Qisheng's New Release, Shameless Greed

On the very day Qisheng Games rolled out its update, a trending topic shot to the top ranks of the short-video charts.

[Has Qisheng gotten way too greedy? They're charging us again for games we already paid for?]

[What a disgusting display. How could Qisheng do something like this?]

[Exactly. I finally managed to get on a leaderboard, and now I have to pay to get on it. Disgusting.]

[I've already uninstalled the Qisheng gaming platform. Now I only play Minecraft.]

[I wonder if Starfield has any other games. I'm really looking forward to the games Starfield makes.]

Many of the comments online were condemning Qisheng for charging players again.

Qisheng Game Company made no response.

At that moment, a report was being delivered in Qisheng's top-floor office.

Teng Hua sat in his chair, listening to Liu Nong report from across the desk.

"President Teng, after we introduced paid skins across all our games, players topped up 150 million yuan in just one day."

Hearing that figure, Teng Hua broke into a wide grin and laughed.

150 million yuan. That was more than they would have made from two more games.

Liu Nong, however, looked a little uneasy as he continued, "But, President Teng..."

"Our additional charges have caused some backlash online."

Teng Hua immediately waved a hand. "Don't pay them any attention."

"They're just a bunch of ordinary players. If they can't afford to pay, they shouldn't play."

"I understand now. Games are meant to give rich people a good time. There's no need to care about ordinary players."

That was over a hundred million yuan in cold, hard cash. How could he possibly give it up for the sake of ordinary players?

As for ordinary players, ha! They were just a bunch of people without money. If they stopped playing his games, the load on his servers would even go down.

Hearing that, Liu Nong nodded. He, too, had seen just how much potential those wealthy players had.

As for ordinary players, forget it. They didn't have much money anyway.

Thinking about the hundred-plus million yuan they had made, Teng Hua remembered Mini World, which was still in development.

"By the way, how's development on Mini World going?"

Lately, every time he went online and saw Minecraft's earnings, he burned with envy. The game was plainly nothing special, yet it brought in tens of millions every day.

And that Su Ye had refused to show Qisheng any respect. If they couldn't cooperate, then they would destroy him.

Liu Nong hurriedly reported, "President Teng, we've essentially finished Mini World's basic framework. All that's left is adding some new content."

Teng Hua nodded. "The items and things like that can wait. We can test it and release it first."

"Later, we can make players pay to unlock the items. We'll keep updating it after release, so players can spend more easily."

"But..."

Liu Nong was about to say something, but Teng Hua cut him off.

"No buts. I want to see Mini World on our Teng Hua gaming platform within the next two days."

"Can't you see how much money Minecraft is raking in every day?"

"All the money he's making now is ours!"

Teng Hua spoke angrily. In his view, all the money Starfield's Minecraft was making should have belonged to Qisheng.

They couldn't let the other side keep making money like this.

"All right, President Teng. We'll test it this afternoon, then get game streamers to play it and promote it tonight."

After leaving the office, Liu Nong went straight to the game development room for the final game test.

That evening.

Chen Ze looked a little uneasy during his livestream.

That afternoon, just before he was about to start streaming, Qisheng Games had approached him and asked him to try out a game.

Usually, he wouldn't have minded something like that. After all, it paid.

But today, the game was Mini World. He didn't have to think to know what it had copied. Wasn't it just a game that ripped off Minecraft?

Although he really wanted to refuse, he thought about Qisheng Games' size and agreed to try it.

If he refused and they blacklisted him, he wouldn't be able to play Qisheng's games on his stream.

That was why he now looked so uncomfortable.

"Uh... guys."

"Today I'm trying out a game, a creative game from Qisheng."

"Mini World."

Chen Ze spoke in a somewhat indifferent tone as he opened the Qisheng gaming platform and found Mini World on the recommended page.

When the viewers saw Chen Ze trying Mini World, they were so shocked that comments flooded in.

[???]

[Brother Ze, blink if you're being threatened.]

[Qisheng actually made Mini World? They just copied Minecraft, didn't they?]

[No need to guess. The gameplay's probably identical to Minecraft, because I don't think Qisheng has any original games.]

[Now that you mention it, I remember. A lot of Qisheng's games do look like copies.]

[Yeah, didn't Bicycle Simulator copy the Meng family's Racing Simulator?]

Comments kept appearing in the livestream.

Chen Ze acted as though he hadn't seen them and clicked to download the game.

But the next second, a message appeared in front of him.

[Insufficient balance. Please top up.]

Chen Ze's mouth twitched a few times when he saw the message. Only then did he notice the label beside Mini World's download button.

Discounted price: 69.9 yuan.

Seeing the price, he let out a long sigh.

The game had clearly copied Minecraft, so why couldn't it copy something good?

Minecraft was free, but here he had to pay just to download it.

Even so, he couldn't say much. He promptly topped up his account, bought the game, and clicked download.

The game was large, roughly twice the size of Minecraft, and took several minutes to download.

Chen Ze put on his gaming helmet and clicked to enter the game.

Mini World's game interface appeared before him.

[Single-player game] [Multiplayer game]

[Options] [Exit game]

[Game store]

The interface wasn't exactly identical to Minecraft's. What was with the extra game store?

Instead of entering the game right away, he opened the game store to take a look.

Several character skins were available in the store, with different in-game appearances.

The most eye-catching skin had wings. He looked at it and found its description.

[Winged Power User]: Can fly and hover in the air. The skies belong to the Winged Power User.

Price: 6,999 yuan.

At the sight of that price, Chen Ze nearly lost his composure and cried out.

You want 6,999 yuan for one damn game skin? Do you know how much an ordinary person earns in a month?

Some people probably couldn't save up 6,999 yuan even after working for two months. This was a little too ridiculous.

Chen Ze looked at a few other game skins. Even the cheapest cost 29.9 yuan each. It really was... ridiculous.

After complaining to himself for a while, he decided not to buy anything. Instead, he returned to the initial game interface and chose to open the single-player game.