Restart life

Chapter 196-0193 [Making money faster than robbing!]

Whether it's the current "Reign of Power" or the upcoming "Conquer Online" next month, the main goal of the closed beta is the in-game store system.

Therefore, it is necessary to enable the in-game purchase/pay-to-win feature.

This is called an open beta test; your level and equipment will be retained.

New players who feel the game is unfair can simply register an account in the new server. Older servers experiencing significant player attrition can be merged – in fact, the more whales (high-spending players) a server has, the more studios it attracts.

On the ninth day after the release of "The Emperor's Reign", a serious bug was discovered: the BOSS in the level 30 dungeon of the Chu Kingdom could be defeated quickly and without damage by using tricky positioning.

This resulted in high-level players from the Chu Kingdom having a significant advantage in equipment and silver over players from the other six kingdoms.

Fortunately, there is a daily limit of 30 resets for a single instance; otherwise, Tao Chenggang would have had to order a rollback.

After some die-hard fans reported the problem, the game's official team immediately shut down the instance and conducted server maintenance the following day.

During the service downtime, a bunch of bugs were fixed.

Besides the aforementioned strategy of using positioning to kill bosses, there are also methods like walking through walls to steal treasure chests, stealing high-level resources while out of combat, and endlessly farming elite monsters while out of combat.

The first three players to report the bug via in-game mail, based on the mail's sending time, will receive in-game rewards.

Depending on the severity of the reported bug, players will be rewarded with 1 to 3 months of premium VIP status, as well as some rare materials and silver. Players who choose to publicly reveal their IDs will also receive official in-game recognition and be included in the "Chronicles of the Reign of Power" on the game's official website.

Reporters of particularly serious bugs will receive a generous cash reward and be invited to visit Bailian Technology Company – with all meals and accommodation provided and travel expenses reimbursed.

Fu Guoqiang received this honor.

He had been playing all night and was sleeping when his friend called and woke him up, telling him to get up quickly and farm dungeons.

Fu Guoqiang's first reaction was, "What a load of crap!"

I've already spent over ten thousand yuan on this, how can I let you guys catch up by quickly farming dungeons and getting equipment?

Then he reported it.

And he was the first person to report it.

Tao Chenggang called him personally: "Thank you for reporting the bug, brother. We have temporarily closed the level 30 dungeon in Chu. If you have time, Brother Fu, we sincerely invite you to our company's annual meeting..."

"Haha, easy to agree. Maintaining game balance is everyone's responsibility," Fu Guoqiang said, pleased with the suggestion. He then offered further suggestions: "Your lottery system is too tiring. Could you add a hundred consecutive draws? My hand is aching from pressing the ten-draw button."

Tao Chenggang broke out in a cold sweat: "Okay, we humbly accept your suggestion, brother. This server maintenance update will add a 100-pull option."

Fu Guoqiang added, "Also, the font in the official world announcements for obtaining top-tier equipment, items, and materials isn't very eye-catching. I finally managed to get a divine steed, but after the official announcement, hardly anyone paid attention. You should add some special effects to the font so that other players can see it at a glance."

“That’s a great suggestion. We made a mistake. Thank you for your support, brother,” Tao Chenggang humbly accepted the suggestion and then asked, “Brother, would you like to reveal your ID and receive in-game server-wide recognition? Reporting that bug might offend many players, so you can choose not to reveal your ID.”

"Haha, of course it should be public. Go ahead and give us your praise, we're not afraid!" Fu Guoqiang laughed.

Tao Chenggang expressed his gratitude again before finally ending the call.

Fu Guoqiang whistled with delight; the game was so much fun that he felt satisfied in every way.

……

When Chen Guiliang received a call from Tao Chenggang, he asked, "The service is down for maintenance so soon?"

"There are quite a few bugs; we didn't discover them during the previous closed beta tests," Tao Chenggang said.

Chen Guiliang asked, "There aren't any bugs like duplicating equipment and money, or endlessly turning in quests, right?"

Tao Chenggang said, "No. The equipment and money duplication bugs are now the main focus of all game companies. In the past, they mainly used network latency bugs, but now they use serial numbers and status locks to prevent them. I don't understand the technology, so I'm not too clear on the specifics. Haha, I can repay the 100 million I borrowed from Youke in a while."

"It really makes a lot of money!" Chen Guiliang exclaimed.

Tao Chenggang said, "In nine days, the total recharge amount exceeded 3.2 million yuan. This is not even the peak recharge period. When the top players reach level 40 and upgrade their equipment, the recharge will really surge. In a while, there will be a national war, which will consume a lot of resources and create another peak in recharge."

The person who spends the most money on topping up accounts these days is not Fu Guoqiang, the "Master Jing".

Instead, it was a player from Fujian who was not a spiritual shareholder of "The Reign of the Emperor".

He used to play "Legend of Mir" all the time, but took a break from gaming for more than half a year. When he heard that "Legend of Mir" had an updated version, he came back. As a result, he found that the so-called update of "Legend of Mir" was just a patchwork of maps and duplicate monsters. He was so angry that he went to play on a private server with a group of old friends.

One day, while playing on a private server, a few friends discussed checking out the game "Quan Yu Tian Xia". After learning about Tao Chenggang's "deeds", he readily agreed and entered the newly opened fourth server of "Quan Yu Tian Xia".

In just four days, this guy recharged 5 yuan!

He bought a full year's premium VIP membership and used every level-up-accelerating item without interruption. To improve his life skills and professional skills, he went on a buying spree at the auction house, snapping up materials. Then he poured money into building his clan's stronghold…

Moreover, this guy has a really bad luck; all his lottery draws are guaranteed to be low-risk.

After winning over 10,000 yuan in the lottery, Tao Chenggang felt a little guilty and secretly ordered him to win an orange mount.

Tao Chenggang was afraid that if he didn't give out the grand prize, the tycoon would get so angry that he'd leave the game. But the real tycoon was yet to appear!

There are many wealthy people in this world; the question is whether you can attract them to the game.

For example, the "Central Plains Thug" in the game *Zhengtu* spent two or three hundred thousand yuan on virtual flowers in one night to pursue a female player. Some said he was a coal mine owner, but he spoke with a Wu-Yue accent and sounded very young. Then others said he was the son of a real estate developer from the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, or Shanghai region.

……

The other side of "Zhengtu".

Shi Yuzhu held the reports submitted by the three testers: "This escort mode is worth learning from, as it can greatly improve the interaction between players."

In fact, he plays it himself and has spent more than 20,000 yuan on "The Reign of Power".

This time, I'm not here to play games, but to personally experience the playability of a rival game.

"Their equipment upgrade system is indeed quite good, more complete than ours."

"There are also various ranking lists, with even more variety than ours."

"I specifically compared the lottery and opening treasure chests. I found that the chance of getting good items from opening treasure chests is much higher than that from the lottery. However, treasure chests in 'The Reign of Power' cannot be purchased in the store; they can only be obtained by killing monsters, completing quests, and encountering special events."

"Players who want to open treasure chests on a large scale must first buy chests from other players. Ordinary players who obtain chests cannot open high-level treasure chests without spending money. This enhances the interaction between different player groups. Free users can even obtain in-game currency (yuanbao) that can only be obtained by spending money from paying players by selling high-level treasure chests."

“Level 10 and 20 gold chests are being bought by paying players with real money because they can contain rare materials.”

"..."

Shi Yuzhu studies "The Emperor's Reign" every day, and then makes slight adjustments to his own "Conquer Online".

The development team for the game "Zhengtu" has been continuously expanding, growing from the initial 20 people to the current 200 people!
Although many of them are just assistants, a development team of 200 people is quite impressive on a global scale.

……

Zhang Suyang, a director of IDG stationed at ByteDance, suddenly came to Beijing to find Chen Guiliang because of the unexpected success of "The Emperor's Reign".

"Mr. Chen certainly has a discerning eye!" Zhang Suyang praised after exchanging a few pleasantries.

Chen Guiliang was slightly surprised: "IDG has already started paying attention to Bailian Technology?"

Zhang Suyang said, "I am a director of ByteDance, and ByteDance has also invested in Bailian Technology. How could I not pay attention to the launch of Bailian's game? Although only five servers have been opened so far, compared to the pitifully small amount of publicity and promotion expenses, this speed can only be compared to the Legend of Mir back in the day."

"President Tao is assembling a promotion team, and they will be promoting the service in internet cafes in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou," Chen Guiliang said.

Zhang Suyang said, "If he needs money, IDG can invest."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "You should go talk to President Tao yourself. He is the major shareholder of Bailian Technology. Besides, it's not easy to value it at this stage."

Of course, it's hard to value; the price changes every day.

Zhang Suyang asked, "How long can ByteDance's funding last?"

"Based on the current net monthly expenditure, we can sustain this for another 6 to 8 months," Chen Guiliang said.

Zhang Suyang said, "If you don't have enough funds, let me know two or three months in advance. I will help you contact Series B financing."

The popularity of Bailian Technology's games has made IDG even more optimistic about ByteDance.

Zhang Suyang was even observing Tudou.com, a company in which ByteDance had invested. He discovered that Tudou.com was also developing rapidly, with 20 registered users, while the second-largest website in the same category had less than 5.

Zhang Suyang said, "You were an A-round investor in Tudou.com. What scale do you think Tudou.com needs to reach before it's suitable for a B-round funding round? And how much should it raise?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Let's wait until Tudou.com has burned through most of its money before we talk about it."

We definitely can't rush things now.

"The Promise" was released at the end of the year, followed by "A Bloodbath Caused by a Steamed Bun".

At that point, Tudou.com truly broke out of its niche, and netizens across the country became aware of this video website. Its valuation skyrocketed!
ByteDance's investments in Bailian Technology and Tudou.com have clearly caught the eye of IDG, who is now waving its cash in an attempt to enter the market.

This year, every month, Chinese internet companies have received venture capital funding amounts they never dared to dream of before.

BlogChina, which had been overshadowed by Sina Blog, secured $1000 million in investment that summer. Sina, upon learning this, quickly followed suit. Currently, Sohu is also preparing to launch its own blog platform.

Chen Guiliang said, "The Weibo product advertisement on Kaixin.com will be launched tonight. Mr. Zhang can check it out on major video websites."

"Any surprises?" Zhang Suyang asked.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "I don't know. It might just be a waste of time and a fright."

(End of this chapter)