Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 533 The Fangs of Three Stars

Before Chen Hongwen could say anything more, Chen Zhi hung up the phone.

He didn't want Prince Group to get involved in gambling-related businesses.

Although he now understood Cheng Yi's purpose, turning a blind eye and personally going down the mountain to participate were two different things.

They simply provide an in-game store to facilitate player transactions; what players use it for is none of their business, and they have no interest in knowing.

After all, it's the player's own money; if he wants to indulge in drinking, gambling, and prostitution, that's his freedom.

However, if he agreed to his father's request, it would mean that the Prince Group would once again be bound to the Tianqin Group by interests, and the Prince Group would definitely do something illegal.

Although the agency rights for the Asian server of Honghuang Zhanji are permanent, there is also a breach of contract clause in it.

If he breaches the contract, Momo Group has the right to revoke the agency rights.

He put away his phone and turned his attention back to the computer screen.

This ring has now fetched $100 million USD without any additional charges; they'll probably need to use shills to drive up the price.

After all, even if an in-game ring has other functions, $100 million is already outrageous.

"Get ready to raise the price. When the countdown reaches 2, place your bid of $110 million." Chen Zhi stood up and shouted to the auctioneers who had been waiting for a long time.

"Yes!" All the dozen or so auctioneers were in position, waiting for the countdown to the hammer fall.

Just seconds before the hammer fell and the countdown began, the screen suddenly jumped again.

[Bidder: ID-OilKingLittlePrince bids: $1200000]

"Hiss..." A collective gasp of cold air echoed in the operations office.

Chen Zhi's assistant's eyes were also wide open.

Before anyone could express their feelings, [XG-Dongxing], who had been silent for a moment, struck again:
[Bidder: XG-Dongxing bids: $1500000]

"1.5 million, that's the limit..." Chen Zhi's assistant murmured.

This is the target price they are prepared to raise.

Chen Zhi's heart skipped a beat; the stooges he had arranged hadn't even been used yet.

This is a real battle between players who are spending real money.

A mixture of excitement and absurdity welled up in Chen Zhi's heart.

Cheng Yi is incredibly good at manipulating people's hearts.

At this point, Mount Fuji seemed to be enraged and, without hesitation, added another 100,000:
[Bidder: RB-Mount Fuji, Bid: $1,600,000]

The little prince of oil followed closely behind, showing his determination to win:

[Bidder: ID-OilKingLittlePrince bids: $1,650,000]

The price hovered between 160 million and 165 million for more than ten seconds, with each fluctuation affecting the nerves of hundreds of thousands of players across the server. The world chat was flooded with "Oh my god!" and "Crazy!" in various languages.

Just when everyone thought the dust had settled and the Indonesian oil tycoon was about to claim the crown, an ID with an extremely low-key name, who had never participated in the auction before, suddenly appeared:
[Bidder: TG-Tranquil Harbor, Bid: $2222222]

2222222! !! !!

This number was like a bolt from the blue, instantly shattering the perceptions of the entire auction page and all those who were following it.

It jumped by nearly $60.

That domineering attitude made it seem as if the previous fierce competition was nothing more than children playing house.

[RB-Mt. Fuji] fell silent.

[ID-Oil King Little Prince] remained silent.

【XG-Dongxing】 also fell silent.

The countdown relentlessly ticked away in a suffocating silence...

It's not that they can't afford the price, it's just that this guy bid too casually, it's obvious he just pressed seven 2s.

This, on another level, shows that the bidder has absolutely no concept of money.

Besides, even if they don't get the ring, they can still achieve their goal with ordinary equipment.

After all, they've been doing that for the past few days.

Their purpose in buying the ring was simply to make what they were doing seem more legitimate.

【2222222 once!】

【2222222 twice!】

【2222222 three times!】

The screen flashed a countdown to the falling hammer, illuminated by colorful lights.

The final transaction price was firmly locked in: 2222222!

The recipient of this paralysis ring is TG-Tranquil Harbor.
"That's outrageous!" Chen Zhi swallowed hard.

The moment the Honghuang Treasure Pavilion auction ended, it was as if a depth charge had been dropped on the internet world.

Major websites overseas have begun to report this news.

Virtual item sold for a record-breaking price! A game item from the game "Primordial Era" fetched $222 million at auction!

"The Primordial Treasure Pavilion: A Genius Design or Pandora's Box? The Virtual Economic Frenzy Behind the $222 Million Ring"

As this news trend spread online, some international media outlets also began to report on it.

Reuters: "Online game item fetches a record $222 million at auction, drawing global attention to Asia's virtual economy."

South China Morning Post: "Virtual rings worth a fortune spark heated debate over online gaming economy."

BBS: "Are the Sky-High Prices of Virtual Items in Online Games a Risk of Triggering an Internet Bubble?"

When this news reached China, it caused an uproar. Although Cheng Yi did not allow major portal websites to report it publicly, some players who heard the news started discussing it on Tianya, Mop, and other major forums.

"$222 million?! Am I seeing things or has the world gone mad? That's enough to buy so many apartments in Beijing!"

"Who exactly is this TG-Tranquil Harbor?"

Speculation is rampant, ranging from mysterious members of the Thai royal family to elusive tech upstarts, with the rumors becoming increasingly fantastical.

On several social media platforms in Asia, the paralysis ring has even become a meme:
"Don't ever say you're rich again, unless you have a paralysis ring."

The account of that melancholy little prince was flooded with friend requests, undoubtedly making him the number one celebrity in the game, far surpassing even top-tier players. Even on the streets, even elderly people who don't play games, couldn't help but marvel when they saw news reports of an in-game item selling for $222 million, making it a topic of conversation.

The name of the overseas version of "Honghuang Zhanji" resounded throughout the Asian gaming community in a very short time, along with the $222 million auction, and even broke into the public eye and mainstream financial fields.

At this moment, the popularity of Momo Games and Honghuang Zhanji reached an unprecedented and terrifying level.

Jingzhou City, headquarters of Momo Group.

Inside Cheng Yi's office, Kong Feng, his face flushed with excitement, exclaimed, "President Cheng, the whole world is talking about us! Our Primordial Era Asia server has made a splash!"

"As expected." Cheng Yi smiled and said, "Tell Chen Zhi to strike while the iron is hot and do on-the-ground promotion as soon as possible. We don't have much time left."

"Why?" Kong Feng still didn't understand.

Cheng Yi said, "Enze Capital is about to launch another online game. Before they launch, we need to gain as many loyal fans as possible."

"You mean World of Warcraft?" Kong Feng asked.

"Hmm," Cheng Yi said, "Both World of Warcraft and Primordial Era are equally precious."

Kong Feng didn't pay much attention to World of Warcraft, saying, "Western games have always been unpopular in Asia; EverQuest is a prime example."

“It’s not certain anymore,” Cheng Yi said. “You need to put in 120% effort to deal with it. Enze Capital is adopting a new race-the-horse policy. Honghuang War Chronicles must let the data speak for itself. If it is really defeated by World of Warcraft, then it is a worthless game.”

"Yes, I understand." Kong Feng nodded slowly.

Cheng Yi laughed and said, "But you don't need to worry. World of Warcraft will be launched in Europe and America first. The Asian server will not be available until at least April or May next year."

"Okay." Kong Feng finally realized that he couldn't get carried away.

Enze Capital is a major shareholder of Momo Group.

The popularity of the Paralysis Ring remains high, with the number of online players in the game "Primordial War Chronicles" approaching one million.

Although breaking the million mark in just over two months is not top-tier among overseas games, it is still a very good achievement.

In late autumn in Jingzhou, the air is filled with a sense of prosperity and vitality.

In the overseas business office of Momo Games, Kong Feng and his team have been optimizing the game.

Because of the ceasefire agreement, Microsoft did not target the game "Primordial War Chronicles".

From the perspective of Microsoft executives, it's good to let things play out for a while.

When they acquire Momo Group, this Primordial Era will become their business.

"Mr. Kong, the daily active users on the Asia server have reached a new high again. Prince Group has also opened up the markets in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Our peak concurrent users reached 117 million." In the afternoon, a young product manager excitedly entered the room to report.

Kong Feng looked at the backend data and a smile appeared on his lips.

117 million, that's a pretty good number. It should be enough to keep up with our allies' World of Warcraft numbers, right?
In Kong Feng's view, 117 million concurrent online users is already the ceiling of the online gaming industry. However, he did not know that his ally's World of Warcraft reached a peak of 1450 million concurrent online users worldwide as soon as it was released.

Kong Feng picked up his thermos and took a sip of hot tea with a smug look on his face. Just then, his office door was hurriedly pushed open by his assistant.

"Mr. Kong! Something terrible has happened! Please take a look at this!" The assistant looked grim as he placed a printed document and several screenshots on Kong Feng's desk.

Kong Feng put down his cup and picked up the documents.

The title is in Korean:
Actoz Entertainment makes a grand return! The classic Legend of Mir 2 (Mir2) Asia server launches!

Looking at the screenshot again, it's a game website designed in a martial arts style, with a style exactly like the Legend of Mir website operated by Shanda back then, but the domain suffix has changed to .asia.

In the center of the page are familiar images of Bichon City and Skull Cave, only much higher resolution than previous Legendary versions.

Below the prominent Korean characters next to it is a note that reads:

"Legendary Treasure Pavilion launches simultaneously! Authentic experience, secure transactions!"

"Legendary? Actoz?" Kong Feng frowned immediately. "Weren't they practically dead after we squeezed them out of existence? How come they've suddenly reappeared?"

The Actoz Group has indeed had a tough time in the past six months.

Cheng Yi originally planned to acquire Actoz Group and then open up the trillion-dollar market of Legend private servers. After the acquisition failed, Cheng Yi terminated the cooperation with Legend and introduced all Legend players to Honghuang Zhanji, causing Actoz Group to completely lose the Chinese market.

Even the private servers of Legend were attacked and disappeared without a trace by Cheng Yi, as if the game Legend had never existed in China at all.

Actoz Group, on the other hand, dared not speak out against their anger.

Momo Group is backed by IBM Group and Enze Capital. Samsung Group has not yet recovered from the pain of its business war with IBM and does not want to start another business war for the time being, so Actoz Group has no choice but to swallow its anger.

Despite their attempts to find domestic agents, no one dared to take on the project.

All internet cafes in China are managed by the Momo Group, and Legend of Mir was actually defeated by the Momo Group while it was under the control of Shengda.

Even if someone in China has the guts to take on this agency, are they confident they can do it better than Chen Tianqiao?

Having lost the legendary Chinese market, Actoz Group's revenue plummeted by two-thirds, and they even lost their year-end bonuses.

At this moment, Kong Feng's assistant pointed to the documents and said, "Mr. Kong, please take a look. Samsung Group's investment company has chosen to fully acquire Actoz. This is clearly driven by Samsung behind the scenes, and their publicity efforts are very strong, covering almost all of our key promotional areas in Asia. Moreover, they have also followed our example and created a legendary treasure pavilion."

Kong Feng's face immediately darkened.

He quickly turned on his computer and searched for relevant information.

As expected, discussions about "Legendary Asia Server" are rapidly rising on major gaming forums and social media in South Korea and Southeast Asia.

"Damn it, Samsung is like a venomous snake; once it catches its breath, it bites!" Kong Feng couldn't help but curse.

This is the nature of business warfare; the business landscape may have already changed completely when you wake up from a nap.

"Do we need to report to General Manager Cheng?" the assistant asked in a low voice.

Kong Feng considered for a moment and said, "I'll go report it. You organize the information for me."

Seoul, Actoz Group headquarters.

The once quiet office has been revitalized thanks to the investment from Samsung Capital.

At this moment, President Kim Myung-chul was beaming, bowing and scraping to the several Samsung representatives in suits in front of him.

"Director Lee, you see, our publicity efforts have been very effective! Legend is still very competitive in Asia." Kim Myung-chul's tone was full of awe for the Samsung representative.

Lee Myung-ho, head of the Strategic Investment Office at Samsung Group, flipped through the report in his hand with a blank expression.

He looked at it for a while, then tapped the data on the daily active users of the Asia server of Honghuang War Chronicles and the estimated daily revenue of Honghuang Treasure Pavilion, and said, "President Jin, this is what we want. Actoz losing the Chinese market is already a huge failure. This time we are giving you another chance, not for you to do small-scale things."

Jin Mingzhe's forehead was covered in sweat as he cautiously said, "Yes, yes! Director Li is right. Our Legendary Treasure Pavilion completely follows the model of the Primordial Treasure Pavilion, and in terms of payment channels, we have connected to PayPal, which is more secure and convenient than Skrill, which they rely on."

Li Minghao nodded slightly and said slowly, "Remember, our goal is not to take a share of the pie, but to replicate the success of 'Honghuang Zhanji' or replace it. Samsung will fully support you with its resources. Online promotion should be overwhelming, and offline internet cafe promotion activities should also be launched simultaneously, especially in Southeast Asia, which is Momo's current core market and we should focus on breaking through there."

(End of this chapter)