Rebirth 08: Can a mobile game company also build a tech empire?

With William agreeing, both phones entered the game simultaneously.

With a signature whistle blast, the competition officially began.

At the top of the screen, two avatars appear, one on the left and one on the right.

The one on the left representing Jeremy has a red frame, and the one on the right representing William has a blue frame.

Next to the profile picture are the scores of the two people, both starting at zero.

Each player's game interface displays a halo representing their own color.

Upon seeing the game interface, William understood how to play this battle system.

He licked his dry lips, his nerves instantly becoming excited.

"That's so creative!" William exclaimed. "This way, we can invite our friends to compete, whether online or offline!"

"Yeah, the global leaderboard used to be so boring. I've tried countless times and still can't get on it."

Jeremy chimed in.

Indeed, given Jeremy's gaming skills, the global leaderboard is a bit too difficult for him.

When it comes to something that you can't do no matter how hard you try, you lose interest after a few attempts.

The game didn't give them much time to chat.

The first piece of fruit was tossed up from the bottom of the screen, and William instinctively cut it.

Then, glancing at Jeremy's phone screen out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed...

The games on both phones were completely synchronized!

This shows that the fight between the two was fair.

The two of them had tried playing against each other before.

Select a mode and click Start Game.

However, there is a problem: the two players' games are out of sync.

Some people are unlucky and get hit by several bombs in a row, while others get hit by pomegranates.

As we all know, the pomegranate in Fruit Swordsman can be cut continuously.

That way, you can get a lot of points just by encountering a pomegranate.

Therefore, this kind of battle is unfair to both of them.

They had long hoped that Fruit Swordsman would introduce a fair and just battle mode.

The Fruit Swordsman is actually made now!

Moreover, it's more creative, allowing you to skip the tedious process of finding opponents and directly import your Facebook friends into the game.

This is so convenient!

It greatly facilitates interaction between friends.

The game quickly ended amidst the two exclaimed in admiration.

The scores are now tallied: William has 3058 points, and Jeremy has 2782 points.

"William, why do you always get higher scores than me!"

Previously, because there was no battle system, the scores between the two players varied.

But once he had a relatively fair platform, Jeremy realized the gap between himself and William.

"Of course I'm better."

William said without any modesty.

The classmates surrounding the two had been waiting impatiently, watching them play the game with great anticipation.

"Fruit Swordsman has actually added a friend system."

"Yeah, I didn't expect that the two of us could play together."

"No, I'm going to make my dad buy me an iPhone this time."

The addition of the new feature caused a stir among the students watching.

The simple single-player game was already very appealing.

The addition of the friend system has further fueled this trend.

"Let me try it too!"

Once the first person got their hands on it, the others couldn't hold back any longer and started fighting over the two phones.

"My phone!"

"Slow down!"

Jeremy and William were both in a terrible predicament.

Last time, when Fruit Swordsman was first launched, they experienced a phone being passed around among classmates.

It seems that after this game update, they will inevitably have to go through it again.

While Jeremy and William were playing around with their classmates.

A storm is quietly brewing, centered around 5.5 Fruit Swordsman players.

It eventually swept to every corner of the world.

To be honest, Lu Chen didn't expect that the game + social model, which domestic players had basically taken for granted, could create such a huge wave overseas.

These 5.5 players did almost the same thing after the game update.

That is to recommend Fruit Swordsman to your Facebook friends.

Some people see it and just swipe away, while others actually open the App Store, search for it, and download it.

They just wanted to be able to play against their friends in the game.

With the first batch of downloaders, plus the enthusiastic recommendations from these 5.5 players, the game had taken off.

Soon, the Fruit Swordsman spread almost like a virus!

As a result, the number of downloads of Fruit Swordsman steadily increased.

Because of the App Store's original recommendation algorithm, the first benefit of the increased downloads was that Fruit Swordsman finally appeared on the App Store's charts!

The Fruit Swordsman has finally reappeared in everyone's sight.

This sparked a new wave of download frenzy!

The impact of this is felt in the library, on the street, in the restroom, on the bus...

Almost anywhere you can imagine, you can see people frantically swiping across the screen.

Once this situation is established, there is no longer a need for the 5.5 existing players to promote it.

Some people will naturally wonder what these people who never put down their phones, no matter when or where, are doing.

Once they've been introduced to Fruit Swordsman out of curiosity, they'll never be able to put the game down.

Even though he can't play it because he doesn't have an iPhone.

But afterwards, the memory of the game scenes still lingers.

That must be something you can't forget, something that keeps replaying in your mind.

As a result, iPhone sales also saw an increase due to the impact of the fruit swordsman.

And this wave that originated abroad has gradually entered China.

Meanwhile, Yangcheng University.

The dormitory was still filled with the same smell as always, a mixture of instant noodles, sweat, and feet.

Unlike before, the four people in the dormitory no longer "raced".

Instead, they changed it to getting together to cut fruit.

"They're all lined up in a straight line, hurry up and cut them!"

"Oops! You missed the fruit, so you won't get a combo!"

"Hey! Didn't you see the bomb?"

With a burst of white light from the bomb, Lü Bowen ended a game.

"My turn! My turn!"

Wang Xuan and the others had been eyeing it with great envy for a long time.

But Lü Bowen was not convinced.

"Don't you understand the principle of 'not speaking while watching chess'? I almost dodged the bomb just now, it's all your fault for shouting nonsense. Let me try again."

"We agreed on one game per person, so don't try to cheat."

"I won't listen to this bastard's chanting."

The others ignored Lü Bowen's explanations and immediately grabbed his phone.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't steal it! I want to play one more round."

Lu Bowen started yelling, but he wouldn't let go of his phone.

At that moment, the phone rang with a short notification tone.

"Stop playing for a moment, let me see the message."

Qiu Zihao seized control of the phone.

The crowd then stopped scrambling for the phone, since it belonged to Qiu Zihao and he had the right to it.

The phone was returned to Qiu Zihao's hands.

He swiped down the notification bar, and it turned out to be an update notification from Fruit Swordsman.

Qiu Zihao saw this and knew he had to update it.

Fruit Swordsman was updated very quickly.

When you open the updated game, a dialog box pops up, prompting you to agree to access your Facebook friend list.

In 2008, even those who could afford to buy an iPhone 3G online couldn't register a single Facebook account.

Furthermore, QQ is not yet available on the App Store, so the only chat software available is from overseas.

Qiu Zihao clicked "Agree" and entered the game's start screen, where a new "Friends" icon appeared.