To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

On the plaza, a group of players, like ducks waiting to be roasted, craned their necks, waiting for the mall to open.

The mall manager hurried over to Gao Tianyun and said eagerly, “Boss Gao, ten machines are not enough. What about setting up another twenty? We have six floors in total, five per floor. That way the players can spread out in line and it’ll be more convenient.”

Seeing that Gao Tianyun didn’t say anything, the manager went on, “We won’t charge rent, a 40-60 split is fine. This thing is a ‘Divine Artifact’ for attracting customers.”

Business hadn’t been good lately, even if the flow of customers had picked up a bit after the new year, but every day was still half-dead. A large number of shops were vacant, making it hard for the mall too.

However, customer flow had actually increased yesterday. Although most people were there for the game machines, some had bought bubble tea while waiting, picked up some snacks, or had a meal nearby, which improved business for some shops.

If they could secure this customer flow, some shops might recover a bit, and the mall’s business would improve as well.

Listening to the earnest words of the manager, Gao Tianyun nodded his head and agreed to his request.

Checking his phone, he found several missed calls. Some shopping mall managers with whom he had cooperated before had seen the prospects of the game machines and smelled the “meat”—they had called, hoping to install some machines in their malls as well.

Capital always loves to follow trends for profit.

As spokespeople of capital, those managers had a keen nose for business opportunities and thus extended their olive branches to Gao Tianyun, hoping to establish cooperative relations.

Some of the orders even came from abroad; heaven knows how the Gauls learned about his machines.

He had only deployed ten machines yesterday, so how did those Gauls halfway around the Earth smell the aroma already?

Gao Tianyun couldn’t figure this out.

After calculating the potential equipment deployment across the country and overseas sales, Gao Tianyun figured that the recent investment he got would just suffice to convert into a production line. Then, starting from Rong City, he could begin to expand nationwide and even globally.

The business model could follow the existing one, only that the payment method needs to be considered—whether to charge by time or by play counts. But that was a minor issue; they could simply observe the current situation to decide.

If all went well, the dividends for Mr. Fang alone this year could allow him to recoup his investment.

The boastful claims Fang Cheng made last year were about to materialize at the start of this year, making Gao Tianyun feel that Mr. Fang was truly the “luck” in business, unstoppable with even a slight touch.

Satisfied, Gao Tianyun exhaled deeply and began contacting the factory to continue production.

Unlike the exuberant Gao Tianyun, Fang Cheng was rather troubled.

It didn’t feel quite right to him to have players work for their entertainment and then charge them for such a boring game.

He wasn’t worried that this concern would turn into a ‘Heart Demon’ or anything, but as an Immortal, he was always uncomfortable owing others, especially on such a large scale.

When it was time to work, he looked out the window with a frown, his gaze penetrating the walls and the mall’s exterior, landing on those queening up to play “Squirrel Spaceship”.

“Hmm… Huang Ping.”

The named Huang Ping turned his head and asked Fang Cheng, “What is it, boss?”

“Yesterday, did you play the game machines in the mall?”

Huang Ping squinted at Fang Cheng, “Boss, next time you make a new game, could you let us have a look first?”

“Because it was a bit boring this time, we’ll talk next time.”

Huang Ping’s heart sank for a moment, marveling at how the boss called such a high-tier game boring.

Flight shooting games are a big genre, but there have been few outstanding works lately, with most moving towards higher difficulty, even creating a bizarre news story about a hidden boss that had gone years unbeaten.

The sole purpose of a boss is to be defeated by players, and Huang Ping thought there was something wrong with a boss marketed on the idea that no one could beat it.

The perverse pursuit of difficulty resulted in higher and higher entry barriers for average players, pushing flight shooting games further into obscurity, ultimately only increasing the difficulty to serve hardcore fans.

It was a vicious cycle.

Meanwhile, some game developers were pursuing realism, and the result of continuous iterations was increasingly realistic graphics and controls.

So realistic that there weren’t enough keys on a keyboard anymore.

But “Squirrel Spaceship” offered another direction.

The combination of gaming and VR provided a high sense of realism, which progressed to a world-shattering level of spaceship power, fully catering to players’ desires to become stronger. The arcade-style sales approach was nothing special, but overall, the final profit should be quite good.

Not bad for a casual effort from the boss—it was a hit.

Soon enough, some game developers would realize the potential of this VR flight simulator and start creating games for it, further advancing the development of VR game machines.

But, thanks to the boss’s connection with Kirin Industry, every simulator would come pre-installed with “Squirrel Spaceship”, and Fang Cheng Studio could always stay one step ahead. The better the others did, the more they would promote Fang Cheng Studio.

The more Huang Ping thought about it, the more brilliant he found this strategy. Except for the game’s name, which could have been better, everything was quite perfect.