Building Hype

An eight-hour workday, two days off each week. However, because the server room and office needed staff on rotating shifts, the days off would not necessarily fall on weekends. Overtime would be required during holidays, with standard overtime pay.

Although the salaries were not particularly high, they all had full social insurance and housing fund coverage, along with additional major illness insurance, transportation, meal, and housing allowances.

Year-end bonuses would be awarded based on performance.

Honestly, these employees had been quite worried that the company would go under. Before Wang Yi returned, they had privately discussed it many times in anxious whispers.

Now that they saw the company had started taking on business, they were instead relieved.

However, when Wang Yi brought out the concept art for Minecraft, a commotion immediately broke out in the room.

An older programmer timidly raised his hand.

"Th-this... I think I've seen this before. It was a topic on Weibo for a while."

"Very good. You have strong professional instincts. I was the one who started that topic."

Wang Yi looked approving.

"Boss, you're Master Yi?!"

Assistant Chen Qian could no longer hold back and blurted it out, her beautiful wide eyes full of astonishment.

"Yes, the real deal. If you've followed the Science Institute's official announcements, you should know my name."

The Game Company was supposed to be Wang Yi's public-facing venture anyway, so naturally he would not hide it from his own employees. He would need to personally cooperate with promotions when the time came.

Upon hearing that, everyone present felt their hearts skip a beat.

Master Yi's affairs had been fairly popular recently. They might not have paid special attention, but they had heard at least some of the peripheral news.

Damn it, this perfect place to coast into retirement probably wouldn't last much longer!

No wonder the benefits were so good. It was a great mathematician's first company; the man was kind-hearted and didn't understand the dangers of the world!

Wang Yi paid no attention to what his employees were thinking. Any lack of morale could be swept away by outstanding results.

"Those of you who follow me probably know that I released some game concept art before. That's right, this is the game our company will be focusing on promoting next—Minecraft..."

As Wang Yi gave his simple explanation, the employees gradually realized that things did not seem to be as they had imagined.

The game looked goofy and low-quality at first glance, but a few of the younger employees gradually realized that it actually seemed to have something to it!

It was difficult to convey Minecraft's charm and gameplay through explanations alone.

But at the very least, they could tell that this definitely was not some half-hearted vanity project!

Thinking that the company might still be saved, the employees immediately became much more motivated.

They began excitedly discussing low-cost promotional methods.

"I've completed partnerships with Penguin for two mini-games. They should launch them in the next couple of days, and we can ride that momentum. I'll also build hype online myself. For now, your task is to play the game and record video material."

Wang Yi assigned them the task of slacking off at work.

They needed to create the first batch of gameplay videos and upload them to Little Broken Station first.

Even if the game's quality was solid and it could attract organic attention, it still needed an initial push.

They would be that initial push...

"Cheers~"

After Wang Yi returned, Ma Dong and Liu Xiaoke came over for a meal despite how busy the Film Crew was.

It was just that Ma Dong, that lightweight, fell asleep snoring after two cans of beer, making Liu Xiaoke cover her mouth and laugh.

"Hehe, Brother Ma can't even hold his liquor as well as I can. I've never practiced drinking either."

Liu Xiaoke's cheeks were rosy after two cans of beer. Combined with her loose T-shirt, she had the air of a girl next door.

"It's fine if we drink a little among ourselves, but girls should still be careful when they're out. Sometimes, once you pick up a glass, you can't put it down."

Wang Yi glanced at Liu Xiaoke's flushed face and reminded her with a smile.

"It's okay. Other than trying a little in college with my roommates, I only drank that one time with you guys. Director Zhang Ming took good care of me out of respect for you, but I wouldn't dare touch drinks outside."

Liu Xiaoke stuck out her tongue. She was extremely cautious about such things. In fact, she herself found it strange why she inexplicably trusted the kid next door so much. Was she in heat?

Thinking of that, she tilted her head and secretly sized Wang Yi up a few times.

Hmm~

He wasn't exactly drop-dead handsome either.

Maybe it was just because she had a heart that wanted to be an older sister~

Then Liu Xiaoke suddenly burped and patted her chest.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you from now on."

Hearing Liu Xiaoke suddenly say something so random, Wang Yi glanced at the outline produced by her patting and knew she was about done.

After tidying up the place, he sent her back to her own room...

"Heh~, Boss really is a gentleman. If you'd poured a few more cans into her, you could've had her right in front of that big guy~"

After Wang Yi returned to his room and took a shower, Lin Shiqin floated down from upstairs, circling him with a mischievous grin, completely unconcerned about propriety.

Water droplets from the showerhead slid over his marble-like, well-proportioned muscles, but Wang Yi could not be bothered to pay attention to this peeping tom who loved making dirty jokes.

He would not be too proactive with respectable girls.

"Oh, right. Penguin emailed you just now. The two mini-games will launch tomorrow, and you can promote them as you see fit. They think highly of Jump Jump and have given it plenty of exposure, but Yang Le Le Yang will depend entirely on you, Boss."

Lin Shiqin tapped her chin, seemingly remembering the actual reason she had come down.

"Don't worry. They'll give it exposure."

Jump Jump was obviously more of a classic, and Wang Yi had also added advertising placements—the little boxes stepped on could be replaced with advertisers' brands, and stepping on them granted bonus points.

But for the sake of gameplay, that was nearly the limit of what Jump Jump could achieve.

Yang Le Le Yang, on the other hand, was undoubtedly all about forceful promotion. It definitely could not compare in the long term, but its short-term promotional impact would be better, and it would make money faster.

Like Brain Platinum, it looked incredibly goofy, yet many people could not resist trying it. Whether they played a lot or only a little, even trying it once meant getting harvested. It was only a matter of how much they were harvested for.

At least many people had not bought Brain Platinum, but plenty had genuinely played this...

For now, though, he needed to start the trend himself. Once they saw the results, they would naturally help promote it too...

"My groundbreaking game will be released soon, but I've recently been playing a mini-game that's simply addictive. It only has two levels, yet I just can't beat them. Looks like mathematics isn't omnipotent after all."

The next day, as the mini-games launched, Wang Yi immediately opened Weibo and began promoting them.

He also posted an image of the first level.

Recently, all kinds of people online had been jumping on the bandwagon to mock Wang Yi's "five years of game development."

All sorts of goofy images and memes had appeared.

And Wang Yi had never responded directly.

This sudden post immediately drew a great deal of attention.

"That pixel game is really coming out? Tag me when it does. I want to see it with my own eyes."

"What the hell, you can't even clear this kind of matching game? Great mathematicians really are bad at gaming."

"Pfft~ You could clear this with your eyes closed, couldn't you? What is this?"

"A Shake Message mini-game? Did Master Yi get paid off? This is promotion, right?"

"I don't care about this matching game. I only care about Minecraft. Let me see what Block people can do, lol~"

"Just call it Russian Blocks II."

"How can it be called II? At most, it should be -I."

"What the hell is '-I'?"

"Master Yi, did you prove something else again? There's another discussion about you overseas, and most of it is positive. 'Image' 'Image'"

"Bringing glory to the country. Awesome."

The advantage of having his own traffic was that as soon as Wang Yi posted, people reposted and commented.

Although most of them were still teasing him, Wang Yi's status as a great mathematician was effectively a 90% magic resistance aura. There really were not many people who dared attack him directly; at most, they made a couple of snide remarks.

Later, someone reposted that Mote proof problem Wang Yi had previously posted and solved himself.

There were quite a few replies in the image, and some of those replying really were other mathematicians...

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First update