As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 185 Leisure Chess
Before Chen Ran could react, a text box in TXT format appeared on his phone screen.

"Hello, I'm Merlin, the wizard Merlin."

Chen Ran was so surprised that his brain stopped working. Merlin was the most popular person on Blue Star, and he never thought that he would have any intersection with such a person.

The live performance in Stockholm at the end of last year has become the most viewed video in YouTube history in just three months.

The total number of views of various edited videos alone exceeds 10 billion, not including the interpretation videos that are just there to ride on the popularity.

In Chen Ran's opinion, Merlin is a high-ranking figure, who is busy every day stirring up bloody storms in secret.

Although he is a well-known game producer, his social status is just that of a high-level worker.

For example, middle-level employees in large companies have high incomes, but their social status does not match their income.

Chen Ran knew that this was unlikely to be a hacker intrusion, as he had never heard of such a method of intrusion in the IOS system.

Chen Ran took a deep breath, knowing that no matter what Merlin's purpose was, the most important thing for him now was to calm down: "Calm down, calm down."

"Hello, Mr. Merlin, what can I do for you?"

Chen Ran tried to input it and found that he could also enter text in the white area that looked like a text box.

Since Merlin only said a few words on the phone and there was no face-to-face pressure, Chen Ran quickly regained his basic composure.

"I need to make a game. I will give you certain technical and financial support. All you need to do is make the game according to my requirements."

Chen Ran had countless questions in his mind. Shouldn't Merlin be a foreigner? Why did he find him?

You have to know that there are many foreign game producers who are better than him, both in terms of popularity and ability.

On the contrary, he didn't find it strange that Merlin spoke fluent Chinese.

Judging from Merlin's published paper on magic.com, and the perception of mages in film and television works, it is normal for mages to be able to learn and master multiple languages.

"Why choose me?"

“No reason, if your work satisfies me, I will give you extra rewards.

The basic reward is that the company, the work, and the subsequent profits are all yours.”

Chen Ran was tempted, or rather, when Merlin made the request, he wanted to agree directly.

Not everyone can get the opportunity to work for the only magician on Blue Star.

Not to mention Merlin's so-called extra reward. If it was magic coin, Chen Ran imagined himself holding a magic wand and killing everyone.

“I am willing to cooperate with you. I want to know.”

Before Chen Ran could type the rest of his words on the phone screen, a faint light appeared in front of his eyes.

Although it was a very faint light, it attracted all his attention.

After the dim light went out, a flying insect about the size of a mosquito appeared in front of him, and then approached him at lightning speed.

Chen Ran felt as if his neck was stung, and a sentence rang in his mind: "Cooperation reached!"

Four words popped up in Chen Ran's mind: "Space Teleportation"

He was very excited, as teleportation was a classic magic skill.

Chen Ran tried to touch his neck with his hand, but found no trace of the bug.

"*****"

“The above is the BTC wallet address, which contains 300 BTC as your starting capital.”

"Remember not to reveal my existence. If you do, you will bear the consequences at your own risk."

"60"

"59"

A countdown appeared in the text box, and Chen Ran realized that the text box would close after the countdown ended.

He quickly copied the BTC wallet address.

Chen Ran had heard of Merlin's curse.

Coupled with the insect that just appeared out of nowhere and the voice that sounded in his mind, Chen Ran did not dare to tell anyone about Merlin's existence.

Due to many factors, cryptocurrencies around the world have been rising since mid-2023.

The emergence of Merlin and magic coin has further fueled the popularity of the cryptocurrency market.

Even the economic system of the Mage uses decentralized cryptocurrency as its basic carrier.

The imagination of magic coin has amazed the cryptocurrency circle.

Unfortunately, I am not at that level to come up with theories like the Haber constant and the Haber algorithm.

Compared with the Heber algorithm for calculating the cosmic coordinate system, the hash algorithm is inferior.

As for what some people outside say, Magic Coin is not a decentralized currency at all, it has Merlin, the center that cannot be circumvented.

In response to this, a big investor in the cryptocurrency circle said:

"We can look at Magic Coin from this perspective. If the cosmic coordinate system you calculated satisfies the Heber algorithm, can Merlin not recognize your cosmic coordinate system?"

"In other words, Merlin is just a certification body. The Heber algorithm and the cosmic coordinate system are not centralized."

"Merlin is going to give you a stamp to authenticate your magic coin with him."

"It's just like the London gold market does not recognize the gold produced by the Russian gold refinery. But even though the London gold market does not recognize it, can you say it is not gold?"

"To give another example, if Merlin disappears, no one on magic.com can log in. But the magic coin system can still operate on Blue Star, right?"

“I am sure that governments in various countries will launch blockchain systems based on the magic coin mining mechanism.”

“So Magic Coin is clearly a decentralized cryptocurrency, and the algorithm is very advanced.”

After magic coin came out, the price of BTC continued to rise, and almost all cryptocurrencies were rising.

After the Stockholm Concert Hall incident, Merlin launched a multilateral currency trading system in the Magic Forum.

This system is a trading system built based on the underlying technology of blockchain.

The SWIFT Alliance is facing its gradual demise and has no means of fighting back.

America’s financial nuclear weapons were forcibly demolished.

The camera turns to Chen Ran. As a novice player in the capital market, he still has a certain understanding of the value of BTC.

After all, the news reports every day that the price of BTC has reached a new high.

In addition, as he works in a large Internet company and has many colleagues around him who play with virtual currency, Chen Ran also downloaded some software to view the real-time market conditions of cryptocurrency.

Three hundred BTC, the current market value is equivalent to about 2 million RMB.

It is a bit difficult to make a 2A masterpiece with a cost of 3 million RMB, but it is still possible if the requirements for the graphics are lowered.

If you make online games, the cost will be a bit high.

Chen Ran was calculating the cost issue in his mind. He didn't know what Merlin's requirements would be for 200 million.

In addition, a message popped up in his QQ mailbox on his mobile phone.

An email address [email protected] email was sent to his mobile phone, with a compressed file of several hundred megabytes attached.

As soon as Chen Ran saw the email address, he knew it was from Merlin. He quickly went to the study, turned on the Mac, and downloaded and unzipped the attachment in the email on the Mac.

After he downloaded it, the email disappeared without a trace.

The compressed file contains a detailed story document, a requirements document, and a large number of strange plant pictures.

All angles of the same plant are clearly visible.

Merlin's requirements were clearly written in the requirements document. The background story he provided needed to be adopted, and the plants in the game had to become the background of the game.

At the same time, Merlin also provided an online usage address for the game engine in the document.

It is claimed that using this cloud engine can greatly increase their work efficiency and intensity.

Merlin required them to allow players to fully immerse themselves in the game world and to attract truly hardcore players.

Zheng Li hopes to use this to create a game with a complete world view and form a subculture.

Allow players to study the background stories of this series of games, and it would be best if a large number of research parties were formed.

Maybe we can find traces of magical plants in the future.

Spending two or three hundred million euros is nothing to him.

The cloud gaming engine provided in addition is equivalent to lending part of the computing power of the biological cloud to Chen Ran.

As for why Chen Ran was chosen, it was because Zheng Li only knew him as a gamer.

The background of the matter is so simple. When Li Miaomiao reported this matter to Zheng Li, the plan of Chen Ran's group left an impression on Zheng Li.

So after Clark Island was initially formed, Zheng Li went directly to find Chen Ran.

As for the worry that Chen Ran would expose his existence, the injection that the bug gave Chen Ran had the effect of making him unable to utter the word Merlin forever.

Chen Ran doesn't know it yet, but when his friends in the future talk to him about Merlin, he will find that he can't even say the word Merlin.

It’s like when the words are on the tip of your tongue, your brain subconsciously tells you not to say it.

After that, Chen Ran's awe of Merlin deepened.

For Zheng Li, this was just a casual move after work.

As for now, Chen Ran needs to speed up the progress, convert BTC into RMB, and then form a team to start working.

Merlin only gave him one year.

Since Merlin has high requirements for immersion and brain-computer VR is gaining popularity, Chen Ran plans to make a fantasy RPG based on brain-computer VR.

Where are the most talented VR game developers? Tencent, of course.

"I'm planning to quit my job and develop my own games. Do you want to join me?"

The next morning, Chen Ran found Chen Chi and told him all his thoughts:
"Our project was not selected before, and I have been unwilling to accept it. Recently, I have made up my mind to make a game myself. Do you want to join me?"

"I'm over 30 now. If I don't venture out, I'll have no chance anymore."

There are differences between the chief game planner and the programmer. The time when this position will be laid off depends on how long you fall behind the times.

Some were laid off in their twenties, while others continued to work until they were forty.

There are people who work abroad until retirement.

After hearing this, Chen Chi looked at him in surprise: "How could such a rational person like you suddenly become so impulsive?"

“Did you attract venture capital?”

"If the funding and the project are confirmed, I'm willing to go out with you and give it a try."

"But most of the people in our previous team probably wouldn't go out with you."

Chen Ran nodded: "So I plan to find someone from other project teams."

The reason why they won't leave is because the monthly revenue performance of "Hero's End" is amazing.

At that time, most of Chen Ran’s team joined Photon Studio to work on the "Heroes' Doom" project.

The astonishing monthly revenue of "Hero's End" means that they will have an unexpected year-end bonus.

There were rumors in the "Onmyoji" industry that the company paid out a year-end bonus of 100 months' salary. The exact amount was unclear, but this number was almost the same as the actual amount paid out.

The year-end bonus for the "Heroes' End" project team will not be small.

There is still hope for one-tenth of the houses in Pengcheng.

Chen Ran knew this clearly: "I raised 200 million yuan in the first round of investment, and we have 10% of the shares."

"I will give all the 10% of the shares to everyone, and I won't take a single cent for myself."

“Salaries are paid according to the industry average.”

"We need to find the lead programmer and lead artist first, and build the team framework first."

Chen Chi is the system planner and Chen Ran is the main planner, so the game planner doesn’t need to worry.

"You can also keep an eye out for great combat planners and numerical planners, and try to find them all within Tencent."

"I will resign first and recruit staff to handle the company's procedures and daily affairs."

Basic financial and human resources are necessary for an enterprise. When there are few employees in the early stage, finance and human resources can be done by one person.

After hearing this, Chen Chi felt ashamed because he had also been looking for investors, but no one was willing to invest 50 million to test the waters, let alone 200 million.

Especially in the past two years, there are very few angel investors willing to invest in the gaming industry.

"Black Myth: Wukong" has been repeatedly delayed due to lack of investment.

The difficulty in obtaining game licenses has caused the gaming industry to enter a winter.

"If you give us all the shares, what will you do?"

“Two hundred million is enough to make just one game.”

Chen Ran shook his head: "You don't have to worry about me. The investor requires us to release the game within a year."

"There are certain requirements for sales and reputation. I signed a bet contract with the investor. As long as I meet the bet conditions, he will give me an additional 15% of the shares."

After listening to this, Chen Chi felt relieved for his friend, because starting a business is a life-threatening undertaking.

If the game is not made or is not successful, the shares are meaningless.

Ten percent of the shares is definitely enough for the employees of a startup gaming company.

Chen Chi said: "The investor gave us a budget of 200 million and a year."

"That means we have to spend most of the 200 million in a year, leaving a little for subsequent publicity and promotion costs and human resources."

"We will maintain a team of about 50 people in the early stage, and then gradually add people later, and eventually form a team of 300 people."

The production scale of a 3A masterpiece also depends on what kind of game it is. Some have development teams of thousands of people, while others have development teams of two or three hundred people.

"Ten percent of the shares are distributed to the entire team. I am sure I can find some good players to come over."

"You know, there are still many people in Tencent who really want to make good games."

“All we need to do is get the team together and start working!”

(End of this chapter)