Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

When Yue Ohno heard this advertisement, her emotions were stirred once again.

He grabbed a few rice balls and snacks and said, "Mom, I'm going back to my bedroom."

"Can't we eat here?"

"Hmm... I want to try my best."

"Okay then, good luck!"

"Uh-huh."

Yue Ohno took the food back to her bedroom and started her challenge again.

Meanwhile, Zhu Youxing, who rarely gets a day or two of rest at home, is also looking at the latest advertisements.

Based on feedback from several directly operated stores today, the Extreme Challenger campaign was quite successful.

On the opening day, more than 10,000 people who had never played video games before participated in the challenge.

At the same time, there are also many estimates that did not participate.

On that day, the sales figures for video games and game consoles in stores increased by at least 30% compared to the previous average.

This is a very good omen.

The main purpose of this promotion was to expand the game's player base.

The current video game industry is still in an era of incremental growth. Even in Japan, the player base is at least over 100 million. The combined sales of the FC, SFC, and GB are only barely over 10 million. There are still a considerable number of untapped users.

This promotional campaign significantly accelerated the influx of gamers, which is highly beneficial for the overall video game industry.

Moreover, if my estimate is correct, the games and consoles sold today alone will probably be enough to recoup all the money from those prizes.

We might be able to recoup the advertising costs tomorrow, which means we've gained more users without spending a single penny.

Indeed, competition is more likely to arouse people's interest; it's a kind of instinct ingrained in human nature.

While other game developers were trying their best to make good games and steal users from Zhuyouxing, Zhuyouxing continued to expand its user base at an alarming rate.

You might be able to swindle hundreds or thousands of users from me through your hard work.

But in just one day, I was able to gain tens of thousands of additional player users.

This means you're on the first floor, and I'm already on the third floor.

When these manufacturers realize what's happening, they might regret why they insisted on competing with them for users.

Today, TV Tokyo was reporting live from the video game challenge. Just by looking at it on TV, you could tell it was a huge event with impressive momentum.

Tomorrow we can continue to increase advertising investment and strive to maximize the potential of this challenge.

On the second day of the challenge, the number of people coming to join in the fun increased once again.

Even if they don't participate in the challenge, they are still eager to see who will win the grand prize.

Many people don't quite understand how these games work, but they at least know that whoever finishes in the shortest time on the leaderboard is number one.

Today's statistics are the leaderboards for all participants in yesterday's challenge. The leaderboards for several stores are synchronized, but the names of the participating stores will be added to the notes at the end, which can also help these stores increase their visibility to some extent.

Yue Ohno also arrived at one of the challenge events right on time today.

I visited three places yesterday, and I'll visit a few more today.

He even took the tram early in the morning, spending several hours on the journey.

Today, the shop he visited is located in Arakawa Ward, a relatively remote area of ​​Tokyo.

To his surprise, there were more people at the challenge venue here than at the other venues he visited yesterday.

Thanks to its relatively low price, the Famicom has become a favorite among many young people and children in Arakawa Ward.

A brand new Famicom now costs only 3,000 yen, and second-hand game cartridges are averaging around 2,000 yen. If you get tired of a game, you can go to the official store to exchange it for other game cartridges at a discount and continue playing, which is quite cost-effective.

So there are actually more players here, it's become completely accessible to the general public. There are also the most children here. On Sundays, when they have time off, they just stay here and don't leave. They get to try out the SFC game console with better graphics for free, and each person has three chances to play. The children see this as a rare opportunity to have fun.

Arakawa Ward has relatively low shop rents. With the booming sales of game consoles, the shop owner here simply took over several shops in the surrounding area over a year, creating a super-large shop covering more than 2,000 square meters, which allows for the placement of more than 500 game consoles.

Even with so many game consoles and such a large store area, the place is still very crowded with players.

Chapter 183 Self-Breakthrough

"Look! The rankings have been updated!"

"Don't push! Could someone in front please tell me the rankings of the top few people? Thanks!"

Many children in the crowd shouted.

There were many adults in the front row, making it almost impossible for them to see the screen displaying the rankings; all they could do was shout loudly.

Because Ohno Yue arrived early, he was fortunate enough to stand in a relatively front-row position, and he could directly see the specific rankings of all the participants from yesterday.

His focus was naturally only on the first place in each game.

The current fastest time to complete Super Mario Bros. 1 is 17 minutes and 48 seconds.

The first place in Contra is 31 minutes and 12 seconds.

The first place finisher in Midrod was 2 hours, 17 minutes and 16 seconds.

The highest speed limit in Tetris is 13 for 27 seconds.

Upon seeing this, Ohno Tomoe suddenly felt that she might actually have a real chance.

That Tetris challenger is pretty tough and poses a significant threat to me. Right now, my strongest game is probably Super Mario 1.

If it's just winning first place in a game, that's perfectly acceptable; it's something that would make him happy enough.

Yesterday, he had already started imagining how happy his parents would be when they saw the prize he had won.

With the rankings from the first day, most players are now clearly aware of the situation.

Yue Ohno also understood that many people probably shared the same idea as him: to observe the situation for the next few days, and then launch a final sprint together in the last few days.

So Tomoe Ohno wasn't in a hurry to register today.

Then he took his lunchbox and ran to the next challenge location, Adachi Ward in Tokyo, where the standard of living was also not high.

Like Arakawa Ward, this place also has a large population. It seems that the lower the standard of living, the more popular video games are, because there are generally not many other forms of entertainment available to them. Video games are one of the few things that can bring long-lasting happiness and are also very inexpensive.

In the previous rankings, the top spots in several games almost always came from the Arakawa and Adachi wards, which proved that there were indeed many players here, including many skilled ones. He felt that he should pay more attention to this area in the next few days.

Today he browsed much faster than yesterday, visiting shops in four different areas before taking the last subway train home, feeling somewhat tired.

Even though he was young and energetic, he still felt exhausted and went straight to bed as soon as he got home.

He had barely slept for the past two days, completely immersed in speedrunning the game. Even the strongest body needs a good rest eventually.

Around one or two in the morning, Ohno Yue's mother quietly opened the door to Ohno Yue's bedroom. At that moment, Ohno Yue was fast asleep on the floor, still holding a game controller in his hand. The game screen on the TV showed GAME OVER, and there was a timer next to him that was still running.

Feeling sorry for her child, she quietly covered him with the blanket and did nothing else, worried that the child might wake up. Then she quietly closed the door and left.

The next day, Ono Tomoe didn't wake up until after 10 a.m., which made him a little anxious. He felt that he might miss a lot, so he hurriedly grabbed his lunchbox and ran out to continue his observations for the day.

On the third day of the challenge, the rankings were updated once again.

Except for Tetris, where the first place remained unchanged, the speedrun times for the first place in the other games were shortened again.

Super Mario: 16 minutes and 23 seconds.

Contra: 27 minutes and 4 seconds.

Midrod: 2 hours, 7 minutes and 47 seconds.

The top-ranked challengers are still concentrated in Arakawa Ward and Adachi Ward.

Upon seeing the rankings, his expression turned serious. These challengers were indeed very threatening, and his previous test time was clearly insufficient; he needed to be faster.

However, he had already compiled a list of effective speedrun methods for several games.

For example, Super Mario can shorten the time by skipping levels, and he has found some key points to shorten the total time for Mario to complete the game by skipping levels.

He could reduce the completion time of Super Mario to even lower, perhaps even below ten minutes.

The time commitment for Metrorod was too long, and Tomoe Ohno was already considering giving up, feeling that it was not worth wasting too much time on a game.

We can try to get into the other three games.

The goal is to break through level 14 and reach level 15 in Tetris.

Contra aims to finish within 25 minutes.

Because of the continued fermentation in the previous two days, the number of people joining in the fun has increased once again.

Yuxing Electronic Entertainment really made a fortune from this challenge; the increase in the number of players alone is a huge windfall.

Daily sales are also rising rapidly.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with someone like Tomoe Ohno. He just felt that there were definitely more and more people in the challenge arena every day.

Even though it's Monday, there are still more people than on Saturday.

After taking a quick look at the challenge site closest to his home, he rushed home without stopping.

Looking at the rankings is meaningless now; he needs to hurry up and achieve a shorter completion time before the challenge ends.

So he started a two-day, two-night intensive grind, restarting the game immediately whenever he made a mistake, in order to save as much time as possible and complete the challenge faster.

Finally, he achieved his goal, shortening the speedrun time of Mario and Contra, and also maintaining a speed of level 15 in Tetris, although he only lasted a little over a second at level 15.

Then he walked out of the room again, full of confidence.

This time, he plans to complete his first challenge and test how well he performs on the spot.

He quickly arrived at the shop closest to his home. As usual, it was packed with people, but the number of people signing up had decreased significantly. Most of them were people who were self-aware but curious enough to see what was going on.

Ono Tomoe glanced at the current rankings. Apart from the fastest clear time for Metrorod being shortened again, nothing else had changed.

After seeing the rankings, he was basically relieved. Now it was his turn to dominate the charts!

After completing the registration process, he patiently waited for his turn to take on the challenge.

At this moment, Zhu Youxing also arrived at the shop.

"Wow, there are so many people."