My capital is quite large.

After seeing off the boastful Boss Jia, Li Feng didn't take this incident to heart.

He turned around, took the elevator, and went down to the game development floor of Haofeng Network.

Today, Haofeng is no longer the small workshop with only thirty-odd people it once was. The entire R&D center occupies two whole floors, with hundreds of top programmers and concept artists working furiously on dual-screen computers.

"Mr. Li!"

Technical Director Chen, with his sharp eyes, immediately approached Li Feng with several progress reports as soon as he saw him inspecting the area.

"How's the progress on everything?" Li Feng asked casually as he walked to an empty workstation.

Old Chen opened the report and reported to his supervisor: "The PC version of Plants vs. Zombies is complete! All levels, plant stat balance, and hidden modes have been tested and are ready for packaging. However, the iOS and Android mobile versions will require about a month of optimization time because we need to re-adapt the touch drag logic and screen resolution."

"A month is not a long time. Just keep things meticulous and follow the rhythm."

Li Feng nodded, then asked, "What about Temple Run?"

Mentioning this, Old Chen's face showed a hint of helplessness and apology: "Mr. Li, I really have to apologize for this delay. The full 3D endless parkour scene, plus the gravity sensor, is causing the current smartphone chips to overheat too much. It will throttle and drop frames after running for a little while. We still have to keep working on the underlying rendering algorithm, and I estimate that the earliest we can release the first version is the end of the year."

"Take it slow, this is to be expected."

Li Feng did not blame Lao Chen.

He was well aware that at this point in time, running a full 3D game on a mobile phone would place extremely demanding requirements on the hardware.

The hardware gap will take time to bridge, and it should be released by the end of the year, just in time for the performance leap of the iPhone 3GS.

"There's something else, Mr. Li."

Old Chen turned to the last page of the report. "Our web game project team's main focus, 'Hu Lai Three Kingdoms,' is also completely finished. The front-end and back-end interaction, the card-drawing system, and the logic for friends to conquer cities and territories have all been successfully implemented."

"Do you think... we should contact Tencent's QQ Space open platform?"

Hearing what Lao Chen said, Li Feng couldn't help but laugh.

"Sell it to penguins? Old Chen, do you think I, Li Feng, am a great philanthropist?"

Li Feng pointed upstairs, "I went to great lengths to create Haofeng Weibo, and now it has over 20 million daily active users. All the top influencers on the internet are under my control. I clearly hold the hottest social media platform in the country, so why would I send a game like 'Hu Lai Three Kingdoms,' which stimulates social interaction, into Tencent's bowl to aid their enemy?"

Old Chen was taken aback: "Mr. Li, you mean... put it on our own Weibo account?!"

"Otherwise what?"

Li Feng patted Lao Chen on the shoulder. "Selling it to Tencent, at best we'll only make a quick buck of 30 million. But if this game is tied to Haofeng's Weibo, using Weibo's friend network to 'conquer cities and seize generals,' how much user stickiness and online time can it bring to Weibo?"

"The activity level on social media platforms is far more valuable than a mere 30 million!"

Old Chen suddenly realized and nodded repeatedly.

"It's not just 'Hu Lai Three Kingdoms'."

Li Feng continued to issue instructions, "The same strategy applies to the release of 'Plants vs. Zombies.' Produce a streamlined Flash demo and put it up for free on Haofeng's Weibo webpage as a tool to drive traffic and attract new users to Weibo."

"As for the premium full version of Plants vs. Zombies, put it on Steam!"

"Steam?" Old Chen was genuinely surprised. "Mr. Li, aren't we releasing the PC version in China? There are tens of millions of single-player gamers in China, after all."

"The current PC single-player market in China is a disaster area plagued by rampant piracy. If a game is released today, cracked versions will be everywhere tomorrow, and you can't make much money."

Li Feng's gaze was deep and far-sighted. "The full version of this game is on PC. I don't expect to make money in China. It's purely to generate buzz and drive traffic to the upcoming mobile version."

"Go live on Steam and earn dollars from players worldwide! Once they're hooked on the PC version, our iOS version will be released next month, and we'll rake in the profits from the Apple Store again!"

……

Downstairs at the Fiyta Building, Nanshan District, Shenzhen.

Mr. Jia, carrying his briefcase, walked out of the revolving glass doors of Tencent's headquarters with his assistant.

At this moment, Boss Jia's face looked much uglier than when he arrived.

Just as Li Feng had predicted, he took his exquisite "ecological transformation" PPT and tried to persuade Pony Ma to swap his shares with Tencent.

As a result, he didn't even get to meet Pony Ma, let alone the senior vice president of Penguin's investment department. He was politely shown tea and sent away by a mid-level director on the grounds that the project did not conform to Penguin's current strategic direction.

"Mr. Jia, have we... completely hit a wall?"

The assistant followed behind dejectedly, saying, "The people at Tencent and Alibaba aren't stupid. LeEco isn't even listed yet. We can't just offer them our shares in exchange for their real money and core resources. They simply won't buy into that."

"Met a wall?"

Boss Jia stopped and looked back at the towering Penguin Building. Instead of being discouraged, his eyes behind his glasses burned with an even more frenzied flame.

"In the capital market, is there ever a deal that can be closed on the first try? As long as you pinpoint the pain point, there's no leverage that can't be broken!"

Mr. Jia paced back and forth along the main road, his mind racing.

"Think carefully about what Li Feng said to me at Haofeng Network just now!"

"He said he'd give me the film and television rights as long as I could get endorsement from Tencent or Alibaba!"

The assistant scratched his head: "Mr. Jia, Mr. Li was clearly making fun of us, he was indirectly telling us to get rid of him."

"wrong!"

Boss Jia clapped his hands suddenly, his eyes gleaming with the shrewdness of a gambler.

"It's true he was making fun of me, but he also revealed his true desires! Before I came to Shenzhen, I spent a lot of money to do a background check on him!"

"What did Li Feng do before? He was a low-level programmer at Tencent's Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG)! He was kicked out by Tencent's management after they made things difficult for him!"

"Do you think a self-made, hot-blooded young billionaire who's been kicked out the door like a dog wouldn't harbor resentment towards Tencent?!"

The assistant was stunned: "You mean... Li Feng wants to mess with Tencent?"

"He not only wants to do it, he's already doing it!"

Boss Jia's thinking became increasingly clear, and he spoke at a rapid pace, "He controls tens of millions of daily active users on Weibo, has signed the top celebrities in the entire domestic entertainment industry, and is earning massive amounts of US dollars overseas. He lacks nothing now! He has money, people, traffic, and copyrights!"

"What does he lack? He lacks a heavy weapon capable of piercing a penguin's heart head-on!"

"What accounts for half of Tencent's business now? Games! PC games!"

Boss Jia sneered, "While Haofeng is currently unbeatable in mobile games, its foundation in the large-scale PC game market is still too weak. If Li Feng wants to directly confront Tencent in the main arena, he can't avoid the PC game market!"

The crazy brain circuits completed an incredible closed loop at this moment.

"I really can't fool people about the shares of Tencent and Alibaba."

"But the enemy of my enemy is my friend!"

Boss Jia turned his head and stared intently at his assistant: "Book me a plane ticket to Zhuhai immediately! I need to go to Kingsoft!"

"Kingsoft?!" The assistant's jaw nearly dropped. "Mr. Jia, aren't we a video website company? Why are we going to Kingsoft, which makes antivirus software and games?!"

"What do you know! Kingsoft has been honing its skills for three years, and they're about to release what they call the pinnacle of domestic 3D martial arts online games—'JX3'!"

Boss Jia's eyes were filled with madness: "Now is the time when 'JX3' needs the most funding for promotion and confidence before its launch! I'm going to use the expectation of LeEco's future IPO to negotiate a deep equity exchange with Kingsoft's top management!"

"If I can leverage my equity to acquire about 10% of Kingsoft's shares, I'll essentially have the super weapon 'JX3' tied to my chariot!"

"Then, I'll take this 10% stake in Kingsoft and the cooperation rights for 'JX3' and stand before Li Feng again!"

"As long as I can provide the heavy firepower to counter Penguin, I don't believe Li Feng wouldn't share Hao Feng's film and television copyright library with me!"

In pursuit of an IPO and his ambitious, suffocating dream of creating an ecosystem, Mr. Jia has completely descended into a frenzied, get-rich-quick scheme.

He wants to use a vague and uncertain future to shake up the entire landscape of China's Internet!