation with Yan Shi at the branch office only counted as a temporary small-scale promotional operation. It did not require headquarters approval, and its reach was limited!
Only by submitting the game's materials to headquarters for review and approval could he launch a formal promotional campaign.
But that approach took far too long and did not suit him at all. He would be better off dealing directly with headquarters.
That was why Lin Guang wanted to strengthen himself as quickly as possible. Once he had a means of protecting himself, he could directly cooperate with the Interastral Peace Corporation.
With their capabilities, if they really reached a partnership, the promotional range would probably cover around twenty star systems!
The player count and the game's popularity would then grow exponentially!
And now, that opportunity was right in front of him!
With temporary Emanator experience cards, Lin Guang immediately felt much more confident!
He looked at the message Yan Shi had sent him. It contained the contact information Aventurine had provided, so Lin Guang added him using the Official Account.
Two System Hours had passed since the message was sent, but after waiting quite a while, his request still had not been accepted.
"Huh? I left you hanging, and now you're leaving me hanging too?"
Lin Guang did not believe Aventurine had not seen his message. That guy was definitely hanging him out to dry because Lin Guang had not contacted him immediately!
Otherwise, if he accepted the request the instant Lin Guang sent it, wouldn't it make him look like he had been waiting?
Yeah, that had to be it!
This was a business showdown! A silent battle had already begun!
High-level business warfare was just this plain and unadorned!
"Hmph. Add me or don't. I'm going to sleep!"
The next day, Lin Guang submitted his transfer application to his direct supervisor.
"You want to transfer to a branch office?"
Supervisor Edson carefully examined the application. Thinking Lin Guang wanted to leave because of the Market Development Department's workload, he immediately began making empty promises.
"Little Lin, I know the Market Development Department is very busy right now, but the company transferred you there to give you an opportunity to prove yourself. Once this project is over and you transfer back to the Traditional Projects Department, I'll personally speak to the higher-ups and get you a raise!"
Unfortunately, Lin Guang had no interest in such empty promises anymore and insisted on leaving.
After putting on a show of trying to retain him, Lin Guang successfully transferred to the Interastral Peace Entertainment branch office. It was really just the building next door, since the entire planet was company property.
What surprised Lin Guang was that Supervisor Edson even approved several days of leave for him. That was rare. It was perfect, since he could use the next few days to refine and launch the Creator Incentive Program, then find several game content creators specializing in walkthroughs to make some launch walkthrough videos!
Online, a gaming walkthrough creator with the ID Yue Ying was uploading a walkthrough video.
As a veteran gaming walkthrough creator, Yue Ying's guides covered a wide range of games—twenty in total!
And every one of his walkthrough videos was exceptionally high quality. He practically spoon-fed players the answers, so online players called him Yue Ma!
After uploading the video, Yue Ying began checking his account's private messages, mainly to see whether players had pointed out any omissions in his walkthroughs so he could fix them promptly.
When his gaze swept over one particular private message, Yue Ying's eyes narrowed. It was from Honkai: Star Rail's Official Account!
Yue Ying felt that the name sounded familiar, as though he had seen it somewhere yesterday. He immediately clicked on the message to check it.
It turned out to be an invitation for him to make walkthroughs for their newly launched game, and they hoped to establish a long-term partnership in the future.
With business coming to his door, Yue Ying was naturally delighted. For game walkthrough creators like him, their main source of income came from sponsors from various games.
After carefully communicating with them, Yue Ying discovered that this was actually a game based on reality. But why had he never received any promotional information about it before?
Could it be false advertising?
Yue Ying hurriedly searched for reviews of the game. If it had a bad reputation, he needed to be careful. He could not let a small gain lead to a big loss.
But after looking around, the game seemed perfectly normal. There was probably some other reason.
After chatting for a while, Yue Ying looked at one of the requirements they had proposed and replied.
Yue Ying: [The other requirements are fine, but finishing walkthroughs for every map's treasure chests and exploration within two days is too rushed based on your game's current data.]
Honkai: Star Rail: [I can pay more.]
Yue Ying: [It's not about the money. Exploration and walkthrough production will take at least three days!]
Honkai: Star Rail: [I can raise it to five hundred thousand Credits per map.]