Interstellar Travel: Becoming a Dress-Up Game Designer

Chapter 113

The players discussed the event while collecting resources in the pouring rain.

To make a bonsai, you need a flowerpot, bamboo rice, and bamboo seeds. The flowerpot is easy to find; just buy a bonsai from a store. Then, destroy the flowers inside the purchased bonsai to get a pot.

Many players simply use fish tanks; there are so many different types of fish tanks available, you can buy any of them.

Due to time constraints, only a small number of players will choose to create their own.

Making bonsai is a very calming experience. The restlessness I felt from fighting for pandas and points has subsided, and the game's art style has changed in an instant.

While players were actively collecting materials to make bonsai, Qingfengyi Studio was also busy packing the prizes for this event, which included many bracelets, necklaces, back ornaments, tassels, and jade pendants.

The back cloud and necklace designs are high-quality, elaborate styles, and are often the prizes for the top-ranked player on most leaderboards.

Adorned with jewels, inlaid with pearls, cloisonné gold, and featuring an intricate design, it is extremely luxurious!

Lin Shuying's main focus is on winning the dress-up game and the dress-up arena. Therefore, the prize for first place in the dress-up arena is quite substantial: a brand new, unique outfit, both in physical form and in-game.

Like the ten exclusive outfits for the Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate, each one is unique.

The top five all include Yingluo and Beiyun, who are number one on other rankings, making the favoritism blatant.

This Qingfengyi awards ceremony will be held in cooperation with Xingji.com and will be broadcast live in all aspects. It involves a performance-based agreement: if the viewership reaches 50 billion and the revenue reaches hundreds of billions, Qingfengyi will receive 50% of the broadcast revenue without paying any advertising fees.

If the requirements are not met, Qingfengyi will have to pay 1000 billion yuan in broadcast advertising fees, but will not receive a single penny of revenue.

After seeing Qingfengyi's current profits, Lin Qiaoqiao was very confident. Although Qingfengyi's annual profits of 100 billion were a bit tight, the pressure wasn't too great. Lin Shuying liked to buy raw materials in large quantities at once, some of which she couldn't use up in a year. Therefore, the biggest cash flows were employee salaries and game system maintenance, with game system maintenance accounting for the majority.

The impact won't be significant. Being owed a few months' wages is acceptable. Once the game has recovered, everyone can take on more orders to recoup their losses. As long as StarNet can broadcast the game in all directions, the conditions can be easily met.

The profits after winning would be at least 500 billion!

A sure win with almost no losses, and six months' worth of profits in hand – how appealing!

However, StarNet has many sub-sections, and Qingfengyi can only be placed in the advertising section.

Both parties agreed that they would both be responsible for the publicity.

Lin Qiaoqiao reported to Lin Shuying that her idea was to find streamers from those planets in the game to promote it. Even if the scale was small, they could still gather tens of billions of people, and the rest could be handled by the interstellar network.

The difference between 10 billion and 50 billion is enormous; 50 billion is the population of five first-class stars!

She said, "We'll hold a promotional competition and offer some rare jade pendants. We'll encourage players to create promotional videos, and for every 100,000 views on planets other than Aimor, we'll give one point. One hundred points can be exchanged for a rare item."

Lin Qiaoqiao never expected there to be such a promotional method!

Even though there are only a few hundred players from other planets on Planet Aimor, they can still create quite a stir. "Boss, what a brilliant plan! I'll also arrange commercial promotions on my side to keep the situation absolutely under control!"

Lin Shuying: "Let's negotiate with the official StarNet website again. We'll put some voting props on sale that day. Viewers can vote for their favorite works. Each person will have ten voting opportunities, and each voting opportunity will cost one Star Coin. I'll design the props."

Lin Qiaoqiao: "Okay, I'll go talk to him right away. The boss has such a broad mind."

With this prop, this live-streamed advertisement could generate at least tens of billions in revenue!

Previously, Qingfengyi and Xingji.com had only reached a preliminary agreement on a betting deal, without signing a formal contract, and were waiting for Lin Qiaoqiao's report. Now that negotiations were continuing and new conditions had been added, Xingji.com naturally refused.

The person in charge behind the StarNet wasn't really there to gamble or offer Qingfengyi any benefits. His goal was to devour Qingfengyi, or at least take advantage of him.

One hundred billion is Qingfengyi's current fully operational cash pool; it will definitely be in debt by then. If the game design team goes into debt and can't maintain its operations, the servers will crash.

By partnering with the gaming platform on Planet Aimore, cutting off Qingfengyi's escape route, Interstellar Network can then assume the position of creditor. Historically, the acquisition of assets always begins with the creditor; they possess immense patience and their main strategy is to proceed slowly.

Furthermore, gathering 50 billion viewers—equivalent to the entire population of five first-magnitude stars watching a live stream—is that even a dream?

They offered an advertising spot, not a prime location in a news or sports segment, and advertising spots naturally have fewer viewers. Qingfengyi was unaware of this, or perhaps none of the partners were aware of it.

Because the StarNet's monopoly reputation is so strong, it has covered up all the shortcomings behind it.

When a monster is so large that even the hairs on its body appear incredibly thick, no one doubts that it is just a single hair, because even a single hair is priceless.

Currently, there are four first-magnitude stars: Vega, Kui Lang, Wen Chang, and Xu Ri Shu. The total population of Xu Ri Shu is only 45 billion, which is not enough to make up the population.

The strategists of the Aimor Planet's interstellar network were too lazy to even bother with such calculations.

Lin Qiaoqiao consulted a senior contract lawyer, who pointed out two potential pitfalls, which made her hesitate. However, Lin Shuying's strategy was excellent and could handle the situation, but she still didn't dare to make a hasty decision.

The reviewed contract was shown to Lin Shuying, who read it carefully. She found the joint promotion clause vague and asked, "Could this be clearer? For example, how many planets will they be promoting on, and what is the minimum reach of the promotion?"

Lin Qiaoqiao hadn't really noticed, but after hearing it, she felt enlightened!

"I'll continue the talks."

Lin Shuying: "Forget it, to save you the trouble of traveling back and forth, I'll attend the meeting."

She arrived at the venue, which was a video conference hosted by a quantum computer. A large group of people from the StarNet sat opposite her. Lin Qiaoqiao's side appeared rather small, consisting of two assistants, a lawyer, and four people in total.

Now, with Lin Shuying added, there are five people.

Sitting on the fluffy, cat-patterned sofa, I felt a little unserious. It didn't seem like a negotiation concerning Qingfengyi's life.

However, although Lin Shuying doesn't like negotiating contracts, she is not bad at it.

In such a fair interstellar environment, the level of traps hidden in contracts is far less than that of insurance contracts, a classic example of fraud in my previous life!

Especially with the rise of vocational and technical learning contracts, the deception in issuing these contracts is unparalleled.

In the end, StarNet agreed to promote the campaign on ten planets, but did not guarantee the number of people or the scope of the campaign. As compensation, StarNet was willing to give Qingfengyi a 2% discount.

Lin Qiaoqiao was furious; so this was where they were waiting!

If they were to promote it to ten third-tier stars at that time, the total number of people involved would only be 20 billion. They really know how to play the game.

Lin Shuying looked at the details of the agreement; it was the limit that StarNet could agree to.

She smiled and said, "In that case, let's sign it."

The agreement added a clause that viewers who participate in the voting will have a chance to win a bag of Barway instant noodles or a dessert roll from Sweet Planet.

With an investment of up to 100 million tickets, the probability of winning is extremely high.

Around 1%.

In addition, the voting items are priced in different tiers, with different tiers requiring different amounts of points. There are ten items in total, including three free voting bamboo leaves, and the remaining items cost one, two, and three star coins, which isn't expensive.

StarNet expressed its incomprehension, asking why the company would voluntarily lower prices when there aren't that many viewers?

Don't let the profit target be exceeded by then.

They believe that voting props must cost at least 50 Star Coins to meet the second condition of the bet: one Star Coin?

Even if all 50 billion viewers voted ten times, it would still take one percent to reach that number. However, the probability of viewers actually spending money to buy props is only one in a thousand. If the show isn't engaging enough, it won't even reach that one in a thousand.

Not to mention the free items included as a buffer, which reduces the desire to spend money.

They weren't worried at all.

After signing the contract, Lin Qiaoqiao said, "I'll go promote it now and try to make it a nationwide success!"

Lin Shuying came up with another clever promotional idea: "Go to 'The Enlightenment of Things' and post a task to create a video of Qingfengyi's award ceremony. You'll get one point for every 100,000 views, and a design blueprint for every 1,000 points. I'll give you some images to put on the promotional page."

The book "The Origin of Things" is full of old scholars who love all sorts of things related to history, such as antiques, old design drawings, stories and legends, bonsai, and works of art.

This is a large-scale, interstellar-level arts awards ceremony, involving a wide range of people; they can't help but be tempted.

This is the persistence of someone involved, just like Lin Shuying in her previous life was attracted by various Hanfu shows and traveled thousands of miles to the scene regardless of cost.

Lin Shuying is good at drawing. If you give her some pictures of ancient Chinese architecture, artworks, tool making, species, bonsai, or treasures, she will definitely attract a wide audience.

Lin Qiaoqiao's eyes lit up. "This method is brilliant! I'll do it right away."

In just five days, a refreshing wave of video releases swept across the StarNet, drowning out the massive advertising campaigns launched by Barbie Fashion and Colorful Dress-Up.

Many players of Qingfengyi are quite skilled, able to place videos across planets, and they all choose to play them on first-magnitude stars. First-magnitude stars have a large population, making it easier for view counts to surge.

Especially on planets where there is not a peculiar news, the sudden appearance of something new can cause it to become an instant sensation.

Many bigwigs went to great lengths for the prizes, mobilizing their families and resources extensively.

For example, the circle of wealthy people like Deng Yijun, Sister Xunmei, and Wang Nianzong are all from aristocratic families, and many of their relatives and collateral branches are planet owners.

In a short period of time, tens of thousands of points were accumulated, representing at least tens of billions of people being reached through the promotion.

The StarNet team was completely bewildered, and the project manager quickly gathered employees to come up with a solution.

The mastermind behind the scenes gave a death order: If this Qingfengyi project loses money, you're fired!

50% return!

StarNet is also feeling the pinch, having given up advertising space worth hundreds of billions annually, which rounds up to 1500 billion!

The person in charge's newly grown stubble was about to fall out completely. "Everyone, quickly suppress the hype. Suppress it all on the interstellar network. Send people to find loopholes and take down what needs to be taken down. Put pressure on the planetary sub-networks, at least take down 90% of the videos about Qingfengyi. Contact the creators of the videos privately and try to get them to take them down themselves. This matter should be done secretly, so as not to cause a widespread sensation."

"Okay, boss."

The actions taken by the StarNet were swift and effective; many creators' videos were inexplicably taken down for all sorts of bizarre reasons. There were also various private messages offering fifty StarCoins for each video taken down.

The players stared wide-eyed at the fifty Star Coins they had just received. Was making money really that easy?

They upload hundreds of videos in a single day, then quietly wait for someone to contact them to take them down, and then collect their money.

What kind of videos being taken down has a negative impact?

If there's money to be made, I'd be happy to take down a hundred or so videos.

Five thousand a day, no need to go to work, just loaf around and wait to die, okay?

Players of Qingfengyi have a lot of videos, pictures, and materials, so much so that their computers can't store them all and they have to find separate memory to store them.

If you don't have enough videos, don't worry. Just ride your Black Tiger around the various dungeons in Qingfengyi, and you'll have as many videos as you need.

Players who can get 50 Qingfengyi just by taking down videos can make the people behind them lose so much money they have to sell their underwear.

When Lin Shuying received the news, she was both amused and exasperated. In her past life, many people had done similar things, sending out ten or eight dollars. Everyone hated the act of covering one's mouth, and she had assumed that interstellar people did the same.

Unexpectedly, it was a different situation?

As expected of a gamer, they really know how to play.

By the time StarNet realized what had happened, it had already lost over five billion dollars—the money from a small project.

The boss behind the scenes was furious when he saw the bill. "Is this the result of your handling of the situation? Why are there even more videos on the StarNet now?!"

Before, it was everywhere; now it's so dense that there's barely any room to step.

Qingfengyi's video content accounts for 70% of the total content on the entire StarNet!

In just three days, the events were terrifyingly horrific.

This is the first time I've seen so many more being banned.

The person in charge didn't expect it to backfire, so he quickly said, "I'll change the plan immediately, sign the contract and pay. Once they take it off the shelves, they can't put on any new ones, thus preventing the practice of 'dredging iron from the Yellow River'."

Big Boss: "What kind of iron dredging activity is this in the Yellow River?"

The person in charge proudly said, "I recently learned a story. It is said that there is a Yellow River on the home planet with a lot of iron slag in it. Some people discovered that they could make a lot of money by scavenging iron, so many people were attracted to scavenging it, which almost caused the Yellow River to burst its banks. Later, it was banned."

The big boss's face darkened. "Get lost! Deal with it now! I'm not paying a single penny!"

"Okay, okay."

In the last two days, StarNet and Qingfengyi's players engaged in a battle of wits and courage.

The StarCraft website has completely banned the word 'Qingfengyi'. If it appears, the account will be locked or a fake upload will occur. Players automatically block 'Qingfengyi' and use words like 'Qingfenyi' or 'Qingfengyi' instead.

StarCraft uses a homophone lock, and players use icons.

Icon locks allow players to create icons on the screen, such as writing on the beach, embroidering on clothes, or using sign language, lip reading, or dialects from other planets.

A veteran player sued StarCraft Online, claiming they restricted freedom of speech.

This incident has added another layer of hype to Qingfengyi, and the direction of public opinion has become quite unpredictable. Even Qingfengyi Studio itself doesn't know how to cooperate or handle the situation, and can only watch helplessly.