Return to His Alma Mater

Jump Jump had always been a classic little stress-relief game, so with Penguin already driving traffic to it, its target users had begun to come into contact with it.

However, because the ad integration was relatively subtle, it had yet to generate enough eye-catching revenue.

Yang Le Le Yang was different. It had been created specifically to make quick money.

In an era when netizens were still relatively innocent and had yet to develop their guard from being scammed, its effects were exceptionally outstanding.

Coupled with the chain reaction of sharing for revives, it sparked varying degrees of heated discussion on Official Accounts, Baidu, Weibo, and elsewhere.

And in this era, there was another Internet giant that was easily overlooked—a platform with over a billion registered users, three hundred million monthly active users, and strong user retention.

Tieba!

Although Tieba would later lose ninety percent of its monthly active users due to its own self-destructive behavior—ignoring user experience, mindlessly stuffing in ads, even selling off forums, and other ridiculous stunts—there was no denying that its influence was still immense at present.

Especially for targeted discussions, it was far more convenient than public-opinion battlegrounds like Weibo.

The "Yang Le Le Yang" forum quickly surged in popularity.

It was filled with people asking for guides and others cursing.

Some clever netizens had already realized that the game seemed deliberately designed to screw people over, and arguments broke out everywhere.

It was not until videos from Little Broken Station started being reposted there, and people saw that there were clearance videos, that the uproar died down somewhat.

Then, after the Beautiful Game Players Wang Yi had specifically created appeared, several COSERs with distinctive styles played games and interacted on camera, instantly getting countless netizens fired up as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

Holy shit!

How could someone possibly look like that?

Even if some said they were employees from a car-model company slacking off, they were still way too beautiful.

Their occasional playful banter, along with the promise that anyone who cleared the game could receive a reward, immediately cooled down the forum itself quite a bit.

"Witch, how dare you disrupt my Dao heart!"

"The person above, please type with both hands."

"Heh, it's all a trick, all marketing. There's no way they'll actually give it away!"

"I have accumulated virtue and done good deeds all my life. It is only right that I clear the game."

"Give me their names! Which company are they from?"

"..."

After several rounds of promotional tactics, combined with the game's absurdly goofy nature and Penguin's marketing push—

Yang Le Le Yang immediately surpassed Jump Jump and became a short-term hit game!

With Penguin's main promotion, the relative innocence of the users, and the subsequent hype, Lin Shiqin made a short-term estimate for Wang Yi.

"Based on a ratio of view pricing and click pricing, after revenue sharing and taxes, we should make around eight hundred thousand on the first day. Our daily earnings should double over the next two days, but once the hype passes, they'll decline quickly as well."

Wang Yi was fairly satisfied with the gains after hearing Lin Shiqin's words.

"We can use videos to keep the momentum going for another wave afterward. Have Wen Yu post directly through the company then, and have Old Li send them to you for handling."

In the eyes of the company's other employees, Lin Shiqin was now a powerful development team. They contacted her directly for reports and handling on all sorts of matters. There was not much they themselves needed to deal with; most of their work was simply running errands and moving things around.

"Sure. Are you going to the Science Institute?"

Lin Shiqin prepared to book Wang Yi's ticket.

"Yeah. Also, keep building hype for Minecraft during this period. Release it when Yang Le Le Yang is at the peak of its popularity. I'll push Wen Yu to hurry up with the cosplay outfits. I'll be relying on you during this time."

"You really know how to make people work for you~"

By the time Wang Yi returned to his alma mater, criticism of Yang Le Le Yang had already begun to emerge online.

Big liar! You're just treating us like ad-clicking machines!

And it had to be said that Fang Chuan was quite capable. He had forcibly dug up the fact that both this game and Jump Jump had been created by Wang Yi.

Seeing that the advantage was now on his side, Fang Chuan, who had been on the back foot all this time, finally began actively tagging Wang Yi again and launching a new round of attacks.

"Unbelievable! You're a great mathematician! A top talent cultivated by the country, yet you've used all your talent on figuring out how to scam money? Forgive me for using the word 'scam,' but I'm simply too furious..."

He began by claiming the moral high ground, then launched into a lengthy list of Wang Yi's supposed crimes.

Finally, he dropped the biggest bombshell: a friend of his who worked in the industry estimated that this little game's advertising revenue had already exceeded ten million!

Fang Chuan absolutely understood human nature. He knew Wang Yi's magic-resistance aura would not be easy to break, so he had always maintained a stance of "heartbroken" and "disappointed that iron had failed to become steel," fearing that he might draw the fire onto himself.

But as a professional contrarian, he was also first-rate at spotting weaknesses.

First, he slapped Wang Yi with the label of a top national talent wasting his gifts and focusing only on making money. Then he threw out an estimate of the total income without mentioning revenue sharing even once.

He understood the Internet's current anti-rich atmosphere. As long as he revealed that figure, plenty of allies would automatically appear.

That money came too easily! And the way it was earned was through you clicking ads. Weren't you angry?

Sure enough, Fang Chuan understood the Internet. Previously, only some of his own fans had supported his constant sarcastic digs.

But after this post came out, it quickly shot onto the trending searches.

In this era, livestreaming was still limited by 3G networks, livestream sales hosts had yet to emerge, and even celebrities' incomes were nowhere near so outrageous. Advertising fees suddenly surpassing ten million in such a short time was a highly eye-catching figure.

Once the buzz took off, the self-media outlets naturally followed suit, eager to stir up trouble.

All kinds of Official Accounts began rolling out fresh headlines.

"Shocking! A mathematician rakes in tens of millions with a game!"

"What has happened to this world? Can no one settle down and pursue academics anymore?"

"A fallen genius, or a rising business star?"

All sorts of headlines, all working hard for that 100,000+ views.

Like sharks smelling blood, they swarmed in.

Of course, some self-media outlets that had been a step too slow to catch the hot story also began looking for other angles to join the fray.

Some of them even turned around and spoke up for Wang Yi.

But regardless, the hype had already been stirred up, directly causing many people to lose it.

"Ten million? Is this some kind of joke?"

"This needs to be investigated."

"Doesn't his conscience hurt? A piece of trash like this makes so much money? Are people all idiots?"

"Heh, some great mathematician. He's really just a businessman reeking of money, trying to earn dirty money."

"Now that he's made so much, has he donated any to impoverished mountain areas? Does he know how many children in the mountains live in hardship?"

"..."

However, Wang Yi gave no response to any of this, simply letting the attacks and attention continue to heat up.

He himself had already arrived at the gates of his alma mater.

As one of the country's top institutions of higher learning, the Science Institute's various cutting-edge laboratories were also first-rate, with a great many key national projects being carried out there.

Wang Yi had naturally made an appointment before coming. They had originally wanted to arrange for someone to pick him up at the airport, but Wang Yi politely declined and returned here alone.

In terms of age, Wang Yi was now about the same as an ordinary third- or fourth-year student.

Looking at the youthful students coming and going through the school gates, Wang Yi felt greatly relaxed as well.

"Professor Wang."

A somewhat familiar voice called out, and Wang Yi saw his former advisor.

"Brother Chen, it's only been three years. Why are you being so formal with me?"

Wang Yi's words made Chen Hao smile bitterly.

"What do you think? You nearly scared everyone to death."

The school had originally even wanted to arrange a speech for Wang Yi, but he politely declined. However, Wang Yi did make a promise: if he really received next year's Fields Medal, he would donate the 15,000 Canadian dollars in prize money to the school.

Fifteen thousand Canadian dollars was not much in itself, but if Wang Yi donated the prize money to the school, the symbolic significance of it would undoubtedly be worth making a big deal over.

The school would most likely even put up matching funds and establish a long-term scholarship specifically for it!

With such a promise, everything naturally became much more convenient.

After all, before going to find Wang Yi, they had already discreetly learned about his personality.

To put it in more flattering terms, he was pragmatic!

Everyone had worked together quite pleasantly, so there was no need to make things unpleasant...

First update~

Please keep reading! Especially tomorrow! Sob sob~