Chapter Eighty-Six: Uh...

By the next day, the game had already been on sale for a full twenty-four hours.

The moment Yin Jian woke, he went straight to his computer, opened the game assistant’s backend, and checked the first-day sales of the game.

The Mystic Path:
Yesterday’s sales: 18,258,138

Eighteen million...

Yin Jian frowned.

At that kind of daily sales, even if the numbers held for an entire year, the total would only come to a little over six billion at best.

Even if the figures kept rising later on, a year would still only yield around ten billion.

That was a long way from his goal.

Ten billion sounded like a lot.

But a trillion poured into a real-world game might not even leave a ripple, let alone mere tens of billions.

“Relying only on in-game spending is a little too tight.”

Yin Jian felt that the monetization system for his story game was not quite right.

With the sales volume of The Mystic Path, if it were turned into a one-time purchase game, the actual revenue would be even higher.

“Looks like I was being a little too optimistic.”

He began to reflect on himself, comparing The Mystic Path with the other story games made by Qiyou.

“No, that’s not right. Every story game from Qiyou has a fixed plot, and that’s what attracts players to buy the next installment.”

“My advantage is the variety of the story. It can ensure that every playthrough gives the player a different experience... maybe I should make use of that.”

“But how exactly should I use it?”

Yin Jian bit his thumbnail, feeling as though the answer was right in front of him, separated only by a thin layer of paper, yet he just could not pierce through it.

“I’m still missing a trigger.”

That frustrating feeling of seeing the answer clearly but being unable to touch it left him somewhat irritable.

After thinking for a long while, he still could not come up with any real solution.

“Forget it. Let it take its course.”

Since he could not figure it out, he decisively stopped dwelling on it.

He was not the sort of person who liked to get stuck in a dead end.

Besides, if he could not understand it, he simply could not understand it.

Grinding himself against the problem would only make things harder for him in the end, and would not help at all.

Yin Jian put the matter out of his mind.

Then he opened the designers’ group chat.

Inspiration came from life; perhaps by idly chatting in the group, he would stumble upon a solution.

He scrolled through the chat history and found that everyone was discussing the newly launched discounted recommendation slot.

“Looks like the effect is pretty good.”

Seeing Happy Exploding Afro say that his best-selling game had jumped fivefold, Yin Jian felt a little envious.

He left the group chat and opened the conversation window with Stone, wanting to ask about the details of this recommendation slot.

You guys forced me: You there? Could you send me the detailed information on the discounted recommendation slot?

Stone: [file]

Stone: If you want it, I can try to get you one. But your game’s sales are pretty stable, so a 1 percent discount should be enough. Think of it as a bit more exposure.

Yin Jian did not reply right away. Instead, he first opened the detailed material on the discounted recommendation slot and read it carefully.

“So only the base price of the game gets discounted... In that case.”

After finishing, Yin Jian had a bold idea. Still, for safety’s sake, he needed to test it first.

If the paid content got discounted too, that would not be fun at all.

After thinking for a moment, he typed back:

You guys forced me: Then help me apply for one. Let’s do My Little World.

Stone: Mm. I’ll arrange it for next week.

You guys forced me: A 1 percent discount is a little low. Help me make it 10 percent instead.

Stone: Are you sure? With 10 percent off, your sales might not rise at all—in fact, they could even fall.

You guys forced me: It’s fine.

After handling that matter, Yin Jian returned to the chat group.

By then, the group conversation had also undergone a subtle change.

Happy Exploding Afro: Can any masters help me? My game is stuck.

Egg Egg Egg: Stuck how?

Divine Phoenix: What game?

Green-Hatted Romantic Landlord: ...You lot stop messing around. @Happy Exploding Afro, what exactly is stuck?

Happy Exploding Afro: I want to make a certain piece of content, and I basically know how to do it, but when I actually get ready to start, I don’t know where to begin. If I force it out, it just feels barely acceptable.

Egg Egg Egg: I’ve had that experience too.

Happy Exploding Afro: How did you solve it, master?

Egg Egg Egg: Cut once and cure forever!

Happy Exploding Afro: ...

Green-Hatted Romantic Landlord: Go out for a walk. If you want to make a certain kind of game, go look at similar places more often. It should help.

Happy Exploding Afro: I’ve already looked. It’s just that I can’t produce that kind of effect, and that’s what makes it painful.

Divine Phoenix: Why are you stuck?

Egg Egg Egg: @Divine Phoenix, you pervert who makes eleven games a month, stop showing off here.

Divine Phoenix: Eleven games a lot? I actually feel like if I worked hard, I could make twenty-something.

Happy Exploding Afro: ...Master, stop talking. The moment you open your mouth, I feel like a useless failure.

Egg Egg Egg: Be more confident. Take out “feel like.”

You guys forced me: Divine Phoenix is god-tier!

Sword Rising Sect Master: You useless dog, impressive!

Sword Rising Sect Master: @Happy Exploding Afro, set this part aside for now and go make something else. After a while, it’ll naturally start flowing again.

Sword Rising Sect Master: Getting stuck is normal. If you want to make a good game, you’ll get stuck. Unless you’re just making nonsense.

Divine Phoenix: I feel like you’re subtly insulting me, but I have no evidence.

Sword Rising Sect Master: [Really, you’re something].jpg

You guys forced me: Sword Rising is awesome!

Sword Rising Sect Master: You useless dog, impressive! What were your first-day numbers?

You guys forced me: Only eighteen million. It flopped.

Egg Egg Egg: That “only” is used beautifully!

Sword Rising Sect Master: Why is it only that much? Your numbers could’ve had a chance at breaking ten billion.

Egg Egg Egg: That “why is it only” has a remarkably similar flavor to the earlier “only.”

Divine Phoenix: My goodness, a flop staring at his own single-digit daily sales and crying out like a pig, snorting and wheezing.

You guys forced me: It really did flop. I’m thinking about whether there’s any way to salvage it, but I don’t have a single idea.

Green-Hatted Romantic Landlord: Little brother, your comment section looks pretty interesting. It’s even more interesting than playing the game yourself. You should just copy the comments [smirk]

“Hmm?”

Yin Jian blinked when he saw Zhou Shun’s reply.

“More interesting than the game’s plot? No way...”

He scratched his head, not quite believing it.

Still, Zhou Shun had no reason to lie to him. So, with a little doubt in his heart, he left the group chat and opened the game backend to browse the comments for The Mystic Path.

[After I obtained the time-stasis trait... tremble, girls!]

[When Yan Li called off the engagement, there were actually nine thousand people shouting outside the door, “Please, Mystic Emperor, come out of the mountain!” I curled my lip in a crooked smile and strode out... only to find nine thousand and one people shouting, “Please, Mystic Emperor, come out of the mountain!”]

[Transforming into a girl, my daily sweet moments with Yan Li.]

[Shocking! Ten babies in one pregnancy, and each one turned out to be...]

[Swapping bodies: I called off my own engagement!]

[My husband is actually the Mystic Emperor himself!]

“...”

Yin Jian opened his mouth, and for a moment actually felt that the plot he had written was rather bland.

He had made it too late to give up, but at least he had made it.

People really did have to force themselves once in a while; otherwise they would never know where their own potential lay, sob sob sob.