I was reborn without dreams

Chapter 147 Steady as a Rock, Let's Play a Round of CS
Because the original entertainers of "Jinbang Blog" were led astray by Zhang Da'an, the mainstream voice of "Jinbang Blog" became: Whether you become Americans that night is none of my business, but I'm definitely not going to become an American.

Surprisingly, the consulate staff also protested against the mainstream rhetoric of "Jinbang Blog," arguing that it was an inhumane form of propaganda.

Then Zhang Da'an responded on his personal blog: The US consul is absolutely right. I did make some "non-mainstream" remarks, but I believe that netizens who know me well know that my personal character is... rather low.

Regarding personal qualities...

The response was neither professional nor polite, and it also carried a hint of the local flavor of Shazhou City.

After causing another uproar online, Zhang Da installed a fake account and ran away. After giving a unified multimedia lecture to students in the three campuses, he still had to rush to Chengdong District of Jiangning City.

I've spent the last few days traveling; I've been incredibly busy.

However, there was nothing that could be done. Fang Daqiao had no say in the establishment of the "team of a thousand illustrators." Shen Tu's "tank team" only knew how to stay up all night playing games. They didn't seem to have any good ideas for game development. When they went to communicate with the illustrators, the best they could do was to get them to make a classic "eroge" game. They couldn't do anything else.

Shen Tu took good care of the new security guard, Zhai Dingding, after all, Zhai Dingding was a junior from Luzhou Jiaotong University.

"Boss, how come my junior colleague ended up as a security guard?"

"You, who never does anything productive and can't even make a decent educational game, are also working as a network administrator?"

"When did I become a network administrator?"

"Rabbit, look. When you work at a company, you don't need to know what time you start work in the morning or what time you finish get off work in the evening, do you?"

"Yes."

"Look again. When you're at work, don't you just sit down in your chair, turn on your computer, and then when you're hungry, use the water dispenser to boil water and make instant noodles?"

"Yep."

"Then keep watching. When you're at work, do you just play a game, and then when the internet goes down, do you check what's wrong? If your computer freezes, do you just restart it?"

"Yes, Not Bad."

"You're practically selling membership cards to people, don't you think you're the internet cafe manager?"

"..."

Seeing Shen Tu's unshaven, bewildered expression—after all, his broken glasses had been replaced with a cord—Zhang Da'an patted him on the shoulder. "Want to play a game of StarCraft?"

"Random race!"

"Get on the computer!"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, boss, wanna play CS?"

"Is everyone here?"

"I woke up Number Three and Black Panther; they had just fallen asleep."

"What were you playing that got so engrossed in that you're only now going to sleep?"

"Wasn't this the mini-game we developed for 'Top Scholar Star'? Old Du set up a random model, which makes it easier for us to design levels now. Black Panther has been busy all day."

"Let's not call him anymore, I'm afraid he might suddenly die."

"Black Panther! Black Panther! The boss has started a game of Counter-Strike!"

"Hmm...hmm? What time is it?"

"Three o'clock?"

Three o'clock in the morning.

"Are you fucking crazy, Mantou?! I went to bed at 2:50, and you woke me up in ten minutes?!"

"Hurry up, you idiot, the boss started a game of Counter-Strike."

"You're fucking crazy, I choose the police!"

"..."

Actually, it will take a few more days for Counter-Strike to become a huge hit in China. Right now, Half-Life is still the main focus. However, for various reasons, as long as Chinese game enthusiasts are diligent, the efficiency can be quite high.

The Chinese localization pack for Counter-Strike was made by Shen Tu and his team. It was completed in one day, distributed in two days, and within three days, various Counter-Strike (Xiaobai Chinese localization pack patches) appeared on the battle platform.

If there are enough programmers who play games every day, their enthusiasm for this activity is comparable to downloading classic movies from the campus network.

Zhang Da'an put on his headphones, started the game with a small pistol, and after accumulating a shotgun from a B22, there were bangs everywhere.

Then the schedule of promising artists and illustrators was overshadowed by a game of Counter-Strike.

During this time, Zhai Dingding pulled a small cart to change the bottled water in each office. Her diligence made Zhang Da'an wonder if she was acting like a beast.

However, when Zhang Da'an saw a female programmer flirting with Zhai Dingding, he felt that Zhai's training needed to be intensified.

Handsome guys like that lack experience.

After a thrilling counter-terrorism battle, Zhang Da'an finally said, "When the hell are you going to finish building the mobile network? So many artists are waiting to make a living. I've prepared over 20 million yuan in basic salaries for the year. If you burn it all up, see how I deal with you." "Seriously, boss? Besides making the terminal puzzle game, we also have to keep up with Li Jingwu's team's development progress, and we also have to play StarCraft, Counter-Strike, and Stone Age. We don't even have enough time each day."

Zhang Da'an didn't say anything, but just gave the middle finger to these animals.

However, the animals were just talking; in reality, the progress was quite good. Zhang Da'an looked at the page, which was very simple. The advertising page was already there, of course, it was an advertisement for mobile communication operators' tariffs.

It has three main sections: text, images, and music.

In layman's terms, it's like a novel, mobile wallpaper, and mobile ringtone.

At this point, the mobile wallpaper and mobile ringback tone services had not yet demonstrated their full potential, and the ringback tone service would not be able to save a large number of internet users for another two and a half years.

As for now, the mobile wallpaper business is ready to begin.

The era of color screens is dawning, and Zhang Da'an has the largest assembly line painting team in East China.

This business is actually quite sinister. How sinister?

These days, if a mobile phone user wants a small color wallpaper, they'll have to pay at least two yuan.

On the remarkable development of e-commerce...

The deduction is based on phone bills, so many users don't really notice it.

What's even more incredible is that these days, phone bills can be reduced to negative hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands...

For telecom operators to stop this underhanded practice, things will only improve once a reporting mechanism and KPI-based performance evaluations are implemented.

However, these days nobody likes the mortal world, and they basically do whatever it takes to be shameless. Antivirus software companies release "specialized killers" every year and every month, so the legitimate ones are even more formidable.

For example, the "hacker killers" recommended by classified units at that time were practically wearing "I'm an idiot" on their sleeves. Only later did security experts rise up because they couldn't stand it anymore, and more people were paid by the government. It was only after that abstract thinking receded from various departments that everything seemed to become more formal.

The bidding and procurement process has become less human-like, and we've taken countless detours and stepped on countless landmines.

Strictly speaking, the seemingly most informal large-scale makeshift organization, "Zhang Xiaobai Technology Co., Ltd.", is actually the most formal team nationwide.

This applies to every aspect; otherwise, people from Luzhou Jiaotong University wouldn't be rushing over here. It's not really because they don't have to clock in at work and can play games every day.

"The mobile version of the personal blog needs to be changed. Don't refresh the images in the blog posts, just make the text page-turning."

"But having pictures can save on data charges."

Is GPRS something you programmers use to scam money?

Two months have passed since the commercial testing of GPRS was released, and many software development companies have set their sights on this area. Cooperation with mobile operators has also increased by several thousand software development companies in just two months.

Of course, more than half of them are just using different aliases to impersonate each other; there aren't many who actually have real strength.

When influential figures visited Jiangkou Province last year, they raised the issues of internet speed and pricing, so it's not surprising that they've set their sights on data charges.

Unlike most software development studios and companies that focus on sending and receiving emails, Zhang Da'an started thinking about mobile wallpapers and ringback tones from the beginning, but the ringback tones business needed time to be implemented.

Phone wallpapers are now the real dessert before the main course.

This also needs to be considered in conjunction with the current characteristics of mobile phones. After all, most mobile phones still have black and white screens or even no screen. The mobile wallpaper business, or the digital image publishing industry, will not take off until next year or the year after. During this period of growth, it will drive the full-scale rollout of the ringback tone business.

Without the "team of a thousand artists" project, Zhang Da'an could only negotiate collaborations with domestic mobile phone brands. So the question is, what is the market share of domestic mobile phone brands?
It ranks among the top ten mobile phone fighters, but it doesn't even have a 10% market share.

Motorola and Nokia dominated the market, with 25% and 20% respectively, an incredibly strong position.

Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and the like, all have single-digit numbers, but even with only single-digit numbers, life is still quite enjoyable.

After all, it's a "high-end machine" these days.

With a "team of a thousand artists," European, American, and Japanese mobile phone brands that have driven color screen phones into the market will definitely seek cooperation with "professional teams."

It's that simple.

This also aligns with the interests of mobile operators, as users of "high-end phones" are often more generous; selling them phone wallpapers for two yuan a piece is nothing.

These days, many "high-end mobile phone" users top up their phone credit in increments of 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, while those who are a little less concerned about the hassle top up in increments of 100,000 or 80,000 yuan.

What's with all those "top up 100 yuan and get 20 yuan free" offers? I wouldn't even bother looking at them. Why bother?
Therefore, the two mobile operators in Jiangkou Province, who have access to first-hand user data, have begun to consider awarding Zhang Da'an the general contract for an official mobile wallpaper service.

The trial period will last for three months, from October to November to December, with a fixed price of 40 million.

However, because Zhang Da'an was busy arguing with people, it was delayed for a few days.

Now this news is gradually spreading, and many companies and studios in Taihu City and Chongzhou City have posted recruitment advertisements for "high-salary illustrators".

However, it was of no use. Several of the slightly larger companies went bankrupt. The bosses were either sentenced or fled. In the entire Jiangkou Province, the biggest drafting foreman was Zhang Da'an.

Coach Zhang is now as steady as a rock, just waiting to make another 50, 60, 70, or 80 million in pocket money next year.

(End of this chapter)