Chapter 719 - 361: President Lei: Freaking Shocking
In the game planning department of Second-Life Star, Chen Jincheng was working at a computer.
The people from the game planning department, including Sister Hong and Lei Xiaojun, were all standing by and watching.
He was, of course, play-testing the game *Love Is All Around*.
Since the game was about to be released, it naturally needed a play-test.
He had proposed the game and personally written the script, so it was only natural for him to test it himself. Once he confirmed there were no issues, he could upload it directly, especially since President Lei was also at Second-Life Star.
A panicked male voice suddenly came from the computer screen.
"Where am I? What happened? Is anyone there? What’s going on? How did I get here?"
Then, a sensually dressed Xiaojie appeared, squatting down and saying coldly, "Didn’t I tell you? My ex-boyfriends... they all displeased me. And now, you’ve displeased me too. Understand?"
As she spoke, lightning flashed. Then, she picked up a shovel and began to bury him.
This was the bad ending for Zheng Ziyuan’s storyline.
The protagonist gets buried alive.
Xiaojie’s movements as she buried him were even more decisive than in the original version. Her cool, widow-like aura could almost make one feel a strange sense of bliss at being buried alive by her.
Chen Jincheng had already played through three of the good endings for the various storylines and was now trying out the bad ones. He wouldn’t be able to finish the entire game today, since there was also DLC content.
’Seems like the parts I’ve played are fine. The rest can be tested by the game department. They can finish testing today, quickly fix any problems, and then upload it tomorrow.’
After all, a game like this wasn’t technically demanding.
As Chen Jincheng stood up, he saw Lei Xiaojun frowning at his phone and asked, puzzled, "President Lei, what’s wrong?"
Lei Xiaojun frowned and said, "These people at Music Elements are so stubborn. I told their boss about your game and suggested they try making a mobile version. It would also be a good opportunity for them to buy the adaptation rights from Second-Life Star."
"But he just said that since I make phones, I don’t understand the game market. He claims there’s no market for interactive movie games right now, and even if Second-Life Star promotes this game well, it’s just coasting on your fame, President Chen. He thinks its prospects are limited."
Hearing this, Chen Jincheng couldn’t help but admire President Lei’s foresight.
Because before he transmigrated, mobile versions of interactive movie games had indeed been released. In fact, the two most popular ones were also about interacting with female characters. The company that made them was a game developer partnered with Huawei, and their ads on Douyin were very effective.
’President Lei has already thought this far ahead.’
Music Elements was one of Rice Phone’s biggest game development partners. In the other world, they even earned the title of "Rice’s Best Partner" and created many pre-installed games for Rice Phones, like the popular *Happy Elimination* and the later hit, *Immortal Sword World*.
But it was currently 2018, and interactive movie games hadn’t even taken off on PC yet. Many were still made in a Wuxia style.
Many people had probably played this type of interactive movie game—the kind where the "gameplay" wasn’t video, but rather a series of photos paired with choices. Different choices would simply lead to different photos.
So, it was no surprise that the gaming industry didn’t think highly of such games.
Besides, in this world, the initial promotion for *Love Is All Around* did indeed use him and Miss Cheng as a gimmick. The other party wasn’t wrong.
However, one thing was certain: the game could become a hit even without him, Chen Jincheng, and Miss Cheng.
The other world had already proven it.
That game company had spent 8 million on production and 20 million on marketing, and in return, they achieved over 100 million in sales for the main story alone. Including the DLC and merchandise, their profit reached 150 million.
The key was that in the other world, the male and female leads were all nobodies with no fame to speak of, yet they still achieved such sales figures. It just went to show the spending power of perverts.
But things were different now. He, Chen Jincheng, had 40 million fans. Each of the participating Miss Chengs had over 5 million fans, and someone like Zhang Tian’ai already had more than 10 million.
The cast was in a completely different league.
Previously, he had conservatively estimated that the game could generate 500 million in sales.
Now that his and the Miss Chengs’ fame had grown even greater, the sales figures would be even higher. Doubling it might not even be a problem. And the game’s production cost was truly less than 20 million, most of which went to the appearance fees for Xiaojie and the other girls.
This project was destined to become a classic case study in the gaming world of a small investment yielding huge returns.
As Chen Jincheng thought about this, he smiled and said to Lei Xiaojun, "President Lei, you don’t actually need to persuade them. People in the game industry have their own analysis, but they aren’t fools. Once the game goes live tomorrow and they see the sales data, they’ll definitely contact you on their own initiative."
"..." Lei Xiaojun was taken aback.
It wasn’t that he was surprised by Chen Jincheng’s suggestion. It was because the solution was so simple, yet he hadn’t thought of it and had instead wasted time arguing with them.
’This...’
He felt like his intelligence dropped whenever he was around President Chen.
Still, a good partner really did make things easy and saved a lot of headaches.
President Chen was exactly that kind of partner, as Second-Life Star’s series of moves had already demonstrated.
"However, I’ll need your cooperation with some promotion for this game, President Lei," Chen Jincheng said with a smile.
"How so?" Lei Xiaojun asked, confused.
"President Lei, just sit here at the computer and try playing the game for a bit," Chen Jincheng said, pulling out the chair with a grin.
Lei Xiaojun immediately sat down at the computer and started playing. The next storyline was Haohao’s Mother’s.
Chen Jincheng immediately filmed a video of Lei Xiaojun and the game screen, saying in an exaggerated tone, "Shocking! What game has the great Boss Lei so completely engrossed?"
"..." Lei Xiaojun was dumbfounded.
He had a rough idea of what Chen Jincheng was planning when he sat down, but ’what the hell was so shocking about it?’
Nevertheless, he took out his phone and sent a message to Zhou Ming, the boss of Music Elements: "Remember to keep an eye on the sales performance of this Second-Life Star game."
After filming the video of Lei Xiaojun playing *Love Is All Around*, Chen Jincheng sent it directly to Yijin.
Reviving and promoting the hype for *Love Is All Around* was a job for the video-clipping groups.
「Jinmao Building.」
Yijin was in his studio, reviewing the latest edited clips.
The video was, of course, from Cai Xiaoyi’s latest post.
The girl had suddenly started hanging out with Sister Hehe, and their videos together, which were a bit suggestive, were real attention-grabbers. Naturally, they had to be clipped.
Nowadays, his clipping group didn’t just clip Brother Cheng anymore.
It couldn’t be helped. Every influencer who made money hired more people and created more accounts. They had too many accounts to just clip Brother Cheng alone.
He had recently started a new batch of accounts, bringing his total close to 1,000.
Fortunately, the Miss Chengs were also great material for clips. For Cai Xiaoyi, he had assigned 25 accounts specifically to clip and post her videos. The main appeal of her clips was, naturally, her smile.
Truly, few smiles on the entire internet could compare to hers. So, just as Brother Cheng had suggested, everyone was hyping her up with clips titled "Innate Smiling Sacred Body" or "The Girl with the Sweetest Smile on the Internet."
He had just told someone to post Cai Xiaoyi’s clip when he saw a WeChat message from Brother Cheng.
When he saw the video inside, he knew something big was happening. He immediately forwarded it to the clipping group’s WeChat chat.
The clippers in the group chat all popped up instantly.
’Brother Cheng has given us another huge topic to hype up!’
Boss Lei playing a game wasn’t newsworthy on its own, but what if the game he was playing was *Love Is All Around*?
Everyone knew the game’s nickname was the *Chen Jinceng Simulator*.
Now even Elder Lei was engrossed in the game, happily simulating being Chen Jincheng. How could you not want to play?
Besides, the game already had a lot of hype. Once this video was promoted, the buzz would be immense.
「At Second-Life Star.」
After Chen Jincheng sent the video to Yijin, he received a message from Wanxi. He then turned to Lei Xiaojun and said, "President Lei, the Hanfu design department wants you to go over for a fitting. They’re custom-designing the Lei Laohu’s Landlord’s Attire for you."
Lei Xiaojun gave a wry smile upon hearing this.
’President Chen sure knows how to have fun.’
’Lei Laohu, of all things.’
In that case, he would really have to "persuade people with virtue." He could have Rice Group run a promotion there—and those "persuaded by virtue" would receive the latest Rice Phone.
In that movie, Lei Laohu set up a fighting ring to find a husband for his daughter. Well, he could set up a ring to find a "master" for Xiao Ai.
With this in mind, Lei Xiaojun said, "President Chen, my Rice Group will also hold an event in Jinglan City then. As Lei Laohu, I have to set up a ring, don’t I?"
Chen Jincheng led Lei Xiaojun to the Hanfu design department, and as they walked and talked, he got a general idea of what President Lei was planning.
However, since everyone would be in Hanfu and surrounded by ancient-style facilities that day, a sudden Rice Phone event would feel a bit out of place.
But if they were going to set up a ring, he had an idea for a plan.
In the plot of the previous promotional videos, he had transmigrated after fighting Piaoxiang Yuan in a ring. It would be perfectly normal to have a Rice Phone with him after transmigrating, right?
But he lost the Rice Phone, and it was found by Lei Laohu, the landlord of Jinglan City.
Now, Lei Laohu sets up a ring, offering a reward to any "extraordinary person" who can identify what this Rice Phone is. Anyone who succeeds will receive a gift from Lei Laohu.
The gift, of course, would be a brand-new Rice Phone, but presented in a quaint wooden box.
That would make it logical.
As for how to design the ring’s "game," that would be up to Rice Group.
After hearing his explanation, Lei Xiaojun’s eyes lit up. "President Chen, you’re the one with all the ideas! Let’s do it. I’ll instruct the people at Rice this afternoon."
As they talked, they arrived at the Hanfu design department.
"President Lei, this way, please." Seeing Lei Xiaojun arrive, Wanxi immediately extended a warm invitation.
...
Meanwhile, at Music Elements, the boss, Zhou Ming, was holding an important meeting with the company’s design department.
Because some players had already reached level 500 in *Happy Elimination* but none of them had met the "village chief" yet, many were starting to question whether the village chief even existed.
On this point, Zhou Ming could say with full responsibility that there was no village chief.
He never expected the game to become this popular. The village chief was just part of the backstory; they had never created any specific plot for it. When the game took off, they just kept designing more levels.
But since people were questioning it, they had to prove the village chief existed. Therefore, they needed to leave clues about the village chief in the upcoming levels.
Zhou Ming took out his phone and saw another message from President Lei. He shook his head and joked to his assistant, "Honestly, just because President Lei invested in Second-Life Star doesn’t mean he has to work so hard to sell their copyrights. Interactive movie games haven’t even found a market on PC, let alone on mobile."
However, when he read the message, he was a bit surprised. It wasn’t another attempt at persuasion, but a request for him to pay attention to the sales performance of that interactive movie game from Second-Life Star.
’Just one short sentence, but why does it feel like President Lei is so confident in this game?’
’An interactive movie game like this costs 10 million at most. Could it really generate sales figures so impressive that even we at Music Elements would be tempted, just by relying on Chen Jin’s fame?’
With that thought, he instructed his assistant, "Keep an eye on that interactive movie game from Second-Life Star. If anything happens with it, notify me immediately."
Since President Lei had mentioned it, he had to at least pay some attention. After all, he couldn’t just brush him off.
"Yes, President Zhou!" the assistant nodded.
After giving the order, Zhou Ming paid the matter no more mind. Besides *Happy Elimination*, Music Elements had many other game projects to complete. This was also why he wasn’t interested in adapting Second-Life Star’s interactive movie game.
By the time he finished all his work, it was already evening, and he was getting ready to leave the office.
But just then, his assistant rushed in and reported, "President Zhou, it’s incredible! Truly incredible!"