Results

Damn!

This graduate was Master Yi, the one who'd proven Goldbach Conjecture?

After Wang Yi made his new proposal, the three Marketing Department employees looked at one another. When Wang Yi made the appointment, he had certainly given a brief introduction of himself, but all they knew was that he was a Science Institute graduate.

For such a tiny piece of business, there was no need to go through the trouble of conducting a background check. Penguin had always been huge and well-funded; they had even let Laoganma walk away with several months' worth of advertising because they had not done a background check.

Now that they suddenly heard this news, they nearly dropped their pens.

After only a moment's consideration, they began consulting their superiors.

In truth, Wang Yi's achievements in mathematics had nothing to do with Penguin Group.

But the Pixel Man meme he had posted before, along with some of the things he had said, had sparked a trend that had drawn Penguin's attention.

As the strongest Game Company on the planet, Penguin had dedicated staff monitoring any buzz related to games.

They had seen the heated discussion sparked by Wang Yi's pixel image and had even considered whether to take inspiration from it for the promotion of their new games.

And now the man himself had come to them.

Besides, no matter how distant mathematics was from their business, he was still a renowned scholar!

Great mathematicians naturally carried a powerful aura of magic resistance. Even a massive conglomerate like Penguin would certainly show sufficient respect as long as there was no sharp conflict of interests.

Soon afterward, Wang Yi noticed that his treatment had changed. The Deputy Minister of Marketing came personally to receive him and affirmed Wang Yi's proposal.

"No problem. Since Teacher Wang proposed it, let's do it this way. Five million for the two app games as a package. We'll integrate Jump Jump and Yang Le Le Yang into our Shake Message mini-game platform, with a seventy-thirty split."

Naturally, Wang Yi would receive the thirty percent. But for Penguin Group, which currently had no competitors, giving up thirty percent was already top-tier treatment.

"Actually, if your company is willing to give them a major push, I can lower my share."

Wang Yi was not fixated on the split ratio. If he had not wanted to use their promotional power, even taking ninety percent himself would not have meant much.

"This isn't a matter of revenue sharing. But since Teacher Wang cares so much about these mini-games, we can proceed according to standard terms. If the results are good, we can increase promotional support..."

In the end, both sides signed a contract they were satisfied with.

Five million in cash flow, plus future revenue shares from the Jump Jump and Yang Le Le Yang mini-games.

However, the traffic allocated to the mini-games would be tiered. How much they could get depended on the games themselves, as well as how many players Wang Yi's own built-in traffic could draw in at the start.

Thanks to that goofy game-development image Wang Yi had posted, he had some popularity in gaming circles at the moment.

Either way, there was no chance Penguin would lose out.

They might value him, but did he expect them to lose money? Sorry, impossible...

By the time Wang Yi left Penguin Building after signing the contract, the city lights were already coming on. Shencheng at dusk had a distinctive charm of its own.

The brightly lit Penguin Building behind him seemed to speak of the fast pace and bustle hidden beneath the city's prosperity.

Wang Yi knew that the things he had brought were all proven products that had generated even greater wealth in the market.

Daily Cool Run had once surpassed one hundred million in monthly revenue, while Temple Run had reached thirty million a month.

But those were results after operations and promotion. The games themselves did not actually cost Penguin much.

Honestly, if he did not have his own protective aura, he would not have come here so directly.

Getting this result was already quite good.

Business was business. Without approaching Penguin, he could not have obtained this much, but without him, Penguin could still pick and choose freely.

The five million in cash flow was under the company's name, so for now he only needed to pay six percent VAT under "modern services—cultural and creative services—design services." He simply had to issue a VAT invoice to Penguin Group.

Corporate income tax was levied on annual profits, so he did not need to pay it for the time being. Some expenses could also be deducted.

The money in the company's accounts was now enough to leverage the next stage of development.

Games were one of Penguin Group's main sources of income. Since Wang Yi intended to take a slice of this cake, the possibility of ending up in opposition to Penguin later was even greater.

Using Penguin's money to leverage the gaming gold mine ahead—this was pretty good.

In Wang Yi's previous life, Minecraft had sold more than Tetris, reaching two hundred and thirty million copies.

PUBG was also a phenomenon-level game that had sold in the tens of millions. And with Lin Shiqin around, Wang Yi could easily eliminate cheats and ensure it reached an even higher level.

That meant these two games had the potential to generate more than ten billion, though it would take time to dig it all out...

"Have you more or less found the people we need? Once the funds arrive, we'll build the framework right away."

Wang Yi put on his earphones as he spoke.

"No problem. The first batch has thirteen targets, enough to complete the setup. All the equipment has been selected too. We're just waiting for the money."

Lin Shiqin sent Wang Yi a list of names, along with everything she had been working on recently.

As Wang Yi's top workhorse, Lin Shiqin had plenty to do: her own optimization and upgrades, compiling all kinds of programs, gathering information, leasing office space, purchasing equipment, selecting papers, human resources, and finance. She handled it all alone.

Wang Yi glanced over the people Lin Shiqin had selected. Most were employees in their thirties or forties with families to support. Overall, they could be summed up in one word: stable.

Perhaps none of the people they hired had particularly outstanding abilities, but Lin Shiqin only needed them as tools. There was no need for exceptional talent.

Employees with families to support and average abilities were instead the most suitable...

Since it would still take a few days for the employees to arrive, the equipment to be installed, and the office space to be prepared, Wang Yi booked a flight to the Science Institute for the next morning. He planned to borrow the institute's laboratory and test the waters.

As for his itinerary, Lin Shiqin could arrange everything perfectly for Wang Yi.

But that evening, while Wang Yi was still engrossed in reading related papers, his phone rang.

It was Li Vida.

Recently, Li Vida had been relentlessly hammered online by Lin Shiqin and was now frazzled and overwhelmed. Wang Yi found it rather amusing.

"Hello? What does Manager Li want with me?"

"Teacher Wang, please don't call me Manager Li anymore. Well, I just wanted to ask whether you've offended anyone recently. Someone has hired Naval forces to attack you."

Li Vida sounded somewhat exhausted.

"After things blew up like that last time, I must have offended someone somewhere. It doesn't matter. Let them talk. What, has it affected your business?"

Wang Yi had been the one to have Lin Shiqin do this in the first place, so of course he knew what was going on.

"Not really. It's like this—there's an award at a music festival on our side, and I'm planning to arrange something. Would it be convenient for you to come accept it when the time comes?"

Hearing that, Wang Yi immediately lost interest. Those awards did not even come with prize money, so he could not be bothered. But just as he was about to refuse, Li Vida spoke first.

"These awards are generally given to people who attend in person. Our company can offer Teacher Wang three hundred thousand as an appearance fee."

"When and where?"

"At the end of the year, in Hong Kong."

"Contact me then."

After hanging up, Wang Yi took Li Vida's reminder and checked Mote and Weibo.

He was genuinely a little surprised by what he found. There was nothing much on Weibo—just fiercer arguing. His pixel-style image had begun to be turned into all kinds of memes and remix material.

Bad publicity was still publicity. As long as the quality was solid and he was confident he could turn things around, the more ridicule there was now, the less effort it would take later. Lin Shiqin really was talented at this. No wonder she had made a name for herself in the entertainment industry.

But apart from the normal situation on Weibo, there was a reply on Mote that caught Wang Yi's attention.

It was a suggestion related to imaginary numbers.

The reply itself was rather amateurish, and the poster was probably a university student majoring in mathematics. It was merely a suggested direction, but that was exactly what Wang Yi needed.

"Shiqin, send me some papers on the significance of imaginary numbers in physics."

"Received."