0043: Thirty Thousand in First-Day Revenue!

Tao Chenggang sat in front of the computer and asked Chen Guiliang, "Which rich Chinese person has the surname Shi?"

"Who else could it be? Since he volunteered his surname, it's most likely Giant," Chen Guiliang said.

"Holy shit!"

Tao Chenggang cried out in surprise.

Ever since Giant went bankrupt and its building project was left unfinished, Boss Shi had become extremely low-profile.

The more popular Brain Gold became, the more low-profile he was. He almost never appeared in public anymore, and Tao Chenggang had nearly forgotten there was such a person.

Yet during Tao Chenggang's high school and junior college years, Boss Shi had been an absolute celebrity, the kind who made the newspapers every few days.

Tao Chenggang replied on QQ, "CEO Shi from Giant?"

"That's right," Boss Shi said.

Xie Yang stood beside him watching. He was still young, so he asked with a bewildered look, "Who's CEO Shi from Giant?"

"Brain Gold and Golden Partner," Chen Guiliang said.

Xie Yang spat out one word: "Fuck!"

Tao Xue was furious. "Beat him to death! His ads are so damn annoying!"

"Yeah, beat him to death," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

While the three of them were mocking him, Tao Chenggang and Boss Shi had already begun chatting.

"Hello, CEO Shi. I'm One Sword Comes West."

"Your online operations are very interesting. They were refreshing, and I couldn't help wanting to talk with you."

"You're a senior."

"Haha, I'm your game customer. Hurry and check whether the recharge has arrived. Send me the ticket so I can run Woma Abyss."

"Alright, please wait a moment."

"With the abilities you've demonstrated, it's a waste of your talent to only run a private server. Are you interested in joining my team? We can make an official game together."

"You flatter us, CEO Shi. Compared with the Brain Gold team, we're still far too inexperienced."

"Don't be modest. My old team, myself included, is only familiar with traditional marketing channels. I haven't really studied internet marketing yet, and I'm in urgent need of an expert like you."

Tao Chenggang turned to Chen Guiliang and asked, "Should we work with him?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Brother Gang, you decide for yourself. But I need to remind you of one thing: Boss Shi is an extremely domineering person. Once you cooperate with him, everything will have to go his way. You'll only be a high-ranking lackey, with no decision-making power over your career in the future."

Tao Chenggang thought carefully for a moment, then continued typing to test the waters. "How would we cooperate?"

Boss Shi said, "Your private server has already gained a bit of fame. Shanda will definitely crush it. When that happens, the players will be furious, and you can take the opportunity to announce that you're working with me to develop a game. Use your current method—release updates on the game's development progress every month, keeping players eager until the game launches. I'll also promote it comprehensively, both online and offline."

"I'm asking how we would cooperate specifically," Tao Chenggang said.

Boss Shi asked in return, "Other than the marketing and reputation of your private server, what else can you bring to the table?"

Tao Chenggang said, "A brand-new concept for online games, along with several million in investment."

"What game concept?"

"Confidential."

"I've preliminarily decided to invest One Hundred Million in making a game. For the few million you put in, along with your game concept, I'll give your company shares depending on the specifics. You can ask around—I've never cheated a partner from the day I started my business until now."

"One Hundred Million to make a game?"

"That's right. Television, newspapers, magazines, the internet, even roadside billboards and bus exteriors—when the time comes, they'll all carry advertisements for the game. With that level of promotion, an investment of One Hundred Million is nothing."

"CEO Shi, you're awesome..."

Tao Chenggang was so stunned that he was already having trouble keeping up with Boss Shi's train of thought.

He put down the keyboard and asked Chen Guiliang, "Is he planning to market and promote his own game the same way he sold Brain Gold?"

"He'd do something like that," Chen Guiliang said.

Tao Chenggang shook his head. "This guy really is domineering. There's no fun in making a game with him. Who knows, one day he might swallow us whole and leave nothing behind."

Chen Guiliang smiled. "There was one thing he didn't lie about: he hasn't cheated any of his partners since he started his business. You don't even need to worry about him stealing your game idea. As long as he thinks it has value, he'll definitely give you a corresponding amount of equity. He may be a scumbag for selling health supplements, but he's absolutely loyal to his own people."

After hearing that, Tao Chenggang began to hesitate again.

Boss Shi did not send any more QQ messages. He had probably received the ticket and gone to run the dungeon.

Tao Chenggang asked Chen Guiliang, "What would you do if it were you?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I wouldn't be anyone's lackey."

"Neither would I. Better be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix!" Tao Chenggang said. "I'll turn him down politely and make a friend of him."

Chen Guiliang smiled. "Don't reject him so quickly. Keep him on the hook."

Tao Chenggang asked, "What would be the point of keeping him on the hook?"

Chen Guiliang said, "After we clash with Shanda, Boss Shi's name will still be useful. Maybe it can attract real investors. Or we can use him as a publicity stunt. When you don't have enough money to make the game, just claim that Boss Shi wants to invest in it too."

"I understand." Tao Chenggang gave Chen Guiliang a thumbs-up.

He then sent a QQ message: "CEO Shi, I need to think this over some more. It's a major matter."

More than ten minutes later, Boss Shi failed another dungeon run. After returning, he said in chat, "Fine. I still need to look for a development team anyway. Let me ask—what does the Abyss Woma Leader drop?"

"It is guaranteed to drop one Abyss Ticket and at least two pieces of the Abyss Woma set. There's also a certain chance of dropping an overpowered Abyss weapon at the Moon in the Well tier."

"Alright. We'll talk later. I'm going to farm the Abyss. Take your time thinking it over."

Two in the morning.

Feng Tao said, "Across Districts One through Five, concurrent players have dropped to between four and six hundred. Should we reopen the download links?"

"Do it. Remember to announce it on the major gaming forums," Tao Chenggang said.

Yang Yuhui said, "I'll contact the forum administrators and have the links restored."

Chen Guiliang said, "Brother Gang, Uncle, you should go home and rest. I'll keep watch tonight. We only need to leave a third of the guys handling customer service and top-ups on duty. Everyone else should get to sleep while they can."

"Alright." Tao Chenggang rubbed his face, then said to his sister, "Let's go home."

Tao Xue was actually playing on one of the computers, playing a private server. "I just learned how to play, and I'm really getting into it."

"Move it!" Tao Chenggang smacked the top of her head.

Tao Xue clutched her head and got to her feet reluctantly, pouting as she said goodbye to Chen Guiliang and the others.

After Tao Chenggang, Tao Xue, Feng Tao, and the rest left, Xie Yang sat down at a computer again and carefully browsed through the posts from the past half month.

County Chief Xie wanted to sort through his thoughts and review Chen Guiliang's various moves.

He suddenly realized that some things were even more interesting than games.

Chen Guiliang simply lay down on the sofa for a nap. If anything unexpected happened, the night-shift staff would wake him.

When he woke up, it was already nine in the morning.

Yang Yuhui had sent one of the guys out to buy breakfast and was waiting for the next shift to arrive for the handover.

He needed to get some sleep too. He would have to get up and fight again at noon, when player numbers would rise.

While drinking soy milk and eating buns, Chen Guiliang woke Xie Yang, who had fallen asleep on the computer desk. "You've been staying here the whole weekend?"

"Of course. It's so interesting," Xie Yang said as if it were only natural.

Before they had even finished breakfast, Tao Chenggang arrived. "The server I contacted last night is ready to use now. We'll open another new district at noon. I'll also add two more customer service staff."

"Tao Xue didn't come?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tao Chenggang said, "She's sleeping in. It's finally Saturday, and she didn't go to bed until the middle of the night. She'll definitely sleep until noon. By the way, Shanda still hasn't made a move?"

Chen Guiliang said, "Shanda can't keep a group of professional hackers on payroll long-term. The hackers they used to attack private servers last year were either hired temporarily or were the company's own cybersecurity staff. Either way, there has to be a process before they can be deployed, unless Boss Chen personally approves it."

What was Boss Chen doing?

He had gone to the capital for a meeting.

The five ministries' joint campaign against private servers and Game Cheats was not specifically for Shanda's benefit. It concerned gaming companies across the country.

The heads of those gaming companies all had to make a trip to the capital to exchange relevant experience and discuss how to cooperate with the special enforcement campaign.

As for Zhang Yingfeng, who handled copyright and legal affairs, he likewise had no time to personally monitor the internet. He was mobilizing personnel to collect evidence in the real world.

What did cracking down on private servers and Game Cheats have to do with the real world?

Naturally, it was because the internet was not yet developed enough. Even products related to online games still had a huge number of physical piracy merchants!

For example, installation discs burned with various versions of private servers.

There were even criminal gangs that forged Shanda physical prepaid cards and impersonated regional prepaid-card agents to specifically scam Internet Cafe Managers and players.

Those were the key targets of the authorities. Online private servers and Game Cheats were actually secondary.

As noon approached, player numbers began to rise again.

After District Six opened, newly downloaded-game players, along with scattered players from the first five districts, quickly brought District Six to over four hundred players online.

The other five districts averaged more than five hundred players online each.

The total number of "Legend of the Abyss" players was definitely higher than that.

For example, Lord Jing Fu Guoqiang and his friends had played all night and were still sound asleep.

After six in the evening, the number of players logging in surged again.

But the servers did not lag, because the "locust players" had already slipped away. They had only come to watch the excitement last night. Some chose to stay, but more went back to whatever they normally did.

When Feng Tao arrived from the computer shop, Yang Yuhui called Chen Guiliang, Tao Chenggang, and Feng Tao into the corridor.

He said quietly:

"Total top-ups over the past twenty-four hours: 33,875 yuan."

"Of that, 10,465 yuan came from internet cafes. Different cafes take different commissions. After deducting interbank transfer fees for out-of-town transactions, we'll receive a little over 8,400 yuan."

"The other 23,410 yuan came from online banking and bank transfers. After fees, we'll receive a little over 22,000 yuan."

"Players who sent money orders through the post office haven't been credited yet, but the amounts are small enough to be negligible."

Feng Tao asked in surprise, "They actually brought in this much on the first day?"

Tao Chenggang said, "We haven't even recouped the costs yet. The promotion was too successful, the online crowd was too enthusiastic, and the game had to be polished to perfection, which drove up the cost of building the private server framework. Then there were the advertising fees on all the major gaming forums, the rent for six thousand-player servers, and salaries for customer service and Internet Trolls. None of those costs have been included yet."

"Mainly because we ran into a few big spenders," Yang Yuhui said. "Those people alone topped up more than ten thousand combined."

Chen Guiliang said, "Leave Boss Shi alone; he has his own lackeys. But the other big spenders must be treated well. Besides assigning people to be their lackeys, arrange dedicated customer service for them too. We have to meet their every request. If the game lags, give them free accelerators."

The four chatted briefly. As soon as they returned to the command center, a customer service representative said excitedly, "CEO Shi wants to top up another five thousand!"

Feng Tao asked in surprise, "Did he already use up the dungeon tickets he bought last night?"

"He used them all up."

Tao Chenggang's childhood friend, who was serving as the GM, said, "I've been keeping an eye on them. CEO Shi's eight-man group has grown to ten people. They logged off after six in the morning, started grinding again at two in the afternoon, then did their daily quests in the evening. After resting for over an hour, they came back to buy tickets and run dungeons again."

Chen Guiliang asked with a smile, "They've completed the Abyss Woma set, right?"

The GM said, "Two of the ten still haven't completed their weapons. They're no longer running the Woma dungeon. Their last two runs were in Abyss Zuma. Haha, they got wiped out the first time they went in. The second time, half of them died."

"Not bad for a guy who sells Brain Gold. He's fucking loaded!" Tao Chenggang remarked.

In reality, Boss Shi had gone to sleep in the middle of the night. The rest of the dungeon grinding had all been done by power-levelers.

After waking up, the power-levelers brought in three more friends at Boss Shi's instruction, forming a ten-man team to continue grinding.

It was not until after eight that evening that Boss Shi personally got on to play, casually topping up another five thousand yuan into the private server.

The lives of the rich were just this dull and boring.

(Sacrificing a historical farming slice-of-life novel: "Smoke and Fire of the Jin Era: My Daily Life in Troubled Times.")